Chapter Text
I’m sorry in advance.
“Idiot!” Nico hissed as soon as he’d hit ‘send.’ What was it about texting Will that turned him into a conversationally-inept moron?
He knew what it was. He knew exactly what it was. The problem was that he couldn’t fix it.
He had flipped his phone face-down, as if not being able to see his colossally awkward opening line would make it go away, but he jumped to grab it as soon as it vibrated.
I forgive you in advance. :) What’s up?
Nico buried his face in his hands and groaned, hoping Hazel had her headphones on in the next room. Why, oh why , did Will have to make this harder for him?
I may have let it slip that you eat people food, and now Hazel says there’s no excuse for you to not come to dinner. Tonight or tomorrow?
Will didn’t respond for a while, and Nico worried, for the millionth time since opening his mouth earlier that day, that he’d slipped up in a major way. Frank had said that vampires were really private about their eating habits, was the whole people food thing supposed to be a secret? If it was, why had Will revealed it so casually?
Why had he done any of the things he’d done on their definitely-not-a-date? It had been over a week since they’d last seen each other face-to-face, but Nico didn’t think he could ever erase the image of Will’s smile from his brain. Not that he wanted to.
“People food” makes me sound like a dog. Tonight!
He sat and stared at his phone for a while, reading and rereading the text. Will was coming to dinner. Tonight. Will was going to be in his house, eating dinner. Tonight.
Nico swore and got up to clean the living room.
———
Will showed up a half hour early, because of course he did, but Nico had managed to get the entire apartment clean on time, and it was nobody’s business how many things he’d stuffed into the hall closet.
“Nobody told me what we were having or what to bring, so I brought dessert,” Will noted as he walked in. “Homemade.” He lifted up the box of store-brand brownies and grinned.
Nico rolled his eyes and shut the door behind him, doing his very best not to stare as Will walked into his apartment. In his defense, he’d never seen Will out of work clothes before. The scrubs had fit him well, almost upsettingly well, but his jeans were something else entirely.
“We’re making pizzas!” Hazel announced cheerily, giving Will a careful hug so as not to get flour all over him. “Nico has this dough recipe that’s just perfect , and it lets everybody get what they want, so it’s a great first-dinner food.”
“It’s your recipe?” Will raised his eyebrows and shot Nico a grin. “Tell me, are Italians as picky about pizza as the stereotype says?”
“Absolutely not.”
———
“Haze, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. You can’t spread pizza sauce like jelly, it won’t be even. You have to do it in circles like thi— don’t you fucking dare! ”
Will froze in place. His eyes were crossed to keep Nico’s outstretched finger in focus, and his hand held a can of pineapple, the fruit seconds away from falling onto his plate.
“Not in my house,” Nico snapped. “Put that down.”
Will’s mouth opened, but no sound came out, so he just stood there gaping at Nico like a fish. A cute fish, but a fish nonetheless.
“Not a pineapple on pizza fan, I take it?” Will finally managed, his voice strangled. Whether that was from surprise or barely-repressed laughter, Nico didn’t know.
“I’m Italian . Pineapple on pizza is blasphemy.”
Will laughed. “I’m a vampire. My whole existence is blasphemy.”
“He has a point,” Frank commented, carefully arranging his olives.
“Thank you, Frank.” Will raised the can again, and Nico had to fight to keep himself from smacking it out of his hand. “Besides, I’m cute enough to get away with it.”
“He has a point!” Leo echoed. Nico contemplated pushing him into the oven, but that wouldn’t do much. Flame-resistant witches were inconvenient like that.
Instead, he watched as the cutest guy he’d met in a really long time did the single most heinous thing he could think of. More heinous than drinking human blood from a bag in a middle school bathroom, by far.
Nico figured he needed to get his priorities straight. Then again, this was pineapple. On pizza.
When the three pizzas— plus one crime against food— were done cooking, they sat down to eat. Frank and Hazel, as gross and adorable as ever, traded pizzas, each with a disgustingly cute design made from toppings. Hazel’s had a flower, and Frank’s had a cat almost identical to his own cat form.
