Chapter Text
NICO
“Nico Di Angelo,” a nurse called “a doctor is ready to see you”.
I stood with a big sigh. I really hated doctors, they remind me of… Will. But what can I do? I really need some form of pain medication for this injury. I followed the nurse to a room far in the back, she opened the door and ushered me into sitting on the bed.
“The doctor will be with you in a minute” and with that she walked out. I took my coin out of my pocket, fiddling with it, Will and I had broken up, years ago, but it still brought comfort. The doctor walked in a few minutes later.
WILL
I was about to grab a coffee when,I was called.
“Dr. Solace?”
“Yes, Nancy?” I turned around, with a smile.
“You’ve got a new patient, waiting in your room” she informed me.
“Alright, can I have the necessary paperwork for new patients?” I asked.
Nancy nodded, she handing me a clipboard stacked with paper.
“Thank you”
“My pleasure” she smiled and walked out.
I opened my door and stepped into the room, paperwork in hand.
“What seems to be the problem to-“ all words left my brain as I recognised the man sitting on the exam table. Nicos head snapped up, his eyes locked onto me.
“Nico!? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Is the camp in trouble?” I stuttered.
NICO
“What seems to be the problem to-“ I snapped my head up. No. No. No. nonononononono. This is not happening, Will fucking Solace stood in front of me, clearly in as much shock. After a few seconds of Will gaping like a fish, and me contemplating running. Fear registered in Wills face,
“Nico!? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Is the camp in trouble?” Will rushed over to me, hands hovering centimetres away from touching me.
“No, no, no… I didn’t… I shouldn’t— It’s nothing, camp’s fine, I’m fine! I… I gotta go… now… bye!” I shuffled off the bed, shoving the coin into my pocket. I ran to the door fumbling with the handle.
“Niccolò!” I froze, stiffly I turned around to face Will. “What’s wrong, if your hurt, that—that’s not nothing”
“It’s nothing, really Solace. I’ll just go another time” I lied
“Your lying, I can tell”. Damn it Will! Stupid son of Apollo abilities!
WILL
“You’re mistaken.” Nico turned to leave again. I grabbed his wrist, my senses suddenly shot with pain— I didn’t know how he was standing— Nico ripped his wrist out of my hand and faded into a shadow, walking through the wall. That’s new. I thought.
“Holy shit” I panted, his pain a ghost in my body.
NICO
I dissolved into shadows and walked through the wall, my heart beating out of fucking chest, my body pumping with adrenaline. I collapsed on a curb, panting, i’m too weak for this shit. Fuck! Will grabbed my wrist, there was no way he didn’t feel my problems with his Vitakinesis. Stupid son of Apollo abilities. I mustered all my strength, and began to stumble out towards my car, parked out front of the clinic.
I grabbed onto the handle of my car, steading myself. I plunged my hand into my jeans pocket, not there. I checked the other pockets. They weren’t there. Nononononono this cannot be happening. There was no way I am strong enough to summon and shape a bone key, right now, so I made a split second dew and started to hobble away. If i didn’t have my keys, then I’ll walk.
“Nico.” Will called “please. Let me help” he pleaded, I sped up.
WILL
I was about to rush out when the door in hopes of catching Nico, a pair of keys caught my eye. Bending down, I picked them up, they had a little skull engraved on the back, Nicos. Definitely Nicos. I ran past the reception of people waiting to be seen and straight out to the car park. I scanned the parking lot, looking for any sign of Nico. There. I rushed over to Nico, a few meters behind i called out.
“Nico.” No answer. “please. Let me help” Nicos hobble became a sprinted hobble. He looked quite ridiculous.
“Nico, I know you have no energy left to shadow travel. I felt your vitals… and I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. It’s not my fault, every time I touch someone I see it… you know how it is…” Nico slowed down slightly, I gently grazed Nicos inner wrist. He didn’t pull away, so I grabbed on.
“Nico… I know… stuff happened, but can we just move on. Let me help you” Nicos hesitated then he nodded. I helped Nico walk over to his car, i opened the passenger seat door for Nico who gave me a withering glare, but reluctantly slid in. I opened up the other door and pulled out my phone.
