**Author's Note: Sorry this took so long! But this chapter, I took the other half of karatekid34's suggestion, which was to have someone walk in on them. Next chapter will probably be a bit more serious than the last two, haha :P And as for The One The Outside, who suggested that I have an alternate ending to satisfy both audiences, that is actually exactly what I was going to do! Though, I may throw in a few subtle romantic hints every now and then, just for all you shippers :3 But I will definitely have two endings, one romantic and one not. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!**
Rather than a simple game of Rock Band to pass the time, it turned into an all-out karaoke war between the two boys. They sang for hours straight, singing everything from rock to rap to pop, quite a few songs by the Beatles, Greenday, Maroon 5, some more Imagine Dragons... At some point, another Taylor Swift song came up, and no one protested. After about forty-two songs, anything goes.
Finally, Nico turned to Leo. "I can't do this. 'Friday' was the last straw," he huffed, out of breath from singing so much. He was totally exhausted, but still smiling like he was having a great time. "One more song, no more."
"Deal," Leo said with a nod. He hit the 'random' button again, and a song started to load. "Are you kidding me?" was all he could say when he saw the title pop up. In big letters read "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, and Leo inwardly groaned.
The countdown started, and Nico chuckled softly. "I threw a wish in the well," he sang, and he sounded surprisingly good for someone who'd been singing for a few hours already. "Don't ask me, I'll never tell."
Leo cleared his throat and sang into the mic, "I looked to you as it fell, but now you're in my way." Despite the fact that they'd been playing for so long, he was still having an enormous amount of fun, especially when he got to the part that went, "ripped jeans, skin was showing," and he winked at Nico.
"Hey, I just met you," they both sang a little louder when they got to the chorus, music blaring from top-notch speakers Leo had installed. "And this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me maybe!" The boys giggled like crazy, and Leo was genuinely surprised—he'd never seen Nico act like this. Maybe he really had gone insane in Tartarus.
"It's hard to look right, at you baby," Leo belted out.
"But here's my number, so... oh, gods." Nico's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his voice totally died.
"What?" Leo asked, but it didn't take long for him to follow Nico's gaze and see the person standing in the doorway.
"...Oh my gods." Piper looked totally stunned, speechless for a few seconds, before doubling over in a fit of hysterical laughter. "You guys!" she screamed, still cackling to herself like crazy. "So let me get this straight, you two just... For the entire night, you've been... And Nico... Nico, what are you doing? I mean, for Leo this isn't really out of the ordinary, but gods, you too?" She was practically in tears at this point, trying to muffle more laughter.
"What?" Nico felt heat rise to his cheeks, and he dropped the microphone to the ground. "Just because I'm a child of Hades doesn't mean I can't... uh, have fun..." He cleared his throat, suddenly very interested in his sword belt, and his shoes, and the zipper of his jacket.
"Leo, I've got to hear how you convinced this guy," she gestured to Nico, "to play a game like this. And you don't even have charmspeak! I'm impressed." She reached up, ruffling his hair.
"Shut up, Pipes," he muttered, pushing her arm away. "Look, I've got a knack for making other people do my will, even without the fancy Aphrodite charm. I don't blame 'em—how could anyone say no to all this?" He gestured to himself, punctuating his sentence with a wink and a smirk.
"Really, Leo?" Piper said, shaking her head and chuckling. "Hey Nico, should I charmspeak him?"
"Be my guest." Nico shrugged.
"Leo, can you do me a favor?" Piper asked, channeling power into her voice. Nico listened and was amused at first, until he felt the magic working on him, too. He felt himself clinging to her every word, wanting to obey whatever she said to do next.
"Of course," Leo answered, clearly under her spell. "Anything you like, not a problem." He grinned, like he was trying his hardest to please her.
"Perfect. Can you pull a tape recorder out of your belt for me?" she asked him, and of course, he obliged quickly, handing her the small contraption. "Okay, let's see here... When I start recording, I want you to say, 'I'm Leo Valdez and Piper McLean, my most awesome friend, is way more charming, beautiful, and cooler than I am in every way.' Oh, and also 'I have a huge crush on... on Coach Hedge!'"
Nico grinned, but even he found himself slightly believing her words. Piper was rather charming, and beautiful, and certainly cooler than Leo, and Coach Hedge—'Oh gods,' he thought, 'snap out of it.'
Leo nodded, and when Piper hit play, he recited in a clear voice, "I'm Leo Valdez and Piper McLean, my most awesome friend, is way more charming, beautiful, and cooler than I am in every way. I also have a huge crush on Coach Hedge." After he was done, Piper stopped recording and busted into laughter.
"Oh gods, Leo!" Piper almost felt bad about it, but not that bad.
"What?" He looked confused. "What did I do?" He sort of remembered, but he couldn't believe he'd actually said those things on recording, and totally meant them. "No way, you didn't... Piper, I'm gonna kill you!"
"Not if I tell you not to," she teased, dangling the tape recorder in face. "I wonder who I should show this to first," she mused, raising a brow in thought. "Maybe Jason... I'm sure Frank and Hazel would love it, too. And lucky Nico, he was here to see the whole thing!"
Nico just snickered, receiving an angry glare from Leo. "What? Not my fault."
"This is totally your fault!" Leo exclaimed, trying to snatch the contraption out of Piper's hands, but she was too quick. He felt heat rise to his cheeks, and heard the two of them yelp when his hands caught fire. "Oops," he muttered a little sheepishly, quickly putting out the flames. "But seriously," he whined, "give it here, Beauty Queen!"
"Sheesh, I wasn't really going to show anyone anyway," she reassured him. "Well, that is, if you do me one more favor."
"Another favor?" He scoffed. "No way!" Even though he was trying his hardest to sound threatening and angry, there were two problems: one, he wasn't really that angry, and two, he stood a bit shorter than Piper, so he looked like a whiny, scrawny child trying to argue with her.
"Fine, then I know what's playing on the ship's intercom tomorrow." Piper started to walk away, when Leo grabbed her by the arm.
"Wait!" He said quickly, even if he knew Piper would never figure out how to work his intercom simply because of how complicated he made everything on the ship. "Okay, what's the favor?" he asked, sounding completely miserable.
"You guys didn't even tell me you had Rock Band." She shook her head, like it was unfair. "Let's play a few songs before I go back to bed."
"Oh," Nico murmured, like he was just realizing that Piper shouldn't have been awake. "Wait, what are you doing here, anyway?"
"I don't know about the rest of them, but when I hear 'Call Me Maybe' blaring on the ship's speakers, I kind of want to know what it is." She cracked a smile at the thought. "Gods, what were you guys doing playing that song anyway?"
Leo muttered something about a stupid random button, before saying, "Ah well, it doesn't matter. Let's just get started, shall we?" He picked up a guitar off the floor, and handed it to Piper.
'A few songs' turned into another hour of singing, hardcore guitar solos, and scoring combos on the drums, until Piper finally set down the guitar. "Gods, you guys," she muttered, "I didn't know Nico was such a good singer. You too, Leo." She smiled at them.
They both blushed slightly, before saying at the same time, pointing to each other, "He's the better singer." Both of them, at this point, had totally lost their voices, so their words were barely over a pained whisper.
Piper just smirked, rolling her eyes. "Well, I might as well get my last two hours of sleep. See you both in a bit, good night." She walked out the way she came, contemplating how Leo Valdez, her idiot little brother, had become such good friends with Nico, the child of the Underworld.
Leo turned back to Nico and coughed. "No more singing."
"Yeah," Nico agreed, clearing his throat.
"But... just one more guitar battle couldn't hurt, could it?"
"Of course not."