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“I told you it was heavily guarded!” Nico signed exasperated as they hid from the screeching sirens.
“You said it might be guarded,” Percy signed back, giving him an easygoing grin. “And hey, we still got it!”
He showed off the sapphire necklace in triumph, even twirling it around his finger like a miniature hula hoop.
Their ears were completely obstructed with wax to prevent them falling prey to the sirens, so signing was really the best way of communicating, not to mention it was quiet and didn’t alert their pursuers.
(Sadly, Percy’s idea for Nico to sing to upstage and shame the sirens into submission was shot down.)
Nico just gave him a weak shove, unable to hide his own amusement.
“I didn’t know the sirens had a queen.” His hands moved elegantly and with precision, and Percy was instantly reminded that for weeks, this was the only way Nico had to express himself.
“They don’t. These ones must be weird.” Percy, meanwhile, signed like he was drunk. He wondered if anyone other than Nico well versed in sign language would consider him rude or vulgar, or maybe he’d have an ‘accent’, putting emphasis in the wrong words. “In any case, with this, we’ll be one step closer to the spring.”
The necklace was a gift his father had made to some Naiad a couple centuries ago. It had the ability to locate bodies of water that were hidden (obviously, so the naiad could find the rendezvous points his father hid from his wife). The relationship soured, the naiad gave the collar to a monster or another, and ended up with a group of harpies who decided to use it as proof of queenship.
Usual god tryst, all things considered.
Percy felt an unnatural breeze that could only belong to one of the sirens flapping their wings. In a panic, he pressed his body against Nico’s and further into the crevice they were using as a hiding spot.
Nico’s eyes widened as his face turned a pretty pink. Percy looked away, trying to see how close the sirens were.
It wasn’t right for him to be aware of these things, because to Nico, his feelings were still a secret. He had invaded his privacy to save him from becoming foam and water, and if he could erase it from his mind to give Nico his secret back, he would.
Percy sighed in relief once the sirens, probably still singing at the top of their lungs, tried to lure them towards their talons.
“Is this place dark enough?” He whispered, forgetting hat Nico couldn’t hear him. He turned again, only to see him closing his eyes with his head down. Percy was about to tap him to ask what was wrong, but when he shifted his weight the small shudder and hard object pressing against his hip was answer enough.
Oh.
Percy swallowed. He schooled his face to be as neutral as possible, trying to live up to his reputation as an oblivious idiot, and tapped Nico on the shoulder lightly. Nico jumped as much as the small crack allowed him, trying to angle his crotch away from him.
“Can you Shadow Travel from here?” He signed instead. Nico’s face betrayed the relief he felt as he let out a small sigh and nodded.
They maneuvered a little so Nico could get a bit deeper, where it was darker, and held Percy’s hand, their fingers intertwining. The shadow of the crevice grew and swallowed them whole.
And if Percy felt Nico’s hardon a few more times during the whole ordeal, then it was his secret and his alone.
Percy groaned in frustration, recognizing the sea of flames around him. He was asleep, dreaming of his unintended brain roommate once again.
“What is it this time, Phlegethon?” He asked impatiently.
The flames took human form, his annoyed expression reflected perfectly in the face of the River God.
“It’s been a month since this deal was forced on us,” he said, reproach all over his voice.
“Yes, I’m aware of how time works,” he snarked. “Are you here to celebrate the month anniversary or something? I didn’t get you anything.”
Percy already knew where this whole thing was going. If he or Phlegethon were other people he’d just cut to the point and send him on his way, but because they were so similar (as Percy had been forced to admit after being with him for so long), he just wanted to annoy the river god.
“Obviously you didn’t,” the god huffed and crossed his arms. “If you had, you’d have kissed Styx’s boy already.”
And despite himself, Percy blushed. He glared at Phlegethon, who smirked victoriously at his being flustered.
“I already told you, it’s not that simple!” He exclaimed, tired of this argument. “Nico, he… I… it just doesn’t work like that between us.”
“And how does it work, oh great hero?” Phlegethon said. “You already said you love him; you prevented him from dating that blond twig, you know how he feels about you… what am I not seeing?”
“That I… I’ve never pursued a boy, okay?” He exclaimed, raising his arms in surrender. “I’ve never… been attracted to a boy, in that way, I think. I like soft shapes, curves, long hair, high voices. Guys… I don’t know anything about.”
He expected Phlegethon to look at him mockingly and smug, maybe even calling him a loser or wishy-washy, but instead of that he was just looking serious.
