A/N: To answer teamleo4, yes i am. Everything's just how it is in the books!
Enjoy!
"Come on boss! Just one more," Blackjack begged, pawing his hoof at the ground.
Percy laughed and threw him another sugar cube. "Last one."
Gulping it down in one bit, Blackjack whined, "Oh please, oh please one more!"
Percy emptied out hip pockets and shrugged, "That's all I got! But thanks for the fly."
"Anytime boss!" and he flew away.
Percy looked out at the lake, watching the sun rise. He could still feel the wind in his face from when he flew over it on Blackjack. The fly really cleared his mind, leaving him feeling whole. But to finish off his early morning, Percy decided to take a swim.
At the first feel of the cool water on his feet, Percy smiled and dived in. Surrounded by the cool water, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The water was murky and peaceful, fish swam and everything was still. Percy could sense every living thing in the lake.
"Percy?"
He could hear someone calling his name from above the water, but he couldn't find it in himself to get out of the water.
"Percy come on," the voice said.
Percy sighed and swam to the edge. He walked out of the water, his clothes dry. Nico sat by the edge of the lake watching the sun rise. "You missed it," Nico told him.
"Missed what?" Percy asked.
Nico pointed to the horizon, "The sun rise."
Percy looked over and saw the sun already risen, greeting the camp. Percy shook his head, "Doesn't matter. I see it all the time."
"Full of early mornings, lately?"
Squinting at the sun, Percy shrugged. "Or endless nights. Didn't sleep last night."
"Yeah me neither. Mrs. Hall assigned us a 5 page essay yesterday, I stayed up doing it."
"When's it due?"
Nico played with the strings on his sweatshirt. "Thursday."
Percy laughed, "Nico it's Tuesday."
"Yeah I know, but it gave me something to do. I wouldn't have slept last night anyway."
It was quiet for a moment. Percy listened to the birds around camp, the roars from the forest, the water moving in the lake. He felt bad for Nico. "You seemed to be doing much better, too. Before we started school."
"Me?" Nico asked.
Percy laughed, "No, that tree."
Nico smiled and shrugged, "Hey, who knows. You talk to a lot of animals."
Percy scrunched his eyebrows and frowned, "Whoa wait, just horses. And sea animals. Some of them. But I-"
Nico laughed, "Breathe, water boy. Besides the point."
The sound of Nico laughing made Percy smile. He'd come so far. Deep in Percy's mind he could still picture Nico's young sparkling eyes begging Percy to bring his sister home safely. Soon after, Percy realized that that spark was hope. Nico's eyes hadn't sparkled in a while. Mythomagic master, the Ghost King, now he seemed like just a kid. But maybe he'd been just a kid the entire time. Ever since the war ended, the second and most recent one that is, Nico had began to fill in his shoes. Moving into the Hades cabin at Camp Half Blood was a big step that Nico finally took. He seemed to be fitting in, too. A little bit of competitiveness came over him during rock climbing, sword fighting, and capture the flag. It was refreshing. He was, on demigod terms, almost normal. Sometimes he even laughed. But now, as the young son of Hades watched the rising sun, he seemed old. Mature. Like he'd gone through so much, which he had. It made Percy's heart sink.
"So how'd you know I was gonna be at the lake?" Percy asked.
Nico shrugged, "I didn't. I just came to see the sun rise."
"It's nice," Percy agreed. Another moment of silence passed before Percy spoke again. "Finish all your homework that's due today."
With his eyes still fixed on the horizon, Nico answered, "Percy, I stayed up all night writing an essay that's due in 2 days. Of course I finished my homework."
"Why?" Percy asked.
Nico raised an eyebrow at Percy. "What do you mean, 'why'?"
"Why do you do your homework? Why do you get up everyday and continue going to this high school if you hate it so much? You don't have to, you can just stay at camp, everyone else does. We're the only demigods who do both. Just focus on training, it's fine."
"I just…" Nico thought for a moment, "I just want to be normal. Not just in what I do, but in who I am. Does that make sense?" He took a deep breath and continued, "I want to be able to say hi to people when I walk by without them doing a double take, I want people to want to be with me because they like me."
"We like you!" Percy told him.
Nico stopped talking and looked down at his hands, "Yeah." He stood up and brushed off his jeans, "I'm gonna take a shower. See ya in a couple hours." And he left.
Percy sighed and hugged his knees, listening to the lake. Nico was never going to fully be himself around Percy, Percy could tell that much. He just couldn't tell why.
A/N: soooo what do you guys think? It's the first Nico and Percy moment I've done! Let me know please, it would be super helpful!(: