Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was you
“Nico?? Nico, please, you can’t just sit there like that. You have to respond. Are you ok?” Will asked, trying desperately for the son of Hades to reply or respond in any way.
“Just leave me Will.” Nico replied, and pushed Will away.
“Nico, please. You can trust me. What is wrong?”
“Look Will!! I’m not going to be your pity person whom you are going to save from his darkness anymore. I know, that the only reason you stay with me, is because, you feel that I am weak and you can heal me and become a hero. Well you are not. I am not going to let you in. You are going to leave me. Or maybe you are doing this, so that I can help you in the future. No one helps me for the sake of helping me. So, get lost. I am not going to become your charity case. Go heal another demigod. LET ME BE!!” Nico’s voice rose with every sentence, while Will’s face morphed from hurt to disbelief to anger. He rose, walked up to Nico and gave him a tight slap. Nico stared at him, holding his cheek.
“I did all this to help you and please stop thinking that you are the only person who has gone through heart break. Everyone at CHB has lost someone or the other at some point. I was near you all this time, because I liked you. Do you know why I liked you? Because, I felt that you were the only one who could understand me. But I was wrong. You feel that you are the only one who lost someone important like your mom and sister?? Well, just so you know, I lost my mom, when I was being brought to camp, she threw herself in front of me to save me from the monster’s poison stings. I had no one at that time. Later, Lee helped me come back to normal. He became my big brother, almost like my father. I started learning archery so I could make him feel proud of me. He helped me realize my healing capabilities. On the day of the battle of labyrinth, I didn’t want him to go. He promised me he would be back. Do you know how he came back? Completely shredded, I couldn’t heal him. I died a little instead that day. Then Michael helped me, but he couldn’t bring me back. Anyways, next came the battle of Manhattan. He told me not to worry. Naturally, after lee, he was the next person I connected most to. So I went into the battle fields, trying to heal as many demigods as I could. Then Percy Jackson comes running to me, asking me to help him save Annabeth. And tells me, that Michael drowned, that they couldn’t find him. Do you know what I wanted to do then? I wanted to kill him, to not heal Annabeth, to make him feel, what he so easily said. But, instead, I helped her. And the others. To make both Lee and Michael proud of me. Do you know how hard it is to assume the role of a head counsellor in between a battle? Especially when someone you loved very much died?? Oh, after the battle, I tried to kill myself. It was the easy thing out. I wanted to be near those I loved. There was no one left for me. and no one loved me as I loved Lee or Michael. So no one would miss me. Of course I didn’t die. Kayla helped me come back to normal. She was the only one who knew I had tried to die. During all this, the only person, I really idolized, was not Percy Jackson, but you. It was Nico this and Nico that. Both Lee and Michael had known about my crush on you. So, after my failed attempt of killing myself, I focused myself on you. I wanted to live for you. And I didn’t want you to die. So I asked dad for help. I guess he created a one way empathy link. If that’s even possible. So I could read all your emotions and go through all the stuff that you went to. So I practically have travelled through Tartarus, along with you. So don’t tell me that you freaking have suffered a lot. That was my story. And you don’t know what others have lost.” Will finished and ran out of the Hades cabin, before Nico could reply.
Nico meanwhile sat shell shocked, unable to respond. That someone would go through so much just for him. And Will was right. He had never tried to realize that many demigods had lost someone important sometime in their life. But… to think that Will had suffered so much and still put a smile, to help his siblings through the day, so that others didn’t go through the same thing as him, really shocked him. He sat the rest of the day, thinking about all that he had said to Will, in his moment of anger, had probably lost one of the few who really cared for him.

