Chapter Text
“I still can’t believe how late we stayed up preparing for this!”
Will sighed, realizing he had raised his voice more than he meant to, as the chatter of mortals surrounded him and Nico di Angelo. The 15th annual convention featuring Mythomagic, Inc. surrounded the two boys, as Will scanned Nico’s face for any indication that Will had finally scared him off.
Instead, Will was met with merely an eye roll, as Nico returned his attention to the convention in full swing around them.
“Once again, I could have gotten here just fine on my own. All I really did was mention it to you and suddenly you insisted on coming along.” Even as he said this, Nico looked exhausted. He had leaned slightly into Will as they were walking into the convention, and Will would be lying if he didn’t admit he missed the physical connection between them when they inevitably broke apart. Whether or not this feeling made him a bad healer, Will couldn’t tell.
While his health had improved considerably since he returned to Camp Half-Blood last August,
(a fact which Will was proud of him for), shadow-traveling, especially long distances like that from New York to California, still took a significant physical toll. Still, Nico no longer needed hours to recover from each trip, and the way his brown eyes widened as he took in the sight of the convention center, Will was hopeful that Nico continued to recover from last summer.
“How could I not come? What if something happened to you and you couldn’t shadow travel back to camp?”
“What if something happens at camp while you’re here?” Nico countered. “Isn’t today Capture the Flag night?”
“It is, but I trust that my siblings, and know they will have everything under control.”
Nico raised an eyebrow at Will’s statement, as if compelling Will to say more. The son of Hades may not have been able to charmspeak, but Will found himself relenting anyway. “Fine.” he confessed. “I left them a note detailing exactly what to do when when things go wrong.”
“When?” Nico asked, rolling his eyes as he did so.
“Sherman Yang and Connor Stoll are opposing team captains, so… yes, when.”
“How long?”
Will tilted his head as he looked back at Nico. “What?”
“How long was the note, Solace?”
Will sighed. “Five pages.”
“That sounds more like you.” Nico muttered, though there didn’t seem to be any malice in his expression.
“Incredibly well organized and prepared?” Will teased.
“A control freak.” Nico deadpanned. “Regretting being away from camp already?” he asked, giving Will a faint smirk as he did so.
Will didn’t know how to tell Nico that no, he was not regretting where he was, and he regretted his choice of company even less. Given the fact that what he would consider a bolder attempt at flirting would likely make Nico want to shadow-travel halfway across the world, though, Will kept that thought to himself.
Will shouldered the strap of his messenger bag over his chiton. The costumes had been Nico’s idea, one he had almost abandoned at one point before Will had sighed and promised to dress up as well. As they were attending the convention for the Mythomagic content, (Will had been disappointed to learn that there would not be a reason for him to cosplay as a Jedi), they both wore chitons that Nico had found in the basement of the Big House. With each having a costume that matched the color schemes often associated with their fathers, Will wondered how many other attendees would want to dress up, too. He also didn’t try to argue that his father preferred T-shirts and cuffed jeans to togas these days.
Will was glad that dressing up meant Nico dressed up, too. He looked over at the son of Hades, finding a rare smile on Nico’s face as he looked around the exhibitions at the convention. For a moment, his expression made him look like an excitable kid again, until Will took in his entire outfit.
A silver spiked crown adorned Nico’s jet-black hair. He wore a black chiton pinned with a skull pin, donning silver lace-up sandals that matched the skull ring he always wore. Any attendees familiar with Mythomagic would know Nico dressed like the Lord of the Dead.
Will, on the other hand, felt his costume was less obvious. His golden sandals matched the crown of laurels on his head, his belt, and the embroidered details on his white chiton. A sun pin held his golden cloak in place, the design matching the tattoo one of the Hermes kids had given him a few months ago. His brother Austin had tried to give him a small golden lyre to sell the whole “Apollo, god of music” look, but he had placed it in his messenger bag almost as soon as they arrived. He wasn’t entirely sure whether he wanted people to immediately think “Apollo” when they looked at him, anyway.
“You look like a king, Death Boy.”“So do you, Sunshine.”
“Yeah, well my dad probably would have struck me down himself if I dressed up as anyone but him. Or worse, he would have come to camp just to whine about how I betrayed him.”
Nico smirked at that. “Probably,” he responded before running to a table with a large “Mythomagic” banner hanging above it. They had just barely moved ahead in the line to see the figurines (as Will so often heard Nico correct the younger kids at camp when they called them dolls) when Will heard a voice coming from behind them.
“Oh, this is just too good.”
__________________________
Will suddenly grabbed Nico’s hand as Nico’s other hand reached for the Stygian iron sword at his hip. Two seconds later, he reluctantly dropped Nico’s hand as they came face-to-face with Frank Zhang, Jason Grace standing about a foot behind him.
“Frank!” Nico shouted at the same time that Will blurted out, “What are you two doing here?”
