Yeah Percy doesn't think very highly of himself, huh? Don't you worry, things will get better… Eventually. But you all know how this goes.

Fun fact: I have Galway Girl by Ed Sheeran playing in the background as I write. Have I mentioned I have no real taste in music and will literally listen to whatever pops into my head.

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Nico's POV

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"So, it really happened?" Jason asked for the tenth time. I sighed, munching on my sandwich. I'd decided to bring lunch today instead of facing school lunch. "I still can't believe this. And he didn't try to just fuck you on the spot." Piper, who was sitting beside him, smacked him none-too-gently on the arm. "What was that for Pipes?" he asked, rubbing the spot she'd smacked.

"Language," was all she said. I snickered. "I do find that odd," she added. "Percy is a rather…colorful character. You said he seemed very scared and reserved?" I nodded, shoving my lunch box away. I was slowly losing my appetite.

"He said he was visiting Will Solace," I said. I hadn't told him the very last thing Percy had told me. That didn't seem like something they needed to know. Besides, it was Percy's thing to tell, and I begrudgingly respected his privacy. "You know how they seem to have an on again off again thing going on," I continued. If to prove my point, Percy sauntered into the lunch room with his true cocky attitude, Will Solace following behind.

"God can't they just get a room or something?" Jason spat. I glanced over, noticing subtle things I hadn't before. That beneath that cocky grin seemed to lurk sadness. Also, he seemed to lean as far away from Will as possible. Will, however, looked like he'd just won the lottery. He went to put a hand on Percy, and he flinched, which didn't seem to make the blonde boy happy. I rose suddenly. "Nico?" Jason asked, alarmed. But I didn't seem to hear him. I stalked over to the two of them, and Percy looked up in surprise.

"Hey, I want to talk to you," I said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him away before Will could say anything. I glanced over my shoulder at Percy, who seemed slightly relieved. I pulled him into the bathroom. "What happened?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, feigning confusion. I glared at him, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He backed away. "Don't," he said softly, lowering his gaze. That did it. Before he could do anything, I grabbed him, turned him around, and lifted his shirt. "Hey!" he protested, twisting away. But not before I saw his back.

"Good god Percy," I whispered. He tugged his shirt back down, still facing away from me. "Percy…" I began, honestly not even sure where to begin. I did feel really bad for him right now. No one deserved that. "Did Will do that?" I asked at last.

"No," he said. "It's nothing alright? Just forget you saw anything. Besides," he added, whirling to face me, catching me off guard. "It's not like you care about me anyway." I blinked. "Oh, you don't think I notice how you and your friends." He said the word with much bitterness. "Talk about me. Yeah, I know. Actually, I know how everyone talks about me. No one gives a shit." He tossed that over his shoulder as he stormed out. "So don't even try and pretend." I stood there, dumbfounded. And maybe a little hurt. I hadn't been pretending.

Woah. I shook my head. I'd never really given him the time of day before now. So why, all of a sudden, could I not stand to see Will torment him? I'd never cared before. And I'd be flat out lying if I said I still didn't care. Because, as much as I didn't really want to, I did. I cared about Percy.

"Nico?" I blinked, completely unaware I'd spaced off. "Nico thank god." I gazed at Jason questioningly. "Why'd you run off anyway?" he asked, crossing his arms. "And with Percy no doubt."

"I don't…I don't even know," I said truthfully. It seemed my brain had been working on autopilot the last few minutes. "Something about the way he looked just…"

"He always looks like a cocky bastard," Jason said. "So what?" I took a deep breath in order to quell the rage rising in my chest. Geez he didn't have to be so negative. "Come on Nico. You know what he's capable of. All he wants to do is get in your pants. That's all he ever does."

"Yeah, I guess," I agreed, following Jason back to the lunch room, frowning. See, maybe a few weeks ago I might've believed him when he said that, but now I wasn't so sure. If Percy's intent had been to jump me as Jason said, wouldn't he have done it while we were alone? I mean, I'd never do something like that, but I've heard plenty of horror stories, and that seems to be a good time to do it. Also, weren't people like him really confident when it came to things like that? At the very least when they first were trying to sway a potential client. Now, don't take what I say to heart because I still have no idea. Anyway, Percy wasn't acting confident that night. Anything but in fact.

"You coming?" I snapped my attention back to Jason when he looked down at me. "I told you he wasn't paying attention," he told Piper, turning his attention to her. "You owe me a kiss."

"Later," she replied, shoving her boyfriend playfully away. "The bell rang Nico, you coming?" I shook my head, grabbing my lunch box off the table.

"You guys go ahead," I told them. "I have to go to my locker anyway." She shrugged, grabbed Jason's hand, and tugged him away. He shot me a look over his shoulder, but it was my turn to shrug. I turned the other way and slowly plodded to my locker.

"Will!" A voice hissed. I froze. No one ever really came down this hall after lunch unless they had their locker here. It was out of the way from most of the classrooms. "Will, I don't want to," the voice continued, and something pricked in the back of my mind. That voice sounded eerily familiar. "Will…"

"Just shut up Percy." The hair on the back of my neck rose. Will had Percy again? How did they slip down this hallway without anyone seeing them anyway? "I pay you to do this kind of thing anyway, so what do you have to worry about? You'll do anything for your precious money."

"That's not true and you know it!" Percy snapped, his voice rising in volume. They must've assumed they were alone. "I mean, my standards really aren't much, but I still do have standards."

