Hey readers, a piece of not very happy news: I am going to stop writing one-shots every week. I have noticed that it began to feel like a chore to me - I do not enjoy writing fanfiction right now. In the next five weeks I will upload the stories I have already written. After that, I might write a one-shot now and then when I get a good idea or a funny suggestion (don't hesitate to keep sending those!), but I am mostly going to focus on original fiction. Thanks for reading my stories for a year and a half and have fun with the stories I will still upload!

Percy got suspicious as soon as he begun to feel a little bored. That feeling meant that within a few minutes something bad was going to happen. As a demigod, the universe never gave you a moment of peace. He still felt disappointed when it turned out his suspicion was correct. As he ran out of his cozy cabin to fight a pack of Hellhounds that had broken into camp, he wondered why this couldn't be different.

He slowly stumbled back to his cabin. On the way, he noticed Nico sitting on the docks, staring into the water. Percy looked at him for a moment, when he was suddenly struck with an idea. 'Nico!'

Nico kept looking into the water while Percy came running over to him. 'Hm?'

'You... go on some wild trips in your sleep now and then, right?'

'I try not to. It is stressful for me, Will, Chiron, probably Dionysus and who knows who else.'

'Oh. Eh... I was wondering, do you think there are triggers for those trips?' Reflected in the water, Percy saw that Nico's expression turned to annoyance.

'What do you want, Percy?'

'...If the situation ever arises, could you ask the Universe to please give us some rest every now and then? A moment of boredom without monsters, gods and other calamities popping up?'

Nico rolled his eyes. 'Not going to happen. Bye, Percy.'

'Sorry. Bye, Nico,' Percy muttered, before continuing on his way to his cabin. Nico stayed by the docks. What a stupid question. Like he wanted to travel to the weirdest places in the universe. Like he could ask the Universe itself to stop doing weird things. Nico doubted the universe was sentient. He looked at the small waves on the water, created by the kanoes. They were somehow calming. Nico felt his eyelids getting heavy, so, so heavy...

Percy fell backwards onto his bed. He hadn't wanted to upset Nico. He let out a sigh, followed by a yawn. All of the running around made him tired. He closed his eyes. He could do that, it was only for a second...

When Percy opened his eyes, he was laying next to Nico, on a bridge. He jumped up and looked around, feeling bewildered. The bridge was made of white marble and lead from one side of a cave to another. Under them, Percy heard the roaring of a wild river. He could see a Majestic waterfall on his right side, dropping more water into the river far below.

Percy looked at Nico's body. The son of Hades looked like he was asleep. 'Nico? Eh...'

'Shhh. Go back to sleep. Maybe it goes away.'

'Eh... what? We are in an underground cave. Have you been here before? I...' Nico slowly opened his eyes.
'Oh, you ruined it already.' He stood up. 'This is the first time somebody has actually travelled along with me in my sleep journeys.'

'Are we... asleep?'

'Don't know. Our bodies might still be in camp, or they really are here. Come, let's go figure out where we are and how we can leave, so that we do not have to linger around any longer than necessary.' Nico looked around the cave. 'We should go to the right side of the cave - I see something shiny over there.'

'That's... that's just how we do?'

'Yes, that's just how we do,' Nico answered. He did not wait for Percy to give his opinion on the matter, but instead just begun to walk to the right. Percy followed him, even though he could not see anything shiny himself. He decided to trust Nico on that one,

'Oh, would you look at that,' Nico said a few minutes later. Percy did not know how Nico had seen it, but there was indeed something shiny on the right side of the cave. That shiny thing was an altar that reached to Percy's knees and slightly above Nico's knees. It was covered in silver, gold, rubies and emeralds.

'Did we walk into a cult?' Percy looked around the cave, feeling like they could be attacked by a gang of insane cultists every moment.

'Could be. Although I think we might be in the lair of the universe, taking our conversation earlier into consideration.'

'The... the what?'

'The lair of the universe. It's the place where the conscious of the universe resides. I thought it was nonsense, but hey, I am used to nonsense being actually real by now.'

'Wait... So we can ask why they keeps sending foes at us whenever we try to have a quiet moment?'

'I mean, if we want to have a smaller chance of ever getting out of here, or at least getting out alive, we should totally do that!' Nico answered, while rolling his eyes. He walked closer to the altar.

Percy followed suit. 'Are we supposed to do something with it?'

Nico looked around the cave. There were no passage ways or pathd other than the one they had come from. He shrugged. 'I do not think so. Yet, I want to look on the left side. See if there is something there too.' He turned around and strolled back to the bridge. Percy followed him again, the way a duckling trails behind its mother.

'Eh... not to irritate you, but it sounds like the river is roaring louder than before.' Nico's eyes narrowed. He looked over at the waterfall. 'It don't see any change.' He shrugged and continued to walk to the left side of the cave.

There was nothing there except for a mirror. Percy looked away - he had learned the hard way nothing good ever came from mirrors. Nico, on the other hand, did not care. He looked straight into his own face in the mirror.

'Hm. Well, I guess the universe isn't in here,' he remarked after about ten seconds. He shrugged.

'You looked straight into that mirror without knowing what enchantments might rest on it.'

'Yes, I had little choice.'

'You could have not looked in it!'

'I Always try everything. The more you try, the quicker you get out, I noticed.'

