AN:
My first fanfic so I will appreciate any feedback and criticism, just try not to destroy me, por favor.
"Alrighty, plop down on the bed, and from there we will do some preliminary examination," Will Solace said with a cheeky grin, that was poorly concealed by a clipboard, while using his pen to point at what was more of a cot, rather than a bed.
The cot was roughly the size of a twin-sized bed and was snuggly situated in the back-right corner of the walled office/examination room that the son of Hades had been led into.
"I'm going to ask you some basic health-related questions," Will clarified, probably after seeing the confused expression on Nico's face.
Once said boy nodded his head in understanding, Will stepped in front of the shorter boy, looking down with a slight smile despite said boy not complying with his first request.
Nico had the sudden urge to wet his lips as they suddenly felt chapped and dried while his heart was simultaneously beating quicker than usual. Both of which were coincidental and had nothing to do with Will Solace's cheeky grin—which also happened to be just as invigorating as his smile—or anything of the sort. Nope.
"Alrighty, first things first," the tanned-Texan started, "What is your age, weight, and height?" He asked with a slight twang that showed his concealed accent. His gaze now focused on the clipboard that he held whilst playing with the pencil in his free hand.
"Uhhhhm..."
The son of Apollo's gaze flickered back to Nico's form with a curious stare. He probably thought that Nico was an idiot or something for not immediately answering the rather simple set of inquiries.
"If you're, uh, embarrassed, we can delay for a bi-" the medic had started to say, but was quickly cut off by Nico's shaking head.
"N- no, it's fine. It is, well, it has been a while since I did one of these," he said, twirling a finger lazily about, pointing around the room to help clarify what he was referring to.
"I'm not just talking about seeing a doctor or anything like that, or, well...this. I don't pay much attention to the answers to the questions you asked me."
Solace's eyes had returned to the board, vigorously scanning the clipped-in-place paper as if he were looking for a box that he could mark off. One probably labeled, 'my patient is an idiot and a threat to society'.
His seemingly desperate search was cut off as he suddenly flicked the pencil against the surface of the clipboard and promptly left it there. Will took this moment to slowly look back up at Nico with an expression that Nico couldn't quite decipher. Although, there was an uncertain glint in his bright, sky-blue eyes—a familiar gaze that Nico often saw looking back to him in a mirror. Perhaps there was more to this boy than meets the eye?
"That's...ok. Ok, here," he motioned for Nico to stay where he stood as the blond exited the room, turning to his right as he exited out the door and out of Nico's sight.
He wasn't gone for long and his approach was much more audible than his exit. Stumbling into the office was the blond-haired, head counselor of the Apollo cabin. In his hands were a white, metallic device with a weight scale on the bottom and two measuring rulers running horizontally across the top of the three-foot-tall piece of equipment.
While Will was clearly a physically fit individual, despite his somewhat lanky form, he still struggled to steady himself due to the uneven weight distribution. Nico could clearly observe that the most of the weight was on the wide bottom, while Will strangled the poor things long, white support beam as if he were choking out an albino albatross.
"Phew! There we go," he promptly said after not-so-gracefully placing the object down.
While it had been quite some time that Nico had ever been to the doctor's office before, he had indeed used one of these devices a few years prior when he and...when he had been taken out of the Lotus Hotel.
Vaguely remembering the drill, Nico slipped off of his shoes, not bothering to untie them. He could have sworn he saw Will grimace at the sight of him neglecting his footwear, which was rather ironic, considering Nico had only seen the boy wear something other than flip-flops during the recent battle.
Opting to keep his socks on—because who knew where Solace had dug this thing out of—Nico stepped onto the base, causing the larger of the two horizontal rulers to sway from the added weight. Once Nico was situated and still, Will quickly moved closer and began to move the weighted block on the swaying ruler. After it was finally balanced, Will began to mouth quietly to himself as he jotted down Nico's weight on the paper form.
"Hmm, ok...Now, please, turn around and step back to the white beam," he said referencing the support beam that Will had unwisely used earlier to carry the apparatus into the room.
From the corner of Nico's eye, he could see Will pulling out a third measuring ruler that was previously concealed by a cap from the top of the beam. With this, Will brought it up to the top of Nico's head. He held it there for a few moments more than were probably necessary, but Nico could see from the corner of his eye, a concerned look on the other boy's face.
