Archive of Our Own ^beta

Jamie knew that Percy Jackson was extremely powerful. He’d fought beside the other half-blood in the war against Kronos and had seen him fight enough times before and after the war to know that he was powerful. Scarily so. Not that Percy scared him. Jamie was pretty sure it wasn’t possible to fear Percy when you lived beside him in Camp Half-Blood Hill.

Even though the guy had awesome reflexes in a fight, Jamie had seen him ran into a tree more times than he could count and at breakfast in the morning his bed head and sleepy eyes made him look adorable. Honestly it wasn't fair to be this hot and cute at the same time. It really was no wonder that more than just a few people tried to get it on with him since he broke up with Annabeth. Weren’t Jamie so terminally straight he’d’ve tried too.

Especially since he was also one of the nicest persons he’d ever met, like really, in Jamie’s eyes the guy was kind of perfect. After all it was to be expected of someone like Percy to be a little arrogant and self-centered, but nope.
Sure, he was cocky and sarcastic at times but never on someone else’s expense. No, he had time for every newcomer, gave sword fighting lessons with endless patience and performed water tricks for the younger kids.

If he hadn’t been so damn nice Jamie would’ve hated him for being this fucking perfect. He’d once had a conversation with his girlfriend about why Percy wasn’t at least a bit bigheaded and even seemed self-conscious from time to time.
She thought it must have something to do with his upbringing. Jamie wasn’t so sure about that; he’d heard Percy talk about his mother and her boyfriend and in his stories, it sounded as if he loved them a lot and they him. And really, he just didn’t want there to be even a grain of truth in his girlfriend’s word, because if someone deserved a nice childhood, it was Percy. Or at least as nice as a half-blood’s childhood could be.

So yeah, Percy was all that and extremely powerful. But he also was a little oblivious. As could be seen from the fact that he never realized when people flirted with him. Like really. Never.
Jamie had once witnessed a girl asking Percy to give her a piggyback-ride from the training ground to the dining pavilion, saying that all the training had completely worn her out. Although they were the same age, and she hadn’t even done all that much.
Still Percy had – obviously – indulged her and Jamie had heard her complimenting him on how strong he was all the way back. When they’d reached the pavilion Percy had been blushing so hard that Jamie had been almost worried about the other boy’s health. Still when Jamie had asked him if he liked the girl after she’d left, Percy had only frowned and asked why he thought she’d be interested in him.
Jamie hadn’t known how to answer that question.

It was the same with danger. Oh, sure, if someone else was in danger Percy would realize it before anyone else did, but when it was himself… not so much. Maybe it was because there was hardly anything Percy really had to fear – honestly, if the guy weren’t so dorky he’d be fucking terrifying – or because he had no self-preservation skills whatsoever, but either way, when the danger didn’t look him straight in the eye, he didn’t realize that there was any.

Which was why Jamie was worried for the kid.

And yeah, the boy was nineteen now, only three years younger than him and had saved the world a few times, but Jamie still remembered Percy when he’d been twelve and had just lost his mother, so sue him, but he was allowed to call him kid. At least in his own mind.

So, he was worried for the kid because of a new camper. Aston Moore.
Behind his back everybody called him Asston, which Percy obviously found hilarious but still told everybody to stop doing. Chiron was on a quest – something with his relatives – at the moment and had ordered the kid to look after the camp while he was gone so he probably thought he had to act like a responsible adult. Which was a hilarious thought in itself.
The reason why everybody called the new camper Asston was because he’d only come to camp Half-blood-hill two weeks ago and had already managed to be disliked by the whole camp.

Asston was an asshole – hah – to everyone. He never did his chores, insulted people without reason and couldn’t open his mouth without belittling those around him. But not only was the son of Ares an all in all unpleasant person, he also was freaking huge and even without a lot of training, a pretty good fighter. So, a lot of the younger kids were scared of him.

A week ago, Asston made Cora, an eleven-year-old daughter of Demeter, cry because he trampled her homegrown corn. Percy had looked ready to kill the guy after he’d tried to comfort the girl. After she’d stopped crying, Percy had talked to the older boy.
Jamie hadn’t been there to witness it, but he’d been told that it’d been an intense conversation. Since that conversation Asston had developed an uncomfortably strong interest in the other half-blood.
He was always somewhere near the son of Poseidon, talking to him or sometimes just watching him. And he said some stuff about Percy that was really… wrong.