Leo wrinkled his nose. “Ew. Get your sweet, wholesome love out of my face. Some of us are trying to eat.”
“Oh, yeah, how is Jason?” Will asked. Leo choked on his pizza. Hazel passed him a glass of water, which he spent an unusually long amount of time drinking, as if buying time to think of a response.
“He’s, um, he’s good,” was the genius answer Leo came up with, looking very much like he wanted to leave. Nico was grateful to have at least one person who was now more nervous than he was.
Will didn’t seem to register just how much distress he’d caused with his question. “That’s good,” he replied, happily eating his pizza. “I know he was out at the last meeting, so I’m glad to hear he’s doing well.”
“Yep. Yeah, he’s fine.” Leo ducked his head and busied himself with his own food. If his face were any more red, he would have caught on fire, an unfortunately common occurrence whenever Jason was brought up. On more than one occasion, Nico had considered removing the batteries from the smoke detector, because the alarms going off made them look like really irresponsible cooks, but Hazel had stopped him, citing “fire safety” or whatever.
“So Will,” Hazel began. “Why has it taken you this long to come over for dinner? I’ve been asking for ages.”
Will’s ears reddened. “I dunno. Work gets a little hectic sometimes, so I’m not always free, and—”
“Oh, but when Nico invites you last-minute, you show up?” She grinned evilly.
Will’s face paled. “Uh—”
“It’s not a big deal.” Frank, ever the peacemaker, put his hand over Hazel’s. “We’re just happy to have you.”
“Thanks.” Will smiled at him. “Y’all have a really nice place.”
“All her,” Nico commented, pointing at his sister. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, if you had your way, we’d live in a cave,” Hazel laughed.
“My room is not a cave!”
Hazel pointed her fork at him. “Your walls are gray, your sheets are gray, you have one lamp you never use, and the only thing that could remotely count as decoration is your shelf full of rocks.”
“They’re geodes! ” Nico cried for what felt like the millionth time.
“Geodes are rocks,” Hazel replied, also for the millionth time. “You live in a cave.”
Will, who’d been watching their conversation go back and forth like a tennis match, laughed. “If it’s any consolation, my room is covered in Star Wars and space posters that I’ve had since the fourth grade.”
“You’re going to have to leave.” Frank pointed to the door, his expression serious enough that Nico wouldn’t have known he was joking if it weren’t for the subtle crease around his eyes. “This is a Star Trek household.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I swing both ways.” Will grinned. “Anything space related, I’m almost guaranteed to enjoy it.”
“So you know where your towel is, right?” Leo leaned forward, evidently over his Jason-induced embarrassment.
“Of course.” Will reached into his back pocket and produced what looked like a washcloth, folded so small it fit into the palm of his hand.
This was apparently very impressive to both Frank and Leo, who commended him for owning towels as Nico and Hazel, the only non sci-fi nerds in the room, looked on in confusion.
Before anyone knew it, the sky outside grew dark, meaning they’d been sitting around the dining table for hours. Leo had already planned to stay the night, and Hazel extended the offer to Will, who accepted. He’d said something about there being too many deer and too few lights on his way home, but the reasons didn’t matter, because Will was sleeping over . In Nico’s house.
Much to Nico’s chagrin, Will was given the couch in the living room to sleep on, which meant that Leo— the couch’s usual occupant— slept in his room. They weren’t strangers to the occasional sleepover, but Leo snored and wouldn’t admit it. Nico buried his head under his pillow and did his best to ignore it until he finally fell asleep.
The next morning, when they’d both dragged themselves out of bed and into the kitchen, they found Will sound asleep despite the racket coming from the kitchen and the sun streaming through the window.
“Hey. Hey, Will.” Unwilling to touch him, Nico kicked the side of the couch, jostling the blond awake.
