and I thank the gods that I did. Because I found myself attached to his back like a koala while he slept soundly. His cold hands were holding my wrists, as I had my arms around him. My legs were tangled with his own, and my head was buried on Nico's shoulder.

Not the best position. It really isn't. My left arm was numb and in pain at the same time due to the burns I got from the chimera back at home. If anyone walked in right now, they'd see me semi-spooning Nico di Angelo while he slept like a baby chick. And if anyone would kill me, it would be Nico.

I quietly managed to detach myself from him without waking him up. He only stirred a little but went back to sleep again. I looked at myself in Nico's bathroom. Wow, I certainly looked like I just came from a quest.

I was in tattered Camp Jupiter shirt, my shorts were half burnt and was already falling apart, and my hair looks even worse. I frowned at the my reflection, it was like Zeus put on a little storm on my hair and left. My wound from the sword and the burns were already healing, but I also had little cuts on my arms and my face.

My face looked horrible. I had heavy bags under my eyes indicating that I lacked sleep for how many days now, I had a bruise on my cheek, and a cut near my lip with blood stain just by the corner of it.

Nico slept soundly on his coffin bed, wearing a fresh shirt and a pair of dark checkered boxers. Stuff I wasn't able to notice last night because it was dark as hell in here.

I'm sure countless of demigods have been through worse, but wow, the demigod life. I'm such a lazy person I didn't think I'd even survive throughout. Definitely props to Nico. He saved my ass so many times I couldn't even count anymore.

I fixed my hair with Nico's hairbrush and washed my face and mouth before going back to where Nico was. I crossed my arms as I stood over Nico who was still sleeping, his lips curved into a small smile.

Wow, someone must be having nice dreams.

I looked at Nico's clock, which read that it was only seven thirty in the morning meaning we had time to get out of the cabin unnoticed and go to Half Blood Hill like we just arrived this very morning.

"Nico," I nudge him awake. Surprisingly, he flutters his eyes open immediately and looks at me in confusion.

"What's up?" He asked with his husky morning voice, before sitting up straight and rubbed his eyes with the back of his palms.

"We should go outside now, because it's still early. We should be able to make it seem like we just arrived," I tell him, grabbing my backpack and sword.

Nico groggily nods and drags himself to the bathroom. A minute later, he comes out still looking sleepy but he managed a sideway smile as his eyes met mine. I nearly choke on air, but I gave him an awkward gleam.

"What?" I asked, as I held my backpack tightly.

Nico tilts his head, "Thank you for staying with me last night, occasionally I have these nightmares from my past, or a glimpse of the present, or something my mind made up,"

I blushed, I expected him to get mad at me or at least regretted what he's done by inviting me to bed in a friendly manner. But here he was, thanking me with the most sincere tone ever.

I felt myself relax and gave him a gentle smile, "Wanna talk about it?"

Nico paused, and I was ready for him to tell me that he didn't want to but he shrugged.

"It was about you," He replied, his eyes meeting mine again.

"W-w-what?! You dreamt about m-me? A-and you cried?!?! For me?" I sputtered, my cheeks turning red

He gave me a short nod, "Yeah. I came back to Camp with you, but it turns out you died in the hands of Krios, and your ghost lingered with me. You managed to fool me by playing around with the mist, making me think you were still alive until when we arrived, the campers were sullen, and told me that they just received the news"

Nico took a deep breath, "That- that you died, and nobody saw you except for me. Because...well, you were a ghost,"

His hands were shaking, and I didn't know why, but I took a step closer to Nico and held his cold hands. He didn't pull away, instead he squeezed my hands back.

"You're real, right?" Nico asked, his voice quivering. His eyes were on the floor.

I brought one of my hands up to his hair, and pushed his hair back, making him suddenly look at me with his mouth parted. I smiled at him and nodded.

"I'm real," My hand was hovering over his cheek, hesitant to hold him but he leaned on my hand like a cat.

My heart threatened to just melt right on the spot.

At first I thought I only had a small infatuation on Nico. When Eros asked me to confirm it, I was so confident with my words because I thought these feelings would fade over time. I thought they would disappear.

But the damn bastard kissed me and suddenly everything his does was bad for my heart.

It made me think about how our relationship progressed in a matter of weeks. Just three to four weeks ago, Nico wanted my head off for cursing him and being an idiot for not knowing anything about it. Now, I think he's opened his heart to me.

