A/N: So guys, this is the final chapter of When Thunder Meets Lightning. I know I haven't updated in ages and I can't promise that I will, so I've decided to just finish it here. (Also, y'know, 10 chapters, a nice even number.) I just want to thank all of you so much for reading this far and sticking with me through my crazily unbalanced updating schedule and for all the amazing reviews. And hey, no promises, but maybe sometime the muse will hit me and I'll add another little chapter!

Without further ado, the final chapter!

Mermaid

'Why did we let Percy talk us into this again?' Thalia grumbled, attempting to shield her face from the glaring sun.

'Because we're idiots who never learn,' Nico said, rolling his eyes. It was summer at CampHalf-Blood, which meant that the place was even more crowded than usual. The kids who lived with their mortal families for the rest of the year were streaming in and it was a bit overwhelming, so Percy had suggested a day off. Nico had agreed fervently. He'd volunteered to teach the campers how to fight in close combat with short swords, and he was coming to regret the decision deeply. His class was now filled with inexperienced first-year campers that had not even the slightest idea what they were doing, and Nico wasn't known for his patience. The only bright side was that they were inflicting so many wounds on each other, it saved Nico the trouble of doing it himself.

Percy was also having trouble with the large amount of classes he taught, so he and Nico coaxed Annabeth and Thalia into having a day off with them at the beach to paddle-surf. However, as soon as the got there, Percy and Annabeth hopped onto a paddleboard and instantly paddled away, leaving Nico and Thalia together with no clue as to what they were supposed to be doing.

Of course, Thalia had sat down on the board and refused to do anything, so it was up to Nico to do all the work.

'You're so useless,' Thalia complained, as Nico attempted to switch the oar to his left hand without tipping over the board. 'Can't you angle us away from the sun? It's like a million degrees, for Hades' sakes.'

'My sincerest apologies,' Nico deadpanned. 'You must be so tired from doing absolutely nothing.'

'Jerk,' she muttered, before suddenly sitting up straight and squinting into the distance. 'Hey, d'you see that? Something's, like, shining.'

'Maybe it's the sun's reflection on the water?' Nico suggested, voice dripping with sarcasm.

'Shut up, smartass. It's over there.' Thalia pointed at something to their right. Nico watched the spot, and after a few moments a blue fin surfaced above the water and went back down under.

'Oh, crap. If it's a shark, you're going over first,' Nico said, frantically trying to make his way back to shore.

'Don't splash, moron! You're attracting it!' Thalia exclaimed, even as she attempted to paddle with her hands. Sure enough, the fin was heading towards them, and it was coming faster.

'Mother of Zeus –' The sky crackled ominously. 'Not the time, Dad!' Thalia yelled at the sky. 'Where's Percy when you need him?'

'Hey, wait, it's not a shark,' Nico said, stilling the oar and trying to get a better look. 'Oh my gods. You're not gonna believe this.'

Thalia opened her mouth to respond, but something broke the surface of the water less than two feet away from the board. She shrieked, nearly toppling into the water.

It was a girl's head, with curly turquoise hair only a shade lighter than her blue skin, and glowing green eyes. When she smiled at Nico, she revealed two rows of tiny shark teeth. Behind her, her tail splashed playfully in the water.

Nico blinked. 'Are … are you a mermaid?' he asked, although she looked more like a mutant monster or something.

'Why, yes,' said the mermaid, sounding delighted. 'I'm Tallulah.'

'Um, that's nice,' Nico said.

'Will you come swim with me?' Tallulah asked, batting her eyelids. 'I asked that other boy with green eyes, but the yellow-haired girl got angry at me.' She pouted.

'Actually, we were trying to get back to shore,' Thalia interrupted.

'Yeah, we were,' Nico said, grateful for the excuse. 'Hey, could you help us get back?'

Tallulah stopped glaring at Thalia to give Nico the shark-toothed smile again. 'Of course!' she giggled, ducking underwater and pushing the board gently to shore.

'Phew, that was close,' Nico said. 'At least it wasn't a shark.'

'I think I would've preferred a shark,' Thalia snorted, then yelped when something hit the bottom of her side of the board.

It only took five minutes to get back to shore, despite the fact that it took Nico's careful paddling half an hour to get to where they were. As soon as it was shallow enough to walk, Thalia hopped off the board and swam for it. Nico stayed until the board hit the sand, and then got off. Thalia stood with her arms folded, half-soaked and shivering.

