My first PJO fic (actually my first fic) so let me know what you think of it.
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan's the genius who came up with the fabulous characters and the fascinating world; I'm just fiddling around with his toys.

1. A salty kiss

Her eyes were shut tight in an effort to prevent the tears from flowing. Her lips still slightly open from the weird breathy sobbing sounds she was making. Her fists clenched as if she was embarrassed that she was in this state. His own eyes were puffy and his cheeks were wet too. He reached up to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand angrily. Instead of replacing them at his sides, he reached out to pull Annabeth close. She offered no resistance to the pale fingers which gripped the worn orange material of her t-shirt. Instead, she stepped closer and buried her face into his chest muffling the sobs which shook her whole body erratically. It was crazy, Nico marveled, to think that the last pair of arms that had held her had been Percy's. His heart twisted painfully in response to the dreaded P-word and the image of a young man with strong arms, bright green eyes, wind-swept black hair and friendly smile. Gone, never to smile again, never to rescue him again. No one alive would be able to benefit from his generous smile and caring words.

It was why Annabeth was here in the first place. Her blonde hair and tanned skin was so out-of-place in the seedy,dusty apartment. Her request was so unfair, usually these requests went to his father. Not to him,never to him. "Please Nico, it's Percy. How could you be so heartless?", she begged on the behalf of the only man that she would love. She was completely unaware that she was begging someone who had loved the dead man just as much as she had. He couldn't do what she asked of him. He would have if he could, he had even tried. It was burnt into his mind, his father's refusal of his desperate plea. The shake of his head, the pity in his eyes. But rules were rules and the gods couldn't break them, much less their children. Today it was his job to say no. Annabeth attacked in every way she knew mentally ('It's just one soul' and 'What about Orpheus?'), emotionally ('He would have done it for you' and 'You owe him, you owe me') and physically ( finally resorting to threatening him with her knife). At last her anger had subsided into hopeless sobs. She retorted with a pitiful and immature "You don't understand what it's like to lose someone you love."

The last retort was too much. Like she had physically punched him, he shoved her away and took a few steps back. "No, then how do you think I felt about Bianca? Don't you dare say i didn't love her. And Percy..." his voice trailed off in the end. Now he was sobbing too. Whatever steps he had taken backwards had been regained in his angry outburst. Annabeth's face was still tilted upwards to address him but her lips had parted in shock. Nico bent down slightly and captured her confused mouth with his own. He still wasn't thinking rationally and all he could feel was the bitter anger at her accusation accusations and the gaping loss of Percy. The kiss was salty with the taste of tears. If Nico closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that the salty taste came from the ocean instead of tears. But when he opened his eyes and removed his lips, the truth came crashing down on him. The son of Poseidon hadn't participated in the kiss at all except for being the awkward third wheel that both of the kissers had thought of while kissing. "Sorry,sorry, sorry", he muttered over and over as he took a step backward and gave himself over to the shadows. He couldn't stand to see the look in her stormy eyes when her eyes fluttered open.

2. A soft kiss

Nothing was a secret from the gods. Not even awkward kisses that weren't even real anyways. Apparently, Lady Aphrodite had seen the kiss and spread the gossip around. Why did it have to reach the ears of Hades and Athena? He cursed the gossipy love goddess for her extremely inconvenient way of noticing stupid kisses and her husband too for and inventing the Hephaestus TV and the love mirror. An arranged marriage, seriously? Nico felt like he had gone back to the time of his birth. Nobody did arranged marriages anymore! The parents were just ecstatic. They were thrilled that the 'love match' had strategic benefits too. Athena had secured an automatic Alyssum for all children of Athena who were alive at the moment and "a much better match than Barnacle-beards son". In turn Hades had gained a lot of recognition among the gods. "She chose a son of Hades over the boy who was in two prophecies?" Nico wanted to gouge out the eyes of everybody who said those words. Percy was dead, Annabeth never got a chance to choose and they weren't even in love. No, there was still only one man for each of them.

Still in this hall full of gods and goddesses , it would be a very,very bad idea to even hint that he wasn't grateful. So he smiled in a way that was almost painful and watched Annabeth as she took her turn saying the vows. She looked gorgeous golden curls swaying and face glowing because of the baby growing inside her. Not that you could tell, her flowing white dress did a good job of covering it. Everyone knew about the baby. "It's such a scandal!", they told each other gleefully. Nico was almost scared of what they would say if they knew that the bride was pregnant with her ex-boyfriends child instead of his.

"You may kiss the bride", Zeus-the- god-who-was-acting-as-the-minister proclaimed, sounding bored. Nico braced himself for the awkwardness that was sure to follow. He encircled one hand around her waist and the other he pressed against her cheek somewhat awkwardly. She took a step towards him at the same time as he took a step towards her. This resulted in them being way too close. But she didn't move back so he didn't either. She was wearing heels so he didn't even have to bend encircled one hand around her waist and the other he pressed against her cheek somewhat could feel the baby bump through the dress pressing into him; Another reminder of Percy. If he hadn't died, he would be in Nico's place giving it the sort of justice only he could. Nico would be standing, sulking somewhere on the sidelines wishing he was in Annabeth's place. But that's not what's happening, Nico reminded tilted her face up deliberately and he moved his down with the same intent. This time everything about the kiss was soft. Annabeth's lips against his, her hands on his shoulders, her body pressing into his and the expression in her eyes. It all felt wrong to Nico. All he could think of was a hard body and toned muscles, of strong hands and ripped arms. When she finally removed her hands, he was relieved. The smile he forced onto his face now was splitting his face into two. He acknowledged the polite applause with a cool nod of his head. This was the second kiss, he realized, and it was just as fake as the previous one.

