Chapter Text
“Well, your three days is up, and it looks like you’re almost good to go now, Death Boy,” Will said as he strode past the end of Nico’s bed in the infirmary.
“I thought I told you to not call me that, Solace,” Nico replied with an annoyed look on his face.
Will looked up from the ambrosia he was now pouring for a patient with a mischievous smile , “And I thought I told you that I don’t care.”
“Whatever, I’m going back to my cabin.” Nico had been stuck here for three whole days, though as much as he had been dreading it, it turned out to not be so bad. Still, he couldn’t let Will know that with all the complaining he had done.
“Not so fast, di Angelo,” He moved to stand as close to Nico as he could, hands on his shoulders with intense eye contact, letting him know that he was being very serious. “If you do any Underworld-y stuff, I will kill you for trying to die,” Will lowered his head and squeezed between his brows, resigned.
“But seeing as how I know you’re going to do it anyway,” he sighed, “you might as well be prepared.”
He then spent ten minutes telling Nico what kinds of things he wasn’t allowed to do in order to not push himself too far, and what to do after he uses his ‘special skills.’
Nico marched right back to his cabin, a pack of tar-and-dirt-flavored gum in hand, trying to avoid any of the other campers. He was sure they were glad he stayed away, the demigod of death near you couldn't be anything they wanted. As soon as he got to cabin thirteen, he promptly collapsed on one of the bunk beds. For a while, it had been just Reyna and Coach Hedge traveling with him to transport the Athena Parthenon, and he had gotten used to their company. Then he had been spending more time with Will, who made him feel comfortable and safe, something he hasn’t felt in a very long time. It had been difficult to deal with such a sudden switch in his mental state, from constantly in danger to bored in an infirmary bed.
Nico was startled from his thoughts after hearing a knock, turning to look up at his cabin door. He wondered who was giving up dinner time with their cabin to come bother him, though he suspected a certain son of Apollo.
He opened the door to be faced with an almost too-bright blond demigod. Will. Solace. Of course, the only person who would drop by so soon after his last encounter with Nico.
“Excuse me, what are you doing here?” Nico had mixed feelings on Will’s surprise visit.
“Too see my favorite patient, of course,” Will answered with a smirk. He loved teasing Nico, his embarrassed face was adorable. He was certain at this point that he had quite a crush on the dark haired boy. Gods, Nico was his opposite in almost every way, but there was just something that kept drawing him closer that nobody else seemed to see, he was like a magnet for Will. His feelings for Nico aren’t what he experienced with his other friends, the way one smile from him can change Will’s whole day, eye contact can speed up his heart to immense levels, and a touch can stay at the front of his mind for hours, distracting him and leaving him wanting more. That was part of the problem. Will expresses his love for people, platonic or otherwise, by giving physical touch; running his hands through someone’s hair, laying his arm across their shoulders, and giving countless hugs. Nico on the other hand, dislikes it for the most part, at least he seems to, leaning away from people if they get too close and pulling away if Will’s hand lingers too long on his forehead while checking for fever.
Will obviously had a reason for coming to his cabin, so Nico asked “Are you gonna come in, or what?” He opened the door wider and stepped back, giving Will room to enter. He was balancing two plates with a burger, some broccoli, and a small bunch of grapes on each.
He had never seen the Hades cabin before and was shocked to say the least. “Did I end up in the Dracula residence or something?”
“Ha ha very funny. It’s not like I wanted it to look like this, it’s awful.” Nico would like to have some words with whoever decided to decorate this monstrosity.
“I mean if you hate it that much, we can just redecorate it, tomorrow if you want,” Will tried to sound casual, but he was internally freaking out imagining how adorable Nico would look with paint on his nose. He’d probably get frustrated at small things and Will knew he had to convince Nico, he so badly wanted to do this with him. “We can put a spare set of sheets from my cabin onto your bed, and I could go into town to buy some other things you might want.”
“We can do that, but wouldn’t you have to be in the infirmary?” Nico thought this was a sweet gesture on Will’s part, but he doubted someone wanted to be in a cabin alone with the son of Hades.
