Paradoxical Instincts

Chapter Two:

I Get Angry at Lou Ellen (Again)

I felt nervous when we reached the Hades cabin. Will had never been to into my cabin before, even with how close we'd gotten in the last two years. Not that he had a reason to come over before now – we were just friends, after all.

After the war with Gaea was over, I had gotten a chance to renovate the Hades cabin. Hazel had helped, and together we had removed all of the coffin beds and replaced them with normal beds. The cabin still had an appropriate amount of black and red accents through out it, though.

Hesitating in the door way, Will stared into the cabin.

"I take it the bunk with the skull blanket is yours?" Will finally said, a huge grin appearing on his face.

"I-it was a gift from Hazel!" "M-mrrow meow!"

I jumped off Will's shoulder and padded into my cabin. It was nice to be home, even if I was still a cat.

Will started to walk slowly around the cabin, peering with interest at the different things in the cabin. Thankfully, there really wasn't anything for him to see. I kept most of my stuff tucked away in my -!

OH HOLY HADES! I thought with horror, as I noticed that I'd left my Mythomagic drawer open in my desk. I didn't play the childish card game any more, but I didn't have the heart to get rid of my old cards... okay, and sometimes I browsed through them. For the sake of nostalgia, I swear.

Anyways, Will was getting ominously close to the open drawer. I realized I had to act.

Cats were fast, and I was no exception. I slammed my paws on the wood as I propelled myself forward, focusing on the open drawer. If I estimated my trajectory correctly, I was pretty sure I could jump and push the drawer close.

I was half right.

I jumped and aimed right; my paws connected with the bottom edge of the drawer. But instead of the drawer moving, I moved, my lower half swinging until I was the wrong way up. My paws slipped from the drawer, and I fell.

The weird instincts kicked in again and I managed to flail myself upright before I hit the ground.

A pair of hands encircled my mid-section, and I found myself being picked up. "Here you go!" Will said, before dumping me on top of the desk.

"I wasn't trying to – oh, whatever!" I began to growl, before realizing I needed to focus on the task at hand. The drawer was still open!

I darted to the edge of the desk and tried to lean forward enough to reach the far lip of the drawer.

When Will, his attention switching from me to the drawer, reached forward and tugged the drawer wider open, I let out a high pitched wail, "Noooo!" He blinked in surprise at me, before looking down into the drawer. The corners of his lips turned upward.

"Are these... Mythomagic cards?"

"Close the drawer, Will!" I wailed as I tried to bat his hands away from the cards.

"Oh man, I loved this game as a kid!'" I froze and blinked in surprise. "I still have my cards too. We should play some time!"

The cool Will Solace played my favorite geeky card game? That caught me off guard. Play Mythomagic... with Will Solace? For some reason, that sounded absolutely lovely. And embarrassing. Embarrassingly lovely?

I gave him a cautionary nod.

For the next couple of minutes, he sat down at my desk and dug through my Mythomagic cards. I watched, perched at the edge of the desk. He didn't say much, but that was fine because I couldn't reply anyways. The silence was surprisingly comfortable.

"Okay." Will said suddenly, "I'm going to go ahead and take a shower and get ready for bed. I'd offer to give you a bath, but I'm betting you don't want one, Mr. Deathkitty?"

"Meow." "No."

He laughed, before getting up and heading into the bathroom. The door clicked shut behind him and the shower turned on with ahiss.

Curling up on the desk, I began to lick the BBQ sauce off my paws (which was sort of weird, but felt oddly natural at the same time).

And then Will began to sing. I didn't know the song, but it was sweet and upbeat. Rising to my paws, I tilted my big ears around on my head until they were focused on the door of the bathroom. Even though Will's pitch was all over the place, I still sort of liked his singing. It made me feel... happy.

I'm being silly, I chided myself before returning to the task of cleaning my paws off.

Steam poured out into the cabin when the door to the bathroom finally opened and Will stepped out. For the second time in one day, my brain stopped working again. A wet Will Solace wearing only his jeans flashed a smile down at me. "Your shower is a lot nicer than the one in the Apollo cabin. I might have to come over here more often and borrow it." My breath was ragged. If he was going to look like that after every shower, I was fine with him borrowing it every single day.

