Disclaimer: Me not be Rick Riordian, me not own PJO or HoO.

This story does not update regularly at all. Sorry about that.

Leo

Um.

Oh, gods.

Where to begin.

I had everything plotted out in my head, you know. I was gonna build the Argo II, gonna pilot it to the Roman camp, gonna get everyone together and set off with the others to help save the world.

Honest. I had planned ahead. I'm not an idiot.

The thing is, when in this sort of situation you plan for things like being incapacitated by getting gored on a spear, or maybe poisoned, or even the camp getting destroyed. You know. Little things like that.

But, unless you're Annabeth Chase or Athena or - well, you get my point - you don't plan to fall in love.

The first time I met Nico di Angelo, it wasn't love at first sight. Sure, he was cute. Seriously. Little shiny eyes, black hair that stuck up at the back, olive skin, and all of this topped off with an oversized jacket and an adorable scowl. But there was no magic sparks or anything like that. The fact he was cute was just something I noticed, like the way you notice Piper's pretty or Jason has blond hair.

I asked around and most of the campers think Nico's grown a lot. Really? I think he just looks like he's grown to them. To me, a newcomer, he looks like a kid. And apparently he used to look even cuter. What a shame I wasn't there to see him.

Anyway. Back on track. Me and Nico, we meshed like shoomph. Seriously. I first saw him when he was doing his whole emo-in-the-shadows thing, and Annabeth squealed and hugged him. They chatted about whether he'd found Percy yet – the answer was no – and then she thought I might want to know who this strange boy in my bunker was. So she introduced me to Nico di Angelo, son of Hades.

We shook hands, and then as I got back to work we started to talk. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster. We liked the same songs, same films. He saw I fidgeted, and told me he fidgeted a lot too. We talked about how we first found out we were half-bloods. What quests we'd been on. What monsters we'd slayed.

And in the end we just talked.

That night I thanked him for the company, sent him away, spent another half-hour tinkering with the Argo II, then called it a day and went to pass out on my bunk. The next day, I saw Nico at breakfast – he didn't eat much. After I finished my waffles (courtesy of the Demeter children), I retreated into Bunker 9 and got back to work, and a few minutes later he came in. This time, he wanted to help.

I got him to sort components out of the big boxes. He seemed pretty good at that. We chatted a little – turns out he used to collect Mythomagic toys. No idea what they are, but they sound cool. As we talked, other Hephaestus kids filed in, and Nico hushed up. They gave him some strange looks, and when he tried to talk everybody stopped to look at him, and he just looked down and carried on working.

Minus the breaks for lunch and dinner, we spent the whole day like that. At nine o'clock, the rest of the Hephaestus kids left – and then wow, did we talk. All the things he'd wanted to say had been bottled up, and now he had taken off the lid.

He wanted to learn more about mechanics, wanted to actually help. He asked to do something useful, but not too hard. After a few moments, I decided to let him help program the computer system – and then he blushed, and told me about his past.

It turns out Nico was born ages ago – more than seventy years – and when his mom was killed by Zeus, Hades put him into a place called the Lotus Hotel. Time slows down there, and your memories get destroyed.

So, basically, he didn't think he'd be that good with computers.

But I showed him the basics, and he enjoyed it. His mom had had a typewriter, and he and his sister (he told me she was dead, and from the look on his face I decided not to ask more) used to see who could type the fastest. I outlined the basics of the programming language we were using, and then he started making some basic programs. We carried on chatting, me working, him programming, and before we knew it two hours had passed and we had to go.

Days passed. Nico got better and better with the computer, and before long he was writing parts of the program to run the Argo II. He stopped sorting the components during the day. The other Hephaestus kids stopped staring at him when he tried to speak. And we started talking about our secrets, telling each other things we normally didn't mention.

And then, two weeks after we first met, it happened.

We were chatting as usual. I made a joke – a dirty one. I didn't expect Nico to laugh so hard, but he did. I'd only ever heard him chuckle, but this was a full-out laugh – loud, bright, infectious.

And then, as I was watching him and trying not to laugh as well, it hit me.

He wasn't just cute. He was beautiful.

I stopped smiling, shocked at the thought. But it was true. In the middle of his teens, when every one else at camp (apart from Piper) had at least one spot, he had none. His voice was sweet, his hair soft.

But he wasn't just beautiful in looks. He had good manners. He was kind. He was the best friend I'd ever had – an even better friend than Jason.

How doesn't he attract anyone? I thought to myself, as Nico finally stopped laughing and wiped the tears from his eyes. But the answer was obvious – you just had to look at how the campers looked at him, how different he was when it wasn't just us two.

To everyone except me, Nico di Angelo was as cold as ice.

I lay in bed that night, unable to sleep. Thoughts flashed through my head – Nico laughing, Nico blushing, Nico somberly telling me about his sister. I thought about these thoughts, and then I thought about the thoughts about the thoughts, and then I looked through all the thoughts and saw the answer.

My first thought: When the hell did I fall for him.

My second thought: Wait.

My third thought: Oh, fuck.