'If you say so.' Percy thought for a few seconds. 'How about we go see if the river has indeed gotten louder, so we can see if that means anything?'

Nico grinned and rolled his eyes at the same time. 'You are starting to get it, but still have a long way to come.' Percy shrugged slowly, not really sure how to react to that.

They walked back to the bridge again. Percy could hear clearly that the water had indeed gotten louder, yet the waterfall not closer. Nico narrowed his eyes.

'I can hear it too, now. Yet, the waterfall is still in the same place.' He looked down at the river under them. 'Eh, Perce...'

Percy looked over the side of the bridge as well. 'Oh yeah, the water level has definitely risen. I... guess I did not think of that. Waterfalls are often louder than rivers.' Nico nodded, more because he was somewhere else with his thoughts than because he understood.

'I see something in the water.'

'What? I do not see any... Oh, gods, is that supposed to be there?'

'No idea. This is also the first time I come here.' Percy stared down at the figure in the water. It looked slightly like a sleeping human face. The eye-like shapes were closed, the mouth was just a little opened and looked a little like the opening of a cave. Percy could very vaguely see something in the shape of a body under the 'head.'

'Do you think...'

'Might be. Although I did not expect the concept of the universe to look like just a regular human.'

'It does not look like a regular human to me.'

'Usually, mystical beings do not look this humanoid!'

'Alright, alright, if you say so...' Percy's voice trailed away when the sound of the river got even louder. Neither he or Nico knew what to say while the water level of the river rose in front of their very eyes. Percy instinctively walked back a small bit, but he made sure that he could still see the river and, more importantly, the figure in the river. He felt like screaming loudly when their eyes opened, but no sound came from his mouth.

Nico stared intensly into the water. He could not tear his eyes away from what was happening under him. The eyes slowly opened up and stared right at the ceiling, just past both his and Percy's heads. The water wrinkled for a bit, before the universe was clearly visible again.

When they finally focused their eyes on Percy and Nico, it was dead silent for a few seconds. The large eyes seemed to take in everything they saw - they were slightly more purple than the rest of the figure, which was blueish. The pupils were vibrantly purple. Percy could not tell what they were feeling - the face was not expressionless, but had characteristics of every emotion at once.

Eventually, Nico took a deep breath. 'Hello, lord. My name is Nico di Angelo, and this is Perseus Jackson. Nico slowly kneeled down. Percy followed his example. He bowed his head.

They heard a deep sigh, which thundered through the cave. Percy looked up. He yelped and crawled back a little. Nico looked up. His jaw tensed, but he did not back away. The face of the universe was now reflected in the waterfall, which started to flow harder.

They heard another sigh. Nico got up from his knees. 'We came here by accident.' Another sigh. The universe slowly shook their head. Percy took a deep, shaky breath. He got up as well. 'I... I am to blame, probably. I...' his voice trailed off. He saw that Nico looked at him with concern in his eyes. Oh, no, that did not mean anything good.

'I... Stress, I guess... Did not...' Percy tripped over his own words. The universe did not budge. They seemed to lean slightly closer to Percy and Nico.

Nico stepped in. 'He had a question. About... the monsters?' Nico knew he sounded unsure of himself. He looked over at Percy. The son of Poseidon took a deep breath again. 'Yes. I did.' He thought for a second - it did not seem like a good idea to tell the universe he did not think they would take him seriously. Yet, he did not have to say anything else - the universe nodded. The unsaid words in their eyes said that they knew. They were the universe - they knew everything.

Nico and Percy understood at the same time. Slowly, Nico sat down on the bridge. Percy followed. He took a very deep breath. He closed his eyes and let all of his thoughts seep out of his head, which went way, way easier than usual - maybe the universe was helping out a bit. For a moment, he felt like all the stress had left his body and soul.

When he reopened his eyes, he and Nico were on the docks in Camp Half-blood. Percy realised he felt at peace. He looked up at the sky. The stars were gorgeous that night. Right above him, he could see Zoë, hunting forever in the stars. A small smile grew on his face.

The feeling started to leak away a little after a minute or ten. Percy turned his head towards Nico. 'That... was an answer, right?'

'Yes, that was all of the answer they are going to give us.' Percy looked back up at the sky.

'Thanks, my lord,' he whispered to the stars. For a second, it seemed like the stars changed their pattern, so that they formed the face of the universe.

'What do you think the answer is?' He gloomely asked Nico.

'Only time will tell. Maybe... maybe they understood us.'

'I feel so sleepy.'

'Yeah, me too.'

Percy shifted for a bit. 'What did the altar and the mirror mean, though?'

Nico shrugged, which was quite difficult to do while laying down on the dock. 'I think they get some offerings from other gods, like with Hestia, you know? And the mirror... I don't know...' Nico's voice trailed away a little. '...but it probably means something.' Percy could only give a quick nod, before his eyelids became too heavy.

They woke up in the infirmary. Annabeth was sitting on Percy's bed, looking at Nico and Will, a few beds over. When she noticed Percy was awake, she gave him a small smile. 'How are you feeling, seaweed brain?'

'... alright, weirdly enough. Calm.'

'Good to hear. Just take some more rest, and after that I want to hear everything that happened, because... the world feels a little different today. It feels like all monsters have gone back into their lairs. Like... today will be a day for relaxation.'