Prompt: Person A is in the hospital, bedridden. Person B comes to take their vitals, only for A to tell them to fight A from a mountain of pillows.

Title: I'll Bet on This

Number in Collection: Five

Title of Collection: Solangelo Drabbles

Summary: Loosely based on this prompt: Person A is in the hospital, bedridden. Person B comes to take their vitals, only for A to tell them to fight A from a mountain of pillows/ "Fight me." "It wouldn't be a fair fight, Nico. Not when I know you'll win." "Darn right I will."/ Solangelo, ONE-SHOT

Notes: Can be read as a standalone. AU. Takes place directly after the Blood of Olympus, not taking into account the events of the Trials of Apollo.

It's a testament in of itself that it barely takes a day before the bets start rolling.

Which, you know, may have actually sped the process up a little if they had known people were betting on them, but no one will ever know, since, well, bets weren't supposed to be privy to the ones involved. Right?

Moving on.

The day had started out fairly normal for a post-war thing, all things considered, which was something to be proud of when you live in a camp filled with demigods. Things were getting kinda crowded – the Demeter cabin was mourning the number of squashed strawberry plants – but the Romans were scheduled to leave in like a day or two, so Kayla supposed she could manage. For now.

The whole misunderstanding thing had been solved anyway – goodbye creepy Roman – and things had been pretty amiable between the two parties. The first night had been the worst, with both camps walking on eggshells until they realized that hey, they actually had a lot in common.

Who would have ever thought that?

But that wasn't important. What was important was Will Solace, brother extraordinaire and Apollo cabin counselor. And she should know.

Now, Kayla had seen many sides of Will since arriving at camp. She had seen him in the role of younger brother, when Lee and Michael were still alive. She had seen him ride a motorbike across the city with Percy. She had seen him grow up far too early. She had seen him yell at Annabeth about their chariot – which was still broken. She was gonna need to have some words with a few people. So really, seeing him drag someone into the infirmary shouldn't have been a surprise.

And it wasn't. Or it wouldn't be a surprise, at least, if said person being dragged wasn't the one and only Son of Hades.

Now Kayla had heard a lot of things about Nico. Granted, a lot of it was probably rumors, but all rumors had a grain of truth, right? Besides, she knew how to shift out the most outrageous of rumors (like the one where Nico had killed his sister) so she was pretty confident in her abilities. And while she didn't believe in much of the bad rumors surrounding Nico (okay, so maybe, Will having a tiny crush on the demigod played a part), she did know a lot about Nico. She hadn't been there at the beginning, but tales from Will told her that Nico was a huge dork.

Even so, she knew the Son of Hades' reputation was nothing to laugh at.

So when Will dragged Nico in to sit on the bed, instructing Kayla to grab some medicine – "And urgh! Just get the whole cart. I don't even know where to begin with these scratches" – Kayla could make out the fear and worry in his blue eyes, even as he glared at Nico.

And that was where it all started, really, because Apollo children could not keep a secret even if their lives depended on it.

In Kayla's defense, it had started as a small thing. Just a family bet between her and Austin on who would confess first – Will or Nico.

(She may or may not have been betting on Will while Austin went with Nico, because according to him, Will is a big baby. He'll never man up in time before Nico makes the first move. I mean have you seen that demigod? He's not one to wait around. But Austin hadn't had hours of his life wasted listening to Will rant about Nico, so Kayla was pretty confident in her choice.)

And then Austin had to get Cecil's opinion on the whole thing, who brought along Lou Ellen, since they were both in the vicinity at that time, and things had just snowballed from there. By the time the day was over, nearly the entire camp knew, and Kayla hoped vehemently that neither Nico or Will would ever find out.

But if they ever did, she would forever deny starting this in the first place, and what? She was Will's baby sister. She would never do something to betray his trust like that.

"Did you know practically everyone has a bet placed on us?" Will started conversationally, pushing open the door.

He could just hear Nico mutter out a faint acknowledgement from the mountain of pillows that the demigod had managed to bury himself in. Now, Will wasn't suicidal. Contrary to popular belief, in fact, he did want to live. Which was why he had chosen to break this important news to Nico when the Son of Hades was still half-drugged and asleep. That way, he could argue that he had indeed informed Nico of this tiny fact if Nico ever found out and avoid getting his head chopped off by an extremely sharp Stygian Iron sword.

No one could ever say Will Solace never planned anything now, right?

He poked the heap of pillows. "Nico, come out. I have to take your vitals."

A surprisingly strong "Fight me" came from the pile of pillows, and Will had to fight a grin. Quite honestly, he had never expected Nico to be so similar to a cat, but he was quickly realizing a lot of things about Nico that he didn't know.

(Like the fact that the stupid, sexy demigod would keep a week-old werewolf scratch from Will, if anyone wanted to know. And that Nico really hated water, but loved fruit juices like there was no tomorrow. And that apparently harpies didn't bother Nico, since he – apparently – reeked of death.)

And now he was rambling.

