Nico was in, what someone might call, an awkward situation.
Five minutes had passed and yet there he stood, doing absolutely nothing but watching the person who was lying in the bed in front of him. Nico knew he should have shooed the person off – it wasn't the first time he had had to wake up some idiot that had fallen asleep on one of the beds on show while at work – but something stopped him. And that something was; the guy was very cute, and he was very gay.
The guy was curled up on the bed in a tight ball, snoring quietly, looking happy and relaxed. His brown hair was curled and soft, eye lashes long and his skin was a beautiful and interesting mix of milky white and a dark brown. With the sunshine sneaking in and illuminating him, he looked… angelic. Oh god, was he gay.
"Nico, what are you doing?"
"Gah!"
Nico jumped a mile, heart beating fast, as he whipped around to face his amused co-worker and best friend. Percy was smirking away, hand on hip, no doubt enjoying Nico's gay pining like the dick he was.
"What the fuck Percy?! You scared the living shit outta me!"
"If you were doing your job instead of gawking over sleepy boy over there, you wouldn't have got scared."
"I wasn't gawking!"
"Of course you weren't," Percy said with a roll of his eyes, "No, you were pining."
"S-Shut up!" Nico crossed his arms and looked away, cheeks flushed.
Why did he decide to make 'Match-Maker Blowfis' his best friend again? Most people didn't pick up on his crushes, but Percy always did. It was like he psychic or something.
Percy tipped his head, watching the sleeping guy, and his smirk grew. Uh oh, Nico thought, that isn't good.
"As cute as he looks sleeping away, you need to wake him up," Percy told him, "If Mr. Dick finds out you're slacking again he's going to have your head… At least it's not necessarily your fault this time."
"It was one time!"
"Twice, actually. You feel asleep on the job twice, Nico."
"Well, shouldn't it show how good the beds are? That I had to risk losing my job just to use them?" Nico argued.
Percy cocked his hip out and rose an eyebrow.
"…Fuck you."
"I'm sorry, was that directed at me or the sleeping guy?"
"Percy?!"
He went bright red as Percy laughed, and began whacking him to make him stop laughing. Of course, that just made Percy laugh even harder like the huge dick he was, and begin playfully whacking Nico back. It escalated into a silly slap war, and Nico momentarily forgot what they were fighting about.
"Um, guys? What are you doing?"
Nico and Percy looked up at Frank, trying to look as innocent as they could when Percy had Nico in a headlock, and Nico was hissing like a cat stuck out in the rain... it worked as well as you imagine it would.
"…Friendship?" Percy answered. "You're doing… friendship?" Frank asked.
He gave his boyfriend a long hard look, wondering just how those two always managed to get into such ridiculous situations. He swore that he could leave them for even just one second and they'd somehow manage to cause world war 3.
"…I panicked." "Yeah, I guessed that," Frank sorted, "Just thought I'd remind you two that it's your break now… and that I got you guys some coffee to keep you going."
He handed the two of them their coffees, and Nico thanked whatever omnibenevolent mystic being created Frank Zhang because truly, he was a gift to humanity. If Percy had snagged him, Nico would have totally tried his luck with the big guy; he was juts too perfect.
"Thank fucking Christ!" Nico exclaimed. "Frank, you're the best!"
"Nico's right," Percy agreed as he leaned over to give Frank a kiss, "You're the best, babe."
Frank blushed, and Nico was thankfully that he wasn't the only one who became a tomato any time a pretty guy was even remotely nice to him. He could always rely on Frank to make him feel better for being so awkward when it came to romance.
"Why are you both hanging around here anyway?" Frank asked after he had calmed down.
Nico took the lid off his coffee, face pleasantly flushing at the sudden hear, and breathed in the sweet scent of the drink. He took a sip and sighed happily; Frank truly was the best.
"Nico's gay for the guy who's sleeping on the bed over there," Percy bluntly explained.
And Nico immediately choked on his drink.
"D-Dude, what the fuck?!" Nico coughed. "Subtlety, ever heard of it?"
"I have but eh, it isn't my speciality."
"Really? Would have never guessed."
"Shut up."
"…He looks like your type," Frank commented.
"Frank, how dare you betray me like this," Nico gasped, "You're not supposed to side with him!"
Frank shrugged and tried to hide his smile behind his drink. Percy stuck his tongue out and chucked his arm over his Frank, grinning widely.
"What? I'm just saying that he does look like your type."
The guy on the bed grumbled quietly and rolled around, curling up into an even tighter ball like a kitten. Oh god, Nico thought, that's too cute. No human being should be allowed to be that cute, he should be sued.
"You need to go and wake him up, Death Boy," Percy snickered, "Or else, I'm doing it."
"Oh god no, you're not doing that!" Nico said. "Who knows what you'll say to him!"
"So you are going to go wake him up?"
"No, I-I mean he'll probably wake up soon-"
"Nico, I will go and wake him up if you don't," Frank cut in.
"…Frank Zhang, this friendship is over."
