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Movie night in Cabin Seven was wrapping up: some campers were fastidiously gathering candy wrappers and empty popcorn bags in order to destroy the evidence of their illegal junk food (courtesy of the Stoll brothers), while others picked up the pillows from the floor and extracted the blankets from the cozy nest they’d created. The head counselor, however, was too busy bickering with their guest from the Hades cabin to help with cleanup.
“Look me in the eyes and tell me that he couldn’t have fit on that door if she moved over,” Nico was saying as he picked up his jacket.
“For the hundredth time, it’s not about the size of the door!” Will cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “It’s the buoyancy! It would’ve sunk under the weight of two people, and then they would’ve both frozen to death.”
Nico shrugged. “If they were really in love, they would’ve died together.”
Will gasped, scandalized. “Loving someone means taking care of them.”
“Loving someone means sacrifice,” Nico argued.
“Which is why Jack stayed in the water so Rose could live!”
Nico groaned. “I don’t think we’re going to agree on this.”
“Fine, then. Door’s that way,” Will said.
“You kicking me out, Solace?”
“No, I’m sending you home before curfew so that you don’t get chased by harpies,” Will corrected, his hands on his hips. “Because I care about you.”
Nico considered this. “Enough to make room for me on a floating door in the middle of the ocean?”
Will passed his hand over his eyes. “Would you just get out of here?”
Nico laughed as he pulled on his jacket, then waved before heading out of the cabin. Will breathed a little sigh as he watched him close the door behind him. When he turned around to look at his siblings, they were rolling their eyes at him.
He offered a confused smile. “What?”
Kayla groaned. “How long are you two going to force us to witness your mushy goo-goo eyes before you stop your stupid pining and kiss?”
Will’s face exploded with heat and he barely resisted the urge to cover Kayla’s mouth with his hand. “That’s — we’re not — goo-goo eyes?”
“Okay, stop. You can’t pretend to deny that you and Nico like each other after making us watch you guys flirt like you’ve got a deadline all day, every day,” Kayla said, crossing her arms.
“It’s killing us, Will,” Austin added. “Actively killing us.”
Will stammered in futile protest for a second, then sank down onto the floor, crossing his legs with his head in his hands. “It’s that obvious, huh?”
“Painfully so,” Kayla confirmed.
Austin sat down next to Will, his elbows on his knees. “I don’t get why you don’t just date. You guys are super into each other. What’s stopping you?”
A thrill shot through Will’s chest at the suggestion that Nico liked him back. Sure, he’d had his suspicions, cradled the tender hope in his chest every time he caught Nico laughing at one of Will’s dumb comments, but hearing someone else speak it aloud did things to his heart. Will had been worried that his crush-addled brain was inventing reciprocation signs that weren’t there, just seeing what he so badly wanted to see…but if other people were picking up on it too, then maybe he really did have a chance.
But that possibility was also terrifying. Nico wasn’t some one-off summer love interest that Will could just casually make a move on. Nico was special in so many ways. He was powerful and heroic, and yet harbored so much self-doubt and shame that Will could see him struggling against it daily. He was still skittish with even friendly affection, and it was hard to predict how he would react to something a little stronger. If Will did have a chance with him…then he really didn’t want to mess it up.
The feelings that Will had for Nico were already so intense that the stakes felt insurmountably high. Rejection would break his heart, and he shuddered at the possibility of making Nico uncomfortable and pushing him away. He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. “I just…I can’t,” he murmured.
“You can’t kiss him?” Kayla asked. “Don’t you want to?”
Will cringed with embarrassment, but he didn’t deny it. “I can’t, Kayla. I emphatically cannot do something like that.”
“Why not? You have lips, don’t you?”
Will scoffed, searching the ceiling in exasperation. “It’s not as simple as just walking up to him and kissing him. First of all, it would be a dick move to kiss someone without asking. And Nico’s so…y’know. It would probably just freak him out.”
“So you’re scared to ask, is that it?” Austin observed, tapping his chin.
Will shrugged. “I guess?”
Kayla and Austin exchanged a look, and then Kayla pulled her ponytail loose and mussed her hair up until it was all tangled and hanging in her eyes. She sat down across from Will and said, “Okay, pretend I’m Nico. Let’s practice this conversation.”
