Author's note: There's another fanart for this chapter! Alluka drew Nico fighting the Chimera from chapter 8. I've added a link to it in my profile ^_^

He'd never especially loved Cabin Thirteen. At the time he'd started building it he'd been a bit caught up in the excitement of having won the Titan war. For the first time ever he'd felt accepted by his dad and proud of his godly heritage. He'd gotten a bit carried away in celebrating the Hades-ness of the Hades Cabin though and might have possibly gone overboard in his attempt to make it match the ambience of the Underworld. That alone wasn't the real problem though; he'd run out of steam on the project mid construction. The initial friendliness of the other campers towards him since the war ended slowly began to taper off. Expressions of gratitude and appreciation inevitably slid back into the more familiar ones of fear and nervousness. Nico quickly realized that he might have been hasty in assuming that he was welcome at camp as a result of his help in the battle. The truth of the matter was that he was welcome when there was an emergency he might be able to assist with, but he'd obviously overstayed that welcome by naïvely assuming he should permanently live there. And so he'd decided that building a Hades Cabin was a mistake and bailed without finishing.

To his surprise, the next time he visited Camp Half-Blood he found that someone else had picked up where he'd left off and completed building it. Which was unfortunate, as apparently whoever had taken the initiative hadn't had the faintest clue what either Hades or the Underworld was like. Nico's beginning at a Hades tribute had been transformed into a hideous caricature of over-the-top morbid stereotypes. Instead of making him feel included, being in Cabin Thirteen only served as an inescapable reminder that none of the other demigods would ever understand him.

Or so he'd thought. He was less certain about that now.

Which is probably why he was still sitting around in Cabin Thirteen, when really, he ought to have been clear across the country by now.

Why was he still here?

He hadn't meant to return to Camp Half-Blood. He'd only meant to return to the reality where Camp Half-Blood existed. He'd just meant to check and make sure everything was back to normal. Then he was going to go right back to what was normal for him: running away.

Yet here he was. Sitting in a depressingly dark and gothic room, all by himself, staring at the rows of tackily decorated empty beds. He could hear the sound of other campers laughing and talking right outside. The familiar longing to go out and join them flared up.

But no, he knew better than to bother trying. The moment he stepped outside the buzz of conversation would have hushed. The crowd would have parted around him like he was carrying an infectious disease. What was the point?

Why was he wasting time hanging around? He knew from experience that it's less painful to simply leave under his own volition than to subject himself to constant shunning.

But…he just couldn't seem to make himself move.

The memory of Jason's arms wrapping around him and hanging on like Nico was some sort of essential lifeline wouldn't leave his head.

It scared him how good that had felt.

It scared him how much he had wanted it.

It scared him that it probably hadn't meant very much.

Jason had apparently thought he was the other Nico. He'd thought he'd been about to get killed. He was just relieved. That's all it had been about. Relief. Jason was a good person. He didn't want anyone to die; of course he'd act so happy to see him.

He had to be careful not to get the two Jasons confused. Just because the human Jason had had feelings for the human Nico didn't mean anything at all for this Jason. This Jason was used to Nico not being around. This Jason didn't know much about him beyond that unfortunate incident in Croatia. This Jason had Piper.

Too bad it was hard to remember that in light of the fact that this Jason still had all the friendliness, kindness, and caring qualities of the other Jason. He wasn't less desirable than the human Jason, simply less attainable. And he could add to that the fact that he shared all of the admirably heroic aspects that had lead to Nico's earlier crush on Percy.

An earlier crush that he was realizing he'd finally gotten over.

He'd tried to convince himself he'd been over it before. He hadn't been completely lying when he'd told Jason he didn't like Percy like that anymore. He'd been mostly over it. 80% maybe. It was hard to let go of something that had so strongly influenced and shaped him. Accepting the fact that the crush was never going to go anywhere was one thing, getting your heart to stay still every time you saw that person was entirely another. Getting over Percy was a slow progress, but he'd been working on it. The uncontrollability of his emotions was beginning to ebb.

Suddenly though, he found that he didn't have to work at it.

Suddenly Percy wasn't the person who made his pulse pick up and his breath catch whenever he was near. Percy was no longer the person constantly invading his thoughts. When Nico saw a crowd of people he found he was no longer scanning it for a flash of black hair: he was scanning it for blond.

The last remnants of his crush on Percy had finally dissipated…because he didn't have room for them anymore. He had a crush on someone else.

How had that happened? How had he fallen for Jason so fast? And hard? What had he done to himself?

He knew better than to have let this happen.

His heart was so screwed.

He knew the real reason he was sitting here in his cabin instead of trekking across the country: leaving Jason was going to hurt.

The problem though was that sticking around Jason was probably going to hurt even more. He already knew the drill. His infatuation and false hopes would build with every little interaction. And those hopes would get ground to dust on a daily basis as he watched the object of his desires be with someone else: someone who was more outgoing and more attractive and definitely more female. He knew he wouldn't be able to compete. And each second he'd have to watch Jason and Piper being happy together was going to feel like swallowing broken glass. And he'd hate himself for resenting them for being so happy together. He'd hate himself for not being able to control his feelings. He'd hate himself for not being good enough to find anyone who liked him like that too.

