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As traditions go, the New Year's Party at Camp Halfblood is probably one of Nico's favorites. Everyone comes back from whatever part of the world they've scattered too during the winter, and it's the only time all year when they can all be together.
Leo will bring some godawful thing he made in his own still and Hazel will make golden bubbles shimmer in the air, and Annabeth will help Leo wire up a giant clock that counts down until midnight.
The Christmas party is often widely attended, but it's for everyone. New Year's- it's just for them. The crew of the Argo. Some people come and go- the boy that Nico had, heart-stoppingly, brought with him last year. Calypso, who always came with Leo. The boy who Annabeth had brought from Rome with her this year.
Percy had rolled his eyes and made some sarcastic comment about her finding a boy on her trip abroad and how cliché that was, but he had been more ok with than Nico had expected.
Nico likes to spend the time catching up with Hazel. He drops by to see her as much as possible, but it never feels like enough time. She and Frank had both moved up to Canada last year, and Nico has been busy with his own college applications.
“Have you given any thought to my offer?” Percy asks, sliding up to Nico's side like he was never not there.
Nico looks at him sideways. “I thought sneaking up on people was my job.”
Percy shrugs. “I don't see why we can't both do it.”
Nico reaches out for a cup of cider and pours one for them both. “If you say so.” He hands his cup off to Percy, and then reaches for some of Leo's special brew.
“Ah-ah,” Percy says, taking the spiked cup from Nico. “You're underage.” He downs the mixture in one go and makes a face. “Smooth,” he coughs out, and Nico smiles.
“You know I've been drinking for years, right?”
Percy puts a hand over his heart, faking shock. “Scandal!”
“I will punch you,” Nico says, and adds a little sometime extra to his own cup as well.
“You won't.” Percy's voice is all calm certainty, and it makes Nico want to punch him, just because he can. He doesn't though. Instead, he adds another splash of moonshine to his cup and downs the entire thing.
He coughs as it burns it's way down his throat. “Gods, did he just throw his motor oil into a bottle?”
“I wouldn't put it past him,” Percy replies, and when he refills his cup, he doesn't touch the alcohol. “Careful, we don't want a repeat of last year.”
“If you think I won't hit a friend, you're wrong,” Nico warns. Last year, he'd been more than a little drunk at the end of the night. His friends had all been ok with the fact that Nico had brought a boy as his date, but Nico had needed a little help to get through it. He still couldn't remember most of the night, but he was pretty sure that he threw up on someone. He hadn't heard from his date again either.
“Oh, I never thought that,” Percy replies, smirking at him. “I saw you punch Jason in the stomach just last week.”
“Jason was asking for it.” Jason was an insufferable know-it-all who believed much too strongly in the concept of true love. He was the absolute worst best friend in the world, and he seemed to think that dating a daughter of Aphrodite made him some kind authority on romance. “He's lucky I like him so much, anyone else would have gotten my sword.”
Percy grins. “He's lucky, alright. He's almost done at the academy, isn't he?”
“Ask him yourself,” Nico replies, jerking his head to where Leo and Jason are talking on the other side of the room.
“I'd rather ask you. Did you decide on a school yet?”
“NYU or UCLA.”
“You got into both?”
Nico nods. He jumps a bit when Percy is suddenly directly in front of him.
“Nico, that's amazing!” Percy puts both his arms around Nico's waist and picks him off the ground in a hug. “Congratulations!”
“Put me down!” Nico yells, pushing at Percy's shoulders. He may as well push at a brick wall, for all the good it does him. He's only an inch and a half shorter than Percy now, but Percy is solid muscle to Nico's sinew. He pounds furiously at Percy's shoulders. “Put me down right now!”
Nico hates the way that Percy makes him feel. He hates that he's legally an adult now and Percy can still make him feel like he's ten and tiny. He hates how Percy touching him can still make his stomach jump more than any of the boyfriends he's had in the past two years.
Out of the corner of his eye, Nico sees Jason cutting across the dance floor, and he's wearing his over protective face. Then Percy is putting Nico back on his feet, laughing in that way that he has, white teeth flashing, head thrown back to expose the long line of his throat.
“You ok, Nico?” Jason asks, and Nico turns to glare at him.
“I'm fine,” he snaps.
“I just saw-” Jason cuts his eyes over to Percy, and Nico rolls his own eyes so hard he thinks he might sprain something.
“Seriously, Jason, I'm fine.”
“Yeah, Jason, he's fine,” Percy says, slinging an arm over Nico's shoulders. Without looking away from Jason, Nico picks up Percy's arm and moves it off of him.
“He doesn't like to be touched,” Jason says warningly.
Nico groans. “Jason, seriously, go away!”
“Can you punch him again?” Percy asks, but Nico can hear the smile in his voice.
“I'm seriously considering it,” Nico replies.
“Ok, I'm going,” Jason says, holding his hands up defensively and taking a step back. Nico fights the urge to put his head in his hands. Worst best friend ever. Jason gives Percy one more warning look before he heads over to where Piper is waiting, one hand cocked on her hip.
“I didn't know you came with a guard-dog,” Percy says, and his tone is only partly joking.
