Archive of Our Own

"Okay, come on I just need one good ad, just one..."

Dark brown eyes perused through yet another listing of a potential escort to accompany him to his sister's wedding which was coming up at the end of the month.

Nico di Angelo had three weeks, max.

Three weeks to find someone, anyone to take to his sister's wedding, which was actually a weekend of staying at the resort where the wedding was going to be held. His sister always did love to travel and what better way to celebrate her wedding than to make it a destination wedding. Nico groaned silently as he went back to the many listings on Craigslist which offered such services he was trying to look for.

He wasn't trying to look for an escort to have sex with, which was what most of these listings offered, Nico literally wanted someone to pretend to be his boyfriend so that he could pass him off to his annoyingly, sometimes overbearing family and to be with him throughout the duration of the weekend wedding reception and ceremony.

He wasn't having any luck whatsoever though, and Nico was close to calling it quits on Craigslist and just look elsewhere. When suddenly he came across another listing.

***Escort Services Available***
Location: New York, NY 10023

Nico looked at that listing, thinking about opening it up.

It was close by, and it couldn't really hurt to try right? Nico heaved a sigh and clicked on the listing, this would be the last one he would see before looking somewhere else.

Male Escort Services
I am an escort who will do anything you want or need me to do so long as I am comfortable with it.
Can do non-sexual services, will do sexual services with certain conditions.
Contact email: pj-riordan...

Nico read the listing through once more, getting some hope back in him.

There was no picture that came with the listing unlike the others, and the person only listed their email as the only way to contact them. On top of that, this escort listed that they could do non-sexual services, which meant Nico could pay them to accompany him to his sister's wedding weekend. This listing seemed perfect for Nico. He clicked on the link that took Nico to his gmail so that he could send the escort a message about the services.

Nico looked at the time that read on his laptop... 12:18 am, might be too late...

The brown eyed young man shook his head, telling himself he'd just send the email and see what happens overnight.

Nico typed up his proposition and hoped with all of his might that the escort would respond and if they did, that they would agree. Of course they would need to discuss pricing and all that but that could be done after they had agreed, for now, Nico kept his hope to the bare minimum not wanting to be let down if it didn't work out.

Nico got up from his desk where his laptop sat, yawned and stretched. He suddenly felt extremely exhausted, his eyes somewhat fighting to stay open, he felt himself having trouble keeping awake. Nico shut off his laptop and went into the bathroom.

As the young man brushed his teeth, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. His hair was a bit longer now, shaggy; having skipped 3 weeks of going to the barber, he'd have to get it cut soon, before he went away to the wedding; and it was so black it could rival the black sky at night. He also had dark circles under eyes, they looked purple, like a dark, bruised purple. Nico was olive skinned, tinged with a yellow undertone. His body was skinny, fit as well, but skinny all the same. His was average in the height department, he guessed, standing at 5'8 or was it 5'9? His nose was slim, with a turned-up tip and his lips were thin and small, while his eyes were round and doe-eyed or at least he'd been told that's how his eyes looked like. He didn't really see it that way.

He finished brushing his teeth and turned off the light of his bathroom. He went inside his room and made sure his alarm on his phone was ready for him to wake up for work, as he always did.

He put his phone down beside his bedside table and walked over to turn off the light to his room, then walked back to his bed where he lay, comfortably under the covers. Before going to sleep, Nico hoped with all hope that this listing was the real deal. He really needed to catch a break.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Bee -

Nico groggily reached blindly for his phone to shut off his alarm.

Five more minutes...

There was silence as Nico swiped left to snooze for another 15 minutes.

He had just closed his eyes when suddenly his phone started to vibrate. He thought it was only a text but then it kept on vibrating.

"Ughhhh," Nico moaned as he reached for his phone again.

Whoever it is better have a good reason for calling me this early!

"Hello?" Nico answered, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Hello Nico," Hades di Angelo, his father answered on the other line.

"Dad?" Nico asked, "what's going on? Why'd you call me this early?"

"Just wanted to see how my son was doing that's all," Hades answered, "I also wanted to ask if you've yet booked your flight and room for your sister's wedding..." Hades left that last sentence hang in the air.

"Dad you're in charge of overseeing that stuff and I bet you already know I haven't yet but I will soon, I promise."

"Hurry up Nico, I'm trying to save you the good rooms before they run out but there's only so much I can do before it's too late."

"I promise, by the end of this week, I'll have booked my room and flight ticket, promise," Nico said, trying to calm his father down. He knew how nervous Hades felt, especially since this was his daughters wedding. Everything had to be perfect for his first daughter's wedding.

"Okay, good," Hades breathed a sigh of relief, "well I'll let you sleep, I'll call you this afternoon so that we can really catch up."

"Sure thing dad, love you, bye."

Finally hanging up on his father, Nico laid back down to get even 5 minutes of sleep but found he was wide awake now and he couldn't go back to that half-asleep, half-awake limbo he was in before his dad called.

Nico decided that he might as well get up and get ready to start the day. The brown eyed young man came out of the bathroom to find his roommate, Ozzy busy making eggs with bacon.

"Morning Nico," Ozzy called from the kitchen.

"Morning Oz," Nico answered back.

His roommate Osbeydis Ramirez; Ozzy for short since no one could seem to pronounce Osbeydis, had become Nico's friend back when they were in high school and then they went their separate ways after, but never fully losing contact. They reconnected again when Nico got his job working for Olympian Bank as a teller, which was when he found out Ozzy had been working there as well for awhile.

After having a drink one day after work, Ozzy mentioned how her old roommate was moving out by the end of the month and she was desperate to find a new roommate. Nico was busy looking for a new place to move into in the city since his move to New York and not wanting to move back to California with his parents. That's when they came up with the idea of moving in together and here they were, almost four years later, not regretting that choice.

Ozzy was a young woman, with straight black hair, tan skin with a golden undertone and light brown eyes. She was short, standing at only 5'2. Ozzy had a big family, one older brother, two younger ones and three sisters, her mother was from Cuba and her father came from Mexico. They had separated, with their older son and Ozzy being their only two children from their marriage.

Although they were never really that close while in high school, that changed as soon as they got older and had moved in together. They found out that although they were different in some ways, they were also very similar and made living together easy for each other.

Nico walked back into his room and picked out what to wear, he mindlessly looked at the clock, seeing that it was 7:30 am before finally noticing in his notifications on his phone, a new email. Nico's heart pounded and he clicked on the notification and saw that it was for the escort services he had requested just last night.

Dear N,
I'm interested in your proposition. My prices are as follows:
For one night - $400
For two nights - $700
For the whole weekend - $1000
You would also have to pay for anything else, like travel expenses and dinner if you plan on having me over for dinner.
Prices can be negotiable. I do prefer we meet face to face.
I do no picture exchanges until we have a set pricing in mind and have thoroughly talked about the job.
I'll be waiting to hear from you,
The Escort

Nico reread the email once more as he bit his lower lip.

The prices were kind of moderate, Nico guessed it was because he included that there would be no sexual activity whatsoever but that was still a lot of money, not to mention having to pay for an extra flight ticket. The room would be okay since his dad would have that taken care of, Nico would be able to get whatever room was available at the resort but that still left him with purchasing another plane ticket on top of the pricing that was listed for the weekend.

Great, Nico thought to himself, my sister just had to pick Hawaii as the destination wedding and right when it's spring time too, all of the flights are going to be super expensive!

Nico tried to see how he could make this work into his favor. The rooms for the resort were covered already, as was whatever food was offered since the package deal Nico's dad had gotten for the family included the rooms, activities and food to the all you can eat buffet the resort offered. So the food was another problem solved. It was just the flight ticket...

Nico quickly checked on his phone how much the flight tickets to Hawaii were going for now. He checked online and found that the cheapest one was for $1115.

Nico shook his head, still too much. Especially when combined with the pricing for the weekend...what can I do?!

The brown eyed young man got himself ready for work, having wasted enough time. He knew he would think of something later on today, Nico just needed to make this work.

"Hey you ready?" Ozzy said through the door after she had knocked, "I made breakfast for us."

"Yeah," Nico answered, "almost done."

Nico put the email to the back of his mind as he finished tucking in his shirt and grabbed his tie hanging from the full length mirror in his room.

Nico's room was pretty decent considering that this was a New York apartment. The walls were navy blue and it had a small closet for his things. There were two windows on one side of the room near his desk and he had a dresser and a small bookshelf on the other. He went to one corner of his room where he shoes were at and put them on before grabbing his backpack, jacket and phone and walked out of his room.

"Hey, I made scrambled eggs with chopped bacon in the mix," Ozzy said as she finished pouring herself some orange juice, "do you want some juice or coffee?"

"Juice, you know I can't stand drinking coffee," Nico made a face as she started to pour orange juice in his cup too, "and thanks for the food."

"No problem," Ozzy said as she put the juice back in the fridge and then brought over some tortillas from the kitchen counter, "do you want some of the tortillas or are you gonna eat it with bread or something else?"

"Nah, tortillas are fine," Nico said as he grabbed two from the plate, "oh! Do we have more avocado?"

"Ooh good idea, we do! Hold on," Ozzy said as she went to the fridge and brought out half of an avocado, she grabbed a knife from the dish rack and cut the avocado in half before bringing some salt as she handed one half to Nico and one for herself.

"Thanks," Nico answered giddily.

In the years living with each other they often found themselves sharing different kinds of food from their countries. And they would often try different foods as well, it sort of became a thing between them. Whenever they had off together, they would go out and eat as much as they could for the day from different places. Nico found he had a particular fondness for Turkish food, it was so delicous.

They finished eating their meal and got ready to leave, and since they were both co-workers and roommates, it made it easier to go to work together. Ozzy had a car but because this was New York, public transportation was just easier.

"So any luck on finding a "date" to your sister's wedding?" Ozzy asked as they made their way to the subway. Even though it was the beginning of March, it was still cold in New York, the winds and coldness of February stubbornly persisted on.

"I think I've got a potential person," Nico sighed as he took out his phone and clicked on the email that was sent to him, "look at this."

Ozzy took Nico's phone as he handed it to her and read the email. Her eyebrows scrunched up once she looked at the prices.

"Yeesh," Ozzy began, "and those are the prices? What is he like a high-end escort or something? Plus you gotta pay for his airplane ticket too?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too but I was hoping to maybe bargain with him, see if what I have to offer could lower the prices a bit. Except I have no idea how I would begin to bargain with him. He also said he wouldn't exchange any pictures until after we have a set price."

"Well, let's see it's March already, your sister's wedding is in April, tickets to Hawaii are how much for the two of you?"

"I already looked up this morning, for the both of us I'm looking to spend about $2500 give or take.."

"Riiiight and plus the extra $1000 for the weekend at the all inclusive, all expense paid resort...what to use as a bargaining chip," Ozzy started sarcastically, "I mean if only you could use the fact that everything is included in your stay at the resort where you won't pay anything at all and the only thing to pay for would be his flight to Hawaii, man what are you gonna do Nico?"

Nico glared at Ozzy as they started to go down the steps to the subway. Even though their job was only ten blocks away, in this weather it was crazy to walk that.

"Look I get it, okay, I should have thought of that but to be honest, I was a little tired and-"

"You just didn't think of it did you?" Ozzy cut in.

"No, my dumb ass did not think of it," Nico deadpanned.

"Well that's why you have me!" Ozzy teased as she took out her metro card, with Nico right behind her taking his out.

Nico chuckled lowly, "oh yeah, that's why I have you."

"Yes Santos," Nico told the customer, "you still owe your account $3.10."

"Okay," Santos said, "it's okay I'll come by again tomorrow to pay it off."

"Okay Santos, enjoy the rest of your day," Nico said as he waved his customer goodbye.

"Finally we're catching a break," Ozzy said as soon as Santos left.

A long line had come through the bank and stayed that way for an hour with Ozzy, Nico and their co-worker Jorge handling it while the bankers on the other side had their own fill of customers.

"I know," Nico said as he stretched in his seat.

"Speak for yourselves," Jorge interjected, "I've still got the school deposits to do and they brought a lot today since they didn't come for the past three days," Jorge got a couple of plastic bags out of his teller drawer to show them.

"Dang," Ozzy whistled, "those are a whole buncha coins you got there."

"Yeah, you wanna help?" Jorge asked them.

"Nah, you'll be alright," Ozzy shook her head before playfully giggling.

"You suck," Jorge teased.

"I'm just kidding," Ozzy relented, "gimmie a bag."

"Gimmie gimmie never gets," Jorge ribbed before passing along a bag to Ozzy.

"I would help," Nico told Jorge, "but I've got what the ATM sold to me that I gotta verify."

"Nah, it's cool Nico," Jorge assured him, "we got this right Oz?"

"Teamwork makes the dream work," Ozzy said cheerfully.

"I hate that you actually said that, you're so corny," Jorge joked, "I hate you."

"Alright so we need to start lunches soon, so who wants to go?" Ozzy asked changing the subject.

"I think Nico or you should go first since you guys got here before me," Jorge said.

"Nico you wanna go first?" Ozzy asked but as soon as she said that, they all turned to see another customer come in, "or, I'll go since that's Nico's favorite customer," she teased as Nico shushed her.

"Shut up!" Nico whispered, "both of you look busy so he comes to me."

Jorge and Ozzy turned to look at each other before cracking up.

"What do you mean Nico," Jorge started, mildly loud, Nico glared Jorge's way before turning back to his computer, "we are busy."

Nico looked up to see his favorite customer waiting in line. In Nico's humble opinion, his favorite customer had the most amazing eyes Nico's ever seen, it was like they resembled the ocean, the brown eyed male felt as though he could drown in them. Nico's stomach fluttered as he called him to his window, "hey Percy, I can help you right here."

"Hey Nico," Percy greeted as he stepped down, "hey Ozzy, what's up Jorge."

"Hey Percy," Ozzy and Jorge greeted him at the same time as they went back to their school deposits.

Percy Jackson had been a customer at Olympia Bank for 4 years already. Ozzy had been working at the bank for five and half years, while Jorge had been working for six months and Nico had been working for almost three years now. They as tellers saw most of the customers at the bank and had become familiar with almost everyone who came through. They would see customers who would come in almost every single day and then customers who would only come in every month to claim their monthly checks.

Percy was the former, coming in at least twice a day or three times if it was a busy day for him, being the assistant manager and book keeper to a restaurant/bar about a block away from the bank. Doing the banking for the business as well as doing his own personal banking whenever he came in, which usually meant being there for about 10 to 15 minutes while the tellers processed his large deposits.

When Nico had first started working for Olympia Bank and began to know Percy; Nico thought he was hot, slowly Nico began to see that Percy was funny and kind, he was so much more than just good looking, that was just a plus. At first, their greetings mostly consisted of, "Hello how's your day going? Good and yours? Good", but now:

"How's your little brother and sister doing? I know they're supposed to be back from break or going on break soon?" Nico asked as Percy gave him the business deposits.

"Yeah they're going on break soon," Percy answered as he saw Nico open up the first deposit bag, "they're doing great, Tyson made the soccer team and Estelle is on the dance team and doing tennis, I don't know how they do it." Percy chuckled.

"What like join teams and stuff while also going to school?" Nico asked laughing as well.

"Yeah," Percy agreed, "I mean, when I went to school as a kid, man, I was a trouble maker so first of all, I got kicked out of schools a lot."

"No way," Nico asked, wide-eyed, a new nugget of information he now knew of Percy.

"Yeah," Percy laughed, "so I got kicked out a lot and then all I wanted to do was skateboard so I used to go to the skate park a lot, and that's it! I didn't join any teams until maybe late high school when I was already a junior or sophomore I think."

"What'd you join?" Nico asked finishing another deposit.

"I joined the swim team for my high school."

"Were you good?"

"Yeah, I was really good actually," Percy answered, completely engaged in the conversation with Nico, "my coach actually said it was too bad I didn't join as soon as I got into high school because sports scouts could've given me a swimming scholarship since I was that good."

"Wow," Nico expressed, "well did you get any partial scholarship or something?"

"No, they didn't give it to me, they gave it to two other guys from my team, besides they earned it having joined since freshman year and working their asses off, for me it wasn't so much as working at it too hard, but like I was a natural y'know."

"Yeah I get what you mean."

"Man," Percy began, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "now I feel like I'm bragging about myself, I'm not by the way, my coach used to tell me all of this."

"No," Nico assured Percy, laughing slightly, "don't worry, I don't think that. Besides, I think there's a certain pride you gotta have when you're good at something and you actually like doing it."

"What about you?" Percy asked Nico who had finished yet another deposit, "did you join anything in high school?"

"Uhh," Nico took his time to answer, as he typed in some numbers on his computer, "well I was in the art club all through high school and then that was it. That was all I did," Nico chuckled, "man, how many deposits do you have?" He joked, "you guys were busy."

"Yeah we were," Percy laughed along with Nico, "busy last couple of days since the weather was a bit nicer from the cold brisk of February, people got crazy with going out. But uh, you joined art club? Nice, were you really good?"

"Yeah, I was pretty okay I guess, I've always been critical of my art but other people would tell me I was good."

