Nico knocks on the door, his hands shaking at his sides, just a little. He hears two sets of voices barking, muttering that same spell under his breath he can suddenly hear the two female voices that hide beneath the barks.
'Nico! Nico!' Lupa barks loudly, scratching at the door while Mrs O'Leary barks out,
'Nico di Angelo, welcome back!"
The door is opened and Lupa jumps up into his arms, he catches her just in time as she happily licks his face, excitedly telling him about the bone she'd gotten the day before. She jumps down from his arms, Mrs O'Leary gives his hand a friendly nose bump and she almost smiles up at him.
"Nico?" Silena beams at him, she yells back into the house for Percy who appears a minute later, rubbing his head, Lupa rushes over to him and gives his hips a happy nudge.
"Nico!" Percy says smiling widely when he sees the witch, Nico smiles back.
"Hello Perseus, ready for your special day?" Percy blushes but he keeps smiling.
"Have fun Perce, be safe." Silena says, she stretches up and gives him a kiss on the cheek, he ruffles her hair in return and pulls a jacket on from the covered hooks by the door and then almost skips out the door.
"So, the big one-seven?" Nico asks as they walk down the path, Percy hands are in his pockets and he's looking away slightly with a blush on his face but he's smiling so brightly and happily, and for a reason that Nico for once understands, he's rather pleased that he alone can make this human happy.
"Yeah I guess, how old are you Nico? You've never actually told me." Percy says, Nico looks to him and arches his eyebrow in a teasing expression, then in a completely serious voice;
"I just turned four hundred and thirty-five." Percy laughs and shakes his head, "sure."
That's the thing with humans, their so small minded, Nico was telling the truth (give or take a few years, he'd never actually say his real age out loud, gosh) but throw in some eyebrow wiggles and a teasing tones and Percy couldn't be the wiser, but he's only human.
"So where are we going exactly?" Percy asks, Nico stops and tugs Percy into the alleyway he always teleports into only now there's a 67 Chevy impala sitting there. Percy blushes again and Nico smiles lightly.
"I was thinking about my sex dungeon." He jokes, Percy flushes even brighter but he laughs too. "But first, present time."
"Oh god, no." Percy says covering his face with his hands, "I don't want you to get me anything!"
"Too late." Nico says pulling it out of his jacket pocket, Percy peaks out from between his fingers and his jaw drops, "I know it's not very eccentric and I know I didn't wrap it, I couldn't find any paper."
"Nico...I love it." Percy says, he takes it from Nico's hands and admires it. It's a simple silver chain with a large purple feather on the end with one black, white and blue clay bead on either side, the feather is held in a silver clasp attached to the chain but from the clash hangs a small charm of a hawk. But what Percy doesn't know is that's it's enchanted, to hide him from all supernatural beings power, no matter the kind expect his. And when someone tries to hurt Percy, he'll feel it in the invisible spot on his right wing where the feather used to be.
"I'm glad, shall I put it on you?" Nico asks, Percy nods, he hands it back and turns around. Nico pulls it around his neck and closes the clasp, his hands brushing against the skin of Percy's neck which makes the shorter boy shiver.
Percy turns back around, the necklace hanging at his throat, against his smooth, tan skin. He looks up at Nico and blushes, smiling nervously. Nico's hands are still in that same position, hovering at Percy's neck, his minds screaming at him to put them at his side but he has other ideas. He moves them but it's not to his side, he feels a small blush form as his hands snake forward and over Percy's cheeks, Nico's minds gone into overdrive, he's yelling at himself to stop but he knows that he won't, that he can't.
There's something about this human, with those gorgeous green eyes gazing up into his black ones, something about that smile that stays even when those kids are throwing cruel insults at him because of his sexuality, when his sister stands by and does nothing, even then he smiles, the care he holds for his friends and now Nico, his humour and just Percy in himself. He's wormed his way in, Nico wouldn't call it love, it's only been a three weeks but it's something. He's never loved someone outside of his family, he doesn't know how romantic love feels like but he can guess that this is. Those odd feelings in his chest, the instinct to smile whenever he sees Percy, if it's not growing love then what is it?
