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The house was divided in half - one side was public space, for intermob meetings and raid debriefings, and the other was family space. Originally, this meant a private space for Hades to raise his children so that they wouldn’t be exposed to the incredible violence of the mob at too young of an age. Later, the dividing lines changed. Nico claimed the master suite on the third floor of the house leaving Hazel alone in practically her own separate house until she’d started sneaking Frank across the dividing line.
The first time Will had ever gone into the private side of the house was to deliver Hazel’s baby in the middle of the night - it had been too dark and he’d been too tired to appreciate how much nicer that side of the house was. It was cleaner, more decorated, and didn’t smell like it had been scrubbed down with bleach to get rid of blood stains.
The second time had also been the first time Will had been in Nico’s bedroom - which was bigger than the apartment Will had been living in before he’d been abducted to join the mob. Nearly every time after that, Will had been dragged from one side of the house to the other, usually by Nico, but a few times by Hazel as well - generally because of Sophia.
Sophia, of course being the baby that caused Will to feel sick to his stomach the first few times he saw her - delivering a baby could do that to a gay man. Whenever Hazel was a few hours short on sleep, she would find Will in a panic, thinking that Sophia had a fever or that she wasn’t eating enough or she was eating too much. Will would take her to the private living room and they would sit and talk until Hazel had calmed down, and sometimes she would take a nap while Will watched over Sophia.
It was there that Nico was usually able to find his doctor, watching something on TV on the rare occasion that he was alone, or spending time with the only family that Nico had - he would never admit it out loud, to Will or to Hazel, but he loved to see them getting along; they were the two people he cared about most, after all.
Nico went straight to the living room when he returned from his raid - a success, of course, as they almost always were - though he lingered in the doorway when he saw Will and Hazel sitting on the couch, Sophia asleep in Will’s arms. They were talking quietly to each other so as not to wake the baby, and they didn’t seem to notice that Nico had entered the room until he made his presence known.
“Will,” he said, and saw the blond’s attention snap toward him instantly. “Meet me upstairs. Five minutes.”
Will’s smile could’ve lit up the room; Sophia might have gone blind from the proximity had she been awake. He cocked his head to the side and said in that Southern drawl that Nico, again, would never admit that he loved so much, “Sure thing, Darlin’.”
Nico turned away before Will could see just how much effect that accent had on him, though he spun back to greet his sister before leaving the room.
Will sat up straighter, preparing to hand Sophia back to her mother, when Hazel said, “Hold on a second, Will. I want to talk to you about something.” As Will relaxed back into his seat, Hazel continued, “I have some...concerns.”
“Hazel, I promise you, Sophia’s in perfect health--”
“Not about Sophia,” she cut in. “I’m concerned about you.”
Will frowned. “Me? What are you talking about? I’m fine.”
Hazel took a deep breath, looking as though she was regretting bringing it up in the first place. “I don’t want to overstep, because it probably isn’t any of my business, but I don’t think I like the way Nico’s been treating you.”
He couldn’t have heard that right. Right? Will tried to laugh it off. “Hazel, you can’t be serious--”
“No, I’m completely serious, Will,” she said, raising her voice enough to be heard over him, but not enough to wake her daughter. “Your entire relationship with Nico has been incredibly abnormal, and I’m worried that you’re not thinking things through and handling yourself the way you should. He had you kidnapped, Will, there’s no way you just forgot about that.”
Will opened his mouth, ready to jump into an argument, but Nico was waiting for him upstairs and there was still a sleeping baby between them. He took a calming breath and said, “Nico’s waiting for me,” then handed Sophia back to her mother before he left the room.
Nico was on him as soon as Will stepped into the bedroom. His mouth connected to Will’s neck and his hands started tugging at Will’s clothes as he pressed him back against the closed door.
“You’re late,” Nico said against the corner of Will’s jaw.
“Hazel needed to talk about something,” Will explained, pulling at the back of Nico’s shirt until it came untucked from his slacks.
Nico held himself back, pausing their actions in undressing each other to meet Will’s eyes. “Anything important that I should know about?”
“Just, uh, baby stuff,” Will lied. “You know how she’s been.”
