What Kills You (Percico)

Chapter Three

Leo

We shipped out and for everyone their things from Percy the next day. Everyone that had a box had a copy of his note. Mine was small, but I was happy that I got one in general. I only really knew him for the summer.

There was a small letter that basically just said how cool I was with being confident and whatever else. That I was able to move on from my mom's death. He admired that.

The next few weeks um... I mean, as much as nothing happened with Nico and he was still just in a coma, it was really hard. Having no friends here. Grieving. Worrying about Nico because what happens when he wakes up and still wants to kill himself? How do I tell the others that?

Hades heard about the news. Apparently he wasn't very happy. I don't blame him.

But three weeks later, I was visiting and just sitting there. Kind of staring at the heart monitor, not even noticing it sounded slightly off kilter from the last few weeks.

Suddenly I heard a groan and my eyes darted over to the head of the bed, where Nico was awake, looking tired and disappointed. But also confused.

I've been lacking physical contact lately. I pulled him into a hug as soon as he had sat up.

And then I remembered that he hated being touched and backed off.

"Sorry, I uh... Got excited." I told the son of Hades. "How do you feel?"

"Fine?" He said, shrugging. "I'm tired. How long has it been? A few hours? 10:30? That's 7 hours."

"Try weeks." I corrected him and he looked at me like he didn't believe me.

"What? Weeks?"

"Yeah," I confirmed, nodding my head. "Three weeks and two days. Everyone's back home. Hazel and Jason have been texting me non-stop for updates. Piper and Frank ask, too. Just like once a day. Not 30."

Nico cracked a smile, which me hope. And then he uh... Of course, he'd have to separate his dreams in the coma from reality now.

"What about Percy?" Nico asked me, and kind of looked down. "He probably freaked out, right? He always does."

"Percy?" I asked, being we haven't talked about it in a few weeks. "Nico, he..."

His expression dropped.

"That actually happened?"

"Yeah... A week before you... Did this."

"What did..." Nico said, struggling for words now. "I don't remember... Like, I remember him dying. I was there. He seemed at peace but..."

I paused for a second. Thinking back to what Jason told me a little over three weeks ago.

Nico loved Percy. Hardcore.

It crushed him.

"He um... Killed himself." I answered his question, feeling shitty doing so. "They— I went into his cabin after you ended up here and Sally and Paul had dropped off a bunch of stuff for everyone. There was a box for you from them. Percy's stuff from home. He um... Had everything packed up and neat. His note was there. I sent a photo of it to you. To everyone that he wanted to see it. There's another box of stuff for you and somebody else in there that like they died and it's now for you because they're dead. So... Yeah."

Hearing it hurt him so much. You could see it on him. How raw it was. How much it hurt. How much Percy meant to him.

That look alone made me understand why he tried to kill himself.