A/N: here's a chapter. Enjoy :3
Disclaimer: I only own the story base
I went to Percy's place for the past few days.
He didn't pressure me anymore. Percy left me in peace for my own sake. Or maybe his. I wouldn't know. He probably doesn't want to get hit anymore.
"Here you go," Grover says as he hand me a freshly pick tomato from the backyard garden. He must remember I like tomatoes.
I squint at it, still without my glasses because of Octavian breaking them. "Thanks." I bite in the red flesh. Then Grover gives Percy a red apple, instantly turning it blue. Blue food, Percy's favourite.
Percy happily smile at the blue apple. "Yay! It's blue!" He munch it away next to me on the cement bench in Grover's backyard. I munch away on my tomato. Not like Percy, but I eat it.
Grover sits on my other side. Both of us watch Leneus walk pass us to his outdoor bed.
"He has a better bed than me," Grover says. I squint to try to make out the bed. "How did your eyesight got like that?" I look at the sheepish pimple face teen.
"I can't explain that," I respond. "They can hear us." I can hear Percy slow down on his chewing.
"Is it from the testing and needles they put you through?" We stare at each other. Grover is expecting me to answer him back. But I won't.
"You know," Percy breaks the silence, "The sky is really blue today. A bit cold though." I break eye contact. I bite into the tomato, the juice going down my chin. Grover clean my chin with a garden towel. It smells of dirt. Percy laughs. "Look Grover, you got dirt on Neeks."
Percy's laughing face comes in my view as he starts to wipe my chin. Grover sheepish face came in view, "Sorry, Nico. I didn't mean to."
Now I have both of them wiping my chin. I don't know what to do with them. My legs instinctively goes up to kick them, but they are sitting beside me. I decide to push their faces away. The tomato smash all over Percy's face.
A deep laughter roar in front of us. I see Pan Underwood holding his side. "Oh my gods," he laughs out. "I was coming out here to help you Nico, but you got it. Yo-you got this." He walks back to the house in full laughter.
Grover and Percy both laugh. I shove the rest of the tomato on Grover's face. I can feel myself smiling in the inside.
~please~
We walk silently in my neighborhood. With Nico in the middle of Percy and I, we have better eyes on him. It's silent. I take a peek at them.
Percy with his pills showing little effort on him, his ADHD slowly showing, have been patting his thighs since leaving my home. Nico, still bruise up, walk forward. Head high, shoulder back, back straight up, glasses missing. His cast hand swing between us.
The difference between them those past four years without each other hurts me.
"Grover," Percy says. I stare at the broken down house. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thinking a lot." I look at Nico. He is also staring up at it.
Percy playfully punch my shoulder. "Come on man, it's a house. No need to think about anything." Percy smile and I smile with him, but I know. This is hurting him since it's his old house.
Nico starts walking up the crack driveway. We watch him step over the cracks that cover mostly of the yard. I'm surprise the house haven't cave down yet. I follow after the little fellow who disappear through the front door. "The door is not even lock." I look at Percy who is still at the sidewalk. "Come on Perce. No need to over think about a house."
Percy laugh. "Yeah, you're right." Percy walk up to the house. Stepping over the cracks that his father and brother made in that fight. It is his idea to show Nico this house.
Nico is standing in the living room. All the furniture is gone but it is broken down. A piece of wood is hanging from the roof. Nico walks underneath it. "Have the community try to clean it up?" Nico ask out of nowhere.
"Yeah," Percy reply, "but when they tried, the ground shook and the garage floor cave in due to the construction vehicles. They were only on the street." Nico walk to the back sliding door. He tries to open it.
"You know," a groan comes from the door as it is slowly open, "they rule this as a earthquake right?" Nico look back to us. I softly kick the floor. "Or some gas leak." The handle breaks in Nico's hand. He gives up on the door.
"Yeah," I say. "The next day, on the news, they rule it as an unpredictable earthquake." The floor creak under Percy.
"Only this little part of the street is affected. That it is dangerous to live on," Percy inform. His hand went across the broken wall where the tv was at. Percy laugh. "It's funny how they like to cover up things."
The wood falls in the middle the room; in the middle of us. Percy and I jump.
