Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For as long as he could remember, he was happy to sit in the wings, looking out at his mother on the brightly lit stage as she sang songs of heartbreak, songs of joy, and sometimes just songs of everyday life. Her band, her stage crew, they were all happy to keep an eye on him when they needed to. He was such a sweet kid, and he had the biggest, brightest smile. Those who’d been with Naomi the longest could remember when he was born. She never said much about who his father was, but she’d get kind of a look in her eye and a wistful smile. Then she’d laugh and joke about how she couldn’t be a real country singer if she didn’t have a little heartbreak and a little scandal in her life.

Her manager, Annie, who’d been her best friend in high school, was always happy to look after “little Willie,” as she called him, even when he decided at five that he only wanted to be called Will. Then there was Joey, their wiry stage and road manager with the faint traces of an Italian accent from his childhood. Little Willie would follow him around all day long, only taking his big blue eyes off of him when he’d chance upon a fallen bird or an alley cat with a torn paw.

Speaking of Joey, there was that time, a few months after Will’s sixth birthday that Joey fell off the stage while he was setting up for that night’s show. He landed on one foot, and it twisted under him. He winced at the pain as little Willie, his faithful shadow came running up. Joey looked at the tears running down the boy’s face and asked “What’s the matter, shadow?”

Will sniffled and said, “You’re hurt!” He put his hands on the man’s ankle. Damn, that kid always had the warmest hands. Then he looked up with those bright blue eyes. “It always makes me feel better when Mama sings. Can i sing you a song?”

Joey smiled at the boy. The kid had such a tender heart. “Sure thing, shadow.”

The boy began to sing. It was one of his Mama’s tunes. For a little kid, he didn’t have a bad voice. After a few minutes, Joey stood up, putting weight on the foot. It felt fine. Maybe he hadn’t hurt it as much as he’d thought. He ruffled Will’s blond curls and said, “Thanks. I think your singing really helped.” Everybody could see how the boy’s face lit up at that.

The following year, Will started school. He got on well with the other kids for the most part, but one day, during a game of tag, one of the girls fell and skinned her knee. She didn’t seem to mind too much, but as she got up, one of the older boys (he must’ve been in second grade) saw Will sniffle.

“What are you crying about, crybaby?”

“I’m not crying!” he called out (after blinking away a tear). “ I just sneezed or something.”

As the year went on, he learned to hide his face when one of the other kids got hurt, and after a while, people forgot about it, especially since he never cried when he got any playground scrapes and bruises himself. Mostly, they liked his smile. It was an easy smile to like.

He liked school, Will did, but he didn’t like that his Mama had to go off on tours without him while he stayed with his uncle or his grandparents. He got on well with his cousin, but he did miss his mama and the other adults he’d spent so much time with before. When he started first grade, he discovered that he wasn’t very good at reading, but other than that, he did well at school.

Except when he was distracted. “William Solace!” (he always cringed a little at that, Even on his birth certificate, it said “Will”) “Stop looking out the window. What is so interesting out there?” His second grade teacher was not prone to raising her voice, but there were limits.

“There’s a girl sitting in the tree. She was waving to me.”

“There is no-one sitting in the tree.”

“Yes, there is. She has green hair. I’ve never seen green hair.” Fortunately for him, the bell rang, putting an end to this discussion. Aside from the usual note to his mother along the lines of “William (she also cringed at that) is a good student, but he needs to focus more.”

By the time he was in second grade, Will had become quite adept at hiding the urge to cry every time one of the other children (or even stray animals) got hurt. He knew how some quickly some of the kids would turn on anyone who was a little “odd,” and he also knew that he didn’t always fit in, although he was never sure what was different about himself. Still, his normally cheerful demeanor got him out of most tight situations. People did tend to like him. He even befriended one of the janitors, an old guy named Herb. He liked Herb because, for some reason, he always smelled like fresh cut grass, although Will felt sorry for him, because he walked with kind of a limp.

In third grade, the trouble started. One of his classmates, a reckless boy named Kenny, fell out of a tree. He landed on his arm, and Will ran up to him, his own arm stinging with pain. Without thinking, he put his hand on Kenny’s arm and started to sing. It wasn’t a real song, just a few nonsense syllables, but somehow it made the ache in his own arm go away, although his hand felt really warm. Kenny’s face, which had been twisted with pain, relaxed and he stretched out onto the grass in a light doze.

Just then one of the bigger kids, someone Will didn’t remember seeing before, came up and said, “Hey, I saw what you did! I saw how you touched him.”

The first thing Will thought was, “Who was this guy? I never saw him before, and you’d think I’d remember somebody that ugly.” The second thing he thought was, “Are those fangs?”

The ugly kid was getting menacingly closer, but just then Herb came up swinging a broom and shouting, “Beat it!” Then he muttered something about there being bronze in his broom. Will didn’t quite catch the exact words, but the ugly kid took off.

“Kid,” said Herb, indicating Will. “If something like that happens again and I’m not around, give a whistle. You know how to whistle””

“No sir.” Will’s mother had raised him with manners.

“Lemme show you. Put your fingers in your mouth like this, press back on your tongue, and blow.”

Will tried it. The ear splitting shrill was extremely satisfying, even though it made Herb jump back and woke Kenny up from his nap. In the distance he could hear dogs howling.

Chapter Text

By the end of fourth grade, Will had figured a couple of things out. The first was that he loved science class. It just came easily to him, whether it was biology or chemistry, it just always seemed to make sense. Even his difficulty readling seemed to go away when it came to science books. The second thing was that he was good at peacemaking. Whenever it looked like a fight would break out, he’d just come in with his big smile and find a solution that both sides could live with. That was a good thing, because whenever things came to blows, it seemed like he could feel every punch, every slap, no matter how far away the victim was, and it only got worse as the year went on. The third thing…

“Mama,” he sighed. He wished he could spend more time with his mother, but she was on the road an awful lot. He knew how much her career meant to her, and when she wasn’t on tour, she lavished attention on him, so it was alright, but these times together were a precious treasure.

“What is it, punkin?” She could see through the cheery facade he presented, and she knew that this was a serious conversation. Her tone encouraged him to be forthright.

He didn’t beat around the bush. “I like boys.”

She took his hands in hers. Even now, they were so warm. “I just want to be sure I know what you mean. Are you gay?”

He nodded cautiously. He was used to hiding tears, but his eyes glistened just a little.

Naomi Solace pulled her son into a firm embrace, wrapping him in her own warmth. “Will, my boy, my angel. Don’t you ever worry about that.” She let go of him so that he could look into her face and see her smiling the same smile he so often wore. “I have to say, I’m not really surprised to hear you say that.” She didn’t enlighten him on that.

“I don’t want you ever to be ashamed of what you are,” she continued. “But for now, be careful who you tell. For me, you know that I know plenty of people who are gay, and I’m honored to know them, but some people are just ignorant.”

His own smile returned to mirror hers. He felt better knowing that his mama knew. Part of him wondered at what she’d said about not being surprised, but for now he was just happy to be with his mama. He wished he could just stay with her all the time. At least it was summer now, so he could go with her on her concert tours next month. Unfortunately…

It started when he was in the yard, just enjoying the sunlight. He was watching his neighbor, Kyle playing with a soccer ball. He saw the boy kick the ball into the street. Then the kid ran out to get it. He heard the car come roaring down the street going far too fast. The jerk (he knew a worse word, but his mama wouldn’t approve) didn’t even slow down as he knocked Kyle into the air. By the time he hit the pavement, the car was long gone, but that didn’t matter. Will thought he would black out from the pain. He knew that it wasn’t even his own pain, but it ripped through him so he had to do something.

Instinct took over. He ran up to Kyle lying in the street trying not to look at the blood coming out of the unconscious boy’s mouth. Will just put his hands on the boy, and unbidden, the syllables came out. At first he thought he was spouting nonsense, but this time, he seemed to understand a little more of the words he was singing. Something about sacred muses and Helicon (somehow he knew it was a mountain somewhere).

The next thing he knew, Will was lying in the street himself. He felt woozy, but he was being helped up. “C’mon, kid, get in the truck!” He knew that voice. It was Herb, the janitor. Will wondered what Herb was doing there, but the old guy sounded urgent, so he just went along as best he could. With Herb’s help, he climbed into the cab of the truck, and then Herb scrambled around to the driver’s side. He looked out the window to see Kyle get up as if nothing had happened to him and walk off just as three hulking teenagers came toward the truck.

“Oh, holy Pan, we gotta go!” said Herb as he started the truck up.

From outside, he could hear one of the teenagers call out, “We smell you, little half-blood. You smell delicious.” Will didn’t understand, but he was scared. He looked at them in shock. Maybe he was seeing things, but they looked enormous. As Herb pulled away, one of them pulled a stop sign clean out of the pavement and flung it at the back of the truck. The rear window cracked at the impact, but they drove off at top speed.

“Oh, sweet Lady of the Moon, Laestrygonians!” Herb cried out. “Sorry, kid, but I gotta take you there right now.”

“Wait, where are you taking me?” Will cried out in a panic. He tried to keep it together, but he whimpered like a five year old (not the mature ten year old he was). “I want my mama!”

“Kid, I’ve been talking to your mama for a while now. She knows this was coming.” Herb’s voice was strangely calming. “Listen, it’s gonna take us a couple of hours to get there, so I’ll explain on the way.”

Herb talked and talked. At first Will couldn’t believe it. He was a what? Herb was a what? Eventually they pulled into a rest area. Actually, they’d pulled into several rest areas, but each time Herb would roll down his window, sniff briefly, and then pull back onto the road quickly, rolling up his window. Finally they came to one that seemed to meet whatever test Herb’s nose was giving. Herb pointed him toward the restrooms and told him not to waste any time.

When Will came back to the truck (after washing his hands, of course), Herb was chatting with a girl. There wasn’t another vehicle in the parking lot, so Will wondered where she’d come from, and then realized that this girl had green hair. He thought back to that day that he’d gotten into trouble for looking out the schoolroom window. As their conversation ended, the girl giggled and ran into the trees. As she touched the trunk of one of them, she seemed to melt into the trunk. Will just stared in amazement until Herb gave him a gentle shove toward the truck.

After they got in, Herb reached down and undid the laces on his boots. Will’s eyes grew huge as he saw Herb pull goat hooves out of the boots. “Man, it feels good to get those off,” he sighed. Then he put the truck into gear and pulled back onto the highway.

“Oh my god...gods, I guess. You weren’t joking.” Will goggled, the truth of his new world sinking in.

“Every word of it is true, kid. Ash, back there, told me that we probably weren’t being trailed, but the more you know, the stronger your scent is, so we better not make any more stops.”

Will sniffed at himself at the word ‘scent.’ Herb laughed. “You humans and your sad little noses. Even you half-bloods. The only one who’d ever be able to do that would be from the Lady, and she’s not about to have any children.” He laughed, and it sounded a little like a bleat.

“So if my father is a god, which one is he?” Will asked, just a little plaintively.

“Well, kid, until he claims you, I’m not going to run the risk of offending any of them by making a guess and being wrong. The gods are great and wonderful, but they can be a little touchy.”

The sun was low on the horizon when they pulled onto a dirt road. They pulled up to some gnarled branches. Will wondered what was going on when his driver rolled down the window. Even Will’s ‘sad little human nose’ caught a delicious odor of strawberries. Then the older man/satyr called out “Herb Forrester arriving with a new half-blood.”

Will started back in fear as the largest branch resolved itself into an enormous scaly head that opened a reptilian eye and then gave a wink to them. The branches blocking the road resolved into the serpentine body, which slithered back, giving them free passage.

By now, nothing could surprise Will. Not even when an enormous horse with a human body and head growing from its shoulders trotted up and said, “How do you do Mr. Solace. My name is Chiron and I welcome you to Camp Half Blood.

