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Nico wasn't expecting anything much more than a regular day at Camp Half-Blood. As regular as a day a demigod can have, anyway, more so residing at Camp Half-Blood, an apparent hotspot for all sorts of trouble, given the insane battles he's fought while being the poster child for why children of Hades aren't people-oriented.
But whatever. Peace has arrived (for now), he is much more people-oriented (Jason says this is a huge improvement. Nico secretly agrees, but he will not be the one to tell Jason that), and he has a cute significant other on top of it. Life could be better, but also, it's never been much better than this, and it could be worse, so he isn't complaining and he is perfectly content to cuddle up to Will and pretend like he could get drunk off this—this feeling of happiness, for days and days on end.
Will is everything he isn't. Bright, cheery, very outgoing, kind to a fault, sharply sarcastic when he needs to be (as opposed to Nico, who tends to be blunt and sarcastic whether the situation calls for it or not), and very, very doting, in a strange Will-Solace-way.
So maybe Nico is often moody, introverted and has trouble with being as kind as him.
It isn't as if Will cares.
They complement each other, they're head over heels, and that's all they need, he often says on the rare occasion Nico lets go and opens up. They're one of the most iconic couples in camp (because Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase was a pair everybody was waiting literal years to get together, apparently. Honestly, Nico sees it. Percy is—was—a lovesick fool without realizing it) and nobody cares. That, to him, is, by far, the biggest novelty of it all.
The realization that he can be himself without fearing it. Knowing he can hold Will by the hand or the waist and not be terrified. That if anyone has a bone to pick with him over it, he's more than capable of fighting back, of having waves of supporters behind him, of being praised for being proud of who he is.
Yeah. Life is much easier when he isn't running away from himself. And the safest place in the world for him, to be honest. He kind of wishes he realized that before Jason and the others knocked some sense into him. Definitely before he managed to get tricked by a vicious old ghost and said some not-so-nice things to his older sister (whom he apologized to, but still).
Back to the point: Nico's normal day at Camp Half-Blood turns out to not be an average day when a knock sounds at the door of his cabin not long after Will appears to help him do a little spring-cleaning (it's summer, but Nico is feeling restless, and Will thinks it's better to do something productive).
"Hey, Nico," Will says as they strip down the bedsheets and pillowcases. "Do you think we'll ever have a life outside of camp one day?"
Nico glances at him. "I mean...unless we stay on as counsellors or head over to New Rome, I suppose we don't have much choice," he answers honestly.
"That's not what I mean," Will looks at him, his blue eyes reflecting unsurety. "I just...I meant, can we ever, I don't know, live as ourselves? Together? As plain Nico and Will without having to constantly worry about sacrificing everything because some insane god or deity decided they want absolute power?"
Nico's hands stop tucking in the new pillowcases. "Where is this coming from?" worry seeps into his tone. "Usually, this is stuff I'd be worrying about. Not you."
"I don't know," Will laughs weakly. "I just—thinking about all the campers we've lost, who've had people they loved, wanted lives with..." he pauses. "I think I just miss them more lately. The campers we've lost to the war with Kronos, and Gaia. I saw Percy and Annabeth the other day...and they looked so happy. And you know what the first thing I thought of was?"
"What, Will?" Nico asks quietly.
"How long are they going to be able to love each other like that?" Will looks absolutely devastated as he says it. "And then I thought, what about you and me?"
"Will," Nico whispers. "Will. I—don't—Will, I didn't know you worried about that..."
"Everyone does, Nico, even you," the blond boy says a little sharply. "We just don't try to talk about it, even though we should!"
"Will, listen to me," Nico finds the voice to speak up firmly. "Don't cut me off."
"I—"
"William Solace, we are fucking demigods," Nico says, crossing his arms over his chest in a display of uncharacteristic firmness over Will. "Nobody can predict how our lives will be. We can only predict that it'll be dangerous and full of nasty surprises. That's reality, Will, and coming from someone who was trapped in fucking Tartarus, I can tell you that it's something we need to accept."
Will stares at him.
"Because of that," Nico continues, "we need to accept that we could be torn away from each other at any moment. I wish I'd known that before Bianca was taken from me and I wish I knew that before I lost my mother. Before I did any of the stupid things that I did. That's why we need to fight as hard as we can before that can possibly happen. It's why we have to cherish each and every moment we have together before the Fates fuck us over again. Okay?"
Will continues to stare at him. "That's...true," he says after a while, rubbing a hand on his eyes, wiping away the few tears that formed. "Thanks for that, Nico. I knew I could count on you."
"Sure, sure," the darker-haired boy sighs, rolling his eyes fondly. "Next time, warn me before you go all sappy and sad on me. And please talk to me sooner about things."
