(Italics are excerpt from Battle of the Labyrinth)

"Okay. I'm listening."

Nico glanced inside my room. His eyebrows furrowed. "Is that…is that blue birthday cake?"

He sounded hungry, maybe a little wistful. I wondered if the poor kid had ever had a birthday party, or if he'd ever even been invited to one.

"Come inside for some cake and ice cream," I said. "It sounds like we've got a lot to talk about."

"Uh…" Nico looked terrified at the idea, and a bit awkward, but Percy just smiled and patted his back before pulling him inside. He stumbled a little bit at the action, but Percy held him upright.

"Does you're sword do camouflage? My mom's boyfriend's here, and he's not exactly 'in the know' with the gods and stuff. In fact, my dad was just here and that was pretty awkward…" Percy mumbled about the visit with Poseidon and Nico's eyes went wide.

"Your dad is strange." Nico blurted out, and Percy smiled at bit at the amused smirk on the smaller boy's face at the mental picture of Paul and Poseidon shaking hands. Nico drew out his stygian iron sword and whipped it back, and it suddenly became a black switchblade that he slid into his jacket pocket.

Percy beamed, "Yes, he is a bit strange. Terrible timing too," He quickly told him about Paul asking to marry his mom and Nico actually laughed, but it was kind of cold and tired sounding, not like it had once been before… before everything.

"I don't think that was entirely unplanned," He smirked.

"Yeah, neither do I." Percy agreed with a sigh. He turned and grabbed the plate of cake and put it in Nico's hands, and the younger boy stared at it for a moment, like he was unsure what to do with it. "Come on," Percy smiled a bit sadly, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and pulling him to the door, "I think Tyson's beating them to a pulp in Monopoly; we should go in and save them."

Nico looked at the door warily and Percy just sighed again. "Oh, and heads up, my mom's gonna go all mother-bear on you, just so you're prepared. I'll try and slow her down, but, chances are it won't do much."

Now Nico looked absolutely terrified and it suddenly got a lot harder to pull him along, but luckily Percy was still a head or two taller than him and managed to overpower and push the younger boy the rest of the way. Percy wondered in the back of his mind why a kid content to camp on the banks of the Styx and talk to ghosts and dead things as he wandered around a maze known for driving people insane was abruptly petrified about meeting Sally Jackson—aka, the LEAST threatening thing Nico had probably come across all year.

He pushed it out of his thoughts, deciding that Nico had been through worse than meeting his mother (yeah, a lot worse) and the kid could use some family time now whether he wanted it or not.

(Gods he sounded like his mother…)

Percy quickly shook that thought off too.

"Hey guys! Look who I found!"

0000000000000

The first time Paul saw Nico di Angelo was obviously the same moment Sally met him too. He was instantly worried about the small boy's sickly, ragged appearance, but that was nothing compared to how worried Sally was.

"This is my cousin, Nico." Percy smiled warmly, pushing an absolutely terrified looking ten-year-old into the room, dressed head to toe in black and clutching a plate of blue birthday cake for dear life. The smaller boy seemed to blanch and being introduced as Percy's cousin and positively jumped out of his skin as Sally was suddenly beside him and wrapped him in a big hug. He almost dropped the cake—or threw it, seeing as that seemed to be his first reaction—but fortunately Percy seemed to anticipate this and lifted it from his hands a second before he could do anything.

"Hello honey, I'm so glad to meet you," She cooed pulling back, her eyes immediately looking at his dark, shaggy hair the same way she did right before giving Percy a haircut whether he went along with it willingly or not.

"Uh," Nico slipped from her grip and jumped back a little, out of her range, stuttering. "N-nice to meet you to, M-miss. Jackson."

Sally frowned petulantly. "Please, call me Sally." She assured him and he edged closer to Percy, away from the woman.

"Way to overwhelm him, Mom." Percy rolled his eyes, and Sally looked put out, but still greatly worried about Nico, who was now half-hiding behind his older cousin.

"I win!" Tyson announced with a great cheer, and Paul looked back down at the board to see that he had indeed taken over. Paul simply could not believe how good the cheery, rather simple boy was a completely obliterating them all at the game. If Paul remembered correctly, Monopoly took quite some time to play through, but Tyson had clearly won in less than half an hour.

"Well, that decides it: if I ever need to invest something, I'm coming to you for advice." Paul said in mock-seriousness to Tyson, whose eyes went wide and he nodded seriously in obvious pleasure at the idea. Paul bit back a laugh while Percy and Sally fought off smiles as well.

"Oh, come on," Percy sighed, putting one arm around Nico—who was still half-hiding behind him—and pulled him down to the couch, between him and Sally, placing the cake back into his hands. The young boy stared at the cake for a minute, but seemed to overwhelmed and confused to do anything with it.

Percy sighed heavily while Sally looked like it was killing her not to hug him again, and Paul thought he'd save them from the awkward silence.

