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Nico hated Will Solace.
He was too happy. In a fake way.
He spent every moment being extroverted and outgoing and selfless and amicable. It pissed Nico off.
He’d seen him walk away from a conversation and just sigh, rubbing his face and slumping into a chair when (he thought) no one was looking.
Okay. Hated was a bit of a strong word… he just couldn’t tolerate him. A deep disliking.
No one was actually that willing to put down everything he was going at the drop of a hat. Nico knew Will was excited to build his new Lego set for weeks… because he kept talking about it, obviously… and finally found a few free hours to work and—
Kayla forgot it was her shift in the infirmary and was out of camp with some friends. No one else wanted to step in. So they called Will.
And Will just did it. Nico thought it was kind of a pussy thing to do, not standing up for himself.
Not anything against pussies. Some of the most strong people in his life were women. It was a turn of phrase.
The thing with Nico was, the things he said yes to were because he had to. If he didn’t, people would die.
Not that the infirmary isn’t important but… surely you could just ask someone else every once in a while? There were no critical injuries, Nico knew because he was there this morning.
(He broke his wrist brace. Don’t ask him how. He somehow did it so wrong it ceased to work. Shut up.)
And he was always just so smiley. It was almost eerie. No one smiled that much when their favorite breakfast was served, or when someone finally made a bullseye in archery.
Anyway. Nico hated Will.
***
Will hated Nico di Angelo.
The guy put no effort into actually being nice or welcoming to anyone.
He got it. Everyone here had some sort of trauma. But you didn’t have to make it miserable for everyone else, too.
He walked in and acted like everyone else having fun was offensive in some convoluted way.
Will wasn’t even asking for him to be happy all the time just stop being a damn party pooper, literally. He’s snapped at enough people for him to be notorious as such.
Okay, and if he can excuse a rotten attitude, does the guy just not get social cues at all?
He’ll sit in the corner and watch you for forty minutes. When you’re hinting hey, maybe it’s time to go he just won’t get it.
It doesn’t even matter if he gets it anyway. He always is the first to leave for some stupid reason like Hades needs him on an errand early in the morning or he left his dishwasher on. He doesn’t even know how to use a dishwasher in the first place.
Nico di Angelo pisses him off.
Anyway. Will hated Nico.
***
It was during their normal camp activity meeting it all went crashing down.
Nico was sitting in his same spot he sat in every time, second row from the front so he could hear everything but also with people shielding him from the front-front. All the way on the right edge.
Will Solace had given his spot up from where he normally sat front left to another new kid who wanted to see everything first hand. Now he was sitting in the back.
Nico had scoffed because, seriously? In the back it was harder to hear and see. He wasn’t forced to change his spot or anything.
“—and this month’s camp bonding activity is—“
He stamped his feet for a mock drumroll.
“A photo scavenger hunt!”
Most people liked the bonding activities. It meant a week where instead of an extra lame class they got to run about with a friend.
Nico was preparing to make an excuse for why he couldn’t participate—Oh, Chiron, you won’t believe it—I was just trying so hard to find a partner and I fell and twisted my ankle which is oh so battered from my years of war, it appears I cannot participate in such lovely festivities.
(Lying was okay if it wasn’t that harmful, right?)
Until Chiron uttered the words “assigned partners.”
Fuck.
***
Will knew he was screwed the moment he walked up to the front and found his name and—his partner was none other than Nico di Angelo.
He was sitting in the same spot he always did—seriously, always. One time he skipped a meeting because someone sat in that chair and he didn’t want to find a new one.
He does that constantly. He’s always rude and blunt but never actually tells anyone what’s wrong when it seems ‘important’ and just sulks when they don’t guess.
Will tried to be friendly to everyone. He really did. But he couldn’t muster a convincing smile when he had to saddle up to Nico to wait for their camera.
They had a unique list consisting of 5 activities they had to do together and photograph in order to complete it. If they didn’t, they had to do the bottom-of-the-totem-pole chores around camp.
“So,” Will tried. “Our list says we need to: Bake something, go on a hike somewhere out of camp, both shoot a bullseye, join in on one mortal class somewhere, and… have a sleepover.”
He barely masked a scowl at the last one. He turned back to Nico.
“Look at me. Are you even listening?”
Nico had been twiddling his thumbs and looking at the ground the entire time. His gaze flickered to Will only momentarily, as usual. “Yes. I heard.”
“Okay, then repeat them back.” Will challenged.
“I- baking. And, hiking. Um… fuck… something with mortals…”
“I told you you weren’t listening.”
Nico, honest to the gods, looked like he was about to stomp his foot. What a brat. “I can’t- you said them so fast I couldn’t-“
Nico sneered. “Give me that.” He snatched the list.
Will huffed. This week would be hell, they had to complete the scrapbook by Sunday evening, and it was Monday morning.
This week. Was going to be. Hell.
***
Nico could already tell this week was hell the moment that Will Solace came banging on his door at 8 a.m sharp.
“Imgun’a fuggin’ smite yew’” Nico yelled from his spot still buried under his pillow. Yes, under.
