Whoa, drama alert! I had fun writing this... *evil smirk*

LOTS of italic writing, hahah.

Well, here is the next busy chapter, my friends ;)

Thanks for reading, voting, and commenting! Means a bunch that this story is doing well :)

*get ready cause this place about to blow*

Chapter #10: Love Has A Face

PERCY POV

~ Slowly fading away

You're lost and so afraid

Where is the hope

In a world so cold

Looking for a distant light

Someone who can save a life

Living in fear

That no one will hear your cry

(Can you save me now?)

I am with you

I will carry you through it all

I won't leave you

I will catch you

When you feel like letting go

Cause you're not, you're not alone

Your heart is filled with broken dreams

Just a fading memory

Everything's gone, but the pain carries on

Lost in the rain again

When will it ever end?

The arms of relief

Seem so far out of reach

But I am, I am here

I am with you

I will carry you through it all

I won't leave you

I will catch you

When you feel like letting go

Cause you're not, you're not alone

And I will be your hope,

When you feel like it's over

And I will pick you up

When your whole world shatters

And when you're finally in my arms

Look up and see that love has a face

I am with you

I will carry you through it all

I won't leave you

I will catch you

When you feel like letting go

Cause you're not, you're not alone

And I will be your hope

And I will pick you up

And I will be your hope

And I will be your hope

Slowly fading away...

You're lost and so afraid

Where is the hope?

In a world so cold...~

"Uh... I'm not very good at this." I stated bluntly as I tried to steady my hands.

The redhead working beside me laughed wholeheartedly. "You think?"

I pouted. At the moment, me and Rachel Dare (also known as the camp's Oracle of Delphi and my freckled friend), were sitting in the 'Arts and Crafts' cabin, attempting to make some decent looking pots out of some reddish coloured clay. Pottery. Because I'm so amazing at that, we've discovered. Sarcasm! I have no clue what form my clump of clay took on, but Rachel's pot looked perfect down to the last smooth stroke of her hand. If I had to take a guess, I think mine looks more like a whale. A whale with an overly large blowhole. But if you squint and close your right eye... Nope, doesn't help.

I shuffled in my seat, giving up trying to make it seem somewhat like a decent pot, and began re-sculpting my whale. Rachel just laughed at me. You'd think she'd be a bit more mellow or maybe have lost her sense of humour considering she has a billion year old dead hag lady in her that possesses her everyone once in a while to give out a prophecy for a quest- but no. Nope... She's still her weird self! Except, maybe she uses slightly better grammar...

All of a sudden, she looked up and smirked, laughing after a moment. I frowned and looked over at her.

"What?" I asked after she didn't explain her sudden outburst.

She glanced at me and smirked, trying to contain her giggles. "Nico's back, but-"

Before she could finish, my eyes widened and I shot out of my seat, speeding out of the 'Arts and Crafts' cabin. Nico's back? I haven't seen him in forever! Gods, he sure can disappear for a while... Even though it's usually longer, I'm actually glad he's back. I smiled to myself. Yup, glad he's back. One thing, though... I should've had asked Rachel where he was before I made a beeline. Whoops. But hey, I'm the son of Poseidon! The navigational expert! It'll be no problem to find my way to him and-

"GRACE, YOU LITTLE- Ouch!" A familiar voice bellowed.

Wow. I'm better than I thought.

I turned a corner and there he was, the son of the death god sprawled out in a dark heap on the ground, rubbing the side of his head with a painful grimace, glaring daggers at an amused floating blond boy who could only be my friend Jason. I could almost laugh at the comical situations popping up in mind that could've turned up like the scene before me, but I didn't. Know why I didn't? Because I was surprised. Maybe a bit beyond surprised...?

Nico was finally back; which is cool. But he came back looking... Different. Even if it was the slightest bit different in everyone else's eyes, it was a big difference in mine. I hadn't realised that I had stopped walking, but- Gods of Olympus. The son of Hades kind of had something going for him, I have to admit... I have to- quite awkwardly -admit. Ahem... I mean, because everyone else was staring at Nico, not because I was staring at Nico. I just thought it was funny. Ha. Ha ha.

