Percy was panting hard, he sat up in bed, his mouth as dry as a desert. He pulled his sluggish self out of bed, running a shaky hand through his hair.

That dream was so real..

He was surprised he hadn't woken anyone, with the scream he made when he woke up from that dream. It had felt so different than the others. Normally, he could tell when he was having one of his demi-god dreams, but he hadn't even known. And he had been so terrified, that Nico.. That he...

Percy shook his head, as if to get the haunting images out of his head. He walked toward the kitchen of his mothers apartment. She had wanted him to stay here after the big war with Gaea, she seemed pretty worried, Percy wouldn't have been able to stay at Half-blood if he had wanted. But he didn't mind the break, he had dealt with enough Greek and Roman mythology to last him a lifetime.

The apartment was dark and quite, and Percy enjoyed that because he was still groggy and reeling from his nightmarish sleep, little did he know there was a visitor in the shadows. Nico leaning against the fridge, hiding in the dark corner, relished the image of Percy Jackson int Finding Nemo Boxers, and without a shirt on. Nico's flaming side seemed to burn even more as he watched a very gruff and quite hot half asleep Percy walk across the kitchen and open a cabinet up, his muscles being very hard to miss.

"You're up kind of early."

Percy sprang a foot or two in the air, grabbing his chest as if to keep his heart from beating out of it. "Gods of Olympus, what is it with you and sneaking up on me?" Percy exclaimed, now fully awake from the almost heart attack.

Nico's brow furrowed slightly, "What are you..?"

Percy realized his mistake and shook his head while reaching to fill his glass with water, "Nothing, never mind." He grumbled. "Why are you here, anyway?" Percy brought a full glass of cold water to his mouth, and chugged down a few gulps.

"I- um, well I kind of need some help.." Percy, finally over his little scare, noted how Nico looked paler than normal, and he was leaning against his mom's fridge in an odd fashion, he was also griping his left side with his hand, and there was blood on it.

Percy didn't even think before he was pulling him to the couch, pushing him into a laying position as gently as possible. "Damn, Nico, it looks pretty bad, what happened?" He winced as he tried to pull his jacket off, and Percy moved to help him.

"Here, let me.." Nico propped himself up and the worked together to maneuver his jacket off. Percy was sitting next to him on the couch and Nico leaned forward, about a few inches from his face. Percy noticed how Nico's eyes flicked everywhere, and his breathing shallowed and quickened. Nico was aching with the need to close those few inches and press his mouth to the boy's he was in love with. Nico wouldn't meet Percy's eyes, and the son of Poseidon noted a hint of toothpaste on his breath. Percy, suddenly aware of how close they really were, jumped up awkwardly. "I, um, don't have any ambrosia with me, so I'll have to do it without the aid of magic, I think my mom has a first aid kit, I'll be right back." Percy babbled a bit, then he quickly left the room.

Walking into the bathroom, he flicked on the light, looked in the mirror and saw a tired and slightly ragged face staring at him. That dream really weighed on his mind, it was starting to drive him slightly crazy. "What is wrong with me?" The son of Poseidon whispered to himself. He splashed some water on his face, and feeling a lot more refreshed, quickly grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink, and walked back to find Nico struggling with his shirt, it still gripped his left side and neck, he only managed to wrangle one arm out, and he was furiously tugging at it, and Percy couldn't help but laugh.

"All powerful and fearsome son of Hades, and he can't find his way out of his shirt?" Percy was still lightly laughing. Nico shot him a glare, but his cheeks spouted a red blush. Percy set the first aid down and helped wrangle Nico out of the same old black shirt that clung to his frame.

Nico layed back on the couch, and Percy sat next to Nico on the couch. He ran his fingers over the flushed and pale skin of Nico's stomach, near the gash starting from the middle of his abdomen and slashing upward toward hiss ribs. Nico let out a few strangled breaths, and his head was thrown against the pillow. "Does that hurt?" Percy pulled his hand off of Nico.

"A little bit.." Nico replied through gritted teeth, but he wouldn't look at Percy. It only hurt slightly, but mostly it made him yearn for Percy's firm, yet gentle, fingers roaming all of his body. Knock it off, Nico."Can you just hurry this up, please?"

"Yeah, you got another wound waiting to be handed to you?" Percy was working through the first aid kit, pulling out gauze tape and different supplies for Nico's injury.

"Just, get this over with."

"You're probably going to need stitches, Nico... Maybe I can get my mom to run down to Half-Blood and get some ambrosia.. I really should have grabbed some, I'm so stupid some times."

"No, I'll be fine, just do what you need to."

Percy had never really given stitches but he had learned how to through some classes at Half-Blood, for cases like this he supposed, and Nico trusted him. He worked on getting Nico fixed up, mostly focusing on his task, his mind wandering around. The two boys sat in silence as the wound was being treated.

Percy put the finale touches on the bound wound, and hadn't realized how antsy Nico looked. "How's it feel? I can grab you some pain killers if you want, you'll probably need them."

"No, I need to go, thanks." The Hades boy said gruffly as he stood up and started to walk past Percy, but he wasn't letting Nico go anywhere.

Percy stood in front of Nico, a hand planted on his chest, "Whoa dude, you aren't going anywhere until that either heals, or you get some ambrosia."

Nico glanced down at the slightly strong hand planted firmly on his chest, and up at the muscled arm that was attached to it. Get yourself together, Nico. His eyes flitted back up to those sea green ones, and he wanted so desperately to just fall into those strong arms. Nico wanted to kiss Percy, and he wanted to yell that he couldn't stay, he could never stay, because it kills him being so close to Percy and not be able to give in to his desires. "I can't, Percy", Nico's eyes bore into the other boy's, as if begging him to do what Nico would never be able to, "I just can't, okay?"

Percy didn't like the way Nico was looking at him, he wanted to help Nico all he could, but his eyes seemed to be begging Percy for mercy almost. "I don't understand, just talk to me, please, Nico, let me help? Percy didn't know what he was doing, it was more reflex but he reached out and grabbed both of Nico's hand and pleaded with his eyes to let him in, let Percy help him.

Nico was so shocked that Percy grabbed his hands, and normally he hated when people touched him, but Percy was different, he was always different. Nico was searching Percy's eyes, looking to see if there was a chance for him in there. But the heavily burdened son of Hades couldn't read anything past concern on the face of the boy he had fallen for. He felt so tired all of a sudden, and knew Percy was right, he needed to stay here.

"Nothings wrong, just a little monster attack. I should get some sleep though.."

"Yeah, sure, you can take my room, I'll sleep on the couch."