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It wasn't the absolute weirdest thing that could have happened to him while shadow travelling, but it had to be the weirdest that had ever actually happened.
He'd meant to travel to the Underworld, still tired from the final battle against the Giants and emotionally sore from - everything. He knew that further shadow travel was risky, but he'd done far more and survived the journey. Travelling to the Underworld didn't take it out of him the way travelling in the physical world did. It just felt natural, like going home.
But when he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the Underworld. He was back at Camp Half-Blood, and there was nobody else around.
He felt light-headed, and put a hand out to steady himself. What had happened? Why was he still here? Where was everybody else?
Under his hand was wood. He looked - and found Thalia's tree. The tree that no longer existed, because Thalia had returned to life. Nor did a juvenile dragon curl around it - and good thing too, because he'd have been missing a hand if it were.
Nico began to get an inkling of what might have happened. This was Camp Half-Blood, but not as he knew it. So…a vision? Though everything seemed very substantial for a vision…
He was within the Camp boundary, so he hesitantly let go of Thalia's tree (with a mental apology to Thalia, in case she somehow knew that he was touching it) and struck out for the cluster of cabins.
He made it all of twenty feet before meeting the business end of a sword.
"Stay right there, or…" The voice at the other end of the very familiar sword tailed off in confusion. "Nico?"
It was Percy, of course. Nico's chest constricted painfully, as it always did, when faced with that handsome face and those sea-green eyes. He still keenly remembered the anguish his brush with Cupid had brought. To have Jason know his secret…well, his sole comfort was that there were worse people who could have found out. Still, he was uncomfortably aware that Jason could reveal all at any moment, 'for his own good'.
Percy was still staring at him. But Percy looked…different. Younger. Could Nico really have-?
"That's me," he said, hoping his voice didn't choose that moment to break.
"But you're - how old are you?" Percy demanded.
"Fourteen." How old was he here? Nico squinted at Percy's camp necklace and counted only two beads, which meant…
"Well, when I saw you last, you were ten. What the hell is going on?"
"Search me," said Nico blandly, hoping his face didn't show his inner turmoil. Only ten, making Percy barely fourteen…making Bianca…"Where's Bianca?" he blurted. Could he, might he -
But Percy's expression changed to embarrassment or guilt, and the bottom dropped back out of Nico's hope.
"Never mind," he said quietly, forestalling any attempts of Percy's to tell him what he already knew. It had been worth a try.
"I'm sorry," said Percy, helplessly. "Seriously, you're - are you from the future?" His open scrutiny was making Nico uncomfortable. Nico could guess what he saw: long, unkempt hair; pallor and shadows under his eyes; captivity-induced skinniness. He probably looked ill.
"Apparently. Either the future or an alternate universe, I guess," he amended. "I didn't exactly mean to do it." He didn't mean to be unhelpful either, but he honestly had no idea how he'd done it, apart from the obvious; nor did he have any idea of how to get back to his own time. Or what if he was meant to be here? Nico had less godly meddling in his life than some other demigods, but he knew that he was as much of a pawn as any of them.
Percy was shaking his head.
"This is crazy," he muttered. "Let's go back to Camp, OK? There's hardly anybody else around. We'll go to the Big House and talk to Chiron."
"Sure," Nico agreed. Despite all the time he spent away from Camp Half-Blood, he'd always quite liked Chiron.
So they headed away from the river, in the direction of the cabins that Nico had seen and recognised. Their boots crunched on leaves that wouldn't have been there in the summer. Nico looked straight ahead and tried not to sneak little glances at Percy. It was hard: he looked so similar to the Percy that Nico knew, but his brain kept trying to catalogue the ways in which he looked different. Funny, he hadn't noticed Percy growing up at the time - he'd always just been 'older and taller than me' - but having just seen Percy at eighteen, he could see that he really had changed since fourteen. Fourteen-year-old Percy was still slightly gangly with adolescence, and hadn't filled out into a man yet. He looked less tired - but then, they all had, four years ago.
Come to think of it, where was his younger self? If the last time Percy saw him was when he was ten, he must be in the Underworld now. Nico's memories of that period were hazy; he wasn't even completely sure how he'd managed to travel to the Underworld that first time. He was happy to leave them that way.
"Where's everybody else?" he asked instead.
"Gone home, mostly." Percy waved his hand negligently. "I'm pretty much the last one here apart from Clarisse." His mouth thinned. "I thought you might come back to Camp, but I was expecting, like, tiny-Nico. Not inexplicably-from-the-future-Nico."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Nico offered. Percy had waited for him at Camp after he'd run off, in case he came back? Percy had never said anything, and Nico had had no idea. He found he had a hard time meeting Percy's gaze.
"So…" Percy began after a pregnant pause. "Your godly dad is Hades, huh?" It was such a non-sequitur that Nico blinked; but then he remembered that here, that revelation couldn't have been more than a month ago. And Percy hadn't seen him since.
"Yeah, that's him." Come to think of it, could contacting Hades be a way to fix this? Assuming, of course, that Hades hadn't planned this in the first place. It seemed like the kind of needlessly complicated and potentially very dangerous plan that would appeal to Nico's dad.
"So what can you do? Last time we saw each other, you had the earth swallow up a bunch of walking skeletons, so thanks, by the way. Can you summon the skeletons? Because that would be way cool. Slightly gross, but way cool."
'Slightly gross, but way cool' was certainly one of the more flattering ways in which other demigods had described Nico's abilities.
"Yes to summoning skeletons. Also, I can travel through shadows and come out wherever."
