AN: Hey? I'm alive. Wait. Why are you guys coming towards me with pitchforks? What? No. No! Ahh, help!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO

Nico POV

I stared across the circle of our friends at Thalia. We hadn't really spoken ever since that kiss. I wanted to talk to her about it, but I didn't know how to begin. I was somewhat conflicted about my feelings towards her, and I had absolutely no clue about what she felt towards me.

"Hold up," said Thalia, interrupting my thoughts. "Why isn't Leo dead?"

I looked over and saw Leo and Reyna walking back to the rest of us. However, instead of Leo being in pain and Reyna being pissed, they were both laughing and bumping shoulders playfully. Reyna shrugged at the question. "I got him back for the snowball," she said, as if that answered all of our questions.

"And that's it?" Travis asked. "Nothing else?" He, as well as mostly everyone else, was staring at Reyna with a worried and baffled look on his face. This was not the reaction Reyna was expected to give in a situation like this. But I suspected this had more to do with Leo than anything else.

"Not really, I guess. Should there have been something else?" Reyna responded, looking at us as if there was nothing out of place here. Normally, anyone who did what Leo did to her would've been sent to the infirmary for a week, not shoulder bumped as if there wasn't a care in the world.

"Oh gods, the apocalypse has started…" I muttered. Everyone nodded their heads, agreeing completely.

"Speaking of the apocalypse, shouldn't Thalia be getting a makeover right about now? You know, courtesy of the blue team's victory." Travis asked, smirking at the horrified look on Thalia's face as he said that.

"Yeah," Katie said, smiling. Now Katie was agreeing with Travis? The world really did seem like it was about to end. "Come on now. Go to the Aphrodite cabin."

Piper looked at her with sympathy. "Don't worry. You'll be able to wash it off… in a week or so. I'd come with you myself to make sure nothing terrible happens, but I'm due for a sword fighting lesson right about now. But don't worry, Nico will go with you. It was him who made the bet with you in the first place."

Piper took Jason's hand and the two of them walked away to the arena together. "Yeah, I'm going to the stables. I'm pretty sure it's my turn to feed the pegasi and horses." Katie said, walking away as well, with Travis trailing behind her. One by one, the rest of them began to trickle away.

"I guess we should go now." I said to Thalia, with a straight face. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't very good with this whole emotions thing. I probably got it from my dad. I mean, look at him. He couldn't even ask a girl to marry him; he had to kidnap her.

She nodded and the two of us walked to the Aphrodite cabin in silence. There were literally no words spoken. I thought about what I was going to say to her when we finally did talk. By this point I did know that I liked her, possibly even loved her. But that wouldn't do any good without knowing what she felt towards me.

I knocked on the pink door and we waited outside in a bone crushing awkward silence. "Thals, we need to talk." I said finally.

She sighed, but nodded. "Alright, but-"

The door opened right then and Lacy appeared. "Ohh, I heard about your little bet! This is going to be lots of fun!" she said cheerfully, pulling Thalia inside and slamming the door shut in my face.

I sat down in one of the chairs outside and waited for her to be done. After 20 minutes of sitting there, I decided to take a nap and closed my eyes.

Artemis POV

I walked around camp, looking for the archery range, when I ran into Ryan. I didn't say a word and tried to avoid eye contact. This was clearly not what I needed right now.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked, completely ignoring or not noticing my distant mood. "I haven't talked to you since Capture the Flag. You know, now that I think about it, we didn't talk much during Capture the Flag either." Now he was being inquisitive. I knew from experience, mostly from Hermes and Apollo, that he wouldn't give up until he got an answer.

I looked at him and picked my words carefully. "Yes. Well, I've been… busy lately." I said, trying to keep it vague.

"Busy with what?" he asked, not picking up on the fact that I didn't want to talk.

"Just… things." I responded, making my way around him and walking to the archery range.

"What sort of things?" he continued to ask, following me. As a response to my silence, he said, "Come on Misty, after that first day we ran into each other, I thought we had something. I've actually wanted to ask you for a while, but maybe… we could go out-"

"No," I cut him off, stopping in my tracks. "I'm sorry, I just can't." Oh, why wouldn't he stop asking questions?

