Mave’s Story

As Percy Jackson stared at the scowling teen who was pressing him into the cavern wall with a level of force that was sure to leave bruises for days, he couldn’t help but wonder—why did things always turn out like this?

It’s not like Percy wasn’t trying to avoid this sort of thing. He’d more than had his fill of quests and prophecies and annoyance for one lifetime. So then, you ask, why was he in this situation? Hadn’t he had his fill? Look, everyone made a dumb decision or two after a break up, sue him.

It wasn’t like Percy had been expecting a trail of monster remains on his get away to Montauk, or for that trail to lead into a cavern with even more signs of fighting. And it wasn’t like Percy could just leave that be, right? His mom, Paul, and Estelle were all at the cabin, so he was just making sure whatever had run through this place was long gone.

Except they weren’t.

Percy had wandered deeper and deeper into the system of caverns, following the patterns of strewn monster bodies, upturned stone, and claw marks to find the source when, in the largest cavern yet, Percy found a pile of monster corpses stacked to the ceiling. It was, frankly, concerning how many monsters had been in this cave, and Percy couldn’t help wondering how he, or anyone, would have managed against this many monsters without getting overrun—

Which is when Percy heard the sound of ragged breathing.

His first instinct was to raise his sword in the direction of the sound, but there was nothing. Just inky black. Percy frowned, straining his hearing—and he heard it again, from the same spot. His eyes narrowed.

“…Hello?” He called out tentatively, Riptide held aloft to shine its glow over the gloom. Which is when he noticed something. The darkness… wasn’t receding—

Before the thought could fully register, a slim figure shot out of the patch of black, pale skin barely visible in Riptide’s light before—without warning—his sword moved on its own, Percy barely managing to keep it in his grip before he found himself being pressed against a wall by a dark eyed teenager.

“Who?” The boy rasped out—which is about the moment Percy realized the boy was injured.

“I’m Percy,” Percy offered quickly. “And you’re hurt, let me—”

The arm against his chest pressed in painfully, cutting him off.

“Who sent you?!” The boy snarled, dark eyes narrowing threateningly.

“Nobody?” Percy replied, and the boy scoffed, clearly not believing him, the look of derision in his dark eyes eerily familiar. 

Actually—Percy thought, letting his eyes take in the boy’s features—a lot of things about him were eerily familiar. The silky dark hair, the wide dark eyes, even the olive tone of his skin felt familiar, if only Percy could place where…

Wait. It couldn’t be. Bianca had sworn—shit, what was his name?

“…Nico?” Percy got his body slammed into the wall for his question—which was either a yes or a no, hard to tell.

“For someone who claims not to have been sent by anyone, you sure don’t act like it, Percy,” the boy—Nico—sneered, voice still raspy. “If that even is your name.”

“It is! Look, your sister told me about you, she’s—”

Riptide ripping itself from Percy’s hand and piercing the wall next to his face stopped him short.

“I don’t have a sister,” Nico said, voice flat. “Now, how about you answer my questions—” Nico paused, body tensing for a moment, before he breathed out and the pile of monster corpses in the center of the room began to move. “—or I kill you, and make your corpse do it for me.”

Of course, Bianca’s long lost little brother would be an amnesiac necromancer. Was it too much to ask for someone else to have to deal with this sort of thing?

——————————————————

Meet-Cute? Nah, Meet-Murder XD. Basic notes on this AU, Nico got accidentally let out of the Lotus during TLT (Yep, Percy’s fault), and thanks to that, has no memory of having family, and has basically been surviving on his own, dodging recruitment and death by monster by the skin of his teeth for years. Percy has his work cut out for him XD

TW: Suicide Attempt

Another set of fireworks lit up the night sky, and Percy couldn’t resist chancing a glance at Nico sitting beside him. The lights danced across his face, highlighting the small smile sitting there. The feeling of pure elation at the sight made it hard to repress his own grin—and even harder to look away before Nico could notice.

