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Being a Demi-God any fears you have a quickly buried deep deep deeeppp down since you never really have time to let it fester and make you panic . Expecially if your a demi-God called Nico Di Angelo, a demi-God who was rarely ever given a break by the fates. With all the trauma he faced in his fithteen years of life ( though technically many more years then that ) , he gained fears of small spaces and losing the ones he loved. Fears of starving to death and being all alone again. People he loves and trusts leaving and even going back to the ways of the 40s, hating him for being Queer. He had fears of mot being good enough for Will and Will abandoning him. Or Reyna or Hazel or Percy or anyone for that matter leaving him. He had already lost Jason , losing anyone else from his life was out the question.
But even though those fears , there was a fear Nico thought he'd be ablento take to his grave. A fear he never told Mr D or Will. A fear that chilled Nico to the bone almost as much as his time in the Tartarus.
Thunder and lightning.
From all the stuff Nicos been though, he always saw this fear if his pathetic. Even more so when the God of thunder , Zeus, was on the demi-Gods side. Somewhat. But even the God himself was the most terrifying thing, more then Nyx. And yea okay, Will and Nico are gonna be without a doubt forever traumatised from that experience. Yeah yeah whatever. But atleast they got their Demon Cocoa puffs out of it and ended up helping their relationship. But with Zeus and this thunder.
Well, to put it simply... Zeus killed Nicos darling mother without a second thought which later lead to Nico having most of his memory whipped from the 1940s and was placed in a time keep safe for many many years later. And that scared Nico. How Zeus didn't even give it a thought to Kill his mom, destroy kids childhoods and more. So , Nico has always flinched at the crackle of thunder and the flash of lightning. Even before he knew that it was Zeus's bolt that killed Marina , Nico would grow paranoid and give his head a migraine as if the thunder was personally saying to him 'remember me , fear me' and he did just that.
Even right now , in this day, Nicos fear of the thunder and Lightning grew with each snap and echo.
It was some point in June when Will had asked Nico if he wanted to meet Noami. His mom. The son of hades was of course honoured by this idea and quickly said yes. Though a very red face. And with a quick packing montage followed by a hop, skip and a jump though the shadows ( even though Will disliked the idea ) they turned to up Wills and his moms house. Where they would be staying for a couple weeks.
Noami was... amazing , Nico was quick to understand where Wills kind , good nature came from. And even as gay as he was, he understood how Apollo found her to be such a fetch. She had been quick to sit them down in the living room and spoil them with sugar and treats. Something Nicos liked. He also liked all the baby Will photos everywhere , Noami telling the story behind each photo. Each story had been more embarrassing then the last , Will hiding himself behind a pillow the whole time.
At night Noami helped Will blow up an air mattress and put it next to Wills bed in his childhood bedroom which Nico had a blast looking through. Will made Nico have the bed while he had the air mattress but when Noami had definitely gone to bed , Nico would roll off the bed and next to Will and the two would cuddle as they fall asleep.
Nico had never really given it much thought on what it would be like to live as a normal teen. No God's or monsters , no 1940s life or wars to end the world. Just a normal teen , doing normal teen things. Like cuddling up with his boyfriend and watching Sicoms with the mom.
During the day when Noami was at the studio, Will and Nico would walk around , Will showing him around. There would be parts in the Taxas tour where will would take a double take on something and hum a 'well that's new' while scratching his head. He showed Nico to a desert shop, where they shared a pizza sized chocolate waffle and talk nonsense.
They did normal teenager things. They went to a park and saw who could swing the highest on them. They made a rope swing on a large tree on Wills drive and ate ice cream on the roof of the house. They went to a theme park and quickly concluded that nico wasn't built for roller costers. Death traps? No problem for Nico. Roller costers? Big problem for Nico. Because that's l o g i c a l. Will had taken Nico to feed the ducks , which didn't even up working out for them since Nicos death aura scared then all away.
They even went to a movie theater , which gobsmacked Nico from the improvement of 1940 movies to 2023 movies. Technology was still something that blew Nicos mind since it wasn't something he was used to being around. Since the movie theater wasn't all that busy , most kids at school and adults at Work, Will made sure to give Nico the full 'normal teenager experience' and they made out for the whole hour an a half. The two teens had come out the movie bright red , panting and still half a half full bucket of popcorn.