“Wh—” Will blinked and sat up. His curls stuck up on one side, which was frustratingly adorable. Nico had half a mind to run his hands through them, but that was the half of his mind that had no self-control, the same half that told him to lean in and kiss Will every time their eyes met.
“Pancakes!” Frank called brightly, waving a spatula.
“I thought you were supposed to be a morning person,” Hazel commented, shuffling by in pajama pants that were definitely Frank’s.
“I normally am.” Will folded the blanket he’d been under, which wasn’t necessary, but definitely appreciated. “I’ve been getting over a bug the past few days, but it’s been making me sleep like a rock.”
“Coffee?” Frank offered. Will nodded.
As he made his way to the dining room, Nico got a good look at his face. Will hadn’t been kidding about whatever bug he was fighting, because the circles under his eyes were jarringly dark even after nearly ten hours of sleep.
“How’d everybody sleep?” Hazel asked, noticeably perkier after draining her own cup.
“Awful. I kept having this horrible nightmare where someone stole all the blankets and kicked me in the middle of the night,” Nico said, shooting Leo a pointed glare.
“Hey, you know I’m a blanket hog.” Leo shrugged. “You could have kicked me to the couch and shared a bed with Blondie here.” He jerked his head in Will’s direction.
Nico could feel his face flushing, and he watched Will’s do the same, but neither of them said anything aside from Nico’s mumbled “Shut up, Valdez.”
A few minutes of quiet eating later, Will pushed his chair back. “You’ll have to excuse me,” he said, looking considerably worse for wear than he had at the start of breakfast. “I—” He swallowed hard and rushed out of the room.
All of them watched him leave. “Is he alright?” Hazel asked, looking at Nico, as if he had answers.
“Hell if I know.” Nico stood. “Should I follow him?”
“Yeah, probably. He didn’t look so good.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “God, I hope he hasn’t thrown up. I can’t handle that shit.”
Outside the bathroom, Nico knocked tentatively. “You alright in there?” he called, wishing there were literally anything else he could say.
The door swung open, revealing Will bent over, his forearms resting on the edge of the sink, staring straight down into the thankfully empty basin.
“I’m okay. Kept it down.” Will’s face and hands were wet, like he’d hurriedly splashed water on himself.
“Hell of a bug.” Nico stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind himself.
“I don’t know how it got this bad,” Will admitted. “I thought it got better.”
As he spoke, a flash of white caught Nico’s eye, and a sinking feeling hit him.
“When was the last time you ate?”
Will gave him a strange look. “Like, a minute ago. You were there.”
“No, I mean ate ate.” Drank? What the hell was he supposed to say? “Blood.”
“Oh.” Will’s eyes widened. “Fuck. You were there for that, too.”
“That was almost two weeks ago!”
“I know. I’ve been…otherwise occupied.” Will’s cheeks, as pallid as they were, had a touch of red. “How did you figure that out?”
“Your, um—” Nico grimaced and gestured to his own mouth. “Your teeth…”
“Huh?” Will turned to the mirror, running his tongue over his now-elongated incisors. “Oh, thit. Weird.”
“Did you not notice?” How Will couldn’t feel his own teeth, Nico had no idea.
“No, not at all. Thith hath never happened before.” Will screwed up his face in concentration for a few seconds, then looked back into the mirror. “And of courthe I can’t put them away. Jutht my luck.”
“How the fuck are you going to get home?” Panic started to set in as Nico remembered what Will had told him about vampires who went too long between feeds. The world’s quickest case of melanoma, he’d said. It wasn’t bursting into flame, but in a way, it was worse, a long, drawn-out death sentence.
Will shook his head. “No clue. It’th not like you have blood jutht lying around.”
“Wait.” Nico’s mind was racing, but an idea was starting to form. “We kind of do.”
“What?”
“I’m a universal donor, right?” This could work. This could work. “You can have some of mine.”
Will paled, which was saying something, because there wasn’t much color left in his face. “Not happening.”
