Reyna glowered into the flames. The fawn- Coach Hedge- had woken her up to keep watch what seemed like an eternity ago, which, in reality, had only been thirty-seven minutes.

They had to be somewhere in France, she decided. She had walked a short distance from the campsite earlier, and seen a couple of road signs. They weren't in Spanish, and judging by the spelling, it seemed probable that they were now in France.

The air was cold, but the cold she knew was fleeting, like every summer night in California.

Left to the fire, the coach bleated in his sleep and turned on his side. Behind him, the proud Athena Parthenos seemed to glare at her, cursing her and all Romans for her plight, especially Bellona.

She shifted her back to the statue.

On the right, Nico di Angelo slept with his back to her, legs tucked up to his chest.

He had collapsed as soon as she had untied him from the statue, not even waiting for Coach Hedge's cucumber and jelly sandwiches. Understandable, since the Coach wasn't exactly a gourmet chef.

Reyna stared at the back of his head, conjuring his face in her mind. He was so tortured for someone so young. Dark lines showed his typical lack of sleep and his faintly emaciated features. His irises were so brown they were practically black. And though he couldn't have been younger than fourteen, his eyes were from another age.

She had never really asked who he was aside from his godly parentage, and why the hell he had the right to come and go as he pleased. It hadn't been necessary at the time, for Jason had been missing, and there had been a huge surge of demigods entering the camp that no one could explain.

"No!"

Reyna jerked her eyes open. She'd almost fallen asleep, but a soft cry had permeated the darkness and the relative silence the trees provided.

Nico was trembling, quivering ever so slightly. Reyna slowly rose from her stump and approached him.

"NO!" he cried, much louder this time.

She flinched back.

"No. Don't- don't let-!"

"Di Angelo." As she spoke she kneeled next to him and touched his shoulder.

"Don't let go!"

"DI ANGELO." She shook him.

"PERCY!"

"NICO!" Reyna screamed.

Nico jolted upright. His eyes were blood-shot and desperate, his breathing heavy.

"Nico." Sighing in relief, she placed a hand on his thin back. "It was just a dream."

He tried to control his breathing, which only served to make it ragged, uneven.

"...Yeah. Just a dream," he agreed.

Reyna retracted her hand and sat down next to Nico. He tensed.

"Do you need to talk about it?" She asked, bracing herself. She had never been good at dealing with other people's feelings, just at controlling her own.

"No," he snapped.

"Okay, okay. Are you alright? That dream seemed intense."

He hesitated a second before insisting he was indeed, fine.

"Okay." She pushed herself up and walked back to her stump.

Nico's breathing became more even. He closed his eyes and dropped his head in his hands. He examined her out of the corner of his eye and Reyna pretended not to notice.

"Can I ask you a question?" Nico said cautiously. "And can you not ask my why I'm asking?"

She glanced at him. "That depends on the question."

"Then nevermind." Nico zipped his jacket up under his chin.

The wind softly rustled the leaves. Some strands of hair from her bangs fell in her face and Reyna raised a hand to push them behind her ear. Her braid hung over her left shoulder and had begun to come undone, so she pulled the hair tie out, running her fingers through to comb it as much as possible.

"You know what?" Nico declared, throwing his hands up in complete frustration and then brought his fists down on his knees.

Reyna stopped combing her hair to look up at him from her messy locks.

"I'm done with being afraid of what you might think of me, I'm asking anyway." He paused, searching for the correct words.

"How... How can I get over... um... Having a, uh..." He inhaled deeply before continuing in a rush: "Having a crush on someone who I know doesn't like me back?"

Reyna smiled in amusement at the complete idiocy that this was the question that he was asking. Then, after a couple of seconds of searching for an answer, her thoughts drifted to blond hair and blue eyes, and she found she didn't have one, and the smile faded.

Percy. Nico had shouted for Percy.

He was staring intently at her, and she met his eyes.

"I'll let you know when I figure it out." She pursed her lips and went back to braiding her hair.

"How long have you known you would never be together? Nico whispered after several minutes.

"I would, uh, rather not talk about it." Reyna said as she tied off the end of the braid. She leaned closer to the fire and rubbed her arms through her jacket.

"The Argo II, huh?"

Reyna let out a shaky exhale, trying to subdue any loose strands of emotions. "No, I had known long before them. -Then-" She corrected quickly. "Long before then. You?"

Nico crossed his arms over his chest. "Always."

"So... Jackson, huh?

Nico tensed.

"It's okay, I have a sister who's an Amazon. It basically implies bisexuality."

He still didn't relax. "How did you know."

"You screamed his name in your dream."

He ran his fingers through his bangs, letting his forehead rest on his palm. "Who was it for you?"

Reyna thought about lying, or just refusing to answer, but it didn't seem fair that she knew his secrets. "Jason."

Nico snorted. "Of course it's him."

Reyna almost smiled. "I could say the same thing to you Di Angelo."

He grinned, but it faded after a second. Nico's eyes followed the sparks of the fire into the night sky and as they winked out of existence, his eyes resting on the Athena Parthenos.

"Do you wonder why we weren't chosen? To be in the seven. Why was it Hazel, Leo, Frank, Jason and Percy, and not us?"

She liked how he said 'us' and 'we' instead of just 'you' and 'I', like they weren't alone in their frustrations.

"I don't know. Hazel was chosen, so why not you, right? I can fight just as well as Frank and Jason, even without the flying and lightning and shape shifting. I think it all comes back to the gods love theatrics, and, they love to play favorites."

Suddenly, Nico got up, and sliced his sword through the fire sending sparks and flecks of wood flying.

Reyna flinched.

The black sword went flying off into the night, and Nico screamed at the top of his lungs. His hands clawed in his hair.

Coach Hedge snored once and scratched his furry hindquarters, but remained asleep.

"I'm so FREAKING tired of my life being controlled by a bunch of gods who think they know me! My father used me to try and control a prophecy! My SISTER died because of a stupid quest! And I run because of-!" He cut himself off.

"And I try to get her back, and everyone tells me it's wrong! Even Bianca! And she didn't even know why I needed her back!

"-THEN I help save Olympus and WHAT'S my reward? I get to watch as- as..." Nico's voice stuttered to a halt as his shoulders fell. Then he threw his hands in the air and started pacing as he continued ranting.

"THEN he just VANISHES off the face of the Earth, and when I find him, all he remembers is HER! And I get stuck in a stupid JAR!

"NOW they want me to lug a damn statue across the Atlantic to save their butts! And it's not like we're going to be 'the Heroes of Olympus' or anything! No! That stupid title is going to the 'seven perfect children' and we're just going to have to just watch as they live their stupid perfect lives and we get nothing!" He finally collapsed back in his spot to her right, breathing heavily.

Reyna studied Nico. She noticed how he a just flown right past any mention of Tartarus.

After a minute or two of the silence, she spoke. "You're right it's not fair. The gods need to get their heads out of their asses and see that."

Nico's eyebrows flew up as he glanced at her.

She leaned forward placed a hand on his. "But think about it Nico. We aren't doing this for the gods. We're doing this for who we love, Hazel and Camp Jupiter and..." She sighed. "You know. If we love them this much, then maybe one day-"

"Don't even go there." Nico pushed away her hand and pointed a finger accusingly at her face. "There is no way they could ever love us." Nico lowered his hand, staring at her, and daring her to challenge him.

She glared at Nico. Reyna got the feeling he wasn't including Jason in that sentence. "I was going to say, that if we love them this much, then maybe one day someone will love us as much as we do them."

At this Nico lowered his gaze. Then he got up abruptly and said "I'm going to get more firewood." His voice broke at the end of the sentence.