Hazel stared at the two boys across the archery range, dumbfounded. Her brother and Will Solace were sitting next to each other on a bench, looking about as different as two people could be. Will was tan and had blond hair and blue eyes. He wore an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, and khaki shorts. Nico, on the other hand, was pale with dark eyes and hair, and wore his usual ensemble of black jeans and an old aviators jacket.
But that wasn't the weird thing. What was strange was that they were both laughing.
Hazel saw Percy walk up next to her looking about as surprised as she felt.
"Is Nico actually laughing?" he asked her, looking bewildered. Hazel looked over at him. Underneath the mask of surprise on his face, he looked excited.
"I think so," she said carefully. "But I have never seen him actually laugh like that before." They looked back at Nico and Will, who were still talking and laughing, unaware of Hazel and Percy talking about them.
"I haven't seen him laugh in years," Percy said. "Not since he was ten."
Hazel knew enough about Nico's past to know what that implied. Annabeth had told her Nico had first come to camp when he was ten. Bianca died right after they came to camp. So that was five years. He hadn't laughed and had barely smiled for five whole years. And now he was doing it like it was the easiest thing in the world.
Hazel was pulled from her thoughts when Percy started laughing.
"What?" she asked blankly. She didn't get what was so funny. Nico being happy was great, but Percy looked like he was about to suffocate from laughing so hard. "What?" she demanded again when he didn't answer.
"They totally like each other," Percy said, looking at her as though she was missing the obvious. She looked back at the two teens on the bench. They were sitting pretty close…. And Nico laughing for the first time in half a decade had to mean something. She felt a grin spread across her face.
"We've got to tell the others," Percy said eagerly.
"Whoa. Wait. Shouldn't we give them their privacy?" Hazel rocked nervously on the balls of her feet. "You know. Wait for them to tell everyone themselves?"
"Hazel. It's Nico. You know him." He looked at her imploringly.
He had a point there. It had taken Nico four and a half years to admit his feelings to Percy, and that was after he was over it. He would need a little push. She took a deep breath. She was going to regret this.
"Fine," she said. Percy beamed. "But make sure no one else finds out. We'll meet in my cabin."
As he scurried off to find everyone else, she looked back at the bench.
They were gone.