Jamie had tried to talk with Percy about Asston but the boy had only shrugged and told him that it was better him than one of the younger campers. Jamie was pretty sure Percy didn’t understand in which way Asston was interested in him.

Jamie was reasonably sure Asston wouldn’t do anything too bad with the older campers, like him still here but in a few days all the older campers would go back to school or college or their families, as the summer ended. Beside Percy and Asston.

And Jamie knew Percy could defend himself, really, he knew, but it still felt wrong to leave the kid alone here. Especially as he just couldn’t understand why Jamie was so worried. Because this was not the kind of danger Percy had come across already, it was something else, something with which Jamie really, really didn’t want to leave him alone. But he also couldn’t stay, he was in his last year of college, and he’d be fucked if he missed even a few days. Also, Percy had looked at him with real worry and asked if something was wrong with his studies when Jamie had told him he could stay if the kid wanted him to. So that was not an option.

The problem was that Jamie wasn’t sure who to ask to look after the younger boy. Normally he’d have asked Annabeth, but they’d just broken up. Which was one of the reasons why Percy stayed at the camp and didn’t went back to New Rome. Jamie was convinced Annabeth and Percy would stay friends and would continue to be as close as they've always been after some time, but at the moment it might be a little too early to ask her to stay with him. As Chiron was on some godly mission he was also out of question and Dionysus might be around somewhere but… he was Dionysus, so the only option were other half-blood friends of Percy. Some who were over twelve.