Well, it's not like he was a stranger to hating himself. He already had plenty of practice.

No big deal.

He wouldn't stick around long…just a few days to get used to being back. Like rehab. Quitting Jason would be too difficult to do cold turkey. He'd stagger the doses, seeing him a little less each day until he could stomach leaving for good. That's what Dr. Costas had insisted was necessary for stopping drugs, hadn't he? Jason had turned into Nico's drug of choice. He was going to have to do a Jason detox.

For his own sanity's sake though he needed to keep the doses small. Which is why he was currently ensconced in his cabin instead of being outside and actually interacting with the other campers.

He'd see them at dinner, he supposed. That ought to be enough.

Apparently the other campers disagreed. A loud knock disrupted him from his brooding.

Maybe it's Jason. The thought enthusiastically sprang up before Nico could squash it down.

He wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or relieved when he opened the door to find Percy standing there instead.

"Hey," said Percy, his face lighting up as his eyes connected with Nico's. "Wasn't sure you'd still be around!"

Nico shrugged. "I won't be for long."

Percy's face fell. "Oh. Well, you should reconsider that."

Nico just shrugged again.

"No, I'm serious," Percy continued. "No one wanted you to leave before, we were hoping you'd come back. Everyone would be really happy if you stayed."

"We both know that's not true," said Nico flatly. "But it's cool. I really don't care. I have things to do. The Underworld needs me."

The corners of Percy's mouth turned further downwards. He let out a somewhat resigned sigh. "Are you still mad at me?"

The question surprised Nico. "What? No. Of course not." He almost said 'why would I be?' but stopped himself. He didn't especially want to encourage Percy to delve too deep into Nico's personal motivations.

"I just sort of got the impression that you might have been mad at me before you left," continued Percy. "I mean, not that I really blame you, I know we had some major issues in the past. But I'd sort of thought you'd forgiven me? But then you started acting like you were mad again, and I was afraid it's my fault you left. I don't want you to feel like you have to avoid this place just 'cause of me, you know? So you should tell me if I've done something. I don't want to drive you away or anything."

Nico stared at Percy, somewhat taken aback. He hadn't really thought that Percy was paying close enough attention to him to have noticed anything like that. Percy seemed so oblivious most of the time. And he'd assumed if anything that Percy was relieved to not have to deal with him. But now Percy was looking at him with sincere worry and he felt unexpectedly guilty.

"I haven't been mad at you in years," Nico admitted. "You haven't done anything. We're cool."

Percy's tense frown relaxed. "Oh good," he said. "That's been bothering me for a while. I really hated thinking I'd done something to offend you. You're like a brother to me, you know?"

Nico didn't flinch as Percy said the damning words: like a brother. Such a well intended statement with so much potential to wreck havoc on his heart. He waited for the expected stab of pain at the reminder that Percy was unattainable; that he'd never ever look at Nico the way Nico saw him.

He felt nothing.

Percy was standing before him, just as attractive and friendly and appealing as he'd ever been, and Nico found that he felt completely indifferent.

Well, indifferent wasn't entirely accurate. He was relieved to hear that Percy cared about him. He found that he even believed him. It was really nice actually, having Percy seek him out and wanting to make sure they were okay. He didn't have to force the smile that began to form on his lips.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Me too."

"Good," said Percy, "I'm glad." He stuck his hands in his pockets. "So, we're about to start a game of capture the flag. I thought maybe you might want to join?"

"Oh…" said Nico. "Well…I don't know. I think maybe I'll sit it out this time."

Capture the flag. Nico wasn't sure if he was ready to interact with more than one or two campers at a time. Capture the flag would involve nearly the entire camp. He'd have to face down dozens of people, many of whom he would have never met before: people who would immediately judge him on his unwelcoming and morose appearance. Playing capture the flag sounded like an out and out nightmare.

"We could really use your help," Percy pressed. "It seriously isn't the same without you. Our team would have a huge advantage if you joined. It would pretty much guarantee that we'd win."

Percy was leveling him with a ridiculous puppy dog stare.

Nico sighed. "Yeah. Okay, sure," he conceded.

"Sweet!" Percy raised his hand to give Nico a high five. Nico was a little slow on the uptake and left Percy hanging in mid-air for several awkward seconds.

"I'll meet you by the arena in a few minutes," Nico said.

"Awesome." Percy flashed Nico one of his dazzlingly perfect grins as he left the cabin.

Nico stood in place for several minutes after he left, anxiety beginning to claw at his insides. Why had he just agreed to that? This was going to be awful. He was going to have to be around so many people and they were all going to be judging him and comparing him to some other version of himself that he'd never even met. Had they liked the other Nico better? Were they just pretending to be glad he was back? They'd all be having a good time and reminding Nico of how little he fit in. The sentiment of Percy wanting to include him was certainly nice, but Percy hardly spoke for everyone.