“Actually, no. I know you haven’t been here that much, but most campers only stay here for summer, so there aren’t that many of us left to be injured or sick now that it’s late August. Most of them went back to their schools. Plus, Austin and Kayla kinda kicked me out.” His siblings had said the usual, ‘You’re not taking care of yourself enough, take a break, you’ve been here for days’, nonsense. I mean, could they not see how much the campers needed Will? Regardless, they had talked to Chiron and now Will is banned from the infirmary two out of every seven days unless he gets injured, though that might not be such a bad thing if it means getting to spend more time with Nico.
“Alright, that’s for tomorrow, but right now, you need to eat.” Will knew that Nico’s time in the jar after being captured by the giants made this a huge problem for him.
“Not hungry.”
“Okay then, I guess I’ll just leave, since the whole point of me coming here was to make sure you eat.” Will had to find a way to get him to eat more, he couldn’t survive like this.
“Fine, okay. Gods.” He begrudgingly brought a piece of broccoli to his mouth and took a small bite, glaring daggers at Will.
“Come on, you have to eat more than that. Do you know how hard it is to see you pick at your food and barely eat anything? Are you just planning on shrinking away into nothing? You just survived the impossible, and now you’re trying to starve?” Those words could have sounded angry, but Will just sounded small and sad, pleading with Nico, and suddenly he felt terrible.
“Sorry.” He took several more bites and had a few grapes, but by then he felt that it was almost too much, and Will seemed to agree, wanting him to be able to keep down what he had just eaten. He looked like he was glad at least some progress was made, finally focusing on his own plate.
Nico was deep in thought, considering that things like barely eating anything and almost dying from transporting the statue were having an effect on someone other than himself, and it wasn’t fair to carry on like it was only himself anymore.
“Heey, Niico, are you there?” Nico snapped back to reality, seeing Will looking up at him and instantly turning away.
“I wasn’t paying attention,” Nico admits, “could you repeat what you were saying?”
Will smiled at Nico’s polite choice of words. “Sure, I was just saying that it’s getting pretty late, so I should probably head back to my cabin before a harpy comes after me.”
“Oh. Yeah, uh bye.” Nico had almost forgotten about things like that, it had been quite a long time since he had been at Camp Half-Blood.
“Alright, see you tomorrow, Neeks.”
“See you.” Nico was smiling, Will seemed to make him do that quite a lot recently.
After changing into a sleep shirt and shorts, Nico crawled under the covers of one of the beds, falling asleep not long after, still thinking about his time with Will.
Nico awoke to the sound of campers on their way to breakfast, sitting up in his bed and groaning. As much as Nico didn’t want to deal with people, and didn’t feel like he needed to eat, Will had threatened to have the Apollo cabin play music around his cabin if he missed breakfast, and Nico wanted to avoid that at all costs.
He was barely out the door when none other than Will Solace was walking right beside him, though at least he refrained from touching him.
“So guess who got a certain someone permission to eat at the Apollo cabin table,” Will said with a huge grin on his face.
Nico rolled his eyes. “You think the rest of your sunshine kid cabin really wants to eat with me?” He knew they all seemed nice but it had to be an act, they couldn’t exactly be looking forward to sitting so close to him, he probably made them uncomfortable.
When they arrived at the Apollo table, the campers already seated there looked up at them in greeting, which Nico once again rolled his eyes at. Will had talked to his siblings earlier that morning about what kind of things not to say or do, he wanted to help bring Nico out of his shell, to help him interact with more people and build more friendships.
After a breakfast thankfully less awkward than what Will had imagined, Nico trudged right back to his cabin. He was followed by Will, who was glad that Nico had interacted with people other than him, though he was happier now that he had him all to himself again. He told Nico that he was going to get some paint and tarp from a shed, there was extra from a previous cabin’s decoration. After he did that, he went on a slight detour on his way back, to the Demeter cabin. He asked Miranda Gardner, the Head Counselor there, to grow some bright flowers, to which she happily obliged, and sent him on his way with a lovely Chrysanthemum plant in one of his arms.
When he arrived back at cabin thirteen, Nico raised his eyebrow at the flowers, giving Will a questioning look.
“And why would I have brightly colored flowers randomly in this cabin?” Nico asked, although the bright orange flowers next to Will’s beaming face made him fight the urge to smile.
