DISCLAIMER: Characters are not in my possession at this moment. Sorry to disappoint.

A/N: How have you guys not tracked me down and killed me yet? jfc I suck

~~~oOo~~~

The morning after the roof gathering, Hazel came to find Nico on his way to breakfast.

"What happened?" She demanded as she fell into step beside him.

"What?"

"I saw Leo leaving Piper's room this morning."

"Is that where he was?"

"Mhmm. Piper, Leo, and I have a pact that if there are any roommate issues then we are welcome in the others' rooms. We all had lots of issues with them earlier this year, so we came up with it." Nico's mind flashed back to the two bathroom bags under his sink. That would explained why they're there.

"Well, Leo's weird. He probably decided that he was done bugging me."

"No and no because you two were getting along great last night and we only turn to the roommate pact if it's a big deal, so something happened."

"You're just like Percy. Wait, no, you're actually way better than Percy, but you two still both read into things too much."

"Listen, I'm just worried about him, okay? So, please, put my mind at ease and tell me what happened. Please."

"Fine. I told him that he's not fooling me. And he freaked out and that's all I know."

"Not fooling you with what?" Hazel furrowed her brow.

"Everything. Look, it doesn't matter. You can bother him about it later if you really want, but right now let's just go eat," he quickened his pace, trying to get Hazel to the table before she could ask anymore. Because he wasn't really sure what he should say to her. It wasn't his deal to tell other people. Luckily, when they sat down, a new topic was presented to them at once.

"Percy sat with her again," Piper nodded her head towards Calypso's table, and, sure enough, Percy was sitting there too. Nico wasn't good with feelings and social cues, but even he could tell that Calypso was batting her eyes at Percy.

"Where's Annabeth today?" Nico asked.

"Sick. Probably from last night." Piper answered.

"What's going on?" Frank looked completely lost, which was to be expected since he hadn't been around lately.

"There's a new girl named Calypso and she's been a bit antisocial, I guess. Oh yeah, she's supposed to be cursed. And Percy made friends with her. And it looks like she likes him," Jason summarized.

"Oh. And Annabeth doesn't know?"

"No reason to tell her, really. I mean, she'll come back and make it clear that Percy's taken. He's just so oblivious he doesn't even realize that she's falling for him," it was Piper that answered Frank this time.

"If she makes a move on him then Percy'll set her straight. You just have to be blunt with him, you know? So whichever happens first, it'll still get taken care of," Hazel put in.

And so the rest of breakfast was spent discussing Calypso and Percy. Leo never showed up. Nico wondered if he'd been too blunt with Leo last night. But it had just sort of...come out. Anyway, he'd probably needed to hear it. Because wow did that boy have some issues and he needed to deal with them, so maybe Nico reminding him of them had been a good thing.

But he started to worry more about it as the days went on. By the time Saturday came around, Leo had still stayed out of Nico's sight. And it wasn't as if that particularly bothered Nico. He wasn't a huge Leo fan. But it did bug him that he had said something very personal to Leo. Something only a close friend would say. And Leo was avoiding him because of it. But he ignored the small part of him that was dissapointed when he entered his room to find it empty. To see that one more of Leo's possessions had disappeared. He reminded himself of all the reasons that Leo being gone was a good thing, no matter the reason. And he was able to convince himself that he really didn't care that much, and there was no reason for him to track down Leo and try to talk it out. In fact, talking it out would be the worst way to handle it. Because, really, look how their last talk had turned out.

"Nico?" Hazel knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Nico called as he abandoned his science project to open the door.

"Wanna grab lunch?"

"Sure. But I thought you were hanging with Frank today?"

"He has archery for a couple hours," she smiled, "and anyway, I wanted to spend time with you too."

"Come on, let's go," Nico couldn't help but smile back at his little sister and take her hand.

When they entered the cafeteria it was no surprise to see Percy talking animatedly with Calypso. He'd been spending more time with her than he had with them lately. Nico thought the group was pretty lonely without Percy, Annabeth, and Leo. It was pretty obvious that everyone else agreed. The conversation was subdued and quiet at their table today, as it had been for the last couple of days, but all conversation was soon cut off when Piper gestured to Calypso's table.

When Nico looked, he saw why she'd been so interested in it. Percy and Calypso seemed to be having a serious discussion, and although he couldn't hear what was being said, to Nico it looked like a confession on Calypso's part. Percy's expression was stunned and a little bit panicky. Like he didn't know what to do. He scratched the back of his head and smiled nervously, saying something that displeased Calypso. Then she said something in return, head down and shoulders shaking. Percy tried saying something more to her, but she stood up and left. Soon after, a very distraught Percy joined them at their table.

"What's wrong?" Hazel was the one brave enough to ask.

"Calypso told me she liked me, but when I said I was with Annabeth she got upset and said she never wanted to see me again," Percy put his head down on the table and sighed.

They'd all assumed that something along those lines had happened, but none of them knew what to do about it.

"Where's Jason?" Percy asked.

"With Leo. I can take you to them," Piper offered. Percy nodded and she took his arm and lead him away.

"Guess it's just us for today," Hazel turned to Nico. He nodded. It did seem that way.

But the whole gang turned up for dinner. Except Annabeth, who was still out sick.

"See, I told you all she was a bad egg. But you ignored me," Leo was ranting about Calypso.

"Leo, she was just upset," Piper shoved him playfully. "You should know how much being rejected hurts." She was teasing in an affectionate, sisterly way. But Nico saw the second that Leo's face distorted into one of hurt. The comment had hit a little too close to home. But soon he was shoving Piper back with a huge smile in place.

"Yeah, but it's not that bad. C'mon, she was lucky enough to have a great guy come and sit with her and be friends with her even though she sucks, so I think it was unreasonable of her to react like that."

"Can we just drop it?" Percy asked, cutting off Piper's retort.

