Grover

With Nico staying in Percy's cabin due to him not having a cabin yet and cabin 11 being like full, it wasn't weird that both of them were late to breakfast the morning of August 19.

It was kind of weird when we went to the cabin, though. Clarisse, Thalia, and I went to go get them so we could all go to breakfast together.

His cabin was unlocked. Bedroom door was open.

Nico was not in a different room. He wasn't even in a different bed.

There was absolutely no space between them, and Percy isn't one to like sleep in the same bed with friends. He's gay, he feels weird about it unless it's like a queen sized bed. Which, this was.

But they were still squished together like it was a twin sized bed. And Percy was the big spoon.

We stepped out of the cabin to discuss this, confused as hell.

I thought Nico hated Percy. Sure, Percy liked Nico, that's nothing new. That's why he would get so worried about him. But shit.

"Is Percy a cuddler or something?" Thalia asked me. And I shake my head. "Then what's going on in there."

"Well I mean, Nico's gay but I don't think Percy..." Clarisse fucking told us something we didn't know before now.

"Percy's gay." I corrected the daughter of Ares. "He's had a few boyfriends in the past, trust me. I highly doubt that he's still a virgin. But he's liked Nico for a while..."

Unsure as to what to do with this, we let them be and headed to breakfast, saving room for them to join us.

Percy

I'd be offended that Grover believe I wasn't a virgin being he doesn't know that for sure, but Nico and I did have sex last night, so...

Am I sorry?

Not at all.

Almost immediately after I woke up, Nico did and he rolled to face me and he gave me a smile.

"Good morning." He said and I smiled. He sure had one hell of a birthday present for me last night. Taking my virginity.

"Morning," I returned after giving him a morning kiss. "How'd you sleep?"

"Amazingly," Nico told me and I smiled, moving the hair out of his face. "What are we telling the others? They're going to be suspicious, you're never late for breakfast."

"I don't know," I was honest with him, shrugging. "I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with being out. People know about me, they don't care."

He thought about that for a second.

"I wouldn't mind being out." My boyfriend told me because we made that official last night before we got here. "I mean shit, somebody probably already saw us on the beach. It's less weird when I leave with you this weekend, too."

So we agreed that we'd just tell them, if they didn't ask.

Being he didn't have anything with, I gave him an old pair on pants to wear. Really they're still good they're just too small, he's still a little skinnier than I am. He's almost healthy. Given another month or so and he'll be back to a healthy weight. With that, I gave him my sweater because he wanted to wear it and I couldn't say no.

But I mean, he was rocking the baggy sweater look it was so cute on him.

We walked to breakfast together and of course, this doesn't go unnoticed. Some dude called us faggots, Nico flipped them the bird, and life was okay.

"Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw," Clarisse remarked when we sat down, which was a good reference. "when did this happen? And why haven't I found out yet?"

"Shit, it was only yesterday." I assured her that we haven't been hiding this for the last two summers or anything. "Relax."

"After you left me alone in the big house?"Grover questioned.

"Mhm."

"Fair enough, fair enough."

Yeah, while I got stuck with paperwork like all day, at least Nico was there. He kept me company and I mean he did have to design his soon to be built cabin, so he had an excuse to be here.

He was looking fine in my sweater. It was hard to contain myself throughout the day.

Like, real hard.

But like, this whole new relationship aside, it was hard. Filling out the paperwork was hard.

I still had calls to make. One of which was to Annabeth family because she was at the bottom of the last. She was the last one to die. The last so far. We have a lot of people in critical condition right now.

But I had to make the call. They needed to know.

"Chase household," Fredrick answered the phone and my heart dropped. Nico was holding my hand because without that crutch, I wouldn't be able to make this phone call. "This is Fredrick."

"Fredrick, hi." I said and bit my lip. "It's Percy, one of Annabeth's friends from Camp Half Blood."

"Percy! Thank gods!" He was so excited to hear that she was coming home and I knew that's what he thought this call was because hell, she was strong. "I've been anxious all week. Do you know when her flight leaves?"

"Um..." My eyes watered and Nico squeezed my hand. "Yeah, about that, Mr. Chase."

"She's alright, isn't she? She lived?"

I shook my head. Tears fell.

"She lived," I confirmed for my best friend's dad. "She... Yeah, she survived. But we got back to camp after celebration and she went to her cabin."

I paused for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Fredrick." I felt so shitty telling him this. "Your daughter killed herself last night."

The last time I heard somebody lose it so quickly was when my my mother and I found out Poe was dead.

I was fostered for a year, she couldn't take care of me. I got to visit on weekends and that was it. It was absolute hell. I tried to kill myself on multiple occasions because of that.

"No..." He wanted to deny it, but I mean, why would I lie about this. "No, she couldn't have... She wouldn't..."

I couldn't listen to him, I handed the phone to Nico and broke down crying.

Just needing a break for a while out of camp, I went to tell Chiron I was heading out, I'd be back for dinner.

And he sits me down before I can say anything.

And he tells me that my parents were dead. That somebody went after them, somebody under Kronos and killed them last night. They were found this morning. By Rachel's family. They were looking for me, they just got home.

