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It was a good couple of hours after Camp Half Blood’s latest game of Capture the Flag and by now the majority of the injuries had been taken care of in the infirmary and the rest of the campers were all sitting down for dinner. Well… most of the campers were anyway. Halfway through the meal, Kayla Knowles, one of Will Solace’s sisters and the second oldest from the Apollo Cabin, mustered enough courage to walk over to the Hades table. Sometimes being the eldest sibling wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, Kayla must have thought as she sat down across from Nico di Angelo. The son of Hades looked mildly confused by her company.
“Hey…” She started, but realized pretty quickly when Nico didn’t respond that the boy wasn’t really the type to make small talk. She sighed and jumped right into it. “Sorry to bother you, but have you seen my brother, Will? I haven’t seen him since the game earlier, and neither has anyone else from my cabin. A few of us asked around, but no one has heard from him either.”
“Have you checked the infirmary?” Nico asked awkwardly, he never really knew how to talk to new people. “Seems to me like that’s where I always find him when he doesn’t show up for meals. He’s got a bad habit of losing track of time and overworking himself.” The pale boy’s face heated up as he felt he was talking too much. What reason did he have to go looking for the Apollo boy? He’d been cleared by the blonde for quite some time now, there was no need for Nico to be looking for him. Lucky for Nico, Kayla was too distracted by her brother’s disappearance to worry about who was going to the infirmary to see Will for social visits.
“Of course, it was the first place we looked. It’s not like him to skip out on his duties at the infirmary, especially after a big game of Capture the Flag.” She looked concerned as she spoke. “He’s not in our cabin, he’s not at the infirmary, and he clearly hasn’t shown up for dinner either. We sent someone to check the strawberry fields, the lake, Halfblood Hill, and even the training grounds, but we couldn’t find him.” She looked at the boy curiously, seeming a little bit unsure of how to phrase her next statement since his expression was hard to read. All of Will’s siblings had the sneaking suspicion that the two boys had little crushes on each other, but nobody was stupid enough to come right out and say that to the child of Hades. “We just… thought you might know where he is?” She shrugged, trying to be casual.
Now, Nico wanted to jump on the defensive and complain about why on Earth the Apollo kids would think he had the slightest clue as to where their brother could be, maybe go on about how he wasn’t in charge of Will, and that he didn’t care what the oh so annoying blonde boy was off doing. But... he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t explain it, or maybe he didn’t want to admit it to himself, but he felt something ache inside his chest when he heard that Will was missing. When Kayla shifted uncomfortably on the bench across from him, Nico realized he was taking too long to answer.
“No, sorry, I don’t know where your brother is. We were on opposite teams during Capture the Flag this time, I was with red…” Nico pursed his lips, taking notice of how late it was getting. Dinner was more than half over by now and some of the campers were already heading over to where they would be having the campfire this evening as soon as it got just a little bit darker. The sun was already starting to get lower in the sky as it was, surely the Apollo kids were well aware of this. “When did you say you saw him last?” Nico asked, trying to make sense of everything.
“Well the last I saw him, he’d been watching the inner perimeter of our team’s territory for the game.” Kayla explained, thinking back to earlier that afternoon. “One of the red team’s players was starting to close in on us, but she ended up getting knocked down by one of us and hit her head pretty good. I saw what had happened to her and was starting to assess her for the infirmary when Will found us. He gave me his medical kit and told me to take her there right away, something about not messing around with head injuries.” She shrugged, it was pretty standard for Will to do something like that. “Anyway, I was busy dealing with her for the rest of the game, but that’s the last I saw of him.” The girl explained.
“So Will was helping to guard your team’s flag?” Nico confirmed, sounding a bit skeptical. Kayla nodded, missing his point. “So he was expected to perform hand to hand combat with another, more likely than not, armed camper to defend the blue flag from being taken?” Kayla winced, when he put it that way she could see the flaw in the game plan. Nico stared at her incredulously. “And who’s brilliant idea was that?” It wasn’t a secret that Will’s skills weren’t exactly fit for battle… even if it was only for a game of Capture the Flag.
“Well…” The girl bit her lip. “Percy thought maybe exposure to combat would help him… suck less? You know… like sink or swim? He was only trying to help him.” She answered sheepishly. Nico huffed.
‘Of course it was Jackson! Why wouldn’t it have been the stupid son of Posidon?! Will needed protection! Of course Percy would be the one to let the poor kid down, just like what happened to Bia-’ Nico took a breath and shoved the thoughts down, he would have to let it go for now. He was starting to get an idea as to what had happened and he didn’t like it one bit. “Has anyone checked the woods where your flag was stationed to see if he was still out there?” He looked like he was going to lose it, Will could be out in the woods and it was going to be dark in less than half an hour!
“Well no, but-” Kayla started, but Nico finally exploded. The child of Hades stood up and slammed his hands on his table, causing Kayla to flinch back from him and a few kids from the surrounding tables to jump a little in surprise. A few of them even threw away their trays and decided to leave dinner early so they weren’t around if any skeletons decided to show up.
