Note- This chapter won't have very much Percico. Just a little at the end. It's more a chapter to show another side of Nico. I don't think Nico is a weak little kid like he is often portrayed. I believe that he is 12 kinds of awesome and this chapter is to showcase that.

Also, I would like to give a special thanks to 'Ya Wouldn't Understand' for telling me about the prophecy/prophesy thing in the last chapter. There was exactly a 0% chance of me catching that on my own. I do apologize for mistakes like that. I do not have a beta so therefore I know that there are a few mistakes in my stories. I try to catch most of them but I'm not perfect. So I appreciate it when people bring them to my attention.

Important thing to note... This will be yaio (boy-boy). Don't like? You do not have to read.

Disclaimer- I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. (One can dream though) All rights go to the proper parties.

Nico POV

It was truly amazing how much could change in three days. So much had happened since we put Percy's plan into action.

Most of the girls seemed to have stopped obsessing over him, which was a plus. Jenn was now completely avoiding me, which I also considered a plus. Most people seemed to have accepted it and as such quit following us around, definitely a plus.

I still had at least a few people everyday ask me if the two of us were really going out, which was annoying and kind of a negative. I was still sort of the center of attention, which I defiantly felt was a con.

Then there was Percy. We hadn't done anything other than holding hands and him occasionally putting his arm around my shoulder. I couldn't decide if it was a pro or a con. On the one hand I was holding hands with Percy, the boy I've loved since I was a kid. On the other hand it felt like it was killing me to have him touch me knowing that he didn't share my feelings.

Gods, when did I become so melodramatic?

I sighed and shook my head. It seemed like I couldn't control my thoughts lately. I had always been in control of myself but whenever Percy's hand touched mine, it's like all conscious thought went out the window.

Thank Hades that I have sword training today.

With the clean-up, we hadn't had much time to train lately. Jason was in charge of training a few new campers and had asked for someone to help him with a demonstration. Apparently word of his achievements had gotten around and a few of the kids had been begging him to let them see him fight. I had immediately volunteered.

I was feeling incredibly frustrated from the last three days. My confusion about the Percy situation was only fueling my ADHD. I smiled, nothing like sparring match to get one's mind off a certain green-eyed son of Poseidon.

Jason was doomed.

ΩΩΩ

I walked down to the shore. With the coliseum still in need of major repairs, training had moved to the beach.

By the time I arrived, Jason and his class were already waiting.

"You're late di Angelo." Jason smiled at me.

I rolled my eyes, "Not at all Grace. You simply said after breakfast. It's not my fault that you didn't mention an exact time. Now are we going to do this or what?"

Jason just smiled. "Alright kids, go sit down and make sure to stay back." The children nodded and ran to sit on the grass. They were clearly excited to see the golden boy fight. "Now pay attention." He turned back to me and drew his gladius. I smirked and drew my stygian iron sword.

This was going to be fun.

We turned to face each other. I waited, allowing Jason to make the first move. He started circling to the right, I narrowed my eyes. I knew exactly what he was trying to do and kept the smile from my face as I went with his plan, turning with him as he moved. He turned until his back was at the morning sun. As the glare of the sun hit my eyes, he launched forward.

I smiled and fell back into my own shadow. I saw Jason's eyes widen just before the shadows wrapped around me.

A moment later I stepped out of his shadow and swung my sword towards his throat. He quickly stepped back as he brought his sword up to block. He looked so surprised that I had to resist the urge to chuckle.

My amusement faded as he brought up his right leg to kick me. I spun to the side as I swiped at the spot that he had been only a moment before. I dropped to the ground in a roll. I felt a blade swoop over my head.

I spun around and aimed my heel towards his chest. He tried to jump back but wasn't quite fast enough. My foot connected with his shoulder and he stumbled. I stepped forwards to try and press my advantage but before I could, he used to wind to shoot himself 10 feet into the air.

He raised his sword above his head. I threw myself to the side just in time. Lightning struck the spot that I had occupied only a moment before.

