Valentine's Day

"Sweetie? Yeah? You there?"

Nico groaned. Not again.

"No, I love you more!"

He slapped his forehead.

"No, I love you more!"

This was going to go on for a while...

"Are you serious? My love for you could whip your love's butt any day."

Nico's eye twitched.

"You looking forward to tonight?"

At this, Nico gagged.

"Don't worry, the chocolates are from Thorntons."

That was when Nico came to the realization that he hated Valentine's Day.

"Do you really think I'd get Cadburys for our Valentine's Day? I could get some champagne as well, if you wanted..."

Champagne? At this he had to give an eye roll. Why couldn't people have a simple Valentine's Day? He especially didn't expect all this expensive, romantic stuff from Percy, of all people.

"Okay, okay," Percy chuckled. "I'll see you tonight."

A pause.

"Alright, love you!"

A long, long pause.

"No, you hang up!"

Nico sighed. Uh oh...

"No, seriously, you hang up!"

Nico had had to literally hold onto his arm to stop it from grabbing the phone from Percy's ear and switching the Hang up button himself.

"Come on, wise girl, you hang up!"

That was it, Nico had to take action. He grabbed Percy's arm and pulled him round to face him, receiving a yelp from Percy's part, and demanded, "For Gods' sakes Percy! Just hang the hell up!"

Percy glared at him, removing Nico's hand from his arm and saying in a low voice, "Okay, love you. Bye," and ending the call, sliding the mobile into his pocket. "Nico, what the hell was that for? Couldn't you see I was enjoying a nice conversation with my girlfriend?"

Nico rolled his eyes, folding his arms with an exasperated sigh. "Thank the gods that's over! All that lovey-dovey talk. Just because it's Valentine's Day, doesn't mean you have to make everyone within a mile radius want to throw up."

Percy scoffed. "You're just jealous because it's Valentine's Day and you're going to spend it alone and girlfriend-less."

"Gee, thanks for rubbing it in."

Percy put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Nico shrugged it off. "Don't worry about it Nico. You make it hard for yourself. You're sixteen now, and you have half the girls at camp falling at your feet. You're bound to get a girlfriend sooner or later."

"Yeah, but they're all Aphrodite girls!" Nico whined. "Why can't I get a girl who doesn't spend twenty-four hours a day slapping on makeup?"

Percy grinned. "You'll find someone eventually."

Nico looked away. "Yeah, when Artemis gets a-" he was about to say boyfriend, when he was cut off by someone shouting 'Percy!' and running over to join them next to the fountain of New Rome. They both turned to Frank jogging towards them, a bunch of flowers in his hand. Nico, being in a sour mood, couldn't resist the urge to say, "Are these for me? That's so nice of you Frank!"

Frank smiled, but didn't seem at all fazed as he held up the bouquet – lilac lilies and golden chrysanthemums – and asked Percy, "These are for Hazel. Do you think she'll like them?" a little nervously.

"Hazel's sure to love these, Frank! You've got a very lucky girl."

Frank looked relieved. "Thank the gods!" he said. "I was so worried she wouldn't like them."

Percy smiled. "Hazel's sure to love anything you get her, Frank. I wouldn't worry."

Nico scowled. The romantic mood had spread throughout New Rome like a disease, infecting everyone... except Nico. Everybody was, as Bambi so eloquently put it – twitterpated.

As Percy and Frank continued discussing their lovesick plans for Valentine's Day, Nico kicked the earth with his shoe, muttering lamely to himself with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He didn't want to hear another word from someone about how perfect their love-life was, while Nico was still single. He hated to admit that he had never even had a girlfriend before, which didn't make things any better. They were interrupted when they heard a "Percy! Nico!" from a voice which sounded like Travis, and some hurried footsteps pounding against the cobblestone ground towards them.

When he looked, he saw Travis, with Katie on his arm clutching a sunhat to her head and trying to keep her white sundress from blowing up in the wind, hurrying to catch up with them.

