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Percy breathed deeply as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, pulling it away to see blood. Of course I split my lip again. Perfect.
It was time forthe camp’s weekly game of Capture the Flag and, as he and Annabeth had been visiting from New Rome with a couple of other demigod friends, they’d offered to take part in this week’s Capture the flag with the new demigods who had arrived. And Percy had actually looked forward to it at the time. As usual, Poseidon had an alliance with Athena, so he was on Annabeth’s side; Apollo was with Ares this week, and they obviously had Hades on their side, meaning that it was Big Three versus Big Three — always a fun sort of fight, considering he and Nico were both very powerful demigods. After so long not in any sort of fighting or battle situation, Percy had sort of looked forward to it.
Now he wasn’t so sure. Of course both sides had planned it that he and Nico would fight against each other, essentially protecting both sides from getting their arses absolutely whooped and freeing up the other campers to get the flags. But that meant that the two of them could go all out against each other, and there would be a lot of destruction.
Which was evident in the cracked earth that surrounded the little river in the forest, and the clearing filled with debris from trees that had their leaves and branches ripped off. Percy and Nico went hard on each other, as they always did, making each other bleed.
And yet, as Percy breathed heavily and silently willed his lip to stop bleeding, he realised that he would willingly keep fighting with Nico, even after the game was done. Maybe that wasn’t healthy. Maybe he needed some of that therapy that Nico spoke of.
Nico was leaning on his own sword, looking more than a little out of breath himself. Percy was beginning to wonder exactly how much he’d been training.
“Out of shape?” he teased.
Nico rolled his eyes at him. “Shut up.”
That was a “yes”, then.
“Want to catch up instead?”
Nico narrowed his eyes at him, straightening up. “Now? Right here? In the middle of the forest?”
Percy gestured to the clear land around them. “Might as well stop before we anger any more wood nymphs. And it’s not as if us fighting will do anything — they’re fighting for the flag without us and used us to distract each other.”
Nico seemed to think about it, genuinely considering it for a moment, before moving to sit on a log. “I know you have a point. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Percy just moved to sit beside him, slowly lowering himself onto the log. The two sat there in silence for a little while, just listening to the sounds of the forest around them, and the sounds of fighting in the distance.
Then, Percy asked: “How long do you think until Team Athena brings the flag through, waving it?”
Nico raised an eyebrow at him. “What makes you think it’ll be Athena that wins?”
“Is that actually a question?”
The two stared each other down, almost as though they were battling it out physically again, before grins broke out on both their faces, and they laughed, relaxing. Not quite chatting, saying the occasional thing, simply enjoying the peace of the now-destroyed clearing (especially knowing that the wood nymphs would come out eventually to yell at them for the mess).
And when a camper from the Athena cabin came through waving the flag, Percy shot Nico a grin, which earned him a set of rolled eyes and a shove off the log.