welcome to percico microfic, a project to inspire and share Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson fics and fanart. the idea is simple (and heavily borrowed, see acknowledgements): we post prompts, you create percico works based on those prompts, we share your works, we are all collectively healed by increased percico content on our dashboards! rules and guidelines below.
💀how it works
we post a one-word prompt every week
you create percico-centric fanwork based on that prompt
you tag @percicomicrofic in your post with your work (or a link to it on ao3!)
we reblog your post and say nice things about it!
other people reblog your post and say nice things about it!
More details under the cut!
💀what counts as a fill
microfics (50 words or less) and other short fiction
art, gifs, edits, epic poetry, macramé, sock puppets, whatever you can think of. all forms of fanwork encouraged!
see that word count? not a rule. barely even a guideline. write however many words you want, no one is ever going to be mad to see more percico words!
okay why say 50 words at all then? to encourage participation! who can't write 50 words? you got this, it's like five sentences (or one if you're handy with a comma). also it's a fun challenge!
no obligation to complete a fill for every prompt, no limit to number of fills per prompt, and no prompt expiration date! search past prompts using #pmf_prompt tag
💀the rules
must be percico-centric! that doesn't necessarily mean romantic/sexual, we welcome explorations of all dynamics. it should not heavily feature Percy and/or Nico in other ships, unless future/endgame percico is implied.
no rating/content restrictions. make what you want to make, tag it appropriately, we will also tag it appropriately (see our cw guidelines here!). we recommend including a rating and major content warnings at the top of your post as well, but it's not required.
NO AI. make it yourself or don't tag us.
💀acknowledgements
this concept/structure is completely ripped off inspired by @merthurmicrofic. ideas like that are how merthur is still top 100 after all this time. those mods are the real heroes, and we should all wake up every day and ask ourselves "what would the bbc merlin fandom do?" the answer: write fics, make art, support each other, live forever.
write a percico fic in 50 words (or however many you want!) based on the prompt and tag @percicomicrofic so we can see and share your work! art, edits, etc also welcome!
@percicomicrofic | Prompt: GENDER | word count: 2,780 | post canon
This was new. Or maybe it wasn't, but it felt new. A muted buzz under his skin, like the quiet thump of his heart beating slightly faster. Not enough to be noticed when his senses were on alert so often and his body rarely rested still.
But sometimes he thought maybe. As a guy smiled while talking to him, eyes squinted and soft. As their shoulders brushed against each other after a joke. Or as he was taken by surprise and pinned against the mat during the judo sessions he started taking after classes, when he was itching for battle and couldn't stand sitting anymore. But those maybes were so hushed they were easy to forget. They had nothing on what he felt when around a girl he had a genuine connection with. And they were just maybes.
So why was it so loud and glaring he had to look away when Nico frowned down at him from the outside of the ring, with the most confused “Percy?” on his lips.
Logan was still straddling him, his whole weight on Percy who immediately reacted and threw him off him, reversing their position to slap his friend hard against the mat. Logan let out a surprised pained moan and Percy rolled off him.
“Sorry. Sorry, I… hum, I didn't mean to.”
Threat. That feeling was second nature. But Nico wasn’t a threat, so why was his body reacting like seeing him unexpectedly after three years of no contact, was the same as being attacked by monsters at an inopportune moment? Or being caught making out by your mom while impromptu visiting. Not that. The former one, definitely.
He got back up and turned to Nico. He looked… different. Yes, Percy, time does that to you. Not just that. Yes, Nico looked older, but also, it was in the way he stood, the way he looked at Percy almost unguarded. Not trusting, just not ready to flee at any second. Confident. Like his presence took more space than his body did. Like his body was finally his and not an ill fitted suit he didn't know how to wear. As for what he was wearing… Tight. He immediately looked back up. Nico raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile on his lips.
“Did you just get beat by…”, a mortal, his eyes said “this guy?”
“This guy would really like some help getting up.”
“Oh yeah, sorry, dude.”
Percy pulled Logan back on his feet as he groaned and complained about fair play. While he was taller and slightly bigger than Percy, Logan rarely got the better of him unless he successfully goaded him into making a mistake. But even when winning, Percy had never put his whole body into it. Years of demigod training and monster fighting tended to do untold damage to unsuspecting people who only dabbled in martial arts. Even though Percy was way handier with a sword than hand to hand combat.
“Logan, Nico. Nico … what are you doing here?”
“Happy to see me, I see.”
Percy forced himself to stay still even as that gaze felt too heavy to withstand. He wanted to squirm away from it. Or fight something. Whatever was most convenient. Logan groaned again and he chose to focus on him instead. He got his friend off the mat and onto a nearby chair.
“Who sent you?” He asked Nico without looking at him, patting Logan gently to see what exactly was hurting. He was no medic genius but knowing what was an emergency when ambrosia was nowhere near was something he’d learned a long time ago.
“What if I just wanted to see you?”.
The laughter in his tone was barely hidden. And all the more grating.
“After three years refusing to talk to me at all, sending messages through Frank and Hazel, now you want to see me?” He turned to look at him, actually pissed now. “Something really wrong must have happened for you to bother. So what is it?”
Nico looked at Logan, mouth pinched a second then at him again, eyes unwavering. And he just looked at him. Percy could have lost himself in their depth, drowned willingly and asked for more. Maybe, chanted the erratic thump thump thump of his heart.
A fight. He needed a fight. Whatever that feeling was, whether he actually did feel that way about men… it couldn’t be Nico. Not someone who could melt the ground into mud. Not someone who unsettled him so thoroughly with one look.
“I have, admittedly, been a bit of an ass, but I need your help. I’m looking for someone and you have-” he briefly looked sideways again “you have a set of skills I lack.”
“Skills.” He repeated deadpan. Whatever he could do, Nico could also just as well if not sometimes better.
“A road trip I can handle, the sea, well, that’s more your territory.”
“Ah.”
“Yes.”
Nico licked his lips. Percy didn't look. Too long.
