AN- I have no idea where this came from. I was bored, and I've been thinking of Nico/Annabeth a lot lately (idk why) and this just popped out.

My first M fic! I'm mainly rating to be safe. Nico's subconscious inner mind has a potty mouth (he loves the F-bomb) and, I'm not sure if the 'sexual' material deserves a high rating.

Uh, hope you like. I might do another Percy/Thalia version (because I've been thinking about them too. I blame silveraurora(again. I'm sorry if you're reading this, but I've been blaming you a lot for my fanfic choices) because she wrote a P/T one shot and I love her stuff)

He doesn't mean to fall in love with her. His eye don't want to follow her every time she leaves the room and his heart doesn't like pounding twice as hard when she smiles at him.

She's dating his best friend. She's in love with his best friend. She's engaged to his best friend. She's prepared to spend the rest of her life when the man she loves more than anything else in the entire world.

His best friend.

It's stupid. It's always been stupid, ever since he turned thirteen and his hormones went crazy and he noticed that Annabeth was fucking gorgeous. She didn't need to be an Aphrodite daughter. She was perfection, with her California tan and her inquisitive gray eyes.

He doesn't mean to fall in love with her. It's just this thing with him, wanting things he can't have. Like his sister or his father's love. His best friend's girlfriend just tops the list.

He can't tell her how he feels (hell, he can't tell anyone). Percy would kill him, Annabeth would kick his ass, Thalia would scoff and Rachel would just shrug like, "So what, I saw it coming"

So, he does stupid things. Like gets drunk with her when she needs it or volunteers to do some of her camp chores so she can spend time with Percy. Or, Shadow-travels her to Rome the morning of her birthday because she's always been desperate to see the architecture.

You know, little things.

And, yeah he gets it's all for naught. But...but sometimes she looks at him. Not like a friend or a brother but a look. Her eyes darken a little and he can't breathe because he's so certain she's giving him a peak at the answers but he can't read the key. Fucking dyslexia.

When he sees the ring on her finger, he can't keep it in anymore. He blabs the whole thing to Rachel, who just sits there and paints while his heart bleeds all over her plush lavender carpeting.

"Why don't you just tell her?" she asks when his speech is over.

He just stares at her because, really, there are way to many sarcastic responses to that question and he can't think of which one he wants to use.

"Nico," and she's looking at him with those earnest green eyes, "You deserve to be happy too."

Happy? The son of Hades, the demigod ruler of the dead. Happy? He doesn't even know the meaning of the word.

How did he get roped into this again? One minute, he's sitting in his New York apartment, stretched out on the couch, flipping through channels. The next, Annabeth is staring at him with pleading eyes and a pouting lip and begging him to come with.

"I need my best friend."

Oh. Yeah.

It's torture as Annabeth tries on dress after dress, looking more radiant in every one and Rachel passes judgment and Thalia looks as miserable as he does.

At one point, Thalia has made a run for it and Rachel is busy chatting with some famous designer who owes her father a favor and Annabeth is standing there in a dress that looks like it was made for her.

"How do I look?" she asks him, hesitantly.

"Beautiful," he replies, because he's sofuckingsick of lying.

She blushes and rolls her eyes, like he's making a joke or something. He stands up and walks over to her and she's just small enough for him. He brushes some hair off her face and he looks at her and is it just him or is she breathing heavier?

"You look beautiful," he whispers, with such complete and utter dedication how can she possibly doubt it?

And she doesn't blush or roll her eyes but she doesn't look away and he needs to stop himself and he's leaning down and what is he doing, stop! And he's kissing her like he's always wanted to and fuck! Is she really kissing him back?

"Annabeth, we need to hem-"

Small hands push against his chest and the warmth she gave disappears like a ghost. She doesn't look at him and he can't stay here anymore.

He Shadow-travels before anyone can stop him.

He is lower than dirt.

He doesn't even deserve to be breathing right now. Percy has been his best friend for years. Percy recovered Zeus' stolen bolt and stopped a Godly war. Percy rescued Thalia from the confines of a tree. Percy held the world on his shoulders. Percy saved the fucking world. Percy is the Hero of Olympus.

Hero's always get the girl. Best friends? They get squat.

And, Percy deserves the girl. He really does. He's saved her life countless times. Anyone with eyes can tell he loves her.

But, well, Nico loves her too.

He decides to drink the afternoon and the pain away. Because, maybe with all that alcohol distorting everything, he can make believe for a moment that Annabeth loves him. That Percy wouldn't possibly hate him. That he could get his happy ending.

The pounding on the door hurts worse than his hangover. He stumbles his away over empty bottles and manages to stop the pounding by the opening the door.

"What the fuck do you want, Grace?"

"Care to share the bourbon?" the Hunter asks dryly as she side steps him and walks in.

"It's vodka," he says, a little offended she'd think him to be a bourbon kind of guy.

Thalia snorts as she kicks an empty bottle. "Right. So, why the sudden desire to drown your sorrows?"

"Why do you care?"

Really, he has a point. It's not like he talks to Thalia. Ever. At all.

"Because, your problem is extremely similar to my own. Maybe I'm feeling a little sympathetic."

He doesn't question how she knows because he told Rachel. He only wonders how long it took the Oracle to spill the beans. He does, however, have one question: "You got the hots for Annabeth?"

