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“This is stupid.”
The son of Apollo glanced up from his work, raising an eyebrow at his boyfriend. “What is?”
Nico sighed impatiently and gestured around the room. He came in for a fever an hour ago, But
but while waiting for the medicine to kick in, Will insisted on making him stay the entire time. Specifically, in one of the private rooms while the son of Apollo did paperwork beside his bed.
“This! Seriously, I'm not a toddler. You can leave the room.”
Will simply sighed, glancing up at the ceiling for a few seconds as if to collect his patience. A hint of amused fondness twinkling in his eyes.
“Actually, past experiences suggest differently.” He said simply and continued to write.
“I hate you.”
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5 years prior...
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“Hi! I'm Will Solace, son of Apollo and Junior healer, which is basically like an intern. I'm a son of Apollo!” Will grinned, bouncing on his heels. He had a clipboard tucked in his arm, and when Nico glanced at the paper it was full of doodles of spaceships and scribbles that might've been words. He also talked fast, much too fast for his accent to not jumble his words.
“You said son of Apollo twice.” Nico pointed out. Travis had sent him to the infirmary after he'd spent the entire morning with a fever and rambling to anyone who would listen. Nico tried to insist the lava on the climbing wall would warm him up and make him feel better, but Connor shut him down. Despite the mischief they got up to, they weren't completely irresponsible. Which annoyed the hell out of Nico. How come they were allowed to leave shaving cream bombs in other people's beds but being sick was a no no?
“Oh, well…” The established son of Apollo smiled sheepishly and waved his board in the air. “Nevermind then, so what are your symptoms?”
“Pardon me?”
“Your symptoms. What are you feeling? Why are you here?” Will clarified. He had given Nico a strange look when he said pardon. A lot of people at camp did. Some of the kids in the Hermes cabin said he talked too proper. They had already started calling him Mister as a gag.
“Because Travis forced me.” Nico grumbled, he sniffled and rubbed his pink cheeks. Despite the magical boundaries keeping the winter weather out, it was still cool enough to redden his face and affect Nico's feeble immune system.
Will made another face at that. He made a lot of faces Nico was quickly noticing.
“I asked what you're feeling to make Travis bring you here, idiot.”
“Hey!”
“Answer the question!”
Nico wasn't very happy about it, but he crossed his arms and answered anyway. “My head hurts and I feel warm, and it was annoying everyone so they sent me away.”
Will’s expression seemed to grow a bit more sympathetic at that. Nico had only been at camp a few days— almost a whole week now! Bianca and Percy would be back soon.— but he had noticed Will around camp while he was scouting out his own cabin. Will was one of the younger kids at camp, probably the youngest right after Nico. It was a universal ‘youngest sibling’ experience to be pushed away and babied.
“I don't think they're annoyed, maybe they just want you to get better so you can tell them more about Mythomagic.” Will’s voice cut into Nico's brooding thoughts about age. He looked up in surprise, some spark of curiosity lighting in his eyes.
“You know Mythomagic?” He asked, excitement bleeding into his voice at the opportunity to ramble about it again. Was Will another player? Nico would finally have someone to play against!
“Uh, well, you talked to Lee and I overheard, so… yeah. I kind of do? But not really. Just that it's a card game.”
Nico's shoulders hunched in disappointment.
“That's a lot of words to say no.” He grumbled. Honestly, the blond could've just started with that. ‘It’s just a card game.’ Tsk. It was so much more.
“Anyways, Lee says that for headaches…” Will rummaged in the bag around his waist. His curls fell all in his face. He had really curly hair, Bianca would've loved forcing him to try stupid products like she did with Nico. She was always begging him to try out whatever treatment the hotel had been offering that day. Nico didn't really get it, he'd much rather try out the shooting games with the flashy lights. But it was admittedly nice to see his curls more defined every once in a while. Especially since it meant spending time with his sister.
“You take two of these, and it'll be gone in an hour!”
Nico looked up from his reminiscing, narrowing his eyes at the bottle of pills in Will's hand. He didn't even try to attempt whatever the name the medicine had printed on the label. Nico simply stuck his hand out in a “gimme” gesture.
The junior healer very carefully shook two tiny capsules out into Nico's hand and placed the bottle on the nightstand.
