Nico was sitting on the floor of his cabin, bouncing a little rubber ball from floor to ceiling and back when the door burst open and in flew Rachel, her red hair flying. She just stood there, watching in awe as he bounced a tiny pink ball in the black of his room, "Why do you have a pink rubber ball?"

"I found it outside."

"And you just thought you'd take it?" One of her eye brows rose and disappeared into her bangs.

"Well…Yeah." The ball bounced wildly and he caught it calmly in his hand. "It looked lonely."

"It looked lonely?" She gave him a looked he couldn't describe, "You've officially gone off your rocker." Then she left the room, leaving the scent of flowers and paint behind.

THISLOVETHISLOVETHISLOVE

Nico couldn't help but stare at Rachel as she walked around, trying to find inspiration in the scenery. She'd asked him to come along to help her, something about her fingers tingling to sketch a landscape. He was currently resting under Thalia's tree, his legs stretched out in front of him. "Why am I here again?" He asked her.

"I told you, I needed inspiration." She was still flitting back and forth.

"So? What does that have to do with me?" He blew some hair out of his face before resting his head back against the bark of the large tree. "It's not like I'm doing anything for you."

Waving her hand at him she shushed him. For a long time he just sat there, watching Rachel, her hair like flames upon her head. Her green eyes were practically glowing with determination, and then somehow in all this admiring he fell asleep.

In his dreams there were flashes of Rachel's face, some of his sister's, his mother's, Percy's, Annabeth's, and then more of Rachel's. This however did not prepare him to waking up with Rachel staring intently at him, her pencil skittering madly across the paper, "Whoa!" He jumped, and then stood up.

"Oh, thank god I was finished or you would have ruined the whole picture." She seemed to be missing the point there as Nico just stared at her, wondering what in Hades was going on.

"Why were you drawing me?"

"Well it turns out that you look completely different when you sleep." She told him in typical Rachel fashion, blunt and to the point. "I knew there was a reason I needed to bring you!" She snapped her fingers and then started to walk off.

Grumbling Nico trotted up next to her, nearly tripping over his own feet, at the age of fifteen his was suffering through his awkward stage, his legs far too long for the rest of his body. And yet somehow he managed to still look good. He was just grateful that he'd never had acne, that would have put a damper on things.

"Can I see?" He asked after a while.

She didn't even look at him when she said, "No."

"What?" He whined, "Why not?"

"Because." She stated simply, "I don't want you to see it. It's my drawing."

Nico was currently lying in bed when an image of Rachel popped into his head. Without even thinking about what he was doing he got out of bed and pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt then made his way over to the big house. Chiron was there reading a book when he walked in and barely looked up. Him and Rachel had best friends ever since Percy introduced the two of them (and he nearly killed her, but that was another story all together) nearly a year ago.

"Is she still upstairs?"

"Yes, she's not coming down today I suspect." He said, flipping a page nonchalantly, "Said she had some sketches to finish."

"Oh, well alright." Then he made his way up to the attic where Rachel stayed, he'd asked her before if she was creeped out at first because it had currently belonged to the mummy and she'd said yes but it was a price she was willing to pay. When he got up there he was hit with the smell of paint. "Hey Rach."

He couldn't see what she was drawing but whatever it was, it was clearly personal because she closed the book right away and slid it under her pillow, her face flushed, "Oh hi Nico." She got up off the bed and smoothed out her pants, "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to say hi?" He wasn't really sure what he was doing in her room, but at the time it'd felt like a good idea. She moved to stand in front of her pillow and his mind was immediately brought back to the sketch book, "What was that? Got some porn under there?" He chuckled.

"No!" her squeal made her seem suspicious and he raised a single eye brow.

"Really now, then I suppose you wouldn't mind showing me?"

"No! I mean yes! I mean, no." She paused, "You cannot see."

"Aw come on, what, is it some love journal or something?" her face flushed and immediately he knew he was on to something. "So it is a love journal."

"No, no. Not a love journal." She said, waving her hands. "Nothing about love."

"Oh I get it, you drew the person you like right? Like some sort of diary?" He was just teasing, but apparently he was right for Rachel's face grew so red it was nearly impossible to tell where her face ended and her hair started. For some reason this mildly upset him but he just said, "Oh now you got to let me see."

"NO!"

Chuckling Nico crouched down and sprang up, jumping on top of Rachel who fell backwards onto the bed. Her face was flushed as he maneuvered himself over her, locking her hands under his stomach. He tried to ignore the annoying twinge it gave him every time they touched and focused at the task at hand. She was struggling to get free, screaming at him to get off as he slid the sketchbook out from underneath the pillow.

Just as he was about to open the cover Rachel kneed him sharply in the crotch, her bone digging in so hard Nico thought he might implode. "HOLY SHIT." He rolled off of her and clutched at himself, dry heaving on the floor. Rachel watched him in mild horror as he writhed in pain on her bedroom floor.

"Oh my god Nico I'm so sorry!" She flew forward and put a hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not fucking alright!" He gasped out, "I. Need. Ice."

There was about five seconds of stunned silence before Rachel was running out the door and down the stairs, promising him a large bag of ice. After about five minutes had passed the pain was starting to fade and Nico wondered dimly where Rachel was. How the hell did it take that long to get a bag of ice?

And then, the thought hit him like a ton of bricks. The sketch book was right there. All he had to do was slide over a few inches and he could take a look inside. Doing so, he grimaced slightly when the pain hit him again, but eventually moved far enough over to reach the small black book. It was smooth under his fingers as he slid it over to where he now sat on the floor and when he opened it what he saw surprised him.

Drawn beautifully on each page was a rendering of…him. The first was from that day by Thalia's tree when Nico had fallen asleep. Then there were more, one of the first day they met, his sword raised high, skeletons falling into step beside him. Then there was one where he was leaning back his shirt stretching tight over his muscled chest, his eyes glaring straight at him. It was uncanny, the pictures.

He felt like he was looking into a mirror, flipping through the book. Just as he got the last page, another picture of him, leaning up against Rachel's door frame, his arms and legs crossed, a cocky smile on his face, there was a dull thud. He looked up to see Rachel herself standing there, an expression like she was just clubbed over the head on her face.

"What. Are. You. Doing." He was going to answer. He really was. But he never got the chance, because Rachel threw herself on him, her tiny fists throwing punches anywhere they could reach. It didn't really hurt, her being mortal and all, but he suddenly felt really bad for looking into her personal sketch book. "Why would you look?"

There were tears slipping slowly down her face, and he felt like a piece of shit. Rachel Dare didn't cry easily, and the fact that she was now…well let's just say this was not one of his shining moments. "I'm sorry Rachel. You were just acting all suspicious and so I wanted to know who it was you were crushing on."

She sniffled and sat up, shuffling off him, "Well, now you know. Satisfied?"

"Yes actually." And then before he could think about what he was doing, before he could stop himself, he leaned forward and pressed his lips softly to hers. All of a sudden the world just seemed right, for those two second there was no one but them. And then he pulled back, breaking the spell, and looked at Rachel, flushed and wide eyed, "Very satisfied."

Okay, so I might have lied. The chapter's are not exactly matching in sequence, however! The short stories with in the chapter itself are in chronilogical order. I'm not really sure how I got to writing that first little drabble about the pink rubber ball but i think it may have had to do with the taco's I'm eating. taco's make me feel spontanious. Anyways I hope you liked it. :D

By the way, I didn't think I needed to put this because I am so obviously not Rick Riordan. But apparently I need to put a disclaimer so no, none of the character's in here belond to me. HOWEVER the plot is my own. Steal and you die.

.RawR.