Talk to Me

Chapter Five

Percy and Nico both sat at the table for a while, kinda looking at each other, when Nico spoke up, clearing his throat, "So, uh, where to first?" he spoke, a small smile playing on the corners of his mouth.

Percy shrugged in return, standing and offering a hand to Nico, which Nico accepted and stood with him.  Percy basically dragged Nico along, ending up on a little walking path that Nico didn't even know existed.  'Walk with me?' Percy tapped against his hand, and Nico nodded, and they walked.

'You aren't as scary as I thought you were,' Percy started, which caused Nico to hit his arm lightly with his free hand.  Percy smiled outwardly, 'Sorry.'  He seemed to chuckle, but no noise was coming from him, just empty movements.

"Well, you're not as weird as I thought you were, if that helps," Nico chuckled, and he stopped just before the forest line, somewhere he didn't want to go in fear of one of the two getting hurt, or something waiting for them just beyond camp lines.  He didn't want a repeat of the last fight the two had gotten caught in, he didn't need anything else separating the two of them, it was as bad as it is now, he didn't need anything else.

Percy turned them around, walking back towards camp, away from the cursed border.  And Nico stopped, causing Percy to turn back slightly and look at him in complete confusion.  "I'm sorry," Nico said, after a good minute of staring at the ground, willing himself not to show weakness, especially to Percy, even though Percy was just confused by the whole situation.

"I'm sorry for not being there, for abandoning you, I know how it feels, I shouldn't have done it to you," Nico spoke, his voice wavering against his command.  "I shouldn't have let anything happen in the first place-" Percy cut him off, well his shoulder cut him off, Percy had hugged him, bringing him close to himself.  

Nico shakily wrapped his arms around his torso in return, taking fistfuls of the back of his shirt in his hands, willing himself to not lose it, not right then, not right there, even though he had been meaning to apologize like this for a while, for doing that to him, every time he tried his throat closed up, and it seemed like his voice didn't want to work at all, and it just wanted him to stay away from doing that, but here he was, he had overcome that fear, that anxiety, and apologized.  Nico felt like he had accomplished more in these few days than he had done in years.

'Nico, it's fine, I'm not mad, not even close to being mad.  I'm happy you're here now, and...' he stopped for a minute, 'And, I love you,' he finished, pulling away from Nico slightly to look at him.  'I love you for being here, for coming back, sure you weren't here for a while, but I don't care about that.  You came back.  That's what I look at, Nico, not that you left, not that fight, I look at what's happening right now, and what's happening right now is something I would do a thousand times over.'

Nico's eyes widened, looking at him, studying his face the entire time, and Nico froze, not knowing how to respond to something like that, "Percy..."

'I love you,' Percy tapped again, his eyes fixed on Nico.

"I love you too," he breathed out, almost not being able to, hugging Percy, basically tackling Percy, and they fell over, causing Percy to grunt as Nico fell on top of him.

Percy laughed noiselessly, hugging Nico tightly, 'So, I'm going to ask this again, Nico, what does this mean for us?' he tapped, smiling at him.

Nico plainly smiled and kissed him again, "Does that answer your question, Jackson?" he asked as he pulled away from him, as Percy nodded vigorously, probably hurting himself in the process.  

Nico laughed a bit at him, and stood, getting off of him, brushing off his pants and held a hand down to Percy, smiling.  Percy gladly accepted his hand, and stood up himself, except their hands didn't leave each other, and they just smiled.  And honestly, Nico's cheeks hurt a lot, but did he care?  Not one bit, he was finally getting the ending with Percy that the two truly deserved, how two heroes should end up.