Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I saw that” Jason whispered to Nico as they walked toward the woods, the cabins behind them.

“Saw what?” Nico deadpanned.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jason feigned unsureness, “Probably just a trick of the light or something.”

“What was?” Nico asked defensively.

“The massive blush you got when Will Solace called you ‘hon.’” Jason grinned and faced the son of Hades.

“First, I do not blush. Second, he did not.”

“If you’re going to lie to me, at least put a little more effort in,” Jason teased, “You did blush, you’re too pale to hide it, and he did call you hon! You passed him that bandage roll and he said ‘thanks hon.’” Jason put his hands on his hips and continued to smile.

When he’d first befriended Nico di Angelo, conversations had been a minefield. The kid had more trauma than anyone Jason knew, and Jason spent all his time around the protagonists of modern day Greek tragedies, so that was saying something. By now, he knew where his friend’s limits were, and Nico had opened up to him.

That said, regardless of limits, Jason was going to get him to admit to this crush.

“Maybe, but he calls everyone ‘hon’ so it’s hard to say.”

“Not everyone gets all flustered and mushy because of it though.”

“I did not get flustered and mushy. Just because I may have blushed a little-”

“So you admit that you blushed!”

Nico groaned at the trap he’d fallen into, shoving his face into his hands and leaning his head back.

“You’ll walk into a tree like that.” There were no trees around, just the gently sloping meadow that split the difference between the cabins and the forest

“I hope so.” Nico said, but Jason saw that he was grinning just a bit. “Why are we going to the woods anyway?”

“It’s Boy’s Night.”

“I hate Boys' Night.”

“You can’t hate Boy’s Night, Nico, that’s basically illegal.”

“It isn’t even night!” Nico complained, pointing at the sun shining directly above them.

“Yeah, that’s what keeps the meetings so secret. No one will ever suspect that Boy’s Night is during the day.”

“Who thought of that?”

“Percy.”

Nico made a noise that Jason understood to mean sounds about right.

When they got to Zeus’s Fist, Leo and Percy were already there.

“Where’s Frank?” Jason asked.

“California, couldn’t make it.” Leo replied easily, relaxing against a boulder.

“I’ve got the goods.” Percy pulled a paper bag out from behind his back, and made a big show of checking to see if anyone was around before removing the contents.

“I’ll never understand how you manage to get this stuff without leaving camp.” Leo marveled as the pile of junk food grew.

Percy winked at him in response, folded up the bag with a lot more noise than necessary, and said “Dig in.”

Jason reached for some top-secret BBQ potato chips and a can of contraband Coke, and watched as Nico selected a single bag of sour gummy worms.

“This meeting is officially called to order.” Leo grinned that maniacal grin of his and grabbed two Cokes at once. “What’s the first order of business, boys?”

Boys’ Night had become something of a tradition for the guys from the Argo crew. It had started when Piper, Hazel, and Annabeth kept declining dates every other Friday for girls-night-ins and movie nights at the Hades cabin (that Nico would get kicked out of for the duration of.)

Not wanting to be outdone in the team bonding department, and frankly not having any plans with all of their other friends busy, Boys’ Night was born.

“I have a motion to make.” Nico said.

The other three looked at him expectantly.

“I move that Boys’ Night happens at night, or we change the name.”

Initially, they’d hung out on Friday nights at the same time the girls did, but then there was a mortifying incident in which Jason was talking about how bad he thought he was at kissing and Percy, Frank, and Leo were trying to give him pointers and the girls, who happened to be training in the woods that night, heard all of it.

Now the meetings were secret and Jason had to live with the knowledge that every girl he was close friends with (except Reyna) knew he was a horrible kisser to the point that he would sit in the woods at night and freak out to his friends about it.

Actually… there was one party back when he was a praetor…. Yeah. Every girl he was close friends with knew he was a horrible kisser.

“Motion declined.” Percy decided. “What’s the second order of business, gentlemen?”

“We need to set Nico up with someone.” Leo said. Jason saw Nico’s eyes widen in panic at the turn in conversation, and tried to cover for him.

“And why do you think that’s on you to decide, Leo?” Jason joked, trying to keep the tension from his voice.

“We’re his bros! And he’s the only one in the group without a girlfriend, it’s our solemn duty to help him on this journey.” Leo did a mock salute to Nico, who glared in return.

“Well, as Nico’s best friend, if he wants a wingman he’ll come to me.” Jason puffed up his chest like come at me bro, and Leo laughed.

“Why do you get to be Nico’s best friend?” Percy whined.

“I’m cooler than you.”

“Hazel is my best friend.” Nico argued. Jason clutched his heart like he’d been shot, and fell back onto the dirt gasping dramatically.

“Speaking of Hazel, do you think Frank’s skipping on boys’ night just to hang out with her?” Percy asked.

“He wouldn’t!” Leo said.

“He would too!”

Across Percy and Leo’s bickering about Frank’s ability to abide by the boys’ club oath of bros before hoes, Nico shot Jason a grateful look. He hadn’t come out to anyone but Jason yet, except for the one comment he made to Percy and Annabeth about Percy not being his type, and the conversation was backing him into a corner.

Sure, Jason had more teasing about Will to do, but it could wait. This gave him time to plan his jokes, anyway.

The conversation turned to Leo and Calypso’s latest joint project, then to some argument Percy was having with his dad, then back to girls, but Nico wasn’t pushed this time.

