Would I, could I make you happy?

A/N: Hey everyone :) This is my first fanfic and I must say that I'm pretty surprised that I even managed to finish it. I have so many ideas, but it takes so long to write. So when I heard this song, I immediately got an idea and started writing things down, thinking this would be a short oneshot. Yeeaah, I got a bit carried away, so it doesn't really have that much to do anymore with the song lyrics.

But despite that, I hope you enjoy :) This is loosely set during the events of House of Hades or between that and MoA. You could say that this in an AU, sort of.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Percy Jackson or Heroes Of Olympus series. Everything you recognize belongs to our Uncle Rick. The mentioned songs belong to Billie Eilish (and the original to Rob Dickinson) and Mumford And Sons.

TW: Implied/referenced suicide (Not that prominent, but just to be sure)

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If the end of the world was near

Where would you choose to be?

If there was five more minutes of air

Would you panic and hide

Or run for your life

Or stand here and spend them with me

If we had five more minutes

Would I, could I, make you happy?

---- "The End Of The World" by Billie Eilish (originally by Rob Dickinson)

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Nico didn't know what he had expected, but it certainly wasn't this. When he'd agreed to get supplies for repairs for the Argo II, he thought it would be a short and easy trip. Not one that resulted in being stuck with Leo Valdez in some sort of small cave, probably underground, with no doors or windows and no way out.

The only sound in the room was the rhythmic tapping of Leo's nimble fingers against his legs, which were propped up due to the cramped space they found themselves in. They had confiscated his toolbelt and Nico's own weapon, his Stygian Iron sword, had been taken too, so he had nothing else to do than to listen to Leo's frequent and slightly irritating taps. He had gone quiet a while ago and Nico wasn't sure if he felt relieved or worried about that.

Over the past few weeks, he had gotten to know the Latino better, and was able to change his perception of the happy-go-lucky teenager that would never shut up. In the beginning, after they had rescued him from that awful jar and they had fallen in literal hell, there had been so many times that he'd felt the urge to punch said boy in the face.

Preferably with a chair.

His unnecessary and insensitive jokes were too much for Nico to bear after the hell he went through and Leo's constant happiness was insufferable. It had seemed like he didn't even care that two of the most important members of the crew were in there and probably on the brink of dying.

But in the end, it was Leo who probably cared the most.

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One night, when Nico awoke from yet another nightmare of Tartarus, drenched in sweat and scared out of his mind, he decided to go to the bathroom to freshen up and see if he could take Jason's watch, since he knew he wouldn't go to sleep again anytime soon. However, on his way to the bathroom, he noticed that the light in the engine room was on. Nico wondered who could possibly be awake at this time of the night, as everyone was normally sound asleep, tired from another day of fighting various monsters or from a shift they recently had to take.