Talk to Me

Chapter Seven

A/N; this chapter is being told from the perspective of Nico, just for a little change, it's simply going to be third person limited, limited to Nico obviously.  Alright, continue reading now.

Nico had woken up curled up against Percy, his back to his chest, and he smiled lightly, seeing Percy still soundly asleep, with the side of his head pressed into a pillow.  Nico kissed his cheek lightly, as to not wake him, and tried to get out of Percy's iron grip, which woke Percy up in the process, and Nico visibly cringed.  Percy looked at him confusedly, tiredly, letting him go lightly to rub his eye.

Nico thought this looked adorable, but a wave of guilt washed over him knowing he had woken him up, "I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't think that would wake you up," he frowned slightly.  Percy waved a dismissive hand, and kissed Nico's temple, forcing a smile from the son of Hades, which caused Percy to laugh noiselessly, which Nico studied, he loved every laugh line that appeared around his eyes, and loved the way one side of his mouth curled a little when he laughed, the way pink crawled up his cheeks when he laughed enough, the way his eyes almost closed, the way his bed head would curl up, the one gray streak sitting right in the front, along with an adorable scar right above his eyebrow that you wouldn't notice unless you checked enough.  Only the gods know how much Nico looked at this boy.

He was brought back from that when Percy was snapping his fingers in his face, and Nico's face immediately lit up bright red in embarrassment, "S-Sorry, Percy!  Gods, stop being so distracting!" he said, only causing more embarrassment and forced him to hide his face in his hands.  This caused Percy to laugh more, falling back onto the bed sheets, holding his stomach, and Nico could only imagine hearing his laugh, something he would never get to hear again unless a miracle happened.  Nico begged for a miracle.

Nico felt extremely guilty, his smile slowly washing off his face as he thought about things he should've thought about months ago.  Things like, why isn't he mad at me?  Why isn't he telling me to get out of his life, lord knows I would've.  I want to hear his voice again- so bad, it was nice to hear, I want to know what it sounds like when he just wakes up.  His thoughts surged as Percy tugged lightly on his arm, trying to get his attention again, and finally Nico looked at Percy with tear-brimmed eyes, ones that were full of guilt.

Percy looked at him confusedly, tapping a small, 'What's wrong?' on his hand, which he had taken into his own seconds before.

"Why don't you hate me?" Nico said finally, after mustering all the courage he could into those words, and after he'd gotten done in his thoughts he was afraid of the answer, afraid of those thoughts, the ones that taunted him in nightmares were going to come true, and that scared him almost as much as going back to Tartarus. 

'Nico, what are you talking about?  I could never hate you, if anything I love you more than I love the color blue- and that's a lot,' he tapped, trying to make it light-hearted instead of the dread Nico was pouring into his words.  

Nico shook his head, "I hated you for a long time, and then I'm the reason you can't talk anymore.  I'm the reason everyone left- and I'm not going to deny it anymore.  I'm why.  I don't want to be why, but I am, and I don't know how to feel about it, I just know that you shouldn't be talking to me, considering I'm the reason you can't talk to anyone else..." and he continued to ramble on and on about the things he's done wrong, the things he's done to Percy, to anyone really, but that was cut short, by Percy's lips which were pressed to Nico's with a force that almost knocked him over, the only thing that didn't knock him over was Percy's hand around the back of Nico's neck, holding him in place.  

Nico's eyes shot open in surprise as he was cut short, but he quickly calmed himself and responded, lightly kissing him back and moving his free hand to rest on the son of Poseidon's shoulder, and Percy tapped to him with the hand that was still holding his smaller, weaker one, 'I love you, more than anything.  Please don't talk like this anymore.'  Percy pulled away, looking at him.

"I'm sorry, Percy, I love you too," Nico mumbled, holding him tightly, both of his arms wrapping around the taller boy's neck, and Percy's around his torso, burying his face in his hair, and then something happened that surprised them both.

Percy, in a raspy whisper, "I love you, Nico."