Nicknames! They'll have a super lengthy discussion about nicknames in this chapter. And yay, Nico would be friends with someone other than Jason! I should be able to post another chapter sometime this week, since we have a long weekend this time. Hope it's not too draggy *_* Read & Review!

Disclaimers: I am not Rick Riordan. I do not own anything you might recognize. This story is a work of fiction, using the characters from Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus, with a plot that is a mash-up of plots from a few books and movies. As such, it's not marked as a crossover.

Warnings: Guy x guy pairing. The romance is not the main plot, but it is an important subplot, so if you do not like this, click the back button. Rated for mild cussing that might occur somewhere in the near future. The characters are slightly out of character, too.

Summary: It was only supposed to be just one day in someone else's life, to see what the world could have been like if things had only been the slightest bit different. When the time was 3:59 and he couldn't get back, though, Nico started to realise just how much can go wrong when you climb through the looking glass without looking to make sure that this was a two-way passageway first.

'Thoughts'
"Speech"
Dreams/Flashbacks/Memories


The Demigods

Silence greeted their arrival.

"Hey," Jason said a little awkwardly, attempting to divert their attention.

It failed. The spotlight remained on Nico. He hovered a little awkwardly behind Jason, not entirely sure what was appropriate for him to do, or how he was expected to respond or react.

Rachel reacted for him.

"What did you bring him here for?!" she exclaimed, the disbelief evident in her voice. She stood up, looking at Jason as if there was something wrong with him.

Nico managed a poker face despite the loathing and dislike plain as daylight in her voice. He knew that she was rarely impulsive, that she was pretty level-headed. Even when she was insulting him in class, she took time to think through her words. This was pretty important, then.

"He could be really helpful," Jason begun, trying to placate her.

Reyna did not wait for him to continue. "What did you do to him?" Reyna directed the question at Nico, a cold fury hardening her voice, accusation clearly there.

"Why do you assume he did something to me?" Jason responded immediately, sounding a little indignant.

"No offense, man, but you are quite gullible sometimes," Leo pointed out, eyeing Nico with some wariness now that the initial shock of finding him at the door behind Jason wore off.

"How do you even know that we can trust him?" Hazel added.

"We could at least hear him out first, before judging," Frank suggested.

Nico wondered exactly what his doppelganger had done, to garner the dislike, or, at the very least, the distrust, of all of them. Even Percy, who was standing at the back, had looked incredulous and speechless at Frank's suggestion.

Percy, who was supposed to be his boyfriend.

Noticing their expressions, Frank hastily added, "But I'm not defending him, or anything like that. It's just not entirely fair to just judge first without giving him a chance. There must be a reason Jason trusts him."

They considered his words for a moment, before looking at Nico expectantly. He stared back, unsure of what was expected. Jason nudged him a little.

"Uh…" He should just say something. There's nothing much he could lose anyway. The only thing that might go wrong, of course, is that they get fed up when he continues having nothing to say, or that they don't believe him and Jason. The problem, though, was that he had no idea what he could, or should, say.

He wasn't prepared for this. As they continued looking at him, he truly wished that a portal would just appear under him and take him somewhere else. He did not break eye contact with them, though, staring back at them.

"Show them what you showed me?" Jason prompted when the silence dragged.

He rolled up his sleeve, grateful for the suggestion. And the distraction. As one, they gaze had been drawn to his arm. Then, it travelled back up, filled with suspicion and incredulity this time. Nico returned his arm to its positions by his side, challenging them to question him silently.

Hazel asked on behalf of the rest.

"Why do you have no time counter?"

The answer Nico had prepared was stuck in his throat. It sounded absurd, even in his head, so how much worse would it sound when he verbalised it? Thankfully, Jason answered for him again. "He switched with the Nico we know, so he's technically a stranger to this world. We can trust him, he's not really on the Council's side."

"Then who is he?" Reyna asked.

"Nico di Angelo, just, from a parallel universe. The original agreement, of course, was one day, but the portal got blocked. I couldn't get back anymore." Reyna looked at Nico with distaste, before turning back to Jason.

"How did you end up trusting him so easily?"

