and only now did he notice that he fell back asleep with his heart heavy. Underneath his head was Treya's magical backpack and Treya hummed around as she ate a sandwich.

Nico blinked, "Um, good morning?" His statement came out like a question.

Treya beamed at him, "Hey! Morning! You're finally awake! It's eleven in the morning right now, but anyway, we're in Las Vegas and here catch!" She threw a plastic bag and when he caught it he noticed how hot it was.

"I woke up at around nine or so, and thankfully I finally learned how to cast a barrier like Lou Ellen and the others so no monsters came for us or there are hardly any monsters here. I doubt it, but anyway, that's a pork bun I bought one when I roamed around the city"

Nico stared at her as if she grew two heads, did she forget what happened last night or was it all a dream?

"Treya, do you remember what happened with Eros?" Nico asked carefully as he took a bite from the warm pork bun.

Treya nodded, "Yeah, Eros is such a little bitch, that broken heart thing he did was so immense you'd think I've had a crush on you for ten years!" She exclaimed, waving her hands around.

Nico was glad that Treya no longer blushed and acted shy around him when she accidentally said something, instead it was like Eros gave her a boost of confidence to, um, confidently say her feelings for him. But he still felt bad, he was still in the midst of trying to figure out why he was so jittery around Treya. He didn't really feel that way for Percy or even Will.

"Treya, look I don't--"

Treya gave him a pleading look, "I don't really wanna talk about it, it's stupid so let's not worry about it. Besides, I hear we're already closer to the Roman Camp, we should find her then, right?"

Nico glared, "It's not stupid,"

Treya looked taken aback, "What are you even saying? Never mind that," She waved him off, and Nico was gonna tell him it wasn't stupid again but what if Treya asked him how he felt about her? How would he be able to answer?

"Do you know your way around here?" Treya asked

"I get that this is near my home, but I couldn't really travel because... uh, I'm a demigod? I've always wanted to come here," She added, as she stuffed her trash back into her backpack so she wouldn't have to litter in the park.

"Actually, yeah. I do know my way here," Nico answered, remembering the magic hotel Lotus Hotel and Casino where they were trapped for decades which only felt like months.

"My mom mentioned something about mountains, are there any mountains near Camp Jupiter?" Treya mentioned, slapping her forehead.

"You couldn't have told me earlier?" Nico asked, groaning

"I forgot okay! Besides, even if we knew, transportation would still be hard because you gotta rest!" Treya groaned, laying down on the patch of grass.

"Mountain? It couldn't be..." Nico faltered, putting on his thinking face.

Treya jumped over to Nico, "You have an idea?" She asked, her eyes sparkling, leaning closer to Nico.

Nico blushed and looked away, "It's just a guess, but maybe Mount Othrys. It was the place where Kronos and his goonies hung out during the Second Titan War. But Camp Jupiter supposedly destroyed that place. We'll have to check it out,"

"Before we go can we get some food?" Treya asked, pouting at her non-existent pork bun.

"But we just ate?" Nico said as he folded the piece of plastic, his pork bun now gone as well.

"Breakfast" Treya nodded "But not lunch yet,"

Nico agreed, and made a mental note that when they went back to Camp Half Blood he wanted to make sure that Treya gets a hold of Piper's Cornucopia. He looked over at the happy girl who started packing her things up. For a moment Nico almost forgot what Eros has done to her.

Treya and Nico roamed around the city, and Treya used a lot of her money to buy food and extra food. They also visited a gym that had showers because Treya complained about wanting to change into a new shirt and forced Nico to wear one of the camp's orange shirts.

"You want some ice cream?" Treya asked, as she spotted an ice cream stall.

"N-"

"Let's go!" Treya grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, to the ice cream stall.

Treya was awestruck at the ice cream, she hasn't had ice cream in a long time and the thought of eating ice cream made her mouth water.

