PJO: Battle of Mount Olympus | Nico/Rachel, "This is the stupidest adventure ever."
I... have no idea what happened here. XD; No, really I don't. It started out hilarious and then it turned all serious and I think it may just be made of fail, but it's a piece of writing and I'm going to submit it anyway. So, uh. There. >>;
Though I do have to note that any similarities to situations in greenconverses's "Death's Dare" fic are solely accidental because that universe is kind of unintentional headcanon for me because I love it so much. :D;;; I swear!
Anyway, fic #2 for The Battle of Mount Olympus at pjo_fic_battle.
Title: Graveyards Are So Not Romantic
Prompt: Nico/Rachel, "This is the stupidest adventure ever."
Rating: PG
Genre: Humor/Drama? Humorous drama? XD;
Wordcount: 2,597
Spoilers: for The Last Olympian if you squint.
Graveyards Are So Not Romantic
"You know, when Percy called me and asked for a favor, I didn't think he was gonna make me do this."
"Are you saying I'm not worth it, di Angelo?"
"This headache sure isn't."
Rachel rolled her eyes. "The Advil's under the sink in my bathroom if you're really in that much pain."
"No amount of Advil could ever fix this." Nico sighed and tilted his head back, resting it on the back of Rachel's admittedly very nice couch and stared at her very nice ceiling. He didn't particularly seem to care that he was slightly grimy and dusty, nor that he was probably getting it all over the couch. Because he was.
"Hey! If you're going to sit on my couch, at least take a shower first. You're kind of gross."
Nico sighed, as though very much put-upon. "As I recall, I got this way saving your life. So you might want to lay off for five minutes."
"After you take a shower. And I hardly call what you did 'saving my life'. I had it under control."
"Only if 'under control' is synonymous with 'running away'."
"Hey, fleeing is totally a valid solution."
"Not when you've got a bunch of crazy she-monsters after you."
"Hmph. I don't know why Percy couldn't just deal with this himself," Rachel huffed, gazing with dismay at the layer of grime Nico was currently getting on her expensive couch. She'd salvaged it from her parents' home the last time they had moved (because they seemed to move every few years, into bigger and better houses and she just didn't get it but hey, at least she got free furniture that way and she didn't feel like it was a handout from her father when she had to wrestle it away from the dumpster because it was a peftectly good couch and they were just plain wasteful).
She supposed she should cut him some slack. Nico was a good kid - most of the time, when he wasn't running around making other people's lives hell, which he liked to do more often than not. Who'dve known that the only living son of Hades would have trouble follow him like his shadow? He claimed it wasn't his fault, that dead things were just attracted to him like that, and didn't anyone understand how hard it was going to college when all the ghosts of students who had committed suicide wanted to befriend you? Rachel wasn't so sure; then again, if that was the worst of his problems, six years after the Battle for Olympus, he was probably doing pretty okay.
They were all doing pretty okay, really - Rachel had made it through Clarion Ladies' Academy and subsequently art school without disturbing overly many people by breaking down and spouting prophecies at the most inopportune times. Percy and Annabeth were inseparable as ever, and were finally thinking of moving out of the tiny apartment that had previously been his mother's until she'd moved in with her second husband, Paul Blofis. And Nico... well, Nico had bounced from couch to couch; he'd spent plenty of time at Camp Half-Blood but apparently didn't like it much despite the fact that he'd designed the Hades cabin, and had finally gotten his GED and started taking college classes. And despite the fact that their lives had all diverged after that fateful August so many years ago, all of them had kept in touch. Rachel had to admit, she wouldn't trade her friends for the world.
Except maybe now, because Nico was just impossible sometimes.
"Because he's busy," Nico replied, looking at her upside-down over the back of the couch. "His life's not dedicated to keeping the Oracle out of trouble. Neither is mine, y'know. Personally I think one of Apollo's kids'd be better for this job."
"Well, I hear they don't like graveyards."
"Nothing wrong with graveyards," Nico sniffed.
"Riiight. Because you're not biased or anything."
"Hey. Do I diss your stomping grounds?"
"Yeah, you do." He had, in fact, totally turned his nose up at the artsy local cafes Rachel liked to frequent. Really, she thought he would've liked them, but there was Nico di Angelo for you. Sometimes she thought he was contrary just to be contrary.
