Archive of Our Own

"Your pride pin... is it the Italian flag?"

Nico grinned, and Will's gaze was drawn to the other boy's brown eyes, which scrunched up until they were almost closed.

"Sì."

Will fiddled with the bi pride pin that was fastened to his own shirt and waited for Nico to elaborate, but the other boy just kept smiling like he was trying not to laugh.

"I, uh, didn't know that was one of the options," Will said eventually, gesturing towards a table by the door of the conference room they were in, where the university pride club was hosting it's welcome-back-to-school ice cream social. The table was covered in free pins with every pride flag that Will had ever seen, and several that he wasn't familiar with. 

That was why he hadn't asked about Nico's pin yet, even though they'd been talking for the better part of an hour. Will was getting the vibe that Nico was flirting with him, but he didn't want to assume anything since he didn't recognize Nico's pride pin. Well, he was pretty sure he did recognize it, but he was also pretty sure that "Italian" was not a sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Nico's laugh finally burst out of him, and Will immediately abandoned his previous train of thought to instead wonder how a laugh could be so bright but so soft at the same time. 

"I brought it from home," Nico confessed, after getting his (beautiful) laughter under control. "You are the first person to say anything."

Will smiled, glad to be let in on the joke, but still desperately needing to ask another important question.

"So then, um ..."

Nico raised an eyebrow, still smiling. 

"Okay, I'm trying to figure out how best to phrase this question, but all that's going through my head is that song from the Legally Blonde musical."

Nico laughed again, and Will tried to savor the sound. The Italian leaned in like he was going to share a secret, and Will instinctively moved closer too. 

When Nico spoke, just loud enough to be heard over the people around them, his voice was tinted with a thick Italian accent that he definitely didn't have a few minutes ago. 

"I'm gay and European."

----

[Me - 8:35 p.m.] he's gay AND european hlep

[Pipes Mcgee - 8:36 p.m.] I KNEW IT

[Me - 8:36 p.m.] WHAT DO I DO

[Pipes Mcgee - 8:37 p.m.] flirt idiot

[Me - 8:37 p.m.] literally HOW tho

[Pipes Mcgee - 8:39 p.m.] do that thing I taught you

[Me - 8:39 p.m.] NO

Will quickly put his phone away when he saw Nico walking back over to him, holding two ice cream sandwiches and sporting a new gay pride pin next to the Italian flag on his collar. 

"So..." Will started as Nico handed him one of the ice creams. "Do you want to play a game?"

Nico raised an eyebrow. 

"What kind of game?"

"A flirty game?"

Nico's other eyebrow joined his first and Will blushed. 

"It's one my friend Piper taught me."

"That girl you came in with who wandered off with my roommate?"

"Yeah, her! So, basically, I'll give you two options, and then you have to pick one, but you only have three seconds."

"Okay... Sounds easy enough."

"Right! Yes! Super easy! So, uh, here goes," Will closed his eyes. "You're options are, kiss me or slap me. One ... Two ... Three"

Will held his breath and waited. And waited. Ten seconds was probably too long to stay standing there with his eyes closed like an idiot. Fifteen seconds was way too long. At twenty seconds, he felt the ice cream sandwich in his hand start dripping onto his wrist and, finally, opened his eyes. 

Nico was almost finished with his own sandwich. He had one hand on his hip and was looking at Will like he was a server who had just brought Nico the wrong plate of food but was clearly too close to a mental breakdown to handle being told he'd made a mistake.

The Italian sighed and balled up his ice cream sandwich wrapper, then turned and started walking towards the nearest trash can. 

Will followed, stammering out an apology as he went. 

"I honestly don't know why I even did that. That was such a tool move. You can, no you should slap me. Really, I—"

"I'm not going to slap you," Nico cut him off, turning around after throwing away his wrapper. "I'm also not going to kiss you, because I just met you and yes, that was a 'tool move.'"

Nico's accent came in and out as he got more agitated, and a few strands of dark hair slipped out of his loose top knot. His eyeliner was smudged on one side where he had rubbed his eye while walking away.

"But being a tool doesn't necessarily warrant physical violence," Nico continued. "Plus, I'm pretty sure slapping someone mid-conversation is considered assault, even if you asked me to. I haven't been arrested since I was 15, and I'd like to keep that streak going."

"Right, you're right. I'm sor- wait you haven't what?"

"Look, it's getting kind of late and classes start tomorrow. I should probably go find Jason."

It was only around 9 p.m., and Nico didn't seem like the type to care that much about his sleep schedule — if his dark under eye bags were anything to go by — but Will figured he had already made things weird enough, so he didn't protest as Nico walked away. 

Will stood there blinking at his own stupidity for a minute before remembering the ice cream dripping onto his hand. He threw it away and made his way out into the hallway to see if he could find a bathroom. 

After finding a bathroom and washing his hands, he wandered the halls of the student center. He wasn't paying much attention to where he was going — too busy replaying everything he'd done wrong in the last 20 minutes on repeat— until he rounded a corner a little too quickly and walked straight into someone. 

No, wait, two someones, who had definitely just been making out and were now sprawled on the floor, struggling to disentangle their limbs from each other. 

"Oh, holy goodness, I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was- wait Piper?"

Piper was disheveled — the French braid Will had so meticulously done for her this afternoon barely hanging on amid all the loose strands of hair around her face — but she grinned up at him and winked, holding out a hand for Will to help her up. 

Will pulled her to her feet, glancing between Piper's pansexual pride pin and the generic pride flag with the word ally printed over it that was pinned to the chest of the tall blond boy who was standing up and dusting himself off next to her. Before Will could say anything else, footsteps rounded the corner behind him and he heard Nico's loud groan. 

"Really, Jason?"

Will turned to see Nico crossing his arms and eyeing his clearly disheveled roommate with a frown. 

"You just met this girl. Honestly, have some self-respect," Nico said, reaching up to poke the hickey already developing on Jason's jaw. "I'm not letting you borrow my foundation to cover that up."

Will thought that was probably a good idea, considering Nico was several shades paler than his roommate, but he opted not to say anything. 

Jason scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed. 

"Would you believe me if I said we were playing a game?"

Nico scowled, looking Piper up and down and then making eye contact with Will for longer than was probably necessary — Will felt like he was the camera in an episode of The Office and Nico was the annoyed, fourth-wall-breaking character — before looking back at his roommate. 

"Yes, actually. I do believe you. Come on, let's go back to the dorm. I'm tired."

Nico started to walk away, pulling on Jason's arm, but was stopped abruptly when Piper grabbed onto Jason's other arm and pulled a marker out of her pocket. 

"Text me later, okay?" She scribbled her phone number onto Jason's forearm and winked before letting him be dragged off by his roommate. 

The boys started arguing as soon as they were around the corner, either not realizing or not caring that they were in an echoey hallway and Piper and Will could still clearly hear them. 

"Well, what was I supposed to do, slap her?" Jason was saying. "First of all, she's gorgeous, and secondly, slapping her would have been assault and you know I haven't been arrested since that one time when we were 15!"

----

It was one week into Will's first semester of college, and he was feeling pretty confident about his social life for the next four (or more? How long does a pre-med degree take anyway? He should look that up) years. After the disastrous results of the ice cream social, he vowed never to take Piper's flirting advice ever again. Not that he had met very many people he was keen on flirting with since then — which definitely had nothing to do with the fact he couldn't stop thinking about a certain Italian boy  — but he had started to accumulate a group of potential friends.

There was Piper, of course, his only friend from high school who ended up at the same college as him. She had hit it off immediately with Leo, Will's randomly assigned roommate, and the two of them had already lit Will's toaster on fire twice. 

There was Rachel, who Will had bonded with during Freshman orientation when she complimented his nail polish and he told her he liked her paint-splattered jeans — which apparently were not a purposeful fashion choice but were actually just the jeans she wore when painting — and then they found out they grew up in the same city and Rachel used to work for Will's dad at his guitar shop. 

And then there was Frank, who Will met at the opening social for the university's archery club. Will had made a joke about needing a blessing from Apollo for better aim, and Frank said, "It's too bad your not a young maiden, because Artemis's stats are way higher," and that's how they realized they were both geeks who still play mythomagic. Will almost didn't go to the archery club social because he isn't all that in to archery, but his little sister Kayla is and she asked him to find out if the school's program is any good, since she'll be applying to colleges next year. He was glad he went though, because Frank seemed like a cool guy. 

Will had only known most of these folks for less than a week, but he was optimistic that he'd be able to turn them into a cohesive friend group. The opportunity to do so arose when his older brother Lee, who was studying at the community college in their home town about 2 hours away, texted Will to say that he was coming to visit because there was a cool hike near Will's university that he'd always wanted to climb, and that Will should invite friends to climb it with them. 

----

[You created the group chat]

[Me - 5:27 p.m.] heyyyy what are everybody's plans on monday??

[Leo Roommate - 5:27 p.m.] who are you people

[Me - 5:28 p.m.] leo it's me, will

[Me - 5:28 p.m.] and these are all the people ive met so far that seem like they'd be into hiking

[Frank Archery - 5:30 p.m.] I am into hiking

[Frank Archery - 5:30 p.m.] Are we going hiking? 

