Lingering

It's strange, Percy thinks, the moment their kiss deepens. Of all the things he'd imagined Nico to taste like, black licorice had not been one of them. It seemed somewhat fitting, though. He had never really enjoyed the taste before, but when it was Nico...Well, there were a lot of things that Nico was an exemption to. Slender fingers carded through his hair, and one hand was fisted in his shirt, as if needing to physically hold on, to prove to himself that this was real. The teen didn't really blame him, though. Even he had a hard time believing that they were actually in Cabin 3, Nico laying on top of him, mouths pressed firmly together and tongues tentatively twining together.

Not many minutes later, Annabeth had stumbled into the Cabin, prepared to barrage Percy with questions about the day's schedule. Instead, she caught the two of them, shirtless, red-faced and lips swollen and bright red from kissing, and getting even redder by the moment.

"I—um...I'll just go..."

She nearly tripped over her own two feet on the way out of the cabin.

Despite the fact that Annabeth hadn't told a soul about what she'd seen, the information had somehow reached the Aphrodite cabin, as if they'd been able to read the daught of Athena's mind. By dinner, everyone knew what had transpired earlier that day in Cabin 3. Whispers floated over, and the couple were forced to sit at their separate tables at the Dining Pavilion. Nico was the first one to show signs of agitation, growling and twirling his skull ring around his finger. Percy only cast his eyes back toward him, giving a barely perceptible shake of his head.

'No,' he mouthed. 'not now.'

Ten minutes later, Percy could feel their stared boring into his back, and resisted the heavy urge to "accidentally" make the Aphrodite cabin's goblets of water explode. Instead, he got a walnut lobbed at the back of his head by Nico. The made a slicing motion across his throat with his thumb, and Percy sighed as the message registered.

'No killing the other campers.' He remembers Nico saying on one particularly trying day. 'That's my job, after all.'

A smirk crossed his lips and he shook his head at the memory.

However, they both seemed to reach their breaking points a few minutes later, after a girl from one of the cabins shouted, "So, is our new camp couple just gonna blush and hide!?"

Percy huffed, rolling his eyes, and stood. Long, quick strides were taken, and he shortly found himself face to face with Nico's sly smirk and gleaming eyes.

"Holding up alright, babe?" he asked, eyebrow raising.

Percy shrugged.

"I guess. How 'bout you?"

"Hmm...Murder has crossed my mind a couple of times tonight, but I've managed to quell the urge a few times."

An impressed nod from Percy.

"It's an improvement."

Both boys were fully aware of all the eyes in the camp focused on them, and were simply drawing out their conversation. Who said that they couldn't have a bit of fun first?

Finally, Nico rolled his eyes, and wrapped his arms around Percy's neck, dragging him down into a heated kiss. The cheers of the campers faded into the background as one of Nico's hands went to his hair, holding on just as tightly as he did earlier. Percy only managed to fleetingly register one of the male campers – possibly from the Hermes cabin – shouting that someone owed him five bucks. A few seconds later, Nico pulled away, panting heavily, and a teasing smile curving his lips upward. Leaning up, he nipped at Percy's ear before whispering, "My cabin. Five minutes. You know what to bring."

And then he slipped away in the chaos, leaving a very confused, and slightly aroused, Percy standing and staring like an idiot.

The next morning, as Percy peeled himself off the ground after a particularly brutal sparring match with Clarisse, he noticed that he could still taste black licorice in his mouth.

tHERE NEEDS TO BE MORE PERCICO AND I AM HAPPY TO CONTRIBUTE.

this is like...the first of a ton of prompts that i have.

take this as an offering, o' percico gods. And bless me, for my quest to write over 100 percico drabbles has only just begun.