“She’s just a little more… in control than I’m used to.” Leo described. Jason wasn’t sure how the conversation had ended up on kissing habits again, but he was on high alert for intruders.

“What’s wrong with that?” Percy asked.

“Nothing, nothing,” Leo waved his hands around, sloshing a bit of soda onto the ground (holy Hera was that his third Coke? He did not need that.) “Nothing’s wrong with a little domination, I’m just not used to it.”

“Percy? Advice?” Jason asked.

“Why me?”

“I mean, we’ve met Annabeth.” Jason reasoned.

“Fair. Well, how I see it….”

As Percy launched into an episode of Boys’ Night Oversharing, Jason snuck a glance at Nico. Usually when Percy talked about Annabeth in any context, he got cagey and the shadows around them felt a little bit darker. Now, though? As Percy was sitting there describing in excruciating detail how he typically made out with Annabeth, Nico just sat there at ease and smiled a little at everyone’s jokes. (Never a laugh of course, he had a reputation to keep up. Usually only Jason and Hazel saw him laugh.)

Leo listened intently, with frequent interjections and jokes about the way Percy was trying to describe having someone’s tongue down his throat in a classy and informative way. Jason, still likely the worst kisser to ever date a child of Aphrodite, made some mental notes as well. It wasn’t weird, he convinced himself.

A rustle of leaves made them freeze in their conversation. Annabeth and Piper emerged into the clearing. They were both holding daggers, and Annabeth seemed to be instructing Piper on how to adjust her grip.

There was a two second pause of uncomprehending silence as they stared up at the circle of boys on top of the boulder pile eating forbidden snacks and talking in hushed tones.

“If you guys are talking about kissing again I’m going to scream.” Annabeth said.

“We’ve been compromised!” Leo shouted, “Scatter!”

He disappeared in the direction of Bunker 9. Nico shadow traveled away to Hades knows where, Jason took off through the trees, and Percy stood stunned and alone before bolting away in the general direction of the canoe lake.

Jason landed inside the central ring of cabins.

Well, Jason tried to land. Just as he released control of the winds to fall the last two feet to the ground, a form solidified out of the shadows below him. Realizing too late what was happening, Jason crashed down on top of Nico di Angelo.

“What the-” Nico yelped in startled pain and dissolved again, reappearing a few feet to Jason’s right. Jason… who had now been dropped face first into the dirt.

Jason pulled himself into a sitting position, spit out grass, and said “That wasn’t what I meant to do.”

And he must have really looked a mess because Nico burst out laughing. A real laugh, loud and happy and hard enough to make him grab his stomach. Jason couldn’t help but laugh too. It was a real shame Nico hardly laughed at all, he had a very nice one, really contagious.

It wasn’t until after they’d settled down that they realized the rest of the meadow had gone silent. It wasn’t too crowded to begin with, just two Ares kids sharpening weapons outside their cabin and a couple of Apollo kids playing basketball close by, but they were all staring at Nico.

“What?” He asked, folding in on himself.

“Sorry,” Will Solace (Will Solace!) said, “You just have a really nice laugh.”

Either the son of Apollo’s smile had managed to give Nico sunburn (which Jason realized he couldn’t entirely rule out,) or Nico was blushing again. Jason waited for the snappy retort about how that was a weird thing to say to a person and everyone needed to stop staring, but for once it didn’t come.

“Oh. Thanks?” Nico sounded unsure, but cautiously pleased. One of Will’s siblings, Kayla, if Jason wasn’t remembering wrong, threw the basketball at Will’s back which broke the… whatever that was. Will smiled at Nico one more time before turning back to the game. Jason opened his mouth to say something teasing, but Nico grabbed his arm and yanked them both into the nearest shadow before he got the chance.

Jason tried to shake off the nausea when he rematerialized. He’d never get used to that, flying was much more pleasant. He found himself in the Hades cabin, empty except for Nico dramatically flinging himself into his coffin shaped bed that he hated so much. He landed face down on a pillow and didn’t move for a while.

A knock came at the door and Nico wasn’t displaying enough signs of life to open it, so Jason hauled himself up to do it himself.

“Hey Nico- Jason?” Percy took a step back to examine the cabin like he thought for a second he’d found the wrong one.

“Percy?” Nico appeared behind Jason, gods it was still so creepy when he did that.

“Hey, do you want the rest of the sour gummy worm bags? I’ve got a bunch of snacks since boys’ night was so rudely interrupted, and I know they’re your favorite.”

“Why aren’t you offering me any gummy worms?” Jason pouted.

“Well I was going to offer you the chips, but you weren’t in your cabin.”

“That’s because I’m here.”

“I see that.”

“Sure, I’ll take the gummy worms,” Nico announced, pushing between the two of them and interrupting their intellectual exchange, “Thanks.”

“So what fun am I missing?” Percy gestured into the cabin looking hurt, “Leo here too? Boys’ night afterparty without the snack man?”

“Nah, Nico was just about to ask for my wisdom and counsel and wingmanship.” Jason elbowed Nico in the side, Nico swatted Jason in the arm.

“I hope you don’t want kissing advice because Jason is not your guy.” Percy warned.

“You know, maybe I’m actually really good at it and I just don’t think I am? Ever think about that?”

