A/N: Hi, everyone! So after many days of apathy, I decided to write a Thalico fic. But get this: it's a group of drabbles each chapter, brought on by words from a random word generator. Just trying out the idea. :) Hope you enjoy!

When Lightning Meets Thunder

Stuffing

'Are you serious, Nico? How old are you, anyway?'

'Oh, you shut up!'

'Is this because of your daddy issues? Are you feeling the urge to relive your childhood because you missed out on half of it?'

'Oh, gods. Why are you here again?'

'Because you're not allowed to leave camp alone. Probably because you'd attract a vast amount of monsters, but I think it's because Chiron thinks you might burst into flame at the exposure to sunlight –'

'Go to Tartarus!'

'Watch your mouth, kid.'

'I'm about seventy years older than you.'

'Not the point. Exactly how much are you going to stuff that teddy bear? It might spontaneously explode.'

With a dirty look directed at Thalia, Nico wrestled his bear away from the stuffing machine. Thalia was right; it looked fit to bust.

'The bear isn't even for me,' he lied.

'Sure it isn't. Come on, let's go pick out some clothes. I saw this really epic zombie nurse costume.'

'Somebody's enthusiastic all of a sudden.'

'Yeah, well, I had daddy issues too. Let's move.'

Picnic

When Thalia arrived at Nico's door somewhere around 2 am and handed him a basket, the first thing he could think to say was, 'It's 2 am.'

'Excellent observation. Put on some shoes, we're going for a picnic.'

Nico looked rightly bewildered. 'But … why?'

'Because I said so. If you stand here arguing I'm going to drag you out regardless of your bare feet.'

'Nightmares?' Nico said knowingly. Thalia sometimes had nightmares – more like flashbacks, to what happened the few weeks before she became a tree. He didn't know all of what happened, but from what he knew, it sounded pretty bad. Especially for a little kid, like Thalia was at the time.

'Are you coming or not?' Thalia said, ignoring his question.

Nico sighed grudgingly. 'Fine,' he muttered, slipping his feet into the nearest pair of slippers and stepping out into the cold night.

Thalia looked at his feet in amusement. 'Batman? Really, Nico?'

'Just … can we go yet?'

It should have taken them ten minutes to get Zeus' Fist, but thanks to Nico's whining about how rocks were getting in his slippers and sarcastic replies from Thalia, it took them a good half hour.

'So, what exactly are we doing?' Nico said evenly, once they had both flopped down on top of the hill.

'Eat,' Thalia said, unloading chocolate bars, soda cans, crisp packets and many more unhealthy treats from the basket.

Nico sat up quickly. 'Where did you get all that?' he asked, almost in reverence.

'I paid the Stolls. Now eat up, or else I'm going to have it all to myself.'

They dug into the tooth-rotting goodness in companionable silence. Sometimes Nico was a giant pain to Thalia – and vice versa – but at moments like these, they were okay.

Possibly even more than okay.

Winner

They stared at each other over the board, the air crackling with tension (literally crackling with little electricity sparks, thanks to Thalia's instense concentration). Nico rolled the dice. The two little cubes seemed to spin on for an eternity before they landed on a six and a one, respectively.

'Chance,' Thalia said.

Nico said nothing, only picked up the card. His eyes skimmed across it and he grinned. 'You owe me a hundred bucks,' he said.

'Give me that!' Thalia snatched the card from his grasp and read it hurriedly. 'Dammit! I'm broke!'

Nico laughed triumphantly. 'I win!'

'How in Hades did you manage to buy almost all the properties and build houses and hotels on them?'

'Face it, Thalia, I'm just better than you.'

'Rematch. I demand a rematch this instant.'

'This is our fifth rematch.'

'A sixth won't matter, then. Clear this up, we're starting over.'

Exam

'Okay. Immortal children with Persephone.'

'How am I supposed to know?' Nico was practically tearing his hair out at this point. His father had invited him over for a weekend stay in his palace and Nico was terrified. He couldn't think of any reason why his father would want to spend more time than necessary with him, so he assumed it was a trap.

Thalia thought that Hades genuinely wanted to spend time with Nico. 'It's that Persephone I'm worried about,' she had said knowingly. 'She's going to try and make you look like a failure in as many ways as possible, which won't be too hard if we don't brush up on your dad's history.'

And that was why they were sitting in Nico's cabin, Thalia quizzing him on every miniscule fact there was to know about the god of the underworld.

'Wrong answer,' she said. 'Macaria, Zagreus, and Melinoe.'

Nico gaped at her. 'Why couldn't he have named them all Bob?'

'Oh, you're gonna love this one. Who was the mother of his demigod son, Joseph Stalin?'

'Umm … Mrs. Joseph Stalin?'

'Ketevan Geladze.'

Nico paled visibly. 'I'm gonna die down there.'

'Really? You aren't already a walking corpse?'

'Screw you.'

'You wish. Back to studying.'

Nose

'How long is this going to take?' Nico said sulkily.

