Voice of an Angel

Nico swallowed thickly staring at Percy. The older boy seemed frozen, his hand still on the door knob, the girls behind him were standing on their tiptoes to peer over his shoulder. The band kept glancing back and forth between the two boys. Finally Percy’s companions seemed to have had enough and pushed past Percy into the room.

“Sorry but what are you all doing here?” the dark skinned girl asked, her eyes were a swirl of colors and her stance meant business. Nico stared at her at a loss for words; he awkwardly shrugged which made her frown.

“Sorry about that Pipes, Nico needed a place to practice and we owed him a favor so we offered to let him practice here,” Travis spoke up from his spot with Connor.

Percy shuffled closer, holding his hand out like he wanted to touch Nico but was scared to make actual contact. “Oh my Gods, it’s you.”

Nico blushed and stared back at Percy, “You must be Percy, Rachel told us a lot about you.” This time the green eyed boy turned red. He covered his face with his hands and took a step back.

“Dear gods no,” he groaned, “What did she say?”

“Only that you have a huge crush on Nico and an unhealthy obsession with his voice,” Jason answered casually with a smirk.

“Well if you’ll excuse me I have a red head to kill before I drown myself,” Percy said turning on his heel to leave.

“Wait!” Nico panicked and reached out, grabbing the back of Percy’s hoodie. The older boy turned back around to look at him, Nico was certain his whole body was red at this point. “W-would you like to stay for the rest of practice?” The lame offer stuttered out of his mouth and he wanted to slap himself as soon as it was in the air.
Percy grinned at him, the dazzling smile nearly knocking the breath from the Italian’s lungs. “I’d love to, if you guys don’t mind or anything.”

“Not at all, El amor de mi hermano,” Reyna replied with a teasing smile, “make yourself comfortable.”

The younger boy blushed and glared at her for her comment, Percy just smiled at her before heading over to Travis and Connor. Nico couldn’t hear what was being said but he was aggressively whispering at the brothers, and his tone did not sound happy. The pair help up their hands in a sign of surrender of they quieted back down.
Turning to his band mates Nico felt like screaming, they were all smirking at him. Hazel even went so far as to wiggle her eyebrows at him. Averting his eyes he soon realized Percy’s companions weren’t much better. The blonde was eyeing him with a calculating look, like she was weighing his worth to see if he was deserving of her friend’s affection. The brunette was grinning like the Cheshire cat. Both looks made him uneasy.

The only other place to look was directly at Percy, who was smiling like a kid at Christmas. So Nico chose the only reasonable option, he closed his eyes. He started strumming the opening to one of their songs and the others joined in. He performed the whole song with his eyes tightly shut, not daring to take a glance at the beautiful boy watching him. However when they were done he made the mistake of opening his eyes again.

Percy sat in front of him in awe, his lips slightly parted while he stared at Nico like he’d told him the answer to the universe. Nico could do nothing but stare back until someone coughing making him jump. He was back to blushing as he stared at the floor. Next to him Reyna sighed.

“Alright well obviously we’re not getting anything done today so let’s pack up guys,” she said taking her guitar off and unhooking it from the amp.

“What?” Nico stared at her shock, Reyna never cancelled practice.

“You’re too distracted to do anything, I’m tired, Hazel and Frank have shit to do I’m sure, and Jason owes me food so I’m ending practice early.” The others were unhooking and pack their equipment as well; Nico stood there unsure what to do.

A tap on his shoulder made him turn, and of course there was Greek God himself Percy. “Would you maybe…. Do you think you’d want…… wanna go get something to eat?”

Nico was left speechless staring at the taller boy. His brain scrambled to process his words and formulate an answer. “He’d love to,” Hazel answered for him while his brain had a meltdown. Again Percy flashed him that killer smile.

“Great, how about we all eat together? Get to know each other,” he asked looking at the others.

“Sure, Jason you’re still paying for my food,” Reyna said, not looking up from packing her guitar.

Hazel frowned, “Nico we were planning on you walking home, we don’t have room for all the equipment and you."

Connor appeared next to her, “Percy has a car, he can take him.” Nico couldn’t decide if he want to strangle him or hug him.

“Yeah, I’ve got plenty of room,” Percy beamed, swirling his keys around his finger.

“Alright just give me a sec,” Nico nodded, unplugging and packing everything up. He slung his guitar over his shoulder, “You have enough room for this?” Percy nodded heading toward the door, Nico quickly followed him.

“You’re welcome!” Connor and Travis yelled before the door shut.