Archive of Our Own

Nico crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe as he watched his boyfriend putter around Camp Half-Blood's kitchen.

One privilege of being at camp as staff rather than as campers was that they were allowed to use the Big House's kitchen, provided they submitted an itemized report of everything they used (because the dryads were almost as fanatical about inventory as Will was), or they bought their own ingredients. With Nico's shadow travel powers, it wasn't hard to pop by a grocery store or a bodega to get whatever they needed, or Will would do some shopping whenever he was in the city for medical residency reasons. So they made use of the kitchen as often as they could.

Most of the time, it was Nico doing the cooking. He had more free time, as he didn't have to study on top of his work at camp, but also he legitimately enjoyed cooking and was good at it. Will had been trying his hand at it recently, though, throwing himself at the task with his signature enthusiasm. Today, he told Nico he was going to try something special. Nico wasn't sure what the occasion was, but given how joyfully Will was dancing and whistling as he chopped up tomatoes, he wasn't going to dog him for details.

He smiled to himself as Will finished with the vegetables and threw the little cubes into a large pan. If someone had told the son of Hades when he was twelve that fifteen or so years down the road he'd be the Activities Director at Camp Half-Blood, he would have laughed in that person's face. Or glared daggers at them, more likely. Yeah, that sounded more like him.

And the fact that he got to do this with the love of his life by his side, brimming with pride every day as Will earned his MD and embarked on his residency while also taking care of everyone at camp, made it all the sweeter. It had been a grueling schedule for Will for many years, and in his most exhausted, devastated moments, he'd wonder out loud if perhaps he should just quit. But after losing all his older siblings and having to carry the weighty burden of an entire cabin and infirmary at the tender age of thirteen, Will was determined not to let that happen to any of his younger siblings so long as he was around. Children should not be forced to make life-or-death decisions for other children, he would often say. It's just not right.

So when Mr. D's punishment was over and Chiron was promoted to Camp Director, it was a no-brainer for Nico to take up Chiron's old job when it was offered, so long as Will was allowed to remain in his position as the camp's Head Medic. Camp Half-Blood was his home, and Will was his heart. As far as he was concerned, this was the best-case scenario he never even dared imagine when he was growing up, alone and hurting out on the streets or in the darkened tunnels of the Labyrinth.

Will still taught his little siblings, of course— their healing abilities were a divine gift and needed to be nurtured— and they did help with the smaller stuff, but Will always took point when something major came up. Which thankfully didn't happen as often as it used to, back when they would have world-ending wars every other summer. Peace among the gods and pantheons truly was underrated.

Nico watched as the son of Apollo wiped his hands with a towel, then grabbed a handful of dried pasta noodles— vermicelli, it looked like. Inferior, but would do in a pinch, Nico thought to himself. Will wasn't quite at the level of making fresh pasta yet, but it was the intention that counted.

He finally walked further into the kitchen, the soles of his battered black-on-black Converse squeaking against the wooden floors and drawing his boyfriend's attention. Will threw him a smile over his shoulder.

"Making Italian, sunshine? I guess you're feeling confident toda— what did you just do?" Nico wheezed, cutting himself off halfway through the sentence when he heard the snap that came from Will breaking the noodles in half.

"Breaking the noodles so they'll fit in the pot?" Will said, sky-blue doe eyes wide in the picture of innocence. "Sorry. Is that bad?"

Nico groaned overdramatically. "My nonna is probably rolling over in her grave right now."

Will glanced up at the ceiling and said, "Scusi, nonna," with a wince. It was a "Texas" habit he had yet to shake off, even though he knew better than almost every other living Greek demigod that the afterlife wasn't in the heavens but, technically, under their feet.

At least his pronunciation was getting better. As if studying and working at the same time wasn't enough, Will had also taken it upon himself to learn Italian since he was in undergrad, as a way to honor Nico's heritage. By this point, he understood it better than he spoke it, provided people didn't speak too fast, but he was apparently practiced enough to communicate an apology to Nico's long-dead grandmother. Nico wasn't about to remind him that his nonna also spoke perfect English. He was too adorable to burst his bubble like that.

Instead, he sighed, resigned. "It's fine. Just don't let anyone else see you doing that."

Will chuckled. "Who else am I ever going to cook for, silly?" he retorted in an amused tone, then dumped the mangled noodles— RIP vermicelli— into a metal pot full of boiling water.

Nico shrugged even though Will's back was to him now. "I don't know, maybe Naomi would enjoy a home-cooked meal once in a while rather than—"

He was interrupted by someone calling out to them from the front of the cabin. A camper. "Nico! Dr. Will!"

Nico recognized the voice as belonging to Bobby Hurtado from the Hermes cabin. Nice kid, kind of nerdy and unassuming, but light on both his feet and fingers. He could see from Will's expression that he recognized him as well.

"Just 'Will' is fine, Bobby," he called in return with an amused smile. It had to be the thousandth time he implored to the campers to forgo the title.

Nico smirked. "Uh-uh," he sentenced. "Until he puts eight years of blood, sweat, and tears into getting his own medical degree, you're 'Dr. Will' to him. Period." If Will wasn't going to assert his hard-earned authority and expertise in front of these little twerps, then it was up to Nico to do it for him.

