What is  with the kitten, you ask?

No idea.

Yay guys!

We've reached the tenth chapter in this story (Not counting that one announcement)! This is a huge milestone, because people are actually still reading despite my terrible updating skills and amateur writing! YAY! Thanks for all the support and lovely comments I've gotten.

ENJOY!

TRIGGER WARNING: Depression, self harm, cutting (later on, I'll warn you with ****)

Nico's POV

What was I even supposed to wear to a movie marathon? Casual clothes?

Percy was there and I wanted to impress him. But without looking ridiculous.

Just then, the phone rang again, and I picked it up.

"Hi, it's me again, bring a change of clothes for tomorrow, a toothbrush, and come in Pajamas. You're sleeping over!" He exclaimed

"But-" I tried to say, but I was interrupted by the sound of him hanging up.

I sighed and began packing what he told me to.

There was no going back now.

Percy's POV

What is needed for a good movie marathon?

It had been too long since I'd had one last.

Popcorn, check, blankets, check, TV with Netflix, check, and...m&ms, check!

Great! Everything was perfect, everything was set up just how I like it.

But what if Nico doesn't like it how I like it? I thought,

What if he hates it?

What if he decides it's not worth it and just leaves?

What if-

"Percy! Snap out of it! You have to stay calm." I told myself

"Yes, calm people always talk to themselves." I answered myself

"Stop freaking out! It's a sleepover, not a first date," I said sternly to myself

"I wish it was a first date..." I said, without really thinking about what I was saying

I gasped in horror. I wished it was a date?!

No no no no, NO!

I can't be, impossible.

Is it possible? Could I really be...crushing on Nico?

This was not good. I'd managed to keep myself away from this, from getting too attached. From...crushes. I cringed at even the thought.

So far I'd done great, just playing around, no...feelings involved.

I couldn't- I wouldn't get attached in that way again. I'd just have to try harder to resist his way-too-freaking-adorable-to-be-legal self.

It shouldn't be too hard.

*small time skip*

It was way too hard.

I opened the door to a grumpy Nico in his pyjamas.

Barely restraining myself from hugging all that cute grumpiness in front of me, I gestured for him to come in.

I led him to the living room, trying to think of a way to break the awkward silence.

"Are your parents here?" He asked, before realising what he had said.

"Oh...I'm sorry," He told me

"Nah. don't be, it's fine, and no, Chiron isn't here." I answered.

He still looked uncomfortable, so I smiled really big and showed him to the spot with all the food, blankets and TV.

I flopped onto the couch and gestured for him to sit next to me.

He sat stiffly around 1 metre away, and I internally sighed. Really Nico?

"So, do you have anything you want to watch?" I asked

"No." He answered shortly

"Okay, well...Have you seen Doctor Who?" I inquired

"Nope, but I've heard of it," He said

"That settles it. You have to watch it. YOU MUST." I told him firmly

"Okay..." Nico replied

"You're going to love it!" I enthused, "Hmm, we should start from maybe, if you haven't seen it. I started from the new series as well when I first started,"

"Ok," Nico said, seeming bored

I pouted. "Aren't you excited? This is a turning point in your life. This will change you," I said, dead serious.

Nico's POV

I tried to act bored, like I didn't really care, but inside I was kind of nervous.

What if he didn't like my running commentary when watching movies?

Why was I so socially awkward, it always made things so hard...

The awkward tension was suffocating, and Percy's over enthusiasm in trying to make up for the silence wasn't helping.

"Meh." I said

Percy gasped, hand dramatically coming against his heart in mock pain.

"I'll make you take that back, Nico. You will eat your words." He warned me

I shrugged, and he looked even more insulted.

"Whatever, we're just going to start the movie, and you're going to love it." He informed me knowingly.

We started watching, Percy's eyes glued to the screen, while I watched him.

Stubbornly, I refused to let myself like it, just to prove Percy wrong.

But 20 minutes in, I was hooked, my eyes as stuck to the screen as Percy's, though I did add criticism now and then, I was really enjoying it, and the reactions it got out of Percy.