He stared at himself in a mirror (it had a ridiculous jet black frame of elaborate baroque curls—seriously, just who the Hades had been allowed to decorate in here) and ran his fingers through his hair several times. Then he changed his shirt. Then he admonished himself for changing his shirt…he was about to play a game that would involve scrambling around in the woods for crying out loud. He was probably about to get completely filthy and sweaty, why would he change into a clean shirt? He managed to convince himself that he was only concerned about his appearance because of all the campers who didn't know him well and might judge him for being a son of Hades. It absolutely wasn't because he wanted to look nice for Jason.

Nope.

Nope nope nope.

He failed to convince himself.

"I'm pathetic," he muttered, shaking his head (which undid all his efforts of finger combing his hair into place.)

Of course Jason would be on his team. Of course. Had someone planned that on purpose? Had Jason planned that on purpose? Why would Jason have planned that? Jason didn't know how he felt. Jason was probably just on his team because of Percy. Jason and Percy were pals, and Percy had asked Nico to play with them. That's all that was. It was just a coincidence.

He could totally handle this.

Jason caught his eye and shot him a mega-watt smile and Nico felt his bones start to liquefy.

He could totally not handle this.

He volunteered for the front lines, plunging into the enemy territory right away while it was still swarming with the opposing team members. He didn't especially care if he got tagged immediately and sent out of the game. All he cared about was that his own teammates were behind him. Where he wouldn't see them and have to get distracted by a certain someone's lean muscular body as they sprinted around with the light shining off their sun-bleached hair and their meltingly warm and open expressions every time they made eye contact with—oh Styx he was doing a lousy job of not getting distracted, wasn't he?

He took off at a mad run, dodging trees and campers. It wasn't hard for him to avoid getting tagged, he had more practice running than most of the people here. In fact, maybe he should just keep up with it, maybe if he reached the flag he shouldn't bring it back to his team. He could just grab it and keep going…. Too bad he was on an Island right now; Percy would thwart him with the water if he didn't shadow travel. Otherwise he could have just run right into Connecticut. He could have kept going straight to Canada. Or why even stop there? The Arctic Circle was somewhere he hadn't been yet. Why was he wasting his time on a meaningless game like this? Running was good. The clean burn of his muscles made it harder to think about things like….

"Watch out!"

A strong grip clamped around Nico's arm and jerked him to an unpleasantly abrupt stop. He thudded to a halt right before a large pile of leaves—a somewhat suspicious pile of leaves, come to think of it.

"Booby trap," said an excruciatingly familiar voice.

Nico didn't have to turn around to know that the very person he'd been running away from had caught him. Jason caused a light wind to unsettle the leaves and revealed a deep pit that had been dug in the forest floor. If Jason hadn't stopped him he would have fallen into it.

"I was trying to get an aerial view of the flag when I noticed you heading for that," Jason explained unnecessarily. His fingers were still tightly clamped on Nico's arm, and Nico glared at where the offending digits were trespassing. Jason immediately noticed and released his grip. "Sorry!" he apologized, taking a step backward. "Sorry, I know—the touching thing. Didn't mean to! I just didn't want you to fall."

Nico glared harder, trying to mentally convey, no, you idiot. It's not the touching that I mind. Not from you. It's that it doesn't mean anything to you and that hurts too much. Give me space so I don't lose my mind.

Jason didn't get the message.

"So, maybe we should team up?" Jason was offering. "If you run ahead I can fly above and use wind to divert anyone who tries to grab you."

"No," said Nico quickly. "I already had a solo plan."

"Oh." The casual smile Jason had been wearing slid off, surprised hurt freezing on his face. "Um, okay." He seemed at a loss for how to react, which was kind of a weird experience. Nico was used to Jason being collected and in-charge. Had he really disarmed him that easily?

He couldn't afford to dwell on it.

"If you keep standing there you're gonna get tagged." Nico stated the obvious and took off in a blind run.

Don't look back, he told himself.

Whatever you do, don't look back.

Don't think about how he just looked at you.

Don't look back.

Nico looked back.

Jason was still standing where he'd left him. His arms were crossed and he was frowning heavily. A Demeter kid was barreling right at him, and he was utterly oblivious to the fact that he was mere seconds away from sitting out of the game. Nico considered running back or maybe causing a rift in the ground to thwart the opponent. Or maybe he should—

The entire word turned to static.

"—ico?"

His head was splitting.

And Jason's head was seriously invading his personal space.

"Ow," said Nico.

"Can you hear me?" Worry laced Jason's voice. He held a finger out in front of Nico's face and began moving it back and forth. "Track my finger," Jason instructed.

Nico followed Jason's erratically moving finger, not because he'd been told to, but because it was hard to ignore something being waved four inches from your eyes.

"Okay, good, I don't think you're concussed." Jason smiled in relief, apparently satisfied by Nico's ability to focus.

"Did I just run into a tree?" asked Nico, already suspicious of the answer.

