Chapter Text
Nico very rarely ever has a good night's rest. It’s not that he is some sleep-deprived insomniac; maybe a few years ago, this would be a true statement, back when he was younger, angry, and running on literal spite. But now, although he doesn’t prioritize his sleep as much as he should, he still gets dragged into bed at a decent time and wakes up at what most would consider late morning.
However, he is in a constant state of restlessness. Whether it be terrible dreams, a bad sign for all demigods, considering the infamous track record they have, just plain discomfort, or plain old PTSD rearing its ugly head, Nico is rarely well rested by the time he wakes up.
So waking up with nothing more than a crick in his neck was off-putting to say the least.
For a moment, he just lay there, staring up at the ceiling of the cabin, waiting for something to be wrong. Waiting for the lingering dread to settle in his chest, for shadows to curl just a little too close, for his breath to shorten, and his head to be filled with lead—
But instead, there was just silence and the faint sound of birds chirping from his window.
And the smell of food.
Nico stretched languidly like a cat, his back cracking as he spread across his tiny twin bed with a yawn. He pushed himself up on his elbows, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the late morning light filtering through the windows.
The cabin was quieter than usual. Although Nico is the only Hades child who stays at camp half-blood year round, with Hazel staying in New Rome with her own duties to attend to most of the time, his cabin is typically the meeting place for the people closest to him to come in and out as they please.
Not that he ever permitted them to do as such, but it’s not as if he particularly minds. He enjoys the familiarity in community even if he won’t admit it aloud.
The silence is deafening now that he’s so used to being surrounded by people who show their love through loudness. Nico stares blankly at the canopy bed across the room, where Hazel sleeps on her occasional visits, and frowns slightly at the empty sitting area next to it, where an empty leather couch and bean bags sit. It’s mildly unusual.
His cocopuffs—cacodemon’s—were nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t necessarily rare. They typically took the form of something vaguely feline-shaped, and often draped themselves on various high spots in the cabin. They were probably terrorizing the younger campers again.
The feeling of a warm breath on the side of his face, blowing softly at his bedhead, which tickled his cheek, broke him from his dissociation. He turns to see Will staring at him intently, with warm blue eyes, concern, and admiration in his gaze. When they finally meet each other's eyes, Will smiles at Nico like he totally wasn’t being mildly creepy watching his boyfriend sleep.
Nico squinted at him. “How long have you been standing there?”
Will lets out a happy hum. “Probably just long enough for it to be creepy,” he admits as though it was perfectly fine, which Nico certainly isn't holding any objections, so it might as well be.
Regardless of that, Nico zeroed in on the drink carrier and brown paper bag with a grease stain on the bottom, surely holding whatever it is that he’s craving. Will seems to know him better than he knows himself at this point. A sharp growl cut through his stomach, and with the way he was feeling at that moment, he could eat all the food in the pavilion and still be hungry.
Will clicked his tongue, pretending to be annoyed, “Wow, only want me for my food, I see. I bring my lovely boyfriend breakfast in bed, and not even a good morning.” He faux-swooned and placed the drink carrier and baggie on Nico’s nightstand.
Will then launched himself onto Nico’s bed, half sprawling across Nico’s bed with his head resting on a bat stuffed animal that Will had gotten him on a date months prior.
It took Will one attempt with a BB gun against bottles to win it for him; the game was surely rigged, and the carnie argued endlessly with them about how Will had to have cheated because nobody ever wins (which he was half right, even if he’s not great with a bow and arrow, the child of Apollo has killer aim). It was a good date; they ate fried food and walked amongst the fairgrounds, laughing at the littlest things while waiting for the fireworks to come on.
It took weeks of convincing from Kayla and Austin to get Will to step away from the infirmary and take them on a weekend trip to Syracuse for the state fair. Even then, he only agreed after triple-checking the schedule so that they wouldn’t leave around the time of serious games, leaving detailed notes, and making his siblings swear multiple times that they would IM him about anything. Will had acted mildly insane the whole train ride there; the thought of the infirmary in the hands of his siblings made his eye twitch, along with the not-so-insane idea of something terrible happening and them having to handle it alone without him.
