Author's Note: Yeah, I have succeeded in thinking of yet another Percico story. Time to add to the list of "Unfinished Percico Stories." I actually thought of this storyline a long time ago, but never perfected it until last night. I'm not sure how long this fanfiction will be though.

POV (for the whole story): Nico di Angelo (unless I state that it's someone else's, but it'll usually be in Nico's POV)

I also plan for there to be many flashbacks in this story, so be warned.

The CHAPTER NAME is Jason Grace. It is NOT Jason Grace's POV. It is in Nico's POV.

Falling Leaves

Author: Loving Healer

I: Jason Grace

"What?"

I rolled my eyes with a short huff of annoyance. I had to hold back the urge to flick his temple hard enough so that he could understand what I was saying. And let me tell you, it was very hard to resist.

"Percy, this part is basic algebra."

"I forgot a lot, okay? I may be smart in English and history, but science and math is where you come in, Mr. di Angelo." Percy set his pencil down into his desk with a short sigh. "We kind of do a little trade-off. You help me with math and science, and I help you with English and history."

I chuckled lightly. "Yeah because English is just so illogical. Water can mean, like, five different things. How are you supposed to know which one it's supposed to stand for?"

Percy offered me a small smile. "Water can mean purification. It can also mean sadness if it has something to do with rain or whatever. It can mean the opposite of something, like a reflection in the river. Or maybe clarity-actually, wait, not that goes with the purification one. So..." He paused, counting how many ways water symbolizes something. "Three different things? There's probably more, but I'm just forgetting some."

I squinted my eyes at him. "Excuse me? What did you just tell me?"

Percy laughed lightly, shaking his head. "Nothing, nothing, Spock."

"Did you just call me Spock?"

"Yeah, because you're just so logical all the time."

I punched him in the shoulder, a smile gracing my lips. "Shut up, Percy."

He shrugged nonchalantly, leaning back in his swivel chair. "Hey, I'm just stating the facts like logical people do."

I sighed roughly, massaging the side of my temples. "I swear my head hurts now because of whatever you said about water." I ran a hand through my unruly, dark hair. "English will still never make sense. I only have an A in honors because of you."

Percy out a hand over his heart. "Aw, Neeks. How touching of you." He dramatically wiped away an imaginary tear. "I knew our friendship of nine years would get us somewhere."

I felt a sharp pang in my chest, and I couldn't breathe for a few moments. But I forced myself to remain neutral which wasn't very hard considering that I've been doing it for seven years now. "Ah, yes. I was only friends with you for nine years just so I could see you wipe a fake tear away."

Percy gasped. "Plot twist! Damn it, Nico, I knew you only wanted to see my fabulous acting with your own eyes."

I rolled my eyes. "I've seen it enough to imitate it."

A mischievous smile crept into Percy's lips. "Do it then."

I blinked blankly at him. "Do you really expect that much from me?"

Percy spun in his swivel chair until he was fully facing me. "It's not even that much to expect!"

"Oh, so you're saying that my acting is terrible?" I paused. "Never mind, it's true."

Percy laughed. "I bet it's not that bad. In fact"'-Percy's eyes scanned me up and down-"I don't think I've ever seen you act at all in our nine years of friendship."

"That's because you don't want to see it," I remarked, crossing my arms across my chest in an attempt to get rid of the pain originating from my chest. But he didn't have to know that.

"Are you sure about that?" He quirked up a challenging eyebrow. "Because I would be glad to see your acting skills."

The doorbell rang, shaking away the painful feeling. "Oh, well would you look at that. I think you should go answer the door." I pushed against his shoulders, resulting in laughter from my best friend. Did Percy even consider me as his best friend? I was doubting it for a long time now, but it would be weird to ask him such a question. So, I never did.

I had always wondering why Percy would choose me over any of his other friends. He had made a ton of friends at school and on his swim team, but he never left me. We had gotten into quite a few fights over it. Percy would always tell me that he wanted to stay loyal to me. But I always told him that loyalty was a flaw. I'd heard someone say once that everyone had a fatal flaw. Some negative aspect that would stay with them for life. If that was true, Percy's would be loyalty. He would never abandon any of his friends, even if it was bad for him.

After a lot of shoving and the door bell ringing constantly, I finally was able to kick Percy out of his chair. He landed with a grunt, a whine, and a complaint before he got up, fixing his shirt and muttering under his breath about how he had to vacuum now that he actually got on the ground and could see how dirty it was.

I heard Percy's footsteps hit against the stairs and the door swing open. I heard a few voices, and I could faintly hear a voice of his friend, Jason Grace. And let me tell you, I hated that guy. I had a reason for it too.

I had known Percy for nine years, but I only realized my feelings for him seven years ago, two years after I met Percy in the second grade. They continued to grow the more I hung out with him, and since I was afraid of Percy being freaked out and leaving me; I hid my strange feelings from him. I was also afraid of being judged, because the world was crueler than everyone claimed it to be. Mostly everyone in this world always justified the 'great improvements' that mankind have made. Technology improved society, and racism no longer exists. Equality is also granted for most of the people in the world as well. It wasn't how I viewed the world though.

The more I grew up, the more I realized how much the world didn't improve. Racism is still everywhere, and equality is some fantasy that everyone likes to believe exist. As long as racism existed, equality will never exist. As long as religion defied other people's beliefs, equality will never exist.

Technology was only making this generation more lazy than usual. They may say that the world is "shrinking" because communication and transportation was ten times easier, but it made mankind distant from each other. Trying to be social only resulted in glares for being weird and trying to "fit in," and not being social and sitting by yourself also earned yourself glares for being a loser with no friends.

