My name is Nico di Angelo. I am sixteen years old. My sister Bianca died when I was eleven. It was Percy's fault. I vowed revenge from the moment I discovered her death.
The crush I have on Percy didn't start right when I met him. No, when I met him I trusted him but was too young to actually feel anything for him. It was when Bianca died that I stopped trusting him and started to plot my revenge on him. Instead of taking the obvious route and straight up lunging for his throat, I decided to, as the saying goes, to "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Yep, that's right, I decided to become friends with him. Percy was easy to befriend, all I had to do was pretend that I had forgiven him and he fell straight into my trap. However, my brilliant plan backfired…big time. The more I hung out with Percy, the more I saw how funny and kind he was. I just couldn't believe this stupid person could make me feel so helpless and alone. I, Nico di Angelo, am falling for Perseus Jackson- son of Poseidon and death of my sister.

---

Today is Valentine's Day and I have nothing better to do than sit in my cabin watching demigods walk by like the total creeper I am… you know creeper in a dark mysterious and sexy way. I stared at those flashing green eyes out the window of my eerie black room. These are the eyes that haunt my every waking moment. The more I see them, the more I want to confront him. I want to yell at him for being so oblivious, I want to cry in his arms and have him tell me it's going to be okay.
Suddenly there's a knock at my cabin door. Ugh, who could this possibly be? The only two people that visit me are Percy and Rachel Dare, my best friend. I decide to just ignore it. I am not in the mood to talk to anyone right now on my least favorite and most depressing holiday. Being the son of Hades you would kind of expect that I don't like Valentine's Day, but this is different, its okay when you not head over heals for your straight friend who is currently dating Athena's daughter, Annabeth.
The mystery person at the door apparently was not taking no as an answer because they just kept on pounding even harder when I didn't respond. I couldn't take the obnoxious sound anymore so I have to pull myself out of my bed and unlock the door. I swing the door open and am bombarded with a bear hug from Rachel.
"Rach, get off of me… you're suffocating me"
"Sorry, I am just so happy you're here, I thought you were in the Underworld considering what day it is." She looked at me in concern.
"Don't give me that look. I'm not a dying puppy. Just because you happen to know that I like a certain person that at the moment is snogging a girl's face off does not give you the right to look at me like I am so weak and innocent." She glared at that then brushed it aside and started on a new topic.
"Nico you're too thin, it's not healthy. Come with me and let's go to dinner. Chiron's not going to like it if you're late again, and this time you better eat something. So help me gods, if you don't fill out those sunken cheeks, I'm going to blend up all the ingredients from McDonalds and force them down your throat."
"Ha, and where do you suppose you're gonna find a McDonalds out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"I have my ways." She said in that sneaky voice of hers that always made me feel like there was something mysterious about her that I didn't know. But that is impossible because we tell each other virtually everything… well except those girly things like when her time of the month is or if she buys a new bra or something along those lines. I get along just fine not knowing those disturbing and unnecessary details.
She got up and held her hand out to help me up. We stood up and walked over to the long tables filled with demigods. Since Rachel is an Oracle, she sits with me at the Hades table. Thank goodness too, because I don't think I could have taken another lonely meal at the camp before Rachel showed up. I pick up my plate piled high with ribs and fried bananas and put some of it into the huge purple bonfire, then I prayed my thanks to my dad. And hey, if Percy can eat blue food, then why can't I have my weird food habits? When he walks by with his blue meal nobody so much as looks at him, but when I walk by with bananas and ribs suddenly I'm freak that everybody whispers about! Why the heck does Percy have to be so freaking loveable?
"Nico, hey Nico! Is there anybody in that tiny noggin of yours?" Rachel had started to talk earlier about that preppy all girls' school that she was being forced to attend but I had spaced out a couple of minutes ago and my focus now lies on Percy instead. She was waving her hand in front of my eyes at the moment. Suddenly I snapped out of my pleasant daydream. Not because of Rachel's hands, but because of the girl that was suddenly blocking my view of Percy with a slobbery kiss on his mouth. Public displays of affection at the dinner table were prohibited but for Percy, Chiron usually just ignored the infraction. It was probably because of Percy and Annabeth's "perfect couple" reputation. If it was me instead of Annabeth, who knows what kind of bad attention we would bring? I scowled at the wise girl.
