I don't own Percy Jackson.

Pasqua

The phone's ringing woke her up. Rubbing her eyes, she rolled off of the couch and picked her cell phone up from the kitchen counter. "Hello?" she said blearily.

"Thals? You okay?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I was just taking a nap. What's up?"

"You busy?"

"Not really. Why?"

Nico cleared his throat the way he did when he was nervous. "I just wanted to ask you something."

Thalia made her way back to the couch. "Sure."

"Well, it's not really something I can ask you over the phone."

"Um…okay, I, uh, I was going to make make some nachos if you want to come over."

"Sure. I'll see you in a couple minutes."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Thalia pressed the end button on her phone and frowned. What could possibly be so important that he had to ask her in person?

The first thought that jumped into her mind was that he was breaking up with her. But that was ridiculous. That wasn't something you asked someone. She flicked herself in the side of the head and scolded herself for even thinking something like that.

She went back to the couch and collapsed on it, groaning as she fell. It had been a long week. But tomorrow was Good Friday, and the bakery was closed because the people who owned it were Russian Orthodox and spent Good Friday in church. Which meant that she would be able to sleep all day.

Although if Nico's question was anywhere near what she was afraid of, then she probably wouldn't be sleeping at all.

"Thals?" Nico's voice rang from the kitchen.

"In here," she called back.

She heard his footsteps approaching and wondered when she'd closed her eyes. "You okay?" he asked.

Thalia opened her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, just tired." She sat up and patted the seat beside her.

He shook his head. He was twisting his fingers together the way he did when he was nervous. "So, um," he began, glancing around the room. "See, after I graduated, my parents moved back to Italy."

"Yeah, I know."

"They asked me to go visit for Easter."

This was what he'd been nervous about? "Okay. Have fun."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I was wondering…I mean I know we haven't really done anything like this, but we've been…you know, together, for four months…almost five, I guess…"

"Nico," she interrupted. He shut his mouth and stared at her. "What did you want to ask me?"

"Do you want to come with me?" he blurted, and immediately his face turned bright red.

Thalia gaped at him. "To Italy?" she squeaked.

He nodded.

"To meet your parents?"

He gave her a nervous smile and nodded again.

Thalia leaned back and ran a hand through her hair. "Nico, I'm not religious."

"It doesn't matter. I mean, they are, but they won't hate you for it." At her look of terror he backtracked fast. "That's not what I meant! I mean, they're religious, but they won't care if you're not. I'm not really, either." He sat down on the couch beside her. "It'll be okay, Thalia, I promise. They'll love you."

Thalia leaned forward and put her face in her hands. She was way too tired for this.

"Thalia, you don't have to come with me."

"No, no, I want to. I'm just…" she trailed off and sighed.

Nico put his hands on her shoulders and gently pulled her up to lean against the couch with his arm behind her. "What's wrong?" he asked. He looked concerned, and she almost smiled.

"I'm exhausted," she admitted. "Nico, I really want to go with you. It's just…" She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "What if your parents don't like me?"

Nico chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "They will, I promise." He kissed her head again, then stood up and held out his hand to help her. "Come on. You get some sleep. We're leaving tomorrow."

She stopped and stared at him. "Tomorrow?" He nodded. "Nico, you have to ask me this ahead of time. It's kind of important. How long are we going to be there?"

"Until Tuesday."

"Tuesday?! I have to work on Monday!" She groaned and rubbed a hand down her face. God, she really needed some sleep. "Do you know how hard it's going to be to find someone to cover for me?"

Nico looked guilty. "I was going to ask you, but I thought…I wasn't sure what you'd say."

She sighed. "Okay. Okay, I'll call someone later."

He nodded. "I'm really sorry. It's just, my parents want me to be there for the Good Friday service."

"It's okay." She yawned.

"Come on," he said in a gentle tone. "Get some sleep."

Thalia nodded and allowed herself to be led into the bedroom.

"Oh my God."

Nico laughed. "I know."