The first people who came to his mind were the other five half-bloods who’d fought beside Percy in the battle against Gaia, but they were all with Annabeth in New Rome at college and Jamie had never really talked to any of them for more than a few seconds. The only person he came up with in the end was Nico di Angelo. Jamie had no idea what the son of Hades was up to these days, but he’d always liked the other half-blood and when he wasn’t angrily glaring at Percy he seemed like he cared about the kid. So, Jamie figured why not try?

~~~ 

Nico was bored. So, so bored. He was lying in his room in the underworld – if you could call it that, it was more of a cell with a bed in it – with Mrs O’leary sitting beside him.
Staying in the underworld with his father had some perks like getting better control over his powers, not having to see Percy, getting to spend time with Persephone – she was really cool –, talking to dead people and finding how wrong history books were, not having to see Percy, sometimes talking to his dad – he still didn’t know how to feel about that guy – and had he mentioned not seeing Percy?
Sometimes he wondered if it was normal to think this much about someone you haven’t seen in a year, but then again, he didn’t really meet a lot of people who could replace the other half-blood in his thoughts.

But beside these perks, Nico was a teenaged boy who should have friends to drink his first beer with or smoke the first joint with or any of the other stuff teenagers do in Netflix shows. He wondered if Percy had ever smoked weed? It may help with the ADHD… Nico had never met a half blood whose ADHD was as bad as Percy’s.

Nico groaned. Really. Couldn’t he have just one day without thinking about the son of Poseidon. One. Absent-mindedly he scratched Mrs O’leary behind her ears. The hellhound purred contentedly. Maybe he should look for Persephone and ask her about the newest underworld gossip. That woman was worse than the whole Aphrodite’s cabin.

Just as Nico wanted to stand up the air in front of him started to shimmer telling him that someone tried to Iris message him. Instantly he straightened up and ruffled his hair so that it looked deliberately messy – or so he hoped it looked. After all, only three people Iris messaged him: Hazel, Jason (normally to talk about the Percy-thing as he was the only one who knew about the biggest reason he stayed in the underworld) or Percy himself.

But instead of one of the three a vaguely familiar young man looked at him through the Iris message. It was a son of Hermes he’d met before a few times. His name was Jessie or something like that.

“Hey, Niko”, the older boy said with an uncertain smile as if he wasn’t sure why he’d called.

“What du you want?”, Niko asked bluntly and instantly cringed at his own words. He should really talk to some real, living people from time to time.

But the other half-blood didn’t seem offended and instead grinned. The grin looked more genuine than the smile before. “Who says that I want anything? Maybe this is a purely social call?”

Nico raised an eyebrow: “Sure.” Perhaps it was a good thing that Jessie – something about the name didn’t feel right – called, whatever the other wanted would take his mind off of Percy-things.

“Okay, you caught me, I want something. I call about Percy…”

Nico closed his eyes. Of course. Of course, he called about Percy. “What about Percy?”

“You okay? You look constipated”, Jessie frowned.

“Sure”, Nico said, “just… head-ache.”

“Okay… if you say so…” the other half-blood didn’t seem convinced.

“Ahm, your name’s not Jessie, right?”, Nico asked to divert the conversation.

“No, my name’s Jamie.”

Again, the man didn’t seem to mind Nico’s poor social skills. He decided he liked the guy. “So, what about Percy?”

“I’m worried about him”, Jamie said and frowned again.

“As you should be. I’m always worried about Percy, the guy is a walking disaster.”

Jamie grinned: “Yeah… but I’m worried about something specific. Or better someone.”

Nico tilted his head: “Okay? About who?”

“Ahm… you see there’s this new camper, a son of Ares, he’s an asshole and he’s acting kind of… weird when it comes to Percy…”

Nico squinted: “You called because a camper acts like an asshole to Percy? The same Percy who literally fought against titans and gods? I'm sure he can handle a bully who, if he’s new, hasn't even had full hero training yet.”

“It’s not…”, the son of Hermes blushed, “it’s not really bullying I guess – or at least not only bullying – he’s more, I don’t know… coming onto him.”

Shortly Nico froze. Did he know about his silly crush? (Or his deep-rooted one-sided love, but Nico tried to not be too honest about that even in his thoughts.) But he quickly discarded the thought. Only Jason knew and he’d never tell anyone. “So, you called because someone’s flirting with Percy, shouldn’t you better tell Annabeth about this?”

Now Jamie looked confused: “What? Why…?” Then he seemed to understand. “Oh, you don’t know. Annabeth and Percy broke up.”

“What? When?” Don’t think too much off that, di Angelo, don’t think too much off that, Nico told himself but knew it was already too late.

“A month ago, or so… otherwise I’d called her, but it didn’t seem like a really good idea.”

“I still don’t get why you had to call someone at all. I’m sure Percy can survive being flirted with… he probably won’t even notice.”

Jamie sighed: “That’s kind of the problem. He doesn’t notice. And Asston –“, Nico snickered at the name “–doesn’t only flirt with Percy, he’s following him everywhere and saying really creepy stuff about him…”

“Like what…?”, Nico asked, feeling himself getting concerned even though he tried not to.

“Like… yesterday he said to another camper that he’d bet Percy looks pretty crying and today he told me he’d like to win against him in a fight just to have Percy laying under him”, the son of Hermes said his eyes getting darker with every word.

“Why didn’t you throw him out already?”, Nico asked, getting a really bad feeling about the whole thing.

“Chiron’s not here at the moment so it’s on Percy to decide who gets to stay and who doesn’t. And you know him, he won’t throw someone out for making him feel uncomfortable…”

“But that’s not making someone feel uncomfortable! That’s…I don’t know… sexual harassment or something.”

“Yeah, I know”, Jamie shrugged, “but still Percy would never throw Asston out, especially as he would probably die alone in the outside world.”

Nico sighed: “Yeah, I know.”

“And that’s why I called you. All the campers over the age of twelve will go back to school or college or whatever tomorrow and I really don’t want to leave Percy alone with only children and that dick. I’d stay myself but I’m totally fucked if I miss the beginning of my college year. So, if you’d be able to come to camp… I know Percy can defend himself and all that, I just fear that he won’t.”

The son of Hades nodded. As if it really was a question. “Sure, I’ll come.”

“Thank you so much, I feel way better knowing that Percy won’t be alone”, Jamie said, and Nico could hear the relief in his voice.

“No problem, really.” Nico smiled tiredly; he’d do way more for Percy than only defend him from some jerk.

Jamie smiled for one last time and then the connection of the Iris message broke.

Nico rubbed his eyes and laid down on his bed again. He was pretty sure Percy Jackson would be the death of him someday.

~~~ 

When Nico got to Camp Half-blood-hill the next afternoon – he might’ve overslept – he instantly regretted his decision to come. So many bad memories of this place.

He strolled aimlessly through the camp passing the old and new cabins. As there weren’t that many campers around and those he saw were pretty young, he concluded that the more experienced campers must've already gone home. He was a little bummed that he won’t get to meet Jamie but it was his own fault for oversleeping so he couldn’t be angry at anyone but himself. And he tried to keep his self-loathing at a minimum, he’d done enough of that for two lifetimes.

