Nico's Point of View

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. The hard cushion was shoving itself onto my back, and I was starting to ache. My eyes were fluttering lower and lower each scene that I was forced to watch.

I had been in a dark movie theater for nearly 2 hours, with popcorn at my feet, Milk Duds in my palms, and a very sexy son of Poseidon in my lap. Percy seemed absolutely absorbed with the movie that we were watching.

50 Shades of Grey. It was basically sex, sex, and more sex. I wasn't paying any mind to it, but Percy seemed absurdly fascinated.

I fiddled with his long strands of hair, silently watching as his eyes lit up when Christian Grey was piloting the small jet. He really looked like a baby seal, with his shining emerald eyes, and his adorable face. I groaned. How was he so hot, but so cute?

In the midst of my insane rambling, I didn't notice that Percy was staring at me. "Huh?" I said, snapping to attention. He laughed, and it echoed throughout the empty room. He fumbled to sit up, and I could almost imagine him as a puppy, or something. He was sitting back on his legs, and his hands were scrunched in front of him. He looked absolutely skewered, with his collar uneven and his hair all messed up.

I lazily leaned back, and tilted my head to him. "Mhm?" I mumbled sleepily. The movie was seriously taking a toll on me. He awkwardly stood up, avoiding the buckets of popcorn on the floor. Both of us had ordered an extra-large bucket of popcorn with double salt and butter. We nearly polished both of them off in the first 20 minutes of the movie.

I softly closed my eyes, feeling the drowsiness wash over me.

I nearly shot up a few seconds later when a heavy body was thrown at me. Well, not exactly thrown. It was more like being seducingly cuddled.

I sat up immediately sat up, fumbling with words. "I- what are you… Perce?" I stuttered feebly. He blinked at me over his shoulder. "Yes?" He sat neatly in my lap. He wasn't really heavy, or bony. Just the perfect size.

"I want to sit here." Percy said bluntly. He sounded so adorably childish, so I muttered something undecipherable. He nodded in approval, and continued watching his movie. I awkwardly tucked my hands to my sides, not really knowing where to put them.

After a few moments of consideration, I lightly put my hands around his tiny waist, and leaned back. With his enticing aroma and warm temperature, I drifted off in a slumber better than I thought it could have been.

!

'Percy… do you want to go out with me? Do you want to be my...' I paused. I blushed, not wanting to say it.

'Your boyfriend?' he said, smiling at me with shining eyes. I nodded, looking away, feeling my cheeks explode with heat. He threw his arms around me, looking absolutely joyous. This was cheesy as all hell, but I was enjoying it.

He nodded, over and over, as if he didn't have any words. I felt like my heart was going to literally shadow travel itself across the world, it was so excited. Slowly, people appeared from behind the trees.

They all appeared from nowhere. Chiron. Grover. Clarisse. Travis. Conner. Will. Hazel. Frank. Calypso. Leo. Drew. Piper. Butch. Leo. Nyssa. Lacy. Jason. Reyna.

My father.

I held my breath. What would they think? What would they say? I had always feared this exact moment, when everyone found out about me. Would they burn me at the stake for being gay?

Almost like there was some sort of signal, they all burst out into cheers. Clapping and uproarious stomping was everywhere. They all surrounded us, heaving Percy and I above their shoulders, chanting. I felt ecstatic. My father smiled from a distance. A warm smile, like he accepted me. Not the cold smiles that he usually reserved for the dead. I felt exhilarated. Nothing could stop me now.

Everyone from all the cabins poured out, and it was this huge rampaging crowd of happiness and laughter and screaming. I hadn't felt this accepted since… well, since ever. I whooped along with them, smiling.

Suddenly, there was an abrupt silence. I stopped, confused. I looked over to Percy, to ask him if he knew what was happening. Adrenaline was still pumping through my body.

But to my shock, Percy wasn't there. A pretty girl with stormy gray eyes and wispy blonde hair stared back at me. She crossed her arms as she sat on the camper's arms and hands, like a queen. Her scowl was imposing, and she glared at me. She truly looked like her mother. She didn't have any weapons with her, but that made her even scary. What would she use to kill me?

