"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Jason and Piper kissed and people stood up to cheer and applaud. Piper's dad was crying and Leo wolf-whistled from his place as best man on the aisle. Nico smiled and laughed next to him.

Mr. and Mrs. Grace turned and waved to the audience before they walked out of the gazebo and back down the aisle, into the big white limo waiting for them.

After they left, Leo stood up and shouted: "Okay, everybody! The reception, as you probably know - unless you're blind and deaf - will be just a short walk that way!" He pointed down the hill. "So mush!"

Calypso giggled from the bridesmaids.

People began collecting their purses and coats. Coach Hedge and Milly the wind spirit and assistant followed her boss, Tristan McLean, down the hill. Lacy, the formerly awkward child of Aphrodite, now world famous super model, looped her arm through her brother and Head Counselor Mitchell's arm and lead the rest of the Aphrodite Cabin away from the gazebo. Chiron carefully wheeled his wheelchair down the side, with the help Clarisse and Chris. Thalia glared at the ground with watery eyes as she hustled away, like she was denying that the marriage of her little brother would ever force the Lieutenant of Artemis to tears.

Across the aisle where the bridesmaids sat, Hazel called: "Frank, Nico!"

Frank and Nico walked to Hazel and the others also dressed in sky blue bridesmaid dresses.

Frank grinned and kissed Hazel's cheek. "I say again: you look beautiful Hazel."

"And you both look handsome in your pink ties," Hazel giggled, adjusting Frank's tie playfully. "I told you it would be perfect weather! There isn't even a cloud in the sky today."

"Yeah, but I'm still happy the reception's inside." Frank replied, kissing his girlfriend.

"It's in a tent," Hazel said, kissing Frank back.

"It's a nice tent."

Nico shook his head and grinned. "You guys head over to the reception, I have to go find Rachel."

"Okay, bye Nico!" Hazel waved and Frank smiled back as they started down the hill.

Nico turned around to sort through the other three bridesmaids.

"Was that so bad?" Reyna asked next to him, clothed in a pink groomswoman dress. She loathed that dress with all her might but as soon as Annabeth saw her in it she melted like ice cream in the microwave. Reyna was hip to hip, Annabeth, who was wearing a blue dress identical to Hazel's, except Annabeth had been the maid of honor.

"Yes!" Nico replied, smiling.

"See? And you didn't even have to talk to Percy!" Annabeth said, gesturing to where Percy was standing, talking to his plus one: a laughing, young mortal woman with light skin and a red dress. Percy was also in a groomsmen suit like Nico: dark grey to go with the pink ties, and vests over a white shirt.

Percy had grown since the last time Nico saw him; probably a year or so. His shoulders looked broader, and his natural tan he looked like he spent most of his time on the beach. But Percy wasn't going to college anywhere near the West Coast, so how he had that surfer look, Nico had no idea. His hair was still the same length it always was, and even though it looked like Percy had tried to make it stay down, it had a mind of his own. It swept over his forehead and-

Nico realized what he was doing and turned back to the two girls abruptly. He hadn't seen Percy in years, and he refused to go down the road of 'massive-crush-on-a-straight-guy' again.

"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up," Nico said sarcastically. But even that couldn't make him stop smiling today.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, knowing perfectly well that Nico could deal with Percy's new girlfriend.

"Oh, news," Reyna said. "Red-dress girl? Her name is Sarah, and she's not Percy's girlfriend."

"Oh-" Annabeth started to say but she was interrupted by a overly chipper Oracle.

"There's my beautiful gay boyfriend!" Rachel exclaimed, looping her arm through Nico's. "How about we get married next sweetie? What do you say to a June wedding?"

"It IS June, Rachel." Nico rolled his eyes.

"Precisely dear! Let's run away together right now!" She swooned and for a millisecond Nico considered letting her drop, but rolled his eyes again as he caught her waist. Nico pulled her upright as she sighed: "My savior!" and pressed a hand to his chest.

"Are you drunk already?" Nico asked, confused.

Annabeth and Reyna laughed as they turned to leave.

"Nope," Rachel said, dropping the act to smile. "But let's go. I've been on Piper's case since they got engaged about that open bar."

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll please look to the dance floor!" the DJ, one of Apollo's many sons, said into the microphone. "The happy couple will be having their first dance!"

Jason had Piper's hand as he led her to the dance floor from their personal table, both of them happier than anyone had ever seen them before.

