Work Text:
[From: william andrew solace: this is the saddest day of my life :( ]
Nico clicked on the attached image, nearly bumping into somebody on the sidewalk when he paid more attention to his phone than where he was walking. The picture was mostly of a hardwood floor, though it was covered in a sprinkle of dark spots that, when he zoomed in on the image, Nico saw were plastic beads. The shade of blue on most of them matched the memory he had of Will’s eyes.
Honestly, he was surprised the friendship bracelet had held up for as long as it did, considering how tightly it fit around Will’s wrist and the fact that he never seemed to take it off. The elastic had probably been on its last leg for at least a month before it finally snapped. And sure, the sight hurt Nico, too - like one more acupuncture needle that had been added to his heart just like the ones he got every time one of their phone calls came to an end - but still…
Nico typed out his reply as he shoved his way into the nearest train car, heading home after a long day of classes.
[To: william andrew solace: really, today?? not either time we had to say goodbye to each other face to face, not knowing when we’d ever see each other again???]
Will’s response was instantaneous.
[From: william andrew solace: yeah today :( ]
Nico rolled his eyes, smiling fondly down at his phone. He didn’t have anything else to do today, and he was technically ahead of schedule on all of his finals, so maybe on his way home, he could find some craft store - a dollar store, even - and pick up a bag of cheap beads and some string.
This time, he was going to make sure that bracelet fit.
They made plans to see each other for the first time in months. Nico was going to be in Los Angeles for Christmas to visit his family, and had scheduled a later return flight than usual to give him a few days to visit Will across the city. Will had spent the holiday in Texas with his mom, though a couple of days after Christmas, Will flew back to California.
Nico didn’t have his car with him in California, having left it in New York when he flew home for the holidays, so he had to rely on Hazel to drive him across the city just to drop him off near UCLA’s campus. He had to endure an hour’s worth of teasing from Hazel, but he knew it would be worth it to finally see Will again, face to face.
He was prepared for Hazel to drop him off outside Will’s apartment complex, but she pulled over and put the car in park. “What are you doing?” Nico asked.
“Can’t I say hi to your boyfriend?” Hazel replied. “I’ll be quick, I promise. Trust me, I don’t want to interrupt your reunion.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “As long as you promise not to threaten him like you did last time.”
She gasped overdramatically. “I would never!” Before Nico could remind her that she already did once, Hazel was climbing out of the car. Nico followed after her, taking his suitcase from the trunk and lugging it up the few steps to the door. “Which one is he in?” Hazel asked, bending at the waist to read the tiny printed names beside the buzzer.
“I dunno,” Nico replied, slipping his phone out of his pocket. “I texted him a few minutes ago, so he should--”
The door swung open beside them, and Nico’s heart skipped a beat.
Will seemed to glow even brighter in dim December, or maybe that was just the way he lit up when his eyes landed on Nico. He was wearing a flannel shirt unbuttoned over a t-shirt, just like he always had at camp, though for the first time he had his sleeves rolled down to hide his forearms.
“Hi,” Will said, his voice almost a whisper as he stepped outside.
“Hi, Will!” Hazel exclaimed before pulling him into a hug.
Will was frozen at first, clearly surprised to see another person there besides Nico, though it was only a second or two until his arms closed around Hazel as he hugged her back. “Hey, Hazel, it’s good to see you again.”
He still had his eyes on Nico, almost as though he was afraid that looking away would cause Nico to disappear.
When he pulled away, he reached for the door. “Did you want to come inside?”
Hazel waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, no, I just wanted to say hi. I’ve got a long drive back, but it was so nice to see you!”
“Oh, uh, yeah, you too,” Will replied, his eyes flickering back and forth between the two siblings.
Hazel turned to Nico, drawing him in for a hug. “Bye, Neeks, love you.”
“Love you, too,” Nico told her, and kissed her cheek. “I’ll text you when I’m back at school.”
“You’ll call me,” she corrected, shoving at his shoulder as she stepped back. “Bye, Will! Take care of him for me!”