A utopian society would never exist as long as everyone was different and unique.

I collapsed onto Percy's bed with a long, exasperated sigh. Jason Grace... I remembered the first time I ever spoke to the guy. And ever since then, I had always tried to avoid him.

I was waiting for Percy where we usually sat at lunch break. We usually sat in front of the school on a bench. I only say there because I hated being around so many people, and Percy didn't want to leave me alone. It just became our permanent spot.

I was doing my math homework when I sensed someone approaching me. I narrowed my eyes before whirling around in my seat on the bench only to find the one of the popular football players at our school: Jason Grace.

My question was: Why did he look so eager to talk to me?

He stopped in front of me, placing a hand on top of the back of the bench. He eyed me up and down, and it was only then that I was close enough to notice a small scar on the corner of his lips.

I tried to search his electric blue eyes to see what he wanted, but he appeared emotionless before me. That was my job though. I forced myself to stay neutral as I continued to scan Jason's face. What did he even want?

"Percy's not here, in case you were wondering." I was the first one to break the tense silence between us. "He's probably at his locker or something."

He offered me a small smile, making me relax slightly. "I'm not here for Percy. You're Nico, right? Percy's friend?"

I nodded cautiously. "Why do you care?"

Jason's small smile became a grin. "I've heard a lot about you from him. You guys have known each other for a while."

I was still on guard. My eyes were narrowed into slits. Jason Grace wouldn't just walk up and start talking to me without a reason. My suspicions wouldn't disappear until he left.

"What do you want?" I demanded, setting my textbook, notebook, and pencil in the empty spot on the bench beside me.

He shrugged, his smile fading. "I've heard there are no secrets between you guys."

In the back of my mind, I surmised where he was going with this. I was just hoping I wasn't right.

"Yeah," I flatly replied. "There aren't."

"I've been noticing a few things about you." Jason put his weight on the one hand grasping the top edge of the bench. "You're in my physics class."

I nodded slowly in comprehension. "I know."

"You're a mysterious guy," Jason said. "You look like you know all the world's secrets. Does Percy know them all?"

"He does."

"You must really trust him, huh?" Jason arched an eyebrow. "If he knows all of your secrets, then does that mean you trust him enough to tell him how you truly feel about him?"

My heart hammered against my chest. However, I attempted to show no reaction do he wouldn't be able to guess what he was saying was actually true.

"What do you mean?" I feigned ignorance.

Jason didn't appear to be fazed at all. He leaned closer until I could smell a minty scent which I assumed to be gum. "I know you like Percy."

Denying it now would be futile; he sounded so confident in his discovery. How did he even figure it out? Did anyone else know?

I was now glaring at the handsome football player in front of me. "How do you know?"

Jason leaned back. Instead of a smug smirk which I was expecting from admitting my defeat, he smiled in content. "It was pretty hard trying to figure it out. I've been trying to figure it out ever since freshman year. I just observed you and tried to see how you acted in physics class and around Percy. I heard you were the one that convinced Percy to ask out Annabeth after Percy was always giving her loving stares or whatever. That was one of my clues. You also fought for Percy's math grade during lunch last year."

"But these could all be done by a best friend," I retorted strongly.

"I'm not done," Jason said. "Whenever I saw Percy with Annabeth, you were never around. Even if they were just acting friendly towards each other, even if they weren't even dating at the time, you were never there. I tried to find you, but you were impossible to find. I knew you didn't want to be found, and that was another clue."

"I've always hated people," I muttered. "Percy knows that which means you must know that. Of course I don't want to be found."

"But wouldn't you stay in a place where Percy would be able to find you?" Jason challenged. "He is your best friend after all. If you knew Annabeth was with him, you would try to hide forever. If you didn't know that, you would make yourself noticeable for even Percy to find you. Doesn't that strike you as suspicious?"

I clenched my fists in annoyance. "Why did you even want to find out anyway?" I asked through clenched teeth.

Jason shrugged. "I just... I wanted to help you is all. Percy cares a lot about you."

"And?" I raised an eyebrow. "What's your point?"

"I noticed that when you're about to cross the street, you stare at the cars with this longing gaze. Whenever we're in physics and we're cutting paper, you never have scissors with you. You never have a pencil sharpener with you. It's like you want to, but you stop yourself from doing so by not having these things in your backpack."

My eyes widened in shock. He wasn't talking about what I was thinking, right? Oh fuck no.

"Have you decided for it to actually happen in the future?" Jason questioned me. "Or are you still deciding whether to commit suicide?"

My shoulders immediately tensed at his question. I opened my mouth to strongly retort for him to fuck off, but I stopped myself.

When I saw Percy behind Jason.

Ever since then, I had avoided Jason. It was weird because I had though Percy would want to confront me about my suicidal thoughts and all of that. I was actually expecting it to happen that day, but it never did. It never happened the next day, or the next day. It's been a few months, and the confrontation never happened. I was glad it never happened, but I was always suspicious.

Why did Percy never confront me about it? He was the type to jump immediately at the idea of me even considering the idea of ending my life early. But he never did. I wanted to ask him, but I was too afraid the subject would lead toward the reason why I had those forbidden thoughts.

I heard Percy's footsteps hit on the carpeted floor, and I sat myself up. There Percy was, in his ridiculous grin and dark brown hair.

I was always confused as to why I ended up liking my best friend than more than just a friend when one as little. The more I stared at him, however, the more I didn't question my true feelings toward him.