Title: Four Nails to a Coffin

Words: 2832

Rated: Explicit, I guess (only subtle description of the act, not elaborated in any detail)

Pairing: slight mention of Percabeth at the beginning, but Percico to the end with a twisted ending

Summary: The day that Nico di Angelo finally claimed Perseus Jackson as his was tragically the most blessed day in his existence, and the start of his inevitable demise.

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and its characters solely belong to Rick Riordan.

This story can be found on Tumblr.

Four Nails to a Coffin

The day that Nico di Angelo finally claimed Perseus Jackson as his was tragically the most blessed day in his existence, and the start of his inevitable demise.

Everything started off in such a simplistic manner that neither they nor their companions could have foretold what was to come. Or perhaps, everything started such that it would indisputably arrive at such a twisted conclusion. Everything shaped the outcome, just as every bit of everything contributed to what was now.

It had been equally inevitable when Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase had started to drift apart; an iron curtain steadily draping between them. When the final curtain draped itself over their entire facade of happiness and content, only then did their budding romance wilted like a dying rose. The reason was unspoken of, and the separation shattered something — a strong belief perhaps — amongst the campers that the effect had been quite distinct with their dampened moods the day after. Perhaps it was only Nico that knew — outside the once couple, of course — of what had driven a permanent wedge between the dubbed Golden couple, and it was enough reason to fuel his innocent and friendly intent of temporarily becoming Percy's rock.

Something that was unspoken of had gone completely and awfully wrong within Tartarus.

For subsequent nights, Nico repetitively travelled through shadows and sneaked inside the cabin of Poseidon, functioning as the Percy's rock and confidant as the older teen struggled endlessly night by night, plagued with nightmares of the darkest pit within the Underworld and the anguish that was of a broken form of love. They mutually needed the comfort that only existed between them as they had gone through the same existing nightmare, but Percy's mind struggled far greater than what Nico could possibly comprehend. A part of the son of Poseidon had shattered within the ghastly domain, and Nico could only come to question what it was.

The daughter of Athena was not as mentally fragile as was the son of Poseidon. That was the most logical reasoning that Nico could devise to excuse his lack of support for her. Annabeth had the company of her siblings, but Percy was a lone child of the sea. Annabeth was a fighter, just as much as Percy, but she was stronger in that mental aspect. Nico could not leave Percy alone — no. No, that was a grave understatement. Percy had pleaded, in his broken state of nightmare-plagued mind and a shattered heart, for Nico not to leave his side. Nico obliged.

The son of Hades was not a fool to use such opportunity of mending the broken soul of Percy Jackson as a means to win an affection he had coveted desperately once upon a time. He had set boundaries for himself so that he would not pin up hopes and cling onto them as he once had in a time gone by. Such... setting, was a temporary state. Or so he thought.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks progressed into months. Piece by piece, Nico mended what was of Percy's broken soul. Slowly, the son of Poseidon regained his bearings, progressing from suppressed and hollow smiles, to his usual natural and mischief-filled ones. Those alluring sea-green eyes appeared less shattered than what they once were, though Nico was certain that there remained cracks on the edges. There was only so much he could do; such limited number of pieces he could pluck and mend back to his soul. But, it was enough to make Percy feel again; enough to encourage him to live.

Giving Percy Jackson bit by bit of his life back was adequate as a compensation for unintentionally getting close to that one person that had, in his negligence, broken his heart into pieces. Nico was not as selfless as others perceived of him to be, more so with matters concerning the son of Poseidon. It was established, though unspoken, that his life revolved and was sealed with the fate of Percy Jackson. For Percy was everything that was of his past and of his present, and it was only a matter of the meddling of the Fates before he was of Nico's bleak future.

The moment Perseus Jackson kissed Nico di Angelo had come as an utter shock to the latter. Almost a year had passed since the last war, and Percy was more or less stable in Nico's eyes. Nico could vaguely remembered what they were doing then, or what could have led to that moment. Only that he was suddenly seated on top of the older demigod's lap, and that their lips were pressed in a gentle kiss.

It was every bit of his childhood fantasy coming to life, intensified to the point that Nico could sense and feel everything. From the rhythmic pounding of their beating hearts, to the almost searing warmth that ignited a fire on every patch of skin on his body that pressed gently against the other's. Their mingled breath and the addictive mix of salt and pomegranate on their lips almost blinded completely his judgement, and it was only his curiosity that managed to pull him back.

