The first summer after moving to the United States, Maria di Angelo decided that it would be a good idea to send her children to summer camp. An idea which her son did not appreciate in the slightest. Nico was fourteen years old, the age where teenage awkwardness peaked and thrived on the boy's insecurities. He was too thin, too short, too nerdy; there was always something wrong with him. Being forced to spend a whole month with other kids his age, in spite of what his mom said, could only lead to a disaster. And in fact, it did; just not the kind of disaster Nico had expected.
Camp Half-Blood was the one she had chosen, located on Long Island. It was the corniest name ever given to a summer camp, and Maria had chosen it because she thought Nico would appreciate the Greek mythology theme surrounding it. Which meant that, naturally, Nico hated it.
As soon as Maria dropped him and his sister Bianca at the camp, Nico was ready for something to go horribly wrong; or so he thought. He could not expect what happened as soon as he scanned the crowd of teenagers who were gathered there, all wearing the same gaudy orange t-shirt, greeting each other like old friends. Which they probably were: from what Nico had read on the Internet, most residents came to the camp every year starting at eleven years old. He could have—should have—ignored them all, but his eyes caught on one particular face.
In English, they say 'love at first sight', and in Nico's native Italian, 'amore a prima vista', which means pretty much the same thing. But in New Orleans, Nico had picked up a little bit of French, and their expression felt a lot more appropriate: 'coup de foudre'. A lightning strike. Sudden, intense, blinding, painful, leaving nothing in its wake.
That was pretty much how Nico felt as he saw that face: his heart could have stopped and he would not notice. The face belonged to a boy, older than him by a few years, much taller than him, whose shirt may have been just a little too tight over lean, but defined, muscles. Even from a distance, Nico noticed the green of his eyes, forming a perfect contrast against his mussed, jet-black hair. He was busy falling into someone else's embrace, laughing all the while.
Short version: he was absolutely gorgeous.
"Nico? Are you okay?" Bianca was eyeing her brother questioningly. Had he beens taring for long? Had Bianca noticed what he'd been staring at? Hopefully not. His sister would never let him live it down. In all likelihood, the only time she wouldn't spend teasing him, she would be trying to set him up with the boy.
"Yeah, 'm fine," he grumbled. One good-looking guy made virtually no difference. He was still stuck at this place for a month, with a whole lot of people who visibly knew each other and thus wouldn't need him. This couldn't get any better. If by 'better' you meant 'worse'.
A few people arrived from inside the camp proper, calling the crowd of teenagers to gather. Calling them adults would be too generous: most of them had been residents themselves one or two years before, at most—they couldn't be over twenty. The only difference between the youngest of them and the oldest of the campers was their shirts, which was white rather than orange. That was how Camp Half-Blood was run: some of the former residents loved it so much that they became staff themselves. How it worked out, Nico had no idea. He supposed he would find out soon enough.
"Hello guys!" one of them said, a young man with sandy hair. Nico supposed he was handsome too, but it barely registered. It was still taking all he had not to look for the other boy in the crowd. "It's so good to see you again! For the new kids, my name's Fred, I'm one of this camp's leaders. Since this is your first day, we'll only ask you to go to the dorms so you can find the bed that's been assigned to you and drop your stuff there. Then you'll go shower in time for dinner, and you'll have free time in the evening to look around. As usual, I'll remind the older kids to help out the new ones. You know the drill. Now go."
Nico picked up his bag, sighing. "Talk about an organization," he muttered, following the crowd to two buildings—the dorms, he supposed. Or, as he heard some of the boys around him call them, the bungalows.
They didn't look like bungalows to Nico: going with the Ancient Greek theme of the place, they were decorated to look like a Hollywood version of Ancient Greece. It was very obvious that the only building of reference used by the designer of this place was the Parthenon: the columns, the triangular pediment above the front door, there were even a few steps to get to said door, even though the building was not above the ground.
The residents were sorted into the bungalows by gender, and thus, Nico and Bianca were separated. His sister cast him one last worried glance, but his only response was a "See you at dinner" before he rushed inside. Bianca's attentions were nice, but he doubted it would do any good if anyone caught him relying on his sister. He could already hear everyone calling him a baby, a girl, or slurs he didn't want to think about.
