Chapter Text
I kicked off my shoes and looked around the room. It was weird being here without Tyson. In a way, I was glad: I didn't want to have to tell him what had happened to Annabeth. Still, though, some company would be nice.
On the other hand, maybe a little alone time was exactly what I needed. I was almost fourteen. Well, thirteen and a half. Well, thirteen and... it doesn't matter. The point is it had been a long day and I was horny.
I unbuckled my jeans and slid them down my thighs, tossing them onto the ground next to the bed. Without Tyson here, I didn't have to worry about being tidy. Or modest. The swimwear I'd put on as underwear that morning was getting a little tight at the front. I glanced at myself in the mirror and grinned: my legs were looking good! And the speedo looked great on me. It was blue, obviously. Despite everything I had to check myself out just a little bit.
My legs were a little pale from a winter of indoor swimming, and completely hairless. Sure, I didn't have to shave – as the son of the sea god I hardly needed the help in the water – but it was more about the aesthetic, you know? Plus there wasn't all that much hair to start with, if we're being honest. At least this way I didn't need to explain why I wasn't hairy yet. I could just say “oh, I'm on the swim team” and leave it at that.
Before I stripped off fully, I turned to check out my butt. Almost two years of fighting monsters and training hard had really paid off, I was looking thiccer than usual! My cheeks strained against the blue fabric that barely covered them. I reached down to grab a handful, my insides swirling with pride as I did.
Good thing I'd waited to undress: before I knew it a high-pitched voice came from the doorway. “Percy!”
I froze. Shit, it was Nico! Why wasn't Grover looking after him? “Uh, hey, Nico.” I sidled away from the mirror as though I'd been on my way to lie down in bed. “You settling in okay?” I felt like you could fry pancakes on my face right now. The thought made me hungry.
“Yeah!” He strode through the threshold. “Can I come in?” he asked, closing the door behind him.
“Uh, sure, but-”
“Is this your cabin?” he asked, striding around and looking at all the empty bunks.
“Yeah, but-”
“Where's everyone else?” He paused, apparently noticing my hesitance for the first time. “Did they go missing too? Are they at-”
“Nico!” My voice came out a little louder than I'd intended. I'm not sure who was more surprised. “Sorry.” I remembered when I'd first come here. I hadn't been much older than Nico. Had I been this full of questions? Still, Luke had been nice. Maybe I should take a leaf out of his book. You know, besides the whole trying-to-kill-me thing.
“It's okay.” He stopped inspecting the cabin and stared at me instead. “What are you wearing?”
The question caught me off guard and I had to laugh. “Oh, uh, I'm on the swim team.” While we'd been talking I made my way to the bed. I bent down to pick up my pants and heard Nico giggle.
“How is it so tight? I can see your whole butt!” The younger boy sat down on my bed and bounced a few times. “You're so musculy!”
The compliment caught me off guard. I'm a lean guy, but hardly a bodybuilder. I sat down next to him and pulled a pillow over my lap before he could comment on my boner. “Thanks, man. Well, you saw all the training stuff we do here.” I gave him a playful push on the arm. “You'll look like this in no time!”
Nico's chest swelled at this. “Really?” He pulled off his oversized sweater to reveal a graphic tee with a lightning bolt on it. “You sure?” He flexed his arm at me and I put a hand on it. The same hand you were just about to jerk off with , I thought with a shudder. As weird as this was, the attention was kinda hot? Even coming from, well, a kid.
“Yeah, man! I'll tell you what, tomorrow I'll show you the climbing wall.”
Nico bounced on the bed, eyes gleaming. “Oh my gosh, yes!!! Can I show you Mythomagic too? You can tell me if it's anything like fighting monsters for real!” He shifted across on the bed, pulling some cards and figurines from a little satchel. “I don't have to wear that, do I?” he asked, giving my speedo a side-eye.
“No,” I said. The blush that had been draining from my face started to flare back up. “It's, ah, for swim. I wore it as underwear today.” Having to explain this out loud was mortifying. I was almost glad Annabeth wasn't here, she'd have teased me about it for months.
“Really? I've never seen swimmers wear those before.” He stared even more openly as he arranged the Mythomagic figures and started shuffling cards.