“So, the problem is that your love is romantic, but you don’t know if it can be sexual?” he asked bluntly. Percy winced, but nodded all the same. “Well, why not try anyway?”
“Because Nico deserves more than that,” he said back. “He’s not an experiment, or a trial run. I… I’ve felt it, you know? How he feels about me. He deserves someone who can love him in every way and I… I don’t know if I can be that.”
Phlegethon stayed quiet for a while, mulling over his confession. He sighed and put his hand in his shoulder.
“I’m shooting myself in the foot here,” he admitted. “But if that’s really how you feel, you either figure it out soon, or you have to let him go.”
“Let him go?”
“Let him have dates, people who will love him as he deserves,” he explained. “Because as it is, you’re both waiting for each other, and neither will ever make the first move.”
Phlegethon was right, and Percy knew he was right.
It didn’t stop the ugly pit of self-loathing and jealousy that festered in his chest.
Percy looked around the campfire, alert to any sort of creature as Nico slept.
It was difficult knowing the time of day down in the Underworld, so they just set up camp whenever they felt tired, and walked after a meal that could be anything from burgers to protein bars.
It was the third time they visited the Underworld in a month, and they had yet to find the spring of Mnemosyne. Interestingly enough, neither Hades nor the many monsters that called the Underworld home felt the need to attack or bother them.
Percy wondered idly if it had anything to do with their deals to Styx and Phlegethon. In a way, Percy now belonged to the Underworld as part of the River of Fire, and Nico, well, he was more Underworld than ever before as his body was nothing more than rearranged Styx water given human form.
A small huff made him focus completely on Nico. The son of Hades mumbled before turning in his sleeping bag to be more comfortable. He sighed in relief.
He couldn’t help himself. Since he found out about Nico, about what he had done for him over and over, about what he felt, and after almost losing him for good, any sign of discomfort sent him into a small-scale panic. Now, more than ever, he wanted to protect him, to make Nico happy, and to be by his side.
Phlegethon’s words came back to him, and he bit his lip, troubled. Could he really do it? Set Nico free? Let him get over him, fall in love with someone else, just so he could be happier, healthier?
“Percy…” Nico mumbled, and his face got a bit rosier, his muscles relaxed.
Percy felt a wave of fondness overwhelm him at that, but also possessiveness. He was proud, glad that he was the person Nico loved. He didn’t want that to change. He wanted to keep Nico to himself.
He got closer, studying Nico’s face. Did he find Nico attractive? Did he imagine himself kissing him, holding him, seeing him naked?
He felt his cheeks grow hot at that line of thought. To be honest, he didn’t even know what he felt. The whole thing was just too embarrassing to think about. He liked hugging Nico, he didn’t mind the idea of kissing him, but anything beyond that… it was unthinkable.
“Hmm…” Nico frowned for half a second before opening his eyes, which widened immediately at seeing Percy just inches from his face. “W-wha…? Percy?”
He tried making as much space between them as possible, which of course meant he wiggled in his sleeping bag undignifiedly like a worm, making Percy snort.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said, smiling. “How did you sleep?”
“…Fine,” he finally said, trying to act nonchalant. “How long have you been awake?”
“An hour or so? You know how hard it is to tell time down here.” He shrugged. He opened his bag and took check of its contents and pulling out a couple of cereal bars. “See, I even made breakfast!”
Nico rolled his eyes, but gave him a small smile and took one.
“We’ve been down here for a while,” he commented between bites. “I know we said this trip could be longer than the last one, but… well, I know this place drains regular people.”
“We still have food for a couple more days,” Percy pointed out. “I feel fine, and I’m feeling confident about this one. Third time’s the charm and all that, right?”
Nico seemed a bit hesitant, but Percy just shot him a reassuring smile.
“I’m fine, I swear,” he insisted. He bit his lip before deciding to just take the plunge. “It was part of my deal to bring you back.”
Now that caught Nico’s interest. In the last month, Percy had been very vague about how exactly he had brought him back. He knew he had used his powers to give his watery form a human shape again, and that he had talked with Styx, but Percy had never given too many details about what they had talked about.
He knew Nico a lot better now, and he knew that just telling him he had been inside his mind would lead to him thinking all sort of self-deprecating nonsense.
“What kind of deal leads you to be alright in the Underworld?” he asked curiously.
Percy chuckled awkwardly.
“Some stuff about Phlegethon and Styx,” he said. “Me and him? On pretty good terms right now.”
Nico narrowed his eyes, and Percy could see the gears in his mind moving as the realization slowly dawned on him.
“Percy… you didn’t—”
“Make the same deal as you? No, I’ll live my full life,” Percy said. “But when I die, I’ll eventually become part of Phlegethon, just like you and Styx.”
“You shouldn’t have,” he said seriously. “My arrangement with Styx was… not a choice. I didn’t have a mother’s blessing to save me, and Styx took pity on me.”
“It was a choice. You chose to save me from drowning.” At Nico’s panicked expression, Percy added, “Styx told me.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either.
“I kind of like it, actually,” he said lightly as he stood up and started rolling his own sleeping bag. “It makes us the same, in a way.”
“But Styx and Phlegethon are…” Nico let the sentence die as he blushed. He shook his head quickly. “Never mind that! We have a lot of walking to do! The necklace is reacting, that means we’re close to a hidden body of water.”
Percy helped Nico with his bag as he nodded along to Nico’s explanations. He also felt water nearby, but he knew they were nowhere near the 5 rivers (mixing with Phlegethon had given him the same awareness of the rivers’ positions as he had on a boat in the ocean).
He idly wondered what would come next, once they found the spring.
How would he remain close to Nico after that?
Percy had expected some sort of climatic ending to their search. A miffed goddess, a monster guarding the spring, anything.
Instead, when they found the spring of Mnemosyne, it seemed almost like a letdown.
The spring itself was beautiful. A perfectly round pool of light blue water that seemed to glow and sparkle in the darkness of the Underworld. But also, there was no life (or dead) around. Not even Mnemosyne herself seemed to be present to greet them. It was just the spring, with no other being around but them.
“Is this really it?” Percy couldn’t help but ask. “It’s very… empty…”
Nico looked at the waters, brow furrowed in concentration. Percy found himself mesmerized by the way the glow of the water reflected on the son of Hades’s face.
“I’m not sure, but Mnemosyne is usually at Olympus so…” he let the words hang as he approached and took some in his hands. “It doesn’t feel like water from the rivers, though.”
Percy watched in worry as Nico’s hands approached his face.
“Wait!” He exclaimed, making Nico jump and spill the water. “Are you going to just drink it? What if it poisons you or something?”
“I trust you to take it out of my body if anything happens,” he said back with a small smile. His hands moved, and he signed, “I trust you.”
Percy smiled at that. He nodded and gave a step back.
Nico breathed in in preparation before taking his hand to his face and drinking.
Percy observed closely for any sign of discomfort or pain but found none. Nico blinked a few times, and then drank the few drops left in the palm of his hand.
“…Nothing,” he finally said. “Is this really the Spring?”
Percy dipped a finger in. Immediately, his mind flashed back to his mother towering over him, picking him up, and unbuttoning her shirt. He shook his head, trying to bury the memory again.
“It has to be,” he said, shuddering. “I just remembered being breast fed.”
Nico snorted and then covered his mouth. Percy felt oddly proud of that reaction.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be,” Percy said. “It’s great to see you laughing.”
Nico blushed a bit and faced the spring again.
“Still, if it is the spring of memory, why aren’t I remembering anything?” He said looking back at the glowing water. “Are the memories… lost forever?”
“What did Lethe say?” Percy asked, trying to help him out. “She was the one who told you to go here.”
“That memories erode with time… even if she isn’t to blame, some memories become foggy, lost in the depths of oblivion,” Nico said. “She didn’t tell me Mnemosyne or her spring would give me back my memories, I just assumed…”
“What does her spring usually do?”
“Souls that have lived multiple lives and drink from it will recover said memories,” he explained, looking directly at the glowing waters. “It’s also supposed to neutralize the effects of the Lethe.”
“By drinking it too?” Percy kept prodding. Nico turned to look at him. “I mean, I remembered something from my newborn days, and I just wet my finger… Bob also lost his memory by bathing in the Lethe, not drinking from it…”
Nico’s eyes widened as he understood what Percy was getting to.
“But… I touched it with my hands, why didn’t that give me any memories like you?” he asked.
“Decades of erosion, as you said, maybe?” Percy shrugged. “The memory I got is 17 years old or so… your forgotten memories are from what, 60, 70 years ago?”
Nico stayed quiet for a while.
“Percy, can you… be my lookout?” He asked hesitantly.
“Sure, what for?”
He looked at him as if he was an oblivious idiot (which granted, he sort of was).
“I need as much skin contact with the spring to see if it works…” Nico let the sentence hang on the air. Percy just nodded, making Nico blush violently. “So, if you turn around, I’d appreciate it.”
