Chapter Text
[Will’s POV]
Will rushed to his side. What was going on? When he’d left for lunch, he was sleeping. Kayla had told him that she’d relocated him to the spare room, but he didn’t expect to walk in and see him laying on the bed with tears streaming down his face.
“Nico?” He asked. The smaller boy didn’t reply. He put his hands over his face, as if to wipe away his tears, and turned away from him. Will was confused to say the least.
He walked closer to the bed and sat on the side.
“What’s going on?”
Nico pulled the bedsheets up his face. “I’m fine.”
“No you’re not. Don’t lie to me.”
Will took a deep breath and put his hand on Nico’s. He held onto it until he felt his hands relax and pulled the blanket down from his face. He didn’t want to fully hold him because he knew that he didn’t like that, so he opted for his hand. That, and he also wanted to hold his hand. Nico sat up. They were both looking into each other’s eyes, and the tension in the room was dangerously easy to read.
Was Nico like this because of him? Maybe he shouldn’t intrude.
“I can leave if you want me to.” He said, hoping to reassure him. He had no idea what to do. He was used to healing patients, he knew how to do that. What he didn’t know how to do was comfort people, especially people he, well, like liked.
“Don’t.”
[Nico’s POV]
He had no idea why he’d said that. Will’s hand over his made his skin almost burn. Even after he’d shifted positions, neither of them pulled away. Did that mean anything? Or was he just an overthinker? Nico took a deep breath. What should he do now? He didn’t want to sleep, he wasn’t tired. He felt like Will needed an explanation. His sky blue eyes seemed to look directly into his soul, but his facial expression showed that he wasn’t very good at it.
“I was just… thinking.”
“Is something bothering you?”
How did he always ask the right questions?
“Well… yeah. But I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it yet.” He tried to change the topic. “Do you need help with anything? The infirmary’s busy today, and you told me you wouldn’t mind if I was there to help you cut bandages”.
Will paused to think.
“Come with me. I’ll show you how.”
He followed Will back into the main room, where the beds were still mostly occupied by injured campers, but there were definitely less than when Nico woke up.
“So, for starters, since most of the patients here have either been shot by an arrow or stabbed, we’re gonna need a lot of bandages. Can you take care of that?”
Nico nodded.
“Okay, well to cut them, they should be around 20 inches long.” He handed Nico a long roll of plain bandages and a sharp pair of scissors. “Then, when you’re done, roll them up and tie them with a clip like this one.” He handed a small, stretchy clip. It looked like it could be used to tie bandages together, so Nico didn’t question it much. He’d definitely never seen them before, though. When he needed to tie a bandage, he just made a knot.
Will got a rolling chair out of the storage space and sat on it, pulling another one out for Nico. The desks came with a small tray that could be folded on the side. He sat down, pulled the tray out and got to work.
“Do you have a ruler?”
“Why would you need one?”
“To measure the bandages. I’m terrible at measuring lengths.”
“I don’t think we have rulers that long. Just cut them a but shorter than arms length.” Will smiled at him, and Nico couldn’t figure out why.
He took one good look at his arm and got to work.
Every time he handed a bandage to Nico and their hands brushed together, Nico had a mini heart attack. When Will no longer needed bandages, he’d go up to the storage closet and get him extra ambrosia or to hand him some soda from the infirmary minifridge.
After a while, Nico felt better. He appreciated the moments like this. He had the chance to talk to his friend and spend time with him, and if that was all that he could have out of their relationship, he would be happy. Most patients left before dinnertime. They weren’t fully healed, of course, but Will deemed them “okay to go” and they happily left to go to dinner.
He was surprised when he told the last camper he could go, a son of Ares who had received two arrows on the leg and walked with a limp. Was Will trying to get rid of everyone so the infirmary was empty? Nico went back to his cot and threw himself on the mattress.
“Tired, di Angelo?”
“Not really. But I wouldn’t mind resting for a bit. You should go eat.”
“I’m okay here. Unless you want me to go, of course.”
“What? No!” That came out way more enthusiastically than he expected. “I- I mean stay. It’s nice having you here.”
Will smirked.
“As you wish.” Will looked at him as if he meant something behind what he had just said. Nico frowned. Reading the obvious look of confusion on his face, he added “You’ve never watched Princess Bride?”
“Is it a movie?”
Nico didn’t have a lot of movie knowledge. He remembered going to the movies with his sister, when it was the holidays at the military school. Other than that, he hadn’t had the chance to go to the movies.
Will looked at him with surprise. “It is. I don’t think I have it though- I’ll ask around and see if anyone does. You need to watch it, it’s really good.”
Nico was surprised at his sudden enthusiasm. “I guess I will.”
Will spoke up quickly “Want me to go get you something to eat?”
“Can I go with you?”
“I don’t think so, young man. You need to rest. Wait here and I’ll bring you something.”
He got up and bolted out the infirmary door before Nico could make the remark that technically he was older than him. As soon as Will was out the door, Nico’s thoughts went back to the diary he had found in the hidden desk drawer. What could be written in there that was so secret that he needed to hide it? No, Nico decided. It wasn’t his place. If Will wanted to tell him something, he would. Plus, the notes would probably be some medical details. He needed to find a way to find out what was inside without needing to sneak around. It wouldn’t be honest. Lies and deception had never gotten him far either way. They always caught up to him.
Suddenly, it came to him. He’d known about the existence of the diary because of the notes in his file, right? So if he could just find the file again and ask him about what was in his diary, it’d work out. He got up, ignoring the dizzy feeling that he got (it was probably the lack of food and the fact that he wasn’t fully recovered) and went up to the desk. Looking through his files, he found his own pretty quickly. While his eyes hoovered over the page and down to the notes section, he noticed that someone else had written on the page. The handwriting was different. It read: ‘Just admit you like him already!’
It was probably Kayla. What did she mean by that? Was it like as a friend or like as… more? Nico’s thought process was interrupted by his favourite son of Apollo walked through the door. What was it with him, always stepping in at the worst possible moment?