CHAPTER FIVE

Nico POV:

The first thing that Nico noticed when he woke up in the morning was that he had forgotten to close the curtains last night. That was the reason for the Hades-forsaken sun streaming across his face and waking him from a paradise of him, Percy and a lot of chocolate.

Growling angrily at the world outside his window that dared to interrupt his happiness, he grabbed a pillow and shoved it back over his head, hoping to sink back into blissful sleep.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though Apollo had it out for a Son of Hades, as the blasted sun continued to shine and only seemed to be getting hotter as he tried to ignore it! Damn it, he knew it was stereotypical but he disliked bright sun in the early morning! He was perfectly fine with it when he was out during the day or with Percy down by the lake, watching as the light glistened off his wet toned pectorals and slowly dripping down his torso towards his waistband...

Several minutes later, Nico managed to shake himself out of the fantasy he'd suddenly fallen into and decided that, no the sun was not going to stop shining just for him so he may as well get up...and if it just so happened to mean that he's be able to see Percy sooner, then that was simply coincidence, or so he tried to convince himself.

'Something's going to happen today..' he thought as he headed for the shower, a shiver tingling his spine.

Percy POV:

Percy had woken up early this morning in order to put his plan into action. After his dramatic realisation last night – 'How could I not have seen it!? ' – Percy had decided that he was going to be Nico's protector around the camp.

'Plus the added bonus of spending all my time around him, getting closer to him, perhaps some physical contact.' A small voice seemed to say in his mind. He smirked to himself as he dug out a pair of emerald green board-shorts and a black tank top.

Taking the extra time to check and see if his hair was appropriately messy, aiming for that 'just got laid' look and he was out the door, heading straight for the Hades cabin, where he knew that Nico was probably still in bed.

'I'll take him to breakfast with me, and then see what he wants to do today. Hopefully, it'll be something that's not too crowded, something peaceful.' He steadfastly ignored the little voice in the back of his head that was insisting that was only because he wanted to be alone with Nico, beautiful Nico.

He decided to try and ignore the voice for as long as possible.

Quickly stepping up to the door, he knocked briefly and waited. It took a few minutes before he could hear shuffling on the other side and when the door opened, Percy had only one thought; ignoring the voice was going to be a LOT harder.

Nico POV:

Nico had just been coming out of the shower, and the rather distracting fantasy that the shower had brought to mind, when he heard the rap on the door. Thinking it to be Chiron or another camper with a message, he didn't bother putting anything on, just wrapped a towel around his waist as he turned the handle.

"Yes?" he said, not looking up from where he was fixing the towel around his waist to make sure that it didn't slip.

His only answer was some mangled choking sound that had him frowning as he looked up, only to see a red-faced, tongue-tied Percy standing in the doorway, with his eyes fixated on the water that was running down from his dripping hair.

Immediately flushing, Nico still couldn't help but notice that Percy's eyes were most definitely looking him up and down, and he felt himself blushing further the longer that the inspection continued.

"Um, Percy?" he prompted, hoping to get the dazed hero to answer.

Shaking his head as though to clear it, Percy swallowed and answered with a rougher voice, "Uh, g-good morning...just came to see if you wanted to head out to practice after breakfast today?"

Despite the fact that Percy was now capable of speech, his eyes still seemed to be stuck on him, and Nico had to say that he wasn't upset by this at all!

"Sure!" he chirped, "let me just get ready and then we can head over," he motioned for Percy to come inside and could feel the stare that was boring into his butt as he turned around. Even as he felt himself flushing further, he couldn't help the happiness that was welling up inside of him, and warming his heart. 'At least I know that he's interested!'

CHAPTER END