Authors notes: Hey guys! So this one is a little bit shorter because I really wanted to get it out. Mostly because I get to have smut things in the next chapter.

MMMMMMMmmmm smut things.

I mean whut.

But thank you to all of you who put me on their favs, alerts, and reviewed this story! Because of the sudden overwhelming response, I have decided to make this a longer fic than I originally wanted too. With my plot twisties. And lots of angsties. And tension.

So much sexual tension. E UE~3! I NOTICED A TYPO IN THE FIRST CHAPTER. Hnng. Typos. If I miss something, blame… Connor. That's it. Thanks for reading, and share with your friends Because.. who doesn't like Percico?

Love, Papa.

Waking up in the morning sucked on any other day, but for some reason, Nico knew he would be up all night tossing and turning. At first it was because his mind wouldn't shut up. Then, at about eleven pm, Connor started texting him again. Except Nico had been too pissed and overall frustrated with this to even turn and look at it. So the instant he saw the 'C' in Connor he turned his phone off and threw it beneath his bedside night stand, grumbling colorful words of not encouragement. He rolled over in his thick, warm blankets, trying to wrap himself in as much as he could. The more secure and hidden he was from the world, the better. Because now not only did he have his name being slandered by a misinterpretation, but there was something else floating in the back of his mind now. And, by about three o'clock in the morning of just tossing, turning, and trying to re-wrangle himself into the covers, Nico let out a huff of breath and decided he didn't even like the new guy.

And that he thoroughly hated the Stoll brothers. And maybe the rest of the world, too. Because for all he could care, they could just go roll into a Kama sutra mat filled with tiny little cactus needles. And roll around. And then proceed to get poked until they die. Because… Nico Di Angelo was not weird in any other way than he already was. No, that would ruin his life. That would be like the entire world just threw him a curve ball that threw a big ol' fuck you right into his face. Cept the ball turned out to be a wrench. Nico reached out, mostly because he was just infuriated, and knocked his stupid alarm clock right off his desk. The pale, twitching red glow of those digital numbers was nothing but a reminder of how many hours he had left until he had to get up. Which was perfectly not alright. He let his arm flop down to the side of his bed, and let his head hang off the side. He took a huge breath, glancing up in the near pitch black room that he was in before his mind finally started to calm. Yeah. He would tell the new guy that he did it on purpose. He wouldn't even tell him the truth- he'd just simply state that he didn't want to see him around. Or talk to him. Or have him near Nico, ever again. He would lie about what actually happened- because at this point, the idea of lying and keeping him away from Nico was far better than trying to tell the truth and make amends.

Because avoiding your problems is so much easier than NOT avoiding your problems, right? Nico finally found himself at ease, and gently started to drift into slumber, with the thoughts of cactusy death floating pleasantly around in his head.

Screech. Screech. Screech.

"Guah!" Nico yowled as he fell from his bed, apparently having forgotten that he'd fallen asleep half on and half hanging off. A huge thump echoed throughout the house- followed by a sickening crunch and an even more discomforting crack. Nico opened his eyes instantly, flailing his arms about to try and untangle himself from his mess of covers in order to figure out what the fuck just broke. That is, until he stopped cold turkey, and realized that his alarm had stopped beeping. Nico took in a deep breath and held it for a second, slowly peeling himself up from the covers and then lightly flipping them up to look at the pile beneath him.

His alarm clock was totalled. Hell, if Nico hadn't been wrapped up so tightly in his blankets, he probably would have a broken bone or something from how hard he'd startled himself and rolled from the bed. He forced his eyes shut and groaned loudly, tossing his sheets back up onto the floor, before he stood up and outright kicked them. The cold of not having a shirt, or proper pants, hit him suddenly and he crossed his arms over his chest to pout. If his alarm had gone off, that meant it was about seven o'clock in the morning. He'd fallen asleep around three thirty. So that was about three and a half hours of sleep. Nico yawned and turned to walk away, viciously kicking at his mess of tangled blankets and metallic clock parts before he did.

"Are you okay?" A soft, mumbling voice called from his door, and Nico finally noticed the little crack in his doorway with Hazel poking her tired face inside. One hand was clutched around a stuffed lion that Frank kid had given her; the other was gently rubbing at an eye. Nico took in another deep breath and forced himself to relax, though his shoulder slumped and he kicked the pile of blankets on the floor one more time, exposing the one broken half of his clock. Hazel paled and stopped her movement, her mouth going wide down at the decimated device below him.

"Oh." She squeaked, and Nico brought his hands to rub at his face, before he walked over to his dresser and grabbed a towel.

"Yeah." He said, not really needing to explain anything farther than that. Hazel scrunched up her face in horror when she realized why this was a seriously bad thing.

"That's your only alarm clock." She stated, opening the door a bit further to creep in.

"Yup." Nico didn't want to say it out loud, which meant that Hazel would be saying it for him.

