Chapter Text
Summary
Nico and Will share everything with each other. Except one thing. One thing Will has spent years hiding, making sure no one would ever find out his secret.
Will's cabinmates always made fun of him for taking so long to get ready in the morning. They even liked to tease him that he took as long as a girl sometimes. They didn't know why, so Will never got mad at them about it.
Will had been dating Nico di Angelo for a year now. Will took pride in the fact that he was the only one who could hold the son of Hades's hand. He was the only one that Nico would be his real self around. He was talkative and funny, and Will kind of wished that other people could see him like that too. No one would ever be afraid of him; no one would think he was weird if they ever saw the side of him that Will is lucky enough to see every single day. Then again, at the same time Will selfishly is happy that he is the only one that Nico trusts enough to be like this around. That the way he gets excited about things and could talk about Mythomagic for hours. It makes Will feel happy that Nico only trusts him with the side of him he hides from everybody else.
But then there is the part about that that makes Will feel guilty too. Nico tells him everything, yet Will keeps a very big secret from Nico. Not just Nico, but everybody at camp. Will didn't even think that Chiron knew. It wasn't that he was afraid of people being mean about it. Not that he wasn't afraid of that, he defiantly was. Like, what if Nico broke up with him if he found out? The other reason that Will never told anyone was that even if people are okay with it, they just treat you different. Not necessarily bad, and most of the time people don't even know they are acting different, but they are. Will remembered when him and his mom moved to Texas, the people in his class all knew. Some of them bullied him, one even beat him up. Then there were his friends, they said they didn't care, but they did. They always overpronounced his name, or when they would find extra opportunities to use pronouns when talking to or about him. Will hated it, so that's why he made extra care to hide the binder, and the products that he needs when the time he calls 'dysphoria week' comes around.
You see, Will's name hasn't always been Will. It used to be something very different. When he was born, he was Apollo and Naomi Solace's baby girl. Naomi named her daughter Adaline Solace. Adaline lived with her mom, who was a doctor. She took dance and she had blond hair that stopped just above her waist. But as Adaline got older, she started to like when her dance costume were a shirt and pants instead of a dress, and she had never had liked wearing makeup for dance recitals. When she got to about 8 years old, and her schoolteacher would separate the class into a girls' team a boys' team, she always went to the girls' team, but it wasn't right, but she wouldn't want to be on the boys' side, why would she? Wasn't she a girl?
Then one day in her gym class, in 5th grade, there were an uneven number of boys and girls because a few kids were absent. You know, flu season. So, the gym teacher, Mr. G, (Those kids totally knew it stood for Mr. Griffith and not Mr. Gym, totally, totally. And they defiantly didn't think that their art teacher, Mrs. A was Mrs. Art. Nope, no sir.) told the girls that one of them needed to play with the boys on their team to even out the numbers, just this one time. He, by chance, picked Adeline. Or maybe it wasn't by chance, she was by far the fastest of the girls. When gym class was done, Adaline heard one of the girls say,
"Maybe if Adaline was a girl we would've won."
If Adaline was a girl? Adaline didn't know why, but them saying that made her happy. Probably just because she felt needed. Right?
As a few more months went by, Adaline began to dread dance. The skirt, the leotard, the way the dance teacher would refer to the class as girls. She didn't want to be there anymore. So, she decided that she needed to talk to her mom about quitting dance.
"Mom, can I talk to you about something?"
"Actually Addy, I was just coming to talk to you."
"Um, you go first."
"No, you."
"Nope."
"Fine. So, at my job, they want me to start working at a different hospital. One that is farther away."
"How far?" Adaline asked.
"Texas."
"But Mom! That is halfway across the country!
"I know sweetheart, but we have to, it's for my job. I already started looking into middle schools for you to go to next year and for a new dance studio."
"That's kind of what I was going to talk to you about. I don't want to do dance anymore."
"Why?" Her mom said alarmed " you've been dancing since you were three, why do want to quit?"
Adaline used her excuse she made up prior to this conversation, "That's the point, it's getting boring I've been doing it so long maybe it's time to try something else."
"I guess I could get on board with that, maybe gymnastics or something."
"That really isn't what I was thinking."
"Oh my gosh, Addy I have an amazing idea. You're starting middle school in the fall; you can do a school sport!"
"Like track or basketball or something?" Adaline asked excited.
