Work Text:
It wasn’t the first time Nico had been ostracized. From him and his sister feeling strange and out of place at their summer camp to him being left alone for the majority of his school career, loneliness was a common theme and followed him wherever he went. He had learned to come to terms with it, or, rather, he had to learn to come to terms with it in order to survive. So why was he this bothered when Will Solace was acting distant? It was just Nico’s luck that when he finally started to consider that boy a “friend”, he decided it was his sole mission on this planet to ignore Nico at every turn.
It had only been two days and 18 hours since Will’s last text message, not that Nico was counting. Usually he was the one leaving people on delivered for large periods of time so receiving the same treatment back should not have bothered him to this extent. Nico was aware of how ridiculous he was acting, rereading text messages every fifteen minutes but he couldn’t help himself. It was like his fingers had a mind of their own and that mind seriously liked the messaging app, more specifically Will’s DMS.
He decided to go on a walk to distract himself but it was a complete fail. Every single step he took seemed to be chanting “Will” and every bird seemed to chirp “Solace” as they flew over Nico’s head. The only relief from this psychological torture was the cool summer breeze that kissed Nico’s face every few minutes. It seemed to restart Nico’s brain and he forgot everything for a brief moment, only for a brief moment.
His aimless walk ended up taking him downtown and he decided to go to the new ice cream parlour that opened but his plans were quickly disturbed when he saw none other than Will Solace sitting on the bench outside the parlor with a couple friends. He was holding markers in his hand and everyone in the group seemed to be staring at a big piece of paper that was laid out on the concrete. Nico couldn’t see what was on the paper and nor did he care. His only focus was the wind blowing Will’s hair and the cute half squint he was doing to shield his eyes. Butterflies started fluttering around in Nico’s stomach like they always did whenever that gorgeous boy came into view. Will choose that exact moment to look up and catch Nico’s eyes.
Nico attempted a smile but instead of being met with the warm smile he usually did, Will immediately returned his gaze back to the paper. Which was fine, right? Maybe they were too far away to greet each other or maybe Nico's attempt to smile had failed miserably and Will hadn’t noticed or maybe the paper was something too important. A million excuses immediately started running through Nico’s head on why Will was acting the way Will was.
As Nico walked away from his failed ice cream plan, a soul-crushing idea came to him. Will was mad at Nico. What could have possibly caused this, Nico wasn’t too sure but it was the only thing that would explain the way Will was acting. He thought maybe Will heard something from their classmates at school who already didn’t like Nico very much. Or maybe Will decided being friends with Nico was hopeless and that Nico was a lost cause.
Nico immediately started putting the “I didn’t even really care that much” mindset into work but it didn’t work very well this time. On his way home, Nico felt like he had knives stabbing at his insides. People leaving was not anything new. It had happened a million times before and Nico was very quick to get his brain to move on. Or he usually was.
His brain’s refusal to cooperate for the sake of his heart was what bothered Nico. He continued to check Will's DMS three more times even though now he knew for certain that he wasn’t going to get a response. Nico made his way to the kitchen immediately once he got home deciding that food would help him. It did not. Every bite he swallowed ripped the hole in his heart bigger. The worst part was that he wouldn’t even let himself properly get upset. It’s like his heart was on fire and his brain was standing right next to it, thinking pretending it wasn’t there would put out the fire by itself. Any sane person would grab the fire extinguisher, but Nico was far from sane.
He had multiple tests coming up and he was planning on studying today but he couldn’t bring himself to. Maybe this was his brain’s way of showing a little mercy. He spent the rest of the day watching TV except he wasn’t really watching it. He was staring at the screen not absorbing anything that was happening while he internally died seven times.
The only thing that made him forget everything was when the doorbell rang. Nothing to reduce anxiety like more anxiety! Getting up, he realized how dark it had gotten. He turned on the front porch light to illuminate whoever was there. He peaked through the window and saw the blonde hair that he could recognize anywhere. His brain and heart immediately exploded and started comparing notes on why Will was here and Nico was trying to get both parts of him to calm down.
“Hi.” Nico said, flatly. He didn’t volunteer any other feelings or emotions because he didn’t know what intentions Will had coming here.
“Hi. I was- I, uh, wanted to ask you something.” Will said with a nervous smile which Nico figured meant he had good intentions. It wasn’t often Nico saw that expression on his face. He was usually bold and confident in every setting.
Nico nodded at him and noticed a large, rolled up paper that was hiding behind Will. Nico figured it was what WIll was working on outside the ice cream parlour. Will caught Nico staring at it and unrolled it, covering his face with the white rectangle.
It took Nico a second to read the boy’s terrible awful handwriting. They joked once that it was handwriting fit for a doctor. After he decoded it, his expression fell into complete shock. Nico wasn’t always the most expressive person but the words written on the poster were the last reason Nico would have thought Will would avoid him, but it did make sense. Will lowered the poster when he didn’t hear any response from Nico. His look reminded Nico that he had to speak.
“Prom?” was all he could get out.
“I spent the last few days putting together a whole thing to ask you and then I figured you probably didn’t want to make it a big thing. So then I made this. Short and simple. Or if you don’t even want to, that’s fine too. This doesn’t have to ruin our friendship okay? Matter of fact, I’ll rip this up right now-”
“Don’t do that. I’ll forget who my prom date is then.”
Nico physically noticed Will’s relief. His shoulders stopped being tense, his eyes stopped looking like they were about to pop out of his head and his smile went back to calm and confident.
“I- I thought you hated me or something.” Nico tried to say it as a joke, but the hours of worry carried themselves as he spoke and Will understood it all.
“I know, I’m sorry. I just knew if I texted you and was reminded of how cute you were and how smart you were, I would chicken myself out. I didn’t mean to.” He got a little tense again, wondering if prom date equaled compliments. Nico took it light hearted though.
“Want to come in?”