Chapter Text
Nico
Nico had never expected to have fun at an amusement park - let alone while riding life-threatening rollercoasters - but after a few hours of laughing more than he’d ever done with Will, he had to begrudgingly admit that, fine, yes, this could be fun.
Thought (Nico had to admit, gazing at the tall blond next to him) that having Will for company certainly did no harm.
“Oh,” Will suddenly said, disrupting Nico from his thoughts. “Sorry, I have to take this.”
Nico made a gesture that was between a nod and a shrug, and smiling at him, Will answered the silent call. “Hey, Chase.” Will’s brow furrowed. “No, I’m at the park, why?”
Nico didn’t want to eavesdrop - he happened to like Will, thanks very much - but it was very hard to ignore him whilst standing so close.
“Yeah,” Will continued after a while. “But I’m here with Nico. Yes, that Nico.”
(And it was especially hard to ignore when Will was talking about him .)
“Oh. Well, sorry, I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Ignoring the dread settling in his stomach, Nico swallowed, and quickly looked away. He should’ve known they couldn’t hang out all day, after all. Will didn’t seem the type to go to an amusement park alone, so his friends must be waiting for him somewhere. (He certainly hadn’t come for the sheer chance that Nico would be there.)
“My friends are waiting for me at the entrance,” Will said when he’d hung up the phone, and he smiled brilliantly at Nico.
Nico, not wanting to smile back, said, “Okay. I’ll see you later, then?”
“What?” Will said, his smile disappearing. “No, not later. Now. You’re coming with me. Or
do you have other plans?”
It was hard to keep the smile off his face. “I don’t.”
“Okay, good.” Will’s face let up again, and Nico had to refrain himself from drooling at the sight. “Let’s go.”
It was a sign of his total infatuation with Will that Nico allowed his arm to be taken by the blond boy. (He certainly wouldn’t have allowed Jason to steer him away.) (Though Jason still did it way too often.)
Annabeth
Will had always been Annabeth’s most cheerful friend.
On most days, it was more than easy to compare him to an overjoyed golden retriever.
But when she saw him walking towards them, arms in arms with a small, skinny and dark-haired punk boy, she was certain she’d never seen him smile broader.
“Chase!” He exclaimed, waving excitedly with his free arm. “Beckendorf, Silena, hi!”
She waved back, much more composedly. “Hi.” Her other two friends joined her, not before sharing a knowing look. (They’d been gossiping about the two like crazy before Will had spotted them. Not that she could blame them, mind, it wasn’t often that Will went on dates with people.)
“So,” Will said when he’d reached them. “Where to next?”
“Will, where are your manners?” Annabeth scolded him, and she quickly stuck out her hand at the punk boy she already knew the name of. “I’m Annabeth.”
“Hi,” he replied shyly, taking her hand. “I’m Nico.”
“I’m Silena,” Silena said, smiling.
“Charles, but everyone calls me Beckendorf.”
Nico had to strain his neck to look up to Beckendorf - Beckendorf was almost twice as tall as he was - but he smiled at the boy. (Most people didn’t do that when meeting Beckendorf, Annabeth mused, most too afraid of him. Nico was certainly different.) “Nice to meet you.”
“Okay, back to important stuff, where to next?”
“Please not a rollercoaster,” Nico complained.
Will scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Dramaqueen. You liked the last one!”
“Only because I was able to hold your hand!” Nico spat, regretting the words the moment they left his lips. His face immediately reddened, and he spluttered, “wait - that came out wrong..”
Annabeth laughed good-naturedly. “I know Will liked that, too, Nico.”
Still beet-red, Nico looked around at the lot of them, as if praying someone changed the subject. (Will, however, was looking as if his dreams had come true.)
“Well, if rollercoasters are out of the question, what about the tunnel of love?” Silena asked, smirking.
“And, what?” Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Leave me as the fifth wheel?”
“Hypocrite,” Beckendorf said dryly, “you and Piper are the absolute worst.”
“We are not,” she countered. (They were, though, but she wasn’t going to admit that.)
Nico was blushing, probably from the insinuation that he and Will were in a relationship. Will didn’t seem to mind though, tightening his grip on Nico’s arm as if to make sure he wouldn’t bolt on them.
“Let’s just go on that, okay?” Will said, pointing at some sort of carousel with swing-like seats. Everyone agreed, and and they set off to it, joking as if they'd been friends since childhood.
Will
Will had always - fine, only that day, but still - thought that Nico was cute.
But seeing him interact with his friends, as if they’d known each other for ages, was a pretty big deal for him.
Sadly, the day was drawing close to an end.
“Dear visitors, the park is closing in fifteen minutes. Please make your way to the exits,” said an announcement coming out of the speakers littered around the park. Will looked at the nearest one and frowned. His friends seemed almost as disappointed, though Beckendorf looked also a little relieved. It had been a long day, after all, despite how much fun it was.
The little group started walking toward the entrance they’d come in from, still chatting and joking casually. At one point Nico stopped, his eyes fixed on his shoes.