=====

As a new camper, Will was put into the Hermes cabin. The head counsellor introduced himself as Travis. Will gave him his best smile. The smile Travis returned was less dazzling, but had a roguish charm to it. “You’ll be bunking with Markowitz. He’s new, but he was just claimed last night. Cecil,” he called out, “This is Will Solace. He’ll be your bunkmate. Show him around.”

Cecil Markowitz turned out to be a skinny kid, a little shorter than Will, but with a large hooked nose and the same upturned eyebrows that Travis had.

“Will Solace, huh? Claimed or unclaimed?”

Will wasn’t sure what that meant. “Unclaimed,” Travis replied. Then he turned to Will, “It means you haven’t been claimed by your godly parent yet.

Over those first few days, Will and Cecil became fast friends. Cecil was easy to like, but there was something more to him, a slight edge, that made Will feel like there was a connection on a deeper level. And he had the best sense of humor even when he was the target of his siblings’ many jokes.

It was only about a week later when Will had to leave the Hermes cabin. There was a game of Capture the Flag, and as usual, Ares and Hermes were on opposite teams. One of the Athena girls, Anna something or other was telling the younger Hermes campers (that is, Will and Cecil) that they were on supposed to watch one tree. While most of the Ares campers were hulking brutes with all the coordination of drunken bulls, a couple of the younger ones were still agile enough to scramble into the branches, which made them dangerous both as lookouts and as snipers. They refused to use bows and arrows like their Apollo teammates, but they could lob a mean pinecone.

“Now don’t forget, stick to your post. Athena is NOT going to lose to Apollo tonight.” Man, that Annabelle (or whatever) was bossy.

Cecil had a plan. He’d smeared a ring of grease around the trunk of the tree about 15 feet up, so anybody trying to climb it would slip down and be easy pickings for their slingshots.

Great plan, until one of them, a tough girl named something Larue flew past the blind where they’d hidden themselves (not being foolish enough to take one of the insane Ares campers on directly) and scrambled up, heading for the branch Cecil had booby-trapped. Of course, she lost her grip. She would have landed on her feet, but the spear she had slung over her shoulder snagged on the way down, so she hit the ground first with a terrible crunching sound.

Will clutched at his own arm in pain as he felt the girl’s arm snap under the impact. He leaped out into the open and grabbed her, his hands glowing brightly. Then he began to sing those strange syllables, and her arm straightened out.

“Let me go! I am fine, you maniac!”

“Clarisse, your arm is broken. You can’t keep going.”

“Her arm was broken.” Will didn’t recognize the voice. “And it appears we have a new brother. I”m Lee Fletcher.”

“I’m Will Solace, and what do you mean brother?” he stammered.

The older boy pointed to the air over Will’s head. He looked up to see a glowing ball of light, like a miniature sun.

“Hail Will Solace, son of Apollo,” Lee said in a grave voice.

“From the area around him, Will could hear other voices echoing, “Son of Apollo.”

“And newest member of the winning team.” A short boy raced past them, holding the Athena team’s flag.

“Michael Yew, I am going to pound you.” called Janet Bolyai, the head of the Athena cabin.

The next day, Will packed up his few belongings, excited to move into the Apollo cabin. His excitement dimmed when he saw that the smile on Cecil’s face was a little forced as he congratulated his friend on being claimed. Will pulled him into a hug.

“Cecil, even though we won’t be bunkmates anymore, you’re still my best friend.”

That brought a more genuine smile to the other boy’s face. On an impulse, Will leaned in close.

“Before I go, there’s something I want to tell you. I haven’t told anybody else, but since you’re my best friend, you should know first.”

“Okay, spill it, Solace.”

“Well,” Will took in a deep breath. “I’m gay.” Then he added, “I haven’t told anybody else. Except my mama, and she told me to be careful who I tell.”

Cecil nodded, still smiling. “That’s cool. Thanks for trusting me, but you should know that around here, I don’t think it’s that big a deal.”

Sure enough, it was only about two weeks later that his big brother Lee (he had a big brother, how cool was that?) pulled him aside and gave him the TALK. (He could hear the capital letters in Lee’s voice when he said the words.) Will liked that it was made clear that nobody cared that he was gay here. He still didn’t feel like announcing it to the whole camp at the bonfire, though.

Will definitely liked the Apollo cabin. True to the nature of their father, the kids in that cabin were a diverse and boisterous crowd. It seems that most of them only had some of their father’s talents, but between them all, they covered all the bases. There were archers, healers, poets, musicians (when those guys got going, it got loud fast), you name it. Will himself discovered that he was a fair shot with a bow and could carry a tune decently thanks to his upbringing (more than one of his siblings expressed a little awe when they discovered who his mother was), and, of course, there was his healing ability.

Then there was the whistling. HIs older brother, Michael, was coming back from a sword-fighting class and was whistling a tune that Will recognized as one his mother had covered on one of her albums. When he said he wished he could do that, his brother stared at him for a moment.

“You can’t whistle?” he asked looking a little amazed.

“Not like that. I can only do this.” Will demonstrated the shrill fingers-in-mouth whistle that Herb had taught him. Michael jumped back, clutching at his ears in pain. Several other campers turned at the sharp sound.

Michael laughed at him and took him by the arm. “Come with me, little brother.” (Ironic, since Will, although six years younger, was already taller than Michael.) “I am going to teach you how to weaponize that skill. A little work on the ultrasonics, and you’ll be able to knock birds out of the sky with that whistle of yours.”

It was Lee who introduced him to Percy Jackson. Percy was, of course, famous throughout the camp, as the one who’d recovered Zeus’s master bolt. There was also gossip about his part in retrieving the Golden Fleece, although technically that was Clarisse’s quest. The son of Poseidon certainly seemed like a nice guy.

As Will and Lee walked back to the cabin, Lee elbowed Will. “Quite the hottie, eh?”

Will was surprised. “How did you know I was gay?”

Lee gave him a look. “I assumed you were bi. Most of us Apollo kids are, just like dad.”

“I don’t really like girls like that,” Will said, almost apologetically.

“I’ll let you in on a secret, kid,” Lee said. Then he laughed. “It’s not really a secret, since most of the camp knows. I don’t like girls that way either. I’m gay, too.”

Will smiled at that. He really did look up to his brother, Lee. Then, thinking about something he’d mentioned, he asked, “So, you’ve met Apollo?”

“Not really. Never face to face. He’s not a hands-on parent. Actually, I’ve never even seen him. He’s left me messages and sent me a couple of dreams, though.”

Will actually did get to catch a glimpse of his father. It was not long after his talk with Lee when he was out with Cecil, doing what his friend called “Hermes stuff.” He suspected it was mostly avoiding doing real chores, but there was a bright light falling out of the sky, heading for the canoe lake. The two boys ran to see what it was.

Even at Camp Half Blood, a fiery turtle-top bus falling out of the sky was something that attracted a lot of attention. Will and Cecil were not the only ones to come running to the canoe lake. Michael and Lee were already there. Will heard them talking excitedly.

“Isn’t that dad’s chariot?” Lee said in a hushed tone.

“Do you think we’ll finally get to meet him?” Michael came back. Then both boys shook their heads, laughing ruefully.

All attention was on the vehicle now at the shore of the lake as the door opened. First out was Percy Jackson. Will thought he could see why Lee thought he was hot; he certainly did look the part of a hero with his green eyes and muscled arms, but somehow, Will didn’t find him that attractive. Then Thalia Grace came out. Normally, Will was a little afraid of her, but now she looked rather queasy. A crowd of girls, all dressed in silver hunting gear came out next. Finally, the god Apollo himself stepped out. At first, Will stared at him, as if trying to see a resemblance in his father, but his attention was completely drawn away by the last one to emerge from the bus.

It was a boy, not that much younger than Will and Cecil. He looked around excitedly, and they could hear him asking Percy question after question in an excited voice. Will was entranced; he couldn’t look away from the boy with his beautiful black hair and eyes such a rich dark brown.

This was not lost on Cecil, “Will, buddy, I think your gay is showing.” That earned him a gentle smack in the arm and a whine of “Shut up!”

In the following days, Will tried to get to know the new kid. He found out that the boy’s name was Nico, that his sister had just joined the Hunters of Artemis, and that he was easily excited and full of questions.

“Wow, are those real swords? Do gods come to visit all the time? Can I ride a flying horse?”

There were many questions about the quest, understandable since his sister was on it. There were also questions about Percy. Will supposed that this was because Percy was the first demigod Nico had met, not to mention that Percy had saved his life. Will sighed ruefully at that. He wished he could save somebody’s life and have them look up to him like that.

He didn’t have much chance to brood on that when he was called in to see Chiron and had his life turned upside down. He’d been doing a lot of training, both with his siblings and with the centaur, as he seemed to be rather gifted as a healer, although not really good at much else, but there seemed to be an undertone when Chiron asked him to come to his office at Will’s earliest convenience.

When he got there, Lee was already there. Chiron regarded Will somberly and then spoke. “I’ve been discussing your abilities with Mr. Fletcher here. You are an incredibly gifted healer. However, there is a problem. I think it would be easier if I demonstrated. Mr. Solace, would you be so good as to look out the window?”

Will didn’t understand, but turned his back on the other two and did as he was asked. Abruptly, he turned, rubbing his side. “Did you just stab Lee?” he asked incredulously.

“I did do that, with Mr. Fletcher’s consent, by the way, and not hard enough to break the skin. It confirmed my suspicion. You, young demigod, are powerfully empathic. It makes you an even better healer, but it also makes you very vulnerable. You see, monsters can sense when demigods use their powers. Most of those powers manifest at the will of their owners, but yours manifests whenever someone around you gets hurt. I’m afraid for your own safety that it would be best if you were to stay here year-round.”

Will felt like the earth beneath his feet had betrayed him. “But, mama…”

“I’ve already spoken with your mother about this. Would you like to talk to her now?”

Will only nodded.

Lee moved to the window and held a large prism to it. Chiron picked up a coin and threw it into the resulting spectrum cascading from it. “Goddess, accept my offering. Show me Naomi Solace.”

Will had heard of Iris messaging, but he’d never seen it. His mother appeared in the dazzling lights. Her face lit up when she saw him.

“Will, punkin!’

“Oh, mama, they said I had to stay here.”

“Oh, baby, I know. I’m so sorry, baby. You know I love you, but we have to keep you safe. Now listen to me, Will Solace. I will write to you every week, and you get them to teach you how to do this rainbow message thing, and we will talk as much as we can, and maybe sometime I can come visit you.”

“I’m so sorry, Ms Solace,” Chiron cut in, “but mortals cannot come into the camp. Someday, though, Will can come to visit. He may have to have an escort, but I promise you, it will happen as soon as it is safe for him.”

“See, punkin, we’ll see each other soon, and until then, I know they’ll take good care of my baby boy.” Naomi gave him another smile. “Now you promise to be good. I love you, Will.”

“I love you too, mama.” He smiled back at her.

Chiron waved his hand through the image to end the conversation. “Well, you seem to be taking this well.”

Will continued to smile as he replied, “I know I’m in good hands here.”

He walked out into the sunshine, still smiling. He made it as far as the woods and then collapsed against a tree and sobbed.

“Hey man, are you alright?” Will jumped at the sound of Cecil’s voice. He tried to pull himself together, but before he could, the other boy had wrapped in in a hug. That calmed him down a little, but it was still hard to talk.

Cecil released him and looked up into his face. “Wow, I’ve never seen you crying. You’re always so happy.”

Will rubbed his eyes on his sleeve and sniffled. “I just found out I can’t go home, like ever.” He started slowly, but as he continued the words tumbled out faster and faster. “Chiron said I can’t help feeling other people’s pain, and when I do it makes the monsters come, and what if it gets worse, and I’ll never see my mama again, and I’ll just feel the pain all the time…”

“Whoa, slow down, cowboy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before. In fact, I don’t know when the last time i didn’t see you smiling.”

Will sniffled again and wiped his eyes. “I’m usually pretty happy, But sometimes, it gets to be too much. Yanno, when I’m feeling someone else’s pain. But I don’t want them to worry, because that just makes it worse, so I try to cheer them up by looking happy. But then it gets too much.” He repeated himself. “When I was home, mama could make me feel better. But now I can’t go see her.”

