PJatO || Nicercy || PJatO || Nicercy || Midnight Rain || Nicercy || PJatO || Nicercy || PJatO

Title: Midnight Rain – Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles

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, mutual hurt/comfort, getting together

Main Pairing: Nicercy

Percy Jackson Characters: Perseus Jackson, Nico di Angelo

Summary: Prompt: "You can lie to yourself all you want, but we both know you're not okay." - Percy and Nico meet late at night on the rooftop of Cabin 13.

Midnight Rain

Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles

Nico was sitting alone on the rooftop of his cabin, his legs drawn up against his chest as the cold early autumn wind bit at his skin and tugged on his hair. The night was pitch-black, storm-clouds darkening the night sky and hiding the moon and the stars. But the storm wasn't ready to break just yet. Only harsh wind and darkness, no rumbling, no rain. Nico wouldn't mind the rain right now.

"Hey."

Mh. The rain. Nico tilted his head to look over at Percy, climbing up onto the rooftop to join him. There was always something very piercing to Percy Jackson's eyes. Sometimes, it did feel like walking into a cold rain shower, to be looked at by the son of Poseidon. His hair was messy, messier than usual, that is. A sign he hadn't slept and just been tossing and turning.

"What do you want, Jackson?" Nico put as much annoyed exhaustion into his voice as possible.

"I saw you up here and I figured I'd… check on you. It's late, you know."

"I'm fine," there was a slight edge to his words.

"You can lie to yourself all you want, but we both know you're not okay," if Nico's words had had an edge, then Percy's were cutting cold like autumn rain. "It's late at night and you're sitting on your rooftop in a shirt and boxers, staring into the night sky."

The thing about Nico was that he wasn't very easily cut down tough. No, he looked at Percy and held his gaze, as sharp and unfaltering as the son of Poseidon. He knew why children of the Big Three often led to great wars when they faced off. Stubborn and strong.

"Like you're one to talk," Nico's voice was cold. "It's late at night and you climbed onto my rooftop to sit here, with me, instead of laying in your own bed, sleeping peacefully. You're not okay either."

If Percy was autumn rain, then Nico was the shadows at midnight. Terrifying and frightening, filled with mysteries one didn't dare to imagine, and endlessly deep. Percy stared at him in angry defiance yet without any words to counter him. Long moments stretched on as they stared at each other, before Percy grunted and sat down next to Nico, stubbornly staring ahead instead of looking at the son of Hades and his midnight dark eyes that seemed to look straight into his soul.

"So what," Percy huffed. "Maybe I'm not okay either. Maybe we're both not okay. Maybe two wars fucked us both up, in our own way. Maybe…" Percy's voice softened. "Maybe I thought it'd be nice to not be okay together, instead of alone."

Silver light illuminated Percy as the clouds gave just a little way for the moon, making him shine more beautiful than Nico had ever seen him, making his eyes look so bright and honest and vulnerable. Instead of a verbal answer, Nico simply nodded. The clouds moved again, covering the moon and leaving Nico and Percy in blissful darkness once more. There was anonymity to the darkness, and Nico had always much preferred it to the light.

Percy accepted the silent answer and turned away from him again. The wind around them picked up more, and without knowing which of them moved – or if it were both of them – they found themselves sitting much closer. Arms and shoulders touching as they leaned against each other in the cold and in the dark. Their eyes were trained on the dark clouds above, what little they could make out at least. Quietly watching, waiting for the storm to break.

"Maybe," Nico's voice was a whisper carried by the wind. "Maybe I'm not okay."

Percy's hand reached out and Nico moved his own arms away from where he had them wrapped around his own knees before, instead reaching for Percy's hand too. There was only a small space between their fingers. Nico's heart was racing and he could no longer tell if the thundering was the rush of his blood in his ears, or if the storm had finally broken. And then their fingers touched.

"And maybe I'd be… more okay… if we were not okay together," Nico continued after a beat.

They'd both not been okay in a very, very long time. So many things had torn them down over the years, chipped away on them, leaving them broken. Broken in very different ways, yet so similar. In a manner maybe nobody else could ever understand, not even their friends.

"Let's be not okay together," Percy whispered, a crooked smile on his lips.

Nico nodded, a jerky motion, his eyes fixated on Percy's eyes. Wandering down, over the curve of his nose and landing on pink lips. Lips Nico had stared at so often over the years. He startled when something ice-cold hit his own lips. His tongue darted out, licking the rain off. He was acutely aware of the way Percy stared at the motion. Nico watched the rain land on Percy's face, running down his his cheeks in a manner that looked like tears. Maybe they were. Maybe every time it rained at Camp Half-Blood, it was a manifestation of Percy Jackson's unshed tears.

He couldn't say which one of them had moved first, he only knew that Percy's lips tasted salty – like sea-water, or like tears, who was to say. And he knew that he liked that taste, liked that softness. His hand reached out to grasp Percy's neck, to pull him closer and closer. To never let go.

Percy's own fingers entangled in Nico's curls and in Nico's shirt, clinging onto him with a similar need to never let go. To never be not okay alone again. Their kiss went on for what felt like hours and Nico was fairly sure he forgot how to breath along the way. Yet at one point the need for air broke them apart after all and Nico was treated to the view of Percy, breathless and flushed and with half-lid eyes, staring at Nico like he was the only constant in an ever-changing and crumbling world. The rain made his hair and clothes cling to him and the cold of it caused their breath to puff visibly between them, even in this darkness. In that moment, Nico thought he never wanted to see anything else. He could live in this moment forever.

"It's cold," Percy whispered, unsure why he stated the obvious.

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "And dark."

Percy blinked a couple of times, as though reality was only just catching up with him. He looked around, watching the air whip down onto the ground, the wind tearing on the trees – or rather, watching the shadowy silhouettes of the trees. And then, all of a sudden, Percy started laughing. Nico wasn't sure what to do of that. Had the moment been broken or-?

Before any dark thoughts of doubt could even creep into his mind, was he pulled back into another kiss by Percy. If possible even deeper than the last. Surer. Like Percy had realized something vital in these moments that made him more determined than ever.

And though Nico couldn't say what was going on in Percy's mind, what conclusion he had come to, he knew the conclusion he himself drew in that moment, as him and Percy were holding and kissing each other. If Percy was rain, and Nico was midnight, then together they could be midnight rain, terrifying and powerful but also gentle and comforting if one needed it.

~*~ The End ~*~

Author's note: I ALWAYS post on my birthday, and though I didn't have the time to write anything new, I do still have this tumblr prompt from earlier this month that I haven't posted on here yet! This was a real fun prompt to write! :)