Gwico was created by mew-tsubaki, please give her a small mention if you wrote them, thanks. :)

Disclaimer: The Percy Jackson/ The Heroes of Olympus cast belongs to Rick Riordan, not me. Also the song "Contact High" (for which the story is inspired by) is by the band Architecture in Helsinki, not me.

Please enjoy this story!

"T-t-t-t-t-t-touch

If one of these two walls could speak

I'd turn the lights down long enough to hit repeat, babe

Right now my vision is gone and magic's to blame

It's silent down here; hey, I want to get loud again

You'll hold the thunder while I bring the rain"

—Architecture in Helsinki, "Contact High"

-O-

Nico walked out of the house into a bright, optimistic morning. Gwen, he thought as he stretched out in a cool shadow. He walked to the café and, when he opened the door, he noticed Gwen was sitting at a table alone. She was looking at the wall—Peculiar, Nico mused as he quirked his eyebrow.

"Hey, Nico." Percy slapped him on the back, and Annabeth peered from behind him. She smiled and nodded.

"Hey."

"What are you going to get?" Jason asked from the table where he and Piper were sitting.

"Hot chocolate," he said nonchalantly.

"Same here." Piper held up her cup as she blushed at Jason.

"On a double-date?" Nico asked the four demigods. They all made bashful, romantic gestures.

"Well, get to it." He nodded to Percy and Annabeth to go to Jason's table as he went to give his order.

"See you, man," Percy said, appreciating Nico's gesture.

"Two hot chocolates, please," Nico said to the cashier as he paid. The cashier nodded and went to make the drinks. Two steamy, frothy hot chocolates—topped with cinnamon and small bubbles that ate away at the whipped cream—came out. The beverages gave Nico a wake-up call as they burned in his hands while he carried the drinks over to Gwen.

The son of Death was very much alive when his heart echoed like one yelling down all the way to Tartarus in his chest. Gwen was sitting alone, seemingly preoccupied with the wall. Nico liked…no, loved quirks, especially like that one of Gwen's. She also had a downright enchanting aura, and Nico had long ago already taken the bait that she'd once cast into the river of Styx.

"Gwen, what are you doing?" He sat down and faced the wall as she did in an effort to understand the workings of her mind. "…Gaea to Gwen."

"Nico! Don't say that!" Her eyes grew large, and Nico smirked as he nodded to her, having successfully snatched her attention away. He passed her one of the drinks. "Thanks for the hot chocolate," Gwen grumbled as the delicious liquid scorched her tongue.

"No problem. So why were you talking to the wall?" Nico asked, because he noticed Gwen was a little irritable today.

"Nothing," Gwen said with a lack of emotion. Nico took note of her body language as she scrunched inward on her seat, and her hunched shoulders spoke of a little bit of sadness. Her eyes kept peering over her cup to the other four demigods in their double-date world.

"Ah. That's why." Gwen blinked and frowned as Nico jutted his head towards the other table.

"You just have to be so keen, Nico."

"You don't have to explain, Gwen. It's okay."

"No…it's just that Piper has Jason who is the son of Zeus. And Annabeth has Percy—son of Neptune. Even Jason and Percy have a bromance. My point is: Those four are the perfect group. Jason can bring the thunder for Piper, and Percy can bring the rain for Annabeth. It just makes me think: What can I bring? What can I do to help? Who will I fall in lo—" Gwen stumbled over her words, saying instead, "N-never mind."

Nico liked that he was seeing a different side to Gwen—even optimistic people had their days. Her raw emotions ran through Nico like a thin but sharp wire, so that he felt like a marionette bobbing back and forth on it as he tried to think about her feelings. With her expressing these emotions, it made him remember that he was a son of one of the Big Three as well. He was the only son of the Big Three who didn't have a girlfriend. He was just single, shadow-traveling Nico. Though he couldn't produce rain or thunder, he could produce the dark, could bring back the dead, who could shrivel up the ground, if Gwen wanted him to. Unless it scared her… He decided not to scare her by keeping the conversation going: "I remember you saying to me one time that we're a part of a whole. We have an important part in this battle, as well." He slurped his hot chocolate, hoping he was reaching Gwen.

Gwen looked to the wall again and Nico turned to the wall, as well. Silence passed—not time, but silence. It had somehow become the measurement of their conversations, which Nico had come to look forward to.

"Feel better?"

"Yes. I suppose. It'll take a little bit to cool off, though."

"Close your eyes and let the hot chocolate burn into you and let yourself feel your emotions," Nico instructed, recalling what he'd done just recently when he'd reminded himself of his feelings for Gwen as he'd brought her the hot chocolate just moments ago.

Gwen let the feelings burn, just burn in an emotional fire, the heat of which rivaled Hestia's fire. She closed her eyes and imagined she was sitting in front of fire: bright and flickering—creating shadows all around her face, enclosing her with a gentleness and never leaving. Shadows…Nico…

She sighed as the last of her bitterness burned away, and then she opened her eyes to see a crème-colored wall and Nico sitting in the periphery of her vision. Gwen smirked as Nico usually did. "I think I'm pulling a Nico," she stated.

Nico pulled a Gwen and smiled. "Why are we talking to the wall?"

"Don't know. Habit, I guess."

It made sense to Nico, as he usually twisted his skull ring when he was irritable.

"Nico, let's go."

"Ok," he agreed, and—without a second thought—he knew where they were heading. They got up and walked to the café door. As soon as it opened, they were gone. The lights faded and the darkness became their only vision. It was as though this happened every time they went to go somewhere. Somehow the two fell into step with one another. Gwen took Nico's arm, and he smiled as he looked at her as they walked onward, the two of them with nothing else in the darkness. Gwen felt as though she was taking a midnight stroll in the past, present, and future all at once. It felt good to be under the radar, away from the world, lost in a different place.

However, Gwen felt as though she was forgetting something. "Nico," she ventured, "what's tomorrow's weather?" Gwen had gained decent enough night vision so that she could see Nico perfectly in the dark. Or maybe it was just Nico-Vision…yeah, it was Nico-Vision.

"I don't know. I don't think there's going to be rain or thunder."

"I agree. I think there's going to be chilling darkness instead." She held up their joined hands and kissed his wrist lightly. He kissed her head with a love that only he hoped she soon would understand.

Nico was so much more than what people saw him as—he was everywhere and everything…at least to Gwen.

Hello all. BlueMango here and I hope you enjoyed the first in the series of drabbles. Also, I really am loving the band Architecture in Helsinki-you should check them out if you have a chance. First off, I'd like to say that I LOVE Nico to death (no pun intended). He's just...no words can explain how I feel about the guy. And Gwen. Ever since mew-tsubaki created them, I loved them! You should totally write them if you have a chance, it's really fun. This drabble collection is slightly AUish in that it begins with a happier version of the two sides meeting in MoA. Please tell me what you think about them, and what you think of the story in general.

Thanks, and stay tuned for more, BlueMango.

Also, thank you mew-tsubaki for creating Gwico and betaing my fic.