Nico was tempted to find some place to isolate himself for a while, but the thought that someone would worry—that maybe Percy himself would stay awake until he came back—kept him from it, and he returned to the dorm instead. But as he settled into his own bed, he sorely regretted Camp Half-Blood's complete lack of intimacy.
His brain was still going on overdrive, replaying his memories of the past few minutes. The taste of Percy's lips was still on his, in spite of how brief the kiss had been, and the salt of it felt like a fire against the open wound in Nico's heart.
But that defeat was bittersweet—a strange word to use in a positive light, but it felt extremely appropriate. Percy liked him. Liked him. Liked him! Nico wasn't sure which part of the sentence made the least sense to him, and yet, it was true.
Conflicting emotions battled inside of Nico, and he couldn't untangle them. But, when Percy came back in the dorm, along with the other boys, he knew that he couldn't stay mad at him. No matter how much it hurt to be near him, being mad at him, keeping away from him, would be worse.
Percy knelt next to him. "You're still awake?" he asked in a very quiet whisper.
Nico wouldn't have been able to pretend if he'd wanted to. He rolled on his side to face him. "Yeah."
Percy nodded. "Okay. I— Do you—"
"I'm not mad at you, if that's what you want to know."
Percy let out a hushed gasp. "You— all right. Awesome. But—"
"If you want to talk, can we do it some other time?" Nico was fairly sure that least Jason, who occupied the bunk bed right next to theirs with Grover, was listening.
"Okay. But I—"
"Go to sleep, you idiot." Nico chuckled, then turned his back to Percy.
"Right." Percy climbed on his bunk, and silence fell back on the dorm.
Nico doubted that either of them slept much that night, though.
Breakfast was painfully awkward. Nico had gone with Percy, Jason and Grover, as he always did, but this meant that he still couldn't talk to Percy. He wasn't even sure of what he would tell him when he did, but nothing could be worse than this.
They were soon joined by Reyna and Piper, however, which provided a nice change of pace, and an easy distraction for Nico, whom Reyna took aside to discuss Mythomagic.
"So how come you two never hung out with us before?" Nico asked Reyna in the middle of a discussion of the pros and cons of Hera—which they were both severely biased against. "Aren't Piper and Jason together?"
"Yes. Well, Piper, Jason and me." Nico was completely taken aback by her matter-of-fact admission, but she didn't seem to notice. "But we took a break until yesterday—Piper and I couldn't stand his hissy fit over Percy 'abandoning him'."
"So what changed?"
Reyna stared at him for a short while, eyeing Jason cautiously. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but I think what changed was that he went from possessively defensive of Percy to shipper frenzy. And when I say 'I think', I mean Piper is absolutely certain of it, and she's the expert."
Shipper frenzy? Nico narrowed his eyes. "What did he tell you?"
"To me? Not much; you boys can do whatever you want as far as I'm concerned. But he told Piper, and Piper loves meddling in romantic affairs. If you need advice on how to ask Percy out, you should ask her."
"Hmm." Nico remained silent, preferring not to share on last night's disaster. Well, semi-disaster. Or whatever he should call it.
Reyna only chuckled at his apparent discomfort. "Or not. I'm not sure you're ready to face the fury of an unleashed Piper. Just do whatever feels right."
Whatever feels right… That would be kissing Percy again. Preferably right now. But he wasn't sure that would be a good idea. Or was it? It was all too confusing.
"So what're your plans for today, boys?" Piper asked as breakfast came to an end.
"Nothing," Percy replied immediately.
"Well that was very constructive, thank you."
"No, I mean I plan to do nothing. I'm gonna need some rest. Besides, we have the senior party in two weeks, I don't think we really need to make the most of the other weekends with that coming."
Percy had told Nico about the senior party. During the third weekend of the month, the oldest residents were allowed out of camp for the night, as well as some of the younger ones if they managed to convince the camp leaders. Where exactly they would go, or what they would do, Nico had no idea, but Percy had been very excited about it. However, Nico wondered just if bringing it up now was an excuse.
Piper was about to argue, but Jason interrupted her. "I think we could all use some down time."
She glared at him, but eventually shrugged. "Fine. Suit yourself." She rose from the table in one swift movement, and strolled away. After exchanging a worried glance, Jason and Reyna went after her, but Piper just laughed as they caught up, and the three of them left the terrace together.
"So, Nico…" Nico almost jumped when Percy called his name. "Didn't you say you wanted to, um—"
"Right." Nico could have laughed at Percy's inability to find a convincing excuse to get away from Grover, but he was too nervous for that. "I have something to show you." Plain, simple; hopefully Grover would get the hint. But Nico didn't want to find out. "Come on, let's go." He stood up as well, half-dragging a confused Percy behind him.
He led them into the woods, to the first hiding place he remembered Percy showing him.
"Okay. Well, that was direct," Percy said, amused.
"What did you want to talk about?"
Percy sighed. "Are you sure you're okay? I mean, that we're okay?"
"Yes, I told you last night."
"If you have something to say, you should get it out."
"I'm fine."
"Yeah, but—"
"Look, I won't pretend it's not disappointing, but… it's still better than I expected. I can handle a 'no'. I think."
Percy paused, a confused look in his eyes. "Well, what did you expect, then?"
Nico shrugged. "I don't know. Being rejected by everyone. Maybe even worse. Having to leave camp early for my own safety. It happened before." And he hadn't even kissed anyone, those other times—but he kept that detail to himself.
Percy chuckled. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen here. Oh, I'm sure some people wouldn't like it, but not us. You should've known."
"Yeah, I guess I should have. But I learned to hide for survival. It's hard to let it go."
"Hey, I get it. But it's all right now." Percy awkwardly stepped forward, and took Nico in his arms.
Nico couldn't help but chuckle. "What the hell are you doing?"
"You look like you need a hug. So I'm giving you one."
"You are ridiculous." Still, Nico let himself be pulled a little closer, and rested his forehead against Percy's shoulder.
"So… what now?" Nico asked after a moment.
"I'm gonna whip you into a champion, just as planned. We're gonna have the best summer we can, then I'll make sure that we can hang out when we're back in New York. And… then we'll see. Does that sound good?"
"It sounds perfect."
