The Cat in the Hat's Vampire
- x - x - x -
It is fun to have fun but you have to know how! - Dr. Seuss
- x - x - x -
Ridiculous.
This entire camp was ridiculous.
Nico stood just beyond the crowd gathered around the campfire. He, unlike the other nutballs, was wearing normal clothes. Gray shirt, black jeans. However, everyone else was, once again, overly investing themselves in an American holiday.
Halloween.
Everyone of them was dressed to the nines, with big hats, fakes ears, chiffon skirts, clownish makeup, and much, much more. It was like this every year. Halloween gave every camper an opportunity to dress like an idiot, to temporarily embrace the culture of regular human beings.
Nico didn't understand it one bit. Normally, he would avoid this particular campfire session. Only, a certain, overly excited someone had invited him. Nico couldn't find it within him to say no. So, there he was, rubbing his arms awkwardly at the edge of the eccentric crowd.
"Nico!" shouted Lou Ellen, jumping to her feet. She darted out of the crowd and over to him, grinning. "What a surprise to see you!"
"Yep," he agreed wholeheartedly, frowning as he glanced at her odd costume. She was dressed rather simply, with a yellow shirt and black pants. The only unusual aspects of her outfit were a gold crown and handheld black stick with a star at the end of it. "Are you supposed to be something?"
Lou Ellen flopped her head back dramatically and groaned. "Not you too! My hair is supposed to be pink, but I couldn't get the color to show," Lou Ellen's hair was very dark, nearly midnight black. If she'd done something to it, Nico couldn't tell. "I'm suppose to be Wanda! Cecil is Cosmo."
Nico stared at her a long moment, before asking, "Who?"
"Wanda and Cosmo," she repeated.
"Yea, I have no clue who they are."
Her expression went blank with confusion for a solid three or four seconds. Then, she gave her head and laughed, "I shouldn't be surprised. Alright Mr. Eighty-Years-Old, let's go sit!" She grabbed his arm and began to drag him through the campers.
Most of his friends were crowded together in one area, near the back of the crowd. Nico was absolutely clueless about the majority of their costumes. Most of them were probably pop culture references, of which Nico was completely uninterested in. To him, they were all just dressed like dorks.
But, there was one dork who caught his attention more so than the others.
Will Solace.
Will Solace was dressed in a long black cloak, which was rather surprising. Nico had never seen Will wear anything but bright, obnoxious colors. If it didn't practically glow in the sunlight, the son of Apollo was typically not interested in it. Despite this, today, Will was mostly dressed in dark colors, blacks, grays, and a dark red vest.
Damn, thought Nico as he forgot how to breath. Will looked good.
"Somebody forgot a costume!" Leo's shout snapped Nico out of his beguilement. Crossing his arms, Nico turned to glare at Leo. Who, by the way, easily had one of the stupidest costumes out of the bunch. He was wearing a vomit-green dinosaur onesie. His sloppy, childish outfit clasted heavily with Calypso, who was dressed as a classy Snow White (Nico knew some American cartoon characters).
"You came!" was the next exclamation, this one from Will. A few skeletal butterflies snuck their way into Nico's stomach. It was illogical how easily Will made him nervous.
Shrugging, Nico forced himself to meet his crush's friendly gaze. "Yeah, well…" He wasn't sure what else to say. He didn't want to be honest. You asked me, of course I'm here. That sounded so weak, so mushy. It would surely only make his delicate relationship with Will weird.
Will turned a little and gave Cecil (who had died his blonde hair an awful green color) a good shove. Cecil snickered madly as he was scooted nearly a foot over. "You could have just asked," he told his friend. Will shrugged and grinned deviously, before turning his devious grin back to Nico.
"Sit next to me," suggested Will, patting the now empty space next to him.
Trying to act like he wasn't excited by this proposition, Nico weaved through the others and over to Will. The foot of space between Will and Cecil was barely enough, and Nico found his thighs brushing into both of theirs. He didn't care much about the physical contact with Cecil, but with Will… he bit his lower lip nervously and muttered, "thanks."
