A/N: Thank you for following and favoriting! This chapter was mainly written by me.
Nico desperately tried to focus on anything but Percy's face, and the fact that the band was playing a love song. He could just tell that it was a love song, okay?
He began thinking about the sand beneath his feet, the soft cushions of the chair, the conversations of people around him, the sound of the ocean behind him, and the sunset. He stared at his food, and focused on the taste. Percy, at the moment, was driving him crazy, and he needed a moment to calm down and focus on things other than Percy to keep himself anchored. Nico didn't want to start accidentally making stuff up. He had to look for actual signs that Percy was interested in Nico, and not just think he was seeing them. If that happened, then his plan would go straight to Tartarus.
Nico let out a silent prayer to Aphrodite that Percy would actually show signs, and not just be one of those unreadable people.
"Nico, are you okay?" Percy asked, cutting into Nico's musings, and making eye contact.
"Yeah, fine," he said automatically, breaking the eye contact. "I'm fine." Way to go, he thought. Now he thinks there's something wrong with you.
Nico forced a smile. Percy returned it. Nico took a bite of his food and watched Percy for a moment. The dim natural lighting didn't really show off his sea green eyes, which Nico could get lost in, as if they were the real ocean. The candlelight lit up Percy's face in a slightly romantic way. Who knew that firelight could make someone look attractive? Or maybe he was too infatuated; there was no escape for him. Percy glanced up from his plate, their eyes meeting. A smile grew on the older boy's face.
"The sunset looks great tonight," Nico blurted out. He blushed slightly. You look great, he wanted to say. To refrain from doing so and spoiling everything, he bit his lower lip.
"Yeah. The temperature and the ocean's level really compliment that." Percy replied. The two of them looked out at the sunset. Nico wanted this moment to last forever. A moment alone with Percy Jackson, where they could just be two guys on a semi-date. Semi because it probably didn't register with Percy that this was a date.
"How's your food?" Nico asked.
"It's pretty good," Percy commented, reaching his hand towards Nico ever so slightly. "How about yours?"
"It's nice," Nico replied.
"That's good." Percy placed a hand on Nico's left hand, which was just sitting on the table, sending a feeling of electricity into Nico's hand. "This is a great restaurant. I wish they had one of these over in New York. I'd go there all the time, if I had someone to go with."
"You have Annabeth," Nico pointed out. "I'm sure she'd appreciate going out to dinner with a friend."
"Eh," Percy shrugged. "She would appreciate it, but I'm talking about someone whom I'm involved with… Romantically." It could have been a trick of Nico's eye, but he thought that Percy had just winked at him. "You know… Like, somebody to take on a few dates, and to walk around with afterwards…" Nico swallowed, and became very aware of Percy's hand on his.
"That sounds… Nice," Nico said, his voice strained. "Do you have someone in mind?"
"I don't know." Percy shrugged. "I think I do, but I'm not yet sure if that person would want to. How about you?" Percy shifted in his seat; so that he was leaning forward, and retracted his hand from Nico's to scratch his head. Nico bit his lip before responding.
"I dunno." Nico shrugged. "I mean… You know me… I don't really do a whole lot of meeting people…"
"You don't have to do a lot of meeting or talking to people to have someone you like," Percy pointed out. "Do you like someone? That's the question." Nico swallowed.
"Yeah," he said finally. "I guess I do." He bit his lip again, watching Percy's reaction.
"So have you done anything worth talking about in the past six months?" Percy asked, changing the subject. Nico was relieved.
"Not really." Nico shrugged. "Just boring stuff as one of the ambassadors between the camps. I mean, Annabeth could probably tell you more. She does more work than I do. Probably because she can see Reyna pretty often. I'm more of a consultant, sharing my insights here and there. I just let them make most of the decisions. It's nothing huge."
"What do you guys do exactly, though?" Percy asked.
"You've probably heard Annabeth explain it," Nico said, shaking his head. "She knows how to explain it better than I can."
"I want to hear it coming from you," Percy replied. Nico took a moment to gather his thoughts.
"Well, we've been considering doing sort of an exchange program, like with schools, except with the camps. We want to get accustomed to each other, and learn how to collaborate better. We want to make sure that we are allies in case some new threat comes up later on," Nico explained.
"Exactly how far does 'later on' go?" Percy asked.
"We don't know. A threat could pop up a week from today, a month, six months, a year, fifty years, a hundred… We really don't know," Nico replied. "But we want to be ready when it does. From what it looks like, we—the demigods—will be ready as allies when something does come up. Not only are the two camps banded together, but the Hunters of Artemis and the Amazons are all allied with us. The camps and the girl groups are more off in their two sections, but that's kind of a natural thing." Nico shrugged. "The important thing is that we are allies." Percy nodded.
"Yeah… In the Titan war, it was nice having the Hunters helping us. With the Giant war, it was nice having the Amazons and Hunters on our side. With whatever's next, the four of us together will probably be the greatest alliance ever," Percy commented.
With that, the two sat in awkward silence, having run out of things to talk about.
After a few minutes, Nico found a nice, normal, topic that he wished he'd thought of before.
"So, what's it like, being on your school's swim and water polo teams?" Nico asked. Percy grinned crookedly, and Nico felt a tug in his gut. The good kind; the kind that comes with warmth and happiness.
"It's great," Percy commented. "I made the paper with both. I made MVP for both. They said I'm a natural." Nico laughed at the twinkle in Percy's eye.
"Of course you are," he teased. Percy laughed with him.
In that moment, Nico knew that he wanted this to last an eternity. He was with Percy, and the two of them were having fun, and enjoying each other's company in a kind of romantic setting. Hopefully everything would turn out fine in the end, and Nico wouldn't screw this up.
A/N: Guys... Can we actually get a review in? Like... An actual review for once? Please?