"This is seriously the most boredom I have felt in under two hours," Nico groaned, shifting again in the bed. "Why did I agree to three days of bed rest?"

"Because I wasn't asking," Will responded. "So play this game with me then. Maybe it'll help."

Nico let out a sigh from his spot in the cot a bit away. "Fine. What game?"

Will looked over in surprise and smiled faintly. He went to the edge of the bed where the son of Hades reclined and settled in with the bandages and scissors he was working with.

"20 Questions, but my way."

"I don't even know what regular 20 questions is," Nico grumbled as he shifted his feet away from Will. "But sure, whatever."

"Well, I'll ask you a question and you have to answer. Then, you can ask me, and so on for the next 20 questions," Will explained as he clipped off some squares of gauze.

Nico hesitantly nodded. "Okay. You ask first then?"

Will nodded and looked up as he spoke his first question. "What's your favorite color, and you can't say black."

Nico frowned. "Then… blue."

Will raised a golden eyebrow then nodded. "Okay. Your turn."

"Favorite song?"

"Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones," Nico admitted from his spot now reclined across the bed with his head hanging off the edge. He stared at the ceiling as he spoke but turned to glance at Will when he heard a little laugh coming from his spot.

"What?" he demanded, his cheeks going pink.

Will shook his head from a position mirroring Nico about a foot down the bed. After a second, he met his gaze with those shockingly blue eyes. "Sorry. I just wasn't expecting that."

"What's wrong with that song?"

"No, nothing," Will chuckled. "Just not what I thought you'd like."

"I don't just sit in my cabin in a pile of skulls listening to death metal," Nico said a bit playfully. "But whatever keeps people out of my room."

Will outright laughed at that, his blue eyes closing and the laughter escaping from his lips like a guitar riff. Nico looked at him and fought the smile tugging at the corners of his own lips. He pushed it straight away when Will looked over at him again.

"Your turn," he said casually.

"Do you have or do you want any tattoos?" Nico asked after a moment of thought.

Will nodded, his freckles more visible in the sunlight streaming through the skylight. "I've always wanted one, and I think I'd want to get one for all the people I wasn't able to heal or save."

Nico looked into his eyes a bit in awe. This happy-go-lucky guy really thought of the people he lost, enough to get them tattooed on his skin somehow. "But none of those deaths were your fault," Nico said. "From what I've seen, you work pretty hard."

Instantly, Will's bright eyes met Nico's. "Well, of course… but I still failed them, and no one's name should be forgotten."

Nico nodded.

"But anyway, my turn," Will said after a few silent moments. "Do you actually speak any Italian?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. My Mom was born in Italy, so was I. When I was little, that was the first language I spoke. I thought I'd forgotten it all until traveling on the Argo II."

"That's pretty cool," Will said sincerely.

"It's okay," Nico sid with a shrug. "Your turn."

Will looked back up at the ceiling thoughtfully as he brushed back a stray lock of hair from his forehead. "Hmm…."

Nico watched him quietly. He didn't often stare, but something about this guy was interesting. It was more than how his golden hair caught the sunlight or his sun-kissed skin stayed its tone even when the son of Apollo barely had time to leave the infirmary. He listened like he was actually curious about Nico. He laughed around him and didn't flinch away even though their legs touched now, and Nico found himself unusually calm which he rarely was around people outside of his select few friends.

Will turned his head towards him again silently looked at him for a few tense moments. Nico hoped his cheeks weren't turning pink.

"What are those scars?" Will finally asked, reaching his hand out slowly towards Nico's shoulder.

Nico considered flinching away from the contact, but Will's warm fingers pressed gently on the spot on his shoulder close to his neck. Nico knew the scars he meant. The jagged, pale lines were all he had left from his battle with Lycaon since the ones on his arms had healed and disappeared. No matter what shirt he put on, without his jacket on, the ends of them peeked out of his collar.

Will looked at where his own fingers traced the shape of the scars. "Unless… you don't want to talk about it."

