A/N So I have begun to lay out my plot... but not until the end. Pay attention to the end, it's important.

Nico ended up hiding in the Hephaestus cabin. Seeing as two entire camps were hunting him, he did not tell anyone this - he just hid there.

From the crashes outside, he guessed that they were trying to force entry to his cabin. He could tell that his burglar system worked by the simple face that no-one had managed to enter, which he knew by the absence of people searching other places.

The Hephaestus cabin was empty. He would have tried the Apollo cabin instead, but he had a feeling that that was the next place they'd check for him. Also, there might be people in there who hadn't joined in the treasure hunt. He did not think that Will would be at all sympathetic to his plight. It being self-caused, and all.

Several work tables, littered with shiny junk, filled the spaces that were not taken up by heavily modified, steampunk style beds. Very little of the original wooden walls could be seen under the grease stained blueprints pinned by everything from tape and blu-tack to daggers and chisels, and various sketches were mounted on the ceiling. The floor was covered in random piles of springs and cogs, which Nico navigated carefully.

A shadowy corner between the end of one bunk and a closet looked just large enough to slide into and still be able to watch out of the window. Cautiously stepping over one of the larger piles of spare parts - you never knew what malfunctioning machine you might run into in here - he edged his way over, keeping his head bowed in case someone looked through the window.

Everything was going great, until he trod on something spherical.

With a startled curse, he toppled over forwards. His other foot caught a carefully stacked tower of disks, and he watched in horror as the whole thing came crashing down into the centre of the room. It didn't stop there. It seemed that the residents of cabin 9 had planned for something like this; it was like watching a line of dominoes. As stack after stack of metal, wood, and plastic rained down around him, he crawled backwards into the corner he'd been aiming for.

"What was that?"

"He's hiding in our cabin!"

Then his elbow struck something, and the floor vanished from beneath him, just before the door swung open.

He landed painfully on his tailbone and sat there for a few seconds.

"What did he do?! He's messed up my -"

The square of light above him closed up, cutting off the voices and leaving him in the darkness. Not that that was a problem; he wasn't scared of the dark. (There wasn't anything wrong with being scared of the dark.)

After a while, his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He was in a straight walled cave - the walls looked like they'd been polished.

No way back that way, then.

He set off cautiously along the passage to his left.

He hadn't gone more than ten paces, however, when it thinned abruptly. He gulped. There was no way out the way he'd come, and he couldn't shadow travel his way out: he just didn't have the energy.

He tried to slow his breathing down, imagined Will standing next to him, telling him to... to...

He couldn't remember what Will told him to do.

And Will wasn't here to tell him to do it.

Instead of breathing more gently, he started hyperventilating. He couldn't help it. Trembling, he took another step along the passage. And another. A third, a fourth, a fifth followed.

Swallowing, he ran his tongue around his dry mouth and closed his eyes. His heart was beating too fast, and his breaths were coming in short, panicky gasps.

Squeezing his eyes right shut, he forced himself to move faster.

The sooner he reached a open space...

Instead of widening again, though, the passage got even thinner.

Some god is really having a field day today, a detached part of his brain thought.

He was starting to feel a little light headed now, and sweat was beading in his eyebrows.

He gave up trying to ignore his trembling limbs, trying to pretend that the oxygen wasn't going to run out on him, and collapsed through the shadows into one of the back rooms in the infirmary.

There was no-one there, thank Hades. He curled up into a ball and, hidden by a desk, tucked his head into his knees.

Then the door opened. "Hello?"

Great. Just what I need.

Will's golden thatch poked around the door. "Is there anyone in here? I thought I heard something..."

He took a few steps into the room, and Nico frantically tried to calm his breathing. He really didn't need Will to see him like this again. He wiped his face on a sleeve of his jacket; his eyes were damp.

He was still trembling when Will looked behind the desk.

"Nico."

"D-duh." He hated that tiny tremble in his voice. "I'm just sitting in here for a min-"

Will hugged him.

"Come on, count with me. 1, 2,"

"3, 4." That was what he couldn't remember.

Only when his breathing was no longer being ripped from him in ragged gasps did Will let go.

"I said I was fine..." He grumbled.

Will chuckled. "Actually, you didn't. Do you want to tell me why the camps are unified in trying to kill you?"

"Not really, no."

He ended up telling the blue-eyed boy everything, though. When he finished, Will shook his head.

"I hate to sound cold, but..."

"I deserved it, yeah," Nico muttered.

"And you know I'm gonna have to tell them where you are?"

"Why would you do that?!"

Will rolled his eyes, grabbed Nico's elbow, and marched him towards the white doors.

"But later -"

"After they've killed me, yes?"

"Yes. Then, we're gonna explore the caves together."

"You- what?"

Before he could make sense of this, Will had pushed him out of the infirmary into the afternoon sunlight.

"Here he is, guys!"

"Why did I agree to go out with you again, Soleggiato?"

"Because you love me. Also, was that a new nickname I heard?"

The crowd descended.

XxX

"I'm booorred!"

"You could watch their dramas for a while, my Lady?"

"I've tried that! Nothing exiting is happening! Where's my son?"

"Which one, my Lady?"

"Which one- what do you mean, which one?"

"Oh, that one. Uh, I think he's still running around Italy, my Lady."

"Oh, that's useless..."

"My Lady?"

"I'm still bored. Ah!"

"My Lady?"

"Beauty, be a dear and tell Hypnos that I wish to see him?"

"Certainly, my Lady."

A/N Ta daaaa! Was that an alright chapter? If you can guess who was talking in the last bit, I'll be kinda impressed...

Nico will be fine, by the way. The camps won't actually kill him...

Also, I know next to nothing about claustrophobia, so if you think something needs changing, please drop me a line!

Skull cookies to all! Only 28 DAYS 'til Halloween!

~Fi