He eventually calmed down, but it took so much for Will to mellow out. Nico frowned at the memory, his mood souring.
“Right, Goodmorning, whatever,” Nico grumbled through a yawn, patting the halo of blond curls on Will’s head with one hand and grabbing his food with the other.
He glanced in the bag and saw two bagels: a plain bagel with blueberry cream cheese wrapped in parchment paper, and an everything bagel with cream cheese, lox, and capers wrapped neatly as well. Nico grabbed his lox bagel, which Will probably made himself, and made a move for the drinks.
Both were some sort of caffeinated beverage. Nico took a sip of both and decided on lighter coffee that didn’t make him want to hack up a lung. He handed the other off to Will, who just laughed at his actions, and sipped at his black coldbrew like it wasn’t nasty.
Nico took only one bite of his bagel before Will started to speak.
“So,” Will said, drawing the word out in a way that irritated Nico enough to shove him with his foot playfully, “we should probably start packing.”
Nico didn’t even look up from fidgeting with his paper straw. “We?”
“Yes, we,” Will repeated, entirely too cheerful. “As in, you are not showing up to Gotham with, like, one change of clothes and whatevers in your pockets.”
Two weeks ago, during movie date night, Will had nervously asked Nico whether or not he’d want to meet his mom. Naomi Solace was somewhat of a sensitive topic for Will. Nico never pressed, but he’d always held a lingering curiosity about the root of Will’s mommy issues. He spoke fondly of his mother, but there was always a disconnected emotion in his voice that Nico had only ever caught. So when Will opened his heart to Nico, it’s not like he would deny him the pleasure of seeing what are clearly the most important people in his life together.
Only issue is that Nico wasn’t terribly fond of the closest venue where they’d both be seeing Naomi Solace live in concert. Unfortunately, Naomi never tours in New York, and Nico doesn’t know if it’s because Will spends most of his time there, if she might be avoidant, or if it’s simply the wanting to steer clear of Mt. Olympus (and therefore Apollo) altogether. So the closest city where she’d be willing to perform is Gotham, New Jersey.
Home of Batman, shadows galore, gothic architecture, and My Chemical Romance. You would think the place would be right up Nico’s alley, considering that at this current moment, he had both Batman-themed pyjama pants on and a My Chemical Romance Tee that Lou Ellen gifted him for his last birthday, giving him an introduction to his now favorite band he hadn’t expected to like.
One of the good things about being introduced to new things, since Nico missed most of modern American history and pop culture, was discovering superheroes. Back when he was doe-eyed and curious about everything, he would read the rare news articles about the Justice League from other kids' copies of the Daily Planet at that dreaded military school. And even when he arrived at camp, everyone was abuzz with stories of Wonder Woman or Superman.
Batman and Robin, in particular, had fascinated him. Something about a mysterious shadow man and a bright, fun-loving kid who kicked ass and went home to his loving crime-fighting partner/father really tugged at his heartstrings.
Back when Nico was a different person, younger, anger-driven, and grief-ridden, he would wander around aimlessly like a wraith. And on the rare occasion he would enter Gotham…his memories, although he can’t remember much from that time, were not pleasant.
Even now, the mention of Gotham strikes him with an odd, irrational fear, but he can’t exactly place why he feels this way. What he does remember was that the foul stench of death and grief was so heavily embedded into the city that it used to make him feel like his head was full of cotton and that wool was pulled over his eyes. He also remembered the lack of monsters; the city seemed to scare them off, or at least that’s what Nico had thought stupidly as a pre-teen. Rather, the city had human monsters, which were far scarier than anything Tartarus could cook up.
Nico shook himself from his thoughts when Will’s warm, almost scalding to Nico’s ice-cold skin, palmed his forearm lightly. Nico ignored the scrunch between Will’s eyebrows that indicated he was worried; his intention wasn’t to worry him.
He took another bite of his bagel instead of responding.