Percy’s eyes widened as he understood what Nico was implying.
“O-oh, sure, privacy and all that! Totally get it!” He laughed nervously. Nico looked at him expectantly. “Now?”
“Yes, now.”
Percy gave a small ‘eep’ and turned 180 degrees. What the hell was wrong with him? Why had he been so difficult with Nico?
He gulped as he heard the rustling of clothes. His ears grew hot as he froze in place, knowing Nico was undressing just a couple feet behind him.
The next sound was the usual splashing of water as Nico entered the spring, followed by a little gasp.
“You okay?” He asked, hands shaking.
“Yeah, just… it’s cold,” he said back, before more splashes were heard. “What… what now?”
Percy thought for a few seconds about it. He wasn’t thinking of anything in particular when he got his flash, but… he had been missing his mom a bit.
“Think about what you’ve forgotten, I guess, and let the water all over you,” he said.
He glanced slightly to the left and saw that the pile were Nico had left his clothes had his underwear on top. He felt his face grow even hotter as he looked away, adamant on staying still for once in his life.
But then, Nico started humming. It was a tune he had never heard before. Maybe it was an old song he had heard from his mother or sister, or one of the many pieces he had practiced with them on the violin.
Either way, it had been so long since he had heard Nico sing. He often joked that the solution to problems was Nico singing, secretly hoping to hear him again.
Nico’s voice, even when just humming, was bewitching. Percy was convinced he could sing happy birthday and still upstage anyone that dared sing it with him.
“My life flows on in endless song, Above earth's lamentation~” Nico finally started vocalizing. The song was ethereal and beautiful, almost like an extension of Nico himself, and Percy just couldn’t help himself, turning discreetly to see him.
Nico had his back to him. The spring wasn’t that deep, so Percy had a full view of Nico’s back and the beginning of his butt as he sang softly and used his hands to guide the water towards his shoulders.
Nico was very thin, but he had well defined muscles, making for a wiry body type and a more prominent rear than his clothing would suggest. It made Percy’s mouth dry as he saw all those muscles flex and become more or less pronounced with his movements.
The son of Poseidon was immediately reminded of the many stories of mortals spying on goddesses bathing, how their otherworldly beauty and naked forms lured stupid men and who were punished in some way or another (going blind, burning up, turning into trees or woodland creatures… gods were creative like that).
In that moment, Percy completely understood those men, because seeing Nico singing as he bathed was worth any punishment or consequence.
But maybe, just maybe, those men had never even thought of the goddesses in that way. How could they? They were so beautiful, so pure, that thinking about them in such debased ways was blasphemous. It was actually seeing them that awoke those feelings in them.
Nico submerged a bit more, almost entranced himself as he kept singing, and Percy couldn’t help but notice how unblemished he looked. In a way, that was his fault. Scars were a part of any demigod that had lived long enough, but he hadn’t been privy to any of them when forming Nico’s body from the water and foam, so he had just decided to not give any. He wondered if Nico missed them, if there was a birth mark or mole that he used to have. Or, instead, if he was glad they were gone, seeing his reformed body as a new beginning.
It took him a few more seconds to realize that Nico was not stopping his descent into the spring as he kept singing. He was really in a trance, and his singing just got quieter as more and more of his body disappeared into the glowing waters.
“Nico!” He exclaimed, using his powers to will the water into a bubble with the son of Hades inside. He drew the water sphere into the shore, letting Nico down as gently as he could.
Nico seemed out of it, staring at nothing, and not even caring that he was giving Percy an eyeful.
He did his best to avert his gaze by getting on top of him and grabbing his shoulders, shaking him a bit.
“Hey… hey! Listen to me, Nico! Wake up!”
Nico blinked a bit, and his eyes focused on Percy once more. The son of Poseidon breathed a sigh of relief.
“I… remember… Mamma taught us that song after we heard it in church…” he said. “Percy, I remember my mom!”
“Nico, you… you were about to drown!” he said, not knowing how else to say it.
He blinked, bemused.
“What? No, I was… I was walking down a street with mamma and Bianca… we were going to make dinner for pa—for my father, when I heard the song from the church and…” Nico stopped himself as he seemed to become aware of his surroundings, of Percy looking at him in worry. “I was… lost in my own memory, was I not?”
Percy let out a nervous chuckle.
“More like drowning in it,” he said. “Now I understand why Hades keeps this spring a secret.”