"Mind showing me your work someday?" Percy asked, his eyes playfully teasing Nico and Nico felt a blush start to creep up his neck.

"S-sure, I can show you tomorrow, I'll have some pictures on my phone," Nico said as he tried to fight off the blush.

"Nice," Percy smirked at Nico.

"Almost done by the way," Nico mentioned as he worked on his second to last deposit.

"No, no rush," Percy said, "I'm glad I'm away for this little bit of time since it's pretty hectic, it lets me breathe."

"Glad I can occupy your time that way," Nico said smirking at Percy who smiled back at him.

"Oh yeah, you definitely do," Percy chuckled lowly.

Nico felt slightly happy at the sound of that, although he knew Percy was most likely straight seeing as how he had a girlfriend, named Annabeth, before they broke up back almost a year and a half ago. Nico remembered Percy mentioning it to him so long ago when Nico had asked if he was doing anything with his girlfriend for Valentine's day. To which Percy had replied "I don't have a girlfriend anymore", which in turn made the conversation somewhat awkward before Percy shrugged it off.

"So what are you doing this weekend?" Percy asked Nico who had just finished all of the deposits and was now stapling the receipts with the yellow copies of the deposit slips.

"I'm not too sure but tomorrow I work, I have to, uh, look at flight tickets again actually."

"Oh because of your sister's wedding right?" Percy asked, "yeah, you mentioned that before."

"Yep, but I've been postponing it. So far I have no plans for tomorrow, what about you?"

"I work too, but just the morning shift," Percy mentioned, "I've gotta get change tomorrow so I'll definitely see you."

Nico chuckled as he handed the receipts to Percy, "well you're all set."

"Thanks Nico, you're the best," Percy smiled at him, making Nico's stomach flutter, "I'll see you maybe later on today to do more deposits, if not tomorrow."

"Okay, see ya," Nico waved goodbye as Percy left, saying goodbye to Ozzy and Jorge who had watched the whole exchange. Nico could feel their stares at the back of his neck and he started to get red with every passing second.

"Wow," Ozzy whistled appreciatively, "you know how hardcore he was flirting with you?"

"What?" Nico asked incredulously, "no he wasn't."

"Uh, yeah, yeah he was," Jorge voiced his agreement, "like hardcore. Leaning in when you spoke to him, making eye contact, saying certain words with like, double meaning or something. Hardcore. It kind of felt like you two were alone in a dinner booth getting all hot and heavy. Except you're in a workplace. And it's day time. And Ozzy and me were here to make it even more awkward."

"Okay," Nico said, trying to change the subject, "who's going on lunch first?"

"You can go," Ozzy said taking the hint, "Ana should be coming back soon from lunch. She's on platform for today but she took out her box in case it got busy, so she can help out while you're on lunch."

"Nice, I was starving plus I gotta email that person back and use your plan to see what he says."

"What person?" Jorge asked, noting the change in Nico's voice.

"Nico's escort," Ozzy answered.

"What?!" Jorge asked, "what do you mean an escort? For what?"

"For my sister's wedding I need an escort to pass off as my boyfriend so that my family doesn't start the rumor mill again, it was bad after the break up with Will so long ago. My family did not let it go, in fact they still haven't let it go despite that it happened literally right after high school, mmm, maybe a year after high school," Nico rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, that's how family is unfortunately," Ozzy lamented.

"Yeah, but, I don't want them to keep on telling me how much I'm probably still sad that he broke up with me, so I need them to talk about something new. Plus," Nico paused as he finished cash counting himself, "I heard he was invited to the wedding."

Ozzy and Jorge both looked at Nico wide-eyed.

"No!" Ozzy said, "what? How? Who invited him?"

"Yo that sucks so much dude," Jorge shook his head.

"Yep I know, it sucks, hard. And apparently he and Simon, my sister's fiance, became good friends in university being in the same frat and all," Nico explained, "he's one of the groomsmen."

"Ugh, god and he went to a frat house," Ozzy said as she made a face.

"Will's not all bad, ya know, just the fact that he shattered my heart but it's all good," Nico said, "I don't even have any feelings for him anymore but I also don't want to look pathetic alone while having my family tell him it's so hard for me to get a boyfriend nowadays so...I need an escort."

"Dang, that is one messed up situation," Jorge mumbled.

"Tell me about it," Nico agreed, rolling his eyes, "well I'm off, I'm gonna go get some lunch and write my email."

"Good luck," Ozzy and Jorge both called out as he left to get his jacket.

Dear Escort,
I have a new proposition for you...
The place you will be escorting me for the weekend is actually going to be at an all inclusive resort in Hawaii at my sister's destination wedding.
Everything is already included, the food, the activities, the room...the only thing not included is the plane ticket and of course the suit to wear to my sister's wedding.
My proposition is, I buy your plane ticket and pay only $800 and that serves as my payment for having you the whole weekend with me in Hawaii.
Again, there's not going to be any sexual activity just you accompanying me to my sister's wedding to be my pretend boyfriend for the weekend.
I hope you think about it and hope to hear back from you soon.
Yours Truly,
N

Nico looked his email over once more before pressing send and hoping for the best.

He then continued to eat his burger and went back to reading his book but the thought of what could be the perfect escort backing out made him nervous. He couldn't even finish his sandwich.

Soon he felt his phone buzz.

Dear N,
I am interested in this new proposition you've given me but how do I know if it's real or not?

Nico looked at the email, picking up his burger with his left hand as he began to type up his response before hitting send.

Dear N,
That sounds like a plan, show me your sister's wedding invite as well as purchasing the airplane ticket with confirmation that you purchased it in real time. After that, I'll believe you'll get a $200 discount for my services over the weekend.
The Escort

Nico reread the email before going online to book both of the flight tickets leaving for Hawaii at the end of March. He clicked on the date to leave, which would be on a Thursday and the date to return, which would be on a Monday. He paid for the tickets through his credit card and then got a confirmation of the purchase in his email.

Here is the purchase of the plane ticket for these dates, here is the confirmation of the purchase from the airline as well as an email from my card. All in real time. Thank you so much for doing this! Save the date! I'll be emailing a picture of my sister's invite as soon as I get home from work. Thank you.

Nico attached the screenshots needed to provide proof of his purchase and he breathed a little easier now knowing that his plan seemed to be on the right track. He looked at the time on his phone; he only had about 10 more minutes left for lunch.

"Good news," Nico said as he came back, logging in to his computer to clock back in. Despite there being a line, Ozzy turned to him as she called in the next customer.

"What's up?"

"The escort agreed to the plan. I'm getting a much needed discount for the weekend and I just bought the tickets," Nico said excitedly.

"I told you, everything was going to work out," Ozzy smiled at him before turning to her customer to help her out.

Nico soon called the next person in line, all the while he thought about his plan and wondered how his family would react after so many years of not inviting past boyfriends to family outings.

Despite the fact that family was very important to them, Nico couldn't help but hate how they would gossip behind his back. Although that was mostly family members who weren't inner circle per se. They would show up for a birthday party and Christmas party here or there, but unlike Nico's tight knit family that consisted of his sisters, dad and Persephone, his stepmom; they wouldn't attend every single family gathering that would happen.

It would also be those particular family members who would start the gossip.

In the past few years, since Will, Nico's high school boyfriend; had broken up with him, Nico had had at least three different boyfriends. None of them became too serious, not like what he used to have with Will.

Will Solace had become Nico's boyfriend back in high school and they dated all four years they attended and then some after high school. Will and Nico broke up due to Will wanting to explore his sexuality and wanting to try being single for awhile. Which Nico had understood after thinking about it two years later but not at the time. He was left heartbroken because unlike Will, Nico didn't want to explore anything or try to be single for awhile either. He had been happy just being with Will, that wasn't to say that Will wasn't happy with Nico, but they both wanted different things out of life and that wasn't neither of their faults.

They broke up, Will moving on with his life and Nico trying to do the same after his first heartbreak but he managed it somehow. It always was easier to be the one broken up with than to be the who did the breaking.

Nico's thoughts went to the fact that Will had been invited to the wedding. It was going to be the first time in five years that they would be seeing each other. Nico was nervous about it, wondering how Will had been doing, if he was seeing anyone, how he looked like now after those five years. Nico couldn't help the small flutter in his heart at the prospect of seeing Will again. He was Nico's first love after all, there would always be a tenderness there for him.

After the line died down, Ozzy turned to Nico, "okay, I'm going to lunch, you doing okay there?" She asked him.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine just thinking about the wedding," Nico answered.

"What about it?" Ozzy asked as she started to cash count herself.

"Well I mentioned Will was going to be there..."

"Oh, right. The ex, what are you thinking about?"

"Well I'm just wondering how he is and what's he doing with his life. He's probably in med school now since he always talked about being a surgeon," Nico smiled to himself, remembering those midnight conversations they used to have, talking about their dreams. "While I'm here working as a bank teller and having dropped out of school."

"School's not for everyone Nico," Ozzy said as she finished counting and tied her work before putting it away, "besides, you have your art and the reason you dropped out of school was because your parents tried to make you major in business when you should have majored in art instead. There's still time you know to apply before the deadline."

"I don't know Oz," Nico said absentmindedly.

"It doesn't hurt to try, I mean you basically draw almost every day after work, your art has gotten a lot better when it was already badass in high school. Doesn't hurt to apply and submit your portfolio, see what happens. Who knows, you could end up getting in and then graduating to become an animator, or maybe become like a really famous painter and have your paintings in museums or something."

"That'd be a dream, imagine in the future, I have my paintings up there, right next to Picasso or Van Gough? Imagine they're hanging in the Louvre?" Nico blew at his bangs, smiling to himself as he daydreamed his future life if he dared majoring in art.

"That could always happen," Ozzy smiled at him, "okay. Well, I'm off."

"Enjoy your lunch," Nico called after her.

"Thanks," Ozzy said giving a small wave.

One week before the wedding

"Yes dad," Nico said into the phone, "yes, I know I picked a room with two beds but that room had a balcony and it was on the seventh floor, I didn't want a room closer to the ground. If I'm going to have a balcony room I want it from high up." Nico paused in the conversation letting his father speak. "Dad, we're going to push the beds together, besides shouldn't you be like, happy that your son's new boyfriend isn't getting too cozy?"

Nico laughed, "yeah dad I know, people are sure going to be surprised...yes dad, I know Will is going to be there. That doesn't bother me at all, besides it's going to be nice to see him, catch up," he muttered, but it was only to appease his dad and Nico knew Hades saw right through it. Thankfully, Hades decided not to push.

Ozzy looked up from her book; from the couch she saw Nico pacing back and forth in the kitchen as he talked to his dad. It had been two weeks since Nico had talked to the escort before getting an email this morning before work about wanting to meet in person before they left and getting to know each other.

They had decided to meet up tonight after work, meet at a restaurant nearby Nico's job, which was coincidentally nearby the escort's job as well. They told each other what they'd be wearing so that they would know to look for each other. Despite the fact that the escort said he would provide pictures once they made a deal, Nico didn't mind that he never sent them, he liked the air of mystery.

"Okay dad," Nico said, trying to finish up the conversation, he had to leave if he wanted to make it on time to his meetup with the escort, "yep, I'll see you soon. Okay, bye dad, love you too."

Nico hung up and turned to Ozzy still sitting on the couch, "so, what do you think?" He asked as he showed her his outfit for the night.

"Hm, handsome," Ozzy smiled at him, "I like it. You look good like that."

"Okay, well I gotta go, I'll tell you all about it once I'm done," Nico said as he grabbed his jacket and walked towards the door.

"Good luck!" Ozzy called after him as he left.

Nico parked Ozzy's car in a parking spot; he silently thanked Ozzy for letting him use her car, he found around the corner of where the restaurant was. He looked at himself once more in the rear-view mirror, anxious about the fact that he was meeting the person who was supposed to be his pretend boyfriend. Finally pleased with himself, Nico got out of the car and very slowly made his way to the restaurant, his nerves getting worse the closer he got.

Nico walked inside the restaurant and paused to look around, trying to spot the person he was supposed to be meeting. He said he was going to be wearing a navy blue button up with jeans and a black jacket but... Nico couldn't see him anywhere.

The restaurant was nice, a bit small but that's how most restaurants were in the city. It was kind of hard when space wasn't so readily available in New York, especially somewhere as congested as Manhattan. The floor was dark hardwood and the walls were exposed brick. The whole restaurant had low lighting all around, making it feel intimate.

"Hey, Nico?"

Nico turned to his name being called and saw Percy sitting in a booth near the window of the restaurant, "Percy?" Nico asked making his way to Percy but noticing slowly what he was wearing, "navy blue button up with jeans..." Nico mumbled to himself as he saw the black jacket stretched over the top of the seat of the booth.

"Red v-neck with black jeans..." Percy muttered, looking Nico up and down, "you're N?"

"You're the esc-" Nico was about to call Percy the escort but Percy got up quickly from his seat and covered Nico's mouth.

"Yeah, I'm the escort," Percy whispered as he dragged a dazed Nico into the booth, "wait you're the- you're N...which," Percy chuckled mirthlessly, "stands for Nico...of course."

"You're the escort. You're the escort?" Nico repeated.

"Yeah Nico, I am," Percy confirmed, "but keep your voice down, please."

"What? How?" Nico asked still confused, but lowering his voice to a whisper.

"Well I do this as a side job and only once in a blue moon...I don't do this that often but when I do, I mostly try to do..." Percy paused as he looked around making sure people weren't listening to them before he leaned in towards Nico and whispered, "I try to do the non-sexual requests but..."

"You sometimes do the sexual requests?"

"That's only happened once and I didn't like it, so mostly non-sexual requests," Percy added.

"Okay but-so you," Nico stuttered along," you-you do this as a side job? Why? Don't you earn enough at your current job? I should be the one who's the escort, god knows I need the money..." Nico focused on a dry spot on the table they were at.

"Yes, I earn enough," Percy answered, "but it's always good to have money on the side in case of emergencies. Look..." Percy began only to look away and Nico saw what was maybe shame on his face, "I-I don't want...I don't want you to look at me differently now that you know this about me..."

"What? Percy, come on," Nico began, forcing Percy to look Nico in the eyes, "I'm not judging you at all, I don't even care that you do this, I was just thrown out of whack is all, I didn't expect it to be you! I was super confused," Nico laughed, "besides, I don't think there's anything you could do that would make me see you any different. You're still you."

Percy looked at Nico then, and gave him a soft smile, "thanks..."

"No problem," Nico smiled back and they stayed quiet for a bit, just smiling at each other before Percy cleared his throat.

"So, you need a fake boyfriend for your sister's wedding?" Percy asked, trying to break the silence.

"Uh, yeah, I need a fake boyfriend...if you don't mind pretending to be my boyfriend now that you know it's...me?" Nico asked hoping Percy would still say yes.

"Of course, and because I now know it's you, I'm going to give you back the money you spent for the plane ticket."

"Oh, n-no, no Percy, I should-you shouldn't because-"

"Listen," Percy interrupted, "I'd like to go with you knowing you didn't...purchase me," Percy joked laughing a bit, "I'd like to go as a friend helping out another friend if you-well, if you consider me your friend?"

"Oh, of course I can consider you my friend Percy, but you still gotta get paid and I don't want to take advantage..."

"You're not, trust me, I would like it better if we went as friends being pretend boyfriends."

"Well, how about you pay for half of the ticket then?" Nico offered, wanting to not take all of Percy's money.

"Okay, it sounds like you're not gonna back down," he said, and Percy chuckled when Nico nodded his head in agreement, "fine, sounds like a deal."

"I'm stubborn that way," Nico smirked at him.

"Want to order something to eat and talk?" Percy asked, leaning back in his seat, relief flowing through his body. He looked at ease with Nico right next to him, and the brown eyed male shook his head to get that mental picture out of his head.

"Sounds good."

"What?!" Ozzy half-shrieked, "Percy is the escort?! Wh-ho-why...no, wait, what?"

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly when I found out it was him," Nico agreed. He still couldn't believe the fact that Percy, his crush of almost 3 years now was going to be his pretend boyfriend. Just thinking about it brought on a mess of butterflies inside Nico.

"Oh my gosh," Ozzy said, her eyebrows knitted together, "he's going to be your pretend boyfriend..." then her eyes lit up as an idea formed in her head, "Nico, he's going to be your pretend boyfriend, which means there is a good chance you two could fall in loooove! I mean this is like the start of a cheesy rom-com, and I mean you already have a crush on him. He's just gotta get a crush on you now!"

"What?" Nico asked, "that's ridiculous."

"What? Come on, no it isn't," Ozzy argued.

"Yeah, it is because one, Percy is straight, two, he's doing this to help me out, not because he has any feelings for me, three, nothing is going to happen while on this trip and four, he's straight!"

"Why do you have to be so negative Nico?"

"I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic," Nico said.

"This could actually happen," Ozzy tried to persuade him, "I mean, like there's gotta be a possibility that this could happen."

"Oz," Nico began, "does it look like we're in some kind of story to you? Or a movie where this could happen? No, we're in real life, and this doesn't happen in real life."