“I’ve packed.” Will stares at him a beat too long, removes his hand, and quirks an eyebrow at what Nico is currently staring at. It’s a duffel bag, it’s black, and from what he could remember when purchasing it, very expensive. But it’s not like Hades is particularly strapped for cash; his black Amex has seen many a date or shopping trip.
Will removes himself from his spot next to Nico, who mourns his personal space heater as he leaves to pick up the duffel by the front door. Will places it on the bed and begins to rifle through it.
“Sweat pants and black ripped jeans.” He takes out the aforementioned clothing, “with two graphic tees and a hoodie.” They join the pile. Will doesn’t bother with his toiletries, but Nico can tell there’s some social code that he didn’t understand, and his boyfriend is trying to correct it.
Will presses his lips together in a tight-lipped, awkward look that Nico has learned all white American men use as a default face, “You know what, I’ll just let you borrow a button-up and jeans for the concert.” Will, positive as ever, just smiles and puts everything where it was.
Nico sometimes can’t believe how lucky he got. At times, it feels surreal having Will as a boyfriend. He’s good, too good for Nico, he feels, but if he were to speak this insecurity aloud, he would be smothered indefinitely by the living sun that is Will Solace. Sometimes, Nico struggles with understanding social aspects of life, which was even true when he was a kid living in Italy. Bianca, at the time, was the only one who understood him and his weird quirks, which were weird even by demi-god standards. But now that he’s older and in a new era, he feels like a fish out of water even more so, and one of the few people who seems to understand him now that his sister is no longer around would be Will.
Occasionally, Nico will see Bianca in Will, but he thinks he sees a little bit of her kindness in everybody who has given him a chance.
Nico stuffs the rest of his face, banishing his sad thoughts once again. He’s not sure what’s gotten into him today. Must be the good night's rest, no bad thoughts at night just means he has to dwell on them in the morning when he’s actually trying to be productive.
He drags himself out of bed and heads to his closet. The tile flooring is so cold that it makes him want to make a nest of blankets to lie in for an eternity. Will snakes his arms around Nico’s waist as he searches for a clean shirt, giving him the warmth he needs to not retreat to bed. This isn’t dissimilar to their typical routine; however, the pit of unease in his stomach makes this practiced ritual stale and leaves a foul taste in his mouth.
Nico is an anxious traveler regardless of his destination. He would much rather shadow travel if he had the choice to, at least that is something he can control. With traveling the ‘normal’ mortal way, too many unexpected variables can happen, especially since they’re very unfortunate demi-gods with terrible luck. Even if nothing major has happened in their world in what seems like forever, Nico can’t help but feel as though it’s the calm before the storm. So yes, if he could, he would rather shadowtravel, but Will would probably disapprove of his suggestion, so he doesn’t bother to bring it up; his boyfriend doesn’t play around with Nico’s health.
Will rested his chin on the crook of Nico’s shoulder as he grabbed a graphic tee that had the words ’ The Cure’ in faded off-white writing across the chest. He had stolen it from Will, who shared half his casual wardrobe with his siblings, and that mainly consisted of band tees, hoodies, and if the rainbow threw up in his closet.
Nico stripped off his PJ shirt, vaguely tossing it in the direction of his laundry basket, and put on his new clean shirt. Will adjusted himself accordingly as he did so, snuggling closer once Nico was finished changing into his shirt and the tight black, ripped, bootcut jeans that Will had bought him for their anniversary months ago.
“I see you’re just trying to soak up my presence as best you can before I get brutally mugged in an alleyway in Gotham.” Nico made a weak, fake effort at moving out of his boyfriend's grasp, who just held him even tighter at response to his poor joke.
“If you get murdered in Gotham, I’ll just bring you back.” Although not possible, not for a lack of trying on Nico’s end, the tone of Will’s voice, as if his statement was an absolute, was admittedly a comfort to him.
“Also, not funny.” Will nipped at the exposed skin at the crook of his neck, chastising Nico, which only resulted in Nico blushing quite severely.
