Chapter Text
College wasn’t what Will Solace was expecting. Of course, he knew his classes were going to be hard, so that’s not what was so surprising. He was a pre-med student, planning to be a doctor like his father. First and second semester weren’t too bad, but he could already tell by his third semester coursework that the next few years were going to suck.
Nor was the surprising part the rampant vigilante activity in New York. Texas didn’t have nearly as many superpowered people running around, but Will knew the kind of reputation New York had. Will had done his research, and although he was a little disappointed to see that the only superpowered person at NYU was the Ghost King, a terrifying maybe-villain who was cloaked in mystery and moving shadows (and the occasional skeleton), he wasn’t surprised. In fact, he’d barely even seen the Ghost King since starting college, mostly because Will’s idea of a productive night meant studying while waiting for his laundry to finish, not prowling around the city at night searching for a man cloaked in literal shadows.
No, the truly unexpected thing about college was Nico di Angelo. The only things Will knew about Nico was that he was a classics major who had a weird sleeping schedule, a grumpy attitude, and very strong opinions on coffee. Will had no idea that he could fall for someone as quickly as he fell for Nico di Angelo, but he was gone the minute he heard Nico correcting their teacher’s recounting of a Greek Myth under his breath. Of course, it helped that Nico was the hottest guy Will had ever seen.
Nico di Angelo was five feet and six inches of pure, lithe muscles and flawless olive skin. Will’s mouth went dry whenever they ran into each other in the hallway or the bathroom, and his mind thought of those rumors about Nico’s abs whenever he tried to sleep. He was fairly confident that Nico had no idea who he was, but Will spent way too much time being very aware of Nico’s existence ever since their shared writing class in first semester.
Will was as head over heels as one could possibly be for someone he’d never really spoken to before. No matter what his roommate Cecil said about Nico’s supposed “dark past”, Will couldn’t stop his palms from being sweaty or his heartbeat from racing when he thought of Nico, even when Nico looked like a sleep-deprived wreck with his raven-black hair all adorably messy. But again, he didn’t think Nico even knew his name. He was just the hot neighbor that Will pined after from afar.
Until now. Because of course, Nico di Angelo had a habit of always doing the unexpected thing. Like showing up at Will’s room at one thirty in the morning, arms crossed and a scowl on his face. He had bags under his incredibly pretty espresso-colored eyes and his black t-shirt was ripped in a way that definitely proved those rumors about him having abs. Will’s throat was very much dry and his heart was very much racing and he was probably very much staring at Nico’s lips.
“You’re a pre-med student right?” Nico asked, and Will realized Nico was holding a phone in his hand.
Will tried to force his mouth to produce coherent words. That didn’t work, so he just nodded. He was really making a fool of himself, huh?
Nico pushed the phone in his direction. “Please tell my sister that I’m fine.”
“Um…why am I doing that?” Will asked.
Nico rolled his eyes. “Because she won’t stop annoying me until I see a doctor, and I hate hospitals, so you’re the next best thing.”
“Me?” Will squeaked. The last few brain cells Will had managed to hang onto just did a belly-flop right out of his skull because was that a compliment did Nico di Angelo just compliment him–
“Don’t let it go to your head, Solace,” Nico grumbled. “Just tell my sister I’m not hurt so we can both go to bed.”
“Okay…?” Will glanced Nico over, and frowned. Now that he was looking, the other boy did seem a little worse for wear. His skin was pale, and Will could see a collection of sickly yellow bruises up and down his arms. Through the rips of Nico’s destroyed t-shirts, Will could see something dark red– “What the fuck Nico, are you bleeding ?”
Nico’s eyes widened, like Will had just betrayed him. He yanked the phone away, saying, “I was bleeding, but I’m not anymore, so it’s fine, everything’s fine, and Hazel you can stop worrying now!” He hung up the phone before Hazel, his sister apparently, could respond.
“No, you’re not fine,” Will said, dragging Nico into his dorm room and closing the door behind him. “That cut is going to get infected.”
“I stuck a bandaid on it, I’m not stupid,” Nico grumbled. “I’ve had worse.”
Will all but man-handled Nico into his desk chair, pulling out his emergency first aid kit. “Take your shirt off, di Angelo.”
“What? Come on, you’re not even a real doctor.”
Will glared at him. “It’s this or the hospital.”
Nico rolled his eyes, taking off his tattered black shirt. “You’re worse than my sister.”