Di Angelo had longer blackish hair (which he just took out of an elastic, I might add) that hung almost to his shoulders in a slightly curly, fluffy and punk-like looking mess. Then his skin literally glowed white, but he still had dark circles under his eyes and his cheeks were also sunken in. And to top it all off, he was wearing a black tank top (showing off little but prominent muscles in his biceps and a glimpse of a toned stomach when his shirt lifted slightly as he stretched) and black shredded skinny jeans (revealing stronger calves and thighs, though his legs were still fairly skinny). Little changes, but noticeable.

All of a sudden, Jason was at my side, waving his hand in front of me as I took my eyes away from my observation. I turned my attention the son of Jupiter to find he was smirking at me. Um... Alright, then? I raised an eyebrow questioningly, but he just shrugged me off and glanced over at Nico, who began making his way back to Jason's side, still glaring at him.

"I cannot believe you did that! You're gonna get it, Grace. I swear..." The ghost boy threatened, then turned to face me, his eyes widening.

I grinned at him and waved happily. He just blinked back. I cleared my throat awkwardly and scratched the back of my head as Jason stood beside us, a smug look plastered on his face as I had to rip my eyes off of the dark boy in front of me once again. He's just intriguing, I guess, because he's so mysterious and dark, that's all. It's just the darker aura that's catching my attention, I convinced myself. But Jason, I think, had other thoughts. I caught Jason give Nico a subtle glance out of the corner off my eye, as he raised an eyebrow as if to say 'I told you so!' with a noticeable smirk.

I turned to look back at di Angelo as a casual conversation finally took place, and watched as he narrowed his eyes at Grace, clenching his jaw while he shook his head in disbelief and turned to stare at the ground by his feet. I couldn't help but catch the slight pinch of colour spread across his face as he grimaced at his shoes. It made me smile. It was nice to know that Nico feels once in a while. I don't know what the exchange was about, but I liked seeing the shy Nico every so often. Maybe I can tease him about it later. I might not live through it, but it's worth a shot, yeah?

"... go with Pipes, so I'll leave you two to catch up, okay?" Jason was saying.

I blinked, snapping back to reality. Oops, I guess I zoned out... again? I coughed awkwardly to cover up the heartbeat that I missed to answer his question.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Have fun." I answered with a smile.

He chuckled then left. I turned back to Nico, but was shocked to see he was already walking away from me.

I jumped and ran to catch up with him. "Whoa, wait up! Where are you going?"

He didn't stop, he just turned his head and looked up at me, raising an eyebrow. "Dunno." He shrugged. "Arena... Woods..."

I pondered for a moment. "Why not... hang out with me? We could train or something together, if that's okay with you."

He glanced at me sideways. "I don't know..."

I frowned. His answer was hesitant. Why doesn't he want to train with me? I haven't seen him in weeks and he spoke with Jason, so yeah, I'm kind of upset that he doesn't want to hang out with me. Something itched in the back of my mind, though, but I couldn't seem to place it. Am I supposed to be somewhere right now? Meh, I forgot so it mustn't have been that important, I just want to spend some time with the Ghost King.

"Please?" I begged.

He kept his eyes to the ground. "Percy..."

I clasped my hands together. "Please? Please, please, pleaseeeee? C'mon, Neeks! I haven't seen you in ages!"

I gave him my best puppy dog eyes and pouted my bottom lip to add to the pleading affect.

Nico sighed and his shoulders slumped forward after being tensed up for the longest time. I fist pumped, already tasting victory.

~

An hour later, after much coaxing, Nico finally agreed to a bit of sparring with me outside of the Arena.

Victory is sweet!

Now, excuse me, I have to go get jabbed at by a sharp metal object that could possibly kill me and suck out my very soul. Ahhh, yes... Victory.

We stood near a small cluster of trees on dusty grounds, the entrance to the Training Arena just off to my left a little ways behind me. It wasn't in plain sight because I know Nico doesn't like being the centre of attention, though some people could still be able to watch our match. As I strapped on my golden armour, I watched as Nico tied up his dark metal breastplate. Why does he get the cool dark armour? I might just have to get me some of that... He stood up and cracked his knuckles. He may be a bit small, but he sure can be intimidating.

I swung my sword around in my tan hand. "You ready?"

He glanced at me with dark brown eyes and stuck his arm out to his right. A sudden ripple in the air appeared where his hand should be, and he pulled back. A dark Stygian iron blade was now clutched in his pale bony hands. I blinked. Nico just stood there, now crouched and ready to attack, waiting for me with his head cocked to the side. He's a strange guy at times...