Except that Nico didn't exactly say that. Or rather, he did say it, but only the first sentence came out of his mouth. When he mentioned shadow travel, his lips moved, but it was like he was in a silent movie, miming the words.
"Also, I can travel through shadows," he tried again. Still nothing.
"What?" Now Percy was looking at him rather than at the rapidly-approaching cabins. "Didn't catch that."
Nico tried for a third time, like a stuck record.
"I'm trying to tell you my other abilities, but I can't," he said at last, frustrated. "I say it, but then nothing comes out!"
"OK, that is freaky." Percy looked slightly worried, but mostly intrigued. "So something - whatever brought you here, I guess - doesn't want you to tell me what your demigod powers are?"
Nico shrugged helplessly. That assigned a level of agency to the force that had made him time-travel or swap universes or whatever that he didn't like, but he had to agree with Percy.
"I bet we can get around it somehow," Percy predicted with boundless confidence. "There's always loopholes in these things."
It occurred to Nico that as heroic taxonomy went, Percy was more of an Odysseus than an Achilles.
"Sure," he agreed, neutrally. He'd learned a lot about creative interpretations of rules from Percy and others, but that seemed to work best for Percy when he was fighting monsters. For figuring out a curse, his first pick would probably have been Annabeth. But the fact that Percy hadn't mentioned her suggested that she'd already gone home. That didn't bode so well for Nico's ambition to figure out what the hell was going on; but he was secretly, selfishly glad that he wouldn't have to see Percy and Annabeth together. They weren't together yet (he knew from gossip that they hadn't got together until after the final battle in New York City), but he suspected that he would see the seeds of attraction between them that he hadn't recognised the first time round.
"So where are you now, exactly? You know, little-you. My you."
"The Underworld." Nico's memories of his time spent there were vague, but unpleasant, like recalling a bout of horrible illness. "I spent a lot of time down there." He hoped that Percy wouldn't ask why he'd stopped; the best he could say was that he was needed on the surface. There was no way he was getting into his time in Tartarus or in the jar - if the curse would even let him describe them.
"Really? Well, I guess that makes sense…" Percy trailed off, doubtful. Nico couldn't blame him: most people didn't spend time down in his father's domain voluntarily. "Personal question," he announced. "Is spending all that time in the Underworld why you're so pale now?" He didn't say and thin, for which Nico was grateful.
"Yes. There's not much natural light down there." Or anything else that human beings needed to thrive. Nico did just fine, but Reyna had probably been right to say she was glad Hazel kept Nico away from the Underworld for weeks at a time.
"I remember." He would: Percy had told him about his first ever quest to the Underworld, before Nico came to Camp. "Man, you would have been useful for that crazy trip."
Nico smiled thinly.
"My Percy said the exact same thing." Was it ridiculous or revealing to say my Percy like that? But this Percy didn't seem to have noticed anything weird.
"It's still crazy weird to think you're from the future. Or alternate universe," he amended, "whichever." Nico fought the urge to shift about under Percy's fixed green stare. "What am I like in the future?"
Nico shrugged.
"Like you are now, I guess." He considered the question. "Taller." This Percy was still taller than him, for all they were the same age, but only by a couple of inches. The last time Nico had seen his Percy, he'd only come up to the guy's shoulder. Dad was tall, like all gods, but Hazel was short too, like his Mama had been, and Nico had the sinking feeling that he was doomed to be a shrimp.
"Funny. Anything else I should know about? Scars, magical tattoos, accidental piercings?" He was eyeing Nico's own wolf scars now. Hazel and Reyna and Jason had all reassured him that they weren't obvious, and they blended in with his pale skin (not that Nico would have especially cared if they hadn't), but the silvery lines did occasionally catch the light. It gave him a fluttery feeling to think that Percy had been looking closely enough to notice.
"Nothing I can tell you about," Nico said, deadpan, and enjoyed Percy trying to work out whether that meant yes or no. If Percy genuinely thought that his future self might end up with either tattoos or piercings, then apparently he had tastes that Nico had never suspected. Nico tried to imagine him with either, and failed.
They were walking through the cabins now. There was no Hades cabin, of course. Construction wouldn't be started on that for several years yet. Funny: Nico had hardly used it, but he'd grown used to it being there. The Big House loomed ahead of them.
"It's just Chiron in at the moment," said Percy. "Mr. D. went…somewhere, I dunno. Wherever he goes when he's not here, I guess." His tone implied that he didn't really want to know any more of Mr. D.'s affairs than he already did.
"That might make things easier," Nico agreed. On the one hand, Mr. D. was more likely to know what was going on, being an actual god and all. On the other hand, that was no guarantee that he would actually see fit to help. Of the two, Chiron was definitely the more reasonable authority figure - and Nico didn't just think that because Chiron had given him cookies and been very patient when Nico had first turned up at Camp as an excitable ten year old.
Percy knocked on the door of the Big House.
"I don't even know if he's in," he said, as if hoping that the two of them might manage to sneak off without going through interrogation. But there was the clip-clop of hooves on wood, and Chiron's voice queried,
"Yes?" just as the door opened to reveal him in his centaur form. He sounded bleary, and his glasses were slightly askew. Nico suspected that they'd woken him up in the middle of his afternoon nap.
"First off: please don't freak out." That wasn't necessarily what Nico would have led with, but Percy did know Chiron better than he did.
Chiron adjusted his glasses, blinked a few times - and his eyebrows shot up to meet his hairline.
"Mr-!" He cleared his throat. "Yes, I see. Ah, yes. Won't you both come in?"