“Hi, Nico. Will.” Jason said, giving a shy wave in Will’s direction, before turning to face Nico, giving him a look with his eyebrows raised. Nico had dropped Will’s hand as soon as he realized it wasn’t a monster that had approached him. Will realized he was frowning slightly, looking up just as Nico asked, “What are you two doing here?"“Frank had the weekend off from praetor duties, and wanted to visit the convention. I was overseeing some temple construction in New Rome and decided to tag along.” Jason answered, his focus still on Nico.
“New Rome, huh?” Nico asked. “How’s my sister doing?”
“You can ask her yourself,” another voice answered from behind Jason and Frank, as Hazel Levesque appeared from behind them. Unlike Frank, who wore his praetor’s uniform over his other clothes, Hazel and Jason were simply dressed in T-shirts and jeans.
“Hazel! What are you doing here?” Nico asked.
“Trying to keep these two dorks from ruining the surprise! You weren’t supposed to know we were here!” Hazel admitted.
Nico frowned at that, taking a slight step back away from the group, before Jason quickly added, “We were trying to plan a surprise for your birthday.”
Hazel sighed, as Will suddenly noticed the plastic bag in her hand, with what looked like the Mythomagic logo printed on the side.
Apparently, Frank, Hazel, and Jason had come up with the same idea Will had. As much as Will had grumbled about Nico’s shadow traveling to this convention, he was somewhat relieved when Nico had mentioned it. With Nico’s birthday only two weeks away, Will found himself starting to panic as he had yet to get him a present.
He hoped to find the perfect gift for Nico while they were here, even going so far as to ask Chiron to let him organize files in the Big House for a cut of the camp’s strawberry money. He had quickly realized, however, that he wouldn’t be able to pull off any surprise with Nico there the whole time.
Will dug through his bag as he thought, looking for the leather wallet that held his cash, finding that Nico was gone when he looked up again. Looking around, he quickly realized Hazel and Frank were gone too.
“Don’t worry, they didn’t leave us stranded.” Jason reassured him, after noticing the likely confused expression on Will’s face. “Frank saw a display for a new feature of the game Nico would want to see, and Hazel tagged along with them. Apparently there’s a tournament later that they were thinking about entering.”
Will looked at Jason, unable to keep a small frown off his face at how Nico had just left him there with Jason. Even after the six months that Jason had spent at camp before the Argo II set sail, Will still didn’t know what to make of the son of Jupiter. Jason, for his part, had spent most of his time with Piper and Leo after their first quest. Now, he was going to school in California, and last Will had heard from Nico, he and Piper had broken up.
With Jason having more time to spend with Nico whenever he went out to California, especially since the breakup, Will didn’t know how Nico would ever have feelings for him. If Nico had crushed on Percy (as Nico had told him in confidence a few weeks ago, after Will had come out to Nico himself), and was even closer with someone as heroic as Jason Grace, Will didn’t think he could compete. Even though his mama would tell him it wasn’t a competition, and Will knew that Nico could hang out with whoever he wanted, that didn’t shut down his instinct to compare Nico’s relationship with him to the one he shared with the son of Jupiter.
“So,” Will started awkwardly, “What was that surprise y’all were planning for Nico?”
Jason smiled, his small scar tugging up the corner of his lip. “We wanted to get him the newest expansion pack for his birthday, so we decided to all chip in and surprise him with it.” After a moment where Jason looked like he wanted to say more, he asked the question Will had been dreading. “Have you gotten him anything yet?”
Will paused for a moment, contemplating whether or not to confide in Jason. “I kind of had the same idea as you all,” Will finally responded, “without knowing exactly what to get him.”
“Did you want to chip in with us?” Jason asked suddenly. “The gift is technically from Reyna, too, but she had to tend to her responsibilities as praetor since Frank was coming with us.”
“I kind of wanted to get him something that, well… that was just from me.” Will responded. Jason nodded, as Will thought he saw him smile.
“Well, whatever you decide to get him, I’m sure it will be great.” Jason reassured him, pausing for a moment before adding, “I’m glad you two have been hanging out. It’s clear that you care about Nico. I’m glad he has that.” Will simply nodded, fiddling with a friendship bracelet one of his younger siblings had made him.
“I just don’t know what to get him,” Will sighed. “I know he enjoyed this game even before he knew he was a demigod, and that he’s the only one of the people we know who’s really into it, which is why he asked me to come with him today.” Jason raised his eyebrows, frowning at this comment, but he didn’t say anything as Will continued. “But what if I get him the wrong gift? I can’t mess this up. Will you help me?” Will blurted out.
Jason seemed taken aback initially, but smiled as he nodded. “Of course!” He scanned the view of the convention hall for a moment before continuing, a small smile on his face. “For what it’s worth, I think the fact that you are so worried about what to get him is a good thing.”
Will stared at him incredulously. “What do you mean?” Will asked. “I’ve been stressing about this for weeks!”
