**Yes, here's chapter three for those of you who have actually read up to this point. Well done, and thank you. If you leave a review, I will give you a shoutout, and if you review/favourite a story, I will read and review one of yours, no joke!

Also, to any Lares lovers, sorry for making them so mean ): This is kind of a shorter chapter, but I promise *major* stuff is going to go down to funky town in the next two chapters :3

Song for this chap: One Less Bell To Answer/A House Is Not A Home — Glee Cast**

~3~

'So what happened at the tunnel?' Percy asked as he threw on his shirt for the day. Nico knew it would soon come off as Percy worked on the aqueducts.

'Hmm?' Percy turned to his boyfriend, who was stretched out on the couch, watching Percy dress.

'Nico. Tunnel.' He repeated, trying not to laugh.

'Oh, right. The tunnel. Just got distracted—' Percy knew Nico getting "Distracted" meant he was taken by a memory— it was a code they'd established a while ago, 'and then my head started to hurt.'

Percy shot Nico a look— he was obviously toning the story down.

'All right, well… I'm already late,' He planted a kiss on Nico's head, 'so I've gotta go, but try and figure it out, okay?'

Nico could barely say, "Sure thing" before Percy was out the door. The son of Hades turned over on his spot on the couch, then rolled over again. Convinced he was properly bored without Percy, Nico decided to get his contribution to New Rome over as quick as he could today, so that he could spend as much time as possible watching Percy from his perch on the coliseum.

Shrugging on his usual ensemble, Nico trudged out of the cabin he and his boyfriend shared. He wasn't halfway through the sunflower fields before he heard the voices. Nico just hunched his shoulders and continued his well-practiced gait. He was used to being taunted.

'Filthy Greek, you should leave.' That one sounded old.

'You and your boyfriend.' A second voice said.

'You'll only bring darkness here.' That voice was definitely menacing.

'Along with your unnatural ways.' Nico scoffed at the tautology; don't the Romans consider evil and two guys in love the same thing?

There was a snort of disapproval, 'You say you love hi—' At that comment, Nico stopped walking and spun around to give a death-stare to any Lares hanging around him, and especially the one that had dared to say he didn't love Percy. Nico could stand anyone — living or dead — not liking his relationship with the son of Poseidon, but he would not tolerate anyone calling it insincere. The spectres quickly dissipated into the morning mist, and all went silent. Even Nico felt the deathly silence surrounding him as his aura made every living thing in the area feel threatened.

Calming himself down as much as he could, the Italian pulled up the collar of his jacket, and continued walking toward New Rome.

Behind him, Nico could hear the Lares still gossiping about him and Percy. With an exasperated sigh, Nico kept walking.

~ O ~

It was way too early to have to deal with someone like Octavian, and Nico had hoped Hazel could finally stand up to the augur and deal with the Pluto proceedings, she was still in Camp Half-Blood, and since Nico had come before her with Percy and the Pluto everything was in such a state of disrepair, Nico had to supervise.

He made his way over the Little Tiber and up Temple Hill, where many construction works greeted the eye. Since everyone's tales of the war with Gaia had been recounted, and all the temples for the minor deities built, Temple Hill was a lot more crowded. But Nico didn't mind— the Romans could arrange their temples however they wanted. He was only here for one.

Looking at the ruins of the Pluto temple, Nico could've thought that someone —cough Octavian cough — had purposely knocked down the temple, right to the ground.

'So, looks like you have some work to do.' The smug voice from behind didn't catch Nico off guard at all. He knew Octavian would show up to gloat sooner or later. Nico turned around to face the augur, and just to scare the blonde a little more, Nico smiled a bit. The son of Apollo looked just the same, somehow.

'I have work to do?' Nico snapped his fingers, and Octavian paled a bit as the ground shook. 'I don't think so.'

Nico turned back around, and though he'd never really seen a zombie movie, he could imagine that this was what it looked like. Clumps of earth jumped into the air and landed on skeletal appendages that dragged more bones out of the dirt behind them. Soon, there was a swarm of zombies in various states of decomposition standing at attention in front of the son of Hades. Nico heard Octavian clear his throat and shuffle as if eh was about to leave, then stay in place. With a satisfied smirk the likes of which only Octavian could muster, Nico nodded to the wreck that used to be the Pluto temple. The corpses set to work, clearing away the rubble and salvaging useable materials. The zombies themselves probably wouldn't be able to manage the actual construction of the cabin, but Nico had that sorted out, too. Turning to face Octavian, the augur had repasted the usual smug expression on his face.

'Well, it looks like you have this sorted. Perhaps you could lend some of your workers to help with other parts of New Rome. Since you don't appear to be doing any of the work yourself, of course.' And with a conceited smile, the augur was gone. Nico was grateful for Octavian's sudden exit, even if it meant the blonde got the last laugh. Nico sat down on the spot to catch his breath. He mentally cursed himself for using so much power so soon after nearly being killed from it. No way soon would Nico be lending more zombie-power to any cause.

'Why the long face?' A familiar voice chimed form above Nico. Standing as quickly as he could, Nico got to his feet and hugged Rachael, not minding getting some of her crazy hair in his face. She heartily returned the hug, and once they split, Rachael let Nico sit back down on the pitted ground, and soon joined him.

'So what do you think of our Roman equivalents?' Nico asked after the pleasantries. Rachael scoffed.

'Half of them hate me, half of them want me to replace their oracle. Just a little split.' They both chuckled at the contrast, but Nico soon remembered that he wanted to talk to Rachael about some important business.

'So what brought you to Camp Jupiter, or Caldecott Tunnel to meet us, in the first place?' Nico asked.