The sitting room was, as always, dark, despite the bright day outside. Percy and Nico sank into a sofa - and then sank further when it turned out to be squishier than expected. Chiron shuffled so one hoof was off the ground, in what was probably meant to be an attitude of casual repose, cleared his throat again, and asked,
"Which of you would like to explain precisely how this has come about?"
"I don't know about exactly," said Nico, "but one minute I was at Camp, about to go somewhere else, and then… I was back at Camp." He shrugged. "I was heading down from Thalia's tree when Percy found me and recognised me."
"Current theories are either he's from the future, or he's from an alternate universe," Percy broke in helpfully.
"I'm fourteen," added Nico.
"Yes, I'd guessed that you must be about that age…" Chiron was scrutinising Nico's face. Nico forced himself to return the stare. He could imagine what Chiron was seeing. He knew, in the abstract, that he'd changed dramatically in appearance since he was ten, which seemed a lifetime ago; but he didn't think of it at all, and if asked would have said only that he was taller, and his hair was probably longer. He paid no attention to his own appearance except to colour-coordinate everything in black. But meeting this Percy who knew his younger self had reminded him that a nymph had recently described him as 'stringy, chalky and unkempt'.
"Well," said Chiron at last, "this is a curious conundrum." His tail swished in a way that did not quite manage to be 'casual'. "I'm afraid that no similar instance has ever occurred at Camp - that I know of, of course."
Chiron was being modest. If he didn't know about it, it hadn't happened.
"We have had our fair share of accidental teleportation over the years - sometimes over quite significant distances! - but not yet, I'm afraid, any spontaneous time-travel." He cleared his throat. "Time is, as a rule, subject to the gods only under certain conditions. These typically involve slowing it down or speeding it up for an individual. Turning back the clock, however, is unheard-of."
Percy didn't say That's bad, bro, but Nico could interpret that look. It wasn't a guarantee that nothing could be done, but it wasn't exactly promising.
He supposed that there were worse times to get sucked into the past. He'd had a busy few years, but right now there was nothing he needed to do. For once, the universe had managed to plunge him into just one crisis at a time. It was almost relaxing.
"Under the circumstances," Chiron suggested, "it might be best if Mr. di Angelo were to stay here at Camp…" But Percy's face was already scrunching up in distaste.
"What, on his own?" Percy's tone made it clear what he thought of that.
"I will be here. As will Miss. La Rue." Percy's snort suggested that he didn't consider Clarisse a mitigating factor. Nor did Nico, come to that. He respected Clarisse, but they had very little in common, to put it diplomatically.
"Can't he come home with me? My Mom would be happy to have him." Nico's heart leapt, but he controlled his expression. Go home with Percy? Yes.
"Two demigods in the same place could draw more monsters," Chiron warned them both; but Nico could see that Percy had already made up his mind.
"Cool, that's settled, then." Percy turned to Nico. "Nico, if you actually really, desperately want to stay here with just Clarisse for company, tell me now."
"No, I think your plan sounds better." It was what Percy had expected him to say. Percy grinned widely at him, and Nico smiled back, closed-mouthed. Chiron said,
"Well, if you're sure…" But he offered no objection, and finally let them go with only a brief admonishment about staying out of trouble. Nico didn't bother to point out that trouble just found both of them, no need to go looking for it. Perils of being a demigod, and of being a child of the Big Three in particular.
"You'll like my Mom," Percy told him confidently once they'd left the Big House.
"Your Mom's nice," Nico agreed.
"You've met her?"
Right, that hadn't happened yet - wouldn't happen for several years, in fact. He still remembered his visit to Percy's apartment in vivid detail. Percy's bedroom especially had turned up in later dreams and daydreams.
"Just once. She gave me cake." The curse let him say that - well, after telling Percy his Mom was nice, the cat was probably out of the bag. There was no point in trying to hide that they'd met. It bothered Nico that the curse was that sophisticated, almost intelligent. Like Percy had said earlier, usually magic was very literal and you could find a loophole if you worked hard enough. So far, Nico hadn't found any of the expected loopholes.
"That's Mom, alright. Best cake ever. Her seven-layer dip is to die for, though." Percy looked around. "Well, normally we'd have Argus with the van, but…Nico, have you ever ridden a pegasus?"
Nico considered how to phrase this delicately.
"Once. Normally, pegasi don't…really like me." Percy didn't need to know the specifics. Nico could perfectly envision Percy's face scrunching up as he repeated 'smell like death?'
"So how do you normally get around?"
"That's what I was trying to tell you about earlier." But the curse had let him say that. Maybe Percy was right about the loopholes.
"Ohhh, so your abilities include some kind of travelling, huh?" Percy looked thoughtful. "I love riding Blackjack, but that would be so convenient."
"It is." Apart from the part where overuse apparently threatened the material fabric of his body. But, although he knew he was biased, Nico did privately think that it was one of the coolest - and downright most useful - demigod abilities there was. "In fact…" He trailed off as he noticed that they were in the shade of a tree. Could he? "Stay still," he warned Percy, before taking hold of his wrist. Percy's bare skin was warm beneath his fingers, and Nico wished he hadn't noticed.
He concentrated, reached for the shadows - and nothing reached back. The shadows around them didn't grow longer, blacker. They were there, at his fingertips, but no matter how hard he tugged, he couldn't melt into them.
"Uh, Nico?"
Nico dropped Percy's hand like it was venomous.
"I can't do it," he explained. "It's like something's blocking my powers." He hoped his voice didn't sound as worried as he felt. Shadow travel had always tired him out, even made him pass out, but he'd never just not been able to do it.
"Not at all?" Maybe he hadn't succeeded, because now Percy looked worried. "That…doesn't sound good, Nico."
