Hey, guys! What's up? Haven't been here in like three years, but here's a Percico fic to make up for it. I'm guessing this takes place after the Titan War.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON. RICK RIORDAN DOES. (DAMN THAT TALENTED DUDE.)

Nico di Angelo couldn't sleep.

Darkness had engulfed the Hades cabin. It had swallowed everything in sight: the pile of dirty clothes in the corner and his Stygian iron sword and…well, that was the extent of his belongings, really. Any hobo in New York probably owned more than he did, things that they actually treasured. Nico didn't have much of those. All the stuff he had was stuff he actually needed, not wanted. His sword was necessary for surviving as a demigod and the clothes were necessary for not traumatizing his fellow campers.

Pretty pathetic, considering that Hades was the god of wealth.

The air was cold and still against his face, like the air in a crypt. He watched, from the top of his uncomfortably soft mattress, as the darkness swirled around him, claiming everything in its wake.

Most people found the idea of being in the dark terrifying. It was, after all, the setting of the great unknown, where pretty much anything terrible could unexpectedly happen. It kept you on edge, as you wait for a monster to casually pop in, or maybe a band of evil zombie murderers gleefully planning to run away with your body parts. But Nico wasn't afraid of the dark. For one thing, the senses of the children of the Underworld were heightened in the dark. He could move as freely as he wished, with the darkness to guide him, to conceal him from any monster, protecting him. A blessing from the Underworld. It was when the darkness shrouded him that he could almost believe his father giving a damn about him.

No monster could scare Nico di Angelo any longer, anyway. His greatest fear was certainly not a monster, with those green eyes that held the depths of the sea…well, he'd actually love it if such a lovely creature crept up to him in the dark…

He quickly squashed the image before he got carried away. As it was, his heart was already fluttering wildly. His face flushed in shame, thankful once again for the dark that had managed to veil him.

He wished that the darkness swallowed him up, too, and the stupid, stupid thoughts that swirled in his head, claiming his mind entirely.

It shouldn't have been hard. Every time he'd indulge himself and steal a glance at the son of Poseidon, he'd be forced to see him making goo-goo eyes with an intelligent, beautiful girl—everything Nico wasn't. And yet, perverse as it was, he couldn't help but drink in Percy's tousled dark hair as it fluttered in the breeze, or the green eyes that sparkled with mirth pretty much every second of the day. Nico couldn't help but close his eyes as the deep, rich sound of Percy's laugh rang out infectiously, almost fooling Nico into thinking that he, the son of all things depressing, was happy. And, well, he was happy, as long as the smile was firmly lodged into Percy's face. It almost made up for the fact that he couldn't kiss it off the imbecile's lips…

"Argh!" Nico groaned, burying his face into his pillow, but the thoughts wouldn't stop coming.

He saw, in his mind's eye, the hero of Olympus going for his daily swim in the lake. Percy would emerge completely dry, but his board shorts would be soaked, and Nico couldn't rip his eyes away from the places the shorts clung onto and Nico di Angelo had never felt jealous of fabric before.

Nico glared at the black abyss that was his ceiling. Stop thinking about Percy, he commanded. Think of…cookies. Yeah, cookies are good. Especially the blue ones, with the crumbs scattered around Percy's mouth—

"Stop it!" he said aloud. To distract himself, he tried to pick up on random details of the room, which, with his ADHD, wasn't really that difficult. He took in the weird bump on his foot, the pimple on his forehead, the softness of his bed…

Bed…people slept in beds…demigods were people…Percy on a bed—

He shut his eyes. He counted to ten, then twenty, then fifty. After a few deep breaths, he opened his eyes and nearly jumped out of his skin.

For some reason, everything was tinted greenish-blue. He dared turn his head and saw a fountain gurgling away, water drops faintly splashing on the marble. He sniffed, and his nose was assaulted by the smell of the sea. It calmed him somewhat, because the smell reminded him of—

An arm snaked under him and suddenly, Nico was pressed against someone's bare chest.

He squeaked in surprise. Any other sound that he could have made (like swear words ranging from Italian to Ancient Greek) was drowned out by a loud snore, and the arms around him tightened.

Nico wished he didn't sleep with only his boxers on. And he wished that the guy he was pressed against didn't sleep with only his—wait, were those tighty-whiteys? What in Hades…

But most of all, Nico wished that this moment wouldn't end.

Percy Jackson was snuggling against him, in nothing but his underwear. His hugged Nico like the son of Hades was some sort of a life-sized, emo teddy bear, and was murmuring about pandas in his sleep. A stuffed seahorse stared at him accusingly from between their torsos, like it was saying, Hey, I was here first!

Nico tried to think through the cloud of euphoria that was Percy Jackson's breath against his ear. A bit of drool rolled from between Percy's perfect lips and landed with a splat on Nico's shoulder. That snapped him back to reality.

Okay…so he was in the dark. Check. He'd thought about Percy's bed. Check. His muscles now felt like it was filled with liquid cement and his eyelids were droopy (although the older boy's warmth was definitely soothing him to the point of rejuvenation). Check.

