Chapter Text
When Nico woke up, he pretended he didn’t, keeping his eyes shut and his breath steady. All his senses sharpened when he picked up on something, or someone, moving next to him. Whatever it was, was clearly trying to not to get picked up on, moving with a dangerous level of care, stalking like a predator.
Where had he fallen asleep again? Hades…? It sure felt like it. Everything was foggy. Unbearably warm and cold at the same time. But, he couldn’t actually remember, with the way his head pounded… That couldn’t be good.
He felt the presence move down lower. Crouching…? He dared take a slightly deeper breath, bracing himself to run, or fight, if need be. Either way, the element of surprise was all he had right now.
Nico was barely able to keep up the facade when a warm hand picked up his wrist and lifted his arm off of his face, just a few inches.
“Good” a familiar voice huffed quietly. The warm hand pulled on his wrist and laid it down above his head.
Logan, Nico realized. He couldn’t hold back a long exhale. In relief? Well, no. If anything, Logan was worse than whatever the underworld had in store. Much worse. So much worse, in fact, that Nico decided he wasn’t going to deal with him. He tried to roll on his side, away from him.
Nico scowled when the warm hand gripped his chin, keeping him still. He clenched his eyes shut tighter and tried again, with a bit more force.
The grip on his chin tightened, with quite a bit more force. “Gods, you’re just as fucking impossible in your sleep” Logan whispered angrily.
Nico wanted to open his mouth to snap at him, when Logan did it for him, shoving his thumb over his bottom lip and prying it open. He gasped when Logan damn near stabbed the inside of his cheek with something.
Nico squirmed, trying to get it out. No use. The hand wouldn’t move.
“Relax. Just a couple more seconds…” Logan whispered. Surprisingly, besides the obvious annoyance in his tone, he might have actually sounded reassuring.
Nico took a few deep breaths until a high beep finally got Logan to pull back, both his hands and what Nico now realized had been a thermometer. Thank fuck. It was finally over. His muscles couldn’t hold on to the strain any longer. A few painful shivers rolled over him.
Logan sighed next to him. By the sound of it grabbing something off the table. It clinked against something. Glass. Right. The glass of water. The now empty glass. Sometime between the shame and suffering, Nico had actually managed to make the time to drink it all.
Logan noticed too, apparently. “Good job. Actually following instructions for once…”. A nearly inaudible, nearly genuine sounding laugh broke through the huff.
Nico froze when the warm hand pressed down on his head, messing up his hair with a few nearly gentle movements. What?! His eyes shot open, immediately finding Logan, right in front of him, a bit closer by than expected. He blinked frantically.
Logan stopped himself from getting up. He pushed the hand on Nico’s head back, moving the hair out of his face. Tilting his head, he met Nico’s eyes. By the wary look of the bright amber, he was easily as surprised as Nico was. “You awake…?” he asked.
Shit. Nico pulled back. Well, flailed back. “No” he said dryly. It only would have sounded a little less stupid if his hair hadn’t fallen right back in his eyes, ruining his attempt at a deadly glare. He swiped at his hair, apparently only ruining it even more.
“Okay…” The corner of Logan’s mouth twitched, up. Trying not to laugh, Nico realized to his annoyance.
Logan got back to his feet, looking down on him. He crossed his arms. Nico braced himself when Logan opened his mouth.
“Want something to eat…?” he asked.
What…? Nico blinked. “What?!” he repeated out loud, even more taken aback.
Logan shrugged. “I dunno…? Whatever you think you can stomach?”. Puzzled quickly became annoyed. “How the fuck should I know… Soup, or something?!” he added with a huff.
Wait… Were they actually doing this…?
Nico stared at him, then huffed back. “You…? Make me food? I should’ve known you were gonna use this opportunity to poison me”.
The corner of Logan’s mouth twitched again. Much more violently. Amber sparked dangerously. “From a can, you asshole”.
Nico worried he’d taken it too far, until an undeniable laugh shook Logan’s shoulders.
“Can and all, if you’re going to be such a bitch about it…” Logan grumbled through his smirk.
Nico dared to smirk back. “Fine…”. He could have this one…
Waiting had been awkward. Eating had been horrifyingly awkward.
