Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It took an embarrassingly short amount of time for Will Solace to grapple Nico into the infirmary. In his defense, he was weak, injured, and dissolving into the shadows. Still, he had just fought in a war - he should've been able to hold out for longer than five minutes.

Maybe he was so relieved that it was all finally over that his guard was down. Maybe the lack of sleep and food was messing with his head. Maybe the idea of resting in a cot for a few days was more tempting than he would ever admit. (He wouldn't have to talk to anyone, do anything. Ambrosia and nectar would be brought directly to his bedside. There was even a distinct possibility that he could get a chance to sleep, for once.)

So maybe when Will Solace had grabbed his shoulder and gritted out, "You promised me, Death Boy," like fighting him on it would be useless, Nico gave in almost immediately.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now, squinting under the light of the three sunlamps directed onto his body, while Will Solace practically shoved food down his throat, Nico was beginning to regret it. Solace pressed another spoon loaded with split pea soup against Nico's mouth. Nico pressed his lips together so not a drop would pass through. Solace made a face at him.

"I'm full," Nico informed him.

"Is that so?" Solace responded, not sounding like he particularly cared.

"If you feed me anymore, I'll be sick." Nico insisted. "And then I'll throw up all over you, and you won't be allowed to get mad at me because technically it'll be your fault."

Unexpectedly, Solace grinned. Nico's stomach flopped nervously. Since he's woken up, he'd been actively trying to register every reaction Solace had thrown in his direction in an attempt to figure him out. Whether or not smiling was a good sign was still up in the air. Solace was infuriating like that - simultaneously over-expressive and hard to read. He dropped the spoon onto the tray. "Ok, chill with the vomit threats. Forgive me if I'm a bit overzealous after you informed me that you hadn't eaten in four days."

To Nico's credit, his time in the infirmary started great. As in, he passed out on the way there and woke up two days later, feeling remarkably refreshed. It only began to decline the second Solace pushed him back onto the cot, claiming that he was still nowhere near recovered and had to stay there for one more day, at least. Nico was going to argue, but Will finished his lecture with a pointed, "Plus, you promised." And, well, Nico wasn't one to go back on his promises.

Solace pushed the soup to the side and started fiddling with the sunlamps. Just watching him was making Nico anxious. Scratch that, all of this was making him anxious. The bright lights, the sound of sick people in the cots around him, the nervous glances that the other children of Apollo threw to him whenever they hurried by.

The more awake Nico felt the more he couldn't believe he'd ever thought this was a good idea. He shouldn't be here. Under the bright light of a sunlamp, it seemed glaringly obvious. A child of death in an infirmary. It was a miracle he hadn't been kicked out yet.

He looked at Solace, who was now flipping through the chart of his medical history. Nico searched for the appropriate term to file that under. Nervous, possibly. Restless, definitely. It reminded him of when Leo would start messing with stuff just because he had too much energy and didn't know what to do with his hands. Sometimes, when Nico had a particularly bad nightmare, he'd go down to the engine room in the middle of the night to find Leo wide-awake and fiddling with something that was working perfectly fine. Nico found it supremely irritating - but he couldn't deny that the sounds of machinery working, Leo's constant commentary, and his fidgeting hands were effective distractions from whatever was going on in Nico's head.

He found himself going down to the engine room more and more often.

Leo. Nico felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't had the chance to think about him yet. Now that he was, it was almost overpowering. According to Chiron, Leo was presumed dead. They'd even burned a shroud for him, a few days ago. Fiery red, decorated with ornate golden dragons.

Still, Nico was good at listening to rumors - and the general consensus was because they never found a body, there was no evidence that Leo was actually gone. Nico wasn't convinced. It seemed more likely that everyone was deluding themselves because the reality of what happened was too horrific to face.

Now, remembering Leo's effervescent energy, his mischievous grin, his fiddling hands, always searching to improve, evolve, make something better - an idea was bubbling up in Nico's head. A potentially dangerous one.

He was suddenly overtaken by the urge to repress it, go back to sleep, and deal with it all when he was nice and ready, preferably after a few more days of napping. If only this were the type of world that let you prepare yourself for whatever bullshit it was going to throw at you.

"I'm gonna have to ask you a couple of questions." Will was saying, drawing Nico out of his thoughts. "Because obviously some of the information here was made up. Born on January 28th, 1932? Really?" He waves the clipboard in the air. "Which one of my siblings was stupid enough to believe you?"

"They believed me because it's true," Nico says. "That's when I was born."

"You're messing with you."

"I'm not. Long story."

"You were born in a different century?"

"Solace," Nico said. Will's head shot up suddenly. "Can you get over it already? I need your help with something. Come here."

Solace had the nerve to laugh, as if the thought of Nico demanding him to do anything was funny, and bounded over to his side. "Fine. Who am I to ignore the whims of my elders?"

Nico elected to ignore the whole elder thing. He focused, instead, on how this smile was different from the other. In this one, Will's eyes crinkled up, his cheeks were all squished, and his eyes sparkled, more than usual.

Internally, Nico marked down that expression as playful and cooperative and really, really cute -

Focus.

"Two things," Nico said. "First, I need to check if someone's in the Underworld. That means in a second, I'm going to use my powers." Solace opened his mouth as if to argue, but Nico cut him off. "Solace, I need you not to fight me on this. I'm gonna do it whether or not you approve, so you might as well give up now." Nico hesitated for a moment. "It's important."

"Okay," Solace replied, more easy-going than Nico had anticipated. "What's the second thing?"

"You're my doctor, aren't you?" Nico demands. "If something goes wrong and I pass out, make sure I don't get hurt."

"Thought you couldn’t get hurt," Solace grinned, and gods, Nico couldn't mark that one down as anything other than mischievous, definitely a bad thing, to be avoided at all costs.

"I can't. But some people would love to see me stuck here for another century, so I'm doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening."

"Alright, fine, I get it. But you're explaining the whole age thing to me later."

Nico rolls his eyes. Will watches him expectantly. He feels nervous - and then he gets angry at himself for being nervous. He's done so much more with powers than this. He just shadow-traveled with one of the most powerful monuments on the planet multiple times across the country. On any other day, sensing where Leo was would have been as natural as breathing. But Solace has been jabbering in his ear for days about how weak he was, how he had to take it easy, how close he was to becoming a puddle of darkness or whatever. Nico decided that just this one time, it might serve him well to be a little cautious.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Nothing - and then a flicker. A flicker of something. Not quite Leo, not quite not. It grew brighter until Nico was sure that Leo was there, in the Underworld - and then it disappeared. Frustrated, Nico opened his eyes with a sigh.

The first thing he noticed was Solace, looking at him intently from way inside his personal space bubble. Nico let out an undignified squeak, quickly recovered, and glowered at him darkly. "Back off."

Instead of getting out of his personal space, Solace just sighs, "Is that any way to talk to the person who spent the last two and a half days healing you? I've been on my feet, at your beck and call, and instead of saying, oh, I don't know, thank you, you choose instead to boss me around?" He looks to Dana, his younger sister, who was keeping watch over a demigod with a broken leg. "Can you believe the nerve of some patients?"

"They're getting ruder every day," she replies, not even looking at them.

"Thought I was your elder." Nico grumbled. "Thought you were supposed to treat me with respect."

"Don't say it like that. It's weird when you talk about it."

"Hey, grandpa." Dana calls. "You've got a visitor."

And with all the subtlety of an oversized golden retriever, Jason Grace walked into the room. "Dude!' He exclaimed happily. "You're awake!"

"And you've been spending too much time with Percy." Nico humphed. He let Jason ruffle his hair and shook him off right as he started to grab his shoulder and wiggle him a bit. If there's one thing that Nico's learned in the past couple of weeks, it's that Jason was an affectionate guy. It's just that most of the time, he didn't know precisely how to show it. This often resulted in a lot of panicked, half-aborted displays of affection. If it were anyone else, Nico would've gotten sick of it a long while ago. But the fact that Jason seemed just as bewildered in giving as affection as Nico was in receiving it made the whole ordeal a lot more bearable. So instead of feeling his skin crawl the second Jason's hand comes into contact, Nico could just look at him in mild amusement as Jason performs his whole checking-Nico-is-okay pat-down.

"Grace." Solace says, sounding cheerful. He immediately stands up and shakes Jason's hand. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I'm just checking in. I heard you were in a sorry state."

"I was fine-"

"Ignore him," Will tells Jason, who raises an eyebrow. "He likes to lie and pretend he doesn't feel any pain. Would you believe me if I told you that for the first twenty-four hours of his stay, he was practically see-through?"

"I wasn't-" Nico protests, and then stops to think. "Was I?"

Will humphs loudly. "Typical. Can't even tell what's going on with his own body but thinks he can boss an experienced healer around. You're lucky I'm so patient, di Angelo."

"That's not the word I'd use."

Jason watches the whole interaction with badly-concealed curiosity. "Seems like you're in good hands."

"Hardly."

"Watch it." Will reprimands, but whatever lecture he was planning on going on was cut off when another healer that Nico didn't recognize grabbed his arm and whispered something urgently in his ear. Will listens intently for one moment. "I'm afraid I've got something to deal with."

"What is it?"

"Urgent, potentially deadly, definitely gross." Will cracks his knuckles. The guy tugs his arm again like he's trying to hurry him. "Nothing new. Piece of cake."

"Sure it is," Jason says, smiling.

"Make sure he doesn't disappear while I'm gone," Will says and promptly lets himself get dragged away in a whirlwind of clipboards and surgical gloves and blonde curls.

"He seems nice!" Jason says brightly.

Nico pleads, "Get me out of here."

Jason laughs, which was not helpful in the slightest, and helps himself to the chair by Nico's bedside. After enduring the mini-hurricane that was Will Solace in the infirmary for a few hours, it was nice to be left alone with Jason. He'd even brought along with some stuff from Nico's cabin - a spare black shirt, his aviator jacket, some of his rings. A few demigods shot them curious looks from their cots, but Jason barely paid attention to them as he filled Nico in on what he'd missed out on the past few days.

Most of the Romans were thinking of heading home soon - Hazel, Frank, Reyna, a few others. Hazel was supposed to come with Jason to see him, but she got caught up in some job helping rebuild some of the damaged camp buildings. The others had promised to stop by as soon as they could. Nico listened to all of it with vague interest and a question burning inside his chest that he wasn't quite brave enough to ask.

It turns out he didn't have to.

"Percy and Annabeth still don't know what they're going to do."

"Oh, no?" Nico says, trying to sound disinterested. Judging by Jason's look, he didn't pull it off very well.

"I'm a little worried about them," Jason confesses. "They both seem...I don't know, distant. They talk to each other and maybe to Chiron, but it's almost like they've closed themselves off to everyone else."

Nico wasn't surprised. It was probably Tartarus catching up to them. You always think you're okay when you get out of situations like that. Mostly because you have to be - you can't afford to have a breakdown in the middle of a war. But trauma is insidious - it waits until you finally get to catch your breath to knock you on your feet. It happened to Nico when he was on the Argo. He tried to hide it from the others - restrain the crying and anger and panic attacks to those precious moments where he was alone. He couldn't afford to look weak in front of them, especially when they went through all that trouble to save him. But it didn't always work. If it managed to leak out one for Nico, it definitely would with Percy and Annabeth.

They have each other, a voice in the back of Nico's head whispers. You have no one.

Had no-one, Nico corrects himself, looking at the worried crinkle in Jason's brow, thinking of all the demigods he had accidentally wrangled into caring about his well-being.

He doesn't tell any of this to Jason. There wasn't any point. Instead, Nico just asks, "They're staying in camp, though, right?"

"As far as I know, they both want to go back and finish high school."

Nico could barely keep his jaw from dropping. "You're joking."

Jason leans back in his chair. "Nope. They need a diploma if they want to go to university in new Rome."

"You honestly think the two of them going back to the mortal world is a good idea?" Nico asks in disbelief.

Jason hums non-committedly. The conversation lapses into a solemn silence as Nico watches Jason mull things over from afar.

It was funny how good Nico had gotten at reading Jason's facial expressions. He could practically see him run through a million different scenarios, trying to find the one where they all end up happy and safe. To be fair, Nico isn't much better. He knows that he shouldn't care as much as he does. Nico tries to remind himself of that every waking second. But for some reason, he can't get his mind to stop imagining all the different ways Percy returning to high school could end in disaster.

A particularly gruesome thought of fire and explosions triggers Nico to sit up. "Jason. Just now - before you came in - I tried looking for Leo."

Jason's head pops up. "What?"

"I know - people think he's dead. But I just wanted to make sure. And if he was, I thought I could go down to the Underworld and check in on him, see what he decides to do."

"And?"

"And nothing. I mean, normally it's easy for me. Whenever people die, I know they're dead. But he's not. Or maybe he was. It's all blurry."

"But there's a chance? That he survived the explosion?"

Jason looked so hopeful that Nico almost regretted bringing it up. The odds are Leo was still most probably dead - maybe he just died in a way that made it harder for Nico to detect, or he got stuck in some in-between place that Nico wasn't aware of. He didn't want Jason to get all excited only to realize that it was for nothing. Maybe it would be better for Jason if Nico just lied to him now, and let Leo's return be some sort of happy surprise if it happened at all.

But Jason wasn't asking if Leo was alive; he was asking if there was a chance he survived. And Nico knew the answer to that question. If Jason ever found out that Nico didn't tell him the truth, the tentative understanding they had would immediately dissolve. So he answers, "Yes."

Jason took that like a punch to the stomach. He immediately leans over to rest his head in his hands. Nico watches him in terse silence for a few seconds. When Jason sits up again, it was as if he was a different person. Roman praetor Jason Grace had replaced friendly, awkward Jason. In a voice that was entirely too even for someone who found out his best friend might still be alive, he says, "We'll have to find him, then."

"How?"

"I don't have a clue." Jason's expression was grim. "Will you help me?"

"I - you -" Nico struggled with words. "You want my help?"

"If there's any chance he can be found, it can only be done if you're searching with me," Jason says, ever so logical. He doesn't say it out loud, but Nico picks up what he implies. I trust you.

Nico wonders what he ever did to earn that trust. He was also beginning to understand what it meant to be someone's friend. So he concedes, "Okay."

"We have to tell the others.

"No, we don't." Nico immediately refutes. "I'm telling you this now, Jason Grace, for your own good. The chances that he's alive in a way where he can come back to us are slim. We don't need to get people's hopes up. It'll just make it harder on us in the future."

He doesn't mean for it to be harsh, but it is. Nico can see it in the way Jason avoids his eyes as he promised, "Only Chiron and Piper for now."

"Until we get more information," Nico attempts to amend.

"Until we get more information." Jason agrees. "Come on."

Nico suddenly couldn't find it in himself to get up. When Jason shoots him a questioning look, he blurts out, "I promised Will three days."

"This is day three. And it's an emergency. I’m sure he'll understand."

Nico sits on that for a moment. Technically, he knows that Jason is right. Besides, Will can't force him to stay here if Nico feels fine. Still, the all-too-familiar bitter feeling of guilt rises in Nico's throat. Reluctantly, he agrees, "Okay. I need to get changed and stuff. I'll meet you at the Big House."

"See you then."

Nico wriggles out of bed. Luckily, other than the odd twinge of an old bruise, he feels pretty much back to normal. He spots Dana watching him with raised eyebrows. Nico prays that she won't cause any trouble for him and asks, "Do you have a bathroom?"

It was a relief to change back into his old clothes. Shrugging on the old aviator jacket was the most normal Nico had felt in a while. A long while. He turns on the water from the sink and tests it with his hands. It's ice-cold. He splashes some on his face, hoping it'll cancel out the vague dizzy feeling clouding his sense. When he looks up, he accidentally catches a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror.

Nico usually avoids mirrors. He doesn't like facing his own pale, surly face. He doesn't like what he sees; dark circles under darker eyes, sunken cheeks, tangled hair. Most of the time, he looks like a person that you would cross the street to avoid. There was a time in his life where Nico tried to figure out how he felt about it. He would tug his hair and wonder if Percy saw anything when he looked at him beyond a frazzled, broken kid. In the end, Nico concluded that looking this way wasn't good or bad as much as it was convenient. He didn't like people very much, so if it helped them stay away, he didn't mind. He avoids mirrors and avoids thinking about it.

This time, once he catches sight of his reflection, Nico can't look away. He doesn't look as bad as usual. Well, he doesn't look half-dead. His face looks fuller, and there's some color in his cheeks. His under-eyes have faded away from dark crescents to faint, light purple splotches. He looks so healthy, Nico almost doesn't recognize himself.

When he slips out of the bathroom, he immediately runs into Will, who was waiting on the other side.

"Going somewhere?" Will asks. Nico registers the twitch in his eyebrow, the hard set of his mouth, marks it down as annoyed.

Nico's escape has suddenly become infinitely more complicated.

Nico looks over Will's shoulder to see Dana conspicuously acting busy. Typical. Nico looks back at Will's accusatory face and rolls his eyes. "Come on," he mutters, grabbing Will's arm and leading him out of the infirmary.

Once they're outside, Nico releases Will's arm and hastily explains, "I need to go."

"I figured," Will says, giving Nico's clothes a long once-over. "Well, congratulations! You've escaped! I'm surprised you didn't try to sneak out the bathroom window."

"Solace," Nico grits out, "The only reason I'm talking to you right now is to explain that I would stay. Usually, I'm not the type of guy who breaks promises-"

"Unless they interfere with important demigod business," Will finishes. He raises his hands in defense at Nico's furious expression. "Relax. Dana told me she overheard Jason telling you to go. I get it. I officially release you from your promise."

"Okay," Nico says suspiciously. "So, I'm not gonna get cursed a few days from now?"

"There's no ill-will in my heart," Will sighs dramatically. "You're good. Just stop by every once in a while, okay? Your presence was good for the patients."

"Really?" Nico asks, doubtful.

Will shrugs. "Sure. The presence of death in a room could make anyone want to get better."

Nico couldn't figure out if Will was joking or not, so he just says, "Okay. I will."

Before he can turn to leave, Will asks, "Did you find Leo?"

Startled, Nico gapes at him for a second. Either Will was more perceptive that Nico had bargained for, or Nico was getting pretty easy to read. "How did - how did you know?"

Will rolls his eyes. "There's only so many people you'd be looking for, di Angelo. And only one of them is currently missing. So, did you find him?"

"It's complicated."

Will heaves a sigh. "Isn't it always?"

Nico couldn't figure out how to reply to that, so he just shrugs. Figuring that's the end of it, Nico turns to walk to the Big House. He only makes it a few steps before Will calls out, "Hey, Death-Breath." Will tossed a bottle of ambrosia gummies in Nico's direction. Nico just barely caught it, and thanks Zeus for that. If Will saw him fumble an easy catch like that, he might make Nico stay in the infirmary for another month. "Take half a gummy every day for the next week, and then you should be good. And no shadow-traveling for at least a month! Or skeleton-raising or spirit conjuring! You know what? Just be a good demigod and don't use your powers for a long while, okay?"

Nico's mouth twitched, already turning away. "Sure."

"You promise?"

Nico stopped in his tracks. Slowly, he turned back around to face Will, who had an unfairly smug expression on his face. "No fair."

"Don't pout at me, I'm just taking necessary precautionary measures!" Solace insists. "You are a man of your word, aren't you?"

Nico grits his teeth. "I promise I will do my best to make smart choices."

Will hummed and stuck his hands on his hips, evaluating Nico's expression with a shrewd eye. "I'm not sure I believe you."

"I'll guess you'll just have to keep an eye on me," Nico says without thinking. It was a stupid thing to say, but Nico stops regretting it the second he notices the way Will's cheeks turn pink. Nico can barely repress a smirk. That was new for someone so usually confident—something to mark down as embarrassed.

"I guess I will," Will responds, sounding perfectly composed.

"See you, Solace," Nico says, in the most casual way he can muster, and turns around to walk away.

* * *

The plan to find Leo stagnates pretty quickly. As soon as they told Chiron what they knew, Nico realized that all his big revelation had done was confirm what they already suspected - Leo wasn't quite alive or dead, just somewhere in between. Chiron promised he'd do some investigating, but he encouraged them not to worry about it. This, according to him, was their time to rest and recuperate. They'd done all they could. Leo's fate was something to leave to the gods.

But Nico didn't particularly trust the gods. He exchanged a look with Jason the second that Chiron was out of sight and knew that he was thinking the same thing. Jason says, "So, we're gonna find him, right?"

Nico agrees in a heartbeat.

He'd spent the past five years of his life narrowly avoiding certain death. 'Rest' and 'recuperation' weren't really in his vocabulary. Sticking around in one place was already giving him enough restless energy - if he wanted to stay sane, he needed a problem to chew on.

And this was a problem. Nico wanted to go down to the Underworld to interrogate his father, but the idea was shot down pretty quickly.

"Later," Jason promised him, "When we're sure you can handle it."

I can handle it! Nico wanted to spit, but Jason was right. He got drained far more quickly than he used to doing even the most trivial tasks. Something about his journey across the country (and through Tartarus) has sucked something out from deep inside his core. There was no telling how long it'd be before he'd back at full-strength. All Nico could do, according to Chiron and the astute medical advice given by Solace, was mull over old legends about the places between life and death and wait.

So when Nico wakes up in the morning, the first thing he thinks of is Leo. Then he goes to breakfast and spends a good chunk of his morning thinking some more about Leo while he grasps at straws with Jason. In the afternoons, he takes advantage of his free time sulking around camp, watching everyone else repair the damage done by the war, worrying about how Percy and Annabeth will fare when they go back to school. Once the moon rises, he secretly tests his powers. Hyper-aware of his promise to Will, Nico attempts not to overexert himself. Still, even when he does put in a little more effort than what might be medically recommended, he can't sense anything other than a muddled mess of life and death. Then, Nico gets so frustrated he feels sick and falls into a fitful sleep. At night, he dreams of Tartarus.

It's not the worst state he's ever been in. All things considered, Nico thinks he's doing pretty good.

* * *

Hazel slams her shield up a second too early. Nico's knife bounces off of it violently, causing sparks to fly and his wrist to twinge. He suppresses a flinch, but Hazel frowns anyway. She hesitates like she wants to ask if he's okay. Nico goes in for another attack.

She's worried about him. Everyone is. Nico can feel their concern pressing onto him like a weighted blanket that's a few pounds too heavy to be comforting. He sees it in the way Chiron gently tries to guide him into participating in more camp activities - in how Jason slides him water when he thinks Nico's not looking - how Hazel drags him to do anything with her the second she has free time.

Hazel twists her sword in a tricky move she must've just picked up from Percy. Nico darts to the side, wonders how hard he's going to have hit her hand to get her to drop it. The idea of it leaves a bad taste in his mouth, even though he knows that's the whole reason they're doing this.

"Stop avoiding me," Hazel puffs. "We're supposed to be practicing offense."

"The most important part of any offense is avoiding," Nico argues. He feints to the left but goes right. He twists his knife, so it barely grazes her skin. At the same time, Hazel jerks to avoid it.

"Maybe for monsters," Hazel says. "Not for people."

Since when was Hazel worried about fighting other demigods? She didn't have issues with anyone else, as far as Nico knew. The Greeks and Romans were mending their relationship, and it was unlikely they'd get into another war in their lifetime. As far as Nico is concerned, Hazel shouldn't have to fight another demigod for the rest of her life.

Still, he supposes, there's nothing wrong with being prepared.

"We've got an audience," Hazel mutters.

Nico glances over his shoulder for a second and catches a glimpse of shiny, blonde curls. The expression on his face must be something because Hazel laughs as she brings her shield up for a second time.

Yeah, maybe Nico tries a little harder after seeing Solace approach. Maybe he puts a bit more power behind his knife, tries a fancy move where he'd usually just do whatever works. Hazel catches onto it too quickly, and she somehow finds a way to smile even though they're both working up a sweat. Nico doesn't like what thoughts could be lurking behind her grin, so he elbows her in the gut hard and knocks the sword out of her hand. Hazel puts her hands up in defeat, leaning down to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Nico asks, crouching down with her, suddenly feeling embarrassed. "I didn't mean to-"

"No worries." Hazel waves her hand like it's nothing. Her eyes are still twinkling dangerously. "How else am I gonna learn?"

Before Nico could reply, he hears Will call out, "Hey guys!"

"Hey, Will!" Hazel gets to her feet. Nico follows suit, keeping a careful eye on how she's standing.

"That was some fight." Will chirps. He's looking cheerful today. Nico ran his eyes over his blonde curls (only slightly mussed), his camp shirt (no blood-stains on it yet), his freckled arms (glove-free). He hadn't been to the infirmary yet today, probably. Maybe Nico was ranking higher on the list of priorities.

As if.

"Is it my turn yet?"

"I'm not sparring with you." Nico says immediately.

Will pouts. "Aw, why not? It'd be fun! You'd go easy on me, right?"

Nico's mind immediately produces the image of sparring with Will Solace. How close they'd get when one of them would go in for a blow, how they'd have to look each other right in the eye, how Will would grin when Nico inevitably let him win, maybe even hold Nico's arm to steady himself.

"Absolutely not." Nico says firmly.

"He doesn't even go easy on me, Solace." Hazel adds, nudging Nico's side. "I'm not sure you'd be an exception." Except she's grinning at Nico like he totally is, isn't he?

Nico's face burns.

"Fine. I'm useless at fighting anyway." Will decides. "Come on, di Angelo. You're coming on a walk with me."

Nico scrutinizes Will's expression, finds nothing but dubious innocence. "What is this, a checkup?"

"Sure," Will smiles. "Call it that."

Hazel nudges him again. "Go on. I need a break anyway."

Nico wants to decline purely out of spite. But Will hasn't exactly been believing Nico's claims that he's been getting stronger, and this might be a good opportunity to prove it. So he grumbles, "Fine," and follows Will out of the swordplay arena.

As they walk, Nico tries to make his breathing as even as possible. A brief spar with Hazel would've been easy a few months ago - now, it felt like he ran a marathon. Will eyes Nico's knife as he wipes it against his shirt. "Stygian iron," Nico explains before Will can ask.

"I know." Will replies. "I remember when I saw it for the first time. Battle of Manhattan."

Nico sheathes the knife onto the strap attached to his belt buckle. "Oh."

"What, you don't remember?"

"I remember!" Nico says hastily. "I guess I don't remember you, like, in the battle that much."

"Well, like I said," Will sighs. "I'm useless at fighting."

It was weird to think that Will was there. That he'd seen who Nico was back then - a fourteen-year-old violently bursting at the seams. He'd been miserable, Nico recalled. That's pretty much all Nico can remember from that time, before the new prophecy. Just misery, and suffering, and Percy Jackson. Am I any better now? Nico wonders. It's not like his life is that different. He was just a little older - had picked up a couple more friends - actually slept in the same bed every night. The thing is, you don't realize how much better you've gotten until you remember how bad you used to be. It's a realization accompanied by a sharp sting of surprise - Nico had been through some much worse shit since then, but it's like everything he used to feel had the intensity turned down a couple of notches. It almost feels like he's lying to himself when he thinks, I don't think I could ever feel that way again.

Does anybody else know that? Can they see how much I've changed?

"So," Will asks, apparently fed-up with the silence they'd been walking in for the past few minutes. "How are you feeling? Like, powers-wise."

They were entering the forest now. Nico had no clue why Will had brought him somewhere so secluded at this time of day, but considering he seriously doubted Will's ability to murder him, he let it slide. "I thought I'm not supposed to be using my powers."

"Not supposed to be overextending yourself, yes," Will conceded. "But I doubt you're following my directions, so you might as well tell me what you've been able to do."

Nico snorted. "Is that why you're here? To catch me on not keeping a promise?"

"I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you, aren't I?"

Nico remembers how Will had blushed when Nico said that. He barely represses the way his mouth curls up. He lets his hands drift to his side, flexing one of them as he thinks of something to try. The truth is, Nico had been too nervous to do anything other than summon a bone or two since he left the infirmary. Typically, he was the type of guy to push it - see how far he could test the limits before hitting rock bottom. But it was as if there's this wall in his head that wasn't there before. Like there was a newly-formed part of his brain that was scared of getting hurt. His hands clenched into tight fists. Will's eyes brushed over them, but he didn't say a word.

This is the perfect time to prove to him you're fine.

What if I'm not, though?

Shut up. Get a hold of yourself.

Remember that time Percy drowned? The son of the sea god drowned?

Stop it, stop it, stop it.

Do you think it's possible to drown in a shadow?

Just fucking do it, prove it, do it-

Nico stops in his tracks and crouches to the ground. He lets all his resentment and fear and anger boil in his stomach until it threatens to burst. Then, he waves his hand over the dirt as nonchalantly as he can manage—something tugs deep in his gut. From the soil, the delicate bones of a rabbit emerged and knit together. The rabbit bounces around, momentarily befuddled by its new-found life. Then, it twitches its ears and nudges its way under Nico's hand. Nico let his hand drift up and down the skeleton, feeling the fierce bite of triumph.

He looks up to Will as if to say, I told you so. Will stands there with his jaw hanging open. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," Nico replies. He nudges the rabbit, curious to see how Will would react. It hops over to him, approaching cautiously.

Will stares at it like he'd never seen a skeleton rabbit before - which, to be fair, he probably hadn't. "That is the cutest thing I've ever seen in my whole life."

Nico wrinkled his nose. "Cute?"

"This is so extra of you. A bunny? Oh my gods, no one's ever gonna believe me."

"Next time I'll summon a bear, we'll see how adorable you think that is."

"You like animals, don't you?" Will says like it's not even a question. He reaches out a tentative finger. The rabbit presses its skull against it. Will's finger accidentally slips into the cavity where its eye should be, and he shudders, pulling his hand back immediately. "That's cute."

Nico stares at him, dumbfounded. A part of him desperately wants to steer the conversation back to his powers, and how he's probably fine now. Instead, he says, "Have you met Ms. O' Leary?"

Will grins.

He starts seeing a lot more of Will after that. It's a little unnerving, only because Nico still doesn't have a clue what Will wants from him. He just shows up wherever Nico happens to be, insists that they do something until Nico gives in, and then talks about nothing with him for a few hours. Nico used to think it was for medical reasons - any doctor checks up on their patient, right? - but Will stops asking medical questions the second that Nico starts to get annoyed.

Nico keeps expecting him to ask for something. He's not sure what exactly. Perhaps Will wants him to do experiments on the effect of shadow-travel on the body, or to use his powers to find out if any patients are close to death, or to get close to one of the other prophecy demigods. But Will never asks for anything other than Nico's time.

It's fine. At the very least, Hazel seemed thrilled with this development. She'd pulled him aside just before she left for Rome and said something that didn't mean to sound condescending; it's so nice to see you make friends!

Everyone's attention came onto him whenever Will approached, and their eyebrows would rise when Will dragged him away. Nico couldn't help but catalog their reactions in a neat little list, organized by how much he stayed up late at night thinking about them. He caught Chiron smiling at them every once in a while. Percy, who seemed to be disappearing into his own world more and more lately, didn't give off any signs that he even noticed. Annabeth and Piper, at least, had some tact, so even if they were surprised, they didn't show it. Jason watched Will with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. Will's siblings openly stared. Regardless of their reactions, no one seemed to be against Will hanging out with Nico. In fact, it was like this was easing some of their concern. Maybe they were getting their hopes up, thinking that Nico was getting all adjusted or something.

As if he wasn't getting barely four hours of sleep at night. As if he didn't still get panic attacks at the drop of a hat. As if he could stomach most of the food thrust upon him, and as if he didn't still feel like a stranger in a place that was supposed to be his home. As if Will was supposed to have the cure to the ailment that was Nico's miserable, little life.

The truth was, Nico was no more well-adjusted than he was a week ago. He just puts up with Will because he's distracting. He was insufferable, sure. But that just means that instead of worrying about where Leo is, or what Percy was supposed to do now that he's going back to high school, or why Hazel wants to learn more about fighting, Nico just gets angry about Will's opinions on shit that doesn't matter. It's like when Will's around, he takes up so much mental space that Nico barely has any leftover for anything else. He's too busy arguing why tomatoes are not a fruit, actually, and why Will's an idiot for believing that.

Besides, if he had to socialize with someone from camp to prove that he was 'getting better,’ Will Solace wasn't the worst choice. He could be funny, he respected Nico's boundaries (the important ones, anyway), and he occasionally had interesting things to say.

