Archive of Our Own

One day, Percy would figure out how to keep his mouth shut when it came to Ares.  Today was not that day.  Ares looked like he was about to blow a blood vessel in his head or something, he was so red, but Percy managed not to say that out loud.

“You know, kid?” Ares said.  “I’m gonna teach you a lesson you won’t forget anytime soon.  The next time you get into it with someone, you are gonna be humiliated, captured, and the team you’re leading?  Toast.”

Percy shook his head frantically.  He hadn’t thought he’d pissed Ares off that much; he’d said worse things when they’d met before but maybe he’d caught the guy on a bad day or something.  But that didn’t matter because he couldn’t just let Ares take it out on his friends.  “Hey!  If you’re pissed at me, it should just be me...”

“Just remember that it’s all your fault when your friends get what’s coming to them,” Ares said.  He vanished into thin air before Percy could say anything else, leaving Percy gaping at the spot Ares had just stood.  It could be one of Ares’ own kids that he’d just condemned, and he didn’t even care.

“Great.  Just freaking great,” Percy muttered to himself.  He had to get back to Annabeth.  She’d be able to find a way to get around this.

That afternoon, Annabeth addressed the assembled campers at lunch.  They’d decided it was the easiest way to catch everyone together without causing a total panic.  After explaining the situation (and waiting for the room to settle), she added, “Jason and Leo are heading back now.  Frank and Hazel were already on their way back, so they should be here later today.”  

No one knew what to make of Ares’ threat.  Quests were mostly left to younger campers anyway, unless they were particularly dangerous.  They might hear about a more dangerous quest, one that they’d want Percy or Jason to go on, in which case they wanted Jason there to cover for him.  They’d upped the patrols at camp in case Ares sent something after them, and Percy was barred from being on any of the rotations.  They’d asked Rachel what she thought, and she’d just shrugged at them.  “I’m not getting anything about it, so maybe it isn’t that serious.”

The worst part was dealing with Percy’s being miserable.  It was the start of summer and everyone had been gearing up for chariot races and other games, but with Ares’ threat hanging over his head, all Percy could do was hang out at his cabin or the lake, or help other people out with their projects.  It wasn’t, Annabeth thought, something that Percy was really suited to.  He didn’t mean to try to take over, but people tended to follow his lead, and right now that could be deadly.

Annabeth managed to lose some of her tension over the course of lunch.  Capture the flag was tonight, and she and Percy had worked out their alliances carefully.  A good game could lift the spirits of everyone in camp, and gods knew they needed it.  Most of the chatter in the room was about the game; another Athena vs Ares matchup.  Clarisse and Percy had exchanged casual insults and threats before the meal started, and that had set up a buzz of excitement in general.  

Dionysus arrived late, and the room fell silent as he sat at the head table.  “I’m sure all of you have been working very hard forming your little alliances,” he drawled.  “But I’ve been told what your teams are, so you’ll just have to work with it.”  Murmurs broke out all over the room, and people started shushing their neighbors, making even more noise than the people who’d started talking.  Dionysus made a disgusted sound and the noise immediately stopped.  “Thank you.  The teams are as follows: Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, Zeus - well, that will only matter if Grayson gets back, Demeter, Aphrodite, and oh, look Dionysus cabins will be working together.  The other team will be Apollo, Poseidon, and all the other cabins.  Well.”  Dionysus smiled around the room.  “That should make things interesting.  Carry on.”  

Annabeth turned to stare at Percy, who looked torn between rage and relief.  It was Clarisse who broke the silence.  “Sucks for you, Jackson.”

The room exploded into discussion.  Annabeth tuned most of it out, but the sounds of groaning and disgust from the Apollo table made it pretty clear how people felt.  “Thanks a lot, Percy,” one of the Apollo kids called, and several of the kids from the minor gods’ cabins took up the refrain.  Annabeth winced and headed over to Percy’s table; glancing over, it she saw that Mr. D had left, so Chiron wasn’t likely to lecture her for it.

“I’m sorry about this,” she said as she approached Percy.  “But at least it means that we can tell Jason and Leo that they don’t have to hurry back.”  If Percy was going to lose in a game of capture the flag, that meant that they didn’t have to panic about anyone’s dying because of Ares’ curse.  Annabeth knew from experience that Percy hadn’t always gotten off so lightly when he offended Ares; the last time this had happened, he’d frozen and they’d nearly lost Artemis.