". . . Mum's not back till next week." Her voice was smaller this time, though it was mostly quiet with dread and thought. Nico knew her mind would be racing to find him another solution- but since he'd accidentally dropped his phone into the tub last week, his speakers had blown. Which was why it was only on vibrate. Which was why this was such a huge problem. Especially since Hazel was younger than he was, and she had a different schedule for school. He always had to be up before she did- and they both knew that was impossible to do without something to wake him up first. Still, he didn't want Hazel to worry about it too much- she had things he had to do. She couldn't be focused on Nico's problems right now. So he shook his head and flashed her a small, tired grin. It was only a tiny upright tug of his lips, but it was all he could do to reassure her.

"I'll figure it out. You go back to bed."

Hazel seemed unsure at first, clutching her stuffed lion to her chest and examining Nico with a softened expression.

"But..." She started, but Nico was already by the door, shooing her out.

"You're still holding Mars. Go to bed, okay?" Hazel looked down at Mars the Lion and nodded gently, but then sent him a look before she tootled off.

"You let me know the instant you get home today! I mean it!" She half yelled at him, and he waved her off and nodded a bit, making his way to the shower.

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. It's fine." He spoke false words of encouragement, but he knew the truth.

He was royally fucked.

Seriously. Nico had not been in the mood for the bus this morning. Or… life, really. He wasn't in the mood for life. It could just hold the fuck up for ten minutes while he caught his breath, and then maybe he could find some sort of magical device to help fix his problems for him. And hell, in a perfect world, he would have just been able to take one step and be at the school already. But unfortunately he was stuck in the corner, sandwiched between a bunch of high schoolers yelling about what sort of drugs they wanted to do today. Because that was apparently something the kids around here did now. Loud, illegal conversations. At least it wasn't as bad as the time he SERIOUSLY had to try and talk to a kid when he was convinced he could drink upside down.

And the answer is no. Nico will NEVER let that one go. Ever.

Still, at least he made it to school unnoticed, because he was pretty damn good at that. Today he'd worn a different set of dark grey, once again torn, jeans. That and he wore his black shirt with little menacing skulls floating around in random places beneath his leather jacket. He sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket, not daring to turn it on. Still, he had to figure out what he was going to do for the next week- it wasn't like he had very many options, here. Nico grumbled to himself as he stomped up the stairs, avoiding a few curious glances towards him. Normally he'd go unnoticed when he entered the school- but unfortunately word must have gotten around about the whole thing stupidly fast. No thanks to Connor and Travis, probably. Still, for a simple new guy, people were certainly looking at him. And it was making Nico extremely uncomfortable. He hiked his bag up a bit further onto his shoulders and hunched himself in, shoving his spare hand into his jacket pocket and storming up the stairs. He had little to no sleep last night, and he wasn't going to play this game this morning.

Or at least, that's what he had thought, up until a hand darted out and grabbed his arm, dragging him off to the side before he could go through the doors.

"Dood!" Travis hissed, his eyes filled with urgency. "Why haven't you texted us back?" He demanded, and suddenly Nico flared with rage. He twisted his arm around and pulled it out from Travis' grip, and Connor flew out from behind him, barring Nico's path. Nico's eyes widened in annoyance, and he paused.

"Three seconds before I beat the shit out of you." Nico hissed- the violence in his own voice even made him slightly concerned. Connor's eyes widened and he bounced around on the balls of his feet, his red tuft of hair bobbing lightly in the wind.

"We fixed it! Honest!" Connor called, and Travis began to nod furiously. Nico felt himself freeze, and he slowly turned to look back at Travis. They fixed it? The STOLL brothers FIXED something? Oh gods, no.

"Don't worry about it, dood! You know how that whole thing with the new guy happened yesterday, and you were all, hulk smash and junk?" Connor said from behind him.

"That was a waste of chicken." Travis had probably been thinking about that all night, and Connor reached over past Nico's shoulder to give Travis a generous smack. Travis looked genuinely offended and shot Connor a look of indignation.

"Well, anyways- we did some digging, cause we're really good at that. And we found out some really important stuff about that guy-" Connor started, before being interrupted by Travis yet again.

" Jackson."

" Percy, wasn't it? I dunno. Anyways. We tracked him down. Apparently he's this new transfer student or something." Connor murmured, going back to bouncing on the back of his heels.

"A senior." Quipped Travis, a sparkle of amusement flashing through his eyes.

"Right!" Connor agreed, sending Travis a look as if he'd finally just realized how smart the other was. Nico wanted to punch the both of them, but the feeling of dread slowly crawling up from the pit of his stomach prevented him from even being able to move.

"What did you do?" Nico's voice was filled with accusation. Connor looked a little unsure of himself, before he glanced over and saw Travis shrug stupidly.

"Duh! We fixed it!"

"Yeah, we talked to him!" The feeling in Nico's stomach came to a boiling point, and everything else inside him seemed to drop all at once. His eyes widened with alarm, and he found himself floundering for a second, and his heart threatened to pound out his throat.