'You didn't have to swim,' Nico pointed out. 'It's freezing.'

'I didn't trust that thing not to tip me off,' she said accusingly, rubbing her arms.

A small cough alerted them to the fact that Tallulah was sitting in the shallow water, smiling expectantly.

'Oh, um, hi. Thanks for getting us back,' Nico said. Spotting a shiny white shell, he picked it up and held it out to Tallulah.

She made a bubble-like sound in the back of her throat and took the shell from Nico, turning it over in her hands. 'How sweet of you,' she gushed, her cheeks turning a dark blue. She gave a smile that she probably thought was beguiling, but was slightly creepy thanks to the teeth. 'Will you come swimming another time?' she asked sweetly.

'Thanks, but no thanks,' Thalia said.

'Not you,' Tallulah snapped. 'You,' she said in a sweeter tone, turning her head towards Nico.

'Um, I'm not sure, Tallulah, I've got a pretty schedule at camp, but I'll get back to you,' Nico said quickly. 'Bye. Thanks for the ride!' With that, he grabbed Thalia's arm and started pulling her towards camp.

'I think someone's got a crush on you,' Thalia teased.

'Uh, no thanks. I think I'd forever be in fear of being eaten,' Nico said with a shudder.

'I hope she tries to attack Percy again,' Thalia said. 'Serves him right for abandoning us like that.'

'Totally,' Nico said. 'I say we get back at him. In the meantime, though, we still have the day left. Wanna ride Mrs. O'Leary in the woods?'

'Sure. Maybe we can terrorize some of the new kids while we're at it,' Thalia suggested.

They walked together, discussing the day's plans, not noticing that somewhere along the way, their fingers had interlocked.

Saddle

'Thalia, you're the worst hider ever. I can see you. Get out of there, you're going to suffocate.'

Thalia reluctantly surfaced from the pile of hay she was hiding in, brushing straw off her clothes and out of her hair. 'You're the worst,' she grumbled, stomping over to Nico in defeat.

'It's going to be fine, stop being such a baby,' Nico snorted.

'How did this topic even come up?'

'Uh, when I asked you to ride the pegasi with me and you said no because you were afraid of heights, maybe?' Nico said sarcastically.

'Can't we just leave it that way?' Thalia pleaded.

'Nope. Absolutely not. Pegasus riding is one of the most basic demigod skills. Not to mention that if word gets out that the daughter of Zeus has vertigo, nobody is going to take you seriously.'

'And how exactly will word get out?' Thalia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Nico didn't answer, polishing his skull ring on his t-shirt and whistling Chopin's Funeral March.

'You're terrible,' Thalia said. 'You are a terrible, terrible person. Has anyone ever told you that?'

'Multiple times,' Nico replied cheerfully. 'Never in a stable, though, so points for originality.'

Thalia sighed. 'Alright, Satan, let's just get this over with. Which one am I riding again?'

'The white one,' Nico said, gesturing.

The pegasus whinnied, affronted, and tossed his mane.

'His name is Guido,' Nico clarified, rolling his eyes.

Thalia opened the stable door and Guido trotted out, spreading his wings and trotting on the spot. Thalia looked up at him nervously, and then at Nico. 'Um. Help?'

'Just hop on,' Nico said.

Guido crouched obediently, and after a lot of slipping and cursing, Thalia managed to hoist herself onto his back. Once seated, she gripped two handfuls of his long mane and squeezed her eyes shut.

'Geez, why do you look so terrified? We're not even off the ground yet,' Nico said, sounding more amused at this than he should be.

Thalia opened her eyes to give him a death glare. 'I repeat, let's just get this over with,' she said through clenched teeth.

Nico just gave her an insufferable grin and walked out of the stables. Guido followed him, trotting at a fairly slow pace. Even so, Thalia gave a little muffled squeak and turned so pale her freckles stood out.

Once they were out in the open, Nico said to Thalia, 'Okay, hold on tight. I'm gonna count to three, then you're gonna take off, okay?'

'Wait a second! Aren't you coming with me?' Thalia demanded.

'Are you kidding? I scare the crap out of these things. They'd throw me off at the first chance,' Nico said, like this was something obvious. 'You're gonna have to go this one solo.'

