Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus

I'm back once again! Just to let you all know, this may be the last chapter I'll be putting out this weekend. I'm going out of state to visit my sister and I don't know if I'll be able to update while I'm there. So, worst case scenario, I'll be updating again on Monday. Best case, I'll have internet connection to update several chapters tonight when I get there, because it's a 4 hour ride in the car, so I'll have a lot of time to write.

I hope all of you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 13 Branch 2!

Percy's POV

I woke up the next day, immediately thinking back to the day before. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about what had happened the entire day afterwards. While we had been practicing archery, because Nico insisted that I had to practice it sometime, I had nearly shot him while he was getting his arrows, and I would have if I wasn't such a terrible shot with a bow.

When I went to bed last night, I had been wondering about everything that had been going on lately. From the break-up, to Nico helping my recovery and sharing his feelings, Annabeth's apology, the notes, and the invitation to come practice with the Athena cabin. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen. Would things ever get better between Annabeth and me? Would people treat me like I'm a real person again? Or will I always be avoided, thought of as a broken person that they didn't want to be around.

I don't know what will happen, but it won't help to lay here and think about it. I got up and started to get ready for the day. I showered and changed into a new pair of jeans and a Camp shirt. I walked outside into the new day and looked around at everyone and what was happening. Everyone was going about their usual day, walking to their activities in groups of friends, talking, laughing, and enjoying themselves.

I felt a bit sad after that, because I hadn't felt like that for weeks.

I walked to the pavilion and sat down by Nico and started to eat my breakfast.

After a couple minutes of sitting in silence eating, I looked over to Nico and asked "So what are we gonna do today?"

"I'm not sure, I figured I would let you pick what we did today, so I've been waiting for you to get here to decide."

"I don't know."

He didn't say anything and I paused eating to look over and see him looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, you look like you haven't slept for days, were you up all night again?"

"No, I got enough sleep, I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"What?"

I guess he decided he'd left me alone for long enough, because he was actually asking questions now.

"It's just… Do you think everything will ever be normal again? I just feel so alone, Annabeth is acting odd around me, and I wish that we could at least be friends like we used to be. The Seven haven't even said anything to me in person since I tried to kill myself, and everyone around the camp just seems to avoid me as much as they can. You're the only friend I've had, and I know that you'll leave when I'm better to go back to whatever you do."

"I might not leave." He said quietly.

"Why not? What changed?" I asked.

"I figured it might be a good change to stay here, be around people who aren't dead. Besides, you'll always need a friend Percy." He seemed to be saying something else too inside his head, but nothing came out.

After a couple more minutes of sitting while I finished my meal, we decided to go to the ocean. I hadn't been there in a really long time, and I figured it would be good to be in the ocean again.

When we reached the beach I immediately dove into the surf, swimming deeper into the water. I felt the cool water rushing past me as I swam, the power of the waves crashing down on the surface.

I swam back to the surface of the water and looked back to the shore to see Nico sitting on the beach smirking at me. I decided to be a bit mean if he thought it was so funny that I was acting childish in the water.

I felt a familiar tug in the pit of my stomach. The water responded to what I wanted and washed up around Nico and quickly rushed back into the ocean taking Nico with it.

I swam up to him grinning as he sputtered and spit the water out of his mouth and wiped his hair out of his eyes.

"This," He said, "is really cold."

"It's not that bad, you just have to actually start swimming instead of floating." I said as I swam back away from him on my back.

He gave in for a little while and swam around for a little while because he must've figured I would just wash him back into the ocean if he tried to get back onto the shore.

After a little while, we went back onto the shore. He crawled onto the sand and laid down on his back, and I just walked out of the water, feeling refreshed.

I offered him my hand which he quickly grabbed and I pulled him to his feet.

His feet were a buried a little under the sand and he tripped forward against me and we both fell over.

He was shorter than me, so his head was near my chest. His face immediately got really red and I could feel mine start to heat up as Nico rolled to the side as quickly as he could.

We eventually stood back up, successfully this time, and looked at each other.

"Well," I said, "that was eventful."

"I swear I didn't do that on purpose." He said really quickly.

"I know, it was an accident, you're not the type of person to do that on purpose."

He was silent, and I wasn't sure what else I could say.

After a few seconds of awkward silence we went back to Camp. He quickly told me he was going to go shower and go to his cabin, so I went back to mine on my own.

I couldn't get wet, so I didn't need to change, so I just laid on my bed again to relax and think. I thought about everything Nico had done for me, helping me recover, giving in to my childish ideas like swimming and pretty much just helping me. He was probably the best friend I'd ever had.

The end of this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it, and like I said before, I may or may not update over the weekend. Well, please review and let me know what you think about this chapter, and I hope to see you in the next one!