I do not own the story Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The rightful author is Rick Riordan
I am simply a fan… Who happens to like slash: D
All of the characters belong to Rick Riordan, and the new characters that I have added do not exist in his books.
What is love? 2: A Percy Jackson and the Olympians fan fiction
Nico was staying as a guest at Percy Jackson's house after Mrs. Blowfis insisted when he said he was homeless. Percy was studying for a test, and Nico decided to help him. Because of their ADHD, none of this would be easy. Nico sat cross-legged on the ground, submerged in a book. Percy lay on the couch, sprawled out, going through papers. He leaned over and looked at Nico.
"So, how do you study?" Percy asked.
Nico shrugged. "Just what I'm doing; reading and re-reading and re-reading."
Percy snorted. "Sounds fun,"
"Do you wanna pass or what?"
"I honestly don't care. And plus, how can you read anything with dyslexia?"
Nico flipped the book around. It was written in Greek. "Amazon,"
"Oh," Percy said, chuckling.
There was a still silence as Nico continued to read. Percy's books where in English, so he threw it over his shoulder, crashing into something.
Nico jumped and turned around. "Damn it, Percy!" He threw down his book and looked around for the damage.
"Why do you care so much?" Percy asked.
"Because I don't want you to break Mrs. Blofis' stuff, duh…!" Nico snapped. He found the broken glass ornament. He crouched down to examine the damage. Nico started to pick up small bits by hand.
Percy sat down in front of him.
Nico looked up at Percy and accidentally cut himself with the jagged edge to a piece of glass. He cursed loudly.
"Aww shit," Percy said. "You really got yourself there, huh?"
"Ya think…?"
"Okay, okay," Percy said. He pulled a bandage out of his pocket.
Nico licked his cut. Percy waved the bandage in his face. "Hello, son of Hades! Hmm, you have a pretty pink tongue."
Nico gave Percy a strange look. "Can I have the…?"
Percy unraveled the bandage and popped it onto Nico's finger. "All better!" he said. "Except its missing one thing..!"
Nico snatched his hand away. "Don't even think about it."
Percy stuck out his tongue and rolled his eyes. Then he waved it around sensually in his mouth.
"Dude, kill the male prostitute thing."
Percy laughed.
Percy and Nico tried to study some more until around 5:00. Nico was about to fall asleep.
"Hey, let's watch TV," Percy said, shaking him awake. Nico glared and rubbed his eyes, smearing his eyeliner. Percy snorted and sat cross-legged on the couch, flipping through the channels. Nico sat down on the far end of the couch, away from Percy. He held his head. Percy was getting into in this weird show about teen moms when a commercial came on.
"That's it, I'm calling a taxi." Nico sighed.
The doorbell rang. Percy jumped up and ran to the door with a wad of money. "Hello pizza girl," Nico heard him say.
Nico got up and went to the door where the pizza girl was making change.
"Oh, this is my friend Nico." Percy said, elbowing Nico affectionately. Nico sighed sleepily and leaned his back against the door.
"Nico, stop falling asleep everywhere," Percy complained.
The pizza girl smiled. "Is he your little brother?"
"No, just a friend…"
"A boyfriend…?"
Nico choked on his saliva.
"I saw the way you looked at him." The pizza girl giggled and looked back to Percy for answers.
The pizza girl handed Percy the box of pizza and smiled.
"See you around Mr. Jackson," she said, turning and walking back to her car. Percy smiled after her and shut the door. "She's really nice for a pizza delivery girl."
"Is this really my life…?" Nico asked himself, groaning.
Nico turned and leaned his forehead on the wall, facing outward. Percy got up behind him and pulled himself into Nico's rear, making mock sexual noises.
"Percy, you bitch." Nico joked.
Percy howled with laughter. "But hey, you have a tight ass."
Nico rolled his eyes and walked back into the living room, slumping on the throw pillows.
"Hungry?" Percy asked, sliding the pizza box on the counter and joining Nico on the couch.
"No, I'm fasting."
"For what…?"
"…The I haven't been hungry for day's holiday." Nico ran his hand through his silky black hair.
Out of nowhere, the lights flickered, and smashed off. Percy froze. Nico didn't budge. Percy fumbled through his pockets and produced a small flashlight. He waved it around the room. Nico held a throw pillow in his face. Percy aimed the light over at Nico. He held the light to his face and smiled. Nico smiled back briefly.
Percy sprawled out on the couch. He flipped in and out. At last he said, "I'm horny."
Nico yawned.
"I'm so horny." Percy said again.
Nico sat up. "I have to go to the bathroom," he started to get up, but Percy stopped him.
