After Gaea's last stand, Nico stayed at camp, like he said that he would. Things were different this time, even if people's eyes on his back still made him feel like melting into the shadows sometimes. Jason Grace had asserted himself as Nico's older brother figure and decided to spend his every waking moment (or the ones not already dedicated to Piper) devoting his life to getting Nico out there, to do things and make friends. Of course, it never seemed to work quite as well as Jason probably hoped, but Nico was at least starting to know more people's names. He wasn't sure if that was progress or pathetic. Aside from Jason, he wasn't totally alone either. Although Hazel and Reyna still lived at Camp Jupiter, he spoke with them often enough when they visited on business, or in the Iris Messages they made a point to have regularly. It wasn't always both together, sometimes just one or the other, but it was always nice to see them. Reyna and Hazel didn't actually know each other all that well, but they had bonded over their connections to Nico and their older-sisterly instincts to keep him safe. He thought this was unfair, as Hazel wasn't really older than him (at least biologically), and Reyna wasn't his sister.
He thought he had one other real friend too. When the war ended, with Octavian blown up and Gaea, well, gone, Will Solace from the Apollo cabin enforced that Nico make good on his promise of three days in the infirmary. At the time, it seemed like something of a joke. This kid who basically radiated sunshine came up to him, literally the king of shadows and dead people, upset that he hadn't even visited. Nico wasn't used to anyone being upset not to see him, let alone someone so blatantly… unanticipated. And when they walked to the big cabin at the edge of the strawberry fields together, Nico didn't have to talk, which was good because he was bad at that. Talking. And especially then, he felt like if he opened his mouth, it'd only be gibberish that fell out. Will did all the talking for both of them and he just let it wash over him. Then, for the next three days, Will was barely outside of Nico's room, and deep down, Nico felt he sure that he must have somewhere else to be. He ran the infirmary for the gods' sake, and there had been a war. Some kid with a couple of scratches who got a little dizzy from teleportation couldn't exactly be the most high priority ward. He asked about it once, almost halfway through the second day.
"The Apollo cabin's on red alert. I may be in charge, but we've got plenty of talented healers, and no shortage of eager kids who aren't really gifted, but they can manage the basics well enough. Hermes cabin has really stepped up too, they dabble in medicine a bit. I don't need to be in every room, but I do rounds every day around lunch, and if there's an emergency, someone will page me." At Nico's confused expression, Will pulled on a small bronze device clipped his collar, which Nico had seen at the neck of all the other healers in the building. "It's our communication system. Beckendorf started on them ages ago," at the name's mention, both boys looked down in quiet acknowledgement of the Hephaestus counselor's death in the last war.
After a moment, Will started back up, "Anyways, back when Leo was still building the ship," another wince from both of them, "and everyone was getting ready for the quest, I got another kid from Hephaestus, Nyssa, to fix them up and finish the design. They're really handy." Nico nodded, but he was still unsure why any of this meant that Will would be the one taking care of him.
"I requested you," he said, as though tapping into Nico's thoughts. "And then I filled my own request, because I run this place and I can do what I want."
Nico squinted up at him from the hospital bed. "Why would you want me?" He blushed, thanked the gods for his current state which hardly gave way easily to noticeable blushing given the general lack of blood in his face to begin with, and rephrased, "I mean, why request me?" Will looked down at him appraisingly.
"I like you. I think you need friends." He seemed to feel guilty then and added, "Friends at camp, I mean. Who you can talk to," he paused, "In any case, you're hardly my least pressing patient right now. Especially if those damn stitches in your shoulders keep melting before the wound closes."
It was true that the gashes across his arms weren't healing well and seemed to be instantly dissolving the neatly placed stitches as Will put them into place but Nico wasn't sure how to take that first part. Of course, he didn't need friends. He'd gone quite a long time without them in fact. It didn't mean he wouldn't mind some that didn't seem court-martialed into the gig. And Will had said that he liked him, even if it felt like a disclaimer before he announced a treatment for whatever diagnosis he'd isolated.
NICO'S FILE (probably):
SYMPTOMS: Underfed, depressed, antisocial, sometimes talks to skeletal cab drivers
DIAGNOSIS: Lonely
TREATMENT: Friendship!
Still, it wasn't unappealing. A friend. Who wasn't Jason. Or Coach Hedge. Or any of the other kids from the quest, really. And he didn't hate Will, so why not? Cool, Will, let's be friends.
"Oh. That's. Uh, cool?" Dammit. Will's face went a little pink.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to, like, freak you out or anything. I think you're pretty cool and...and I just want to help," he said, and Nico winced at the sound of pity which slipped into his voice at the end.
