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First it was the flowers…
“I can’t believe it!” Nico said when he sat down beside Will who was busy ‘reading’.
The blond cleared his throat, trying to hide his blushing cheeks behind the thick medical book. “Can’t believe what?”
“I can’t believe someone is insensitive enough to leave me dead flowers!” Nico growled and Will jumped.
“What?” He asked in a small squeak, eyes wide when he saw the very much dead tulips in Nico’s hands.
“Well, they weren’t dead before, but leaving me flowers I could kill is still insensitive.” Nico said with a glare. “Is someone making fun of the fact that I can kill flowers with a touch if I want to? Because that someone is very dead soon.”
“Uhm, maybe they didn’t know you could do that?” Will suggested weakly.
Nico shot him a disbelieving look. “Then whoever it is, is an idiot.” He huffed and got up to walk away. Then he paused and called back, “By the way, your book is upside down!”
Will looked down at his book in mortification.
Then it was the ‘date’…
“I’ll pay for both of us.” Will said, playing with the hem of his shirt. Outwardly he was calm, but his fingers betrayed his nervousness. “Since this a rare day out of camp and everything.”
Nico’s eyes narrowed. “Are you saying I can’t pay for myself, Solace?”
“What? No, I-”
“Because I can pay for myself. I’m not as good as Hazel but I can pick some diamond stuff underground, not like dad would miss it or anything-” Nico said, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
Gods, he was so cute when he tried to be all independent- No! No, focus Solace! This is your first date, you need to be calm and cool and collected and not let Nico pay for your date!
“Nico, I can-”
“Aha!” A skeletal hand came out of the ground with a few hundred dollar bills (and Will definitely did not jump in fear or anything). Nico grabbed it and then waved it triumphantly in front of Will’s face. “It’s not a diamond, but we can’t exactly pay in diamonds so… here.”
Will accepted it hesitantly. “But-”
“I’ll even pay for your ticket, okay?” Nico said, crossing his arms. He looked away but Will could see the tips of his ears turning red. The blond couldn’t help but smile.
“Okay.” Well, it was still a date, only with Nico paying for-
“Good. That’s what friends are for.” Nico huffed and marched towards the ticket booth.
Will tried his best not to be disappointed.
(Tried being the keyword.)
Now it was the hand-holding…
Okay, okay…
It was all right that Nico didn’t realize this was a date. Will could change his mind with a little, smooth, arm-over-the-shoulder manoeuvre. Yeah, Will could do that.
But then thinking about it made Will realize how embarrassing and cliché it was. So he had to sit there for a few minutes flushing before then decided to go with hand-holding instead. Which should be easy right? Since they only had one bucket of large popcorn because Will didn’t want one.
He inhaled deeply and casually reached for the bucket of popcorn which Nico himself was currently taking from.
The moment their hands touched, Will’s heart rate rose, his cheeks flushed-
Nico hissed at him, “I asked you if you wanted some popcorn, we were literally just out there a few minutes ago!” He said, “So why are you taking mine? Did you change your mind?”
Will retracted his hand, raising both hands defensively, “I was just- I wanted to see how it tasted since you bought a big bucket of it, that’s all.”
Nico shot him a suspicious look and begrudgingly offered his popcorn.
Will sighed internally.
Behind him, someone that sounded suspiciously like Kayla said, “Oh my gods!” followed by a “shhh!” noise.
Finally, the makeover…
So Austin and Kayla really were there to witness his shame in trying to date Nico. Being his siblings, the moment he came into the cabin, Austin started serenading some stupid love song and Kayla shot a toy arrow to his head, with a heart dangling from it.
“It seems like it’s come to this.” Kayla said seriously as Austin nodded, “It’s clear that a makeover is what you need, dear brother.”
“Oh, guys, you don’t-”
“No, no, apparently we do need to do this.” And that’s how Austin and Kayla tackled him into ground and tried to give him fashion advice for his own good.
The thing is…
The thing is, they were called the Apollo cabin, not the Aphrodite cabin, for a reason. Will should’ve seen it coming a mile away, what with Kayla’s clashing hair colours and Austin’s no-care attitude for whatever he was wearing.
This is why Will always stuck to shorts and shirts.
Well, it couldn’t be that bad. Will thought as he got out of the cabin, tugging at the orange and yellow, zip-up, collared, Hawaiian shirt he had.
Unfortunately, it was that bad.
If the fact that the Hermes cabin and Aphrodite cabin stormed towards him, and threw him into the lake, was any indication… It was that bad.
“Look, Will, nothing bad against you but those colours clash with each other, with your hair, and your skin tone.” Drew said as she stood by the pier, hands on her hips. “It is our sworn duty as Aphrodite’s children to get rid of people wearing such offensive attire.”
“And our sworn duty to prank people!” One of the children from the Hermes cabin said. Drew rolled her eyes at that.
Will coughed out the water in his mouth and then sighed tiredly. He swam towards land, taking off the offensive shirt in the process. He got up to dry land and bent down to fold the offensive pants above his knee.
Someone whistled suggestively behind him and a few girls giggled. “Wow, well that is definitely an improvement.”
Will looked behind him, running a hand through his wet hair, an eyebrow raised in confusion.
That’s when- “WHAT IN HADES IS GOING ON?”
Jealousy apparently does it….
Nico’s teeth were gritted and his glare could burn through steel as he looked at the people unashamedly ogling Will.
Will was busy shaking the water out of his hair to notice people ogling him. His cheeks were flushed from the sudden swim in the lake and he greeted Nico with a shy, “Uh, hey, Nico.”
Behind Nico, Kayla was giggling and Austin was giving him a thumbs up.
“Solace.” Nico said, jaw firm and gaze sharp. “Why are you performing a strip show in front of all these people?” He shot another glare at their spectators. They took a step back.
“Uhm, Kayla and Austin tried to give me a makeover…” There came a scandalized gasped from the Aphrodite cabin, “And, well, the Aphrodite cabin hated it and the Hermes cabin wanted to prank someone, so they threw me into the lake.” He shrugged, “I was just trying not to catch a cold so I took off the shirt.” He sighed.
Nico gave him a disbelieving stare and Will sighed again.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me… I have to trudge back to the cabin to save my remaining dignity and prevent myself from getting a cold.” Will said, starting to walk past Nico towards the direction of the cabins.
“Wait.” Nico laid a hand on his wet chest and shot him a look.
Will tried to get his heart under control as he asked, “What?”
Nico gave him an assessing look before placing a hand behind Will’s neck and pulling him into a kiss.
When they parted, Will’s eyes were wide and his cheeks were pink. Nico shot the Aphrodite cabin a look, “Just so no one gets any funny ideas.” He said in a tone that clearly implied mine.
The son of Hades turned and walked towards the cabins, Will gaping after him.
Noticing no one was following him, Nico paused and looked back, “Will?”
The blond blinked and then said, “Y-Yeah?”
Nico rolled his eyes, “I’ll walk you to your cabin, dork. Don’t want anyone jumping you on your way there.” He glared at the other campers in warning. A few who had been looking, squeaked in fright.
“Oh, o-okay.” Nico continued walking. A smile spread across Will’s face and he did a fist pump (“Yes!”).
“Will!”
“Yeah!” The blond followed after his probably-boyfriend-now, running up to catch up.
Austin and Kayla high-fived each other, smug smirks on their faces.
