Nico's POV
I woke up to the sun streaming through my window and for the first time, I was happy to wake up. Because today was Valentine's Day, and I'd be spending the entire day with Will. Chiron was letting everyone off training for the day, and Will said he had something special planned for me. Maybe we would have a picnic, or go for a hike. I pulled open my drawers and pulled on a pair of black jeans, my usual converse and the Camp Half Blood tee shirt that I had gotten at the very beginning of cap, just to add a splash of color.
I opened the door to my cabin, and found birds chirping for the first time this year, and the dirty snow had disappeared from the ground, letting soft green grass and tiny white flowers sprout up from the ground. I could feel the romance in the air, but one thing ruined the sight. Percy was standing in front of the door, wrapped in thick pink ribbon with a bow on top of his head and holding a bunch of multicolored heart shaped balloons. He was wearing a neon pink shirt and neon pink skinny jeans, his black hair was messy and his face had a disgruntled look. I wondered how long he had been standing there.
"Percy?" I snorted. "What are you doing."
"Will made me do it," he sighed, handing me the balloons. "It was either me or Jason, and I lost the bet."
"So, what did Will plan?" I asked.
"Scavenger hunt," Percy responded. "You have to find clues to find him." He handed me a small, fifty cent box of candy hearts. "There's going to be one of these at each hint. Will told me to tell you that if you didn't eat every single heart he would kill you."
"I'm sure he would," I chuckled, opening the box. I pulled out the first heart, a green one that said kiss me on the front. I popped it in my mouth, hoping that we could do more than that once I found Will.( ;).
"So," I asked, continuing to eat the candy hearts, "Where do I go first?"
"Climbing wall." Percy nodded to the climbing wall, with lava still barreling down the wall. "Hey, before you go, could you unwrap me?" He gestured to the pink ribbon tightly wrapped around him.
"Sure, Percy," I smirked. I unwound the ribbon and instead wrapped it around his waist and tied it in a bow.
"Hey!" he complained.
"It's a compromise," I responded, and dashed to the climbing wall.
I thought I could see the pink candy heart box and the top of the climbing wall, near the bell, but I couldn't be sure. I grabbed two of the small handholds on the climbing wall and pulled myself up, dodging a rock flying at me from the top.
I was in decently good shape which was lucky for me, because the climbing wall wasn't a joke. The lava singed the sleeve of my shirt, charring it slightly black. It was fine, though, because this was probably the only time I would wear it. I grabbed onto the last handhold, pulled myself up to the top, and grabbed the box of candy hearts. The lava stopped flowing down and the rocks stopped falling. I heard an angry cry from a couple down at the bottom, who presumably wanted to do some couple bonding on the slightly deadly climbing wall. I grabbed the piece of paper that came along with the candy hearts and hopped down, taking the handholds three at a time.
"What does it say?" Percy asked, leaning over my shoulder as I unfolded the piece of paper. He looked slightly more comfortable after he had unwrapped the ribbon, but it was still tied tightly around his waist.
"I get my supplies from here," I murmured. "Maybe the garden behind the cabins?" I looked at Percy. "You know what the hints mean."
"I'm not telling you, figure it out," Percy laughed. I punched him on the arm.
"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Percy muttered. He rubbed his arm ruefully. "Have you been lifting weights?" I smirked.
"Just come on."
I pushed back the plants, searching for the pink box of candy hearts. They weren't very filling, and I was getting hungry again.
"Are you going to help me?" I asked, looking up at Percy. He was leaning up against a sapling, arms crossed over his chest.
"Sorry, death boy, but Will said no one helps."
"But this could take forever!" I complained. Percy rolled his eyes, and pointed to a small tree on the other side of the garden.
"Check over there," he sighed, resigned to the fact that he would be helping me for the rest of the day. I rushed over to the tree and, on the top branch, sat a small bird's nest, with a small blue bird sitting inside cheerfully. I gently pushed aside her blue spotted eggs and found another box of candy hearts with a strip of white paper wound tightly around the box. I wiggled it out from the eggs and went back to Percy before the blue bird could peck my eyes out for disturbing her nest. With Percy looking over my shoulder, I unfolded the paper, only to find a single word printed on it.
"Blackjack?" I groaned. "Does this mean I have to visit the Pegusi in the stables?"
"Sure does, buddy," Percy laughed. "But at least you can see them again. I know how much you love them!"
"What did that one say?" I asked, cautiously eyeing the brown and white pegasus in the enclosure closest to me. Percy winced.
"You don't want to know." he pointed to the one on the far left, a pure white pegasus who was staring intently at us. "But that one says to check the poop piles." I rolled my eyes.
