Chapter Text
Nico woke up to the feeling of Will draped across his back, pressing kisses all over the only side of Nico’s face he could reach. When he seemed to notice that Nico was finally awake, Will said, “Good morning, my future husband.”
Nico tried to tuck his face into his pillow to hide the smile growing on his lips. “I haven’t even gotten used to fiance yet,” Nico grumbled, finding Will’s hand in the tangle of blankets around his waist and covering it with his own, “and you’re already skipping ahead to husband.”
“I’m just trying to get into the habit,” Will told him, trailing his lips down to Nico’s neck until they stopped to rest just above the collar of Nico’s shirt. “I mean, you never know when one of us might get tired of planning a wedding and decide to run to the courthouse instead.”
Oh, Nico liked the sound of that. He started to roll back, at least as far as he could until Will got in his way, and turned his head to meet Will’s eyes. “Oh, that’s an option?” At Will’s grin, he turned over entirely and twisted their legs together beneath the bed sheets. “Then good morning, my husband.”
Will’s arm tightened around him, pulling Nico even closer until their noses brushed together. “See, wouldn’t you rather get used to that?”
Nico hummed. “I can see the appeal. But I’m having a bit of a hard time picturing you with a courthouse wedding.”
“It wouldn’t be my first choice, I’ll admit to that,” Will replied, “but it’ll be perfect either way. You know why?”
Nico rolled his eyes. “Because you’ll be marrying--”
“I’ll be marrying you!” Will exclaimed with a blinding smile. “We can do whatever you want, whether it’s just us at the courthouse, or a small ceremony with our friends, or something huge with, like, two thousand people. I mean, I’ll need to meet a lot more people if that’s the case, but--”
“I think I’d like something small,” Nico told him, his fingers tracing the outline of the sun tattooed over Will’s heart. “If that’s okay.”
“As long as you can promise me one thing,” Will said, and Nico hummed questioningly. “Small wedding, big reception.”
Nico hesitated before replying, “How big is big?”
“How small is small?” Will shot back. “I’m thinking, maybe ten or fifteen people at the wedding, maybe a hundred people at the reception.”
“Do we even know a hundred people?” Nico asked, his nose scrunching up with the question.
Will paused to think about it. “We... must, right? I mean, a hundred isn’t that many.”
Nico’s face cracked into a smile once more. “Okay, we can figure out numbers later, once we establish how many people we actually know. For now, we should probably get ready to leave.”
Will got that sappy smile back on his face again that had Nico simultaneously melting at the sight and bracing himself for what was about to come next. “Back to the place where I fell in love with you,” Will said dreamily, then gasped when he got an idea. “We should get married at camp! It’s huge, always has great weather, a magical border that can keep out monsters - since there’s no doubt that it’ll be mostly demigods in attendance. It’ll be perfect.”
“We can think about it,” Nico told him, “for the reception. I’m still leaning toward the courthouse.”
Will wore his Hanukkah sweater to camp despite the fact that Hanukkah had ended almost a week earlier. He insisted on wearing it as proof of how much Nico had spoiled him that month.
When they arrived at camp - driving there, because Will didn’t want to risk spending most of their stay in the infirmary with a half-conscious Nico - they dropped their bags off in the Hades cabin before crossing the green to cabin three.
Percy and Annabeth were already inside, as well as Grover, Leo, and Rachel. As soon as Nico stepped through the door, Percy was on him, dragging him into a hug and taking him a few steps off to the side. He set his hands on Nico’s shoulders, practically bouncing on his toes as he whispered, “Did you do it? Did you, did you, did you?”
Nico rolled his eyes, smiling fondly as he said, “Yeah, I did it.”
“Hell yeah!” Percy exclaimed and lifted Nico off his feet with the strength of his hug. “I’m so happy for you, dude!”
When Percy finally set him back on his feet, Nico frowned, looking almost offended. “Woah, I never said that he said yes.”
Percy looked like he was about to panic, but before he could say anything, Will slipped an arm around Nico’s waist and said, “He’s messing with you, Perce.”
Percy’s eyes flickered between them. “So…”
Nico’s lips curved up into a smile. “We’re getting married.”
“Dibs on best man!” Percy shouted, loud enough for the others in the cabin to hear.
Nico’s eyes rolled on their own accord, and he shoved at Percy’s arm. “You got to help pick the ring, give somebody else a role.”
“He spent a whole week buttering me up,” Will was telling everyone while Nico tried to hide his embarrassment in the corner of the room away from everybody else. A few others had arrived by then - Thalia and Reyna, Tyson and Ella, and Lou Ellen and Cecil. Hazel and Frank were expected to arrive the next day for Christmas Eve, and Piper had decided to spend the holiday with Shel’s family, so at most they were expecting an Iris Message from her at some point. “Obviously, I would’ve said yes either way, but it was sweet nonetheless.”