[Frank Archery - 5:30 p.m.] My name is Frank btw

[Frank Archery - 5:31 p.m.] Also what time on Monday? Because I do have class lol

[Rachel PaintJeans - 5:31 p.m.] hello everyone i am rachel elizabeth dare and i am into hiking

[Rachel PaintJeans - 5:32 p.m.] frank no u don't it's labor day

[Frank Archery - 5:33 p.m.] Oh lol 

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:33 p.m.] sup losers im piper

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:33 p.m.] will where r we going hiking

[Me - 5:34 p.m.] idk my brother said there's a cool spot near here that he wants to try

[Me - 5:35 p.m.] we were thinking like 8:30 a.m

[Me - 5:35 p.m.] he said he's gonna steal the 12-seater van from our mom and he's only invited a couple of his friends, so feel free to invite more people

[Me - 5:35 p.m.] y'all can add folks to the gc

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:35 p.m.] im adding jason

[Pipes Mcgee added 312-435-6588]

[Leo Roommate - 5:36 p.m.] TWELVE SEATS

[Leo Roommate - 5:36 p.m.] bro that's a bus

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:37 p.m.] will just has an unreasonable amount of siblings

[Rachel PaintJeans - 5:37 p.m.] 'hey kids, who wants to get in my giant kidnapper van and drive into the woods for a hike in an unspecified location?' this is how horror movies start

[312-435-6588 - 5:38 p.m.] hello what is happening

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:38 p.m.] hey jason we're going hiking on monday. u in?

[Me - 5:38 p.m.] wait, like jason the ally from the ice cream social

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:39 p.m.] yes

[Jason Ally - 5:39 p.m.] sounds cool

[Leo Roommate - 5:41 p.m.] the ice cream social where pipes didn't get any ice cream but did make out with a hot stranger? 

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:41 p.m.] LEO

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:41 p.m.] he's not a stranger anymore. he's coming hiking with us

[Rachel PaintJeans - 5:42 p.m.] ooh hot tea

[Jason Ally - 5:43 p.m.] ......

[Frank Archery - 5:44 p.m.] Uhhhh, I also have someone I could invite 

[Frank Archery added 312-739-8000]

[Frank Archery - 5:44 p.m.] Guys this is Hazel. We met at freshman orientation. 

[312-739-8000 - 5:45 p.m.] Hi Frank! Hi Jason! Hi everyone else whose numbers I don't have saved

[312-739-8000 - 5:45 p.m.] What are we doing?

[Jason Ally - 5:46 p.m.] hi hazel! small world!

[Jason Ally - 5:46 p.m.] apparently we're going hiking on Monday

[Jason Ally - 5:46 p.m.] or we might be getting kidnapped, im not sure

[Hazel who knows Frank and Jason - 5:47] If it means I don't have to go to my American Heritage class, I'm all in for kidnapping

[Frank Archery - 5:47 p.m.] Wait how do you two know each other? 

[Hazel who knows Frank and Jason - 5:48 p.m.] We went to high school together. Jason and my brother are besties

[Jason Ally - 5:48 p.m.] yeah he's my roommate

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:49 p.m.] omg speaking of hot strangers from the ice cream social

[Pipes Mcgee - 5:49 p.m.] u should totally invite him

[Hazel NICO'S SISTER - 5:50 p.m.] ok!

[Hazel NICO'S SISTER added 312-329-3848]

[Hazel NICO'S SISTER - 5:50 p.m.] Hey Nico, we're going hiking! 

[ItalianHottieWhoProbablyHatesMe - 5:55 p.m.] who are you people 

----

Will put his phone down to glare at Piper, who had let herself into his dorm room at some point during the last half hour and was sitting on Leo's bed throwing Cheezits into the other boy's mouth. 

Piper looked over at Will and held up the box of crackers. 

"You want one?"

Will crossed his arms and kept glaring, but he opened his mouth so she could lob a Cheezit at him. 

"Kobe!" Piper yelled as she threw the snack, which landed perfectly in Will's open mouth. 

"I can't believe you did that," Will said, after swallowing the cracker. 

"Eh, I've made cooler shots," Leo said. 

"No, not the Cheezit! I meant inviting Nico to the hiking group chat!" Will flopped back on his bed so he was laying down with an arm over his face.

"You're such a drama queen," Piper said, throwing another Cheezit, which bounced off Will's arm. "All I did was get you the hot Italian boy's phone number. What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that is the hot Italian boy hates me because I tried your stupid flirting technique!"

"I don't know what to tell you. That trick gets me kissed like 95 percent of the time." 

"That's just because you have pretty privilege," Leo said, stealing the box of Cheezits from Piper and throwing one at her forehead. "I've tried it three times since you told me about it last week and I got slapped every time. One of the girls did give me her number after slapping me, though-"

"The point," Will interjected, "is that Nico might be coming hiking with us, and therefore I'm going to die!"

----

Will did not die. In fact, he managed to get through the rest of the weekend with minimal embarrassing social interactions, mostly because he spent the whole weekend in the library finishing homework and getting ahead on studying so that he wouldn't have anything left to do on Monday and he could enjoy his day off. 

He only got distracted from studying a couple times, like when Lee sent him more details about where and when to meet and he had to update everyone in the group chat, which meant he had to think about the fact that Nico was in the group chat and he might be seeing Nico on Monday and Nico would probably look so good in hiking gear and Nico might even talk to him if he didn't decide he hated him too much and...

Anyways, studying. 

So, when Monday morning rolled around, Will was understandably anxious. He got up two hours earlier than he needed to and got dressed in his favorite orange T-shirt and blue jeans, then sat on his bed rereading the group chat over and over again to make sure he hadn't completely embarrassed himself. 

After Leo finally woke up and got ready, the two of them walked over to the parking lot where Lee was supposed to pick everyone up. Rachel was already there talking to Percy and Annabeth — a couple of Lee's old high school friends who were juniors now at Will's university — and everyone else trickled in a few at a time. 

Jason and Nico were among the last to arrive, walking up with a girl with big, cinnamon colored hair who Will assumed must be Hazel. She waved when she saw Frank and excitedly ran over to talk to him. Jason quickly got pulled into a discussion with Leo and Piper about whether Cheetos count as chips, which left Nico standing by himself at the periphery of the group. 

He was wearing black combat boots, ripped black skinny jeans, a black Ramones T-shirt, and a black baseball cap that he had pinned his pride pin and Italian flag pin on, as well as a skull and crossbones pin and an artsy pomegranate pin.

Will watched as Nico scanned the group. His gaze lingered on Percy for a couple minutes — which Will really couldn't blame him for, he had eyes after all — looking the older boy up and down before seeming to notice Annabeth holding his hand and glancing away, eyes landing on Will instead. 

Nico's eyes widened when he and Will made eye contact, and Will waved awkwardly from across the group. Before Will could decide whether or not to go over and say something, he heard a loud honk and turned to see Lee pulling up in Bessie, the Solace family's giant white van. 

"Hey kids!" Lee yelled as he rolled down his window. "I've got free candy and puppies in the back, why don't you hop in?"

"Dibs on shotgun!" Leo yelled, running around to jump in the front seat. 

"I am going to be so disappointed if there aren't actually any puppies in this vehicle," Rachel said as everyone started climbing into the car, which, unfortunately, was lacking in puppies and candy.

Will ended up in the back row, squished between Rachel and Hazel, who had just realized they were both hopeful art majors and actually had a couple of classes together. They started talking about the application process to officially be accepted into the art program — which apparently you couldn't do until after finishing your first semester — and how they were both already feeling overwhelmed with the amount of portfolio pieces they would have to create before the submission deadline. 

Will was only partially listening to the conversation, more focused on how he could see Nico's ponytail bouncing up and down as he chatted with Jason two rows ahead. 

"You seem like you'd be chill about that kind of thing, Will," Rachel said suddenly, poking Will in the arm. "What do you say, could you help us out?"

"Uh... yeah! Totally. I'm totally chill about it," Will said, tuning back into the conversation happening around him. Not soon enough to know what he'd just agreed to, but that was probably fine. He was chill about most things, or so he liked to think. 

----

They only made it about a mile into the five-mile-long hike before something went wrong. 

Will had spent the entire walk so far trying to psych himself up to say something to Nico, but the Italian seemed to be totally unaware that Will was walking near him, too engrossed in the conversation he'd apparently been sucked into with Jason, Piper, and Leo, which was somehow still about Cheetos. 

Will eventually gave up on trying to talk and was instead staring intently at his own feet when he heard a surprised shriek and a thud and looked up. 

Hazel was sprawled face first on the ground, with her head and one arm resting on Frank, who looked like he'd tried to homerun-slide underneath her to break her fall. They both had scratches on their hands and knees, and Hazel's ankle looked like it was starting to swell. Her breathing was quick and uneven, and Will thought that she was crying until she pushed herself onto her back and he realized she was shaking with laughter.

Nico stalked over and kneeled down next to her, muttering things under his breath like "you have to be doing this on purpose at this point," and "there is no way anyone is that clumsy," sprinkled with repeated bits of Italian that were probably curse words. He looked his sister up and down like he was taking stock of her injuries, then looked up at Will expectantly. 

"Well? Pre-med?" Will tried not to be too excited that Nico was making direct eye contact with him and had apparently remembered what he was studying. "Don't you have a first aid kit or something?"

Oh.

That was less exciting. 

He literally sat on his bed for two hours this morning mentally preparing himself for this hike, and in all that time he didn't even think to bring a first aid kit?

(He might have been too busy thinking about black nail polish and an Italian flag pin and feathery brown hair and dark brown eyes that-)

-that were now looking at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world for not thinking to pack a first aid kit. He was. 

