Work Text:
“Will, this is the perfect opportunity.”
“But it’s not really tested! It could be dangerous!”
Capture the Flag was coming up and Will and Nico were both on the Red Team. Will recently unlocked some new light-controlling powers that he, ironically, was working on controlling. He first discovered it when he was really excited to take Nico out on a date. He stood on the doorstep of Cabin 13 actually glowing, his freckles twinkling like stars. Nico looked at him with awe for a total of 5 seconds before collapsing to the ground in laughter. Later that night, when Nico kissed Will goodnight, light shot out of Will’s hands like flashlights because of his surprise and delight. Nico was once again doubled over in laughter as Will freaked out about how do you turn this damn thing off??
Needless to say, Will had been training with his powers whenever he could. He discovered that he could concentrate light in his hands and kind of throw it like a ball. If he concentrated hard enough, he could hold its shape until it hit something, at which point Will released it and it became something like a flash grenade. He found his new power cool not only because it could actually be used in a fight, but also because it never really hurt people, only temporarily blinded them. He hadn’t really hit someone with his “ball of sunshine” as Nico dubbed it, afraid it would be scorching hot or something.
“Okay, but what if I caught it?” Nico had posed his latest theory of how to utilize Will’s powers earlier that day while training.
“Does ‘hot as the sun’ mean nothing to you?” Will rolled his eyes as he shot individual rays out of his fingertips. They were both taking a break on the side of the arena.
Nico hummed in thought. “But, like, if I had padding or something. Something so I wouldn’t touch it directly… you can catch your own light balls, right?”
“Well, I can hold it, so I assume I can also catch it if it’s still in ball form.” Will turned a questioning eye towards his boyfriend. “But it’s my own powers, so that makes sense.”
Nico sat there for another 30 seconds before suddenly standing up and moving to the other side of their training section, near the wall. “Shine some light over here, to my right.”
He gave no other instruction or hint as to what he was doing, so Will did as he was told. He held his right hand out and shot a beam of light towards Nico, who stared at the ray for a few more seconds. Then, Nico swirled his arms around and gathered the shadows cast by the wall, motioning upwards to create his own separate wall of shadows. Nico’s shadow-manipulation was improving every day, going as far as creating darkness out of nothing, but that required a lot of energy and concentration.
Nico pulled his shadow wall away from the arena wall and towards Will, almost like he was trying to push Will’s light back. He then ducked behind his wall, then popped his head back around to look at Will.
“It’s blocking the light!” he shouted. “Your light can’t penetrate my shadows!”
Will was a little confused as to what Nico was trying to accomplish, but he guessed that was kind of interesting. He decided to test its limits. Will put both of his hands together, palms out, and pulsed harder, emitting a stronger, brighter ray of light. The force of it had Nico looking away for a moment, though his shadow wall still held. He condensed his wall, and it was honestly more than a little scary to see a thick rectangle of pitch-blackness just hovering there. Nico again checked behind his wall and looked back at Will with excitement in his eyes. “It’s good!”
Will let his light go, his arms feeling a bit tired after the training they had done beforehand. Nico decided to jump into his shadow wall and pop out right next to Will. Lazy little show-off.
“That was so cool! So, my shadows are stronger than your light beams,” he said with a mix of child-like wonder and smugness. Will didn’t know if it was cute or annoying.
“Yeah, and…?”
“So, I’m thinking,” Nico drew out as he plopped down once more on the ground. “If I can hold your light in a shadow, like wrap it up or something, it’d be concealed and way more useful. Also, if we used our powers together, it’d probably look pretty cool.” Nico always gestured with his hands when he was excited, sometimes accidentally stirring up the shadows around him in a way that seemed terrifying, but Will found endearing.
“I don’t know if that’ll work… you mean like covering one of my light balls in shadows? How would that work?”
“Basically, it’s like the flash grenade thing that it already does, but stealthy. No one would see it coming and then BAM light bomb.” Nico was grinning like a maniac at this point. Will was beginning to warm up to the idea as well when the dinner horn went off.
Will held his hand out to Nico, who immediately grabbed it and pulled himself up. He was already frowning when Will said, “Guess we’ll have to try it next time.”
Then, of course, Capture the Flag was announced, and Nico was determined to do the “dark flash” (Will was immediately against the name).
That evening, when strategy was set and the starting conch sounded, Will and Nico broke off to the right side. Not many people knew about Will’s powers, but they knew that the two of them had great chemistry in battle as well as outside of it. The couple either proved to be an insistent distraction to the other team or no help at all because they were making out. Will preferred the latter, but Nico was on a mission today.
