A/N - New fandom today, Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus! This was one of my defining series as a kid so I really hope I do it justice (I haven’t read it in a really long time). I wrote this as a platonic ship/family ship, because I want found family fluff, but if you want to read it as romantic, you can. Now, let’s jump into it!
Day 8 of Writer’s Block Challenge
Pairing(s) : Nico x Platonic!Reader
Summary : The 3 times Nico wanted to tell you he loved you for always being there for him and the one time he actually does.
Warning(s) : The words “goddammit,” “god,” and “assholes” are said once. Plus floofy fluff, suffocatingly so.
Word Count : 2,907
The first time.
It happened when you were just sitting in the Hades cabin with him, just the two of you, your midday shenanigans spread out around you. The blanket and pillow fort you’d made shielding you from the rest of the world as you continued to make progress on the project you two had started.
“What do you think about this?” He asks, showing you the card stats he’d just made. It was balanced as usual, he had always been good at that. Even so, there were still times when you’d suggest a small change.
“Oh, that’s really good,” you respond, “maybe buff the stats though, or lower the mana.”
He nods, returning the card to the makeshift desk he’d made out of stack of textbooks for editing. While he did that, you continued to handprint the cards that you have both approved of, cutting them and setting them into stacks once you’d finished with them.
You were so engrossed in your task that you didn’t notice him look up. You didn't notice him watching you with a smile on his face. You didn't know how he had memorized everything you did, each little cut, each little facial expression, each little puff of your breath. You didn’t see it.
He was so grateful for you, for your existence in his life, and he wanted to let you know. He wanted to say it, those three words, he really did. He was about to say it but the dinner bell rang and the moment was lost.
“It’s really that late?” You ask, looking up for the first time in hours. You hair was a mess from running your fingers through it while you worked and you hand still held the pencil you hadn't put down once this entire time.
“Yeah,” he laughs at your bewildered expression, “you’ve been working on our cards all day, Dummy.”
Even though he teased you for it, he really did appreciate the devotion you had to each and every one of his ideas. You were the reason why he even attempted any of them in the first place.
With you behind him, backing him up, he felt like he could actually do something with his life besides just being the son of Hades, besides just being a demigod.
You were even the reason why he took up game making, creating the things he’d loved so much as a kid. The thing he would be scribbling about in the black notebook Jason got him for his birthday. The thing that made him write down any ideas he randomly got onto his skin. The thing that he could think about when the thoughts overtook him.
You join in on his laughter, “guess I’m just too invested in this game to put it down.”
“While I’m flattered by that,” he stood up, brushing off all the pencil shavings and eraser bits with his hands, “you really need food. Will will kill us if we skip out on another meal.”
You’d both skipped lunch today, being too occupied in your tasks to stop and take a break to eat sustenance. Lucky enough for you guys, Will was nice enough to bring you both a plate of crackers to hold you over, but that wasn’t enough for growing teenagers.
“So do you,” you argue back, following his lead as you also stand up.
“Which is why we’re going to eat,” he states, walking to and holding the door open for you.
“Such a gentleman,” you joke as you step through the doorway, heading towards the dining hall.
“Shut up,” he groans, jogging lightly for a few seconds to catch up with you, his shoulder brushing yours.
It happened while you were playing capture the flag, while you were searching for the other team’s banner. You hair was tangled with twigs and leaves and you were covered in dirt, but you were both having a lot of fun.
You had broken off from the main group, deciding to look in a different area than them, where you believed the flag to be. You didn’t know if you were correct yet but you really hoped so.
You’d concocted this plan weeks ago, mulling over each detail, collecting every shred of information. It was his idea but you helped give it life, and in the end, you’d both spent more than ten hours on it.
You both knew exactly what you needed to do during the game, you just didn’t know if you got the location right. The only way to know was to keep searching behind every boulder, behind every tree.
The first part of your plan had been successful, you’d managed to sneak past all their guards with no problems, completely undetected. At least, you were undetected until he stepped on a twig and alerted their head defender, Annabeth, that something or someone was in the area.
“Goddammit,” you muttered under your breath, doing your best to not alert the rest of her other teammates as she began to double back.
There wasn’t a good chance that you’d make it past Annabeth, but if her teammates joined in, you would stand absolutely no chance. Your only shot at winning now was to outthink and get around the daughter of Athena, and you really didn’t like those odds.
