DISCLAIMER: These characters aren't mine. Sorry to disappoint.

Again, there is swearing here, so if that bothers you, I'm sorry.

~~~oOo~~~

Nico was surprised when Hazel sat with him in English the next day. It wasn't even an unpleasant surprise. Hazel smiled at him and commented on how he was still alive, and Nico replied by asking if she'd honestly thought Leo would kill him. She thought about it for a moment before answering that Leo was too sweet to kill anyone, but if he did murder someone it would definitely be Nico. That made him smile a bit. Hazel was easy to talk with, and just be around in comfortable silence.

Class started and was exceptionally boring. The teacher was going on about how disappointed he is in today's youth. Which was unreasonable, really. Sure, most of the morons on the planet sucked, but Nico fit all of the 'perfect human being' criteria that Mr. Brennet was spouting out. He read, and he read the 'right' books in Mr. Brennet's mind, he knew how to speak properly, as well as write with flawless grammar, and he was smart(he just didn't get good grades). After a good ten minutes of listening to Mr. Brennet babble, Hazel rolled her eyes at Nico and scrawled a note on the corner of his paper.

'what's your schedule?'

'Orange day-English, Math, Geography, Lunch, Science. Purple day- Comp. Tech, Greek, Art, Lunch, PE. You?' He pushed the paper back towards Hazel when he'd finished. She glanced at it and then smiled widely.

'Same! I just have Latin when you have Greek. Other than that we have the same classes!' When Nico read her note, he smiled, and whispered 'awesome' to her. It was strange, having someone he wouldn't rather be in a shack in Timbuktu than be with.

~~~oOo~~~

Nico and Hazel had stuck together through math and geography, and were on their way to lunch. He figured that they'd be sitting with Piper again today. He vaguely wondered if Leo would also be there. He was friends with the girls, afterall. And then Nico realized something.

"Why haven't I been forced to interact with your friends during classes?" Nico asked Hazel. She went slightly pink and bit her lip.

"I don't really have any friends my own age, so I don't have any in class to make you interact with," she mumbled, "But now we're friends, right? And I only have Latin alone now, so it's all good." She shot him a smile, but Nico could see the worried look in her eyes.

"Yeah. We're friends," he smiled warmly and took her hand, the way Bianca used to take his when reassuring him. He watched as the tension in Hazel's shoulders dissipated, and her smile turned from tentative to ecstatic.
Nico spotted the table he'd sat at the previous day, Piper was already there. And so was Leo. When they got to the table, Nico noticed Leo's eyes fall to his and Hazel's clasped hands, then look up and raise an eyebrow at Nico. Nico narrowed his eyes at him in return, also taking in his appearance(he'd already been gone when Nico woke up). Leo's hair was still helplessly sparkly(glitter's a bitch to get out) and the hickeys and phone numbers still littered his body, although they were faded, and there were even a couple kisses left. He wore a bright orange t-shirt that he'd probably gotten from the student store at some point. Nico assumed that his belt was still empty of tools.

Moments after Nico and Hazel had slid into their place at the table, a tall blond boy seated himself next to Piper, wrapped an arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. When the boy noticed Nico he blinked a few times, clearly confused. Nico thought about being civil and introducing himself. He really did. But he decided against it. So he just sat there awkwardly as he was blinked at. Luckily, a familiar voice came to the rescue before too much awkward blinking occurred.

"Nico! Man, nice to see you," Percy said, thumping Nico on the back and sitting down next to him, pulling a pretty blond girl with gray eyes down on his lap. She laughed and shoved Percy affectionately before scooting into the seat on his other side. "Oh yeah, Nico this is Annabeth," it seemed like he had planned to continue, but Leo cut in, something he did a lot, Nico noticed.

"She's the cleverest witch of her age."

"Was that another reference?" The blond boy asked, looking amused and slightly lost.