He was such a fanboy, he'd probably watched this thousands of times, yet whenever something scary happened, or the characters were in trouble, he jumped a little, and hid his face.

When the bin swalled Mickey and the plastic mannequin that replaced Mickey started acting all strange, he leaped across the couch and grabbed onto me, hiding his face in the crook of my neck.

While I was more than happy to have an armful of Percy, I couldn't refrain from commenting on this.

"Aww, cute little Percy is scared," I said, ruffling his hair a little.

He responded by pulling his head out and vehemently shaking his head. "Hmph. This is a total legitimate fear!" He exclaimed, waving his hands around. "There is science behind this! What if this happens, and they..." He shudders "replace people we know and stuff?"

"Perce...this show has aliens in it. It's not real

He pouts. "Aliens could be real...you can't know for sure..." He mumbled, and snuggles back deeper into me arms. "Mmph. You're comfy." He told me.

"Shh. I cant hear what's happening." I reprimanded, watching them closely on the screen.

"Ha! I knew you'd love it!" He yelled smugly, gloating.

"Yes, yes, whatever. Just shush and let me watch."

For about ten minutes, he kept smiling smugly, until he got scared again, and hugged me closer, burrowing into me.

I had a smug smile of my own when he did that.

I didn't know Percy was such a cuddler, and though I normally hated people touching me...I'd make an exception just this once! Because he was scared, so this was technically just comfort, right? Not because it was Percy and I would do anything for Percy. Okay, maybe a little bit, but it felt so good having him in my arms.

For the first time in a while, I let myself smile. Really smile, a true smile of happiness and absolute joy.

With him in my arms, I finally felt like things were going to get better.

Maybe we could both start to get better, together.

We watched as many episodes as we could before Percy and I both fell asleep next to each other.

Percy's POV (The next morning)

I woke up, tangled in someone else's limbs, a mess of arms and legs entwined together.

I slowly smiled.

Nico and I had watched movies until we had passed out from exhaustion, and it was the most fun I'd had in a long time. He was so fun to chat with, I loved how he wanted to hate it just because I said he would love it, how he gave funny running commentary the whole time, the way his lips quirked up at the corners when he was trying hard not to smile, how he-Wait NO PERCY NO!

Stop thinking like that! I sternly told myself off.

Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope. No.

I cleared those thoughts away, and despite my fear at my growing attachment to Nico, I still was in a great mood, because I was cuddling with Nico! Nico! Nico the one who hates all human contact!

I may have taken advantage of the fact I was scared to get more Nico-cuddles, but who could blame me?

I mean, I was scared, but I wasn't that terrified, I just wanted to cuddle with Nico.

I was so lost in my thought's, I almost forgot what day it was.

I picked up my phone to check the time, and swore under my breath when a notification came up.

It read: Classes in 1 hour.

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

"Nico. Nico, you have to wake up," I told him firmly, shaking him a bit.

"Mmph, it's too early..." He said sleepily.

"go away," He said, the words a bit muffled by the couch.

He made a shooing motion with his hand, and I almost awwed.

He was so adorable half sleeping, that I had to snap a picture, which I immediately saved as his contact picture.

I got back to the task at hand, finally managing to get him into a more awake state.

"Nico! Nico, we have classes in an hour!" I exclaimed loudly.

That woke him up quickly, and soon we were both rushing around madly, trying to get ready quickly.

I didn't live that far away, but the bus took forever to get there, so we had to hurry.

We just made it on, eating our toast in plastic containers on the bus and tying our shoelaces up when we got on.

"Did Chiron come back last night?" Nico asked me,

"Yeah, he just had to leave really early, to teach at school, y'know?" I replied.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," he told me.

I nodded in response, too busy eating my breakfast to reply verbally.

Nico's POV (A few weeks later in the afternoon)

TRIGGER WARNING****

Hanging out with Percy was fun, and it made me forget about everything, which was nice, but there were still bad times.

And today...today was her birthday.

All I could think about was that if it wasn't for me, she would still be alive and happy, celebrating her birthday with her friends.

It was all my fault that she wasn't still here.

She shouldn't be dead, I should be dead.

