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"I don't know," Rachel says, bringing Annabeth back to the present. "We could stage a game of truth or dare," she suggests excitedly.
"We can't even be sure that'd work, though, with these two," Annabeth says. "Maybe..."
"What?"
"Maybe I could talk to him. He's clearly not getting any of the hints."
"What about Nico?"
"We should wait. See if we can get through to Percy first."
Rachel shrugs. "Better you than me," she says, smug.
--
The conversation does not go as planned.
Percy proves just as oblivious to all of Annabeth's hints as he's been to the whole situation, and while he'd been surprisingly open to the idea of non-exclusivity (Annabeth tells herself she'd been expecting that) she ends up spelling it out for him much more literally than she would have liked. She gets as far as "And I mean, if there's anyone else, Percy, I would be okay with that, all right?" before Percy cuts her off.
"But," he says, pausing. "there isn't anybody else. I mean, sure, Clarisse has gotten better since Manhattan, but she's dating Chris, and Travis and Connor are way too protective of their cabin, and I wouldn't date any of your siblings, and Silena..." he trails off. "See? No one else. You're all I--"
"I'm not just talking about that," Annabeth cuts him off. "Not just about the girls, Percy," she says pointedly.
Percy does, however, pick up on that. "Hey, woah. Annabeth, I'm not...I mean, I'm dating you! I'm not..." Percy's mouth opens and closes a few times, uselessly.
"What?" Annabeth asks, eager to get to the real issue, now. "Gay?" she supplies.
"Yes!"
"What's wrong with being gay?"
"Nothing. There's nothing wrong with--Stop changing the subject. I'm not gay."
Annabeth just looks at him. "Mm hmm," she says finally. "And how do you know?"
Percy noticed that she had that look on her face, the one she only got before capture the flag or while looking at a particular piece of architecture she was just itching to improve. He didn't really know what to do with that observation, however.
"Well," he said convincinly, "I'm not...it's just that, I don't think...I mean--"
"You don't think you're attracted to boys, yes?"
Percy shrugs, nodding.
Annabeth wants him to understand, so she explains. "That's understandable. The only people you've ever been around who've been available are mostly girls. And you didn't really have time to think about anyone else, anyway."
"Besides you."
"Yes," Annabeth says pensively, but she's trying to hide her smile. "And me, I suppose. So see?" she says, brisk again. "Makes perfect sense."
Percy thinks for a moment. "Not exactly. I mean, the Stolls were always around, and I--"
"I said people who were available, Perce," Annabeth says, as though she's pointing out the obvious.
Percy blushes. "Oh, right. Yeah."
"But there was Luke." Annabeth looks at Percy expectantly.
"Luke?" Percy asks, sounding panicky now. "Oh, c'mon Annabeth, everyone was attracted to Luke! He can hardly count! He's nothing like Nico, anyway."
Annabeth tries to hide her smirk. "What's Nico have to do with this?"
"What?" Percy asks her, flustered. "Nothing, he's got nothing to do with it."
"Right, nevermind," she says flippantly, but she leaves it at that, smirking at Percy's confused look and letting him think it over for a few days.
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He replays Annabeth's words over and over and over in his head, but he can't make sense of them. Yeah, sure, he'd never really bothered to look at boys in a sexual way--like she'd said, Annabeth had pretty much fulfilled his sexual attraction quota while they were off fighting for their lives (and for each other's) and saving the world. And that was working for him pretty well, and now that they finally had some peace, he didn't see the need to change that.
Except that it changed without his notice or permission.
He doesn't even know what he meant by the Nico comment. He supposes that he was just thinking of everything Luke wasn't, trying to dispprove Annabeth's point by bringing up someone he genuinely liked, someone who was worth his affection. He knows that it doesn't fit (that he doesn't see Luke that way anymore) but there's nothing else for it. He shrugs off the train of thought, but something else comes to him: the memory of their second day, when Annabeth was talking to Nico under the tree.
His curiosity gets the better of him, and he skips his pegasi lesson and makes his way to the Hades cabin because he knows that Nico doesn't have anything to do right now.
He's about to knock on the door when he realizes there isn't a door, just a blank stretch of shadow bleeding down from the skull's mouth on the lintel. He doesn't know if he should just walk through it, or if he even could, so he settles for a unsure, "Nico?"
The shadow melts to reveal Nico standing there expectantly. He beckons Percy inside and as Percy walks in he's immediately bathed in flickering green light from the torches. It's the first time he's been inside the Hades cabin, and his initial impression is that it's dark, and a little creepy.
