Fatal Flaw: Empathy (Nico di Angelo)

Chapter Nineteen

I hug Nico from behind as I whine. "I can't believe Percy! He is such an-!" Jin stops me from completing that sentence.

"Language."

I stop hanging from Nico's back to hold onto his hands. I feel warmth overflow off of Nico, but there's two of them. One is embarrassed, and the other is happy. There's a spike of smugness in him and I chuckle. "Smug that your girlfriend is the best? Fields of Punishment, yeah, you should be." The fluster grows and I smile hugging him myself. "I'm glad that only I know when you're about to turn red. In five, four, three, two, one..." and Nico, as predicted, turns red.

"I just can't believe that I was stupid enough to try to fight the Percy Jackson in broad daylight on a beach." He rants, frustrated. "That was stupid in levels only Percy could reach!"

I shake my head at him. "Leave it be, Nico. It's fine. To be honest, he's just fighting in the heat of the moment."

That's when I realize... "I need to go check on him, too. That was definitely a blow to his ego." Nick nods. "Think about what I said, okay? Don't ruin your years of friendship over me." I warn him before running off in the direction of my Cabin, and sure enough, Percy is... there.

But so is Annabeth. And they're making out.

My sharp gasp causes them to pause and look at me. Luckily, they were fully clothed, and I slammed the door, turning around and hiding in a bush. About three minutes later, Percy opened the door of our cabin, and Annabeth apologized profusely to him, though he insisted it wasn't anyone's fault.

Percy waited till Annabeth was out of sight to part the bush. "Note to self, never make out in the Poseidon Cabin, ever. Though," Percy starts his next sentence coldly. "Maybe my little sister should spend more time in her secret boyfriend's cabin?"

I go to grab his hand, but he pulls it away. "That trick's not working on me, Shrimp. I don't really feel like talking to you right now." I persist, and I grab his pinky for a second. In that one second, the massive buildup of my problems and Percy's intense feeling of betrayal crashes onto me. I gasp for breath, and try to wrench my fingers from him. It's like swimming in an ocean of hungry sharks, and each drop of ocean burns. The sharks leave stinging marks, and when I open my eyes, I can't believe what I feel.

Percy couldn't feel all of this after one betrayal, could he? I gasp for breath, and Percy can't manage to pry me from his grasp. I manage to weaken my grip, and when I do, I can't stop myself from screaming in relief.

A light shatters everything in sight, everything, for just a few seconds before a welcome feeling returns to me: the feeling of Nico. His angst, mystery, hidden care all flood me in a cool shadow. And it hits me: I screamed in front of people...

And the entire camp heard me.

522 Words, sorry for the short chapter. Honestly this scene wasn't supposed to happen until later, but I figured Now was prime time to stop beating around it.