Shadows Fall to Flames. {{valdangelo}}

Chapter 3

Capture the flag, sweet.

Nico stood on the outskirts of the throng of adolescent who were his team mates.

He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.
Sure he liked capture the flag, but being in 'large' groups made him nervous.

He looked over at the opposing team, spotting Valdez among their ranks, chatting animatedly to Jason, who was visiting Camp Half-blood for the summer.

Nico's mind was pulled back to that night a few days ago, where himself and Leo were having somewhat of a good time.
Then he had realised he was sitting with Leo of all people.

Nico wasn't really sure why but that freaked him out big time.

Mentally face palming at his own awkward personality he turned away from the 'red team'.

Leo probably thought he was a jerk.

He'd be right.

'Alright teams!' Chiron called 'you know the rules! Red team, you take the east forest, blue team will occupy the west. Keep maiming to a minimum...'

He barely finished his sentence before the two gangs of bloodthirsty campers raced off to there respective ends of the battle field.

The teams were fairly standard;
Ares, Hades, Apollo, Hermes and Aphrodite vs
Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, Hephaestus and literally anyone left over.

Piper jogged up beside me as we entered the forest.

'Hey Nico' she said enthusiastically

'Hey' he muttered, he didn't mind Piper.

'Excited for the game?' She asked

'No' he lied

'Alright team' Clarisse yelled, getting our attention 'Travis, Conner and Nico, you attack them from the right, try distract them'

'Our specialty' Travis said, she ignored him and continued

'I'll take a main raiding party around to the left,  got it?'

'Yes' the entire team replied,

'Ok let's do this' Clarisse grinned

The stole brothers and the only Hades kid went beating through the bush, trying to draw as much attention as possible, well at least the Hermes kids were. Nico being Nico, trailed behind the other two, sword drawn, scanning for any enemies.

He spotted the ambush too late.

Three Athena kids leapt out from behind a cluster of thorny bushes, taking down the Stole brothers easily.

Having stayed a little behind, Nico was able to duck out of sight, before sprinting off in the direction on the Red teams flag.

Dodging around trees, jumping over logs, he felt like he was going to make it.

Bang!!!

Nico was crash tackled to the ground.

Head spinning he focussed on the culprit.

The real life human torch himself.

Nico struggled against Leo's bear hug, but seeing as Flame boy had the advantage of high ground he won the scuffle.

Leo grinned at the Italian, hand on his upper arms pinning him to the ground.

'McShizzle strikes again!' He said gleefully

'Get. Off. Me' Nico struggled against his captor, he nearly got out too.

'I don't think so death boy!' Leo said, sitting down hard on Nico's stomach, knocking the wind out of 'death boy'.

Leo leaned in closer, face less than a ruler length above Nico's, 'I win'

Nico started blushing furiously, and if he could, he would've punched himself in the face.

Leo seems to notice, because his face immediately flushed with colour, he practically jumped off Nico.

'I'm so sorry' Leo said, burying his face in his hands.

Nico was just as, if not more flustered

Nico wasn't actually sure who won in the end, and honestly, he didn't care.

He couldn't get the memory of...uuhhh, recent events out of his mind.
And to make things worse, the memory came with a warm fuzzy feeling that Nico shouldn't have been experiencing at all, let alone with Leo!

It was all so confusing.

He lay on the top bunk, stomach feeling just as empty as ever.
He'd skipped dinner again, it's not like he actually ate anything much when he was there, the act was more just to keep up appearances.

Nico was shaken from his thoughts by a light knock on the door.

'Yeah' he said sighing heavily

The door creaked open, the son of Hades didn't bother to check who had entered, he was too busy brooding.

'Pretty gloomy i here, you could do with some redecorating y'know'

Nico's body stiffened at the sound of the familiar voice.

What the hell was Leo doing here? His brain yelped,

'I uhh noticed you weren't at dinner' Leo said nervously 'so I uhh brought you this'

Hearing the plate being set down in the bedside table, Nico mustered up enough courage to pear over the edge of the bed.

Leo stood awkwardly in the centre of the room, hands swinging back and forth with no real purpose.
He was so cute.

Ugh!! Shut up Nico!!!

'Th...thanks' he managed

'No problem' Leo replied

The two of them just sat there, in tense silence.

'Uhh I'll just go then' Leo said hurrying out of the cabin.

No don't go! Nico wanted to yell, but of course he didn't.