Day 5: Friday, 5th of December

The next day, Nico was already feeling a lot better. He just wished he could have let his friends know, because they kind of showed up at 6:30 am in the freaking morning to check on him.

All three of them.

Sometimes Nico wondered how he could ever have lived without these three idiots.

Seriously, the amount of time he spent with them only seemed to increase by the day.

Back when they had just beaten Gaea, he had spent a few days in the infirmary with Will, then spent a day or two with Jason before he had to leave for Camp Jupiter, then sat down and tried to chat a bit with Percy (really, REALLY awkward).

Then Jason had been gone and he had spent some more time every now and then with Percy or Will, until Jason had popped up again and they had hung out together or finally in a group of three, though one could clearly tell they didn't really like one another much.

Percy and Jason had been something like pals during their stay on the Argo II., but somehow after the war they had developed this huge 'I am better than you'-behavior (not that they hadn't had that before already).

Percy and Will couldn't care less about each other, truth be told.

And Jason and Will hadn't gotten along that well because Will had still been peeved about his chariot coming back in pieces and because he simply didn't like Jason for whatever reasons.

Nico was pleased to see that, by now, they got along better.

He sat on his bed, holding a mug of tea he had gotten from Will, with the scarf wrapped around his neck by Jason and watched as Percy held up a forkful of scrambled eggs in front of his face, moving it around as if he was trying to hypnotize him.

"I'm fine, you know." He muttered, still watching the fork warily.

He wondered how long it would take for Percy to lose focus and drop the egg onto Nico's bed.

"Aw, come on, Neeks. Just let me feed you already." Percy wailed and Nico sighed exasperated, though he opened his mouth nevertheless.

As he pushed the fork into Nico's mouth, Percy made stupid sounds that made Nico wonder whether he was going to do this to his children someday as well.

Probably. No, definitely.

Nico rolled his eyes and simply went with it.

Jason stood behind Percy, chuckling quietly at the scene and winking at Nico, which Nico decided to pointedly ignore.

He glanced over to Will, who was holding up the card of the day, inspecting it.

His admirer had left him another package.

It was quite deformed to say the least. From the shape and feel of it, Nico had to guess it was a book with something else on top, but he wasn't sure.

He hadn't opened it yet, because his friends had made such a big fuss about his health still.

Seriously, he was completely fine.

His headache was mostly gone, he could move around without feeling dizzy anymore, his nose was still a bit runny, but his throat was mostly fine again as well.

He had taken a look at the note, however.

Somehow, he looked forward to the notes almost more than to the actual gifts.

They made him feel so…special.

It also gave him a bit of an insight to the person behind it.

Not much though – he still had no idea who it could be, of course.

Not that he really tried to find out.

But, still, the first thing he had done after letting his friends in was checking out the note.

[Dear Nico,

I love the way you fidget when you're nervous or embarrassed.

You are so adorable, Nico. But at the same time, you can be so maddeningly sexy.

Every morning when I see you sleeping so peacefully, I have the strongest urge to kiss you and snuggle up to you in bed and forget about the world around us.

Would you like that? I mean, in case you give us a chance, of course.

I hope you're feeling better today. You had me worried there. Even if it was just a cold, please take better care of yourself in the future.

I also hope you liked the scarf. I was really worried it might not be to your taste.

It really suits you, though.

Hopefully, you'll also like today's gift.

It is a bit different from the others, but I thought it would be nice if you had something like that as well.

Have a nice 5th day of December, Nico.

I love you so much,

Your secret Admirer

P.s.: I wish I could kiss you.]

Well, at least Nico now knew that his mysterious admirer hadn't prepared the notes in advance, after all.

Which made him wonder who would seriously sit down each evening or morning and go through the trouble of writing to him.

It seemed so crazy, yet also so sweet.

He loved it, yet he wondered who would actually do something like that.

Especially for him.

But he didn't voice out those thoughts.

Will turned the card around for the hundredth time, looking for any type of indicator to whom it was from.

But the back of the card was as blank as the others.