I gulped. I knew it was almost ridiculous to be afraid of a girl who was nearly a foot shorter than me, and weighed nearly 40 pounds less than me. But from watching her slay monsters and destroy enemies, she was anything but small. She was brutal. She glared at me, and I expected her to strike me. It was deadly silence.

'Excuse me.' She said. It wasn't a question, more like a statement. 'Excuse me.' She repeated. 'Ex-cuse me.'

'Excuse me!'

'Excuse me!'

I snapped awake, nearly screaming my head off. A unknown face towered above me, shining a flashlight directly into my eyes. I put my hand up, annoyed. My head was still spinning from the nightmare.

The usher stood above me with a pissed off look on his face. "Ex-squeeze me." he scowled, in really bad English. I noticed that the lights were back on, the screen was black, and our trash was cleared away. He began snapping at me in Italian, which I found sort of hard to keep up with, considering I haven't spoken my native language in what seemed forever.

'Sir, the movie ended nearly 30 minutes ago. The cleaning staff have cleared your mess away already.'

'Ah, i'm sorry sir. We happened to fall asleep.'

'Well yes, I am aware of that. Please refrain from doing so again. We're going to have to ask you to leave now, someone has reserved this room.'

'Of course. I'm sorry to have caused you trouble.'

I smiled warmly at him, and which he gave me a half-assed smile back. My head was still shocked from that horrifying dream of which Annabeth was there. I shuddered. If she really was there, I was pretty sure she would have slaughtered me.

I warily glanced over to Percy, who still looked half-dead. He somehow ended up getting off my lap and sprawling across another 4 seats. He fell asleep too, apparently. He yawned, and smoothed out his rumpled hair. I smiled fondly at him, motioning for him to stand up. He unsteadily got to his feet, swaying a bit. I grabbed him by his shoulder, and maneuvered him outside.

"Where are you taking me? He hissed. "Wake up, you idiot. The movie finished." He looked baffled, as if he hadn't expected that one coming. We hastily made our way out of the massive cinema before we could be chastened again.

I shivered as the frigid wind bit into my skin, sinking its wretched claws into me. I had absolutely no idea where these women got the ridiculous idea that men had no reaction to the cold. Or, at least, we were forced to offer our outer garments to them when it started to get windy. I glanced over to Percy, who was basically vibrating as he was walking. He seemed much paler, and his lips were taking on a tiny blue tint. The street was pretty much abandoned, with a few stragglers bustling to head home.

After contemplating it for a bit, I abruptly twisted Percy into a tight hug. He froze, not even looking up.

"What are you doing." He said. It wasn't even a question, more like a statement. His voice was muffled in my thick sweater, and I could feel his body being wracked with shudders.

"I'm warming you up, for your information." I said very matter-of-factly. "-And don't you dare argue with me, Jackson. I always get what I want." I said in a mock snobby tone. The blunt reality was, I rarely got what i wanted. But really, I was intent on keeping him in my arms, just for a bit.

He went silent, and was curious of what was on his mind. We stood under the lamplights, not minding the cold. "-so, if you're telling me you always get what you want, who do you want?"

The question caught me off guard, and I looked down, flustered. Percy's nose was a bright red, and his eyes the color of the new trees in spring. "I don't- why do you… what are you talking about?!" I screeched.

His eyes shone even brighter, and he unexpectedly reached up. He tiptoed up and-

-thumped me in the head. "Stupid. Take me somewhere else." I muttered something about being demanding before whisking ourselves in the dark tunnel I called traveling.

!

I stumbled barely catching myself. My vision blurred, and I felt like everything was slightly tilted. "Woah, you okay?" I smiled, slightly shaking my hair. The voice was slightly distorted, and it sounded a bit weird. "Oh Gods, you're about to pass out on me, aren't you? Come on, Nico, wake up."

Too much shadow traveling really drained me, although I improved much more throughout the years. I laughed, trying to regain my senses, trying to shake off my drowsiness. I held my hands up into the light, and grimaced at the sight. My arms were flickering, like a light switch. They went to a smoky, shadowy, black substance to my regular hands. I cursed, spatting out a profanity. I tried touching the wall, but my hand passed right through. I snarled, clenching them, but I felt like my own hands didn't even belong to me anymore.

