Nico's POV

I had clear motives for punching Percy; he was making me seriously regret my life choices.

The look on his face did that too.

'Truth.' I said.

'What happened in Croatia?' Percy asked.

'Dare.' I said.

'I dare you to kiss all the girls here.' Percy said.

'Stai scherzando.' I cursed.

'Less translating, more deciding.' Percy said.

'It's either the cave or the cliff.' Leo, always inspirational, said.

'I don't like you.' Lavinia said. 'You're definitely not kissing me.'

'That makes two of us.' Nik said.

Nik and Lavinia high-fived.

'Nico can't talk about Croatia.' Jason said. 'It was very, very scary.'

'Which makes it very, very interesting.' Percy said.

'And what if I don't want to do either?' I asked.

'Then you'll have to surf naked screaming Cowabunga.' Percy said.

To me, Nik wasn't the only one Cupid was messing with. Somehow, he was probably influencing Percy; else I didn't remember him being so evil.

'I choose Croatia.' I said.

'Interesting.' Percy said. I could almost swear I heard Cupid's voice in his.

I sighed. 'Croatia was where I first confessed my crush.'

'Crush on who?' Percy asked.

'You know.' I said.

'I don't.' Lavinia said.

'I'm talking, Pinky Dinky Doo.' I said.

'That's my line,' Nik said. 'but okay.'

'But seriously; try explaining in full detail.' Percy said. 'What happened, where it happened, why it happened, and how it happened. That's how you tell a story.'

'Jason; back me up, please.' I said.

'You really want to do this?' Jason asked.

'Would you have wanted me to kiss your girlfriend or say something from Teen Beach Movie?' I asked.

'Right.' Jason rose to his feet.

I cleared my throat. 'It all started with an angel at an ice cream cart.'

'Not him, by the way.' Jason said.

'Way to go, backup.' Nik said.

'Come to think of it,' Jason said. 'it started with you taking about the scepter of Diocletian.'

'Another thing that came from Nico running his mouth.' Nik said. 'Way up there with the camp manual.'

'You could say that.' I said. 'As we got close to it, it disappeared; leading to this person hauling me across Split.'

'Split's the name of a place?' Percy asked.

'Exactly.' Leo said.

'We settled in the entrance to Dieocletian's palace, talked a bit, and went underground.' Jason said.

'Talked about what?' Percy asked.

'Basic things.' Jason said. 'The plan, angry ghosts, Nico's past; you.'

'What did he say about me?' Percy asked.

'Anyways,' I said loudly. 'We went underground and found the angel.'

'More accurately; the angel scared me into decapitating a statue.' Jason said.

'In between a lot of arrogant commentary and a few warnings; we learnt that the angel's name was Zephyrous the West Wind, the sceptre was not in the palace, and we weren't going to deal with Diocletian's ghosts as we planned earlier.' I said. '"If you want it, you must face the god of love." Zephyrous said.'

'God of love as in Cupid?' Lavinia asked. 'That baby with angel wings and golden arrows?'

'He's way more than that.' Jason said.

'Yeah.' Lavinia said. 'That dude we see on Valentine's Day cards—'

Suddenly, Nik throttled Pinky Dinky Doo with so much force the latter's face turned purple; complimenting her hair nicely.

'Stop.' Lavinia begged.

'Apologize.' Nik said violently.

'What did I—'

'Apologize if you value your pitiful mortal life, Lavinia Kendra Asimov.' Nik warned, her grip on Lavinia seemingly getting tighter.

I could sense the life going out of her.

'I apologize.' Lavinia said quickly. 'I'm sorry. Ego sum paenitet.'

Nik abruptly let go and slumped into Piper's lap. 'Done, master.' She said sheepishly.

'What did I do to her?' Lavinia asked. 'What's up?'

'You just witnessed some of Cupid's power.' Jason said.

'So Cupid possesses people, too?' Lavinia asked.

'We'll get to that in the story.' Jason said. 'Moving on to The Hour I Got Sucker Punched.'

'He was invisible.' I said. 'Thus really, really hard to pin down.'

'I would know.' Annabeth said.

'He took advantage of that and slapped us around a lot.' Jason said. 'He kept shooting at us, asking for some kind of truth, and spouting genuinely dangerous love poetry.'

'More accurately; he targeted me and Jason defended me.' I said. 'For some weird reason, I know he wanted something from me.'

'While we battled, Cupid told me some things about the sceptre; enough to distract me from defending Nico.'

'Suddenly, I felt an arrow pierce my heart; and I was filled with unbelievable amounts of hatred and anger.'

'Something like what Nik just felt right now.' Piper said.

I realised that I'd reached a critical part of the story. 'At least hers was probably induced.' I said. 'I had carried my hatred for a long time.

'I was able to get Cupid to focus on me and I threw everything I had at him.' I said. 'But it was obvious he wasn't backing down.'

'Before the end, I saw glimpses of Nico's past.' Jason said. 'I saw Percy defend him and Bianca from a manticore. I saw Percy promise to bring Bianca back safely. I saw Nico calling Percy a liar, yet still saving him from the skeleton warriors. I saw…too much.'

'In the end, the truth prevailed.' I said. 'And that truth was; I had a crush on Percy.'

After a moment of silence for my deceased secret; everyone, even half conscious Nik, clapped. 'Nice story.'

'Very nice.' Nik said sleepily.

'And now it's my turn.' I said. 'Annabeth; truth or dare?'