Nico took another forkful of scrambled eggs from Percy and eyed the package again.

He so wanted to open it. But at the same time, he didn't want his friends thinking he was overly enthusiastic about this whole matter.

He knew they knew he was curious and all, but they had no idea how badly his heart was thumping loudly in his chest, his fingertips itching to get to that package and look inside.

Damn.

His fatal flaw must be impatience or something. At this rate, he was going to die from curiosity and anticipation.

He didn't really care what the admirer gave him. It was the fact that he gave him anything at all that made it so special.

And how he always wrapped the things up so nicely.

Nico could have never done it.

He sighed and Percy followed his gaze to the package.

A grin appeared on his face. "You want to open it?"

Nico felt his ears getting hot and looked away.

"I…don't care…" He muttered, trying to act casual.

The three grinned at him broadly.

Then Jason picked up the package. "Yes, you do. You've been itching to open it ever since we got here. No need to be embarrassed about that, Neeks. I bet we're even more curious than you are to find out what's inside."

Nico made a face and took the package from Jason.

All three watched intently as he made a show of first looking at the package from all sides before agonizingly slowly removing the pretty green ribbon and opening the red wrapping paper carefully without tearing it.

"Oh gods, Nico, get it over with, I'm bursting with curiosity right now!" Percy complained and Nico chuckled, removing the wrapping.

"Sweet!" exclaimed Will.

"That is a great idea!" Jason said, grinning from one ear to the other.

"Gods, you gotta try that thing out right away!" Percy insisted enthusiastically.

Nico held up the gift of the day: His very own camera and a photo album, waiting to be filled.

He had always wanted a camera, though why he had never gotten himself one, he didn't know.

He was surprised, to say the least.

Thinking of it, he had never really told anybody he wanted a camera.

Bianca had known, of course, but he highly doubted she had anything to do with this.

A lucky guess, maybe?

Or maybe the person simply had noticed how Nico didn't have any pictures of anybody or anything around in his cabin.

Anyways, it was awesome.

"Sure, how about some pictures, then?" He said with a wide grin and they started their very own photo session at 7am in the morning.

...

Hours later, they wondered vaguely how they were ever going to get through the thousands of pictures they had taken.

They had gone all the way from portraits of everyone by themselves to pairs, to groups of three, even tried a few pictures with all of them on it (Jason's air powers helped with that, though most of them were blurry).

Then the boys had argued about who got to take most pictures of Nico and who got to be on most pictures with Nico.

Needless to say, it had been a quite tiresome morning.

"Good thing that camera comes with SD-card." Will said, inspecting it as they walked across the snowy Camp grounds.

Then he turned around and shot another picture of Nico.

Nico rolled his eyes, taking the camera from the blonde.

"Aww, come on, you look so cute with that scarf and the jacket and those earrings…not to mention the hat…"

Yeah, Jason had made him wear one of those beanie hats. Very funny.

'But me no buts! You're still not back to perfect health, so you gotta wear this!', he had said, with the other two traitors agreeing with him loudly, urging Nico to wear it.

Great.

Nico probably looked like a real idiot.

"I'm surprised that thing can hold so many pictures though…" Nico muttered, looking at the camera in his hands.

The others chuckled.

"At this rate it will be full in no time. We really got to get them sorted out. Off to Leo, then?" Jason asked and looked at them.

They shrugged.

"Sure, he's the only one with a laptop after all. Next to Annabeth, that is." Percy said, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"It really sucks. We should get you a laptop too, Neeks." Will said, putting his arm around Nico.

"Nah, I don't really need one. Also, I could just go to the Underworld. Dad said he 'upgraded' my room. I'm really worried how it'll look now. Didn't get a chance to visit lately, after all."

"And you won't be visiting anytime soon. You know what I've said about underworld-ly stuff."

"But Will, it's been months since that time. I'm completely fine. At this rate, I'll be worse than Percy at controlling my powers."

"Excuse me, I'm awesome!" Percy complained indignantly and Jason and Will laughed.

