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So, technically speaking, Nico really had himself to blame for this.
I mean, yeah, Lou Ellen was a jerk to do this to him, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t asked for it. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have gotten revenge if he was in her place.
But come on, a little prank didn’t deserve something this mean in response, right? Maybe for some people it wouldn’t be as big of a deal as it was for Nico, but Lou Ellen knew what this meant for him, what this condemned him to. She knew that Nico had plenty of thoughts that he really didn’t care to share out loud.
“You’re a complete asshole, Lou Ellen.”
“Oh, so the truth finally comes out, huh?” she asked, a huge grin plastered on her face.
“Shut up, I’m terrified right now.” Nico’s eyes widened as he slapped a hand over his mouth.
Lou Ellen raised her eyebrows. “Hm, this should be interesting.”
“Lou Ellen, please, I’m desperate right now. Isn’t there any other curse you could choose?” Nico winced at the word desperate . This was living hell.
“Mmm,” Lou Ellen slowly tilted her head from one side to the other as she hummed in thought. “Nope!”
Nico groaned. “Damn it, I hate you.”
Lou Ellen just smiled.
“I’m going to make you pay for this so much, Lou Ellen, I don’t know exactly how yet but I swear I will and oh my gods this isn’t going to end well at all. I’m just going to lock myself up in my cabin and I’ll refuse to come out until this curse wears off or something. Will it even wear off or is this something you’re going to have to reverse manually? Please make this end, I am physically scared and why am I saying this out loud gods damn it Lou .”
Nico shoved a hand over his mouth suddenly, letting the rest of his spoken thoughts become incomprehensible.
Lou Ellen was laughing so hard she could barely speak. “Oh my gods, Nico, I’m so sorry but this is great. The curse will wear off on its own, don’t worry. Gods, this is hilarious.”
“How is this hilarious to you?” Nico blurted, removing his hand for a second before quickly clapping it over his mouth again.
Lou Ellen just grinned, shaking her head.
“Hey, Nico?” asked a voice from behind him.
He froze.
Okay.
He was officially fucked.
“Will!” Lou Ellen exclaimed. The amount of joy in her voice hurt Nico’s ears. “What’s up?”
“Hi, Lou Ellen,” he said with an easygoing smile before turning to Nico. “Nico― Woah, are you okay?”
Nico could only imagine what he looked like, which he was grateful for because if he saw the way his face looked at the moment he would most likely knock himself out with the nearest available object.
Actually, on second thought, knocking himself out sounded like a pretty good plan.
Or shadow travel.
Oh yes, it was time to get his ass out of there.
Maybe if he was lucky, it’d make him pass out, too.
“He’s fine,” Lou Ellen said. “He just ate something funny, but he’s fine really.”
“Okay,” Will said. He sounded unsure of Lou Ellen’s response, but also distracted enough to let it slide. “Hey, Nico, could you help me out in the infirmary? If you’re not feeling well that’s fine, but I’m really behind on busywork like unpackaging mortal products and stuff and I’ve just been so busy with patients that I haven’t had the chance to get to any of it.”
“I’d love to help,” Nico said before he could comprehend what he was saying.
Damn it.
Yes, he’d love to help out Will and his beautiful baby blue puppy dog eyes but there was also the fact that he was terrified to be in the same general vicinity as Will at that very moment. But then his hand was over his mouth again and he’d discovered that whispering was an acceptable form of translating his thoughts from his brain. Thank the gods.
Then suddenly Will was pulling him to the infirmary and Lou Ellen was laughing again and Nico was trying to remember what exactly was keeping him from shadow traveling.
Damn Will and his ability to look so fucking adorable when he needed help and the fact that he chose Nico over anyone else to help him and just fuck this entire day .
Nico needed to pull himself together.
“Here,” Will said once they were in the back of the infirmary. “I have three boxes of medicine that need to be unpackaged which is kind of urgent considering I’m going through these painkillers really quickly. We’re also running low on ambrosia and nectar but that’s not really something you can fix, we’re still waiting for shipments on those. And if you finish with these then I could really use an extra hand with the patients but also don’t push yourself if you feel like you might be sick. Are you sure you’re not going to throw up?”