~~~oOo~~~

Nico came into his room at a late hour. He'd been stuck listening to Percy babble about absolutely nothing at the table for hours. Apparently he got like that sometimes, and usually Annabeth dealt with him, but since she was sick everyone had abandoned ship early so that they wouldn't be stuck with him. And it hadn't been that bad. Percy had never lifted his head from the table, so Nico had just read and mm-hmmed so that Percy thought he was being listened to. And sometimes, he'd actually gotten onto some interesting topics, and Nico had actually listened. But it had monopolized his night. Not that that was a legitimate complaint either, seeing as he never did anything anyway. And it was a good excuse to have not been working on his science project.

Even if it hadn't been a bad night, Nico was tired, and planned on taking a shower and then heading right to bed. But when he stumbled into the bathroom, he was startled to find the shower already occupied. So startled that he couldn't move. He just stood there, wide-eyed, staring at the blurry figure behind the shower curtain and listening as "Eye of the Tiger" was loudly sung and echoing around the bathroom, the singer oblivious as of now to the fact that he wasn't alone. But, because the top half of the shower curtain was clear plastic, as soon as he turned around he saw that he had company. And his eyes widened as they locked with Nico's.

"What the fuck?!" Leo screamed, and Nico went completely red, finally realizing what was happening.

"Oh-my-god-I'm-so-sorry-I-didn't-mean-oh-god-I-thought-you-weren't-oh-my-god," Nico spluttered out.

"Out! Get out!" and Nico was finally able to make his limbs work, stumbling out of the room and collapsing on the floor on the other side of the closed door. He buried his face in his arms, squeezed his eyes shut, and bit his lips, trying to not freak out. Because shit. Shit shit shit shit. He'd accidentally walked in on Leo taking a shower! He got up on shaky legs and made it to his bed, deciding to skip the shower for tonight. He crawled into bed and pulled the covers over his head, willing himself to fall asleep. But he didn't. He was still up when Leo came out of the bathroom, and feigned sleep. He heard Leo coming up to his bed and was certain that he'd want to start a yelling match or possibly a battle to the death. But Leo just muttered 'fuck' and climbed into his own bed.

~~~oOo~~~

Nico didn't run into Leo until lunch the next day, and he was too busy sulking to pay Nico any mind.

"What's up with him?" Nico whispered to Piper.

"He got paired up with Calypso for a science project," she explained.

"Science seems to be dishing out misery lately," Nico muttered, thinking of his own science project. The one that was due on Friday. And he'd made absolutely no progress on it. Still, better than having to work with someone he hated (or anyone, for that matter), he figured. But he was glad that Leo had been saddled down with it, since he had a rather one-track mind, it was more than likely that he'd be too caught up in complaining about Calypso to initiate any sort of uncomfortable conversation about last night's incident. Not that it was likely either of them would want to actually talk about it, but extra reassurance was nice. Besides, it might be enough to get their relationship back to normal, after the rooftop and shower encounters. Nico frowned. What was their normal relationship? Bickering? Yelling? Constant annoyance on his side? Why did he want that back?

"Oh I bet you're working on The Cell Project by now," Piper said. It took a moment for Nico to realize that she was responding to his last remark.

"Did you have Mr Brien's class?" Nico asked in response.

"Yep. That was not my favorite project. Not too hard, overall, but I couldn't come up with ideas for the dumb thing."

"I wish we could've done partners. I'd rather work with Nico than alone," Hazel joined.

"That would be my fault," Piper grinned wickedly, "Or, more of Leo's, really. Point is, we had that class together and were always partners. We always caused so much trouble that Mr Brien took away partner privileges half way through the year." Leo barked a laugh, and Piper's story drew him into their conversation.

"Do you remember that time we caught Coach on fire with Jason? I think that's what finally broke Brien."

"That also got us all suspended, as I remember," Jason added.

"Ah, good times, good times."

"I know I shouldn't agree with him, but I do," Piper laughed, and Jason nodded his own agreement.

"Too bad we aren't in the same science class this year. I'd way rather be with one of you than Calypso. In fact, I'd rather be with anyone. Hey, do you think if I caught another teacher on fire I'd be suspended and they'd have to put her with someone else?"

"No more catching people on fire. Besides, Calypso's not that bad. I'm sure you'll work it out."

"But Pipes, you don't have classes with her so you don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"That she's gotten ten times worse since Percy dumped her. She is a total mega bitch now. She spent all of today glaring and insulting me!"

"Knowing you, I'm going to bet you provoked her."

"Harsh."

Piper blew him a kiss as she stood from the table. "Leo, I love you, but that's the truth. Anyway, the bells about to ring so I'm off."