A boat trip. With Nico di Angelo. Yes. No. No Percy. Not until you get a handle on yourself and learn to stand straight again. He wanted to be angry instead. They’d been friends, after all. They’d gone through war side by side. Twice over. They could relate to each other more deeply than with most others and while being so completely different, there was a time he felt like they finally matched. After Gaea was put back to sleep and things calmed down. After his relationship with Annabeth went up in almost literal flames. After he started to figure out who he was for himself and nobody else… They'd finally found their own rhythm. The words that didn’t clash and the silences they could lie in.
Nico suddenly leaving without a word was a betrayal too intense to name. It still clawed at his skin with a whiny why he couldn't answer. Frank and Hazel couldn’t say either. Sometimes he’d thought they knew and just refused him closure. You know, it’s just Nico. Probably nothing personal. He hates staying anywhere for too long and camp was never his place. But this wasn’t about camp, it was about him, somehow, he was certain of that. Afterall, he seemed to be the only one Nico refused to talk to.
“When you’re done eyefucking each other, can you call my sister for me?”
Nico flushed and looked away and for a moment Percy could see his old friend again in the discomfort he pained to mask. Then the words sunk in and he turned to Logan, appalled.
“What the fuck?”
“Dude, my back and shoulders hurt, remember? You guys can probably wait for me to get out of here to continue whatever this is.”
He opened his mouth but gave up quickly. The priority was getting his friend some help. He went to get Logan’s phone from his open locker and brought it back for him to unlock. The place was thankfully empty as it never opened on Fridays and Percy was quietly thankful Logan owned it. A phone call later and his sister came to pick him up, leaving Percy with the keys to clean up and close after declining his offer to help further.
The silence they left behind was heavy and the air too thick to breathe. He busied himself.
“How did you find me?” he asked after being creepily observed from a spot against the wall for ten minutes.
“I asked Grover.”
Empathy link, Percy remembered. He signed and checked one last time that everything was in order before stepping outside to close.
“I’m sorry.” Nico said when Percy inserted the key. He stopped moving, trying to decide if he wanted to be more angry or let the genuine regret in Nico’s voice coax him. “I had things I needed to deal with. Alone. Being around you made it so much harder.”
“What did I do to make things hard for you?”. He locked the door more roughly than necessary. “What did I do to make you think you couldn't talk to me?”
He turned to look at him and the sadness in Nico’s eyes just made him angrier. The keys bit hard against his skin as he choked them in his grasp.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, you said that already, I'm just not sure I understand what you’re sorry about. Maybe I'm sorry, actually. I’m sorry I thought we were friends. I’m sorry I rambled on and on about my problems and my breakup and my future. I’m sorry I thought that we could trust each other and if you had something on your mind you’d just, I don’t know, tell me!”
Secrets. So many secrets in the dead of night, walking together after curfew. His fears, his desires, things he could barely admit to himself but felt safe saying out loud to someone who saw him. Without the judgement, the expectations. Because Nico knew him. Knew all his flaws and his fuckups better than anybody else and accepted it all. That darkness that wrapped around his heart and grew bigger by the day, that side of him that threatened to topple him completely if his mask slipped even a little… It had finally felt manageable after he’d grown the courage to lay it bare at Nico’s feet to be offered a similar confession. Nico knew him. But had he ever known Nico? Or was it all onesided? He had never felt so raw and unbalanced as when he realized, after months of silence, that Nico wasn't coming back.
He turned away and closed his eyes for a moment. He was being ridiculous. What did it matter if he was hurt? And how could he just want him, after that? Get a hold of yourself!
“Forget it. Who are you looking for? If I can help, I will, but I'm not going anywhere with you.”
“Maybe we should talk first.”
“Aren't you in a hurry? I’m guessing you must've been pretty desperate to come to me. So just tell me what you need so we can get this over with.”
Nico pinched his lips like biting back words. That expression was familiar; a close off, repressed anger. A little jittery, a little unsettled. Ready for a fight and trying to keep it at bay. Then Percy noticed the bags under his eyes and wondered when he had slept last. They were less prominent than the last time he'd seen him, but still there. It felt weird seeing the old and the new and not knowing what to feel about any of it. The recognition tugged him closer, eager to know him again, to know him more but all the unfamiliarities kept him at a distance, weary.
Maybe? Maybe, maybe… He needed to walk away. Nico followed, steps ever so quiet.
“The sirens have left their island and have been spotted all over the east coast. We don’t really know why they left or where they are exactly since the moment you hear them-”
“You die.”
“Exactly. We’ve found workarounds but they’re constantly on the move. The moment you spot them, if they fail to drag you under, they disappear. I can track them on the coast but the moment they go farther away I lose them.”
“Oh yeah, you’re a bounty hunter now.”
Percy remembered Jason talking about it. He hadn’t been surprised, exactly; Nico had always been a lone wolf, of course he’d find something like that to occupy his time without having to deal with other people too much. But he’d pretended that he hadn’t been interested while trying, as discreetly as possible to get more details. Only to be seen through and give up.
“Not a bounty hunter since there’s no bounty.”
“Don't minor gods and demigods ask you to find stuff in exchange for “gifts” or favors? Or was it promises? How is that not bounty hunting?”
“Whatever. The point is, the sirens don’t go for mortals, just demigods. And usually the least powerful ones. We don’t know why but even when they’re not on the coast proper they seem drawn to it. We’ve lost quite a few in the past two weeks and it’s ramping up. We need to figure out what’s going on and stop it.”
Nico sped up to walk in step with him and Percy tried hard not to notice the heated pressure of the space between their shoulders. Nico had grown taller in his absence and he wondered how it would affect the way he fought. Maybe getting Nico to draw his sword on him would quell the restlessness.
“Why haven’t I heard of it?”
“It took the Chiron a while to even realize that something was happening and why they were losing track of campers. He sent parties out and asked his centaur contacts for Intel. So things really started moving two weeks ago, but it probably started a couple months back. He called me and didn't want to bother you with it. I decided otherwise.”