Will shook his head, amused. He was about to say something in response, but that's when Bobby finally appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, right where Nico had stood before. And judging from his spooked expression, this wasn't a social call.

"Nico, Dr. Will—" he started, panting heavily from the exertion of running all the way there. He was pale, like he'd seen a ghost, and this time it wasn't Nico's fault. "The beach— You need to come see this."

Nico and Will exchanged a worried look. If this had been any other Hermes camper, they might've thought this was some kind of prank, but with Bobby, they tended to be more worried about the contents of their pockets than about having their shampoo replaced with neon-orange hair dye.

So Will hurried to turn the stove off, then quickly wiped his hands on the fabric of his cargo shorts, just in case. Without another word, the two of them followed Bobby out of the building, running as fast as they could.

By this point, the two of them, as well as pretty much all of the campers, were more than used to the presence of Nico's cacodemons and considered them just another quirky aspect of life at camp. So no one even batted an eye when the hyperactive little dark blobs started popping out of random shadows to trail Will and Nico's dash across the green.

Despite that, Nico still heard some gasps and squeals as they got to the beach and started moving between people to get to the front. The Cocoa Puffs were always a little more disruptive in a crowd— they didn't mean to, of course, but it was just their nature. And it became especially noticeable in a crowd as agitated as this one.

When they finally pushed their way past what seemed like every year-round camper there, they came face to face with a group of camp counselors standing closer to the shore. Ares, Demeter, Athena, Hebe. The Aphrodite Cabin counselor was standing a few yards away, covering her mouth with one hand like she was a second away from throwing up. The rest were huddled together, looking down at something Nico could just make out lying on the sand.

Will clocked it first. "Is that... a bone?" he asked. Squinting through the counselors' legs, Nico was finally able to recognize it as osseous matter, too.

His boyfriend immediately turned to look at him with a question in his eyes. Nico, with a dozen chirping cacodemons clustered around his feet, raised his hands right away, asserting his innocence on this particular crime. Sure, he was known to unearth skeletons every once in a while— they made for better sword practice dummies than the camp's static, wooden ones— but those were full or almost full skeletons. This was one single bone; it was more like something a dog would dig up than anything Nico would pull up intentionally, and there were no dogs at Camp Half-Blood (save for the occasional visit from Mrs. O'Leary, of course).

The question startled the teenagers away from their frantic, hushed discussion and toward the two of them. "Dr. Will!" a few of them exclaimed, sounding relieved. Since Chiron was out doing school interviews in preparation for the Fall, they were probably very glad to see other adults around.

"It just washed up on the shore," the Dionysus counselor said.

"I told them not to touch it or move it!" the Hermes counselor exclaimed with a frenetic cadence, like he was expecting someone to pin the blame on him.

The Tyche counselor rolled her eyes. "And I told him that he's been watching too many crime dramas," she said. "It's probably just an animal bone, guys. Chill." And honestly? Nico was thinking along the same line, too.

The Athena counselor was crouching beside the bone, a heavy leatherbound tome that looked to be about a thousand pages open in their hands. "I've been trying to figure that out myself, but the best I've been able to gather is that it's most likely a femur?" They flipped to the next page, eyes glued to the text instead of the goings-on around them.

"Oh, I can probably suss it out," Will said, walking up to the group. "Can you give me some space, please?" The harried teenagers did as he asked, and he knelt on the sand (the one instance when his penchant for cargo shorts actually came in handy), looking down at the long bone.

Nico, still hanging back with the rest of the crowd, smirked. "Or we could let the Son of Hades take a gander at it," he pointed out. He felt more amused by the situation than he imagined most of the kids were, although he could feel Anxiety Puff twittering on his shoulder like Will was about to defuse a bomb instead of examining a harmless body part. Or at least he thought it was harmless. He couldn't feel any kind of curse emanating from it, but then again, you never knew.

Will turned to look at him, sky blues twinkling. "Well now," he started, "don't steal all my fun, Skull Kid. You might be the expert on dead things, but I'd like to think I know a thing or two about bones, too."

Nico's brows rose at the sass in his boyfriend's response. "Oh, so you want to make this into a competition?" he asked.

"Always," Will said with a wink. "But also... a learning opportunity." He swept his gaze over the crowd behind Nico as if looking for someone, and then he locked in on his siblings, clustered together a little to the side.

"Josie," he called out to his littlest sister, who was currently clinging to the current Apollo counselor's leg. "Can you run to the infirmary and get me my sliding caliper and maybe a measuring tape?"

The seven-year-old nodded, her curly pigtails swinging with the movement, and she let go of her brother to run back to the cabins. Will waved his remaining siblings over. "The rest of y'all, come watch."

Nico stood back as the three other Apollo children stepped up to where Will was kneeling. Fine— if he wanted to have first go, Nico was generous enough to let him have it. He'd just hang back and (totally not smugly) correct him if he got it wrong.

"So, as you can see," Will started with the air of (Nico assumed) a medical school professor, "this bone is longer than it is thick. That tells us it's what we call a 'long bone'— Mind-blowing, I know." He chuckled, as did a couple of his siblings. "However, it's still thicker and longer than most other long bones, which suggests to me that it comes from a limb: it's either a humerus or a femur. Does anyone know how to tell apart a humerus from a femur?"

