He looked at Percy. He looked at Jason. He looked back at Percy.
The two were seated on either side of him looking awkward and tense. Before he could ask, Hades swept in front of them, "well, thank you for agreeing to visit, my son. I've arranged with Alecto to take you all back to camp. I will see you soon."
Nico rose and the two older boys followed suit. "Goodbye father."
No matter how much Nico pried, Percy and Jason would not tell him why they had emerged so pale faced and stiff from their private meeting with his father down in the underworld. They remained similarly tight lipped on what exactly had been said to them in that meeting.
Nico huffed. He was sitting between them once again at the dining pavilion but, unusually, not touching.
It didn't seem to matter. It didn't matter that they weren't touching him or that Jason was prodding his food or Percy wasn't looking at him. Sitting between them, he could feel their control over him, invisible and intangible but very real to him. Charging the atmosphere between them, it was absolute, complete.
It was turning him fucking on.
That was one thing that had been different since his visit to his dad. Percy and Jason wouldn't touch him. Oh sure they'd put an arm around his shoulder or deliver a kiss to his cheek but it had been 4 days since they'd had any sex. Not even a hand job.
Nico couldn't begin to think what his dad had said to them to make them stop sleeping with him. He didn't think it was possible. The two older heroes were not threatened easily.
Nico might have construed it as a loss in their interest in him except he was still tugged around wherever they went and made to sit with them at meals. It didn't make any sense.
Nico squirmed. He felt… weird. Kind of like when Percy and Jason would leave a plug in him for hours and hours. Uncomfortable, stopped up, in need of release.
Damn it he should be enjoying this; he should be happy. He was finally being left alone, it was what he wanted.
Still the celibacy couldn't last for that long. They couldn't last for that long. They would cave in if not tomorrow, then the next day. Nico was sure of it.
They didn't cave in. And Nico was starting to lose it.
A week. It had been a week and things were starting to deteriorate rapidly.
There was a constant ache inside him, a desperate neediness. He felt simultaneously empty and dangerously pent up at the same time. Like a pressure cooker fit to burst.
The feelings only intensified whenever he was around Percy or Jason. Adrenaline would fill his veins and he could barely lift his eyes to meet theirs, sure that when he did, they would be able to read his thoughts in a heartbeat.
Oh, it was so humiliating. Nico's face was adorned with a constant blush. Every time he was around the two older heroes, he was hyperaware of their bodies; calculating the distance between them, noting every breath, tracking every infinitesimal shift. His eyes kept catching on tiny details like the breadth of Percy's arms and the way the camp shirt stretched across Jason's chest. Physical contact between them threatened to send him into combustion and released a swarm of butterflies in his stomach. And when he was around both of them, he could barely function.
Nico didn't know what to do, he'd never dreamed that Percy and Jason could keep this up for a week. Nor could he have ever predicted his own response. He'd never experienced sexual arousal in his life. That sounded improbable but it was true, for years Nico had never allowed his thoughts to stray in that direction, firmly repressing any and all such feelings. When he came out, sex still didn't cross his mind. Percy and Jason's unrestrained desire for him had been so all consuming, his own lust had never entered into the equation.
It was mortifying beyond words to realize they were right. All of their shameless taunting. He did want it.
Nico covered his face and groaned.
He would die of humiliation before ever admitting that though. He'd rather swallow his own sword than tell percy and Jason that he wanted them to…. Just the thought of the looks on their faces- no. It was easier for them to assume, for them to just take.
And none of this meant he was okay with it. Maybe he could admit to himself he… wanted… it… them but that didn't stop the accompanying tide of self hatred rising in him. That didn't stop the voices inside his head telling him he was disgusting, a disappointment, pathetic. That didn't stop the desire to hurt himself, the desire for Marcus….
Nico swallowed. All he had to do was wait this out. His feelings would fade, Percy and Jason would lose interest soon without the sex and everything could go back to the way it was supposed to be.
But in the meantime, he was going to stay the hell away from them. Recently, he'd started asking Chiron if there were any jobs he could fulfill outside of camp, like helping satyrs bring new demigods to camp. Getting away helped. A little. It was not wishful thinking. Plus, he could always take out his frustration killing monsters.
"I can't take it anymore."
"You have to."
"I'm not strong enough."
"We don't have a choice."
"He wore shorts the other day."
Jason groaned and dropped his head onto the table. It was mid afternoon and a gentle breeze ruffled his short blond hair. All around them campers were in the height of their activities while Percy and Jason sat at the empty Zeus table.
Percy held his hand out in front of his face. "I think I'm starting to lose my vision."
Jason raised his head revealing his bloodshot eyes. "I remember that day. I climbed behind him at the climbing wall. There was a moment I thought he was going to fall and I would get to catch him," Jason's eyes shined in remembrance. "But then, he didn't."
Percy snorted in amusement. His eyes roamed over the camp. "When is he coming back again?"
"Dude, you've asked me that like five times."
"I can't help it." At the moment Nico was away from camp on a mission. He never divulged the details of his trips to them though, namely; where he was going, when he was leaving, what he was facing. Percy had to pry those details out of Chiron and only after the centaur had made him and Jason promise not to go join him. See in the past, Percy could have pried that information out of Nico himself through a little persuasion but….