Will blinked in surprise. “You — you’re joking, right?”
“I’m dead serious,” she said. “This pining has got to end, for all our sakes.”
Will laughed nervously, rubbing his arms. “You’re my sister, Kayla. This is weird.”
Kayla scowled, then said in a deeper voice, “Wow, Solace, your eyesight must be strained from staring at the sun all day if you think I’m Kayla. I’m Nico, got it?”
Will stared at her. “Wow, that’s actually not a bad impression. Have you done this before?”
Austin snapped in Will’s face. “Focus, Will. You’re alone with Nico and now’s your chance. Say something smooth.”
Put on the spot, Will panicked. “Uh…y-you look…nice?”
Austin sighed and shook his head. Kayla squinted. “I look the same as always.”
“Well then, I guess you always look nice,” Will insisted, easily slipping into the playfully-combative tone he was so used to taking with Nico.
Kayla smirked, then quickly got back into character and tamed her satisfied expression. She cleared her throat and said in the fake deep voice, “Why are you saying this now?”
Will swallowed, racking his brain. “I guess because…I really like you? In a more-than-friends kind of way.” Gods, he couldn’t even keep his hands from shaking in this practice scenario. The prospect of saying those words out loud to Nico di Angelo was mortifying. Will covered his face with his hands, then gave Austin a pleading expression.
Austin shook his head. “No, man, c’mon, you’re doing great. Keep going.”
Will coughed. “I, um…I’ve kind of been feeling this way for a while, but I thought I’d scare you off if I said anything.”
“Why would it scare me off?” Kayla asked in her Nico voice.
“I don’t know, probably because it seems like you’re not used to this kind of attention? And to be fair, you do tend to run away a lot.”
Austin made a sound like a game show buzzer. “What the heck, Will? Don’t say that while you’re confessing to him.”
Will groaned and raked his fingers down his face. “Augh, why is this so hard?”
“That’s why we’re practicing,” Austin said. He waved his hand. “Do-over, do-over. Answer the question without criticizing him.”
Will sighed and looked back at Kayla, addressing her impersonation of Nico. “I don’t really have a good answer. I think that I’m scared that I’ll lose you if I’m honest about my feelings, because you might not return them. And I don’t want to lose you, Nico, you’re really important to me. It’s just…” Will whined and flopped backward onto the floor, staring at the ceiling. “Gah, I really want to kiss you.”
Kayla cackled and theatrically swooned. “I thought you’d never ask!”
Will dug the heel of his hands into his eyes. “Don’t mock me. He would not say that.”
Kayla laughed and tied her hair back up. “Well, you don’t know until you try!”
Austin hummed and stroked his jaw. “I thought both of your performances could use a few pointers, but overall not bad. How are you feeling, Will?”
“Humiliated.”
Austin pursed his lips and considered this. “But definitely more prepared, right?”
Will propped himself up on an elbow and glared at him. “Prepared to be humiliated, yeah.”
Kayla and Austin looked at each other and shrugged. “I think that counts as progress,” Kayla decided.
—
Nico could not keep his knee from bouncing throughout the entire campfire the next night. Sitting beside Will made him feel fluttery and jumpy at the best of times, but tonight it felt like sitting next to a ticking bomb. Will seemed blissfully oblivious to the prospect that Nico was going to explode and die within the hour, smiling and singing along to corny campfire songs about nymphs and monsters. Nico was unable to join in, his attention completely fixed on the mental countdown to his demise in his head.
He had made up his mind to confess his crush to Will after the campfire tonight, and he fully anticipated melting into a flustered puddle of shadows, and resigning to his mortifying existence as a patch of darkness staining the grass in the middle of Camp Half-Blood.
Telling Percy about his feelings had not been nearly this scary. The stakes were completely different — Percy had a girlfriend that he was crazy about, and Nico was already in the process of leaving his crush behind him when he aired it out. But Will…Will didn’t have a girlfriend. Will was available, and Will liked boys, and Will actually made a point of spending time with Nico. The exuberant son of Apollo had captured Nico’s heart so entirely that he honestly didn’t even want it back.
Part of him was content to just let Will hold onto his heart without ever letting him know he had it. He was good at pining from afar and never expecting anything to come of it. It was practically his specialty after all those years of wanting Percy. But back then, he didn’t have friends who were frustratingly invested in his happiness.
