Piper

It wasn't too long before dinner when Nico showed up, needing help.

"You need help?" I questioned the son of Hades, usually expecting Hazel. Not Nico.

This wasn't normal.

"Yeah, I have a question." He told me. "What is called when you go out to eat or do something and one person pays for both?"

I looked at him, confused and almost rolled my eyes.

"A date." I answered. "Duh."

And then it hit me.

"Did you go on a date and not tell me!"

I was sort of loud and Nico's eyes expanded and I don't think he wanted me saying that. Jason was in here. He could hear all of this.

"No," Nico insisted. "But my gods, make the entire camp think that why don't you. I'm asking because I was talking with a friend from way back when I was never here and I agreed to meet up and pay because they paid the last time we met like three years ago. They called it a date."

"Yeah." I assured him. "Because that's a date."

"It's not a date, though." He reasoned terribly.

"Is it a girl?"

"No."

"It's a date."

"But it's not."

"And why is that?"

He shrugged.

"Because it's not." Nico told me. "I don't know. That wasn't my intention. My intention was to nice and pay for a meal before..."

He stopped for a moment.

"You know, I'll just tell you what happens after it happens."

He walked back to his cabin and Jason came up to walk to dinner with me. Which is when we talked this over. With Annabeth and Grover there. Thalia, too. Nico was sitting with Clarisse and them. I don't like them. They're mean and I don't think Clarisse is too fond of me.

Either way, he wasn't here.

"Who are you talking about?" Annabeth asked us after about ten minutes of going on about this.

Because I need to know who this date is with. Jason is saying that it's Percy, but I don't believe that. Percy is a good guy and all and they would be cute. But Nico won't give him a chance to even be his friend. Much less his boyfriend.

"Nico." I explained to them. "He said he was going to meet up with a friend or something tomorrow and how he worded it made it sound like a date and the guy thinks it's a date and it would help if I knew who he was talking about. And no, Jason. It's not Percy. Percy is the straightest man this camp has to offer."

Annabeth and Grover shared a look.

"What?" Thalia asked. "You want to try and counter that? It's the truth."

"Yeah, okay." Grover remarked. "If it helps you sleep at night, I'll keep my mouth shut."

"Do you have proof of otherwise?" Frank questioned. "I'd be less surprised if Percy were to kill himself. Percy."

"Ditto." Will agreed. "Plus, I'm pretty sure Nico hates Percy. Always seemed to."

"Not really." Jason remarked like he knew something we didn't.

"Not really?" Rachel questioned. "Jason, I don't know what's considered new. But if you haven't caught the drift, Nico can't stand Percy."

And I'm dating an idiot, everyone. Because he said it right in front of her.

"No, he can't stand Annabeth." Jason corrected the Oracle. "He's more than fine with Percy."

"That piece of shit." Annabeth remarked. "I've never done anything to him."

"You baby him, Annabeth." Thalia brought up. "And talk Grover into doing it, too. And a lot of people. That kind of pissed him off earlier today."

The daughter of Athena rolled her eyes. Which confused me. She tends to baby him, yeah. But I never thought too much about it. It's just them.

"And if I hadn't?" Annabeth reasoned. "Someone had to after—"

"No, nobody had to." Thalia argued right back. Which wasn't normal between Thalia and Annabeth. "He would've been fine. He turned out just fine. It would've been no different if you would have just let him be. He had to learn to toughen up somehow."

"Not like that!" Annabeth insisted. "What would you do if Jason died tomorrow?"

"I would be sad and mourn for a few days or weeks and then I'd suck it up." Thalia told her practical little sister. "That's what I did when Silena died. When Charlie died. When Luke died. I was sad for a couple weeks and then I sucked it up because I had shit to do. Life moves on, whether you like it or not. You have to move with it. So when he found out you didn't want him finding out about Percy—"

"You told him?"

"No, both of us pressured Jason into it."

"Anyways," I cut in before they killed each other's. "Point is, Nico doesn't hate Percy as much as we thought."

Both Thalia and Annabeth shut up, letting the matter rest.

Chiron pulled Annabeth and Rachel off to the Big House as we continued our conversation. With Annabeth gone, it seemed that there would be less arguing.

Leo looked at Will.

"How do you deal with her?"

"That's a good question." The son of Apollo told Leo, and looked at Grover. "You brought her here. How did you manage?"

"I didn't. Luke did."

Whoever the hell Luke was, it made sense.

Anyways, we continued our conversation.

"So he's going on a date?" Frank picked it back up. "And why do you suspect Percy?"

Jason thought for a moment.

