Percy p.o.v.

"Nico, come on! We're gonna be late!" I yelled into Nico's room.

"Five more minutes," he groaned, pulling his pillow over his head. I rolled my eyes and yelled,

"Get up!" and continued to stuff my books into my bag.

"I wouldn't be so tired if you didn't insist that we have go to school every day," Nico complained as he trudged out of his room.

"You'll just have to keep being tired then," I laughed, as I swung my bag over my shoulder. "School is important, no matter how boring it is." Nico rolled his eyes.

"All I'm saying is that it would be nice to not have to wake up so early," Nico stated. "Especially after the long nights we have."

"Well," I said as we rushed out the door, "would you rather stop our nighttime outings?"

"Not for the world," he said, smiling.

"Then stop complaining."

We jogged down the stairs to the lobby, and with a shouted greeting to the receptionist, we were out on the side walk. Nico pulls his skateboard out of his bag as I place mine on the ground, and then we're off.

We arrive at Goode high school thirteen minutes later. With just two minutes to get to class, Nico and I go our separate ways, ready to endure seven and a half hours of torture for the sake of our education.

It's almost the end of the day, but Mrs. Briggs, our Maths teacher, keeps droning on and on. I stare at the clock. One minute seemed to be taking forever. I tapped my pencil against the desk rapidly, annoying some of the people next to me.

Okay, only ten seconds left.

Nine,

I grabbed my bag, ready to jump up and out the door.

Eight,

I glanced around, and saw that nobody was really paying attention to Mrs. Briggs either.

Seven,

Wow, she is absolutely clueless. She has no idea that nobody hears a word she's saying.

Six,

Wait, does she have a mustache?

Five,

I stared her upper lip.

Four,

Yup, that's a mustache.

Three,

Maybe I should grow a mustache.

Two,

Wait, what was I doing?

One,

Ugh, stupid ADHD! I thought, just as the bell rang. I jumped up with everyone else in the class, and rushed to the door, eager to escape the horrifying math speeches of Mrs. Briggs.

I walked to my locker, grabbed my skateboard, and waited for Nico. After five minutes, the halls had thinned to a few stragglers, and he still hadn't shown up. Just as I was getting ready to go look for him, I spotted Peter.

"Hey! Pete!" I yelled as I trotted over to him.

He faked a sigh of resignation with a small smile on his face.

"I told you not to call me that."

"Yeah, okay Pete. How have you been? I haven't seen ya in a while," I said with a grin.

"I'm good. I finally got a job."

"That's great. What will you be doing?"

"Oh, it's just a desk job. Not really that interesting."

I smiled at Peter, then frowned.

"Hey, have you seen Nico? He's usually here by now."

"I'm here!" Nico yelled from down the hall as he jogged over. "Hi Peter."

"Hey Nico."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said to Percy as he opened his locker, shoving some books out of the way and pulling out his skateboard, "but Mr. Green wanted to talk to me about my final assessment."

"It's fine," I assured him. I waved at Peter as we walked away, "Bye, Petey!"

"Don't call me that!"

We walked out the doors, and started walking down the steps of the school.

"What story did you end up using?" I questioned as we hopped onto our boards, and started on our way home.

"The one about the mental breakdown of a man who accidentally killed his cat," He answered as we rode through the park.

"Oh yeah, I really liked that one. It's was a lot less dark than your usual stories."

"Hey, can we stop by a coffee shop on our way home? I need some caffeine, or else I will probably pass out." Nico queried as we neared a coffee shop.

"Yeah, we can. I need some coffee too."

We rode on in silence until we reached the cafe. Then we notice something strange happening across the street. There's a huge crowd outside of the shawarma joint across the street.

"What do you think that's about?"

"I have no idea," I answer as I pull open the door. I hold it open for Nico to pass through first. Nico chuckles at the action, but enters anyway.

A warm blast of air greets us as we walk in. The cozy little coffee shop is nearly empty, with a few people scattered around the shop, sipping coffee leisurely. Some are typing away at their computers, others curled up reading a book in an armchair by the fire.

Nico and I approach the perky girl at the counter, and order a simple black coffee and latte to go.

We sit down at a modest wooden table to our right, and chat as we wait for our drinks. Nico talks excitedly about the book series he's reading, and how it's a work of literary genius. He says this about almost everything he reads.

Our server strolls to our table, and hands us our drinks. We gather up our things, and begin to rise. The door to the cafe opens, and I glance over as I stand up.

Oh no.

I tense up as Steve Rogers walks in. This is not good. Glancing over at Nico, I find that he's already standing up, and I follow his lead. He definitely has noticed who just walked in.

"Let's get going," I murmur. Nico nods, following me with his head down as I skirt around the Captain. He turns and catches a glimpse of us as I push open the door, and we rush through it, booking it down the road.

"That was close," Nico sighs as he gets on his skateboard, "Too close."

"Yeah."

It's hard to imagine the trouble we might find ourselves in if the Captain recognized Nico. See, like Captain America, Nico is also from a different time. The 1940's, to be exact. That alone would not provide much of a problem. The problem was, that Nico and his sister, Bianca, had met the Captain. Twice.

It was July of 1944, and Nico and Bianca had just been moved to America to live with their father's brother Zeus, and his wife Hera. Nico used to idolize Captain America (and I suspect that he still does to some extent). So when he saw an advertisement in the paper for a fundraiser to help support the troops, with Captain America as a guest, he begged his sister to take him. She caved in, and took him to the fundraiser. When it ended, Nico met the Captain, and had his trading cards signed.

The other time Nico saw him was in December in the same year. Nico was getting beat up in an alley by a group of thirteen and fourteen year olds. Rogers scared away the bullies, and helped Nico up, asking why he didn't try to fight them. But he got his answer as soon as Nico stood. Nico had been sheltering a small, dirty puppy from the blows of the older children. Rogers had shaken his head and smiled in exasperation before taking Nico home.

Then the war ended, and Nico went to sleep in 1945 and woke up in 2006.