A year. Well, ten months, if he wanted to be exact. That’s how long Percy had been trying to make everything up to Nico. From the moment he’d seen the younger boy walk into his homeroom, looking so different from the last time he’d seen him, he’d promised to himself that he would make Nico di Angelo smile again. It wasn’t the wide, crooked grin shining with radiant joy that Percy remembered, but it was just as real. 

Just as beautiful.

Guilt struck him at that thought, and instead of a smile, he struggled to hide a grimace. He didn’t deserve to have that kind of thought about Nico, not after what he’d done to him. To Bianca.

“Nico?” Hazel called out as Nico stood abruptly.

‘I’m tired. I’ll go home first,’ Nico signed.

“Let me go with you—”

‘No,’ Nico signed each letter forcefully, cutting Hazel off. ‘Stay. I’ll be fine.’

“If you’re sure…” Hazel said hesitantly, watching her brother with worried eyes.

‘I’m sure,’ Nico signed, the faint smile on his face that only Hazel and Reyna could bring out. ‘Goodbye.’

The ‘goodbye’ was spelled out, and by the time Percy put it together in his head, Nico was already walking home. Percy watched him go, eyes trained on his dark form until long after he disappeared into the crowd. Something was off. Something about the look on Nico’s face, in his dark eyes. But…

Another set of fireworks went off, all their friends cheering, and Percy decided to leave it. Just for now. Tonight, he’d enjoy the fireworks. Tomorrow, he’d talk to Nico.

Or at least, he tried to enjoy the fireworks. But the space at his side felt cold. Empty. The gap where Nico used to be itching incessantly. He kept finding himself looking to the side, the feeling that something was wrong intensifying every time he did.

“Percy?”

Percy barely held back a yelp of surprise, turning from Nico’s empty spot to where Annabeth sat on his other side. She was staring at him, brows furrowed.

“Yeah?” He asked. Annabeth didn’t respond at first, grey eyes intent. Percy fidgeted under her stare—then, without meaning to, Percy’s eyes drifted back to where Nico had been—

“Go. Check on him,” Annabeth said at last, drawing Percy’s attention back to her. Before he could say anything, she smiled at him—but it wasn’t her usual smile. She looked… resigned? “We both know you have somewhere else you want to be.”

Was it that obvious? Percy mused to himself with a wry smile.

“Yeah. I do,” Percy admitted. Standing, he waved at everyone. “See you soon, Annabeth.”

“Goodbye, Percy.” Again, there was something off about that reply, but Percy would deal with it another time. Whatever was going on with Nico felt more important.

Thankfully, Nico and Hazel’s condo wasn’t that far from the venue, so it didn’t take him very long to reach it. Of course, the elevator was broken, which you’d think a place that cost as much as this would be able to fix, but Percy just sighed and started up the stairs. Three flights of stairs, but at least the stairwell was lit and cool. As he pressed in the passcode to enter the condo, he rehearsed what he’d say to Nico in his head.

‘Hey Nico, I got bored and figured we could make plans for tomorrow before you went to sleep?’

Yeah, Percy thought to himself as he opened the door, that’d work—

Percy froze.

There, standing on the edge of the balcony, was Nico.

“Nico!”

Nico didn’t respond—didn’t so much as twitch, and Percy knew he must have turned off his hearing aids.

“Nico!”

Even so, he kept screaming, praying that his voice would reach the boy even as he started running towards him.

Fifteen steps. That was the distance, from the front door to the balcony. Just fifteen steps.

Time seemed to slow down, every moment stretching out into eternity.

Twelve.

Every sound echoed like thunder in his ears.

Nine.

Every breath burned in his lungs.

Six.

His body was numb, ice crawling from the pit in his stomach over his entire body.

Three.

His vision narrowed, until all he could see was Nico—

—stepping off the balcony.

Percy didn’t think—he leapt, his arms blindly reaching out and catching Nico just barely. There was a snap—something had broken, and Percy couldn’t say which of them it was—but he didn’t care.

He’d caught him. The feeling of relief flooding through him almost made him want to cry. His eyes squeezed shut as he focused on pulling Nico back up.

“Let me fall.”

