Chapter 2 Nice to meet you

"I don't know why you guys are still going on about that, it was last week already!" Nico says as he flops down on the couch in the living room of Piper and Annabeth's apartment. "Besides why do you even care about this, don't you two actually have boyfriends?" aka Nico's cousins Percy and Jason, it was through them that Nico had come to be such great friends with Piper and Annabeth back in high school.

They had first met at the library in the small corner dedicated to just relaxing in a comfortable chair while reading rather than studying at a table or sitting at a computer. At some point the two of them who would always sit near him and quietly discuss their favorite books and characters, had noticed that Nico tended to read much of the same books as they did so one day they had invited him into their conversations. He didn't really know them though until they had started going out with his older cousins and he had started spending more time with them outside of the library.

"If you guys are living your fairy tales why do you always have to bring up my lack thereof?" Nico huffed as he leaned back on the couch. Annabeth sat next to him hunched forward over her laptop, she stopped typing and looked at him. "Maybe we're just trying to find you your own prince charming." Then she went back to typing away like there was no tomorrow. Piper walked in from the kitchen with a bowl of fresh popcorn that she sat down on the coffee table before picking up the DVD remote to start their movie. "Yeah, and he certainly is charming." She smiled as she sat herself down on the other side of Nico. He had been reaching for some popcorn at the time so he threw a few at her for her comment.

"Well he is, and don't pretend that he's not a big part of why we frequent that particular café every week." Nico rolled his eyes but couldn't deny her words so he just stuffed his face with popcorn instead. "Anyway it's just fun bugging you, we know that you're way more likely to fall for Mr. Customer service than some creeper at a bar anyway." Nico couldn't agree more. "At least a book would be more interesting than a free drink, besides if he really did make an impact then I'd think of him every time I looked at the book." Nico regretted that last part the instant he had said it but now both girls were looking at him and grinning. "Knew it." They both said. Nico went back to leaning back on the couch with his arms crossed but his face burned now. "Just shut up and start the movie already." He huffed.

Piper and Annabeth shared a look before Annabeth saved and closed her laptop and Piper started the movie. They both knew that Nico was a real romantic at heart; he was just too embarrassed to admit it.

…

On his way home from Piper and Annabeth's, Nico stopped off at his favorite bookstore and went to his favorite section to browse for new books, he debated what to get going back and forth between a few of his favorite authors for about ten minutes before finally settling on one and going to the till to pay for it. "Find everything alright today?" the clerk asked as they rang up the book for him, and Nico nodded. "Yeah." He was really bad at small talk but thought he should put some effort into saying something since he was in here so often he was sure that the staff knew him on sight and by name. "I've been waiting on this one for a while but didn't bother pre-ordering it." The clerk nodded. "Yeah sometimes the ones that are ordered ahead of time take longer to get here than the copies we have in stock during the first day of release." Nico knew that from experience, sometimes it was hit and miss.

After he finished paying for his book he said goodbye and headed out of the store, but on his way out he bumped into someone. The impact had sent him back a few steps and he dropped the book he had just bought. "Oh I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, I really should have been paying more attention." Nico had bent and reached down to pick up the bag with his new book without looking at the person he had run into but he froze for a split second as he realized that he recognized that voice. Slowly Nico looked up at the person standing in front of him; they were holding their hand out to him to help him back up.

Nico took the hand of the cute blond from the café; he realized that he'd never seen him outside of work and that he doesn't actually know the blonds name even though he's been seriously crushing on the guy for about five months now, something that his friends like to remind him of. "It's okay, I wasn't really looking either." Nico says trying to sound normal and hoping that his voice doesn't break or anything else embarrassing happens while he talks to the blond standing before him. Said blond smiles and points to Nico's new book. "I hope it didn't get damaged, it's always a shame when anything happens to a good book." So he's a book lover too. Nico thought but snapped himself out of it quickly. "No worries, it's fine."

The blond smiled again "I'm glad, wouldn't want to ruin it if you only just bought it right?" Nico smiled a little too "Yeah, hadn't even cracked the spine yet." He realized that he felt way more comfortable talking with the blond then he did with most people outside of his small circle of friends, though it came as more of a pleasant surprize than anything. "I'm Will, I see you a lot at the café where I work and I noticed that you seem to really like books too." Well now I have a name to go with the face. Nico thinks to himself, it's better than always referring to him as the cute blond all of the time, and better yet than Piper and Annabeth calling him Prince Charming or anything else along those lines.

"Nico, nice to officially meet you I guess." He said as he shook hands with Will, he could almost swear he felt something like a jolt pass between them but he just chalked that up to his imagination. "Um thanks for the other day, you have no idea how old that joke gets, I swear everyone that uses it thinks they're the first to ever say it outside of the internet or something stupid like that." Nico tried to play nonchalant by rolling his eyes at the thought of what had happened yet again. Will let out a laugh "Heh yeah it's like they think that they're the only ones that have ever seen a meme or twitter post before."

He smiled warmly at Nico causing his heart to flutter just a bit, or was it those butterflies in his stomach again? Either way that smile was amazing. "Besides what's wrong with wearing all black? And drinking plain black coffee? What right do people have to judge you?" Okay Nico was liking him more and more now. "True, for all they know my soul is bright shimmering rainbows with unicorns and puppies and I just need the black clothes to keep it from blinding everyone." Nico said with a slight grin, and this time Will's laugh rang out loud and pure and Nico was glad that he had been the reason for it.

"Hahaha! Oh my God I wouldn't have ever thought of something like that!" Nico was going to say something else but then his phone rang. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, recognizing his sister's ringtone right away so he didn't have to check the name before answering. "Hey Hazel did you need something?" Nico turned away from Will slightly as he spoke on the phone and missed how the humor faded slightly from Will's eyes. "Hey Nico, could you make a quick stop on your way home? I was in the middle of making supper when I realized that we're out of dressing for the salad; could you grab some on your way?" Nico smiled, he knew his sister tended to overlook a thing or two whenever she planned on making dinner so he was always ready to head out to the store to pick things up on the nights that were her turn to cook. "Sure thing, text me if you need anything else, see you when I get home."

He hung up and turned back to Will. "Sorry about that, my sister needed me to make a quick run to the store before dinner." Will smiles brightly at him again. "No problem, it was nice talking to you Nico." Nico smiled back. "Same to you Will." And with that they went their separate ways as Nico left the book store. On his way to pick up the salad dressing Nico pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Annabeth.

Nico: His name is Will. He likes books.

He hit send and smiled to himself once more before she text back.

Annabeth: ;) Best of luck.

Nico rolled his eyes but his smile grew as he continued walking.

And that's chapter 2! Like it so far?