"But why?" he asked again, stopping too. "Just give me that one answer. I won't be mad. Is there someone else?"

"No, it's just…" How could I explain this to him? I couldn't just come out and say I was Artemis. That would blow the gods' cover. What else was there to say? I couldn't do this because I was a maiden goddess. I had to show young girls that boys weren't everything. I had to be an example for my hunters. Wait, my hunters. That was it. "I'm joining the Hunt," I said, looking him straight in the eye.

You could tell by the look on his face that he was not expecting that answer. "Wha, um… wow. That's, that's cool."

I smiled sympathetically. I didn't want to hurt him. If it was any other boy, I wouldn't have batted an eye, but he reminded me so much of Orion… "Yeah, I'm sorry. I already spoke to Lady Artemis. It's only a matter of time."

"Alright. Well, I guess I'll see you around sometime. Bye." He said, before turning around and walking off.

I walked away from him. There was nothing I could do about it. I was the maiden goddess. That was that.

Thalia POV

"Come back again!" Lacy said, as she walked me to the door. Yeah, I wouldn't come back if my life depended on it. "Now go get your man!"

"Wait, what?" I asked, but she had already shut the door in my face. I looked over on the other side of the porch and saw Nico asleep in one of the chairs. I walked over and shook his shoulder. "Nico. Nico, wake up."

His eyes opened and he groaned, still half asleep. "What? What's happening?" Then he seemed to get a real look at me, apparently waking him up fully. "Thalia. You look… wow."

I looked down. The Aphrodite cabin had given me an… "angel biker" look. I had on a white frilly sleeveless blouse, black skinny jeans, and my black combat boots, which actually looked good with the blouse. They let me keep my boots after I threatened to pull my spear on them. My hair was straightened and blown out so it wasn't spiky like usual and my nails were painted black. As for makeup, I refused to wear foundation, so they stuck with my usual thick eyeliner and added mascara, and a bit of lip gloss.

"Meh. It isn't really my style, but it's better than what I've seen them do with other people." I said, as Nico stood up. Being the all powerful, ex hunter, daughter of Zeus did have its perks. I mean, Lacy could've made me wear a skirt, or worse, a dress.

We walked in silence to the forest, but this time it was a comfortable silence, not an awkward one. Or it wasn't until our hands brushed against each others. "Sorry." we both said simultaneously.

I could feel my cheeks getting red as we sat down at the base of our tree, leaning back against it. I could feel his arm touching mine, but I refused to look in his direction. After a few minutes of saying nothing, Nico finally spoke up. "Thalia?" he said. I could feel his breath on my neck.

"Yeah?" I answered softly. This was not me; this was not how I acted. Damn. Nico was making me act like one of those lovestruck Aphrodite girls.

"Well, I guess one of us should talk, so here goes. And beware, I'm making this speech up as I go. We've been friends for a while now, and for some reason, recently that hasn't been good enough for me. Whenever I'm around you, I want to… I want to hug you, or kiss you, or just tell you. Now everything has become awkward, and I'm not sure how to fix it. I don't know what it is about you Thalia Grace, but I think I might be falling in love with you."

By the way he blurted out the last bit, I could tell that he hasn't been meaning to, but he was thinking it, and ADHD got the best of him. I hadn't looked in his direction yet, and I could feel the anxiety rolling off of him like waves.

Smiling slightly, I faced him, so that we were literally two inches away from each other. That's when I said the words that I had only just realized myself about ten seconds ago. "I think I might be falling in love with you too." I whispered, before leaning forward and closing the gap between us.

AN: I tried to make it longer to make up for the wait. Any specific couples you want me to work on or continue? Also, I know that all the chapters in the story have at least some sort of romance, but I guess that's just the type of writer I am. I just want to know if you guys think that it's becoming too much or if it's ok. Please review with any feedback or questions! On another random note, who's excited for the Sea of Monsters movie? If you've seen the trailer, it seems like it'll be pretty awesome! They need to hurry up and release it already! And one more very important thing: Happy Birthday to SephCurrentDaughterofPoseidon! :)

~Skylar