The scratchy, clumsy voice made Percy’s eyes snap open. He stared down at Nico in disbelief, who only looked back at him with a hollow smile and shattered eyes before he repeated himself. No one had heard Nico speak since…

“Let me fall, Per-cy.”

“No!” Percy shouted at him, shaking his head frantically—heart shattering in his chest as Nico’s eyes filled with tears.

‘He hasn’t cried since the funeral.’ Percy could hear Hazel’s anxious voice in his ears from when she’d first told him that. His tears, his voice, both had been lost on that day.

And that was Percy’s fault. And this was, too. He was an idiot for thinking he could make up for what he’d done. His own eyes filled with tears, but he forced himself to focus on pulling Nico up.

He was heavy. God, he was heavy.

“Let go—”

“Shut up!” Percy shouted, the surge of anger giving him just enough strength to start tugging Nico upwards.

He just needed a bit more. Percy didn’t believe in god, not really, but if one existed then please, just give him a little more. Just a bit. That was all he needed.

He’d go to college, give up skateboarding, stop swimming, anything, if it meant he’d have the strength to save Nico. If god needed to take someone, if someone had to die today—!

He pulled Nico back up, the younger boy’s hand clutching the railing—

—‘Take me, and give every day I would have lived to Nico.’

—and fell off himself.

“Percy!” A clumsy, desperate cry was the last thing he heard, as everything went black.

——————————————————

The first thing he noticed was the smell. Disinfectant was the most prominent, but underneath he could smell something… familiar. It was a smell that made his heart ache. Before he could puzzle that out, a rhythmic beeping noise caught his attention. Percy furrowed his brows. It was odd, it kind of reminded him of those heart monitors on tv, but… louder?

There was something about that, the scent and the sound, but Percy struggled to grasp it. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and just staying on one thought was more difficult than it had ever been for him. Which was saying something, since Percy was practically the poster child for someone whose ‘Ass Don’t Have Dopamine’.

Percy’s mind started to drift off again, when something squeezed his hand. The sensation was barely there, like his hand was numb, but something about it made him want to open his eyes. Which was hard, because it felt like there were barbells on his eyelids, but eventually Percy managed to force them open.

He stared, the sound of the beeping stopping for an instant before steadily coming faster and faster. He swallowed, and barely managed to croak out a single word.

“Ni… co.”

Nico’s head snapped towards him, his eyes immediately filling with tears as he stared at Percy. It was his left hand on Percy’s own, the other in a sling at his side. 

He looked like a mess.

His dark eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot, the dark circles that always lingered there even more prominent. His normally soft, loose curls looked matted and rough. His skin looked even paler than it normally did, almost corpse like.

He was the single most beautiful thing Percy had ever seen.

“You’re… alive,” Percy whispered, tears of joy filling his eyes.

“I should-n’t be. You should have, let me die, Per-cy,” Nico said, the miracle that he was still talking tarnished by the words he was saying.

“The hell—!” Percy choked on the rest of his words, his throat too dry. 

“I’m a curse, Per-cy,” Nico continued, hunched over as tears fell down his cheeks. “I should have, died in that, ac-cid-ent. Ma-ma, Bian-ca… I ruin peo-ple’s, lives, Percy.”

“That’s not true!”

“It is!” Nico shouted, his voice cracking on a sob. “You’re here, be-cause of me! It’s my fault!”

“It’s not, Nico. I promise it’s not—”

“Why do you al-ways de-fend me?!” Nico cried, dark eyes as shattered as they’d been when he’d been dangling over the edge. “I’m a mon-ster, Percy! It should have been, me who died then! I killed ma-ma, I killed Bian-ca, and I al-most killed you!”

Again, the realization struck Percy—Nico di Angelo had every right in the world to hate Percy for what he’d done. His lost hearing, Bianca’s death, believing that he was a curse… the blame for all of it lay at Percy’s feet. But, it wasn’t Percy who Nico blamed, it was himself.

As Nico continued to sob, Percy forced himself to move.

