Chapter 3: Interruptions

- LukasMalachi -

Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates. Finals can be a bitch. Still, I like to say "explanations, not excuses." Because I need to make it up to all of you, I'll be uploading three more chapters within this week for a total of 4 chapters to make up for the 2 I missed, the one for next week, and a bonus one because I slacked. Make sure to leave reviews. Feel free to make suggestions for plot, but know that not all suggestions will be incorporated. Happy reading!

Jason POV:

"Hey… Nico?"

"Yeah?" he turns, swatting a hair out of his face.

"Could I talk to you for a sec?"

"Uh…" he hesitates, "sure." He responds finally, waving goodbye to Clarisse.

"Did I interrupt anything?" I ask. The two of them had seemed really focused on something, but I couldn't catch anything that they were saying.

"Uh, no. It wasn't anything too important I guess."

"Oh, um, okay…" I trail off. I so don't know what I was thing. I don't know where to go with this.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk about?"
"Uh… so, you remember when we kinda ran into Cupi-"

Nico POV:

"Guys!" Percy calls from a few feet away as he's running towards us.

"Uh…" Jason stumbles.

"Yeah?" I ask, a little louder than normal.

"Piper is hurt. She just returned from her quest and asked for you… Jason. Sorry, not you Nico. If it's any comfort, she didn't ask for anyone else from the seven. I'm just the messenger."

"Uh…" Jason fumbles, turning towards me.

"What?... Go!" He runs off.

"Sorry about that," Percy starts, "did I interrupt anything?"

"Uh… no… I don't think so. He wanted to talk, but never really got to."

Percy POV:

Oh gods, Jason was trying to talk to Nico.

"Oh, weird." I respond. "Hey, do you want to get lunch while he's preoccupied?"

"Sure… yeah, that's fine."

"Oh, um… before we go, I was actually kind of hoping to talk to you to…"

"Yeah?..." Nico prompts timidly.

"I… um… I was wondering if you and Jason were-"

"What?" he cuts me off, urging me to go faster.

"I saw you and Jason at the party. I can tell you like him." I said, intentionally leaving out Jason's obvious crush.

"Oh," he replied, obviously uncomfortable.

"Which is new to me, because I was told you liked me." I hinted to no avail.

"Um," Nico started

"Now, I know that that was a while ago…"

"Percy," he said, trying to interrupt.

"But if you still like me, I like you too." I blurted.

Nico POV:

Holy shit, I thought, the Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, likes me.

"Oh," I reply, trying to remain calm. Why now?

"I know it's weird 'cause you like Jason, but if you were conflicted- oh, wait, that's not what I meant. Um, I just meant that if you were still interested, then I would be open to… um…" Percy seems to ramble in one breath.

"Percy," I begin.

"No," he says before I can finish. "Sorry. Um, I'm not saying 'no' to whatever you might've been trying to say. I just-"

"Percy!" I urge louder. "Look," I say, trying to remain calm, "you said so yourself: 'I like Jason.'" It felt weird to say aloud, but not as weird as when I had to admit to liking Percy in front of the freaking god of love himself. "I've tried not to think about my feelings toward you."

"So…"

"Let me finish." I continue. "I can't honestly say I know what I feel for you." The way his eyes dulled made my heart sink. "It's not a 'no,'" his eyes lit up again, "but it's not a 'yes.'"

His sea-green eyes stormed, and I searched for something to end this conversation.

Percy POV:

"Oh… um…" I had no idea what to think.

"Don't worry about it. Let me do that." He always did that, especially on quests. "I'll talk to you later today… or tomorrow. I don't know for sure…" There was a tense silence. "Bye." He said as he began to run to the dining hall.

"Soon?" I called after him.

He slowed. He tensed. "Sure," he responded.

Nico POV:

Today should be a good day, I thought to myself, your crush likes you. Plus, the guys you had crushed on for years just said he likes you back. Shit.

"Nico," Clarisse called, "we're done for today. Chiron gave us the night to sleep on our plans."

"Oh, cool. Thanks."

"You sure you're okay Nico? You've been spacy."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I'm just tired I guess."

"Mmm…" she knew there was more to it, but I wasn't going to go into it tonight.

"See you tomorrow."

"Later."

Today should be a good day. Gods, don't let me have a panic attack right now.

"Nico!" It was Jason. Apparently combat practice just got out.

Fuck. I cannot deal with this right now. "Sorry Jason, can't talk."

"Nico! NICO!..." I stopped.

"Yes?" I turned around. "What is-" I was cut off.

Jason POV:

Oh gods, I am kissing Nico freaking DiAngelo. Why hadn't I done this before?