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The thing with Nico is – the thing with Nico is – he gets this idea in his head, and he can’t leave it alone. He can’t. That’s Nico’s biggest problem – not his self-esteem, not his temper. His inability to see outside of what his brain tells him – that’s Nico’s problem. And that’s probably where his other issues stem from.
Will understood that. And he understood that Nico needed his space – he needed his space as a person, and he needed his space to revaluate what he thought was true. Will must have surprised him. You can’t help out a friend? Nico needed time to recalibrate the idea that Will liked him at all. So he gave him time. And then some more.
Nico was healing nicely, and he was helping around the tent, and he was mingling in camp and making friends and doing well. Despite the fact that he was still a little scattered in terms of spirit – if Nico tried to shadow-travel even from one cabin to another he was likely to faint – when it came to matters of the heart Nico was still dense. He was so damn dense, light bended around him (a metaphor Will thought himself clever for thinking up – Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, darkness, light bends around the dense motherfucker, haha. Guess Will had some of his dad in him after all).
Apollo had actually popped up to greet Will, with amazing advice, too. Something about poetry to ‘woo the Nico kid.’ There was also something in there about ‘never have anal sex without a condom,’ but at that point Will was trying desperately to get his dad to shut up. He’d managed to squash the urge to tell a dumb joke and relate his amazing metaphor to the God. Instead he decided to point out that poetry didn’t woo people like it did back in 1609, and that it was hard to compare Nico to a summer’s day. (And ‘shall I compare thee to a brooding winter’s evening’ sounded less romantic, and was not in iambic pentameter. He liked Nico, but the kid wasn’t known for being upbeat and approachable.)
His dad’s shitty advice and Nico’s impossibility to understand a hint were the two things currently vexing Will. He’d let his hands linger. Started hugging the kid. They shared these smiles he couldn’t put into words. And Nico? It felt like Nico just didn’t get it. And Will was almost completely sure he was Nico’s type, if the younger boy wasn’t outright interested in the first place.
He was tempted to chalk it up to a conversation he’d had with Percy a couple of days ago. Percy heard rumours about Will making out with one of the Stoll brothers, and Will had confirmed it (it happened like. Years ago. One time! How this old shit still got around camp, Will would never figure out). Percy asked him what it was like to be gay – and the thing was, Will wasn’t gay. He was bisexual. Nico had walked into the tent right as Will was explaining his sexuality, and Will had chalked his leaving up to Nico simply being Nico around Percy. Now that his advances were being ignored, however...
He hadn’t thought Nico would be bothered by the idea of bisexuality. Hell, maybe he wasn’t and Will was seeing things that weren’t there. But at camp, everyone was really accepting. You sort of had to be, when there was 100% chance someone’s dad had fucked as many men as women (Will always laughed when he thought about all the people the Gods fucked. His favourite story was Ganymede, and he thought about it every time Thalia or Jason showed up at camp. Especially because he knew for a fact Thalia was totally lesbian and knew how to get around the ‘eternal maiden’ clause in her contract with Artemis).
That’s what the problem was, though – all the Greek mythology, all the shit their parents pulled, that was accepted. It had to be. There weren’t a lot of homophobes at camp, and people usually learnt not to be pretty early on when they were. But outside of camp, Will was aware that his sexuality wasn’t as well received, and Nico hadn’t been at camp all that much.
He’d confessed his worries to Lou Ellen, who suggested he just speak to Nico about it. As usual, Lou Ellen was mostly unhelpful (except not really. Lou Ellen was great. Nico just didn’t seem to do well in direct communication so much). He’d tried to ask Cecil for advice on how to handle the situation without actually giving himself away. He didn’t need his feelings for Nico making their way through camp, and he thought himself very subtle.
“The kid hangs around Jason a lot. Seems close with Reyna, too. Maybe ask them what Nico’s thing is,” Cecil said.
Will had thought himself very subtle up until that moment. He was a terrible liar, but he gave it a go anyway as he tried not to balk.
“Pft. Psh. Who said it was about Nico?”
“Are you serious right now, Will? It’s not like I’ll say anything to him,” Cecil said. “Besides, you should have seen your face when you saw Nico on that hill. Your first thought was ‘oh no, he’s hot’ and we both know it.”
