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“This is stupid,” Nico proclaimed for the seventh time that day.
Piper elbowed him. “Stop saying that. This is important to Jason.”
“I just don’t understand why the one time he insisted I come to a game it had to be on the hottest day of the goddamn year.”
“Maybe if you wore less black it wouldn’t be as much of a problem.”
“My aesthetic isn’t the problem here, Piper.” Nico gazed out onto the baseball field, taking a big sip of his frozen lemonade. It did absolutely nothing to cool him down. The metal bleachers burned through his jeans― and yes he was wearing jeans and yes he was wishing that he wasn’t.
Piper sighed. “Could you just tone down the complaining? Because yes, it’s hot out, but I’ll be significantly less uncomfortable if I don’t have to listen to you whining.”
Nico was about to retort but Piper was saved by the start of the game being announced and the players rushing out onto the field. “Whoo!” she yelled, standing up. “Go Jason!”
Nico clapped along half heartedly. He watched as his friend jogged over to his place on the field before quickly surveying the rest of the players. None of them looked nearly as intimidating as Jason did. To be honest, they all looked as sweaty and miserable as Nico.
Nico went to take another sip of his drink when he froze as he recognized another person on the field. “What the hell?” he blurted.
“What?” Piper asked, though she sounded unhappy to be doing so.
“What’s Will Solace doing down there?” Nico asked. “Didn’t he injure his ankle or something?”
“Well, he did. He got better, I assume.”
Nico let out a breath. Great. He’d come to support his friend and now he was going to spend the duration of the game trying not to stare at Will.
It took approximately two minutes for Nico to give up and just accept the fact that Will looked really great when he was sun kissed and sweaty. If Nico was being subjected to melting in the summer heat, he might as well enjoy the simple pleasures that came with it.
Nico actually knew next to nothing about baseball. Thank god for the scoreboard because he really wouldn’t understand what was happening otherwise. He spent most of the game sweating and cursing and staring at Will, despite the fact that he really hated himself for doing so.
After what felt like an eternity, the game ended and Nico hardly realized it had until Piper shook him and said, “Come on, let’s go see Jason.” As they left the stands, Nico checked the score one more time and found himself smiling a bit that Jason’s team had won.
Nico waited with Piper by the door to the locker rooms, watching as each boy came out and frowning as each one wasn’t Jason. “What’s taking him so long?” Piper wondered, voicing Nico’s own thoughts. After a few more minutes, Piper rolled her eyes and pushed Nico towards the door. “Alright, I don’t know what he’s doing in there, but I’m sick of waiting around in the heat. Go get him to hurry up.”
“No!” Nico exclaimed. Another player that he hadn’t spotted leaving the locker room was Will Solace who was not someone he wanted to talk to at that very moment. Especially not in the locker room.
“Well I’m not going to stroll into a room full of half dressed men so that means you have to. Enjoy.” Her tone was final as she gave Nico another shove.
Nico grumbled something in response but he knew he didn’t have a choice. Besides, Piper was right about Jason needing to hurry up. Nico wanted to get home.
Nico cautiously walked in, finding himself in a short hall that turned and led into the main area of the locker room. As soon as Nico has stepped in, he heard a shout from around the wall.
“You’re an ass, Jason!”
“You can thank me later.”
Nico carefully peeked in to see that Will and Jason were the only people left in the room. They stood facing each other, Will wound up and bright red, and Jason with an easy smile on his face. Jason was fully dressed but Will was, well… not.
Upon Nico entering the room, both of the other boys turned to look at him. Will’s eyes widened in what Nico interpreted as horror. He tried not to take offense. I mean, I’d probably feel the same way if he saw me wearing so little clothing, Nico thought. If a towel wrapped around your waist even counts as clothing.
“Nico!” Jason said happily. “You know Will, right?”
Nico nodded. “We have a few classes together,” he mumbled, not meeting Will’s eyes but giving him a fleeting smile in greeting. “Are you ready to go yet? Piper and I have been waiting forever.”
“Yeah, almost. Can you wait here actually? I think I left my hat in Coach Hedge’s office. I’ve been looking all around here for it but I can’t find it. You keep looking, I’ll be quick.” Jason was out of the locker room before Nico even had a chance to respond.
Nico stood frozen in place, shocked by the situation he’d been thrown in. He was now stuck in a room alone with a scarcely dressed Will Solace and he was pretty sure that the reason it was so hot in there was not due to the heat outside.