“I just need to tell work I’ve got an emergency. I told him, as I dialled reception.
NICO
Will helped me into the passenger seat. Guess he thinks he owns my car now. Will pulled out his phone, telling me some crap about telling work he has an emergency. I felt my check heat slight when I realised I was said ‘emergency’,
“Ok, let’s go. Punch in your address for me?” Will handed me his phone and stared expectantly. Does he really expect me to give him my address, so he can turn up anytime he wants? No way.
“What are you waiting for?” Will asked me. I was ready to make up some excuse, but he already knew I wasn’t getting out of this. I sighed, long and dramatic. I typed in my address and propped the phone up for Will to see. The drive to my house was silent, until about the last five minutes when Will chose to break the silence.
“So… are you going to tell me, why the great Ghost King, was at the mortal doctors?” I turned to give him a glare.
“No”
“Please, Nico. I need you to at least give me the bare minimum, so I can work out what you did and how to fix it”
“I don’t need fixing” I yelled.
“No, you don’t… But you need help so your body can fix itself”
“I-I was… I was doing a job for my father, but it ended up being a trap…” I admitted, glancing over at Will to see pure shock on his face.
“No, no. Not a trap set by my father, one of his generals. He was corrupted, he..l” I could feel the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Damn Will always getting me to spill my secrets! Could I trust him?—With my life. Some part inside of me thought.
“It’s ok, take your time” Will shot me an encouraging smile.
‘You have arrived at your destination’ maps told us. I took my chance at getting out of the conversation.
“That one” I pointed to his house, it was decent, but i wasn’t there too often, so it didn’t matter much. Will parked in the driveway, he helped me up to my door. As soon as the door was open and i was inside, i kicked off my shoes and face planted onto the couch, wanting nothing more but to sleep.
“Nice place” Will had followed him into the room. Great.
“Thanks” I mumbled his face buried in the couch pillows. I felt Wills weight settle on the edge of the couch near my hips.
“Nico… I need you to tell me what’s hurting you” I rolled onto my side, and threw my arm across Wills lap. I could feel my ears heat up as Will started drawing patterns on my hand.
WILL
I gently drew patterns down Nicos hand, as i waited for Nico to tell me what’s wrong. I started at his finger tips, down to his palm, i kept going. His wrist. I stoped at his forearm, noticing a bump next to a small cut. Self-harm? He would do that would he?
“Neeks? What’s this?” I asked
“My problem” Nico groaned
“This is why you were at the doctors?”
“Yup”
“What is it?” I had to make sure it wasn’t self-harm, but I couldn’t see it being.
“The general put it there” he answered
NICO
“What does it do?” Will asked me.
“It was meant to stop me from being able to use my powers, now it just hurts like shit when I do. And…” do I tell Will or not, i don’t exactly want his sympathy.
“And?” Will prompted me.
“and.. he used it to torture me… if I didn’t listen to what he said…”
“Oh Nico… why does this always happen to you?” Will said it so quietly i had to strain to hear it.
WILL
“He knew my father would send me to set him straight. He had a trap set, they shoved me back in a jar, like... I eventually got out and they, shoved that in there, and I can’t get it out” tears began to slip down Nicos cheeks.
“Hey. Hey, it’s ok” I rubbed my hand on Nicos shoulder and down his arm. “We are going to get it out, promise”. Nico nodded into the pillow,
I strained to hear his quiet, “Thank you, Will”
Nico nuzzled his face into a pillow, and oh… how I wanted Nico to nuzzle into me again. Why did we even break up? I certainly hadn’t stoped loving him, even after all these years.
I hesitated, hand seconds away from his hair. I quickly worked up the courage and slid my hand into Nicos hair and began to run my fingers through the silky curls, Nico hummed and slowly drifted off into sleep. I observed Nicos forearm trying to figure out how to get,
-
A few minutes ticked by, I just simply, admired Nicos angelic face. I really couldn’t help myself. Eventually I decided to stop being a creepy ex and start doing something productive. Glancing around Nicos house, it was small and so very Nico, though it didn’t look like he was here much, dust littered every surface.