“Gods… now I know where he gets it from.” Nico ran a hand down his face. “The whole lot of you!” He glared at the other campers sitting at the Apollo table, a few of them were trying to hide behind each other to avoid becoming the subject of Nico’s anger. “For children of the sun god, none of you are very bright, are you?!” He shook his head and swore under his breath before he took a few steps and melted into a shadow.
...oOo...
Nico reappeared at the outskirts of the forest and held on to one of the trees within his reach to steady himself for a moment before he pressed on. He was trying to make his way to where he knew the blue team had stationed their flag that afternoon to see if he couldn’t find the son of Apollo. Will could lecture him all he wanted about Underworldly stuff and how it was only to be used in a real emergency later, but right now Nico was pretty sure that a camper being lost in the woods this close to sundown was an emergency. Was Nico maybe a little bit more concerned because the missing camper happened to be Will Solace? Possibly. But nobody needed to know that little detail, he’d probably deny it if anyone even bothered asking.
“Solace?!” Nico called out every minute or so as he walked deeper into the woods. The further he got without a response, the more he felt the pit in his chest grow. If anything had happened to Will, he was going to personally make Percy Jackson pay for coming up with the stupid idea to let him guard the stupid flag in the first place. He was going to make the blue team as a whole pay for agreeing to the stupid idea. He was going to make the entirety of Cabin Seven pay for not noticing that their poor, sweet brother had been missing for hours. He was going to make whichever camper from the red team who’d gone up against Will to get the flag pay for not realizing that his opponent hadn’t made it back after their match up. A lot of people were going to pay for this if Nico didn’t find the blonde sitting somewhere unscathed and completely intact… and if that happened, Will was going to be the one who would pay for making Nico worry about him like this.
“Will! Can you hear me?” Nico yelled out again. He was about one hundred feet away from the clearing where the blue team had been hiding their flag. The boy huffed, taking in his surroundings, there wasn’t much light left from the day, but he remembered from earlier that the flag had been up on top of one of the larger rock formations that the younger campers who thought they were in love liked to sneak off to to kiss. The Aphrodite cabin had likely been behind that location for sure… maybe Nico would make them pay for picking such a dangerous hiding place too.
“William! I swear to the gods if you’re out here and you don’t answer me-” Nico yelled, lashing out in anger as panic started to set in when he finally reached the rocks and still didn’t see Will anywhere. To say he was worried would be putting it lightly, he felt a lump starting to form in his throat and his whole body felt heavy. The woods were dangerous at night, it was dark and there were plenty of rocks, tree roots, and various plant vines to fall over, not to mention the larger issue of monsters lurking in every direction, waiting for an innocent victim to pounce at. During the day the woods were just fine, but at night no demigods were allowed to set foot in them for a reason! It was just asking for trouble.
“Will, please!” Nico begged, his voice weak as a memory of all the monsters he’d seen in Tartarus came into his mind. He couldn’t imagine Will having to face anything like that, he was too good, too pure hearted, to be tortured like that.
After about an hour, Nico drew his sword, hoping the faint purple glow it threw off would be enough to help him find Will. It was completely dark now, and there was no more light left from the day, but he would spend all night looking for the blonde if he had to... Luckily for him, though, it looked like he wouldn’t have to. As Nico rounded another bend to the path he was following, he looked around, squinting into the darkness as he finally, finally , spotted a dim glowy light another few hundred yards out. Will. He felt his heart squeezing in his chest as he hurried towards the soft golden light.
“Will!” He yelled, throwing himself down onto his knees beside the boy. Will was sitting, or rather he had propped himself up against a tree trunk to keep from slumping over, and his eyes were squeezed tightly shut as if he were in pain. He was all scratched up. Tear tracks ran down his cheeks, his clothes were filthy, and various leaves and twigs littered his hair. Nico’s heart broke seeing him like this. He was the one who always got hurt, Will was the one who always put his pieces back together again, it wasn’t supposed to be the other way around. Nico gently reached out and touched Will’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “Hey! Solace, wake up!” He called. “Will, come on!” He pleaded with him for a few minutes. Slowly, the blonde’s face scrunched up in pain and he opened his eyes, looking towards Nico without moving his head.
“Nico?” He choked out, fresh tears falling as he reached out to grab Nico’s hand. Normally, Nico wasn’t a big fan of being touched, but as soon as he saw Will wanted his hand, he gave it to him without question, this wasn’t just anyone to him, this was Will. He looked him over, but it was hard to see anything going by only the golden light coming off of the Apollo boy.
“Yeah, it’s me. What happened?” He asked softly, letting Will squeeze his hand tighter as he tried to breathe. The small task looked painful and Will squeezed his eyes shut again, as a heartbreaking whimper escaped his lips. Nico gave him all the time he needed to answer, making sure to let Will keep the tight grip on his hand.
“I was trying to defend my flag on top of the rocks. The one young campers like to sneak off to?” Will recounted, trying to rub away tears so that Nico wouldn’t see them. “I got into a small battle against a kid with a club and I slipped off the edge.” He took a moment to try to catch his breath again before he continued. “When I fell, the other kids didn’t really notice because they were trying to grab the flag back before the red team could get it back to their base. There was a lot of yelling, so I guess they couldn’t hear me calling for help.” Will took a shallow breath and clutched his side, only to realize doing this hurt even more. He flinched painfully and winced a little. “Kayla has my bag, I keep my nectar and ambrosia in there.” He shook his head. “I can’t heal myself, it doesn’t work like that. I tried Nico, I- ahh!” He doubled over a little and Nico’s eyes widened.
