Chapter Text
Nico woke up feeling incredibly warm, but it was a welcome warmth and he snuggled closer to the heat source before realizing that something felt incredibly wrong.
The Hades Cabin was notoriously cold with a temperature rivaling that of the Arctic Sea and unless he suddenly obtained a heated blanket made out of hard muscle and flesh that suspiciously smelled like the camp infirmary, he shouldn’t be this warm.
There was a tiny pit of dread in his stomach that made him want to keep his eyes closed forever, but he knew he would immensely regret it later. So he peeped his right eye open which proved to be a huge mistake because he was met with Will Solace's ostentatiously and stupidly beautiful face.
Perhaps, Nico should’ve first questioned how exactly he got here, but instead his first question was how stupid Solace could look so stupidly good at the ass crack of dawn. Which quickly led to the question of why it affected Nico so much, and in all honesty it was a question that Nico had been putting off answering for a long time. Why did Will Solace affect him so much? And that was a question too complex for his muggy brain to comprehend. He had more pressing issues to tend to, most importantly of which being how the hell does he get out of here?
Nico sighed as he looked around, trying not to squirm as he twisted around in Will’s death bear grip. He needed a plan.
Okay, he was in the Apollo Cabin, okay, everyone else was still asleep, okay that's good. He took a deep breath, he could still leave without anyone noticing.
Okay, he was in Will Solace’s bed, which was a nice kind of okay, but also not so good cause he was trapped in said Solace’s arms and lacked significant strength to skillfully release himself from.
He turned around again, so that he was facing Will before his eyes darted downwards and... oh. Oh. Oh my god he’s shirtless. Okay, that's really not good.
Nico’s eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his skull and he quickly looked away. Oh my god, he was such a fucking creep. He was ogling at a half-naked sleeping person, hades, this was so wrong on so many levels. He groaned why is it always him who gets stuck in the most awkward situations?
He sighed, reaching up to run a hand through this hair, considering his options. Okay, so he could a) try to escape from Will’s death grip and risk waking him and possibly the whole Apollo Cabin up, in which case he would absolutely die of mortification b) simply wake the giant oaf up and politely ask him to let Nico go, and if he wasn’t completely horrified by Nico and if Nico wasn’t dead from the previous possibility of mortification maybe, they could uh...still be friends..?
He gritted his teeth, really there was only one option which didn’t involve dying of some kind and it was definitely still a risky one. He winced, Will would absolutely kill him if he found out, but he had no options. He had to shadow travel out.
Now maybe the Fates weren’t completely cruel, because the window by Will’s cot was thankfully shielded by blue curtains and the small wooden nightstand to Nico’s right cast just enough shadow for Nico to shadow travel. He sighed, Will wasn’t going to be happy with him.
___________
When he was back in his all too familiar and Will-Solace-less bed in the Hades Cabin he felt confused. Not just because of his tangled mess of emotions he felt for the stupidly attractive Apollo boy, but rather because of a much larger matter: how does one simply end up in someone else's bed. The same way every time something strange and possibly embarrassing happened at camp. The Stolls.
He groaned trying to think why they’d be pissed off at him, but he kept drawing blanks. After hearing their great misadventures from many other campers, Nico had done his best to avoid them. Still, maybe they were just out to annoy anyone and he happened to be an unlucky bastard which could very well be a possibility considering his aforementioned unlucky tendencies.
He snuggled into his dark sheets, he was going to deal with them... right after a short nap.
___________
When Nico woke up again he was not met with Will Solace (unfortunately, cough) instead he was met with Percy Jackson, which may have not been as quite disappointing for 11-year old Nico. But, Nico was a teenager now and he was moody, constantly hungry and in desperate lack of sleep. Besides, the whole Percy ship sailed long ago.
He groaned, “What do you want?”
“It’s midday dude, get up.”
Nico made a noncommittal noise and rolled into a blanket burrito.
“Come on, we have sword training now. You’ve already slept through breakfast,” he said poking Nico’s rib.
Nico rolled further away.
He sighed, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t want to have to do this.” He took a deep breath, “don’t make me call Will.”
Nico sighed, sitting up his blanket still wrapped around himself. “I’m not scared of Will,” he retorted.
“Sure..” Percy said hand on his hip.
“I’m not!”
“Alright whatever you say, Nicoo. Meet me in the arena in five,” he said, the door to the Hades Cabin shutting close as he left.
Nico groaned as he peeled himself off his bed, suddenly seeing stars as he stood up. He clutched his bed frame and forced himself upright, blinking rapidly. He didn’t think that the shadow travel effects would be catching up with him so quickly.
He took a sip of water and sat back down, he could just be dehydrated he reasoned with himself. Still, it would be best to avoid Solace today. He was too skilled of a healer to not figure out if something was up. And, something was definitely up.
You woke up in his bed, while he was half-naked, his brain helpfully reminded him. Nico felt his cheeks burn and shook his head, he definitely couldn’t see Will today.
Besides, he had sword training and Stoll-ass-kicking scheduled for the day.
___________
“Tell me what you did,” Nico growled, raising a skeleton behind him.
“Du-dude, I swear we didn’t do-do anything!” Travis said, gulping nervously.
“Besides, we don’t even know what you're talking about!” Connor said.
Nico paused for a moment, they did seem innocent and rightfully afraid. He sighed, dismissing the skeleton. “If I find out that you’re lying, you’re dead. And I mean it,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
And in a mess of yeses and of courses they stumbled away. Nico gritted his teeth and considered his options. No one else in camp was acting suspiciously and really the Stolls were the only ones who could pull off such an elaborate prank smoothly, but they seemed genuinely confused and terrified.
He took a deep breath as he sunk into the ground. Summoning skeletons usually didn’t take a lot out of him, but after the shadow travel this morning, his body felt weak. It wasn’t much of a distance between Cabin 13 and 7, but he felt exhausted.
He paused, what if… he traveled the same distance twice? That would make his exhaustion more sensicial.
He didn’t want to believe it, but it seemed like the most viable possibility. He was sleep shadow traveling.