Work Text:
“C’mon, Will. We can do this. Just a little more hiking and we’ll be out,” Nico panted, his arms trembling as they tried to support Will’s mostly limp body.
Will was trying to keep up, he really was, but he just felt so tired . His limbs were like jelly, his mouth and throat were dry from gasping so much, his head felt disoriented and wrong. It was like his seasonal depression and the flu had decided to team up together. Fun.
He couldn't even remember how or why they had gotten here. In the Underworld. But they were, and they’d gotten stuck in a labyrinth of caverns. Nico insisted he had figured the way out now and was doing his best to lead them there, but it was slow going. It was winter up above, so Will had already been pretty low– SAD was too aptly named, in his opinion– but now he was in the second furthest place from the sun on earth. He needed a recharge, and soon.
They kept going, Will almost fully leaning against his boyfriend. It felt a little odd to him. Normally it was Nico leaning on Will. Hell, normally it was literally any other demigod leaning on Will. He had even had to guide Nico on how to properly carry a weak person earlier, because Nico wasn’t normally the healer, Will was. Will was supposed to be the one helping others stand up, not the other way around.
Nico took a breath and stopped. “Hang on. Let’s just rest a minute.”
He placed Will up against a cave wall and Will sank in relief. He knew he needed to get out soon, but he was exhausted. And it seemed Nico was too, despite this being his natural territory. Nico took out some nectar and fed it to him before taking a swig. They had run out of Gatorade, ambrosia, and KitKats a while ago.
“I’m sorry.”
Will looked up at Nico in surprise. “What for?”
Nico sank down next to him, pulling his knees to his chest. “I never should’ve brought you along. I know how being underground affects you, and I hate seeing you starving like this.”
“‘Starving’? Interesting word choice.”
His boyfriend’s ears turned pink. “I… noticed a bit ago that you like, need sunlight. It’s not just ‘oh I really prefer to be warm’ for you, it’s more like ‘I need sunlight to function’. You need sun in the same way other people need food.”
Nico wasn’t wrong, but Will could feel the blush on his neck at the fact that Nico noticed and kept it in mind. “Yeah.”
“And here I am depriving you of it.”
“Nico. I choose to come along. I knew the risks, but I wasn’t going to let you do this alone,” Will said gently.
“Still. I always feel bad that places I feel completely comfortable in, you seem to just wither away in them. Meanwhile I’m always coming back to them because your places are… a lot, for me. Can we even do this? How does ‘us’ work if we’re constantly like this?” Nico’s voice was getting gradually more frantic, his hands making large gestures in the air.
“Hey, hey, hey. Slow down, Nico. Come here,” Will held out a hand. Nico held it.
“It’s not your fault that we need different things. We can be us, we just… gotta learn how to accommodate each other. And we’re already doing that. And we help each other while we do,” Will’s voice trailed off. He was too tired to really go on, so he hoped Nico got the message.
“Will? Will?”
He grunted. Even talking felt like a monumental task at the moment. Nico cursed and then got up, roughly dragging Will up with him. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. I’ve got you, we’re almost there,” Nico muttered, though Will guessed it was more for Nico’s sake than his.
They stumbled the rest of the way up and out the entrance that Nico had found earlier. Nico’s knees buckled and they were both sent sprawling onto the grass near the edge of the strawberry fields. The scent felt like home. It was nighttime, the stars blinking above them. Will could feel his eyelids getting heavier.
“Help!” Nico’s voice echoed across camp.
He drifted off, just glad to know he was home.
He groggily woke up some time later, Nico laying in bed next to him in his cabin, with every sun lamp in camp surrounding them despite it being well into the morning.
He nudged the top of Nico’s head with his chin. “Told you we’d make it.”
Nico just clung to him, burying his face in Will’s chest. He hugged back, and the two spent the day recuperating (snuggling).