He was winding himself up to start crying again, but Cecil intercepted him. “Listen, Will. I’m not your mother; I can’t take her place, but I’m your friend, your best friend. Promise me that when it gets to be too much, you’ll come to me. If nothing else, I can always cheer you up by pranking the Ares cabin.”

Will was starting to cheer up again. “Thanks, man, you’re the best. Let me get cleaned up. I don’t want anybody else to see me like this.”

“Not to worry. I’ll protect your Mr. Sunshine image.”

And so it was that Will’s healer training began in earnest. For the most part, he loved it. One of the best parts was the private lessons with Chiron. The old centaur was the best of teachers, knowing when to push and when to praise. Will found that working on the healing hymns actually improved his singing ability. Not that he could equal some of his musically gifted siblings or his amazing mother, but still.

Chapter Text

“You might be the best healer I’ve seen.” Will’s smile got even broader. He particularly enjoyed the praise from his brother, Lee. It was like basking in their father’s rays.

“Well, that’s the sunshine I like to see.” That was Cecil. They never discussed that day when his best friend had caught him sobbing against the tree. The fact was that the healing helped. He could still sense the other campers’ pains, even the emotional ones if they were bad enough (emotional pain did affect the body, after all), but being able to do something about that pain made it so much easier. Everybody noticed Will’s smile and regarded it as having healing properties of its own. Wearing that smile all the time became so easy and natural. Until one day…

“Incoming! It’s a bad one.” That was the cry from the border patrol. They kept watch for monsters on the perimeter, more for the incoming newcomers than for the safety of the camp itself, since the power of the Golden Fleece usually held. Today, it was a satyr and a young girl with three gryphons harrowing them. Both the satyr and the girl were in bad shape. Lee and Michael came running, bows to the ready. They fired at the beasts and two of them fell from the sky, dissolving into glittering dust as they dropped. The third, however, gave the girl a vicious swipe with its claws before rocketing away out of range even of Apollo’s two best archers.

The satyr rasped out, “Save Becca!” before he collapsed, his body disappearing to be replaced by a dogwood sapling. He’d given his life to bring the girl here.

Michael raced forward and grabbed the girl, hoisting her up, even though she was nearly as tall as he was. “Will, come quickly!” he called as he bore the girl into the camp, blood running from the gaping wound on her back.

Will came forward, his normally bronzed face pale as he sensed the poor girl’s condition. As a group of Athena campers bore her toward the infirmary on a stretcher, he held his hands over her body and began the healing chants. He worked over her for hours. He drew upon all of the skill he’d learned, all of the strength he had, but she never regained consciousness. He could feel her life ebb under his hands. As she died, the sigil of Hephaestus appeared over her head. At least she could have a proper shroud.

That night, his brother Michael came to him in the infirmary with a plate of food. “You missed dinner, man. We got worried.”

“I tried, and I tried, but I wasn’t good enough.” Will couldn’t hide the tears that rolled down his face.

Michael pulled him into a hug. “You were good, man. You were the best. You always are. Sometimes it happens, no matter how good we are or how hard we try.” Will appreciated the words. Michael was the best brother. It still didn’t help, though.

“I can’t go back to the cabin tonight. I don’t want anybody to see me, especially like this.”

“Don’t worry, man. I’ll tell them you fell asleep here.”

The next day they burned Becca’s shroud. Even though nobody knew her, everybody came, heads bowed. They all knew how dangerous and fragile a demigod’s life was. Will saw the new boy, Nico, and just like before, he couldn’t take his eyes off him. The black hair, the deep brown eyes, they were mesmerizing. And somehow, the funeral rites seemed to fascinate the new boy. Will wanted to say something to him, but he couldn’t work up the nerve. Maybe a funeral wasn’t the time. Over the next days, he didn’t have time for anything. Determined never to repeat what had happened, he threw himself into the healing lessons with Chiron. He even neglected archery and music lessons (other than the sessions devoted to the hymns to his father).

Cecil came up to him at breakfast.

“That new kid, Nico. He’s gone.”

“What?!” Will had missed his chance. “Where? When?” Unspoken was “Will he be coming back?”

“I wanted to tell you sooner, but after that poor girl died in the infirmary, I knew you weren’t doing too well. The poor kid had been having nightmares. Then, last night Jackson came back from his quest. Apparently it didn’t go well, even though they managed to rescue Annabeth. I heard shouting, so I came over (snuck over more likely, thought Will) and I heard Nico screaming at him, saying that he was trying to kill him. Why would Jackson try to kill him? At any rate, I heard this horrible noise like something was ripping apart, then I heard a crash. By the time I got here, the kid was yelling that he wished Jackson was dead. Then he ran off. I saw this (he pointed at the scar on the ground) and I figured I didn’t want to be caught here. This morning, there were all kinds of crazy rumors flying around. I don’t know what to believe. I figured I’d better be the one to tell you.”

Knowing he should eat something, Will picked up two apples, put one into his pocket and threw the other one into the fire for his father. He put a smile on his face that he knew Cecil could tell was false, but he hoped would fool everyone else. He felt like his insides had turned to ash.

=====

The spring came and then the summer. At the beginning of July, Will’s old friend, the satyr Herb showed up with two kids in tow. One was a boy with neat cornrows, the other was a girl who had green highlights in her red hair and had a quiver of arrows on her back and a bow slung over her shoulder. As he brought the two to the Big House to meet Chiron, he said to the girl, “Nice shooting there, Kayla. You saved all of our hides.” Then he turned to Will and said, “Hey kid! I’m not a betting satyr, but i”d put money on you having at least one new cabin mate, if not both of them.”

Sure enough, Apollo’s sigil appeared over the girl’s head (Kayla, that was her name) as she stepped out of the Big House after seeing the orientation video. The boy, who was introduced as Austin, wasn’t claimed until the bonfire that night. The camp was singing that ridiculous song about grandma’s armor, and Austin didn’t join in the singing, but by the second verse had produced a saxophone, and was improvising the most amazing obligato. Figures, thought Will. Dad doesn’t want to claim anybody until they’re in the middle of showing off his attributes.

Will didn’t have any trouble making friends with his new siblings. Austin was a total flirt. True to his Apollo parentage, he didn’t discriminate. He’d flirt with the boys, he’d flirt with the girls. He’d flirt with the satyrs, he’d flirt with the nymphs. Fortunately, he had the sense not to flirt with Mr. D.

Kayla was a little more reserved at first. She looked at him like she was studying him. Then, on her second day in the cabin, she said, “Your name is Solace. Are you related to Naomi Solace?”

Will answered, “That’s my mama.”

Kayla whistled. “Wow! My dad is a huge fan of her.”

This confused Will. “Well, I guess so, since he dated her long enough for…” and gestured at himself.

She laughed. “No, silly, I mean my mortal dad. You know that our father, I mean Apollo, likes boys and girls, both. I figured you knew that, since you’re gay.”

Will stepped back in surprise. “How did you know that?”

“I was raised by two gay men; I’ve got pretty good gaydar. My step-dad, by the way, is also a big fan of your mother.”

“I’ll try to get them tickets to one of her concerts.” This connection to his mother made him feel a slightly melancholy pride.

=====

At the end of the summer, most of the Apollo campers went home. The old head counsellor, Christine Marlow, was stepping down, as she was heading off to college. Lee was taking her place, unsurprisingly, as he’d been doing most of the work already. Marlow had preferred to delegate and spent most of her time writing poetry. In addition to Lee and Will, only Michael and the two new kids, Kayla and Austin, were staying.

Will knew that Lee stayed because his mother had died two years before, and he’d asked Chiron if he could stay rather than have what had happened to Michael. When the shorter boy’s mother had died, he’d been put into foster homes, all three of which ended up being fronts for monsters looking for demigods to eat. Kayla just said it was easier for her to stay, since she seemed to be a monster magnet and didn’t want to endanger her two dads. Will didn’t know what Austin’s story was, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the kid had just gotten into trouble enough times that his mortal family wanted him out of the picture. Will had quickly become fond of his younger half-brother, but the kid was a player.

Austin Lake was charming and handsome, a true son of Apollo, but he spent all of his time either on his music or making passes at most of the other campers. One time Will saw him coming back from the Aphrodite cabin with two black eyes (which Will cleared up easily enough).

“So I saw that new girl, Drew. Oh, brother of mine, she is so hot, I bet she could turn even you, just kidding. So, I told her that she had no idea how muscular a sax player’s lips are, and when I leaned in to demonstrate, she gave me this.” He indicated his right eye. Will gestured at the left one to encourage him to continue. “So, Silena, you know how sweet she is, started to apologize. Well, I told her that a kiss would make it all better, but Beckendorf saw me make my move, and he grabbed me.”

Will broke in. “Beckendorf saw you put a move on Silena, and all you got was a black eye? You’re lucky he didn’t snap you like a twig.”

“No, no, Beckendorf didn’t hit me. When he grabbed me, I kind of felt his biceps, oh, Will, my bro, those biceps are a work of art, and I kind of tried to show him how a musician kisses, and that’s when Silena clocked me.”

Austin also provoked something that Will really liked. After Lee, getting wind of the black eye incident, banned Austin from going anywhere near any of Aphrodite’s children for a month, the boy decided to turn his attentions to the Ares campers.

“Mm, mm, I do like a boy (or a girl) in uniform.”

Unfortunately, the object of his attention was new to the camp and not comfortable with certain aspects of demigod culture. Will just happened to be passing the Ares table when the kid made his displeasure known to his head counsellor.

“So that fag from the Apollo cabin tried to make a pass at me. Disgusting. I say we take ‘em all out.”

CRACK! The sound of Clarisse slapping the table in anger caught everyone’s attention. She stood up, and her already ruddy complexion looked like a flaming tomato. She grabbed the boy by the collar and pulled him up out of his chair by one hand, the other gesturing angrily.

“You listen, and you listen good. In fact, all of you listen.” That wasn’t an issue. That girl had no indoor voice. “This is the way it is from now on! Every gay in this camp is under my personal protection. I will personally pound anyone who hassles my gays. You got that?”

The poor camper in her grasp nodded feebly. The rest of the camp burst into cheers.

=====

It was on the first of September that Chiron made the announcement.

“Mr. D. will be away from camp for a while.” (Whispers of ‘the wine dude’s gone’ flew around, even though no-one seemed to remember who’d given the god that nickname.) “Assisting me in his place, may I present Quintus. Quintus is an alumnus and will be our new sword instructor. Given the current crisis, it is imperative that we keep up our training.”

As they left the dining pavilion, Austin muttered, “So he’s gone? Good, I never liked that guy.”

Will looked at him in shock. “Dude, be careful. That’s a god you’re talking about.”

Austin looked serious for a moment. Will had not seen him look so serious, except when he was playing music. “Look, don’t tell anybody, but…”

“I swear it on the River Styx…”

Austin relaxed, but kept his voice low. “My mom is an alcoholic. That’s why I can’t go home.”

Will was silent for a moment. Then he put his arm around his brother and pulled him close. Austin returned the embrace. Then he went on.

“She’s got it mostly under control. But when, you know, the god stuff happens, it triggers her. And I can’t be around her when I know I’m making it worse… I really miss her, but I can’t go see her. It was hard enough getting here from Ohio the first time.”

“Have you tried IMing her?” Will had done that a couple of times with his mother.

“I did once, but I could see that even that was making her want to start drinking. If only I could get to a computer, we could skype.”

Will had an idea. He’d become friends with Jake Mason, a son of Hephaestus who, as a result of being somewhat accident-prone, had spent a fair amount of time in the infirmary. Jake told him that his sister, Nyssa, was working on something in conjunction with Malcolm from the Athena cabin, but that Austin had better keep his hands to himself around Nyssa if he wanted to keep his all fingers. Apparently, the son of Apollo was getting a reputation around the camp.