"Yeah, whatever. You know what I mean. Why am I still not allowed to use my powers?"

"Because it's Doctor's orders. You were so close to fading, I will not have it." Will said, holding up his hand with his fingertips almost touching to emphasize what he meant.

Nico scowled.

Percy and Jason exchanged glances and looked at him worriedly.

"Hey, Will, what if he slowly starts training again?" Jason asked.

Will glared at them both. "No."

"Why not? It's not like you can keep him from using his powers forever. At this rate, it will all just build up and one day he'll go boom!" Percy dramatically threw his arms around.

Will sighed.

"After Christmas, we can talk about it. But not before then." He then said, not looking at any of them.

Nico rolled his eyes.

Will noticed and pulled him tighter.

"Don't do that, Neeks. You know I'm just worried about you."

Nico didn't say anything.

Maybe Will was just worried about him.

Or maybe he was creeped out by Nico's powers.

The thought hurt him, somehow, so he pushed it out of his mind.

Instead, he lifted up his camera once more and took a picture of the frozen Camp grounds in front of them.

They found Leo in Bunker 9 with Calypso in a spacious room full of…stars?

Supposedly, they had found it like that with all the stars and constellations and planets, though unfinished.

Leo, who couldn't take it to see things unfinished, had thus taken it upon himself to complete it together with Calypso.

They gave them Leo's laptop without hesitation, not even asking where Nico had gotten the camera from or anything.

"And over here is a printer and next to it all sorts of paper in case you want to print anything." Leo pointed across the small room they now stood in.

Will instantly went to examine it, Calypso following to explain the different options and what not.

Percy seemed rather nervous, though he always was around Calypso.

Nico guessed he still felt bad for not checking whether she had been able to get off her island after demanding it from the gods.

Or maybe he still had feelings for her, after all.

He sighed, letting Jason fumble with the SD-card and the laptop and just looking around the room.

Percy was still fidgeting. Then he looked around to Nico and, for a moment, their eyes met.

Nico blinked and looked away, instead looking towards Calypso, who was walking towards Leo and the door now.

As they waved and closed the door behind them, Nico sighed.

"They sure seem happy together." Will said, coming over to join them at the laptop.

"Yeah, I'm really glad." Percy nodded and Nico raised an eyebrow.

Percy noticed and scowled. "Nico, don't look at me like that. I know what you're thinking, but it's not like that. I'm really glad she finally got somebody who can return her feelings. That's all."

Nico only held up his arms defensively. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Though inwardly, he was kind of happy.

He looked around to Jason, trying to cover the smile tugging at his lips.

"I think it's working." Jason muttered, opening the camera folder.

"Whoa, we took over 300 pictures in the past hours!" Will exclaimed, shocked and awed at the same time, staring over Jason's shoulder.

Percy chuckled. "Yeah and somebody had their thumb on the lens on at least twenty of them." He said, grinning broadly and pointing at a series of miniature pictures in the overview.

Jason fidgeted. "Actually, I think that was me."

They laughed and Jason began scrolling through the pictures slowly.

After a while, Will took over, starting a slideshow, though they had to stop it every few pictures to delete some or laugh at others.

Most of them were actually quite good.

"Who took these?" asked Will, clicking through several good shots of the cabins.

"I did." Nico replied, surprised at how well they turned out.

Then they clicked back to their group pictures.

"Any you'd like to have printed, Neeks? We could put them in your new photo album."

Jason suggested and Nico looked over Will's shoulder at the screen.

So many pictures.

How could he possibly decide which ones he wanted?

"Erm…"

"Will, shoo and let him sit down, so he can do it himself." Jason ordered and Will instantly jumped up.

"Oops, sorry."

Nico flopped down on the chair, moving the mouse awkwardly. He didn't really know much about laptops and the like.

All in all, he had been surprised at how fast he had gotten the hang of gaming and the like, what with all the different consoles and games and controllers.

But he hadn't actually used a laptop, like…ever, really.

