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Heartstrings (Percy/Nico, PG)
Percy/Nico . 1,907 words . PG . written for bogged, for a prompt that has nothing to do with this, but who cares . In which Nico is threatened, and Percy has groupies, and someone plays the piano.
"I will kill you!"
There was this weird thing where Nico liked getting death threats. It was probably the whole 'son of Hades' thing. He liked to grade them on creativity and intent level - thus, most of the kids as his high school got very low scores. It was kind of disappointing.
The only person at the entire school that Nico even remotely got along with was Paul. Oh, sorry - Mr. Blofis, but he only had to call him that in class, at least.
He couldn't stand anyone else.
The preps and the jocks hated how he dressed. The nerds thought they were better than him. The art kids didn't understand when he laughed at their bad poetry and misrepresented pain.
But the goths, the goths were the worst.
The goths liked him. They thought he was coolest thing since the invention of a razor blade and they crowded him, trying to be like him, trying to befriend him, even when he snapped at them to leave him alone and told them to stop smoking, in a sharp, strange little voice. They just didn't get it, and he didn't want them to ever get it, but he did wish they'd shut the hell up.
They didn't understand why he wore studded leather but listened to jazz, and when he flat out said that Metallica sounded like nails on a chalkboard they stared. Maybe it was the one thing he got out of being technically born in 1924. They obviously didn't need to know that.
He liked the music kids. He quietly, distantly liked them, because they always seemed to have their own... thing, and every time he passed the music hall and heard a saxophone or an awkward half-measure on the piano, he'd stop a little, and clutch his books, and nervously try and work up the courage to say something.
He didn't, of course. He had all the courage in the world to tell David "Spikey" Sinclair to stop drinking his life away at high volume in the cafeteria, but he couldn't even talk to a music student.
He wouldn't know what to say. Hi, I think I love you?
He both loved it and hated it when Percy dropped by. Percy got along with everyone. Enough people knew him from before he graduated, two years ago, and he wasn't just a hero at Half-Blood Hill. He practically had groupies. So on one hand, Nico hated it, because Percy was so much better than him and people who wouldn't give him the time of day tripped over their own feet for a second of his attention. But on the other hand, Percy was his. When groupies came by, he was allowed to tell them to fuck off, or maybe he'd just sit there, smirking hellishly, because he had what they could only dream of.
Percy didn't seem to notice any of this. Percy came by to visit Nico for the most part, so it was Nico he paid attention to, and though he was courteous and polite when approached, he only had eyes for one.
Nico couldn't wait to get out of here.
But sometimes, it was high school, and things got messy. So when Spikey came by, looking for trouble (he was always looking for trouble), Nico sat up a little straighter on the table, inched a little closer to Percy's chair. Percy, of course, wasn't intimidated by a weeaboo goth, even a weeaboo goth with a hoot-high mohawk, and he kept on telling his story like he didn't even see him.
"Oy. Nicky."
Wasn't his name, so Nico simply ignored him.
"Don't ignore me, douchebag! What, just because your boyfriend's here, you're not good enough for us anymore?"
Like I ever was, Nico thought, but he simply replied with, "Yep."
Nico could see that Percy was trying not to laugh.
Especially when Spikey's face went slowly white, and he stared from one to the other. "What... you're really his..."
"Boyfriend? Yep," and Percy shifted about an inch forward - but it was the most terrifying, overprotective inch in the history of existence, and every line of his body suddenly screamed LOL, TOUCH HIM AND I KILL YOU, OK?
Spikey looked halfway between lovestruck and daunted, which wasn't a good look for him, really. Nico sighed, bored, and slung a leg over Percy's lap. "Go away, David."
The guy's face purpled and he clenched his fists, looking the epitome of RAAAGE. "I can't believe you! How can you tell me to go away like that?! I thought we were -"
"Friends? Please." The arm was next, curled around Percy's shoulders, and he was so going to get yelled at for PDA but he didn't even care at this point. Everyone was annoying and Percy was both furious and amused and that was kind of a turnon. Well. Everything Percy did was kind of a turnon. Nico shifted, making a low, dry scoffing sound that made Percy stiffen slightly in his seat. "I barely tolerate you. Now leave."
"I will kill you!"
There was this long, comic pause - and then, simultaenously, both Percy and Nico burst out laughing.