Nico remembered pulling away, only to be grasped firmly on his shoulders just so that he could not attempt to leave. Nico remembered panic settling onto him, just as much as emotions of bitterness and pain flashed through his eyes. But Percy held firm, speaking in a low but composed voice of thoughts he had not voiced out before.

There were brief mentions of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, and Percy had admitted of his suspicions that the goddess had intervened and manipulated his emotions for the daughter of Athena to be developed in that form of love. Perhaps, Percy deduced, that it was true to some certain extent, but never as completely in the supposed lie.

When Percy questioned with hopeful and pleading and earnest eyes if Nico would consider the possibility of them, there had been that only option for him to back out. It was an option he had not taken.

Though hesitant, Nico succumbed eventually to those sweet and addictive kisses, to near-scalding and intimate caresses against any exposed skin, as Percy slowly coaxed them into their innocent yet blissful exchange naturally. With mingled breaths and feverish skin, they indulged in that seemingly perfect clasp of their lips as the older demigod pressed the other teen gently onto wrinkled sheets, lips never parting as they basked in that comfort only the other could possibly give.

It took a while, a few months more for Nico to accept that Percy was earnest and serious with the concept of them being together. After all, it was an idea that he had shunned for so many times as he had swallowed his jealousy and pain and grief when the Golden couple freely had been affectionate with each other in the midst of his presence. He had considered that he might have been a rebound to temporarily fill the void that the daughter of Athena left, but when Percy looked at him as if he were the centre of his very world, who was Nico to doubt?

That was how Nico lived his life, and to drop it in an instant out of a golden opportunity that was dangling above his head, was unlikely of him. He doubted, he lacked of trust, but Percy had been patient with him until he succumbed one day with an almost broken 'yes'.

It was all that Nico had ever desired, one that he once had decided not to covet. Beyond the walls of either cabins, Percy still showered him with affection in any respectable manner that there was. Though it had taken Nico much encouragement to allow for the older half-blood to make their relationship publicly known, it had been worth it in the long run as Percy would often slip a kiss or two, and grasped firmly but lovingly onto him as if in fear that he would go. And when Nico would look into those eyes, it was as if there was only him that the son of Poseidon ever did see.

The son of Hades was admittedly on cloud nine, and there was no such sensation that could contest what he felt from simply being with the son of Poseidon. Their relationship started with innocent exchange of gentle and chaste kisses, and took months more to progress for something much passionate and heated and sinful and addictive. It had progressed to the contact of feverish and naked skin against skin, of desirable touches and heated caresses, of wild and urgent tugs on sweat-slicked and dishevelled locks, of sensual and ravenous dance between flicking tongues, and of wanton moans and pleased growls as their bodies joined in a blinding union of passionate and earnest loving, and of broken sobs of hushed words of love.

It was like living a blissful dream.

It was those eyes and their love that blinded him from seeing the reality that no one could have ever foretold.

The change was not immediate. If Nico were to describe it, it was like watching an empty jar slowly but steadily fill itself to the brim. He was uncertain what to make of things, and the unprecedented turn of events could not have prepared him for his decisions.

While Percy had taken any chances he had on making Nico believe that his emotions were earnest and unchangeable, Percy had unknowingly broken down the barricades that Nico set-up over his heart and paved way for the son of Hades to be more accepting of the idea that he was not as unaccepted as he assumed to be. Jason and Reyna were of the few people that Nico permitted onto his life; more so Jason as Reyna could not separate herself from her duties to the people at Camp Jupiter. With Jason came Piper, and the rest gradually fell in line afterwards. Outside that circle of the seven demigods, Will had been an unforeseen companion that Nico had unintentionally welcomed to his life.

Percy loathed it. Loathed the contact between his Nico and the son of Apollo, and of his Nico and the son of Jupiter. He expressed his distaste in his gestures, his mind grasping onto slivers of rationality alone and was quickly losing the fight. He expressed his distaste with how he possessively kept Nico within his arms, masking his intentions with affectionate croons and teasing remarks. Jason and Will understood to a certain extent that Percy was protective, possessive, of Nico and respected that greatly, but to what extent, they were unaware of.

Percy loathed any form of skin to skin contact of anyone with Nico. Percy loathed the sight of those rare, natural smiles when they were not caused or directed to him. Percy loathed acknowledging the mere fact that others existed, aside from him, on Nico's world. But it was just a manifestation of his love for Nico, right? This was simply jealousy, right?

