Nico

Kronos was gone, the celebration on Olympus was over, and we were at camp. I figured I'd stay for the memorial, which was supposed to be this weekend, before I'd go. I could at least honor that.

I was sitting out at the beach, on one of the docks. It was nice outside. Warm. The sun was starting to set. It was beautiful.

Almost too beautiful after what happened today. Everyone that died this week.

"Taking one last look before you leave?" I heard Percy's voice come from behind me, which surprised me. I figured he'd either be making calls or with his friends. Grover, Annabeth. I kind of gave up, I guess. On him.

"Hm?" I responded and shrugged. "Oh. I don't know, I think I might stay for the memorial. It'd be rude if I didn't. I wasn't really friends with any of them but..."

I shrugged.

"I still knew them." I figured and he sat down next to me for reasons I couldn't tell you. There's 30 other docks here. Empty.

"They'd appreciate it." Percy remarked and I could tell that it was still settling in for him that they're gone. He was their friend. He knew all of them. "I mean, they probably wouldn't know, but yeah..."

I've never seen Percy cry before and I really wasn't planning on seeing it any time soon. But with how he seemed to be right now, it might happen.

But hell, that's grief.

"Where are the others?" I asked him, still unsure as to why he came out here and sat by me.

"Grover's still making calls, helping Chiron out to figure out what camps going to do now."

"Isn't that your job?"

"Yeah," he told me, nodding his head. "But I don't stay here in the fall, so Grover gets to take care of it. I go home."

His eyes started to water. He was fighting it, I could feel that much. He was fighting it, and that was a bad idea for him.

"What about Annabeth?" I asked.

He closed his eyes.

"Did she already leave?"

He crossed his arms and shook his head, tears starting to escape. As they fell, I kind of realized what happened.

"Oh." I remarked, even though I thought she was on Olympus.

Yeah! She was. The gods rewarded her. So unless she was like hurt afterwards, which there wasn't an outbreak after we got back.

"Sorry." Percy apologized after a minute as he recomposed himself. "It's been a long day, finding her dead just... Was shitty."

"Wasn't she on Olympus with us?"

He nodded his head.

"Yeah," he assured me that I wasn't insane, or not completely. "We got back and she went to her cabin and she hung herself. She couldn't handle Luke's death. She couldn't handle being there when he died."

"I thought it was weird that the presence seemed fresh still." I remarked being I can like sense death and all. I hate it, but it's what I can do. "are you going to be okay? They were your friends, right? I know Beckendorf was. Annabeth, obviously."

"Yeah, I'll manage." Percy assured me. "It's not my first time with trauma. I managed the other time."

"What?" I responded, because that didn't seem right. He was fine after Bianca died. I mean, he grieved. But he wasn't like heavily affected. He was too worried about me.

"It was before we met." He explained. "My brother. Things with my mom's ex."

"Tyson? What happened with him?"

"No, my other brother." Percy clarified what he was talking about and the air turned still.

I've been to Percy's apartment before. Last year, his birthday.

He doesn't have another brother.

"Percy," I pointed it out to him. "You don't have any other siblings."

"Yeah," he didn't deny it, though. He agreed with me on that. "I know. That's because he's dead."

My.

Heart.

Broke.

My thoughts are like everywhere now because what am I supposed to do? I always told him that he never understood what I was going through over this late year and a half. He didn't have the family to lose. He has his mom, Paul. Tyson. But that's it.

"Oh," was like the only thing that managed to come out of my mouth. "I didn't..."

"Yeah, I don't really talk about it." Percy explained to me. "So all the I don't get it bullshit? Can't really say that anymore."

"What uh..." I mean one death to another wasn't the best subject change, but it was less fresh. He's had time. "What happened?"

"My mom's ex beat him to death." Percy told me, which was really brutal. "It was during my first summer, he was at a different camp for part of the summer. We were the same age we were twins, but he was really into art and dance and that sort of thing and he saved up the money so he went to a two week camp thing and when he got back Gabe was the only one home and he wasn't happy with my brother, so he beat him. There was nobody home to stop him. I was in the Lotus when it happened. I was told what happened after the funeral, being I didn't make it back in time. I was on a quest."

Percy paused for a second.

"Gabe was never charged with murder." It was sad that he said that. That justice was never served. "We had Medusa's head and he tried to beat my mother. He would beat all three of us, that wasn't new. But after killing Poe, she didn't take the risk and she sold his statue for our new apartment."

After a second, he let off kind of a pathetic laugh.

"But now we have Paul, and he's a good guy." At least he took some good out of that situation. I mean even for me it's a lot to take in. "And who knows, they're married. I've heard them talk about having a kid once this situation was over and I was mostly like safe. Unless I died, which then it's even less to worry about with my safety. Which, it'd be terrible. I wouldn't do that to my mom after Poe. But—"

"I know what you mean." I cut him off before he ran out of air. "Trust me, I wouldn't do that to my mom, either, and my mom died a long time ago. Hell, you'd kill me before I died."

He laughed.

"I mean that's a contradiction in itself, but yeah." Percy agreed, seeming to feel at least a little better. "You doing good? Anything you need to like confess or just talk about?"

"Well," I said and realized that the fact that I like him kind of entails that I'm gay that's like important, right? But like, I literally just realized this. "Shit."

"What?"

"So you know when you like realize something but you don't realize what it means." I explained to him, sighing. "like when you're told your dad is a god, you don't realize that means you're a demigod right away."

"Yeah."

"I just realized something."

"Hm?"

"I'm gay."

Percy kind of paused for a second and just went with it.

"Alright," he said, but at least he didn't make a big out of it. That was like my biggest worry, I guess. "who's the guy?"

"That's confidential."

"I literally just told you my entire childhood story." Percy insisted, scoffing. "Okay, not really. But still. This is bullshit. What else do you want to know? I'm a raging homosexual. Okay, I'm not raging, but I'm a not raging homosexual."

I laughed my ass off after he said that and then it clicked that hey, he's gay.

I have a chance.

"Hey, I am, too." I joked with him. "It's okay, we can be not raging homosexuals together."

I didn't realize how much that sounded like flirting. But shit, he took it.

"That sounded really suggestive, I didn't think that—" I started off and he chuckled, lightly placing his lips along mine in a kiss.

My brain left, along with my soul.

We kissed.

Percy Jackson and I kissed.

Percy Jackson kissed me.