"I was thinking something else. I think you should try out for the cheer team!"
"No."
"Why not? You would love it; I was a cheerleader when I was in school."
"That's just not what I had in mind."
"Well, that's okay sweety, we have lots of time to figure that out. And this is something to look forward to when we move, without the move, you would be starting middle school in 7th grade instead of 6th. I think you are really going to like going to school in Texas." Her mom finished the conversation
How wrong she was.
In June of that year, Adaline kept seeing ads for something called pride month. And one day she just became too curious, she had heard people talking about it as well. When she clicked on the ad it said stuff about being a month to celebrate people that were LGBTQ+. Adaline didn't know what that was, so she did a google search on it. She knew what lesbians and gays were. Her mom had talked about them; and she wasn't a fan. She had heard her mom talk on the phone about them. She said some pretty mean things. Also, Adaline had heard people had used 'you're gay' as an insult. So, she wasn't sure why they got a month to celebrate it if it was a bad thing.
Adaline was also unfamiliar with the terms Bi and Trans. She searched both of those up as well. Bi was confusing, like, they like both? Do they like them at the same time like what? (AN not being mean to Bi people, I'm just sharing what a kid that was raised by homophobes thinks when they find out about this stuff.) Then she looked up Transgender. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through transitioning, often adopting a different name and set of pronouns in the process. Something about this made her click into a webpage about transgender, it was a discussion. A discussion of trans people talking about their dysphoria, and there transitioning process. Something about it was, interesting. And slowly, as she read on, she started to see how she could relate to some of them. There were people that identified as something called non-binary. They had they/them pronouns. Adaline started to wonder what it would be like if people used, they/them pronouns for herself.
"Oh, Adaline, they did this, and then they did that." Adaline whispered to test it out. And they decided intently that they loved it. They were wondering how they didn't find this sooner.
Adaline then got off the computer and deleted the searches from the history, just in case their mom ever decided to check.
Adaline was careful to never use they/them pronouns about their mom, she would never support that. After Adaline and their mom moved to Texas in July, Adaline started to wonder if the right pronouns for them really was they/them, or if they were always meant to be a boy. They started wondering what their name would be if they were a boy. They even asked their mom what she would have named Adaline if they had been born a boy.
"I didn't have a name planned. I was hoping you would be a girl; I was so happy when you were. I could never imagine having a son instead. I think I was just made to be a girl mom." Which you can just imagine how 'happy' that made Adaline.
One day Adaline went back to the discussion they found the day they found out what transgender even was. They typed a question into the chat. I'm a trans male, I want to change my name, what should I change it to? Adaline was surprised at themself for saying that. They knew that was how they felt, but they never said, or typed it out before. They never truly admitted it to themself even. But seeing it on the screen was... satisfying, it was the most correct thing they ever saw in their life.
After a few minutes, a response came through. It said,
"Hey man! I was in your situation a few years ago, I'd say you have two choices, either pick a name that is similar to the old one like if your name is Zoe, change it to something that starts with the same letter like Zach. OR, if you want, change it to something completely different like if your name was Zoe chose something like Brendon. I went with the second option. I used to be Lydia, now I am Samuel. Hope this helped!
Adaline typed a quick, thank you! to Samuel and deleted the discussion from the search history and left to go back to their room. Where they pulled out a notebook and started to write names both similar and different from Adaline. While they wrote, they made the decision in their head that they weren't doing the they/them stuff anymore, he was a boy, and he knew it.
As the days went by and it was now August, the list of names Adaline might change his name to became shorter and shorter as he made his decision. And by the time he was going to start his first day of school, he had chosen. Will Solace. The first name on the list and the one that never got crossed off. Now there was the next problem. Coming out. He knew his mom was going to be anything but supportive, so maybe the first people he comes out to should just be the people at his new school. When he starts school there, he'll just introduce himself as Will. When the teacher calls his name for attendance he'll just say, I prefer to go by Will. Then he'll convince his mom to let him get his hair cut, and then, well that's all that he planned up to yet, but he'll come up with more later. Maybe this whole school thing really was a blessing.
