Some swearing, innuendos, romantic and sexual tension ahead. Welcome to Hell

The Ice Cube

The Greek professor and the Italian teacher of Half-Blood High had a bubble of romantic and sexual tension the size of the school they worked in and everyone had noticed.

Every Italian class, Κúριε Solace comes in to apparently bug Signore di Angelo, and then they get into a heated debate about something or other in either language. They bounce foreign words back and forth so fast none of the students can understand a single word.

That didn't stop any one of the pupils or staff from making bets and complaining about how they should just stop with their sexy native talk and make out.

The main competition attracter of the month regarding the two language teachers was currently Who Can Guess What They're Talking About. A senior student who took Greek had come up with it after him and his girlfriend – who took both Greek and Italian – had suspected that Signore di Angelo and Κúριε Solace were making eyes at each other one lesson. And then the Greek teacher had flushed bright red and di Angelo had smirked victoriously.

This seemed to happen nearly every time one of them barged in. So the opinions on what they were saying to each other were mostly under one category.

Flirting.

Of course, no one knew about the game the two teachers were playing. No one except them.

In the teachers' lounge, Nico di Angelo was holding a coffee cup by the rim, quietly sipping it every now and then as he stared out the window. Today's victory had gone to Solace, and Nico had been sure that only happened because he wasn't caffeinated enough. Stupid sexy Greek teacher and his stupid sexy accent when he spoke to Nico in Italian.

A Greek teacher fluent in Italian and an Italian teacher fluent in Greek educating kids in the same school should have been the ultimate train wreck that crashed and burned Half-Blood High. But they got along very well. A little too well, as was the opinion amoung the staff and students. But, he supposed, that was all part of the fun. Too bad it wasn't just fun for Nico any more.

The door to the lounge opened then, and Nico tipped his head over the back of the couch to see who it was. He snorted deep into his coffee when he saw Κúριε Solace kicking his shoes off and heading straight for the marshmallow plate on the table. No respectable teachers' lounge was without a marshmallow platter. There were at least six of the squishy little fluffs of sugar bobbing around in Nico's cup already.

"Buongiorno, Κúριε Solace," he greeted suddenly, causing the Greek teacher to prematurely drop his marshmallow. "Come sta?"

Will Solace turned around and smirked at Nico, his hands still at work making his own coffee.

"Ah, ciao*, Signore di Angelo. Sto bene, grazie."

He looked a little too pleased with himself. Nico huffed and sat back into the couch.

"You don't have to be quite so smug," he muttered into his cup, speaking English now. Will finished making his coffee and came over, sitting opposite Nico. He was silently chuckling.

"But I am smug," Will countered, prodding one of the many marshmallows in his drink with his tongue. "I won this morning. It's not like you're any different when you win."

Nico grunted, conceding that point. He was self-satisfied and cheeky whenever he won one of their games. He couldn't begrudge Will being arrogant without being a gigantic hypocrite. But he begrudged Will anyway. He was a hypocrite, dammit. He didn't care.

"I still can't believe it," Will suddenly giggled. Nico glared at him. "Your face was so red, di Angelo. Mucho redness."

"You're not a Spanish teacher, Solace, shut up," Nico shot back.

"Whenever I'm sad, I'll conjure up the memory of your face, and it'll cheer me right up," Will continued.

Nico, feeling pouty, immediately saw a chance for revenge in Will's words. Slyly, he put down his coffee cup and stretched his arms slowly. He saw Will's sky-blue eyes zero in on him.

"You like my face that much?" Nico barely murmured, sticking his tongue out a bit and hooding his eyes at the Greek teacher. When he and Will competed in the classroom, they had more subtle methods. But Nico wasn't above using what he had at his disposal to make Will's face burn when they were in the teachers' lounge without twenty or so curious eyes on them.

