The Deep End

Chapter 5: The Truth

Nico

Nico woke up with an arm around him, he didn't dare move, as Percy's face was buried in the youngers neck. He felt safe for once, it been so long since he didn't have a nightmare, it was almost regular for him now. Nico rubbed his eyes and slipped from Percy's weak grasp. He murmured in his sleep and Nico was scared Percy would wake up. As he stood up a stray hand went up to rub the sleep from his eyes. He slipped through Percy's bedroom door. It was late afternoon the clock that hang in the small kitchen read 4:03. Sally still wasn't back yet, as the boy skimmed the room and there was a set of keys missing on the hook and no women's coat. His fingers traced the laminate countertops. He began to open the wooden cabinets careful not to make them creak.
It took him a while as he's never been in this home before, but 20 minutes later you could hear the sizzle of bacon, the smell of goldening bread in the toaster, and the gorgeous aroma of basil in tomato on the stove. Just as the toast popped a slight, "Mmph..." came from behind Nico. "Oh, hey, I was just, I was just umm," Nico said pointing to the small kitchenette around him. "You didn't need to do all this," Percy voice was a deep husky almost sensual voice. Nico shutterred, Perseus, the voice in his head spoke. "Well, you seemed stressed so I thought I could help you," Nico turned around flipping the bacon then spinning back, "I used to cook a lot of italian foods for my sister." Percy trudged forward looking over the boy, Nicos breath hitched, but he could still smell the lavender and chlorine. As the taller man leaned over the raven hair and pale boy, Nico could really taken Percy's features. His jaw was chiseled and sharp, his once wet, red, and puffy eyes now much relaxed tinted a soft pink. His hair not jet black, but softer? He noticed Percy also had his ears pierced, small navy blue studs hung from his ears. Percy's hair covered them, almost as if he was hiding it. Plus, they were so small you probably couldn't see it unless you were trying to find it. Beautiful. It was the only word that Nico could use to describe who he was looking at. "Percy?" Nico said as Percy went grab some juice from the fridge. "Yup," he said popping the 'P'. "Not saying I don't like it, but why do you have your ears pierced?" Nico questioned. Percy looked shocked that someone noticed, but replied with no further thought, "I used to take competitive dancing. One year, we almost went to finals, but a couple boys hurt themselves drunk driving, luckily everyone wasn't horribly injured, so coach thought it be a good 'building' exercise if we all got a piercing or tattoo," Percy finished. Nico couldn't help to ask, "Isn't it illegal to tattoo minors?" Percy laughed, how strange, "No, I was the youngest but it was me, 15, one 16 year old, then the rest were all 18 and above," Nico was impressed, "So, one could argue your a good dancer?" Percy chuckled again. "One could say that, and one could also say that your a good cook, and I'm a hungry teen so you better give me some eggs before I hurt someone," that made Nico burst into laughter, "you think I'm kidding. Give me the food!" Percy gave Nico a daring look. "What you gonna do?" Nico said teasingly. The other lifted one eyebrow, 'How 'bout this?" Percy then grabbed Nico's hips tickling the sides, at first he was hesitant, but slowly then all at once he fell to the ground doubled over in giggles, laughing, rolling, and almost screaming "Stop I surrender, THE BACONS BURNING!" Nico exaggerated. Percy loosened his grip, and Nico slipped away rolling to the side. Nico plated up the food and served it to the green eyed weirdo. They both sat at the small 4 person table and tucked in.
"Ugghhh, oh my goddds," Percy moaned out startling Nico, "where the heck did you learn how to cook this good!" Nico nervously laughed as his faced flushed pink. "Seriously! Where did you learn?" Nico turned a darker shade of pink, "Well, a few years ago my mom always took care of the cooking and cleaning, but under some circumstances me and my older sister took care of that, I got the easier job which was cooking, so after Bianca finished cleaning I wanted to make sure she had something too look forward to, so I tried cooking," Nico didn't notice at the time, as his head was tilted down, but when he looked back up he saw those gorgeous glistening eyes, the ones he dreamed of at night, the same ones he hope would look at him with admiration, and lustful, but instead they were filled with wonder and curiosity. Then, they ate in silence.

Sadly, Nico will never know that under that filter of curiosity, there was a growing spark of affection and adoration.

Percy
Soon after the boys finished eating, Nico and Percy decided to just give up on the project. The two decided to watch Tangled instead. Percy could tell something was bugging Nico as normally, unlike himself, Nico was always focused. Sadly, Percy was pretty sure it was about him. Percy gave Nico a nudge, and he hesitantly looked at over, "Hm?" He responded, "Your probably why I was in my room sobbing to animal planet," Nico nodded slowly, "well um. Last night someone spiked my coke, and I have this thing about not drinking." Percy took a long breath in and the memories of the night flashing over him like an old 50's movie. "As I was walking to the bathroom I entered the wrong door and saw Ann-" Percy held in a sob, and blinked back the tears the were forming, "and saw Annabeth and Luke kissing." By this point Nico had turned his body fully facing Percy, as he started to cradle a pillow next to him. "Listen Percy, I can't say much as I haven't had this experience, but you should know it's not your fault," Percy sniffed, "Annabeth obviously doesn't know that she lost someone amazing, and as awesome as you." Percy nodded his head, but the cheating thing itself didn't hurt as much as Annie cheating on him with Luke, his best friend. The guy who showed him how New York works when he moved with his mom after her divorce when he was 12. Luke, not just a friend, but a teammate, and his team was his family. They were brothers. Something else bothered him, was it just a one time thing when two kids got drunk, or was this a thing for a while and no one bothered to tell me cause of what happened with my ex-stepdad Gabe. "Nico?" he said cautiously, "Percy?" the younger exclaimed. "Would you mind spending the night?" Percy said, he knew his mom wouldn't be back for hours. He loved his mom, and wanted her to be happy. He knew she was seeing someone, and he didn't want to be alone tonight. "I would love to," Nico said calmly. Percy liked Nico. Not in the sense of romanticism, but he knew that there were feelings of affection in him. He didn't know it at the time, as he had thought it was just his eagerness to make friends, but there was something much more.