The ground disappeared from under my paws as he picked me up. I found my fur pressed up against his hot, wet chest. I shuddered as my heart hammered in my ribcage.

Will flipped off the light in the cabin, before falling back onto my bunk. Shirtless, sexy Will Solace was under my sheets, under my skull blanket. He had me tucked close to him, one arm gently propped over me. If I had been a human, we would have been spooning. "Good night, Nico." He murmured softly.

As I was falling asleep, I found myself unsure whether if I wanted revenge on Lou Ellen or if I wanted to thank her.

My dreams started out mundanely.

Scenes of my previous battles flashed across my mind, like whispers of the past. I saw the battle in Manhattan, Leo's warship shooting at New Rome, and then the legion and Camp Half Blood teaming up to fight Gaea's monsters. I saw other, pleasant things too: Piper and Jason cuddled up together on top of a cabin roof, Coach Hedge rocking his newborn son, and Blackjack taking to the sky for the first time since getting injured during the battle.

I was enjoying my dreams up until when I found myself pulled in a familiar cabin with a heavy-set, blond guy snoring in front of me. Sighing in annoyance, I rubbed my temples with my fingers.

"Dammit, Clovis." I growled, even though it wasn't really his fault. Clovis, as the son of Hypnos dreamed so powerfully that he often sucked me into his dreams.

Clovis snorted and smacked his lips loudly as he woke up. "Oh." He murmured sleepily, "Hi Nico. Sorry, you know, again." Honestly, I was pulled into Clovis' dreams so regularly, I wasn't really upset. As peculiar as it was, the two of us had actually sort of become friends due to the frequent dream meetings.

"Yea, it's whatever." I replied with a shrug, before glancing down at my body. In my dreams, I was (refreshingly) a human.

"So, how's being a cat going?"

I glared at Clovis. "Bad."

A few giggles rolled out of the sleepy demigod, "But did you enjoy your day with Will?"

He was teasing me, like everyone else. Heat rushed to my face. How did every demigod know? If I had been a cat in my dream, I would have fluffed up with the rage I felt. "Why do you care!?" I exploded at him, "Why does everyone care!?"

Clovis blinked, before proposing casually, "Maybe because you guys would be a cute couple?"

Choking on my own words, I spluttered, "What-!" How did Clovis know that I was gay? I hadn't told many other people about my, um, preferences. Despite my utter embarrassment, Clovis stayed calm and waited. When I finally calmed down enough to talk coherently, I decided I'd rather not breach the topic of my sexuality.

"Will's... probably not even gay, Clovis. So it doesn't matter." I told him, my arms crossed.

"No, he's gay. Or, at least bi."

"What? How do you know that?" I asked incredulously.

"Because the entire camp knows he has a crush on you."

The words entire camp took a moment to register in my mind. "... um, and how does the entire camp know this!?"

Clovis sighed loudly. "I can show you last Tuesday's bonfire, if you'd like."

"Last Tuesday's bonfire?" What on earth did last Tuesday's bonfire have anything to do with Will having a crush on me? Before I could ask Clovis, the dream scene around us began to change.

I found myself staring down at the scene before me was both familiar and new. I went to some bonfires, but not this one. I remembered that, on that Tuesday, I had spent the evening learning to drive from Jules-Albert.

I heard Clovis' faded voice say, "It started out with the normal amount of dick-waving..."

Drew Tanaka was standing on the Aphrodite cabin's table. "The Apollo cabin doesn't have a chance against the Aphrodite cabin in tomorrow's capture the flag!"

"Oh yea?" From the other side of the pavilion, Will Solace was standing on the Apollo table. "Maybe we'll plant some mirrors near your flag, and steal it when you guys are too distracted by your own reflections?" The pavilion erupted with laughter and childish ohhs.

"At least we have something good to look at in the mirror!" Drew snapped back, "You Apollo kids think that you're so cool, but in reality, you're not!" The Aphrodite kids snapped their fingers with appreciation.

"Cool? I wouldn't say we're cool! I'd say we hot like the sun!" The rest of the Apollo cabin began to howl proudly and bang on the table.

