Nico had a pale complexion. He looked sickly as he brushed sweat drenched hair away from his eyes. His greasy black hair had a shine to it in this Gods forsaken hot weather. There is one thing to do when it's this ungodly hot… and that is to have ice cream.
Nico calmly walked past the crowds of People on New York's streets, it had been a while since he had taken time to relax. The closest thing to relaxation he could get was staying in his apartment that he got for a killer deal. Nico never saw the need to invest in permanent housing, he was always moving around anyway, but he considered it. That all wasn't important now as Nico finally got up to the counter of the ice cream parlor.
A cheery boy with blonde hair answered Nico, 'He looks like him...' Nico thought, but gathered his composure, "I'll take Vanilla, soft serve please."
"As you wish Sir! Will that be all? No toppings? I could dip it for you or something?" the boy replied.
"No, just plain please" Nico replied calmly.
The boy handed the cone to Nico, but before he could enjoy the simplicity of his favorite flavor he heard that voice, calling to him. 'No, not him anything but-'
"Hey, Nico, What's up? You didn't tell me you were in town" said the almost too happy voice of Percy Jackson.
"I won't be much longer" Nico said.
'I thought he was teaching kids at camp-half blood during the summer, what is he doing here? He just had to show up with his dorky smile, and his dazzling eyes, and his- shit! No! BAD! DON'T THINK LIKE THAT!' Nico told himself but it was no use, he had a crush on Percy and he knew it, it hurt him so much to see his warm smile and loving eyes, he hated Percy for the way he felt sometimes.
"Hey, the rest of the group is here, do you want to sit with us?" Percy asked.
Nico's face held a slight bit of hesitation, hurriedly Percy grabbed his hand and led him to the others. Nico blushed at the simple action; man did he have it bad.
Percy led the moody demigod to the group of rambunctious young adults. Jason was in a casual tee-shirt being fed moose tracks by Piper who wore a red feather in her hair that matched her red tank top. Leo and Hazel were fighting about which was better, strawberry or chocolate, Hazel was winning with her argument about chocolate. Hazel had on a flowery sun dress and carried her new sketch pad with her, it had pictures of horses printed off and taped on. She smiled when she saw Nico, and stopped mid argument about chocolate being loved back in even her time. She ran up to Nico and held his shoulders firmly.
"Nico! You left so soon, I didn't even get to say good-bye, where did you go?" Hazel said.
"I was just doing random jobs around the city, I'm fine." Nico smiled at her but some of the odd jobs he did were not too clean… she might be too disgusted to look at him again if she knew, and Nico seriously didn't want to think of the fact that he imagined Percy doing those unclean things with him. He was both embarrassed and ashamed of himself.
"Well you don't seem hurt… that's a good sign" Hazel sighed relived Nico was ok.
"Hazel do you honestly think anything can hurt me after the war with Gaia and the Titans?" Nico asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Leo came over with a smile, but shuddered away from Nico, he was still kind of the creepy death kid after all.
"Since you seem to have retreated I think that means that Strawberry is the best!" Leo smirked.
Hazel puffed her cheek, but no longer caring about the debate she decided to let Leo win this one, but silently vowed never to let him get another on her.
"Nico, would you like to sit with us? I think Frank said something about bringing his Mythomagic cards with him." Hazel offered.
Nico was debating it but the geeky little kid that loved Mythomagic won and he took Hazel's offer and joined them, carefully walking over to the single table where Frank decided he would sort his cards.