Percy stared out over the green and inwardly sighed. But Hades had told them in no uncertain terms that they were not to touch Nico until the boy explicitly asked them to himself. Didn't matter if he knew Nico's feelings like the back of his hand, didn't matter if he (and Jason) had a sixth sense for what the boy wanted, when he wanted. Didn't matter if Nico was in denial.
He focused his attention back on Jason. "My hand is like red from how hard I've been rubbing myself. Pretty soon my skin's going to peel off."
"Ugh," Jason rubbed his palms over his eyes. "I've been hard for like a week."
"Same." But their exchange made him think. Percy knew Nico didn't touch himself; some uptight conservative rule from his 1930's days. 'Self abuse' he'd called it. And suddenly, vividly Percy imagined Nico sitting in his cabin. Not touching himself. Stiff with arousal and denying it. Waiting for it to go away. The revelation that Nico's only source of sexual gratification was Percy and Jason made him nearly lose. His. Mind.
Percy groaned loudly, suddenly. "He's never going to ask us, how is this supposed to work?" he asked hopelessly.
Jason dropped his hands to the table. "He has to. He wants this at least half as much as we do."
"Doesn't matter. He still won't tell us. Jason can you imagine Nico asking us to take him to bed?"
The blonde tried to picture it for a second before shaking his head. "Then what do we do? Ask him to ask us?"
"Tempt him?"
Jason laughed disbelievingly. "Percy, I can't even get within two feet of the guy. If we try any seductive bullshit I'm gonna lose all self control. If it weren't for all these bystanders," Jason gestured to the distant campers, "I would have jumped him already."
Percy crossed his arms and pressed his knuckles into his ribs, hunching over. "Maybe it's better he's away."
Green eyes met blue. "No," they agreed in unison.
As excruciating as it was for Jason to be around Nico with all this bottled up sexual frustration, it was worse for the slighter boy to be completely out of his sight. He needed his fill of Nico. If he couldn't touch him and have him then at least he could talk to him and look at him. Occasionally, he wouldn't be able to resist giving in to little brushes of his skin. These touches only served to heighten the intensity of his desire and he would have to drop his hand or risk losing his sanity.
In the meantime, Nico's skin had cleared of all bruises, all the evidence of their past lovemaking. His skin had returned to its pale, creamy perfection.
Jason closed his eyes. He didn't know what was worse, dreaming about Nico or not. Fantasizing about the boy served both to relieve him and leave him wanting him more.
But bruises turned his mind down darker avenues. He remembered what it was like seeing bruises on Nico in the past. Bruises with more sinister origins. He remembered the shock, the horror. It had looked horrible, it looked like abuse. It had scared Jason worse than anything he could remember in a long time. And to think about someone doing that to Nico on purpose had filled him with a rage he could scarcely recall. Even after Nico had explained, had defended them… Jason couldn't stop himself from kicking out that worthless- that bastard out of camp. He was lucky that was least he did to him.
He didn't care if Nico said it was consensual. He dared anyone to see the bruises he did and not say there was something seriously wrong there.
Jason took a deep breath and exhaled, trying not to get worked up again. Maybe, maybe this could be a good thing. Maybe it would force Nico to confront his own feelings and admit them to himself. They could make progress. Huh. Maybe Hades had had an ulterior motive for making them make that promise.
A kick to his shin drew his attention. Percy was sitting up straight, staring intently at something over his shoulder. He turned.
There was Nico trotting slowly towards them. As they both looked at him, he hesitantly smiled at them.
Jason's breath stalled, he heard Percy gasp quietly. Nico never smiled at them. He never hugged, kissed first, or initiated affection in any way. Jason had to control the urge to run over to him.
"H-Hey," Percy greeted shakily once he reached their table. "You're back early."
Nico paused as he reached their table, his eyes sweeping between them. "Yeah. I shadow traveled us back a couple hundred miles. Saved us a day or two."
"Oh," Percy replied lamely.
"How did it go?" Jason asked, bracing himself as Nico's eyes turned to him.
"Fine. The kid's with Chiron now." He sat down.
In the old days Nico would never have willingly sought out Percy and Jason but now he figured he had nothing to fear. They weren't going to do anything.
Watching them sitting at the dining pavilion, he'd felt his cheeks heat up in a blush. Did they have to be so- so pretty? He was hit with it every time he saw them again after being apart for a long time.
On the mission he'd found himself strangely missing them so when they'd looked up to watch him approach he found his lips turning up in a tentative smile.
Percy stuttered when he first greeted him and there was definitely some tension in the air. Sitting down with them felt kind of like sitting down to eat with a pair of lions if he was lamb. While neither boy met his eye, the intensity with which they stared at him felt almost physical. He felt hunger in it, a craving for him and sensed potential violence in the air like a bubbling volcano. It made the hairs on his arm rise up.
Jason's arm, the one closest to him, was tensed, fist clenched.
Nico didn't know what else to say so they sat there in awkward silence.