Chapter Text
POV PERCY
Bob was keeping watch with his newly acquired kitten curled up comfortably on his lap. Nico had curled up next to him and was trying to sleep. Percy knew he should do the same, but he felt too strung up to even try so he sat down, leaning on the wall near the others.
There was so much going on right now. And now that they had a moment to truly rest, in the relative safety of the shrine, Percy felt it all catching up to him. For what felt like the first time, he wondered what Annabeth was doing, what the rest of the crew were doing.
Do they think we’re dead?
He knew Annabeth wouldn’t just give up on him like that. She was smart. She would know they’d try to get to Doors of Death. She’d meet them on the other side.
She’d be there when he and Nico made it out of here.
Looking back over to Nico, Percy was once more reminded of the fact that Nico apparently wore eyeliner. And tinted lip balm. Letting his eyes linger on his face, Percy wondered what other things he didn’t know about Nico. Somewhere along the way, it felt like he had forgotten that Nico had a life outside of the times he showed up to help Percy.
Honestly, I can see why he prefers Bob’s company over mine.
Sighing, Percy distractedly fiddled with his tube of Chapstick. Who would’ve thought he’d get to see such a different side of Nico down here. They were stuck in Tartarus for fuck’s sake, no one should get to look that pretty down here.
He groaned softly in frustration and turned to Bob, “Hey, Bob.”
“Percy,” Bob smiled at him. It was still odd to see the massive titan being so gentle. The last time they’d met, Percy had held him down in the Lethe, wiping his memories. Now, he sat next to him, holding a tiny skeletal cat in his lap, wearing his janitor uniform with so much pride, and keeping watch for monsters in Tartarus so two demigods could rest.
I stole his memories from him. His identity.
Percy remembered how it felt to wake up with no memories, monsters trying to kill him at every turn. Even when he had found the safety of Camp Jupiter, he’d been stumbling through his life for a bit until he got his memories, “I’m sorry I never visited you in the Underworld.”
“It’s ok. Nico visited me a lot. He told me how busy you were with quests and prophesies.”
“Yeah, but I should have. I don’t even know what your life is like.”
Bob is quiet for a while, gently petting the kitten, “It’s not interesting like yours. But I am happy,” his voice was quiet, trying to not wake Nico, or disturb Small Bob.
Percy wondered what life was like, working for Hades, “How’s life in the palace?”
“I get to mop all the floors in the palace!” Bob looked so proud of himself, Percy wondered how he hadn’t grown sick of it yet, “I keep them all sparkling clean! And Lord Hades even lets me take care of Cerberus sometimes.”
“Ah, that sounds fun,” Percy replied. He smiled remembering the way Annabeth had managed to distract the massive dog once.
“Yes!” Bob agreed enthusiastically, “And Nico tells me so many fun stories, so even if I get bored, I just remember them and the time passes so quickly!”
Bob is still smiling but Percy feels his heart break at those words, he wanted to ask if he had no other friends, but having seen the Underworld, and having met a few of its inhabitants, Percy could see why the newly reformed, Bob the Titan would have been given an unimportant job to keep him occupied and left to his own devices.
“I’ll have to come visit you once we’re out of here,” He tells Bob, and sees his face light up, “You can show me all the cool spots!”
Bob nodded enthusiastically, “Yes! And I can introduce you properly to Cerberus! Nico told me all about Mrs. O’Leary. You would love hanging out with Cerberus, friend!”
Percy laughed in surprise, “He told you about Mrs. O’Leary?”
“Yes, he has told me a lot about you as well. But friend Percy is different from what Nico told me.”
Percy sound himself wanting to ask what Nico had said about him, at least that way he’d know how to start fixing whatever was wrong between them. But he couldn’t bring himself to ask, “Yeah?”
Bob nods thoughtfully, “You are not ‘wrong’ for Nico.”
Wrong?
When Percy didn’t reply, Bob turned to look at him. He gave an understanding look to Percy and patted the ground next to him, “Rest, I will keep watch and wake you if there is trouble.”
Percy thought for a moment, eyes drifting to Nico’s sleeping form. His eyes were squeezed shut, and he moved fitfully in his sleep, likely having nightmares. He wasn’t surprised to see the younger boy having nightmares, but it did break his heart a little to see him like this.
Bob gently nudges him towards where Nico is resting, and Percy gives in, lying down next to him, staying just far enough to not touch so he wouldn’t accidentally startle him awake.
Still unable to sleep, Percy resigns himself to observing the way in which, even in his sleep, Nico’s hand rests lightly on his sword which now lies next to him. Inside its sheath, the sword itself looks less intimidating. Shorter than the average blade, its wicked edge covered by the black leather sheath, it seems to fit him just right. The sword looks well used and lovingly cared for. Percy wonders where Nico got it. He’d never seen Stygian Iron weapons in camp halfblood before.