~~~oOo~~~

Nico double and triple checked that the bathroom was empty before entering it to take a shower. School had just ended and he'd rushed to be the first one to the dorm to snag the bathroom. He needn't have worried, though. By time Leo returned it was five, and Nico was at the desk, staring blankly at his project. Leo went into the bathroom, and Nico heard the lock click. He wished Leo had just done the same thing last night, but at least similar situations wouldn't arise in the future. Probably.

"Dude, dinner time," Nico barely heard Leo's voice, he was so far in a daze.

"What?"

"Dinner. You're gonna miss it if you sit around here too much longer."

"Oh. Thanks. But I think I'll just skip it tonight. Thanks."

"You can't skip dinner! Food is important and delicious, come on."

"Thanks. But I really need to work on this."

"Uh-huh," Leo gave him an odd look, "Like you've been working on it for the past three hours?"

"I've been brainstorming!" Nico flushed.

"I'm sure. You're as hopeless as Piper was. Here, let me help." Nico was about to object, but the words caught in his throat when Leo leaned across him to grab the rubric for the project. "Do you have any idea what you're gonna do for this?" Nico shook his head, which made Leo laugh. "Alright, I'm assuming you know the organelles' functions, so now all you need to do is match them to real life objects. Really not that hard. Are you making a plant or animal cell?"

"Um. I haven't decided. I guess maybe just a plant cell?"

"Sounds like a plan," Leo settled himself down on the floor, splayed on his stomach, and gestured for Nico to join him. He did.

As the night went on, Nico realized that they'd both missed dinner by a longshot, and, even more than that, that Leo had skipped dinner to help him. And he didn't understand why Leo would help him in the first place. Wasn't he upset about the roof? And the shower? Had the Calypso thing somehow gotten things back to normal? But this wasn't exactly their normal relationship. Nico kind of liked it better. Of course, that was no doubt due to the fact that he was getting help on his cell because of it. Why else would he be enjoying it so much?

~~~oOo~~~

Nico stirred at the sound of a voice, and he vaguely realized that it was his little sister calling for him. "Nico! Leo! Are you two in there?" Hazel pounded at the door again. Nico decided that her situation didn't sound dire enough to make him get up.

"Move, I have a key," Piper's voice cut through another round of knocking. More voices murmured behind the door, but when it creaked open, they all fell silent. There was a flash and then laughing. Then several more flashes, and more laughter. Nico finally opened his eyes fully and found that he was on his back. On the floor. Above him loomed the whole gang. Except...Leo lay beside him on the floor. Nico's arm slung over him. Nico jumped away from Leo, and right into his bed frame.

"Shit!" He exclaimed, holding his head and clamping his eyes shut. It was too early for any of this.

"Whaaa?" Leo mumbled as he came to life, sitting up groggily.

"You guys missed dinner last night, and breakfast today. We got worried and came to check on you," Percy explained, "We didn't mean to interrupt your snugglefest, though. Sorry about that." Percy's smile was alarmingly wide, and when Nico spotted the phone in his hand he understood what the flashes earlier had been. He groaned. "Well come on, first period will start soon," Percy came into the room and helped Nico to his feet. Not that Nico needed it, but it became clear why Percy had bothered when he whispered in Nico's ear, "I hope you crazy kids used protection."

Nico went red and shoved Percy before stomping out of the room. He didn't understand why Percy had to say that kind of stuff to him. Leo would've thought it was funny! Why not joke with him about it? Anyway, it was obvious that nothing had happened, they'd just fallen asleep while working on his (almost finished) science project!

By the time lunch rolled around, Nico was pretty hungry. And, judging by the size of his plate, so was Leo. They both spent the entire lunch period eating rather than joining in conversation. Which was the norm for Nico, but a rarity for Leo. And though he may not have spoken, Nico didn't miss Percy's meaningful looks. Or the amused ones from the others. He ignored them all.

Annabeth had recovered from her flu, and had been brought up to date on the Calypso debacle. She wasn't upset about how Calypso had hit on Percy, but she did seem bothered that Calypso had taken the rejection so poorly, saying, "I just wish we could've been friends. She looks like she needs some."

"And she was nice," Percy nodded, "I think she'd have liked our group."

Nico caught Leo rolling his eyes at that, and smiled. Leo's dislike for Calypso was almost irrational, but he supposed that she could be as rude as Leo claimed, if only to Leo.

