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Percy slung his bag off of his shoulder as he shut the door to cabin three, the salty air swirling around him. It may be the middle of the night, and maybe nobody knew he was back, but boy, was he glad to be home.
Percy squinted in the darkness, reaching into his bag for a light. There was a full moon out tonight, and it normally wasn’t ever this dark in his cabin because of all the windows, so his senses all went into overdrive as he slowly pulled out the flashlight and debated turning it on. He wasn’t very smart, but he didn’t have to be a child of Athena to know that if a demi-god turned on a flashlight in a very dark place, there was a very high chance of him seeing something he didn’t want to.
After probing the darkness with his heightened senses, he decided to risk turning on the light. There didn’t seem to be any malicious beings hiding in the dark. And, he thought, the borders of the Camp were supposed to keep out intruders. Though, stranger things had happened to him than a monster getting through a defense line.
He shook his head and flicked the light on, it sputtered and went out, then came back on after a whack from Percy. He stooped a little low and kept his other hand above his pocket with Riptide, inspecting the cabin with the bright beam. Nothing—wait! He shined the beam over a nook in the wall, where a large black pile of cloth seemed to be congregated. Percy raised an eyebrow and inched forward, contemplating what it was. The black was in stark contrast with the light blue, green, and white colors around it.
As Percy neared the pile, the darkness got thicker. Almost like… well, as far as Percy could tell, like it was emanating from the pile or protecting it from something. He got close enough to the fabric that he could touch it. He leaned over and reached out, just about to yank at the cloth, when it stirred.
It moved just a little, but it grumbled, and Percy’s hand shot back so fast he didn’t even know if it was instinct or just fear. He just barely managed to suppress his surprised squeal. A very handsome, masculine, manly squeal, of course.
Now agitated at the pile of… whatever it was, he very quickly grabbed a handful of the material and jerked it back as hard as he could, unraveling a rather disheveled young man and dumping him onto the floor.
The young man’s long, floppy hair was as dark as the midnight sky with no stars, and his skin was an almost sickly white-green pallor, stretched thin over his features: gaunt cheekbones, sunken in eyes with heavy bags underneath, and thin lips, pressed together in confusion.
“What in the Hades?” The boy wondered aloud, rubbing his ribcage through his black-with-white-skulls-design t-shirt. “Gods, I wouldn’t have tried to sleep if I knew that was going to be my wake-up call!” He muttered, still dazed.
He looked up at the boy standing above him, raising an eyebrow and trying to pick who it was.
“You know, you could either tell me who you are, or you can stop shining that cursed light in my eyes.” He said dryly. Percy blinked and stuttered.
“O-oh yeah!” He said, flipping the light off and waving at the boy on the floor. “Hey Nico. Can you see me yet? It’s Percy.”
Percy couldn’t see much in the dark, but Nico seemed to be in control of his shadows when he was awake, so it was a lot brighter. Bright enough to see the flicker of… Emotion? Recognition? Pass through Nico’s eyes when he heard Percy’s name, right before they were sealed back into their stone-cold gaze. Percy didn’t miss the slight flush of his pale skin, either.
Nico and Percy stood there for a couple minutes, each waiting for the other to make a move. Surprisingly, Nico went first, gathering his black blanket that Percy had flipped him out of and his scabbard and sword.
“Well, um, sorry to have troubled you. I’ll be, uh, out of your way now.” He fumbled with his blankets and dropped half of them.
“Let me help you.” Percy strode over to him and helped pick up the blankets, aware that the smaller boy was trying his absolute hardest to look everywhere except his face.
“Hey, Nico,” Percy asked slowly, unsure what would set him off. If there’s anything he’d learned about Nico, it was that he hated Percy’s guts and was extremely easy to anger. Honestly that combination was more common in people Percy knew than not, and that kind of bummed him out.
Nico muttered something like “Mm-hm,” and avoided Percy’s gaze, gathering up his covers slowly, like he lost something in the folds and wanted to find it.
Percy collected the rest of the cloth and placed it in Nico’s arms. “How come you’re in my cabin? Did the Hades Cabin finally spook you?” Percy chuckled, knowing that Nico didn’t mind his father’s extremely weird taste in interior design. He did live in the Palace of Hades, after all. He guessed that after a while down there skeletons and ghosts and zombies don’t really seem that bad.
“Oh, well, you know, just… uhm,” Nico flushed some more and shook his head, eyes darting everywhere.
Nico grumbled some thanks and looked Percy in the eyes for half a second. The older boy’s brow furrowed. Nico turned towards the door and took a small step forward, like it hurt him.
“Hey, Nico, before you go,” Percy started, grabbing his arm. Nico jerked violently out of his grip, pivoting around. His eyes squeezed shut as he realized he was off balanced, and he managed to utter one whoops before his feet came out from under him and he fell backwards, slamming his head onto the floor of the cabin. Percy winced at the loud CRACK! he heard and immediately rushed to the fallen boy’s side. “Nico!”