He knew it was fairly simple, just dragging the mouse around clicking things and such, but he already felt the heat rising in his face at the mere thought of embarrassing himself, doing something stupid.

He clicked on a few pictures, just to then not find the X to close them again.

Then he started dragging around the windows on the screen to at least get back to the overview somehow.

Will chuckled.

Jason nudged him in the side.

Percy tapped the screen where the X was wordlessly, not looking at him.

Nico bit his lip and closed the windows, feeling utterly stupid.

"I like that one." Percy muttered, pointing to one of the pictures with Nico and Percy on it.

Nico opened it.

"Yeah, that's nice. How about we print that out and one more with you and each of us, then a group picture and the ones you took of the Camp?" Jason agreed and took over the mouse, much to Nico's relief.

"Sure." He agreed, getting off the chair again.

Will looked ruefully at him.

Nico only shrugged, looking over Jason's shoulder at the screen.

"That one looks good." He muttered, pointing to one of the group pictures of Jason, Percy and Will.

"Really? But you're not on it." Percy complained, but Nico shrugged.

"I don't care. Can we print that, too?"

Jason marked it and moved it to a separate folder to print together with the one with Percy and Nico.

"How about that one?" Will asked, pointing to one with Nico and himself.

"Nah, I like that one here more." Percy chuckled, pointing at another Will+Nico shot beneath the one in question.

"But I look utterly dumb on the picture." Will complained.

Percy threw him a meaningful glance. "Maybe that's why."

They glared at each other. Nico rolled his eyes.

"How about this one?" He asked, pointing to another shot of Will and him, with Will grinning broadly and Nico actually managing half a smile.

"Yeah, that's nice. I'm in for it, as well." Jason agreed.

Percy shrugged.

Will nodded and Jason moved it to the print folder.

They scrolled through the pictures and easily found a Jason+Nico picture, as well as one of Nico on his bed with the Mrs. O'Leary plushie that everybody wanted to get printed, much to Nico's dismay.

He didn't really see a reason in putting pictures of himself alone into his own photo album.

But since they insisted on it, he gave in.

They did print some pictures of Camp Half-Blood as well that Nico had taken.

"The frozen lake looks so pretty, how did you manage to get such a good shot with the sunlight like that?" Percy marveled, pointing at a few trial shots from Nico.

He had really only wanted to see whether the camera was good for shots like that.

It certainly was.

Even Jason and Will found the photos pretty.

"We're printing those as well!" Percy announced determined.

"Percy, those are six pictures of pretty much the same thing."

"I don't care. You can keep one and I get the rest?"

The others laughed – including Nico.

He shrugged and they looked at the now twenty pictures in the Print folder.

"Neeks, want to look at the different types of paper to see what you want? They have think paper, thin paper, smooth paper, real photo paper, paper that feels weird…" Will counted, pulling Nico over to the printer and showing him assortments of paper.

It all kind of was the same to Nico, so he simply picked the first he could reach.

Will seemed happy with that, and they started printing.

...

They spent most of the day running around taking pictures of everybody and everything.

Mostly, Nico took the pictures of objects and places (including the frozen lake once more because Percy insisted on it), while the others took turns in taking pictures of Nico with people.

They even managed to get other Campers to pose for the camera with Nico.

Most of them actually didn't even seem all that taken aback by it, nor did they seem particularly distasteful towards Nico – which surprised him greatly.

Especially Clarisse.

Nico had almost feared she'd go and break his camera when he had offered to take a picture of her and Chris, but suddenly she had pulled him into the picture as well, between herself and her boyfriend, allowing Percy to take pictures.

Then she had ripped off Nico's hat and made fun of him, but he had laughed as well, so it wasn't all that bad.

Though he knew Jason had gotten a good shot at him with his hair standing off in all directions, which didn't exactly please him.

He would just have to delete that at some point.

With Leo's permission, they had put a password-protected folder on his desktop with Nico's photos in it.

That way, they could empty out the SD-card and make tons more pictures without actually losing the ones they already had. Nico really liked that.

He felt his pocket for the pictures they had printed out.

