Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.

Word count: 2,143 not including this.

Note: This is dedicated to reader 11h05, one of the three winners of the Sexy little Halloween Challenge. She requested for this, and I hope she LOOOOOVVES it! It's really fucking long, but I think it's my best work ever.

Another note: The HoO characters are here. Just sayin'. Like, HoO never happened, but the characters did.

The lithe black-haired beauty secretly slipped through the camp lines. No one saw her except for the "death ninja" (Percy's nickname). His nearly silent gasp was lost in the breeze though as she climbed through the spots of trees right into the Big House's window.

(((())))

"Whoops. Wrong room." She laughed and backed away to the door casually.

The camp counselors were sipping their pre-war-council pink lemonade. Thalia fluttered her fingers and disappeared around the corner.

"Anyone else just see that?" Percy asked.

Clarisse growled. "Yes, of course we did you fucking idiot."

Annabeth scoffed. "Percy's brain is too full of seaweed to know if that was a hallucination or not," she replied.

Percy grinned like a five-year-old. "But you still love me."

Thalia's head popped into the doorway. "That's what she wants you to think." She was gone a second later as she ran down the hall.

(((())))

Chiron was trimming his hooves when Thalia busted through the door. He looked up. "I've been expecting you. Artemis Iris Messaged me this morning. You were asking for a foot rub and on your way here."

"Aye, it isn't my fault she kicked me out. I mean, I'm an excellent person," Thalia responded and plopped onto the window seat. She stretched herself so her feet were touching the wall with her back to the wall parallel to it.

"I know. It's just right after you left Camp, you seemed down. Aphrodite could sense… growing emotions and the sadness of leaving camp, so she informed Artemis. Artemis kicked you out on your birthday for a reason; she wanted you to have a sixteenth birthday on the right day," Chiron replied. He rubbed his hoof to get rid of the dust.

"Understood. I still have no clue when you say 'growing emotions'," Thalia said before whipping out some black nail polish and painting her chipped nail.

Chiron chuckled. "So, now that you're here, what are you going to do now?"

Thalia fixed the chip she got the day before. "Get the hell on with life." Thunder clap in the distance.

Chiron shook his head. "What did we say about the swearing rule?"

Thalia stood. "Look Chiron, you have a team of counselors waiting for you."

"Join us," Chiron challenged. He knew Thalia would either back down because she hated those meetings or she would say yes because she had too much pride.

Thalia looked smug. "I will. I'll tell them the quick wrap-up of the kicking out. You just call Nico because he isn't there. I came in through that window, and I noticed everyone was there but Nico."

Chiron nodded. "I'll tell him to come."

Thalia shrugged. "Okay." She headed out the door. Right before she closed the bedroom door, she leaned into the room and said, "Fuck rules."

(((())))

The moment his stupid name was called over the stupid intercom to go to the stupid war council meeting, Nico knew she had noticed he wasn't there when she slipped into the wrong window. He knew; he watched her.

So when she was sitting there, in his chair, he didn't need to tell her to get the fuck off of his chair. Instead, he tapped her shoulder and said, "Thalia, you're sitting in my seat."

"No this is my seat. Says so right here." She moved her back.

"My name's under your butt." Nico pointed to the seat.

She stood, and he was right. Both of their names were there. She groaned. "Fuck."

Chiron walked into the room at that moment. "Miss Thalia, what did we just discuss?"

"Rules, but remember when I said 'fuck rules'? Well, I meant it," she responded sweetly.

"Burn." Leo said. His nose lit up with a flame.

Jason whispered, "Flame on."

Nico hissed, "Shut up Jason. So, Thalia, I get the chair."

Thalia laughed. "I get the chair."

They went on like this for a few minutes before Annabeth said, "Just share the chair!"

Thalia huffed but sat on one half. Nico sat on the other half. They were thisclose to each other.

(((())))

Even a week later, Nico still couldn't sleep. He knew she was kicked out of the Hunters. Why? He didn't know. All she would tell him is Artemis had the decency to make her go on her birthday and throw her a Sweet Sixteen bash (that's what Artemis called it). At Nico's, he got laid and had a bunch of alcohol. At Thalia's, she said they had a foam tasting cake and watched Meet the Spartans. They also danced to pan pipes.

Nico thought about sharing a chair with Thalia. Nico could feel Thalia's hips touching his. Her hand accidentally slipping onto his thigh. Her elbow occasionally prodding his stomach. Her nail polish being scratched off out of boredom and specs flicked onto him. Her breath so close to him. Her sighs that totally said 'kill me now' nearly being in his ear. His hand "accidentally" bumping into her knee, or, once, his squirming shoulder bumping into her breast (that was truly an accident). He muttered an apology, and she accepted it with a very red face.

His aching hand made him stop. Nico kept a notepad of things he thought about to clear his head when not being able to sleep. Lots of pages about Thalia listed what he felt towards her, and, occasionally, what he wanted to do to her like feel the gentle curve of her body or the soft skin of her cheek. It wasn't anything gross or creepy; more like passionate and sweet and sometimes described as if an author would talk about her.

Nico heard a tap. He went to the window it was coming from. Someone blew on it and wrote, "Nico, let me in," with her delicate finger. Something to add to the list: small hands, Nico thought.

He tried to pry open the window because windows are romantic, but he couldn't. He was stupid because he realized the window was locked. He nervously laughed and slung it open after switching the lock. Thalia's long leg swung over the side. She pulled the other over. She was sitting in his window. Nico couldn't help but get excited. When he gets excited, he means Aphrodite chicks and Justin Bieber excited. Jeez. He sounded like a girl.

