He's Back (Percico)

Chapter One

Percy

I was already having a bad day, I was just trying to make somebody else's better. Was it not the best idea? Yeah. But I didn't think he'd yell at me.

I went to Cabin 13 to talk to Nico for like 5 minutes, if even that. Annabeth and I just broke up, I figured he'd like to know because it's not a secret that he likes her.

Of course, I've had better ideas. But I don't know, I figured he'd like to know before I had to go home tomorrow. Today was my birthday, and I had to stay to make sure everyone going home left safely. It's been a shitty birthday so far.

Surprisingly, not completely because of the break up. That just added insult to injury. But I was ready to kind of move on from happened last year and I guess nobody else was. That's why we broke up. I want to move on with my life, she doesn't.

I hadn't seen Nico for a few days, too. I was worried. Hazel and Frank weren't here, they left like right after the first.

So I go to his cabin, and it was unlocked. His door was open, but I did knock as I kind of peeked my head in.

"Nico?" I said, making sure he was in here as I looked around and just barely saw him under the blankets on his bed, having like a panic attack or something. "Are you... Are you okay?"

"Fuck off, Jackson."

"Seriously, Nico," I'm not always the smartest, and I know that I should've left when he told me to. Part of me wanted to because I know it's a pointless fight. "What's wrong? You look like shit."

He hates me. He always will, and he has since Bianca died. I wish I knew exactly why because I don't think it's about Bianca anymore. It's me. And I'd love to know why. Sure, not everyone needs to like me. There's a lot of people even at camp that I don't care for. But this is Nico, and there's something that happened and I would at least like to know what it was.

I wanted him as my friend. I've been trying hard for years to make him my friend. And time was running short and it was starting to hurt.

Watching Nico make friends was great. Sure, he's still not very happy. But at least now I know that he won't leave here all the time. He had friends.

It just hurt because when I tried to reach out to him, even when I had amnesia, he didn't want a fucking thing to do with me.

"I said fuck off."

Like we've already established, I'm a dumbass. So I didn't listen to him.

"Nico, I just—"

Suddenly, I felt his hand make contact with my cheek and I don't really know what happened. I don't know if it was because of him or because of my trauma that I've ignored for years, but it was hard not to have a meltdown right there.

"Get out!" Nico raised his voice, and it scared the shit out of me. "You don't fucking help anything, Percy! You're just making it worse by being here! Let me deal with my own fucking problems! When will you get the fucking point? I don't like you! I don't want to be your friend! So leave me the fuck alone!"

Like the 12 year old I was, I listened to what I was told, kept my mouth shut, and did what he wanted me to do. I went to my cabin and I cried.

__________________

Jason

I saw Percy walk into Nico cabin. And walk out five minutes later, not happy.

So what did I do? I went to Nico cabin because that's not how it should work. Nico has told me that he still likes Percy and he's struggling with it. Because of Annabeth. And he doesn't know how to talk to Percy.

When I walked into his room, Nico was sitting on his bed, holding his hand, shaking.

Suddenly, I get a text from Grover. He made a group chat and put everyone but Percy in it.

Grover: Hey, do you guys know what happened to Percy? He's kind of in the middle of a breakdown right now and he won't tell me why. All I know is that it's not because of the break up. He told me it wasn't that. Half of his face is a little red, too. He won't say why

I figured I wasn't going to tell them. I didn't even know the story yet.

"Nico?" I asked as I walked into his room and sat down next to him. "Hey, what happened?"

"I..." His breathing was kind of insane and it worried me. "I... I uh... I ruined it, Jason. Every... Every fucking ch... Chance."

"What did you do?"

He shrugged.

"Percy showed up," Nico explained to me, trying to process it. "And as you know, I've been in a bad mood. I didn't want to deal with him. So I told him to fuck off. And he didn't listen. So I told him again. And he didn't listen. So I got frustrated and my body got the better of me."

"Nico..."

"I yelled at him, told him that I don't like him and I didn't want him as my friend. That he was a dumbass and that all he does is make my life harder and I slapped him and I told him to get out and I don't even know if he heard it because he looked kind of out of it when I slapped him and uh... Virtually, I ruined anything that could have happened."

When he noticed he had a text, I tried to tell him he wouldn't want to know what it was. But he looked anyways.

So, of course, now he's having a fucking panic attack because he hurt Percy and now he made Percy cry and he didn't mean to, he was being irrational.

I told him I'd be back, it was almost lunch and he'd be hungry. I met everyone at lunch and told them the deal.

"How's he holding up?" Piper asked Grover. We we're relieved it wasn't the breakup. Especially Annabeth.

"I don't know," Grover told us. "I mean, I'm not sure he's going to want to go to dinner. He won't tell me anything. He looked like somebody slapped him or something. There was a red spot on his cheek."

"That's not cool," Annabeth remarked. "I'm going to kill whoever did this."

I just smiled.

"Do you know?" Grover asked me and I nodded my head.

"Don't kill him," I said towards Annabeth, with a stern look. "He's already had a panic attack over what happened."

They gave me a confused look.

"Nico," I told them, and sighed. And it almost surprised them. Almost. "He uh... from what he told me because I saw Percy leave in a bad mood. Nico told me that he was having a shitty day. And he just wanted to be alone for a while, so when Percy showed up, he didn't want to deal with him. Told him to go away."

"That's no reason to slap him." Leo insisted, and he was right.

"I know," I wasn't defending him or attacking him. "But Percy saw how bad he was and he got worried it's Percy. And so he doesn't go away and Nico tells him again, go away. And he doesn't and he went to say something and he never said it entirety. Probably along the lines of I'm worried what happened or are you okay. And Nico, in his words, lost control. His frustration took over and he yelled at him, things he didn't mean and he slapped him and Percy left and when I walked in, Nico was sitting on his bed because he knew he messed their entire relationship up and then he got the text and he freaked out. He lost it."

They were silent, waiting for me to say more.

"I uh... It's both of their faults, I guess." I didn't know what else to tell them, though. It was hard to talk about. "Nico didn't have to snap, but Percy didn't have to bug him, you know? And I mean, Nico feels bad. He didn't mean to hurt Percy, he just knew he wouldn't be able to handle him at the moment. Why was Percy there? Do any of you know?"

They all shook their heads. They didn't even know he went to Nico's cabin.

Neither of them left their cabins that day.