Shortly after that, Percy Jackson turned up in camp again. That turned Will’s thoughts to Nico. He wondered if the boy was alright. He thought again about the jagged scar at the entrance to the dining pavilion. Most of the campers didn’t know where it had come from and tended to ignore it, but he remembered what Cecil had said. He sent up a prayer to his father, but didn’t have much more time to think about it. His studies with Chiron in the healing arts got more and more demanding.

In fact, his medical studies kept him so busy that he hardly had time for combat training. At first, Will was not happy about this. Among those staying year round, Lee and Michael were excellent archers, although Kayla in spite of her youth, frequently surpassed them. Austin, on the other hand, excelled at throwing knives, and, surprisingly for an Apollo kid, was quite good with the sword. He said that he’d done some fairly intense dance training to hone his rhythm and overall body awareness. He also enjoyed working with the new sword master, Quintus.

Quintus. Everyone seemed to like him, but Will was never comfortable around him. There was just something that “made his healer senses tingle.” Still, Will did like his dog. (Will liked all kinds of animals) Anybody who could house train a Hellhound couldn’t be all bad, right? At any rate, he was not comfortable around weapons, and when he nicked Cecil in the arm during dagger practice, his own arm stung for the rest of the afternoon, so combat wasn’t really his strong suit. He did, however, practice his whistle, and discovered that he’d developed the ability to push it into the ultrasonic range, with stunning (literally) effects.

Well, between his own trainings and the spate of injuries from the new sword master’s insane “games,” Will hardly had any time to spend with Cecil. He was glad that his friend seemed to be fairly busy himself. Some of it was that he’d hit the age where he started to flirt with girls. (Note to self, thought Will, do not let Austin start giving Cecil ‘pointers.’ The girls at camp would probably do damage to both of them that Will wouldn’t be able to fix.) Cecil seemed to be spending a fair amount of time with Nyssa. Will smiled at that. If Cecil tried to put a move on her, he’d quickly discover that she was a competitor, not a target.

Well, Will had enough to worry about without Cecil. He’d been given a new patient, Chris Rodriguez. He was the boy Clarisse had rescued from the Labyrinth. He didn’t have a lot of physical damage, but Chiron thought that Will would do well to learn about healing mental injuries as well. He was glad of the challenge, and he noticed that Clarisse was spending a lot of time looking in on his newest patient. Will and Clarisse had gotten on well since that day he’d disrupted the game of Capture the Flag to heal her broken arm. When he got down on himself about his lack of martial skills and unwillingness to fight, she’d told him that there was more than one kind of courage and that warriors needed brave medics so that they could do their job properly.

One day when she was looking in on poor Chris, she’d said something. “Gods, Solace, even your smile is therapeutic!”

She’d meant it as a compliment, but Will’s brother, Michael, had heard it. He’d run with the remark, so that every day, Will had to hear a reference to ‘the Solace therapeutic smile.” Will loved his older brother, but it had taken a while for him to get used to Michael’s short temper and constant snark. In other words, Michael was the perfect asshole older brother that everyone needs.

Chapter Text

After Percy’s ‘miraculous’ return from the dead (have to admire the guy’s timing, showing up just as they were about to burn his shroud), Will’s workload seemed to triple. As the dangers from Luke’s forces became more clear, more of the part-time campers were coming back both for the safety of Camp Half Blood and to aid in its defense. Those coming from back the Pacific Northwest did require some extra care, courtesy of Percy’s destruction of Mount St. Helens. (Will was not oblivious to the son of Poseidon’s charms, both personal and physical, but he may have picked up a hint of his friend Clarisse’s dislike of the boy, at least a dislike for his collateral damage.) He scanned each new group of arrivals, hoping to see one face in particular and not being quite ready to admit to himself why he did so.

To accommodate his increased workload, Will adopted a dress style more suited to his own needs and tastes. In spite of regulations, he took to wearing flip flops while on duty. (“My boys” (he’d wriggle his toes) “need to breathe.”) He also wore shorts at all times, even when most of his cabin mates complained about being cold. He knew that the girls from the Aphrodite cabin were checking out his legs admiringly. (Not for you, ladies, he thought.)

The battle was coming. Everyone could feel it. As tension mounted around the camp, more than a few campers thanked Will for the “therapeutic smile,” claiming that it kept the morale up. He was the “ray of sunshine,” and, truth to tell, he basked in the compliments. He wore that smile like armor, and if it helped his friends, he’d burnish it every day. Since his archery was still fairly sucky, it was good to have something to contribute, like the less martial Hermes and Hephaestus campers laying booby traps around the entrance to the Labyrinth or the Demeter campers collaborating with the wood nymphs to encourage the growth of yew trees to keep the archers supplied.

=====

The Titan army erupted from the Labyrinth. Will, of course, led the medics, who were kept away from the fighting, but every so often he’d be able to catch a glimpse of some of the action. He held his smile steadfast, reassuring each patient and doing his best to heal every one of them. He looked over toward the fighting and saw something that made his smile broaden even more. Nico di Angelo was back! In his time away, he’d matured; there was no childish softness to him. He was lean and gorgeous. He had a black sword that he wielded like an artist.

“Holy Fibonacci!” That was Malcolm Pace from Athena. “That’s Stygian iron. That means he’s...”

Will didn’t need to hear the rest. He knew what that meant. Only children of the Underworld could wield Stygian iron. Nico’s father must be Hades himself. Will didn’t care. He couldn’t look away. He wanted to memorize this boy’s every move. It was poetry. He’d take out one opponent and then move onto the next, pausing only to look over at Percy. He kept looking at Percy. Again, Will didn’t care. This was Nico. He was beautiful. He was magnificent. He was…

Will’s world exploded into an agony that drowned out the background pains from the fighting around him. He heard Michael and Austin calling for him. He ran toward them and saw...It was Lee lying on the ground, blood oozing from his broken body. He put his hands out, willing every bit of his healing into them. He called out to their father, imploring his aid, but as he bent down to reach his brother, he knew that it was too late. For once, he didn’t care who saw him crying. As he collapsed onto Lee’s body, he could feel his two other brothers wrap their arms around him, and he could feel them sobbing as well.

That night, the Apollo cabin was a somber place. Work had already begun on Lee’s shroud, and Austin was playing something on a guitar. Will didn’t recognize it, but it was the saddest tune he’d ever heard. Will went out of the cabin and began walking aimlessly, thinking he’d head over to the infirmary. He could clear his head there.

On his way there, he heard voices. One was Percy. The other was Nico, his voice deeper than it had been when Will had last heard it, and so much more musical now. He didn’t want to eavesdrop or intrude, so he kept back, but he couldn’t look away. He couldn’t really make out what they were saying, but as he watched, taking in their body language, he realized three things about Nico di Angelo.

The first was that Will was totally smitten with him. The second was that Nico was attracted to boys, but the way that Will knew that was the third and worst thing. Nico was obviously in love with Percy Jackson.

Will slipped back to the infirmary. It would be a while before he’d be able to put on that “therapeutic Solace smile” easily. He made his way to the office. When he put the light on, Cecil was seated at the desk. The son of Hermes looked like he was prepared for a siege. He’d brought snacks and a deck of cards and gods knew what else he had hidden in his pockets. Will had thought he’d wanted to be alone in his tumultuous thoughts, but once again his best friend knew what he needed.

“Talk to me, Will.” He looked concerned, knowing what had happened to Lee, but what Will said next took him completely by surprise.

“Cec, I think I’m in love with Nico di Angelo.”

“What?!?”

“Oh, Cecil, did you see him in the battle? He looked amazing.”

“He looked terrifying! I mean, he knows how to swing a sword, but, oh wait, you’d left. You didn’t see him pull zombies out of the ground to fight with him. I’ve never seen anything scarier, and I’ve seen Mr. D in shorts. Oh, and then after the battle, when he collapsed, all the grass around him turned black and died.”

Will got a panicked look. “He collapsed? I should have been there. I could have…”

“It’s fine, sunshine. Jackson fed him some nectar. Besides, you were plenty busy yourself, saving lives like you always do.”

Will’s face fell at that. He thought about the ones he’d lost. “I tried to save them.” He thought about Castor, Mr. D’s son. He’d become friendly with Castor, whose campy sense of humor had made Will laugh so hard when they’d pick strawberries and talk about the hot guys at camp. Then there was Tegan, the smallest and fiercest daughter of Ares, whose impressions of Drew’s model walk were spot on. He’d raced to their sides and then felt them die as he struggled to heal them. He began to sniffle. “I tried to save them all, but I couldn’t.”

Cecil knew what was about to happen. He’d seen how the other boy had held it together for the funeral services, but just barely. This was why he’d come to look for his friend. He reached for Will. Sure enough, the taller boy collapsed on him and sobbed. “Oh, gods, Lee! Lee is dead!”

When the worst of the sobbing subsided, Will asked in a hoarse whisper about Nico. Cecil couldn’t say, but gave his friend a gentle shove, chided him, and began to deal out cards. He figured Will could use the distraction, and they settled down with the cards and junk food. Will refused to play for money, being no fool, but when the game seemed to be favoring the son of Apollo, his opponent opted for a diversionary tactic.

“Will, buddy, I hate to shatter your dream, but I think di Angelo plays for the other team. Word is he’s got a thing for Chase. I can see it; she’s pretty scary too.”

Will thought about what he’d seen earlier and decided to keep it to himself. It was not his secret to spill, and what if he had misread things? It wasn’t like he didn’t have a stake in this.

=====

Having Michael as head of the Apollo cabin was different. Where Lee was diplomatic, Michael was more aggressive, especially in his dealings with the other cabins. Lee had been more easy going, but Michael had a smart mouth and a temper. He never used either on his own siblings, but it could make things difficult, especially with the Ares cabin. One day, Michael pulled Will aside.

“Listen, little bro.” That nickname always made Will grin, as he was over a foot taller than his older brother. “When Lee ran things, (they both sighed at the name) he was always laid back, because he knew I could play enforcer. Well, I can’t be like that, yanno, so I need you to play peacemaker, especially with Larue.”

It was true. Where Will (and Lee before him) were the gentle, warming side of their father, like a day at the beach, Michael reminded Will of that side of Apollo that could shoot down seven of Niobe’s sons just for talking smack about his mother. And the fact was, Will and Clarisse had that bond, first over his fixing her arm, and then over his treating Chris, even though he hadn’t been able to do much for him.

Also, there was what she’d said at lunch that day. When Will tried to thank her for that, she said, “First of all, I stand by what I say. We’re Ares cabin; we fight, but we fight for what’s right! But, you know, I’m happy to count you as one of my gays.” She stressed the word ‘my,’ and Will flushed slightly with pride. “Your head counsellor is a dick, and your best friend is a scrawny punk (she meant poor Cecil), but you, Solace are a good guy, and I’m proud to know you.”

She pulled him into a brusque hug. Damn! It was like being grabbed by a brick wall, but he appreciated the sentiment. “Listen, Solace, you’re a good looking dude; if there’s anybody you like in my cabin, I’d be happy to fix you up. I could recommend some of the guys…”

Will smiled gratefully but shook his head. It may be a lost cause, but he was holding out for someone.

=====

Even with the coming war, there was always time for gossip.

As he rolled up the gauze, Austin shook his head. “Dude, you are so barking up the wrong tree. I have the best ‘dar, and I swear he is straighter than straight.”

Kayla snorted. “If your ‘dar is so good, why did you try to hit on Nyssa?”

Austin laughed. “Nobody’s perfect. Besides, I was just trying to show my gratitude for her helping me set up my YouTube feed. Either way, I still stand by what I said about Di Angelo.”

“You’re right about that, bro,” Kayla responded. “Will, I love you but I gotta warn you. He may go for blondes, but your eye color needs to be grey, and your gender needs to be…” she thrust her hips out as if to flaunt her femininity.

Will just smiled at them. He might be wrong, but he held onto his hope.