“Dead souls can lose themselves in their memories and, paradoxically, forget themselves,” Nico agreed. “But I remember so much more now. It… it did work.”
“Yeah, I guess it did… but you scared me for a minute there.”
Nico gave him a small smile.
“I guess we’re even now.” At Percy’s confused look, he elaborated, “I took you out of the River Styx, you took me out of Mnemosyne’s Spring.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” he said back. “There’s so much you’ve done for me already…”
“You don’t owe me anything, Percy.”
Nico’s expression was so intense, so serious, that Percy had to look away… only to be greeted by the sight of Nico’s still bare body.
He yelped and jumped away from Nico, who just looked at him in confusion before looking down himself and lighting up like a Christmas tree. He covered himself with his hands and rushed towards the discarded pile of clothes, while Percy turned away to give him some privacy.
Well, at least Percy didn’t have to wonder if he considered Nico physically attractive anymore.
The uncomfortable tightness in his jeans was proof enough.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he swore he could hear Phlegethon laughing, full of himself.
It was one thing for Percy to admit to himself that he was in love with Nico in every sense of the word.
It was a wholly different thing to come out and say it.
“Phlegethon is never going to let me live this down,” he groaned as he looked in the mirror.
If he wanted a relationship with Nico, he needed to be completely honest with him… and sadly, that included admitting to his grossly unethical invasion of his mind to bring him back. It involved admitting that he knew of his feelings, while making it clear it hadn’t really influenced his own beyond making him realize how deep they were.
“Percy! I really need to get ready!” Nico whined from outside the door.
“Just a minute!” He called back, tying his towel below his armpits and coming out almost in a race to stop Nico from seeing him.
Since when was he so self-conscious? Well, maybe since he had convinced Nico to live with his family while he got all his memories back, which had somehow extended to him going back to school and that meant having to share a bathroom.
It really didn’t help that being with naked Nico in an open space had seemingly really messed him up, to the point that he was certain he had developed a sort of exhibitionist streak he didn’t know he had.
So, in order to preserve both his dignity and Nico’s, wrapping himself with an extra-large towel became a necessity.
“Paul can drive you to school, if you guys want,” his mom offered, knowing they were late.
“Thanks, but I think we’ll Shadow Travel there,” Percy said back. “Being a sophomore at my age is already humiliating enough without parents driving me.”
“You could always get a car,” Nico said, coming out of the bathroom fully dressed and drying his hair. “It makes you cooler.”
“This is Manhattan, Nico, cars are unnecessary expenses,” he explained. Paul chuckled.
“Sure, until you need to be prepared at any moment for a baby on the way,” he said, giving Sally an affectionate kiss. “You guys be safe, and Nico, be sure to not fall asleep in class.”
Paul had taken it upon himself to make Nico a sophomore too, using his status as a certified teacher to say he was homeschooled to that level.
“With such a short jump, it’s not likely,” Nico reassured him. He went into the kitchen and took out two protein bars. “For the road.”
“Nico, we’ll be on ‘the road’ for less than a second.”
“You know, no one likes pedantic jerks,” he snarked back, though he was smiling. “I promise we’ll start waking up earlier from now on, Sally.”
Sally shook her head and gave a defeated smile.
“You know, kids that live closer to school arrive late the most… because they overestimate how quickly they can make it.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get him in line,” Percy said as he hugged Nico from behind and dragged him to the room’s darkest corner. “Now, we should really get going.”
Nico, as usual, turned unnaturally quiet at his touch, but Percy didn’t let it get to him. Before all this, he would have run away or try to pry him off, so he considered this progress.
“Be safe!” Sally called.
“Always!” Percy managed to say back before the shadows engulfed them and spit them out in the janitor’s closet.
“Nico… I’m really sorry,” Percy said seriously. “I was doing it to save you, but I still shouldn’t have.”
The little goth Build-a-Bear he had made as a joke remained silent.
“Okay, how about this? Nico, these past few months I’ve realized I really like you, but— no that’ll scare him. Nico, remember where you turned into water and foam for a few hours? Also, how much do you know about Inception?”
He groaned and pressed the teddy bear’s hand. A garbled recording of Nico’s voice answered a simple, sarcastic, “Wow, Percy, you’re hilarious.”
“It’s not a joke, it’s serious!” He exclaimed. He took a deep breath. He could do this. “Nico, listen to me, and please don’t say anything until I’m done, okay? Okay.”
He tried organizing his thoughts, he didn’t know where to begin.