"I don't need help, I'm okay. Really." We could still hang out sometime though, say it, di Angelo. "I…I'm fine." He wished he were someone else, someone who was even moderately well-adjusted and capable of human interaction. Will looked crestfallen, for such a brief moment that Nico wondered if he hadn't imagined it.
"Well," Will said, blinking away anything unprofessional that might have gleamed in his eyes in an instant, "I'm still your doctor, and I can tell you you're not completely okay on the physical front, so you can stop denying that one." Nico opened his mouth to protest, but Will waved his hand dismissively, "Nico, you've spent the past three years on your own and toeing the line between life and death. So much has happened just in the last year alone, you can't honestly think that you can just walk away from all that without a scratch. I can help you recover, if you let me." Will's eyes searched for Nico's and Nico found himself avoiding his gaze just as desperately. Will blinked and sighed.
His voice was soft when he next spoke, "I'm going to leave you alone for a bit, I need to check on a few of the other kids. I'll be back with lunch in an hour or so. Promise." Nico nodded. It wasn't a big deal, bringing food, unless maybe you're Percy, but Nico could tell that it was a very strategic promise. He wondered how often Will dealt with trust issues in the campers who passed through the infirmary. It came with the job that a smart demigod couldn't just take people on their word. All the same, Will walked in forty-five minutes later balancing two plates from the mess hall and grinning, just like Nico knew he would. He wasn't sure if that counted as trust anyway.
When the first three days were up, Nico left with a pang in both arms where he had received new stitches early that morning-ones that a particularly crafty Hermes camper swore would hold up to whatever kind of weird werewolf magic you could throw at them-and went back to the Hades cabin. It was dark and depressing as ever, and doubly so after his time in that bleached white room spending half his time staring into what felt like the sun, but was really the son of the sun. His bunk, if he could call it that, having barely ever slept in it two nights in a row, was the one on the east wall, in the corner nearest the door. Being that there were no other children of Hades at Camp Half-Blood, and he hardly anticipated any arrivals in the near future, the extra beds seemed superfluous. Now, they added to his isolation, mocked him. Ha ha, look at you, alone again. Loner-pants. Loner-pants who smells like dead people.
"Shut up," he muttered, and then kicked himself mentally for talking to beds.
The next couple of days were weird, mostly because he didn't know where to go, who to sit with at meals, or if Will Solace had actually meant any of the things he said about wanting to be friends. He probably did, the kid was so earnest. Too bad Nico was such a disaster with living people. The morning after he left the infirmary, Nico didn't go to breakfast, just to avoid the awkwardness. He ducked into the mess hall for lunch in the early afternoon, and ate dinner long after the sun was down. He went two days like this, but eventually sank back into a more "normal" schedule. During Nico's first time at breakfast, he sat at what was technically the Hades table, but the denominational tables were becoming obsolete as more and more obscure gods had cabins erected. The idea of having one long table for each one of them was growing absurd. Instead, the camp meals were shifting to a more informal, high school cafeteria type setting and no one had been smited for disrespect yet. He supposed the gods had other things on their minds. Even so, Nico expected to sit alone. He was just bringing a slice of toast spread with peanut butter between his teeth when somebody dropped onto the bench beside him.
"Nice to see you back out and about," Jason Grace said with a grin. He was wearing an orange camp T-shirt, which was sort of surprising given Jason's attachment to the Roman purple. "To be honest, some of us thought you might not want to come back."
Nico blinked away some lingering sleep and tried to catch up with his reasoning while adjusting his features into faux annoyance. "Grace. Don't you have a shrine to be building somewhere?" Words started to fit themselves into place and he cocked his head. "Back from where? I've just been –"
"In the infirmary, I know. But you and that kid from Apollo seemed to be getting along pretty well. You might have wanted to stay a little longer," Jason smirked and Nico stared at him, mouth slightly open, appalled and anxious at the rumor and ready to protest. Jason backpedalled quickly, his expression softening, "I'm just joking. Seriously, I think it's really great that you're making friends. You could use some." Now, that was a popular school of thought. "Of, course you have all of us prophecy kids, but Reyna has assured me that we're not worth keeping around," Jason continued, "That said, I think you should still definitely come to the campfire tonight. You could sit with me and Piper if you want. Unless you've got plans with someone else..." He tried to wink but couldn't quite pull it off, so it mostly just looked like he was squinting disproportionately.
"You look like you've lost control of your face," Nico deflected.
"Sure, whatever, but you should really go. It'll be fun!" Jason pleaded, his blue eyes growing disturbingly large, magnified by the lenses of his golden framed glasses. Nico deliberated. Campfire was a little obnoxious, and he wasn't really one for sitting around an open flame, roasting marshmallows and singing songs and acting like the world hadn't almost ended less than a week ago. Being around so many people at once made him a little edgy anyway. Considering the alternative wasn't so great either. He imagined himself sitting in his empty and poorly lit cabin, staring at his sword leaned up against the wall while the rest of the camp sat around a bonfire with the Apollo kids supplying cheery music. Was it too much to ask to be left alone and surrounded by friendly demigods all at once?
