if percy jackson was a lez

"You're not actually mad about this."

It kind of seems like Nico's actually mad about this. Something about the harsh scoff and the way he doesn't respond or even look at Percy at all, just keeps furiously rifling through the sheets in search of his underwear. A few subtle hints Percy's picking up on. Now, how to fix it...

"Come on, you asked me to!"

"I, what, you - that doesn't count!" Nico stammers, glaring up at Percy, and well, that solves part of the problem. The most important part, really. It's a glare that's definitely killed weaker men, but Percy's a little too focused on the (admittedly, angry) red flush on his boyfriend's cheeks to be worried about a silly little thing like imminent dismemberment.

༄༄༄

For the first time in his life, Nico feels warm.

Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's the itchy suit he's wearing. Maybe it's the fact that Percy and him have been dating for only a week and they're about to get married in less than an hour.

Nico stands in front of the mirror, adjusting his bow-tie for the millionth time that evening. He exhales heavily, fans his face with his hands, and adjusts his bow-tie again.

The past week, heck, the past month has felt like such a blur. When Nico and Percy had reunited for the last month of Camp's summer session after not seeing each other for almost a decade, neither of them had expected the month to end with their marriage. And despite Nico being utterly, irrevocably in love with a certain Percy Jackson, he still worries if their relationship is actually real or Percy's going to get bored one day in the future and walk out on him. To be fair, everyone had expected Percy and Annabeth to stay together forever - especially considering they fell into Tartarus together, and that place does things to you. Nico knows it all too well. And if Percy and Annabeth can't stay together, what chance do Nico and Percy have? What if getting married is a bad idea? What if Percy hates him?

Nico huffs and reties his bow-tie, then wonders if he should have chosen a sober tie instead. In the mirror of his cabin bathroom, he notices Hazel, clad in a beautiful black gown made by Underworld tailors just for the occasion, walk in.

"Is it really hot in here or is it just me?"

"I'm sure your cold feet will keep you cooled enough."

Nico grimaces, and Hazel sighs in that affectionate, slightly exasperated tone she uses only for Nico.

"Look, I would tell you that you're being silly for getting married so quickly, but I know you love Percy, and the guy loves you too. You're my brother. Don't think I wouldn't fight if I thought you were making a mistake." Hazel smiles. "And the guy in question is absolutely going insane out there, and I'm scared he'll blow up more toilets."

Hazel offers her arm and Nico smiles hesitantly. "Coming?"

༄༄༄

The wedding is objectively beautiful. Camp Half-Blood is covered in a beautiful pink sky, slowly darkening from the impending sunset. A cool breeze tickles through the chattering crowds of various demigods and a random assortment of gods, spreading the sweet smell of blooming strawberries and summer wildflowers. The beach is decorated in rolls of streamers and balloons, with enough chairs for an army of guests. The ocean waves catch the glittering rays of the setting sun, and everything is picturesque.

Occupying an entire row of chairs for himself, even Hades is dressed for the occasion - which basically means he's adorned every individual soul that consists his robe with tiny flower crowns. Sally and Paul are alternatively bursting into tears even though the ceremony hasn't even started yet. Poseidon looks a little confused but mostly supportive.

Nico doesn't notice any of it, though. When he sees Percy standing in the middle of the makeshift altar in his brilliant cerulean suit, Nico can physically feel all his worries subsiding to the back of his mind.

The wedding is objectively beautiful, but in Nico's mind, all it can be reduced to is one overwhelming event of utter happiness, enough tears to last a lifetime, and an entire evening of staring right into Percy's eyes. Nico is living on a high and he doesn't want it to end.

༄༄༄

The crash comes too, of course, the ill-fortuned shadow of every happy occasion Nico has ever celebrated in his life.

The sun has finally set, dragging the tapestry of the night into focus. The wedding reception is going well, but when Nico's worries get too much to handle, he escapes into a secluded corner of the Big House.

Nico paces in circles around the spot, incessantly tapping the long-empty wine glass. The streamers behind him rustle, but he takes no note of it. On his hand, the simple golden band sits like a weight of thousand tons, either signifying the best decision of his life or his greatest mistake. And that's the problem - he doesn't know yet. Percy has been sweet and loving and basically everything he's ever wanted all week but every happy moment feels like he's waiting for a bomb to explode or this dream to end or for Percy to pop up and say something like 'Yeah, I lied, we're getting a divorce and I'm taking our cat'. They don't even have a cat but Nico's overthought this exact topic so much that he's somehow managed to plan out their retirements.