“Thank god,” Nico groaned. “I do not want to hear about anything important for the rest of the day. All I want is to clear my mind. You will help me with that, right, Sunshine?”
“Anything for you, Darlin’.”
Nico dragged him toward the bed.
A few hours later, Nico was asleep in bed and Will was just getting out of the shower. He dried off and threw on a pair of sweatpants before laying down behind Nico, sliding an arm around him and pressing kisses along his shoulder and up the side of his neck.
Nico groaned and rolled over, shoving his face into Will’s chest and pushing a leg between Will’s. “Why are you wearing pants?” he asked with another groan.
“Thought I’d take a shower and get dressed,” Will told him, his fingers weaving into Nico’s hair.
“Hmm, without me?” Nico pressed himself as close to Will as he could, licking a stripe up Will’s pec and sinking his teeth into the muscle. “You should take off your pants.”
Will rolled Nico onto his back and leaned over him, pinning his hands to the pillow on either side of his head. “You should have something to eat and drink. You’re probably running on fumes considering how fast you passed out after round three.”
Nico frowned up at him. “I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.” He wrapped his legs around Will’s waist, flipping their positions in an instant until he was the one on top. “But if you are so interested in making me eat something, then you should go to the kitchen and start cooking for me.”
“Maybe I will, but you know I’m just going to end up lighting something on fire,” Will told him, sitting up and forcing Nico to slide off of his stomach and onto his lap. “Maybe you should get dressed and meet me down there.”
Nico’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t take--”
“You don’t take orders from anybody, I know, it was simply a suggestion,” Will cut in. “But you’re going to have to come downstairs eventually to eat, and to plan the remodel on your kitchen once I burn it down accidentally.”
Nico rolled his eyes, climbing off of Will’s lap and onto the floor as he did so. “Do you think you can manage not to burn the house down long enough for me to shower?”
Will hopped onto his feet, wrapping an arm around Nico’s waist from behind and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “I’ll do my best, Darlin’.”
He stepped away, going to find a shirt to wear, but Nico stopped him with a sharp, “Will.” He spun back around, only to have Nico’s fingers dig into his chin and drag him down so that they were at eye-level. “One more thing: your voice is just for me.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Will said with a confused frown.
“Your--” Nico waved his free hand around as if doing so would fill in the words for him. “--accent. You changed your accent in front of Hazel this morning and it made me...flustered. You cannot speak like that in front of others. I will not allow it. That voice is just for me, in here, where we are alone.”
Will didn’t know what to say for a moment. Nico couldn’t just take his accent away from him, or demand that he use it at certain times. Will didn’t tell him that he couldn’t speak Italian in front of him - though he never would, because Will thought Nico sounded so hot when he spoke in Italian. Then again, Nico had made seemingly-unimportant demands like that to everyone else in the house plenty of times, and he certainly had power over Will to do so…
Will smirked, trying to push those confusion thoughts out of his head. “Sure thing, Darlin’,” he said, his Southern drawl cranked up to eleven. Nico’s grip loosened at the sound, so Will took the opportunity to step toward his dresser and pull out a t-shirt. “Glad to know I can make you so flustered so easily.”
“Will.”
He threw on a t-shirt and started making his way toward the door. “I’ll see you soon, Sweetheart. Try not to miss me too much.”
“Will.”
“And as much as I love to see you naked,” he continued, “you might think about putting some clothes on before meeting me in the kitchen. It’s your house and all, of course, but I like to think that that--” Will pointedly scanned his eyes up and down Nico’s body, “--is for these eyes only.” He opened the door, turning back to Nico to wink at him before closing it softly behind himself.
Will made his way downstairs to the kitchen, trying to understand what the hell he’d been thinking in there. He’d never been more thankful that he could flirt his way out of almost any situation, but what had been floating through his head before that? He could have gotten himself trapped in a bad situation. He’d never considered himself so powerless, so much of a lesser being than Nico, but then again, Nico had never made such a claim that he had a right to something of Will’s - especially not something so very Will’s as his voice. He probably wouldn’t have ever had a second thought about that situation if it hadn’t been for his conversation with Hazel that morning, either. He would need to talk to her, sooner rather than later.
