WHISPERS • A PERCICO AU

• Chapter 11 •

His instincts told him to stop, so he did. Something did feel off. Percy swallowed back his apprehension.

He stopped where he could get view what was happening inside, without being noticed easily. The di Angelo siblings were in his earshot, as he required. But it was so silent, the dominant sound was Percy's heart hammering against his ribcage, like it was trying to escape from his chest.

A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. He didn't like eavesdropping, but he couldn't help it. His feet felt like they were glued to the ground. Did Persephone somehow know about this?

Gulping down the foreboding he was feeling, Percy raised his eyes to observe what was happening inside.

"What do you mean?" Bianca screeched, her voice barely over a whisper. Her hair wasn't tied back, so Percy couldn't see her freckled face. The dark waves of her feminine mane slithered to her chest, covering most of the wool white sweater she was wearing. The black leggings she wore blended in with Nico's bedsheets. Indeed, both siblings were sitting on Nico's bed. 

Nico took a deep breath in response. I love him, don't you understand? he signed, each gesture clearer than the other. Percy especially knew the sign for "love", both arms crossed over one's chest. It didn't help that he mouthed along the words, each movement acting like a stab in his chest.

The breath he was holding back was knocked out of his lungs. Nico loves somebody else? he thought, his eyes widening. He cringed back from the spot he was hiding. With pain in his eyes, a pain destroying his heart, he looked faintly to perceive the rest of the conversation.

"That's what I was trying to tell you." Bianca sighed, brushing her bangs out of her eyes, so Percy could get a clear view of her gleaming black eyes. "So, you're sure he's the one?"

Nico nodded grimly, a sour expression on his face. Also, Percy's coming any minute now, he signed, a shadow passing over his face.

The feeling devouring his insides was a pain too excruciating to bear now. Percy walked to the door of his biggest fears. He made sure his footsteps could be heard from Bianca and Nico di Angelo.

His ears kept ringing as he approached the siblings. He tried to look confident, raising his chin, like his heart hasn't just been shattered a similar way his dreams did in the past.

He heard Bianca curse under her breath as she left the room as quickly as she could, not meeting Percy's eyes. He swallowed back glumly.

Nico looked the same way he felt. His once shining brown eyes were dim and bloodshot, like he had just suffered from a mental breakdown. His hair was more ruffled than usual, sticking out in all the wrong places. His face was pale, streaked with tears. He wiped his them away swiftly before acting like everything was back to normal. Hello, Nico signed, his gesture sloppy with gloom.

"Hey..." Percy muttered, not meaning to sound rude. Nico looked taken aback as well. He put a hand on his chest, which looked like the sign for "my" or "mine".

Percy's eyes widened with regret. He closed his fingers into a fist, before placing it on his chest. He made a circle with it, the sign for "sorry". He just didn't trust himself to speak right now.

A million questions were running in his mind. Was it against his will that they hung out together? No, Percy scolded himself. It was him who asked for this today.

Still, he couldn't shake off the feeling that he wasn't supposed to be here. If Nico had found his true love, why was he still with Percy?

Nico must have noticed something was wrong, because he placed his hand on Percy's shoulder comfortingly. The green-eyed boy averted his gaze. One look into Nico's gorgeous brown eyes would be deadly: it would melt away all his worries that would just cloud his head once he left this place that he couldn't call home anymore.

Percy, I need to tell you something, Nico signed, anxiety written all over his face.

Without meeting his irresistible gaze, Percy acknowledged what he had just said by turning around to face him, his eyes flickering towards his lips. They were pink and slightly parted. At this exact moment, Percy wanted to do nothing more than kiss those lips that he had wanted for so long.

Soon enough, his sadness turned into anger. "Forget it." he spat. He already knew what Nico was going to tell him. He did not need to be reminded that Nico didn't reciprocate his feelings towards him. "I already know."

Nico's eyes widened with a mixture of fear, shock and confusion. Averting his gaze, Percy balled his hands into fists so hard his knuckles turned white. "I have to go now." he lied, not wanting any more of the regret he had collected from earlier events.

Nico's eyes were pleading. Please don't! he signed. Right now, seeing those gestures, Percy realised the sign for "please" was just a calmer version for "sorry": a flat hand making a circle on his chest.

Percy closed his eyelids tightly. "I'm sorry." he said. And he meant it. Sorry I infested your life with my existence, he wanted to say. Sorry I wasn't the one you wanted.

He escaped the house with fast steps as he felt Nico's and Persephone's gazes burning his back.

As soon as his feet hit the pavement, tears flowed loosely from his eyes. The tears turned to streams of dejection, and those metamorphosed into seas of sorrow that became his eyes.

Why?  he thought dejectedly. Why?

∆   ∆   ∆

sorry about that ;-;

it hurts me as well, but it's necessary for the storyline

i hope this will not ruin your day, i promise this story will end well :(

-drakonator