I didn't go to school-couldn't go to school, and Hades agreed that I should stay home.

I don't know how he even put up with me.

I was just another reminder of what he didn't have.

I couldn't even bear to look at myself anymore, and he had to look at me everyday.

All I saw when I looked in the mirror was what's left of Bianca.

Her dumb brother.

All I saw was someone who was doing what Bianca should be doing.

Living.

She should be living her perfect life with her perfect grades and her proud parents.

I was just a waste of space, a hollow shell of what Bianca was to everyone around her.

Nobody would miss me...

I walked to the bathroom like a zombie, numbly going through the motions.

I brought out the razor and dragged it slowly along my arm, relishing in the pain.

I deserved this.

The pain.

The scars.

The blood.

I cut in long, torturously slow strokes, over a and over, until my arms and legs were bleeding and I was crying.

I felt a bit woozy, my vision was going fuzzy, and I briefly wondered if it was the blood loss doing this, before I passed out from the pain.

**** End Trigger Warning

Percy's POV

I was heading over to Nico's house on foot (since we actually lived quite close to each other, it was easy to get from house to house) with a few cupcakes that I had baked myself, when I got distracted by a small blur of grey and white.

I went closer and saw that it was actually a tiny kitten, scrabbling for food in a rubbish bin.

It was almost wasting away, looking like it hadn't seen food in weeks.

I picked it up gently with one hand, and it hissed at me, maybe thinking I was a threat.

I petted it, letting it lick my hand and offering it some cupcake.

Though it wasn't exactly cat food, the kitten gobbled it up, grateful for any food it could get.

I decided to take the tiny grey and white kitten with me to Nico's, and continued to head to his house, kitten in tow.

When I got there I rang the doorbell and waited.

Then, a few minutes later, I rang again. And again. And again, until I realised he had probably forgotten about our usual Tuesday afternoon hangout, and was either out, or sleeping.

Considering the number of times I rang the doorbell, I would've thought he'd wake up by now, so I concluded that he had gone out, and wasn't at home.

I was about leave, when I saw a light on in his bedroom.

Curious, I tried the door, just incase it wasn't locked.

As I had expected, it was locked, but I found the spare key in a nearby boot.

Unlocking the door I began walking inside, going towards the stairs.

I was walking up the stairs when I thought I could hear groans of pain coming from Nico's room.

Immediately, I put down Artemis (My new kitten) in the hallway, and rushed to his room, really worried for Nico.

After all the shit I'd gone through, I assumed the worst straight away.

I opened the door and ran in yelling Nico's name.

I looked around the bedroom but saw nothing so I went into his bathroom, which connected to his room.

****warning(Mentions of cutting, depression, self harm)

What I saw when I got there terrified me.

Nico was passed out on the bathroom floor, bleeding heavily.

There were cuts all over his arms and legs, and in his hand was a razor.

Oh no, oh no, not him!

I had no idea he was going through this.

Why him?

I sank to the floor and gently picked Nico up in my arms, moving back to the room to place him on the bed.

It didn't look like he'd been there for long, but I didn't want to take any chances by being slow.

Quickly, I ran back out and to get bandages, a bucket of warm water, towels, and some antibiotic ointment.

After rummaging through the house to find them, I hurried back to Nico's side, using what first aid skills I had to heal him as fast as possible.

I applied pressure to the wounds to stop bleeding, cleaned them with warm and mildly soapy water, then gently applied antibiotic ointment on all of them, finally wrapping them up in bandages.

I wasn't the best at first aid, but I had taken the basic course, and had at least been paying enough attention in class to know how to treat cuts.

After I'd finished I grabbed some newspaper, made a bed for Artemis in the corner and put out a bowl of milk and tuna for her.

I then sighed in relief and collapsed on the bed next to Nico.

Tomorrow I'd lecture him, but for now I needed to sleep.

Nico's POV

When I finally came to, I tried to sit up, but there was an arm laid heavily across my chest, so I couldn't.

It wasn't in a 'you're trapped' sort of way, but more as though they wanted to protect me.

I looked around, confused.

The last thing I remembered was...pain.

Cuts, everywhere.