“Shh, it’s alright now. I’m here.” He promised. “I’m going to help you.” Nico was soft for exactly one person in this world… maybe two if he counted his sister, Hazel, but right now he was just so angry. Will had been sitting here in pain, suffering, for hours and nobody had done a damn thing, nobody even cared enough to know he was missing as far as he was concerned. “What’s wrong? What’s causing this pain?” He asked, not daring to move to give him a once over out of fear of hurting Will any more.
“Right side, three fractured ribs.” He rattled off, trying to sound more like Dr. Solace giving report on one of his patients rather than describing the pain he was in as his own. “Left tibia, suspected stable fracture… I think I made it worse because I was trying to walk back to camp.” He pursed his lips, waiting for Nico to scream at him. The child of Hades just stared, he had no idea how Will had been able to move at all in his current condition.
“Will… camp is that way.” He pointed in the direction he’d come from, which was actually the exact opposite of the direction Will had been heading in. “Why would you even be trying to walk with a broken leg!?” He asked, his voice was hinging on yelling, but he was trying to hold back. Will had suffered enough without someone making him feel bad, and Nico would be damned to let that someone be him.
“I…” Will looked away. “Nobody came for me and it was getting dark.” He admitted, looking pitifully at Nico. “I wanted to get out of here before any monsters could find me, but I fell again and I guess I passed out.”
“You guess…” Nico shook his head. “Look, I’m going to get you out of here, just hold on to m-”
“No!” Will flinched as the effort it took to yell at Nico sent pain burning through his chest. He tried again, whispering this time. “No shadow travel. It’s bad for you!” He protested. Nico just gave him this face, one that only a child of Hades could make, but Will didn’t falter. “No.”
“Well I can’t just leave you here for the monsters dumbass!” Nico threw his hands up in frustration, why did Will have to be so stubborn?! “You have broken bones! We have to shadow travel!” If Will wouldn’t let him use his powers to get them out of here it was going to make things a lot more complicated.
“I can tolerate the pain.” Will lied. In reality, he knew what Nico had been through in Tartarus and he didn’t want to complain or make himself seem weak, stupid as it was. He felt he had something to prove. “Just… help me so I don’t have to put this leg down.” He asked. “And be careful of my ribs.” Will added, he already sounded winded. Nico just shook his head, there was no way in hell he was allowing this. He was about to say as much when he heard rustling off in the distance.
“Shut up!” Nico hissed and crouched down beside Will, grabbing for the sword that had been laying beside him. Will hadn’t heard it yet, maybe Nico was more in tune with the monsters that lived in the woods, but then again, Will didn’t exactly have good senses when it came to these sorts of things.
“What?” Will asked, but Nico reached back and pressed his finger to Will’s lips. He took a moment to scan the area again before he looked over his shoulder at the child of Apollo.When he did, he was horrified as he had a sudden realization… if he had found Will because he saw his sunshiny glow, surely a monster would be able to do so as well.
“Turn your glow off!” Nico ordered, his eyes pleading with Will to understand. “ Now! ” He knew it was a sensitive topic for the boy, but he didn’t have time for that. “Will, please! It's not safe for you!”
“What? I don’t-” He was cut off as a minotaur crashed into view. The monster was easily over eight feet tall and built out of sheer muscle. He had massive horns on his head and his glowing red eyes, which were trained on the son of Apollo, didn’t exactly seem welcoming. Will had definitely never seen anything quite like this before, but he’d had to help heal the wounds of other demigods who had had the unfortunate opportunity to have to face off against this kind of monster. The scars definitely weren’t pretty. While Will was busy gawking at the monster, Nico peeled off his jacket and dropped it over Will’s head to try to disguise at least some of the golden light emanating from him. The son of Hades then instinctively rose to his feet and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, stepping in front of Will to block him from the minotaur’s line of sight.
“Stay behind me.” Nico ordered the injured boy, his tone was strangely protective, possessive even. Nobody, not even this angry minotaur, was allowed to hurt the blonde without going through him first, those were the rules. Nico was fully prepared to fight to keep Will safe, it was his mission to protect him and he wasn’t going to fail him.
“Nico!” Will tried to protest, struggling painfully to shift the jacket so he could see what was going on. The minotaur was sweeping it’s hooved feet against the dirt, getting ready to charge, and Nico moved his sword up defensively. The dark blade looked menacing to Will, he wouldn’t want to be staring it down, but the minotaur snorted, taking a few steps to the side to try to look around the son of Hades to find who he was really after.
“Don’t even try.” Nico moved with the creature, shielding Will from it’s sight the entire time. It was the glow coming off of him that the monster wanted, it was the light he was drawn to, just like a moth, but with Will being hurt, there really wasn’t much he could do about it. Nico made sure to keep him out of sight as best he could, he would readily give his life if it meant keeping Will safe. “That’s right, look at me!” Nico spoke, his voice didn’t hold one drop of fear in it, his hands were steady as he waited for the beast to charge. He was calculating, trying to come up with a game plan here. Will watched uncomfortably as the dance between the two continued as the minotaur tried to circle them. Nico didn’t allow him to gain any ground on them, which only caused the monster more frustration, kicking and snorting in Nico’s direction until finally it let out an inhumane bellow and charged.
