Hazel

I loved it with every fiber in my being, okay? It was great.

I went and called Jason, Leo, and Grover out on their bullshit at dinner as Annabeth remembered what she was trying to get out of Percy. Nico must've told Percy that I knew about them. He seemed more relaxed.

"Also, I'm calling out your shit still." The daughter of Athena told Percy.

"On what?"

"I've never dated anyone before," she pointed out. "That's bullshit. I don't know who it is. I'm guessing it's not Leo because he's single and I don't know who else is gay but..."

Percy looked at Grover.

"What did you tell them?"

"They asked if you had a girlfriend," Grover defends himself. "I said you had a boyfriend."

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "So who is he?"

"Can I bet $5 you won't believe me?"

Annabeth takes out a ten and puts it on the table.

"Nico."

"Bullshit." She called it within a half second of him telling us.

He takes the ten and gave Nico a kiss on the temple. And Annabeth looks at Jason.

"They're best friends?"

"Look, I said they were like best friends." Jason insisted, putting his hands up. "Don't attack me."

Frank

That definitely wasn't expected for a lot of reasons, but okay.

A few weeks went by, and we were in Percy's cabin. And Piper asked because what the hell, it shouldn't be this empty.

"Percy," Piper remarked, looking around as we all were. I've never been in here before. It was nice. Kind of like he didn't let his siblings do anything with it. "Where are like... The others?"

"The others?" Percy didn't make any sense of that.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Like your siblings."

"Oh!" Percy remarked and motioned at the room next to his. "Tyson's room is right there, he doesn't come by too often, though."

"What about your other siblings?' Hazel asked. "You have to have more than that."

"Well I mean my mom's pregnant," I was about to call him a dumbass. "But like aside that, Tyson and I are the only ones that stay in here. It's just Jason and Thalia and cabin 1, and Thalia doesn't even stay there anymore because of the Hunt. Nico and Hazel are the only ones in their cabin. The Big Three just don't have many kids. They're not supposed to have any in the first place, but I mean, what do you expect?"

"What do you mean they're not supposed to have kids?" Jason asked. "They're gods, why wouldn't they have kids?"

"He means they're not supposed to have kids," Leo seemed to know about this. "That's like common knowledge. Sorry, Jason, I don't know how much of a mistake you were, but Thalia was probably a mistake."

"I was not—'

"Jason, I was a mistake, too." Percy assured the son of Jupiter. "It doesn't mean anything bad. I just wasn't planned. I doubt you were. After World War II Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon were like supposed to not have kids. We're too powerful."

"Oh, bullshit." I called. "You guys aren't that powerful."

"Percy battled with Ares and won," Annabeth told us, pointing this idea out to us. "He was 12. Nico killed Minos in a sparring match in the Labyrinth. He was 13. Jason walked out a fight with Krios alive. He was 14."

"You...?" We all looked at Percy in shock and he nodded.

"He framed me and almost had Hades kill me," Percy insisted. "I was pissed off, he wanted a fight. I stabbed his Achilles tendon. I wasn't fucking around with that."

He's defeated my father...

I'm never going to piss him off, I guess.

Even scarier to think about, though, was the fact that him and Nico are dating. Like yeah, it's cute and all.

But they're a power couple and it's low key scary.

I don't know, I just haven't killed off the idea that they're both straight yet so it's weird. Like I know they're together, but I always thought they were straight.

So going to Hazel's when they're there is weird. Not in a bad way, I'm just not used to it.

Mainly because in public they're not really that touchy. They'll hold hands, sit by each other. Every once in a while there's a kiss. They're pretty modest.

But when they're in cabins? They like to cuddle. They are almost always touching each other (not sexually, that I know of) and like maintaining physical contact.

I could never do that with Hazel. I love to cuddle at night and all, but shit.

But back to the point, I don't want to piss off Percy or Nico.

I'd probably shit my pants if I ever did. It'd be the end of me as everyone knows. I can't hold my own against either of them now. Much less when they're riled up.

Well a few days later, this was actually discussed while the Greeks were in a meeting.

"Do you guys think they're actually that powerful?" Jason asked, knowing we we're all thinking it. "I mean, I fought Krios, but that off of a blessing. Without that blessing, I would've died, no questions asked."

"Who?" Octavian asked as Reyna and him were here.

"Percy and Nico." Jason explained what happened the other day.

"Oh, definitely," Octavian remarked, nodding his head. "I had a brother that went here, and he never mentioned Nico to me, but he mentioned Percy the last time we talked. Said he was a brand new camper that summer, this was probably going on 6 years ago, and..."

Octavian stopped for a moment.

