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Thankfully, Will was the one working at the infirmary when Nico stumbled in, his clothes ripped and exhausted.
“Nico!” Will stood up and ran over to help Nico onto one of the cots, “what happened?”
“My dad needed me in the underworld, I was—“
“You were in the underworld?” Will’s hands suddenly froze as he was working to check up over Nico for any serious injury.
“Will, it’s not a big deal, I used to go back and forth all the time when doing things for my father and when I went rogue,” Nico reassured him.
“I told you to stay at camp and rest for a while and not go to the underworld,” Will swallowed hard, irrational anger was starting to bubble up in the pit of his stomach, he had no clue where it had even come from.
“I can’t just ignore my dad when he summons me Will,” Nico said with a sigh.
“I know.”
“I need to do what he asks just like when any other god asks one of us to do stuff. You wouldn’t just ignore your dad.”
“I know ,” Will wasn’t focusing on checking over Nico anymore, he dug his fingernails into his palm, “but maybe if you’d listen to me for once and not even go off whenever you want. I know for a fact that a lot of the times you go out it isn’t because your dad sent for you.”
“Will, it isn’t really a big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Will internally winced at how loud his voice sounded. His usual self restraint was starting to chip away.
“What is your problem with me shadow traveling or doing anything else with my powers? I have to train from somewhere. You don’t nag Percy all the time,” Nico furrowed his eyebrows, going immediately on the defense.
“Because Percy knows his limits. You don’t and maybe if you’d listen to me for once you wouldn’t have to be in here all the time!” Will got to his feet, stuffing his hands in his pockets to hide how deep he was digging his nails into his palms.
“Will…”
“Shut up Di Angelo,” Will snapped, “you are always here in the infirmary and every time I tell you to be careful and don’t shadow travel or do anything like that and you never listen !”
Nico stared at Will in shock, he had heard a lot of different tones of voice from the son of Apollo but he had never heard Will shout, at least shouting with such anger in his tone.
“And you know, it would be fine if at least someone would listen to me for once. I’m the doctor here, I’m the one that knows what’s best but no people just come in here, get patched up and go do the same thing over and over again,” Will jabbed a finger at Nico, “and you are no different. It’s always the same thing with you Di Angelo.”
A few campers had stopped at the doorway of the infirmary after hearing Will shouting.
“You always come in here with some magic injury that came from who knows where!” Will shouted, his face was pink with anger, “and then I tell you to avoid doing some things for a while and you just ignore me! And then you come in a few days later with a worse injury and I have to patch you up again because that’s my job !”
Will ran his fingers through his hair, tugging slightly, he had to control himself. He shouldn’t be shouting at Nico like this, Nico didn’t deserve that. But all Will’s self restraint was suddenly thrown out the window.
“And all for what? You to give me grief when I try to tell you not to do something. Put yourself in my shoes Nico!”
Kayla pushed through the crowd that had formed outside the infirmary, she walked over and put a hand on Will’s shoulder.
“Will,” she spoke softly.
Tears welled up in Will’s eyes, the day had been stressful… but he had no right to lash out at Nico like that.
“Kayla, take over for a while,” Will said, his voice shaking. Without waiting for her to say anything, Will left the infirmary, his head down.
Kayla only watched him go, not saying anything. She then turned to Nico and resumed Will’s job at looking him over for any serious injury.
“I’m sorry about that,” she spoke quietly, Nico only stared at his lap, “Will’s had a stressful day. It wasn’t your fault.”
“He’s right though, I should listen to him more,” Nico said.
Kayla hummed in agreement and looked up at him, “there doesn’t seem to be any serious injuries but if anything happens make sure to come in here right away,” she paused for a moment, glancing over at the now empty doorway, “could you do me a favor and go find Will. I don’t want him to be alone when he’s got himself all worked up like that.”
She didn’t say anything else but Nico got the message pretty clear. She didn’t want him to get hurt.
Nico nodded and left the infirmary, beginning his search for Will.
Will wasn’t on the beach, he wasn’t in his cabin, he wasn’t at the dining pavilion, he wasn’t at the archery range, he wasn’t even in the stables.
Eventually a camper said that he saw Will walk into the woods a few minutes ago, Nico nodded and trudged into the woods where the kid pointed.
“Will?” Nico called. There was no response.
Faintly Nico heard muffled crying so Nico followed that.
He found Will presses against the trunk of a tree, his knees pulled up to his chest, his fingers tangled in his hair. Nico could see him shaking as he roughly tugged at his hair.