"Yep."

"Figures."

Nico sighed and tried to get up. Jason stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To get the flag," said Nico automatically.

'Don't even think about it," said Jason. "The only place you're going is your cabin. Or the infirmary. Take your pick."

"I'm fine," insisted Nico.

"Your face is bleeding." Jason reached out and swiped his thumb across Nico's forehead. His touch was light but the action caused Nico to wince. There was a raw spot there that he hadn't noticed and the slight movement caused it to sting angrily. Jason's finger was sticky and red when he pulled away.

"That tree must have really pissed you off to cause you to head-butt it like that." Jason gave a weak laugh.

Nico ignored the pale attempt at humor and tried to shove off the arm Jason was holding him down with. Jason's grip held fast. "Lemme up," he complained.

"I'm going to take you to the infirmary," Jason instructed. "You hit that tree really hard."

"You are not taking me to the infirmary!" Nico snapped. "Let me go! I've gotten gored by monsters and not bothered with the stupid infirmary! So have you! I'm fine!"

"You completely knocked yourself out," said Jason calmly. "You just need to sit somewhere quiet and have a bit of nectar or something. I'm not dragging you to the E.R., chill."

"I'm fine," Nico insisted again.

"I know."

There was concern in Jason's eyes though that belied his assurance.

"I'll just go back to my cabin," Nico muttered, partly to shut Jason up and partly because he actually wanted to go there. He couldn't handle much more of everyone staring at him, especially Jason with his obnoxiously caring and sympathetic expression. It made his stomach feel weird.

Jason tentatively released his grip on Nico's arm. Nico pulled himself up and stalked out of the woods.

It didn't take long for him to notice he was being followed.

"What are you doing?" he said in exasperation, spinning around.

"Coming with you," said Jason with a shrug.

"I don't need a babysitter," said Nico harshly.

"No," Jason agreed. "But I just got thrown out of the game so I could use some company for a bit."

Nico opened his mouth, an unkind retort ready on his lips. He met Jason's eyes and his memory skipped back to a few days ago. How warm and solid his body had been pressing against him as they'd watched that movie. How disconcertingly comfortable he'd felt with that. How easy Jason had been to talk to and how desperately he'd wanted that time with him to stretch on forever. How much he'd regretted not letting Jason get close to him sooner.

And what was he doing now? Pushing him away just like he always had, as if he hadn't learned a damn thing from his experience.

Except he had learned something: he'd learned that his heart—which he'd thought irreparably damaged—was apparently intact enough that it was poised to get shattered all over again.

Shielding himself from that kind of trauma was the smart thing to do.

Too bad all intelligent thoughts completely fled his capacity when Jason was looking at him with that impossibly fond and hopeful expression.

He was sunk.

"Okay," said Nico with a sigh. "I guess that won't kill me."

Probably a lie.

"My company's only lethal to monsters," Jason quipped. "I'd say you're safe."

Nico suppressed the urge to make a self-depreciating jab about how that didn't guarantee his safety at all and just silently trudged back to his cabin.

"Sorry about the décor," he muttered as he herded Jason in. "I had nothing to do with it."

Jason snorted. "Hey at least you have actual furniture. And you know, the lack of an eternal thunderstorm is pretty nice too. I'd trade with you any day. It's ridiculously hard to get any sleep in my cabin."

"I'm not sure that having coffins for beds is a real improvement over no furniture," Nico griped.

"Have you ever tried sleeping on a marble floor?" Jason asked incredulously.

"Yes." With all the time Nico had spent on the run, he'd tried sleeping on just about every surface known to man. Having beds was a fairly novel experience for him.

"Oh." Jason clearly hadn't expected that answer and frowned. Nico could see his demeanor sobering as he started thinking harder about the time Nico had spent away from camp.

"I don't envy your giant hippy dad sentinel though," Nico quickly added, hoping to derail Jason from the obvious worry-about-Nico train he'd been embarking on.

The diversion was successful. "Oh yeah, I know, right?" Jason immediately agreed. "It's super creepy, isn't it? Talk about a mood killer." His face suddenly reddened. "I mean, not that there's any kind of mood to kill or anything—er—ha ha, that, um, sounded awkward." He coughed. "So, erm, you got any nectar in here?"

Nico quickly looked away. He didn't want to think about any sort of moods Jason might have been disrupted from while in his room. He especially didn't want to think about whom he'd likely been with when those moods where thrown off. Like Nico, Jason usually had his cabin to himself. Which meant he'd probably spent a lot of time in there with Piper enjoying the guaranteed privacy. And….

Well. Being jealous of Piper was now a new thing he was going to have to deal with. He didn't especially like the feeling. He'd never had anything personally against her before. Feeling uncontrollably resentful towards Annabeth had been bad enough, he already felt plenty guilty about that. Now he was going to have yet another reason to feel like a terrible person.

"Over there," Nico mumbled, neither looking in the direction he was pointing nor at Jason. "In the cabinet that looks like it was acquired from Dracula's garage sale."