He was so going to put them in his photo album.

Looking around the camp, he wondered whether that mysterious admirer was watching him right now.

He somehow wished he knew who it was.

Then he could take pictures with him, as well.

He watched as Percy and Jason grabbed Will and pushed him into the snow.

Chuckling, he snapped away with his camera.

Whoever the person was, he was definitely going to thank him especially for the camera.

Somehow, the gifts really did get better by the day.

He remembered thinking that, after the earrings, he had to get disappointed.

And nothing could ever beat the Mrs. O'Leary plushie.

And the sweets were simply awesome.

The scarf had been great as well and immensely useful, since it kept Nico nice and warm, protecting him from any flu coming his way.

But the camera seemed to top all that.

He had always wanted a camera.

But who could have known that?

Percy, Will and Jason looked around at him, laughing, all three sitting in the snow.

He snapped another picture, smirking.

...

By the evening, the thrill of the camera still hadn't faded whatsoever.

They happily shot pictures of pretty much anything that caught their eye, also getting a good snapshot of Piper and Annabeth kissing, which completely shocked Nico, since he had momentarily forgotten his friends were single now.

But to his surprise, both Jason and Percy managed to talk completely normally with their now ex-girlfriends, not even blinking at them holding hands or anything.

He had also taken pictures of that.

"At this rate, we're bound to get you a laptop, Neeks. If you spam your SD-card like that, you'll have to go over to Leo daily and he soon won't have any free space anymore." Will chided and took the camera from him, just to take more pictures of the dining pavilion himself.

Nico made a face.

"I guess I'll think about it."

"Nico~, save me! Annabeth is torturing me!" Percy wailed and Nico blinked, looking around to the dark-haired hero, who was in a headlock from Annabeth.

Nico frowned.

"Oh, please, you need Nico to save you?" Clarisse called over, but Percy only nodded.

"Yes! Only Nico is smart enough to outsmart Annabeth."

"Okay, now you certainly lost the chance for me to let you go. You think he can compete with me? Nothing against you, Nico."

Nico's lips twitched. That had been a direct blow against his pride.

"Oh, this is going to be good." Jason muttered and he and Will stepped back.

Nico stepped forward. "No, actually, I take you up on the challenge."

There was silence.

All eyes fixed on Annabeth and Nico.

Annabeth's gray eyes looked him over, seemingly trying to look through him.

Nico put his hands in his pockets, completely relaxed.

He had wanted to do this for ages.

She shrugged. "Sure. Bring it on, Death boy."

"How do you want to settle this, Wise Girl?" He asked, wondering what she was going to go for.

Maybe a fight, but Annabeth would be in disadvantage then.

Maybe some sort of quiz or word game. He could do that.

She had dyslexia too, after all, so there wasn't anything that she could use against him, like spelling.

Then again, he had a feeling she wouldn't go for a quiz.

This was Annabeth, after all.

If anything, she'd go for…

"How about riddles? We go for as long as it takes for one not being able to answer or answering wrongly." she said.

He smiled. She was so easy to read.

She blinked, momentarily confused.

"Alright. I'm in. You start."

"Do I have to stay in a headlock until you guys are done?"

"Yes." They both replied curtly.

Percy groaned.

Annabeth thought for a moment.

"Okay, here goes: There are 5 houses painted 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
These five people each drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet.
None of them have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.

The Brit lives in the red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the left of the white house.
The green homeowner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Blue-master drinks beer.
The German smokes prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

So, Nico, who owns the fish?"

Nico hesitated.

Then his mind began rattling through what she just said.

There was still silence around them.

He scratched his chin. "That's a good one. How much time do I have to answer?" He asked, completely relaxed.

Annabeth blinked. "Erm…let's say five minutes."

A murmuring went through the pavilion and he heard a few people muter 'Only five minutes?', but he nodded.

"Fair enough. Can you repeat it once more please?"

She did.

Nico closed his eyes, in his mind arranging and rearranging the different aspects.

