Nicercy || PJatO || Nicercy || The Prince and the Youtuber || Nicercy || PJatO || Nicercy
Title: The Prince and the Youtuber – Sisterly Matchmaking
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus
Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Rick Riordan. Aside from the Gods, they belong to the old Greeks. This fanfiction and its OCs on the other hand are entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Tags: m/m, fluff, pining, celebrity crush
Main Pairing: Nico/Percy
Percy Jackson Characters: Perseus Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Bianca di Angelo, Maria di Angelo, Annabeth Chase, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Grover Underwood, Mrs. O'Leary
Summary: Prince Nico of Elysium is madly in love with a cute American youtuber. There is no way they would ever meet. At least until Percy wins a vacation for four to Elysium, all expenses paid. Only that Percy doesn't remember participating in any lottery...
The Prince and the Youtuber
Sisterly Matchmaking
Percy Jackson won a trip to Elysium. Elysium was a tiny island kingdom located off the coast of Italy, it was supposedly very beautiful, Percy had seen pictures of it. A real dream come true. Only that Percy really couldn't remember playing any kind of lottery...
But here he was, with four tickets to Elysium. Due to the short notice, his family couldn't go. His mom and stepdad both had to work, they couldn't just take three weeks off with short-notice. His little brother Tyson had pouted about it because he wanted to go too.
So instead of his family, Percy packed his three best friends – Rachel Dare, Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase – for three weeks all expenses paid vacation to a beautiful European island kingdom. Obviously, all three of them were very enthusiastic about that. Annabeth's only plans had been to spend the summer with her family, a thing she loved to get out of because she wasn't big on her stepmother. Rachel took any excuse to not spend the summer with her parents. Grover was the only one who hadn't had plans either way, it was spend the summer hanging out with Percy whether that'd be in New York or now in a fancy tiny European kingdom.
"Maybe you forgot that you signed up for that lottery?", suggested Grover curiously.
Percy grunted, holding his stomach. He closed his eyes and leaned back. Rachel from behind them reached a hand out between their seats to pat Percy on the shoulder and hand him a pill.
"Can't believe you still get queasy when flying", chuckled Rachel, patting him again.
"Heights and I don't mix", grumbled Percy. "Give me a nice boat ride any day of the week."
"Yeah, no, I am not taking a ship from New York to Elysium", huffed Annabeth pointedly.
Percy huffed and settled back down. Grover grinned and ruffled his best friend's hair.
"This is going to be a couple really awesome posts though. As soon as we reach Elysium and Percy stops being green in the face", declared Grover amused.
Percy and Grover had started a youtube channel back in middle school already. Really awkward, dumb, filled with pranks. It was more refined nowadays, but still kind of dumb – which was half the fun, really. A lot of skateboarding, swimming, still many pranks. The channel was called G-Man and broseidon. They still owned up to those usernames. Annabeth and Rachel had been vital in the birth of their channel and still helped them out; Annabeth had always been good at the computer, she had done the editing and uploaded them for them in the beginning. Rachel had done some designs, who gave Annabeth the creative input.
/break\
Prince Nico of Elysium was a busy guy. His older sister was the crown-princess, but that didn't leave Nico busy too. So many expectations, so many things he ought to do. He always had to behave a certain way, because he represented the royal family with every step he took.
When he was at home, he liked to curl together and watch youtube videos. Mostly just nerd stuff, talk about pop-culture and his favorite franchises. But there was one channel that – well, they dabbled in nerd-stuff but mostly it were pranks and dares – G-Man&broseidon.
Nico had discovered them years ago. They were a duo of best friends, Americans. They did a lot of goofy stuff that had made Nico laugh when he was exhausted and frustrated. Over the years, the channel grew – not just in popularity; the two youtubers fine-tuned what they did. Still the goofy pranks and dares, but also more serious conversations and a lot of nerd talk. More importantly, all of them grew physically. Now, at seventeen years old, broseidon was just too much.
Nico was not just a prince. He was a very gay prince. A weak, gay prince. And broseidon's pretty eyes made his heart flutter. Any dare that involved the youtuber shirtless made Nico flush all over.