Luckily he didn't have to stare wordlessly into Nico's judgemental eyes for too long before Lee came to his rescue. By hitting him in the chest with a set of car keys.

"Mom keeps a kit in the back of the car. Do you want us all to wait for you?"

Will snapped out of his trance and bent down to pick up the keys, which had bounced off his chest and were resting in the dirt. 

"No, no, that's alright. You should all keep going. I can take Hazel-" he looked over at Frank, who had torn holes into both knees of his jeans and had bloody scratches on his legs and hands "-and Frank, back to the car. We'll just wait for y'all there."

Frank stood up, brushing his hands off on his now-ripped and bloody jeans and looked over at Hazel's ankle, which was now definitely swollen. 

"Hazel probably shouldn't walk on that," he said to Will. "Do you know how to do a two-man carry? I think I learned it when I was in Scouts Canada as a kid, but I'm not sure I really remember."

"Oh, yeah! I was a boy scout once! I think I remember." He walked over to Frank and started trying to arrange their arms to make a seat. "That's the one where you like, put your hands on each other's forearms? Like thi- no, wait like this? Wait, hold on-"

"Hey, dumb and dumber," Will and Frank both jumped at Nico's voice and looked up to see him already carrying Hazel piggy-back style. She had a hand over her mouth, trying and failing to stifle a giggle. The rest of the group was already on their way again up the trail.

"I am not a boy scout. I've just been on too many hikes with this idiota," Nico said, gesturing to Hazel with his head.

"Hey!" Hazel smacked him on the head as he turned and started walking down the path back to the car. "You know it's not my fault! I'm pretty sure rocks just like, jump out of the ground at my feet so that I'll trip."

"I will drop you, you know."

"No, you won't."

"No, I won't. But you're still an idiota"

----

Nico would have left Will and Frank behind several times as they headed back down the trail — despite being a foot shorter than both of them and carrying an entire person on his back — but Hazel kept whacking him in the head and telling him to slow down. Will was torn between being grateful for her antics and incredibly embarrassed that they were even necessary, considering all he was carrying was a single water bottle. Frank was carrying a red and black backpack, but Will didn't think that was slowing him down that much.

When they reached the van, Nico waited for Will to unlock and open the door and then climbed in backwards to set Hazel down in the front row, with her feet sticking out the door. Nico climbed back out and Will couldn't help but notice how the smaller boy had hardly even broken a sweat while carrying Hazel. The boy wasn't bulky by any means, but he was muscular, in a lean, toned way, and oh boy was Will attracted to those forearms. 

Get a grip, Will.

I'd like to get a grip on those forearms.

What? Does? That? Mean?

"Yo, pre-med. The first aid kit?" Nico snapped his fingers in front of Will's face, startling him out of his head before he could grapple with wherever that train of thought was going.

"Right! Sorry! It should be in the back."

Will turned away quickly to hide his blush and walked to the back of the van. He pulled out the first aid kit and grabbed an ice pack from the cooler Lee had packed full of sandwiches for after the hike. 

"Now, I'm only, like, a week into my pre-med program so I don't actually know all that much about doctoring or whatever," Will said as he set the kit and ice pack down and bent over Hazel's swollen ankle. "But I'm pretty sure you'd be in a lot more pain if this was broken, so it's probably just a sprain."

He pulled out a roll of bandages and wrapped her ankle, careful not to move it around too much, then handed her the ice pack and told her hold it on the swollen limb after he cleaned and bandaged the cuts on her knees and hands.

Will could feel Nico's eyes on him while he worked, but he didn't dare look up. 

"Nico, you're fast enough you could probably catch up to everyone if you wanted to try and finish the hike," Hazel said, scooting over on her bench after Will had finished with her scratches.

Will stepped back so Frank could climb into the seat Hazel just vacated, and Nico took the opportunity to hop into the van as well, sitting in the row behind Frank and Hazel. 

"And leave my sister alone with two guys we barely know? I don't think so," he paused, then added, "no offense, Frank."

Frank shrugged. "No, I get it. I wouldn't hurt her, obviously, but you can never be too careful."

"Oh you know I could take either of these two, easy," Hazel said, crossing her arms and glaring at Nico.

"Wait a second, wait a second," Will finished up the last bandage on Frank's hand and climbed into the van, throwing the first aid kit into the back and sitting in the same row as Nico with a seat between them.

"Just no offense, Frank? You think I would hurt your sister?"

"I don't know about hurting her. She's right, she could definitely take you, but you might try to trick her into kissing you with a 'flirty game," Nico said, putting air quotes around the last two words and smirking at Will. 

Will blinked at him, opening his mouth to respond — probably with something stupid — but Hazel gasped. 

"Wait, that was you!" She sounded more excited than Will would have expected, and when he looked at her she was grinning back at him. He looked back and forth between the siblings, trying to figure out how to reply. 

"I didn't- I mean, that wasn't- I don't normally-" Will hung his head. "I'm sorry. I- I really shouldn't have done that."

Frank was looking between the three of them with his eyebrows furrowed. 

"What exactly did he do?"

"Oh, he just taught Nico a game," Hazel said, turning to Frank and winking. "I can show it to you if you want."

"No!" Nico sat up straighter, glaring first at Hazel, then at Frank, who scooted away. 

"Oh, come on, Nico. You're no fun." Hazel scooted closer to Frank, grabbing one of his bandaged hands with her own. 

"It goes like this," she told him. "You have three seconds to choose one of the following two options-"

"Hazel, don't you dare!" Nico tried to grab Hazel by the shoulder but she batted him away and kept talking like he hadn't said anything.

"You can kiss me, or you can slap me," She closed her eyes and leaned towards Frank, who looked like he was hoping the ground would open up beneath him. Nico looked like he was hoping for that, too. 

"One..." Frank looked between Hazel and Nico with a panicked look in his eyes.

"Two..." He glanced at Hazel's lips, took a deep breath and started to lean forward.

"Thr-" 

Suddenly Nico was between Frank and Hazel, having launched himself head first over the seat. He had one hand on each of their faces, and his own face was smashed into the seat between them. His hips were hooked over the back of the seat and Will had to lean way back to avoid a kick in the face from one of Nico's combat boots.

Frank turned bright red and fell back against the door of the car, but Hazel just laughed, pulling Nico's hand off her face and picking his baseball cap up from the floor while he yelled muffled Italian into the seat cushion. 

Nico had jumped diagonally forward, since Hazel had been scooting into Frank's space on the same side of the car as Will. This meant that when Hazel picked her brother up by the shoulders and shoved him back over the seat into the row behind them, he landed right in Will's lap. 

Now everyone in the car was bright red except for Hazel, who just kept laughing while Will and Nico threw themselves to opposite sides of the bench. 

Nico started yelling at Hazel in Italian again, and — after getting her laughter under control — she started yelling back. Hazel spoke Italian with an American accent, but she was clearly fluent and didn't have any trouble keeping up with Nico. 

Will just watched the siblings argue, both of their hands flying around as they repeatedly interrupted and talked over each other. It didn't seem like they were going to stop any time soon, and after a couple minutes Frank nudged Will to get his attention. 

He pulled a mythomagic deck out of his backpack and held it up, raising his eyebrows at Will in a silent question. Will nodded and held his hand out for the deck so he could look through what cards Frank had. 

It was a pretty standard deck, though he had a couple of cards Will wasn't familiar with. He read over their stats and then shuffled the deck and dealt a few starting cards to each of them, balancing the rest on the seatback between them as a draw pile. 

They made it through two and a half rounds before the conversation next to them started to calm down. Will wasn't even sure if they were still arguing at this point. For all he knew, they could be discussing their favorite brownie recipes. 

Eventually Hazel yawned and announced, in English, that she was going to take a nap. She picked up the ice pack, which had fallen under her seat at some point, and put it back on her ankle, then laid down with her head in Frank's lap. 

Frank almost dropped his cards and looked up at Nico with wide eyes, but Nico was looking at the cards in Will's hand. 

"Is that mythomagic?"

"Yeah!" Will said. "Do you play?"

----

Nico was very good at mythomagic.

A couple hours later, he had already beaten Frank four times and Will seven. They'd been rotating who played each round, since it's a two-player game, but Frank graciously bowed out after his fifth round against Nico — the only game Nico lost. 

Will would also have liked to quit while he was ahead, but he had yet to be ahead, something that Nico seemed especially pleased about.

"I thought you of all people would know when to focus on healing, pre-med," Nico teased as he played his last card, knocking Will's health to zero and beating him for the eighth time.

"You're one to talk, death boy!" Will wanted to throw his remaining cards down in frustration, but he remembered they were Frank's cards and refrained himself. "You never heal!"

"I never need to," Nico smirked as he took Will's cards out of his hand to start shuffling. 

That smirk was doing weird things to Will's stomach, but he really didn't want to think about it. He was pretty sure that ship sailed a week ago when he decided to trust Piper of all people.

"Death boy?" Frank asked, looking back at them from where he was attempting to braid Hazel's hair while she slept.

Will gestured at the cards Nico was still collecting from in front of him, which were almost all underworld gods, furies, and hellhounds. 

Frank looked like he wanted to say something, probably about Nico's superior gaming strategy, but he was interrupted by the sound of seven people very suddenly banging on the outside of the van. 

"AHHH!!" Hazel's ice pack went flying, colliding in midair with several of the mythomagic cards Nico had been holding. Frank and Will both hit their heads on the ceiling of the van, and there was a cacophony of swears, in English, Italian, and ... Chinese? Will would have to ask Frank about that later. 