September 6th, also known as Will's first day of school. He walked into his first hour, totally prepared to tell people that he was a boy, and his name was Will. Let's just ignore the fact that he still had long hair, had started developing, and was wearing feminine clothes. The last one was because that is all Will's mom bought for him. He walked in and saw a premade seating chart; he was next to all girls. This wasn't exactly the plan as Will was planning on sitting with the other boys but that's okay, he can work with this. The teacher started calling names down the alphabet, Will got more and more nervous as the teacher started calling names that were getting closer and closer to Solace.
"Adaline Solace?" The teacher called.
"Umm..." Will hesitated, "here." He couldn't do it. Couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. That day Will worked in the same group as the girls at that table, became friends with them, and everyone saw him as a girl, who was friends with all girls, and dressed like a girl. He hated it, but it was just the way it was. For now.
Will knew he needed a change. If he wanted people to know he wasn't a girl, he needed to not look like the poster child for teenaged girl. Long blond hair, feminine shirts with leggings, and the last one, the hardest one. What on earth was he supposed to do about the dumb, completely pointless things coming out of his chest. After some research, he found that there were many ways to do it, and few of them were safe, and he wanted to be a doctor for crying out loud, he would have to try his best to get something at least somewhat safe. The best option seemed to be a binder. But he knew his mother would never be okay with that. Now the hair, he could probably make up some lie to cover why he wanted that. Heck, he could probably get his mom to hop on the less feminine clothes train too if he tried. But the binder? There was no excuse in the world for that one.
Soon after that, Will told his mom that his hair really got in the way sometimes and that he saw a girl at school who had a really pretty hair cut that was short. All of this a complete lie, Will felt bad about lying but it needed to be done. His mom was against the idea at first but eventually gave in. Next, Will asked her if he could go clothes shopping with her next time she goes. That one was an immediate yes. When they ended up going, Will picked stuff out of the girl's section, but everything he picked was at least gender neutral, if not leaning towards the masculine side. He thought that his mom was going to tell him no about it more often, but all she did was laugh and say that he had become quite the tomboy.
Lastly, the binder. Will looked up stores that might have it nearby and then told his mom he was going to a friend's house. Once again, he hated lying to his mom, but it was necessary. So, he went to the first store, and they were out of them, the second store didn't have them anymore, the third store had them, but they were way to expensive. He needed to spend as little money as possible so his mom wouldn't see any big dip in his savings. Finally, at the fourth store, they had them. Will looked at the cheapest one, a grey one with an obnoxious number of latches and zippers to put together and take apart each time you put it on. Nevertheless, Will went into a changing room and tried it on. It took forever to put on, but he'd become better with practice. So, he bought the thing and took it home. He hid it behind a bunch of other things to store it when he's not wearing it, so his mom doesn't find out. The next Monday when Will was getting ready for school, he put on the binder. And with his short haircut and new clothes to go along with it, he looked more like a boy than he ever dreamed possible.
2 months later
He finally did it. He told his friends that he was a boy, and that his name was Will. A few of them stopped hanging out with him, but that's okay. Most of them were supportive. But what Will didn't understand was, how did everybody else in the school know too? Somehow by the next day, everybody knew that he came out as transgender. He got what seemed like a million comments about it. Some were nice, most were not. The worst of them was this boy named Jacob Tras, and his little group of followers that all popular kids seem to have. Will couldn't remember all their names, so he just started calling them Tras's (or trash's, just add the h.) henchmonkeys. Like henchmen, but they act like they live in a zoo so yeah, henchmonkeys. Those idiots must've had some kind of meeting to discuss. 'So how do we make Adaline Solace's life as miserable as possible for now on?' because a few days after, more than one person had asked him if he was dating this guy called Garland Lickovolia (AKA henchmonkey, and also yes, his real name IS Garland.) So, as it turned out this child decided to walk around telling people that Will/Adaline was his GIRLfriend. Extra emphasis on the girl part. Jacob, Garland and the other idiots all walked their way around calling Will SHE and HER at every single chance they could get. And Will thought that was the worst that would happen.
One day in January, Jacob and many of his friends were following him around and annoying him, calling him horrible names, asking extremely personal questions, etc. Finally, Will was just done with it. So, he said,
"Why don't you all just F off for a change huh?" Will asked turning around.
"Don't you see Adaline? You're going to hell because you go against god."
