The son of death didn't know how he felt about this. Sure enough, a week ago, he'd confidently told Percy that he wasn't his "type"—not entirely true, but not entirely false—but now, said confidence seemed to have all but vanished. Nico had been avoiding his former flame for the last few days, unsure of how this inevitable conversation would go. He didn't know how he should explain, how he should respond. How would Percy react?
Thoughts like this churned through the hero's mind constantly that whole week. He'd started sitting with the Seven (and Reyna), who seemed to have finally taken a liking to him, but when Percy would arrive, Nico would make some excuse and leave before any kind of conversation could occur. Once or twice, he'd been forced to stay, but it wasn't so bad, as long as he wasn't alone with the son of Poseidon.
Even now, as he set his plate down on the table the Seven shared, he had made sure that Jason was already there, so there was no chance of Percy cornering him. The son of Jupiter smiled brightly at Nico, and the Ghost King was one hundred percent convinced that it was in fact possible to be too happy.
"Morning, Nico!"
Nico hid a grin, and grunted. It was too much effort to be polite at nine in the morning. Jason only chuckled, knowing his friend's behavior all too well.
"What's so funny..." The smaller boy muttered, not turning to face Jason.
"You're like an animal, you have a kinda schedule of when you're irritable and when you're not. It's kinda cute to picture you as a koala bear." The words came out of Jason's mouth, and from the look on his face he didn't seem to hear anything strange in them.
"Did you hear what you just said?"
The son of Jupiter slung his arm around Nico's shoulders as he laughed.
"Fuck off."
Jason grinned even wider. Just then, Annabeth and Piper joined them. Piper stole a quick kiss from Jason, causing Nico to roll his eyes, and Annabeth looked around for the rest of the group. Hazel was just stepping out of the Hades cabin, where she'd been staying with Nico. There was a parakeet on her shoulder, which was assumed to be Frank.
Nico squinted at his sister (who had no idea he'd even seen her). He hadn't known Frank was in the cabin. Hades knew what the two had been doing that night... Nico was an incredibly heavy sleeper.
Jason must have picked up on his friend's thoughts, as he lightly patted his back, causing the son of Hades to grimace as he instinctively tried to move away from the physical contact. Piper had noticed the not-so-discreet exchange, and a playful grin spread across her face.
"Is that an overprotective brother I see? Or is it Nico... Hmm?" She asked Annabeth, pretending the boy in front of her couldn't hear her.
Nico rolled his eyes. Annabeth's better than that. She wouldn't—
"Oh nooooo Nico your little baby sister's all GROWN UP!"
"A-Annabeth? You too?!"
The blonde high fived Piper, and the two continued on their tirade against the poor son of Hades. Neither noticed the startled expression that appeared on Nico's face when he noticed a confused son of Poseidon sit down across from him.
"Hey guys, who're we making fun of?" He asked looking from Annabeth to Piper to Jason. All three simultaneously pointed to Nico, who appeared to be attempting to turn the table into a ghost, judging from the way he was glaring down.
"You'll never guess who happens to be the cutest overprotective brother." Piper said, as Percy nearly choked on his water. He looked at the son of Hades across from him.
"No way." No response. "Nico! Oh my gods, that's the best thing I've heard this morning. I would pay to see you beat up Frank!"
"Shut up, Percy." Nico grumbled as the group continued to poke at him both literally and figuratively. "Also... um guys, could we... not tell Hazel?"
A collective "Awwwww" then caused Nico to roll his eyes for what seemed to be the hundredth time.
"Fuck this, I'm out." At this, the others started to hurriedly apologize, trying to appease the annoyed boy.
"Oh come on Nico, we're joking!" Percy said, seconds before a piece of toast hit him square on the nose. "See that's better. Nice aim, too."
Nico awkwardly smiled a little, trying to act natural around Percy. I'm not nervous. You're nervous.
Piper waved over to Leo to hurry up, and the son of Hephaestus jogged over, and sat beside Piper, showing everyone something he'd done with a phone he must have "confiscated" from one of his poor siblings. To be quite honest, Nico tuned this bit out. It was boring as hell, and he really didn't see the point in this kind of technology. It's not like demigods could ever actually use it.
The son of Hades hardly noticed he was dozing off until the tall blonde beside him shook him by his shoulders.
"Will?" he asked hopefully.
Nope. Not Will.
"Jason." he grumbled, more annoyedly.
"You okay? You seem to be more ... out of it than usual." The son of Jupiter sounded genuinely concerned, although a small smile remained on his face. The rest of the group—oh hey Hazel and Frank showed up—had quieted down, and looked at Nico with hints of worry in their eyes. He must have been silent for a while, as Jason shook him lightly again. "Nico? Anyone in there?"
"Y-Yeah, it's just early." He managed, sleepily.
Jason seemed unconvinced, but he settled for that answer, seemingly knowing that he wouldn't get any better for now. He would be right about that.
"So Hazel. Anything you wanna... confess?" Nico stared expectantly at his sister, who fidgeted nervously. Everyone turned to stare at her. Piper was grinning and blushing with excitement.
"N-No... Why?"
Nico looked at her, slightly hurt that she thought she'd have to hide from him. After a pause, he responded, "No reason."
Jason looked at his friend, and squeezed his shoulder. "Anyway, I hear Travis and Connor are doing something to the Ares—"
A burst of flames and screams interrupted Sparky's sentence. Even Leo, who had literally the best fire Nico had ever seen, looked impressed. After a moment of admiration, Annabeth stirred.
"Should we help them?" She asked, as if it was a genuine question to be debated.
Percy was already on his feet, as was Nico. It seemed that no one else seemed particularly anxious to help the Ares kids. The two heroes ran to Cabin 5, side by side.