"I don't know. Maybe?" he said finally.
Jason beamed, clearly a lot more confident in Nico's answer than he was. "That'll be awesome, dude. And later this week, you should totally play on my team in capture-the-flag. Normally, it'd probably be unfair for two big three kids to be on a team, but I'm thinking while Percy's still here to balance it out, and your darkness powers are still on lockdown anyways, it'd probably be okay."
"Who said my darkness powers are on lockdown? What does that even mean?" Nico asked tentatively, ignoring the bulk of the invitation. He stared down the eggs he was pushing around his plate with his fork while Jason started to respond, because the second the question left his mouth, he had a feeling that he knew the answer.
"Your friend Will has got the whole camp watching you, making sure you don't do any of your…death stuff. There's a notice on every cabin's door." Jason's smirk was back, and Nico scowled at it.
"That's… ridiculous. When did he even do that?" Jason shrugged. Nico wanted desperately to be upset, but there was an almost negligible but still treasonous part of him that felt cared for in a stupid sort of way. Of course, he'd never admit that, and anyone who suggested it would probably be run down by a herd of skeletons. At least, as soon as Will's "lockdown" was over. His tight shoulders loosened and his contorted lips uncurled, because he just didn't feel like being that angry –which was maybe the biggest and truest sign that he needed the rest Will was insisting on.
"Anyways, capture-the-flag? How about it, bro?" That was definitely too much and Nico made it clear by rolling his eyes, standing up, dropping his plate down a magic chute that would deliver it to whatever unlucky kids were on kitchen duty with the cleaning harpies, and making for the field which led into the rings of cabins outside the mess hall.
Jason called after him, "Come on, if you play, I'll make sure Apollo is on our team."
"Don't push your luck, bro ," Nico said over his shoulder, almost grinning.
As Nico left, his eyes darted around the hall, checking that there wasn't... anyone he hadn't noticed before eating breakfast. The Apollo table was empty, probably because those kids tended to get up with the sun, and it stood to reason that they would eat just as early. Shame . Although Nico had no other destination in mind than his cabin, he found himself taking a very roundabout way to get there, considering that he pretty much had to walk straight through the westernmost ring of cabins in order to get to a place where he could justifiably pass the infirmary in his walk.
It was a cabin, about the size of one of the residential ones to the northeast, but Nico knew that there had to be some kind of enchantment involved, because it was definitely a lot larger on the inside as far as he could tell from his recent stay. It had sprung up at some point during his absence after the last war; he vaguely remembered a couple spare rooms in the big house which had served as a makeshift infirmary when he had first arrived at age ten. To the right of the front door was a bulletin board with handwritten notes and reminders on it. Nico was pretty sure that the longest standing one had been "CONNOR AND TRAVIS STOLL NOT ALLOWED NEAR CLIMBING WALL." Below it, addendums had been added, literally tacked on on slips of notebook paper; things like "no aerosol canisters or citrus fruits" or "banned from grounds surrounding Cabin 15." Pinned one one side of that growing constitution, so that they slightly overlapped, was another scribbled note reading:
PLEASE BE REMINDED THAT CAMPER NICO DI ANGELO IS
BY NO MEANS
ALLOWED TO USE ANY POWERS SO AS TO SPEED HIS RECOVERY
-WILL SOLACE, HEALER
The phrase "by no means" had been underlined multiple times, and as Nico struggled to make out the words, he was reminded of the stereotype that doctors have bad handwriting. He laughed at the idea that there were more of these, posted on the doors of all the cabins, and wondered if people might try to keep someone named "Vieo ai Avqlo" from using his powers.
"I'm serious about that, you know. One skeleton, or a trip through the shadows could bring you right back to the edge." He spun around to see Will Solace in the doorway, half-smiling, but Nico could tell that he was serious.
"I know," Nico admitted, and as Will's gaze focused unchangingly on him, he found himself suddenly very interested in his own shoelaces.
"You left without saying goodbye the other day. I was very disappointed," Will's tone was playful, but Nico honestly couldn't tell whether he was joking.
He stammered out, "Well, you were somewhere else, and the three days were up... I didn't really know what else to do besides leave." Will smiled warmly. Most of the things Will did tended to be warm. Maybe that came with being a child of the sun god. A lot of the things Nico did tended to be creepy or involving dead people, so the theory checked out in application.