For the next hour I scrubbed Nicos house clean, washed his sheets, did the laundry, everything. As i hung up the last stray sock on the washing line, my stomach rumbled. I opened up Nicos fridge. Empty. Of course it was empty. I huffed, i picked up Nicos land line and called the closest store.
“Hi, how can I help you today?” The lady on the phone said.
“Hi, I’d just like to order some food to be delivered”
“Sure, what can I get for you?”
I listed off everything Nico could possibly need, opting to pay on delivery.
“Bye, thank you”
“No, problem, your food will be to you in the next 45 minutes” the lady hung up.
As i walked around the corner to check on him, I spotted Nico, holding his head and groaning in pain.
“Hey, hey, what’s happening?” I bee-lined for Nico.
NICO
“H-he— AHH” a blinding pain shot through my whole body, tears started to drip from my eyes, splatting on the ground.
“What can I do?” Will asked
“Bathroom!” I wailed, i could feel oozing blackness coming up my throat, just like before.
“What?”
“Bathroom” I said again.
“Okay, okay”
Will steadied me as we stood, led me over to the bathroom. As soon as j got close enough, I launched myself at the toilet, spewing black goop into it.
“Whoa, that’s not good! What the fuck Nico! ‘I’m fine’ my ass”
I weakly looked up at him, trying to muster a glare.
-
I continued to spew my guts out— is it even my guts? I didn’t know at this point.
“Hey, come on, let’s get you to bed” Will rubbed my shoulders he tried to get me to stand. I scowled and shrugged him off.
WILL
After shrugging me off Nico clutched his stomach as he shakily stood.
“Nico,” I cupped his jaw, lifting his head to force him to look at me “I’m going to help you, stop struggling in your own.”
Nicos stare was intense but years of loving this boy, had shown me, this was just a cover up. He was struggling underneath, and just wanted to be cared for.
“Ok” wow that was easy, but I’m not complaining.
“Come on, let’s get you into bed” I practically carried Nico, to his bed. Where I grabbed him some clothes and helped him change, turning around so he could do his pants.
I tucked an already half-asleep Nico, into bed, with a quick kiss on the head.
NICO
I was woken up by a warm hand brushing my hair of my face and a sweet voice I’d missed so much.
“..co, Neeks, come on. Time to wake up”
“Five more minutes, Amore—“ we both froze at that. “—SHIT, sorry, old habit”
“It’s alright, sunshine, don’t get yourself too worked up about it.”
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Seven, fifteen. I made dinner”
“With what?” I knew for a fact there was nothing edible left in my house.
“I ordered some groceries, I made Mac and cheese”
“The packet mix?” I asked kinda hopeful
“You know it!” He smiled at me, the same,sunshine, smile I’d fallen for.
WILL
Nico practically inhaled my Mac and cheese, I made me happy, I could almost imagine we’d never broken up, and I’d cook for him—with my limited skills, which ranged from toast to packet mix, Mac and cheese— at least once a week.
“So I was thinking of taking a few days off work ‘sick’,” I made air quotation marks. “To research how to get it out”
Nico barely looked up as he continued to devour his dinner “sounds good, thanks”
“It’s alright, I don’t mind”
-
“Goodnight will” Nico smiled at he turned the lights off and shuffled off to his room.
“Night Neeks” I replied, burying under the covers on the couch.
-
The next morning we started researching, I found a solution pretty fast, we needed a mix of powers, opposites attract kinda shit. Nico had told me he had tried to get it out but- its attached to him, leaching of his life force— and he couldn’t pry it out
-
By mid afternoon, Nico was staring at a cup of coffee like it had out that evil shard in his wrist. I must admit it was quite an amusing break watching him almost fall asleep in his coffee, well that is until he actually did. His head hit the table before I could cushion the fall, and he sat up groaning and rubbing his head.
I rushed over. “Hey, hey, let’s get you to bed”
“No, no” I held back a sob, he sounded so weak.
“Nico, this thing—it’s killing you, you need to rest”
“I’m fine Will!” He pushed me off, I fell on the ground with a thud.
“No you’re not!” I yelled, my eyes welled with tears. My worst nightmare it was happening again…