Will glared out the windows at the rest of their hiking party, who were all laughing and gleefully high fiving each other. He honestly should have noticed them walking up, but in his defense, the windows are a bit tinted and he was really invested in that last game of mythomagic. 

After the group outside had finished laughing and the group inside had gathered up all the mythomagic cards, everyone poured back into the van. Someone pulled the cooler out of the back and started passing sandwiches around while everyone got situated. 

Will scooted over to the middle seat on his row so someone could sit next to him — there isn't really room for empty seats when putting 11 people in a 12-seater van, after all — and suddenly realized that he was sitting right next to Nico. 

He needed to focus on something other than Nico's cold arm pressing against his while they both ate their ham-and-cheeses, so he tuned into the conversation Leo (sitting next to Will on his other side) was still having with Piper and Jason (squished into the backseat with Rachel). Amazingly, they were still arguing about Cheetos. 

"No, because a Cheeto is a puff!"

"What even is a puff?"

"A Cheeto is!"

Will wasn't the only one who had tuned in to the argument. The entire van seemed to be invested now. Annabeth, who was in the passenger seat, leaned over and turned off the radio. 

"Okay, well maybe a puff is a chip."

"No, because you know what else is a puff? Popcorn! And popcorn is not chips!"

Leo seemed to have caught Jason and Piper off-guard with that argument, and the car went quiet for a moment while everyone considered it.

The silence was broken a moment later by Nico, speaking softly but pointedly, the way one might blow on the embers of a dying fire. 

"Popcorn is definitely a chip."

And the van erupted. 

Everyone was screaming. Will couldn't hear much over Leo, who seemed to be yelling at no one in particular:

"WHAT IS A CHIP!? DEFINE A CHIP! WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A CHIP?!"

On his other side, Will could feel Nico shaking, and he turned to see the other boy doubled over in silent laughter as he listened to the chaos in the car. 

"Nico!" Will gasped. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?"

Will wasn't sure if Nico had heard him at first, over the incessant yelling around them, but eventually Nico calmed his laughter enough to look up at Will.

"Me? Causing chaos on purpose? Whatever would give you that idea, doctor boy?" He laughed again, and Will couldn't help but smile at the way Nico's eyes scrunched up. 

"Hey, death boy," Will waited for Nico to look up again. "You just called me doctor boy, and you've called me pre-med like four times today. You do know my name, don't you?"

That seemed to catch Nico off-guard. He frowned. 

"You just called me death boy."

"Yeah, and before that I called you Nico," Will raised his eyebrows. "You're avoiding the question."

"You told me your name last week."

"I did. And you told me yours."

"Do you even remember anything else I told you about myself? I clearly know your major."

"You're a history major, with a special interest in Greek and Roman mythology, and Moussolini's Italy. Also, Pre-Med is a program, not a major. My major is biology." Will grinned now, as Nico's eyes went wide. "Now, back to the question of my name?"

They were almost back to campus now, and the conversations around them had calmed to a dull roar. Most groups had moved on from The Great Cheeto Debate™, except for Piper, Leo and Jason. 

Instead of answering Will, Nico looked around the car for a second. He focused in on Piper, who was loudly reading the exact chemical makeup of a corn chip off of her phone. 

Nico smiled mischievously and looked right at Will before loudly announcing to the whole car that "maybe a Cheeto is a cracker."

Will was pretty sure he was going to go deaf. 

----

Nico desperately needed to figure out the hot blonde guy's name. To be fair, he didn't know the names of anyone who went on that hiking trip except Hazel, Jason and Frank — no one had thought to reintroduce themselves after adding more people to the group chat, and Nico wasn't about to ask — but the hot pre-med student was the only one whose name Nico should have already known. He was also the only one who was a hot, blonde, pre-med student. 

Nico didn't even know which of the phone numbers in the group chat belonged to the guy. 

(He also didn't know which phone number belonged to Frank. He only knew Frank's name because Hazel had been talking about him non stop since they met at freshman orientation, and because the hot blonde pre-med student had said Frank's name when they were on the hike.)

(The hot blonde pre-med student had also said his own name when he and Nico first met at the ice cream social, but Nico had been mildly distracted at the time, by the hot, blonde pre-med student.)

And yeah, the guy had tried a trashy pickup line that backfired, because Nico was of the opinion that all trashy pickup lines should backfire, but that didn't mean that Nico wasn't still interested, at least a little bit. He probably wouldn't have done anything about it — he didn't get the guy's number, or even remember his name, after all — but then providence had seen fit to throw them into a group chat together about hiking and suddenly Nico felt like the option was back on the table. 

And then the guy gently patched up Nico's klutzy sister and let Nico beat him at mythomagic for two hours straight, and honestly, what was Nico supposed to do, not fall completely head over heels for him?

Nico probably would have asked Blondie out right then and there, but again, he didn't know the guy's name! And you can't ask someone on a date whose name you don't know. That's just not right. 

So, Nico needed to figure out the hot blonde med-student's name. 

Which was why it was totally not weird that he had started spending all his free time in the on-campus coffee shop. 

Could he have just asked one of their mutual friends what Blondie's name is? Sure, three weeks ago that would have been a great idea. The group chat had stayed strong after the hike — someone had sent photos of the hike and said, "Anyone who mentions Cheetos is dead to me." Nico had then sent a picture of Katy Perry dressed as a Cheeto, and conversation (argument, whatever) continued to flow after that — and there had been multiple movie nights and shared study sessions in the last few weeks. Nico hadn't asked at first because he was hoping he could learn everyone's names by osmosis at one of these hangouts, but either no one used each other's names or Nico just kept zoning out at the wrong moments. And now it had been almost a month and if anyone found out he still didn't know half the groups' names he would be teased mercilessly. 

And there was only one person whose name he really cared about. 

So, the coffee shop. 

Blondie was a pre-med student. Surely he needed coffee. And if Nico happened to be in the shop when Blondie showed up and told the barista his name so they could call out his order, that was nobody's business but Nico's. 

But after almost four days of sitting in the coffee shop basically whenever he wasn't in class, Nico was starting to think the hot, blonde pre-med student was some sort of god who didn't drink human beverages. Either that or he and Nico were just on completely different schedules. Or he just didn't like coffee. But the god thing seemed the most probable. 

Nico was staring out the window, the homework in front of him entirely forgotten while he thought about what Blondie might be the god of. Medicine? Hiking? Beautiful bright smiles, and freckles, and blue, blue eyes? 

The beautiful blue eyes in Nico's daydream blinked a few times and then squinted at him. Nico glanced down to where he'd been imagining a beautiful bright smile a moment before and saw a concerned frown.

Nico blinked. The daydream blinked. 

And then the daydream walked away from the window and towards the door of the coffee shop. Nico heard the bell above the door ring and then the daydream — no, the real, in-the-flesh, hot, blonde, pre-med student — was sliding into the booth across from him. 

"Hey Nico! You all right there? You look a little dazed."

Yep, he was definitely real. And he totally knew Nico's name. Unfair. 

"Hey! Yeah, I was just studying," Nico said, gesturing at the textbook laying open in front of him. 

"Well, maybe it's time for a little brain break, eh? I think this place makes sandwiches. Have you had lunch yet?"

"Uh, no. Wait, what time is it?" Nico pulled out his phone and swore when he saw the time. "Sorry! I was supposed to be at the library 5 minutes ago to work on a group project."

He shoved his textbook in his bag while he was talking and started to walk away before Blondie could respond, but then he abruptly stopped himself and turned around. 

"Do you normally come to the coffee shop around this time?"

Blondie looked like he'd been about to say something, but he stopped himself, and then shook his head. He must have noticed how Nico deflated just a tiny bit, because he quickly added, "But I could! I mean, if you wanted to get lunch together some other time, when you're not busy."

"Yeah!" Nico smiled. "That would be great. Tomorrow?"

Blondie nodded, smiling. "Sure!"

Nico stood there for a moment, looking into Blondie's blue eyes while the other boy smiled back at him, before suddenly remembering he was late. 

"Anyway! I gotta go! Um, see you later!"

He turned and ran out of the coffee shop, not hearing the faint bye, Nico that followed him. 

----

While walking to class the next morning, Nico got a text from one of the unidentified numbers in the group chat, asking if they were still on for lunch later. He breathed a sigh of relief and shot off a response, saying yes and confirming what time they should meet. That was one problem solved: he knew which phone number belonged to the hot guy. 

He thought about saving it in his contacts, but he didn't want to save it as something stupid, like Hot blonde pre-med student, and he knew if he waited a few hours he'd have an actual name to save it under.

That thought made him smile, because once he had a name he might actually have the courage to ask the guy on a proper date. 

As opposed to whatever today's lunch was. 

Was it a date? Neither of them had said the word, date. It could just be a friendly lunch between chum pal buddy friends. 

Well, whatever. After today, Nico would ask the blonde on a real date and he would be incredibly clear about it. He was pretty sure the guy still liked him, even though Nico had been kind of cold to him after rejecting his pick up line at the ice cream social. Since then, they talked every time the group got together and they were definitely at least friends. 

He managed to survive his two morning classes and made his way over to the coffee shop, tapping his fingers on his leg and fiddling with his ring while he walked. 

Hot Blonde Pre-Med Student was already there, leaning against a wall outside the cafe. He smiled when he saw Nico walking up, then leaned over to grab the door and hold it open.