“No, man. I can’t say I’ve actually thought about your kissing abilities at length except when you’re sitting there talking to me about them.” Percy said it like it should be obvious. Jason supposed it was.

“No, I don’t need kissing advice.” Nico huffed.

“Yet.” Jason moved in for another elbow attack but Nico saw it coming and ducked out of the way.

“Oooooooooooooo,” Percy sang, “You gonna tell me who?”

“No!” Nico glared at Jason, “It’s just a crush anyway.”

“So you admit that it’s a crush!” Jason shouted victoriously. Nico face-planted into bed again.

“Well good luck with that.” Percy said awkwardly. He dropped the snack bag inside the door and closed it behind himself as he left.

“You get out too, Grace, I’m going to gorge myself on sour gummy worms and sleep for a week.”

“Nice of Percy to remember your favorite.” Jason commented, testing the waters.

“Yeah, I’d rather die of shame eating something I love than something like BBQ chips.”

“Okay I’m gonna let that one slide,” Jason said, still very much offended, “In favor of commenting on how completely gone you are on Will already.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Percy shows up at your cabin, gives you candy, says he knows it’s your favorite, and asks if you want kissing advice and you’re completely unfazed.” Jason put his hands on his hips, knowing he’d won.

“I already told you, he’s cute but he’s not my type. I’m over that.”

“What’s your type then? Blonds?” Jason waggled an eyebrow.

Nico made a sound like he was retching. “Ugh, you wish, Grace. Only the cute ones.”

“Hey!”

-

Jason and Nico only saw each other in passing for the next two days. Nico had started teaching intermediate sword fighting lessons in the arena to the younger campers, and Jason was hard at work on his shrine project. It didn’t escape Jason’s notice that the few times a camper in Nico’s lesson had a minor injury he escorted them to the infirmary himself, but Jason tucked that thought away for later teasing.

Fortunately, Jason’s free time aligned with Piper’s more than once.

“Hey, quick question.” Jason said. They were holding hands and strolling slowly through the strawberry fields. It was just before dinner and the sun was setting. It was all very romantic, but a part of Jason’s mind kept wandering to a different relationship.

“Shoot.” Piper said.

“So the Aphrodite cabin has all the intel on who’s dating who at camp, right?”

“Naturally.”

“So if I were to ask you if someone was single, you’d know the answer? Asking for a friend, obviously.”

“You’d better be.” She fixed him with a threatening stare, but Jason couldn’t help but laugh. “So who’s your secret crush, Sparky?”

“Again, asking for a friend, but Will Solace from Apollo?” He whispered the name in case anyone was listening.

“Will? Yeah, he’s single. But which friend? I mean, if it’s Reyna, you ought to warn her that he’s gay.”

“He is? Yes!” Jason pumped his fist in the air, then realized how that must have sounded.

“Jason-”

“Wait no that came out wrong, I swear I’m asking for a-”

“I mean if you’re bi or something I totally support you, but-”

“No! Nothing like that. I swear, Pipes. Asking-”

“For a friend, got it.” She laughed.

“And he’s like… out?” Jason ventured.

“Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be telling anyone if he wasn’t, even you honestly.” Piper waved a hand as if to say obviously.

Jason figured as much, but wanted to check before running straight to Cabin 13 with the news.

“I stand by the supporting you if you’re bi part, obviously, but It would have been a little cruel for you to tell me like that.” Piper said

“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure I’m straight.” Jason laughed.

“Only pretty sure?” Piper teased, swinging their hands back and forth.

“I mean I’ve thought guys are hot before, but I’ve never been, like, attracted to a dude so yeah. Pretty sure.” Jason wasn’t sure why he was admitting this, but he trusted Piper. For her part, it didn’t seem to faze or surprise her at all.

“Who do you think is hot?”

“Well you, obviously-”

“Guys.”

“Oh. Well,” Jason thought about it, “Just a singular guy I guess. First time I saw Percy I was like ‘holy shit’ but that’s about it.”

“Percy? Seriously?”

“Yes? The guy’s seriously hot, I’m secure enough in my sexuality to admit that.” Jason argued.

“Just don’t see it.” Piper shrugged. Jason wasn’t sure how, but he figured it was usually a good thing to find out your girlfriend didn’t find your bro hot.

“Whatever. You’re hotter anyway.” Jason said, which made Piper laugh. He supposed it was pretty cheesy. They had a great evening just walking around camp until the dinner horn blew, (with a comfortably long detour to make out in Cabin 1,) and Jason was excited about the good news for Nico.

He saw the Ghost King in question as soon as he entered the dining pavilion. He was standing between two columns deep in conversation with Percy. He kept motioning toward the ground at his feet and the ocean in the distance as he spoke, which didn’t make it seem like a fun chat. He’d have to hold off on the news, then.

Piper must have mistook his watching their conversation as him staring at Percy, so she sighed hyperbolically and walked off to join her siblings, smiling.

Jason sat alone, as usual. Sometime during the meal he looked up to find where Nico had gone, but he’d vanished.

The next morning, Jason awoke to find a messily scrawled note had been shoved under his cabin door while he was asleep.

“Boys’ night is back on, see u after lunch
~The Snackman”

Cool.

The rest of Jason’s morning was spent waiting for it to be lunch. Jason’s lunch was spent making eye contact with the other guys. (This time, Frank Edition.)

