Will has asked Nico to stay at camp for at least a month before he used any more of his "shadow tricks", as he'd put it. And, okay, Nico had almost vanished into complete oblivion, but a month seemed a little excessive. Especially if it was going to be a whole month of hot blonde guys staring at him while they thought he wasn't looking with a concerned-yet-alert stare, as though they expected him to vanish at any moment.

He didn't know who of the two surprised him more: Jason, who had known him for all of a few weeks and had no legitimate reason to think he'd run, or Will, who'd had plenty of occasions to make him feel welcome before. Grandly declaring Nico had always been welcome was nice of him, but…well, Nico's memory worked just fine, and he knew he hadn't been. Not then, at least.

He was now, though. It didn't necessarily make up for it, but it was still true. The so-called Seven had been expanded into ten in popular demigod consciousness—the three who had saved the camps from civil war. That wasn't quite how Nico remembered it, but no one would hear his protests.

Except for Will, during his daily visits to the infirmary (at Will's request, of course), but that was only because Will asked. And listened. That helped, too. Besides, they had nothing else to do—he'd stopped pretending to change the dressing on Nico's perfectly healed wounds no more than two days after they were gone. At least that meant Nico didn't have to take off his shirt for no reason.

His advice on the matter…not so much. "If I were you, I'd just enjoy the glory," he once said with a smirk.

"Yes, I'm such a terrible person for wanting to earn people's respect."

"Of course not. But if you can't enjoy the good things that come your way, you're not gonna be happy anytime soon."

Nico scoffed. Not long ago, he might have said that he wasn't going to be happy anyway, or that he didn't deserve it. He couldn't—not anymore, not without lying to himself—but he still felt uneasy about it. So instead, he remained silent.

A moment passed. "You know, I was kind of hoping you'd say something like, 'what good things?'." There was a half-grin on Will's face, and a mischievous sparkle in his eyes, but the skin of his cheeks was slowly flaring up.

Nico stared at him for a moment, unsure whether he should be amused or worried. "Okay, I'll bite. What good things?"

"Me, obviously." Nico's gaze was probably too eloquent of his own good, because Will deflated in front of him. "Okay, that was terrible, I'll admit."

"Not at all," Nico said, faking a leisurely shrug. "You just sounded a whole lot like your dad. And that's not a compliment, trust me."

Will winced visibly. "You know what? Never mind, this was a terrible idea—"

"What was?"

Nico's question made him startle. "Well, I guess I've already embarrassed myself anyway—" He looked up at Nico. "Would you go on a date with me?"

He'd spoken fast—hurriedly, even—and Nico was almost certain he'd misheard. "What?"

"You. On a date. With me? Please?"

Nico stared again, dumbfounded. "I—why?"

Will frowned at him, feigning confusion. Or maybe he was really confused. "Because I like you. And I'd like to go on a date with you. Also, Jason and Hazel already gave me the scary sibling talk anyway, so I figured I should also get the good side of dating you. Or ask if you'd be up for it, anyway. You know, I—" He cut himself off. "I should probably stop rambling now. Look, it's okay, you're not interested, I get it. Can we just pretend this n—"

"Okay."

Will paused, surprise flashing on his face then giving way to a hopeful smile. "And by 'okay' you mean—"

"Okay, I'll go on a date with you. It's the least you owe me, since I'm stuck here for a month because of you." Nico paused, a realization suddenly hitting him. "Wait, did you say that on purpose to make me stay so you could make your move?"

"I would never. That would be highly unethical." Will's smile was ambiguous enough to trust him, Nico decided.

"You'd better make it worth my while, though."

Making a date worth Nico's while was, of course, not as hard as his tone might have made it sound. It was, after all, his very first date ever. If anything, he was as nervous as Will, if not more.

Nico decided it went okay. Will had planned everything—possibly before Nico had even agreed to it—and they'd gone into the woods in which games of capture the flag were usually held for a picnic. It was a little cliché, and a little cheesy, but then again, finding a romantic spot in the camp was a difficult task.