Feeling like he was going to be sick, he rudely ignored Annabeth and moved as fast as he could to the hordes of guests waiting to congratulate him. When his dad congratulated him and then jokingly (A first for his father) added "I bet you're glad that I didn't let the boy go back.", Nico had no idea what to say. He was almost glad when Aphrodite rescued him to offer her own congratulations. Her parting sentence bewildered him though, "The love's more real than you think."

3. Passionate kiss
Annabeth was angry at him. Nico knew that much although he didn't know why. Whenever he asked, she just glared at him until he dropped the subject. He wondered whether it had anything to do with Bianca. She looked exactly like Annabeth except for the shock of dark hair which could she could plausibly have inherited from her fake father and Nico had never been so thankful. As long as none of Percy's powers vested in her, she was safe from accusations about her 'parentage'. Sometimes Nico forgot she wasn't biologically hers and then felt guilty for not even feeling guilty about it. He tried justifying it to himself; Percy would want his daughter to be loved.

One blissful day when his 'daughter' decided to actually sleep, Annabeth curled up on the couch next to him. Nico let his worried gaze drift over her as she sketched a blueprint for a new library for Camp Jupiter. Her face was clear of any makeup and exhaustion shone on her face; he had never seen her skin so pale either. Her hair had been cut short for convenience and was pulled back in a ratty ponytail. Worst of all though was the grey circles around her eyes that matched her eyes perfectly. It was disturbing to see one of the most put together figures of his childhood looking so haggard. Percy would kill him if he ever learnt how horrible a job he was doing of looking after Annabeth. That would be after he killed him for taking his place of course. The ragged fingernails of her left hand tapped a steady rhythm against her lips which were pressed together in a thin line. They thinned even more as she erased a column that she had dubbed unnecessary.

"Go get some sleep", he suggested as he remembered the trash can filled with empty Starbucks cups. Even though he did his fair share of Bianca duty, Annabeth was almost always tired these days. Her designs never seemed perfect to her and she never even got any time to practice. Like every other time he made that suggestion, she ignored him. He blew his cheeks out and let the air escape. She was so stubborn! He probably had a death wish or something if he was even considering interrupting her while she was doing her architecture work but he couldn't stand her growing waner and paler everyday. Ignoring his self-preservation instincts, he slowly slid a hand on top of the paper. She huffed in frustration before turning and glaring at him with murderous intent flashing in her eyes. "What do you want Nico?", she snarled. "You need to get some sleep.", he began with his most reasonable and gentle tone. "Percy would want you to take care of yourself.", he added hoping to guilt trip her into going to sleep.

She let out a sharp gasp and her eyes started to water slightly. Nico wondered if his guilt trip had backfired. "You're doing all this for Percy aren't you?", she accused." All what?", he asked genuinely confused. "The marriage, taking care of Bianca.",she clarified. Somehow, Nico knew that the correct answer to this was definitely not 'of course' even though it was mostly true. "I love Bianca" he protested finally and somewhat lamely. The first tear leaked from Annabeth's eye. "I thought maybe you cared about me too." she whispered, sounding heartbroken. Suddenly it all became clear to Nico. Annabeth had thought he was in love with her after the first kiss, that's why she okayed the marriage too. "I do love you Annabeth. But you're my friend. Sorry.", he truly meant it but that word seemed so inadequate. So he repeated "Sorry,sorry,sorry."

Saying it more seemed only to decrease its value so he stopped. She deserved an explanation. Although it went over every fibre of his being, he opened his mouth to say the three words he had never allowed himself to say out loud ever since he had been forced to tell Cupid several years ago. He hesitated, knowing that saying it would make it all the more real. And he didn't want to see the disgust in Annabeth's eyes when she understood. But she deserved to know; he had dragged her into this and now, it was least he could do. Kicking himself one more time for ever kissing her he whispered, "I loved Percy. He had fixed his eyes on Annabeth, desperately wanting her to truly understand him before she felt the disgust. The disgust never came. Instead loss, regret and gut wrenching sorrow flitted across her stormy grey eyes before she reached up to tangle her fingers in his hair. This time she wrenched him towards her and shoved her lips against his. He reiterated. It lasted longer than the previous fleeting kisses he had bestowed upon her. It went on for minutes until both of them were gasping for air but still unwilling to let go; because letting go would mean saying goodbye and neither of them wanted to say that.

When it ended they still clung to each other but it was more for companionship than it was because of passion. Nico looked into her eyes and saw that he had guessed the truth the first time-she would always be in love with Percy. Strangely enough, he felt no resentment anymore. Aphrodite's words hadn't been referring to Annabeth's confused feelings for Nico at all. They were about Percy (Wasn't everything?). Maybe that's why it didn't sound so cheesy when he finally said it aloud, "We can miss him together."

And that brings it to an end. Let me know if you liked it or didn't and let me know why. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it.