jason grace defender

He opened his mouth to reply but Jason continued on, "Who forgets about not one, not two, but three cucumbers in the fridge?" He sighed. "I wasn't even aware they could go this mushy."

That's when Nico realised what he was looking at — the pale green liquidised, almost frothy remains of a forgotten cucumber. Yeah, alright, Nico wasn't aware they could get that mushy either.

He stepped into the kitchen, filling and clicking on the kettle as he spoke, "Just get Percy to deal with it."

"And be faced with his sad seal eyes?" Jason asked, clearly exasperated. "You know I can't handle that expression."

Nico hummed an agreement. He also couldn't handle those eyes. Percy looked so sad, like a small, hurt child and not the six foot swim team captain that he was, and it made Nico's heart clench each time. Whether Percy knew it had such an effect on him, Nico hadn't found out yet.

Then Jason turned and continued to try and remove the liquified cucumber from it's packaging. Now, Nico saw a lot of gross things thanks to his major — just last week he'd been researching the stages of human decomposition, photos and all — but even the cucumber made his empty stomach feel queasy.

"Good luck dealing with this for the rest of your life," Jason grumbled as he turned to the second cucumber that was thankfully less of a liquid.

Heat flushed to Nico's cheeks before he had the chance to even process Jason's words. He'd only been dating Percy for just under a month, the idea of forever or even post-graduation felt so far off. The fact Jason thought they might last that far, that Percy wouldn't have got fed up with him by then… Nico wasn't sure where to place such a flood of feelings.

It was too damn early. No feelings allowed until he'd at least had his coffee and a cigarette.

So, Nico turned, two mugs in hand, leaving Jason's grumble over the cucumbers behind him. As he pushed open Percy's door, he smirked at the man buried under blue sheets, only nose above visible from where he'd hidden himself.

"Is there a reason you have, well, had three cucumbers in the fridge?"

Percy's eyebrows shot to his forehead as he scrambled into a sitting position, duvet flying off in a flail of limbs to reveal bare chest.

"My cucumbers!" Percy shouted.

Nico couldn't prevent the laugh that escaped his lips as a half naked Percy stumbled past him, bed head sticking up in every direction possible. Nor could he prevent the smile that remained there as he leant against Percy's door frame, Percy's baby seal eyes and verbal apologies directed at a now forgiving Jason.