Nico was woken up by the slamming of a door.

He groggily sat up, rubbing his eyes and groaning as his spine cracked in certain places. He step like the dead for once. No nightmares.

He was slightly suspicious.

But mostly thankful.

As he stood up, he glanced at the mirror standing in the corner of the room. The bags under his eyes had almost completely faded, only the barest crease still indented into his face. He looked back to the floor where he shed his clothes.

He changed into the normal black skinny jeans and black shirt, and topped it all off with his aviators jacket.

He turned to the bed once more, and discovered why he slept so soundly that night.

A small sound left Nico's lips. He was in Leo's room. The bed must've smelled like Leo, reminded him of Leo. It made sense; the only other time he'd slept that soundly lately was when he was in Leo's arms.

He heard a door slam again, and he was reminded if the reason he woke in the first place.

He ran out the door, nearly slamming into the center of his thoughts.

"Nico?" Leo's arms wrapped around Nico the second he fell into him, keeping Nico from crashing his nose into the floorboards below.

"This is proof against your story, Leo." Piper grinned, crossing her arms. Both boys blushed violently. Nico could already tell where she was going with this.

Leo's arms flew to his side, and Nico jumped back onto the wall.

"No, wouldn't you do the same if someone crashed into you?" Leo feebly argued.

"Uh huh," Piper didn't was not convinced in the slightest. "That's why you're blushing." The look on Piper's face became even more smug, now that both boys were trying to deny it.

Nico stopped mid-sentence, figuring it was hopeless. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, after all. Even though she was the complete opposite of her other siblings, Nico still figured she could practically smell love from a mile away.

He put his hand on Leo's shoulder. Leo looked down at him, whatever retort he had for Piper fading into the air.

"Just stop. There's no way we can convince her otherwise." Nico said. Leo sighed and turned back to piper.

"Okay, alright, fine, it's true. We're dating. For like a day now. And we don't want people to know." Leo have her a pointed look, and she clapped her hands once.

"I knew it!" she practically squealed. Her eyes widened when she realized what she said, how she said it, and just what that meant. Leo opened his mouth with a grin tinting his features. "Don't," Piper closed her eyes, her pointer finger in the air. "Even say it, Valdez. Don't even say it."

Leo chuckled.

Piper's eyes opened again. This time they were pointing directly at Nico. He suddenly felt nervous.

"Now, I know you're the main reason you both aren't saying anything to anyone. I hope you know, even if it's just on this ship, no one's going to judge you. This is the twenty-first century. A lot has changed. Gay–" Nico made a mad gesture, "shh!"ing her. She rolled her eyes and talked quieter. "Gay marriage is legal in several states. People really don't care. Love is love. And if they have a problem with it, screw them. Not to mention they'd have at least six demigods chasing them down, mortal or not."

Nico smiled, the speech somehow making him feel a tiny bit more confident.

I've really got to stop hanging around Leo so much... He thought.

He looked at Leo, who was already looking down at him. Leo's expression clearly said, "I'm scared shitless, but why the hell not?" Nico took a deep breath. He turned back to Piper.

"Okay. When and where?" Piper grabbed both boys' hands.

"How 'bout now? Pretty sure everyone's eating breakfast."

Nico spluttered complaints the whole way.

.o0o.o0o.o0o.

Piper threw the door open, effectively making all the eating demigods jump, dropping whatever utensil was in their hand and shooting fairly close to their weapons.

"Piper?" Jason asked in surprise, his eyes flicking to Nico and Leo, her hands still tightly wrapped around their wrists.

She pushed them both to the foot of the table.

"These two have something to tell you." She ended it with that, going to sit next to Jason.

Judging from the way Annabeth's smile at something Percy said changed into a suspicious glare at both boys, Nico figured she thought they broke a huge hole in the side of the ship or something.

Nico's face was still very warm, and it only got warmer when he saw Jason wink at them.

"Nico?" Hazel asked. "What's going on?"

Nico was very uncomfortable. He thought Piper would give him time to prepare himself for this.

Talk about ripping off the bandage.

Leo laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, noticeably increasing Annabeth's wariness. Nico didn't blame her. Leo was making it even worse–and they haven't even begun to explain anything yet.

"Well, you see..." Leo looked at Jason, probably because he already knew and it would be easier to say to him. If he wasn't wiggling his eyebrows, anyway. "Uh... Nico! You're turn!"

Nico turned to him with a helpless expression, feeling the stares of the other four who didn't know. He knew what they were thinking: If Nico was terrified to say it, then it must be serious.

"Nico. Whatever's going on, you can tell us." Hazel used the most comforting voice she could. Nico relaxed a little.

Leo's hand grabbed Nico's under the table, them being too close to it, and the table tall enough to keep the others from noticing.

Nico relaxed even more. He took a deep breath, turned, cupped Leo's face, and kissed him hard in one swift movement. Leo kissed back, and wrapped his arms around Nico's tiny waist.

Nico heard a couple gasps, but he ignored them.

He pulled away, touching his forehead to Leo's, his eyes still closed, hands still resting on Leo's cheeks.

Then he remembered where they were and turned to the table.

Annabeth, Hazel, Piper, and Jason were grinning like idiots–Jason even looked like he was about to start clapping.

Frank and Percy stared at them with wide eyes.

"I did not see that one coming." Percy stated as his shocked face changed into a huge grin. Frank shook his head and smiled at them.

Then Jason really did start clapping, laughing along the with the others. Nico left a breathy laugh leave his parted lips. He was feeling so many emotions at that moment.

Relief. His friends obviously accepted him. They accepted him and Leo's relationship.

Happiness. If he wanted, he could kiss Leo anytime he wanted, no one would care. He could be with Leo in general, and no one would be disgusted.

And many more that he couldn't place. Couldn't describe for the lack of words in the English language that would perfectly describe what he was feeling.

The only thing to come to mind?

Love.

And he never wanted to let go of this feeling.

So... That happened...

And I don't know if I'm just going to end it here or not... I really don't.

We'll see...