"I mean, he was the first demigod to belong to Poseidon in 70 or 80 years. He caught on to swordfighting wicked fast, and Hades had taken his mom when he was recruited and that pissed him off. He went on a whole quest, not because Zeus was going to kill him at the solstice if he didn't, but because of his mom. He's the first demigod to come back from the Underworld alive that isn't immortal. Him, Annabeth, and Grover. They were 12. Annabeth and Grover had training, sure. Percy had only been here for a few weeks beforehand, though. And that was when he fought Ares, injured him, and won. Monsters literally fear him. It's insane."

As the day went on we heard more stories from other people and it was insane. It was a miracle that he hasn't died yet.

I mean, the Underworld? The Sea of Monsters? And the Labyrinth?

And that wasn't even all of it.

It was impressive.

Percy

We noticed when people started acting different towards us. Mainly our friends. They weren't very subtle about it.

We couldn't figure out why, though. We were just in meetings all day.

And it wasn't just like one or two of us. In fact, the only ones who seemed unaffected were Leo and Piper. The newer councilors.

Octavian still seemed fine with us, though. I mean, the others really didn't talk to us the next morning. It was inside.

But Octavian did, so we talked with him.

"Hey, Octavian," I said as he was walking by, half expecting him not to stop. Sure, he's fine, but he's not my best friend and we don't always see eye to eye. "What's going on? Do you know or...?"

Octavian shrugged.

"I mean, kind of, but I don't care enough to have the info you want." He told me. "I think it's a fear thing, though. I don't know why but that's what I get from it."

"A fear...? What?"

"I don't know, dude. You're not that scary to me, but whatever."

"I didn't realize I was scary at all."

He nodded.

"I mean, it's more so that I wouldn't want to mess with you," he clarified, which made more sense. "You don't like you're gonna kill a man in cold blood at any given second. Just like you could if you wanted."

In all honesty, that was the first time I was told that. Sure, I knew I looked like a troublemaker. I get it from my dad.

But like I could kill a man in cold blood?

"Really?" I asked and he nodded.

"You're not the only one." Octavian insisted, trying to make me feel better. "I mean, Annabeth is just terrifying in general. So is Clarisse. You guys must have done like really good during your militia training?"

"We've never had militia training." I told him, because that scared me. "Or at least, I didn't. I doubt Annabeth did. Clarisse might have being the daughter of Ares but..."

"Oh," he remarked. "I uh... We have it at Camp Jupiter so I just assumed. Sorry."

"It's fine."

I guess I never really thought of myself like that. I was bullied in school. I still am. Kids don't care if I look scary or not, I guess. They hate me either way.

Turns out I look like I could kill someone.

Nico

Percy was kind of out of it that night. We we're in my cabin, just relaxing, and I noticed that he looked more distant than normal. Something was on his mind.

"Hey, babe," I said, sitting up next to him. "You okay? You look down."

"Yeah, I just..." He told me, sighing as I held his hand. He's not like this that often. "I was talking with Octavian because he's like the only one who will talk to me that's like Roman outside of a hello or whatever from Hazel and Jason. But I asked if he knew what was going on, why people were giving us the cold shoulder."

"Percy, this is Octavian." I insisted.

"I know, but he seemed legit." My boyfriend agreed, looking down at our hands. "It uh... I mean, he said he wasn't for sure like the exact reason, but he told me that he thought it had something to do with like a fear factor. He insisted that I didn't look like terrifying or something, but like really intimidating. Like I could kill a man in cold blood, but I wouldn't normally."

You could tell he didn't take it as a compliment. Which, it didn't seem to be one.

"And if that true, I'm glad someone like told me," Percy insisted. "But I've never been told that before, Nico. And he said kind of the same about Clarisse and Annabeth. He said there were others, but he wasn't sure who. So like... I know I like a troublemaker, I get it from my dad. But that's like nothing new. I don't... Wanna scare people."

I sighed, giving him a hug and rubbing his back a bit. Shit happens, you know? He's like this more in the school year when kids won't back off.

"You're not that scary," I promised him, as dumb as it sounds. "Trust me, that's Clarisse's job. You just look like you might bitch slap someone when they're annoying. It's not that bad, he's just overexaggerating. Like I said, it's Octavian. Don't let it get to you."

"Thanks." Percy said with a small smile, but I had a feeling this was going to bug him for the rest of the night.

It wasn't much longer later that we laid down and instead of like just spooning or something, which is normal, he actually used me as a sort of pillow. My shoulder turned into his pillow. He sort of draped himself over the rest of the body.

So he really wasn't feeling too good.

"It's going to be okay," I whispered to him, unaware if he was awake or not. "We'll get through this. I promise."