Insomnia was a bitch and he fell asleep at 5 in the morning. The sun was already up when he finally closed his eyes for more than 3 seconds.
“Sun’s up, bun’s up, buttercup!” The artificially sweetened voice rang out. Apparently this Will guy had decided to ‘be nice’ or whatever. Nico would get him to show his true colors.
Will kept knocking on the door. Nico finally had enough and jumped up from bed and opened it. “Fuck you want?”
“I heard the Hades cabin had a kitchen. Apparently like eight other groups had this as their first activity too and the kitchen’s packed.” Will raised a brow. Nico took it as Will thinking he was too weak for a bit of elbow pushing.
(He’d probably have a stupid tantrum again if he had to cohabitate with sixteen others in the tiny kitchen. It had happened before. At least he had shadow travel so no one could see.)
Nico rolled his eyes. “You’re up too damn early.” He went back to his bed to begin putting on his various braces for his knees, ankles, and elbows. His wrists felt okay… so far. “If we gotta do this might as well get it done early.”
“Take your shoes off.” Nico said, feeling a bud of anxiety spike when Will went towards the kitchen without doing so.
“You’re so damn picky.” Will murmured, toeing his shoes off and throwing them vaguely in the shoe area.
“Golden boy cursed, what ever shall we do.” Nico rolled his eyes, straining to get them tight enough. A difficult feat when your fingers could use braces themselves, goddamn.
He’d feel embarrassed doing this in front of anyone but he gave the least fucks about this doctor.
Will didn’t even dignify him with a reply and just began rummaging through his shit. “Where’s your mixing bowl.”
“I’ll get it myself, hold your horses cowboy.” Oh, Nico was gonna love pushing Will’s buttons. If he had to do this he was at least going to have fun.
Will ignored him again and leaned against the counter with visible effort of keeping a neutral face. Not as sunny as when he came in, eh?
Nico reached down to a cabinet and pulled out his stack of mixing bowls. “What are we making?”
“I figured cookies would be quick and easy.”
“I don’t have chocolate chips.”
“Peanut butter cookies?”
“No peanut butter.”
“Sugar?”
“I have no ingredients besides ramen and nine fruits in my fridge.”
Will threw his hands up. “Why didn’t you start with that when I came in?!”
Nico shrugged. “You didn’t ask.” He leaned against his counter and crossed his arms, a sly grin on his face. It was the only time you’d see his face in anything other than neutral or a scowl—when he was pushing buttons. Literal or metaphorical.
“Oh my God.” Will stomped out of the cabin, shoving his feet back in his shoes. “I’ll be back. Preheat the damn oven, recipe is on the counter.”
As if, Nico retorted mentally.
He went to grab a drink of water. Oops.
Spilled. Ruh-roh. How sad. What an accident.
Nico threw a towel over it and went to take his morning meds before deciding to wait in his bean bag for Will to get back. Oven still non-pre-heated.
Yeah. Will was livid when he got back.
***
Will was going to throttle the boy.
Maybe he could drop his toothbrush on the bathroom floor. Maybe he could move his furniture an inch to the right so he kept tripping. Maybe he could accidentally trip him. Maybe he could hide his braces—
No. Too far. He was a doctor, he wouldn’t do that. That’s morally wrong anyway.
Upon walking in with a bag full of every ingredient they’d need for cookies, he saw his recipe paper soaked on the counter.
And the oven wasn’t on.
“Nico.” He took a deep breath to calm the rage steaming from his ears.
“Yuuup?” Nico drawled, tapping two rocks together in a bean bag chair.
“What the fuck is wrong with you.”
Nico grinned. “C’mon, Doctor Sol—“
“You soaked my paper on purpose.”
“Aww, I’d never—“
“Oh my GOD.” Will threw his hands up again, slamming the bag on the counter—Nico flinched slightly out of the corner of his eye, but Will didn’t notice.
“I’m trying to be helpful. No one- oh my word. Just get over here and cook.”
Nico pulled himself up with the table nearby and strolled over, finger grazing the corner of the counter. “Fine. Read the list.”
“You do it.”
“Can’t. Dyslexia.”
Will pointed a glare at him. Nico put his hands up and said “Truly.”
Will turned his gaze down. Don’t react, don’t react.
Will knew intuitively that Nico was probably just looking for a reaction. Or was just genuinely an asshole. He was kind of leaning towards the latter.
Will listed the ingredients and what Nico would need to do—flour, salt, and baking powder in small bowl. Two cups flower, two tablespoon salt, teaspoon baking powder. Then 2 eggs, 2 sticks of butter…
He was halfway through when he saw Nico frozen with only a cup of flour in the bowl. God, he tried to start and didn’t even wait to listen.
Will dropped the bag of chocolate chip cookies on the counter. He held his face in his hands and counted to ten. “We’re going at this one step at a time apparently since you can’t listen first.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “Whatever you want Mr. Perfect.”
Will was going to lose his shit.
***
It’s fine. It’s fine. Will was just reading too fast.
