Okay, so I decided to write an epilogue. Woo hoo!

Although I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the ending, I more or less like how it turned out.

Once again, thanks to the amazing Naz Carstairs for beta'ing and dealing with my insecurities about my writing (along with everything else.)

Enjoy xx

Epilogue:

Percy glared down at the tie knotted up around his neck, nowhere near resembling an actual tie. Annabeth used to tie his ties whenever he needed to wear them, and now he had no idea what to do.

"Screw this," the son of Poseidon muttered, unknotting it and tossing it on the bed, "Ties were always stupid anyways."

"Hey, Nico, ready to go?" Percy called from the bedroom, slipping into the uncomfortable pair of loafers his mother insisted he keep for 'special occasions' (although in reality he didn't see why he couldn't just wear converse to 'special occasions', too) before walking across the hall to the bathroom, confused by the lack of response.

Also confused by the locked door.

It'd been nearly eight months since Percy had had to pick that lock, and he was devastated he had to do it again.

When he got the door opened, which was easier now that he'd gotten the hang of it, he braced himself for the worst. After Nico and Percy had officially become a thing, it gave Percy the right to invade the other boy's personal space. A privilege he exploited to the fullest extent whenever it came to the son of Hades' wellbeing. He'd been watching everything the boy ate, everything, and they'd come to an agreement:

Nico didn't want any animals dying for him to eat? Fine. The boy could become a vegetarian.

He was finally doing okay, too. And this time Percy was, like, 500% sure. They owned no scales whatsoever; he'd realized way back when they'd visited his parents that that was a bad idea, but he knew that the son of Hades was growing healthier daily. Since getting together, they'd started sleeping in the same bed, which made it a whole lot easier to monitor Nico's progress.

And no, it wasn't weird. He was just concerned.

Shut up.

However, even though he was filling out and his wellbeing was improving physically, it was taking massive tolls on the younger boy mentally. More than a few times when Percy had walked into Nico in the bathroom he'd been greeted with the same sight he'd grown to fear: Nico curled up on the floor, blood painting the area around him like roses in a field. The amount of red ranged, sometimes there was minimal splotches here and there; sometimes there was so much the air was heavy and metallic the moment he stepped in.

Percy dreaded them both.

The son of Hades had been ingenious about resources, too. The first time Percy had walked into Nico harming himself since he'd begun urging him to eat properly, Nico had found another small pencil sharpener in the study and brought it to his arm, engraving the word 'failure' along the length of inner right arm. The son of Poseidon had choked on his words as he told Nico that he was anything but that, and Nico had just sat there, nodding numbly as if he couldn't even hear a word the other boy was saying. Since then, Percy disposed of any items that the younger boy could possibly use to harm himself. Knives, pencil sharpeners, scissors, anything he could think of.

He hadn't expected Nico to think of using the razor Percy kept in his sock drawer for whenever he needed to shave. Or making it look like he broke that plate on accident just so he could steal a broken shard of it for later. Or unscrewing a screw from the desk drawer in the study and making use of that.

Seriously, where did he come up with this shit?

Of all the things he could have expected seeing upon walking into the bathroom, what he actually saw was not what he'd expected the boy locking the door for. He'd never anticipated the boy doing something so harmless and yet still so upsetting.

Nico stood before the mirror, his shirt a pile on the floor, his upper body exposed to his own critical and judging eyes. He was gazing down at his stomach dejectedly, poking the little bit of muscle and fat that had begun to replace the gap that preceded it. His arms were fuller too; they had more muscle on them now, instead of the bare skin and bones Percy'd seen several months back, but they also donned a lot more scars than they had a few months back as well. His entire upper arms were scarred, with a few healing wounds on his wrists. The word 'failure' had been marked over so many times it was now illegible, and Percy couldn't decide whether that was more good or bad.

Percy just wished he could make them go away.

That he could make everything that made Nico sad go away.