Boys’ night was Jason’s favorite part about this postwar honeymoon phase the demigod camps had found themselves in. Sure, he loved the sharing of ideas and the connections being made between Greeks and Romans, but he loved his friends more.

He floated himself up onto Zeus’s fist to find he was the last one there except Frank. Percy was already unloading a snack bag, how did he get that stuff on such short notice? Wait, that reminded him-

“Piper doesn’t think you’re hot.” Jason blurted without thinking.

Percy choked on air (appropriate for a fish person, also appropriate for the comment Jason had just delivered.)

“Okay?”

“Yeah, she doesn’t.” Jason kicked himself for bringing this up.

A crow landed on the boulder, and transformed into Frank.

“Hey guys, what did I miss last time-”

“Am I supposed to care that your girlfriend doesn’t think I’m hot or something?” Percy asked Jason, ignoring Frank’s arrival altogether.

“No!” Jason shouted.

“Oh hey, you got more gummy worms!” Nico interjected, louder than strictly necessary.

“And more Coke!” Leo shouted.

“What the hell?” Frank added at a similar volume.

“Snacks, Frank!” Leo boomed. Nico caught Jason’s eye across the circle like ‘what the hell was that,’ but Jason couldn’t explain the complex workings of his impulse control or lack thereof with a facial expression. Gods, this was worse than when he’d called Piper a knockout at the bonfire in front of the whole camp. He needed to stop doing that.

Jason shoved a cheeto puff into his mouth to avoid answering any follow up questions.

“You didn’t miss too much, Frank,” Leo supplied. Did Jason mention how much he loved Leo? King of subject changes,

“We were gonna get Nico a hot date but then Jason called wingman dibs, Percy and Nico’s dads are fighting about something stupid again, and Percy gave us a valuable lecture on the art of sucking face. That’s when the girls showed up, typical, but Hazel wasn’t with them. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Frank froze.

“I knew he was skipping on us for date night!” Percy said.

“Guys, stop making me remind you that it isn’t night.” Nico whined.

“I had stuff to do at Camp Jupiter?”

“Stuff better not have been my sister.” Nico glared at Frank until he caved.

“Okay fine but it wasn’t a date! It was some new camper’s birthday and she’d worked really hard to make it special for them, said they’d been homesick or something and needed it. She wanted me to go to the party.”

“Dammit, Frank, that’s too sweet for me to be angry about.” Percy complained.

“How’d the party go?” Nico asked softly, an entirely different person than he’d been ten seconds ago.

And so it went. It wasn’t a notable boys’ night by any means, they didn’t even get to the (for whatever reason) reoccurring Kissing Talk.

Frank talked more about the birthday party Hazel planned, Percy and Nico explained to the rest of them why Posiedon wanted to flood the underworld this time, and the rest of the gathering was spent sharing chips and idly chatting about how everyone’s various camp activities were going.

The real excitement came when boys night ended (at, like, four in the afternoon).

The meeting was adjourned for Percy to head to the lake to teach the beginner kayaking class he’d been asked to take on, and everyone else sorta mosied about in the general direction of their cabins.

It honestly took longer than Jason thought it would for Nico to realize they were mosy-ing to the same place.

“Did I miss a paternity test?” Nico asked when Jason was still with him on the steps of the Hades cabin.

“No, I’m just following you.”

“Ah, I should have assumed!” Nico said sarcastically, smacking himself in the forehead and dramatically recoiling from his own strike as he walked inside; but he left the door open for Jason so he figured he wasn’t actually mad.

“I’ll tolerate your entry under one condition,” Nico continued, “Context on how you found out Piper thinks Percy’s not fit”

At this point, Nico had pulled himself backwards into his coffin bed, with his legs swinging over the edge and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Jason, all too excited to tell Nico about what else happened in that same conversation to hoist himself into another bed, started pacing.

“Well basically I was thinking about Will Solace-”

“Hey!”

“-you can’t get jealous until you bother to make a move, but I was thinking about him for your sake anyway-”

“That doesn’t even make sense, I can think about him for myself-”

“So you admit you think about him!”

“We aren’t getting anywhere.” Nico slumped down over his legs.

Jason, unfazed, kept pacing.

“And I was on a sunset walk with Piper through the strawberry fields while I was thinking about it-”

“Gods, Jason, you were on a cute date with your amazing girlfriend why the fuck were you thinking about my lack of a love life?”

“Gods, Nico,” Jason whined, “can you let me fucking talk, bro?”

Nico flipped his hands in a conceding way, and turned his head to see Jason better from where he was still slumped over his own legs, halfway into bed.

“So I figure that the Aphrodite cabin probably knows everything about who is and isn’t single at this camp so I asked her if she knew anything about Will. She said he was single, but she hoped the friend I was asking for wasn’t Reyna because he was gay!”

Nico perked right up at that. He looked like he’d been zapped by lightning (Jason pleads not guilty) with how fast he sat up from his coffin-bed-slump.

He faltered for a second.

“How does she know?”

“Not sure but she said he’s out, so maybe he just told her?”

Nico nodded and smiled, back to how excited he looked a moment previous. Jason still found his smile unsettling sometimes, especially in the dim green light of the Hades cabin, but literally nothing could faze him from the excitement of how good of a wingman he was.

They literally just sat there smiling and nodding at each other as Jason started to slowly bounce up and down on his toes.

