Archive of Our Own

Actually, he was a lot more than “a bit” nervous.

Funny, how being chased by five well-trained Roman soldiers suddenly seemed so much more preferable than giving his crush a simple gift.

When lunch had ended, Apollo cabin headed towards the archery range, while Will made his way to the arena. Ever since one particularly memorable disaster, Will didn’t really participate in archery practice anymore. He either sat on the sidelines and cheered his siblings on – encouraging those who weren’t doing great and praising the ones who were, as well as mediating any conflicts that might rise up – or he took the chance to head over to the arena and practice with a different weapon.

Or, that was his excuse. Truthfully, he took advantage of the opportunity to watch Nico train, as the Big Three kids usually taught a sword fighting class about this time. One wouldn’t have thought three teachers (sometimes four or five if Thalia and/or Hazel were at Camp) would be necessary, and again, if he was being truthful, it wasn’t. However, Nico, Percy, and Jason had three different sword fighting styles and, three different perspectives. Besides, after the class was done, before it was time to move on to the next activity, they would spar each other, which was the best kind of practice for them.

Anyway; it was a great opportunity to watch Nico in action, now that there wasn’t a battle going on and he wasn’t in danger of melting into the shadows. (Though, if at any point Nico caught Will watching him, he could always use the excuse that he was making sure Nico wasn’t having a relapse…especially since powers would somehow always get involved during these things; usually started by Percy, sometimes by Jason, occasionally by Nico.)

Or, as a few of his siblings put it, he spent his training time ogling Nico and not actually practicing at all.

“It’s not really all that surprising, if you think about it,” one of his sisters had said. “I mean, he did spend the whole aftermath of the Battle of Manhattan talking about how amazing Nico was. ‘Oh gosh, did you see his armor? So cool!’” She mimicked him. “’And the way he just burst in like that? Awesome!’”

Yeah. His siblings had all taken bets about when they would finally get together. He kept telling them that Nico needed to actually be interested first, but any time he said that, every single one of his siblings in the area would turn and give him an identical look. It was look he was quite used to – you’re so dense, Will Solace.

They gave him that look at least once a day, though not always for his Nico troubles.

His siblings had pretty much taken Nico under their collective wing. He was an unofficial member of the Apollo cabin, much like Rachel Dare. He was their first pick for Capture the Flag; if Jason and Percy were out or if he didn’t feel like sitting with them then the Apollo cabin always seemed to make room at their table; he’d even been invited to stay in their cabin on multiple occasions. They thought he was the best thing ever, especially when he’d gotten back into Mythomagic. He taught quite a few of them how to play – Will had tried to learn, but apparently he wasn’t very good at that either…he was working on it, though. All of them looked out for Nico, too, unafraid of retaliating when other campers tried to give him crap. (Though if Will was being honest, Jason usually got there first.)

Will had been a bit nervous and embarrassed at first, by the way his brothers and sisters enthusiastically went about making Nico one of them, but Nico seemed happy about it. A little amazed, a little awed too, but mostly happy. He was still hesitant and shy when it came to the cabin, but he was doing better about that. He was much more comfortable with the Apollo cabin than he was a lot of the other campers, which never failed to bring a smile to Will's face.

Will didn’t bother with the pretense of picking out a weapon today – he knew he wasn’t going to get any actual training done today. He was way to busy thinking about Nico. Instead he settled into the bleachers with a few other campers. Some who were taking a quick break from training, some who were using the bleachers as a hang out place, and some who -- like Will -- had stopped what they were doing to watch the three Big Three boys teach, argue, and eventually spar.

He remembered the first week, when the Stoll’s had set up a betting pool every day, trying to figure out who the winner would be. They had eventually grown tired of that, though, as betting on the same people every day got a bit boring after a while.