Our fight was beginning to get more intense. I struck the ground with my blade. The earth ripped open and skeletons emerged, ready wage war.

Jason called the wind to smash my skeletal warriors into each other. Lightening surged from the sky turning my army into bone meal. The energy of his attacks forced him to land, too weak to continue his flight.

While he was focused on the undead soldiers I dropped back into my shadow. I came out of the shadows directly behind Jason. Before he could react I disarmed him and held the edge of my sword to his throat.

Jason released the winds that he had been controlling and I allowed the warriors to disappear back into the earth.

For a moment all noised stopped.

Roaring laughter suddenly broke the silence. "That was epic!" I looked to my right in surprise and saw Percy standing in the surf, clutching his sides in laughter. I had to look away.

I heard a noise and looked to my left to see the young campers staring at us in shock. Their faces clearly said that they couldn't believe the son of Jupiter had lost.

Jason started chuckling. "And that kids, is why you should never underestimate your opponent. Just because someone is bigger than someone else does not mean that they will win. It all depends on abilities and how they're used."

The kids nodded and started to whisper to themselves. I lowered my sword and stepped back.

I felt an arm thrown around my shoulders. I tensed up and realized that Percy had come over to talk to us. "Wow Nico, that was amazing." I looked down and tried not to blush at the compliment. "It's about time someone put the golden boy in his place. I just wish it had been me." Percy laughed.

Jason smirked, "Ya right, like you could ever beat me seaweed brain."

"I'm up for it if you are Sparky." Percy pulled riptide out of his pocket and started spinning the pen between his fingers. "Or are you to tired from getting your ass handed to you."

Jason laughed, "I would love to fight you right now. Besides I'm sure you need all the help you could get."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Fine, we can do it another day then." Percy smiled and turned back to me, "Seriously Nico that was awesome. I didn't know you could fight like that. You've gotten stronger."

The compliments were making me a little uncomfortable. I wasn't use to people praising me but, because it was Percy, it kind of felt nice. I was doing my best to keep my mind away from the fact that the warmth from his arm was seeping into my shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at the ground. "Thanks."

Percy pulled back a little, "Try not to sound so enthused there Nico, someone might think you were having a good time."

I frowned and looked away. Sometimes I almost wished that he knew so that he wasn't always misunderstanding everything I did. Then I would remember that if he did know, he would avoid me like the plague. I sighed and shook my head, there was just no winning.

As wonderful as the sword fight had been at distracting me, its effects were already gone. I pulled out from under his arm and started to walk away. "It's fine Percy."

ΩΩΩ

I was depressed all afternoon. No matter which way I thought of it, this was going to end badly. I almost wished that Annabeth had never left. At least when she was still here I could be alone, which made it far easier to distract myself from my misery. There was always something to do. Sword fights, reconstruction, even if it was just hiking in the woods.

Now that Percy was my 'boyfriend' he felt that it was his responsibility to be there whenever I felt upset, which only proved to me that he would be amazing as a real boyfriend, and served to depress me further.

He had tried to talk to me a couple times this afternoon but I just walked away. I needed a day that wasn't centered on him; I needed a day to do whatever I felt like.

It worked well. I was able to distract myself fairly easily. I helped with the rebuilding of the coliseum for a while, and went for a hike. The hike helped the most. Its hard to be distracted by thoughts when monsters are attacking you. I ran into a few weaker monsters but nothing that posed a true threat to me.

I still thought about him a bit but it was more of a passing thought.

All in all, it was a successful day. I felt fairly happy by the time dinner was over.

It had never occurred to me that anyone would notice the tension earlier. After all the only ones that were there other than me, Percy, and Jason were the kids. There oldest member of the group couldn't have been more than 11, but I should have known better than to underestimate children of Aphrodite.

In matters of relationships, they knew all. Including that Percy and I were supposedly going out. Which means when they saw me glare at him and walk away, they would assume that something was wrong. It also means that they would go tell their older sibling who would then decide to try to help. After all, the descendants of the love goddess enjoyed interfering with the love life's of others.

I should have known they would try to 'help.'