Nico pursed his lips and shrugged.
"There's nothing I can do about it right now." He wasn't going to let on to Percy that an oily thread of fear was coiling in his stomach. "What were you saying about pegasi?"
"Well, I was saying that they're our only option for getting to my apartment." Percy didn't look totally convinced by Nico's air of unconcern. "I can talk to them. I bet there's one who won't mind giving you a ride."
As Nico had guessed, it was Blackjack.
Nico couldn't understand horses like Percy could; he didn't even have Hazel's gift with them. But he did like them, and accordingly he also liked pegasi. The last time he'd met Blackjack, the two of them had reached an accord. It presumably wasn't some natural affinity he had with the colour black, despite a joke Jason had once made about his wardrobe, so Nico liked to think that it was because Blackjack was Percy's pegasus. That probably just meant he was more tolerant because he'd seen some seriously weird shit, but Nico didn't care. He got to ride Percy's flying horse. While Percy was also riding him.
"You OK, Blackjack?" Percy asked once they were both on. "I don't think you're supposed to carry two people…"
Even Nico could interpret Blackjack's contemptuous snort.
"Fine, fine! I just don't want you to get tired and drop us in Brooklyn, or something."
Another snort, and Blackjack spread his feathered wings. They were glossy and as black as the rest of him, but with an edge of iridescent green when they caught the sunlight. They were beautiful, and Nico spared a moment to be genuinely thrilled that he was on a flying horse.
"Hold on!" cried Percy over his shoulder, his face alight with excitement - and then they were off. Blackjack's powerful wings bore them aloft in a few beats, and they were flying. Camp and the surrounding strawberry fields grew smaller and smaller beneath them - but Nico didn't see them, because he'd grabbed onto Percy's waist and buried his face in Percy's shoulder. For one delightful moment, all he felt was weightlessness and the warmth of Percy's slim, strong body in his arms.
Then he remembered himself. You're being obvious warred with He told you to hold on. He sat up a little more and opened his eyes, so it was less like he was cuddling Percy. Percy smelled like clean laundry and warm skin, and Nico hated that he'd think about that the next time he jerked off. No, don't think about jerking off. Getting a hard-on right now would just be the end. Of dignity, of life. He'd have to execute a tactical slide off Blackjack's back and let himself plummet to the earth below.
At least Percy didn't seem to have noticed anything weird. It was probably just a normal reaction to being lifted into the air on the back of a flying horse. Maybe Annabeth had done the same once - no, don't think about that. More likely, Percy still thought of Nico as a ten year old who might be frightened by such things.
They couldn't talk while on pegasus-back, so Nico, having recovered his equilibrium, watched the scenery go by and tried not to enjoy being pressed up against his crush-object. It didn't work, so he felt vaguely guilty instead. Percy had no idea that Nico felt this way, and for all the practice Nico had had over the past three years, it was going to be hard to keep concealing his feelings if he had to live with Percy while they sorted out this time-travel stuff. Why had he agreed in the first place? Stupid - because he wanted to be close to Percy, without Annabeth in the way, and because Percy had so plainly wanted Nico to stay with him.
If he slipped up and revealed himself and Percy guessed right, he would have only himself to blame.
Blackjack let them off onto the balcony, right in front of Sally Jackson in her artist's smock. Thankfully, Percy's mom was just as nice as Nico had remembered. She also clearly knew all about teenaged boys, because as soon as introductions had been made, she turned and opened the fridge. Percy started sketching out the basics of their unexpected arrival and carrying plates, while Nico tried to help, was rebuffed, and just tried to stay out of the way. He tried to keep his greedy curiosity about Percy's home to the level of a decent guest, but it was difficult when it was right there, in the daytime, full of half-open doors. He looked at Mrs. Jackson and saw Percy in her.
"Please, call me Sally." She put a plate in front of him. Nico, who was always hungry these days, stared at it avariciously. He could hear clanging behind him as Blackjack stuck his head further into the bucket of water she'd provided. Percy had translated Blackjack's feelings on drinking from the Hudson River. They had been unprintable, and Nico had been charmed to see Percy blush the tiniest bit when he said them.
"Sorry for just turning up," he mumbled. His mouth was watering. Percy hadn't been exaggerating when he said his mom was a great cook - at least, it certainly smelled good.
"No, no," she insisted, "You've told me all about it, it's not your fault." This was a definite exaggeration. Percy had given as much detail as he thought she needed. Still, she was very nice, like the idea of somebody's mom in a movie, except she looked like Percy and that just made Nico like her more.
"I told you my mom was cool," said Percy through a mouthful of chicken. Mouth also full of food, Nico made an indistinct noise of agreement. He'd also been right that Sally was a good cook. Nico couldn't claim to have especially refined tastebuds, but once he'd swallowed, he was going to tell her that this was the best meal he'd ever eaten. Sally just smiled beneficently and encouraged them to take seconds.
She even had the kindness to wait until they'd finished eating - well, inhaling - before she really grilled them on exactly why Percy had brought a strange boy back to their apartment.
It had only occurred to Nico in passing to wonder how much mortal parents really knew about the world of their half-blood children. When Sally had so calmly invited him in from Percy's balcony for birthday cake - despite not having seen him pass through the apartment - he'd guessed that she had to know a little; but he'd had bigger things on his mind.
Now he listened to how Percy told the story, only interjecting when Sally turned to him to ask his opinion or clarification. Percy explained finding Nico, realising that he was Nico, their hypotheses of what had happened, and their discovery of the curse. Sally Jackson seemed neither surprised nor distressed by the notion of time-travel or reality-hopping, but was concerned by the idea of a curse.