They got through the first step, then onto the big bowl of wet ingredients. While trying to compact the brown sugar in the cup though, Nico ended up hurting his wrist due to his lack of brace.
“Fuck- ow. Will, finish that.”
Will had been begrudgingly stirring it up because Nico hadn’t done it for the exact reason, trying not to hurt his wrist.
Nico could see that Will went to say something but just ignored him in the end.
He hadn’t meant to hurt his wrist. Genuinely. But might as well piss him off while he was at it.
“Ugh. It’s already so hot in here with the oven just preheating. I’m gonna go get a fan.
It wasn’t hot. Nico was cold, like always. He put a hoodie on while he was grabbing the fan.
He could tell Will noticed and smirked while his back was turned and setting it up so it would blow right on them.
Will sighed deeply but kept his silence.
Then they were mixing the ingredients and they began to fly everywhere because of the fan. Nico turned it off only because, ew, dust everywhere. Not worth it.
Nico kept pouring while Will stirred, uncomfortable silence weighing heavy between them.
That went okay. Nico grabbed the chocolate chips to pour them in. He was kind of ready to be done, now Will was just playing the ignoring game and it wasn’t fun.
He didn’t realize Will had already opened them. He genuinely didn’t. When he tried to open the other side, they all poured out. Every one, on the counter and floor.
He gasped and jumped back, avoiding their spray the next he could.
That is what made Will upset.
“NICO!” Will stepped back too and yelled. “What the FUCK is wrong with you!?” He screamed again.
“All you’ve done this entire time is try to make me mad and piss me off!” He grabbed the camera and took a picture of the mess and slammed it on the counter. “You’re an asshole, di Angelo. Finish the cookies yourself.”
He… didn’t mean to do that. He stared at the chips, scattered across his whole kitchen counter and floor.
He didn’t mean to.
He wanted the cookies.
It was an accident.
Will slammed the door and left.
***
Will noticed Nico wasn’t at lunch, nor did he show up for dinner or anytime in between.
Will would’ve felt bad if it was literally anyone else. Frankly, Nico had it coming for him. Maybe Will blew up, but Nico was being an asshole.
Sure. The other stuff was done to piss him off. But he actually sabotaged the bake by dumping those chocolate chips everywhere. He seemed to do everything possible just to make others miserable at this point and Will was his guinea pig.
Will owed him for everything he did during the wars. He, objectively, did a lot. That was respectable.
But any respect he could’ve given was lost when he made the choice to be a jerk in everything he did. Like he said—he had it coming for him at this point.
Not that it would even matter that Nico finished it by himself. Neither of them had been in any of the pictures before, if anything just a hand. They were supposed to take at minimum 5 pictures per activity on the instant print camera they all received.
“Hey Kayla, can you go make sure Nico isn’t starving himself in his cabin or something.” Will asked his sister, still scribbling his signature on some paperwork.
“What’s up with the attitude change?” She asked, finishing cutting her pile of bandages to do her new task. “You’re never that—well, mean.”
Maybe I can be mean sometime, oh my God Kayla, I can’t be Nice Will all the time he almost said.
Instead: “He was an asshole while I was trying to work with him on our first activity.”
Kayla shrugged. “Not surprised. What did he even do?”
“I don’t even wanna talk about it.”
***
Nico had finished the cookies… mostly with one hand, because his left wrist—his dominant hand, dammit—was basically out of order even with the brace. Of course.
He spent hours stressing over a hiking spot he could access, stressing over the next six days, stressing over cleaning his kitchen, stressing over having to leave his cabin.
He was basically having an anxiety fit when Kayla had checked on him at 6:30 to ask if he wasn’t going to eat dinner. He thought it was 2 p.m.
He almost passed out from dehydration while trying to get to the dining pavilion. Major fuck up, because then Kayla forced him to the infirmary to get a Gatorade and monitored to at least drink a bottle of water.
Nico had hidden in a corner and chugged the thing and left immediately. He was not doing that today.
To quote Leo: Fuck This Shit I’m Out.
Eventually he fell asleep at 4 a.m this time—improvement—and woke up at 9. Because the sun woke him up and no point in going back to sleep at that point. 5 hours would have to do, even as his joins screamed merch for him.
He wanted to do K-tape. Just wanted to. But nooo. Never let Nico go the easy route, never. So to braces he goes.
He thought he might have to bring out the crutches today, but tried for just the cane. Gods, it was their hiking day.
Speaking of, Nico had a list of 17 hiking spots across the US that would be suitable for him. No extreme steep hills, favorable weather with no recent rain, less than two hours of path.
The issue was his writing in English sucked. He knew this. He couldn’t even read his own handwriting in Italian, let alone English.
Will’s problem now.
He dropped it on the infirmary desk with Will’s name on it and left—or tried. Because in typical fashion, slammed into the chest of the taller blond and slammed his hip against the sharp edge of the table.
“FUCK! Bitch.” Nico rubbed his temple as Will was massaging his collarbone where it had just been smacked.
Will just sighed deeply. “What are you even doing here, di Angelo.”
“Back to last names, now are w-“
“Stop being a dick or leave.”