I cleared my throat and crouched down in attack position, just like him. "Alright... Go!"

I thought he would be the first one to attack, but I was wrong. In shock, I sprung towards him to make a move. At the last second, when I actually thought I was going to pierce his heart through with my three foot sword Riptide, the smallest hint of a smirk appeared on his thin pink lips as he sidestepped out of the way of my sword. I blinked and took a mental note: He's fast. I swung my sword out to the side, but Nico was already gone, somewhere now to my right as he was to my left before. He's quite quick on his feet. He reminded me somewhat of a deer. A quick, graceful, dark and dangerous little deer.

In the blink of an eye, I caught something black flash in the sunlight. It was my turn to smirk, because without a single hesitation, I through up my sword and metal clashed as I intercepted the blow that was previously directed to my arm. My next move was to glide my sword down the slightest bit and pop my wrist, ending in Nico's sword flying out of his hand and onto the ground a few feet behind me. Though he had other intentions. He was smart and acted quickly as he saw my sword move. He immediately twirled our swords so he could have the upper hand and batted me away, going for a strike.

I blocked it easily. If you don't know already, I'm kind of the expert. Nico stepped back, still crouched like a tiger ready to pounce when he sees his chance. He brushed his long dark hair out of his face and narrowed his eyes at me. I grinned.

"You're quick, Neeks! Gotta hand it to ya." I said playfully.

He narrowed his eyes at me, his lips pulling into a tight line. "Bring it on."

My eyes widened momentarily, but a large grin took place. I chuckled. You asked for it, Ghosty. As soon as I made the first move, we were in an intense clash of metal on metal. We practically circled each other as we repeatedly swung our weapons with no avail. He swiped at my arm, I deflected and swung under his feet, he pounced over it. I jabbed at his stomach, he disappeared and stood behind me. He struck quickly from above, I parried and struck back, which he continuously avoided and sidestepped.

Yeah, I'd like to already announce my victory this early in a fight, but you see, I actually can't. For once, I'm not so sure of myself. You see, I usually watch the person's movements really close to see what battle style they were going with so that I'd have the advantage, but with Nico... It was impossible. His moves were always unexpected. I never had a clue of what he was going to do. He continuously changed his battle styles. Nico was... smart. He's gotten so much better at fighting, it's incredible.

All of a sudden, an irritated sound came from behind me. I turned and there he was, the son of the death god swiping at the hair that fell in his eyes with annoyance. I chuckled quietly to myself. He looked like a kitten. Finally, he pulled out an elastic and tied the dark messy curls back into a ponytail. People might find it odd. A guy wearing a ponytail? Isn't that girly? Not when Nico sports one. He's probably the only guy I've ever seen that could pull off a ponytail. He actually looks quite... manly? And I say this with all my manhood, I swear. Okay, that's still weird. Forget I said anything about di Angelo's looks.

Then, we were at it again.

Probably another ten minutes later, though, I swung my sword a bit higher than I had anticipated and I heard a tiny rip. My eyes widened as I realised I might have hurt Nico. I turn to him and saw him still standing. I sighed with relief. Although he was staring cross eyed at his bangs that I had just recent chopped off. Oops... Once I made sure he wasn't hurt, I took in the scene before me with amusement. In a matter of seconds, I burst out laughing. He was giving me a death glare. Well, hey, at least I can actually see his eyes to tell if he was indeed giving me a death glare, right? Oh gods.

"You know what?" Nico growled, his eyes full of annoyance.

I flinched. Uh-oh.

But this wasn't what I was expecting. Not at all. Nico pulled out a dagger from his belt (which I had not noticed before), took hold of his long hair tied up in the back, and simply cut it off. My eyes widened as he took the excess hair in his hand it burst into black flames. I stood stock still and watched as he lent over, shook his choppy hair out, and stood back up, his expression now neutral. His hair reminded me of Piper's last haircut. Except Nico looked... dark and dangerous, and... and... good? I can actually see his eyes now. His dark, brown, broken glass eyes... I kept staring at the son of the death god in bewilderment.

He simply shrugged. "'S bothering me anyways."

I blinked, not realising that I was still staring at him.

"Close your mouth, Fish Brains. You'll attract flies." He commented, a now shy expression taking over his features instead of the cold look he had moments before.

I cleared my throat and offered him a sheepish smile. "Right. Sorry."