Thalia pried her face away from the window and stared at him. "It's beautiful! Why would you ever leave here?"

"I don't know. My parents thought it was a good idea." Nico smiled. "We used to come here in the summer to visit my Nonna."

Thalia grinned. "That's cute."

"What is?"

"You call your grandmother 'Nonna'. That's cute."

Nico's face and neck turned red. "It's Italian," he mumbled.

Thalia laughed. "I know. It's still cute."

Nico muttered something under his breath that Thalia wasn't sure was in English and turned on his right blinker. "We're almost there."

When they pulled up in front of a little house, Thalia's breath caught in her throat. She wasn't really one for "pretty", but this was. It was perfect. The house was wooden, and had been turned gray by the salt air that blew in from the sea. The trim was green. It wasn't a big house; Thalia could see two stories and maybe a few rooms on each floor.

"There's two bedrooms upstairs and the rest is downstairs," Nico said, as if reading her mind.

Thalia climbed out of the car. "You're sure they won't hate me?" she asked. She'd only really done the "meet the parents" thing once, and it had been a disaster. The boy had broken up with her two days later.

Nico chuckled at his girlfriend's insecurity and made his way around the car. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Thalia," he started, and made sure she was looking at him before continuing. "We have a saying here. 'Natale con i tuoi, a Pasqua con chi vuoi'."

"What's that mean?"

"'At Christmas with your parents, at Easter with whoever you want'." He smiled and gave her a soft kiss. "You're who I want."

Thalia felt her insides melting, and turned red. "God, you're so sappy," she muttered. Nico laughed.

"Come on. Mama's gonna love you."

They made their way towards the house, holding hands. When they reached the door, Nico took hold of the seashell knocker and rapped it against the iron behind it. A few seconds later, the door swung open to reveal a woman with Nico's eyes and smile. Her dark hair was pulled up into a neat bun, and she looked surprisingly young. Although Thalia couldn't talk – her own mother had been seventeen when she'd given birth to Thalia.

The woman smiled and embraced Nico, speaking rapidly in Italian. Nico laughed and responded, also in Italian, before extracting himself from the woman's grasp and putting his arm around Thalia. "Mama," he said, "this is Thalia. Thalia, this is my mother, Maria."

Thalia smiled and put out her hand, but Maria brushed it away. Instead, she stepped forward and kissed Thalia on each cheek.

"We areh so 'appy to 'aveh you 'ereh," she said in a thick Italian accent. "Comeh in, comeh in." Maria waved them both into the house.

Nico leaned close to Thalia and whispered, "I told you she'd like you."

"It's not her I'm worried about," Thalia whispered back.

Nico chuckled, but Maria was too excited to comment. "'Ades!" she called, pushing past them and heading down the narrow hallway. The ceiling was about a foot above Nico's head. On the walls hung pictures of Nico in various stages of life, as well as another girl. She was very pretty, but Thalia didn't recognize her.

Finally they made it to a small kitchen. Windows covered the wall in front of them as well as the wall to their left. To their right was another doorway. Beside the doorway was a kitchen table. A man sat at the table drinking from a mug. From the smell, Thalia assumed it was coffee. He was handsome, and old – not very old, but older than Maria by a few years. Thalia could see the resemblance to Nico, but more so to the girl in the photos in the hall. Nico had mentioned a sister a few times. Maybe it was her.

The man at the table smiled. He set down his mug and came around the table to kiss Thalia's cheeks the same way Maria had. Then he turned to his son. "Dis is Thalia?" he asked, with the same accent as Maria.

Nico nodded. "Thalia, this is my father. Hades."

Hades turned back to her with a smile. "We 'aveh 'eard about you. Niccolo told us."

Thalia smiled. "Good things, I hope."

"Is there anything else?" Nico asked from beside her, and Maria and Hades both laughed.

"'E learned dat from 'is fader," Maria said from where she was pulling something out of the oven. "'Ades is…'ow you say," she waved her hand for a moment, "flatterer."

Thalia and Nico laughed.

