A/N: Yeah, still not dead. Woohoo! Sorry for the long wait :(

Disclaimer: Not mine. No shit, Sherlock.

Percy

"Alright, let's give it a test run!" Jake shouted. "Percy, say something."

"Uh… test? More test?"

Jake shook his head. "Too much bass. Harley?" The addressee of Jake's command did something with the monitoring desk, and Jake gestured towards Percy. "Try again."

"Test Two. Poseidon's pants. Hephaestus hates Hera's hilarious handbag."

The head technician nodded. "Alright. While we're waiting for Nico to go through the rest of the sound check… Nyssa, take Percy with you and check the lighting again. Just to make sure." He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to another member of the team. "Lee, you got the preamp of the black steel string fixed?"

Last-minute preparations for shows were stressful. Really, really stressful. And Percy was, so far, only a helping hand, nothing like Jake, who had to coordinate the whole ordeal. Percy had plugged in amplifiers, lifted boxes full of equipment, set up microphones, lifted boxes full of equipment, helped with the sound check, and most importantly, lifted boxes full of equipment. Jake had showed him how to repair a defective patch cable with a soldering bolt, Lee had tried to teach Percy how to mix the right amount of treble and bass by ear, Harley had explained the PA system to him. Most of it Percy still wasn't allowed to handle after two months, but during Nico's performances, he could at least watch from where Harley stood by the mixing unit – which was sort of the VIP position.

Nico's tour had taken Percy farther away from his hometown than he'd ever been before. Usually, they stayed a day or two in each town, prepared the gig for an entire day, watched Nico play two to four hours until late in the evening, and then then disassembled the whole setup, only to leave the next morning. Most times, Percy had enough time to explore the cities for a few hours.

After his performances, Nico always was dog-tired – no surprise, after an evening-long event, plus an interview with the local press, the energy of Percy's boyfriend was mostly drained. Therefore, their time alone was cut short, limited to the boring hours of traveling, and an hour here or there in a hotel. Besides a few joking comments every now and then, none of Percy's co-workers seemed to mind the fact that Percy was dating their star. At the beginning of the tour, after Nico had officially introduced Percy as his boyfriend to the team – asking for their discretion towards the public –, Jake and Clarisse had taken Percy aside, making it clear that they cared about Nico, and didn't want to see their boss hurt, but that had been it.

Of course Percy would have loved to spend more time with Nico – take him on dates, hold hands in public, whatever. Every now and then, when he was in a bad mood, he got angry at the whole situation, wishing he could just stalk onto the stage and show everyone that they belonged together. Most times, those thoughts came to his mind when he hadn't talked to Nico for a longer period of time, may it be because Nico was tired, or when he had locked himself in his room because inspiration had struck him and he needed to write down a tune that had come to his mind.

Percy then would scold himself for feeling this way. He'd known what he was getting himself into, hadn't he? No use in whining. He had decided not to tell his parents – his mom would understand, but Percy knew what Paul thought about Nico. He didn't need his stepdad to lecture him about this.

Nico

When the door fell shut behind him, all Nico wanted to do was fall into his bed and sleep for a decade. Today's audience had been great – to the point where the crowd had become too enthusiastic. Nico had played song after song after song, and his fans had cheered and applauded, so the show had lasted until long past midnight. Thankfully, Clarisse and Frank understood, and dodged the few reporters that had gathered in the lobby to form a path for Nico. He'd answer a few of their questions in the morning, when he wasn't at the risk of falling sleep in the middle of a sentence.

During the ride to their hotel, Nico dozed off a few times, head falling onto his shoulder in an undignified way. He put all of his effort into quickly striding through the hotel lobby without looking too much like an idiot, only to let his eyes fall shut as soon as the elevator doors had closed behind him and Frank. They were the first to arrive – the rest of the crew had to pack their equipment, and Clarisse would be supervising them.

He headed straight to Percy's room instead of his own. To keep up their cover, they couldn't book a suite for Nico and Percy together – not to mention that Hades wouldn't allow it –, but they'd made a habit out of sleeping in the same bed whenever Nico could slip into Percy's room unnoticed by the hotel staff. It wasn't the optimal solution, but it was one of the few moments when they could spend a little time with each other without the risk of anybody watching. Nico could pretend that he didn't see the suggestively wiggled eyebrows Nyssa and Jake sent his way, the seemingly uninterested grunt from Clarisse, or the way Frank's face flushed whenever Nico and Percy spent time with each other. It didn't matter.

What did bother Nico, though, was that they didn't talk nearly as much as they used to in New York. Most times, both were too tired from Nico's gigs to do anything beyond cuddles. He hadn't even found the time to ask Percy how he liked his job yet – almost three months into this new arrangement.

The only good thing that came from this was that he could sleep better – not nearly enough, but thanks to the exhaustion after an event without trouble. Back in New York, he had often had trouble falling asleep. His father had offered to have him see a doctor, but Nico had declined.

Percy returned a few hours later to find Nico fast asleep on his bed, still dressed in his sweaty clothes.

There were far less pleasant ways to begin a morning than waking up in Percy's arms. Cuddles followed by an almost heavenly breakfast, this morning could be rated as 'above average', Nico decided. After the second cup of coffee, his tiredness began to subside – only to be replaced with irritation when Jake Mason stepped into the suite to tell Hades that the tour bus had a mechanical defect, that would take at least half the day to fix.

"Sorry, Mr di Angelo. Nyssa has someone from a local workshop take a look at it right now, but we're stuck here 'til the evening. Nothing we can do about it."

Nico's father responded with an irritated sigh, and dismissed Jake with a curt nod. Seizing an opportunity when he saw one, Nico left the suite when Hades went into another room to pick up the phone and inform Nico's manager of the unforeseen change of plans.

He would take Percy on a date, Nico decided. If his father knew, he'd probably forbid it, but in this city there had to be a café or an ice-cream parlor where they could go without attracting attention. Somewhere in the outskirts of the town maybe, where nobody would expect a famous musician. Heck, at the moment, Nico would have settled for a burger restaurant if it meant having Percy to himself for an hour or two.