Creaking hinges signaled that Jason had had no trouble finding it. It was followed by a tearing sound and the clomp of Jason's approaching footsteps.

Nico held out his hand for the nectar but Jason bypassed him and began dabbing at Nico's forehead with a nectar dampened paper towel. Nico's skin immediately began to tingle. He couldn't tell if that was the affect of the nectar working its magic or of Jason touching him.

"I can do that!" he immediately objected.

"Of course you can," said Jason, not halting his ministrations. "But I can do it better since I don't need a mirror to see what I'm doing."

"This is just a waste of nectar," Nico continued to complain. "That was barely a scratch. We didn't need to even bother doing anything for it."

"If you hadn't done anything to it, it probably would have gotten infected," Jason lectured. "A head infection could go straight to your brain. Do you really want to have survived dozens of monsters and two wars, only to get taken out by a tree?"

"You're being melodramatic."

"It's necessary to get through to you."

"Ugh." Nico sighed. "You sound just like the other version of you."

Jason stilled, his hand still pressing gently against Nico's forehead. All of Nico's senses funneled into that small spot above his eyes. He could feel his blood pulsing just below his skin, the dulling sting of the abrasion and the ghosting warmth of Jason's fingertips around the edges of the paper towel. He wanted those fingers to move over and touch him somewhere that wasn't raw and sore. He wanted to be able to block out that particular desire. He couldn't effectively shut his mind off enough to ignore it. His nerves suddenly felt taut as a bowstring.

"You should tell me about the stuff you saw while you were gone," Jason said, his voice slightly distant and distracted. "I'll admit, I've been pretty curious."

Nico pried Jason's hand off his forehead. He didn't especially want to, but he needed to break the contact if he was going to be able to think clearly. "I think that's good enough," he said. "I can feel it starting to heal already."

Jason reluctantly complied and backed up to sit on the bed across from the one Nico had sat down on. "So tell me about it," he prodded again.

"It was pretty quiet," Nico mumbled, staring past Jason and at an obsidian wall. "I mostly just saw a lot of Nico's school. He had a nice apartment. Life was pretty easy there." He let his gaze flit over to Jason just for a moment. Jason was perched stiffly on the edge of the bed and was biting his lip, looking like he wanted to ask something. No words came out.

"I saw a lot of you," Nico continued, kind of feeling like he was confessing a dirty secret or something. "You have terrible taste in movies, by the way."

"No I don't!" Jason immediately retorted.

Nico skeptically raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"I don't even watch a lot of movies," Jason amended.

"A blessing, given the types I now know you'd gravitate to if you did." Nico smirked.

"Yeah?" Jason challenged. "Like what? Tell me about them."

"They're beyond description. Too terrible for words. You'd have to see them."

"Okay," said Jason. "Let's do it."

"Wait, what?"

"Let's watch them," Jason announced.

"I didn't mean seriously when I said you'd have to see them," Nico backtracked.

"You just challenged my good taste," said Jason, crossing his arms over his chest. "I demand to see your evidence so I may duly defend myself."

"I wasn't really insulting your taste," Nico corrected. "I was criticizing the other Jason. Not you specifically."

"Is he preferable to me?" Jason suddenly asked.

"What?" Nico practically sputtered.

Preferable? Was the other Jason preferable? The other Jason had been pretty awesome. He'd made Nico feel at ease in a way that no one had in his life since finding out he was a demigod. He'd been supportive of Nico in a way he'd never experienced…ever. Even Bianca (and admitting this—even just silently inside his own head—made him feel like he was betraying her) hadn't made Nico feel as included and accepted as Jason had. Although if he were honest with himself, Nico knew that this Jason would be like that too if Nico would just let him. And this Jason could understand him in a way that the other one never could. No amount of supportiveness could substitute for really knowing what someone had been through and how they felt. The human Jason would always be wondering about the demigod part of Nico's life, it had shown in his occasional nervousness when Nico alluded to the fighting he'd done in his past. For all of the positive aspects of their relationship, there would always have been some underlying tension. But this Jason got him. He'd been through nearly as many hellish trials as Nico had. He'd seen a lot of the same horrors that haunted Nico. This Jason wasn't just supportive, but he understood what he was supporting. Nico had liked the human version quite a lot. But really, the only thing about him that was genuinely preferable was his feelings for Nico.

"No, of course not," he added. "Why would you ask that?"

"Because you just said you saw a lot of him," Jason explained. "Yet I have to practically twist your arm backwards to get you to hang out with me. But apparently you liked hanging out with him enough to even sit through watching stuff you hated."

"I didn't have much choice," Nico argued.

"Now that's a lie if ever I heard one," Jason scoffed. "The freaking gods can't make you do something if you don't really want to. I don't believe for a second that some mortal version of me could force you to do anything."

"I was trying to not disrupt Nico's life any more than necessary," Nico explained. "He wasn't forcing me. I just didn't want to mess everything up for them by acting too different than the Nico who belonged there."

"So hanging out with me is just an obligation you were sucking up." Jason stated it as if that were a fact rather than a question.

