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Nico narrowed his eyes at Mr. D as he carried on pairing up people for the food tech assignment. He kept his eyes firmly on his (slightly drunk) teacher, refusing to look at Will Solace.
Of all the people he could have been paired up with, it had to be Mr. Perfect. With his stupid blonde hair and his stupid blue eyes and his stupid smug smile.
Jason had already turned around in his seat to talk to Percy, with whom he had been paired, and was too distracted to help Nico wallow in his misery.
As the bell rung, Nico was forced to snap out of his thoughts.
"I highly recommend that you practice together before you have to make the cakes at the end of term," Mr. D said as everyone started packing up, adding insult to injury. "If you fail this, I fail both of you."
"Inspiring," Nico muttered.
"Thanks," Mr. D retorted. "I thought it was."
"How the fuck-" Nico shook his head free of that train of thought. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Will approaching.
He was beaming like a weirdo and holding his books against his chest like a schoolgirl.
"Hey, Nico!"
Nico looked around him. Jason and Percy were already walking out the door, arm in arm.
"Hello, Will," he mumbled.
"I was thinking that, since we have to practice, I should probably give you my number so we can plan our test bakes."
Will held out his unlocked phone. Reluctantly, Nico took it and typed in his number.
Will inspected it. Nico scowled. Did the guy not trust him to put it in?
"Great! Thanks! I'll text you."
"Looking forward to it," Nico said in the most sarcastic tone he could muster. Will pretended not to notice and walked away, half-skipping.
Nico groaned. A whole two months left of term. A whole two months left of this.
"You look like you could use some more of my inspirational speeches," Mr. D commented. Nico glowered at him. All the other students had left and Mr. D was watching him with an amused smirk.
"Fuck off," Nico replied. "And stop drinking wine during the lessons. You stink of alcohol."
"It's the only way I can put up with you lot!" Mr. D called after his retreating back.
Nico took his time walking home. He shoved his earphones in and focused on the pattern of the pavement tiles. Just as the next song started playing, his phone buzzed.
From Unknown Number: Hi! This is Will :)
Nico turned Green Day up as loud as he could.
-
Nico couldn't avoid the inevitable forever. Eventually, he had to respond to Will's texts and he had to agree to practice with him.
Ideally, Nico would have gone to Will's. However, Will made some excuse about how his house was too crowded and how he wanted to see Nico's 'vampire cave'.
So Nico picked out a day when his dad and Persephone were out at a garden show or something else equally mushy and plant related. The thought of having Will in his living space was abhorrent but Will was a stubborn asshole.
He opened the door to Will's knocking (exactly at the agreed time) and Will didn't wait to be invited in. He took off his shoes and immediately started opening doors to inspect what was inside.
"The kitchen is through here," Nico said pointedly.
"This place is massive!" Will ignored him. "I love all the flowers."
"They're my stepmother's."
"Your stepmother has good taste."
"She married my father so I don't think so," Nico said shortly.
Will turned to look at him with a grin.
"I like you," he proclaimed. "You're not an anaemic bloodsucker after all!"
"You're the most irritating person I've ever met," Nico responded flatly.
Will winked. "I grow on people."
Nico didn't bother to reply. He walked through to the kitchen, where he'd already set up all the ingredients needed for a chocolate cake.
"You're prepared," Will marvelled.
"I figured it would mean we finished earlier."
"Ah yes. You can't take too long. Your bats need feeding."
"The great thing about bats is that they don't talk."
"The bad thing about them is they don't account for 50% of your grade and they're useless at baking."
"I'd argue that that's a positive thing."
"Sweetheart, I'd argue that you shouldn't be in direct sunlight or you might burn to a crisp but we're here to bake not to start a debate club."
Nico stared at Will's sarcastic smile, wishing that he could burn it off Will's face. No such luck.
"Pass me the eggs," he said in lieu of screaming in frustration.
After all that work, two hours later, he and Will found themselves staring at what could only be described as a charred brick.
"I think it could be edible," Will said hopefully. Nico folded his arms.
"Then eat it."
Will stabbed the brick aggressively with a knife and carved out a piece. Nico watched him struggle and offered no help.