The kids he saw seemed to recognize him as a lot of them pointed at him but no one came forward to say hello. The son of Hades tried to not let it bother him, after all it was nothing new. He’d bean feared since he was thirteen and was seventeen now. He had a lot of practice in being excluded. Still he couldn’t get himself to not care about it.

He finally found Percy at the beach surrounded by kids who all looked like they were around ten. Nico was pretty sure they were training but he wasn’t exactly sure what they were training for. A few kids had wooden swords – which really was a way better idea than giving real swords to children who can barely lift them –, others had wooden spears or bows, which was hilarious as Nico had never met a worse archer than Percy Jackson and some even sat on Boards in the water obviously waiting for Percy to create the perfect wave to surf on. But a thing that all kids had in common was that they tried to get Percy’s attention.

The son of Hades didn’t know if what they did was the perfect hero training but it definitely was extremely cute. If he weren’t already completely head over heels for the son of Poseidon he’d’ve definitely been now.

But before Nico could go down to say hello to his friend he saw another guy approach Percy. As he was the only half-blood beside Percy that looked older than twelve Nico didn’t’ve to be a genius to guess who it was.

The guy who must be Aston was at least six inches taller than Percy and twice as broad. Which was particularily noticable as Percy seemed to have lost weight since Nico had seen him last time. And he'd never been a person who could effort to loose weight. Nico wondered if it was because of the break up with Annabeth or if Tartarus still took a toll on the other demigod.

Aston was now standing right behind the son of Poseidon whispering something in his ear. Nico got unnecessarily anxious and started walking a little faster. Unnecessarily because this was Percy, the guy who’d fought against Ares – and won – when he'd been twelve and now could probably destroy a whole city without breaking a sweat.

Whatever the son of Ares said to Percy seemed to upset him quite a bit as the waves he was creating for the surfing kids got haywire for a second. Nico saw a few of the young demi gods fall of their boards cheering at the suddenly faster speed.

Although he hadn’t heard what Arson said, he was in earshot to hear Percy’s reaction.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than getting on my nerves? Like fucking off to the Ares cabin or something?”, he asked the other half blood obviously annoyed, the easy atmosphere gone.
Then Percy seemed to remember the kids around them and coughed, “I mean… get lost. Please.”

A young boy giggled: “Percy said fuck!”

Instantly the older half-bloods face softened: “Whaat? No I’d never, how could you accuse me of something like that? You break my heart Benny!”

Benny giggled again. And despite Aston still standing behind Percy the mood lightened up and the waves calmed. Then Percy looked up from the kids and finally saw Nico.

The bright smile he gave him made Nico’s heart hurt. Until now he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his friend. Or maybe he'd realized but had actively ignored it just like he'd actively avoided his friend.

Aston now completely forgotten Percy walked up to Nico and hugged him before the other could react.
Not really knowing what to do Nico awkwardly petted the other boy’s shoulder and willed himself not to blush furiously.

“It’s so good to see you”, Percy said after he’d finally let go off Nico. He kept on gripping Nico's shoulders as if he thought the other would disappear as soon as he wasn’t touching him. Which made Nico feel a little guilty.

“Yeah. Um, good to see you too.”

“How are you?”, Percy asked.

Nico shrugged.

Percy's grin widened. “I see you haven’t changed.”

The son of Hades gave him an unimpressed look. “And I see neither have you.”

Percy gasped: “How could you say something like that! I’m a responsible adult now looking after children and all that!”

Nico’s lip twitched. “Sure.”

“Was that a smile? After not even five minutes of talking? Maybe you’ve changed after all!”

Nico rolled his eyes before he noticed something. “Hey, I have changed! I’m as tall as you now.”

“No way”, Percy said and straightened up to compare their heights.

“Yes way”, Nico grinned.

The son of Poseidon sighed dramatically. “I guess I can live with us being the same size but you’re not allowed to grow anymore!”

Another eye roll. “Sure, if you say so, oh mighty Perseus Jackson, your will be done.”

Percy grinned. “That’s the spirit!”, then he took Nico's hand, which made the younger demigod blush again, “come, meet the other ones!”