“And after you take them, you have to spend another two hours here to rest. Doctor's orders.” Will made more notes on his clipboard, but this time he was very careful to not let the patient see. He poured Nico a cup of water and offered it to wash down the medicine.
“Excuse me? Two more hours? You said my headache would be gone in one.” Nico scowled in annoyance. “The rest of the Hermes cabin is at the rock wall! I have to be there! There's lava!”
The son of Apollo's ears seemed to grow red under his hair. “Yeah, well… It's just standard procedure. And it's not like the infirmary is the worst place to be.”
Nico was pretty sure Will just hated him. Which was fine, because he had no problem hating the son of Apollo right back. He sighed loudly, falling back against the cot. He could hear Will chuckle from the doorway and Nico could feel his resentment growing. When the Italian looked up, Will was gone. Probably off to find another patient he could force into keeping prisoner.
Something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. The bottles of pills were still sitting innocently on the nightstand. Nico could almost feel the lightbulb that went off over his head. Will said two pills would make his headache be gone in an hour, right? How quick would the entire bottle be? Seconds? Immediately? He could definitely make it to the lava wall then. The son of Apollo wouldn't have an excuse to keep him here any longer.
It was genius.
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Okay, so did Nico actually have to stay two hours? No, not really. Actually he could've left right after taking the pills.
But...
Will was lonely.
It was hard being the youngest cabin member. He was the youngest in the entire camp before Nico showed up. Everyone else was at least a year or two older than the son of Apollo. He was tired of being coddled and not taken seriously. He wanted a new friend, so sue him! When he saw Lee and the new kid talking excitedly at the infirmary the first night they arrived, he asked later on what they were talking about.
The next day, he may or may not have pulled some strings to get a free pack of Mythomagic cards. Then he made Nico stay a little longer so he could show him. It was the perfect plan to subtly have something in common with Nico and eventually become friends. He spent a lot of time preparing this! And he was determined not to mess it up.
Will was in the middle of playing a game against himself— for practice so he didn't make a complete fool of himself— and drawing doodles of them doing activities around camp, when Nico walked into the infirmary.
Will liked Nico, if that wasn't clear yet. In an admirable sort of way. He was small but gods did he talk, there was nothing small about his voice. Will was jealous. Wherever the Italian went, he was able to draw people's attention just by chattering on and on about whatever. The son of Apollo had been here for months and he still had problems starting conversation with people outside his cabin. And don't get him started on Nico's accent. It sounded much fancier than Will's southern one. The little faces he made were funny too. His scowl when the son of Apollo announced he'd be missing the rock wall? Priceless. Maybe it's because there was finally someone younger than him, but Will thought Nico was the cutest kid at camp. He was always smiling and bouncing with energy, and his cheeks got all pink and flushed from the snow outside and Will just wanted to pinch them.
Will stepped away from Nico for a moment to grab his cards. He was so excited his hands were shaking as he walked back with the deck in hand.
“Hey, Nico! Guess what I have?" The son of Apollo paused in the doorway. Slipping the cards back in his bag as he walked over to the Hermes camper. "Are you okay?”
Nico was pale, his eyes unfocused and dilated when he turned to the son of Apollo, he just stared blankly. The kind of look Will gave Mitchell when he had been hiding how he had accidentally broken his bow. “Hello.”
“Hi...?” Then the son of Apollo spotted it. The bottle of pills was laying on its side, the cup of water and pitcher empty beside it.
“Did—”
Will picked up the bottle and shook it.
There was no rattle.
Lee was gonna kill him.
“Nico! Where are the pills? Did you—” Oh, Will was so screwed. So very, very, screwed. He left for one minute! How was he supposed to know Nico was suicidal?
“I ate them.”
“Why?”
“To… to make the headache go away faster” Nico stammered, he laid down against the pillows, sweat beading on his pale face. Before Will could react, the Italian threw up over the side of the bed.
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“Sorry.” Nico mumbled, staring awkwardly at Will while the blond angrily wrote in his clipboard. He had a feeling those notes had some unkind thoughts about him.
Lee Fletcher was standing over Nico, double checking his vitals. He had given both of them such a stern talking to that Nico’s chest ached for his sister. Damm, did older siblings yell at you the same. The older son of Apollo glanced over at Will who was still pouting, sighing exasperatedly as he wrapped the stethoscope around his neck.
