Chapter Text
It was now around 1 am, the infirmary deserted by everyone except for those on bedrest, a few miscellaneous Apollo kids, and of course Will. After checking on Nico one last time, making sure he was sleeping soundly, Will was making his final rounds for the night. Hopefully he could then sleep in ‘his’ office for a few hours (It wasn’t exactly his, but he was the head of the infirmary, so it basically was). Maybe he would get better sleep in his cabin, but he was afraid Nico would need him at some point. Before he could get far he was interrupted by an angry pair of blue eyes quite similar to his own. Kayla.
“Will we need to talk”. Her placement in the middle of the hallway was clearly meant to stop him, but he continued about his business while replying.
“About what Kayla? If I hurry I can maybe get 5 hours of sleep, is this really urgent”? However she seemed prepared for his avoidance, keeping pace with him.
“About that William. You haven't been sleeping or taking care of yourself at all. And you being Nico’s doctor? You know that’s not appropriate considering your feelings for him, you shouldn’t have put yourself in charge of taking care of him”. By her last sentence Will had stopped walking around, finally turning around to face her. His arms folded and face twisted with irritation. A big difference from his usual relaxed form, though less of a difference when compared to other times the son of Hades was brought up.
“Last I checked I’m in charge of the infirmary, and the best healer we have. Do you think you could do better? You couldn’t even look at him when dropping off a hospital gown. What are going to do when he needs medical treatment and is being difficult, just let him have his way and die? As far as I'm concerned my feelings make me the only one capable of taking care of him. He needs someone who feels something for him besides fear or hate”. He then turned on his heel and started marching through the building with even more gusto than before. Kayla, having the same stubborn genes as Will, of course walked with him.
“Ok fine maybe you have to take care of Nico, but I’m still worried about it. The first two days you wouldn’t even sleep during any of your breaks because you were worried might Nico show up, and now that he’s here you still won’t leave. You weren't even sure that he knew you existed until a couple days ago. This isn’t healthy”. Will just kept walking, the only sign that he was listening was his mouth set in a firm line, and a twitch of his nose.
“You should know better than anyone why I’m like this. This is my infirmary and you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do”. He seemed to be crashing from his anger, now just looking tired. They had finally reached his destination, his office. He ran a hand through his hair. “If you’re really worried about my sleep then you should be glad I’m getting some now. Goodnight”. On that note he stepped in, slamming the door in his sister's face.
With her brother finally out of sight, she allowed the tears of frustration that she’d been holding in spill. Will was always calm, rational, laid back. He was, except when Nico was involved. She knew why of course. It wasn’t rare for children of the sun god to fall quickly and obsessively in love. For some it burned bright and short, and they usually had a multitude of passionate flings. For others it was deeper than that, with one person they were hopelessly devoted too after not much more than a glance. Will happened to fit into the latter, as did Kayla. Will was to Nico, as Apollo was to Daphne (Minus the trees, that was Thalia's thing). Kayla supported her brother of course, she just wanted him to be more careful. She knew crushes like those were a lot more than just that.
Inside his office, Will settled into a couch that was definitely older than he was. He knew how dangerous it was to let his crush on the son of Hades run rampant like he did. He did try to exercise self control, but one look at the boy and his resolve would crumble. He tried to push the worries brought up by his conversation with Kayla out of his head, he needed to sleep.
~*~
Will should have been more upset about Nico being sick. Of course he didn’t want the boy to suffer one bit more than he already had. However some part of his brain that was not on board with the program was giddy about the chance to take care of his crush. Okay fine, all of his brain was giddy about getting to take of him. And the rest of him, even his hands were twitching from the excitement. He was getting distracted honestly. But really, he thought, who could blame him? He’s had a crush on Nico for years, and then, after finally getting a chance to impress him, he marjory fucked it up by not knowing the first thing about combat, and then needing said crush to save him. Now though, he got to heal him, and that just happened to be his only skill.
Speaking of healing, that’s probably what Will should be doing now, instead of daydreaming about Nico falling in love with him because Will was just so good at taking his temperature. The brunet hadn’t woken up yet, which wasn’t surprising considering that it was possibly the safest sleep he’s had in years. Just like Will had predicted he was running a low fever of 98 degrees, which would have been normal if children of Hades didn’t run cold. Even dead asleep and clammy, Will still thought Nico looked adorable, and had to fight the urge to squeeze him. His face looked peaceful instead of having the usual cold expression he forced himself to hold. He was lying on his stomach with his head buried into one pillow, and was tightly hugging another pillow. Will found himself thinking about how badly he wanted to Nico to cling tightly to him instead of some stupid pillow. Maybe it wasn’t the most rational thing to be jealous of a pillow, but that was Nico’s effect on Will.
As much as Will wanted nothing more but to crawl into his bed and cuddle, he knew it would be wildly inappropriate. So instead he fretted over him, checking his heart rate, blood pressure, temperature (All things that were totally necessary for low fever). He definitely did not leave his hand on his forehead for longer than necessary, greedy for whatever contact he could have. He had considered putting him on an IV, so he could continue to sleep and stay hydrated, but then Kayla would definitely force him to give up his responsibility as Nico’s doctor, and he wouldn’t be able to bear that.
As he was about to pull his hand away, he was met with dark eyes. Upon just waking up, Nico yawned and snuggled into his pillows more, nearly killing Will in the process. Nico looked up at him, seemingly confused. “What are you doing”? He asked, sleep still heavy on his voice. This side of Nico was so different from what he and probably anyone else ever got to see, and he loved it.