“Will,” Nico knelt down in front of Will. It didn’t even seem like Will had heard him.
“Will it’s me, Kayla told me to come find you.”
Will tensed, so that must have meant that Will had heard Nico.
“I—go away…” Will muttered, his breath catching in his throat. He gasped and curled up deeper into himself.
“I’m not going away,” Nico said.
“Just—just leave me alone…” Will gasped out, “I don’t… I don’t want to talk.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Nico said calmly, “but I’m not going to leave you alone.”
Will let out a sob and he tugged harder at his hair, Nico could see traces of blood dotted in his blond curls.
“Stop that…” Nico whispered, covering Will’s hands with his own, “you’ll hurt yourself more.”
Will gasped for breath, he was still curled into a ball and refused to look at Nico. His entire body was trembling and he was hyperventilating.
“Will,” Nico gently untangled Will’s fingers from his hair, “look at me, please.”
Will shook his head, balling his hands into fists.
“Come on, sit up please, it’ll be easier to breathe,” Nico gently coaxed Will to look up at him. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy, tears still streaming down his face. His lip was bleeding and there were long scratch marks on his left cheek which were bleeding pretty bad.
“There we go, it’ll be easier to breathe when you’re not hunched over like that,” Nico said, rubbing Will’s knuckles with his thumb.
“S—Sorry,” Will gasped.
“You don’t need to apologize, just breathe with me, okay? Can you do that?”
Will nodded shakily.
Nico counted slowly, guiding Will through a breathing exercise. When Will’s breathing was finally close to normal Will pulled his knees up to his chest again and hid his face.
“I’m sorry,” Will said again, now that he was able to breathe without gasping or choking.
“You don’t need to be sorry Will,” Nico said, giving Will some space to collect himself. Nico knew from experience that sometimes you needed some time to collect yourself afterwards.
“I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that,” Will’s voice was slightly muffled by his knees.
“It’s okay, I get it. We all have those moments, though you need to get some better outlets and coping mechanisms,” Nico smiled as Will chuckled weakly.
“I’m the head counselor, and I have to be strong for all the younger children of Apollo and for all my patients, I can’t do that. I shouldn’t do that,” Will shook his head, clenching and unclenching his hands.
“You can’t bottle up all your feelings,” Nico leaned his back against the tree trunk.
“I can’t express them either, so what do you want me to do Nico?” Will snapped, he managed a small glare but the fatigue was hitting.
“You can express your feelings, you should express your feelings.”
“I have to keep calm around my patients, I have to stay optimistic and confident around the younger campers, I have to be polite around the older campers,” Will shook his head, “I can’t just last out at people, I can’t show how nervous I get around patients when a wound is really bad, I can’t just show what I’m feeling. ”
“It’s not healthy to bottle your feelings,” that was probably obvious but Nico said it anyway.
“Since when are you lecturing me about health?” Will asked.
“Since just now, can I touch you?”
“Yeah.”
Tentatively, Nico wrapped his arm around Will’s shoulder. Will leaned into Nico’s embrace, curling up against his side.
“If you just continue to bottle up your emotions, eventually you’ll run out of bottle space and the bottle will break, like what just happened,” Nico explained, drawing imaginary pictures in the air to represent bottles, “you should talk about it sometimes, or when you feel like your bottle is getting full or when things start to get too much you can come to me.”
“Thanks,” Will muttered, his head resting on Nico’s shoulder, “for everything too, and… not hating me I guess after I lashed out at you like that. I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t, but I could never hate you.”
“Thanks.”
“You should get to the infirmary, you’re bleeding,” Nico said.
“What will everyone else think, seeing me coming out of the woods looking like this, I don’t assume I look very pleasant,” Will looked down at himself disgustedly.
“Well, you’re definitely a sight to see,” Nico joked, “but it’s not like anyone will say anything, and the sooner you get to the infirmary so that you can be taken care of, the sooner you can go take a nap.”
“You strive a hard bargain, I’m exhausted,” Will muttered.
“I can imagine so,” Nico stood up, taking Will’s hand, “come on, Kayla is worried about you anyways.”
“Right.”
Nico dragged Will out of the woods to the infirmary, where Kayla promptly crushed him in a hug. Will then apologized to her.
“Shut up, don’t apologize,” Kayla scolded as she gave him a small bite of ambrosia and the scratches on his face healed almost immediately.
Nico then took Will to the Hades cabin and tucked Will into his bed, claiming that the Hades cabin would be quieter during the day.
(Nico ended up staying while Will slept, maybe even falling asleep as well)