Will made a mental note not to fuck with the Hermes cabin. Again. He’d made that note so often, yet for some reason he always forgot the Hermes kids were observant and usually made his life more difficult.
“Like I said, won’t tell a soul,” Cecil continued, probably because he could tell what Will was thinking. He was too transparent. At least Cecil wasn’t one of the Stoll brothers, who would have most definitely told people. Will silently thanked the Gods that wasn’t a trait all the Hermes siblings shared.
“Okay. Well. Thanks. And thanks, for the advice,” Will said. Cecil patted his shoulder before he left, a curt nod his goodbye. Will might actually go and talk to Jason, who was buff as fuck but not as buff as Frank, and marginally less intimidating as the son of Zeus (Jupiter, whatever) because he now wore some hilariously ugly glasses. He wasn’t sure yet about Reyna, who was the Roman praetor and also very intimidating.
He decided to go to the archery range to clear his head for a bit (and to train. Gods know as a son of Apollo his aim should be better. The only thing he could do was heal people, and that was only marginally useful) so he slung his quiver over his back and made his way there. He could talk to Jason once he felt comfortable in his skin again.
The class Kayla had been teaching had just ended, so the younger campers all retreated for their lunch break. After a short chat with her, she also left to hang out with Lou Ellen so Will had the range to himself, which he preferred when he was training. As the counsellor for Apollo cabin he didn’t like to call attention to how bad he was at this.
Nico had followed Will when he saw the older boy cross camp. He wanted to just hang out, and it was rare to be able to do that outside of the infirmary, but when he saw Will nock his first arrow, he decided to just watch. Will was an archer – but he wasn’t a very good one, not compared to some of the other Apollo kids, and Nico knew Will was sensitive about it. If there was one thing Nico could recognize in other people it was their insecurities.
Nico watched silently, and didn’t really think anything of it until Will’s sweat had soaked through his orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, and it was clinging to his body in delicious ways. With every arrow nocked, the shirt clung to his back and then his shoulders, and Nico felt the need to make his presence known because otherwise this would not end well. And also because his was invading on his privacy, even though he was training in public. Yeah. That. (Nico ignored the other kids running around the area.)
“You’re not as bad as you say you are, you know.”
Will recognized Nico’s voice almost immediately and lowered his bow. He smiled sheepishly at the younger boy.
“You should see the other Apollo kids. I’m really bad,” Will said, trying not to sound dejected. But then he saw Nico, who looked paler then he had yesterday. “You didn’t sleep very well,” Will said, changing the subject. Nico had been doing really well lately so to see him like this again – pale, with baggy eyes – was definitely not an improvement.
Nico kicked some of the gravel and muttered something about testing his powers.
“I told you not to try anythin’, Death Boy. And I know you’re sleepin’ badly, but you look worse today than you did before.”
“I’ll be fine again tomorrow, promise. Everyone has a bad day, right? It’s not a big deal.”
Will didn’t think having bad days in the middle of recovery was a good thing, especially not if the sole cause was Nico’s habit of raising the dead against doctor’s orders. Instead of berating Nico (which only worked well sometimes; it was important to have a take-no-shit attitude as a healer and Nico especially was a stubborn demigod, but counter-productivity was Will’s worst enemy. Except maybe the Hermes’ cabin) he just laughed and made a stupid joke, which was his specialty.
“I swear to Apollo, if you look dead on your feet one more time I’m gonna to shove my entire quiver up my ass.”
Nico wrinkled his nose.
“And I’m doing things that are detrimental to my health.”
“Did you just make a joke?” Will asked, his grin spreading across his entire face. He slung his bow over his shoulder, careful not to break the string as he walked over to Nico. “Did you just make a joke? I do believe you’re improvin’, Sunshine. Could that be my stellar influence?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“But you’re cute,” Will said, before he could control himself. He took small pleasure in the fact that he saw Nico’s face heat up, red as a beet, but it was short lived when he felt his own cheeks burn.
“It’s cute. I meant. Uhm, that it’s cute. To call you that. Because of your reactions. And stuff.”