“I will,” he called after her, waving as she walked back to her car. As soon as he heard her door shut, Will’s eyes fell back to Nico. He was standing with his weight shifted forward on his toes, his arms crossed over his chest and his head tilted up and slightly to the side. “Hi,” Will said to him again.
“Hi,” Nico replied, seeming to sway forward gently.
Will grinned. “You’re doing that thing again.”
Nico’s head tipped further to the side. “What thing?”
“That thing you do when you want me to kiss you.”
Nico didn’t realize that was something that he did. God, how many times had he done that over the summer before he and Will had gotten together? Rather than letting himself dwell on it, he took a step closer into Will’s space and said, “Then what are you waiting for?”
“Well, I figured we could head inside instead of jumping each other on the front step.” Will held out his hand. “Wanna come in?”
Nico took his hand with one of his own, and with the other he grabbed the handle of his suitcase as Will pulled him inside. As Will led him down the hall and up a couple flights of stairs, he explained, “I have a couple of roommates, but they all went home for the holidays, so we’ll have the place to ourselves. I have to warn you, though, it’s pretty small.”
“Small like your room in the infirmary?” Nico asked.
Will smiled at the memory. “Well, my room is. But the kitchen and living room aren’t much better.”
“I don’t care if it’s tiny,” Nico told him, squeezing Will’s hand as they stopped outside Will’s door. “I just care that there’s you.”
Will grinned. “Wow, I didn’t realize you were so sappy out in the real world.”
“Shut up.” Nico nudged him with his elbow. “I just...missed you. So are you gonna let me in so I can kiss you, or not?”
Will pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, and Nico spotted a familiar lanyard attached to the ring as Will pushed open the door. “Make yourself at home.” He took Nico’s suitcase from him and Nico followed him through another door, into what must have been Will’s bedroom. As Will wheeled the suitcase off to one side, Nico got a quick look around the room. The bed was bigger than a twin - thank god - but not much else fit in the room except for an overcrowded desk. From across the room, Nico saw open textbooks and stacks of paper, and something that looked suspiciously like--
“Is that a bong?” Nico asked, nodding toward Will’s desk.
Will followed his gaze and visibly tensed. “Uh, sorry, I haven’t had much time to clean lately.” He darted toward the desk, frantically gathering papers, closing and stacking textbooks. Nico noticed him picking up the bong, then looking around as if searching for a place to put it before he tucked it away on the back corner of the desk.
“That’s yours?” Nico exclaimed.
Will glanced at him over his shoulder, then turned toward him completely. “Uh, yes?”
“You smoke?”
Will chuckled at Nico’s surprise as he crossed the room to stop directly in front of Nico, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I mean, I prefer edibles, but I take what I can get.”
“You-- Wh--” Nico waved his arms around, narrowly missing smacking Will in the chest. “Who are you?”
“Will Solace,” he answered smugly, folding his arms over his chest and leaning closer, “your boyfriend of four months.”
“First you were drinking, then I apparently convinced you to steal, and now you’re smoking?” Nico asked, disbelieving. “What did summer camp do to you?”
Will snorted humorously. “Please, I was drinking and smoking before coming to camp.”
Nico crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow up at him. “Are you telling me you’ve been a stoner all along?” He gasped. “Were you getting high at camp?”
“Only twice.”
“Twice?”
“What happened to you wanting to kiss me?” Will asked, tilting his head and doing his best to mirror Nico’s kiss-me stance.
“That was before I found out you were a stoner!”
“Well, stoner seems like such a strong word,” Will continued, “and does that mean you don’t want to-- Mmph!”
Nico yanked him down with his flannel shirt and pressed their lips together. Will sighed, relaxing entirely into the kiss, his arms melting down to wrap around Nico - one arm around his waist, the other around his shoulders. When Nico broke the kiss a moment later, he tucked his face against Will’s neck and grabbed Will around the waist, holding him tightly in his arms.
“I missed you so much,” Nico whispered.
Will pressed his lips to the side of Nico’s head. “I missed you, too.”
They stood there in the middle of Will’s bedroom, holding each other in silence until Will said, “Do you wanna get high?”