"It could, a la The Wedding Date style," Ozzy mumbled, letting the subject drop, "anyways, so what are you two going to do?"

"About what?" Nico asked, he was already getting tired, the shock from finding out Percy was the escort was fading fast.

"Well you guys do have to prepare something, I mean you're not gonna go and tell everyone you're going out but then not be able to sell it."

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked.

"Well, did you figure out how long you're gonna say you've been dating and things like that?"

"Shit," Nico said, closing his eyes, "no, we didn't discuss that."

"Well you're going to have to, especially if you want people to think it's true," Ozzy said, "okay, I'm going to sleep, that news was juicy but I'm tired, see you tomorrow. Night."

"Night," Nico said as he watched Ozzy go into her room, "I gotta talk to Percy tomorrow." He said to himself before going in to his room to call it a night.

"Okay so we're going to board in an hour and a half," Nico said looking at his phone, "want to get something to eat before we board?"

"Yeah, sounds good, what do you want?" Percy asked as they both looked around them.

"There's a lot of choices but...it's the morning, I don't want something heavy in the morning especially since flying, makes me sort of nauseous."

"We could get Dunkin' Donuts?" Percy suggested, "that's light."

"Hm, good idea," Nico agreed, "let's go."

As they walked, Percy looked over at Nico, who was pulling his carry-on luggage, "so, want to go over the facts we learned about each other once more? Practice does make perfect."

"Okay, let's do it, although I think because we already knew each other that gives us both a slight advantage."

"Tell me again why you need a pretend boyfriend, you didn't really explain other than your family being overbearing and nosy, but I feel like there's something else," Percy asked.

"Okay fine," Nico relented, deciding to tell Percy about Will, "see the thing is-"

"Hi welcome to Dunkin' Donuts, how can I help?" The young man working at the small chain interrupted Nico as he took down their orders. Nico got a ham, egg and cheese on a croissant with an orange juice, while Percy got a bagel with cream cheese and jelly and a hot chocolate, he wasn't much of a coffee drinker.

"I used to go out with this guy named Will back in high school, we were high school sweethearts like, the whole shebang," Nico continued as they sat at a table nearby and began to eat their food, "so we went out for a little bit more after high school ended and then he broke up with me," Nico continued in between bites as Percy listened, "and I was devastated, I mean that was my first serious boyfriend and my first heartbreak and my first-" Nico paused, trying to tell Percy that he had lost his virginity to Will, "you know- first..."

"Oh," Percy said finally picking it up, his mouth in the shape of an 'o', his cheeks reddening just as Nico's were beginning to flush.

"Yeah," Nico continued, "so of course I was heartbroken, even though to most people they probably think of it as puppy love and not a big deal but it was to me. So anyway, Will is going to be there at the wedding and I'm sort of nervous to see him after like, five years of not seeing him after the break up and not talking to him at all. I'm really fuckin' nervous..."

"Well, it's all going to be okay," Percy assured Nico, "besides, you've got me," he said as he winked at the brown eyed young man.

"Thanks," Nico smiled softly.

"So, do you still love him?" Percy asked Nico, looking at him with an unreadable expression Nico couldn't decipher. His eyes bore into Nico's, it was intense.

"Uh, no, I don't, I got over him but he's always going to have a special place in my heart. Besides, he was a very sweet and patient boyfriend who made me go out and do things instead of being alone at home. He's the reason I even tried to make friends and he was really cool for that. But I don't love him anymore I just feel nervous because..." Nico paused, looking away.

"Because of what?"

"Well, he's in med school now and he's probably got his life together and he's on his way to being a very successful surgeon...I just feel kind of, inadequate compared to him. I want to...make it seem like I got my life together when I see him. I guess to...make him see I didn't need him in my life and I made it on my own, making my own friends my way and making him see that, although my world turned upside when he left me, I made it through alive," Nico admitted quietly.

"Wow Nico," Percy whispered, bringing his hand to cover Nico's own on the table, comforting him anyway Percy could, "I didn't know you felt that way. That's actually pretty brave of you."

"You think so?" Nico asked Percy, looking down at their hands before looking back up at Percy.

"Definitely," Percy assured him, clearing his throat and taking his hand off of Nico's, "you're going up to your ex and you're going to prove that you made it on your own, despite what life threw at you...if I could do that with my ex...I think I'd have proper closure..."

"What happened with your ex?" Nico asked.

"Annabeth," Percy supplied her name, "and well, we just...fell out of love I guess. She did before me...we were a lot like you and Will in a way. High school sweethearts, except we knew each other since we were twelve years old and went out when we were fifteen. We were the best of friends, her, me and our friend Grover, which by the way, he's still my best friend to this day."

Percy smiled nostalgically, "we lasted almost all through college before we started to distance ourselves from each other. I gave her space thinking that would help but I could see her slipping away and I wanted nothing more than go back to how it used to be. She didn't love me anymore, not the way I still did back then and I didn't blame her, it happens you know. Anyway, we broke up almost two years ago, around the time she finished college."

"Of course," Nico agreed quickly, knowing how fickle love could be.

"She suggested we break up because she didn't want to be with me anymore and I wasn't going to force her to stay with me...but it sure hurt like hell when she left me. Slowly though, I got better, especially with some help of my friends."

"Wow, it's sort of like we're on the same boat huh?" Nico said as they continued to eat their food.

Percy smiled at Nico softly, "yeah."

"I can't believe we're both afraid of flying," Nico muttered as he and Percy got their luggage out of the overhead bins and slowly exited the plane.

"Yeah..." Percy agreed, still looking sick. "Flying is not the best mode of transportation, I prefer road trips over flying."

"Okay," Nico said slowly, still feeling dizzy from the anxiety he still felt, "my dad is here to pick us up."

"Sounds good," Percy said as they slowly descended the stairs down the plane and out into the open, "whoa."

"I know right," Nico agreed behind Percy.

The day was sunny, bright and cloudless but the sun wasn't beating down on them so hard, it seemed almost like a perfect day. There was a slight breeze as they continued down the stairs, and no humidity in the air.

The air smelled a lot fresher than New York, and everything around them looked clearer and cleaner. Nico guessed it had to do with the fact that there was less smog and that it wasn't as dense as New York could be.

They walked along as the people they had boarded the flight with made their way towards what looked like huts in the distance but were actually buildings where people would go to check in or go to the gift shops. Most of the buildings looked like they were separated from each other but they were all connected by the roof, it resembled sort of an outdoor mall.

"Okay, wait," Nico paused, "we've got our story down right? We didn't like, miss anything right? About how long we've been dating, what we know of each other, our jobs and things like that right?"

"Yeah," Percy reassured Nico, "I think we've got everything."

"Okay good, because my dad is probably going to grill you once he meets you."

"Great, I love being grilled by my boyfriend's dad, it's the best thing that can happen," Percy said sarcastically.

Nico coughed slightly upon hearing the word boyfriend come out so casually from Percy's mouth, it just sort of made the whole thing real, if even for a second.

Soon enough, Nico's phone started to ring, he took it out to see it was his dad calling, "hello?"

"Nico, where are you and..."

His father paused, forgetting Percy's name again, despite Nico having told his dad many times, "Percy?" Nico supplied, the brown eyed male had the sneaking suspicion that his dad was doing it on purpose, since it wasn't the first time he's done it.

"Yes, Percy, where are you two?"

"We're making our way towards the exit but...I'm kind of confused here, everything is out in the open."

"Hey, come on, this way," Percy said as he grabbed Nico's hand and lead them to towards a group of people making their way to the exits.

"O-oh, never mind dad, Percy's found it, we should be out soon, where are you going to be?" Nico asked his dad, trying to distract himself from the fact that Percy, his crush was actually holding his hand in Hawaii and pretending to be his boyfriend too. It was all suddenly hitting him, Nico thought for one second to bail on his plan of deceiving his family but then Percy looked back at him with a smile and a soft squeeze on his hand, and Nico couldn't help how his heart beat in that moment, for him.

"I think that's your dad," Percy pointed Hades out in the crowd to Nico, who was brought back from his thoughts.

"Huh?" Nico looked around to see his father standing off to one side in the shade of a palm tree waiting patiently by his car, "oh yeah that's my dad. How'd you know?"

Percy shrugged his shoulders, "I can tell, he looked a lot like you, or erm, you look a lot like him..." Percy then laughed, "sorry."

Nico smiled at Percy, "no, don't worry about it, I get what you mean."

They made their way towards Hades, who stared at the way Percy held Nico's hand and somewhat glared at it before composing himself as they neared.

"Nico," Hades greeted his son, bringing him into a hug, Nico didn't call all that much and it was hard for him to stop by since Hades lived in California. It felt good to see his son again and hug him.

"Dad, hey," Nico smiled as he returned the hug, when they parted Nico turned to Percy, "this is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson, Percy, this is my dad Hades di Angelo."

"Hi, good to meet you sir," Percy said as he held out his hand to Hades.

"Yes," Hades said, taking the offered hand and shaking it, "it's good to put a face to the name, good to meet you Percy."

They shook hands for awhile, until it became somewhat awkward with Hades assessing Percy who tried to keep his smile in place, Hades looked like he could crush Percy if Percy ever even dared to hurt Nico.

"Okay..." Nico said, easing them out of the handshake and taking Percy's hand in his, all the while in the back of his mind his heart soared at holding Percy's hand again, "how about we make our way to the resort? Me and Percy need to freshen up a bit before we meet the family."

"Oh," Hades blinked, "you want to "freshen up", sure," Hades said, winking in his son's direction

Nico looked at his father horrified while Percy choked, trying to stop himself from laughing out loud, "dad, oh my god."

"Oh, I'm sorry was I wrong? I assumed you meant freshen up as in-"

"Dad," Nico cut his father off again, "no, please don't continue that train of thought. The last thing we need to talk about is-you know what, never mind, let's just forget this whole conversation."

Percy bit his lip to keep himself from laughing, but a few sounds slipped through.

"Okay," Hades relented on his teasing, "I won't say another word that has anything to do with your sex lives."

"Dad!"

"Get in the car guys, Percy sit up front," Hades said, sobering up a bit.

"O-okay," Percy said as he put his and Nico's carry-on in the truck and got in the front seat.

On the way to the resort, Hades made small talk with Percy, well a one-sided conversation seeing as how he asked Percy what he did for a living, if he had gone to school, did he live by himself, what did he want to do with his life.

"Dad," Nico interrupted just as they were driving into the parking lot of the resort, "I think that's enough questions for Percy, he's just going to have to answer them again for the rest of the family."

"Okay fine, have it your way, hey, why don't you go ahead and check in while Percy and I unload the luggages," Hades suggested as he dropped Nico off at the front.

"Okay," Nico relented and opened the door to get out before giving Percy an encouraging look, "but be nice to Percy, please dad."

"I promise," Hades said, sounding betrayed his own son would think he would harm Percy.

"Fine, I'll see you both inside."

Once Nico closed the door, Percy turned to look at his retreating back going inside and then gulped, nervous once more especially at being alone with Hades.

"You know Percy," Hades began as he looked for parking, "Nico being my son, you know of course how much I love and care for him, which goes without saying that if you hurt him-"

"You're going to hurt me right?" Percy cut off, trying for a smile but failing.

"Well not me per se but his sisters are very protective and you know women, they're a lot more smarter then men, especially when it comes to protecting their loved ones," Hades mentioned off-handedly, "I'd watch for all three of us really. Well four, my wife, bless her heart, is very warm and welcoming but she makes sure her kids are protected and even thought she's not the birth mother of my children, she does think of them as her own."

"Right..." Percy muttered, swallowing thickly.

"Anyway, I am glad you're here with him especially since that good for nothing Solace is here. He broke my son's heart, I haven't seen him since but he was invited to the wedding thanks to my daughter's idiot fiance, now is my chance to break every bone in his body. But to get to the point I was trying to make," Hades quickly went back to what he wanted to tell Percy. "I just wanted to say thank you for being there for him and for being here for him now. He needs it, whether Nico likes to admit it or not. Will was the love of his life when they were together and he was completely and forever changed after Will broke up with him. Nico hasn't really found himself again after that but, I think he's starting to now. You're helping him along the way, so thank you."

Percy was choked up, he couldn't form words, he hadn't thought of Nico in that light, and for some reason, it made Nico seem just a little bit vulnerable, which Percy didn't mind at all, "thank you sir, for those kind words," Percy began, "I kind of know what Nico's going through. You think, you've found the one when you're so in love that you sometimes lose yourself and when the dream ends you're left picking yourself back up trying to get the pieces you gave of yourself back. If I can help Nico even a little bit, that's more than fine by me."

"You're a good person," Hades said genuinely. He smiled at Percy before he climbed out of the car once it was parked.

Percy climbed out as well, all the while thinking about how much more was he going to learn about Nico.

Percy and Hades walked in with the carry-on's trailing behind them and found Nico surrounded by his family.

"Nico!" A girl with dark, black hair the same as Nico's and dark brown eyes like him too, hugged him hard and pet his hair, running her fingers through his tresses, "you cut your hair."

She had freckles across her face and she stood a little bit shorter than Nico but not by much.

"You never call!" Another girl with golden brown curly hair and dark skin hugged Nico, "why don't you call us anymore? Or visit?" Her eyes were a light brown, so light that it almost looked golden.

"Yeah, ugly," the girl who hugged Nico first said, "you never call or visit."

"Shut up, Bianca, you're ugly," Percy heard Nico tease the girl, Bianca as he stuck out his tongue, he then turned to the girl with the golden eyes, "sorry Hazel...I'm a bit-"

"Don't even try it devil-spawn," Hazel interrupted, "that excuse won't work this time, but we forgive you because you're here now."

"And with a new boyfriend I hear," Bianca quirked her eyebrows at Nico, "where is he? We wanna meet him!"

"Uh," Percy cleared his throat as he approached them, "I'm right here..."

Hazel and Bianca turned to him and for a moment they stood quiet before running up to him and hugging him, "hey!" Bianca greeted, "it's so good to meet you!"

"What's your name?" Hazel asked, "I'm Hazel by the way and that's Bianca, the bride."

"Hi," Percy looked from Hazel to Bianca, "I'm Percy Jackson and congratulations Bianca, thank you for having me."

"Aww, you're so polite," Bianca smiled at him, "hurt my brother and we will hurt you, just ask Will."

"Your dad already warned me so..." Percy chuckled nervously, "there will most definitely be no hurting Nico on my part."

"Wow, you are so nice, angel-spawn!" Hazel said, sweet as sugar.

"Okay girls," another voice interrupted them all, "it's time to let Nico and...was it Percy?" A woman who wore a red dress and had dark brown hair that was straight and dark skin, with dark brown eyes, spoke up. She was stunning.

"Uh, yes m'am," Percy answered.

"It's Persephone dear, let's let them rest before they have to mingle with the rest of the family," Persephone said, looking at Bianca and Hazel pointedly, "hello Nico, I'm so happy to see you dear."

"Hi Persephone, I'm glad to see you too, we'll talk more when we come down again," Nico waved at her before grabbing Percy by the hand and leading him with their bags to the elevator.

"Aww," Bianca cooed, as she watched them walk away, "they look so cute together!"

"Yeah they do," Hazel agreed with her sister, "come on, we've gotta get back out there."

Nico had just finished unpacking when Percy came out of the bathroom in only his towel wrapped around his waist and his hair still dripping wet from the shower. Nico couldn't help his eyes raking over Percy's fairly toned body, he had abs! God it was like he was unreal, like a little like Magic Mike but without the muscles being too huge.

Nico ripped his eyes away from Percy's body before Percy noticed Nico staring so openly, he was too busy looking for something to wear.

"Hey, should I go meet your family in casual clothing or...should I dress up a bit?" Percy turned to look at Nico who made it obvious he was trying hard to not look at Percy, "hey are you okay?"

"U-uh what? Of course I'm okay why do you ask?" Nico replied, trying to sound casual but failing.

"Um, because you're not making eye contact with me," Percy said, "did I do something wrong?"

Nico turned to look at Percy then, "no! You didn't it's just-" Nico stopped short, a blush creeping up on his face, "I just...you have-look Percy, you're very attractive with an attractive body..." Nico began, "and I'm gay and can't help it if I find you-"

"You think I'm hot," Percy smirked at Nico, "that's why it's hard for you to look at me right now?"

"Yeah, yeah that's why, look I hope you don't take it the wrong way or mind that-"

"No, Nico of course I don't mind I mean, anyways I'm bisexual, so I've been with guys before."

"Oh? Neat!" Nico said a little too quickly and Percy smirked in amusement. Did I really just say neat?! What is wrong with me? Now would be a good time for me to just disappear into thin air! Nico thought to himself as he looked away from Percy to hide his growing blush.

"Neat?" Percy asked, his smirk growing.

"Okay," Nico said, changing the subject, "I gotta shower too, casual's good, we're just going to be outside with my family," Nico said quickly as he made a beeline for the bathroom.

Percy looked on in amusement as Nico speed walked to get away from the conversation as fast as possible. Percy couldn't help but tease, it was just a little too fun to mess with Nico.

