Percy

"I'm gay," it was the first time those words had come out of my mouth together. I was starting to cry. This petrified me. "And even though Gabe's dead, it scares the shit out of me. And I don't know what to do because I want to be able to be happy with myself, but it just fucking terrifies me to even think about something finding out and..."

I choked on my own words, and soon found myself in Nico's arms. And I thought it was in my head, but it wasn't.

"Why..." I managed to stifled out. "Why does this hurt so fucking much?"

"Because," the son of Hades answered my question, doing everything he could to comfort me. "You've always been told it's wrong. Trust me, you can get through it. It might feel like the end of the world. But you can. And you will."

We stayed like that for a while. Until I calmed down again and let him talk about himself.

Fun fact: my conspiracy theory was right. He's gay. And Jason is the only person that knows so. Aside me. So he never liked Annabeth.

He likes me.

"So... Yeah..." He thought this would make things weird. And I don't blame him. Because I thought coming out would make it awkward.

"Fun fact," I told the son of Hades. "Had I known that two years ago, I'd go out with you and not Annabeth. And I still would. But you look fucking exgausted. Do you want to like, sleep?"

"That'd be amazing." He was ready to pass out. "Do you want me in another bed? You've already had two anxiety attacks today."

"Pfft, no." I remarked as I helped him stand up. "Just keep you hands away from the lower half of my body. I hate sex. But I'm a fucking sucker for cuddles."

Nico

It's a lot of fun; being the big spoon. Also, cuddling with Percy.

I didn't want to leave my— Percy's bed in the morning. He was warm and it was comfy.

But we wer also hungry. And the hunger beat comfort. We were smart, though. And I shadow travelled to my cabin before heading to breakfast. Quickly changing my clothes, I left my room and headed to breakfast.

Not a thing was suspected. They kept their promise, and didn't say anything about what happened yesterday.

It was actually kind of interesting. Annabeth was there, and she apologized to Percy for being so shitty last night. And he accepted the apology. He wasn't getting back together with her. And she understood why. But he accepted the apology. It was nice. Less tension in the group.

And then Leo, the little bitch he is, nudged me and motioned at Annabeth. And everyone noticed.

"Yeah, that's Annabeth." I figured I'd play with this because why not. Percy might get a kick out of it. Knowing what he knows. Jason, too. "I know. I can see her. I'm not dumb."

"No, she..." He was trying to tell me to make my move. I was well aware.

"That sentence can end in a lot of ways."

"I think he's trying tell you to make hour move while she's single." Frank whispered to me and Leo nodded.

"Why?"

"Because," even Hazel was on board with this idea. "It won't last long."

"So?"

"It's now or never!" Leo insisted. "This is like, the chance you've been waiting for."

"Yeah," Jason went with this for a totally different reason. Percy and Annabeth just kind of watched. "Come on, dude. It won't last forever."

There was absolutely zero thought that went into it.

"Jason, shut the fuck up," I told the son of Jupiter and came out in a way I never thought would happen. "You know I'm gay. If I made a move on anyone, it'd be Percy and you know that damn well so shut the fuck up."

And then I realized everyone was sitting at the table. Just staring at me. Because I literally came out by telling Jason off.

I turned around to face my friends. It'd happen sooner or later. At least it wasn't like this really emotional thing. At least it was kind of casual.

"Hey, guys," I said, giving that smile, you know the one when you're low key unsure if you should regret your choices or not. "What's up?"

Leo deadass just stood up, walked away for a solid five minutes and came back. Not knowing what to do with this new information. This was harder for him than Hazel.

"Are you okay?" Piper asked Leo, who just looked stressed out.

"I..." He just didn't know what to do. "I don't know what to do with this. It's...I just feel like an idiot. It was obvious. Nico's gay."

"Hi, yeah," I said as I was right across from him. "Still here, still queer, and still weirded out about the fact that you store at my ass."

"You store at my mans ass?" It actually gave me anxiety when Percy said that, even though everyone knew it was a joke from what I said earlier.

"Your man..." He was just overwhelmed, it was hilarious. "What?"

Cue Grover walked over to the table, back from whatever he was gone for yesterday.

"No, don't worry." Percy insisted Leo that it was just a joke. "Based on what you've told me about it, I'm not lucky enough for that ass."