“Of course you did.” He meant it bitterly but it sounded more fond than anything. He bit his lip. “So, since you lose them the moment they leave the shore, you want me to be your compass?"
“Yes.”
“Being able to navigate doesn’t magically make me able to find stuff that doesn't want to be found.”
“I know how to locate the sirens, but I'm not good on a boat. You can’t find them but you can navigate. Match made in Elysium.”
He stopped and turned to him.
“Hypothetically, if I did agree to go on this mission, who else would be coming?”
I don’t want to be stuck alone with you, was the underlying statement. Don't you? Asked a treacherous part of his mind.
“Safety first. Everyone’s been called back to camp except for satyrs looking for anyone that can be a target. Even stronger demigods don’t go too close to the water just in case, when they’re not occupied elsewhere altogether. I’m on my own and now I have you. It would just be the two of us.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“Preventing unnecessary loss is not good enough for you? Do I need another reason?”
Percy stared without a word. He wasn’t going anywhere without an answer. The situation was worrying but not world ending, as long as everyone avoided the water there was not much to worry about. Unless the sirens also appeared in your bath. So what if he was being a bit selfish? He knew he’d agree anyway, so might as well get his way first.
Nico endured his gaze a few seconds then looked away. He was clearly itching for a challenge and fighting himself not to take it unnecessarily. Maybe he was not so different from before, just a little more together.
“I figured it was past due time.” He licked his lips and this time Percy could not look away. “It was never supposed to be forever. A couple weeks, a few months at most. Then time passed and I couldn't come back. I knew you were mad at me and I thought…” He breathed in deep and looked back at him. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just scared, and the longer I stayed away, the less I felt like you’d want me back.” He smiled and it was so bitter and sad Percy almost stepped closer. “I’m a coward that way, I guess.”
“I’ve never known you to be a coward.”
Have I ever known you at all?
“I am when it comes to certain things.”
“The things you had to deal with and couldn’t tell me about?”
“Yes.”
“I’m guessing you won't tell me about any of it now either?”
“No. Not yet.”
“I don't forgive you.”
“I don't expect you to.”
“Not because you won’t tell me.”
“Because you don’t trust me. I know.”
Percy clasped the keys harder, their jagged edges a painful reminder to stay still as his fingers craved to touch. To make sure this really was Nico. Just hold him quick and hard and breathe in his scent and mold their bodies to each other. Just to make sure this wasn't some kind of dream. Hold on and never let go.
He wasn’t even the hugging type so why was he suddenly being ridiculous?
“I’ll come with you.” He signed with all the reluctance and annoyance he was capable of.
Nico smiled and it was so soft one of the knots in his heart detangled.
Maybe, maybe. Not now, perhaps not ever. But it was there and Percy couldn't deny it anymore. At least to himself. Men. Nico.
@percicomicrofic | prompt: GENDER | wordcount: 1,101 | universe: end of BoO
"No more Underworld-y stuff, doctor's orders. You owe me at least three days of rest in the infirmary. Starting now."
Something churned deep in Nico's stomach. He couldn't immediately identify it, but the sensation made him feel uneasy. Like maggots wriggling about, ready to crawl and—
Butterflies! He thought quickly, mentally shaking the previous image from his mind. Skeletal butterflies—a crush!
He didn't have much experience in that area. His only other data point was Percy Jackson, and that had taken years of denial and self-hatred to realize—
A loud, throat-clearing cough broke him from his thoughts and made him look at Will. The son of Apollo stood before him in a green surgeon's shirt with jeans and flip-flops. His brows were marked with creases and the corners of his mouth were turned downward. He seemed irritated by the delay in response.
"Three days?" Nico finally answered back, not knowing what Solace had planned for him. "I—I suppose that would be okay?"
The expression on Will's face didn't change, but the son of Apollo accepted Nico's answer.
"Good. Now—"
A loud whoop! cut through the air.
Before he could even turn his head, Nico knew the holler came from Percy. He was seated over by the hearth in the center of the common, grinning from ear to ear at something Annabeth had just told him.
"I'll be right back," he shouted at Will, waving him off, not even bothering to face him as he started to walk in Percy's direction. "Promise on the Styx and everything." He added as an afterthought.
As he approached the couple. he thought about the maggots skeletal butterflies he felt wriggling inside him.
Maybe it is a crush? He walked faster toward Percy and Annabeth, ignoring how his heart rate skyrocketed and his breathing quickened as he approached the son of Poseidon.
It has to be! I can't have Percy I'm starting to get over Percy and this must be the feeling of me moving on!
When he finally arrived and stood a few feet from the Golden Couple, the feeling of maggots skeletal butterflies was entirely replaced with a new sensation. He felt lighter, almost as if he was floating.
"Hey, man," Percy greeted him as he arrived. His warm smile and bright eyes made Nico's face heat up. "Annabeth just told me some good news. Sorry if I got a little loud."
Nico tried to speak but found his mouth had dried up. Instead, he settled for a smile and motioned for Percy to continue.
I'm just excited for whatever news Percy has to share. He thought a little too quickly, seeking a way to rationalize how his body started going haywire in the presence of the son of Poseidon. It's not that I'm still crushing on him. It's not like I can be with him anyway nothing like that at all.
"We're going to spend our senior year together," Percy interjected, disrupting Nico's thoughts and sending another wave of heat crashing over him, "here in New York. And after graduation—"
Nico tried to listen to what Percy had to say, but he tuned out the conversation and shifted his sight towards Annabeth. Percy felt too intense at the moment and Nico needed a quick breather.
I gotta rest, right? Doctor's orders or something. The thought of Will made Nico's stomach churn again.
He decided to focus on the space above Annabeth's shoulder, trying to make the maggots skeletal butterflies go away, but his sight drifted slowly toward her face. If she was bothered by Nico's gaze, she didn't show it. It was apparent just how captivated she was by Percy's excitement. She kept her entire focus on her boyfriend.
Good for them, Nico thought, swallowing as his eye twitched imperceptibly. I wish them the best.