"Really, some people," Nico breathed, through a haze of giggles. "Come on, Perce. Let's go."
"I dunno, Nico, he looks pretty serious," Percy said, but the smile on his face was wider than the Pacific and he couldn't quite swallow his laughter back either.
"Hm." Nico leaned forward, giving the hopelessly confused (and still angry) Spikey a long, hard look. "...You know what? I think I see the problem. He needs to get laid."
And with that, they picked up and left, and Percy wrapped an arm tight around Nico's waist, and Nico smiled smugly over his shoulder.
So really, he did kind of love it when Percy came to visit.
They passed by the music wing, and, on instinct, Nico paused. Being that Percy was attached and all they stumbled a bit, but both hands tightened and they didn't want to let go.
"What is it?" Percy asked, pressing lips to Nico's hair. Come on, growth spurt, Nico thought despairingly, this height difference is so unfair. (That is to say, his heart squeezed a little at the affection.)
"It's nothing. Well." He didn't need to pretend anything for Percy, he just didn't like talking about it out in the hallway and stuff. "I always - my mom was a musician, I think," he finished lamely, which was true, and the more he thought about it the more he realized that that was the real issue here, not his stupid nervousness or anything like that. Percy did that. Cut down to the heart of him.
Percy, who was smiling like a child of Hermes and that shouldn't be allowed.
He answered the unasked question before Percy could look too smug. "Piano, in the Lotus Hotel. A little. Not very well, or anything." Not like Bianca and her violin, Nico thought. He could still hear her, sometimes, on long lonely nights when Percy was off at college and his bed had stopped smelling like the ocean. She used to play him lullabies, and gypsy dances, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Sarasate was a brother of his. He was nothing like that.
But Percy was giving him the worst look of all - his determined and worshiping look, and it did 1000 points of damage and drove Nico's defense down to 0. "We're not breaking in," he managed in kind of a pathetic squeak.
"It's not breaking in if it's unlocked, is it?" And he pulled a shell out of his pocket - a tiny, curling nautilus - and with a push of his mind, sent a small trickle of water flowing into the lock, shifting until it clicked, and the door pulled open with ease.
"That is so cheating," Nico grumbled.
Percy grinned. "I know."
There was a baby grand in the choir room. Nico caught sight of it every day through the sliver of the window, and he'd lusted after it something powerful. Now, it sat there in the low darkness, looking somehow both shy and daunting, and for a long minute Nico couldn't even step fully into the room, almost shaking like a leaf. It was just a piano. But he hadn't played in so, so long and it was almost like a siren song, beautiful and terrible at the same time.
"Go on," Percy said softly, and touched his shoulder. "Gods know I won't judge. I just want to hear you."
And that's what gave him the courage to step forward, to prop the cover up and skate his hands over the keys, fake ivory, he hated how cheaply things were made these days but he knew this piano could sound like magic itself.
He sat down. Thumbed middle C, just to get his bearings.
Closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began to play.
His fingers danced. He hadn't forgotten a thing - it was like it was yesterday, and he was still in the Lotus Club, playing for the unfocused children who didn't give him a second look, and downstairs, in the roulette room, where the only looks he got were too sinful to be discussed. He could see Bianca - leaning on the piano, her violin cradled under her arm, waiting her turn and suppressing impatience because she'd always rather have been playing, and he only took his turn when they forced him, when he was physically dragged from the Mythomagic table.
He played to the tripping of his heart, and after half a minute, opened his eyes and realized Percy was leaning on the cover, lips parted and eyes positively glowing. He was entranced. He was captivated. He only looked like that when they were - and maybe he -
Nico turned a little red, but he locked their eyes together, and smirked with the best of his sultry little mouth, and started up again.
It was sweet, it was coy, it was playful, it was everything Nico felt and everything he wished he was. It was I love you and it was You're beautiful and it was Percy's, always, like it had always been.
"You've got to play more often," Percy whispered raggedly, when the song came to a close.
But all he said was, "We'll see," because he had to keep Percy guessing. Had to keep pulling him in and holding him close and bringing him back for more. And Nico stood from the bench and touched his fingertips to the curve of Percy's mouth, and smiled, and when he left, Percy nearly tripped over his feet to follow.