Will bit into the piece and blanched. He chewed for a good minute and swallowed it down with a glass of water.
"How was it?" Nico asked dryly.
"Delicious," Will said. "But I think we're going to have to practice more. Same time next week?"
"Go fuck yourself."
-
The next slab they produced was no more presentable than the first one.
"How?" Will demanded, tugging through his curls with his hands. "How is this even possible? Do you have a shitty oven?"
"Excuse me? You think the problem is my oven?"
"Well it's either your oven or you."
Nico scoffed. "What about you? You're not exactly a baking expert."
"What is your problem?"
"What's my problem? What's your problem? Guess you're not as perfect as you thought."
Will stepped forward, glaring at Nico. Nico didn't back down.
"You're infuriating," Will protested, jabbing a finger at Nico's chest.
Nico snarled. "Well I'm sorry that not all of us can be Mr. Goody Two-Shoes. I have a personality!"
"Being a dick is not a personality!"
Nico froze. They'd gravitated towards each other as they argued and suddenly Nico found himself able to count each one of Will's freckles and each shade of his eyes. Will was hesitating too. He glanced down and shit time to back up.
Nico stepped away, feeling a lot less formidable and a lot more awkward.
"I guess I'll see you next week again."
Will nodded jerkily. "Yeah. See you next week."
When Nico heard the door slam shut, he sank into a kitchen chair and stabbed the cake. The knife didn't budge when he let go.
-
Nico had suggested going to Will's to see if his oven was any better but Will still refused. Instead, he came over with a book called 'How to Bake a Cake for Dummies'.
Nico snorted. "I'd ask why you own that but it's self explanatory."
Will rolled his eyes. "It's my dad's. One of his more recent girlfriends gave it to him."
Nico stopped dead.
"Your parents are divorced?"
Will spared him a withering look.
"No," he said. "My dad just likes dating and my ma likes pretending she doesn't know about it."
Nico wasn't sure how to respond. He'd always pictured Will as one of those stereotypical jocks with the rich, happily married parents and the girlfriends hanging by the arm.
"I... never really thought of you as human," Nico vocalised. Will laughed.
"Thanks. I still don't think of you as human. I'm convinced you're secretly a poltergeist."
"Poltergeist were people once."
"Duh, that's how you mask so well."
Nico snatched the book from Will's hands.
"How did I die then?"
"Fire," Will said with no hesitation. "You were Thomas Farriner."
"The guy who started the Great Fire of London?"
"Oh, so you do have a brain. I'll tell the Wizard of Oz to cancel the order I put it for you."
Nico sighed. "And there goes your humanisation."
Will beamed.
The cake they ended up baking was marginally better than the others. It was disgusting but you could swallow it without chugging a gallon of water.
"Look at that!" Will exclaimed. "I'm sorry for ever doubting your oven."
"You should be," Nico said. Will smiled, ducking his head.
"Hey, uh. Sorry for being rude like that. I just really need to pass."
"Why? Do you want to be a chef or something?"
"No." Will chuckled. "I just have to get at least an A in every subject. Asian family values, you know."
"You're Asian?" Nico asked.
"My family on my ma's side is. When your grandmother and her siblings are all immigrants, it becomes a big deal to do well in school. They're looking out for me but it can be a little stressful. Everyone's a doctor or a professor or a lawyer."
"I get it," Nico said. "I'm an immigrant. I was born in Italy. We moved here for a better life but my mother and my sister died and the American Dream became a nightmare."
Will rested a hand on Nico's shoulder.
"That's fucked."
Nico huffed. "Yeah. My sister was a great baker. She could've taken the test for us."
Will laughed, squeezing Nico's shoulder. "Yeah, my grandmother would ace it if it wasn't for her arthritis."
Nico swayed closer on instinct. He met Will's eyes and tentatively tilted up. Will met him halfway and their lips brushed.
Fuck it.
Nico slid his hands up to Will's neck and insistently tugged him down.
In the back of his mind there was a chant of what the hell are you doing but far more pressing was the softness and the warmth and the skeletal butterflies in his stomach.
He pulled away just to mumble against Will's lips, "You're still irritating."
