Nico landed at high speed on a dune, mercifully breaking his fall. Still, he was surprised he hadn't broken a bone in the process. He propped himself up on his hands and knees, sputtering sand. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this!"

Somewhere further down the dune, Will's golden curls emerged, followed by his flailing arms, and finally, he pushed himself out of the sand as well and looked up at Nico. "How was I supposed to know—"

"You mean besides the part where literally everyone warned us about Khione? And you still insisted to try and 'seduce her' for Gods-know-what reason?" Unsurprisingly, the snow goddess had been the one to set off her trap first—a North Wind bomb, catching Will, Nico, and Cecil in the blast.

Will sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess." He groaned, and dramatically dropped back in the sand, face first. "I'm so stupid," he said, his voice muffled.

Nico huffed out a sharp breath, tempted to agree, but he held his tongue. Instead, he scrambled to his feet, and half-walked, half-slid down to Will. "Don't just lie there. You'll end up with sand everywhere.

Will rolled onto his side and glanced up at Nico with miserable eyes. "Maybe you should just let me choke here. At least I wouldn't lead you straight into a trap then.

"Ha ha. That's hilarious. Now quit the theatrics." Nico held out his hand, and after a moment of feigned hesitation, Will grabbed it, and Nico helped him up.

Will looked around, and Nico followed his gaze, taking in their surroundings. They were standing in the middle of a desert, endless in every direction, a uniform landscape of sand on one side and dry, rocky ground on the other.

"Where do you think Cecil ended up?"

Nico couldn't help but silently smile that this was his first question, not where they were. Will turned to him, raising an eyebrow, and Nico schooled his features into something more neutrel. This was not the time for his stupid crush to kick in. "I don't know. He was on the other side of the bomb when it blew up. He could be anywhere right now."

Will grimaced. "It's his first time alone on a quest. I hope he's okay."

Nico shifted uncomfortably; consoling people really wasn't his forte. "I'm sure he can fend for himself. We have to find our own way out of here. Then we'll think about helping him."

Will's gaze seemed to come back into focus. "Right. You're right, yeah. So—how do we do this?"

Nico shrugged. "The sun's setting already." That meant they were probably somewhere in Africa, though Nico couldn't get any more accurate than that. "We should probably find a place to spend the night. Preferably with solid ground under our feet. In the morning, I can shadow-travel us somewhere else." Nico wouldn't even dare to suggest doing it now; he had already done too much shadow-traveling in the past hour to set Will's crazy plan of storming Boreas's castle by surprise in motion.

Will motioned to the rocky flats behind Nico. "Over there, then?"

"Yeah. It's our best bet."

Unfortunately, their best bet didn't account for two things: how fast the sun would set, and how cold nights got in the desert. Even though they had just been in Canada, it was summer, and they hadn't packed for anything quite this cold.

Will was the first to stop. "I can't keep walking. It's too cold, and we're never going to find shelter here anyway. It's just this endless…nothing."

Nico couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance, but Will was right. It was night, but the stars gave enough light that Nico could see there was nothing for miles around. "Do you want me to try shadow-traveling?"

"No! That'd be way too dangerous. We'll deal with the cold." Nico stared, dubious, as Will rummaged through his backpack—which contained all their equipment, as Nico had left his at their old camp, back on another continent. "Okay, I've got two blankets. See? It's perfect!"

Will's enthusiasm sounded fake to Nico's ears, but he took the offered blanket anyway, and settled on the hard ground. He was still cold and uncomfortable, but the shadow-traveling and walking had taken their toll on his body, and Nico felt himself drifting off already when Will's voice startled him back to full awareness.

"Hey, you sleeping?"

Nico sighed. "Not really," he lied.

"I'm way too cold. Do you mind if we share the blankets?"

Nico nearly choked on his own breath, glad for the darkness preventing Will from seeing him turn red at an alarming rate. But Will had a point—just because he was about to pass out didn't mean Nico wasn't aware of the cold. "Yeah. Okay." He managed to keep his voice level, which was an achievement in and of itself.

He heard Will shuffle in the dark, and managed to stay resolutely still as Will slid under Nico's blanket behind him and spread his own blanket on top. Warmth flooded Nico at once—a little from the blanket, a lot from Will's skin, inches away from Nico's, and much, much more from Nico's suddenly hyperactive heart.

"Is that good?" Will asked in a quiet voice—almost a whisper in Nico's ear.

"Y-yeah. It's good."

