Chapter Text
The stars began to light up the darkening evening sky above Nico as he and his boyfriend, Will Solace, pushed their stolen canoe out onto Camp Half-Blood Lake. Nico sat on one end while Will allowed the canoe to slide into the water before unsteadily stepping in and plopping himself down on the opposite seat. Once they were completely settled on the narrow wooden seats, Will took up the task of paddling them to the center of the lake, where they would (hopefully) remain undetected by the camp harpies, who were sticklers for making sure the campers followed curfew. If they were caught, the punishment could go one of two ways: they would have to do all the dishes for an entire week, or they get eaten alive, depending on how hangry the camp harpies happened to be that night. Both punishments were equally awful, but the boys decided they would risk it tonight. It had been Nico's idea to sneak out while everyone was distracted while walking back after dinner. It was relatively easy for them to slip away and hide out in the bushes by the docks, and they didn't have to wait long for nightfall. Once the campers were in their cabins and Chiron had retired to the Big House for the night, they rushed to grab a canoe and soundlessly entered the dark, glossy water.
Canoeing had become a favorite activity of theirs over the past few months that they've been together. Nico, who was usually (and rightfully so) scared of large open bodies of water, felt uncharacteristically safe when Will was in the canoe with him. He supposed that this feeling of safety when he should be terrified is what ultimately prompted Nico to convince Will to take canoe rides with him time and time again- it was almost like an adrenaline high to him. It didn't take much to convince Will, though- he loved being outside and spending time with Nico. Besides, Will would be lying if he said he didn't kind of love the way Nico stared at his arms while he rowed the boat. Will knows his boyfriend tries to be sneaky about it, but while he's sneaky in most every other aspect of his life, pretending like he isn't staring at Will was not one of them. For this reason, Will had purposely forgone his usual flannel in favor of just wearing his orange CHB shirt. This time, though, Nico was facing away from Will, watching the dark water gently split around the tip of the boat as they made their way to their destination. Will wasn't sure if Nico was staring at some stray nereids below them or deep in thought, but he decided to keep quiet, letting the soft sounds of the wooden oars slipping into the water fill his ears.
Nico turned to face his boyfriend once Will decided to stop paddling, allowing the canoe to slowly slide along with the small waves the gentle evening wind created. With the full moon above them shining brightly, Nico could make out most of Will's features- his tanned skin, his light blue eyes, his curly blonde hair that touched the tips of his ears, even the bit of acne dotting his cheeks. Nico gave him a soft smile and sighed contently as Will took both of Nico's hands in his.
"I'm glad you suggested this," Will said, cutting through the silence of the night, his Texan accent sneaking in ever so slightly. Nico wished he wouldn't try to hide it so much- he found the Southern drawl endearing. "This is much more peaceful." Nico knew what he meant- there were no campers splashing around or threatening to tip their canoe or teasing them (Will's siblings were menaces). It was all light-hearted, but it got annoying quickly, which had put an end to their canoe trips for the last couple of weeks. Nico squeezed Will's hands gently in agreement. He had missed their canoeing dates.
"I'm glad you had the balls to sneak out with me this time," Nico teased. Will scoffed in mock offense.
"After all we've been through, you think I'm scared of getting caught by some harpies for breaking curfew?"
Nico's eyebrows drew together slightly as he stared at Will. "Aren't you?"
Will looked Nico in the eye and tried to lie, he really did, but for some reason he couldn't. Something about those deep, dark brown eyes compelled him to tell the truth. He felt like if he didn't, he would be damned to Tartarus.
"...yeah," Will finally admitted, looking down ashamedly. That made both of them burst into laughter and then quickly quiet themselves before they were overheard. Even after the fearsome monsters they've faced, the wars they've fought, and their journey underground to help Apollo regain his seat on Olympus, harpies still terrified Will. They go by their own form of justice after hours- who knew whether they would alert Chiron of their activities and allow him to decide their fate or if they would just eat them where they sat. Will shuddered thinking about all the campers who have gone missing who were probably just taken by the Camp Half Blood harpy vigilantes. That was the main reason he usually denied Nico's invitations to sneak out at night.
Nico blushed after their fit of laughter and looked down at their hands, smiling a little. No one had ever been able to make Nico di Angelo laugh as much as Will. He was just so funny and easy to be around, Nico simply didn't feel the need to put up his defenses around his boyfriend anymore. He felt a small thump on the top of his head and realized Will had placed his head against his own. The son of Hades looked up a little, forcing Will's head to move with him, causing their foreheads to touch, then their noses. Nico's blush hadn't died down and he heard Will chuckle softly. Whether it was a nervous chuckle or from seeing him flustered, Nico wasn't sure, but it made his heart swell in affection and the skeletal butterflies in his stomach set in motion. They sat quietly for a moment, just breathing each other in (Will smelled like a mix of cologne and a warm summer day. Nico wasn't sure how a person could smell like a certain time of the year, but Will managed to do it). After a moment, Nico began to feel a little impulsive. Will's lips were right there, just centimetres away. Nico had been wanting to kiss Will for weeks, hell, months, but neither of them ever seemed to have the courage to do it. Nico wasn't one for showing affection to others, especially in a public area, but this was Will. And they were alone. And it was dark. And his lips were right. There.
