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Leo is totally not struggling to support Nico's weight on his shoulder on their way to the infirmary.
He’d been deep in thought when the accident happened. Luckily, the son of Hades is calm in a crisis; Nico had almost immediately begun pressing on the wound, trying to stop the blood soaking through his jeans. That’s when Leo finally stopped buffering, hurriedly pulled off his shirt and wrapped it tightly around Nico's thigh. Guess he wouldn’t be getting that back.
Since Jason’s death- and his subsequent breakup with Calypso- the two had reluctantly bonded through grief, but quickly realized that they had a lot in common. (Really, the guy isn’t as creepy as Leo had thought at first… Still a little creepy, but in an endearing way.)
In fact, Nico is one of the only people who never makes his social battery run out. They'd settled into a comfortable rotation of info-dumping and non-verbal parallel play like they had been friends their entire lives.
Leo is wondering if it’s the adrenaline causing him to be so out of breath or if he should actually start working out before being snapped out of his thoughts when he nearly trips over one of Nico's… cocoapuffs? Whatever the little creatures that follow him everywhere are called. They kinda remind him of the soot sprites from Spirited Away, only much bigger.
Once they cross the threshold, he gingerly hands off Nico to Kayla; who takes one unimpressed glance at his leg then unceremoniously dumps him into a bed.
“I’ll go get him.” She turns on her heel and disappears further into the big house. (She is more than capable of dealing with it, but why deprive Will the joy of escaping his homework to see his boyfriend?)
“Want me to stay?” Leo fidgets, he’s a little surprised that he genuinely means it. Seeing his friend get hurt must be making him feel sentimental. In moments like this, it’s hard not to imagine if they and Jason had gotten the opportunity to hang out as a trio.
“That’s okay, I’ll spare you the gore-y details,” he pauses for a second to let the truly horrible pun marinate with a mildly unsettling smirk, “when this is done I’ll come back to the forge and we can go back to the drawing board.” Now that’s a true friend. Thankful that Nico doesn’t expect him to stay still for any longer, the gears in his body whir back to life.
“Got it man- I’ll go get some opinions on what went wrong and I’ll see ya then!” He gives a little salute and disappears behind the curtains separating the hospital beds and then out the door.
-
It’s been kind of a slow day in the infirmary,- probably because the lava wall is closed for maintenance, gods bless the Hephaestus cabin- so Will has been counting down the hours to dinner, and then better yet, the campfire.
He clicks and twirls around his pen, staring down at the biology textbook. (Namely, the silly doodles all over the margines.) Despite the lack of distractions, he’s obviously not getting much studying done.
After this semester, he has one more year left of high school- not many people know that he skipped a grade, thanks to Chirons year-rounder program adapted specifically for demigods- and he hopes that the University of New Rome won’t mind him using ancient methods of healing (and magic) in tandem with modern medicine.
Kayla’s abrupt entrance snaps him out of his thoughts. “Hey, Nico is-”
He’s already standing. Before his heart can completely sink into his stomach (thanks PTSD) she puts her hands up in reassurance. “No, it’s fine, sorry, he’s fine- Just a laceration, looks kinda deep and he’s definitely lost blood but he’s lucid and doesn’t seem to be in pain. Figured you’d wanna deal with it.”
Leave it to Nico to be cavalier about being maimed.
“Oh, alright yeah, thanks Kale-chip.” He wastes no time in pushing past her, gently clapping her on the shoulder as he passes, and through the door.
Will subconsciously psyches himself up to scold Nico for not being careful, for doing whatever it was that got him injured.
All his thoughts stop in their tracks when he sees his boyfriend sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, staring off into the strawberry fields out the window. Nico's hands are steadily pressing on his thigh, he hasn’t noticed his partner standing in by the curtain yet.
In a fraction of a second Will makes up his mind to be a little greedy. He can go into full protective-doctor-mode later, but right now he just wants to see Nico smile. (Maybe even laugh a little.)
He pulls his clipboard in front of him and quietly takes a few steps back, making a small noise with his throat as he performs coming into the room for the first time. Nico is pulled out of his daydream.
-
Will looks up from his clipboard, “Well hello there.” He’s keeping an awkward distance, “I see you haven’t filled out the intake yet,” he gestures to the completely empty patient info sheet hanging at the end of the twin cot, (a formality that is rarely ever used, save for being a practice tool for new healers) “don’t you worry about a thing, we can fill it in together; what’s your name, please?”
“What?” Nico stares dumbly.
“Your name? Standard procedure, sir.” To the untrained eye, he’s calm, oozing professionalism and bedside manner; which definitely doesn’t come naturally to the average teenage boy.
But it only takes Nico a moment to take in Will's poorly surpressed smile and expectant look, to finally clue in on the joke.
Even after all this time he’s still adjusting to Will's special talent for making him feel like it’s only the two of them in the whole world. Nico ignores the swelling of his heart. (And the urge to roll his eyes.)
“Niccolò Di Angelo”
“Italian,” He tilts his head appreciatively, “And what brings you in today, Niccolò?” His slight southern accent mangles Nicos full name. Nico is appreciative of how he is obtusely ignoring the giant gash on his leg. He isn’t sure if it’s the playful conversation or the way that the sun is haloing Will's hair from behind that’s numbing the pain.
Nico gestures to Leo's blood soaked camp half blood t-shirt that’s he’s using to apply pressure to the wound.
“Just a little scratch,” he shrugs, “call me Nico.”
