It was an easy mission. All they'd had to do was take down a few runaway monsters from the underworld. No crazy drama, no teenage hormones, no confusing feelings; just a temporary truce between Artemis's Hunters and Hades's son.

But even when the mission had been so simple, so ordinary, nothing stopped accidents from happening. So here he sat, dirtied and bloodied from the fight, waiting for good news outside the infirmary. His hands were clasped together in silent prayer. Maybe...maybe father feels generous today?

Music sounded from somewhere in the camp, louder and more obnoxious than anything Nico had ever heard before. It must've been coming from the Hermes cabin, Chiron had told him about some kind of enchanted stereo the god of thieves had given his children recently. Maybe focusing on something else would help?

Sighing, the demigod emptied his mind and tried listening to the lyrics.

I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing

Just prayed to a god that I don't believe in

His eyes snapped open. No, no, no, that definitely was NOT calming him down.

Nico got to his feet and started pacing, one hand palming his face, the other running through his jet-black hair. The same scene was playing over and over again in his head...

He drove his blade deep into the chimera's back as the beast roared in pain. Bubbling poison blood leaked around the sword as Nico attempted to unsheathe it from the monster's already disintegrating corpse.

"That was the last monster," he muttered to himself as his sword finally came free. "Hey Thalia I think we're do—"

The words caught in his mouth as a shout cut through the night. Suddenly, blood was everywhere: on the grass, on him, but most importantly, on her.

"Y-you idiot," she managed to whisper. The chimera's snake head tail gave a twitch; its fangs burying deeper into her side. He rushed forward, hacking at the serpent frantically. A weak snort came from Thalia's lips. "Chimera tails have minds of their own."

His sword clattered against the ground as he rushed towards her, prying open the now-dead snake's jaws. The same green poison dripped from its dagger-like teeth. Nico almost gagged. "Oh gods Thalia..."

"Come on di Angelo," Thalia snapped. She sank to her knees, shivering and sweating as color drained from her face. "The poisons in me, not you..."

"Shut up and save your strength," he ordered, hoping she'd follow someone else's orders for once. Nico reached for his sword and started scratching a hurried note into the ground.

THALIA HURT WNET BAC OT CAMP

After making sure that he'd at least spelled camp right, Nico turned to his fallen friend.

"You don't tell me to shut up! I'm technically older than you!" she protested as Nico scooped her up. Thalia wasn't squirming in his arms and she hadn't shocked him yet for picking her up...these were not good signs. The poison must be spreading faster than he thought. "Wait...ugh, what are you DOING?"

"I'm sixteen now," he reminded her. Positioning his arms around his fallen friend he added, "Physically older than you. Now shut up and hold on tight."

Shadow travel had never been uncomfortable to Nico di Angelo. But as he stepped into the darkness with Thalia fading fast in his arms, he couldn't help but notice his heart going into overdrive and the fear that crept into his mind.

"Hey, watch were you're going!" someone barked.

Snapping back to reality, I looked down and saw a floored Annabeth at my feet, her blond hair pulled back into a haphazard ponytail. I helped her up and apologized quietly. "Sorry Annabeth, I zoned out..."

She dusted herself off and sighed. The architect looked tired. Of course she was, it was 2:00am and college was taking its toll on her. Since Percy was at the New York Marine Biology Research Institute for most of the day, she'd taken more courses than necessary. They barely visited nowadays. "Percy and I came as soon as we heard. How's she doing?"

Nico fidgeted with his sword hilt as he answered. "I don't know yet, the healers are doing all they can and they've been in there for almost an hour now."

While I'm wide awake she's no trouble sleeping

Cause when a heart breaks no it don't break even, even no...

"Who the hell plays music that loud at two in the morning?" Annabeth screeched.

"The Hermes cabin," Nico answered meekly. A pissed off Annabeth was something anyone but Percy would run screaming from. "Um...Annabeth? Where's Percy?"