"I'm not mad." This much at least was clear to Nico; most people smiling that widely weren't particularly angry. "Actually," Will started in, toning down his grin a little and hunching over slightly, "I was hoping that you might want to hang out with me at the campfire tonight?" His voice lilted upwards at the end of the sentence and if Nico didn't know better, he would think that Will was trying very, very hard to come off as breezy and casual. It was as if their conversation the other day had never happened.
"Is this a 'Nico's healing process will be sped up if he has friends' kind of thing?" he asked, although he wasn't actually certain whether he was asking it out of actual suspicion, or to prod some kind of witty banter out from the other boy.
"I can't promise that's not a happy side effect," Will quipped, his spine lengthening as his semblance of ease began to retake him fully, "but I'll be off duty, and off duty means no treatment. Besides, I can't, in good conscience, deny people the wonders of having me around. I'm kind of awesome." Nico hummed at that, staring at a point above Will's right shoulder.
"Right. Well, speaking of 'off-duty,' what is it you're supposed to be doing now? I doubt you're only here to stand around," and look pretty . Nico was mortified to realize he'd almost actually finished that sentence. Awful. Cliché. Nauseating. If this was what Will brought out in him, then this whole thing really should be squashed before it began.
"Well, I was on my way to issue a warning to Lou Ellen in Hecate, because I am up to here," Will gestured violently with his hand at the level of his eyes, "with the cursed campers that she's sent in. Something about a feud with the Hermes cabin."
Nico cringed, imagining the Stoll brothers locked in full pranking combat with some of the kids from Hecate. "That definitely can't end well. I won't get in your way then." Will looked somewhat disappointed by that, a sign which Nico elected to ignore as he had decided that his perception was probably biased.
"Hold up, Death Boy. Am I gonna see you at the campfire tonight?" Will asked as he had already begun to turn to leave. Nico stopped and considered, remembering his half-agreement to catch up with Jason at the campfire and imagined spending the evening not as a third wheel to Jason and Piper, who would probably be flirting and doing their whole couple thing, but with just a single person with whom Nico was strongly considering a deliberate friendship.
"I guess that'd be all right. If you never call me 'Death boy' again." Nico rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet and then turned around again, figuring that he should take the chance to leave, before he did something stupid like blush or start stuttering. He really wasn't good at talking to people; something about not being around ones who had much capacity for conversation much for most of his life. As he started moving towards the cabins, he realized that Will had fallen into step beside him and cursed himself for not realizing earlier that they were going in the same direction.
"I'll think on it some more, maybe I can come up with something better." Will side-eyed Nico with the same half-smile he'd worn in the doorway of the infirmary and he came to the sudden realization that he had no clue what he was getting into.
As they came to the Hecate cabin, Will peeled away with a "See you tonight, Nico," and Nico was grateful to be able to concentrate on anything besides not sounding like an idiot. He wondered why he'd had so much easier of a time talking to Jason this morning. Possibly because, as an over enthusiastic son of Zeus—no, Jupiter—Jason had most of the sounding like an idiot covered.
Back in his own cabin, Nico sat down on his bed. It wasn't even noon, and he felt exhausted. That's what a trip outside and two conversations do to you, eh? Apparently. When Nico was younger, he had been more outgoing. Maybe just more obnoxious. Since then, however, he'd spent so much time on his own, or worse: talking to one of the most socially stunted gods in existence (tied for first with Hephaestus). Some of that just had to have rubbed off on him.
On the Argo II, he'd been around the most (living) people that he'd actually had to speak to since Bianca died, and he had been ninety percent sure that most of the people from the ship didn't like him at all. It might be a different story now—or it might not, he couldn't even tell with all of them—but, at the time it was strictly business, and apart from that, no one bothered to talk to him. He thought they probably forgot he was on deck most of the time. Nico couldn't really blame them; he did have a habit of blending into the shadows. Then with the statue, Reyna became the closest thing he had to a friend, besides Hazel, and it was completely unexpected. Meanwhile, Jason had been doing his weird thing and it was all terribly new to him. And now there was Will.
Even while he was constantly tired, with very small daily margins of energy and little time to think when he wasn't sleeping, quite a few of Nico's thoughts over the past several days turned towards Will at some point or another. It wasn't obsession or anything, just a furious desire to know more about him. An inkling that they'd get along well in a world where Nico got along well with others. It was a world he'd like to live in, one day.