"You too, Death Boy," Will said before diving back in.
-
It became a common occurrence. Once or twice a week, Will would come over and they'd mix up some cake batter and make out while it was in the oven.
Nico maintained that he hated Will. Will maintained that he hated Nico.
Nico had thought about telling Jason but he figured that Jason would take it entirely the wrong way. He was a romantic and entirely impractical. Besides, he thought talking about the test cakes was 'sharing with the enemy'.
"And now we wait," Nico said as he closed to oven door. He barely finished his sentence before he was spun around a pulled into a kiss. He automatically grabbed Will's t-shirt, eyes flitting closed. He felt oddly uncomfortable with the fact that they only had one week before the food tech exam. The past eight weeks had been weirdly enjoyable.
"Hey," Will said as they broke apart to catch their breath. "Why don't we bake at my house next week?"
"Really?" Nico asked, resting his head against Will's throat.
"Yeah."
Nico felt Will gulp.
"Okay," he said, leaning up to kiss Will's jawline.
The cake was mildly overbaked.
-
Nico found himself shy as he knocked on Will's door. A woman opened it. She was carrying a crying baby in her arms, rocking it and shushing it as well as she could.
"Hi," Nico said. "I'm here to see Will."
The woman's eyes lit up with recognition.
"Ah!" she said. "Come on in, Nico. I've heard a lot about you. I'm Naomi Solace - Will's mother. He's through the door on the left."
Nico smiled politely and went into the kitchen. Will was talking to a young boy who was sitting on the counter eating spoonfuls of peanut butter out of the jar.
"Nico!" Will said. "Hi! Sorry about the chaos. This is my brother, Yan. He's going to be helping us today."
Yan waved with sticky fingers. Nico waved back. He didn't have a lot of experience with younger kids but he did have Hazel (a half sister who lived in Louisiana) and he'd grown up with Bianca so he knew siblings.
"Hello, Yan," he said. "It's good to meet you."
Yan giggled and whispered something in Will's ear. Will gasped in mock surprise and swatted Yan on the arm.
"I know but you can't say that! He's shy!"
Nico frowned. "What are you gossiping about?"
"Nothing," Will said.
"Giraffes!" Yan shouted at the same time, eyeing his jar guiltily.
"Come help me measure stuff, you sponge." Will changed the subject swiftly. Nico decided to ignore it.
When the cake went in the oven, he found himself at a loss for what to do. Yan was licking out the bowl right in front of them so making out was off the table. What did they used to do whilst they waited?
The three of them ended up playing I Spy. When Nico won, Will grinned and brought him closer by the waist for a victory kiss. Nico kissed back out of habit and went wide eyed when they parted. Yan was giving them a gummy smile.
Nico didn't dare look at Will. It must have been a mistake. Will must have forgotten that Yan was there. They didn't kiss in public. They weren't even together! They'd never gone on dates or even said that they liked each other.
"Gross." Yan pulled a face, laughing.
"How dare you!" Will teased. "That was beautiful. It was a display of affection! And I am a master of kissing!"
"Blech." Yan gagged.
"Nico!" Will complained. "Tell Yan I'm a good kisser."
Nico took a few seconds to reboot.
"Uh, yeah... Yeah, you... you're great. Very good."
"See?" Will said to Yan. "Go on now. Go play with Austin. We're going to kiss some more."
With Will's help, Yan leapt off the counter and scampered off.
When Will leaned in to kiss him, Nico held him back with a light press against his chest.
"You good?" Will asked.
"Yeah! You, um... you kissed me in front of your brother."
Will's cheeks turned red. "Oh, were you not okay with that?"
"I was okay!" Nico hurriedly assured him. "With the... I was only wondering if that was something we did now. Kiss in front of other people, I mean."
Will cleared his throat. "Would you like it to be?"
Nico studied Will's face. It was tolerable. It was kind of handsome. Will was tolerable and kind of sweet.
"Yeah. That would be nice."
Will's face lit up and, shit, Nico liked him a lot.
-
They ended up passing the assignment but the baking never stopped. It was mostly kissing now.
Nico was okay with that.