"Of course," laughed Will, "I really am so glad you came… especially since I brought you a costume!"
"You, what!?" Nico yelped, sitting up straight and twisting to glare at Will. Nico didn't do costumes. If Will that he was going to -
Will rather swiftly dropped an oversized hat on Nico's head. Automatically, Nico reached up and grabbed at the edge of the hat, feeling its felt material curiously. "It's the Cat in the Hat," Will practically purred, as he fished inside his cloak, digging into hidden pockets. "But, wait, there's more!" Will pulled out a long red ribbon.
Leaning forward, Will reached his arms around Nico, snaking the red ribbon around his neck. Nico was so caught off guard, having Will's face a few inches away from his, that he didn't even complain. He could count the freckles on Will's face. He could clearly see how the edges of Will's eyes creased in concentration as he tied the red ribbon around his neck.
All of Nico's willpower went into keeping himself from doing something stupid, like kissing Will right then and there. We're friends, he reminded himself, just friends.
Once the red bow tie was on, Will started digging into his pockets again. "There's more?" asked Nico hotly.
"Duh," giggled Will as he produced a black crayon thing out from his cloak, "the Cat in the Hat has whiskers."
Will carefully grabbed Nico's face and began to drag the black crayon across Nico's cheeks. Cheeks that, by the way, were unwelcomingly warm thanks to the contact. Earlier, had Nico known that Will would be touching him like this, Nico might not have attended the Halloween campfire. Or, maybe he definitely would have. Nico wasn't sure; he was rather conflicted with his feelings.
Soon, his face bore six black whiskers. While Will shoved the black crayon back into his cloak, Nico reflected on how odd it was. No one else on this camp would dare to touch him or mess with him like this. Yet, Will had always been different. Not only was he not afraid of touching the literal son of death, he seemed to enjoy it.
Enjoy it. Okay, that was probably the wrong phrasing to use. Still.
Nico tugged shyly at the red bow tie. "Ah, don't take it off," begged Will, his hands catching Nico's, "it looks so cute on you!"
On Nico's left, Cecil giggled. Almost instinctively, Nico dug his elbow into Cecil's side. The green-haired idiot yelped and doubled over, clutching his side. Unfortunately, he then started laughing harder.
A hand snuck around Nico, grabbing onto his left arm before he could deliver another blow to Cecil. "For the record," chuckled Will, his eyes sparkling with amusement, "the Cat in the Hat isn't violent."
Nico huffed but decided to let Cecil be.
That's when the singing began and Nico's attention was drawn away from the campers around him. Admittedly, he had warmed up a lot to the campfire traditions. While he wasn't someone to belt out the songs like some of his friends would (Will, Lou Ellen, Cecil, Percy, Leo), he didn't mind humming along with the tune. And, even though today's songs were all Halloween songs, he still enjoyed them.
Nico lost count of how many songs were sung. Admittedly, he felt rather at home amongst the singing, the campers, and the flicker of the campfire.
It wasn't really a surprising feeling. This crazy group of campers was basically his family. His costume wearing, American pop culture loving, over-the-top family. He loved them.
When the last song ended, some of the kids began to get up and drift away, back to their cabins. Nico's group stayed where they were, though. Night time, after several rounds of campfire songs, was sometimes the best time for conversation. So, everyone started talking with everyone about everything and nothing. Nico wasn't exempted from this torrent of talk. He found himself drawn into the chatter, joking and laughing with everyone else.
"So what exactly are you?" Nico finally asked Will after he'd gathered enough courage.
"I'm a vampire!" chirped Will, "I, well, thought maybe you'd appreciate it." There was something undeniably flirty about how Will said that. It didn't help that Will had also leaned in towards Nico as he'd said it, the corner of his lip quirking up.