They didn’t remember to exchange Christmas presents until the next morning, having been too preoccupied with catching up, making out, and getting high.
After lingering in bed for longer than necessary but before making their way out of the room for breakfast, Nico and Will sat across from each other on the mattress and traded gifts.
Will opened his first - a small, flat box with a lid tied on by a red ribbon. Inside was a familiar looking beaded bracelet of blues and blacks, with four white beads in the middle spelling out NICO. It was almost an exact replica of the first friendship bracelet Nico had made for Will, only with an extra inch or so of elastic holding it all together.
Will beamed at the sight, slipping it onto his wrist immediately before he darted forward. He took Nico’s face in his hands as he kissed him, once, soft and sweet, then whispered against his lips, “I love it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Nico told him, pressing forward to steal one more kiss before Will pulled away. “My turn?”
“Your turn,” Will agreed.
Nico tore away the wrapping paper and lifted the lid of the garment box. Inside was a knitted sweater, extra soft, extra large, and extra... orange. “It’s so... soft,” he settled on, bringing it up to rub against his cheek to get the full effect of the softness. He tucked his nose into the fabric when he caught a familiar scent - nothing like a sweater fresh off the rack ought to smell like - and his eyes flickered up to Will’s. “It smells like...you.”
Will nodded, ducking his head and rubbing awkwardly at the back of his neck. “Yeah, um. That would be because I, uh, wore it a few times. To make it smell like me.” He cleared his throat, visibly embarrassed, if the red rising on his cheeks was anything to go by. “You know, so that when you go back to New York, you have, like...a little piece of me to go with you. Because, um, smell is a big part of memory, so whenever you wear it or smell it or whatever, it’ll be like… Like I’m right there with you, right?” He paused, unable to meet Nico’s eyes, and buried his face in his hands with a groan. “Please say something so I know I didn’t just freak you out.”
Nico’s hands reached out for Will’s, and at the slightest touch, they fell away. “You’re adorable,” Nico told him, squeezing Will’s hands. “But did you have to pick the worst shade of orange?”
Will spluttered. “It’s camp orange! It’s the perfect orange! I’ve literally only ever seen you wear black and camp orange, and you don’t need any more black. Besides, it’s not like I ever expected you to wear it outside of your dorm.”
Nico grinned as Will’s cheeks flushed once more. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s-- It’s a big sweater!” Will exclaimed, arms flailing, as if that was a reasonable answer. “It’s for, like, lounging. Like, like-- It’s like the slippers of sweaters!”
Nico fell backwards with the force of his laughter.
Will had tried to get all of his pre-semester studying done before Nico arrived, knowing that he wouldn’t want to sacrifice any of his time with Nico, but it had ended up being much more work than he’d anticipated.
“My professors were like, Merry Christmas! Here’s twenty pages of dense medical jargon that you need to read and understand by the first day of class,” Will complained moments before Nico insisted that he needed to sit down and read, and that he shouldn’t let Nico distract him from his work.
Besides, it was the perfect opportunity for Nico to take a nap.
And really, a sleeping Nico stretched out across Will’s bed shouldn’t have been a distraction. But after struggling to stay focused through five or so pages of his assigned reading, Will found his eyes straying toward the bed, where every so often, Nico would shift or mumble something in his sleep. It was nothing compared to the amount of noise he was used to studying with - having three roommates all on different schedules made for a noisy apartment - but this was his boyfriend. His boyfriend that he hadn’t seen, hadn’t touched, in a good few months, and to let their time together go by with studying…
Will marked his place and rose from his chair, then crossed the room in two steps. He knelt on one side of the mattress behind Nico’s sleeping form, placing a hand on his waist and leaning down to trail kisses across his bare shoulders - even in the dead of winter, it would appear that Nico still preferred to sleep shirtless.
Nico stirred, stretching out more and then leaning into Will. He peered over his shoulder with half-lidded eyes and mumbled, “You done studying?”
Will shook his head, feeling his heart warm at the soft look on Nico’s face. “I need a break.”