"This is a little creepy," he tells Nico.
"Yeah, well, I'm a creepy kid," Nico informs him, before settling down on the edge of his bed. "What's up? Shouldn't you be in the stables?"
"Uh, yeah," Percy says, taking a seat on an empty bed. "I just, well, I wanted to ask you, have you talked to Annabeth?"
Nico raises an eyebrow. "Of course I've talked to her. She's my friend, remember?"
Percy huffs impatiently. "No, I mean, recently. About..." he pauses, thinking that he probably should have planned this out a little better. "About stuff," he concludes.
"Have I talked to Annabeth about stuff," Nico repeats, deadpan, and Percy figures they're not getting anywhere soon; he shrugs apologetically, unwilling to specify any further.
Nico bites his lip, looking at Percy quizically, sizing him up. "Have you noticed that Annabeth's kind of been ignoring us lately?" he asks Percy, just a twinge of hurt in his voice.
Percy's about to respond with an instinctual, "No she isn't!" when Nico's question really hits him. Kid has a point, he realizes: excluding their little talk the other day, Annabeth had been distancing herself from him, asking odd questions and dropping strange suggestions, and he didn't think he was imagining that she'd been more frustrated with him lately than usual. He can't believe he didn't notice until now.
Nico interprets his silence. "Yeah, thought you might have," he says sarcastically. "Rachel, too, if you haven't noticed that, either."
If Percy was confused before, he's completely beyond help, now. "What's up, do you think?" he finally asks Nico, who shrugs, at a loss.
"I don't know. Maybe she thinks we're ignoring her? We have been spending a lot of time together lately."
"But that's stupid," Percy argues. "She's the one who wanted us to train together, and teach swordplay, and give the new kids tours. Why would she be angry about that?"
Nico holds up his hands defensively. "I don't know, Perce. Do you claim to know everything that goes on in that mind of hers?"
Percy looks horrified at the very thought. "No, absolutely not," he assures Nico. "I don't know, maybe you're right. Let's just be aware of it for the next couple of days, okay?"
"Yeah, might as well," Nico agrees, and when Percy smiles at him, he can't help but smile back.
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Percy's decided to teach them the disarming maneuver that Luke first taught him, and, as Luke did, give them a demo. Clarisse has come to watch the Ares kids, and she rolls her eyes at Percy when he calls Nico over to partner him.
"What?" Percy asks, affronted. "He's the best swordsman here--"
"Besides you," she cuts in, and Percy stops, mouth open. Clarisse seems to notice that she's just defended Percy's honor or something like that, and scowls at him, letting him continue.
"Well, yes," Percy admits sheepishly, as Nico jogs over to his side. "And they'll get a good idea of what the move will look like in actual combat."
"Whatever," Clarisse responds scathingly. "Just keep it your pants, guys, okay? I've seen you two fight, and they're a little too young to be scarred like that."
"What?!" Percy gawks at her indignantly. He tries to form words, but none come to him. He points helplessly between himself and Nico, as if that would somehow make his point. Clarisse rolls her eyes again.
Nico, on the other hand, is silent. Percy thinks he looks like someone just slapped him in the face by surprise. "But," he says finally, voice barely above a whisper. "Percy's not--I mean, we're not--we're just..." he trails off, an odd expression on his face.
"Friends?" Clarisse asks mockingly, voice dripping sarcasm. She lets out a rather mean laugh when he nods. "Sure," she says dismissively. "Whatever you say. You better get on with your demo. They're starting to fight on their own."
It takes Percy several seconds to register her last comment. Finally, he turns around and notices that indeed, the group of about 30 demigods have gotten restless and are staring to spar on their own, and Percy notices with a cringe a lot of messy sword work going on. He and Nico quiet them down and gather them up, and give, for all intents and purposes, a successful demo.
But Percy's not really paying attention and Nico's blade swipes harmlessly against his skin more times than he can count, and if Percy was anyone else, Nico would've killed him by now. Nico parries and blocks and dodges Percy's attacks, but he barely breaks a sweat, and his eyes linger overlong on Percy's face, on the exposed bits of Percy's skin under his armor.
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"There's a strap on the backplate I can't really reach," he tells Nico. "Jake said he'd work on it, but they've had a lot to do. There's hardly enough camp weapons and armors for all the kids here now."