Seeing Annabeth again reminded him of the last time he had seen her. She had finished thanking him for saving her and Percy's lives in Tartarus thanks to Bob's help in guiding them and then sacrificing himself to close the Doors of Death.
As she left him then, he recalled Plato's story. Of how he claimed that in ancient times, all humans had been a combination of male and female with two heads, four arms, and four legs.
It turns out that he didn't actually know the original story.
On his journey returning the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood, during one of his few moments of recovery, he found a quaint, little bookstore on the outskirts of a small town that had a surprisingly large section of ancient texts and classics.
There, he learned that, in the original myth, Plato claimed humanity had actually consisted of three genders—males (with two sets of male genitalia) born from the Sun, females (with two sets of female genitalia) born from the Earth, and androgynous (with one set of each) born from the Moon.
When Nico found out, he cursed the author who had spread the incorrect version of the myth. He couldn't recall the author's name, nor his other works, but he wouldn't be surprised if they were also full of mischaracterizations.
I wonder if Percy and I would have been a two-male being. Nico briefly pondered, but as soon as the idea manifested he brushed it aside. No, that's ridiculous. Nico knew he couldn't have didn't want that.
Percy was always meant to be an androgynous pair with Annabeth.
Focusing back on the present, Nico risked a glance at Percy.
Nico studied Percy's face—his sea green eyes, his grin, his ruffled black hair. Somehow Percy Jackson always returned to the forefront of his mind. It was unfair, truly, but he assumed these feelings were the last vestiges of his crush on the son of Poseidon.
He felt himself go on autopilot as he addressed Percy, telling half-truths, and sometimes blatant lies as he meandered throughout the conversation.
"You're a great amazing, honorable, just, beautiful, perfect person. But I'm not over that." He felt his throat get tighter. "I'm happy for you guys."
A new feeling started to emerge within him. He felt claws constricting around his chest as he continued speaking.
"I chose not to see now... you're everything cute, but you're unattainable not my type."
Nico rushed through the remainder of the conversation, realizing he just wanted to get out of there and rid himself of the soul-crushing vice he was experiencing. He thought Annabeth might've high-fived him, but he couldn't remember.
Then he walked back across the green, where Will Solace was expecting him, and the feeling of maggots wriggling inside him returned.
“He gave you a Mercedes for your birthday? I’m still driving Paul’s 2007 Prius, and Hades just gives you a brand new Mercedes?”
Nico shrugged helplessly. Every couple of years, his dad got it in his head to go overboard for a birthday gift. It had started when he’d turned fourteen with his zombie chauffeur Jules-Albert. Now, on his eighteenth birthday, it had come full-circle to a car. Among other things. But the car was probably the most flashy.
“Sometimes my dad wants me to be a ‘normal teenage boy.” Nico did air-quotes and sighed.
Percy circled the shiny black coupe, eyes hungry. It reminded Nico of the way Percy had gushed over Apollo’s chariot, all the way back when they had first met. His chest hurt a little at the memory.
“You can literally teleport,” Percy said, peering into the passenger window to take a look at the seats. “Do you even have a driver’s license?”
“Shadow travel isn’t teleporting.” Nico rolled his eyes. Reaching into the pocket of his aviator jacket, he found the car keys and tossed them to Percy. “And, uh, no.”
“Shadow travel is basically instantaneous. It’s teleporting,” Percy insisted flatly, fidgeting with the car keys. A little click told Nico that he had unlocked the car doors. Percy went back to admiring the car, scrambling over to the driver’s side and sliding into the driver seat. “Nico, it has leather seats! And seatwarmers! And a sunroof!”
The engine started. That was when Nico knew that he’d either have to get in or be left in the dust. Percy had found a new love, and it was with Nico’s car. With a sigh, he flopped down into the passenger’s seat and slammed his door shut.
Percy was adjusting the mirrors. “How much horsepower does it have?”
“That’s a better question for Leo, don’t you think?”
“Come on, Nico,” Percy said, his lips curling up slowly into a smile. “Humor me.”
Nico’s heart pounded, but he made himself meet Percy’s gaze steadily. “We’ll have to get out of the city to really test it.”
Without taking his eyes off of Nico, Percy shifted the car into neutral and revved the engine. “You read my mind.”
Hey look! @coquicola has gifted us this absolute GEM of a fic continuing their equally awesome prompt fill for HORSE. It is WONDERFUL, everyone please give it a read! 🖤💙
“Why did I choose Italian as my elective?” Percy groaned aloud.
He knew why, of course—it was a rhetorical question. The answer came down to a younger Italian transfer student with silky dark curls and impossibly dark eyes who sat next to him in English. Percy didn’t even have the boy’s name and he was already doing stupid stuff like signing up for an actual class and not just another blow off language like Ancient Greek. Nope, that would have been too easy, so now Percy was stuck trying to figure out why the nouns he was learning had genders.
He let out a long sigh, leaning back in his chair for a moment, before resolving to nut up and stop complaining. Okay, so the book said that, as a general rule, if it ended in ‘o’ it was masculine. He’d had to read it a couple of times to be sure, because his dyslexia was annoying like that. Still, he picked up his pencil—blue, of course—and started back on his worksheet. So, it would be ‘il’ or ‘un’ for ‘porto’, ‘tavolo’, ‘foto’—
“That’s wrong, actually.” A voice corrected from Percy’s blindside, startling him into a tiny jump that he was extremely grateful wasn’t a scream of fright when he saw who the voice belonged to.
It was him. The boy. The cute Italian transfer with the soft curls and the big eyes, his pouty pink lips twitching upwards in amusement as he watched Percy awkwardly settle back into his seat.
“Oh, is it?” Percy asked, trying for nonchalant. The boy didn’t seem to buy it, but didn’t call him on it.
“Yes. ‘Foto’ is short for ‘fotografía’, which is a feminine noun, so you would use ‘la’ or ‘una’,” the boy explained, his voice lilting almost musically over the Italian. Italian was so much prettier coming out of those lips, Percy mused distractedly. Too distractedly, as the boy raised an impatient brow at him when Percy just stared. “Are you going to write that down?”
