That Halloween

By: xXxDaughteroftheKingxXx

AN: So, here is the SEQUEL to THAT CHRISTMAS! OMG, I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS LIKE A COUPLE DAYS AGO :DDDD Smarticles right there.

Excuse the OOCness. Yes, there is some. Namely, Jason Grace. Meh.

Disclaimer: Still don't own PJO/HoO.

"Come on, Nicky, it'll be fun," Percy's annoying voice rang through the dead silence as I gave him my legendary death glare, hoping that somehow, I could damn him to the depths of Hades.

What I would give to have that kind of power. [1]

"First," I said, my voice sounding like a vicious animal's, "do not call me Nicky. Next time you do, you'll regret it, cousin or not. Second, I cannot believe I let you convince me to come to this."

"Well," Annabeth butted in, as-a-matter-of-factly, "technically, we had to forcibly drag you here." She held up her arm, which on it held a fresh cut that still had some blood seeping out of it, and glared at me.

I smirked, crossing my arms. "Hey, you mess with me, I'll bite you. I'm like a vampire or something, Bethy."

"Call me Bethy again," Annabeth said mockingly, wearing a smirk akin to mine, "and you'll regret it, friend or not."

I rolled my dark eyes, choosing to ignore her remark. "Good God," I muttered. "How long does it take to answer a door?"

As if on perfect cue, the door swung in, revealing my all-too familiar cousin, Jason Grace. Wearing his light blue toga that matched Percy's and mine, he looked exactly like what he was going for—the Roman god, Jupiter. 'Course, my costume, along with Percy's, was more on the Greek side, but it still matched pretty well with our cousin's.

Speaking of Jason, he was grinning at us. "Percy! Annabeth! Nico! Glad you all could make it!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "Cut the chit-chat, Jason, and let us in. I'm getting a cool breeze where I never thought I'd feel one."

Jason chuckled. "You don't have to tell me twice." To prove his point, he lifted up the hem of his toga, only to be smacked on the arm by Annabeth.

"Relax!" Jason laughed. "I have shorts underneath!"

To my left, Percy did a face-palm. Turning to me, he asked, "Why didn't we think of that?"

"Because," I answered smartly, "I didn't even care, so I listened to you."

"That's the only explanation you need," Annabeth muttered, smirking slightly.

A fake pout formed on Percy's face. "Hey, you're supposed to be on my side! I'm your boyfriend, not Nico!"

Annabeth laughed, walking inside of Jason and Piper's house. "I'm sure you'll get over it eventually, Seaweed Brain," she said, a smile on her face. "Now, if you three will excuse me, I'm going to go find Thalia and the others." And with that, she turned to the crowd of people, most whom were dressed up in costumes ranging from Eskimo princesses to Robins or Batman, and walked in the direction of the snack table, where you could usually find the girls.

I sighed, once again crossing my arms. "So, what now?" I asked, trying to sound as bored as possible. Maybe if I ruined the night for him, Percy would let me go home. Of course, he was my ride home.

Percy and Jason both shrugged in almost perfect unison. I nearly shuddered; it was kind of creepy how alike the two were.

"Go mingle," Jason suggested. "Maybe meet some pretty girl. Flirt. Live a little."

Percy nodded his agreement. "You're nearly nineteen, Nico," he reminded. "You need to find yourself a girlfriend."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumbled. "This coming from the guy who didn't find a girlfriend 'til he was twenty-two."

Percy's face turned a shade of red, and he walked off, mumbling something about "Mean girlfriends and mean cousins,"

Jason grinned. "Go find a single girl," he said with a wink. "They're plenty out there."

"Name one," I said, looking at him confidently.

"Well, there's Katie—"

"She's got Travis."

"Or maybe Lou Ellen—"

"Connor."

"Reyna?"

"Leo."

"How about Clarisse?"

I stared at my cousin, who looked on the verge of a fit of laughter, in awe. "Have you lost your little mind, Jason?" I nearly yelled. "One, gross. She's disgusting. Two, she would cream me!"

He snickered. "Fine, fine. Since none of those girls worked out, why don't you go talk to…" He looked up, scanning the crowd for a familiar face, then stopped right at the corner of the room, a grin forming on his face.

"…her," he finished, pointing to a familiar girl. My eyes nearly bugged out of my sockets.

"Jason, that's Thalia!" Once again, my voice rose to a yell. "She's my cousin, you idiot!"

Jason rolled his eyes. "Not her, stupid! God, if you dated my sister, I would personally see to your death, Nico. I was pointing to her." Once again, he pointed at a girl, and I squinted my eyes, finally seeing a familiar mane of bright red hair.

Oh hell no.

"Rachel?" I said, my voice an octave higher, and full of surprise. I felt heat rising to my cheeks, but I wasn't really sure why. "You want me to flirt with Rachel?"

"Why not?" he said with a shrug. "She's cool, and fun to be around. And it's not like she's ugly. Might as well try."

I swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat, and once again glanced at Rachel, who was talking to a person I didn't know. "Jason," I muttered, my face incredibly warm, "Rachel's like… four years older than me."

Once again, my cousin rolled his eyes. "Nico, you, me, and Percy come from a long line of families that are pretty dang messed up. All three of our dads cheated on their wives, and hooked up with some hot younger girl, and lo and behold, here are we. Age is but a number, remember? So, go and get some!"

"But this is different!" I argued. "She's the older one, and I'm the younger one!"

"Your point? She's a hot babe that's newly single. Time for Nicky to mend some broken hearts," Jason said, grinning.