Hazel had been raving about Piper's dress to Nico and Frank separately for weeks. It had an A Line silhouette with straps that hung low on her shoulders, and it a sweetheart neckline. Apparently it was pretty simple for a wedding dress because there wasn't any fooferie like lace or a train, or what Hazel called a bustle, but it just looked like a white dress to Nico.

Nico sat with his sister to his left and Rachel to his right at the wedding party's table. Next to Rachel was Leo and his now-mortal girlfriend Calypso. On Calypso's left sat Percy's completely platonic, not-girlfriend Sarah. Next to Hazel sat Frank, Frank sat next to Reyna and Annabeth, and next to Annabeth, his head tossed back from laughter, directly across from the son of Hades was of course, Percy Jackson.

Nico couldn't believe his crummy luck. He was stuck all night, accidentally glancing up at the guy he'd had a crush on for years. This was worse than sitting next to him, and he'd talked to Piper about sitting next to Rachel, Reyna or Hazel. If he didn't know Piper was the one freaking out over table seating for weeks, he would have been sure it was Jason's fault. But he was determined not to let it ruin his night. He had a fully charged camera and four friends who were over 21, one of whom had already had five shots with Dakota and half a bottle of tequila; he was going to enjoy this. And after the past hour and a half of her slinging gay jokes his way, Rachel totally deserved anything he caught on camera.

After Mr. McLean had gone up to dance with his daughter, Nico turned on the camera and clicked the button to start recording.

"So Rachel, how's the wedding thus far?" he asked, a huge grin on his face.

He glanced across the table and Percy looked away quickly. Weird.

"Awesome!" she slurred to the camera. "The dinner was amaaaazin'. Piper's a vegetarian, so...Wow. There was good vegetarian food. It was good."

"Really?"

"It was really good," she said and started laughing.

Nico glanced across the table again, and again Percy looked away quickly.

"Oh, Nico that's mean!" Hazel said behind him and Nico turned the camera on her.

"She's been embarrassing me for almost two hours, how is this worse?"

"Because-" Hazel giggled and covered her mouth with two fingers. Frank was trying so much not to smile that his eyebrows had shot up into his forehead. Leo and Calypso were starting to laugh as well. Nico turned and saw Rachel doing a mute impression of Nico, moping around and looking generally depressed.

"Ha, ha, you're an artist," Nico snarked.

"Literally!" Rachel shouted, banging her hands on the table. Nico rolled his eyes and pushed the stop button.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen!" the Apollo kid said too enthusiastically into the microphone, and the first beats to a dance song started playing. "Time to get yourselves onto the dance floor, 'cause tonight's going to be one hell of a ride."

I gotta feelin'.

"Really?" Nico shouted over the music sarcastically. "He's starting with this? Original!"

Leo and Calypso ran hand in hand, laughing onto the dance floor flooding with primarily Aphrodite children. Everyone else followed, even Reyna and Annabeth, who usually hated dancing. Percy was yanked after his friend Sarah and he stumbled on to the dance floor.

Nico watched Percy go out of the corner of his eye. He had seen Percy drinking earlier, so he was probably a little drunk. But it was nothing compared to Rachel.

That tonight's gonna be a good night.

That tonight's gonna be a good night.

"Come on Nico! Don't be such a poopy pants!" Rachel laughed hysterically like she'd just made a joke. "Get it?"

That tonight's gonna be a good good night

"'Cause you're gay, and Jinxy's gay... And you're bein' a poopy pants," Rachel explained loudly.

Nico frowned and shook his head. "Who's 'Jinxy?' And, why are you making so many gay jokes tonight?" She had started with the gay boyfriend thing and escalated from there all evening, each joke getting louder and louder and more and more explicit. As she got more alcohol in her, the comments graduated from subtle innuendos like 'behind' to blatantly talking about sex to repeatedly asking about Nico's love life. They lived together so she knew his love life was going as fast as her's, and she was the virgin Oracle.

Rachel sighed and hung her head. "Never mind! And for your information." She swung head back up. "I was ordered to by Apollo THE GOD." She leaned back and made spooky gestures with her hands.

Nico looked at her glass. "You've had way too much to drink."

"Naw, I'm kiddin'," she swallowed. "Trust me, that's not it. Not the drinkin', 'cause I pro'bly 'ave... had too much. But... Can you keep a shhhhhhhcret?"

"You mean a secret?" Nico over-enunciated sarcastically.

