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"Think it's gonna rain?" Jason asks, adjusting his glasses over the steaming cup of coffee.
"Dunno, man," Percy says, looking up at the grey clouds outside, "Looks like it. I promised Annabeth that I'd meet her before class."
Nico could recall a long time ago, about a month before he turned ten, the panic he'd felt when he'd realized that Jason and Percy had girl's names inked on their wrists.
He never liked girls the way Percy and Jason liked girls.
He vividly remembered being terrified of what would happen when he woke up that morning to see that the name on his wrist was a boy's name instead. Of what would happen when everyone realized he had a boy's name, instead of a girl's.
And it wouldn't even be the boy he wanted either, for Percy had met Annabeth at a summer camp when he was twelve. Needless to say, he was absolutely charmed by her, and they'd kept in contact via emails and letters.
They were a tightly knit pair, and there was nothing that could separate them.
He could remember how the sheer thought of it, the thought of loving anyone else beside Percy, absolutely ached.
He could remember Persephone, one afternoon, finding him in her garden, silent tears streaking down his face as he stared at the white roses vining around the gazebo railing.
She'd been so alarmed that she sat him down with a cup of chamomile and lavender tea, waiting patiently for Nico to speak.
He did, although there were slow, slobbery pauses in between.
After, she frowned, told him, "Get dressed," and called for Jules Albert to bring the car around. She'd taken him to the mall and bought him a stylish leather wrap bracelet.
"There," she smiled, "Now nobody has to know if you have a name, or whose it is."
She was the first person he technically came out to.
On the morning of his tenth birthday, the name appeared on his wrist without fail. He took a single glance at it, repeated the name to himself, and slapped the bracelet over it.
And it was gone, just as Persephone had said. He'd gotten questions, of course, but he just brushed it off. Nobody pushed it either, because it wasn't a secret that Nico was a very private person.
But he knew the name by heart. One day, he'd meet someone, and they would tell him their name, and he would know.
This is my soulmate.
The thought of having a soulmate, someone who would love him unconditionally, was as thrilling as it was terrifying. As he grew up, he realized that his feelings for Percy was nothing more than a first crush. A childish admiration.
Now, Nico was well and truly over Percy. He was happy for him and Annabeth, and for Jason, who met Piper when she transferred in for their senior year.
"Go meet your girlfriend, dude," Jason rolls his eyes, "Nico and I'll probably be leaving in a bit, anyway. I don't like the look of those clouds."
"I have to go to the library," Nico pouts, "This paper isn't gonna write itself, no matter how much I want it to."
"That's college for you," Percy snorts, "I'll see you guys back at the apartment later?"
This time, it's Nico who rolls his eyes.
"Duh. I have nowhere else to be," he says.
[x]
One of the things Nico had always hated about himself was his propensity for attracting bad luck. Persephone always told him it was due to his own negative energy in the first place, but he digressed. One didn't win an argument against Persephone.
He stands at the doorway of the café cursing black and blue as he watched the rain pour down onto the New York City streets.
Jason, the lucky bastard, had left a few minutes earlier to go to class. Nico had stayed back to begin his essay, so that he could narrow down his research when he got to the library.
Then, as soon as he got up to leave, there was a loud crack! like sound, and the rain began falling in white sheets.
He carefully assesses his options, which are: to either wait until the shower passes, or to hoist his messenger bag over his head and make a run for it.
However, there are two problems: he can't see the shower easing up anytime soon, and the library is too far. The expensive law books in his bag would be thoroughly soaked if he made a run for it.
He looks around for someone with an umbrella.
No luck.
His next option is to ask the café if they have an extra one, or one on hand. He steps through the line, approaching the cash register, receiving several nasty looks from caffeine-less freshmen. Yikes.
"Hey, do you guys happen to have a spare umbrella I can borrow?" He asks the cashier.
The cashier, a scrawny latino boy with the name tag "Leo" gives him a pitying look.
That's a no, then.
"Sorry, amigo," he says, shrugging ruefully.
Nico sighs, a sound of pure frustration.
[x]
Will sees a boy with black hair lingering by the café door, fiddling with the strap of his messenger bag.
He bites his bottom lip, looking at the umbrella in his hand.
He was finished in the cafe, anyway, and it would be big enough to cover them both, but it was raining too heavily for Will to risk going anywhere else but where he'd initially intended to go: the library. But, he'd felt this inexplicable urge to help the raven-haired boy.
