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“I thought you hated school dances.”
Nico turned around to face Will, looking vaguely deer-in-headlights with those brown eyes of his. Will’s palms were sweaty as they gripped the two red Solo cups full of lukewarm punch he'd just grabbed. Nico looked unfairly good in a suit and tie, and in the face of his crush, Will’s clip-on bowtie felt like a woeful mistake.
In Will’s defense, Nico wasn’t supposed to be here to see his clip-on bowtie. There was a reason Will told his friends that he totally asked Nico out like they wanted him to, but Nico said he wasn’t going to go. Will’s friends would shut up about his crush in favor of giving him sympathetic looks for a few days, and Nico would be none the wiser about the torch Will had been carrying for him since freshman year.
It was the perfect plan, and it had crumpled to ashes the moment Lou Ellen tugged at Will’s sleeve, pointed at the door, and said, you said Nico wasn’t coming, but he just walked in. I’m so sorry.
Will had seen Nico, gulped, and resolved to get Nico alone before his friends could corner Nico for cruelly breaking Will’s heart.
Now, Nico was leaning up against the brick wall exterior of the gym, arms crossed over his chest. He toed at the light dusting of snow that covered the football field with his sneaker.
“Percy and Jason made me come,” Nico blurted out. “They practically had to kidnap me to get me to come here.”
“So you don’t have a date?” Will cleared his throat. “I mean, no one’s going to get jealous if I got you a drink?”
Nico smiled, a small quirk of the lips that warmed Will’s chest despite the chilly air, and their fingers brushed as Nico took the proffered cup.
“No, I’m all yours.”
Will took a quick sip of his punch to avoid making any embarrassing reactions to that choice of words.
“So,” Nico said. His exhale came out in a wispy white cloud, and Will knew the pink tinge on his cheeks was from the cold. It had to be. There was no other explanation. “Did you come here to escape the noise, too?”
Will laughed nervously, trying to decide if he should just take the easy excuse. Even with the gym door closed, he could still hear the thumping bass of whatever pop song the DJ was playing.
“No, I was looking for you, actually,” Will said instead. He really, really didn’t need one of his friends cornering an unprepared Nico. “You haven’t seen any of my friends around, have you?”
“I think they’re probably inside,” Nico replied dryly, with a small smirk that was far more endearing than it had any right to be.
Will rolled his eyes, fighting back a smile. It wasn’t his fault that Nico was so cute.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no’.” He took a deep breath; the worst thing he could say was ‘no’, right? “I kinda…lied to them about us. They wanted me to ask you to be my date, but I chickened out and I told them you’d told me you weren’t going at all.”
“Oh.”
“Is that a good ‘oh’ or a bad one?”
Nico shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. Will felt himself relaxing. “Definitely not a bad ‘oh’.”
Will nodded. “Oh. Good. That's…good.”
Taking pity on Will's flusteredness, Nico cut him off, saying, “For the record, I lied, too. Percy and Jason didn’t force me to come here. I heard you were going, and I figured it couldn’t be that bad.”
Will opened his mouth only for nothing to fall out. He was definitely blushing now, probably glowing like a red neon sign. “Me? But I thought you hated school dances.”
Nico rolled his eyes, but it was the same kind of eye roll he’d always do when they were lab partners for chemistry class sophomore year whenever Will made bad puns under his breath while they were doing their experiments. It was the fondly annoyed kind of eye roll that made Will think he had a chance.
Lou Ellen and Cecil had been pestering Will about asking Nico to the dance since the flashy posters were first put up. At first, Will had laughed it off, making dry comments about what colors he'd have to wear to match Nico's black and purple color palette. But the winter formal posters were placed in ten-foot intervals, and every time Cecil saw one, his eyes lit up and he started another round of cajoling Will into asking Nico out.
There had been moments when Will almost did, too. Stupid moments when Nico's hand was dangerously close to brushing against Will's as they left their shared class, and Nico's eyes gleamed with laughter even as he insisted Will's puns were terrible, and Will could imagine a world where he was brave enough to just pop the question.
Nico, will you go to the winter formal with me? Nico, will you be my date? Nico, are you in love with me too?