"What? No. Stop putting words in my mouth. It wasn't like that."

Hanging out with Jason had been a lifeline. But he couldn't admit that. It would seem too weird and needy.

"Well, that's how it seems to me," Jason continued. "Because you never once bothered to come back and visit. I mean, I get you not wanting to hang around. But you could have at least just stopped by now and again and said 'hi.' You could have let us know you were still alive and stuff."

I did stop by, Nico thought to himself. You just didn't see me.

"I wasn't aware anyone cared."

"People cared," Jason said predictably. "I cared."

"Whatever." Nico waved the assurance off. As if there had been any chance Jason would have said anything else. He wasn't about to let himself believe that it meant anything. "We can watch the movies if you want to that badly."

"Good." Jason visibly brightened. "I'm holding you to that. Don't you dare leave camp until we've watched them."

"You're going to be sorry," said Nico, deliberately dodging the matter of when he might leave camp. He wasn't ready to make any promises about when his need to bolt might manifest. "I wasn't exaggerating. Ten minutes in, you'll rue the day you decided to subject yourself to this."

"Did you seriously just say 'you'll rue the day'?" Jason's eyebrows shot up ridiculously high. "Who even talks like that? Real people don't actually say that, it's like a comic book villain catchphrase. Are you sure you're really my Nico? You just sounded like the other one."

Nico tried to ignore the way his heart jumped at Jason's emphasis on 'my Nico.'

"See?" he said in exasperation. "I've been brain damaged by too much bad television. Look what you're doing to me."

Jason stared at Nico blankly for a moment and then slowly began to snicker. In a matter of seconds it had escalated to full blown laughter.

Nico tried to look irritated but the sight of Jason laughing so hard made it difficult to stay focused on his irritation. The corner of his mouth began to tick upwards in spite of himself. Pretty soon he was snickering helplessly too.

Somehow Jason had managed to talk him into going to the campfire.

He must have gone temporarily insane.

"Man, this is just awesome," said Percy, looking around at the surrounding campers with a pleased expression. Although it actually came out more like 'An, is es jaus ahsham' as he currently had about five marshmallows in his mouth and hadn't bothered to swallow them first.

Nico tried not to make a face. Had Percy always been that disgusting with his food? He'd somehow failed to notice before.

"It's so great to have the whole gang back together again," he continued, a bit more articulately. There was a long string of melted marshmallow goo hanging off of one of his fingers. When Percy noticed he promptly started licking if off, causing a bit of an awkward pause before he finished with, "We should get Frank and Hazel to come visit so it can be a proper reunion."

Nico meant to say 'Don't plan anything yet, I'm not sure I'm staying long enough for you to bother.' But instead he accidently replied with, "Don't forget Reyna."

"Well yeah, of course!" Percy perked up even more at the suggestion. "How could we forget Reyna? We'll definitely invite her. Hey, we should have a party."

"No. Let's…not."

Apparently no one was listening to Nico though, because his objection was completely ignored in favor of the others excitedly commenting on Percy's idea.

"I'll bring my tin can casserole!" volunteered Grover. "And enchiladas! We can't have a party without enchiladas!"

"I'll DJ!" exclaimed Leo. "It'll be the perfect opportunity to test out my Leomeister Funkmatron 4000 mixing machine! I just programed an algorithm for it that calculates the perfect song combinations to put the highest ratio of listeners in an amorous mood. No one will be single by the end of the party, guaranteed!"

"I vote Travis DJs," said Calypso immediately.

"Seconded," agreed Annabeth. "All in favor of Travis for the party's DJ raise your hand."

Every hand around the campfire went up with the exception of Leo's and Nico's (because raising his hand would be acknowledging the fact that there would be a party at all, and Nico was still strongly opposed to the idea.)

"Sweeeeeet," said Travis. He and Connor high fived each other.

"Well if Travis is the DJ then I guess it's up to me to bring the booze," said Connor with an exaggerated wink.

"Don't even think of bringing any booze," Will Solace immediately interjected. "That is so irresponsible."

"I'll bring the booze for everyone except for Will," Connor mock whispered, making an 'okay' symbol with his fingers and winking at Will.

Will gave him the evil eye but didn't object further, sensing it was futile trying to stop either of the Stoll brothers if they wanted to do something. "Enjoy your hangovers," he muttered. "I'm not doing a dang thing to help you guys when you're all sick as dogs."

"Man, you guys are seriously going to miss out," Leo joined in muttering. "Don't come crying to me when no one wants to dance with any of you."

"I don't need a fancy schmancy machine to get people to dance with me," Percy announced, cheerfully slinging his arm around Annabeth. "I've already got that covered."

Annabeth carefully pried his arm off and forced Percy to wipe his fingers on his jeans before allowing him to return his hand to her shoulder. Nico watched the whole thing, marveling at how completely unaffected by jealousy he was. Just a few months ago seeing that casual interaction would have shot a sharp pain through his chest.

