So, this one got longer, lol. I've been getting a ton of ideas from my friends here in town, and the ideas will come into play later. Right now, it's just fluff and bonding. The real drama is yet to come.

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Nico's POV

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I missed Percy already, and it was only a couple hours after he left. I tumbled off my balcony more times than I could count, but now that I had someone to do it with, it wasn't as fun. So I climbed the watch tower and stared off into the distance. I saw the expansive forest, Grandor Village, and, far in the distance, the glittering blue of the ocean. I sighed. I would never get to experience those things up close. And the view was making me sad. So I got down from the watch tower, picked up my ball, and threw it, as hard as I could, against the castle wall. I bounced it for awhile, then just sat against the wall and closed my eyes.

"Are you going to tell father?" I opened my eyes to find Hazel hovering over me. Jason was standing a few feet behind her, looking bored as usual. Why she invited him over this late in the afternoon, I had no idea. Maybe he was going to have dinner with us and stay to chit chat. I sighed heavily and shook my head.

"Soon," I said to her "I just...have to wait for the right time." That was a lie of course. Father would always sit down and talk to us if we needed it. I gazed over her shoulder and noticed the guards stopping someone at the gate. "Patrick, Mitchell, let whoever it is through!" I called. Percy stumbled in, glared at the guards, and strutted over to me. He sat down beside me, and it seemed the whole world got a little brighter. He smiled at me. "Hello Percy," I said, resting my head on top of his head. "What are you doing back?" I asked him.

"How long till dinner?" he replied instead. "Three hours? Good. Come with me." He got up, hefted me to my feet, and led the way inside the castle. I studied him with new interest. I wondered what he had planned. Something more exciting than sitting around my room, I hoped. "Your father?" he asked. I motioned to the throne room, and he dragged me there. "King Hades," he said. My father looked up from his paperwork.

"Percy," he said, his tone suggesting he was anything but happy to see my new friend. My insides boiled. Why couldn't he just accept my new friends? "What are you doing here? I'm very busy."

"I was wondering if Nico could come down to Grandor Village with me," he said. "After all, Nico's grown up here. He needs to see his people first hand if he's going to be king in less than a week." Father seemed to consider what Percy said. "My mother and father let me explore Nanuk," he added. "When I become king, I have a good idea of what my people want."

"If it will get you boys out of my hair so I can finish this paperwork, then by all means, go on," father said, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "But be back for dinner, both of you. Percy, since Nanuk is pretty far away, you should just stay in the castle overnight." My heart began doing summersaults in my chest. Percy was going to be staying at our castle for the night? Now father really was trying to tempt me. But Percy was grinning and tugging on the sleeve of my tunic. So I didn't have much time to think about it. Percy and I were going to explore the village!

"Thank you for convincing him to let me go," I said to him as we walked the path to the Grandor Village. I gaed around in wonder at the trees and underbrush. Forest animals scampered onto the path from time to time, regarding Percy and myself. Percy seemed at ease in the forest, with all its strange sights and sounds. Then again, he'd grown up being able to roam. "How often do you do this kind of thing?" I asked.

"All the time," he said, a small smile of his own beginning to form. "There's something freeing about being able to come and go as you please." The village suddenly loomed in front of us, as if someone had hacked away at the forest and built a village. It was small as far as villages went, but it was cloest to the castle, and it was a quaint little village. I saw children running through the paved streets, chasing each other and other children on bikes. I saw mothers and fathers walking down the streets, holding hands with children and laughing at each other. I heard the faint honks of cars and the ringing bells of bicycles. I smelled freshly baked bread and the sweet aroma of flowers.

"This is amazing," I said, gazing around at the white-washed houses. Percy grinned and pulled me into a park. We sat down on a bench and watched the children play. Percy smoothed the wrinkles of his suit down and put his head on my shoulder. We watched the children of the park swing and slide and scream at each other in gleeful excitement. I noticed a few wore something that looked like rags for clothing.

"Why are those children clothed so?" I asked Percy, looking down at him. He bit his lower lip and watched them in silence for awhile.

"They must be poor," he said. "Every village has poor families. I'm assuming those are some of the children." I watched them with growing sadness. No family should be poor under my father's watchful eye. We had more than enough riches. Surely we could fund to help them? That's when I noticed an older woman coming into the park, carrying a basket of muffins and pastries. The poor children flocked her, each reaching out little hands. She smiled and handed out muffins and pastires to them, making idle chit chat with some of the parents as the wandered over to see their kids. A nice lady with a little boy came over to her, and the boy crawled onto her lap. She gave him a big smile and two muffins, and he looked like he just won all the riches in the kingdom. I noticed Percy was smiling at them. "It's good that you have people like that in your kingdom," he said to me, looking up at me.

"I wish we had more people like her," I said, watching her rise, picking up the now empty basket. She'd handed out all of the muffins and pastries already. "When I'm king, I'm going to do something about this," I said. Percy sighed a little wistfully.

