Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who commented! You guys (and girls) are awesome!!
A special thanks to Hestia Is Awesome for helping me point out my grammar errors. This time, I tried to make as little mistakes as possible. There might still be some in there, but, hey, I'm only human.

Oh, and, this takes place in the beginning of the year after the war.
Here's the next chapter!!! Enjoy!

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Chapter 2:

One slight problem

Nico went about that day, getting back to his regular routines. But, his mind couldn't help wondering back to that beautiful, perfect, agriculture-loving brunette he had seen for the very first time by the camp's strawberries. Well, not the very first time; that had been the first time he had seen her properly. Seen her for who she is, not just that Demeter girl.

That night at dinner, he was sitting alone at the Hades table, as usual. His eyes kept darting back between his plate and Katie's face.

She was sitting at the Demeter table, laughing with her siblings and enjoying the camp's food. Every once in a while, Nico looked at her, and she was staring right back at him. They held their gaze for about two seconds each time, before he looked back down at his plate and she looked at the ground.

Nico was oblivious to everything around him except Katie. Whenever their eyes met, it felt as if her deep brown eyes were melting into his face, seeing right through him. Seeing the real Nico.

As he was walking back to his cabin in a happy sort of trance, he ran into a friend of his: Annabeth Chase. And by "ran into," he literally nearly ran her over.

"Whoa!" he heard Annabeth cry as she was nearly thrown onto the ground.

"Oh, sorry," Nico said, staring off into space, trying to help her up.

"That's fine," she said getting up. Once she got up, she looked closely at Nico through narrow eyes, clearly puzzled. "Are you okay, Nico?"

Nico looked down at the soil on the ground and sighed. "Yeah, I'm okay." He looked up at Annabeth, a goofy grin draped across his face. "How could I not be okay on such a wonderful, beautiful day?"

Annabeth stared at him like he just suddenly sprouted another head. "Um… ok. Why so happy? Should I be worried about you? Are you under any medication I should know about?"

He laughed and looked dreamily off into the distance. "No. It's just that, well… nothing, nothing…."

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows together. There was something he wasn't telling her. Something he didn't want to tell her. This made her feel suddenly mad.

"What? What is it?"

Nico looked distracted. "Nothing, nothing. Really, it's… nothing."

Annabeth stomped her foot on the ground and crossed her arms. She didn't like it when people kept secrets from her. "Oh, come on, Nico. I'm not stupid. You never said it was a great day since Bianca became a Hunter, let alone a 'wonder, beautiful day.' Now," she leaned in and whispered, "I know something's up. Tell me now, or else at the next game of capture the flag, you're going to regret it."

He looked at her, startled, suddenly out of his trance. "What do you mean by that?"

Annabeth gave him one of her threatening looks that could have made a fully grown Cyclops run and hide. "Let's just say, the humiliation will be so bad, you'll be force to live the rest of your days under a rock."

Nico gulped. You did not want to upset Annabeth Chase. He looked at her, eyes full of fear and released a shaky breath. "Now, now, Annabeth. No need to do something hasty."

She narrowed her eyes. "Watch me."

Nico's eyes widened. "If I tell you, will you promise not to do something that might be hard to explain to the authorities?"

Annabeth kept a poker face on. "Maybe…."

Nico closed his eyes, trying to figure out a way to say this. "I… I… well, you see, I… um—"

His eyes shot open to reveal Annabeth, rolling her eyes at him. "Oh, come on. What you have to say can't be all that bad. Say it. I'm all ears."

Nico gave her a hesitant look then went on rambling. "Well, what I'm trying to say is that… I… I kind of, you know… I have, um, uh… a, a, uh—"

"Nico!" Annabeth shouted, almost causing him to fall over. "Spit it out!"

"I keep a teddy bear underneath my pillow!"

They stood there in silence for a while, until Annabeth doubled over laughing. She laughed so hard, she nearly hit the ground.

After she had laughed for what seemed like an endless period of time, she slowly regained her posture, dried the tears of laugher streaming down her face and said, "I-I'm sorry. That-That was j-just too funny. I mean, a son of Hades, keep a teddy bear? But seriously," she said, looking at him, her poker face back on, "what's the secret?"

