"Nico? Nico, are you there?"
Percy's voice echoed down the endless corridor. Vigilant of his surroundings, the son of Hades trudged onwards into the darkness. Something moved off to his right and Nico grabbed the hilt of his sword, prepared to unsheathe the onyx weapon, until the source of the movement became visible.
A rat.
Nico exhaled, his hand still rested on the hilt of his sword, and continued on. The son of Hades had been having the same reoccurring dream each time he fell asleep ever since Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. He didn't tell anyone—why would he? it wasn't like he was all chummy with the other demigods aboard the Argo II anyways. He knew he made them feel uncomfortable. He practically radiated death. The only one he felt even slightly close to was Hazel, and he wouldn't even burden her with the knowledge of his nightmares.
It was his problem to deal with. His and nobody else's.
"Nico? NICO!" To his left. Nico could've sworn there wasn't a path there before. This was worse than the labyrinth. With a shudder at the memory of that endless maze, Nico turned off down the side corridor and continued to follow Percy's voice. He came to a black wall that appeared to be constructed entirely of Stygian iron. The Ghost King approached the wall slowly and spread his palm against the wall, feeling the cool metal against his fingertips.
Definitely Stygian iron. Abruptly, he slammed his fist against the wall and yelled in outrage, willing all his power into the hit. The force had the Son of Hades falling backwards a few feet away from the wall. He stood up, his legs threatening to collapse beneath him. He turned his gaze up to glare at the black barrier through his bangs.
"NICO!"
"Oh shut up, would you?" Nico grumbled, dusting off his arms, "I'm working on it."
It wasn't as if Percy couldn't handle Tartarus. Nico had done it alone and he'd been just fine. Besides, Percy had Annabeth.
Nico tried not to hate her, really, she had never been anything but kind to him from the moment they'd met—riding the stupid manticore off the side of the mountain to help him and his sister. He had no reason to hate her, so why did he?
Even now, the daughter of Athena was always treating Nico as a little brother and acting as if she didn't feel discomfort around him like, unlike everyone else at camp. Or maybe she did, she just didn't show it.
Yet, the fact that she was so nice to him actually made him hate her more.
Not just because she had Percy. Wait. What? No, it had nothing to do with that. Why should that have anything to do with it! It was because of all the pity. She wasn't the only one who pitied him, but she was one of the only people he spent time with, so he noticed it more in her than he noticed it in others.
He also noticed it a lot in Percy.
Speaking of Percy, the son of Poseidon still refused to shut up from beyond the other side of the door, and the things he was saying were growing more unbearable.
"Nico! Nico you promised! Where are you and the others?! NICO!" Percy's voice sounded so broken, so utterly defeated, and so angry. Nico blinked the wetness from his eyes furiously at the thought of Percy being angry at him.
Wait just one second.
Why the Hades was he crying?!
"Oh yeah?! What about you, Mr.'Savior of Olympus'! You promised to bring Bianca back safe, but did you? No. You didn't!"
Nico's eyes stang and he rubbed at his at them furiously, cursing himself, and Percy, and his stupid tears, and Bianca, and Annabeth, and prophecies and gods and anything that happened to pop into his mind. Meanwhile, Percy continued rambling on as if he hadn't heard a word Nico'd just screamed at the top of his lungs.
"You swore, Nico! On the styx! You can't break a promise on the Styx."
Nico felt like he could kill someone right about then. Preferably Percy Jackson. Nico had been struggling to understand what he felt towards Percy since he was a kid, and his feelings had only grown over the years, leaving him completely lost and even further from making sense of his feelings than he had been when he'd first developed them. but right then, there was no confusion. Nico hated Perseus Jackson. The son of Hades glared forwards, and his glare could kill. When he spoke, his voice was a deadly whisper, like someone's last breath.
"You broke your promise, Percy, but I won't."

The wall diffused, its mass unravelling in curls of murky black fog, leaving nothing but a shadow its wake.
Nico's spine became a rod and the son of Hades tensed remarkably. He wiped at his eyes and cheeks viscously, removing any evidence that he had been crying. He braced himself for what he was about to see. Probably Percy and Annabeth, beaten and battered from their time in Tartarus. Nico shuddered, remembering the pit of Hell.
"Nico!" Percy's voice exclaimed one last time. Except this time, it wasn't Percy's voice.
Not really.
It was like Percy was speaking along with other people, all of them saying the same thing simultaneously.
'Nico. Nico. Nico. Nico.' With each time Nico's name was spoken, the voice become more and more unlike Percy's, until there was no trace of the Son of Poseidon left in the chant, only an ominous voice that seemed to be jeering at Nico. The worst part was, Nico could no longer tell where the voice came from. It was all around him, closing in on him like the monsters of Tartarus. He clamped his hands shut with his hands and screamed, but the voice was inside his mind too.
'Nico. Nico. Nico. Nico.'
Like a fury clawing at his mind. He fell to his knees and banged his fists against his head in frustration.
"Nico." Percy's voice came back suddenly, strained, pained, cracked, to say the Italian's name one final time before the chanting disappeared altogether. Nico cautiously stood up and walked forward, where a blue rose lay on the floor. The son of Hades warily picked up the flower. As soon as he touched it, however, the rose caught fire. The green flames of Greek fire licked across the petals, but instead of charring and ruining the rose, it simply transformed the color of the petals to nightmare black. The fire died down and Nico dropped the flower.
"Nico." Oh Gods, Nico thought, please don't let that be the chanting again.
Nico." The son of Hades unsheathed his sword and furiously threw it ahead of him, where it disappeared in the darkness of the tunnel ahead. His legs turned to noodles under him and he fell forward.
"Nico."

—-

"Nico. Nico, come on. Get up." Hazel shook her brother slightly by the shoulders, pulling him out of unconsciousness. Abruptly, Nico bolted upwards and had his sword gripped tightly in his hand, the tip of the weapon pointed at Hazel. The daughter of Pluto jumped backwards, her eyes wide.
"Nico…"
Her brother blinked a few times before his eyes widened and he put his sword away. Hazel couldn't help but notice he still had his hand gripped around the hilt of his sword, so tightly his knuckles were white. He muttered a sorry and Hazel noticed he wasn't meeting her gaze. She thought his eyes looked red, like he wanted to cry…
"They, uhm, the others are down in the kitchen eating. They're discussing what to do next, i just thought you'd want to be there."
The Italian boy shook his head. "Yeah, thanks Haze."
'His voice cracked, as if he were in pain...' A pesky, nosey voice noted in the back of her mind. Instead of asking, however, she simply said "No problem." She turned and left the room. Whatever Nico was dealing with, she got the feeling she couldn't help him, no matter how badly she wanted to. He would tell her when he was ready. She shook her head and continued on her way to the others, leaving her brother alone, unaware that he was breaking down from pent up fear, anger, angst, want, hate, desire, pain, and guilt.
All because of Percy Jackson.

Because I was in a mood and I decided that I wanted to make myself feel like shit :|
No but really nico bby I love you and I feel for you and ARGH it hurt writing this.
Quick oneshot from my mind. Takes place before that whole Eros scene when Nico is still trying to deny his feeling for Percy.

Noteroonie**
This is something I wrote right after I finished HoH, and I could have sworn I'd posted it here, too, but apparently something went wrong.
grr.
Anyways, oneshot about angsty Nico because WHO DOESN'T LOVE THIS SWEETHEART :3
Enjoy, or maybe hate me, I dunno.