Island fever (percico/pernico/nercy)

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They were stuck on that island for another week. Of course if they had wanted to they could have went through the doors occasionally popping up at different places, but somehow those only appeared when only one of the two was around. And when they had gotten the other one to look too, the doors had disappeared. So they went for a swim every now and then, tried to build chairs out of the wood in the forest (which they had given up on after two days of frantic trying and loud swearing and laughing at each others failing) and were finally sleeping in one bed together. Percy was trying to restrain himself, trying to sort out his feelings first. He didn't know why but every time he looked around at Nico, his heart started to flutter like mad and he felt the urge to grab and kiss the boy. Now it wasn't necessarily because Percy was turned on or because Nico did something really cute. Percy just had to glance over at Nico when he was just sitting there, staring off in space and Percy just wanted to snuggle close to him and feel whole again. Loved. Ever since their underwater sex they hadn't really done it anymore. When they had first slept together in the bed, it had come pretty close with Percy not being able to control himself and touching Nico all over the place, but they had only gotten each other off with their hands and then fallen asleep snuggled tightly together. And ever since then they had come to a mute agreement that when they fell into the bed in the 'evening', they would wrap their arms around each other and just enjoy the comfortable feeling and sleep.

Percy was sitting on the patio on their 14th day, just staring off into the distance, when Nico sat down next to him quietly. „What are you doing?" Nico asked after a while and Percy looked around at him, looking into his big brown eyes, resisting the urge to wrap his arms around him. „Just thinking..." He muttered and looked straight ahead again. „About...your friends?" Percy looked around at him again, smiling. „Our friends, Nico. But yeah, somewhat. Just wondering how they are doing right now and if they made some progress on their journey. Bet they are really helpless without the two of us around." He said grinning and Nico smiled for a second too before looking serious again. „I hope they are alright too. Especially Jason." Percy made a face. „Jason? Why him?" He asked rather harshly looking at Nico almost offended. Nico blinked. „Well...since you aren't around they are probably going to travel by air more than sea so he'd probably have to fight off monster attacks 24/7..." Percy still scowled and pulled Nico closer to him. „If you say so." He only said and put his nose into Nicos hair, taking in his scent and closing his eyes for a second. Nico had never mentioned Jason before. To be honest, Nico had never mentioned anybody from the Argo II. before next to Annabeth. The fact that Nico had now mentioned Jason made Percy feel extremely uncomfortable. What if Nico was bored of Percy and was now interested in the son of Jupiter/Zeus instead of him? A rather sour feeling went through his insides and his grip around Nico tightened. „Percy? Are you ok?" Nico asked frowning and pulled away from Percy, looking him in the face. „Hey, what's with that sour expression? Did I say something wrong?" Nico asked, now worried. Percy looked away, suddenly annoyed. „Wait...are you jealous?" Percys ears turned red and he spun around. „I don't know what you're talking about." But Nico only grinned at him and Percy looked away again. „Jason is just a friend Percy. He was nice to me when...well...when I had to admit to Cupid that I was in love with you..." Percys face softened and he wrapped his arm around Nico again. „You never told me about that before." Nico only shrugged. „I didn't think it was important. Percy?" „Hm?" „I love you." Nico said bluntly, straight in Percys face and gave him a peck on the lips. Before Percy could say or do anything, Nico had dropped sideways, putting his head down on Percys lap and closed his eyes. Percy looked down at Nicos dark hair, stroking through it with one hand and then gazing off into the distance again. „Yeah...I think i do too..." He mumbled, more to himself than to Nico. „Hm?" Nico asked, lifting his head slightly. Percy shook his head and sighed. „Nothing."

He watched Nico sleeping for what seemed like hours. He himself wasn't really tired. More like, his body might be but his mind was wide awake. He was thinking about his friends and the quest. About Annabeth and Nico. About Gaea and her forces. About Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. About good and evil. About Tartarus and Elysium. And even more about Nico. He felt something for him he couldn't explain. It felt so good though. Percy didn't want to miss that feeling. He wanted to stay with Nico. He didn't care if he was jumping in a relationship or anything. They had gotten to know each other over the past fourteen days and it had been the best fourteen days of his life. Somehow, breaking up with Annabeth didn't seem like such a bad idea after all this time either. He had spent two weeks with Nico and realized he had made so many mistakes. Maybe jumping into a relationship with Annabeth was simply one of them. She was pretty and smart, but something between them just hadn't been right. She was always so uptight and he could never let his guard down around her either. Whenever he would mention something that bothered him, she looked at him with that weird face as if he was a coward or something. As if he had failed her. Being around her had been fun when they had been friends, but ever since they had started dating, things simply hadn't been like that anymore. Percy wondered vaguely if that would happen with Nico as well. If they dated, would they change like that as well? Or would he still feel happy to see him, still want to snuggle him close to him? Thinking back, he had never felt that way for Annabeth in the first place. She had been the one pushing herself onto him when he had first come to Camp Half-Blood. She hadn't even liked him, just wanted to use him to get her quest. She had been the one kissing him. He had to admit thinking of her joining the Hunters had upset him, but maybe he had just wanted to not be left alone with Grover traveling around the world to look for Pan and Tyson at the forges. Maybe he had never really loved her after all and only thought he had because he hadn't known what real love was.