Thalia

Nico is a sneaky piece of shit, let me tell you. He got me to convince Leo to make engagement rings. And he gave me a weird look.

"Thalia," the son of Hephaestus informed me, confused. "Aren't you... I don't know, single?"

I groaned.

"It's not for me." I assured him. "Alright? It's for somebody else that doesn't want their whatever to accidentally overhear that they plan on proposing. I'm sworn to secrecy. They have it drawn out for you and everything. You just need to make it."

Leo took the papers and set them down on his desk.

"Alright," he remarked. "Can I at least take a guess?"

"You can guess all you want, Valdez," I insisted. "My mouth is staying shut."

He took a minute to look at these sketches, running through couples in his head. People we knew.

"Well it's a male ring," Leo deducted, tapping his pencil on the desk. "So they're gay or the girl has more guts to propose than the guy does thus. Which... We have options. My first thought would be either Percy and Nico or Annabeth and Will. Just because you don't really know... Well, no, Clarisse is here a lot. Maybe, and I mean maybe Grover and Tyson or Frank and Hazel. I feel like Hazel would be up front about that sort of thing, though. And they're both underage so that kind of Gte ride of that... I'm going with my gut. Is it Percy and Nico?"

I shrugged.

"My mouths shut."

"I'll take that as an answer."

Leo

I was pretty confident in my guess, okay? Kind of upset that Percy wouldn't come to me about it, but whatever. I'd expect that Nico wouldn't. But I don't know. It is what it is.

So I gave Percy a call. And he did answer.

"Hey, Leo," he seemed in a better mood than the last time I saw him. Then again... That not hard to beat. Jason was harsh and still feels bad almost 6 months later. He's apologized so many times. "What's up? You haven't called in a while."

"Nothing much." I told him as I continued to analyze these drawings. I know one of them draws but I don't know which one. And this could be professionally done. I don't want to assume. "But um, random question."

"Ask away."

"Do you plan on proposing?" I questioned, twirling a little design knife in my hand. "Any time soon? Thalia came in with plans today and it's a male ring. But she said she can't tell me who and I mean it's drawn out and everything. So like, did you go to Thalia about proposing?"

Percy sort of snickered and did something or another before responding.

"Um, no, I didn't." The son of Poseidon informed me. "I'd be straight up and just call you. Nico wouldn't... He might go to someone. But I don't think he'd ever go to Thalia about that. Ask Piper, maybe. With Jason beings Thalia's brother and all. As much as they don't act like it... I don't know. Ask around Camp. Annabeth maybe? Her and Thalia are close."

Damn.

"Okay, I'll ask around." I assured him. "can't be that hard."

"Exactly.' he agreed. "I meant you can't keep a secret at that camp. I tried. It almost worked. And then backfired on me worse than ever. But whatever. Good luck. "

After saying goodbye, I ended the call and just sat there for a second. I was really confident in thinking that it'd be Percy or Nico. But I guess not.

I headed to dinner and sat down with Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank. Which, I'm a little let down that nobody else sat down with us. I feel weird sitting with just them. They're couples and just I feel weird. At least on the Argo I had Hedge. But Percy and Annabeth weren't very smoochy or whatever like these four are. Then again, that makes sense now.

He was in denial. He didn't want to come out. But I don't blame him. Kids are assholes.

I was openly bi, and even that... Kids hated me. I was a freak to them. I wouldn't want to come out here. The only reason I did was... Well, I saw Will and his first boyfriend (poor guy died, never knew him) and nobody cared. They were a couple. Nobody bothered them about it.

And hey, I won't lie. The first time I saw Percy? I was jealous of Annabeth. Piper had absolutely no interest, though. She's all over Jason. I wouldn't be surprised if she accidentally got pregnant like Annabeth did.

Annabeth was a surprise, though. She's more responsible than Piper is. Just saying. I love Piper and all. She just... I don't know.

Their relationship rubs me wrong, but I keep my mouth shut. They'd kill me if I spoke badly of them together. Lose my best friend's.

"So, Leo." Jason remarked after a silent 5 minutes of eating. Which... It was weird and not normal. "Do anything interesting today?"

I shrugged.

"Got a weird request." I told them, unsure of why it was so quiet. "Anonymous. Engagement ring. Had a plan and everything. Y'all aren't getting engaged and not telling me?"

"Were underage, man." Frank assured me, taking a bite of his burger. "So no."

Piper groaned and walked away. So of course Jason took after her. And I looked at them as they trailed off. She seemed... Mad.