"Jesus, Jason. Harry Potter. In reference to the time Sirius Black said to Hermione Granger; 'You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met'? No? are you kidding me, man? How do you not know that one?" Leo seemed genuinely baffled. Annabeth shook her head with a laugh and extended her hand to Nico.

"Nice to meet you." Nico shook her hand. Her grip was firm and steady. Nico's dad had always said you could judge a man by the way he shook hands. And if Annabeth's shake was anything to go off of, then she was pretty okay in Nico's book.

The topics at their table became uninteresting to Nico, and he only partially listened. Occasionally Hazel or Percy would start a side conversation with him, but even when he was sitting there completely not involved, he didn't feel the need to run off to a corner. Or not as much as he usually did, anyway. He also noticed that Leo was deliberately avoiding looking at him. That was fine with him. Although, it was odd that Leo glanced at him when he pulled out his book(it was bound to happen sooner or later). Nico guessed he was probably thinking that it was weird and rude for him to read rather than talk with his company. Because it wouldn't be the first time he'd heard that. But he wasn't trying to be rude. He wasn't saying that he was bored or that he didn't want to be around the people he was with(that may usually be the case, but it wasn't always), it was just that when he was reading he felt...safe and like all his worries just left him. And he figured he was doing everyone a favor, because when he was reading he wasn't being awkward and not knowing where to rest his eyes or arms, or what the hell expression he should be wearing(he almost always settled for glare, and he was sure that that made people feel uncomfortable). So Leo could think what he thought, but it wasn't going to make Nico surrender his protection.

Nico was reading The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes and was rather enjoying himself. Then he saw it. Sticky notes completely covered a good half a page, cramped writing filling them. Nico couldn't help it. He was curious. He read the paragraphs leading up to the sticky notes and then proceeded to read the sticky notes themselves. And it all went downhill from there. Nico didn't even finish reading before he felt himself go red. The sticky notes, as it turned out, held a detailed sex scene between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

"Holy shit!" He may have said it louder than he'd meant to. He could hear Leo laughing. Leo. Of course. He also heard the chatter die down and knew everyone was looking at him. "What the fuck? No! Okay, just no! You do not get to just...I can not believe that you'd...Who does that? You're fucking messed up!" And then Nico threw his book at Leo. Nico loved his books. He'd never do anything to hurt them. That's how mad he was. Leo blocked his face with his arms and let the book hit him and then fall to his lap. He was still laughing, and everyone else was looking between the two of them, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Oh my god, dude, you should see your face!" Leo paused to laugh, "I can't believe that one got you, it wasn't even one of the best!"

"It wasn't one of the...you mean there are more?" Nico shouted, and if he could have gone more red, he would've.

"More what?" Percy asked.

"More gay porn in my books!" Nico was pretty sure he screeched that out. Percy looked taken aback.

"Excuse you bitch, but not all of it is gay." Leo sniggered. Hazel was fanning herself again, and everyone else was just kinda staring and blinking. And then Percy laughed. And that spurred Leo on, so he laughed harder, and then both of them were laughing so hard that half the lunch room was staring.

"It is not funny!" Nico protested, but all that did was cause Percy to fall into his remaining food from laughter. Then Annabeth laughed, and then Piper, and then Jason. And everyone was laughing. Except for Nico. And Hazel, she looked almost as mortified as Nico did.

"He...he wrote porn in your books?" Hazel asked, clearly disturbed by the idea.

"Not just porn, he wrote scarily accurate and detailed porn. Porn that makes you wonder why the hell he's so good at writing it. And he wrote it. In my beautiful book. Apparently books." Hazel's eyes widened and they found their way to Leo, staring at him, scandalized. And that made them all laugh harder. "Oh, fuck you." Nico directed the comment towards Leo as he rose from his seat.

"I thought I didn't need anymore fucking?" Leo stopped laughing just long enough to smirk. Nico grabbed Hazel(he wasn't about to abandon her with a bunch of baboons laughing over the destruction by porn of literature) and left the cafeteria.