Chapter Text
“You’re gonna what! ” Annabeth yelled at him.
“I’m gonna save him,” Will repeated, they’d been arguing over this for at least ten minutes. After he’d collapsed Annabeth had rushed back to his hospital room, bringing his and Nico’s bags that Bob had kept… Plus a small counsel. That’s how Will ended up in a fight with the daughter of Athena while Percy, Hazel, Frank, and Magnus stared on awkwardly.
“You think any source of prophecy will allow that!!”
“You think I need a prophecy?!”
“… you think the gods of prophecy don’t have a flair for the dramatic?” Percy snorted as he butted in
“Shut up, Perce. Will I don’t think you’re thinking straight-“
“I’m going to do it no matter what you say.”
“I’ll strap you to this gods damn hospital bed!“ she threatened, then calmed down, “Will you can’t just bring someone back from the dead.”
Will scoffed, this was ridiculous. He racked his brain; who’d truly be on his side in this. “why don’t we ask Hazel what she thinks?”
Hazel blinked, her jaw dropped. Was she.. offended? Oh-
“I- I’m sorry that’s not what I-“
“I need to leave,” Hazel said, already on her way out the door.
Everyone else just stood with wide eyes, like extras on a reality tv show.
“Listen Annabeth-“
“No, Will, I think you’ve said enough,” she said, “I’ll check on you again when it’s not the concussion talking to me.” Then she left. Frank awkwardly followed, mouthing a quick ‘sorry’ to Will first. Percy stepped back to peek out the door, then gently shut it.
“Annabeth would kill me for this,” he said, “but I trust neither of you are gonna snitch.”
Magnus raised his eyebrows in curiosity and sat up a bit straighter, “go on.”
“I agree with you Will,” Percy sighed, “I’ll talk to Grover, he knows how to open Orpheus’ doors.”
Will leaned forward, “Really? You’ll help?”
“Yes, but not until you’re healthy,” Percy said, “you just need to be a little more patient, Will. If you accidentally kill yourself trying to get up or something there’s no saving him, okay?”
He supposed Percy was right, there was no saving him if he was dead. He sighed reluctantly, “okay.” I guess I have to wait then.
“Okay,” Percy repeated, then he left.
Will grumbled. Alone again. Well, except for Magnus. But he wasn’t much company. Most of the time he was barely paying attention, either staring off into space and listening to music or smiling and texting someone on his phone. It was better than him being annoying, so Will wasn’t too bothered by it.
“You got any cake left?” He asked.
“Huh?” Magnus said, looking up from his phone, “yeah, way too much. Want a slice?”
Will nodded. He probably hadn’t eaten in days. He dreaded looking in the mirror.
Magnus handed him a rather wonky slice of cake on a cheap paper plate. Will inspected its drippy homemade decoration.
“… it’s a pancake,” Magnus said.
“No it’s not.”
“No- like a pan cake. Pan… cake… do you not get the joke?”
Will examined the blue pink and yellow frosting threatening to droop off the cake entirely for a moment. “Oh!” He said, “pan cake. Good one.”
“It was Lavinia‘s idea but Alex was too encouraging so I had to do it,” Magnus explained, as though Will knew who those people were, which he didn’t. He just nodded and smiled.
The cake was stale- and probably not fully cooked- but Will needed some sort of sympathy food. He had tears streaming down his face, but he’d become numb to it in light of recent events. He sniffled. He could barely taste the cake anyway. His mouth was dry as though he had probably undergone some sort of surgery where they’d had to aid his breathing. Was it the old slash to his throat? Or his hand? Gods he had barely thought about his hand. It was awkward that he couldn’t hold up the plate of cake. Eating with your non dominant hand from a floppy plate on your lap wasn’t easy. He tried to push it out of his mind, he couldn’t freak out about it now.
“I’d do it too, yknow.”
Will glanced at Magnus confused
He cleared his throat, “I mean if- if I was in your situation… I’d do anything I could too.”
Will hummed and nodded, “you got a special someone huh?”
Magnus blushed, “Well it’s kinda-“
Will raised an eyebrow, “a girlfriend? A boyfriend?” Will chuckled, “a Courtney?”
Magnus tilted his head at the last one, “Eh close enough.”
“Wow, that bad?”
“I mean not really it’s just- so like she kissed me first but we were like about to die so I figured oh that was just an imminent doom kiss because she acted like it didn’t happen afterwards. Then I practically confessed my love for him in front of his evil mother so of course he avoided me for like a day after that and then kissed me again? And we’re like not actually dating but she acts like we are sometimes and it’s really confusing. I don’t know I mean technically we have eternity for him to decide but I really just can’t wait that long so it’s-“
“Okay okay,” Will interrupted him, “have you- hear me out- tried talking to them about it?”
