As soon as Nico awoke, he felt something was different. The bed was warmer than usual and a strange sense of calm had washed over him. He tried to sit up but found that something was keeping him in place. He looked down to see a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and suddenly the events of the previous night came back to him. Despite himself, Nico found that he was blushing as he felt Percy's body pressed up against his own. He felt warm and safe in Percy's arms. He sighed happily, letting his body sink back comfortably against Percy's.

"Good morning" Percy mumbled sleepily against Nico's shoulder. Nico tensed for a moment before smiling to himself.

"Morning" Nico replied quietly.

"How did you sleep?" Percy asked, still not moving his arms from around Nico's waist.

"Better than I've slept in a while" Nico admitted sheepishly, causing Percy to smile.

"Me too" Percy said, moving to rest his chin on Nico's shoulder.

"We should get up" Nico said after a moment of silence. In truth, he wanted nothing more than to stay curled up with Percy for the rest of the day but he knew they would have to move at some point. Percy seemed slightly crestfallen, which made Nico's heart flutter a little, but he removed his arms from Nico's waist and sat up nonetheless.

"I suppose you're right" Percy sighed. He went to get up but paused when he saw Nico's face turn red. He followed his eye line to a bottle sat on the bedside table with a note underneath it.

This is something I mixed up to help with Nico's recovery. It's made with Nectar but it's not as strong, so he can have more regular doses of it.

Sweet dreams,

Chiron

Percy's cheeks also tinged pink at seeing the message, although not as much as Nico. To break the tension, Percy stood, went over to the bottle, and poured out a dose.

"Open wide" Percy cooed teasingly, waving the spoon towards Nico's face.

"I can do that myself, you know" Nico sighed and rolled his eyes. But he opened his mouth nonetheless. Then immediately made a face at the taste of the medicine.

"That's disgusting" Nico spat as he forced himself to swallow it. Percy laughed at his expression before saying something about making breakfast.

Another two weeks passed by. Everything seemed to be going fine from Percy's perspective. But from Nico's, not so much. In truth, Percy was beginning to irritate Nico. Ever since that night Nico had woken Percy with his nightmare, Percy seemed to be even more protective of him than usual. He had been fine with it at first, even going as far as to think it was cute, but now it was just plain annoying. Percy would hover about Nico constantly, even when Nico was doing nothing more than sitting and reading a book. He would flitter around him anxiously and it seemed that he was never allowed to leave Percy's sight for longer than it took him to go to the bathroom. At least Percy still let him do that by himself.

Currently, Nico was trying to wash the dishes- he had started feeling little useless, so he decided he needed to help out somehow. But Percy was awkwardly pacing back and forth behind him, nervously twiddling his thumbs as if Nico was walking a tightrope or something.

"Can you stop doing that?" Nico sighed, putting down the plate he was holding and throwing the tea towel on top of it.

"Doing what?" Percy asked innocently, which only annoyed Nico further.

"This!" Nico vaguely waved around them "Hovering over me all the time like I might break at any minute"

"I just want to make sure you're okay" Percy said truthfully, reaching out a hand towards Nico. But Nico backed away, a scowl on his face.

"I can stand on my own two feet, thanks. I survived a long time without you or anyone else, what makes you think I suddenly need your help now?" Nico snapped and Percy stared at him in shocked silence. Deep down, Percy knew that Nico had perfectly reasonable grounds to say something like that. But that still didn't stop it from hurting. Nico turned away from him and began to walk away but suddenly a burst of anger ripped through Percy. Against his better judgement, he acted upon that anger.

"Gods, why do you always do this?" Percy sighed in frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Do what?" Nico spun back around the face him.

"You act like you don't want or need anyone's help even when you do" Percy explained.

"I don't need your help!" Nico argued, crossing his arms against his chest.

"But I want to help you" Percy urged but Nico just scoffed at him.

"When have you ever wanted to help me? When have you ever wanted to help anyone? The only thing you ever do is help yourself"

"Is that really what you think of me?" Percy stepped back, casting his gaze to the floor. He knew Nico had never really liked him but was that truly the reason why?

"You don't care about me, no one does"

"Just stop doing this!" Percy pleaded, lifting his head to look at Nico again.

"Why? Why should I stop? The last time I checked, you only started caring about me when I collapsed and everyone thought you stabbed me" Nico snapped, glaring at Percy.

"I've always cared about you" Percy promised, trying to keep his voice level.

"That's a lie and you know it"

"I'm not lying; I'd never lie to you. If anything, you're the one who doesn't care" Percy quipped, finally letting his anger slip into his voice.

"Why should I care? What's left for me to care about?" Nico fumed, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Stop it! Stop doing this! You're so selfish when you do this, you know?" Percy yelled, his hands forming fists by his sides.

"Well if I annoy you so much, why don't you just leave?!" Nico yelled back and Percy's whole body froze. Silence filled the room as neither of them did or said anything.

"Fine, if that's what you want. I'll go" Percy said quietly. Without looking at Nico he walked over to the door, pulled it open, paused for a second then left, slamming the door behind him. He completely missed the look of regret on Nico's face and the way he flinched as the door slammed shut.