"I'm Paul, by the way." He introduced himself, offering the young boy his hand.

A piercing stare snapped to meet his gaze and Paul blinked a little in shock at its intensity. He had wide, coal-black eyes set into skin that probably once looked tan, but had faded from lack of exposure to sun until it had turned slightly gray, deathly white pallor. He had dark purple circles beneath his eyes, and a heavy, frightened animal kind of aura about him, that had Paul wanting to back away slowly, and yet wrap him in a hug at the same time.

He was obviously young, but so skinny and shabby, like he'd been living on the streets, Paul instantly wanted to protect him. Yet, his fight or flight instincts were also telling him to get away, sensing danger… and yet protect him too… oh, it was confusing.

"Nico." The boy said bluntly, hesitating but then reaching out and shaking his hand.

It took everything Paul had not to flinch or jump as the boy's ice-cold skin made contact with his, making it feel as if he'd just dunked his bare arm in a tub of ice cubes. Paul forced himself to smile back warmly, so as not to scare the boy into thinking he didn't like him, and sat back. He placed his hand back on his leg, again forcing himself not to shake it out or rub it against the other for warmth. It felt odd, like it'd suddenly fallen asleep.

He glanced at Percy and Sally, both of whom were sitting close to him on the couch and not in any way reacting to his apparent icy-ness, seeming to be too worried about his disheveled state to notice Paul's preoccupation.

"Would you like to stay for dinner, Nico?" Sally asked gently, trying hard not to scare him but obviously having to forcibly restrain herself from going "mother bear", as Percy called it, on him again.

"Um…uh, well…" He hedged, leaning closer to Percy rather than her.

"Please? It would mean so much to us?" She pleaded, and Paul didn't have to look at her to know she was staring at him with her 'innocent puppy' look.

Nico's eyes went even wider in panic and he glanced back at Percy for help.

Percy shook his head sadly with a smirk. "I've never been able to escape it, you're on your own." He said with a slight laugh in his voice.

Nico looked back at Sally in terror.

"Please Nico?" She asked sweetly, her light blue eyes going just that much wider and her lip curling in a slight pout.

"Um… ok…" He squeaked in a small voice.

"Excellent!" Sally cheered, abruptly back to normal and clapping happily. "I'll go put it on now and we can eat after you boys play another round of monopoly." She chirped, hastily leaving the room.

"Yay!" Tyson cheered while Percy and Paul sighed heavily.

"I've lost hopes of ever winning this game again." Paul sighed.

"True." Percy shrugged, setting up the pieces again with Tyson. "Nico, are you ever going to eat that cake?" Percy demanded, but Nico ignored him, staring at Paul again with a puzzled look.

"Why do you have that diamond?" He asked bluntly and Percy looked surprise, but it was nothing to how Paul felt.

"Uh," He said in shock, glancing at the door to make sure Sally was safely out of hearing range, and slipped the little velvet box with a bright diamond ring resting safely inside it. "How'd you know I had this?" He asked curiously. Nico tilted his head to the side as he stared at the box.

Percy's eyes went wide as he realized what was going on.

"I could sense it—" Nico said simply, but Percy slapped his hand over Nico's mouth to prevent him from saying any more, glaring in warning at him.

"Paul does not need to hear your weirdness, Nico." The older boy frowned, and Nico frowned in confusion for a moment before a flash of realization lit up his eyes and he looked properly abashed. Percy lifted his hand away, still frowning in warning.

"Oops, sorry." Nico shrugged and Percy rolled his eyes. "It's a very nice diamond." Nico told Paul with a slight smirk, and Percy face-palmed.

Paul was fairly certain he didn't want to know how Nico knew that when he had yet to open the box, but let it slide.

He felt like he'd been doing that a lot today, first with Tyson being Percy's brother, then Poseidon and practically everything he said (all inside jokes, he was sure, based on the way Sally and Percy reacted) and then his leaving out the fire escape… which Paul did not buy for one minute, thankyouverymuch.

He was out of the loop, not stupid.

And anyway, he was more than happy to see Sally's ex go so suddenly, and it had nothing to do with the face he just saw quite clearly where Percy got his unnatural good looks from and how freaked Sally still was upon seeing her old flame.

But, he pushed all those thoughts away, and concentrated on counting out the money for the game while Percy goaded Nico into eating his cake and stopping Tyson from helping him finish it off.

Paul clutched the little velvet box tightly and slipped it safely back into his pocket. He already had a plan to propose to Sally, and Percy had given his "consent", and at least for tonight, he could let all the craziness going on slide in favor of escaping into his thoughts of planning exactly what he wanted to say.

(Yes, I know the last chapter didn't really fit into the canon timeline, but I wanted Sally to see her son safely home and get some of Paul's side. It just fit in my head so… yeah.)

…

(Oh, and yes Nico is one of my favorite characters and will be making some more appearances with Thalia, because they're awesome.)