Magnus sunk in his chair, “I can’t do that…”
“Why?”
“Cause I act stupid around her it’s embarrassing,” Magnus sighed, dragging a hand through his hair.
Will knew there was a time when that’s how he felt about Nico. When he was just a stupid kid with a stupid crush on the cool mysterious emo son of hades. The lonely kid who loved card games. The angry kid who grew up too fast. Will felt the tears return to his eyes, he stifled the threatening sob with another bite of Magnus’ horrible pan cake.
“Sorry,” Magnus said, noticing his change in demeanor, “it probably wasn’t a good idea to ask the bedbound widower on suicide watch for relationship advice…”
Will chuckled weakly, “no it’s okay. What’s their name?”
“Oh uh, Alex,” Magnus replied.
“Time gets away from you Magnus, tell Alex how you feel before it’s too late.”
***
After Annabeth was sure Will wasn’t too horribly unstable (which took quite a bit of convincing) he was allowed to be left alone. That wasn’t until two in the afternoon, apparently, nearly eighteen hours since Will had arrived in New Rome. It felt way longer than that to him. Hospitals had that effect, he’d noticed. They made time seem off somehow, like the clock stopped ticking, or rather, was ticking too fast like it was getting away from you. Sometimes he would clock into the infirmary at six am and not leave till midnight when a sibling would come yelling at him to get some sleep, but it always felt like he’d been there only around three hours.
When Will was finally freed from the clutches of Magnus Chase and his rambling on about his life story, he took a painkiller fueled power nap. Surprisingly, he didn’t have any dreams. Well- other than a song repeating over and over. He chalked it up to the medication. And honestly, he’d take whatever the hell that was over what his demigod brain could probably cook up after what he’d seen.
He awoke feeling gross- he was sweaty, his arm hurt, his hospital gown was half untied and his eyes were glued shut with the solid remnants of his tears. He sat up and rubbed his eyes then groggily peeled them open. Now what? Well, there were the bags on his bed. Maybe that would be worth a shot.
He dug through his bag and found the cell phone Leo had given him. Oh, he hadn’t contacted anyone. He doubted Annabeth would have thought to. Maybe she had iris measaged Chiron at most. So, he opened up the messaging app. It seemed as though Leo had already set it up, complete with a group chat titled “update the homies here please!” Thank the gods, cause Will didn’t know how to work anything newer than a Nokia. He opened up the chat and simply said:
Tartarus doesn’t have any service.
Honestly, Will enjoyed the way the phone immediately blew up, making various chiming sounds and rings at once. He pressed a button by the bed to call for food. He’d wait till it died down a bit.
When he’d received his cardboard mac and cheese and squishy broccoli thirty minutes later, he finally checked his texts. It was a bit chaotic. Mixes of Woot woot party party they’re back! - Leo, oh gods are you okay - Piper, I’m so sorry Will - Reyna, I’m on my way rn shawty - Rachel, and everything in between.
From what he could gather by scrolling through the messages, Hazel had iris messaged Reyna shortly after it had happened. Kayla and Austin had been told everything quietly by Chiron and they hadn’t left their cabin since. Leo, Piper, and Rachel weren’t told anything, but as soon as Rachel could distract her dad for a few minutes she would be on a private jet to California. Everyone else had school or camp or other obligations and couldn’t come. Except for Apollo, who would be there by sunrise.
Of course with all the explaining and resurfacing grief, another wave of screaming and sobbing hit him. Why’d this have to happen to him? Nico didn’t deserve this. What gods could have possibly let this go under the rug and where could he find them. Wouldn’t Hades have noticed?! If he cared that much about people going down to Tartarus, why hadn’t he tried to stop them! He was angry- at the gods, the fates, the universe. Hehad a bone to pick with whatever higher power that had set this into motion. His ribs ached, his throat was on fire. He doubted he’d have any sort of voice in a few hours, but he didn’t care. He was ready to fight whoever had let this happen.
Eventually a nurse came in and sedated him, and he fell again into deep sleep. But this time there were dreams. Nico stood in a black room, intricately decorated. It seemed like a throne room or a church, honestly, to Will it looked like an anti-Olympus. He’d been there once, and this room looked just like some of the buildings there. Just… darker.
At the front of the room on a raised platform there was a large black chair. It’s back faced Nico, but Will already knew who sat there.
“What the hell were you thinking..” a deep voice from behind the chair spoke.
Nico sighed and rolled his eyes, staying where he stood in the center of the throne room with his hands behind his back.
