Nico

I would've never pictured this to happen. But it happened, and I was there. And Jason. And Piper. And Leo. And Frank. And my sister. And yeah.

It was the first day of summer.  We were in my cabin. And we had been playing just fun little games. Right now it was truth or dare. And Annabeth got dared 7 Minutes In Heaven. With Percy.

So I'm trying to ignore what's going on. A few people are really into this. Frank, Leo, and myself are just sitting. Ignoring the others. It hurts enough to just see them together. I don't need to hear them having sex. I like to believe that Percy's a virgin. It's nice to think like that.

"I just don't see the appeal," Leo surprised me when he said that. "Like, sex might be fun and all. I really wouldn't know. But it should be private and on your own terms. Not... Not a game."

"Exactly!" Frank agreed. "and if that's not bad enough, the creeps are listening in to it. That's just weird."

I just nodded my head, trying not to think about it. Thinking about my mom and Bianca.

"Aw, Nico," of course Leo had to be annoying after being relatable. "Are you thinking about your little crush on Annabeth?"

It's because of dumb remarks like that that makes him immune to my stare now.

"No," I insisted, shaking my head. "Gods no."

"Then what are you thinking about?"

"Other stuff."

"Like?"

"My mom?" I thought it was weird that he wanted to know, but whatever. It's Leo, he does what he does. "My sister? Why do you care?"

He shrugged.

"I don't know," the son of Hephaestus remarked. "Just curious. You don't talk much. Your sister is right over there, though."

"No, my other sister." I didn't realize that they've never heard about what happened to Bianca and my mom.

"I didn't know you had another sister," Frank said, now curious. "Older? Younger? Is she mortal or...? I don't think I've met her. I don't know another di Angelo."

"Oh, no, you wouldn't." I assured them that they haven't missed anyone. "Older."

"So she lives with your mom?" Leo assumed. "Or her dad? Because she's not here."

"Um... Well we had the same parents." I explained to the two of them. "I guess she's with both of them. Technically. I guess I'd have to find out where my mom went."

"What are you...?" Frank asked and I saw Leo realize what that meant.

"Oh my gods, Nico," Leo empathized as he put his hand over his hand. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. You have every right to be pissed off with me. You probably don't want to talk about it."

"No, it's... Fine." I insisted as Leo relaxed, knowing I wasn't mad. "You didn't know. Shit happens. I'm about as over it as I'll ever get. One day then idiot in the next room over might get that and start talking to me again. You never know. Shit happens."

"Did he... What?"

"Percy was around when my sister died," I filled them in on that situation. "He was the one who told me what happened. I kind of freaked out, my sister was dead and my mom died a long time ago. So ever since then he thought I hated him. So that's... Yeah."

"That's why you guys don't talk?" Frank asked me. "That's it?"

"Yeah, basically."

Another 30 seconds went by. They were one 4 minutes in.

"Annabeth!" It was not a yell of pleasure, and it was loud enough for all of us to clearly hear.

All of our heads turned to the room as the others had jumped back. Startled by the sudden yelling.

Annabeth must've said or done something that he didn't like.

"Come on, you idiot," she sounded harsher than she needed to. And somebody was slammed against a wall. "It's just a game."

"No, it..." He just sounded tense. "It's not a game, Annabeth. If you think this is fun—"

The only thing I could imagine to get the reaction she got was doing something below the belt.

"Get off of me!" There was a shove to the floor.

We couldn't do anything. I mean, we could. I was frozen up. I imagine the others were able bit scared by Percy's yelling. I'm used to it from over the years. Battles and what not.

"You're just overreacting, sweetie," she tried to be all cutesy with him. "We have 3 more minutes."

"Wow, okay." He stopped yelling, but this wasn't any better. "Fuck you. Have fun trying to rape your next boyfriend. I'm sure he'll love it."

And then he was out of the room, with us.

"Was it fun?" Jason tried to lighten the mood and Percy just looked at him. This wasn't the time to joke around.

