The Black Coral (Percico/Pernico)

Chapter Fifteen: Trapped!

"How long do you think they have been in there?" asked Piper, who had just returned from inspecting the ship graveyard in the cove.

The siren grabbed her wet hair and began to ring it out, water from her brown, choppy hair leaking onto the small peninsula of once was dry sand. The sun was threateningly close to the horizon, the sky beginning to turn pink and orange.

"I do not know," Annabeth answered.

They had been gone for five hours and had not come back.

"Do you think they might be in trouble?" Bramble asked worriedly as she looked up from the sand castle she and Frank were building.

"I am not sure," Annabeth told the faun.

"This is ridiculous," Jason shouted to the rest of the crew as he approached them on the beach. "They have been gone for hours! Where could they be?"

"Do you think they might be dead?" asked Leo worriedly.

"Might be," Piper shrugged calmly, but she was actually extremely worried about her friends.

"As first mate, I will assume command, and I will send in a search party," Jason announced. "Frank, Annabeth, and I will stay here and keep watch on the ship. Piper, Leo, and Bramble will go in and look for them."

"Whatever you say, Jason." Piper flicked his nose before preparing a longboat.

Jason rolled his eyes. "Annabeth, Frank, come with me to the ship. We will watch from there. It is good to get a vantage point, so I will be stationed at the crow's nest."

"Aye," Annabeth told him. Once boarded on the ship, she climbed the stairs and positioned herself at the helm as Piper, Leo, and Bramble paddled past the murky waters into the mouth of the skull-shaped cave.

- - - - -

"Percy, if we are going to die in here, I wish to ask you something."

Nico and Percy were sitting in the chamber, backs against a cold wall of the cavern. They had been in there for nearly five hours. They had spent the first two hours trying to find a way out of there, feeling for cracks in the main entrance, then trying to find another one, or an opening of some kind, but failed, so they both gave up after a while. The two were incredibly bored, so they settled for asking each other questions.

"What is it?" Percy replied, looking over at the prince as he held his hand, caressing the back of it with his thumb.

"Would it be safe for me to—" Nico began, but stopped suddenly out of embarrassment. His cheeks flared as he tried to muster up the confidence to finish the question.

"For you to do what?"

"Are we lovers?" asked Nico after a moment of excruciating silence. "I am quite confused about this. We are...affectionate, but—"

"We could be lovers if you would like us to be," Percy responded.

"But would you like us to be?" Nico countered.

"Of course I would." Percy kissed the back of Nico's fingers in reassurance. "In fact, I would prefer it if we were. I am not much for labels, but you are...different."

"Different?" Nico repeated. "How so?"

"Well," Percy felt heat rise into his face. "Whenever you are around, when you look at me or smile at me, I feel...strange. It is hard to explain, but I feel nervous and so unlike myself. I want to impress you, I want to hold you; I always want you by my side. Ever since you joined my crew I felt...different. Whenever you were not around me, I felt lonely. I did not realize my feelings for you until recently but I—"