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"Are you coming to Percy's birthday?" Nico asked it innocently.
After all this time, Nico finally felt comfortable with Percy. They were finally friends. Even when they thought they had too much of a history behind them to be friends. Even when every single interaction between them used to be more complicated than the last. Now, they were friends.
Will was happy for Nico. He really was. Nico deserved it. He deserves everything that's good in this world. Percy had been a sensitive topic for a long time.
And now Nico was asking his boyfriend if he wanted to go with him to his friend's birthday.
The thing is, Will hates Percy Jackson's birthday.
It doesn't have to be personal, Will hates his own birthday too.
Except that it is since he doesn't like Percy Jackson either.
When Will arrived to camp for the first time, it was fall. There wasn’t that much people. End of summer, everyone going home.
He was ten and terrified but really curious.
He was claimed by Apollo a week later. His siblings used to joke about how he was the "favorite" since the god claimed him so fast.
At the start, he was really homesick, he missed his mom. But there was something about camp, something warm. It started to feel more like home than his own house.
(That made him feel guilty everytime he saw his mother again)
He had siblings. Like... many siblings. Apollo had the most claimed kids, even though, obviously, the Hermes cabin had the most people.
Lee, the best archer and the headcounselor of his cabin. His older brother.
Forever young, dead in the battle of the labyrinth protecting an unclaimed kid.
Alison, the funny girl that always would make him smile. His older sister.
Traitor. Dead in the battle of Manhattan, somewhere in the Kronos' side.
Michael, the one who taught him everything about healing. The most temperamental of their cabin and still the kindest. His older brother.
M.I.A. Fell of a falling bridge, or at least that's the theory. Fell of the bridge that Percy Jackson tore down. What was he doing there? Oh, of course, helping Percy Jackson.
And, somehow, after the battle of Manhattan, the oldest in the Apollo cabin was... twelve
Will Solace, headcounselor of the Apollo Cabin, in charge of the infirmary.
Twelve.
The battle of Manhattan took place on August 18th. Percy Jackson's sixteen birthday.
He was about to turn eighteen now.
Eighteen. But Michael would forever seventeen.
And Will knew... Will knows, it wasn't Percy's fault. How could it be? He was doomed by just being born, by fate.
He can tell Percy hates his birthday too, he hates that's marked with war. Percy had loses too.
Friends.
Innocence.
Peace.
He knows he hates his birthday as much as Will does.
But Percy Jackson is still the one who grabbed Will by the arm and made him heal Annabeth while he was searching for Michael.
Percy Jackson was still the one who hurt Nico over and over again.
Percy Jackson was still the last person who ever saw Michael alive.
So he hates him. Even if it isn't fair. Even if Percy looked at him in the eyes and apologized. Even if Will told him in wasn’t his fault.
Because it isn't. Maybe it was all Will’s fault.
If he had been better... faster...
He hated Percy Jackson. But he would never hate him more than he hates himself.
But now Nico, his beautiful boyfriend who deserves the world, is asking him to go with him. He looks happy, like he is sure Will would say yes.
Because, when had he ever said no?
Not this time apparently
"Sure, Neeks"