(the song is HERE, the first minute and a half anyway)
if you liked this, you may like:
All the Difference in the World . If No One Will Listen
"I will kill you!"
There was this weird thing where Nico liked getting death threats. It was probably the whole 'son of Hades' thing. He liked to grade them on creativity and intent level - thus, most of the kids as his high school got very low scores. It was kind of disappointing.
The only person at the entire school that Nico even remotely got along with was Paul. Oh, sorry - Mr. Blofis, but he only had to call him that in class, at least.
He couldn't stand anyone else.
The preps and the jocks hated how he dressed. The nerds thought they were better than him. The art kids didn't understand when he laughed at their bad poetry and misrepresented pain.
But the goths, the goths were the worst.
The goths liked him. They thought he was coolest thing since the invention of a razor blade and they crowded him, trying to be like him, trying to befriend him, even when he snapped at them to leave him alone and told them to stop smoking, in a sharp, strange little voice. They just didn't get it, and he didn't want them to ever get it, but he did wish they'd shut the hell up.
They didn't understand why he wore studded leather but listened to jazz, and when he flat out said that Metallica sounded like nails on a chalkboard they stared. Maybe it was the one thing he got out of being technically born in 1924. They obviously didn't need to know that.
He liked the music kids. He quietly, distantly liked them, because they always seemed to have their own... thing, and every time he passed the music hall and heard a saxophone or an awkward half-measure on the piano, he'd stop a little, and clutch his books, and nervously try and work up the courage to say something.
He didn't, of course. He had all the courage in the world to tell David "Spikey" Sinclair to stop drinking his life away at high volume in the cafeteria, but he couldn't even talk to a music student.
He wouldn't know what to say. Hi, I think I love you?
He both loved it and hated it when Percy dropped by. Percy got along with everyone. Enough people knew him from before he graduated, two years ago, and he wasn't just a hero at Half-Blood Hill. He practically had groupies. So on one hand, Nico hated it, because Percy was so much better than him and people who wouldn't give him the time of day tripped over their own feet for a second of his attention. But on the other hand, Percy was his. When groupies came by, he was allowed to tell them to fuck off, or maybe he'd just sit there, smirking hellishly, because he had what they could only dream of.
Percy didn't seem to notice any of this. Percy came by to visit Nico for the most part, so it was Nico he paid attention to, and though he was courteous and polite when approached, he only had eyes for one.
Nico couldn't wait to get out of here.
But sometimes, it was high school, and things got messy. So when Spikey came by, looking for trouble (he was always looking for trouble), Nico sat up a little straighter on the table, inched a little closer to Percy's chair. Percy, of course, wasn't intimidated by a weeaboo goth, even a weeaboo goth with a hoot-high mohawk, and he kept on telling his story like he didn't even see him.
"Oy. Nicky."
Wasn't his name, so Nico simply ignored him.
"Don't ignore me, douchebag! What, just because your boyfriend's here, you're not good enough for us anymore?"
Like I ever was, Nico thought, but he simply replied with, "Yep."
Nico could see that Percy was trying not to laugh.
Especially when Spikey's face went slowly white, and he stared from one to the other. "What... you're really his..."
"Boyfriend? Yep," and Percy shifted about an inch forward - but it was the most terrifying, overprotective inch in the history of existence, and every line of his body suddenly screamed LOL, TOUCH HIM AND I KILL YOU, OK?
Spikey looked halfway between lovestruck and daunted, which wasn't a good look for him, really. Nico sighed, bored, and slung a leg over Percy's lap. "Go away, David."
The guy's face purpled and he clenched his fists, looking the epitome of RAAAGE. "I can't believe you! How can you tell me to go away like that?! I thought we were -"
"Friends? Please." The arm was next, curled around Percy's shoulders, and he was so going to get yelled at for PDA but he didn't even care at this point. Everyone was annoying and Percy was both furious and amused and that was kind of a turnon. Well. Everything Percy did was kind of a turnon. Nico shifted, making a low, dry scoffing sound that made Percy stiffen slightly in his seat. "I barely tolerate you. Now leave."
"I will kill you!"
There was this long, comic pause - and then, simultaenously, both Percy and Nico burst out laughing.
"Really, some people," Nico breathed, through a haze of giggles. "Come on, Perce. Let's go."