“It was a little funny,” Nico hummed, patting the side of Will’s head, signaling for him to let go, as he put on a simple black hoodie and walked over to his duffel.
“Mm. No,” Will replied, smiling, but there was no real bite to it, just quiet insistence.
He rifled through the bag a few times, flitting around the cabin to grab the toiletries that he had missed, socks he surely needed, and whatever other junk Will absently handed him. Eventually, sick of the packing, he just shoved the bag aside and let Will have at it as he lay on his bed, soaking up the warmth his body sorely needed.
It was very domestic.
When Will was officially done overpacking Nico’s duffel, which was bursting at its seams at this point, he flopped on top of him unceremoniously with a huff.
“You’re awfully clingy today.” Nico was sure it was the stress of seeing his mom after so long, and on top of that, introducing Nico to her. Will had been bursting with a half-anxious, half-excited glee all week. It was a feeling Nico couldn’t exactly grasp at first; the concept of being excited to see a parent was foreign to him.
Although their relationship has greatly improved, Hades is still a bad parent. Presently, he’s been making poor attempts to appease Nico. He’s essentially the richest person he knows at the moment because he has access to his father's vast riches, but the effort falls flat after all that they’ve been through. He knows he’s trying to be better; he knows that he probably has the best relationship with his father out of most other demigods he knows. Nico knows that the lavish gifts are attempts to make amends for how he’s treated him all these years, but they can never replace the lack of a present parental figure he's always wanted.
So it’s uncharted territory for him to understand.
“And you’re tolerating it.” Nico rolls his eyes, if anything he’s the more clingy of the two.
“Don’t push your luck.” He flicked Will’s nose, who turned into Nico’s neck as a response to the light pain.
“Ow abuse.” He protested weakly.
Nico let out a quiet snort, fingers absentmindedly combing through the mess of blond curls currently smushed against his throat. Will practically melted into him at the touch, all warm limbs and sleepy affection, even though he had clearly been awake for hours.
“You’re dramatic,” Nico muttered.
“Like you’re one to talk.” Will laughed.
“Touché.”
Will laughed softly against his skin, the sound vibrating warm through Nico’s chest. It made something ache pleasantly inside him, something tender and unfamiliar enough that even after nearly two years together, Nico still didn’t fully know what to do with it.
So instead, he settled for lightly scratching at Will’s scalp.
“You know, suddenly, I’m feeling rather sleepy,” Nico sighed, snuggling deeper into his nest of pillows, “We should just nap and then shadow travel to the venue.”
“We will not.”
“Mm, what if I don’t want to ride in Percy’s death-mobile?”
Will narrowed his eyes before promptly shoving his scalding hot hands under the back of Nico’s hoodie. The feeling on his cold skin was like that of hot wax spilling over his lower back.
Nico jerked so violently that the entire bed creaked. “Will Solace, I will kill you.”
Will cackled, which was an unfortunately accurate word for the sound that left him. “See? You’re awake now.”
“You are literally a plague.”
“And yet,” Will said smugly, “you’re still dating me.”
Nico grabbed his stuffed bat with all the dignity he could muster and smacked him directly in the face.
Will fell sideways dramatically, clutching the pillow to his chest like he’d been mortally wounded. “Cruel. Violent. Dad warned me about men like you.”
Nico clicked his tongue, “Apollo is men like me.”
“That somehow makes this worse.”
Nico rolled his eyes so hard it physically hurt, for dramatic effect, of course, but he could feel the tension in his shoulders easing little by little. It was difficult to stay swallowed by anxiety when Will existed.
Will, as corny as it sounds, was quite literally the light of his life. Sometimes, Nico wonders what would’ve become of him if he had never stayed at the infirmary for those three days.
Honestly, probably dead, he really needed that nap.
Will shifted again, propping himself up on one elbow beside Nico. His hair was flattened on one side from where Nico had been petting it, curls sticking up in random directions. He looked ridiculous.
Nico felt horribly fond.
“You’re staring,” Will said quietly.
Nico blinked. “Am not.”
“You absolutely are.”