Okay. Maybe not that last one.
But he never did. And then it was one week before the dance, and Will definitely couldn't ask then, because it would seem like asking Nico out was an afterthought. And then it was days before the dance, and it was just so much easier to lie to Lou Ellen and Cecil than it was to subject himself to the mortifying ordeal of being rejected by Nico di Angelo.
“I just wanted an excuse to make fun of your stupid dancing,” Nico replied. “You're bad enough at it that it makes anything feel tolerable.”
Was Will imagining things, or was Nico getting closer to him?
“My dancing is not stupid ,” Will argued. “I’m a great dancer. I’m the whole package– a triple threat. Like Joe Serafini.”
“Fine, Solace. Prove it.” Nico took another step forward. He was close enough that Will could see the snowflake that had landed on one of his dark lashes, and definitely close enough for Will to take Nico’s hand. “Ask me to dance with you.”
Will cocked his head, trying to identify the muffled song pouring out of the gym’s speakers. It sounded slow, like some romantic Ed Sheeran song, and Will was suddenly glad his dad taught him how to slow dance, even if he never taught him how to tie a real bowtie.
Will tried to not make it obvious that he was wiping his sweaty palms on his pants before extending his hand to Nico. “May I have this dance?”
“Sure.”
Nico was fighting a smile, his lips twitching, as he took Will’s hand, letting Will pull him in closer. Will took the cup out of his hands, setting both up against the wall, before turning back to Nico. After a moment of hesitation, Nico laced his hands around Will’s shoulders, and Will put his hands on Nico's waist.
They moved in a slow circle, guided by Will humming what he imagined the song in the gym sounded like– a nice, slow, romantic song.
“So…you would've said yes, right?” Will murmured. “If I had asked you to be my date.”
Nico's head dropped onto Will's chest, the contact warming Will straight to his core. “You'll never find out, seeing as you never did.”
“I'm pretty sure I just asked you to dance.”
“That doesn't count.” Nico slowed to a stop, his arms still around Will's neck. Will could count the shades of brown reflected in Nico's eyes, could see the way his lips were slightly parted.
“Can I kiss you?” Will blurted out. His eyes darted away from Nico's lips. “That sounded weird. I ruined the moment. I'm not only attracted to how pretty you are–”
Nico surged forward, his nose bumping against Will's as their lips met. Sparks exploded in Will's chest, his mind going blank as it zeroed in on the sweet pressure of Will's lips against his.
“Will? You out here?”
Will and Nico broke apart at the sound of the door creaking open. Will was sure he was blushing, his cheeks burning hotter than that stupid crowded gym.
Lou Ellen and Cecil were standing in the doorway– Cecil looking confused, Lou Ellen smirking.
“Did you two get locked out or something?” Cecil asked.
“Yes,” Will lied, because apparently he still hadn't learned his lesson about that. “That's exactly what happened.”
“You never asked him,” Lou Ellen accused gleefully, looking between him and Nico.
Will resisted the urge to shuffle away from Nico, which would only look more suspicious. Cecil's eyes widened and he groaned, slipping Lou Ellen something that looked suspiciously like cash.
“Are you seriously betting on my love life?” Will demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Why do you think Cecil was pushing so hard for you to ask him out?” Lou Ellen replied. “Bye you two!”
Lou Ellen pulled the door shut again, and Will turned back to Nico, smiling nervously.
“Do you want to go back inside?”
Nico shrugged, suddenly looking more guarded. “It's getting cold out here anyway.”
“Do you want my jacket?”
“You'd never get it back,” Nico warned.
Will couldn't help himself. “It's all yours.”
That drew a smile out of Nico– it was barely a flash, an upward turn of the corners of Nico's mouth that was quickly pulled away, but it made Will grin like an idiot anyway. Nico really was adorable, even if he would never agree.
Nico stepped towards the gym doors, pulling Will along by the wrist. “Come on, Solace. You owe me a real dance.”
Will let himself be pulled along back into the stifling gym without complaint. After all, if Nico showed up for Will– even if Will never technically asked– then Nico deserved to see Will's totally awesome and not stupid dance moves.