Inside the bungalow was pretty much a normal dormitory: two rows of bunk beds against the walls, with enough space between them for their occupants' possessions. There was barely any decoration, which was surprising to Nico, considering the outside appearance of the building, but also a relief. The place was in complete and utter chaos: every boy inside seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, but with all of their bags and suitcases, there wasn't enough space in the central space between the beds. The boys seemed to converge towards the oldest residents among them, who were holding sheets of paper, but they were all talking at the same time, preventing Nico from listening to anyone, or understanding anything that was going on.
"You're new, right?" an amused voice called from behind. "Don't worry, they're not like that all month." Nico turned around to the origin of that voice, and staggered almost immediately. Sure enough, it was the boy that had caught his attention earlier, even more gorgeous from up close, with a friendly smile on his face. He also had a sheet of paper in his hands, and held it up. "The dorm's plans. Everyone is assigned a bed in advance, and nobody complains. Well, except for right now, where everybody complains because only the senior residents get the plans. What's your name? I'll look you up."
You can look me up anytime, was the first thought that crossed Nico's mind. Thankfully, he was still too paralyzed to say anything, and he regained control of his mind before the stupid line reached his lips. With a deep breath, he managed to articulate: "Nico di Angelo."
"Nice to meet you, Nico. I'm Percy. Percy Jackson." He held out his left hand, as he still held his paper in the other, which he was browsing at the same time. Nico awkwardly shook the offered hand, but Percy didn't even seem to notice. "Ah, there. Lucky you, you'll be sleeping right under me."
Before Nico's mind could turn that sentence into a visual, Percy waved him to follow as he cut his way through the crowd. He must be famous around the camp, because the other boys parted before him before Percy even had to ask. Finally, the reached a bunk bed, somewhere near the middle of the left row, and Percy pulled to a stop.
"There we are. You get the bottom bunk, I get the top. Unless you really want the top one. Officially we're not supposed to trade places, but I don't mind. We can just keep it between us."
"No, bottom's fine." Nico was still surprised by his ability to string three words together; he wasn't about to complain about which bed he got. The way Percy treated him was a little too disarming for the sake of his sanity. He couldn't remember anyone, in Italy or New Orleans, acting this… normal to him. "It's fine."
"But is it fine, I wonder?" A smirk had blossomed on Percy's face, and Nico felt a blush creeping up his chin. There, that was closer to the usual treatment Nico got from guys like Percy. A whole lot of mockery. Before Nico could retort anything, however, someone called out Percy's name in the distance. "Sorry, gotta go. There's a whole lot of other guys who still don't know where they'll sleep. Make yourself at home!"
He was gone in a flash, a garish orange flash surmounted by an absolutely perfect face.
Yes, disaster had struck already. Just not the one Nico had been expecting.
Nico hadn't reacted when the camp leader Fred had announced they would all go shower before dinner. He should have. The showers at Camp Half-blood proved to be the worst form of torture.
They were taken in common by the entire bungalow, in a single, huge room, leaving no room for privacy whatsoever. That alone would have been enough of a pain to Nico: he did not even like being shirtless in public, let alone naked in front of a few dozen teenagers. But, adding to the already long list of preposterous rules of the camp, was this one: for "maximal efficiency", campers had to shower at the exact same spot every day, one that was assigned to them. And of course, the places had been assigned to mirror the dorm.
Showering next to anyone at all was embarrassing. Showering next to Percy Jackson was humiliating, irritating, and incredibly enticing all at once. Getting to see Percy shamelessly naked was awful. That Percy kept up his nice guy routine, and attempted to engage in conversation, was terrible. Having Percy hand him a soap, because Nico had not realized he had to bring his own, and with no second thoughts, was unbearable. And briefly touching Percy's wrist and fingers as Nico took the offered soap was downright pornographic.
All in all, Nico was glad he could control the water's temperature, because without a constantly cold spray on his skin, he was pretty sure the situation would become incredibly more embarrassing.
At least he's not offering to scratch my back, Nico thought bitterly as he regained the dorm. That a part of him answered with a very vivid image did not help. Shaking off the thought, Nico rummaged through his bag, pulling out a portable console.
If there was one good thing about living in the United States, it was that games were almost always released earlier; right before being sent off to this camp, Nico had acquired a brand new copy of the Mythomagic adaptation in video game. Well, the first; Nico hoped there would be more in the future. He lay back on the bed, turning on the console.
Percy's head almost immediately appeared from above. "I wouldn't flaunt that if I were you. Camp policies are strictly against these things. They think it prevents you from socializing."
"Obviously they didn't think not everyone would want to socialize." Nico's stark remark left his mouth before he realized what he was saying, but Percy laughed.
