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Nico shifted, trying not to wake Percy. They were tangled loosely together.
“Stay,” Percy murmured into his hair. Nico went still.
“I can’t,” he whispered. He felt Percy sigh, his chest rising and falling under Nico’s shoulder.
“We’re not at Hogwarts,” he mumbled. “You can shadow travel from my cabin to yours without anyone seeing you.” Guilt bit at Nico. He’d been coming into Percy’s cabin after dark a lot lately, but he’d never stayed the night. Percy wasn’t comfortable keeping their relationship a secret.
Nico gave in. “Yeah, I could do that,” he murmured back. He felt Percy relax against him.
A loud whoop! cut through the air.
Over by the hearth, Percy was grinning at something Annabeth had just told him.
“I’ll be right back,” Nico said distractedly to Will. He walked over.
“Hey,” Percy said. “Annabeth just told me some good news. He smiled at her, positively glowing, and Nico squashed down his envy.
“Oh?”
“I don’t have to go back to school. I can get home schooled here at camp and get my GED. Annabeth is going to tutor me.”
Nico blinked, surprised. “That’s awesome.”
“Yeah,” Percy said wistfully. “Seeing the university in New Rome really inspired me.”
“That’s great,” Nico said. “Um… I’m going to stay. Here. At camp.”
“Awesome!” Percy said.
“So… since we’lre going to be spending at least a year around each other, I think I should clear the air.”
Percy’s smile wavered. “What do you mean?”
“For a long time,” Nico began, gaining confidence with every word, “I had a crush on you. I thought you should know.”
Percy stared at him, then turned to Annabeth, as if to check if he’d heard correctly. Then back at Nico. “’Had’?” he asked.
“I’ll get over you,” Nico said, trying to offer a smile. He turned to walk toward Will, thinking about spending a few days healing with relief. Percy grabbed his arm.
“What about my feelings?” he blurted out.
Annabeth smirked at him fondly and patted his shoulder before walking away, leaving them alone.
“Your feelings,” Nico deadpanned.
“I don’t even get a chance to see if I could – I don’t know,” he shrugged helplessly.
Nico searched his face, but he knew Percy had a point. He relaxed and turned back to face him fully.
“Can I sleep on it? Solace wants me in the infirmary.”
Percy smiled softly at him. “Yeah. I’ll come see you?”
“Okay.”
Nico walked away, feeling suddenly lighter. Hopeful.
Two days later, Percy was sitting at his bedside when he woke up. He was holding a handful of flowers and a McDonald’s happy meal box. He smiled sheepishly.
“How are you feeling? You look good.”
Will really was an excellent healer. Nico was starting to feel all over his energy coming back. His life force felt strong.
Percy handed him the box. “Had to promise Solace I’d help him out for the rest of the day in here for letting me bringing contraband.” He winked. Nico rolled his eyes and opened the box.
“Thanks.” He ate while Percy ran around doing whatever Will asked him to, cutting and changing bandages and cheering up other patients. Finally, before dinner, he came back to Nico’s bedside.
“So…?”
“I won’t say anything until you can tell me how you feel,” Nico muttered, staring at the flowers.
“Asters. I asked Piper for help. They mean patience.”
“Will you come to my cabin after dinner?” Percy asked him after they’d spent the morning training. Percy was making progress with his school work, but he needed a lot of breaks to keep focused.
Nico stared at him. Percy was flushed, and Nico could tell that it wasn’t just from the exercise.
“Are you asking me out on a date?” he asked, incredulous.
“Yeah. Kinda.”
Nico stared at him, his heart racing. “Perce?”
“I like you. A lot,” Percy nearly whispered.
In the past months, they’d been spending more time together. They’d even been on a short quest together. At first, Nico thought such close proximity was going to make him start to see Percy as more of a friend. Instead, his feelings had grown stronger.
“Wow,” he whispered back.
Percy grinned at him shyly. “So…?”
“Okay,” Nico agreed, happiness filling his lungs.
After dinner, they walked back to cabin 3. Percy had set up a low table lit with candles. Percy blushed. “Is it too much?”
Nico shook his head. “It’s okay.”
Percy went into his room and came back with a small cooler on wheels. “I made dessert,” he said, excited.
He set a container on the table and lifted the lid.