"He's waiting for the Hunters by Thalia's pine," she huffed, sending a seething glare at the not-so-guilty cabin. "I've got a hunch that they won't be too pleased by what happened. So, I told Percy to try and calm them down a bit before they got to you."

"NICO DI ANGELO!"

"Looks like he did his job," Nico commented as an arrow embedded itself in the ground a couple of inches to his left. "They haven't set the wolves and falcons on me yet."

"NICO DI ANGELO," the hunter called again. She strode towards him with the rest of the hunt following, bows and blades in hand. Gods did they look pissed. "What have you done with Thalia?"

"Come on guys," Percy pleaded as he jogged over. "Give Nico a chance to explain himself!"

"I've got nothing to say," Nico muttered. "She had to save me because I got careless, that's all there is to it."

"This is why we swear ourselves off men," the hunter grumbled, cocking an arrow. She raised it to Nico and bulled the bowstring back. "She dies, you die."

"I completely understand," the son of Hades stated.

"Whoa guys!" an Apollo kid exclaimed as he stepped out of the infirmary. His eyes rested nervously on the hunter's armed weapon before announcing: "Thalia can take a few visitors now, but not too many. She's only semi-conscious."

They stayed like that for a while, locked in a standstill. Seconds ticked by before the hunter lowered her bow and led the rest of her troops into the infirmary.

"That was pretty cool of you Nico," Percy commented, walking over to pat his friend on the back. Nico fell like a sack of bricks. "Ok, not so cool anymore...Are you ok?"

They say bad things happen for a reason

But no wise words gonna stop me bleeding

"No, I'm not ok," Nico sighed, pulling his legs into an Indian sit. He twisted his sword around in his palms, watching the Stygian Iron gleam under the fluorescent light of the infirmary's magical bug zapper (a gift from Demeter for buying thirty pounds of cereal). "Thalia's in there because of me...It's Bianca all over again."

WHACK

"Ow!"

"Annabeth!" Percy chided. "Sorry Nico, she hasn't had any coffee yet this...um...morning. Does 2am count as morning?"

The daughter of Athena stood over Nico, her hand raised for another whack on the upside of the younger boy's head and diligently ignoring her boyfriend's unrelated comment. "Snap out of it! Thalia chose to help you for a reason!"

The sixteen-year old rubbed his now-sore spot dolefully. "She did because it was the right thing to do."

"Nico I kind of think there's another reason Annabeth's hinting at here," Percy prodded.

"...ok, if Seaweed Head over here can figure it out then I'm sure you can too," Annabeth proclaimed. She squatted down, getting to eyelevel with Nico. "Does this scene seem familiar to you in ANY way?"

"I just said," Nico drawled. "It's Bianca all over again."

"Right, and how did you and Bianca feel about each other?" Percy asked, squatting next to Annabeth.

"We loved each other," Nico replied, no hesitation in his voice.

"Therefore," Annabeth said. "Thalia saved you becaaauuuuse?"

"Because she loves me," he responded simply. "But gods Annabeth, I love her too."

Silence reigned as Percy and Annabeth tried to comprehend.

"WHAT?" they exclaimed.

"What?" Nico parroted. "You guys do too. She's like a sister to all of us."

Silence reigned yet again as Percy and Annabeth resisted the urge to bang their heads on a tree.

"Maybe we're going at this the wrong way," Annabeth wondered out loud. "Ok let's try this. Remember when, four years ago in the Battle of Manhattan, Percy almost got stabbed in his Achilles spot?"

"Yeah," Nico answered warily, wondering what his friends were trying to get at.

"And Annabeth dove in and took the poison dagger for me?" Percy added.

"Yeah?"

Percy leaned in closer before asking the next question. "What happened after all the Kronos stuff was over?"

Nico thought for a while before answering. "You guys became a couple."

"So in this eerily similar scenario," Annabeth started. "Where Thalia takes a poison snakebite to save you, why do you suppose she did that?"

...processing

...processing

...still processing

Ding!