Chapter Text

Will felt bad after his burst out at the son of Hades. He shouldn’t have just snapped at him. He never did that. In fact after years of training in the infirmary, he had a great control over his emotions, especially when they had the Ares kids as patients, they would kick, scream and throw insults right and left at him. But when Nico said that he thought that Will was using him, he lost it. Couldn’t the guy see that I liked him, loved him??
Will sighed and decided to apologize to Nico. He realized, that maybe, Nico didn’t mean that. You say unreasonable things when you are angry. He started walking towards the Hades cabin, when Jason emerged from the Hades cabin and ran towards Will, pulling him towards the cabin sobbing, ‘save him’ he said, and Will had started running, not waiting for Jason to say anything more. When he reached there, he saw Nico fading away, slowly but surely.
Will gasped as he ran up to the unconscious kid. He smacked his head lightly, while tears started flowing from his eyes... “Idiot. What do you think you are doing?” he asked as he pulled him towards him. He started healing him, singing a hymn to slow down the process. He seemed to solidify a little. Will grabbed whichever part he could of Nico’s body, picked him up, and started running towards the infirmary, all the while singing hymn after hymn. He went to the private section, ordering all the stuff he could think of.
He administered as much of the nectar and ambrosia as he could without Nico combusting. Then he asked everyone to leave them alone. As they closed the door after him, Will pulled Nico closer to him, and started to glow as much as he could. He thought of all the happiest times between him and Nico. He drew all the light of the room and surrounded both him and Nico in a ball of light.
He held on to the light, for an hour, before he collapsed beside Nico. By that time, Nico had solidified completely, his heart rate had come back to normal. He was almost conscious, when Will collapsed.
Nico blinked his eyes open. Was he dead yet? Maybe he was, because no way in Hades would Will be lying beside him. He looked around him, at the dark room, trying to see where he was. Shouldn’t he be at the DOA studios by now? He slowly got up and looked out of the window. He gasped as he realized that he was at the camp. That means, he didn’t die. Will had saved him. He was completely ashamed of himself after Will left that morning. He thought he was better off dead, where he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. So he had written a letter to Will, apologizing and promising him that he would never hurt him anymore. And ended his letter with ‘I Love You Will Solace.’
He had overused his powers till he started fading. He closed his eyes, waiting for Thanatos to take him away. The next time he opened his eyes, he was here, with Will lying beside him. He went back to his bed, sat next to Will, and whispered “I am not worth it Will.” When he realized that Will’s figure was giving out wispy smoke and sunlight. He reached for his hair, when his hand passed right through Will’s head. He gasped and started screaming. He started crying, begging for Will to wake up.
He rushed out of the door, and all of Will’s siblings stared at him. They had never seen the son of Hades cry and stutter. Kayla came forward and took Nico’s face in her hands. “What is it??” she asked seriously.
Nico could only manage a small word “Will.”
Kayla ran inside along with all her siblings and saw Will. She rushed towards him and tried touching him, but it passed right through. All the siblings stared at her and then at Will. They all formed a circle around Will and put their hands together. And started singing a hymn for their father. Their voices were steady even though many of them had tears streaking down their faces.
After a few minutes, Apollo appeared, looked at his son, shook his head, and placed a hand on his son’s forehead, and Will seemed to solidify at once. Colour returned to his face.
Meanwhile Nico was fighting tooth and nail with Thanatos to let him go, to give Will a few more minutes. After Apollo stabilized him, he went near Nico, who was completely exhausted by that point. Apollo touched his face, and Nico felt energy flowing into him. Nico looked up at him, and noticed that for the first time, he had seen Apollo so serious.
“Thank you son of Hades, for what you did just now with Thanatos. But just so you know Will was like this because of you. He has always been in love with you, so don’t ever make him regret that. And if he ever turns out like this again, because of you, I won’t care about whose son you are.” His voice softened as he said “I know you love him too, please take care of him. He is very stubborn.” He patted Nico’s head, and turned to his kids, who all went and hugged him.
“Hey kiddos, how are you guys??” Nico went back to sit beside Will, holding his hand, while all the Apollo kids were having a small family reunion. Apollo with a soft look at Nico, he took the kids to the other room, so that Will could rest.
“Hey sunshine? Please wake up.” He said as he reached out to touch Will’s hair. His hand was trembling as he put his hand on Will’s hair. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He started playing with his hair, afraid that Will was going to fade away again.
Jason chose that moment to come barging in, because apparently, he wasn’t allowed inside, and he was pretty freaked out at seeing Nico fading. Now when he saw Nico crying while playing with Will’s hair, broke his heart. He was about to clear his throat, when Nico started to sing. He slowly moved out and closed the door softly behind him.

