Sea Green (Merman Percico)

Chapter Four

"You asshole!" Will laughed at Conner, who stole all his pepperoni off his boyfriend's pizza when he wasn't looking. Conner grinned and showed off the stack of toppings, "you need to pay better attention."

"Yeah Will, he took those right from under your nose." Nico added from across the small table. His best friend shook his head, "this guy can clear a high-end jewelry store and no one would notice until it's too late. And give me back my pepperoni."

Nico finished off his second piece of pizza. He tried his best to stay focused on the conversation, but the look on Percy's face when he walked out clung to his mind. The poor guy was stuck in that bathtub, which was a huge downgrade from the ocean. Guilt rose in Nico's throat. Guilt for shoving that beautiful boy in his bathroom, and guilt for leaving him.

"Yo Nico!" Connor nearly shouted in his laughter with Will, "Earth to Nico!" Nico looked at him and straightened in his chair. "Sorry what?"

"Would you like to come over to my place for a movie?" Will asked, apparently for the second time without Nico hearing. "Um, I don't know. I have to get home soon." The Stoll brother shrugged and wrapped his arm around Will's shoulders, "I guess it's just the two of us then." Will however, just narrowed his eyes at Nico.

The three teens cleared the table and headed out the door. Will caught Nico by the arm before he could walk too far. "what's going on?" the blonde asked, Nico shook his head. "nothing's wrong. I'm just tired today. I'll text you later."

Will barely seemed satisfied. "Let's do something tomorrow. It can be just the two of us if you want." Nico rolled his eyes, "I told you, I have no problem with Conner. You two fit together so well it's creepy." This was true. Nico loved the fact that Will found someone like Connor. Watching them bond over archery and jokes over the semester was borderline adorable. However, it was true at first Nico was worried about becoming the third wheel, but that hadn't become a problem and showed no signs of becoming one in the future.

Will studied Nico's face for a moment, then grinned. "you have pizza sauce on your eyebrow."

....

On the way home, Nico stopped at a small corner store and got some crab meat and a pack of gummy worms. It seemed appropriate to make it up to Percy over leaving him. After all, the guy did seem like the social type, Nico could bet he didn't enjoy sitting alone in a bathroom for hours on end. He just hoped the merman could have human food.

"Percy," Nico called as he knocked on the door, "I'm back." There was movement in the water before Nico had his call answered, "Finally! Get in here. I'm so bored." Nico opened the door to the small bathroom, "I brought you some stuff. Can you eat human food? Like, candy or cooked fish?" Percy lip quirked "what kind of candy?"

Nico pulled out the pack of gummy worms. "These are gummy candy shaped as worms. I used to love them and I thought maybe you would like to try it. If not, I have some crab for you." Nico held up the bag with the meat inside. Percy's eyebrows furrowed as he took the bag from Nico's other hand. "I'll try it." He tore open the bag and bit into one of the blue worms. His eyebrows shot up into his hair, "this is so good!"

Nico sighed and sat on the toilet seat. "Do you have candy underwater?" he asked. Percy swallowed a worm whole before answering, "we have Cultured Seaweed. And crab is considered a sweet food."

"How the hell do you culture seaweed?" The look on Nico's face as he asked the question made Percy laugh. "you need to come to my place. You'll learn a lot." Nico looked down at the bag of crab, trying to hide the creeping smile at the sound of Percy's laugh reverberating from the walls.

Percy decided at one point to share his candy with Nico and they talked for a while as they polished off the food. "So what do you do in this thing?" Percy asked after coming down on a laughing high. "What? You mean the bathtub? We bathe in it."