"Hey, Annabeth!"
Nico watched from the shadows of the tree line as Silena ran up to Annabeth and Thalia and handed them a pink flyer. He felt almost numb after turning down her offer to help him with Percy, but he embraced the detachment because it was the only way to get through this. Silena had the entire Aphrodite cabin handing out flyers. It took nothing for her to get Chiron's approval and now they were just hoping enough campers would show up, specifically the two she was talking to right now.
Silena said she would only use Charmspeak as a last resort to get people to come, but she was charming enough without it so he wasn't too worried. She even got Drew Tanaka in on it somehow. He walked toward the Amphitheater, making sure to keep a good distance away from where Silena was working. He needed the walk to clear his head and he needed to be somewhere easy for Percy to find. It had become Nico's go-to spot and if Percy was looking for him, he would look there first. Silena said to let Percy come to him. It would be suspicious if Nico went running up to him first with this.
The Amphitheater was empty at this time of day, which was always a relief. The stone benches were stacked like bleachers and divided by steps with a banner for each cabin hanging over each section. He took a seat on one of the bottom rows and stared at the fire. It turned a deep navy, reflecting his mood and making him frown and look away. He lay down, stretching out on the bench and occupied himself with cloud gazing to ignore the fire.
It took almost no time at all for Silena to come up with a plan that would involve the whole camp. A Buddy Relay where the Aphrodite cabin would pair up campers and set them against each other in games. She planned to pitch it like the Olympics to get approved. Of course, it was rigged so they could pair up Percy and Annabeth and force them to spend time together. Silena was persuading Annabeth and Thalia to participate and Nico had to sell it to Percy. He didn't think it would be too hard. If secretly watching Capture the Flag for so long had taught him anything, it was that Percy had a competitive streak a mile wide.
He heard footsteps and had to resist the urge to smile. It was a bittersweet feeling that Percy would seek out his company so easily now and he was plotting to throw Annabeth at him. He just needed to get back to his time and then leave. Even if Percy and Annabeth were going to live in New Rome, he couldn't stand the thought of sticking around in Camp Half-Blood when everything about it reminded him of Percy. It would be even worse now with all these new memories of spending time with him.
"Hey, did you hear about this thing the Aphrodite kids are doing?" Percy asked sitting down right next to Nico's head. He was so close that Nico caught that faint smell of sea water that clung to him. He sat up quickly and hunkered down in his aviator jacket.
"Yeah, they're passing out flyers," he said. The fire slowly transitioned to pink and Nico wondered if he could knock the bronze brazier over and smother the magic flames. He'd just apologize to Lady Hestia and make an offering to her.
"I know it might be stupid, but we should go!" said Percy, sounding high spirited.
Nico smiled and tried to hide it with the fur collar of his jacket. Turns out that competitiveness was stronger than he thought.
"You're laughing," Percy said while smiling himself. "Okay, stupid idea I guess."
"No, it's a good idea. I just didn't think you'd go for it," he replied.
"Me? I can't believe you want to. No offense, and it's not a bad thing," he added hastily, "but you're not very social."
"No offense taken," Nico shrugged. "I just…I know I make people uncomfortable so I'd rather keep to myself."
"That's not true. I'm sure plenty of other people would want to be friends with you if you gave them a chance. Look at Silena…and me!"
That did make him wonder. He'd always tried so hard to push future Percy away, even after he stopped blaming him for Bianca's death. He just figured it would be too painful to have Percy as a friend if he couldn't have him the way he really wanted. But right now with this Percy it was nice. He didn't exactly know why but he didn't feel the need to glare and snap at him. It did hurt, especially knowing what he had to do, but it felt so right. Maybe he could calm things down with Percy in the future before he left.
"I'll keep that in mind," he said.
"So, we partnering up for this thing tomorrow?"
"Umm I think your partners are picked for you," he said and watched as Percy's grin dipped a little. "But I'm sure it'll be fine," he said. "Maybe we can ask?"
That brought the grin back in full force and made Nico smile too but he wiped it off his face when he saw the fire drifting between deep pink at the bottom and pure white near the top. It was clearly time to pick a new hang out spot.
The next day he and Percy went to the sign-up table where Drew took great joy in telling them no they couldn't be a team because their partners would be chosen for them. Percy was a little crestfallen but Nico tried to get him back in a good mood, saying it would be a chance to see how they lined up against each other. He didn't know how the magic weather control worked but it was cooler today like someone had turned the temperature down to a setting like "super comfortable". There was a good turn out too and they even had audience made up of the campers who weren't participating. Chiron had come down to watch, but Mr. D was nowhere in sight. He was probably too busy not caring. Nico tried not to stare as Silena and some of her siblings sorted out the partners from the sign-up sheet. How she managed to pull all of this together in 24 hours amazed him.
