Body on Fire (A Perjasico Fanfic)

Nico

     

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       The whole situation was a mess, whether Nico wanted to admit it or not. Being the only omega on board, he knew something like this would come up sooner or later, but what he hadn't expected was to run out of heat suppressants so soon.

      So, naturally, he had to have one of the most awkward conversations of his life, with his crush, no less. Well, technically he wasn't talking to Percy directly. Instead, he waited it out until a few days went by and the number of his heat suppressant pills were getting smaller and smaller.
   See, Nico would rather pass away than have a talk like this with anybody, but he had to tell someone soon before it was too late and then he was in real big trouble. So, Nico decided he'd try and talk to Annabeth first before going to anyone else since she'd probably know what to do, even though it didn't make it any less awkward.

       "Do you think we can land the ship?" He asked her one day belowdecks when everyone else had some other task to do and Annabeth was scanning her gray eyes over what looked to be the artifacts they recovered for one of their smaller quests.

      "We won't be anywhere near land for a good couple of days, if we stay on course, that is. Did you need something?"

     Great, Nico thought. Even if they were just a tiny bit closer to reaching their next destination, he would've found a way to steer the Argo II himself just to reach solid ground to get the suppressants.

      "I, um, needed to run an errand. It's...It's kind of urgent."

      The alpha tilted her head to the side; her blonde hair tied in a loose ponytail falling over her shoulder.

     "How urgent are we talking? I'm not sure if we should go too far off course if it isn't that time sensitive."

      Nico was internally screaming.

      "It's, like, a medical thing...I think? I don't know, but it is really, really, urgent."

     "Did you check the first-aid kit? We've got just about everything in there."

    Of course Nico had already checked the kit. That's the first thing he did, but the thing with having an entire ship full of alphas and betas was that there wasn't anything to account for an omega on the very brink of starting a heat with absolutely nothing to stop it.

      "I did. But there isn't anything for, uh, what I need right now."

      Luckily, Annabeth was a smart girl. The smartest person Nico had ever known, and her change in facial expression told him she understood.

       "Is this...An omega thing?"

       Say it louder, why don't you? Nico cringed at the wording, but he was grateful he didn't have to explain much more. He liked how Annabeth just "got" things without necessarily having to pry all the time unless it was for a good reason. He exhaled in relief.

     "Look, I ran out of suppressants and I just need to run into a store somewhere to get them. It will only take me, like, ten minutes give or take. Promise." Nico kept his voice low because the ship walls were practically paper thin and some of the demigods on the ship's crew just had to know everything, sometimes. The omega read her expression carefully, but Annabeth only looked at him with nothing but eyes full of sympathy.

      "Like I said, Nico, we're nowhere near land. We're basically in the middle of the desert, if you want to look at it like that. I'm really sorry."

      As irritated, embarrassed, and downright mortified as he was right now, Nico hated it but he realized she had a point. Not only were they nowhere near a shoreline, but suppressants wouldn't even do much for him at this point now that his heat was approaching so close.

      "Thanks for your help, and I'm sorry for having to bring this up like this." Nico said as he began to turn to leave, but Annabeth quickly stopped him.

     "Wait, Nico, I have an idea."

     The boy turned around; he hoped the frustration he was feeling wasn't showing in his face. Not too much, at least.

     "What?"

     "Have you tried...Never mind." Now Annabeth was the one looking embarrassed and all red in the face.

    "Have I tried what?" He asked, but now she wouldn't meet his eyes.

    "I don't want to offend you, or make this uncomfortable." She said quickly.

     Too late for that.

     "I'm willing to hear any kind of solution you have." He wasn't lying at all; anything was better than nothing.

    "Okay, um, have you tried asking Percy or Jason for...For help?"

    Well, anything but that.

     Nico stared at her; eyes wide with his cheeks flaming red and with the most shocked look on his face known to man. His entire body went rigid and it felt like someone had just sucker punched him in the gut.

     "Nico, please say something. That was totally inappropriate—gods, I shouldn't have said anything." One of her hands came up to hold the side of her face, and she refused to even look in his direction.

     "It's just—they're the only other alphas on board, well, aside from your sister—" Nico felt like throwing up at that idea.

    "—and this could just be a temporary solution until we land to make this at least a little easier for you if you do end up going into heat. Plus, having, ah, partners to help speeds it up faster, right?" Annabeth was talking so fast Nico was having trouble comprehending anything she was saying. Just the idea of spending his heat thousands of feet up in the sky with Percy and Jason made his head spin to the point of physically hurting.

    However, he did understand one thing.

    From a scientific standpoint, Annabeth was absolutely right about "alpha intervention" being able to speed up an omega's heat or make it less painful. Truthfully, having an alpha (or two) to help an omega through a heat reduces the cycle by at least a few days, and therefore making it efficient for everyone involved. Either way, he didn't have much of a choice if he'd rather be out of commission for five days or less rather than seven or however long his heats lasted.

     "I guess that's my only option right now." He said flatly, but in reality all of his emotions were just boiling right under the surface; waiting to break free and turn him into an absolute wreck. Annabeth nodded, and she looked slightly relieved now that they had more or less come to a consensus on what to do.

    "Right. Yeah, and I'm sorry it has to turn out like this, but I need you to remember that you're one of the strongest members on our team right now. At this point in the quest, we need all hands on deck, and so the sooner you can recover, the faster we can get home and get all of this done."

      Nico did his best to look brave and try and keep it together when he still couldn't mentally fathom (or process) what he was getting himself into. He hated the "solution" to its very core, but he needed to get through this heat as quickly as possible in order to keep helping with the quest.

      "Yeah. Thanks, I guess." He said, and Annabeth nodded.

    "Now, do you want to tell them or should I?"

    This is exactly why Nico hated answering hard questions. He didn't want to look like a coward by having Annebeth do it for him, but he didn't exactly want to go up to Percy or Jason and say, "hey, do you guys think you can fuck my brains out for the next couple days? It's for the good of the quest, I swear." Nico decided to go with the first option, coward or not.

     "Do you think...Could you...Could you tell them for me?"

    "Sure thing, Nico. I'm glad we could fix this together." Annabeth said sincerely, but nothing would be completely fixed until his heat was over.

The
   End.