“Is that a blue cheesecake?” Nico asked, impressed.
“It took me 5 tries to get it right,” Percy said proudly. It was a small cake, so with each of them having two slices it was practically gone. “Do you want to come sit outside for a bit?” Percy offered. The dock leading into the lake behind the cabin was lined with candles, too. They sat at the edge of the dock and talked for a while about Percy’s studies, about Jason’s so far successful project to honor the minor gods, and about Annabeth’s ambitions to design a temple halfway between both camps to strengthen Greek/Roman relations.
“I can’t wait to tell her about us,” Percy beamed.
Nico’s face went pale. “Don’t,” he whispered.
“You don’t want anyone to know?” Percy asked, sounding disappointed.
“Not yet,” Nico rushed to correct him. “Can we wait?” Sometime during the talk, Percy had reached out to hold his hand. He squeezed it, anxious.
“Sure,” Percy agreed, squeezing back.
Most of their dates were the same. A couple of times Nico baked something for dessert. Percy didn’t bring up telling their friends again, but Nico could tell he was thinking about it.
Percy fell asleep, his left arm thrown over Nico’s abdomen. Nico slipped his skull ring off of his finger. He didn’t like sleeping with it on. Usually he dropped it into one of his shoes so he wouldn’t forget it, but he turned it over and over again in his hand, running his thumb over the eye sockets in the front, the tiny engraved teeth. Percy mumbled something unintelligible. Nico laced their fingers together. In his sleep, Percy’s hand twitched and a slow smile touched his lips. Nico slid the ring over Percy’s finger, admiring it.
When he woke up, Percy was gone. Nico rolled around in bed, irritable. Would it really be so bad if everyone knew about them? He argued with himself. He wanted people to know, but Percy had friends at camp. People who respected him. They weren’t the only same sex couple at camp, but Percy was infamous for his quests and for being a son of one of the big three. And Nico was the son of Hades.
He got up and picked up his shoes, stepping into the shadow cast by the bed. When he emerged in his own cabin, he realized that it was almost 10 in the morning. He yawned and shuffled toward the door. Outside, the camp was buzzing with activity. He reached up to push his hair out of his face, mentally making a note to get a haircut soon. His jolted fully awake.
The ring. He stumbled backward, back into his cabin, using the shadows to get back to Percy’s bedside. He checked the night stand, the dresser. Percy was still wearing it. Nico groaned loudly in frustration and went back to his cabin. The first person he ran into as he left was Annabeth, her arms full of rolled up paper.
“Slept in?” she laughed.
“Have you seen Percy?” he asked, avoiding small talk.
“He’s in charge of sword fighting class today,” she said, jutting her chin toward the arena, her blonde hair floating in wisps at her temple. She fixed him pointedly with her storm grey eyes. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about him.”
“About Percy.”
“About the two of you.”
Nico felt himself blush. “Um…”
“Later, though. I’m working on the Greek/Roman project.” She grinned, lightly hefting the load in her arms.
“Sure,” he mumbled, turning and walking quickly toward the arena. Campers were already leaving, looking exhausted but cheerful. Percy was putting away the practice swords, his shirt off and flung over his shoulder. His left hand glinted silver. Butterflies blossomed in Nico’s stomach.
“Hey,” Percy greeted casually.
“Hey,” Nico breathed.
“Waking up with you next to me was really nice,” Percy continued.
Nico blushed hotly. “…my ring.”
Percy grinned and held his hand up. “Did you put it me on last night?”
Nico nodded.
“I know I should have left it behind, but it made me happy.” He shrugged.
“Did anyone see?” Nico asked, panicked.
Percy frowned. “No one said anything.” He took it off and held it out. “Here, take it.” It felt heavy in Nico’s palm. Percy picked up the bag of equipment and threw it over his shoulder. “I’m going to the stables to groom Blackjack,” he said tersely, walking away without a backward glance.
Nico walked numbly back to his cabin, slipping the ring back on his finger.
He decided to give Percy space for the rest of the day. He thought about talking to Will, but decided to call Hazel instead. Will was a friend, but he didn’t trust him enough for this. Knowing that Percy wouldn’t mind, he used the small freshwater spring in cabin 3 to make the call.