Hopefully if his capture was really humiliating, they’d be able to take pictures.  They’d have to put them up in the rec room, but she wasn’t going to say that to Percy now.  Given the dirty looks he was getting, it really wasn’t the time.  From his expression, Annabeth wondered if Percy didn’t know what she was thinking anyway.

“Thanks a lot for that,” Percy said.  “I can tell that you feel really sorry.”  He sighed.  “It’s a lot better than worrying about it happening at a bad time, you’re right.”  Percy rose abruptly.  “I’m gonna head out.”

Oh great, he was going to sulk about it.  Hadn’t they gotten past this when he was thirteen?  “It’s just a game, Percy.”

“We were supposed to work together,” Percy said sharply.  “It’s great that no one’s going to die, but Ares knew we’d worry about it and then, after we’ve warned all of our friends that something big might happen, and even pulled Leo off of his search, we find out that it’s just this.  Great way to start the summer.”

“Gods, Percy, if you hadn’t argued with him in the first place, you wouldn’t be cursed at all,” Annabeth snapped.  Trust Percy to make a big deal of nothing after being so calm before.  Maybe she shouldn’t have said it, but it was the truth; Percy just couldn’t keep himself from arguing with Ares, and arguing with gods never got you anywhere.  Annabeth carefully avoided thinking about how she felt about Hera; that was different, given everything that Hera had pulled on her.

Percy stalked away without another word, and Annabeth headed back to the Athena table.  “We need to start planning,” she said to Malcolm.  Once Percy cooled down, he’d start trying to figure out a way around the curse, and if anyone could find it, it would be him.

Hazel had expected the mood in camp to be low, but not the way it was when she arrived.  People were standing around in clumps, gossiping about something.  The Ares campers were assembled right outside their cabin, and it looked as if all of the Athena and some of the Aphrodite campers were there with them.  Hazel exchanged a look with Frank, but he seemed as baffled as she did.  

“It looks like Annabeth is over there,” Frank said, pointing to the group by the Ares cabin.  “And Piper.  They’ll be able to tell us what’s going on.”  

“Do you think something happened already?”  It couldn’t be that, Hazel thought.  If that were the case, someone would have come over to get Hazel and Frank already.  No one looked really upset or afraid.  “Annabeth!” Hazel called.  “What happened?”

It was Piper who answered.  “It turns out the curse is kicking in for our first capture the flag game of the summer.  All of the big cabins except Apollo and Poseidon are on one team, on the camp director’s orders.”  She shrugged and tucked her hair behind her ear.  “We’re planning things out anyway.”

“Knowing Percy,” Annabeth added, “He might find a way around it, so we aren’t going to take any chances.  I’m sorry we made you rush, but you can take some time to get settled.  We’re having a bonfire after the game, so you two will have something to do tonight, even if you’re not in the game.”

“I’m glad to hear that it’s going to be okay,” Hazel said.  Frank was nodding agreement.  “I guess some of the campers aren’t taking it too well.”

“Percy isn’t taking it too well either,” Annabeth said.  “He’ll get over it, but he decided to sulk about it first.”

“Maybe he’s just coming down off his fear,” Frank suggested.  “It’s pretty difficult to worry that you’ll be responsible for your friends dying.  You can say some stupid things when you’re coming down from that.”  Hazel glanced at Frank; being praetor, he understood what kind of pressure that was. 

“You’re a son of Mars, aren’t you?” Clarisse asked him.  “That means you should be on our team.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing how you play the game,” Frank admitted.  “I’ll help out if you have a place for me.”  Hazel smiled at him; he hadn’t really had a chance to get to know this side of his family that well.  That was why they’d been on the way to visit; Percy’s situation had just made it urgent.  

“Would anyone mind if I joined up as well?” Hazel asked.  “I don’t want to just sit it out.”  

“We’d love to have you on the team,” Piper said.  “We need a good team to guard the flag; the two of you can manage that.”  She looked to Annabeth and Clarisse for confirmation, and Annabeth nodded.  Hazel smiled with relief; Jason had said that they were trying to work on getting people at Camp Half-Blood to stop defining people solely by their godly parents, so she hadn’t been sure that they’d let her participate.  Not that they didn’t judge her for being a daughter of Pluto at Camp Jupiter, but it felt keener here.  

