Chapter 8

Nico Accepts his Inner Juliet

Nico knew he'd have to save Percy Jackson's butt the moment his teammate blew the whistle.

With the Apollo cabin on his tail, an angry Lee Fletcher and sexy Will Solace among them, he didn't like having to deviate from the plan. But if Percy was incapacitated or taken prisoner, what little left of their strategy would fall to pieces.

"Taking a detour," he muttered. "Hold on tight."

He changed directions abruptly, heading for the spot he could hear the shrill tooting coming from. The Hephaestus cabin had supplied the blue team with what they honest-to-gods called 'rape whistles'. It was some pop-culture reference Nico didn't get. He was an old-school fella, he thought. But the point was, if any of the blue team were ambushed, they would make enough noise to either signal their capture or to get help. Based on how long Percy had managed to blow for, he wanted help.

"Holy Hera, Jackson," Nico grumbled, leaping over a fallen tree. "What in Hades could have gotten your toga in such a twist?"

Apparently the Apollo cabin had awful night vision. Nico heard Lee Fletcher take a dive as he tripped over the log. They were catching up though, and that spurred Nico to run faster. The whistling was piercing his ears now and as he pushed an arm of shrubbery away, he could see why. He'd found the clearing Percy was in and honestly, the sight was a little pathetic.

Percy seemed to be doing a dance of some sort – jerking his arms and legs around in a rhythmless sprawl, like an adrenaline-high monkey. His face was annoyed and panicked, the whistle clamped tightly in his teeth. Facing him, on the other side of the stream that cut through the woods, was a monstrously amused Jason, whose arms were shaking with the laughter that wracked his whole body. All thoughts of the Apollo cabin pursuing him left Nico's brain as he jumped into the clearing.

"You had one job, Percy," he groaned. "One job."

Percy spat the whistle out of his mouth, letting it bounce against his chest as the string around his neck held it.

"Nico!" he yelled. "Help me!"

"Did the Hecate cabin get you with something?" Nico asked sarcastically.

"NO!" Percy wailed. His leg kicked in a dodge and suddenly, Nico saw something impact against the stones of the bank. He tried to get a better look, but it had gone. As he paid more attention, he saw bunches of the things flying all around Percy.

"Athena cabin!" the Poseidon kid shouted. "Under fire, you moron! They have stones!"

"The great Percy Jackson," Nico intoned, "defeated by a shower of rocks."

"Nico!"

Nico waited a second for Percy's pleas to continue. He liked seeing the other boy squirm. Ever since the blessing/curse Percy had forced on him by giving him Will 'Romeo' Solace as his English partner, Nico had gone out of his way to discomfort the Poseidon kid.

But Percy didn't say anything else. His eyes weren't even on Nico anymore. He was staring at the edge of the stream, where Nico had briefly seen Jason. Not a beat too late, Nico dropped in a roll, ignoring the stones against his armour. Somebody suddenly impacted exactly where he'd been milliseconds before.

"Rude," Nico told Jason as he untucked and got to his feet. "In the back, Jason?"

Jason shrugged.

"Hey bro, I love you," he said, "but when it comes to Capture the Flag, shit gets serious."

"Yes," Nico rolled his eyes, "I feel the love here, Grace."

Jason's eyes flickered to the undergrowth behind Nico, then back. Nico was about to turn around to see what had attracted his attention but, with a giant war cry, Jason charged him, head first. His fists were raised in what would be a crushing blow. Nico swore loudly as he skipped out of the way. This wasn't going well.

Jason changed direction, running like the very air was pushing him. Nico had to briefly wonder if Jason had farted. He didn't get long to think about it. Throwing himself to one side, he narrowly avoided the blows charged his way. His armour grated as it scudded the ground, sending him towards the stream.

Nico barely managed to curl away from the sudden kick to his middle, arching his stomach to avoid any really painful impact. But Jason's follow-through attack still caught him, and the meagre force was just enough to push the Hades camper into the stream. Nico gulped in air before he went under completely. His feet thrashed, until they found purchase and he was able to stand. The stream was only knee-deep at this point.

"Bad form," Nico coughed, hitting himself in the chest to dislodge the water in his throat.

"A kick can win many things," Jason said, as if he were a bloody philosopher. "And don't you start quoting Peter Pan to me. It's not funny."

An inside joke, when Percy had called Jason Superman, had gotten so far out of hand that Jason had unwittingly adopted the nickname of any fictional character that flew. Nico had contributed Peter Pan. He'd thought it was hilarious. Jason didn't.

"You just pushed me into a stream," Nico argued. "You don't get an opinion."

Then he launched himself at Jason. Caught off guard, the Zeus camper buckled under Nico's landing. The black haired boy took advantage of his competition being stunned, quickly pinching the nerve clusters in Jason's arms and sending them tingling uselessly.

"Percy!" he called, not looking over his shoulder. "You can run now. Jason's not going anywhere."

He didn't get a reply. Nico waited a few seconds before glancing behind him.

Only to see Percy surrounded by a group of Athena campers. Nico didn't know how he'd missed them coming into the clearing. They must have been in the trees, firing on Percy and then when Jason went down, they climbed out.

If Nico got up to help, Jason would probably escape. So, instead, he ground his bony bum into the nerves in Jason's thigh. Jason groaned as Nico stood up.

