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Title: Notice Me, Senpai – Percy's Romeo and Nico's Kinda Lost...

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus; mortal AU

Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Rick Riordan for he created the awesomeness that is Nico di Angelo. And everything else related to Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus. Aside from the Gods, they belong to the old Greeks. This fanfiction and its OCs on the other hand are entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Warnings: shounen-ai, fluff, jealousy, misunderstandings, adorable courting

Main Pairing: Nico/Percy

Percy Jackson Characters: Perseus Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Bianca di Angelo

Summary: Ever since Nico saw his school's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, he had been hopelessly in love with Percy Jackson, a senior and the best Romeo possible. The problem? Percy had no idea Nico existed. Until Percy and Nico's sister get teamed up for a history project.

Notice Me, Senpai

Percy's Romeo and Nico's Kinda Lost...

Percy Jackson was perfection wrapped into gorgeousness with a bow of kindness.

He was all things good and nice and admirable and it was really not hard to fall in love with him. So in a way, it was entirely not Nico's fault that he was hopelessly in love with Percy. It was Percy's.

When Nico's mother had died, he had thought his world was collapsing in itself. He thought all he had left was his big sister Bianca. But there was also their divorced father, who after a few calls, arranged for them to fly from Venice to New York. Having lost his mother and his home, Nico now had to adjust to living with the father he barely ever met and a stepmother who wasn't too warm.

On top of that, Nico had been just a kid of ten years. He had never really managed to fit into the American middle school. High school would be different, Bianca had promised. It was, in a way.

Nico made friends – Frank, who loved Mythomagic as much as he did, Jason, who was such a silly dork, Reyna, who was his most treasured confidant, Will, who was a total mother-hen, Cecil and Lou, who were both awesome punks. Which brought him to another point. He was a punk. He wasn't the shy, awkward boy who felt so out of place, anymore. He was the exotic rebel. The hot Italian punk. People steered clear off him and his mismatched bunch of nerds and punks.

So high school was easier to endure. He had friends, while bullies avoided the frightening punks. People and their superficial, stereotypical way of thinking. They dress black, they must worship Satan and be totally depressed and cut their wrists! Nico was strong, far stronger than that. He had lived through his mother's death and he knew he could survive so much more.

There was only and solemnly one problem to life in high school.

Percy Jackson.

As mentioned before, perfection personified. But this particular perfection had no idea Nico even existed. And truth be told, Nico probably wouldn't know of Percy's existence either if not for his stepmother's obsession with culture. Nico and Bianca needed culture. They had been born and raised in Italy – how much more culture did they need? Or rather, how much more culture would the USA be able to offer them, compared to the ancient history of the beautiful old countryside and city itself? Hades had rested one hand on each his kids' shoulders and practically begged them to accept Persephone's attempts at bonding. Now Nico knew far more Broadway musicals than he ever cared to even remember. Or stage plays. Operas. It was tiring.

At any rate, Persephone's bonding had translated to her dragging Bianca and Nico to their drama club's version of Romeo and Juliet. If their school performed such culturally valuable plays, there was no way they would miss it! How embarrassing was it to see the school play as the school's notorious punk and with his mommy at that?! That day, he wished for the ground to open up and swallow him. Until Romeo entered the stage. Beautiful, mesmerizing, charming Romeo with the sea-green eyes and the messy, black hair. Broad shoulders, slender hips, long legs that looked amazing in those thighs – may the gods bless Shakespeare for those – and an ass to die for.

To make things short, Nico had hopelessly fallen in love with the actor who played Romeo. Percy Jackson, as Bianca supplied when she noticed the starry-eyed expression on Nico's face and the drool running down his chin. Apparently, Romeo was in the same class as Bianca.

All of that laid roughly four months back by now and Nico spend his days pathetically longing for Percy, who turned out to be the captain of their school's swim team – and how had Nico not known that?! All those missed opportunities of watching that delicious body, with strong, lean muscles, nearly naked and dripping wet. Not to mention that ridiculously adorable and proud grin Percy would always wear when he won a race. That stupid grin forced Nico's heart to do all those silly, little jumps like it wanted to break out of his ribcage.

Now back to the problem at hand. Gorgeous, athletic, talented, sweet and charming Percy Jackson had no idea that Nico even existed. Sure, Nico could just walk up to Percy and ask him out – and make a total fool of himself in the process. Nico was about ninety-four point six percent sure that Romeo was dating Juliet. Juliet being Annabeth Chase, school president and overall genius.