“Aw, you hear that, Neeks?” Leo teased, drawing everyone’s attention across the room to Nico. “He thinks you’re sweet!”
Nico’s arms tightened across his chest, and he pointed his glare at the wall. He was sure his face was already pink to begin with from the way that Will had been talking about him, but having everyone’s attention on him made it so much worse. They were definitely going to have a small wedding.
“Can we see the ring?” Rachel asked, pulling everyone’s attention back to Will. Nico was going to have to thank her for that later. When Nico glanced back at the group, Rachel shot him a wink.
Much later in the night, after the general excitement over the engagement announcement had faded to the background, Nico sat down beside Will on the couch and sunk into his side. Will draped an arm around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to the side of his head, whispering, “I didn’t embarrass you too much, did I?”
“I’m mortified, and the wedding is off,” Nico grumbled into Will’s shoulder.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I’m mortified, and the wedding will be at the courthouse,” Nico corrected.
“Alright, I’ll take it.” Will kissed his temple once more. “I’m sorry. I won’t embarrass you anymore this weekend.”
“No, you will,” Nico told him. “Once Hazel gets here tomorrow, you’ll do it all over again. But it’s okay, I forgive you in advance.”
Will rubbed his arm a few times, quickly, like he was trying to warm him up. “Are you having fun otherwise?”
“Yeah, it’s been okay. I still want to catch up with Reyna since I haven’t seen her in…”
Nico trailed off, his head tilting in confusion as his eyes followed Thalia across the room. She was suddenly decked out in fairy lights, wrapped in a garland and even wearing a tree-topper star on her head.
“Uh,” he started up again, “what’s going on?”
Will laughed. “You know, because she used to be a pine tree.”
Nico shot up, spinning back toward Will and looking absolutely bewildered. “That wasn’t a joke?”
Seeing as they were back at camp, they did have to abide by the usual lights out rules if they wanted to avoid being attacked by harpies - not that any of them couldn’t manage to take down a harpy on their own at this point in their lives - so as the night wore on, they all went their separate ways to their different cabins.
Nico and Will counted themselves lucky to have the Hades cabin to themselves, at least until Hazel and Frank were scheduled to arrive the next day. Unlike Cecil, neither of them had to try to cram into an open space in one of the other cabins with younger siblings. Nico and Will, on the other hand - just like Reyna and Thalia - had plenty of space to spread out.
(Un like Reyna and Thalia, Nico and Will didn’t take a vow to be single forever, and would therefore not be taking advantage of the extra space to spread out.)
When Nico came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth, he found Will standing beside the bed, pulling back the sheets, dressed head-to-toe in a monochromatic brown.
“I thought you promised that thing would never leave the apartment!” Nico exclaimed with a gasp, causing Will to jump and turn toward him, his Chewbacca onesie on full display.
Will pointed an accusing finger at him. “And I thought you promised to leave all card games at home.”
Nico spluttered. “I didn’t bring them!”
In the dim light of the cabin, Will found Nico’s backpack on the ground and lifted it up. The main pocket was mostly unzipped, and the single lit torch on the wall gave off just enough light for Nico to see the few packs of games resting inside. Nico winced at the sight.
“Okay, new deal: nothing leaves this cabin,” Nico said, then added, “except when we go home.”
“Deal,” Will said, and climbed into bed. The only two beds in the cabin were pushed up against opposite walls, so Will had to crawl across the queen size mattress in order to make room for his fiance.
Nico stood beside the bed, arms crossing with a hmph. “I’m not sleeping next to you in that thing.”
Will grinned up at him as he laid back against his pillow. “But it’s so cozy, and weirdly furry.”
Nico stood his ground. Will simply shrugged back.
“Alright, suit yourself.” He pulled the blanket up to his shoulders and settled in, sighing contentedly and shutting his eyes. A few moments later, just as Nico was starting to reconsider the risks of brushing up against Chewbacca fur in his sleep, Will groaned and shoved the blankets away. “Okay, never mind, I’m sweating.” In a few quick movements, he had unzipped the onesie and stripped down to his underwear, then practically kicked the thing off the foot of the bed.
Nico rolled his eyes at the overdramatics. “Here, maybe this will help,” he said, and reached down to press his cold fingers to the side of Will’s neck.
He cringed at the feeling, nearly crushing Nico’s hand between his cheek and his shoulder with the force of his movement. “Dear gods, you’re freezing,” Will exclaimed. “Get in here!” He grabbed Nico by the arms and pulled him down to the bed before covering them both with the blanket and holding Nico close to warm him up.