"I'll get as many out as I can. You stop the fire at its source." Nico said flatly.
Percy was unbelievably impressed with how calm Nico was.
"G-Got it. Good luck." He managed.
"You too." The son of death said in an undertone before he rammed the door with his shoulder, and disappeared in the flames of the cabin.
Smoke clogged his vision as Nico gathered the children of war into the center of the room, away from the flaming walls. Between coughs, he managed, "Stay here!" "Don't move!" He concentrated, and used the flames to his advantage. Because of the firelight, all the shadows in the room were stronger than normal. He willed them to surround the group of half-bloods.
Several strings of black began to rise from the ground. They formed spirals around the demigods in the center of the room. They began to close in, and finally the children of Ares and Nico had disappeared into the void.
Percy watched his cousin break into the cabin, and couldn't help feeling a little worried for the boy. Focus. Right, so...
He pulled on some water from the fountain behind him. From what he saw, the fire must have been started from the roof of the cabin, so he dried the fountain and put all the water on top of the incredibly flammable roof. Maybe Leo can get us better roofs? Percy spread the water like a sheet on the roof, trying to snuff out the flames.
It sure as hell wasn't gonna be that easy. He needed more water. He pulled some from the air. The fire seemed to calm down a bit, but there was just too much oxygen, and the fire was still burning through the thick roof. Gods, I hope everyone's okay... A thought crept into Percy's mind.
"Jason! Help!" Percy would've really loved some wind at this time. Maybe to put out the fire. As if the blonde had read his mind, a huge gust of wind came by Percy, and he had to dig his fingers into the ground to keep himself down.
It must have been less than fifteen seconds, but it felt like an eternity before Jason let the wind die down. Percy looked up to see that his friend had entirely ripped the roof off of the cabin, and thus effectively removed the source of the fire. The son of Poseidon chuckled at the thought of innocent mortals seeing a flaming roof flying above them. Wonder what the mist does to that.
Sure enough, the cabin was empty thanks to Nico. Percy turned just in time to see a burst of darkness, and the appearance of several coughing Ares campers and Nico under a tall pine tree. Jason was already there calming the confused kids down.
Percy ran over to them, and noticed Nico looked a bit pale. He made his way to the smaller boy. "Nice job, Nico. What do you think we should do about the missing roof? I'm sure Chiron will notice if we don't replace it..." Nico was silent, and he seemed to be turning even more pale. "Hey, you alright?"
"Y-Yeah, it's just ... a lot of people to shadow travel with. I'll be fine." Nico staggered back a step. Any chance of convincing Percy was now gone.
"Come on, let's get you back to your cabin, you need rest." Percy motioned toward Cabin 13. Nico hesitated. "Come on Nico, you can't do this to yourself. You know you need to lie down."
"Yeah but..." Nico looked down.
Percy understood. "You don't wanna go back in there do you..." The son of Hades shook his head. He couldn't blame him either. He hated Cabin 3 sometimes too. Children of the big three were lonely in their cabins. The cabins were oppressive. Daunting. Percy knew how Nico felt. "You wanna go for a walk?"
"I-It's really not a big deal, you don't have to—"
"Nico, come on. It'll be fun. Anyway I haven't seen much of you lately... and I can't help but think that... you want it that way." The look on Nico's face was pitiful. He looked full of regret, but also anxious.
"I-It's not... That's not... A-Alright let's take a walk..." The son of Hades said, trying not to stutter. Percy smiled. It meant a lot to him that Nico was trying.
"Awesome." He put his arm around Nico's shoulders, inviting a grunt from the somewhat uncomfortable boy.
As they walked through the safe part of the woods, there was silence, and then there wasn't. Bits of conversation stuck out every so often. Mostly small talk, until the inevitable topic came up.
"So... types?"
Nico stiffened. "What?"
Percy continued. "Types. I know I'm not yours. Care to explain?"
Nico stammered incoherently, and Percy genuinely felt bad for putting him on the spot like this. Finally he took a deep breath and with an almost steady voice, he said. "I had a crush on you."
Both boys stopped walking. Percy looked at Nico's face, and Nico looked at the ground. Percy didn't know what to say. He would never have expected this. He never would've thought Nico would like him. It did make some sense, but it was a complete curve ball. Was Percy supposed to be flattered? He may or may not have been a little flattered. Should he apologize? He just didn't know what to do. "Oh." Was all he could think of.
"I-I'll leave if you w-want." Nico said, with what might have been tears forming in his eyes.
"No, don't go. We need to talk." Percy had to get a few things clear.
Nico managed to meet his eyes, and the son of Hades looked so... for once he looked completely transparent. He wasn't hiding anything. Percy remembered the last time he'd seen this. It was when he'd saved him and Bianca from the manticore. Ever since then, there'd been shadows. There were excuses. There were half truths, and there was just something missing. Nico did have his moments, when he'd do his best to be a part of the group, but it was never really complete. But in that moment, he was.
"Nico... I didn't know you felt that way. I'm... I'm so sorry I can't... you know. Reciprocate?" Percy tried hard to imagine how Nico had kept this a secret for so long, and suddenly he wasn't so
Nico looked down. "Don't worry about it. I came to terms with that a long time ago."
"Is... Is this why you've been avoiding me?"
Nico nodded hesitantly. He didn't know what to do now. He really had expected a more negative reaction from Percy. This was weird.
"Nico... you should never be afraid to talk to me. You're my friend. You're important to me." Nico was silent for a minute.
"Thanks." He said almost in a whisper. The two stood in silence, giving them both time to process everything. They continued walking, without a word from either. Just as they were reaching the edge of the water, Percy was the one to break the silence.
"So if I'm not your type, who the hell is?" He asked, mildly offended.
Nico rolled his eyes. "Fuck you."