Once he was inside, Nico stripped naked and turned on the shower, mentally preparing himself for what was to come. He briefly wondered if he would bump into Will and if Nico did, how would he react? He had told Percy he hadn't wanted to seem like a failure to Will in both love and life, but Nico wondered if Will would talk to him about their break-up. Nico wondered if Will regretted it. Then he shook his head, dismissing the idea.

Nico's thoughts then went to what Percy had revealed about himself.

Nico still couldn't believe that Percy was bisexual, mostly because he didn't want to give himself hope that they could maybe end up together in the future. Damn Ozzy for putting ideas in his head, this wasn't a rom-com, this was real life. The only reason Nico had even allowed such a huge crush on Percy to form over the years was because Nico could always tell himself that it would never work out since Percy was straight, but now that little thought was shattered, Percy was into guys as well and had even been with guys. Now, Nico needed to be careful, he couldn't let himself be carried away by the fantasy of Percy being his boyfriend.

This was all a big lie, Nico needed to see the bigger picture and remember to not get caught in it.

Fifteen minutes later, Nico got out of the shower, toweling off his hair and body when he realized he had left his clothes outside when he raced to use to the shower, trying to get away from that conversation with Percy.

"Stupid," Nico muttered to himself, "great, now I've gotta go out there, almost naked and show Percy my...body. As if there's anything to show! Okay, it's either now of never."

Nico braced himself as he walked out of the warm bathroom and into the semi-cold room. Percy looked up from his phone, perched on his bed and stared as Nico tried to not make eye contact. Percy couldn't help but chuckle a bit, albeit at the expense of Nico, but he looked so funny. He tried so hard to not at look at Percy, that Percy found it a bit cute. And then Percy noticed Nico's body, which didn't have any muscles but his body looked lanky and slim, not too bad. Percy wondered briefly if Nico felt self-conscious and thought about looking back at his phone to make Nico feel more comfortable.

"Okay," Nico began, trying to dispel the tension in the room, "so I want to give you a little bit of info on my family."

"Okay," Percy said, putting his phone down and looking at Nico, who was still clad in his towel but now he hand a handful of clothes in his arm.

"I'm gonna change in the bathroom right now, but I'm leaving the door kind of open so that you can hear me," Nico said as he walked back into the bathroom and left the door ajar, "you have my aunt Cecilia, who loves to give you back handed compliments and gossip about everything, you might not even know the drama but she'll still talk your ear off with it. Topics to avoid with her is basically everything, just say it's nice to meet you, and then leave."

"I think you're exaggerating," Percy snorted.

"I'm not, trust me, then you have my aunt Marta, who's quiet and mostly keeps to herself, she'll probably ask you where you went to school and what you're doing with your life but other than that, she won't pry, the complete opposite of my aunt Cecilia, her sister by the way. Then you've got my aunt Sofia, who's pretty big, like she's very big, she's super sweet and funny sometimes. My aunt Sofia will probably talk to you about God, and ask if you read the bible and go to church."

"Okay," Percy said.

"Now, on to my aunt Gloria, she's sort of the wild one out of all my aunts, likes to drink and party and dance, when it's family gatherings of course, she's super sweet but she will make you drink alongside her shots of tequila so beware. She's also the sister of my aunt Sofia and my uncle Lorenzo."

"I'll make a note of that."

"My uncle Lorenzo," Nico began as he got out of the bathroom and Percy couldn't help but give Nico a once-over. His pants really hugged Nico in all the right places, "has the worst voice you will ever hear."

"How so?" Percy laughed.

"His voice sounds like he's been smoking since he was thirteen and he's gargling water but he's never smoked in his life, he's very into politics and going to church so stay away from political topics with him unless you're looking for a fight. Then we have my uncle Giacomo who's like, the favorite uncle for all of us, he's great, always ready to party and have a good time. He's always cracking jokes, very easy going. And finally, my uncle Salvatore who's a bit like my uncle Giacomo, and I mean they're brothers, except he tries to be the more mature one since he's the oldest."

"Gotcha," Percy said.

"All of my uncles will more than likely interrogate you like my dad so be prepared for that," Nico chuckled.

"What?" Percy asked, getting a bit nervous.

"Yeah, they're very protective of their nieces and nephews...but don't worry! You're going to do great and besides now you know the family members that mostly matter to impress, the others just come every once a year when something big happens."

"Okay, I've got this," Percy encouraged himself, "I can do this."

"Of course you can, I believe in you, oh also my step mother Persephone is sort of a cold person at first and it may feel like she's playing with you when you talk to her but trust me when I say she's nice. She's got a poker face and you can never tell what she's thinking but she's great though!"

"Okay, don't worry I am all over this," Percy assured Nico, "if I'm stuck, I'll just look to you for help."

"Great, let's do this."

Once they made their way to the small party in the resort's hall being held for his sister Bianca and her fiance, Simon Bianchi, another Italian, it seemed like almost all party-goers looked at the pair as they made their way to Nico's family table. The music was still going on, and there was food being served buffet style but they felt all eyes on them.

Percy subconsciously reached for Nico's hand, who squeezed Percy's hand in reassurance. They made their way to the center of the table where Nico's dad, sisters and stepmom sat, as well as Simon and his two brothers. There were two spots left open for them and they sat down as the party continued.

"Nico, Percy," Hazel said as she called to them from across the table, "Percy, I want you to meet Frank Zhang, my boyfriend."

"Hey," Frank and Percy both got up and shook hands with each other, greeting each other in unison.

"Nice to meet you man," Percy said as he sat back down next to Nico.

"Yeah, same here," Frank agreed.

"And this is Simon," Bianca introduced her husband to be.

"Nice to meet you Simon, congrats," Percy said as they shook hands.

"Oh!" Nico heard a gasp behind, "is this little Nico?!" Suddenly someone was hugging Nico from behind, "come and give your aunt Cece a big hug!"

"Hey, aunt Cece, how's it going?" Nico plastered on a smile as he got up from his seat and hugged her.

"Oh my goodness, you've grown!" Cecilia sounded shocked, but she always said that every time they saw each other. "And who is this?"

Percy looked over and got up with a smile on his face and his hand out, "hello, I'm Percy Jackson and I'm Nico's boyfriend."

Cecilia looked him over before looking back at Nico, "oh! He is so lovely! And so polite! Come here you!" Cecilia grabbed Percy by the hand and dragged him into a hug, "much better than blondie!"

"Okay!" Nico said, trying to pry Percy out of her grasp, "thanks aunt Cece."

"You know, Nico was so devastated when blondie left him," Cecilia started talking to Percy, not letting him go, "and I just knew it! I knew that he was gonna break poor Nico's heart, I told him. I told Nico, I said "he's going to break your heart," exactly that. Those were my words, yes-"

"Cece," Hades interrupted, "please leave the poor boy alone."

"Okay, come on Percy," Nico said, grabbing Percy's hand, "let's get something to eat."

"Oh great," Percy said, he turned back to Cecilia, "it was great to meet you," he flashed her a dazzling smile before being led away by Nico.

"Well that was embarrassing," Nico muttered as they left the table to get food.

"What?" Percy asked Nico, smiling a bit, "what she said about you?"

"Yep."

"Nico, if you meet my mom, she'll show you my baby pictures the moment you step inside her house, now that's embarrassing," Percy smiled down at Nico.

Nico shook his head laughing, Percy making him feel better as they reached the food.

"Oh, this looks so good," Percy said as they looked over the food, "I'm starving!"

"Yeah me too, all we had was dunkin donuts like hours ago."

...

"So you're an assistant manager and the book keeper for a restaurant?" Hades asked Percy as they all ate while holding different conversations but now, everyone was focused on the new couple.

"Yes sir, I am," Percy responded while taking a sip of his sprite.

"Hades, call me Hades son," Hades told Percy as he forked a bit of chicken and brought it up to his mouth.

"Oh, okay sure, si- Hades, sorry," Percy smiled sheepishly.

"Have you gone to college?"

"I went for two years but I had to drop out," Percy answered.

"Why's that? Nico dropped out too, he went to business school but decided to follow his true dream of pursuing art, although it's been hard to get his art to take off..." Hades mumbled.

"Uh, my mom got sick, so I had to help her out..."

"How did she get sick?" Asked Bianca.

"Uh," Percy hesitated, wetting his lips nervously before answering, "well my mom had cancer..."

"Oh god," Bianca gasped lowly, "well is she okay?"

"Uh, yeah," Percy answered quickly, "the mets are all gone now, it's almost like...she never got it...but she did...I had to take on a second job and I wasn't doing too good in school so I stopped to focus on my jobs and my mom. To help pay for her treatments and surgery she needed. I didn't want to flunk so I ended my second year pretty good and after that I stopped going."

"What did she have?" Suddenly a new voice asked, and Nico turned to see Will Solace standing near his sister Hazel, to his left. Nico couldn't help it, his heart beat fast and his cheeks flushed a little on seeing him after so long.

"Uh," Percy looked from Will to Nico and back to Will. He saw the way Nico's face seemed a little flushed as he looked at his ex and an uneasy feeling made its way to the pit of Percy's stomach.

"Hi, Will Solace, nice to meet you," Will outstretched his hand to Percy.

"Percy Jackson," Percy introduced himself and shook Will's hand.

He studied Will for a minute, trying to gauge Will's appearance and personality. He decided Will was really good looking and saw what Nico saw in him when they dated. Percy felt something flare up inside him but he had no idea what that was about. He didn't really have time to think about it either.

"So what did your mother have?"

God, Nico thought to himself, Will still looked good, even better than before. Nico slowly started to feel a little pathetic, thinking he could pretend that his life was great and that he was great all by himself after the break up with Will.

"She had stage 4 metastatic melanoma..." Percy answered and Nico looked over at Percy, surprised.

Will let out a small whistle, "wow, that is one hard cancer to actually diagnose and diagnosed so late...stage 4 she had about a 5% chance survival rate?"

Percy nodded his head.

"Wow and she beat it?"

"She did."

"That's good, she was one of the lucky ones, how'd they treat her?"

"Uh, they gave her a lot of I.L-2-"

"Whoa, high dosage of chemo."

"Yeah, and then she had brain surgery twice to remove the mets on her brain and the other mets were gone with the chemo...my stepdad is a high school teacher, he couldn't do it alone, he couldn't pay for all of the expenses himself so I helped out."

"Wow, your mom's a fighter."

"Yeah, it was hard, but she did it," Percy cleared his throat, getting uncomfortable with where the conversation was going, "anyway, I plan on getting back into school now that I can."

"That's good," Hades picked up on the hint, "what are you planning on studying?"

"I plan on going back to what I was studying beforehand, which was marine biology."

"Oh really? You're interested in that?" Hades asked, his interest piqued.

"Yeah, my dad is a marine biologist along with my older brother and ever since I was little he would take me out with him whenever he was around the area to go and study sea life on the beach or to his lab."

Nico looked over at Percy and smiled softly, he was getting to know Percy more and more. Although he was saddened by what Percy had to go through with his mom, that part surprised him and Nico tried to keep his expression neutral as best he could, he still had to sell the idea that they have been going on for awhile to his family. Nico also found out that Percy was interested in marine biology and that he had an older brother as well as his younger brother and sister.

"Wow, that's cool," Hazel smiled at Percy, trying to make him feel more comfortable, knowing how her family could get.

"Thanks," Percy smiled back at her.

"So Nico how's your art going?" Nico looked over at Will, who was still at the table and was smiling at Nico, almost tenderly.

"Uh, it's-"

"Not so good, I don't think he's sold much," Cecilia responded for Nico, butting in.

"Aunt Cece, I think the question was for me to answer," Nico felt his cheeks flare up slightly, he really didn't want to seem like a failure to Will. "It's going okay, I'm getting some commissions and I've already sold some pieces to people who follow my art blog."

"Oh," Will sounded surprised, "you have a blog? I'll follow it, let me know what's the website."

Nico tried to keep himself from gritting his teeth, the last thing he wanted was for Will to follow his blog, where it wasn't just for art but for him to vent, "I'll let you know."

"Alright well, it was good seeing you, all of you and it was good meeting you Percy," Will said his goodbyes, "let me know Neeks!"

Nico rolled his eyes at his old nickname, trying to mask some of the old sting he surprisingly felt. The table was quiet for a moment, Percy took a sip of his soda, again he felt something in him flare up when he heard Will call Nico that...nickname.

"Boy Nico, you were devastated weren't you when he dumped you," Cecilia opened her mouth not really caring about the mood that was there.

"Cecilia really?" Hades asked her, tiredly.

"What?" Cecilia began, "I'm just saying the truth, Nico was a broken mess when Will dumped him!"

"Oh, give it a rest Cecilia," Hades grumbled.

"Okay, I think I'm going for a walk," Nico said, getting up and Percy looked up at him. Nico didn't wait for anybody and walked away briskly.

"Aunt Cece seriously?" Bianca looked over at her aunt, "you couldn't have-"

"Babe," Simon said, trying to calm Bianca down.

"I don't think I said anything wrong!"

"Uh, excuse me," Percy said, standing up and about to go after Nico.

"Percy I think Nico wants to be alone..." Bianca said, "he doesn't really like to have anyone around him when he's like this."

"I don't think he should be alone right now, and even if he pushes me away I'm not going anywhere," Percy answered smiling before going after Nico.

Bianca, Hazel and Hades all shared a look with each other as they watched Percy run after Nico.

Nico ignored his family as they tried to call him over to say hi, he wanted to get out, he needed to get away. He couldn't believe his aunt had actually said that, in front of everyone too! God Nico felt pathetic, he felt like a failure and what was worse was that he knew the pitying looks he was going to get from his family. With Percy right there, looking at Nico as if he couldn't get over a stupid break up that happened literally years ago. Nico couldn't stand it.

He was over Will, Nico knew it in his heart he had no feelings for Will whatsoever, he had grieved his relationship when it died and decided to move on and focus on himself. He wasn't interested in getting him back at all but still, even after all these years his family kept bringing it up, opening up the wound every time.

How could Nico get away from that if they kept doing it?

Nico heard some steps coming up behind him and hoped that it wasn't Percy.

"Hey Nico, are you okay?" Nico cursed his luck, it seemed like he couldn't get a break today.

"Percy," Nico started, "look I just want to be alone."

"We don't have to talk about it Nico, if it's silence you want I won't say a word but I'm not leaving you alone. I'll walk with you, do whatever you want to do."

Nico avoided looking at Percy, "thanks," he whispered before leading the way out of the hall and out into the open outdoor space of the resort.

They walked along a path, towards a small garden the resort had on the side, with a small round fountain. Nico sat down on the bench that was surrounded by some flowers growing along the foot paths. He sighed heavily as Percy settled next to him.

"I-" Nico started before stopping.

Percy could see Nico struggling to get out what he was trying to say. Percy could understand where the brown eyed boy was coming from. If Percy had a big family like him, having had such an important relationship once be aired out every time they got together would be frustrating, it would make Percy angry even.

"My older brother is a dick," Percy began, looking at the ground, "after my break up with Annabeth, he wouldn't let it go, he would bring it up every chance he got, still does. He does it to get under my skin mostly but I hate it. He's a dick to me, because my dad got together with my mom at the time my dad had been separated from his wife, my older brother's mom. It wasn't my fault but he blames me for it kinda. I can't really imagine how you feel Nico, but you can talk to me about it ."

"I-I hate how my aunt Cece can't seem to let go of the fact that me and Will are through, she acts like as if losing him was one of the greatest losses in my life but she's wrong."

Nico grieved his relationship with Will when it ended and he knew that he was over Will. He felt nothing for him, just treasured their memories together. Losing Will was a loss for Nico at the time but Nico learned from that heart break. He knew now that losing Will wasn't the end of the world for him.

"I moved forward with my life and so did Will, the only thing I feel around Will is awkwardness, I forgot how to act around him, it's been so long. He was more than just my boyfriend, he was also my best friend and I lost both when we broke up. It was hard moving on when the guy of my dreams broke up with me, but it was even harder losing my friend."

"You don't have any feelings for him." Percy stated, and something inside him stirred once more.

"No, I don't but I mean he was my first love so I think he'll always have a special place in my heart."

"Of course," Percy agreed, smiling at Nico.

"I just want her to stop bringing it up every time."

"Have you told her how you feel?" Percy asked Nico.

"Not really but she knows how I feel about it..."

"Maybe your aunt Cece needs a push from you, you need to tell her to stop doing that. If you don't do that, she won't stop."

Nico stayed quiet for awhile, staring at the running water from the fountain.

Percy leaned back against the bench and looked around the garden. There was a stony path all around them instead of the regular bricked path they had been on and that surrounded the resort. Around the fountain, which was in the center of this small, secluded spot, were different flowers, but all complimenting each other nicely. All different kinds of flowers but varying in different shades of one color; blue. Percy couldn't name them because he didn't know too much about flowers, but he did recognize one, the blue ginger flower.

It was only because his mom had worked at a flower shop and candy shop before when he was a kid, that Percy even knew a tiny bit about some flowers. His mother had gotten one from a co-worker as a birthday present. A part of him wondered how Nico would react to Percy giving him a flower.