Nico stared at the ground. He pointed at the folded paper on the desk. “I wrote down locations we could go hiking.”
“Oh.” Will seemed shocked. He scratched the back of his neck. “I figured we’d just like, find the nearest one on Google maps or something.”
“No.” Nico shook his head. “I searched. Closest ones are not good. For me.” He knew Will knew all about his physical restrictions considering he did the paperwork for everything and did half the exams himself.
Who’da thunk that years of wars, homelessness, malnutrition, and underlying joint and connective tissue disorders would’ve had an effect on a person. Astounding.
Will walked around to his desk to look at it and—immediately put it down. “I’m a doctor. I can’t even read this.”
“Not a doctor. You’re a camp nurse, informally trained-“
“Get out.”
“I was just correctin-“
“I said.” Will pinched the bridge of his nose.
Fuck.
***
Will spent thirty minutes hovering over the notes and was able to decode 9 of the 17 suggestions. He looked at one and just decided to go with it, it was somewhere in the south. Will needed to make sure to bring bug spray.
Around lunch he’d packed a backpack of things they might need. Not much—just drinks, snacks, and such. It was supposed to be a quick hike, all of the places Will saw were short or had short paths.
Nico had a plate and was sitting alone. Because he was just so much better than anyone else of course. If anyone tried to sit with him he just ignored them or moved to a different deserted table.
He used to sit with Percy, sometimes Annabeth, and Jason. But Percy was in college now with Annabeth, and Jason would be in New Rome for four more months.
Whatever. Not my problem. He’s only done it to himself.
“We’re going to this one.” Will announced, pointing to the twelfth one on the list.
“Which ones that?”
“It’s your notes.”
“I can’t read.”
Will pinched the bridge of his nose. “You literally wrote it.”
“Um.” Nico looked away from Will entirely.
Will stood expectantly.
“I kinda. Sounded the words out and guessed the letters.”
That made a lot of sense. Like, a lot. There were six consonants in a row and four vowels, twice.
“No wonder it looks like a five year old wrote it.”
“Soo nice, Solace. What a nice boy you are.”
Will could’ve smacked him off the chair he sat in. “You asked for this. You kept provoking me all day and ruined our cookies. Where even are they?”
Nico looked down again, not that he really looked at Will in the first place. God, he never did. Always looked somewhere else like Will’s word weren’t even important enough to be worth paying a lick of attention to.
“I finished them. I didn’t mean to drop the chocolate chips.”
“Sure. Whatever. We’re gonna leave in a half hour. Being ambrosia for after your shadow travel. I’m not carrying your dead weight the entire hike.
***
This was what Nico asked for. He knew. But he wanted Will to be mad at him for something he did on purpose, not a mistake he made.
He didn’t mean to. He didn’t mean to.
He wishes he could take it back. Had just opened his eyes to see it was already fully open. Rewinded just two seconds to not send them hurtling across the tile.
He scooped the ones off the counter into the bowl, and now they were sitting on the counter in a jar with no use besides for Nico to sneak one every few hours.
They’d just shadow traveled and Nico was sitting and resting post-teleportation. He had a granola in one hand, Gatorade in the other, hoodie on but fan blowing, and legs elevated. It helped to have a trained medic supporting him, even if they hated each others guts.
Will may hate him but at least he did his medics duty. Nico wasn’t rushed or made to be a burden… it was like Will had separated his physical condition from his social relationship.
It kind of surprised Nico. He wouldn’t have been shocked if Will just left Nico to go do his own thing because Nico was being slow. A pleasant or unpleasant surprise, he didn’t know, because now Nico had to endure him when he already had a headache.
“Why didn’t you bring any Tylenol.” He whined.
“You didn’t ask me to.” Will glared at him. “If you wanted it you should’ve brought some.”
“You’re the medic, I thought you always had some on you.” Nico retorted, beginning to stand up and gather himself with his cane. He chucked the wrapper in the nearby trash can and pocketed the leftover Gatorade.
Will scoffed. He took a picture of the archway to the hiking trail, still purposefully not taking pictures with either of them in it.
(They were technically ‘supposed to’. Both of them blissfully ignored that rule.)
Gods, his knees already ached. He had his braces on, all of them this time, but still found himself favoring his left leg slightly. He hoped that this hike went fast.
***
Will wishes he could be doing anything else with his afternoon. It wasn’t hot, but there were bugs everywhere and it was a bit more humid than he was used to. Not to mention he had to be here with a certain someone.
At least he was keeping pace with Will so far. Least he wanted was to have to drag his feet waiting.
Purposefully going slow would definitely be the kind of thing Nico would do.
But despite that thought, Nico was steady going. Maybe even faster than Will when they were in areas without roots and hills.
He noticed that Nico almost seemed to brace before stepping up or over things, not after. And he was leaning so heavily on his cane at times that Nico wondered why he didn’t just bring his forearm crutches, it looked like he needed them.
They were about to get to a downhill slope and—
Nico tripped.
Well, he didn’t even trip. His knee just gave out suddenly mid step, maybe he twisted his foot slightly.
