101 (Percico/Pernico)

---Chapter Fourteen---

Life in Vault 101 was always the same: effortless work, nice air conditioning, fresh food and water. Percy would eat pancakes made by his mom and head off to work. Afterwards, he would converse with his friends about what it was like outside, or, in Annabeth's case, about the war 210 years ago. Leo would offer to have a crack at his Pip-Boy again. Piper would complain about her job. Jason would attempt to console her, to no avail. Percy would laugh.

Despite it always being the same, it was the life he always knew. He never wanted it to change. He wanted to have kids and raise them with whoever he chose. Who knew his dreams and desires would change in a mere five days?

After the Wasteland trip, he felt incarcerated. It was as if the walls were closing in on him and he could not find a way out. Even his mother's usual ways of comforting him would not help. The work seemed dull, the conversations with his friends redundant. The food was good, and the water was healthy, but those factors could have been easily overlooked. He found himself staring off into space for large amounts of time.

His friends asking him how it was like outside gave him some solidarity in his lifestyle that seemed so different now, although he lived that way his whole life. He never saw how it would impact him if he ever did go outside. He gave brief descriptions of the weather, the large, bright lightbulb in the sky, and some of the creatures. There were so many people and so many places out there; it was not compacted down beneath the earth, isolated from the world.

The first time that escaping crossed his mind was when he was sitting in his bed, wide awake, unable to sleep. He held his teddy bear in his hands, staring at the soulless, black beads it had for eyes. He felt at its brown, rugged fur and its dopey, thread smile sewn on its mouth in the darkness. He felt like that teddy bear: unable to move on its own, unable to be free, forever to be imprisoned in a vault and made to entertain others, despite its unwillingness.

He clenched the stuffed bear in his hands. If only he could leave. If only he could travel to the Citadel again, to see Nico training. To see sweat leaking from his pale skin from his exertions. To see his warm, brown eyes, staring gently into his own. He held the teddy bear to his chest and lied back on his mattress. At least it was comfier than sleeping on the floor in Diamond City. He imagined the stuffed toy was the object of his affections, with his silky hair and entrancing smile. He hugged it tighter at the thought. He did not want to let Nico go in the first place, but there he was, holding a stuffed bear as if it was him, trapped in a cage.

Perhaps he could. He could see Nico again. He could breathe freely again. He could just slip out the front door and find a Brotherhood soldier at Megaton to direct him to the Citadel. He still had the directions on his Pip-Boy. It would be so simple.

However, the thought of never seeing his mom again tightened his chest. His friends, he probably would never see them again, either, and after all the anticipation he built up about being reunited with the ones he loved. If only Nico agreed to stay there with him. But, then again, he would be incarcerating Nico, too. Like he said, "I have my place, and you have yours." What if he was not satisfied with the place he had?

He tossed and turned in his bed before he fell into repose. It did not seem like long until bright lights were flashing him in the eyes, telling him it was time to rise and pursue the day ahead of him. Yet another dreary day, doing the same thing he did yesterday, and the day before. Doing the same thing as he would be doing tomorrow. He changed his jumpsuit and left his room, eyes heavy with exhaustion and his limbs tired.

Was this how he was going to spend the rest of his life? Roving through the empty hallways of the Vault, without a purpose? Eat at the diner, leave a couple of caps and then head off to his meaningless job, doing meaningless work for hours, then returning to the Atrium to talk with his friends, then start the same, repetitive cycle over again?

He smiled at his mom tiredly before making his way to his job. Then, he would sit in the Atrium until it was time to return to his quarters. He flicked a switch that slightly amused the bored nineteen-year-old. He was then lost to his thoughts, which would prefer to be anywhere but there. They escaped to Nico, his hair lightened by the sun, his lips pulled into an amused smile. He imagined pulling him away from the training in session and kissing him, out of anyone else's view. Just his and the other boy's. They would steal a couple of kisses from each other, then slip back into the training grounds as if they never left. What an alluring thought, he mused.

The time passed by slowly, as if an hour lasted an eternity. He kept glancing at the clock, as if that would help it move faster. Eventually, to his relief, his shift ended, and he was free to do as he wished for the time being.

He sat with his friends in the Atrium, who were chattering away about something Percy was not listening to. He stared at the floor and thought of Nico. He thought of the night they shared at Tenpenny Tower, the advice Burke had given him. Was it truly to Nico's benefit that they parted? He could not see how he fared from it, the more he thought about it. Maybe Nico was enjoying their time away?

He remembered their farewells, where Nico hugged him and told him that he would greatly miss him. When Percy said it, he knew it. He felt it right as he sat there. He remembered Nico close his eyes and tilt his chin up, as if expecting something. He thought he was messing around and trying to make him laugh, but he surely was not, as he knew Nico would not keep a straight face. He pondered on it, what Nico was doing and why. Where else would someone close their eyes while being close to someone?

His eyes snapped open in realization. His hands flew up to his face, where he slapped repeatedly. "I am such an idiot!"

His friends overlooked him curiously on his strange behavior.

"Percy, what's wrong?"

"He was trying to kiss me! And I didn't know it. I thought he was just being weird, but no! He was trying to kiss me! And I missed it!"

"Nico? That one boy that you could not stop talking about?"

Percy nodded his head, which was still in his hands.

"He was trying to kiss you? Why?"

Percy shook his head. "He likes me, I guess."

"Do you like him?"

"Yes, I do. I miss him so much. I imagine kissing him sometimes. He's beautiful, sweet, and funny. It would be stupid of me not to like him."

"What are you going to do?"

"I... I need to get out of here."