Will watched them teach the sword class. He wasn’t surprised that Percy was pretty good with the kids – he was basically just a big kid himself. Nor he was he surprised about Jason. Nico, though, he’d been a little surprised to see how good he was with the younger ones when he’d first started observing them. Once he got over his initial distance (assuming they would not like him and/or find him creepy) he was really, really good with them.

Not that Will had thought he’d be mean; he just…Nico seemed to be so wary of people that he hadn’t expected the kids to break his wall down so easily. Of course, this was the same guy who never seemed to be too busy to babysit Chuck Hedge when Clarisse was busy and always volunteered to watch him if his parents needed a sitter, so maybe it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

Once the class had finished and the sparring match was over, Will felt his stomach twist. Nico and he both had free time after this; at least until Apollo cabin headed to arts and crafts. It was now or he could wait until after dinner.

While the thought was tempting, that plan depended on Nico coming to the campfire, which was really a touch and go thing. Some nights he felt up to it, some nights he didn’t.

He took a deep breath; it was now or never.

Nico approached him, the way he always did after the sparring match was over. Some days they had a free period to spend together and some days they only had enough time for a short conversation, but it was habit by now.

“Hey,” Nico smiled at him, a soft smile that was less an upturn of his lips and more a look in his eyes. It never failed to make Will’s heart jump. “Decided to skimp out on training today?”

Will shrugged, grinning a little helplessly. “I’m not good with any of those weapons, no matter how hard I try.”

“Mm, you’re pretty efficient with a dagger,” Nico pointed out, sitting beside him on the bench.

“That’s true,” Will allowed. “I’m still a better healer.”

Nico spread his hands. “Can’t argue with that. Anything special planned for tonight’s camp fire?”

“As far as I’m aware of? No.”

Nico nodded, leaning back a bit. They sat in comfortable silence for a bit, content to just enjoy each other’s presence. After about five minutes of this, Will decided he could wait no longer.

“Hey, Nico?”

“Mm?” he opened his eyes from where he had shut them, basking in the sunlight. He’d regained much of his olive tone from doing this, though Will had very nearly needed to drag him out by his ear to get him to do it at first.

“I, um. I got you something.”

Nico went red, his ears especially darkening. “You didn’t need to.”

“Oh, I know that,” Will grinned, despite his nerves. “I did it anyway.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. “Here.”

Nico took it. It was a small, square box that was bright yellow. A cartoon sun in sunglasses had been drawn on the top of it, which made Nico roll his eyes fondly. He lifted the top off and froze when he saw what was inside.

It was the standard Camp Half-Blood necklace; a leather cord decorated with beads. But Nico had only been officially at Camp for a year...and this necklace had every bead he would have gotten if he had been at camp since he first arrived. 

“…I thought my necklace was only supposed to have one bead on it,” Nico said quietly.

Will swallowed. "I know you weren't actually at camp for all that time, but...it seemed wrong that you didn't have them." And it did. Nico had done so much for Camp Half-Blood – for both camps. Yet, up until very recently, he hadn't even felt like he had a place there. Like he was wanted. He still wouldn't wear a CHB t-shirt, insisting he wasn't ready yet. Will knew that a string of beads wasn't going to change much – in fact, some people might even think the gift trivial – but it seemed a more profound way of saying "you belong here" than just saying it, like he had been. He hoped Nico got the message. 

Nico lifted the necklace from the box. He slipped it over his head, turning to Will with a smile. And this smile wasn’t just in his eyes – it was all over his face, stretching his lips and brightening his eyes. “Thank you.”

Will blushed, waving his hand. “No need to thank me. It’s long overdue that you have it anyway.”

He watched Nico mentally debate about something for a moment. Will could see it in his eyes when he decided, but he froze in shock when Nico leaned over and kissed his cheek. Both of them were dark red.

“Gotta go. Canoeing with Jason and Percy,” Nico said, the smile not entirely gone from his face despite the embarrassment written there. “Fun, right? See you later!” And he jogged over to where Percy and Jason were arguing, leaving Will to press his hand to his cheek and grin stupidly.