"It's-it's stupid," the son of Hades started, slowly turning his head so his onyx eyes could meet the other boy's bright emerald ones, "I just-I'm hideous. I'm a complete waste of space. And it shouldn't matter this much to me but," He choked on his words, eyes watering, unable to look Percy in the eyes as he cast his gaze downwards, "it does. And I hate it."

He trembled slightly, his silky black hair falling into his face, and Percy could hear his low, hitched breathing that meant he was refraining from crying.

The son of Poseidon approached the other demigod slowly until he was blocking the other boy's view of the mirror, bending down to kneel in front of Nico. His face inches away from the smaller demigod's stomach, he closed the distance, kissing Nico's belly button. "You're not, you know," Percy said quietly, moving to kiss the cavities between the boy's ribs, each in turn. His ribs still showed, but they didn't stick out as dramatically as before, and Percy decided if it made Nico feel more comfortable about himself, then it was okay.

"You're not ugly. You are so far from ugly, Nico, and you are worth so much more than you'll probably ever know."

"You are so cheesy," Nico muttered, but there was pink dusting his cheeks, which made Percy aware that he wasn't pushing too far, that is was okay to continue. The son of Hades had brought his hands up from his sides to cover his face in embarrassment, and Percy stood, still crouching down and gently pulling Nico's hands from his eyes.

"You're beautiful, Nico Di Angelo." He whispered it against the other boy's skin, slowly kissing each of his scars individually, afraid Nico would grow angry and pull away.

Instead, shaking his head in disbelief and grinning ridiculously widely, his blush darkened and he looked away with embarrassment, his eyes still shining from unshed tears.

"You're the biggest dork I've ever met, you ridiculous sap."

"Yea, and you love me for it," Percy said, trying to sound as earnest as possible. He gripped the younger boy's hands in his own, standing up straight and bending his neck down to kiss the skin between Nico's collarbone and neck. The smaller boy gasped quietly, his hands tightening their grip around Percy's as the other boy began to suck on the skin, bruising it.

"You're amazing Nico, you are so, so amazing." Percy said against his neck, pleased with the purple mark now forming on the boy's snowy skin.

The younger boy moaned in frustration, pulling his hands out of the other boy's grip, and for a moment Percy thought that Nico was going to shove him away. However, moments later he felt delicate fingers swirling around his strands of hair before yanking fiercely, pulling Percy's lips up to meet his own.

Nico kissed with a fire, a burning passion that seemed to yield to Percy alone. The son of Poseidon kissed back with just as much enthusiasm as the other boy, smirking as Nico whimpered beneath him. He nipped the younger boy's lower lip, gaining access to his mouth, their tongues moving to swirl around each other in perfect sync: it was as if they were dancing, and it was so enchanting it left Percy's brain feeling like mush.

The front door opened and closed somewhere off in the background and Nico froze, trying to pull away, but the son of Poseidon picked the smaller boy up and wrapped his legs around his torso, pulling the smaller boy closer before turning and slamming the bathroom door shut, pinning Nico against it before kissing him again.

The son of Hades, still unnerved, no longer kissed with the same fervor he'd had moments before, so Percy's lips migrated from the boy's mouth to his ear. He nibbled and sucked the cartilage, making the younger boy gasp and throw his head back against the door, his breathing coming out in ragged staccatos.

They resumed kissing, Nico's enthusiasm returning. The smaller boy's arms tightened around Percy's neck; his hands climbing up to grip the older boy's black hair, tugging slightly. Percy moaned into Nico's mouth, hands sliding down to the other boy's pants, hands floating warily over the button.

There was dangerous electricity in the air as Nico slowed the pace of the kiss, pulling away to look down at Percy's hands. He looked cornered and unsure of what to do, his eyes wide and terrified. The younger boy looked up so his night eyes met Percy's green ones, and Percy wholly expected Nico to say no, apologize or admit he wasn't ready yet or something, but the boy simply nodded numbly.

Percy stared, because he'd gotten to know the other boy during the year he'd spent with him, and it was impossible that Nico could actually show that much fear in his eyes but want to do this, and he decided that there was no way Nico was going to do this only for him.

