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Will stood on the dock, staring out at the water, Nico stood next to him, keeping his distance. Will leaned over the railing, looking down at the waves.
“You wanna hear a joke?” Will asked, cocking his head to one side, glancing at Nico out of the corner of his eye.
“Depends if it’s good,” Nico pressed his lips together in a thin line. Will smiled which made Nico’s heart do a flip.
“It’s good, it’s good, have I ever told you a bad joke?” Will asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Yeah, every single one you’ve told.”
Will gasped incredulously and smacked Nico in the shoulder. Nico scoffed.
“Okay, so, what do you call a dinosaur with a really good vocabulary?” Will asked, inclining his head in an invitation for Nico to respond.
“I don’t know,” Nico raised one eyebrow, “What do you call a dinosaur with a good vocabulary?”
Will grinned, giggling softly, “A thesaurus.”
Nico cocked his head to one side, “I don’t get it.”
Will seemed a bit taken aback by that, but he didn’t let his grin falter for long, “like a thesaurus is a type of dictionary I think, it has a ton of words. And saurus is a lot of the time used in dinosaur names.”
“Oh,” Nico didn’t laugh but he nodded in appreciation, his lips quirking up in a small smile, “that’s cute. I like it.”
That seemed more than enough for Will, he grinned wider, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.
“Do you want another joke?”
“No.”
Will huffed, leaning on the railing of the dock. There was a beat of silence.
“Knock knock.”
“I’m not answering that.”
“C’mon Nico! One more!”
Nico heaved a sigh, relenting to Will’s joke.
Nico dragged Will by the arm, ducking under branches and trying not to trip over exposed tree roots. His heart racing, the sound of blood pumping in his ears.
The sound of the manticore shouting and growling had long faded into the background, they had lost it.
“Nico,” Will’s voice was hoarse and ragged, he panted for breath, “Nico, stop.”
Nico halted in his tracks, sweat pouring down his face. He looked over at Will to see what he needed.
His breath caught in his throat.
One of the manticore’s poison spines had lodged itself in Will’s side. Blood was leaking out of the wound at a slow pace, the spine itself holding it together. But he could practically see the poison spreading its way from the puncture wound.
Will’s face was pale and his eyes were slightly unfocused, his mouth set in a grimace of pain. Sweat was running down his forehead, leaves and branches tangled in his hair.
“We have to…” Will steadied himself on a tree, his fingers pressing the edge of the wound, traces of gold being left behind as he attempted to heal some of it, “I think… we should get back to camp.”
“Oh gods,” Nico whispered, “why didn’t you say anything.”
“I don’t… couldn’t find time…” Will sucked in a sharp breath, “no time…”
“Can you… can you do anything right now?” Nico hoped that his voice wasn’t as jittery as he felt. His hands were shaking. He hadn’t seen campers with these kinds of injuries come out alive unless they directly went to the infirmary. There was no infirmary here, camp was still maybe fifteen, twenty minutes away.
They had to do something. Anything.
“Poison is… uh…” Will licked his lips, swallowing thickly, he blinked slowly and furrowed his eyebrows, “bandages?”
“Right,” Nico pulled the backpack off his shoulders, quickly rifling through it for the roll of bandages that Will had
packed earlier in the day.
Will pressed his back to the tree, groaning painfully as he carefully lowered himself to the ground. Nico crouched in front of him, not knowing what he should do.
Will’s hands were slick with blood, “you need to wrap it…” he said slowly. Nico nodded.
With a sharp inhale and a grunt, Will fumbled with the spine before eventually managing to pull it out of his side, it made a slick squelch as he did.
Will coughed and let out shaky breaths, holding his shirt up so Nico could bandage it. Applying what pressure he could, his chest tightening when Will cried out in pain. Blood was already soaking the bandages. Nico knew that he would need stitches.
He would be fine. Nico told himself. Even though he knew that Will was a doctor, Nico didn’t know very much about healing apart from the basics, and so Will would probably keep the information from Nico. He wouldn’t let on how badly it was.
Poison is always hard to detect.
“We need… back to camp…” Will said, pressing his hands to his side. '
“We should be close to the borders,” Nico glanced over his shoulders, recognizing the patterns of the trees and where they were, “can you stand?”
There was blood in his mouth, Will closed his eyes for a few seconds longer than Nico would’ve hoped. Finally, Will nodded. Nico could feel his fluttering, rapid heartbeat when he grabbed his wrist, helping Will to his feet.
Will leaned on Nico’s shoulder, his blood soaking into Nico’s shirt. His knees were shaking and he could barely hold himself up.
Nico held on tightly, they were so close.
“Sometimes I think what it would be like if I had a normal life, and wasn’t a demigod,” Will said, sitting down on the dock and sticking his legs between the railings to hang over the water. The sun was starting to dip behind the horizon as night neared. Will yawned.
“It would be a lot easier,” Nico said, remaining where he was.
“But I also think it would be boring,” Will shrugged listlessly, “I like being a demigod… I don’t like all the problems that come with it but… y'know it’s my life. I’m happy with it I guess.”
“This conversation turned awfully serious after you just told me three jokes in a row about dinosaurs,” Nico sat down next to Will, crossing his legs in front of himself.
Will held onto the railings of the dock like he was a prisoner behind bars, “I’m happy with where I am right now. The journey here was…” Will waved his hand vaguely, Nico understood what he meant, “it hurt… a lot… but I’m here now. And you’re here with me.”