I was walking out of the dining pavilion. I was in the process of trying to decide if I wanted to go to the campfire or if I would rather just call it a day and head to my cabin.

"Hey Nico," I looked up and saw a child of Aphrodite coming towards me. I believed her name was Sam or something like that, but I couldn't be sure.

I frowned, "Can I help you?"

She smiled; I could tell that she was one of those people who are always smiling. I immediate disliked her. "Just wait for one second okay?"

"Why?"

"My siblings and I just want to talk to you for a moment. By the way, I'm Sarah."

I was close. "What exactly is it that you want to talk to me about?"

I didn't think it was possible but her smile got even wider, a smile that big had to be painful. "Well it's not just you; we want to talk to both of you."

I looked over my shoulder to see 3 children of Aphrodite pulling Percy towards me. I had a bad feeling about this.

They let Percy go and stood in a circle around us. The children of the love goddess might not be very powerful but they were certainly going to try and force us to listen to whatever it is that they had to say.

Percy looked at me and raised a questioning eyebrow. I shrugged; I had no idea what it was about.

Apparently Sarah was acting as the spokesperson for the group. "So one of our little sisters told us about what happened earlier on the beach." I felt myself pale; this was unquestionably not going to be good. "Plus we noticed that you two have been avoiding each other today. Did you guys get in a fight?" The way she was looking at us, you would swear the thought was breaking her heart.

Percy looked at her and smiled, "It was nothing, just a little argument."

I really did not want to talk about relationships with anyone, let alone some Aphrodite campers I barely knew. I frowned and looked away, wrong move.

"I don't think so, I mean just look at Nico." I stiffened and looked back at Sarah. "If it was nothing then he wouldn't be so upset. It may have been nothing to you Percy but whatever it was clearly hurt him"

What? Gods this was awkward. "I assure you, its fine. Can I go now?"

Sarah gave me a disbelieving look. "I'm sorry Nico, but I'm not convinced. We're not letting you leave till you make up."

I glared at her. "Forget it, I said we're fine."

She raised an eyebrow, "No, we want to help. You guys are adorable together; we don't want the two of you to break up over something so small."

Percy sighed and rubbed his neck. "What will it take to convince you that we are fine."

Sarah gave him a big smile, "Kiss him."

Oh Hades, kill me now. This could not be happening. I choked, "What?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's not that big of deal. You guys say you're fine, so kiss and make up."

I felt my heart go into over drive. No, I cannot do that. This cannot be happening right now. I started to panic. There was no way that I could kiss Percy. Not here, not in front of a crowd.

I found myself stepping away from him. "No."

Percy looked surprised, but I couldn't stay next to him. I had to get away. I didn't want him to see how much the thought of kissing him was affecting me. I pushed past Sarah and shadow travelled to my cabin.

ΩΩΩ

Percy POV

I was shocked at Nico's reaction. I couldn't understand how that request could have produced that strong of response. But I didn't have time to process that right now. No matter how surprised I was it was nothing compared to the children of Aphrodite.

They looked like they were about to have a panic attack.

"I'm sorry. He... um..." I was racking my brain trying to come up with a plausible excuse. "He is very uncomfortable with PDA." Thank Athena for quick thinking. They looked a little unconvinced but it was a good explanation so I continued. "It took me a lot of convincing just to get him to let me hold his hand. He was born in the 40's, people were a lot more conservative back then."

Sarah's eyes grew wide, "Oh Percy, I'm so sorry. We were just trying to help."

I let out a breath in relief. "It's okay, don't worry about it. He will calm down."

"Oh my gods, this is all our fault. We made it worse." One of her siblings looked like he was ready to cry.

"Please Percy; let us make it up to you." Sarah looked at me.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea." I didn't want to do anything that would aggravate the son of Hades.

"Oh, I know exactly what to do! Please Percy, I promise it's a good idea. Please let us make it up to the two of you."

I bit my lip. They were so distraught; I had to do something to let them know I forgave them. I sighed and nodded. "Okay."

I really hoped I wouldn't regret this.