I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly as my face heated up. Mother of Poseidon... What just happened?

Before we knew it, we resumed fighting, hoping there would be no more interruptions so we could finally determine the winner before the pavilion horn sounded for dinner. Yet again, our wish wasn't granted. We were both panting and out of breath (sweating like pigs, I'd say), almost about ready for a break- when a voice interrupted our battle.

"Perseus Jackson!"

Uh-oh... again. I know that voice, and the person behind it didn't seem very pleased with me. And wow, guess what? I was totally right! A blazing looking Annabeth came storming up to us, her now stormy grey eyes full of anger and hatred. I flinched at the look she gave me. It was a full on glare. She was furious with me. But the question is... Why? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nico become really uncomfortable and shimmy away slightly, probably trying to find some shadows to hide in. Smart idea, buddy. I wish I could come with you, I thought, seeming it looks like the daughter of Athena wants to murder me and then give me as an offering to the gods.

"Hey, Wise Girl!" I said with an exaggerated smile.

She glared at me. "Don't you 'Wise Girl' me, Jackson. You know what you did!"

I blinked, shocked at her venomous tone. What did I do? I don't remember- Oh. Oh... That's exactly it. I didn't remember. I forgot about our date. I flinched as realisation hit me. She seemed to have realised that at the same time I did.

"You stood me up. Again! I can't believe you... You know, I thought the first time you didn't show up (mentally, that is) for our date was bad enough, but when you did it again instead of making up for it? You just left me there, alone!" She let out a breath of disbelief. "You barely paid any attention to me all week, either! You hardly sent one look my way, you hardly spoke a word to me at breakfast, lunch or dinner and you seemed totally space out. What has been going on with you?"

"Uh..." I was extremely confused... Okay, more than confused. "A-Annabeth... I'm so sorry, I was just distracted-"

"Tell me something I don't know!" She scoffed and crossed her arms. "Look. I know things have been weird and tense between us since the war and all, but at least I tried to get past that. I tried not to think of Tartarus whenever I looked at you. I tried not thinking of the many horrors we've seen. But it just doesn't seem like you're trying anymore, Perce..."

She sighed and shook her head at me, her voice a bit softer.

"N-no! That's not the case, Annabeth. You know I wouldn't do that! Not to anyone!" I tried to convince her. "I just... I don't know..."

"You don't know what?" She asked with narrowed eyes, her hands now on her hips. "Do you not feel the same for me anymore?"

I sputtered. That wasn't what I was going to say at all!

But before I could even open my mouth, she was speaking again: "You know what, Perce?" She sighed deeply, taking a step closer to me. "I can't do this anymore... We can't keep going in circles. It just seems like we've lost our purpose and it feels like we're just holding on to nothing. I can't put up with this... this... this tension anymore! I can see we've lost our spark. I can see it, and I know you can see it, too. But seriously? I thought you were better than this. Where's the guy that saved me, Perce? Where is he? Because I can't seem to find him anymore. And he just doesn't seem to notice me at all these days."

"Annabeth-" I tried, but she cut me off again.

"No... We're done." She said with finality, her chin held up high.

I suddenly felt anger boil in my veins. "Is that it, then? Didn't you ever think that maybe you didn't have any feelings for me, either? You know what? I had a crush on you ever since we met. Then yeah, feelings grew and then I ended up liking you. When we started going out, it was the best thing in the world for me! But I just realised something: you didn't look at me the way I you to look at me. Yeah, I knew you had feelings for me like I to you. But all I could see in your eyes was gratitude and debt. You only fell in love with the fact that I was there to save you every time you needed me!

You only fell in love with the fact that I saved you, Annabeth!" I repeated a bit louder.

Okay... A bit harsh, but my blood was boiling and I couldn't help but feel a bit jittery. She stared at me with shock and hurt. At first, I felt guilty. But my words were true, and Annabeth seemed to realise this. Her eyes blazed once more as I felt angry tears begin to build up in mine. I can't seem to wrap my mind around what was happening. She took another step foward, looking straight into my eyes (she was embarrassingly my height) with her jaw clenched.

"We're over." She said surprisingly calm, but her eyes cold and hurt.