“Nico it is,” Will smiles a little smile that definitely doesn’t take the air out of Nico's lungs, “And who, might I ask, are these adorable little fellas?”
The cacaodemons have been making themselves very comfortable in the infirmary. Nico has grown so used to their presence since coming home (yes, home) from tartarus he often forgets they’re there; they’re a natural extension of himself after all.
He gently pats the one clinging to his hip, “These are my children.” he deadpans. (Not technically a lie.)
“All of them? I can see the family resemblance.” Will nods sagely.
One squeaks at Will from the crash cart to come closer, then promptly plops itself down on his clipboard.
“What a handful.” Will shakes his head fondly, then tucks his pen behind his ear to lightly pinch its cheek. Nico's heart rate doubles for no reason at all.
Two can play at that game. Nico lets out a melodramatic sigh, “They sure are, it’s so hard being a hot single dad.”
“Single, huh?” The corner of his mouth quirks up, amused.
Nico pushes down more butterflies and decides to push the bit further, “Mhm, just waiting for the day a cute, southern doctor will sweep me off my feet and make an honest man of me.”
A very unprofessional pink spreads all the way to the Doctors ears and neck. Will's eyes sparkle before moving down to the gash on Nico's leg. He lets out a low whistle, “Well darlin’, then I guess I’d better fix that up so I can get to wooing you, stat.”
Will turns to grab some ambrosia from the cabinet, snapping an already small piece in half. Completely missing the matching flush on his patients olive toned face.
-
“Slowly.” He advises offhandedly. Most demigods know ambrosia is dangerous- especially veterans like Nico- but you’d be surprised how many people forget when they’re in pain.
It’s also very easy to forget how small Nico is when you’ve seen him rip apart monsters and raise the dead in battle, but seeing his big brown eyes stare up at him through black, unruly hair and accept the ambrosia with a wordless nod makes Wills heart perform a little gymnastics routine. He shifts to the side quickly to grab the suturing kit and shove off the overwhelming urge to smother the ghost king in a hug.
“Alright, looks like the bleedings stopped. Now I’m gonna have to untie that shirt and cut the pant leg off- sorry if you were attached to ‘em.”
“Do what you have to.” Nico answers solemnly, turning his head away as if Will had suggested amputation.
Will pulls up a rolling stool and sits, making a show of snapping on his gloves while maintaining eye contact- both of them narrowly avoid giggling. (Can’t ruin the bit after it’s gone this far.)
He breaks the silence after the poor, innocent pair of jeans are shredded and the fabric pulled away, “Looks like you lead a pretty dangerous life, for a father.”
“You worried about me, Doc?”
Will raises an eyebrow before turning his attention back to disinfecting the wound. “…Nah, these lil fellas look tough enough to protect you.”
One caocaodemon puffs up its little body in pride.
“The apples don’t fall far.” Nico preens.
“That being said, I’ll bet they wish their handsome, stubborn dad would take better care to be less accident prone.”
“Really? Did they tell you that?” Will doesn’t have to look up from suturing to know Nico is grinning.
He looks up anyways, holding Nico's gaze captive. “Just Doctors intuition.”
-
Eye contact is hard for Nico, but not even Piper's voice could tear his focus away right now. His brain is short circuiting and he needs to keep playing along quickly otherwise the temptation to grab his boyfriend's sweet, freckled face is going to take over.
“What else does your ‘Doctors Intuition’ tell you?”
Will looks thoughtful for a moment before looking down to secure the last stitch. “It tells me that I might need to prescribe us a few dates after this, just to monitor your progress of course.”
“Well, who am I to go against Doctors orders?” Nico concedes with feigned innocence.
He looks up with a knowing smile, resting one hand on Nicos non-injured leg while he turns to grab ointment from the crash cart. “You sure catch on quick.”
The gentle, casual contact somehow sends his heartbeat even further into a rage, each beat echoing loudly in his ears.
It’s that dreamy time of day, he’s heard the Aphrodite campers refer to it as… golden hour? In this moment, seeing Will illuminated in the soft light it occurs to him exactly why they call it that.
“I have one condition though,” He half-blurts.
“Oh?” Will leans forward to gently dab on some salve.
“I’d like to go on them as our real selves, amorino.”
How can Will insist that he has no musical talent when his laugh is so melodic? “As you wish.”
(If Nico wasn’t totally distracted he might have caught that Princess Bride reference.)
-
Nico raises his thigh so that Will can wind the gauze around it a few times. He fastens the bandage snugly before standing up- still positioned between his sitting boyfriend's legs- their faces inches apart; neither create space nor close the gap. Everything becomes deadly still.
“There, all fixed up.” He’s afraid to move too suddenly or speak too loudly and accidentally chase away this moment. He pulls off his gloves and gently drops them to the side before slowly brushing Nico's bangs out of his face.
It seems like Nico is just as intent on protecting this moment. He lightly eases into the touch, blinking up at him with a tranced like expression.
Nico carefully hooks his index fingers through the belt loops on Will's (gods forsaken) cargo shorts.
“Angel…” Will's voice comes out somehow even softer than before.
Nico closes the gap.
-
-
-
“I love you.”
“I know.”
“Don’t make me regret showing you Star Wars, you dweeb.”
-
-
-
Nico doesn’t make it back to the forge that evening, Leo forgives him and it’s totally not because he got distracted by a new project and forgot about what they were working on in the first place.