"Hi." Thalia's hair was actually wavy when she didn't use gel or hairspray or whatever and a flat iron. "I couldn't sleep and because we talk a lot, I thought I could talk to you. At Zeus's fist…"

Nico's face lit up although Thalia couldn't tell in the dim light. "Sure let me just…" He looked down at his pajama pants and shirtless torso (if he could've seen Thalia's eyes better, he would've seen her not trying to look at his six-pack). "Get on a shirt," he finished.

She laughed. "Okay," she responded. When he turned to his drawers, she wiped the drool off of her chin. Her blush of embarrassment and the fact (she'll never tell, she'll never tell!) had crept down to her chest. The heat probably kept the room from freezing with the chilly breeze and open window. When Nico turned around, he noticed Thalia getting goose bumps.

He took a jacket off some hooks. "Here, wear my jacket; you look like your freezing."

Thalia suppressed a smile through the humiliation. Someone caught Thalia cold? That's rare. She just got offered a jacket? That never has happened. Even as a little girl. (Flashback: "Mom, the heater stopped working." –Thalia. "Little bitch, live with it. Now, I have another customer. C'mon Billy." –Ms. Grace. "But (Baby) Jason's freezing." Pause. "You know what; I'll just let him sleep in my bed. Fuck you." –Thalia.)

Thalia's blush turned redder. "Thanks." She took the black jacket from his hand and pulled it on. It smelt like him: mud, death, and a musky scent Thalia loved but couldn't quite put her finger on. The fact that he put on a shirt made her blush turn to a light red now instead of a tomato color.

Nico closed the window and walked out the door with Thalia behind him. He put his fingers to his lips and picked up Thalia. "It's to cause less noise," he whispered in her ear. She nodded with lots of hesitation.

They finally reached Zeus's Fist, but Thalia was no longer being carried. About halfway there, she kicked Nico where you do not want to be kicked, and he dropped her. She caught herself by landing on her feet as he rolled on the ground trying not to cry. Thalia snickered.

As they climbed to the top with ease, Nico remembered something. "Hold still," he commanded. Thalia was standing on a fairly large rock. Nico brought the rock to him; he was about four feet above her. He hopped on and levitated them to the top.

"Wow. I didn't know you could do that," Thalia said in slight amazement.

Nico shrugged. "I don't usually use it… at all. I used it… Last year for some girl to get off the edge of a cliff… It was Nyssa and Connor Stoll was crying because she was going to slip," Nico responded. They laughed, for Connor was not one who would be caught dead crying, like Thalia and Nico and Travis, which was odd because Connor and Travis were brothers.

Thalia lowered her butt onto the boulder. They were literally on the topmost rock. She patted it. The rock was fairly small, but there was enough room for her and Nico to be an inch away.

"So what's up?" Nico asked.

Thalia shrugged. "I couldn't sleep. I wanted to talk to you. About why I got kicked out."

Nico could feel his eyebrows shoot up his forehead involuntarily. "Really?"

Thalia hugged her knees. "Yeah. I'm serious; I haven't even told Annabeth yet. She just wouldn't know how to react I guess," Thalia said. The words lingered in the air for a moment before she replaced them with new ones. "See, it was all Artemis's idea for me to leave. It was the day after the solstice, and she called me into her tent that morning. Nine AM. And, she looked me straight in the eye and put her and on my shoulder. All she said was, 'She was right.' I didn't get it. At all. I told her that. Artemis had tears welling up in her eyes. She said, 'You have unrest feelings; your emotions are growing stronger. Thalia, I really hate to do this, but goodbye; you're leaving.' I asked her what that meant. She just said, 'Thalia, go back to camp. Your membership with the Huntresses has been revoked.' She didn't say anything after that, but I just stood there like an idiot learning trigonometry. I hated it. At least she had the decency to tell me to get lost, so I'm sixteen. On my birthday," Thalia explained. She stopped talking, and Nico studied her in the moonlight.

The way she frowned sadly bothered him. Thalia was usually wearing a smile or laughing. This time she just had creases in her forehead. Her electric blue eyes were open and staring at the moon questionably. Her dimples were not showing. The un-styled hair was the way Nico like for her to wear it; with the wind skirting around them, it was a little fluffed with strands sticking to some chap stick.

Thalia coughed. Nico started talking now. "Well, when she said 'growing emotions' or whatever, what did she mean? Do you know?"

Thalia looked at Nico. He noticed something he didn't when he was looking at her profile; she was not wearing makeup. She whispered, "Yeah."

Nico started drumming on his knee with his fingers. "Can I know?"

Thalia sighed. "Nico, you're exactly like Percy in Annabeth's eyes: dense, stupid, and extremely sexy," she said and laughed.

Nico smiled. "So you like me?"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

Thunder clapped over.

Thalia looked at the sky. "Can't I be fucking happy for once in my life? I got my brother stolen; you left me with a mother who was a prostitute, druggie, and an alcoholic. Can't I be happy?" She exclaimed at the sky.

Thunder rumbled quietly but died down a second later.

"So I take it as you do like me," Nico said.

Thalia shrugged.

Nico responded by saying, "Let's test it." He quickly kissed Thalia. She didn't slap him, but she did kiss back.

She grabbed his shirt and pulled him down onto the rock on top of her.

Yes, Nico was a fucking great kisser. And Thalia had been admiring his lips for a week. They were pink and never chapped. Slightly thin, but Thalia didn't have a problem with that.

And Nico didn't mind when the bruise on his throat didn't fade until a week later.

The End!