"Ugh, when is this camp ever going to stop looking like a teeny bop movie? I swear its like were in High School Musical or something. Er…not that I've ever seen that before."
"Wow, pay attention to Seaweed Brain more than your best friend, that's hurtful." Rachel says with a playful edge to her voice.
"I'm sorry Rach, it's just that its Valentines Day and I have to sit here and watch Percy getting all slobbery with Annabeth.
Just then Percy stopped kissing Annabeth and walked over to my table. My gaze brushed over his built abs under his tight v-neck shirt and his beautiful black silky hair falling slightly in his eyes. I had to resist the urge to bring my hand up to his face to brush the hair out of his eyes.
"Hey Nico."
"H-hey Percy, what's up?
"Do you want to spar with me tomorrow? I've been so busy with Annabeth lately that I've been neglecting my daily activities."
"And me." I muttered hoping he didn't hear me.
"Yeah sorry, I gotta work on this friend/girlfriend prioritizing thing? So are you in?"
"Sure. What time?"
"I was thinking around 5:30 am."
"Are you kidding me? Are you trying to kill me? You know I'm not a morning person!"
"Exactly, better chance of me beating you." He said then laughed and nudged my shoulder playfully. I blushed but thankfully he had turned towards Rachel and hadn't seen it.
"Hi Rachel, would you like to come tomorrow morning with us to fight?"
Rachel looked over at me and saw the sullen look that had suddenly brushed my features. "Um…no thanks. I have plans tomorrow morning with Clarisse."
"Oh I'm sorry. All my sympathy goes out to you."
Rachel glared at Percy. "She is not that bad! You two are just so similar in demeanor that it is impossible for you guys to get along."
Percy rolled his eyes then turned back towards me and said, "See ya then Neeks."
This time I couldn't hide the blush that covered my cheeks.
"Don't call me that!" I growled getting annoyed of the effect that his nickname was having on me.
"Ah, is Nicolette gonna cry?" He said in a mocking but totally playful way.
I couldn't let him get away with this. Tomorrow I would be up bright and early to avenge myself. There is no way he is going to beat me again due to my lack of focus on fighting and me increase of focus on his sweat-slicked abs. Man, why couldn't that guy just wear a shirt? Is that too much to ask for?
"You're gonna pay for that comment Jackson."
"You wish di Angelo." The way he said my last name made me shiver slightly.
"Break it up you two." Rachel said trying to keep a straight face. "We wouldn't want either of you guys to break a nail or something tragic like that. "
With that Percy turned and left back to his spot next to Annabeth.

---

I turned quickly on my heel to avoid the fast swipe of Percy's blade. He seemed to be off balance for a half a second. That half a second was long enough for me to slam the hilt of my stygian iron sword onto his back. His back arched and he fell to the ground on his knees. I brought my sword to his neck and forced him to surrender.
"Alright, alright you got me."
I smirked in triumph, though I was a little worried that I had hurt him despite the fact that Percy was anything but weak.
"Are you okay? I did hit you probably a little harder than necessary."
"Yeah I'm fine, thank you for being so concerned though." He said with a small smile on his lips. "I don't know what happened to you Nico."
"Elaborate please." His random statement confused me.
"Well I used to think you hated me. Then I thought you were just using me. Now you seem genuinely concerned for me. Why is that? Not why are you concerned, 'cause I know we are friends now, but what made you change your mind about hating me?"
I had no answer for that. All I could do was stare at his wonderfully built biceps and hope to gods he didn't realize the drool on the corners of my mouth.
"Ummmmm… people change Percy. I just always blamed you for what happened to Bianca, but now that I'm older I realize it was her choice."