Clarisse smirked at someone behind Hazel.  “See?  Even the visitors don’t want to be on the losing team.”  Hazel turned to see who it was and saw Percy Jackson, who was staring at her with absolutely no expression on his face.

“Thanks Clarisse.  You really know how to make a guy happy,” Percy said.

Clarisse shrugged.  “Maybe next time you won’t mouth off to my old man.”

Percy ignored Clarisse, taking a step closer to Hazel.  Despite herself, Hazel took a step back.  Percy was radiating...something.  She wasn’t sure what, but suddenly she couldn’t put out of her mind that she was facing one of the strongest demigods in the world.  “What, it wasn’t good enough that they get called ‘Apollo and everyone else,’ you have to rub it in that the team I’m on is going to lose?  You guys don’t even go to this camp, and you’re going to make this even harder?”

“Hey,” Frank said sharply.  “Back off.  It’s a game, Percy.”

“Yeah, that’s fine for you,” Percy snapped.  “You don’t have half the camp blaming you for the fact that they’re guaranteed to get extra chores, just because a god was pissed at you.”

“Ever think that maybe it’s your fault?” Hazel retorted.  “From what you’re saying, your team didn’t have a chance of winning anyway.  I feel bad for your team, but not for you; you brought this on yourself and on them.  It’s not like you to be a sore loser, Percy.”

Percy glowered at her, then turned and stalked away.

“What got into him?” Frank asked.  “Shouldn’t he be happy about this?”  

Hazel wasn’t worried about Percy at all.  If he was going to be a jerk - and clearly that was what he was going for - she wasn’t going to bother with any sympathy for him.  Maybe if he hadn’t acted like a five-year-old she’d feel bad, but it didn’t sound like he was thinking about his team, just about how his team was mad at him for what would happen with him.  She did feel a bit badly for the campers who didn’t have a chance to get out of chores, but it wasn’t as if it was her fault.

“Ignore him,” Annabeth said.  “We’ve got some more planning to do, if the two of you want to come to the war room.  We’re going to plan a tight game, even if this looks like it’ll be easy.”

“If you two want to eat something, we can head into the big house and get you a snack before moving on,” Piper said.  She tugged on her braid.  “We have this pretty locked down.”

Frank exchanged a look with Hazel.  “I think we’re both fine,” Hazel said.  “Let’s make some plans.”

The discussion went on for a while.  Hazel noticed out of the corner of her eye that people seemed to be going in and out of of one of the minor cabins; it looked like Annabeth was right.  The other team was planning, even if it sounded like they were facing certain defeat.  When the planning group broke up, Hazel stretched and headed off for a walk on her own.  She headed down to the lake shore and looked out at the water.  It was a lot more like what she thought of as a typical summer camp.  She was always surprised to see how different this place was from Camp Jupiter.

“Uh,” said someone behind her.  “Hi.”  

Hazel turned to see Percy behind her.  He gave her a little half-wave.  She wasn’t really interested in talking to him - definitely not after earlier.  If he couldn’t act his age, it wasn’t worth trying to discuss things with him.  Hazel frowned at Percy, crossing her arms.  “Hey, look, if you’re just going to keep yelling-”

Percy shook his head.  “No, I wanted to apologize.  It’s just really frustrating, but it doesn’t have anything to do with you.  I’m sorry I took it out on you.”

He looked kind of hesitant, and Hazel instantly felt bad.  She had just come in and joined up with the others without even knowing anything about the situation, but everyone on Percy’s team was either moping or giving him dirty looks, and she knew how that felt.  Of course, the reason Percy was in trouble in the first place was because he’d mouthed off to Ares, so she couldn’t feel that bad.  For him, anyway.  But of course, here he was, worried about his team’s feelings, not about himself.  

Hazel shook her head.  “It’s okay.  It must be hard for your team right now.”

“Yeah.”  Percy sighed and looked relieved.  “Um, hey, I also wanted to ask you something, and I understand if you don’t want to do anything for me right now, but I have something I wanted to give Nico.  He hasn’t been around recently, so I wondered if you had a way of getting in contact with him somehow.”

“I’ll get a message to him for you,” Hazel said.  Maybe if both Jason and Percy started in on him, Nico would open up and stick around for a while.  She could hope.  She hadn't thought Percy was thinking of anything but the game, and here he was thinking about Nico.  He really was a decent guy.