Will fished his phone out of his pocket as he made his way to the kitchen, texting Hazel and asking her to meet him there. He threw himself onto one of the chairs at the table in the corner, tapping his foot on the floor rapidly and waiting anxiously for Hazel’s reply.
“Will?” Hazel’s voice came from the doorway, and Will launched himself out of his seat. “Woah, calm down. Take a seat, tell me what’s going on.”
Will dropped back into his seat and leaned his elbows on the table as Hazel sat down across from him. He started chewing on his thumb nail as his foot started tapping on the floor again. “What did you mean when you said that you were concerned for me? What exactly don’t you like about the way that Nico’s been treating me?”
Hazel sighed. “Will, I was overstepping earlier--”
“Please, Hazel.”
She paused for a moment before speaking. “First of all, on basic relationship standards, he’s simply a bad boyfriend. He’s been keeping your relationship a secret from almost everyone he knows, he doesn’t take you out on dates, he treats you more like property than your own person.”
Will buried his face in his hands with a whine. All of that was correct.
“And other than that, like I said earlier, he kidnapped you. He’s threatened to kill you, you told me that he slapped you across the face because you walked into the wrong room a couple months ago. He’s not a bad person, I know that, but good people can do bad things, and I think we both know that he does plenty of bad things. I don’t want to make him sound like some kind of monster because he isn’t, but I don’t want you to find yourself stuck in a situation you might regret eventually. I don’t want to say Stockholm Syndrome, but--”
“Oh God,” Will moaned. “That’s what’s happening, isn’t it?”
“I mean, you would know better than me, you’re the doctor here,” Hazel reminded him.
“No, I think you’re right.” Will pushed his chair back from the table and stood up, moving to pace around the room to get his thoughts flowing. “Except that if I had Stockholm Syndrome, then I would be arguing with you right now, instead of agreeing with you. Which means that I might be okay, or in a really early stage, or something.”
“Will, you’re shaking. Come here,” Hazel told him, rising out of her seat and pulling him into a hug. “You’re going to be just fine, and you know that I’m here if you need me. I don’t think Nico would ever intentionally hurt you, but I also don’t think he realizes what he might be doing.”
“Thanks, Hazel,” Will said softly, finally allowing himself to relax, though the sound of a door shutting somewhere else in the house caused him to tense up again. He pulled himself out of the hug, spinning around and frantically opening cupboards to find something to cook. “I was supposed to make dinner! He’s going to be here any second and see that I haven’t even started yet!”
“Relax, Will. You can’t let this get in your head!” Hazel walked around him and pulled a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter out of the pantry. “Get some plates and butter knives, and there’s a jar of jelly in the fridge. A PB&J is quick, easy, and there’s no risk of you burning the house down.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Hazel, thank you.”
They made a few sandwiches and were beginning to put away the ingredients when Nico entered the kitchen, dressed in his usual slacks and button down and waistcoat, though an unexpected addition to his outfit was the gun holster strapped onto his belt, resting at the small of his back.
Will tried to smile as he held out the plate with Nico’s sandwich on it, though his hands were still shaking and he knew his smile couldn’t have been convincing.
Nico raised an eyebrow at the sandwich before rolling his eyes. “I was expecting an actual meal. I need more than a child’s school lunch before leaving for a raid.” He stepped around Will, waving off the sandwich, and started pulling things out of the fridge instead.
“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know you were going on a raid,” Will said dejectedly. “I guess I’ll just throw these out, then.”
“Don’t waste the food, eat it yourself,” Nico said.
Will set the plate on the counter, saying, “I’m not hungry,” then turning and hurrying out of the room.
Hazel huffed. “That was rude, Nico.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he replied, lighting one of the burners on the stove and throwing ingredients into a pan.
“You asked him to make you food, he did, and you didn’t even thank him for it,” Hazel said.
“And?”
“That’s not how you treat your boyfriend, Nico!”
Her brother tensed. “Don’t call him that.”
Hazel stepped forward until she stood beside him. “Don’t call him what, your boyfriend? Is that not what he is to you? Because he certainly seems to think so, and maybe you should stop sleeping with him if he isn’t.”
“Mind your own business and let me cook in peace.”
“Fine.” She turned away, taking one of the sandwiches with her when she left.
