Enjoy! :)

*flick*

Heads.

*flick*

Tails.

Nico di Angelo glared at the coin in his palm, daring it to give him another heads. That would mean he had to do it. He would have to suck it up and ask Percy Jackson out. Not on a date of course, he would say, just to hang out. To Percy, it would seem like a harmless guy outing, like hey what could go wrong? And even though it was only going to be the two of them, Nico figured Percy would assume that they were close enough for things like that.

Weren't they?

To Nico, it's a lot more complicated than that. Just a simple outing might be good enough to fulfill his ahhh... rather unpleasant desires. Not that he was up to much. Being around Percy would just pretty much make his day. Nothing else needed, but it'll be nice if some other stuff happened too, but he won't count on it. The guy was head over heels in love with another girl, like a normal guy would be. In fact, they were already engaged even though they were both still in college, and Nico had no doubts they would get married as soon as possible. It was only a matter of time before Percy Jackson was legally declared to Annabeth Chase. He had no intention of ruining their relationship whatsoever, and he was genuinely happy for them, but sometimes he wondered how different things would turn out if Percy would return his feelings.

He fingered the coin hesitantly, starting to regret making this deal with himself. You should try to at least talk to him about it, Jason Grace's voice echoed in his head. He probably wasn't ever going to admit it to Percy, but hanging out with him wasn't a problem, right?

Gods, he should stop doubting everything and get on with it.

Let's see what the Fates have chosen for him. Maybe he was unlucky enough to get a tails. His whole life had been unlucky anyways, what difference does it make now?

*flick*

Nico smacked down hard on the coin when it landed on his palm. He didn't dare to look.

Finally when he couldn't take it anymore, he parted his fingers slightly, enough to see the face of the coin.

Heads.

Oh gods, help him.

He pocketed the coin nervously and took out a drachma, his hands already clammy with sweat.

He let his fingers run across the rather uneven surface of the ancient coin as he looked around his rented apartment, or rather room (the place was barely big enough for him alone), where he stayed when he wasn't at Camp Half-Blood for the summer.

Sure, things have definitely gotten better since the whole Gaea-waking-up-and-destroying-the-world event.

He had a school to attend, a home to return to, and a family at Camp Half-Blood. Hazel, despite living across the country in New Rome with Frank, came to visit him often. Not to mention, he could always pop by their place whenever he liked with shadow travel. He hadn't heard anything about Leo though; last he'd seen him he was getting ready to go off on some expedition. Piper and Jason both ended up in Camp Half-Blood, with the latter finally deciding to go along with the Greek side, after having conflicting thoughts about it before. Despite finding his home in Camp Half-Blood, he mentioned a problem he was facing the last time he spoke to Nico. Something about Reyna and Piper, but he didn't elaborate much, and the son of Hades had no interest in the subject anyways.

You don't even know what you're gonna do about it, Jason's annoyed voice rang in his head again.

Every once in a while Jason would call in and check on him, and to remind him of his 'situation'. Maybe he was trying to be nice and a good friend, but it was about as annoying as a hellhound drooling on his boots.

He had a point though.

All Nico had been doing was avoiding the problem and the fact that he was, well, gay. That seemed like the best option to Nico: sure, it hurts seeing him all smiling and happy with her instead of him, but he feared anything else would destroy even their friendship. He couldn't risk that. He really didn't mind anything as long as Percy was happy. He could die in peace.

And maybe reclaim him in the Underworld. He is the ghost king.

But right now, he made himself a promise. That is he got 2 out of 3 heads, he would ask Percy out for some guy time together.

'"Okay, okay, I can do this," Nico breathed.

He grabbed the bowl he normally used for Iris-messaging on his bedside table, and shuffled to the windowsill a few feet away, where the dwindling sunlight was just enough to make a rainbow.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering" He threw the drachma in after rubbing it between his palms.

The coin goes into the misty light and the film of vapour starts to shimmer. The image clears enough for Nico to see a bed in a room.

Correction, the people on the bed in the room.

Annabeth lies on the bed on her back, her golden curls splayed across the pillow. Percy, holds himself over her as he lowers his head over hers; their kisses hot and fevered. He has one hand supporting him; the other wrapped around her waist, playing with the ends of her white camisole that barely covered her stomach. She has both hands around his neck, one hand slowly sliding down towards his sternum, where his shirt was already off.

