Talk to Me

Chapter Three

It had been months since the smaller son of Hades had talked to the son of Poseidon, nobody had seen Percy anywhere, except for scarce times he was in the mess hall, or the off chance he was training, and Nico could tell from the few times he saw him during his days at camp that Percy was beating himself up over this.

Percy had grown scrawny, and pale, the light in his eyes fading ever so slightly.  Percy seemed to let himself down, to the point where Nico could tell that it was not healthy at all, and he knew he should help, but he didn't know how, especially without being able to talk to him.  Nobody had talked to Percy in months, and Percy knew that it was his own fault, for letting his hero ego take over, and he wasn't taking it lightly, especially after he had seen the condition of his friends as they had progressed without him.

Within the countless months that Percy had been disconnected from them all Piper and Annabeth had gotten together, Jason and Leo had gotten together, Frank and Hazel had stayed together, and more people had accepted Nico, taken him in, made him their friend.  

But, Percy went to dinner that night, hearing the normal murmurs around him until he had heard the people talking about how he was turning into a nobody, a nobody hero who had gotten his time and fame with Olympus, just like any other hero, their rise and fall.

Percy hung his head when he heard this ring out throughout the mess hall, and he definitely recognized the voice, "Until you all do something you can't say anything about Percy!  He's more of a hero than any of you ever will be!"  

Percy snapped his gaze up, his look falling to the son of Hades, Hazel, who was sitting beside him telling him to call him to sit back down, and that he's causing too much trouble as the rest of the mess hall fell silent, as if they had grown afraid.  But as the campers continued on with their normal life Percy and Nico's gaze connected, and they just looked at each other for a minute, and Percy mouthed a small thank you.  In which Nico responded with a nod.  

Nico needed to find a way to talk to Percy again, it was practically killing him seeing Percy just move the food around his plate, not taking a single bite, knowing Percy was just beating himself up for something he couldn't have prevented.  That's when Leo interrupted his thoughts.  "You know, I taught Percy Morse code, I could teach you too.  You could talk to him that way," he offered, sitting down in front of him, Jason taking a seat beside him, as they had done for a couple months now.  

Nico's gaze snapped up at the impish son of Hephaestus.  "You're serious, right?" he said, hope growing in his face once again, making Leo, Jason, and Hazel fall into a fit of laughs.  

"Yes, for once he's serious," Jason chuckled, elbowing Leo a bit, pulling Leo from his fit of laughs.  "Yeah, dude, totally, when do you want to get started?" 

"As soon as possible," Nico said, a small smile on his face.

---Time skip to later that night, after Nico had learned Morse code from Leo, when he had worked up the guts to go and knock on the Poseidon cabin door.---

Nico stood on the porch, hesitant to knock, hesitant to do anything for that matter, but he did, against his body's protests he rose an arm and knocked on the door.  

From inside the cabin he could hear shuffling, and the door opened to a distraught Percy, his hair greasy, and going in any way possible, his shirt now hanging extremely loose on his frame, he looked awful, to say the least.

That's when he did it, 'Percy, you can talk to me,' he tapped onto the wall, and Percy's eyes widened, looking at him and then to the wall, then back to him.  'Did Leo teach you too?'

Nico nodded, "Yeah, he taught me today actually, I... I needed to talk to you," he said, looking up at him.  Percy nodded vigorously, probably hurting himself, and stepped out of the doorway, gesturing for him to come inside.

He now had a giant scar around his neck, a freshly healed scar, one that was a daily reminder for Nico that he couldn't protect him.  That he couldn't help him. 

But, Nico walked into the cabin, a little hesitant, and sat on the edge of a bed, across from Percy's unmade one, which had a little table next to it, which Nico assumed Percy was going to use to talk to him.  Percy took his place across from him, sitting more by the small table.

"Why don't you take care of yourself anymore?" Nico said after a minute of studying each other, and of getting used to each other's presence.  

'I guess...' he stopped, then continued, 'I guess I didn't see the point anymore.  Y'know, everyone stopped talking to me, so I just... stopped,' he ended, seemingly hesitant, and he wouldn't meet Nico's eyes, this made him worry more about what the son of Poseidon had gone through, after figuring out that Annabeth had lied about going to college in Nevada, just to get out of the relationship it made Nico want to seriously hurt someone for doing that to Percy, but he refrained.

"Don't give me that, Perce, you're strong, remember?" Nico said, leaning on his knees, looking over and up, forcing Percy to look at him.

'I'm not... I'm really not, and I wish people didn't think that, there have been countless times that I just wanted to give up,' he tapped, his hand was practically trembling, and that's when Nico took his free hand in his own, surprising himself, but always being around couples it was hard to not pick up the little things.

"You can't just give up, Percy, that's not how the world works, that's not how demigods work, we fight for our lives everyday and you want to give up because you can't talk?" Nico said, gripping his hand as his knuckles looked like they were made of solid bone, pure white.  "You can't, not because of some girl who lied to you, not because you can't talk, you're a hero.  You've saved my life," Nico said truthfully, because the only reason Nico had stayed at camp was to help Percy, to keep an eye on him, to protect him.

Percy's gaze snapped up to Nico for a second time that day, his eyes wide, 'I saved you?' he tapped on the wood of the side table.

"More than anyone ever could, you gave me hope again, to stay here, with Hazel, with you, and I'm going to do the same for you," he said, looking at him, "And... And if I'm being completely honest, for your sake and mine," he said, pausing, taking a breath, then looking at him, "I love you, a lot, more than you would ever imagine, I love you, Perseus."

"I love you, Perseus."