A/N Hallo! I'm probably going to update this almost every day. Thanks to ask the people who have reviewed me, it means a lot!

This chapter is mainly a tidy up from the end of the last chapter and then some weak fluff at the end, but I do have an idea for a possible plot, coming soon...

~ Fi (BookFiend)

With no desire to go back to his own cabin, where all his cabin mates would be, and a desperate desire not to stay in the woods much longer, Will found himself by the door of Cabin 13 before he had even thought about what to do.

Nico should be in here, he reasoned. And if he isn't, I can wait...

Pushing open the heavy door, he let himself into the cool interior of the cabin. A few extra couches had been added since he'd last been here, along with a fire place. A row of skulls lined the walls in intervals of four or five metres, all filled with eerie green fire.

At least there was a source of light, Will thought absently, albeit a creepy one.

However, interesting as the evolution in the cabins decor was, none of it was the boy he'd just tried to kiss.

Looking around the cabin more carefully, he came to conclusion that Nico was not there. Nor had he been there since he had grabbed his sword earlier that day.

With no pressing demands on his time, Will settled down on one of the couches to await his return.

Maybe half an hour later, someone knocked on the door.

"Nico? Nico? You in there? I've got news!" It sounded like Travis, but it might have been Connor.

Nico wasn't in there, and Will couldn't be bothered to answer.

Finally, a further two hours on, the door opened and in wandered Nico, a piece of paper in his hand. There was a greyish pallor to his cheeks, and his hands were shaking slightly. He looked miserable.

Will tapped the arm of the chair (he'd decided it was made of bone). When he saw him, Nico looked embarrassed and also... hurt? He opened his mouth to say something, but Will got there first.

"You vanished on me."

Nico stared at his black converse. "I'm sorry, Will, I-"

"You could have said something! Or just pushed me away if you didn't want me to-" he went red, and looked away from the shorter boy.

"Look, Will, I didn't mean-"

"To disappear on me? Really?" Will was irritated to find his cheeks wet. He was angry, he was shouting at Nico. Now is a bad time to start crying, Solace...

"No, I didn't, I-"

"I opened my eyes, and do you know what I saw? Do you?"

Nico looked close to tears.

"No, Will. I didn't mean to leave you-"

"I WAS KISSING A DRYAD, NICO! YOU VANISHED AND I FOUND MYSELF KISSING A TREE!" Will's voice broke. But Nico found his at last.

"I KNOW! I JUST SAW!"

Will felt like he'd been hit in the face.

"W-what?" He stammered.

Nico held up the paper. It was a picture of Will, his hands on the shoulders of a brown haired girl. He was kissing her. There was no doubt about it; it had been taken that afternoon.

"That's what Connor wanted! I'm gonna kill him!"

"Huh?" Nico looked confused .

"He knocked this afternoon, and I didn't answer. He must have stuck it on the door. But! Where in Hades did you go? I made a complete fool of myself thanks to your vanishing trick!"

Nico almost smiled, but stopped at the expression on Will's face.

"Hades."

Will made an 'explain' gesture with his hand.

"He dragged me down there to pass judgement on a special case." Nico looked wretched. "I yelled at him for a while, but he still made me stay for the whole trial..."

Will felt ridiculously cheerful all of a sudden.

"So you didn't ditch me because I tried to..." He went pink and tailed off.

"No! I really didn't."

Getting up and walking over to the dark haired boy, Will stared into his face.

"Okay. I believe you. But I'm going to have to try that kiss thing again..."

"And I need to be certain that the thing with the dryad was just a fluke," smiled Nico, and tilted his face up towards Will's.

Leaning down, he started closing the gap between their faces. His heart seemed to be about to give out, but he locked the part of him that cared into the corner of his head that he tended to ignore...

Will kept his eyes open until Nico closed his. Then, certain that the boy wasn't about to disappear again, he closed his eyes too...

BANG!

Will and Nico jumped apart, both red in the face, both glaring at the figure in the open doorway. As their eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight, the saw Annabeth standing there.

"Nico?"

She took one look at them and went pink.

"Sorry, I can come back later..."

Will noticed another scrap of paper in her hand: he'd bet anything that it was another picture of him and the dryad.

He half wanted to slam the door in her face, but the moment with Nico was gone. He stumbled back to the couch.

"No, it's fine."

"What did you need, Annabeth?" Nico's tone was cordial, but his shoulders were tensed. He, too, was resentful of Annabeth's intrusion.

"I, uh, just wanted to warn you about this picture..." her gaze fell on the copy that Nico had dropped. "And I can see that you both know. I'll go now..."

Still with a light dusting of red over the bridge of her nose, she walked off.

The conch shell for dinner sounded in the distance.

Will sighed and turned back to Nico. "Hungry?"

"More irritated than hungry, really."

"I'll eat. You can kill Connor and/or Travis."

"Sounds good to me, Sunshine."

"C'mon then, Death Boy."

Neither of them mentioned what had passed between them in the cabin. Will half furious with Hades and Annabeth, and yet part strangely relieved. Not that he didn't want to kiss Nico, more that he was scared to do so.

You're a coward, he told himself.

At the campfire, he told himself over and over to take Nico's hand in the dark, but couldn't make himself do it.

Why was it easier to fall asleep next to the boy than to reach out and grab his wrist?

He was grateful when Nico folded his own hand around Will's. He's braver than me...