They chatted about their morning classes while waiting in line at the counter, and then it was their turn to order. Nico stepped up first, ordering a green tea and a pesto chicken sandwich. He paid and moved to the side, anxiously watching while the blonde took his place and started ordering. 

Blondie got a BLT and a strawberry basil smoothie. He pulled out his wallet — which had a sun embroidered on it, cute — and fiddled with it while ordering. After telling him his total, the barista asked him for a name for the order. 

Nico leaned forward. This is it. This is the moment. He finally gets to put a name to that beautiful, beautiful face. 

"Sunshine!"

What? 

----

Will was confused. 

He had thought Nico and he were making strides in the friend department. He knew Nico saw him as a player and would probably never consider dating him, but he was hoping to at least be friends with the guy. Maybe he could get Nico to see him as the kind of player whose bad pickup lines are endearing and not meant to be taken seriously, rather than the kind who like, actually uses people. 

The two of them had talked several times now, and he'd felt like Nico was starting to open up to him a bit. Nico still never used Will's name — instead calling him Pre-Med, Blondie, Freckles, Doctor Boy, and everything in between — but Will noticed the Italian used nicknames for a lot of the people in the group. It was probably just his way of connecting with people. 

And now they were finally hanging out just the two of them — something Will had thought was a surefire sign Nico saw him as a friend — but Nico wouldn't stop glaring. 

He wasn't glaring at Will exactly. In fact, he seemed to be deliberately avoiding eye contact with Will. He was just staring at Will's smoothie cup like he was trying to make it dissolve into shadows. 

"So, green tea, eh?" Will tried. "Not much of a coffee drinker?" Nico looked up at Will, his gaze softening slightly, but didn't say anything. 

"Me neither," Will continued, gesturing at his smoothie cup. "I always thought it tasted like-"

"Your name isn't Sunshine." Nico cut him off. He wasn't quite glaring anymore, but his gaze was still intense. Will couldn't look away.

"Huh?" Will's voice cracked. 

"Sunshine. You told the barista your name is Sunshine."

"Oh!" Will blinked, finally pulling his eyes away from Nico's and fiddling with his straw. "Right! I started doing that in high school because there were a lot of guys with the same name as me who frequented the boba shop my friends and I always hung out at. I guess the habit just sort of stuck."

"That is so...." Nico huffed and put his face in his hands. He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like "freaking adorable," but Will thought he must have misheard. 

Neither of them said anything else for a couple minutes. Eventually, Nico picked up his phone to check the time, swore, then starting hurriedly finishing his sandwich while putting on his backpack. 

"Late for something again?" Will asked. Nico nodded distractedly before turning to leave the shop. He stopped after about four steps, then turned around and walked back, looking at Will with that intense gaze. 

"I'm... I'm sorry for being weird. We should do this again when I'm less distracted. You're, uh,  cool. And nice."

"Oh. Uh. Yeah." Will stuttered. "No worries! You're cool, too, Nico. And nice."

Nico smiled slightly at that, and tilted his head.

"See you around, Sunshine."

Then he was gone, before Will could figure out how to respond. 

----

[Me - 1:03 p.m.] boys are so confusing

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:04 p.m.] yes and? 

[Me - 1:04 p.m.] ugh

[Me - 1:04 p.m.] so unhelpful

[Me - 1:04 p.m.] im having a romantic crisis here

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:05 p.m.] im literally ace what do you want from me

[Me - 1:05 p.m. ] well it was u or piper and she's the one who got me into this mess in the first place

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:06 p.m.] oh this is about nico

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:06 p.m.] u know who u should ask

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:06 p.m.] hazel

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:07 p.m.] if anyone can read his mind, its her

[Me - 1:07 p.m.] that is the worst idea ive ever heard 

[Me - 1:07 p.m.] what if she tells him

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:08 p.m.] tells him what, exactly? 

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:08 p.m.] u have yet to tell me what the problem is

[Me - 1:08 p.m.] I don't know what the problem is!

[Me - 1:09 p.m.] he's just confusing!

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:10 p.m.] well then i cant help u

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:12 p.m.] hey but speaking of hazel

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:12 p.m.] r u still down to help us with our figure drawing? We both still need a few more charcoal pieces for our submission portfolios and the on-campus model studio is only open at weird hours. 

----

Nico was muttering to himself as he walked over to Hazel's dorm the next Saturday, scripting out the conversation he was about to have with his sister.

"Hazel, I have a very important question to ask you. And you're going to want to laugh at me, because I'm going to ask you something that I should definitely already know the answer to by now. But you have to remember that I just brought you a happy meal and ice cream," He shook the bag in his hand. "The ice cream machine was broken at the first McDonald's I went to, and I had to walk to the one on the other side of town so I could get you this Mcflurry. So, you can't laugh at me."

Yeah. That would work. Hazel was easily bribed with food. 

"Oh, and you can't tell anyone else that I asked you this. Not even Frank. And definitely not Jason."

He kept amending the speech in his head as he climbed the stairs of Hazel's dorm building. He knew her roommate always went out of town on the weekends, so he didn't bother to knock when he reached her room. He swung the door open, holding out the food in his hands and jumping right into his prepared spiel. 

"Hazel, I have a very important ques-"

Nico froze. 

Hazel was sitting on her roommate's bed, leaning against the wall with her legs crossed. The red-headed girl from the hiking group was sitting next to her, and they were both holding large sketch pads and fancy-looking pencils. 

And sitting on Hazel's bed with his back against the far wall — so he was facing Nico — and his arm resting on his knee in what looked like a comfortable but posed position, was the Hot Blonde Pre-Med Student. 

The Naked Hot Blonde Pre-Med Student. 

Nico distantly heard Hazel laughing while the redhead yelled at the blonde not to move, but he felt like he was hearing them from inside an airtight plastic bottle. 

He stared at the pre-med student. The pre-med student stared back, his mouth opening and closing like a fish, his cheeks (and neck, and chest) turning red. 

Nico knew he should look away, but his brain was buzzing like an angry hornets nest. 

He has freckles everywhere. He's beautiful. He has a tattoo. He's beautiful. Sunshine. Beautiful. Sunshine Sunshine Sunshine Sunshine Sunshine-

The buzz was interrupted by Hazel — who was now standing in front of him — pulling the happy meal and Mcflurry out of his hands. He ripped his gaze away from the pre-med student to look at his sister. 

"Whatever you were planning to bribe me for is going to have to wait until next time," Hazel snickered. "Because I will be considering this payment for the show you just got from Will."

She pushed him backwards out of her dorm and closed the door in his face, but Nico didn't leave. The hornets in his head were back, and they were getting louder.  

Will. Will Will Will Will Will Will Will Will. Beautiful. Sunshine. Tattoo. Freckles. Will. Will Will Will Will

----

Nico slammed the door to his dorm room, leaned back against it, and yelled. He had his hands over his face, but he was vaguely aware of movement in the room. He had probably just startled Jason out of his socks, but he didn't really care. He sunk down to sit on the floor, and yelled again, a bit quieter. 

"Ok, wow. I can tell that you are about to spill so much tea and I am so excited for that." That... was not Jason's voice. Nico looked up, eyes wide, and was met with the stares of Jason and and the small curly-haired boy who Nico was pretty sure was Will's (Will! That's his name!) roommate. They were sitting on bean bags in front of Jason's small t.v., where a forgotten game of Mario cart was running.

"But first, this seems like the kind of crisis that needs ice cream. What's your flavor?" the voice continued, and Nico's eyes were drawn upward to the swirling, multi-colored eyes of the dark-haired girl who was maybe-dating his roommate, who he had dubbed kiss-or-slap girl in his mind. 

(He's pretty sure Will had said her name in the same conversation where the kiss-or-slap incident happened, but honestly, how was Nico supposed to remember anything when he was looking into those blue, blue eyes?)

The girl was standing right in front of Jason like she'd just gotten off his lap, and she was staring at Nico.

Too late, he realized she'd asked him a question. 

"Uhhhh. Cookie dough?" He stammered. 

She nodded, pulling out her phone to make a note. Nico barely registered her asking Leo and Jason the same question — rocky road and vanilla bean, respectively — but he had enough presence of mind to stand up and move to the side so she could get to the door. 

The three boys stared at each other after she left. After a few seconds, Jason held out his video game controller to Nico. Nico just shook his head and walked around the other two to faceplant on his bed. He yelled again. 

Jason and the boy who might be Will's roommate went back to playing their game until kiss-or-slap girl came back about 15 minutes later. He heard the door open and felt her sit down on the end of his bed. She set something cold down next to his hand, and he rolled over to find a pint of cookie dough ice cream and a spoon sitting on the bed between them. 

"Ok, spill," she said, pulling more pints of ice cream out of a shopping bag and tossing them to Jason and the other boy, who had both moved to Jason's bed. 

Nico sat up so the girl could sit more comfortably on his bed, but he didn't say anything, opting to eat his ice cream in silence instead. 

"Ok, let's narrow it down," the curly-haired boy said around a spoonful of rocky road. He pulled his spoon out of his mouth and pointed it at Nico. "Is this family drama, school drama, or girl drama?"

"Boy drama,"Jason corrected him, pointing to the pride flag above Nico's bed. 

"Right. Family drama, school drama, or boy drama?"

Nico looked at Jason, who was looking back at him with a knowing expression. Jason hadn't just been correcting the other boy about Nico's sexuality; he had also been answering the question. He knew all of Nico's family drama — Nico was never shy about throwing his deadbeat dad under the bus — and he knew that Nico was a secret nerd and way too good of a student to be having major school drama. 