The only problem was - a problem Nico would never admit out loud - Will Solace was also attractive. The more time they spent together, the more Nico's eyes kept drifting to where they shouldn't - the curve of his lips or the nape of his neck. Eventually, he was going to get caught. He suspected that Jason was already catching on, judging by the way that he conspicuously asked about Will every time they sat down together to research what pocket of reality Leo might have gotten lost in.

Luckily, Nico could trust that eventually, Will would say something so insufferable Nico would want to kill him, any dangerous urges would be successfully repressed, and Nico could go on acting like he wasn't a huge inconvenience for everyone around him.

You'd think that after a week of this, Nico would learn to expect to see Will wherever he goes - all the way up to and including camp activities.

Instead, Nico is continuously surprised.

Chiron had set a challenge for tonight. They'd gotten a fresh import of boxed up monsters that were just set loose in the forest. The demigods were supposed to partner up, and in teams of two, track down and kill as many as possible in the time-frame Chiron had set up.

Jason and Nico were by the lava-wall, poring over some old books on the afterlife when Chiron announced it. "Partner with me?" Nico asked, sounding pathetic.

"You got it, buddy." Jason claps a hand on his shoulder. "We'll make quick work of it."

Nico should've known it was too good to be true. He should've suspected that the moment he was strapping on armor in the crowd of demigods just outside of the forest, he would be ambushed.

"You're in luck, di Angelo!" Will Solace crows, appearing out of nowhere just to drape himself across Nico's shoulders. Nico sees Jason raise an eyebrow at them and quickly shakes Will off. "I'm free! Wanna partner up?"

Nico shoots him a flat look. "Why would I want to do that?"

Will pouts. "I'm useful."

"Are you?"

"You're acting like having a healer as your partner in a game where it's very probable you'll get injured is useless."

"That's because it kind of is," Nico shoots back. Some of Will's siblings, who were standing in a group nearby, laughed loudly at that. Will turns to glare at them.

"Well, it's not like anyone else wants to be my partner." Will proclaims loudly. When his siblings continue giggling, he shoots them another hard stare. "Right?"

Nico tries not to panic. The possibility of spending multiple hours, alone, in a life-threatening situation with Will Solace was becoming harder and harder to avoid. Sure, they'd been spending a fair amount of time together recently - but save for their first walk in the forest, most of it was in public, in front of prying eyes, where he couldn't do anything even if he wanted to.

Not that he wanted to.

It's just that - in the forest, in the darkness, where it'd be easy to sneak away, maybe push someone up against a tree - it might be a bit difficult to control himself. Nico swallowed hard. "Well, I was kinda planning on partnering with Jason-"

"Oh, don't worry about it, Nico." Jason cuts in quickly, smiling a tad too cheerily for Nico's liking. "Piper said that her partner bailed on her, anyway."

Nico freezes, glaring at Jason as hard as he can. Jason winks.

"So, it's settled." Will proclaims. His trademark mischievous grin comes out. "This is gonna be so fun."

"Yeah," Nico grits out. "So fun."

Chiron blows the whistle, and Nico sets off, with Will lagging behind him.

The second they're out of sight from any other demigod, Will plops down on the ground. Nico stares at him. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting."

"For what?"

"Just a few minutes, until Chiron's gone. Then, we can make our escape."

"I'm not following."

Will sighs. "Nico. Do you think I want to roam around killing monsters for the next two hours?"

The more Nico thought of it, the more obvious it became that the answer was no. Still, he insists, "I thought all demigods thought this sort of stuff was fun."

"'No way. Luckily for you, all I inherited from my father is healing abilities and my irresistible charm. This bow is just for show." Will laughs. "Hey, did you hear that? I totally didn't mean to make that rhyme. Guess poetry just flows out of me."

Nico grits his teeth. "If we sit on our asses out here, the monsters will find us anyways,"

"They won't. Besides, we'll get out of here before anything like that can happen." Will hums, tilting his head consideringly. "What do you think about playing a prank on the Hermes' cabin? We still haven't gotten them back for what they did during Capture the Flag."

A little desperate, Nico asks, "Don't you want to play the game?"

"Since when are you so passionate about camp activities?"

"I'm not!"

"Great. Then have some fun with me. Trust me, no one will even notice we're gone."

"We barely know each other, and I'm supposed to trust you?" Nico scoffed. His body thrums with restless energy. Half of him is burning with the urge to see what will happen if he gets Will alone, and the other is terrified. "No, thanks. I'm better off on my own, anyway. Have fun sitting in the dirt."

Nico barely takes two steps before Will is clambering to get up and follow him.

"Nico - wait up," Will says, panting. "Come on, man, when have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?"

He doesn't sound angry or demanding. Maybe a little confused. Unfortunately, that's enough to get Nico's hackles up.

Stop it. He thinks to himself. Stop throwing tantrums like a child.

"When you fed me pea soup and told me it was essential for my recovery," he replies, trying to play it off like a joke.

Luckily, Will doesn't call him out on it. Instead, he huffs, "Well, I didn't know at the time that you are literally allergic to vegetables. No one older than ten hates soup." He slings his bow and arrow back around his back. "You're ridiculous."

"Thanks," Nico grumbles.

"No - I just mean - you're ridiculous." Will continues. "This whole conversation is silly."

"How?" Nico demands.

"I know you trust me. You wouldn't go anywhere alone with me if you didn't." Will's still smiling, but it's nothing more than a sad little thing smeared on the corners of his mouth. Upset, Nico's mind labels. That, and something else Nico can't quite place. "You don't have to make up a reason for not wanting to hang out with me. If you want me to leave you alone, all you have to do is ask."

Nico honestly couldn't follow the track of this conversation for the life of him. He didn't know how they got here, or what Solace expected him to say, or how to make it better. He didn't like the way that Will was looking at him. He didn't like the way that he was talking. Something had changed, and now Nico's heart was beating fast, and all he could think was how do I get it back to the way it was before?

All he could come up with was, "I didn't know you were capable of that."

It could barely pass off as a joke, and it wasn't the right thing to say - but, thank gods, Solace didn't seem it to take it badly. "I am if you ask," he emphasizes. "I know I'm annoying and all clingy, and you're used to hanging around people like Jason, and you only became aware of my existence like a week ago. But I promise I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable. Like, I respect you. And what you want. And who you don't want around." He gestures loosely with hands and smiles his sad little smile that doesn't sit right in Nico's stomach. "Or whatever."

"I want you around," Nico says before he can stop himself.

"Really?" Will asks, like he doesn't believe him.

And - ok, Nico knows he's an asshole, but he didn't think he was such a jerk he could make Will Solace feel insecure. It was unnerving to see him this way - all timid, talking like he was thinking hard before he said anything. And he shouldn't care- except for that Nico is trying to be a better person, and he doesn't want Will to walk around actually thinking he's like this to everyone. So more out of defense of his character than anything else, Nico insists, "I don't think you're annoying." He pauses, and then corrects, "Well, I don't think you're annoying for those reasons."

It was a pathetic response, but it was good enough for Will, who simply snorts and mutters, "Asshole." Without another word, Will sets off into the forest again as if nothing ever happened. As if Nico's weird joke changed anything. Nico follows him, feeling like his mind was a few steps behind, trying to catch up with his body.

"I'm serious, Solace. It's annoying when you do that."

"Do what?"

Nico stares at him blankly as Will continues on his random path, not looking in his direction. He seems like he has no clue what Nico's talking about. Nico stumbles over a pebble and struggles to think of a reason why it bothers him so much. In around fifteen seconds, he reminds himself that he really shouldn't get involved in other people's business, trips over a twig, gets irritated at the confused expression on Will's face, and finally gives in to his incessant urge to explain. "That thing. 'People like Jason.' Why do you talk about them like they're so much better than you?"

"Well, you guys are, aren't you?"

"How?"

Now, Will was looking at Nico like he was the crazy one. "Hello? You guys literally saved the world. You were prophesied to end the apocalypse."

"I wasn't," Nico said. "Besides, it's not like we had much choice. You either save the world, or you die. Any demigod would do it if they were forced to."

"No way." Will shakes his head. "I'm not a fighter. This bow is just for show, remember? If I were there, just the pressure of it all would've been enough to put me out of commission."

"That's not true." Nico insists.

Will shrugs. "One thing you'll learn about me, di Angelo," he says, ducking under a branch. "Is that I'm a little bit of a coward."

Nico tugs on his arm and drags him to a halt. "No, you're not."

"I thought that you barely even know me." Will shoots back, annoyingly spot-on with his imitation. Nico hates him; how he can reverse roles without Nico even noticing, how he changes the topic of the conversation so smoothly sometimes Nico doesn't even realize it until minutes later. He was good at not talking about things, Nico noticed. And it seemed like Will had a lot of things that he didn't like talking about.

Luckily, Nico caught the bait Will tossed his way early-on this time and knew not to rise to it. Instead, he grips Will's arm a little more closely and leads him into the forest.

"What are you doing?" Will squeaks. Nico notes with some satisfaction that he sounds a million times less smug.

"We're gonna go find a monster, and you're gonna kill it."

* * *

They don't end up killing any monsters. Nico tracked one down pretty quickly - a gigantic crab, frothing at the mouth - but Will had cowered away, and it was too big to kill on his own. So Nico grabbed Will's arm, they ran out of the forest, breathless, laughing under the night sky.

The next day, Nico wasn't surprised when Will grabbed him first thing in the morning and lugged him around to help him do his chores. It was getting a little easier to be around him, now that Nico knew what he wanted.

Besides, following Will Solace, under the bright sunshine and fresh breeze, Nico found that he didn't really mind being dragged places.

"Hey," Nico mused out loud, as Will led the way towards the infirmary. "Have you ever shadow-traveled?"

"Nico di Angelo. You even think about taking me along on one of your little trips and I'll chain back to a cot."

Nico shuddered. "Once was enough."

"Hey, young man!" Will shook a finger in Nico's direction. "You're lucky that I only sentenced you three days!"

Nico held up his hands weakly in defense. "Don't call me 'young man.’ Technically, I'm older than you, remember?"

Will groaned. "Don't remind me. I'm trying to repress the information that I've been hanging out with a grandpa as best I can." He shuddered for good measure. Nico cracked a smile. Will doubled-down on the mock-anger, gasping dramatically, "What, is my horror funny to you? You find that amusing, do you?"

"Kinda, yeah," Nico said, grinning.

Will opened his mouth, surely to go off on some exaggerated rant, but his gaze caught on something over Nico's shoulder. "Oh. It looks like someone's been stalking you."

"What?" Nico followed his gaze only to see Percy, leaning against one of the basketball hoops. He was watching them with a weird expression on his face. Once Nico made eye-contact, Percy raised his eyebrows.

Nico's good mood vanished.

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to," Will said, and Nico's mood went from bad to worse.

He shot Will a glare, grumbled, "Whatever," and set off to see Percy. He could already feel his palms getting sweaty, and it was infuriating. It should have been nothing. It should be easy. But he was nervous. He shadow-traveled on the regular, had a hellhound as a pet, survived Tartarus, not to mention a million other things that would scare other campers so badly they'd never speak again. And yet, here he was, going to talk to a stupid son of Poseidon, and his stupid heart was pounding like he was about to die (and trust Nico, he would know).

Percy was just there, sun glinting off his hair and stupid sea-green eyes, looking casual and rugged and handsome, probably not feeling a thing. Nico pushed down a wave of resentment. He didn't know. Nico reminded himself. He's not a bad guy.

Well, he knows now.

And maybe that scared Nico more than anything else.

"Hey," Nico said oh-so-casually, hoping that he didn't sound like he hated himself too much.

"Hey," Percy said, looking serious. His eyes were still on Will, who was standing with his arms crossed, watching them. "You guys are getting close, huh."

"No, we're not," Nico blurted out too quickly in response.

Percy looked at him, and Nico felt pretty proud that he didn't cave under the weight of his gaze. "Seemed pretty close."

Nico grit his teeth. "Percy. Are you here to discuss the absurd notion that I might be able to make friends?"

A few months ago, that would've irritated the hell out of Percy. His eyes would get dark, and he would snap back something so obtuse that would make Nico mad, and suddenly they'd be fighting. But this time, it just seemed to shake Percy out of whatever he was thinking about. He scratched the back of his neck and grimaced, "I guess not. I just wanted to let you know that - well, Camp Half-Blood is fun and all, and I really should be staying behind to help everyone recover-"

"But?" Nico interrupted.

"But, I need to go home." Percy confessed, not quite meeting Nico's eyes. "I haven't seen my mom in forever. I have other responsibilities now, I guess."

And you can't be around everyone right now, Nico guessed. He recognized the cagey look in Percy's eye - after going through so much shit, and seeing so many awful things, being back at camp could feel like a bad fever dream. A little too good to be true.

"So, you're saying goodbye?" Nico guessed.

"Yeah. And something else." Percy looked at Nico head-on. "Just...you know that I'm here for you, right? If you ever need anything..."

Nico could only stare at him for a few seconds. The audacity of Percy to offer help when he was clearly struggling, when Nico had been where Percy was and got out of it just fine - it was staggering. Nico tried to keep his voice under control when he says, "I can take care of myself." In case you've forgotten.

"I know you can take care of yourself, I'm just saying. If you're in trouble, or if you're hurt - gods, if you're just hungry and want to get something to eat, I'm there. You can come to me for anything, man."

"So what, if I just show up to your house at 3 am and tell you that I want a burger-"

"I know some pretty good 24-hour diners." Percy finished, grinning. Nico felt it like a punch to the stomach.

He wasn't serious. He couldn't be serious. But Nico wanted badly to believe him. So he let himself say, "Okay, Percy."

Percy didn't respond. He looked back over Nico's shoulder. Nico tried not to worry about the look on his face.

Percy didn't want his help. He probably didn't need it. It was like an unchangeable fact of the universe - the sky is blue, what comes up comes back down, and Percy Jackson will get through whatever he has to get through.

Nico should let it go. But he can't stop himself from blurting out, "Percy - the nightmares -"

Percy cuts him off with a sharp look. His expression went from a little distant to suspicious. Before Percy could ask, Nico explained, "Jason let it slip."

"What about them?"

Nico searched for the right words to say, and came up short. All he could think of was, "They'll get better. You'll get better."

"Really?"

Nico shrugs. "No. But you'll survive."

Percy let out a big breath. "And that's all that matters in the end, right?" There was a hard edge to his words, a little too pointed to be anything but sarcastic. The sound of it, a little too familiar to how Nico used to talk, made Nico's stomach flip.

"I guess," Nico replied, unconvinced.

"I guess." Percy agreed, sounding just as uncertain. "See you around."

Nico repressed the urge to reach out and get him to stay in the safety of camp for a little bit longer. Percy saluted him and headed off. Nico watched him go, unsure of what he was feeling. It wasn't good - but it wasn't bad either. Percy would be alright. He had to be. There was no point worrying about it.

He turned around and saw Will, watching. Once they made eye contact, Will plastered on a smile and waved. Nico barely gave him a glance before turning to walk to his cabin.

And that would've been that if it was anyone else.

Not Will Solace.

He bounded up to Nico's side and chirped, "That seemed like a pretty serious conversation."

Nico shot him a dark look. "It wasn't."

Will brushed it off with a shrug and continued, "Get real, Death Boy. You were deep into a mental breakdown from the second you looked at him."

"I was not having a mental breakdown."

"Uh-huh." Will didn't seem convinced. "So, the reason you gave me the cold shoulder and now won't stop glaring at me is that you're perfectly fine?"

For some reason, that was the last straw. Nico had had too many weird conversations with people who cared too much about him today.

Why are they all so convinced that I am unable to function unless someone's around to babysit me?

Nico stopped walking, whirled around, and faced him. "Maybe the reason I'm ignoring you is that I want to be left alone. Stop acting like you know me, Solace. You don't." He stuck a finger towards the direction Percy left and spits, "He doesn't even know me, and I met him when I was eleven."

"So?" Will asked, annoyingly defiant. "What does that have to do with anything?"

For a second, Nico could only look at him. His golden curls were shining in the sun, his bright blue eyes furrowed in an irritated expression Nico was becoming more and more familiar with, his lips pressed in a deep frown. Nico had just yelled at him, and he was still there. He was still looking at Nico like he could see right through him. Why are you even trying? Nico wanted to ask. What's the point? Instead, he demanded, "Why are you so sure you're different from everyone else?"

"I could ask you the same question," Will replied, quick and smart and far more discerning than Nico had bargained for.

The memory hits Nico in a flash of images; shaky hands and a bright tropical shirt, the sound of war going on as Will asks Nico to stay. He huffs and looks away. "We've already had this argument."

"Well, consider this round two." Will stuck his hands on his hips. "I don't mind. I like fighting with you."

Nico felt his cheeks burn, but he refused to break eye contact. "Look, you asked me to stay at Camp Half-Blood, and I have. You asked me to stay in the infirmary for three days, and I did. You asked me not to use my powers unless I need to, and I don't. What else do you want from me?"

"Gods, di Angelo, do you only do things because people ask you to?" Will asked. "Forget that, that's not my point. You told me you wanted me around. Why do you keep acting like you don't?"

For a second, Nico feels so frustrated that he could scream. It felt impossible that someone who talked like they could read his mind could understand so little about him. But that thought was coupled with a bitter truth. Maybe, the people in Nico's life don't talk to him the way they do because they think they know everything about him. Maybe Nico's so closed-off, all they can do is guess.

"All I want is to be your friend." Will says. "You don't have to make it this hard for me."

"I'm not trying to," Nico blurted. Honesty felt strange on his tongue. He was used to repressing everything, dancing around truths until he can't hold it in anymore longer. Honesty used to explode out of him, leaving a mark on anyone who dared to be near. Saying what he thinks as he thinks it felt uncomfortable, like a new pair of shoes that still needed to be broken in. But he thinks of their argument in the forest - how Will was convinced that Nico hated him. He thinks of how Jason still tip-toes around him like he doesn't know what word will trigger him. He remembers that most demigods aren't out to get him, even if their godly parents are. He takes a deep breath and tries again. "I'm not trying to make it hard."

Bright blue eyes meet stormy brown ones, and Nico's truth sits in the air between them for a few seconds.

Will asks, "But it's gonna be hard anyways, isn't it?"

Nico shrugs. "Isn't it always?"

It might be their thing, a Will-Nico thing, to parrot back words the other doesn't even remember saying and throw it back into their face. For a moment, Nico thinks Will might throw his hands up and give up on him. Decide he's not worth the effort and walk away. The image only lasts in his head for a seconds before Will breaks into the cheesiest smile Nico had ever seen, swings an arm around his shoulders, and proclaims, "Well, I've always liked a challenge!"

Nico shoves his arm off, slightly peeved about being called a challenge, but Will still manages to wrangle him into coming to the lake. Nothing was fixed, really. But they both seemed to be willing to let it go this time, and the compromise was a rare enough occurrence that Nico didn't want to think about it any longer.

Nico was doing his best to be a better person, even if it was just in an attempt to become less miserable. But progress wasn't a straight line. It was never as easy as saying something once. It was inevitable - they were going to have this argument again. Maybe they'd have this argument a million times. But it was okay. Will said it himself: he likes fighting with him.

Will pushes Nico's shoulder, and Nico tries not to smile as he thinks it one more time.

He likes it.

Chapter Text

Will Solace jerks awake in the middle of the night with sweaty palms, his skin crawling, his sheets hot where they stick to his skin. He wakes up gasping for air, reaching out with desperate hands, grasping at nothing. Will Solace wakes up, and for a moment that feels like it lasts forever, he's drowning in the dark silence of Cabin 7.

From below, a tentative voice asks, "Will? Are you okay?"

Will rolls over and tries, with little success, to control his breathing. It's just Will's luck that Andrew, of all people, gets woken up by him in the middle of the night. He's Will's youngest sibling, only twelve years old, and the lightest sleeper in the cabin. Andrew's a nervous little kid who'd spent an undetermined amount of time on his own before one of the satyrs found him. Being a light sleeper was just one of the many protective habits he'd developed - some of which included being able to move around quietly and knowing from one look exactly how long a pile of food could last someone. Will should lower himself down the lower bunk, let Andrew see that he's okay, maybe ruffle his hair for good measure. But he can't tear his eyes away from the ceiling. The remnants of his nightmare - images of gaping wounds, sounds of screaming children - burn at the forefront of his mind. Will manages to whisper, "I'm okay, Andrew. Go to sleep."

He hears Andrew shift around in his bed. It doesn't take long for the cabin to fall silent again. Once he's sure Andrew's asleep, Will carefully slides out from under his sheets and steps outside of Cabin 7. It's golden walls glow in the moonlight. The camp is quiet, save for the occasional call of a harpy. He sits on the front steps and desperately tries to relax.

Normally when demigods get nightmares, they're premonitions for the future. This is especially true for children of Apollo, whose dreams are more vivid and accurate than anyone else's. But, of course, this wasn't the case for Will Solace. For all the healing power he had inherited from his father, he had little else to show. No musical ability - no poetry skills - not even prophetic dreams. His nightmares might be awful, but they were even more useless. All they do is dredge up old shit he'd spent all day trying to repress. Most of the time, they hit too close to home.

They'd almost lost someone this morning.

Mary, a daughter of Ares not that much younger than him, had been put into the infirmary during the war after she'd been struck by a poisonous arrow. Lost in the chaos, the poison had several hours to set in her body before she could be treated. She had been stuck in bed ever since with little to no signs of recovery.

Will should've noticed that something was wrong.

Truth be told, he was a little distracted this past couple of days. No matter how hard he tried to focus on whatever task was at hand, his mind kept wandering back to - who else? - Nico di Angelo. Well, it sounds bad when you put it like that. Will wasn't obsessed with him or anything - it's just that Nico was hard not to think about. Especially when he was being absurdly stubborn. Will must have insisted more than a hundred times that the more honest Nico is, the faster Will can heal him, and the sooner he can stop bothering him. It was a perfectly reasonable argument and one that Nico refused to listen to. Instead, he keeps on showing off how 'recovered' he is whenever Will is around. It would've worked, if Nico wasn't so oblivious to how much Will is, well, around. Again, that sounds creepier than it is. Will just sometimes sees Nico from across the way and doesn't bother announcing his presence. And it's a good thing he does - if not, Will wouldn't have noticed how Nico was avoiding everything he normally liked to do (sword training, shadow-traveling, summoning creepy little animals). From someone so blatantly self-destructive, the fact that Nico was exercising caution was worrying, to say the least.

So he'd been thinking about Nico, and wondering what it would take to convince him to come in for a few more studies, and dealing with some paperwork when he realized that Mary was having a seizure.

He immediately ran to her and did everything he learned to do - placed her on her side, yanked the straw she was using to drink nectar out of her mouth so she wouldn't choke on it, timed the length of the seizure, and immediately put her through a series of tests once she came out of it. Thank Apollo, she was fine. A little tired, but okay.

If it had taken Will a few more seconds…

He couldn't stop thinking about it.

Jessica, one of his younger siblings, had taken him aside and told him to take a break. Will tried to fight back, but she didn't even entertain the argument. All she did was take a good, long look at his hands. They were violently shaking.

For the rest of the day, he felt like his stomach was dissolving in acid.

What would have happened if you didn't look up in time?

Austin is older than you. He wouldn't have made that mistake.

Could she have died?

The sound of a monster in the distance rang through the camp, shaking Will out of his thoughts. He was fine. No, really! He was. Everything had worked out. Mary recovered, and all her tests came back normal. Will's mistake had cost them nothing. No one had even noticed.

Will lets out a breath and buries his feet deeper in the grass. He looks into the darkness and idly wonders if Nico was out there, somewhere. Maybe he's in some neck of the wood, digging holes and summoning skeletons. Probably not. He was most likely asleep in his cabin. Was he having nightmares, like Will was? What would he have nightmares about?

As hard as Will tried, he couldn't think of an answer.

When Will heads back into the cabin, Andrew is sitting upright, his young face pale in the moonlight. "You shouldn't go outside after curfew," He says, somber. "The harpies will get you."

Will plasters on the widest smile he can muster. "Are you kidding? The harpies couldn't even touch me if they tried. Just one look at me, and they'll disintegrate on the spot!"

Andrew frowns, more out of annoyance than concern. "That's not possible."

"Anything's possible when you're this good-looking, kiddo." Will starts to climb up to his bunk. "Now go to sleep before I use my powers on you."

Andrew pouts, but he obediently lies down.

Will stares at the ceiling.

He doesn't want to close his eyes. He's scared of what he might see when he does.

* * *

His siblings are walking on egg-shells around him the next morning. Will can't prove it, but somehow he knows that Andrew had let last night's incident slip. Jessica tells Will he can sleep in if he wants to - two of his younger siblings offer him the food off their plate during breakfast. Will sends a significant look to Andrew, who doesn't even have the decency to play dumb.

The second he walks into the infirmary, every healer there whirls to face him, faces grave. Looking at them, you would've thought Will was recovering from a heart attack or something. Ha! Imagine that. They were surrounded by injured demigods but somehow they were worried about Will.

Well, that wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all.

"Why're you all staring at me?" Will demands. "I'm not paying you to stand around, am I?"

"You're not paying us at all." Austin sniffs. Will shoots a finger gun at him gratefully. The fact that he was playing along was good; the others would follow his lead pretty soon. Austin was not only a year older than Will, but also taller and more powerful (his archery skills are unmatched, and his skills on the kazoo are breathtaking). Since he only arrived at camp around two years ago, Will technically had superiority. Still, every other camper in the cabin looks up to him. Austin would've made a great head counselor.

"And I never will, if you don't start working soon!" Will replies cheerfully. "I know I'm a genius but you guys have to learn to keep up with me!"

Austin laughs and sets out to check on the patient assigned to him. The others exchange a few looks but continued to do their jobs without so much as a second glance.

Typical. All it took was a couple of well-timed jokes and light threats, and soon the atmosphere in the infirmary was back to its normal, cheerful self. Will feels a twinge of jealousy - why don't they follow you like they follow him? - but it's balanced out by relief. Tense healers made nervous patients. The less the others worried about insignificant details Will could take care of, the more attention they could give to the people who needed it.

"Do your rounds and don't bother me unless it's an emergency," Will informs Dana, who was unofficially his second-in-command.

"What?" Dana asks, following him as he goes to the office nestled away in the back of the building. When Will doesn't immediately respond, she pressed, "Will. You've been here all week. If you want to go out and do something fun for a bit, I don't mind -"

"Don't worry. There's nowhere else I'd rather be." Before he can fully gauge her reaction, Will closes the door in her face.

The office in the infirmary was a cluttered one. Weeks old paperwork spills out of every cabinet. The worst of them are stained with coffee rings. It was an immense amount of work that was built off years of neglect. The children of Apollo were hardworking only when it comes to something they're interested in. Give them something boring? It'll never get done. Just one look and Will's hands started to itch. He'd rather painstakingly do a thousand stitches to deal with that. He'd rather get back out there, yank the reigns back from Austin and Dana, and get back to doing the only thing he was actually good at.

But Will was determined not to give in. Hiding out here wasn't ideal, but it felt necessary after yesterday. If Will's stupid distracting problems are a danger to the patients, he should stay away until he learns how to keep them from interfering.

He cracks his knuckles and dives in.

It doesn't take long before someone knocks on his door. Will feels a sick twist of satisfaction at the noise - you guys couldn't even go fifteen minutes without me, huh? But he feigns annoyance even as he stands up to open the door. "What?"

Dana looks a little restless when she says, "Come outside for a second."

"I'm busy."

"I've got a surprise for you."

"Can it wait?"

"I don't think keeping him waiting is a good idea." Will hears Austin snort from out of eyeshot.

Will steps out from the doorframe to ask what he's talking about only to find Nico standing there, looking sheepish.

"Hi," Nico says.

"Um. Hey." Will stutters back. And then, because Will was incapable of going more than thirty seconds without humiliating himself, he says, "Nice hair."

Nico's hand raises to his hair self-consciously. It was effortlessly mussed in a way that other people spend hours trying to replicate. Of course, to Nico, it came naturally. He looked good today - in the sweltering heat, he'd scrapped his jacket for a plain black shirt and dark jeans. Even his skin looked nice, including the little strip on his nose where he'd gotten a sunburn.

Dana clears her throat and Will remembers to ask, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh. Right." Nico glances at Dana - which is strange, considering the fact that Will had never seen the two of them speak more than two words to each other. "Well, you mentioned that you wanted me to stop by every once in a while, right? It's good for the patients, or whatever."

"Right," Will says, trying to hide the way his nerves twist around with a new feeling of dread. Yesterday, Will had almost lost a patient because he was being distracted by the thought of Nico. Having Nico physically here - Will doesn't know if he can trust himself to handle it. He awkwardly jokes, "You're just saying that because you want to see something gross, don't you?"

Nico cracks a crooked smile. "You caught me."

It's a miracle Will doesn't melt through his scrubs. It should be concerning how easy it was for Will to get flustered around him. But Will always got this affected when he got a crush on someone. And that's all it was - a stupid, little crush. Once Nico got sick of him and shook him off for good, he'd get over it, no problem. Besides, there was a more pressing issue at hand; how to make Nico go away without telling him to go away. "Well, it's slow today. I don't know how gross it's gonna get. Maybe you could help me do some paperwork! That sounds pretty disgusting, right?"

Nico honest-to-gods pouted. "Are you serious? That's the best you can offer?"

"Unfortunately there are no grave injuries in here today," Will replies. "The worst you're gonna see is maybe a third-degree burn from the lava wall."

At that, Nico perks up. "Burns are cool."

For a second, Will gets an intense flashback at the glimpses of Nico he'd seen when he met him for the first time - a moody kid who liked to ask questions and liked guessing the answers to them even better. It was kind of adorable.

"Did you hear that?" Austin mutters to Dana, just loudly enough to be completely audible. "I would've thought he was more a laceration kind of guy."

"Laceration kind of guy?" Nico repeats. He doesn't sound impressed, which is kind of hypocritical considering how excited he was about burns a few seconds ago. Will tugs Nico's shirt and shakes his head, silently trying to communicate Go easy on them. Nico doesn't even glance at him. Instead, he looks to Austin like he's waiting for an explanation.

"Don't mind him. We've been in here so much since the war that we've all become a little desensitized to this kind of stuff, now." Dana blurts, looking nervous.

Austin tacks on, "Will's even trying to keep the younger kids out of the schedule as much as possible so that they don't grow up to be psychopaths."

They stare at Nico, like whatever he says next is of the utmost importance. Will can barely repress his laughter when they tense up as the expression on Nico's face barely twitches. It was obvious that they weren’t as used to Nico's intimidation tactics as Will was. Nico hums. "Seems to me the earlier they see this kind of stuff, the better."

Dana and Austin exchanged a baffled look, but Will wasn't fazed. "Are you serious? You really think we should traumatize little twelve-year-olds?" Will asks.

"Trauma's not always bad." Nico protests. "Sometimes it makes you learn shit."

"Oh, so, you're in favor of what? Trauma in controlled dosages?" Will grins at the idea. "You want me to write prescriptions like, remember to witness one horrifying event a month to ensure developmental stability."

Nico snorts. "Yeah, maybe. That'd be better than the alternative, at least."

"What's the alternative?"

"You get a sheltered kid who doesn't know how to handle it when life decides to fuck them over."

There's a hard edge to Nico's voice when he says it. Will pretends like he doesn't notice. They must have stumbled into sensitive territory - which admittedly wasn't his strong suit. He had a tendency to be - what did Jessica call him the other day? Insensitive. "They're demigods," Will reminds him, hoping he sounds gentle. "No matter how hard we try, we're never gonna be able to shelter them. Might as well make life as easy for them as possible while we still can."

Nico looks up to him with round eyes. Even though he's staring Will directly in the face, Will gets the sensation that Nico barely sees him as he mulls over what Will just said.

"Hey," Austin calls out. "If the Ghost King wants to see some fucked up shit, he should go visit Kelly."

"Language, Austin." Will immediately reprimands. "Drachma. Swear jar. Now."

"Di Angelo was swearing!"

"Di Angelo is not in my cabin. As far as I'm concerned, he can do what he wants!" Will says. Austin puts up his hands good-naturedly and pushes his way past Will to drop a drachma in the office. Will sighs and turns to see Nico watching him with a small smile playing on his lips. "What?"

"Nothing," Nico says. "Who's Kelly?"

"No one," Will says, sending a hard glare to his siblings. "And we do not talk about the patients like they're exhibitions at the zoo"

"Sorry," Dana says, not sounding sorry in the slightest.

