Boys Like Boys [Nico di Angelo]

chapter twenty-seven

I was woken up by the breakfast bell out of a well needed peaceful sleep. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, looking over to Nico, who was turned towards my bed, his side rising and falling softly and slowly. I smiled a bit at his relaxed expression and sighed, before brushing my teeth and tugging on some of Nico's jeans (surprise) and a Camp Half-Blood shirt. When I finished, Nico was still sleeping, so I smirked to myself and jumped on his bed, plopping next to him. He grunted a bit and turned towards me, his eyelashes fluttering, but his eyes never opening. Alright, fine.

I jumped on him and straddled his waist, waiting a bit, before I began to tickle his sides. His eyes opened immediately, his laughter following soon after. I grinned as he giggled and pushed at my hands, before I finally stopped.

"It's time for breakfast," I said simply, a small smile on my face as he sighed.

"You could've just let me sleep."

"What, so I could be lonely at breakfast? Don't think so," I teased and got up, tugging on his arm. "C'mon, I'm hungry."

"Go without me," he mumbled, turning over.

"You leave me no choice," I said gravely, before walking to the bathroom and grabbing a paper cup, filling it with water. If Nico knew what I was doing, he didn't say anything. I walked back out and stood beside him. "You getting up?"

"Mh," he muttered, so I grinned to myself and poured the water over his head. He shot up and just sat there, glaring at me. His hair was wet and sticking to his forehead, but I couldn't help but laugh.

"Time to get up," I said in a sing-song and giggled as he rolled his eyes and crawled out of bed, grabbing a few things and heading into the bathroom. He wasn't gone longer than a few minutes, but when he came back, he was fully dressed and smelled of mint toothpaste. "Let's g-" I stopped myself as I noticed he was glaring at me, his hair still wet.

Suddenly, he tackled me onto the bed and shook his head, sending water all over me. I scrunched up my nose, going to tell him we were late for breakfast, but it was cut off by a laugh as he began tickling me.

"N-No," I stuttered out as I giggled and tried to push him away. Suddenly, he stopped and stared at me, his eyes finding mine. They were a dark green right now, courtesy of the light from my lamp. "We're late," I told him and he just gave me a small smile, before leaning down and pecking my lips. A blush darkened my cheeks as he got up and pulled me off of the bed.

  We made our way outside and I jumped on his back, causing him to lose his balance a bit, but he managed to stay upright.

"Onward my noble steed!"

---

  "Woah, something's different," Jason commented randomly right after Percy threw a grape at me and Nico flicked him in the forehead for it. He had been sitting in silence all morning, and it looked like he'd been thinking really hard about something.

"Yeah, your glasses are on your head," Nico said, so Jason pulled them down so that he could see better.

"Yeah, something is still really different," Jason murmured and Nico rolled his eyes.

"Like what?" he inquired. Jason's eyes flickered back and forth between me and Nico, causing a blush to darken on my cheeks. I turned to the Hermes table, only to find that Alice wasn't there. Weird.

"Hey," Nico whispered, snapping me out of my trance. I turned to look at him, a frown on my face. "She's gonna survive, I promise."

"She isn't there," I murmured, casting my eyes to the table. "It's all my fault."

"Stop saying it's your fault-"

"It is!" I cried out, slamming my fist and on the table and standing up. Percy and Jason went quiet, as well as a few of the tables around us. "If I wasn't like this, I wouldn't have hurt anyone."

"Cal, stop saying stuff like that. You know-"

"All I do is h-hurt people," I said, my voice dying half way through the sentence. Nico grabbed my arm and pulled me so that I was sitting down. He tilted up my face by placing his hands on my cheeks.

"You can't control who you like, okay? Or what gender you like. You can't control not liking Alice, okay? She'll learn to get over it, I promise," he said softly, stroking one of my cheeks.

I shook my head, tears falling down my cheeks. I pulled away from his grasp and walked away from the table, heading towards the Hermes cabin.

"Cal-"

"Just...give me a minute," I said, before I found myself in front of the Hermes cabin. I went to knock, but I heard voices inside.

"Don't you want revenge?" a familiar voice inquired - Veda. I thought Chiron had dealt with her.

"What do I need to be revengeful for?" Alice's soft voice asked.

"Calum not loving you back. Just like your father will never love you and your mother never loved you," Veda said slowly, tantalizingly. My heart dropped in my chest. "Just like your foster parents didn't love you, kicking you out, forcing you to be homeless at twelve."

"You're a bitch," Alice yelled. "Get out of my cabin."

"I know someone you could join. Someone who would let you get revenge on the ones who hurt you."

"I don't want revenge."

"Then I'll make it easy," Veda said sharply. "Kill Calum, or join me."

"You're insane," Alice snapped. "Just...get out."

"He's disgusting, you know that, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's gay, Alice."

A pain struck through my chest and I had to place a hand over my mouth to muffle my sobs.

"There's nothing wrong with that, Veda. He can't control it. You're Greek, you of all people should know that liking the same gender at all isn't anything new or gross or-"

"Don't you want to kill Nico?" Veda suddenly asked. "Get him out of the way so that Calum will love you."

"You're sick," Alice snarled. The door opened and suddenly Veda was thrown out, falling down the stairs and landing on her side on the ground. "You're disgusting, you're- Calum."

"You know what, Veda?" I asked calmly, softly. "No one's every going to join you freely. All you're going to do is take and take to get what you want. You're completely darkside. What I struggle with has completely enveloped you and turned you into a...a monster."
 
  Her expression looked pained and shocked, like that was the last thing I'd ever say to her.

"I didn't mean what I-"

"You didn't mean it?" I asked, walking up to her. "You didn't mean to call me disgusting? You didn't mean to bring up painful memories for Alice? You didn't mean to make it seem like killing Nico was no big deal? I'm sure even Atë wouldn't stoop that low."

"You're just a crybaby, Calum," she snarled, and yet another pain struck me in the chest. "All you do is cry and cry and cry."

Anger began to boil in my blood, causing black smoke to slither up from the ground. Alice stepped back and Veda stared at me with cold eyes.

"You won't do anything," she said, glaring at me. "Not since your precious lover boy is on his way."

I looked over to see Nico, Percy, and Jason approaching us. I turned back to Veda, who had something in her hand that was covered up.

"He doesn't control me," I said, sharpening the smoke into blades and raising them so they were above Veda's head.

"You won't," she teased.

"Calum, don't, it's not worth it," Alice whispered beside me. I heard Nico call my name, but all of that blurred out of hearing as I focused on the smoke. I grinned to myself, sadistically, before I dropped the blades like a guillotine.