"Actually,” Will started, ready to defend his choice of flower at all costs, “they’re perfect for “this” cabin because they are the flowers of death in Europe, and I just so happen to know an Italian son of Hades that these flowers would be just perfect for.”
“That’s so random, where did you even learn that?” Nico asked.
“I may or may not have spent a good five minutes in the Demeter cabin searching for the perfect flower in one of their books.” Though Will was sort of embarrassed by this, he wanted to show Nico that he would gladly spend time trying to do something nice for him, that it was worth the effort just to make him happy.
“No wonder you were gone so long, I was starting to think you got lost.” Nico had actually been worried that maybe Will had changed his mind and decided that he didn’t want to help him after all. Even though he was teasing Will, Nico was glad he had come back to him.
Fifteen minutes later, they had each changed into a set of plain clothes for painting purposes in the bathroom of the cabin. Afterwards, they moved all the furniture to the center of the cabin and laid down tarp near the walls. Will and Nico were repainting the Hades cabin to look less like a vampire dwelling and more like a place an actual teenager could live in. This meant that the black walls were becoming a light gray, and also that it was going to take several layers and a lot of time to cover it up. I mean really, the people that decided on black everything with coffin-shaped beds and blood red pillows definitely went overboard.
Will’s lapse of concentration led him to swipe the brush over the wall with unnecessary strength, accidentally flinging paint onto Nico’s hair, who was painting beside him.
“Aw shit, I’m so sorry.”
Nico almost choked on air as he spun around to stare wide-eyed at the blond demigod.
“Um, I’m sorry, did I just hear you, the most responsible and calm demigod in the entire camp, cuss at paint?” The smile could be heard in his voice, Nico was incredulous at this new part of Will he got to see.
“I’m fifteen, are you saying I’m not allowed to cuss?” Will had his arms crossed against his chest, embarrassed.
“Oh no, Sunshine, I just never thought I would hear you saying something so foul, oh no! What if the other campers were to know? Your reputation would be ruined!” Nico was laughing slightly, enjoying poking fun at the very flustered Will Solace.
Will was now hiding his face in his hands, unable to look at Nico, who was laughing at his own expense. It was not very often he got to hear Nico laughing, and he treasured every moment of it. Man, he has such a pretty laugh , he thought.
Although he was used to being made fun of by his siblings, it was different coming from Nico, who didn’t speak and show emotion as much as most people. He almost felt honored, because how many people could say that they’re comfortable enough with Nico that they could do simple activities and laugh together with not a care in the world?
The next thing he knew, Nico had taken his own paintbrush and dragged it across Will’s entire arm.
“So that’s how it is, huh?” Will was now prepared for battle. He dunked his hands in the tray of paint and went to grab onto Nico. Upon realizing that, Nico turned to the side just in time and got more paint on Will’s forehead.
Will was painfully aware that he was now much more covered in paint than the other demigod. There was only one thing to do.
“Okay, I’m sorry, I won’t try to do it again, we should just get back to painting.” Will grabbed a towel to start wiping away the paint on his hands.
"Deal." Nico gave him one last distrustful look before bending down to put more paint on his brush, and it was then that Will struck. He grabbed onto Nico’s shoulders and ran his still paint-covered hands down both of his arms.
“Traitor!” Nico spun around and grabbed onto the collar of Will’s shirt, not letting him escape, about to get paint on his face and hair. But then when Will tried to break free, he slipped on some paint and crashed into him, sending them both toppling to the floor.
They looked at each other for just a moment before erupting in laughter, seeing the evidence that they had gone from painting the walls to painting each other. Will was on top of Nico, and between laughing much harder than he had in far too long, and being smaller than Will, Nico was having a hard time catching his breath.
“Will, get off. You’re crushing me!”
“Oh, sorry about that.” Will put his hands on both sides of Nico’s head and hauled himself to his feet, trying to hide his blush caused by being so close to him. “Well we should probably finish this wall and do something else until it dries and we can paint the second layer.”
Nico was looking at all the paint he had left behind on him. “I never expected you to do this much and get so messy just to help me, Solace.”
“Well, “Sometimes we must let go of our pride and do what is requested of us.””