Either way, he was rapidly closing in on the ground.
Will shot forward and grabbed him to stop him from tumbling the entire way down, but he flinched away.
“Nico,” Will helped him sturdy, but the boy was trying to shrink away from his hands. “Seriously? I’m just helping you. Oh my gosh.”
Will let go of him suddenly and Nico wobbled. “You don’t let anyone help you but you sulk when you don’t get your way, what do you even want?”
Nico looked like he wanted to argue back, but he couldn’t even make his posture straighten or eyes meet Will’s.
“Fuck. Let’s just keep moving and get to the top and be done.”
They still had forty minutes of hiking left if Will had to guess.
All of the trails that Will was able to look over seemed pretty thoughtfully picked. Yes, while this one had inclines and roots, it wasn’t too much. And it was a shorter trail at only a two and a half hours to the top and back, but they were just going to shadow travel back home at the top.
After that though, Nico was visibly limping. “Fuck,” Will echoed. He scanned the sides of the path for the next minute of walking and finally found something satisfactory.
“Here.” Will said, plucking off a few stray twigs. It was a branch, about the size of Nico’s other cane, thick and sturdy enough to lean on.
Nico set a long gaze on him. “Why are you giving me this.”
“You can’t keep hiking like that and apparently you’re too good for me to even touch you, so take it.” Will knew Nico wouldn’t accept just that, so: “You’re just slowing us down. The faster we get to the top the faster we’re done for the day.”
Nico scoffed loudly and took it. At least he wasn’t as much of a fall risk anymore.
It seemed that that rejuvenated his energy though, because he kept stopping on the trail to examine things. Or whine for the camera so he could take nature photos.
At some point he’d become verbal about it.
“Oh, look, there’s a cicada husk thing.”
“Oh, look, there’s a big rock.”
“Oh, look, there’s a butterfly chrysalis.”
“Oh, look, there’s an opossum track.”
Will figured this was how mothers felt when their kids kept calling “mom mom mom”, but at least Will could actually ignore them without being a neglectful parent.
Nico wandered off path because he thought he saw a butterfly. For fuck’s sake.
Then—“FUCK!”
Followed by a loud thud.
Will called “Nico?” as he followed the path he had just taken.
A soft “Fuck, fuck, ow, sh-“ was heard through some foliage. When Will made through, Nico had his foot caught under some thick vines and he was on the ground.
The medic in Will kicked on. He rounded to the front of Nico and took in more of the situation—the stick he’d been using had broken the tip off and would be too short now. His actual cane was fine, just covered in mud. Nico didn’t appear to have hit his head, but he had a set of scratches from bushes on his arm in addition to the leg.
Nico was tenderly sitting himself up, leg extended in front of him.
“Can you stand on it?”
“I don’t know, Sherlock, I haven’t tried.”
Will sighed, something so deep from his chest it could’ve come up from his toes. “I don’t wanna be helping a whiny brat in the middle of the forest any more than you probably want to be one. Not the brat part, just the needing help in a forest.”
Nico obviously took some form of pleasure from being a brat. “Now help me here.”
He held out his hand and Nico took it, letting himself he pulled up to his feet silently. He hissed the moment it bore any weight at all. He was gingerly able to let it touch the ground, but any walking would be impossible.
They both reached the same conclusion at the same time. Will sighed again.
“Arm over, come on. You know the drill.” Will sidled up and held most of Nico up under his arms, trying to arrange it so Nico could just walk with his good (better) (less bad) leg.
“I’ll just use my cane—“
Will hardened a stare on him. Nico relinquished and tilted his head down.
Will grabbed the cane and gave it back but Nico ew’d at the texture of the mud. He shook his hand off and wiped it with his shirt before grabbing on again.
Finally they were moving again, this time slower. The silence was killing Will without Nico’s jut ins of stupid things he kept finding. Not that Will wasn’t mentally active either, he just wasn’t as invested in every little turn of nature.
“Do you have any powers that others don’t know about?”
Nico snorted quietly. “What kind of question is that.”
“I don’t know.” Will shrugged. “We’re out here alone, we have to keep walking for like a half hour and… you may be an asshole but I’d feel like one too if I kept being one while you literally can’t walk.”
Will hummed when Nico didn’t answer for a few seconds. “Like I said, you’re a fucking asshole who doesn’t even try to have social skills. But you didn’t choose to have… I dunno, all these joint issues. At least I know you aren’t exaggerating those.”
“Oh, I do. Only when I want to get out of team bonding exercises though.” Nico chuckled darkly. “I was gonna try to get out of this one, but when Chiron said we had assigned partners I knew I had no shot.”
“Wow.” Will hummed. “Answer the question.”
“You first.”
“Oh my fuc- fine. I can glow.”
“What!?” Nico looked up at Will, eyes wide. “Really?”
Will smiled uneasily. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Nico cleared his throat. “Um- sorry. Yeah. That’s. A thing.” He looked away. “Nothing special.”
Will nudged Nico’s hip with his own. “What’s yours.”
“It’s embarrassing.” Nico his his face in his shoulder.