“Why not? It’ll work, right?”
“No— I can’t— You can’t—” Will stumbled over his words. “It hasn’t been fifty-thix days. You’re not eligible for a donation yet.”
“So?” Fuck what the Red Cross said, Nico was determined to make this work. “You won’t need the whole thing, right? Just enough to get your strength up so you can get home and actually eat.”
“It won’t be good for you,” Will protested.
“Skin cancer isn’t going to do you any favors, either,” Nico retorted. “If you die, I won’t get to go to BINGO night.”
Will paused and laughed, but it was hoarse. “Glad to know you have your prioritieth in order.”
“Of course.” Nico grabbed a hair tie off of the counter, pulling his hair up into a ponytail. “Let’s do this.” A rush of excitement ran through him, clouding all those pesky inhibitions most people would have about being bitten by an actual, real-life vampire, no matter how attractive said vampire was.
“What…what are you doing?” the actual, real-life vampire in front of him asked.
“Getting my hair out of the way.”
“Why would you—” Will’s voice shot up an octave. “Wait, did you think I was going to— your neck? ”
“Is that not how it’s done?”
“I wouldn’t know!” Will’s hands were up, like he was surrendering. “I’ve never— I haven’t—”
“Oh.” Nico had kind of assumed that the blood donation bags were just a convenience thing, that most vampires drank straight from the source. Sure, he’d only just learned that vampires were real, but pop culture had to have gotten something right. Right? “Well then where would you do it?”
“I don’t know, but not the neck. There’s a lot of thtuff there, and the jugular is way too big for me to even conthider puncturing without really hurting you.” Will’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “The idea of putting my mouth on a human neck ith…” His voice faltered a little, as if he’d only just heard his own words.
“Not that I don’t want to put my mouth on you,” he backtracked, then slapped a hand over his mouth. “Wait, no. That came out wrong.”
Nico laughed, doing his very best to not go completely beet red. Some of the initial adrenaline had worn off, and his brain was flooded with the thought of Will that close to him, which resulted in an entirely different rush.
“Okay, then what about the arm? That’s where you drew it for the blood drive.”
Will shook his head. “Needleth are one thing, but I wouldn’t be able to get at that vein with my teeth.”
Nico turned his palms up. “Would the wrist work?”
Will studied his wrists. “It might. I can’t be thure, but it just might.”
“Then wrist it is,” Nico said, taking a seat on the bathroom floor. “I’ve got alcohol wipes in this cabinet, and my hands are clean.” If he admitted to himself that he was disappointed, he would also have to admit just how much he wanted Will’s mouth on his neck, which he was unprepared for.
“Okay.” Will took a deep breath and sat. “I don’t know how thith ith going to feel. It might hurt.”
“I don’t mind.” If it means helping you, I can handle it.
Will took Nico’s right hand in both of his own, his fingers ice-cold to the touch, and went to work with the alcohol swab, just as methodical and as gentle as he’d been the first time they’d met.
Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was Will’s obvious nerves, or maybe it was something else entirely, but Nico felt more at ease now, on the floor of his bathroom, than he’d felt in a long time, even though he was about to do something so stupid Hazel would definitely kill him for it.
“Okay,” Will repeated, holding Nico’s wrist like it was something delicate. “Are you thure about this?”
Nico nodded.
“Jutht— Jutht relax. You’re going to be alright,” Will said, staring right into Nico’s eyes. The familiar sense of calm he remembered from the blood drive washed over him, but hidden beneath it was the low thrum of something else Nico recognized but couldn’t quite place.
Will bent his head to Nico’s wrist, and the calm faded, replaced by Nico’s real feelings— pure anticipation and thrill as he felt the soft puffs of Will’s breath on his arm. His mouth was mere inches away, parted slightly to reveal the teeth Nico couldn’t help but stare at.
He took a deep breath, or maybe Will did. Maybe they took it at the same time, but this was it. At the last second, Will’s eyes darted up to meet his.
WAIT.