Nico knew that he should be offended that she was clearly dismissing his presence. He understood her too well, though, and this was one of her defensive mechanisms. She hated it when she lost control of the situation and has no idea where things were going, and, well, this was a prime example of a situation she could not control. That's what make her a good leader, as well as a bad one. She's too organised.

Nico knew that he should be offended that she was speaking as if he was not around, but he understood her too well. She was good at avoiding, too, and he knew that she hated it when she had lost control of the situation, or had no idea where things were going. Therefore, he could understand why she did not want to speak to him at the moment.

"He hasn't lied to me, Reyna. That aside, he has no idea how this world works, it's best that we get him on our side before he figure that the Council is the right side to be on."

"Why would we even want him on our side?"

Rachel.

Figures.

Honestly? Nico had never once thought he would see the day that both Reyna and Rachel would hate him with the hatred they usually reserved for Octavian and his jocks.

Jason's answer caught him off guard. "Leo's the only real engineer we have here aside from Annabeth, and he's the only one who truly understand machines like the newest weapons against the MaiVisto, as well as time counters. Even then, Leo, I'm truly sorry, but you don't know enough about these machines, especially the time counters, to let us make too much difference. Nico has that bit of knowledge we lack, though, and he would be contributing to our cause as much as we would be helping him get used to this world. Mutually beneficial."

Immediately, Annabeth had a rebuttal. "If he's not from this world, how could he know more than us?" Nico had thought of that, too. Honestly, he was struggling to keep his head above the waters in school, all this things were clearly extracurricular, and there was no way he would know more than them.

Jason, apparently, disagreed. "He's an outsider, sure. Their world is more technologically advanced than ours, though, even if ours is more scientifically evolved. But that's the thing, you see. We all grew up in this place, we've been raised to think about things a certain way, and we all know that that certain way had gotten us into the rut we're stuck in now. We can't move forward, but if we stop, we would lose all the progress we have made. That's why we need new blood, and this is someone who is entirely new to the whole system and the whole world. He could possibly help us find new flaws or loopholes in the things we overlooked, because everything was too familiar to us."

He wasn't done.

Taking a breath, he continued on his spiel. "All that aside, I bet you don't know that Nico was actually good at science, no matter how abysmal his grades are. I don't know if it's faking to spite his parents, or it was to hide his talent from the Council, but I saw his notes, and I'll tell you that he knows a lot. A lot more than we can find out from our various sources. If I'm not wrong, Hades actually coaches his son privately, which means that with the notes that Nico has, we could get really, really far. Adding to that, the boy we have now had been thrown into a world with an entirely new world of science, and the fact that everything he learnt is from notes made by the Nico from our world or from the books left lying around. It's amazing that he's not only not been failing spectacularly, his grasp on the concepts is at least as good as mine, if not better. He's a fast learner, we wouldn't be held back. We could use the extra help."

Nico had forgotten entirely about the fact that he had spent a lot of time doodling xkcd comics he could remember in the notebooks, as well as making his own notes about the differences between the two worlds' sciences. There was one notebook, though, that he sincerely hoped Jason had not touched. He knew, when he wrote those things down, that they probably should have stayed within his head. They weren't made to be read by anyone other than him.

Silently, he also wondered if the homework session was really only a recruitment interview, or if Jason actually needed help with his work. He had always thought of Jason as a really nice but hopelessly unassuming guy, who was reasonably clueless beyond the scope of interest he had, but he was starting to re-evaluate his opinion of Jason. Perhaps this Jason was different, or it could just be that he had clung on to what he believed about Jason and how he should be, missing out on the obvious and only noticing now that it was impossible not to notice.

Seeing that they were still not entirely sold on the idea, he gave them yet another speech. "We formed this group to help people in the first place, didn't we? Especially the people the Council deems unimportant. Wouldn't we be going against our first rule of helping innocents and victims if we didn't help him just because he replaced someone we were not on friendly terms with? He's not the person we had known. The least we could do is to give him a chance to prove that he can be trusted."

"Can I see that notebook?" Annabeth asked.

Jason procured it, and Nico realized that Jason must have anticipated the request. He had not seen Jason take it, though.