Even through the Iris message Nico could hear the growl escaping from the back of Percy's throat when he comes up barely to breathe before dipping his mouth down Annabeth's neck, and she gives this alluring breathy sound as her hands get lost in his black mess of hair.

His throat constricts, and Nico can't breathe.

He shouldn't be watching this; it was their own private, personal affair.

He really shouldn't be feeling upset or disappointed whatsoever; they were already engaged, of course their relationship had went pretty far if they were getting ready for marriage.

Marriage.

That word hit him hard.

And he's about to wave his hand across the message before he does something stupid like cry when they finally stop and Annabeth pulls Percy down on the bed beside her. He smiles and let her before wrapping both his muscular arms around her waist.

"Hey Wise Girl," he mumbles into her shoulder, his green eyes sleepily opening. "Do you think-"

His eyes suddenly snaps open when he sees Nico through the Iris-message before he gets a chance to wave his hand through and cut the connection.

"Nico, what the Hades!" Percy exclaims, and in his rush to untangle himself from Annabeth he rolls and falls off the bed.

"Whoa!"

Nico might have laughed at the adorableness in that, but he was too nervous about getting chewed out for watching them.

Annabeth quickly goes over to peer down at the other side of the bed where Percy was groaning from his fall.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" She asks worriedly and her hand reaches down towards him before something he said registers.

"Nico?" She looks around incredulously. "Where-"

And she sees him too. Her mouth opens and her grey eyes go wide with shock; her anger not yet set in.

Percy quickly gets up and goes over to where the Iris-message was. His face is pink with embarrassment as he urges the mist to move over so that Nico doesn't see the bed, but another part of the room with a desk, a dresser and a closet. The desk, nearest to him, or rather the Iris-message, was messily covered with books and papers, with the lamp still switched on.

Just as that thought occurs, Annabeth, having pulled over a dark blue sweatshirt (which Nico suspects was Percy's) and walks over behind him to turn off the lamp and hurry back to the bed, which Nico still couldn't see.

It took him a few seconds for him to realize and notice Percy was glaring at him. It took him a few more seconds to realize he had been staring at Annabeth as she walked past.

Right, he thinks I like her.

Nico opens his mouth to speak, but Percy beats him to it.

"What the Hades was that Nico? You just pop in an Iris-message and not tell us you were there watching us?" Another blush creeps into his cheeks.

"Uh..."

"I mean that was completely uncalled for! Not to mention, rude!" His mouth was pulled downwards slightly, so it looked like he was giving a frowny face. Or a pout. His arms were crossed, but Nico got the feeling that he wasn't mad, just embarrassed.

"Um, sorry about that guys. I really didn't see much." It was hard to get those words out, especially when he vividly remembered how his heart had practically broke when he saw them on the bed just now.

But Percy's face softens. "Do you need something?" He asks gently, now that he had forgiven him.

Annabeth slides down the bed and dangles her legs off the edge of the bed. She briefly smiles at Nico as a welcoming gesture, and to let him know she wasn't mad at him either.

"Actually I need to ask you something," Nico tells Percy and starts fiddling with his hands, and Annabeth takes that as her cue to leave. She bends down and kisses Percy's check and he reaches out to touch her hand before she goes out. The dreamy expression on his face doesn't fade until Nico tells him, "Hey!"

Percy snaps back to attention, and furrows his eyebrows at Nico, waiting for him to say something.

"Well, I was wondering if... ," he fiddles with his hands some more before continuing.

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some time, 'cause, you know, we haven't hung out in quite some time. You know, just guy stuff, not-not a date!" The words rushed out of his mouth and Nico hung his head in shame, not daring to look at Percy's reaction.

"Sure, man! Why not? That sounds fun!"

Nico looks up to see Percy smiling at him.

"You never come along when I ask you to; this is new, di Angelo," he grins.

That's because you go out with Jason, or Frank or Tyson or Grover...and a bunch of other people I don't want to talk to.

But Nico just smiles. "Great. So what do you wanna do?"

Hope you guys liked it :) The next chapter will be up soon (hopefully), in the meantime please review! Thanks for reading!