His face went slack. "NICO!" I called, shaking him awake. Come on. Please. He started to stir. His eyes, filled with anger, instead of the normal pools of sadness, which were replaced with warmth and happiness after he met me.
His face contort...
An Apollo camper practically fainted from the sight. I'm not exaggerating. She had to be carried off to the infirmary for some nectar and ambrosia. Nico's smile faded to a less obvious happy expression. Gosh he looked cute when he smiled.
"Did Nico just make a joke?" Jason asked. His eyes the size of saucers.
"I knew you would come round one day!" Leo popped out from behind a tree. Hazel, standing in the small crowd with a bow in her hand, face palmed. "Leo? What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" Nico asked. His voice low and threatening. "Man, I guess some Valdez rubbed off on you eh?" Nico sighed and conjured up a skeleton. It chased Leo around the range and into his cabin. The campers were still too shocked to laugh at the stupid sight.
"W-well I-I guess that's all for to-today," Kayla stammered, her eyes fixated on Nico's faded smile.
The campers put their bows back in the small shed, and lumbered off to their next session. Surprised faces were still frozen on a few of the campers' faces. Percy was one of them. "Percy! Please stop making that face. Percy! Please!" Annabeth begged. She slapped him once across the face to see if it made a difference. Nope. "PERCY!" She yelled. She tried kissing him but it didn't work. "H-he sm-sm-smiled-d," Percy squealed.
I looked away and found Nico beside me, his face still held a hint of happiness as he looked over at Percy and Annabeth's awkward situation. "What d'you have next?" I asked him.
"Sword fighting, I think" He replied. A small smile played across my lips.
"Same. I guess we're stuck together again eh?"
"I guess. Don't accidentally impale me Clumsy," His supposed insult turned out to be a friendly tease. Wait, 'friendly'? Since when did Nico di Angelo become 'friendly'? We walked towards our next session in comfortable silence. His hand brushed against mine, and I blushed. I looked down and saw a skull ring on his hand. "A ring?" I asked him.
"My sister gave it to me," He muttered quietly.
"Hazel?" I asked.
"No, Bianca," The last of his happy expression left his face. I had crossed a line.
"I've got a ring too," I pointed at my ring, hoping to divert Nico from his sadness. He looked over at the crystal, bronze, and diamond ring. "Interesting..." He whispered. I pressed down on the diamond and Crystal appeared in my hand. This time, he stumbled back to avoid getting struck in the face with my dagger. "Gods!" He yelped as he tripped over his own feet. A sudden look of fear flitted across his face.
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Unlike before, I was the one who caught him, instead of the other way around. I grabbed his extended hand before he could land on the floor. "Guess you're Mr Clumsy now," I laughed as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. The diversion seemed to have worked.
"S-s-so, today we're go-i-ing to pick up fr-rom las-st week," Percy stammered. He was leading the Sword Fighting session, since he was one of the most skilled sword fighters in camp. "I'll j-just let Clarisse c-continue," Percy walked to the side of the room and sat down, still shocked from what happened on the Archery range. "Well that wimp's useless for now," Clarisse grumbled. "So, pair up. Practice your parries, stabs, or whatever depending on your weapon. Remember, no maiming or death. Even though I do want to kill a few of you in this room..." Her little comment was aimed at a few campers nervously pacing around the back of the room. "Now go start you idiots," She yelled.
Obviously, me and Nico paired up, since he didn't want to pair up with anyone else in the room. I think we all noticed that he was a quiet soul. Me? I had completely forgotten about Emma. But she was fine, she had more than enough friends from camp to practice with.
"First move," He said, pulling out his Stygian iron sword. "Stick your dagger out," He commanded. I did what he asked. He placed his sword on top of my dagger, sort of blocking my attack. He flicked Crystal up and swirled my dagger around, moving up my dagger, closer to me. "This is a parry," He said. I could feel heat radiating off of him. "Okay," I observed the move carefully, taking everything in. "You try Little Miss Clumsy. Please don't impale me in the process," He teased. He stuck his sword out. I repeated everything I saw. "Good," He encouraged.
Nico was an excellent teacher. He taught me defense and offense, teaching me both sword and dagger tactics. We decided on a duel at the end of the session. He decided that he'd go easy on me. "Go when you're ready," He said. I had the entire fight planned out. I stabbed at his chest, he deflected the stab and twisted my dagger, I held on tightly and ducked under his sword, kicking his legs from under him effectively. He back flipped and tucked into a roll, he sprung up almost instantly, kicking me while springing up. I landed on my back. He stabbed at my head and I rolled out of the way. I pulled him down from behind as he landed on the ground. I immediately straddled him and pinned him to the ground with my elbow, dagger at his throat. "Not bad Little Miss Clumsy," he admitted.
"Thanks, but you're the teacher,"
"Nah, you've got more talent than you give yourself credit for,"
He flicked my dagger out of my hand in one swift movement, he flipped us around, so he was on the top, and I was the one pinned down, his hands holding down my forearms. "But the student is only as good as his teacher," I recited. "Well, her teacher in my case," He flashed me one of his rare smiles. "Now I understand why you're a daughter of Athena," He whispered. Someone cleared their throat, ruining the perfect moment. I looked towards the source of the sound. I realised that another small group of about 10 had gathered around us, watching us duel the entire time. He blushed as he realised that we were still in the straddle position, faces centimeters apart, noses almost touching. He sprang upwards, and nervously dusted himself off. He stretched his hand out and helped me up. "Thanks dead head," I murmured, loud enough for him to hear, but quiet enough for the others to wonder what I had just said. "Back at you Owl eyes,"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A/N What a chapter. So much romance man. I've gotten 24 reads so far, I know it sounds very little, but I'm really glad. Thanks again for the reads! I'll update soon! (Tomorrow maybe) <3
