Work Text:
They landed, both stumbling a bit but Will quickly regained his balance, though the same could sadly not be said for the smaller boy, who would've fallen over hadn't it been for Will catching him before he could. Will slowly lowered them both to sit on the ground, Nico almost passing out as he did. He layed Nico down on the ground, careful not to accidently hit his head, before sitting himself next to where Nico's head was laying.
Almost immediatly Nico tried sitting up and Will sighed before opening his mouth.
"Nico, lay down again."
"I'm fine." Nico said, although he did not look or sound fine.
"No, you're not. Lay back down, doctors orders."
Reluctantly Nico laid down, putting his head in Will's lap and turning slightly so he could bury his face in Will's t-shirt.
"You're boring." Nico muttered and Will didn't answer just ran his fingers through Nico's black hair.
They stayed like that for a moment before Nico slowly sat himself up again, and this time Will let him. Nico started trying to stand up on his own, but before he could Will was already on his feet and offering Nico a hand. He took the hand offered and used it to lean on as he walked, and he didn't miss the concerned look the other boy gave him, he just chose to ignore it. Will tried going towards the infirmary but Nico shoook his head and lead them towards the Hades cabin instead. When they reached the cabin Will quickly opened the door for the other boy, who collapsed on his bed as soon as he reached it. Will sat down with him and offered him a bar of chcolate.
"Thanks." Nico sat up again, he still looked sickly.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Will asked.
"No, i'm fine." Nico answered, and he wasn't really lying, he wasn't hurt anywhere.
"Are you sure about that?" Will lifted an eyebrow and his eyes searched for Nico's.
"I'm not hurt." Nico answered and his eyes met Will's.
"But?" Will prompted
"I'm just a little tired...and on the brink of passing out, but i'm fine."
"You're not fine Nico." Will sighed before continuing, "Lay back down, okay?" Will said for the second time today, but this time Nico didn't comlain before doing as he was told, wheter it was from him actually reconginzing that he should probably listen to the doctor in this situation or if he was just too tired to fight back, Will did not know.
"Y'know you need to stop saying you're fine when you're obviously not, if i offer help it's because i want to help you." Will knew why Nico always said he was fine when he wasn't, and he knew it was hard to get out of a bad habit like that, but he was set on trying to help Nico as much as he could. There were multiple reasons but mostly because Nico deserved it, he deserved to be allowed to show that he wasn't okay when he wasn't.
"Yeah, i know." Nico said, and his voice sounded a bit stronger now, but it also sounded more sad.
"Have you eaten today?" Will asked, because if he hadn't that was probably the main reason he'd almost fainted, and it was also not an issue that was getting any better.
"Yeah." Nico answered as he sat himself up again, but it was a bit too quickly and his voice sounded a bit too strained for Will to believe him.
"What'd you eat then?" He asked, and it pained him that he had to, because really if he had one wish he'd use it on letting the boy beside him free from all his pain. Nico didn't answer, he just looked at Will with that pleading look in his eyes that said 'please not now', and Will hated to continue talking about it when Nico clearly didn't want to, but he also knew that Nico would keep avoiving the conversation for as long as he possibly could.
"Nico, listen i really don't want to make you uncomfotable by talking about this, but we need to."
"You're overreacting, really, it's not something that needs to be talked about." Nico insisted but with the look on his face and the tone of his voice it was obvious that he was lying.
"Oh, death boy when are you going to realize it's okay to be vulnerable?" Will asked athough he already knew the answer, it was probably gonna take a long time but he would wait, he would wait forever if he needed to.
"Didn't i tell you to not call me that?" Nico asked, totally dodging the actual question.
"You wanna answer my question?"
"Just drop it Will." Nico sighed and leaned his head on Will's shoulder.
"No, we can talk about it tomorrow instead though." He suggested, mostly because Nico didn't look like he could stay awake for that whole conversation, because it was going to be a long conversation.
"Fine." Nico finally said after a moment.
"Okay, good. You should probably get some rest, so i'll leave now." Will got up from the bed and yawned, come to think of it it was getting quite late by now.
"Kiss me before you leave?" Nico looked up at him and Will murmured a quick "of course" before leaning down and placing a hand on the other boy's cheek. Will's eyes subconsciously found Nico's eyes, they always managed to, and no matter how many times they did there was always something in Nico's eyes he was searching for, just what it was he wasn't sure of yet but it was that one look that Nico always got when he let his guard down, it was the look he got when he smiled , it was the look he got when he was fine, though this time Will didn't find it, all he found was some sense of dread and sorrow.
"Are you gonna kiss me or just gonna stare into my eyes forever?" Nico said, he was trying to sound playful but it wasn't working very well, his tone lacked something, maybe it was happiness, maybe it was truth, maybe it was warmth or maybe it was just life.
Will leaned in and kissed him, he was about to pull away but Nico pulled him back in. Will continued to kiss back for a minute before he finally pulled away to say "You're not fine."
Nico looked at him for a second, like he was debating answering before he finally said something in response.
"Could you stay with me?"
And this time Will let him ignore the previous statement, "Of course."