Camp

GPOV…

Percy couldn't sleep and he hated doing this but it was hard to ignore it. He lied on his back listening to Nico's conversation with Persephone in his lounge room. Percy had noticed that every time he mentioned Ruby to Nico over the past week he acted a little odd. At first Percy thought this was because he didn't want to talk about and Percy would drop it.

But now that Percy was thinking about it more every time he mentioned Ruby Nico acted as if he didn't hate her. He just acted different. It wasn't anything Percy had ever seen Nico act like. Now Percy knew how Nico really felt about Ruby and Ruby had no idea. Percy was tempted to tell Ruby about this but how would he break that to her. She was in love with his father while his son loved her and she had no idea.

If only she knew before all this. Maybe things wouldn't have become so complicated.

Percy decided that it was up to Nico to tell her how he felt and if he wanted to it was up to him to move on because how could Nico have any chance against his father? His father loved her so much that it was clear that he wouldn't back down without a fight and Nico was only half god.


Over the next few months Percy managed to convince Nico to go to camp when summer started while hiding the fact that he knew how Nico really felt about Ruby. The day after Nico had that conversation with Persephone he stopped sleeping over every night and just came by once a week until the summer started.

Percy knew that Nico would turn up that day because they had made plans to go back to camp together even though Nico had the power to get to camp on his own.

Once at camp Nico went straight to his cabin because he didn't want to talk to anyone. Percy on the other hand went towards the Athena cabin in search of Annabeth. He wanted to say hello before he went to his cabin because with all this trouble between Nico and Ruby Percy didn't have much time to plan days for Annabeth. But before he even reached the cabins Ruby found him.

"Percy, I haven't seen you in months," she said as she slung an arm over his shoulders.

Ruby was both an inch taller and an inch shorter than Percy but that was only because they fought over that. Ruby always said she was an inch taller than him and Percy always said he was an inch taller than her. Neither of them really knew which one was taller because neither of them stood up straight at the same time and neither of them cared enough to find out.

"Well you do live in LA while I live in New York," Percy said.

"Don't be a smartass," Ruby said before she punched his shoulder with her free arm. "So did Nico come with you," Ruby asked a little less excited than before. "I haven't seen him around yet," Ruby added.

"Yeah, he went to his cabin," Percy said. "I would give him some space he's still a little…" Percy said unsure how to describe the situation.

"I get it," Ruby said as her cheerful side come back. "Can you not tell anyone what happened?" Ruby whispered.

"Of course, but if I know things around this place Chiron and Mr D will already know," Percy said.

"I figured," Ruby said with a sigh.

It was clear that she had thought about that and had been hoping it wasn't possible but it was always clear that she didn't care all that much about Chiron and Mr D knowing.

"That's why I'm avoiding them," Ruby whispered as she removed her arm from around his shoulders. "It's bad enough that my parents hate me, I don't need more people hating me," Ruby said.

"I thought you wanted people to hate you," Percy pointed out.

"I meant gods and Chiron," Ruby said after she made a face. "I can make normal people like me but if I have a whole bunch of gods telling me what to do…"

"It's okay," Percy said cutting Ruby off before she started ranting. "I promise I won't speak of it, I will even deny it if someone asks about it," Percy said.

Ruby quickly hugged Percy with a huge smile on her face before she left him and ran off towards her cabins while Percy continued to head to the Athena cabin.


Ruby entered the Aphrodite cabin and noticed all the girls look at her and smile. They all loved her still and for once Ruby was glad. For once in a long time she loved being loved. Ruby headed towards her bed where she sat on the end and waited for one of the girls to step up to her. It had been like this every time she came back. They always wanted to know what happened because Ruby was probably the only demi-god that attended camp lived on the west coast of America.

"Well I went to see this pretty awesome movie and my brother came back for my birthday," Ruby half lied after one of the girls asked what she did.

"I wish you stayed here so we could have a huge birthday party," a different girl said.

