Hazel Levesque

When we told Nico and Percy what happened, Percy was shocked. Nico just looked disappointed.

So much for trusting Jason.

He told me he was going to go get our stuff from tonight and he wasn't there when I got back an hour later.

I sent a call and it went straight to voicemail, meaning his phone is dead. Frank tried, too. Just in case.

So I sent a text to Percy. Figured it must be his cabin, but at the same time I don't want to risk walking in on like him changing.

Hazel 🙌: Hey, Percy. You might still be talking to the boys, but it's fine. When you get back to your cabin, though, can you text me if Nico's there? He said he was going to get our stuff and that was an hour ago and I think his phone is dead. He looked just weird and off.

•••
Percy Jackson

After telling them their punishments, I excused them and headed back toward my cabin. Which is when I saw Hazel's text. She sent it five minutes ago.

When I got to my cabin I found him almost right away. He was hugging my swim sweater, trying to calm down.

It wasn't working.

I sat down next to him.

"Hey," I said, taking the sweater from him being it wasn't helping. I opened my arms for him. "come here."

Sort of crying into my shoulder, Nico wrapped himself around me and I returned the embrace. This was... I mean, for a moment I thought they were going to say that we we're on a date and not go with the Angel thing. It scared me at first. Not as bad as he has it, though.

This is his worst nightmare. Being outed and he wasn't even there to say anything. It happened while we were gone. Having a blast.

So much for a fucking amazing night.

I mean, it was amazing and it was a lot of fun. But it turned to shit when we got back.

Once he was calmed down, he went to the bathroom to wash his face and change because he didn't have the energy to go to his cabin. So I repsonded to Hazel.

Percy 🐟: Hey, sorry I repsonded a little late. Nico didn't take this whole thing well, but he's in my cabin. He's exhausted so I told him it was fine if he wanted to sleep in either Tyson's room or on the couch or wherever he felt most comfortable. And a heads up, Jason and Leo can't sit together. It's part of the punishment, so Jason will probably go sit somewhere else with Piper because I don't think most people are happy with him. But don't worry, Nico's doing okay now.

Hazel 🙌: Oh my gods, thank you so much, Percy! You're a life saver. But tell him that I said that if he doesn't want to talk to me about it, he doesn't have to. It didn't happen like he wanted it to and I'm not making it worse for him. Same goes for anything about you, Percy. I'm not assuming you're gay, but I'm not going to assume you're straight, either. I've learned that's a bad idea. We've talked about it and we all agreed to just let Nico get through it without asking him too much.

Percy 🐟: Thanks, Hazel, I'll tell him. But it's late and you're probably just as tired as I am, so go cuddle with your boyfriend. Goodnight.

Hazel: 🙌: night :)

Nico finished in the bathroom and we headed to bed, cuddling.

"I told Hazel that you're here so she didn't worry too much," I told him before he would have to ask. "and she said that if you don't want to talk about this entire thing right now, you don't have to. That applies for everyone, they talked about it and agreed that they'd let you work through it before they went into it."

"Thanks," he whispered. "I uh... Did you tell her or...?"

"No," I quickly figured he was talking about us dating. "They took in a lot today. Plus, I'm not out yet. We'll do that on our plan. Why? Do you want me to tell her?"

"No," he went with what I said. "If you're not out yet, which you're not, I don't want to pressure you to do it. It's hard. I'll he greatful for this in about whenever you come out or somebody else has to because it's just one and done. Uh... I'm tired."

We repositioned ourselves and it was a nice sleep we got.

Slept through breakfast. I wasn't complaining, I wasn't looking forward to the drama when I woke up.

Then again, I didn't have to deal with too much of it. I'd be doing paperwork for the next like two days. It's not fun.

•••
Nico di Angelo

Percy went to go start the paperwork for what happened last night and I sat there for a minute debating if I really needed to leave his cabin today.

Like, they know now. It's weird. Now that I've like had a breakdown, I don't know how to feel. Like outside of being upset with Jason, that is.

Then I got a text from Frank.

Frank 🇨🇦: Hey, Nico! Are you guys not coming to breakfast or...? There's still a lot of food here that could be eaten. You doing okay?

That's when I remembered that camp serves food all day, it's just that with activities, there's a two hour frame where everyone eats breakfast, and same goes for lunch and dinner.

Nico 🏳️‍🌈: Yeah, I'll be there in a little bit. I forgot that they serve food all day, I thought I slept through breakfast.

Frank 🇨🇦: Sweet! Is Percy coming?