Of course , all good things are ruined by something. Noami was working late hours at the studio, meaning it was just the two of them. They had ordered Indian food for the two of them and watched and were watching Disney Tangled - one of Nicos favourite films so far. When they had done eating , Will cleaned up, not allowing Nico to help him since the son of hades was the guess here or whatever.
So Nico sat upstairs in Wills room waiting for him to be done. It was raining heavy outside and Nico watched it from the window. He liked the rain, it was always so calm and simple. It was a good meditation for his brain. He often wished it would rain at Camp Half Blood mor often , though it never did. But the calmness faded quicker then anything when Nico saw a flash of light in the sky. Then a loud CRASH!! Nicos hands instinctively grabbed onto the other , like he had with Biancas hand when Zeus killed his mother. Fear flooded Nicos body, faster then it could have been explained.
"Oh no" hos blood went cold and his hands vibrated. Not even when kidnapped by the giants or seeing Nyx face-to-face did his body react this quickly. He aggressively shut the curtains over the window and covered his ears. Neither thing did anything , flashing still leaked though the curtains and into the room. Sound still vibrated to his ears.
Then his mind went to the worst of the worse. 'why was Will taking so long?' He's only cleaning up. Then there was another CRASH!! But Nico never saw any flashes of lightning before hand. "Uh oh" he whimpered to himself and jumped out of Wills bed, duvet wrapped around him like a cloak and hurried down stairs to find Will.
Will was fine. Only Nicos mind wasn't ready to process that yet. Will was humming to himself as he dried the dishes with a tea towel. His peaceful humming made him glow lightly , a simular light to what a candle in a dark room would give. Will looked over at his panicked boyfriend as he heard his foot steps tap on the floor , "Neeks? You okay?" He asked , spying Nicos shiny , big eyes and his shaking body. The son of Apollo put down the tea towel , giving the smaller his full attention. Nico looked Will up and down four times before seeing Will was okay, Zeus hasn't got him. CRASH!!
Nico jumped and looked around the room and back at Will, who looked even more worried. But was still here. Will let out a small 'oh' as he realised what was wrong. Nico had never told Will about this fear , he didn't think Will would ever find out. With the constant sun at camp, it wasn't really that much of an important thing to mention to him. Though when Mr. D said something that would have Zeus respond with a crack of thunder , that did make him shit himself.
Nico gripped the duvet around him, Will then pulling him into a hug. Nicos body didn't relax though, he stood there squashed into a hug. He didn't mind.
Will planted kisses on Nicos head , "this a new fear?" He asked , voice soft as be glowed comforting Nico. Nico shook his head and earned another kiss on his head.
"There a reason you didn't tell me?" Will questioned , he didn't seem made. Thankfully. Not that Nico expected Will to get mad , but that anxiety was still there. Nico nodded his head , another kiss. Will stayed quiet for a second , but when there was a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder , he hugged Nico tighter. "Because you felt like you'd be a burden to me?" Will then asked. Nico looked up at Will now, "you know me too well" he muttered , feeling slightly ashamed. Will gave a small smile and kissed the top of Nico's nose "course I do, wish you had told me about this fear soonee though , Darlin', you know you ain't ever a burden to me" he gave the son of hades another kiss. On the lips this time "and I aint ever gonna leave you , even if the Gods try to stop me!"
Nico muttered something so quietly to himself that even with their closeness, Will couldn't here what he said. And he had a feeling that what only said for Nico himself. "I have some silencing headphones upstairs, do you wanna use that and we cuddle for a bit?"
Nico gave a small nod of his head. There Will was saving the day once more. "Come on then" Will released Nico from his hug and ked him upstairs.
Nico sat down on the bed once more and Will gave him the silencing headphones, sitting next to him. Nico looked down at them, he had seen a camper or two wear these before , he had never used them himself though "why do you have these?" Nico asked , pulling the duvet over the two of them. "When my ma took me on tour , I had struggled to sleep so my ma got me them to block out all the van noise"
Nico gave smile, he always liked the idea of a ten-year-old Will curled up in a van seat snorning his little head off. He kissed Wills tanned skin and put the headphones on. Will blushed from the kiss and cuddled into Nico. The son of hades closed his eyes and only focused on the warmth of Will. Will wasn't going anywhere. This is okay, Wills here. And always will be.