“Wait.”

Jason stopped bouncing at Nico’s word.

“That was not an answer to my question.”

“Oh!” Jason exclaimed, “That’s because I didn’t finish the story! Basically I got really excited when Piper said Will was gay and she teased me about it so I told her I was asking for someone else and I was pretty sure I was straight, which I am, but she asked more questions and basically I admitted that I think some guys are hot but I’m not attracted to them and she wanted an example and the only one I could think of was Percy.”

Jason said this all very quickly.

“I think.” Nico started. “I need to lay down.”

He disappeared below the lip of his coffin bead, and Jason took that as his cue to vacate the premises.

When the dinner horn sounded thirty minutes later, Jason found Piper with a few of her sisters on a bench near the dining pavilion. Be cool be cool be cool.

He mustered up the courage to ask her if she wanted to walk on the beach after dinner (lots of giggling and cooing from her sisters followed) but she agreed and he continued on to his lonesome table.

He’d loaded his plate with mac & cheese, scooped the part with the most crunchy breadcrumbs into the sacrificial fire, and barely had the chance to sit down when Percy appeared.

He popped down backwards on the bench seating like three inches from Jason, so he knew whatever Percy was about to say was gonna be either top secret or extremely weird (by Percy standards).

“Ok you’re Nico’s best friend, right?”

“I’d like to think so.” Jason sat up a little prouder at this.

“He is single, right?”

“Yeah, is someone asking?”

“I swore to secrecy.” Percy whispered.

Chiron was starting to move their direction so Percy scrambled away. Clearly he was trying to throw a still-watching Jason off his rhythm by talking to as many people as possible so Jason couldn’t know who he was reporting back to, but Jason was delighted to see that among the number of those visited was Will Solace.

He ate quickly like he always did. Sitting alone at a table was sad and boring, and he normally tried to make plans after dinner when camp activities were done but there was still time before the campfire. Otherwise, he’d scarf his food anyway and go back to work on his shrine project.

Soon enough, he was hand-in-hand with Piper strolling towards the beach. They left their shoes under a bush in the hopes that no Hermes kids would find them, and felt the sand between their toes.

Jason may be the least charismatic guy to ever manage to pull a child of the literal love goddess, but he really did his best. Gave her all kinds of compliments as they strolled and talked about the future.

Things got a little awkward when another couple came into view and they saw that Percy and Annabeth were also on a romantic beach stroll in the opposite direction, but the boys simply gave each other an official-feeling nod and continued on.

There were only so many date spots when you lived at a summer camp.

They finished their date sitting on a bench watching the waves with Piper’s head on Jason’s shoulder, fingers still intertwined.

“How about New Rome for our next date?” Jason asked, softly.

Piper smiled.

On his way back to Cabin 1 after walking Piper home (which is a terrifying experience because like ten of her siblings are always waiting on the porch to get a good look at them when they get back) he passed the infirmary.

-

Nico was all too happy to offer his own help when Will bumped into him by the dinner buffet, and complained about the infirmary not being orderly enough to be prepared for the upcoming intermediate-level sword fighting competition.

“I’m gonna be up all night alphabetizing medicines and cutting bandages, so many people always manage to get hurt at these.”

Nico saw it as an opportunity to spend time with and help out a… friend… and before he knew it he was alone in the infirmary with one son of Apollo. (Yes. That son of Apollo.)

“You’re sure my aura won’t be too bad for this place?”

“I’m sure it’s fine.” Will shrugged. “You’ve been here before.”

That was fair enough. He’d helped rip bandages during the Battle of Camp Half Blood but everything about that day was a blur except in nightmares.

He really owed the help to Will whether he liked him or not, seeing as the upcoming competition was the level of swordsmen that he teaches.

“If it makes you feel any better, they’ve gotten really good at blocking so there hopefully won’t be too many injuries.”

“I appreciate the effort, but that’s what everyone always says.” Will said, kind smile in his eyes. Gods, his eyes.

Light blue like a sunny sky.

His curly hair kept falling to block them, but he’d shake his head like a puppy to get it out of his way. His hair seemed to glow ever so slightly, or maybe it was just that shade of blond.

Nico was staring.

“Sorry.”

Embarrassingly for Nico, Will just chuckled like he wasn’t bothered, and moved towards the sink in the infirmary. He opened a cabinet above the counter, revealing a disorganized mess of bottles and phials. Some glowed, some bubbled, some appeared to be ordinary aspirin, some were ordinary aspirin, and all of them were jammed in the cabinet like their life depended on it.

Will grabbed a canvas storage crate off the floor that Nico hadn’t noticed yet (his eye had been elsewhere), and struggled to lift it onto the counter.

Nico, somewhat instinctively, lurched to help him upon seeing him struggle. They got the crate (which Nico had to admit was pretty heavy) onto the counter, and he realized only then how close they’d gotten.

“Sorry.” Nico said again, taking a half-step away.

Smooth. Very cool and smooth of him to do that.

“I asked one of the Hephestus campers to whip up something simple to help with these cabinets. These are just shelf risers custom fit to these cabinets so we can see everything in the back. She wanted to add some kind of auto-grabbing mechanism but I feel like simple is best when you’re working under pressure.”

Will held up one of the shelf risers to show Nico. They looked like the kind people normally use in their spice cabinet, nothing crazy. They’d definitely help the organization situation.