"OH MY GODS ANNABETH!" Nico screamed in a very manly way. He shot to his feet and took a few steps back, his face a new, undiscovered shade of red. "Y-Y-Y-OU DON'T MEAN..."

"Why Percy, I think he finally gets it!" Annabeth said in mock surprise.

Noticing the group of hunters making their way to Artemis's cabin, Percy grinned. He hooked his arms under Nico's and hauled him to his feet. "Come on Nico, in you go!"

The Hades kid kicked and thrashed in Percy's grip. "Percy she's a hunter!"

"You say that like it's something new," the son of Poseidon laughed.

And with that, Nico was tossed into the infirmary.

"Percy? PERCY?"

Nico twisted the doorknob hysterically, his hands slipping over its oddly wet and slippery surface. Damn Percy and his STUPID water powers.

"Nico? 'Szat you?"

"Um...yeah," he answered, walking towards her bedside. She looked a lot better now, though she was still deathly pale, and that meant something coming from him. "How're you doing?"

"Better," she replied. She had her arm up, covering her eyes. "That'll teach me to think you can take care of yourself, Deadbeat."

"You didn't have to do this you know," Nico grumbled as he moved away.

"Well duh, I didn't have to do it, that's why I chose to do it," Thalia chuckled weakly. She heard his footsteps grow farther away and called out. "Where d'you think you're going?"

Click

"The light's bothering you isn't it?" Not only that, now Thalia wouldn't be able to see how crimson his face was.

Thalia moved her arm out of the way and slowly opened her eyes. Cool, night air and dim moonlight greeted her as Nico opened a window. She sighed in relief and snapped her eyes open. "Deadbeat! You look like you've been to Tartarus and back! Figuratively I mean."

Nico gave himself a once over and saw that she was right. His black t-shirt and jeans were tattered and he had a bunch of still-bleeding nicks littering his body. "I haven't had a chance to get treated yet. They were all too busy with you."

"There's some nectar leftover on the table," Thalia informed. "Drink it."

That was an order. And no matter how messed up Nico was feeling emotionally, he knew to never, never, never disobey an order from Thalia Grace.

So they sat in relative silence as Nico sipped his nectar. Relative because, of course, the Hermes cabin was still playing the same song on loop.

Cause I got time while she got freedom

Cause when a heart breaks no it don't break

No it don't break, no it don't break even

"Gotta give those Hermes kids some credit," Thalia slurred. "They've got pretty good taste in music."

"You like the song?" Nico asked, in between sips.

"Yeah," she smiled, electric blue eyes twinkling. "It's a lot slower and less scream than I'm used to, but the lyrics are all right. 'I got time while she got freedom', 's pretty dontcha think?"

"Yeah...," Nico echoed hesitantly. Immortal youth had been a sore subject with Thalia recently. Ever since Percy mustered up enough courage to propose to Annabeth, she'd been brooding more and more over it.

What am I gonna do when the best part of me was always you

What am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're okay

Nico's glass clunked against the table as he set it down. This was getting real awkward real fast. Why'd Percy and Annabeth have to tell him those things? Now he couldn't look at her without thinking of what they'd said...

"Hey," Thalia said. "Why do you keep looking away?"

Styx, she noticed.

"No reason," he mumbled.

Thalia thought to herself for a while. Geez, why was Ghostboy acting so weird right now? She made a mental note to ask Annabeth about it later. Come to think of it, she'd heard Annabeth shouting outside. That means Percy must've been out there too. Could it have something to do with that?

"Hey Thalia um...well," Nico started.

"Just spit it out already," Thalia said. Really, what was wrong with him? He's acting just like Percy did when he came to her for proposal advice...WAIT A MINUTE.

"It's nothing, nevermind," Nico finished lamely.

Nico fell back into the awkward silence as Thalia's head went into overdrive.

Ok, I'll go over everything again, she thought to herself.