“You disrespect me. You disregard my wishes. And look where it got you-”
“Dead? Yeah I’d noticed,” Nico butted in sarcastically. The way Nico addressed gods as though he had a death wish always baffled Will.
“…Here’s your options: you stay here, live in my house, eat my food- honestly sounds agonizing to me. I can't stand you sometimes. Two- you go to Elysium, that is where you belong, where the council would have put you. While you disobeyed my orders and have been generally not delightful to be around, you were a hero and that’s that. I know you’re about to say some young and in love bullshit like, ‘it’s not really elysium without him!’” Nico scoffed, “but trust me if that’s not appealing to you I have nothing against putting my children in worse places, just ask your older brothers. And three- you could work for me. Sit on my council, run errands yada yada. It’s what you’d probably do anyway.”
“I’ll work for you,” Nico said, “for the time being. When Will gets here I’ll move to Elysium with him or stay here.”
Hades chuckled dryly, “you know, I’m a bit offended I wasn’t invited to the wedding…”
Nico’s eyes widened as he bit his lip and looked down. Oh- he hadn’t told hades?
“The boy is quite respectful, I appreciate that. For a son of Apollo he’s not too insufferable. You chose an all right one.” Hades’ chair spun around with a slight scrape of marble on marble. He wore a black and white striped suit with a blood red rose on the lapel. He looked nearly identical to how Will had seen him in his dream a while back. As he walked towards Nico, he held out his hand. Nico’s sword materialized out of the
shadows and he held it out to his son. “Now go,” was all he said before he turned and walked back to his chair.
***
Will awoke with a gasp. His eyes flew open. Once he realized he recognized his surroundings he calmed a bit. He sighed looking around a bit. Then, he met a pair of eyes on his right and screamed.
Well, less screamed than breathed really hard and then erupted in a coughing fit. “Hazel what the fuck?!” His voice was a hoarse whisper.
Hazel stood at his bedside with a vacant expression. She wore a loose black shirt and sweatpants, Will could see in her eyes that she hadn’t gotten any sleep. She threw a pair of flannel pant at him, “get up, come with me.”
“What?”
“I asked a nurse already, we’re going outside.” She offered him a hand. He grabbed it to steady himself as he stood.
He grabbed the pajama pants and tried to pull them on. It wasn’t exactly quick. “Why?” He asked.
”You’ll see.”
After a good five minutes of struggle, Will managed to get his pants up. He stood up straight and looked at Hazel expectantly.
She put her head in her hands. “Grab the IV William, you're literally a doctor.”
“Oh, right,” he said. He grabbed the little rolling pole the IV was attached to with his good hand and followed Hazel out of the room.
It was dark in the hallway, illuminated only by a few safety lights along the floor and the red exit signs above some doors. Will was already out of breath and struggling to walk, so Hazel took the hint and grabbed him a wheelchair. She pushed him the rest of the way to the elevator.
Hazel pushed him inside and pressed some buttons, then the doors slid closed.
Will suddenly found his chest getting tight. His heart started racing and he struggled even more to breathe. His vision blurred, he started hyperventilating. The elevator beeped as they descended. He whimpered.
“… Will? Are you okay?” Hazel asked.
He tried to speak, he really did, but the words couldn’t seem to come out.
Finally, the doors slid open and Hazel pushed him out into a brightly lit lobby. She knelt in front of him. “Will.”
“I’m good, I’m fine,” he said, gasping for breath.
Hazel raised an eyebrow, “How believable”
“Just- outside- please.”
She stood up and continued pushing him outside and through the cobblestone streets of New Rome. It was strangely hot for it being night, even in California. After a while, Will recovered his breath and felt his heart rate return to normal. He didn’t ask where they were going, or why Hazel had woken him up at two am to walk around New Rome. And honestly, he didn’t think any question he could ask would make anything make more sense.
Soon, Hazel stopped outside a coffee shop. “What food does Nico like that I can get at a coffee shop?”
“I think ,‘what food does Nico like?’ alone is a difficult enough question,” Will added, Hazel tilted her head as though to say ‘just answer the question.’ “Hot chocolate with vanilla and whipped cream,” Will sighed, “a brownie, warm, with peppermint if they have it.”
Hazel walked into the shop and returned within a few minutes with what Will had stated and two cups of straight black coffee. She put the drink carrier on Will’s lap and continued on.
The temperature dropped dramatically. Where five minutes ago Will had been very warm, he now longed for a sweater. After a while Will got tired of not receiving answers. When the terrain started getting more difficult and they seemed to be entering the woods he finally spoke up. “Uh where exactly are we going?”
