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Nico hummed to himself as he walked through the main lawn at camp half blood towards the pavilion. It was a tune he thinks he heard somewhere in Italy when he was a small child, but he can’t remember enough of the words to try and figure out what the name of it is.
He was finding more and more that details of his life in Italy were slowly seeping through the cracks in his memory. However, the more he noticed this, the less he minded. His life in Mussolini’s Italy was never the simple, carefree time that many would associate with early childhood. His life in America hadn’t been so easy once he became aware of his status as a half-blood either. There was the Titan War, the labyrinth, the Giants, the jar, Bianca…
Nico shook his head to scatter his thoughts for a moment. All things considered, he was doing pretty well lately as long as he didn’t let himself get sucked into bad memories. For once he was actually able to say he was somewhat satisfied with his life at the moment. He had a secure place to stay, three meals a day should he feel like eating them, plenty of friends, and most importantly, he had Will.
Will had probably done the most when it came to helping Nico acclimate to life at camp. It had been Will that came knocking on Nico’s cabin every morning to get him to come to breakfast, it was Will who insisted on checking his lasting wounds every day, Will who would stay up late at night with Nico when he had trouble sleeping, Will who helped Nico through his various anxiety attacks and his worst days.
Nico found himself smiling the more he thought about his boyfriend. Sometimes he still couldn’t believe he actually had a boyfriend. Living with that reality every day never made the concept of it less exciting to him. It was like his most out of reach dream had somehow come to life.
He felt the ground under his boots change from grass to concrete as he reached the picnic tables. He and Will usually met up at dinner after spending the afternoon taking care of their different tasks and responsibilities.
He looked towards the Apollo table, but he didn’t see Will. Some of Will’s siblings were there though, and Kayla must’ve seen the confusion on his face because she answered his question before he even had to ask.
“It was really slow in the infirmary today, so Will left to go towards the strawberry fields. I haven’t seen him since, so I assume he’s still there.” She said.
“It’s unlike him to be so late to dinner though; do you mind checking on him?” Kayla asked, but Nico was already nodding before she finished the question.
“Yeah, sure. Thanks for letting me know.” He replied, mostly to be polite, before turning on his heel and setting out again.
——
The days were still long this time of year, but they were already getting shorter, and the sun was almost all the way down before Nico reached the fields. The air was still warm, and it was a still day with no breeze.
Nico found Will lying in the grass between two of the rows of strawberry plants. He was on his back with his hands behind his head, and Nico was only a couple feet away when he realized that Will was asleep.
Nico stood for a minute and watched the slow rise and fall of Will’s chest. He looked so peaceful like this. It was such a contrast from the constant motion he was used to seeing on Will. The boy moved like liquid gold. Every movement was so fluid and streamlined from the way that he ran to the way he moved his hands when he talked to the way his fingers would track along files in the medicine room. It was so obvious to Nico that Will was related to a god. It was the only explanation.
Natural as it seemed for Will to move about like cascading light, it was equally unnatural to see him lie so still. He could very well be a marble statue, and if you couldn’t see that he was breathing you could almost think he was…
Nico shook his head sharply as he closed the distance between himself and Will.
“Will. Will come on time to get up.” He said, rougher than he intended.
Will’s eyes blinked open and stared back at Nico standing above him.
“Will,” Nico said, much gentler, “you fell asleep. It’s dinner time now.”
Will blinked again, coming out of sleep slowly. He took his head off his hands and slowly sat up. He raised his hands above his head to stretch, but let out a sharp gasp and dropped his arms instead.
Nico’s eyes widened and he got down and crawled a little closer to Will. “What happened, does something hurt-oh, Will, you’re really red.”
The shadows of the sunset had made it hard to tell, but now that he was closer, it was very easy to see that the skin on Will’s legs, arms, and face was all an angry burnt color.
“How long have you been out here? Did you forget sunscreen? Nico asked, somewhat surprised that someone as careful as Will would end up so burnt.
“I’ve never needed sunscreen; I’ve never been burned before. Gods, my face really hurts” Will mumbled as he reached to touch the skin around his mouth before snapping his hand away with another sharp breath.
“Careful, careful, touching it will make it worse. You’ve really never been sunburned before?” Nico asked skeptically.
“Never.” Will replied. His face was fixed in a grimace, and he kept gingerly moving his arms like he was trying to find a position that didn’t hurt.
“Maybe it’s-do you think this could have something to do with the uhm…Apollo…situation?” Nico asked, not quite sure what to call the series of events that rendered the god Apollo a powerless mortal teenager.
“I guess that’s the most likely answer.” Will responded, giving up on trying to find a comfortable position. “My face feels so tight it’s almost hard to talk.”