“I’m not really a kids person”, Nico wined as Percy pulled him towards the younger half-bloods who’d watched their interaction closely. A few smiled at Nico but most just looked curious except Aston who stared at him irritated as Nico noted gleefully.

After Percy had introduced Nico to them, the children introduced themselves back, just for Nico to forget all their names again after five minutes.
Then they asked some of the standard questions, like if he was actually the son of Hades, how old he was, did he know any gods and some more… peculiarly questions, like if there were taxis in the underworld, did Hades actually have flame hair like in the Disney film and did he think the opposite of a skeleton – a boneless meat pile – would be scarier than a normal skeleton.

One of the kids – Lennart? – asked him if he could show them a bit of his powers, but Nico shuddered at the thought of calling the undead in front of kids so he said no.

After that most of the children seemed to decide that he was boring but still cool as he was a friend of Percy.

And Nico didn’t even have to spend five minutes with the younger demigods to realize how much they loved Percy.
Which really was not all that surprising as the older boy seemed to be able to pay attention to all of them at the same time. How he did it without his ADHD getting in the way, Nico didn’t know... or maybe it was just because of his ADHD that he was able to be this attentive.

“You named your Chihuahua Cerberus? That’s so cool, Laila!”, Percy said after a shy girl whispered something into his ear.

“You once met Cerberus, right?”, a blond boy asked.

“Yeah, but that was a looong time ago. I was your age!”

“Really? You think we could fight against him too?”, another boy asked.

“I didn’t fight him a friend of mine just played with him… Jenny that’s not how you hold a sword!”

“Ugh… sorry, Percy”, Jenny said and blushed.

“Don’t worry about it, I just don’t want you accidently stabbing yourself in the eye”, Percy said and ruffled her hair.

A boy that didn’t look older than eight tugged at Percy’s t-shirt “Did… did you hear from my mother?”, he asked so quietly that Niko nearly didn’t understand him.

The son of Poseidon knelt down to be on eye-level with the boy: “No, I’m sorry Marius, I haven’t.”

Marius sniffled: “S-sorry, that I a-always ask it’s just…”

Percy smiled at the boy: “Hey, I’m sure it’s alright, the satyrs will find her.”

The little demigod started crying and fell forward into Percy’s arms, who just took it in stride as the kid didn’t let go and just kept going on with the boy on his back.

It was weird to see half-bloods around ten from the outside. Because Nico had been that old when he’d first run off to live with the dead. They seemed so young. So innocent. Maybe it was because there was actually no impending doom waiting for them at the moment but Nico thought that they looked younger and more child-like than he’d been at that age.