~~~oOo~~~

Nico had turned his plant cell model in a day early. Thanks to Leo, he'd managed to build and perfect it. Honestly, Leo was good at science, and math, and many other subjects, as Nico had learned over the past week and a half. It was a wonder his grades sucked so much, and, as far as Nico could figure, that was entirely because the schoolwork didn't keep Leo's attention long enough for him to actually do it. But he'd wander over while Nico was working on something and help him or start a conversation on the topic of whatever Nico had been doing. Nico almost looked forward to the times when Leo would distract him from his work to talk. As it turned out, Leo talked longer than Percy had when he'd needed to vent. Leo could talk about everything and nothing for hours. And Nico liked to listen, even when he wasn't really listening, it was nice to have Leo's stream of words in the background and mm-hmm every now and again. And Leo seemed to enjoy talking endlessly and actually have a person there to respond occasionally.

Nico wasn't sure what had spurred the change, but since Leo had helped him with his cell, their relationship had developed into something close to actual friends. There was still a good amount of shouting and arguing and name calling, but fights only lasted as long as the event of the fight did. They didn't carry arguments over to other ones, and none dragged on longer than an hour. It was different, and odd, but Nico liked it. And, to his surprise, he found himself liking Leo.

It was late on Friday night and Nico was up reading when Leo burst in the door and collapsed on his bed.

"How'd your study date with Calypso go?" Nico asked– he'd started to initiate conversations with Leo lately.

"Ugh it was not a study date," Leo mumbled into his pillow, but Nico noticed that the tips of his ears were red.

"Hmmm. I guess not, but you can dream."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Leo sat up and glared at Nico.

"It means that I think you wish it had been a date," Nico replied, and the blush from Leo backed up his belief. It was odd being the one to make Leo blush– the boy was always trying to make Nico uncomfortable.

"I do not! She's…" Leo trailed off and sighed. Nico had noticed that Leo had stopped complaining about or insulting Calypso, but he'd put it on him sucking it up.

"I'm going to guess that you're over Hazel?"

"Huh? Yeah, of course I am." Nico could tell he meant it.

"And now you like Calypso." It wasn't a question.

"I...I mean...maybe…" Leo sighed again and buried his face in his hands. Nico felt an unpleasant tug in his stomach, but he didn't acknowledge it.

"Thought so. Why don't you ask her out for a real study date?"

"Because...because I was so wrong Nico, I mean, she was pretty sucky at first but man she's actually perfect. She's beautiful and funny and sweet and...and way too good for me. No way would she settle for me," Leo looked so small as he said it, and Nico realized what had changed in their relationship and why he liked it so much. Leo didn't act in front of Nico. He didn't hide any part of himself, he abandoned his mask. He was real. Nico mentally shook himself. There was no need to go farther down that path of thinking.

"Listen, Leo, you can either try or you can get over it. Just because you weren't right for some girls before doesn't mean you aren't right for Calypso. There's really no harm that could come out of trying."

"But she could say no and turn me away."

"The science thing won't last forever. It'll end and you won't hang out with Calypso anyway. Unless you go for it."

"You know, it's really weird getting girl advice from you."

"Why?"

"You don't even like people. What do you know about relationships?"

"Point taken," Nico nodded, "However, I'm not drawing from my knowledge of relationships. It's just logic."

