Some Percico One Shots

The Scars We Share

I had to get out of there. The tension between Annabeth and I was painfully obvious among camp and having multiple pairs of eyes on us was suffocating me. Besides, it's hard to enjoy yourself when your girlfriend, who also happened to be your best friend, recently broke up with you. Well, as she put it, "taking a break from each other."

So, I began heading towards the beach. It's most likely a son of Poseidon perk, but either way, the ocean or any water source in general was always somewhere I could forget my problems and simply allow myself to relax.

I finally saw the water and the serenity of the sea brought a sense of hope. The laughter from the campfire was slowly fading in the distance, the soft waves crashing on each other blocking out any background noise. Recently, I had so much on my mind, moments like these were quite rare. I silently thanked my dad for the view.

What I saw definitely surprised me. There was Nico di Angelo, sitting near the grass, gazing intently at the water before him. I had no idea what he was doing there. I hadn't seen him around in these last two months, which wasn't surprising since he always seemed to be disappearing from camp, but after the war against Gaea, I had hoped to become his friend. I knew that because of Bianca, we'd have some difficulties in our friendship, but it was especially hard when he was so distant. Especially after going to Tartarus.

Tartarus.

No, I wanted to temporarily forget my problems, not dwell on them.

I contemplated going up to him. Shame rose in me. Nico was my friend, and despite our rocky past, was someone whom I wanted to get to know more. I began walking toward him.

"What do you want?" He startled me. He made no effort to look at me and his tone made it clear he had no interest in talking to me.

"I-What are you doing here?" I asked.

He gave me one quick look before turning around. "I should be asking the same to you."

I decided to sit next to him. As I slowly lowered myself on the grass, I noticed his body tense. Did he really want nothing to do with me?

"Well, I guess so many people are overwhelming me."

He raised an eyebrow. "You? People are overwhelming you?" He was definitely surprised.

"I, well. Yeah." I don't know why I felt so compelled to tell him, but I felt the need to tell someone and let out my feelings.

"It's been rough lately. Since, Annabeth and I broke up-"

"What?" Nico turned around and faced me. He quickly looked down at the grass.

"Yeah, we recently broke up. The news has been spreading like wildfire around camp, I'm surprised you didn't know."

"Well, I don't spend that much time here." He said, surprise and confusion evident in his voice. His cheeks were tinted pink. Was he embarrassed? "Weren't you two the golden couple?"

"I guess not," I replied truthfully. I never expected us to break up, but the war changed us and I knew, despite not wanting to admit it, that this would be for the best. We were quiet for a few moments.

"And um," He cleared his throat. "If you don't mind me asking, why?"

"I, sure. To be honest, I think we grew apart? Well, no. Actually, I think it was a slow process. But I'm sure that Tar-I mean that place had something to do with it. She said we needed time apart to find ourselves and heal." I was already regretting this conversation. I knew that Nico had gone through Tartarus alone, it was insensitive for me to complain about this when Nico had it much worse.