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Day 5: Nightmares/Sleeptalking
Nico smiled as he ran his fingers through the smooth golden curls of his sleeping boyfriend. Will was currently using his lap at a pillow as Nico leaned against a tree. They were in a small well hidden field that they had stumbled upon one day. It was filled with beautiful flowers and surround by tall trees giving them shade and privacy. The two of them came here often to just enjoy being together without be bothered by the other campers. Recently, Will had been taking the night shift in the infirmary so they could spend more time together or so he said. It seemed that spending time together always ended with Will asleep on Nico. Nico didn’t mind, but he was worried. Most Apollo campers liked the night shift since it was slow and one could just sleep normally unless something happened. Will, on the other hand, seemed to be exhausted every morning Nico went to pick him up after breakfast.
It would be easy to blame all the new demigods they were getting, but most showed up physically unharmed, a little shaken, but unharmed. It was the nightmares that were causing the most problems among camp. Due to the demand, the camp had been running low on dreamless sleep medicine that the Demeter, Hecate and Hypnos cabins worked on. Nightmares were becoming such a problem that Chiron had a nightmare infirmary built attached to the Hypnos cabin so that Clovis and his siblings could help ward off the nightmares. Even that didn’t seem to help the growing nightmares among demigods. Most feared that it meant another war was coming, something no one wanted. However, Clovis said it was Epiales, the daimon of nightmares, son of the goddess Nyx. This had everyone worried even more, but Clovis said that as long as they could reduce the amount of nightmares Epiales would leave. Epiales only had power if there were too many nightmares happening in one place.
Nico’s thoughts were interrupted by a mumble of his name by a sleeping Will. He couldn’t help but smile when he noticed Will was smiling in his sleep. He vaguely wondered if Will was having nightmares as well, but as he looked at smile on the blond’s sleeping face, there was no doubt in his mind that Will was fine. The lunch horn sounded, waking the son of Apollo with a groan.
“I’m sorry,” Will mumbled as he tried to rub the sleepiness from his eyes. Nico loved sleepy Will, he was so adorable.
Nico laughed softly, “It’s okay. Did you sleep well?”
Will smiled, “I always sleep better when I am with you.” Nico felt his face heat up as he blushed.
“Me too,” he stuttered which only caused Will to laugh and his blush to deepen. The son of Apollo got up and brushed the grass off his shorts and shirt before he offer his hand to Nico. The son of Hades took the offered hand and was immediately pulled into a hug. Naturally, he hugged his boyfriend back.
“Thank you for letting me sleep.” Will said. “I am sorry that I have been wasting our time together sleeping.”
“Anytime, Sunshine.” Nico smiled as he placed a chaste kiss on Will’s lips. “Although I am worried that you don’t seem to be getting enough sleep. Is everything okay with the night shift?”
Will pulled away from the hug, a look of shame crossed his face. His hands started to play with the hem of his shirt, something he always did when he was nervous.
“Please don’t be mad,” he begged with a half smile.
Nico let out a sigh as he took Will’s hands into his own in hopes to bring his boyfriend some comfort. “I won’t be mad, just various degrees of irritated depending on what you are about to say.”
Will bit his lip as he looked at the ground. “I maaaay be using my empath abilities to help with the nightmares.” He took a deep breath. “And that maaay be redirecting a good deal of the nightmares to me instead.” He visibly winced when he looked up and saw Nico’s angry face. “I’m sorry...”
“Willll,” Nico groaned in annoyance. “You can’t keep taking everyone’s pain away and suffering through it yourself.”
“I know I know!” Will blurted out. “It is just...” he let out a heavy sigh. “I do it so they don’t suffer because I know I won’t as long as I have you....” Nico didn’t know what to say as Will continued on. “I know it sounds stupid, but being able to feel your heartbeat and vitals while I am asleep grounds me. It lets me know that no matter what is happening it isn’t real. That when I wake up, you are still watching over me...” Nico smiled as he watched the eruption of a blush consume Will’s face. Nervous blue eyes looked up for a brief moment then darted back down to the ground.
“It is part of the reason why I switched shifts.” Will continued with a timid smile. “I mean the obvious reason being that I can help better at night with the nightmares. The other reason is since Chiron banned me from being in the Hades cabin alone with you, the only time I know I can sleep with you is here...and we come here every morning...so I know I will be able to sleep without nightmares...”
Nico couldn’t help but pull his boyfriend into a tight hug. “I know exactly what you’re talking about Sunshine. Remember, it was why I would shadow travel to your bed in the middle of the night.”
Will chuckled softly, “Yeah. Chiron was so angry when he came to get me one morning and saw you sleeping there with me not realizing that you had been doing that for months.”
Nico chuckled as well, “Yeah. But not as mad as he was when he caught us in my cabin.” He pulled back as they both laughted at the memory. His fingers brushed away some stray hairs from Will’s face. “But back to the matter at hand.” Their fingers linked together. “If you need help sleeping because you are helping with the nightmares, I could need to stay overnight in the infirmary due to some kind of injury. I’m not as powerful as the children of Hypnos, but I am very versed in dream walking.”
Will laughed with a devious look in his eyes. “Might need a doctor’s note again.”
“I think I might,” Nico replied, a small kiss placed on Will’s forehead. “Good thing I know just the doctor to write me one.”