There was a knock on the door. Drowsily, Nico dragged himself out of bed and to the door. Opening it, he saw Annabeth's bright and cheerful face. Nico wondered just how someone could be so bright and cheerful and happy at this hour. It was when Annabeth wrapped her arm around the waist of the person accompanying her that Nico realized just why she was so radiant. She was with her boyfriend, Percy. Oh, how Nico despised him. Percy had everything had Nico wanted. He had a partner that loved him. He had living parents that cherished him. He had a half brother that cared about him. He was considered a hero, a legend. He was surrounded by all these people that adored him and wanted to be just like him and he was famous and strong and popular and then there was Nico. Nico, son of Hades, all alone and quiet and different. It just wasn't fair, was it, for Nico to fall in love with Percy, the boy who had everything? And it the fact that Nico found Percy just so fucking hot didn't help too much.
"Nico?" said Annabeth.
"Yeah?" Nico replied, his voice displaying the fact that he was exhausted and that human interaction was the last thing he wanted to do at this very moment.
Percy could sense this and decided to make this visit short. Cutting in, he asked, "Are you going to join us for tomorrow's game of Capture the Flag?"
The question seemed to momentarily take Nico by surprise. The son of Hades considered the question before answering. I really don't want to, thought Nico. But then everyone will wonder why I wasn't playing for the third time in a row. Oh, well. "Uh...yeah. Sure. I'll play. Who's side will I be on?"
Hearing the younger boy's response, Percy smiled. He and Annabeth had been trying for weeks to get Nico to play a match, just for fun. "You'll be fighting alongside with all the cabins of the minor gods. They're led by Cabin 16. Nemesis's cabin. That'll give you the bigger team and a larger chance of victory," said Annabeth. "See you tomorrow?"
"Fine. Sure. Whatever. Just go. I'm tired," rambled Nico, who was almost about to fall asleep standing up.
"Alright," said Annabeth. "We'll see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight," said Percy to Nico.
"'Night," whispered Nico as he closed the door. Frowning, Nico then turned around and crashed onto the bed, falling asleep before hitting the bed itself.
Dinner was over. Nico, sitting alone at his cabin's table, looked up at the other campers, scanning the crowd to identify whom he would be fighting with and whom he would be facing. The conch horn was blown and everyone, for a moment, was silent. Unfortunately, the moment was not long, and then the other campers started shouting and cheering. The demigods in Nemesis's cabin (there were six of them) ran into the pavillion carrying their flag. The flag, similar to their cabin, was half black and half white, with a picture of a set of balanced scales in the middle. On the opposite side of the pavillion, the some of the campers of the Athena cabin and a few other of their teammates came running down in phalanx formation. Annabeth was at the helm of her team, and Percy was beside her. God-fucking-dammit. Percy was just as, if not even more, stunningly gorgeous and annoying attractive in Nico's dreams than in reality. And Nico hated it with all of his nonexistent figurative heart. At least they were on opposite teams; it would have been unbearable had it been the other way around and Nico had to fight alongside Percy. Secretly, it would have been blissful and fun and amazing and ecstatic for Nico, but he wasn't one for emotion. At least this way there was a chance that they wouldn't even see each other at all during the game. The campers grew silent once more as Chiron explained the rules, and this time the silence last longer than three seconds. The rules were simple: the creek was the boundary, the entire forest was fair game, all magic items were allowed, the flags must be prominently displayed and could have a maximum of two guards, prisoners may be disarmed but can neither be bound nor gagged, and killing or maiming is not allowed. And with that, Chiron, with a wave of his arm, covered the tables with standard armor and weapons in varying sizes for the campers. Nico selected and donned a breastplate and a shield, and drew his Stygian iron sword. Almost at once, the few campers around him stepped back, as if they were afraid of Nico's sword. Seeing this, Percy laughed. Nico shouldn't have been able to hear him, but he did. Percy's laugh was rich and full of happiness as he stood with his arm around Annabeth's waist alongside the rest of his teammates. Nico scowled, unhappy at the fact that Percy was happy without, but because of, him
Nico turned back to the demigods he was allied with. As the plan being gone over one last time, Nico tuned them out, as he already knew that he had been assigned border patrol in the center of the forest and would be the only one present in that part of the map; almost everyone else would play on the offensive, unless they were either guarding the flag or spread out down the length of the creek. As the head of the Nemesis cabin explained, Nico was powerful and feared enough to take on whomever should unfortunately encounter him, and it was very likely that Nico would meet at least a few members of the enemy team. Nico, also, could summon a small army of dead warriors to aid him and would not need backup, even though allies would be present farther down the creek. Nico's addition to the team, explained the head of Cabin 16, balanced the team out as a whole.
Chiron blew the conch horn again. The teams then went on to the forest to their respective sides, standing in formation in accordance to their plans. Once the teams were ready, the conch horn was blown again, and the game started. Making a lot of noise, the largest group of demigods, the decoy team, on Nico's team marched into enemy territory. Three or four smaller groups entered the enemy half of the forest, being as silent as they possibly could be in order to sneak the enemy flag out of the enemy territory.