Jason Grace was apparently unwilling to accept the “pine from afar” prospect — he’d spent weeks needling Nico to tell Will how he really felt, and his constant pestering had finally worn Nico down. When Nico had asked why this mattered so much to him, Jason had shrugged and said that he could tell Will made him happy. He’d said that after witnessing the misery that Nico’s first crush had made him feel for so long, he deserved to let his more wholesome feelings for Will into the light.
The sentiment had inspired Nico to do something about his crush, but now that the time for action was imminently upon him, he felt nearly paralyzed with anxiety. He glanced up at Will from the corner of his eye, and was stricken by the characteristic gentle incandescence the boy possessed. He was so heart-breakingly handsome, with his joyful eyes and his soft, golden curls and his slender neck. How could Nico entertain the thought that someone so radiant could possibly return his feelings? Nico wasn’t even fit to stand in Will’s shadow, much less hold his hand. This was a bad idea, a hopeless plan, he couldn’t go through with this, he couldn’t —
“Hey, Death Boy, you good?”
Nico blinked rapidly and shook his head like he’d been roused from a trance. Will was looking at him, a little groove folded between his pinched brows. Nico glanced around and saw that the campfire had ended while he was lost in his thoughts, and people were starting to head back to their cabins for the night.
Nico cleared his throat and put space between himself and Will. “Uh, y-yeah. I’m fine, sorry. Spaced out.”
“That’s alright,” Will said casually. “Can I…walk you back to your cabin?”
Will fidgeted as he asked, like he was afraid Nico would say no, even though they’d walked to the Hades cabin together pretty much every night for the past few weeks. His random nerves made Nico nervous, as he remembered what he’d promised Jason he would do tonight. But he tried his best to act normal as he stood up and shrugged. “Yeah, let’s hit the road.”
As he turned to go, he caught sight of Kayla, one of Will’s siblings from Cabin Seven, making some sort of weird gesture with her hands at Will. She was tapping the pinched fingers of each hand together and pointing at the two of them, and Will was desperately trying to wave her away. When Will caught up to Nico’s side, his face was flushed red. “Sorry. I think Kayla hit her head, she’s acting so weird.”
That makes two of you, Nico thought, but he shrugged it off. The few minutes it took to cross the green were quiet; Will shared a few details from his day, but Nico was too distracted to make much conversation, and Will let his words drop. By the time they reached the steps of Cabin Thirteen, Nico’s heart was thrashing around in his chest and he was completely incapable of looking Will in the eye.
Instead of saying goodnight like he usually did, Will stood there on the steps, scuffing his feet on the grass. He was giving Nico the perfect chance to gather his courage, but it still seemed far too scattered. Nico looked at Will’s shy expression, looked away, opened his mouth, and forced words to come out.
“I — I, um…appreciate it,” he said, stupidly.
Will looked up, his head slightly tilted to the side. “Appreciate what?”
“You. Uh, walking me to my cabin,” Nico stammered. “It’s — thank you. It’s nice of you.”
“Oh. Yeah, anytime.”
Nico swallowed dryly as another conversational dead-end shriveled between them. Ugh, screw it. It wasn’t happening tonight, he just couldn’t do it. He’d have to put up with Jason’s nagging for at least another day. He stepped back and put his hand on the doorknob, nodding stiffly to Will. “Okay, well. See you tomorrow.”
“Nico — wait.”
Nico froze as he turned the doorknob, and looked back at Will, who was wringing his hands and blushing furiously in the dim light of the torches outside the cabin. Nico took a half step toward him. “What is it?”
Will took a deep breath and finally looked at him. A strange look of determination burned behind his eyes, like he was about to face a decisive battle after so much time spent training. “You…uh, look nice.”
Nico wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to hear, but it certainly wasn’t that.
“…What?”
Will bit his lip. Nico could see his hands were trembling. After a second, he sighed in complete exasperation and scraped his fingers through his hair. “I — I really want to kiss you,” he blurted.
Nico stared at Will. Will stared at Nico.
And then Will turned on his heel and started walking away without another word.
“Hey, hold on!” Nico’s hand darted out and grabbed Will’s wrist, pulling him back to the door. “What did you just say?”
