Chapter Text
"Will Solace has a crush on me," Nico blurted out.
Piper - her eyes half closed, her hair tangled and her night clothes far too short for the bitter cold of the night - opened the door and let Nico in.
The rest of the Aphrodite cabin were sound asleep. Nico sat on Piper's bed without invitation, crossing his legs and fiddling absentmindedly with his skull ring.
Piper sat on the opposite end of the bed with the pillows cushioning her sleepy, half-hearted attempt to keep herself fully sitting up.
She waited a few seconds for Nico to elaborate. When he didn't, she sighed and handed him one of the fidget toys from her drawer.
Nico accepted it, his eyes settling somewhere past her ear. The fidget toy made quiet squishing noises as Nico tugged at it and rolled it between his palms.
"I'm going to need more context," Piper said. Nico blinked, eyes darting to her shoulder.
"Oh, right," he said, coming back to himself. "He was staring at me and I'm not good at knowing what stares mean but the Stoll Twins said that he looked 'dopey'" - here Nico lifted his fingers to imitate quotation marks - "and when I asked them for clarification they said he had a thing for me, which is a common way of referring to someone having a crush on someone."
"I know that, Nico," Piper gently reminded him.
"Right, yeah." Nico tightened his grip on the fidget toy. "I over-explain things when I'm nervous. Voicing my thought process makes it less loud."
Piper hummed. "I get that. Are you going to do anything about it?"
"I'm not sure." Nico frowned. "He shows all the typical signs of having a crush on me. He talks to me even if there's no reason too, he looks at me a lot, he spends time with me for no reason, he asks me questions about myself, he laughs when I'm not funny, he wants me to stay healthy physically and mentally and he pays me compliments."
"That's pretty conclusive," Piper agreed.
"But those are also signs of friendship," Nico said, tilting his head.
Piper leaned forward. "That's true."
Nico wrinkled his nose. "But then how do I know which one it is?"
"You have to ask him."
Nico groaned, pulling his legs up to his chest. Piper grinned.
"Yeah, I know," she said.
"Why are feelings so complicated?" Nico bemoaned. "They all look the same and factually they're basically all the same but they feel so different! And people feel so many at the same time!"
Piper chucked wryly, thinking of her situation with Jason.
"Life is complicated," was the response she settled on. "And you can't really know what someone's feeling. You just have to trust them to be as honest as they can be about it."
"But what if they don't know what they're feeling?"
"They usually don't."
"That's not helpful!" Nico threw the fidget toy at her. It didn't hurt but she leaned back to give him some space and started fidgeting with it herself.
Nico curled in on himself and took a few deep breaths, counting to three on his fingers three times. He started tugging on his ring a little more aggressively.
"Sorry," he said, fairly evenly. "I don't mean to get frustrated."
"I know," Piper said.
Nico made brief eye contact with her and nodded before turning to look at the wall.
"How do I ask him?"
"Bluntly," Piper advised. "We're all neurodivergent here. Following social rules will get you nowhere. But, if you can, maybe figure out how you feel about him first."
Nico nodded slowly. "Okay. I can do that."