“You look stupid.”
Will gasped. “Wow. And here I was about to say something nice.”
“That sounds fake.”
“It was gonna be genuine, actually.”
“Now I definitely don’t believe you.”
“You’re cute when you’re mean,” Will said.
Nico groaned loudly and shoved his face into the pillow beside him. “I’m breaking up with you.”
“No, you’re not.”
A pause.
“…No, I’m not,” Nico admitted into the fabric.
Will’s hand slid lazily up and down his back beneath the hoodie. “There he is.” Nico flinched slightly before melting into the heat.
He turned his head just enough to glare at him half-heartedly. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”
“You make it easy.”
Nico was about to drift off again, think more about the complexities of their relationship and the future ahead, but he couldn't even begin his repeated pattern.
“Hey, are you okay?” Will asked, concern was deeply etched in his face. Nico admits he has been acting odd all morning; there is something about this trip that sets off every alarm in his head. He could brush this off as being anxious to meet Will’s mom, but it’s something more than that, something he can’t put his finger on. He holds his tongue and his thoughts, of something more divine to be at work, because it’s unfounded.
Ever since the last quest they went on, which was pretty traumatizing all around, the run-ins with monsters have been few and far between. It’s made everything settle into a sense of normalcy to the point where Nico can almost pretend he’s a normal, untraumatized teenager.
Instead, he sighs quietly and lets his eyes drift shut for a moment. “Just thinking.”
“Dangerous pastime.”
Nico huffed a laugh through his nose. “Yeah.”
Will studied him for another second before leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. Nico kissed him back automatically, one hand coming up to curl loosely in the front of Will’s shirt. Slow, familiar, and warm.
Will pulled away only slightly, forehead bumping against Nico’s. “You know,” he said softly, “my mom’s gonna love you.”
Nico smiled at him. He’ll let him believe his worries were about meeting Naomi Solace for the first time; that would only be a very small part of it all.
“We’ll see.”
Will laughed quietly. “Nico.”
“I’m serious.”
“She will.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do, actually.” Will brushed his thumb along Nico’s jaw. “Because I love you, and my mom has excellent taste.”
Nico stared at him flatly for half a second before deadpanning, “You inherited none of it.”
Will barked out a startled laugh loud enough to echo through the cabin. Nico broke out into another smile and switched their positions swiftly so he would be on top of Will, mauling his neck playfully as Will continued to howl with peels of laughter.
And naturally, because the universe hated Nico specifically, that was the exact moment the cabin door slammed open.
“Oh, good, you’re both—” Lou Ellen stopped mid-sentence once she spotted them, they made awkward eye contact.
Silence.
Her eyes moved from Nico half on top of Will, to Nico’s teeth clearly on Will’s neck, caught in a look of abject horror like a vampire caught in the act, to the fact that they were very obviously enjoying themselves.
“…Absolutely not,” she said immediately.
Will barely even looked embarrassed. “Morning, Lou.”
“Don’t morning me.” She pointed accusingly at both of them. “You two were getting your freak on.”
Nico sat up and rolled over to face the wall next to his bed, then called out, “I would rather not have you call it that…”
“And I would rather not have to be scarred for life, yuck.” She gagged. Lou tossed a thumb over her shoulder toward the cabin door. “Gross, ew. Anyway, as I was saying, lovebirds, your ride’s here.”
Will paused halfway through fixing the collar of his shirt. “Already?”
“Yes, already,” Lou said. “Annabeth and Percy have been outside for, like, five minutes, and Annabeth looks one mild inconvenience away from driving the car directly into the lake. I guess she got a speeding ticket on the way over, and now Percy has to drive.” Nico winced. Percy driving wouldn’t be ideal in any situation; it’s a miracle how he even got his license in the first place.
Will glanced toward the small analog clock hanging crookedly on Nico’s wall and swore quietly under his breath. “Okay, wow, we actually have to go.”
Nico watched as Will immediately switched gears, the soft domestic haze evaporating into efficient motion. He grabbed Nico’s overstuffed duffel with one hand, his own backpack with the other, and started mentally running through a checklist Nico could practically see forming behind his eyes.