“Um,” Will said after a moment. “I’ll just… then…” He vaguely gestured to the towel around his waist and his gym bag.
“Right. Yeah,” Nico blurted, turning around quickly. “Sorry, I’ll leave actually. If Jason couldn’t find his hat in here then I probably can’t.”
“Okay. Um, bye, it was nice to see you.”
“It was nice to see you, too,” Nico mumbled as he quickly shuffled out of the room. Once he found himself outside again, he let out a long breath.
Piper frowned at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be looking for Jason’s hat?”
Nico shook his head. “It isn’t in there. I checked. I think I’m going to go find Jason, actually.” Nico stuffed his hands in his pockets and quickly walked away.
After finding Jason leaning against the wall outside Hedge’s office with his hat on his head and his phone in hand, Nico had practically dragged him out to the car with Piper close behind.
“So,” Jason started once they were finally driving home, “Are you going to come to my next game?”
~*~
A week later, Nico found himself once again leaning against the wall outside of the locker rooms with Piper. “That’s it,” Nico said. “I’m not waiting as long as last time. I’m going to get him to hurry up.” He marched into the locker room without waiting for a response from Piper.
As soon as he made it in there, he was relieved that Jason was the only one out in the main space. One of the showers was running, and Nico knew that Will was in there so he was sure to be quick. “Jason, come on.”
Jason looked up from the gym bag he was looking through. “Oh hey, Nico. I’m almost done, just a sec.” He grabbed a comb from his bag and went over to a mirror as he began to work through his wet hair.
“Jason, you look fine. You barely have anything to comb, come on. You can do it in the car if you want.”
Jason tsked. “Be patient, this won’t take long.” A minute later, Nico determined that it was in fact going to take forever.
“Jason, Jesus Christ, hurry up. What are you even doing?”
“Calm down, Nico. If you want to bug a slowpoke, go yell at Solace. He’s been in that shower forever.”
“I take long showers, fuck off!” came Will’s response from in the stall. Nico took a shaky breath. He had never been more thankful that the showers actually had stalls.
“Jason. Piper and I will leave your lazy ass here if you don’t come with us right now .”
Jason laughed. “You might. Piper’s a lot nicer to me, though.”
Nico scoffed. “She’s still reasonable.” He went to lean his head out of the locker room door. “Piper,” he said.
“What?” she asked, looking up from her phone.
“Could you please tell Jason to hurry up?”
She shrugged, leaned her head into the doorway, yelled, “Hurry up!” and went back to looking through her phone.
Nico sighed. “Is anyone here sane?” He eventually settled to scroll through Tumblr within the air conditioned sanctuary of the locker room.
After a while, the water finally turned off in the shower stall. A few more moments later, Will’s wet head peeked out. “Hey, Jason? Can you grab me a towel, some ass took the one I’d set out.”
“Get one yourself,” Jason said, still very focused on his hair. “Nico’d get mad if I did anything to distract myself from finishing up, isn’t that right, Nico?”
Both Nico and Will gave Jason murderous looks.
“Nico, please?” Will asked, turning away from Jason.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Nico answered, hopping up to get Will a towel.
“Thank you,” Will said as he quickly snatched the towel from Nico’s hands and disappeared back into the shower stall.
“Jason, I am literally begging you right now. I don’t care what you’re doing, it can wait. Please , can we leave?”
“Just a second, Nico! I’m almost done, I swear.”
“That’s like the twentieth time you’ve said that today. If you don’t leave right now, don’t expect me to come to any more of your games.”
Jason sighed. “Fine. We can go. Bye Will!”
“See ya, Jason,” Will called out from the shower.
Nico physically dragged Jason out of the room before anything else could be said.
~*~
For every game for the rest of the season, Piper and Jason pestered Nico to come watch. And for every game, Nico eventually relented and went because he couldn’t help but enjoy watching Will play. And after every game, Nico found himself trying to get Jason to finish up in the locker room while doing his best to avoid awkward interactions with Will. It didn’t take long for Nico to memorize all of the members of the team so that he knew to walk into the locker room only when the only people left were Will and Jason.
The worst was probably when Nico walked into the locker room one day to catch a glimpse of a very naked Will Solace leaning down to put on his shorts. Nico was out of there so fast that no one noticed he’d been there in the first place, but the image of Will stayed burned into Nico’s mind for days after.