'What?' Thalia yelled. 'Nico di Angelo, you get me off this gods-damned beast right now or I swear to everything holy –'

'Go, Guido!' Nico exclaimed, and without further ado Guido took off, flapping his wings and rising into the air. Thalia cut off her threats to give a loud shriek and bury her face in Guido's mane, uttering prayers to her father. The pegasus flew in lazy circles a few times before decidedly getting bored of having a squealing madwoman on his back and landing right in front of Nico.

'Okay, Thalia, you can stop screaming now, you're on solid ground,' Nico said soothingly.

Thalia's head whipped to look at him, and the look in her eyes could only be described as murderous. 'Nico, I am going to kill you slowly, and then feed you to the harpies, and then burn your bones and scatter the ashes in the Styx,' she hissed, the color returning to her faces.

Nico smiled. 'You can't get off, can you?'

'No. Help.' As Nico helped her off the pegasus, trying to contain his laughter, Thalia added, 'by the way, I am so planning the next date.'

Rain

Nico couldn't sleep anyway that night. He hated the sound of rain and it always kept him up. However, when Thalia pounded at his door in the middle of the night, he pretended to be half-asleep and pissed off, just for the fun of it.

'What could you possibly want?' he groaned, opening the door.

Thalia stood soaking in her faded Green Day tee, black sweatpants and furry Batman slippers, clutching her pillow and shivering in the rain. 'Can I crash here?' she asked, her voice unusually small.

'Uh, yeah. Sure.' Nico opened the door wider, sweeping some of the junk coating the floor under the bed. Thalia instantly hopped onto the bed, rolling over and burying her face in her pillow.

'By the way, Thalia, you can take the bed, I insist,' Nico said in a monotone.

'Shut up, corpse breath,' Thalia retorted, her voice muffled by the pillow. Nico leaned against the side of the bed, crossing his arms.

'So, what was wrong with the big, spacious Zeus cabin?' Nico asked.

Thalia sighed and sat up, hugging her pillow to her chest. 'Thanks to all the empty spaciousness, the wind was really cold there,' Thalia said.

'So your solution to being cold was to walk out in the pouring, freezing rain,' Nico concluded. 'I see the logic in that, I really do.'

Thalia smacked Nico's head with the pillow. 'Not in the mood, di Angelo,' she snapped.

'Geez, okay. And they say men are violent,' Nico muttered venomously, rubbing the back of his head.

There was silence for a few beats, during which Nico listened to the insufferable noise of raindrops on the roof of the cabin, and then Thalia cleared her throat. 'Okay. I wasn't really cold.'

'I guessed.'

Thalia ran a hand through her messy black locks. 'It's just … I don't like the rain. It was raining the day I ran away from home, so the rain reminds me of my mom, and her death, and the big creepy statue of my dad in the cabin doesn't exactly help, and …' Thalia trailed off, squeezing her pillow tighter.

'I know. I get sad when stuff reminds me of Bianca, too,' Nico said, trying to sound sympathetic.

'I'm not sad,' Thalia snapped. 'The statue's just really creepy, okay?'

'Okay,' Nico agreed, hopping up onto the bed and hugging Thalia. She must have been either really tired or really sad, because she just went limp in his arms, resting her head against his shoulder.

Thalia was quiet for a long time. Nico was just beginning to think that she'd fallen asleep when she murmured, 'Despite all this, I really like the sound of rain. It calms me down.'

'Yeah. I really like it too,' Nico lied absently. He couldn't help but think that Thalia was still pretty with her hair damp and flat and tear tracks down her face. On a sudden, crazy impulse, Nico cupped Thalia's face and bent his head to kiss her gently.

Surprisingly enough, she didn't punch Nico in the face. In fact, when they broke apart, she grinned at him and said, 'About damn time.' Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

And yeah, the rain was still loud and annoying and Thalia was all cold and wet and Nico was one inch away from falling off the bed, but it was absolutely perfect.

So, I decided to end it on a slightly sappy note. Again, thank you all a million times for reading, reviewing, favoriting, alerting, and not killing me for almost-abandoning this thing. I have such a huge emotional attachment to this story and I'm sad to see it end, but hopefully the future will bring more good things! (And, as always ... review!)