Amidst some random incoherent mumbling Percy picked out: “Percy Ja-ackson!” and “Oh… oh Hades, I can’t see."
Percy fought down the roll of panic inside of him. He’d dealt with injuries before, and Nico had only hit his head. Besides, he didn’t have to rush, because it’s not like they were on some battlefield with a hundred demi-gods next to him screaming and fending off attackers. He’d been there before, trust him, no fun.
He propped Nico up against the wall and got out his flashlight. Well, his pupils were dilating. Is that what you’re supposed to check for with concussions? He ran back to the door of the cabin and retrieved his pack, rooting through it for something that would help. By the time he returned, Nico was sitting up and holding the back of his head, probing for bruises and muttering ‘ow’.
“Hades, di Angelo! You’re trying to give me a heart attack, aren’t you?” Nico flinched at Percy’s attitude and the older boy toned it down a bit. He sat in front of the injured male, reaching slowly towards his head so he wouldn’t, like, ram his head back into the wall or something because Percy tried to touch him. The closer Percy’s hands got, the more nauseous Nico looked.
“You okay?” Percy muttered, his hands landing on top of Nico’s thick black hair. He weaved his hands along his scalp, feeling for bumps and watching Nico to see where the bruises were.
He pressed down on a particular spot on the back of Nico’s head that made him gasp and hiss in pain. Percy could tell the bruise was bad, but it felt like a bruise, not a crack in his skull or something. Percy sighed in relief and untangled his hands from Nico’s hair. “It’s just a bruise,” He smiled.
Nico looked at Percy’s hands when he took them out of his hair, almost like he wished they were still there. Percy waved the thought out of his head. Black hair swayed dangerously as Nico stood, about to trudge over to his blanket.
“Thank you Percy. Now I really must be-“ Percy made a split-second decision and yanked Nico down by the hand, leading him to plop down into his lap. He immediately got a stare that could raise the dead. Literally. His heart thumped in his chest as he blinked and grinned cheekily at Nico.
“You are in no state to be leaving, Mr. di Angelo,” Percy said with mock professionalism. “If I recall, you just had a nasty bump on your head. Oh, and also, a certain son of Poseidon would like to know why you were sleeping in his cabin while he was gone. With his shirt, nonetheless!” Percy grinned again as Nico’s face went slack with horror.
“Y-you… How’d you-“ Nico was cut off from his stuttering by Percy laughing. “You fucking douchebag!” Nico fumed. His pale face became red, and Percy could swear the tips of his ears were smoldering. “Gods, I never should have come into this cabin!” He choked out, trying to get out of Percy’s iron grip. “I should have just spent the rest of Spring Break in Hades!”
Percy pretend pouted. “You’d rather spend time in Hell than with me?” Nico went even redder, if that was possible, and couldn’t even form coherent words. Percy kept on teasing him, ignoring his protests to be let go. Eventually Nico’s struggles weakened. Percy figured it was lack of sleep, and therefore energy. Nico hardly ever slept, and Percy couldn’t recall the last time he had known him to do so. Then he realized that he woke the kid up, in a not-very-nice kind of way, and felt guilty. He was about to let him go when he realized that Nico had stopped struggling and was now just trying to hide his face and curl into the smallest ball he could.
“Nico?” He ventured, attempting to pry his hands off his face and get the boy to look at him. “Nico, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have teased you. Hey, Nico, look at me.” Nico shook his head furiously and remained in Percy’s lap, facing away from him with his hands on his face and his knees up to his chest. Percy sighed and frowned. He knew Nico was still a little childish even though he didn’t look like one anymore, with that long, lean frame and those muscles that you didn’t expect to be lurking underneath his pasty skin, seeing how small and lithe he was—off topic. What was he saying? Oh, yeah, he was still childish, but Percy didn’t expect him to get this upset because he was teasing him. There was most definitely something else on his mind.
Percy stood up and walked around the other side of Nico, noting the boy was wracking with silent sobs. Gods, was he—Nico di Angelo, of all people, was crying? Percy flopped down right in front of Nico and pulled him into a hug, which was hard because he was all balled up and Percy was trying to hug him while Nico was in-between his legs. Nico sniffled and slowly, ever so slowly, moved his hand to grasp the chest of Percy’s orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. Percy smiled and smoothed down Nico’s hair. They’d really never been close, in fact he’d been all but one-hundred percent positive that Nico hated him, but this wasn’t really awkward, or strange, and it seemed to be calming him down.
Percy was still stroking Nico’s hair when he realized the boy wasn’t crying anymore and had partially come out of his ball. His red-rimmed eyes and red-tipped nose were poking out over his black skinny jeans, studying the fabric. His breathing was back to normal and he seemed almost relaxed.
“I really, really, really hate you.” He finally said, eyes never leaving his knees.
Percy wrapped a piece of Nico’s long, beautiful black hair around his finger and nodded. “That’s okay. I don’t mean to rush or anything, but can you please tell me why you’re here? And if you could explain the whole sleeping with my shirt thing, too, that’d be cool.”
Nico sighed and leaned into Percy, surprising him. Percy had been expecting some kind of rude remark, or maybe even a slap, or most likely Nico leaving, but instead here was this tired teenager, leaning into the first hero he’d had besides his sister, who he’d hated, betrayed, won the trust of, and helped win a war. Just a tired teenager, that was all.
Nico scoffed. “Where to start. Well for one, you weren’t supposed to be coming to Camp this break. No doubt you wanted to surprise Annabeth, or something stupid like that.” He snorted and Percy vaguely remembered the other campers telling him something about Nico having a crush on Annabeth. He frowned and also remembered how when he brought it up to her she had waved him off, saying ‘No, it’s not me. I know for sure.’ He decided he’d tell Nico what was on his mind after he finished, or Percy might never get him talking again. “As for the whole in your cabin thing,” Nico said, waving his hands around them to signal this place, “I guess you were right. My Cabin is really gloomy, but yours is so full of life and sea and… it smells a lot better.” Percy chuckled and motioned for him to go on.
“Don’t worry; nobody knows I’ve been staying here. And as for the whole…” He grimaced. “…sleeping with your shirt thing…” He sighed and winced. “I’m not creepy or anything,” he paused, as if to consider the whole ‘Son of Hades’ thing being creepy, “but it was really the only thing in here that reminded me of life… of-of you.” He tucked his head a little father down and mumbled, “I kinda missed you, you jackwagon.”
Percy blinked. “I missed you a lot, Nico.” Nico raised an eyebrow quizzically, as if to ask him ‘are you shitting me right now or are you serious?’ Percy tilted his head as he realized that it was true, even though he didn’t realize it sooner.
Nico let go of Percy’s shirt, intent on backing away, but Percy grabbed his wrist and pulled Nico towards him, until they toppled over with the small frame of Nico lying on Percy. Nico’s face started to redden and he mumbled, “No, no, it’s not what you want Percy, let go…” Percy pulled the hand he had captured until it was over his heart. Percy was positive that Nico could feel it beating, because his breaths came short and matched the pace perfectly.
Nico put his free hand on the other side of Percy and tried to haul himself up, but Percy had draped one arm over his lower back, almost at his hips, and was pushing down to keep Nico from running. “Perseus Jackson!” Nico said through clenched teeth. “If you do not let me up right this instant I swear by the Gods I’ll-”
Percy had tangled his hand in the back of Nico’s soft hair and had brought his face down until their lips were barely a hair’s width apart, his green eyes sparkling like water on a sunny day and his lips curved into the most delicious smile Nico had ever seen. “You’ll what?” He whispered, his breath tickling Nico’s lips.
Nico reminded himself to breathe. But looking down at Percy’s lips, all he’d wanted for years—a kiss, a touch—and now he had both, and he was going to be a whiny bitch and decline? Percy licked his lips, still waiting for Nico to give the A-Okay. His tongue grazed Nico’s top lip, making the boy shudder. He felt light headed. He could have it, have Percy, and this time Annabeth- “Annabeth!” Nico breathed while looking at Percy’s lips, still so inviting.
Percy laughed. It was a sad kind of laugh, the kind that you know meant that something bad had happened but even though the person laughing knew it would be better off that way in the long run, they still wished they could’ve held onto that happiness more firmly.
“I broke up with her. I love her; I love her so much, but not in the way that a boyfriend should love a girlfriend, more like a sibling should love a sibling. And I knew she felt the same way.” He laughed, recalling what she’d said when he broke it off. She’d laughed and they’d hugged it off, knowing it was better. “She said, ‘You know, I’m glad you did. Not because I don’t love you, but because I don’t think the hero should get the girl this time. I think the hero and the girl should choose what they want in the long run, to keep until the end’.”
Nico tried to focus on his words, but it was really hard when Percy was breathing his breath that smelled like salt water all over Nico’s lips, making his mouth hunger for more. But when the brunt of what Percy said got to him, he almost choked. “Y-you and Annabeth? B-but everyone thought—everyone said that—” Nico’s eyes lit up.
“S-so that means you’re not dating anymore, right, like, both of you are completely free?” Percy sighed and let go of Nico, to the latter’s surprise.
“Yeah. There’s a really nice flower shop down in the city, if you wanted to try and get her some. She really likes the bright colored ones, like the white roses, for some reason. She’d have no reason to say no—” Percy stopped when he saw Nico’s agonized face. “W-what happened? Do you not like roses? Gods, Nico, if flowers make you that upset—” He stopped when Nico slapped him across the face. Hard.