Louder than ever, the voice in Nico’s head roared, in complete contrast to everything he wanted. That was odd. It had only ever told him to do something he knew he wanted to do— kiss Will. Something wasn’t clicking, like a puzzle with a piece missing.
“Wait,” Will said aloud, and the last piece slid neatly into place.
The hand holding Nico’s wrist steady slid down, taking his hand in a vice-like frozen grip. Will closed his eyes.
“I can’t do this.” The lisp was gone. Will relaxed his grip, offering Nico the chance to pull his hand away.
“Will, what’s going on?” Nico didn’t take it.
“I just— I can’t.” Will looked up at him, thoroughly miserable. “It’s too— intimate . I’m not ready.”
That snapped Nico out of his haze. “What?”
Will lowered their clasped hands to the floor between them. “I like you. A lot, actually. But that kind of thing, drinking blood from a person — Christ , Nico, we haven’t even been on a real date yet!” The word Christ seemed to stick in his throat, making him cough.
He likes you. A lot. He wants to go on a date. With you. Nico had had his suspicions, but he’d learned to keep those on the pessimistic back burner until told otherwise.
This was certainly one way to be told otherwise.
Shit, he’d been silent too long. Will was looking at him, scanning his face for a response.
“Have you been trying to mind-control me into kissing you?”
Will blinked, taken aback. “What? No! Why would you think— wait, fuck, you can hear that? ”
“You mean can I hear your voice in my head telling me to kiss you every time we make eye contact? Yeah, I can.”
Will dropped Nico’s hand to clap both hands over his own mouth, which was kind of pointless, all things considered.
“I didn’t know…” he mumbled through his fingers.
“Wait, you didn’t? Can’t you control that?”
Will put his hands in his lap, cracking his knuckles one by one with so much nervous energy it made Nico want to crack his own. “I’m supposed to be able to control it. I can. I usually can. I don’t know why you get to hear it.” His chest rose and fell quicker as he talked himself into a flurry of anxiety. “I guess if I’m just thinking something too hard, or thinking about something too hard, it kind of happens, but it’s never been an issue before, it’s just you, you make me so nervous I can’t hardly think, so I guess it’s—”
Nico cut him off before he could run out of breath, closing the gap between them and seizing Will’s face in his hands.
Will’s lips were cold and soft. He tasted like maple syrup, which was unsurprising considering breakfast wasn’t even technically over.
For the first few seconds, every muscle in Will’s body tensed, and Nico worried he’d made a mistake, but then Will’s hands were on his sides, his back, his hair, his face, and every worry he’d ever had flew out the window. Nico wondered for a moment what Will would taste like after he’d fed, how it would feel to be held by him when his strength was at its peak, but he figured that could come later.
When they finally pulled back, both of them were nearly out of breath.
“We have got to stop doing important things in bathrooms,” Will laughed quietly.
“ You need to stop ending up in a compromising position in bathrooms,” Nico replied. “This is on you.”
Will hummed in acknowledgement. “It’s worked out pretty well so far. Maybe I should do it more.”
Nico’s response was cut off by a voice from the hallway. “Oh, God, all the doors are closed,” Hazel commented. “Who knows where they could be.”
“Or what they could be doing,” Leo added. A soft thud told them he’d earned himself a punch to the arm. A much louder thud told them Hazel had thrown her shoe at the door.
“The bathroom counts as a shared space, Nico! House rules!”
Nico’s face reddened. Shared spaces had been declared off-limits for any… activities since the incident he’d witnessed the year before.
“Shut up, Hazel!” he called back. “We’ll be right out.” He turned to Will. “Can you stand by yourself?”
Will frowned. “I’ll try, but no promises. I’m in pretty rough shape.”
Hazel stood outside the bathroom like a college RA, her arms already crossed disapprovingly. “If this was a ploy to skip breakfast, I’m going to be upset. Those pancakes were delicious, but they’re not better cold.”
