prompt: high | @percicomicrofic
Nico is nothing if not an idiot. More often than not, he's nothing, really—more shadow than boy—but sometimes he gets to be an idiot instead.
Case in point: right now, while he watches Percy take a drag of the joint he just rolled. They're in a circle on the floor of Cabin Three, a mishmash of some of the "boys of the Seven" and Nico, who's just wondering why he got invited. Percy passes to Jason and Jason passes the joint to Leo next to him, who takes it with a too-rough hand, inhaling like it's easy and isn't about to put Nico in an early grave. Seriously. This whole thing is about to kill him when he hacks up a lung in front of everyone because he's 17-years-old and hasn't smoked before.
Leo hands the joint to Nico and Nico tries to play it cool, play it coy, but he nearly burns himself when he knocks Leo's hand and ashes almost land on his lap.
"Whoa now," Percy laughs as he puts a hand out to steady Nico. Nico bravely doesn't flinch. It's a testament to Jason's persistent hugs that he calls exposure therapy. "Hold on, Nico. You look like you've never seen a joint before."
Nico's face goes warm, but he keeps quiet. He already admitted it once. Not his fault that Percy can't hear for shit after the Capture the Flag Explosion Incident. Leo's fault. Nico loves to blame things on him.
"Oh," Percy says quietly. "Hold on. Let me."
Nico figures he should probably disappear at this point, because he doesn't even get to try? He hands the joint to Percy and Percy's free hand whips out to grab his wrist as the shadows start to pull at him.
"Hold on, hold on," Percy laughs. "Just stay still, okay?"
Opening his mouth proves to be a mistake, because every argument Nico has dies on his tongue when Percy takes a drag and leans forward to blow the smoke in Nico's mouth. Nico inhales on instinct, though he isn't sure what instinct that's from.
"Good," Percy whispers. He's watching Nico carefully, his eyes heavy-lidded and bright-dark-dancing green.
"I feel like we should go," Leo says, snapping the moment back into real time. Nico flinches and glares at Leo. He'll be blaming breaking the moment on Leo too. He'll do it right as he shoves his sword through—
Percy is still staring at Nico. "Yeah, maybe you should."
kianamaiart
pixelskylines
gummygunk
annaxmalina
kaledo-art