"... Well. Whatever," was the best comeback he could come up with, and Rachel snickered quietly. Sometimes, she had to admit, he was downright cute. (Hey, he wasn't jailbait anyore and it wasn't like she could do anything anyway. He'd grown up pretty damn nicely and she could carry a smoldering torch if she wanted, thankyouverymuch.) Even if he was still impossible.
Nico sighed, then glanced out the window at the dusk that was just falling over Manhattan. "I should really get back there, anyway. Track the source. Better to deal with these things sooner rather than later."
Rachel made her way into the kitchen, searching out a mug that hadn't been used for cleaning paintbrushes before filling it with water and throwing it into the microwave. "You want a pointy stick to bring with you?" she asked over the hum of the appliance.
"... You've apparently seen way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Rachel snorted. "You know what that is? I thought you were born before the era of cheesy sci-fi shows."
Nico sniffed. "Doesn't mean I haven't caught up." He finally righted himself and glanced at Rachel conspiratorially. "Would you believe that Annabeth has the whole thing on DVD stashed in the back of Percy's old closet?"
Rachel giggled despite herself. "Actually... yeah. I would. Does she know you know?" The microwave pinged and she pulled the mug out, rustling in the pantry for a moment.
"No, and it's going to stay that way."
"Right." Rachel grinned and padded into the living room, coming to a stop behind the couch. A second later a mug appeared in front of Nico's face, dangling from pale hands with fading purple nailpolish. "Here. Drink this first."
He took the mug gratefully, sipping at the contents experimentally. He needn't have worried - it was only plain green tea, his favorite. She'd learned a fair few things about certain children of gods over the years. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Thanks."
Rachel nodded and gave him a pointed look. "I'm going to go get changed. You stay here. If you're gone when I come back I'll find you and kick your ass."
Nico snorted into the hot tea, which may not have been the best idea, but by then Rachel had disappeared into her room and shut the door. She quickly changed out of the muddy clothes she was currently wearing (ugh, graveyard mud was somehow so much more gross than regular mud) and into jeans with only a few scribbles down the side and a red tank top. After all, if she was going to help with this, she'd better be able to move her arms. She did know judo, after all. She'd decided taking up a martial art was not a bad idea; even if it didn't stop Ancient Greek monsters for good, it certainly gave them pause.
She emerged from her room few minutes later to find Nico standing near the window looking at the darkening sky. The mug was empty now, sitting on the table and probably leaving a ring - he hadn't used a coaster. Brat.
He glanced over at her and rolled his eyes. "So glad you decided to look your best to send me off."
He just didn't get it, did he? Rachel made her way over, stepping right up into his personal space. No way she was letting him get away without taking her. "Well, let's go!" she said. "What're you waiting for?" When he didn't move, she motioned to the shadows behind him. "Beam us up already, Scotty."
Nico stared at her indignantly. "What the hell! I'm a person, not a transporter!"
Nico continued to glare as Rachel promptly dissolved into giggles so badly that she had to squat down, hands wrapped around her middle while he pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I hate you," he said.
"No you don't," she replied, even as he sighed and took hold of her arm, pulling her into the dark.
*
The graveyard might have been Nico's second home, but Rachel wasn't sure why he felt the need to roll around in it so that he would bring half of it back home to her place. Because of course he didn't have anywhere else to stay while he was in town ("Eew, Annabeth and Percy are probably having sex, I am not sleeping on his couch tonight!") so where else was he going to go? Rachel stood at the edge of the Cedar Hill Cemetary and looked him up and down, sighing.
Then again, for as much mud as Nico was covered in, she was probably just as covered. And she had liked the doodles on these jeans, too.
"You do realize this was pretty much the stupidest adventure I've ever been on, right?" she asked, looking around the wreckage they (well, mostly Nico) had wrought. "I thought this was supposed to be some big threat. Instead it's just a bunch of really ugly girls trying to tear my hair out because they want a prophecy to make sure they'll make it onto the cheerleading team." Rachel sighed. Seriously - when the first few empousai had tried to kill her, they'd been a lot more threatening - and a lot less clear on their reasons. She wished it had remained that way. Besides...
"Technically empousai aren't even vampires," Rachel added. "Why do you think they decided to hang out in a cemetary?"
Nico shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they watched too much Buffy." Rachel just rolled her eyes. She supposed she couldn't preclude that possibility. "Their mistake, anyway." He grinned, glancing at the churned-up ground where he'd made several skeletons rise from their caskets to help out.
