It's been a long time...

Like, a ridiculously long time. Like, so long that I don't even have a valid excuse other than I'm super unmotivated.

If you're still around (and I'd totally understand if most of you forgot about this story, since tbh it's pretty mediocre), enjoy the chapter.

And if you do enjoy, it'd be great if you could drop a short review my way. Just letting me know what you think, what you might want to happen. They really help me get motivated to write. Hopefully I'll have another new chapter soon, once my finals are over and I'm on winter break.

Thanks for reading

I couldn't help but notice the change in him. It was pretty subtle, like most things about him, but it was undeniably there.

Of course, in reality he'd been slowly changing since Valentine's Day. He'd been more comfortable since then, with my family and with the idea of us really being together. But I couldn't lie and say I hadn't been worried about our Spring Break. The reality of confronting Hazel had been a little terrifying. I'd worked so hard to help him get over what happened with her the first time that I was afraid we'd just get set back again once he saw her. I was afraid that he wasn't going to feel comfortable with all the people too, that he wasn't going to be affectionate around them. But he really proved me wrong.

I knew a lot of the time he was pushing himself out of his comfort zone. I could tell that he was always much happier when we were alone, but he still made an effort to be social. He was trying and that's what really counted to me.

It felt like everything had finally cemented in place, like nothing was going to destroy the progress we've made. Seeing Hazel didn't ruin anything, my injury didn't ruin anything. In fact, it felt like he was coming off our Spring Break stronger and more sure of himself than he'd ever been.

For the first time since we got together, everything finally felt right. It finally felt like this was it. And that, coupled with my parents leaving for the weekend, created a perfect storm that allowed the very last people in my life to find out about Nico.

See, Paul had to go to some educator's conference, and my mom decided to go with him to make a little weekend getaway out of it. That meant I had the apartment to myself for the whole weekend, so of course I took advantage of it.

Nico ended up staying over Friday night, and I couldn't help but be reminded of our first month of dating, when a typical night for us was watching a movie and praising the privacy. But back then, we had to keep the volume low because he needed to be ready to leave at the drop of a hat. Back then he would flinch every time he heard a noise in the hallway. Back then, he would run the second he heard the keys in the doorknob.

Now things were different. He wasn't poised to run, even when my mom was home. For most of the night, there was an immense sense of calm. Well, at least for most of the night. Later on I found out that his newfound confidence had also weaved its way into his kisses. Mind you, nothing really happened; it was just…interesting to see him take more control. Believe me, I was far from complaining.

Nico ended up having business with his father Saturday morning, so it looked like our own couple's weekend 2.0 was going to have to take a little break. He promised he'd be back by dinner, and that was totally fine by me. I just took it as an opportunity to invite my mortal friends over.

I'd been a lot better about hanging out with them over the past few months. I sat with them at lunch, hung out with them after school, and spent the weekends I didn't spend with Nico at one of their places, playing video games and messing around. They were the normal teenage guy friends I'd never really had the opportunity to have, given how much I'd moved around as a kid and how much my life had changed over the past few years. I appreciated them for the break they gave me.

This particular Saturday we were gathered in my living room, which was now so blessedly free of my awesome but prone to hovering mother. The coffee table in front of us was littered with empty soda cans, chips, and pretzels. The most recent iteration of Battlefield played on the TV, with Max and Chris locked in a multiplayer match.

"No, Jess, I don't care what kind of flower you think should be in my corsage," Noah grumbles out loud, eyes fixed on the screen of his phone. So far he'd spent the entire afternoon complaining about his girlfriend, who'd been texting him all sorts of questions nonstop after his admittedly romantic prom proposal.

"Has Chloe been bothering you about any of this stuff?" he moaned, obviously directing his question towards Max who, by his knowledge at least, was the only one of us with a date.

"Nah man," he chuckled in response, not looking up from his game. "She's been organizing the whole thing for me. All I've gotta do is pay her parents back for my share of the limo and pick up my tux the day of."

"God, I almost wish I was single like you two," he grumbled, tossing his phone to the side and glancing over at Chris and I.

"Wouldn't be so sure about that," Chris replied, earning an eyebrow raise from Noah. "Looks like Mr. Poorly-Covered Hickey is hiding something from us." With that, Max faltered just long enough to give Chris and opening and end the multiplayer match. As the kill screen flashed, the controllers were abandoned and all eyes were fixed on me.

My hand flew to my neck, coming back streaked with makeup. My face went beet red when I realized the concealer I'd panic-swiped from my mom must've worn off. Gods, I should've been more careful. I cursed under my breath, avoiding their gazes while wondering how long Chris had been sitting on that information.