"No way it's in there. Will wouldn't do that." I looked all around the stables and finally spotted a flash of pastel pink up in the rafters above Blackjack's enclosure.
"How am I going to get up there?" I whined.
"I bet if you asked Blackjack really nicely he would let you stand on his back," Percy responded. I shot him a glare, but the look on his face told me that he was serious, so I cleared my throat and stepped closer to Blackjack's enclosure. Blackjack whinnied, sounding scared, but otherwise didn't make any movements. Based on my previous experiences with Pegasi, this was a win.
"Blackjack?" I said tentatively. "Could you please let me stand on your back? My boyfriend left me something up in the rafters, and I have to get it." Blackjack snorted.
"He said you can," Percy called out to me. Sighing in relief, I hoisted myself up onto Blackjack's smooth black hide and stretched my arms toward the rafters, trying in vain to knock the candy hearts down to the floor of the stable. As I worked, I could hear Percy whispering comfortingly to Blackjack.
"Yeah, buddy, I know. Yeah I'll bring you a doughnut after this. I'll bring you an entire box. Yeah, I'll tell him. Hey, Nico!"
"Yeah?" I called down.
"Blackjack said that Will smells better than you. Will smells like happiness and you smell like death."
"Thanks, Blackjack," I muttered down to the horse. Blackjack whinnied in response.
I managed to knock the box of candy hearts and the slip of paper down to the ground, and I hopped off of Blackjack, which was a good thing for me. I think Blackjack was getting tired of me.
"What does it say?" Percy asked.
"Grover Underwood," I responded, reading Will's handwriting. "He's a friend of yours, right?"
"Yeah!" Percy said excitedly. "I know exactly where to find him!" He skipped out the door, gesturing for me to follow. Before I left, I opened the box of candy hearts and offered a handful to Blackjack, who ate them eagerly.
"Thanks for your help, Blackjack," I said. Blackjack whinnied again which I hope meant "you're welcome I'll help you any time you need it" and not "get out of my face before I trample your tiny body underneath my hooves." Either way, I needed to go.
We found Grover in the woods, hanging out with his fiance, Juniper the Tree Nymph. They were looking at wedding dress designs on scraps of recycled paper when Grover spotted us coming through the woods.
"Percy! My man!" He and Percy did some complicated handshake with a lot of claps and elbow bumping. I wasn't exactly sure what happened. "I assume you two are looking for Will?"
"Yeah, Grover. You were the last clue, so I'm guessing you can tell us where he is?" Grover pushed back the branches of a tree to reveal Will, his blonde hair tousled from the February wind, his smile on the brightest setting and looking better than he ever had in his orange Camp Half- Blood tee shirt.
"Thanks for helping, Percy," Will said, tossing something into the air. "Here's something for your hard work."
"A candy heart?" Percy spat. "This is it?"
"It's blue," Will answered simply.
"Oh, okay, than," Percy shrugged. He left us in the clearing, and went to help Grover and Juniper with the wedding dress planning. I heard him telling Juniper that he liked Bottle Blue better than Great Green.
Will popped the top off of a bottle of purple liquid, pouring some into a champagne glass and offering it to me.
"Will, Mr. D would never let us have wine. He's too mad about being cut off."
"Relax, Neeks, it's grape juice," Will laughed, holding out the glass. I took it, and we sat down on the red and white checkered blanket Will had brought with him. We stared out at the sunset while we turned our tongues purple.
"So," Will said, finally breaking the silence. "What was your favorite part about today?" He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in tighter so that my head was resting on his shoulder. "You know, I went through a lot of trouble to plan that for you."
"Well," I began, taking the last sip of my grape juice. "I think my favorite part was when..."
Our time together lasted late into the night, exceeding the curfew, but somehow the harpies seemed to miss us. Maybe it was Ella, or maybe they were just stupid. Will made a fire, and we took turns telling stupid stories of from when we were kids. We finished off the grape juice, and the cheese and crackers Will had brought along in a small picnic basket. Things were quiet until we heard Mr. D's voice cracking the silence of the night.
"Will Solace and Nico Di Angelo if I find you two making out in the woods in the middle of the night I swear to Zeus..." he trailed off, but we could tell by his heavy footfalls that he was coming closer. We looked at each other.
"Run!" whispered Will and we sprinted away from Mr. D, not quite ready to end our Valentine's Day.
So, whether you're single or taken, I hope you had a good Valentine's Day, and I hope you ate some chocolate! Also, I might do a part two of this, maybe Mr. D, and possibly Coach Hedge yelling at Nico and Will for being "irresponsible teens". What do you think? Anyway, I hope you liked it!
Nina