"Want me to help you?"
"Uh… no thanks, no…"
"But it's so dark, what if you bump into something?"
"Son of Hades," Nico said, pointing to himself in the darkness.
"Are you sure you have to go?"
"My bladder sure says so."
"Ouch; now I'm really horny."
"Then go rape your neighbors and leave me be."
Percy laughed, but Nico sat still, not finding any humor in his suggestion.
"Why are you so serious?" Percy asked.
"Because I'm tired and my bladder is full." Nico said, getting up and going to the bathroom.
Percy sat alone in the dark living room, waving around the mini flashlight. It was still turned off. He threw it in the air and caught it about five times. The sixth time, he dropped it. Ever since Percy and Mrs. Blowfis ran into Nico at the library, and his Mrs. Blowfis insisted that he stay with them until he found someplace to go for the summer, Percy had developed a hopeless crush on the son of Hades. Where had it come from? Percy had always loved girls. Annabeth, briefly Rachel Elizabeth Dare, this new half blood named Yvonne who was a bit to young, and of course, Lady Aphrodite, goddess of love. He dreamed about girls, fanaticized about girls; he would blush to their touch… What about Nico was so alluring to him? Nico and Percy where almost cousins; technically they where, but they weren't really related. Being the son of Poseidon, Nico's father and his father where brothers; their moms where human and their fathers where gods, therefore, they had no DNA. The only DNA Percy had from his parents was from his mother, Sally Jackson Blowfis.
Really thinking about it, Percy decided that what he first saw in Nico that he was maturing. He went from a boy who liked card games to an independent, attractive (very, very attractive in fact!) young man. Wow, Percy thought to himself. He was really starting to sound, you know… Gay… He shoved the thought out of his mind. There was something called bisexual, but Percy knew that he couldn't look in the mirror one morning thinking, "I am bisexual. I like girls and boys. My name is Perceus Jackson."
Percy's thoughts where interrupted when he heard a scream. By instinct, Percy jumped off of the couch and ran to the bathroom, where he knew Nico was.
Nico di Angelo was nowhere in sight, though Percy could hear him screaming like, right in his ear. He looked all round, in the medicine cabinet, under the sink cabinet… He even looked in the toilet. Then it occurred to him; the shower. He pulled back the curtain to see a screaming Nico, swinging his ink black sword around in the shower.
"Get away!" Nico screamed. His eyes where squeezed tightly shut. He was drenched from head to toe, and his makeup was running all down his face. "You're not my mother!"
The water was running at full speed. Percy touched it, allowing his fingers to get wet. By reflex, he pulled his hand back; the water was hot. He had to turn this off, fast. Taking in his mind and soul into the water, Percy reached for the faucet mindlessly in the darkness. He had allowed his hands not to get wet so he wouldn't be burned by the water. When finally the water was off and Nico shut up, all was still and quiet.
Nico sat still in the shower, and slowly opened his eyes; his dark clothes where wet and dragging down his body. He immediately started to shiver from the rushing room temperature air. Nico met Percy's eyes. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with his already wet cheeks. Nico started to whimper and cover his face in shame. Now that was what you called a mental breakdown.
"Nico, what in the world…?" Percy finally mustered himself to say. "I mean, what where you… What happened? Is this an attempt to suicide?"
Nico glared at Percy. "I am not suicidal." He spat through tears. "I'm not one to cheat death."
Percy held out his hand to the other boy. "Take my hand."
Nico took Percy's hand and got out of the shower. His chills returned. "Ugh," he sighed, rubbing his arms to warm himself.
Percy grabbed a towel and handed it to Nico, who threw it over his shoulders and held the fabric close to his skin.
"Thanks," he grumbled.
"Come back to the couch and tell me what happened."
The two wandered back into the living room, trusting their instincts with where to step in order to avoid accidents.
Nico sat down on the couch, with a throw pillow held tightly to his chest.
"Tell me what happened," Percy said.
"I just went to wash my hands, and this black smoke came out of the drain. I thought the fire alarm in there would go off, but it didn't. I assumed it had something to do with being a demigod. Then the black smoke turned into the goddess of the ghosts, Melinoe. She usually turns into someone you want to see, but she brought fourth a ghost from the Underworld; it was my mom, Maria di Angelo. She was talking to me, and trying to explain things, but when I tried to touch her hand, Melinoe and Mom turned into stone people. I turned around and saw Medusa. I looked away and lunged at her, but I fell into the shower and hit my head. From there, and army of stone victims melted though the wall and attacked me. They where immune to my precious sword…"
Percy contemplated this. "Did you by any chance, fall asleep on the toilet?"
