[ He gives her a - well, not a smile, because his smiles are reserved for teasing, black humor, maybe a little malice and definitely not those moments where Nico can't help himself but to be giddy nope those don't happen. But it's certainly smile-adjacent.

It's kinda nice to have someone answer 'pleased to meet you' with 'charmed' instead of immediately shouting the details of whatever chaos has happened recently and throwing you a cuirass. Really nice actually. Maybe this whole 'talking to people' concept isn't so bad if it stays like this. ]

Of course, it's a stupid rule. They're stupid. Everyone in the same school until you're 18 is a waste of time. If they're not teaching the things you need later in life and you're not going to university, you might as well get a job or learn to be a plumber.