Night had fallen, the teams took up their banners, and the game had begun.  So far, the game was going well.  Annabeth felt like it was going too well.  Apollo cabin was huddled around their flag and refusing to leave it.  Even with everything the other cabins could throw at them, it was a stalemate.  They would run out of arrows eventually, but while they had them there was no way that anyone could get close to the flag.

With that many people grouped up, it meant that Percy’s team was only sending small groups or individuals out to get the other flag, and Annabeth was sure that Hazel and Frank could handle it.

Annabeth bit her lip and headed back to check with the defensive team on her side.  It never hurt to check.

A figure melted out of the woods so smoothly that Hazel would have thought it was a dryad, if not for its pallor.  Nico gave Hazel a casual wave and headed over to her and Frank.  He seemed to have gotten into the habit of wearing a long coat over his regular t-shirt and jeans; Hazel remembered Leo’s saying something about her brother playing up the badass longcoat thing but she was pretty sure Nico would have to put on a few more inches before he could make it impressive.  He probably would do it by the time he was Percy’s age.

“I got your message.”  Nico looked around the base area, and she saw him noting their weapons and the guards standing in front of the flag.  “I can come back some other time if you’re too busy.”

Hazel glanced at Frank.  Even if the other team was backed up against the wall, it wouldn’t be a good thing to have a distraction during the game.  On the other hand, it was just a game.  Still, Hazel was kind of an add-on, and Aphrodite and Hephaestus campers guarding the flag had been deferring to Frank since he’d taken up position.

Frank looked back at Hazel with what was definitely a “you know he threatened to bury me in an unmarked grave if I hurt you” expression, then shrugged at whatever he saw in her face.  “I don’t see anything wrong with it.  It just might get busy later.”

“I’ll hang back if anything happens,” Nico said.  Hazel wanted to tell him it would have been great if he’d shown up early enough to get into the game, but she suspected he’d shown up this late to avoid being dragged into it.  Getting her brother to come out of his shell was still very much a work in progress.

“You should come to the bonfire afterwards,” Hazel said.  “Everyone will be there.”  She bit back more encouragement; everyone’s being there wasn’t necessarily a bonus for Nico.  

“I’ll think about it.”  Nico focused on Frank and Hazel pushed back an instant feeling of worry.  She needn’t have bothered, though; his next comment was, “So you used to play mythomagic?  Do you still do anything with it?”  As far as Hazel knew, Nico hadn’t done anything with the game in years, but he’d mentioned it after their last misadventure.  He’d asked her if she was interested in playing, but Hazel wasn’t sure she was up for learning a strategy game with everything else she had going.  She’d offered to beat the pants off of him at Monopoly, though; she’d have to hold him to his promise of a game.

Frank shook his head.  “I haven’t had the time, between everything that was going on, and then being praetor, I kind of stopped doing it.”  He grinned.  “I’d love to get back into something like that; something simple.  Of course, deck strategy isn’t really simple...”

“But it’s nice, compared to sailing to Greece in a flying ship,” Nico said.  “I thought you might need some catching up on some of the expansions,” and if that wasn’t a challenge her name wasn’t Hazel Levesque.  Nico was smiling - actually smiling - at Frank, and when Hazel looked at Frank, he was smiling back.  They were mostly smiles, anyway; it was harder to call them that when you could feel the tension in the air.

“You think you could teach me a few things?” Frank asked.  “I’d like to see that.”  I’d like to see you try, he meant, Hazel thought.  She was going to have to separate them, wasn’t she?

“You still owe me a Monopoly game, Nico,” Hazel said, linking her arm with her brother’s.  “It’s nice to see you and Frank getting along, but you’d better not forget me.”  Nico squeezed her arm lightly in response, and Hazel released him.  “If you two are going to geek out over mythomagic together, I guess I’ll have to learn how to play.”

“I’ll teach you,” both boys said in unison.  Hazel laughed when they turned to each other and glared.

Piper was doubled over with laughter when Annabeth arrived, and Clarisse looked as smug as Annabeth had ever seen her.  Piper waved a hand at Annabeth.  "Tell her," she said.  She burst into another spate of laughter, and Clarisse turned to Annabeth.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked.  They hadn't won yet and even if Percy didn't think he could win this, they couldn't count out their fellow campers.  Butch was a good strategist and there were plenty of decent fighters in the Apollo cabin.  It wasn't like Clarisse to relax in the middle of a game.