“Back when you were… part of Styx, I followed you to her river,” he started. Nico had never asked about the details of his deal, so starting there should be the best approach. “She wouldn’t make a deal to bring you back unless I understood who you were, why you did things, so I… there’s no way I can say this without sounding weird or creepy, I… used a bit of you on my body.”
He chuckled awkwardly, even admitting it to a plushie was a bit much.
“And I saw things, things about your past, your thoughts, your feelings,” he kept on going. “And, at the time, I was just trying to find what Styx wanted me to find, but after I felt so much guilt, because it wasn’t something you shared with me willingly, and I… I’m sorry about that. I don’t regret doing it, because it meant saving you, but I still feel bad about it.”
He bit his lip. The next part was the most difficult, because now he knew Nico almost as well as he knew himself. He knew he tended to jump to conclusions and assume the worst of any situation.
“I… I saw it, you know, how you saved me from burning up in the Styx, how you gave up your life to her to save me in Tartarus… I saw why you did it.”
“You… know?”
Percy whipped his head back, seeing Nico standing there with wide eyes and an expression halfway between terrified and pissed off.
“Nico!” He exclaimed. His reflexes were faster than his brain, taking his wrist so he couldn’t run away. “How long have you been here?”
“You’ve known all along?” He asked, voice trembling. Now that running away was off the table, he seemed to be settling on the ‘anger’ half of his conflicting feelings. “So what even was all this? Did you think you were being nice? Being around poor gay Nico so he could feel less alone?”
“What? No!” He cried. “That’s not what this is about at all, Nico!”
“Was it pity? Did you feel bad about me being—”
“Nico!” He shouted, now getting angry himself. “If you really think that about me, then I know I must have seen something wrong back then, because I know you, you’d never fall for someone that does that!”
Just the confirmation that Percy knew of his feelings made Nico recoil, but Percy still didn’t allow him to pull away.
“Please, just… listen to me,” he begged. “Let me finish what I was saying.”
He put on his best pleading face, the one that would always get him a bag of sweets at the store when he was younger.
“D-don’t…” Nico stuttered. He gave a deep breath and schooled his face into a frown. “Don’t make me regret this.”
Percy smiled gratefully and let go of his wrist slowly.
“Okay where was I?” He asked himself more than Nico, who just crossed his arms, unimpressed. “Right! Well, one of the many things I saw there was… you, singing.”
“Singing,” Nico repeated flatly.
“Didn’t I ask you to stay quiet until the end?” he asked back, feeling the blush in his face.
“You asked the bear, not me,” he said simply, the beginnings of a smirk on his face.
Good, at least he was relaxing.
“Hearing you sing… it was like nothing I ever experienced before.” He hoped he didn’t sound too dramatic, but it was true. For Percy, hearing Nico’s singing voice had almost been a religious experience. “I started realizing a lot of things, like… like how jealous I was of Annabeth, because I thought you sacrificed yourself for her. How much I wanted you to be happy, to see you smile, to hear you sing again—”
“Is that… why you’re always asking me to sing?” Nico’s pale face was alight with color from Percy’s words.
“Even sirens couldn’t compare,” he said honestly. “Nico, I like you. You’re important to me. It’s not guilt, it’s not pity. I felt this way even when I thought you did all this for Annabeth.”
“I…”
“And I hate the fact that I found out about you like I did because now it feels like no matter how I say it, it won’t feel genuine enough, and I—”
“Percy,” Nico said firmly. He was biting his lip a bit. Percy couldn’t help staring at it. “Shut up.”
He got closer and shyly pressed his lips against his.
The movement was so bold Percy was stunned for a few seconds. Calling it a kiss was a bit generous. Neither of them were moving their mouths, but the tingling feeling that went through Percy’s body could put any of his past kisses to shame.
“You think too much,” he said against his mouth. Percy let out a breathy laugh.
“Takes one to know one,” he responded, unwilling to pull away, their very conversation a kiss. “I want to be with you, Nico.”
And he feels Nico smile against him.
“In a way, we already were,” he pointed out.
“Underworld Spring hunting was not the best first date, though.”
They both laughed before closing their eyes, finally kissing properly.
Distantly, Percy felt Phlegethon’s smug satisfaction, and maybe Nico felt something similar with Styx.
None of that mattered at the moment, though. Just having Nico there, with him, with no more secrets, was enough for him.
"Sing for me?" He asked once they pulled apart.
Nico blushed a bit, but gave a deep breath and started singing in Italian.
And just like that, Percy Jackson was lost to the world.