Chapter Text

Will woke up to someone singing softly and playing with his hair. He blinked his eyes open to find Nico, crying and singing to him. He lifted his hand as he tried to rub away the tears flowing down his cheeks when Nico realizes that Will was conscious. He rushed forward to hug Will.
“Oh my gods. Please don’t ever do that again. I can’t …”Nico said as he cried into Will’s chest.
Will shocked by his sudden display of emotion, but hugged him back.
Will sat up with Nico’s help, and Nico got up to get him water. After drinking the water, both of them were sitting in an awkward silence, unable to start a conversation because of what had occurred since morning.
Will sighed and raked his hand through his hair. “Why… Why would you do that? I come to apologize to you for my burst out, and find Jason running from your cabin all the while sobbing, not being able to speak properly. Then I go in to find you almost fading into the shadows. Why would you do that even after all that I had revealed about myself to you??”
“Because I am a coward. That’s why.” Nico replied. Will started to protest, but Nico held up his hand. “I am a coward Will. Please don’t deny that. I… I don’t think… I can say the words I want to tell you. It’s just… here…” He held out his hand and gave Will the letter he had written. Will’s face morphed from anger to love and then back to anger again. He dropped the letter, and grabbed hold of Nico’s shoulder.
“My telling you that others have problems doesn’t mean that your problems are lesser in its intensity. You are a brave kid, to have endured what you did at such a young age. And I have always respected you for that. And why would you think that you will hurt me?” Will said, his grip on Nico’s shoulder tightening to the point of pain. But Nico didn’t mind. The pain reminded him that he was alive and safe.
“Because… Because every time I love someone, they… they die WILL! And I love you way too much for me to lose you. You are the last and only thing that’s holding me here, in this camp. In this world.” He knew that telling Will everything, from the strength of his attraction to laying his heart out in the open, might backfire on him. He was making himself the most vulnerable person right now, but he had to do this. He had to learn to trust someone for once, and there was no one else better than Will. “And I am pretty sure, that if anything happens to you…. I… I wouldn’t be able to stay alive. I don’t… I don’t want you to d… look. This morning I was trying to push you away. It’s just, I love you…. a lot… and…”Nico took a deep breath, only to be engulfed in a huge hug from Will. He combed his hair, rubbed his back, and muttered sweet nothings in his ears, as Nico sobbed. After he calmed down a bit, he pushed back to see Will’s eyes overflowing with tears.
“You know. I always thought that very same thing, that’s why I was never truly close to anyone. I liked people in general, spoke to them, but that’s it. I had to put a brave front for my siblings. I was always like you. But then you come into my life, and we become great friends, and I always hoped that we could be something more, but never had the courage to do so. In the past 2 years that we have been friends, I had to stop myself from going down on a knee and proposing you, or singing love ballads in your name, as cheesy as that might sound, to hugging the life out of you because you are so adorable when you sleep. I… I love you Nico Di Angelo, and would you give me the honour of being my boyfriend?”
Nico nodded, not being able to make his mouth function because of shock.
Will grins as he says, “Well. This is great. You know why?”
Nico shakes his head, as he knows that Will was going to be extremely stupid and idiotic right now.
“Because, since both of us feel, that we might be the reason for the others death, we will always be protective over the other, and can have a loooong life. Nico Di Angelo, my knight in the shining armour.” Will said as he burst out laughing.
“You are a dork, William Solace.” Nico said as he chuckles at Will’s idiotic joke.
“Well am I your dork?”
“Yes, you are. You are mine.” Nico said as he hugs Will.
Will’s grin makes the world go bright, as he replies with a “And you are mine.”

That night, they came out to the camp as a couple, only to be surprised with, “Wait, weren’t you two already together?”, “Took you guys long enough”, campers fangirling (mostly the Aphrodite cabin and Jason), exchanging money (again the Aphrodite cabin, and Nico and Will’s friends), to cheers of Solangelo.
Nico was surprised that people were not disgusted by them coming out as a couple, in fact they welcomed him, except for a couple of kids, glaring with jealousy at either Will or Nico.
That night, Will went out of his way to sing at the campfire, a song dedicated to Nico, and Nico retaliated with singing “You are my sunshine” for Will. The campers were surprised to hear Nico sing, cause dam that kid could sing. They cheered, and both the guys blushed at the attention from the campers.
Later that night, Nico slept in the infirmary, cause he was still tired from his shadow travelling this morning and Will wanted to keep an eye on him. They ended up cuddling and falling asleep together.