Yup, he had, albeit unknowingly (yeah, tell that to the judge, di Angelo), shadow-traveled to the Poseidon cabin.

And now, thanks to Percy's tentacle-like arms, he was trapped. Ecstatic, but trapped.

Heart hammering in his ribcage, Nico peered up at the taller teenager.

Once again, he marveled at how handsome Percy was. Ever since he turned sixteen, his facial features became angular, as if all the baby fat had been chiseled away by a really talented sculptor. The rest of his head wasn't very elegant, but Nico was determined to commit it to memory. His hair looked like it had been present at the time of a nuclear explosion. His cheeks were adorably puffed out like a blowfish, which made Nico smile, and his drooling lips were slightly parted, revealing a row of white, crooked teeth flanked by two shark-like ones, and a bud of pink tongue.

Nico realized that he could reach Percy's lips if he'd inch up a little more, and his mouth went dry at the prospect, like a thirsty man in the desert.

He shook himself from the thought. Unfairly adorable or not, he wasn't going to take advantage of Percy this way. He had too much respect for the boy to do that. Hell, he loved him too much to do anything that could hurt him.

As if sensing his resolve, Percy's hips unconsciously pressed against his own, and Nico had to bite back a gasp of surprise and pleasure at the sensation.

Enough was enough, he told himself firmly. Percy had a girlfriend, a girlfriend who probably wouldn't appreciate some death-scented guy mooning over her boyfriend.

Gingerly, he unraveled himself from Percy's embrace, despite every cell in his body screaming at him to go back to the comforting alcove of lean muscle and little-kid underpants. With a sigh, he peeled himself away and was about to leave, when…

"Nico?"

Shit.

His mind raced, thinking up excuses of why the hell he was in the Poseidon cabin in the middle of the night, in nothing but a pair of boxers with cutesy designs of skulls and crossbones on them and a look of abject terror frozen into his face, sprawled next to the sole occupant of the room and whose godly father would blast him to smithereens if he found out that he'd practically taken advantage of his beloved son.

Yeah…he was beyond defense here. The most he could do, he supposed, was quietly slink out of here and hope that Percy would chalk everything up to some weird homoerotic dream (which would actually work just fine for Nico).

Percy was now sitting up and yawning. The sight was so hypnotically cute that, for a moment, Nico forgot about his speedy escape plan and just stared at him, transfixed.

"Hey," Percy Jackson said, as if everything was completely normal. "Dude, I just had the weirdest dream—" He broke off, and his eyes shot open when he saw that Nico was shirtless in front of him, and that they were on the same bed. He instinctively tore the sheets and pulled it to cover his own shirtless self.

Poor Nico was unfortunately sitting on the sheets, and Percy Jackson was Percy Jackson, so Nico yelped as Percy pulled with enough force to send him catapulting out of bed. He landed, not very gracefully, on his butt. As if his mortification wasn't enough…

It would have been the perfect opportunity to shadow travel and disappear from the face of the earth for the rest of his life, but alas, it was not to be. The room suddenly exploded with light, which left it mostly devoid of shadows, unless he crawled under Percy's bed.

Percy's head poked out of the side of the bed and looked down at him with wide eyes. Nico cursed internally, wishing that he was wearing something else. Or, you know, something at all.

"So…Nico!" Percy began brightly, "what the actual hell are you doing in my cabin?"

"I shadow traveled here," Nico blurted. "Um, accidentally," he added quickly.

"In your underwear."

Nico shrugged uncomfortably. "Uh…first time for everything, I guess."

Maybe it was because sleep still fogged any semblance of brain Percy might have had, or maybe because he was used to weird things happening to him in his sleep, but the son of Poseidon seemed nonplussed. "Okay." He yawned again, stretching like a cat as he did so. Nico forced himself not to look at his friend's body as the muscles rippled and…and…

"Nico?"

He snapped his eyes away, his face aflame. "What?"

"You wanna crash here?"

No. Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea…

"Sure," Nico replied nonchalantly. You're a bastard, the voice in his head scolded him. We're all bastards in this camp, Nico retorted inwardly. "Won't your father get angry?"

"Dad? Nah, he's used to it. People drop by here all the time!"

"In the middle of the night?!" Was Annabeth one of those people?

"Sure. Grover usually stays here whenever he and Juniper had a fight. Which is, like, every week."

"Grover isn't people," Nico pressed. Jealousy had replaced whatever rationality Nico might have possessed. He didn't really know why he wanted to know so badly if Percy and Annabeth had slept together. Maybe he was a masochist. Yeah, that probably made sense.

"Harsh, man. I mean, I get that he's part goat, but—"

"No! I mean, who else has been here?"

Percy scratched his head. "Uh…I caught one of the Stoll brothers in here once, making out with his girlfriend. Splashing them with toilet water was easy enough, though…but yeah, I've been alone, mostly, especially since Annabeth and I broke up."

Nico couldn't be hearing this right. "Pardon?"