Will Solace aside, sleeping was becoming an issue for him as well. Unfortunately, that act for demigods tended to go hand in hand with terrifying and occasionally omniscient or prophetic nightmares—but Nico's current problem was the past, which was proving more destructive in his dreams than the present or future could even pose to be. His time in Tartarus lingered at the back of his mind like an anvil hung around his neck, or a string tied in with his sanity that, when tugged on, might unravel it the whole thing. The damning paradox of his situation was that Nico couldn't not sleep. And not just in the typical mortal "you have to sleep to survive" way; Nico now found himself slipping into sleep the same way he was sometimes pulled into the shadows, often for far more time than what he was told an average person needed, like it was unavoidable no matter how he tried to stay awake. His eyes felt heavy.
He jolted awake hours later to loud knocking on the wall of the cabin. No, the door. Maybe the wall. Probably the door. Nico blinked away the imprint of Aklys, the goddess of misery who often haunted his dreams alongside armies of hell demons, clawing their way through crowds just to get to him. He groggily checked his watch, realizing with shock that it was approaching eight o'clock and the sun was probably well on its way down.
"Nico, I know you're in there," a muffled voice floated through the wood. Nico rolled over, pushed himself up, and looked down at himself. His clothes were wrinkled, and if he had a mirror, he would see that all the hair on the left side of his head was fluffed up and sticking out horizontally. He groaned.
"Nico," the sing-song voice called in again. Nico opened the door for a beaming Will Solace, who quickly bit his lower lip to keep himself from laughing at Nico's disheveled appearance. Instead, Will reached out instinctively and patted the matted dark hair down until it looked almost acceptable for a public excursion. Nico winced at the touch, his tired brain still buzzing. "You need a shower. Have you been sleeping all day? You can't screw up your sleep schedule, you know. I don't want you going nocturnal on me. Did you eat lunch?" The questions and beratement came out so fast that Nico could barely take it all in. He blinked sleepily.
"What happened to 'off-duty'?" he asked in a rather accusatory tone, which came across as quite comical in tandem with his dazed expression and scratchy throat.
Will shrugged, but his eyes sparkled. "I'm concerned as a friend?" he tried, his voice going up in pitch at the end of the sentence, like he was asking instead of telling. Then his gaze turned serious, "You really do need to eat, Nico." Nico looked downwards, surprised to find himself feeling ashamed rather than belligerent.
"I had breakfast," he mumbled. "I just, you know, slept through lunch." Will shook his head, as if to say, I can't believe this kid, and then grabbed for Nico's wrist, which made him jump so hard that, if he were a little taller, he might have knocked his head into the top of the door frame.
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry. No touching, I knew that. I'm so sorry. And the hair too...I wasn't thinking, I'm just... sorry." Nico rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed and just a little heartened by how downright genuine Will seemed. He looked angry with himself, pouting like he'd broken a rule on accident and wanted very much to take it back. It was sweet. Nope. Stop right there.
"S'fine," he told Will, conscious of the blood rushing to his face, but figuring he could pass it off as a side effect of his exhaustion or something. Will smiled and opened his mouth to speak.
"I was just going to say," he began, "let's head down to the mess, and get dinner before the campfire. You need some food in your stomach. Besides s'mores." Nico must have nodded, because Will grinned and turned on the step, ready for him to follow—and so he did.
At dinner, Nico could feel Will's eyes on his plate and anticipated each instance of his gentle nagging. "More protein," he suggested, then added, "Could use some greens too." Nico glared. "This is for your own good, Death-"
"Hey, we said we were done with the 'Death Boy' thing, okay?" he interrupted and Will grinned, showing so many teeth that Nico furrowed his eyebrows, wondering just how many teeth normal people were supposed to have anyway.
"My apologies, Skele-dude." Will simpered and Nico groaned.
"That is so much worse."
Walking down to the fire, Nico was hyper attuned to his surroundings, and most specifically, the presence of Will's hand dangling so near to his. Even after he'd panicked back in his cabin, Nico wondered strangely that he wouldn't actually mind so much to have that hand in his, so long as he had proper warning. He'd noticed a change within himself as of late, and it didn't have anything to do with Will.
Ever since Reyna's and Coach Hedge's and his transatlantic adventure, Nico was prone to clutching at his own hands, sometimes just to check that they were still there. Reyna's hug after the battle had been less awkward and intimidating than comforting, mostly because he'd felt his body pressed firmly against her armor instead of melting through it. Even Jason's occasional pats on the back, or the times he tossed a friendly arm around Nico's shoulders when the son of Jupiter forgot his aversion to casual touch, were reminders of his own solidity and he'd developed a habit of silently thanking the gods whenever he remembered this. A part of him was still terrified of fading away, and sometimes Nico could swear that his fingertips were turning translucent. But none of that vague reassurance could change the fact that so much as an unexpected tap on the shoulder from the wrong person would send him into a panic attack on a bad day.
