Chapter Two: Distance

"Percy."

Percy immediately turned to attention. He realized Annabeth was staring at him with stormy gray eyes. Her eyebrows were scrunched together, confusion was evident in her features. Perhaps there was a little bit of hurt too. Percy cursed himself inwardly for blanking out on her.

But he couldn't help it. Since his encounter with Nico, guilt started chewing on his insides. He couldn't seem to think about anything else besides that. He tried looking for Jason to ask him about what he knows but he seemed to have disappeared. Either that or Nico unleashed his anger towards him, forced him to keep his mouth shut from now on and avoid Percy's confrontation.

As for the child of Hades himself, he chose to keep his distance from the rest of the group, as usual, and stayed below the ship - on land. Not wanting to threaten his temper, Percy decided to let him cool his head for a little while longer.

He sighed. "Sorry... my ADHD must be acting up again." It was a lame excuse but he said it anyway.

Unsurprisingly, she didn't buy it but she knew Percy well enough to drop the subject. He was obviously not in the mood to talk about this. Probably, another time would be better. With that, the daughter of Athena bid Percy a 'good night'. They shared a quick kiss before she left his room, leaving him alone in the dark.

After suffering the deepest pits of the Underworld, he thought that being reunited with his comfortable bed would be the best feeling ever but right now, that wasn't exactly the case.

Unwillingly, Percy closed his eyes and dreamed.

He felt a gust of wind under his feet. Percy swiveled around and rubbed his eyes but he could literally see nothing. It was pitch black and the coldness from the air was starting to make his spine shiver.

He tried opening his mouth to speak but no sound came. 'Great!' He thought. 'I'm blind and mute'.

Before he could start wondering which of his other senses were disabled, a voice spoke. "You are Poseidon's hero, are you not?"

Percy was astonished. It was Thanatos, speaking to him in a dream. But that wasn't what caught him off guard. What surprised him was that Thanatos asked him about his identity even though they have just met last month when he freed him in Alaska.

'You really don't remember me?' Percy thought. He didn't know if the god can read his mind but it was worth the shot.

"Ah, I believe I must answer your question with a question. Do you not recognize who I am?" There was definitely humor in the god's voice.

'You're Thanatos. God of Death? Rescued you last month... You're welcome, by the way.'

This time, the god laughed for real. It was a low rumbling sound. Almost like the sound a lion makes before attacking its prey. Percy's mouth instantly felt dry.

"You are mistaken, young demigod. I am Eros, Cupid in Roman." The god said. "Need not worry. Death and love are always interchanged, I am not offended by your intuition."

For some reason, Cupid seemed to be more likable in Percy's imagination. A chubby child with wings in an oversized diaper, shooting love arrows. Right now, Percy flinched involuntarily whenever he spoke and he can't even see the god's face.

'Er... So why am I hearing your voice?'

Instead of the god answering, Percy heard another voice. It was much younger and very familiar.

"Enough games!" Nico di Angelo shouted. "Show yourself!"

Percy spun around a second time to locate him but he was only met with darkness. 'What's going on?'

Apparently, Nico did not hear his thoughts. He sounded distant, like this already happened and Percy was watching it on replay. Well, 'hearing' would be a better word.

"I've been to Tartarus and back!" Nico snarled. "You don't scare me!"

Suddenly, Percy felt a wave of nausea. His head swirled with dark thoughts like everything that scared him was standing around him. He was trembling uncontrollably and was finding it harder and harder to breathe. He clutched onto his head, closing his eyes to block out the unwanted feeling. He was genuinely scared.

"I left Camp Half-blood because of love. Annabeth... she-"

And then all at once, scenes flashed before Percy's eyes.

Their first meeting, Nico's eyes gleamed. He wore a smile full of admiration and respect. It was all addressed to Percy. He kept asking him about the gods from his Mythomagic card game. His innocence and light demeanor made Percy think if this was the same Nico he was with right now.

Then the image flickered. It was when Bianca accepted Artemis' invitation to become a huntress. Nico felt abandoned, alone and confused. Percy felt all of them as well. That's when he realized, Cupid wanted him to experience his pain, his loss.