Hazel found Will in the private living room, pacing back and forth between the couch and the coffee table.
“How are you feeling, Will?”
He scratched at his head, tugged at his hair, rubbed at his arms, and shook out his hands. “Itchy,” he said after a moment. “And jittery. Like I popped a few caffeine pills and ran through a patch of poison ivy.”
Hazel crossed the room and stopped in the way of his pacing. “Take a deep breath, have a seat, and eat this.”
“I can’t do that,” Will told her, shaking his head rapidly. “I can’t. I have to keep moving, I’m too jittery. What’s happening to me?”
“You’re having a panic attack, Will, just take a seat, please.” Hazel pushed the plate into his hands and carefully pushed at his shoulders until he was seated on the couch. He took a bite of the sandwich as tears started streaming down his cheeks.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Will said through a mouthful of PB&J.
“My brother is an asshole, that’s all it is,” Hazel told him, rubbing a hand across his back soothingly.
Will didn’t allow himself to relax until Nico left for the night, and went to bed to rest in case he was needed when everyone returned. He was just falling asleep when he heard the bedroom door open and shut, and then Nico was walking into the bathroom and turning on the shower. Will’s heart had started to race and so he tried to calm himself again before Nico returned to the room and Will had to start all over again.
Nico crawled into bed and pressed up against Will’s side, throwing a leg over Will’s and slipping a hand unde Will’s shirt to rest against his skin. “Will?” he whispered. “Are you awake?”
He pretended not to be, and so Nico sighed in disappointment. He leaned up and kissed the corner of WIll’s lips before setting his head down on Will’s shoulder.
Will wanted to react, though he wasn’t sure how. His heart was still racing like he wanted to run, but at the same time he wanted to wrap his arms around Nico and do anything he could to make Nico happy.
In the end, he didn’t move, lying awake until the early hours of the morning before he finally succumbed to sleep.
When he was woken up after too few hours of sleep, there was a weight across his hips and something warm and wet moving against his neck. Will’s eyes cracked open slowly and it took him a moment to recognize the sight in front of him. Nico was straddling his waist and pressing open-mouthed kisses up and down Will’s neck.
Will groaned and pushed at Nico’s chest. “Nico? What’re you doing?”
Nico pulled back and smiled down at Will. “Buongiorno, tesoro,” he said, and brought their lips together, one hand stroking Will’s cheek while the other slipped under his shirt.
Will made some muffled sound of argument and shoved at Nico until he sat up with a frown. He shook his head and said, “‘m tired.”
Nico pouted, disappointed. “Oh. Fine.” He slid off Will’s lap and got off the bed, crossing the room to grab clothes out of the closet before he went to the bathroom.
Will curled up on his side, tugging the blanket up to his ears and tried to fall back asleep. He couldn’t manage to.
For the rest of the day, Will hardly saw Nico. He walked into the kitchen to get himself breakfast, and caught Nico in the room, who turned and walked out as soon as he noticed Will. That was how things went for most of the day, and Will couldn’t help but feel more and more guilty about how he’d acted as the hours passed. It was his fault that Nico was upset, and Nico being upset was making Will upset, so there was a never-ending circle of regret.
At the same time, he couldn’t help but think, that’s how he wants you to feel.
So Will moped around for the entire day before he started making his way upstairs to go to bed. He hesitated in the hallway, unsure if Nico would even want him in his room for the night, when the door open and revealed Nico on the other side.
“Sorry,” Will said, though he wasn’t sure why he felt the need to apologize.
“Are you coming in here?” Nico asked. “I was about to come find you. I want to talk to you about something.”
“Oh,” Will said, feeling his heart starting to pound in his chest, like his fight-or-flight instincts were kicking in. “I was heading to bed, but...sure. We can...talk.”
Nico opened the door wider and gestured for Will to walk through, closing the door behind it and standing in front of it, blocking Will’s only exit. He took a seat on the edge of the bed and waited for Nico to start talking.
“Something is wrong,” Nico said, and didn’t elaborate.
“Okay…?” Will prompted. “Can I...fix it?”
“I don’t know,” Nico replied, crossing his arms. “You are what is wrong. You tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Will stammered. Was he about to be thrown out? What was he going to do then? He had nowhere else to go!