“No!” Will cried out as Nico lurched forward without any hesitation. Nico didn’t seem to even process the other boy’s shouting, he was in survival mode now, his blade glowing an ominous shade of violet as he raised it. Will watched from beside his tree in horror as one of the minotaur’s humongous arms came barreling towards Nico, his heart squeezed tightly in his chest as Nico dove at the ground, tucking and rolling out of the way. Thank the gods he came up unscathed. He swiped his sword towards the minotaur’s legs, smirking as golden ichor wept out of the scratches, though it didn’t slow the beast down as much as Nico might have hoped. The minotaur roared wildly and grabbed the tree beside it, pulling it right up from the roots and launching it towards Nico.
“Look out!” Will yelled, flinching as he instinctively threw his arms up and turned away to protect himself as the tree came hurtling in his direction. The quick motion made his ribs feel like they were on fire, but thankfully the tree bounced to a stop before it hit him. Nico hadn’t been as lucky. One of the smaller branches caught him hard in the gut, taking his breath away for a moment and knocking him painfully off his feet. Before he could even process what had happened, he was looking to where Will had been sitting. Will’s light had been obscured by the leaves from the downed tree and it definitely left the son of Hades feeling unsettled.
“Solace?!” He called, a hint of panic in his voice as he dragged himself to his feet and collected his sword. Apparently the idea of Will getting hurt again was scarier to him than facing a massive horned beast, Will’s safety gave him something to fight for.
“I’m okay!” Will confirmed, trying to keep his words even despite the increasing level of pain he was now in from twisting his broken ribs again, at least that was enough to distract him from how hollow his leg felt. He really wished Kayla hadn’t taken his medical kit now, he could definitely use some ambrosia or a sip of nectar right about now. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be alright, just got the wind knocked out of me, maybe a few scratches.” Nico assured him, noting the sting starting to settle into his cheek where a couple of twigs had managed to cut him up. He wiped his arm across his face, smearing the blood away. He would let Will deal with that later for him, or maybe one of the other Apollo kids could patch him up, seeing as how the blonde was seriously injured. He didn’t have time to think about any of that right now though, he could hear the minotaur rustling around, searching for them.
“What’s ‘a few scratches’?” Will questioned, he was definitely concerned. Nico wasn’t always as concerned with self preservation as he should be and that worried Will sick. ‘A few scratches’ could mean anything ranging from anything the size of a papercut, to an actual life threatening puncture... everything was ‘just a little scratch’ according to Nico. If anything ever happened to the smaller boy, Will didn’t know what he’d do. He’d gone through so much with him already, helped him heal and recover from more than was fair for one person. The poor kid had gone through so, so much. The two of them had bonded during Nico’s time in the infirmary though, Will couldn’t bear the idea of Nico going down trying to protect him.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like! A few scratches!” Nico whispered back, walking a few paces out to where the minotaur had uprooted the tree. He had shifted his focus back onto the task at hand. It wasn’t as simple as shadow traveling him and Will back to camp anymore, he couldn’t just leave an angry minotaur running around in the woods, he had to kill it before it found it’s way to camp and hurt someone else. “Now, where are you hiding? The shadows can’t save you from me...”
“Nico?!” Will called to him, suddenly feeling a little uneasy as he heard rustling getting closer to where he was hiding behind tree branches and leaves. From Nico’s vantage point, Will’s light was perfectly covered and he was no longer a big golden target screaming out for the minotaur’s attention, he thought Will was safe.
“Shh!” Nico hissed. “It’ll hear you! Stay quiet!” The monster hearing him, definitely didn’t seem like the biggest issue Will could have right now though. Slowly but surely, the animalistic creature stalked towards Will, it’d somehow ended up on the other side of his tree shield and now had an unobstructed view of the glowing child of Apollo.
“Uh… Nico?!” Will called out a little more urgently as his bright blue eyes locked with the devilish looking red ones making their way towards him. The minotaur was truly terrifying, saliva dripped from his mouth as he licked his lips, sizing up the blonde boy. The horns on top of his head seemed awfully sharp as the moonlight glinted off of them. Will tried to scoot away, but without anything to support him he could barely hold himself up, the pain in his chest was crippling, and his leg was screaming in protest. The monster roared loudly, unknowingly giving it’s location away to Nico as it positioned itself to charge at Will. “ NICO! ” Will cried out desperately as the monster swept it’s feet in the dirt and started to charge.
“Will?!” Nico heard the growl and Will’s cry for help and he immediately dove into the shadows, praying to his father harder than he ever had before to let him pop back out where he needed to be for once, he had to save Will. Thankfully, by some small miracle, he landed in front of the blonde and got his sword up just in time for the minotaur to run into it, impaling itself. Ichor leaked out of the creature’s abdomen, causing it to shriek wildly in pain and anger. Nico twisted his sword into the wound, thrusting it in deeper before pulling it out. The monster staggered, seemingly defeated, but not quite dust yet. Nico made the mistake of looking over his shoulder to check on Will to see if he was okay before the beast actually exploded.
“Look out!” Will shouted, instinctively lurching forward and pulling Nico back, letting him land hard against his chest as the massive minotaur finally fell still in the spot Nico had just been occupying before it disintegrated into a flurry of golden specks. Pain caused tears to sting Will’s eyes, he couldn’t stop them from spilling down his cheeks.
“Will!” Nico scrambled off of him and settled beside him, letting him lean against him for support. He couldn’t imagine the amount of pain the blonde was in, but he was grateful he’d save him from getting flattened. “Hey, hey, calm down, I’ve got you.” He cupped his cheeks and looked into his eyes, thankful the dark hid the blush creeping onto his cheeks. “You’re okay now, I know it hurts, Will. I know, but you’re doing so good. Just hold on, I’ll get you out of here.” He took his hand and squeezed it tight, he could see Will’s teary eyes wandering over to the bloody mess he’d made on his cheek earlier and he shook his head. “It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise you.” He brushed Will’s bangs out of his eyes. “How about that shadow travel now?” He asked softly, waiting for Will’s tiny nod of approval before he got them out of there.
...oOo...
Nico managed to drop him and Will just outside of Cabin Seven, he’d been aiming for the infirmary, but he’d already used his powers twice before this third attempt to get both himself and the blonde back to camp. If he was going to miss, at least he had ended up right outside of a cabin full of healers. Nico looked at the poor boy in his arms, he had passed out somewhere in the shadows and Nico couldn’t blame him for it, he’d been through so much that night, at least unconsciousness would save him from some pain. Nico sat up and his head spun a bit, he was starting to understand why Will didn’t want him using his powers, Regardless, he forced himself to his feet. The boy felt floaty, like he didn’t have full control of his body as he stumbled up the stairs of the Apollo Cabin and crashed against the door. ‘Get help for Will, then you can pass out .’ He told himself, knocking harshly on the door. It took maybe three seconds for one of the Apollo siblings to answer the door, but it felt like an eternity to Nico. Will was going to be very angry with him for draining his powers like this, he could already imagine the lecture he’d get, but as long as the blonde boy was safe, Nico didn’t care.
“Nico?!” It was Kayla who had opened the door. She was still fully dressed in her clothes from earlier, as were the rest of the kids occupying the cabin despite how late it had gotten, none of them could rest while their brother was missing. In the time it had taken for Nico to find Will, fight off the minotaur, and get them back to camp, it was well past curfew. He was lucky the cleaning harpies hadn’t decided to give them a hard time too.
“Help him.” He managed to get out, before he fell forward into Kayla’s arms and passed out, three shadow travels in a row really had taken a lot out of him. The girl caught him and then noticed the dim golden shine coming from the heap at the bottom of the stairs.
“Will!” She realized, her eyes going wide. The girl wanted to run to him, but she couldn’t while she was holding the son of Hades up. “I need help! It's Will! He looks hurt!” Kayla yelled into the cabin. She adjusted her hold on Nico so she could carry him to the infirmary and made sure a few of their siblings could manage to follow with Will. Together, the children of Apollo made quick work of getting both of the boys to the infirmary and settled onto beds, then they broke into groups to care for each of them. Nico would need lots of rest after all the shadow traveling he’d done that night, he was looking concerningly more pale than usual. Thankfully Will knew how to heal Nico from misusing his powers and had kept a detailed record of what to do in Nico’s chart. Once Nico was stabilized and not in immediate danger of melting away, one of Will’s younger brothers took care of the cuts on Nico’s cheek, cleaning out the splinters and dirt before he bandaged him up. Will on the other hand needed a little more attention from his siblings.
“Gods, if I didn’t have his medical bag maybe it wouldn’t be this bad! He would have had ambrosia! Nectar! Anything to help with the pain! We left him to suffer for hours .” Kayla cursed herself as she cut Will’s orange camp tee-shirt off and pressed her palm against his chest, light emanated from her hand as she started singing one of the hymns they used to heal the wounded. One of the younger Apollo girls, Gracie, shook her head. “Don’t blame yourself… it's not going to help anything now. We need to focus on healing him.” She told Kayla, bringing over the bandages they would need to wrap Will’s chest with. “Even with our magic he’s going to need to stay in here for at least a week or two before we let him out with a cast… It's a good thing Nico found him before whatever attacked them caught him out there alone.”
“I know.” Kayla sighed, frustrated. “We should have known something was wrong though! Should have realized he was missing sooner! He would have known if it was any one of us...” Kayla groaned, looking at Will’s leg once she’d finished wrapping his ribs up, she knew it was bad. The poor girl found herself wishing her brother was awake so she could ask him what to do, she knew enough about medicine to get by, but Will was the head medic at camp, this was definitely his department. Now she knew why Will was always so tired after his long shifts in the infirmary, this was exhausting. “What in the name of the gods happened to him?” She asked, shaking her head. It was going to be a very long night for Cabin Seven.
