Thalia's POV:
I walked up Half-Blood Hill and smiled at my tree, Thalia's Pine Tree. The hunters and I were staying at Camp Half-Blood while Artemis was doing some important godly stuff on Mount Olympus. We started walking down the hill and I could see all of the cabins. I remember Annabeth going on and on about the architecture of the Athena cabin and how amazing it was.
She use to piss me off when she did that but thinking about it now just makes me want to see her and give her a huge hug. I hadn't talked face to face with Annabeth in a couple of months, even through an Iris message. I've been way to busy with the hunters that I've almost forgot about all of my friends back here at Camp Half-Blood.
"I'll be back later." That's all I said before I started running towards the Artemis cabin. Once I got there I opened the door, threw my stuff across the floor, and started running like an idiot to the beach. Annabeth and Percy were always at the beach.
I keep running, knocking down a couple of Aphrodite girls who got in my way. I finally got to the beach and saw my two best friends. Percy and Annabeth. They were laughing and smiling. Perfect time for me to jump in and ruin a moment.
"You guys," I screamed.
I walked over there as all heads turned to me. When Annabeth saw me she ran to me and nearly knocked me down with a bear hug. She gave me such a tight hug that it knocked the wind out of me.
"Oh my gods Thalia why didn't you tell me you were coming? How have you been? How's the hunt going? How long are you going to stay? Are you go-," that's all she was able to say when Percy put his hand over her mouth.
"Oh sorry. So Thalia how long are you going to be here, I really need my best friend around," said Annabeth.
"About a week or so," I said. "Artemis is doing some really important godly stuff on Mount Olympus so the hunters and I are going to be staying here for a while."
Annabeth smiled at me and Percy gave me a hug. It was a total friend thing, nothing more than that. I looked back at Annabeth and saw someone walking right by us. I remembered that pale face. It was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. I remember him a couple years back as a little kid, short, skinny and really pale. His sister was a hunter but it didn't turn out so great for her...
I waved at Nico but he totally ignored me. What he hell was with that guy? I caught one more look at him. He had grown a couple of inches since we met, his hair was almost as messy as Percy's hair (like I said almost, no one can beat that Seaweed Brain and his mop hair), and he grew some mustle, from all of the monster killing and battle training.
After about two hours of talking with Annabeth and Percy I started walking around camp. Millions and millions of memories started to flow back to me. I started walking to the Zeus cabin until I spotted a certain son of Hades. Time to see why he totally ignored me today.
I walked up to him and tapped his shoulder. He turned around and looked at me. He was about to walk away until I grabbed him by his elbow.
"What do you want?" He sounded mean and harsh. What the hell was the guy's problem? What the hell did I ever do to Nico di Angelo to make him hate me this freaking much?
"What did I ever do to you? Why don't you like me?" I looked him directly in the eye and saw something that I didn't expect to see from a son of Hades. Tears. Small tears were forming in his eyes, I could tell that he was using all of his power to not cry.
"I've never told anyone this so you better keep your mouth shut or I will personaly send you to Hades," said Nico. "Because of the hunter's Bianca is dead. It's all their fault, she was new and they let her go. Who the hell does that?"
Right now I started feeling bad for Nico. Then he did something that even surprised me. He let several small tears fall down to his face. He wiped them off as fast as he could. His eyes were red from crying. In all of my years I have never seen a son of Hades cry, heck I've never seen another son of Hades besides Nico. I knew I had to make him feel a little better, I was the one that brought it up.
"It's okay," I said.
"Not it's not." With that he took off to the Hades cabin, me following his tracks. I folllowed him all the way to the Hades cabin. He sprung the door open, me following behind him. He sat down on his bed and I closed the door behind me.
I sat next to Nico as small tears escaped from his eyes. This wasn't like him, I've never seen him cry before. Bianca was a really touchy topic for him. I know how he feels. Luke was like my brother and I lost him. We're more alike than he knows.
"You should leave," said Nico. "You don't know what it's like to lose someone."
His voice was like a whisper, a sad and depressed whisper. More and more tears were escaping from his eyes. His face was turning a light shade of red, the same light shade of red that his eyes were.
"Yes I do," I said. Nico looked at me, giving me all of his attention. "I lost Luke because of stupid Kronos. Sure we weren't family but he treated Annabeth and I like we were family. We were best friends, I gave up my life for him, I became a tree and I become human again several years later to find out that Annabeth had grown up and that Luke had betrayed us."
I felt small tears fall from my eyes. Those small tears turned into sobs. Those sobs turned out to non-stop crying. Crying wasn't like me but when it comes to Luke all of my rules change. I thought that he cared about Annabeth and I, but I was wrong. I keep on crying and then I noticed that Nico was still in the room.
Then he did something that even surprised me, he hugged me. His arms wrapped around me and I hugged him back. I started crying into shoulder. He started hugging me even tighter as I cried harder. His arms were so strong. They made me feel safe and protected.