"Hey, go easy on them, head counselor. They're desensitized, remember?" Nico replies, nudging Will in his side. Will gives him a look. He can't tell if that was supposed to be a jab at the expense of his siblings or a jab at Will's leadership abilities. Given how he was acting earlier, it was probably the former. Nico just liked being on whatever side Will wasn't on.

"Austin!" Dana says loudly. "Come help me with something."

"But I-"

"Come on."

Austin groans and makes his way back to the cots, where Dana drags him towards the front of the building. With that, Will and Nico were left alone in the corner of the infirmary. The door to the office was still open and incredibly tempting. Will quickly shut it before he did anything that would technically count as unprofessional. He could already feel the back of his neck starting to burn. Control yourself, he reminds himself firmly. No one wants to hang out with weird, sweaty, nervous kids.

Still, it's hard not to feel awkward. It's the first time Will's seen Nico in a couple of days. Will's been busy with a wave of fresh, young demigods that had finally arrived to camp, each of them speckled with a variety of injuries. Even when he had a spare minute to seek him out, Will always found Nico when he was in deep conversation with Jason Grace. Something must've progressed with the little project they'd been working on.

Or he just likes hanging out with Jason, a little voice in the back of Will's head pipes up. After all, who wouldn't? He's so tall and handsome.

Could you not?. Will snaps back internally. Externally, he asks, "How's the Leo investigation going?"

Nico shrugs. "It's going. Who's Kelly?"

Will scrutinizes him for a second. "You know, typically, when you talk with someone and you ask them a question, they give you a good long response-"

"Solace-"

"-And it's only after they've satisfied the asker do they feel comfortable enough to ask a question of their own."

"I've had conversations before." Nico huffs. "I understand how they function."

"Could've fooled me."

Nico squints at him. "You know what? Nevermind. I don't even want to know."

Will sighs. "Fine. I guess I'll just have to go visit Kelly all by myself then."

"I thought you weren't supposed to talk about patients like they're exhibitions at the zoo."

"They're not allowed. I can do whatever I want."

Nico glares at him, but his curiosity about Kelly must've been stronger than his pride, because he starts, "The thing with Leo is complicated. The truth is, we're not much better off than we were before." Nico pitches his voice lower, and Will finds himself leaning in to hear. "I'm honestly losing hope."

"What do you mean?"

"The books - the legends - the myths - they all say the same thing. There are spaces between alive and dead, but they aren't places you can inhabit for long. Sooner or later, your destination is the Underworld." Nico shrugs. "The moral is always the same - You can't cheat death."

"Crazier things have happened. Until now, we all thought it was impossible to survive Tartarus."

Nico rolls his eyes. "That was different."

"It wasn't! Plus, if it was you that was in that in-between space, I wouldn't give up until I saw your ghost for myself." The words spill out of him so easily, Will almost forgets to be embarrassed. But he quickly remembers that randomly saying things like that out of the blue was most definitely a symptom of a crush out of control, so Will hastily adds, "Or Austin. Or Dana. Or, you know, whoever."

Nico blinks at him. For a second it seems like he's at a loss for words. Then he grits out, "I guess."

Nico's expression is comically surly. Will laughs. Then, he can't help but ask, "If you're so hopeless, why have you been spending so much time with Jason Grace?"

"Will Solace. You've been watching me?

"Not like that!" Will yelps. "I just look for you every now and again when I get off shifts. In a totally chill, non-stalker-y way."

"Right."

"Right!"

"You blush when you get nervous, you know that?" Nico says suddenly. His tone is just as bland as the expression on his face - to anyone watching, he looks like he's talking about something as mundane as the weather. Only the glitter in his eyes reveals the fact that Nico's making fun of him.

"Stop trying to change the subject." Will hisses, reaching up to cover his cheeks with his hands.

Nico's expression cracks, just enough for a smirk. "Cute. Who's Kelly?"

Will pats his cheeks, trying to get a hold of himself, even though the word cute was replaying in his mind, like a jammed CD that wouldn't stop spitting out the same lyrics. He debates the pros and cons of calling Nico out for avoiding his question and decides it'll cause more trouble than it's worth. "Daughter of Hecate. You wouldn't know her, she only got claimed less than a year ago. She was trying to get the attention of her mother and got involved in some sketchy magic stuff."

"And that didn't end too well for her?" Nico guessed.

"Nope. A couple of months ago, Chiron found her in the forest, covered in these magical burns. I'd never seen anything like it." He rattles off the history like it's a passage in a book that he memorized. "I'm talking - skin practically slipping off of her, bright blue pus, exposed bone. The first time I saw her, I threw up. We had to move her to the Big House, where she wouldn't scare people. As head counselor, I'm the only one who sees her - sometimes I let Austin help out because he's technically the oldest and it's a good experience - but it's gruesome." Will glances at Nico, wondering what he thinks of all this, but Nico's face remains impassive. Without meaning to, he blurts, "I'm way out of my depth. I don't have nearly enough experience to make a difference."

It's not something he would've admitted it to anyone else. But he was prone to saying stupid stuff around Nico. Luckily, Nico doesn't even blink. He asks, "Does anyone?"

It's probably a rhetorical question but Will answers it anyway. "The gods probably do. But they don't seem to care, so..."

"Typical." Nico scoffs. "Do you want me to look at her?"

"No offense, Nico, but I don't know how much help you can be."

"Will," Nico says. "I meant look at her."

Will's brain was so stuck on the part where Nico had called him by his name (and cute! Did you forget the fact that he called you cute?!) that it took him a minute to put the pieces together.

Oh. Like, child-of-death, use-creepy-powers looking at her. Will gulped.

"If she's not getting better...I can tell if she can be saved," Nico says. "How close she is to...you know. If you want to know."

"I don't," Will says suddenly, with a lot more force than he meant to.

"Got it," Nico mutters. "Sorry."

Will's been hanging around Nico enough to notice the way that he shrinks back into his shell. Feeling guilty, Will continues, "We don't need a child of Hades to know if someone's dying. We're doctors for a reason."

"Right," Nico says. "It doesn't bode well, though."

"What?"

"You're the best healer here. Even the medics at New Rome struggle with some of the cases you've cured within the past couple of weeks. If you can't help her, I don't think anyone can."

Will thinks of Mary's seizure yesterday morning. He thinks of all the people he didn't get to in time in the war. He thinks of his pathetic attempt to heal Nico, which obviously wasn't working. The fact that Nico - cynical, pessimistic, jaded Nico - believed in him so much...it was too much. Will can't think of anything to say. He can't even smile. All he can do is look at him.

The look on his face must've been pretty pathetic because Austin catches his eyes from across the infirmary and pretends to gag.

* * *

"I don't get it," Dana huffs. "Why do you even like him?"

Will tosses a pillow at her from where he's laying on a bunk. "First of all, I don't like him. Second of all, don't be rude. "

Dana doesn't even bother defending herself. She lets the pillow hit and immediately stuffs it under her head. "Did you read too much Twilight as a kid? Are you into that whole vampire thing?"

"He doesn't look like a vampire!" Will protests. He hesitates, and then says, "He's cute."

"Knew it," Dana grins.

"What're you guys talking about?" Austin bellows as he barges into the cabin. His hair is all mussed and his eyes are shining. Will should reprimand him for coming in barely in time for curfew, but that would involve interrogating him on where he's been, exactly and - well, there were some things head counselors really didn't need to know.

"We were just discussing," Dana crows, "about how madly in love Will is with Nico di Angelo."

"Dude. As if that's breaking news."

Will winces. "Have I really been that obvious?"

"Oh buddy," Dana says, patting him on the shoulder. "If he hasn't figured it out by now, I don't think he ever will."

Will turns over and groans into his pillow. Did Nico know? If he did, there was no indication of it. He was acting the same as he always was. Or maybe Nico was just that good of a guy, that he wouldn't let unreciprocated feelings ruin a friendship. But maybe that wasn't right either - Nico may be secretive, but he's way too awkward about feelings. He probably would've blurted to Will what he knew the second someone told him. So he didn't know. Probably. Hopefully.

"It's over." Will decides."I'm never speaking to anybody again."

"Hey, cheer up! Maybe he likes you back!" Andrew says suddenly from his place on the lower bunk.

Will lurches down to glare at him. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that eavesdropping is rude?"

From across the room, Jessica calls, "It's not eavesdropping if the people in question are talking loudly about their business!"

Gods, this was mortifying.

"Yeah, yeah, it's my fault Dana's so invested," Will calls back. "I'll have you know that I'd be perfectly happy never speaking of this again."

"Please. You can't go an hour without bringing him up." Austin snorts.

Dana groans. "Right?"

"I do not talk about him that much!"

"Yes, you do!" Andrew contributes, ever so helpfully.

"Andrew," Will warns. "Don't get involved in this. It isn't going to be pretty for you."

Andrew scowls. He obviously was not taking the threat seriously and liking the fact that he's being excluded from the conversation even less. The look of exasperation on his cute, chubby face was so adorable that Will couldn't help but take it back.

"I'm joking. Besides, who knows? Maybe you're right, little man. Maybe Nico will come in the middle of the night, throw rocks at my window, and sweep me off my feet. Then we can go live happily ever after and leave you all in peace." To Dana, who was exchanging a doubtful look with Austin, Will asks, "What? You guys don't think so?"

"Rocks on your window?" Dana repeats.

"Yeah, di Angelo seems like he's the type." Austin continues, deadpan.

"I was joking. It was a joke."

"Sure."

"You guys, I know I'm pathetic, but I don't think he'd ever pull a stunt like that," Will says, his stupid face already flushing. "I don't even like him like that. And he definitely doesn't like me!"

"He could like you!" Austin tries. "Aw, Will, don't look like that. It’s possible. It's just….well, how are we supposed to know?"

"You're the only one he talks to outside of the prophecy kids," Dana says. "That's a good sign, right?"

"Right," Austin confirms. "Totally possible."

"Do you want us to ask him?" Andrew asks.

"Maybe we could set you guys up!" Austin agrees.

"You say that as if I haven't already tried," Dana sighs. "Why do you think I asked Nico to come to the infirmary today?"

"Why did you do that?" Will asks sharply.

Dana winces. "You seemed stressed! I thought he’d help!"

"How did you ask him? What did he say? Did you have to force him?"

"I don't know, Will. I just said that you were waiting around for him to show up-"

"That's so not true!"

"-And he gave me the same look he always wears and just followed me in!"

Will had a million questions burning inside of him, but he felt like he could already see their answers in the faces of his siblings - Andrew optimistic, Austin tentative, and Dana unconvinced. Will felt his stomach sink through the floor. "You know what? As head counselor, I officially ban all Nico di Angelo talk in this cabin from now on."

"Finally." Jessica sighs.

"You know this rule applies to you too, right?" Austin teases.

Will scowls. "Don't push it." After a beat, he adds, "And don't pull shit like that ever again."

"What's the big deal? All I did was tell him he should visit you, I was so being subtle-"

"Not that! Just - don't worry about if I'm stressed, okay? I'm the head counselor. It's my job to be stressed. I can handle it."

"You're our brother, Will," Andrew says. "We're gonna worry about you no matter what."

Will suddenly can't hold eye contact with any of his siblings. His dear, sincere siblings, with their chubby cheeks and earnest eyes and good intentions. They want him to be happy. They want Nico to like him back. They care so much about Will's life and the stupid things that happen in it. Will felt a massive surge of affection for them all - so big he could almost feel himself tearing up. He hides his sniff by tousling Andrew's hair. "Who let the kid get so good at talking?"

"It's the Apollo genetics," Austin grins. "Poetry is, like, in our blood."

* * *

"You did not just accuse the son of Apollo of having bad music taste."

"Hey," Nico said, eyes crinkled in amusement. "I was under the impression you didn't inherit much from his musical side."

"Just because I cannot sing," Will says primly, "Does not mean I don't love to."

Nico manages to roll his eyes and laugh at the same time - which was so typical of him. If Will had to hazard a guess, he'd think Nico was the son of the god of mixed signals. Otherwise, how could he possibly manage to exude so much disdain and amusement in one expression?

The weather was good today, and it fit Will's mood. The number of demigods in the infirmary had drastically decreased throughout this week. Now, they only needed around two or three healers to man the ship at a time. Will had some free time - and he was spending it like this, walking aimlessly around camp with Nico di Angelo, who seemed like he was having a good time for once.

"Come on, then," Will taunts. "Prove it to me. Show me yours, I'll show you mine, we'll see who comes out on top."

"I would. Don't get me wrong, Solace, I'd prove you wrong any day. But my iPod is in my cabin."

"iPod," Will repeats. "Oh my god, you really were born in a different century, weren't you? Well, no matter! I guess we're taking a visit to your cabin!"

Nico gives him a weird look but gives in easily enough. That's something Will's been noticing lately - the amount of time it takes to needle Nico into doing something has been decreasing exponentially. A few days ago, he might have had to bribe Nico into letting him visit his cabin. Now, it didn't take anything more than a forceful suggestion. What's changing, Will wondered, as Nico leads him towards the cabins, hands stuck in his pockets. Why are you changing?

To be honest, Will wouldn't have brought it up at all. The idea of being alone in a cabin with Nico di Angelo was overwhelming enough for him to avoid it at all costs. But there's a thing - a thing that he would never admit to anyone, especially after insisting that there was no Nico should ever feel like he didn't belong. The thing is he's starting to understand why Nico feels like an outcast.

It feels like people are looking at them wherever they go. If it isn't Will's siblings giving them shit-eating grins and making fun of him from a distance, it was one of the prophecy kids regarding them with suspicion, or a random camper who'd do a double-take, as if the image of Nico with another person was shocking enough to make you spit out your water. Nico kept walking as if he didn't see any of it. To be fair, he probably had learned to ignore them a while ago. But once Will noticed it, he couldn't stop noticing it.

Worst of all, it suddenly became clear how terribly obvious Will's crush was- if not to Nico, to everyone watching them. It was embarrassing. And Will was sick of feeling his cheeks burn every time Nico looked at him just right because he was scared of what his face might look like to everyone else. So what was Will's genius, totally subtle solution to this?

Dragging Nico to a random, isolated part of the woods. Canoeing to the middle of the lake, where no one could see them too clearly. And now - Nico's cabin.

Which, Will thought as Nico opened the door just wide enough to slip through, might have been a terrible idea. From the crack in the door, he could just see the terrifying face on the statue of Hades leering at him from the darkness. He saw marble, felt a cool breeze, and immediately thought I'm not supposed to go in there.

But then Nico called out, "Aren't you coming?" and who was Will to resist him?

It was cold inside of Hades' cabin. There wasn't any indication that anyone lived here. Nico was huddled in the far corner, where one warm desk lamp shone. Will gravitated towards it like how plants gravitated towards the sun.

Nico's bunk was messy and littered with more things than Will had anticipated. He didn't know what he expected, exactly, but it wasn't this - black hoodies under leather-bound books, a knife sticking out from under his pillow, the ambrosia gummy bottle Will had thrown to him (not as empty as it should be). A cardboard box sticking out from under the bed, begging to be opened. A figurine of Hades resting on his marble bed frame. A photograph of Nico and Hazel pinned to the wall with the utmost care, right next to a photo of a pretty girl with a green hat. Bianca.

Nico's bunk was warm and careless and precious all at once. He thought to himself again, I'm not supposed to be here.

But Nico didn't seem bothered. He was shaking the dark duvet on his bed with little thought for the objects stacked on top of it. Until finally - something fell out and clattered to the ground. Nico picked it up and presented it to Will triumphantly. He wasn't kidding when he said iPod. It must've been the first generation. It was black and had old-school worn-down earphones wrapped around it. Will wondered how Nico even managed to download music onto it at all.

Nico tossed it to him. "Go crazy."

Will numbly looked down at the gift in his hands. "You're not even gonna choose a song for me?"

"Everything on there is better than what you listen to," Nico says, arrogant. He lays back on his bunk, back against the wall and legs sticking out the floor, looking overgrown and awkward and ridiculously attractive.

Will thinks of how he flinches anytime someone even breathes near his iPhone, and marvels, Nico di Angelo. You don't do anything half-assed in your life, do you?

He feels the intense urge to kiss him - but he doesn't think it'd go over well. Besides, there are more pressing issues to attend to. Namely, finding proof that Nico's music taste isn't as superior as he believes it to be. Will throws himself on the bed, next to Nico, knocking their shoulders together.

"All these songs are at least four years old," Will complains.

"When do you think I got the iPod?"

"Did you find it in a dumpster or something?"

"Hades gave it to me." Nico shrugs. "Guess he felt bad, or something."

Will has a million questions, none that feel appropriate to ask right now. He tosses the iPod back to Nico. "I don't know any of these. You choose something. What song you pick will tell me all I need to know."

"No pressure," Nico scoffs, but scrolls intently all the same.

Will stares at Nico's profile for a second too long, tries to distract himself by fishing out a book from where it was digging uncomfortably in his spine, and helplessly turns back to stare at Nico again.

"Here." Nico offers an earphone to Will. "Don't be surprised if it's scary."

Will gladly takes it. "Oh, I'm terrified."

Scary wasn't the word to describe it. More - rough. The guitars were aggressive, the percussion never let up, the vocals were desperate. It was vent music if Will had ever heard it. Emotional. Vulnerable. And it was good.

He closed his eyes, feeling a little overwhelmed.

I'm not supposed to hear this.

He couldn't think of anything safe to say, so he didn't say anything at all. They sat in silence as each song melted into another.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he felt Nico nudge his arm. Will reluctantly opened his eyes. Nico is staring at him intently. "You don't look very scared," He accused.

Will couldn't believe there was a time where he heard Nico say things like this and couldn't hear the fear that lurked beneath. He had no clue why he was being given these little pieces of Nico's life for free when they were hidden away from everyone else. The understanding between him and Nico felt as fragile as a house of cards. One breath in the wrong direction and Will could send it all tumbling down. For someone as clumsy as Will, it was terrifying.

So Will says, "Takes a lot more than that to scare me."

"Show me something scary, then," Nico huffs, like none of this meant anything. He tore his earphones out of the iPod and tossed them to Will.

Will scrolled through his playlists, but suddenly none of his songs seemed good enough. There were some on there just as rough as what Nico showed him, sure, some even worse, but none of them felt right.

Will wasn't completely lying when he said he'd inherited Apollo's musical abilities. Sure, he sounded like a dying cat when he sang, but that didn't mean he didn't have a sense for this stuff. He had a knack for choosing the perfect songs to play for each moment, guided by nothing but a feeling in his gut. He'd never told anyone about this because it sounded stupid, but that feeling always felt like Apollo guiding him. As if he was looking down from the heavens, saying, Dude, trust me. It always worked - the song would be the perfect mood-setter for whatever Will wanted to get out of the situation. It's gotten parties to ramp up, friends to laugh, lulled younger campers to sleep. The right song has even coaxed a girl or two to kiss him, when he got the timing right. Right now, the feeling in his gut was leading him towards a song that he had never shown anybody before.

He hesitated before pressing play, and silently cursed his father. It did make sense in a way - vulnerability in exchange for vulnerability. Will knows that this was the only correct song to show Nico. He knows it as much as he knows that the sky was blue. But he also knew he was going to hate every second of it.

This was a song Will normally saved for sad nights - where he feels so overwhelmed by the world that he hides from it under the covers. Those nights where an intense sadness wells up in his chest, where all it takes is for it to burst like a balloon pricked with a needle is this song. It's the type of song that's embarrassing to hear it out loud in front of someone else.

Nico shuffles in place, leaning back to rest his head on the wall.

Will presses play.

An acoustic guitar drips out of the speakers, sticky-sweet. The vocals are high and lilting as the singer yearns for someone - anyone - to hold, to love, to cherish. Something about it always managed to hit Will straight in the gut. He couldn't imagine anyone ever wanting him that badly.

He waits for Nico to confront him. Instead, Nico just stares up to the ceiling and takes it in. Only after a minute or so does he ask, "This is your idea of terrifying music, Solace?"

"I thought all romantic, sentimental shit was scary to you, di Angelo," Will replied.

It was a little too pointed to be anything but a hasty cover-up, and they both knew it. For a minute, Nico doesn't respond, and Will half-expects him to kick him out of the cabin. Then, he mutters, "I'm not scared of anything."

"Promise?" Will asks, incapable of not poking at boundaries.

Nico punches him in the arm, and then the song is shuffled into a top-40 hit, which sets off another argument, and all the while Will thinks to himself, One day I'm gonna make you prove it.

* * *

That night, Will jerks awake from a restless sleep. It's only been a week and a half since the time he woke up Andrew, but he hasn't managed a full night's worth of sleep since then. He's not surprised when he hears Andrew shift around below him. This time, when Will slips out of bed, he lets Andrew follow him out.

There, in the quiet night, Andrew asks, "What did you dream about?"

"Lots of things," Will replies. "Mostly injuries, though."

"Anything important?"

"Dreams aren't like that for me, kid." Will admits.

"Oh."

"What'd you dream about?"

"My mom." Andrew whispers.

Will feels everything inside of him go cold. He slips an arm around Andrew's shoulders. "Is she gone?"

"Yeah."

"Do you miss her?"

"Yeah." Andrew hesitates. Then, he whispers, "She used to hold me like this when I had nightmares."

Will tightened his hold on the young demigod. "Next time you dream about her, tell me, okay? I'll hug you just like this."

"Okay."

Andrew rests his head on Will's chest, like he can't believe he's being allowed this. Will holds him until he falls asleep, chest rising and falling evenly. Together, they sit until sunrise.

* * *

Will steps a little closer to the fire, which was crackling playfully at a few feet and a wonderful deep orange. It seemed like campers were in a friendly mood tonight. Everyone seemed to have arms slung over each other. Cabins with rivalries were putting them on pause to exchange marshmallows and chocolate. Something about the most recent game of capture of the flag had seemed to smooth over old wounds. It's like they were all one happy little family.

It was a cheesy thought, Will knew. Nico would tell him so if he was here. He'd roll his dark eyes and grumble, Really? like Will was delusional to think everyone could get along. He would pout in a way that was absolutely not adorable, and debate Will good-naturedly until they reached a stalemate.

And of course, right as Will is thinking of him, he feels a cool hand wrap around his wrist. Will does his best not to shiver as he vaguely realizes Nico must've shadow-traveled to the edge of the firepit to get here. That was a good sign, at last - it was probably the first time Nico attempted it since he got out of the infirmary. It took all of Will's willpower not to immediately look in his direction. Instead, he keeps his eyes forward in a desperate attempt to look unaffected as Nico whispers, "Hey."

He's so close that his breath tickles Will's ear. Will's heart pounds traitorously in his chest. "Hey," Will responds, totally cool and collected.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Nope. Everyone's getting along. All hunky-dory."

Nico hummed, sending a shiver down Will's spine. "Boring."

Will risks a look at Nico's face and is relieved to find that Nico isn't looking at him, anyway. The light of the fire is bathing his face in this gorgeous orange glow, and to be honest, he looks so warm and good and alive, and Will is feeling so much, and he's sure that if Nico were to look at him right now, he'd be able to see it all on his face. Something about them listening to music earlier today - the way that Nico had looked at him as guitar spilled out of the speakers - had taken Will's innocent crush and cranked up the intensity level to ten. It was scary enough to Will - he can't imagine what Nico would think if he knew. So thank the gods, he's looking across the crowd. And of course he is, because Jason and Piper are standing there, waving him over.

"Guess that's my cue," Nico mumbles, and shoots an apologetic glance at Will. Will is grateful it's just a glance - he doesn't know how if he could manage full-on eye contact at the moment. Nico squeezes his wrist once and lets go. "I'll see you after."

Will's stomach flips. "You better."

Nico lips quirk and he sets off. Will lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and watches as he awkwardly picks his way to Jason and Piper, taking great pains not to come in close contact with anybody.

"Whipped," Dana coughs in her hand. Will shoves her shoulder, cheeks burning. "Really, Will, you could've at least tried to look like you didn't want to kiss his face off."

"I've never seen him that quiet before. Has anyone seen him like that?" Austin adds on, helpfully.

Jessica grins. "He was trying so hard to control himself. He knew that if he opened his mouth the first thing to come out would be I love you so much."

"Could you be any louder?" Will hisses, urgently looking to see if anyone could hear. Luckily, all the other cabins seemed to be occupied with their own loud conversations. Across the firepit, Will caught Jason looking at him curiously. Will knew that technically there was no way he could hear any of what was just said, but he still felt mortified. He buries his face in his hands.

"Aw, he's blushing! Guys, look!"

"It is not my fault," Will manages to get out, "That he is so attractive."

This sends his siblings into another burst of laughter. Will had to suffer through several rounds of good-natured ribbing before he put his foot down as Head Counselor and, in a very dignified manner, threatened them until they let him be.

Soon all the campers were singing along to songs and playing Are You Smarter Than a Selkie? After a little while, Will and Nico made eye contact across the fire. Will mouthed, Are you having fun? Nico's eyes were dark and glittering in the light of the fire as he mimed several different ways of killing himself. Will tried his best not to laugh. Nico was in the middle of a particularly gruesome one when Will tilted his head to the left. Nico turned in that direction and found, in his horror, a young demigod who was watching his every move with wide eyes. Nico looked so panicked that Will nearly doubled over laughing.

"Poor guy," Dana said from Will's left, as Nico hurriedly crouched down to console the kid, who couldn't have been older than 11 or 12. "Why didn't you warn him sooner, you jerk?"

"Nico said it himself - trauma is healthy in small doses!"

Dana gives him a weird look. Petulantly, Will thinks Nico would've thought it was funny.

After the campfire, Will noticed Nico walking in an opposite direction from most of the campers, towards the forest. He patted Dana's shoulder and told her, "Uh, I'll catch up with you guys later."

She grinned. "Sure you will."

Will elected to ignore that. But before he could start to catch up with Nico, he heard someone call, "Hey! Solace!"

Will turned around to see who else but Jason Grace. Son of Zeus and Roman exchange student. Tall, muscular, dignified, and perfect. Not to mention, the little voice in the back of Will's head piped up, Nico's best friend. Will did his best to suppress a surge of jealousy as Jason jogged over. It didn't even make sense. It was a good thing that Nico was friends with Jason. It was so great that the walls Nico had up around everyone else melted away when Jason was around. It was awesome.

"Hey, Grace." Will raised a hand and plastered on a cheerful smile as best as he could. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Jason replied. He stuck his hands in his pockets and studied Will's face.

"So..." Will trails off. He smiles awkwardly. It's something he learned over the years - when you get yourself in unknown situations, you're more likely to escape intact if you have a big smile on your face and a bit of charm on your side. Something about this situation was screaming both unknown and danger!

"Any plans tonight?" Jason asks suddenly.

Will shrugs. "Oh, I don't know. It's getting close to curfew." He tries to be subtle as he checks to see if Nico stuck around, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"You're not walking back with your cabin, though." Jason presses. His tone is accusatory. Will suppresses the urge to step back. He wonders what he's being accused of.

"Yeah, well, I thought that I'd chat for a bit with-"

"Nico, right?" Jason finishes. He gives Will a hard look. "Why are you hanging out with him anyway?"

Will can't help it. He forces a laugh, like what Jason says is funny. His mind is working overtime, trying to figure out exactly when he fucked up, and how he managed to piss Jason off. "That's a silly question."

"Is it?"

Will chooses his words carefully. "He's cool. He's fun to hang out with. You should know since you're his best friend and all."

"I am," Jason confirms, taking a step forward. "And as his best friend, let me give you some advice. You can't expect to build any kind of rel- friendship with Nico if you're not honest with him. He can't stand it when people lie to him."

Will finally takes a step back. "Well, good thing I don't lie to him, then."

"You promise him things you can't promise people," Jason says.

"Like what?"

"Like that everyone in the camp will welcome and accept him," Jason says immediately. "Look at the facts - half these campers are too scared to talk to him, and you'd be hard-pressed to change their mind. I know that he knows that."

"Any change can start with one person, right?" Will replies, feeling a little weak.

"Is that why you hang out with him?" Jason asked. "Just to prove that you could be friends with him if you wanted to? That you could conquer the terrifying Nico di Angelo when no one else could?"

And there it was. The real reason Jason had pulled him aside, and the source of all of his hard questions. Will could hardly believe it. Jason Grace was interrogating him about his intentions with Nico di Angelo of all people. Will almost wanted to laugh again - but luckily, this time around he was managing to suppress it. "Jason Grace. That is way out of line."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Is it?"

"Do you hear yourself right now? You're asking all these questions like Nico isn't smart enough to figure the answers on his own. You think I could hang out with him with a hidden agenda without him knowing?" Will shakes his head. He could feel his hands getting shaky like they did whenever he got really, really angry. "Does he even know you wanted to have this conversation with me? Or did you keep it from him because you assumed he'd be better off not knowing?"

"I'm just trying to -"

"You want to know how to ruin a relationship with Nico? Go around and talk about him like he's some ignorant kid who doesn't know any better. He hates it when people do that, by the way."

Jason's mouth clamped shut. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Jason relented. "I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention. Like I told you, he's my friend. I just want to make sure no one's feelings are gonna get hurt." He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. It was weird - in that one motion, it was almost as if this godly, legendary Jason Grace melted away. Now the person who stood in front of him, looking awkward and mollified was a seventeen-year-old kid. Will suddenly remembered that behind all the stories of war, tragedy and victory was a guy that was only a year older than him.

This is a guy that had experienced nearly dying a whole lot more than Will has. A guy who saw Nico when he was first lifted out of Tartarus and was by his side as Nico had regained his strength. Something happened on that quest that made Nico trust Jason almost as much as his own sister. Will thought about how protective he had already felt about Nico after three days in the infirmary. How he also looked at the people who stared at them suspiciously, when he and Nico had only really known each other for a couple of weeks. Will swallowed down the hot feeling of guilt, and offered, "I get it."

"People around here don't see him as an actual person, and I'm getting sick of it." Jason continues. "I trust his judgment - but Nico's a good guy, you know. He likes to be surprised by people. He wants them to be better than they actually are. I just want to make sure that you're not one of the ones who'll disappoint him."

"No promises," Will says, sort of joking but not really. "But I'll do my best."

"Good. That's good to know."

"Jason. I stand by what I said. I know it's not going to be easy, but I think therés a place for Nico here at camp."

"Me too." Jason agrees.

"I don't know if interrogating every person he spends time will help."

"Well," Jason sighs. "I'm not interrogating every person he hangs out with."

Will can't quite parse out what he means by that, but it reminds him of a question he's been meaning to ask for a while now. Before he can talk himself out of it, Will says, "Actually - could I ask you a question?"

"Sure thing," Jason says.

"You and Nico...you're pretty close." Will starts. Jason raises an eyebrow. "Not like - I only meant - he lets you touch him even though he hates it. Whenever you're around and something happens, he looks to you first. He trusts you, a lot."

"I guess he does," Jason says. He seems a little startled at the fact, as if he hadn't noticed it until Will had said it.

"Well, I guess I'm just wondering...something must've happened for him to trust you so much right?" Will says, and quickly follows it up with, "Not in a rude way! I just meant that I never would've thought you two would get along and...

"And you're wondering how that happened?" Jason finishes. He scratches the back of his neck, looking a little confused. "I'll admit that's not the question I thought you were going to ask."

"What did you think I was going to ask?"

Jason turns red. "It's not important. Listen, you're not totally wrong to think that. I didn't exactly know him very well, and you know Nico...he's not the friendly type." Jason cracks a smile, but his eyes are dark. "Things happen on quests. Nico and I had to go tackle something, and we came out of it alive, and after that, we trusted each other."

"But that happens all the time," Will counters. "Nico's saved the lives of so many people here, and I'm sure other demigods have saved him. What makes you different?"

Jason winces. "Sorry, Will. That's Nico's story to tell. If you want to know, you should ask him."

"What if he doesn't want me to know?"

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Jason claps Will on the shoulders.

At that, Jason decides to leave Will to stew on their baffling conversation.

It felt like Will was just put through some sort of fucked up test.

And apparently, he'd passed.

Chapter Text

It's quiet in Camp Half-Blood after curfew. The lights in all the cabins shut off, the usual constant chatter of demigods fades into silence, and Nico di Angelo lays awake in his bunk with an itch he just can't quite scratch burning under his skin. He rolls over and watches the profile of Hades' face gleam under the moonlight. Music blares from his headphones, loosely tangled in his sheets. Normally it would be enough to drown out whatever else was in his head. Not this time.