Thalia picks up an abandoned bottle, shoots him a look, then drowns the rest of the contents in one sip. "I'm not a lesbian, Dead-Boy."

Then, he gets it. And he knows she'll never say it because admitting it out loud is a sure ticket out of the Hunters.

So, he hands her an un-opened bottle and together, they drink away their sorrows.

It's a week later when he realizes she's avoiding him. It doesn't hurt as much as it should because he blames himself. If he hadn't lost all control and rhyme and reason and kissed her, he wouldn't have lost her.

It's when he hears Percy telling Rachel that Annabeth is getting cold feet that he loses it. He bangs on her apartment door until she answers and pushes inside.

"Nico, what-"

"Tell me you didn't want me to kiss you."

She's silent.

"Tell me you don't have feelings for me."

She's silent. She stares at him and finally, finally, his dyslexia stops acting up and he can read every answer in her eyes. He sweeps her up into his arms and he kisses her deeply. Her legs wrap around his waist and her hands creep into his hair and he pushes her against the wall and kisses her with anything he has.

They somehow make it into the bedroom and she unclasps his belt and he pulls her shirt over her head and touches her everywhere he always dreamed of. Every thrust, every kiss, it's a dream come true and nothing turns him on more than hearing her breathless voice call out his name.

"How did it happen?"

He walks with Thalia now. Ever since the kiss and the drinking and the sex (Annabeth avoids him now even more).

She's silent; she has to be careful how she answers. Artemis respects their minds, she understands a thought is just a thought and means nothing. But the moment words are spoken, the trust is destroyed, splintered like their bows and hearts.

"It evolved," she finally admits. "Really, from when I woke up and saw him standing over me. He really grew up, I guess. That had a lot to do with it."

Nico nods. He gets it.

"It's stupid. I know it is."

Visions of Annabeth, kissing him, touching him, wanting him enter his mind.

"Stupid is thinking you have a chance," he spits bitterly.

She comes to him. Straddles him on his couch and kisses him deeply, un-buttoning his shirt with amazing speed. They don't even make it to the bed.

"I'll tell him," she promises softly as they lay together, naked flesh against naked flesh.

He kisses her shoulder and tries to believe her.

It's seven days before the wedding and she's laying in his arms in his darkened bedroom. His fingers dance across her thighs and his lips trace her ear.

She still hasn't told him.

"I can't," she whispers, voice full of tears, "He's good and kind and he saved my life and the world and he saw me when he went into the river and, Gods, Nico. I can't break his heart."

It's funny. She has no problem breaking his.

He still doesn't know how it slipped out. It's just, one minute they're in camp, talking like old times. The next, Nico's spilled the beans and Percy is trying to kill him.

Thalia finally shocks them both to break it up and Nico isn't offended when she tends to Percy's wounds while Rachel fixes his. Annabeth is locked away in her cabin, crying her heart out.

He never wanted to have to choose between his best friend and his heart. But, now it looks like he's close to acquiring everything he ever wanted.

Why is he so miserable?

He watches from his cabin window. Annabeth runs to him, tries to explain. There's yelling and screaming and a lot of tears and they finally embrace.

Nico turns away, heart breaking into a million, billion little pieces. Because how could he think he ever had a chance. It's been PercyandAnnabeth since the moment he walked into their lives.

He decides he needs to get away.

He lounges around in Venice and Paris and enjoy European women and food. He ignores the calendar and drinks himself into a stupor when the wedding date arrives.

When he wakes up, an Angel is sitting on his bed. Curly blond hair surrounding her face and gray eyes narrowed in anger.

"You need to stop drinking."

"What the fuck are you doing here, Chase."

He ignores the pounding in his head and wishes she would go away as he rolls out of bed and pads towards the kitchen. She follows him, citing death tolls caused by drunk driving and the damage he's doing to his liver and she won't shut the fuck up and he loves her more than he ever thought possible.

When he finally looks at her, she falls silent, staring at his linoleum floor.

"Why did you tell him?"

"Because you were never going to."

Gray eyes flash as they finally meet his, "Yes, I was. But, I wasn't going to blurt it out like you did and expect him not to get angry. I was planning out a careful and compassionate way."

"In that case, he wouldn't have found out until your honeymoon."

He ignores the flash of hurt that goes across her face (because she's hurt him too many fucking times) and he grabs a beer from the fridge and disappears into the living room.

Of course, she follows.

"I didn't want him to hate me."

"He'd never hate you, Annabeth. It's me he wants dead, remember?"

"Not anymore. I talked to him and-"

"Yeah," Nico snorts, "I saw your 'talk'. I decided to make myself scarce before the making-up started."

"Will you shut up for two seconds," she snaps right back, "I talked to him and he's not going to hate you forever."

"Oh really?"

He thinks he asks this but it's kind of hard to think when she slides into his lap.

"He's just going to hate you for a few years. Standard procedure. He just...wants me to be happy," she whispers a little guiltily.

"And what makes you happy, Chase?" he asks, his breath mingling with hers.

"Right now? This."

And she leans in and kisses him and he kisses her back because he finally fucking can and his hand winds through her hair and she tastes like heaven and fate and everything he loves and needs all wrapped up into one perfect package.

He finally gets his happy ending.

AN- Help a self-conscious author and leave a review! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease.