Work Text:
Nico's POV
I was eating dinner with the Apollo cabin, when Percy walked up to me, and said, "Hey Nico, can we talk?"
I looked up and studied Percy. He didn't usually talk to me alone. In fact he hardly ever talked to me at all. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, and he looked super pale, which was unusual. He was normally tan.
"Yeah, sure," I said, standing up nervously. I looked down at Will. "See you later Will."
Will kissed me on the cheek. "Bye, Neeks." I blushed at the nickname, still not completely used to it. Will looked at Percy worriedly. "Gods, you look terrible Percy. Are you alright?" He looked over Percy, as if searching for injuries. Kayla, Will's sister looked over, interested.
"I'm fine," Percy replied absentmindedly, as if he had been saying the same thing all day. Will raised an eyebrow sceptically, but he didn't press Percy any farther.
Percy sighed tiredly. "Let's go," he said to me, and started walking away. I followed him, wondering what he could want to talk about, with me of all people.
Was he going to ask me out? I highly doubted that, because, first of all, he had Annabeth, second of all, I had Will, and third of all, Percy was completely straight. At least I think he is.
Percy jerked me out of my thoughts by saying, "Can we talk about this in the Hades cabin? I don't really want anyone overhearing."
This made me even more nervous, but I just replied, "Sure, but Hazel might be in there too." I secretly hoped she was.
He shrugged. "Hazel's probably the only other person I don't mind hearing about this, besides you, so that's alright."
At least now I knew he wasn't going to murder me, if he didn't mind if Hazel was around, I thought sarcastically. Not that I would mind much if he killed me. Not that much would change.
We walked up to the Hades cabin, and I opened the door to let him in. We walked in and he sat down on one of the unused beds across from him, and I went to sit on mine. No one else was in the cabin with us.
Now that we were alone, and I wasn't completely distracted, I took the chance to study him more closely. His eyes were red, and slightly puffy, as if he had been crying a while ago. There were dark bruises under his eyes as well. I could tell he hadn't been sleeping well. His hair was super messy, though I suppose that was normal, and his hands were fidgeting together nervously. I couldn't tell if it was from his ADHD, or something else.
He shifted uncomfortable under my gaze. "What?"
I just raised an eyebrow, and said, "Will was completely right, you know. You look terrible."
"Gee, thanks so much," he replied sarcastically. I smirked slightly at the sassy reply. At least that part was normal.
"So, what did you need to talk to me for, Water Boy?"
He frowned. "Ok, first of all, don't call me that. And I wanted to talk about..." He hesitated for a second then continued. "...Tartarus."
I froze, paling, and said with a slightly shaking voice, "Why don't you just talk about it with Annabeth? She went through the same stuff you did. She would be better to talk to than me."
He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair distractedly. "Except that's not all I want to talk about. I want to talk about..." Again he paused, as if having second thoughts, then continued. "...our powers."
I almost stopped breathing for a second. Why did he want to talk about that with me? Did he know about... No that was impossible. Reyna and Coach Hedge had promised to keep it a secret. I didn't think they would tell anyone. But then why would he want to talk to me? Unless... maybe his powers had gotten stronger too?
I decided to speak. "Did..." I paused and licked my lips. "Did your powers get a lot stronger too?"
He exhaled. "Yeah, they did. I can literally-" His voice cracked, and he stopped talking, looking down at his lap.
"You can do what?" I asked, curious.
He looked up, his eyes haunted, and said with his voice full of despair, "I can control people's blood and their tears, Nico! I nearly killed a primordial because of my powers." His voice wavered, and I could almost feel the self-hatred radiating off him.
Instead of feeling disgusted, as I was pretty sure he thought I would be, I was completely shocked at what he told me. He could control blood?! And when did he see another primordial besides Gaia? I shook my head and got up to walk over to Percy.
I sat down next to him on the bed and hugged him. (It’s just a platonic hug, people! Don’t get any ideas!)
He was shaking slightly and he stiffened for a second when I touched him, then relaxed. I spoke in his ear, in a soothing tone, and said, “It’s alright Percy. My powers got a lot stronger too, when I went through Tartarus, you’re not alone.”
He looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Your powers got stronger too? I mean.. I assumed, but I wasn’t sure.”
I smiled sadly. “Yeah, they got a lot stronger. I literally ghostified a creep that was hunting Reyna, Hedge and I.”
His eyes widened even more, and a slight smile made its way onto his face. “You ghostified someone? Dude, that’s so cool!”
I snorted bitterly. “You wouldn’t think that if you were the one that did it.”
He quieted for a second, then said softly, “Yeah, I would probably hate it if I did that.”
We were both silent for a moment, before Percy spoke again. “Who was it that you ghostified?”
I hesitated, then said, “It was Bryce Lawrence. He was a legionnaire at Camp Jupiter before he killed his centurion and was banished. Octavian brought him back when he took over, then sent him to hunt us.”
Percy’s face twisted in disgust. “Dam, I hate Octavian.”
I smirked. “Same.” I paused, thinking over what I was about to say, then decided to just ask. “What did you mean, you almost killed a primordial with your powers? What primordial did you meet?”
He sighed, running his hand through his hair nervously again. “Well, actually I met three different primordials. But the one I almost killed was Akhlys.” I gasped at that part. I had met her too. “She was trying to kill Annabeth and I with poison, and she had directed the poison at me, a-and I just forced it towards her, and-” His voice faltered, and he swallowed, took a deep breath and continued. “And tears started coming out of her eyes, and I m-made her choke on it, and I would have killed her if Annabeth hadn’t stopped me. Akhlys ran away, and Annabeth just looked s-so scared of me.”
I clenched my fists throughout his story, my fingernails biting into my palms. I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and asked, “What other primordials did you meet?”
He paled a bit, but answered, “Tartarus, and Nyx.”
“You met Tartarus and Nyx?! How the hell did you survive that?” My voice was incredulous.
Percy just grinned at me, but it was a little strained. “What do you think? Dumb luck, and survival instincts. Just like everything else.”
We both laughed at that, before we grew serious again. “Percy…” I began. “You don’t need to be scared of your powers. They are a part of you, and you can’t just live in fear of yourself, for the rest of your life. Just use them when you absolutely need them, and it’s not bad. We were given these powers for a reason.”
Percy looked at me, then shook his head. “When did you get so wise?”
I stared at him, and said, “When I became a demigod. Sadly you never got as wise as me though, or you would have learned this stuff a long time ago.”
He huffed indignantly, then said, “Tell me more about your powers. I wanna learn how to ghostify the crap out of people.”
I rolled my eyes. “Percy, I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to ghostify people, since you're not a son of Hades.”
He pouted. “It would still be cool to learn though.” I rolled my eyes again, but obliged.