Disclaimer: Percy, Nico and all others mentioned (unless specified as OC's or Greek gods) are property of Rick Riordan.

A/N: No hatin' for this taking a while, I just…have difficulty wrapping my mind around this pairing I guess…meh. (C'mon I even had to phone a friend to make this happen) apologies also because I was without internet.

Music: Dota (English Edit)-Basshunter

Aphrodite's Garden 2

Wake up and Smell the Rainbows

Percy yawned widely, blinking in the light that was shining in his eyes and starting to stretch before realizing that one of his arms was trapped by Nico's body. He smiled at the younger boy, who looked kind of cute when he was asleep, and shook him gently.

"Nico, wake up!" He laughed a bit as the demigod made a disgruntled noise and rolled away from him before groaning, "Percy…I didn't wanna wake up yert."

"Yert?" Percy asked, grinning, he felt so weirdly happy for being stuck somewhere he didn't understand-oh yeah they were stuck somewhere with no way out. He frowned, decidedly less cheery now as Nico pushed himself up from the ground and yawned, "Yes. Yert. It's a word."

"Um..no." Percy said, smiling a bit and looking around dejectedly, "But escape is…and that's what I'd like to do, escape from wherever-we-are so Juniper doesn't kill us for missing the wedding."

Nico nodded, "She's scary when she's mad." He shuddered a bit and looked around once more, in the daylight the place was still beautiful, plants dripping flowers and leaves everywhere and green grass extending in every direction.

Percy sighed, "Well at least the water looks like we might be able to drink it." He scooted closer to the river and Nico nodded, "and the waterfall's pretty."

"Waterfall? There wasn't a waterfall…before." He looked, and sure enough a stream of crystal clear water appeared to be falling from the sky, no source discernible above them, into the water below, it made no disturbance on the surface of the river but a fine spray created a rainbow above the water.

Percy jumped to his feet suddenly, "Nico, a rainbow look! We can contact Grover!" He patted his pockets and then slumped back down as the other boy moved closer, "Good Idea…but what's wrong?"

"No Drachma's." Percy muttered, feeling bitterly disappointed as he pulled at some grass, looking up in amazement as Nico laughed, "No problem, here."

He held out a handful of the golden coins, "Hades is also the patron god of wealth…or something like that, he's loaded anyhow." Percy hopped up again, "You're a life-saver Nico." He smiled and hugged the smaller male quickly.

They headed toward the waterfall together, tossing a Drachma through it and waiting, but nothing happened, the drachma vanished but the rainbow goddess did not ask who they wished to contact.

Percy called out, "Hello? Um…we need to talk to Grover, please It's really important." He received no reply and Nico started to shake a bit, looking like he was going to cry.

"We're trapped! I'm going to be stuck here, just like the Lotus casino!" He sounded terrified and Percy wondered suddenly what it would be like to skip so many years, how different the world would be.

He hugged Nico tightly, "Hey, it's okay, we'll figure out how to get out of here."

The smaller boy shook his head, "No! We're trapped!" but Percy rubbed his arms gently, "It's us two, we're undefeatable remember? We'll find a way out and if we don't…do you really think our parents are about to let us just vanish?"

Nico shook his head, clearly he hadn't thought about that and the thought that even if they wound up stuck for a while they would have two of the most powerful gods looking for them.

Nico turned into the hug and nodded, clinging to Percy tightly, "Thanks." He whispered, still shaky but slightly less frightened.

They were just walking away when a voice stopped them and they turned back to the rainbow to see Aphrodite's image.

Percy looked at her and then at Nico, "Um…no offense, but we were trying to get Grover…" She just shrugged, her Gucci sunglasses covering her eyes.

"I know, but I made a deal, the only person you can contact from my garden is me, now just sit tight and lemme say a couple things, I don't like repeating myself so listen." She paused.

Percy and Nico both nodded quickly, "we're listening."

She sighed and looked at her nails boredly, "When someone is in conflict with their heart and mind they get pulled here, but only if someone else is equally conflicted who they are close to, the garden captures those who are blind to what's in front of them, and you two are some of the most impaired people I've ever seen, worse than Eurydice and Orpheus in the beginning I swear, so to get out you have to see what it is you're missing, got it?"

Again both demigods nodded, confused as ever but they weren't about to interrupt the Goddess.

"Alright, now, that mist you've probably notice? It's a wall. The garden is a maze, you have to journey through it, at least partially to learn to see, there's not a way out until you open your eyes, then you'll have one final trial before you can leave. 'kay?"

Percy bit his lip, "So we have to explore this place, in order to have our 'eyes opened' to something that we're missing and then we can get out?"

She nodded, bored again, "The garden has fruit trees and stuff, it's all edible, watch the flowers though, to many of them and you'll burn up, that's ambrosia in them… Oh and the longest it's ever taken was three years, the shortest was a week. Don't worry, time is faster there, if you do it in a week there, you should be in time for the wedding…but I'm feeling a couple years for you two." Aphrodite tossed some of her hair back, "Anyways I'm running a little late now, so later."

She vanished and the rainbow returned, leaving Percy and Nico standing alone again, decidedly more uncertain than before.

"What could she possibly be trying to get us to see? In the last month alone I've 'seen' enough." Percy said, exasperated, "I mean c'mon, I'm gay, I'm allergic to shellfish, which really doesn't make any sense, I don't like anyone and am probably doomed to being a lonely old weirdo, oh and let's not forget the prophetess is hitting on me, and now there's something else I'm supposed to learn about myself or whatever!" He let out a deep breath and sat down.

Nico just stared at him, "You're gay?" he asked quietly, making Percy blush and stammer, "We-well I, uh…I think so."

Nico nodded, "Oh…okay." He shifted awkwardly, "Um…we should…" He gestured forward and Percy stood up, shaking himself, "Yeah."

They silently stared going different directions, walking side by side so they didn't miss any space to figure out where the mist wasn't because that would be the direction the maze went in.

After finding two openings and deciding on one, marking a tree with a piece of cloth from Nico's shirt (Aphrodite would probably turn them into goo if they carved into her trees) they decided to take a quick break.

Percy fell back onto the grass, "Hey..so…it's not weird or anything right? I mean since I told you I'm…?" He looked over at Nico, who shook his head, "No, actually I think I mi-"

He cut off, gasping in horror suddenly and looking behind Percy who scrambled up and over to him, looking in the same place, "What?"

Then he seen it and he covered his mouth to keep from crying out as he watched his worst nightmare play out before him, Nico bursting into tears beside him.

A/N: I'm terrible..cutting off there of all places! And making this so short! I swear it was gonna be longer, but I couldn't resist a cliffy. So is this chapter better? Worse? Did I fix what was "off"?

Thanks to Lyokoyaoi