“Neither did I,” Nico groans. “He means well. He just-”
“Worries, yeah. I got that.”
“He's not usually that bad.”
Percy stares down into his cup of cider. “Maybe he thinks you need to be protected from me.”
Nico starts to laugh, but when Percy doesn't join in, it trials off awkwardly. Percy's face is set, and there's no joke on his face.
“Percy,” Nico starts, then stops when he realizes that he doesn't know what to say.
Percy looks up, and the look in his green eyes makes Nico freeze, heart racing. “Why does Jason think you need to be protected from me.”
“He doesn't,” Nico says, and it comes out weak even to his own ears.
Percy studies him, silent and intense. Nico has forgotten how Percy can be serious and still, how it feels to have Percy look at you like you're the only thing in the world. He'd forgotten how dizzying it was.
Percy glances to his left for a long moment, and Nico is grateful for the reprieve, but then Percy's gaze snaps back to him.
“Dance with me,” Percy says and Nico jerks hard enough that his cider splashes onto his wrist.
“What?”
Percy's stare breaks, his moment of calm with it. Suddenly, he's awkward, sarcastic, stupidly charming Percy again. He coughs. “Dance. With me.”
“Um.” Nico says, mind blanking for a stupid moment. He'd thought that he'd gotten past this year ago, that he'd long since lost his habit of tripping over his words around Percy.
Percy glances at Nico's face then quickly to the floor. Then, he takes one small sidestep away and Nico fumbles out “Yes.”
“Yeah?” Percy asks.
“Yeah,” Nico says, and he smiles. Percy smiles back, and Nico feels stupidly proud.
Percy heads out to the dance floor and Nico follows. Annabeth winks at him when he passes her, and he gives her a small but slightly confused smile.
“Hey,” Percy says, and Nico pulls his gaze back to him.
“Sorry,”
Percy smiles. “Don't be.”
There's a moment of confusion when they both try to put their hands on one another's waists, and then they both laugh.
“Maybe I should lead?” Percy suggests.
“What, because you're taller?” Nico asks.
“What, no. Because I know-”
“You better not be about to tell me that you know the dance better, because I'm not buying it, Jackson.”
Percy laughs, and it's low and intimate. It makes Nico shiver. Percy still has one hand on Nico's waist, and Nico just knows that Percy must have felt it.
“Alright then, master dancer, you lead,” Percy says, and when Nico doesn't do anything for one surprised moment, Percy puts Nico's hand on his waist, keeping hold of the other one.
Nico's hands clench in surprise, and he feels solid muscle under his palms. He jerks his eyes up to Percy's and Percy is grinning at him.
“Are you going to lead or not?” Percy asks, and he lifts his free hand rest on Nico's shoulder.
Nico has spent almost half his life by this point answering the challenges of Percy Jackson. He tilts his chin up defiantly and smiles. “You bet your ass I am.”
He waits a beat, for the moment to be right, and then he tightens his grip on Percy's waist and leads him into the moves of a dance.
They get about two steps in before Percy steps forward when he should step back and puts his foot down hard on top of Nico's.
“Sorry, sorry,” he says, but he's laughing. Nico laughs too, fully aware of how silly this must look. “Ok, I'm good, let's try again.”
They manage to get a full four steps before they trip over one another again, and this time they're both laughing too hard to make full steps.
“You're really awful at this,” Nico says through laughs, trying to lead Percy around again.
“I am a beautiful dancer,” Percy replies, and promptly steps on Nico's toes. Nico laughs, clutching at Percy's waist.
“You're the worst!” They've almost made a full circle of the room now, and then Percy spins them both around and Nico yelps.
“I'm supposed to be leading!” he says indignantly, trying to ignore the way his heart his flipping over. Percy just laughs.
“We can both lead!”
“That's not how this works!” Nico replies, and he tightens his grip on Percy's waist and tries to lead them back into the proper steps. When he risks a glance back up at Percy, the other man is still watching him, a small smile on his face.
“Come on, Nico. You know we don't work like other people.”
His voice is low and intimate, and Nico feels his stupid face flush, and he looks away.
Percy takes the moment to take back control, moving them further into the center of the dance floor. Then he has the nerve to dip Nico back like something out of the movies that Nico's mother used to watch.
“Have you thought about my offer?” Percy asks, holding Nico above the ground by sliding his hand around to just between Nico's shoulder blades
“Percy!” Nico cries, but he's laughing.
“Answer me,” Percy says, surprisingly serious.
“No, put me down!” Nico flails his arm, and Percy almost drops him. Percy makes a face and quickly pulls Nico back upright.
“Sorry.”
Nico lets go of Percy's waist to hit him jokingly. “Liar.”
Percy just smiles at him, unbearably fond, and when Nico takes the lead again, it's clear that Percy is letting him.
They make it all the way through the next song without stepping on one another.
“I used to dance with Bianca like this,” Nico says without thinking.
“Ouch!” Percy clutches his hand to his chest dramatically. It's the hand still holding Nico's, and for a moment, Nico can feel Percy's heartbeat against the back of his hand. “Are you saying that dancing with me is like dancing with your sister?”