"I leave for a day." Grover said out loud. "Percy, you have a girlfriend. Keep it in your pants. You don't need kids yet."

Percy turned around and made room for Grover next to him.

"Hey, g-man," Percy remarked. "You've missed a lot."

"Like what?"

"Well I mean we broke up," Annabeth started off. "And Nico's gay. They're not related. Well, I guess we found out Nico's gay because we broke up. It's going to sound weird, but that comment was about Nico's ass."

Grover corrected himself.

"I was gone for one day," he told his best friend. "And you became a hoe?"

"Yes."

"Oh my gods."

But overall, they took it really well. And so as I'm walking around with Percy later, partially because we might be a thing and I like him, and partially because Jason literally shoved me into him and made fall, we talked about it.

"I wasn't planning on doing that," I insisted, shrugging. "But it went over well, so I won't complain. I just didn't think before it left my mouth that most people didn't know. But they do now. And that's okay. We'll just get a lot of shit about what I told him until you come out. I like sneaking away, though. Going to hidden places."

"It's nice." He agreed as we sat down by a small opening. "One day I'll be out. We'll be out. It'll just take some time."

Leo

"Okay," Jason said. "Operation Get Percy and Nico Together is in full swing."

"Operation..." Annabeth said, new to this whole thing. "What does it consist of?"

"Well the hard part is over," the son of Jupiter explained to her. "Nico, whether he meant to or not, has come out. So we need to figure what phase 2 is because I never thought he'd actually come out."

"Well good luck," Grover wished us as he leaned against the wall. "If he's bi, Percy's never coming out. And that's a big if."

So, we decided to find out. Just to be sure if this was worth going through with.

"Oh, hey," Annabeth remarked as she picked up a sketchbook. "I must've forgotten this at his place. I was wondering where it went. It should have..."

Annabeth opened up to a page, and just kind of looked at it.

"Did he put something in your sketchbook?" Grover asked her.

"This isn't mine. " She told us, trying to process something or another. Which us walking over to look at it. "I don't draw for the idea of drawing. And these are just drawings. Well... I mean this is a portfolio. But..."

"What?"

"I dated a gay man. Without knowing he was even gay."

Nico

We met up with our friends at lunch and they were acting weird.

"Oh, yeah!" Annabeth said as she took out one of Percy's sketchbooks from her bag, and handed it to him. "Sorry, I thought it was the one I forgot at your house over spring break."

"Oh, yeah I guess they're the same book." Percy responded as he took it. "Did you look in it?"

"Well, one page." She assured him she wasn't a huge snitch about it. "That's how I found out it wasn't mine. Your mom is a really good drawer. I didn't take any photos of the drawing, but she's really good."

After agreeing with her, lunch went pretty normal. Jason was just really annoying with nudging me every 10 seconds.

But it got worse.

Leo, Jason, and Piper dragged me to the Aphrodite cabin. For a makeover.

Because apparently I didn't look gay enough.

"What's the big deal?" I asked as they sat me down in a chair.

"If you don't look the part," Piper explained to me as a wardrobe came from nowhere. "You'll never get yourself a man."

"So?" I responded with as a very bright, rainbow shirt came out that made me want to puke. "How would you know that it couldn't get me a man."

"Honey," she said, going through clothes that I really didn't want to wear. "That's not how it works."

And I made a mistake.

"How do you know I don't already have man?"

I regretted saying that as soon as it came out of my mouth.

The golden trio here all nearly broke their necks they turned their heads around so fast. Then they all ran over to me, screaming either bloody murder to my possible boyfriend or questions about him.

I really couldn't tell the difference.

"Oh my gods," Jason said after basically forcing the other two out of the cabin. "Nico, what happened? Did you give up on Percy?"

"What? No." I told the son of Jupiter. "I just like... Can't say."

Jason gave me The Look™.

"We know that Percy's gay," Jason broke the news to me. "When Annabeth grabbed the wrong sketchbook? Yeah, that's what was in it. We know he's into guys."

"Well, okay," I gave in to Jason because he already knows. "So stuff happened last night with Percy and myself. Percy doesn't know that you guys know, and he doesn't want you guys knowing. So you're going to keep your mouth shut because I have to keep mine shut, too."

"Piper?"

"Not a soul," I clarified for him. "Not. Another. Soul."