It hurt. Even through the haze of what had to be drugs, it hurt. Still, a little pain wasn’t enough to stop him. As gently as he could, Percy pulled Nico into his arms. The younger boy didn’t fight him, just continued to sob, his face buried in Percy’s gown.

“My life… has gotten so much better since I found you again, Nico.” It was hard to talk, his throat was still stubbornly dry, but he swallowed several times and started again. “I was just, going through the motions. I’d given up on everything. But then you walked into my class, let me into your life, and I could never be more grateful for that. Does that sound like a curse to you?”

Nico shook his head.

“I’ll ruin it,” Nico croaked out, voice barely a whisper. “I ruin every-thing.”

“Then I’ll help you fix it,” Percy promised. “Everything you think you ruin, I’ll put it back together.”

“…Why?” Nico asked, his voice heavy with disbelief. Percy smiled.

“Because I love you, Nico di Angelo.” Nico’s breath hitched, and he trembled, but he didn’t move away. Percy squeezed him closer, whispering in his ear, “And because you deserve it.”

It wasn’t over, Percy knew that. No matter how much he loved Nico, it wouldn’t be enough on its own to fix what so many people—including himself—had broken. Even so, Percy wouldn’t stop trying. God had been kind enough to give them both a second chance—

“…love you too,” Nico mumbled into his collarbone. The heart monitor skipped another beat.

—and he wouldn’t waste it.

——————————————————

Fini!

@percicomicrofic

I don’t know what I did wrong.

I stared down at the box in my lap. Inside, I knew, were all my sister’s favorite candies, organized by wrapper color and taped to each of the four walls. Covered in bright red wrapping paper and tied with a green ribbon, her favorite color. I’d spent… all week, working on it. She’d been worried for weeks—since my twelfth birthday, really—that no one was going to give her anything for Valentine’s, so I’d made this. She’d be so happy, I’d thought.

I was wrong.

She hadn’t wanted it. Hadn’t even let me explain, just yelled at me to stop embarrassing her and stormed out of our homeroom. I didn’t get it. No matter what I tried, it felt like this is how things always went with us. If I knew how to stop upsetting her, I would do whatever it took—really, I would. But she wouldn’t tell me, and I couldn’t figure it out on my own. 

My eyes prickled, and my vision went blurry.

It was recess, now, though most kids were in the indoor gym because of the fog. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to play with the other kids anyways. Too small, the teachers had said, so instead of getting to exercise after lunch, I spent most of my days here. At least, since Bianca stopped letting me sit with her.

Gently, I put the box on my desk—I didn’t want to get it wet.

It hadn’t been a problem last year, but since I’d been moved up to Bianca’s grade, everything had been going wrong. Bianca was always annoyed with me, Papa was always stressed, which made Mama and Mama Seph stressed—and I couldn’t fix any of it! I was just a kid—just a stupid, annoying kid, but I tried not to cause trouble. Honest, I did. But I just… couldn’t do anything right. 

I pulled my legs up, curling up into a ball and crossing my arms over my face—where, hopefully, no one would notice the dampness and bully me for it.

Maybe it would be better if I just, disappeared? Maybe that would fix everything I’d messed up. At least, it couldn’t make things worse, could it? I let out a wet, humorless chuckle that was half sob, and wondered… was this going to be the rest of my life?

The door to the classroom slammed open—and I froze, mortified. 

“Man, Grover, it’s your Valentine, at least deliver it yourself—” the unfamiliar boy cut himself off. 

If I didn’t move, maybe he wouldn’t notice I was here?

For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, footsteps—coming closer to me, rather than moving away.

“Are you okay?” The boy asked.

Of course staying still wouldn’t work, stupid Nico.

“Go away,” I grumbled at him. 

“Yeah, I don’t think I can do that,” the boy said, followed shortly after by the scraping sound of a chair being moved. He was sitting next to me now, I could just tell. “So…” he trailed off for a long moment. “You wanna tell me what’s got you down in the dumps?” I grunted and shook my head. “You sure? I’m a pretty good listener, if I do say so myself.”