Will opens his mouth to reply, but a knock on the door interrupts them. He goes to get it, and beams when he sees who it is. Nico cranes his head and sees that it's a boy from the Apollo cabin, one of their newer campers who arrived running from a monster in the middle of the night with his friend about a week or two ago, screaming his lungs off and scaring awake half the entire camp.
Nico had been the one to deal with it, summoning ten skeletons at once because he was actually sleeping through the night peacefully for once and the kids reminded him too much of himself and Bianca, scared of the world, and passed out in Will's arms as soon as he saw Chiron take the kids away to safety. Yes, he still struggles to use his powers a bit if it's beyond his limits; what about it?
In the morning, their parents were contacted, and to nobody's surprise, the parents had been aware of the godly status of their previous partners, and were very relieved that their missing kids were safely at Camp Half-Blood. That same night at the campfire, the boy was claimed as a son of Athena, and the girl as a daughter of Apollo. Malcolm had been delighted that someone who was somewhat different had been claimed as his new brother, and said as much, which the kid seemed to take pride in.
Where most Athena kids are focused and attentive, not much room for nonsense even with ADHD, this kid is hyper, talkative, with a short attention span—but he's smart.
Nico's seen him solve complicated equations in his head, read scientific works and even literature that's well above his level. He's quick on the uptake and often hangs out with his siblings discussing different topics that makes Nico feel extremely stupid—the only moments wherein he actually stops moving. He reminds Nico of Leo, actually.
Stupid, stupid, don't think of Leo, don't think of Leo, do not—
He thinks of Leo anyway and feels a stab of grief.
"Hi, Sean!" Will smiles. "What's up?"
"I need your help," Sean says with no preamble. "You and Nico."
"Sure," Will agrees. Nico frowns, but he's trying to be nicer, so he doesn't object. "What do you need help with?"
"I want to ask Joanna to be my girlfriend," he says bluntly, naming the girl he'd arrived at camp with. Will nearly chokes and Nico moves into view, raising an eyebrow at him. "Oh, hey, Nico. You heard me."
"If you can say that so easily," Nico cocks his head to the side, "why don't you just ask her straightforwardly?"
Sean reddens. "It's not that easy," he mutters. "She's my best friend. We basically grew up together. I have my doubts about her being interested in someone like...me."
Nico, privately, is impressed that Sean and Joanna call each other their best friends for two reasons. One being that it's rare two teenagers will admit it so readily, and the other being that the two really do act like a couple together. Not that he says so to Sean.
"What do you want us to do, even?" Nico asks before Will can.
"Um. I don't know?"
"I have an idea," Will says, allowing one of his bright, devious grins. "It all depends on whether you're brave enough to pull it off, though."
"I'll do almost anything, at this point," Sean says, though he looks a little unsure. "I've liked her for a long time. Demigods don't live long, according to everyone. I want this to work if that's the case."
Nico shoots Will a very significant look. Told you so.
***
"Let me get this straight," Sean starts. "I'm supposed to mysteriously fall into the lake—at the exact moment Joanna comes looking for me?"
"Yep," Will chirps. "Nico pulls the in-trouble one on me all the time."
"For the record," Nico scowls, "I do actually faint a lot. From overusing my power when I shouldn't—"
"You're finally admitting it!"
He ignores his significant other (annoyance). "Will just happens to be the closest person to catch me."
Will raises an eyebrow. "You love it."
"Do I?"
"Anyway," Sean breaks in, "I can think about a hundred different ways this plan could go horribly wrong. The nymphs, to begin with."
"Eh, they're mostly harmless."
"Joanna told me that Kayla told her that they wanted to either keep or go with the guys from Camp Jupiter."
"Do you have any other ideas?" Will asks.
"For a medic," Nico sighs, "this is an exceedingly stupid plan you've come up with, Will Solace. He could hurt. Do you know how to swim now?"
"Not quite," Sean grimaces. "Which is why I'm a little apprehensive."
"Listen," Will implores. "Think of it this way. Joanna's going to want to watch over you after a harrowing experience, am I right? This will be, like..." he searches for words for it. "Like a bonding experience! Right?"
Sean turns to Nico. "I trust you to save my ass if this goes wrong," he states grimly. "In my stead, please tell Joanna I love her if I die."
"You aren't going to die," Nico rolls his eyes. "We'll be watching to see how it goes because we honestly don't have any better ideas and you're so averse to love letters or anything of the sort."
"Joanna isn't the type for that," Sean says defensively.
"Sure, sure, get going," Nico waves him off towards the lake. "Joanna will be here in a minute or two."
"Try to look casual," Will offers. "Like you just happened to be there."