Nico 🏳️‍🌈: Idk, probably not? He said he was going to the Big House to do paperwork for what happened last night.

Frank 🇨🇦: Okay! See you in a little bit!

Having no fucking clue how well this would go, I made sure I didn't look like shit, stole an old sweater of Percy's because it's cold today, and headed out.

It was weird without Jason and Piper there, but I'm also not complaining. If I saw Jason, his damage would be ten times worse.

I'm not exactly his best friend.

But everyone else, excluding Percy, was there. They were in a pretty good mood.

And it actually wasn't that bad. I walked over when Leo was in the middle of a story so I didn't draw a lot of attention. It was nice.

Percy never did show to breakfast, which was fine. Grover offered to bring him some food so he wouldn't starve.

Throughout the day, not much was said. Jason avoided me, which means Piper avoided me. But the others were fine with me. Leo, Frank, and I have like art together and I figured why not go. Frank wasn't there though, so it was Leo and I.

Leo, who is on crutches right now and jammed three of his fingers. Amongst other injuries that were just obvious. Bruising and what not.

He managed to give me a hug, though. I didn't get it at first, but it wasn't bad.

"It's just nice to know I'm not the only one here," he explained to me. "Which, I mean, I'm sure there's more that I just don't know about. But still."

I nodded my head, getting what he meant. That's sort of why I came out. When I found Percy's art, there was a few pride drawings in there and I think that's kind of where my confidence came from.

"Yeah," I agreeing with him. "It's easier when somebody is out before you. And uh... I mean, there are others. Probably a few of Piper's siblings. Will is a raging homosexual, and he won't let you forget. Outside of that, uh... Charles was bi I think, Silena probably was. Luke was gay, I remember Grover talking about it. But I mean..."

"Are Charles, Silena, and Luke new or...?"

"Other way around," I explained, because I often forget they came in the winter. Not the summer. "They're dead. You took Charles spot on the council, he was the one who originally built Festus. Silena was his girlfriend, Piper took her spot on the council. Luke was... I never knew him."

"He was like a councilor or something?" Leo referenced back to the musical. "One of like... Not a huge god. I don't remember the cabin."

"Uh..." I had to think about it for a minute, but I remembered. "Hermes! Yeah, because Hermes would take neglected Demigods until they were claimed way back two years ago. From what I heard, he was nice. Until he like left and yeah. I've never really dealt with Luke. I've dealt with Kronos. Once. That was Percy's job. He went on all the quests. Him, Annabeth, and Grover. If there was a problem, they solved it."

"How many...?" He thought about this.."what... I forget this all the time. How long have you been here? I thought you came like the fall before us."

"Gods no," I reminded him. "It's been.... 3½ years? From what I hear, they've been on like 4 quest together. But Percy himself? Like 8 maybe?"

"What?"

I shrugged.

"It's a guess," I explained. "Like, 5 for sure. But he's done other things during the school year when I'm not here because I would leave a lot so I don't know. Ask."

So come lunch, that was the topic of discussion.

"Quests and jobs?" Percy responded and Leo nodded his head, and he told somebody to count, because he's going to list them off. "Well, the one where I went to the Underworld, which was my first summer. My second summer Annabeth, Tyson, Clarisse, Grover, and I all ended up on a joined quest in the Sea of Monsters."

"The what?" Reyna wasn't used to the names we use for things.

"Bermuda Triangle." Grover explained. "Never again. Never. Again."

"Then there was the winter where we recruited Nico, right after that summer," Percy went on as Frank is counting. "After that, I was on a search team for Nico, which failed. The next summer was the Labyrinth, so that's another one. That year was really busy. I ran a job for Hades with Nico and Thalia and it was as awkward as it sounds. I ran a job with Beckendorf. I actually ran two jobs with him, one in the fall, one two summers ago. And then I ran a job for Hermes with Annabeth the next fall. Another search team for our piece of shit here. Aside that, the quest with Hazel and Frank. That's it, really."

"That's... Are you sure?" Hazel knew that sounded insane, because he's 17. He's been here for like 5 years. It's his sixth year.

"Yes."

"Percy, that's 11 things in half the amount of years you've been here." Frank pointed out that is was sort of crazy.

"Look, I didn't even want to take over camp when Luke left, okay?" Percy was being honest here. "I didn't have a fucking choice, the gods like want me dead half the time. If I don't do shit for them, they're gonna kill me and my mom would appreciate if I went home in the fall."

"How old were you," Leo asked. "When you took over the camp?"

"13."

That didn't go over well.