"I dunno, Nico, he looks pretty serious," Percy said, but the smile on his face was wider than the Pacific and he couldn't quite swallow his laughter back either.
"Hm." Nico leaned forward, giving the hopelessly confused (and still angry) Spikey a long, hard look. "...You know what? I think I see the problem. He needs to get laid."
And with that, they picked up and left, and Percy wrapped an arm tight around Nico's waist, and Nico smiled smugly over his shoulder.
So really, he did kind of love it when Percy came to visit.
They passed by the music wing, and, on instinct, Nico paused. Being that Percy was attached and all they stumbled a bit, but both hands tightened and they didn't want to let go.
"What is it?" Percy asked, pressing lips to Nico's hair. Come on, growth spurt, Nico thought despairingly, this height difference is so unfair. (That is to say, his heart squeezed a little at the affection.)
"It's nothing. Well." He didn't need to pretend anything for Percy, he just didn't like talking about it out in the hallway and stuff. "I always - my mom was a musician, I think," he finished lamely, which was true, and the more he thought about it the more he realized that that was the real issue here, not his stupid nervousness or anything like that. Percy did that. Cut down to the heart of him.
Percy, who was smiling like a child of Hermes and that shouldn't be allowed.
He answered the unasked question before Percy could look too smug. "Piano, in the Lotus Hotel. A little. Not very well, or anything." Not like Bianca and her violin, Nico thought. He could still hear her, sometimes, on long lonely nights when Percy was off at college and his bed had stopped smelling like the ocean. She used to play him lullabies, and gypsy dances, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Sarasate was a brother of his. He was nothing like that.
But Percy was giving him the worst look of all - his determined and worshiping look, and it did 1000 points of damage and drove Nico's defense down to 0. "We're not breaking in," he managed in kind of a pathetic squeak.
"It's not breaking in if it's unlocked, is it?" And he pulled a shell out of his pocket - a tiny, curling nautilus - and with a push of his mind, sent a small trickle of water flowing into the lock, shifting until it clicked, and the door pulled open with ease.
"That is so cheating," Nico grumbled.
Percy grinned. "I know."
There was a baby grand in the choir room. Nico caught sight of it every day through the sliver of the window, and he'd lusted after it something powerful. Now, it sat there in the low darkness, looking somehow both shy and daunting, and for a long minute Nico couldn't even step fully into the room, almost shaking like a leaf. It was just a piano. But he hadn't played in so, so long and it was almost like a siren song, beautiful and terrible at the same time.
"Go on," Percy said softly, and touched his shoulder. "Gods know I won't judge. I just want to hear you."
And that's what gave him the courage to step forward, to prop the cover up and skate his hands over the keys, fake ivory, he hated how cheaply things were made these days but he knew this piano could sound like magic itself.
He sat down. Thumbed middle C, just to get his bearings.
Closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began to play.
His fingers danced. He hadn't forgotten a thing - it was like it was yesterday, and he was still in the Lotus Club, playing for the unfocused children who didn't give him a second look, and downstairs, in the roulette room, where the only looks he got were too sinful to be discussed. He could see Bianca - leaning on the piano, her violin cradled under her arm, waiting her turn and suppressing impatience because she'd always rather have been playing, and he only took his turn when they forced him, when he was physically dragged from the Mythomagic table.
He played to the tripping of his heart, and after half a minute, opened his eyes and realized Percy was leaning on the cover, lips parted and eyes positively glowing. He was entranced. He was captivated. He only looked like that when they were - and maybe he -
Nico turned a little red, but he locked their eyes together, and smirked with the best of his sultry little mouth, and started up again.
It was sweet, it was coy, it was playful, it was everything Nico felt and everything he wished he was. It was I love you and it was You're beautiful and it was Percy's, always, like it had always been.
"You've got to play more often," Percy whispered raggedly, when the song came to a close.
But all he said was, "We'll see," because he had to keep Percy guessing. Had to keep pulling him in and holding him close and bringing him back for more. And Nico stood from the bench and touched his fingertips to the curve of Percy's mouth, and smiled, and when he left, Percy nearly tripped over his feet to follow.
(the song is HERE, the first minute and a half anyway)
if you liked this, you may like:
All the Difference in the World . If No One Will Listen