So, that left boy drama, and Jason knew it. But Nico had never really talked to Jason about boys before, not since coming out to him when they were 15. Did he really want to open up now, with Will's best friend and Will's probably-roommate in the room? Would they even be that helpful? He had seen kiss-or-slap girl's flirting tactics in action and he was less than impressed, to say the least. Her trick had totally flopped when Will tried it on Nico. 

But, it had worked when she used it on Jason. 

Jason, who was blonde, and tall, and blue-eyed, and hot, and book-smart but still an idiot. He didn't have freckles, or vast amounts of random medical knowledge, or that same endearing way of biting his lip and furrowing his brow when he was losing in a card game, but.... the similarities were there. 

He swallowed a chunk of cookie dough. 

"Ok, so... Let's say, hypothetically, that there was a guy that you really wanted to go out with, but you couldn't ask him out because—"

He paused, looking between the three people in front of him, and remembered he didn't know two of their names. 

"Well, the reason doesn't really matter. You couldn't ask him out because of reasons, but then those reasons got resolved."

"Well, then I would ask him out," kiss-or-slap girl said matter-of-factly.

"Right, right. But, what if, in the process of resolving the reasons, and before you could ask him out, you uh," Nico took a deep breath, "youaccidentallysawhimnaked?"

Nico didn't see the other three's reactions, because he was staring resolutely at the pint of ice cream in his hands when he mumbled that last part, but he was hoping they understood and he wouldn't have to repeat himself. 

There was a pause. And then, 

"Was he hot?"

Nico heard a thump, followed by Jason hissing, "Leo!"

"Ow!" The curly-haired boy, Leo, said. "What? It's relevant!"

Nico groaned and buried his face in his hands, but he could feel his blush creeping all the way up to his ears. 

"That's a yes," the girl said, snickering.

"Hold on, hold on. Does this hypothetical hottie know you saw him naked?" Jason asked. 

Nico nodded, without looking up. 

"Does he know it was an accident?" 

Nico nodded again. 

"Were you creepy about it?"

Nico shrugged. "I mean, I couldn't stop staring at him, but I was mostly looking at the tattoo on his chest," he said, giving up all pretense about the guy being hypothetical. "And I didn't say anything."

He peeked out from behind his hands and saw kiss-or-slap girl and — wait, crap, Jason just said his name. Luke? Lee? Liam? Liam sounds right — Liam looking at each other with wide eyes. 

Oh. They know about Will's tattoo. Of course they know about Will's tattoo. Nico had said too much. They were going to figure it out, and then they were going to tell Will and everything was going to be ruined. He would have to drop out of school. He would have to—

"Wait, then I don't really understand the problem," Jason said, breaking Nico out of his spiral momentarily. 

"Jason, I saw him naked! I can't ask him out right after seeing him naked! I've known him all semester and haven't made a move yet. If I do it now he'll think I'm a perv!"

"Oh, he's not going to think that," Jason waved a hand dismissively. 

"I mean, I would probably think that if I were him," kiss-or-slap girl said, earning a look from Jason. "Well, not necessarily that you were a pervert," she corrected quickly, "but just that seeing me naked had spurred you into action or something. I would probably take it as a compliment unless you were creepy in other ways."

"Right," probably-Liam jumped in. "But if he was totally not creepy, and actually super respectful, and charming, and had shown in the past that he was totally anti-sleezebag, and you'd also been crushing on him all semester..."

"I'd be totally flattered!" Kiss-or-slap girl finished.

Nico looked at Jason, who seemed just as bewildered by the shared train of thought as Nico was. 

"Anyway, I think the point is that you should just go for it," Jason said. 

"I can't!" Nico hit his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. "What if I just, I don't know, get him to ask me out? Like, I could just hang around him, being kind of flirty — but not too flirty so that he thinks I'm a perv who's just flirting because I saw him naked. Just, like, a little bit flirty? A subtle amount of flirty? And hope he takes the hint and makes the first move?" He cracked his eyes open when he didn't immediately get a response. 

"That is a terrible idea," kiss-or-slap girl said, smiling. "I'm so excited to see how it turns out."

----

Will walked into the on-campus cafe on Monday with his wallet already out. He fiddled with the sun design on the front of it as he walked up to the counter to order a smoothie and a sandwich. It turns out this place made pretty good food, and that was definitely the only reason he was here. 

If he just so happened to arrive at exactly 12:27 p.m. — the same time it had been when he ran into Nico here last week — that was probably just a coincidence. 

He paid for his order and told the barista his name — well, his pseudonym, Sunshine — and stepped to the side just as another server set a green tea and a sandwich on the table and called out, "Nico!"

Will spun around and scanned the cafe, spotting the Italian boy sitting at the same booth they'd sat at the last time they were here. He had headphones on and was staring intently at a textbook, oblivious to the server calling his name.

He was wearing all black, per the norm, but rather than his usual T-shirt and ripped jeans, he had a tight black turtleneck on top of black jeans without any holes in them, and under his headphones he had on a black beanie with all his pins on it, including the pride pin from the ice cream social. A few strands of hair had escaped the hat and were loose in his face, though they couldn't quite hide the way he bit his lip and squinted at the page in front of him with concentration.

His head bounced along to whatever music he was listening to and his fingers were drumming on the page he was staring at. Will was imagining what it would feel like to still Nico's fingers by slotting them between his own when he felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped, suddenly realizing he'd been staring at Nico for way too long. 

"Sunshine?" the barista held up his smoothie and sandwich. 

"Yes, thank you! Sorry!"

He grabbed the order, and then hesitated for a moment before grabbing Nico's food as well and walking over the other boy's table. 

Nico jumped when Will slid into the booth across from him, setting down both of their orders, but smiled when he looked up and saw Will. 

"Hey Nico," Will smiled back. "I noticed your tea getting cold so I thought I'd bring it over to you."

Nico pulled his headphones down onto his shoulders and tapped his phone to turn off whatever music he'd been listening to. 

"Thanks, Sunshine," Nico said, still smiling. "I was kind of hoping I might run into you again today."

Will blushed at the nickname, reaching a hand up instinctively to the place on his chest where the line-art sun was tattooed. He remembered how Nico had seen that tattoo just a couple days ago and blushed harder, looking down at his food. 

Nico's breath seemed to catch in his throat. 

"I didn't mean- I mean, I just said that because, because of the boba thing," Nico stammered. "It wasn't because of the- well, your uh..." 

Nico put his face in his hands, but Will could see the tips of Nico's ears turning red. 

"It was just supposed to be, like, an inside joke," Nico mumbled, barely loud enough for Will to hear. 

Will blinked, unsure of what to say. Inside jokes were a good thing, right? Piper always told him that creating and referencing inside jokes was crucial in the early stages of flirting — which was why she'd been keeping several snack-size bags of Cheetos in her backpack ever since the hike, so that she could offer Jason a bag of "chips" every time she saw him. 

But, inside jokes that made Nico think about the fact that Will had been naked on Nico's sister's bed three days ago probably weren't such a good thing.

Piper and Leo had found that story hilarious when he told them about it Saturday night, but they kept looking at each other weird while he was telling it, almost like they knew exactly what he was going to say. And since then Piper had been bombarding him with unsolicited flirting advice and they'd both been all but begging him to just ask Nico out. 

But Will was sure there was no way Nico would be interested in dating him now. In fact, he was surprised Nico still wanted to be his friend after catching him naked in Nico's sister's bed.

Nico looked up and Will realized he hadn't responded. 

"You can call me Sunshine," he blurted out. "Or whatever. Doctor boy, Pre-Med, Blondie. I don't mind."

Nico seemed to relax at that, and smiled again. 

"You can call me whatever you want, too."

They just looked at each other for a moment, smiling, before Nico blushed again and ducked his head. He reached into his backpack, which was sitting under the table, and started digging around for something. 

"Hey, do you want a bag of uhh, chips, to go with your sandwich?" Nico looked back up, laughing as he pulled a snack size bag of Cheetos from his backpack. 

Will barked out a laugh and then tried to cover his giggles with loud groan. 

"Not you too!"

----

[430-233-5874 created the group chat]

[430-233-5874 - 12:15 p.m.] so......

[430-233-5874 - 12:15 p.m.] how's the subtle-but-not-too-subtle flirting going for you, nico? 

[765-889-0502 - 12:16 p.m.] ooh yes, spill the tea

[Jason - 12:17 p.m.] Please, I've been dying to know what's up

[Jason - 12:17 p.m.] I mean, share whatever you're comfortable with, Nico

[Me - 12:18 p.m.] uhhhh

[Me - 12:18 p.m.] who all is in this group chat?

[430-233-5874 - 12:18 p.m.] just me, piper and jason

[430-233-5874 - 12:19 p.m.] i assumed we're the only ones who know about your hot-naked-boy problem 

[Me - 12:23 p.m.] ok ok cool

[Me - 12:23 p.m.] I think the inside joke thing is working? We've been texting a lot, and we've started meeting for lunch at the same time almost every day, but we both keep acting like it's not a planned thing and we just happen to keep running into each other

[Me - 12:23 p.m.] but I know he never really came here for lunch before a couple weeks ago

[Jason - 12:23 p.m.] so basically you're dating 

[Piper - 12:23 p.m.] omg you're both so clueless

[Piper - 12:24 p.m.] he hasn't asked you out yet? 