"What's going on with them?" I asked Hazel and Frank. Hazel shrugged.

"They've been fighting." The son of Mars explained to me. "I don't know why. I don't care why. If they break up, they break up. That's how I see it. It's none of my business. Neither is Percy and Nico or Annabeth and Will or any other couple. The most that's my business would be Percy and Nico just because Nico's Hazel's brother. And we stay out of it. I don't want to accidentally piss off Nico or set off Percy."

I slowly nodded my head, finishing off my drink.

"Don't blame you." I agreed on that. "Nico scared me when I met him. Well... I don't know. Percy... I've never seen him mad, and I intend to keep it that way."

"Do you think Percy and Nico fight?" Hazel brought up and I shrugged. Grover joined us.

Debating this, we asked Grover what he thought about it and he started to laugh. Which was... That worried me.

"Percy and Nico," Grover started off. He knows shit about them. I trust him. "They argued enough when they were younger to never fight again. And if they do, it's petty, stupid fights that last 5 minutes before they say it just doesn't matter."

We all shared a look. Because we knew that they weren't best friends on the Argo but...

"When did they argue?" Hazel questioned.

Grover let out a breath. Ready to tell us some shit that hit the fan.

"So," the satyr started off, and we got comfy, knowing this'll be a while. "It's 2006. Christmas break. I was in Maine to recruit two demigods and I called in Annabeth, Percy, and Thalia for help because this wasn't happening with just me. They were powerful. And they did show up. It was Nico and Bianca. That's who we needed to get. And we managed to get them out of school and they were confused. The Nemean Lion had attacked us and it took Annabeth down with it as we killed it, but Annabeth die. Bianca joined the Hunt. Which Nico... He could live with it. Kind of left him alone."

Grover stopped to take a drink of water, and I wasn't getting it.

"So why didn't they get along?"

Grover told me to be patient. Were getting there.

"So Apollo showed up," Grover told us, recalling this winter. "Gave us a ride to camp. Nico was the happiest piece of shit you ever met. He was happy to find out his dad was out there. To find out the gods were real. That was exciting for him. And he looked up to Percy. Percy was like the coolest thing in the world. But uh... When Artemis and Annabeth went missing there was a quest. And Percy wasn't issued in it. I was. Thalia. Bianca. And then a few others. But Percy is Percy and he was going on that quest. Getting his friend back. And Nico knew about it. He promised Nico that he'd watch after Bianca while he was gone. Nico trusted him, of course. Let him go. Wished him luck and Percy caught up to us."

I had a bad feeling in my gut about this quest. It's just how camp works.

"But the junkyard of the gods..." He remarked and took a breath. "We didn't realize that it's fine to life when you took stuff. And a few of us took stuff. Bianca did. She had this little statue thing for Nico. He collected them..It was like the last one he needed. But the things attacked us and she saw a weak spot where you could turn it off. And we yelled after her and Percy tried to grab her. But she went in and it worked. But it collapsed in on her and we were on a strict deadline already behind. We had to move. We never found the body. And Bianca have Percy the statue thing and we got Artemis and Annabeth and getting back to camp..."

The air turned cold. This story wasn't one I've heard of. I knew Bianca had died. I never thought Percy had anything to do with it, though.

"Nico was excited." Grover told the three of us and he smiled. "I mean, he ran up to Percy asking where his sister was. And I think that broke Percy's heart. But Percy took Percy on a walk and told him what happened. When Nico took the news in silence, Percy tried to explain that they tried to stop her and nothing stopped it and Nico flipped out. After Percy gave him the statue, Nico didn't want it. He threw it on the ground and I don't know what was said. But Nico blamed Percy for Bianca's death. Freaked out. And left Camp Half Blood. Percy uh... He got really freaked out. Because with his train of thought, Percy having depression and all of that. After he tried to kill himself after getting home that night, when he woke up he couldn't think straight. He was worried that Nico would starve out there or he'd do something to himself or whatever. And luckily, he didn't. We found him the next summer. And... Yeah. Nico got really harsh after that. Closed everyone out. Percy tried. But after being TolD the same thing over and over again for years... He gave up. So it wasn't... They didn't fight. It was that Nico just didn't want anything to do with Percy and all Percy wanted to do was help him out. Ignoring the fact that he's digging his own grave doing so. But either way, they're together now. They got over themselves. They're happy. Nico is the only thing keeping Percy together at this point. It's all good.'