Don't worry , guys. I haven't forgotten about this. I just had a seriously bad case of writers block. I'm not joking. It took a trip to my brother's house the other day to actually get an idea in my head for this. Never knew it could be so hard when the mentioned couple aren't actually a couple.

Anyway, thought I'd remind you that I do not own anything to do with PJO, HOO or Rick Riordan. Other than that, hope you guys enjoy.

Warning: mild coarse language towards the end of this one-shot.

Forbidden Love

He gazed up into the bottom of the bunk on top of his, his thoughts drifting to forbidden things. He wondered about how his life had been since she showed up in it, what he had done to deserve being rescued by her. But nothing came to his mind in the form of the answers he wanted. All he knew was that his life was now ruined.

The wooden slates of the bunk were boring, yet they were interesting at the same time. He wondered why. Perhaps it was the almost black knots in the dark wood making intriguing patterns. Or maybe it was because the wood itself reminded him of her. He just didn't know for sure what it was. So he forced his mind into thinking it was the first option.

Well… he thought it was the first option.

Slowly he raised his right hand and began tracing the knots in the wood above his head. Hopefully sleep would cloud his thoughts so that he didn't have to think about her. And hopefully both Hypnos and Morpheus would let that sleep be a peaceful, dreamless sleep. But somehow he didn't think he was entitled to something as precious as that. Finally, that sigh he had been waiting for decided to escape his lips.

" Out of everyone I know, why did it have to be her?" He muttered softly to himself.

But, of course, the wood didn't reply. Not that he didn't believe that trees and shrubs had the ability to speak. It's just, he would have been surprised if this particular cut of wood had suddenly grown a face and began talking to him. Slowly, his eyes began to droop, making the knots in the wood transform into other shapes. He recognised one as looking like his cousin's sword. Another, for some reason, looked like a cat. A third just above his head looked like a flying pegasus. But the knot right in front of his face had gone from looking like a lion's face to looking like the girl he was forbidden to love.

Curse his luck.

Everything was exactly how he saw her, right down to the punk style jacket and the spikey hair. He could even see the freckles that graced her face. Oh, great! Now he's thinking about forbidden names that she could kill him for if she ever found out. Not that he wasn't already going to be killed by someone. A chill ran down his spine at the thought of what the goddess could do with him. He decided not to think about it.

Unfortunately, the gods didn't want him to have a peaceful rest that day. Almost immediately after he had decided that he wasn't going to think about what the moon goddess could do to him, the knots in the wood began twisting within themselves. And they weren't pretty sights, either. One depicted him being turned into a jackalope. Another had him being turned into a weird unicorn rabbit thing and then being shot because he was too dangerous. A third had him being turned into a basilisk and being used as a new form of training.

But the last was probably the most terrifying that he could possibly think of… her rejecting him when he finally managed to pluck up the courage and ask her out. He knew it was going to happen, anyway. He just didn't want it to happen. He wanted to believe that he had some kind of chance even though he knew he didn't.

A knock at his door penetrated his depressing thoughts. At first he wondered who it was, then he decided that he didn't want to know. He was tempted to send one of his ever ready skeletons after the poor guy just so he could be left alone to brood over his fantasies. Of course, that never happened. He wondered what was wrong, but blamed it on his cursed luck and love life and went back to staring at the knots in the wood that still depicted various torture scenes. That just proved that he needed to get a life like everyone wanted him to do.

One thing was for sure, some of those scenes would do well in the Fields of Punishment.

" Stupid skeleton." He mumbled. " Get your bones together and get rid of the intruder."

He didn't know if he was disappointed or not about the still non-responsive skeleton, but he stayed his eyes on the disturbing images before them. He wasn't sure why, though. Those images were really making him worry about what the goddess was willing to do with him if she ever found out about his crush on one of her girls. The only thing he was glad about was that the knots in the wood weren't showing him what the girl of his dreams could torture him with. But, of course, that changed, too. First there was a spear, then a pack of wolves, then a flock of falcons and finally the bolt of lightning.

The knock at his door sounded again, more urgent this time. And to top it off, someone had added their voice to it. He wanted them to just go away and leave him alone. Maybe if he concentrated hard enough, he would be able to resurrect a dog skeleton and give it a voice so it could scare them away and he could stay where he was. Or, if he really wanted to scare them, he could resurrect a big cat or dinosaur or something like that. He gave a sigh and grumbled something incoherent.

Slowly he let his mind wander back to the girl. He had given up trying to control the non-responsive skeleton and non-existent guard dog skeleton. He had even given up staring at the slightly disturbing images dancing around in the knots in the wood above his head. All he could focus on were the electric blue eyes, the spikey black hair, the freckles on the face and the punk aura that seemed to hang over her… and the silver circlet on her head that forbade him from ever properly loving her. That silver circlet was probably the most depressing thing about her, actually.

Well you could still lover her. Said a voice in the back of his head.

" It just means a very embarrassing and painful death when I do claim my love." He murmured aloud.

He did not realised that his cabin had been broken into until it was too late.

" Nico di Angelo! Get that sorry ass of yours out of that bed right now!" Her voice penetrated his thoughts easily, forcing his eyes open and his body to act of its own accord and do her bidding itself.

" AHHH!" He screamed from his floor, followed shortly by, " Thalia!"

" Don't start, Leo!" Someone threatened from outside the cabin door.

But it was too late. " Annabeth!" The hyperactive son of Hephaestus exclaimed excitedly.

" Percy!" The sure sound of Percy's voice exclaimed at the end. Obviously he was feeling left out.

" Kelp head." Thalia sighed, shaking her head sadly.

" What are you doing here?" Nico asked, now seriously regretting not being able to call forth that skeleton guard.

" We came to remind you that there is a meeting on in the Big House that you have a right to be present at." Annabeth said, now standing in the doorway.

" Yeah. And we find you snoring your head off." Thalia growled.

" I don't snore!" Nico protested.

It was a defence. He could feel the blood rushing to his face at the very thought that she had found out. That was one thing that he hadn't wanted her to know about. How was he going to confront her now that she knew that he snored? This really was turning into the worst day of his life. He just prayed that it didn't get worse.

" No." Thalia had turned to her favourite past time known as sarcasm. " We've been standing at your door for fifteen minutes! We could hear you!"

" Crap."

Nico's day had just gotten worse.

Well, there you have it. The thing that has been my torture ever since I had a suggestion come in to do Thalico. It may have taken me weeks to write and upload, but I'd have to say it's taken me months just to work out. Hopefully, you guys liked it. And I hopefully I got everyone in charater.

Please R&R