For the last time, no, I do not own Nico, Thalia, or anything that has to do with the Percy Jackson series (but I do own a pair of socks with cartoons on it).

CHAPTER TEN.

Nico

My eyes snap open and I sit up. I must've spazzed myself awake this morning, because I wake up on the floor with the covers thrown all over me. My labored and heavy breaths are drowned out by the sound of my heart beating it's ass off (I mean, if a heart had an ass . . . hypothetically speaking).

"Fucking shit," I shout as my hand collides with my face in a very intense and frustrated face-palm. "I fell for it again," I growl, my shouts reverberating within the confinements of Cabin #13.

Everything was just another fucking dream, and me, being the biggest idiot ever born into this whole entire universe, believed every single part of it – with my entire being, might I add. I could've sworn my life that it was real. I could've sold my soul to Atlas and held the sky in his place. That's how much I believed it – I would've stopped the sky from falling and crushing all our sorry faces into oblivion.

I was just about let out another throng of colorful curses when I noticed something strange – extremely strange.

I toss off the covers and see that my clothes are still slightly wet and my pants are hanging dangerously loose around my waist – exposing my neon boxers that are seriously way too bright for my I'm-not-yet-that-ready-to-be-awake eyes.

Either I wet myself while I was sleeping and my pee was radioactive and stained my boxers an excruciating neon shade of yellow, or everything that happened wasn't a dream after all.

"Holy shitballs of fire," I mutter. "You have got to be kidding me!" I shout out of frustration.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, before you go thinking that this is stage one of denial regarding my supposedly very bad bladder control, just remember that with everything I've been through – what with having a frustratingly hard time differentiating between dreams and reality, especially when it came to dealing with Thalia and her damn hide-and-seek games – it was harder to take in that everything was real rather than a dream.

It was a big change that was going to need some getting used to.

Unfortunately, that big of a change required time for a person to adjust into it, and I most certainly did not have that much time.

I jump onto my feet and toss the covers back onto the bed, getting a whiff of what smelled suspiciously like an in-dire-need-off-a-bath Mrs. O'Leary (which convinced me that what happened was real even more) and strode out of my cabin before I could come up with more ridiculous theories about Mrs. O'Leary peeing on my bed, or something of that sort.

I run out off the cabin, hearing the door slam behind me as I practically jump the steps. Holding on to my pants as tightly as I can, I sprint for the Artemis cabin.

With one hand holding my pants up, I bang the other one on the door. I knock about seven times, and kick three, before I let out another cuss word and turn around to sprint for the Zeus cabin next.

I slam into the door before knocking on it five times, and then proceeding to kick it as hard as I can while shouting a sentence filled with so much curses I felt like Zeus was going to incinerate me right then and there for dirtying up his cabin with my sentence.

"I swear to the gods, this situation feels scarily familiar," I say to myself. "It's like experiencing déjà vu while drinking spoilt milk. Familiar, but makes my stomach all queasy."

I begin to walk away from the Zeus cabin, sneaking a peak at the towering white monument before sprinting once more.

I let out a big and heavy sigh.

Now, unlike the first time, my feet don't bring me to Percy's cabin. I run all the way to the forest. I only slow down when I feel the bushes hide me enough from unwanted eyes. After snapping off a nearby branch, I begin to hit everything in sight angrily – I start whacking the tree from whence the branch came, moodily poking at the bushes, stabbing at crunchy old leaves and stepping on them afterwards – every sort of forest-related abuse that doesn't involve fire or a chainsaw but a deadly tree branch with about five leaves on it instead. You name it; I did it.

Still feeling pretty horrible and sorry-for-myself, I start to step on the crunchy dead leaves on the ground. I didn't know when, or how, but the crunchy noise and the feeling of the leaves breaking under my foot started to become addictive, and I start to jump up and down, crushing as many leaves in a pile as I can.

Crunch. That was for popping into my dreams to just to mess with me.

Crunch-crunch. That was for all the times you left without saying goodbye.

Cruuuuuunch. That was for all the times I almost died because of you.

CRUNCH. Ha, now I just imagined that was your face.

I almost forget that I was moping when I jump on an abnormally hard pile of leaves and fall with my face flat on the floor.

"What did I jump on, a rock?" I say, and – yes, you guessed it – cussing a bit in between.

