Nothing Left To Say (Percico)

#33. Room To Breathe

Not my best chapter *sigh* but stuff is about to go down, so pay close attention!!! ;D

Chapter #33 : Room To Breathe

~I feel a little lost in this world
I try a little noise and choke
I've honestly never felt this alone
Oh, I just need someone
I need a little room to breathe
You're making this hard for me
When all I need is to be set free
I need a little time to think
And if you ever will love me
Then all I need is a little room to breathe
I've been through and seen a lot
Left at the bottom and the top
We're on borrowed time, but time isn't enough
I'm just trying to be the best me I can be
Oh when I fall down, it's just me and the ground
I am no king, I have no throne
I need a little room to breathe
You're making this hard for me
When all I need is to be set free
I need a little time to think
And if you ever will love me
Then all I need is a little room to breathe~

PERCY POV

Nico had been behaving... oddly. Yesterday, the day after the wonderful birthday I had, he just seemed to totally shut himself off again. And yeah, it hurt. Like hell. He hadn't spoken to me at all! Yesterday I had let him play it off as he had lost his voice, or he had gotten himself sick, he had a scratchy throat the night before, blah blah blah. But I couldn't help feel he was hiding something from me. He wasn't actually sick, was he? Or maybe I was just being a paranoid little mama bird. Whatever the reason, I was feeling down that I couldn't hear his voice and joke around with him.

So I decided to go out for a crack-of-dawn swim with my fish brethren in the lake.

Yeah, man.

I began pulling my thin white t-shirt over my head and ruffled my shaggy black hair. I needed a haircut. Badly. Without a second thought, I tossed my shirt onto the wooden dock and slipped off my flip flops, pushing them beside my shirt. I was already in my swim trunks, ready to jump into the cool lake water. No one at camp was awake yet, so I practically had hours before anyone woke up. I watched as the inky sky made the waves in the water smooth and the light from the moon outlined each ripple, every movement. It comforted me already. I hadn't noticed how badly I had needed to swim until now. And I couldn't wait. So I didn't.

Thump, thump, thump, thump-

My feet stomped along the dock and I leaped, diving into the water, air whistling through my hair until I hit the surface of the lake with an elegant and almost soundless plop. The water seemed to swallow me, embrace me and wrap me up in its coolness. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. I mean, I would have been fine in any water temperature, but yeah. Perks of being the Fish Boy. My stiff legs and arms spread out and I pushed myself through the calm water. My shoulders were full of knots before I jumped in, and then, I felt free. I paused and just let myself float. With a deep breath, I thought about how thankful I was that with every inhale I didn't swallow any lake water and my lungs didn't explode. Yeah, I liked breathing. I didn't understand how I could possibly breathe underwater without gills or something (which would be totally awesome), but who needed to understand?

I was just enjoying my swimming, doing impressive backflips in the water and chatting with some lost fish, when something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It seemed to flash in the moonlight. Curiousness took over my body and I felt a sense of adventure flood my mind. Well, what did we have here? I pushed myself closer to the bottom of the lake. The object was small and definitely made of metal since it was catching the light. It seemed to be halfway planted into the sandy bottom of the lake, but I could easily make out the form the closer I got. Confusion and more curiosity flooded my mind as I realised what it was. Why would something like that be at the bottom of the camp's lake? I shrugged to myself and swam right in front of it.