Standing off to the side, the Athena cabin counselor raised their hand like they were in class. Beside them, the Ares counselor coughed into his fist in a way that sounded suspiciously like "Nerd!" Nico chuckled. Some things never changed, no matter how many years went by.

Will was focused on his siblings, so he didn't notice the interaction, and it was the Apollo cabin counselor who answered his question. "The femur has a defined neck?" the seventeen-year-old noted hesitantly.

"Correct!" Will beamed at his younger brother, then pointed at a specific section of the bone. "Like the neck we see here. This bone is a femur. The femur is the thigh bone, so whomever or whatever this belonged to, this is the size of their thigh."

He bracketed the length of the bone with his hands. "So that could point to a human, but not exclusively. So what sorts of animals can we find in this area that are about this size?"

"Bears?" Bobby Hurtado chimed in from... somewhere... He wasn't tall enough for Nico to be able to easily spot him in a crowd.

"There aren't any bears on Long Island," the Athena counselor shot that option down right away, shaking their head.

Nearby them, the Hermes counselor's eyes widened eagerly. Beside him, the Hecate counselor groaned. "Don't give them any ideas..."

"I know there are white-tailed deer around here," the Hebe counselor said.

"Maybe a large-ish dog?" offered the Dionysus counselor.

"Could be a horse, but that feels like a stretch," the Ares counselor intervened gruffly. "It would have to have been brought in from the city. All of ours are accounted for."

Will shifted slightly so he was looking down at the bone longitudinally rather than from the side. "This might be hard for you guys to see, but there's a slight curve to the bone. See here? If you draw an imaginary line between the notch on this end and the notch on the opposite end, it doesn't align perfectly with the shaft." His index finger traced this line, hovering a couple of inches above the object.

"That's called the bicondylar or valgus angle," he further explained. "Four-legged animals have very straight femurs because each leg has to bear a smaller proportion of their weight. The curvature wouldn't be as obvious. This is definitely not a deer or a horse; it suggests bipedal."

"Can it be, like, a monkey or something?" the Aphrodite counselor asked, still looking a little green around the gills.

"That'd be an ape," the Athena counselor corrected automatically.

"Unlikely but not impossible, I guess," Will mumbled, squinting at the bone. He seemed a lot more focused on his examination now, and less concerned with the kids around him, to the point that he was startled when his little sister came back with the instruments he'd requested earlier. "Ah! Thank you, Josie. You're the best."

He grabbed the caliper and tape from her but set them down on the sand beside him. Instead of diving into the measurements, he picked up the bone, instead. It gave Nico a better view of it, too, and he took a couple of steps forward so he could see it in more detail. It looked very smooth— clearly gone through significant surface abrasion. Along the shaft, there was a deep notch about half an inch wide, like some kind of heavy impact had broken off a chunk of bone but without splitting it in two. There was also yellowing and discoloration along the shaft, and the edges looked more rounded than on a fresh bone, at least from his vantage point. Not unusual for most objects that have been in natural-running water for a while.

But more curiously, the second Will took hold of the bone, Nico's cacodemons grew increasingly agitated. They drew more yelps and wheezes from the crowd as a few of them bounced and rolled between their feet. A handful also moved to surround Will. Fear hid its face against one of the pockets of Will's cargo shorts. Defiance looked like it wanted to wrest the bone out of Will's hands and throw it back into the ocean.

Huh. That was interesting.

Will oriented the bone vertically. "This bulbous part here is called the 'head,'" he murmured. He was still explaining things aloud as if by inertia, but in reality, it was starting to sound more like he was talking to himself rather than to the kids. "That makes this the proximal end, meaning the end that slots into the pelvic bone. The opposite side is the distal end, which connects to the knee."

He pointed to two protuberances on the top end. "These are called the trochanters, greater and lesser. The distance between them, where the neck connects to the shaft, is smooth on the front— the intertrochanteric line— and more of a prominent ridge in the back— the intertrochanteric crest. Which means..." He flipped the bone around so that the head was pointing to his left. "This is from a left leg."

Then, he ran his fingers along the posterior shaft. "Linea aspera is pronounced. Can't conclude with certainty without comparing it to a control sample, but definitely suggests primate."

He was no longer explaining the anatomical terms, and Nico could see from the way the kids' eyes were starting to glaze over that Will was quickly losing them. He really didn't want to cut Will's fun short, but sometimes he tended to get a bit too into the nerdy details. Not that Nico minded that— he was a geek himself, and if anything, Will's unbridled enthusiasm for these things made Nico love him all the more— but maybe it would be better to be done with this as quickly as possible.

So he reached out with his Underworld senses. It might take a bit to extract all the life essence information he needed from the bone— it was slower if he wasn't holding the bone himself, or close enough to touch it, at least— but it should still be faster than going through all the anatomical markers, as Will was.

As Nico started getting the barest tingle of first impressions of the femur's previous existence as part of a living being, Will flipped the bone upside down. "Distal condyles are asymmetrical, with an anterior-facing patellar surface," he murmured, brow furrowed in a concerned V. "Hard to tell exactly since they're a bit worn down from the water, but it looks like the medial condyle is larger and more extended than the lateral condyle. Combined with the valgus angle, this suggests a wider pelvis, allowing for lateral stability when walking or standing on fully extended legs. Unlike apes."