Will sighed, getting up from his table.
A good deed was a good deed, anyway.
[x]
"Hey, do you need to get somewhere?" A soft voice asks, from behind Nico.
"Jesus," Nico startled, whirling around, looking into a pair of cerulean blue eyes, "Sorry, I hadn't noticed you there."
The guys laughs.
It's a nice laugh.
"My fault. I'm quieter than most people," he says, "So do you? Need to get somewhere?"
"The library," Nico says.
He takes a moment to look at the next boy.
He's cute; he's got a bramble of golden blonde curls to match his blue eyes, and a nice even tan, a stark contrast to Nico's pale, alabaster skin he inherited from his father.
He was a head taller than Nico, and seemed to be around his age.
"You're in luck. I'm heading there myself, and I think both of us can fit under here," the blonde grins, gesturing at the umbrella.
"Do you mind..?" Nico trails off, hesitantly, not wanting to impose.
"Of course not," his grin somehow grows wider, "Come on."
And Nico is absolutely enamored with that grin.
[x]
The blonde holds the umbrella, as he's taller.
They cross the road, silence between them, until Nico asks, "Which department are you in?"
"I'm pre-med," he says, "You?"
"Law. Family career."
"Ah, yeah," the blonde nods, "Same with me. My father and older brother were in the field themselves. It's a shame we're in different departments. We would have been friends and helped each other out with notes."
Nico smiles, "You do seem like the sociable type."
The blonde offers another grin, and Nico takes that as confirmation.
"Oh, look," he says, "We're here. Would you get the door while I put this away?"
Nico does as he's asked.
"Thank you so much, again," Nico smiles, as he prepares to go off to the section that has the law material.
"My pleasure," the blonde returns that grin, sticking out his right hand, "I'm Will, by the way. Will Solace."
And just like that, Nico's stomach drops. The world flips beneath his feet, and he feels a thousand butterflies flutter inside his stomach. Not the good kind of butterflies, either.
Under his leather bracelet, permanently inked into his skin is the name of his soulmate, a name he'd never repeated to just anybody: William Andrew Solace.
It hits him like a train.
This is my soulmate.
Nico panics, and blurts the first name that comes to mind, "I'm Jason. Jason Grace."
He bites his lower lip, taking the blonde's-- Will's-- hand. It goes up, once, before Will hisses, yanking his grip out of Nico's. Nico's eyes are well trained enough to catch the red welts left by the ring.
The panic in his system is instantly replaced by a spine crawling fear.
He says, cautiously, "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah," Will says, narrowing his eyes, "Is your ring silver?"
"Mhm," Nico tries playing it off innocently, "Family heirloom."
"Ah," Will grimaces, "I-- My skin has a bad reaction to silver. It irritates easily."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Nico tries to keep up the innocent act.
"It's fine," Will says, with a false grin, "I really have to go, but-- good luck with whatever it is you have to do. I'll see you 'round campus."
Nico smiles.
He waits until Will is out of hearing distance before he leans against the wall and exhales, "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck."
[x]
Later that night, when he tells Jason about Will, Jason won't stop laughing at him.
"You know, you'll have to tell him your real name eventually," he says, stuffing another egg roll in his mouth, "You know, you've never actually shown anybody your name. May I see it?"
"Yeah," Nico sighs, removing the bracelet, "But I'm only showing it to you because you're my best friend."
"Gotcha," Jason grins, wickedly, and Nico immediately wants to punch him, "Bestie."
He glares at Jason, no real heat behind it, before offering his wrist. The ink stains darkly against his pale skin, his wrist whiter than the rest of his body because of how long he'd been wearing the bracelet. Written there, in neat cursive, is Will's name.
"Wow," Jason says.
"That's not even the worst part," Nico says, "I went to shake his hand, and the silver from my ring burned him. He said he was sensitive to silver."
Jason's playful attitude vanishes, and he looks at Nico, seriously.
"What are the chances of him actually being allergic to silver?" Jason asks, rhetorically.
"We both know," Nico says.
None.
"That means he's--" Jason exhales, "Shit, Nico."
"I know," Nico whispers, miserably.
"And you know what we have to do," Jason says.
"I know," Nico whispers, shutting his eyes tightly, no matter how much his mind is protesting against it.
No matter how much his heart feels like he was committing a betrayal.
He had to believe-- he had to convince himself that what they were going to do was the right thing.