The Kingdoms

Chapter 3 - Friendship?

"T-Thank you for the hospitality." Nico stuttered slightly, he had been shocked how prepared it looked. There was a set of clothes set out for Nico so he could change out of his bloody ones, he had never knew that the Kingdom Of Seas had this hospitality. He needed to say thank you, as he still needed to be nice and he was honestly grateful for the nice bed and change of clothes.

"Yeah, you're welcome. Lunch will be in half an hour or so, if you need anything. There is guards outside your door, tell them to get me if it isn't something they can't do themselves without leaving their posts." Percy explained, it was interesting. The way he explained it, he made it sound like he was his best friend staying for a few days while he was thrown out of his kingdom for the time being.

Nico nodded, Percy just gave him a small smile. He seemed way better than the day before, where he had seen a little bit of bloodlust in Percy's eyes. He had knew it had been watching his wife die, but it seemed he was covering up those feelings now. He could see it in those eyes still, but his face showed he was happy, so he just knew that he was covering it up. Not trying to be weak, he understood that, it seemed like as a prince you have that worry.

"I will be going then, I will check in on you after lunch. I will see you then." Percy then dismissed himself without another word, closing the door lightly behind him. There was no lock, probably so Nico will be able to talk to the guards if he needed to. Right now though, he wanted to get out of these clothes, as they stinked of the many people who died at his hands or died nearby him. He stripped his clothes off quickly, before putting on the clothes a bit slower.

Once he was dressed in nice fresh clothes, he took a book from the shelf so he had something to do. The book was coloured in light pale emerald, it was some kind of love story. He laughed at how cliché it was, but it was probably the best book out of the stack on the bookshelf. Nico read till there was a knock on the door, he had only read a handful of pages during the time, lunch had arrived.

After a few seconds, the servant come in with a nice platter of food. Nico looked at the food, it looked delicious as if it was prepared just for him, but they were seeing him as a guest. As it looked way too good for him being a prisoner, with a standard rank in society. It was some lightly toasted toast with a light amount of butter, there was some rather well cooked salmon along with some peas and baby corn on the side.

He started off with the salmon, then went onto the bread, leaving the really good vegetables for last. He had to admit, they must have a good farming district as it was all very good. Nico could sort of understand the hospitality, as he wasn't thinking it would be this fast. He ate it all mostly since he hadn't eaten much the previous day and had missed breakfast, now that he ate. He wasn't all that hungry for when dinner would be, but he knew they would probably force him to eat either way.

Nico sighed, he picked up his book again. Opening it up back to where he had stopped, he was enjoying it a tiny bit. Either way, it was a way to make the time pass, he would probably finish all these books before he was able to leave or die if everything went wrong.

-#-

Percy had told to just relax for the next few days, as well as take care of Nico while he was here. He checked the sky, it was slightly after lunch it seemed. He didn't have anything else for the time being, and he did need to check on Nico. See if he was enjoying himself to the extent that they could offer without him enjoying himself too much of course.

He found the room that Nico was staying in almost instantly. He put his hand on his sword, nodding to the guards and opening the door to go in. He looked over to where Nico was, reading quietly. It was pretty clear he wasn't enjoying it a whole lot, but he did seem at least interested in what would happen next.

Percy found that slightly cute how he wasn't doing something else, if he didn't like the books he didn't really understand why was reading them. He coughed to get Nico's attention, which he succeeded in getting. Nico's head had snapped up to look over to him, he put his finger between the pages. Waiting for him to talk obviously.

"How is everything going? Did you enjoy lunch?" Percy asked, putting his hand, that had been on the sword, hang loosely by his side. He didn't want to intimidate Nico too much, they will be trying to get some plans out of him tomorrow. He hated the idea of having to get him tortured, but they needed to know what they were thinking of doing.

"Fine, and it was good." Nico replied, obviously not wanting to talk with him. Maybe he should try and be more friendly? He went over and sat down on the bed, maybe him being closer would help the conversation? He wasn't all that sure. He should make him comfy before what was probably going to happen the next day.

"Would you like me to get some better books? I could probably grab a good handful for you, but I can't grab in particular. So, I will take a few books from each genre okay?" Percy asked, thinking that would make Nico talk to him a bit more than one sentence. He didn't know why, but he liked when he was being talked to by the other prince. Maybe it was because he was lonely, since most of the time he was alone.

"Alright. I would like that." Nico sat back against the bed, going back to reading once he knew Percy was going to still be there. Coming closer had done nothing, this was going to be annoyingly hard wasn't it?