Chapter 2

Thalia

Thalia rubbed her eyes. No warm glow. No sunlight.

And by basic deduction it's not the Artemis cabin.

"Whoa, unless I'm in… the Hades cabin?"

Thalia reels a little at the realization, that she had not been back to the Artemis cabin yesterday, and she was worried that others would be worried about her. She sat up, her neck and shoulders protesting at the sudden movement from being dormant too long in an odd position. Looking around, she saw Nico sitting next to the armchair, sleeping in what did not look like a comfortable position. "How long have I been in here?" she wondered. Taking a look at the watch, she realised it was already 8a.m. in the morning.

I haven't had a bath since the day before and I stink. And I do believe I do need a new set of clothes.

Thalia gets off from the armchair swiftly, opening the door of the cabin and stepping out of the odd place known as the Hades cabin.

Right, the rest of the hunters must be wondering where I went last night.

Thalia scowls a little at the thought of it. Explaining was going to be tedious.

Luckily, when she returned back to the Artemis cabin, no one was interested in knowing where she was. Either they knew or they couldn't be bothered. Thalia hoped it was the latter as heat rose up her cheeks at the prospect of the first.

She quickly grabbed a change of fresh clothes and ducked into the bathroom to change and wash up, feeling a little more refreshed than before. No one really seemed to comment on anything, and Thalia decided it would be great to go grab some food with Annabeth.

It wasn't difficult to find Annabeth, since most campers knew of the child of Athena. "Morning, Annabeth. Wanna go grab something to eat?" Thalia greeted. Annabeth looked at her, shocked and worried and grabbed her shoulders.

"Dear gods, Thalia, I was worried where you went! I couldn't find you with the other hunters and I thought you got lost!" Annabeth rambles, furrowing her brows. "What happened yesterday? Was Nico being an ass?"

Thalia chuckled. "No, Nico was being Nico yesterday. I was tired, and I fell asleep on Nico's couch. Just woke up with morning."

"Hades cabin? Didn't Nico give you a tour or bring you back to Artemis's cabin? I must ask him later. Oh well, never mind…" Annabeth trails off, leading Thalia towards the dining pavilion.

"It's alright, Annabeth, partly my fault too," Thalia adds, feeling a little sheepish for the trouble she must have caused Nico.

"I know," Annabeth grins. "Now, just forget about it and get that food you wanted to eat, Thal!"

Olympus

Aphrodite was sitting in a couch, sipping coffee while watching the love story unfold. "Oh, it's perfect." And then she sighs a long sigh and laments,"development however is going at such a... snail's pace. If only it could be sped up." Her eyes glinted at the idea, knowing just the perfect solution for such a situation.

Just a little bit of emotions wouldn't do any harm.

Wiggling her fingers over a certain sandwich, Aphrodite had it sent back to Camp Half Blood once she felt that it was enough. It wasn't coincidence that Thalia had picked just the right sandwich to eat.

The goddess allowed a little self-satisfactory grin to herself, humming a soft tune before she went on with her daily routine.

Thalia

Thalia hungrily ate her food as she began to head to where the other hunters had already gathered, it being as delicious as ever. Annabeth had decided to tag along, considering that today was a relatively idle day with little practice and little errands.

"How's things with Percy?" Thalia inquires casually between a mouthful of food.

"As usual, nothing much. We've been going pretty steady, and although Percy's always being an idiot, I can't help to find him endearing sometimes," Annabeth grins, seemingly happy with her current relationship.

Thalia laughs at the sappy confession of Annabeth. Suddenly curious, Thalia asked, "you know, sometimes i wonder, how did you even know you liked him?"

The other girl paused for a while, giving the question a thought. "Well, I wasn't really sure. I guess it started out while my impression of Percy began to improve, that maybe he wasn't as bad as I originally thought. That gave way to friendship, and then something a bit more. Sometimes I would give him lingering glances, wondering what he was thinking about, what he liked, maybe even what he thought of me. Those were really the times I couldn't believe myself, that I was doing such ridiculous things. I knew I definitely liked Percy when I thought he was going to die during the times we were in the Labyrinth, I was even jealous when he came back and I knew that he had spent time with Calypso. But things all turned out well, I suppose. That's that. Why the sudden question, I thought you were rarely interested between me and Percy?"

