"Nico, just wake up, please." All of a sudden I was hearing Hazel's voice as she wasn't around and Percy started fading away and everything around me just disappeared.

Then I woke up.

When I looked around I was in the camp infirmary. An IV was connected up to me for some reason. I saw Percy and Annabeth. Holding hands. Frank and Hazel were here. Jason and Piper. Leo with some chick I didn't know. Then Reyna was here, too. All surrounding me.

And they made this big fuss about me waking up as Percy just walked into the room and over to Annabeth.

Hazel was squeezing the out of me, the others all happy. But Annabeth. Of course.

" What all the fuss about?" I asked as Hazel was hugging me.

" You were in a coma for about 18 months." Frank said.

" You were dead 1 of those months." Piper told me and I didn't take hard. Didn't even realize I died. So I was good with being alive.

And well word got around a week later Percy and Annabeth weren't together anymore and it was just kind of random so me, the great friend I am of Percy after another beating from Annabeth, go check up on him after patching up of course.

When I found him in his cabin despite the campfire going on he was packing a suitcase and I mean packing it. Stuffing it.

I knocked on the open door, surprising him.

" Nico?" Percy was a bit jumpy. Then again he has been for as long as I've been back. " What are you doing here?"

" Just seeing how you've been doing." I said. " I don't know who broke up with who."

Then he calmed down.

" Oh." Percy said. " I broke up with her. Long story."

" That I won't ask about." I said, and point at the bag. " But what's the bag about? Its the middle of July."

" Why would you care?" Percy defended himself.

" If you're trying to escape this place I can help you get out." I answered. " This isn't exactly my favorite place on Earth, either."

He looks at me in confusion and I know I guessed right.

" How would you know my plan?" The son of Poseidon asked me.

" I've been here for a week and I noticed it." I explained. " You're really jumpy, you gave Mrs.O'Leary to Grover, you're afraid of something and it scared the hell out of you."

" So?" Percy asked me. " Haven't we been here long enough and done enough for them?"

" That's why I'm going to help you escape." I clarify for him.

" Wait." Percy realizes something as were both packing. " Why are you willingly helping me? You hate me."

" Okay, I was in a coma for a year and a half." I explained. " I was dead one of those months and I have things Id like to get away from that's here."

He just nods his head and kept on going, getting ready for everything and we were prepared for everything. Any monster and when he asked about all the salt.

" It wards off evil." I teach him. " Spirits, demons. Stuff like that."

We left the camp at dawn and drove in Percy's awesome car which was a '67 Impala.

For a while it was silent. Percy was driving and he actually wasn't that bad at driving and for like an hour it was silent as we made our way out of the city and I expected it.

" You just woke up from a coma." Percy broke the silence. " A week ago. What do you have to run from anyway?"

" Dude, were demigods." I told him.

" Still." Percy said. " Dealt with that this long. What else is there?"

I shrug.

" Some people are just bitches." I said. " Especially your ex-girlfriend."

" Why do you think I broke up with her?" Percy asked me. " She was getting really bitchy all the time."

" Yeah." I said. " I started calling her Annabitch after so long."

That made him laugh and I almost smiled. I almost did.

We stopped in Jersey at a hotel that was decent for just a night or two. 10 bucks to the hour so not that bad.

Percy went out to just get some food quick from somewhere to eat and I knew I should tell him now how I feel and I tried practicing at least but I couldn't bring myself to actually saying it. Even just looking in the mirror Id stop by then and start over.I knew what I wanted to say. But I didn't know how.

And I ended up not telling him but that was okay for that day. Though I did let loose a bit. After all, what do I have to worry about at the moment?

So sometimes Id smile or laugh and the first time I laughed Percy looked at me.

He closed his eyes for a second thinking and looked at me again.

" Did you just laugh?" Percy asked and I didn't even realize and I thought about it.

" Yeah." I agreed. " I guess I did."

He smiled and I realized that past week he really hasn't smiled.

" Good." Percy told me.

We were talking and it just dawns on me.

" Okay, you know how I ended up at camp." I bring up. " You brought me there. What was with you though? Nobody talks about it with like Annabeth or Thalia or you."

Percy smiled.

" That was a long time ago." Percy told me.

" Tell me." I begged.

" Fine." Percy gave in. " It was about a year and a half before you came. I was 12 and I went to school with Grover at Yancy Academy if I remember it right. Chiron was a teacher there, too. And on a field trip Chiron took us and nobody called him that. He was Mr.Bruner and we had another teacher. I don't know who it really was but she was Mrs.Dodds to me. She thought I was the devil and my enemy, Nancy was the angel to her. So at this field trip Nancy made me mad and that was the day I learned my powers. Water kind of grabbed her and everyone thought I pushed her in. So Dodds had me go to the gift shop to buy her a new shirt and it wasn't to the gift shop. Not even Dodds. It was Alecto. Said something like 'Hand it over. I know you have the bolt Percy Jackson.' and Chiron had thrown me Riptide and it was just weird and I got expelled that year. Again. And in a vacation there was a storm where we were with my mom And here comes Grover and insisted we leave and somehow he knew my mom and at the bottom of the hill here comes the pissed off Minoutar in his underwear. Flipped the car. We fought the thing but it abducted my mother and I ended up passed out for three days and when I woke up my mom was gone and my best friend had goat legs and I thought I was going insane."

" Holy shit." I said. " What happened that summer? And what bolt?"

" Some bitch stole Zeus's Master Bolt an framed me for it." Percy goes on." That day I also met Annabeth and Clarisse and Luke-"

I don't know that name.

" Luke?" I asked. " We don't have a Luke at camp."

" Patience." Percy told me. " And I remember Capture the Flag a hellhound had gotten in the camp somehow. Killed it and gotten claimed after maybe a week or so in that game. Luke taught me how to fight really where I learned most of my sword fighting from. And a quest was issued. To get the bolt and there was three of us. We found my mom in the Underworld. And that's kind of why your dad and me do not get along. He took my mother away and I didn't have what he wanted. We found the bolt. Ares had it. Broke his ankle in a fight getting in back and we return it to Olympus to Zeus and the last day of camp or the last week anyway I was talking with Luke. He was the son of Hermes. He came to camp with Annabeth and Thalia. He was older than them. At the time he was like 18 or 19. And you remember Kronos right? What he looked like?"

" Yeah." I said. " The guy that looks like an older Octovain and Jason mixed together. Why?"

" That was Luke." Percy said. " He was a good guy until he left. Then Kronos took him and made him hated by anyone new that came through and some people he knew. Like Thalia. The war went on. Everything played out."

It was silent and it dawns on me.

" You never hated him?" I asked. " At all?"

" No." Percy was honest and I knew that. " Kronos was playing with him. I know how that works. I mean, what are we doing right now? Leaving the gods and camp, right?"

" Yeah." I said.

" That's what he did." Percy said. " But Kronos manipulated him so he didn't do what we did. He regretted his choice though. He told us that."

I nod my head and it dawns on me.

" And I know this is a stupid question and it's kind of random." I said. " But the whole time you were with Annabeth you always held back. I don't know how I know but it's like she's taking one step towards you and you'd take 3 steps back. All the time. Tartarus doesn't count. You had no choice there and I know thy for a fact."

Percy shrugged.

" When I was 15 I wanted anything but a relationship." Percy explains. " Especially with like my best friend because that ruins everything. Especially one that's a girl, and-"

I cut him off.

" Did you just say that?" I was like a little shocked.

" What?" Percy asked me.

" Especially one that is a girl." I said.

" Fuck." Percy said. " I did not say that out loud."

"Yes you did." I said.

" No I didn't." Percy insisted.

" Yes you did." I told him. " I heard you."

" What's your concern?" He asked me.

" I'd like to know if the closest thing I have to a friend is like gay or bi." I answer.

" Okay."Percy said. " Fine, I admit. But I always have been gay so I have my reasons."

" Being?" I asked.

" I hated my step-dad growing up." Percy told me. " It wasn't Paul at the time. Somebody else. I wanted to he everything he wasn't and he was straight so... that's how I ended up. I was like two when he moved in so I didn't know."

" Makes enough sense." I go with.

" Now tell me." Percy told me. " What's one of your biggest secrets I don't already know? You know mine."

I think of things to say and I was not saying my crush which was him so I just go with sexual orientation like he did.

" So you'll probably find this weird since I'm from like you know. The 30s." I told him.

" Tell me." Percy begged.

I could barely do it.

" I'm.... gay, too." I said and he thought about this and his response I was glad of.

" I'm not the only one anymore!" He said and I laughed because he started dancing and he sucked at dancing.

Our phones rang like crazy that day from camp and we would just ignore it.Turned them off after a while.

We mainly just screwed around for a few days before hitting the road again and heading to Boston. It sounded like a cool place. So why not.

And we'd do that all the time. Stay somewhere for a bit and head out when it got old.

And his birthday came around. So I said Id drive and we could go wherever for a week.

" Okay I don't why." Percy told me. " But I've always wanted to go to like Minnesota. And I think it's because it's called the Land of 10,000 Lakes but I don't know. Think it'd be cool to go up to like where the Mississippi River starts and all that."

We were in Wisconsin so we went there. And usually I'm not good with water but I guess Poseidon decided to be nice to me. So we both had a lot of fun. Went to Itasca State Park for the day and we went swimming and hiking and had a lot of fun. Went up a fire tower. They had a lot of stuff there and it was really nice out. Like 80. We got there at like 7AM and got back to the hotel at like 8 at night.

And before we got back we had found this beach. It was nice. Nobody else was there so we had a picnic. And we both talked a lot.

And Percy said one thing I could agree with because we did talk about Luke for a little bit.

" Yeah." Percy had told me. " Well. It's hard to hate the first one you see in action. Especially when they used to be your role model."

I just nod my head at that and after we got done eating we just sat there in silence. Next to each other and usually I wouldn't think much of it. But we were alone. He was so happy and it was his birthday.

So I don't know. Guess I just took a shot at it.

" Question." I said. " How did you know you were actually into guys and not chicks? I mean, it's one thing to tell that to yourself and it's another to it to be real."

" Well for years it wasn't anything." Percy told me. " Just something I convinced myself of. Then I got a little older and all of a sudden it was real."

" Oh, shut up." I told him. " I mean who made you realize that."

" Oh." Percy said. " You'd call me insane. You tell me and I tell you."

And it was the perfect moment. It really was.

" Fine." I give in right away. " You want to know who made me realize my of being gay?"

And so I kissed him and not even in two seconds he was returning it. Kissing me back.

No, we didn't start making out or anything like that. It was a kiss. Sweet and just long enough.

His lips tasted like the sea and it was like sweet and salty at the same time.

When the kiss was over my eyes were shut. Our foreheads and noses touched. Almost like a movie.

" You."