Chapter Text
Day 4: Free Day
Will let out a tired sigh as he sorted through the infirmary paperwork. Recently they have been getting an influx of new campers. He had a feeling it was due the addition to all different god and goddess cabins they had added to make sure all were represented. Unfortunately, it made his job that much harder when it came to sorting through all the files in the small room they called an office. He was about to open another folder when Tali from the Aphrodite cabin stormed into the infirmary.
“Will!” the girl shouted as he emerged from the office. “We need to talk about your boyfriend!”
Will blinked in confusion. “What?” He allowed his healing powers to seek any injuries, but couldn’t find anything. The only thing he got was from his empathy link, and that was anger so he sent out a calming feeling in hopes Tali would calm down a bit.
“You’re boyfriend has been tormenting the Aphrodite cabin with skeletons all day!”
Will sighed as he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “What did you say to piss him off?”
“We didn’t do anything!” Tali argued. “It isn’t our fault that he was eves dropping on some private Aphrodite cabin gossip.”
Will just rolled his eyes again with a good idea of Nico could have possibly heard. The gossip had been about Nico, about his sudden growth spurt and apparent hotness. The son of Hades was now taller than him, with a long slim and muscular body. Nico had always been beautiful in Will’s eyes, it just took the rest of the camp longer to notice because they were blind. He knew how much his boyfriend hated when people gossiped about him because of how mean everyone was to him at first.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be gossiping about my boyfriend then.” Will suggested with a shrug. “You know how much he hates to be the topic of gossip.”
“But we weren’t talking about Nico!” Tali whined pathetically as she stomped her foot on the floor.
“Then who where you talking about?”
Tali looked offended that he even asked. “That is offical Aphrodite cabin business.”
Will raised an eyebrow with a smirk. “You know I could just ask Nico, right?”
“I doubt he would tell you.”
“Why wouldn’t he tell me?” Will asked as he started to lose some of his confidence.
“I guess it can’t be helped.” Tali rolled her amber eyes and flipped her golden hair. “You’ll find out eventually anyways.” She looked at her perfectly manicured nails with a bored expression. “We were talking about all the people that puberty finally hit and would need some advice from us to hide their new found ugliness. After all, not all of you are blessed with just natural beauty. And you were on the list.”
“Oh..." Will whispered as looked at the floor. He knew what Tali was talking about, but he had thought he had hid it better. It was true, that while Nico seemed become some sculpted statue of perfection Will, on the other hand, had developed terrible acne and kept same awkward lanky boyish figure. While his healing abilities kept the the acne from scarring, there was only so much he could do to keep zits from continuing to pop up. He had tried a bunch of different remedies and none of them worked.
He had read in some of the medical notes by previous healers that it was common for healers to have terrible acne for a year or two once they hit puberty. It was caused by absorbing acne on accident from people they healed because their powers thought they were wounds that needed to be healed. The notes compared it to small cuts and bruises, that when one healed a major wound their powers also sought out other injuries. In fact, sometimes it was harder to keep healing powers from healing everything than healing in general.
If the acne wasn’t bad enough, his facial hair was growing in weird patches that were hard to shave because of the acne. Then there was Nico, that looked like he was just constantly and perfectly clean shaven (because he was) as if he just woke up that way.
“Oh don’t look so down Will,” Tali sighed heavily. “The Aphrodite cabin is willing to help. No need to be melodramatic.”
Will frowned as he fought tears. “You should leave.”
“Okay, come by the Aphrodite cabin when you want to not drag down Nico’s hotness score by dating you.” Tali gave a small wave as she left the infirmary.
Will sat down on the nearest cot completely defeated. Tali had been right. He was bringing Nico down. Why would Nico want to stay with him, when he could have anyone he wanted? He wasn’t new to being made fun of, but being told he wasn’t good enough for Nico hurt.
He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there, when the infirmary doors opened. He quickly tried to wipe his face to hide the fact that he had been crying and put on a bright smile.
His beautiful boyfriend’s smile greeted him. “Hey Sunshine, you missed diner.” He held up a plate of food that contained Will’s favorites before giving him a quick peck on the lips. “Been too busy resorting all the paperwork again?”
“Yeah...” Will replied with another fake smile as he took the food from Nico. “Thanks, Death boy.”
Nico frowned, “What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Will asked as he tried to look confused.
“You’re upset about something,” Nico stated as he took one of Will’s hands in his own. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
Will looked into the worried eyes of his boyfriend wondering when Nico became so good at reading him. He knew that they had been through so much together and shared so many stories, but this felt different. Never before had he been so scared of being rejected by the person he loved so much. He wondered if this was how Nico felt before Will finally confessed his feelings for him.
Will looked down as he set the plate of food down. “I...do...” He took a deep breath. “Do you still love me even though I am ugly?” Nico stayed silent for so long that Will took that as an answer and tried to pull away. Nico stopped him by pulling him into a bone-crushing hug.
“Of course I still love you,” Nico whispered into his ear. “And you aren’t ugly. How could you ever think otherwise?”
Will couldn’t hold back his tears anymore and just let them all out as he sobbed into his boyfriend’s chest. He cried because Nico still loved him. He cried because Nico didn’t think he was ugly. He cried because he was so stupid to let Tali get to him.
“I’m going to have ghosts haunt the Aphrodite cabin for months.” Nico growled protectively. He took Will face between his hands and made blue eyes meet obsidian. “I love you Sunshine, don’t ever doubt that.” He gave Will a soft kiss. “And you will always be beautiful to me because you are the one I love. My beautiful,” kiss “amazing” kiss “kind” kiss “powerful boyfriend.”
“Thank you,” Will whispered before he took Nico’s face between his own hands so he could kiss his boyfriend passionately. He didn’t know what he did right to have Nico be his, but he was grateful. He knew he would never love anyone as much as he loved Nico DiAngelo.