"Not cool," he told the Hades kid. "Not cool at all, Nico. I thought we were bros."

"When it comes to Capture the Flag," Nico mimicked, "shit gets serious."

Then he started running for the group surrounding Percy. He could see his friend fighting off the campers around him, but he was woefully outnumbered.

Nico dove for his teammate, arms outstretched and ready to pull any Athena boys off Percy.

But then something exploded across the back of his head, just hard enough to knock him out.

It can't have been more than five minutes later that Nico was blinking stupidly up at the moonlight, his back slumped against something hard. He took it like a man though, not uttering a single groan as his sore head brushed the thing behind him.

"Are you okay, Nico? You're not dead, right? Tell me you're not dead."

Nico scowled. So much for manliness. It seems he had made a noise.

"Not… dead," he grunted, shifting around and getting a feeling for his position. "Just… uncomfortable."

The sympathetic face of Will Solace appeared in the silver night light before him. Nico cursed swiftly in his mind. It wasn't fair that Will looked good under the sun and the moon. Just, unfair. And rude. Who did he think he was, with his surfer good-looks and curly, soft blond hair? Nico wanted to touch that hair… gah! Side-tracked again!

"I'm sorry," Will winced. "It's your own fault, you know."

Nico flexed his fingers.

"What did I do to warrant being tied to a tree?"

Will shrugged.

"You and your night-ninja ass do too well in this game for your own good," he said, a twinkling smile twitching his lips. Nico blinked as starlight lit up the blond's pearly teeth.

"Put those away, before you blind someone," he ordered. Will grinned wider.

"Like what you see, di Angelo?" he teased. Nico was appalled when he realised he couldn't use his hands to cover his face. Seated on the forest-edge floor like this, trapped and bound, was one thing. Torture-for-information-via-Will-Solace was a complete different area. In Nico's case, the information his kidnapper wanted, was whether he found him attractive. It was just such Nico luck that he groaned.

Will looked hurt, and he put a hand to his chest.

"Am I really that disgusting?" he whispered. Nico waded out of his pool of self-pity and lunged for the metaphorical shore. This left his tongue, sadly, completely unguarded.

"No!" he yelled hurriedly. "No, you're not disgusting."

Another moment passed where Nico wished he has access to his hands. If only to stop himself from talking. He was a public menace.

"Oh my gods," he muttered, hanging his head. "Just put me out of my misery now, please."

Will grinned, even if Nico didn't see it, and the white moonlight paled his otherwise pink cheeks.

"What am I if I'm not disgusting?" Will asked slyly. Nico thumped against the tree at his back.

"Whatever you hit me with," he ground out, "get it, and hit me again."

"Why would I do that?" Will asked. Nico gritted his teeth as he fought the blush rising to his face.

"If you won't, I will," he declared, and whacked his head on the bark. Lint bits of tree stuck to his hair and Nico didn't care that what he was doing was the height of dumb-assery. He just wanted an out from the situation his traitorous mouth had gotten him into.

"Woah, Nico. Nico!"

And suddenly there wasn't a tree, but a soft palm cupping the back of his head. He could feel cool fingers pressing the slivers of bark against his skin and then everything went into hyper-aware state as he realised that Will Solace was holding him up and was this an appropriate time to freak out? Nico decided it was.

But before he flipped his shit and almost burst out his love for his wayward, awkward Romeo, the very same antagonist of his thoughts started stroking his hair and Nico's remaining cranial power blinked out faster than a dead bulb.

"Don't kill your brain cells!" Will scolded worriedly. "There isn't enough of them as is!"

"Oh, hah hah," Nico retorted, trying to pretend he wasn't at all mentally affected by the warm skin brushing his neck and that it was all the tree-bashing he'd done.

"You're a crazy nut, Nico di Angelo," Will told him seriously.

"Pity for you if you expected anything different," Nico smiled. He saw Will's face light up like a meteor at the sight, and surmised he was hopelessly devoted to a complete and utter dork.

So that was how they spent that particular night in the woods, ignoring the yelling of their Capture the Flag teammates, and barely noticing as blue-plumed campers struck the red flag sentry and ran away with their prize, yelling obscenities and slapping their butts in triumph.

Both were content with their corner of the clearing and the mindless conversations they had, dismissing the rivalry between their friends and 'fraternising with the enemy,' as Percy later put it to Nico.

Grudgingly, and to himself, the Hades camper admitted that it was almost as if he and Will were meant to be Romeo and Juliet. That individual Capture the Flag game made it seem less like a school play, and more like real life.

*comes out from behind couch holding hands up* I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY! Things got so out of hand down here and I was so busy and it seemed like everyone just wanted me to do things for them and not sit down and write this I'M SORRY! HERE HAVE SOME FLUFF!

Thank you all for not giving up on me, though, and here is the promised chapter. I'm making a CONSERVATIVE EFFORT to update sooner next time! AND MERRY CHRISTMAS, WHILE I'M AT IT! HOPE IT WAS ALL AWESOME AND FILLED WITH NICENESS FOR YOU!

And for all you people who asked, my Solangelo mermaid story is published and titled A Tail of Stockholme Syndrome.

Until next time,

Jasmine Out!

I promise, I will be quicker. No more month delays.