“So’s glowing. Cough it up.”
“Ew.” Nico looked at him again like he was crazy. “No. Why would I cough it up? I don’t think that’s even possible. My powers are embedded in, like, my soul. I don’t think I can cough just one up without dying.”
Will was confused now too. “What are you even talking about? It’s a phrase.”
“Huh?” Nico asked. “English is weird.”
“I heard one of Italian’s insults is literally pig-dog, you’re no better.”
“Americans say “it’s raining cats and dogs.” I got scared when I first moved here because people kept saying that.”
Will couldn’t help the little laugh that escaped him. “Oh my gods, did you go outside to try to find the cats and dogs too?”
“Shut up!” Nico smacked Will’s side in what would’ve been a joking way if it didn’t actually hurt.
“Ow!” Will sidestepped and caused Nico to stumble, making him ‘ow’ too.
“You still haven’t answered the stupid question.” Will proposed.
“Fine.” He grumbled. “I… can tell how old rocks and things are when I touch them. Like, this internal clock. I know exactly how old each part or layer of it is. Rocks, stones, gems, all of it.”
“That’s cool.” Will said, totally honestly. It actually was.
Nico blinked in disbelief. “Really?”
Will nodded surely. “You’re walking right now, can you feel how old every little piece of dirt is?”
“Not quite. It’s not my bare skin so I can’t tell. But it’s like… it’s not that it’s blaring in my mind, it’s just that I can access it. Like a memory almost that reminds me This rock is 80 million years old.”
They ended up talking… actually, almost peacefully the entire way up. It was when they made it to the top that the awkward silence set in again. “Well.” Will started.
“Well.” Nico echoed. He grabbed the camera and shuffled slightly, trying to get a good view of the peak.
After he took the photo, he looked around before asking another question. “Should we show what happened? …It was kind of funny. In hindsight. Might make a good scrapbook entry.”
Will nodded and set Nico on the bench at the top, stepping back. Nico told him not to get his face in it and crop it so it was just his body with his leg propped up and slightly swollen on the seating. He chuckled and did as told, crouching and angling it so his head was cut off.
“There. Uh. Ready to go back?”
“Yeah,” Nico hummed, extending a hand. Will took it and they were launched through the shadows.
***
It was the next day and Nico was kind of terrified.
He’d taken ambrosia which had made his knees mostly better, but today was archery.
In an additional notes part of their list it said that they both had to shoot a bullseye from 50 meters away.
Will did fine. He completed it on the third try.
Nico… well. He wasn’t as fortunate.
They’d already spent twenty minutes out there and Nico had only really grazed the target.
Will seemed half convinced that he was doing it on purpose to piss the blond off.
I mean, maybe I did for the first two or three shots… just to get his reaction… but then I realized I didn’t even need to try to be bad.
“Okay, here.” Will said, coming closer to Nico. Nico tried his best not to shrink away and it mostly worked.
Will used two fingers to fix his posture, tilting his torso this way and elbow just as such.
Nico’s elbow strained from having to hold it so long and eventually his fingers lost grip while Will was telling him in a lengthy monologue how to fix himself.
“Sorry- fuck. I’m out of arrows. I’ll go grab the ones I missed.”
Wills eyes were wide, and Nico didn’t know why. He didn’t almost hit anyone, did he?—no, the fields were open and there was almost no one here.
“No, you stay, I’ll grab them. Be right back.” Will jogged off quickly.
Then Nico realized Oh, I said sorry.
That… was a first.
***
“Oh my God!” Will gasped, jumping in the air with his hands up. “NICO! You did it!!”
Nico finally made a bullseye an hour and a half later.
He wanted to quip something sarcastic, make an annoying comment about how it was of no help of Will’s. (A lie.)
But when he looked over, Will was grinning and—oh.
It felt… good.
***
The next argument came when trying to plan for joining a mortal class.
Will wanted to do a charcoal sketch at this one studio who was hosting beginners to come in for $20 a piece, and they’d have a live guy posing for two hours.
Nico wanted to do pottery at this other place on the other side of town that was going at almost the same time as the sketch.
“I don’t like charcoal sketching.”
“Well too bad! You chose the place for hiking, I get to choose the class-“
“That was because I didn’t wanna kill myself on a hike I couldn’t do.”
“And yet you still decided to go off path and twist your ankle.” Will argued back.
“That was not my fault!”
“Yes it was! All you literally had to do was just not go chasing after some stupid butterfly and you would’ve been fine.”
Nico huffed and turned away from Will.
“Wow, pouting now? What’s new. Give me a twenty and I’ll get us slots for this class.”
“I said no!” Nico seemed oddly persuasive about this. Almost defensive.
“Well why not?” Will tried, his tone rising further into anger. “Give me a good reason why the hell we shouldn’t.”
Will actually had a prick of worry trickle into his conscious when Nico turned further away from him, stomping his foot and flapping his hands before pressing them firmly over his ears.
What…?