“It wasn’t a ploy .” Nico rolled his eyes. “Will hasn’t fed in almost two weeks, and we were trying to figure out a way to get him back to his car safely.”
Hazel shot him a blank stare.
“Vampires, the sun, burning to a crisp,” Nico elaborated. “It’s kind of important that he doesn’t do that last thing.”
“And your solution to that was making out on the bathroom floor?”
“We weren’t—” Nico began, fully prepared to lie, but Leo cut him off.
“Your hair is a mess and both of you look like tomatoes. If your clothes weren’t still on, I’d for sure accuse you of breaking house rules.”
“Shut up , Leo!” Nico stood and turned back to Hazel. “We have a plan.”
“ Had a plan,” Will piped up, still sitting on the floor. “We no longer have a plan, unless you happen to have type A blood in the fridge.”
“Fresh out, unfortunately.” Hazel’s eyebrows furrowed. “Shouldn’t you have some? I thought you guys have pretty regular feeding schedules.”
Will blushed. “I, uh, forgot. Had a lot on my mind.”
Leo eyed Nico. “He’s not that big. Surely there’s room in your head for both him and basic survival instincts, or else we’re going to have a problem.”
Will buried his face in his hands. “I need to leave.”
“That’s not going to be easy, is it?” Frank had apparently decided to join the party at the entrance to the bathroom. “The parking lot here has zero shade.”
Hazel snapped her fingers. “Use an umbrella!”
Will turned to look out of the window. “It’s not raining.”
If he hadn’t sounded so genuinely confused, and if he hadn’t been sitting in a miserable heap on the floor, Nico might have kicked him. “The umbrella is for shade , dumbass,” he said. “Not rain.”
“ OH .” Will smacked his own forehead. “I should not be this stupid. I’d blame it on hunger but my mama taught me not to lie.” He held out both of his hands. “Help me up?”
Hazel and Nico dragged him to his feet, but Hazel yanked her hand out of his grasp as soon as he was standing. “Holy shit that’s cold.”
“Not having enough blood in your veins will do that to you.” Will grinned. “I’m basically a walking corpse right now.”
“Gnarly.” Leo reached out and poked Will in the chest. “Do you have a heartbeat?”
“Surprisingly, I do,” Will replied, leaning heavily on the doorjamb. “Vampire physiology is a mess on a good day, but I’ve got all the normal people stuff plus some extra fun bits.”
Leo nodded appreciatively. “Maybe I need to get a vampire of my own, huh, Nico?”
“Oh, werewolves are even cooler,” Will noted, and this time the tips of Leo’s ears really did catch on fire. “No stupid reliance on blood, no sensitivity to the sun, and you get to be a wolf once a month? Sign me up.”
“With your track record right now, something tells me you’d forget when the full moon is.” Nico slung one of Will’s arms over his shoulder, unable to ignore how strong he felt even at his most drained. “You’d just be a wolf in the middle of a restaurant.”
“You wound me!” Will put a hand over his heart, letting out a soft oof as he was unceremoniously dumped on the couch. “I would be a wonderful werewolf.”
He looked around the room for support, but his current condition did him no favors. Eventually he admitted defeat and gathered his things, putting on a sweater for a little bit of extra protection— the very same sweater he’d worn the first time Nico had caught him in the bathroom.
Nico held out one of the many umbrellas they owned, collected over years of being caught out of the house without one, but yanked it out of Will’s reach as soon as he raised his hand to take it.
“Promise you’ll get me into BINGO night.”
Will laughed. “You really aren’t going to let this go, are you?”
“No!” Nico held the umbrella over his head, which would have been stupid if Will hadn’t been sitting. “I’ve been left out for too long, and I’m sick of it. I want to play BINGO.”
“Alright.” Will extended his hand, no longer reaching for the umbrella, but instead offering a handshake. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to get you into BINGO night.”
Nico accepted the handshake, finding Will’s fingers as cold as ever, and pressed the umbrella into his hands. “I’m holding you to that.”