“Not on TV?” I said, confused. “Like, it's a pretty common-”
“You can use this deck,” he said, thrusting a pile of cards into my hand. The pressure of his arm against my pillow felt good. What the fuck was wrong with me? “When you play a card, I'll tell you which figure it's linked to. I have most of them.”
“Right.” Thank fuck for demigod ADHD brain. Get a kid talking about their hyperfixation and everything else is forgotten.
He let me take the first turn. After a while, I started to get pretty into it. I'd dabbled when I was at Yancy, but Nico was a pro at this. He knew interactions between the cards that had never even occurred to me. I was so engrossed that I barely noticed the pillow falling off my lap. Ah well, not like I was hard any more.
“Ha!” I said, counting out twelve squares on my patchwork duvet. Just enough to sneak up behind his Medusa and get a solid hit in. “Gotcha!”
Nico furrowed his brow in concentration, putting a finger down to count the squares himself. “Nope!” he said eventually. “Medusa reduces your speed. You can only go...” He counted back a few squares, placing my Perseus directly in his Medusa's line of sight. “Here.” He sat back on his haunches, looking pleased with himself.
“Whoa, whoa, no. I wasn't looking at her!” I said. “I was listening out for her! Situational awareness, man.”
“That's not an ability Perseus has,” he countered, pouting.
I bristled. Okay, he wasn't wrong , but did he have to say it like that? “Well-”
“And now, I get to turn you to stone!” He raised the Medusa figurine and tapped it against Perseus, grinning. “Take that!”
I thought about arguing. Inside me the urge to win only just lost out to the urge to be nice to Nico. “Shit, you got me,” I said with a grin. “But the real Medusa lost to Perseus.” I flexed a bicep, which was only all that impressive in comparison to Nico's. “Twice.”
It took a second for Nico to register what I was saying. As soon as it clicked, he dropped both of the figurines he'd been holding and leaned in much closer to listen to me. “ YOU FOUGHT MEDUSA?” I was reminded of a puppy the way he practically climbed into my lap.
“Okay,” I started, trying to nudge him away from my crotch as gently as possible. Why had I not put on pants when I'd had the chance? “So, when I was twelve, I went on a quest with Annabeth and Grover.”
“Uh huh.” His eyes were wide, pale skin almost glistening in the low light of the cabin.
“And we stopped in the woods for some food...” I launched into the full story. I tried to use my hands as much as possible as I explained. Anything to distract Nico from the tent I was pitching! “...and then we sent the head to Olympus,” I finished.
Nico had barely interrupted at all, still sitting with his eyes wide as dinner plates. “Weren't the gods mad?!” he asked. “Like, don't they smite people? In Mythomagic-”
I just laughed. “Oh, Mythomagic is fun, but the real thing is so much weirder.”
“Like manticores that pretend to be vice principals,” said Nico, nodding. He leaned down to grab a Mythomagic figure from the ground. It was recognizably a manticore, but only just. As he reached back to hand it to me, his hand brushed against my bare thigh and my dick twitched.
“Yeah!” I said, eager to distract the boy. I had to get some pants on now. “Or like, uh, Cerberus. He was-”
“Is your ding-a-ling hard?” asked Nico. His hand was hovering over my thigh as he spoke, still holding the manticore. I wasn't sure I liked the look of his smile. Almost like he was planning something...
“My what?” I asked, taken aback.
“You know,” he said. His hand got even closer to my ding-a-ling. He looked around furtively, though we were the only two people in the cabin. “Your dick.”
Look, I was ten once too. I know the kind of language kids can use, but hearing it from the cute kid sitting inches away from me was more than a little jarring. “Yeah... uh,” I started. I really did want to be a good big cousin to Nico, but did I have to explain the birds and the bees to him? “It, uh, happens sometimes.”
“I know that,” he said, like I was stupid. “Mine does it all the time. See?”
I reached forward to stop Nico from flashing me in the middle of the cabin, but he just pulled his cargo pants closer to his crotch. I could very clearly see a tent in them. “Uh, yeah.” What the fuck was I supposed to say here? Was this kid... coming onto me? From the way he was with his sister, I figured he didn't really have any friends other than her.