They sat down to an amazing dinner of salad and something that Nico told her was called scalcione, which was scallions, tomatoes, olives, and anchovies baked into a thin pie. Thalia had been a bit turned off by the anchovies, but when she'd tried it, she admitted that it was very good.

Halfway through the meal, Maria looked at Thalia and said, "Thalia, you take de upstairs bedroom, and Nico take de couch, yes?"

Nico and Thalia stared at each other for a few seconds. "Mama," Nico started, and set down his fork, "we were going to share a room."

"But dereh is only oneh bed."

Hades swallowed and said something to Maria in Italian. After a few seconds, Maria's eyes went wide and she nodded furiously. Then Hades turned to Nico and said something else in Italian. Nico turned red and looked down at his food, shoving a forkful of scalcione in his mouth so he wouldn't have to answer.

After dinner, Maria and Hades dressed in black and went to a service at the local church.

"They don't hate me!" Thalia announced when the two had left.

Nico laughed and handed her another plate to dry. "I told you they wouldn't."

"You told me that the plane would have food, too." Thalia raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry about that, okay? If I'd known, we would have gotten a better plane."

Thalia smirked and went back to the dishes. "I know. I just like giving you a hard time."

They worked in silence for a moment.

"What did your dad say?" Thalia asked.

Nico's face turned red. "Nothing," he said to the plate in his hands.

Thalia raised her eyebrow and set the sponge back in the sink so she could cross her arms. "Oh no, now you have to tell me. What did he say?"

Nico sighed. "Do I have to tell you?"

She nodded.

"Fine. He told Mama that we were adults and if we wanted to share a bed it was our own choice."

"But what did he say to you?"

Nico's face was the color of the tomatoes in the scalcione. "He said that Good Friday wasn't the time to be making children."

Thalia burst out laughing. "Oh my God, you have the best parents in the world," she gasped. She uncrossed her arms so that she could brace herself against the sink.

"Yeah, well, they aren't your parents," he said, and whipped her lightly with the dish towel he was using. "Back to work."

"So what is it one does on a Saturday in Naples?"

"We aren't actually in Naples," Nico corrected her as he pulled a shirt over his head. "We're off the coast of Naples."

"Whichever."

"And this isn't just a Saturday. It's Holy Saturday."

Thalia gave him a blank look, and he reminded himself that she hadn't grown up Catholic. "Holy Saturday is the day before Easter. It's the day when Jesus was dead, but in the old days it was the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was a day of rest, so they couldn't do anything."

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Wear black and fast all day."

"That's kind of depressing." Thalia looked down at the blue shirt in her hands. "I guess I shouldn't wear this, huh?"

"I was going to tell you, but I assumed you'd just wear black anyway."

Thalia wrinkled her nose and began rooting through her bag. "I've become predictable," she said into her bag.

Nico laughed. "Come on, slow-poke. We have to help."

"With what?" Thalia asked, finally coming back up with a black shirt in her hands.

He cleared his throat and turned around as she began peeling off the tank-top she'd slept in. "Making everything for tomorrow. Mama likes to get started early. And we have to go shopping, too."

Thalia groaned. "Why?" she whined. Nico chuckled, but didn't answer.

A few hours later found them walking down the streets of Naples, hand in hand, and looking into all of the store windows.

"God, why can't New York sell things like these?" Thalia lamented.

Nico smiled. "Because then people wouldn't come to Italy."

"Yes they would."

"Especially if they had an Italian boyfriend, huh?"

Thalia chuckled. "Exactly."

They walked in silence until Nico suddenly changed direction and tugged on Thalia's hand. "Come on!" he said. He sounded like a little kid who'd just spotted a candy store.

Thalia laughed and followed him.

She didn't realize how accurate she was until she realized that they were, in fact, heading towards a candy store. When they stepped inside, she corrected herself. A chocolate store.