"It doesn't hurt," Nico explained. "I just can't give out information that it doesn't want me to give out, I guess." He still didn't like the idea of assigning agency to the curse. "The future, and stuff like that." It was bizarre to think that he'd returned to a time when they hadn't yet defeated Kronos. He hoped he didn't have to go through that again. Once had been bad enough. Though, looking back, it hadn't been a patch on their war against the giants. He couldn't even pass on useful information about Kronos and his forces and how they'd eventually defeated him: he'd tried, but of course the curse had got in the way.
They had even tried writing it down, but Percy claimed that it was all just illegible squiggles. Nico wasn't entirely convinced that that wasn't just his handwriting, which he freely admitted was appalling, and his spelling, which was even worse; but an attempt to write it in ancient Greek had gone equally poorly, even though in principle both Percy and Nico could read and write the language fluently - provided they didn't think about it too hard.
It left Nico in a state of unease. Why had he been sent back? There was always a reason. For all he knew, it might be something really stupid and small; or it might be that he really did have to have a do-over of the Battle of New York. Maybe he had to set things up now so that they'd be ready in the future for - something, he didn't even know what it might be. They'd only just got rid of Gaia.
"You tired?" Percy asked him after dinner. Nico was tired, but no more so than usual, so he said,
"No." It was hard for him to meet Percy's eyes, and he knew Percy was noticing, but he couldn't help himself. Whenever he met Percy's green gaze by accident, he automatically flinched away as if he'd been burned. He kept addressing Percy while staring either over his shoulder or in another direction entirely. If Percy called him out on it, he had no idea what to say.
"I've put out the camp bed in your room," Percy's mom told him before they left the table. "It's all made up - you two can decide who sleeps where."
Nico realised, with a dull sense of inevitability, that he would have to sleep in the same room as Percy. If Percy's bed hadn't been a single, there was a strong possibility that Sally might have suggested they share that too. Small mercies. At least he'd brought his battered black rucksack with his toothbrush and something to sleep in, because there was no doubt that otherwise he'd have had to wear Percy's. And then he would probably - he could admit this in the privacy of his own head - have quietly absconded with them, like a creep.
Percy pulled a face.
"My old camp bed? Mom, that thing's probably dangerous by now. And it creaks like the souls of the damned."
"I guess it's time for a new one if you're going to have friends round, but for now, it's the only one we've got."
"I stay very still when I sleep," Nico offered. He also couldn't be woken until he was good and ready to get up. Comparisons to the dead had been made. Once, Hazel had actually checked his pulse.
Percy still looked dubious, but let it go.
It'll be fine, Nico told himself. It would have to be fine, because he couldn't shadow-travel elsewhere. There was no good excuse in the face of Sally Jackson's hospitality. It didn't matter that Nico simultaneously wanted to sleep in the same room as Percy's slow breathing and find the most comfortable bench nearby rather than even stay in the same apartment. Tonight, he would sleep a few feet away from Percy, and at some point he would have to excuse himself to the bathroom to jack off. In fact, safer to claim the need for a shower before bed and do it then.
"You want a shower?" asked Percy with alarming perspicacity. Nico tried not to look guilty. He probably just meant that Nico looked in need of a scrub, which Nico couldn't deny. He wanted a hot shower, and then to sleep for about a month. Not in the same room as Percy.
He managed the hot shower, at least. The bathroom was just big enough for a separate shower and bath, and the glass walls of the shower cubicle steamed up to make them nearly opaque. There was shampoo in here, and showergel - one set aimed at women, the other aimed at men. Nico was not going to sniff them.
The showergel smelled like what department stores thought leather smelled like. It smelled just like Percy when they'd been pressed so close on Blackjack. Nico told himself it was only in service of getting clean. The steamed-up shower gave him ideas, like Percy being inside it and Nico creeping into the bathroom - if Percy were facing away from the door, he'd never know - and maybe Percy could be jacking off and Nico would only be able to see the fuzzy outline of his body and his hand working his dick, and hear soft noises under the rushing of water.
He disliked the idea of wandering around in his pyjamas in front of Percy - it felt too vulnerable, too exposed - so he put his jeans back on under the loose t-shirt he wore to sleep. Hazel had given it to him a year or so ago after accidentally wrecking his old one (long story), which was why it was not only black, but bore the design of a cartoon skeleton. Nico had mixed feelings about the cartoon skeleton, but wearing it made him think of his sister, and he'd taken better care of it than he had most of his clothes, which saw pretty hard wear.
So he exited the bathroom and crept along the hallway to Percy's bedroom, half-convinced that Percy would look at him and know exactly what he'd been doing in there.
Because the gods were capricious and cruel, Percy was shirtless.
Nico only saw this for a second before he averted his eyes so hard he nearly strained something, but that was long enough to establish that:
a) At fourteen, Percy was not as visibly fit as his eighteen year old counterpart, being still somewhat gangly; and,
b) Nico didn't mind a bit.
"Hi." Percy finished putting on his shirt. He didn't look at Nico like he'd caught him out - or so Nico guessed from a glance out of the corner of his eye. He probably thought that Nico was just surly, or maybe even shy, since he couldn't even look directly at Percy's face when they spoke. That was what Piper thought; Nico knew because he'd overheard her say so to Hazel. In fact, she'd said that she thought that he disliked Percy, leaving Hazel to deny it.
Good job, Nico, he probably thinks you hate him. But better Percy think that Nico disliked his company than figure out the truth. He stared fixedly at Percy's bookshelf - filled less with books than with miscellaneous knick-knacks and school-related paraphenalia - until he could be sure that he wasn't blushing.