The son of Poseidon shook his head and removed his hands from where they hovered over the other boy's pants, moving them to wrap around the boy's waist as he slowly leaned in and kissed the boy's jawbone.

Nico sighed, immediately relaxing to Percy's touch, obviously relieved by Percy's response. He turned his head to the side, forcing Percy's lips to return to his own, kissing this time without passion and fire but care and love.

That is, before Annabeth felt the need to pound on the other side of the door, scaring the shit out of Percy's boyfriend and making him jump away from his grip.

"You two idiots need to stop making out or Hazel's gonna be pissed that we're late." She said, her voice muffled by the wood dividing them. Nico's eyes widened at the mention of his sister and he shoved the other boy away, quickly moving to put his shirt back on and fix his now tussled hair.

Percy rolled his eyes, making sure Nico had his shirt on (he was still really uncomfortable with other people seeing him) before opening the door to glare at the daughter of Athena.

"You could not have given us five more minutes?" He huffed, and Annabeth laughed, holding up his tie that she must have retrieved from the bedroom.

"Five minutes would have turned to twenty, Seaweed Brain, and then we really wouldn't have time to clean you too up." She snickered, wrapping the tie around his neck and tying it properly.

Annabeth wore a simple beige dress with spaghetti straps that reached right above her knees, a thin black belt secured around her waist.

One thing Percy had always loved about Annabeth: She never wore makeup, and she never needed to.

"Okay," Annabeth said, satisfied with Percy's tie and looking behind him to the other demigod, currently glaring at himself in the mirror, "you two ready to go?"

Percy turned back to Nico, who grumbled something before trudging towards the door and taking Percy's hand in his own.

"Yea. Let's go."

Nico hadn't seen any of the other demigods since the war with Gaea, save his sister, and honestly that had probably been for the best. Before moving in with Percy, the son of Hades had been a mess, and, in some ways, Percy had kind of saved him.

Oh Gods that was so lame. Nico was never repeating that again.

Sure, the son of Hades had been in contact with Jason, which inevitably meant sometimes conversing with Piper too, but he'd never actually seen them. The only reason he saw Hazel was because she sometimes came down to the Underworld for a few days a time, but Frank never accompanied her.

For which he was kind of grateful.

So seeing all these demigods again made him nervous, to say the very least.

Oh, yeah, and there was one other thing.

Couldn't forget the fact that they were finally going to announce to everyone that Percy and Annabeth had broken up, and now Percy and Nico were dating. that would be fun, getting to tell everyone he'd broken up the golden couple.

Boy, was Nico looking forward to that.

He gripped Percy's hand so tightly during the taxi ride to the restaurant his fingers started to lose feeling, and Percy chuckled lightly, kissing Nico's head and telling him to relax.

Easier said than done, buddy.

When they finally arrived, Percy thanked and paid the taxi driver and the three demigods exited the cab, Annabeth and Percy striding ahead confidently, Nico warily trailing behind them.

Nico was grateful Percy didn't try to make him walk alongside the two of them.

Especially when they got to the table where everyone was sitting at and they all started hugging.

Really grateful.

Eventually, Hazel caught sight of Nico and squealed, maneuvering past the demigods to come hug her brother. Okay, he was okay with Hazel hugging him, but nobody else.

"What are you doing here? You came with Percy and Annabeth?"

Nico moved to look over his sister's shoulder and glare at his boyfriend, who smiled innocently and turned to everyone.

"Hey guys, guess who convinced Nico to come along!"

Well, fuck.

Asshole.

The demigods were quiet, not sure how exactly to respond because none of them had ever particularly been fond of the son of Hades. Even Frank, who was dating his sister, wasn't exactly what Nico would call 'close' to him.

Jason was the first to react, smiling widely and moving forward to clap the smaller boy on the shoulder.

It'd been so long since Nico had seen the other demigod, and in that time Jason had changed a lot. He'd definitely toned out more, which Nico had thought would be impossible, and he had also grown taller.