Sean takes a deep breath, and scurries towards the pier. He does an appropriate job of looking like he's bouncing on his heels for no reason the way he always does as his gaze rests on the surface of the water, watching the nymphs and the water ripple. Nico thinks it's rather cute that this kid is willing to do this, if not extremely stupid.
"If something happens," he mutters, "you're taking full responsibility, Solace."
"With pleasure, di Angelo," the taller shrugs, "because it'll be fine. I trust Sean."
"I trust Sean just fine, it's the many variables I don't trust."
"He's already been in the forest. He's done stupider things. We've definitely had our share of deadly, stupid things on our 'done' list." He glances at Nico. "You sound very worried. Are you sure you're not a little fond of Sean?"
"If I had a thing for Sean, I would've been running in the other direction like I did with you and Percy."
"No, I meant like—adoption. Little sibling type of thing."
"Very eloquent. And no, it's not like that. I already have Hazel." Admittedly Hazel isn't that much younger than Nico, but it hardly matters.
"Doesn't mean you can't have another sibling, honorary or not."
"Do shut up, Joanna's coming," Nico nudges him to quieten him, and he instantly goes ahead to meet his sister. "Will, wait—"
"Hi, Joanna," Will says.
"Hey, Will," Joanna, an Asian girl a little short for her age with bronze skin and cat eyes of the deepest, chocolate brown with a matching curtain of hair tied back in a braid, greets her brother. She's a contrast from Sean, also Asian but decidedly paler and with eyes like a fox's and inky dark hair. Nico suspects Joanna dyed her hair. "Have you guys seen Sean? Malcolm said he was looking for me."
The part of the plan Sean had most trouble agreeing to: roping Malcolm, head counselor for Athena, into it. Still, Malcolm was the most trustworthy person because Jason had yet to wake up (he'd spent a good part of the night awake working on his plans for the whole honoring-all-the-gods thing), and apt to keep a secret and not ask questions. Nico personally felt like that was the added bonus.
"He's over there, by the lake," Will's voice is raised loud enough for Sean to hear, which Joanna doesn't notice, or doesn't comment on. She probably assumes it's from the noise of the Ares kids sparring out-of-bounds again not too far off. He turns around as if to really grab Sean's attention. "Hey, Sean, Joanna's looking—oh my god, Sean!"
Sean purposefully throws himself into the water as the three of them watch, though it's artfully executed to make it look like an accident. He hits the water with a loud splash and sinks beneath the surface like a deadweight before Joanna's scream rings across the entire camp, probably.
She immediately sprints forward towards the pier, kneeling at the edge. "Sean! Sean!"
Nico and Will run forward, too, eager to see how well this plan works. They join her at the pier, kneeling and shouting for Sean to come up and take their hands as they watch him thrash in a flurry of bubbles, looking as if he's desperately trying to regain some of his balance and come up for air.
It's quite a good performance, Nico thinks, impressed.
Then he sees Sean's eyes widen, and then scrunch shut, pain taking over his expression. He doubles over, arm pressed to his chest, and his mouth involuntarily opens. Joanna lets out another scream when bubbles rise to the surface and Sean's entire body nearly goes limp.
"He's hurt!" Will curses. Nico feels the urge to kick him for this plan. "What's wrong? Nothing hit him! He was just trying to breathe! Maybe a cramp?"
"Maybe," Joanna responds, "but maybe not."
Nico doesn't think for another second—he dives right into the water, already trained a decent amount to swim as strongly as someone like Percy, for example, and grabs Sean around the waist, dragging him up to the surface. He gasps for air, a lot less than the chokes and coughs of Sean, who's immediately grabbed by Will and Joanna, hauled up to safety, while Nico clambers up the pier himself.
"William Solace, Sean Kim," he gasps, flopping onto his back, wiping off the water in his eyes, "I will murder the both of you."
Will shrugs apologetically, turning his attention back to Sean, shivering in Joanna's arms, coughing heavily. "Let me see Sean," he orders. Joanna looks hesitant, but she allows Will to stretch him out once he gets the water out of his system, resulting a soaked and completely wet Joanna. "Sean, talk to me. What hurts?"
"I think my ribs," he croaks, hand drifting to his chest. "I think I might have broken a rib..."
"How?" Nico frowns in confusion, sitting up. "Literally nothing was in your vicinity—even the nymphs were on the other side of the lake. A monster we can't, see?"
"No," Joanna is glowering severely at Sean, "he's just an idiot. I've been telling him to stop ever since we arrived at camp but he won't listen!"
"What did he do?" Will demands, beginning to pull up Sean's shirt, but the boy snatches it back, pulling it back down. "Sean, you're going to have to let me see it if you want to get it treated. What's the matter?"