“I think we should take everything out of the cabinets, alphabetize it, then put it back in on the risers.” Will instructed.

“Seems easy enough. Greek alphabet, or English?”

“There’s some of both so uhhh… vibes.”

They started in relative silence, which was good for Nico since he’d already made a fool of himself enough. The problem with Nico was that when he fell he fell hard. Call it deprivation, call it hormones, call it whatever you want; a crush this bad was the only thing capable of breaking his whole pince-of-darkness-I-work-alone-like-Batman bit.

For a little, the silence was only punctured by bottles clinking together and pills rattling in containers as they emptied the cabinets onto the counter.

Well. Also Nico.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry.”

“Sorry.”

The medicine cabinet was narrow, and with the counter being directly beneath it, there wasn’t a lot of room for the two to work in. It resulted in a lot of reaching, bumping, and just overall more touching than Nico was used to. He wasn’t normally comfortable with touching, except maybe hugging Hazel, but this was different.

This, he was pretty sure he was okay with.

It felt like being burned when people would try to hug him or throw an arm around him sometimes, but it burned in a good way with Will. Warm.

“You know, you don’t have to apologize every time you touch me.”

“Sorry. Oh! Sorry. I mean… shit.” Nico planted his hands on the counter and leaned forward, hanging his head.

He looked over to find Will laughing, covering his mouth with a hand. It was pretty ridiculous, Nico reasoned, he was being ridiculous. Will’s laugh was just so cute and full of life that Nico couldn’t help but chuckle a bit too.

“I hope it’s not too weird to say I like your smile, Nico.” something about the compliment mixed with Will saying his name with no one around sent a spark down Nico’s spine.

“I like yours a lot too, Will.” Nico smiled even more, “And your eyes. Wait, that's definitely weird. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomf-”

“Weird or not, I liked hearing it from you. So don’t worry about it.”

They looked at each other for a little too long, Nico still leaning against the counter staring into the eyes Will now knew he liked so much.

Will cleared his throat, and they started sifting through and sorting bottles again, but this time Nico didn’t apologize when his arm brushed Will’s. It was… nice. Yeah, it was nice.

It was instinctual for Nico to flinch away from contact like this but as the night went on, he got more and more comfortable.

It shouldn’t be this easy to trust Will. Everything he’d learned told him to keep his guard up no matter who it was or how much he liked them, but for once his heart was winning out. Like he’s always known; when he falls he falls hard.

By the time they were putting the last quarter of the alphabet back onto the new risers, Nico (though he would never admit it) may have been reaching across Will more than he really needed to.

“This is so much better, Kayla and the others are gonna flip when they see how easy it is to find stuff now.” Will beamed (Nico swore his teeth glowed).

“How long do you think you guys will be able to keep it like this?” Nico joked.

“I don’t know, depends on how well you’ve trained your swordspeople I guess.” Will returned, smiling.

“Tell you what, if tomorrow’s competition goes so bad that it looks like a cannon went off in here again, I’ll help you put everything back.”

“Be careful, you might make me mess it up on purpose.” Will’s smile was mischievous as he pulled himself up backwards to sit on the counter.

Nico followed suit, blushing furiously and trying to hide it.

Jason was right, though. He was way too pale to hide a blush like the kind Will Solace could give him.

Fortunately Will was either too nice or too shy himself to point it out.

“Let me walk you home?” Will asked.

And how could Nico say no?

Will dropped him off on the porch of Cabin 13 and told him to have a good night. Nico wished him the same.

“I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow.” Nico said.

“Unfortunately.” Will said. “Wait! I mean because I’ll see you when your campers get hurt. It’s not unfortunate that I’ll see you! I actually really like getting to see you-”

“Will.” Nico just had to cut him off before he exploded over how cute Will was, “You sound like me.”

It was Will’s turn to blush, and he started stepping backwards away from Nico’s door while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Nico waited until he’d turned around and gotten a couple steps farther before he got the courage to call out.

“Hey Will?” Will turned around. “I really like getting to see you too.”

Nico then closed the door, leaned up against it, and hyperventilated for like five minutes.

-

Jason was relaxing in his bed (he’d actually bought a mattress to replace the stupid cot once he realized he’d be spending more time here) reading a book on religious architecture from around the world that Annabeth had loaned him.

He was deep in a fascinating chapter about Mesopotamian ziggurats when there was a frantic knocking at his door. Assuming it had to be an emergency between the urgency and the hour, Jason flew to the door and flung it open.

“Nico?”

“Lemme in”

“Is everything ok?” Jason landed and closed the door behind Nico, confused.

“Everything is amazing. I think. I need a second opinion.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this giddy.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this giddy but repeat that and I’ll end you, Grace.”

“I mean,” Jason mumbled, “I dunno why you’re so confident you’d win…”

“Not the point. Listen…”

Jason listened as Nico reccounted the events of his evening. Watched as he blushed talking about how Will liked it when he complimented his eyes, and walked him home, and just generally flirted the entire time as far as Jason could tell.

“Well.” Jason concluded. “He’s totally into you, dude.”

“Yeah. I really think he is. Thank the gods he’s so confident or I’d probably be spending another six months doubting I ever have a chance.” Nico chuckled, a little sadly.

“Hey, be fair to yourself. Of course he likes you. You’re a great guy!”