I shook my head again, but… maybe I should just tell him? Maybe that would make him leave… just like everyone else.

Before I could come to a decision, the boy spoke up again. 

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, just—” he paused, an audible frown in his voice as he added, “—just point me at them and I’ll handle it.”

Handle it? Oh, he thought…

“It’s not like that. It’s… my sister,” I admitted reluctantly, discretely wiping away the remnants of tears with my sleeves.

“What about her?” He asked, that same frowning tone to his voice.

“Does it matter? Why do you even care?!” I bit out, guilt hitting me a moment after I said it. The first time someone wanted to help, and this is how I handled it? Maybe I deserved to be alone.

“Because someone should,” the boy said, voice firm.

Without meaning to, I turned to look at him for the first time. 

He was older than me—my sister’s age, maybe—with warm tan skin, messy black hair, and the prettiest eyes I’d ever seen. An interconnected web of greens and blues, winding into and through each other every which way—whenever I thought I found a patch of one color, a fleck of the other appeared. 

I don’t know how long I stayed there, silently staring at him, but eventually he broke the silence and asked:

“Any other complaints?” 

He was smiling mischievously, and my cheeks burned.

“You’re weird,” I mumbled, my eyes still lingering on his. 

He laughed.

“I get that a lot,” he said, before offering his hand. “Names Percy, by the way.”

“…Nico,” I replied, taking his hand. It tingled. Like when Mama Seph ran her hand through my hair, but better. Warmer. 

He grinned at me, his blue-green eyes making me feel light and fluttery. It was a new feeling—they all were. But I liked them. A lot. 

“Is your sister ‘Bianca di Angelo’?” I stiffened, and Percy noticed, wincing as he quickly added, “I just meant that you look alike, sorry.”

I quickly shook my head.

“No, you don’t have to say sorry. She is. For now.” I muttered the last part under my breath, but Percy caught that too.

“What do you mean?” He asked, looking confused. “Are your parents getting divorced or something?”

I grimaced.

“Please don’t say that, I don’t know how Papa would survive on his own.”

“Alright,” Percy said with a chuckle. “But what did you mean by ‘for now’, then?”

“Well…” I mulled it over, but it was a surprisingly easy decision to make. Trusting Percy, that is.

I told him everything. About the gift, the way Bianca had been recently, anything I could think of that might help him make sense of it—because I sure couldn’t.

“Sorry, I don’t get it either,” Percy said at length. Well, I hadn’t been too hopeful in the first place. 

“Girls are confusing,” I said, sighing. 

“Tell me about it,” Percy replied with a wry smile. “Still, I don’t think you did anything wrong.”

I shook my head instantly.

“I upset her, that means I need to fix it—”

“I don’t think there’s anyway you can fix it, Nico,” Percy insisted. I frowned.

“But I can’t just…” Even I wasn’t sure how I wanted to finish that, and when I didn’t say anything more, Percy spoke up.

“I can’t say I know what’s going on with her, but I think you’re gonna have to wait for her to figure it out. Then, when she’s ready, she’ll talk to you.”

“…You really think so?”

“Yeah,” Percy assured with a smile. 

And, maybe it was hopeful of me, but I wanted him to be right. 

“Shame she didn’t want your Valentine though,” Percy said, pulling a dark green box out of his hoodie pocket—a Valentine. My heart sank in my chest. “Definitely nicer than what anyone else is getting.”

“Is that?” I barely managed to force the question out, pointing at the box in his hands. Percy stared at me for a moment, then looked at the box and burst out laughing. 

“Oh, this isn’t mine. This is from my friend, Grover. He wanted to surprise his girlfriend… speaking of which, do you know which is Juniper’s desk?”

It, wasn’t his? That fluttery feeling was back, and I couldn’t contain the giggle of relief I let out—even if I couldn’t explain why I was relieved.

“You’re, umm, sitting at it,” I pointed out once my giggles calmed down.

“Of course I am,” Percy groaned, putting the box on her desk with a sigh. 

“What about you?” I blurted out.

“Huh? What about me?”