When he chanced a look in Percy's direction again, Percy was looking at him. Immediately, Nico's gaze slid, involuntarily, to the side. He hated that he couldn't just look at Percy's face like a normal person, a normal person who didn't have these irrepressible feelings for other boys in general and for a boy four years older than him and completely straight in particular. But just looking at Percy made his head swim, his face go hot, and his tongue feel heavy. It was like being ill.
Percy didn't say anything about his attitude. Percy was nice like that, which made Nico feel even worse for perving over him in the bathroom he'd been nice enough to offer. And getting off while smelling his showergel, which Nico really hoped Percy couldn't smell on him. Was it weird to use somebody else's showergel if you'd been thrown into the future without any of your own? Probably not, but Nico felt weird about it anyway.
He was also very tired, both physically and in an existential kind of way.
"Nico, can I ask you a question?"
"You just did." Percy looked surprised, but grinned.
"Yeah, but this one's kind of important. And personal." Now Percy looked awkward. Several options flashed through Nico's mind. Prime among them: He knows I'm- He didn't actually use the word, not even in his own head. It seemed to connote a whole way of being, of living, that bore only superficial resemblance to Nico's own.
"Sure," Nico croaked, trying not to look as panicked as he felt. Percy wouldn't care, he reminded himself. He'd smiled when Will had made a dry remark about an ex-boyfriend and talked casually about demigods with same-sex parents. He wouldn't crack jokes or say something insulting. He just wanted to know, like any guy would, since they were going to be sharing a room for the night.
"It's not bad!" Percy reassured him. Maybe he did look as panicked as he felt. "Here, come sit."
Nico perched tentatively on the edge of Percy's bed, and waited. He tried not to think about the fact that they were both on Percy's bed, in their pyjamas. He tried to ignore that Percy was sitting so close Nico could smell his shampoo. He wanted very badly to move closer, and to move away. He stayed frozen awkwardly in place.
"Look, I'm just going to say it," Percy announced. "In the future…are we dating?" He wasn't quite able to look Nico in the eye as he asked this.
Nico opened his mouth. Nothing came out. Were they what?
"No," he tried to croak - but still no sound came out. The curse! But why would Percy even think that?
"You can't tell me, huh?" Now Percy was looking at him. "So if you can't tell me, that means it's sensitive information. Why would who I'm dating be sensitive information?"
"I don't know," said Nico, helplessly. At least he could say that. The setting sun was streaming through Percy's bedroom window, and the glow it gave Percy only made the situation more painful. What had he done to give Percy the impression that they might be dating?
"So we might be dating in the future. But I didn't think - do I have a big bisexual freakout or something? Because I'm pretty sure I'm not gay."
"I'm pretty sure you're not, either." Though Nico had nursed many cherished fantasies on that theme. And hey, the curse had let him say that. Did phrasing facts as opinions fool it? "I'm pretty sure we're not dating," he tried to say - but apparently the curse was too clever for that, because again his mouth worked soundlessly. It was getting seriously frustrating. OK, Percy dating Annabeth might be a future-defining piece of information, but there was no way that Percy not dating Nico was. As far as Nico knew, he'd never been in the contest for Percy's romantic affections. There was clearly no future in which Percy and Nico got together.
Percy was now staring at him, and it was Nico's turn to look away and examine the wavy pattern on the bedsheets. He was never able to bear Percy's sea-green gaze for long. It made him feel embarrassed and exposed.
"OK," said Percy slowly. "OK, I'm not gay, but you can't tell me if I have a sexuality crisis or like guys or not?"
"You don't have any sexuality crisis that I know about," tried Nico. Nothing. "You only like girls." Still nothing.
"Wow." Percy was still staring. "So if that's a future-breaking piece of info, that means - that means it's probably true, right?"
Frustrated, Nico could only shrug. If the universe would stop shoving his unrequited crush in his face that would be great, thanks.
"OK, I'm just going to - I'm just going to try something." Percy shuffled closer to him on the bed. "Don't freak out and summon the undead or anything." His face was coming closer and closer, and Nico didn't move. Up close, Percy's eyes seemed to shift between green and blue.
If he'd been a good person, he would have pushed Percy away before their lips even met. He couldn't tell Percy in words that they weren't dating and never would be because Percy was straight and in obvious true love with Annabeth, but a good shove to send Percy sprawling on his bedroom floor would have got the message across pretty well.
But his crush - his desperate crush of four years standing - was leaning in to press his soft lips to Nico's bitten ones, and Nico wasn't a good person, and he yielded completely to Percy's sweet, inexperienced kiss.
"Holy shit," Percy breathed when they separated, "I have a boyfriend in the future!"
There was no answer Nico could give to that, so he pulled Percy in again. He'd never kissed anybody before - but then, neither had Percy.
Percy responded awkwardly, but not without enthusiasm. His mouth moved gently against Nico's, and when he put one hand on Nico's shoulder it felt like a dream. How many of Nico's fantasies had featured just this kind of kiss from a willing Percy? Nico wrapped a shy arm around Percy's waist and, when he didn't object, pulled him closer. His body was firm against Nico's, just like he'd imagined it.
After a long, wonderful few seconds, Percy pulled away again.
"OK, I have no idea how we started dating and I didn't even know I liked guys, but I'm - you know, I'm OK with this." He was smiling at Nico, and Nico was fighting not to go cross-eyed with Percy's face this close to his. He'd just been kissed by Percy. This was crazy. This was beyond crazy. But he was basically cuddling with his crush - who thought they were boyfriends - on said crush's bed, and it was amazing. He felt like he was floating, and it was nothing to do with Percy's mattress.
