Notes: So, this would be me presenting why I shouldn't be allowed to write mushy romantic scenes. Or what counts as mushy for me, anyway. Oh, and this is a mutated drabble bunny from WDMD, for anyone who's interested. It might be unpolished and incoherent, though. Also excuse me the drama.

I honestly don't like this all that much; there are a lot of hole-like things. Comments are appreciated, including any negative ones.

Also, I'm not yelling at people who've done the emo thing here. Because, you know, I've done it myself plenty of times. Glass houses and stones and all that.

Passionate Declarations

(product of the writer reading waay too many romances)

"You know," Rachel said carefully, "when I asked for help clearing out the art display, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Nico blinked, nonplussed.

"The whole army of skeleton warriors headed by a sprit of vengeance thing," she explained. Although she couldn't imagine why she'd have to explain that, it seemed Nico was pretty oblivious to any sort of creeps involving dead people.

"Oh, that," he waved a hand dismissively. "Meg's a lot nicer than the other two. And besides, it's getting the work done, right?"

They were leaning against the wall, looking at the half a dozen or so skeletons meticulously stacking up canvases. Sometimes, phalanges dropped off them, but that did nothing to curb the grins on their faces.

Of course, they were skeletons. It wasn't like not grinning was an option…

"I was thinking more along the lines of some of the other halfbloods. Some of those kids from camp you've been training, maybe." It would have put a lot less shivers down her spine.

"Curfew. How'm I supposed to sneak them all in and out?" he asked her.

"But- this is…uh…" she watched as the fury cracked a whip across a lounging skeleton. There was the clatter of bones tumbling to the ground, and Rachel prayed the security guard wouldn't show up to check in on her. She did not want to be responsible for a coronary.

"Look, you'll get the thing done in half an hour, at the most," he pointed out reasonably, "We can actually get back to the apartment and get some decent sleep. Rachel, that would be a good thing. Now you can stop frowning."

The skeletons moved some more paintings. Megeara cackled. A whip flashed in the semidarkness.

Rachel felt like she was getting a front seat to one of her prophecies.

"Was this really necessary?" she asked.

"What is wrong with you?" Nico threw up his hands, exasperated, "You asked me to help, and I'm helping!"

"I'm starting to wish I hadn't," Rachel mumbled. "It's creepy."

The skeletons worked. For a while, all that could be heard was the bones clattering.

"I guess you'd have been happier with an army of cyclopses," Nico said, tone quieter than before.

"Oh, yes. Cyclopses I can deal with," Rachel confirmed. It wasn't like Brooklyn hadn't spat out dozens of them before.

She wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but there was some movement, some wordless clattering of teeth, and the skeletons vanished into puffs of smoke. The fury's cackle paused in mid-ha, and it gave Nico an offended look.

"Go away," Nico told it. The fury sniffed and vanished into it's own puff of smoke.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. Creepiness or not, the hall had to be cleared by the morning. She'd been entrusted with it.

"Saving you the bother of getting creeped out," he straightened himself and started rolling up his sleeves. "I'll have it done by tomorrow."

She couldn't believe she was hearing this. Nico without his beauty sleep was hell to live with, no pun intended. He went to almost extreme lengths to ensure he got enough of it to suit his stringent requirements.

"Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes," his voice was clipped. "I'm fine."

"Don't go emo on me, for Olympus' sake," Rachel rolled her eyes, "Whatever it is you're sulking about-"

"Do I creep you out?"

This time, there were no bones clattering to break the silence. It widened between them and into a grand chasm.

"What?" she asked. She would be the first person to admit it sounded stupid.

"Do I creep you out?" he asked, "Those skeletons you just saw? I control them, you know. Those things you're so fucking creeped out with are terrified of me. So really; don't I creep you out?"

Hell, how had she ended up here?

"I'm the Son of Hades, Rachel. Let me spell it out for you: Lord of the Dead. If you can't deal with a bunch of stupid skeletons, how the hell can you deal with me?"

"But that's different!" She blurted out.

"How?" he snarled back.

They stood, facing each other and glowering. Rachel remembered Percy once telling her how Nico in emo mode was a juggernaut. Nothing calmed him down from whatever it was he was angsting about.

He'd prescribed shutting up and waiting things out. But unfortunately, Rachel when attacked did a pretty good impression of a juggernaut too.

"Nico, don't be an idiot," Rachel said through gritted teeth, "You're acting like-"

"Like hell," he spat out, "Summoning those things… that's who I am, okay? If you can't deal with that-"

"That's irrelevant! And-"

"It's not irrelevant! You can't just despise what I am and then claim to like me. That's just hypocritical and- and cruel and-"

She didn't even have to interrupt him this time. He listened to himself and stopped on his own, wincing.