"I would have still been there when you came to get me and Percy…"
"What,"
"Could you be serious for once?"
"It depends."
"On what…?" Nico sighed with impatience.
"Let me talk to you about something."
"Does it have anything to do with today?"
"A lot, trust me."
"Go on."
Percy sat down rather close to Nico on the couch. Nico tried to move away, but he was left with no room to do so.
"Nico, do you think it's weird that Silena liked Beckendorf even though he was the son of Hephaestus and Silena was a daughter of Aphrodite?"
"No, I mean, it's not like they where blood related and… Well I saw the way Silena would look at him, and the way Beckendorf would brag about her. There was this unmistakable romantic connection between them. Now they're both gone, but at least they're in the same place. They should be, they where both good people overall; they where real heroes."
"So, love is love?"
"Exactly,"
"So, do you think the fancy between Connor Stoll and Pollux is wrong?"
"Who, the son of Hermes and the son of Dionysus…?"
Uh-oh, Percy thought. "Um, yea, them… Don't tell anyone though, that wasn't supposed to get around."
Nico nodded. "Like you said, love is love. It can take many forms."
Percy sighed and held his heart. "You promise you won't tell."
"I don't have anyone to tell anyway," Nico said.
Percy smirked. "Well, I'm intrusting you with another secret. Love is love, so I'm not holding back."
Nico relaxed his shoulders and looked Percy in the eyes, positive.
"Okay," Percy said, biting his lip. "Nico, ever since last week, I've began to have these strange, different feelings. I've never felt this way, but since today I realized how real it was. Nico, I have a…"
"Wart," Nico butted in.
"Be serious."
Nico snorted. "Whatever you say,"
"Nico di Angelo, I have a hopeless, unconditional love type of feeling for you. Yes, it's the kind that you have with your Valentine, yes, it's the one you have for your spouse, and yes, it's the one you have that makes your heart ace with so much love that you just want to cry."
Nico was frozen with a "deer-in-headlights" look in his eyes. When he finally unfroze and blinked he couldn't look Percy in the eyes; he couldn't think straight. Percy, on the other hand, was complete now that he had that off of his chest. He smiled at himself, completely aware that he was blushing, completely aware that he was blinking away tears.
"So what do you think?" Percy finally asked.
"I think I need some pizza because my bones are rattling and I feel like a skinny corpse." Nico got up and wandered over to the kitchen.
"That's because you are. But you're an adorable, sweet, gray eyed corpse."
It was obvious that Nico heard Percy's remark, but he was trying not to. He would not accept the fact that he was being crushed on.
Percy clicked on his mini flashlight and waved it around, looking for the pizza box. He finally found it and took out a slice of pizza. He handed it to Nico with knowledge that he wasn't actually hungry. Nico just wanted something else to think about.
The son of Hades didn't take the pizza or even bother to look at it, so Percy set it on the counter and shown the flashlight on the entire kitchen. He looked at the magnets on the refrigerator, admiring their gleam when they made contact with the plastic magnet covers.
Nico made his way to the counter and found his pizza. He picked over it, tearing apart pepperonis. Percy felt eyes on his back and turned around.
"Wow, this is the first non-blue food I've seen around here." Nico finally spoke up. His voice was dry and cracked like he was crying again.
"Of course you've only seen it, seeing as you don't eat." Percy picked.
Nico groaned in the back of his throat. "Whatever Jackson,"
"Ooh, so cold." Percy said, throwing Nico a flirtatious smile across the counter. Nico deflected the smile with a grimace.
"Why do you look at me like that?"
Percy's heart sang. "Because you're beautiful and you don't care that I'm in love with you. The resistance is so attractive."
"So what if I don't eat, I haven't been hungry." Nico mumbled, bringing back up the eating subject.
"That's a lie," Percy sighed. "It's been like 3½ days. You've had like, 5 glasses of water, and that's probably why your piss is brown."
"You're gross. And how would you know?"
Percy put on a fake professional voice. "I'm a doctor, I take urine samples."
Nico giggled, to Percy's surprise. He'd heard Nico laugh about 10 times the whole time he knew him; yet lately, the laughs where pure gold. Hearing Nico laugh sent a humming bird feeling up Percy's chest. It was like his heart was sputtering with love. Just Nico di Angelo's voice was like the most expensive drug to liven his soul.
"You're funny," Nico said. His smile could be seen from across the world. His happiness gave off a glow that broke through the darkened apartment.
"Am I…?" Percy asked, coming over to Nico's side of the counter.
