When I Don't Remember You (Percico)

Chapter Twenty: I Can't Promise You

Percy Jackson

Thanks to shadow travel, Nico beat me to the apartment and, thanks to my mom, was even let inside.

"Hey, you made it safe!" Mom said as she saw me open the front door. "Nico got here a little bit ago, did the meeting go okay? Are you feeling okay?"

Isn't it funny how she knows that a lot of the time when Nico comes over unannounced or without warning to her it's because of my bad mental health?

It's been better lately, but still. Just needing somebody to cuddle with or just needing the safety of somebody physically being there by me.

"Um, Im okay now," I reassured my mom, putting my own camp bag down by the door. "I got really anxious right after the meeting because it was a lot and then people were just loud and it was a lot, but Nico and I just went to his cabin for like a half hour or a little more so I got to calm down and also I got to calm down in the car ride here, so. The meeting was... It was fine, but it was like, bad news that just makes me really anxious because it feels very sudden and very fast after August and yeah."

"Yeah?" She asked. "Do you want to talk about it now or after school tomorrow?"

"Um... Now would probably be better," I figured. "a lot can happen at school and I don't want to have to think about telling you about it all day."

Nico, probably hearing us, came out as support both in giving mom details I missed and in making sure I didn't cause myself to have some sort of panic attack or meltdown, although I was starting to feel like I was going into autopilot so I'm not sure that was possible.

Did Mom like the briefing we gave her?

Of course not, she's my mother.

But did I like it?

No. I hated every second of it and felt like I was going to combust more and more every second and had to take a shower as an attempt to relax.

I signed up for a therapy appointment because I knew I would need it soon and then proceeded to join my boyfriend in bed as he had been doodling in my sketchbook, which is my favorite part of my sketchbook.

"Hey," Nico said as I laid down next to him, sort of cuddling up next to him. Close enough for him to give me a kiss on my temple, as I discovered. "How you feeling? Did the shower help?"

"Mmmm the kiss helped," I joked as a wave of tiredness passed over me. "it did a little, yeah. Are you feeling? I know that I'm anxious and stuff but that isn't new. Are you okay?"

"I'm doing okay," Nico insisted as he finished up the page and put the sketchbook off to the dude. "i was a bit more anxious right after the meeting, but that was because of the people and the initial shock of it. Getting to cuddle and dance also helped a lot."

"Dancing was fun," I agreed as if it wasn't just us swaying to music and then me tripping over my feet while trying to Waltz. "Can we go skating tomorrow?"

"Do you have a helmet?"

I nodded my head, telling him that I would never teach him how to shred without the safety gear.

I may never wear it, but I'm basically an expert on the board. I don't have to anymore.

"Okay," Nico said, sounding reluctant to agree. "I'll try it out, but if I get hurt more than like, a scrape..."

"Then I'll kiss it better," I joked and he rolled his eyes. "but you don't have to worry about it because that won't happen because you're gonna be so good at it because you have a master training you. This has been my main mode of transportation since I was like 7. I learned how to skateboard before I learned how to ride a bike."

"You— how?"

"Bikes take up a lot of room in an apartment, especially if you don't have a way to hang it," I insisted. "Skateboards are smaller and more flat usually. Also my mom taught me when I asked because then I could go to the skate park and make friends that would last longer than one school year and I did make one friend but he moved away a while ago so... They're nice, though! The people are nice, I think you'll like it."

"If you say so, sweets," but as always when I bring it up, he's hesitant. "Did you ever finish the drawing you started the last time I was here?"

"Did you not look in the sketchbook?" I questioned my sanity for a second, though. "you were drawing in it, right?"

He shrugged.

"I mean, yeah," he agreed. "But I wasn't going to look around in your sketchbook without asking. That's personal and kind of rude."

But I never thought that he'd think about things like that because usually were very like, open about things. Just in general.

"Oh," I responded. "Well if you want to, you can. I don't have anything in there to hide from you, the only reason I don't really let others look is the like, pride stuff, or you know, gay shit, so."

"The gay stuff," Nico repeated with a laugh, leaning against me. "I know it's been like, a while since we talked about it, but when do you think we should come out?"

We're still not out as a couple.

Then again, it's because I'm not out yet, but I'm getting better at it.

"Um... I mean there's definitely a few people that I want to just talk to personally," I told my boyfriend, thinking about how Grover still doesn't know who the person I'm dating is. "But I can do that soon, especially since Annabeth is going to be here for a while. So like... New Years, maybe? We can just surprise everyone when we kiss at new years."

"News years is a good plan," Nico agreed as I could hear his voice drifting, becoming tired. "It's... Yeah. Good plan. Let's plan on that."

I smiled a little, giving him a kiss on the top of his head.

"Goodnight, Neeks."

"Gnight..."

•••
hey!! This one was short and sweet but oh boy I hope you guys remember what the description of this story was because we are basically there.

good luck y'all, I hope you enjoy what's to come.