Ah yes, the walk of shame. Will hasn't done the walk of shame in quite some time. He can't wait to get back to his and Annabeth's room, accidentally-on-purpose wake her up, and then pretend like he isn't about to share everything that happened the night before. Who's the friend not getting any action now, Annabeth? How the tables have turned.

Will shuts the door to Nico's room, careful not to wake him up. He tucks his shirt back in, rubs the sleep from his eyes, and then he sees Annabeth, not looking much better than him.

They give each other the one over. Messy hair, smeared makeup, bare feet...

"Well," says Will. "Looks like I'm not the only one who got some last night."

Annabeth frowns from across the hall. She's carrying her dress and Will's boots and wearing a blue and white tye-dye t-shirt. It's more like a smock on her. It's a good look for her. Then again, she could look hot in a Hefty trash bag if she wanted to.

They walk down the hallway to their room in silence. Once inside, they sit down on the still perfectly made bed.

"I didn't sleep with him," Annabeth says at last. "I just got blackout drunk last night at the club and he took me back- remind me to murder Reyna by the way- and I don't know, I guess I came on to him, and there was a truck at some point, it's a bit of a blur." She examines a small cut on her palm.

"Who took you back?" Will asks.

Annabeth covers her eyes with her hand, rubbing her temples. "Percy."

Will winces. "Yikes."

"What was it you wanted to tell me?" Annabeth asks.

She's going to have to try harder than that. "I'm not telling you anything," he says, folding his arms over his chest.

"Fine by me, I guess," she says, tugging off Percy's t-shirt and tossing it into the bathroom. Out of sight, out of mind.

"Annabeth! C'mon! I just did the walk of shame! It's my time to shine!"

She sticks her hands on her hips. Her confidence is daunting. "Go ahead. Why were you doing the walk of shame?"

"Ugh! Be better than that! Give me some attention!" Will complains.

"Fine." Annabeth begins to brush her hair, still in her underwear. She has a funny way of doing things. "Please, oh please tell me who you slept with last night, and by golly, was his penis big?"

Will throws a pillow at her. "There you go!" He begins his story by telling her about how he went to McDonald's with Nico, and about how they're both Swifties now, and about how they tried to watch television together, but they turned it off after seeing an Amphisbaena in a dumpster-

"Shit! I forgot to go back for the body with Reyna!" Annabeth shouts. "And if you saw it on the news, that means it's definitely gone by now, shit!"

"Excuse me? This is my storytime! Let me finish and then you can tell me about the monster corpse," Will says. He clears his throat dramatically, and starts again: "Anyway, Nico turned the television off- or was it me?- but yeah, we turned it off and then we were quiet for a bit, and he seemed sad when I got up to throw my trash away, which was adorable, and then-"

"You know," Annabeth interrupts. "When the roles are reversed, I usually just tell you what positions we were in and if the person's body was good and you and I call it a day."

Will groans and slumps back against the pillows. "Fine. I topped him and he's probably hotter now than he was when we were dating. Is that all you wanted to know?"

Annabeth downs some Advil. She belches. Gross. "One more question: what about Bill?"

Oh no. Bill. Will totally forgot about his new fake boyfriend last night. Nico knows about Bill for sure. What to do, what to do? He can't fess up. Then everyone will think he's insecure.

He rolls over and buries his face into the pillow. He can't believe he just cheated on his fake boyfriend with his ex-boyfriend.

"That's what I thought," Annabeth says. Will hates having a genius for a best friend. "And I mean, it's not like you actually want to get back together with him or anything."

Will fists the pillow and groans.

"Or... do you?" Annabeth asks.

"What do I say?" Will asks, voice muffled by the pillows. Any chance he has of becoming a stepdad to those adorable puppies is ruined.

He can hear Annabeth shuffling behind him, hopefully putting some clothes on. "I don't know, but we better come up with something soon 'cause I'm pretty sure we have this brunch to go to at some point today."