"We caught your boyfriend," Clarisse said, smirking at Annabeth.  "Or a tree caught him for us."

Annabeth frowned.  "The dryads aren't playing."

Piper finally started to calm down; enough at least to add, "No, it was just a tree.  A normal tree."

"It caught his shirt," one of the Ares campers put in.  "We found his group when they were trying to get him free, but he was really trapped."

Annabeth made a choked sound at the mental picture that brought up.  Percy Jackson, who fought Kronos and walked the Labyrinth, who returned from Tartarus and faced the earth itself, had lost to a tree.  She started to giggle and then to laugh.  "Oh gods.  Did someone get pictures?"

"Of course we got pictures," Drew Tanaka said.  "We can put them up in the rec room."

"They're being held now," Clarisse added.  She pointed towards the 'jail' area that they'd set up for enemy players.  "We didn't even get to rough them up."  

Annabeth thought Clarisse sounded like she regretted that a bit too much, but it wasn't as if she and Percy were the best of friends, even now.  Seeing her dad's curse work so well on Percy was probably a huge bonus for her in this game.  Annabeth glanced in the direction of the jail, and frowned as a stray thought occurred to her.  "You said he had people with him?"

"Not a real attack force," Clarisse said.  "Just a few people.  They were trying to sneak around in a wide arc."

It was a standard tactic.  It was a standard tactic if you had a few cabins who could work well together, not a bunch of people who were friends but weren't a well-oiled machine.  "Any Apollo campers with them?" Annabeth asked.

"One," the Ares camper said.  "It was kind of a mix."

Annabeth caught Piper looking at her thoughtfully and she nodded.  "He got captured and humiliated and his group can't win."  So someone else was in charge of the other team.  Which meant they had a chance to win.  It wasn't much of a chance, but Annabeth wasn't going to risk being compliant.  "We need to move in on their flag as soon as possible.  They've got something big planned."

"Hazel and Frank are with the people guarding our flag, and cabin nine set up traps in the woods," Piper pointed out.  "Even if they can protect their flag, how are they planning to get to ours?"

"A distraction?" Annabeth guessed.  "They've been playing defensively, so they're probably sending out individual people and hoping that one of them can sneak the flag out.  They can't take a full out assault so they're probably hoping we commit enough of our forces that they can stage a distraction and get the flag that way."

"So what’s the plan?" Piper asked.  “We could let them flail around some more while we figure out what’s up.”

Clarisse laughed.  "Yeah, right.  We should hit them hard and get the flag before they can spring whatever they're up to."

Annabeth nodded.  For once, she agreed with Clarisse’s thinking; they didn’t want to give the other team more time to get back on their feet.  "And make sure that the people guarding the flag don't leave it to check out the woods."

Piper drew her sword.  "Drew, go check with the people at the flag.  We've got a game to win."

Hazel tensed up at a crash in the woods; she hoped it wasn’t one of the opposing team because it’d be disappointing to find out that someone who could avoid the traps around the base would make enough noise doing it to wake the dead.  She let herself relax when Drew Tanaka walked out of the trees.  Drew headed right to Frank, giving him a flirty smile.  “Her highness told me to tell you to watch the perimeter, like you needed reminding.”  

“Thanks, Drew,” Frank replied.  Hazel fought back a smirk when he turned away from Drew to repeat her warning to the guards around the flag.  “Something’s up, guys.  Keep an eye out.”  

Drew shrugged and trudged off to join the other Aphrodite kids, who were at least making a token attempt to watch for people coming in.  Hazel couldn’t really blame them for being lazy about it; they had more than enough people on guard tonight, and the ones who were back here were stationed by the flag because they weren’t really into the game in general.

A flare went up, shining cherry red against the sky, from the other base.  Hazel brought her sword up and nodded to Frank; that had to be the signal for something.  The guards fanned out from the flag, watching the woods.  It was probably only chance that someone turned to check on it at just the right moment.

When they’d been on the Argo II, Hazel had heard more than one person comment that Nico was an expert on fading into the background.  That, she maintained later, was probably how it had happened.  You’d think that people would notice the skinny, too-pale kid with haunted eyes, but once you knew he was there, it was easy to just put him out of your mind if he wasn’t talking to you.  She knew he did it on purpose; sometimes she thought it might be one of his powers.

It didn’t make it any less humiliating to hear one of the sentries start yelling and to turn towards the flag, only to see it fading into the shadows with Nico di Angelo.  