"What does that mean?" the Apollo cabin counselor asked, one of the few campers who was still paying close attention.

It meant the bone was human, Nico thought. Will didn't say it, but Nico felt it, the vestiges of a life, starting from the very beginning: Parents, many siblings, lots of friends, love, a childhood, the wonders of learning about the world. But far from an idyllic existence, there was also pain, and loss, and so much fear, in a way that felt almost... familiar...

"Someone hand me a piece of paper," Will requested suddenly, perhaps sounding more urgent than he intended. One of his siblings, more artistically inclined, produced a sketchbook and a charcoal pencil for him to write.

Using the tools Josie brought him, Will took notes on the size of different sections of the bone. He measured the maximum length, the diameter of the head, the thickness of the shaft. "The femoral head is proportionally large relative to shaft thickness," he muttered. Two more length measurements and some quick math led him to his next conclusion: "Neck-shaft angle is around 127 degrees. Lower than cervids. Higher than non-human primates."

Nico didn't know much about anatomy, but he understood how skeletal structures connected, and the specialized types and range of movement they allowed for. He could see what Will was getting at— could literally see it, images of this person's life burning behind his lids. Perfect square stances with hips and shoulders perfectly aligned. Speed-walking, running, jumping, dancing. Turning, twisting, ducking, stopping abruptly. And fighting, so much fighting...

He opened his eyes. "Will," he called out, heart in his throat.

Will didn't hear him or was too in-the-zone to respond. Instead, he brought the bone up to eye level and peeked into the notch in the shaft, closing one eye to help the other one focus. He took some measurements with the tape— a little awkward, given that it was a notch rather than a full cross-section— and made some notes on the sketchbook, pointing out specific details aloud. "Cortical bone at the midshaft is thick, around 50% of the total shaft diameter. Can't measure the full radius of the medullary cavity, but the bone is spongy, and trabecular density seems low from what I can see. Gods, I really wish I had an ape control sample..."

He brought the bone down and stared at the notes he had taken, silently weighing them all together. He did not seem pleased with his findings— and that was a massive understatement on Nico's part. Will took a deep breath, as if steeling himself for what he was about to say. "I'm pretty sure this femur is human."

Gasps erupted once again from the crowd, and this time it had nothing to do with the Cocoa Puffs. "Is there a way to figure out who it belonged to?" the Demeter counselor asked, eyes wide as plates.

Will shook his head. "Not with any certainty. I'd need a full skeleton for that, and even then, it'd be the generalities of the person, not anything specific. But maybe I can tease out some of their characteristics..."

"Will," Nico tried to get his attention again. He moved a few steps closer, concern for his boyfriend nearly squeezing the breath out of him. He wasn't even sure how much of that concern was his own. Most of it, probably; he always worried about Will in some way or another. But the line was fuzzy with all the feelings and memories washing over him, hard to tell how much of it was mere transference— and the fact that there was transference at all made him even more concerned. It was a vicious cycle.

Still no response from Will as he moved to examine the ends of the bone once again. He ran his thumb over the area where the shaft of the bone met the head. "This is a fusion line. It forms when the growth plates, which are a thin layer of cartilage where the bone growth takes place, become ossified. The femoral head fuses in adolescence, between fourteen and seventeen years of age, depending on sex assigned at birth."

He flipped the bone over again. "The distal plate fuses a little later, maybe at around eighteen. Both are fused in this sample, but not heavily altered with age. Some surface wear. I'd say it's a young adult or late adolescent. The femur is also fully skeletonized with no residual soft tissue. Rounded edges, smoothed muscle attachment sites, patchy staining. It’s been in the water a long time. Years, at least. A decade wouldn’t shock me."

"Can you tell if it's male or female?" the Hebe counselor asked.

Will shook his head again. "No, but the length of the femur suggests the person was around 140 centimeters tall... maybe 4'7''? Could just as well be a slightly short fourteen-year-old girl or an incredibly short eighteen-year-old boy."

That last comment made Nico's hands clench at his sides. He took one more step forward, now only a couple of feet away from where his boyfriend knelt. "Will, stop," he begged.

That finally, finally got Will to look at him; since he was on the ground, he had to look up and at an angle, a frown of disbelief marring his golden features. "I can't, Nico!" he snapped, sounding almost offended that Nico would even ask him that. "The least we can do is give this soul some closure. You know that better than anyone! This could be someone's child, someone's sibling—" His voice broke as he said the last word, and cut himself up with a sharp inhale, almost a sob.

Nico's heart broke a little at the sound. It broke for Will, for the grief he still carried even after all these years, and for the responsibility he put on himself to help even those who could no longer be saved. And it also broke for himself, for the words he was about to put out into the universe that he knew, he knew, would only add to his beloved's pain.

"I know," he said, the air in his lungs whooshing out of him and leaving his chest feeling hollow. He pressed his lips tightly before adding, throat rough and dry: "...It's Michael Yew."

It took a couple of seconds for that sentence to hit. When it did, Will's mouth dropped open, but he still stared at Nico with confusion clouding his sky-blue eyes, like he'd spoken in some kind of extinct language and Will was struggling to parse what those foreign sounds meant.