Nico went ahead and slipped on his worn-out Converse, which were quite literally hanging on by a thread.
“Did you pack your wallet?”
“Yes.”
“Your meds?”
“You would know, you’re the one who keeps track of them.”
“Your emergency drachmas?”
Nico blinked. “…Actually—”
Will stopped dead in the middle of the room and stared at him with the exhausted expression of a man moments away from a stress-induced medical event.
Nico raised both hands defensively. “Okay, in my defense, I forgot.”
“That is not a defense.”
“It kind of is.”
“No, it’s literally just admitting fault.”
Lou snorted loudly from the doorway while Will rifled through Nico’s nightstand, “Found them,” Will announced triumphantly, pocketing the drachmas himself before Nico could lose them again.
“You’re acting like I’m a child.”
“You once lost your shoe in the strawberry fields and didn’t notice until the bonfire.” Nico cringed slightly. He had a lot going on that day. He’s basically become the person younger campers imprint onto, like lost ducklings, which is shocking enough as it is, and the kids drive him utterly insane. So that just happened to be one of those days.
“Aw, you guys are so geriatric old couple coded.” Lou cooed teasingly.
“We’re seventeen,” Will said, then glanced over at Nico, who actually is chronologically of geriatric age. “...I’m seventeen.”
By the time they stepped outside, the summer air hit Nico with a wall of humidity and sunlight. He was still freezing, but the late summer air felt heavenly. Camp Half-Blood buzzed around them with its usual chaos; campers sparred in the distance, satyrs chased a loose strawberry harvester down the hill, and somewhere near the Big House, someone was very loudly losing an argument.
Parked crookedly near The Big House was Percy’s minivan. It was an old, beat-up Honda Odyssey that Percy had bought off of an old man on Facebook Marketplace, and from what Nico could remember, every couple hundred miles, the poor thing sounded like it would blow up.
Percy leaned against the passenger side, holding a comically large physical map while Annabeth stood beside him with her arms crossed, already looking irritated.
“Finally,” Annabeth called the second she spotted them. “Do you know how long Percy’s been trying to convince me we should let him take cut through Philly and Bludhaven to get to Gotham?”
“Hey, you can’t fault me for wanting to eat an authentic Philly cheesesteak, and what if we see Nightwing?” Percy argued, folding the map and tossing it through the passenger side window.
“Nightwing wouldn’t be out and about at 3 PM.”
“You don’t know that!”
“I do actually.” Percy just huffed and accepted his defeat. There was no point in arguing with Annabeth.
Nico immediately felt exhausted.
Will, meanwhile, lit up slightly at the sight of them. “Hey!”
Annabeth stared at their luggage with a mild judgmental expression as she picked up Nico’s overly heavy duffel bag. She huffed at the unexpected weight, but still carried it with ease to the trunk of the van. “Holy, what did you put in here? The Sky?”
Percy helped put Will’s backpack in the back as well, “I can tell who packed.” He snickered. Will just laughed and rolled his eyes good-naturedly, opening the creaky sliding door of the minivan with mild struggle.
Nico was just happy to get everything over with. Maybe once on the road, he’d feel better about the trip. But foul luck strikes again, as a younger boy with blond hair and a pair of crooked sunglasses perched on the tip of his nose runs over to their group.
“Oh, it’s Jerry,” Will stated aloud. Jerry was only a year or two younger than Will, and also a very skilled medic. The only downside to all his gifts of healing and people skills was that he was an absolute mess in a high-stress situation. He was a good kid, though, who genuinely wanted to do better, and when he heard about their weekend trip, he was the first to jump at the opportunity to man the infirmary while they were gone.
The boy jogged up to them, out of breath by the time he reached them. “Will! Are you leaving already?” He panted out.
Although the change wasn’t obvious, Will’s posture changed ever so slightly, and his face became a little more serious despite the light smile he wore. Nico has seen this side of him several times before. Will was a natural-born leader in his field, and there was no denying it.