Rachel sighed, surveying the damage. "Apparently. Well, they turn to dust just like vampires, I guess. Anyway, we'd just better get out of here before anyone notices. I wouldn't want to have to explain why dear deceased Uncle Jimmy decided to take a midnight stroll."
"I put everyone back in the right places!" Nico insisted. Then he glanced around. "At least... I think so."
"Hah, hah," Rachel intoned, totally not actually laughing (though it had been kind of cute. She couldn't let him know that, though). "My hero."
Nico sighed, making no move to return them via the shadows to Rachel's apartment across town. For a minute his pale face was shadowed and totally unreadable, before he seemed to come to some kind of decision and blinked, looking over at her again and shooting her a smug grin. "So," Nico said, "doesn't the hero always get the girl in the end?"
One red eyebrow rose significantly. "You think you're really a hero?"
"Hell, yeah. What else would you call that?" Nico swept his arm across the graveyard.
"Hm... sloppy." Even if he had killed the several empousai trying to rip the Oracle to shreds over making it onto the cheerleading squad. Seriously - popular girls were nuts, no matter what form they came in.
Nico deflated just a little. "That was not sloppy! You try doing what I just did and making it look any better!" he snapped indignantly.
Rachel tossed her frizzy red hair over one shoulder. "Of course I'd make it look better. I'm a girl."
"So do I get you or not?"
She stopped, suddenly sensing the serious - and unexpected - turn this conversation had taken. "Excuse me?"
Nico shrugged like it was nothing, but it wasn't. This was something, all right. "It was just a question." Rachel looked at him, but his expression was impossible to read. But he was clearly being deadly (hah) serious.
"And I think you already know the answer." She glanced away uncomfortably. Great. So he must've picked up on the fact that she thought he was cute. Because he was. But that didn't mean anything and they both knew it. Witty banter was one thing. Anything else, though...
"What if I'm not looking for... a lot, you know?"
Rachel looked back at him, totally confused. "Excuse me?" She seemed to be saying that a lot tonight.
Nico shrugged, his face finally showing some emotion, even if all it did was tell her he was extremely uncomforable. "Well, I'm just saying... I know you're the Oracle and all."
"Yeah..."
"So you just have to remain a virgin, right? What about other stuff?"
"Uh," Rachel said, feeling completely blindsided. "What? I don't know?"
"Oh," Nico said, shoving his grimy hands into his even grimier pockets. "Okay then. Nevermind."
"Oh, no you don't," Rachel said, finally regaining some of her composure and striding up to him, getting in his face because if they didn't deal with this now... "So you're saying that - that hypothetically you'd be okay with... having a girlfriend who's three years older than you and can't have sex?" Because if that's what he was saying...
Nico glanced away despite her best efforts to hold his eyes. "I dunno. I'd be willing to try. For you." He swallowed. "I just thought you should know."
The words were honest and quiet and they hit Rachel like a ton of bricks. She stared at him for a long moment, her mind unwilling and unable to comprehend the simple fact that here, in front of her, was a male who claimed that he would disregard his hormones for her because... She suddenly felt something tugging at the pit of her stomach and it wasn't desire, exactly, but it was... something. Something that told her that she could not let this boy - who was impossible and annoying and adorable and brave and so brutally honest - go.
Where would she ever find another man willing to say that and mean it? Because he meant it; for all the stupid jokes and the insults and the brush-offs, Nico di Angelo never said anything that he didn't mean. Not when it counted. That was part of the reason that she...
She surprised herself as much as she surprised him when she said, "Okay."
Nico blinked at her, all of his previous confidence long gone. "O-okay?"
Rachel nodded. "Sure. Why not? Nico, you're completely impossible sometimes, you know that? But I... I think I'd be willing to give it a try, too." She swallowed. "Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay."
"Enough," Nico said, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"Yeah, yeah." Rachel caught his contagious smile and couldn't help but return it. It had been one crazy night, she decided, by all definitions of the word. And by now she'd really like to go home... with her new boyfriend, apparently. Oh, shit. How was she supposed to explain this to Apollo?
Nevermind that - how was she going to explain this to Percy?
Well, there'd be plenty of time to figure out how to break the news later. Right now...
"By the way," she said, taking his hand and guiding him over towards the long shadows stretching behind one of the old, cracked mausoleums, "our second date had better be somewhere nice and not filled with graveyard mud."