"You know how in the States kids get eggs filled with candy?" Nico asked her as they glanced around. The shelves were filled with all sorts of interesting confections – chocolate balls wrapped in gold paper, bars with nuts and candied fruits, and bags of all sorts of different chocolates, most of which had a picture of some sort of filling – hazelnut, coconut, cherries, and Thalia's favorite: coffee beans.

"Yeah."

"Well, here it's sort of the opposite. We give each other decorated chocolate eggs with toys inside."

Thalia laughed. "That's really cool!"

Nico shrugged. "I always thought it was better. I mean, you can buy jelly beans any time of year, but how often can you buy chocolate eggs covered in sugar decorations? Oh, there!" He pointed to a display case near the window. It was full of chocolate eggs covered in swirling decorations. A few had the words "Buona Pasqua" written on them in what looked like icing.

"You didn't tell me they were huge."

Nico grinned. "They're not all this size. Some are smaller. Like over there, see?" He pointed to another case. The eggs in this one were about one-and-a-half times the size of a normal plastic Easter egg, as apposed to twice the size, like the ones in the first case.

Thalia gave him a look like he was crazy and asked, "You seriously give kids these things?"

"Yeah. They're hollow, remember?"

"The kids or the eggs?"

Nico smacked her lightly on the back of her head, and she laughed.

"Help me pick some out for my parents."

Thalia pointed to one egg on the top shelf of the second case. "What about that one?" It had three flowers in the middle, two red and one yellow, and a few leaves, as well as lines of icing coming off of the flowers. "For your mother."

Nico shook his head. "She likes dark chocolate."

"What does your dad like?"

"Anything. He'll eat anything with chocolate."

"Buongiorno!" came a voice from behind them, and they turned around. A small man stood there, wearing a white apron and a shirt with the name of the chocolate shop on it. "In cerca di regali di Pasqua speciali, vero?"

Thalia glanced up at Nico, who smiled and responded, "Si, per i miei genitori."

The man nodded and pointed to the egg Thalia had mentioned earlier and said something in Italian. It sounded like he was suggesting the egg, and Nico shook his head and answered in Italian.

After a moment of conversation with the man, which was more of the man pointing at different eggs and Nico answering, Nico had chosen three eggs. He turned to her with a smile. "Come on."

"Wait, I have to get one for you."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's fine."

"Go pay, I'll pick one out."

"You don't know what's in them."

She grinned at him. "Then you'd better hope I pick a good one."

Nico laughed. "And you'd better hope you have some euros, 'cause they don't take American money."

"How dumb do you think I am?"

Nico opened his mouth to answer, then seemed to think about it, and shut his mouth.

Thalia waved him away. After a few minutes of staring at the case and wondering what exactly Nico and the man had been talking about, the man cleared his throat. "English?" he asked.

She nodded.

He smiled. "I know English," he said in a heavily accented voice. "You want egg, yes?"

"Yes. For my boyfriend."

The man nodded and pointed to an egg. "Little train."

Thalia stared at the egg for a moment before remembering what Nico had said about the eggs. "Oh! Inside!"

The man nodded again.

"Um, I don't think he plays with trains. The man you were just talking to."

"Ah! I apologize, is difficult."

Thalia smiled and nodded.

The man went through a few more before he reached a white chocolate one that was about as big as Thalia's hand. On the egg was a small banner which held the words "Buona Pasqua". The banner was blue and the words were green. When the man told her its filling, her eyes lit up.

"Perfect! How do you say 'perfect' in Italian?"

The man grinned. "Perfetto."

"It's perfetto."

The man laughed, and reached into the case to pull out the egg. He brought it to the front desk and wrapped it in blue shiny paper, leaving the excess at the top, and handed it to her. Then he walked her to the door, where Nico was waiting.

He said something to Nico in Italian. Nico smiled, wrapped his arm around Thalia, and answered.

When they'd left the shop, Thalia asked what the man had said.

"He said you're a fast learner."

"And what did you say?"

He kissed the top of her head. "'I know'."