He thinks about how Hazel had taken down the blanket Nico had tossed over the statue before she left. She said that it was out of respect for their father, as if that made any sense. No amount of respect could justify the creepy feeling that wafted across his cabin like black smoke when Hades' visage was exposed. It even weirded out Will last time he was here. Nico could tell by the way he edged around it, like he was scared the statue was gonna jump out and grab him.

Of course, Will got over it easily enough. The second it was out of his sight, he was back to being a nuisance, trampling over Nico's bed and touching all of his things. After he left, It took Nico twenty minute to painstakingly put everything back in place.

Nico should leave Hades uncovered just to scare him off.

Will's asleep right now, probably.

You should go wake him up.

Nico rolls over to the other side of his bed, and boosts the volume of his music. It was a stupid urge to have. For as long as he could remember, he preferred being the only one awake. Even as a kid, he was the type to wait until he was sure that Bianca was asleep so that he could pull out a flashlight and read under the covers. It was the one time of day where she wasn't reprimanding him for being too loud, or attracting the wrong sort of attention, or looking over his shoulder for monsters he didn't quite know how to recognize yet.

Things were different now that he wasn't constantly scared for his life. Even more so now that he actually had people he didn't mind being around. Having friends sort of ruined him; he couldn't go a day alone without this restless feeling creeping up from under his skin.

He wonders what Bianca would think about that.

Nico rips the headphones of his ears. It's like his mind was playing a sick game of Would You Rather with him.

Would you rather stay up all night thinking about your stupid crush or stay up all night thinking about your dead sister?

Neither. He thinks furiously to himself, slipping out of bed. Nico pulls on the first hoodie that his hand touches, and carefully closes the door to his cabin behind him. The itch under his skin burned. Get used to it. He thinks to himself. You won't have friends around you forever.

Nico was fully intending on making himself useful tonight - either by practicing his powers, or doing some more research before his next meeting with Jason. Hell, he could probably kill two birds with one stone. Yeah, Nico thinks, Ghosts know things about the Underworld, right? Maybe they'll be useful.

To summon a ghost, he should probably go somewhere nice and isolated, preferably where there have been a lot of deaths. But against his will, his feet started to turn him towards the other wing of cabins. He knew what route he was taking; where it was leading him towards.

He didn't know what his feet expected.

Will''s asleep. There was no reason to go over there. Not to mention he'd definitely get caught. It's not like the children of Apollo were known for being deep sleepers. Nico imagined one of them waking up in the dead of the night to see him peeking through a window and shuddered.

But, it turns out that Nico's feet knew something that Nico's mind didn't - and that was that Will was not only awake, but sitting on the porch of the Apollo cabin. The faint glow of the walls radiates from behind him, making the tinges of his hair gold, illuminating the curves of his facex, the tip of his nose. It was like something out of a dream - or what Nico imagined normal people dreamed about. Before Nico could decide whether or not he should approach him, Will looks up.

Nico halts, and sways awkwardly in the night air. In that moment, half of him thought, Fuck. Why didn't I change into some real pants?

The other half thought, Fuck. What's wrong with Will?

Will's face was ashen. Under the moonlight, Nico could see dark circles underneath droopy eyes. It was unnerving - like seeing some sort of dark, underworld version of Will. Like he was a ghost, a dead man walking.

The feeling under Nico's skin burned.

"What're you doing up?" Will asks. His voice is rough, like he hasn't gotten a wink of sleep yet. He barely glanced at Nico's pajama pants, which were adorned with pirate-style skulls and crossbones. That's definitely a red flag - by now, Will should've already made fun of them about ten different ways.

Nico hazards a step closer, unsure of how he should respond. "I thought you knew that I'm nocturnal."

Will rubs his eyes. "Well, it wasn't on your medical chart."

"You probably overlooked it. What're you doing up?"

Will looks back at his knees. His hands are still where they're shoved into his pockets. "Can't sleep."

"Obviously." Nico says. He takes another step forward. He'd never seen Will like this before. The closest comparison he could make was that time in the forest, where Will's expression had cracked, and his voice quivered as he said, I respect you. And what you want. And who you don't want around. Last time, it had taken a messy apology to wipe that look off of Will's face. Right now, Nico didn't even know where to start. He blurts, "Do you wanna get out of here?"

"And go where?" Will asks.

"I don't know. Anywhere." Nico says. He rubs the back of this neck with a sweaty hand. "The forest?"

"Because wandering in the forest, where the monsters sleep, sounds like a great idea."

Nico tries a new tactic and goads,"What, are you scared?"

"You suck at being spontaneous, di Angelo." Will replies, but now his eyes are crinkled up on the edges.

Nico barrels on, "Well, it's not like what you had going on was much better. Unless, you really were planning on sitting there all night?

"The harpies will get us."

"Nah," Nico says. "The harpies are scared of me." It wasn't even slightly true, but at this point Nico would have said anything. Anything if he could just please stop looking like that.

Will stares at Nico for a long moment, his mouth slightly parted. Then he says, "If any monsters wake up, you're killing them."

"Don't worry." He says, offering a hand to Will and heaving him up to standing position. "I'll protect you."

"My knight in shining armor, huh?" Will frowns. "We'll have to get you a bigger sword."

Nico rolls his eyes. Will lets go of his hand almost immediately.

Stupid, Nico curses himself, feeling the skin of his hand tingle against the night air. A month ago, a few feet would've been more than enough. Now, watching Will walk beside him from a safe distance, it felt like an overwhelming amount of space. Nico shoves his hands back into the pocket of his hoodie. Don't get used to it.

Walking through Camp Half-Blood at the dead of night is eerie. The moonlight washes everything in a muted gray color. Areas normally chock-full of busy demigods - the dining hall, the climbing wall, the grassy fields - are silent.

"What're you thinking about?" Will asks. His voice still sounds groggy.

Nico hums. "I don't know. I guess I didn't really notice how much camp has changed."

"It's bigger now." Will notes. "Even with the damage from the last war, we have way more buildings than we used to have."

"I guess." Nico replies. "Not just that, though. It's just more..." He trails off, not sure what word to use. The spirit around camp was different. It's almost like everyone here, after living through two terrible wars, had realized that maybe they had what it takes to survive.

"It's more." Will agrees.

Nico glances at him again. Will's eyes are still dark. His hands have started to pick at the edge of his shirt. It was making Nico nervous, so he grabs Will's wrist and pulls it away. Will's eyes are round as he stares at him. Nico tells him, "It's annoying when you do that."

"Sorry." Will mumbles. His hands drop to his sides.

"Don't apologize." Nico says, frustrated. "It's more annoying when you apologize."

The edges of Will's mouth curve, just a little bit. "Nico," he says. "What are you actually doing up?"

I wanted to see you. Nico thinks. I couldn't stop thinking about you. "I was gonna summon a ghost to see if they knew anything about Leo."

"A specific ghost?

Nico waves a hand. "Whoever's around, I guess. The best way to learn about what's going on in the Underworld than to ask someone in the Underworld. Ghosts are used to everything always being the same. If anything weird happens, they notice it."

"Okay." Will says. "Let's do it."

Nico stops in his tracks. "What?"

"What do you need to summon a ghost?"

It doesn't take long for Will to scrounge up some soda and chocolate bars from the Apollo cabin's stash. Once he's back, he finds Nico in the forest digging a hole in the ground. The smell of Coke combined damp soil wasn't as bad as you'd think. The sound of it glugging down to the earth below was always sort of satisfying. Not even the wet splash of greasy food that followed was gross enough to ruin the effect.

Will shifts on his feet. Nico wipes his hands on his pajama pants. "Are you okay?"

"Do the ghosts look gross when you see them?" Will blurts out.

"Like, with injuries, and stuff?" Nico asks.

Will nods.

"Um. Some do, some don't. Depends on the circumstances of their death."

"Right."

Will's eyes are nervously darting from side to side. His hands have started twisting in his shirt again. Nico looks at them. Will makes his hands go still with a guilty look on his face.

"It's pathetic, right?" He sighs, almost sounding like he's trying to play it off like a joke. "A medic scared of injuries. I mean, I'm surrounded by injured and sick people all day. It's my job to take care of them. But once it's dark out, suddenly I can't handle even a little bit of blood."

"Well, you're not being a medic right now." Nico replies. "So who cares?"

"What am I, then? Your partner in crime?"

"Not entirely inaccurate." Nico says. "It's not like I was given permission to do this."

"Okay. Good. Great. So I'm a coward and a criminal, now." Will says. His eyes are still fixed on the offering. His nose twitches, like the smell is bothering him. "How embarrassing."

Nico stares at him. What is happening?

"You think that's embarrassing?" Nico interrupts. The damp hole filled with offerings lies forgotten beneath him.

What the fuck am I doing?

"You got something better?" Will scoffs.

Good. That was good. Nico would probably never go through with this if someone wasn't challenging him to do it. He squares his shoulders and confesses, "I had a crush on Percy Jackson."

It should've been easier to say the third time, Nico thinks. But it's not. He's still bracing himself for what will come next, like even a single word in response could shatter him. And then - after a few moments of petrifying silence - Will blinks, and asks, "How is that embarrassing?"

It wasn't the question Nico was expecting. He fumbles for an answer before landing lamely on, "Well - because - he's Percy."

"Yeah." Will agrees. "Half the girls around here get a crush on him as soon as they get a good look at him. He's got that whole powerful, sarcastic, dark and handsome thing going for him."

"What? Not your type?"

Will tilts his head, regards Nico curiously. "Well, now that you mention it - it sort of is, yeah. Which is my point actually. How is that embarrassing?"

Nico wants desperately to know what he means by sort of but he's too embarrassed to say ask. Instead, he says, "You know why."

"I really don't."

"Because, he's him. And I'm me."

"So?"

"So, I was this dorky kid that followed him around, and he never even thought of me that way. That's embarrassing."

Will's shoulder slump. "Oh," he says, sounding relieved. Why did he sound relieved? "Well, we've all been there."

"Solace." Nico starts. He hesitates. "Will, what did you think I was going to say?"

Will brushes imaginary dust off his jeans. "I didn't - I was just a little worried. That maybe you might be embarrassed about being...you know..."

"Gay." Nico finishes. It slips off his tongue with surprising ease, considering how tortuous this whole conversation felt.

"Yeah." Will admits. "But there's nothing wrong with that-"

"I know." Nico cuts him off. "Jason tells me about a million times a day."

"So, Jason knows?"

"He was the first person I told. Long story."

Will nods, uncharacteristically serious. Nico can practically see his mind working overtime. He stays quiet, and focuses on trying to calm down. Let Will come to whatever conclusion he wanted to come to. He'd already given up more than he was planning on, earlier than he thought.

"Does Percy know you like him?" Will asks.

"Liked." Nico corrects hastily. "And yeah. I told him and Annabeth right before you got me into the infirmary. Then I told him he wasn't my type."

Will blinks at him. Nico shifts on his feet, feeling awkward. "Not my best moment."

"Are you kidding me? That's literally the best thing anyone's ever said."

Nico almost wants to laugh at the serious expression on Will's face - the adrenaline pumping through his body was making him feel crazy - but he manages to keep himself under control. "Will. You're literally the only person other than Jason, Percy and Annabeth who knows. So don't go around spreading the good news."

Will pouts. "But how are you supposed to get a boyfriend if I don't wingman for you?"

"I think I'll survive," Nico replies dryly. "The point is, we're both embarrassing losers. Can we move on with the summoning, please?"

Will grins, and looks like he's about to say something dangerous. Luckily, the distinctive call of a harpy interrupts their conversation. Instinctively, Nico covers Will's mouth with one hand, and uses his other to drag him behind a tree. Quiet. Nico mouths. Will licks his hand. Nico immediately drops it, making a face. He hisses, "What's wrong with you?"

"Shut me up like that again and I'll bite," Will whispers back.

Nico hears fluttering wings and a snapping beak. It was followed by a weird, wet sound, like it was stepping in the offering Nico had made. The smell of human food must've attracted the harpy to them. Will clamps his mouth shut. His eyes are wide, and Nico doesn't need to be a mind reader to know what he's thinking: Please don't let them eat me!

Will's got the right idea.

Nico should probably be more scared of the monster picking at human food two feet away from them.

Instead, he feels - well, something he's never really felt before. It's like he's filled with the giddy adrenaline he used to get whenever he opened up a new set of Mythomagic cards. He'd never had a night like this before; one where he was the one convincing a friend to sneak out just for fun, spill some secrets because he felt like it, run from harpies without the slightest tinge of fear. He feels like anything might happen. Even better - like he might do anything.

"Will," Nico whispers.

"What?"

"Hold on tight."

"What?" Will repeats. The wrinkle in his forehead deepens as realization blooms over his face "Nico di Angelo, don't you dare-"

Too late. Nico already has his eyes shut, and a wide grin on his face. Without another word, they melt into the shadows.

Nico loves shadow-travelling. The wind, the cold, the way your stomach drops. He'll never forget he had felt the first time he had actually managed to pull it off. He had been on his own for years, but it was like his first taste of independence. A first taste of who he was meant to be.

Apparently, Will Solace wasn't as much of a fan. The second they reformed, in the darkness of the office in the infirmary, Will turns around and throws up in the nearest trash can.

"You're welcome," Nico says, deadpan.

"You're such an asshole." Will replies weakly.

"Would it kill you to be a little grateful?"

Will flips him off, but he's already looking less pale. "Wander in the woods, you said." Will mimics. The color is slowly but surely returning to his cheeks. "It'll be fun, you said."

"You're the one who couldn't be quiet for more than five seconds!"

"Well, you're the one who wanted to go and wander around in the middle of the night!"

Nico pauses. "Well...yeah, that may have been a judgement error on my part."

They stare at each other for a second.

Suddenly, Nico bursts out laughing. He can't remember the last time he's laughed so hard - so much that his stomach hurts, and he has to bend over. When he straightens up again, he sees Will staring at him with a weird look on his face.

"Sorry," he says. "I'm acting a little crazy."

"I hate you." Will tells him.

Nico breathlessly helps him get up with two hands wrapped around his wrists. Will sways forward dangerously when they stand, like he might topple any second. Nico steadies him with a hand on his waist. "You good?"

"That was awful. That was the worst thing I've ever experienced." Will insists.

"Well, that's how shadow-travelling feels like when you're weak." Nico says, as nonchalantly as he can manage.

"I am not weak."

"Really."

"Really! Let's go again, right now. I'll prove it to you."

"If you throw up again this time..."

"I won't!" Will insists.

Then the door bursts open. Dana stands on the other side, looking half-asleep and completely baffled.

Nico stiffens up. Will darts back until there's about a foot of space between them.

Suddenly, Nico feels embarrassed. Of course he wouldn't want you to touch him like that, now that he knows.

She blinks at them.

They blink back.

"Am I dreaming?" Dana asks.

Nico and Will exchange a glance. "Nope."

"You guys are really here? At - two in the morning?"

"Not by choice." Nico says with a dark look.

"You're the one who dragged me out in the first place!"

"You guys were hanging out. Alone. In the dark. At two in the morning." Dana says.

"Not like that," Will replies suddenly, his cheeks bright red.

"Not like what?" Nico asks.

"I'll leave you to it!" Dana squeaks.

"We weren't-" Will starts, but she slams the door before he can get anything else in.

"Weren't what?" Nico repeats, feeling uneasy.

Will stares at him. "Forget it." He tugs at the tips of his hair. Nico wants to stop him, but he doesn't want to make Will uncomfortable. "Guess I'll be helping Dana with the night shift tonight."

"Guess so." Nico agrees.

"So." Will sighs. There's a sparkle in his eyes that didn't bode well. "Percy Jackson, huh."

"Nope." Nico decides. "We're not talking about this."

Finally, for the first time that night, a brilliant smile breaks across Will's face. In just that change, it's like the Will Solace standing in front of him had transformed into a different person from who was sitting on the steps with a drooping head. It was stupid, but Nico felt a burst of pride flare up in his chest. I did that, he thought. He's like that because of me.

"Just answer one question for me, then." Will pleads. He has a whole big-eye, begging-puppy look going for him, like Nico doesn't already do whatever Will asks in the first place.

"Just one."

"If he's not your type, who is?"

Nico could barely stop himself from rolling his eyes. As if he wasn't being obvious enough, what with the midnight confessions and declarations to protect him from harpies. "Figure it out, Solace."

Before he can see what Will's reaction to that is, Nico salutes him, and melts in the darkness.

* * *

"I communed with the dead last night." Nico announces casually, sitting down on the empty seat across from Jason.

Jason raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were with Will Solace last night."

Nico's blood runs cold. He pulls out a book from the bag he brought with him with more force that was necessarily and scowls. "Since when are you on speaking terms with Dana."

"Since when do you unnecessarily risk getting killed?"

Nico shrugs. "I'm always at risk of getting killed. Lesson number one in being a demigod, Jason Grace: never let your guard down."

Jason quirks an eyebrow. "So, in between staring at Will and running from harpies, when did you squeeze in time to commune with the dead?"

"I wasn't staring-" Nico protests and immediately cuts himself off, shooting Jason a dark look. He should've known better than to get baited with that. Jason looks entirely too smug. "You should know better than to antagonize the person who has relevant information."

Jason raises his hands in defense. "Ok! I'm done now. What did the ghost say?"

"The usual," Nico waves a hand nonchalantly. "Please take me to the Underworld, my Lord, complete a task for me when I can give you nothing in return, my lord."

"And what'd you tell him?"

"That's not how these things work." Nico replies. "Even if I could send him down with a fast pass, there's no guaranteed entry in the Underworld for ghosts who aren't already in the system."

"So you didn't find out anything."

"Nothing."

Jason slams a scroll down violently, making the table shake. Nico glances down at the scroll and up to Jason's face. Jason, for his credit, doesn't take it back. Instead, he doubles down by slamming his fist down next to it.

"Something troubling you?"

"It's been six weeks, Nico." Jason groans. "Six weeks, and we're not anywhere closer than we were before."

Nico shrugs. "I told you it wasn't going to be easy."

"I know but..." Jason sighs. "I wish Rachel could just give us a prophecy or something. Something we can actually work with, you know?"

Nico gestures with the book in his hand. "This is the problem with you people."

Jason raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Us people?

Nico looks back down at this book. "Always expecting things to be that easy for you, all the time. You always need a prophecy, or for the gods to come down to personally give you your next mission. Well, this is how things go for the rest of us. You grasp at straws until you don't anymore."

Jason doesn't seem convinced. "Surely that's not sustainable."

"That's what happens when your quest isn't about the world ending. The gods don't care, so they don't help you, so you're on your own." Nico idly flips a page. "A new concept for someone who's never had to do anything on their own, I guess."

"If you believe that, then you don't know me as well you think so." Jason replies.

Nico looks up, and sees Jason with a smile that was really more like baring his teeth. Something the wolves must've taught him, Nico thinks. Nico stares back, unfazed. "Then prove it."

Jason clenches his jaw. Nico doesn't know if he's seen through his bait yet, but even if he did, it was too late now. He really was similar to Percy - they were both so easy to provoke, and so easily motivated by their own anger.

"I want to go back to New Rome," Jason says. "There's a whole trove of Roman texts that might be helpful."

Nico's surprised he hasn't suggested it sooner. "When?"

"As soon as possible."

"Okay, sounds good." Nico agrees easily. "Hazel will be happy to hear it."

"Oh." Jason's cheeks go a little pink.

"Reyna's also been on me for not iris-messaging her enough." Nico winces. "She's gonna kill me when I get back."

"Nico..."

"You don't want me to come?"

"No! I want you to come. It's just - Are you strong enough?"

Nico rolls his eyes. "Jason, I'm good."

"Have you shadow-travelled recently?"

"How do you think me and Will got away last night?" Nico waves a hand. "Kid's stuff. Didn't even feel it."

"You should ask him, though, just to make sure."

"Maybe." Nico looks back at the book.

"So...did you have fun last night?"

"I thought you were done with this."

"I thought you'd be done with Will weeks ago." Jason says. "You really like him, right?"

"I hate him."

"Sure you do."

"Stop acting like you know what I feel." Nico snaps.

"What's up, losers!" Piper announces happily, stealing the seat next to Nico.

Nico glowers at Jason in silence.

Jason coughs awkwardly.

Piper asks, "Are you guys fighting or something?"

"We're going to New Rome." Jason tells her.

"Are you?" Piper says. "What for?"

"Nothing." Jason and Nico blurt at the same time. Before Pipe can say anything else, Jason awkwardly mumbles an excuse about going to an archery class and all but jogs away.

"What's going on?" Piper asks. "Seriously, you guys are acting weird."

"Nothing." Nico repeats. Piper stares at Nico, like she'd be able to crack him. It only took a few minutes of him staring back before she blew out a frustrated sigh and got up to track Jason down.

They had to figure out a concrete plan soon, Nico decided. If they didn't, there was going to be trouble. Namely, a Piper-kind-of-trouble.

And he was right. Over the next week, every time he and Jason sat together, Piper managed to find them and butt in. She'd already figured out that there was something going on, and she obviously resented the fact that she wasn't being included. Nico even saw her cornering Chiron at some point to demand some answers.

Finally, she caught Nico while he was sword-training. Nico idly thought it was a bad idea to try and interrogate him while he was holding a knife, but Piper didn't seem to notice. She dragged him to the side, out of earshot of other demigods, and pulled him down to a sitting position, as if she was enjoying a pleasant chat with him under the sun instead of holding him hostage.

"What are you and Jason researching? Is there a quest? What is all of that about?" She asks, without a moment to breathe.

"What is what about?"

"Don't lie to me, di Angelo." Piper says, her eyes fierce. "I don't know what Jason said to you, but I promise I can handle it."

Little does she know, Jason wanted to tell you. Nico thinks. I was the one who said you couldn't handle it. And now, looking at her furrowed eyebrows and the harsh grip on his elbow, Nico knew he was right. If calm, methodical Jason was only starting to get frustrated now, Piper would've lost her mind weeks ago.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Nico bites out.

Piper lets him go. "Fine. Be that way. I'll find out eventually."

"What, are you gonna use your Charmspeak on me?" Nico taunts.

"You and I both know that wouldn't work on you." Piper sighs.

Nico wants to deny it, but he knows it'd be for nothing. Piper stubbornly looks out to the horizon. Her brow was furrowed, and her jaw was set. Nico can't remember the last time he saw her this angry.

Against his will, he starts to feel the unfamiliar feeling of guilt prickle up. He rubs his face, hoping that he could ignore it. When it persists, Nico sighs. "Piper, if I could tell you, I would."

"Well why can't you?"

"It's one of those things where the less people know, the better." Nico replies. "Jason wouldn't keep it from you if he didn't think that was the only possible option."

"I know," Piper says. "That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, though."

They watch demigods spar for a while. Nico feels his stomach turn. He knows it's for the best that she doesn't know until they have anything else. He knows it would hurt her to search for so long and find nothing, just like it was hurting Jason. So why did he feel so bad for not telling her everything?

Being a good person seriously wasn't what it was made out to be.

"So I've been thinking," Will says, plopping himself down at Nico's side like they're in the middle of a conversation. "I've figured out a way to get revenge for the whole harpy situation."

Nico turns to face him, surprised. Will's wearing his obnoxious jean shorts and a bright orange camp tee. He has a smudge on his forehead he probably didn't even know was there. Nico couldn't help but notice that he's sitting a few inches further than he normally would - wonders if he's scared of getting too close now that he knows Nico's gay.

"Gods, Solace, you scared me." Piper sighs. "What harpy situation?"

Nico ignores her. "Getting revenge? Surely you mean paying me back for saving your life?"

"I mean revenge." Will insists. "Mark my words, di Angelo; I'd rather die than shadow-travel again."

"Next time I'll let you die then," Nico shot back.

"Well since we don't know when next time is, this will have to do for now." Will replies, setting a basket in front of him.

Nico glances down at it. "What is that?"

"We're going strawberry picking."

At that, Piper bursts out into laughter. "You're an ambitious one, Solace."

"Is that even allowed?" Nico asks. As far as he could remember, no demigods outside of the Demeter or Dionysus cabins ever went near the strawberry fields.

"Sure, it is." Will shrugged.

Nico regards the basket suspiciously.

"I can't believe this," Will sighs. "Nico di Angelo, Ghost King, son of Hades, doesn't want to break the rules."

"So you admit that it's against the rules."

"You didn't seem to be such a goody two-shoes when we were summoning ghosts the other night." Will nudges Piper. "Someone would think you're actually scared of strawberries, or something."

"You guys were summoning ghosts?" Piper asks, watching Nico with a weird look on her face.

"After curfew, no less!" Will tells her.

"Solace, knock it off."

Will, to Nico's utter bewilderment, sticks out his tongue.

"Mature," Nico says, as he decides the only reasonable course of action is to put Will into a headlock. Will struggles to fight him off but ultimately goes limp as Nico successfully wraps his arm around his neck. He ruffles Will's hair for good measure.

"All right, okay! I've learned my lesson!" Will protests.

"Aw, let the poor guy go, Nico." Piper laughs.

Nico lets him go. It sounds stupid, but he forgot that Piper was sitting literally right there. He remembers the way that Will jumped away when Dana walked in on them in the cabin. Will probably didn't want to be grabbed like that - especially not in front of other people. Nico tries to sound normal as he says, "Let that be a warning."

"Beware, anyone who dares to tease Nico di Angelo. You might get tickled!" Will wiggles his fingers in faux-horror. He doesn't look like he was at all bothered by what just went down. But then again, Will Solace has always been good at hiding. Abruptly, he stands up. "Stop stalling. Let's go!"

Nico reluctantly grabs the basket.

"Are you seriously going?" Piper whispers as Will sets off in the direction of the Big House. "Did Will pick up charmspeaking on the side, or something?"

"It just sounds slightly less insufferable than sitting next to you at the moment."

"I wonder why," Piper replies, a dangerous curve to the edge of her mouth.

For some reason, that one comment pissed Nico off more than anything else Piper accused of him today.

Will seemed to notice when Nico didn't reply to any of his attempts to have a conversation. When they finally arrived at the field, Nico ripped up a strawberry with enough force to uproot a whole clump. Will thankfully kept his distance. Having some space should've made Nico feel better, but it didn't. All he could think about was how, the more that Nico thought about it, the more he realized that Will had been skirting away from his touches all week.

It took thirty minutes of strawberry picking and Will's bad jokes for Nico to cool off.

It was hard to stay mad in the strawberry fields. There was nothing to annoy him, since it was so isolated and quiet. There weren't even any insects (Nico suspected that the protective barrier around camp had something to do with that). The strawberries were bright red and so juicy, it didn't take long his basket to feel heavy in his hand.

Once their baskets are full, Will quietly takes Nico to a relatively clear spot in the fields. He pats a stretch of grass right next to him, but Nico lays down a few feet away.

Will works his way through the basket, tossing the strawberry stems in a pile to the side. The sunshine beamed down on them at the same time a cool breeze from the ocean lightly brushed against their faces. If Nico died, he thought, this might not be a bad afterlife to end up with.

"What do you dream about?" Will asks suddenly. He sounds uncharacteristically solemn. "When you have nightmares, I mean. Do you see anything?"

"It depends." Nico replies. He has a few guesses as to why Will is asking. "I used to dream a lot about Percy."

"I'm sure you did."

Nico throws a strawberry at him. "Not like that, idiot. He was just always almost-dying, so my dreams let me know how to help him. Other than that, I just dreamt about whoever was currently trying to kill me."

"Sounds fun."

"At least it's useful."

Will sits up. "That's what I always say."

Nico rolls over to look at him. "Sometimes I wonder," Nico says, words slipping out of him all too easily. "About what normal people dream of. "

Will hums. "Probably boring shit, like going to the grocery store or something."

"I think they dream of people." Nico says. "Isn't that what they always show in the movies? They dream of old memories, and people they like, or whatever."

"Who'd you dream of?" Will asks, stretching out in the sun. "If you were human, I mean?"

"Bianca." Nico says without thinking. He doesn't realize that it's true until he says it out loud.

"I remember Bianca," Will says suddenly. Nico's blood goes cold. "She was pretty. A lot nicer than all the Huntresses. They were always so rude and she'd stop by afterward to apologize." He pops another strawberry in his mouth and then notices the look on Nico's face. "What?"

"Nothing - it's just - sometimes I forget that, like. People other than Percy knew her." Nico gestures helplessly. "That people knew me...before..."

"Oh, I knew you, alright. Don't you remember meeting me?" Will asks.

Nico gives him a hard look. "I had a lot going on that year."

"I can't believe this. I mean, understand if you forget me when you're in the middle of war, but you can't even remember meeting me."

"Oh gods. " Nico groans. "You're never going to let this go"

"It's going on my list of grievances." Will says solemnly. He points a strawberry to Nico. "Be ready for a lot more strawberry picking trips to make it up to me."

"And I thought I had issues with grudges." Nico mutters. Will throws the strawberry to Nico's face, who catches it barely in time. Will starts picking at the grass by his feet. Nico takes a bite of the strawberry.

"I didn't understand back then either, you know." Will glances at Nico and back at the growing pile of shredded grass at his feet. "Why you wouldn't stay."

"Same reason as always."

"I know but..."

"Listen, Will, I didn't have any reason to think I should stay. No one wanted me to. Don't look at me like that - it felt like no one wanted me to, happy? I'd already been on my own for a while at that point. Plus, I knew I could go back to the Underworld and be just as safe there as if I were to be at Camp Half-Blood. Except, you know, I would actually belong there."

"Belong in the Underworld. Nico, do you hear yourself right now?" Will snaps. "You know you're a demigod, right? Emphasis on demi. Whatever part of you is a child of Hades is only half of you. The other half - the half that belongs to your mom and to Bianca - that's just as much a part of you. You think Bianca would've felt like she belonged in the Underworld?"

It was the right thing to say. And if Nico was anyone else, he would've taken the comforting words as they were, accepted it. Lifted the burden off of Will's shoulders. But Nico, because he was Nico, had to sift through the reassuring words Will had given him and find something that hurt. So Nico smiles a bitter smile and says, "I don't know. I was a kid when she died. Sometimes it feels like maybe I didn't know her at all."

Will goes silent for a few moments after that. Then, he says, "Ask me."

"Ask you what?"

"What you've been wanting to ask me for the past few weeks. What everyone's asking each other these days. Come on. Ask me."

Nico sighs. "When are you going back to school?"

"I'm not." Will replies quickly. He prods, "Ask me why."

"Why aren't you going back to school?"

"Because I live at camp full-time. Because my mom died two years ago. Because I have nowhere else to go." Will grabs a clump of grass and lets it sift through his fingers. "I'm not trying to say that I understand you perfectly. I'm just saying - I don't know. All the pain that you feel? That's the human part of you. It's gonna sound weird, but you're the most human demigod I know."

Nico could barely look at his eyes. How was it that Will always knew how to cut him directly to the core? From the beginning, Will's been able to land a barbed comment right where it would cut a little too deep. Will always found him easy to read - and it was getting worse now that they've been hanging out. Nico was, against his common sense, opening up. If Will was blindly stumbling across the intricate maze that was Nico's issues before, now he was seeing through them clearly. Now, he was choosing to say something that would hit home.

Will paid too much attention to him.

It was kind of addicting.

"Glad to know you consider me human," Nico replies.

"Whatever." Will sighs. "I give up."

They lapse into another silence.

Nico should bring up New Rome. Will's in a serious mood, for once, and he'll answer honestly. If Jason was here, he probably would've mentioned it a long time ago.

But Nico doesn't really feel like talking anymore. Besides, he had been testing his powers on his own and steadily regaining his strength. He didn't need a second opinion to affirm what he felt about his own body, did he?

Will stretches back, closing his eyes as he soaked up the sun. Their conversation rings throughout Nico's head. He felt seen and heard and known in a way that no one had ever tried to know him.

Don't get used to it, Nico thought.

It might be too late.

* * *

"Nico, thank you for agreeing to come meet me." Chiron says, ushering Nico to sit at the table on the porch. Not like I had a choice, Nico thinks. He was wandering around camp, watching Ares kids get into fights when a satyr nervously approached him and stuttered out that Chiron had called for him. Nico wondered what would've happened if he decided to say no. Probably nothing. At worst, maybe he'd get a disappointed look over dinner. Chiron was frustrating like that.

Chiron hands Nico a cup of tea. Nico regards it suspiciously. "Am I in trouble?"

"Not to my knowledge," Chiron replies. "Unless, of course, you're doing anything that warrants punishment?"

