WHISPERS • A PERCICO AU

• Chapter 19 •

It has been a week since Percy had received the heart-quaking news that Nico loved him back, and still, he couldn't quite digest that information. Swallowing the news like it was true in a second was impossible to the green-eyed boy. Because acknowledging that Nico, the Nico di Angelo, liked him back felt like he was in somebody else's body, living in a dream.

So here he was, dangling his feet over the edge of the school's swimming pool, trying to know himself in the place he was. Goode High School's competition had ended, the winner being, of course, Will Solace. When he had received his rewards, he had a crooked smile playing on his lips, but besides that, he didn't seem thrilled whatsoever by winning.

Percy was used to pretending to be happy, and the expression was so noticeable in the blonde's statuesque face's features. As scary as it was, he could even see a part of himself in Will's reflection.

He was perfectly aware of how the more time he let pass dawdling behind, lingering in his thoughts, the more time he let Nico slowly stray away from him, but he couldn't quite lay a finger on how he would apologize, or confess.

Nevertheless, Percy was trying to find back some of his old self, amalgamating small pieces of him he left behind to find an answer that lay in the future. Because in these past few weeks, all he did was mope around the school like a zombie, pushing the blame outwards when all the guilt was squeezing the breath out of his lungs.

A fist closed around his heart as the painful memories flooded back in him.

He hoped swimming would help him clear his thoughts, just like how the clear water would wash against his body, making his skin glisten with a thin sheet of chlorine water. The past week, he had spent observing Nico, and the more he noticed, the more he missed him.

Taking a deep breath, Percy dived into the water, his perfect posture making the water stay serene around him as he felt it engulf him in the warmness of the small sea.

Bubbles rose from his face to the top of the water as the green-eyed boy gazed at the patterns the light made at the bottom of the swimming pool, mesmerized.

The feeling of the cold, yet hot, water basking him in the warm lights above was something he had missed. Sensing the small waves caress his toned body felt like greeting an old friend.

The muffled sounds from above made Percy giggle slightly— he had missed this.

Swaying with the current, the black-haired teen rose to the surface, breaking it with water droplets dropping around him like rose petals thrown at a wedding. Raising his arms while kicking his legs with enough force to drive himself forward, Percy started his swim, loving the feeling of the water enveloping him as he moved towards the other end of the swimming pool, each breath he took feeling like the first. The way he moved so gracefully— it was like he was the water.

As he touched the wall, Percy inhaled and caught his breath as he slid back into the rippling water. Months he had spent without doing this, too caught up in the fantasy of being with Nico di Angelo, and Percy had almost forgotten how much he loved this. For a split second, he regretted not joining the competition. It didn't matter if he could have won or not— just being in the water felt like returning to a home he had left for too long. Maybe he should have listened to Piper and Annabeth, maybe he could have had a good time after all.

But maybes won't bring him back to the past. He had to vanquish his uncouth thoughts of before if he wanted to relish the future.

Percy's head broke the surface once again as he gasped a deep breath, the smell of bitter chlorine and shampoo filling his lungs. Diving back in, he was swallowed whole as the water wrapped him in a loose embrace, kissing at his skin as he swam further, his only goal being to keep going.