Nico hesitated. Usually, his immediate instinct when he wanted to comfort Will was to hug him or touch him in some way; he knew Will reveled in physical contact, especially when it came from Nico. But right now, holding the only remaining piece of his brother in his hands and surrounded by curious tweens and teens, he wasn't sure Will would actually want that. For the first time in a long while, Nico wasn't sure what to do.

In the end, the choice was taken out of his hands when Will broke their shared gaze to glance down at his lap, where Grief the Puff was clambering up, looking up at him with an open, surprisingly expressive visage.

Then Will's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he passed out on the spot, body slumping back onto the sand before Nico could spring forward to catch him.

Will still felt numb even two hours later while sitting at the Big House's dining table, fully burrito'ed in an oversized blanket, more for comfort than for warmth, with Grief the Puff curling up at his side on and off. He wasn’t even sure when the little blob had wandered off— his mind had been warring between thinking of nothing but what had happened earlier and avoiding thinking about it altogether because it hurt too much. It had been that way since he woke up in the infirmary with his baby sister sitting at his bedside, sniffling to herself every few seconds.

He actually felt really bad for scaring Josie. She never knew Michael, and her emotional connection to him came only from the stories Will had passed down to her and their siblings, plus she'd never lost anyone the way Will had lost Lee, Michael, and several other older sisters and brothers. She did know Will, though, and loved him fiercely, and she must've been so terrified, seeing him black out like that. She hugged him so tightly when he woke up, and Will had to fight so hard to keep himself from crying, knowing that tears would only alarm the little girl even more. He'd have to get a better handle on himself in the future to avoid giving his siblings such a fright.

If he'd had any input at the time, he would've asked Nico to take him to their room upstairs, instead; no need to burden his siblings with caring for him on top of everything else going on. Unfortunately, he'd been completely out of it at the time, and his siblings insisted, so the infirmary it was.

(In any other circumstance, he might've found it funny that Nico had been the one who'd had to carry him this time, all the way from the beach to the Big House after he fainted. Usually, Will was the one lugging Nico around when he passed out from overexerting himself with his Underworld powers.)

And speaking of Nico overextending himself with his Underworld powers, that was a thing that was probably happening at that exact moment. Initially, he had wanted to stay with Will at the infirmary while he recuperated from his syncope. However, he was also the only person at camp who could find and dig up more of Michael's remains out of the beach if they were nearby, without necessitating heavy equipment. So Will begged him to please go do that, even though he was terrified that it would take too much out of Nico.

Meanwhile, he just sat there, useless and guilty and shaken at the Big House's dining table, not knowing what to do or what to think— actively trying not to think about it because if he did, he'd break down all over again. Here. At this table. Why was there even a dining table in the Big House, anyway? Chiron ate at the dining pavilion with the campers every meal. Will and Nico were the only ones who used this table, and it was only once in a blue moon. Had it come with the house? Did Mr. D use it regularly while he was Camp Director? Yikes, Will might need to run this thing under a blacklight now.

No. He was doing it again: thinking about random crap just to avoid thinking about Michael. But it was just too overwhelming and confusing, and while everybody was helping out at the beach, he had no one to talk it out with.

He just really wanted Nico.

And let no one ever suggest that divine intervention wasn't a thing (well, at least in their little Ancient Greek corner of theistic cosmology), because the moment that thought crossed Will's mind, his boyfriend walked into the room.

"Hey, sunshine," he said softly, carefully. "How are you feeling?" He was pale and sweaty, and the dark circles under his eyes were darker than Will had seen them in quite a while— all together, he looked exhausted. And yet, his first thought was to check if Will was okay. He could cry from the staggering amount of love he felt for this man.

Instead, Will pulled an arm out of his blanket cocoon and made grabby hands at him until he was close enough for his fingers to wrap around Nico's wrist. Nico let him; after all these years together, he knew exactly the kind of reassurance Will needed in moments like this.

Will tugged him closer until he could rest his cheek against Nico's wrist, closing his eyes and letting the familiar wave of health information flow into his mind. Nico was indeed exhausted, there was a bit of inflammation around his ankles from standing for so long, and his blood sugar was a little low, but apart from that, all his vitals were good. His pulse was steady, there was no fading, and the darkness that always lurked at the edges of him was keeping to the edges. He was safe and healthy, and Will felt like he could breathe again.

He let go of Nico's arm but not without pressing a kiss to the inside of his wrist. "Did you find him?"

"Every single one of his 207 bones." Unwilling still to put any distance between them, Nico wrapped his arms around Will's shoulders and leaned down to kiss the crown of his head. When Will looked up at him, curious, he added: "His clavicle was only partially fused."

"Right," Will mumbled sadly, pulling his other arm loose so he could grab two fistfuls of Nico's black Iron Maiden t-shirt. "He didn't even make it to twenty." Feeling like he was deflating, he leaned his forehead against Nico's abs and closed his eyes again.

"I'm sorry, tesoro," Nico whispered, delicately running his fingers through Will's golden curls.

They stayed like that for a minute, maybe two, until Will felt slightly more reassured that he wasn't about to start sobbing again. Then he pulled back, he looked up at Nico breathing deliberately slowly. Nico wasn't the only one who was exhausted, only Will's exhaustion was mental, rather than physical.

