Chapter Text
Sunshine streamed in through the window at dawn the next morning, and landed right over Nico's sleeping face. Or, more technically speaking, formerly sleeping face. Said face started waking up as soon as its eyes were assaulted with sunlight, and was definitely not happy with the situation.
“Okay, Apollo, I get it,” Nico groaned, covering his eyes. “Geez, not all of us are morning people, cut me some slack.”
He rolled on his side so he was no longer facing the offending window, and wondered if this was some weird punishment for flirting with the sun god’s son.
“Look, if you're waking me up at the crack of dawn to torment me, you should know that Will started it. Okay? He's too flirty and charming and, like, really hot so it's not my fault.”
“Ooh, that's more information than I ever wanted to know about my big brother.”
It was Kayla, leaning in the door, with a tray of breakfast perched on her hip.
Nico groaned and hid his blushing face in a pillow.
“Yep, since Will was on overnight duty, you're stuck with me today; which means you're on my schedule. Sorry, low priority cases get woken up first.” She walked over and dropped the tray onto the nightstand beside his bed.
“Will might've let you sleep in but I want to get your vitals out of the way so I can focus on healing the more urgent stuff.”
“So…what? You asked Apollo to wake me up early?”
“Oh, no, he just does that. We get woken up like that every morning in the cabin. I'm assuming since you're flirting with his favorite son, he considers you one of us.”
Nico grimaced.
“I wouldn't say I'm flirting…”
“Alright, courting then. Or whatever you called it in ye olden days.”
Kayla had to duck to dodge the pillow that was lobbed at her, and Nico froze when he saw the pillow was caught by Will, standing right behind her.
“What’s this I hear about courting? I think you should probably try and get healed up before you consider trying to court anyone.”
Kayla let out a laugh.
“Oh that’s rich coming from you! You’re not exactly letting him focus on recovery. Why are you even here?”
Will turned pink, avoiding eye contact with either of them.
“For your information, I happened to forget my crossword book,” he nodded over the nightstand, and Kayla’s face broke out into a grin as she noticed the book lying face down next to Nico’s bed, “And besides, it’s not exactly a crime to check in on a patient.”
“Oh, so we’re calling him a patient now? Because I just so happened to hear you talking to Clovis the other day–” Will’s blush deepened ten-fold.
“Kayla, no!”
“And it sounded like you were calling him–”
Will started attempting to shove her out the door, but at the last moment she grabbed on the doorframe and stuck her head back in.
“YOU CALLED HIM THE CUTEST THING ON THIS SIDE OF THE MISSISSIPPI!”
Will finally managed to pry her fingers off of the frame and slammed the door in her face. Nico held back a laugh as he heard Kayla’s cackle in the hall.
“Siblings, am I right? They just say the darndest things…”
He couldn’t hold it back anymore and laughter forced its way out of him, leaving him doubled over with tears in his eyes.
Will groaned and covered his face with his hand.
“No, no, I’m not–” Nico paused to take a breath, “I’m not laughing at you, I promise. Sorry, it’s just–” He broke out into giggles and could feel his cheeks heating up.
He finally blinked the tears out of his eyes and saw that Will had moved to be standing over him, and wore a blinding grin. His face heated up even more, though this time from embarrassment.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just– well, I’m just wondering how you’ve managed to keep your reputation with a laugh like that.”
Nico turned his face away.
“You’re making fun of me, then?”
“No, not at all!” Will sat on the bed next to him. “I just don’t get how you manage to keep people scared of you when you got a laugh sweeter than ambrosia itself.”
He shrugged, still staring at the opposite wall, though now it was to hide the ever-growing blush on his face.
“I guess most people are too scared of me to make me laugh. I didn’t want them to be scared of me, y’know? It just kinda…happened”
Will sighed and kicked off his shoes before laying down on the bed.
“Yeah, I know. People ‘round here can be quick to judge, especially based on our godly parents. It’s like, once I was known as a child of Apollo everyone kinda started treating me like I was useless. If we can’t shoot, we’re kinda seen as a burden to have in battle, and so once I was claimed everyone acted like it would’ve been a death sentence to be near me if a monster got into camp”
“That’s crazy, you’re like one of the most helpful people at camp.”
“Thanks, but I ain’t a fighter, which means I’m kinda useless in the eyes of the camp. I think sort of the opposite happened to you. Like, after you got claimed and ran away, sure everyone was worried, but there was also the attitude that you were a super powerful demigod who would be just fine on your own. Like, once you were claimed, you became ‘Nico the powerful demigod’ instead of ‘Nico the ten year old kid’.”
“And, of course, the people who saw the whole skeleton thing were scared shitless. Well, not me, but I think I just found it really cool.”