He was breathing fast and had his eyes squeezed shut when he faced Will again. “The sound of the charcoal. It’s—it’s loud. And bad. And—“
He’s not…
Nico looked genuinely stressed as he continued. “And they expect you to go fast for sketches and the person moves and you’re not finished and they move on and you can’t remember how it was and-“
This isn’t just…
“Hey,” Will interrupted him, awkward now. Now he felt like the asshole.
“We can… figure out a different one. I don’t want do to pottery still but maybe there’s another we can join.”
Nico wiped his face with one of his hands, the other bending under his chin comfortingly. “Fuck- fuck- sorry. I haven’t- I didn’t mean to throw a tantrum like that.”
That concerned Will more, but he didn’t say anything. He sat at his desk and sighed, looking online through his infirmary-only janky computer. He did want to do the charcoal, but Nico expressed that that was stressful. Both verbally and physically.
A bit of searching later and he found a painting class for a still life setting that the other art studio would provide. $15 entry fee and to bring your own canvas, but they’d provide paint.
Will called over to Nico who was currently going through their photos for the scrapbook, head hung and fingers hiding in hoodie sleeves. “Neeks, whatcha think of still life painting instead?”
Nico furrowed his brow and open-shut his mouth a few times, reminiscent of a fish. “The fuck you just call me?”
Ha. Finally something I can annoy him with. “Oh nothing. Just a nickname.”
Nico was about to retort but seemed to think better with the sharp, sly glint in Will’s eyes. “Sounds fine…”
“Okay, I need fifteen bucks and we’ll run somewhere to get a canvas beforehand.”
“Whatever…”
5pm rolled around and they were getting set up in their station. Will made sure to snap a quick picture of their blank canvases and the reference before beginning.
The runners of the event had music playing, and only a few people of the dozen or so in the room were talking. Nico and Will certainly weren’t.
Sure, they’d talked for a bit during the hike, but really had avoided each other like usual at all other times. Prior to that argument where Nico almost had a meltdown (?) it was the most civil Will thought they’d ever been.
They didn’t necessarily go out of their way to argue, but anytime they came in contact it was glares and spitting insults. Will tried his best, genuinely, to keep the peace for the longest time, but it had recently broken at Nico’s lack of reciprocation.
Will thought that maybe he had been a bit misguided, though.
Yes. Nico genuinely was an asshole sometimes. Did things just cause he could or just to be mean. No matter the reason that was the fact, even if sometimes it wasn’t totally intentional.
But Will was slowly noticing some things.
There were a lot of things that he thought were just Additional Assholery Activities.
Like walking away when someone was still having a conversation. Or ignoring people who were very blatantly implying they wanted something. Or looking everywhere except at whoever was talking.
Throwing fits and getting angry if someone spilled something tiny on his clothes. Only giving one or two word answers.
Or, God, constantly correcting people for the tiniest things.
Will thinks he made a terrible mistake though. And listing all of those things made it painfully, painfully obvious.
He knew a big speech wouldn’t help though, so he decided to just try to be better for the future.
“What’s your favorite game?” Will asked.
“Not this again.” Nico shook his head, glancing at Will. “Are you actually asking?”
“Yes.”
“Mythomagic.”
“Mines Catan.”
***
They ended up talking about games for the next half hour straight. Well… Nico ranted about Mythomagic for a half hour straight.
(I mean, Will kept asking questions, so surely that meant he could go on?)
A kid a few tables over dropped their water cup and started crying. Nico wasn’t going to go over and help—their parents had it, it was fine. But Will had gotten up immediately and began helping.
He watched with curiousity. No one from camp was here, why was he helping? It wasn’t like they’d know he ignored the kid.
Nico spent the next while pondering that. Even though he’d been more civil with Will he had still been convinced he wasn’t actually that nice.
He acted too nice so he probably was just a normal-nice level and playing it up to be more so he was well liked, he thought. Nico thought that’s what everyone did.
He didn’t seem mad at going to help, even though that meant he had to interrupt his own painting. And the colors he was trying to blend were dry so he had to layer them again. Wasn’t he mad?
He didn’t seem to be as far as Nico could tell, and that forced him to confront some things about how fake this Solace character actually was.
Okay, but he still was too nice. He was always bending over backwards for people even when it did more than just slightly inconvenience him.
Nico was thoroughly confused where that line was.
And even more-so where his line of hating Will Solace had began to crack.
***
Now it was the sleepover portion, and Will found himself not dreading it as much as he once thought he would at the start of the week. Minus the first day… and Nico like, hurting his leg on a hike, it wasn’t… that bad.
He wouldn’t say he and Nico were friends, but that was yet. He could, honestly, see himself seeking his company sometimes.
And that wasn’t just because seeing Nico tie his hair up for painting had fulfilled any fantasies or anything.
They decided to do the Hades cabin because it would be more private and Nico said he didn’t want to have to sleep with a dozen other campers. Even more, probably, since it seems everyone’s fifth day activity was a sleepover. The Apollo cabin was notoriously a bit of a hangout spot at times.
With his pillow, blanket, toiletries, and various other games packed (he’d managed to find his old Mythomagic pack from years ago), he set off.