“Yours is bigger, though.” He made to tug his pants down to prove it, but I put a hand out to stop him.
“Whoa, Nico,” I said with a laugh. “I'm sure yours is plenty big enough. Let's just, ah, stay dressed, shall we?”
“You're not.” He tugged out of my grasp but mercifully kept his pants on.
He had a point. “Well, uh, lemme get my pants back on. Okay?” I stood and turned around so he couldn't stare at my dick as I got dressed.
“Is it weird that I think butts are cute? Bianca said it is, but she's a girl.”
I finished pulling my jeans on and turned back to face him. He'd been staring unabashedly at my ass. Okay, I did have a great ass: my speedo left my cheeks pretty much bare. The parts that were covered were covered so tightly that they may as well not be. The cut is pretty flattering, too. Hey, don't judge me, I like how I look, okay? “Well I guess it's not that weird,” I said eventually, sitting back on the bed. This felt much better now I was fully dressed. “Maybe a little, but it's a normal guy thing.”
“Like boners.” Nico nodded sagely. “Bianca says I shouldn't talk about that stuff.”
I had to laugh at this. “She's your sister, dude. That stuff is...” I trailed off, looking for the right words. “Pretty personal.”
“But I can talk about it with you?” he asked. His brown eyes locked on mine, and I was yet again reminded of a puppy... or Cerberus. I could hardly say no to him, especially after I'd promised myself I was going to be a good big cousin.
“Sure. What do you wanna know?” This was much easier now my boner was hidden, thank the gods.
“Why does it happen?”
Shit, I should have expected this sort of question! “It's... okay. So, sometimes your body just does it. Like when you wake up, right?”
He nodded.
“And sometimes it's because you're... excited.”
“Excited? Like, about finding out I'm a demigod? Or about Mythomagic?”
Didn't their military academy have any sex ed classes? “Well, not quite. More about other people.”
“Oh! That makes sense.” He gave me a hungry look and a few things started to click into place. “Who were you excited about?”
My resolve to answer his questions started to falter. “That's a pretty personal question, dude,” I said with a laugh. “Who do you like?”
“Nobody!” The answer came a little too quickly. He hunched his legs up against his chest, and I had to wonder just how much mud and snow he was getting on my duvet.
“See?” I teased. “Some things are pretty personal. It's okay to ask, but it's also okay if someone doesn't want to answer.”
“Girls are weird anyway.” I wondered if he'd heard any of what I said.
“Doesn't have to be a girl.” My voice came out more defensive than I'd meant it to. What was that about?
Nico relaxed the tiniest bit. Imperceptibly. “It doesn't?” His voice was low and reverent, almost like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
“Nope.” I put my hands up behind my head on the bed.
Nico didn't answer for a moment. I had to admit he looked cute when he was thinking. His silky black hair covered his eyes and he was biting his lip in concentration. “Isn't that... queer?” The last word came out as a whisper.
“Sure, but that's okay.”
“No it's not!” Yet again, he answered far too quickly. “It's... it's unnatural!”
I waved a hand. The fountains dotted around the room began to spew their water in intricate shapes above our heads. “Is it more unnatural than doing this?”
“YOU CAN DO THAT?!” exclaimed Nico. “HOW?!” He jumped to his feet and waved his hands around, trying to catch some of the water. I let a little splash his face. “That's cold!”
I just laughed and splashed him again. “We all get special gifts from our parents. I can do this, some of the Hermes kids are super fast, Annabeth is-” My voice caught in my throat. She was in danger, and I was here babysitting. “Well, you get the idea.”
“What will I get?” He waved his own hand, trying to splash me back. Nothing happened until he jumped up and put a hand through a jet of water, throwing some on my head.
“I dunno,” I admitted, running a hand through my hair. “I guess we'll have to wait and see!”
“I don't wanna wait.” Nico sat back on my bed, trying to shake his hair dry. “And now I'm wet!” He motioned to his shirt, which was now soaked. He pulled it off. “I'll get you back for that!”
I didn't have time to admire his body. Jesus fuck, what was wrong with me? I shouldn't be looking at a ten year old like this. “Wait-” I said, but it was too late.