Something dark within him occasionally shifted with each passing day, gnawing haphazardly in his mind and crooning sinfully to him, tempting him to compulsively act out of dark thoughts. It haunted him; haunted how his mind was slowly succumbing to it. But with every single night, their naked bodies pressed together perfectly like puzzle pieces wrapped within wrinkled sheets, Percy was slowly losing himself in his emotions. With every sinful moan, every broken sobs and hushed murmurs to his ears of 'I love you's, something eventually coaxed Percy to possessively growl 'You're mine. I won't let anyone else have you.' while relentlessly basking in their heated passion.

It was the first nail in the coffin.

Piper McLean fervently wished that her intuitions were wrong when the signs started to appear. If there was someone who knew aside from Jason, Hazel, Reyna and Percy that Nico deserved a chance at happiness with life, it had to be her. Truly, she and Nico did not share a bond that close as the son of Hades did with the aforementioned few, but she spent a majority of her existence with the feeling of being alone, and it was not the least bit pleasant. Nico deserved happiness more than anyone else; that she was completely certain of.

The first time that Percy had ever held Nico possessively, that one time that Jason playfully wrapped an arm around the son of Hades' shoulder while offering a sparring session, Percy almost looked murderous in a way the daughter of Aphrodite had difficulty comprehending. Though it dulled as Percy promptly pulled Nico to him, excusing in a tone of mischief that he needed quality time with his boyfriend, Piper was not deceived one bit of what she had formerly seen; a hard edge to those eyes that gleamed with such dark intent.

Piper had never wanted to be completely wrong as she did back then. However, when she raised her kaleidoscopic eyes and registered that inane fear clouding Annabeth's eyes as she watched the son of Poseidon walked away with his lover, she knew then that something was wrong.

Something horribly wrong.

Annabeth's words thereafter when Piper had confronted her about it just made the situation all the more wrong in Piper's mind.

The second nail in the coffin.

Every individual possessed a darker aspect of themselves. It was what kept Nico alive all throughout his years of isolation, and it constantly fuelled his drive to live. It was a fact set in stone, but when the daughter or Aphrodite proposed the idea that Percy was showing a darker and ragged side of himself, Nico had difficulty in accepting it.

"Tell me honestly, Nico. Tell me that you don't see something dark in Percy's eyes. Tell me you don't see that manic edge on his eyes, or notice his inane possessiveness over you."

Nico refused to believe that. Nico refused to believe that Percy had almost obliterated the primordial goddess, Akhlys. Nico refused to acknowledge the fact that he had seen a darker edge when he would occasionally look into Percy's eyes. Nico refused to acknowledge that it was manifesting on the son of Poseidon much more with each day.

"He won't let you go, Nico. You are his attachment to life; the most important person to him now that had never given an indication of leaving him behind. Percy's attached to you to the point that he would kill anyone who would take you from him."

Was that not what he always wanted? For Percy to devote himself completely over him? But this was not what he truly desired. Not this Percy. Not this Percy that would kill for him.

Nico thought that he had fixed Percy.

No.

In his desire to mend his broken soul, Nico had planted and raised a growing darkness in Percy's mind.

The third nail in the coffin.

"I love you, Nico."

That broken groan echoed like an enticing sin on his mind.

"You're mine. I won't let anyone else have you."

Sweat trickled down the sculpted planes of their entangled bodies, rarely pooling atop battle scars as if wanting to invoke even a sliver of pain on the torn skin. The warmth of the body atop him, fluidly moving with the urgency and the desire to meld them into one, almost clouded his judgement. Nico threw his head back in momentary bliss, blunt nails dragging along the back of the son of Poseidon as said teen bit on the patch of skin between his neck and right shoulder.

This was still Percy Jackson. This was Percy Jackson whom had been a broken soul over a year ago. This was Percy Jackson whom he had slowly tried to mend back once more with the pieces that were left. This was Percy Jackson whom had eventually come to fall in love with him when his mind had been fresh and clear of any darkness that existed now.

This was the Percy Jackson that had saved his and Bianca's life on so many years ago. This was the Percy Jackson whom had made him defy his father on so many occasions. This was the Percy Jackson he devoted his life, to the point of death, so that he might live.

And that would never change.

"I love you, Percy. I will never leave you, I promise. I'm all yours."

If Nico would have to swallow that darkness in Percy and make it his own, he would. No matter how broken he was or just as equally that Percy was, Nico would shoulder them entirely; anything to make the son of Poseidon whole once more. And if not, then at the very least, Percy was with him.

"Just making sure, Nico. Just making sure."

Only when those words had been giddily crooned to his ears did Nico allow for a tear to slip.

On the back of his mind, he heard the final nail hit the coffin – their coffin – shut.

.

.

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finisce l'amore