Before he could change his mind, Nico shut his eyes, deftly closed the space between them, and kissed Will Solace. Nico felt Will squeeze his hands in surprise before quickly returning the kiss, their lips attempting to work with each other. Nico felt an intense heat suddenly wash over him. Will had a natural warmth to him- as most children of Apollo probably do- and Nico knew he was blushing pretty intensely and his heart was about to beat out of his chest, but this was an abnormal amount of heat, even given the circumstances. He decided to ignore it, focusing on gently kissing Will over and over, knowing they were safe from prying eyes or teasing siblings, this was the perfect first kiss for them. The kiss was light, and..wait, it's literally light. A brightness danced across Nico's eyelids, forcing him to screw his eyes shut tighter out of habit- Nico was sure it was just his body responding to their first kiss..right? Was this what people meant when they said 'sparks fly' when you're around your significant other? Nico carefully pulled back from the kiss and opened his eyes a tad. Then his eyes widened and he jumped back suddenly as a bright light nearly blinded him. His sudden movements caused the canoe to rock dangerously beneath them, the resulting waves making a loud splashing noise. He quickly shielded his eyes and couldn't help but to keep trying to stare at what was in front of him. Had the harpies found them? Was this a new tactic of theirs where they blind their victims before devouring them? Nico's eyes slowly worked to get used to the brightness so he could make sense of what exactly was in front of him.
"Will, are you...glowing?" he asked quietly, astonished. Nico carefully moved his arm away from his eyes and properly stared at his boyfriend. Will Solace, son of Apollo, was emitting a bright light. Will didn't say anything at first, eyes wide, looking sheepish and staring over the side of the canoe into the dark water. The blush all over his face was even more obvious thanks to his illumination. Slowly, with some deep, meditative breaths, the light faded, and Will returned to his normal amount of human brightness.
"Please don't tell anyone," was all he said. Nico found his hand was covering his mouth, though he wasn't sure if it was because he was shocked or trying to suppress a laugh, because of course a child of the sun god could fucking glow in the dark. How much more cliche could you get? Nico realized he had probably been silent for too long and quickly took Will's too-warm hands in his own again to comfort him.
"I won't tell, but...what the Hades was that? Have you always been able to do that?," Nico quizzed, dying for more information. He slowly blinked his eyes a few times, trying to get rid of the stars dancing across them from staring directly into the fucking sun. Will slowly met Nico's blinking eyes, blush still heavy on his cheeks.
"Yeah, I guess. Usually I can control it, but you shocked me and got me all excited, I couldn' help it. Shit, are you okay?" Will suddenly had his hands on Nico's cheeks, staring deeply into his eyes, looking for any sign of damage. Nico felt himself blush from the touch alone.
Nico suddenly found himself smiling on the inside- Will, probably one of the smartest and most capable demigods he knew, also had a power he sometimes lost control over. It was kind of cute, it made him seem more...human, to Nico. Despite his brilliance when it came to medicine and healing, Will wasn't perfect. Nico already knew that, but it was nice to see some evidence of that imperfection every once in a while.
"I didn't mean to scare you, I-I just...the timing felt right," admitted Nico through slightly-squished cheeks. Will's eyes widened. He quickly withdrew his hands from Nico's face, making Nico briefly worry that he had done the wrong thing by suddenly kissing Will. Was it still too soon? Was the kiss bad??
"No no no no, don't be sorry, it's not your fault." He squeezed Nico's hands once he saw how worried Nico looked. "Just caught me off-guard, is all. I liked it, I like being with you." Will gave Nico a small smile. He knew he wasn't glowing anymore, but Nico felt like the world brightened every time Will Solace smiled. Given this new experience, maybe the world literally did brighten a little bit. Then suddenly Nico felt Will's lips on his, making his heart stutter briefly, the skeletal butterflies fluttered around inside him once again. Nico kissed him back for a moment before pulling away slightly.
"Well keep it under control, we're lucky the harpies didn't see us and come clean the flesh off our bones for being out after curfew."
With that visual in mind, Will picked up the forgotten oars.
"Maybe we should start heading back before it gets too late, then. I'm not sure I can guarantee that I won't have another flash attack," Will admitted. Nico smirked a little.
"Aye, aye, cap'n." He sat back and watched as his boyfriend rowed them back to shore, not even attempting to hide his stares of admiration. The soft sound of splashing water allowed them to relax again after their ordeal. Nico felt content- he had made a first move in the next steps of their relationship and he had made his partner quite literally light up in excitement. He felt powerful.
"So do you have different settings, like a flashlight?" Nico teased. "Do you have a dimmer? Ooh! Do you have a 'nightlight' mode?" No way was Nico going to let Will live this down.