No one came Nico's way for a few minutes, which was somewhat strange. Normally, either a decoy team or a large group from the enemy team would be sent through the middle of the forest. Nico was walking along the edge of the creek when he heard a sound. He quickly turned around, startling his enemies. There were three of them, and one of them was the last person he wanted to see: Percy. Honestly, Nico expected that one would expect to be able to control their own dream. Unfortunately, Nico could not, and Nico was forced to confront his crush and enemy. But not at that very moment. Nico raised his sword and charged at the other two who came with Percy. The two campers (most likely from the Apollo cabin, judging by the fact that they were armed with longbows) reacted in very different ways. In fear, one of the two demigods turned around and sprinted off back on his side of the forest, just as a rabbit would in an unexpected encounter with its predator. He was smart. The other...not so much. Jumping back, the other demigod landed on a rock behind him and drew his bow, granting himself an advantage by standing at a higher elevation. Nico stabbed the earth with his sword, wasting no time as three skeletal warriors emerged from the ground. Percy did not stand by silently, and aided his teammate in attempting to fight off the undead skeletal warriors by shooting streams of water at them. It was not enough, however, as they advanced upon the archer, who shot off arrows at the three undead until his quiver was empty. It was then the other demigod turned and fled, leaving only Percy to fight against Nico.
The undead warriors turned around. At Nico's command, they turned to stand in between the creek and Percy. With Percy's water supply blocked off, Nico could now successfully defeat the strikingly handsome older boy. Or so he thought. Percy, upon seeing that the creek was being blocked off from him, dashed to Nico's undead warriors. Already weak from the last fight, they stood no chance as Percy, in three fluid motions, disintegrated the undead that Nico had summoned. Okay, thought Nico, maybe I need more undead soldiers. Nico stabbed his sword into the ground, causing a dozen or so skeleton warriors to spawn. Effortlessly, Percy jumped into the crowd of them at, within minutes, had destroyed and disintegrated all of them. This angered Nico. He summoned wave after wave of undead soldiers to fight against Percy, and each time Percy would emerge victorious. Weaker than he previously was, but victorious. Now, Nico was enraged. He never wanted to fight against Percy, but it was the destiny of his dream-self to do so. And then Nico did something that surprised both himself and Percy. Nico dashed forward, engaging in a one-on-one fight against Percy. This was surprising because Nico was known to summon the undead to fight for him, and he himself would stay safe behind his warriors.
Percy, at first, was taken by surprise at Nico's decision to duel him. Weak from fighting the warriors Nico had summoned to fight him, Percy, for a moment, lost his footing (on flat ground) and started to fall back towards the creek. Had Nico not been infuriated, he would have found it amusing. Instead, Nico raised his sword and jumped again at Percy, forcing Percy to first defensively raise his sword before then causing a stream of water to hit Nico in the chest. Now doused in water and furious, Nico screamed and charged again at the older boy. Now very afraid of Nico, Percy tried to turn and run back to his own territory. Seeing this, Nico, violently, stabbed his sword in the ground, summoning more undead soldiers to block Percy's escape route. Blind with rage, Nico, in one final dash, tackled Percy to the ground, causing Percy's sword Riptide to fall out of his hands and onto the ground. Nico lay on top of Percy, his own sword at Percy's throat, the undead warriors standing ready in a circle around the two of them. Nico had not noticed the position the two of them were in until Percy shifted under him. When Nico had come to realize what he had just done, he, among everything he could have done, started to cry. Frustrated and angry and soaked and sitting on top of his crush, Nico started to cry. Why was everything just so unfair and why couldn't life be easier for him and just why did he have to be in this very awkward position with Percy of all people and just why did everything have to seem so complicated to the point where Nico had to isolate himself from everyone and have to move from camp to camp in a failed attempt to connect and befriend someone? Overwhelmed to a breaking point, Nico began to cry. Percy did not know what to make of this. Percy, sliding himself from under Nico, moved himself to where he was able to sit next to Nico. They both were still surrounded by Nico's undead warriors. Not knowing what to do now, Percy did the sympathetic thing- he opened his arms and pulled Nico toward him, holding Nico in a protective hug.
They stayed like that for minutes- on the ground, surrounded by undead warriors, as Percy held on to the crying younger boy. Finally, as Nico's sobs started to die down, Percy asked, "Nico? Are you okay?"
Nico looked up into Percy's eyes. Though his eyesight was blurred with tears, Nico could make out a gentle smile and a sympathetic look on Percy's face, silently urging Nico to make his confession. "I...I don't know," Nico started. "It's just that...everything's unfair."
"How so?" asked Percy, his voice gentle and compassionate.
Nico choked back a sob. "Everything's unfair because...because of you," Nico confessed. "I really like you. I think you're hot, charming, caring, loving, sympathetic, amazing...You're just, well, perfect, Percy."
For a moment, a stunned silence was the only response from Percy. Percy then replied, "Oh." More silence followed after that. The only things the two demigods could hear were the undead warriors shifting, occasional battle cries, and the sound of the creek flowing past them. "I didn't know you felt that way about me," continued Percy, breaking the silence in between the younger son of Hades and the older son of Poseidon. "I just assumed that you simply didn't like me, or anyone for that matter, as you kept isolating yourself from the rest of us and would go off for long periods of time alone somewhere and we didn't know where you had gone and some of us, Chiron especially, would worry about you and even when you were here you didn't talk to anyone so I-"
"Percy," Nico cut in, "You're rambling. You tend to do that when either you're nervous or you don't have control of a situation. In this case, it would be both. I just surprised you with my burst of anger and my confession, and as a result you don't know how to react. It's okay." Nico snuggled closer to Percy; Percy responded by closing his arms tighter around Nico.
And there they sat, just the two of them (and the undead warriors), exactly how Nico wanted it to be: him and Percy, alone together.
Nico woke up. Rubbing his eyes, he looked to the right and saw his Stygian Iron sword resting on a table alongside a set of armor, all ready to go for tonight's game of Capture the Flag.