"Sean Kim," Joanna warns, "get this over with. You knew this was coming."
"I...fine," Sean sighs. "I'm sorry. I—I bind with—with bandages..."
Nico and Will look at each to share twin looks of confusion, and it hits Will first. "Oh, Sean," he groans. "Why in the name of Tartarus would you bind with bandages? I'd have thought everyone knew how dangerous it was!"
"I lost my binder when the monster attacked!" Sean defends himself, sounding close to tears. "I was asleep, of course I don't sleep with it, and my entire room went up in fire. How was I supposed to rescue my binder, much less anything else? I hate it when I'm forced to not bind. It—well, I don't think I need to explain."
"Just stop talking, please," Joanna begs, all her anger fading away and looking plain old worried. "You might hurt yourself more. Explain later."
Nico gets it then, after watching the entire exchange in confusion. He isn't entirely too familiar with the concept of transgender people, but he knows they exist; he just hasn't had much time to catch up on these things since his life actually settled for once. Sean's transgender. He knows transgender boys bind their chests to not look like girls, which he totally understands, but it looks like the bandages were a dangerous choice.
"Stupid question," he says, "but why are bandages dangerous? Sorry, I just don't know much about, um. Transgender people."
Joanna's eyes rest on Nico's form with something like protectiveness for Sean and open hesitance at Nico as Will says, "because the pressure can be applied too much and in all the wrong places. An actual binder, which is different, distributes the pressure evenly—using bandages can result in severe injuries like broken ribs."
"Oh." He looks at Sean. "Sorry if this sounds rude," he says as Will scoops up the boy in his arms to take to the infirmary, "but why didn't you just get a new one? Where did you even get the bandages?"
"Snuck them from the infirmary," Sean mumbles. "And it's hard to actually go and buy anything while in camp, so I borrowed one of my siblings' phones and ordered one. It arrives tomorrow and, um. Kayla is going out to the city, and Joanna asked her to pick it up."
"That's good," Will sighs. "Next time, don't let me catch you binding with bandages. I understand that you were really uncomfortable, but it's always better to be safe than to be sorry. Okay?"
"I told him that already," Joanna grumbles. "I don't know what I should have done but I couldn't just say no when he asked me to ask Kayla to get it."
"Safety first, kid," Nico knocks on Sean's head. "Sons of Athena should know."
"Yeah, I get that," Sean allows a small grin. "I won't do it again."
"Should I get one of my sisters instead?" Will asks. "If that's more comfortable..."
Sean hesitates. "Yeah," he decides. "Sorry..."
"What's to be sorry for? It's your body. Not my call, is it?"
"I—yeah. You're right. Sorry for apologizing, I suppose."
"You know, Will," Nico whispers when Joanna starts talking to Sean, "I may adopt this kid. He reminds me of myself when I was younger."
"I knew it," Will grins victoriously.
"Don't push your luck, Solace."
***
"So, I heard you and Joanna are together now," Nico approaches a distracted, weirdly grinning Sean after the nightly campfire two weeks later. His ribs have healed and Will's made sure he had his binder on and no bandages. "What's the story there?"
"She asked me why I threw myself in on purpose," Sean admitted. "She knows me too well. She saw through my act."
"And you just. Told her? Seriously?"
"I didn't have a better explanation. And I can never get away with lying to her."
"Ah, so that explains your dopey grin, then. You're officially Joanna's boyfriend."
"Well, not all of it," Sean's face splits in a huge grin. "Don't tell anyone but Will. Today my dad wrote me a letter. He finally has enough money to get me top surgery and I'll be undergoing the procedure just as soon as I leave camp at the end of summer! Joanna wants to take off as much as time off the school year as I will to stay with me, but I'm not letting her."
Nico's eyes go wide. Sean and Will, and occasionally, when she sees Nico, Joanna, have told him as much as they can about transgender and generally about gender identities, so he definitely knows what Sean means and how much this means to him.
"Oh, my gods, that's incredible!" Will says from behind them. Nico whirls just in time to see Will dart past him and wrap Sean in a hug. "Congratulations, Sean!"
"Yeah, congratulations," Nico smiles. "I hope everything goes okay and your recovery process goes well."
"I hope so, too," Sean says, gently prying himself away from Will. "Thanks, guys. Now that things are looking more up for me, I plan to spend my time as best as I can with Joanna and my family. Being a demigod is dangerous business, isn't it? I've got to stop being so negative and cherish moments like these, achievements like these."
"That's the spirit!" Will cheers. Nico shoots him a knowing look.
And if he cheers just as rowdily alongside Will and Sean, well, that's for him to cherish.