So he removed all the pillows one by one until a mop of dark hair appeared in sight. He may or may not have laughed when Nico hissed at the sun. Nico grumbled the entire time Will took his vitals, but he was yawning and slurring his words the entire time, and there wasn't much of a fight put up, despite what Nico might think.

Will left him covered in pillows once again, with a pat and a "maybe later."

What Will didn't expect was for there to be so many "fight me" instances.

He hadn't expected Nico to even remember his "maybe later" so seeing the demigod the next day swaying on his feet with a sword pointed shakily at Will was surprising, to put it mildly. Luckily for Will, he had plenty of practice disarming wounded Ares kids who thought they were still invincible, and wow, there were actually a lot of incidences, and he would have to speak to Chiron about this.

Right, where was he?

Oh, Nico.

Then there were other incidences that brought a smile to his face, like the time when Nico had ordered Will to "fight him" only to cough and nearly stop breathing, and all right, so Will might have panicked a little, but no one ever needed to know. That one had ended with Will respectfully declining Nico's offer, because, well, "It wouldn't be a fair fight, Nico. Not when I know you'll win."

"Darn right I will."

So yeah, there were a lot of incidences, to say the least. And despite Will ranting about how annoying it was, it wouldn't change it for the world.

Not that anyone needed to know that.

The bet ended on the last day of Nico's infirmary stay.

Which had been longer than the mentioned three days, but still faster than anyone had ever expected.

It had ended simply enough, believe it or not.

Will had entered Nico's room to "fight me", which was half-hearted by this point and had sorta become their usual greeting. "Maybe in a few weeks," Will had answered. "But for now, you can go."

Nico's head had shot up as his eyes widened incredulously before narrowing into slits. "What's the catch?"

"Nothing," Will had said casually, leaning against the doorframe. "Except that I'm to be your first fight after this."

And to Will's surprise, Nico had given in with a, "Fine. But don't expect me to take it easy on you, Solace."

The Son of Hades then swung his feet out of the bed and grabbed his sword, cocking a curious brow when Will hadn't moved from his position by the door. To the questioning look, Will had shrugged, holding out the hot chocolate in his hand. "Here, one for the road."

Nico accepted the drink with a wry smile as they headed to the exit. "What, give all your patients a hot chocolate in return for keeping you company?"

"Only the special ones," Will had answered with a wink, before practically slamming the door in Nico's face.

Nico would forever deny that he had tossed the hot chocolate cup into the bin before his eyes caught the message scrawled on it.

"I know you're all for fighting me, but honestly, I'd prefer to date you."

Will had received an Iris message as he was brushing his teeth and preparing for bed.

For his part, Nico had yelled some very crude profanities at Will, some of which Will visibly winced at and prayed that none of his siblings were listening at the door. To be honest, Nico had some very creative curse words he'd picked up over the years, and Will didn't understand a lot of it, but one sentence did came out quite clear.

"Forget your cup, you romantic sap! I was supposed to ask first!"

And if the duo caught anyone exchanging money the next day, neither of them brought it up.

Which was probably for the best, Kayla agreed, even though she had the nagging suspicion that Will knew about the bed already. And of course it hadn't been the frog in her bed that tipped her off, what are you talking about?

Author's Note: I'm well aware that this isn't up to my usual standards, but I had to write something to get myself out of my writer's block, so here you go.

Headcannon that the di Angelo stayed a brief while in 30s England, so this happened. Bonus Scene:

And then, of course, there was that one incident, when Nico had gotten the wrong dose of medication. Will had wheeled the medical cart in, expecting another "fight me", only to find Nico sitting up confusedly, eyes unsteadily darting to Will at his entrance. "I got an edge in my head," the Son of Hades had stated.

Will had nodded slowly in confusion. "Um, okay?"

"Am I bent?" Nico had asked seriously.

"Bent? I – I don't know what that means."

Nico looked frustrated as he motioned with his hands. "You know. Bent. Fried!" He pointed to the empty cup by his table accusingly. "Look! There's a dead soldier right there!" He then glanced up at Will, horrified. "Or am I hopped up?"

At this point, Will was certain Nico wasn't acting his usual self, which led to Will unsure if he should laugh or go ahead and check Nico's vitals as if nothing was wrong, while the medication wore off. "You're not fried, or hopped up, as you say," he stated slowly.

Nico narrowed his eyes. "What are you? The big cheese at the place? Well, I have a beef to make. You might think you're such a bimbo, but it won't be that easy bumping off me!"

"I'm not doing whatever you're accusing me off."

"Lay off!" Nico had yelled before covering his ears with the pillows and proceeding to chant "bushwa" the whole time until Will finished, when he yelled, "Yeah, you should beat it!"

It wasn't until later that Will found out Nico was yelling 30s slang.

Edge: a buzz
Bent/Fried: drunk
Dead soldier: empty beer bottle
Hopped up: on drugs
Big cheese: important person
Beef: complaint
Bimbo: tough guy
Lay off: cut the crap
Bushwa: bullshit
Beat it: scram