Will hated descending in the cold, dark dungeon.
He still remembered the time where he was training under his father, to become the head surgeon of Olympus. Before the Dark One had come to their realm, waging war and spreading chaos even worse than what the Titans or the Giants had. Before their greatest heroes had gathered to steal the Dark One's dagger, and one of them had killed them with it, knowing fully well what the consequences of such an action would be.
Percy, twice their savior, their friend, had defeated the Dark One and taken on the mantle himself.
His argument made sense—owning the dagger gave them control over the Dark One, but they wouldn't be able to hold on to it forever, and it would be safer if one of them took the powers and used them for good—but he hadn't really looked for approval before doing the deed. In a way, Will wondered if Percy had longed for the darkness—he still remembered nights when Percy had come to him to talk about the Second Titan War and Luke.
But wondering about Percy's motives was ultimately pointless. In the end, the darkness had overtaken him, as they'd all known it would. Annabeth had been the only one to see it coming—the one who knew Percy better than anyone—and she'd had a trap ready, crying even as she sprung it on Percy. Now, they were all taking turns guarding his prison, making sure he couldn't escape.
It was worth sacrificing everything else in their lives. The world wouldn't be able to take another Dark One unleashed on them.
The dungeon was in a cave under Camp Half-Blood, excavated by Hazel and secured with Annabeth and Leo's combined genius. Even then, the Dark One's power still seeped out of the celestial bronze cage at the center, turning the entire place cold and dark, extinguishing any light that wasn't constantly attended to—fires, electricity, magic, nothing worked permanently. Even the sunlight Will could create with his own powers barely reached further than a few steps around him.
Nico's shift was always the one before Will's, and the only thing Will was looking forward to when he walked down the steps was a few moments with him. A few moments of shared tension—fear even—before they returned to the surface, too busy trying to contain the Dark One's power from wrecking their world, even in its contained state. There were too many monsters to fight to think about asking someone out, these days.
"Hey," he called out when his bubble of sunlight touched the light of Nico's torch, lit with fire from the River Phlegethon. Will had never dared ask him how he'd gotten it. "Everything okay?"
Nico turned to him, his face grim as usual. "Nothing to report. He's still the same as always."
"And you? How're you holding up?"
"Same as everyone else who's taken this job, I guess. That includes you."
"Yeah, but I'm, like, the unofficial camp therapist, so if you need to talk about it—"
"I'll be fine."
"—or anything else, really—"
"Really, Will. It's okay."
Gods, he'd been on the verge of word-vomiting again. "All right. Well, you should go and rest. There's activity around camp, and I doubt you'll have a full night's sleep, but you should still get some if you can."
Nico nodded silently. "Good luck down here."
"Thanks," Will said, managing a smile—though it quickly faded when Nico turned his back on him and walked away, towards the steps.
He knew things weren't going to improve when the light surrounding him wavered, followed by a cold bout of laughter. "Oh, that felt good. It was hard to hold it when your double entendre was so corny."
Will shuddered before he even turned to the cage. It was plunged in darkness, but the celestial bronze glistened in Will's sunlight, tracing the outline of Percy, who lounged against the bars. It was rare to see him awake, these days—and Will didn't like it. To hear his friend's voice, familiar yet alien, made each word feel like a stab to the heart. It was hard enough without knowing that Percy was only awake with a good reason. And Will doubted that the monster activity outside of camp was unrelated to that reason.
"What do you want?"
"'You should get some if you can'," Percy said, parroting Will's voice, but adding a slow, sensual feeling to them. "Subtle. The way you flirt is shameful."
"That's not what that was. I didn't—"
"You know, I could probably teach you a thing or two. You could say I'm an expert at winning over Nico di Angelo's heart. Did you know he moved on from me only to fall in love all over again, when this war started? He even tried to remove the Dark One's powers with 'true love's kiss'. It was adorable." His tone was affectionate, but the laugh that followed was joyless.
Will didn't know about that last bit of information, but he wasn't surprised—they all would have tried anything that even might work. "Shut up."
"You helped me talk through my issues so many times, I assumed you'd want me to return the favor." Percy managed to sound innocent and hurt, of all things, but Will knew better than to trust that.
"Maybe when your very presence doesn't threaten the fabric of reality, we can talk about my love life."
"Or lack thereof," Percy teased.
"Whatever."