Nevertheless, in the vision, Percy promised. He said he would watch over his sister, keep her safe from danger. Nico trusted him and put all his faith into his words. He knew he wouldn't let him down. He was Percy Jackson.

The scene changed once more. This time, Percy-past Percy- sat gravely next to Nico. He had just told him that Bianca sacrificed her life to save the rest of them. Without warning, Percy experienced Nico's emotions. It was anger, resentment, grudge. They were all tied up together into one unfathomable rage. The experience was painful enough to make Percy crumple to the ground.

But there was something else that was tugging on his gut. Another feeling that Nico kept pushing back.

"I had a crush on Percy." Nico's voice spat. "That's the truth. That's the big secret."

His chest tightened, a hundred voices spoke in his head making him unable to think clearly. He wanted to tell the voices to stop but he still couldn't find his voice. Percy had no choice. All he can do is to endure all these heightened emotions. He tried as best as he could to repress them but they kept attacking him.

But despite all his helplessness, he was alone. No one can save him. Nobody even knows he needed help. 'This is what Nico has been feeling all this time...'

Percy reached for Riptide to battle all these emotions but that was the thing. They were emotions. He could not fight them off. Doing so would result to him fighting himself.

He was so torn apart that he screamed.

Percy sat upright on his bed, his chest heaving in and out. He was out of breath. He felt like he just lost his powers, drowned in a hundred deep ocean and just came out of the waters to force oxygen back into his lungs.

He covered his face with shaky hands. Nico...

Unlike him, Percy thought, Nico was still underwater. He was still drowning into an endless pit with no one there to save him.

At the back of his mind, he could almost hear Cupid's laugh resonating through the darkness.

Before he realized, he got out of bed and rapidly went through the door. It was probably midnight. The whole crew was asleep. Even Leo was snoozing on Festus' head. Unable to think of anything else, Percy let his feet drag himself towards the rail. Down below, he saw Nico lying still on the grass.

The son of Poseidon climbed down the rope ladder and landed on the ground with a soft thud. Nico sat up immediately like it was a reflex. His shoulders tensed and Percy felt that his presence was putting him off.

No one spoke at first. Slowly, Percy closed the distance between them and stopped when he was only a feet away. Realization sunk in and Nico spat the words like it was poison. "You know."

He didn't reply. What would he even say?

Nico laughed once with no humor. "I knew I could never trust that Grace-"

"It wasn't Jason." Percy said sternly. His face was expressionless but definitely not insensitive.

Nico turned his head away but before he could, Percy saw that his eyes were glassy. He crouched down to meet his level, just like he used to when he was ten. Back when everything was fine.

Remembering the pain he felt in his dream, Percy wrapped his arms around him, covering him like how any brother would whenever his family was in agony. "I'm sorry..." He kept muttering. "I'm sorry... I didn't know..."

Nico was rigid under his arms. He felt a lump in his throat, blocking his windpipe. He wanted to push Percy away like what he had been doing for years. But he was tired. Tired of concealing his emotions. Tired of running away. Tired of lying to himself.

For the first time, he let himself loosen up. "No, you wouldn't. That's the whole point, isn't it? Never to let you find out." He brought a hand onto his arm and pushed Percy away, but this time, there was no hatred, no anger. All those emotions he felt in Croatia disappeared. It was replaced by acceptance and contentment.

Nico took a real deep breath, one he haven't had for so long. He had finally learned to let go.

A/N: All these Nico feels... *sobs forever* If you want to set the mood while reading this, go to YouTube and search "Tetsukazu no Kanjou" by Nakayama Masato. Please REVIEW! It really encourages me to write more. Btw, I just made a tumblr account specifically designed to display all my writing. And other you have any prompts or headcanons you would like me to write about, just message me there and see what what happens! I hope you liked this. It was a bit of challenge for me to write but definitely enjoyable lol bye.

EDIT: Due to numerous requests I've been receiving to continue this... Well I might. I'm not promising anything yet. I'm just saying I MIGHT.