Nico almost didn't want to. He avoided this sort of stuff, but he found himself telling Will.

"When we were bringing the Athena Parthenos," the younger boy started as Will continued his curious tracing, "We ran into Lycaon. He was doing the scouting for Orion. We didn't have much silver, so we all got a little messed up."

"Why didn't you tell me about these when you three got here? I might have been able to stop them from scarring."

Nico shrugged and Will withdrew his hand. "They weren't that big of a deal right then."

"Did they hurt?"

"Hey," Nico said a bit playfully, "It's my turn."

Will flashed him a sad smile, worried he'd push too far and nodded. "You're right. Though… I'm pretty sure that's more than twenty…"

That night, Nico had nightmares.

They weren't unusual for him in the least. Almost every other night, he woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat or yelling. Of course, being in the Hades cabin alone or constantly on the move, he could just calm his breathing and go right back to sleep or get moving into the next day. This night, however, he slept in the infirmary on "doctor's orders".

Will had decided to stay in a cot in the infirmary too to make sure his patient didn't disappear into the shadows in the middle of the night.

He woke up slowly when he heard the sounds coming from Nico's bed and groggily sat up, slipping his legs off the bed. He woke up quickly, however, when he heard the noises over a few seconds.

Demigods had weird dreams all the time, but Nico's groans (the usual as they jumped from dream to dream) changed rapidly into desperate cries caught in his throat. Will walked more quickly across the infirmary, stubbing his toe along the way. He bit back a curse as he got over to the side of the bed.

He tensed as soon as he saw Nico.

Nico di Angelo, the "death boy", the Ghost King, was curled up in his cot, one hand clutching the sheets and his dark hair sticking to his forehead with cold sweat. His features, angelic in sleep, were scrunched up in a flinch and his bottom lip trembled.

Will leaned one hand on the edge of the bed and shook Nico's arm gently with the other. "Nico."

The boy was cold to the touch and his nightmares held him fast. Something like desperation tugged at Will's stomach. He shifted his hand to gently rest on Nico's cheek (something he was sure he'd hear complaining about later) and said more sternly, "Nico. Wake up."

The boy sat up a bit quickly, his face almost against Will's and his eyes darting around as if looking for his reality in the faint light streaming in from the skylight.

A tear streaked down his cheek and Will brushed it away with his thumb. He met the other boy's dark eyes. "Nico, look at me."

Nico's eyes hesitantly steadied and met Will's gaze.

"You're awake now," Will said in a soothing voice. "That was just a dream."

Nico was silent for a few heartbeats and only his steadying breaths made a sound. He looked back at Will with his lips trembling, and Will didn't dare move. He felt like he could shatter this.

Suddenly Nico let a sob escape his lips and his eyes squeezed shut.

Will let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and he gently tugged him closer, shifting to sit on the edge of the bed.

Nico didn't protest and leaned his head on Will's shoulder, sobbing into the fabric of his t-shirt. His arm slowly wrapped around Will and Will was happy to hold him there quietly for however long it would take.

Something about this made him feel broken too. As Cabin 7's best healer, he wanted nothing more than to fix people, to make them feel the most like they did at their best. Usually, it went well. Sometimes, he didn't know how much he could do.

With Nico, he was stubborn in the opinion that he could help. Nico had almost left from feeling excluded and although, physically, he wasn't doing badly, he needed more. Will had sworn if he could at least be his friend, he would be helping.

But here Nico was, the boy who always presented himself as so formidable (even if Will had always known it couldn't be entirely real), falling apart in the quiet of the infirmary.

And if only for this moment, Will holding him as he sobbed was enough to help. Nico's sobs had died down even though he hadn't moved from his spot with his face buried in Will's shoulder.

When the silence was too much, Will finally spoke. "Nico?" he said gently.

The younger boy let out a "Hmm?", his voice cracking a bit.

"I won't tell anyone about this," Will said simply.

Nico slowly sat up and pulled his arms away, forcing Will to withdraw his own.

