Notes: These two drabbles were based of two songs on my MP3 (because my ipod is still under repairs and I don't think I'll ever get it back, oh woe); specifically Click, Click, Flash (Ciara) and How You Remind Me (Nickelback).

No, it's not really supposed to make sense. you can stop pondering now.

Enemy

When the beam of bright light hit Nico on his face when he stepped out of the crypt, he honestly thought it was some monster which had gotten creative and decided to use his super night vision against him.

So he'd crouched automatically and started to open the gym bag he'd started carrying around lately. Swords with blades about a meter long were a little hard to conceal, even with the Mist. And it did not help that the Stygian iron had a natural aversion to being camouflaged.

"Mr. Di Angelo, care to explain what you're doing out here at… oh, two in the morning?"

Oh dear gods, it wasn't your run of the mill semi-creative monster. It was her.

Nico wished, just for a moment, that the earth would open up and swallow him. Then he had to concentrate on keeping it from happening.

The camera flashed again and he winced. Stupid night-oriented eyes.

"You know," Melody Everton primly sat down on a nearby headstone, "Some people would find it suspicious, seeing a guy dressed all in black with gloves and a giant gym bag slung over a shoulder here. They might think he was digging up graves. Or worse, making one."

"I was not!"

"Of course you weren't," she said, amiably, "So let me see that bag of yours, just to be sure. And then we can both be on our way."

Nico gave her his best scowl, but she didn't flinch. She just winked at him and made a come-hither gesture. Her photographer/bodyguard snickered in the background and took another photo. Probably one that showed him looking ready to murder someone.

Godsdamned heiresses and their godsdamned issues.

"You know, Nico," Melody said, her tone sympathetic, "You don't have to do everything Rachel tells you to do just because she's-"

"Get out of here, bitch."

Melody was to Rachel what Kronos had been to the gods. Except for that whole thing about them not being related. Nico had been too busy paying admiring attention to the sheer venom in Rachel's voice when she was narrating their History to really catch all the details, but there had been something in there about a hairdryer, an iPod and a Clarion talent show. He hadn't tried to puzzle it out afterwards.

"Rachel," Melody trilled, and slid down from the gravestone, "How lovely to see you! It has been forever-"

"Forever won't be long enough," Rachel snarled, stomping down from the darkness, "Didn't I have a restraining order put out against you?"

"The judge rescinded it," Melody smiled at her, "My brother knows his bartender."

"I'll get it reinstated," Rachel promised her, and grabbed Nico by an arm, "Come on, Nico. Let's get out of her hemisphere."

Melody didn't protest. It probably had something to do with the way Rachel's eyes were practically glowing and things. But she gave Nico a cheery wave and told him she'd catch him in a graveyard some other time.

He wished they'd stop pulling him into their catfights already.

Home

"You will not scream," Rachel told herself, "You will not, under any circumstances, scream like the cheerleader from a horror movie. You will be calm, you will be composed, and you will conduct yourself with utmost dignity, by the gods."

The sofa she'd salvaged from a rummage sale was raised into the air and thrown in her general direction. Her throat screeched out something shrill without checking in with the rest of her while her legs moved on autopilot.

"Rachel, duck!"

Rachel threw herself at the ground just before three hundred pounds of slobbering monster could flatten her into a meat patty. In the process, she managed to scrape her calf on a table and stub her toe on a chair. She also landed at an awkward angle and something twisted somewhere in her shoulder.

And people did this running-jumping-acrobatics thing for fun? Her friends were crazy. And Nico charging headfirst at the monster with a giant black sword only reinforced that opinion.

"Son of Hades," the monster rumbled thoughtfully, "Bad taste. Bob no like."

Nico tried to cleave him into two with his sword, but Bob twisted out of his reach at the last second. All he managed was a gaping cut on one of the thing's arms before it lopped him into the opposite wall. Bob looked slightly annoyed, but he just snarled once, sniffed at the air and turned to her. Rachel yelped.

"Nico! Do something!"

"I'm trying," he yelled at her, scrambling up from across the room "Haven't you noticed?"

"Try harder," She scrambled over to the display shelf, "That thing wants to eat me!"

"Good," he panted, "You're entirely too unsympathetic when we tell you about our monster attacks-"

"Can you lecture me later? I think it's licking it's tongue."

"It has a tongue?'

"Can we have the ADHD moment a little later?" Rachel took careful aim and threw a china dish at its' head. It made Bob stop in confusion for a couple of seconds.

"Now!" she screamed.

Nico let out a hoarse scream and charged again. This time, he managed to lop the head off.

Rachel muttered a thank you to the world in general, and flopped down on to the ground. A few second later, she felt Nico joining slump down beside her.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay," she waved a hand, them winced when her shoulder protested, "No harm done. At least now I know I really need to get into shape."

"I can move out," he offered, a little halfheartedly, "I mean, if I weren't here-"

"I'd be bored out of my mind," she interrupted, "Trust me, Di Angelo. If I had a problem with you staying here, I'd have told you already. And besides, I'm used to good food now. If you go, I'll starve."

"But your shoulder looks weird," he said, poking cautiously at it, "And your leg is purpling. I really think I should-"

She grabbed him with the hand that wasn't woozy at the edges and pulled him close.

"Stay. Or I'll go crazy," she waved a hand around the room, "I'll go crazy and I'll start making messes like this without any help. This I can deal with. Staying here alone? Not really."

He slumped a little more heavily, but still looked a little skeptical.

And if you want a practical reason," she added, just to reassure him, "You help me assert my independence. Nothing annoys my Dad as much as you crashing here."

And right on cue, because Warren Dare had impeccable timing, the front door opened and he walked to a ravaged room, broken china and two sweaty people sitting really, really close to each other.

His face started to turn red, and Rachel let out a satisfied sigh.

"Like I said, nothing."

Notes: Two updates in as many days? Nobody is more surprised than I am. XD

I think I missed this pairing. :)