It was a beautiful day- the perfect day for the wedding, but also Nico's least favourite kind. It was bright and sunny- not a cloud in the sky, the green grass rippled slightly in a nice summer breeze, and the lake was clear and sparkling.

All Nico wanted was a good storm. It would fit exactly how he felt. But things rarely went Nico's way.

The satyrs and the younger campers ran around eagerly, setting up the benches that usually lined the dining tables and making them face the slightly raised dais where Percy and Annabeth would be exchanging vows. Various dryads were hanging flowers on vines around the columns and on the archway on the dais. Other people still were decorating the rest of camp. Nico saw some half-bloods hanging up a sign over the entrance to camp proclaiming "Annabeth and Percy's WEDDING TODAY- camp is closed to monsters". He wasn't entirely sure what good it would do seeing as the camp was always closed to monsters, but he wasn't about to stop them.

He stood in the scarce shade by the back of the empty Hades cabin, watching the proceedings with a passive face. He would wait until he absolutely had to, to make his entrance.

So focused was he on the preparations everyone was making, Nico didn't even notice the goddess appear next to him. He jumped when she revealed herself.

"What are you doing back here?" Aphrodite asked, leaning casually against the cabin. She was dressed in a shimmering, floor-length, pale-blue dress that sparkled, even in the shade, as though there were stars embedded in the very fabric. In one hand she held a drink from Starbucks, iced coffee of some sort by the looks of it, and the other rested on her thigh. Her face, however, was the same as it always was when she visited the teen- the face of Bianca, his older sister.

It was painful to look at his sister, so after the initial shock of seeing the goddess, Nico stared back out at the fields instead.

"I'm a bit early for the wedding," he said blandly. "I don't want to intrude."

Aphrodite sang, "Or you don't want to see the groom."

Nico shot her a small glare and crossed his arms. Aphrodite was the goddess he detested most, after Persephone, if only because she wouldn't stop harassing him to find "true love". Not to mention that she took the form of his deceased sister, something that hit him like a punch in the gut every time he looked at her. He had asked her once, why she didn't transform into any random attractive woman instead. She had given him a sly smile and told him that there was no point in changing into something that wouldn't greatly affect him. It was more "fun".

"Either way," he said, "I don't want to get wrapped up in white streamers." He gestured to one of her sons, who was trying to waddle around, wrapped in party streamers.

Aphrodite shook her head slightly. "Ah... poor Norman. He's a bit weak-willed is all. I doubt my daughters would be able to get you wrapped up."

Nico shrugged. "They're vicious; you never know."

The ghost of a smile lit the goddess' face. "My daughters can be quite terrifying, yes." Her dark eyes glinted. "Just like love."

Nico whirled on her, ready to strike her down, but stopped, his blade inches away from the goddess' throat. She stared back at him calmly through Bianca's pale face. "Now, now, Nico," she said as she faded into the wind, "Don't be like that."

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A/N I couldn't function for much of october and november, no thanks to House of Hades, which devastated and contented me beyond belief. I'm so sorry for not posting earlier- this has been sitting on my laptop for about seventy six days without me realizing it.