At first, Nico had found it ridiculous to develop a crush on a total stranger he only knew through videos. But over the years, broseidon had revealed a lot of himself. His real name was Percy, for starters. He was from New York. Grover – or G-Man – was his best friend. The two girls who did a lot of behind the scenes work for them, Annabeth and Rachel, occasionally guest-starred. So did a lot of other friends from them. Percy loved swimming, loved the ocean. He also loved his mom a lot and his half-brother and stepfather. Percy's favorite color was blue – most of the things he owned were blue. Nico paid an awful lot of attention and he soaked it all up like a sponge.
So, technically, Nico had fallen for more than just a persona. This channel was very personal, it was two best friends doing best friend things with each other and Nico felt like he was hanging out with them. He had fallen for Percy, the kind and cute goofball.
A confused frown found its way onto Nico's face as he saw the newest uploaded video. The title was trip to Elysium! and that was just strange, wasn't it? Grover and Percy had talked about their summer plans, they wanted to do a bunch of videos in Montauk together.
"He—ello, dear viewers!", exclaimed Percy with a bright smile, waving.
Next to him squished in was Grover, a matching smile on his lips. "We report live from the airport in Elysium's capital city... Elysium. Not the most creative naming, but sure."
"We live in a city called 'New York'. Named after the old York. And it is located in the state of New York. I feel like we are not the ones to judge", interjected Annabeth.
"You know what, that's fair", agreed Grover after a moment. "So yeah, we – and by 'we' I mean Percy here – won a trip for four people to Elysium and here we are! Guess our summer plans changed and our videos are going to get a whole new location."
"Vote in the comments on if we're going to have a special episode where we send Annabeth and Rachel to a museum to bicker about old stuff", tagged Percy on. "For now, we're going to search for our hotel and settle in! See you guys later!"
"Don't forget to hit like and subscribe!", added Grover, waving at the camera.
The video ended and Nico just stared at the blank screen for multiple minutes. Percy was... in... Elysium? In Nico's kingdom? In Nico's city? Right here? Nico's heart started racing. How was this possible? What was he going to do with this information-?
/break\
Percy loved the hotel. He was laying sprawled out on his bed in the room he was sharing with Grover. They had two rooms – big rooms, nice rooms – in this fancy hotel in the heart of the city. It was all in an old-fashioned style, but not cringey – fancy. Like this was a proper castle and they were living it up in the seventeenth century or something. Well, aside from the electricity and stuff. But even the light was done up as fake candles in a chandelier and those fancy candle-holders at the walls. There was even a fake fire-place with flickering lights.
"Okay, Perce. You wanted to make another video, right?", asked Grover, sitting up on his own bed.
"Could be fun, yeah", declared Percy, running his fingers through his hair.
Grover took his phone and gave Percy the signal. Percy, sitting on his bed with messy hair and a sweet smile, waved at the camera. Slowly, he got off the bed and headed toward a wall.
"Percy reporting live from our hotel room. Look at this fancy place, makes you feel like a royal yourself", declared Percy, spreading his arms to point at everything. "Now, this one here. Let's talk about it. Portrait of the royal family, I assume. The crowns gave it away."
Percy turned a little to look at the oil painting. "Tall, dark handsome king. Look at those cheekbones. Pretty sure they can cut diamonds. And looking at that prince, they run in the family. Then you have all that beauty! Look at the queen and the princess, those curls and smiles. What a picture perfect family. Real royals. That's fancy. Well, maybe it's only fancy to me because we don't have royals. But who hasn't grown up with Disney movies and dreamed of being swept away by a prince one day? I sure know I have."
Percy grinned and winked at the camera while Grover huffed. "I know I haven't."
"That's the pesky heterosexuality, G-Man", sighed Percy solemnly. "As a pansexual, I am more than open to be swept off my feed by any prince, princess or otherwise royal teen. Come sweeping!"
Grover laughed to himself while Percy signed off.
/break\
"Percy called me cute", whispered Nico distressed.
"Technically, he called me cute and commented on dad's cheekbones."
"Which I inherited", argued Nico annoyed. "Wait. How do you know?"
His sister Bianca just smiled innocently at him and continued eating breakfast. Their mother heaved a sigh as she sat down with her children, pointedly taking Nico's phone out of his hand.
"For one, because you have rewatched that video five times since I got into the dining hall", pointed Maria out. "That is the boy you have a crush on? Oh, he's cute."
