Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Riordan, not me.

Leo:

"Dude, will you just tell me what happened?" Leo asked.

Jason rolled his eyes. "It's not my place" he said "plus, it's nothing interesting."

"If it wasn't, you would tell me" Leo said. "di Angelo didn't suck out your soul did he?"

Jason punched him in the arm. "Lay off him, will you?" he said.

"Whatever happened that you won't tell me must be pretty interesting if it's got you defending Nico" Leo said.

"Seriously, he's had a rough time lately" Jason said "you should be able to relate. You use your humor to hide pain, he just hides." Leo stared at him, open mouthed. "Dude, I'm your best friend," Jason continued "I know how you operate."

Leo blushed. Jason and him never really talked about stuff like this, but now is as much of a good time to start as any. "I know" he mumbled. "Maybe I'll go talk to the kid.."

Jason glanced at him. "Really?" he asked.

"You just said I could relate to him" Leo said as he started back away. "Wish me luck my friend, I may not come back alive." Jason smiled and gave him a reassuring nod. In all honesty, Leo had found himself more and more curious about Nico di Angelo as of late. He seemed to be keeping a lot of secrets and Leo wanted to know what they were.

Leo spent an hour looking for the kid, but eventually the kid found him. "What are you looking for?" Leo jumped ten feet into the air. He turned around to see Nico standing two feet behind him.

"Holy Hephaestus" Leo said "keep sneaking up on me like that and I'll accidentally destroy you with a wall of fire!"

"I'm so scared" Nico said, his voice flat and face expressionless. "What are you looking for?"

"I was looking for you" Leo said, but as he said it he felt a blush creep onto his face. That sounded weird.. he thought.

Nico stared at him, eyebrows knitted together. "Why" he said, more of a statement than a question.

"I don't know... you just seem to be having a hard time since your quest with Jason and I just wanted to check on you" Leo said, but as he said it Nico's face turned angry.

"Why? What did he tell you?" Nico said in a tone that kind of made Leo want to turn and run. He told himself to calm down, Nico was just a 14 year old kid. He didn't have any reason to be afraid of him. Well, other than the fact that he can raise the dead he thought.

Leo held his hands up. "Whoa there, he didn't tell me anything, okay?" he said "but it's obvious something happened. I mean, even if it didn't you still went to Tartarus and back, you've gotta have issues."

"I'll deal with my issues on my own" Nico said before turning and walking away.

"Nico wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Leo said, but Nico seemed to have already disappeared into the shadows.

Nico:

Nico picked at a pomegranate. He didn't feel like eating, really. Or doing anything for that matter. He wasn't entirely sure why he even came to dinner, it's not like he wanted to see anyone. He wasn't paying attention to anything anyone was saying, he didn't care. What he did care about was Leo across the table staring at him. It was starting to drive Nico insane.

You wanna play? He thought, let's play. He glanced up and met Leo's eyes. Leo instantly looked away, but then he looked right back. Nico didn't back down, their eyes locked and he could tell Leo was uncomfortable. Nico was uncomfortable, but he wasn't about to let that show.

The moment seemed to drag on forever, but then Leo's nose set on fire and he turned away to pat it out. He looked really flustered and blushed. Nico couldn't help but smile. That was kind of cute he thought, but he immediately struck the thought. The smile melted from his face and his regular scowl settled back on his face.

After dinner, Nico spent some quality time with himself. He wandered the ship for hours before finally trying to get some sleep. Only, of course, sleep was filled with nightmares. Normally Nico can control his dreams, but tonight Bianca seemed insistent on torturing him.

He gave up on sleeping and decided to wander the ship once again.

Nico didn't have any plans as to where he was going. He really didn't. But somehow he ended up outside Leo's room. He didn't do it on purpose, he didn't.

He let himself into Leo's room to find him fast asleep on his bed. He was in flannel pants and a t-shirt, and he was groaning in his sleep. No doubt he was having nightmares, all demigods do.

Nico glanced around the room. There were tools and blueprints everywhere, like he was in the middle of a million projects. Nico grabbed a coil of wire and tossed it at Leo. It landed on his stomach and he shot up and looked around. "Wha- what's going on?" he asked in a groggy voice.

"Nothing" Nico said, and Leo jumped ten feet into the air.

It took Leo's eyes a moment to adjust to the light and see Nico. "What are you doing in here?" he asked. "It's the middle of the night! Hedge will kill you."

"Why would Hedge care?" Nico asked to avoid the first question. In all honesty, he didn't know what he was doing here.

Leo:

Leo sat up and rubbed his eyes before turning on the lights. What is this kid doing here? "Percy and Annabeth snuck off one night and did Zeus knows what before falling asleep together," Leo said, and Leo swore he saw a flash of anger fly across Nico's eyes. Rumor had it, Nico had a thing for Annabeth. Leo ignored that and continued. "Since then Hedge is crazy about people being in each other's rooms at night, he thinks they're all having se-" he started, but his face turned bright red and his hair caught on fire. "Uh- but- uh- that doesn't really apply to us... since we're two guys... so my point is..." he made a confused face. "I don't really have a point I guess."

Nico raised his eyebrows and stared at Leo. There was a long awkward moment of silence before Leo spoke up. "So... why are you here?" he asked.

Nico avoided Leo's eyes as he spoke. "You said I should open up, Jason said I should open up, Bianca always said I should open up. So here I am" he said. Nico took a deep breath and silence filled the air.

"Well are you guna-" he started.

"I'm getting there!" Nico spat. He took another deep breath and stared at the ground. "Jason and I met Cupid. Cupid, he... I guess I'm a good target for him to torture. He made me admit to Jason that I... That I had a crush on Percy." He said the last part so quickly and quietly Leo wasn't sure he heard right.

"On... Percy?" Leo asked, letting it sink in.

Nico crossed his arms. "Yes, Percy" he said.

Leo rubbed his eyes and thought for a moment. "I could see that" he said, and Nico glanced up at him.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm just saying," Leo said "the whole hero thing. He's good at everything. You were like, what, 10 when he brought you to camp?" Nico nodded and Leo continued, "just saying, it makes sense. Also there's those eyes."

Nico stared at him and was quiet for a long time, and Leo thought he'd gone too far. After what seemed like forever, Nico smiled. "They are nice eyes" he said. Leo smiled back, he couldn't help it. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen Nico actually smile before, and it was kind of nice. "But uh.. I'm over him now" Nico said.

Leo met his eyes. "Because you're into someone else?" he asked, and Leo felt his heartbeat pick up. Why was he nervous to ask that question?

Nico blushed, actually blushed. "No" he mumbled.

"That's a lie" Leo said as he stood up and walked over to Nico. "I know you're lying because that's the most color I've ever seen on your face." To Leo's surprise, Nico's face turned even redder.

"Yea, well I can tell you're nervous" Nico said.

Leo knitted his eyebrows together. "I- what? How?" he asked.

Nico smirked. "Your hair is on fire" he said. Leo blushed and tried to extinguish his hair, and to his surprise Nico started to laugh.

"I hate this sometimes" Leo mumbled "can't have an emotion without the world knowing."

Nico smirked. "I'd hate that, I personally prefer to suppress my emotions and hide them from the world" Nico said and Leo stared at him, his expression sad. He was about to offer his best comfort, but then Nico snorted. "That was a joke" he said "kind of."

Leo smiled and rolled his eyes. "You're not good at humor" Leo said "you should leave it to the master." Leo pointed at his chest with both thumbs and Nico rolled his eyes dramatically.

"I'm going to sleep" Nico said as he turned towards the door.

"Goodnight di Angelo" Leo mumbled before lying back down in his bed.

"Night Valdez" Nico mumbled as he walked out of the room. Leo curled up in his blankets and tried to fall asleep. To Leo's surprise, he didn't have nightmares. He dreamed of Nico. And he wasn't so sure that was better.

Hope ya liked it :) Please review and lemme know what you thought!