Arson must’ve disappeared shortly after Nico arrived because when he averted his eyes from the kids after watching them intrigued for some time he was gone.
Nico took that as an easy win.

~~~ 

It was nearly sundown when Percy told the younger campers to get back to their cabins and get ready for dinner.
Nico wasn’t sure if it was because they were starving or because they were eager to get praised by Percy, but it didn’t even took five minutes for the kids to take off. Some of the younger kids hugged the son of Poseidon as if they wouldn’t see him again in just half an hour.

Percy and Nico watched after them as they disappeared behind the dune.

“It’s weird, huh”, Percy said

Nico frowned: “What’s weird?”

“It’s just… I was twelve when I got my first quest, when I went to the underworld to get back Zeus’s master bolt. At that time I thought that that was a totally normal thing to ask from a twelve year old but when I see them now…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

It was quiet for a moment.

“Let’s also go back to the camp, I’m hungry”, Percy said after some time.

Nico nodded and followed his friend who’d started to walk away.

“Sooo, you’re pretty good with kids”, Nico said.

Percy flushed: “You think so?”

“Sure, they obviously love you.”

“I love them too, feels good to be there for people and help them without having to kill anything.”

Nico nodded as if he could totally understand. Which he couldn’t.
He tried to think of a way to approach the Aston-topic: “The other guy who was with you, who’s that?”

He’d decided to not tell Percy forthrightly that Jamie had called him to look out for Aston as he was pretty sure the older boy wouldn’t appreciate the gesture.

Percy groaned. “Ugh, that’s Aston a son of Ares and a giant asshole. He’s always bullying the kids. Honestly, I’d so hoped he would not stay longer, but he didn’t get into college so he stayed here. Really, I know, it’s wrong to think like this but I wished Ares had never led him here. I swear he only did it to annoy me, no way he likes the kid.”

“Is he an asshole in the… Clarisse-way?”, Nico asked.

“No”, Percy shook his head, “Clarisse is annoying but actually – and don’t tell her I said that – a good person and we’re kind of maybe even friends? Or at least she doesn’t actually want to see me get turned into an oyster anymore –“

“I’m sure you’d make a great oyster.”

Percy gave a flat look: “as I said not in a Clarisse-way. He really gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

Nico stared at Percy: “…I can’t believe you actually said heebie-jeebies.”

The older demigod blushed: “You try to live with a group of kids for a month without starting to talk like that!”

“Okay, okay, no need to fight”, Nico grinned before he got serious again, “so why does he give you the heebie-jeebies.”

“He just… he says really weird stuff, like I’m happy he bothers me and not the younger ones but still I don’t like it.”

“Why? What does he say?”

Percy grimaced: “Just… I don’t know, today at the beach he told me how cute it was that I’m this good with kids and that I’d make a perfect house-wife if I just let him teach me how to obey… you know normally I don’t care if people talk down to me or insult me – after all I’ve a lot of practice with that – but he really bothers me.”

The son of Hades stared at Percy for a few seconds: “Why don’t you just throw him out? Don’t let him talk to you like this.”

“I would, but he knows he’s a half-blood and is a son of a more powerful god… he’ll probably die if I kick him out.”

“So? Who cares.”

Percy grinned: “Okay, edgelord.”

“No. I mean it, he’s harassing you, just let him fend for himself.”

“It’ not like he’s doing anything, he’s just annoying.”

“What if it were someone else?”

Percy shrugged. “It isn’t, so who cares.”

“I care.”

“Okay, mom, you’re nearly as bad as Anna –“, Percy broke off.

Nico bit his lip: “You… broke up, right?” He felt like this was the wrong thing to say. But was there a right to say to something like this?

“Yeah…”

It was quiet for a minute.

“But it’s actually not that bad. We both decided that we’re better of as friends and I still think so. But I miss her even though I don’t think it’d be good to be around her… that’s why I’m here and not in New Rome – beside the reason that the kids need someone here that isn't Dionysius.”

Nico frowned: “And what’s with college and your studies?”

“Oh, that’s not really a problem”, the older demigod shrugged, “they’re pretty lenient when it comes to me, I can just take a few online courses and it’s all good.”

“Wonder why that is, savior of the world.”

Percy scrunched up his nose, which looked adorable – or at least Nico thought so. “Don’t remind me. People think way too highly of me.”

Nico looked onto the open sea: “I mean… you’re pretty awesome.”

Percy stared at him with wide eyes. “…did Nico di Angelo just made me a complement?”

He came closer and laid a hand on the other boy’s forehead, looked him in the eyes and asked somberly: “Do you feel fine? Are you dying?”

Nico blushed and pushed him away: “Fuck off Jackson.”

Percy laughed and said: “I always knew you loved me!”

Nico blushed even harder but didn’t answer and just walked faster.
Although the older boy made fun of him the whole way back to the pavilion, Nico was pretty sure he hadn’t had a day this good in months.

~~~ 

Only after dinner when the whole camp came together to view and listen to a performance of the newly founded orchestra of the Apollo house, Nico remembered Aston and why he was here.

Eating together with Percy and his thirty-something kids – the son of Poseidon didn’t give a flying fuck who sat at whose table especially as angering the gods was one of his favorite pastimes – was nice. It was good to have talking, breathing human beings around him. And the food was way better than in the underworld. Nico had missed food that didn’t taste like dust. In the underworld everything tasted at least a little bit like dust, although he’d never tell the kitchen-harpies his father employed.

Even the awful versions of their father’s songs – or maybe the songs were just awful, after all Nico could remember the god’s haikus just too good – which the Apollo-orchestra performed couldn’t dampen his mood. Instead he made fun of Percy as the boy got a little teary eyed because one of the songs was self-written by a camper for him.

It was the best song out of them all so maybe it really was Apollo’s and not his children’s fault.

What ruined the evening for Nico in the end was a comment of Aston, it wasn’t even a really bad one but it still made Nico want to pulverize him.

“Hey, Jackson, maybe you should start playing the trumpet, I think you’d look good choking on something.”