Nico decided to lie down too and turned his head to look at Will next to him.
“You saw that?”
“Yep. I kept on waiting for you to come back, ‘cause I wanted to ask you all these questions y’know? Like, could you raise a dead animal? See, the Apollo cabin had a pet gerbil back then, and it was getting old, so I wanted to know if you could bring it back once it finally died. And then I was worried you would think I wasn’t cool enough to be your friend, so I made us matching friendship bracelets, because that’s obviously the coolest thing in the world. But you never came back y’know?”
“I wish I did.”
“Huh?”
Will finally turned his head to look back at Nico and the two were nose-to-nose, but this time neither of them pulled away.
“I wish I went back to camp. I wish I had known about you. Want to know what I was doing? I went and tried to resurrect Bianca instead. I was going around buying Happy Meals and using the chicken nuggets to try and bring my dead sister back.”
Nico started tearing up again.
“I wish I had been here with you instead. I wish I was here to bring back your gerbil and accept your friendship bracelets. I wish I had you to share my Happy Meal toys with, instead of saving them for my sister who didn’t end up wanting to come back anyway. I’m sorry…”
Will pressed his forehead against Nico’s and cupped his face, wiping away the running tears with his thumb.
“It’s ok, Nico.”
“I don’t even know why I’m crying.”
“Doesn’t matter, it’s still ok.”
Nico felt Will’s breath against his face when the older boy talked. This was the closest he’d ever been to anyone since long before even Bianca died, but he found that he didn’t want to ever pull away.
“It just wasn’t meant to be. I ended up burying the friendship bracelets with Sunshine when she died. Sunshine was the gerbil, by the way. Very unique name, I know.”
Nico let out a wet laugh.
“I gave the toys to Hazel when I brought her back.”
“I guess it all worked out then; Hazel definitely needed them more than I did.”
“And gods forbid Sunshine went without the proper burial rites.”
They both laughed this time, and their faces seemed to press even closer, with Will still stroking Nico’s face, even though there were no more tears to wipe away.
“I’m glad I have you now, right when I’m meant to,” Will whispered.
“Me too.”
Nico closed his eyes and basked in the feeling of closeness, enjoying the feeling of Will’s breath on his lips and the warmth of his hand on his face. He started to match his breaths to the other boy, and found himself calming down.
“Nico?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m gonna fall asleep if we stay like this.”
“And?”
“I’m gonna fall asleep in your bed. Is that ok?”
“Gods, Will. Yes, that's fine.”
“I’ll warn you, I’m a cuddler,” he murmured into Nico’s ear.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn ‘ya.”
Will rolled onto his back, dragging Nico with him, and guiding him by the back of his head to bury his face into Will’s neck while his other hand rubbed up and down his back. And oh hand-holding and shoulders accidentally brushing had nothing on this.
“Feel good?”
Nico blushed harder than he ever thought was possible and nodded into his neck.
“It’s ‘cause your brain’s releasing oxytocin,” he muttered, pausing to yawn, “folks call it the cuddle hormone. You’re probably getting, like, a crazy amount of it right now. I think I am too, I’m just too tired to really feel it.”
“Will?”
“Mhm?”
“Your sister’s going to come back soon. She never ended up taking my vitals.”
“Hmm…”
Nico breathed a laugh against his neck
“Will, she’s gonna see us.”
“Jus’ tell her to come back later,” he yawned again, “She won’t come in without knocking.”
“What if I’m asleep too?”
“Oh no–her poor little twelve-year-old eyes will see the most scandalous thing of all: two guys napping.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“The horror; the indignity!”
“I hate you.”
‘“No you don’t.”
“Yes, I do. I utterly despise you.”
“Hmm… Is that why I can feel you smiling on my neck?”
Nico started to pull back, embarrassed, but only managed an inch or two before the firm hand at the back of his head pulled him right back in, somehow even closer this time.
“Nuh uh, darlin’. You can stay right where you are.”
“You’re just doing this to embarrass me, aren’t you?” Nico’s voice was muffled and he could feel his lips brushing against the other boy’s neck as he spoke.
“Mmm, only a little bit. Now hush, I didn’t get any sleep last night so it’s naptime now.”
“Ok, but I need to stay awake, so if you could let me move a bit–”
“Nope, you need rest too, and I know my sleep song hasn’t worn off yet. There ain’t no reason for you to force yourself to stay up.”
“But if Kayla–”
“Hun, she will be just fine if she sees us. She ain’t gonna be traumatized or nothin’”
“Did you know your accent gets stronger when you're tired?”
“Yes, now hush.”
“”Oh, ok. Goodnight, Will.”
“Goodnight, hun.”