"How did this happen, Nico?" he asked, though he knew it was an impossible question to answer. "There is no way Michael's remains just got here today by sheer coincidence, fifteen years after he died. On the East River! Which starts on the Sound; it doesn't end there! So, short of the river suddenly deciding to flow backward, I don't know how this could possibly happen." He ran a hand over his face, frustrated. "Like, is some god somewhere messing with me for some reason? I'm so confused." His shoulders slumped with the effort of the short rant, and his gaze dropped to the ground like it took too much effort to hold it up.

He heard Nico sigh, then followed him with a sideways glance as he moved to grab a chair from the opposite side of the table and move it so he could sit closer to Will, their knees almost touching. He reached out for Will's hand, which he then held loosely on the table, fingers intertwined.

He took a deep breath before saying, "I think... I think it might be my fault."

That got Will snapping his gaze toward him real quick. "...What do you mean?" he asked warily. It didn't even cross his mind that Nico could've done this on purpose— of course he would never do that. But maybe he'd made some mistake at some point that had unknowingly led to this, and he'd only just put it together? Or had he known, and he just hadn't told Will— no, that didn't sound like him either.

Instead of answering directly, Nico bit the corner of his lip for a moment, then took his free hand to the pocket of his hoodie. He pulled out a small box and set it down on the table, right beside where their hands were joined. It was small. Cubic-ish. Suede-like texture. In the state Will was in, embarrassing as it was to admit, it took him a second. But then it hit him.

Is that... a ring box?

The surprise made him push forward in his seat and pull his hand back. He stared at his boyfriend, eyes so wide that he feared they might pop out of his head. "Nico... I love you, and we will talk about this, but right now is very much not the right time—"

"No, I know," Nico hurried to add, gesturing with his hand for Will to please wait for him to speak. "It's just... part of the explanation. I promise, I'm not asking right now."

Slightly mollified, Will sat back and let him say his piece. Nico touched the box lightly with the tip of his index and middle fingers. "So... I got this a few weeks ago. I thought it was about time I did this, but you know me: Once I actually had this in my possession and I had to actually ask, I... kinda started spiraling."

He shook his head with a half shrug, and Will recognized it as a gesture he often defaulted to when he was frustrated with himself. "And I would normally talk to you about it, but this time I couldn't, for— well, for obvious reasons." He gestured vaguely at the suede box. "And everyone else I know who's married lives on the West Coast, which— I can't exactly just shadow travel there without informing Camp anymore— or you, of course— and I didn't want to have those conversations via Iris Message because I was paranoid that someone might overhear."

Then he flinched— pre-emptively, Will interpreted, to what he was about to say. "So I decided to— and I knew this was a bad idea when I went, okay? I knew it as I was doing it, but... I went to talk to my father."

Normally Will wouldn't have thought twice about Nico visiting his father; he did that often enough, and he didn't necessarily make a big production of telling him every time. It was the emphatic reiteration of how bad of an idea it was this time that had Will on edge. "Did it not go well? Does he..." He gestured at the ring box with a nod of his chin. "...not approve?"

Will couldn't imagine what he might've done recently to unknowingly land himself on Hades's bad side. As far as he was aware, Hades had no problems with him or with his dating Nico— well, other than the fact that it made him more likely to have to interact with Apollo now. It's not like Will talked to the god of the dead all that often, but he and Nico had had dinner with him and Persephone once or twice, and it had been... fine. Neutral. Well, not outwardly disdainful, which was an acceptable baseline when it came to Hades.

Nico was taken aback, like he hadn't expected Will to go there. "Oh, no! No, he definitely approves," he reassured him. "He really likes you. Or, you know, he doesn't hate you." He shook his head and reached out for Will's hand again. "What I mean is, he knows how happy you make me. That's all that matters to him."

Will gave him a small smile and intertwined their fingers more securely, waiting for Nico to continue making his point. He did, after a brief pause. "It's just— I fear there might have been some... miscommunication."

Nico still seemed hesitant to get to the crux of it. This wasn't unusual; he often needed time to mentally prepare to put himself in a vulnerable position or have a difficult conversation, and as long as he asked for that time, Will was willing to give it to him. It was just unfortunate that today, the situation had forced his hand. And admittedly, Will was a little disturbed that there was something that made him more nervous than having to fess up that he'd secretly bought an engagement ring.

Eventually, though, he came out with it. "I went to my father... I needed to talk to someone... because I was struggling with the thought that you're so good, and you do so much for me, are so patient with me. And sometimes I just feel I don't do as much in return. That all I contribute to this relationship is my personal baggage that you're then saddled with, and you deserve better than that."

The admission alarmed Will greatly. He opened his mouth to object— to reassure him that wasn't true, that a relationship wasn't a competition, and Will took care of him because he loved him and that's how Will expressed his love, not just for Nico but for everyone. And even if they were keeping a tally for some reason, Nico had nothing to worry about because he did so much for Will on a daily basis, just loving him and being there for him and knowing exactly what he needed when Will didn't even know it himself. And didn't he know that Will might've spun out of his mind years ago if he hadn't had Nico by his side to be his protector, his rock, his all-black-clad cheerleader? He was the strongest person Will had ever met, and every day his presence inspired Will to stand firm in the face of all the adversity their crazy lives threw at them.