Nico curled his fingers inwards, making half-hearted fists to ward off the temptation, and the two of them approached the crackling fire. Children of the gods were scattered, chatting and laughing and singing on log benches around a blazing fire which was enchanted to fluctuate in color according to the noise level. It simmered playfully, snapping magenta tongues of flame at the stars. The scene was positively merry, a word which Nico rarely had the opportunity to use, and an outsider viewing it would never guess that it was of a summer camp where teenagers trained for battle, much less one that had seen war not a week back. He scanned the crowd to check for Jason and Piper. They weren't anywhere to be seen, but Percy and Annabeth were huddled together on one of the benches, looking more subdued than many of the other campers. He could see white knuckles where their hands were entwined between them. Suddenly Nico felt for them as he realized that, like himself, they too were probably experiencing a jet lagged version of the trauma of Tartarus. Finding themselves all in the calm after the storm that was the war against the Earth, it was much harder to quell the bad memories than it was while on the move.
Beside him, Will jerked his hand oddly, as though he wanted to reach out and pull Nico in the right direction, but thought better of it and instead murmured, "Over there," and nodded his head towards a congregation of his half- brothers and sisters from the Apollo cabin. One of the older ones, whom Nico recognized as a girl named Kayla, was holding a guitar to her chest and strumming absently. She waved them over and as they drew closer, called out some choice swear words to Will. Something about "leaving me alone with these kids" and "aren't you supposed to be the counselor?"
"Gods, these sing-a-longs get raunchier every year," Will said lightheartedly and Nico, in spite of himself, let out a bark of considerably unattractive laughter. His face reddened as he clapped his mouth shut and Will's eyes lit up. "Why don't I hear that more often?"
Nico squeezed his lids together and grumbled, "Maybe you're just not usually funny enough." Will was not one to be discouraged and his smile only grew. In the flickering darkness, there was a sort of glow about him and Nico wasn't sure whether it was a product of his godly parentage or Nico's own imagination.
They found a spot to sit in a patch of grass near the rest of the Apollo cabin and as Nico leaned back on the balls of his hands, he spotted Jason arriving. The boy in question glanced around, sweeping the area as Nico had done earlier, and spotted him next to Will. Jason waved and might have made to come over and sit near them, if it weren't for Piper grabbing his wrist and pulling him towards Percy and Annabeth. She glanced at Nico with an encouraging smile. He looked away.
"So," Will said from his right side, the pleasantly breathy voice pulling him back to their own bit of grass.
"So, what?" The firelight on Nico's face stung his eyes. Will let the silence linger a second longer and Nico spoke again, "Any luck with the Hecate kids?" Startled and seemingly thrilled to hear Nico instigate the conversation, Will grinned.
"Lou Ellen has some threats of her own to issue. Told me that her business with the Hermes kids was hers and hers alone. Lucky I'm a fast runner." Nico chuckled at that, having seen the Hecate camper go off before. "She heard me though, and Lou's a good egg, deep down. She just can't have others thinking that."
Nico raised an eyebrow, "You think she'll tone it down."
Will nodded soberly, "She knows we can't be wasting medical resources. Not now of all times." Nico frowned, remembering the other campers he'd seen in bunks in the infirmary, how he'd walked past them when he left. He was hardly the worst case Will had seen since the battle.
"The other day," Nico started tentatively, remembering something Will had said when he had dragged him to the infirmary to begin with, "before I came in. You said I might come help. In the infirmary, I mean. Would that...would that be useful?" Will scrutinized him carefully, light in his eyes, and his mouth fixed and flat.
"Of course," his response came a moment later, "Everything is helpful. But," Will began in a concerned tone, "I didn't mean to guilt you into it. You deserve time to recover yourself first."
Nico blinked, and then mumbled, alarmed at his own honesty, "I don't think I can sit in my cabin anymore. I should be doing something." Will looked at him, eyebrows furrowed in uncertainty, and his voice evened out. "I think it will help. Really."
"Then," Will said with finality, his expression softening, "Welcome aboard, Nico di Angelo. I'd be happy to show you the ropes."
When the firelight dimmed, casting only a hint of deep navy light around the sparking embers, campers had been trickling away for a good half hour and finally, Will stood and, without thinking, held out a hand to Nico, who leaned forward and, without thinking, took hold of it to pull himself up. Will blinked in surprise when they stood, facing each other, hands joined. Nico made a quick and bold decision and didn't move to pull away, electing to leave that to Will, who was much too stunned by the contact to do so. And so they made the trek back to their oval of cabins, hand in hand.
As they came upon the Hades cabin, Will murmured, "This is you." Nico started and dropped his hand.
"Uh, yeah," he said smartly. And then, after a pause, "Thanks, Will. For this, For everything." He turned away to open the door.
"Any time. And di Angelo," Will called out. Nico looked back over his shoulder. "I'll expect you bright and early tomorrow morning."