...oOo…
“Mmm…” Nico started to wake up after sleeping for almost two days straight. He slowly started to open his eyes, confused as to where he was for a moment before he remembered he was in the infirmary. “Will?” He asked automatically, his voice still raspy from sleep. He tried to sit up, the dizziness from shadow travelling had mostly faded, but his head still ached. “Will?” He called again. This time, a tiny blonde girl walked into his room holding a clipboard. She had a stethoscope draped around her neck, and she wore the same green scrubs that Will did, except she had sneakers on instead of Will’s typical flip flops.
“Will’s in the other room.” The girl, Gracie, explained. The young, curly haired blonde started to approach the son of Hades; she needed him to be calm so he would continue to heal. “You need to lay back down and try to-” She was cut off by Nico promptly ripping off the wires that were monitoring him and climbing out of bed. “Nico!” Gracie couldn’t believe he’d actually just done that. “I literally just told you that you need rest!” She tried to stop him, but he was already stumbling out to the hallway.
“Will?!” He called, seeming a little panicked to be in the infirmary without his blonde to take care of him. Gracie was nice and all, but Nico only wanted Will taking care of him… he was the only one he trusted, Will had earned that from him over the span of time they’d spent together both in and out of the infirmary
“Kayla! A little help!” Gracie called over to the nurse’s station. Kayla huffed, she wasn’t surprised to see the boy out of bed, she had been expecting it really.
“Woah, woah, woah! Where do you think you’re going!?” Kayla got up and cut Nico off, taking hold of him. “We need to get you back in bed.” She told him, trying to be stern with him. Of course that did absolutely nothing to sway Nico.
“No! I need to see him!” Nico looked uneasy and skittish, Kayla holding his arms wasn’t helping anything, if anything it was only going to make things worse. “ Let go of me! I need to find Will!”
“Nico!” Kayla said firmly. “Calm down.” She tried to sound more gentle this time when she noticed Nico’s hands had clenched into tight fists. “You found Will. You brought him back to my cabin and we brought you both here two nights ago. Remember?” She asked softly, finally releasing the boy. “I told Will you were okay just as soon as he woke up, he’s been asking for you too. You need to rest so you’re strong enough to go see him. Get back to bed.” She thought for a moment. “What is it Will always say to you? Oh, right...” She pointed in the direction of Nico’s bed. “Doctor’s Orders!”
“You’re not my doctor!” Nico deadpanned and pushed past her. Kayla facepalmed and followed him through the hall as he stumbled around checking each curtained off cot for Will. She couldn’t have the child of Hades running around terrorizing the other campers in the infirmary, not to mention he was still recovering from his own overuse of powers.
“Nico! Stop!” She begged. “If I bring you to see Will, do you promise to calm down and stop terrorizing my patients?” She asked him, pleading with him as he tore open the curtain to reveal a small Ares child, maybe six or seven years old, who started bawling when he saw Nico appear on the other side of the curtain.
“You said it wasn’t fatal!” The little boy sobbed as a son of Apollo was trying to bandage up a superficial wound he’d gotten during training. The child of the sun god turned and stared at Nico as if saying ‘ seriously’ , shaking his head as he pulled the curtain back so he could calm the little boy down. Kayla did not look impressed.
“Do you think Will would be happy with that little display?” She asked, crossing her arms. Nico frowned softly, opening and closing his mouth a few times as he tried to come up with a good explanation for his behavior. He didn’t like scaring the other campers… it just sort of happened sometimes. Kayla was right though, Will would not appreciate him going around traumatizing patients.
“I just…” Nico looked away, a blush coloring his pale cheeks. “I want to make sure he’s okay, that’s all.” He explained. Kayla huffed and took Nico’s arm, pulling him along to the furthest room down the hall, the one Will had kept reserved for any time Nico had to stay overnight in the infirmary. She knocked on the door and walked right in without an answer, the same way Will did with Nico. The girl pulled Nico in with her, she really couldn’t wait to have him away from the other patients, she honestly didn’t know how Will dealt with him so easily.
“You have a visitor.” The girl announced, as if it wasn’t obvious, and pulled a chair over beside the bed for Nico. “I’ll come back to check on you both in a little while.” She told them, giving Nico a look that told him she expected there would not be any more problems with listening. The son of Hades smiled awkwardly at her, finally seeming to relax a little bit when she left and he saw that Will was in fact alive. Even though he hadn’t sensed Will’s death, he didn’t trust his power… everyone he cared about seemed to meet their untimely doom way before their time when they hung around him, he wanted Will to be the exception.
“Hey.” Will smiled at the boy, blushing a little bit. “Kinda weird to be seeing you from this side of the bed.” He tried to joke, though there didn’t really seem to be anything funny about his casted leg resting in a lifted cradle attached to his bed or his chest being heavily bandaged, not to mention the other smaller bandages that covered the minor cuts and bruises on his body.
“Yes, it's just so hilarious that you got injured this badly.” Nico frowned, crossing his arms at the blonde as he took in the sight of him. He hated that Will got hurt, and he hated that he cared that Will got hurt even more. He was relieved that he was okay, but dealing with this situation had stirred up a lot of feelings that he’d been trying to ignore.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you mad.” Will tried, but Nico couldn’t hold back his words, he was too worried.