“Okay, we’re far enough away from the other side still. Here,” he gathered a layer of shadows over his palms. “Make a small ball and put it here.”
Will cupped his hands together and concentrated. A soft glow emitted from his hands before it pulled together in the center, making a golf ball-sized ball of light. He moved his hands above Nico’s, looking up at his eyes to be sure before gently dropping the ball onto the shadow layer. The shadows stirred a bit, but otherwise remained fully intact. As Nico showed no signs of pain, Will was pleased with how their experiment was going so far.
“Okay, now let’s see if this part works.” Nico carefully brought his hands up around the ball, essentially laying his shadows over it like he was covering it with a blanket. “Focus on holding that ball shape, even if you can’t see it,” Nico reminded as the light of the ball was smothered by the darkness. Will nodded, watching as Nico held his shadows in place and now held the ball in his hand. It would be almost indiscernible in the darkness of the night if it weren’t for the contrast of Nico’s pale hand.
“Woah,” Will breathed. He couldn’t believe this was actually working, though he didn’t know what to do with it now.
Apparently, Nico did. The only warning he gave Will was a crooked grin before he chucked the ball as far as he could towards enemy territory. “Release it now!”
Will was honestly so caught off guard that he would’ve released his control on it anyway. He had no idea where it was, until there was a sudden burst of light about 30 yards to their front-left. Nico probably transported it with the shadows, whether purposefully or accidentally out of excitement. He heard a few yells of surprise, before “Solace!” rang out, sounding like Cecil but an octave higher. He was one of the few people who knew how Will and Nico were practicing using his new power.
Will was turning towards Nico to comment, when suddenly hands were on the collar of his shirt, tugging him down to meet Nico’s lips. The kiss was quick, Nico pulling back to exclaim, “Oh my gods, that was so awesome. Your powers make you, like, 20 times hotter.”
Will couldn’t help the smile that stretched his lips wide. “Are you saying I wasn’t hot before?” he said lowly as he wound his hands around Nico’s waist.
Nico gazed up at him with red cheeks and smiling eyes. “Oh, you were. You can imagine how difficult my life is now with your new levels of hot.”
Will hummed. “Let me make it easier.” He surged down to capture Nico’s lips once more, kissing with as much heat as he could muster. Nico groaned into his mouth, and Will was lost. Suddenly, he was pressing Nico up against a tree, nearly lifting him up so that he could kiss him better. Nico’s arms were looped around Will’s neck, simultaneously pulling himself up and pulling Will down towards him.
Will forgot about the game, about his powers, about anything except Nico. Nico and his tender lips, soft hair, muscular arms. His sweet voice, his tiny smile, his deep brown eyes. Will was lost and had no desire to be found.
Of course, with both of their eyes closed, neither noticed that Will was glowing like a firefly in the night. They were too caught up in each other, without a care in the world.
“Get a room!” The arrow that stuck with a thunk into the tree near their heads did catch their attention. Will whirled around to see that Lou Ellen and a few Hermes kids had surrounded them.
“Louuuuu,” Will whined like the child he was. “Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something?”
Lou Ellen snorted. “Uh, yeah, Will. Everyone can see that.” The other kids snickered, including the one directly behind Will.
He turned around to see Nico shaking with suppressed laughter. He pouted at his boyfriend, “What?” That simple question broke Nico, who burst out into giggles. His face was red, from the kissing or the laughter, Will wasn’t sure. The longer Nico laughed, the more confused Will became. “What is it?” Will asked again.
Nico kept laughing, but answered, “Will… look down.”
And he did. And he was a freaking beacon. Will flushed in embarrassment, which made it worse because his cheeks were almost glowing red now. Because that’s exactly how his stupid powers worked.
Nico got his laughter under control just enough to reach out and cup Will’s cherry red cheek. “Don’t worry, we can still get out of this one,” he winked. Will already knew this was going to be a disaster.
Lou Ellen scoffed, signaling her teammates to move in and capture the lovebirds. “Yeah right, di Angelo. Just let us tie you up so we can leave you idiots alone again. I don’t need to see you suck face anymore than I already do.”
Nico didn’t deign that with a reply as he covertly pulled together a mass of shadows. He gave Will a meaningful look, which Will assumed meant do the light thing. He knew he had to do it quickly, so he focused a lot of light into one spot right in front of Nico.
“Wrap it and throw!” he shouted, and Nico did as he was told. Unfortunately, Will kind of forgot that he had to hold his light together, so Nico ended up just throwing a bunch of shadows at the other campers while Will blinded everyone in the vicinity, including himself.
Chiron decided that using newfound powers in a Capture the Flag match was a hazard from then on.