Nico laughed like he still couldn't believe this was actually happening. Well, neither could she. It was going to be a long night, she could tell already. "I can't make any promises," he said.
"Well then you'd better learn how to lie about it really, really well."
The End
Though I do have to note that any similarities to situations in greenconverses's "Death's Dare" fic are solely accidental because that universe is kind of unintentional headcanon for me because I love it so much. :D;;; I swear!
Anyway, fic #2 for The Battle of Mount Olympus at pjo_fic_battle.
Title: Graveyards Are So Not Romantic
Prompt: Nico/Rachel, "This is the stupidest adventure ever."
Rating: PG
Genre: Humor/Drama? Humorous drama? XD;
Wordcount: 2,597
Spoilers: for The Last Olympian if you squint.
Graveyards Are So Not Romantic
"You know, when Percy called me and asked for a favor, I didn't think he was gonna make me do this."
"Are you saying I'm not worth it, di Angelo?"
"This headache sure isn't."
Rachel rolled her eyes. "The Advil's under the sink in my bathroom if you're really in that much pain."
"No amount of Advil could ever fix this." Nico sighed and tilted his head back, resting it on the back of Rachel's admittedly very nice couch and stared at her very nice ceiling. He didn't particularly seem to care that he was slightly grimy and dusty, nor that he was probably getting it all over the couch. Because he was.
"Hey! If you're going to sit on my couch, at least take a shower first. You're kind of gross."
Nico sighed, as though very much put-upon. "As I recall, I got this way saving your life. So you might want to lay off for five minutes."
"After you take a shower. And I hardly call what you did 'saving my life'. I had it under control."
"Only if 'under control' is synonymous with 'running away'."
"Hey, fleeing is totally a valid solution."
"Not when you've got a bunch of crazy she-monsters after you."
"Hmph. I don't know why Percy couldn't just deal with this himself," Rachel huffed, gazing with dismay at the layer of grime Nico was currently getting on her expensive couch. She'd salvaged it from her parents' home the last time they had moved (because they seemed to move every few years, into bigger and better houses and she just didn't get it but hey, at least she got free furniture that way and she didn't feel like it was a handout from her father when she had to wrestle it away from the dumpster because it was a peftectly good couch and they were just plain wasteful).
She supposed she should cut him some slack. Nico was a good kid - most of the time, when he wasn't running around making other people's lives hell, which he liked to do more often than not. Who'dve known that the only living son of Hades would have trouble follow him like his shadow? He claimed it wasn't his fault, that dead things were just attracted to him like that, and didn't anyone understand how hard it was going to college when all the ghosts of students who had committed suicide wanted to befriend you? Rachel wasn't so sure; then again, if that was the worst of his problems, six years after the Battle for Olympus, he was probably doing pretty okay.
They were all doing pretty okay, really - Rachel had made it through Clarion Ladies' Academy and subsequently art school without disturbing overly many people by breaking down and spouting prophecies at the most inopportune times. Percy and Annabeth were inseparable as ever, and were finally thinking of moving out of the tiny apartment that had previously been his mother's until she'd moved in with her second husband, Paul Blofis. And Nico... well, Nico had bounced from couch to couch; he'd spent plenty of time at Camp Half-Blood but apparently didn't like it much despite the fact that he'd designed the Hades cabin, and had finally gotten his GED and started taking college classes. And despite the fact that their lives had all diverged after that fateful August so many years ago, all of them had kept in touch. Rachel had to admit, she wouldn't trade her friends for the world.
Except maybe now, because Nico was just impossible sometimes.
"Because he's busy," Nico replied, looking at her upside-down over the back of the couch. "His life's not dedicated to keeping the Oracle out of trouble. Neither is mine, y'know. Personally I think one of Apollo's kids'd be better for this job."
"Well, I hear they don't like graveyards."
"Nothing wrong with graveyards," Nico sniffed.
"Riiight. Because you're not biased or anything."
"Hey. Do I diss your stomping grounds?"
"Yeah, you do." He had, in fact, totally turned his nose up at the artsy local cafes Rachel liked to frequent. Really, she thought he would've liked them, but there was Nico di Angelo for you. Sometimes she thought he was contrary just to be contrary.
"... Well. Whatever," was the best comeback he could come up with, and Rachel snickered quietly. Sometimes, she had to admit, he was downright cute. (Hey, he wasn't jailbait anyore and it wasn't like she could do anything anyway. He'd grown up pretty damn nicely and she could carry a smoldering torch if she wanted, thankyouverymuch.) Even if he was still impossible.