"Ohohoho," Noah hooted, an incredulous grin on his face. "Who's the lucky girl? I bet it's Alex. It's her, right? S'gotta be, I know for a fact she's crazy about you and you'd have to be an idiot not to think she's hot."

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Max. He nodded almost imperceptibly, urging me on. He knew about Nico, after all. He was never supposed to find out as early as he did, but…I guess it was time they all found out.

The only reason I'd been putting it off was for Nico's sake, right? For so long he'd been so reluctant to tell anyone but now…he was fine and I didn't have any reason to be reluctant. So why couldn't I tell them? Why did I feel so sick?

Honestly, I just didn't want to lose them.

It was really the first time I'd ever been struck with that fear. It was a no-brainer that my mom and Paul would accept anything about me. And I'd been so sure that everyone I was really close to at camp would be supportive of us because of everything we'd been through. We'd fought wars together, after all.

But these guys? We were friends; we were as close, sure. But they weren't like the Jason or Annabeth. There were so many things about me, so many key things, that they would never, ever be able to understand.

And I was fine with that, even though it created an inevitable divide. I was always having to hide something from them or lie, and I knew that must be hard on their end. As much as I cared about them, it was impossible to be completely honest. All that meant that they had the opportunity to drop me whenever they wanted. They'd managed without me for the months I was away, and the months that I'd isolated myself. If they didn't like what I had to say…well…

I swallowed hard. "Well, I guess I've, uh, actually been seeing someone for a while now." I started.

"How long is a while?" Chris asked, tossing his controller on the coffee table.

"Like…four-ish months," I replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. When that bombshell dropped, Chris and Noah both erupted into indignant shouts, confused as to why I'd been keeping this from them for so long. Through all of it, Max remains silent, fiddling with his phone instead.

"So who is she?" they both shout in unison.

"His name is Nico," I replied shortly, looking away and bracing myself. For once, Noah had nothing to say. He'd flopped back in the chair, eyes trained at the ceiling. Chris still sat next to me, his eyebrows furrowed. A couple of beats passed before anyone spoke.

"Whoa," Noah breathed out. "I-I mean, I don't know about you guys, but like, it's fine with me. Just…surprised is all."

"Yeah, I mean, it's whatever," Chris started, piggybacking off Noah's statement. "But, like, why didn't you tell us earlier? Did you think we were going to freak out?"

"No, not really," I sighed, leaning back a little. "It's just that it's been really complicated for a while now, and I didn't want to take the risk. Nico…he was having a hard time with, k'now, coming out and stuff. Like, he told his sister a couple months back and she totally freaked out and they haven't really talked since. Things have kinda been fucked up for a while…"

"Is everything okay now?" Noah finally spoke up, concern heavy in his voice. We hadn't discussed my relationship status since our conversation on Valentine's Day. He never brought it up, of course. And for some reason I never felt comfortable talking about all the less than perfect aspects of our relationship.

"Yeah," I nodded. "It's gotten a lot better. He's gotten a lot better, really. I mean, his sister still isn't talking to him…so that sucks. But otherwise it's going really well."

A few more seconds passed in silence. I didn't expect them to say anything, really. I knew there was a lot to digest. I honestly did feel bad that I'd kept it from them for so long though. Time had just gotten away from me…

"Are we ever going to get to meet him?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He was gonna come over later tonight. I can, uh, see if he'd like to pick us up some dinner on the way here and, I don't know, hang out with us," I replied a little awkwardly, not sure how to end the conversation.

I sent off a quick text while Chris and Noah started a new game. Part of me wondered if he would even be on board with it on such short notice. It was time to test how far he'd really come. In the meantime, I watched as they played, thankful for the fact that everything seemed to have settled back into normalcy.

A few minutes went by before I got an answer.

Surprisingly, it was a yes. He said he'd pick up pizza and be there in a bit.

I spent the next half hour trying to ease the tension out of my body. Everyone else seems to be doing fine; they'd long since resumed gaming and idle talk of prom plans. But still, anxiety coiled in my stomach, almost out of nowhere. I tried to keep up appearances with tight-lipped smiles and short laughs. I suppose I cared more about their opinions than I'd previously thought…

A knock on my door shocked me out of my anxious thought. I shot up from the couch, walking quickly over to the door. I took a deep breath before opening it.

Whatever remained of my anxiety melted when I saw what was on the other side. I know it might sound cliché or stupid, but that's just the kind of effect he had on me. It'd been that way since…since early summer, long before we were together.

His arms were laden with multiple pizza boxes; chunks of hair fell freely against his face without any free hands to brush them away.

"C'mon, idiota," he huffed out, motioning for me to take the pizzas. I quickly took them off his hands, chuckling at the playfully annoyed tone of his voice. He stood there, brushing himself off and swiping the unruly hair out of his face. Even though most of his shoulder-length hair was pulled back, his bangs were perpetually falling in his eyes.