Nico thinks of wandering around past curfew, summoning ghosts behind Chiron's back, picking strawberries. "I've done nothing that warrants punishment," Nico says.

"As careful with your words as ever," Chiron sighs, which is funny, because Nico would argue he's all together too impulsive with his words as a whole.

"So, why am I here?"

"I am here to ask you about your endeavors to find Leo Valdez." Chiron raises a hand the second Nico opens his mouth. "Now, there's no use in denying that you and Jason have decided to ignore my advice and continue the search on your own."

Nico shifts uncomfortably in his chair. "Sir, we just thought-"

""Better to ask for forgiveness than permission?" Chiron hummed. "It's not the first time a young hero has chosen to go on their path, despite what I advised them to do. I don't hold it against you, Nico. But all this secrecy...I must say I'm disappointed."

"So I am here to get punished." Nico accuses.

"Not in the slightest." Chiron leans back in his chair. "Is there any way that I may help you in your quest?"

"It isn't technically a quest." Nico splutters. "We don't even have a prophecy."

"Would you like to ask for one?"

"No." Nico slams his teacup on the table. It splashes over, staining the wood. "Sir, to be honest, I don't have any hope in finding Leo Valdez."

"Ah." Chiron frowns. "Then, Nico, I must ask-"

"Why am I doing this?" Nico finishes for him. "I don't know what else I'm supposed to do. Even if I tell Jason what I really think, he won't stop until he's made absolutely sure. I wish I could go back in time and take back what I told him, but it's too late for that now. All I can do is tell as little people as possible and help Jason until his hope is completely destroyed. That's the quest."

Chiron doesn't respond. He studies Nico's face curiously. The quiet eats away at Nico's patience until he blurts, "And I don't care how immoral or dishonest or stupid you think I am for doing it."

Chiron sits in silence for a little bit longer, before finally saying, "I see." He adjusts his glasses. "It is a very noble thing, to try and shield your friend as much as you possibly can, with little to no consideration for yourself."

"I'm not-"

"Now, Piper tells me you're going to New Rome. I may have a few recommendations that could help you in your search. What did Will say about your condition for travelling?"

"Why is everyone always asking me about Will?" Nico demands. "We haven't magically fused together to form one person, have we?"

Chiron blinks at him, looking bemused, which just infuriated Nico further. "I simply meant that a medical opinion wouldn't hurt."

"He's not my doctor," Nico hisses.

"I see."

"He's my friend." Nico finishes, feeling stupid.

"Is that so." Chiron replies, his eyes twinkling. At that moment, Nico hates him. He hates the way that he could look at Nico's uncontrollable wave of emotions with such amused detachment.

No one takes me seriously, Nico thought to himself. They always think I'm overreacting. They always think everything is so fucking easy.

"I don't need him to give me permission to do anything." Nico continues. "I can take care of myself."

"I suppose no one really needs anyone else," Chiron agrees easily. "But it is quite nice to have people around anyway, no?"

"Not really." Nico replies. "Not in most cases."

"But in some." Chiron insists.

Nico stares at him blankly.

Chiron offers him a biscuit.

Nico doesn't stay in the Big House for much longer. Chiron promises to get him a list of titles before they leave, and says that he will do his own research while they're away. Nico agrees, and tries his best not to flinch away when Chiron sends him off with a pat on the back.

On his way back, Nico notices a group of two or three girls looking in his direction and then turning to each other to giggle, not even bothering to act inconspicuous. If it was another day, he would've ignored them. But his talk with Chiron had rattled him, and he was in an irritable mood. Nico stops in his stracks and asks, "What?"

If they were at all intimidated by Nico's harsh tone, they don't show it. One of them - Jenny, Nico vaguely recalled, daughter of Aphrodite - grins. "Hi, Nico!" She says, unusually brazen. "How's Will doing?"

The two other girls who Nico barely recognized immediately burst out into peals of laughter and oh-my-gods-you-did-NOT-just-say-that's. Nico squints at them. Daughters of Aphrodite acting all brave, asking him about Will? It did not bode well. However Nico reacted would start a mountain of rumors, he was sure. So Nico chooses the safest route and affects a look of irritated confusion, before stalking off.

Dana catches his eye on his way back to his cabin and tilts her head towards the infirmary. Nico doesn't spare her another glance.

* * *

The next night, Jason comes up to Nico with Piper in tow and they both hastily apologizes for crossing any lines. Nico looks at their earnest faces and manages to put his vague irritation towards them to the side, like shoving a box under your bed to deal with later.

They drag Nico to the campfire, where Jason and Piper compete to see who could fit the most marshmallows in their mouths without spitting some out. Nico was keeping careful count, making sure to throw out taunts every now to lightly sabotage the competition. It was slightly overwhelming to feel so included - even more so to realize that Nico didn't really think much of it anymore. The constant narration of they don't know you, they don't really want you around, they're keeping you as long as you're useful has died down from an overpowering onslaught to a minor annoyance.

It was nice.

It was weird.

Weirder still when Nico saw Will Solace approach them. His stomach jumps, and then quickly fills with dread. Will grins at him, blindingly handsome as always. Nico meets his eyes and tries as hard as he can to mentally communicate GO AWAY.

So far, Nico has managed to get into a pretty comfortable place sociability-wise with both Will Solace (of all people) and the Argo crew. Nico was pretty confident with each of them separated -- but together, it was unpredictable. Each demigod was a force of nature, and there was no telling if he could handle them all together.

He had enough experience dealing with unpredictable in his lifetime, thanks.

Unfortunately, Will doesn't pick up on Nico's telepathic communications. He makes a beeline towards their corner of the firepit, even waves. Nico raises a hand weakly in response.

"Solace!" Jason mumbles out of a mouthful of marshmallows. He quickly spits some out into a napkin so that he could grin at Will without looking horrific. Piper raises her hands in victory. Now marshmallow-free, Jason waves Will over.

"Hey, guys." Will chirps. He comes to a halt right next to where Nico is sitting and lightly kicks Nico's side with his foot. "I can't believe you're at a bonfire again. I thought you hated these things."

"I do," Nico says, deadpan. "I'm being held here against my will."

Will laughs. Piper asks, "Any plans tonight, Will?"

"Oh, no, I'm just stopping by for a few minutes before I get back." He shakes his head at Jason, who was offering him a freshly made smore.

"Wait," Nico says. "You're going back to the infirmary? Weren't you there this morning?"

Will shrugs. "There's, like, three patients there that I'm a little worried about leaving alone for the night." He cracks a grin at the other demigods. "Plus, there's a mountain of paperwork waiting for me. Technically my siblings are supposed to do it, but they're so lazy. They're lucky I'm such a good big brother, or I wouldn't let it slide."

Nico wasn't amused. "You're saying that you just finished a twelve-hour shift, and you want to go back for more?" When Will shrugs, he continues, "They'll survive a night without you. Sit down."

"Appreciate your concern, di Angelo, but you're not a doctor. So what do you know?"

Nico blinks. "If any of your patients were in mortal peril, I would be able to tell. Child of death, remember?"

"He's got you on that one, Will," Jason says, good-naturedly.

"At least have one smore!" Piper chimed in, shooting Nico a significant and not-at-all subtle wink. Nico glares back, irritated.

Will was still smiling, but he didn't seem convinced. He shifts his weight from one foot to another, as if he was debating whether to stay or to go. Nico could hear him overthinking from a mile away, so he quickly adds, "Don't be a hypocrite."

Piper elbows him hard for that one, but it seemed to do the trick. Will glares at him for that comment, gracefully accepts a s'more from Jason, and sits down. His shoulder knocks against Nico's on the way down. When he sits, he presses himself against Nico's side. Piper raises her eyebrows. Nico goes stiff. Will seems to catch the look on Piper's face, because he suddenly jerks, like he was stung by something, and subtly shuffles a few feet away.

Aside from that, and all the significant looks Piper and Jason kept casting his way, it wasn't as bad as Nico had thought it would be. It should've been worse. After all, everyone there but Will had been stuck on the same ship for the better part of the year together. For once, if there was an outsider, it wasn't Nico. It should've been Will. But it turns out Will was also incredibly good at blending in. He bantered with them, laughed at all the right moments, accepted pats on the head and playful shoves like it was his second nature.

It should've been great - both of Nico's worlds smoothly blending into one.

It wasn't.

Nico started to feel more and more irritated, unable to shake the feeling that it shouldn't be that easy.

Will was laughing too hard at some story about Buford that probably didn't even make sense to him. His laugh sounded strange - a little too smooth, not the dorky, hiccuping sound Nico was used to hearing. Instead of his eyes crinkling shut, Will's were half-open and glancing around, as if he was checking to make sure he was doing it right. It wasn't real. It was some weird, polished version of Will that Nico had no interest in encouraging.

"Why are you laughing?" He asks. "You weren't there."

Will's smile freezes on his face, but his voice is completely normal when he replies, "It's funny. It's a funny story. You don't necessarily have to be there to experience it to get why it's funny."

Nico can already feel Jason and Piper giving him their patented Nico-that's-not-very-polite look, but it just spurs him on. "You know it's okay, though." He insists. "If you don't get it."

At that, Will's composure cracks just a bit. "I know," he says, not sounding very sure about it.

"You're being weird," Nico informs him. He kind of expected Will to respond with an equally barbed jab at his expense, or to throw up his hands in a classic Solace-is-frustrated style gesture. Instead, he seems to retreat deeper inside himself. It's unnerving, this version of Will. All too smooth one second, and uncharacteristically tentative the next. This wasn't the Will that forced his way into Nico's life and then somehow convinced him to thank him for it.

Piper prods his side sharply and whispers, "What the hell." but Nico doesn't even spare a glance in her direction. Instead he stares at Will and tries telepathic communication again. What's wrong, he asks silently. What is going on with you.

"Hey, Will!" Jason says, clearly trying to break the tension. "What'd you think about our trip to New Rome?"

"You're going to New Rome?" Will looks at Nico. Nico looks back.

"You didn't ask him?" Jason says weakly.

"I don't need his permission." Nico insists for probably the fourth time this week. He wants to avert his eyes, but he can't. "I don't need to tell him anything."

"When are you leaving?" Will asks casually.

Jason and Nico exchange a glance.

"In two days," Piper tells him. Nico elbows her. She glares at him. "What? He doesn't deserve to be left in the dark." She shifts her glare to Jason. "No one does."

The fire crackles. No one else seems to notice the newly-formed tension that hovers over the curious little group on the edge of the campfire.

Will only holds Nico's gaze for a few more seconds before he suddenly stands up, clapping his hands together. "Well, this has been fun," he blurts out. "But I think I'm gonna go check on my patients."

This seems to stir Jason and Piper out of their silent argument. "Aw, do you have to go, Will?" Piper says, pointedly polite.

"The burden of being such a talented healer, I guess!" Will grins. "Don't miss me too much when I'm gone." And then he leaves in the same way he does everything, a whirlwind of grabby hands and golden hair and smiles that are a touch too wide. Once he's gone, they turn to glare at Nico.

"What?" Nico asks, knowing fully well why they're upset with him.

"You're such an asshole," Piper says.

Nico immediately looks to Jason, who winces. "I mean, she's not wrong."

The two of them look at Nico, like they're trying really hard to figure him out. Maybe if it was any other day, Nico would take this opportunity to be a better person. After all, if there's one thing Nico's learned it's that the less you explain yourself to people who are trying to be your friend, the more irritating they'll be.

But his patience had worn thin. The only reason they're so surprised is because of the stupid assumptions they had made about whatever was going between them in the first place. Nico hadn't said shit to them. Whatever they thought was their own fault.

He turns to Jason and says, "Don't act like you're any better than me.If you actually trusted her, you would've told her by now."

Then, he stands up and follows Will.

There's a few people looking at them weird as they leave the bonfire early, but what else new? Will must notice Nico following him, but he doesn't slow down once, even as they reach the deserted dining pavilion.

Will comes to a stop and turns around. He meets Nico's eyes with a sullen look. "Why are you following me?"

"Why aren't you heading towards the infirmary?" Nico asks back. "I thought they needed you."

Will blows out a heavy breath. "I'm tired, Nico. I don't think I'd be much help."

"Since when do you take breaks when you're tired?"

Will doesn't say anything in response. He looks down, kicks a pebble with his shoe.

"What's going on with you?" Nico demands.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Will says, conceding immediately. "Sorry. Happy?"

Nico was so frustrated that his voice was shaking when he blurted out, "Stop apologizing. Why aren't you mad at me?"

Will blinks at him. "What?"

"I acted like a jerk. Why aren't you pissed at me? " Nico asks. "This is how we work. We fight. I yell at you, and you yell at me back."

"Is that what you want?" Will asks. "Do you want me to insult you, and pick on you, and fight with you over anything? Over everything? Don't you ever get tired of it?"

"No - yes - I don't know." Nico waves his hands uselessly in the air. "That was the deal."

Will looks away. "Well, maybe it's just me, then."

"Just you, what?" Nico asks, knowing the answer will hurt him.

Will meets his eyes. "Maybe I'm the only one who's sick of getting yelled at."

The words hit Nico like a punch in the stomach. Blood rushed to his face. He thought, But you said you liked fighting with me, and the words sounded so pathetic in his head that he knew he could never say them out loud.

"Right." Nico says, and his voice sounds strange and distant. "Right."

He was so, so stupid.

He thought he heard, vaguely, Will calling after him but his heart was pounding so loudly in his ears that he couldn't really tell. The next thing he knew, he was melting in the shadows.

Chapter Text

Will wakes up to a familiar weight clambering up onto his bunk and a faceful of hot morning breath.

"Guess what?" Andrew whispers (who else would pull a stunt like this?).

Once Will is awake, it's almost impossible for him to go back to sleep. It's only out of spite that he keeps his eyes stubbornly closed.

"Leave him alone." Will hears Jessica hiss. "He had the night shift last night, remember?"

"This is important - hey, get off!"

Will opens his eyes only enough to get a glimpse of Jessica yanking Andrew off of his bed by his ankle. Once Andrew unceremoniously tumbles to the floor, Jessica whispers, "You're lucky you didn't wake him up."

Oh, right. Will's supposed to have slept through that, somehow. He closes his eyes and shifts around on the bed for good measure. It must've worked because when Andrew speaks again, his voice is hushed.

"But, Jessica-"

"Kid, unless the Romans are attacking us, there's no reason to go around and wake your head counselor up."

"Jason Grace is a Roman, isn't he?"

"What are you talking about?"

"He's back, with di Angelo!"

Oh.

"What?"

"I was going towards my archery class when I saw them, and then di Angelo asked me where Will was, and I said that he was sleeping, and he looked kinda weird, so I told him that I could go wake him up, so Nico said that would be nice, so I ran back here to wake him up."

"Keep your voice down."

"Are you gonna tell him?"

Too late now, Will thinks. Still, Jessica says, "Yeah, I will. Now go bother someone else."

When Will hears the cabin door shut, he opens his eyes. Jessica is watching him with a weird expression on her face. Will blinks at her, bleary-eyed. Then, he pulls the duvet back over his head.

It’s too fucking early for this.

And so, approximately nine days after he was left in the dark, Will Solace finds out that Nico di Angelo returned to Camp Half-Blood.

At least he heard it from Andrew, first. Will was willing to bet that the second he walked out of the cabin, he would've been bombarded with the news by literally any other kid walking by. Any trips out of Camp Half-Blood drew the attention of campers no matter how hard some people tried to keep it quiet. It took one day for most people to notice Jason and Nico were gone, two to piece together that they went to New Rome, and three to realize that neither Piper nor Will was too happy about it. Some tried to pry more information out of Will, but he just fielded off their questions with a shrug that said, I know as much as you do.

When his siblings asked the same thing at the mess hall, he said just as much.

Everyone learned pretty quickly that it was best to leave him alone.

Only Dana was stubborn enough to crack him. Three hours deep into a nightshift, he gave in. Sat in the dark office of the infirmary, he told her about all of it; that Nico and Jason were looking for something, their fight after the campfire, how Nico left. Dana received each piece of information with a pensive look on her face. When he was finished, all she did was ask him if he was okay.

For once, Will didn't have the energy to pretend like he was.

He'd collapsed against the office chair and said to her, "I knew I'd fuck it up eventually."

"Will," Dana starts. She hesitated for a moment. It only took one look, then, for Will to see that she was trying to be as nice as she possibly could. Which, for Dana, was saying a lot. "Whatever that mess was? That wasn't your fault. No matter how messed up someone is, if they're an asshole, they're an asshole."

Will hadn't been able to think of a way to argue against that without proving her point, so he stayed quiet.

Internally he was sure that Dana didn't get the situation; whatever she was thinking wasn't based on reality, but whatever warped perception she had of the both of them.

Still, he couldn't stop thinking about what she'd said. It was lodged in his mind like a popcorn kernel stuck in his teeth.

He didn't have the energy to fake being okay around the others either. He didn't know how much Dana let slip, but it was enough for them not to give him shit for working a little too hard, or sleeping too much, or cracking too many bad jokes. It's an even trade, actually. They pretended that there's nothing wrong, and Will pretended that their pitiful looks didn't rub him the wrong way.

It's funny. He used to find Nico interesting for being so different from anyone else he'd ever met. Yet, the little voice in his head that resented their meager attempts to reach out to him sounded an awful lot like him.

Half of Will wants to stretch out his time in bed as long as humanly possible. He'd barely slept six hours, so no one would even think twice if he did.

But hiding out here would be useless. Nico would find him eventually. He'd break down the door before he'd leave things unfinished between them. Will knows that Nico likes a good ending; a sure one. He'd probably rather get it over with sooner than later.

Will's body is thrumming with so much energy, he can feel himself start to shake. All of thirty seconds after he hides under the duvet, Will throws it off.

"Breakfast?" He asks.

"Sure," Jessica replies.

It was always the most disgusting combination of weather towards the end of the summer; damp and chilly in the morning, scorching hot in the afternoons. Will pulls on a hoodie knowing that he'll just peel it off two hours from now, stuffs his feet in some sneakers, and drags Jessica out the door.

"Let me brush my hair, at least!" She complains.

"I'm hungry," Will tells her. Which he isn't, not really. The knot in his gut ensures that he won't be able to keep anything down even if he tried.

Camp is bustling with energy, but there isn't a specific concentration of commotion like there would be if someone just got back from the outside. Will finds himself scanning every place they walk past.

Finally, they arrive at the mess hall. Will takes two steps in and catches a glimpse of black hair. Instinctively, he immediately turns around.

"What are you doing?" Jessica asks.

"I - um - I forgot something," Will says.

"Do you want to go back-"

"I'll see you in the infirmary!" Will yelps, and practically jogs away.

Stupid, he thinks to himself, heart is pounding loudly in his chest. That probably wasn't even him. How many other kids with dark hair do you know?

A lot.

Still, Will barely manages to repress the tangled knot of nerves in his belly by the time he makes it to the infirmary. Dana and Austin are already there, huddled over a patient together.

"Good morning!" Will greets. He grabs a pair of gloves near the door and immediately pulls him on.

"More like, afternoon," Austin replies, deadpan. "Dude, how long did you sleep for?"

"Not as long as I wanted. Guess who tried to wake me up this morning?" Will replies, heading to the back to pull on some scrubs over his clothes.

"Andrew?" Austin guesses. When Will shoots finger guns at him, indicating that he's right, he laughs. "Man, we gotta fix that kid's sleeping schedule. He has way too much energy at the most random times."

"Doesn't help that he can't sleep through the night." Will taps his chin. " How terrible would we be if we snuck some melatonin in his dinner tonight?"

Dana throws them a harsh look. "That's fucked up."

Will points at her. "Swear jar."

Dana rolls her eyes but pulls out a drachma. Will steps in place besides Austin. "Hey, Lance, how's it going?"

Lance, one of the older campers from the Aphrodite cabin, shrugs. "Not so good."

"I can tell," Will says. He leans in closer to the severe burn spanning Lance's forearm. "What on earth possessed you to climb the lava wall?"

Lance grins. Incredibly, he manages to look handsome even in a hospital bed. His dark hair is messy, but his skin is glowing. His smile is crooked, and a little more than gorgeous. "Was trying to impress this girl-"

"Which girl?" Austin asks, with way too much interest.

"Jane. From the Demeter cabin."

Austin frowns. "Bro. She's so into you. You did not have to do that."

"It's a pretty stupid reason to get injured," Will agrees, rummaging in the kit by the bed for some ambrosia.

"No way. Isn't love the best reason to get injured?"

Will exchanges a look with Austin.

This is why I can't hang out with Aphrodite kids, Will express through a grimace.

I thought it was kinda sweet, Austin replies with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, don't worry, we'll get you back to the love of your life soon." Will turns to Austin. "Do you need Dana for this?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Kay, I'll take her with me then." Will turns back to Lance. "Feel better, loverboy!"

"Right back at you," Lance says with a wink. "I heard di Angelo is back, by the way."

Frozen in place, Will stares at him. "I, um...I fail to see the correlation."

"No correlation," Lance amends smoothly. "Just an observation! Might be relevant to your near future."

Austin laughs loudly. "Never thought I'd hear a child of Aphrodite predict the future. Take a word of advice from Apollo's kid - try not to be so vague. No one will believe a word you say if you are."

Will could probably spend an hour interrogating Lance on just what did he mean by that, exactly - but he has patients to see and things to do, so he doesn't. Instead, he says, "Nice seeing you Lance,". Then he grabs Dana and a medical chart, and gets to work.

It takes all of twenty minutes for Lance's bogus prediction to come true.

First, Will catches a whiff of something familiar; spices, cinnamon, the slightest tinge of vanilla. Then, Dana whispers, "Will." Will looks up and sees Nico di Angelo staring back at him.

He always looked a little out of place in the infirmary. Even when he was sick, sleeping in the cots, he stuck out like a sore thumb. It was something about his black clothes against the harsh white of the walls and floor, or his hair that stuck out like spikes. Or maybe it was the fact that he emanated the energy of someone who didn't want any help in a place created for people who needed it.

In a voice that sounds a little distant, Will asks, "Can I help you?"

Nico holds up a brown paper bag. Will leans forward to take a good look at what's inside. It's a blueberry muffin, his favorite. Will glances up at Nico's grave expression. He says, "I'll meet you outside in two minutes."

Nico nods and turns to leave. Will strips his hands of his gloves and starts to pull off his scrubs. Dana grabs his arm. "Seriously?" She demands. "That's all it's gonna take?"

"Dana..." Will starts. He glances around, but the infirmary is pretty empty at the moment other than Austin and Lance, who seem to be consciously minding their own business.

"A muffin. This guy freaks out on you and then disappears for a week, doesn't even have a word to say to you when he comes back and you're going to crawl after him for a muffin."

"Don't judge me, I didn't have breakfast this morning. Plus, it's a blueberry muffin!" Will adds. "Most divine of all muffins. Not even Apollo would resist an offering like that. Will you let go of me already?"

Dana stares at him. "I honestly thought you had more self-respect than that."

With that, Will's barely-held-together resolve crumbles. Sharply, he says, "Dana. Let go of my arm."

Her eyes go wide. Will barely holds down the first tinges of guilt before shoving an armful of scrubs at her. He stalks out of the infirmary, where Nico is waiting with an apologetic look on his face. Will waits. Nico probably realizes that Will's not going to say something first, so he starts walking.

Will and Nico must have walked together through camp a million times, just like this. It's the first time Will had no clue what to say. One part of him wants to blurt out an apology; another petulantly points out that Will has nothing to apologize for, and yet another is just taken aback by the feeling of having Nico by his side again.

He's looking pale, that side of him notes.

He's probably been feeling horrible since we last saw him.

He deserves it.

Normally, when Will's nervous, his first instinct is to laugh it off. He doesn't feel much like laughing right now.

Dana's voice is still ringing in his head.

Nico pauses outside of his cabin. He hesitates for a moment, looking towards the side. The dark circles under his eyes look like bruises. At length, he asks, "Do you want to come in?"

Will shrugs.

Nico opens the door.

Every part of him comes together to think, I'm not supposed to be in here.

Will follows him inside.

Nico drags out the cardboard box that was stuck under his bed. He sits and looks at the space across from him expectantly. Will sits down. Nico opens the cardboard box. Will peers inside to find - mountains of Mythomagic figurines and cards. They don't appear to be neatly organized, but Nico shuffles through them like he knows exactly where everything is.

Will takes the opportunity to rove over Nico's appearance. He doesn't appear any worse than when he first left. Maybe the bags under his eyes are a little darker. But he's not gaunt; his wrists, where they're rummaging through the box, don't jut out of his skin like they used to. Will looks at the curve of his lips, his jaw, his dark eyebrows. The only thing that gives away that something might be wrong are Nico's eyes. They're dark. Shifty.

Nico finally pulls something out and presents it to Will. It's a figurine of Apollo - radiant, with a beaming smile.

There are a million things that Will wants to say - what he thought about late at night, what he wanted to say when they were fighting, what was brimming in his mind on the walk over - but it all dissolves. When he takes the figurine of Apollo, all he can think to ask is, "What is this?"

Nico points to the muffin. "Peace offering number one." He points to the box. "Peace offering number two."

Will closes his hand over the figurine, presses it against his chest like it’s precious. "Okay."

Nico heaves out a heavy sigh. He rests his elbows against the sides of the cardboard box, like keeping his body up is an insurmountable task all of a sudden.

"How do you even know that blueberry muffins are my favorite, anyway?"

"You told me. My memory isn't as bad as you think it is, you know."

Nico's eyes dart between Will and the paper bag. Will puts the figurine down. He pries a piece of muffin off and rolls it between his fingers. "How was New Rome?"

"Good," Nico says. "I saw Hazel."

Will hums.

"I told her about what happened."

"You did?" Will asks. He doesn't know why that surprises him.

"She told me that I should tell you that I'm an idiot."

"Did she?"

"Yeah," Nico says. "She also said to tell you that I've been on my own for so long that I'm not used to having friends, but that doesn't mean I get a free pass to treat people like shit, and I need to learn how to rely on someone other than myself without freaking out." Nico heaves out a big breath. "That's the general gist of it, anyway."

"She must've been thinking about this a lot."

"All the time," Nico confesses. "And she still feels really, really shitty about it."

Will can't think of what to say in response, so he takes a bite of his muffin.

Nico shifts a little bit in his seat. Then he blurts out, "I'm sorry. I was being a jerk."

"Yeah, well," Will says, vaguely uncomfortable. "It happens."

Nico is silent for a moment. Finally, he says, "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Why aren't you yelling at me?" Nico demands.

"Why are you so obsessed with fighting me?" Will asks back.

Nico replies hotly, "I'm not obsessed with you-"

"That's not what I meant!" Will interrupts. "What I meant was -- sometimes, it feels like you're testing me, Nico. And no matter how hard I try I can't give you the right answer. I'm sick of it, okay? Don't ask me to yell at you because you want someone to hurt your feelings. I won't do it."

"That's not why I want you to yell at me," Nico says. "I know that...that I'm not good with...any of this. It's like sometimes I want to make myself miserable. And everyone kinda lets me get away with it. Everyone except for you."

"But-"

"But I shouldn't expect you to call me out for being a shithead when I should just know not to be a shithead."

"That's not what I was going to say," Will says.

"It's what I wanted to say. Will, I'm trying to change." Nico scoots as close as he can with a box in between them. He looks Will in the eye. "I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be miserable anymore.

"You know the first step is acceptance, right?" Will says. "Take it from an amateur psychologist - if you keep getting mad at yourself for being yourself, nothing’s going to change."

"Follow your own advice," Nico shoots back. "You know, I honestly thought you'd be better at standing up for yourself. What was your deal at the campfire? Being all fake, laughing at jokes you didn't even think were funny?"

Maybe if it was any other day, Will would feel more like arguing against that. But since the beginning of this conversation, he's felt a little fragile. He doesn't know if he can handle Nico calling him out for whatever flimsy excuse he'd come up with. Instead, he picks at the paper bag that the muffin came in, and starts ripping it in even, little shreds.

"Will."

"I don't think the patient is supposed to analyze the psychologist."

"Well, I was never good at playing patient. And I don't want you to be my doctor, anyway."

Will rips a long strip of paper from the bag. Nico's large, pale hand comes and rests on top of his. Will goes still, hazards a glance up. Nico says, "Can you be my friend instead?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

Nico winces. "I wanted to make sure. But maybe you're right, I should've known seeing how you devoured that muffin-"

Will reaches out and lightly shoves Nico's shoulder. Nico sways back a bit, more than necessary, considering the fact that Will hardly touched him. Then he reaches up and shoves Will back, just as gently. It's so awkward it's excruciating, but Will can't help but grin. Nico must have some sort of magic power, Will thinks, if the touch of a hand is all it takes for a week's worth of hurt to melt away in an instant.

"You're still on thin ice, for your information," Will informs him.

"I know."

"It's gonna take a lot more than a muffin and a toy to make it up to me."

"It's a figurine, not a toy."

Will looks down at the cardboard box. "Oh, my gods."

"What, did you just realize that was in front of you?"

"No, I was just too busy being mad at you to notice that you're a total nerd," Will crows gleefully, pulling out a few random cards.

"Hey - be careful with that!" Nico squeaks, pushing at him to get them back.

Even as they wrestle, Will can't quite shake the feeling growing in his chest. There was a deep feeling of relief settling in his bones - like when you're away from home for a long time and finally get to sleep in your own bed.

Maybe it should have taken more than a five-minute conversation, a pastry, and a toy. But for as good of a liar Nico was, he was never particularly adept at hiding his feelings. He told Will that things would be different and Will believed him.

Sometimes that's all you need.

Between catching up on what happened in New Rome, and updates on camp, Will doesn't return to the infirmary till a few hours later. By then, the infirmary is empty, save for Jessica, who's fixing the sheets on one of the cots.

"No new patients?" Will asks Jessica.

"Slow day," Jessica replies.

Will regards the white walls and white floors. It isn't often that you see the infirmary with a patient. "Hey. You wanna be bad kids and ditch this place?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. If there's an emergency, someone will call for us. It's not like there's a war going on, or anything." Will waves a hand through the nonchalantly.

Jessica smiles a little bit. "You're in a good mood."

"Not a word."

"If you don't want to talk about it, I'd advise we don't go back to the cabin. Dana's waiting to tear your head off."

Sure enough, the second Will walks through the door, Dana pops her head from the bunk and asks, "How was your day?" It's amazing how she manages to sound pointed and nonchalant and judgemental all at once. "Good!" Will replies brightly. He pulls off his hoodie and tosses it to his bunk. "How was yours?"

"Dana-" Jessica tries.

"Glad to hear it," Dana cuts her off. "Did the cupcake magically solve all your problems?"

"Muffin," Will corrects. "You've got to learn how to not talk about things you don't know anything about."

"I know he hurt your feelings." Dana points out. "I know you spent the past week and a half sulking. And I know that it took you less than two seconds to forgive him because you've got no self-respect."

"Dana!" Jessica tries again. She glances between the two of them like there's a bomb about to go off. "Is this the best time to have this conversation?"

Will breaks eye-contact with her to regard the expressions of his other siblings, who don't even have the decency to pretend like they're not eavesdropping. Andrew, cowered in the corner of his bunk. Austin, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. John, Amber, Paul, frozen in place where they were fiddling with bows or guitars or books. They look uncomfortable. They look like they pity him a little bit.

They don't look like they're on his side.

"I know it's useless when I tell you guys not to worry about me, but I still do. You want to know why?" Will says. "Because, believe it or not, I can take care of myself. I have good judgment. I know when I can handle things, and when I can't." Will looks back at Dana and takes a deep breath. "Would it kill you guys to trust me just a little?"

At that moment, Will wanted nothing more than to sound strong, like a big brother. Like a head counselor.

He doesn't.

His voice sounds shaky.

He sounds small.

Jessica says, "We trust you, Will."

"I don't," Dana says. When she leaves, she slams the cabin door behind her.

Will heads towards the door.

"You should give her some space," Jessica says.

"That's not where I'm going."

For the second time that day, he walks into the world with restless energy pulsing through his veins and a knot in his stomach. Without thinking about it too much, Will decides to walk to the lake.

Every once in a while, someone raises a hand to wave at him. Will just offers a half-hearted smile in return and shoves his hands deeper into the pockets of his shorts. When he arrives, the sun is glimmering on its placid surface. Will picks up one of the stones from its rocky shore. He tries to skip it across the surface. It barely makes a ripple as it splashes into the water on the first skip.