She looked at the paused screen, smiling as Nico blushed brightly. "Mo—om."
"What? I'm your mother, not blind. He's adorable", stated Maria. "Now eat your breakfast."
Huffing, Nico started eating his scrambled eggs. "He's in Elysium, mom. Here."
"Mhmh. How strange and unexpected", nodded Maria, not looking surprised at all.
She shared a secretive smile with Bianca while Nico muttered into his plate. "What do I do?"
"Well, you finish your breakfast and then you do your homework", suggested Maria.
"It's summer", countered Nico pointedly.
"You still have reading to do", pointed Maria out with a smile.
Nico huffed once more, highly offended, as he finished up his breakfast. Why was his family like this? Why couldn't he have what anyone else could have. Walk up to the cute guy he liked and just flirt. No, the cute guy he liked lived in New York City. But he was here now. So Nico had to use this opportunity to talk to Percy. Somehow. He just needed to figure out how exactly.
/break\
"You really don't wanna come to the museum with us?", asked Grover one last time.
"Museums. No", declared Percy amused. "I don't look forward to Rach and Annie's riveting debates. Instead, I shall explore the city and check where we could make our next video. Have fun!"
With that, Percy ran off, leaving Grover, Annabeth and Rachel at the entrance of the museum. He had checked Elysium for popular – and secret – spots that came highly recommended. First spot was the large, beautiful park near the palace. Supposedly, there was the best spot to get gelato, which was apparently a must try when in Italy. Percy, a big fan of ice-cream, did not need to be told twice. They had considered doing a video of the four of them trying every single flavor of ice-cream that parlor offered. For that, they needed to find it, so Percy figured he'd do some scouting.
Half an hour later found him still aimlessly wandering the park in utter frustration, because the finding was actually harder than expected. It did not help that he didn't speak the language and so far, the only people he had run into were lovely, elderly and thus spoke not a lick of English.
"Wo—oah", gasped Percy as he was tackled to the ground by a giant force.
"No! Mrs. O'Leary, no!"
Blinking, Percy saw the huge face of a large dog before said big black beast started happily licking Percy's face. Well, that was cute. Laughing, Percy started ruffling the big dog's fur. The owner started pulling on the leash, pulling the dog away from Percy until Percy could actually see the owner. Nice. The guy was a teen about Percy's age, with those sharp cheekbones and the deep, dark and soulful eyes and very cute curls. Percy was weak for cute guys, especially cute guys with Panic! at the Disco shirts, black skinny-jeans and a dark-gray beanie with a rainbow button on it. Though the cute guy was just staring at Percy like he was seeing a ghost.
"That is a really cute dog you have there", offered Percy with a kind smile.
"Cute, yes. Very", nodded the cute guy, staring at Percy.
"...The dog. Cute dog", pointed Percy out amused, raising his eyebrows.
"Mrs. O'Leary, yeah right. She's... very cute. But... easily excitable about the people she... uh..."
"She, what?", asked Percy curiously, sitting up and leaning forward to cuddle the puppy again.
"...Recognizes", forced the cute guy out in a slightly squeaky voice. "You're broseidon."
"I... uh... am. Wow. Okay, did not expect to be recognized here, of all places", laughed Percy. "You can call me Percy, by the way. What's your name... Mr. O'Leary?"
"Uh... Nico. I'm... My name is Nico. We... watch your videos together..."
Nico was blushing brightly as he looked at Percy. Wow. Percy had never met someone with a celebrity crush on him before. He was just a small-time youtuber, after all. High schooler with a bit of fun. The people from his school thought the channel was fun, mostly, but no one had ever recognized him based on his channel before. And been so cute about it.
"Wanna get ice-cream with me?", asked Percy daringly.
"...What?", asked Nico, voice a bit high-pitched.
"I always wanted to talk to a fan before and I am on my way to get ice-cream. Well, if I can find the parlor. So... you wanna get ice-cream with me?", offered Percy. "You're cute."
Now Nico looked like his brain had officially short-circuited. This one was really cute.
"I... know where the parlor is. Yes", nodded Nico awkwardly.
Percy smiled to himself as he followed Nico along, striking up a conversation with the other. Get him talking about the cute dog and about what places in Elysium he personally recommended. The longer they talked, the more Nico seemed to relax into the conversation. By the time they reached the parlor, there were barely any starstruck pauses anymore. The two of them ordered ice-cream – Percy took a scoop of that really blue one that looked so tempting.