"You didn't." It was a horrified whisper, so much so that Travis shot Connor a look of utter confusion.

"Er, we did though, didn't we?" Travis reached over this time to smack Connor, because the waver in his voice seriously meant that he was confused as to whether or not they actually did.

"Well, yeah, we did! And we totally cleared EVERYTHING up! All of it!" They both nodded in triumph, but then Connor turned to play with his hands a bit.

"Left out a few minor details, though." His voice suddenly turned guilty, and Travis shifted a bit where he stood.

"Mighta switched em out for some OTHER, er, you know. Minor details." Nico had heard enough. He clenched his fist and widened his stance, barely giving the shrieking brothers a second to think before he plowed his fist towards them. It was a good thing Connor had seen it coming, because he grabbed onto Travis' arm and yanked him out of the way before Nico's fist could connect him squarely in the jaw. The both of them cawed like offended birds and ducked into the school, leaving Nico to stand alone behind the pillar that Travis had been using to hide with. He allowed himself to stay there for a minute to catch his breath and gather his thoughts. Okay, so, talking to.. Jackson, was it? Was totally out of the picture. Full on avoidance of all and any sorts of problems was now of the highest priority. So he took in a deep breath, put on a face, and stomped into the school.

Nico wasn't going to wait for.. Percy? To show up. He wasn't going to talk to him ever again, actually. However, the second he thought he might be half decently okay when it came to avoiding just regular people, it turns out he was desperately wrong. For some reason, he was having a hell of a time turning invisible today. Because people were turning to look at him and whisper, now. Which was something that Nico had always been paranoid about. He hated being stared at, but being whispered about was far worse. He grit his teeth and trudged through the crowd, trying not to think about the possibilities of what the Stoll Shits might have said. And what could be going around. Nico shook the thought from his head and smushed himself up against his locker, this time facing the crowd as they walked away, though his head was tilted downwards to stare a hole into his shoes. He would wait for the wall huggers to disperse, then he'd grab his shit, then he'd run to PE, which he would then get accounted for attending, and then ditch to the roof. Best plan ever. That is, until the crowd had actually dispersed, and the first thing that Nico heard was a little cough from above him.

Nico made the mistake of looking up, and was immediately swept away into a sea of blue pools.

"Uh." Nico sputtered, feeling small all over again as he looked into those slightly awkward eyes. The owner of those eyes shot a small, half crooked and unsure grin down at Nico, and Nico felt his heart threatening to stop. Percy lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck, and shuffled a foot, before he looked down at his own. Nico would have followed his gaze, but was too captivated by the senior in front of him to do anything at the moment. So all he could really do was take in a deep breath and try to make his mouth work with him again.

"Hey, uh- Nico, right?" Nico remained silent, but nodded slightly, trying to force a scowl onto his features. He was sure he managed to make one, though how sincere it actually appeared to be might have been thrown into question.

"So I talked to- er, Travis? Or... was it Connor? I don't know. One of them, I think. And they told me about everything. And I just wanted to say I'm sorry about all the trouble I caused." Percy finally admitted, half leaning forwards onto the tips of his toes before letting himself fall back.

"What?" Nice finally managed to get out. Okay, now he was confused. And pissed. And tired. And done with all of this. "What the hell did they tell you?" Nico demanded now, throwing his hand up and blocking Percy from view with it. He rubbed his temple out of exhaustion, annoyance and stress, and silently hoped Percy couldn't hear his heart hammering in his chest. Suddenly Percy got extremely awkward, and he made a sort of 'harrumpf' sound before he tapped his fist into the palm of his hand, trying to figure out how to word it.

"Well?" Nico demanded, more forcefully, this time Percy's eyes widened and he almost winced a bit. And the same feeling that Nico got when he'd seen Percy's face yesterday after he'd grabbed onto his arm coursed through him yet again. Nico just wanted this conversation to be over. He was dying on the inside.

Suddenly a small sound chimed from Percy's wrist, and it made him jump a little before he looked down, in a slight panic. Nico wanted to scream at the heavens.

"Look, gym is about to start." Of course this muscle headed, gorgeous- wait. What was Nico starting to think-

"I kinda can't be late for that class. I'm really sorry. We can talk more at lunch, alright? I actually know a couple of people here, believe it or not. I've gone to camp with some of them." Percy paused, as if realizing he'd started to ramble, and then waved the thought off.

"The back table at lunch. You should come sit with us- I think it'd be good for you, alright? But it's the back one on the left!" Percy yelled, because at about halfway through that conversation he had started to back up in the direction of the gym. Nico found himself shocked, yet again, and his mouth was hanging open slightly. Not only did Nico now have a bigger problem on his hands than he had originally thought, but something else had surface and reared its ugly head right up. Something that he should have seen coming. Considering it WAS a mixed levels class. But now, it was the most horrifying realization he'd had all day.

Nico Di Angelo had gym class with Percy Jackson.