Time for a hard truth Will tries to not spend too much time thinking about: he isn't any good at being by himself. It's probably just a side-effect from being at camp since he was twelve years old. He was used to the constant fist-bumps and teasing, and hugs. He never wanted to go a day without them. He hasn't had to in a few years.

According to his mom, she got directions to Camp Half-Blood from a kind stranger at the hospital right when her first round of cancer got particularly bad. She followed it, and Chiron explained to her everything. They decided it'd be better for Will to stay at camp for most of the year.

It's not like he was a particularly powerful demigod. His hands didn't even do anything cool, like glow or shoot out magical life-saving serums. He was just a normal guy with a specific skill-set. Barely qualified to be a demigod in the first place. Monsters didn't mess with him - which was perfectly fine by Will, who was terrified to mess with monsters.

Will figures that living with a parent who had spent most of their time in the hospital just didn't seem like the best option for the adults in the room.

He would never admit it out loud, but he agreed with him.

During the school year, Will was forced to go back into the real world. He never wanted to go. His house was always dark, and quiet, and smelled like illness. His mom slept a lot of the time. She forbade him from trying to heal her, but he did it anyway, pressing his hands against her overheated skin when she slept.

It didn't help.

He couldn't help her.

Will would curl up on the couch, exhausted, and turn on the television. He couldn't bear the silence. He'd pull out the tiny address scrawled on the back of a prescription pad from his mom's desk, where it was hidden. They never found out who it was that handed her the address - Chiron's best guess was that Apollo might have been paying careful attention to his past lover since she was spending so much time at the hospital, and decided to step in. Will privately thought that if Apollo felt that bad, he should've just healed her. Even so, he'd pour over every curve of every letter like it'd reveal the nature of his father to him.

Then his mom died, and what his life some of the time became his life all of the time. Now, they were all he had.

So maybe what just happened with Dana should weigh a little more heavily on him. Maybe, a few months ago, it would have. It would have eaten him up for days, knowing that she thought those things about him. That she thought he was that weak.

But for all of his issues with insecurity, Will wasn't delusional enough to chase her down and apologize.

She was wrong. No matter what anyone said, he knew that she was wrong.

Nico would say just as much.

Will tries to skip a stone across the surface of the lack. It plops down almost instantly, a truly pathetic attempt. Despite everything, Will can't help but laugh.

* * *

Now that Nico is officially back, what was left of Will's self-control officially crumbled into ashes. Suddenly, he was popping up in front of Nico's cabin any spare chance he could, or tracking him down outside the mess hall,or helping him research something for Jason. It's probably only because of his other responsibilities that he doesn't spend most of his day at Nico's side, asking him stupid questions just to annoy him. Now that their fight was pretty much over and done with, a weird new hunger had sparked up inside of him. He wanted every second of Nico's day, every thought that was in his head, to know everything that had ever happened to him. The good thing is, unlike before, Nico was more than happy to indulge him.

The only downside: he seemed equally ravenous.

For every story Will pried out of Nico, Nico demanded one in return. Before he knew it, he was telling Nico stories he'd never told to anybody else - about his mother, his life before camp, what he dreamt of at night. Any hesitation Will might have to tell Nico something probably completely disintegrated after Nico told him about Tartarus for the first time. After all, it's not like whatever dark thoughts Will had to say could be any worse than something Nico had already lived through.

The air was still a little strange around him. Neither of them were as combative as they used to be. But Will found that he didn't miss it. He didn't realize how exhausting constantly making pointed jabs was till he didn't have to do it anymore. Maybe something in New Rome had temporarily smoothed Nico's rough edges. Or maybe Will had finally knocked the last of Nico's walls down.

Whatever it was, talking with Nico didn't feel like a fight anymore.

It felt kind of easy.

Will made a mental note to thank Hazel Grace if he ever got the chance. It was probably thanks to her that for all his years at Camp Half-Blood, this was the first time Will felt like he was on summer vacation.

"Hold up," Will says. He presses a hand against Nico's chest to get him to stop walking. Nico glances down at his hand in surprise but doesn't say a word. "Lance is playing basketball."

Well - playing was a strong word. Lance was giving a valiant effort at bouncing the ball with some kids from the Hermes cabin. Most of his attention was devoted to sending winks to some girls just off-court with that irresistible smile of his.

Nico peers around Will's shoulder to the court. "Who's Lance?"

"Kid from Aphrodite cabin. He hates sports. I've literally never seen him pick up a ball before. And yet - last week he got third-degree burns from the lava wall. Now he's playing basketball?"

Nico hums. "Seems like you keep pretty close tabs on him."

"Jealous?"

Will was hoping Nico would be totally flustered by that statement - maybe stutter out something cute like That's not true!. Instead, Nico says, "Hey, if one of us is the jealous type, it's not me."

"That's not true!" Will blurts. Nico cracks a smile. Will curses him internally. "It's not!"

To Will's horror, it's that moment that Lance turns his attention to them. He looks back and forth between the two of them conspicuously and then gives Will a big thumbs up.

"Oh, gods," Will groans. He can already feel his cheeks turning bright red. He grabs Nico's shoulder and turns him away from the court. "Do me a favor and pretend you didn't see that."

Nonplussed, Nico continues, "You always act so weird when I bring up the fact that I actually interact with other people."

"I do not," Will protests half-heartedly.

"Then what's your obsession with Jason about?"

"I'm not obsessed with Jason." Will protests. "Other than the fact that he's your only other blonde, talented, friendly friend and he's a lot more muscular and tall and powerful than me."

Nico stares at him, but instead of addressing any of the multiple embarrassing implications of Will's statement, he asks, "So which is it? Are you jealous or just insecure?"

"What?" Will splutters.

"I'm trying to find out which problem I have to deal with." Nico tilts his head. "Maybe it's both."

"Maybe it's neither."

"Solace. You are not allowed to be possessive about me."

"I-"

"You're not allowed to be insecure either," Nico declares. "That's even more annoying."

Clearly, denial wasn't getting Will anywhere. Playing dumb probably wouldn't be any more effective. In a last-ditch attempt to even the playing field, Will shoots back, "Well, if I have to deal with your issues, you have to deal with mine."

Nico blinks at him. "Jason? Really?"

Will waves a hand in the air. "We all have our thing. You yell at me and then disappear for a week. I compare myself to Jason. We're even!"

"Barely," Nico points. "I'm working on getting over my issues. You gotta get over yours too, otherwise, I'll win."

"Working on our personality defects is not a competition."

Nico's eyes glimmer in the sunlight. "You sure about that?"

"Fuck you," Will says sourly. "Now I have to win."

Nico laughs. Will hoards the image of it like it's gold; the crinkled nose, the squinted eyes, his cute teeth. Will never thought that he'd call someone's teeth cute, but he never thought he'd like a guy like Nico di Angelo, either.

It's funny how life works out.

Will squeezes Nico's shoulder with an intense look. "By the way, if you ever laugh like that in front of anyone else," he says gravely. "I'll kill you."

Nico grins. "Possessive."

Will can't find a good argument for that, so he just shrugs.

"Speaking of personality defects," Nico says. "Hey, Jason."

Will lets him go and backs away a step or two. Jason approaches them looking an equal mix of wary and confused. "Is that supposed to be an insult?"

Will glances at Nico, who has schooled his expression to be as somber as possible. "Anything can be an insult if you think about it hard enough. Hey, did you know I'm not allowed to smile around you anymore?"

Will kicks Nico's shin. "Excuse him," he tells Jason. "He's lacking a brain-to-mouth filter. It's a medical marvel, I've never seen a case this advanced before."

"Glad to see you two getting along," Jason replies. "How are you doing, Will?"

"I'm good. People have been getting injured less lately, which is horrible for business but great for my social life. How was New Rome? You find anything interesting?"

Jason glances at Nico. "Haven't you told him yet, Nico?"

Nico looks up. "Uh..."

For a second, Will's blood runs cold. Then, Nico asks, "Remember when you told me about Kelly?"

That...was not what Will was expecting to hear. Feeling a bit of whiplash, he says, "Um...yeah?"

"We might want to take a look at her."

Will looks between the two of them. "No way. There's no way they're connected."

"Well, we have reason to believe they are," Nico says.

"I can't just take you to Kelly. It's not that easy."

"Why not?"

"Will," Jason says. "We wouldn't ask unless it was absolutely necessary."

Will looks between the two of them. "If we're doing this," he starts. "I have to be involved. Every step of the process, okay?"

"Obviously," Nico replies. Jason nudges him in the side and shakes his head as if to say, don't push it.

"Piper too." Will declares.

"I don't see any benefit in telling her, though ."

"You asshole," Will snaps. "It's not about benefits. It's about respecting her as a person who, for some reason, cares about the two of you. And about Leo. She has a right to information, you know."

"Right," Nico says, with a knowing look. "She does."

Will points a finger at him. "I thought we agreed to leave the psychoanalysis to the professionals."

"I agree to your terms, okay? Now, can you take us the girl who made you vomit or not?"

"Gods," Jason groans. "You sound way too excited about that."

They agree to meet up the following night to look at Kelly. Jason and Nico have to have a much-needed chat with Piper, and Will needs to break the news to his cabin. It wasn't much, but Will could see a new spark in both Jason and Nico's eyes. Whatever this was, it was progress. It was something to work towards.

He parts ways with them near the lake. Nico gives him a goofy grin in front of Jason just to tease him. Will gives him the middle finger in response.

He does his best to squish down the sappy feeling that tends to overwhelm him when he's around Nico and put on the air of someone even remotely put together. "Is anyone dying?" Will declares as he walks in.

Jessica looks up from her patient with a dry look. "Not that I'm aware of."

"Good! All - uh, I guess senior Apollo campers, come to the office!"

"Family meeting!" Austin whoops from the back.

"Any kids around today?" Will asks Jessica.

"Uh, I think they're scheduled to ride with the pegasus at the moment?"

"Perfect! Where's Dana?"

"Here," Dana says. She's sitting in a chair next to an empty cot. "I'm giving you the silent treatment, by the way."

"Can you suspend the treatment for one meeting? I need some advice."

"Can you figure out anything on your own?" Dana shoots back.

"Fine." He turns to Jessica. "Dana's excluded from the 'senior counselors' group effective immediately."

"Hey!" Dana protests.

"If you're gonna act like a kid, you'll be treated like a kid," Will tells her. "Why don't you go find some pegasi to fly while the adults talk?"

Once the three of them are in the office, door locked securely behind them, Jessica says, "That went a little too far, don't you think?"

Instead of addressing that, Will says, "Jason and Nico want to take a look at Kelly."

"What?" Austin's face goes pale. "Why?"

"Something to do with the unofficial quest they're on." Will shrugs. "Classified, top-secret, type stuff. Apparently what they're looking for and what hurt her might be connected."

Jessica hums. "Do you think that's such a good idea?"

Sheepishly, Austin adds, "She's in bad shape. I don't know if she can handle being experimented on."

"Well, we've tried everything else. We obviously can't heal her. Maybe a fresh perspective could show us something we missed," Jessica says.

"But shouldn't that be the perspective of, like, a medical person? Not the child of Death?"

"You think Nico's aura could harm her?" Jessica asks.

"It's a possibility."

"He didn't affect anybody while he was in here," Will points out.

"Well, that's because he was in worse condition than anyone there. The dude was so weak, he was literally fading."

"He's stronger now," Jessica agrees.

"I don't think he influences people like that," Will insists.

"Regardless, it's an unknown variable," Jessica says. "You have to take it into account."

"Well, this has been great feedback," Will sighs. "Except for one tiny problem."

"Will..."

"I already told them they could do it."

"Knew it." Austin groans. "Dana's right. Now that you and Nico are back together, you're so whipped.'

"We're not together, and Dana's not right. I'm telling you guys," Will says. "I have this feeling in my gut, okay? Jason and Nico will do anything to find Leo. If Kelly really is connected, then they'll do everything in their power to heal her, too. I really, really think this could be a good thing."

"What's the point in asking us, then?" Jessica asks.

"External validation?" Will tries. When that joke doesn't quite land, he says, "I do actually trust your opinions, you know. One word from you two, and I'll go to Nico and tell him that I changed my mind."

"You sure about that?" Austin asks.

"I swear it on the River Styx!"

"Okay." Austin claps Will on the back. "Then, we're behind you, head counselor."

"One hundred percent." Jessica agrees.

Will feels a deep surge of affection come up from his heart, through his blood, to his fingertips. He reaches out to hug the two of them. "I love you guys."

"Ew. Sentimental Will is my least favorite Will," Jessica crinkles her nose.

"Come here, let me kiss you real quick-" Will leans in with puckered lips. Jessica shrieks in an uncharacteristically uncomposed manner and barely escapes without a scratch.

Austin accepts his kiss on the cheek with the utmost grace, and then tells him, "Your breath seriously stinks."

* * *

The next day, Austin and Will usher Jason, Nico, and Piper towards the back of the Big House. They pick their way over old furniture covered in white sheets. There's so much dust in the room you can see it drift in the air. Piper sneezes.

"Oh, weird," Nico says.

"What?" Will asks.

"You know Chris? Clarisse's boyfriend? Remember how he went down to the Labyrinth once and went insane?"

"Oh, my gods, yes. I begged Chiron to let me get a look at him but he didn't let me."

"Yeah, well, Percy told me that this is where they kept him while he was recovering."

"Pause." Austin stops walking. "How come I've literally never heard any of this before?"

"I've met Chris! He's nice," Piper says. "I had no clue that happened to him."

"Me neither," Jason adds.

Will and Nico exchange a glance. "Sometimes I forget that you guys only got here, like, a few years ago," Will says. 'Meanwhile, I met this guy for the first time when he was ten."

"Eleven." Nico corrects.

"I can't even imagine a ten-year-old Nico," Jason says.

"He was cute," Will grins. "All big eyes and obsessed with Mythomagic."

"Solace." Nico grits out.

"Actually, now that I think about it, not much has changed."

"Can you take us to Kelly already?"

"Right, right," Austin says. "This way."

Will pretends he doesn't catch Jason mouthing cute and Piper gagging while Nico furiously signals for them to shut up. They arrive at the very back of the basement, where there's a big, dark curtain hiding a large section of the room.

"You ready?" Austin asks the group. Jason, Nico, and Piper stare back at him.

"Um," Jason says.

"Yes!" Piper confirms.

"I mean… what she said," Jason says weakly.

"Jason's really in the doghouse," Will whispers to Nico.

Nico snorts. "Not really. She's more pissed at me than she is at him. Jason just feels bad."

"Typical." Will sighs.

"Jealous." Nico points out.

Austin clears his throat loudly. Will pinches Nico's side to shush him and ignores the glare he gets in response. "Okay, so, um...I'm sure Will already warned you, but she's in a very sensitive state. Don't touch her, or any of the stuff around her. Will and I have spent enough time around her that we don't think whatever she has is contagious but it'd still be good to be cautious."

"And there's a trashcan in there if you need to vomit!" Will adds cheerfully.

The rest of the group looks vaguely uncomfortable, but Nico barely manages to mask his laugh with a cough, so Will counts it as a win.

Austin opens the curtain.

There she is. Kelly.

Will watches anxiously for their reactions.

Most of her body is underneath a blanket - courtesy of Will and Austin prepping her the night before. What you can see of her is awful. Her face is so bloated you can barely make out her facial features, and pus is spilling out her nose. Her mouth is open - she’s making a weird wheezing sound, like a pug who's overexcited. The worst of her skin is covered in gauze and tape - freshly reapplied the night before. There are no spots of blood yet - which was a good sign, Will notes. What's exposed is an angry purple color with dark blue bruising. Tubes that help her system continue as normally as possible stick out of her arms into IV bags.

"Oh, my gods," Piper says. Her eyes are shining with tears. "How did she get like this?"

"As far as Chiron can tell, it was a spell that backfired." Will answers. "What kind of spell, we have no clue."

"Is she conscious?" Jason asks. He doesn't seem much better off - his jaw is clenched with the effort not to viscerally react. "Would she be able to hear us?"

Austin shrugs. "She's definitely awake, but she's unresponsive." He waves a hand over her swollen eyes. She doesn't even blink.

Will looks at Nico, who's standing at a cautious distance. His eyes are glued to Kelly's face. He doesn't look disgusted, just intrigued. Suddenly, he screws them shut.

"What are you-" Austin starts, but Will shushes him.

Nico opens his eyes. "Interesting," he says faintly.

"What?" Jason asks.

"I'm trying to see how close she is to death, but I can't tell." Nico says. "It's like her spirit is just...gone."

"Just like Leo." Jason says.

"Just like Leo." Nico confirms.

Ten minutes later, Austin and Will have to usher the others out. Her condition didn't get any worse or better, but it was better not to risk long exposure to other demigod's powerful auras. Jason and Nico don't stop talking the whole walk back to the center of camp, going on about books and myths and spells Will never even heard of before.

Austin looks curiously haggard. "You okay?" Will asks him in a low whisper.

"Highkey, man," Austin whispers back. "That stressed me the fuck out."

"Yeah," Will agrees. "Me too."

After having a patient solely under their care for so long, it was nerve-wracking to have three new people come in and gawk at her.

"We're gonna go find the Hecate cabin and ask them a couple of questions. You should come with us," Jason proposes. "This is part of the process, after all."

"Thanks but," Will glances at Austin. "I'm gonna have to pass. I think we have some quality sibling time scheduled for right about now."

"I'll see you later," Nico says, looking at him intently. "I'll stop by once I'm done."

"Dana won't let you past the front door," Austin snorts.

"Dana's not in charge," Will retorts.

"Besides," Nico says, a creepy little smile growing on his face."There's more than one way to get inside of a building."

"You don't know how much I hated the way you said that. Like, literally, you cannot fathom it."

"I'll see you later," Nico repeats.

"Okay," Will says back. Austin elbows him in the side. "Okay! Okay, bye."

He doesn't take a step yet. Nico doesn't either.

"Okay, bye," Nico repeats. Jason cuffs the back of his head.

Austin practically has to drag Will away.

That night during dinner, Dana makes a point to sit as far away from him as possible.

* * *

Nico's limbs splay out awkwardly from where he was sitting under the shade of a pine tree. He was like a cute baby deer, Will thinks, that didn't quite have full control over their limbs yet. Growth spurts will do that to you. His arms are pale where they stuck out of his oversized, baggy black shirt. Nico had gained some weight over the past month or so, but not nearly enough to make up for years of neglect. It was progress, though. Any progress is good progress.

Nico looks up to him and scowls. "Stop staring at me."

"You look good, di Angelo," Will says before he can stop himself. Nico stares at him like horns just sprouted from his head. Will pats his head self-consciously. "I only mean - you look healthy. Healthier."

Nico stares at him for another second, and then says, "Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome!" Will says cheerfully and sits down next to Nico before he says anything else stupid. Will knocks one of his knees, bare and tanned, against Nico's jean-clad one. Nico bumps him with his shoulder. Will grins and discreetly shifts himself a little closer. Nico doesn't push him away.

It takes everything in Will not to marvel at the fact that a few days ago he was convinced that Nico hated his guts - and now here he is, letting Will press into his personal space without so much as another glance. Something was different around them. The antagonist barbs that might have struck a little too close to home a few weeks ago felt gentler. Like they were trying to be careful with each other for the first time.

In fact, it was in moments like these - where Nico brushes off whatever stupid things Will impulsively blurts out, and plays along when Will overcompensates for his nerves through jokes and gets over their fight as if nothing had ever happened - where Will thinks he might actually have a chance. That maybe Nico might like him back.

Nico leans his head against the tree trunk. Will watches the line of his throat, over his Adam’s apple, and down to the collar of his shirt, which was so loose, it exposed a sliver of his collarbone. Nico catches Will's eyes and raises an eyebrow. "You still need to gain some weight," Will says in defense of himself. He pokes Nico's collarbone as if it's proof.

Nico rolls his eyes and shifts the shirt back to where it should be. "I've already gained like twenty pounds."

"Get another twenty, just to be safe."

"Will," Nico says, "Drop it, okay?"

"But-"

"Can you stop playing doctor?" Nico sighs, slouching against the tree trunk. "I didn't come here for a check-up."

"Then what did you come here for?"

Nico closes his eyes. The sunlight filters through the leaves on his face, making his usually-pale skin glow like gold. He shrugs. "I just want some Will-Nico time right now."

"Will-Nico time sounds good," Will responds softly. "Is the stuff with Jason stressing you out, or something?"

"The last thing I need is to think about Jason right now."

Will tries not to feel too happy about that. "Right. Okay. So you've come to me for a distraction! I can be a distraction. Just give me a minute..."

Nico screws one eye open. "Are you trying to distract me or put me to sleep?"

"Why not both? Wait - I got it - I'm gonna tell you a story..." Will begins dramatically. Nico huffs. Will shoots him a glare. "Shut up - no, be quiet, I am."

"Solace..."

"Stop it. I'm being serious." Will insists, pressing a hand against Nico's chest so that he can't get up. After a few seconds of struggling, Nico gives up and slumps back. He's smiling a little bit - in the places where people normally don't look. On the edges of his mouth, the corners of his eyes. He's smiling, and he's looking Will straight in the eye. If it was anyone else, Will would take it as nothing more than the basic sign that they're paying attention. But Nico isn't like everyone else.

Still, if Will let himself think about the implication of that for longer than two seconds, he might collapse. So instead, he barrels on, "OK. A story. I know plenty of stories."

"If you're trying to make me go to sleep, it’s not-"

"Once upon a time," Will interrupts, "There was a grumpy little boy. He was pale and grouchy and complained to everyone who would listen."

"What was his name?" Nico asks.

"Uh - Nick."

"Ouch," Nico says, his little smile widening. "Oh no, I didn't see that one coming."

Will pinched his side. "Nick had a gorgeous best friend. He was brilliant and very talented and tried to show Nick the beauty of life!"

"What was his name? Jason?"

"That's not funny."

"Aw, I'm kidding! Hey - don't pout, Solace. I take it back, his name was...uh, Bill?"

"His name was Bill," Will agrees with a dark look, "And all he wanted in return was a little affection every once in a while. Maybe even a thank you. But instead, Nick insisted on being grumpy. So Bill set out on the marvelous quest to find a friend who would appreciate him."

"A little affection?" Nico repeats. "What does Bill mean by that?"

"Oh, you know," Will waves a hand nonchalantly. "Maybe if Nick could stop acting so embarrassed every time Bill tries to interact with him in public, that'd be a good start."

"People stare when Nick interacts with him, and Bill gets embarrassed when people stare. So maybe he's doing it out of consideration of Bill's dignity."

"Bill does not get embarrassed!"

"Tell that to him next time he blushes." Nico waves a hand nonchalantly. "What's next? What else is on this list of affection?"

Will shrugs. "Nothing, I guess."

"Will."

"It's stupid."

"Fine. But when Nick doesn't do it because he's not a mind reader-"

."Okay, okay, okay!" Will shrugs. "Maybe Nick should give out a compliment every once in a while. You know, normal affectionate stuff."

Nico sits up so suddenly that Will lets his hand fall away without much resistance. Now that he's upright, Will notices how close they are to each other. Barely a breath away between their faces. "Does this count?" Nico asks.

"Does what count?"

"This," Nico repeats, and a cool hand comes to rest on the back of Will's neck - and Will was not expecting this. One second they're goofing around, and the next Nico is looking at him, all serious, like all the secrets of the universe are plastered on Will's face. Nico leans in a breath closer and says, "You're a really good friend, Will."

Will should be more embarrassed about how much a single sentence could affect him. The way it sent a shiver down his spine and blood rushing to his face. The way that he had to look away - because maybe if Nico looked long enough in his eyes, he could see all the secrets hiding inside of Will, too. He looks down, and he whispers, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Nico replies, as easy as anything. He hooks a finger in Will's collar and continues, "I think I've ensured at least a few more weeks of friendship before you go looking for someone more appreciative."

"You do think highly of yourself," Will says, his voice still sounding a little distant. "But I promise I'll let you know as soon as you need to renew your subscription."

Nico laughs at that and Will tears his eyes away, and all he can think is of course, of course, of course.

Of course, being friends with Nico di Angelo would be as intense and moody and terrifying as Nico di Angelo himself - one second you're enjoying the sunshine, not a care in the world. The next, Nico has taken your hand and you're shadow-traveling, teeth jittering, the fastest you've ever felt your body go, barely having a hold on yourself. And then you come out of the shadows back into the sunshine again, shaking and terrified but the most alive you've felt in a long, long while.

* * *

"You could do with looking a little less lovesick, you know." Dana points out.

It's the first thing she's said to him in a week. Will looks up from the stack of papers he was dropping off in the office. The only light in the room is the glow coming from the lamp. He barely sees her where she's sitting on the floor, next to the file cabinets.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Will responds primly.

"Oh, please." Dana scoffs. She crosses her elbows on her knees, and rests her head on top of that, facing away from him.

Will sits next to her. "So you've finally decided to break your silence. Any particular reason why?"

"You've been disgusting recently," Dana says. "Everyone else is too happy for you to complain."

"And you're not happy for me, I gather?"

Dana looks up. "No one else was there when you told me, Will. They didn't see how you talked about it. He made you feel like shit about yourself. How can you act like nothing happened?"

"I'm not," Will says. Dana scoffs. Will continues, "I'm a great actor, but I'm not that good."

"I don't get you."

"Dana, we're still learning how to be friends. It takes a while to get to know someone. I know it's hard to tell, but he's trying. He's probably trying harder than I am."

"You don't want to be friends, though," Dana says. "You want something more."

"So?"

"Does Nico want that?"

Will's face heats up. "Do the hard work for me and ask him for me, will you?"

"He likes you," Dana says. "It's obvious."

"You don't know that."

"You deserve someone better."

"I don't," Will says. "I don't think that there's anyone in this world good enough for Nico di Angelo."

"Well, I don't think there's anyone in the world good enough for you."

"Good thing he doesn't like me, then, right?" Will says brightly.

"You're insufferable."

"Hey, hey, Dana. Look at me." Will says. Dana reluctantly looks up."I might get hurt. Sure, that might happen. And if I do, you have full reign to kick Nico di Angelo's ass."

"Really?"

"But until that moment," Will says. "You've got to trust me. Nico and I have moved past what happened together. It was a misunderstanding of drastic proportions, okay? So hold off calling me an idiot until you've got evidence to back your argument."

"Fine." Dana grits out. "But I swear to Apollo, Will - if shit happens and you start blaming yourself again, Nico Di Angelo won't be the only guy I'm beating up, okay?"

Will grins. "Now that we've signed that verbal contract on consensual violence, can we be friends again? I've missed my favorite sibling,"

"Liar. Andrew's your favorite."

"Are you kidding? That shrimp? I can barely handle him. Now, if I had to choose just one of you guys to hang out with for the rest of the time, it'd be you, no question." Will proclaims. "Who else is gonna call me out for being disgusting, huh?"

"Stupid." Dana sniffs. Will wraps an arm around her.

For the first time in a long while, she hugs him back.

* * *

"What is that?" Will asks.

"Um. Well." There's a tinge of pink tinging Nico's cheeks now, just the barest, as he looks down at the basket he's carrying. "Well, last time-"

"I thought you were scared of strawberries," Will interrupts. "I thought you were a stickler for rules."

"Well - it - you said it'd take a while to make it up to you, right?" Nico says.

"Right."

"And you called it revenge last time, didn't you?"

"Ah. So this is peace offering number three."

Nico winces. "It's so creepy when you smile like that." Nico's been by the infirmary a lot recently - probably to prove a point about acting normal in front of other people. He never stays for long, though - only enough time to drop off a muffin or weird bone or whatever else Nico's picked up doing research and to feel distinctly uncomfortable as Dana burns holes in the back of his head with her glare. Nico's looking nervous this time around, too. He rarely has restless energy - but now he's bouncing on his feet, looking back and forth like someone's out to get him.

"Okay," Will says. "I can meet you there in ten."

"You're crazy if you think I'll wait that long," Nico says. "How about now?"

Will looks pointedly down at the paperwork he's filling out. Nico places the basket on the table.

Dana says, "Just go on your date, already."

If anything was going to break a classic Will-Nico stalemate, it would be one of his siblings saying something mortifying. "Not a date," Will hisses, grabbing Nico's arm, and drags him to the back where it's dark.

Shadowtravelling was just as bad the second time as the first. Will's just a little bit better at playing it cool.

The strawberry fields are even more beautiful than they were last time. The golden tinge of the setting sun almost makes the fruit look redder, the grass greener, Nico's eyes hazel. They don't even bother picking fruits for that long - last time it took Will a week to work through his last basket and he was determined not to make the same mistake again. Within five minutes, they're sprawled on the grass, looking up at the clouds.

There's something in the air that's making Will feel a little reckless. Before he knows it, the words are slipping out of his mouth. "I'm really, really happy, Nico."

"Any particular reason why?" Nico asks. "You didn't take something before coming here or something, did you?"

Will punches his arm. "Be serious for once in your life, will you?"

"I'm serious all the time."

"Not around me."

Nico doesn't say anything in response, but he doesn’t deny it either. Will decides to push his luck and continue, "I was really worried, you know. That things would be ruined between us.."

"What, because of our fight?"

"Come on, weren't you scared?"

Nico is silent for a moment. Then he says, "Not because of that."

Will sits up and looks down at him. "Why, then?"

Nico doesn't look him in the eye when he says, "You're the only other person who knows."

Realization hits Will's chest like dumbbell iron. Oh. Of course.

"You were the only other person I told. I didn't want to change things and it did."

"It didn't change things!" Will tries, half-heartedly, but he doesn't believe it. He had noticed how Nico had retreated, like Will's touch would burn him. Will had backed off, too, a little bit. It was easy to touch and to flirt when he thought he had no chance. But now, knowing that he might- that Nico was gay - well, it didn't feel so simple anymore.

Then, they fought, and Nico came back, and there was so much else going on that it had slipped from his mind. Nico probably hasn't stopped thinking about it since it happened though.

"It did!" Nico says. "And everyone keeps - there were times that I wished I didn't tell you. I liked us the way that we were."

"Well, too bad," Will shrugs. "I like us better now."

Nico doesn't respond.

Will says, "I'm sorry."

Nico scrunches his nose. "For what?"

"For how I was at the campfire. You were right to call me out for it. It's just -" Will sighs. "I just really wanted them to like me. I had to make a good impression, you know? Not be a massive dork, like I am around you. But that's my issue, you know. I'm working on it. "

Nico stares at him. "You're such a dumbass."

"What?" Will splutters. "Why?"

"Can't you see that you're - you know what? Forget it." Nico huffs and looks away.

"You can't just say things like that and then not follow through!" Will protests, leaning closer in. He tries to tug his arms so that they're not crossed anymore, but Nico shoves him off. "Come on. Tell me. What were you going to say?"

"You're going to make fun of me."

"I won't! I promise!" Will holds his hand out like he's about to take an oath. Then, his eyes widen. "We should have a word for that. Like, if either of us says it, then we know that we can't make fun of whatever they're about to say."

Nico glances at him, his lips curling in that way that means he's trying hard not to smile. "You mean, like a safe-word?"

"What's that?"

Nico snorts. "Forget it." He turns to face him anyway, looking highly amused all of sudden. "Okay. What should our word be?"

Will hums as he thinks about it. He looks around, looking for a bout of inspiration. "How about….strawberries?"

"Strawberries," Nico repeats.

"Yeah, what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, I guess..."

"Okay, so. Strawberries. Go ahead." Will rests his chin on his hand in an attempt to look attentive.

Nico rolls his eyes. "Okay. Strawberries. I don't have a clue how you can say any of that stuff about yourself." He rips a stem off a strawberry, "To me, you're perfect. And I know that objectively, you have flaws or whatever, but I like your flaws, too. Everyone sees you as this perfectly competent, funny, empathetic guy. Whatever issues you have aren't deal breakers for anyone I know. So it's really weird to see you act all insecure. Okay?"

For a second, all Will could do was stare. Nico stares back, looking stupidly earnest. Will is struck with a deep revelation.

To everyone else, he's all spikes and skulls and big WARNING signs. To Will, he's this; huge, warm, brown eyes, dark wisps of hair curling around his ears, which are tinged slightly pink. It's like when a hedgehog rolls over and wants you to pet its belly. Will's voice breaks a little bit when he says, "Strawberries. I really want to believe you."

Nico doesn't even blink. "If there's one thing you should've learned from me by now, Solace, it's that you don't have to make everything so fucking hard for yourself. Believe it, don't believe it. As long as you know that I mean it."