Will motioned for Nico to step off, but kept his distracted gaze on the clipboard as he jotted down on the paper.
There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Will looked back up to Nico, tucking the clipboard underneath an armpit and crossing his arms.
"So while you are on the... shorter side—" he said hesitantly, choosing his words carefully as Nico stared at him with a glare as if he were daring Will to comment further on his height. "—you are underweight; almost dangerously so."
Will rolled his eyes at the lack of a reaction from Nico. With a sigh, the healer continued.
"So that means you're going to have to start eating more. Some protein would do you good, but some healthier carbs would do you some good too. Whose grains especially, So I'd recommend an egg sandwich with whole grain bread, of course, and a glass of mi..."
Solace continued with his tirade for nearly a minute before he realized that Nico had long since stopped listening. Unbeknownst to Will, Nico was paying attention to his body, rather than his words, watching how passionately he spoke about health (the fact that it was about Nico's health made it even more endearing), how expressive his face and hand were when he spoke, how his eyes wandered as he lost himself in his own spiel, but Nico didn't miss how he would occasionally glance back at Nico. Was he always like this whenever he talked about doctor stuff? Nico certainly hoped so. It was much easier to stare at and admire the boy when he wasn't fully concentrated on looking at his patient. Nico briefly wondered if ma-
"Hey! You're not listening are you?" He said accusingly.
Nico's attention refocused as he quickly prepared a snarky comeback, but was stopped in his tracks by Will. Will's expression and tone were not ones of anger or annoyance at being ignored, but rather a playful scolding tone and an almost hurt expression.
"I- yeah, yes, eat, uh, protein and eggs. Lots of eggs," Nico hastily said in a desperate attempt to cover his ass.
"Good."
Will's face quickly lost the sudden uncertainty and was replaced by his beaming smile. Nico wasn't sure if Will truly believed what he had said or if he was just pitying Nico's social awkwardness—regardless, the situation was resolved.
"Alrighty, let's keep going," Will said as he began to continue writing down information, but glanced back up to Nico in order to question the boy further.
"What is your date of birth?"
"The 28th of January, 1942," was the son of Hades reply.
"Day then the month? What are you, a foreign-oooh, what? Wait..."
Nico blankly watched as Will began to sputter out a reply as he tried to make sense of what Nico had just said. Nico absentmindedly has a tug of a small on the ends of his lips as his self-proclaimed doctor made a fool of himself.
"Oh, my gods! I- I forgot that you...you know, aren't from this...time...period."
Will's incredulous gaze had vanished as he spoke and quickly turned into one of astonishment and near-childlike wonder.
"Dude! You're older than like, even my grandparents! On- on my mother's side, of course," he said with a giggle, finding amusement at his own little joke that he stammered out.
Before Nico knew it, he was laughing alongside Will as they found mutual humor in the absurdity of the situation and what Will had said.
It was several moments later that the pair had collected themselves, Will running a finger across his eye to wipe away a loose tear.
"You know, you really should laugh more, Nico. It suits you well," Will said with his usual, unusually bright smile.
For the briefest of moments, a faint, flustered, and awkward grin appeared on the pale Italian's face but quickly disappeared as Nico rolled his eyes and gave an apathetic shrug in reply. These three days would certainly be an interesting, new experience for Nico, and it was one that made him feel uneasy.
But not the normal, familiar, sensation of unease that Nico was oft experienced too. It was instead an almost... hopeful one. It left an odd tingling sensation in his dull being. A sensation that he coincidentally encountered whenever he was greeted with the perfect set of blue eyes and perfectly-tousled, blonde hair, that were both, more often than not, paired with a bright smile that reminded Nico of the rising sun.
That was odd.
Since when did the broody teenager find solace in the warmth of the sunlight?
AN:
Sorry if this work seems odd, it was originally supposed to be chapter one of a fanfic that I want to start, but I have no idea yet on what that'll be like, so I just decided to postpone the whole thing and post this first chapter. I plan to write more in the future and will try and make a long, multi-chapter fanfic that's centered around Nico and Will, but has a plot.
Thanks for reading!
(Please give me feedback, I beg of thee!)