"You're right," Nico spoke, softly at first that Percy almost missed what he had just said, "my sisters and dad always speak up for me but it's time I did it too. I need to speak up for myself."

"I know you can do it," Percy encouraged Nico, smiling a bit, "and I've got your back okay?"

Nico looked over at Percy, and stared into those green eyes of his, "okay," the brown eyed boy smiled back.

"Wanna go back and show your aunt you haven't been defeated?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," Nico smiled to himself, he felt Percy stand up beside him and he looked up to find Percy standing before him, with his hand held out for Nico and a smile on his face and Nico cursed God because damn it, Percy really was beautiful.

"Come on," Percy laughed a bit as Nico grabbed his hand, "besides, I think you owe me a dance soon."

"I don't dance Percy, I have two left feet!"

"We can practice in our room, if there is one thing I'm happy my mom made me do, it was learn how to ballroom dance, I'll show you," Percy said as they walked hand in hand back to the hall.

Despite what had happened before with his aunt, the rest of the party went pretty well, Bianca had had little games thrown in like couples blowing up a balloon and then trying to pop it with their stomachs, musical chairs and a beer drinking competition.

There was music and desert and food and it was pretty fun, in Nico's opinion.

Plus, it was nice to have beaten his dad and Persephone in the balloon popping competition. Percy blew the balloon up so fast and tied it off with ease that made them get a head start in trying to pop the balloon faster.

Percy and Nico were on their way back to their hotel suite when Bianca and Hazel came up behind them.

"Hey," Bianca called to them, "we're going out clubbing, you guys wanna come?"

"Uh," Nico started before looking to Percy, "I'll go if you'll go."

"I was about to say the same thing," Percy smiled down at him, "why not?"

"Great, meet us down in the lobby in like thirty minutes, we've gotta change," Hazel said as they walked back to the elevator to get to their suite, "Frank and Simon are going too, if you want, get changed so you're more comfortable."

"Yeah, thanks Hazel we will, see you downstairs," Nico said and he and Percy entered their room.

Once inside, Nico went over to his clothes that were in the room's dressers and began to look for something nice to wear for tonight. He turned to Percy who was doing the same thing on his end, "hey are you sure you're okay with going out and drinking?"

Percy looked over at Nico and smirked, "afraid I can't handle my liquor?"

"No, I just didn't want to make you go if you really didn't want to go, I didn't want to make you feel like you had to just because I wanted to," Nico said.

"Thanks Nico for being considerate, but if I didn't want to go I would have said no, besides I want to hang out with you some more."

Nico smiled to himself, allowing himself to feel happy on hearing that Percy actually wanted to hang out with him, "okay awesome, what are you wearing? I'm not too sure what to wear."

"I think I'm going with a plain white v-neck and jeans, I'm probably going to sweat so the less I wear the better, especially since it's pretty hot."

Nico gulped, Percy was going to wear a white shirt that was probably going to be see-through once Percy started to sweat. Oh god, Nico was definitely going to need alcohol tonight. His best friend was going to be tequila.

"I liked you in that red v-neck you wore when we met up for the first time," Percy spoke, taking Nico out of his thoughts, "you looked good in it, red seems like your color."

"R-really?" Nico asked as he looked for the shirt.

"Yeah and those black jeans too," Percy added.

"So I'm going to be an outfit repeater?" Nico asked.

"No one but me is going to know that," Percy winked at him and Nico thought he was going to faint right then and there. Yep, he was definitely going to need alcohol for tonight.

"Alright!" Bianca shouted as soon as Nico and Percy stepped off the elevator, "you guys made it!"

"She pre-gamed a little before going to the club," Hazel mentioned to them as they all made their way outside the resort, "the clubs not too far from here and Simon's brothers are coming as well as..." Hazel hesitated, "...Will, I hope you two don't mind."

Nico shook his head, grabbing onto Percy's hand, "nah, I don't."

Percy squeezed Nico's hand in his, he felt a little mad about the fact that Will was going but since Nico seemed to have no problem, Percy decided he didn't either, "I'm good too besides, we'll be fine together." Percy put his arm around Nico's shoulder and walked with the group as they made their way down the block.

"Nico! Percy!" Bianca came up to them, "here drink this quick," she handed them her flask bracelet.

"What's in this?" Nico asked, sniffing it.

"Vodoka with...juice?" Bianca said, smiling at them.

Will was going to be there with them and Nico said it was fine but part of him was nervous. He and Percy were really going to need to sell their relationship now. He saw Will up ahead with Simon and his brothers. Bianca had been in the middle with Hazel and Frank, and Percy and Nico made up the back.

Nico took a swig of the alcohol in his sister's bracelet before passing it to Percy, who shook his head saying no. Nico shrugged and took one more chug before giving it back to Bianca. After she left Nico looked over at Percy.

"How come you didn't drink?"

"I don't want to overdo it too much, you can and I'll be here to take care of you, but I want to make sure I can do that without being too drunk."

"I can take care of myself Percy," Nico smirked up at him.

"I know you can, but that's what good boyfriends do, right?"

Nico shook his head smiling softly, "hey, are you going to be okay with..." Nico paused not knowing how to bring it up.

"With what?" Percy asked him.

"We're going to dance with each other, maybe..."

"Grind against each other?" Percy said, finishing for Nico, smirking down at him, "and you're asking if I'm okay with doing that?"

Nico didn't answer, he just shook his head.

"If I wasn't okay with dancing with you and having you grind up against me, I wouldn't have come out," Percy said, bringing Nico closer to his body, Nico lowered his head as he was brought against Percy's chest. Nico's arm around Percy's waist. Up ahead, Will looked back and he and Percy made eye contact. Something passed between them, silently and Percy brought Nico even closer to him, for some reason feeling more protective of Nico.

"I've had guys grind up against me before and I've done the same to them, and it's you Nico, because it's you, I don't mind it at all," Percy whispered to Nico, "ready to have some fun?"

"Hell yeah," Nico looked up at Percy and smirked.

Once inside the club, which was dark and had different color lights going all over the place the group made their way to the bar, Simon opened up a tab and got everybody's orders. Percy had gotten a gin and tonic while Nico ordered a shot of tequila along with a margarita.

Percy looked at Nico as he downed the first shot and took a sip of his drink, "someone's getting loose!" He shouted to be heard over the loud music.

"Take a shot with me Percy!" Nico smiled at him, already feeling his cheeks start to flush.

"Alright, I'll order for us!"

"Patron! Make sure it's Patron!" Nico yelled as Percy shook his head smiling.

He turned around to Nico with two shots and two limes on top of the glasses, Percy gave Nico his shot and then reached over for the salt, "ready?!" Percy yelled, as he licked his palm and poured some salt for him and Nico.

"Let's do it!"

Soon, they both downed their shots and Percy made a face as the liquid stung his throat, he was never very fond of tequila but he looked over at Nico who barely flinched upon taking his second shot.

"Whoo!" Nico yelled as he took a huge sip of his drink, he was feeling tipsy already; it had been awhile since he last drank hard liquor. He felt hot and happy and wanted to dance. Nico wanted to dance with Percy right now! "Dance with me Percy! Let's dance!"

Nico grabbed Percy's hand and took him to the dance floor where the lights seemed to be emanating from and there was fog all around them. Nico started to grind against Percy, as the music blasted. Percy grabbed onto Nico's waist as Nico gyrated his hips against Percy. Neither one wanting to think coherently about the fact that they were just pretending to be dating. This didn't have to mean anything.

Song after song played and Percy and Nico continued to dance with each other, drinks long finished, grabbing on to each other, hands all over their bodies, working up a sweat especially with all of the other people around them. Bianca and Simon were next to them, dancing as well with Hazel and Frank on the other side.

"I'm gonna get a shot!" Nico yelled to be heard over the music, "want a drink?"

"Yeah! Gin and tonic," Percy yelled back and continued to dance as Nico made his way through the throng of people to the bar.

He caught the bartender and asked for another shot and a gin and tonic. Waiting for his drinks, Nico felt a hand slide across his back. He looked over to see Will next to him, smiling at Nico as if it was a common occurrence.

"Hey," Will shouted, "what're you getting?"

"A shot of Patron and a gin and tonic for Percy," Nico replied and when the bartender gave Nico his drinks, putting them on Simon's tab, Nico downed his shot quickly. He wasn't expecting to be caught alone with Will.

Will looked at Nico in surprise, his own drink in his hand, "I didn't know you went for hard liquor?"

Nico looked at him, and maybe it was the alcohol in his system, maybe it was the incident that happened earlier with his aunt, maybe it was the fact that yes, they broke up but Nico never felt like he got complete closure and looking at Will tonight. Seeing him talk to Nico as if there wasn't a wall in between them made Nico somewhat angry.

Of course Will wasn't going to know Nico liked some hard liquor from time to time, they had broken up when they first started college. They hadn't spoken in five years almost.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, a lot of things you won't ever know about me," Nico spit out a little bit too harshly, he turned to the bartender and asked for two more shots, downing them as soon as they were made and moved past Will to get to Percy, who was still dancing on the dance floor except he was dancing with both Bianca and Hazel.

The sight of them so carefree and having fun made Nico smile despite his intoxicated state. Maybe having three shots of tequila back to back wasn't so smart. He walked towards Percy and brought him back to dance with Nico. Once Percy saw Nico, his whole face lit up, which Nico could have just imagined, he was drunk so he could have. Nico handed Percy his drink and they danced together.

Bianca and Hazel dancing near them too, with their own drinks, before Hazel finished hers and went to get more.

Nico continued dancing with Percy, despite them both being super sweaty and leaned close. Nico even took a couple of sips of Percy's drink even though he didn't really like gin that much.

Percy didn't seem to mind and kept his hands around Nico's waist the whole time. Eventually, after downing all those drinks Nico needed to use the bathroom, really quick. He clumsily made his way to the bathroom with Percy right behind him, leading him in the right way. Once inside Nico finally relieved himself and Percy had the decency to stand near one of the stalls and look at the wall as Nico finished.

Ughh, Nico thought to himself, this isn't like me! Will must have gotten to me worse than I thought. I'm acting all messy...

Then Nico made his way to the sink, washing his hands before leaving with Percy. Nico went to the bar, Percy still right behind him and asked for another shot.

"Don't you think you might be overdoing it?" Percy asked as the bartender placed Nico's shot in front of him.

"We're in Hawaii!" Nico said as he downed it, not bothering to get salt or even have the lime right after the shot. Almost as if he didn't feel it. "Last one."

"Promise?" Percy asked.

Nico smiled up at Percy, "promise."

Percy's eyes flicked all over Nico's face, "you're drinking water, okay?"

"Yes, yes," Nico slurred, moving closer to Percy.

Around two in the morning, the club started closing down, and the security guards and employees made sure people were leaving. The group all left together and Nico finally remembered Will had been with them, but he hadn't seem him near the group at all.

With all those drinks mixed within him, Nico couldn't really walk straight, he could walk without tripping himself but not straight ahead. He briefly wondered how his sisters did it with heels on, seeing as they drank as much as he did. Thankfully Percy was there, helping Nico walk as they made their way back to the hotel. Nico had kept his promise to Percy about taking his last shot but he still had one last margarita, so Nico was still more than tipsy. Okay maybe he was full on drunk but so what?

They made their way into the hotel they were staying at, trying not to bring attention to their group and made for the elevators. Nico and Percy kept laughing the whole way because Nico said something about wanting chicken nuggets from McDonald's. Out of all the foods Nico could have wanted, he craved McDonald's, something he could have at any time.

They made their way to the their room, saying goodnight to Hazel and Frank and then to Bianca and Simon; thanking Simon for settling the tab. Once inside their room, Nico started taking off his shirt, which was covered in sweat and started to undo his pants as well.

"You hungry?" Percy asked as he turned around, giving Nico his privacy.

"Yeah, can we order service...for like...food?" Nico asked.

Percy laughed, "yeah, anything in particular?" he asked, making his way over to the phone.

"A burger," Nico said as he made his way to his bed, "ooh and fries and wine."

"More alcohol?" Percy teased.

"Yes, more, besides it's wine."

"That's mixing drinks, then you're going to feel sick the next day so...no wine."

Nico groaned as Percy ordered the food for them, ordering for himself some chicken wings. When he was finished he came to sit on Nico's bed, who was currently only in his boxers.

"How're you feeling?" Percy asked.

Nico let out a small giggle, "fine, happy."

"That's good," Percy smiled warmly at Nico. He looked so cute, there was a faint blush on his cheeks due to the alcohol and dancing they did, not to mention the walk back to the hotel.

"Percy," Nico started.

"What's up?" Percy asked.

Nico shook his head as if he were nervous, almost shy, he laughed to himself a little, "okay, hopefully you don't take this the wrong way..." Nico stopped and then giggled some more.

"Take what the wrong way?" Percy laughed along, Nico's laughter was contagious and Percy couldn't help it.

"Okay so, remember when I said you were attractive," Nico said timidly.

"Yes?" Percy waited patiently for Nico to continue.

"Okay so like..." Nico stopped again, his blush growing, still too tipsy from the club.

"Nico, maybe you might want to wait to tell me something like this," Percy interrupted, "maybe when you're sober?"

"I won't have the guts to tell you," Nico laughed, "besides you're a good guy...like a really good guy, so I don't mind telling you now," Nico smiled at Percy and Percy felt his heart flutter just a tiny bit.

"Y'know, I...always had a crush on you," Nico finally finished, and then put his face behind his hands, blushing some more.

"R-really?" Percy asked, a big smile subconsciously forming on his face.

"Yeah, for a long time actually, even back when you had a girlfriend. I just didn't think you liked guys so I thought it was okay to keep having a crush on you because I knew nothing was going to come out of it," Nico continued, his face coming away from behind his hands, "and I mean I first thought you were super hot when I first started working at the bank but then I got to know you and you weren't just hot you were also sweet and kind."

"Nico..."

"Nothing is going to come out of this I know that but I just figured you should know, I always really liked you."

"Liked?" Percy asked Nico, "as in past tense?" For some odd reason, Percy felt his heart thump erratically in his chest.

Nico was silent, all laughter gone from his face and he didn't know what to answer, he didn't want to expose even more of himself to Percy and weird him out with his confession but...something about the way Percy said it made him think...

"Like," Nico answered, "okay I-I like you, I've got a crush on you."

Percy was about to respond when there was a knock on their door.

"Room service!"

Percy got up from Nico's bed, his heart still beating wildly after hearing Nico's confession. How did Percy feel about him? Percy asked himself as he opened the door and the food was pushed through on a small cart.

"Thank you," Percy said as he tipped the bell boy.

"Yes! Food," Nico got up quickly from his bed and pushed the cart all the way to the edge of his bed, "come on Percy, let's eat and watch something on the TV," Nico said as he opened his tray and saw his huge burger with fries, "we can share this, it's too big."

"Uh, yeah," Percy said, smiling faintly.

He decided to take off his jeans and shirt as well, joining Nico on the bed as they started to dig in and watch whatever was on TV. The whole time, neither one of them could stop thinking about their conversation from before.

Percy, for his part tried to steer it back, but then stopped short. It was wrong to do that, especially when Nico wasn't coherent. Plus, Percy needed to examine his own feelings for Nico. He couldn't deny that even before this whole scheme of pretend dating, Percy had found Nico attractive. He just never acted on it because it was nothing more than an infatuation. Or so Percy thought, but knowing Nico now, and seeing so many different sides to him, Percy didn't think it was infatuation anymore. He thought it felt like something, a little more.

Eventually Nico drifted off to sleep after eating and Percy's eyes were fighting to stay open but sleep won out, and he slept next to Nico. Finding it nice to have someone sleeping next to him again.

"Get up boys!" A voice boomed throughout their room, and both Nico and Percy suddenly woke up, sitting up on the bed.

"D-dad?!" Nico said, pulling up the comforter to cover his body, he recognized the voice as soon as Hades yelled for them to wake up, that's how Hades used to wake up Nico for school years ago. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I had to wake up your sisters since they didn't come for breakfast and realized I had to wake you both up too."

"S-sir!" Percy was fully awake and fell off the bed trying to cover his body, which was only in boxers, he managed to take the covers down with him and leaving Nico vulnerable, out in the open "I-I wasn't...we weren't-"

"Percy!" Nico cried indignantly, as he covered his body with his arms.

"Oh hush son, it's not nothing I haven't seen and Percy it's perfectly okay if you guys were just cuddling in bed."

"W-we weren't cuddling," Nico said, blushing furiously.

"Oh really?" Hades looked over at his son, a twinkle in his eyes, "so Percy with his arm around you, holding you close to him isn't cuddling?"

As soon as the words left Hades' mouth, Percy started to blush and Nico was doing a fine impression of a tomato, "dad, please.."

"Come down for brunch boys, it'll be good to have some food in your system especially for today's events besides, I heard you two were having serious fun yesterday with the group."

"Dad," Nico whined.

"I was young once not too long ago, I was hip, I had women and men trying to get a piece of me and I wanted a piece of them too-"

"Oh my god! Dad!"