Percy bit his lip. "Here, let me help-" He attempted to grasp my hands, but they passed right through. This happened during the battle against Gaea, where I was transporting the Athena Parthenos to Half Blood Hill. I was slowly becoming a shadow myself.

"Overdose of your powers." Percy muttered, like he still couldn't believe what he was seeing. I grunted, and shoved my hands in my pockets, but I was slightly unsuccessful, considering that they passed right through the denim material. "Where are we?" I said gruffly, quickly changing the topic.

Percy looked slightly surprised, like he didn't believe that I didn't know where we were. "You didn't know where you were traveling?"

I laughed, and said, "I tapped into your feelings. Where you wanted to go most was where I took you." He rolled his eyes, and sarcastically said, "No duh, you craphead. Do you recognize this place, is what I meant?"

I frowned, slowly examining my surroundings. We were on a small balcony, with a tiny lamp swinging above. The light was slowly rising above the horizon, illuminating the countless buildings that expanded across the land. The sight kind of made my heart beat a little faster.

A blazing mirage of intricate and vibrant color woven into a swirling ball shone over this titanium city. Steel and iron gleamed.

I squinted, seeing the Empire State building. "Manhattan." I said, slightly impressed with myself at the fact that I had the ability to travel thousands of miles to get to Italy, and back. Percy snorted, shoving me. "No duh," he repeated, "-but where in Manhattan?" I looked around some more, absorbing the miniature garden bed planted out in the front, with a tiny plant, glowing. I vaguely remembered something, but I seemingly couldn't place my finger on it.

"Perce, just tell me? I'm about to pass out." He rolled in eyes, smirking. He looked like a rebellious highschooler -which, I guess he was- with his bright eyes, tousled hair, and crumpled outfit. "Well, since you asked so nicely. We're at home, Nico, we're at home." I beamed, his flushed cheeks and rosy nose standing out.

I stared, until it all clicked together. "Oh! We're at your apartment!" He smiled, satisfied. "Thank you very much for bringing me here. I mean, Chiron let us out of camp for this once, might as well make use of it." He tugged on my sleeve, and my hands slowly solidified. "People are waking up, let's go inside."

I nodded, taking up a last glance. "I can't believe you don't remember this as my apartment. Remember? When you shadow hopped on my balcony, scaring the crap out of me? And then we ate cake? The blue one?" I bumped his waist softly, looking all around his room. "Well, yeah, I was like 11. How was I supposed to remember?" He looked up at me with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

His room didn't look much different from the very first time I saw hit. Except, it was cleaner, and smelled like lemon furniture polish. "Ah, what the hell? Sorry, my mom cleaned around, I guess."

I smiled. It seemed nice to have someone take care of you, cleaning after your mistakes when you needed it the most. Or when you weren't even there, and they still thought about you.

I silently slipped out my phone, checking the time. 6:12. I glanced at the photo slyly stuck in my phone case before I tucked it away again. It was a photo with my father, my mother, Bianca, and I. My father had given this to me for my 14th birthday. No messages, he didn't even show up. Just the photo taped up on the random brick wall I was passing by.

Casually walking, I saw it, did a double take, and ripped the photo down. During the time this photo was taken, I was a mere child, so there was no way I could remember this. We were all standing in an awkward family position, smiling at the camera. Almost immediately flipping over the thin piece of paper, it had said 'Hades' in thin, gray, Greek letters. I had instantly deciphered it. It was a gift from my father, to make sure that I would not ever forget my family.

Not that it was hard to forget a dead mother and sister, and a father with 2 split personalities. Not to mention that he ruled the underworld and visited about once every year. I shook my head, slightly laughing to myself. I snapped back to attention.

Glancing over to Percy, I did a double take. He was sprawled out on his bed, flipping through… a book?

Since when did he read?

Without even looking back at me, he said, "Come here."

I made my way over to the inviting bed, and slipped off my shoes. I crawled in and stared down at the foreign object that he was holding. Playfully yanking the book, I rolled away before he could punch me. "Nico, I swear to gods, give me back my book!" he screeched. I disinterestedly ignored him, scanning the cover.