Overcome, Nico shyly entwined their fingers, and smiled in return.
Later, in the bathroom, Nico stared at his own face in the mirror. What had he done? To Percy - to himself? What had even given Percy the impression that they were boyfriends in the first place?
The way you act around him, stupid, a little voice hissed in his head. You can't hide how disgusting you are.
But Percy didn't think it was disgusting. Percy had been surprised to find himself with a boyfriend, but not disgusted. He had kissed Nico first. His mouth had tasted like mint and the sea.
For all Nico had thought about it, he'd recognised quite early on that it would never happen. The thought of kissing Percy had occupied a large proportion of his waking and sleeping thoughts, but he'd known perfectly well that it was purely a fantasy. Dipping Percy in the Styx had been his last-ditch attempt to win Percy's affections.
But here, in this alternate timeline or universe or whatever this was, Percy really could return his feelings, or something like them. Unless it was only because he believed that they were dating in the future, and Percy was now asking himself why he'd done that, why would he ever have done that…
Nico left the bathroom and found Percy waiting in the dark. He knelt on the camp bed that Sally Jackson had put out for him, which did indeed squeal like an Underworld nymph having her hair pulled in a fight; but Percy caught his arm. Nico knelt there awkwardly as Percy flipped back his own covers.
He couldn't quite believe that Percy had invited him to share his bed until he was actually crawling into it beside him. Percy pressed up against the wall to give him enough room. Percy was smaller at fourteen than he would be at eighteen, and Nico was resigned to being a shrimp in perpetuity, but it was still a tight fit for two teenaged boys. Nico was pretty sure he'd elbowed Percy in the sternum at some point, but Percy bore it manfully. Finally, Nico was enfolded in Percy's arms.
Two years ago, this was the stuff Nico's wildest fantasies had been made of. Being cuddled by Percy, in a bed, in the enfolding dark, was the stuff of dreams that ran the gamut from sentimental to wet.
He should have refused, of course. He wasn't Percy's boyfriend, no matter that he'd let Percy think so; and being embraced by Percy's strong arms and pressed up against the body he'd covertly admired for years was definitely going to result in an embarrassing hard-on.
It's not embarrassing if you're his boyfriend, a rational part of his brain pointed out. It sounded a bit like Jason.
The moon and streetlights shone through the curtains to let Nico distinguish Percy's face. They were lying so close that he could feel Percy's breath on his lips, and their legs were tangled, one of Nico's trapped between Percy's strong thighs.
Percy licked his lips. Nico leaned in. When their mouths met, Percy's lips parted easily under his. Nico had never kissed anybody like this - but here, nor had Percy. The first flicker of Percy's tongue against his lips made a spark of fire go through him, and he eagerly met it with his own. Percy's sudden indrawn breath was so hot - that Nico had done something to turn him on - that Nico clutched fiercely at his shoulders and pushed him back onto the bed to kiss him properly. Percy went willingly.
Nico knew that it was bad even as he did it. What was he doing, letting Percy think they were a couple in the future? What was he doing, kissing Percy in his childhood bed? In the future, Percy was in love with Annabeth and as far as Nico knew had never shown any interest in boys. He certainly didn't regard Nico as a romantic prospect. To be uncomfortably honest, Nico sometimes suspected that his Percy still kind of saw him as a dorky ten-year-old. He didn't patronise Nico, or anything, but with their age difference, he could hardly see him as anything else.
But here Percy was fourteen, the same as Nico; only a few months older than when they'd first met. His voice was still in the process of breaking, like Nico's was, and Nico - well, for once in their relationship, Nico was the one who held all the cards.
So he didn't just let Percy kiss him and feel him up, even though he knew that if his Percy remembered this - Nico taking advantage - he would never speak to him again. It was stupid, reckless - but Nico could be as impulsive as Percy sometimes, and he couldn't resist Percy kissing him and rubbing up against him in bed. He'd been crazy about Percy since he was ten, and when faced with the object of his misplaced, unwanted devotion coming onto him, he took the opportunity presented.
Now Percy pushed him back on the bed and rolled on top of him. Nico clung to him, digging his fingertips into Percy's strong back. He wanted to ruck up Percy's t-shirt to feel the soft, warm skin there; but he wasn't brave enough. Percy definitely had a hard-on, because Nico could feel it between them, bumping against his thigh. It was really, crazy hot to be able to feel that. He'd thought a lot about Percy's dick over the past three years: how big was it? Was he cut like so many American boys were? What were his balls like? These questions preoccupied Nico's fevered teenaged imagination, but he'd never dreamed he might actually discover the answers. He was going to touch Percy's dick. He wanted to do it right now, but shyness inhibited him. He just opened his mouth and eagerly rubbed his tongue against Percy's and thrust it into his mouth. The long, involved kisses in movies made sense, now. No sooner did Percy pull back than Nico chased his mouth again. He was hard too, though the reminder of it touching Percy's stomach was a touch embarrassing still. The thought that Percy would probably, surely end up touching his dick in a few minutes was so devastatingly exciting that he couldn't even think about it.
At last, Percy pulled back to whisper,
"Is this how we do it?" The reminder that Percy believed that they'd done this before, maybe even regularly, because they were boyfriends, sent a jolt of lust-shame through Nico.
"Here." Nico tugged at him until he got the hint and squirmed about so he was on top of Nico, their legs entwined. Nico wrapped his arms around Percy's shoulders again and wriggled experimentally. It was good, but could be better if - he managed to extract his left leg from where it was trapped under Percy's (very heavy) right thigh, and, feeling slightly ridiculous but too excited to care, spread his legs so that Percy could lie between them, as if they were Doing It for real. His cock was next to Percy's, pressed between their bodies, and when Nico pushed upwards with his hips, Percy pushed back.