"Hey guys!"
Annabeth and Thalia walked over to them and he silently thanked Silena for pulling this off. All that was left was…
"Thanks for coming out guys!" He looked over at the table and Silena was talking into a megaphone with a clipboard in her left hand. "Time to find out who your partners are!"
"Clarisse la Rue, you're with Clovis!" Somewhere out in the crowd they heard Clarisse shout "WHAT?" and a buzz of sniggering started.
"All partners are locked in so no complaining please," Silena said sweetly.
"Malcolm Edwards, you're with Connor Stoll!"
"Oh wow," Annabeth groaned. "Either those two will surprise us all or this is going to be hilarious."
"Percy Jackson, you're with Annabeth Chase!"
"Hey! You lucked out, Wise Girl!" Percy laughed.
"Just don't slow me down, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth teased. Nico felt like causing an earthquake just to stop this whole thing.
"Thalia Grace, you're with Charlie Beckendorf! Nico di Angelo, you're with me!"
He had to remember to thank Silena about fifty times in a row. She gave up being partnered with her boyfriend for him too. He was secretly worried about trying to team up with someone he wasn't used to.
Silena called out all the pairings and then announced that since she was participating, she would be turning the whole thing over to Drew, who looked way too smug once she got her hands on the megaphone.
"Promising to put her in charge was the best way to get her to help," Silena whispered when she came over to stand with him.
"Silena…" he started.
"Don't worry about it," she said gently and smiled. "What are friends for?"
"Okay guys the first event is the three-legged race!" Drew shouted through the megaphone.
There was a small field framed on three sides by the cabins, lake, and Arena and it had been converted into racing lanes with white paint lines on the grass. The air was filled with noise as spectators cheered and the teams teased each other. Every pair was given a bandana to tie their legs together and lined up at a lane. The finish line ribbon was held by two wood nymphs while Drew paced in front of it and stared at them all. Occasionally she would use her megaphone to shout at a couple that their bandana wasn't tied tight enough but finally she seemed pleased enough to start.
Silena put her thick dark hair up in a high ponytail and retied her shoes tighter. Normally Nico hated being touched, it hurt him too much to see how people flinched when they felt how cold he was but Silena was different. She threw her left arm over his shoulders and he timidly wrapped his right around her waist. They stood hip-to-hip and waited for the race to begin. He leaned forward to look down the starting lanes and glimpsed Percy and Annabeth looking happy and determined and flinched back from the sight.
"Hey," said Silena. "We got them together and that was the goal. Try not focus on them. We're in these events so we might as well have fun."
"Okay," Nico agreed but he secretly doubted that he would.
"Ready!" Drew yelled and the air suddenly filled with tension. "Set! GO!"
Sometimes having ADHD was useful. Like in battle, it allowed him to focus on a lot at once. He saw at least four teams fall within the first five steps and struggle to get back up with their legs tied. Clovis had fallen asleep and Clarisse actually had him hefted up under one arm while she ran. Connor and Malcolm were doing okay at first but then lost their sync and fell half-way to the finish. He and Silena were doing better than he expected. They were still up-right and running but Percy and Annabeth were beginning to pull ahead.
The roar of the other campers cheering faded into the background until he saw Thalia and Charlie. They must have been pacing themselves because they were outstripping both him and Silena and Percy and Annabeth. They hit the ribbon first, winning the race. Annabeth and Percy came in second with him and Silena in third. Surprisingly, Clarisse and Clovis came in fourth and once they were across the finish line she dropped the son of Hypnos on the ground, jarring him awake.
"I'm awake! Wait, what?" he asked looking around completely confused.
He and Silena were doubled over and huffing when she started giggling and then laughing hysterically. Nico had no idea what was so funny but he started chuckling at her.
"I…" She started but was hit by another fit of laughter. "I thought we were going to fall for sure!" she said doubling over again.
"Me too," he agreed and bent over to untie their legs. When he stood up Silena pulled him in for a hug.
"Do I get one for winning?" asked a deep voice. Nico looked up and then politely took a step back as Charlie hugged his girlfriend.
"Hey, good race," Percy said walking over. His face was flushed and his hair was even more ruffled than usual. Annabeth was busy hugging Thalia in the background.
"Thanks. You and Annabeth were great," he said trying to mean it.
"Oh yeah!" Silena said quickly. She pulled back from Charlie but held onto his hand.
"You and Annabeth really work well together! No wonder both your quests succeeded!"
"Yeah, we're just used to it I guess," Percy said modestly.
"Good job campers!" Drew's voice screeched through the megaphone.
"Why did you give her that thing?" Charlie asked Silena with a groan.
"Congratulations to Charlie and Thalia, I guess, but whatever! On to the next event!"