Nico and Eithne spent all day in the treehouse, gorging themselves on cheeseballs and fighting over who had to grab the die when they rolled to the forest floor. It was...fun. More fun than she could ever remember having, actually, and she didn't want to go back to the cabin. Crowded, loud, and full of mischievous pranksters, that was where she felt the most alone. So Eithne kept asking Nico questions, and he kept babbling on until the two of them fell asleep, tucked away in their own little world.

The next morning, Eithne was a bottle of nerves as they ate breakfast at the Hermes table. Nico was fine. Perfectly fine. Sitting next to her and badgering all the other campers with his dorky questions like nothing happened.

Stupid. She was being stupid. Nothing did happen. They were asleep in the middle of the woods in a tree, and he must've been cold. He meant nothing at all by curling up on her chest, head laying in a puddle of drool on her neck.

God, just the thought made her skin flush.

Eithne grabbed her goblet, chugging orange juice to cool down. Its magic knew just what she wanted and changed into ice-cold water between gulps. Some of it missed her mouth and dribbled down her chin.

Across the table, Travis Stoll laughed to himself. Eithne was rough around the edges, but that made her all the more fun to screw with. He turned to Connor, ready for another hare-brained prank, but his brother was busy counting how many Pizza Rolls could fit in Chris Rodriguez's mouth. Oh, well. More fun for him.

"You know," Travis started, feeling a thrill when Eithne's harsh glare fixed on him. Oh, she'd be fun to break. "You're supposed to breathe through your nose when you swallow."

Eithne turned bright red, slamming her goblet on the table. "I-I'm not-"

His grin, that stupid Hermes grin, stretched ear to ear. "Swallowing? Water?"

That jerk! He knew exactly what she was thinking because it was what he wanted her to think on purpose! Yet here he was, making fun of her! Eithne wanted nothing more than to leap across the table and shake Travis until his head exploded from a brain aneurysm, but Nico would notice. The last thing she needed was his eyes on her when she was already so flustered.

"No," she snapped, though she knew she was wrong. Like Janie said: deny, deny, deny.

"Really? Then, what are you drinking? You seemed pretty eager..."

Eithne couldn't help it. She knew she shouldn't, knew that Travis would pick up on it like a hound on the hunt, but her body betrayed her. In the smallest, quickest gesture possible, her eyes darted to the boy next to her. She felt the heat crawling up her neck again and met Travis' eyes with an unblinking stare. It didn't work. Travis made a show of turning his full attention on Nico as he excitedly chatted with two other demigods about their battle scars. One took his shirt off to show the giant black and blue bruise on his ribs, and Nico poked at it with the biggest grin. Travis gave Eithne a wide-eyed look.

Aphrodite herself must've been embarrassed as fate blessed Eithne with a smooth interruption.

"Oh," a blonde shouted. Everyone at the Hermes table turned to her as she scrambled out of her seat. "Percy's class is about to start!"

Nico immediately perked up, tugging on Eithne's arm excitedly. "Class? Is it swordsmanship?!"

The kid practically exploded when the blonde nodded, and Eithne couldn't help but smile. She quickly looked away when she realized it, accidentally locking eyes with Travis again. The smile on his face doubled in size, and she immediately glared daggers. More amused than afraid, he winked exaggerated as he stood from the dining table.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "Don't want to be late."

Eithne shoved the last bacon strip in her mouth and held Nico's hand as they followed everyone towards the arena. This class would probably suck like the others, but she had to admit she was pretty curious about the guy Nico couldn't shut up about. The wanted runaway from the news and the dashing hero from Nico's memory sounded like completely different people, and she wondered which, if either, he actually was.