"Yea," Nico said, turning around in his stool to where Percy was. "You're like so sarcastic, and quick witted."
"Where those complements, son of Hades?"
Nico nodded with another smile. "I believe so, son of Poseidon."
There was this vibe Nico was giving off; it seemed accepting. It was like he was finally saying hey; maybe I actually like this guy back. Maybe I don't care what other people think. Maybe it doesn't matter if my face doesn't say "I love Percy Jackson" when I look in the mirror.
"Dude," Nico said. "Maybe you're not so bad for a fish boy."
Percy chuckled. "Fish boy, huh, prince of darkness…?"
Nico stood, almost reaching Percy's height. He caught him by the forearms and smirked, looking him in the eyes. "Yep, fish boy all day."
"So, um…" Percy said, finding himself redden. "Are you about to kiss me?"
"I don't know, should I?"
"Well, you look pretty kissable, but…"
Nico sighed. His eyes where smiling. There was something about them that just screamed "SEX!" at that moment. The empty gray void of his eyes was making Percy melt.
"This is no bromance," Nico whispered sweetly before leaning into Percy's face. When he was standing on his tiptoes and just inches away, he said. "You may kiss the demigod," like this was a spoof on the average wedding.
Percy didn't have to be told twice. He kissed the son of Hades, the same way he would kiss a girl. Not just any girl, though. He kissed Nico di Angelo the way he would kiss the most perfect girl; the smartest, kindest, most respectful girl from Olympus to the Underworld. It was the same idea, except in this case, it was a boy.
The kiss ended, and Nico pulled back reluctantly. He looked back into Percy's eyes and stood on his tiptoes for one last extended peck on the lips.
"You taste like famine," Percy joked.
"You're so, so, funny…" Nico said, quite seriously. His eyes where actually closed, as he stood there, holding Percy's strong, toned forearms in his hands.
Percy was just staring at Nico in wonder. His creamy, pale olive skin was glowing with love. He tilted his head back and kissed Nico's neck. Doing so, Percy inhaled Nico's scent; it was like the alluring fruits of the Underworld. When he pulled away, Nico's eyes where still closed. He opened them and tears poured out. He smiled at Percy. Percy smiled back, and it was like smiling at the sun.
"What's wrong?" Percy asked.
"T-that was my first ever kiss. It felt like my last for sure…" Nico said.
"But don't cry though," Percy said, gently brushing a tear away.
There was a pause as Nico sniffled and tears rolled down his cheeks chronically.
"Am I broken?" Nico asked.
Percy chuckled. "No, you're working just fine."
"I-I shouldn't be crying this much, it's like I'm PMS-ing. Isn't that only for girls?"
Percy nodded.
"Then what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Percy said, "You're just being my sweet, emotional Underworld Pomegranate."
Nico looked up into Percy's sea blue eyes and chuckled. "What?"
"You're my Underworld Pomegranate. You're the son of Hades, ruler of the Underworld, and you're dangerous and alluring like one of the fruits in the Underworld."
Nico sighed and looked out the window, thinking. "This feels so perfect. This feels so right. Do you think we'll loose our demigod friends over this?"
"Maybe," Percy said. "The world is so twisted out there… But one thing's for sure."
Nico looked up with intelligent eyes for an answer. His eyes where rimmed with purple and smudged makeup.
"Love is love," Percy said. "It comes in all forms."
Nico looked down, thinking, then nodded. "Love is love." He repeated. "Even if it is with a fish boy,"
Percy smirked. "I think you should rest,"
Nico looked up defiantly. "Why, I wanna stay up all night with you."
"Because, you look like a zombie… A real one,"
"I'll eat breakfast."
"Good idea."
Nico lay down on the couch, talking to Percy about anything he could think of.
"Percy, when I talk to my Dad down in the Underworld about my problems at camp, Demeter always brings up the positive side of the conversation. She says, "Nico, Nico, nothing lasts forever. There are some things you wait out, some things that just happen, and some things go when you don't want them to, like Bianca." Nico said.
"Hmm," Percy thought. "Good quote, Lady Demeter."
"No," Nico said. "I mean, when people say, best friends forever and all that shit, don't they know that nothing lasts forever… Not even this moment will." Nico frowned, but softened when Percy looked him in the eyes.
"Well yea, but it's always best to keep a positive outlook on things. Do it even if you know the positive won't come; it's the power of attraction."
"Like between us?"
Percy stopped and looked at Nico, touching his olive cheek. "Yea, I guess it is."
On that note, Nico fell into a deep sleep in Percy's arms. Percy stayed up, watching him smile peacefully with his dreams, thinking just how strong their power of attraction really was.