“Don’t fuck with me!” Nico’s voice rang out, cracking on the last syllable. Percy stared in astonishment as Nico stumbled off him, gathering his things. “Gods, Percy, do you really not know? Everyone at camp knows by now, honestly! Annabeth never told you?!”
“Told me what?” Percy stood and trailed after Nico, pinning him against the wall. He thrashed and beat against Percy’s chest with one hand, the other holding his blanket and sword. “Told. Me. What?” Percy growled, holding Nico to the wall with his hips and pressing Nico’s wrist to the wall so he couldn’t hit anymore. Hazel eyes stared into sea-green ones, both sets flaming.
“You heard I had a crush on Annabeth, right? I mean, that’s what was circulating, so I can assume I’m right?” Percy nodded and Nico took a deep breath, to calm himself. Gods forbid he become so agitated he raise the dead. “Well I don’t. You want to know why?” Tears formed in his eyes as he spat at the taller male. “I’m gay, Percy. I’m gay. And do you know who I like? Hm? Because I think you do, you asshole, playing with my emotions like that.” Percy’s grip on Nico loosened as Nico’s first tear fell, and continued to loosen with each tear until he was standing directly in front of the distraught teen that was trying not to make a fool of himself.
“Me.” Nico nodded.
“You.” All of a sudden, cruel laughter, like stones clinking against stones, erupted from him.
“You. You! It was always—just—you. Guess what, Percy? I could have had anyone but you, if I had so wished. Jason, Leo. They offered. They offered their friendship, and eventually their love. Do you know why I turned them down? Because,” He began sputtering, trying to make intelligible sounds above the racking sobs. “B-because, Percy, I lo-loved you!” He cursed in Ancient Greek and sobbed some more, sinking to the floor. “Gods know why, but I still. Do. I love you Percy Jackson!”
It was times like these that Percy was thankful for soundproof walls in the cabins. If they didn’t have them, Gods know the Hephaestus kids would keep everyone up all night. Of course, they couldn’t just put them in the Hephaestus cabin, so everyone got them.
Percy shifted from foot to foot, not sure what to make of the boy crying at his feet, crying out his love, his hatred, his everything for him. And he had been carrying it all alone, maybe with some help from Jason and Leo, but he shouldered the brunt. And now, here he was, in front of the person he most wanted, who was so oblivious to the world that he couldn’t even figure out it was him. He caused all this pain. When he realized that, Percy sank to the ground and wrapped Nico in his arms for the second time in maybe a little over an hour, pressing butterfly kisses to his forehead, nose, cheeks, and ears.
“Gods, Nico. I am the most clueless, heartless bastard.” He whispered. “I am so, so sorry. I really wish somebody would’ve told me. I’m brain-dead, don’t you know? Got a bunch of kelp up there.” Nico snorted and wrapped his arms around Percy.
After they had calmed down a bit, Nico had pulled his blanket over both of their shoulders. He didn’t seem so angry anymore, like the angry energy just kind of… Flowed out of him after he told Percy he loved him.
“How long?” Percy asked absently.
Nico seemed to mull it over in his head. “Since I was ten. Since you—” he hesitated. “Since you became my hero.”
Percy glanced at Nico, eyes grazing over how much he’d changed. Back then, way back then, before the Titans and the rise of Gaea, it seemed so long ago. Nico had been a little ten year old, always playing a card game called Mythomagic and bouncing with excitement when they ran into one of the monsters on his cards. His olive toned skin and hair had changed, his hair had become darker, his skin lighter. He was taller and leaner now, his fingers longer and his body more graceful. He had a powerful aura now; it probably came with the perks of being the Ghost King and Ambassador of Pluto and all that. His face had sunken in a tad, lack of sleep and light, and maybe even food.
Percy scooted in close to Nico, taking one of his hands and bringing it up to his lips, kissing the knuckles gently. Nico guided his hand and face up to his lips, where Percy cupped his cheek and kissed him softly. Nico smiled into Percy’s lips, a nice smile, not cruel or sarcastic or even forced. It was natural. It was nice.
He was perfect, Percy realized. Not like a cute little boy anymore, or a handsome rugged prince. He was Nico. And Nico was perfect. He wouldn’t tell someone it was love at first sight. Because it wasn’t, and that would be a lie. But even if it took him years, he realized it. This boy, who betrayed him and then regained his trust. This boy, who was so innocent and then so broken. This boy, who was Nico di Angelo, Son of Hades, Ghost King, Ambassador of Pluto, and maybe even Boyfriend of Percy Jackson, was the choice that the hero made, the choice that he kept in the long run. That’s what Annabeth had been talking about. And he’ll be damned if he’s letting anyone take that away from him.