Percy didn’t even turn around to the older boy that was sitting behinde him. “If you choke on it I’m pretty sure you don’t play it right.”

“Makes me wonder how your gag reflex is. I mean you obviously can’t drown but I’m sure you could suffocate on my –“

That was the moment Nico turned around. He would’ve punched the other demigod in the face if Percy hadn’t stopped him. Although they might be the same height now Percy was still a lot stronger than Nico.

As none of the children had heard what Aston had said, they all stared at Nico and Percy bewildered.
Percy smiled at the orchestra that had stopped playing: “Just keep going. Aston just really wants to leave right now and that made Nico angry because you play so wonderful.”

It was obvious that not even the youngest demigods believed him but everybody just rolled with it as Aston disappeared, giving Nico one last smug grin.

“You can’t let him talk to you like this”, Nico hissed under his breath after the orchestra started playing again.

“He’s all bark no bite, I don’t care”, Percy whispered.

“That’s. He’s disgusting Percy! That’s not just a bit out of line, he’s – assaulting you!”, Nico said, trying to keep his voice down.

“He never did anything and if he does I can take him and he’s not bothering anyone else, so whatever?”, Percy said with a shrug, letting Nico know that the conversation was over.

~~~ 

Nico couldn’t sleep that night. He was just too annoyed by the whole situation. He could understand why Jamie didn’t want to leave Percy here with Aston. The guy was everything that Nico despised. Especially as it seemed as if he had an extra protective streak when it came to Percy? He’d never realized it before, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t react this badly if it was Jason.

Maybe because Percy was too nice. Or too oblivious. Although Nico was pretty sure even Percy understood the nature of Aston’s comments. After all you’d have to be a complete idiot to not understand. The problem was that Percy seemed to think the comments should only make him uncomfortable. He didn’t think there was any real intent behind them. Nico was not so sure about that.

After some more tossing and turning Nico decided that he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Instead, he stood up pulled on a jacket and left the Hades cabin. Maybe he’d feel better after breathing a bit of fresh air. Without thinking where he wanted to go the son of Hades started walking.

Nico didn’t like horses and they didn’t like him. That was a fact. The same applied to pegasuses. The only exception being Blackjack and even he only tolerated Nico because of Percy. Still the half-blood found himself near the stables when he came to his senses again after wandering aimlessly around for some time.

In the moonlight the coat of the majestic animals shimmered slightly.

The son of Hades was surprised that the horses didn't whinny alarmed as he came closer, until he remembered that he’d read somewhere that horses sleep while standing so none of them probably sensed him although they looked awake.

He sat down on the floor in front of the stables, watching Blackjack who he'd found between the other horses and pegasuses.

“And what do you think? Am I worrying about your boss-man for nothing?”, Nico whispered.

As if to answer the boy’s question, Nico heard noises coming from behind the stables. Two male voices.
Frowning he stood up. It was nearly three AM why was anyone beside him – he was the son of Hades he was quasi obliged to not sleep – still awake?

Nico nearly instantly recognized Percy’s voice as he walked around the stables, he said something about the moon he couldn’t really make out.

The voice that answered was Aston’s: “And why are you still awake?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Why not? It’s just us, you don’t have to hide how much you want me now, we’re all alone.”

“Leave me alone”, Nico heard Percy’s voice say.

When the son of Hades stepped around the corner, the same anger that he’d felt during the concert came up again.
Percy was leaning against the stable wall with a scrubber he must’ve just gotten out of the cupboard behind the stable in his hand and Aston was towering above him.

“Hmmm, I don’t think I will…”

“You heard him”, Nico said, “get away from him or I swear I’ll make your guts rot from the inside.”

Aston and Percy turned their heads as they heard Nico’s voice. Aston was smirking while Percy only looked annoyed.

“Oh, look your little boyfriend is here! But don’t worry di Angelo you can join! I can see how you look at him, think about how good he’ll looked stuffed with both-“

“Shut up”, Nico said in a low voice, his eyes fixed on Percy, “please let me kill him.”

The son of Poseidon rolled his eyes and then said: “If you don’t let me go I will make you and you really don’t want that.”

“Aww, playing all tough now after teasing me all this time? Really, I don’t think you’re nearly as strong as everybody thinks you probably just got lucky, I mean look at you, you’re just some bitch made to be used and nothing else.”

When Aston reached out to touch Percy’s face it seemed to finally be too much for the son of Poseidon. It took exactly one hand flick to make the stable’s water discharge burst. The son of Ares was instantly knocked out hit by a mix of water and horseshit that flew out the pipe with an incredible speed.

Percy grinned at the unconscious figure in front of him. “Oh, I waited so long to do this.”

Slowly Nico approached the older half-blood: “Are you okay?”

Percy lifted an eyebrow: “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I mean that was just – what Aston said – pretty bad, don’t you think so?”

“Naa, it’s all good, people said worse things to me before”, Percy shrugged and grinned at his friend, “what do you think should I carry him outside or leave him for the cleaning harpies?”

Suddenly Nico felt incredibly dumb. Why had he thought he had to come to protect Percy. The maybe strongest demigod of the century.
He told Percy just that and why he was here. The other boy started to laugh.

“Jamie IMed you to what… protect my innocence? My chastity?”

“We were worried about you!”, Nico said turning redder with every second.

“And that’s really cute but also really funny”, Percy said still not able to stop laughing.

“What are you even doing here at this time?”, Nico asked desperate to change the topic.

As if a switch had been flipped the older demigod stopped laughing and lowered his head to stare at the brush in his hand. “Nightmare… whenever I can’t sleep, I come out here for a night-flight with Blackjack. I was just on my way to wake him when Aston stopped me.”

“Tartarus?”, Nico asked softly.

“No.”

Nico didn’t dig deeper in favor of frowning at the unconscious form of Aston in the dirt: “You sure you’re okay? I mean the things he said really were bad, even if you don’t need me to look out for you etc. etc."

Percy smiled and petted the younger boy’s shoulder: “Yes, I’m sure. Really, Aston doesn’t even make it to the top ten of shittiest-things-that-ever-happened-to-me.”

“Still… this is different than a Monster. So…”

“Nico, really. It’s all good.”

“And you sure I can’t kill him?”

“Nope”, Percy said, “we’ll just let him go. He’ll be dead in a few days either way. And I think having him run away from monsters for some time before he dies is a lot more satisfying.”

Nico lifted his eyebrows: “And I though you turned all pacifistic.”

“Just in front of the kids.”