Will tried to flash him a smile, attempting to seem more chill than he felt. “Just checking up on you death boy. I was right by the way, you have a mild fever. Next time you should probably come to me before I have to hunt you down”. He inwardly cringed, hoping he sounded less awkward then he thought he did. He went to go help Nico sit up in his bed, earning him an eye roll.
“I feel fine”. He huffed, crossing his arms. “And you don’t have to hover over me, I can take care of myself fine”. Even a grumpy Nico made Will feel butterflies in his stomach. Part of it was probably him being blinded by his adoration, but Will still found himself in love with every move he made. Will’s smile felt easier on his face.
“Hmm Well maybe you can, but you’re in my care for at least the next three days. That means that unfortunately for you, you’ll just have to deal with my ‘hovering’”. Nico glared at Will, but it was clear that there was no bite behind it.
“But-” he started, but was quickly interrupted.
“My infirmary my Rules, keep it up and I’ll start spoon feeding you too”. Great, now Will was hoping that he would pipe up again so he could force the son of Hades to let Will dote on him. The threat was, however, effective in shutting Nico up. Will was hoping that one day he could get used to people taking care of him, and that Will would be the person to get him used to it. The thought of feeding Nico reminded him that they both needed to eat. “Speaking of which, you need breakfast. I’ll be right back”. He ran out of the infirmary before Nico could say anything else.
~*~
Will came back into the infirmary trying to run and still balance the two plates he was carrying, eager to eat with Nico. Maybe his special treatment towards him was starting to border on irresponsible, but none of his other patients were as worse for wear, or as cute.
When he came to Nico’s bed he saw the boy staring at the wall, and realized too late that he left him with nothing to do. Excluding the bedhead, the signs of him just waking up were gone. His face was once again forced into a neutral expression that was probably intimidating to other people. Will was disappointed to see his walls up again, despite knowing full well that gaining his trust would take a long time. Once Will set Nico’s plate on his nightstand he finally turned his attention towards the healer.
“Took you long enough, it’s probably not a good idea to have your patients die of boredom if your goal is to keep them alive”. He said in a dry tone, a bit dramatic considering that Will was gone for at most 10 minutes. Although ADHD didn’t pair well with waiting for any amount of time. He looked down at the plate Will set down and his eyes widened. “You can’t possibly expect me to eat all of that”.
Okay fine, maybe Will went a little overboard with how much food he got him. But in his defense he wasn’t sure what he wanted, so maybe he got a large variety. Perhaps, he also got a large portion of each food just in case Nico only liked one thing. He had to make sure he got enough food! It didn’t take a doctor to see that he was severely underweight. So yes, he’d rather hover on too much than too little, and frankly Nico deserved it and much more.
Will scratched the back of his neck, looking off to the side. “Ok maybe I gave you a bit much, just eat as much as you can. Focus on the proteins and carbs if you really can’t eat much”.
They sat like that for a while, both eating their breakfast and Will trying not to stare at Nico too much, probably failing. When he was done he went to see how much Nico had eaten, he frowned when he saw that Nico had barely had anything. There were a couple of bites of an omelette and few hashbrowns gone, but that was it. “Is that all you can eat”? He asked gently.
Nico’s eyes skirted across the room, as if he were embarrassed by his stomach’s capabilities. “I’m sorry, it's just that in the-” He cut himself off, like he was about to reveal something too personal and had to stop himself. “While on the quest I lost my appetite. I haven't really gotten it back yet, it’s hard to eat”. It was obvious he wasn’t telling the full truth, or at least being way too vague on purpose. Will decided not to push it though, knowing that being even that open was probably difficult for him.
“Hey.” Will said, forcing Nico to look back at him. Before he could remind himself that it was a bad idea, he stepped closer and took his hand. “You don’t have to apologize for how much you can eat, I just want you to get better. I’m not going to judge you for not being able to eat much, or anything else. Ever”. It was like he was watching himself do and say these things without any way to stop himself. He probably shouldn’t have taken Nico’s hand, but he hadn’t pulled it away from him yet, and holding it made his whole arm feel like it was buzzing. Even if he wasn’t able to stop holding his hand, he still needed to get back on track to being his doctor, not giving a love confession. “We do need to work on your eating but it won’t be that bad. We can start out small, work you way up”.
Nico still hadn’t pulled away his hand, and Will was struggling to focus on anything else. He didn’t miss that Nico’s eye bags were still quite prominent though, not that they didn’t suit his face. He slept a while last night, but it was clear that he still had a lot of catching up to do. That paired with the fact that his body was fighting off the mild infection from his DIY stitches meant that he would be sleeping a lot the next few days. After finishing his breakfast he had gotten comfortable in his bed again. He was already struggling to stay awake despite just waking up. “You should take a nap, you’re still sick and need to rest”. Will managed to finally pull his hand away and used it to nudge Nico into more of a laying down position.
Nico made incoherent grumbles of protest, but quickly stopped after realizing how comfortable he was. Will stayed, Needing to see the son of Hades peacefully asleep before he could walk away. Once Nico’s breathing slowed Will looked down at him one more time, needing to go tend to his other duties that he’d been ignoring in order to stay with Nico. Then he kissed his forehead, his actions not of his own accord. He knew it was a stupid move, he shouldn’t have done it. He needed to get his feelings under control and fast, he’d seen what happened when children of Apollo had crushes that went unchecked. Either he needed to be honest with Nico about his intentions, or he needed to have better self control with gestures of affection.