Like, a lot taller. Percy was already a whole head taller than Nico, and Jason had four inches on the son of Poseidon, easy.

Nico had never felt so inferior.

"Hey, buddy, haven't heard from you in a while. Was wondering what you were up to."

Nico shrugged, doing his best to glare at the son of Zeus, but it was kind of hard to do when he was so godsdamn short.

"Hmpf. I haven't been in the Underworld lately."

"Yea, I noticed," Hazel chimed in, furrowing her eyebrows,

"I was there a couple months ago, and Dad said Persephone had sent you off. Did you guys fight again or something? Did she turn you into a dandelion again?"

"No." Nico said, irritated, because not everyone needed to know he'd been turned into a flower.

If there was ever a time Nico wished he didn't have to be somewhere, it was right then. Everyone was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and discomfort. Even Leo, with his arm around a girl with flowing blonde-brown hair who Nico assumed to be Calypso, wasn't cracking any jokes or trying to lighten the mood.

Piper smiled sympathetically, coming up to Nico and hugging him, and it took everything in Nico not to shrug away and abscond to the nearest shadow.

It wasn't that he didn't like Piper at all, he was actually closer to her than he was with Frank or any of the others. He just...

liked his personal space.

"So," Jason said, throwing an arm casually around Nico's shoulders, "let's sit, seems we have a lot of catching up to do."

Nothing had really changed between everyone. Reyna showed up late with some demigod from the Roman camp, whom she was apparently dating now, and she gave Nico a shocked look before grinning widely and playfully shoving his arm.

"Sup nerd. You finally decide to crawl out of your little cave and up into the human world?"

See, this was why he loved Reyna. She never let anything become awkward, and even though they hadn't stayed in contact after their time they spent together during the war, he still considered her as close a friend as he did Jason.

Fighting alongside someone did that to you. Especially when said person had saved your life countless times, and you'd done the same for them.

"But Reyna," Percy said, popping a fry into his mouth and smirking, "the human world is a mess."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the reference, Nico doing the same. The son of Hades couldn't even count how many times his boyfriend and begged him to watch the Little Mermaid, and he assumed Annabeth had undergone similar treatment.

They sat at a long, rectangular table. Calypso was on one end, with Leo next to her and Frank and Hazel across from them. Next to Hazel was Annabeth, and next to Annabeth were two empty seats that Reyna claimed for herself and her boyfriend. Percy sat next to Leo, with Nico between him and Jason, Piper on the end.

Nico could tell, as soon as Annabeth and Percy didn't take seats next to each other, everyone knew something was up.

Man, why couldn't these two idiots have told everyone sooner and spared Nico the anxiety attacks he was enduring every five minutes, when one of the demigods would give him a quizzical look before quickly turning away.

Jason and Percy joked a lot over Nico's head, which wasn't difficult to do considering the two of them were freaking skyscrapers.

Nico, failing to share the interest in sports the other two boys had, turned to make conversation with Annabeth and Reyna across from him.

When the waitress came to take orders, Nico realized he had yet to even look at the menu, his mind subconsciously keeping him away from food.

Old habits died hard, he supposed.

He nearly died of embarrassment and was about to say he didn't have an appetite just to avoid looking like an idiot when Percy ordered him a salad called "the VeggieMan" and a water.

What a stupid name for a salad.

Nico took his hand under the table and squeezed it thankfully, and Percy laughed, lightly shoving him with his shoulder.

Jason raised an eyebrow wordlessly.

"So," Annabeth started once the food came, she and Percy sharing a look that made Nico's stomach twist uncomfortably.

"Because none of you here are stupid, except maybe Leo," she winked at the son of Hephaestus, who glared right back at her in return before rolling his eyes and smiling, "you must have realized something going on between Percy and I."

"That's an understatement." Reyna laughed, rolling her eyes.

"Yea, are you guys fighting or something?" Hazel asked from her side of the table, making Nico cringe minutely, so only Percy noticed and gripped his hand tighter.

"No," Annabeth started laughing, her cheeks a vibrant red, and Nico realized that this was probably going to be as difficult for them as it was for him.

