Percy

"Say it! Go on, say it!" Nico said as he tightened his grip on Percy's neck.

"Okay! Hades is the best god ever!" Percy said quickly, almost choking but Nico didn't let him go.

"And?"

"You're better than me!"

"And?"

"You're awesome!"

"AND?"

"You're the best demigod in all the history of demigods!" Nico finally let go of Percy and Percy gasped for breath.

"Good, now that we settled that," Nico grinned, "Let's play a game." Jason was laughing at Percy as he held on to Hazel so she didn't sink while Hazel was just shaking her head disapprovingly at her friends.

"Why didn't you just dive underwater, Percy?" Hazel asked, "He'd to let you go then. That or drown." Hazel was right, why didn't he think of that?

"I don't know, maybe because oxygen wasn't going to my brain!" Percy glared at Nico. He was still smiling at how he'd made Percy say all that stuff that was SO NOT true!

"Well, I had my laugh. Here take Hazel," Jason said and Hazel stretched out her hands at Percy. Percy was reluctant to have arms around his neck again but he let Hazel get on his back. "So what are we going to play? He asked.

"I know. Percy, you have to close your eyes and try to catch me and Nico, but Hazel is going to tell you where to go so you have to do what she says," Jason said.

"Fine." Percy closed his eyes.

"Hazel, put your hands over his eyes so he doesn't cheat," Nico said. Percy felt Hazel put her hands on his eyes.

"You guys must really trust me," Percy said sarcastically.

"Ok, GO!" Jason shouted and Percy felt the water move, which meant Jason and Nico had swam away. Percy sighed at how Jason underestimated him. They WERE in water and he could easily feel Jason to the far right and Nico must've gotten out of the water because Percy couldn't feel him anymore.

"Nico, don't cheat!" He heard Hazel, "Get back in here!"

"No way! I already told you. I hate getting wet!" He shouted. Percy smiled and dumped twice the amount of water at Nico.

"PERCY!" Nico yelled at him.

"That's what you get for cheating Di Angelo!" Percy explained himself but Nico was already on the move, swimming straight at him.

"Uh oh," Percy started swimming away, "Hazel, you might want to take your hands off my face."

"But then you'd be cheating," Hazel responded.

"Fine," He humored her. "Which way?"

"To your left," she said.

"But Nico's swimming towards us from that direction."

"Yeah, aren't you supposed to catch him. He's pretty dumb. He's supposed to be swimming away from us, not for us." Obviously Hazel didn't see the danger that Percy was in.

"Screw this!" He said and swam to the right.

"Wait, Nico's behind us!"

"Good. Let's hope he stays like that," Percy said and continued to blindly swim who knows where.

"What are you doing, Jackson?" Percy heard Jason call out at them.

"Trying not get killed!" Percy responded.

"You're dead!" Nico said angrily behind him. Hazel was still telling him to turn around, that they could catch Nico since he was following them but Percy paid her no attention. He zig zagged through the water, u-turned, spiraled around until he felt Nico far away from him. He must've gotten tired. Percy hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Nico has anger issues," Percy told Hazel as he got out of the lake. Hazel finally took off her hands from his hands and jumped off him.

"That was so fun!" she said, "We were going so fast. We should do it again."

"Maybe when Nico isn't so moody," Percy promised. Meanwhile Nico was coming out of the water looking pretty wiped out. He was breathing heavily. He looked at Percy.

"I hate you, sometimes." He told him. Then smacked Percy at the back of his head.

"Ow, you need anger management classes, like Phoebe," Percy said.

"Seriously, Nico? You had to charge right at him, which I'm totally with you on that, but now we can't play," Jason said. "But you did hit Percy so I forgive you."

"Hey!" Percy complained.

"Are you guys done playing pool parties over there because we have to go," Phoebe told them.

"We better go, it's getting dark and I hate the dark," Hazel hugged Nico's arm. Nico didn't look too happy about it but didn't pull away. Percy looked at him.

"There's no point in trying to make her let go," Nico said, "She's stronger than you think."

"Will you hurry up already!" Phoebe continued to scream.

"Alright! We're coming!" Jason said and the four of them started heading towards the Hunters.

Nico

Percy was overreacting. Nico did NOT need anger management classes. So he got a bit mad and chased after him...and tackled him...and almost strangled him...and smacked him. Nope, Nico didn't see why Percy would think Nico had anger issues. Team Leo had left the Hunters alone for a while and were being carried on the wagon. It was night already and Percy and Jason were arguing, as usual, about who knows what while Hazel was humming a cheery type of song that got on Nico's nerves. She was sitting beside him and making some daisy crown from daisies that she'd made him help her pick. Honestly, he was the son of Hades, not Persephone! If he had to pick one more stupid useless plant from the ground, he was going to scream.

"Look, Nico. Isn't it pretty?" Hazel asked, holding up the flower crown. Yeah, Nico thought, pretty stupid,but he didn't say that. It would probably make her cry and the last thing he needed was feel bad about it.

"Yeah, it looks nice, Haze," he told her like a good brother should.

"Maybe you should try it on," she giggled and put it on his head.

"Hazel, I don't want-" He stopped himself. Hazel was giving him that adorable, innocent eyes that even he fell for. How could he say no to her? Nico knew she was not innocent, though. She knew perfectly well how cute she was and used it to her advantage and get what she wanted.

"Thanks," He mumbled, leaving the hideous crown on (well, to him it was hideous). Hazel smiled cheerfully. She wrapped her arms around his arm and put her head on his shoulder.

"Nighty night, Nico," she said and dozed off.

"Night," He told her. I better not be confused for a child of Demeter, Nico thought, that would be embarrassing. I don't want to be some obsessed gardener that worries about plants. He looked at Hazel, who was already fast asleep. He turned to Jason and Percy.

"Guys," Nico whispered, "Hazel's sleeping so shut up."

"Fine, but I'm still right," Percy said.

"You wish. Sleeping sounds nice, though," Jason yawned and made himself comfortable.

"I agree with you on that," Percy said. "By the way, nice hat, Nico." Percy and Jason both stiffened their chuckles.

Nico just gave them a cold smile, "You should be glad Hazel's here or I would pound you."

"Then thank her for me when she wakes up," Percy said and soon they were both sleeping, leaning on each other. Nico liked the night more. He felt more energized so he didn't usually slept as soon as the others. He wrapped his arm around his sister, to keep her warm from the cool night. An hour or so later, he too, fell asleep and Thalia put them all to bed when they had set up the camp for the night.

Just wanted to show that Nico can be a dangerous, violent person and a gentle caring brother.

~Melissa L.