"Are you having second thoughts?" a familiar voice says, and Nico turns to find a sheepish and worried Percy.

Nico plasters on a smile, about to say something to diffuse the situation, but bites his words back. This is Percy. They're married. He should know what Nico's going through.

"No, it's just... I'm worried. I'm worried that even though you loved Annabeth so much, you still broke up, and if you can break up with the greatest love of your life, what chance do we have?"

When Percy doesn't say anything, Nico bites his lip and sighs, hoping he hasn't gone too far.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything - "

"No, I'm glad you told me this."

Percy sets Nico's glass on a random table and takes his hands in his. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you have to compare yourself to anyone, Nico."

"It's fine, it wasn't your fault."

"It kind of was," Percy presses on. "Please, I never want you to feel like you're... anything less, because you're special to me, Nico. You're amazing and I feel so happy when I'm with you and nothing, literally nothing can compare to finally marrying you today and having you be mine. Annabeth was... different. I loved her but it was the kind of love that fizzles out quickly, you know? And she definitely wasn't the greatest love of my life. You are. Please, don't worry about anyone else."

Nico chews on his lip, all worries not displaced from his mind yet.

"And our love? Is it the kind that fizzles out quickly, too?"

"Do you think it is?" Percy asks, then sighs when Nico still doesn't respond. "Look, I know we've made a very... hasty decision. And I've said this in my vows already, but this marriage, this ring, it's also my promise to you. I promise that every day we wake up, I make the conscious decision to put our relationship first. I promise that whatever happens to us, we'll always go through it together. Everything might be a little raw right now, but I promise, we'll build something so good you'll never doubt anything, Nico. Do you trust me?"

Nico hesitates, then a wide grin cracks across his face. Percy's right - adversaries and troubles are never far from them, but at least they don't have to go through everything alone. They'll always have a home to come back to, and Nico wouldn't give it up for the world.

Nico grabs Percy's face and presses a rough kiss onto his lips.

"I love you, Percy Jackson," he murmurs and he can feel Percy smiling against his lips.

"Percy Jackson-di Angelo now," Percy corrects, and Nico suddenly feels giddy. He's just gotten married to the love of his life. They have an entire lifetime of happiness awaiting them. And Nico knows that as long as they're in it, they're in it together.

Weight snaked around Nico's torso, fingers sliding up until a palm settled on his chest. He let himself be pulled in, to be flushed against the warmth of bare skin behind him.

A kiss landed on the back of his neck followed by words Nico couldn't catch murmured into the same spot.

"Percy?"

"Morning, Nico."

"I really thought you'd pick Italian for our anniversary dinner instead of sushi." Percy fumbled with his chopsticks as Nico effortlessly picked up another piece of sashimi. "Y'know, being the son of a sea god doesn't automatically give me proficiency in seafood-related utensils, right?"

Nico poured some soy sauce into a shared bowl and reached over to dip his sushi before responding. "Truth be told, I was actually in the mood for some cacio e pepe." He brought the raw fish up to his mouth, inspecting the texture of the salmon before shifting his eyes towards Percy. "But then, I realized: Why should I only get dinner when I can get both dinner and a show?" Nico swallowed his sashimi, a lopsided smile spreading across his face.

As Percy watched him swallow, his eyes lit up with amusement.

"Fuuuck you!" He dropped his chopsticks with a soft clink before reaching across the table to steal a piece of sushi off Nico's plate.

"Hey!" Nico's brows furrowed together, but he couldn't help it as his smile grew larger. "You thieving fuck!"

Percy shrugged off Nico's comment, dunking the salmon in soy sauce and swallowing it whole. "Serves you right!" He leaned back in his seat, abandoning the idea of chopsticks entirely and stabbing a maki roll like a trident. "I hope you learned an important lesson today." Percy began, raising the piece of sushi dramatically into the air. "You don't make a fool out of—"

The maki roll slid off Percy's chopstick and fell into the same bowl he had previously used to dunk Nico's sashimi in.

Several jets of soy sauce launched into the air and splattered across Percy's face. He had fortunately closed his eyes as it happened, but the damage was already done.

Black, salty streaks ran down his chin and dripped onto his shirt.

Nico brought a hand toward his mouth as he tried to muffle the fit of laughter that threatened to spill over him.

With eyes still closed, Percy inhaled a great deal of air before sighing deeply.