As she was looking through it, Leo looked over her shoulders. Hazel and Rachel followed suite.

"If he can't be trusted?"

Of course Reyna was the one to ask that question.

"Give him the benefit of the doubt, Reyna, please? Even if you don't trust him, you trust my judgment, right? I'm not always wrong, you know. I'll vouch for him." Nico was not entirely sure what that meant, however, whatever it was, it means a lot to Reyna.

She gave a resigned sigh, and pointed out, "You're not always wrong, Jason, but if you are wrong, you'll be bringing all of us down with you."

Nico could tell from the tone that she had already given in to his request, accepting that Jason was going to be stubborn about this.

He still appreciated Leo standing up for him, though. "Give him a chance, Reyna. At least half of the stuff in here is not only legitimate, I'm pretty sure it's so classified that if the Council knew we had access to it, they would hunt us down and kill us." Leo waggled his eyebrows Jason. "I'm starting to reassess your taste, Grace, the di Angelo couple clearly had been educating their kids well, tell me when you stop being interested in the girl, I want her too."

"Fine," Reyna conceded finally.

There was reluctance as she welcomed Nico into their community, though. She then proceeded to conscript the rest to help her in planning a robbery. Or something like that. Whether it was on purpose or not, she left Leo out of it, so, naturally, Jason left Nico with Leo after telling him that he should not offend anyone here, and that if anyone asked, they never met, so Nico cannot be friendly with them in public.

After he was gone, Leo and Nico stood there for a while in an awkward silence.

Leo started the conversation. "How well do…how are we like in your world?"

"We're friends." Catching Leo's look, Nico elaborated. "Pretty good friends. I know your father has a huge family out there that does not involve you and your mother. And your best friend when you were younger was Festus the Happy Dragon. It got you teased mercilessly by almost everyone. Not sure if it applies in this world, though."

"It's mostly true. Do you have more?"

Nico blinked at him. "More facts about your life? Really?"

Leo nodded.

"Well, the first girl you had a crush on was Jason's sister, Thalia Grace, but I haven't seen her around in this world, so I'm not too sure if you know her. The first girl you got the courage to ask out was Khione, and she dumped her iced drink on you in front of the cafeteria for that. In front of the whole level. Then there's Calypso, the first girl you actually dated, and she eventually left you because she disagreed with your choice of friends. Which is me, Jason, Rachel, Reyna. Hazel, too, because she's my half-sister back home."

Leo snorted out a laugh. "You sound like an obsessed stalker who is way too interested in my love life. Which, by the way, is non-existent in this world."

Nico glared at him.

"You were the one who filled me in on every little aspect of your life. I did not ask to hear about your escapades with Calypso in the locker room, or the…"

"Alright, alright, I get it, don't continue, I really don't want to know the details either, do you know how weird this is? Angel – can I call you Angel? – did we have nicknames?"

"Nicknames."

"Yeah, usually we have nicknames. I mean, Jason's called blondie here, but it's mostly since we barely know each other and Annabeth is already known as wise girl, but, yeah. So?"

"Jason's Captain America. It's a comic series that got turned into a movie. It's about WWII, which is a war between the Axis and the Allies. And, of course, you don't get the reference, but it's alright. Reyna's always been…well, Reyna. It's Reyna, you know? Rachel was red. Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"That's her full name?! I'm so going to tease the hell out of her, you know that she always only use the initial for her middle name? Elizabeth, who even names their children that anymore?"

"Her father does. Frank's Teddy. He looks like a giant teddy bear, please do not tell me you've never thought that."

Leo stared at him. "He was okay with that name?"

"That's what Hazel calls him. They're a couple, right?"

"They're a couple?" Leo glanced over at the closed door, behind which the group was discussing whatever it was they were talking about. A giant grin split his face. "Oh my gods, I'm so going to win that bet!" Leo looked back at Nico. "What's mine?"

"Yours- oh, you're da Vinci."

"What?"

"You tried to replicate all of Leonardo Da Vinci's work. Do you understand now?"

Leo groaned. "Really? Why would I do that? That old dude was so wrong about… wait, is he right about science in your world?"

"He's important. He also has this painting, Mona Lisa. Do you have that here? I'll assume the answer's no then."