Honestly, if Nico could say that he didn't do enough for Will, Will could say the same in return, because some days it was still almost unbelievable to him that someone as amazing and fierce and brilliant as Nico could love him, plain old Will Solace. But he'd learned by now to silence that voice in his head, because Nico loved him as he was, and their relationship worked precisely because they matched each other when possible and complemented each other when needed. And if he had to remind Nico of all of this every day, every hour, every minute until he stomped that intrusive voice out of his head, he would.

And he was about to, except Nico anticipated his upcoming disagreement yet again. "I know what you're going to say, and I promise I don't actually feel that way. It was just— a moment. I let my insecurities get a hold of me, but I'm past it now," he insisted, and Will wasn't sure that was 100% true, but he believed it was mostly true. "I'm just mentioning it now because my father's reaction might be relevant to what happened here today."

Right. Hades. "...How did he react?" Will asked, leery.

Nico scoffed. "Well, officially, he said, 'You're a prince of the Underworld. The son of Apollo could not find a higher-caliber partner in all the domains of the cosmos.'"

He lowered his voice to imitate Hades's deep, raspy baritone, and Will chuckled weakly. He found it hilarious, and at the same time worried that the ground might suddenly swallow his boyfriend in punishment for daring to make fun of a god. Thankfully, Hades was more than used to Nico's sass by now— if you asked Will, the god might even be a little proud that his son could dish it out as good as he could take it, even if he often complained about demigods' insolence these days.

"Unofficially, though," Nico continued after flashing him the briefest smirk, "I wonder if he found a way to drive the point home by showing everyone just how much value I, and only I, can contribute to this relationship."

The words washed over Will and past him at first, but their echoes finally reached him given a couple of seconds to process. "You're saying your father unearthed my late brother's remains today... for me? To prove your worth... to me?" he asked, the words making no sense in his mind, even though he understood their individual meaning.

"Well, more for me, I'd say," Nico corrected with a shrug. "I guess he was trying to build up my confidence? In his own weird way." He snorted. "It's very Bronze Age of him when you think about it— almost like a dowry? But considering his way of proposing to Persephone was to kidnap her, we might've lucked out."

Will shook his head, slack jawed and absolutely flabbergasted. Only in their crazy demigod lives could this ridiculousness ever be a thing that happened. But also, looking past the morbidity of it all, it was very... sweet? "Your father is... really not the best at understanding social cues and conventions."

"Yeah... It's a consequence of spending most of his time hanging out with dead people," his boyfriend conceded, deadpan. Expression softening, he gently squeezed Will's hand in his own. "I'm sorry."

The apology was so unexpected and unnecessary that laughter bubbled out of Will unbidden. Sure, there might've been a thin lining of hysterical to it because this whole situation was so absurd, but the majority of the giggling came from him being just... completely ebullient with love.

"Sorry for what?" He beamed at his boyfriend. "This is... the most amazing thing anyone's ever done for me."

His poor little ball of darkness now looked so thoroughly confused (and slightly disturbed!). "But... you've cried so much? Will, just look at the state you're in now," Nico said, frowning deeply. And Will understood— he probably looked a mess, sticky tear tracks on his cheeks, bloodshot eyes, his hair sweaty and bunching at odd angles because of how many times he'd run his hands through it just to have something to do with them.

"Well, yes, because my brother died, and I miss him," Will admitted. It had been so long, over a decade now, and there was still that twinge of pain in his heart. Not just for Michael, but also Lee and everyone else... it wasn't something Will ever thought he would "get over," even if he had moved on with his life, and no one understood that better than Nico, which is why Will knew he would understand this.

His lower lip trembled, and before he could even attempt to hold it in, he was crying again. But he was with one person out of few in the world who would absolutely not judge him for it, so he let the tears fall. "But it's never felt right... that we never found him, you know?" he continued the thought. "That we had a burial ceremony with no body. Sometimes when I'm in the city, I stop near the bridge and wonder, and it still hurts."

He wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand, sniffling. "But now... you brought him back. You brought him home."

Overcome with emotion, Will sprung from his seat and into his boyfriend's arms with so much momentum that Nico had to stand up himself to catch him. The blanket fell to the floor, unheeded except for the corner that remained wrapped around Will's ankle, nearly causing him to trip. But once he was within Nico's steady embrace, it no longer mattered.

"There are not enough words in the English language for me to thank you for that," Will managed to say through repeated sobs, burying his face in the crook where Nico's neck met his shoulder, unconcerned that his tears were getting the fabric of his t-shirt wet. Nico wasn't bothered either, content to rest his head against Will's matted curls and whisper soft Italian words into his ear as he rubbed his back consolingly.

They remained entwined this way for a few minutes, until Will's crying began to subside. "You don't need to thank me," Nico said in a hushed murmur. "I didn't even know this would happen."

Will shook his head and pulled back, just enough so he could look at Nico as he spoke. "It only happened because you care about me so much," he said, with a sniffle and a watery smile. "You might think you don't do enough for me, but Nico, I'm so blessed to have you in my life. I don't know what I would do without you."

Nico cradled Will's face in his hands and wiped the last few stray tears from his cheeks. "You'll never have to know. I'll always be here for you, okay?"

Will nodded. "Me too." He leaned forward to press a kiss on his boyfriend's lips. Just a soft, tender one he hoped conveyed all the love in his heart more than words ever could.