"Gods, Nico," an obnoxious voice spits at me. "Do I look like a rock to you?" the voice snaps.

A figure all covered with old leaves emerges from the ground, electric blue eyes staring at me beneath the layers and layers of dead leaves.

"No," I say absentmindedly. "You look more like a swamp monster."

I take a leaf in my hand and break it.

Crunch. That was for doing it all over again.

Thalia shakes off the leaves and attempts to rake the leaves out of her hair. She raises her eyebrows at me and punches my arm, and to my surprise, she doesn't shock me.

"That's for stepping on me," she says.

I punch her back, really lightly and emotionlessly. "That's for all the shit you put me through." I stand up and begin to walk away, hearing the very familiar crunching of the leaves under my feet.

"Nico –"

"What?" I turn on my heel and shout at her.

"I –"

"Why did you do it?" I ask her.

"What do you –"

"Why did you take my hand when you were going to let go anyway?"

"Nico, it's not –"

"Well, I'm done trying. I won't let you under my skin anymore," I snap.

"Di Angelo, will you just –"

"Have a nice life, Thalia," I start to turn back around when Thalia storms up to me.

"Nico di Angelo, will you please just let me explain?" she says, taking me by the wrist.

"Why should I when you didn't do anything but play me like your little boy-toy?" I snap. "I bet you had the time of your life toying with –"

BAM.

My eyes widen and I feel the tears rushing into my face. I try to blink it away to clear my vision. Thalia just slapped me, shocking me more than she has ever done.

I think it was my jaw's turn to go crunch.

"You're a fucker, Nico di Angelo," she tells me. "Can you blame me for being afraid?"

I don't reply. I slowly turn my head to face her. She's shaking out of anger, and blinking away the tears as well.

"All my life, everyone I cared about was taken away from me. Can you really blame me for just trying to protect myself from being hurt again?"

"I wasn't going to hurt you," I mumble.

"How could I have been so sure?" she cries. "That's what they all told me, but they left anyway."

And for a while, we're just staring at each other in complete silence, blinking away our tears, trying to hide our emotions. It's always been like this with the two of us – trying to one-up each other constantly and ending up getting ourselves in trouble along the way.

Do I really want to stay in this same rut forever?

I see her start to relax, and I let out a sigh.

We still remain silent.

Honestly, what do I say to that?

"Besides," Thalia mutters finally.

"Hm?" I say.

"It was an accident," she shifts her gaze and stomps on a nearby leaf on the ground.

"Which was?" I say, mimicking her movements and crunch three leaves in one step.

"I didn't mean to let go," she says, sounding accusatory near the end. I'm guessing that's one of those defense mechanisms she was talking about – her instinct to protect herself from vulnerability.

She sighs before continuing. "It was an accident. My hand kinda just slipped. I didn't mean to let go –"

I take her in my arms before she can finish her sentence. I bury my face in her hair.

Yup, I wouldn't mind staying in this rut a little bit longer.

"You're an idiot, d'you know that?" I whisper in her ear.

"I'm sorry," she mutters almost inaudibly.

"Thalia Grace," I say, breaking apart from the hug. I stare at her, my hands on her shoulders. "Did I just hear you apologize?"

"Yeah, don't get used to it," she scoffs.

I hug her again, holding her even tighter.

"I love you too, by the way," she whispers in my ear, her breath cold against my skin. "But you're still an idiot."

I chuckle, kissing her forehead.

Damn. She plays me so well.

But it's all right.

I play her pretty well too.

REVIEW!

Ohmygarsh, I can't believe it, that was the last chapter! After practically a year, I was able to finish this story. Whooo, I still can't believe it! A big thank you to everyone who pestered me and nagged me to finish this, and to everyone who supported this story; be it from the beginning, or not, you're still pretty dang wonderful!

This final chapter (sadly) wasn't as long as the others, but at least it was longer than the prologue, so that's a plus! :) Gaaaaargh, I really don't know what to say, I really can't believe this story's finally completed, it's INSANE.

This is such an awkward final author's note, I'm so sorry. But, please, REVIEW! :)

I really tried to end the story with this chapter, so yup :) Hehehe. Also, I wanted to give Thalia and Nico a break. I've made them suffer way too much. Haha!

So Contagiously Yours - Schoe B!