"Toilet water. It's a good teenage hormone repellent—"

"You and Annabeth broke up?" Was he grinning? Nico felt his face and his finger was nearly sucked into one of his dimples. Stop grinning, you ignoramus, he growled silently to himself. Just because Percy was single now didn't mean…

"Uh, yeah? She decided that she wanted to focus on Olympus and her studies more. I don't really blame her, man. I mean, I've gotten a D in pretty much everything last semester—"

"Percy," Nico said calmly, "I think you made a huge mistake." As much as he wanted to kick himself for saying it, he continued, "You and Annabeth were the ultimate couple. She's kind of an amazing girl. Why would you let her go?" And you're a breathtakingly handsome, funny, and unbelievably nice hero. Was she on crack when she dumped you?

Percy snorted. "So, what, should I have forced her to stay with me or something? She's Annabeth, dude. She can think for herself just fine."

"You don't seem to be bothered about this," Nico observed, trying to choke down the hope that was filling his chest.

"Well, we've only been together for a month, Nico. And it's not really much of a breakup," Percy said. "We'd probably be back together in a week."

And just like that, all the hope that filled Nico's heart crawled out and died. Just like everything else, he thought bitterly.

Well, at least the fact that they were currently broken up made him feel less of a voyeuristic asshole.

"We're just…giving each other space, you know? Hey, you'll understand when you grow up, kid."

"I am not a kid," Nico said defiantly, or as defiantly as he could with the smiling skulls on his underwear.

"No, you're not," Percy said with a smile. "You're the ultra-terrifying Ghost King. But seriously, man, summoning those undead zombie warriors? You're pretty damn impressive, di Angelo."

"Thank you." Don't blush, don't blush, don't—

"Did you get sunburn or something? You look like one of my dad's lobsters."

Nico stood abruptly. "I think I need to go."

"Aw, what? Already?"

He reveled in the disappointment in Percy's voice. "Well, if you really want me to stay—"

"Yeah, of course I do! Nico, we don't even hang out. Seriously." And suddenly, he was assaulted with the utter cuteness of Percy's puppy dog eyes. Nico's knees actually buckled under him.

Nico cleared his throat. "Fine. Jeez," he grumbled.

"Yay!" Percy cheered. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to sleep."

Nico stared at Percy, bemused. "That's your definition of 'hanging out'?"

Percy smacked Nico upside on the head in a friendly, big-brotherly gesture. Damn. "Well, you did burst in here in the middle of the night. And besides, sleeping is, like, one of the best things in the world," Percy said seriously. "Only true friends can sleep together." Percy reddened. "Wait, that came out wrong—"

Nico held up a hand, laughing. Percy grinned sheepishly at the sound, remembering the hyperactive ten-year-old boy that once was. He wished Nico had more happiness in his life. Ever since he'd let Bianca die…

"C'mere," Percy said gently, scooting over to make some space for the son of Hades." I don't like sleeping alone, anyway," he said, gesturing at the stuffed seahorse on the side of his bed.

"You…want me to sleep next to you? Here?"

"No, on the floor," Percy said sarcastically. "Come on, Nico. It's no big deal."

Nico felt his resolve crumbling fast. He held on to debris of doubt and said feebly, "But we're both guys. Won't it be weird?"

Percy's eyebrows knotted together. "No. Should it be? What's the big deal?"

"Um, okay." Cursing himself for his uncharacteristic lack of willpower, Nico slid under the sheets next to Percy. He lay as stiff as a board until Percy began snoring. A few seconds later, Percy the Kraken seized him by the shoulders and pulled him into a bear hug.

Nico di Angelo closed his eyes, pretending, if only for a moment, that he and Percy were in an actual relationship. That they were a regular couple, sleeping side-by-side, chests pressed together, arms around each other. For a while, he could almost believe that Percy was his boyfriend.

And then the son of the sea god shifted and mumbled "Annabeth" under his breath, and Nico felt his fantasies shattering.

Taking a deep breath, Nico untangled himself from Percy Jackson for the second time, which hurt even more than the last. Especially as Percy's grip tightened around him, as if he didn't want to let him go. He grumbled in his sleep as the son of Hades pulled himself free.

A sad smile played at Nico's lips as he gazed at the drooling beauty that was his crush, the boy that he had loved since he was ten. His hero.

He felt the darkness beckoning to him, urging him to pull away. The darkness always knew best, always knew when to hide him, to protect him, even against the greatest monster of all: Love.

But he would allow himself one moment of weakness. He brought his arm around Percy and hugged him gently, careful not to wake him up. And because he clearly wasn't pushing his luck enough, he pecked the dark-haired boy on the cheek. Blushing, he pulled away. "I love you," he muttered.

Without another word, he stepped back and receded into the comforting arms of darkness.

It wouldn't exactly be a Nico fic without a truckload of angst randomly running you over. Reading House of Hades and learning about Nico's anguish was pretty sobering, to tell you the truth.

Thankfully, we can always read fanfics about Nico and Percy having sex. Yay!

Anyway, as always, thank you for reading and please review. :)