“Um, what was that, and why did you say it so dramatically?” Nico had seen Will’s face change after the “Well” and wondered why that was.
“Are you serious? It’s a Star Wars reference from Episode II: Attack Of The Clones!” Will could not believe how clueless Nico still was about such things.
“Well, you can look forward to a lot more references, because I was raised on Star Wars and I could quote almost entire movies.” Will had been told that he was no longer allowed to talk about it, he made every single thing someone said into a reference, talked to everyone he could about it, and they had grown quite annoyed with it. But now, he had a new person who didn’t know just quite how annoying the demigod could get.
“My Gods, Solace, you’re ridiculous. Anyway, what should we do before the second layer?”
“Do you have any games you like, Nico?”
This brought back some memories for him. “I know this is kind of stupid, but when I was like 10, I was super obsessed with this game called Mythomagic.”
“Huh, that’s a game I haven't heard of before, can you explain it to me?” Will had wanted to actively do something like a game with Nico, but he would be very happy just listening to him talk about one of his interests.
Nico talked about Mythomagic for almost an hour. He felt bad, but he could see the content look on Will’s face, pausing for a moment before Will said, “Keep going, I like listening to you talk,” to which he blushed and continued.
Seeing Nico talk about something he was passionate about was amazing, his eyes lit up and his hands were constantly moving, Will had definitely fallen for him by now.
A small while later, they had eaten some lunch and Will went back to the dining Dining Pavilion to give their plates to the cleaning harpies. When he came back, he was carrying something in his hands.
Will knew that demigods had the worst nightmares, and it must be even worse for Nico due to his past experiences. Because he was unfortunately not able to spend every single moment of his time with Nico, he placed a spray bottle filled with water and several golden drachmas on the mahogany frame of one of the beds.
Nico gave him a quizzical look, so he explained, “It’s so you can contact me at any time. It doesn’t matter if it’s two in the morning, if you need me, I won’t be annoyed or upset, Iris message me and I will come to you, okay Nico?” Will took hold of Nico’s hands, he wanted his point to get across, he truly meant these words.
The intensity of Will’s gaze made Nico look away, and he felt so cared for, in a way he hadn’t realized he had missed so much.
The paint dried pretty quickly, so they did the second coat, this time without a paint battle, and then moved the beds back to their original places.
“Thanks for helping me, although I don’t know why you did. I mean, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even be here. I know I’m just wasting your time, you could be having fun with your siblings or healing people, yet you’re stuck here with me. You don’t have to keep doing stuff like this, you know? Everyone at camp would just be better off without me here anyway.” Nico felt that getting so attached to this place, and Will, would make it that much harder to leave when the time came. His feelings for Will were starting to overlap with what he had first felt with Percy, and Nico didn’t want to get himself hurt again, he didn’t want Will to one day start talking to him about a girl he liked and wanted to be with. It would be easier to leave before any of that happens.
Will hated it whenever Nico made negative comments about himself and cared so little about his own health and happiness, it made Will want to hold him and tell him every single way in which he was amazing.
“Gods, Nico, is that really how you feel?” Will sounded hurt, which was strange considering that what he just said was about himself and not Will. “Do you not know how amazing you are? Do you really not know? I wish you could see yourself the way other people do, the way I do. Without you, we would have lost both the Battle of Manhattan and the Battle of Half-Blood Hill, do you understand that? You saved all of us twice . Bad people have become what they are with a life better than yours, and yet you still care so much, you’re so good, Nico. You’re a hero.” With that, Will enveloped Nico in a tight hug, stroking his soft hair tenderly. “And I spend time with you because I want to, I had so much fun today, more than I’ve had in a while, okay? I enjoy your company, being around you makes me happy , Nico.”
“Listen, I know this is going to be really hard for you,” Will spoke softly, pulling away slightly so that his eyes were staring intensely at Nico’s own, “but you need to talk more and open up, it's just not healthy to keep everything bottled up inside of you. You can’t keep assuming everyone hates you, if you would just have an actual conversation you might realize that so many more people care about you.”
“Well I’ve been doing it for a long time, and it hasn’t killed me yet,” Nico muttered under his breath.