“I mean…” I paused for a moment, my cheeks burning red again as Percy waited for me to finish. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Nope. Just another single guy with no Valentine to call his own.”

“Oh…” I turned away from Percy to stare at the Valentine I’d made, desperately trying to stifle the smile threatening to take over my face. Smiling because he was single would be, mean, right? Still, even with my face turned away, I was still watching him out of the corner of my eye. 

“Yep,” he said, tone teasing as he added, “Maybe I should take that one?” 

It was a joke, and I knew that, but I realized that I wanted that. For him to have it, for Percy to be my Valentine. I’m not sure what expression I must have been making, but Percy looked worried. 

“I’m just—”

“Do you?” I interrupted him, voice louder than I’d intended. He didn’t say anything, expression blank, and I grabbed the Valentine and offered it to him. “W-want it, I mean?”

Percy didn’t say anything for longer than I liked, his eyes darting between the box in my hands and my face so many times I lost track. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision and shot me a teasing smirk.

“Are you asking to be my Valentine? Awfully bold, Nico.”

It was an out. I could say I was joking, or that I didn’t mean it—

“…yes. Yes. I want you to be my Valentine.”

—but I didn’t want to do that. Percy was nice, and kind, and I just, I wanted to be around him. I wanted to keep feeling the things he made me feel.

“Uhm, huh?” 

He looked lost, and I blushed.

“You, you asked first!” I told him, shoving the box at him.

“I did?!” Percy blurted, still looking confused. “I mean, I guess? Um, a-actually…” He took the Valentine gingerly, his own cheeks as pink as mine felt. His confusion faded at last as he smiled at me, blue-green eyes warm. “If you don’t mind that it’s me?”

I shook my head, still blushing furiously.

“Right.” The bell rang. Everyone would be coming back soon. “Should probably be going now.” He mumbled, cheeks still pink as he made his way to the door. “I’ll, come by to pick you up after class?” He asked. I nodded, and he nodded back and started out the door.

“Wait!” I jumped out of my seat, moving over to him.

He stopped, his head turning to look at me—then froze, as I leaned upwards to press my lips against his cheek. My lips tingled where they’d touched his skin as I pulled away, and I knew my face was as red as a tomato.

“I’ll see you later, Percy,” I squeaked out. 

Percy grinned, then leaned down to press a kiss to my own cheek.

“Count on it.”

——————————————————

Conversations that occurred after:

Bianca: Sorry I was so, you know. I don’t think I’ve been handling your transfer the best, but I’ll try to do better from now on.

Nico: It’s fine!

Bianca: Why are you all smiley?

Nico: I have a boyfriend!

Bianca: …You have a what.

———

Grover: Did you do it? And why are you so happy?

Percy: I think I have a boyfriend now?

Grover: What? I sent you to sneak my Valentine onto Juniper’s desk, HOW did you get a boyfriend while doing that?

Percy: …I have no idea. 

Grover: Percy, bro, that’s not an explanation. Bro. Explain yourself!

“What’s wrong, Perseo?” Shivers ran down his spine, his cheeks burning red, and the dark eyed tempter sitting in his lap chuckled languidly. “You said I could come by ‘whenever I wanted’? Well, I wanted.”

“N-Nico, you’re not, thinking straight—”

A cool finger pressing against his lips cut him off, an amused smirk alighting on petal pink lips.

“I’m never thinking ‘straight’ when I’m around you.”

It was a terrible line, and somehow it still left Percy feeling more flustered than he was before. Something about the way Nico was saying it, the sultry purr to his voice, his dark eyes glazed and adoring… this was bad. Very, very bad. No matter how much his lower half seemed to think otherwise, having a lap full of the son of Hades, who was looking at him with those wide doe eyes—was a very bad thing.

You’d think at 22, Percy would know better than to expect life to stop throwing curve balls at him—frankly, he was terrible at dodging them anyways. Instead of being a nearly college graduate with a beautiful girlfriend, he was a single dropout living with his mom and half pining for the man in his lap. And instead of being free of godly interference, it teleported into his room in the form of his friend and crush, Nico di Angelo—who was definitely under a spell or a curse or something, because Nico wasn’t like, this.