=====

That stupid raid in Philadelphia! As usual, Will had stayed behind at camp to patch up the wounded as they returned, but this time he wished he’d come along. His peacemaking abilities could have prevented this, but it was too late now. Michael had claimed the prize of the raid, that flying chariot, for Apollo, and Clarisse was furious. She’d said that Ares had the right to take the chariot. If Will had been there, he could’ve negotiated an agreement to share it, but Michael, true to form, had just argued, and now it had escalated to the point where the Ares cabin was threatening to sit out the upcoming war. It didn’t take Apollo’s gift of prophecy to know that this was a disaster, but instead of trying to patch things up, now both cabins were cursing each other with rhyming couplets and failing weapons. Gods! Will wished he could summon up skeletons to beat some sense into his fellow campers. Where had that thought come from? (As if he didn’t know.)

Chapter Text

The war had begun. Percy was leading the troops. Now Will could see why so many of his fellow campers were so taken with the son of Poseidon. This normally goofy kid had a charisma to him. There was a new glow to him, an invincibility. The best archers of his cabin were taking the lead. Of course Michael and Kayla were at the front, with Austin close behind. He and Will had been spending long hours making arrows, Will’s surgeon-skilled hands carving the wood straight and true, and Austin’s musical gifts invoking the favor of their father to make the special arrows, the explosive arrows to take down the hordes of monsters, the sonic arrows to blast the troops, and the fart arrows to incapacitate but not kill those demigods who had been led astray by Luke’s lies and false promises.

They’d been up to Olympus itself, and now they were defending Manhattan. At the Williamsburg bridge, it was just his cabin, Jackson, and Annabeth. The rest of the campers were defending other positions. Suddenly, one of his younger brothers, Christian, ran forward, screaming and brandishing a sword. He was more a singer than a fighter, but he could wield the sword pretty well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Will shuddered as a Hellhound seized his brother and dragged him off. He could feel the boy’s death throes, but there was nothing to do but keep fighting.

“Apollo! Fall back!” Michael’s voice rang out. He wouldn’t lose any more of his siblings today if he could help it. The children of Apollo fled the bridge.

From the shore, Will couldn’t make out what happened next. He could hear the shouting, but he was still reeling from Christian’s death. He saw a pegasus swoop down and carry off someone, obviously wounded. Then it happened. The bridge shattered. He could make out Jackson. Then he saw a much smaller figure falling, falling. No! It must be Michael. His bow fell to the street, but the body tumbled into the river. Somehow, Will knew that he was dead before he hit the water. For the second time in just a few minutes, Will had lost another brother.

He had no time to process this. Jackson came running up to him and grabbed him. The older boy shouted at the other Apollo campers to look for Michael and then pulled Will onto a motorcycle. As they took off at top speed, Percy shouted over the roar of the bike, “It’s Annabeth. She’s hurt.”

The words galvanized Will into healer mode. He could feel the underlying pain and realized how much this boy was shaken by fear for Annabeth’s life more than anything else, even after all that he’d been through. The healer would have done everything he could anyway, but this made it even more vital that he save her. He poured his strength into the girl, fighting the poison that soaked into the knife wound.

He staggered to his feet, exhausted from the strain of the healing. The poison had been worse than he thought, but thank the gods, he’d gotten to her in time. Still, he knew that this was far from over, and supplies were running low. He made a list of what he thought the local drug stores would have that would help and handed it to Travis Stoll, reminding the Hermes boy to leave some cash and not to just steal what they needed. (His mama would be so proud.). He could see that Annabeth would recover and that she and Percy needed some private time, so he went off in the same direction as the Stolls, perhaps to try to keep their light-fingered activities to a minimum.

As he and the other children of Apollo ran around trying to heal as many of the wounded as possible, Will heard the cries of “Drakon!” and he shivered. This was the worst of the monsters. They didn’t stand a chance. It would take a miracle to save them. And then the miracle happened. He recognized the sound of the voices of the Ares cabin. Somehow, they’d changed their minds and decided to join the battle. With Clarisse leading them, they could turn the tide. And yet, something was off about Clarisse. Will could see that her form was less than perfect. From where he was, he couldn’t see what it was, but the daughter of Ares was struggling to wield that spear that she’d always swung around so effortlessly. And then she fell, but somehow a second Clarisse appeared and single-handedly slew the drakon.

That night, as he moved among the wounded, Will learned what had happened, how Silena had stolen Clarisse’s armor and led the Ares cabin into battle. Will swore he’d never underestimate a child of Aphrodite again. People talked about how Clarisse had taken on the blessing of her father and fought like she was possessed. There were also whispers about who the traitor was, but Will ignored them. He wanted only to win, to see his friends and siblings safe.

That feeling grew in him. He wrapped himself in it, letting it wash away all his fears. He was not a great warrior like so many of the other campers, but dammit, he was the son of Apollo, he was the head counsellor of cabin seven, he was the best healer and he would do his best. He charged into the the battlefield, bringing his skills and his powers to bear on all of his friends, healing them, giving them strength.

It was in this mode that he saw Nico di Angelo clearing a path through the enemy forces accompanied only by that enormous hound that had belonged to Quintus. Will thought he would swoon like some southern belle when he saw the other boy. He could sense the waves of terror radiating from the skull-shaped helmet, but his heart swelled at the sight of this mere boy facing down Kronos himself and summoning legions of the dead to turn the tide of the battle.

His attention was diverted when he was called to Kayla’s side. His sister had taken a swipe from a cyclops’ club. It was a glancing blow, but her ribs were cracked. Will put his hands on her side and let the glow suffuse into her system. His family would not go to bed with a single wound if he could help it, not a scratch, not a bruise. He couldn’t shake the earth or raise an undead army, but this he could do.

And then, just like that it was over. A tremendous waterspout erupted from the Hudson, and the Titan army fled, screaming. Will had no idea what had just happened, but he and his cabin-mates flew around the city, healing any fallen demigod, regardless of whether they’d fought with them or against them. Let the gods sort it out, he was a healer, not a judge. In the middle of all this, Cecil came up to him and pointed at the Empire State Building. For some reason, the top of it had turned blue. Even more confusing, although most of the mortals completely ignored it, he saw a man and woman, obviously mortal (maybe they had the sight), pointing toward the blue light at the top of the building and hugging each other.

It was only after they got back to camp that Will found out anything definite. The satyrs were explaining things, starting with Chiron being wounded, but not to worry, their old mentor would recover. (The old centaur gestured reassuringly from his stretcher in the volleyball pit.) Some of the details were vague or confusing, but Kronos had been defeated, and there would be some changes coming to the camp, mostly that the number of cabins would be expanding to accommodate children of lesser gods, and there would be a Hades cabin. Will could barely contain himself at this, but some of the other campers seemed less than pleased at this. The Stolls seemed elated at the news, probably sensing an opportunity to scare some of the younger campers, but the look of glee fell from their faces the satyrs announced that Luke was to be given a hero’s funeral. Will knew that they were relieved to hear that in the end, it was their brother who’d been instrumental in the victory, but Will could only imagine how painful it must be for the entire Hermes cabin. He caught Cecil’s eye and gave him a look that promised that he’d be there for his best friend in any way needed.

All this was interrupted when a pegasus landed in front of the Big House, and a red-haired girl Will had never seen before alit. Will couldn’t say how, but he knew she was mortal. How did she even get into camp? She said a few words to Chiron, and he replied quietly. Suddenly, green light started to shoot out the windows of the Big House. This could not be good. The girl raised her arms toward it as if she were waiting to catch something. Percy and Annabeth came running up with Nico trailing behind. (Will DID NOT emit the tiniest of squeals.)

As Percy and Annabeth exchanged words with Chiron, the door to the Big House flew open and the ancient Oracle shambled out as light and smoke poured from the doorway. Because things were not weird enough, Apollo appeared out of thin air and swore this new girl (Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Will made a point of catching her name) in as the Oracle as the old Oracle crumbled into dust. Nico said something about her life force (gods, that boy had the most amazing powers!), and just like that, Rachel proclaimed a prophecy. Will knew he should pay heed to her words (prophecy, after all), but between looking at his father and trying not to obviously cruise Nico, he was a bit distracted. Apollo was, of course, basking in the attention of the assembled demigods, and Will knew the drill, He’d heard it from Lee and Michael enough times, and sure enough, his father started to stride off into the Big House with Rachel, Percy and Chiron, completely ignoring his own children. Typical! Just then, he heard his father’s voice, projected into his own ear so that no-one else could hear.

“My son, you have hope in your heart. Do not lose it.”

Chapter Text

Camp was a hive of activity. There was a flood of new campers. There were suddenly new cabins to be built, although some of those just appeared. (Some gods were better absentee parents than others, it appeared.) Most striking was the Hecate cabin. One minute, there was the spot where the path to the canoe lake crossed the path to the strawberry fields. The next, there was a cabin that didn’t look exactly the same each time you looked at it. Most of the cabins, though, had to be built by the Hephaestus cabin, led by Jake.

All the worksite injuries, combined with the influx of new campers, meant the Infirmary was as crowded as it had been immediately after the Battle of Manhattan. Will took a moment to chat with Jake, back in for the fourth time that week. (He could build anything, that one, but he was so accident-prone.)

“How are you keeping up with your new increased workload?” Jake asked.

“A little better than you are.” Will replied. “Some of the new campers are children of minor medical gods and goddesses, so they are helping out. We’ve got a daughter of Hygeia. She’s been keeping everything cleaner than it’s ever been before. The problem is we’re letting her stay in our cabin until she gets one of her own, and she’s so OCD, she’s driving us crazy. Also, she refers to all of us as great-aunt or great-uncle.”

Jake laughed. “Godly families, yanno.”

Will said, smiling (although it was not his most sincere smile), “I gotta ask, did you have to make the new Hades cabin look so much like a mausoleum?”

Jake shrugged, “It kinda fit. Besides those were the plans we got from the Athena cabin. I dunno whether di Angelo asked specifically for that design or whether Annabeth did it because she didn’t appreciate his … attentions.”

Will was friends with Jake, but right now, he didn’t appreciate the other boy’s inferences very much. He was also in a bit of a mood because earlier, he’d caught Austin standing outside the newly completed Hades cabin with his saxophone, playing the opening to the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor, like the mausoleum shaped cabin needed anything to make it seem creepier. He’d dope slapped his brother for it (don’t try this at home, kids!), and then, since his brother still had the sax in his mouth at the time, Will had to heal his brother’s split lip. At least Austin had the good grace to apologize.

And because Will didn’t have enough to do already…

The next morning at breakfast, the noise of a horde of hungry adolescents was interrupted when one of then stood up and whistled loudly. (Thank the gods it wasn’t Will.) This youth then spoke in a loud clear voice:

“Hello everyone, my name is Jazz. I am the current head counsellor of the Hecate cabin.” The speaker then assumed a defiant expression. “I will be making this announcement every morning, as it is subject to change. My pronouns today are ‘he,’ ‘him,’ and ‘his.’ I expect you to respect this.” He then gave a scowl to the crowd that suggested that his expectations would not be met, but his scowl quickly melted at the response.

“Sure.” “Fine.” “Okay.” “Just keep us posted.” The responses came from all over the dining pavilion, especially from the older campers, and the tone ranged from friendly to bored. The Stolls called back in unison, “Not to worry, we are equal-gender-opportunity pranksters.”

Chiron came up to Will, “My boy,” he said, “I hate to increase your responsibilities, but the newer campers need to be given the TALK on how we treat orientation and gender here. Normally it’s done in tandem by the heads of the Apollo and Aphrodite cabins, but…” and he just cast a look over to the Aphrodite cabin where Drew was rolling her eyes at something in a way that would have gotten all 9.9s if there had been a judges’ panel.

Will nodded, still smiling, but wondering how he’d fit yet another duty into his day. He’d given the TALK to some of the incoming campers in the past, but it had been one at a time. Now there were entire cabins full coming in at once.