"Okay, okay, fine, come down when you're ready, we'll be waiting for you."

Hades left without saying another word, and with his back turned to his son, he smiled evilly to himself. He couldn't help it, he loved to tease Nico, it was just too easy to get him riled up.

As soon as he left the room, tension invaded it. Nico still had his body covered but it was mostly to cover himself from Percy. He had a raging headache now that his dad was gone, and his mouth was super dry. All that he could focus on now; since his dad was gone and so was the commotion, was to get some advil and get something to drink.

"Ugh," Nico groaned as he made his way to the mini fridge, "I need water..." The whole thing with Percy on his bed, cuddling him, slipping from his mind completely, "and a shower."

"Uh," Percy started, unsure of whether or not Nico remembered last night's events, unsure of whether or not what Percy himself felt after last night. Something was definitely different in the way Percy thought about Nico, but was it a crush? He did like talking to Nico a lot, especially their little chats at the bank. Nico was definitely attractive, in Percy's opinion.

"You, uh, you gonna shower?" Percy asked, a bit dumbly because, duh, Nico had just said he needed one. He didn't know if he should mention anything to Nico about last night, especially his confession to Percy, although it seemed like a pretty important detail.

"Yeah, unless you want to take a shower first?" Nico asked, his towel and boxers already in his hand, his headache was really starting to bother him, he needed water and some pills, fast.

"No, no it's okay," Percy gestured to Nico, letting him know it was fine if Nico went first.

"Okay, thanks, I really need one," Nico groaned again, making his way into the bathroom and closing the door.

Percy stared at the closed door, his heart thumping wildly, no maybe it would be best if he didn't mention anything to Nico. Percy thought it would be best if he figured out his own feelings first before broaching the subject with Nico, plus it seemed like a delicate time right now with his family members and ex boyfriend; who Percy would never admit out loud, was actually kinda hot.

What exactly did Percy feel for the other young man? He knew he thought Nico was attractive, in an unconventional way, which seemed to fit the other man perfectly. Nico had dark brown eyes and it was hard to distinguish the pupil from the iris but when Percy stared into them he felt like he was falling deep into the earth. Nico's hair was so black, like midnight and wavy, with the ends curling slightly. His skin was pale and porcelain-like, if Percy were being honest with himself, he thought Nico was outright beautiful. He was also the polar opposite of Annabeth.

Annabeth...

Her name still sent an ache through his heart. He had moved on, or so he would tell himself but she had been his first love and Percy found that he would always have a tenderness for her in his heart. He didn't hate her, not like he did at first when they first broke up; well she broke up with him. Percy didn't mean to hate her, he tried not to, he tried to be mature about it, but he was so fucking angry. Nine years, almost ten, together and suddenly she had fallen out of love with him? He had been angry and he was hurt by the fact that she had fallen out of love with him so easily.

Maybe easy wasn't the right word but she had stopped loving him and Percy didn't know what to make of the pain she left him in. They hadn't talked at all after the break up and Percy tried his best to move on but it was like he was still stuck. He wasn't in love with Annabeth anymore per se, but it was like he would compare any new boyfriends or girlfriends to her and though that wasn't fair to them, he just couldn't help it. He wouldn't mean to do it, it would happen subconsciously, and when Percy realized what he was doing he would stop it right away.

He was still stuck feeling like Annabeth was the best he would ever have, the one that got away. And god, she was beautiful. She had blonde, curly hair and he would sometimes grab hold of one of her stray ringlets, loosen it up and watched as it would bounce into place. She was also tall and slender, with peach like skin and beautiful, absolutely stunning gray eyes. They were intelligent and they never missed a single detail.

"Hey," Nico called out to Percy, cutting his train of thought, "you can use the shower now," he said as he moved away from the bathroom and towards his dresser with his clothes. Percy didn't mean to stare so openly, but he couldn't help it. Nico had come out with his hair plastered around his face and a towel loosely hanging onto his waist, water was still dripping slightly down semi-toned chest and Percy licked his lips. He throat suddenly felt very dry.

"...they have for us to do," Nico had finished talking and turned around to look at Percy expectantly.

"Uh, huh?" Percy asked, eloquently.

"Did you hear what I said?" Nico asked.

"Uh," Percy smiled sheepishly, "no sorry, I zoned out."

Nico rolled his eyes and a fond smile touched his lips, "I said, after we have breakfast I wonder what's on the schedule, I'm sure there're things they have for us to do."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure your sisters have planned that out, I think..." Percy trailed off, his cheeks growing hot. He grabbed his towel and quickly made his way to the bathroom to take a cold shower. His thoughts were getting away from him and he had to stop himself before he did anything impulsive. That's usually how Percy was sometimes.

"There you are!" Bianca exclaimed, as soon as the di Angelos' spotted Nico and Percy making their way to them, "I'm starving and I'm the bride to be! You guys can't do this to me!"

"Ignore her, she's just being a drama queen who is still tipsy from last night," Hazel said, rolling her eyes, "you two look so cute together!"

"Yeah and were even cuter grinding all up on each other," Bianca snorted.

"Bi!" Hazel and Nico said at the same time, Hazel fanning her face at the lewd comment her sister made.

"What? It's not like I'm lying?"

"Enough children who should be acting like adults," Hades grunted, "let's eat, we have a busy day today."

"What's on the schedule?" Nico asked his dad as they all made their way to the dining area of the hotel.

"Well Persephone and me and Simon's parents are making sure the finishing touches for Sunday are ready, Percy and you need to get fitted for the tuxes and then after your fitting, you're all going to the aquarium?" This time Hades looked to Bianca for confirmation.

"Yep," Bianca answered walking ahead of her family, "we're swimming with dolphins!"

"And swim with dolphins," Hades repeated.

"Wait, tuxes?" Nico asked, "for both me and Percy? I thought it was supposed to me, I told Percy to bring a suit and that he wasn't going to purchase anything..."

"Well one of Simon's groomsmen got food poisoning and he's out sick so Percy," Hades turned to the green eyed man, "if you don't mind standing in as a groomsmen as well, the tux is something we'll take care of, no need to worry."

"Uh, sure," Percy answered, although he was completely unsure.

"Good, also we'll be running a rehearsal tonight so that everything goes smoothly for Sunday."

"Wow," Percy muttered to Nico in his ear, "tight schedule huh?"

"Y-yeah," Nico mumbled, feeling Percy's breath tickle his ear.

...

"Okay Percy you can come out now," Persephone called watching Nico in his black tuxedo, putting the final touches.

"Okay coming," Percy said as he made his way to the front so that tailor could make some adjustments. He was wearing the slacks and button up shirt first so that the tailor could see what needed to fit and where before putting on the vest and coat.

When Percy walked out his saw Nico in his tuxedo looking breathtaking and beautiful. He swallowed hard, his throat feeling dry and he couldn't believe how handsome Nico looked, well he could believe it because Nico was pretty good looking but it was still shocking.

"Wow," Nico whistled lowly, making Percy blush, "not too shabby, you clean up pretty nice."

Persephone smirked at her stepson, knowing full well how he affected Percy, who's checks were getting even more red by the second.

"Okay, right here," the tailor muttered to himself as he set about working on making sure the tuxedo fit Percy's body perfectly.

"Okay Nico, you can change out of the suit and back into your clothes, the tux should be done by tomorrow," Persephone said.

Nico nodded his head before heading off to the changing rooms.

"Okay put on the vest and bring out the coat as well so that we could do it in one go," the tailor instructed and Percy went back to the changing rooms as well to put on his vest.

On his way out of the changing room he saw Nico on the floor with his phone in his hands.

"Hey," Percy said as he went to stand in front of him.

"Hey," Nico answered looking up at Percy, "seriously, you look really good in a tuxedo, the alterations should only make you look better," Nico complimented Percy with a small smile on his face.

"Thanks," Percy blushed slightly, a happy grin on his face, he wasn't used to being complimented like this, "you did too by the way, you looked real good in that suit."

Nico's eyes opened eyed, "r-really? You think so? I thought I looked stupid," he said looking away.

"No way!" Percy insisted, "you looked handsome."

Before Nico could respond Percy walked off to the front again so that the tailor could finish on him. Nico wondered what that was about. Percy was blushing now more than Nico's seen before.

Nico's phone rang and he looked down to see Ozzy calling from Facebook's messenger app.

"Hey, what's up?" Nico asked, picking up.

"Not much, just wondering what was going on? How are things going with Percy? Have you seen Will yet? What's he like? Is he ugly now?" Ozzy spit out question after question.

"Slow down," Nico chuckled, "I've seen Will, no he is not ugly in fact I think he's gotten even more good looking but whatever, he's still Will I guess? I don't really know, I haven't exactly talked to him except when we went out clubbing-"

"Hold on, you went clubbing with Will?" Ozzy interrupted.

"No I went with Percy, my sisters, Simon and Frank and Will tagged along."

"You went with a group and Percy went too? Did you grind your cute little butt on him?"

"Ozzy!" Nico hissed blushing suddenly at the memory.

"Well did you?"

"Yes," Nico whispered.

"Oh my god!" Ozzy squealed on the other end, "did you feel his dick? Did he get hard? Is he packing?"

"Oh my god you're embarrassing me," Nico choked slightly as Ozzy kept asking if Percy was big or not.

"Well fine you don't want to tell me if he's packing heat or not that's cool that's cool," Ozzy said trying to sound hurt but she was actually enjoying making Nico squirm.

"Well I don't exactly recall since I got drunk as hell, patron..."

"Ugh, I should have never gotten you into that."

"I like it!" Nico said.

"Yeah a little too much," she muttered.

"Whatever, well I think Percy and me are good, we're doing good...we-we go good together..." Nico said, thinking back on yesterday and with his aunt.

"Yeah, I think so too," Ozzy said genuinely, there was no teasing in her voice, "well I'll let you go, have fun for me and eat lots of yummy food for me too! Don't forget my souvenir!"

Nico smiled to himself, "don't worry I won't."

"Hey," Percy said coming back, "we're good to go, Bianca says we're going to the aquarium and she picked up our swimming trunks since we're swimming with dolphins."

Percy walked inside of the changing room and closed the curtain, taking off the tux and getting back into his normal clothes. Nico stood up from where he was and waited patiently for Percy to be done

"Cool, I can't wait."

"So yesterday was a lot of fun," Percy said from inside the changing room.

"Oh, yeah totally," Nico smiled to himself, "although I can't remember much about the later half of the night but I felt like I had fun."

Percy peeked his head out from the curtain, a look of confusion on his face, "you don't...remember much?"

"Some parts but somewhere between us dancing and leaving once the club started to close, my memory fades..."

"Oh," Percy said, going back behind the curtain and putting on his pants. He somehow felt...sad that Nico didn't really remember last night. Especially his confession to Percy, and Percy didn't exactly want to admit to himself why that bothered him so much. This was supposed to be a good thing right? Nico didn't remember telling Percy he had a crush on him and Percy could move on and pretend it didn't happen. Except it did happen.

It had happened and Percy had his feelings mixed ever since. He knew he thought Nico was attractive and he knew he liked talking to Nico, a lot. He also liked to listen to Nico talk about nothing or everything and to be quite honest, he really liked how Nico felt against his body while dancing the night before. Percy had dated people after Annabeth and sure, they didn't work out but he had learned to move on and live his life without her in it.

He tried to talk to her, many times before but he just couldn't seem to do it. He had cut Annabeth off from his life, and Percy had to admit, it was painful. Despite everything, Annabeth had his friend first and foremost.

And if Percy were really honest with himself, if he really could admit it, he hadn't felt this spark in a long, long time. Percy couldn't remember the last time he felt like this before Nico and that scared Percy a little. There was a possibility for heart break, and Percy didn't know if he could handle it again.

So what was he going to do then? Was Percy going to let the potential of being in a real relationship with Nico slip right through his fingers? Was he going to ignore this spark that tugged at his gut? Or was he going to give it all the fight he had and make sure that he left Hawaii with Nico as his actual boyfriend?

Percy looked at himself in the mirror then, and really looked at himself. He still looked the same but there was something different in his eyes. They had come alive, a fire blazing, crystal clear for him to see, and that was when he knew. He knew he had to make Nico his before they left, or risk losing this.

"Ready?" Nico asked, looking up from his phone as Percy came out of the changing room.

God, he looked so damn cute, Percy thought to himself as he smiled at Nico, "yeah, let's go."

"Great, Bianca's waiting for us outside," Nico said, walking alongside Percy as they made their way out of the shop. Persephone had left, having been satisfied with the way things went today. "I feel like she's always waiting for us in some way," Nico chuckled lowly.

"Oh yeah, she waited for us yesterday to go clubbing and then this morning for brunch and now to go to the aquarium and swim with the dolphins," Percy listed, "sorry I took so long by the way."

"Nah, it's cool, you didn't take too long and besides Bianca's only been waiting for five minutes but sometimes she can be a real drama queen," Nico teased with a small smile on his face.

"I am so excited!" Bianca squealed, bubbling with laughter, "we're going to swim with dolphins for the first time!"

"Are you happy babe?" Simon asked Bianca as they made their way to the outside part of the aquarium, being guided through by an employee.

"Of course! Thank you so much!"

"I'd never thought Bianca would ever act this way," Nico shook his head, chuckling at his sister.

"Well to be fair, this is her wedding weekend and soon enough they're going to be in the Honeymoon phase all over again," Percy whispered lowly to Nico, and he didn't notice but Nico's ears turned pink as he fought off a blush.

"You guys ready for this fun packed weekend?" Hazel asked, coming to walk beside her brother and smiling at the two of them, "Bianca has not stopped talking about all of the fun things we're going to do while we're here and we haven't done much yet but I'm starting to get tired!" Hazel complained.

"Bi gets excited easily, but watch, at the end of the day she'll be too exhausted to even move, let alone breathe anymore," Nico said.

"Okay," the employee guiding the group to the pool where they would soon be swimming with dolphins starts, grabbing their attention, "so changing rooms for guys are over to the left side and for the girls on the right, we can either do one at a time or two people at a time to swim with the dolphins, you can decide once you meet with the trainers. Once you're changed you'll come right up through this gate and walk to the edge of the pool, the trainers are waiting there for you already. Have fun!"

"Uh, I don't know about this now..." Nico looked at the water where there were two dolphins swimming about and three trainers already in the water.

"Oh come on Nico," Bianca looked at her brother, "when are you going to get this chance again?"

"To be fair, not a lot of animals actually like being around me, what if the dolphin doesn't like me hanging onto his...fin?" Nico finished lamely. "Also, I'm not that good of a swimmer."

"Don't worry Nico," Percy said, putting his arm around him, "I'll be right there with you and if you drown, I'll save you too, maybe that could earn me a kiss," Percy teased Nico with a wink, which in turn had Nico blushing.

"Aww, you guys are so cute!" Bianca gushed, a big smile on her face.

Percy pressed a kiss to the side of Nico's face before walking off to talk to Frank. Once he was out of earshot, Bianca sidled up to her brother and put her arm around his shoulders, bringing him closer to her.

"I'm really happy for you Nico," Bianca whispered to him, "I seriously am so happy you found someone as wonderful as Percy."

Nico looked at his sister, and he didn't know what to say because part of him felt guilty for fooling her, fooling his family and if Nico were being honest, he was fooling a part of himself too. He knew he shouldn't be thinking that way but he couldn't help it.

"Thanks Bi," Nico said, roughly.

"Well that was fun," Percy said to Nico once they were back in their room.

They swam with the dolphins and it was an experience Nico was never going to forget. He would have hated himself had he chickened out and not swam with them in the end because if he were being truthful, it felt so magical.

Seeing Percy swimming with the dolphins was a different experience altogether. It was like Percy was a natural, almost graceful and the smile on Percy's face sent a flood of warmth throughout Nico's whole body. The brown eyed male couldn't deny that slowly, Percy was starting to become a comfortable presence around him.

"Hey, wanna go for a quick swim in the pool?" Percy asked, bringing Nico out of his thoughts.

"Huh?" Nico asked, looking over at Percy.

"It's night time, and the pool shouldn't be too crowded at this time of night, we could go for a dip," Percy suggested, and maybe it was Nico's imagination but it almost seemed as though Percy's voice had grown husky.

Nico felt himself swallow thickly, "um, y-yeah that sounds good."

"Good, I'm gonna get dressed in the bathroom so you're free to use the room to change. Let me know when you're decent," Percy called over his shoulder as he closed the bathroom door.

As soon as the door shut, Nico got up and looked for his swimming trunks. His hands were trembling and he tried to will them to stop but the thought of spending some time alone with Percy...something deep inside Nico seemed to make his body come alive. Getting dressed, he knocked on the bathroom door to let Percy know he was ready.

Once getting to the pool area, Nico could see that it was completely empty of people. Nico's heart started to beat a little faster, he was going to be completely alone in a pool with Percy Jackson.

"Come on in Nico, the water's great," Percy called out to him, already inside the pool and swimming closer to him.