He’d been smart enough to jitter himself upright before Logan got back. That way he’d spared them both the embarrassment of having to do that in front of him. Or worse, needing his help to do so… Not entirely unlikely given that he’d needed multiple attempts…
Somehow, though, Logan had caught on anyway… Nico glared at the arm behind him on the backrest, over the finger tapping frustratingly close behind his shoulder. Very casually…
Nico shuffled forward, further away from it, and put his empty bowl on Gwen’s coffee table.
Logan dragged his arm away to rest the side of his head on his fist. “How was that?” he asked, tone deceptively calm.
“Fucking terrible” Nico reassured him dryly. “But knowing you, you probably could have done even worse”. He got to his feet. “Thanks anyway…” He faced away, hoping Logan wouldn’t catch he wasn’t being sarcastic.
Logan got up next to him.
Nico gave him a quick glance. He took a step away from him seeing Logan’s serious expression.
Logan stepped closer. “You don’t think you’re leaving… Do you?”. It wasn’t a question, the now downright intense little flames in his eyes warned.
Nico pulled his eyes off of them and took another step away. “Well, I feel a lot better” he lied.
Logan took another step, even closer. “Thermometer said otherwise…”
Nico switched tactics. He took a step closer too, putting on the sharpest smile he could fake. “You’d believe a piece of plastic over me? Oh, you wound me so…”
Logan stopped right in front of him, straightening up and narrowing his eyes. “Well, in my defense. Piece of plastic is a lot smarter than you are”. His serious expression cracked in a smug grin.
Good. Nico grinned back. If this wouldn’t get physical, he actually stood a chance. “Well, you sure aren’t” he shrugged. “You probably used it wrong”.
Logan grinned wider. The flames in his eyes flickered. “Oh yeah? You think I should’ve put it somewhere else?” he snickered.
Nico sucked in his lips to prevent himself from screaming. He threw up a hand. “Welp. That was weird. I’m uncomfortable. Time to get myself somewhere safe”. He grabbed his coat off of the armrest.
Logan grabbed his upper arm. Nico elbowed him to break free, unsuccessfully. He glared over his shoulder. Then just stared over his shoulder. At Logan’s expression.
Logan let go to hold up his hands in a peace offering. A pretty desperate one judging by his worried expression. “Look” he started. “My bad… I shouldn’t have said that. But you’re obviously not okay, dude… I told you, Gwen needs to have a look at you first…”
Nico looked from one hand to the other. Logan fidgeted with his fingers. Was he nervous? Or getting ready for something…
Logan’s fiery scowl answered before his words did. “I really don’t want to do this the hard way”.
“Ha!” Nico scoffed, the shadows already at his feet. “This isn’t a swordfight, you idiot. I don’t have to get physical. Good luck trying to stop me!”. At that, he turned around and raised the shadows with his hand. He ignored the way both shook and wavered.
He wasn’t fast enough. An alarmingly strong hand closed around his throat and yanked him into an even stronger hold around his stomach.
Nico thrashed. The shadows did too, making the light flicker around them. He tried to rise them back up. If Logan insisted, he could come too, to the middle of the Goddamn ocean!
“Calm down” Logan ordered in his ear.
Nico obeyed. Not by choice… He felt all fight drain out of him. All everything.
“Wow-kay!” Logan scrambled at the sudden lack of resistance. “Not that much!”
The arm around Nico’s stomach slid up, leaning him back and giving him some room to breathe. The hand on his throat loosened, tilting his chin up until the back of his head fell on Logan’s shoulder. The hand stayed there while he panted, eyes shut, trying to get everything to stop spinning.
It wouldn’t. But it slowed down.
Nico tried to turn his face away in shame. The hand wouldn’t let him. He swatted at it. “Let go” he panted.
“No” Logan replied.
“I’m serious” Nico warned shakily. His panting built up, unsteady, the same way the shame did. He needed to get away. Right now. Or…
“So am I” Logan made clear. Tone angry. Disappointed. Done.
Nico took a sharp breath and bet everything on a final, hard jerk with his shoulder.
“Hey!” Logan yelled, painfully loud. The arm around him locked, almost lifting him off his feet.
Nico gave up. He trembled. And sobbed…
“Hey…” Logan muttered, painfully soft. Another arm locked around him, squeezing out another sob.
Nico moved to swipe at the tear rolling down his jaw. He didn’t bother with the ones after.