“I mean honestly Solace! What were you thinking ? Accepting a position that puts you directly into combat ?! In a game where you know things are going to get out of hand?! Things always get out of hand during Capture the Flag!” True to his Italian roots, his arms were flying all over the place as he ranted, he couldn’t help it, Will just dragged these things out of him somehow.
“But I-”
“But nothing!” Nico held his hand up to silence the blonde and scooted his chair closer to him. “What would have happened if I hadn’t found you in the woods?! Hmm?!” Nico was getting louder now. “You had broken ribs, a broken leg, you were stuck in glowbug mode because you were scared and in pain!” He threw his arms up in frustration. “You were practically a beacon screaming ‘Hey minotaur! I’m over here! Come get me!’” Nico took a breath and shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “A little self preservation goes a long way! Isn’t that what you’re always spouting at me?!” He looked simultaneously angry, relieved, and exhausted… he looked the way Will always did when it was Nico laying in the bed. Will let him say his piece. He understood exactly how the son of Hades was feeling.
“Are you finished now?” Will asked after a long moment of quiet had passed. He reached out to take the boy’s hand, sunny, warm fingers wrapped around deathly cold ones, creating a comfortable balance. Nico seemed to calm down a little bit at the familiar warmth of Will’s touch and sighed as he looked into his favorite blue eyes and finally realized Will was okay.
“Sarai la mia morte! I could have lost you William!”
“Now you know how I feel when someone drags you into the infirmary.” Will told him, giving him his usual crooked smile. The son of Hades looked at Will weakly, there was no way this literal ray of sunshine cared this much about him.
“You don’t get it.” Nico insisted and shook his head. “Will, I was really worried about you.”
“And you don’t think I worry over you when you, oh I dunno , shadow travel three times within the span of a couple of hours and pass out for two days?!” Will asked matter of factly and yanked Nico in closer to him so they were face to face, his ribs ached in protest at the sudden movement and he winced. Nico decided then that being difficult and causing Will more pain was not an option, so he stayed put. “I know Nico, you’re busted! What have I told you about Underworldly stuff?!”
“I had to!” Nico defended, his cheeks flaming up a bright shade of red. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, the son of Hades tried to look away, flustered by their sudden closeness, but Will didn’t allow him an inch, blue eyes stared into the pair of dark brown ones in front of him. ‘How was he so cute?’ Nico caught himself thinking, blushing even deeper as he tried to shove the thought out of his head.
“You’re just stubborn and think rules don’t apply to you.” Will accused. Nico just stared, he never could quite understand where Will got the courage to talk to him the way he did, but he wouldn’t change it for anything. Usually, he liked that Will would call him out on things when anyone else with half a brain wouldn’t dare. Besides, it was true… Nico was stubborn and he didn’t think rules were meant for him, but this was completely not the case here. This time, Nico had broken the rules for Will’s safety! That was a loophole!
“Will! You would have died out there! You told me I could use my powers for emergencies! It was an emergency!” He complained. “Besides! How many times have you overexerted your own powers trying to save me!?”
“That’s different...” Will answered back, a light pink blush dusting his cheeks.
“How is that any different!?” Nico shot back, challenging him. “It’s just as dangerous for you to drain your powers as it is for me to overuse mine.”
“I…” Will’s face suddenly darkened from light pink, to the same shade of red Nico’s had been earlier. He finally let the boy sit back and looked away, allowing the two of them a little air, but he still kept a light grasp on Nico’s hand. The son of Hades was confused now, Will very rarely gave in or backed down from him. The two of them could bicker for hours on end, especially when it pertained to Nico using his Underworldly magic, but something was definitely up with Will now. He was acting very strange and Nico definitely picked up on it.
“Everything okay there Solace?” Nico asked him, this time it was the child of Hades squeezing the blonde’s hand for comfort. The boy waited patiently, but Will just shrugged, staying quiet for a moment.
“Yeah… I think maybe I’m just tired.” Will lied. “My pain medicine must be making me all crazy.” Will was never, ever this quiet around him, and he certainly wasn’t in the habit of lying to him either. Nico was starting to wonder if maybe Jason might have a point to all of his annoying lectures about love. Maybe that was why Will thought it was okay for him to drain his powers trying to heal Nico...
...
“Nico! If you like Will, for the love of Jupiter, just tell him!” Jason had said one day in the Hades Cabin. On this particular occasion… because it’d happened more than once… Nico couldn’t stop blushing after a trip to the infirmary. Will Solace had just finished cleaning up a gash that Nico had gotten falling out of a tree. Unfortunately for Nico, he’d missed his landing attempting to shadow travel back from McDonalds, so he’d gotten a double lecture that day, one about the shadow travelling, and another about choosing healthy foods to put into his body while he was still healing. Nico didn’t remember much about the lectures though because he had been too busy trying not to have a gay panic while the good doctor rubbed his bare chest down with soap and water, then disinfectant, then medicine, all before finally placing five stitches along his left pectoral. Dr. Solace had of course been a true professional and hadn’t even blushed, but poor Nico ran out of there so fast he’d nearly fallen down the infirmary steps on the way out. Will had just seen him shirtless, touched his chest even! Nico begged for someone to come put him out of his misery.
