What The Nefarious Carnival Does To You (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter Four: All Green And No Blue

A/N: Yeah, WARNING for explicit content. I'm gonna edit it out so if you want the good stuff, visit my ff account, yeah? Nnnn. Sorry for that ;-;

What The Nefarious Carnival Does To You

Chapter Four

All Green And No Blue

An afternoon of helplessly trying to track down the gold-eyed girl was not in Nico's agenda. He eventually gave up and decided to take a shot at it next time, say a few days later. To his chagrin, Percy still hung around. He did agree to hang out with the Siren.

"Doesn't it tire you out? It looked like it did to me." Percy mumbled from behind him. Nico rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He was heading to his cave to see if he left anything there.

"Takes practice. Although for now, I'd say it is tiring." Nico replied. "So if you wouldn't mind, I would like to refrain from talking right now." Nico huffed as he quickened his pace. Percy hurried to catch up and walk beside him.

"If you didn't want me hanging around, you could've just said so," Percy feigned wincing in hurt. Nico couldn't stop his eye from twitching. "You forced yourself on me, Siren." He blurted, using Percy's pseudonym. "You didn't seem to argue though," he could hear the smirk in Percy's remark. He opened his mouth to reply but stopped when he felt a hand latch onto his wrist. Nico tamed his self-control when he felt the tickle of warm breath on his ear. "Don't deny liking it."

Nico wrenched his hand free from his grasp and strode forward without looking back, afraid of the visible blush on his cheeks to be seen. "I liked it when you weren't being a manipulative bastard." Nico scoffed weakly. He heard the older boy chuckle warm-heartedly before following him. "All is fair in love and war." His voice pitched in a singsong way. Nico ignored what he said when he saw his cave not afar. He entered and in an instant, Nico felt the darkness give him a warm welcome. Yeah, that wasn't creepy at all.

"How do you see in the dark, anyways? Doesn't it hurt your eyes?" Percy's question echoed off the rocky walls. Nico shook his head but realized the boy couldn't see him. Sighing, he reluctantly grabbed his arm and led him. Normally, the torches set on the walls would set ablaze if it weren't for a blank audience. Besides, Nico wanted to keep his cave dark to scare away whoever had an idea of entering it.

"I could ask you the same thing underwater." Nico turned to look at Percy, then back forward. The teen shrugged and let himself be dragged by the younger boy.

"Instincts, I guess. It comes naturally." Percy replied after a few seconds. "Likewise." Nico mumbled softly. I guess I forgot to blow it out, Nico thought as he saw the lit candle from a distance. He was pretty sure he did the last time he exited his cave.

He approached said candle and examined it. The wax hasn't melted much, to his surprise. He carefully caressed the skull as he stared at the flame. "I know I asked this once before but I'm asking it again. Why do you keep a coffin in here?" Percy asked as he eyed the wooden coffin from a few feet. Nico retracted his hand from the skull and saw that at least a light delicate layer of dust has settled on his fingertips. That was odd. Was his cave that untouched? "Because reasons." Nico didn't feel like answering anymore.

"And since when did you take an interest at interrogating me anyway?" Nico spun around to look at Percy. All the questions just tossed Nico off balance. The teen wasn't this curious about him before. What changed? He noticed the boy avoid eye contact as his eyes focused on the darker part of his cave.

"I'm just curious about you, Necromancer." Percy smiled, looking at his direction but not exactly meeting his eyes. Nico would have to take that answer for now. He didn't bother replying as he rummaged through his stuff. His curiosity increased when his other stuff wasn't as dusty. Unknown to him, Percy had blindly roamed without knowledge of his area. So when Nico looked up, he nearly panicked at the absence of Percy from beside him.