~~~

On the way back to the cabin Percy started to laugh again as he asked Nico what exactly Jamie had told him. And it didn’t get better when Nico insisted to bring him to his cabin.
(Sue him, but he’d heard what Aston said to Percy he just wanted to make sure his friend was really okay!)

"What a gentleman!", Percy grinned.

Nico rolled his eyes: "Yeah, yeah I get it, you're the savior of Olympus, hero of Greek and Rome why would you need protection?"

"Are you saying you won't be my knight in shining armor the next time?", Percy asked, trying to stifle his laughter.

"Not if I'm not appreciated!"

The son of Poseidon sobered: "No, it's really nice of you to worry, although I really think there isn't a lot I need to be protected from but it's still nice to know you worry. I appreciate it."

"Obviously I worry! You'd be able to get into trouble while visiting a kindergarten!"

Percy cringed: "Don't remind me of my time in kindergarten. “ Then his face turned contemplative: “You know the only thing I don’t get about Aston is why he was so obsessed with me."

“Uhm… I mean you’re you”, Nico said as if that would explain anything.

“Oh, really? Thanks for clarifying, wished I’d known that earlier.”

Nico rolled his eyes at Percy’s sarcastic tone. “I mean you’re Percy Jackson. You’re like one of the heroes, you’re nice, funny and beautiful”, Nico shrugged, “there are probably a lot of people obsessed with you.”
Instantly he felt his ears starting to burn. He hadn’t planned on saying all that

Percy looked at Nico for a few seconds seemingly debating what to say next: "Is it - is it true what he said?"

"What do you mean?"

"That you'd want to -"

"No! I'd never do anything you didn't want!", Nico said enraged, "how can you think that?!"

Percy held up his hands: "Nonono, I know you wouldn't. But I mean... if I wanted...?"

Nico didn't know how to answer so he only stood there and blushed.

His friend grinned at him: "So it is true."

"Uhm", was Nico's extremely thought-through clever answer as Percy stepped forward and cupped Nico's face in his hands.
When the son of Poseidon leaned forward and pressed his lips on Nico's, he was pretty sure he'd faint then and there.