Since the beginning of their careers at Half-Blood High, the two language teachers had played a game with each other. Almost every lesson, about ten minutes till the end of class, one of them visited the other in their room when they were teaching, and they started a rapid-fire conversation in either Italian or Greek, whatever they felt like. But what they were saying wasn't just anything. Will and Nico competed to see who could make the other flush dark, dark red in front of the whole language class.

Today's win had gone to Will, for practically purring something in Italian that made Nico's throat freeze and his cheeks turn pink. He wasn't even going to think about the look on the Greek teacher's face when he said –

Nico shook his head, not thinking about it. He didn't need to turn burgundy right now. Not when Will was doing it just fine right across from him.

"That's unfair and you know it," the Greek teacher sputtered, putting down his coffee and pressing his hands to his cheeks, trying to cool them down. Nico smirked at him and reclaimed his own cup, tucking his legs up.

"Not my fault you can't handle me," he replied cheekily, taking a sip of his lukewarm drink. Will, his face still flushed, levelled his eyes on Nico.

"Oh, I could handle you just fine," he said, and Nico's mouthful of coffee was spat right back out again. He coughed once and shook his head.

"Beh, cazzo me," he muttered, getting up to swipe another marshmallow and avoid the victorious look on Will's face.

"I'd love to!" the Greek teacher called after him, and Nico flipped him off without turning around.

"Now you're just doing it on purpose," he replied loudly, stuffing a white marshmallow in his mouth and sticking his half-finished coffee in the microwave. He set the timer to thirty seconds and leant against the counter.

"You figured out my dastardly plan! But how?" Will's mournful and dramatic howls of fake anguish made Nico look over to see the Greek teacher turtling on his back and kicking his legs like he was having a tantrum. Nico took his phone out of his pocket and started filming his co-worker.

A few seconds later and the microwave beeped. Nico put his phone away, satisfied with the footage he's probably pay Leo Valdez, the woodshop teacher, to accidentally play on school assembly, took his drink out, sipped it, and burnt his tongue. Badly.

"Shit!" he cursed, and then the temperature of the mug reached his nerves-that-temporarily-burnt-out-from-the-heat and he put it down as fast as he could before looking at his hand.

The skin was already red and taught, spots of white starting to appear already. Wow, Nico, good job, you've scorched your hand. He cradled it a moment before turning to the tap and turning the cold water on full. It back-splashed him right in the face.

"Nico?" Will asked, his native Greek accent bleeding into his English. Nico cursed again, feeling his tongue tingle unpleasantly. His face, pink from annoyance but mostly embarrassment, had rivulets of water running down it and he could tell a couple of his bangs were stuck to his forehead. He glanced over his shoulder and made eye-contact with Will before going back to the sink, massaging his hand.

He didn't see Will freeze in place and stare at him. He definitely didn't see the natural, genuine, blush on the Greek teacher's cheeks.

"A-Are you okay?" Will managed, because suddenly he seemed to forget words. Nico turned around fully, keeping his hand under the water. He was sticking his tongue out a little to let the air cool it off. Will sucked in a breath at the sight.

"Burnt my hand," the Italian teacher said slowly. "And tongue. Not a word." There was a warning in his tone. Will bit his lip and stepped forward.

"Hang on, Nico," he said as Nico tried to rub his hand. "I did a lot of training to be a combat doctor before I came to America; give me your hand."

He didn't even wait for Nico to comply; Will just took the burnt palm and traced his fingers over it. Nico's breath caught in his chest as Will started to gently massage cold water onto the sore skin. He then turned slightly and, using one hand, opened the freezer beside the microwave, taking out two ice cubes from the block pieces hanging around in the sub-zero cooler. Pressing them to Nico's skin, the Greek teacher started mumbling something too low for the Italian man to understand. Will then fumbled in his trouser pockets for a moment, unzipping them, before bringing out a roll of white bandage.

"Seriously?" Nico raised an eyebrow. Will flashed him a grin.

"Combat medic, di Angelo. Always be prepared."