"Well I'm glad you don't blame me anymore because I don't know what I would do without a best friend like you. And dude, about all the time I've been spending with Annabeth, I'm sorry. It's just that whenever I'm around her I get that feeling like everything's going to be okay, you know what I mean?"
I nodded subconsciously. I know exactly what he means. I get that feeling every time I'm around him. This comment, though I understood and connected it, made me feel a little depressed. But nothing like the next thing he said.
"So, I have to ask you something. It's kind of embarrassing though."
"Anything, what's up?"
"Well it's just that lately when Annabeth and I are making out I get the feeling that she wants to do a little more than just that." Ugh! "But I don't think I'm ready for that yet. What should I do?"
I couldn't take this anymore. I got up and ran out of the arena. I heard Percy yelling after me but just ignored him and continued to my cabin. How is he so oblivious? I practically transform into a blushing freak whenever he is around. Maybe he does know and just doesn't care enough or doesn't have the decency to call our friendship off before I get even more attached to him. But that didn't seem likely considering just about every girl in camp is drooling over him and he doesn't even notice them.
When I got to my cabin Percy had finally stopped chasing me. I decided my cabin was too stuffy at the moment and I needed fresh air so I turned around and jogged to the beach. The beach was surprisingly the one place where I could actually think clearly. As far as I could tell I am the only one who has ever found this place. I come here whenever I'm just fed up with being one of those prissy pathetic fan girls that are always chasing after Percy. I might not show it all the time because I'm his best friend after all but I always feel like it.
Being Percy's best friend (guy best friend… Rachel is my girl best friend) can have its ups and downs. For one thing, he is always nice and good natured towards me when most of the other campers ignore me and give me weird looks, but the downside is that I have to force myself to behave and not jump him every time he walks around in those stupid boxers that he is obsessed with. I swear, if he was allowed to go everywhere with those things on, he would.
Usually when I'm here to vent, I bring my blank song sheets and guitar with me, but I left them in the cabin this time. I was so caught up in all the drama that I totally forgot to bring them. Nobody, not even Rachel or Percy know that I sing and write songs on my free time. I'd never tell anybody about my secret hobby because A) it might be seen as a weakness to the other campers (especially those who feared me, the "Ghost Prince") and B) although I'll never straight up admit it, I am a very shy person.
So without my music supplies I'll just have to make due with singing a song from my favorite band.
The words are coming I feel terrible
Is it typical for us to act like this
Am I just another scene
From a movie that you've seen 100 times
Cause baby you weren't the first or the last or the worst
And I've got to fill the blanks in the past with a verse
And we could sit around and cry but frankly you're not worth it anymore
So say hello to all the boys at the top of this table that you're under
Lipstick lullabies
This is sorry for the last time
And baby I understand that you're making new friends
This is how you get by
The moral this time is
Girls make boys cryThe words died on my lips as soon as I heard a rustle from behind me. I swung around and called on my skeleton warriors just in case I needed back up against a monster. I know there aren't usually any monsters in the campgrounds, but hey, it's happened before. Behind me there was a dense forest so I couldn't really see anything from where I was. I cautiously called my warriors forward and stepped quietly and carefully into the thick greenery. I heard the rustling again except this time it was further away. I started to run towards the noise and came to a sudden stop when I reached a wide clearing.
I forgot all about why I was here in the first place due to the state of the open space around me. It consisted of one large tree in the middle of it with a thing that resembled a tree house but was clearly much more complex, as if somebody from the Hephaestus cabin had built it. There was a spiral metal staircase wrapping around the tree up to the base of the tree house and the tree house itself seemed to be metal also. There was even a chimney coming out of the roof. Smoke was coming from it. Whoever was spying on me must have been here. I decided to take a look around in the mysterious tree house.
I stepped cautiously up the surprisingly sturdy staircase and pulled on the door. It was open; no surprise there considering whoever was there probably had to make a quick getaway. My breath hitched as I peered slowly around the door. The floor was built with what appeared to be medium sized marble slabs. But that is not what surprised me, it was the mass amount of sketches on the walls that surprised me, especially since the majority of them were of me. Some were of Annabeth and the rest were either ocean scenes or creepy monsters. If there hadn't been so many pictures of me I would have thought that this was Percy's hide out because of the ocean scenes and Annabeths hanging all over the walls. That confused me the most; nobody at camp besides Percy, Rachel and sometimes Annabeth even talked to me much less liked me.
