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Will knew he’d fucked up when Nico disappeared.
Now, Will was not an inexperienced demigod when dealing with Nico di Angelo, so he knew exactly where to go.
“Jason!” Will’s call caused the son of Zeus to turn. The teen in question grinned, waving.
“Hey, Will. Where’s Nico?”
Will sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. We had a fight and he shadow travelled somewhere. I was hoping you would know where he went.”
Jason shook his head, frowning. “Sorry. What were you guys fighting about?”
“Something stupid. I asked him not to shadow travel for a week or two because he pushed himself really hard last night during capture the flag, but then he got super defensive. He told me to mind my own business and… why are you smiling?"
Jason smothered his stupid grin. “No reason. Go on.”
“And I told him to go to hell and then…" Will froze, shirt tail half-twisted. "Shit.”
“What?”
“Do you know where Percy is?”
“He disappeared into his cabin with Grover. Do you think Nico’s with Percy?” But Will was already sprinting across the lawn. Jason smiled at the son of Apollo’s figure, slowly disappearing into the distance. He let out a long breath. “Don’t be an idiot, di Angelo.”
Meanwhile, to say Percy was startled when Will threw open his cabin door was an understatement. Will, red-faced, messy hair, and panting from sprinting across camp, looked kind of scary.
“How do you get to hell?”
“Ugh, what?” Percy asked, frantically trying to salvage the piece of paper he had ejected some Elmer’s glue on. Grover hissed and took the glue bottle from Percy, which probably should have done in the first place.
“Hell. The Underworld. Directions. Please.” Will said, through gritted teeth.
“Why would you want to go to the Underworld?” Grover asked, sniffling. “It’s horrid down there.”
“Nico and I had a fight. He shadow traveled somewhere. I think he went there.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know how to get anywhere relating to Nico because I’m NOT HIS TYPE.” Percy muttered.
“How long are you going to be on that?” Grover moaned. “It’s been, like, a month, dude. Will, why don’t you just Iris message him?”
“He’ll just dissolve it. That’s what he always does.”
Grover looked torn. “Look…”
“The Doors of Orpheus are your best bet.” Percy spoke up. “I’m guessing you don’t want to fly to LA? The Doors of Orpheus are in Central Park. Bring an instrument.”
Will let out a long breath and turned to go. “Thank you, Percy.”
“Will?” The blonde froze, halfway through the door. Percy, face solemn and... wise for once, said, “Don’t fuck this up.”
“I won’t.”
It took Will exactly two hours to get to the right spot in central park, which was about two hours too long. Chiron surprisingly had been very supportive, giving his full permission to go after the son of Hades, but Will also had to call for a cab from Annabeth’s phone, then search for a perfectly normal rock in the middle of Central Park with Percy’s extremely vague directions.
Will sighed, flopping on the ground. He pulled out a ukulele, the smallest instrument he could steal from his siblings on short notice, and strummed a chord. It sounded terrible. Will winced, tuning and practicing at the same time. After another few minutes, Will strummed a chord that sounded okay. He set a beat and started to play some love song his siblings loved to play, and by extension, teach him.
A few loops of the song passed and Will was starting to doubt. Then, a loud noise startled him into stopping. He looked up, and sure enough, the rock had split. A dark and gaping hole had appeared, and Will bolted inside, signing a death wish from his siblings by dropping the ukulele on the ground.
Seeing the Underworld was never a good experience, though Will didn’t care about that. He needed to see Nico. He had to see Nico.
Hades had other ideas.
“Who are you? You’re alive, what are you doing here?”
“I need to see Nico.”
Hades hesitated, glancing behind him. “I-uhm, he’s not here.”
Will tried to peek around his throne, but Hades leaned in the way. “I really need to talk to him.”
“He’s, uhm…”
There was a slapping sound and a sigh, and Nico stepped around the god’s chair. “Father, you’re useless.”
“I take offense to that.”
“Good.” Nico huffed, not looking Will in the eyes.
“What the fuck, Nico? I tell you no more Underworld magic and you use your Underworld magic to away from me?”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I care about you, you fucking idiot!”
Nico flinched, and Will forced himself to calm down.
“I don’t know why.”
Will, clearly having enough of Nico’s shit, surged forward and kissed him. It was a sloppy kiss, with Will desperate and Nico startled. The blond pulled away, face hot. “Sorry.”
“Don’t say sorry. Do it again.”
Though surprised, he did. They kissed, not caring about anything else in the room. They didn’t notice when Hades left. When Jason and Percy’s faces appeared in an Iris message, Jason taking photo after photo, then disappearing.
When they pulled apart, Nico eyes were bright and he was actually smiling. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you to do that.”
“You definitely have a weird way of expressing that want.”
“Just kiss me again.”