User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The House of Hades Official Discussion/@comment-3285234-20131009022939/@comment-3146930-20131009023318

I never thought he had a crush on Annabeth. That line in the MoA was pretty much out of nowhere and just kind of seemed like it was build up to this. But Nico has been shown to be embarrassed around girls, so maybe Percy is just Nico's guy-crush.