Even so, you chose to stick to the plan, darting into the bushes to hide when she got too close rather than running away. And despite the foliage being rather uncomfortable, despite the painful little cuts and scratches it gave you, your resolve remained strong.
“We can stop,” he began, noticing that you were in discomfort, but you instantly cut him off.
“No,” you state, shaking your head adamantly, “we’re doing this.”
“We’ve spent hours on this plan, we’ve run through hundreds of different scenarios, different outcomes. We’re not letting a tiny little accident ruin this for us, not when we’re this close. You stepped on a twig. So what? Any animal could have done that. We just have to be smarter than her,” you continued, making sure your voice was only loud enough for him to hear.
“Are you sure?” He asks softly, feeling guilty.
“I’m one hundred percent sure, Nic,” you smile softly, squeezing his hand, “I believe in your plan and I believe in you.”
“Want to know why?” You asked, getting an idea of how to cheer him up when you noticed a splash of red off to your right.
“Why?” He questioned, to which you responded by simply pointing at the flag.
“Because you were right, just like I knew you would be.”
It was then, in the cramped area you two occupied, while you were hiding from the searching gaze of Annabeth, that he felt the urge to tell you it once again. It crept up on him, caught him off guard, and even though he knew it was probably the wrong time to say it, he still wanted to.
He wanted to because you trusted him. You had trusted him when he said that the flag was somewhere else. Even when the rest of your team had argued that he was wrong, that he was trying to get you all to throw the game, you had trusted him enough to say that he wasn't, to follow his lead. Just like you always had.
“When she turns her back, that’s when we’ll go. I’ll aim for the flag, you’ll find a place to hide until I pass it to you. She might expect a smaller group using the larger group as a decoy, but she won’t expect the two of us. Once I get a hand on the flag, we do exactly what we practiced.”
While you two waited for a window of opportunity to take the flag, he was trying to build up the courage to say it. Unfortunately, the second he was about to say it, you noticed an opening you had to take.
“Go,” you shout, jumping up from your spot suddenly and sprinting towards the flag.
While he runs to get into position, he decides on next time. Next time he would tell you.
It happened when a new camper arrived, a camper who, for some reason, was hyper-fixated on you. He followed you around everywhere, always chatting with you, always taking up your attention, and it was driving Nic crazy
Every time he tried to hang out with you, the other guy would butt in and steal you away. You hadn’t gotten to hang out in days, all your daily traditions and rituals getting put on the back burner, much to both of your dismays.
It didn’t help that the camper would say mean comments to him whenever you weren’t around, picking at each of his insecurities. He would say that no one trusted him, that no one liked him, that you were just pitying him, that all he would ever be known for, and hated for, was being the son of Hades.
He hated it, it made him feel like he was nothing, like he was bad. And just like that, he was reduced back to his heritage. All the work he’d done, all the things he’d convinced himself of with the help of you and the big seven, it all went down the drain.
He wanted to have faith in your friendship, he really did, but insecurities do things to people. They're hard to control and they’re even harder to change, to work on. If you’re only halfway through your work, even the smallest thing can make you fall back.
He decided he’d try one last time, at dinner. If things went badly again, if the guy intervened, he’d give up. He’d give up on the most important person in his life because he knew when to cut his losses, he knew when he was on the brink of falling apart, he knew when he needed to shut his emotions down so he could keep on living.
“Hey Y/N,” he started, before instantly being cut off, his plan of inviting you to join him for dinner and keeping your friendship alive falling flat.
“Y/N, come sit with me at the Hermes table,” the guy yelled loudly from across the room. His volume making everyone cringe.
“Actually, I’m going to sit with Nic tonight,” you state, Nic’s head immediately darting up, “I haven’t been able to spend any time with him recently.”
“Why do you want to spend time with that loser? I’ve been trying all week to get him to stop annoying you. You should be thankful.” At those words, you froze, anger beginning to grow in the pit of your stomach.
“Is that why you’ve been doing these past few days? You’ve been trying to ruin my friendship with Nic?” You asked coldly.
“Why do you even want to be friend with him? He’s the son of Hades.” he boy spat, which only made you angrier.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It is.”
What happened next was something no one expected. You, the sweet girl who always lent people a helping hand, who always had candy to give to the younger campers, who was always willing to be a shoulder to cry on and a person to vent to, finally exploded.
“No, it’s actually not.” You state, your voice conveying every bit of contempt you felt for this guy.
