Chapter Text
Will was nursing his tail when he heard voices from over the dunes. He froze, then scrambled behind the rocks, cautiously peering over.
"Will? You named your dolphin Will?" He heard an unfamiliar voice say as two heads of black hair bobbed just beyond the horizon of dunes."Well..." He heard Nico's voice. Will could just make out the differences between his unruly black hair and the stranger's plainly-unkempt hair. They were walking over the rocks onto the cove, Nico following an even taller human, and Will could finally see the stranger's face. Tanned skin, green eyes, there was something familiar about him that Will couldn't put his finger on... There was a bag slung over his shoulder.
"Like, Free 'Will'y? Jeez, Nico, I knew you were a nerd, but really?"
"Oh shut up will you, Jackson? And I didn't name him." The shorter teen pouted as the crossed into the cove.
"Oh, was he tagged?"
"No, he told me his name."
"A dolphin. Told you his name?"
"Well...you see..." Nico wrung his hands. "He's not exactly a dolphin..."
The stranger paused in his walking. "Well then what is he? If he's a person, you shoulda called an actual doctor, not the kid of two marine biologists. Jeez, I don't know what I'm-"
"Just listen, Will you!?"
"Okay, okay!" The stranger threw his hands up in surrender. "I just don't know if I can help..."
"You will, trust me." Nico said and dragged the stranger by his wrist to the shore.
Will pulled himself farther behind his rock as the the two waded into the water. He felt upset, that Nico would bring this stranger, that Will didn't trust. He sunk into the shallow water until it was up to his nose and remained still.
"Will?" Nico called. The merman didn't move. "I brought someone to help you."
Will peeped out from his rock, ever so slightly.
"Come on, Will, you can trust him." Will poked his full head out from behind the rock and gave Nico a worried look, glancing at the stranger.
"Nico!!" The person exclaimed when he saw Will's face, "I said I can't help peopl-!"
Nico silenced him with a sharp jab to his gut.
"Come on, Will." Nico continued to coax. Will narrowed his eyes, this stranger didn't look very smart. He scowled, debating with himself. If the stranger was as dumb as he looked, he might not be of any help to Will, but he didn't have to worry about him trying to catch him or anything. He trusted Nico enough too.
Slowly, he inched away from the rock. The stranger's mouth dropped open and his eyes got really wide.
"Nico..." He murmured, "Where did you find him...?" The stranger took a step forward towards Will. Will froze.
"He washed up on shore tangled in a fishing net." Nico said, "I helped him out of it but he's hurt badly."
"That's amazing," the stranger said, but he was focusing on Will more than he was Nico. He held out his hand to the merman. Will leaned away and narrowed his eyes. "Hey, hey now, I'm not gonna hurt you, bro, I'm cool."
He spoke foreign language that Will did not understand.
Will drew his lips into a snarl. With a slightly-off motion he fled behind his rock again.
Nico sighed and clutched his head. "He's afraid of you, Perce." He groaned.
The one he called 'Perce' frowned, "Sorry Neeks, but it's not like I can- Oh! Wait a second!" He suddenly exclaimed and started to dig around in his bag.
"Percy, I don't think Will-"
"Shush! Peasant!" The Percy-human waved Nico away, then pulled out a weird object from his bag. It looked like two slightly flattened cakes on top of one another, a light tan color, and sponge-like. There was a weird substance between them.
"Oh no, Please don't poison him." Nico said, Will couldn't tell if that was sarcasm or legit fear in his voice.
"Pssh." Percy laughed, "Our dolphins back home love tuna!"
Tuna? Did he hear correctly? Forget dolphins. Will loved tuna!
Percy split the cake so that there was only one side with the tuna on it. He took a bite of the empty piece (much to Nico's disgust) before tossing it to the water and held out the other one for Will.
"C'mere, boy," he called gently and made a clicking noise with his tongue that, for some reason, got Will's attention.
"Percy, he's intelligent, he doesn't-"
"Shush! I know what I'm doing!"
A mouthwatering aroma hit Will's nose. It was pungent, and he supposed not very pleasing to humans as Nico had his nose covered, but he liked it.
He floated away from his rock, and slowly approached the tall stranger. Percy's expression grew delighted as Will came closer to him. He held out the tuna on the sponge-cake-things eagerly.
"Be careful." Nico said, no doubt remembering how Will had stolen his earlier meal. Will looked at him with his best 'just watch me piss you off' look, and calmly began to lick the tuna straight from Percy's hand.
It tasted good! Really good! Fake, like the kelp cakes back home, unlike other fish he'd tasted, with a spice that made it all better. It almost didn't taste like fish at all.
"What!?" Nico exclaimed.
"See!" Percy said, "He obviously likes me better, don't you, Will?" The merman didn't respond. He was just fine with ignoring the noisy humans. Besides, it wasn't really worth it at the moment.
He barely cared when Percy traded the tuna off to Nico and ventured behind him to his tail. He could hear the boy muttering things along the lines of 'scale color' and 'fin condition.' It wasn't anything he hadn't heard before.
"Poor thing," Percy said, "It doesn't look like it feels all that good..." Suddenly, Will felt a sharp sting on his tail as Percy laid a hand on it. He hissed and whipped around. While Nico had jumped out of his skin and fallen into the water, Percy just returned Will's glare with a smug look.