Once they were there, things went easier. Mostly, it didn't feel like a date so much as dinner with a friend, except for the label they'd put on it and the way Will insisted to hold his hand on the way there. And again once they were done eating, a small, yet steady touch as they talked, fingers slowly but surely linking together, leading the two of them to slide a little close to each other, one inch at a time. Before Nico knew it, the other boy was pressed against him, warm and welcoming and bright—and not just because his demigod abilities let him make his own sunlight—and Nico couldn't help but rest his head on Will's shoulder.

They headed back at around midnight, and stopped before Cabin Thirteen, almost as if Will had walked him back home—perhaps that was his intention. They made smalltalk for a fraction of a second before Will stopped it all.

"May I kiss you?" he blurted out.

He wasn't making any sunlight anymore, but even in the dark, his eyes still shone, and his skin radiated, softly glowing with warm where he was blushing. Nico's heart was aflutter, but he managed a breathless "Yes" before the distance between them closed. It was sloppy, and hesitant, and probably—hopefully—not the best either of them could make, but it was nice. It was good.

Will's hand was lingering in Nico's hair when they parted, and he briefly wondered when it had gotten there, but he also couldn't remember his own hand cupping Will's face, and yet there it was. Nervously, he pulled away. "Um—thanks for the evening. It was great." He rushed inside before letting Will answer.

Will was nowhere in sight the next day when Nico came to the infirmary, or anywhere else at camp that Nico looked, either. It took him until the evening to realize his reaction to Will kissing him, the night before, might not have been what Will expected. He'd panicked, and screwed it all up.

It was only at dinner that Nico saw Will again, when they were all gathered as always, and he was too surrounded for Nico to dare go talk to him.

Jason called him out on it, eventually. "Are you going to stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Looking at the Apollo table like you think no one will notice."

Nico sighed, but he forced himself not to look again.

"That bad? What happened with Will?"

"Why do you think something happened with Will?"

"Well, you both weren't there at dinner last night, and now it looks like he's avoiding you. It's the first time he doesn't come talk to you at dinner, and do you really think no one noticed you didn't stay at the infirmary like you usually do?"

Nico glared at the boy. "Is there anything private in this place?"

"You're not exactly discreet, but probably not, no. So what happened?"

"He kissed me," Nico let out. "He asked first," he added in a hurry, noticing Jason's stormy gaze. "I'm the one who screwed up, I just ran inside after and—I guess he thought I didn't like it. I panicked, it's ridiculous."

Jason glanced behind Nico—to the Apollo table, probably. "I see. Well, maybe you just need to tell him why you did that."

"I know, but you said it yourself: he's avoiding me. So—"

"I'm sure he won't forever," Jason said, a mischievous smile forming on his lips. "So…did you like it?"

"I—" Nico took a deep breath. "Yeah? I mean, it all took me by surprising, him asking me out and then kissing me, but yeah, I liked it. I liked—him."

"Well, there you go, then. I'll leave you to figure stuff out." He stood up, casting a grin to something behind Nico—right behind him. Nico started, and spun on his chair, to find Will standing a short distance away, a wide grin on his face.

He sat down next to Nico. "So. You liked me? Because that was a weird way of showing it."

"I'm going to kill Jason. And then bring him back as a zombie just to kill him again."

"Come on, don't be too harsh on him. I shouldn't have listened in when I noticed you were talking about me." He let out a brief sigh. "And I'm sorry for avoiding you all day. That was petty."

Nico couldn't help but chuckle at the awkward way Will bit his lip. "Well, I guess at least we're a match in our inability to talk to each other."

"But we can work through it together," Will said. "I mean, if you want us to?"

Nico smiled back to him. "I'd love to."

Will walked back with Nico to Cabin Thirteen again that night, after dinner. "Well, I—can I kiss you, or are you going to run off again?"

"Shut up," Nico said, chuckling. He grabbed the other boy behind his head, pulling him closer. He had to reach up to even touch his lips to Will's, but even that was electrifying, and for a moment he froze there, barely kissing the other boy at all. Then Will snapped out of his surprise, returning the kiss, slowly, sweetly. It wasn't much, just his lips on Will's, warm and soft and strong, moving slowly as the boy tightened his embrace around Nico; and it was everything Nico could have dreamed of.

They lingered, lips barely touching and foreheads pressed together, sunk deep in each other's warmth. Nico couldn't help the grin on his face, but Will had one to match, so he supposed he could let himself smile for now.