Nico smiled in spite of himself. "Bright and early," he echoed, and shut the door behind him. He dropped onto his bed and couldn't help thinking that the room wasn't quite as lonely as it felt earlier in the day. When he drifted away for the night, it was to thoughts of blue eyes and gentle smiles and he didn't wake up until morning.
/
"That's too loose," Will corrected, reaching to tighten a bandage Nico had just wrapped around the bleeding leg of a daughter of Ares. His long fingers brushed the back of Nico's hand as he pulled it taut and pinned it correctly. "Try it again, on his arm," Will encouraged, pointing to a scraped up son of Athena waiting on a bench opposite them. The boy looked up at being mentioned and Nico reached out for his arm, clutching at his rolls of bandages and gauze. Behind him, Will was telling the Ares girl to be more careful, and that he'd better not see her again this month, but Nico could feel one eye on him as he carefully wrapped the new patient's arm, this time pulling it tighter than he had before.
"Does that feel okay?" he asked tentatively, fidgeting with the pin. The boy nodded and Will moved forward to inspect after sending off their last patient.
"It looks good, Nico." Nico glanced uncertainly at his admittedly sloppy job. The wrapping was nowhere near as even as he had seen Will do, but it was holding and it seemed...functional, at least. Feeling begrudgingly proud of himself, he looked back to grin at Will, but a tall boy with his hair in cornrows had ducked into the room and now had his attention. Austin , his brain supplied, recalling that Austin was one of the Apollo campers.
"What are you doing working the clinic?" Austin asked in confusion. "I thought we were putting new kids on that." Nico thought he saw Will's ears redden.
"Sometimes it's nice to work with all of the minor stuff. Keeps you up to date on what's happening in camp." Austin's eyes landed on Nico and the corner of his mouth quirked up when he looked back at Will. "I'm just helping Nico get started. He's going to be helping us out here," Will told him levelly.
"If you say so," Austin quipped. "I'll let Kayla know that's why she's on the long-term ward today," Will screwed up his face in something that Nico assumed was an attempt at a threatening expression and Austin guffawed. "Just came in here to grab some supplies to keep on hand at the arena. I'll leave you to it," he said, picking a box out of a cupboard above their heads and turning to the door again while Nico and Will watched him leave.
"Don't mind him," Will said quickly, his eyes still on the door after it swung closed. The boy bearing Nico's bandage shifted awkwardly and asked if he was all set to leave and Will nodded dismissively. "Yeah, you're all good." He hopped down and scurried out the door the second he was given the go-ahead.
Nico laughed, "Are you avoiding your work?"
Will looked at him, screwing up his eyes and then said, "This is my work. I told you, I don't need to be in the same place everyday." Nico stared back , wondering at him. A sharp beeping emanated from Will's collar, startling both of them. "Shit! Rounds," he muttered. Nico tried not to look disappointed. "It shouldn't take too long. Probably," Will glanced down at a battered silver wristwatch, "about noon? Then we can break for lunch, if you'll wait for me."
"I will," Nico said a little too quickly. Will beamed.
"Are you okay working the clinic until I'm back? I'll let Victoria know to come help you out and handle anything big." Will's eyes were big and anxious.
"I'll be fine," Nico assured him, bringing about a relieved smile and an "of course you will." Will turned on his heel and walked out the door, calling a goodbye over his shoulder. Nico looked around the now empty room and sighed contentedly. Activity bode well for him; he felt alert and present and like he couldn't possibly fade into the shadows with so much light around him.
For a good thirty-five minutes or so, campers streamed in and out of the clinic in varying states of disarray. At the top of the hour, Nico's bandages were looking better and he was beginning to recognize the labels of various salves without reading them.
"Looking good, Nico," Nico spun around, away from his patient-a young child of Hephaestus with burns up both their arms, to find Will watching from behind him with an encouraging smile. "The wrappings, I mean." He stepped forward, waving at Nico's charge and grinning goofily, coaxing out nervous laughter from the little girl on the bench. Nico was consistently impressed with the rapport Will had with most of the campers, even the newer ones. He was instantly palatable to anyone who met him, Nico couldn't help admitting to himself as he backed away to allow for the lollipop wielding medic to present the patient with her prize.
They followed her out of the building, relieved by another Apollo camper to tag in the clinic, and making their way towards the dining pavilion. Lunch at camp was busy as ever and again, Nico felt Will's eyes on his plate as he corralled him towards a buffet line.
"At least get some chicken?" Will begged. Nico shuddered and shook his head.
"Fine for you, but I could still run into that chicken on business. I'll pass, thanks." Will made a face and withdrew his hand from the serving fork.