There was a moment of silence before I burst out into laughter. "You read- oh my gods, you read… manga? What is this? Ah, Tokyo Ghoul, nice choice." He screeched an incompetent answer and attempted to lunge at me. I found it amusing, considering he was much lighter than me and much shorter. I quickly pulled away everytime he got close, shaking the book tauntingly over his head. This was funny, seeing an all-powerful demigod play keep-away with me.

"Nico Di Angelo! You bully! Give it back to me, or i'll explode some toilets on you!" I mockingly murmured in agreement, smirking. "Jeez, Perce, you should have told me earlier. What else do you like? Kpop? Do you enjoy dubstep? Do you watch "The Flash" every Tuesdays?"

The truth was, I found it terrifyingly adorable the way that he was obsessed with what seemed like trivial things to me, but important things to him. I leaned my head back, laughing. He howled at me, tugging me off of the bed.

We both tumbled on the ground in a messy pile. Our limbs were tangled, and I could smell the aroma of clean carpet. As we fell, I could hear the racket we were making. My mind momentarily thought about Sally and Paul, but then I dismissed it. We wrestled like young boys. I let him dominate me, just so that he could be satisfied.

He quickly sat on top of me, reaching for his manga book, which I still had clenched in my hand. "Yo, Di Angelo. Pass me the book. If you haven't noticed, i'm on top, not you." He looked ferocious, with his hair all stuck up and his clothes rumpled. I propped my head up with one elbow, smirking at him. I combed through my hair saying, "Nah, i'm good. I'm loving the view, anyway." He growled.

Suddenly, a buzzing sensation ran through my spine. My hearing honed in, and I realized that something was silently creeping in on us. My nerves tingled, just like always whenever I could sense something getting ready to strike.

Percy apparently didn't notice, or didn't care. He leaned so that I could smell the rain and salt water off of him. I was aware that his hand was creeping towards mine, stealthily slipping the book out of my grasp.

"Perce-" I tried sitting up, before something could happen. A presence was lingering just outside his closed door, and I wasn't fond of finding out. He cut me off by prettily pushing his hair back. "Perce, I don't think that right now is the-"

He narrowed his eyes at me, glaring. He straddled me, pushing me back. The book flew out of my hands and skidded across the floor. Clenching my shirt, he pulled me up. "Listen Nico, i've been trying to get up the courage to at least hug you this whole entire date. And now i'm trying to be affectionate with you, you're going to pull away?"

I stuttered, "No, it's not like that! There's someone-" He rolled his eyes, roughly mashing his lips to mine. His cold fingertips clenched my neck, and I could basically hear my brain have an emergency breakdown.

'Nico Di Angelo has been deactivated. Please leave a message after the tone. Beep.'

I was sincerely frozen, and I hoped that my heart wasn't writhing on the clean, white, carpet. But right there and then, at the most climactic time of my life, the Gods decided to rain down their punishment down on me.

The door banged open and there stood Sally Jackson holding a kitchen knife, with a bathrobe on and dripping wet hair.

Her brown eyes gleamed, and so did the 12-inch blade she was pointing directly at me. Percy scrambled off of me, and I sat up. My hands were shaking, and I wasn't so sure if it was from the kiss or the fact that I was going to die from my crush's mother.

I gulped as all 3 of us fell into a deep silence. Sally paused before lowering her demonic weapon. Her hair dripped.

"Huh." was the only word that was uttered from her. I swallowed, feeling my Adam's apple bob up and down. Trembling, I recalled Sally during the battle with Kronos. She had pulled a deadly weapon out of a car and continued firing at monsters like it was no big deal.

I prayed to Hades that I would make it to at least Asphodel.

Sally sniffed, and I could see a tiny tilt of her lips. "Huh," she repeated, "so this is Nico Di Angelo."

I stammered, "Mrs. Jackson. This is really, really, not what it looks like."

She smiled.

"Well, I suppose this really doesn't look like I found my son on another boy. And should I mention the fact that you two were on the floor, roughly making out?"

A/N: Eh, so not a lot of climax in this one. I just wanted to add some Sally and Percy bonding time. It would be so cute for the mom to bless the relationship and all, you know? Hope you all enjoy, and ready yourselves for the next chapter! Read on! ~NicoDiAngelo32