Nico jumped onto me and wrung his wet shirt out out over my head. “That's what you get, Percy!” he cackled. His voice was quivering and high. His laughter sounded like a waterfall. “Who's the son of the sea god now !”
I gulped. His bare chest was cold against my body. He was awfully skinny. Despite his olive skin, he seemed even paler than I was. “Okay, okay, you win!” I said, laughing back.
“I know!” He kicked the last few Mythomagic cards onto the ground and tried to pin me down. I was still so fucking hard. Shit, this couldn't be right. Not only was this kid three years younger than me, he might even be my brother! “Surrender properly!”
“I surrender!”
“Surrender to your dark lord Nico!” The effect was ruined a little by the way his voice caught in his chest. I wasn't even fighting back and he still struggled to pin me. His body rubbed against mine, and it took a second to realize he wasn't struggling at all. He was humping me!
“Okay, okay, I...” I paused for dramatic effect. He did the same, holding his hips still. “...Will never surrender!” I sat up from under him and pressed my fingers into his sides, rubbing up and down. The effect was instant. He started thrashing around as I tickled him. It made my dick throb but I was too busy to examine that right now. I turned him around so that I was on top. With a leg either side of him, I straddled his hips and continued to explore his chest. I'm just tickling him. Just making a lonely kid laugh. That's all, I told myself. “Do you surrender?” I asked, letting the water over our heads get just a little closer to us.
“Never!” he spluttered around his laughter.
I let some water fall on his face, which only made him laugh harder. “You sure?”
“Yes!”
I splashed him again. This time, the water covered his whole torso. I let it stay there for a second before drying him off again. “How about now?”
“Ohhhhhhh, Jesus, that's cold!” he exclaimed. “Okay, okay, okay!”
I let him up and grinned down at him. Nico put a hand down to adjust his boner – his ding-a-ling – and sat up. “Was that so hard?” I teased. Okay, wrong choice of words. I was pretty sure we were both hard right now.
“You cheated,” he said, pouting. Gods, he looked so cute when he did that.
“Maybe, maybe not.” I waved the water back into its proper place. If any of it made a mess in the cabin the cleaning harpies would be pissed. Oh, shit. The cleaning harpies! “Shit, Nico, we should get you back to-” I was cut off by a harpy whizzing past the window, looking for any campers out of bed. Too late.
He followed my gaze and jumped to his feet. “What was that? Are we being attacked? Are you going to fight it? Can I watch?”
“Didn't you get the orientation? That's just one of the cleaning harpies. They haven't eaten a camper in, like, a really long time. We should probably stay on the safe side, though.” I paused. I wasn't comfortable traipsing a ten-year-old all the way across camp in the dead of the night, especially in the snow. “Why don't you sleep here tonight?”
“I can sleep here?!” he asked. It was like he'd been told we were having an early Christmas. “Like a slumber party? I've always wanted to have one of those!” He took off around the cabin, testing all of the beds to see which was the softest. Finally he picked one out and dragged it over next to mine. “Are we going to tell ghost stories? Oh! Wait, can you tell me more about your adventures?”
I just laughed and cleared up some of the Mythomagic stuff. The snow we'd walked in had melted enough that I could control it, so I made it evaporate. “Sure. But only once the lights are out!”
“Tell me about Cerberus!” He ran to the light switched, flicked it and then ran back, stumbling out of his cargo pants as he did. In the dim light I could see he was wearing a pair of very old-timey white boxer shorts. They looked like something out of a history book.
“Okay.” I slid underneath the covers and tossed my shirt and jeans onto the floor next to me, trying to look away from the nearly-naked ten year old. “Me, Annabeth, and Grover went to the Underworld to save my mom...”
Nico propped himself up on his elbow, listening intently. As the story continued he slumped down lower and lower until he was lying on his side with his eyes closed.
“...And then we wound up on a beach,” I finished. “But that's a story for another time.” With our beds so close together I could see Nico's chest moving as he breathed. I leaned across and planted a kiss on the top of his head – just like a loving cousin would do, I told myself – and closed my own eyes.
Gods dammit, I never even had chance to jerk off.