Will stopped himself from rambling and instead scratched the back of his neck making what he felt was probably the least attractive expression he could possibly muster.
Nico looked stunned – rather, he looked frozen in place, which made sense because Nico felt butterflies (probably skeletal ones) resurrect in his stomach and felt even more awkward than he usually did, because Will was one of those people who was so nice and friendly to Nico that he couldn’t tell whether or not he was flirting. And it pissed him off because this was going to be Percy all over again, because at first he was so sure Will was interested in him and now he wasn’t anymore, but the butterflies never left when he was around Will.
“Please say somethin’,” Will said. “Or at least like, walk away all offended like.”
“Why would I be offended?” Nico managed to croak out.
“You know I. I do think you’re cute, too,” Will said. His blush was subsiding. “Next to callin’ you Sunshine, I mean,” he continued, because obviously Nico would not have understood what he meant. Mentally he punched himself in the face. Smooth, Solace, like fucking sandpaper. But now that it was out there, Will had to admit he felt more comfortable. Maybe a head-on approach was the way to go. Lou Ellen hadn’t let him down before.
Nico had planned for a very suave reply, because if this wasn’t Will flirting he was going to make it Will flirting, because he was sick of dancing around it and he was sick of Will’s stupid sexy southern accent. There was something there, something between them. His confidence left him just as he opened his mouth.
“Iactuallythinkyou’rereallyhot.”
It rushed out of him, and Nico’s blush intensified tenfold. He should not have said that – he should not have said that.
Will wasn’t entirely sure how to react (barring a pun about being son of the Sun God haha, of course he was hot, Nico would literally fucking stab him) – and at first, he couldn’t. After he’d deciphered what came out of Nico’s mouth he sort of had to freeze for a while. Well, at least he knew Nico was outright interested in him. Suddenly, he was very, very aware of how close they were – uhh, physically. They’d moved in closer at some point during their conversation.
“I. I’m gonna. Go.” Nico looked almost pained as he stuttered it out, so Will decided to let him go – and he held in his big dumb goofy smile until Nico was far enough not to see it. Okay, so he’d left. But Will Solace knew how to count his victories.
Will saw Nico again at dinner – but he was with Reyna, Hazel and Frank, which gave him a good excuse not to sit with them. He was sure those three were nice just. Reyna was fucking intimidating, and Frank was so buff he would have been automatically intimidating, if it wasn’t for his generally clueless expressions and his extreme friendliness (which was a good quality to have, but Will was sure Frank could accidentally snap his neck by petting him on the back as a gesture of goodwill, so there was that).
Hazel caught his eye and smiled at him (knowingly. Probably. If he didn’t read it into the expression. Hazel was Nico’s sister and she knew things, even if no one ever acknowledged it. Sort of reminded him of Lou Ellen) as he opted to sit with his cabin – who were sitting with Percy and Jason. He just so happened to be looking for Jason.
After dinner (which had generally been uneventful. He saw Reyna forcing Nico to eat something, which was good because he wasn’t there to do it. Percy and Jason also got into a boasting contest-thing but that happened every other hour, and it was nothing if not entertaining) Will made sure to grab Jason away from the others.
“Hey man – hey, sorry, I know you’re headin’ to uhm. To Piper. I just have – I sort of need some advice.”
Jason was generally a nice guy. Will almost hated him for it, because he was also really good looking and really taken, and he knew he was close with Nico. But you couldn’t really get away with hating Jason – he was like Percy in that sense, too damn likeable and too damn accepting.
“You’re good friends with Nico, right?”
“So are you, aren’t you? He’s been eating and sleeping again, which is good. I know that was you,” Jason said.
The conversation that followed was one of Will’s most awkward – yet nice – memories. Jason was obviously careful not to reveal anything Nico didn’t want him to, which was something Will could appreciate in a friend and didn’t try to push. Jason did talk about how they became friends on the Argo II, and eventually he got the information he needed, with a nice threat to boost. I know he likes you, but if you hurt him I will smite you, Solace. He liked Jason.