"Elysium is really beautiful, from all I've seen so far", offered Percy as he looked around.
"It is", agreed Nico, a soft smile on his lips. "I love my kingdom a lot."
"So—o... just how popular is my channel in this kingdom? Because people keep staring."
Percy raised his eyebrows as he looked at all the people staring at them and whispering. Nico laughed. Genuinely, brightly. It was a beautiful sound. Now, Percy found himself blushing. Though he looked at Nico in confusion, because he didn't know what was so funny.
"They are not staring at you. They are staring at me", offered Nico in amusement.
"Huh. You also a youtuber?", asked Percy curiously, leaning in some.
"I'm... the prince", replied Nico, pointing at himself. "See? The cheekbones you commented on."
Percy furrowed his brows at that, shaking his head a little. With his free hand, he typed into his phone – prince of Elysium. Google provided not just the oil painting from the hotel though – also photos. Older ones and current ones. Percy's eyes widened as he looked up and down, at the pictures and at the cute guy sitting opposite him. That was definitely the same cute guy.
"By Poseidon's beard, you're a real prince", blurted Percy out stunned, gaping.
"You really say that, even off-camera", laughed Nico happily. "That's so cute."
Suddenly, Nico paused, his own eyes wide and cheeks red. Percy checked a couple of articles, just to make sure, seeing that indeed, Prince Niccoló of Elysium was the son of king and queen. Swallowing, Percy put his phone down and slowly licked his quickly melting ice-cream.
"Never been on a date with a prince before", hummed Percy.
"Uh... never been on a date with a youtuber before?", offered Nico amused.
That made Percy grin pleased, straightening up some. "Okay, so. Uh, this is a date then?"
"I... mean... you did invite me to ice-cream and now it's only you and me eating ice-cream?"
The grin on Nico's lips was downright cheeky, making Percy laugh. "You know, you are right. I did pay for your ice-cream, that's like a binding contract, this is now officially a date."
Winking at Nico, Percy licked his ice-cream again. This one was really.
/break\
Bianca smiled pleased as she put the video on full-screen so her mom could properly see it too. Percy was grinning into the camera, an arm around a very flustered Nico's shoulders.
"broseidon here, with the actual prince of Elysium. Now that's a service, isn't it? Getting shown around the kingdom by the prince himself", declared Percy happily. "I did bribe him with dates."
"Lot of bribing", agreed Nico and cleared his throat.
Percy laughed and elbowed Nico. "We are now nearing the end of week two of our vacation and I do have to admit, of all the pretty sights this kingdom has to offer, the prettiest is my boyfriend."
Nico made a small sound at being referred to as Percy's boyfriend, though he immediately earned a kiss from Percy that appeased him. Grover was laughing in the background, turning the camera.
"You heard it here first, the prince of Elysium is officially off the market, people!", declared Grover.
Bianca's smile turned a bit softer as she saw the look on Nico's face. Maria next to her made a satisfied sound and lifted a hand, earning herself a high-five from her daughter.
"We did well", declared Bianca as she closed the tab.
"Your plan really worked", agreed Maria.
"Wouldn't have if you hadn't helped execute it and pulled some strings, mom."
Maria smiled slyly at that. A few weeks ago, Bianca had started complaining about her love-sick puppy of a little brother and, admittedly, both king and queen had noticed the pining too, only that unlike Bianca, they didn't know who Nico was pining for. When Bianca had shown her mother the youtube channel and explained that Nico was head over heels in love with some New Yorker, she had suggested, more jokingly, that they'd just need to get that New Yorker to Elysium. That was the part that Maria could arrange, more or less easily. Book everything, send a letter of invitation framed as a lottery winning – and then they just needed to push Nico out of the palace to go meet his sweetheart. And here they were. No more pining prince.
~*~ The End ~*~
Author's note: This story is brought to you by me watching the newest Barbie movie with my girlfriend and thinking the entire time "oh my gosh the princess has SUCH a crush on youtuber Barbie" and, well, that brought us to "...Nico makes a pretty prince. Nico would TOTALLY develop a crush on Percy if he saw him on youtube regularly", so here we are! I hope you enjoyed it ;D