“No, that's not-”
Percy cuts him off, “I know what you mean, Nico. I was just messing with you.”
Nico glances down, watching their feet. Percy steps perfectly in time with him, following Nico's lead perfectly.
“Hey, look at me.” Percy lifts his hand from Nico's shoulder and touches his face gently. “I like it when you talk about Bianca. I shouldn't have joked.”
“I think we're done,” Nico says. He feels choked and vulnerable and so stupid in love with this man that for a moment he actually hates him.
“Nico,” Percy reaches out and grabs for Nico's hand. He gets his wrist instead, and Nico tries to pull away again. “Nico, please.”
Nico starts to turn back, and then Hazel is right in front of him.
“Thirty more seconds!” she says, sticks a noise maker in his mouth, and runs off.
Nico, struck dumb for a moment, just stares after her.
“Yeah, Nico, thirty seconds,” Percy says, tugging Nico closer with the hand still on Nico's wrist.
Since Hazel had come by, Percy had gotten his own noise maker, the kind that unfurled when you blew on it.
“Are you ready for the New Year?” Percy asks, and before Nico can answer, he leans in close, puts the noise maker in his mouth and blows. The thing blows out and hits Nico in the face.
Nico brushes him away, smiling despite himself. “You're ridiculous.”
“You love it,” Percy says.
Nico flinches. “Percy, stop it.”
Behind him, Nico can hear everyone start to count down, ten, nine, eight.
“You're not listening to me, Nico,” Percy says, and his gentle tone is unlike him.
“Just leave me alone!” Nico shouts, ripping his arm out of Percy's grip at last.
Percy just steps in closer, and there's something about the look in his eyes, the way his body moves that makes it impossible for Nico to move away. Percy has always had this pull over him, and Nico is helpless to it.
Then Percy smiles, so warm and gentle and fond it makes Nico weak in the knees. Six, five, four.
“You know, they say you're supposed to kiss someone at midnight, and it means that you want to spend the next year with them.”
Nico can't breathe, can't look away. Three, two, one. Percy leans in, and Nico can only stand there frozen.
And then Percy is kissing him, gentle and sure. Nico can only stand there and let it wash over him, waves breaking on the shore. He sucks gently at Nico's lower lip, then pulls back just enough to kiss him sweetly, over and over.
“Come on, Nico. We both lead,” Percy whispers it against his lips, and Nico can barely hear it over everyone else cheering the New Year, noise makers and shouts and Percy's soft breaths all colliding in his ears.
Then Percy leans again and there's nothing gentle about this kiss. It's like a high storm, like how Percy had picked him up on the dance floor, sure that Nico would be able to keep up. Percy presses his lips to Nico's, licks at his mouth like it's all he ever wanted. It's dizzying and fantastic and not enough.
Nico is never going to back down, not from Percy, not from anyone. He puts his arms on Percy's waist, a mimicry of their dance, and leans in to return the kiss.
He can feel Percy grin against his lips and Nico growls under his breath. He'll give Percy something to grin about. He pushes forward, licking his way into Percy's mouth, biting at Percy's lips when Percy makes a startled noise.
Percy's arms go around his shoulders, one hand going to rest on Nico's neck, tugging him closer. Percy tilts Nico's head gently and the kiss gets impossibly deeper, until it feels like Nico will forget who he is, lost in Percy's kisses.
The thought makes Nico gasp, sending equal waves of heat and fear running through him. He pulls back, and Percy chases after him for a dazed moment. The way Percy's face is flushed, his lips swollen, his eyes half-lidded and glazed, it makes Nico want to kiss him again, to never stop kissing him.
Then Percy blinks, vision clearing. “Nico?” His voice is thick and a bit hoarse, and it makes Nico shiver against him, a full bodied thing that reverberated through them both.
“Percy, what the hell was that?”
Percy runs the hand on Nico's neck up through his hair, prickly points of contact that send shivers through him all over again. “I thought it was pretty obvious.”
“Percy,” Nico says reprovingly.
“Move in with me,” Percy says instead. “You've been considering it for months now. Say yes to NYU, and come live with me.”
Nico pulls out of Percy's grip and steps away, wrapping his own arms around himself in Percy's place.
“Don't you think that's a bit fast?”
Percy shakes his head, taking another step closer. “I have two bedrooms. I, ah,” he glances away, and then back. “I had hoped you would join me, when I got it. When you said you were thinking about NYU.” His lips quirk in a wry smile. “I didn't think you'd be so stubborn.”
Nico smiles, faint but real. “You should have known better.”
Percy laughs, and it makes his green eyes sparkle. It makes Nico forget why he's so afraid of this. “I really should have. You'll never be easy, Nico di Angelo.”
Nico takes another step back. “I'm sorry.”
Percy follows him, puts on hand under Nico's chin to tilt his head up. “Don't be. You're worth it, a hundred times worth it.” He kisses Nico again, back to gentle, and Nico melts into him. “Say yes,” Percy whispers, barely making room for his words.
Nico thinks about it, because he won't let this be another stupid thing he does for Percy and not himself. Then he smiles and kisses Percy, moving close enough that they're pressed together from knees to chest.
“Yes.”