Leo stared at him for a moment and then smiled, "Thanks."

~~~oOo~~~

Nico woke up late because it was a Saturday and there was no reason to be up before noon. He showered and then made his way to the cafeteria for lunch, thinking that a burger and fries wouldn't be so bad today. But when he collected his food and turned to his table, all thoughts of eating left his mind. Leo wasn't sitting at their table. But he was in the cafeteria. He was sitting with Calypso.

"Did he ask her out?" Nico asked as he arrived at his table. Most of his friends turned to give him odd looks. Probably for actually talking at lunch, and perhaps the question itself. Percy was the first to catch on. His eyes darted towards Calypso's table.

"He likes her?" Percy asked. Nico nodded, and Percy frowned.

"Well, he sat with her at breakfast, so either he asked her out and it went well or he hasn't asked her yet," Piper observed.

"Um," Frank cleared his throat, "I'm gonna guess that they're dating," he bobbed his head to where Leo and Calypso sat. The pair had stood up, and were exiting the cafeteria, hand in hand. Nico nodded and turned to his meal. For some reason, it didn't seem as appetizing as it had when he'd woken up.

Percy caught up with him as he made his way back to his room. He looked concerned and lost no time in asking Nico if he was alright.

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Nico asked curtly.

"Because Leo–"

"You're not still on about that, are you?" Nico snapped.

"Listen man, just because you weren't actually dating, you two were close and it's not hard to see that you're upset about this."

"Are you insinuating that I have feelings for Leo? Do you really, truly, actually believe that? I like to think that you're smart enough to know that I don't, and have just been carrying on this stupid joke, but tell me, do you think I like him?"

"I really do. I see it even if you don't."

"You think you know my feelings better than me? Well, newsflash, you don't! Now leave me alone!" Nico had escalated into shouting, but Percy was being so irritating he couldn't stand it. He turned on his heel and ran back to his room.

Nico spent the next hour or so finishing a math assignment and only looked up from it when there was a knock at the door. He got up wearily, expecting to find Percy when he opened the door. But it was Frank that smiled at him when it swung open.

"Yes?" Nico asked, unsure of what Frank could want.

"Hey. Sorry to bother you, but I thought I'd spare you from Percy and his shipping stuff."

"Was he going to come and convince me of my undying love for Leo?"

"Yep. I told him that we had club activities to sort out today."

"Thank you for saving me," Nico smiled, "But I don't recall being in any clubs."

"Not yet. But I thought we could start up the Leo Valdez is a Little Shit Club. He's already too cocky after getting a girlfriend."

"I guess I could squeeze time in my busy schedule to start such an important club."

"Thought you might think so," Frank smiled widely and Nico stepped aside to allow Frank into his room. He wondered if Frank might think he needed cheering up, and if so, then why he thought that. Did he think that Nico was upset about Leo liking Calypso, too? He pushed the question out of his mind and he and Frank started putting together their club.

~~~oOo~~~

Despite Frank's efforts to spare Nico from Percy, he got cornered after dinner. Percy dragged him out to the courtyard, never letting go of Nico's arm, to keep him from bolting.

"Hey, I'm sorry that I was insensitive. If you don't wanna talk about Leo, then I won't talk about it either." He looked a bit sheepish, and Nico thought that it was possible Annabeth or someone had scolded him for his behavior, which led him to imagining Percy as a puppy being told off for peeing on the carpet, and it was such a funny image that he laughed. He quickly stopped at Percy's shocked expression.

"It's fine. No worries."

"Great! But if you do ever wanna talk about Leo, or anything really, you can always talk to me, deal?"

"Yeah, alright. Deal," he said mostly to humor Percy. And he received a stunning smile in return.

"Awesome! Well, I'll let you get back to whatever important stuff you must do," Percy said before turning to go back inside. Nico watched him go. Percy really was very nice. And Nico couldn't help but notice how broad his shoulders were as he walked away…Nico shook his head and went back inside himself. He kept having weird thoughts lately. He'd have to work on that. But, as it turned out, his thoughts weren't listening to him, and instead decided to focus on Percy. And after about two hours of thinking about how nice, funny, handsome, and just plain great Percy was, he was beginning to question why all he could think about was the tall green-eyed boy. His brain provided an answer: he liked Percy. He decided to ignore that answer. Because it was the wrong one. Because before today he'd had absolutely no interest in Percy. And, beyond that, he'd had absolutely no interest in boys.

But, by the morning it was clear, no matter how much he wanted to deny it, that he had a big, fat, gay crush on Percy Jackson.