Well, maybe not Percy. That dork was immune to any embarrassment whatsoever.

"We aren't fighting, we broke up."

Ah, there it was. The unbearable silence that suffocated Nico.

Maybe he could find some shadows to disappear into...

"So...like, you guys broke up? You are no longer dating?"

Ah, Frank. Intelligent as ever.

"Yea, we broke up. It's actually not too bad, we weren't really acting like a couple even when we were dating, and I think it's because we were just...not into each other that way, anymore."

Huh. Were there crickets chirping here somewhere?

"But you guys were great together!" Piper whined, and Nico tried standing and absconding but Percy's hold on his hand was unwavering.

"Not really. We kind of function better as friends. Dating, we were...stuck." Percy said, shrugging and turning to Annabeth, who smiled at him gratefully.

Of course she'd be grateful. Nico'd never be able to deal with that kind of interrogation.

"Plus," Annabeth said with a victorious smirk for Nico, "There was so much sexual tension between these two it could be cut with a knife."

Damn, how was it possible Nico was sitting in the only place with no shadows whatsoever.

Reyna choked on her wine, spluttering and coughing, and Jason jumped out of his chair.

"I KNEW IT! Piper, didn't I know it? I totally knew it!" He exclaimed, his grin stretching to both ears. Nico banged his head against the table and kept it there, too embarrassed to do anything else.

Jason laughed with joy, sitting back down and clapping Nico on the back.

"Hey, congratulations, Nico. I'm happy for you."

Piper eyed Nico with suspicion before leaning over the two boys to Percy.

"You better not have broken up with Annabeth for him, because that wouldn't be fair to either of them."

Percy blushed violently, sputtering, before Annabeth saved him by saying, "No, no I broke up with him. I was just messing with him when I said that."

"Oh. In that case, I'm happy for you guys, Nico. Congrats." She smiled earnestly, and Nico just wrapped his arms around his head to make sure none of the red radiating from his cheeks was visible.

After that, Reyna laughed and told him she knew he was gay, jokingly saying there was no way he couldn't have not been attracted to her unless he was.

Leo told them to use protection, they wouldn't want Nico getting pregnant on them, Percy was enough of a kid already.

Calypso looked really uncomfortable, and Nico remembered she'd been in love with Percy at one point.

Well. It would be awkward if Nico ever had to talk to her.

Frank kind of just nodded in acceptance and approval (as if Nico needed his approval. If anything, Frank should be seeking his. Nico wasn't the one dating Frank's little sister here.)

Hazel, whose reaction mattered to Nico the most, stood from her seat.

She was going to leave. Nico knew she was going to leave. She, like him, was from a different era where things like this were unforgivable sins. There was no way she would be okay with this. She was probably never going to speak to him again, and Hades would just get furious Nico ever even got involved with a son of Poseidon, and Nico would lose what little family he had left.

Hazel made her way around the table and came to embrace her brother tightly.

Nico's eyes stung, for some odd reason, and there were tears threatening to fall.

He hugged her back, just as tightly.

After that, it was apparent everyone was still in shock (obviously, they'd all expected Percy and Annabeth to grow old together, even Nico) but no one really made a big deal out of it.

Nico figured this was the reason people valued friendship so much; it gave you a feeling of acceptance and trust.

Maybe he could learn to get used to it.

Maybe.

After that, when it was time for everyone to part ways, Nico held Percy's hand as he bid farewell to his sister, Frank, and the other demigods, and he felt like it might not be too bad to become friends with the others.

Then Percy kissed him when they got back to the apartment while they snuggled and rewatched a few episodes of HIMYM.

Yeah, he could totally learn to get used to it.

Yay, happy endings all around. I really enjoyed writing this, and I thank everyone who reviewed (both here and on ao3), because you amazing people are the ones who encouraged me to write the epilogue.

Leave me your feedback, whether you liked it or not and why! I'd love to hear your opinion on it c=

And now I'm off to write a johndave fic :3