“Did he really just do that?” Frank said.  “I thought he wasn’t playing.”

Cheers erupted from the other side of the river and Hazel groaned.  “He really just did that.”  The horn call to signal the end of the game sounded, and Hazel started for the river at a run.  Frank jogged alongside her; he could have outpaced her but everyone seemed to be staying in a tight, stunned group.  She caught snatches of conversation from the Aphrodite kids behind them about that di Angelo kid and thought they had to lose but it sounded more impressed than annoyed.

The more she thought about it the more annoyed she was.  He’d just waltzed up and she’d assumed he was there to see her and he let her think it.  He’d even started a conversation (or something like it) with Frank, and she’d just been happy to see them talking like almost normal boys.  As they got closer to the river, she could see people out in the open; you couldn’t miss the banner either, a black background with a silver helm atop a silver cyprus tree.  Three of the Apollo campers were trying to hug Nico at once, and the banner flailed around a bit until, from what Hazel could tell, someone took it away from him.

Nico popped up above the crowd when Butch and someone else hoisted him up on their shoulders.  Someone handed the banner back to him, and he clutched it, whiteknuckled.  The Apollo kids started to chant his name, and the rest of the team took up the call as Chiron trotted over to the group.  Hazel was pretty sure that most people wouldn’t be able to tell how nervous Nico was, but he had a dazed sort of look on his face.  Hazel thought he might pinch himself in a moment, just to make sure this was all real.  

Kids from Hazel’s team were nearby too; she heard Malcolm call to Nico that his plan was good thinking, and a few kids from Ares calling insults.  Of course, since they were Ares campers, most of the insults were promises to get Nico the next time and demands that he’d stick around so that they could do so.  She started to push through the crowd as Annabeth, Clarisse, and Piper arrived with the former prisoners, including Percy, in tow.  

“How is that even fair?” Clarisse growled.  The cheers died down a bit as people turned to look at her.  “He wasn’t even on a team!”

“Excuse you, Clarisse,” Percy said from behind her.  His shirt was pretty beaten up for reasons Hazel would have to find out later; it looked like he’d had a fight with a rosebush and lost.  There were leaves in his hair.  He was grinning a completely heartstopping grin, though, and Hazel couldn’t blame everyone for looking at him.  “Both teams had someone who can shadow travel; it’s not my team’s fault if you didn’t use it.”

“We didn’t know that Nico was on your team,” Annabeth replied coolly.  She looked more resigned than upset, Hazel noticed.  “Which was why we didn’t use it.”

“Hey, the rules said that Apollo, Poseidon and everyone else were on one team.  Hades wasn’t named, so Hades is part of everyone else,” Percy said reasonably.  “And the flag agrees.”  He pointed to the banner that Nico still held aloft.  “You can’t argue with the flag.”

“Damn straight,” an Apollo camper said, and the cheering for Nico resumed.  The crowd started off for the bonfire pit, but Hazel grabbed Percy’s wrist before he could get far.  She noticed that Annabeth and Frank had hung back, but she chose to ignore it.  Annabeth had to have figured out how Percy had gotten this to happen by now.  Hazel punched him in the arm as he turned to her, rolling her eyes when he winced.  

“You used me to get Nico here,” she said.  Here she’d thought that he wanted to do something nice for Nico, and no, it was really all about the stupid game of capture the flag.  “You told me to get him here, knowing what he could do for your team.  Were you even thinking about him?”  She’d known that Percy could be inconsiderate sometimes, but she hadn’t thought that he had it in him to just call up Nico to use him.  Tomorrow, or tonight, Nico would head off and how likely was it that Percy would think of him until the next crisis?  

Hazel still didn’t understand the shadows in her brother’s eyes when he looked at Percy, because she knew that Nico had forgiven him, but Percy didn’t have any right to take advantage of it.  No one noticed that Nico was kind and gentle to people who needed him to be, people who didn’t have anyone else, because he tried to push most people away.  And now there was this.

Percy rubbed at his arm and didn’t even have the grace to look sorry, just grinned at her.  He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender when Hazel tightened her grip on her sword.  “Are you kidding?  Kids’ll be telling the story about Nico di Angelo’s impossible victory for years and half the camp is out there right now chanting his name.  After today, they still might get creeped out by him sometimes, but they’ll also remember this.”

Hazel stared at him for a moment.  “Oh.”  