Will wouldn’t even look him in the eyes, but he didn’t pull his hand out of Nico’s grasp. “Nothing, I screwed it up. Forget I said that, okay?”
Nico shook his head, still trying to put the pieces of this interaction together. “Screwed what up?”
Will looked up above Nico’s head like he was pleading for help from the gods. “I was supposed to…I was going to tell you tonight. How I really feel about you. But I totally blew it, I’m so sorry, you deserve a real confession —“
“Wait, you —“ Nico scoffed in disbelief. “You were going to confess to me?”
Will buried his burning face in his hands, and nodded.
Dawn broke in Nico’s heart, the sun of his joy finally crossing the horizon. All his doubts burned up in the light, and he found himself laughing. At the sound, Will looked up in surprise, and Nico took one of his hands, stepping closer. “You have ridiculous timing,” Nico whispered, lowering his gaze. “I’ve been fretting all evening over how to tell you about my feelings.”
Will finally smiled, shedding some of the embarrassment. Nico felt his warm palm cup the side of his face. “…Your feelings?”
Nico nodded, running a thumb over Will’s knuckles. “I think you’re amazing. You’re always taking care of everyone, and you make me so happy, even when you’re being annoying.” He looked up and smirked, gratified to see that the comment got an eye-roll out of Will. Nico swept his hair behind his ear and continued, “When I’m around you, it’s easy to forget about all the stuff I’ve been through. I’m not used to feeling that way around someone else, so…I think that means something.”
“And what does it mean?” Will whispered.
Nico couldn’t keep the delight off his face, and bit his cheeks to try and contain it. “It means I like you, Will. A lot. And…I would definitely be okay with you kissing me. I-If you want.”
Will’s breath caught in his chest, and he wordlessly reached up to cradle Nico’s face between his hands. His persistent smile quivered with obvious trepidation, but that didn’t stop him from leaning down and closing the distance between them.
When their lips touched, Nico’s brain seemed to completely cease functioning, and it was all he could do to keep his knees steady so he didn’t collapse right then and there. He was distantly aware of moving his hands to encircle Will’s waist, pulling him closer as they kissed, and Will threaded his fingers through Nico’s dark hair in turn.
Realistically, it probably only lasted a few seconds, but Nico felt like he’d spent an age in Will’s embrace by the time he pulled away. Absently, he reached up and touched his own lips — he couldn’t help thinking that they felt a little different, now that he knew what it was like to be kissed. He’d imagined it a hundred thousand times, yearning for a closeness that he never pictured himself actually attaining, and now…now it was settling in his skin, changing him, healing him.
He wouldn’t be surprised if Will Solace had literally kissed him better.
“You okay?”
Nico looked up at Will’s tense expression — he realized he probably should’ve said something instead of standing there like a weirdo after their first kiss. He nodded, offering a reassuring smile. “More than okay.”
Will breathed a relieved chuckle. “Oh, good. For a second, I was worried I’d just screwed up again.”
Nico raised an eyebrow at him. “Why are you so concerned about screwing up?”
“Because I really like you, Nico,” Will said. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Nico felt his heart whirl at those words. He leaned his forehead onto Will’s collarbone to hide his flustered expression, and Will put his arms around his back. “Not to me,” he mumbled. “I’m not that likable.”
Will scoffed, and tightened his arms around Nico in a strangely indignant hug. “There’s a lot to like about you, idiot. You’re so brave, and kind, and funny, and endearing. And you’re really fun to argue with.”
Nico raised his head to quirk a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Endearing, really? ‘Death Boy’ is endearing?”
“Downright charming,” Will said. “And gorgeous, on top of that.”
Nico frowned. “I think you need your eyes checked.”
Will pulled back and tilted Nico’s face with a hand on his jaw, inspecting him like he was looking for injuries, except this time he was searching for flaws. Incredibly self-conscious, Nico felt his skin grow warm, and the urge to slap Will’s hand away got stronger with each passing second. But before it overcame him, Will released him and nodded in satisfaction. “Yep, just as I thought. I diagnose you with handsome.”
Nico looked aside, fighting his blush. “You are ridiculous, Solace.”
“Change your mind about liking me, yet?”
Nico narrowed his eyes and tilted his face upward. “You’ll have to try harder than that to get rid of me.”
Will chuckled, tucked a finger under Nico’s chin, and smiled into another kiss.