Nico couldn't keep his voice from quivering a little, and Will took it the wrong way. "You're still cold?" He reached out, laying a hand on Nico's. "Nico, you're freezing. You should have told me." He shifted closer, pressing himself against Nico's back. "Here. We should share body heat anyway."

Nico was stunned into silence, unable to point out that he was always colder than Will because of their respective fathers. As a camp medic, Will should have known it. But if Nico was honest with himself, he was definitely not going to pass up a chance for cuddling—platonic as it may be—so he remained silent.

He nearly drifted off again, hanging in the space between wakefulness and sleep, when his mind conjured an old memory of Bianca, from when they were kids. She had told him the story of Rapunzel, banished to a desert by the witch who had raised her for meeting in secret with a prince. In this half-conscious fantasy, Nico asked his sister: "So who's Rapunzel, me or Will? And who's the prince?"

The question brought him back to the present, and he couldn't help but snicker at how ridiculous the thought was.

"What is it?" Will asked. He was so close.

"Nothing, just thinking about the story of Rapunzel. How she was cast out in a desert like us."

"Was she? That wasn't in the movie."

"Different version, obviously." Nico couldn't help but tease, "Of course you'd only know the Disney version."

"Hey! It's a great movie. And the songs are cool." Nico chuckled, and was about to retort, but Will didn't let him: he started singing. "Flower, gleam, and glow. Let your power shine…"

Nico was about to tease him, but he froze for two reasons. One: Will's voice was lovely. Not gorgeous, like Nico had heard from the other Apollo kids, but after over a year of hearing Will mention his lack of musical talent, Nico was surprised to find that his singing voice was good. Two: as he sang, light spilled out from behind Nico.

He rolled around under the blankets, to find that Will's hair was glowing bright, and the freckles on his face were glistening with more light.

"I make my own sunlight. I found out about this ability a couple weeks ago. I was dying to try it out." Will's lips curved in an awkward smile, half proud and half embarrassed.

"What, you sing and it—?" Nico was too busy staring at Will to finish his question. The golden light was warm, highlighting Will's complexion and making his eyes sparkle brighter.

Will's smile grew more assured, and Nico suddenly realized Will could see him staring. He could probably see Nico blushing, too. "No, the singing was just for show."

"You should do it more," Nico blurted, without thinking. "Singing, I mean. Well—this too. It's—it's cool."

"Thanks." He remained silent for a moment, enough for Nico to realize he was staring back at Nico. "So I guess that answers your question. I'm Rapunzel. And you're the prince." Nico froze up, and Will chuckled at his expression. "You said that out loud."

Nico groaned. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be. It was cute."

Nico's heart skipped a beat, and he gaped at Will, eyes wide and cheeks growing hot. It took him a moment to form a reply at all. "Um. Thanks? I mean, I was half asleep." He sighed, wishing he could have come up with a better lie. There was no way he was getting out of this with his dignity intact.

"Oh," Will said, breaking the awkward silence. The light he'd created flickered and dimmed, going out in places, as though he was losing control over it. "I thought—because, you know, I've had this dumb crush on you forever, and—"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, since—basically since you showed up in Manhattan and saved everyone." Nico stared in silence, and after a moment, Will added, "It's dumb. I'm dumb. Forget it."

"No, I'm the one with the dumb crush here. You can't say that." It took a moment—and Will's light to go out completely—for Nico to realize what he'd said. "Um."

"Oh."

"…Yeah."

They fell silent, and Nico thought Will had somehow fallen asleep, that this whole discussion was just nonsense, when Will said, "I—think we should talk about this some other time."

Nico frowned, but of course Will couldn't see him. "What do you mean?"

"It's just—I really want to ask if I can kiss you now or something, but I feel like it would be really weird and uncomfortable, if only because we're lying on the ground in the middle of a freezing desert. And I don't want my first kiss—um, our first kiss—to be like that. But when we're back to somewhere normal—I mean, if you want to—"

"Yeah. Okay. That'd be great."

Will let out a sigh—of relief, Nico guessed. "Great." Another moment passed, then, "Would it be weird to cuddle anyway?"

Nico chuckled. "I don't know, but I'd like to try."

Before Will could react, he shifted closer to Will, nuzzling against his chest. Will briefly tensed up, then he relaxed, wrapped an arm around Nico's waist, and pressed his nose in Nico's hair before tangling their legs together. Finally one thing their height difference was good for, Nico thought.

His heart raced at the sudden contact, but Nico took comfort in the sound of Will's heartbeat going just as fast. Comfortably bathed in the warmth of Will's body and of his confession, Nico drifted off, and this time, welcomed sleep.