Gulping, Nico fought to maintain his cool. "Where's your teeth?" he accused, trying to sound unimpressed.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Will laughed before once again digging into his cloak (seriously, how much stuff did he have hidden in there!?). From the cloak, he yanked out a set of fake vampire teeth. With a giggle, he popped the teeth into his mouth. "I vant to suck your blood!"
"Your accent is atrocious," scoffed Nico, although he was having a hard time fighting back giggles. The fangs looked so dumb and also so cute.
"Hold still, my victim," whispered Will, his voice still tainted by a bad attempt at a Transylvanian accent.
Then, Will wrapped his arms around Nico, pulling the two of them close together. Nico was overcome with embarrassment. Heat exploded within him, turning his insides into a pile of melty goop. However, for some reason, a stream of giggles escaped him at the same time.
"Uh oh, someone get the garlic," somebody commented, but Nico wasn't sure who. In Will's enthusiastic attack, he ended up knocking the two of them backwards off the bench and onto the dirt. Nico found himself pinned against the dirt, the red-and-white hat half obscuring his vision.
His heart was hammering hard in his chest and he had no clue what to do with his hands. Meanwhile, Will's hands had moved, with one propping his upper half up and the other softly grasping Nico's chin. That hand then pushed Nico's chin up.
Surely, that hand must have also been able to feel the heavy, fast pounding of Nico's heart. It was more than racing at this point.
Then, Will's mouth pressed into Nico's neck. It was warm and wet and, honestly, tickled. Especially when Will poked those stupid fake fangs into his skin. "Will!" Nico finally found his voice and gasped his friend's name.
"Shh, I'm drinking your blood," the other boy replied with a husky laugh before going back to practically making out with Nico's neck.
A heavy gasp slipped out of Nico. It was a gutteral noise, this gasp, a reflection of the sudden and odd pleasure at whatever the hell Will was doing.
Will froze and pushed himself a few inches up to look curiously at Nico. One of his eyebrows was raised. "Did you just…?" It was hard to tell, but Will's cheeks look rather pink. Or maybe Nico's eyes were being deceived by the dying campfire light.
"No," snapped Nico defensively, chagrined. That noise had not been a willing one, so he was not about to own up to it.
The expression on Will's face morphed into one of delight. "You did," he whispered, his face drawing close to Nico's.
"No," repeated Nico, but this time it was more of a whimper. Why was Will drawing so close to him? Didn't Will know that he was sending all sorts of wrong signals? Did he want Nico to think that he was… that he… ah! It was too much to handle.
Nico did what he did best. He ran.
Well, first he had to get free. He did this by jamming his arms against Will's chest and rolling Will off him. His crush let out a huff as he was ejected from atop Nico. Nico then twisted to his feet, grabbing at the dumb hat to hold it in place, and yelped, "Okay well good night!"
Most of the group was holding back laughter, barely concealed amusement on their faces. Even Will, from where he was now sprawled on the dirt, was smiling dopily.
"Bye Nico," Lou Ellen and Cecil both said at the same time, right as Nico turned and began to power walk away.
As he ran, he could hear their voices fading away.
"PDA much, Will?" Cecil laughed.
"Sorry, couldn't help myself," Will replied with a soft, passionate sigh, "he's just so tasty."
"You two are cute," commented Lou Ellen, "you should ask him out."
Nico was almost too far to hear Will's reply. Almost. "I will soon," Will promised, his voice like a tiny whisper on the wind.
Nico's heart felt like it was going to an explode, but, strangely, in a good way. That didn't stop him from fully retreating to his cabin, though. The son of death was, to be honest, more than a bit shy.
Maybe in the morning, he would try to catch Will alone. Why? Ah, well, obviously, he needed to return the inane red-and-white hat. That in itself was reason enough.
Don't you think?
- x - x - x -
A/N: It's not Halloween, but oh well! Pretend vampires are cute.
By the way, if you like this, check out my other Solangelo stories:
Cobalt Blue, Paradoxical Instincts, and Winter.