"Mona Lisa? Who is even called that?"

"No idea. No one knows, really, and he was died pretty long ago."

They sank back into a silence, before Leo suddenly started speaking again. "It's not easy for you here, is it? Especially since this world is mirrored, so most of the things are too similar, just not identical, and it's difficult for you to remember sometimes, isn't it? Since I'm your friend back home, I'll make an effort to be your friend here, too. Make it easier, you know? And I don't know about your friend back home, but if it was me, I would want for you to know that you can count on me not to let you down no matter which universe I belong to, so I'm not going to be your enemy. Just so you know."

Nico let out a startled laugh. Leo paused, looking at him quizzically, as if he did not realize Nico could laugh. It reminded Nico so much of the expression Leo puts on every single time Nico finally cracks and laughs at his jokes with him that he felt a pang in his chest, missing Leo more than ever, even though he was just there, in front of him.

"I – It's just, you're really like him, Leo back home, I mean, but he's always joking, to the point I kind of forget, sometimes, that he's capable of being deep and serious about things. And yes, he's a really loyal person, he never gives up on anyone, ever. I used to tell him to stay away from me, but he refused to leave, and just annoyed his way into my life and annoyed me into letting him stay around, and you – I mean, Leo, from back home, used to call me Angel when you wanted to annoy me or be particularly irritating," Nico explained.

They stared at each other for a while before Nico decided that he had enough of these topics, and got on to the diagrams and notes made in the notebook. They left this topic quickly enough, diving into the theoretical world both were more comfortable with.

Leo had enthusiastically analysed everything that was present, explaining them to Nico page by page starting from the first page after Nico admitted that he was actually finding it hard to accept the logic of this world. The differences in their sciences was quite jarring at times and hard to discern other times, making it hard for him to make no mistakes when trying to do the homework. He also admitted that he actually did not fully understand what was written in the notebook, as the things there sometimes made Nico more confused than anything else.

It soon became an exchange of information of sorts – for every question Nico asked about this world's science, Leo would ask questions of his own in turn, trying to figure out what happened in Nico's reality. He found the idea of the internet fascinating, the same way he did not quite believe that smartphones were truly possible. What they both agreed on, however, was that it was weird – rocket science here was light years ahead of that of Nico's own world, and the emphasis on space-time science and finance was so much more than that of Nico's reality, yet the technology and everyday creature comforts of Nico's old reality was way, way ahead of that in this world.

Leo theorized that it was likely because their priority was different – in Nico's reality, they wanted to breakthrough, discover new things and test limits of different fields, causing them to be better-rounded in general, expanding out in everything they could possibly explore, but slower in terms of progress made. Here, though, due to the aliens and the resource constraints, everything was focused in a few fields, making advances in leaps and bounds, while everything else was mostly ignored, as they were largely considered unimportant. After all, if you're not alive, you won't be able to enjoy the everyday things around you, or try to make more progress.

Nico completely agree.

Sometime into their discussion, however, Percy interrupted them, indicating that he wanted to talk to Nico. Nico hesitated, before deciding that nothing bad could come of it. He did give Leo a wilting look for winking at him when Percy had left the room, knowing that Leo's mind had retreated from the light and was residing in the gutter at this point of time.

Percy led him to the room that most likely belonged to the person whose family stays here, in this gigantic house. On his first look at the room, he knew instantly that this was Rachel's room, and that she most likely spends most of her time in here, if she was not over at someone else's place.

The walls were painted with colours, splashes of it that here and there that should have looked completely out of place. Instead, they added to the room, highlighting the background and making this room look less…sterile. There were other personal touches – a little sitting room slash library set up underneath the loft bed that takes up half of the gigantic, spacious room, a half-done canvas of abstract art, mostly completed clay sculptures and one stained display case filled with completed works that she must have submitted for competitions.

He stepped into the room before Percy did, trying to find his footing in this eerily similar, yet slightly different, room that belonged to someone who used to be his best friend.

Percy closed the door behind him, and Nico turned around to face him.

That was when it sunk in that they were alone.

That Percy was the only other person in this room, aside from him.


*** NaNoWriMo 2014 Winner ***