"Please," Will said in a mocking tone. "Do you honestly believe that? What are you anyway? You're a good fuck, sure, but that's about it. An expensive one too I might add." I heard a gasp, and I decided that I'd had quite enough. I fled, lunch box and all. I'd return it later. I mean, I didn't think people thought much of Percy anyway, but it was one thing to think it, and one thing to actually hear it. And something inside me twisted at the words. No matter what they did, no one deserved to be treated less than another human being.

…

"Hey Bianca?" I asked, sticking my head into her room. It was after school, and what I'd overheard at lunch had bothered me all day. I had to talk to someone about it, but I really didn't feel comfortable discussing it at school. So I thought I'd come home and talk to my sister. She turned around at her desk, smiling when she saw me.

"Hey Nico," she said. "Come in." I let myself in her room, closing the door softly behind me. She closed the laptop on her desk and swiveled to face me. "What's up bro? You usually come here when you want to talk." I wrung my hands nervously in front of me. Bianca sat patiently, letting me gather my thoughts. I took a deep breath.

"You know of Percy Jackson, don't you?" I asked, gauging her reaction. Her nose wrinkled, but she didn't say anything bad about him.

"I know of him, but I don't know him personally," she said at last. "It's hard not to hear about him though. He's got a reputation after all." I nodded.

"Reputation aside," I began, and her curious gaze bore down on me. "I heard Will Solace saying some…less than desirable things to his face. And he just let him. I don't get it Bia." She pursed her lips. "I mean, maybe he hasn't made some great choices in life, but he still deserves to be treated like a human being, right?"

"I mean…" she replied, gazing down at me. She sighed. "Look Nico, I don't agree with everything he's done. But I do feel he shouldn't take all the shit." My eyes widened. My sister never swore. "That everyone throws at him. And if you feel that badly about it, talk to him, or talk to Will, or talk to someone at school." I nodded, rising. But, stopped short when I remembered something else.

"Hey Bia?" I asked. She looked at me again. "Earlier I was talking with him and reached to grab his shoulder and he ducked away. I got his shirt up." At that, I blushed, and Bianca's eyebrows rose. "And I saw…" I trailed off. God could I even say this? Bianca rose and walked over to me, gently placing her hands on my shoulders. I looked up. "I saw all these bruises and cuts," I said at last. "Like someone's been hitting him or scratching him. I don't…I don't like it."

"I don't know what to tell you Nico," she said at last. "It may be nothing. But if you feel like it's something, I trust you'll do the right thing." Very slowly, I nodded. I left her room, thinking hard. Maybe it really was nothing. After all, nothing looked new. But I decided that, if something new happened, I'd tell someone.

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Percy's POV

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Mom would probably be really disappointed if she found out I left school early, but I just couldn't stay any longer. True, it hadn't been the first time Will had said something like that to me. But weeks upon weeks of being constantly degraded took so much out of me. I sighed as I sank face-first on my bed. I wanted to scream in frustration. I certainly didn't have any tears left in me. I sighed and rolled onto my side, kicking my shoes off.

My mind wandered back to that minute in the bathroom with Nico, and him finding out about my less than desirable dates. Yeah, things didn't always end happy. In fact, it ended that way more than I cared to admit, but it helped pay the bills, so I'd endure it for as long as I could. Maybe I could've gotten a real job by now, but I doubt anyone would hire me with my sky high reputation. I wondered briefly why Nico seemed to care about me in the slightest. After all, he never had before.

"Where were you the nights I was so sore I couldn't sleep?" I asked the wall. "Where were you the nights I had to walk home in shame because my date bailed on me and I can't drive? Where we you those nights that my emotions ran so fast that I couldn't catch up? Where were you?" I blinked away the sudden onslaught of tears. God I'd gone soft. No one ever made me question myself this much before.

It was a stupid thing to worry about too. As long as I did this as a way of living, I would always be treated like a second class citizen. And why shouldn't I? It wasn't like I amounted to much anyway. What was a guy like me good for anyway? Sure, my grades were good, and I had a good amount of intelligence (which in all honesty, in today's society, bordered on genius), and everyone said I had adequate looks. If I really put my mind to it, I probably could've had a bright future. But as soon as mom began struggling like she did, and there was something I could do about it, I just couldn't sit around. And I threw my bright future right out the window in order to make sure my mom never had to worry about whether or not we'd have electricity in the morning, or whether there wouldn't be food in the fridge. My mom supported me my entire life; I couldn't just sit idly as her world crumbled around her and it got harder and harder.

This time around, I let the tears flow freely. I wouldn't allow myself to cry over just anything, but every time I thought of mom, it just got to be too much. She could never know what I did to get that extra money. And it had been awhile in fact. Sure, she'd asked a couple times in the past, but I'd always shrugged her off and told some bullshit lie.

I sat up, my grieving for my past self done. I dashed a hand under my eyes, breathing deeply and evenly a few times, calming the race around my chest. In fact, I'd had several responses to my last message, and I'd probably do good to get ready for my date tonight. Yes, I was well aware that date nights were usually reserved for the weekends, but I had to do it whenever they wanted. The "perks" of working in the profession I did I guess. I plodded to my bathroom, turning the shower on. It sputtered a few times before the steady stream came, and I glanced at it in worry. I'd been slowly saving my money in order to get a new shower, only giving mom money when I knew she desperately needed it. Hopefully it would last until I got enough, or I wasn't sure what we'd do.

…

Another glimpse into Percy's past. Also, I'm quite proud of the update schedule I've seemed to get myself into. I really am trying to get things coming on a more regular basis.