“Nic is the sweetest boy I’ve ever met and he doesn’t even try to be,” you began, starting to look around at all your fellow campers.
“Did you know that he shadow traveled to 17 different stores across Long Island Sound just to find me a specific stuffed animal on my birthday?” You watched as they all shook their heads.
“Did you know that he baked the cake for the party that we threw when Percy and Annabeth got into the college of their dreams?” They shook their heads again.
“That’s just because he's friends with you guys,” the guy tried to argue.
“Then did you know that the only reason we survived the fight against Gaea, the only reason we are friends with the romans, is because he put his body through hell and back bringing the Mark of Athena to camp?” You fire back.
“Nico had proven beyond a doubt that he is much more than just being the son of Hades, that he is good, and I’d chose him to have my back over any of you time and time again. You assholes just don’t want to see it.” With that final statement, you sit down next to him and begin eating your food.
All he can do is stare at you, his food going untouched. You had chosen him over everyone else, over everything else. Despite the fact that he was the son of Hades, despite the fact that death followed him everyone, despite the fact that he could communicate with the dead, you didn’t care about any of it. You still chose him.
When you finally did look over at him, you gave him the most beautiful smile while also bumping his shoulder playfully, “you didn’t think I’d leave you hanging did you?”
He shrugged slightly, feeling guilty that he had. But you didn’t and couldn’t blame him. You hadn’t given him a single reason to believe it all week. Your tendency of being too nice to people, your inability to say no to things that others asked you to do, had given him the wrong impression.
“Never Nic,” you tell him, “never gonna happen. You’re stuck with me.”
After you said that, he knew now was the time to say it. There would never be a more perfect time. At least, he didn't there ever would be, so he opened his mouth to speak up.
“Y/N,” he started, before being cut off for the second time that night.
“Nico?” It was the guy again.
“Yeah?” He asked, squeezing you hand to indicate that it was okay for him to be near you guys.
“I just wanted to apologize to you. I was wrong.” He said, looking down, ashamed of his actions.
“It’s okay.”
And after sharing a look with you, he knew it wasn't a lie. Things were slowly changing and everything would end up being okay.
It was the perfect moment, the true perfect moment.
You were both lying on the dock, enjoyed the peaceful silence. Your legs were spread out wide, your hands underneath your heads to act as pillows as you enjoyed the Long Island Sound breeze.
The summer had come and gone quickly and you’d be going back to your biological family for the school year. It wasn’t something you necessarily wanted to do, you enjoyed your time at camp much more, but you were looking forward to seeing them.
“How different do you think things will be at camp when we get back?” You ask softly, breaking the silence while fiddling with a strand of your hair.
“More or less the same,” he responds, rolling onto his side to face you.
“You’ll call me? Whenever you can right?” You follow his lead, rolling over onto your side to face him.
“Every day,” he promises, drawing a bittersweet smile from you.
“I’ll miss you.”
“And I’ll miss you.”
With that all being said, you roll onto your stomach, pressing your cheek to the warm wood of the dock and closing you eyes blissfully, letting out a sigh of content.
Rare moments like these were your favorite. Moments when it was just the two of you coexisting, no words needing to be said, no actions needing to be done. You could just relax and close your eyes, safe within the bounds of Camp Half-Blood.
Unbeknownst to you, he was gathering up enough courage to say it, to say the words he hasn’t said to anyone since Bianca died and Hazel left for Camp Jupiter. Outside of them, you were the only person he’d ever considered saying them to.
“Hey Y/N,” he spoke softly, his words shaky as he prepared to do what could make or break your friendship.
“Yeah?” You ask, your eyes still closed but facing him.
“I love you.”
When you hear those words, your eyes snap open and you shoot up into a sitting position, your body frozen, your face showing how shocked you were. Those three words were the only words you’d never heard him say. They meant that you were one of the most important people in his life.
“Y/N?” He sits up as well, waving his hand in front of your face as his nerves begin to take over.
A few milliseconds later you lunge for him, tackling him onto the dock with a big bear hug, hoping to convey just how much you care about him, just how much you love him.
“I love you too Nic.”
“You do?” He wanted to be sure. He had to be sure.
“With all of my heart,” you state.
“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that,” he laughs, releasing all the previous tension, “I’ve been so stressed out. You have no idea.”
“You never need to worry when it comes to me,” You laugh, “I’m not disappearing on you, ever. That’s not how I roll.”