“Jason!” Nico whined as he zipped up yet another hoodie, hoping that the extra layers would help him forget how warm and delicate Will’s hands had been on his skin. “We’re not talking about this!”
“Look, all I’m saying is Will knows how closed off you are when it comes to being close to people to begin with! Not to mention that he is also aware that you’re not totally comfortable with being gay yet either!” Jason explained to his friend. “If he does have feelings for you… which everyone in camp pretty much already suspects he does... he’s certainly not going to tell you first and risk losing you as a friend. You mean too much to him, Nico.”
...
“Hmm…” Nico hummed, coming back to focus on the blonde. “Are you sure that’s all it is?” He asked, trying his best to look gentle as he addressed Will. The son of Apollo bit his lip and nodded, he was definitely hiding something, the guilt was clear on his face.
“Mmm hmm… just tired. Surgery will do that to you… ya know, anesthesia and all...” He tried to laugh it off, but it just sounded nervous. Nico watched as the boy seemed to be internally screaming at himself to get a grip, he knew that look very well.
“Well okay then.” Nico took a small breath to steady his nerves and gently pulled Will’s hand to his lips, he pressed a gentle kiss to the soft, tan skin and then rubbed his thumb over the spot. His face was probably on fire now, but he managed to smile at Will. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you. You’re my favorite patient you know?” He told him, just how Will always did when he forced him to spend the night in the infirmary. The argument about who could use what powers and when could wait for another time. Carefully, Nico stood up, making sure he didn’t go too fast, he didn’t need any dizzy spells ruining this and causing Will to worry even more, the poor boy had been through enough trauma in the past few days. Slowly, he went to the little linen closet, this was the room that Nico typically stayed in after all, he knew where everything was. “I hide the softest blankets in here just for you.” Another one of the one liners the blonde always used on him.
“Nico?” Will’s face was flushed and he looked a little confused. “What are you-”
“Shh.” Nico came back and put the soft, black and grey blanket over the boy, it was suspiciously out of place compared to the other blankets used in the infirmary. “Let me take care of you this time.” He stood by the bed and ran his hand through the messy blonde hair, he’d always wondered if the curls were as soft as they looked, and now was the perfect time to find out… because if Will didn’t like it, Nico would just tell him that he’d imagined it while he was high on pain medication or something. It wasn’t the best plan, but the son of Hades would argue it was all worth it when Will smiled up at him like that.
“You know Neeks…” Will’s face was redder than Nico had ever seen it. “I’m still your doctor… and I think it would be very irresponsible of me to let you continue to be up and about so soon after you passed out from overusing your powers…”
“Oh? Is that so, Dr. Solace ?” Nico chuckled a bit, choosing to play this out to see where Will was going with it instead of getting hung up on the infuriating nickname. He was pretty sure he could guess what Will was after, but he was going to let him get away with it only because he was hurt and only this once.
“Yes, it’s so.” Will smiled a little brighter as he started to gain a little more confidence when he realized what was happening between the two of them. “You need to lay down and rest, but you can’t very well walk all that way back to the other room unsupervised, and I’m not supposed to get out of bed… so -” Will’s blush was starting to return with a vengeance. “- you’ll just have to lay down with me?”
“Are you asking me or telling me Solace?” Nico teased, earning a pout from the blonde that made him laugh.
“I’m telling you!” He complained, lifting up the blanket and patting the spot beside him. “Now come lay down!” He demanded, still pouting at Nico. “Doctor’s Orders!” He added for good measure. Nico rolled his eyes a little, smiling softly as he very carefully moved to lay down. The son of Hades was extremely careful not to jostle Will or bump his ribs or his leg as he got into the tiny bed beside the blonde. He let Will get comfortable snuggled up against his side, which pretty much meant he was hugging Nico’s arm and using his shoulder as a pillow, but that was fine with the smaller boy, Will was nice and warm.
“You know, William, I don’t fight minotaurs or risk turning into a shadow for just anyone… you must be pretty special to me...” He was blushing like crazy as soon as the words left his mouth, but Jason was right, he had to be the one to tell Will how he felt first. “Don’t go letting it go to your head though! We are not snuggling all the time, so you better not get used to it!”
“Sure, sure. No snuggling.” Will smiled, hugging Nico’s arm closer, he totally didn’t believe that the ‘no snuggling’ rule was going to last very long judging by the way the Hades boy was shifting closer to him already.
“I mean it, Solace!” Nico blushed. “No snuggling!” He didn’t sound so sure this time though. The blonde really was going to be the death of him.
“Yeah, I heard you the first time, di Angelo!” Will laughed a little bit and then sighed contently, taking a moment to enjoy Nico’s closeness before he spoke again. “In all seriousness though… thank you for coming to rescue me, Nico. Things would have been a lot different if you hadn’t been there to protect me from that monster.” He pressed a shy kiss to the boy’s cheek to show his appreciation. Nico laid there, frozen for a moment before he decided he could really get used to the gentle feeling of Will’s kisses. He smiled a bit and turned to him carefully, pressing a soft, tender kiss to the blonde’s forehead.
“I’ll always be there for you when you need me, Will.” He promised. “Just like you’re always there for me when I need you.”