Nico nods, and follows Percy to his cabin. Percy undoes what he can, and twists and reaches behind him to try and undo the bit right between his shoulder blades. "It's right--there," Percy sighs, giving up.
"I got it," Nico reassures him, but his hands are shaking and it takes him a few tries to get it off. Percy turns to take the plate from Nico, but once he's facing him neither of them move. Nico turns the piece of armor in his hands, looking at Percy's feet; he can hear Percy breathing, can feel Percy's heartbeat.
Percy's watching Nico and just like that, an idea comes to him. A crazy, impulsive idea, but it feels right to Percy and he can't think of anything else to do, so he steps into Nico's space and, before he loses his nerve, leans down and kisses him.
It's a quick kiss, just a chaste press of lips, and Percy's pulling away before Nico even has time to react. Nico just looks up at him from beneath his lashes, mouth parted ever so slightly, and Percy's suddenly bashful.
"Um, sorry," he says quietly, absentmindedly stratching the back of his neck, even though now that he's done it, he doesn't really regret it. "I just--"
"Don't appologize," Nico tells him, although he's shifting his weight from foot to foot like he's uncomfortable.
Percy starts to get embarrassed, and eventually takes his armor out of Nico's hands. "Thanks," he says belatedly, and Nico nods vigorously, a hint of hysteria in his movements. He glances up at Percy once more, a calculating look on his face, before he seems to think better of something and turns and leaves, muttering a farewell with a jerky wave of his hand.
Percy stands there, watching the exit, for several more minutes. He traces his tongue slowly across his bottom lip, trying to sort out his thoughts.
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He doesn't see how Rachel could know (because really, doesn't she have better things to prophesy than his love life?) and it's not like he or Nico has mentioned it to anybody, but she smiles coyly at them whenever she sees them, and there's a conspiratoral glint in her eyes that worries him. But the strange thing is that Annabeth isn't acting any differently. Don't get him wrong, she's plenty cordial and always greets them, but she still leaves them alone more than is necessary and rolls her eyes at them more than is usual.
Things with him and Nico have pretty much gone back to normal, although there's still that thing between them--not just the memory of the kiss, because yes, there's that, but there's something else, too, something Percy doesn't know what to do with and something they can't seem to talk about. They spend time together and joke around and train like they always do, but that tension is still there, and it's getting less awkward and more charged every day that they ignore it.
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So he nearly goes crazy wondering how Percy's managing to keep himself together. Nico can't stop thinking about when Percy kissed him; besides that days-long (years long, Nico thinks it must have been, now) Mythomagic tournament at the Lotus Casino, it's the longest he's focused on anything, ever. He knows that Percy must sense his anxiety, but Percy's always been that inscrutable hero in Nico's eyes and he has no idea how Percy feels. Nico doesn't do anything like try to kiss Percy again, but silently gauges the situation, reading too much into Percy's every word, his every action. After almost a week, he figures Percy's either trying to ignore the subject and pretend it didn't happen, or he's trying to ignore the subject in the hopes that it'll happen again without his having to try. (This observation doesn't help him). He thinks about talking to Annabeth or Rachel, but he catches Rachel's smug gaze and immediately thinks better of it, and some lingering hesitation prevents him approaching Annabeth about it just yet. So he tries to let it rest, but it just keeps building.
They're at the fire one night; it's the end of July and it's still hot out so they take turns braving sitting close enough to the fire to toast their marshmallows. Nico's just toasted two to perfection, and as he makes his way up the stadium to their row, they start to melt off the stake. He panics and rushes up to Percy ('cause Hades if he's gonna sit by the fire for 10 minutes for the perfect marshmallow again) but trips when he's a row away. Percy manages to both catch him and save the marshmallows at the same time, which Nico can't help but think is pretty impressive.
He takes his seat next to Percy and starts preparing his s'more, but Percy just pops the marshmallow into his mouth. Nico looks affronted. "That would have made the best s'more ever, you know. I spent time on that," Nico informs him scathingly, but Percy just smiles back at him. Nico's mouth breaks into a reluctant grin, and he leans forward and kisses Percy, just like that. Percy's lips are sticky and he tastes too sweet, and almost immediately Nico seems to remember that they're sitting with practically the entire camp and pulls away. But no one's watching them and no one seems to have noticed, and although Percy isn't exactly smiling, he isn't freaking out like last time, either.
"It was perfect," Percy says, and Nico wonders if he's talking about the kiss, or the marshmallow.
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