Her hair was tried back messily when he connected to her. She was polishing her armor.
“Nico!” she smiled brightly.
“Hazel.”
“Are you okay?” she asked, her forehead wrinkling softly.
“I have to tell you something.”
“Okay…”
“Percy and I have been spending a lot of time together lately.”
She nodded. “I was worried when you said you wanted to stay. I didn’t think you felt like you fit in. I’m glad you’re making friends.”
“Jason’s here, too. He’s my friend,” he mumbled.
“Tell him we miss him!”
“Yeah.”
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” she hedged.
“We’re together. Percy and I,” he said abruptly.
“Oh.” She blinked, startled.
“You’re the first person I’ve told.”
“Are you happy?”
“Yeah,” he relaxed a little. “I… I love him.”
She smiled. “That’s great, Nico.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “He wants everyone to know about us.”
Hazel frowned. “And you don’t?”
“It’s not that. I – I don’t even know why I’ve been insisting on keeping us a secret.”
“Do you need me to come visit?” she asked.
Nico felt a pang of guilt. “No. It’s okay.” He raked his hands through his hair. “I hoped talking to you would help me decide what to do,” he said. “Percy would keep seeing me in secret, but I want him to happy.”
“Don’t sacrifice your happiness for his,” Hazel warned. She promised to visit as soon as she could and then dismissed the call. Nico moped around the cabin, avoiding lunch, then walked into the shadows to leave camp.
He came back at dinner. They were still hosting a number of Romans, but Percy was alone at his table. Nico loaded his plate and nervously approached him. “Can I sit with you?”
Percy blinked. “You got a haircut.”
“Yeah. It was getting too long.” Nico gently touched where his short hair faded into the tightly shaved undercut.
“I like it,” Percy said softly.
Nico sat down, poking at his food. “I’m sorry about earlier.”
Percy shrugged. “You don’t want anyone to know. I get it.”
“I do want people to know,” Nico insisted.
Percy stared at him.
“Here,” Nico took his hand and dropped something into it. “I’m more scared about losing you than I am of people knowing, and I don’t even know why I’m scared of people knowing.”
Percy opened his palm. “It’s a skull.”
“It’s a bead,” Nico explained. “For your camp necklace. Bianca gave me the ring, so I can’t give it up, but it matches.”
Percy took his necklace off and slid the bead on. It was noticeably bigger than the others and glinted in the firelight. “I love it.” He looked around. “So, if someone asks about it?”
“Your boyfriend gave it to you,” Nico replied, picking up his fork.
Percy’s face lit up and he scooted a little closer to him as he ate. As they debated whether or not to make their offerings to Aphrodite, Annabeth came over to their table. She started to say something to Nico, then caught sight of the new bead on Percy’s necklace.
“Is that a skull bead?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.
“My boyfriend gave it to me,” Percy said proudly.
Annabeth looked at the ring on Nico’s finger, then back at the bead. She smiled. “Thank gods. I was going to ask if there was something going on between you.”
“We’ve been taking it slow, but we’re ready to tell everyone now,” Percy assured her.
“Congratulations,” she said, genuinely meaning it.
Nico offered up the remains of his dinner to Aphrodite without a second thought. Percy offered his hand and Nico took it, not caring if anyone saw. They got a few stares, but no comments. Percy led him to his cabin and they walked out to the dock. They didn’t talk, but the silence was comfortable. Percy leaned in to him, smiling. Nico carefully leaned back, nervous. They’d held hands and even slept in the same bed, but he’d never felt this intimate with him.
Percy pulled back and stared at him. “Nico?” he said gently.
“I want to kiss you,” Nico murmured, then ducked his head, blushing hotly. When he looked up, Percy was blushing, too. He licked his lips and scooted a little closer. Nico dropped his gaze to Percy’s mouth. “Can I?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Percy breathed, his eyes fluttering closed. Nico tilted his head a little and leaned forward. Percy reciprocated the warm pressure of his lips and brought his hand up to cradle the back of Nico’s head. Nico exhaled with relief and tried softly catching Percy’s bottom lip, tilting his head a little more. Percy smiled and mirrored his actions.
Nico traced his fingers over Percy’s necklace as he pulled away. “I told Hazel about us,” he said. Percy kissed him, smiling.