“You are acting different,” Nico told him, sounding like he was losing his patience. “Tell me why.”
Will ducked his head, focusing on his hands in his lap when he started talking. “I-- Okay. Well, I was talking to… someone, and they brought up the whole...Stockholm Syndrome... thing. It’s… I’ve had that stuck in my head since then, and I don’t know-- I don’t know. It’s like I can’t get my head straight anymore.”
“Stockholm Syndrome?” Nico spat at him, marching toward him. “You think you’re some kind of captive here? Do you think I would shoot you if you tried to leave me?”
“No! No, of course not,” Will said, flinching away. “I don’t… I don’t know what I think--”
“Let me tell you what I think,” Nico said, and pulled his gun from its holster, pointing it straight at Will’s chest.
“Wait, Nico-- I thought we were going to talk about this!” Will exclaimed, jumping up from the bed and diving to the side.
“You think I am some kind of crazy killer, right?” Nico demanded, following Will with the gun. “Leave now before I shoot you, then.”
Will scrambled for the door, running so fast that he left the door open behind himself as he tore down the hall and to the bottom of the stairs. He tried to catch his breath and get his head straight as he wandered in circles in the main living room, trying to think of someplace to go. His mother was too far away and he couldn’t risk endangering any of his friends in case Nico tried to send someone after him. His old apartment would belong to someone else by now, so he only had one safe option, and that was to hope he could figure something out. Unless he could find someplace inside the house to hide for the night.
He ran for Hazel’s room.
He did his best to explain the situation through his hysterics, and Hazel looked more and more furious as he went on.
“I’m so sorry, Will,” Hazel told him, drawing him in for a hug. “We’ll figure something out, I promise, we can--”
A knock sounded on the door and Nico called through, “Hazel, open the door.”
Will and Hazel shared a look of fear - one of simple worry and the other of sheer terror. “Hide in the closet,” she whispered, and followed Will to close the door silently behind him.
Hazel went toward the other door, opening it to let her brother inside. “Nico, what’s wrong? Why do you look so angry?”
Something hit the ground and shattered, and Will could only guess that Nico had swiped something off a shelf. Will flinched at the sound, curling up and hugging his knees where he sat on the ground.
“Someone convinced Will that I had him trapped here,” Nico shouted. “He told me he has Stockholm Syndrome, and I-- He--” He growled in frustration, and something else hit the floor - something dull this time, but that didn’t keep Will from reacting once again. “I am going to kill whoever it was that said this to him. They have ruined the best relationship I have ever been in, and I am going to ruin them!”
The... best relationship he’d ever been in? He couldn’t really mean that, could he? Not with the way he’d treated Will, the way he’d made him feel.
“It was me,” Hazel said calmly.
There was a beat of silence before Nico hissed, “What?”
“It was me, Nico,” Hazel repeated herself. “I said that to him. I wanted to make sure that he was really okay with living here and doing what he’s doing, that he wasn’t getting in over his head. I wanted to know that he wasn’t feeling used or manipulated by you. You treat him like one of your mobsters, Nico, you won’t even call him your boyfriend!”
He heard Nico gasp and then a sound that he’d never expected: Nico started crying. “You… You did this? How could you do this to me, Hazel? You of all people should know that I would not knowingly do that! I would never manipulate him! I-- I don’t like boyfriend because it’s childish, and he is so much more than that! I love him, Hazel! I am in love with him, and you scared him away! One time in my life that I manage to keep someone around who seems genuinely interested in me, and then you scare him off before I even have a chance! I made him leave, Hazel! I pointed a gun at Will and told him to leave. I have no idea where he might be, and now I might never see him again! All because of you!”
Will couldn’t catch his breath. He heard stomping footsteps, then a slamming door, and then silence.
Hazel came over and opened the closet door. “I’m so sorry, Will,” she said again, crouching down next to him. “Are you alright?”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” he whispered. “He… Sometimes he acts like he hates me, but he says that he loves me? Actually loves me? I don’t-- God, Hazel, what was I thinking?”
“Let me take you back to your old room,” Hazel offered. “Nobody’s using it right now, and Nico won’t look for you there. Frank has been scouting out tonight’s raid, so Nico should be leaving soon anyway. We can figure something out from there.”
