Out of My Mind (Percico/Pernico)

Chapter Four

"Wake up!" Jason shook Nico, the boy waking with a start.

"W-wha?" Nico asked in a sleepy tone, his voice groggy. His eyes strained from the light in the room, which, in his opinion, was the worst way of waking up. He forced his eyes open and sat up, rubbing the fatigue out of his eyes with the back of his hands.

"It's time to wake up, we've got to go to breakfast," Jason said.

Nico reluctantly got up with a groan and stretched his arms, hearing a satisfying crack. He pulled on some scrubs, ran a quick brush through his hair, brushed his teeth and joined Jason as they walked out of the room and down the hall to breakfast. Breakfast wasn't that different than dinner had been, except, this time, he felt a pair of arms snake around his waist from behind and something rest on the top of his head.

"What do you want?" Nico sighed.

"I want to know if you're planning on eating today," a familiar husky voice replied.

"No, I am not," Nico said.

"Well, that's a shame," Percy responded, burying his face in the shorter boy's hair. "I would like to see you eat more."

"I would like to see you go away," Nico remarked.

"If you eat, I'll go away," Percy told him, his voice muffled by Nico's hair. "That's my final offer."

Nico looked over to Jason for support. "Help me, please?" he mouthed.

"Percy, he should eat if he pleases, for now," Jason said. "Leave it for the doctors, it's their job, not yours."

"I don't recall asking for your opinion, Peter Pan," Percy retorted, taking his face out of Nico's hair to look at Jason. Nico took that chance and unraveled himself from Percy's arms.

"Hey," Leo spoke up nervously, shaking as usual. "We don't need to get all-"

"Well, Hot Stuff, this is how the world works," Percy snapped. "Hey, you know what else is hot? Fire." Leo choked out a sob and was immediately aided by Jason and Nico rushing to his side as he began crying. "That's pathetic, you're sixteen years old, and you start crying whenever anyone mentions fire." Leo began crying harder.

"Stop that!" Nico shouted. "The only pathetic one here is you, for picking on people for just being here. Well, wake up, genius, guess who else is here? I'll give you a hint, it's not the Easter Bunny."

"You're here, too," Percy said. "And don't think that I don't know that I'm here."

"Then treat the other patients with respect!" Nico snapped. "Respect is when you treat another person like they're a person, not like a sack of garbage."

Percy looked at Nico with shock. "A rule-follower," he thought. "People are taking him seriously. He's standing up to me. Conclusion: he's hot."

"Come on, Leo, let's bring you to the nurses," Nico assured the curly-haired boy as he and Jason led him out of the room, leaving Percy awestruck.

- - - - -

"So, Nico, after Bianca's death was when you stopped eating?" Dr. Solace asked, writing a few things down on a notepad.

"Yeah," Nico confirmed.

"Why did you stop eating? Did you feel like you didn't need to, or that you didn't want to?" The blonde doctor's bright blue eyes looked into Nico's, which made the boy lose his tension, but not want to be there at the same time.

"No, I'm just not hungry," Nico responded.

"Are you forcing yourself not to be hungry?"

"No, I just lost my appetite."