Talk to Me

Chapter Six

It had been months since Percy and Nico had officially started dating and the two of them couldn't have possibly been happier.  Currently the two were sitting in the mess hall, across from each other after weeks of begging Chiron to let them sit at each other's tables, every once in a while on special occasions they'd sit apart at their own godly tables.  "C'mon Perce, I won't flip the canoe again!" Nico pleaded, trying to get him to actually do things with him.  

Percy replied, shaking his head, his arms crossed over his chest, he moved a hand to the table to tap things in response to him.  'You almost drowned!' he tapped, staring him dead in the eye.

"Hmm.. We can sneak into the room with the old TV Chiron uses again?  We left the pillows in there right?" he brought up, his eyes sparkling with a small amount of hope as they usually did around the son of Poseidon, which Percy adored more than almost anything.

'Fine, but if we get caught I'm blaming you,' he tapped, giving in, letting out a small sigh.  Nico instantly perked up, nearly jumping away from the table, holding a hand out for Percy to take, and Percy took it, stacking his plate at the end of the table as he usually did, Nico doing the same.  

They walked out together, standing so that Nico's side was pressed against Percy's, and Percy's arm wrapped protectively around his shoulders.

Their friends were supportive as always, and Annabeth and Percy had made up for the fight they had right after he had gotten back, and everything was seemingly calm again.  It was weird to them all, the calm after the storm, if you will, the awkward silence after you get off the phone with someone.  But, none of them were going to reject it, and they all welcomed it with open arms, as nothing seemed to be going wrong, and if something was going wrong all of them were happy in their oblivion.  They didn't want to know.

"Hazel told me something the other day," Nico started, breaking the calming silence that had fallen on the two as they walked.  Percy rose an eyebrow and looked at him rather than in front of the two, and Nico didn't meet his eyes, he kept them on the path, "She's going back to Camp Jupiter soon."

Percy looked at Nico sympathetically, since the two siblings were extremely close, closer than Nico and Bianca had been even, Percy knew this was going to hit Nico like a brick to the face.  Nico looked back at Percy, since the two had stopped walking, small tears were forming in the corners of his eyes, he looked like a puppy that had just been kicked to Percy, which only made Percy knit his brows and pull his other arm around him, holding him to his chest.  Nico's hands had gone to cover his face, as he cried silently, he hated showing weakness, especially to Percy, but he did because he knew that Percy wasn't going anywhere.. Right?

Percy had a hand behind his head, and an arm around him just below his shoulders, resting his chin on the top of his head.  He was hoping, praying that Nico would still be okay, and that he would be okay that it was just the two of them and sometimes their other friends from then on, but Percy knew that family and friends were two completely different things, and knew that it would be different for the son of Hades.  Nico started shaking, as soft whimpers left his body, "I don't want her to go, Percy," he said, bringing his face from his hands to reveal that it was red and puffy, and his lower lip trembled, he resembled the small ten year old kid he saw years ago after Percy had told him that his sister died.  

The image quickly left his head as he pulled himself back to reality, and his frown deepened.  'I'm sorry, Nico,' he tapped with the hand that was on the back of his head, holding his torso slightly tighter and more against himself.  Nico had rested his forehead against the front of Percy's shoulder, small sniffles escaping, and Percy kissed his temple, knowing that Nico wasn't okay in that certain moment in time.  But, even though he knew right then that he wasn't okay, he knew that he would be, given time and patience he knew that the son of Hades was going to be just fine, just like he had been when his sister died.  'You can always visit her, and it's not like she's dead or something.  It'll be fine,' Percy tapped, trying to be as comforting given the situation, even though he knew that family was always a sore subject for Nico.

"I know, I just don't want anything bad to happen to her.. That's all," he mumbled, burying his face in the taller boy's shoulder, and Percy picked him up, which caused Nico to squeak in surprise, hurriedly wrapping his arms around his shoulders, "Percy put me down!" he screamed, hanging on for dear life.

Percy knew that he wasn't going to put him down, why would he put him down?  This is entertaining.  He just carried him to the Poseidon cabin, as Nico was hitting his back and screaming a few profanities in Italian, ones that Nico would never say in a language that other people could understand, and Nico felt bad for anyone who could speak Italian, because he was screaming some things that should never be said ever, let alone about someone's significant other.

"Percy I swear to the gods of Olympus-" he was able to get out before he was brutally thrown onto Percy's mattress, landing face first in a pillow, as Percy rolled his eyes and stood with his arms crossed over his chest as to say, what?  Say it, I dare you.  

Nico just sat, his face about the color of a firetruck, blowing a strand of hair from his face, his arms crossed, even though he was melting into the comfort of the mattress, and the mound of pillows, that he had figured out over the course of the few months that they had been together, that Percy loved to sleep in, because just as was being demonstrated, you melt into them.  Percy was smiling as he saw Nico slipping into the mound of pillows, and sat on the bed next to him, Nico immediately falling into his side.  Percy smiled, moving an arm to go around his shoulders, and turned his head, burying his face in the smaller boy's hair, inhaling the scent that had grown oh so familiar to him.  

Nico was playing with Percy's fingers in a silence they had grown used to in the past months, and every once in a while Percy would open his mouth to speak, and then remembered that he physically couldn't and would settle back into the silence that had overcome them.  Nico would look up at him every time he would pull his face back to speak, and frown at him, and settle back against him, knowing that talking wouldn't make it any better.

Then came silence, of the cycle that had grown out of that.