Barely Breathing ~ 3 Days In The Infirmary Fic

Day Three / One

I wake everyone up, as I do every morning. This time, I come prepared with two trays of food; one for me, one for death kid.

Groans ring out around the Infirmary, an amazing, satisfying sound. Nico's already awake, I can tell-he didn't sleep. Of course not.

"I'll talk to you in a few minutes, I have people to help." I plop one tray straight on Nico's lap, and put the other on a small table nearby before walking off to check on everyone else there. Nico was pretty damn well healed, he wasn't all that important at the moment.

After doing all that, I sit back down with Nico. "Eat."

"I thought you were pissed at me?"

"I was. And I still think you need to sleep and stop assuming you're the only one with trauma. But I was... A bit mean. And even if you were completely in the wrong, I still care about you and you need to eat."

"Care about me?"

"Uh, fucking obviously. I wouldn't be keeping you here if I didn't care about you. Why would you assume I didn't?" I look at him, and... There's something sort of sad in his eyes.

"...I don't know."

"People care about you, Nico. Not even just your friends, nearly everyone at camp does. That's the nice thing about camp halfblood. People just kinda care."

He's quiet for a moment before simply saying, "Okay."

"Now, eat." I gesture to his food before digging into my own.

"Do you sleep?" Nico asked suddenly.

"Yeah, obviously. I just get up around midnight to check on people. And get up early, to organize shit and then wake everyone else up."

"Oh." He finally starts actually eating, and I smile.

"You're fairly close to Percy Jackson, right?"

"I guess. That reminds me, I have to tell him something."

"Oh?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Aight well, you can leave after I do another round of checking on you. I think the werewolf scratches are really close to actually healing, which will be fantastic. Hopefully, at least." I tell him.

"Sounds good."

"Yeah. Those wounds are mean, it's wild that you survived 'em. Kinda impressive."

"Been through worse."

"Yeah, I'm sure you have."

I realize I may be in love with Nico.

Well Jesus Christ, that's sudden as hell, isn't it? But it's true, I think. Oh gods. That's kind of unfortunate.

There's, for one, very small chance he's not straight. There's been no hint of him being gay or anything similar. Falling for straight boys? No thank you. Not fun.

"I can leave later, right? The three days are over?"

"Nah. You still look like death."

"I am death."

"How edgy of you. I need to keep checking the werewolf wounds. You could, like, sleep in your own cabin again, but you'd have to keep coming here. So you don't fuck those gashes up more." And so I have an excuse to see you more. Wait, shit. Tell me I didn't say that out loud.

"That's fair." Oh thank the gods.

"Yeah. I know how much you hate me and all, but I'd prefer you not get a wound infected and die."

"I don't hate you." He stated, sort of quiet.

"That's a surprise. You don't have to lie about that, man. Doesn't matter whether you like me or not anyway."

"But I don't hate you," He insisted, "You're annoying, but I never once meant to give you the impression I hated you."

I distinctly remember him saying he hated me other day, but I'm not going to point that out because I'm too busy being overjoyed, internally. "...Great."