“I think it’s a satisfying moment, but you have to enjoy it while it lasts since it doesn’t usually last long in our world,” Nico pressed his lips into a thin line, watching as the dipping sunlight traced across Will’s features. The way his freckles seemed to somehow sparkle in the fading light. His hair had some sort of ethereal glow to it, like a halo. Will chuckled and ran his hand over his thigh.
“Yeah… I guess so,” he stared out at the open water, his blue eyes stormy with thought. He sometimes got like this, often at sundown, Nico had noticed, “Apollo is the god of prophecy, so maybe it would be uncomfortable for me to not know what’s going to happen. And I can’t say that I’m not like that because… you know how I like my routines…”
Nico nodded.
“But I’m fine not knowing right now,” Will said, “I don’t care what’s going to happen tomorrow, or the next day. Hell, even tonight when the sun is down and we’re sleeping.”
Will glanced over at Nico and he could see the sparkle in his eyes, the calm in his expression. He sighed softly.
“I’m here right now with you, and I think that’s what’s important,”
“And I thought you weren’t a poet,” Nico muttered, as a lack of better words.
Will chuckled, “I never said I wasn’t.”
Will stumbled, his breathing getting more labored. His head nodded forward, and his grip tightened around Nico.
“We’re so close, Will,” Nico said, “come on.”
“Nico…” Will whispered, “Nico I can’t… I don’t think…” he groaned with pain, blood dripping down his side. The bandages had barely done anything to stop the flow of blood. Will made a noise in the back of his throat, expressing his pain.
His skin was so pale now he could’ve blended in with a snowstorm. Violent shivers ran down his spine. His knee gave out and he almost fell.
“You can make it, Will,” Nico said firmly, tightening his hold.
Will shook his head lazily, “poison…”
Nico knew what that meant, Will didn’t need to elaborate. They both knew the effects that poison had on people.
Nico’s throat clenched painfully with barely suppressed tears. They had to make it. Will had to make it.
He was what Nico had left. The one person that Nico had ever let himself love in this way. He couldn’t let anything happen to Will.
“You have to hold on for a bit more. We’re almost there. It’ll be okay.”
Will was holding on so tightly it was almost painful, “no, no, no, no.” He coughed, tears rolling down his cheeks.
“It’s just a bit farther.”
Will was trembling horribly. His clothes were soaked in blood and Nico felt a stab of fear when Will wouldn’t say anything back.
“Can’t…” Will gasped, he sniffled. Nico could feel how fast his heartbeat was. He could hear the panic evident in his voice.
Will had always said he was scared of dying. He didn’t voice that concern at the moment, but the knowledge of that hung in the air like a wet blanket.
Will couldn’t move, Nico was physically exhausted. He feared that if he tried to shadow travel he would kill both of them. They would be stuck in the shadows, that would’ve been a fate worse than death.
“You’re okay, you’re going to be okay.”
It was a lie, both of them knew it was a lie. Will dropped to his knees, gripping Nico’s arm, but his hold was getting weaker.
“I can’t… I can’t… I can’t…” Will repeated over and over until he broke down coughing again.
“Will, please,” Nico cupped Will’s face in his hand, “Hey, stay with me.”
“I’m sorry…” Will was sobbing now. His breathing was shallow and quick.
“It’s okay,” Nico clenched his jaw, trying not to cry, “you’re okay.”
Will’s face was contorted with pain. There was blood pooling around where he was sitting, soaking into Nico’s jeans. Will’s eyes were cloudy, tears running down his face. Manticore poison.
Nico should’ve done something sooner, so this never would’ve happened.
Will was silent, the only sound was his shallow breathing.
“It hurts…” Will breathed out, his entire body shaking with uncontrollably convulses.
“I’m sorry sunshine,” Nico bit his lips, finally letting his tears roll down his face, “I’m so sorry.”
Will coughed, spitting blood onto the ground. He pawed weakly at the essentially useless bandages.
“I love you…” Will whispered, his voice was hoarse. He ran his fingers over Nico’s cheek.
“I love you so much,” Nico said. The words that neither of them had used with the other just slipping off his tongue. It was the wrong moment. All of this was the wrong moment.
This couldn’t be real.
“Tell Kayla I’m sorry,” Will begged, “I’m sorry for… for pushing responsibilities on her… it’s… supposed to be my job…”
“I’ll tell her.”
“I’m so scared…” Will’s grip on Nico’s hand loosened.
“It’ll be okay. I promise that it’s not scary.”
Will inclined his head, nodding weakly. Nico could feel his heartbeat. He could feel his soul flickering in and out.
The presence of death was heavy and wilting.
Blood pooled farther. Poison already taking hold.
Will’s grip went slack.
“I think that tomorrow I should beg Kayla to cover my shifts and we can have a picnic,” Will thought out loud. Cocking his head to one side, waiting for Nico’s response.
“Where would we have one?” Nico asked, arching an eyebrow.
“The woods, I know there’s a really good spot, but it’s kinda far away,” Will folded his hands in his lap, “but I think it’s just outside the camp border.”
“If you want to. It sounds lovely.”
Nico didn’t think too hard about the “outside the border” part. There hadn’t been very many monsters sighted outside the border in months. So far it had been a clean streak.
Just a couple of hours with his boyfriend.
Sounds romantic.