There was yellow, blue, red, green and white.
Norwegian, Dane, Brit, German and Swede.
Water, tea, milk, coffee and beer.
Dunhill, Blends, Pall Mall, Prince, Blue-masters.
Cat, Horse, Bird, Dog and…none, so that must be fish.

He began sorting them, arranging and rearranging the five houses in his mind.

"One minute left." Annabeth said quietly.

Nico opened his eyes.

"The German. The German has the fish."

Silence.

Then, Annabeth nodded.

"Fine, your turn."

There was muttering in the pavilion.

Nobody cared about food anymore.

All eyes were glued to Nico and Annabeth.

Will and Jason high-fived.

Nico thought for a moment.

Then he smiled.

"What has a head yet never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps, can run bot cannot walk, and has a bank but not a cent to its name?"

It was really simple, of course.

But Nico couldn't think of anything better right now and it was just so fitting.

Annabeth blinked.

Then there was silence.

Wait, Annabeth had to know that one!

It was so very easy.

Jason muttered to a fellow Camp member whose job now was to stop the time.

More silence.

Then Annabeth groaned.

"Of course…a river!"

Nico grinned. "Yup."

"That was so easy! How could I not think of that?" She complained, but then focused again.

Nico mentally got ready for her next riddle.

"Okay, what occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in one thousand years?" Annabeth asked.

Nico looked at her exasperated.

"The letter 'M'." was his immediate reply.

Who did she think he was?

She chuckled.

"Okay, fine, I guess that really was too easy."

He thought for a moment.

"There is a basket full of hats. 3 of them are white and 2 of them are black.
There are 3 men: Tom, Tim and Jim.
They each take a hat out of the basket and put it on their heads without seeing the hat they selected or the hats the other men selected.
The men arrange themselves so Tom can see Tim and Jim's hat, Tim can see Jim's hat and Jim can't see anyone's hat.
Tom is asked what color his hat is and he says he doesn't know.
Tim is asked the same question and he also doesn't know.
Finally, Jim is asked the question and he does know.
What color is his hat?"

There was silence.

The countdown started.

Annabeth frowned, closing her eyes to think.

Nico looked at Percy, still in the headlock, giving him a thumbs-up. He mouthed something to him, but Nico had no clue what it was.

It looked a bit like 'I love you', but he was fairly certain that was just wishful thinking.

He concentrated back on Annabeth.

He knew she'd be able to solve this one.

The problem was that he wasn't sure whether he would remember any good ones to actually win this game.

"One minute left." the camper with the timer said meekly.

Annabeth shuffled.

"White. The hat is white. If Tom doesn't know it, the other two can't be black else he'd know his is white. If Tim doesn't know, then Jim's hat can't be black, else his own would be white. Thus, Jim has a white hat." She explained.

Nico nodded and there was loud muttering in the pavilion, a lot of them admiring their work so far.

"My turn. If you have an 11 and a 13 minute hourglass, how can you accurately time 15 minutes?" She asked.

Nico thought for a moment.

He hated math.

He began counting with his fingers. Eleven minutes…thirteen minutes…thirteen minus eleven…he smiled.

"Start both hourglasses and flip the 11 minute one over immediately when it's done. Then when the 13 minute one runs out, flip the 11 minute one again, because it will be two minutes long then. Equals 15 minutes."

Annabeth looked impressed.

Will whistled.

The others muttered again, looking at him in awe.

"My turn: A natural state, I'm sought by all.
Go without me, and you shall fall.
You do me when you spend,
and use me when you eat to no end.
What am I?" He asked and the timer started once more.

He really enjoyed this.

Though right now he was only buying time to think of something Annabeth might not be able to solve.

"Balance." Annabeth muttered when there were 3 minutes left.

Nico expected her to know the answer, so he didn't care.

He waited for her next move.

"What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright or the carpenter?" She asked.

Nico frowned.

He had heard that one not too long ago.

Where had it been?

An image flashed through his mind of a ghost he had conversed with at some point.

Who had that been?

He racked his brain for a moment.

Ah. Shakespeare.