"Uh, okay, just, don't laugh too much," Nico said, getting inside the pool and feeling the cold water hit him, "um, on second thought, I think the water's feeling a little...icy, I think I'm just gonna-"

"Oh no you don't," Percy laughed, grabbing Nico by the waist and bringing him deeper into the pool.

"Percy! What if I said I can't swim?" Nico's voice went a little high-pitched, and it wasn't just because he was getting into the pool, but because of how warm Percy's hands felt while on his body, how soft too, and Nico was getting some really bad ideas into his head.

Percy pressed Nico's body flush against his own and laughed, the sound rumbling against Nico's back, "don't worry, I'm a great swimmer, I used to be on the swim team, remember I told you, so I'll save you in case anything happens."

"So you're saying to just trust you?"

"Absolutely," Percy smiled at Nico, "I got your back Nico."

Once Nico got over his fear of drowning and got used to the water's temptaure, the night was spent swimming and talking. As the night came to a close and they made their way back to their room, Nico's heart seemed to feel a little lighter.

"-and this here is where we house a wide variety of types of jellyfish-"

They were at the aquarium, something Percy really wanted to do, and Nico was now watching as Percy continued explaining all the different types of fish and special features. Like how some fish, most of which were completely unrelated to one another, had suction cups.

"Lionfish are like, almost perfect oceanic killing machines! You might thinking about a shark, but no, it's the lionfish."

"You know Percy," Nico began, grabbing hold of his wrist because Percy was pretty much getting left behind looking at everything, "it's pretty cool how you have all of these cool facts about different sea animals."

"Really?" Percy said, looking away bashfully, "thanks," he muttered shyly. Percy felt like his heart would start to beat out of his chest.

Lately, it felt like he was more hyperaware of Nico when the brown eyed young man was around Percy, more than before. No matter what Nico did, Percy was acutely aware of it and he couldn't stop even if he wanted to. Being around Nico made Percy feel more alive than he ever felt before, he felt happy with Nico. A part of him marveled at how at ease and comfortable he was becoming with Nico around. Nico's family was great, and they genuinely seemed to care about Percy too, which felt nice.

Percy didn't come from a big family. His grandparents died before he was born, from both sides of his family, and his mom only had him and his little sister Estelle. His dad had been absent for a lot of his life and whenever his dad would visit, Triton would always accompany him and then it was never as fun as it could've been, it was better when Tyson was with them. So this was his first time experiencing such a big family gathering.

He still hadn't forgotten about Nico's little confession two nights ago. Ever since then, he had been thinking about it nonstop. Some part of Percy wanted to confront Nico about it, but he was scared that if he did that then Nico would start to pull away. That was the last thing Percy wanted. So he held back the urge to ask, even though the questions were itching to get out.

"Do you want something to eat?" Nico asked, looking up at Percy. Their hands were intertwined together, when had that happened, Percy didn't know, he didn't even feel himself do it, it was as if his body was moving on its own.

"Yeah, actually, I'm pretty hungry," Percy answered, and then, his stomach growled.

"Alright," Nico laughed, "well, let's pick somewhere to eat, they have a lot of options."

Nico went on, absentmindedly looking around for something that appetizied him, and Percy couldn't help but look at their locked hands. This felt right to Percy. Slowly, he was starting to feel like himself again. He couldn't remember the last time he even went clubbing, or did something fun like go to the aquarium. That used to be one of his favorite past times with Annabeth...but that had changed after they both entered college, and it got worse when his mom got diagnosed with cancer.

It was like school and work were getting in the way too much, and they were spread too thin. Annabeth slowly started to drift away and Percy could feel it but he did nothing to stop it. In a way, he blamed himself for the fallout as well. He hated Annabeth for leaving him, but that was just because in truth, he had hated himself for just sitting back and doing nothing.

He was just as much at fault for the deterioration of his relationship with Annabeth as she was. When you're with someone, it takes both parties to choose to continue being with each other and putting in the work to fix things. Finally coming to that realization, Percy came to terms with his ended relationship with Annabeth. The anger seemed to have finally been released.

Percy looked over at Nico, as he continued to see what he wanted to eat, and he couldn't help the smile that touched his face. Percy knew now that he couldn't see himself as just being Nico's friend after this trip, he didn't want that. He wanted to be in a relationship with Nico, one that was real.

Now the question was, how was Percy going to confess his feelings to Nico?

"Okay, I didn't know you could surf like that Perce!" Nico exclaimed while opening the door to their room. "That was seriously amazing! You're like a jack of all trades."

"Really?" Percy laughed, coming inside.

"I mean, you know a lot of sea life and fish facts, you're a surprisingly good dancer, and you can surf, what else do you have up your sleeve?" Nico joked, taking off his sand-filled shirt.

"Thank you, thank you, hold the applause," Percy joked, but he couldn't help how his eyes raked over Nico's form.

Being aware of his attraction to Nico wasn't helping him. It just made things worse at times like this, because Percy wanted nothing more than to march over to Nico and kiss the air out of his lungs. Percy couldn't deny that he was dying to taste Nico, see if he was as sweet as he looked.

"-we're having dinner tonight, just you and me, I told my family I wanted some alone time with you but that was just a lie to get them off our backs. If even I want time away from them and their my own family, I can't imagine how you must feel," Nico chuckled softly, "anyway, I figured, I could make it up to you for being so cool around them."

"What?" Percy asked, looking away and feeling himself blush, what if he had been caught staring by Nico? That'd be embarrassing, "Nico, you don't have to do that, your family's cool and it's nice spending time with them. I didn't have that growing up so it was a nice change of pace. Although, having dinner alone with you," Percy began, moving closer to Nico, "doesn't sound so bad at all."

Nico looked up into Percy's eyes and swallowed thickly, he wasn't sure, and he didn't want to assume but it almost felt like Percy had flirted with him right there.

Nah, that's not possible, Percy...doesn't like me in that way.

"So, I'm gonna shower real quick and then it's your turn, sound good?" Nico asked, ignoring the alarm bells ringing in his head that said "Percy was flirting! Percy was flirting!"

"Take your time," Percy muttered, glancing away, and maybe Nico imagined it, but for a second he thought he saw Percy look disappointed.

...

"Wow, this place is fancy..." Percy said, looking around.

"Thought it'd be fun to splurge," Nico laughed softly, whispering into Percy's ear and making him shiver in delight. He couldn't stop how responsive his body became around Nico, it was incredible how quickly Percy felt at ease around him.

"Yeah, let people know that we're men of means," Percy joked, looking over once more at Nico.

He looked good, in a simple outfit. A black button up shirt, tucked into his slacks, the two buttons on the shirt were left unbuttoned, and it also showed off a little bit of Nico's chest, which Percy felt his eyes going back to every few seconds.

"Yeah, plus, you cleaned up nicely, figured I'd show you off," Nico teased, his breath ghosting over Percy's neck, raising up goosebumps.

"Thanks," Percy said, his voice growing deeper with want, with need. This was bad, dinner hadn't even started but Percy was already thinking about taking Nico back to the hotel and-

"Hey, they got us a table, come on," Nico said, grabbing hold of Percy's hand and leading him deeper in the restaurant.

Once they were seated, with menus in front of their faces, Percy looked over at Nico.

"I don't think I mentioned how good you look tonight," Percy said, looking over at Nico, his eyes focusing all over his face before settling on Nico's brown eyes, "I must be a terrible boyfriend," he joked, but there was this gleam in Percy's eyes that made Nico's throat run dry.

Nico exhaled through his nose softly, a laugh bubbling through, "you didn't have to, but thank you," Nico smirked Percy's way, and Percy felt a shiver run down his spine.

"You're welcome."

"How's a bottle of wine sounding to you?" Nico asked Percy, his brown eyes never once left Percy's green ones.

All through dinner, Percy and Nico talked and joked, there were some stolen glances and light touches in between. Their body language slowly began to open up as dinner progressed, and it felt as though an invisible force was pushing them closer to each other. There was an easiness Percy noted, the longer he spent time with Nico, the more Percy got to know him, that felt very different than his past relationships after Annabeth. He felt comfortable around Nico but he was also nervous with how quickly he became attached to Nico.

It felt like there was an electric energy surrounding them. Sparks practically firing whenever eye contact was made. Some part of Percy had wondered whether the heat in Hawaii was finally getting to him. Every accidental touch sent bolts of lightening, from the tips of his fingers straight through to his heart. The tension between them was palpable, the air around them felt charged. Percy's attraction to Nico felt so strong, he didn't know how he was able to function in front of the brown eyed male.

Once back in their hotel room, Percy and Nico looked at each other. They were standing close to one another near the door, Percy had drank more than Nico, and so was hanging off of the brown eyed male more. His arm was around Nico's shoulder, his head leaning against Nico's.

"I had fun," Percy laughed, continuing to cling onto Nico.

"Me too," Nico answered; he could smell Percy's scent being this close to him. Sandalwood and just a hint of what the ocean smelled like.

Percy's body right next to his like this, he felt so warm and Nico didn't want to let him go. It felt right, it felt perfect.

What was he doing? As if his crush on Percy before the trip wasn't bad enough, having gone through this, it seemed like they had grown even stronger. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, Nico wasn't supposed to let his feelings for Percy grow.

"Come on Percy," Nico said as he walked Percy over to his bed, "let's get you out of these clothes and into bed."

It was too late, Nico thought. He was in this too deep, there was no way Nico was going to get out of this without getting hurt. Percy didn't like him, not the way Nico liked Percy. Percy pulled off his pants, and took his shirt off before settling on his bed. Nico covered Percy with his blanket before turning to his bed.

"You know," Percy started as Nico began to undress, "I really like you, Nico," he confessed in the quiet of their room.

Nico's hands froze on the last button he needed to undo. Had he heard Percy right?

"What was that Percy?" Nico asked, undoing the last button and taking off his shirt.

"I really like you, Nico," Percy repeated, looking Nico's way.

As a friend...

Nico told himself Percy meant he liked Nico as a friend. Percy had had a lot to drink at dinner, he didn't know what he was saying, Nico's mind tried to deny what he had heard.

"Say something," Percy mumbled, a blush was on his cheeks, "don't leave me hanging. What do you think..." he paused, looking away briefly before looking back at Nico, "what do you think of me?" He asked, and his voice was soft and almost...vunerable. Nico didn't know Percy's voice could be this soft.

"I like you too, Percy."

"But...how do you-"

"Percy," Nico interrupted, because this was too much for Nico to handle. Percy was tipsy, he didn't know he was saying things without clarfying his intentions when saying them, "let's go to bed."

Percy stared at Nico for a long time and Nico felt uncomfortable, before Percy finally laid down on his bed.

"Good night, Nico."

"Good night, Percy."

Simon's bachelor party was in full swing for the night. The groomsmen and friends of the groom were together at a casino an hour away from the hotel. Bianca and Simon had decided on that, so that their bachelor and bachelorette parties were separate and far away from the hotel. They had also decided there weren't going to be any strippers as neither felt comfortable with the idea.

Nico was behind Percy, who was sitting at a table with Frank and Will, playing blackjack. Will hadn't even been at the back of his mind for the past two days. The incident with his aunt Cece almost forgotten. He almost forgot Will was here but seeing him again, didn't seem to stir up any of the old feelings as seeing him the first time had. It felt sort of freeing in a way to see him and not feel as if the rug had pulled out from under his feet. It felt good to finally face Will. Currently, he was engrossed as Percy played, it was a pretty intense game.

Percy was so focused, Nico noted standing behind him, and his poker face was actually pretty good. Which had come as a surprise to Nico, seeing as how Percy's eyes were so open with emotion most of the time.

"Hit or stay?" The dealer asked.

Percy looked at his cards. Currently he had three cards, two were face down and one was up. The card that was face up was an 8 of clovers, the two faced down were 6 of diamonds and 5 of hearts, totaling 19.

"Stay, " Percy flicked his eyes over to the dealer.

The dealer nodded, turning to Frank who decided to get another card and proceeded to lose. Will surrendered when the dealer came to him. The dealer then proceeded to hit, but in doing so exceeded over 21. Percy smirked, his only tell for the night so far and then claimed his win. After doing so, he tipped the dealer and left with his earnings, Frank and Will congratulating him.

"Okay, how did you just do that?" Nico asked as they walked away.

"Me and my friends like going to Atlantic City a lot, my best friend Grover makes a tradition out of going every year for a week, the first week of June," Percy smiled over at him. "We've been going since our college days and sometimes we go about five times a year. I have practice and with every loss I took, I got better."

Nico shook his head, smiling fondly, "amazing. Y-you were actually incredible to watch," he confessed, rubbing the back of his neck. Nico could feel the flush on his cheeks and he pointedly looked away from Percy.

Percy smirked at the brown eyed male before slinging an arm around his shoulders and bringing Nico closer, "thanks, there was someone I was trying to impress," he whispered in Nico's ear.

Nico flushed even more before looking up into Percy's eyes, "who were you trying to impress? Frank? Will?" Nico teased.

Percy stopped, making Nico face him, "you," he said. Percy didn't hesitate, and there was a glint in his eyes as he stared Nico down, Nico felt his breath catch in his throat. Percy tugged Nico closer, grabbing the front of his shirt's collar, "I wanted to win, for you. So," Percy smirked down at Nico, and damn him, Nico felt himself leaning into Percy, "did it work?"

Words failed Nico, and all he could do in answer to Percy's question was nod dumbly.

Percy looked down at Nico, and his eyes flicked all over Nico's face before landing on his lips, Percy's tongue darting out to wet his own lips as he continued to stare, "what will you do for me?" Percy murmured, his eyes still on Nico's lips.

"What do you want me to do?" The words practically tumbled out of Nico's mouth, and some part of him winced at his desperation.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Percy, almost as if what Nico had said had an effect on him. There was this werid sexual tension between them, so palpable you could cut through it with a knife. Nico wasn't stupid, if he could feel it, Nico knew Percy could too. It had been building between them ever since they landed in Hawaii and it had only grown ever since their intimate dinner together.

"Nico, there are a lot of things I'd want you to do," Percy practically purred. The look in his eyes, the look Percy was giving Nico, almost as if daring him to take the bait, waiting to see what Nico would do next.

"Name them," Nico started, licking his lips and his eyes watched Percy's face, "and I just might do them."

Another sharp intake, Percy gripped Nico's shoulder, almost as if it centered him, "you don't know what you're asking," Percy said roughly.

"Try me," Nico smirked.

They stared at one another, not breaking away, wondering if this moment between them would actually lead to something. Neither one dared to make the first move or move away from each other.

"Percy, Nico," Will cut in, effectively cutting off the moment. The blond looked between them, his blue eyes darting back and forth and Nico looked between Will and Percy before doing a double take on Percy. His green eyes flashed dangerously, almost angry, at Will. "Sorry," Will apologized, although it seemed he was directing the apology to Percy more so than Nico, "Simon is...gonna start his speech soon. He asked me to come look for you while Frank went to look for Daniel and Richard."

Percy shrugged his shoulders, and looked away from Will. He put his arm around Nico, almost possessively, and drew the brown eyed male closer to his body. The action wasn't lost on Will, who merely quirked an eyebrow at them both, "we'll be there soon," Percy answered.

"Actually," Will started, looking at Nico, "I was hoping to get a chance to speak with Nico, privately," he finished.

Nico felt Percy's arm around his shoulder tense and pull him even more closer to Percy, almost as if Percy didn't want to let Nico go off with Will. But then he loosened up and let his arm fall off Nico's shoulders, who was reeling at the loss of warmth Percy provided.

"I-I'll be there soon, Perce," Nico said, trying to make Percy feel better.

"Yeah," Percy answered, but he was distracted, "okay." Then without even hesitating or stopping to think about it, Percy kissed Nico on the cheek. He turned to look at Will before going off to the table where Simon and some of his friends were.

Nico turned to Will, who was still watching Percy as he got to Simon's table.

"So," Nico started, and the blond turned to look at him, "what's up?"

Will smiled at Nico softly, before inhaling slowly, almost as if to work himself up to what he wanted to say.

"Nico," Will started, "I've been meaning to talk to you...not just these past two days here in Hawaii but...for the past couple of years. Actually since our breakup."

"Why's that?"

Will fidgeted, his hands curling and uncurling at his sides, "I wanted to..." he started before stopping. He closed his eyes briefly, before opening them back up and looking at Nico, "I wanted to apologize for the way I ended things with you. I blindsided you with our breakup and it wasn't fair of me to leave you behind, bleeding and broken, while I moved on. You had to pick up the pieces I left you in, and I've hated it myself ever since. There was this big regret I felt because our relationship had been so special and I...threw it away like it was nothing. I ended it without considering you, and afterwards, I didn't even have the balls to talk to you about it. I didn't explain why I did what I did, I just left and that was unfair to you because you deserved better than that."

Nico looked at Will, and it was clear to see the guilt he felt.

"I didn't want to talk to you into taking me back, it's been too long and we've both moved on. I just...I really needed you to know how sorry I am to have hurt you."

"Why'd you do it?" Nico asked, and for once, since asking that damned question to himself so many nights before, it didn't hurt to say it so openly.