Nico rolled onto his back, and as he moved, Will countered by throwing a leg over Nico’s waist so that he hovered above him. That is, until Nico pulled him down for a kiss.
“You have plans for this break?” Nico asked, blinking up at him slowly as he started to wake up more fully. “Or did you wake me up for ideas?”
Will ducked his head down and traced his nose up the column of Nico’s neck. “I thought of something you can help me with,” Will whispered, kissing the corner of his jaw and trailing his lips upward to Nico’s ear as one of Nico’s hands clenched in the back of Will’s shirt. “You see, I haven’t had a lot of chances to study anatomy.”
“Uh huh,” Nico breathed, knowing exactly where this was going and hoping Will would just get to the point.
“And you and I--” Will scraped his teeth on the shell of Nico’s ear. “--We have some... differences in anatomy. So it’d be really helpful for me if you'd let me study yours.” Will lifted his head to meet Nico’s eyes, so close that their noses brushed as he finished, “And I hope you don’t mind, but I’m sort of a hands-on learner.” As he said those final words, Will’s hands trailed down Nico’s sids, landing on his hips and tugging at the waistband of his boxers, as if to make sure Nico got the right idea about where this was headed.
“Mhm,” Nico hummed, seeming unfazed as he wound his other arm around Will’s shoulders to keep him close. “And are you always going to be this much of a dork when you’re trying to seduce me?”
Will grinned. “I dunno, I guess we’ll have to see how it works out this time and go from there.”
Nico hummed again and said, “Or--” He hooked one leg around Will’s waist and flipped their positions in one easy movement, about to say something else when Will exclaimed, “How did you do that?”
“I’m small, my dad made me take self-defense classes,” Nico explained simply. “Now, if you don’t mind, I was about to try seducing you.”
“Oh,” Will replied, eyes widening, his hands moving up to Nico’s shoulder. “Um, okay, go ahead.”
Nico’s mouth opened, then shut again, and he rolled his eyes. “Well, now you made me forget what I was gonna say.”
Will giggled. “Sorry. Maybe you can try that flip again and it’ll jog your memory.”
“No, I’ll just-- I got the gist, but it’s not going to be as sexy this time around.”
Will stroked a hand up into Nico’s hair. “Sure it will,” he said comfortingly.
“Okay, well,” Nico frowned, his eyebrows scrunching together in thought. “It was something like… If anybody needs anatomy practice, it’s me, and… What I lack in experience I make up for in...enthusiasm? And I...respond well to...verbal feedback…?” Nico groaned. “This is horrible, are you ever going to stop me?”
“No, you were doing so good!” Will told him with a laugh. He patted Nico’s cheek. “You’ll get there, I believe in you.”
Nico huffed and sat up on Will’s lap, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring off to the side. “Okay, well, I kinda feel like I just ruined that whole...mood, so should I just let you get back to studying?”
“No, you didn’t!” Will’s hands fell to Nico’s thighs, and his thumbs stroked across the skin. “C’mon, Nico, I’m still in the mood, if that helps. And just so you know, I give great verbal feedback.” He grinned up at Nico and winked, causing the other to let out a puff of laughter before he tipped forward and pressed their lips together.
“Okay, let’s try something,” Nico said, his confidence seeming to slip away as he struggled to untie the knot in Will’s pajama pants. “And yes, I am very open to constructive criticism.”
Will decided that if they didn’t go outside that day, then they would spend the entirety of Nico’s visit confined to Will’s apartment. Nico wasn’t against staying in one bit, but if Will wanted to show him around and let Nico treat him to dinner, he wasn’t going to object to that.
Unfortunately, they didn’t get as far as finding a restaurant to eat at, because poor Southern boy Will claimed that he might freeze to death at any moment. Nico, on the other hand, was enjoying the opportunity to wear a light jacket so late in December. When it seemed like Will might never stop shivering, Nico relented and said, “Alright, let’s go back to your place. I’ll cook you something warm for dinner.”