I looked at some of the drawings of me. Whoever drew these certainly was a fantastic artist, but gave me way too much credit because I'm almost positive I don't look as good as the model-like figure in the picture. There were sketches of me battling it out with Percy (which was one of the only pictures with Percy in it, and the person who drew him didn't give him nearly enough justice), there were also sketches of me eating my weird lunch at the pavilion. The scariest sketches though, were the ones where I was sleeping. I mean, the other sketches were of things that I do on a regular basis in public, but the only way the artist could have drawn me sleeping is if they had come into my locked cabin in the middle of the night. What in the name of Hades was going on here?
I walked over to the small beanbag in the corner and sat down on it suddenly feeling really drowsy. I sighed heavily thinking that I would have to leave soon before anyone noticed I had been gone so long. I decided I would come back again soon. I took one last look around the room when something caught my eye and I froze. My body stiffened and my face took on something resembling a frown that you would think Hades himself wore. There on the wall full of sketches was a section devoted to himself playing the guitar and singing… nobody, and I mean NOBODY was supposed to know about that! I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised considering I had been interrupted by the mystery artist when I was doing the exact same thing that I was doing in the sketches, but this was just too much. Not only did this person know pretty much everything about me, he also knew about the one place that was purely him, the one place that set him apart from all the other campers was now sabotaged.
I stormed out of the tree house as fast as I could and ran through the forest in a blur. As I was approaching the camp I ran into a very disheveled Percy. And even though I was the smaller one, he was the one that went crashing to the ground. Sometimes I didn't even know my own strength.
"Crap. I'm sorry Percy." I mumbled. I held out my hand to help him up. He grabbed it and heaved himself up. When he was standing though, he didn't let go of my hand. My heart jumped inside my chest. I tried to pull away from his grasp but his hand just seemed to tighten around my wrist.
"You're not going anywhere until you tell me why in the hell you ran away. Am I really that offensive to look at?" He said with a hint of a smile on his lips.
"Geez, Percy, let go of me you're cutting off my circulation." His vice grip on my wrist loosened a bit, but he didn't let go of me.
"Look," I said, "I'm just not comfortable talking to you about that stuff." At least part of that was true; he wouldn't mind talking about it as long as it wasn't about Annabeth and Percy.
He had a small smile on his face suddenly. I could feel my face growing extremely red.
"You could have just told me you weren't comfortable with that sort of conversation instead of running away like that." He smirked at me. "I sometimes forget that not everybody gets the birds and the bees talk from their parents, especially for someone who lived back when sex was unacceptable before marriage." And then he said with a smile on his face.
"Gods Nico, you're old!"
"I'm sixteen years old Percy; I'm not old. Besides you're like seventeen and a half, that's a year older than me."
"But I wasn't born in the early nineteen hundreds, I was born in the late nineteen hundreds. That's a huge age difference. You should be like over a hundred by now." He said with a short laugh.
"If you're done making fun of me, can I go?"
"No, you distracted me with your grandpa-age. Back to the topic at hand, I'm sorry for bombarding you with that uncomfortable conversation. I just needed someone to talk to and since you're kinda my best friend and all I thought you were the best person to have that sort of talk with. I didn't even realize the effects it would have on you."
"Don't apologize Percy, I'm just not in a very good place right now and I was being a grouch. I should have been there for you." I said, feeling ashamed of the way I handled the situation.
"Now you may leave." He said and let go of my wrist. The loss of the warmth of his hand gave me a weird feeling of loss but I pushed it aside and turned to walk to my cabin. I decided not to tell Percy about the tree house I had come across. If I had I would probably have to explain why I was in the forest in the first place and I just wasn't willing to let him have that kind of information about the one private thing in my life.