"Forget it, okay?" He said, running his hand violently through his hair, "You're right, I'm being emo. I'll get this done now."

She wished he'd stuck with the yelling. How on earth had an evening meant for cackling over horrible artwork turned out like this?

"Nico," she began in her best neutral tone.

"Not now," he snapped, "Please."

"But-"

"It's okay. I know it's creepy, you don't have to explain yourself," he dragged a set of canvases to the far side of the room from where the skeletons had dropped it. "I know it's creepy. Now please just…"

He trailed off, resolutely looking away from her. She could have sworn he was blushing, even.

Great. Now this was turning into an emotional rollercoaster. She really hated having her guts wrenched around like that.

"But I didn't mean that," she said helplessly.

"I know," he said just as miserably, and sighed. "I just forget sometimes… can we please not talk about this? It's- kind of embarassing, all right? I know I'm well… me, but sometimes I forget and-" he was definitely blushing, "Just forget it. I'll get over it."

Rachel digested this, and experienced another violent shift in emotions. She was going to hurl if this kept up.

"Did you just say… what do you mean, you're you?"

"Uh…"

"What, like you're subhuman or something? I mean, yeah, you're an idiot sometimes, and you have all the dressing sense of a plague-ridden hermit-"

"I didn't mean it!" he yelped. "Honestly, Rachel! I get like that sometimes, that's all; ask Percy if you don't believe me!"

"This is annoying!" Rachel was in full rant mode and she wasn't going to stop now, "One of the things I actually liked about you was how you didn't have a stupid inferiority complex like half the guys in my course! Or the less than bony girls from Clarion. What exactly do you expect me to do for you now? Listen to your weepings? Feed your poor misleaded soul some chicken soup?"

"Oh crap," he groaned. "Why do I keep doing this? It never ends well."

"Or, you know, help you along with your misery by telling you how sad my life would be too?" Rachel said, ignoring him. It sounded like it was said mostly to himself, anyway. "Or…or climb upon a rooftop and declare my magnificent passion for you, and how I share in your misery of being unloved and unappreciated?"

Nico looked miserable. Which served the little brat right for making her go off like this.

"Because, you know, that would people something to talk about. Two depressed people in heartstoppingly intense love who're just looking for a reason to angst over themselves and how unfair the world is-"

"I wasn't that bad, jeez!"

"Let me do some of the melodrama, please. I think I'm entitled! If you can't take it, don't dish it out!"

"Look, we don't have to make a big fuss over this. I just-"

"I hate people doing that!" she snapped at him, "I hate how they make themselves out to be so pathetic and depressing and- argh! Look at you, Nico! You're alive, you're healthy. You have friends who care about you. You're fraking gorgeous. You're smart. You have magical powers! So you've had a hard life, but so did half the people in this world. Sure, you're famliy's screwed up, but do you think mine's a cakewalk? What more do you want, me declaring you're the my hero, my man, my soul's delight and covering you with kisses? Because that happens only in my romance novels, and I'm so not feeling like the sweet and forgiving heroine right now! And it's not like it would even work, because it'd just give you something more to angst about, I'm sure."

"Okay, things are nowhere near that simple-"

"Oh shut up, please," she groaned.

"I can't believe you're calling me melodramatic! You just blew this thing entirely out of proportion! It was just a bit of angsting!"

"I'm pretty sure you do that on a daily basis," she snarled back, "But guess what? People don't like it when they listen to someone they love going on about how worthless they are!"

Silence rang again. Rachel paled, but she stood her ground. Nico stared awkwardly at the ceiling.

"Let's get moving," she said shortly, rolling up her own sleeves, "I think we spent about an hour screaming at each other."

Nico meekly complied, and spent the rest of the night dragging the remaining canvases to the storage room. But that was okay, because the silence wasn't awkward as much as it was embarrassed, because they managed to get the work done in time, and because somewhere between dragging and grumbling, they managed to kiss (for starters) in one darkened corner of the room.

And because that, they agreed, was probably worth the drama.

End

Edit (07/05/11):

Have attempted to fix the train wreck of an ending. Hopefully, this one's better than the last version.

To clarify a few things; Megaera is not working for Nico; she's directing the skeletons because it allows her a free night of vengeance.

And I thoroughly disagree with the statement that "Nico wouldn't get mad if people think he's creepy", because he seemed pretty depressed at the end of BotL when he left Camp. I like to think he grows out of his permanent brooding phase eventually because Emo!kid is not a particularly attractive archetype.

I have no counter-argument for the skeleton thing, though. Because Rachel really should have thought about that. I will definitely remember that from now on.