ꜱᴘɪᴅᴇʀ ʙɪᴛᴇꜱ: ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴀʙᴇᴛʜ/ꜱᴏʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ

xxx ɴɪᴄᴏ | ɴɪᴄᴏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡɪʟʟ ꜱᴇᴛ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ʙᴏᴜɴᴅᴀʀɪᴇꜱ

"After you," Nico opens the door to his room for Will. "You can have a seat on the bed. I take it, you know the way?"

"Oh, you're too kind," Will mocks. "No television this time, please."

"What, you mean you don't want to find out what happens to Lady Katherine and her fuzzy lover?"

Will takes a seat. "Tempting, but we have a plan to make, and it has to be good enough to outsmart Annabeth."

Nico flops onto his back and groans. "This is going to be hard."

"Extremely."

Sure, reenacting a romantic comedy isn't the smartest thing Nico and Will have ever done, but it sure isn't the dumbest thing either. Attempting to outsmart a literal genius, however, well... Let's just say Nico was almost twenty years old when he finally came up with a solid strategy to combat Athena's MythoMagic attacks.

"What do you think about playing to her fears? She wouldn't sleep in your room if there was a spider infestation or something, right?" Nico suggests. "Safe to assume she's still an arachnophobe?"

"All of our cleaners are either mint or lemon-scented. I think it's safe to assume that yes, she is," says Will. "But we're not going to scare her. What if she finds out it's us? It took so long for her to open up to me; I can't risk losing her trust."

Will is so incredibly sweet. He's such a good friend to Annabeth. It melts Nico's heart, honestly.

But his feelings are also making this plan incredibly impossible to formulate. "Okay, no risking your relationship with Annabeth. Do you have a better plan?" Nico asks.

Will strokes an invisible beard. "Oh! I know! Reyna has a crush on Annabeth; everyone can see it. If we get Reyna drunk at just the wrong moment, she'll hit on Annabeth-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Nico says. "We can't ruin the wedding. Hazel and Piper worked so hard to plan it, and now that it's so close, people really shouldn't be getting drunk. Reyna has to officiate the wedding; she can't do it hungover. Gods, Hazel would be mortified."

"Okay, that's fair." Will throws his hands up in surrender. "No jeopardizing the wedding."

"Look at you using words like 'jeopardizing,'" Nico teases.

It's hard though. They've got some very different priorities. Is there a way that they can get Percy and Annabeth back together without potentially hurting someone else? Nico wants to help, really, but maybe some relationships are beyond repair.

Still, when they were all kids, the dynamics between the rest of their friends always seemed to depend on Percy and Annabeth being together. They were always a great team, even before they were officially an item.

Oh gods. Does the fate of their friend circle seriously depend on Percy and Annabeth even now? Things are a little weird with them working against each other, but what happened at Jason's memorial brunch was a little more than weird. Nico shudders just thinking about it.

It was crazy. Straight crazy. Sure, Percy and Annabeth might have killed gorgons in the women's bathroom, but what were they even doing in there in the first place?

"Wait," Nico says. "Did Annabeth tell you anything about what happened today? Like in the bathroom? With Percy?"

"Not really," Will says. "She was kind of quiet. Just called Percy some nasty names and hopped in the shower. Good thing too. She smelled."

"Valid." So what's happening?

Nico sits up on the bed. "So the bottom line is that Percy wants to talk to Annabeth and she's kind of closing herself off, am I right about that?"