"If I'm being honest, I don't know. I loved you back then, and it was really hard to get over you but...I felt like some part of me wanted to be free to explore college to its fullest potential. I wanted to get drunk at parties and kiss strangers because that's what you're supposed to do and I didn't know any better, I didn't know it would all feel so...hollow. We were just out of high school and I wanted to be free. Not free from you but just...I wanted freedom. You weren't holding me back from anything but I also knew what I wanted to experience and I couldn't do that behind your back. I couldn't do that without hurting you. The truth is, I was young and stupid and if I could, I would have never broken up with you because I loved you a lot. There isn't a correct answer..."

Will looked defeated, almost as if this apology wasn't going the way he had planned.

"Look," he started, "I'm not here to ask you to take me back, I just needed you to know how sorry I am. How sorry I always will be because Nico, you were so, so important to me and I've been beating myself up for ever hurting you. I never wanted to, but I did and I just hope you can forgive me. You were more than just my boyfriend, you were my best friend, when I hurt you, I lost you in both ways."

Nico smiled at him, before holding out his hand to Will, who quickly took Nico's hand in his, the blond's face breaking into a smile. This felt freeing in a way he never expected it to feel. Nico knew with all of his heart that he didn't have any feelings for Will and the loss he had felt all this time had been about more than losing his boyfriend. He realized how much he missed Will as a friend.

"I forgive you," Nico said, "I don't want to spend the rest of my life being angry at our past. I'm done with that, and thank you for explaining and apologizing to me I really appreciate it."

"I hope this means-I mean not now obviously, but maybe sometime in the future, we can be friends...I really do miss you Nico," Will said, looking at him fondly.

"I've missed you too but, let's see where this goes. I forgive yeah, but I also held on to the pain and anger for so long, it's kinda jarring to think about being friends right now."

"I understand completely, just know Nico, that whenever you're ready, if you ever are; and don't think you owe me anything just because I apologized and wanna be friends again, just know I'm here for you."

"Thanks Will," Nico smiled up at the blond.

They stood for a moment, smiling at each other, relishing this moment and the weight it had lifted off of the both of them. Finally Will cleared his throat, before rubbing the back of his neck, "I think I better let you get back to Percy. I think if I keep you here too long, he might come hunting for me."

Nico snorted, confusion clear on his face, "why would Percy do that?" Before remembering that Percy was pretending to be his boyfriend. Will looked at him weird, and Nico quickly recovered, "I mean, Percy's not the jealous type." With Nico trying to tell himself that Percy just thought of him as a friend, he completely forgot to separate his feelings and the acting. Nico just hoped Will didn't think too hard on it.

"Really?" Will asked, disbelieving, "you expect me to believe Percy's not the jealous type?"

Nico merely shrugged his shoulders, "no way, Percy's really cool about things."

"Huh," Will said, "because if I remember correctly, I think Percy gave me a dirty look that night we went clubbing."

"Huh?" Nico asked, parroting Will.

"Yeah, I think...I don't know, the vibe I got from him that night was not friendly. He looked pretty jealous," Will elaborated.

Nico shook his head, "no way, you probably saw wrong. Percy's the most friendliest guy ever. I mean, he meets with this guy named Chiron Brunner from the second home he volunteered in when he was in high school. Percy still visits him to this day even though that was years ago."

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain how possessive he became when I interrupted your..." at this, Will's cheeks got red, "little moment. Which, by the way, I don't think I ever remember us having that kind of chemistry."

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked, getting flustered.

"I mean, come on, Nico. What we had was all very innocent, it was very much puppy love. We were so young and yeah we had had sex but it was still so innocent because we had only ever been with each other. There's only so much passion between teenagers. It's different when you're an adult and you're more experienced. There's a different sort of fire. You and Percy were sort of...in this trance, like as if you two were the only people in the world. It was kinda hot..."

"Ew! Will! Don't you-why would you-ew!" Nico laughed, leaning against Will and found it easier to laugh with him in this very moment. It felt liberating. And Will was laughing along with him and it was good.

"I'm telling you the truth," Will laughed. "It was literally getting hot and heavy with tension, while I was just standing there trying to think of a way to break your little moment up without being rude!"

"Stop!"

"And then fucking Percy turns to look at me and I'm fucking frozen on what to say next, I can't believe I actually got words out of my mouth. Nico, your boyfriend is hella scary when he's angry and jealous. I could feel him burning holes in my head!"

"You're lying!" Nico laughed even harder, his sides were starting to hurt.

"He looked hot too, which was the messed up part-"

"Will!" Nico exclaimed, trying to hold in his laughter.

"-was that he was glaring at me and I still had time think of how hot he looked and then kinda feeling jealous that you had him all to yourself." Will continued, laughing along with Nico and for a moment it felt like old times.

The laughter died down and they looked at each other again.

"So does this mean there's hope?" Will asked.

"Yeah, I think we're gonna be okay," Nico said, smiling at Will.

Percy looked up at the night sky. He didn't know how long Nico was taking. Simon had done his speech, which is all fairness wasn't that important, it was more ramblings from someone who was happily drunk and about to get happily married. Percy didn't see it as important and so walked away during the middle of it. No one really paid much attention, they were all hanging back with the groom and cheering him on. Nico was still talking with Will, Percy saw as he made his way to the balcony of the casino. About what, Percy didn't know and it was killing him. A pang of jealousy shot through his being.

He was angry at Will for breaking up their moment. And truth be told, he was angry at Nico too.

Percy thought back to the conversation the night before. He had really opened up to Nico, and had put himself out there, he had told Nico the truth. Percy really, really liked Nico and was even going to mention making their fake relationship real. But then Nico interrupted Percy before he could say that and acted as if Percy hadn't shown him his vulnerable side.

It stung.

Now here he was, sulking on a balcony casino in Hawaii. All he wanted to do in this moment was talk to Annabeth. Despite it all, she had been his best friend before ever becoming his girlfriend.

So, in a stroke of either madness or desperation, Percy dailed Annabeth's number. The whole time, his heart pounding so hard in his chest, Percy thought it would beat right out of his body.

"Hello?" Came Annabeth's crystal clear voice. She was just waking up.

"Annabeth?" Percy whispered, part of him was still in shock. The last time he had spoken to Annabeth, had been almost two years ago, and it had not ended well.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked, waking up faster, "God, do you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, six a.m. sorry," Percy apologized, having regained his footing, "sorry to be calling you at this time but I didn't know who else to talk to, Grover I know for sure wouldn't hear his phone, he sleeps like the dead. And my mom, well, I didn't wanna bother her for something like this and-"

"Percy," Annabeth said, cutting Percy off, "what's going on with you? You know...you can always talk to me."

Percy paused. For some reason, part of him knew Annabeth would say this to him. She didn't hold grudges and she was a good friend. It tore Percy apart, knowing Annabeth for as long as he had, as a kid, having her be his best friend, with Grover, to practically acting as if she was a stranger. Cutting her off from his life, just because he was hurt and lashing out, had been hard. He was also very shitty for doing that but he just couldn't bring himself to reach out. He had loved Annabeth deeply and had dreams about their life together. Once those were shattered, it sort of felt like his world had shattered.

"I know," Percy began, choking on the word. He cleared his throat and tried again, "I know Annabeth, I guess that's part of the reason I avoided you for so long."

"That was a dick move, you asswipe."

Percy winced, "I know, I know...I'm-" he hesitated, not because he didn't feel sorry but because he felt ashamed. "Annabeth-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off, I just...everything was ruined. I felt like everything was ruined and nothing was going to be the same, I didn't know what my life would like after you, with you gone and I was scared. I-I didn't think I'd be strong enough to survive...the pain and the heartbreak. Going from lovers to friends again, I didn't think I could do it."

"I know," Annabeth whispered, "and for that I'm sorry Percy. If I fought harder for us, we would still be together, but I wouldn't have been completely happy. Truth was, I didn't want to fight anymore. The spark wasn't there, you felt it, I know you felt it."

"I did," Percy admitted, "I just didn't want to accept it, I kept fighting against it and in turn I kept fighting with you."

"Percy, you know I will always love you, and you will always, always have a special place in my heart."

"I know Annabeth, and I'll always love you."

Percy exhaled a breath he didn't even know he had been holding. The tension in his body faded, and a weight felt as if though it had been lifted from his shoulders. All of the pain and anger he carried with him, slowly started to dissipate the more he talked with Annabeth.

"So what's the real reason you called me for?" Annabeth asked. Of course she would see right through him, she knew Percy like the back of her hand, plus, she was a genius.

"Okay, you're gonna flip," Percy started, as he began to regale her with the insane idea of fake dating and then actually falling in love.

"You are a masochist you know that," Annabeth shook her head, "it's like you live solely to torture yourself. First you cut off your best friends, and I'm not talking about me, Grover says you've been pulling away. Then you provide escort services, and finally, you decided to pretend date someone and ended up falling in love with the fake boyfriend."

"I know, I know," Percy grunted, "it looks bad."

"It's horrible Percy!" Annabeth whined.

"Okay but hear me out, I think he likes me too," Percy said.

"What makes you say that?"

"I just, I know, I get this feeling. I can tell I have an affect on him. And our chemistry...it's unlike I've ever felt before- erm-present company excluded..."

Annabeth laughed, and it was the sweetest sound Percy had heard in a while. He missed her. "Thank you Perce, but don't worry, you're not hurting my feelings."

"It's just," Percy began, before sighing, "I don't know, I can feel it and I know he can feel it too. When we're together and it's just the two of us, it's electric. Like right now in the casino, we were having this moment, and I could swear he was staring at my lips but then his ex boyfriend-"

"Will?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, he came and interrupted us. I think if he hadn't, I would've kissed Nico then, I would've confessed everything to him. And I tried to do it the night before but Nico kept shutting me out. And it kinda hurt...it was almost as if...he didn't want to believe it but I don't know why..."

"Well, maybe Nico, like you, is afraid of getting hurt again."

Percy looked out to the night sky, "I think you're right Wise Girl."

"Of course I am," Annabeth teased, "hello? It's me you're talking to!"

"Ha, ha," Percy said sarcastically, rolling his eyes but he couldn't help the smile that was on his face. It felt like old times. Back before they started going out, and Percy and Annabeth would talk about their crushes.

"Percy I know it all seems confusing right now, but if you follow your heart I know for a fact that you'll figure everything out and end up happy."

"How do you know that Annabeth?" Percy asked, his voice almost catching.

"Because I know you Percy. You try your hardest and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't and you know more than anyone that if it doesn't it wasn't meant to be but you could never say you didn't try. And that is going to make all the difference."

Percy smiled, "thanks Annabeth," his voice was fond, and he felt warmth inside.

"I'll always be here for you Percy, I'm always going to have nothing but tenderness for you."

"So will I," Percy said. "I love you, and...I miss you."

"I love you."

"When I get back, I'll let you know how it goes."

"We can meet where we always do. You, me and Grover. And whether it's a happy ending or a sad ending, we'll be here for you."

...

Finding Percy proved to be more difficult than Nico hoped. After his talk with Will, he realized how long it had been since separating from Percy. A part of Nico worried that Percy had gotten the wrong picture but another part of him berated himself. He didn't need to feel worried about how Percy perceived Nico because they weren't going out. Nico was single and he could do what he wanted. Granted...he couldn't really act like it around here since he was trying to fool his family.

Finally after what seemed like forever Nico found Percy out on the balcony of the casino. Something Nico didn't even know the casino had. Percy was standing there, a drink in his hands, his arms on the railings and looking out to the sky. Walking up slowly, Nico could feel his heart pounding in his chest and the blood rushing through his ears. His palms started to sweat.

What Will had observed earlier from Percy...was it possible that Percy had feelings for Nico.

Nico tried to deny it because that way, he wouldn't get his hopes up, he wouldn't feel disappointed or hurt if Percy didn't feel that way for Nico. It was a safety measure to guard his heart from being broken again. But looking back on it now, Nico seemed to realize he might have came off as cold or aloof. That might have given Percy the wrong impression. Which meant that last night when Percy had said he really liked Nico...

"Hey Percy," Nico spoke softly, not wanting to startle Percy.

Percy flinched a little, turning his head Nico's way, "hey Nico," he heaved a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Nico smiled.

"It's okay," Percy began, "it's almost as if you had come out of the shadows or something."

"That explains why I was always so good at hide and seek," Nico joked, coming to stand beside Percy.

They fell into a comfortable silence, but Nico was very much aware of heat that was radiating off of Percy right next to him. The heat of his shoulder touching Nico's, the way their hands were so, so close to each other. Nico wanted to reach out and take Percy's hand in his. He wanted to run his fingers through Percy's hair, wondering if it was as soft as it looked. He wanted to kiss Percy on the lips, wanted to taste Percy, taste every inch of him.

"Nico," Percy said, jarring Nico out of his thoughts.

The brown eyed male looked up to Percy, and Percy held his gaze. Green eyes clashed with brown, Nico wondered if Percy was ever going break this hold he had Nico in.

"Nico," Percy said again, "I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" Nico asked, swallowing.

"I know this might not be what you wanted to hear, especially after Will, I can only assume what you guys talked about..." for a minute, Percy's voice turned dark at the mention of Will, there was an edge to his voice that hadn't been there before.

"I need you to know Nico," Percy looked over at him, pinning Nico with an intense gaze, "Nico I like you. I like you and I don't want to pretend date you. I want to date you for real if you'll have me, if you...even feel the same way about me," at that Percy seemed to deflate.

Nico stood there, frozen and in shock. With the silence stretching, Percy grew more uncomfortable and his fingers started to tap the rail nervously. It almost seemed like a part of him wanted to flee.

Okay...Nico thought to himself. Time to take stock of what just happened. Percy just confessed that he likes me and he wants to pursue an actual relationship with me...so that part was real?! I wasn't dreaming?!

Well don't just leave him hanging! Answer him you idiot! Nico berated himself and so did the one thing he could think of. The one thing he's been wanting to do since he first laid eyes on Percy and had gotten to know him.

He kissed Percy. No one could ever say that romance was Nico's strong suit. There was no big speech of Nico declaring his feelings for Percy, he wasn't good with emotions or words. It was why he held on so long to the pain and anger after Will. So he poured every ounce he could into the kiss with Percy, hoping to convey his feelings with it.

And kissing Percy was probably one of the greatest things on earth. Percy's lips were so soft, and full, he tasted like the sweetest chocolate and mint rolled into one. He ran his fingers up in Percy's hair, his arms hugging Percy closer to him. Percy's hair was as soft as it looked, his fine tresses slipping through Nico's fingers. Nico could feel Percy's hands at his waist, clutching him so tight, the air was being crushed out of his lungs but Nico didn't mind. Percy's body felt solid and warm against Nico and Nico didn't want to stop.

They had to eventually and when they pulled apart, their cheeks were flushed red and their lips were swollen from kissing. Percy was breathing hard as he looked at Nico.

"So, where do we stand now?" He asked Nico, looking at him straight on, "because let me tell you Nico, I go all in when I date someone. I love too much, and I feel too much and too strong, and if it's too much for you-"

"It's okay Percy. So do I. I feel things too strongly, and sometimes it can be suffocating but you will never be too much for me. I..." Nico paused, flushing red, "I'm not good with words, or at expressing my feelings. And the reason I denied all of your signs was because that way I wouldn't get hurt. I make myself paranoid thinking I'm not good enough for anyone, least of all you and when you realize you'll leave me-"

"Nico," Percy interrupted, "if you don't try, how will you ever know how it ends?"

"I'm scared of getting hurt again."

"So am I," Percy confessed, "but we can try together. Because I like you a lot and I want to continue to date you, and kiss you," Percy smirked, kissing Nico on the cheek, "and hug you," Percy said, hugging Nico closer to his body, "and I want to love you," he whispered the last sentence in Nico's ear. Percy felt the tremor go down Nico's body. "So if you'll try with me, let's do this for real."

Nico looked up at Percy and for once, he didn't worry about anything.

"Okay," Nico smiled at him, "let's try."

Brown eyes clashed with green, and very slowly, they moved closer to each other. They were barely an inch apart, and it was as if the world stilled for just one moment, as if the universe were savoring it before it breathed out, once their lips met.

Bianca's wedding had been beautiful. Nico would never admit to crying as his sister said her vows and afterwards, when the bride and groom kissed, Nico discreetly tried to wipe away some tears.

The reception was held in a big banquet hall. The decorations were breath taking and the food had been delicious. The toasts were always awkward and it was a mortifying experience when it was Nico's turn to say a toast. He had had a speech prepared but it was still nerve-wracking.

Afterwards, the party began. People were dancing and drinking and eating, everyone was happy. When it was time for a slow dance, Percy brought Nico to the dance floor. His navy blue tuxedo looked good against Nico's black one. Nico looked up at Percy and couldn't believe the exteme happiness he felt. Percy had his right hand on Nico's waist, and his left hand held Nico's right hand. They stared at each other, Percy's green eyes practically swirled with emotion.

It felt like it was just the two of them, and it felt perfect.

It wasn't going to be a perfect relationship, but then again, nothing ever is. But they were here, in this moment and Percy looked so brilliant and beautiful. And they were happy and that's all that mattered.