"I know but I did that last time and when I thought about it I thought I should at least spend my birthday with my father, plus now that I did I can have my eighteenth birthday here with you girls," Ruby pointed out.

The girls all smiled and laughed. Ruby could just see the gears winding in their heads about how to make Ruby's eighteenth birthday the best.

Ruby felt better about being at camp because she felt whole now. She felt like she was a whole person and not half a person. The only problem about being here was she missed Hades but she was good at distracting herself. Plus here at camp she wasn't all that safe from her mother. Ruby knew her mother wouldn't give up that easily. She really hated this whole thing.

Ruby missed camp life a lot more than she had thought. She missed her friends and the girls of the Aphrodite cabin, so her half-sisters.


Ruby was sitting with her half-sisters/friends at the first bonfire of the summer break. The night's sky was an amazing sight and Ruby enjoyed everything about being here until she noticed Nico. He walked past the fire with a hood over his head. He didn't look like he wanted to be here at all and she knew why. He hated her because of how she felt about his father. He sat down alone and avoided looking at her which she understood.

Ruby honestly felt different. Earlier when she asked Percy about him she had a plan and she felt perfectly fine with talking to Nico about anything but now she felt different, she felt sad or offended that one of her great friends hated her.

"What's with Nico?" one of her friends asked. "He's moodier than normal," she added.

"Yeah, he's real depressing," another said.

"Who wants to find out?" Ruby asked.

No one said anything. She knew that this would be the reply because they were sort of afraid of Nico because of his father. But Ruby didn't fear his father at all so she decided to do it herself.

"Where are you going?" one of her friends asked as she stood.

"I'm going to talk with Nico," Ruby said.

"What about his dad?" another asked.

"I'm not afraid of him and honestly that doesn't make any sense, I'm just going to talk to Nico, it's not like I'm going to kill him and if I was all Nico's dad can do is kill me but we are all dying so if I'm going to die I might as well take a risk," Ruby replied before she continued to walk towards Nico.

She heard her friends whisper as she walked away. Once Ruby made it to Nico she sat next to him and said.

"So are you nocturnal now?"

"I guess," Nico replied from under his hood.

"Isn't this fun," Ruby said as she got comfortable.

"Not really," Nico mumbled.

"I don't know why but being back at camp is fun, I missed this," Ruby said. "It sure beats being locked in my room," Ruby mumbled to herself.

"My dad did that?" Nico asked as he turned to face her.

"Not your dad, my dad, he thought locking me away in my room would solve his problem, because you know I don't have any problem with it," Ruby said with a smile.

Nico didn't reply but he did smile a little. He didn't even know why and he was hoping that Ruby didn't notice.

"That's amazing," Ruby said with excitement.

"What?" Nico replied slightly shocked by the sudden change.

"I can make the most depressing guy at camp smile," Ruby said.

"Well, maybe it's one of your talents," Nico said.

"It wouldn't really be a very useful talent if it only worked on you," Ruby said.

"Well everyone else smiles at you because they can't help it," Nico said.

"True," Ruby replied. "But you know the truth so my powers don't work on you which makes it more of a challenge, not that it's all that interesting, it's only a smile," Ruby said.

A few minutes later Ruby returned to her friends where they asked what they talked about.

"He hasn't been sleeping well recently, nightmares and all," Ruby lied.

"I can't believe you managed to get that out of him," a friend said.

"Well, he's not that bad to talk to, a little silent and to himself but I would have to say more interesting that most of the guys around here," Ruby said.

"Maybe you should date him," a friend suggested.

"What?" Ruby asked instantly.

"Nothing," the friend said.

Ruby was amazed that someone would think she should date Nico. She had never thought of him like that.

After the bonfire she returned to her cabin some time close to midnight. She returned on her own because she had done for a walk before heading back to her cabin. She wanted some time alone, time to think. The idea of Ruby dating Nico was still on her head but once she went for a walk all thoughts about that left her head and she fell asleep instantly when she returned to her cabin.