I can't possibly tell her because there has been something nagging at me since yesterday I met Nico, and it's because of what I felt towards Nico - a sudden stab of emotions that I couldn't understand well enough - that made me curious. It's against the rules to fall in love with a man, and, and yet...

"No, nothing much, just a sudden thought," Thalia replies quickly, finishing her sandwich. She dusts her hands on her trousers and wipes the remaining crumbs from her mouth with the back of her hand, her thoughts about Nico just not dissipating.

"Suppose we're here," Annabeth comments, finding that the most of the other hunters have already gathered at the venue. "I'll see you later after your practice, we've got so much catching up to do!"

Thalia waves brightly at Annabeth, and the other girl raised a hand before leaving Thalia with the other hunters.

The rest of the day was surprisingly, uneventful. As uneventful as it could have been.

The huntress didn't bother with much of romantic emotions until the end of the day, when day became dusk and it was soon time for dinner.

The campers sat at their own tables, hunched over in conversations and lively banters, occasionally breaking out in laughter or song. Thalia sat at the table dedicated to Artemis with the other campers, not bothering herself with the chat between the hunters, but rather in her own thoughts. She was hopeful, but also afraid.

Hopeful, because love (?) makes people hopeful. Makes people yearn for one another, want to be with one another, want to spend the rest of their lives together. And all those thoughts were rushing into Thalia's head, and suddenly, men - no, Nico - didn't seem to be as repulsive as before. She wonders if maybe she wasn't a hunter, was it possible for her to further pursue her emotions, her feelings towards Nico?

And then there was fear, she was afraid, of what were to come if she was to really fall in love with a man - Nico, just Nico. It would mean she would lose her status as a hunter, and above all, Artemis' trust in her. She wouldn't want it to come down to that. But most importantly, it came down to also her previous experience with Luke. Her relationship with Luke was something, but it hadn't turned out the way Thalia had hoped for. That made her wary of her own emotions towards others, afraid that someday the same story line would unfold right before her eyes again.

Shaking her head, she went back to poking at her food disinterestedly, occasionally eating a bit, but nonetheless distracted by her own ruminations.

"Hey, Thalia, you alright?" a hunter asked concernedly. "You're not yourself today, got something on your mind?"

"Huh? No, not really. I'm okay. Probably just feeling a little unwell. Nothing a good rest can't solve," Thalia answers politely, giving a small smile.

"Oh, sure. Just tell us if you need any help, we're in this together."

Thalia nods her head at the offer, her gaze falling on something that she didn't expect to see.

Nico di Angelo.

Exactly the root of her current problem.

She could feel her pulse quicken, the blood in her stomach redirected to leave her with the tingly butterflies-in-stomach feeling, feeling uncontrollably shy and giddy with the idea.

Definitely a sure sign of attraction.

Thalia cursed inwardly.

She didn't expect her reactions to be this... normal. Granted, maybe this was how normal people would react in such a situation. But Thalia was hardly normal. She was a hunter, a hunter of Artemis. She was to uphold her oath of being an 'eternal maiden', Artemis' maidservants, companions, sisters-in-arms. It was not befitting of a hunter to fall in love with the opposite gender, not when they had an obvious distaste for them.

Yet here she was, contemplating on her choices and ruminating over her emotions. It was very unlike of her to do so, and it caused her to feel even more insecure about what exactly she could do and what she should do currently - most importantly - about her feelings towards Nico di Angelo.

Nico seemed to have felt Thalia's gaze on him, for he looked up from his food slowly, but surely, looking into Thalia's eyes.

I think I just fell hard.

Thalia cursed inwardly again, biting on her lip as she hurriedly turned her gaze away.

What now?

A/N: Oops, seems like this story seemed to have taken a different turn from the previous idea. Welp, but anyway. D: