Hell And High Water (Percico boyxboy)

V

Percy finally woke up about a half hour after Nico had gotten off the phone and he stood from the tub, regretting letting himself fall asleep in it the night before. Every one of his joints cracked and his neck hurt from the awkward way it had been positioned.
Percy went to the bathroom and stood in front of the door for a good ten minutes before he made the courageous decision to leave the little room and enter the one Nico was in. Then it took him another fifteen to actually do it. A part of him wondered if Nico would even be there. A smaller part wished he wouldn't but he hadn't been that... lucky?... But it depended on the way you looked at it. When Percy left the bathroom, he found Nico laying on the bed scrolling through his phone. He never lifted his eyes from the electronic device or even acknowledged someone else was in the room.
Percy headed toward the bed he wished he had slept in the night before and sat down on it. As if on cue, Nico stood from his own bed and meandered into the bathroom. Percy sighed out of slight agitation at the fact that Nico hadn't apologized or said anything to him at all, for that matter.
Once Percy heard the water running, he slipped his sneakers on, grabbed the room key from Nicos hoodie pocket, and opened the door into the hallway. It was the first time, since being in the hotel, that Percy would be walking around alone and he found himself smiling. He hadn't realized it before but he felt like he was kind of being held captive, despite the fact that Nico did let him go to the pool everyday. But this was the first thing he had done alone. He felt free.
He made his way to the elevator with a giant smile on his face and headed toward the lobby. His body still ached from sleeping in the tub but the pain was momentarily forgotten when he set eyes on the biggest breakfast buffet he had ever seen. Something inside of him welled up and he felt like a kid in a candy store.
Percy gathered together as much food as he could carry onto two plates and smiled yet again, pleased with the breakfast he had constructed from the buffet. He made his way back to the elevator and, with some difficulty, pressed the buttons to carry him to his floor. He managed, somehow, to get the room unlocked and entered with the two plates of breakfast. Nico was still in the bathroom but the water was no longer running. Percy put Nicos plate on his bed and plopped down on his own before snatching the remote off the night table and turning it on to morning cartoons. He found a show called Dinosaur Train, which he had never heard of before, and dropped the remote back down before digging into his waffles.
Nico came out a few minutes later and didn't know what to be more shocked by, the cartoons or the breakfast. He chose the breakfast because it meant that Percy had left the room without his permission, accompaniment, or even his knowlegde. He looked back and forth between the plate of food on his bed and the boy intently watching cartoons on the other.
"What's this?"
"Dinosaur Train."
"I don't mean the cartoon, I mean that." Nico pointed to the plate of food.
Percy looked over at it. "Breakfast." And with that he looked back to the t.v.
"You left the room?"
Percy nodded, somewhat cutely Nico had to admit, and Nicos phone went off. He walked to the dresser and answered it, although he never took his eyes from Percy.
"Hello?"
Percy laughed at something he found amusing on the t.v.
"Yes, I know my friend left the room."
Percy could hear Nico but he wasn't paying too much attention to him.
"No, he did not have my permission."
Percy laughed again.
"Yes I am angry and will deal with it accordingly."
Nico hung up and tossed the phone back onto the dresser. He looked back to Percy and wondered what to say. Percy giggled yet again and wrapped his lips around the fork that held a bite of waffles. Nico was entranced by the way Percys mouth moved and he stared at the boy as if he had never seen anyone eat before. Of course, he had. But they never looked as good as Percy did in that moment. He shook his head, but not before momentarily forgetting why he was angry. When he remembered again, he opened his mouth and voiced it.
"Why did you leave the room?"
"I wanted to get breakfast." Percy figured it was pretty obvious.
"You couldn't wait?"
He shook his head but never took in his eyes from the t.v. He laughed again and Nico tried to be angry. But it had been three years since he had heard Percy laugh and he didn't realize he had missed the sound of it until that moment.
Nico walked closer to Percys bed with a sigh and grabbed the remote, clicking the t.v. off. Percy tried to reach for it but Nico held it just out of his reach. Percy let go of a whine of displeasure and Nicos mouth hung open a little in shock. Percy had never whined about anything before, especially trivial things like this.
"Percy-"
"What'd you turn it off for?" Percy was literally whining, like a child. All of the questions he had been asking made Nico feel like he was babysitting already, but Percys pouting made it worse. Much worse.
"Why'd you leave the room?" Nico was trying to stay calm but he was really, really angry.
"I wanted to get breakfast." He was still pouting.
Nico sighed. "You already told me that but why couldn't you have waited until I was out of the shower?"
Percy sulked a little. "I didn't think you would have wanted to go."
It was true. Nico wouldn't have wanted to go. He would have eaten the cold leftovers from the night before, if he would've eaten at all. But this was Percy. Nico would have done anything for Percy three years ago and nothing had changed. He would move freaking mountains if Percy had asked him to. "You still could have asked!"
"Are you mad at me?"
"Yes Percy, I am mad at you!" Nico hadn't noticed but Percy jumped a little at his voice. "You can't just go and do things like that. What part of 'there are people out there that want you dead' do you not understand? It was stupid leaving the room alone."
"I'm sorry. I did it because I felt bad about yesterday."
Nico thought to himself about what happened yesterday that Percy could have felt bad for. Duh. The argument they had. But, it hadn't really been Percys fault. As much as Nico had tried to convince himself that he himself hadn't done anything wrong, he realized both of them were at fault. Nico didn't say anything.
"Are you still mad about yesterday?"
"Not anymore. I'm more angry that you would be foolish enough to leave the room by yourself."
"I'm sorry."
Nico nodded his head once. 'Of course you are' he thought to himself. It took him a minute or so to cool off but he managed. The only reason he was able to was because Percy was back in the room, totally safe. He was still angry, yes, but his anger had subsided a tiny bit. Enough for him to sit on the bed and look at the creation that Percy had given him for breakfast. Waffles, eggs, and bacon. It looked really good so Nico half forced himself to sit on the bed and eat. Percy let his mouth fade into a huge grin and Nico shook his head at the son of Poseidons behavior.
The two ate breakfast in silence because Nico still had the remote and wouldn't turn the cartoons back on no matter how much Percy begged. He really couldn't figure what was going on with Percy. He was acting so different. But, maybe he wasn't. Maybe what Nico had seen on the Argo II was a facade and this was the real Percy.
Once they finished eating and Percy showered and changed, they were left with literally nothing to do. Nico had been contemplating all morning whether or not he should tell Percy anything about anything that was going on. He figured he should at least tell that the two 'hunters' were probably in LA at that very moment and figured, with Percys never ending abundance of questions, that everything else would fall out somehow anyway.
Nico started by telling Percy what he had found out about the Manticore and Typhon. Percy didn't seem phased by it but Nico just figured it was because he didn't quite understand the severity of the situation. He even tried to tell Percy why they were dangerous to him but Percy couldn't figure out why in the world two guys he had never met in his life would want to kill him. But then Nico came to the part that still had him wondering. He told Percy that his contact had said there was something else but just wouldn't tell him, so Percy was gonna have to keep his eyes open and stay alert for anything suspicious.
"How am I suppose to know if something is suspicious, though? I don't know anything about this stuff."
"And that's exactly why you need to stick with me and not go wandering off like you did this morning."
Percy hung his head, feeling kind of defeated.
Nico continued with everything. As carefully as he possibly could, he explained about the road trip they would be taking to San Francisco within the next couple days. He didn't come right out and say exactly why, he just said he had some business to attend to.
Percy was confused and tried to question it but Nico hushed him and told him to not ask.
Going through and telling Percy everything had actually tired Nico out so he lay on the bed and closed his eyes. Percy was left in silence for his thoughts to start wandering. And that's just what they did.
Percy thought through everything Nico had told him and wondered exactly what this 'business' was that needed Nicos attending to. He hoped it wouldn't be dangerous but given Nicos 'profession' he figured it would be. Nico had told Percy that he had been killing people for money up until the point that he had found out Percy was in the Lotus. He also recalled Nico telling him, at some point, that he was a 'private contractor', meaning he didn't work directly for anyone in particular. Maybe that's why they were going. Was Nico going to kill someone? Percy did NOT want a part in that.
Percy let his thoughts carry him a little deeper so he had no idea what was going on in the room around him. He didn't know how much time had passed and he actually kind of forgot he wasn't alone. So, when Nico spoke up, he jumped and almost fell off the side of the bed. Nico laughed a little and Percy made another face that Nico seriously had to wonder about.
"You alright over there?"
"You scared me."
"I see that." He laughed again.
"It's not funny."
Nico shrugged and sat up. He wiped his face. "Are you gonna answer my question?"
"...What question?"
"The one I asked before you fell off the bed."
"Oh... um... I..."
Nico shook his head. "You don't even know what I asked, do you?"
Percy shook his head shyly and Nico laughed yet again.
"I asked if you wanted some lunch."
"Oh, um, sure."
"Alright. We'll both go this time, okay?"
Percy smiled again and his cheeks turned a little darker, for what reason, though, he had no clue.
"Hang on!"
He jumped from the bed and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. The first thing he did was look in the mirror and found himself hating what he saw again. His cheeks were bright red and he didn't know why. He splashed a little water onto them before actually going to the bathroom and heading back out into the roon. Nico already had his sneakers on and was ready to go so Percy did the same as quickly as he could.
The lobby wasn't very full but there was a lunch buffet waiting for anyone who might want it. They served themselves up a lunch and headed back to the room to eat it.
Percy ate the entire meal with a smile on his face that Nico seriously felt like he couldn't get enough of. He tried to make it inconspicuous that he was watching Percy eat. He failed, miserably, because once he looked at Percy, he couldn't stop. If Percy hadn't been so focused on his lunch, he would have noticed.
The boys skin looked like it had been kissed by the sun and a part of Nico wanted to reach out and touch it. He mentally slapped himself for the thought and went back to his own lunch. After a short minute, his eyes found their way back to Percy. There was one time, on the Argo, that Nico had been talking to Percy and had missed every word he said because he was too caught up in looking at Percys lips. His eyes trailed from the soft looking skin of Percys cheek to his lips that were wrapping themselves around his fork. How the hell could someone look so freaking good while they were eating? Damn!
The two finished their lunch and Nico told Percy to stay in the room while he went and took the plates back to the lounge. He hadn't originally planned on it but he couldn't sit in the same room with the boy for much longer. He wandered around for a few minutes to clear his mind of Percy and headed back to the room. And, of course, Percy was doing something ELSE Nico wished he hadn't seen. He was laying on his stomach on the bed with his feet in the air watching the t.v. again. He kicked his feet back and forth as he flipped through the channels until he found one he wanted to watch. Nico didn't pay the least bit of attention to what it was on the t.v. because he was too busy focusing his eyes on the bare spot on Percys back that had showed itself when his shirt slid up a little. Like the skin on his cheek, Percys back looked almost touchable. Nico had slapped himself in his mind before but now, it was almost as if he had wrapped his own hands around his neck to commit mental suicide at the fact that he had though that. He cringed a little and laid back down on his bed.
Percy kept the cartoon on he was watching and continued to laugh every couple minutes at the things he found funny. Percys laugh was something Nico felt he could get used to, even though he knew he shouldn't have been thinking that, but the cartoon voices were not. Nico let it go for a few more minutes until he couldn't help but cringe at the sound of giggling girls. He sat up quickly and turned toward Percy, startling him a little.
"Why don't you change and I'll take you to the pool." Nico wasn't sure where the thought had come from but he was sure the pool would be a hell of a lot better than the cartoon voices. Percy smiled widely and jumped from his bed before grabbing his trunks and running to the bathroom. Nico clicked the t.v. off right away and sat in the silence he missed so much. He had gotten used to it and, ever since he had gotten Percy from the Lotus, it had been almost non-existent.
Percy was quick to change and he practically skipped out of the room and down the hall to the elevator and then he ran to the pool. Nico was relieved when no one else was there and and he plopped himself down in one of the plastic lawn chairs. Percy wasted no time in stripping himself of his t-shirt and tossed it on the chair next to Nico. Of course, Nico watched every second that Percy rid himself of the fabric. He had figured he was hooked on Percy three years ago but this... this was like being reeled in by a pro angler. ...Did he really just make a fishing refrence? Damn son of Poseidon.
Percy swam for a while before sinking down to the bottom of the pool where he always would sit. Nico tried to ignore him by playing with his fingers and even running through some old messages on his phone. But, eventually, he unknowingly turned his eyes back to Percy. Within the next few minutes, Percy resurfaced and swam to the edge of the pool where he climbed out and went to stand by Nico. He picked up his towel and dried himself off enough to slip his shirt back on. When the fabric made it over his eyes, he saw that Nico was looking at him.
The son of Hades managed to cover his own ass by asking if Percy was ready to go, rather unpatiently. Percy nodded, feeling like he was annoying Nico again, and the two left the room.
On the way back to the elevator, Percy got the urge to apologize for yet another thing.
"I'm sorry I've been asking you so many questions. I know you probably don't want to answer them all, its just..."
Nico nodded, knowing what Percy meant. Usually, in a situation like this, Nico would have stayed quiet. But, his lips began to move and words just kind of flowed out. "Don't worry about it... I know how difficult it is. And I also know that it's harder when you have no one to answer your questions."
Percy nodded, relieved Nico had even accepted the apology.
"Just don't go thinking that you can ask questions all day long now, got it?"
Percy was quick to nod again.
When they got back to the room, Percy changed again and asked Nico if he could turn the t.v. back on.
"Are you gonna watch cartoons again?"
Percy felt...shy for some reason and he could hear such in his voice. "Probably."
"Then no."
"Why not?"
Percy was pouting again and Nico was getting agitated. He was having a really hard time figuring Percy out. He seemed...weird and Nico didn't have a single explanation as to why. "I hate cartoons."
"Why?"
"I just do." Nico hadn't meant to shout. But that didn't mean he regretted it. The way Percy had been acting over the last few days was more annoying than anything he had ever said or did on the Argo and Nico couldn't hold back his constant and growing annoyance. He laid his head on his pillow and expected silence. But, he should know, that things rarely ever go as expected.
"I don't wanna just sit and do nothing."
"Then what do you wanna do, Percy?" Nico was clearly still annoyed.
"Can we just...talk?"
Nico was a little awestruck. He and Percy had never 'just talked' at Camp or on the Argo so Nico was wondering where the idea had come from. He sat up and looked at Percy. The son of Poseidon was clearly wondering if he had said something he shouldn't have said and he instantly starting shaking his head and apologizing for even speaking the idea.
"Stop apologizing for everything all the time. It's more annoying than all your questions." Nico snapped.
Percy thought for a second about apologizing for it but decided that probably wasn't the best of ideas. He hung his head a little, feeling pretty stupid.
Nico was silent for a few seconds, contemplating the boys idea. It didn't sound too awful bad. Maybe he could learn a little more about Percy and figure out why the hell he had been acting so differently than he did three years prior.
"Ok, Percy. Let's 'just talk'. But, I get to ask the questions. There's alot I want to know."
Percy froze a little. He hadn't expected Nico to go for the idea and now that it had kinda turned around so that he was the one being questioned, he was a little nervous.
"What do on you wanna know?"
"Well, for starters, why you left the Argo II."
Percy stiffened. He wished now more than he had before that the idea had stayed an idea instead of becoming words. How was he supposed to tell Nico that? He couldn't just come right out and say it...
"Um... it's complicated."
"Well uncomplicate it." Nico tried to keep his cool. "I've been answering all your questions, return the favor."
Percy thought for a second on how he could word it. "After... after you said what you said, everyone started treating me... different. I didn't like it. I felt so awkward and I couldn't handle it."
Percy was blaming it on him? Seriously? Nico forced himself to contain his rising anger and calm himself enough to ask another question. "Why the Lotus?"
Percy shrugged. "I guess it was because it was the only place I figured I could get away and forget about everything."
"It messed you up that bad?"
He shrugged again.
"Were you that big of a mess when you found out Annabeth liked you?"
Percy froze. Nico must have thought that him liking Percy is why he left. "That's not why I left. I left because Annabeth, Jason, and Piper started to gang up on me." He hadn't remembered before but now that he was talking about it, the whole thing flooded back. "They were making comments and THEY made me feel so uncomfortable."
So... it wasn't Nico after all...
They were both silent for a half a minute before Nico spoke up again. "Did you leave a note or anything?"
Percy shook his head. "I just left. I didn't even pack up any clothes. I knew I was headed for the Lotus so, I figured, I didn't need anything."
It was a logical thought, in a way. When you go somewhere that time slows, you feel no need to bring anything but your body. Nico could seriously relate. He just couldn't figure why anyone would willingly go into the Lotus when they know what's going to happen. He never asked, though. The fact that Percy had gone in in the first place made Nico think he was crazy as it was.
Nico wished he could change the subject, but he was a terrible conversationalist. He looked at the other boy as he uncomfortably shifted a little on the bed from the silence that had followed his last statement.
Nico sighed. "You can watch the t.v. if you want."
Percy lit up and Nico had to, once again, question the son of Poseidons awkward behavior. He clicked the t.v. on and Nico buried his ear buds into his ears to drown out whatever sound would come from the t.v.