Jason's birthday was less than a rousing success.

Sure, it started out great. Piper proved to be an amazing baker, pouring her heart and soul into a Superman-shaped marble cake with jellybean eyes and black licorice hair. Leo made fajitas and fried enough hamburg to fill a thousand tortillas. Will and Nico, in an effort to pretend that they hadn't been fighting in the car not twenty minutes before, elected to string the chain of S-shields around the living room and pin the life-sized cutout of Superman to the wall opposite the door, where Jason would see it when he walked in.

Percy and Renya, whose presence had never been explained to Will, set paper plates, napkins, and forks on the fold-out table near the door, while Frank carefully laid out snack foods and finger rolls.

"Annabeth's distracting Jason at the cape," Piper said to the room at large. "But we still only have about a half hour to get everything ready; so work quickly, everyone. Hazel, set up the gifts by Jason's chair-Leo, something's burning in the kitchen-and Nico, stop scowling at Will because your relationship problems have no place in Jason's birthday party. Let's make this great, people!"

Ten minutes later, while Piper was still frantically plastering frosting on Superman's sides, and Will was adjusting the Happy Birthday, Jason! banner for the umpteenth time under Reyna's critical eye, Jason and Annabeth walked in.

Leo saw them first. "Sorpresa, dude!" he called out, juggling a crock pot of vienna sausages and a platter of egg rolls. He set the dishes on the food table and engulfed Jason in a hug. "You're early, but that's fine."

"Wh-" Reyna turned to look. Piper shrieked in dismay. Hazel clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Surprise!" everyone chorused clumsily. Will waved his hands dispassionately in a "surprise"-y type way.

Jason gave an uncomfortable smile. Annabeth made a slashing gesture across her throat.

"What? What's going on?" Piper asked, confused.

"There's . . . a girl outside," Jason said slowly. "Um-she's asking for you, Percy." His face suggested that this wasn't a good thing.

Percy's own face was pale as he slowly eased past Jason, avoiding Annabeth's eyes.

Nico's hand slipped into Will's, and squeezed hard, their earlier dispute clearly forgotten.

Piper clapped her hands together. "Um, okay-who wants cake?"

Jason rose his hand at once, and she gratefully seized on the opportunity to haul the boy into the other room. Everyone else stayed where they were, frozen in the middle of party preparations, looking at Annabeth.

"She said she was his girlfriend," she said hollowly.

-/-

Will found Nico on the beach, which wasn't really surprising.

"There's no one to wait for, you know," he said, kicking off his shoes and sitting down next to him. "Percy's inside, getting hell from both of his girlfriends."

"I wish you didn't hate him," Nico mumbled. He had his arms folded on his upraised knees, chin resting on his forearms. When he spoke, his head moved up and down in exaggerated motion, like a cartoon.

"I don't hate him," Will lied. "I've never hated anyone in my life."

Nico glowered at him.

"What? I'm an easygoing guy," Will said lightly. "Why would I have a reason to hate Percy?"

Nico regarded him for another minute, then glanced away. "You're a terrible liar," he muttered. "Percy is better."

"Yeah, well, Percy is better at a lot of things," Will bemoaned, and kicked the sand.

"I see how easygoing you are," Nico observed dryly. "I could hardly sense the barely contained jealousy in that remark."

Will elbowed him. "Shut up. This is all your fault, anyway."

"Yes. Percy's actions on an island two hundred miles away are my fault," Nico rolled his eyes and tightened his arms around his knees. "Whatever, Will."

"It's your fault that I'm anxious," Will explained, trying for a softer tone. "Because Percy isn't just some former crush. I can't ask you to stop loving him, because he's your family. You're right-he was there for you throughout your life. And me? I'm just an intern that you met in a waiting room." He shrugged. "I can't compete."

"You're-that's-" Nico stuttered. "I mean-it isn't a competition."

Will laughed. "Really? Because you didn't pull away from Percy. You didn't shove Percy off your bed. You didn't tell Percy that your life is none of his business."

Nico's cheeks were red. "You aren't being fair."

Will shook his head, still smiling; smiling in the manically un-happy way of someone who's just plain had enough. "That's the awful thing, isn't it? Your parents, and your kindergarten teachers, and your siblings-they're all obsessed with keeping things 'fair', with being 'fair'. But it doesn't really matter how many times you share your fire truck with little Johnny, or give your sister the last Oreo-it's always going to be you that's giving, giving, giving, and you never get to play with the fucking fire truck and you never have the last Oreo, because when people ask you to be fair, they're really just asking you to roll over for them."

He took a deep breath. "So, no. I'm not being fair, Nico. I'm asking you to be fair. Be fair to me."

"What do you want from me?" Nico asked, echoing their first conversation about this. "You want me to be your boyfriend? Or you just want me to roll over and let you do whatever you want?" He blushed, no doubt regretting his slightly risque choice of words.

Will blushed, too, knotting his fingers between his knees. "I don't know. I just hate you comparing me to him. I hate you looking at him. I hate that you ever liked him, because, frankly, he's a douche."

"In your oh-so-unbiased opinion," Nico said dryly. "Here's some advice-don't ask for something before you know what it is that you want."

"I want-" Will couldn't finish. What he wanted was still that nameless, formless concatenation that frequented his daydreams and hid in the back of his mind when he tried to define it. He couldn't help but feel like all of it-Nico and his future and his present-was all one big snarl that had to be solved at the same time, or never at all. And then, once it had been solved, he would know what it was that he really wanted.