Percy blinked. Realized he’d been staring at the other boy for a solid minute and let out a nervous chuckle while rubbing the back of his neck, desperately hoping his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
“Right, sorry, guess this stuff is harder than I thought,” Percy offered in explanation. “Thanks a lot, umm…”
“Nico. Nico di Angelo,” Nico replied easily—or at least, it looked that way on the surface, but Percy caught his fingers playing with his jacket sleeves. A nervous habit? Whatever it was, it was cute. Everything the boy did was cute, even his name was cute—and god, Percy was in way over his head.
“Well, thanks then, Nico,” Percy said, mustering up his very best smile before he forced himself to turn back to his worksheet. Cause Percy could be casual about this, totally, 100%—
“If you’d like,” Nico started, cheeks ever so slightly pink. “I can help you with the rest?”
“I’d love that!” Percy blurted out immediately, followed by wanting to hit himself over the head. How was that ‘casual’? He might as well just blurt out he had a crush and get rejected already!
Before Percy could beat himself up any further, Nico smiled, his dark eyes lighting up like the lights on Fifth Avenue at Christmas—and Percy’s heart started playing jump rope in his chest. ‘Here lies Percy Jackson’, it would say on his tombstone, ‘14 years old, died making an angel smile’.
write a percico fic in 50 words (or however many you want!) based on the prompt and tag @percicomicrofic so we can see and share your work! art, edits, etc also welcome!
@percicomicrofic | prompt: SPACE | wordcount: 400 | universe: post-HoO
Nico looked up at the popcorn ceiling, wondering how he'd never noticed all the cracks scattered across it.
"It's not me, right?" He took another sip of wine, swirling it in his glass. "He treats me like a patient he needs to cure." He snapped his fingers repeatedly, recognition lighting his eyes. "Like I'm someone he needs to fix!"
As usual, Nico was propped up against Percy's right side. He'd climbed through Percy's window after shadow traveling onto his fire escape, just as he had all those years ago.
"It's our third fight in the past month." His eyes were still plastered toward the ceiling, creases forming around them. "You know he actually yelled at me this time?" Nico scoffed, tossing his left hand into the air. "I didn't really care much for it, but it was that fucking tone he used."
He hiccuped, a sour note of wine passing through his lips as he snuggled deeper into Percy's side. The scent of sea salt and musk grew stronger, and Nico could feel Percy's heartbeat quicken.
"Nico, I know what's best for you!" The son of Hades mocked in a whining, nasally voice. "Why can't you see I'm just trying to help you?"
Nico grabbed Percy's hand, interlaced their fingers, and gave it a firm squeeze.
He hated how furious Solace made him. How a few words sputtered from his know-it-all mouth would dig at him and set him off.
Nico knew he needed to ground himself, and that meant seeking out any kind of sensation around him: touch, scent... taste.
He shifted his sight toward Percy, noting how his breathing had grown heavier and his face had become several shades darker.
He wasn't going to let a measly ten-minute argument ruin the rest of his night.
"What do you think about all this?"
Nico could feel Percy's heartbeat pounding as he held their hands together tightly. Percy's breathing had also become shallower, and his muscles felt like a coiled-up spring, ready to burst at a moment's notice.
Good, Nico thought, he's just as pissed about it as I am.
The ghost of a smile spread across his face as he delighted in their shared animosity.
Nico raised his glass and took another sip, waiting for a response. He'd carved himself a space beside Percy, and no one, not even wannabe doctor Solace, could ever take that away from him.
for @percicomicrofic | prompt: raw | words: 872 (oops) | tags: oral sex, percy eats nico's ass, mild angst from nico pining as there's some fwb type situation going on here, past nico/will
The gentle kiss of lips pressed down Nico's spine and coupled with the brush of hands that followed down his sides, Nico couldn't help but question if this was how it was to be worshipped.
It sure felt like it.
Lips warm and soft, finger tips purposeful on the brink of ticklish, the playlist Percy had on continuing to hum in the background. A content sigh left Nico's mouth followed by the feeling of a smile on his lower back.
He almost wanted to tell Percy to hurry up with the way Nico's dick was awkwardly trapped between his stomach and Percy's mattress yet he also wanted this moment to drag on forever, never to leave the care of gentle lips and hands.
Another kiss then another just below it and Nico's mind continued to float. He was putty under Percy's will and although he didn't know Percy's goal, Nico didn't care.
Whatever Percy wanted Nico knew he'd give.
A sudden shiver ran through Nico's entire body, spawning out from the spot right above where his lower back split into his cheeks. A kiss so low.
His shock must have shown as hands paused the massage of his cheeks.
"You good?"
Nico hated the way the care always wormed its way straight into his chest and made its home there.
"Yeah," Nico replied, voice a little distant from his mind. "I- I just wasn't expecting it."
Hands continued the soft massage, a cold breeze brushing between his cheeks when they separated. It was torture although Nico was a willing participant. Always willing.
"No one eaten you out before?"
Everything screeched to halt minus maybe Percy's hands but Nico was too focused repeating Percy's words and the meaning behind them around his head to focus on his hands.
Was Percy offering?
Admittedly he'd always been curious to what it would feel like to have someone explore him in such a way.
He'd brought it up to Will once. Nico really shouldn't have been shocked or disappointed by the way Will's face had scrunched into disgust and denied his question. Definitely not with the way Will refused to even finger Nico without a pair of medical gloves.
Fine if Nico had a medical kink but he's pretty sure he had the opposite of one.
'It's sanitary, Nico,' Will had always said as if exploring sexuality, exploring Nico was dirty and that a boarder needed to be kept between them at all times.
Yet Percy, Percy had initiated, asked, appeared just as eager as Nico's still trapped dick.
Nico shook his head. "No, but you can."
Percy hands rubbed upwards settling near his hips as he asked, "You sure?"
"Yes."
He'd never been more sure about something in his life.
"Hips up," Percy commanded, gentle yet firm.