First stop: the Hypnos cabin. The air was heavy, the light was dim. All of the new Hypnos campers, including their counsellor, Clovis, were stretched out on very comfortable looking beds. The only place to sit was at the foot of Clovis’ bed. None of them looked fully awake, so Will had announced himself in a rather loud voice (and didn’t quite whistle to get their attention, that might have set the wrong tone), and he began the speech that he and Malcolm had written, explaining policies about accepting all genders and orientations. It went on for a while, and in the close, dimly lit cabin, Will found that he had dozed off himself in the middle of the speech. He was awakened by Clovis and the others applauding quietly.

“Great talk, man,” said Clovis. “I especially liked the part about Clarisse.”

Wil said, trying to rouse himself, “I don’t remember saying anything about Clarisse.”

“Oh you didn’t, but you dreamed about that announcement of hers.”

Will stepped out of the cabin a little nervously, not wanting to think about his dreams being under surveillance. Clovis picked up on that. “Not to worry. We Hypnos kids have a saying: What happens in dreams stays in dreams.”

Next was the Nike cabin. Will started his speech, but one of the campers cut him off.

“We’re all hetero and cis here, but the Nike cabin is 100% allies!”

Another one cut in, “You might be 100% an ally, but I’m 110%!”

“Well, I’m 150%!”

Will left at this point but guessed that, given the temperaments of these particular campers, he’d be seeing them in the infirmary fairly soon.

On to the Iris cabin. Before Will could get two sentences out, the head counsellor, Butch, interrupted him.

“Look, we’re cool with all that. All we ask is that you not make rainbow jokes, okay? A little respect for our mom, huh?”

Will nodded and then said to the other boy, “Nice tattoo, by the way.”

“Yeah, I got it a year before I came here. Mom was really cool, showing up after every rainstorm since I was little, and I wanted to show her I appreciated it. Of course, some of the kids at school tried to hassle me about it, but working on my dad’s ranch my whole life made me pretty strong, so they backed down quick enough.”

It was a few days later that he got to the Hecate cabin. A new girl had replaced Jazz as the head counsellor, Lou Ellen something. Cecil had told him about her entrance to the camp. Will introduced himself to the campers and started his speech.

“Hi. I’m here from the Apollo cabin, and I’d like to tell you a little about how we do things at Camp Half Blood. First of all, I’d like to thank Jazz,” he flashed that winning smile in her direction (yes, he did remember this morning’s pronoun announcement) “for getting things more out in the open.” Jazz smiled back. Good, mutual respect was the way to go.

“It’s been the policy here for longer than I’ve been a camper that all orientations are welcomed and respected. In the same way, all genders are respected, and homophobia, transphobia, and misgendering are not allowed.”

This was well received, but then the new girl, Lou Ellen raised her hand. Will smiled to encourage her to speak.

“When you say all genders, how many do you mean?”

“I don’t want to put a number on it, but really, all genders.”

“What if you aren’t sure about your own gender?”

“Whatever gender seems to fit you most would be respected.”

“What if it’s a gender no-one’s ever seen before?”

Will paused at that. He was becoming a little irritated with this girl, wondering if she was curious or just trying to push his buttons. “I’d say we’d still respect it. If there are genders we don’t know about, you might want to talk to Malcolm. I’m sure he’d be cool about it, but he’s trying to compile as complete a list as he can; you know how the Athena campers can be.”

Lou Ellen seemed to think about that. In the end Will suggested that she drop by the infirmary this afternoon, since Malcolm would be helping out, and he could introduce them. He left the Hecate cabin feeling content that he’d gotten the message across but still felt a little overwhelmed. Apparently he still had a lot to learn about human sexuality. (Also, he was putting off going to the Hades cabin, since, for obvious reasons, he really didn’t think he could give Nico the TALK in a properly professional fashion.)

Will had infirmary duty for the rest of the day after lunch. He prayed that it would be fairly routine. Some days, the Fates hear your prayers and just sit there laughing.

At about 3:00, Cecil came in. He’d been trying to step up his game, so occasionally, he’d come into the infirmary with the red mark of a slap on his face (those Aphrodite girls had fierce tempers) or a black eye. (Maybe he was taking flirting lessons from Austin, gods forbid.)

This, however was something entirely new, and Will had no idea how to fix it.

“Aunt Lillian is going to plotz if she sees this.”

Cecil had taught Will a few words of Yiddish, so he knew that Cecil meant that his aunt would have a heart attack if she saw the pig ears sprouting from his head.

(As a side note, Will was a little fascinated by languages. Of course, he spoke Ancient Greek and some Latin, which came in handy for old medical texts, and Austin, after lecturing the cabin endlessly about hip hop, decided to give all of the Apollo siblings a crash course in classical music and opera, so Will at least knew the Italian for ‘slow,’ ‘fast,’ ‘loud,’ ‘soft,’ and ‘Oh god!, I’m dying of tuberculosis!’ It was fun but he couldn’t see how knowing Italian would ever be useful.)

The two boys bantered good-naturedly in their best nerd fashion about what to do about the change in Cecil’s appearance for a while. Lou Ellen (Blackstone, that was her name) walked into the infirmary at that moment and took credit for the pig ears. It seemed that Cecil had asked her for a date (perhaps a little too persistently). She suggested that he try asking someone who actually wanted to date boys.

Will smirked and raised his hand, indicating that he was one of those. Cecil rolled his eyes. Both boys knew what a bad idea that would have been. Lou Ellen snorted with laughter at that. Will found that snort a little endearing after their rocky beginning earlier that day. Then, he suggested that turning Cecil into a pig might be inappropriate.

“What’s wrong with pigs?” Lou Ellen asked a little indignantly.

Imitating Will’s gesture to indicate being gay, Cecil put up his own hand, “Jewish here,”

This was too much for Lou Ellen. She collapsed onto the floor, laughing hysterically (and snorting as she did). As she struggled to breathe, Will rushed to her aid in full nurse mode.

“Oh...my...gods! I’m...so...sorry!” The tears rolled down her eyes, which caused both boys to collapse into gales of laughter themselves.

By the end of the week, the three of them were inseparable.

Chapter Text

Fortunately, after about a month had passed, Will found that he did have a little more free time from his duties, which he spent largely in Cecil and Lou Ellen’s company. Their adventures seemed to take the form of Lou Ellen saying “I wonder what would happen if…,” followed by Will offering some sort of caution. Cecil would happily follow along, and when they got themselves hopelessly tangled in something, the son of Hermes would come up with some totally outside-the-box solution. Failing that, Lou Ellen would do some sort of Mist manipulation to cover their tracks, or Will would just proclaim “Medical emergency! You two, come to the infirmary. I’ll need your help!” and the three of them would run from the scene of the crime, laughing hysterically.

In addition, there was romance. For Lou Ellen, it consisted of pulling a die out of her pocket, whispering a girl’s name while she shook the dice cup, and then seeing which number she rolled. When Will asked her about it, she explained that her grandfather had met Alfred Kinsey and stolen some dice from him, so she could use them to determine the sexual orientation of girls she liked. (Frankly, Will thought he’d trust Austin’s gaydar more than Lou Ellen’s dice, given that her success rate was about 50%.)

For Cecil, unfortunately, it usually consisted of a giggled, “Nope” on good days and a slap on bad ones. Well, at least there were no more pig ears.

For Will, it consisted mostly of gazing moonily at Cabin 13, trying (and failing) to work up the courage to approach the boy of his dreams, or, since Nico himself was so rarely seen, eavesdropping on conversations of other campers about the son of Hades.

“William Andrew Solace, you are a creepy stalker!”

“Okay, Lou Ellen, for starters, my name is Will, not William and I don’t have a middle name.”

“How can you not have a middle name?” There was the girl’s insatiable curiosity.

“I just don’t. My mama told me if I wanted one, I could make up my own.”

“Well, too late for that. I made one up for you. Now you’ll be able to tell when you’re in serious trouble. We’ll also save ‘William’ for that. It can be special for us.”

Will knew better than to argue. Between Lou Ellen’s tenacity and Cecil’s ability to tease, he knew he’d never win this. “Fine. My middle name is now Andrew, and you two, but only you two can call me William, and only in emergencies.”

“Now that we’ve got that straightened out, what is your deal with di Angelo?”

At first Will tried to deflect. “I worry about him. I’ve heard some people say some rude things about him.”

Lou Ellen didn’t look entirely convinced. Cecil, not wanting to betray a confidence, tried to look the other way. Will didn’t want him to feel like he was caught between his friends, so he said, in a low voice, “I have a crush on him, okay?”

Lou Ellen reached for her dice cup. Will stopped her. “Yeah, I know about the rumors about him liking Annabeth.”

“Just trying to help. I know what you mean about the rumors. I heard Drew refer to him as ‘the creepy kid trying to break up the Camp’s power couple.’ On the other hand, the Ares cabin still talks about how awesome he is with a sword and that undead army he summoned. Summoning up an entire zombie army! Man, I would’ve loved to have seen that.”

Cecil put in, “Yeah, if Drew doesn’t like him, all of Aphrodite marches to her tune. My own cabin is kind of divided. I mean, he did really help in the Battle of Manhattan. I think it’s mostly that Travis is afraid of pranking him. And of course, the Demeter cabin is mad at him, mostly for killing all that grass, but also, there’s the whole Persephone business.”

Will knew that in his own cabin, it was mostly respect for his own feelings that kept Austin and Kayla from saying anything. He could kind of understand. After all, Apollo was all about life and light, whereas Hades, not so much. If only they could see him for what he was.

Then it happened that Friday. They were out harvesting strawberries (thank the gods for the climate control that kept the plants growing all year round), and there he was, not looking at all happy to be doing it, in spite of the beautiful sunshine and the luscious smell of the ripe fruit.

“This is not a good idea,” Nico muttered under his breath as he reached for some of the plump berries. Will wanted to join him, just so that the boy wouldn’t have to be doing this alone. If Cecil and Lou Ellen wanted to come with, the more the merrier, right? The scowl on the Italian's face, however, kept even Will at a distance.

So of course into the field came Percy and Annabeth, holding hands and giggling. Nico looked over at them, and the plants around him shriveled. Miranda Gardner saw this and began to shout at him.

“Get out! Get out! You’re ruining them!”

The boy lowered his head and shuffled off to his cabin, leaving a trail of brown vines in his wake.

Will started to rise, a look of uncharacteristic anger on his face, but Lou Ellen held him back. Instead, it was Cecil, ever the good friend, who called out, “Geez, Miranda, back off, would ya?”

Miranda stepped back, looking surprised and hurt, so of course, Sherman Yang decided to step in.

“How about you back off, ya little runt?”

Things escalated quickly from there. Words were exchanged, glares were given, strawberries were flung. That last bit upset Miranda even more. Finally, Will decided to step in as peacemaker (even though he secretly wanted to guarantee that the entire Demeter cabin would be speaking in double dactyls for the rest of the winter). He put his fingers to his mouth and gave a short (thankfully not ultrasonic) whistle.

When the campers had recovered their hearing, Will called out, “What is wrong with you people? Clarisse, can you get your campers to step down? (She nodded at that.) Connor, put those strawberries down! Lou Ellen, whatever you pulled out of your bag, put it back. Miranda, I’m sure Nico didn’t mean to kill those plants; he can’t help it.”

She shot him an embarrassed look and muttered an apology. Will continued.

“We just survived a war; do we want to start another one? Can’t we settle our differences some other way?”

Clarisse called out, “Capture the Flag! Hermes vs. Demeter! Tuesday night!”

And so it was on. Of course, Apollo and Hecate allied themselves with Hermes cabins, while the Ares cabin announced that it would be on the Demeter team. As the week went on, alliances were made and hostilities expressed themselves in more subtle ways. At the same time, there were some instances where better natures revealed themselves, like when Katie Gardner pulled Will aside.

“Look, Solace, I’m sorry for what my sister said. She needs to lighten up.”

Will looked at her for a moment. “Why are you telling me this?”