'Oh, the usual,' Rachael responded, waving a hand in casualness. 'Crazy voices, weird mist. Some godly message telling me to get there or suffer for eternity.' She waved her arms around, trying to display the craziness that had brought her to Nico and Percy. Nico frowned.

'A god told you to go there? Are you sure?' Rachael seemed taken aback by Nico's serious tone.

'Well, I don't know, I mean, I hear a lot of voices… I couldn't be sure. It was pretty scary and convincing, though.' Nico nodded, knowing she wouldn't lie. But what god would send the Greek oracle to the Roman camp without risking seriously pissing off Zeus? Maybe it was Zeus, knowing Camp Jupiter would need Rachael soon.

'Anyway, I know you and Percy are here to help out with the rebuilding—' Rachael nodded to the zombies fast at work, '— and stuff, but Nico, what happened at the tunnel?' Nico paused to gather his words, trying to decide how much to tell Rachael. 'You know I can help, or at least try, right?' she added at his hesitation. With a sigh, Nico spoke.

'I just… Suddenly started feeling really claustrophobic and it felt like… Like the Minotaur was about to run me down, or something.'

'So, you had a panic attack? Y'know, Nico, those are totally normal af—' 'No, it was more of a demigod panic attack.' Rachael paused to think, and the warm breeze blew long curly strands over her face.

'So, a Mist-induced panic attack?' Her expression fell at Nico's dejected sigh.

'It just felt like I wasn't welcome there, like every part of my being wanted to run, but… Die, at the same time.'

Rachael blanched, and Nico felt bad for speaking so openly.

'Wow, that's… Pretty… Dark.' was all she could say. There was a silence, but it was soon filled.

'Oh my gods, I totally haven't asked about you and Percy! Tell me everything!'

Nico knew he had to pick his words carefully this time.

'Percy stopped me from killing myself a few times and finally convinced me that being abandoned by my family didn't mean I wasn't loved.' yup, Nico was happy with that. Rachael's eyes widened, and in a rare occasion, she was speechless.

It took a few more minutes, but she eventually managed, 'Oh.'

While she was still shell-shocked, Nico remembered the time.

'Oh, I'm going to meet up with Perce for lunch; see you later, Rachael.' Nico didn't really hear her muttered reply, instead striding toward the lake, and toward New Rome.

~ O ~

The first thought in Nico's mind when he saw it was Oh, Hades to the no.

The son of Hades was practically gagging on the sexual tension coming from where Jason was chatting to Percy. Increasing his walking by a considerable amount, Nico soon threw himself into Percy's waiting arms, and kept their kiss for a little longer than necessary. Finally turning to greet Jason, who was blushing all over, Nico said hi.

'Jason was just telling me how much the Romans are appreciating my help.' Percy noted, flashing Nico — who was still wrapped up in his tanned arms — a proud smile. Jason cleared his throat awkwardly. Oh, you poor deluded fool. That thought could've been directed at either Percy or Jason respectively.

Rather than openly act like a jealous girlfriend, Nico decided to deal with this head-on.

'So, Jason. Where are you helping out?'

'Oh,' Jason paused to clear his throat again and shove his fingers into the pockets of his jeans. 'I'm pretty much just supervising. Even though I'm back as praetor, Reyna's handling most of the designs, and I'm just watching everyone.' Jason gave a shrug.

'Like Percy?' Nico asked, and Jason smiled a little more than he should've.

'Yeah, I get to supervise the aqueduct, especially.' Nico could only respond with a not-really-interested hmm, instead turning to look up at Percy.

'On that note, Perce, I was wondering if I could steal you from the aqueduct reconstruction to help out with the Pluto temple? Zombies can tear stuff down, not so good at putting it back up.'

Percy looked shocked for a minute, and Nico already knew his answer.

'Uh, you'd have to ask Jason, I guess.' The two turned to Jason, who looked hurriedly between the tow of them. Probably enticed by the baby-seal eyes Percy was giving, and the threatening bitch-face Nico really couldn't suppress.

'Um, I think, since the aqueducts are pretty much a first priority, I'm going to have to keep Percy.' Where the son of Poseidon simply said "oh well", Nico wanted to hiss that Percy was not Jason's to have, nor to keep.

'Well,' stated Percy after planting a quick kiss on Nico's head, 'I'd better get back to work. See you later, Nico. Jason.' and with that, Percy turned and walked back to the construction site for the largest aqueduct, and before Nico could think about going back to the Pluto temple, he turned to Jason, his trademark blink-wrong-at-me-and-you-die expression on his face.

'So…' Jason began. Nico just stared at him. He knew, and Jason knew he knew, and Nico knew Jason knew he knew.

'Um, I have to… Go and… Watch— do stuff.' Slower than Nico would've liked, Jason left. Which left Nico standing in the middle of New Rome wondering how he could possibly keep his boyfriend from someone like Jason. No chance.

**(This is a totally irrelevant A/N, just go to the next chapter, please. Save your brain cells)
Hey guys, I felt a cold coming on prior to writing this chapter, so I just ate a bucketload of peanut MnM's and decided to be hardcore about it. Turns out eating a lot of chocolate and legumes before going through a cold isn't a good idea (who would've guessed it?!)
So, I pretty much spent all day going between my bed and the bathroom to be sick, but I just got sick of it (haha, is that a pun?), grabbed my computer, and I actually wrote this chapter sitting on the crapper. There you go, to any budding writers struggling with writer's block, just sit on the toilet. We all know that's where the most thinking happens, anyway.

Sushi for all, TJ out**