Nico mentally cursed how he moved automatically to Percy's will, naked and exposed, raw and vulnerable in a way he almost wanted to shy away from. He couldn't see Percy's face, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to, yet the inhale of ocean breeze from the pillow under his head and warm hands on his cheeks instantly stabilised him.
Trust.
He trusted Percy. Trusted he'd take care of him, trusted that he could hand Percy a new experience and Nico not leave with regret.
Maybe that's what scared him the most.
Although, as lips found his body once again, soft and gentle, the edge of fear subsided.
"Let me know if you need me to stop," was the only warning Percy gave, pressed into his skin, before hands separated Nico into two and a hot, wet strip licked down the middle.
A gasp tumbled out Nico's lips and his hands blindly gripped for the edge of Percy's mattress somewhere under the pillow.
Percy provided zero recovery time, not that Nico wanted him to. Not with the way Percy's tongue started near the back of his balls, licked upwards only to circle and flick his rim before continuing his journey upwards.
Over and over again, the pull under, to be brought back to the surface only to drown again as if Nico were food to be played with.
He could do nothing to stop it, wanted to do nothing, the sensation too good, chasing Percy's affection as he'd always done. His tongue deadly and Nico ignoring every danger sign of his mind to fall to the will of his body.
Although, somewhere in the haze of his skull and the groans that tumbled from his mouth, his mind couldn't help but shove its way in with the knowledge Percy had done this before.
Who with, Nico didn't know.
It shouldn't matter. It didn't matter.
It hurt all the same.
Pressure travelled up his thighs. Hands.
"You're thinking too much," Percy mumbled into Nico's lower back. "Should I be offended?"
Pressure left his thigh, travelled around his hips and wrapped all their digits around him. Hips snapped backwards as a moan he was sure was Percy's name ran free.
He was drowning. Drowning.
"That's better," came from somewhere behind him, followed by a low kiss.
Then, when pressure tugged as hot, wet muscle breached his body, Nico's mind halted, slipped over the edge and he sunk into the depths.
💀 for @percicomicrofic | prompt: SPACE | word count: 644 | universe: project hail mary AU
Here's my definitive list of objects currently orbiting Iota Persei that shouldn't be, in reverse order of how much they're really not supposed to be here:
3) An exoplanet. It's not very big, though that'd be a silly reason for NASA to have missed it all these years. Triton's analysis found trace carbon dioxide in its atmosphere - plus it's blue - but Triton also started this mission caring for a crew that was zero-percent dead and we're up to sixty-six point six repeating, so how much should I really trust the robot?
2) Another space ship. Not that I knew what it was at first. It doesn't look anything like STRM-Bringer - no nose cone, no massive cylindrical fuel tanks. Apparently, that's just what Earth's ships look like though, and I was being narrow-minded before. So glad its lone occupant was here set me straight.
1) Me, Percy S. Jackson. I'd tell you why, but I'm a little busy with Object #2 at the moment.
"Okay, how about this one?" I ask, pressing another key on the laptop.
An unintelligible series of variably pitched, quiet echo sounds is the reply, but this time it's got the voice of a mean old woman over the top of it.
Cannot worse than last - correction, it can, it can, dislike.
"Oof yeah, sounds like my old math teacher. Sorry about that buddy - next."
Who makes voice list, inquire?
"Hmm no, too British. Um, NASA I guess?"
NASA makes interesting selections, derogatory.
"Yeah, I don't think they knew they were going to be picking a voice for you, dude. That one was alright?"
Too sweet, dislike. Next, insist.
"Aww, I think you're sweet."
No one believes Percy Jackson, tease. Next, insist.
I roll my eyes and keep scrolling. On the other side of the clear pane in a sea of deep brown glass that seems to make up his spacecraft, the only other lifeform for thirty light years seems to melt. He merges with a shadow cast by the warm yellow-orange light streaming through the transparent walls of the narrow bridge between our ships. Then he pops back out from another one up by the ceiling, which I'm learning is something he likes to do when he's bored.
"I'm looking, I'm looking! Okay - try that one on."
He coalesces again, and I wait as slightly agitated clicking comes from his dark, angular shape.
Was faster send Percy Jackson diamagnetic silica message - oh, surprise. Oh, intrigue.
It's a nice voice, actually. Not too low, not too high. Kind of like the faint, airy calls still wavering underneath it.
"Hey, I like this one! What do you think, huh? Say something else."
Test test test, voice sounds, positive. Use voice to talk, use voice to talk to Percy Jackson, excite.
I know I'm smiling like an idiot, but God, or gods, or whoever's listening at the edge of oblivion, does it feel good to talk to someone. Someone else who's looking for answers in a distant star, for some way to save their home. Someone else who knows they'll die here, alone, light years away from the world they saved.
"Yeah, I think this is a winner, dude. Okay, now tell me your name."
The being on the other side of the glass shimmers. For a second, fractals of faint lines like those running all through the space bridge seem to shuffle and rearrange on his body, flashing a brief sheen of deep violent before settling back into his typical metallic blue-gray form to speak. Two clear tones, a high and a low.
Nico.
Then,
Nico, positive.
"Cool! Okay - hey, Nico. Nice to meet you."
Cool! Nico is not alone, positive. Nico finds Percy Jackson, excite.
"Yeah, I'm pretty excited I found you too, buddy."
Cool! Nico and Percy Jackson save planets together, insist.
Prompt : Space by @percicomicrofic| Word count : | Ship : percico | anged up percico and percabeth didn't happen in the last olympian | genre : angst
after the argument that happened with them, percy was confused.
but it also left percy in absolute shambles. Nico did slip in the argument, percy didn't notice then. but he did now.