After Jason, Will decided to look for Reyna. Reyna was a bit easier to catch, and he felt less guilty for talking to her – she was in the stables. Will liked second opinions. Will liked second opinions of people who were smarter than him, and who had more information available than him. Sometimes, Cecil gave good advice.
“You’re. You’re close with Nico. We all know it,” he told her. “I know you guys are close. Good friends. I, uhm, I need some advice.”
Reyna, whom he knew was a bit of a hardass, turned out to also be one of the nicest people he’d ever met. She was very understanding, more so than Jason.
“You’d be good for him, I think,” she told him at the end of their exchange. “Nico’s come far, in terms of accepting himself. It’s too easy for him to fall back into before,” she continued. Will felt like there was something unspoken in there, something that he didn’t know about. She noticed his confusion and waved her hand dismissively.
“It’s not important. When you take the Athena Parthenos across the world, you learn a bit about each other.”
With another threat, one much more reminiscent of her strict, stoic side, he left her to take care of the pegasi (he would later learn it was horses that brought out her soft side. Will thought that was hilarious, because Percy could talk to them and all he ever heard was that horses liked to swear. Reyna definitely did not strike him as a swear-y type).
Will faintly wondered if Nico’s issue wasn’t so much with Will’s bisexuality as it was with his own sexuality. He hadn’t really thought about it, before, but now that Reyna brought it up it made sense. Nico hadn’t been around camp a lot. Outside of camp, his sexuality wasn’t as well received. Will felt really, really stupid.
Nico wasn’t ignoring his advances. Nico was (beside dense as fuck, because let’s face it, he was) struggling with himself.
The next day, Will decided to build on his direct approach from the day before. After breakfast he headed to the infirmary, but Nico wasn’t there – he saw him helping Percy with sword training. It was too busy to really do anything about it, though, and he wasn’t going to ask for Nico’s help here if it would be awkward (and doing his whole confession thing in the middle of the sick bay with his patients around would not be a great scene. Although it would be fucking hilarious). By the time he had his break he was too tired to really seek Nico out.
He headed to the Apollo cabin – which was deserted. That wasn’t odd this time of day, right after lunch break, as most of his siblings would be busy training, helping at the infirmary, or hanging out with the Romans (having this much new blood at Camp Half-Blood was fun, even Will would admit to that).
He was getting ready for a nap – in his surgeons shirt, because when he was tired he was tired, fuck taking clothes off, when Nico walked in.
“Hey. Uhm, I’m here about yesterday.”
Nico scratched the back of his neck in an awkward gesture Will recognized too well. He jumped down from his bunk.
“I. Wanted to talk to you about that, too—”
Nico interrupted him.
“Look, just pretend I didn’t say anything. It was really inappropriate of me, and—”
“Innapropriate? I. I hit on you, dude,” Will said, because it was his turn to interrupt. “I meant it. I think you’re cute.” He shuffled awkwardly to accompany his revelation.
“You said we were friends, remember, so it’s weird if I—”
“I do want to be your friend. Your. Your Boy. Friend. Your boyfriend. Like, holdin’ hands and stuff.”
Well, at least Will couldn’t get any more direct. He was sure his cheeks – and his ears, fucking traitors – were as red as Nico’s face.
“Oh.”
There was a silence – not a wholly uncomfortable one, but it was a close call.
“Well. Obviously I’m. I’m interested, too,” Nico said eventually, biting his lower lip.
“Well. That’s good, right?”
This was the most awkward conversation he’d ever had. Apollo’s wear a condom talk did not hold a candle to this. Even though it shouldn’t have been awkward, because mutual interest was just established. Will took solace (hah) in knowing that Nico was just as awkward as he was.
“I’m just. I wasn’t sure – and it’s hard, to, uhm. To make sure, and stuff,” Nico said, because Nico di Angelo was a very eloquent person. He liked to think his hand gestures made up for his inarticulate communication, but right now he wasn’t so sure.
“Then what’s the problem?” Will eventually asked, making sure not to sound perplexed. He wasn’t angry at Nico, and he didn’t want to younger boy to close up again. Will mussed his hair – usually he kept it short, but he hadn’t had time to cut it since the war, so the blonde curls passed his ears and were almost in his eyes.