Katie laughed. “Oh come on, it’s not common knowledge, but you’re not as subtle as you think you are. I could see how you look at di Angelo.”

Will blushed violently but couldn’t manage a reply, so Katie continued, “Yeah, not to worry, I’ve been going out with Travis for a while, and he’s taught me how to be more observant, but that smile of yours fools most of the rest of the camp. Besides, I kind of like the kid myself. I mean, I know he’s not good with plants, but he did kind of help save the whole camp.”

That little exchange made Will feel so much better that he decided to man up and at least ask Nico to join in the game that Friday. As he was heading over to the Hades cabin, he was intercepted by Cecil, who looked jubilant.

“Will, man, great news! I just ran into Jackson. He told me that he’d be on our team this Friday, and the Athena cabin as well. Then he thanked me for standing up for Nico. Man, we are going to kick tukhus [ass] this time!”

Will smiled at this. He was glad to hear that maybe some of the campers did like Nico, even though he still felt a pang of jealousy where Percy Jackson was concerned.

Unfortunately, his good mood didn’t last.

“So, I hear that Chase and her nerd barn are signing up on the losing team.” That would be Drew Tanaka. Apparently, the Aphrodite cabin was allied with the Demeter cabin. The girl continued, the venom in her voice subtle, but perceivable if you knew what to listen for. “Maybe she’s decided she likes the attention of another son of the Big Three, even if he is a little, shall we say, melanin impaired.”

Will cringed. He could feel the slight wave of charm-speak that the daughter of Aphrodite put into her words. It didn’t have much of an affect on him, since he didn’t feel the slightest attraction toward Drew, but he’d hoped that it wasn’t so obvious that the battle lines seemed to be drawn along the lines of who liked Nico and who didn’t (Well not exactly, going by what Katie had said.) He was glad that Nico wasn’t around to hear Tanaka’s poison anyway and decided that now would be a good time to talk to the boy, something he’d never had the nerve to do before.

He knocked on the door to the sepulchral looking cabin and then called out, “Anybody home?”

There was no answer. He tried again, a little louder this time. At that moment, Chiron trotted up.

“If you’re looking for Mr. di Angelo, he informed me yesterday that he’d be away from Camp for the next week,” the old centaur said. He offered no more information, so Will had to be content with offering prayers to his father for the boy’s safety.

That Friday, at the sound of Chiron’s conch, the game began. The Nike cabin was the first into battle, but they didn’t last long, being more interested in outdoing their own cabin mates than actually doing anything productive. The Ares campers were more effective, but it was the Aphrodite cabin that took out most of their opponents. Their canisters of Chanel #5 tear gas were devastating. Combined with the Demeter cabin basically weaponizing every plant in the forest, they looked to take the victory.

Fortunately the combination of the Hermes cabin’s threat of glitter bombing their opponents (in colors that would clash with all of the Aphrodite cabin’s outfits) coupled with Percy constantly rerouting the water table (not enough to damage the flora but enough to disorient it) that allowed the Athena cabin’s strategies combined with the superior archery of the Apollo cabin to win the day. By the time the conch sounded victory for the Hermes cabin, most of the campers were too exhausted to do anything but stagger off to bed.

Of course that meant that breakfast the next morning was a raucous affair, with the victorious cabins quite willing to rub it in their opponents’ faces, but it was more good natured than it had been for the week leading up to the game. Sometimes demigods just needed to let off steam. Will prefered the friendlier atmosphere and enjoyed the feeling of camaraderie that these games engendered, even when it meant longer shifts in the infirmary.

It was while he was enjoying this glow that Annabeth wandered into the dining pavilion. That was unusual. She was never this late, and she never wandered, more strode with purpose, wherever she was going. So it was with concern that Will watched as she asked in a slightly strained voice:

“Has anyone seen Percy? I haven’t seen him all morning.”

Chapter Text

Chiron called an emergency head counselors’ meeting. Plans were made. Thalia Grace herself showed up to promise that the Hunters of Artemis would help in the search. Annabeth was beside herself with gratitude, but Thalia stroked the lock of grey hair on the girl’s forehead and said, “The goddess does not forget her debt to both you and Percy.”

Will began to murmur a prayer of thanks to his aunt, which turned into a general thanks to all the gods when Nico di Angelo strode into the meeting and the sight didn’t elicit any high pitched squeals from the son of Apollo. Will thought to himself, “Just say something to the boy!”

“I’ll be leading the search through the shadows.”

Will rose to his feet, his eagerness making the motion clumsy.

“Wait, you’ll need supplies. What if he’s hurt? What if you get hurt in the search?” Yes, his voice did rise in pitch at that. “Let me get you some things from the Apollo cabin.

Nico colored, but was it from Will’s awkward attention or from Annabeth reaching out to hug him?

“I’ll start searching immediately,” he said and vanished into the shadow cast by Chiron.

There was a stunned silence, broken only when Lou Ellen called out, “I don’t care what the rest of you think. That was freaking AWESOME!!”

Well, that was one way to end a meeting.

Will left in a jumble of feelings. He was concerned for Percy, certainly, and he felt bad for what Annabeth was going through. More importantly, Nico had shown up! He seemed to be okay. He looked a little pale, but that seemed to be normal. And Will had gotten up the nerve to actually say something to him. Mind, it wasn’t the suavest thing to say, and it wasn’t necessarily that well received, but it was a start. Then, add to the welter of feelings a wash of jealousy that he was so concerned with Percy, but there was still something so heroic about him. What Will needed was to clear his head, and working in the infirmary was the best way to do that.

As he exited the Big House with Lou Ellen, Cecil was waiting for the two of them, looking a little bored. Will felt for him; his two best friends were caught up in head counselor duties, and that was only going to get worse with the search for Percy.

“Solace, you’ve got a look to you.” Of course Cecil caught his mood.

Lou Ellen explained about how Nico had shown up at the meeting. Cecil whistled at that and remarked at how brave di Angelo was to be searching for his rival, trying to wind up Will a little. Before Will could say anything, Lou Ellen chimed in, pointing out the reaction Nico had to Annabeth trying to hug him. As a final twist of the knife, she also mentioned the lack of reaction to Will’s attempts to engage the other boy, or at least to offer him help.

Whether it was them trying to let Will down gently or wind him up even more, Will appreciated his friends’ efforts to get him out of a funk. Well, off to infirmary duty, with Cecil in tow, and he was in a more positive mood either way.

That day was fairly routine until a group of Hephaestus campers came in, led by Jake. They’d been hunting for the bronze dragon that was hunting the woods and had sustained some burns, a common injury among that cabin. Will decided to get a little revenge on Cecil.

Cecil had told Will that he identified as fairly heterosexual, but Will thought he’d noticed Cecil looking a little too attentively at Jake, so he got his friend to give a little hands on help, first in getting Jake onto the examination table and then getting the burned shirt off the boy. Yup, it didn’t take empathic powers to sense Cecil’s pulse rate and breathing shoot up in proximity to the burly son of Hephaestus.

When Cecil admitted to being bi, Will hoped that his friend would put on on his big boy pants and admit his feelings to his dream boy. Will frowned at that, thinking what his mama would say about the pot and the kettle. Of course, it was hard to confess your love when the object of that love was never around. Again he thought back to his father’s words about not losing the hope in his heart.

The next morning, unfortunately did not bode well for Cecil’s chances at romance, as the next encounter with that damned dragon put Jake into a full body cast. No sooner had the son of Apollo finished singing the hymn that would jump-start the healing than Annabeth burst into the infirmary with a wild look in her eye.

“Will, I need to borrow the Apollo cabin’s chariot.”

Well, that was blunt. Will knew that Annabeth was not big on sugarcoating (or manners, for that matter). He also knew that the girl was feeling rather frayed, and he didn’t want to end up with a dagger between his ribs, so he turned his “therapeutic Solace smile” up a notch and nodded.

Taking the encouragement, Annabeth unburdened herself. “We’ve been searching the camp for two days. I called his mother; I hate making Sally panic, but I didn’t know what to do. Then last night, I got a vision. Of course it was from her highness, Hera.” (Will could hear the edge that Annabeth’s voice always got when she talked about that particular goddess). “Go to the Grand Canyon. Three demigods. One shoe. What in Athena’s name does it mean?”

“Um, Annabeth, if there’s a vision, shouldn’t we ask Rachel? I mean, she is the oracle.” Will had sort of bonded with Rachel. He’d been a little jealous of the attention the girl got from Apollo at first; all he’d ever gotten from his father was one whispered sentence, but Rachel was too likeable. There was something about her that reminded him of some of his mother’s bandmates; the artist’s temperament, he guessed. She’d fit right in with the Cabin Seven crowd.

Annabeth sighed. “Rachel is still out at school. She’ll be back in a day or two, and I can’t wait. Besides, she said all she’s getting is ‘divine radio silence’ these days.”

“Fine, take the chariot.” Will couldn’t help going into mother hen mode at this point. “Just have somebody else drive. You’re good with machinery, but animals aren’t your strong point. How about Butch?”

“That’s actually a great idea, thanks. He’s the best with the pegasi, so we’ll get there faster. Thanks again, Will.” She gave him a brief kiss on the cheek.

Will blushed at that. He and Annabeth hadn’t always gotten along, but a mutual respect had grown between them when they had assumed the role of head counsellors for their cabins. The fact that he’d patched her up in the middle of the Battle of Manhattan also helped. He just hoped that she’d get that chariot back in one piece. Even though it was technically property of the Apollo cabin, it was more or less shared with the Ares cabin, and as such, Will felt that it was his responsibility to keep the thing in good working order.

The afternoon archery class wasn’t his ideal after lunch activity, but Will had responsibilities as head counsellor. It didn’t help that, in spite of that title and those responsibilities, he was actually one of the worse archers in his cabin. Anywhere else, his skill with a bow would have earned him respect, but not here, not around Austin, whose skill with a bow wasn’t limited to the musical kind or worse, Kayla, the daughter of a world renowned archery coach and who’d already won several international competitions herself. Nonetheless, Will was supposed to be running the class, but his siblings kept contradicting him about stance and aim. He was actually grateful for the interruption when the two youngest members of the class shouted and pointed at the sky over the canoe lake.

Will saw the shape plummeting toward the lake surface, and his first thought was “Dad’s car again?” It turned out to be his cabin’s chariot, looking rather the worse for wear, so he pushed through the crowd of onlooking demigods that had assembled at the shore.

He was not pleased at what he saw. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it.” He fumed at Annabeth, who’d emerged from the water.

The girl apologized, and there was a look of pain on her face that made Will forgive her on the spot. It seemed that they hadn’t found Percy. He was surprised at the look of the newcomers; since they were unclaimed, he’d expected them to be younger. Abruptly, a flaming hammer appeared over the shorter boy’s head. Well, he was no longer unclaimed. Will offered to take him to the Hephaestus cabin to meet his new siblings.

As they walked toward Cabin Nine, Will discovered that this new kid, Leo, had quite a mouth on him. At first, he thought the the kid was kind of cute, what with being short, slim, dark hair and eyes, but the constant chatter that was so obviously bravado to cover a certain amount of terror was not really Will’s thing. Nevertheless, Leo was likeable in an irritating way, and Will wished good luck to Jake and the whole of Cabin Nine with their newest member. Especially given that Jake was currently in a full body cast.

=====

And just like that, the newcomers were off on a quest. Will hated quests. He knew that he’d never be sent on one, not that he wanted to be, thank you very much. For his fellow campers, quests were glory and fulfillment of all that demigods were supposed to be, but for Will, they were separation and the anxiety that brought followed by patching up the survivors when, no, if they returned burning the shrouds of those unfortunates who didn’t come back. On the bright side, that damned dragon automaton was no longer haunting the woods which meant that maybe poor Jake stood a chance of recovering from yet another stint in a full body cast. (As an aside, Will might have taken advantage of Jake’s last down time to drop a few hints about Cecil, but so far nothing had come of it.)

Not long after that, Will and Austin were lounging about the Apollo table, and Austin started musing about these newest members of Camp Half Blood.