“I’ve been told I’m unsettling.”

“It’s endearing.”

“Hrmph.”

Jason was seriously happy for Nico. He was a great guy, and he deserved for good things to happen to him. Especially after all the bad happenings he’d been dealt in his life. As far as Jason could tell, this Will Solace guy was a good thing to happen. So Jason was thrilled the night had gone so well.

“I think I’m gonna have to summon a boys night tomorrow after the competition.”

“You’re gonna tell them?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s only Leo and Frank that don’t know I’m gay, really, and I can’t imagine them being upset. I’ve been scared because, well, it’s a scary thing to do, but I really think this thing with Will is gonna pan out and I don’t wanna hide if it does. Will deserves better.” Nico paused. “And honestly? I deserve better too.”

Jason was so fucking proud.

-

The morning was a blur for Nico leading up to the competition. He skipped breakfast, opting to head straight to the arena. He correctly assumed some of his students would be up early practicing.

He bounced between students giving everyone last minute tips or motivational pep talks. Slowly as the sun rose higher, campers began filtering into the arena and filling up the stands. Siblings and friends of those competing, campers in the beginner swordsmanship class, and Chiron.

Nico looked around for Will, and found him in one of the front rows with the medical bag, a gurney, and two of his siblings, ready to dress a wound or take someone to the infirmary at a moment’s notice.

Will noticed Nico looking and smiled. Nico smiled back.

When it was all said and done, only three people actually needed to go to the infirmary (two for injuries obtained through sword fighting, one particularly enthusiastic spectator for falling off the stands and hitting their head). Will was there, taking care of them.

A dozen more people needed some bandaging and a sip of nectar, but Kayla handled that just fine with the supplies from the med bag.

Nico’s students had done extremely well, and he made the rounds congratulating each one, regardless of who won.

“A word, Nico?”

“Chiron!” Nico was surprised to see the centaur had managed to sneak up on him. “Of course.”

“I just wanted to say you’ve done great work with these students. I’m proud of the way you’ve become such an integral part of this camp. You’re doing great work.”

“Oh… thank you, sir.” Nico didn’t know why he was surprised. Chiron had never been an unkind man to himself or any other campers, but it felt like a big deal to get a compliment like that.

Once his business was sorted in the arena, he gave one last affirmative shout to his campers, and began to walk towards the infirmary. To check on his wounded campers and… other reasons.

“How are they?” Nico asked, barely through the door. He had faith in Will’s healing skills, but that didn’t stop him from being concerned.

“Oh, everyone’s been stable for a while. The two competitors’ cuts looked a lot worse than they were. I cleaned up the blood and sanitized the wounds as they ate some ambrosia. By time that was done, I didn’t even have to do any stitches! They’re resting now, but they should be good as new in the next few days.” Will smiled. He was washing his hands, currently, and seemed proud of his work.

“And the spectator?”

“No concussion, which is what we were worried about, but he’s got a nasty bruise still. I can’t give him more ambrosia or nectar until tomorrow, but he should be good to stay the night in his own cabin and just find me tomorrow for more.”

“Thank you, Will. How are you?”

“Honestly? A lot better than I thought I’d be. Maybe you were actually on to something when you said your campers were good at blocking, never should have doubted you!” Will laughed.

One of the patients rolled over in their cot and made a pained sound, and Will dashed off to help them.

“Thanks for everything, Will. I’ll catch you later!” Nico called out as he left the infirmary.

Yeah. He needed to invoke a Boys’ Night.

He knew he didn’t need the others permission, acceptance, anything; but he wanted them in the loop. These guys meant the world to him and he wanted to get to gush about his crush (maybe soon his boyfriend!!) the way the other four got to talk about their girlfriends.

He wanted them to know him fully, deep down he really did.

But these things were always hard for him.

It was hard for him to open up and trust when it had backfired on him in the past. It was hard to get close to people when he’d lost so many.

But he’d been through hell and back and bore all the scars from it and these guys still welcomed him with open arms, and took no offense when he didn’t feel comfortable enough to walk into them. He could trust them.

And what he’d told Jason the previous day was right too. He didn’t want to hide anymore.

If he was right, and Will liked him back, he wanted to get to be in a real relationship with him. Go on walks through the strawberry fields and dates in New Rome. Maybe hold hands from time to time.

Nico blushed at the thought. He really was deprived, wasn’t he?

All these musings brought Nico all the way to the dining pavilion where lunch had already started. Nico saw and congratulated many of his campers again as he started to make his rounds to the tables for cabins 1, 3, 5, and 9.

“Leo,” Nico caught him just after he tossed some pulled pork into the sacrificial fire, “I’m calling a Boys’ Night.”

Leo gasped “YOU ARE?” Then, when he noticed people were starting, “You are? You never call Boys’ Nights? What’s going on?”

“All good things, I think, but can we use Bunker 9? It’s kind of private.”

Leo nodded dutifully and gave Nico a mock salute, failing to contain his excitement about Nico’s new level of bro-hood.

He continued around the pavilion until he found Frank, awkwardly wedged at the end of the Ares table. He was the least comfortable with Camp Half Blood of the crew, and he typically only visited when sent for. Nico suspected it had something to do with how abrasive the Ares kids are.