“I have to go to the East entrance, Jules-Albert is picking me up from there,” he said.
“Who’s Jules-Albert?” Silena asked.
“Driver.” Nico said shortly, letting everyone draw whatever conclusions they would from that (Though Will was fairly sure everyone would come to the same result - Nico is rich - especially considering that he had insisted on paying for everybody’s lunch.)
“Well… See you later, I guess?” Nico said reluctantly.
Will snorted. “That goodbye was horrible, Death Boy. C’mere.”
Nico’s eyes widened. “Oh, no -”
He had absolutely no say in the matter. Will picked him up easily - the boy really was too skinny - crushing Nico into the tightest hug he’d ever given someone. (And yes, that was saying much.) He found it was very hard to let go, and he certainly wouldn’t be the one to make that first move.
Nico didn’t seem to share the feeling, and he tried to shove Will away almost immediately. (Whilst muttering Italian words under his breath - words that surely couldn’t be nice judging by the way he hissed them.)
Will held on for a moment more, only letting Nico down when he felt like it (Because if he listened to Nico, the hug wouldn’t even have happened in the first place.)
“And I thank you ,” Nico said, his face as red as a tomato. “For crushing my ribs.”
“ You’re welcome.” Will blew him a kiss, enjoying the way the other boy flushed again. “It was my pleasure, Death Boy.”
Silena giggled. “I’m sure it was.”
Nico made a strangled sound, and resolutely turned away from them. “Going now!”
“Bye, Nico!”
“Bye, love!”
He waved at them, not looking back, but even without actually seeing it, Will was certain his last comment had made Nico blush again. (He did live to rile up the poor boy.)
Nico
“Hello, Mr Di Angelo,” Jules-Albert greeted him. Before the driver could open his door for him, he did it himself and climbed in. Jules-Albert didn’t say anything, only walking back around the car and getting into the driver’s seat.
“How was your day?” He asked.
Nico didn’t really feel like talking, so he only replied with a short “It was good.”
They sat in the car in silence for the entire drive up to Nico’s dad’s main office building. Nico opened the door and got out before Jules-Albert was even out of his door.
“Did dad say you should come up too?” He asked.
“No. He instructed me to wait here.”
Nico nodded. “Okay. See you later, then.”
He walked to the entrance of the building, pressing the button labeled with his dad’s name, and stood in front of the camera. The secretary of the top floor would recognise him, and let him in. He had a keycard with access to the entire building, but hadn’t thought to bring it.
The door unlocked with a click, and Nico walked in. The elevator ride up seemed to last much longer than usually.
“Hello, Mr Di Angelo,” the secretary greeted him when he got out of the elevator into a small lobby. “Your father is waiting in his office.”
“Okay,” he said nonchalantly, walking past the desk and into the office.
“Nico!” His dad said happily when he walked in. “Long time no see, eh?”
Nico smiled. “Hi, dad. You wanted to talk to me about something?”
His dad sighed. “Right into business? Well, okay.”
Nico [got a bad feeling but better said], this was about business. He’d been hoping maybe his father just wanted to hang out with him for a while, or maybe talk about something other than business.
“So, I’ve been thinking about the future of the company,” he said. “And I thought that maybe it would be best that once I retire you took over. Would you like that?”
Nico didn’t say anything at first. Taking over the company? That was always supposed to be Bianca’s job. Nico’s older sister had always taken interest in her father’s work, unlike Nico.
But he nodded anyways. What else could he do? Dishonour his sister’s memory and disappoint his father by refusing to lead the company?
His dad smiled relievedly. “Okay, so I thought maybe you should start learning to do business already. And I know you don’t really want to go to university for business studies, so I thought maybe you could learn in practice?”
“What do you mean ‘in practice’?” Nico asked warily.
“Come with me to a few business trips. Attend meetings, participate in decisions, stuff like that. At first just come along with me, but then once you’re eighteen, if you’ve caught on to how all this is done, maybe you could start doing more.”
Nico’s head was spinning a little. It was a lot to take in all at once. He’d been bored ever since he graduated, even missing all his homework a bit, because at least it was better than not having anything to do, so something to do was kind of welcome, but just the idea of taking over the company seemed like a lot, maybe even too much for him.
“And actually, this is a perfect opportunity to start. Tomorrow morning I’m taking the jet to Italy, where I’ll be meeting with a few people and checking some sites we could build in, see if that could be our gateway to expanding to Europe. It would be the best way for you to learn more. But I think that after we get all that sorted out, maybe we could take a week or two of vacation. What do you think?”
Nico wanted to say no. He wanted to tell his father that no, he had finally gotten a shot at friendship, or maybe even more, with someone other than Jason, and he wasn’t about to ruin that with some business trip. But one look at his father’s hopeful expression, and he found himself agreeing.
And based on how his father’s face lit up when he did, he doubted he could ever have said no.
But still, after he had said bye to his father and left the building, sitting in the car on the way to the orphanage, he could only think one thing.
How was he going to tell Will?