Some kind of instinct seemed to take over Percy: his weight crushed Nico to the mattress, but that was fine because Nico didn't need to move. Percy's jerky thrusts made their erections slide between their bodies, and Nico just clung to Percy's neck and kissed whatever bits of him he could reach. It felt like little fireworks down his spine and in his cock, the rapid back-and-forth jolting him into the bed with every thrust. Nico had never imagined this - never imagined anything beyond touching Percy's strong body and straining cock with his hands or, just recently, his mouth - but it felt so good and almost like real sex, the kind that frightened Nico even as much as it intrigued him in a perverse sort of way. He'd once - just once - had a wet dream in which Percy had to fuck him like that, actual fucking, and Nico could feel Percy's dick inside him so intimately. On waking, he hadn't dared to examine it too closely.
"Mm, Nico." Percy panted his name in his ear, and Nico held onto him tighter. Words were stuck in his throat, but as Percy started to really thrust back and forth and grind their erections together, he let out soft high-pitched gasps. He was fiercely hot, and his fingers were starting to slip on the sweaty skin of Percy's back, so he dug in his nails in excitement. Percy gasped, but not in pain. He was going to leave marks, Nico realised. He held harder.
Percy's open-mouthed panting washed hot breath over Nico's ear, but all his could feel was the pressure in his cock and the aching pleasure of being driven repeatedly into the mattress of Percy's childhood bed, the scene of so many of his sad, embarrassing fantasies. But perhaps they hadn't been so sad after all. He was going to come, Nico realised deliriously. He was going to come in Percy's arms, while Percy humped him and kissed him and moaned his name.
Nico gasped and dragged his nails down Percy's back. He hadn't meant to do it, but the muscles in Percy's back flexed and Percy made a noise in his ear that definitely wasn't a sound of pain. Emboldened, Nico did it again. He wasn't thinking about it: he just knew that it felt satsifying to claw and scratch at Percy, to leave red lines on his back and made him moan in Nico's ear as if he liked what Nico was doing to him, what they were doing together. He wanted to touch Percy all over, but all he could reach was the smooth expanse of his warm back, so he clutched and scratched at it and felt Percy grunt and thrust and crush him into the mattress because what Nico was doing to him was turning him on.
Nico twisted underneath Percy as much as he could, not trying to get away, but unable to bear the huge agonising pleasure building inside him, winding tighter and tighter, taking his body out of his control. His thighs flexed for purchase around Percy's waist and he took great heaving breaths, desperately pleasurable tingles spreading up his spine and down his legs. He was getting closer and closer and he was going to come, he was, Percy was going to hump him right to orgasm and then Percy was going to come on him too.
And he did, with the smell of Percy's sweat in his nose and the weight of Percy's body in his arms and the sound of Percy's ragged breaths in his ears. His body moved out of his control, jerking and spasming underneath Percy, and when Percy breathed a shaky moan in his ear Nico only whimpered louder as his cock emptied between them.
Percy was still thrusting against Nico's hip. It couldn't be comfortable, Nico was so bony.
"Here," he breathed, and as if in a dream he reached down between them and took hold of Percy's hard dick. It was so hot he nearly let go of it again, but the way it throbbed in his grip and Percy moaned encouragingly - Nico started to stroke it, pulling the foreskin back and forth over the head in the way he did to himself. Percy made soft, ragged noises under his touch, and his hips started to move forward into Nico's hand. Nico worked his dick faster.
When Percy moved, Nico worried that he'd done something wrong; but Percy was only settling himself so he wasn't lying right on top of Nico, but rather with only their legs tangled. Perhaps he'd worried that he was crushing Nico. (He had been, a little, but Nico didn't care). The new position meant that Percy was looking right into Nico's eyes - which was terrifyingly exposing - and Nico was looking into Percy's face, which was incredibly hot because he could see just how flushed Percy's cheeks were and how he kept biting his lip as Nico's hand moved between his legs. Percy's arm wrapped around Nico's waist, holding him close. It made Nico feel more like...well, more like they really were boyfriends (which was a stupid term). He nestled closer into Percy's embrace and watched his face as he stroked his dick in repetitive motions. He felt the muscle in Percy's stomach tighten and his thighs tense between Nico's when he was about to come. Nico wanted to look down at his dick, but he couldn't see anything in the dark under the covers, so he watched Percy's face instead.
Percy's arms tightened around him and his face scrunched up as he came on Nico's hand. Nico committed that face to memory along with the shape and weight of Percy's dick pulsing in his hand. If it was only going to be the one time, he was going to make it count. He leaned in again to kiss Percy's slack mouth tenderly and felt Percy's chest rise and fall against his own. Percy's arm squeezed his waist affectionately. This was exactly where Nico wanted to be.
"OK, we have to do that again." There was a weight on his head, and after a moment Nico realised that Percy had raised a hand to stroke his hair. Nico pressed his face into the crook of Percy's neck and fought off the tears that threatened to well up.
"And more," he promised, recklessly. He'd already decided that he was going to suck Percy's dick tomorrow morning. In the shower, maybe, or when they'd just woken up and Percy's morning wood would be poking Nico in the thigh and it would be the most natural thing in the world to take hold of it, play with it, and slide down to put it in his mouth. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was. Percy was convinced that Nico was his boyfriend in the future, and it wasn't like Nico could reveal the truth now.
He let Percy stroke his back with his warm hand, and refused to think about what might happen if his Percy remembered this.