"Yeah, it is pretty ridiculous. Anyway, I'm just warning you, because Fred and some of the other leaders will be there soon to take us to dinner, and if they catch you with this, they'll take it from you for the whole month."
Nico groaned, but turned off the console. "Awesome. Thanks for the warning, I guess."
"You're welcome. Hey, maybe I can show you around after dinner? There are a few places I know where you can be alone pretty much whenever you need to. And play your game. What do you say?"
"Yes!" The word left Nico's lips before he realized how enthusiastic he sounded. Mentally cursing, he sat up, managed a shrug, and added, "I mean, if you have nothing better to do."
"Of course not!"
Of course not. There was something incredibly upsetting about these words; they could hold so much meaning, or so little. It could be a mere curtesy, an act of kindness, or something more. Nico wanted it to be something more. But he couldn't let himself hope; hoping was dangerous. There was a reason hope had been in Pandora's box, after all.
The male camp leaders came minutes later, as Percy had warned, to let the boys know it was time for supper. The disorganized crowd that left the bungalow was probably as orderly as the camp would ever get, judging by what Nico had seen so far.
Percy disappeared with his friends, the same ones Nico had seen him greet when he had first arrived at Camp Half-Blood, leaving him alone. It was only when the girls joined them, on a terrace where tables had been set for dinner, that Nico finally noticed a familiar face: Bianca, as well as their cousin, Hazel.
Hazel was one of the people they had lived with, back in New Orleans. Her mother and Nico's mom were adopted sisters, whose parents, a couple of ambassadors, had found during their travels around the world. But just like Maria di Angelo had eventually returned to her native Italy, Marie Levesque had gone back to her home of New Orleans, where she'd had a daughter.
Nico knew that Hazel had been sent to the camp after his mom had decided to send her children, in an attempt to get their children closer. Over the few months spent with her before they'd moved to New Orleans, Nico had grown to like the girl, but they were too dissimilar sometimes to make an actual bond. Still, two people to have dinner with was better than none, and he was grateful for Hazel's presence; even more so when Bianca left them to join another group of girls her age.
Dinner flew by, and all of a sudden, most of the residents scattered on the camp's grounds, in small groups, or in some case, in couples. Bianca had followed her new friends, and soon enough, Hazel left as well, with a boy named Frank, who, in spite of being her age—thus younger than Nico—was much taller than him. She offered Nico to come along, but he declined, unwilling to be the awkward third wheel to his cousin.
He lingered at the terrace a short while longer, before heading back to the dorm. However, just as he did, a hand clasped around his arm, startling him. He knew what this was already: some of the boys had decided he was alone, and therefore, an easy target. They were right, of course.
His glare met confused green eyes. "Hey, no need to look so grim!" It was Percy. Of course it was Percy. "You still up for that secret tour of the place I offered you?"
"I didn't remember it being a secret tour," Nico retorted. Then, a little more calmly, he added, "I thought you'd just, you know, left with your friends or whatever. Which would be fine. You don't owe me anyth—"
"Dude. I promised you. That would be so not okay." The serious, almost offended expression on Percy's face was as preposterous as it was adorable. "Come on, let's go."
They were soon almost completely in the dark: the terrace and the bungalows were the only places with sources of light, and night had fallen quickly and surprisingly over dinner. Only then did Nico find the courage to ask something to Percy.
"Why— why are you doing this?"
Percy paused and looked back at him, confused. "Doing what?"
"Showing me around. And just… being nice to me."
Percy crossed his arms in front of him. "I'd like to think I'm a nice guy." His tone was a little defensive, but Nico had to press on. He had to know. If this was all an elaborate prank, it was better that Nico knew about it sooner than later.
"But why me?"
"Look. There's one rule at the camp that the leaders didn't make up—it's more of an unspoken rule between all the residents. The guy who shares your bunk bed? He's like your partner for the entirety of the month. A sacred bond and all. And since you're new, it means I should take care of you." He chuckled. "But I would still like to think I'm a nice guy. And you look like one too. Do you really need more?"
Did he? "No, I guess not."
A strange expression crossed Percy's features for a moment—too brief for Nico to decipher it—before it was replaced by a large grin. "Well, we'd better keep going. I want to show you something in the woods. It's pretty dark in there at night, you should hold my hand."
Nico complied. Happily.
If it was going to be one huge prank against him, he might as well enjoy it while he could.