Drew scoffed. "You're a mile from being hot, Will! You can't even get your crush to notice you!" This time, the childish ohhscame from the Aphrodite table.

That comment caught both me and Will off guard. What on earth was she talking about? No joke, Will was undeniably hot (but if you tell him that I said that, I will send an army of skeletons after you).

Face turning red, Will yelped with shock, "What!?" He hesitated, before snapping back, "You're one to speak, Drew! I remember you getting ignored by your crush! You're not much of a lightning rod for attention either!" There were a few low ohhs from campers who knew about Drew's failed attempts to win over Jason, the son of Zeus, awhile back.

Will looked pretty satisfied with with his retort. Drew, on the hand, looked absolutely livid. Her nostrils flared and her pretty eyes narrowed dangerously.

Drew snarled, "Hey, at least I am not embarrassed about who I like!"

Piper spoke up, her multicolored eyes narrowing at her half-sister, "Drew, watch yourself."

Drew rolled her eyes and ignored Piper, "Don't worry Will, I understand! You're ashamed of your crush!"

The pavilion went silent. I felt rage begin to build up within me. Who Will liked was absolutely none of Drew's business, and she was crossing a seriously line mocking him about it.

Will's face was bright red and he looked furious. His hands were balled into fists. The rest of his brothers and sisters were watching him with concern. One of his sisters tugged at his shirt and said to him, "She's a bitch. Ignore her. Don't reply to that." The others at the table nodded. There were several long seconds where Will remained standing, as if he wasn't going to heed their advice.

But he did sit down, much to the relief of the rest of the Apollo cabin. They clapped Will on the back and murmured reassuring words to him.

"See!?" Drew shouted. I wanted to shout at her to stop, that she was taking it too far. Unfortunately, this had all already happened. I couldn't change the outcome. "He's humiliated because he likes a total weirdo! A weirdo that shouldn't even be here. No one else likes your crush, Will, for a reason!"

It sounded like every camper gasped at the same time. Piper jumped to her feet and began to shout at Drew. However, the most boisterous voice was Will's, "IF YOU SAY ONE MORE WORD ABOUT NICO, I SWEAR -" Half way through his snarl, Will seemed have realized what he had just said.

Meanwhile, my stomach started doing flips. Nico, he had said. Me. I was his crush? I felt dizzy, which should have been impossible in a dream.

All faces in the pavilion were staring at Will. Drew had just gotten him to out himself in front of the entire camp. She cackled evilly, "No, go on! What if I say more about Nico di Angelo? The son of Hades?"

Will got up quickly, his gaze on the ground. He looked absolutely humiliated as he turned and stormed out of the pavilion. I felt sick to my stomach as I watched him leave.

"Drew, for gods' sake!" Piper screamed right before the dream scene fizzled out.

I found myself in the Hypnos cabin with Clovis again. I was shaking.

"If it makes you feel better, since then, Drew has been pranked and cursed by about every Hermes and Apollo camper." Clovis said with a sad smile. As nice as that was to hear, that didn't really make me feel any better. I knew personally how hard it was to admit that you liked another guy; I had once nearly let Cupid kill me, rather than let Jason know that I was different.

Sighing, I muttered, "Poor Will."

"I know a way you can cheer him up." Clovis offered, winking at me.

I blushed and snapped at him, "Shut up Clovis. I'm still a cat in the waking world, remember?"

Clovis chuckled. "Well, why don't you go ask Lou Ellen to change you back?"

"Because. I. Am. A. Cat." I enunciated every word with frustration. "It's hard to demand things when no one can understand you."

"And Lou Ellen is a daughter of Hecate. She can communicate with the people whom she changes into animals."

I stared at Clovis. "She can what now?"

"You didn't know?"

Twisting around, I stalked out of the cabin and broke free of the dream.

When I woke up, I found myself entwined in a set of arms. Will. My attractive friend who had a crush on me and who I had a crush on. Focusing on staying calm, I gently extracted myself from his embrace. This was easy to do, thanks to my smooth fur. He grumbled quietly as I slipped away but didn't wake up.

