AN: See? I'm not dead, I'm just procrastinating everything because I got that tumblr account (link is in profile). I wrote this because there are never enough friendship-fics in these archives. And I can see Rachel dragging people to be her muses for her art projects.

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Disclaimer: There isn't anything in earth or heaven (even in dreams of philosophy) that allows me to own Percy Jackson. Even the poor allusion I made right there is own by Shakespeare. The title is alluded to the TV series Community.

Title: Introduction to Greco-Roman Modeling in Western Civ

Word Count: 1K

Summary: "Just don't move," Rachel warned from behind easel. "I want the lighting to be just right."

"I don't like this."

"You already said that," Rachel said. She bit her lower lip and studied Nico's pose. A paintbrush was tucked behind her ear and, almost fell when she jerked her head to the side. "Move to the right."

Nico scuffled to the right while trying to keep his arms in the same position.

"A little more…wait, wait…good."

Nico sighed. He focused on a nearby tree to distract the feel of his arm going stiff, and wondered what he did to ever deserve this. His record at the moment was cleaner than Percy's when it came to pissing gods off, and he was determined to keep it that way.

He had his arms up, fingers clawing at the sky. His usual (and very comfortable) clothing was replaced with a black chiton (a dress, he called it) and a golden laurel in his hair that didn't make him feel like a winner. He felt ridiculous, standing there in the graveyard like that; but it felt like he shouldn't say no to the woman who threw a hairbrush at Kronos (and her paintbrush had a sharper end than the hairbrush).

"Rachel…"

"Just don't move," Rachel warned from behind easel. Her waved a hand in the air, letting some dark paint fly off a paintbrush. "I want the lighting to be just right."

"But it's almost nighttime." Nighttime. In a graveyard. Being a demigod. And being near the current Oracle of Delphi. If that wasn't a magnet for trouble then he had no clue what else was. He was also sure that fighting in a dress wasn't going to be easy, it was going to be ridiculous when a monster will be arriving soon, and during the fight Nico was going to trip and die a pathetic death. He just knew that was all going to happen. He then made a note to ask Jason how he did all of the fighting while wearing his toga. There had to be a secret to it.

"Exactly, it won't last long. Now keep your head up, look straight at the sky, and look fierce." Rachel showed him what the fierce expression should look like on her own face, but it ended up looking more comical with the streaks of bright colors on her skin.

"I'll look positively annoyed if you keep me here any longer," Nico promised, almost smiling.

"Just appreciate the fact that you'll be helping me get an A for this class," Rachel said. He saw her face again and noticed that there was a streak of green on her cheek. Her smile might as well crack her face in two. "This is going to be great!"

And now Nico felt horrible. He wanted to leave this embarrassing situation badly, but he was making someone smile. That was rarity because he was mainly good as causing people to go pale. And scream. For the love of the gods it usually wasn't his fault in the first place—so some people wanted to see their old pet Fluffy, and Fluffy would come back as a skeleton only. Or they couldn't handle seeing their Great-Aunt Gertrude as a crabby ghost. Like Nico said, it wasn't his fault that those people would scream and run in the opposite direction. Except Rachel never did that. In fact, she stole a skeleton of a bird for a drawing just the other day.

He was going to ask her to give it back to him soon. Hades didn't like it when people got a hold of Necromancy-coated bones. There was a horrible incident in a museum in Brooklyn the other month that involved that. Nico was meaning to get more detail on it, but Chiron and Hades were being tight-lipped about the whole event.

Sighing, he decided to man up and look at the darkening sky. It could always be worst, he decided, they could always be doing this at camp in broad daylight in front of everyone. He was sure that some people (read: Leo and Percy) would never let him forget that he was wearing a dress for a girl.

"Thanks for doing this," she continued. "The first few paintings I can't do because Percy, Jason, and the others have been so busy lately."

"Is it a series?" Nico asked, trying to stay interested and ignoring the heavy feeling that was settling in his arms.

"Mhm," she answered. "I want to do you and seven of you guys with your powers, but some more mash-ups to the style. I want to make it look all eerie and magical, but I want to keep some of the key elements in it. "She gestured to his dress and laurel. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that you'll end up looking like a badass. How do you feel about zombies in the painting?"

Her words tore him away from the amusing image of Percy, Jason, and Frank going through the same treatment. Nico smiled inwardly at the fuss that those guys were going to make. He was going to have to be there in order to tease them. "Are those even Greek? Because I think Annabeth did a whole lecture on that last week about monsters and demigod powers."

"Oh." Rachel bit her thumb, her coppery eyebrows moved closer together as she thought about it. She looked back at her painting. "How about a Hellhound? Yeah, that can work. Can you go ahead and summon one?"