[Me - 12:25 p.m.] no, but yesterday he mentioned he's planning a movie night on Saturday with his roommate and asked me if I'd want to come

[Liam??? - 12:25 p.m.] hey will and I were talking about having a movie night on Saturday

[Liam??? - 12:25 p.m.] what a coincidence

----

Nico dropped his phone on the table and smacked himself in the face. How could he forget that he was literally texting Will's roommate? He glared at his phone until it went black, but no ideas for how to get Liam off his scent magically came to him. 

"Hey, what did that phone ever do to you, death boy?"

Will appeared next to Nico's table, somehow balancing two sandwiches, a smoothie, and a green tea in his hands, like he did almost every day. The two boys had become regulars in the last couple weeks, and the baristas had learned to just wait and put Nico's order out with Will's when he got there, since the Italian was notoriously bad at responding to his own name being called. 

Nico's phone buzzed and lit up again as Will was placing their sandwiches on the table, and Nico almost panicked before realizing that the text that had just come in from Liam — inviting everyone to his and Will's dorm for movies on Saturday — was in the hiking group chat, not the Nico's-love-life group chat. 

Wow, when did Nico get popular enough to have multiple, overlapping group chats? He should tell Hazel. She would be proud of him. 

Oh, but then she would want to know why there was a Nico's-love-life group chat at all, so maybe best not to. 

Nico was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Will chuckling, and he realized the other boy was glancing between his own phone and Nico's, which was still face up on the table.

"Nico," Will's eyes sparkled with laughter. "Do you know my roommate's name?" 

Nico stared. Was this a trick question? 

"Uh, yeah? It's Liam, isn't it?"

Will's smile grew, and he gently shook his head, then turned his own phone towards Nico. 

Nico felt himself go pale. He looked at Will's phone, noticing the picture on his lock screen of a bunch of teens and younger kids, all with blonde hair and blue eyes just like Will's, squeezing together for a selfie. And blocking most of the kids' faces was a notification bar with a text from ... Leo. 

Leo Roommate. 

Nico smirked. 

"You don't know your own roommate's last name?" 

Good, yes, this will distract him. Great job, Nico. 

"I do. It's Valdez. Leo Valdez."

Aw shucks, foiled again. 

Nico was saved from having to respond when both of their phones buzzed. Will's popped up a notification from someone named Rachel PaintJeans — probably accepting the invitation for movies Saturday — and Nico's phone popped up with ... an unknown number. 

Will's smile should not have been able to get bigger at this point, and yet there it was. 

He grabbed for Nico's phone before Nico could react and held it out of the shorter boy's reach while opening the hiking group chat. Nico really needed to put a lock on his phone.

Please don't look at any other text chains, Nico begged in his mind. 

Will chuckled while he scrolled through the group chat to see everyone's contact names, or lack thereof. He stopped to fix Leo's name and to add contacts for Rachel and Frank, then kept scrolling until he found a text from himself and froze. 

Nico blushed, suddenly remembering that he had never updated Will's contact in his phone after finding out the other boy's name. 

The number was saved as Sunshine. 

Nico still couldn't reach his phone to pull it out of Will's hand, so he looked around the table for some other distraction. His eyes landed on Will's phone, sitting abandoned next to his BLT. 

"All of your contacts have weird last names," Nico said, grabbing Will's phone while the blonde was distracted. "What's mine?"

He opened Will's cell and pulled up the group chat, almost dropping the phone when it buzzed again with another RSVP message, this time from Hazel. 

Hazel NICO'S SISTER. Interesting. 

Will turned to Nico with wide eyes, and then it was the Italian's turn to lean away and hold Will's phone out of reach. Nico scrolled up to a conversation earlier that day that he knew he'd been a part of and stopped when he saw his own contact name. 

ItalianHottieWhoProbablyHatesMe. 

Huh?

Nico blinked at Will. Will blinked back. Nico swallowed. 

Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard kiss-or-slap girl's (Piper's) voice telling him to turn this into a flirty inside joke.

He smirked and pulled Will's phone close to his chest so the other boy couldn't see, then opened up his own contact page. 

He could feel Will staring at him while he deleted ProbablyHatesMe, but he didn't look up. He stared at the screen, trying to figure out what to write instead. 

ItalianHottieWhoThinksYou'reCute

No. Too forward. Try not to be seen as a perv, remember?

ItalianHottieWhoDefinitelyDoesn'tHateYou

No. That one was somehow too subtle.

ItalianHottieWhoThinksCheetosAreChips

No. No. No. That joke was old three weeks ago. 

He sighed, and then looked up at Will, who was watching him with an expression that Nico couldn't quite place. He looked back at the phone, and deleted the entire contact name. 

Nico <3

Yes. Perfect. So subtle. So flirty. Nico is the master of subtlety. And flirting. 

----

Will pulled out his phone again as soon as Nico left the coffee shop to head to his next class. He stared at Nico's contact name for a while before opening up the chat he started with Piper, Leo and Rachel last week. 

(If they were all going to bug him about asking Nico out, they could at least do it in the same place.)

Nico <3

What did the heart mean? Why didn't he say anything about the "probably hates me" thing? Was it because he does hate Will? But then why the heart? And all the inside jokes recently? And Sunshine? All the others — whose names Nico had saved at all — were just saved as their first name, no additions or nicknames or anything. 

Did that mean-

Will started typing in the group chat. 

----

[Me - 1:13 p.m.] I don't think Nico knows my name

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:14 p.m.] what r u talking about 

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:14 p.m.] of course he knows your name, he's in love with you

[Me - 1:15 p.m.] I really don't think he is

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:15 p.m.] why don't you think he knows your name? 

[Me - 1:16 p.m.] well he's never said it

[Me - 1:16 p.m.] he just calls me pre-med or blondie or doctor boy or 

[Me - 1:16 p.m.] other things

[Leo Roommate - 1:17 p.m.] nah he uses nicknames for everyone 

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:17 p.m.] what other things will

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:17 p.m.] ya it's endearing

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:17 p.m.] he calls me red, like my initials

[Leo Roommate- 1:18 p.m.] or like your hair

[Me - 1:18 p.m.] have you considered 

[Me - 1:18 p.m.] he does not know anyone's names

[Leo Roommate - 1:19 p.m.] why are you so sure about this 

[Me - 1:19 p.m.] I may have just seen the group chat on his phone

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:19 p.m.] wait which gc

[Me - 1:20 p.m.] the hiking one 

[Me - 1:20 p.m.] why? what other group chats are there?

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:20 p.m.] no reason

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:21 p.m.] what was everyone saved as in his phone

[Me - 1:21 p.m.] well, you and Frank weren't saved at all. Just unknown numbers

[Me - 1:21 p.m.] Piper, Jason, and Hazel were saved with their names

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:21 p.m.] wow im honored

[Me - 1:22 p.m.] and Leo was saved as Liam with like six question marks 

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:22 p.m.] lol

[Leo Roommate - 1:22 p.m.] man I thought we were homies

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:23 p.m.] what were you saved as, will?

[Me - 1:23 p.m.] not my name 

[Me - 1:23 p.m.] because he doesn't know it 

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:24 p.m.] but you were saved as something?

[Leo Roommate - 1:24 p.m.] you're avoiding the question

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:26 p.m.] Will

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:28 p.m.] WILLIAM

[Me - 1:29 p.m.] ....

[Me - 1:30 p.m.] sunshine

[Rachel PaintJeans - 1:30 p.m.] afhigdbhjfjk

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:30 p.m.] !!!!!!!

[Pipes Mcgee - 1:30 p.m.] he's in love!!!

[Leo Roommate - 1:30 p.m.] so in love!!!

[Me - 1:31 p.m.] see, I might believe you except he doeSN'T KNOW MY NAME

----

Will was surprised when he walked up to the coffee shop a couple days later to find Nico leaning against the wall outside the building, rather than waiting inside at their usual table. 

He was wearing a knitted gray sweater with his not-ripped black jeans, and an emerald green scarf and matching beanie. He was fiddling with the skull ring he always wore on his right hand, which Will had noticed was a nervous habit of his. 

Will called out a greeting as he walked up, and Nico jumped slightly, before looking up, not quite meeting Will's eyes. 

"Hey! Um, you don't have any classes on Friday afternoons right?"

"Uh, no?" Will wasn't sure when he'd mentioned that to Nico, but he guessed it must have come up at some point. "Why?"

"My 2 p.m. class got cancelled today, and I was thinking, since I've got the extra time..." Nico paused, biting his lip and looking down at his ring again. (Not that Will was paying that much attention to Nico's lips or anything, but he'd noticed the Italian bit his lip a lot) "Do you wanna, maybe, go somewhere a bit nicer for lunch today? Like, off-campus?"

That... sounded a lot like a date. And Nico was dressed really nice today. But, that was probably just a coincidence, right? Nico had already rejected Will once at the beginning of the semester. If he'd changed his mind... Well, surely he'd be direct about it, right? Besides, if this was supposed to be a date, he would have asked Will in advance, right? So, he could have also dressed up nice? 

Will looked down at his own cargo-shorts-and-bright-yellow-hoodie combo. 

"How nice are we talking?" He said, gesturing at his outfit. "Do I need to go home and change?"

"No! No, uh, I, I think you look great." Nico was staring resolutely at his shoes now. "I wasn't thinking anywhere like, fancy fancy. Just, uh, you know, I've already tried all four of the sandwiches this place offers — several times over — and I thought, maybe some variety would be nice? But, we don't have to if you don't want to, or if your busy, or-

"Nico, hey, that sounds great," Will put his hand on Nico's shoulder to stop him rambling and smiled when the other boy looked up at him. "Honestly, you're lucky I'm dressed as nice as I am. I genuinely considered going to class in my pajamas today, but, uh..." 