"I want to know what you want," he finally said, which was the closest to the truth that he could get. "I want you to stop putting the onus on me all the time. I'm not the only one who decides things in this relationship, you know."

"What relationship?" Nico mocked. "Our 'y'know'?"

"Screw you," Will snapped, losing patience. "Just screw you, Nico. You want to know what I want? I want you to act like a normal fucking person and just ask me out already. Or let me ask you out-I don't care. Just quit this-this-this-" He waved his hands around, unable to come up for a suitable word. "Everything. It just feels like you're messing with me all the damn time. You call me, but you're hung up on someone else. You get over him, but you still won't go out with me. You tell me to come to the cape, and then you spend the whole time acting like you'd rather I wasn't here. What the hell do you want?"

Nico looked as though he'd just been slapped.

Will stared at him, waiting for a reply. Waiting, but the only sounds were the waves, whispering their goodbyes to the beach as they retreated into low tide.

-/-

"You just need to give him-" Hazel began, but Will had had enough.

"I'm done with giving him fucking time, Haz," he snapped. "I gave him a whole summer-hell, I gave him longer than that. We've been playing this fun little game since last January-let's face it, if Nico was really interested in me, he would've let me in by now."

Hazel slapped him.

Will, shocked, cradled his face and stared at her as if she'd just claimed she could raise the dead.

"You're supposed to know him better than that," she said angrily. "You're supposed to be the one who saves him, Will."

Will thought back to the time, weeks ago, when he'd stood on the steps of his father's hospital and came to the same conclusion. He was supposed to save Nico, help Nico, blah blah blah.

He'd been so wrong.

"I do know him better than that," he said determinedly. "I know him well enough to see what even you don't-he doesn't need saving. He just needs to get the hell over himself and grow up, and I can't make him do that."

He swung his duffel bag onto his shoulder.

" . . . I can't make him do anything."

Widows who'd lost their husbands to the sea often spent their lives staring out at the waves that swallowed their happiness. Sometimes, in an effort to gain back what they had lost, they dove into the brine for themselves; gave their bodies over to become swollen, pale, bloated and salt-crusted. Nico had walked that path, however reluctantly-he'd become one of the wispy shadow-stories that Bianca used to tell him at night, under covers with a flashlight shone into her face to scare him more.

He'd become lovelorn, and it disgusted him.

Jason came up beside him, sneakers crunching over the newly frost-crusted sand. "It's almost November, Nic," he said. "We've got to leave."

Nico wondered when he'd broke. It wasn't for Percy, scrabbling to catch the last threads of his rapidly unraveling relationship; it wasn't for Jason, or Hazel, who both looked at him as though he was already in his coffin, six feet down, no one hears you scream, boy. It wasn't even for Will, was it? Not really.

Maybe he'd just lost it for himself. He'd had enough. He quit. He didn't want to deal with dealing with shit. He was tired of being himself; he wanted to be happy. Happy like he'd been when it was just him and Will, with Jason and Frank and Hazel down the lane to visit, and no Percy, no dozens of teenagers wreaking havoc and ruining furniture cushions like over-excited puppy dogs.

Just you and me in a cabin by the sea.

Either way, Will was gone, and Nico would have to get over it. Better luck next time.

"Nico?" Jason sounded hesitant, a little nervous. "Dude, are you crying?"

Nico wiped his face on the sleeve of his sweatshirt and shook his head. "No." He paused. "Hey, Jase?"

"Yeah?"
"Are you ever going to tell me what Hazel's hiding?"

Jason's ears turned bright scarlet. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said woodenly.

Nico stuffed his hands in his pockets, hunching his shoulders against the fall chill. "I've had enough secrets for one year, thanks."

Jason folded his arms. "I really think that you should talk to her about it."

"She's in Rhode Island. I'd have to call." Nico kicked at the sand moodily and shot Jason a sideways glance. "C'mon," he pressured. "It can't be as bad as Percy's was."

Jason shrugged. "Look, she's going to be seriously pissed. I'm not supposed to tell anyone-you especially. Hazel could get into a lot of trouble."

"Jason."

"All right, all right!" He threw up his hands, surrendering, giving in like Piper did when she realized that Jason wasn't going back to Arizona with them, wasn't going to leave Nico alone; not then, not ever. At least she'd extracted a promise to call this time.

"This wasn't just some random coincidence," Jason said. "We-Hazel and I-have been looking for you, and the other cousins, for a long time. Like, pretty much since we found each other."

Nico scrunched up his face in confusion. "Why? Why does Hazel care about me?"

There on the beach, witnessed by the whistling wind and crashing waves, between the sea that stole Percy and the cape that took him back, Jason told him the story. He told and told and told until the words flowed empty from his lips, empty and cold as the beach once the sun set.

When he was done, Nico had nothing to say. He hugged his sweatshirt around his body and turned to face the ocean one more time.

"Are you crying?" Jason asked again.

Nico whispered, for only the salt-drenched waves of his old nemesis to hear, "I have a sister. I have two sisters."

And, lower, so that even he couldn't make out the faint sounds his lips formed, he added, "And I'm in love with Will."

The sea, it mocked him as it always did, its briny face laughing at his troubles, reaching arms of waves slapping the beach before him in calculated taunts. Be careful, it whooshed. Be careful what you wish for.

Nico closed his ears to it, this time. He didn't wish. "Let's go," he said to Jason.

Jason smiled widely. "Awesome."