Nico sighed, then glanced out the window at the dusk that was just falling over Manhattan. "I should really get back there, anyway. Track the source. Better to deal with these things sooner rather than later."
Rachel made her way into the kitchen, searching out a mug that hadn't been used for cleaning paintbrushes before filling it with water and throwing it into the microwave. "You want a pointy stick to bring with you?" she asked over the hum of the appliance.
"... You've apparently seen way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Rachel snorted. "You know what that is? I thought you were born before the era of cheesy sci-fi shows."
Nico sniffed. "Doesn't mean I haven't caught up." He finally righted himself and glanced at Rachel conspiratorially. "Would you believe that Annabeth has the whole thing on DVD stashed in the back of Percy's old closet?"
Rachel giggled despite herself. "Actually... yeah. I would. Does she know you know?" The microwave pinged and she pulled the mug out, rustling in the pantry for a moment.
"No, and it's going to stay that way."
"Right." Rachel grinned and padded into the living room, coming to a stop behind the couch. A second later a mug appeared in front of Nico's face, dangling from pale hands with fading purple nailpolish. "Here. Drink this first."
He took the mug gratefully, sipping at the contents experimentally. He needn't have worried - it was only plain green tea, his favorite. She'd learned a fair few things about certain children of gods over the years. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Thanks."
Rachel nodded and gave him a pointed look. "I'm going to go get changed. You stay here. If you're gone when I come back I'll find you and kick your ass."
Nico snorted into the hot tea, which may not have been the best idea, but by then Rachel had disappeared into her room and shut the door. She quickly changed out of the muddy clothes she was currently wearing (ugh, graveyard mud was somehow so much more gross than regular mud) and into jeans with only a few scribbles down the side and a red tank top. After all, if she was going to help with this, she'd better be able to move her arms. She did know judo, after all. She'd decided taking up a martial art was not a bad idea; even if it didn't stop Ancient Greek monsters for good, it certainly gave them pause.
She emerged from her room few minutes later to find Nico standing near the window looking at the darkening sky. The mug was empty now, sitting on the table and probably leaving a ring - he hadn't used a coaster. Brat.
He glanced over at her and rolled his eyes. "So glad you decided to look your best to send me off."
He just didn't get it, did he? Rachel made her way over, stepping right up into his personal space. No way she was letting him get away without taking her. "Well, let's go!" she said. "What're you waiting for?" When he didn't move, she motioned to the shadows behind him. "Beam us up already, Scotty."
Nico stared at her indignantly. "What the hell! I'm a person, not a transporter!"
Nico continued to glare as Rachel promptly dissolved into giggles so badly that she had to squat down, hands wrapped around her middle while he pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "I hate you," he said.
"No you don't," she replied, even as he sighed and took hold of her arm, pulling her into the dark.
*
The graveyard might have been Nico's second home, but Rachel wasn't sure why he felt the need to roll around in it so that he would bring half of it back home to her place. Because of course he didn't have anywhere else to stay while he was in town ("Eew, Annabeth and Percy are probably having sex, I am not sleeping on his couch tonight!") so where else was he going to go? Rachel stood at the edge of the Cedar Hill Cemetary and looked him up and down, sighing.
Then again, for as much mud as Nico was covered in, she was probably just as covered. And she had liked the doodles on these jeans, too.
"You do realize this was pretty much the stupidest adventure I've ever been on, right?" she asked, looking around the wreckage they (well, mostly Nico) had wrought. "I thought this was supposed to be some big threat. Instead it's just a bunch of really ugly girls trying to tear my hair out because they want a prophecy to make sure they'll make it onto the cheerleading team." Rachel sighed. Seriously - when the first few empousai had tried to kill her, they'd been a lot more threatening - and a lot less clear on their reasons. She wished it had remained that way. Besides...
"Technically empousai aren't even vampires," Rachel added. "Why do you think they decided to hang out in a cemetary?"
Nico shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they watched too much Buffy." Rachel just rolled her eyes. She supposed she couldn't preclude that possibility. "Their mistake, anyway." He grinned, glancing at the churned-up ground where he'd made several skeletons rise from their caskets to help out.
Rachel sighed, surveying the damage. "Apparently. Well, they turn to dust just like vampires, I guess. Anyway, we'd just better get out of here before anyone notices. I wouldn't want to have to explain why dear deceased Uncle Jimmy decided to take a midnight stroll."