Oh gods, brunch.

"What time is it now?" Will asks.

"Nine forty-five... ish."

Will jolts out of bed. "Annabeth! The brunch is at ten!"

"Well fuck me in the ass," she deadpans.

Will frantically scrambles through the drawers. Somehow his and Annabeth's clothes are mixed up already. He tosses a sweater and some tights and a skirt her way.

"As hot as you look right now, I sincerely doubt it's the look that we're going for today," Will says. He finds a red turtleneck and a grey cardigan for himself. He can just reuse his jeans from yesterday. Somehow, he managed not to spill any beer on them.

"Christ, Will, for real?"

Will snaps his head in Annabeth's direction.

She raises an eyebrow. "Pentagram tights at Jason's memorial brunch? I sincerely doubt that's the look we're going for today," she mocks.

"You mean this is a memorial?"

Annabeth bunches the tights up at the feet and tugs them on. "Yeah, but no time to consider that now, I guess."

Once dressed, the two look each other over because what else are friends for?

"You look really cute," Will notes.

Annabeth raises an eyebrow. "You still have post-sex hair."

Will pats his hair down as best as he can, but no dice. He weighs his options: be fashionably late for a memorial brunch, or go to said memorial brunch with hair that screams 'I just had sex'?

Neither would have a good outcome, but at least the latter won't affect Annabeth, so Will grabs the hotel key, and the two basket cases venture out into the hall.

"Oh, uh, good morning," Nico di Angelo says from down the hall. He wears a perfectly ironed black collared shirt and a jean jacket. His hair is pulled into a half-bun. Nobody would guess that he had sex last night.

Will folds his cardigan over his stomach, feeling a tiny bit underdressed. Maybe he should have worn khakis, or at least a darker pair of jeans.

They exchange a look. Nico's Adam's apple bobs slightly.

"Well," Annabeth says breaking the silence. "Good morning, Nico. Care to walk to brunch with us?"

"Sure." Nico falls into step.

To say they're an odd group is an understatement, what with Will in the middle dressed perhaps a little too much like Taylor Swift given the circumstances, Annabeth on his left, with her pentagram tights and her chopstick space buns that scarcely reach Will's chin, and Nico practically dressed to the nines. It's actually kind of funny, seeing Nico so responsibly presented and Annabeth, well, wearing pentagrams.

How very Nico of Annabeth, and how very Annabeth of Nico, although Will supposes they aren't the people they used to be.

"I was going to stop for some coffee before this, but I slept in late," Nico says. "Now I'm going to have to drink hotel coffee."

Annabeth cracks her knuckles against her jaw. "Fuck. I hate bad coffee."

The whole interaction is stiff. It feels forced like they're reading lines from a script. Will picks up the pace, hoping to put an end to his misery.

Nico stops in his tracks and grabs Will's arm. He squints. "Annabeth," he says. "Are you... alright?" It's the most natural-sounding thing he's said this morning.

Annabeth comes to a halt and cracks another knuckle.

Then Will notices it too. "Girl, your face... it's a little red... and kinda swollen."

"Shit." Annabeth reaches for her piercings. Will isn't sure how Nico noticed it; the swelling isn't very big.

"Don't touch it! You'll make it worse," Will says. "It's probably infected."

"I have some Benadryl in my suitcase if you want some," Nico offers. What a sweet guy.

"That's okay; I don't want to be tired and blasphemous for the memorial. We should probably get moving anyway," she says, pushing open the door to the stairwell. The sound of her descending combat boots bounces off the walls.

Nico arches an eyebrow.

"She doesn't do elevators," Will says.

"I take it there's a lot of things she 'doesn't do'." Nico gives air quotes.

Will shrugs. "That's Annabeth Chase for ya. C'mon, your sister won't be too happy if you're late."

Nico smiles weakly as if it's his lip that's swollen. "After you, Solace."

End of Part III