WHISPERS • A PERCICO AU

• Chapter 18 •

Nico lied on his bed, the softness of it being now irking to him instead of comforting.

Biting his bottom lip, he wondered what he could possibly do now. And Bianca... What could he do with her?

After all, the black-haired boy had dragged her into all of this horror show of a life, with emotions bubbling up and crashing back down on him at every opportunity, and she saw everything, everything...

And he wondered, where had she went? She had left the house shortly after Nico had gained back social safety in this haven he calls home, and had came back just in time for dinner, breathless.

Nico had just assumed she had left to hang out with her feminist friends, but now it didn't seem like it anymore. But he let the subject drop, since he was now left alone with his thoughts, lying on his bed, cradling his feelings with caution.

How had it all come to this?

How had his feelings come to this?

How had Percy and him come to this?

Nico put his face in his skeletal fingers, pressing the heels of his hand into his eyes to block back tears and choking back a sob, he cursed life, himself, everything that could have made this so unfair, so, so unfair.

He remembered reading somewhere, probably in one of his novels stashed on his bookshelf that remained untouched since his feelings had developed out of nowhere, that most scientists didn't understand why humans cried emotionally. Shedding tears were thought of having the sole purpose of adding moistures to your eyes to keep it clean and to moisturise the surface because it is important for your vision.

And right now, Nico was asking himself the same question. Because Percy leaving made him question everything he had looked over, considering unimportant. Flashbacks of his past kept getting in his system as well, because unbeknownst to him, Nico was unconsciously replaying events in his head, trying desperately to figure out where he went wrong, grasping for any answer he could find.

He didn't realise how long he had been here, lying on his bed, his back pressed against his quilt bedsheets, until Bianca knocked softly on the door. "Nico?" she whispered-asked, peeking an eye, opening the door just slightly.

The brown-eyed boy pointed outwards, his arms bending at elbow level, and brought back his index fingers toward his face, before using his right hand to make a flat line to slide it across the back of his left hand, the sign for "come over".

She nodded and ducked her head as she slid across the bedroom floor to sit next to her brother on his bed, covering most of her face with her dark hair as she did so.

"I don't think you know this yet, but you can tell me anything." Bianca said softly, her eyes twinkling with restrained understanding.

Nico huffed— he knew how skilled a liar his sister was. You wouldn't be saying that if I told you that I knew why you left the house tonight, he signed, looking at her in the eyes as he did so. Yes, he didn't know, but he just wished that if his sister expected him to be honest, she ought to be as well.

Bianca looked taken aback, her eyes widening, but a split second later her face morphed back into an unreadable expression.

"Let's take a walk." she said, her voice small, after a few seconds.

It was Nico's turn to be surprised. Now?  he asked, dumbfounded. It's 8PM!

Bianca shrugged. "Who cares?" she said, before grabbing Nico's hand and pulling him up to his feet, averting her gaze quickly when he shot her a bewildered look.