Work Text:
Nico’s never looked prettier than he did biting into that apple.
It was a slow day in the infirmary, all things considered. The cots were empty after Will sent home everyone he could, and for some reason, not many campers came in for healing. Call it divine intervention—or maybe training Kayla and Austin for on-site healing had its benefits.
Will was stuck in the Head Medic’s office doing paperwork, Nico sitting across his desk, reading a book. Inferno, actually, and in Standard Italian, because apparently Venetian was different enough that Nico needed to practice Italian.
Nico was also, incidentally, eating an apple.
He didn’t so much as eat it but savor it.
His olive fingers wrapped carefully around the apple, knuckles a little red from training, his touch light as if he were holding something hot. Will was meant to be looking down at the patient file in his hands, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from glancing up and… appreciating.
Nico bared his teeth, sinking them into the flesh of the apple, his lips looking redder against its skin.
And Will—Will felt heat rise to his cheeks then.
He chewed quietly, politely, and Will watched his eyes carefully scan the pages, left to right, left to right. There was a way Nico went about it—he’d read a sentence once, go back a few words, reread the whole sentence again. And then he’d lick the apple juice off his lips and go in for another bite, rotating the apple with his lithe fingers.
Which meant Will was probably watching too closely.
But it was a slow day in the infirmary, and when faced with the decision to do paperwork or to stop thinking and just appreciate Nico—and the apple’s—presence?
Well, Will could stand to waste a few minutes.
“You’re staring,” Nico said coolly, licking his lips again, eyes glued to the page.
Will blinked, unmoving. He didn’t think—the words escaped him like a simple fact, like saying the grass is green or the sky is blue: “You’re pretty.”
Nico didn’t say anything—just hummed, the sound low in his throat, and took another bite of that godsdamned apple, reading on as if he didn’t know the effect he had on Will.
Listen, as a medical professional, Will had always appreciated how pretty Nico’s teeth were. The central incisors sat nicely together. There’s a cute, tiny gap between his lateral incisor and left canine. And oh, how pretty his canines were.
They were sharp, killer—and as they grazed over the skin of the apple a little too long, Will felt his entire body blush.
The image appeared in his head: Nico, his teeth grazing over Will’s skin carefully, before biting down—sharp—and leaving his mark.
Even the bite marks Nico left on that apple were pretty.
And Will was—gone. He was so gone.
All because Nico di Angelo decided to eat an apple in his office on a very slow day where Will could afford to get a little distracted.
It didn’t help that he’d decided not to wear his aviator jacket, opting to hang it on the back of his chair, arms now in view.
He flipped to the next page. And when he got to that core, that damn core—he carefully pressed his lips over the flesh, and began to suck the juice out.
Will could have died. He wasn’t sure if he had stopped breathing, or if he’d started breathing too heavily to go unnoticed, but he couldn’t think about that right now.
The only thing running through Will’s mind is that he needed to be that goddamn apple.
Because Nico was so gentle with it—his lips moving softly over its skin, and though Will couldn’t see his teeth, he was sure they were planted so nicely in its flesh.
“Nico…”
That sound—that pathetic, completely gone sound—finally made Nico look up from that damn book. The eye contact made something hot coil low in Will’s stomach.
Will’s breath hitched. “Can I…”
Nico hummed, still sucking the juice from the apple.
“Mm?”
“I want…”
And gods, there really wasn’t any way to say it that wouldn’t make Will not want to kick himself. I want to lick the apple juice from your lips. I want you to bite me. I want you to bruise my skin like that—just like that. I want you to be gentle, but rough me up a little, too.
Instead, he swallowed nervously. “I want to kiss you.”
Nico put the book down on Will’s desk, as if the papers scattered on its surface didn’t matter. He placed the apple’s core on top.
And his eyes seared into Will—those beautiful brown eyes, so discerning and calculating, staring into Will’s own like they were trying to say something. I’m right here, maybe, or it’s cute you think you can get away with not asking nicely.
“Please,” Will whispered.
The corner of his lip twitched in amusement. Nico patted his thigh like he was calling a dog.
There was a sort of nervousness to Will’s movements. It was—awkward; embarrassing, almost. He’d been so busy with infirmary work lately that he hasn’t gotten to properly spend time with Nico—not like this. Not in the silence, not in the space between.
When Will slid onto Nico’s lap, he wasted no time getting his cold hands around Will’s waist. Not under the shirt, not quite yet, but the touch was enough to make Will dizzy. He couldn’t look him in the eye—not when his gaze was so cutting. All he could do was admire what little his shirt revealed: the column of his throat, the bare skin of his shoulder, the thin, lean muscles of his arm.
In the dim light of the Head Medic office, in Nico’s lap, Will felt completely safe.
And that was what made him so nervous: that he was at Nico’s mercy.
“Hey,” Nico said, tugging lightly at the hem of his shirt. “I don’t bite.”