"Shame, now if you'll excuse me…"
Frank made a move as if to walk towards the sleeping guy, but Nico wasn't taking that risk. If anyway was going to wake up Sleepy Boy, it was him, not MatchMaker 1 & 2. And so he put the lid on his coffee, thrust it into Percy's hand and adjusted his collar.
"Hold my coffee."
"How badass," Frank snorted.
"Go get 'im, Death Breath!" Percy cheered.
Without turning around, Nico flipped off his friend and marched towards the occupied bed. He hoped he looks confident and actually badass, and not like he was about to explode into a thousand anxious rainbows. His heart beat fast and his hands were clammy, but he was going to do this. He was going to do this… probably. He stood beside the bed, and hated how his heart skipped a beat at the little murmur that left the guy's soft lips. It wasn't fair how pretty the guy looked, it just wasn't. With a little shaking hand, he began tugging on the guy's jacket… but he didn't wake up. He just grumbled and shuffled around a bit.
"Oh come on," Nico muttered, "Just wake up already."
He tugged a little harder and coughed, trying to wake him up in the most subtle way possible; he wasn't exactly about to aggressively shake someone awake after all. Thankfully, that seemed to do it. The guy yawned and stretched, looking like a kitten, and blinked a few times, revealing a pair of gorgeous almond eyes.
"Mmm, wha?"
"Y-You need to get up… sir."
From across the room, Percy face-planted. Loudly. Nico could hear him do it, and couldn't help but wince. Sir? Sir? Why did he call the guy sir? What the fuck was he thinking? The guy sat up and blinked at Nico.
"…Hi."
Even his voice was pretty, Nico thought, how the fuck was that fair?
"H-Hey," he replied, voice cracking. The guy went silent for a while, before abruptly jerking up onto his feet, nearly knocking into Nico. It was if he was being controlled like a puppet on a string, and when he continued to sway on his feet, Nico couldn't help but wonder if the guy was really being a puppet.
"Sorry for falling asleep," the guy apologised quietly, "I do that a lot. I didn't get you into trouble, did I?"
"I-It's fine. I don't think anyone else noticed… it has been pretty quiet today."
Nico snuck a look over his shoulder, only to see that Frank and Percy had disappeared, no doubt leaving him to gay out on his own. How nice of them.
"You sure? I feel bad about possibly getting you into trouble… maybe I could make up to you?"
"No, no, it's fine-"
"You really going to say no to a free coffee."
"Honestly, it's- wait, what?"
Nico paused, the guy's words processing in his head. Was he… was he asking him out? No, it couldn't be. That stuff only happened in movies, and especially not to guys like him.
"I'm asking if you want to go out for a coffee… to apologise for possibly getting you into trouble."
The guy smiled softly, and Nico knew that regardless of whether the guy was asking what Nico thought he was asking, he was going to say yes. Yep, he was a goner, and he didn't even care.
"Yes! I-I mean sure, that sounds nice… I like coffee."
The guy laughed softly – and of course it was the nicest laugh Nico had ever heard – and Nico couldn't help but smile. Pretty Boy didn't think he was weird, that was good. Very good.
"Me too," the guy chuckled, "I'm Clovis by the way."
"Pretty name," Nico said before he could even think about it. The guy – Clovis – bit his lip and looked away, blushing faintly. "Uh, ignore that. And I'm Nico."
"I don't think I will, Nico… and if it's any consolations, I think your name is quite nice too."
"Oh-" Nico swallowed, ignoring to ignore the fierce heat in his face "-Thank you."
"So… coffee?"
"Yeah... I get off at six."
"I'm really bad at keeping an eye on the time… think I could give you my number so you can text me when you're done?"
"Yes! Yes, I definitely can."
Clovis pulled a pen out of his pocket and Nico gave him his arm without thinking of it; he didn't have any paper on him, and he didn't want to risk time searching around for some just for his boss to swoop in and ruin everything. Clovis just smiled and wrote down his phone numbers is slow, lazy movements like he had all the time in the world.
"Thank you."
Usually when Nico said something as silly as that, he winced and would repeatedly play that moment over and over again in his head until it was all he could think of for a good few hours. But when Clovis just laughed and smiled, Nico didn't feel bad at all.
"No, thank you."
"Uh… okay. See at six then."
"See you."
With one last smile and a subtle wink, Clovis turned his heel and swayed out of the shop, looking half asleep as he barely avoided knocking into people. Nico loved it, and couldn't help but grin. He had a date (?) with a pretty boy. A pretty boy was going to buy him coffee. He was getting a date with a pretty boy and coffee for free. Could this day get any better?
"Hey Death Breath, come get your fucking coffee," Percy called out, "And Clarisse got some donuts so come get them before I eat them all."
Yes, the answer was yes. This day could get even better. And this day was only going continue getting better. Nico practically skipped over to Percy, a light and bubbly feeling in his chest as he did so. Percy flung an arm around his shoulder and handed Nico his drink, smirking away. He said nothing, and he didn't have to... Perhaps it's wasn't such a bad idea making Percy his best friend.