Now I just had to find a way to get to out of my cabin and into the Hecate cabin. Unfortunately, the knobs on the cabin doors were all the round kind. As a cat, I wouldn't be able to turn them. I would have to settle for alternative methods for entering and exiting.

Like a window. I purred joyfully when I noticed that I had left some of the windows in my cabin open to let the breeze in. Even though winter was my favorite season, I found myself glad that it was currently summer. I easily climbed up the nearest bunk and propelled myself out an open window.

The camp was beautifully silent, with the only noise being the sound of the wind and distant thunder. Storm clouds were gathered on the horizon.

My trek across the camp was peaceful. I reached the Hecate cabin without running into anyone.

A window above a stack of glowing wood (only at the Hecate cabin would that be normal) was propped open. I picked my way up the logs quickly and slipped in through the window. As luck would have it, I dropped down into the girl's side of the Hecate cabin. Of the few bunks that were occupied, Lou Ellen with her loud snore was easy to spot. I leaped onto her bed and climbed on top of her.

She mumbled and rolled away. Growling, I started poking her face with a paw. "Wake up, Lou Ellen!" I meowed fiercely at her. It worked: she blinked sleep out of her eyes and gave me a baffled look.

"Huh? Nico, what are you doing here?" She muttered drowsily.

"I want you to turn me back into a human. Now." I demanded.

"Nico, I don't speak cat." Lou Ellen replied with an eye roll. I found myself wondering if Clovis had been wrong. I decided to keep pushing, anyways.

"I know you can understand me." I snapped at her. An intense stare covered up my uncertainty.

Then she started to giggle. "Okay, you've got me." She admitted, "But no, I'm not going to cancel the spell."

Fury rushed through me. Snarling, I leaped forward and started to smack her with my paws. In my rage, however, I forgot to unsheathe my claws. "Why the hell not!?" I roared at her.

She grabbed me and lifted me up. I thrashed my legs uselessly, hissing. "Calm down, you just need to do one little thing, and you'll turn back into a human."

I calmed some. "What do I need to do?"

Her devious grin sent shivers down my back, even before she replied, "Are you familiar with the old story of the Princess and the frog?"

Pausing, it took me a second of thinking to realize what she was getting at. "LOU ELLEN!"

"What? It's just one little kiss!" She smiled sweetly, "Do that, and the spell will break!"

"And then I'll be kissing him as a human." I growled hotly. Honestly, I was pretty sure I didn't have the courage to kiss Will, spell or not. Lou Ellen expected too much of me. Besides that, I didn't really want to give her the satisfaction of knowing her heinous plan worked.

Her eyes twinkled, "Ain't just that swell?"

"No!" I yowled, "Turn me back right now!" I furiously clawed at the air, my tail lashing so violently that my entire body shook.

From the other side of the room, another girl spoke up. "Oh my gods, I'm trying to sleep! Lou Ellen, could get rid of the damned stray?"

And that's how I found myself thrown out of the Hecate cabin. The window I'd gotten in through was snapped shut a few seconds later. I snarled a flurry of Italian cuss words as I turned and stalked away.

Maybe having to kiss Will isn't that bad, I reasoned with myself. I mean, I couldn't deny that the idea was extremely attractive. There was a piece of me, though, that was worried about it. Did I want a (gulp) relationship? Being alone was easy. It was simple.

Then again... kissing Will didn't have to lead to a relationship. A plan started to form in my head. If I sneaked back into the Hades cabin, I could probably steal a kiss from the sleeping boy. I would be back to being a human and Will wouldn't have to worry about getting romantically involved with the son of Hades.

Really, I was doing this for him.

It wasn't because I was running from my own feelings, I swear.

Or at least, that's what I tried to tell myself.

The camp was still devoid of life as I picked my way back to the Hades cabin. The trees were rattling as the wind grew stronger and colder.

When I reached the Hades cabin, I ran into a problem. The window I had entered was too high for me to reach. Unlike the Hecate cabin, there wasn't a conveniently located pile of logs for me to climb. Cursing under my breath, I patrolled around the entire cabin, looking for a way in.

Nothing. No reachable open windows or doors with cat-friendly knobs. I sighed. At least there was someone inside who could let me back in.