'Maybe if I didnt like you it wouldn't hurt this much!'
these words were still ringing in percy's ears. nico wasn't there no matter how hard he looked. there to see him, truly. nico didn't look at percy like some hero, someone who saved the world. he saw him as percy. a boy who has trauma just like nico. who saw so many people, friends or foes, dead right in front of his eyes.
and now he wasn't there. all because of the stupid fight.
the fight started when nico brought up that percy has been hanging out less and neglecting him since he got with annabeth. and percy defended himself that, 'no I didn't neglect you. I just got a girlfriend that's all.'
the fight got bigger with each sentence, harsh words were thrown at each other.
he has been pondering upon the argument. they never had one, moreover over something so silly. but the 'silly' argument left nico shattered.
he didn't want to confess. he didn't want to fight, he wanted percy to be happy even if percy wasn't his.
and he didn't get what he wanted. percy wasn't happy,
turns out the more percy thought about it, the more clear it became.
Nico was hurting, not giving percy space. and it was because of percy. the realization dawned on him late. after all, nico was gone right? What can he do now?
annabeth was feeling down, thinking percy didn't love her all this time. the day he told her about the argument and what nico said, she was more clear about this. she didn't want to be with someone who doesn't love her. she doesn't want to be some second choice.
so she left, too.
not literally, just left as his girlfriend. she wasn't cruel enough to leave percy alone at this time.
then percy realized, nico was his safe space, and he was indeed in love with nico.
Now all he had to do was find him. very hard when nico shadow travelled to somewhere percy doesn't know.
write a percico fic in 50 words (or however many you want!) based on the prompt and tag @percicomicrofic so we can see and share your work! art, edits, etc also welcome!
thanks to @mark-of-cygnus for the prompt, and welcome back!
♇ photo credit to new horizons and NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI. support your local space agency
for @percicomicrofic | prompt: RAW | word count: 1001 | post-canon, nsfw implied, continuation on ao3 here
Percy doesn't really know how he ended up living with Jason and Nico. It wasn't really on purpose. It's just what happened when it all went down.
It, being when he and Annabeth broke up and he was chivalrous and told Annabeth she didn't have to move. Unfortunately, that meant he didn't really have anywhere to go. He could live with his mom, but Estelle took his room and he's 25-years-old. He doesn't want to live with his mom, as lovely as she is. He couldn't go back to camp either, and he certainly couldn't go anywhere else in New Rome. He was in dire straits until Jason offered his and Nico's guest room after Percy has spent two months couch hopping.
"You have a guest room?" Percy asked at the time. "In New York?"
"Nico's dad," Jason said, and Percy could almost hear the shrug in his voice. "Don't worry about it. At least you won't have to pay rent."
There's that, Percy guesses. Things could always be worse. Things could always be like right now, when Percy knocks on Nico's and Jason's front door only to be faced with a scowling Nico di Angelo.
"Hello?" Nico asks when he seems to register that it's Percy. "What are you doing here?"
And Percy— Percy hasn't seen Nico in years. He can't be blamed for the way that he's staring at the boy in front of him, the man in front of him, long and lean and beautiful. Nico's always been pretty, but now…
"Uh," Percy finally says, blinking the stars out of his eyes. "Jason said I could crash in your guest room?"
"That fucking—" Nico mutters before he rolls his eyes. "Sure. Why not? We could always use another roommate. We already have so many."
"You have another roommate?" Percy asks as Nico steps back to let him inside.
"Olive Garden," Nico says, nodding at the corner. It seems like a non-answer until the corner moves and oh, it's a cat. Dark as Nico's hair and dark as Nico's scowl. "She doesn't pay rent."
"Hello, Ms. Olive Garden," Percy says with a smile. "I heard no one pays rent anyway, so you're probably fine. Is she yours?"
"She's her own."
Percy blinks. "Sure. Where should I put my things?"
"Follow me," Nico says as he ducks down the hallway. "Guest room's next to mine, so try not to be too loud unless I'm in the Underworld."
"How often is that?"
Nico shrugs. "Half the time, maybe? So you can throw ragers six months out of the year. Jason's a pushover and would probably let you."
Percy laughs and Nico watches him carefully before his mouth ticks up in a small smile. It's a good look on Nico. Percy idly wonders if everything is such a good look on Nico. He's almost afraid of the answer.
"I'll let you settle in or whatever," Nico says, waving his hand dismissively. "I'll make dinner."
"You can cook?"
Nico waves his hand again and shuts the bedroom door.
Nico can only kind of cook. He can certainly provide wine well though. He's an expert at it. Percy is sure his mouth is tinged red like Nico's is. Across the couch from Percy, Nico is laughing too, which means Percy is laughing, and then Percy isn't laughing at all and he's crying. He's wine drunk and weeping on his new couch that's actually Nico's and Jason's couch.
"Uh—" Nico says.
"I just don't know what to do," Percy sobs. "She left me and I feel like a newly hatched chicken. She took all my feathers."
"Don't chicks usually have feathers when they're hatched?"
"Shh," Percy shushes. "You get my point."
"Sure. Go on, I guess."
"I feel my life is starting over," Percy sighs. "New house, same but new city, new job, and I'm a virgin."
Nico huffs out a laugh. "I don't think virginity works like that. I don't think it resets when you get out of a relationship."
"No, like, I'm a virgin," Percy says miserably. "In general. All the way, all the time."
Now Nico's laugh is loud and bright. It nearly makes Percy smile. "No way. No way you lived with your long-term girlfriend and you've never had sex."
"She was waiting until marriage."
"No way."
"Way!" Percy cries. "I thought when we moved in together… Well, you get it since you and Jason live together."
"Huh?" Nico asks. "What about me and Jason?"
"You're together?"
Nico leans forward and slaps his hand on Percy's mouth. "Never say that again. Jason and I are not together. We slept together one time and that was it."
Percy moves Nico's hand and he doesn't know why he keeps holding it, but it's nice. "Oh, okay. Cool. That's awesome."
Is it awesome? Percy has no idea what's going on. He's still crying.
"Yeah, okay," Nico laughs. He doesn't move his hand. "You have to fuck someone, Perce. It's the only answer."
"But anyone I would have sex with would have to know I'm a virgin and that's humiliating."
"You already know I'm a virgin. We should sleep together and it would solve my problem."
Nico blinks at Percy a few times. They're still holding hands. "Do you even like men?"