That night, Thalia joined them for mass, and was glad that she had. Although she didn't understand a word that was said and she wasn't really a fan of religion (she'd been raised next door to a woman who thought Thalia was disgusting because she'd been born out of wedlock, as if Thalia could have helped it – the woman was convinced that Thalia was going to Hell for it), the songs were beautiful, as were the candles that danced across the high ceiling of the cathedral.

After mass, they went home and went to bed.

A few minutes before midnight, Nico woke her up and told her to listen. They sat in silence until all of a sudden bells began ringing out from the mainland.

"They're church bells. It's officially Easter," Nico said. "They set off every church bell in Naples, even the alter bells."

"What's are alter bells?"

"The little tiny bells that they keep at the alter."

They didn't speak after that, just listened until all of the bells had died out.

The next morning, they joined Maria and Hades for an Easter breakfast, and went to mass again. After mass, they came home and began cooking. At around four they sat down to another meal. Roasted lamb was the main course – moist, juicy, delicious roasted lamb that made Thalia understand just how many times Maria had made this meal – with salad and a dish called carciofini, which was just baby artichokes and looked disgusting but was actually very good when Thalia began eating it right.

After dinner they each got a small loaf of bread. The bread was woven in a circle and had a colored hard-boiled egg in the middle, shell and all. It tasted amazing, which Thalia was sure to tell Maria.

Finally, they began to pass around chocolate eggs.

Thalia was surprised to receive one from both Maria and Hades, and felt very bad that she hadn't gotten any for them, but they assured her that it was perfectly alright. They gave eggs to each other, and then Nico handed out his eggs. He'd gotten his mother a dark chocolate one with pink flowers on it and a glass rabbit inside. His father received a milk chocolate egg with curly red and blue decorations that contained a small glass monkey. Thalia got the same egg that she'd pointed out in the store, which had a flower made of sugar inside.

When Nico broke open the egg Thalia had given him, he threw back his head and laughed. "Where did you even find this?" he asked, still laughing.

Thalia grinned. "The man there was trying to tell me about what was inside all of them, and then he told me about that one, and I had to get it for you."

Nico quickly explained to his parents the joke behind his gift, and soon they were all laughing.

That night, lying in their bed, Nico wrapped his arm around Thalia and pulled her close. "Thanks for coming," he whispered.

She smiled. "Thanks for inviting me."

"My parents loved you."

"I know."

He kissed her softly.

"What did your dad want to talk to you about?" Hades had pulled him aside while they were cleaning up from dinner.

Nico squeezed her tighter to his chest. "He told me not to let you go. He said you're special."

Thalia grinned. "Well were you planning on it anyway?"

Nico pretended to think about it, and Thalia slapped him on the shoulder. He laughed quietly.

"Who else would give me gifts like that?"

"No one."

Nico kissed her again. "Ti amo," he whispered.

Thalia grinned wider than ever before. She didn't speak Italian, but she understood that. "I love you, too."

They shared a few more lazy kisses before Thalia snuggled into his chest and closed her eyes.

"Thalia?" Nico's voice broke the silence after a few minutes, just before Thalia had fallen asleep.

"Hmm?"

"Only you could find an egg with gummy bears in it."

"I know."

I couldn't resist the gummy bears. They were calling to me.

I'm so sorry I didn't get the April Fool's Day one up. I started writing it, and it just didn't work. I know some people were looking forward to the Stoll brothers, but it's not going to be written, sorry.

I love the idea of Thalia going to Italy with Nico, and after I found out about some Italian Easter traditions and how different they are from the American ones, I had to write about it. This was supposed to be much funnier, and then about halfway through I realized that they were just too cute together and there was nothing much I could do.

In case anyone's wondering, yes, that was their first time telling each other that they love each other.

I'm working on the outlines for a few new stories, and I recently uploaded a new story called Cat Scratches, which is very depressing (but people who have been with me for a while should be used to that).

The next holiday is Mother's Day, but I'm not sure if I'll do a story for that one. I don't know what's after that, I'll check. But if I don't do Mother's Day, then it might be a while before you hear from me. So...have a nice life until then.

Review!