"I know you do," Will replies almost too quickly, and isn't that precisely the problem. He doesn't know what he did to convince Nico so deeply that he was worth his time. And he doesn't know how long it'll take before that illusion begins to crack.

Nico shrugs, and the pink tinge from his ears has traveled down to his cheeks now. "Okay."

"Okay."'

They stew in awkward silence for a few moments. Nico picks at the grass. Will can't bring himself to tear his eyes away from his face. Suddenly, Nico blurts out, "Strawberries is a stupid safe-word."

"Agreed. Want to hear the good news?"

"Nothing even remotely near good came out of this deeply humiliating experience."

"I wouldn't be so sure."Will rips up a bunch of grass and sprinkles it over Nico's face like confetti. Nico sneezes."Congratulations, Nick! You've bought yourself a whole month's subscription of Bill's friendship."

"Just in time for the end of the summer," Nico replies deadpan. He wipes his face of stray blades of grass. "Nick will be glad to be rid of you, then."

"Well, it's not like Bill's going anywhere." Will sighs. "Unless...Nick…?"

Nico looks away.

Will tugs the end of Nico's shirt. "You're not serious. You promised-"

"I never promised I'd stay forever," Nico replies. His voice drops down low like he's hoping Will might not even hear him. "Come on, Will. You know I'm not the type to stay in one place for long. I have family out there, too."

"When are you leaving?"

"I don't know. Depends on where I'm needed, I guess."

"You're needed here." Will blurts out. "I mean, um...well, Bill needs you here!"

They look at each other. The sky is stained by deep pinks, purples as the sun sets on the fields behind them. Will feels it bubble up inside of him again - the feeling that was too big too name, too big for his chest. He wants to put the feelings into words. He wants to throw all caution in the air and lean in.

He thinks maybe Nico wants him to.

Will doesn't.

Nico says, "I promise I'll stay until the end of summer."

"This is Camp Half-Blood. The summer never ends around here." Will replies, easy as anything.

"Yeah." Nico agrees.

The sun sinks down lower over the strawberry fields of Camp Half-Blood.

Will looks at Nico.

Nico looks at him back.

Chapter Text

To be honest, Nico di Angelo didn't think his reprieve at Camp Half-Blood was going to last this long. Each time he's managed to catch a break, he can barely enjoy it before someone comes crawling for his help. Time and time again, the second Nico’s found space to breathe, there's been something else calling his name. The point is - he was expecting for it to happen eventually. So when Chiron asks to meet with him, all Nico can think is it was pretty decent of Chiron to wait this long in the first place.

What Nico expected is this - there is a huge, life-threatening problem that can only be solved by someone who has the unique ability to travel to the Underworld and back pretty freely. He expects something along the lines of Nico di Angelo, risk your life for us, the camp who has barely made a dent in the debt they owe you, and do it now.

What he gets instead is a pile of scrolls deposited on a table next to a cup of tea.

"Well?" Chiron says. "What do you think?"

"That's it?" Nico asks. He picks up a scroll and looks at Chiron dubiously. "You just want me to read these and report back?"

"It would be a tremendous help in my research, Nico."

"So you're getting me to do your extra work for you?"

"You like reading, do you not?" Chiron replies easily, which doesn't even answer Nico's question.

"Not in Latin," Nico grumbles. "Are you gonna tell me what this research is for, or are you gonna make me figure it out myself?"

"All in due time, Mr. Di Angelo."

"Typical." Nico doesn't want to admit it, but his curiosity is piqued. He's never seen Chiron ask for help researching something. He picks up a scroll at random and inspects it. It looks normal enough - old, flaky, characters that will take Nico's dyslexia a million years to work through. "Fine," he says. "But only as long as I've got the free time."

It's an obvious bluff - if anything, Nico has an excess of free time. But Chiron nods his head anyway with a solemn, "Of course," as if Nico was a very busy man with very important tasks.

Nico hates it when Chiron plays along like that.

He leaves with another word, feeling grumpy. The second he steps into the summer heat, his mood gets even worse. If there's one thing Nico hates more than wearing shorts - which he's had to do an alarming amount of times the past few weeks - it's sweating.

A basketball hits him in the side. Nico startles and then looks towards the group of demigods playing in the court. They wave at him to throw it back. Nico throws them a flat look and keeps on walking.

Forget the air - this camp is suffocating. The same fucking people doing the same fucking thing. Honestly, how many campfires can these people go to before they all go insane? It's baffling the way other people can just play games and practice archery as if it's the only thing the world has to offer.

Nico knows better. There's a whole universe out there - sure, a universe of misery and suffering and torture. But it's a hell of a lot better than being stuck in the same camp for the rest of your life talking about the same ten things, walking to the same six places, hanging out with the same three people. At least, out there, there are things to do.

Nico settles in the mess hall at his dining table and unravels his scroll.

It barely takes ten minutes before he's interrupted.

"Acorn."

Nico looks up from a barely legible scroll he's supposed to be studying. In front of his face, an acorn dangles, looking all together normal except for a misshapen bulge on its side. Behind it, Will Solace grins.

"Weird looking, right?" he crows.

"Sure," Nico replies. He's not really paying attention to it.

Right now, there are more important things to look at - like how there's a slight breeze that tousles Will's hair, blowing it across his sunburned face. It's gotten longer, hanging into his eyes. Will's complained ad nauseam about it, swears up and down he'll get it cut as soon as possible. He's grabbed a handful of Nico's fringe - which was admittedly getting almost obnoxious - and said, "The only people who can pull it off are emos like you."

Nico definitely disagrees.

Not that he'd ever tell Will that.

Will sticks out an acorn expectantly. With a slightly exaggerated sigh, Nico takes it from him.

Will has taken to doing this recently. Apparently, his siblings held some kind of intervention to get him out of the infirmary and into doing camp things again. More often than not, this includes Will staring at Nico as he works with Jason. He hasn't been taking it particularly well.

Five minutes in, Will gets bored. Ten minutes, and he's tugging on Nico's shirt, begging to be entertained. Fifteen, and he's wandered off to do Zeus-knows-what. Thirty minutes later, he comes back with some anecdote about a random person he ran into and whatever strange object he picked off the ground.

Nico pockets the acorn - like he's done every time Will's handed him something - and asks, "You ever think about taking up a hobby?"

Will blows out a big breath and lies on the table next to him like someone's knocked him out. His forehead rests beside Nico's elbow. "I'm only good at medical stuff."

Nico sets the scroll down. "So?"

"So what's the point of doing something if I'm not good at it?"

"It's a hobby. You're not supposed to be good at it. It's just something you can do instead of irritating me."

Will grins. His eye crinkles, barely visible under wisps of golden hair. "You like it when I irritate you."

Nico picks up the scroll again before he does something stupid.

If Nico was feeling like being extraordinarily honest, he'd admit that these days, it feels like the only thing camp's got going for it is Will. They've been to the strawberry fields a hundred times at this point, but Will will point out a vine Nico never paid attention to, and suddenly it feels like it's the first time all over again. At this point, even something as stupid as a whisp of hair fluttering in front of Will's eyes was infinitely more interesting than anything else going on.

But Nico could never let that slip. Will was already impossible about this whole Nico-leaving situation, continuously dropping hints about how great Camp Half-Blood was as if that would make a difference. It was taking all of Nico's strength not to give him hope that his strategy was working.

It would be easier on both of them that way. There's no way to disappoint someone who doesn't even expect anything of you.

"Di Angelo!"

From across the clearing, Nico sees Jason and Piper approach. Nico swears he hears Will sigh, which is weird because he's normally overly excited to hang out with them. They've been doing that a lot more often, too - Jason and Piper and Nico and Will all hanging out like they're some sort of friend group. Like they have anything in common.

Will sits up as they come nearer. "What do you think they want?"

"What they always want." Nico crinkles his nose. "To bond."

"You think they'll go away if I tell them they're intruding on Will-Nico time?"

Nico thwaps the back of Will's head with the scroll. "Don't be weird."

"They've barely left us alone all week. We're not the weird ones in this situation."

Nico contains the flutter in his heart that pops up at the word us and says, "Keep telling yourself that."

Will shoots Nico a sore look, but it doesn't take long for his grumpy facade to crumble. Once Will smiles, goofy, teeth showing and all, it's really hard for Nico not to smile back. It's not like anything funny happened, but they're still grinning at each other like idiots by the time Jason and Piper sit down.

Looking back at it, he should've been able to tell they weren't about to deliver good news.

Jason's eyes look dark, and Piper's brow is furrowed. Then, with none of his usual small-talk preamble, Jason starts off the conversation with, "I haven't heard from Percy in a long time."

From Nico's right, Piper says, "I haven't either. "

From his left, Will asks, "Does he normally disappear like that?"

Jason and Piper exchange a glance. With that one look, Nico sees it all. The brief moment of thought, followed by a gut-wrenching realization: They don't know. The Percy they knew was quest Percy, hero Percy, so intent on saving the world that he never really had the chance to act like a typical teenager. In fact, out of the four of them, Nico is probably the only one who has any idea of who Percy is, under all the prophecies and powers and godly responsibilities.

Feeling like he aged five years, Nico says, "How long has it been?"

"A few weeks?" Jason looks to Piper in askance, and she nods with a grim look on her face.

"What did Annabeth say?"

"He's not gone or hurt or anything. He just doesn't feel like talking to anyone anymore. Not even Annabeth. She told us that the only reason she only knows this much because his mom has been keeping her updated."

The surprise in his stomach hardens into cold dread. The scroll crumples underneath Nico's unwitting hands. He can't look away from Jason, who's staring at him like he'll find the answers on Nico's face.

"Percy's a drama queen sometimes," Nico says, as calmly as he can manage. "I'll go down and visit him in a bit. Just make sure he won't kill himself or anything."

"Don't joke about that." Jason frowns.

"What? It's not like he'd ever do it."

"Right," Piper says uneasily.

"Right," Nico repeats.

The uncertain silence that follows is dreadful.

Will nudges Nico's side. "He lives in Manhattan, right?"

"Yeah. I went there a few years back." Nico shrugs. "It was weird. His mom was nice, though. Blue cake."

"Typical." Piper smiles.

Will skates a hand over Nico's elbow. "You gonna take me with you when you visit him?"

"Not likely."

"You'll come back, though, right?"

Nico sighs and turns to face Will head-on. "I don't like New York that much."

"That's not what I was asking."

"Will."

"Nico."

They stare at each other for a moment, neither one backing down. Will's worried, Nico can tell. His eyes are so dark Nico can barely stand it. Too soon, too aware of the curious looks Piper and Jason were throwing their direction, Nico looks away and mumbles, "I'll bring you back a keychain."

It's a pathetic attempt to resolve an argument that's been simmering for a while now, but since Will doesn't like fighting in front of other people, Nico knows he'll take the bait. True to form, Will concedes, "Or you could get me something real New York-y. Like a bagel or something."

"Are you planning on leaving camp, Nico?" Jason asked. He put it together faster than Nico anticipated. The worry-lines on his forehead carve in even deeper. If things keep up like this, Jason will look twenty years older by the end of the summer.

Nico looks down, unable to look him in the eyes. Since when did the burden on his shoulders become so heavy? First, all he had to worry about was Bianca. And then - Percy. If Percy wasn't running headfirst into danger, he'd sleep okay at night. Then, Hazel got piled onto his shoulders, and then the rest of the prophecy kids. Finally, the end of the world happened, and everyone went their separate ways, and Nico thought he'd go back to his old life of wandering the country as a loner. But instead, Jason became more important than ever. Not just Jason - Leo and Will, too.

It wasn't so long ago that Nico could go where he'd like, and no one would blink twice. Now, he couldn't do anything without at least three people asking questions.

Maybe six months ago, he would have felt an ocean of resentment towards the people tying him down so big that it threatened to swallow him whole. Now - well, it's no one's fault but his own. He chose to stay. He chose to care about these people. He made promises to them that he has to keep. It's no one's fault if he's too weak to follow through.

Here Nico was with the bare minimum of friendship, and he felt like collapsing in on himself.

A hand wraps around Nico's forearm, snapping him out of his stupor. Beside him, Will says, "Bring me back an acorn."

For once, Nico was grateful for Will's ability to derail conversations from sensitive topics. He uncrinkles his hands from the scroll and glances at him. "Does it have to be as ugly as the one you gave me?"

"Uglier."

Nico can't quite tamp down a crooked grin.

He mumbles, "I'll try."

As untactful as he is, Jason manages to pick up that Nico doesn't particularly want to talk about Percy or his future or the stupid work Chiron's making him do. He tries to change the subject to Leo, to no avail. Nico shrugs, Will throws Jason a dark look which shocks Jason enough to shut him up, and Piper steps in.

Nico can't make himself care enough to join in the conversation. He opens his scroll and ignores the worried look Will sends his way.

Later, when the sun gets a little too hot and Nico's sick of translating Latin, Will turns to Nico and asks, "Wanna find some shade?"

Nico does.

They say goodbye to Piper and Jason to roam around camp, avoiding the big crowds and common areas. Nico sticks his hands in his pockets and feels the acorn, smooth to the touch. He looks at the way Will's hair curls around his ear; briefly considers asking him if he wants to hang out at his cabin.

Then he notices.

Will keeps glancing at Nico and glancing away. Opening his mouth and shutting it a moment later. Nico lets the misshapen acorn swivel in his palm one, two, three times before he closes his fist and grits out, "What?"

"You seem worried about him." Will finally says. "Percy, you know."

"So?"

"Are you scared to see him again?" Will asks. "Now that he knows about your whole, you know, thing for him?"

Nico stops in his tracks. "You think that's what I'm worried about?."

Incredibly, Will has to stop and think about it for a second. After way too long of a pause, he says, "Well, if it's not that, then what is it?"

Nico doesn't reply to that. He swivels the acorn in his hand, runs his fingers over its bulging side.

"You really want to go, huh." Will guesses. He sounds bitter about it. Internally, Nico groans. He should've known that Will would bring this up the second that there was no one to gawk at them. "Have you already started counting down the days to leave? Are you that desperate to get away?"

"What if I am?" Nico challenges, feeling hot and tired and not nearly patient enough for this conversation. "What if I'm bored out of my mind, and I want something to do. So what?"

Will stares at him. "Fine, then. Go run to Percy. Sorry I'm not entertaining enough for you."

Unwittingly, Nico's jaw drops. Dumbfounded, Nico says, "I thought we talked about this."

By this, he meant - Will's deep-root issues with insecurity, the real reason Nico can't stay here, the fact that he has not had a thing for Percy in a very long time, thank you very much.

Will shrugs.

There's no way. Absolutely no way that after the past few months - after Nico coming out to him, sticking to his side for basically the whole summer, even spending his entire time in New Rome thinking of only Will, Will, Will, that Will didn't know. Not when he was coming back as a wreck, nearly crying as he opened a box for the first time since he had shoved beneath his bed when he was 12, not just putting up with Will's weird habits but liking them too. No way that after breaking every single rule Nico had ever laid out for himself, Will still didn't know.

Nico was only desperate for one thing, and it was something he would never let himself have.

"You're more stupid than I thought," Nico says.

"Well, if I'm so stupid, why don't you spell it out for me?"

But Nico is already turning towards the Big House, tucking his scroll into his armpit, holding the weird acorn Will had handed him in his pocket because he's stupidly in love like that. "Figure it out yourself, Solace."

"You said that to me last time, too," Will calls.

"Yeah, well." Nico sighs. "You can't expect me to do all the work."

* * *

It's a bad habit and one that Nico should leave in the past. But it worked before - on nights like this when Nico's head was tangled, and he couldn't sleep. It's dumb, and immature, and kind of creepy - but it’s never not worked.

Nico tosses in his bunk. Despite his best intentions, he can't stop thinking about Percy. Logically, he knows Percy's fine. He knows that even when Percy's not fine, he's okay. The apocalypse has already happened, and they all made it through in one piece. At this point, the biggest danger in Percy's life is not passing his SATs.

Nico still can't stop thinking about it.

The swirling nature of his thoughts and nervous feeling itching under his skin reminds Nico of another night. The one where Will was sitting on the steps of a glowing cabin, like something out of a dream. When there was the sweet smell of Coke mixed with earth and a harpy looming in the darkness, and Nico had pressed closer to Will than he'd ever had before.

Remembering this didn't help the mess in his head. In fact, now there was a whole new set of weird emotions laying heavily on top of everything else like a thick fog - so he should stop thinking about that, probably.

Just once. He'll do it one time, and then he'll sleep alright, and never have to worry about this again.

In the darkness of his cabin, Nico kicks up a mist and throws in a drachma. "Show me Percy Jackson," he whispers, and like every time he's done it before, the mist does.

Percy Jackson is asleep. Well, if you can even call it that.

He's shaking. Violently twitching. The veins in his throat are bulging out.

Nico's done this so many times he knows that it's best not to interfere. But a particularly violent jerk makes it hard to resist. He whispers, "Jackson. Hey. Percy. Wake up."

Percy jolts. His eyes are wild when he blinks out of his nightmare, so dark they almost look black in the nighttime. He grabs for something under his pillow - probably Riptide - and barks, "Who's there?"

"Kronos." Nico replies, deadpan.

Percy's eyes finally focus on Nico in front of him. His shoulders slump, and his hand slips out from under his pillow. "I almost chucked my sword at you, you know."

"That probably wouldn't have been super effective." Nico replies.

"What are you doing?"

Spying on you. Using you as a distraction. Making sure you're alive, Nico thinks. "Telling you to get your act together. Jason has enough on his plate with the whole Leo thing; he can't handle you going AWOL too."

"What are you talking about?"

Nico sighs. "I'm not repeating myself, Jackson. Cut the whole isolation shit out or, at the very least, talk to your girlfriend. That's all. End of message. Sweet dreams."

"Hey, wait-"

Nico waves a hand through the mist, cutting the call.

He doesn't have a thing for Percy anymore. He hasn't for a while. But the image of Percy deep in a nightmare is burned into his mind, and his heart is pounding in his chest, and his hands are shaking, and if this is what you feel when you have people you care about, then maybe Nico was better off alone.

* * *

Capture the flag was scheduled for tonight, and if you took the camp's reaction to it seriously, you'd think there was another war. Nico watches with more than mild disgust as the kids from the Athena cabin and the Ares cabin throw threats at each other from across the mess hall, the other cabins egging them on. He usually could count on Will being on his side on these sorts of things - 'Fighting's so boring anyways' - but even he's practically jittering from excitement. "We're on opposite teams tonight, you know," Will says, leaning over the Hades table, just on the cusp of breaking the rules. His eyes are sparkling.

Traitor.

"If I participate," Nico replies back through a mouthful of toast.

"You will," Will says. He seems to have gotten over the whole Percy thing pretty quickly, judging by how he was trying to get under Nico's skin in record time.

Nico opens his mouth to protest, but then Will smiles. It's a cocky sort of smile - the type that screams, you wouldn't say no to me, right?

Arrogance is such a rare look on Will Solace that Nico doesn't even think before he says, "Okay, I will."

Will looks a little too smug for his own good.

That night, it takes approximately three minutes for Nico to start regretting his decision. Just as he's strapping on his armor, Austin ambles over and throws an arm around Nico's shoulder. "Yo, di Angelo! What's up?"

Nico shakes off his arm with a dark look. "Don't touch me."

"Sorry, sorry. Forgot you were sensitive about all that."

"Yeah, excuse him," Jessica says, popping out of nowhere. "He never learned how to keep his hands to himself."

Nico looked towards her in mild surprise. He liked Jessica well enough - she knew when to mind her business - but not enough to be okay with the sudden Apollo-sibling ambush.

"Nico." A voice peeps up from behind him. Nico whirls around to see - Dana. She was regarding him with a stink eye.

Her too? What could she want?

Dana barely utters a word to Nico these days, and Will refuses to tell Nico why. That's fine; Nico can wager a pretty good guess as to why she hates him. In fact, he's smart enough to not even hold it against her.

"Dana," Nico responds, overly polite.

"You should back off Will a little bit, you know." She says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Nico gapes at her. The first full sentence she's spoken to him since he got back from New Rome, and it's this? After a few seconds of baffled silence, Nico replies, "He's the one sticking to my side all day. You know why, right?"

Dana raises her eyebrows. "Enlighten me."

"He's bored. If you want us not to hang out, you should let him back into the infirmary."

"I tried to get him out of the infirmary so he could find something to do other than work and hang out with you."

"Well, obviously, that backfired."

"He needs other friends."

"He has other friends."

"Really? Where are they?"

With a start, Nico realized that he didn't know. Will was friendly with almost everyone in the camp, would always greet them by name, and remember weird little facts about them. But his interactions with those people were nothing more than side conversations while Will and Nico were on their way to somewhere else.

When was the last time Will wasn't available to hang out?

Nico racked his brain and couldn't find an answer.

Before he could say anything about it, a heavy weight landed on his back. "You fool!" Will yells from his shoulder. "You should've been prepared."

"Asshole," Nico grits out, shaking Will off much to the amusement of the other Apollo kids. Will tumbles to the ground but immediately pops back up to go in for another attack.

Under the others’ watchful eyes, Nico doesn't have a choice but to let Will wrestle him into a headlock. He resists a little bit for the sake of his pride and finds that for all Will talks about being weak, there's a surprising amount of power behind his skinny arms.

"Come on, then!" Will jokes. "Let's put away our swords and settle this, ancient Greek style!"

Nico lolls his head up from where it’s loosely held into place. "You know the ancient Greeks wrestled naked, right?"

Will immediately lets him go, his face the brightest red Nico's ever seen. "Um, okay, well, nevermind. Swords it is."

Nico rubs the back of his neck and grins, sorely tempted to test how red Will's face can go. But then he's reminded that they're in public, around Will's siblings, so it's probably not the smartest thing to do. "This is a lot of enthusiasm from a kid who hates camp activities."

"Well, last time I was your partner," Will points out. "Now that I'm your enemy, it might actually be fun." When Nico raises an eyebrow, Will insists, "You've got to care, too, okay? Victory is only sweet if your opponent is completely crushed."

"And if I don't care?"

Will pouts. "Then I'll be mad at you."

Nico rolls his eyes and adjusts the strap of his armor. He points his sword to Will. "You better watch your back, Solace."

Will grins. "Now, that's more like it."

"Hey!" A shout comes from across the way. Tristan, the Ares cabin leader when Clarisse's not around, stomps towards them. "Stop fraternizing with the enemy!"

"Is that what they were doing?" Nico hears Austin whisper to Jessica with a grin on his face.

"Strategy meeting is starting, di Angelo. Let's go."

Nico idly wonders what would happen if he were to refuse, but it would probably cause more trouble than it’s worth. Nico shoots Will a look, gets a light-hearted, "You're so dead!" in response, and walks over to the clearing where the Ares team was gathered.

He mostly zones out during the breakdown of roles, electing to watch the other demigods’ intent faces instead. There weren't that many of them - at least, compared to past years. Yet Nico was taken aback by how familiar they were to him. In fact, he could recognize nearly every face in the crowd.

Ugh.

Will must be rubbing off on him.

"And you." Tristan points his spear at Nico. Everyone turns to stare at him. Nico keeps his face impassive even though the back of his neck prickles. "No playing nice just because you're friendly with the enemy, okay?"

Nico barely looks up from where he's adjusting the sheathe for his knife. "Which enemy am I friendly with again?"

Someone snorts. Nico sends a harsh look in that direction, and immediately everyone there averts their eyes.

Typical.

"Can't you summon a skeleton army or something to help us?" Tristan asks, unfazed.

"Sure," Nico replies. "Anyone know how many dead bodies there are in the forest?"

The crowd of demigods didn't like that joke. Apparently, everyone thought he could conjure bones up out of thin air.

Tristan, suddenly very pale, squeaked, "Never mind! No skeleton army!"

They position Nico in some unimportant spot towards the edge of the woods, probably hedging on the fact that he wouldn't care enough to fight. Not one to disappoint, a few minutes into the game, Nico lets around three people from the opposite team run past him without twitching a muscle. There's some commotion in the distance, like always, but it doesn't reach him, so it doesn't matter.

Then, for the second time this night, a familiar weight lands on Nico's back. This time, Nico twists from underneath him until Will's back on his feet to face him head-on.

"Where's your weapon?" Nico asks, gripping Will's wrist tightly in his free hand.

Will wriggles underneath Nico's hold. "Dropped it somewhere. Doesn't matter!" He slips out of Nico's grasp and lands a light punch to his side. Nico rolls his eyes, drops his knife, and jabs at him back, hard enough to hurt but gentle enough to not leave a bruise.

Will looks radiant.

Nico can't blame him.

It's exhilarating - the dodging and cuffing each other on the back of the head, hands slipping over arms and stomachs in the guise of cheap hits, Will laughing even as he gets way too close to Nico's face. The good-natured tussle only lasts a few minutes before Nico's competitive nature, combined with the nerves tangling his stomach, takes over. He neatly sidesteps one of Will's jabs and pokes him hard in the stomach. Will immediately crouches over, wheezing out, "You win! You win!"

Nico pats his back. "Better luck next time."

Will flops onto the floor dramatically. "Capture the flag is cancelled. Alert the forces! Tell them…" He coughs again, for good measure. "Tell them I'm out of commission."

"I'll let them know," Nico replies, solemn. "Any other last requests?"

Will shoots Nico a sly look. "Well....my attacker could carry me to the infirmary. To make up for the agonizing pain, of course."

"I didn't hit you that hard."

"But it hurts," Will whines.

Will's such a ridiculous sight, Nico can't stop himself from laughing

Nico crouches down next to him and runs a hand over the place he just hit. Under his hand, he can feel the way Will's stomach contracts with every breath. Will stares at him with wide eyes. Nico stares back. Softly, he says, "You are pretty weak, aren't you?"

Will nods. "So weak. And hurt. And in need of medical attention."

"Then it's best we get you off the battleground." He pulls Will up and lets him flop onto his back. Will’s arms wrap around Nico's neck tightly. He feels hot against Nico's back, his breath warm against Nico's ear. Will doesn't bother to wrap his legs around him, which Nico is both thanks and curses him for. Now, Will's legs drag on the earth every time Nico takes a step.

Nico suspects he's actively making this as hard as possible.

A few steps in, Will says, "Wow, you're strong."

Nico's so embarrassed he almost drops Will right there. "It's a bad idea to make fun of a guy who's carrying you right now."

"I'm not making fun of you! You've healed a lot! You used to be so weak, I was worried about you evaporating, remember?"

"I remember." Nico frowns. "Split-pea soup."

"It wasn't so bad." Will rests his chin on Nico's shoulder. "It was kinda nice to baby you for a bit. Of course, you're a lot more fun now that you're healed. So much less cranky!"

"I'm just as cranky as I've ever been."

"Sure you are," Will laughs. "You haven't mellowed out at all."

"Can you just-" Nico grits out. He's so frustrated, he doesn't even think before he grabs for Will's legs and wraps them around his waist. "Easier this way," He puffs out.

"Right," Will says quietly. Nico can't see his face, but he can practically see the pink spots blooming across Will's cheeks.

It doesn't take long to reach the edge of Nico's team's territory. A random demigod protecting the outskirts - a new kid, Nico thinks, first year here - asks with a wavering voice, "Hey, where are you two going?"

"Injured," Nico says, pointing to Will on his back, at the same time that Will says, "We're bored."

He lets them through without another word.

"As you were, soldier!" Will yells out. Nico gives him a salute. The demigod stares back, dumbfounded.

Once he's out of earshot, Nico looks back at Will. "Bored, are you?"

"Hey, I only meant-"

Nico pulls Will's arms off of him and lets Will tumble to the ground for the third time that day. "Guess you can walk by yourself, them."

"No fair!" Will complains, but he bounces up to follow Nico out of the forest anyways. "Hey, tonight's been pretty fun, right?"

Nico glances at him and hums non-committedly. Please, don't….

"Really makes you think about how much fun the others are gonna miss out on when they go back to school soon..."

Gods.

And it had been such a good time so far. Now Nico was stuck between a rock and a hard place - that is, trying to change the conversation, which would never happen if Will didn't want it to, or gearing up for a fight, which Nico didn't want to do.

In a desperate grasp for middle ground, Nico replies casually, "That reminds me, I've been thinking..."

"That's never good."

"Ha-ha. You've had a lot of free time recently."

"So?"

Nico tries to think of a more delicate way to put it, decides it's worthless, and asks, "Don't you have friends?"

"I've got lots of friends, sure!" Will says, taking it in a stride.

"Why don't you hang out with them then? Why do you ever only spend time with me?"

"Why are you suddenly so curious?"

"You know why."

Unexpectedly, Will's grin melts away. He steps in front of Nico, stopping him in his tracks, and leans in. "Do I?"

Taken aback, Nico splutters, "Just want to make sure that you won't get bored when I'm gone."

In an instant, Will's mood flips. One second, he's all wide eyes and in Nico's personal space. The next, his jaw is set, and his eyes are a world away. "What, you think I'll be moping around camp all lonely and pathetic once you're gone?"

"Solace, all I'm trying to say is-"

"I'll be fine." Will doesn't even look at him. He picks up a branch from the ground and flips it in his hand. "No need to worry. Let it go, okay?"

"Will. Seriously. Who's your best friend?"

Nico doesn't even know why he asks. All he knows is that suddenly it's really, really important that he knows.

Will sounds pissed when he says, "You're my best friend, Nico."

"Really?"

It's sort of impressive how quickly Will's face can go from its usual tan shade to dark red. He still refuses to meet Nico's eyes when he mumbles, "It's not like I don't have anyone else to hang out with, you know."

At that moment, Nico is struck with a feeling so intense he almost tips over. He's never been drunk before, but he imagines it'd feel something like this - loose, impulsive, barely being able to control yourself. He imagines himself saying it - Will, I have a massive crush on you. Will, I might be falling in love with you. Will, I think I already have. He can already feel the words rising to his lips. He can already picture Will saying it back.

But quickly, too quickly, it's accompanied by images of arguments and fights and Will's face. How downturned, and sad, and insecure Will could get because of Nico, because of stupid shit he's said and the stupid ways he's lashed out. Nico doesn't even need a good imagination to conjure them up - he's got a store of them in his mind. Will, in the forest, back when they first started hanging out, asking if Nico actually wanted him around. Will in the strawberry fields in what should've been a perfect afternoon, frustrated because Nico wouldn't let him help him. In the darkness, barely holding eye contact as Nico yells at him. Crumpling the wrapper of a muffin in his hand as he forgives Nico too easily.

Will deserves someone with delicate hands, someone with a cautious mouth. Most of all, Will deserves someone who might actually stick around.

Nico is none of those things.

He still wants to tell him so badly it hurts. But Nico keeps it quiet, in his chest, as he says, "You're my best friend, too."

The blinding smile Will gives him in response almost makes it worth it.

The tentative peace between them holds until Capture the Flag is over. It feels more fragile than usual, though. Will's smiles are a little smaller.

Nico walks back to the campfire alone that night, reeling from the awkward goodbye they gave each other outside of the infirmary.

As if it couldn't get any worse, he had to sit next to the resident golden couple of the camp for the rest of the night. Sitting in front of the crackling fire, Jason and Piper looked like picture-perfect versions of a couple. The type that would have a house with a white fence, 2.5 kids, and a golden retriever. The illusion only lasts until Piper accidentally burns her marshmallow, swearing loudly. “Don’t eat it,” She complains.

“I like the burnt parts,” Jason reassures her, although he didn’t look entirely convinced.

Nico pokes at the fire with a large stick. He thinks of - who else? - Will. It's his first time with a night shift in weeks. He seemed kind of nervous when he set off for it - like a few weeks away from patients would suddenly eliminate any skill he had towards healing in the first place.

“So, Nico,” Piper says, interrupting his chain of thought. “Heard you and Will snuck off today.”

Nico doesn’t dignify that with a response.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed, sending a glance to her. "Did you guys do anything fun?"

"No," Nico replies shortly.

"You guys have been kinda weird recently. Are you fighting again?"

"No."

Piper nudges Jason's side. Jason clears his throat. Nico looks back and forth between them, struck with the realization this conversation had been planned.

“Please, don’t-“

“So if everything's so fine, why aren’t you guys together yet, huh?” Piper asks.

Nico groans. “There’s a million reasons why, starting with, Will probably doesn’t even like me-“

“Probably,” Jason repeats.

Nico blinks. “Yeah.”

“Not definitely.”

“Right.”

“So, you think there’s a chance.”