"I hate it here."

He reached for his napkin, setting down his sole chopstick, and started to wipe his face. "You know you're gonna pay for this, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Nico patted his back pocket just to be sure. "I brought my wallet with me."

Not one to waste an opportunity to kick his boyfriend while he was down, Nico flashed his black Amex card. "I guess that's just one of the perks of being a broke college student and having your boyfriend's dad be the god of wealth, huh?"

"That's not what I meant."

Before Nico could ask for Percy to clarify, the son of Poseidon set down his napkin. The playful smile he had earlier had been replaced with a sultry grin.

"Sushi isn't the only raw meat you're getting tonight."

Nico coughed and sputtered, feeling a heat creep up his neck. "Wha—?"

reblog this post if your account is a trans safe space or owned by a trans person!

Nico knows he has weird powers. It had been one of the things that made him deeply insecure through most of his pre-teen and teenage years, something that constantly reminded him he was different even by demigod standards. He had spent years watching people hesitate around him, stare too long, whisper when they thought he couldn’t hear.

He doesn’t care much anymore, to be honest. Still, in this situation, he has to go — what the fuck?

Most demigods with powers trigger their abilities through a direct connection to their emotions. It’s not rare, and even less so for a child of the Big Three, but even then, Nico had never known he could do this.

The this in question being making Percy Jackson faint and feel his life force become just the slightest bit weaker from one kiss. Their first one.

In Percy’s new apartment in New York, meaning Nico couldn’t even run to Camp and demand Chiron explain what horrifying new ability had decided to manifest itself tonight. Great.

After Nico freaks the fuck out, shoves nectar down Percy’s throat with shaking hands, settles Percy’s unconscious head on his lap while sitting on the couch, and waits for the boy to hopefully rejoin the world of the living, he tries to piece together how this could’ve happened. This has never happened before! And he had kissed people before. He had a boyfriend for almost a year, and they kissed and made out and had sex and everything had been perfectly normal. No accidental soul-sucking involved.

Nico tries to retrace the last few minutes in his head, wondering if something triggered him somehow.

He remembers Percy convincing him to dance in the middle of the living room while some embarrassingly cheesy song played from the movie they had mostly stopped paying attention to half an hour ago. The apartment had been dim except for the TV lighting the room in flickering shades of blue and gold, the city lights glowing faintly through the windows behind Percy.

Nico remembers laughing as Percy completely butchered the rhythm and nearly stepped on his foot twice. He remembers Percy’s warm, calloused hands holding his, steady and familiar despite the awkward swaying. He remembers sea-green eyes looking at him with this unbearably soft expression Nico still wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of.

And he remembers feeling happy, just this warm and slowly familiar sensation along his whole body.

The music eventually stopped, leaving the room feeling quiet except for the muffled sounds of traffic outside. They looked at each other for a second too long, standing close enough that Nico could feel Percy’s breath ghosting against his face.

Then, like two magnets finally giving in, they leaned toward each other.

The kiss had been soft. Careful. Percy’s hand had tightened slightly around his. Nico remembers feeling this sudden rush in his chest, sharp and warm and terrifying all at once, butterflies exploding so violently in his stomach it almost hurt, like a bone making contact with a drum.

And then — boom.

Percy’s body dropped to the floor.

Nico barely managed to catch him before his head cracked against the floor.

His train of thought is rudely interrupted by a groan from beneath him. Nico immediately looks down to find Percy blinking awake, dark hair even more tousled than usual and confusion written all over his face.

“What…” Percy winces. “What happened?”

Nico bites the inside of his cheek before answering as calmly as he can manage.

“We kissed. You fainted.” A beat. “That might’ve been my fault. Sorry.”

Percy frowns, which Nico unfortunately finds extremely cute even now. His eyebrows pull together as he pushes himself up slightly.

“You made me faint?” he asks. Very confusedly “How?”

Nico shrugs. “A child of Hades thing, I think.”

Percy narrows his eyes even more. “Will this happen every time I kiss you?”

Nico absolutely does not internally short-circuit at the implication there will apparently be future kissing. He really doesn’t.

“Uh,” Nico says intelligently. “No? Well, I’m not sure. It’s never happened before, but I don’t think so.”

The son of Poseidon smiles at that in a way that makes him look unfairly pretty despite having just experienced temporary death-by-makeout, and when he speaks, he sounds almost excited. “Wanna try again?”