The Wants of a Young Demigod Heart (Nico di Angelo, Leo Valdez x OC)

Onward!

Nico POV

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I awake to see Merrily stretched out, one foot lightly touching Leo's knee and her arms trying to reach Taylor, who's atop Chey.

"What are you doing?" I yawn.

"Every time I stop touching him, he starts to have nightmares," Merrily frowns, her tongue poking out the side of her mouth.

"Here, stop for a second and let me try," I suggest. I walk over to Leo and smirk down at him. Merrily removes her foot and immediately, he begins to squirm and groan in his sleep. I poke his nose and Leo sputters and slaps my hand away.

"What the crap?" Leo groans. "Who poked me?"

"Uh... I.... er... well she... I mean...." Merrily is trying to muffle her laughing and even Taylor is giggling.

"What the frick dude?" Leo exclaims.

"Well Merrily was... I mean she was touching you to stop you from uh...." Leo just looks confused.

"That wasn't awkward at all," Merrily grins perkily. "Hey, Leo, can you go wake up Chey? I'm going to make breakfast."

"Sure." I figure, while Leo's waking up Chey, I could use a change of underwear and duck behind Festus to change. Merrily's amazing, she really is. But I am wondering one thing: how did I manage to go all night last night without a single nightmare? Usually, I have one or two, and they generally don't wake me up. Ever since Merrily showed up, though, the nightmares have been getting scarce.

I finish changing and head back out to see what's going on. Leo's successfully gotten Chey up. She's been wearing the same clothes since Taylor, but I think Merrily's holding on to some of her undergarments in her duffel. At any rate, Chey looks positively irritated, but is cheering up since Merrily is now telling her what she has to go steal.

"I need flour, sausage, biscuit dough, like the Pilsbury kind, eggs, gravy flavor and a cast iron pot with a thingy to hold it over the fire." Chey finishes scribbling everything down on her arm with a pen Leo procured for her from his toolbelt, and then takes one glance at me and vanishes into the woods.

Abigail and Ryan are still curled up with each other, Ryan's face buried in Abigail's hair. I don't see how they haven't figured out that they like each other yet.

"Aw, they're so adorable!" Merrily croons. "See, look at you daddy, isn't he adorable?" Merrily turns Taylor so she can see Ryan. Taylor squeals with delight.

Leo tilts his head. "I can see it."

"Meh," is my reply. I mean, it's not my favorite couple or anything. "Anyway, Abigail's not going to go for that."

"Chey and I will handle that," Merrily says ominously. I tell you, my girlfriend seriously scares me. A little over ten minutes later (it's about 8:45 in the morning now) Chey arrives back loaded down with shopping bags.

"I gave you like five things to get!" Merrily shouts incredulously.

"Yeah, I know," Chey replies easily. "And you'll be happy to know I got you a spatula." Chey proceeds to throw said spatula at Merrily's head.

"Okay, not needed," Merrily states. "And that is not just a spatula."

"Yeah, I know," Chey repeats.

"Is that orange juice?" I ask cautiously.

"What?" came the defensive reply. "I like orange juice. So sue me."

"And Pop Tarts apparently," Leo comments. Chey grins impishly and dumps about six boxes of Pop Tarts onto the ground. It's a mix of apple cinnamon and cookies 'n cream.

"Did you get what I actually asked for?" Merrily asks, putting one hand on her hip.

"Why yes I did," Chey replies pompously. "Here." Chey passes over shopping bags and Merrily snatches them from her quickly, like Chey might steal them. Which she probably would under different circumstances.

After checking to be sure that everything she needed is in the bag, Merrily grunts in satisfaction. Chey shrugs at Leo and goes to wake Abigail and Ryan, while Merrily, Leo and I tend to the fire.

"Okay, Leo, go ahead," Merrily tells him, shying away, covering Taylor with her arms. Leo and I both stare at her confusedly.

Merrily stares back at us innocently. "Get a move on! I wanna be outta here by ten!" Leo lifts a shoulder and lights his whole hand on fire. The dry leaves quickly catch and the bark catches as well not long after. Merrily shoves Taylor into my arms and tells me to go prepare Festus with Abigail and Chey. Ryan is still drunk.

Leo keeps hovering over Merrily while she works, which annoys me to no end. What does he know anyway? At least he's keeping his distance.

At last, after thirty or so minutes, Merrily calls us over. Luckily, Leo remembered to bring paper plates. Even though the eggs didn't have salt, if you pushed them in between the biscuit and put gravy on top, they tasted amazing. All the girls thought Leo and I were being disgusting though. Amateurs.

Abigail fed Taylor some baby food. I tell you, Taylor is one of the best tempered babies ever. After everyone is fed and everything, Chey and I team up to push Ryan onto Festus, which is a rather tricky job. Then we all get on. The ordering of everyone is much the same: Leo steering, Merrily squashed in between the both of us, and Chey and Abigail sandwiching Ryan.

As per usual, the flight is silent for the first several minutes. "What's the plan when we get to Georgia, Merrily?"

"Let's stop to eat somewhere and then we can head to my grandmother's place," Merrily says calmly rocking Taylor.

"Sounds good," I say. Merrily leans back into my chest, Taylor clutched close to her. I can smell Merrily's hair. It still smells like cherries. Eventually I fall asleep too. I wake up a few times on the way, and I can tell Chey is asleep as well and Leo and Abigail are discussing the three of us.

When I wake up for real, we are descending over Georgia.

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Hello! *sighs* I hate school. Only a few more weeks left though, and finals are coming up! Yay! Not. I hope you guys liked that chapter. It was a little shorter than usual. For some reason, I find it much harder to get into Nico's head, than into Merrily's or Leo's. If any of you have anything that you want Nico to struggle with, please comment it down below.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for.... *breaks fourth wall*

Nico: I actually kind of like this chapter.

Merrily: Me too. There's not a lot of drama going on.

Leo: You guys didn't get poked in the nose.

Nico: I was trying to help!

David: Nice going!

Nico: You're dead, so what do you know?

David: Good point.

Me: Be nice!

Nico: He's a jerk!

David: Am not!

Me: David, do the disclaimer or else...

David: Fine. CheyPaigeFanfic does not own PJO or HoO.

Leo: Why does he always get to do it?

Me: Because I said so.

Merrily: Please vote and comment!