Nico looked up at her, trying to convince her that there was no other secret. "No, really, I do have a teddy bear. He's in my cabin, I'm not joking."

Annabeth scoffed. "I'm not an idiot, what's the secret? Or, a better question would be, what's her name?"

He blushed and looked down at the ground. "I-I don't know what you're talking about…."

But ever before he looked up, he could sense the hostile air became lighter. He could feel the grin grow wider and wider on her face.

"Come on…. Tell me her name. Please…."

He didn't look up. He knew he couldn't meet her gaze. "Um, uh… I-I don't really know… how… to."

Annabeth sighed. "Fine, tell me the first and last letters of her name."

"Her first name only, or—"

"Both."

"Um, ok." Nico took a deep breath. "K… E. Um- uh, ok… G… R."

He could hear Annabeth gasp. "Katherine Grader? The Aphrodite girl?"

"No!" Nico shouted, glaring up at her. "Katie Gardner! The Demeter girl! I'm in love with KATIE GARDNER!!!"

Annabeth stared at him with wide eyes full of shock. And he'd said that kind of loud, too. So now there were some Hephaestus campers, running around, thinking he was nuts. Great.

Before he knew it, Annabeth had grabbed his wrist, swooped into the Hades cabin and closed the door behind her.

"Tell me everything."

So Nico was forced to sit there and re-tell his entire encounter with Katie. At one point, he was so lost in his description of the way she smiled at him and said his name that he was in a trance until Annabeth snapped her fingers in front of his face.

She couldn't help smiling as Nico described his little run in with Katie.

"Oh… that's so sweet." Then, suddenly, she remembered something she wished she hadn't. "Um, Nico?"

He nodded dreamily.

"It's great that you like her and all, but… there's something you should know."

He shot up from where he sat. "What, what is it? Does she not like me? Will she only think of me as, 'that little Hades boy'?" He moaned and slapped his hand against his forehead. "No…."

Annabeth was nervous how he'd take the real news. "No, it's not that. Well, it's just that… well… Nico there's no easy way for me to say this… but… Katie's, already… um, she's got a—"

"A what? A what?"

"She's already… got a… a, a boyfriend."

Nico felt like he had just been soaked with a bucket of ice cold water. Like it had just awakened him from a fantasy that probably would've never come true. The cold, deceiving, bitter truth. "What?"

Annabeth gave him a look somewhere between a grimace and sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"Wait," he said, trying to kid himself into thinking she was lying, "who is he?"

Annabeth talked, looking as if every word she uttered pained her, "Well, you remember Pollux, right?"

"No… no… she fell for that terd?!"

"Well, after the war ended, Katie felt really sad because she had lost so many people she cared about. Her siblings, her friends. But anyway, Pollux comforted her, knowing what it felt like to lose someone close. After that, they just—"

She was cut off by a moaning Nico, who threw his head back and wailed, "No… no, it can't be…."

She tried to finish her sentence. "They just kind of started—"

"No! I can't hear this!" Nico shot up from his bed and paced around the cabin with his hands over his ears. "La, la, la, la, la!" He yelled franticly, trying to block out the rest of Annabeth's statement.

"And they, they started—"

"LA, LA, LA!" he screamed louder.

"They started dating and—"

"LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, LA!!!"

"They started to go on dates and get to know each other better."

Nico knew his endless chorus of 'la, la, la' was pointless. He heard every word that came out of Annabeth's mouth.

Even long after she was done, he kept his chorus of la la's going. After a while, when his lungs were thirsting for air and his throat was painfully soar. He shut his mouth and sat back down on his bed, depressed.

"I'm sorry," Annabeth said softly. "I know how it feels."

Nico turned to her. "Really?"

She released a deep breath. "Yeah, I know what it's like. Sitting there on the sidelines, wanting to jump in and scream, 'No! Don't do it! I love you!' But, there's just something holding you back, and you feel as if… as if you don't matter in that person's life."

"Wow," Nico said. "That was deep." He raised an eyebrow at her. "So… who's the lucky guy?"

Annabeth looked down. "As if you don't know…."

Nico faked a gasp. "Certainly Percy would never do that, would he?"

"Well, he did," she said, looking off into the distance. "And it broke my heart. So, I know how you feel."

A light bulb suddenly went off in his head. "So, that means you'll help me break them up?"

She looked up, startled at his suggestion. "Well, I wouldn't put it that way…. Nico, I could never do that."

"Oh, come on," he moaned, giving her puppy dog eyes. "Please…."

Annabeth looked at him harshly. "No."

"What if it were Percy, holding hands with a certain red-haired girl we know as our oracle?"

She suddenly blushed and looked down. "How'd you know it was Rachel?"

"Oh, I didn't. I just sort of threw a name out there." A grin lit his face.

While Annabeth looked down, trying to hide her flaming cheeks, she said, "Fine, I'll help. But I refuse to call it 'breaking them up.' Got it?"

Nico smiled. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Good. Now, I have to get back to the Athena cabin before curfew. And brighten up, you have three more months to win her heart."

She got up and marched out the door without so much as even a goodbye. Nico sat there and stared out the window, when he saw something that made him want to faint: A certain Demeter girl holding hands with a certain Dionysus boy.

Nico crept down by the window, trying not to be seen. He peeked out the edge and what he saw made him wish he had just poked his own eyeballs out with a pin. Katie and Pollux where sitting under a tree, laughing, his free arm around her waist. Nico wanted to throw up.

As he continued to stare at them with wide eyes, he noticed Katie looked a little uneasy. Her eyes kept darting back from Pollux's face, to the Hades cabin. Nico had to keep ducking out of her line of vision.

The longer he sat, the more hopeless his quest for Katie's heart seemed. Just as he was about to give up completely, something occurred: Pollux leaned over, and kissed Katie.

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Even though Pollux's lips were on her's, Katie couldn't help think about a certain dark-haired boy she'd seen today.

She didn't know what it was about Nico that caught her attention, was it his warm smile, his caring look, or was it his dark eyes. The same dark eyes most people thought were a mask for his mood, that his eyes were dark and hard to read. But Katie could read them like the pages of a book. And just like any good book, they pulled her in.

Katie mentally kicked herself. She was dating Pollux. She had to keep her head out of the clouds.

When they pulled apart, Pollux smiled at her. She returned it only half-heartedly. He suddenly gave her a worried look.

"Are you ok, Katie-kins?" he said, placing a hand on her forehead. "Do you feel sick?"

Katie pushed his hand away. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"Are you sure you're ok?" he said, feeling her cheek with the back of his hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She looked down at the ground, refusing to meet eyes with him. "I-I guess I ate something bad or… yeah, that must be it."

She felt guilty she had been kissing him and thinking of Nico. She usually always had a great time with Pollux. Wait, why was she even thinking about Nico? She shook her head as if to get the thought out of her brain.

"Well, come here," he said, pulling her closer to him. He placed her head on his chest and lightly rubbed her back.

Katie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She inhaled the sweet smell of grape that usually hung around Pollux. She didn't try to pull away; instead, she just sat there in his arms, feeling absolutely defenseless.

After Katie had sat there, feeling slightly uncomfortable for nearly an eternity, Pollux finally pulled apart.

"There," he said. "Do you feel better?"

No, Katie thought, now I just feel GUILTY! But she didn't say that out loud.

She just politely shook her head and said, "No, I really don't. I think I should get back to my cabin. It's getting late, anyway."

She got up to leave. But, to her discontent, so did Pollux.

"Ok, I'll walk you back." He grabbed her hand.

She smiled back weakly at him. They walked to the cabins in silence.

When they arrived at the door of the Demeter cabin, Katie looked over at the Hades cabin and thought she saw a tuft of dark hair….

Pollux smiled at her. "Well, goodnight."

He leaned forward and Katie quickly released his hand and turned into the Demeter cabin, faintly saying, "Goodnight."

* * *

Nico had seen the entire "yuck feast" from his window. Emphasis on the yuck.

He slunk into his bed feeling even more discouraged than before.

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