I couldn't help but smile like an idiot when I saw him. He returned it with a small grin of his own, slipping past me and making a beeline for the kitchen. I followed him, setting the boxes down on the kitchen table. Thankfully, my friends hadn't gotten off the couch yet. I could have a private moment with him.

"Hey," I smiled dumbly, leaning down and pressing a short kiss to his lips.

"Hey yourself," he replied, grinning into the kiss.

"You sure you're alright with this?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

He hesitated for a split second. "If it's important to you, then of course," he replied, playful tone from earlier fading away a bit.

"Nico…," I started, worrying my bottom lip between by teeth. Gods, I didn't want him to be uncomfortable.

"Hey, if I were a girl you'd have been showing me off to them months ago. I-it shouldn't have to be any different, right. And you wouldn't have asked me over if they weren't going to be supportive of us."

I sighed and smiled back down at him. "You've got a point," I chuckled. "Why don't you grab some plates."

Once he had the plates out, I called the guys in to grab food and make the introductions. There were a couple of awkward waves and smiles, but it could have gone so much worse.

In fact, a lot about the night could have been worse. A little awkwardness was natural for everyone in the room. After all, I'd just dropped a pretty big bombshell on my friends, and I wouldn't blame them for feeling a little weird that I'd kept such a big secret from them. But they seemed to be accepting of my reasons for it, even if they couldn't understand for themselves the position I was in.

And Nico…well, he didn't really talk on his own. He could only really manage to answer direct questions with relatively simple answers. He was a bit distant perhaps, refusing to kiss me or be overly affectionate, now warry of the new sets of eyes trained on him.

But still, he smiled and nodded along. He even snorted a little when Noah started making stupid jokes. It was a vast improvement for him, especially in a room full of guys that he'd only just met. I had to imagine it would only get better with time, just like it was getting better with my family and our other friends.

Eventually, the guys had to leave. There were a few more smiles and awkward waves goodbye, but there was a mutual understanding that this should definitely happen again. I also knew that they were probably going to try and talk to me about this more come Monday.

On his way out, Max even joked about a double date. Or maybe he wasn't joking….

But regardless, once they left any remaining tension left both of our bodies. Nico lounged lazily on the couch while I swept all the trash that littered the coffee table into a garbage bag. While I was gone, he must've picked a DVD off the shelf for us to watch, leaving it on the arm of the sofa. When I was done cleaning up, I popped the movie in and sat down next to him, only to have him inch closer to me. He hauled himself up and laid his head on my shoulder, a brief smile flickering across his face when he saw the cluster of hickey he'd left on my neck last night.

"Y'know, I'm proud of you," I murmured, carding my fingers through his silky hair. I really was absurdly proud of him. I knew that today was a big step for both of us. For me it was telling my friends, but for Nico, I had to imagine it was a whole lot scarier. Sometimes he couldn't stand interacting with people he'd known for years. But he'd gotten through the night without any noticeable issues.

"Thanks," he whispered, not even bothering to pretend that today was no big deal. He leaned into the touch, enjoying the feeling on my hand in his hair. For a while, we watched the movie in a content, tired silence.

"So…prom?" he speaks up out of nowhere, just like he usually does when he doesn't know how to approach a topic. It wasn't even an actual question, but I immediately knew what he meant. Noah hadn't stopped talking about prom plans all night. I guess it had Nico wondering if I wanted to go…

"Well, um, I didn't think you'd want to go. And until today, I wasn't really out to anyone at school, so I kinda assumed I wasn't going to go because I wouldn't want to go alone. I would want to take you, but..."

"But what? Your friends seemed really excited," he reasoned.

"I also kinda thought you wouldn't want to go, like at all. It's not really your thing, and everyone'll be strangers to you. I didn't want to make you anxious, and I didn't want to ask because I thought it might make you feel bad for saying no and…" I rambled like I always did when I was nervous around him.

"Do you want to go?" he asked, cutting me off in an unusually firm voice.

"I mean, yeah. But I don't want to be forcing you to do something that makes you uncomfortable," I replied honestly. I'd never really thought about going to prom. I had to admit that it'd crossed my mind a couple times, but those thoughts had always been fantasy. I never imagined Nico would be comfortable enough to go.

"Then we'll go," he replied. "If you want to go, and if it'll make you happy, then I'll go. I-I managed just fine tonight. I'm sure I can handle it."

"Are you sure?" I questioned skeptically.

"Mm-hm," he murmurs in affirmation, stretching to press a small kiss my jaw.

I didn't try to hide the ridiculous smile on my face.

Prom? With Nico?

This was going to be fantastic.

.