Annabeth = Knows that I like him

Nico Deadbeat = Doesn't know that I like him

Seaweed head = Backup for anything Annabeth will do

So then it must've gone down like this:

(Annabeth x Seaweed head) + Deadbeat = OH GODS HE MUST KNOW

"Thalia? Thalia? Earth to Thalia? What's wrong, you're breathing all heavy," Nico fretted, snapping her out of her epiphany.

Thalia sat up and grabbed Nico by the shoulders, a crazed, delirious look in her eyes. "WHAT did Percy and Annabeth tell you?"

"Some...stuff," he answered softly. "About you."

Her fingers slowly unclamped from him as she slumped back down onto the bed, catatonic. No, no, no! STYX. He shouldn't know. He COULDN'T know! She was a hunter, supposedly sworn off guys forever! Lotta good the oath was doing her now. Lady Artemis would skin her alive.

I'm falling to pieces

I'm falling to pieces

I'm falling to pieces

"For what it's worth," Nico voiced. "I'm really, really happy that you'd risk your life for me. I know I don't have to tell you, but I'd do the same thing for you."

"I know you know not to," Thalia started shakily. "But you won't tell Lady Artemis, right?"

"I won't," he replied. "Are you going to tell her yourself?"

"I can't," she said dejectedly. "I know lying to everyone else is wrong, but the hunters need me right now. And I don't know what happens to someone who breaks the oath...the Lady might smite me into oblivion for all I know."

"She can't!" Nico yelled. He started pacing again and fumed. "You're a child of the big three AND you were her lieutenant through the Kronos incident. She owes you!"

"Shhh, shut it Deadbeat!" Thalia shushed, a bit surprised from his exclamation. "It's the middle of the night, you'll wake somebody up!"

He paced for a while longer before plopping down onto the floor next to her bed. Leaning against the cushiony mattress he asked. "Will you ever tell her?"

"Eventually I'll have to," she responded. "You can't keep secrets from gods for too long."

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"A few five to eight years I guess. Why?"

"I just wanna know how long I'll have to wait."

"Wait? What're you talking about?"

"Well the way I see it," Nico started. "When you tell Artemis that y'know, you fell in l-l-lo...Y'KNOW about all that. You'll be kicked out of the hunters. I'll have to be there when that happens."

"Look Nico," Thalia said. "You don't have to do that. This is all on me, my fault, and my mess-up. You don't have to put your love life on hold just for that. You're romantically retarded as it is, we don't need anything else adding onto that!"

"I don't have to do it," Nico countered smugly. "I'm choosing to do it."

Thalia should've zapped him right then and there. A few hundred volts of electricity would have cleared his mind up. But try as she might, she couldn't fight the wave of relief and happiness that washed over her. She, Thalia Grace, was feeling giddy (a word she would never say out loud).

Resigning herself to her fate, she sighed. "Don't be such a smartass."

"Well I learn from the best," Nico replied, a smile plastered onto his face for the first time that night.

ZZZZZAP!

The tang of burnt hair filled the room as blue bolts crackled.

"Don't get too full of yourself, di Angelo," Thalia reminded, smirking to herself. "I'm still technically older than you."

"No you're not," he said hotly. "I spent almost sixty years in a magical time distortion in Vegas. I'm older than you by a long shot!"

"Well you've got the mental age of a ten-year-old!"

"I do not!"

No it don't break even, no

No it don't break even, no

It don't break even

"Ugh, those Hermes kids better stop that music soon or I'm going to snap."

"I thought you liked it!"

This was going to be a long five to eight years.

Note: My first PJO fic! Yaaaaay~! Wow, I haven't written for romance in forever (did you guys know that does NOT have an action genre?). There wasn't much romance and I don't know if its even worthy of being called fluff, but please give my little plot bunny some love and review :D

EDIT

Due to many requests for one:

THERE IS NOW A SEQUEL FOR THIS STORY.

PLEASE GO TO MY PROFILE IF YOU WANT TO READ IT.

I PERSONALLY THINK THE SEQUEL'S A LOT BETTER THAN THIS.

~thanks for reading~

~tsubsa95~