"Remember last summer." He tried to explain to them. "On the Argo? Percy and Annabeth were in Tartarus, Percy left Nico basically in charge. And we stopped in... Italy? Somewhere in Italy and him and I had to get something."

"Yeah," Leo recalled. "Shit went down and we still don't know what because every time you come close to telling us he looks like he's going to kill you."

"Yeah, well shit went down." Jason pointed out. "We had a run in with, he called himself Eros. He was Cupid. Just Greek."

Everyone shared a look, knowing this wasn't a good thing. I've heard stories of Cupid.

None of them had happy endings or good morals whatsoever.

"You got the idea." My boyfriend promised us that who we were thinking of was the right guy. "He was kind of an asshole and he started to annoy the shit out of Nico and we can't see him. But he was annoying. And then he starts saying shit to Nico and Nico wasn't telling him anything. And he started to hurt Nico."

That sort of pissed everyone off. Nico is like everyone's big brother and little brother all at once. And the gay cousin.

"I couldn't do anything, he had me stuck where I was." He went on. "And it was... I mean, I was almost in tears."

"What did he do?"

"Um..." Jason recalled. "Nico asked for the scepter, saying we didn't have times for games. And we didn't. Nico said that he wasn't afraid of him. But Cupid insisted that he was terrified of him. That Nico was afraid of Cupid. And after saying we didn't have time for games, Cupid went off. Saying that love isn't a game and it's not this soft nice thing. It's hard work, a quest that never ends. It demands everything, especially the truth. Only then is there reward."

He paused.

"Nico wasn't out yet." Jason explained. "Nobody knew. I asked Nico what Cupid wanted with him. And Cupid answered. Telling Nico to tell me that he's a coward. Afraid of himself, of his feeling. The real reasons he would leave camp. Why he always closed himself out. Which, I knew he did. But I assumed it had to do with not having family. And then he screamed. Nico screamed and he summoned skeleton soldiers."

Jason let out a pained laughter.

"Cupid taunted him." He told us. "Asked if he'd hide among the dead like he always did. And I saw... I saw a vision almost. Nico was younger. He was with his sister and Percy in Maine and he seemed so damn happy. And the first demigod he saw in action, it was the coolest thing to Nico. And then I saw Percy promise Nico to keep his sister safe on a quest they were going on. And Nico believed him. He did not doubt him one but. And uh..."

Grover hung his head down. So did Thalia.

They knew that story.

"I saw him find out she was dead." Jason went on. "And it sucked. He screamed Percy, in tears. Said that he hated him. And he left. That was the last I saw. But in real time, his skeletons still went on. And he... Well, he tried to lie."

That's what threw everyone off.

"Because everyone thought liked Annabeth of the time." The son of Jupiter recalled. "Everyone went with it. He hated Percy, he must've been jealous. Cupid made a remark, as I'd saying he actually had the strength and he said that he always left camp because of love. And he tried to make it about Annabeth and Cupid wouldn't take it. Said he was still hiding, he wasn't strong enough. And if kind of clicked for me. And I told him that it was okay, I get it. You know you're bi, Leo. But he told me I didn't get way. There was no way I could."

We were all silent. Because this was important. This was our friend, who struggled to come out. And came out only because of a god.

"Cupid said that so he would run away again." Jason explained. "From his friends. From himself. And Nico freaked out. Said he didn't have friends. He left camp because he doesn't belong. He never would. And I tried to intervene and tell him to back off. But I couldn't because I didn't have strength and because it was Cupid's business to know this stuff. And he was just in so much pain. Physically and emotionally and his voice sounded like broken glass. I will never forget that. He said he didn't love Annabeth."

Well duh, we'd obviously know that by now. Knowing he's gay.

"And I said it made sense." Jason told us. "He was jealous of her. That's why he never wanted to be around him. And especially why he didn't want to be around him. And uh, the skeletons fell. Nico had said that he hated himself, ad he hated Percy."

Jason paused to take a breath.

"Cupid showed himself to us." He went on. "And it was terrible. He was happy about this. Nico being miserable. And Nico admitted that he had nothing for Annabeth, he had liked Percy. He had a crush on Percy. That was the truth. The big secret. And he asked Cupid if he was happy and Cupid had some stupid comeback and said at least Nico's faced it now. And uh... I suggested him telling the others. Said that we'd all support him. But he was still in a bad mood and he wasn't having anything like that happen. Said he gave up on Percy. Whether that meant he stopped liking him or if he just knew it was impossible... I never found out. After that, we shadow travelled back to the ship. That was the last I heard of it for a while."