But instead, they found my parents. Bled to death in the living room.

After that, it didn't matter. I understood why Annabeth killed herself.

I skipped out on dinner that night. I couldn't bring myself to leave my cabin. Nico was nice, brought me breakfast the next morning because I refuse to starve. I was still hungry. The others came back with him, knowing this was hard.

Hell, Grover never went through this, but one day he just accepted that they weren't coming back and that's hard. Nico and I were kind of in the same boat now. Clarisse and her dad, she has two, haven't spoken in here. She stays with her aunt.

We had a day in. Watched some movies. Tried to not think about it.

And that Saturday, we had the memorial. A lot of families were there. Everyone mostly cried. It was depressing.

But afterwards I figured Nico was going to leave. That was his plan, I don't know why I thought our relationship wouldn't affect that plan.

He was grabbing a shirt to change and I assumed he was packing.

"Do you know... Do you know where you'll be?" I asked my boyfriend, who gave me a weird look as he took off his shirt.

"What are you talking about?' he asked me, slipping on the shirt he grabbed.

"Well are you like leaving?" I asked him. "That was your plan, wasn't it? Stick around for the memorial and haul ass out of here?"

"I mean, it was." Nico confirmed for me and shrugged. "But I mean, a lot has happened since that plan was made. I'm not just going to leave you here, especially with what's just happened. If you want to go, leave, whatever, we can. But I'm not leaving you."

"You aren't?" I really liked this news. Mainly because Thalia is back out on the Hunt and Clarisse left a few hours ago. After the memorial. So it's like him and Grover and that's mostly it.

"Gods no," my boyfriend insisted, grabbing my hands and giving me a smile. "That'd make me a pretty shitty boyfriend, I think. Do you want to go anywhere? I feel like you're starting to get a little tired of this place."

"I could use a break." I agreed, nodding my head and we made a plan to go to dinner at a Chinese place before getting my stuff from home and going to the Underworld.

It doesn't sound right, but the underworld seemed like a nice place right now. Plus, I actually get along with Hades and Persephone and Demeter.

Hades

The morning after the memorial, I woke up and there was a letter on the kitchen counter. Demeter pointed it out to me being I wasn't in the kitchen, but I was walking towards it.

"What is it?" I asked her, figuring cereal was good enough this morning. I could make something nicer and more filling later, when everyone has woken up.

"It's from Nico, he's visiting." Demeter told me as I looked over the short note. "There's somebody staying with him, he didn't give a name, they're in the same room, though. He asks that we don't simply barge into his room, but that we knock if we go in."

"That's fair." I remarked and grabbed the milk from the fridge. "I wonder who he brought with him. He doesn't have any friends from camp, that I know of. Unless he made a friend these last few days that doesn't go home... Which, he might've."

"Hades, you can just go look."

"No, I'll wait."

Probably twenty minutes after I finished eating, Nico came out and grabbed something to drink as Persephone came out of our bedroom. She was already dressed and everything. Nico wasn't. He's been doing good lately, especially since he accepted the fact that he's gay.

And I recalled the note.

"Wasn't there somebody with you?" I asked Nico, earning his attention.

"Hm? Oh, yeah." Nico told me. "Getting dressed, don't worry."

"Oh, okay," I remarked and figured I'd ask before it was a stranger and it got like weird or something. "who uh... Who is it? It's not someone from camp is it? I could see Percy, but he should be home with his mom and step dad right about now."

"Uh, no, not exactly." Nico corrected me, taking a sip of his tea because his ass doesn't drink coffee. "Percy's with. He can't really stay with his parents. They kind of died."

And then I recalled that execution of the boy who served Kronos from the other day. He murdered a family of a demigod.

It was probably Percy's parents.

"Oh, I suppose." I responded. "That sucks. Is he okay?"

"Considering Annabeth killed herself, his parents are dead, and he almost died this week," my son told me. "yes. He's just kind of quiet. But he's not starving himself or anything. He gets nightmares. Talking about it is obviously still hard. But considering everything, he's fine."

I'm not blind, I know about Nico's crush on the son of Poseidon. At first I was opposed to the idea, but I think it's a nice idea. I wasn't sure if Percy was gay, though, or interested in my son.

"That's good." I said, nodding my head and thinking about this. "Are you uh... Are you guys simply just friends or is there something more? I really don't want to ask him about a girlfriend and then have him tell me he's gay or something."

"We're dating now," Nico clarified the situation for be. "we started talking and it led to things after the celebration on Olympus, so we're dating. Please don't ask if he has a girlfriend, he knows that I was going to tell you this morning."

So I made breakfast for everyone and Percy came out. He looked a little tired, but he was hungry. And I did it just to joke with my kid.

"So, Percy," I said, trying to stay away from the topic of death. It was going well. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

He looks at Nico like all you had to do was say hey, dad, my boyfriend is here.

Nico just gave me a look. And I mean, mind you, he gave Percy a good morning kiss when he came in here. They're not hiding it.

If course, this was funny 30 seconds later when I said it was a joke, they were a lovely couple.

Because truly, they were.