Talk to Me

Chapter Two

Percy woke with a start, and by telling by the light outside it was morning to noon-ish, he didn't know the exact time, he didn't even care about the exact time.  What he did care about was the sleeping boy, with his hand in his own, laying his head on the side of the old mattress, snoring lightly.  Percy smiled at him lightly, and just let him sleep, until Annabeth ran into the infirmary, "Oh gods, Percy!  I heard what happened!  Are you okay?!"

This woke Nico, forcing him to sit up quickly, rubbing his eyes lightly on his arm, and Annabeth looked at their connected hands, then back at Percy, as if to say seriously?   It was kind of insulting, because after all she did call him an idiot all the time, and that stupid nickname, "Seaweed Brain".  That was the biggest thing to get on Percy's nerves.  "Seaweed Brain".

But, he nodded against his body's protests, and Nico took his hand back, sitting curled up in the chair next to his bed, Annabeth practically glared at Nico, hugging Percy's neck, causing Percy to wince, and really he imagined her to be all smart and know a ton, but right now, if anything at all, was acting like a complete idiot, hugging his neck, you know, where he was cut.

Nico's face grew to panic when he saw Percy's face contort into pain, and pushed Annabeth off of him, "Do you not see the bandage around his neck?  I thought you were a daughter of Athena, y'know, goddess of wisdom?" 

Annabeth looked back at him as if she were disgusted, "If it really hurt him don't you think he would tell me?" she said, as if Nico was the one who was acting stupid.

"He can't talk!  All of his vocal chords were cut!  He physically cannot talk to you," Nico said, rather harshly at that, and Percy looked at Nico with a grateful look in his eye, as if he was saying thank you, and Nico smiled at him lightly, then turned his somewhat cold gaze back to Annabeth.

"Of course he can talk! Go ahead and say something, Percy!" she said, smiling at the son of Poseidon, who sort of frowned in return, looking back at her, and opened up his mouth, pointing to it and shaking his head.

"See?  He physically can't speak to you," Nico said plainly, giving a wary look to Percy, not sure if either of them were prepared for anything that they thought was coming.

"How am I going to be able to talk to you then?!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening, staring at Percy as if he had just died on her.

Percy's frown remained, and he just shrugged lightly, shrinking back a bit, something Nico noticed all too well.  "Annabeth, enough," Nico said sternly, standing in front of her, "This has been enough."

"Fine," she said, sighing slightly, she looked at Percy, "You know, if I can't talk to you, we can't be together."

Percy's face fell further, and he shrunk back, looking as though he was going to cry, and feeling the same, as if he were about to break down, this was just too much for him.  Nico looked directly to Percy, a look of apology written across his features, an apology that meant too much to them both, the loss of his girlfriend, and supposedly most of his friends, "I'm sorry, Percy, but I can't, especially if you can't talk anymore, and to be frank, I was actually going to tell you that I'm going to college in Nevada, so even if we wanted to be together, we just can't," Annabeth said, not even seeming sorry, and none of her words were filled with any sort of sadness, and Nico was about to throat punch her.

Percy sat, and nodded slowly, not exactly knowing what had just happened to him, and everything else, he was letting everything sink in, and the fact that he was losing the one person he'd devoted years of his life to was destroying him from the inside out, and Annabeth left silently, not wanting the tension to last, and Nico sat on the edge of Percy's bed, who had spaced out, and he put a hand over Percy's lightly, looking at him, trying to get his attention, "You okay, Perce?" 

Percy looked at him, tears welling in his eyes, and he shook his head, partially out of physical pain, and partially out of mental pain, and Nico's eyes widened a bit, seeing the one person he wanted to help the most, breaking down right in front of him.  Percy was just exhausted, really, and everything was taking its toll on him, and it was starting to become overwhelming, and he reached his arms up, wiping his eyes lightly, ridding them of tears for a fraction of a second, before the tears replaced themselves.

"It's okay to cry, y'know, it helps," Nico mumbled, bringing Percy's hands from his face so that he would look at him, and this caught Percy's attention, his tear filled eyes not being able to focus on him all that well, and Nico did the unthinkable, he even surprised himself, the almighty Ghost King, showing a fraction of affection?  Impossible.

But, he pulled Percy close to himself anyway, holding him around his chest, and this surprised Percy, and Percy remained stiff for a fraction of a second, but once he found that Nico wasn't going to push him away, and that Nico had put him there, he stayed, and practically sobbed into his shoulder, definitely leaving large tear stains behind, and his arms were around him, Nico's shirt balled in Percy's fists.

Nico almost felt his heart broke, watching him, he never thought that Percy, of all people, would break down this bad, and that he would trust someone like Nico to cry on, and to be there for Percy, but here they were, Nico was rubbing his back lightly, trying to help at all, and Percy pulled away from him, wiping his face, which was now red, puffy, tear-stained, and he looked at Nico, who spoke, "I'm sorry, for everything, I guess it's my fault, huh?" 

Percy shook his head, wiping his eyes more, wishing he could say more to him, but their only way of communication was cut off, and there was no way of fixing it.  Nico and Percy had just lost their only way of saying another word to each other, and even if Nico did have the slightest chance of getting to date the hero that he'd always imagined himself with, even though this was completely against his own command, and the countless times of telling himself, 'You can't date guys.  It doesn't work that way,' he would never be able to hear the words that everyone would love to hear.

'I love you.'