Not that he was immune from that pain now of course. It just wasn't Percy or Annabeth that were likely to deliver it. Any moment now he was surely going to be subjected to some affectionate display between Jason and Piper. He'd been bracing himself all day for it to start.

It was kind of weird that hadn't happened yet, come to think of it. Piper and Jason weren't sitting together. Jason was currently wedged between him and Percy. Piper was sitting on the dead opposite side of the campfire, quietly talking to Lacy and Juniper. She'd barely even looked their way the entire evening…very weird. Nico supposed she was giving Jason space because he was trying so hard to get Nico to stay at camp. He'd probably told her he needed some time with his friends tonight. That seemed like the sort of thing he might have done.

Nico zoned out a bit, ignoring the conversation in favor of staring at the fire. The fire was hypnotic and staring at it was strangely calming. More importantly, it prevented him from turning his head and staring at Jason. And not staring at Jason was key. He was going to act normal and nonchalant if it killed him.

Too bad Jason wasn't going to let him do that.

"Here," said Jason, thrusting something warm and sticky into his hands.

Nico looked down to find a s'more clutched in his fingers.

"I'm not that hungr—" he began to say, but Jason cut him off with a stern look. Nico gave up objecting and crammed the messy concoction into his mouth.

S'mores were one of the many things that he hadn't touched since he was ten years old. He sort of remembered liking them, but they were one of those foods that only appeared at social events like campfires. And until tonight he'd shunned all group campfires since Bianca's death. He didn't feel welcome at them and it wasn't worth putting up with the other campers just to score some junk food snacks.

The s'more currently in his mouth tasted even better than he remembered. He wasn't sure if it was the s'more itself or the fact that Jason had made it for him.

It was probably Jason. He'd never been patient enough to get his marshmallows to consistently melt all the way through before jamming them between the chocolate and graham crackers. Jason was definitely better at it than he'd ever been.

Was Jason always this good at making them, or had he put extra effort into this one because he was making it for Nico?

You are putting way too much thought into this, Nico chastised himself. It has nothing to do with you. Jason goes to all the campfires. He just has more practice at making them than you ever got.

Jason was smiling triumphantly as he watched Nico eat it.

"I'll make you another one?" he offered.

Nico began to nod, because his willpower was weak and dang, that had been delicious, and the fact that Jason was making it made him feel dangerously giddy…but then his eyes drifted across the fire again and landed on Piper. He thought he caught her staring at him, but when he focused on her her attention darted back to Lacy. She wasn't smiling. The lump of marshmallow goop he'd just swallowed suddenly felt heavier sliding down into his stomach.

"Don't you want to make one for Piper?" he asked.

"Nah, that would be kind of harsh," Jason said with a shrug.

Nico gave him a puzzling look, not understanding. What could possibly be harsh about making someone a s'more?

"Well first of all, marshmallows aren't vegetarian," Jason explained, catching Nico's confused expression. "Piper won't eat them because of the gelatin in them. And secondly, it would be kind of awkward because we—"

"Percy, no!" Annabeth's dismayed cry cut Jason off from whatever he'd been about to say.

All eyes turned to where Percy sat, rivers of chocolate streaming down both his arms.

"Hm," Percy said. "It seemed like a good idea."

"How is sticking an entire chocolate bar directly into the fire ever a good idea?"

"Well, the chocolate never melts enough just from touching the marshmallow," Percy explained. "I was trying to improve the consistency."

"Well you certainly made it consistent." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You are not touching me until you've taken a shower."

"Aw, come on," Percy whined, waving his arms around and threatening to hug her. "I know you love chocolate."

"In your dreams Seaweed Brain." Annabeth scooted over to the end of the log she was sitting on.

"Shoulda asked me for help," Leo announced. He had a marshmallow skewered on every finger of his right hand and was systematically toasting them with small controlled blasts of flames from his left. "I can melt stuff with precision."

"Yeah but that removes all the challenge from it," Percy retorted. "What's the fun in having a perfect s'more if I didn't make it myself?" He sloppily started licking the liquefied chocolate off of one of his arms.

"It's actually better if someone else makes it."

Nico felt his cheeks heat up as nearly everyone in the circle turned and looked at him. He hadn't thought he'd said that loud enough for anyone else to hear. He certainly hadn't meant to say that loud enough for anyone else to hear. He hadn't meant to say that at all, actually.

He started to get up, his instincts screaming at him to run away and get out of the limelight. A strong hand clamped onto his leg.

"You can't go yet, this one is for you." Jason gestured towards the marshmallow at the end of the stick in his other hand (the hand not firmly griping Nico.)

Now everyone was definitely staring at him. Piper's stare was the most intense of all and Nico felt like she was reading his thoughts with her eyes. Did she know how he felt? She was a child of Aphrodite after all, was this the sort of thing that they could just detect without being told? He'd never heard anyone mention Piper having abilities like that. But then, people didn't really make an effort to talk to him a whole lot. He was sure there were lots of facts about the other demigods he wasn't aware of. Was she mad at him? Her expression didn't seem mad per se. Just…intense. It redoubled his desire to get very far away from the campfire.