The brains and the muscles. The rational thinker and the impulsive actor.

Worst match ever, if one was to ask Nico. Nico shared the opinion that opposites did not attract each other, because for a relationship to work, the participants had to share interests and personality trades too. Not be one and the same, because if two people always agreed on everything, things got boring fast and it was basically dating yourself then. But some basics at least. Like nerding out over comics – Nico knew Percy was a fan of Aquaman, he had seen the Aquaman folder in which Percy carried all his lines for drama club, though Nico was more on the Batman side of comics, which meant they shared their love for comics but not for the same heroes. Or an unhealthy obsession for science fiction – there was a TARDIS key-chain on Percy's backpack and little doodles of fezzes and bowties and Daleks on Percy's notes, which meant they agreed on Doctor Who, but unlike Nico who loved the Ninth Doctor, Percy seemed to prefer the Eleventh Doctor. A quite obvious love for arts too. The fascination with Greek mythology – where Nico had his Mythomagic, Percy seemed to vent through his art; Nico had seen the sculptures of gods that Percy had crafted in art class (they were in a shelf in the art studio, with a nametag and Nico had been blown away when he saw that the sculptures he had been drooling over all semester had actually been crafted by the boy he has now been drooling over for a few months). Overall, they were a perfect match.

And Nico was a creepy stalker.

Lou and Cecil never failed to point that out to him. Even Reyna and Jason had said so, with concerned looks on their faces – and the couple-version of the scolding, concerned look is even worse than the regular one. And maybe they had a point. Nico knew all those things about Percy because he kept observing the boy while Percy had no idea Nico even breathed the same air as he did. It was borderline pathetic, as Will had told him with the most serious expression ever. Frank had just nodded silently and looked at him like he was a dead man walking – and if Frank wouldn't be dating Nico's little half-sister, Nico would be punching the guy for that. Said little half-sister claimed that Nico was like one of the school girls in her mangas. Hazel loved those girly, Japanese comics with the wide-eyed teenage girls, waiting and longing for their upperclassmen to notice them. Nico hated to admit that maybe, perhaps, Hazel wasn't completely off the target there.

"Please keep your broody self locked into your room tonight", ordered Bianca at lunch.

"What?", grunted Nico, munching on his bacon sandwich. "Don't tell me you have a guy over."

She had pledged to some kind of purity club for girls – their father had literally kissed the floor when she had announced that. Flipping her brother the bird, Bianca refilled both their glasses with their stepmother's self-made lemonade. Hades and Persephone were on a weekend getaway, leaving their children alone. Hazel had used the opportunity to spend the night at her boyfriend's place. And then Hazel's best friend Leo had invited himself along and Nico had no idea how the Latino could be that oblivious to being the third wheel. Then again, Hazel and Frank never minded. Which left Bianca and Nico alone. Nico wanted to spend the night as he spend every other night – plotting Percy Domination. Normally, he and Will would sit together and play Pinkie and Brain. Just instead of dominating the world, the only thing Nico really wanted to dominate was Percy Jackson. Will enjoyed playing the Pinkie to his Brain and point out that all his 'attempts' so far had failed.

Said attempts were things such as anonymous chocolate on Percy's desk. How was Nico supposed to know Percy was allergic to peanuts? An anonymous present, a rare TARDIS, wrapped sloppily in paper because Nico had never wrapped a gift before. Had Nico been supposed to know that the school would be calling a bomb squad because of an unsupervised, suspicious package? ...Okay, maybe that one hadn't been completely thought through. A love-poem printed in the school newspaper... which had ended with Percy being the butt of a lot of jokes which honestly hadn't been Nico's intention. He thought it had been a grand, romantic gesture. Flowers had turned out to be as bad a choice as peanut-filled pieces of chocolate. Again, Nico wasn't an invested enough stalker to know of Percy's allergies! Really! So perhaps Will was right and he was doomed to fail.

"For your information, I am having a boy over. But not for the purposes you think."

"What are you talking about?", grunted Nico confused.

"...You just asked me why I want you to lock yourself into your room. And that right there is the reason! You're such a weirdo!", groaned Bianca annoyed and glared at Nico. "You'll only freak him out and I need him to concentrate on our stupid history project."

"No, seriously, what in the world are you talking about?", asked Nico slowly, leaning back.