After about fifteen minutes of crying I finally stopped. I wiped my eyes, trying to make all of the tears go away. I looked up at Nico and noticed a small smirk on his face. I was just crying on his shoulder, what could be so freaking funny?
"What's so funny Death Breath?" For a girl that had just cried her eyes out for fifteen minutes straight I still sounded really tough and threating. Nico got up, got a small white rag and then threw it at me.
"Nico what in the world is this white rag for?" He grabbed my hand, which really surprised me, and took me to the mirror. Oh. My. Freaking. Gods. My eye shadow was all over my face and I looked like some emo clown! I put the rag to my face and cleaned my face until I looked like my normal everyday Thalia self.
Nico took the rag from my hand and went into the bathroom, throwing away the rag. His hands felt so cold and rough. Colder than death, well his father is Hades so that would make sense.
I sat back down on Nico's bed and waited for him to come back. He walked out of the bathroom and sat down next to me. If I didn't know any better I would say that he looked kind of cute with his hair in his face. With his adorable smile and his strong arms with his rough hands... Snap out of it Thalia! You're a hunter not some daughter of Aphrodite so get a hold of yourself! I zapped myself back to reality and looked up at Nico.
"Thalia are you okay? You know you can tell me anything, you can trust me," said Nico.
His words struck a nerve. Those were the exact same words Luke had told me several years back, he said that I could tell him anything, that I could trust him with anything. Whatever, people change and promises can be broken.
"To be honest, I don't remember the last time I really felt happy. Just look at me, I use to be several years older than Annabeth and Percy, and now they're three years older than me. When I first met you you were just a kid and now we're both fifteen. Time passes by fast when you're a hunter, it's like you're trapped in a different world as the real world moves on without you, I've always hated that feeling. It's been a while since I really felt like I had a home."
"I know how you feel," said Nico. "I'm a kid from the 1940's and I'm here in the years of 2000 (not the year 2000 but you guys know what I mean). Time passed by so fast, the world moved on without me too. I've been trapped for so long and I finally escaped, have you?"
His words made me think really hard. Nico became part of this time period, not the time period of the 1940's. He stepped back into time. Can I step back into time too? If I did I would be happy and with all of my friends. To step back into time I would have to do something that would hurt me, I would have to leave the hunters.
I looked up at Nico. "Nico, should I leave the hunt?" His two dark eyes looked down the floor. Nico looked like he was deep in thought. After a few minutes he finally took his eyes of the floor and looked up at me.
"If I were you I would do what would make you more happy. If you leave the hunt you can be here with your friends, but if you stay in the hunt you can watch time move on without you and watch your friends grow up while you stay fifteen forever. If I were you I would quit the hunt."
I smiled at him and did something that still surprises me, I kissed him on the cheek. My lips felt warm against his cold skin. Once I pulled away I saw a light pink blush spread across his face. I saw a smile spread across his pale face.
"What was that for Pinecone Face?"
"For the good advice, thanks for helping me pick what path I want to cross," I said.
I kissed him once more one the cheek than I walked out of his cabin. I felt a light pink blush spread across my face. Why the hell was I freaking acting like this? I never acted like this, ever. I never had this feeling before. What did it mean?
I keep walking until I reached the Artemis cabin. I opened the door and stepped inside. I saw all the hunters getting ready to head out to dinner. Suddenly something clicked in my head. I was forming a crush for Nico di Angelo.
I talked to a few of the hunters, trying to look as normal as possible. I didn't want them to know how I felt about Nico, well not yet, I still needed to know how I really felt about Nico first. I talked with Kristin and Mary for a while then walked up to the full sized mirror at the back of the room. I looked at myself and promised that I would NOT fall for Nico di Angelo.
Together, all of the hunters and I walked out to dinner. I tried to look like my tough and confident self but that's really hard to do when you're a daughter of Zeus and you start having really strange mixed feelings for a certain son of Hades. This was one battle that I wasn't going to let Aphrodite win. I never go down without putting up a fight first.
The hunters and I sat down at the Artemis table. I got up from the table and grabbed some food and threw the two reddest strawberries in for Zeus and Artemis and I even put something in for Aphrodite. I prayed to Aphrodite to not let me fall in love. Maybe she would help or just make things work, I didn't care. I walked back to the Artemis cabin with my food and sat down.
I couldn't help but look at the Hades table from time to time. Nico had his hair covering his face which made him look really hot and dangerous, which he was. Just looking at him made my knees weak. I felt my face turn red when I saw him look up and give me a small smirk.
I looked down at my food and blushed. I was praying to the gods that no one saw that or noticed that. Was I falling for Nico di Angelo? Yes, I was falling for him. Was I going to be with him? To early to tell.
Yayyyy end of the first chapter! I hope you guys liked it so far, please send me a review! If you want something in future chapters say it in a review but please don't IM me, I never look at those. Thanks for reading I'll try to update later today! ;)