"What's going to happen in a classroom?" Nico scoffed. "Concussion by eraser?"

Will tutted as he started winding the bandage around the ice and Nico's hand.

"No," he replied, "but some completely hypothetical Italian teacher might try and hypothetically flirt with a very sexy Greek one and hypothetically burn his hand and tongue." Will frowned. "Which there is only one cure for."

Nico stared at the bandage tied around his hand, seeing patches of water already starting to appear as the ice melted.

"What's that?" he asked. Will moved away, and Nico looked up to see the blond fishing out another ice cube from the freezer before popping it in his mouth. Then he turned back to Nico and cheekily showed it to him.

"Kisses make everything better," Will declared, balancing the ice on his tongue and sticking it out. Nico tried to concentrate on not blushing so hard there'd be no blood anywhere else in his body.

Will sucked the ice into his mouth with a loud pop and then looked at Nico challengingly.

"You gonna come get it?" he winked.

Nico had the next period off because his grade seven class was on a Geography excursion. He sat at his desk for a bit, thinking very hard.

His tongue still hurt. His bandage was wet and droopy from the melted ice cubes. Will had been so blatantly flirting with him their whole game but he had been serious about it all.

Where to start?

After the ice-block-in-Will's-mouth thing, the bell had rung, cutting off any response from Nico there might have been and sending the Greek teacher flying out of the lounge to his next class. Nico passed the swim coach on his way out, and Percy had watched as he rounded the corner, dripping water from his bandage. His hand didn't hurt so much anymore. It was probably numb.

But his tongue did really hurt.

And then the Italian teacher of Half-Blood High, who spoke Greek and English on top of his native dialect and had a thing for his co-worker – also a language teacher – had an epiphany that rocked him right out of his chair and into the hall.

Nico di Angelo wanted that ice cube. And Nico di Angelo wanted to win today's competition and make Will blush the deepest red he could manage without needing a blood transfusion, in front of a class filled with students.

The door to the Greek room practically slammed open. Κúριε Solace stopped mid-lecture, his head whipping around to see Signore di Angelo in the entrance, his soaked bandage misting water on the frame. Will smirked with one side of his mouth.

"Υεια σας, Signore di Angelo," Will greeted, turning away from the board. "What brings you here?"

Nico walked right into the room, eyes of pupils following him anticipatively. He even saw some money exchanging hands. Nico raised his chin as he stood in front of Will, who looked more curious than cocky now.

"You still owe me an ice cube," Nico said loudly. Will's eyes only had time to widen before Nico brushed his lips against the Greek teacher's and prodded his tongue into the other's mouth. It was cold and wet, and it soothed the aching numbness of the burn. But he came for an ice cube.

It took a moment of exploring to find the half-melted remains and when he did, Nico wrapped his tongue around it and took it.

When the language teachers parted, the Italian was plus one piece of frozen water that tasted of victory.

The Greek one was red as fresh blood and looked about to collapse. Nico waved his hand airily at the class, who were looking at him and giggling. More money was exchanging hands.

"Learn something," he advised them, before blowing a kiss to Will and leaving.

With his ice cube, and the knowledge he definitely won that day's competition, Nico sauntered back to his classroom to wait out Κúριε Solace's lesson.

*regardless of stereotypes, Ciao is how you say hello and goodbye in Italian. Just thought I'd clear that up right away.

This was purely to help with my writers block, I swear it. I found this AU on Tumblr and went 'I won't be able to think if I don't write this now.' And then I posted it. Bcs why not.

I'm studying Italian and Greek, so this was a fun way to test out what I'd learned. I'll put translations down here:

Κúριε Solace – Mr Solace

Signore di Angelo – Mr di Angelo

Buongiorno – Good morning

Come sta? – How are you?

Ciao – Hello

Sto bene, grazie. – I'm fine, thank you

Beh, cazzo me – Well, fuck me

Υεια σας – Hello

Well, that was interesting. I was amused.

Jasmine Out!