Normally that would’ve made Will laugh—or worse, giggle.
But right now, he was so dizzy and so godsdamned hungry that he couldn’t respond to a single word coming out of Nico’s mouth, and those teeth were so fucking pretty that he—
Will leaned forward, because gods, he needed this now, but Nico leaned away. Will worried that maybe he misread something, but Nico’s lips curled up into a smile.
Not enough to call it a grin—it wasn’t really a proper smile, either. It was more like a smirk, a godsdamned evil one that told Will he was just teasing. Nico leaned forward, and Will stayed still, waiting for him to do something, anything.
Instead, Nico spoke, his breath hot against the corner of Will’s neck. “Maybe if you ask nicely.”
That—that was what always made Will’s heart beat so fast.
That thing Nico always did when they were together like this: that he gave Will the option to just lose control. He didn’t take it from Will so much as offer to hold it for him.
Nico leaned away after, looking up at Will with eyes that were knowing. He looked amused in the way only an evil, evil man like Nico could.
“...Please,” Will said.
On any other day Nico might have pushed it further. He’d say, I don’t think you meant that, or, try again. But something must have told him Will meant it—really meant it—and more than that, something must have told him Will needed it.
Because Nico softened.
Without saying anything else, Nico lifted one hand to cup Will’s cheek and bring him forward. When their lips met, it was soft, and Will sighed.
It was barely a kiss, really, only lasting for a few seconds. He’s pretty sure Nico says his name, but Will licked his lips and he tasted that apple juice and gods, he was already too far gone to listen. His hands went up to cup Nico’s face and pulled him in for another kiss.
Nico made a small noise—maybe he was surprised, or pleased, or amused. Will didn’t know, didn’t really care.
He shyly licked Nico’s lips and there it was, that faint taste of apples, sweet and familiar. Nico’s hand moved down to touch Will’s neck, his other hand reaching under Will’s shirt to smooth over the skin over his waist, his hip, his back.
Nico’s hands were freezing cold against the heat of Will’s skin. The touch, light but possessive, like saying you’re mine without having to, made Will shiver.
He felt Nico smile against him. “You’re cute when you get all nervous,” he mumbled.
Cute—cute! That was cruel of him. He knew that word made Will feel an embarrassing array of feelings.
“Embarrassed, too,” he whispered against Will’s lips, satisfied.
That brought an unnecessarily furious blush to his face. It wasn’t fair how easily Nico could get him to react.
Before Will could think to do anything else, Nico was pressing light kisses onto his lips, then his jaw, then down his neck. His mouth lingered over the corner of his neck where Will’s shoulder started. His breath was warm, calm.
And then he bit down.
Not hard—not yet. It was soft, his teeth carefully biting over the skin there. But it was something.
And the feeling of Nico’s teeth clamping onto him, his lips flushed warm around his flesh was enough to make Will need more of it.
As Nico kissed the spot where he’d bitten him, Will’s hand found the back of Nico’s neck, carefully carding through his ink-black curls.
“Neeks…” he whispered.
“Mm?” he hummed, the sound vibrating against Will’s skin.
“I—” Will’s breath shuddered as Nico moved to the other side of his neck, his teeth lightly grazing—not yet biting—the skin there, as if he were teasing him. “Apple. Me.”
That made Nico laugh into his shoulder, low and amused. “How long were you watching me eat that thing?”
“Whole time,” Will sighed. “I’ve—it’s been so long. Missed you.”
“Busy week, hm?” Nico said, pressing a kiss to Will’s cheek. His hand on Will’s hip pressed down lightly—confidently. “Missed you too.”
“What part of apple and me do you not understand—”
Will’s question cut off with a whimper when Nico decided to bite down on his shoulder—hard, this time, like he meant it. He pulled Nico’s hair on instinct.
“N— Nico—”
It hurt, was the thing. It was searing and piercing and his hands hum with the instinct to heal. But that was what sent warmth pooling low in Will’s stomach—that Nico could so carefully hurt him in just the way he knew Will liked it.
Nico’s carefully tongued over the bite mark—painful and soft and warm and wet. It felt like assurance.
“So pretty,” Nico mumbled into his skin before biting again. Will whimpered.
He could feel Nico’s lips curling into a cruel smile when Will’s breath got heavier, needier. But Will was losing himself in Nico’s cold, cold hands exploring his thoracolumbar fascia that he didn't have half a mind to hold himself back.
“You are—a freak,” Will breathed out.
“I wasn’t the one looking at a half-eaten apple like it took everything I love away from me.”
“Tou— ah!” he whimpered when Nico pulled him closer by the hips, his thighs clamping harder against Nico’s waist, “touché.”
“So we’re both weirdos,” Nico said. “I like that.”
Will exhaled shakily, pressing his lips against Nico’s shoulder.
“I like that too.”