"We have this stupid partner project in history. Concerning World War II. You know father's obsession with it, so I offered my designated partner to come over so we can work here, with dad's books", explained Bianca and heaved an over-dramatic sigh.

"What. Ever", muttered Nico and stood. "I have better things to do than to linger around my sister pathetically like a guy who has no own friends. Besides, you'll only end up riling me into it too."

"Like I would ask my baby brother to help me with my homework!", exclaimed Bianca loudly.

/break\

Turned out Nico had no friends, thank you very much. Seeing as Frank was on a date with Nico's sister, Jason and Reyna apparently had date-night too. So had Will and his boyfriend Jake. How was always-a-single Nico supposed to know that Friday night was the unofficial date-night for couples? And Lou and Cecil were both grounded after the last prank the two had cooked up.

So contrary to his previous words, Nico was stuck at home.

He had decided to make the best of it by watching Captain America. And maybe also Winter Soldier, because he just had that much time to waste. Somehow, Bianca mentioning World War II had send him into one of his rare Captain America moods. Nico didn't discriminate between DC and Marvel – DC had Batman and Constantine and Marvel had the Avengers and the X-Men. Marvel had the better teams, DC had the better stand-alone-heroes. Marvel made the mind-blowing movies and DC made the awesome shows (Nico was pretty sure that by the time midnight rolled around and he'd be through with the movies, he'd sit through a Gotham marathon). A movie-marathon didn't work without a ton of popcorn and Redbull – so he would actually manage to stay awake through both movies and all episodes Gotham had to offer so far.

"Hello."

Nico jumped about three feet high at the sudden voice. Right, Bianca had a guest over. He had been so deep in thoughts while staring at the microwave and urging it on to finish his popcorn that he hadn't even noticed someone entering. Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for whatever classmate of Bianca's it may be. He just hoped it wasn't Luke Castellan, the blonde literally charmed the pants off of girls – Thalia, Silena, Annabeth. If that guy would be here, Nico would fear for those vows of chastity and abstinence and whatnot. His brain went offline when he turned around and came face to face with Percy Jackson. In his kitchen. Looking totally adorable with his blue hoodie and the a little too tight, stone-washed blue jeans. And Nico was only wearing ratty sweatpants and a worn-out shirt with a crossover between The Walking Dead and Doctor Who.

"Shit", cursed Nico beneath his breath.

He looked like crap, because he looked comfortable and cozy because this was home and it was Friday night and he had no plans – so many wrong messages. For one, he looked like shit. Also, he was home on a Friday night, how did that not send the message that he had no friends and no social life? In that second, his XXXXL portion of popcorn decided to be ready to also make him look like a gluttonous, desperate guy who buried his feelings in food. Just. Great.

"Oh my gosh, that shirt is awesome!", exclaimed Percy excitedly.

And all of a sudden, Nico had Percy all up in his personal space, grasping the fringe of the shirt and pulling to take a closer look at the print. Nico felt his cheeks heating up because Percy's nose was practically buried in Nico's belly-button, the jock was crouching so close to Nico. Nico was pretty sure he forgot how to breath for a while, eyes large and just watching.

"Jackson, did you get lost on the way to the kitchen?! You only wanted to get the coke!", called Bianca from close-by and entered the kitchen only shortly later. "Oh. Great. Get lost, pipsqueak."

"I'm only two years younger than you", muttered Nico with a glare.

"Shoo. Back to your bat-cave. We have work to do", continued Bianca, making shunning motions.

"Bat-cave?", asked Percy and perked up some.

"Yes", sighed Bianca and rolled her eyes dramatically. "Nico and all his... nerdy geek-stuff. Now come, Percy. We need to get started, I want to finish this any time today, because I'm meeting with Zoe, Phoebe and Thalia later on, we're going to a party. Oh, do you want to come too?"

"Party? Uh, no, thanks, I have other plans", declined Percy politely as he was pulled out.

And to top it all off, now Percy also thought he was a 'nerdy geek' who lived in a bat-cave. Just great. Sometimes, Nico hated having a big sister to embarrass him. Grabbing his Redbull and his popcorn, he decided that he'd also be needing a lot of ice-cream to live through the night.