Typically, Nico had to shadow travel to California and bring Frank back with him when they hadn’t given him enough advanced notice for a Boys’ Night, so it was lucky he was in town to see Nico’s campers compete.

“Psst.”

Frank startled.

“Boys’ Night at Bunker 9 after lunch.”

Frank nodded, very quickly. Nico knew he was a little intimidated by him, being the scary emo brother of the girl he was dating and all, but Nico wasn’t too bothered. He had always been a little overprotective of Hazel anyway.

Percy was next, and he spotted Nico first.

“Nico! Your campers did great today! What teaching methods did you use for defensive stuff? They really seemed to have that down!”

Flattered by the compliments and always willing to brag about his students, Nico let the conversation stay on the topic of sword fighting for a few minutes. When it wrapped up, Nico shared the invite.

“Why the location change?”

“I just need to talk about something kinda personal.” Nico wasn’t sure if Percy would pick up on his meaning or not.

“Oh. Oh! That’s really great, man. I’ll be there.” Percy smiled, genuinely proud.

Jason was last.

“You’re sure about this?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m really proud of you, dude.”

Nico ate a little bit of pulled pork, and started the walk to Bunker 9.

He was the first one to the entrance, and that’s when he really started doubting himself. What if one of the guys was less accepting than he was expecting? What if he wouldn’t be able to talk about his own relationships as openly as the others since they’ll think it’s weird?

What if Will doesn’t even like him back?

Maybe he should just keep his secrets like he always has, it’s safer that way.

“How’s my favorite Zombie Man?” Percy had arrived.

“How many other zombie men am I up against for that title?”

“Irrelevant. How are you, though? You seem stressed.” Percy leaned against the closed entrance to the bunker and quirked his head. It really was funny how quickly he was able to shift his sights to Will, because this pose had been brutal for him in the past.

“It’s just a big thing for me to talk about.”

“That makes sense. Remember, you don’t have to. You can just tell them you secretly don’t like our Bachelorette watch parties, or something. You don’t owe anybody anything.” Nico was lucky to have friends like Percy.

“You’re right, but… I want them to know.”

Jason appeared next, flying in and landing out of nowhere.

“And honestly, this season has been dull, I think all the contestants have too little-” Percy immediately changed the subject to sound like they’d been loudly talking about the Bachelorette the whole time.

“Percy.” Nico cut him off. “Jason already knows. But thank you.”

“Cool, cool,” Percy tried to play it off, “well then hey, you’re already halfway there and nothing bad’s happened.” Percy gave a supportive smile and shoulder shrug.

That was true, Nico figured. But that didn’t mean something couldn’t still happen.

Regardless, Nico wanted to do this. For himself, for Will, for his friends. He just wanted to.

Percy and Jason did actually end up discussing the Bachelorette until Frank and eventually Leo arrived.

“Welcome to my home away from home, everyone.” Leo bowed to them dramatically as they piled in.

As everyone found a non-greasy surface to lean on or place to sit, they got started.

“I didn’t have time for a snack run, but I’ve got what’s left from last time.” Percy passed the paper bag around for people to make their selections. “This meeting is officially called to order. First order of business?”

Nico stood up, shakily. This was it.

“I have something I’ve been wanting to tell you guys.”

Jason and Percy were smiling at him, and it helped him ground himself.

“I’ve waited so long just because it’s hard for me to talk about, but I trust you all and I want you guys to know.”

Nico took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling, shaking. There was no backing down now, he just had to rip off the band-aid-

“I’m gay.”

“Oh! That’s great, Nico. Thank you for telling us.” Frank said, nodding.

“We’re always gonna support you.” Jason said, Percy nodding enthusiastically along with him.

Leo seemed to be deep in thought, and Nico’s confidence wavered.

“I’m sorry I kept bringing up trying to get you a girlfriend, man. I had no idea.” Leo said.

“You had no way of knowing.”

“Then I guess…” Leo seemed to be revving up for something, “this marks the official start of Let’s Get Nico a Boyfriend!”

“About that…”

Several people gasped.

“DO YOU HAVE A SECRET BOYFRIEND?”

“WHO’S YOUR MYSTERY MAN?”

“WHO’S YOUR TYPE?”

Nico tried to glare at Percy but he was so high on the feeling of finally being out that he could barely find it in himself.

“Not yet, but I’m pretty confident he likes me back so I’m gonna ask him out soon.”

If a room filled by this particular group of ‘gentlemen’ had ever been this quiet before, Nico would eat his coat.

“It’s Will Solace from Apollo.”

A chorus of “awwww”s that could rival the Aphrodite cabin ensued.

“How are you gonna ask him?” Leo was literally vibrating with energy. No one loved a good romance more than Leo, and if Nico wasn’t careful he’d start planning their wedding.

“I think I’m just gonna be direct. I’m no good at poetry and if I tried to bring him flowers they’d probably die.”

“I could make some out of metal!”

“Do you want any help?”

Gods, Nico had the best friends ever.

-

In the end, Nico decided to go with his original plan. After dinner that same night, he caught Will as he was leaving the dining pavilion with some of his siblings.

“Hey, do you wanna go for a walk with me?” Nico hoped it wasn’t obvious that he was sweating.

Will agreed readily, and once they were out of earshot from his siblings asked,

“Is this… a date?”

“I’d like it to be?”

“I’d like that too.” Will smiled.

Nico could get used to that.