"I was hoping to find you Percy," Travis panted. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell Connor when he gets back from his date with Chantelle," he rolled his eyes when the said the name of one of Connor's many girlfriends, "That me and Katie are heading off on holiday."

Frank stuck his head in, curious. "Where are you going?"

A smirk crept onto Travis's face. "We're going to Greece for Valentine's day. I promised Katie that I would put the pranks on a hold for it, but," he held a hand up and gave Percy a wink as he added in a sly whisper, "I'm not guaranteeing anything."

Katie slapped him lightly, saying "Watch it Stoll."

Travis grinned. "I can't wait until you're a Mrs Stoll, because then you won't be able to call me that."

Katie rolled her eyes, tugging on his arm. "Thanks Percy, and Travis, we really have to go! We'll miss our flight!"

Percy punched Travis lightly on the arm as he was pulled away. "Have fun!" he called.

Travis waggled his eyebrows. "Oh, we will! Trust me."

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Katie shouted behind them, before they had turned the corner and disappeared.

Nico, completely left out of the conversation so far, grunted and looked away. "Don't let it get to you Nico," Frank said, catching on why Nico was upset. Percy joined in.

"Yeah, you're not the only one without a girlfriend. I mean, think of Jason, he's twenty now and he's single at the moment!"

Nico scoffed. "It's easy for you to say! You both have beautiful, strong, intelligent girlfriends, and me? I don't even have a lousy one."

Percy pulled a face. "Having no girlfriend is better than having a lousy one. I mean, you're free! You're a bachelor. You're not tied to the eternal devotion having a girlfriend comes with."

"What's wrong with eternal devotion?" Frank asked, confused. Percy looked at him.

"Hush Frank – the boy needs to know."

"Needs to know what?" Nico snorted.

Percy looked serious. "Having a girlfriend means there's loads of stuff you can't do. You can't check out other girls, can't spend too much time with your guy friends, and have to be there for them through thick and thin."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Nico said, wondering why Percy was talking like this when he obviously enjoyed being together with Annabeth.

"Trust me; it is. Every time they get emotional, or ill, or have a fight with their friends, you're the first person they go to, and you get the worst of it. The last time Annabeth had a migraine, I wasn't allowed to talk for three days and couldn't leave the house. She also assigned me as her personal slave, so I was forced sit there with her doing nothing in case she needed anything."

"You make it sound like torture," noted Nico.

Percy opened his mouth to continue, before Frank cut him off. "He's only trying to make you feel better," he smiled.

Percy glared at him, and spoke through the corner of his mouth. "No Frank, I'm telling him the truth!" he grumbled, and Nico rolled his eyes.

"Just be quiet Percy. You're spouting rubbish."

Percy folded his arms and huffed. They stood there, in an awkward silence for a few moments until yet another addition to the group was made. "Percy?" Jason asked, running towards them once he spotted them. Percy looked at him. "Percy, are you free? I need to talk to you."

"Sure," Percy grinned. "Spill."

Jason stared at his shuffling feet, awkward. "In- in private?" he asked.

"Are you sure it's not something you could say here? Or is it really, really, really private?" Percy tried.

Jason looked from Nico to Frank, as if pondering on whether they were worthy or not to hear the conversation. Finally deciding they were, Jason took a deep breath and said, "Okay. I need some advice."

Percy shrugged. "What kind of advice?"

Jason looked around the square, just to make sure it was clear. Then he leant forward and said in a low voice, "Girl advice."

Nico looked away with a frown, hearing the word 'girl' and realizing he was automatically excluded from the conversation.

Percy's mouth turned into an 'O' as he did the understanding head bob. "I see," he said, stroking an imaginary beard. "Be more specific."

"Well, I was hoping I'd be able to ask out Reyna. Tonight. But I have absolutely no idea how to do it; I tried asking Piper but she couldn't think of anything, and then Leo, but well – he's Leo, and so..." he trailed off.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "You asked me?"