“Hey, Will. C'mon, he didn't know. And like I said, you shouldn't have left without the pills! I told you about keeping your area clean from supplies you don't need or aren't using.” Lee scolded, but after the initial yelling from earlier, he was a lot calmer. Granted, Nico did overdose and black out for a good hour or so.
“I left for two seconds!” Will shot back angrily.
“You left to get cards! You insisted on taking a real shift, and you aren't supposed to be playing during them! You know the rules.” Lee reminded him. Nico felt abit awkward being in the middle of this, but it was a little funny seeing Will's face glow red under his freckles. Also, cards?
“What cards?”
“Nothing.” Will snapped a bit too quickly. Lee just rolled his eyes.
“Mythomagic cards. I don't get why, you dont even play that game…” The healer frowned, glancing at his little brother than at Nico a few times before his expression flooded with realization. He raised an eyebrow at Will, who frantically shook his head.
“What?” Nico scowled at the weird silent conversation. He decided then that he definitely wasn't an Apollo kid, he had no idea what these weirdos were doing.
“Nothing, nevermind. Just never do that again, alright? Medicine is not something to fuck around with.” Lee sighed, rubbing a hand on his cheek. Nico couldn't help his eyes widen when he swore so casually. Back at his boarding school severely punished if you were caught saying such filth so casually.
“You said the f word!”
Lee made a face, scrunching up his nose and sighing in amusement. Will made a similar face earlier. “Sorry. But you were listening right? No more touching things you don't understand, alright? You'll end up hurting yourself or people around you.”
“Alright, alright. I get it.” Nico grumbled, picking at his hands. “So can I go to the lava wall yet?”
“Of course not! You're staying here for the night, overdoses aren't something to shrug off, Di Angelo.” Lee sounded almost offended by the request, which just made Nico even more upset. So what, he felt a bit nauseous and dizzy? He could totally walk it off!
“But the nectar really helped! I swear I'm fine!” He insisted, but Lee ignored his pleading and walked out of the room after staying firm on Nico's recovery time.
Will eyed the pouting Hermes camper, his own frustration wearing off at the pitiful— yet undeniably endearing— look on Nico's face. Will huffed and pulled out the deck he'd been hiding from his pouch and brought them out.
“Since you're stuck here, I guess I can show you my cards.” He grumbled, glancing up in time to see Nico's eyes light up.
“Oh wow, which pack is this?” Nico had already took the cards from his hands and was shuffling through them. “Oh, you're a newbie.”
“Excuse me?” Will sputtered. It was true, but was he it really that obvious? Was Nico some kind of professional? Because it would be super embarrassing if Will was trying to impress him and ended up losing spectacularly.
“Yeah, this is the original pack. Its like the starter’s pack.” Nico didn't really seem to care much, mostly happy he was given the chance to talk at all about Mythomagic. “It's not like, a bad deck. But there's definitely some more powerful ones. I have almost all of them, even the Africanus limited edition one. Including the figures. Except Hades, everyone says it's bad luck but I really wanna complete the collection.”
Will felt a bit dizzy listening to Nico chatter on and on about different decks and collections. Suddenly all the research he'd done on the game and practice rounds felt inadequate to the other's knowledge. He couldn't do much but sit dumbly next to Nico's cot, watching him shuffle through the cards.
“Do you wanna play? We can split the deck, since mine is back at our cabin.” Nico asked excitedly. It was hard to believe this kid had almost gotten himself killed an hour ago and was pouting and whining just a few minutes ago.
“Uhm, yeah, sure. Go easy on me, ‘kay?” Will joked, sitting up straighter. When Nico tilted his head and snorted, the blond felt his ears go red again under his hair. “Like, please. You were right, I've only played a few games.”
“Yeah, yeah, I'll go easy. Maybe.” Nico grinned cheekily as he expertly shuffled the deck of cards. Moving them easily as if they were liquid, falling through his fingers, bending over and stacking neatly. Will knew he was about to get his ass kicked. He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to ignore the butterflies blooming in his gut.
Safe to say, they spent the entire afternoon playing. When it was time for dinner, Will ate beside Nico's bed just so they could keep playing. By the time it was time for bed, the son of Apollo had to be pried away. He hadn't won a single game yet, but as he reluctantly said goodnight and collected his cards, he found that he didn't really mind losing.
As long as it made Nico smile.
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