Nico remained silent however, opting to stare at his feet instead. Will was only interested because he wasn’t aware of Nico’s shit. He knew Will did everything to make sure that Nico knew he didn’t care about – about Nico being a son of Hades. That he felt comfortable. But this wasn’t about his father, this was about his sexuality, and Will didn’t know about that. Fact of the matter was that Will was confident and comfortable, and Nico? Nico had trouble with himself.
“Is it because I’m bisexual? I know you walked in when I was explainin’ it to Percy.”
“It’s not... it’s not that, I mean. Styx, it’s just,” Nico halted abruptly and stared Will in the eye. “You’re just so. So obviously comfortable with your – y’know. You’re so comfortable in your skin,” he finished lamely.
“I’m from North Carolina,” Will said, his suspicions confirmed. “My mum, she was cool with it. But the rest of ‘em? I got bullied an awful lot.”
There’s a pause where Will refused to look Nico in the eye, and instead stared at his feet. Nico decided it wasn’t a look that belonged with Will Solace.
“No point in hatin’ yourself, though, and the camp’s not bothered by it. It helps. Some of the Aphrodite kids actually have some good advice and they know how to listen.”
“But it’s not that simple, is it?” Nico said, looking away from Will, who’d gone back to looking at him intently.
“Nah. But you’ll get there. Heard from Jason you came a long way already,” Will said, and when Nico glared at him he held up his hands in surrender. “He didn’t tell me, Grace took your secret very seriously. Don’t blame him. I just sort of recognize the sexuality thing from a mile away, y’know?”
“You went to Jason?”
“And Reyna. I wasn’t sure if you were interested, or if you were strugglin’ with it, or. Or how to deal with it. I needed advice. About us.”
Us. Nico felt a blush rise to his cheeks. There was definitely an us when it came to him and Will, there was definitely something between them. But it wasn’t official and it was something Nico only admitted to himself in the darkness of his cabin.
There was a rush of relief, too. I recognize the sexuality thing from a mile away. I got bullied an awful lot. Nico hated Will Solace, his stupid six feet of understanding and acceptance. Nico thought that this might work, right? If they were both interested? And it’s not like Nico could hide behind his reasoning any longer.
“Recalibratin’?” Will joked, his grin spreading across his entire face. He saw Nico getting lost in thought. The son of Hades didn’t get the joke, and Will didn’t expect him to, so instead he laced their fingers together.
“Can I kiss you?”
That was supposed to be Will’s line. He’d already had it planned and everything. But before he could make his smooth move, Nico blurted it as if he’d been waiting to ask, waiting since the very first day at the infirmary, and that was true, and the blush that had finally left Nico’s cheeks returned full force.
Will didn’t hesitate. With his free hand he cupped Nico’s cheek before he swooped down and pressed their lips together. Nico hadn’t expected it and they were at an awkward angle with their height differences, and Will’s neck sort of hurt to crane the way it did. But Nico got into it and unlaced their fingers and kissed back, fingers tangling in Will’s too-long, curling blonde hair, and Will didn’t feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.
“Are you sure you aren’t bothered by the bi thing?” Will murmured against Nico’s lips as they manoeuvred into a more comfortable position to kiss. “Some people don’t deal well with the ‘multiple genders are hot’ thing.”
“Shut up,” Nico said after he pressed another kiss to Will’s lips. Nico bit Will’s lower lip – where the fuck did he learn to do that – and pulled back slightly, before moving back in to deepen the kiss. Will smoothed his hands down Nico’s back, but before he could grab his ass (god fucking damnit), there was a loud whoop! and they pulled away from each other, Nico still in Will’s embrace.
The entry to the Apollo cabin was full of Will’s stupid fucking family, but the crowd was larger than that. It was headed by Connor and Travis Stoll, and he saw Lou Ellen and Cecil, and even Percy’s face (who wore an expression Will could not name, but was fucking hilarious anyway).
“Will just wants the D—”
“—Angelo!”
Connor and Travis high-fived, because they had no sense of humour and no one else was going to praise them for that monstrosity. Percy lost his shit. He got a lot of weird looks.
(One day Will was going to massacre the Hermes cabin.)