Jason wasn't letting go though. Nico would just make a bigger spectacle of himself if he struggled to get free of his grip.

Did he care?

He probably shouldn't care. There was definitely a time before when he wouldn't have. He would have just prioritized getting away from everyone. What did it matter how he looked to them or what they thought? It's not like their preexisting opinions of him were flattering to start with. What did it even matter if he made them worse? All that mattered was getting away.

But if he bolted now it wouldn't look like he was running away from everyone. It would look like he was running away from Jason. And for some reason he hated the idea of everyone assuming that.

He hated the idea of Jason assuming that.

He was stuck between two hard spaces.

He made the mistake of glancing at Jason. The expression in Jason's eyes was almost as intense as Piper's. There was something different about the way he was looking at him though. There was an entirely different edge to it.

Maybe it was just the firelight reflecting off his glasses.

Nico lifted his arms up and pretended that he had just moved to stretch. After a theatrically long bout of extending his muscles he slowly sat back down again, all the while mentally willing everyone to stop staring at him.

"Hey so did you guys hear about the incident with the lost Anemoi Thuellai that got stuck in the stables last week?" Percy's voice loudly broke everyone's attention, and the many eyes trained on Nico quickly diverted. Several people commented and Percy launched into an animated story that Nico couldn't quite manage to pay attention to, despite his gratefulness for the distraction.

Deep shadows enveloped most of the circle, held at bay by only the smallest ring of light from the fire. The temptation to simply shift a few inches and dive right into one of them was constant. It would be so easy to escape.

And yet…not. Although Nico had managed to get back, he still couldn't shake his mistrust of shadow traveling. Was he playing Russian roulette every time he used the shadows now? Would one of his journeys inevitably send him into an entirely different world again? Would it be the same one as before or somewhere else? What would he do if that happened?

It was weird. He hadn't wanted to leave the other Nico's world. And yet, despite that he didn't want to go through the experience again either. He was as relieved to be back as he was disappointed. He didn't know what to make of things. He just knew that the shadows now made him more nervous than they used to, and it was probably stupid of him to keep using them for things that weren't actually important. He'd have to have a talk with his dad about it soon.

"He's neglecting to mention that it was actually Blackjack who chased off the Venti, not him." Nico started to find Jason leaning way closer to him than he had been a second ago. His skin was dancing with warm oranges and yellows from the glow of the fire and Nico was hit with an inexplicable urge to reach out and run his fingers across Jason's cheek to see if he really felt as invitingly warm as he looked. Nico was mortified at the thought and pulled the sleeves of his jacket down over his fingers, clenching the cuffs tightly.

His damage control was short lived though because Jason then handed him another s'more, which he had no choice but to let go of his jacket to accept.

Jason's fingers brushed against his as he passed it, sending a mild jolt through Nico's skin.

"Thanks." He could barely manage a hoarse whisper. He glanced down at his still tingling fingers and then back up at Jason. Jason was smiling contentedly but Nico couldn't tell if that meant he'd felt what Nico just had. He might have just been smiling because he was having a good time, or perhaps he was relieved that Nico was eating. It was probably stupid of him to assume that touching him had been anything but an unremarkable accident to Jason. He probably hadn't felt anything out of the ordinary. He probably hadn't even noticed it had happened.

Nico shot another guilty glance in Piper's direction before bending over to focus on eating his s'more. He ate it more carefully than the first one, this time taking a moment to appreciate the fact that it had been made especially for him. Noticing how his marshmallow was perfectly browned and not even a little bit burnt. The outside was crisp and the inside uniformly molten. The graham cracker had been broken in half with precision, leaving no jagged or uneven sides to either half. The ideal amount of chocolate had been used. It was, quite frankly, perfect.

But then, how else would he expect anything made by Jason to be?

"You're really good at those," he mumbled, licking the crumbs off his fingers.

"You'd be good at them too if you came to more campfires," Jason retorted.

"Hmm." Nico couldn't bring himself to actually agree with that. Although the outright refusal he intended to give also failed to happen.

"Seriously, you really ought to come more, I'd…I'd really like that."

Nico stole another glance at Jason. He was still smiling, although not as strongly as before. There was a nervous tilt to his lips.

"Maybe," Nico finally conceded. "We'll see."

Jason grinned.

Author's note: Well...I'm afraid that this is the last chapter that's totally done. So I can no longer promise clockwork weekly updates. Chapter 11 will probably be mostly on time-ish because it's close to finished already. But chapters 12 and 13 will probably take longer than a week for me to post. I promise I won't make you guys wait for months for them though, I'm working on this almost every single day. But unfortunately my writing speed is a bit slower than a chapter per week. I'll do my best to write as fast as I can! If I seem like I'm taking too long feel free to PM me or swing by tumblr and poke me for status updates. ^_^;;; (And note that I'm actually 'brokengrackle' over there. Didn't join tumblr fast enough to be able to keep this name for my url, meh.)