"Yeah, totally," Percy says with a smile. "That's old news. I like men, you're beautiful, and you know I'm a virgin. You used to like me, right?"
"When I was 14?"
"Right, so just tap into that."
"Uh—"
Percy laughs. "Neeks. Nico. Come on. It's literally perfect. Let's have sex."
Nico bites his lip while he thinks now. Maybe he did before and Percy never noticed. All possibilities.
"Fine," Nico finally says. "But not while you're drunk."
Percy uses their joined hands to tug Nico close and smack a wet kiss on his mouth. Nico gives a breathless laugh in reply and Percy, for once, feels light.
He was always aware of Nico di Angelo, whether he recognized it or not. Percy’s subconscious taking note of things that only hit him much later—sometimes days, weeks, or even months after. When had that awareness, become anticipation? Yearning? Percy didn’t know.
And as Nico bumped fists with Annabeth and walked away, it hit him. It was too late—the one standing beside Nico di Angelo would never be Percy Jackson.
for @percicomicrofic | prompt: horse | words: 316 | tags: established relationship, somewhere post-canon, crack-ish, if i have to suffer the job market so does percy jackson
"Nico? You think I should apply for this?"
Nico paused from where he'd been passing behind the couch in the middle of the Jackson-Blofis apartment. Percy's body was stretched out over it, legs bent upwards into a triangle, his demigod friendly laptop perched against them.
He peered over the back of the couch.
"Horse rancher?" Nico questioned. "What in Hades name would you write on that application?"
A grin flashed over Percy's face and Nico braced himself for something silly yet annoyingly endearing to come out of Percy's mouth.
"I can talk to horses, trust me bro," grin evident in his voice.
Nico pushed him in the arm, Percy yelping and hands reaching out to save his laptop, as a smile tugged at Nico's cheeks. How he'd once tried to convince himself he didn't like this side of Percy, Nico wasn't sure.
"Or, wait, I'll get - what's his name? - Eurytion to be my reference and he can be all-" Percy put on a deeper voice- "dude cleaned out my stables once and they've never been cleaner. You should hire him."
The snort escaped Nico's nose before he had the chance to stop it. Then he made the mistake of catching Percy's eye before a burst of laughter escaped his mouth.
"What? Nico, I'm being serious!" Percy cackled, smile betraying his words.
Yeah, he was long past pretending this side of Percy didn't make his heart flutter in his chest and, somehow, fall a little bit more in love with the other demigod. So, Nico, just because he could, leant forwards and pressed a kiss to Percy's smile.
"And I'm not legally dead."
"Think you could make me legally dead? Would save me from this bullshit."
"Let me just contact Thanatos and see if he has a spare spot open," Nico called back as he continued his way to the kitchen, ignoring Percy's groan from behind him.
write a percico fic in 50 words (or however many you want!) based on the prompt and tag @percicomicrofic so we can see and share your work! art, edits, etc also welcome!
thanks to @mark-of-cygnus for the prompt, and welcome back!
♇ photo credit to new horizons and NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI. support your local space agency
💀 for @percicomicrofic | prompt: RAW | word count: 609 | universe: post-canon | warnings: holy NSFW, batman
"You're not actually mad about this."
It kind of seems like Nico's actually mad about this. Something about the harsh scoff and the way he doesn't respond or even look at Percy at all, just keeps furiously rifling through the sheets in search of his underwear. A few subtle hints Percy's picking up on. Now, how to fix it...
"Come on, you asked me to!"
"I, what, you - that doesn't count!" Nico stammers, glaring up at Percy, and well, that solves part of the problem. The most important part, really. It's a glare that's definitely killed weaker men, but Percy's a little too focused on the (admittedly, angry) red flush on his boyfriend's cheeks to be worried about a silly little thing like imminent dismemberment.
"Excuse me - how does 'yes, fill me up, Percy please, I want it in me' not count as asking for it?"
Or maybe it's the way that Nico's still fully naked, somehow not managing to find even one article of clothing before he's distracted by the need to be totally unreasonable about this.
"Because, because - that's different! The stuff I say while we're, when you're -"
"While we're fucking?" Percy prompts, helpfully, "When I'm in you?"
Nico doesn't look like he appreciates the help. He just gets even redder and changes the subject.
"You could've just said you didn't want me to meet up with him!"
Percy frowns.
"I don't care if you meet up with him?"
The sight of Nico rolling his eyes, patently furious, should probably not affect Percy like it does. Seems like a crossed wire in his brain, somewhere.
"Sure you don't," Nico hisses, leaning over Percy to grab his shirt from the bedframe, "That's why when I said 'I have to go meet Will' and you were like 'sure, this'll only take a minute' - an hour ago - and you knew I didn't have time to shower again, you went and - ugh."
Now, how Percy feels about Nico rolling his eyes, patently furious, with Percy's come still rolling down his inner thigh? How Percy feels about sending Nico off on his "let's catch up over coffee" not-date, still mad, still leaking? Surely no one could blame him for that.
"What? That's what you think this was about?" Percy says in his best innocent tone, subtly honed from years of convincing gods not to smite him. He sits up and feels something shift underneath him - Nico's underwear.
"Don't give me that tone, that's what I know this was about."
Nico makes a grab for them but for once, Percy's faster, holding them just out of reach.
"Percy come on, I'm a complete mess and probably already late -"
Percy throws the balled up fabric down to the other end of the bed. Nico looks from him to it and back in disbelief.
"Seriously? Are you five?!"
Percy just shrugs and waits for Nico to get his knees back up on the bed, leaning over to reach. Target acquired.
"Well sorry, I really didn't mean to mess up your plans, Neeks."
"Don't call me -!"
Percy snakes an arm around Nico's waist and tips his weight forward, grinning at the surprised huff of breath that leaves Nico's mouth as he finds himself pushed back down into the tangled sheets. Percy sits back and slides his hand down to Nico's back, admiring the view - and what a fucking view. Shame to waste it, but Nico does have somewhere to be...
"Here, let me help you clean up!"
"Percy, I swear to fucking - f-fuck, fuck, oh my god -"