When baseball season finally came to an end, Nico was filled with a sense of relief that he’d successfully made it through the special kind of hell he’d found himself in previously. That relief was shattered when he went over to Jason’s house for lunch one day.
“So I’m having a party this weekend,” Jason started.
“No.”
“Nico―”
“I went to all of those baseball games for you, I don’t have any more social obligations.”
“Oh please, you only went to those games because of Will,” Jason said, though he didn’t sound at all angry.
“Wait, what ?” Nico spluttered.
“If it’s any motivation, Will’s going to be at the party.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Nico asked, hoping that he didn’t sound as freaked out as he was.
“Nico, you don’t have to lie to me. I’m your best friend.”
“I think you’re giving yourself too much credit.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I want you to come over this weekend. It’s not going to be a huge party or anything. Most of the people there you’ll probably know.”
Nico fiddled with his fork. “If you think I like Will or something, I don’t.”
“Sure. Does that mean you’ll come?"
“Jason, I really don’t want―”
“You can pick the movie for our next movie night. Even if it’s some horror thing that I’ll hate.”
“Deal.”
~*~
“So,” Piper said to Nico at the party. “You’ve been seeing a lot of Will lately.”
Nico fidgeted. He was going to have to learn to be more subtle about his crushes. “Yeah, I guess.”
“How are things going between you two?”
“What do you mean?”
Piper shrugged. “I mean, have you guys been talking outside of the locker room? You seemed to be spending a lot of time in there after every game and I get the feeling it wasn’t just to yell at Jason.”
Nico looked at her incredulously. What was she implying?
“Hey,” Jason said, walking over and joining the conversation. “What’re you guys talking about?”
“I was just asking Nico how things are going with Will.”
“What is up with you guys suddenly showing so much interest in us?” Nico asked. “I mean, like… With him, like, with me also, but with him mainly.” Dammit, Nico only stuttered when he was really flustered.
Much to Nico’s relief, Piper and Jason ignored the fact that his second sentence hadn’t made any sense. “What do you mean ‘suddenly?’” Jason asked. “We’ve been trying to hook you guys up all season. What did you think I was doing in the locker room? I was just stalling so that you guys had a convenient chance to talk to each other. Anyways, since you weren’t taking our subtle help, we’ve decided to take a more direct approach. Will’s over there.” Jason pointed. “Go talk to him.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Nico asked, enraged. “I spent all that time after your games because you were trying to hook me up ?”
“Yeah, I thought you’d figured it out. I mean, I told Will what I was doing the first day but I figured you’d find out on your own.”
“Wait, he knows about this, too?!” Nico was completely mortified.
“Yeah. It’s fine though, he likes you too, so don’t worry. We didn’t embarrass you or anything.”
Nico just stared at Jason, his eyes wide. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you did.” He shook his head. Why did his friends always do weird stuff like this? “I need to go to the bathroom.” He was relieved when they didn’t try to stop him.
~*~
Soon enough, Nico found himself leaning against a wall and staring at his phone. He’d survived about half an hour of social interaction before retreating to the internet. That was actually a pretty good record for him.
He was interrupted by someone moving next to him and saying, “Hey.”
Nico sighed and looked up into Will’s blue eyes. “Let me guess. Jason and Piper sent you over here.”
Will laughed nervously. “Yeah, um. Yeah.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m going to kill those two.”
“I’ll lie for you in court.”
Nico smiled. “Could you help me hide the bodies, too?”
“Sure,” Will shrugged. “Or I could just help you make the murder look like a freak health accident. People don’t have to know it was a murder at all.”
Nico nodded. “I like your thinking.”
Much to Nico’s relief, they fell into easy conversation after that. They ended up talking mostly about music but discussed a few other things as well (not murdering their friends, thankfully). After a while, however, Nico noticed Jason and Piper talking across the room, repeatedly glancing towards Nico and Will.
“They’re watching us,” Nico said to Will.
Will furrowed his brow. “Who?”
“Who do you think?”
“Oh,” Will said, realization passing over his features. He bit his lip in thought before asking, “You know what would be hilarious?”
“What?”
“We should mess with them.”
“How so?”
Will smirked before leaning down so that his breath ghosted over Nico’s ear. His one hand settled onto Nico’s hip. “What if,” he asked, “we acted like like a couple in front of them to the point where our insistence on how we’re just friends drove them insane?”
Nico told himself that his blushing was just part of his acting. He let out a loud laugh. “That is definitely one of your less terrible ideas,” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around Will’s neck.