/break\

Nico was officially done with Captain America and the commentary that went with the DVD extras and he was just killing time because he was too lazy to get up and change the disks. Another great moment for embarrassment when the door opened and all of a sudden, Percy Jackson was in his room. Hadn't his kitchen been bad enough? With wide, panicked eyed did Nico jump up and start to kick dirty laundry under his desk and his body-lotion and tissues (and the printed program of Romeo and Juliet with the photos of Percy in thighs) under his bed. Not that Percy noticed any of that, because his attention was solemnly set on Nico's Wall of Geek-gasms, as he liked to call the wall lined with shelves filled with DVDs, comics, collectibles from Marvel, DC and Doctor Who. Percy's beautiful green eyes were sparkling like those of a little boy in a candy shop.

"Can... I do something for you?", asked Nico reluctant, wondering if Percy had gotten lost.

After all, their mansion was pretty large, so maybe Percy had just wandered around on his quest to find the toilet? What other reason could there be for Percy Jackson to be in Nico's bedroom (not counting the trillion different fantasies Nico already had involving just that)?

"Your sister said it would be fine if I'd watch a movie with you", said Percy, offering him a smile. "She's getting ready for the party, but she said you're watching Captain America and he's like the best Marvel superhero ever and I guess I got kinda excited and she told me I should just go and ask you if you'd mind. Uhm, do you mind? Because that would be totally awesome!"

"You sure you don't want to go to that party with Bianca...?", asked Nico slowly, confused.

After all, Percy Jackson was a popular jock, star of their drama club and overall sweetheart of the school, so why should he be practically begging Nico to watch a movie on a Friday night while Silena Beauregard, head of the cheerleaders, was throwing a party? That didn't compute.

"Naw, I don't like parties. Besides, my ex will be there and things between us are still a little... awkward", answered Percy with a shrug and a blinding smile. "So... do you mind?"

Nico shook his head so fast, he feared it would fall off. Percy just laughed softly and sat down on Nico's bed. Again, Nico's heart did all those weird things, like it didn't know if it wanted to explode, break out of his ribcage, or just stop altogether. After all, there was a Percy Jackson in Nico's bed and how had that happened?! Sure, in Nico's mind, that had happened a lot already.

"Oh, blueberry ice-cream! My favorite!", exclaimed Percy excitedly.

Nico felt like Percy's sole purpose in life was making Nico's heart do silly things, because there Percy was, just taking Nico's spoon and eating Nico's ice-cream. From Nico's spoon. Making all those soft little moans because it tasted so well. Percy Jackson, moaning on Nico's bed. If things continued like that, Nico was going to just fall over dead.

Taking a deep breath, Nico tried to regain control over his body. So he changed the DVDs and then, as casually as possible, sat down on the bed right next to Percy. With enough distance between them, of course. They watched in silence for about five minutes before Percy started commenting on the movie. Not in an annoying way, but in a way that Nico enjoyed and that made Nico relax and just join in on the conversation. Soon enough, Nico was having the time of his life, laughing with Percy and sharing popcorn with the jock like they had been best friends for years.

After initial, long discussions, their conversation died down toward the middle of the movie, where they just comfortably laid next to each other, shoulder to shoulder by now. Nico's heart was racing when their hands touched in the bowl of popcorn like they were living a silly rom-com. Pulling his hand away like he burned it, Nico stared at it with wide eyes like it was a traitor. If anything, Nico wanted to reenact horror-movies, not romantic comedies!

"Are... you alright?", asked Percy confused, looking at him concerned.

"No. Uhm, I mean, yes", sighed Nico, annoyed with himself.

Percy giggled a little, eyes sparkling in amusement as he looked at Nico from beneath his long lashes. "You're kind of adorable, you know? Uhm, sorry. Most guys don't like being called adorable, but I guess I'm so used to my friends always calling me adorable..."

"I'm a punk, we really don't appreciate being called 'adorable'", agreed Nico with a slight glare.

"I suppose then you need to stop being adorable", decided Percy with a smile.

And then he leaned over and casually kissed Nico. Only the smallest peck of lips, but that didn't change that it was a kiss. Percy Jackson, laying on Nico's bed, had just kissed him. Okay, at this point, Nico knew this must be one of his dreams. Next Percy would be stripping and dancing for him and then they'd have hot, amazing sex after role-playing that Nico was some other Italian royal who stole Romeo away before he could fall for the deadly trap of Juliet. His favorite fantasy, seeing as it involved Nico seducing Percy in Italian and also Percy in tights.

"Y—You just... just... k—kissed m—me...", stammered Nico, brain slowly shutting down.