“So, brother of mine, what do you make of this dude, Jason?” Austin asked in a tone Will knew all too well.

In spite of knowing that tone, Will decided to play dumb. “Well, he seems to be a nice enough guy, in good health and all. The amnesia is a puzzle, but…”

“You know what I mean, Solace!” Austin cut in. “Mm, mm, those are some fine glutes, don’t you think, from a purely medical perspective? And I do like blonds.”

Will shook his head. “Is there a hair color you don’t like? I can’t see dating some blue-eyed blond; it would feel too much like incest. I mean, aside from you and Kayla, that’s pretty much the whole Apollo cabin at this point. And, yeah, he is buff and all…”

“Okay, I get it, not your type. How about Leo? I know you like ‘em small and dark, and that son of Hephaestus is definitely working the small and dark.””

“Sorry, a little too hyper for me, thanks for asking. Are you going to ask my opinion about Piper?”

“Very funny, Will. I know your tastes are not as eclectic as mine. But speaking of Aphrodite kids, how about Mitchell? He’s petite, he’s way cute.”

“He’s a total sweetheart besides,” piped up Kayla, joining in the conversation, “And after all it’s only Austin who’s banned from the Aphrodite cabin.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. You’re right Kayla. Mitchell is a sweetheart, but like the rest of the cabin, he’s totally under Drew’s thumb.”

The rest of the table nodded at that point and fell into other conversations, giving Will a chance to think. He thought about Drew in particular. While not particularly fond of the girl, he could understand that some of her attitude was a result of being thrown unwillingly into the role of head counsellor of her cabin after what had happened last summer. He could certainly understand how that might bring out the worst in someone. He also knew something the others might not. Drew had been the biggest shipper of the Silena and Beckendorf, and she was heart-broken (not that she ever let it show) over that tragedy. He suspected that Drew’s enthusiastic embrace of the “Aphrodite rite of passage) was a way of kicking the traces over that heartbreak.

Then he thought about how Connor and Travis had stepped up in the face of their brother Luke’s betrayal, how Jake had stepped into Beckendorf’s shoes with nary a complaint, how he himself had taken charge of his own cabin after witnessing two of his brothers’ deaths, one literally in his arms. Yeah, Drew had her reasons, but at heart, maybe she was just a bitch.

His reverie was cut off from a shriek from that very bitch. Well, this time she had good reason, as Piper had just appeared as if out of thin air, standing on the table with one foot right in the middle of Drew’s pizza.

“Hi,” she said all too casually. “We’re back.”

Chapter Text

Another End of the World as We Know It crisis, another meeting. Will should not have been surprised. The news that the questers returned with meant that the latest Great Prophecy was underway, like it or not. Of course he was nervous. If this led to another war, he didn’t want to think about what could happen to all those he cared about. He looked down at his hands and discovered that he was unconsciously practicing his bandaging techniques. Then he looked around the room and saw that he was not the only nervous demigod. Travis was engaging in some low-grade pyromania (Will thought back to the number of minor burns he’d had to treat on Cecil’s brother’s fingertips prior to the last battle), Clovis had dozed off (that kid had perfected defensive narcolepsy, Will swore), and Butch was sticking pencils into the dozing boy’s nostrils. (Was this perhaps some sort of flirting?) Meanwhile, speaking of noses, Lou Ellen was doing some weird trick making Miranda’s nose disappear. It looked like good-natured teasing, but Will suspected that there was just a touch of lingering rancor from that last Capture the Flag game.

And then the kicker was revealed. There was a camp of Roman demigods, and Percy was there! Apparently, Hera had decided that the two camps had to unite to prevent the rise of Gaea. There was going to be an expedition to the Roman camp. The buzz of chatter around the room increased. Finally Chiron called an end to the meeting and sent them back to their cabins to inform their cabin-mates about the situation and begin preparations for the expedition.

That night, the entire Apollo cabin was talking about what it all meant. The conversation turned to what their Roman counterparts would be like. Will pointed out that Apollo was the one god who had the same name and pretty much the same attributes and personality in both the Greek and Roman pantheons.

“I can just see it,” Austin put it. “How could the Romans improve on me when I’m already so awesome?” He was not afraid to speak his mind about their father, and the older campers laughed. (The younger ones had not seen Apollo when he appeared to shepherd Rachel Dare through the process of becoming the new Oracle.)

“Alright everybody, lights out.” Will tried to keep his siblings in line. It rarely worked, but at least they made the pretense of going to sleep.

As he lay in his bed, Austin’s spot on impression of their father made Will think about what Apollo had whispered to him that day not so long ago . “You have hope in your heart,” the god had said. What did he mean? Will fell asleep thinking about that.

That night, he had a dream about a jar. The words “You have hope in your heart” were echoing in his ears, but as he looked at the jar, the words “hope in your heart” became “your hope is in the jar.” He woke in a panic, not knowing why.

The next day, he sought out Clovis in his cabin. Maybe he could explain what the dream meant.

“Wow, man,” the drowsy demigod said. It was the most enthusiasm Will had ever seen from the boy. (Admittedly, he was nodding his head, his eyes drooping shut as he said it.) “It sounds like you’re getting a message or a prophecy. Do you get them often?”

“Not really,” Will replied. “I didn’t get the prophecy gene.”

“Well, it means something. Maybe it’s about Pandora’s pithos.”

“I don’t think so. This jar is bronze. Pandora’s was ceramic.” Will remembered seeing Percy with Pandora’s jar briefly during the Battle of Manhattan. He was going to continue, but he heard that familiar buzz from Clovis’ mouth; he’d dozed off again.

=====

The Romans were coming, and it looked grim. The camp’s defenses were mounted. The Hephaestus cabin was making sure that everyone, even Chiron himself was fitted with proper armor, the Ares cabin was drilling constantly, the Athena cabin endlessly reviewed strategies, and the Apollo cabin was on high alert. Will made sure that all of his cabin-mates were up to date on all battlefield healing techniques.

As always, preparing for war made Will feel glum. In public, he kept the smile on his face, but in private, he found himself giving way to despair. What had that dream meant? Hope in a jar? Maybe it meant that all the hope had been taken out of his heart. At times like this, he felt that awful fear. Lee had been head counselor and died in the Battle of the Labyrinth. Michael had been head counselor and died in the Battle of Manhattan. Was there a curse on the head counselors of the Apollo cabin?

Now was not the time for this. The camp was under siege, so now was the time for yet another meeting. The news from last few were bad enough. Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus. They’d made it out, but they were on their way to Greece where who knew what hordes of monsters were awaiting not just them but all of the Seven.

The tempers were at an all time high at the latest meeting. For some reason, Will found this calming, probably because it was all so familiar. Clarisse snapped at Rachel about some little thing, so Will stepped in (as usual) as peacemaker. He wished he could do more than calm people down and try to heal them, but Chiron reminded him of how crucial those two things were at a time like this.

Next, Clarisse got into an argument with Malcolm over when to attack. He advised waiting, but she was having none of it. She was worried about falling morale. She was also worried about the pregnant cloud nymph Mellie, who was under her protection. Will recalled that Mellie was married to Gleeson Hedge, who’d brought Clarisse to camp originally, so naturally Clarisse was extremely protective of Mellie. So much so that she’d asked Will to study up on childbirth so as to be ready when Mellie went into labor.

Will shuddered just a little bit at that thought. Obstetrics was not a field he found particularly appealing. Nevertheless, he vowed to do his best for Mellie. He was gathering scrolls on childbirth for nature spirits when Chiron announced that Nico was transporting the Athena Parthenos and the Roman praetor to camp. His elation at that was quashed when the centaur cautioned them that they would doubtless encounter danger throughout their journey.

Shortly after that, something caught his notice. He’d been feeling guilty about neglecting Cecil, between being so busy preparing for Mellie’s delivery and making sure his own cabin was fully ready both as archers and combat medics. He went looking for his best friend, hoping that they could at least catch up, when he came upon Cecil at the entrance to the Big House talking to Chiron in a hushed voice. The conversation broke up as Will came within earshot, but Cecil just gave him a wave and hurried off. The old centaur, on the other hand, said, “Ah Mr. Solace. Just in time for a head counselor update. Come in, come in.”

In the rec room, several other of the cabin heads were already assembled. Chiron got right to the point. “I have news,” he said. “I’m not willing to call it good or bad at this point, but the party bearing the Athena Parthenos was sighted in Puerto Rico, and they may have secured an escort for the remainder of the trip. They should be here soon.”

There was a general cheer from the assembled listeners. Will expected Clarisse to make some pessimistic remark in response, but she wasn’t at the meeting. Probably sticking close to Mellie at this point, Will thought. Then another thought struck him. Chiron had said he just got this news. He’d been speaking to Cecil right before the meeting. Will wondered if his friend had somehow acquired some means of getting up-to-date information. He wouldn’t be surprised if it were some Hermes power, but he wanted to see if maybe Cecil could be persuaded to come up with a few more details about the status of a certain son of Hades. He slipped out of the meeting to see what he could find out.

He just saw Cecil in the hallway and was heading toward him when he felt an impossibly firm grip on his arm. He turned to see the source of it. It was Clarisse, looking even wilder than usual, but her face showed fear, something Will had never seen on her before.

“Solace, it’s Mellie! I think the baby is coming! You have to come to the infirmary now!”

Regardless of anything else, this was a summons Will could not turn down. He took off for the infirmary at a sprint, and Clarisse was hard pressed to keep up. (The son of Apollo could be quite a fast runner when he wanted to be.) When he arrived, he immediately scrubbed his hands and donned surgical gloves. Judging by the wailing coming from Mellie’s room, he was glad he’d hurried.

As he entered the room, Mellie called out, “She is rising!”

He wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but then Will was distracted by something else. It seemed to be raining. Inside.

“Where is that coming from?” he wondered out loud, not expecting an answer.

However, the answer did come. “That's what happens when cloud nymphs' water breaks. Do something, Solace!” That was Coach Hedge. He’d made it back just in time.

“Coach! You’re all right! How is Nico? And how is Reyna?” Will added almost as an afterthought.

“Reyna’s fine. Girl’s pretty okay for a Roman. Di Angelo, that’s one tough cookie. He’s pretty spent, though. I gave him some nature healing, but I don't think he could survive another shadow trip. A real fighter, though.”

Will wanted to press him for more details, but Mellie’s cry of pain flipped a switch in his brain. He was totally focused on his patient. He lost all sense of the passage of time, running almost on automatic. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, but suddenly, he was holding a squalling satyr infant. He turned to present the newborn to his parents. Coach looked like he was about to faint, but Mellie beamed and reached for her new son. The satyr seemed to recover himself at the sight of his wife and child, but suddenly, Will felt woozy at what he’d just been through. He wasn’t tired, but he needed some air and to be away from the infirmary for a while. Yup, obstetrics was definitely not his thing.

He striped off his gloves and scrubs and pulled on a t shirt. Then he stepped outside. It was dawn, and, as always happened to children of Apollo, the rising sun gave him new strength. Still, what he’d just seen and done… How convenient that Cecil and Lou Ellen were coming toward him, purpose in their step.

“Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods!” he moaned. “I just delivered a baby! If I wasn’t gay already, I would be now. Sorry, guys, but I never want to see that again.”

“Never mind all that, Will,” Lou Ellen said. “We’re on a mission.”

“If it’s outside and away from the infirmary, count me in. What’s the plan?”

Lou Ellen explained that they were on an impromptu fact finding and sabotage mission. Then she provided them all with ridiculous outfits and outlandish camouflage makeup. At least the outfits came with binoculars. As they suited up, three best friends off to do something that might get them all killed, Will felt the dread that he’d felt since that dream about the jar slipping away. Somehow, something good might actually come of this. He could feel the “hope in his heart” once again.

They crept over the ridge as stealthily as they could. Then Will saw the figure. He stood up without thinking and called out even though he almost got his head cut off in the process.

“Nico?”