I went around to the porch and began yowling and clawing at the wooden front door. Hazel would probably kill me for the damage I was doing, especially since she had picked out this particular door when we had been doing the remodeling, but she was on my revenge list anyways.

I continued my yowling and clawing for a good two minutes. When the door remain closed, I scowled and pressed my ear against the door. The cabin was silent.

I started to really appreciate how nice being able to shadow-traveling was. Unfortunately, my Hades skills didn't worked while I was a cat.

There wasn't much of a point in continuing with my attempts. If Will was a deep sleeper, like he seemed to be, then I wasn't going to be able to get his attention with my limited vocal skills. It was a good thing that I didn't mind the idea of sleeping on the porch.

That is, until lightning snaked through the sky. The thunder that followed hurt my ears.

Maybe I'll go crash at the Zeus cabin, I considered. The only demigod who lived in that cabin was Jason, and I got along well with him despite the stupid cat puns earlier (which, in all honesty, had probably been Percy's idea). I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get into his cabin, but it was worth a shot.

Quickly, I took off across the camp.

I barely had passed the next cabin when the rain started. I sped up, but so did the rain. In the time it took me to pass by all of the new cabins and several of the older ones, the rain became torrential. My fur felt cold and heavy.

When thunder sounded for the second time and yet I couldn't see the lightning – or much of anything for that matter – I realized I needed to find shelter.

In the midst of the storm, I noticed a cabin to my right and darted onto it's porch and out of the rain. I gave my body an instinctual shake to kick off some of the water from my fur. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust before I recognized the smooth stone columns. Poseidon. Of course I'd end up stranded at Percy's cabin.

I strongly considered sleeping on the porch again, until a strong shudder ran through me. The wind was only getting chillier with every passing minute. Sucking in my pride, I started wailing and scratching at the stone door.

Nothing.

I tried wailing louder, but the roaring from the wind washed away my , I began to search for other options. Trying the storm again wasn't an option and there weren't any open windows on the porch. But, if I didn't find shelter soon, I would be in serious trouble.

The wind tugged viciously at my wet fur. I could feel my heat sapped away with every gust.

My eyes fell on a pair of boots tucked in between the legs of a thick, plastic rocking chair. It wasn't much of a shelter, but it was better than being out in the open. I crawled behind the boots (which smelled like rotten seaweed) and squeezed myself between them and the curved legs of the rocking chair. The wind wasn't buffeting me any more, which was better, but my fur was still soaked.

Shivering, I curled as tight as I could. If I feel asleep, I could try to reach Clovis again and let him know that I needed help. I tried to slow my breathing and coax my mind to sleep.

Another roar of thunder cut through the night and I flinched.

Sleeping proved to be impossible.

- x - x -

- x - x- AUTHOR'S NOTES - x - x -

The next chapter will be posted either on Wednesday or Thursday!

Comment and follow! C:

As usual, I will include the tidbit below that I typically post on a site that I can't link to on here.

- x - x -

- x - x - TIDBIT #2 - x - x -

Drew Tanaka was sitting at the edge of the lake. She stared sadly at her reflection. Her once perfect black hair was now a nasty green and her once perfect cheeks were marred by a slew of zits. Obviously, neither of these changes had been her choice; they were some of the longer lasting pranks that she'd been hit with. Ever since last Tuesday's bonfire, it had felt like the entire camp was out to get her.

There was a part of her that considered apologizing to Will Solace. Drew realized that she had crossed a line during their bickering at the bonfire. However, apologizing would be admitting weakness. Drew couldn't do that. Even in the fact of perilous pranks, curses, and insults, she would not, could not look weak.

Looking weak meant losing control.

If Drew didn't have control, what did she have? She would again be that scared little girl, locked in her room while her father entertained beautiful, wealthy women. No, she had long ago decided to never be like that again.

Thunder growled in the distance. Sighing, Drew lifted herself off the ground. She really didn't want to face the rest of the Aphrodite cabin. They hadn't yet forgiven her for her comments. However, with a storm on the horizon, Drew hadn't much of a choice. She reluctantly headed back to her cabin.

It was better to weather the storm of hatred from her brothers and sister than to weather the real storm.