And then he's kissing Percy, sweetly, gently, his lips like petals and the centuries of hate towards humans vanish and he realises that he never hated humans, he was just looking for the right human. He looks into Percy's eyes when they break apart, he smiles and Percy smiles back.
"Holy shit." Percy breaths and then he's laughing, Nico's laughing too. He pulls away and straightens up.
"Come on Perseus, we have a whole day of birthday surprises to get to." Nico says, he takes Percy's hand in his and pulls him to the car, even opening the door like a gentleman while Percy laughs and blushes.
What follows probably wasn't very imaginative on Nico's part but it was worth it, they went to the carnival in the next town, which only took an hour and a half to drive to and all the while Percy played 'I Spy' and made terrible jokes and puns about all everything they drove past. When they got there, Percy forced him onto every ride (which Percy laughed and cried out in slight fear and joy on every one, Nico didn't really find those human rides very interesting let alone scary or fun but Percy was happy and that was good enough for him). They got candyfloss which turned Percy's teeth and tongue blue and Nico's reddish pink, Percy then made some bad joke about making purple as an excuse to kiss Nico again.
His sticky fingers got the sugary treat all through Nico's hair and so Percy tried to clean it off with a sprinkle of water but the cap broke and the entire bottle of water sploshed onto Nico's head. Percy fell into a pile of hay he was laughing so hard, so Nico piled it onto his head while shaking his own like a dog. Wet and covered in hay, they headed too those cheesy games which always tend to be a rip off (but with a little mental spell Nico got his money's worth by winning Percy a blue unicorn).
Back in the car, filthy but happy, Nico drives them home while they pig out on the gift basket Nico got Percy, the unicorn in Percy's lap (which he's called Bluejack after his real horse Blackjack that lives just out of the city on his uncle Chiron's farm).
"Thank you." Percy says suddenly, Nico gives him a quick glance with a raised eyebrow.
"What for, Perseus?"
"For an amazing birthday." He replies, holding the necklace gently in his fist, Nico shakes his head but he smiles anyway.
They pull into the alley at 4:55, Nico pulls Percy out of the car and hastily brushes the hay out of his hair and shirt.
"What are you doing?" Percy asks bewildered, Nico laughs.
"There's still more!" He beams and grabs Percy's hand, pulling him along the road until they reach Percy's house, it's still and silent. Percy raises an eyebrow but allows Nico to pull him up to the door, Percy glances back at Nico but the witch just ushers him forward.
Nico watches as Percy opens the door, he walks in slowly until he enters the living room. Nico still stands at the doorway but he sees the lights flick on and about fifteen voices yell 'surprise!' then Percy's shriek of fright and then his laughter.
Nico smiles and shakes his head, Mrs O'Leary appears in the hall, he gives her a salute and she smiles back at him.
'Have fun Nico?' She asks.
"I did, I'll see you later M'Lady." He says giving her a bow, she gives him a bow back and then he vanishes, appearing less than a second later in his bedroom and that feeling from before sitting happily in his chest.
HEY SMALL BONS!
I really, really, really, really hope you liked that chapter, I've been waiting to do that for so long. THEY KISSY, KISS! I hope it was...like...okay, I've never really done any kiss scenes before so if you are wise with that kinda' stuff please leave some feedback, I'd appreciate it so much!
On the note of birthdays (because I'm a narcissistic whore, sue me) mine's less than three days away (by New Zealand time-zone) which is kind of terrifying because I swear to god my last birthday was not AN ENTIRE YEAR AGO! WHAT?! But I made it around the sun again so hurrah!
This chapter is dedicated to gaby_the_book_reader because of her incredibly sweet comment on the last chapter, so thank you, please forever stay so lovely!
PLEASE TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS!
Love Percy xx