Hell, you’d think Will was the one who had to voice all of his thoughts.
“I’m not going to throw up,” Nico said before putting his hand over his mouth once more.
“Okay…” Will sounded uneasy but then someone called his name. “I’ve got to go, thanks for helping me out!”
And then he was gone and Nico could breathe again.
He set to work opening each of the three huge shipping boxes, each of which was filled with smaller cardboard boxes with a bottle of medicine in each. Nico went through each one, taking the bottles out of their boxes and then removing the plastic wrapping from the caps so that they’d be easy to open. He stacked the bottles on their regular shelf, which was nearly empty when Nico first started.
Nico muttered to himself the entire time, his internal and now external monologue mostly consisting of, “Fuck, I hate Lou Ellen, why is Will so attractive, fuck, shit, I hate my life so much, this is terrible, how long until this damn curse wears off, fuck, what am I doing, I must look like a psychopath talking to myself, fuck…”
Etcetera.
Once Nico had finished unpackaging everything, he sat thinking of how to proceed.
And by thinking I mean he was saying everything out loud gods damn it.
He settled for just sitting against the wall in the corner, muttering to himself as he desperately wished for the curse to go away.
And then, finally, something started to go right for Nico.
The curse didn’t go away quickly or immediately or anything, but it started to lessen bit by bit. When Nico suddenly found that he had the ability to keep his mouth closed, his entire body relaxed. Thank the gods.
But then Will walked in and asked Nico how he was doing and Nico answered with an immediate, “Great, I’m so relieved that I’m better now,” before his eyes widened. Shit. He was still slightly fucked.
Will perked up at that. “I’m so glad! I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you out or anything, I’m just happy that your stomach worked itself out on its own.”
Nico nodded carefully, keeping his mouth shut. Okay. So he’d gotten to the point where he controlled when he spoke, but he still had no way to control what he said. Fantastic.
“And thank you so, so much for stocking the medicine for me, you have no idea how helpful that is to me.” Will let out a long breath. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked tentatively, noticing Nico’s expression.
Nico just kind of sat there with his mouth shut tight, staring and trying to come up with an adequate response.
Shadow travel would be good right now. Very good.
But then he’d have some explaining to do to Will which didn’t sound like a great idea.
Damn it.
“I should get back to my cabin,” Nico blurted. There. That was true.
Will’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Oh, um… okay? You’re sure you’re fine?”
“No,” Nico said accidentally, having meant to say quite the opposite though he really didn’t have control over his mouth just then.
“Nico, what’s wrong? Did I say something? I’m sorry that I’ve been distracted today―”
“Lou Ellen cursed me,” Nico said suddenly. “I have to say everything I’m thinking. Only now it’s more just that I have to tell the truth.” Nico looked at Will nervously.
Will just burst out laughing.
Nico was too taken aback to respond.
“Oh my gods,” Will said, trying to catch his breath. “Oh my gods, that’s what’s been bothering you? Oh Hades, Nico, you poor thing.”
“Yeah, well thanks for your sympathy,” Nico grumbled, clenching his teeth afterwards when he realized he hadn’t intended to say that out loud.
“Nico, you could’ve told me earlier, you know. I would’ve left you alone.”
Nico opened his mouth but was suddenly rendered speechless.
Oh.
Well, shit.
And he’d been so hung up on shadow travel.
Will was laughing again. “Nico, I love you, but you can be really dense sometimes.” He stopped laughing.
Nico was not the one to clap a hand over his mouth this time.
“I―Shit, I didn’t―” Whenever Will blushed, it usually wasn’t all that visible due to his tan but just then he looked bright red. “Nico, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I just…”
“I like you,” Nico said softly.
Silence.
“Like… I really like you.”
More silence.
“Oh.”
~*~
The next day, Nico happily marched up to the Hecate table at breakfast.
“I’ll give you a head start since I’m in a good mood,” he said to Lou Ellen. “Now start running.”
“But I hooked you up!”
“I changed my mind. You don’t get a head start.”
A few minutes later, Nico found himself holed up in the Hades cabin waiting for his newest curse to wear off.