"I'm sorry. Was that too much too early?", asked Percy concerned.

"Okay, honestly, more words", requested Nico and sat up, albeit stiffly so. "What just happened?"

"I kissed you, as you so nicely pointed out", stated Percy confused, tilting his head. "I mean, wasn't that... I thought that was why your sister asked me to come over for the project. After all, we could have as well done it in the library, your father doesn't have that special books here..."

"What...?", asked Nico slowly, starting to feel extremely dumb.

"Crap", muttered Percy with a wide-eyed and horrified expression. "I waited too long. I knew I should have said something after the flowers, or the poem, but I really couldn't when you gave me the chocolate, that was entirely too early because I still had a boyfriend then and the TARDIS was just, uhm, I wasn't sure what to say then. But now it's too late, right? You moved on from your... crush on me and I just made a total fool of myself. Crap, crap, crap."

"Please shut up", requested Nico with a frown. "No, wait, don't shut up. Tell me how you knew that it was me – h—how do you even know who I am. I thought you weren't aware of my existence..."

"You're silly", giggled Percy amused and shook his head. "You're the broody, black-leather-coat-wearing punk with the Italian accent. I don't think anyone in our small, boring high school doesn't know you. It's a private school where everyone is more posh than the next and there is you, with your holes in the jeans and the band shirts and piercings. Everyone knows you!"

"O... kay... wasn't aware", muttered Nico stunned. "Now, the presents. H—How do you..."

"You really think no one saw you leaving chocolate on my desk?", asked Percy with a deadpan. "Why do you think Tavy—I mean, Octavian, kept getting you in trouble for your parking, your piercings, it was his way of payback because you were hitting on his boyfriend. And the TARDIS, well, I wasn't sure at that point if it wasn't Tavy trying to get me back seeing as he is from London and I don't know, Doctor Who was kinda our thing there. There's only one amazing comic store around where you can get a TARDIS, so I went and just asked who bought one recently. And the poem? Rachel, the head of our school's newspaper, is one of my best friends. She told me you wrote it. For the flowers, well, my best friend Grover's parents own the shop you bought them from and he recognized them right away when they were laying on my table."

"S—So... you knew all along that it was me...", whispered Nico surprised.

"I'm not as dumb as I look, thank you very much", huffed Percy with a slight glare. "But yeah, I do get that a lot. Must be my face or something. Anyway, yes, I knew all along."

"But why didn't you say something?", asked Nico unsure.

"Well, the first time around I was still in a relationship-", started Percy.

"Which we'll get into too, how can someone so amazing like you have been dating someone so... so... Octavian like Simmons!", interrupted Nico and made a face.

"-and the second time around, the breakup had been too fresh for me", continued Percy, not minding Nico at all. "And after that, well... All your gifts were anonymous, so I kinda figured that you weren't really ready for, well, me. Or a relationship in general, I don't know."

"Oh fuck", groaned Nico, throwing his head back into his neck. "We're literally stuck in a dumb rom-com-misunderstanding, aren't we? I didn't say something, you didn't say something..."

"Yeah", laughed Percy with a sheepish smile. "Now I'm glad your sister pushed me to coming over and told me to go to your room and spend the evening with you..."

And all of a sudden, Nico was ridiculously grateful to have a big, meddling sister. "Okay. Now that I'm up to date on this situation, let's try the whole kissing again, mh?"

"I totally second that", grinned Percy and leaned over slowly, eyes half-lid.

Nico grasped Percy by the neck and pulled him into a passionate, slow kiss that would have lasted for an hour at least if not for the flashlight interrupting their kiss. Nico turned to glare at the door, where Bianca leaned, smirking and holding her phone up, taking another picture.

"Well, I'll be on the party, this will remain mine as blackmail-material, because I think you still haven't told dad, so I think you want to do my chores for the rest of the year", chimed Bianca.

And Nico was back to hating having a big sister. Well, at least now he had a Percy. His own Percy.

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: For those who didn't catch on; Bianca knew about Nico's crush, obviously, but she also saw the dreamy expression on Percy's face at each attempt of courting on Nico's side. She got sick and tired of them not figuring it out, so she decided to team up with Percy in a project, lure him into their house, make Nico curious by telling him he should stay away and in the end, sending Percy to Nico's room. Because that's how I picture Bianca would have grown if she hadn't died. Annoyed with having a baby brother, but still ALWAYS there to help Nico out~