"That would be nice," he said. "That way people like her don't have to do that constantly. We have a couple of people that do that in Nanuk too," he added, looking up at me. "Sad, isn't it?" he said with another sigh. "I wish there was something we could do." I had a flash of genius then. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.

"You little genius prince," I said. "Come to the castle with me. I have an idea."

...

Two hours later, and we had a large stack of clothes in the park. It was some of father's old things, Hazel's old things, and my old things. Some of the less finer things, as to not give away my identity yet. No one had recognized me so far, and I planned to keep it that way. Another half hour, and we had no clothes left. Everyone was grateful for the new clothes, and since we had so many sizes, we could cater to everyone. The lady I saw with the little boy, who informed me his name was Leo, got enough new clothes to keep the little guy clothed for a week. Leo looked so happy, his heart looked ready to burst.

"Woo!" I said, collapsing back on the bench. Percy curled up on my lap and smiled up at me. "We did a good thing today Percy," I said. "Look at how happy everyone is." I gazed around as everyone loaded their new clothes up to take home with them. The lady who gave out the muffins was smiling at us both, though her smile was a little troubled. It looked like she might recognize me. I wasn't necessarily good at blending in. "Let's go back to the castle and get cleaned up," I said. I picked him up and carried him out of the village. He giggled and gently pummled my chest as we left, and when we got to the forst, I set hm down. But I took his hand in mine, and he gave me a shy smile. We walked hand in hand until we reached the castle. At that point, I let it go. But I was feeling a little deflated about it. I liked the feeling of his hand in mine. "You can use the guest washroom," I said, motioning down the hall. He went that way, closing the door behind him. I went to my own private bath.

"Nico?" father called, knocking on the door as I stepped out of my shower. I dried my hair with a towel and slipped on some comfortable clothing. I stepped out of my bath and shut the door softly behind me. "Did you have a good day?" father asked.

"It was amazing," I said. "The forest is so pretty. And Grandor Village is bustling with people. Percy really knows his way around. He directed us to this little park where we got to watch children play." Father frowned at me.

"Don't be growing too attached to your new friend," he said to me. I glared at him. "Now Nico, you know you need to be looking for a bride. Having a new friend is wonderful, but tomorrow, I want you to say goodbye to Percy and look for some females in the surrounding kingdoms." My insides began to boil again.

"How about Percy helps me with that," I said through gritted teeth. "It's not necessarily uncommon for princes to look for princess to court together. Double dating is safer than single dating anyway." Father seemed to consider that.

"Alright," he said at last. "One week. That is how long he is able to stay. After that, he must go home so we can begin getting you and your bride ready to take over." I swallowed down my rage just as Percy let himself into my room, a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Hey Nico, may I?" He stopped abruptly when he saw my father "Oh, uh, hello, King Hades," he said, bowing. His towel slipped off, and father and I both turned tomato red. I glanced away as Percy struggled to retie the towel around his waist. "I am so sorry," he apologized. Father shook his head and cleared his throat.

"You..." he began, but then he seemed to think better of it. "Nico, clothe the boy," he said, jerking a thumb at Percy. "Dinner is in ten minutes." He whisked away, and Percy sank down on my bed, shaking his head. I tossed him some bed clothes, and he accepted them gratefully. He disappeared behind my curtain to change. I sat down on my bed to wait for him.

"I am very sorry about that," he said, coming over to me. My clothes hung off him, and he kept having to pull the pants up, but he looked happy. Or, happier. "I did not expect your father to be in here with you."

"That makes two of us," I replied, chuckling softly. "By the way, you are supposed to help me find a bride." Percy glanced away, and I swore I could see tears forming in his eyes. "Hey," I said, gently turning his head so he was looking at me again. "I hope you know that I don't actually want to marry a girl."

"Oh?" he asked. "Oh, right. Well, who do you want to marry?"

"You," I replied, simple and quick. And it was the truth. I'd never really acknowledged it before, but I actually wanted to marrry the prince I'd only known a few days. Percy blushed. I took his hand in mine and rubbed the back of his hand gently. He smiled timidly at me. "I want to marry you," I whispered in his ear. "I want it more than I've wanted anything. I wish so bad there was a way to make it work."

"If you want to get married, why not have a secret wedding," he whispered back. "No one has to know other than us and the priest." I thought about it for awhile. And the more I thought about it, the more appealing it seemed.

"But what about my real wedding?" I asked. I began tracing patterns on Percy's arms. "I don't want a secret wedding. I want a real wedding, where we invite everyone from the surrounding kingdoms to come. I don't want to hide you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. Why would I hide it? I want to whole world to know I'm in love."

"In love?" Percy asked. I laughed.

"Yes Percy," I said, tilting his head up and softly kissing him. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said. I tugged him down gently, and we laid tangled in each other's arms until father yelled at us it was dinner time.

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Shorter, but not by much. That was adorable.