Nico knew that he had been acting stupid and reckless during the raid, but thankfully the other guys had been even stupider. He should have been more aware of what he was doing, where bullets were flying, who was pointing knives at him, especially when there wasn’t going to be a doctor waiting for him back at home.
He and all his men were lucky to make it out alive and mostly unharmed aside from the occasional knicks and grazes, and all Nico wanted to do - the only thing he ever wanted to do after a raid - was crawl into bed with Will and sleep for the next twelve hours. He was in an even worse mood when he remembered that he could never do that again.
When he got home he went straight to his room, expecting an empty space and an empty bed, but he heard soft snores coming from within the room.
Nico pulled his gun and readied himself before he flipped the light switch. Immediately, he was overcome by so many different emotions - relief was one of the stronger ones, as well as anger. He saw Will asleep on the bed, still fully dressed and laying on top of the covers, his face smushed into Nico’s pillow.
Nico kept his gun trained on Will as he shouted out, “Hey!”
Will curled in on himself, eyes squeezing shut as he drew in a deep breath - something that Nico recognized as his way of waking up. Will sat up before he even opened his eyes, and when he noticed Nico, he looked more relaxed than Nico had seen him in days. “Nico? You… Blood-- You’re okay?” he asked, stumbling over his words sleepily, his Southern drawl prominent, which only made Nico feel even more conflicted.
Nico tightened his grip on his gun, though he knew deep down that he could never pull the trigger, even if he thought he wanted to. “I thought I told you to leave,” Nico said sternly, fighting to keep his voice level.
Will shook his head and rubbed at his eyes. “Couldn’t do it.”
“What do you mean, you couldn’t do it?” Nico demanded, raising his voice slightly. “I will make you leave, one way or another!”
“I couldn’t go because I didn’t want to leave you,” Will told him carefully. “I love you, Nico. I know that now. And I know you won’t shoot me, because you love me, too.”
Nico felt himself tense, surprised at Will’s words but not quite believing them. He didn’t lower the gun. “How did you get back inside the house?”
“I never left, I was hiding in Hazel’s closet when you came to talk to her,” Will said, moving toward the edge of the bed. “I heard everything you said. Did you not hear me say that I love you?”
Nico couldn’t stand to look at him any longer. Is this what Will had been feeling for the last few days? Is this what it felt like to be manipulated by someone you loved? Had the tables turned so quickly, and now Nico was the one being controlled?
“I will give you three seconds to leave, or I will shoot you,” Nico said, but he couldn’t stop his voice from shaking through it. What was happening to him?
Will stood, and for a second, Nico was afraid that he would actually leave again, that he would lose the only man he’d ever loved for the second time that day. He stepped forward until the gun was pressed against his chest, and when Nico didn’t fire, Will pushed it out of the way. Will leaned down and set his forehead against Nico’s, one hand coming up to rest on his cheek and the other wrapped around Nico’s gun-wielding hand.
“I love you, Nico,” Will whispered, staring down at Nico’s eyes which were squeezed shut, like that would keep him from hearing what Will had to say. “I’m so sorry it took me so long to realize how much I love you. If… If you still want me to leave, then I will. I’ll leave right now and never come back, but I would do anything for you to let me stay.”
“How do you know that I am not still manipulating you?” Nico asked.
“Because I know that you love me, and that you would never do anything to hurt me,” Will replied. “I trust you with my life. I want to be with you, no matter what. I love you.”
Finally, Nico’s eyes opened and he looked up at Will, seeing only truth and love in his eyes. “I love you, too,” Nico told him, and Will sighed in relief, visibly relaxing before Nico. “Please stay. Please don’t leave.”
“I won’t,” Will promised, and wrapped his arms around Nico, trying to ignore the way Nico’s bloody clothes stuck to his arms.
Nico tucked his face against Will’s shoulder, dropping his gun and winding his arms around Will’s waist. “I’m sorry I made you think I didn’t love you,” Nico said against Will’s neck. “I-- Can we… I just want to lay with you, can we… do that?”
“Of course,” Will said, pressing a kiss to the top of Nico’s head. “Could you maybe shower the blood off, first?”