"Yeah, whateeeever." Rachel waved her hand. "Annabeth and Reyna told me to." She shrugged and tried to lean back, but she wasn't sitting properly and Nico had to catch her before she hit her head.

"Huh?"

"Sshhhhhhhhhhhhh." She looked behind her. "They told me not to tell... But it's weird you know? I dunno why... But they said they'll tell me later. So. GOSSIP!"

"Why would they want you to tell gay jokes all night? You do a pretty good job all by yourself."

"I know!" Rachel proclaimed, offended. She grabbed her glass and tried to take a drink, to discover that it was empty. "Damn it! The waiters are gone! Come on."

"I think you've-"

"Nope!" Rachel grabbed his wrist and towed Nico behind her to the bar.

"Yeah! Hi!" Rachel said to the tall-drink-of-water bartender. "Can I have somethin' foreign and really strong? And then after you get the dude, somethin' with alcohol." She snickered at her own joke.

Behind her, Nico vigorously shook his head at the bartender, and the bartender nodded at him slightly.

"Sorry, miss, but I'm going to have to cut you off, but would you like a bottle of water instead?"

"Aw come on!" she whined, but she took the water.

As they walked back to their table past the vibrating dance floor, where Leo was trying unsuccessfully to break dance, making Calypso breakdown laughing. Annabeth and Reyna were dancing together rhythmically, Reyna moved to the beat and Annabeth's dancing had fluidity. Frank and Hazel were doing all of the cheesiest, most outdated dances any parent could do to embarrass their child. Sarah probably had no idea how to dance to anything but heavy metal because she headbanging slightly, but she was dancing well enough to grab the attention of one of the Stoll brothers. Percy was dancing as little as possible, mostly just shifting back and forth to the beat. He got into it for a couple of seconds, bobbing his head and smiling that annoying smile, until he realized what he was doing and reined himself in.

Nico turned his attention back to the drunk Oracle.

"So- Rachel!" Nico shouted over the lyrics. "What were you saying about Reyna and Annabeth?"

Rachel took a huge gulp of water, finishing off half of it. "What 'bout Annabeth and Reyna?"

"You were saying they asked you to make gay jokes all night!" Nico yelled.

"I was?" Rachel shouted back. "Wow. I do not remember that. I must be drunk, you should tell someone."

Nico rolled his eyes as he sat back down. "Really? How do you not remember that?"

"I dunno," Rachel slumped down in her chair. "Maybe I made it up!" Rachel eyes suddenly widened and she hit Nico's leg. "Maybe I was bein' all glowy-green and Oracle-y."

"Yeah, that wasn't it. Look, can you just stop the gay jokes and comments and innuendos? I'm fine when you do it around the apartment as long as I'm the only one there. It's just really weird when you do it here. Especially in front of Percy. And Hazel. And everyone really."

"Right! That was it! Percy!" Rachel shot up. "Wait, maybe not. I dunno. Yeah, maybe Percy's not-girlfriend chickie. That's weird right? He's hot, just jump him already, Percy! Him, her, her-him. Her-him-dee-dim!"

Nico leaned over the table and covered his face in his hands. "Gods, this is going to be a long night."

"I hope so!" Rachel laughed.

Nico turned to look at the dance floor and Percy glanced away again. "Okay, I've got the feeling everyone is just a little crazy tonight," Nico said.

I got a feelin'

Ooooooo hooooo

"Wow." Rachel said, her eyes getting really wide again.

"You know when you're drunk, you say 'wow' way too much."

"When you said 'I gotta feelin' the song just ended." She smiled.

As the music to the next song started, Hazel came over and grabbed Nico's hands. Piper and Annabeth hauled the inebriated Rachel up and after them.

Young man, there's no need to feel down.

I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.

"Wait, what? Hazel!" Nico tried to pull himself away but she dragged him on the dance floor and everyone cheered. They closed ranks around him and Nico was trapped.

I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town

There's no need to be unhappy.

"Really? The YMCA? Are you serious?"

Young man, there's a place you can go.

I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.

Jason clapped him on the back. "Come on Nico it's our wedding! Loosen up!"

Nico gave him a toothy smile.

You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find

Many ways to have a good time.

"That's good enough for me!"

It's fun to stay at the-

After The YMCA, Nico had to dance to Twist and Shout, Play That Funky Music - which was hysterical, because everyone kept pointing at the Apollo kid and he looked really pissed - Footloose and Respect. Hazel and Frank blew everyone's minds with their couple's dance for Twist and Shout.

Come Away with Me came on and Nico almost managed to slip out of the crowd and back to his seat until Rachel clamped down on his arm and said she had to dance with someone and that someone was going to be Nico. So Nico was stuck, in one of the worst places he could be stuck: on the edge of the dance floor where he could see his chair, and where he could see the Son of Poseidon on the opposite side of the table.

Nico tried to keep his eyes trained over Rachel's head, but he kept glancing over to their table. Sarah was sitting next to Percy and they were talking. Percy kept looking up at something on the dance floor, but when Nico searched the people dancing around him, he couldn't figure out who it could be.

"Wassssssup Nico?" Rachel asked, her voice slurred. "What'ya lookin' for?"

"Um, nobody- nothing."

"Come ooooooon." She looked around. "Were you lookin' at... Aw! Piper and Jason look so cute! And Leo and Calypso! And Hazel and Frank and Reyna and-"

"Okay, I get the idea!" Nico snapped.

"Oooooo. Is someone mad cuz he's goin' stag at his buddy's wedding?" she said in a baby voice.

Nico bit the inside of his cheek and looked at the ceiling before answering. "No. I'm fine, I told you I was fine going alone."

"Hmmm," Rachel's eyes wandered around until they landed on something off to Nico's right. She grinned. "Maybe you're just feelin' some old feelin's come back with Mr. Single Sushi over there?"

"Single Sushi-?" Nico turned to look and immediately spun his head back when he realized it was Percy. Right, Single Sushi. "No, I'm over him. It's fine. It was years ago, he's straight, I'm fine with it."

Rachel grinned and tilted her chin up to Nico. "Ya know when you're lyin'... You say 'fine' a loooooot," she drawled.

Nico rolled his eyes. "FINE. Yes, it's not fair that Percy is here and single like me even though he's totally straight. Totally not fair."

Rachel giggled. "'Life's not fair, I shall never be king,'" she said in a deep voice then kept giggling.

"Whatever," Nico said, shaking his head. He let go of her waist but gripped her hand tightly. "Come on, we should go back to the hotel, you're way to drunk to be here."

"Awww come on Nico!" Rachel whined as she was dragged toward the tent flap. "I'm fine! I haven't had anythin' to drink since that bartender gave the water!"

"Doesn't matter," Nico said. "You'll have one killer hangover when I'm the one that has to drive us back to New Rome. And I don't want the radio to be set on whine all the way home."

Behind them the song ended and everyone stampeded back to dance to Moves Like Jagger.

"Nico," Rachel said, but he ignored her as he pulled her outside into the cold night air. "Nico." They started across the grass as Rachel finally managed to jerk her fingers out of his hand. "NICO!"

"What!" he demanded.

She staggered a bit and Nico caught her. She shoved him off she stood up straight to purse her lips and glare at him as she attempted to put her hands on her hips, but her hands kept slipping. She teetered a little.

"Ya can't run away from Percy anymore!" she cried.

Nico sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'm taking you back to the room so you-"

Rachel held up a finger. "Nnnnope! Zip it, Coco, I know you still like 'im so sshhhhhhhhhhh. It's okay."

"I hate it when you call me Coco," Nico snapped and started down the hill to the parking lot.

"NICO DI ANGELO!"

Nico flinched and stopped.

"You gotta stop runnin' from Percy!" she staggered down the hill and stopped directly in front of him. "You've been runnin' from the truth since you fig'red you like boys. You like Percy, and you don't think he can like you back, even inna straight way. Hmm?"

Nico didn't speak, but it was enough of an admission as screaming yes to the night.

"Thought so. You're-" She poked him in the chest. "-not leavin' 'til you talk and make nice with Percy. Comprende?"

The son of Hades narrowed his eyes at the Oracle of Apollo. "What's stopping me from just shadow traveling back to the hotel room and leaving you here?"

Rachel gave him a Cheshire grin. "I'll paint your t-shirts rainbow for a year this time."

"Shit." He was trapped and he really didn't have a way out. Last time he had looked like a hippy for a month, there was no way he could handle a year. "FINE, let's go back."

Heeeeey... I'm back internet, don't kill me for not calling. (please) anyway, I have to thank someone who messaged me a year ago about how much they love me (not hard I imagine (jk)), but thank you to 77mn77 for getting me off my ass!