It was just after dinner so they wouldn’t have that much time, in theory, to spend together before sleep. He’d seen the horrors called Nico’s Eye Bags before and figured that insomnia was a battle he often lost.
Not that Will could call kettle black, he was well acquainted with the old friend insomnia as well. (Thanks, melatonin.)
When he got there, he took his shoes off immediately before Nico even finished asking.
“Oh. Um.” He stood awkwardly. “Thanks.”
Will was not one to jump to conclusions, but he’d be damned if Nico’s awkward posture was not endearing in some crooked way.
“Yep.” He dropped his stuff on the counter and went to throw his blanket and pillow on an empty bunk—there were four in the sleeping corner of the room for some reason, even though Nico and rarely Hazel were the only ones to inhabit it.
“I brought Mythomagic.” Will offered, pulling the deck from his pocket.
Nico came over wordlessly and flipped through it. He gave it back to Will.
“It’s trash.”
“What-“
“I have 17 decks you can choose from. Here.”
Nico opened a cabinet to the most playing cards he’d ever seen in his life.
***
They turned the lights off at 11:27, about the time Nico usually did. They both laid in bed and… did not sleep.
“Do you have insomnia?” Nico asked. He assumed so but he heard it was better to ask than assume.
“Yeah. I guess you do too?”
“Yes.”
Nico laid in bed thinking about what he was supposed to say next. He established they were both awake and not likely to fall asleep soon so what was the next expected course of action? Talking? Or keep trying to sleep? Exist in silence?
Will helped him with that problem.
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Why do you always insist on these silly icebreakers.” Nico said, turning on his side to face Will in the other bunk. “I don’t remember it much, but probably my mama’s cooking. All of it.”
He thought for a few moments. “Ambrosia doesn’t have a distinct taste. It just tastes like traditional Italian food, the kind she would make all of the time. And cake.”
Will laughed. “You have a sweet tooth?”
“Shh,” Nico smirked. “Tell no one.”
He didn’t know why he felt like he could open up as such. Or why, in only a few days time, he had come to think of this boy as something other than another faker in camp.
Will talked about his own favorites—lasagna and his grandmothers hotcakes. Something or another about a restaurant he went to once that had the best meatloaf ever.
Nico had wanted to listen. He tried his best.
But the warmth of his bed, the presence of another, and an even voice lulling his mind… could he truly be blamed when sleep claimed him?
***
Will didn’t know when Nico fell asleep the previous night, he just knows that he didn’t hear a scoff of humor when he said that he caught a fish once with his hands and then it jumped and hit his face.
He didn’t know how he got there, just that he had rambled on and on felt his eyes get heavier with exhaustion.
“Mm,” Will hummed, looking over to see the boy curled up and totally out of it.
He smiled just a bit and looked at the bunk above him, finally glad the week was (mostly) over. Not because he had hated it as he thought, but just because it had been a long one.
And this was the point of the bonding activities too, no? To meet new people and make friends.
He thinks he succeeded.
***
Nico woke up and did get kind of mad at Will.
Not a big argument. Just because Will turned off the alarm before it hit the ninth ring and that was wrong. But it was okay, Will said sorry and he didn’t know so he would do it right next time.
Then Will did something unexpected: he asked what else Nico needed to do for the morning.
Nico didn’t know what to say at first, but when Will gestures to keep going, he explained the things he always did—change into house clothes (different from pajamas), brush his teeth, eat one piece of buttered toast and a bowl of grapes for breakfast, and then he was done.
Will had said okay and asked if he could join. When Nico affirmed, Will asked and made sure he didn’t mess Nico up again on accident.
In other words, Nico wasn’t so sure why or how he had gone so long without this guy. It was like heaven to not have his routines interrupted but also not to be alone.
They started on the scrapbook after this, both sitting cross legged on the floor on pillows.
“Okay, so for page one we’re doing the baking—“
“You moved the piles.”
“—what?”
Nico pointed. “I lined them all up by chronology and now they’re not.”
Will looked. “Oh, yeah, I looked through them while you were finishing breakfast.
Nico nearly murdered Will Solace right there.
It was their turn to present their scrapbook on the meet-back on Monday morning.
Nico held it up and flipped the pages while Will talked. You were supposed to summarize everything in under 30 seconds since there was 82 pairs to go through today. They were 57th, so no one was really truly listening anymore.
Well. They weren’t until their names were called. It was like everyone simultaneously heard “the disaster duo, how will they kill each other on stage today?”
Everyone seemed surprised that they were even standing civilly next to one another, let alone Will was smiling as he flash-summarized the week. And Nico wasn’t scowling either.
He hadn’t actually participated in one of these activities in months and months. Being up here was nerve wracking and overall not his favorite, but it was only 30 seconds what could go wrong?
“-then when Nico chased after a butterfly on the hike he twisted his ankle and I had to carry him for hours and hours-“
Nico closed the book and smacked him across the head. “You helped me walk.” Nico opened the book back to the page and said “Continue.”
Will just laughed and continued rapid-firing.
The camp wouldn’t stop talking about it for months to come.