He remembered.

"The gravedigger, for his houses last forever." He said, grinning.

Annabeth grinned back, though he could see it in her eyes she was running out of ideas.

"Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered ice tea.
One girl drank them very fast and drank five of them in the time it took the other to drink one.
The girl who drank one died while the other survived.
All of the drinks were poisoned.
Why did the girl that drank more ice tea survive?" He asked, remembering the story.

The countdown started once more.

Nico racked his brain. There had to be something Annabeth couldn't solve.

He remembered how difficult it had been for her to figure out something simple.

She was expecting difficult things. Maybe he could use that against her?

Otherwise he'd be here all night. Not that he minded, really. He enjoyed riddles.

But Percy seemed pretty uncomfortable in that hold.

"The poison was in the ice cubes." Annabeth said and he nodded.

"Okay, how about this: What came first, the egg or the chicken?"

There was an outburst of complains all over the place, but Nico held up his hand.

"It's eggs."

"Why?"

"Because dinosaurs laid eggs long before there were chickens."

Silence.

Then Jason clapped.

Will whistled.

The others gaped.

Annabeth was now very impressed.

Nico winked at Percy, who did another thumbs-up.

Then he sighed, trying to think of something good.

Something difficult, yet simple.

Something so obvious nobody would think of it.

He couldn't think of anything good.

"We hurt without moving.
We poison without touching.
We bear the truth and the lies.
We are not judged by our size.
What are we?" He asked, not being able to think of anything better.

The timer started. Gods, where were all his good riddles?

He racked his brain, looking over to Jason, thinking hard.

Something good.

Something she wouldn't think of.

He heard Annabeth shuffle.

Oh, come on, she had to know that one.

He looked at the timer.

Three minutes left.

Two minutes left.

"One minute left." the boy said.

All eyes were on Annabeth now.

"I…give me a moment…" she muttered, her face scrunched up.

Nico blinked.

"30 seconds." The boy said.

Everybody began muttering.

"Words!" Annabeth exclaimed and Nico sighed.

Would have been too good to be true.

He nodded and she sighed relieved, then smirked.

"You're pretty good. I underestimated you."

"That wasn't very wise." He retorted and Percy grinned broadly.

"Okay, erm…It is greater than God and more evil than the devil.
The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you'll die.
What is it?"

The timer started.

Nico frowned, touching on his skull earrings absent-mindedly.

Greater than god, more evil than the devil.

He couldn't think of a lot other than Tartarus, but he doubted that was the answer.

The poor have it…the rich need it…

What did the poor have…?

What do rich people need?

It clicked.

"Nothing."

Annabeth grinned. Nico smiled back.

And then he had an idea.

"Okay, here I go: 7 months have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?"

It was a catch question.

And Annabeth completely fell for it.

"One."

Silence.
Silence.
Silence.

"Shit." She muttered, letting Percy go and facepalmed.

Nico grinned broadly.

"Okay, fine. You win. I'll remember that." she said, but she grinned back.

Jason clapped. So did pretty much everybody else.

"I don't get it." Percy muttered, confused.

"Every month has 28 days." Annabeth explained, exasperated.

Will went to hug Nico. "You were amazing, Neeks!" He said, almost lifting Nico off the ground.

Nico only grinned stupidly.

"I knew you're the only one who could outsmart her!" Percy called, patting his shoulder.

"Thanks for getting me out of that headlock. I already started going numb."

Nico chuckled, ears turning red. "You're just lucky I enjoy riddles."

The others in the pavilion were badly impressed, to say the least.

And suddenly, they didn't seem scared of Nico so much anymore.

A lot of kids he knew usually avoided him and scrambled off when he was close-by actually came up to him and patted him on the shoulder or nodded in his direction, grinning at him.

It was really cool.

Jason looked at him fondly, giving him a thumbs-up.

He grinned back.

Then he began taking pictures of pretty much anybody who cared to take a picture – which suddenly seemed to be the whole camp.

Maybe he should really consider getting a laptop for all those pictures he took.