Will sat down, his back turned to Percy, and ignored his next teases. After a few minutes, Percy fell silent too, his voice replaced by a tapping—by the sound of it, Percy was hitting the stone floor of his cell with his own hand. To what purpose, Will had no idea—there was no rhythm to it, just a discordant series of noises.
It was probably Percy's intent, but he couldn't resist asking. "What're you doing?"
"Distracting myself. What else am I supposed to do, locked up in here?"
"You're going to hurt yourself."
Percy let out a chuckle—one that sounded weirdly genuine. "There's only one thing in all realms that can hurt me, and it's somewhere in the camp above us. I can sense it, you know."
Will turned to glance at Percy, and found him sitting against the bars of his cell, his back turned to Will. His hand was pressed to the ground, no longer hitting it, but Will could see the blood oozing over the rocks instead. His heart gave a painful tug at the sight. "So you're just going to harm yourself because you can? Percy, that's not—"
"Good?"
"I was going to say 'healthy'. Even if it heals, hurting yourself is a coping mechanism, but it won't solve anything."
"You know, just because you're the…'unofficial camp therapist'…doesn't mean you actually know anything about psychology."
"I know. But I do care about you." Will got on his feet, walking closer to the cage. "At least let me have a look."
When he came closer, Percy shifted to look at him, narrowing his eyes at the sunlight surrounding Will—because he was used to the dark or because he was naturally averse to light, Will had no idea. "Oh, Will," he said, pushing himself up until he was on his feet, standing a few inches shorter than Will and yet making Will feel like he was towering over him. His injured hand was still closed in a fist. "I know you won't believe it, but I'm really sorry."
"I'm not the one you should apologize to. You made that choice against everyone's opinion."
A smirk appeared on Percy's face. "I meant I'm sorry about this."
Percy's hand moved, too fast for Will to react, throwing something at him. A cry escaped his lips, then he was out.
"Will?"
Will blinked a few times, his hazy mind unable to differentiate the darkness of the cave with the one inside his closed lids. It took him a moment to understand why—when he'd passed out, his light had vanished, plunging the dungeon into absolute darkness.
"Will? Where are you? Why did you scream like that?"
Will propped himself up on his knees and elbows, recognizing the voice calling out to him moments before he saw the light of Nico's torch coming down the stairs. "I'm here," Will said, though 'here' felt like it meant little. He closed his eyes, focusing enough to generate a little sunlight. Surprisingly, it radiated around him, much farther than it usually did down here, with the Dark One so close.
He looked around, still too dizzy to stand, and found a stone shard on the ground next to him, red with blood. It took him a moment, and the feeling of something warm trickling down his forehead, to realize it was his blood. That must have been what Percy had hit him with.
"What the hell, Percy?" he mumbled, glancing at the cage—and finding it empty. "Percy?"
Will could see most of the cave from where he was, and there was nothing. Will's sunlight carrying further than usual should have warned him: the Dark One's presence, usually fighting his light, was gone. And so was Percy.
Nico reached the bottom of the stairs, and rushed the rest of the way to kneel in front of Will. "Are you okay?"
"He's escaped."
"What do you mean, 'he's escaped'?"
"Look!" Will waved at the cage. "Percy's gone. I failed at my job."
Nico glanced at the cage, but only briefly, reporting his attention to Will. He reached out a hand to Will's forehead. "You're bleeding. What happened?"
"It's nothing," Will said. "He knocked me out. I guess his whole 'snuffing out the lights' trick was a way for him to escape. Like your shadow-travel." He sighed. "Gods, I'm so stupid. If I'd just stood where I was, he couldn't have—I let him get to me. I just suck."
"Don't say that," Nico said. "You're okay. It's the most important part."
"No, it's not! It doesn't matter that I'm okay when he's—"
His words were cut off when Nico pulled him closer, pressing their lips together. His kiss was brief and forceful, an expression of repressed feelings overflowing for just a moment, before he pulled back. "It does matter."
Will stared at him in silence, too shocked to move. If he moved, he felt like this instant would be broken, and Nico would break free from his arms. "Nico—"
"I know we haven't had time to talk about…this, but—we keep dancing around the matter—and now—I thought he'd killed you—" Nico's voice died, his last few words strangled. "Look, we trapped him once, we can do it again. We may still have the dagger. You're fine, and for now, it's all that matters."
Will sighed, and held Nico tighter. "Thank you." When Nico leaned back in, Will met his lips on purpose.