Chapter Text
It’s in moments like this when Nico wants to shadow travel to the Underworld and ask his father if the Fates can be bribed.
If for some unknown reason, his father, god of riches, probably made an irresistible bargain with the Fates just to make his son happy. Because that might be a more believable reason as to why these things are happening to him right now.
Somehow, that is more believable than what people who care about him keep on saying: he deserves good things, he deserves to be happy.
Nico snuggles closer to the beautiful man he is with in bed right now—his cheeks resting on the other man's bare chest.
Percy Jackson.
The man he’s never stopped loving. The man who’ll forever have his heart. The man whom he’s entrusted everything to.
His love. His life. His All.
His first.
“What’s on your mind?” Percy's sleepy voice is the most adorable thing in the mornings. He feels Percy’s thumb caressing his cheek—his touch like the cool breeze by the sea. Comforting. Relaxing. Home.
“You sound like Facebook.”
Percy laughs at that—his chest sending delightful vibrations across Nico’s ear. Ah, that enchanting sound from his beloved, he would never get tired of it.
He’d never get tired of causing it.
“Ser—ious—ly,” Percy manages in between laughs, clearly caught off-guard by Nico’s dry humor. “I want to know what you’re thinking, babe.”
Nico will never figure out how Percy finds his snarky remarks endearing—how anything that the son of Hades offer or do has ever been worthy of Percy’s smile, of his laugh, of his love.
“Last night,” he finally responds. He looks up and places his hand on top of Percy’s hand caressing his cheek. “It was… beautiful.”
Percy meets his eyes, again taken aback, his sea green eyes so intense, his voice a bit husky “You are beautiful.”
He tips Nico’s chin, and meets his lips in a slow, entrancing kiss. As Nico’s mouth parts his lips to welcome Percy’s exploring tongue, he thinks again: Can the Fates be bribed?
💀🔱💀
It’s a lazy evening.
A movie is playing in the background. Percy and Nico are snuggled on the couch. They've finally had their own apartment in New Rome. After their mission to save Bob, they thought it's finally time to move in together.
“When did you get your tattoo?” Nico asks, head resting on Percy’s shoulder, arms around the older man’s waist, his hand drawing circles on a particular spot on Percy’s upper thigh. It’s a spot that’s always covered, even when Percy often takes off his shirt when he’s swimming or when he sleeps on his boxers.
A spot that Nico only saw last night.
Tattooed on that part of Percy’s body are some Chinese characters, which intrigued Nico, not because Percy’s got a tattoo, but because it's in a place that's so well-hidden, in a language that isn't exactly easy to read.
“When I was 14, after…” Percy’s voice starts to break a little, which makes Nico punch himself internally. “... after your sister’s death.”
Even without looking up, he knows that Percy’s tears are slowly running down his cheeks. Nico wraps his arms around his loving boyfriend—this brave, loyal, and kind-hearted person.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay. It’s hidden there for a reason. It means that I can only show it when I’m ready.” Percy smiles weakly. “To someone I want to.”
A warm, fuzzy feeling bubbles in Nico’s heart. He can feel a lump in his throat, his own eyes stinging. He can’t trust himself to speak in the face of such trust and love.
“Charles did it for me, you know. It means: I promised.”
Suddenly, it clicks. Nico so remembers that night. The devastated look on Percy on having to break out the news of his sister’s death. Nico’s younger self who could only say: But you promised!
“It wasn’t your fault, amore. I shouldn’t have made you promise. I was young. We were young.”
“Bianca was the first person I saw die. Although it’s not only her who died on that quest. And many more followed after that year.”
Nico has long accepted that Percy isn’t the perfect hero who always wins. But he never really tried to look at it from Percy's point of view.
He pulls back from the embrace and cups Percy’s tear-stained face. “You still kept your promise. You kept her safe.” Nico brings Percy’s hand on the younger boy’s chest. “In here. You showed up in the Labyrinth. You did what she would have done to save and protect me. You helped me keep her, Percy.”
Nico realizes that indeed, her sister is safe. She’s well and happy, otherwise, she wouldn’t have chosen to be reincarnated. If Percy didn’t respond to Bianca’s IM’s, Nico would have done something worse than death to Bianca. Nico would have broken her heart and tarnish the memory of the loving sister who cared for him when he had no one else.
Nico would have turned into the monster Minos expected him to be—which would be far worse than Percy not being able to keep Bianca alive. It would have been a sinister mockery of Bianca’s love for her little brother—her one last act of sisterly devotion.
Now Percy hugs him tightly. They’ve stayed like that for what seem to be minutes or hours.
They've gone this far.
Maybe, just maybe, the Fates have been bribed.