Hazel stopped abruptly, “here.”
Before them was a small clearing and a neatly dug hole. It looked almost like a grave. With how angry Will had been making Hazel lately, he just hopes it wasn’t his.
Hazel grabbed the drink carrier and set it on the ground in front of the hole, then she helped Will up. She placed him a few feet away facing the hole. “Stand there,” She said. She knelt down, took a sip of her coffee and handed Will his. “You’re gonna have to be a bit patient, alright? I haven’t exactly done this by myself before.”
Before Will could even begin to ask Hazel put her arms out and the air stilled. A smokey mist crawled at the edge of the hole in the ground. Hazel chanted something Will couldn’t quite understand under her breath. The smoke danced around the edges like fingers clawing. Then, Hazel picked up the cup of hot chocolate and poured it into the ditch.
Will raised his eyebrows, “… that’s gotta be at least five dollars-“
“Shh!” Hazel said, then she began breaking off pieces of brownie and tossing them in the pit as well. When she was done, she spoke again. “Spirits,” she called, and the mist froze in place, “please spirits, accept the offering, speak to us.” Silence, “specifically Nico di Angelo please.” More silence.
She turned to Will as if to say ‘a little help?’
“Uhh Nico?” Will said
He materialized out of the mist. He wasn’t solid, not nearly, but he was there. Will had to force himself not to cry or fling himself at his boyfriend and fall into the pit. “Sorry I’m late,” Nico said, “I was playing chess with Sappho.”
Will chucked through the threatening tears.
Nico kept a straight face, “No I’m dead serious.”
“Yeah you’re also dead,” Hazel said, “why’d you… why?”
Nico sighed, “I’m so sorry Haze I- I didn’t plan on it. I just-“
Hazel put her head down, “You had to. Yeah. I get it.”
They sat in silence for a bit, before Will spoke, “I’m coming for you… coming to get you.”
Nico looked up at him and furrowed his eyebrows.
“I’m gonna bring you home Nico.”
Nico’s eyes widened in realization. He took a deep breath and shook his head, “no no no Will my father will literally blow a fuse and he’s already mad at me.”
“I don’t care. Hades can strike me down for all I care.”
“Will I’m waiting for you-“
“Yes! And I’m coming.”
Nico sighed, “that's not what I meant when I said that… Will when you die we can be in elysium together. For eternity. I’ll wait however long it takes for you to get old and kick the bucket I don’t mean come marching down here-“
“I don’t want to get old alone Neeks! I don’t- I don’t want to do this alone.”
“Do you think I want to sit here alone and work for my father for hopefully upwards of forty years?! As much fun as it is to sit around with Sappho and Freddie Mercury I’d prefer not to be here without you. But here I am! It’s not ideal but it’s what has to happen. If we ever want to live here together and be-“
“We won’t be living there Nico!” Will sighed, “think about it! Wouldn’t it be perfect to have a house in New Athens? To work at the camp? To start a hospital? We could have a proper wedding! Invite our parents! Not be so- y'know- so fast about everything. Nico we could have time! No more danger, no more quests, just- us.”
“You don’t really think it’s over do you?!” Nico scoffed, “you don’t think one of the gods isn’t gonna call on us to do some stupid chore? That no immortal is gonna show up on our porch begging for hospitality? Hell our siblings- kids even! What about them! You think this is it?! You think the quests just stop when you’re tired of them? Will there is no normal for us there could never be!”
“I’ll make one!” Will said. “I’ll make it normal. I want to give you that. Please- just come home with me…”
“… I’ll send some undead friends to look after you, to check in. Okay?” Nico said, Will looked away. “Make sure you don’t die or anything.. keep you updated.”
Will sniffled. He wobbled on his feet as he let go of his IV pole to wipe his tears. He reluctantly nodded. “I miss you so much Nico..”
“Me too love, me too.”
Hazel grabbed her coffee and smiled at Nico. She looked as though she wanted to hug her brother, but you can’t hug a ghost. Will knew that. When someone was gone that was it. They were gone. He just refused to let it be that way.
“I’ll think about it Will.”
“Hm?”
“Your offer,” Nico said, “I’ll think about it..”
“Okay.” Will smiled.
“I’m sorry but I have to go now. There’s a lot going on. I'm kind of dealing with a custody battle with a different pantheon right now. Socrates won’t shut the hell up and Shakespeare’s a major dick so I’ve got my hands full.”
“Okay brother,” Hazel sighed, “thank you.”
He smiled at her, he could do nothing more. He turned to Will, “I’ll see you again?”
Will wiped at his wet cheeks again, “Every night in my dreams.”