Oh shit.

I looked over at the person sleeping beside me.

What the fuck, why was Percy in my bed?!

I scrambled out from under his arm, rolling off the bed.

"Huh?" Percy mumbled sleepily, lifting his head.

I hadn't noticed the bandages covering my cuts yet, but I knew that he knew I'd been cutting myself.

I shied away from him, prepared for what he would say next.

"You're disgusting!" Percy yelled at me "How could you do this to yourself? You repulse me, you need to stop!" I imagined him saying.

He sat up, looking at me, and I recoiled from his stare, trying hide myself from his gaze.

Percy sighed softly.

"Nico...c'mere," He said tiredly.

Reluctantly, I climbed back into bed, trying to sit as far away from him as I could.

"Nico," He said gently, crossing the bed to wrap his arms around me.

I stiffened at the contact, but slowly relaxed into his grip.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, not really looking for an answer.

I blushed.

I never wanted you to see me like that... I thought,

I could feel myself falling in love with this guy, and I didn't want to.

I couldn't deal with this right now, but I couldn't help it, he was just...perfect.

Instead of being like: You need to stop, why can't you just stop doing it? He's just giving me comfort.

Most people would just tell me to stop. And I hated that. Its not that easy, I can't just stop cutting myself, and Percy...he understood that.

I cried into his arms mumbling muffled explainations about my sister, my mum and how yesterday was my sisters birthday, while he just hugged me, giving me physical comfort.

No bullshit lies, like 'oh, it'll be okay, you'll be fine', and I appreciated that.

I hated it m when people just told me it'll be fine, it's okay, because it won't be.

end warning****

Percy's POV

Nico looked so afraid of me, like I'd stop being friends now that I knew what he did to himself.

I just wanted to protect him from the rest of the world. To hide him away in my embrace forever.

After he had finished telling me his stories, and sobbing into my arms, I got up to make some breakfast.

I jumped out of bed, picking Nico up and cradling him in my arms despite his protests.

I carried him down the stairs and placed him on a couch.

"I am going to serve you the best breakfast, you have ever eaten," I told him dramatically.

The corners of his mouth curled upwards, making me smile.

I rummaged through his fridge trying to find food, eventually finding some eggs and bacon to cook.

I served it to him in a flourish, and then sat on the couch across him to make him eat.

He pushed the food around his plate, eating tiny mouthfuls of it.

"Mmph, was his is actually really good!" He said through a mouthful of food.

I smiled, pleased now he was actually eating it.

Once he had finished most of his breakfast, I suddenly remembered Artemis, who was still upstairs.

"Hey, Nico?" I asked him,

"Yeah?" He replied, while scraping the rest of his food into the bin.

"Well...it's probably better that I just show you," I told him, going back upstairs.

Nico followed, curious.

I led him to the corner, showing him the tiny kitten, curled up into a ball, sleeping.

I could see him trying not to smile as he looked at Artemis.

"Where'd this cat come from?" He asked me,

"She was a stray cat I found looking for food, and I couldn't say no to that cute face!" I exclaimed.

Nico laughed. "Of course you couldn't, Perce. What have you named it?" He questioned

"She. It's a girl. And I named her Artemis," I responded

It looked like Nico was now trying not to laugh.

"I know someone called Artemis," He explained.

"Okay...well, I hope you don't that she slept in your room last night," I said

"It's fine. She's so tiny," he observed

"I know, and she's so adorable. So cute!" I squealed

"Are you going to keep her?" Nico asked,

"Of course I will! Well, if Chiron let's me, but I'm sure he will!" I declared

Nico smiled at me, and I smiled back.

Things weren't great, or even good, but slowly I could feel us getting better.

So...it wasn't supposed to drag on for that long. I don't even know where it's going anymore. (Where did the cat come from?). And I will continue on with the last chapter next chapter, this is more of a bonus chapter, not really related to the plot but I thought it was important to show Nico and Percy bonding.

I know nothing about taking care of cats and first aid (I used google for the latter) so please don't take my word for it.

Sorry if it was too long...but I had lots of fun writing it!

I hope you have a fabulous day!

Bye!