"There's no such thing as a 100% certainty on anything-"

Piper leans back where she’s sitting, a bright smile splitting her face. “Come on, smart guy. You're into numbers and all that. Why don’t you tell us the probability that he does?”

Nico thinks of Will's red cheeks, of the stupid play-fighting, the deformed acorn burning a hole in his pocket. He stabs a burning log, mildly hoping it would cause the whole fire to collapse. “70%.”

“That's in favor of him liking you?” Jason clarifies. When Nico shrugs, he whistles. “Pretty high percentage.”

“It's still not 100%.”

“So? It’s good odds, isn’t it?” Piper asks.

Nico stabs the log again, and finally, it pierces through its crackling shell. He doesn’t take as much delight in watching the log crumble as he thought he would. “Not good enough.” He answers. “Besides, even if he liked me, it’s not like I would do anything.”

Incredulous, Piper demands, “Why not?”

“Because he’s him! And I’m me! It wouldn’t work.”

“You guys seem to have been working it out pretty well so far,” Jason notes.

Nico regards the two of them. “You know half the reason that me and Will aren't together is because of you guys."

This surprises them. The conversation is obviously taking a turn they didn't plan out in their Get-Will-and-Nico-together meeting. "What are you talking about?" Piper asks.

"You guys! Everyone! Always coming up to us when we're alone, butting into our friendship, making comments and jokes, and pushing us together like we're some - some toys for you to play with instead of real people." Nico throws his hands up. "It's hard enough trying to make friends, let alone when people won't quit staring at you. You guys freak me out."

"Oh, shut up, Nico." Piper rolls her eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"We're not pushing you together. We hang out with you two because you're our friends. News flash, dummy. We care about you, and we’re trying to ask you about an obviously important person in your life, and every time we do, you shut us down!"

Nico stares back at her.

She narrows her eyes. "We are your friends, aren't we?"

"Piper," Jason says gently. He puts a hand on her shoulder. "It's really none of our business."

She huffs and shakes him off. When she stands, she points a finger towards Nico. "Whatever. He obviously doesn't want us to care. By the way, if you keep on pushing people away like that, then not even Aphrodite can make love happen for you." With that, she storms off.

Nico and Jason sit in stunned silence.

Jason rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Sorry about that. Piper's been real wound up lately. The Leo stuff is taking a toll on her."

"She's not wrong." Nico points out. "Don't tell her I said that, though."

Jason doesn't smile like Nico expected him to. He looks serious. "We really weren't trying to pressure you or anything, Nico."

"Gods." Nico scoffs.

"What?" Jason asks, so typically handsome and oblivious and innately good. He worried so much about everyone else all the time, and what did that get him? A load of responsibility on his shoulders and a crease in his forehead.

"Jason Grace. You keep worrying about everyone but yourself, and you'll end up looking like an old man by winter." Nico leans forward and flicks Jason's forehead. "Look, you've already got wrinkles."

"Do I?" Jason asks, his hands flying up to his face. He looks so worried Nico can't help but burst into laughter. Jason frowns, but his eyes are soft. He says, "Besides, you should speak for yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

Jason gives him a wry look. "Don't think I haven't noticed how much you've done for me, even though you don't have to."

The conversation with Will must have left Nico cracked open like a weird emotional egg because he feels a similar surge of affection rush through his body a second time. "You are my friend, you know," Nico says because suddenly it feels important to say out loud. "You're my best friend, probably."

Jason smiles, blinding and handsome and godly. "Isn't Will your best friend?"

"He's...something else. Don't tell him I said that if he asks, though. That'll get me in trouble."

Jason laughs.

Nico feels the weight of it all of a sudden; Jason's laugh, and Will's smile, and the sparkle in Piper's eyes when he says something just sarcastic enough. He feels them, sparkling and precious, like jewels sitting heavy in his chest.

"We'll find him, Jason," Nico says abruptly. "I promise you, we'll find him. And then everything can be normal again."

"We're demigods, Nico. Things are never gonna be normal for us." Jason sighs. "It'll be a good thing if we do find him, though. I think I might be able to breathe a little easier."

Secretly, Nico thinks that there's a million impossible things he'd do if it would make things just a little easier for Jason Grace.

Finding Leo will just have to be the first on the list.

* * *

The days that followed Capture the Flag were even more mind-numbing than the ones before. Jason threw himself into research about Leo, and Piper dogged his every step, determined not to be left out again. Chiron piled up even more scrolls onto Nico, and Nico couldn't make heads or tails of what it was all even for (what did a recipe for some ancient dessert have to do with sea monsters anyway?) If that wasn't bad enough, Dana's concern about Will spending all his time with Nico had overruled her concern about Will working too much, and she allowed him to go back into his regular hours.

"I'm nervous," Will confessed one night. He had been on the floor of Nico's cabin, leaning against the bed; Nico stretched out on his stomach, so they were face-to-face. A nicer person might have let Will get on the bed too, but it was past curfew and dark, and they were both not entirely lucid, so Nico didn't fully trust himself.

Hanging out past curfew had become a normal thing for them ever since Nico got back from New Rome. Two insomniacs didn't make for a good night's sleep, Nico discovered, but it was nice to have some company.

Will had twisted the edge of Nico's duvet and whispered, "It's weird. It almost feels like I don't really want to go back."

Nico, chalking it up to Will being insecure about his healing skills again, just replied, "Don't be stupid. No reason not to, right?"

Will didn't stay long after that.

Nico realized that maybe it wasn't what he was supposed to say. He'd missed the mark, somehow, and the result is this -

Will was working more hours and ignoring Nico. The few times they saw each other, Will acted all snippy and weird, which Nico didn't have much patience for, so they would fight, which would make Will extra mad at him, and it all felt so weird because Nico didn't even know what he did wrong. He's been able to come back from every near-argument so far except for this one, which was baffling because they weren't even talking about anyone leaving in the first place.

So now that Will was all but closed off, all he had to do was comfort a nervous Jason, who barely cracked a smile these days, bear the brunt of Piper's frustration, and do Chiron's fucking homework.

After a few days, Nico decided he had enough. He stormed up to Chiron's office, slammed a scroll on his desk, and announced, "I'm not doing this shit anymore."

Chiron blinked up at him placidly, which pissed Nico off even more. "Oh. Do you mind telling me why?"

"Because it's stupid, that's why," Nico replies petulantly.

"So you have an issue with the work I've been giving you?"

"How could I not?"

"I thought you might have enjoyed having something to fill the hours."

"But it's meaningless!" Nico insists. "Chiron, I've fought in two massive wars. I delivered the Parthenos from across the country. I've been to Tartarus and back - and you're giving me book reports? What, can't you read Latin anymore?"

"Ah, it's not so much the text that interests me," Chiron says. "But your opinion on it."

"Well, I still can't do it." Nico shoves his hands deep into his pockets. "I'm getting out of here soon, so you might as well find someone to take my place anyways."

Chiron's gaze was piercing. "Jason informed me of your plans to leave camp a little while ago, di Angelo. I wonder; do you plan to wander aimlessly as you did before?"

It's sharper than something he would usually say (maybe he thought there was no use in using tact when it came to talking to Nico). It stung.

"It's not aimless. It's to find a purpose." Nico waves his arms uselessly. "I spent my whole life as a demigod trying to save the world. Now I'm supposed to be reading scrolls and playing basketball? Sitting around the campfire each night? Wasting my time like every other demigod who ends up here?"

Chiron stares at him, unrelenting.

Nico sighs. "I know that everyone just wants me to act like a kid for once. Get back the childhood I never had, or whatever. But that's gone, now. There's no going back. I don't want to go back. I'm not like the other demigods here, and I don't want to be. I know there's more work out there for me to do, and I know I'd be good at doing it. Isn't that what you people want from me anyway, To be happy? That - life, out there - would make me happy! So why is everyone so hellbent on not letting me go?"

"I see." Chiron says. After a rant like that, Nico expected him to look disappointed. Tired, at the very least. Infuriatingly, his eyes are twinkling. "Well, you would be pleased to know that I am not as opposed to you leaving as you perceive me to be."

Before Nico could ask him what he meant by that, the door to the office bursts open, Will on the other side. He has his scrubs on, rolled up to his elbows. Breathless, Will doesn't even spare Chiron a glance.

He stares at Nico and pants, "Kelly just woke up."

* * *

They can't clamber down to the basement fast enough. There's adrenaline pumping through Nico's body he hasn't felt since the last war. Every nerve ending is electrified. He practically feels the blood pumping through his veins. A glance towards Will tells Nico he's feeling the same. His eyes are more focused than Nico's ever seen them.

Will doesn't look at him back.

It hurts a little bit more than Nico expected. Somewhere along the line, the understanding between Nico and Will became a fact of life. Nico would look at him, and Will would look at him back.

Not having that any more felt jarring - even more so when they haven't even fought.

Will was slipping away from him.

Before Nico could ruminate on that realization, they burst through the door and rush towards Kelly's bed, where Jason, Piper, and Austin were crowded. If the others noticed the chilly distance between the two of them, they didn’t say anything about it.

The truth is there's a very good reason they probably didn’t clock it.

The second Nico caught a glimpse of Kelly, everything else melted away.

She looked...healthy. All lacerations, burns, boils had melted away into smooth, clear skin. She was sitting completely upright, to Austin's horror. He offered her water, but she peacefully declined.

"There you guys are!" She beams. Her voice is as bright and clear as windchimes.

Even though this wasn't Will's first time seeing her, he still looks at a loss for words. At her side, he silently runs his hands up and down smooth skin with a furrow in his brow, occasionally pressing down as if he expected something to give.

"How…?" Jason asks.

"Hecate saved me," Kelly explains. "It was magic that took me away, so it had to be magic that put me back. Same thing with the burns-" She gestures at her smooth arms. "No one but a magical being could've cured them. Luckily, she sensed my spirit floating out and about and brought me home."

"Sounds pretty obvious, in retrospect," Austin said sheepishly. "The whole magical beings, magical solutions thing, I mean."

Kelly smiles up at him. "You guys did a really good job."

Austin blushes.

"Do you remember where you were? What were you doing? Did you see anything?" Jason demands.

"Cool it, Grace," Will says sharply. He must be deep in doctor mode if he was talking to Jason like that.

"Will, it's fine. I'm really fine." Kelly pats him and turns to Nico. Nico is slightly startled by the clear eye-contact. He did not expect to be addressed. Unexpectedly, her smile doesn't falter at the sight of the child of Death. "They caught me up to speed. I think I have a lot of useful information for you. I think I saw Leo."

"What?" Everyone exclaimed together.

It took over half-an-hour for Kelly to tell the full story. Apparently, she had been working on something to find Leo - "He was such a sweet guy, and I just felt like something was off. It was the least I could do after he sacrificed himself for us." - when an experimental spell went wrong.

"Not so wrong," Austin pointed out. "It got you to him, apparently."

"True," Kelly laughs. She tells them how she got blasted to an island with white sand. There she saw a short guy with curly hair and oil grease smeared on his clothes - "Leo!" Jason exclaims like he was the only one putting the pieces together - and a beautiful girl in work clothes. The two of them ignored her for the most part, which Kelly found rather rude.

"That is, until I realized," Kelly spread her hands to the cot she's lying in. "My spirit got taken to the island, not my body. They couldn't see me or hear me. I couldn't hear them either. I was pretty disconnected from all my senses except for my vision. I'm pretty sure they were speaking English, but it was so muffled I couldn't understand what they were saying. They were building a huge boat. I think I saw a golden dragon head there, too, somewhere."

"Definitely Leo," Piper sighed. She and Jason exchanged a look. Something passed through the way they looked at each other - something like relief or love or a feeling too intimate to bear witness to. Nico looked at Will instead. He was staring at Kelly's face intently, drinking in every word.

"So he's alive?" Jason asks. "His body must've landed on the island, too, if he could touch things and all that."

"And that girl..."

"That's the part that's bugging me," Will piped up. "An explosion, a girl, and an island...I feel like I've heard that somewhere else before."

A heavy stone dropped in Nico's stomach.

"Calypso," Nico says. It's the first time he's spoken since he got in the room. The others turn to stare at him, not understanding the connection. That is, everyone except-

"That's it!" Will confirms, frowning down at Kelly's bed. "Wasn't there a rumor a few years back that Percy…?"

"I'm going to New York." Nico blurts out. He stands and starts patting through his packets, checking that he has everything he needs - some spare cash, his knife, the whistle for Mrs. O' Leary. With a start, Nico wraps his hand around something smooth and cool in his left pocket. Will's acorn.

"I'll come with you!" Jason, Piper, and Will all reply at once. Jason and Piper exchange embarrassed glances. Will looks up sharply towards him. They make eye-contact for the first time in what feels like a million years. Nico kind of felt like he was looking directly into the sun - he couldn't stare for too long with it starting to hurt.

"No, I'm going by myself." The top of the acorn digs into Nico's palm. He looks directly at Will and says, "I'll come back with some answers."

"Come back empty-handed, for all I care," Will replies. Nico hears the threat lying just below the surface, sees it glimmering in Will's clear blue eyes - as long as you come back.

"I promise," Nico says, even though he's not quite sure what he's promising. To get information, to not disappear, to try to be the type of guy who has a home to come back to. After a beat, he clarifies, "I promise I'll bring you back something ugly."

It's clear that no one else understands why he says it, but Will's face softens.

Right as Nico melts into the shadows, he swears he can hear Will whisper, "I'm holding you to that."

New York is exactly the same as it was when Nico last was there. There's a lot of reasons Nico hates it here - the smells, the grueling amount of people, the endless dark corners that did nothing but augment Nico's paranoia. But, regardless, those things could hardly ruin the liberating anonymity of it all. There's nothing like running around a city that wouldn't blink twice if it saw a kid summon some bones in an alleyway.

It takes a few moments to orient himself before he finds Percy's apartment building. Maybe it's a little creepy, but Nico's never forgotten the address. It's burned into his memory - just like the way Percy smells, or the color of his eyes, how his body flinches when he's having nightmares.

It takes Nico a full five minutes to work up his courage to knock on Jackson's door.

"He's in his room," Sally whispers to him when she opens the door for him. It didn't take long for her to suss out why he was here. She smiles at Nico, but it doesn't look completely earnest. There are dark circles under her eyes. "You look well, Nico."

"I am well." Nico agrees. It feels true when he says it - which shouldn't be surprising, but it is. Nico feels perfectly fine, despite the boredom and missing people and angry crushes.

"Good. That's good." Sally says. "Seeing you might cheer Percy up."

"Maybe. Thanks, Mrs. Jackson." Nico says and enters Percy's room.

It looks around the same as it did when Nico visited it a few years ago. It has a distinct smell of sea-water that wafts over the second Nico opens the door. Except for the occasional weapon, it's identical to any other teenage boy's room. Clothes strewn everywhere, a skateboard hung up on the wall, photos of Annabeth. Percy sits on the floor, polishing Riptide with a kit Nico knows Tyson gave him.

"Hey," Nico says.

Percy looks up. There are deep circles imprinted under his eyes, as dark as bruises. He barely looks at Nico for a second before turning back to his blade. "Here to check up on me?"

He sounds so bitter, Nico has to allow himself a few seconds of being taken aback. Then, he asks, "Is it true that you got stuck on Calypso's island?"

He knows the answer to the question already. What's interesting to him is the way that Percy freezes when he hears it. Something indiscernible passes through his eyes. He stares at Nico, but Nico gets the impression he isn't really looking at him.

Then he gets up and reaches for a plant sitting out on the fire escape. It's beautiful, silvery, and glowing slightly in the darkness of the room. Percy hands off the plant to Nico delicately, as if it could shatter into a million pieces. He settles down, cross-legged, and says, "That's where I got this guy from."

Nico sits next to him as he brushes his thumb lightly on one of the leaves. It feels velvety to the touch. "We're pretty sure Leo's there right now."

After a beat, Percy tips his head back and screws his eyes shut. "Oh."

Nico takes advantage of the silence to fill Percy in on everything that he and Jason have learned so far and Kelly's information. With every word, Percy seems to retreat deeper into thought until his hands are covering his crumpled face. "So basically," Nico sums up. "What I want to know is, if him being stuck there is a good thing or a bad thing, and if there's any chance he can actually come to us.?"

"He's alive," Percy says dumbly. His voice is muffled.

"Yeah, yeah, old news," Nico whirls his finger. "What do you think of his chances of survival?"

Percy finally puts his hands down. He stares down at Riptide. "He'll be happy there," Percy says, which isn't an answer at all. "He was always looking for a girlfriend, right? If he's in love, he'll be really, really happy."

"But?"

"But you'll never see him again."

Nico's heart sinks straight to his stomach. Just as he suspected. Still, he presses, "Why not?"

"Well, you're familiar with the myth, right? She's trapped there for eternity, doomed to get her heart broken by every guy who arrives on the island. The only way he'll come back in one piece is to leave her there. Which, knowing Leo...."

"He'll never do it." Nico finishes. He stares hard at the plant. "Kelly - she said that she saw them building a ship together."

"If the gods haven't interfered yet, they probably won't for a while," Percy says. "They like to watch kids try to get out of impossible situations. It's entertaining for them."

Nico looks at him for a beat - the rumpled clothes, his bedhead, the dark circles. "Can I borrow some of that polish?"

Percy shrugs. Nico swipes a rag up and down his blade a few times before saying, "Didn't I tell you to start talking to your girlfriend again?"

Percy swipes the polish back to rub Riptide a little more rough than necessary. "Is it any of your business?"

"You make it my business when you act all broody. Jason's been complaining about that a lot, by the way."

Percy stares at him. "What, you and Jason are best friends now or something?"

Nico stares back. "Is that not allowed?"

Percy holds Nico's stare for a few seconds before his shoulders slump. "I'm not trying to fight with you, Nico."

"I know."

"You just make it hard for me sometimes."

"I know."

"I needed distance the past few weeks. There's a lot going on - up here, I guess -" Percy motions near his head, "-and I was thinking a lot about my life before my memory was swiped, and I was thinking about you and -"

"Don't tell me you're about to confess your undying love," Nico says, deadpan. "Ship has sailed, Jackson. Better luck next time."

Percy doesn't even react. He just shoots Nico a troubled look and continues, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I think, back then, I pushed you too hard. I just wanted you to be okay, so I didn't really listen to you. I didn't try to understand." His hands go limp around his sword. "I think I'm starting to understand now."

"Stop apologizing."

"Jeez, Nico, I'm trying to-"

"I know!" Nico interrupts. "I know. But I'm not that traumatized little boy anymore, okay? I'm good now. It's no use to me whether or not you feel bad about it. It happened, and now I'm over it. So you should get over it, too."

Percy doesn't respond.

Nico continues, more gently this time, "I know what it's like to want to cut yourself off. I didn't trust you back then because I couldn't believe that there was anyone who actually wanted to help me. Don't be stupid like me, Percy. You're not alone. The others might not get you, but they want you to be okay."

"Annabeth gets me," Percy says immediately. Then he blushes like it occurred to him that that wasn't the most tactful thing to say. He tacks on, "You get me."

"That's two more people than I had," Nico said, and he's not bitter even though he sounds it. "Do me a favor and don't waste it."

Percy stares at him for a moment. "You've always been a smart kid, you know that?"

"I'm not a kid."

"No," Percy agrees. "No, you're not."

Percy doesn't smile, but the hard look in his eyes melts away.

They lapse into silence for a few minutes - not comfortable, not awkward. Just silent, save for the sound of rags on metal.

Technically, Nico got all he came for; the information on Leo, the assurance from Percy that he would stop isolating himself. There's no reason for him to stay. Regardless, he continues to polish the already clean surface of his knife. His stomach twists in knots.

Percy leans back on his hands. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"You seem worried about something."

"I'm not."

"Hey," Percy says, sounding a little more like his old self. "I was wondering. If the ship has sailed on me, has it moved onto someone else?"

Nico's cheeks burn. "Oh, gods."

Percy grins, looking triumphant. "I knew it. Your little problem doesn't happen to involve a certain Will Solace, does it?"

"Shut up!" Nico blurts out. "How do you even know about that?"

"Jason updates me."

"Gods, you're the last person I should go to for this."

Percy shrugs. "So go to someone else."

"Maybe I will."

"Come on, man, don't be like that."

"It's just - I just -" Nico waves his hands, unsure of how to phrase it. Finally, he asks, "Isn't this strange for you? To hear me talk about this stuff?"

Percy scratches the back of his neck. "Listen - I know this might not be, like, what you want to hear or whatever, but you've always been a little brother to me, Nico. It's not weird." He gestures with Riptide. "I told you that if you needed anything, I'd be there. Maybe I didn't think we'd be actually talking about your love life- "

"Percy."

"But, the point still stands. I meant what I said. So, come on. Out with it."

"I like Will." Nico says. It's the first time he's ever said it out loud. He stares down at his blade. "I'm pretty sure he likes me too."

Percy doesn't even look up from where he's scrubbing at a particularly stubborn spot of grime. "Great. Good for you. What's the problem, then?"

Nico glowers at him but continues, "He thinks he likes me. But he - it's not - I'm a lot of work, you know?"

Percy's hands freeze. He slowly looks up. "Who told you that?"

"Everyone." Nico says, and when Percy looks furious, immediately backtracks, "Well, no one, but I know that I am."

"Did Will say something like that?"

Nico waves his hand dismissively. "No, but I know he'll change his mind. We've been good for a bit, but he's already pissed at me again. It only makes sense that eventually I'll do something stupid and lash out or have a breakdown or something, and he'll realize he didn't understand what he was signing up for."

Percy frowns. "If he couldn't handle you, he wouldn't even be friends with you. "

Exasperated, Nico throws his knife to the ground. "You don't get it, Percy. Even if he can handle it, that's not the point!"

"So, what's your point?"

"I make everything hard when it should be easy." Nico blurts out. He picks at the zipper of his jacket. "I just want things to be easy for him."

"Who says things are supposed to be easy?"

It was rich, really, coming from him. Nico was starting to remember why he hated coming to Percy Jackson for advice. He had this stupid way of treating every insurmountable obstacle like it was a piece of cake. He could look at Mount Everest, shrug, and say, I'll figure it out. And then he would, because he was Percy Jackson, and everything always seemed to work out for that guy. That type of confidence was one of the reasons Nico started liking Percy in the first place. After a lifetime of being battered by ten-foot waves, it was like he crashed against a sturdy rock. Unmoving, unchanging. Safe.

But completely unrealistic. Even after Bianca died, Percy tackled every problem like there was no possibility of something bad happening. The older Nico got, the harder it was to understand. "You and Annabeth-"

"It took Annabeth and me five years to get together. It took quests and near-death experiences and a lot of fighting. You and Will have had, what - two months?" He shakes his head. "Maybe it'd be easier if you gave yourself a little more time."

"Maybe," Nico says, and it sounds like a threat even though it's a concession. "But he won't wait around forever just so I have time to figure my shit out."

Percy shrugs. "Only one way to find out."

"How can you be so sure that everything will be okay?" Nico finally asks.

Percy blinks. "What other choice do I have?"

And as stupid of an answer as that was, it was starting to make sense. Of course, Percy told himself he'd be able to figure it out - in most situations, that was your only choice. Isn't that what Nico had told Will months ago? You save the world, or you die. Any demigod would do it if they were forced to.

Whatever Percy's attitude towards life was, it didn't come from easy arrogance - it was a survival tactic. And if there's one thing that Nico has experience in, it's survival. Maybe that's why he came to Percy in the first place.

Nico had been dancing around this particular bit of information for months now, but he couldn't deny it any longer. Percy had been to Tartarus. And as much as Nico tried to ignore it, it showed. Percy was already moody, but his temper had gotten worse. He had heard from Jason that he still suffered through horrible nightmares on a regular basis. Back when Percy was at camp, everyone regarded him with an equal amount of respect and fear. Come to think of it, Nico didn't really see Percy interact with many people outside of the seven demigods of the prophecy at all.

What was it that Percy had just told him?

I think I'm starting to understand now.

Whatever Nico was going through, he knew that Percy is the only person in the world who could say, Think that's bad? Wait until you hear this!

That's probably why Nico even came to him in the first place, even if he didn't realize it. Percy was the only person who could show him a truth that'd been waiting patiently inside him all along.

Nico just wanted to let himself want something.

It's not confidence, he tries to think, it's survival.

And it shouldn't have been that easy - but maybe it could be.

Maybe it's the fact that death has been creeping up on him since he was twelve - or because there's always been something bigger to worry about, like Percy or prophecies or the end of the world - but Nico's never really thought about what he wanted out of life. For as long as he could remember, he thought he wouldn't make it past the age of fourteen. Now he's here, sixteen, with apparently an indefinite amount of years to go.

For the first time in his life, Nico has a tangible future.

What did he want to do with it?

Help Leo come back. Spend time with Hazel, like he used to do before the prophecy mess went down. Be a good brother. Be a good friend, even if it kills him. Read something new, something interesting, something not in Latin. Build a monument to ugly truths so that they can't be ignored or suppressed or brushed aside any longer.

Reorganize his Mythomagic figurines for the first time since he was twelve.

Do it with Will at his side.

All these things that felt so far away six months ago were right there - in reaching distance. If Nico didn't grab on soon, they might just slip away.

There's a truth sitting at Nico's tongue, ripe and raw and ready to be split open. Nico looks up at Percy. "I want him."

Percy grins. "So go get him."

* * *

"Got something for you," Nico whispers.

Will jumps nearly five feet in the air. In the office of the infirmary, he glares up at Nico. "I hate it when you do that," he complains.

"I'm about to do it again," Nico says. Will opens his mouth to protest, but it's too late. Nico has a tight grip on his arm, and they're melting into the shadows.

They reappear at a random part of the forest, near Zeus' fist. Will leans over but thankfully doesn't vomit. Nico tosses a warped pine cone at his face. It bounces right off his forehead. "You're welcome."

"Has anyone ever told you you're a massive jerk?"

"Surely, I'm not that bad. I'm back now, aren't I?"

Will doesn't miss the significance of that phrase if his surprised look is anything to go by. Once Will has a good sense of his bearings again, he picks up the pinecone with an appropriate amount of fascination. Nico had almost forgotten about their non-fight, but now he could see it clear as day. It was living in the way that Will refused to look him straight-on, how he ran his cautious hands over crooked ridges. "How was Percy?"

"He'll be okay," Nico says. His heart beats a million times per minute in his chest. "He wasn't much help about the Calypso thing, though. According to him, there's no way off the island or coming back to it once you leave. It's probably why Leo isn't back yet. He's messing with some seriously powerful magic."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, there's not much we can do but wait it out." Nico shrugs. "Unless we enlist the help of the gods or something."

"Well, we already got Hecate to help," Will says. "Plus, Leo's smart. He's always got some sort of crazy plan."

"And they always worked out exactly as they should've."

Will looks up at Nico. His lips curve in a half-smile. Relief thunders through Nico's body. So he's not that mad, Nico thinks. I can work with this.

"So this is good news, right? Yay, Leo! He's alive! We should be screaming our heads off all around camp right now."

Nico shrugs. "I guess."

"What, aren't you at least happy you solved the mystery?" His eyes roam Nico's face. When Nico doesn't immediately respond, Will asks, "What else did you and Percy talk about?"

As much as Will's an idiot, he's also too smart for his own good.

"Not much. Just like Leo and Jason and that whole situation." Before he can freak himself out, Nico adds, "And you, too."

"Why'd you guys talk about me?"

"Jason told him about us. How we've been hanging out, I mean."

"Oh? And Percy had something to say about it?"

Nico's mind reels, wondering how he could possibly sum up their conversation in a way that would make sense. Will's prying eyes were not helping his nerves in the slightest. "Not really. I mean, um, Will, there's something I really need to talk to you about-"

"What's that?" Will asks suddenly. He points to the bulge in Nico's pocket. After a brief moment of hesitation, Nico reaches into his pocket and pulls out the acorn.

Will stares at it.

Nico's cheeks burn. He might as well have put his beating heart on his palm, stuck it out for Will to see.

"I gave that to you days ago," Will says. His voice is quivering. "And you kept it."

"Yeah," Nico admits.

"But this - I don't - it doesn't make any sense."

"Will, I need to tell you-"

"You don't have to. I know what you're going to say."

No way.

No way, no way, no way.

Any words dry up in Nico's throat. He scans Will's face, looking for an indication of disgust or disappointment or anger. But for the first time, Will's expression is unfathomable. All that Nico has to go by is how badly Will's voice is shaking. "You told me to figure it out, right? I did. But it still doesn't make any sense."

Finally, after what feels like forever, Nico manages to choke out, "It doesn't?"

Will finally tears his eyes away from the acorn. "You're leaving. If what - if you - if I'm guessing right, then why would you leave?"

"Will-"

"Don't. I saw the look on your face when Kelly woke up today. You're good at this stuff, Nico; solving problems, getting information, fixing things. You're strong and brave and really fucking smart, and probably destined to save a million lives out there. I've made peace with it, okay? You're free to go. Happy?"

Quietly, Nico says, "I don't want to go like this."

"See? This is why I don't get you!" Will's voice is getting louder, his hands clinging onto the pinecone like he'll die if he lets it go. "You want to go. You tell me that, all the time! And I'm not fighting you on it anymore! I'm trying to make it easy on you, so why are you making it hard?"

It hurts to hear that. Nico feels it right in his chest, like a glass shard straight through his heart. And if he was who he was when he first met Will, he might take it as a rejection or a personal insult. At the very least, it would have been a clear sign that he should drop it and to move on.

But this is Will - a self-proclaimed coward, which meant that he was terrified of getting hurt and even more terrified of hurting other people. Nico knows now. You're making this hard didn't mean drop it. It means, I want to believe you, it means I'm scared, it means, I'm not strong enough to say no, so you have to say it for me.

Nico's heart is pounding in his chest, and his stomach feels like it's shrinking, and suddenly he's sure that he's the one that has to say what neither of them has been brave enough to say out loud. So he says, "I'll make it easy for you, then."

"What-"

"Will, do you want me to be your boyfriend?"

Will freezes, looking stunned. For a second, Nico is terrified, but then Will's cheeks start to glow a shade of pink that Nico is becoming accustomed to, and Nico's heart sings I was right, I was right, I was right. Will blushes, and he says, "I mean, yeah."

"Then I'm your boyfriend." Nico replies, and gods, he hates how the word boyfriend scrapes off his tongue, but it's out there, in the open, in front of the one person he never thought he'd say in front of. Nico doesn't even realize that he's smiling when he says, "Fuck everything else. See? Easy."

"But - you -"

"You idiot. You absolute dumbass, do you listen when I talk to you?"

Will stares at him with his mouth gaping open. He looks so offended, Nico could laugh. If it was any other day, any other conversation, he probably would have.

"Excuse me?"

"I've been trying to tell you. Just because I'm leaving doesn't mean I can't come back." Nico insists. He musters up the courage to reach out. His hands glide over Will's clenched fist and the strange little memento that lives there. "When I go, it won't be forever. The way I see it, sometimes I'll be away, but sometimes I'll be here, too, and the main thing is - what I'm trying to say is - I'll always come back for you. To see you."

Will is silent. His big blue eyes are glued to Nico's face. He looks like he's waiting for a ball to drop, for glass to shatter. For Nico to say something wrong.

As gently as he can muster, Nico says, "I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't want to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round. I probably never will. And that'll be hard. But if you're okay with that - and, you know, dealing with me and everything - I want to at least try."

"Are you being serious?"

"I've had a crush on you for, like, forever now," Nico says. "I'm dead serious."

Will stares at him. Then he shoves Nico hard. "You asshole. This whole time you've - we could've - did you want to torture me or something?"

"It's not my fault!" Nico protests and Will shoves him again but they're standing a step closer than they were before.

"You're my boyfriend," Will breathes, like he can barely believe it.

"Am I?" Nico asks, just to be sure.

"Dude, you're the one who asked me!"

Nico wrinkles his nose. "Don't call me dude."

"What, would you prefer I call you baby?" Will leans in with a wide smile and mischievous edge that Nico hasn't seen in days. "Honeybunches? Darling?"

"Don't-"

"What about Death-Breath, then? Haven't called you that in a while. It's a really romantic nickname, don't you think?"

"You're so annoying," Nico says, because he is. And then, "Are you gonna kiss me or what?"

Somehow Nico still feels shell-shocked when Will does.

He waits for the hard weight of dread to hit him in his chest, for a little voice to start whispering doubts in his ear, for pain, or numbness, or anything in between.

He doesn't.

Will kisses him, and it's easy.