Will nodded, “Yeah. And listen carefully, okay?” Jerry nodded enthusiastically.
“So, the infirmary inventory sheet is updated already. The new ambrosia stock is now labeled because Gracie somehow mixed it up with the granola bars last week.” In Grace's defense, they really do look similar, a simple mistake…the Ares camper who twisted his ankle didn’t seem to think so, though.
“And no contact sports injuries get nectar until you check for concussions first,” Will continued. “The Hermes cabin knows this already, but remind them anyway because they don’t care for rules.”
“Got it.”
“If anyone spikes a fever above one-oh-three, IM me immediately.”
“Okay.”
“And absolutely nobody is allowed to use the rolling chairs after what happened last month.” What happened last month was that Kayla was on shift and cracked her head against the floor when leaning back in a chair–the stitches weren't pretty.
Jerry grimaced. “Yeah, fair.”
Will inhaled like he was preparing for another ten minutes of instructions.
Annabeth leaned toward Nico slightly. “Ten bucks says he made color-coded schedules.”
“Already did,” Nico replied, “I wouldn’t make such a stupid bet, you know this.” Annabeth clicked her tongue with an agreeing nod.
Percy sighed deeply. “I remember when he used to be fun.”
“I’m still fun,” Will protested without looking away from Jerry.
“No,” four people answered simultaneously.
Will ignored them.
“This is important, Jer,” he said, softer now. “You need to take this seriously.”
Jerry’s joking demeanor eased a little at the tone. “I know.”
Will shifted awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean it. You guys are gonna have to handle things without me eventually.”
There it was.
The thing sitting beneath all the excitement this week.
College.
Nico has danced around this topic for a hot minute now. The truth is, they haven’t really talked about it concretely. A part of the reason why they were even doing this in the first place was to get one last big date in before Will becomes busy indefinitely. Since he’s in online school full-time, his time would be juggled precariously between being head counselor of the Apollo cabin, running the infirmary, and maintaining his 4.7 GPA.
Nico doesn’t know what college means for their relationship. He’d been avoiding the topic like the plague every time Will broached the conversation.
Will has been striving for a sense of normalcy for a while now. Being a demi-god isn’t typically the norm. So college is really going to be the first time in years for him to feel like a normal person instead of just another teen soldier.
Nico thinks Will feels guilty, in part because he’s traumatized from being left in charge by his siblings during the war and then having to bear that title indefinitely after their sudden deaths. He doesn’t want any of his siblings to feel the way he did all of those years ago. Nico also thinks there’s some other underlying issue of Will not letting himself be selfish. He deserves to be, after all he’s gone through.
Nico watched the way Will’s smile dimmed at the edges when he mentioned it, the way his shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly.
“You’re acting like you’re dying,” Jerry said with mild judgment. “You’re going to the city, not an active war zone.” The plan was to attempt to go to school in New York, to go to Columbia pre-med, so he was close enough to camp to help if needed, but far away enough that he could grow as his own person. Ideally, in a perfect world, he and Nico would go to New Rome University like Percy and Annabeth. Nico would probably study something like Psychology, ironically enough. But Will has been dreaming of going to such a prestigious university for med school since diapers.
So Nico will bite his tongue and do whatever will make Will the happiest. What’s that saying? ‘Happy wife, happy life’? Will has sacrificed so much that he genuinely deserves to fulfill his dreams.
“It’s not like you won't visit us after you leave, you get weirdly neurotic about this place, and I think you’d have a brain aneurysm if you didn’t IM us every two seconds.”
“Well, gee, gods forbid I get concerned.” Jerry rolled his eyes and gave Will a quick side hug before saying his goodbyes and jogging back to the infirmary.
Will loved loudly. Completely. Without restraint.
It was written into everything he did. Into the way he memorized everyone’s schedules, fussed over scraped knees, overpacked bags, and worried himself sick over leaving people behind.
That’s why Nico fell in love with him, and it’s why he’s so nervous about this trip in a way, but he still can’t place as to why this is.