"'Nightlight' mode? What, scared of the dark, di Angelo?" Will countered, deliberately avoiding the question about having a dimmer. He smirked at his now-blushing boyfriend sitting across from him.
"Shut up," was all Nico had to say to that. If it were anyone else, Nico would have been offended that someone would dare to ask him that, and he might threaten them just a little to remind them of who exactly he was, but Will knew more about Nico than the others did. During his time trying to bring the Athena Parthenos safely to Camp Half-Blood as a peace offering to the Romans before they destroyed Camp Half-Blood, Nico had shadow-traveled so much that he nearly melted into the darkness, ceasing to exist. Will safely brought him back from the brink, but now he had a renewed and intense fear of the dark- which felt silly to him, seeing as he was a child of Hades. Will liked to remind him of those days, where the darkness almost consumed him- not to scare him, but to remind him to take better care of himself, and to sit in the sun sometimes. Will didn't know the full extent of Nico's fear, though, since Nico was too afraid to admit it and therefore speak it into existence. Will read Nico's bashfulness more as a "nuh uh" response to his teasing, not as embarrassment over how right Will actually was. One day Nico would tell Will about that trauma, but for now he just focused on how safe he felt under the shining full moon and his boyfriend who could glow.
Nico broke out of this train of thought as the canoe gently struck the shore. Nico stood up and carefully hopped out of the unsteady canoe before helping Will dock the boat exactly how it was before they had left. The air felt cooler against Nico's skin than it did before they had left- he wasn't sure if the temperature was dropping or if the reminder of his own fears and mortality had chilled him to the core. He pulled his jacket tighter around him as he and Will scoped out the safest path back to the cabins. Under the cover of darkness and the sound of crickets chirping, they stealthily made their way to the Hades cabin, Will insisting that he could make his way back to his own cabin undetected without Nico's help. Nico offered to use shadow-travel to take them both there just to be extra safe, but for some reason that idea made Will look queasy. "It's your flesh on the line," Nico reminded him, shrugging nonchalantly. Will angrily whispered at him to stop talking about flesh so casually like that, he was staring to think Nico liked making him squirm. He would be correct, of course. Nico couldn't intimidate Will like he could the other campers, but he learned he could make Will squeamish with the right combination of words. Anything relating to flesh, rotting, zombies, and what happens to the human body after death made Will turn almost as pale as Nico. Will could suture the most brutal, gore-tastic wounds that go down to the bone without a problem but the moment the topic of decay comes up, Will taps out. Nico found this absolutely hilarious in his own twisted way. Will also, for some reason, hated shadow-traveling. Nico couldn't figure out why, he thought the feeling of rushing through the darkness was exhilarating, like riding a roller coaster. He supposed if someone didn't like roller coasters that shadow-traveling wouldn't be so much fun as it was terrifying. Maybe that was it, maybe Will didn't like roller coasters. Nico decided he would ask Will about that later, right now they had to safely evade being eaten by harpies. After all, he wouldn't be able to ask Will about roller coasters if they were both dead. After a few moments of trying to run as quietly as possible and ducking behind various trees and shrubbery, they arrived safely at Nico's cabin. Nico opened the creaky door, silently cursing at how loud it was. He would have to get someone from the Hephaestus cabin to fix that tomorrow, in case of any future possibilities of sneaking out at night. He stood in the doorway and turned back to his boyfriend, giving Will a pleading look, to which Will shook his head, smiling a little.
"You know I can't stay, I have to be in my own bed in the Apollo cabin at the crack of dawn- I'm the head counselor, they'll be lost without me there," he explained gently, though Nico already knew all of this. Nico huffed indignantly, crossing his arms. Nico knew Will could never stay the night, but he always tried, just in case. He thought maybe tonight's act of rebellion might have stirred up some more rebellious nature in Will. He had hoped Will might just stay for a little while this time, maybe just to hold him and make Nico feel safe some more. Maybe even be his nightlight for a bit. Will took his head counselor position seriously, though- he had a multitude of siblings to look after, unlike Nico. Nico also knew that Will's siblings could last one morning without their older brother, but he didn't tell Will that. He could see that Will liked being depended on- maybe a little too much.
"I know," he responded, still not happy with the answer. Will smiled softly, almost amused by his boyfriend's anger. The gentle light from the moon cascading down on them made Nico look smaller than usual to Will, and more vulnerable, more soft around the edges. He decided to cheer Nico up by leaning in and kissing him once again. Nico happily reciprocated, all his anger instantly melting away. Will was the first to pull away, smiling down at the younger demigod.
"I'll see you in a few hours for breakfast. Goodnight, Mr. Dark Lord," Will teased. Instead of glowering at him like he usually did, however, Nico just smirked.
"Goodnight, Sunshine." Will's look of surprise was perfectly illuminated by the moon (and a little bit by Will himself), giving Nico all the satisfaction he needed for the night as he shut his cabin door.