Then she began storming away. I was about to let out the breath that I've been holding all this time, but she suddenly turned around on her heels, glaring at... Nico? I forgot he was still there, leaning up against the wall of the arena a few meters away from me. I felt bad that he had to be caught in mine and Annabeth's crossfire. He looked extremely uncomfortable, the shadows around him seemed to stick to him. He coughed awkwardly as he tried to pull the shadows around him even more, hiding in them. Why was Annabeth glaring at him...? More importantly, do I want to know?

"Oh, I forgot one small detail." She said in a sickly sweet tone that made me shiver. This can't be good... "I did some research last night. You know... About Aphrodite's island and the telekinetic channeling, like you asked me, Perce?"

Me and Nico simultaneously tensed up. I don't why he tense up, but I did for a completely different reason, I'm sure.

"It turns out, I found some interesting things that were quite similar to your situation in a couple library books. Then, just to make sure, I went up to a couple of our friends yesterday that went on the little mission to ask some questions. Turns out, the same thing happened to Hazel and Frank."

Nico frowned at the mention of his sister, and I just frowned because I was totally confused. Even more confused than when my pot turned into a whale in 'Arts and Crafts'.

"They thought that the mind reading was just them knowing each other really well and being able to guess what the other thought. But it wasn't." She stated. "What I discovered was that you could only have those powers on Aphrodite's island if you had a connection."

Where was she going with this...? I turned to glance at Nico, but that didn't help. His eyes were dark and wide, his jaw was clenched and his fists were bunched up at his sides. But he looked scared. And confused. But most of all, uncomfortable. I don't know why, but I wanted to stop Annabeth immediately, even though my curiosity level was at an all time high, because I didn't want Nico to be scared. I shook those thoughts from my head. It's probably just because of my fatal flaw. I care too much about the people around me. Yeah, that's it. I looked back to Annabeth and what she said next had me in riddles. I wish I would have stopped he when I had the chance.

"You only had that connection with the person you loved."

And the daughter of Athena stormed away with her last statement, a couple tears in her eyes, leaving me and the son of Hades in a tense and shocked state.

WHAT IN THE NAME OF ZEUS JUST HAPPENED?!

The only thing I could do in my frozen state was look at Nico out of the corner of my eye. He was stumbling backwards. I blinked. Just as he was about to make a run for it, a sudden ear splitting squeal sounded from right behind me. What is it with people today? She had milky caramel hair braided with silky red strings, bronze skin and piercing almond eyes frames with dark eyeliner. She wore a long ruby red floral dress and greek sandals. Daughter of Aphrodite. Her grin was practically bigger than her face as she jumped on the spot and ran in between me and Nico. One of her cabin sisters joined her side.

"We saw everything!" The blue eyed brunette beside the squealing girl squeaked. "Oh my gods, I cannot believe this! This is tots drama in our territory!"

The girl with almond eyes squealed again, causing me to cover my ears. "Holy silk and ribbons! We like have to ship you two, now! But, gasp! Not when creepy guy over here reeks of death and looks like he's gonna march into the Underworld! Oh, nuh-uh. Nope, this won't do."

I blinked, frowning at the girls in total bewilderment. These two can't be serious- Oh! And now they're yanking on Nico's arms. Okay. Wow. I kinda feel bad for the guy... The two Aphrodite girls suddenly stopped moving and stared at each other. A huge grin spread across both of their faces and I covered my ears once more as a squeal louder than the one before erupted out of the girls' mouths. Gods, they're loud!

"MAKEOVER!!!" They both screeched excitedly together.

All of a sudden, a few other girls were making their way towards the horrified son of the death god and began pulling him towards the pink Barbie house that is the Aphrodite cabin. You could hear the others already squealing inside, shuffling around and getting all of their supplies ready. They were practically dragging the poor guy to their cabin as he struggles against them after refusing countless times of going with them. Their cabin door closed and I was left standing alone outside of the Training Arena feeling befuddled, bewildered, shocked, sad, confused, lightheaded and over all; unsure.

Mother of Poseidon.

I am simply speechless.

~~~

End of Chapter

No words. What. Just. Happened.

Don't murder me!!!

Cause then you won't know what happens to di Angelo ;)

TEEHEE.

~Curly

Damn. That. Just. Happened. Curse you Curly and your awesome writer skills! But errrr meeeerrr geeeeerrrrrrrrds!!!!!! I'm sooooo excited to hear what happens to Nico! XD

Question... What do you think is going to happen to our beloved Neeks????????

With love, BooBear!!

-Confused Percy xO