Nico Di Angelo celebrated his birthday on the day the Greeks and Romans came together to defend their ways of life. It was the day the connection between the God's Greek and Roman aspects made peace, and also the day Nico found peace for himself, within himself. It was the day that he had made friends.
It was months later that he decided this made him fifteen. For how long he had been alive, it messed with his head, and this solution was easy for him. It made sense to him, even if it didn't make sense to anyone else.
It was the middle of the night when he, feeling numb and alone, ventured from camp. His friends were too intrigued by the presence of Apollo, and had barely time for anything else. Especially now that their friends were rescued, and the Grove of Dodonia had been saved. They were celebrating. No offense to anyone, but Nico didn't like parties.
That was how he ended up shadow traveling through New York to end up at one Jackson residence, the tiny apartment he had visited maybe three times before. He smiled at the thought of the older boy inside. He was probably tangled in his sheets right now, stuck in deep slumber. He had pushed his shirt off of his body and let it fall to the ground. The night was hot. His hair was mussed, a combination of sweat and movement creating the awful bedhead he always seemed to have, upon waking up. Nico souls crawl in next to, would wrap his skinny arms around-
The apartment door opened. Percy Jackson, tall and athletic with that notorious bedhead stood in his swim team hoodie and a pair of blue boxers. He was rubbing sleep out of his eyes and the impression of the spiral from a notebook was decorating his head.
"Nico? How did you get past the security door?" He asked, tiredly. Percy had most definitely just woken up.
"The shadows, Jackson. Remember?"
"Right."
They stood there in awkward silence, assessing the each other. When they finally spoke, both their words came crashing out at the same time.
"Is camp okay?" -Percy
"I need help with something."-Nico
More awkward silence.
"Camp is okay." Nico announces. "But I'm one bit of a spot."
"Um." Percy bites his lip, his heart stuck in two places, thinking of his friends and his place in college and everything that empowered the decisions he'd been making over the past few months.
"Don't worry, Jackson." Nico says, pushing past Percy into the apartment, "This is a monster free mission."
"O...Kay."
Percy follows Nico like a lost dog-in his own house!- all the way into the bathroom.
"Sally cuts your hair, doesn't she?" He asks, shuffling through the cabinet behind the mirror.
"Um, yeah. Do you...I thought you..."
Nico pulled out the buzzers and the pair of orange plastic scissors he'd been looking for.
"Cut my hair, Jackson. The length is getting irritating. Cut it...like yours."
"Okay." Percy agrees.
He lead Nico to the bathtub, and instructs him to sit down before placing himself on the ledge behind.
"So you want an undercut? Like I've got? You're sure?"
"Yes, Percy. Swear on the Styx, I am sure."
Percy's eyebrows raise before he mutters another "okay.." and sets to work. He starts by trimming it, just a bit to make sure the razor doesn't yank on his hair too hard.
Nico's hair is soft to the touch, like downed feather, and he runs his fingers through it, wondering if the boy notices.
If he does, he says nothing.
Nico is completely relaxed.
The process takes a lot more time than either anticipated. Especially since Percy didn't have a lot of experience doing this sort of thing. He works carefully, and even more carefully when he plugs in the buzzers and starts shaving.
Nico's heart is hammering. He imagines it going as fast as the buzzer shakes, rocking even harder with every time Percy caresses his scalp. It's on purpose, he can tell, the way the older boy's long fingers glide through the hair left on the top of his head.
When Percy finishes, he brushes away the loose hairs, and then cleans up Nico's neck with a cold wet towel, moving it slow across his skin.
Nico inhales sharply, his face turning bright red, and he squirms.
"I think I'm good now." He says, shooting up and out of the tub.
Percy, wide eyed, climbs out himself, and puts the buzzers back in the cabinet. "Okay." He whispers quietly. "Okay."
The two boys cleaned up, removing all the hair and putting it in the small bathroom waste basket, save for one lock, which Percy had unceremoniously stuffed in his pocket when Nico hadn't been looking.
When the bathroom was all done and spotless, Percy led Nico to his room, and then out the window and onto the fire escape. The scene was all too familiar.
"Different fire escape." Nico says, running a hand along the half rusted metal railing.
"Same boys." Percy adds, looking at Nico. He was staring off at the street below, face half covered by shadows. He was afraid that Nico might disappear at any moment.
"No. We are much different now, Percy." Nico says, slowly, thinking. "We've both been through hell. Quite literally and figuratively." He takes a deep breath before continuing. "I am almost...a new person entirely. I have...friends. I have...hope."
"You have a home." Percy's still staring at him, not for the first time wondering how such a small boy could hold so much darkness.
"I needed a change. I needed to look in the mirror and physically see that I was a different person."
"Hence the haircut."
"Hence the haircut."
They both stood quiet again. In peace. They watched Calypso's moonlace thrive, and spent the next hour and a half pointing out the stars, trying to figure out which way their deceased friends were wondering in the sky.
"Thank you, Percy. I..."
"You don't have to say anything. I know."
Nico was looking at the older boy now, and they both had shifted, to face each other. Without hesitation, and before he could back out, Nico leaned into his tiptoes and pressed his lips against Percy's.
"Goodnight, Jackson."
And with that, he phased into the shadows, leaving Percy stunned into frozen silence on his fire escape, touching his lips with shaking fingers, wondering what that meant for now.