The bandaid in question was a Hello Kitty bandaid stuck haphazardly over the cut, which stretched across the entire left side of Nico’s stomach. He glared at Nico, and Nico shrugged back as if, I put a bandaid on it, what else do you want from me?
Will was wincing internally just looking at the collection of bruises crossing Nico’s pale chest. To be fair to Nico, the cut wasn’t as bad as Will first thought, even though it would need stitches. Like Nico said, it had mostly stopped bleeding, though Will did his best to clean up the area around the cut, just in case.
“You’re going to need stitches,” Will said. “So I can do it, or I can drive you to the hospital.”
“Just stick the needle in me already, Solace,” Nico grumbled.
Will refused to blush at that. Nope, he didn’t, he was a professional. Or, as much of a professional as he could be while stitching someone up in his messy dorm room (gods, Will was really hoping Nico didn’t see the pile of unfolded laundry sitting beside his bed).
He did his best to keep his hands steady as he carefully stitched up Nico’s wound.
“How did you even get this?” Will asked, frowning. Knowing how dark and mysterious Nico was, he was probably doing something insanely cool that had all the girls (and Will) swooning at his feet.
“Would you believe me if I said I fell down some stairs?” Nico grumbled.
Will smirked. “Those must’ve been some sharp stairs.”
He leaned back, checking the stitches, before pulling out a fresh bandage that would actually fit.
“Just to make sure…you’re not, like, in a mafia or anything are you?”
Nico stiffened. “Why would you say that?”
Will’s head shot up from where he was adjusting the bandage. “That wasn’t a no, di Angelo.”
Nico’s eyes widened, and then narrowed. “Shut up, Solace.”
Will grinned. “That also wasn’t a no. Cecil is gonna be so pissed at me for inviting a mafia member in here.”
“I’m not in the mafia–”
“Sounds like something a mafia member would say.”
“Solace, I swear to god, if you don’t stop–”
“You’ll have me sleeping with the fishes?” Will asked.
Nico glared at him, and in the silence, Will suddenly realized that he was still inches away from Nico’s face. Will felt his cheeks heat up as he quickly moved away from Nico.
“Well, your sister can sleep peacefully knowing you got checked out by a sort-of-doctor.”
Nico scowled as he got to his feet. “I think next time I’ll just go to the hospital, thanks.”
But even as he said the words, Will could see the corners of Nico’s lips quirk upwards, like he was holding back a smile, and Will’s heart started fluttering in his chest. Wow. He’d made it through a whole conversation with Nico di Angelo and he hadn’t even said anything embarrassing. Cecil was going to be so impressed– well, he would be if he didn’t decide to kill Will for telling Nico how Cecil thought Nico was in the mafia.
“Make sure you don’t overexert yourself,” Will warned as Nico put his shirt back on, getting ready to leave. “And stay away from sharp stairs, di Angelo. Actually, just take the elevator. Doctor’s orders.”
Nico looked back at him, rolling his eyes. Will wondered if Nico could tell how obviously Will was trying to get him to stay.
“You really are worse than my sister. What are you going to do, ground me?”
Will winced internally. If Nico was comparing Will to his sister, then wow, yeah, Will really didn’t have much of a chance. Not that Will had a chance anyway. If Nico was into guys (which, judging by the way he once said Oscar Wilde was one of his favorite authors, Will was pretty sure he was. Or maybe that was just Will’s own idealism), then he would be into cool, hot guys who wore leather and went to parties and rode motorcycles and didn’t take the long way home from Chipotle to avoid any seedy alleyways where the Ghost King might be lurking. Will could never be Nico’s type, even if Nico was absolutely Will’s. But hey, a guy could dream. And, wow, Will was going to be having a lot of dreams, especially about the way Nico looks shirtless (because, wow, Will knows what that looks like now, what the fuck).
“Switch out that bandage tomorrow or I’m going to break into your room and do it for you,” Will said, trying to go for lighthearted teasing while trying very hard not to think about him and Nico, in Nico’s room, alone, with no roommate to interrupt them. He wasn’t doing a very good job.
“Are you threatening me?”
“Is it going to work?”
Nico laughed, shaking his head. Will could hear that laugh on repeat for the rest of his life and still never get tired of it. With one last goodbye, Nico left the room, and Will was already counting down the seconds until he’d see Nico again.