"Well, you've had a girlfriend since I've known you, which was nearly five years ago, and you've still got her. If anyone knows about girls, it's you."

Nico was incredulous. "Are you serious? Are we talking about the same guy here?" he asked, but his question went unnoticed.

"Plus," Frank added helpfully, "your girlfriend is Annabeth."

Jason nodded eagerly, and Percy glared at Frank, but his features softened when he realized it was a harmless joke. In a way, he knew Frank was right.

"Alright," he said, crossing his arms. "So, Reyna, right?"

Jason nodded. So much for Jason being single... Nico thought. He was now the only single person in the group, not including Rachel and the Huntresses.

Nico wanted to warn Jason that getting relationship advice from Percy was not the greatest of ideas, but it turned out he didn't have to. Percy had the same idea. "I'm sorry Jason, but I don't think I can give you anything right now. I'm sure Reyna will be happy with a bottle of wine and some pebble throwing at her window. Besides, if you're only asking her out you don't want to waste your money on expensive things in case she says no, which," Percy caught himself, "Is very, very unlikely."

Nico sighed and put a hand on his hip. Why did everyone have Valentine's plans except him? Life was so unfair.

Jason nodded, his hands in his pockets. "I guess that could work..." he said, his voice uncertain. Then it seemed he decided it was a good idea, and he grinned at Percy. "Thanks Percy! I owe you one."

"Any time," Percy replied, before he clapped Jason on the back as he went off to prepare his winning-over-Reyna plans.

"Looks like you're on the ball, Percy," Frank chuckled. "All these guys asking favours from you, about girls nonetheless."

Percy beamed. "Yeah, it's surprising."

"Who would have known?" Nico glowered.

Percy seemed to notice Nico was still here, and looked at him like seeing him in a whole new light. "Nico, you really shouldn't worry about it," he persisted, unhappy at his friend's pessimism. "You're a good guy. In fact, I'm surprised you haven't got a girlfriend already!"

"I know, it's just," Nico wouldn't meet his gaze. "Every other guy I know has a girlfriend. You, Frank, Grover, Leo, Connor, Travis, Jason, Malcolm, Will, Bobby, Dakota, Chris-"

"Nico, you can stop now. You've made your point," Percy said.

"Besides," Frank cut in. "You're the youngest by quite a bit out of all those guys you said. Heck, Grover's thirty-six!

"Which is the equivalent of seventeen," Nico pointed out. "Only just older than me, and he's been with Juniper for years."

Percy sighed – this was going nowhere. "I don't know what else to say, Nico. Just don't dwell on it."

Nico knew he was right, and was about to open his mouth to reply, when something caught his eye.

Someone.

His jaw dropped, and Percy had to suppress his laughter as he followed Nico's gaze to the attractive young girl across the square, who smiled and gave Nico a little wave. She had strawberry blonde curls bouncing around her shoulders and a pair of round glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. Percy had to admit that she was pretty, and Nico seemed to agree with him as he was staring at the floor, his face beetroot-red. Percy smiled, seeing the way Nico shyly waved back, causing the girl to break out into giggles and blush.

Nico looked at Percy, as if for approval, and Percy nodded and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Go get her, Nico," he encouraged.

Nico swallowed and made his way over to the girl. Looks like he wasn't going to be spending Valentine's Day alone after all.

A/N. I give up. This was meant to be shorter than yesterday's one, and look what happened. I am physically unable to write reasonably-lengthed stories. Oh well.

By the way, I do not, in ANY WAY ship Nico with an OC. If I had to pair him up with a character, it would be Thalia, but I don't think people should be shipping him with anybody when he's only eleven, (of course, he's sixteen in this.) I just made her up on the spot to give Nico a nice ending. That doesn't mean she's going to pop up again.

So I had fun writing this, and I hope you had as much fun reading it. I got a few ideas from How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory, but it didn't come out quite as I had expected, (namely LENGTH.) O_O

Please review! It would make my day, and I really, really, really need some requests. Pretty please? Thanks!

:)

~Franki