"You're sick. All of you."

And he left. Annabeth came out, pissed off with her now ex-boyfriend.

Knowing he probably wouldn't listen to me, I took after Percy. Jason gave a nod as I left, wishing me luck.

He was shaken up when I found him 15 minutes later. In his cabin. Looking like he just got over an anxiety attack.

"Percy," I said, getting his attention. "I uh... You okay?"

"After having a panic attack?" To get fair, it was a pretty dumb question on my part. "Just peachy. Why are you here?"

"Sorry," I apologized. "I didn't want to deal with Annabeth, and you looked a little upset. So I figured I'd see what's up. I figured you'd enjoy 7 Minutes In Heaven."

"You guys listened in on us."

"Not all of us," I defended that front right away. "Leo, Frank, and myself stayed down on the floor. All we heard was the yelling. What did she do?"

I sat down next to him, and he gave a suspicious look.

"You're being nice."

"Is that illegal or something now?" I asked him. "I'm over Bianca, Percy. I'm trying to be your friend here. With Grover gone every other week, and with whatever happened in that room, I'm about the next best thing you got. Yeah? Clarisse is in college. Thalia is never here."

"I guess, yeah."

"Exactly," I went on. "So talk to me. If it's not about what happened, talk about something. You're not doing anything good for yourself by just sitting here."

Percy shrugged.

"She just doesn't know when to stop," the son of Poseidon told me. "It's not like... I mean, I know the point of the game is to have sex. But Mr. Virgin over here really didn't like that idea. And she knows that I don't. I just like associate bad things with sex and it gives me anxiety and I don't like it. I've told her about it. So when she tried to take my clothes off, that's went about as good as you can imagine. Shoving her hand in my pants was just perfect. I told her to stop. She's done it before. So I yelled at her to get off of me and I left. I was going to have a panic attack, I needed room to breathe."

I slowly nodded my head. So he didn't have the crazy sex drive a lot of teenage guys do. That was useful to know just in case shit ever does happen.

I mean it probably won't. But it's always nice to know.

"Got it," I said, noticing he was still focusing on his breathing. "Do you have an inhaler or anything?"

"Uh, yeah," Percy answered, pointing at his bag. "it's in there. Probably one of the smaller pockets."

I looked through two pockets before finding the inhaler next to two bright orange bottles that seemed like they shouldn't be there.

"What are the bottles for?" I asked him as he took a shot from his inhaler.

"Hm?" Percy asked, seeming able to breathe a little better. "Oh, just meds. ADHD, which I'm slowly taking myself off of because I've been able to control it. Anxiety, I'm supposed to take those every morning. So nothing major."

"Hmpf," I let out a breath, taking in the new information. "I didn't know you had anxiety."

"Yeah, that's because I've learned to just deal with it." Percy told me as I sat down next to him. "It has its triggers. I know what they are. What to do when it happens. I usually just try to get somewhere where I can breathe. But anyways, what's up with you? We haven't talked in a while."

"We haven't," I agreed, and shrugged. "I don't know, nothing much. I told Frank and Leo about my mom and Bianca. I thought they knew they were dead, but I guess not. Aside that, you been there."

"I mean over the school year," he clarified for me, rolling his eyes. "what happens when I'm not here?"

"Oh," I said and he sort of chuckled. He has a nice laugh. I realized how rare it was. For him to laugh. "Well I mean, we train. We hang out. I went to my dad's for Christmas. Leo and I hung out on Valentine's because we didn't have dates and it was very awkward after I caught him starting at my ass."

"It's not a bad—"

He stopped himself.

"Percy!"

"I didn't mean it like that!" The son of Poseidon insisted as I started to laugh and he turned red. "I was stuck behind you and we we're both crawling.  When we were stopped didn't have anything else to look at. I'm sorry. That sounded really bad."