In the pale light from the moon, his features were silvery as he dried off his face with his sleeves. He sniffled once before looking through his bangs at Will. "Thanks, Solace."

Will nodded. "And… maybe you don't want to answer, but I have another question."

Nico let out a humorless snort. "Right now?"

The son of Apollo nodded. "Yeah." After a moment he simply asked it. "What did you dream?"

Nico swallowed hard in the quiet of the room, looking at his hands where they now rested in his lap. He didn't want to answer this. What right did Will Solace have to know anyway? Why had he given in and cried in front of this guy?

Nico finally looked up to say one of these things and the statement caught in his throat. Will's eyes were still their distinct blue, but his eyebrows had drawn over his eyes. He looked worried, genuinely worried, about him. About Nico. Someone was worried about Nico di Angelo.

"The nightmares I have…" he mumbled. "They almost never change… just the same set of events over and over. Maybe a different one every night, but they aren't just dreams, Will. They're my past."

Will's features eased up slightly at his name. Nico almost never called him by his first name. "And tonight?"

"You only get one question," Nico grumbled.

"Well, you can ask me two next time."

Nico sighed but continued, "It was when Lycaon scratched me…" His voice held a quiet disdain. "It hurt, okay? The cuts feel like acid, but… We had to get back. Everyone was counting on it and… what's my life anyway?"

Will felt a bubble of anger. "Your life is worth something, Nico," he said sternly. "It's not just something you should throw away."

The son of Hades steadily met his gaze. "Why are you so willing to get into an argument with me?"

"Because I'm not going to let you do that anymore," Will said, suddenly ignoring the urge to comfort his "patient". "You aren't just somebody who wouldn't be missed. You're a person. You've done things for this camp and Camp Jupiter. Your life didn't end when your sister's did."

Will had expected Nico to punch him in the face and leave. He didn't. In fact, his expression seemed to soften a bit.

"Maybe that was harsh, but…" Will took a slow breath before he finished his sentence. "I would miss you."

Nico blinked silently for a moment. "... You would?"

Will nodded without hesitation. "I do actually like you, you know?"

Nico tilted his head slightly like the idea was foreign to him and something fluttered in Will's chest.

"Why?"

"Whether you want to show everyone or not, you're more than you make yourself out to be," Will responded, feeling a smile tug gently at his lips. "Maybe our game of one hundred and … I don't know, twenty-six questions made me realize a guy who likes Pacman as you do can't be all that bad."

Nico looked blank-faced for a moment before he let out a laugh. Short, but genuine, and Will realized he had never heard it before. Never once had Nico let a laugh slip around him, and it was special. His laugh came out clean and melodic like a good song and Will wanted to hit rewind to hear it again.

Nico looked back at him afterwards and sniffled one last time. "Well… you're not so bad either. For a son of Apollo, I mean."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"We should get back to sleep," Nico responded, already shifting to get back into his bed.

Will wanted to argue, but he felt the heaviness in his eyelids too. He dragged himself to the cot right next to Nico's and promised himself head ask about that little comment tomorrow.

Will woke with the sun like he usually did and sat up to blink his eyes in the sudden light. After a moment, he put his legs over the side of the bed and got up to stretch. He glanced over to where Nico slept and saw the sheets were pulled up to his chin and he was still fast asleep, his slow breaths making the sheets fall and rise.

Will went over and gently prodded him. "Nico?"

"Mmm?"

"It's time to get up. Breakfast will be soon."

"Mm mn… I don't do breakfast," he grumbled, tugging the sheets higher.

"Well, today you're my patient, and we're going to go her breakfast," Will responded simply, strolling away to go get dressed with Nico's groaning in the background.

Hey, everyone ^^ Good to be back. I took a long break, I know, but I took some time to read in my free time and got to read through one of my favorite series of all time, Percy Jackson & the Olympians as well as Heroes of Olympus. Well, I remembered how much I loved it and put this together. Full credit to the author of those books, Rick Riordan, for his incredible storylines and great characters.

I hope to write a few more for PJO so stick around. Thanks everyone!

-J