"So…this is goodnight, I guess."

"You don't have to go just yet," Nico found himself replying, his hands refusing to let go of the boy. "You could sleep over."

"How forward," Will teased.

Nico blushed—though it probably wasn't visible in the dark. "You were the one who offered to help me catch up on all the comic book movies that I'd missed out on."

"I did offer that, didn't I?" He shrugged, but it felt forced. "All right, I'm sure I could stay."

"You know, if you show that little enthusiasm, you're not going to keep me as your boyfriend for very long."

Will froze. "My boyfriend?"

The word had slipped unbidden through Nico's lips, and now there was no taking it back. "I mean—I assumed—"

"I was hoping you'd assume something like that." He grinned, kissing Nico again—briefly, this time.

There were a lot of comic book adaptations for Nico to catch up on, as it turned out—and according to Will, even more were coming. Will had downloaded movies on his laptop in preparation for such an occasion, before they'd even become boyfriends, so he went to his cabin for it, along with pajamas. When he came back, they huddled together on Nico's bunk, playing the movies one after the other.

They managed to get to the last of the old Batman movies before they gave up for the night. Neither of them could be bothered to move anymore: it was already dawn out there, but the Hades cabin was dark at any time of the day, anyway, so that wouldn't be a problem. Will's laptop found its way to the floor, and after one last kiss goodnight, they fell asleep, still tangled in each other's arms.

Nico wasn't sure what he noticed first when he woke up: the strain against his own pants, or the hardness pressed against his thigh. Either way, noticing snapped him awake, and he rolled away from Will—almost falling off the bunk in the process.

It wasn't like getting a hard-on was anything new for him, of course; but having one with someone pressed next to him definitely was new. As was, of course, having someone else have one while pressed next to him.

He guessed he shouldn't be embarrassed by it: at worst, it was just a thing bodies did, and at best, it was probably a good thing. Still, he couldn't help—

"Hey, what're you doing over there?" Nico froze at the sound of Will's voice, and the boy rolled over to him. "Good mor—oh." He paused on top of Nico, way too late for either of them to pretend they couldn't feel their erections basically pressed against each other. Especially not after the gasp that escaped Nico's lips at the contact. "Um."

"Maybe you should move?" Nico said, his voice a little too weak to his liking.

"Yeah, of course, I—" He didn't move, though, his gaze seemingly lost in Nico's. He had no idea what Will was seeing, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"I'm serious."

Finally, Will blinked. "Right. Sorry." He rolled off of Nico, landing on his back next to Nico. "I—"

"Shush."

"You're blushing."

"So are you."

"Actually I'm glowing, which happens when I blush, but also—at other times."

Nico scoffed. "We're not seriously having a conversation about how having being hard make you glow."

"Well, I usually have it under control—"

"No, really, we're not having this conversation."

Will chuckled. "Sorry." There was a moment of silence. "Mind if I shower here?"

"Um, sure."

Will's pajama shirt was riding up his back when he walked towards the bathroom, at the far end of the cabin, and Nico couldn't help but stare. Nor could he dismiss images of Will getting off in the shower. His hand found its way into his pants when he heard the spray coming from the other room, and he stroked himself at the images conjured in his mind.

It didn't take him too long to come, and judging by how long Will was gone, his fantasies hadn't been too far from the truth. He rushed to the bathroom after Will came back, mostly because he didn't want to have to deal with Will figuring out what he'd just done and teasing him on that.

He'd almost expected the boy to be gone when he emerged, but Will was still there, having changed back into his clothes from the day before. He took Nico's hands in his.

"Look, I—I hope this isn't going to make things awkward between us?"

"Too late for that," Nico said. "But it's not like I'm going to be mad at you. That'd be pretty hypocritical. Besides, we had a great night; I'd rather remember that."

A tension vanished from Will's shoulders. "Okay. Great. Because I—I didn't want you to think I was trying to pressure you or anything." He paused. "Which—I wasn't. I mean, I'm not even ready for anything like that, so—"

Nico shut him up with a kiss. Sure, it wasn't a very nice thing to do, but Will rambled on a little too much sometime. "It's fine."

Finally, Will smiled.