“Okay, that came out wrong,” Jason prefaced. “Of course you being stressed out isn’t a good thing. And I really do think Nico will love anything you decide to get him. What I was trying to point out was how much you care about getting Nico a present he would appreciate. For me, even though we still don’t know each other that well, it shows how much you value your friendship. We could all use a relationship like that.”
Will continued fidgeting with the bracelet on his wrist, but found himself returning Jason’s smile. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about it like that. Thanks, Jason. And, um, I’m sorry about you and Piper.”
Jason seemed to wince slightly at Will’s last statement, and maybe Will had overstepped when alluding to his breakup with Piper. Before Will could apologize, though, Jason reassured him. “It’s okay, Will. I guess word travels fast at camp.”
“I don’t think everyone knows,” Will prefaced. “I first found out because of Drew, actually. She was bringing a suspicious amount of ice cream back to Cabin Ten from the dining pavilion one night, and I wanted to make sure no one was sick. She only told me the basics, then Nico confirmed it when I asked if there was anything we could do.”
“I’m glad her and Pipes,” Jason paused before amending, “uh Piper, are getting along. You witnessed their first meeting on the beach last year.”
“I did,” Will laughed. “Luckily I had to show Leo around once he got claimed, so I had the means to escape not long after.”
“Meanwhile, Drew all but jumped at the chance to be my tour guide,” a small smile briefly returning, as Jason likely remembered his initial arrival at camp.
“Do you regret dating Piper?” Will blurted out, before his brain could tell his mouth to shut up. While Will probably should have followed that question with something along the lines of “You don’t have to answer that,” Jason had an answer for him surprisingly quickly.
“I regret… how messy everything got. That isn’t Piper’s fault.” Jason looked towards the convention hall skylight, seemingly deciding it would be wiser to not finish that thought. Will could deduce what Jason would have said, anyway.
“If space is what she needs before we try being friends again, then I’m happy to give her that." Jason continued. “That’s another reason why I’ve spent most of my time at Camp Jupiter. I don’t want her to feel like she has to avoid Camp Half-Blood and our friends just to get space from me. Plus, it helps to be close by while I’m planning the designs for the new additions to Temple Hill.”
Will remained silent as they walked, figuring that any platitudes he could offer after Jason’s admission would merely sound empty, hollow. His father may be the god of poetry, but if Will’s earlier interrogation was any indication, he wasn’t blessed with any special abilities in that aspect of his father’s realm.
“For what it’s worth,” Will added as they walked, not sure how Jason would react to what he was going to say, “you have relationships like that, too. People who care about you, I mean. And not just in the romantic sense.”
Jason just nodded, waving him back towards the tables covered with Mythomagic merchandise. “Come on, let’s find the perfect gift for our favorite son of Hades.”
__________________________
Despite the amount of times Nico had explained the game to Will, and the few times they had tried to play before, he was still shocked by just how many Mythomagic-themed items there were for him to buy. Card sets, posters, expansion packs, figurines.
They even saw some video games for various consoles, which led to Jason mentioning something about Leo and “idiot mode” as they walked past. Will decided he didn’t even want to know what that meant, as he had enough on his mind just trying to get Nico a birthday present.
Will would be lying if he didn’t say that a few items had caught his eye on Nico’s behalf, especially since they’d arrived at the convention hall that morning. Every time he considered one for more than a few seconds, however, Will always seemed to be able to find a flaw with the gift: it wasn’t personal enough, he didn’t think Nico would want it, it was too shiny (Jason raised his eyebrows when Will uttered that last one, but didn’t ask Will to elaborate).
Over the past few months, he had begun to understand how much the game really meant to Nico, and that just amplified the pressure to find the perfect gift in Will’s mind. He and Jason still hadn’t made any progress, but both quickly hid signs of their frustration when they ran into Nico again.
“Hey! Did you and Frank register for that contest?” Jason asked, quickly going to stand beside his friend.
“Tournament, Jason, and yes, we did.” Nico responded, as Will couldn’t help but smile. If Will had a dollar for every time Nico corrected his terminology surrounding this game, he wouldn’t have needed to fund Nico’s birthday present with the camp’s strawberry money.
The crowds seem to have grown in size since he and Nico had separated, Will noticed as he scanned he convention hall once again. Nico explained that Hazel and Frank had wandered off in search of an expansion pack Nico already owned, and that he decided to find the two of them and give the couple some time together.
Lofted ceilings with rows of circular fluorescent lights illuminated the convention hall. The sun was shining through the large window centered over where they stood, higher in the sky than when they first arrived earlier that morning. Despite the milder climate outside, and the crowds that surrounded their group, Will couldn’t help but shiver, almost like a stream of winter air suddenly seeped into the convention hall.
Will had barely a moment to think about the sudden chill before they heard a deep voice boom over the bustle of the crowd behind them.
“I have been waiting a long time to see you again, Nico di Angelo.”