"I don't 'see' any point that comes out of your mouth. I tried seeing things from your point of view ya know. I just couldn't manage to get my head that far up my a"
Will was interrupted by a pair of hands grabbing his head and pounding it against the wall again, and again, and again. Until he heard the voices of his friends yelling at Jacob to stop. He heard them calling for him to stop hurting him, He heard when they said his name or used the right pronouns, they overpronounced the hes and the hims and the Wills. Even they couldn't act like it was normal. At least not completely. His head was pounding, and things started to not make so much sense. He felt different hands, not Jacob's, grab him and start to walk him down the hall and into the office. He was told to sit quietly in a chair where he stayed for a very long time. Then the office worker came back and handed him a piece of paper. Will read it and it appeared to be a schedule.
"We've contacted your mom about the disturbances you've been making with this whole 'trans' business. For now, on you will follow this new schedule. We can't have you in the higher classes with the poor kids trying to learn and you distract them anymore." The office lady said. And sure enough, when Will took a closer look at the paper, none of his advanced classes were there and he even didn't have band on his schedule anymore. If these people thought for one second, he was just going to say okay and walk out and start serving a punishment so completely unfair. He looked the woman directly in the eyes and slowly ripped the new schedule down the middle. Then ripped those pieces in half. And did this again and again until there were just small pieces of paper on the floor while the lady just looked at him in shock. When he was done, he turned and ran out of the school.
Will didn't stop running or what felt like miles, he finally stopped in the middle of some woods. When he did stop, he looked around at his surroundings. He really just did that, didn't he. There was no plan for this situation. What was he supposed to do now? His mom found out; he couldn't go home.
For most demigods, the first time they get attacked is at the worst time possible. But for Will, it couldn't have come at a better time.
Three girls came up behind Will from behind, he didn't see them but thank the gods the person hiding in the bushes did.
Before he even knew what was going on, he was on the ground and there were 3 girls fighting one boy. Will's head must've been injured by Jacob far more than he thought because the scene in front of him was all kinds of impossible. The girls looked normal, except they all had one weird looking leg. Then there was the boy. He had goat legs. The whole scene sounded completely stupid in his head. He felt inclined to help the boy, the girls were obviously winning. That was ridiculous, these people were not even real. The boy suddenly fell over. One of the girls had a dagger in her hand. Will put two and two together and attacked the girl. Somehow in the struggle he managed to get the knife and stab her. Then the other two. He went over to the goat, boy, person and he saw that he was bleeding, bad. Will knelt next to him, and his hand instinctively reached out and touched the wound. As soon as he touched it, it stopped bleeding. he kept his hand there and slowly the wound started to close. When the only thing left of the injury was a small scar, the boy sat up and said,
"I knew I'd find one of you here."
Prior to the fight in the woods, Will would never have believed what this goat boy said once they left. But after the encounter with the things the boy called empousa, Will was just about ready to believe anything. This boy, who was a satyr, said that he was going to take Will to a camp for the children of the Greek gods. And when Will asked why, the boy responded by simply telling him that he was one. That's why he could do the healing thing back in the woods.
To be honest, by the time they finally got to the camp, Will still wasn't sure if this whole thing was a hallucination from hitting his head or not. But when they got to camp, there was something very real about the place. They walked up the hill and entered the camp.
A few moments later, once a group of many teenagers and kids were cleared out of the way, Will found himself talking to someone name Chiron that somehow managed to be half human and half horse. Not the strangest thing Will had seen that day, ya know? The first thing Chiron said to him was,
"What's your name, young man?"
"Will Solace."
Apollo claimed Will as his son later that day.
Will never told a soul at that camp that he was a transgender male. He never went home, and when he started dating Nico, years later, he didn't tell him either. He hid his binder well when he wasn't wearing it and wore many layers to hide it when he didn't have it on. When he got his period, he made special care to hide that too. He used a voice slightly lower, while still sounding natural, than his normal voice. He made sure he never, ever slipped up. It took forever to get his binder on in the morning because of all the zippers and latches. His siblings made fun of how long he took sometimes, they said he took as long as a girl. They didn't know, so it didn't bother him too much. Everyone at the camp knew Will, not Adaline. And Will hoped beyond hope that it would stay that way forever.
Thank you so much for reading! This will end up having one more chapter and I will post it sometime in 2023. There are many true events in this fic that happened to someone I know very well. So, I'm writing their story, just Percy Jackson style. And if you are in a similar situation as Will, there are many people out there who will and do support you.