I knew I'd be seeing you. 

"Anyway, variety sounds great. I haven't spent much time off-campus because I don't have a car, so you'll probably have to pick the restaurant. But, I trust your taste," Will smiled. 

Nico raised an eyebrow, but Will wasn't really sure why. The shorter boy reached out like he wanted to grab Will's arm, but stopped himself and instead just gestured for Will to follow him before turning to walk towards the edge of campus. 

----

It turns out Nico didn't have a car either, but he did have the knowledge that their student IDs got them free passage on the local bus system and downtown was only a 15-minute bus ride away, something Will must have somehow missed during Freshman orientation.

They talked during the bus ride about their classes that morning, their plans for the weekend, and how excited they were to hate-watch the terrible looking Mythomagic movie that was coming out next month with Jack Black. And if Will didn't move away when Nico's knee bumped into his and stayed there, that probably didn't mean anything important. 

They ended up at a fast-food style Belgian Waffles and Frites place that had the best fries Will had ever tasted in his life. Will had a mild panic at the counter when he realized they'd walked in and ordered together — something that didn't usually happen at the on-campus coffee shop because Nico was always there before Will — and that meant one of them would have to pay for the other. But in the time it took Will to realize the situation and contemplate pulling out his wallet, Nico had already handed his credit card to the cashier. He stared straight ahead while the payment was processing and didn't look at Will again until his card was safely back in his wallet. 

This was really starting to feel like a date. 

They didn't talk much while eating — because wow, the food was so good — but they fell into another easy conversation as they walked out of the restaurant. Will didn't even notice at first that they weren't walking towards the bus stop — mostly because he was focused on how Nico's hand kept brushing against his while they walked — until Nico stopped in front of the window of a thrift shop with a sign advertising a Halloween sale.

"I need to see you in that hat."

Through the window, Will could see an assortment of hats and other costume accessories hanging from a couple of racks. It took him a minute to figure out which hat Nico was pointing to. 

"Only if I get to see you in that one."

----

Will managed to get two pictures of Nico in the cowboy hat before he switched it out for a classy top hat, and in exchange Will smiled for one photo with the ridiculous cheese wedge on his head. Later, as they were walking around the rest of the thrift shop, Nico tried to get Will to put a lampshade on his head — "because you're so bright!" — and Will ran up a set of stairs to avoid him, almost crashing into a bookshelf at the top because he was laughing so hard. 

That's how they found out the thrift shop was also a book store on the upper level, and 45 minutes later they were sitting on a window sill while Nico tried to translate stanzas from an Italian poetry book Will had found in the foreign language section. 

"Okay, so this verse uses a lot of idioms that don't really work in English, but basically he's saying that the person he's in love with is, uh, hard to solve? Like, wooing them is a puzzle he can't quite figure out."

"So, he's treating flirting like a game he wants to win?"

Nico looked up from the book with a raised eyebrow. 

"You'd know a thing or two about flirting using games, huh?"

Will blushed and looked out the window, avoiding Nico's gaze while he tried to figure out how to respond. 

"Oh. Ah, right, you got me there," he mumbled eventually, braving a quick glance over at Nico, who was ... smiling?

"Come on, Freckles, I'm teasing," Nico hid a laugh behind his hand. Will felt himself starting to untense and would have started laughing along with Nico, but then the other boy spoke again. 

"You said Piper taught you that game, right?"

Will wasn't sure where this was going, but he answered, cautiously.

"Yeah... She really likes to give unsolicited flirting advice. She told me about that one right before the ice cream social."

"Ah, so it was just advice, then. It wasn't something she ever used on you?"

"No! No, Piper and I, we're just really close friends. Always have been. I never even, I mean, she's really pretty and all but, I guess she's not, exactly my type?"

"Oh? And what is your type?"

Was Nico leaning closer? Is this? Is he? He's not flirting is he? It definitely seemed like it, but, didn't he think Will was a sleezebag?

Will looked into Nico's eyes, trying to figure out what the other boy was thinking. He still wasn't sure if Nico even knew his name. Could he really be interested in Will now? But Will could have sworn the other boy just glanced at his lips, and they were definitely closer now. It would be so easy to just lean forward, and...

"Is anyone up here?" 

The two boys jumped apart as the sudden footsteps on the stairs got louder. Will looked over just in time to see a purple-haired girl sticking her head up from the staircase. 

"Oh, hey guys!" She said, eyes flitting between Will and Nico. "Just FYI, we're about to close in like five minutes."

She disappeared again down the stairs and Will stared after her, trying to make his blush fade before looking back over at Nico. The other boy stood up after a moment and walked over to return the poetry book to the shelf they'd pulled it off of, then looked back at Will and pointed over his shoulder towards the staircase. 

"So, we should probably get out of here then, huh?"

----

Nico wanted to slam his head against a wall. 

They were so close! He was sure that Will was about to kiss him in the bookshop, but now the blonde wouldn't even look at him while they walked back to the bus stop. 

Had he imagined it? Had Will really been leaning in, or was that all in Nico's head? What if he'd freaked Will out with his flirting because of the whole saw-him-naked situation, and now Will thought he was a total creep? 

He knew he wasn't really being subtle anymore — he had basically just taken the guy on a romantic downtown date, after all — but the movie night was tomorrow and then Piper, Jason and Leo were definitely going to figure out that the guy he was pining after was Will and who knows what they would do then, so Nico was getting kind of desperate. 

Still, he hadn't been able to bring himself to just outright ask Will on a date. He was still worried about getting rejected after the nudity incident, but now he was starting the think getting rejected would have been easier than this whole song and dance of trying to figure out what Will was thinking. 

Nico was so lost in his thoughts he barely noticed when they reached the bus stop, just following Will as they boarded and sat down. They were quiet for the entire ride back to campus, but their knees were touching each other again and Nico didn't know what that meant. 

He kept replaying the incident at the book shop over in his head, and by the time they got back to campus he had made a decision. He took a deep breath, steadying himself as they got off the bus. 

"Can I walk you back to your dorm?"

Will blinked, looking surprised, but then smiled. 

"Sure, if you want to." 

Nico started the conversation back up again while they walked, asking Will if he'd heard much from his family lately, instead of asking the thing he actually, really wanted to ask. That was fine, though, because Will started talking about how he was already thinking about what to get each of his siblings for Christmas — because he's incredibly thoughtful like that and also has like a million siblings — and the walk back to the dorms passed quickly. 

Soon enough they were standing outside Will's door and Nico couldn't stall any longer. Will pulled his keys out of his pocket and started to put them in the door, but Nico reached out and grabbed his arm. 

"I, um, I need you to know this isn't just because I saw you naked."

Wow, Di Angelo. Smooth start. 

Will's keys slipped out of his hand and he turned to look at Nico with wide eyes.

"What?"

"No! Sorry! I just meant, like- ugh why is this so hard?" Nico put his face in his hands, took a couple deep breaths, then looked up at Will again. 

"Is the choice still on the table?"

Will looked like he was about to either faint or turn around and run away. 

"What choice?"

"To- to kiss you or slap you?"

Will took a startled step backwards. 

"You want to slap me?"

"No!" Nico flinched, realizing how loudly he'd said it. He stepped forward, holding his hands out like he was approaching a wild animal, and lowered his voice. 

"No, Will. I want to kiss you. I really want to kiss you. I've wanted to for a while now, but then I walked in on you in Hazel's room and I thought if I asked you out after that you'd think I was just some creep who-"

Nico's rambling was cut off abruptly by soft lips being pushed against his. He gasped as he felt Will threading fingers through his hair with one hand, and slipping his other arm around Nico's waist to pull him closer. Nico grabbed Will's hoodie with both hands, stabilizing himself while he leaned into the kiss. 

After a few seconds, Will pulled away, leaning his forehead against Nico's and looking into his eyes. 

"You know my name."

"I.. what?"

"You said my name. I've never heard you say it before. I wasn't sure if you knew it."

"Of course I know your name, Sunshine," Nico leaned up and kissed Will again, but quickly pulled back to look in his eyes. "I just stuck with the nicknames because I thought they were flirtier. I've been trying to get you to make a move for weeks." He shoved Will's shoulder, gently.

"But I thought... I thought, that you thought that I was a total player?" Will said, pointing back and forth between himself and Nico as he spoke.

Nico just squinted up at him in confusion. 

"Why on earth would I think that?"

"Uhh, because of the kiss-me-or-slap me thing?"

"Will, that was one conversation, months ago. And it was pretty clear you had never used a pickup line before in your life," Nico deadpanned. "For one thing, your execution was terrible."

Will sputtered indignantly.

"Well, then, because you walked in on me naked on your sister's bed?"

"For art!" Nico threw his hands up, but couldn't stop himself from laughing. "I'm a history major who's obsessed with ancient Greece, you think I don't understand the concept of nude art?"

"Oh."

Will seemed to ponder that for a moment, before reaching out and grabbing one of Nico's hands out of the air.

"Well, for the record, I've wanted to kiss you for a really long time, too."

Nico smiled, and grabbed Will's other hand. 

"You know, you never answered my question earlier at the book shop."

"What question was that?"

"What's your type?"

"Oh, definitely idiot Italian boys."

"Hey-"

But Nico didn't get to say more before Will was kissing him again. And he didn't really mind that one bit.