'I'm bored,' Thalia declared.

'It's only gonna take two more minutes!' Rachel said in frustration, dabbing away at her canvas. 'I knew I should have asked Percy and Annabeth to be my models instead.'

'I'm hungry,' Nico said.

Rachel sighed. 'Gods give me strength.'

'I'm done,' Rachel announced. 'D'you wanna see?'

'Not particularly,' said Nico. Thalia smacked the back of his head.

'Sure, Rachel,' she said. Rachel brought the canvas over and practically shoved it in their faces.

Thalia had to admit, it was really good. It was just a simple sketch of Nico and her, but it was drawn with utmost detail.

'I like it,' she announced. 'It was almost worth sitting all that time for.'

Nico, however, looked annoyed.

'What's with my nose?' he demanded.

Rachel narrowed her eyes. Thalia sensed a major argument coming up. Rachel was a pretty liberal person, but she was more protective of her art then she would ever be of her firstborn.

'What's wrong with your nose?' Rachel said calmly.

'Look at it!' Nico exclaimed. 'It looks nothing like my real nose! My nose doesn't have a little tilt at the end!'

'Yes it does,' Thalia said. 'It looks like a ski slope for fleas.'

'The nostrils-to-nose-length ratio is way off!' Nico insisted, ignoring Thalia's comment. 'And look at the slope! It has a gradient of, like, 5!'

'That doesn't even make any sense!' Rachel exploded.

'Does too! I look hideous!' Nico cried dramatically.

'Nico, just calm down,' Thalia said, her tone dangerous. 'Your nose looks fine, okay?'

Nico knew better than to argue, so he just folded his arms and sulked.

Thalia broke the silence eventually. 'Do I really have that many freckles?'

Mess

Thud. Thud. Thud.

'Nico di Angelo, you let me in right this instant or I swear I will break down the door!'

Silence.

'Nico! Gods, you better not be sleeping again! I don't care if you hibernate or whatever during the winter, you better get your sorry ass out here right now or - '

'I can't open the door!' Nico's frantic voice sounded from behind the closed door.

'What?'

'Thalia - burn it open, or break it, or something!'

Thalia was kind of worried at his panicked tone, so she used her trusty spear to fry the solid wood door into ashes. As soon as she did, Nico collapsed at her feet.

'What in the name of - ' Thalia stared, openmouthed, at Nico's cabin. It was literally fit to bust with junk. Tattered army outfits, bones, old muskets, dust-covered boots ... She now understood why Nico couldn't open his door: all this stuff was blocking it.

'Some skeletons from the second world war decided to have a party in my cabin,' Nico explained tiredly, getting to his feet.

Thalia couldn't suppress a grin. 'Serves you right for summoning them all.'

Nico scowled at her. 'You're gonna help me clean this up.'

Thalia made a deal of rolling her eyes. 'Fine,' she sighed exaggeratedly. 'Come on.'

While they were sifting through the colossal mess, Nico asked absently, 'Why had you come in the first place? To my cabin, I mean?'

'Just checking that you weren't dead. You haven't been out of your cabin for a couple days.'

Nico grinned widely. 'I knew you really cared!'

'Don't make me regret helping you, di Angelo.'

Worrying

'Is he gonna be okay?'

'Thalia, for the love of the gods, that's the eighth time you've asked me that. In three minutes. I still don't know!'

'Why not!'

'Because!'

Thalia lapsed into huffy silence, sitting in the hard plastic chair for about ten seconds before jumping up and pacing again. Nico had been returning to camp from (yet another) trip across the globe when he had been attacked by a wild hellhound. Nobody knows where it came from or if anybody had sent it, but Nico was now lying in the hospital wing of Camp Half-Blood and Thalia was worried out of her mind.

Chiron suddenly poked his head through the door. 'You can see Nico now,' he addressed Thalia gently. He had barely finished before she'd bolted out of her seat and into Nico's room.

Her first thought was that Nico's head looked hilariously out of proportion with that giant lump of gauze wrapped around it. Then she noticed how sallow he looked (more so than usual) and that his ribs were also taped tight with gauze.

'Hi,' he whispered, his voice hoarse.

Thalia collapsed in the chair next to him, her legs suddenly shaking. 'Gods,' she managed to say. 'You look terrible.'

Nico cracked a smile. 'Thanks for the reassurance.'

'Do you feel terrible?' she blurted.

'No, I'm just peachy,' he said sarcastically. 'I just got attacked by a crazed monster who broke most of my ribs and carved a giant hole out of my head and I feel just great. Top marks for a totally not-obvious question.'

Thalia winced. 'Guess I deserved that.'

'Yeah. You kinda did.' He settled back against the pillows supporting his back.

'Nico?'

'Yeah?'

'Don't ever almost-die again, okay?'

'Sure.'

So that was the first group, written today in a mad sugar rush. Thoughts? Comments? Constructive criticism? Anything, really? Put it in a review! :D