Back in Will’s apartment, after shedding their coats - Will’s being much heavier than Nico would have deemed necessary for the weather - Nico went to search through Will’s cabinets while Will took the blanket off his bed to wrap around his shoulders. He made hot chocolate for the two of them while wrapped in his new cape, and Nico tried to find a recipe for anything that could be made from the random assortment of boxes in Will’s cupboards.
Will fell in love with the sight of Nico in his crappy dorm kitchen, as he sat tucked away in the corner of the ratty hand-me-down couch one of his roommates had procured. Nico moved through the space like he was the chef of a five star restaurant rather than a college senior in a dorm that sometimes barely even constituted a roof over their heads. Will could’ve sat there for hours, just watching the way he stood and moved and existed, and probably would have if Nico hadn’t needed his help finding certain utensils.
They ate dinner on the couch, sitting with their feet up on the cushions and facing each other with Will’s blanket stretched across their laps. They decided to stay in that night, because who needed to spend New Year’s with other people - and it wasn’t like Will was going to survive another moment outside where it was barely fifty degrees.
They watched a movie to help pass the time, and when they found themselves paying more attention to each other than the TV, Will switched it off so that he could devote all of his energy to the boyfriend sitting beside him.
“Will you kiss me at midnight?” Will asked almost hesitantly, not expecting to see Nico roll his eyes in response.
“Midnight passed for me like, two hours ago,” Nico pointed out, “but I guess I could kiss you for your midnight, if that’s what you want.”
As midnight approached, they kept the TV off, relying on a countdown on Will’s phone instead. At some point, Will jumped up off the couch and rummaged through a drawer in the kitchen, then returned with two sparklers and a lighter, which he explained as something his roommate just happened to have for some reason. Surely he wouldn’t notice if two went missing.
They went around the room, shutting off every light except for the dim blue that came from Will’s phone, and met each other once more on the couch. They sat facing each other on the cushions, knees bumping any time either man moved.
When the countdown on his phone closed in on thirty seconds, Will handed Nico a sparkler. At twenty, they held the ends of the sparklers together above the lighter in Will’s hands. As ten passed, the two whispering numbers together in the dark, Will watched the way the flying sparks reflected in Nico’s eyes - almost in the same way that he’d watched the campfire’s reflection, only closer, brighter, more alive.
With three, two, one, their sparklers died out between their fingers, but Will didn’t notice the fading of the light because he was already leaning forward to press his lips to Nico’s. The kiss was soft, gentle, but there was something about it that made Will feel as though another sparkler had been lit inside his brain, causing his pulse to race and his fingers go numb as one hand brushed against Nico’s cheek.
But there was no imaginary sparkler in his head. That was all Nico.
He pulled away, his eyes taking another moment or two until they fluttered open, just in time for the room to light up blue as fireworks started going off outside. In the ever fading light, Will could just barely see the way that Nico was smiling at him.
It felt like the perfect moment to tell Nico that he loved him, but when Will opened his mouth, what came out instead was, “Happy new year, Nico.”
Nico’s smile was brighter than any firework. “Happy new year, Sunshine.”
As they drove to the airport the next day, their hands were locked together between them, separating only long enough for them to get out of the car and for Nico to grab his suitcase. Will still refused to let go even as they stood in the lobby, the check in counters a short distance away. He didn’t think he could let go even if he wanted to. He didn’t want to say goodbye again.
Nico squeezed his hand, smiling sadly up at him. “So, does this beat the previous saddest day of your life?”
Will braced himself before speaking, refusing to let himself cry in front of Nico. “This shouldn’t be sad. I’m happy that I got to see you at all.”
Nico shook his head slowly, as if in disbelief. “Wow, you really are my total opposite.” He took a step closer, tilting his head up with a softer smile than before. “I think that’s why I’m so in love with you.”
Will’s breath caught, only for a second, and then he was beaming at his boyfriend before swooping down for a kiss. “I love you, too,” Will whispered, pulling Nico closer and enveloping him in his arms. Another moment later, after pressing a kiss to the top of Nico’s head, he said, “You should get going so you don’t miss your flight.”
With his face still tucked against Will’s shoulder, Nico replied, “Would it be the worst in the world thing if I did?”