The One That Got Away... (A Jasico fanfic)

Chapter 18

So I was just wondering... do you guys want me to title the chapters? Let me know if you do.

Percy pov

Don't blame me when I say that I was snooping in the Hades cabin. Hey! I had tried for years to try and break Nico's walls down, so you can't blame me when I was a little suspicious of how Jason managed to do it so soon. I mean, sure, they were in love and all, but Nico had loved me too, at one point - but that had just caused him to act like he hated me!

The Hades cabin had been greatly improved; Annabeth had remodelled and refurnished it so that it looked more homey than deathy. It wasn't just black, now there were splashes of orange, lime green, white and red everywhere that made it look... modern. And energetic.

I walked around the perimeter of the cabin, knocking on the walls every now and then. There might be some sort of hollow in the wall for hiding gods-know-what. And yes, I did get that from Annabeth.

Finally, I came across something. A spot in the wall, four feet high and three feet wide, that the knocking sounded different. I felt around it. A hidden button, a motion sensor, anything!

My hand slid over the very corner when it happened. The section of the wall dropped into the floor, revealing a hidden crawl space. It had a small flashlight, three books and a huge stack of chocolate.

My first thought?

Who the Hades built this? I mean, Annabeth had refurnished, not built a freaking hole in the wall. Leo never went in the Hades cabin. Hazel spent her time in Camp Jupiter. So... was it always here?

"Percy? Percy, where are you? Me and Nico are back, we've got news!" Shoot!

I clawed at the piece of wall that had fallen into the floor, praying that it would hurry up and just go up already. Was it automatic, or was I supposed to drag it back into place?

"Percy?" Nononono, Jason was getting closer. Um... I grabbed a pillow and put it in front of the hole, securing it from view.

The door to the cabin opened, and lo and behold, there was Jason, leaning on the doorframe and frowning at me.

"Percy, what are you doing in Nico's cabin?" Jason asked suspiciously, then realization dawned on his face. "You aren't snooping, are you?" I laughed nervously.

"Of course not. Why would you think that?" Jason rolled his eyes and strolled up to me. I noticed he was still about two inches taller than me. Bastard.

"Because you have absolutely no reason to be in this cabin," he told me, staring me in the eye. He didn't look mad, thankfully, or there would be a new decoration theme called 'Percy's Innards' for the Hades cabin.

"Look, dude, I've been trying to be friends with Nico for years, then you just waltz up to him, and it's like instant buddies! What do you have that I don't?" Jason raised an eyebrow, and I realized how jealous I sounded. "I mean, how did you get him to be so relaxed around you? And don't give me that, 'He loves me' crap, he loved me at one point too! But that just made him more tense around me - "

"Because you had Annabeth," Jason cut me off smoothly. "I know that you didn't know that he liked you, but anything you did with or for her was just rubbing salt in the wound." I winced, partially because he was right, partially because he was making me sound like some sort of insensitive idiot.

"I know, but... this was completely out of the blue! He's gone for two years, he comes back, then boom! You guys are dating! What did I miss? Did you guys have some sort of bonding time while Annabeth were in Tartarus?"

"You could say that," Jason said cooly, though his hands were giving him away. "We had to get Diocletian's sceptre from Eros. I can't say anything else, or Nico will have my head on a silver platter." I frowned. Jason didn't notice and continued. "Anyway, what would searching Nico's cabin do to help? It's not like he keeps a diary."

"Does he? Oh my gosh, the son of Hades writes his feelings in a diary?" Jason scowled at me. "I said he didn't have a diary, Fish Face. Now get out of here before I tell Nico." I froze.

"You won't tell him though, will you? I just got him to sorta trust me, and if that all goes down the drain..." I gave Jason what Annabeth liked to call, "puppy eyes".

"Fine," Jason muttered tiredly, giving in. "But don't think you traipsing around in here is going to become a regular thing - "

"Oh, I won't. Wouldn't want to interrupt any 'bonding time' between you and Nico." I winked and ran out of the cabin before Jason could blink.

Nico pov

"Nicooo! Can you help me?" Ugh, Leo. Ever since he found out I could draw, he made me create or revise blueprints or sketch machinery. It wasn't that it was boring, it was just that he made me do it literally everyday.

"I need you to draw this," he told me, shoving a piece of paper with a few words on it. I stared at it blankly.

"Those are words, Valdez. Remind me how I'm supposed to draw words?" He glared at me and propped himself up by his elbows on my desk.

"You need to draw what the words describe. I would do it myself, but it isn't machinery related, so I don't have a blue clue." I raised my eyebrows.

"If it's not machinery related, then why do you need it?" Leo sighed. "I'm planning on building a placed in New Rome for building stuff - the Vulcan kids are oddly underrepresented, seeing as the build most of the explosives and stuff, but that's not the point - and Reyna said that if I can come up with a design that isn't too expensive and reasonable, then she'll build it." I blinked.

"Fine, I'll do it. But I need to know the measurements; put everything up to scale and stuff." Leo looked at me, apparently confused.

"How do you know so much about architecture and design?" he asked. I smiled wearily smiled and started sketching.

"I used to visit Daedalus a lot in the Underworld - if Annabeth asks, he got off barely got off the hook - and he used to keep me with him for hours on end, showing me his designs and ideas and the likes. He really was a genius. Shame he died - but it was his time." Leo's eyes lit up.

"You've met Daedalus? He's amazing. I've heard a bit about him from Reyna; she said that he was - whoa, what's that?" Leo stared at my drawing. "Why would you put a pillar there? It's completely unnecessary."

"That's not a pillar, Valez, that's a furnace." Leo made a silent, 'Oh,' with his mouth.

"I knew that..." he trailed off. I smirked and slapped his arm.

"Sure you did."

SO THIS IS KINDA SHORT AND REALLY LATE BUT I HAVE MATH HOMEWORK AND STUFF AAAANDDD:

In honour of America legalizing gay marriage (I don't live in America, nor am I gay, but that's irrelevant) I'm going to be giving you guys the choice of four different stories (comment which one you want!)

1. Four Boys and a Trailer - Kevin, Andrew, Connor and Aidan are the well-known pop-rock boy band, *insert band name that I haven't decided yet here* and are going on a national tour. They don't know each other that well, though, so what happens when all of them are trapped in a two-bed trailer for half a year in a trip across the country?

2. Truthful Liar - Leo meets Casper, a happy-go-lucky medical student at Stanford that happens to want to be Leo's friend. Leo, desperate for a friend, decides that instead of being his normal, depressed self, he's going to be the person he was before it happened.

3. Notes From the Queer - Eren is a transgender that's still in the closet in fear of the homophobic bullies at school. She sends notes to the gay nerd, Nathan, under her true, guy name, Evan. Things go smoothly - that is, until Nathan wants to meet Evan in person.

4. Damsel in Shining Armour - Nick is bullied daily - shoved down toilets, beaten up, called harsh words, pushed into lockers - then, Grace swoops in and saves him. They become close friends, and swear that no matter what, they'll be together. But promises, just like people, change.

Comment on which one you like best! And p.s, don't steal any of these plots. I will hunt you down if you do.