"Call me Nicky again..." I warned.

"Whatever. My point is, I guess I'm not even telling you to hook up with her, I'm just telling you to talk to her."

"But, she's so… happy and peppy," I said, grimacing. "I don't really do sunshine and rainbows and all that crap."

"Opposites attract," was his reply. "Now, go, before I go and hook you up with someone like… I dunno… Octavian. Yeah, that works." Jason grinned to himself, then at me, or most likely my disgusted expression.

With the roll of my eyes, I muttered, "Fine, I'll go talk to her." I figured it'd be easier to talk to Rachel then become gay and hook up with someone like… Octavian.

Blech. I think I threw up a little bit just thinking about it.

Finally, after multiple "Excuse me,"'s, a few shoves, and about five or six F-bombs, I made it to where Rachel was standing, still talking to Thalia, who looked bored out of my mind. The second my cousin saw me, her electric blue eyes brightened.

"Nico!" she exclaimed, grabbing my arm. "Great, you're here." Thalia turned to Rachel, plastering a fake smile on her face. "Rachel, you know my youngest cousin, Nico, right?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, we've talked a few times at another one of Piper's other par—"

"Great," Thalia interrupted, looking eager to get the hell out of there. "I, uh, gotta go find Annabeth, okay? Annoy—I mean, talk—to him, kay? See you guys!" With that, Thalia ran off into the crowd, ironically in the direction opposite of Annabeth.

Rachel sighed, shoulders slumping. She shook her head. "She hates me," she muttered.

Strangely, I felt sorry for her. Just the dejected look on her face… Gah, curse my sudden niceness.

"She doesn't hate you," I said awkwardly. "Er… maybe she does, but hey, Thalia hates everyone!"

A smile spread onto her face. "Yeah, I guess you're right. So… you're Nico di… uh…"

"Nico di Angelo," I finished, a small smirk on my face. "Or actually, for tonight, I am Hades, god of death and—"

"—the Underworld," we finished in unison. Rachel nodded, a smile still glued onto her face.

"I'm a big fan of Greek mythology," she explained. "But, Hades kind of creeps me out."

Part of me felt a bit offended for some strange reason[2], but the other part didn't really mind. "Don't worry," I reassured, "I'm sure if he were real, he'd creep out everyone." At that, we both laughed, which helped to ease the awkwardness.

After our little laugh attack, Rachel flashed me another smile. "So, Nico, how come I don't see you around very often?" she asked intently.

I shrugged. "Don't really come to things like this," I admitted. "Percy and Annabeth just dragged me here because… well, Annabeth says 'so I can see the world', and Percy and Jason want me to meet a hot girl."

Her eyebrows went up, then she rolled her eyes. "Ugh, those two are way too alike for their own good. Bunch of perverts, you know that?"

"Well," I laughed, "I can't really say much. Guess it just runs in the family."

Rachel shook her head. "If I was your guys' mothers, I would wash your mouths with soap, you naughty little boys," To prove her point, she wagged her finger in my face tauntingly, but there was a smile on her face.

"But-but, Mommy," I said, feigning a pout, "I've been a good little boy!"

"Mhm, suuuuuure," She rolled her eyes and laughed. "If you've been a good little boy, then I have been a good little girl. And we all know that will never happen."

A smirk spread to my face. "I don't doubt that, Dare."

"What was that, di Angelo?" She leaned up, getting right up into my face, a smirk on her freckled face. I tried not to let her affect me too much, but just her being up that close to me… I suddenly was noticing how cute the glasses looked on her, or how pretty she was…

This is what I get for spending time with two cousins that have girlfriends.

I swallowed. "I said," I managed to get out, "I said: I don't doubt that, Dare."

Rachel smiled. "That's what I thought. Now…" She leaned in closer, so I could feel her warm breath on my face, and smell her cherry-scented lip-gloss. "Do you have something to say to me?"

"What?"

"I said: Do you have something to say to me?" she repeated, leaning in closer. Our faces were nearly touching, and Rachel smiled.

I opened my mouth, then closed it, not really knowing what to say. What did she want me to say?

Rachel once again smiled at me, and slinked her arms around my neck. Before I could even process what she was doing, she smacked her lips onto mine, and my eyes widened. I was frozen in my steps, like a complete idiot.

After a few moments of pure bliss(but don't tell anyone I said that), Rachel released me and winked. "Call me, okay?" she said, before turning and walking into the crowd.

I was about to call after her and point out that I didn't even have her number when I noticed a little piece of paper tucked into the sleeve of my toga. Grabbing it, I noticed that there was a number scribbled onto it, along with the name, Rachel.

A small smile spread to my face, and I closed my fist around the piece of paper. "Jason," I said to myself, smirking, "consider it got."

AN: That last line is weird. It's like Nico replying to Jason's "Go and get some!"

[1]: Irony. Ha.

[2]: I love dropping hints of the whole demigod thing, ha!

Okay, so I think at 19, Nico would be still a bit awkward—awkwardness runs in the family. Jason and Percy aren't exactly smooth, are they? And as for Rachel... she said that she's met Nico before. So, I figure, she would know him, think he's cute, and want to hook up with him. At 23, you can do that, I guess, ha. She kissed Percy, remember? Okay, I'm done now.

Hope you all enjoyed it, and happy fall harvest! I don't celebrate Halloween! PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU ALL TO VOTE ON MY POLL! PLEASE! You'll make me REALLY happy if you do so! I need help picking a name for a character!

BOODY!