Chapter Text
Nico’s little fading problem must have made it to his brain. At least, that’s what the boy thought after looking at the questionable choices he had made that day. Starting with actually allowing Jason to not just touch him, but to hug him. Then he agreed to be held captive for three days by a certain blond that he definitely did not already have a crush on (seriously? He had just gotten over Percy, and did not need another obsession over a boy that was probably so straight it was depressing). If that wasn’t enough to prove his insanity, he willingly told Percy and Annabeth about his feelings. So while he was spaced out, and Will was ranting about the importance of ‘self preservation skills’ (whatever that was), Nico came to the conclusion that his brain must have fazed out of existence.
“Are you even listening to me”? Nico snapped out of my daze and focused his attention to Will. Before he could really stop himself, he couldn’t help but notice just how attractive the boy was. With blond hair in soft curls that next to glowed, long enough to look messy and fall in his face, but still too short to tie up. Blue eyes that seemed to match the sky no matter the time of day. The eyes definitely made Nico feel too warm and fuzzy when he looked into them, although those times had been few and far between. He was a similar height to Jason, though not as bulky. His tan and strong build made it clear that he spent plenty of time outside. His resemblance to Apollo was obvious, however the boy radiated a gentle warmth instead of the uncomfortable heat Apollo had. Like he was built to put people at ease, not to remind them their place.
His admiration was cut off by an overly drawn out sigh. “I’m guessing that means you weren't”.
Embarrassed from being caught, he couldn’t quite keep the blush off his face. “Uh sorry, what”? Smooth Nico, Smooth he thought to himself.
“I was asking if you had any medical issues I needed to be aware of besides your fading, I mean seeing as you have no self preservation skills whatsoever I’ll be giving you a checkup anyway, but a heads up would be nice”. Nico may not have the most developed social skills, but he could still detect the sass laced in at the end. That wasn’t even the issue had had though.
“Wait check up? I thought you meant I owed you three days of helping out”. He was met with a smug grin that he did not appreciate.
“If I had told you that you needed three days of bed rest would I have been able to trap you here? Now answer the question sunshine”. Nico certainly did not appreciate the nickname, or the increase of smugness that came with it.
“Ok first off never call me that again, it doesn’t make sense, I’m a child of the underworld. Second of all in case you’d forgotten, I’ve been walking around fine for the past two days, I’m fine and I don’t need to be here”. Despite his words, he found himself not making any move to leave the infirmary bed he was currently sitting on. He decided to think about the reason why on a later date. Will however did not seem convinced in the slightest by this response.
“Don’t think I didn’t notice you wincing every time you move your left arm. If you want to make this difficult then I’ll just do a full body check up. Take off your shirt”. Ok now the son of Hades was definitely blushing.
“I am not taking off my shirt Solace”. He tried to put as much venom in his voice as possible, an amount that would have left anyone else cringing away. Will however, was still as annoying and unaffected as ever. If anything, he seemed amused by the display of aggression.
“I wasn’t joking about your arm. Now take off your shirt or I’ll do it for you”. Not wanting the other boy to see how much he actually wouldn’t hate that, he complied, trying to avoid moving his arm in arm in a way that would burn too much. Will, upon seeing what he was really dealing with, immediatly lost his previously cocky smile. He opened and closed his mouth several times, seemingly unsure of what he wanted to say. Then snapped out of it and started working on Nico’s arm with an urgency that seemed unnecessary.
Finally he spoke up, his voice an unsettling calm considering how upset he seemed a few moments ago. “So, not only was that clearly a werewolf scratch, but an infected one at that. Were you ever going to tell me? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is”? His calm tone is forgotten by the end, replaced by a hurt that Nico thought must be his mind playing tricks on him. Did Will really care that much? Shame washed over the son of Hades, mostly because he hadn’t been planning on telling Will anything about his health.