And Frank was standing next to her, trying to look as small and invisible as a guy his size could be.  Well, it seemed like it had been a day for unreasonable outbursts, except now she couldn’t be sure if Percy had really been upset or if it had just been his way of distracting them from what he was doing.

“...Sorry.  I should have known that that was part of the plan,” Hazel said belatedly.  She sighed.  “I’m just so used to people turning him away.”

Percy nodded.  “Yeah, and that’s why I made a promise.  I just haven’t been that good at keeping it until now.”  He turned to Annabeth.  “Oh, and sorry.  About crushing your team.”

Hazel took one look at Annabeth’s expression and hurried towards the bonfire, dragging Frank with her.  She wasn’t getting in the middle of that one.

Annabeth looked pretty steamed, but Percy really hadn’t been able to help it.  He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender.  “It was a good game.”

“I know you didn’t just do this for your team and for Nico, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said.  “Just don’t push it too much, or Ares will make it worse next time.”  Percy relaxed a bit.  Annabeth didn’t always take being outmaneuvered well, especially when it was Percy who’d helped with the planning.  

“Want to head after everyone else?” Percy asked.  “We can-”  He stopped mid-sentence.  There was a familiar figure sneaking away from the bonfire area, and he wasn’t about to let him get away.  “Or I’ll catch you there?”  

Annabeth followed Percy’s gaze and nodded.  “We can’t let him run off now.  I’ll go tell Hazel you’re on it.”  She slid over to him and kissed him on the cheek and leaned up to whisper in his ear.  “If you’re going to keep him, you’ll have to share.”  Annabeth pulled away, smiled at him, and headed for the bonfire.  After a moment, Percy shook himself and jogged after the retreating figure.  Someday he’d understand everything Annabeth did, but today, he’d settle for being lucky.  He caught sight of Nico again soon enough; thankfully, it seemed like Nico was tired enough that he couldn’t just shadow travel out.  

“Hey,” Percy called.  “Nico, where are you going?”  Nico froze like a startled deer, and for a moment Percy thought he would bolt.  He slowed his pace and held his hands out.  “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

Nico waved a hand dismissively.  “I’m leaving.  There are too many people there; I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”  The words sounded bitter and Percy winced.  Nico wasn’t the most popular, but that was part of the point of today.

“...look, I know that you don’t like me, but I don’t want that to keep you away from here.  I’m sorry I dragged you up here, but I really thought you’d have fun.”  It was happening again.  Nico was pulling away, isolating himself.  All of this wouldn’t do any good if Nico just left without a word.  Percy sighed.  “I can hang back if you’d just rather not be around me.”

"I don't hate you."  

Percy looked at Nico, who was staring at the ground like he wanted it to swallow him up.  (He had the wrong kind of powers for that but that didn't stop anyone from wishing.)  Percy knew that feeling well enough, but he wasn't sure where that had come from.  "It's okay," he said.  "After Bianca..."

"I hated you for a while," Nico admitted, waving a hand dismissively.  "But I don't hate you.  I haven't hated you for a long time.  You're a great friend, Percy; it's just that I'm...me.  People don't want me around."

Percy put his hand on Nico's shoulder, ignoring the way Nico's whole body went tense under it.  Nico didn't like anyone touching him, Percy told himself.  Nico was a better friend to those people that others ignored, better than Percy was to a lot of people.  "I haven't been a great friend to you, but I'm trying to be better." He pulled back, and it hurt to see how that made Nico relax.  "I had time to think about it in Tartarus, and you've done a lot for everyone.  It's time people started noticing.  You can't spend the rest of your life talking to dead people."

Nico made a complicated (probably really Italian) gesture that Percy was pretty sure meant "please don't mention it" or maybe "but dead people don't drag me into traps, except for that one time."  "Maybe you think so but like I said; no one wants me to stay."

"I do," Percy said.  "I want you to stick around, and so does Jason and Annabeth and the rest of the gang."  The look Nico gave him was...what, surprised?  Percy wasn't sure what it was, just that for a second Nico actually looked his age or even a bit younger, before he returned to his conversation with the patch of grass at Percy's feet.

"I guess I could try it for a while," Nico said grudgingly, and Percy took that as his cue to throw an arm around Nico's shoulders and drag him to the bonfire before Nico tried to shadow travel away again.  

"You won't regret this," Percy said.  "I promise."