#i think one was established percicobeth except nico knew where Percy was and felt guilty returning to annabeth and pretending he didn't

[happyk44]

You know what I never saw enough of in the Percicobeth heydays? And maybe it's because I was technically looking at the wrong ship, lmao, but man, fics where Percy died, or set when he was missing during TLH and SoN, and Annabeth and Nico are both mourning him and end up coming together because they both know how it feels to grieve over someone you loved romantically. Of course Grover is there and because of his empathy link, he felt it 100% when Percy finally went down for the count, and is absolutely shattered by it, probably more so than the two of them, but his relationship with Percy was deeply platonic, so the hole left in his heart is different from the hole left in theirs, and the hole left in Sally's. The ache is different.

So they all grieve together, but Annabeth and Nico slink closer because how they loved Percy was different, and that grief ends up bringing them into one another's arms and then one another's beds. And it's such a worry for the two of them. When the grief ends, will this thing between them end too?

It's even better when Percy and Nico were never a thing. Nico's love for Percy was just a painfully deep crush, and Percy's love for Nico was intensely platonic and familial but nothing more than that. So the getting together is even more spontaneous and unexpected between the two of them, especially by the two of them.

Do they end up staying together, even as the grief fades and the mourning comes to an end? Do they drift apart and never speak again? Does Annabeth feel she's taken advantage of Nico in her misery? Does he feel the same way with her? Do they use relationship as a way to avoid the grief, so it just sits there in the background looming over them, demanding to be dealt with?