Will smiled, pulling Nico into a quick hug before leaning back. “I’ll go get us drinks,” he offered, leaving after Nico nodded.
Nico glanced over to where Jason and Piper were frantically beckoning him over. He rolled his eyes and walked over to them.
“Dude!” Jason cried.
Nico sighed. “If you’re about to start going on about how I supposedly like Will again, you can stop now. We’re just friends, jeez.”
~*~
It actually became a challenge between Will and Nico: Who could come up with the best way to drive their friends insane?
Will decided to spoon feed Nico at lunch one day. Nico laid his head on Will’s lap during a movie night. Will spent large amounts of time wiping imaginary bits of food off of Nico’s face. Nico spent large amounts of time tucking locks of hair behind Will’s ears. Personal space became a foreign concept to both of them.
It didn’t take long for Percy and Annabeth to join in Jason and Piper’s pain, and Leo joined soon after. Even Hazel started whispering with Frank when Nico would sit so close to Will that he was practically sitting on his lap. One day when Reyna came over to Nico’s house to study with him, she burst out saying that, “You two need to stop driving us crazy before I physically force your lips together!”
Nico gave an exasperated groan, fighting off the smile that wanted to take over his features.
It came to a head after another party, this one at Piper’s house. The party was actually really small. The only people there were Will, Nico, and the group of friends they had been torturing recently. After a long night of being extremely flirty in front of their friends, Will and Nico both decided to head home and get some sleep.
“You can come in for a minute if you want,” Nico offered once they pulled up at Nico’s house. Will had driven Nico home as part of their continued efforts to drive their friends insane.
Will shrugged. “Sure.”
“Come on, I’ll show you my room.”
They tip toed through the house so as not to wake Hazel, who had left the party a little less than an hour before they had. Upon entering Nico’s room, Will collapsed on his bed.
“Woah, your bed is huge.”
“It’s just queen sized.”
“Yeah, but it’s so fluffy .”
Nico fell down next to Will. “Oh. Oh. ”
“ Yeah. ”
“Jeez, I didn’t even realize how sleepy I was until now.”
“I think I might just fall asleep here.”
“I won’t stop you.”
That was the only discussion needed in order for both of them to crawl under the covers and pass out.
~*~
Nico woke up in the middle of the night to Will shaking him gently.
“Nico. Hey, Nico, wake up.”
Nico groaned.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
Nico pointed. “That door,” he mumbled.
“Woah, you have a private bathroom?”
Nico mumbled something that Will couldn’t make out.
“Okay. Thanks.”
Nico flopped over as Will got up, and Nico’s hand unfortunately brushed across Will’s crotch.
Oh.
Nico was suddenly much more awake.
Will had frozen. “Sorry,” he whispered, moving towards the bathroom again.
“Wait,” Nico said, reaching out his arm again. “Stay here.”
“Nico, I―” Will gestured to the tented front of his pants. “I kinda have to take care of this.”
“Take care of it here.” Despite his sleep addled brain, Nico was well aware of what he was suggesting.
Will stayed frozen.
“I can help if you want,” Nico offered.
Silence.
And then, “Okay.”
~*~
When Nico woke the next morning, the first thing he was consciously aware of was how sweaty he was. Ew. Why haven’t I showered recently? The second thing he was aware of was that someone was in his shower.
Memories of the previous night came flooding back to him.
Nico turned bright red, immediately working on scripting out how his next conversation with Will should go. Unfortunately, by the time Will appeared walking out of Nico’s bathroom freshly showered, Nico had forgotten any plans he’d had for making this go smoothly.
Will froze upon seeing Nico staring at him. “Oh. Hey.”
“How long have you been up?” Nico asked, his voice hoarse from sleep.
“Um, a while. I… I take long showers,” Will said, scratching the back of his neck.
“Right.”
“So…”
Nico raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Um.” Will fidgeted. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that what we did last night wasn’t for Jason and Piper.”
Nico thought for a moment. “I’m starting to think that none of what we did was for them.”
~*~
“Oh my god!” Percy practically shrieked at the next movie night.
“What?” Will asked, pulling away from his short kiss with Nico. “Now you guys are going to make kissing weird, too?”
Nico rolled his eyes. “You guys are driving me insane. We’re just friends.” He leaned in for another kiss as their entire group of friends started shouting accusations at them. Nico just smiled.