"What flavor do you want Nico?" She asked, turning to him with a smile. They both wore cleaner clothes now, but it was like Treya put some magic on her as well. It was as if she was the one glittering.

For a moment, Nico was the one who was awestruck at her but he looked away "Cotton candy," He mumbled

"Okay!" Treya cheered as she ordered for a pistachio flavored ice cream and cotton candy ice cream for him.

Nico wondered how Treya was currently like this. The thought of her crying so hard last night scared him. Not a lot of things scared the son of Hades, but when she sobbed yesterday it was as if he felt her pain. To make things worse, it was because of him.

But now Treya was so bubbly and happy. For a moment Nico seemed to forget that they were in a time sensitive mission and just normal teenagers hanging out together.

"Nico," Treya called out to him before beaming and waving her hands around like she's had too much sugar.

"Come on, we wouldn't want to miss the bus!" She says as she beckoned towards the bus.

The corner of Nico's turned up lightly, and he chased after her.

"I thought we were gonna shadow travel?" Nico asked as he sat beside her.

"Yeah but aren't you tired? You can rest a little more," She said, looking outside the window, her hair getting stuck on her ice cream because she didn't tie her hair.

Nico laughed, "Your hair," He said and reached out to take her hair away from her cold treat.

When Nico looked up at her, her eyes were wide and her cheeks were reddened. For a moment, Nico thought Treya casted an illusion on him because the air around them changed. Their eyes locked and it was as if they were brought to a cheesy cliche romance film.

But that moment was over in a flash when Treya suddenly dropped her ice cream on his jeans and to the floor.

Treya shrieked, "I'm so sorry!"

She then took out one of her old camp shirts and started wiping, completely mortified. Nico would've snapped a photo or laughed out loud but instead he took Treya's hand off of her pants, which was still sticky but no longer had ice cream residue.

"It's okay," Nico reassured but his expression changed from a soft one to a surprised one when Treya slapped his hand away. She noticed what she had done and she brought her hands to her face, groaning.

"Hey, what's the matter?" He asked, his voice with concern

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but when I touch you it's like Eros is here all over again. It makes my heart hurt, I know it's a little stupid but it really hurts. To think he would put on a curse on me like that," She muttered bitterly, looking away from Nico and his heart ached.

Nico clenched his fists, the next time he met Eros, he would not mind going back to Tartarus to trap the god of love there.

He was about to console her but suddenly the bus driver slammed on the brakes and they almost lost balance. Nico took the risk of grabbing Treya's upper arm so they wouldn't fall. He immediately let go of her when the bus came to a full stop.

Nico looked around, and suddenly all the people- all the fake people disappeared and flashed towards the bus driver.

"Hello there demigods!" The bus driver smiled, his smile was so familiar that when it hit Nico who it was, he panicked and was about to shadow travel them out but it suddenly felt like they were in the underground cave again, the entire bus was coated with a thick barrier that prevented them to get out.

Nico knew very well that he should've taken precautionary measures, but he was so distracted with Treya it slipped his mind.

"Nico, watch out!" Treya screamed and before Nico knew it, Treya swung her knife to protect him from the spines that shot out of the now turned manticore in front of them.

"Snap out of it!" Treya yelled, and dodged all the spines that she could. But she couldn't protect herself with her knife so she mostly dodged them.

Nico blinked and in an instant he was up and swinging his blade around, walking forward to the manticore who was now baring its fangs at him, while constantly shooting the spines.

Nico glared at him, "Dr. Thorn, it's been a while,"

"You're still that young boy six years ago," The monster taunted.

A cry of pain suddenly came through. Nico looked at Treya worriedly, and there was a spine that hit on her lower left abdomen. Treya waved her hand and gave him an 'okay' sign but her face was still trying to contort into an okay face but would shift back into a face of pain.

Nico's ears started ringing, and all of the sudden, he blacked out.

That song I placed there is for Nico!! IT FITS HIM PERFECTLY! Except the fwb part ofc, but you know the rest of the lyrics like the prechorus.