"Oh my gods," I said after a good two minutes of laughing. "that made my summer, Jackson. I didn't realize you were into that shit."

"What shit?"

"The gay shit."

He just scoffed and his mouth hung open, slapping my arm. I don't give a shit if he's gay or not. Well, I do. But right now I don't. This was just funny.

"I literally just broke up with my girlfriend."

"Yeah, for a boy toy."

He turned a dark shade of a crimson-maroon after that.

"Who would I date, Nico? Who?"

I could taken it. But I didn't want to put him into diabetic shock from having a sugar daddy.

"Well I mean, Leo's single and always ready to mingle."

He might as well of had a fucking heart attack. I was laughing my ass off so hard that I could probably be heard from the outer world.

It took me a solid five minutes, but I eventually stopped laughing.

And I looked at him. And he was just kind of looking nowhere.

"Thinking about that gay shit, aren't you?"

"Why am I friends with you?"

"It's for my ass," I was not letting this live down. "You just like staring at it, remember?"

He stepped outside onto the porch that was connected to his room. And I just walked outside, where he looked like he just might kill me.

"You talk so much about the gay shit," Percy got back at me. "It makes me think that you might be into the gay shit."

And I just kind of...

He figured me out.

"Like, I'm probably wrong. But just a theory." He reasoned with me. "Because you've never really paid attention to girls aside your sisters. I don't care what they say about Annabeth, you fucking hate her more than you ever hated me. And you joke about gay shit. That all I'm going off of here, but it's a theory. Now we just gotta match make you..."

He started thinking out loud.

"Leo's too out there for you," Percy started off as I was forced to just sit there. Listening to this verbal torture. "too loud, too. Will's opposite of you, but too much of an opposite. You'd kill Apollo if you'd even be in the same room as him. Alone or not. He's just really annoying. Um...nobody else is out. That I know of, at least. Well, Paolo. But you guys don't speak the same language. So... Shit. This is going to be hard."

This fucking dumbass. If he was bi, my life would be a lot easier.

"Your life would be easier if what?"

"Nothing!" I insisted, really hoping he didn't actually hear what I thought.

"You sure?" He asked me. "I'm pretty sure I heard something."

"Nope." I wasn't about to come out to him. "Not a fucking word was a said."

The dinner horn went off and saved my life.

And as per usual, Jason ends up sitting by me. He noticed how my mood was just a little off.

"You okay, dude?" He asked me, sounding a little concerned. "What happened with Percy?"

"He's onto me, man." I probably sounded crazy, but whatever. "We were talking and he said he was probably wrong, but he had a conspiracy about me being gay. And I don't..."

Jason started laughing.

"So you're going to come out and tell him?"

"Pfft. No."

"What are we talking about?" Leo asked as he joined us.

"Remember Valentine's?" I asked him and he nods his head.

"So Percy had calmed down and he asked what I did this year and I told him about it," I explained to the two of them. "And he deadass replies with 'well it's not a bad—' and then he just fucking stopped and realized what he said. So I got to tease him about gay shit for the next twenty minutes, laughing my ass off the entire time."

After a few minutes, Percy joins us and asks what's going on.

"Oh, you know," I said.

"Gay shit," Leo finished off and Percy just stops.

"Why am I friends with you guys?"

"Because you want your boy toy," like I said, I wasn't letting this go. "And the closest you're getting is Leo."

"Or Nico," I was gonna kill Jason later for saying that. "I mean, you've never admitted to having a crush on anyone. For all we know, you're a raging homosexual."

"You see it, too!?"

And them some of bitches walked to Percy's cabin with us, and then didn't actually go inside but instead left us alone. Locking the door as they left.

Jason was a dead man.

"I swear to gods if they..." I said as discovered the door was locked from the outside. Both of them. In his room. "I'm going to kill both of them."

"Hey, relax,"he told me as he offered me a seat on his bed. "It's not like we're actually gay and like each other."

I sighed.

"I guess so, yeah."