"You don't scare me, fish boy," Percy said. And while Will gaped indignantly at him, Percy, with a swift motion of his hand, jabbed something sharp into Will's side. He cried out, more out of surprise and humiliation than pain. Percy had the wits to at least jump out of the merman's grasp, for Will would have gutted him right then and there, except, now, he was beginning to feel a bit light headed. Scratch that. He was feeling really lightheaded. The colors of the sky, sea, and sand blended together in his vision. Will vaguely remembered being cradled (wait what.) by someone. He gave in to the dizzying feeling, falling asleep in a pair of gentle arms. He cursed out that Percy human in every curse he knew. At least, that's what he planned to do, after his nap.
.......
The sleeping mermaid in Nico's arms was a bit awkward, but it was too adorable for Nico to protest. Under Percy's instructions, he was to just gently support Will's body so that Percy could stitch up his tail without much of a problem. That put Nico in a terrible situation.
He couldn't deny it, the mermaid was cute. He wasn't sure if that was unnatural, but Will was pretty human, at least from the waist on up. He still couldn't get over how his skin and hair, different shades of sandy brown and gold, blended nearly perfectly with the sand, and his eyes, albeit closed, were stuck in Nico's head, how those blues reflected the blues in the waves like a mirror.
Maybe Nico had been out in the sun for too long.
Yeah. He concluded that he needed a bit of rest. Some proper food as well. The apple Percy had supplied him with earlier was not going to cut it. He could almost taste chicken McNuggets on his tongue...
"There," he heard Percy say and Nico looked up, "That should do it." Percy had finished stitching and was rubbing a medication onto Will's cut. The boy seemed to be extremely fascinated with the sea creature, as his eyes kept darting across the scales. "I still can't believe you found a mermaid. A mermaid, Nico, a real, live mermaid! How many people do you think have seen one of his kind, Nico?"
A sudden chill went down Nico's spine. "Um, Perce." he said with a warning tone.
"Yes?" the green-eyed boy looked at him, heeding Nico's tone of voice.
"You can't tell anyone." He sated simply. Percy nodded. "I'm serious."
"I know, Nico."
"No, I'm really fucking serious. You cannot tell a soul. I don't want to think about what would happen if...they found out about him." Nico realized his voice was shaking, and he had been pulling the sleeping sea-creature's body closer to himself.
Percy nodded once again, with a more vigorous movement, "I know, Nico. I don't want anyone to hurt him either. I've seen what they do to dolphins in the show business. They kidnap the babies, they beat them, hurt them, starve them, dress them up in the most humiliating things, make them jump through hoops of fire and barbed metal," a visible shudder passed through his body as he recounted, "It's awful. Your mermaid is too precious for that."
Nico huffed a laugh, "Thank you, Percy." he said, "I really appreciate it."
"You're welcome," the boy said, with a good-natured smile.
The afternoon passed in a comfortable silence for both of the boys. Since Will's sedatives had not worn off yet, the mermaid slept like a log on a rock while the two humans stayed beside him on that same rock. Nico decided he needed the rest. As for himself, he was getting quite sluggish in that later hour, but he was still awake. He was reduced to watching the sun paint the sky many kinds of reds, oranges, violets, and other colors as vivid as wild flowers. It was beautiful, however, Nico was thinking about something in particular that his mind kept straying to.
"How are things back home?" he said. His voice was so quiet, it barely disturbed the smooth silence on the sea shore.
Percy didn't look at him, rather the sunset on the sandy horizon. "Stupid." he stated. "Your 'parents' haven't even contacted the police."
Nico scowled. It wasn't like he had expected much else, still, it stung to know that information. "What about Hazel? Jason?" he changed the subject.
"They're good, worried their asses off, but they're doing okay."
Nico smiled, remembering his half-sister and the golden boy. "I bet." he said and leaned back onto the rock.
"Yeah." Percy nodded, "I mean, I guess it could get worse- HEY!!" He suddenly cried out and was almost startled into the sea, "What the hell are we waiting around for!? They all think you're dead!" he rounded on Nico.
"Now wait a secon-"
Percy mad a grab for Nico' hand, which he was denied. "Nico! You can't just-"
"I can do what I want to, Percy." Nico growled, suddenly on edge.
"Nico. They're killing themselves trying to find you."
"That's their problem."
Percy looked taken aback; he looked at Nico with furrowed eyebrows, "How can you say that, Nico? Are you ungrateful? I know your dad and your step-mom cause you shit, but you gotta act like the entire world's against you, that you don't have anyone to go to?"
Nico gritted his teeth and scowled, but his eyes refused to meet those of Percy's, "How dare you," he growled, "I'm not ungrateful. It's that nobody understands. Not since..."
"Understands what? What is there to understand?" Percy scoffed, unrelenting. Nico felt a cold weight in his stomach. Even though he'd only glimpsed the green depths briefly, it stung like fury.
He muttered something, something bitter, under his breath.
"What did you say?" Percy asked.
"I said, nobody can know!" He snapped, finally, but he instantly regretted it, especially when he saw the hurt look on Percy's face. The boy remained like stone though, and he stood up from the rock. Nico said nothing as Percy left, he didn't look back to see him disappear over the dunes.
He questioned why he was such a coward. Why couldn't he open up to anyone. He almost did it before, with Jason, and with Hazel, but to Percy...that was an unthinkable task. He thought he may have been over it, that the endless night that consumed his heart would finally break into day, and this painful infatuation would reduce, but how could there ever be a day if there is no sun, how could he stop loving if he had nothing else to mend that empty, broken part of his heart. Nico di Angelo, he cursed, you are a coward.
Still, a horrible thought repeatedly rebounded through his conscience; He still holds my heart in the palm of his hand, and I've chased him away.