“I believe it. You’re like, impressively red. You’re probably making the strawberries jealous.”
Will laughed for a second before the discomfort resettled in his features.
“Here, let’s go back to your cabin so we can try and work out something to help you a little.”
Will hummed, and Nico took that as a yes. He carefully grabbed Will around the waist since it was one of the few areas that wouldn’t be sensitive to touch, and shadow travelled them back to Apollo’s cabin.
The cabin was dark and empty when they arrived since none of Will’s siblings had come in for the night yet, so Nico had to reach to turn on a lantern. Will stumbled when Nico let go, causing Nico to grab him again quickly.
“Sorry, ‘rry, I’m a bit dizzy” Will said as Nico helped him to the floor.
“You’re probably at least a little dehydrated. I want you to drink some water.” Nico replied as he grabbed Will’s bottle from his nightstand, thankful it sounded like there were still a few ice cubes inside from the last time it was filled.
Will took the bottle and drank. “That’s helping some. Thanks, Nico.” He said, before screwing the top back on and pressing the cool metal to his forehead, and each of his cheeks in turn.
Nico bit at his upper lip as he watched Will, trying to think of ways he could help. Being from Southern Europe, he wasn’t extremely prone to sunburn as long as he put a little sunscreen on before he went out. However, he could vaguely recall when he was very young, his mom would put some lotion on his cheeks when they’d get pink in the sun.
He stood, and went into the bathroom. He dug around in the cabinets until he found some lotion, and made his way back to Will.
Will had the bottle pressed against his forehead again, but otherwise he hadn’t moved. Nico sat beside him and put some of the lotion on his hands.
“Will, can you tell me where it’s the most uncomfortable?” he asked softly. He suspected Will had headache he didn’t want to mention, going off of how he was leaning his neck and head against the bed and could barely turn towards a light. Nico was picking up on Will’s habit of concealing the extent of his discomfort at times since he was so used to being the one to take care of others.
“My face is definitely bothering me.” Will said eventually, turning slightly to look at Nico.
Nico nodded and gently took the bottle off of Will’s head. He put a few dots of lotion around Will’s cheeks, his forehead, and any other areas that looked particularly red. He pat the lotion in gently, so he wouldn’t aggravate any of the burns. He could feel Will hum after the lotion was rubbed in. Once Nico finished Will’s face, he rubbed some onto each of his arms and legs too.
“That feels really nice, thanks.” Will said as he reached for the water bottle to have another sip.
Nico ran a few fingers through Will’s hair.
“And your head?” he asked.
“That’s better too.” Will replied with a small smile as he leaned into Nico, lying his head on Nico’s chest.
Nico wrapped his arms around Will again; making sure to avoid any of the burns.
A few minutes later, Will spoke again. “Did you not eat dinner? I can hear your stomach growling a little.”
“I got a kind of distracted, sunshine.” Nico replied as he placed a small kiss on the top of Will’s head.
“Well, as your doctor, i’m going to have to disapprove.” Will replied, the humor in his voice obvious.
“Aw, darn.” Nico laughed.
Will raised his head, and it looked like he was going to continue the joke until he winced at the way the burns stung. His head dropped immediately back onto Nico’s chest.
Will was almost completely still save for the rising of his chest. Nico ran a hand up and down Will’s back to try and provide some extra comfort.
“This is so weird.” Will mumbled with his face pressed against Nico. “None of this makes any sense. What if he’s stuck like this? Or what if my other talents get messed up too? What if someone gets hurt and I can’t-“
Nico shushed Will as his voice got more frantic. He rocked them both side to side gently in an attempt to soothe him. His heart broke when he felt Will’s breath hitch and a few tears fell on his shirt.
Nico took a few slow, deep breaths to give Will something to focus on to help him calm down. It seemed to work, and after a couple minutes Will’s shoulders stopped shaking. “I’m not sure, Will. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But whatever does, the two of us will figure it out. Cross my heart.”
As he spoke, Nico could feel Will relax against him as the tension left his body. Nico knew that stress of being the camp medic took a toll on Will, and he often blamed himself when he wasn’t able to save someone. Will was quiet for a minute as the last of his tears fell, making an array of wet spots on Nico’s shirt.
“You’re so old; nobody says ‘cross my heart’ anymore.” Will teased lightly to fill the ensuing silence.
“You’re calling me old now? Well then you should respect your elders, sonny boy.” Nico joked back in a creaky voice.
Will laughed, and Nico found himself smiling at the sound.
Nico didn’t love to make promises if he wasn’t absolutely sure he’d be able to keep them. But that night, he decided that no matter what the gods threw at them, he and Will would stick together, even if they had to go through hell and back.