“Perseo? Look at me,” Nico whispered with a soft pout—an expression that Percy had never thought he’d see on Nico’s face. “Better, I hate it when you look away. I’m selfish, I know. But, I want you all to myself tonight. Is that bad?”

“…No,” Percy managed to breathe out at length. “But, you’re not in your right mind, Nico.”

“Wrong. Perseo mio, this is all I’ve wanted for years.” Nico punctuated that last word by grinding downwards, the feel of those round cheeks drawing a stifled moan from Percy. The years had been very kind to the younger man.

“You, you said I wasn’t your type?”

“I lied,” Nico said bluntly, like he hadn’t just shattered the last five years of Percy’s confusion and regret. “I’ve become quite good at it, over the years. I told myself all sorts of things, too, like…” he trailed off, biting his lip, then leaned in to whisper, “that I could learn to be happy without you.”

“Nico—”

Another downward grind cut him off, Nico pulling back just enough for Percy to see his face again—he was smiling, angelic features soft and open.

“I can’t, Perseo. I tried. It didn’t work.” Nico shrugged, smile dimming a fraction, a hint of something nearing melancholy in his voice. “I love you, it’s the only lie I could never tell him. Because, I just want you. Always, you.”

‘Him’ had to be Will, Nico’s ex—and if Percy focused on that, he could ignore his heart racing in his chest because of what Nico said. It didn’t matter, anyways. Nico was under a spell, so it didn’t matter—

“Why?” Percy blurted out before he could stop himself. Nico hummed softly.

“That’s a silly question, Perseo mio,” was all Nico said before dipping his head downwards, those dark eyes focused on Percy’s lips—Percy twisted his head away, despite not really wanting to.

“We’re not going any further unless you answer the ‘silly question’, Nico.”

Nico chuckled, fingers drumming absent patterns on Percy’s chest and raising goosebumps with every light touch.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t answer. ‘Why’, hmm? I could tell you about when I first fell for you?” The fingers paused in their drumming, considering, then started anew. “Or about how you kept making me fall, more and deeper, every time we met… every time you cared.” Nico let out a soft sigh, his breath puffing lightly across Percy’s neck and setting his hair on end. “But, I think it’s much simpler than even that. You’re you. That’s the only reason I’ll ever need to love you.” Then, with a devilish smirk, Nico looked Percy up and down before grinding down again. “Though, the rest helps.”

“Fuck, Nico—!”

“That is the idea.”

“Not when you’re like this,” Percy said firmly, holding Nico in place. Nico frowned, and it was the first time Nico had looked like Nico the whole night.

“I want it, you want it, why not? This version of me, he disappears at midnight—”

Everything clicked together in that moment.

“Perfect then, because I want more than just one night.” 

This Nico, sitting in his lap? It was him without filters, without lies, without any of his worries or fears or traumas… and so, it wasn’t Nico di Angelo. At least, not the one Percy knew. The one Percy, kind of liked. Loved, even.

“I want to make you happy—every day of the rest of your life, Nico di Angelo.”

Nico stared at him, glazed eyes slowly regaining clarity.

“…I’ll fight you…” he whispered at length, teeth worrying his bottom lip. Percy let go of his side, trusting that Nico was closer to being himself, and gently cupped the younger man’s chin and tugged until he stopped biting himself so hard.

“Yeah, I figured.”

“Every minute of every day,” Nico added, like it would change anything. Percy grinned at him.

“Sounds like fun.”

“…It’ll be difficult—I’m difficult.” It was barely a whisper, but Percy heard it, wishing again that they hadn’t missed each other so many times—

“Maybe I like difficult.”

—but no longer. Because Percy Jackson didn’t want easy, or simple. It had never been what he wanted. Even as a kid, he just wanted someplace to belong, and someone to belong to—

“Promise?” Nico mumbled, as he drifted off to sleep. Percy pressed a short kiss to his cheek.

“Promise.”

—and with Nico di Angelo, he’d have both. 

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