"I put everyone back in the right places!" Nico insisted. Then he glanced around. "At least... I think so."
"Hah, hah," Rachel intoned, totally not actually laughing (though it had been kind of cute. She couldn't let him know that, though). "My hero."
Nico sighed, making no move to return them via the shadows to Rachel's apartment across town. For a minute his pale face was shadowed and totally unreadable, before he seemed to come to some kind of decision and blinked, looking over at her again and shooting her a smug grin. "So," Nico said, "doesn't the hero always get the girl in the end?"
One red eyebrow rose significantly. "You think you're really a hero?"
"Hell, yeah. What else would you call that?" Nico swept his arm across the graveyard.
"Hm... sloppy." Even if he had killed the several empousai trying to rip the Oracle to shreds over making it onto the cheerleading squad. Seriously - popular girls were nuts, no matter what form they came in.
Nico deflated just a little. "That was not sloppy! You try doing what I just did and making it look any better!" he snapped indignantly.
Rachel tossed her frizzy red hair over one shoulder. "Of course I'd make it look better. I'm a girl."
"So do I get you or not?"
She stopped, suddenly sensing the serious - and unexpected - turn this conversation had taken. "Excuse me?"
Nico shrugged like it was nothing, but it wasn't. This was something, all right. "It was just a question." Rachel looked at him, but his expression was impossible to read. But he was clearly being deadly (hah) serious.
"And I think you already know the answer." She glanced away uncomfortably. Great. So he must've picked up on the fact that she thought he was cute. Because he was. But that didn't mean anything and they both knew it. Witty banter was one thing. Anything else, though...
"What if I'm not looking for... a lot, you know?"
Rachel looked back at him, totally confused. "Excuse me?" She seemed to be saying that a lot tonight.
Nico shrugged, his face finally showing some emotion, even if all it did was tell her he was extremely uncomforable. "Well, I'm just saying... I know you're the Oracle and all."
"Yeah..."
"So you just have to remain a virgin, right? What about other stuff?"
"Uh," Rachel said, feeling completely blindsided. "What? I don't know?"
"Oh," Nico said, shoving his grimy hands into his even grimier pockets. "Okay then. Nevermind."
"Oh, no you don't," Rachel said, finally regaining some of her composure and striding up to him, getting in his face because if they didn't deal with this now... "So you're saying that - that hypothetically you'd be okay with... having a girlfriend who's three years older than you and can't have sex?" Because if that's what he was saying...
Nico glanced away despite her best efforts to hold his eyes. "I dunno. I'd be willing to try. For you." He swallowed. "I just thought you should know."
The words were honest and quiet and they hit Rachel like a ton of bricks. She stared at him for a long moment, her mind unwilling and unable to comprehend the simple fact that here, in front of her, was a male who claimed that he would disregard his hormones for her because... She suddenly felt something tugging at the pit of her stomach and it wasn't desire, exactly, but it was... something. Something that told her that she could not let this boy - who was impossible and annoying and adorable and brave and so brutally honest - go.
Where would she ever find another man willing to say that and mean it? Because he meant it; for all the stupid jokes and the insults and the brush-offs, Nico di Angelo never said anything that he didn't mean. Not when it counted. That was part of the reason that she...
She surprised herself as much as she surprised him when she said, "Okay."
Nico blinked at her, all of his previous confidence long gone. "O-okay?"
Rachel nodded. "Sure. Why not? Nico, you're completely impossible sometimes, you know that? But I... I think I'd be willing to give it a try, too." She swallowed. "Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay."
"Enough," Nico said, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"Yeah, yeah." Rachel caught his contagious smile and couldn't help but return it. It had been one crazy night, she decided, by all definitions of the word. And by now she'd really like to go home... with her new boyfriend, apparently. Oh, shit. How was she supposed to explain this to Apollo?
Nevermind that - how was she going to explain this to Percy?
Well, there'd be plenty of time to figure out how to break the news later. Right now...
"By the way," she said, taking his hand and guiding him over towards the long shadows stretching behind one of the old, cracked mausoleums, "our second date had better be somewhere nice and not filled with graveyard mud."
Nico laughed like he still couldn't believe this was actually happening. Well, neither could she. It was going to be a long night, she could tell already. "I can't make any promises," he said.
"Well then you'd better learn how to lie about it really, really well."
The End