As they pulled back, Nico guided him back to his chair, picking the blanket off the floor before either of them stepped on it. "Just sit and try to calm down now. Do you want me to get you some of Chiron's chamomile? It's been an eventful afternoon." Will nodded, doing as he suggested and wrapping the blanket back around his shoulders. Nico kissed the crown of his head again. "I'll be right back."

He turned toward the door in the back of the room, the one that would lead him to the kitchen. As Will watched him go, his gaze slipped down to the small box still sitting pretty on the table, and before he even realized what he was doing, he blurted out: "Nico, wait."

His boyfriend dutifully stopped maybe a step or two away from the doorframe and glanced back at him over his shoulder, expectant. And Will just— he just loved him so much, so of course he said, "Ask me."

Nico turned fully toward him. "Ask you what?" The puzzled furrowed brow was back, only softer in a way that made him look adorable.

Will smiled, as charmed as he was on their very first day together, and nudged the box with the tips of his fingers. "Ask me."

Nico's expression slackened in surprise. "But you said... it wasn't the right—"

"—the right time? Yeah, I was wrong," Will admitted without an ounce of sheepishness. He could not hold back a broad grin, and he didn't even want to. "It's always the right time when I'm with you."

Maybe his beam was contagious, or maybe Nico just thought Will was a giant sap and found it amusing, because he smiled in return— the kind of smile Will adored but Nico rarely showed anyone else, small but bright, soft and relaxed in a way Nico rarely allowed himself to be, the gleam in his dark eyes belying the joy that fizzed inside his chest.

"All right," he said, and approached the table once again. He picked up the ring box and turned it over in his hand to look at it from all angles before meeting Will's eager gaze. "I'm not going to kneel. I've been using my powers all afternoon and if I take a knee, I might not get back up for a while—"

Will shook his head emphatically. "That's okay. I'll get you a KitKat with your tea," he promised with a chuckle. It only just occurred to him that he never finished cooking, so neither of them had had lunch. No wonder his poor boyfriend was completely zapped from using his powers. They should probably eat something soon.

He stood, securing the blanket around himself as Nico opened the box. Inside, there was a simple ring— a yellow gold band with a flush-set, oval-shaped sunstone at the top, glowing blue like a bright summer sky when each delicate beam of his father's own sunlight refracted through it. It was understated and unobtrusive and beautiful, and exactly what he would've chosen for himself, and the fact that his boyfriend knew that was what truly made it perfect.

Nico reached for Will's hand, gave it a squeeze, then took a deep breath. He still held the ring box in his other hand, and Will was astounded his hold was steady, even though he was clearly nervous. It was a good thing Will wasn't the one doing the asking; he'd be a complete mess. Hades, he was trying so hard not to burst into tears as it was, he couldn't even imagine having to actually make the speech.

But Nico being Nico, he wasted no words; he just made it short, sweet, and heartfelt. "Will, I love you more than anything in this world and beyond," he declared, misty dark eyes glancing up at him, full of emotion. "And it would make me the happiest person alive... if you would marry me."

And because Will could not contain his elation, he had found himself nodding before Nico even formulated the request. "Well, that's convenient, since you already make me the happiest person alive," he responded before the words even had time to settle. "Of course I'll marry you." He leaned down to kiss his fiancé— his fiancé!— deeply. When he pulled back, it was with a loud whoop. "You bet your ass I'll marry you!"

Nico rolled his eyes at that, but there was affection in the gesture. "...Don't make it weird."

"Oh, I'm weird? After the day we've had?" Will shook his head. Nico conceded the point with an unconcerned shrug, then pulled the ring out of the jewelry box so he could help Will put it on.

Once it was securely fastened on his finger, Will couldn't stop staring at it. He turned his hand this way and that, testing how the light refracted through the sunstone.

"It's beautiful," he whispered. Then, a stray thought occurred to him. "Wait, this is not, like... cursed or something, is it? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd still wear it, but I would prefer to know, just in case—"

"Oh, yes," Nico replied in his signature deadpan, but Will could see that he was holding back laughter. "A terrible curse of having to be by my side for the rest of your life."

"Well, I'd hardly call that a curse, darlin'. I would've done that regardless." He pulled Nico in by the waist, and they kissed leisurely, passionately, luxuriating in each other and this moment that spelled the beginning of a lifetime commitment.

When they pulled back, they fell into a tight embrace. "Oh, I have to call my mother to tell her," Will mumbled into Nico's neck, more to himself than to his newly minted fiancé (and boy, was he never going to get tired of calling him that!). Then, he pulled back with a gasp. "You have to call Hazel! She'll kill you if she finds out about this from someone else..."

Nico seized him gently with both hands on his upper arms, directing Will's gaze to meet his. "Hey. Slow down," he cautioned before Will could fly off on a tailspin. "First, we'll give Michael his well-deserved hero's burial. Then, we'll start planning a wedding. Alright?"

"Yeah." Will nodded, glad beyond measure that the man he loved could steady him by his mere presence at his side. It was truly miraculous. "I love you," he whispered. He pressed his forehead against Nico's, breathed in and out evenly, and closed his eyes.

"I love you, too," his beloved whispered in return, and they remained in that position for a few minutes more, hearts beating in harmony in hopes to stretch what little time they had before they had to go back outside and face the real world again.

Thankfully, they would always do that together.