Nico wasn't anything like what I've heard from other campers. He wasn't grouchy all the time. As a matter of fact, Nico was such a soft person and not only reminded me of a cat with his easily irritated attitude but also a cinnamon roll.

He wasn't scary. When he's trying to kill you, of course he was. But Nico was only frightening when he needed to be, when he fought, he emitted such a strong aura, it never made me think twice about how cool he looked.

Nico smiled, "Thank you,"

I bite my lower lip and look away, "No problem but we should really go,"

When Nico shadow travels the both of us to Half Blood Hill, I felt nauseous. Not because I shadow traveled but because I was nervous. I didn't like to be asked so much questions from people but it looked like Nico didn't like talking either.

"Nervous?" Nico asked, looking over at me.

"Wow, can you read my mind?" I joked

Nico chuckled, "Nope, but you're an open book. At least, you are to me,"

I frowned, "That's not a good thing,"

He shakes his head with a smile, "Yes it is, now come on, I'm hungry,"

I walked beside Nico as we walked to the entrance of the camp, and saw that campers were already awake and were all headed to one direction: the dining pavilion. Some were organized like Athena's children, and a few others but most of them looked like they didn't like mornings, and were disorganized.

Before anyone noticed us, Nico put his hand on my shoulder, "We should go to Chiron first, we don't want to attract the whole camp,"

"No we don't," I agreed as we sneaked to the Big House.

When we arrived, Chiron, Mr. D and Jason Grace were playing pinochle by the porch.

"Chiron, Mr. D, we're back!" I waved my hands as I jumped around

Chiron offered a smile, and Mr. D only rolled his eyes which was typical of him to do, and Jason Grace pushed up his specs, looking at us with confusion.

"I take it you saved your mother, Mr. D here has heard about it," Chiron said as we both nodded.

Mr. D, looking bored as ever, hums, "Yeah, Demeter was so noisy about it the other day because Persephone was worried for your mother. Word spreads fast, don't you think so Trina?"

I let out a nervous laugh, "Of course," I replied not even bothering to correct him.

"We'll head to the pavilion now, if you'll excuse us," Nico said, nodding at Jason who was grinning at him.

"It's too bad we didn't see each other at Camp Jupiter Nico, heard you were out for a week," Jason mentions. Now that he said it, I thought about how he wasn't present in Camp Jupiter at all. I would've wanted to meet the son of Zeus in the flesh, but here he was right in front of me playing pinochle with his immortal half brother and a centaur.

"That's an exaggeration, I was only out for three days, right Treya?" Nico looked at me with his arms crossed

"Two days," I replied, holding out my two of my fingers.

"Okay that's enough. Dilly dally along now you two, and please Thea change into a new shirt. You look like you've been dragged around like a rag doll while Nicholas looks like he was immune to the entire quest" Mr. D grumbled, shooing us away for disturbing their game.

Nico looks like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes in front of Dionysus, so instead, I grabbed his wrist and started walking away.

"Bye! See you later!" I quickly said as I dragged Nico away.

I ran with Nico far away from the Big House, past the cabins and stopped nearby the strawberry fields.

"Did you want to turn into grapes today?!" I asked Nico, as we stopped to catch our breath. No- more like, I stopped to catch my breath.

Nico huffed, "I've rolled my eyes at Mr. D plenty of times already, I'm still Nico aren't I?"

Before I could say anything more, Nico asks.

"By the way, your hand..." He trailed off, I quickly let go of his wrists, completely embarrassed.

"Doesn't it hurt?" Nico finished, crossing his eyebrows together as he stared at my hands, arms, whatever.

I waved him off, "A bit, but they're healing,"

He shakes his head, "No, not your arms. I mean, when we make skin contact. It's supposed to hurt, right?"

I puffed my cheeks, "Recently, it faded. I don't know, maybe Eros decided I wasn't fun to toy around with anymore,"

A look of confusion flashes on Nico's face but quickly disappears.

"You know something?" I queried, suddenly curious as to whatever entered his head.

Nico shakes his head, "Not sure yet. Go take a shower, I'll meet you at the arena in thirty minutes,"

"But I'm hungry!" I whined

Nico sighed, "Okay, okay, we're eating first,"

I changed this btw, Apollo no longer tells Nico this. at the very first part of the story Nico's supposed to see death lingering around Treya)