"Beans, then? Or-there's a spicy lentil soup over there." He pointed vaguely in the direction of a couple of steam tables being refilled by some unhappy looking campers that Nico recognized from the Hecate cabin. "You really do need some protein."
Nico shrugged off his concern but headed for the soup anyway, stopping on the way to pile some spinach onto his plate and look pointedly at Will who smiled encouragingly back with a touch of something like pride. He rolled his eyes and Will stuck out his tongue before turning to join a different line. Keeping an eye out for a couple of open seats that they wouldn't have to fight (hard) for, Nico made his way to the pavilion fire and dropped in a few spoonfuls from his lunch, mumbling a prayer to Hades as he did so. He thought of Hestia, the goddess of the Hearth who shared in all such offerings, and did a quick once over of the area in case he missed her, as many people do. She must be at a different fire , Nico thought.
"Nico," a voice called, and he turned to see Will waving as he sat down at what is officially the Artemis table, which used to be left respectfully empty exempting visits from the Hunters, but had now become a sort of overflow table for the rest of the camp, save for some who still feared being turned into an antelope.
"No sacrifice for Apollo?" Nico asked, noticing that Will hadn't bothered with the fire before sitting down.
He laughed and shook his head. "He's not getting them. The fire shoots sparks and bits of charred food right back out when you try." Will glanced up, "I guess the-uh-big guy is still pretty pissed." Nico nodded and Will screwed up his eyes while looking intensely at his goblet. "Strawberry-Kiwi Life Water."
"You would," Nico said, laughing guardedly. "Just water," he mumbled to his own cup.
"Don't hate." Will grinned cheekily and dug into what appeared to be a plate of falafel, chickpeas sticking to the corner of his mouth which made Nico laugh a little harder and choke on his soup. Will guffawed. It was easy, suddenly, if just for a moment. Nico basked in it.
In the weeks to come, their lunches became routine because Nico started volunteering at the infirmary almost every day and even on the days he missed for one reason or another, he made it to the mess hall around noon if he could. There were still silences that stretched too long for his comfort, but Will was usually good at finding something to fill them with, even when Nico couldn't come up with words however hard he looked for them. And as the time they spent together increased, he came to trust Will to share in the silences with him.
As Summer faded into Fall, and the bulk of the camp started packing their bags for the start of the school year, Nico found himself worrying less about his friends who he knew were leaving and more about the one unknown, but important, variable. Will had mentioned once that Autumn was his favorite season- it wasn't too warm or cool, and the color palette was fantastic. Nico just hoped that they might get to spend it together. It was nice, having some time that wasn't clouded by ominous prophecies or persistent monsters. It was even nicer having someone to spend the time with.
"Summer's nearly over," Nico brought up carefully, while spooning rice onto his plate one day in the pavillion. Will hummed and he went on, "Are you going back to school?"
"Sort of? I've been taking online classes for the last couple of years. The Hermes cabin helped make my connection untraceable after they got a look at Annabeth's old laptop. It's just been easier, with how much has been happening with...our world. Safer, and it means we have a better staffed infirmary." Will shrugged, reaching for some cutlery and looking, eagle-eyed, around the hall for a seat.
"And you're still going to do it online? Even though things have calmed down a bit?" Nico pressed, still staring up at Will, eyebrows raised.
Will turned to him and snorted, "Since when does anything stay calm around here?" He had a point, Nico conceded. "Besides, what would I do without you giving me shit all the time?" He paused, face falling a little. "You are staying, right? I just assumed."
"Yeah, no, of course. Where else would I be?" Nico exclaimed before musing, "Gods, I don't even know what I'd do in a classroom anymore. I've missed so much."
"Never too late to catch up. You could try it online like I do, and I could help you study?" Will suggested, eyes bright and eager. Nico bit back a smile.
"Yeah, maybe," he said, giving it some thought. Looking forward, he couldn't help but feel excited, even a little giddy at the prospect of having the time to learn again for the sake of learning. For more than that, for the sake of doing something with his life as an adult. For the sake of not dying young. Percy and Annabeth were going to make it now, he was so sure of it. He probably could too. Will was right, nothing ever stayed calm for long, but it seemed to Nico that he suddenly had so many more people to face the next disaster with. Grinning in spite of himself, he glanced back at Will, who beamed back, brighter than the sun. Nico didn't even blush. He felt like he could take on the world.
"I think it's gonna be a good year."
Will laughed. "I bet it will, Death Boy." He pointed to some open spots across the room. Nico rolled his eyes and elbowed him, and they both made their way over. If, when they sat down, their bodies were a little closer to each other than strictly necessary or their hands brushed one time too often while they were eating, well, Nico was sure no one was paying too much attention anyway. It was gonna be a good year.