Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

As we walk through the door, I feel myself start to crumble. The walls I had built up around myself keeping all my emotions in over the past year were quickly deteriorating away.

When I hear the door click shut and Nico locking it, I fall apart. I drop to my knees and bury my face in my hands, letting the tears escape.

Horrid sounding sobs were escaping my mouth. I feel Nico's arms wrap around me and he kisses the top of my head.

I hated crying. I hated it with a passion. Sometimes I wish Nico had never found me in that floral closest of the church almost four years ago. My life would be so much simpler if I had never found out I was a demigod.

Then again, I don't wish he had never found me. If he hadn't, I wouldn't have met him. Or anyone at camp, for that matter. My life would actually be pretty boring if he hadn't of found me.

After about ten minutes of crying my heart out and just letting all my pent up emotions out, I got up and started making my way to my room.

I was pretty tired. This resulted in nearly collapsing a couple of times while going up the stairs. Nico eventually just scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way. I was too tired to even protest this.

We make it to my room and he carefully lays me down on my bed. I kick off my shoes and get under the blanket, still in my ripped, monster dust and blood covered dress. I pass out before Nico basically crumbles onto the bed.

I honestly don't think I've ever slept so hard in my life. The house could have caught on fire and I probably would have slept through it. That's how exhausted I had been.

I finally squint open my eyes around 9:30. I sit up slowly, my whole body aching. Nico was not in the bed. I look around and see the ruined tux in a heap on the floor just outside the bathroom door.

I hear the sound of running water and come to the conclusion that Nico was taking a shower. I slide out of bed and over to my dresser.

I pull open the drawers and get out a pair of cut-off shorts and a purple v-neck tee shirt.

As soon as I close my shirt drawer, I hear the water stop running. A couple of minutes later, Nico emerges from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist and water droplets on his shoulders and chest.

"Good morning." he says, smiling as he walks over to me.

I notice long, jagged scars on his left arm, going from shoulder to wrist. I grab his arm and he looks at me.

"What did this?" I ask, running my fingers over the slightly puffy white scars.

"Oh, you know that Griffin Vulture? I killed it, but before I did, it nearly ripped my arm off. It'll probably take a few days for these to fade away since that thing was really old. That, and there's no telling what the hell was on those talons." he says.

He leans down and kisses me, then turns around and grabs his backpack. He unzips it and pulls out a clean pair of clothes.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"Alright, I guess. I feel like I wrestled the Minotaur though." I say, rolling back my shoulder.

"Well, I would suggest a hot shower. That should help." he says.

I laugh and say, "Are you my doctor now?"

He smirks at me and says, "Why yes, yes I am. You may now refer to me as Doctor di Angelo."

"Hmm. It has a good ring to it." I say, walking over to the bathroom.

"It does, doesn't it?" he says, thoughtful.

I shake my head, a hint of a smile on my lips, and close the door behind me.

A/N:

Surprise update, because I can! See, I told you there would be slight fluff in this chapter. Instead of just calling Kyra/Nico fluff "fluff", from now on it's just going to be called "Kyrico" or "Kyrico moments". T1nyDanc3r came up with that pet name a couple of weeks ago and I like it :) So, thank you.

Well, what I want to know is how I just figured out how to use Tumblr a few days ago. Oh my god, it's the best fucking website ever made! I literally stayed up till about 3 in the morning the other day just reblogging stuff... Yea, I've only just figured it out a couple of days ago and it's already ruined my life. Thanks Tumblr. Thanks.

So, this isn't a music rant. More like music appreciation. I just want to say that I don't understand how music doesn't touch the soul of everyone on the planet. I was listening to "The Little Things Give You Away" by Linkin Park yesterday and I put it on repeat and I don't know how many times I listened to that song. It's just so beautiful, I don't know how someone couldn't like it. And then last night while writing, I was listening to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's album "Am I the Enemy" and the first song on the album is called "Salvation". Holy fuck guys. It's just so perfect and I was thinking about it and I think the lyrics perfectly describe this story. "Wake Me Up", "Dive Too Deep", "Don't Lose Hope", and "Fall Form Grace" are some of my other favorites from that album.

I must say, I just love my music to pieces. If could gather all the members of the bands I listen to, I'd want to give every single one of them a giant hug and just tell them thank you. Some people just don't understand what an amazing friend music can be when no one else understands your situation or the mood your in.

Green Day is probably the one I would thank the most though. They opened my current genre of music up to me. If I hadn't of taken "American Idiot" out of my brother's CD case last June and burned it into my iTunes library, I'd still be listening to pop today. I'd also be extremely close-minded because that's one of the many things Green Day has taught me. Be open-minded and accept people for who they are.

Alright, my music appreciation is over for the day.

I hope everyone has a good day and I'll talk to y'all again on Saturday! And yes, I did just use the word "y'all". I'm from the south and so are my parents, and we use that word a lot, so there.

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25