“The scratches already had stitches in them, it wasn’t urgent. So no I wasn’t going to tell you, you were already swarmed with people who actually deserved medical treatment”. Too late he realized that his word choice was a bad idea, but by then Will had already paused in his restitching of Nico’s wound. A hand came up to cup his cheek and he met a pair of eyes that he was expecting to hold annoyance, maybe pity. Instead he was met with anger, an unusual emotion for the son of Apollo. Anger at what, Nico wasn’t sure. He probably should have been more upset about the blond touching him, especially on the face, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate it. He was not quite brave enough to lean into the touch, but he let himself enjoy the warmth that spread to his cheek. He almost let himself imagine it as a show as affection, but he knew better.
“So you that's what it was? You assumed that you, the boy who was responsible for stopping a war that would’ve wiped out the camp, had just transported a 30 foot statue across globe, and then right after infiltrated enemy lines, saved my butt, took on 6 trained Romans right after nearly fading into nothingness , you think you weren't worthy of basic medical treatment”? The most Nico could do was nod and look down, unfortunately making Will’s hand fall in the process.
The experience of someone complimenting him, even indirectly, was completely foreign to him. Had Will just acted scared, mean, suspicious, disgusted, or a strange combination of the four, he could have easily handled it. But of course Will had to throw him off, leaving him acting shy. Behaviour that felt laughably out of character for the ghost king.
“By the way it was urgent, it was infected. You’re lucky I found it when I did, you could have gotten really sick”. His previous anger was now also paired with worry. “You’re still probably going to get a mild fever, but otherwise you’ll be fine”. The healer's hand unconsciously ran through Nico’s hair at the last sentence. A silent message that if Nico were to get sick, Will would take care of him. Nico tried to focus on the fact that it was his job to take care of sick people, and not that he could almost remember his faceless mother doing the same thing whenever she took care of him.
“Now considering that you almost turned into a puddle a couple days ago, I’m going to have some rules for your treatment here. First off no shadow travel obviously. Second you’re going to be on bed rest for the next three days, more if you do end up getting sick. Third, you are going to tell me when you’re hurt or sick. I don’t care if you don’t think you deserve medical attention or not, that’s for me to decide. The last one goes even after I release you, got it”? Nico kept trying and failing to ignore the flipping in his stomach caused by a cute blond aggressively trying to take care of him. It shouldn’t have even been possible to develop a crush this quickly. Sure he had seen Will around before, but he had hardly ever spoken to him. Of course Nico couldn’t mention any of this.
“Yes Solace I understand. I will proceed to be a vegetable for the next three days, maybe more, and I will tell you about every little cut and bruise I get for the rest of time, happy”? To that Will just smiled at Nico and said “Perfect”. Nico was glad that Will wasn’t deterred by his attitude, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to pretend to hate being trapped in the infirmary. It was best Will was pushy, it wouldn’t be good for his bad boy reputation if he announced himself as a voluntary prisoner.
Will looked like he was about to say something else, but was interrupted by the door opening. Kayla came in and placed what seemed to be a hospital gown that was of course an offensive shade of yellow on a spare chair. “Sorry if it’s too big! This was the smallest we had besides the childrens gowns, and he’s too large for those”. Then she left as quickly as she entered.
Will flashed her a smile and then turned back to Nico. “Ok well I’ll leave you to get changed, after that you should sleep”. Nico opened his mouth to protest but Will beat him to it. “I’m serious, you need sleep. We managed to charm the infirmary, so you won’t get nightmares. Turns out nightmares are actually a pretty common issue when you put a bunch of teenagers in a war or two. So I don’t wan’t to hear excuses, doctors orders”. With that he left the room and turned off the light.
Normally Nico would be freaked out by the dark, but there was a sun shaped night light, leaving the room lit just enough. He changed into the hospital gown which was, of course, too large, and settled into his bed. It was surprisingly comfortable. Before Nico even realized it, he was already starting to fall asleep. He definitely did not fall asleep thinking about a certain overprotective healer, and there were definitely no hopes that maybe his caring went past just being Nico’s doctor.