“Percy you must rest while you can,” Bobs’ voice pulls his attention away from the boy in front of him, “we must leave soon. Other monsters know you are here. They will come soon, and you cannot rest after they find us.”
Percy looked up, startled, but there were no monsters in sight.
“They are still some distance away, friend”
“How far can you see?”
“It is not that…,” Bob looks troubled, “These monsters, I can sense them. It is as if their blood calls to me, draws me close,” Percy feels his blood freeze in his veins, “But I know that if they find us, they will not let you live.”
The titans.
Bob doesn’t know that he’s one of them. Percy briefly wondered what would happen if the Titans found them while they slept, and Bob remembered who he was. He wondered if closing his eyes now, would mean never waking up.
Small Bob, seemingly sensing his distress, climbed out of Bob’s lap, and strutted over, curling up into a purring ball of skeletal cuteness between him and Nico.
“Sleep Percy, I will wake you,” Bob promised.
Looking once more at Nico, Percy lies back down. If Nico trusted Bob, Percy couldn’t see a reason to not do the same. After all, he wasn’t the one who had spent gods know how long talking to Bob, and getting to know him, and being his friend. If anyone would know Bob as he was now, it would be Nico.
And while Nico has often had… interesting ways of helping, sometimes even selling him out – accidentally, but still – but he’d never failed him even once.
Even if Nico hated him, Percy would trust him with his life.
And so Percy sinks into a not so pleasant dream. Writhing shadowy masses, telltale signs of a gathering army of monsters, the satisfied rumble of a voice which sounded more like boulders grating together than anything vaguely human, haunt his dreams and when Bob shakes him awake, he somehow feels worse than he did before he slept.
“Come on Percy, you don’t wanna miss breakfast, do you?” Nico sounds much more well rested than he has over the course of their trek through Tartarus. Looking up through hazy eyes, trying to rub the sleepiness away, Percy sees him leaning over the altar and sorting through the food there.
He shuffles over sleepily and Nico smiles, handing him half a protein bar while biting into the other half, “You’re in a good mood,” Percy mutters snarkily, wondering how the boy can be in such a good mood after the nightmares he seemed to be having before Percy fell asleep.
Nico squints at him for a sec, and really, why did the eyeliner have to make his dark eyes stand out like that? He chose to ignore Percy’s snark and responded by pulling a crumpled piece of paper from the pocket of his black jeans, “Because I have good reason,” he shoved the paper into Percy’s hand and continued sorting through the food on the altar as he spoke, “Our message reached the right people. That note is from Camp. They know we’re stuck here now, and will get in touch with the crew,” Percy is reeling from the information, there was no way they got that much good news and didn’t have to pay a price for it, but he didn’t miss the way Nico’s expression flickered for a moment before he continued, “Annabeth will be there for you when you get back out.”
“When we get back out,” Percy corrected him as he bit into the protein bar and smoothed out the note. The note was written by at least three different people by the looks of it, the handwriting varying wildly. It was a bit of a mess, but Percy gathered that the message had been received, that they had thought it was a prank, and on the off chance it wasn’t, had chosen to reply seriously.
He trusted Chiron and the rest of the counsellors to do the right thing on their end. Now that he knew for sure that the crew would have no doubt of their survival and would likely wait for them by the Doors of Death, he found a renewed sense of hope. Smiling at Nico, he noticed the boys’ earlier good mood seemed to have faded a little, but resisted the urge to ask, not wanting to accidentally put his foot in his mouth. Again.
“Bob says we should leave soon if we want to stay ahead of the monsters,” Nico says. He shoves some of the food into his jacket pockets and hands some of it to Percy, “None of this will spoil quickly, we can save it up for a bit.”
Percy nods and take it from him, filling his own pockets with the assorted snacks and preserved food.
“Where do we go from here?” Percy asks.
What little was left of Nico’s good mood disappears, “The closer we get to the doors, the harder it’s going to get for us to stay clear of the monsters. There’s going to be a lot more of them, and both of us are fairly powerful,” his expression sours even more as he continues, “The safest way through is by using something called the Death Mist. But getting it is going to be… tiresome.”
“Akhlys does not like demigods, but she has the Death Mist,” Bob explains.
“That’s what I did the last time,” Nico continues, “But I got captured a little after that. Not because the Mist is ineffective, I just… got careless.”
Nico looks worried, the eyeliner is still smudged around his eyes, but the lip balm has started to fade, and it starts to disappear even faster as he bites his lip in worry and Percy fights the urge to reach out and stop him. Instead, he says, “I trust you.”
Nico smiles uncertainly at him and Percy smiles back, “I trust you to show me the right way, Nico.”
“I’m literally leading you through Hell, Percy. Worse than Hell.”
“Exactly. I’d be lost without you here.”