Nico di Angelo has been in love three times with the sun, the moon, and the stars.
i. Venice, some time in the thirties:
Nico's first love was a boy named Luca.
They met when Nico accidentally pushed Luca down the slide outside during break-time.
Luca had scraped his knee, and there was blood, as Nico had reported tearfully to Ms. Bacchi (She kind of scared Nico).
"You must help him with his things for a while, Nico," Ms. Bacchi said to him as she cleaned Luca's knee. Nico dutifully nodded.
"I'm sorry, Luca," Nico sniffled.
" 'S alright," Luca said, his voice trembling slightly. Ms. Bacchi cleaned his knee with alcohol, and Luca hissed, but did not cry out.
Nico thought that was awfully brave.
The next day at school, Nico nervously approached Luca before art. Bianca's words rang in his head: Make sure you apologize – again! "Can I help you carry your pencils?" he asked.
Luca beamed. "Of course, Nico." He handed Nico the wooden case of colored pencils that he was holding under his arm.
Nico thought that Luca looked very pretty when he smiled like that.
After a while, Nico and Luca became a pair. Even after Luca's cut faded into a scab and the scab fell of and it turned into a scar, Nico kept carrying Luca's things for him. It was not uncommon to see Nico carrying Luca's pencil box when they walked over to the art rooms anymore.
Ms. Bacchi was very happy with Nico and Luca. "You two are becoming fast friends," she always said.
Not everyone was as happy as Ms. Bacchi, though.
"Queer," whispered an older boy with a red backpack when he walked past Nico and Luca outside the school building holding hands. Nico and Luca frowned at one another, then the older boy. They continued walking, but Luca had let go of Nico's hand (or was it vice versa?).
"Bianca, what is queer?" Nico asked after dinner that day. Bianca's eyes widened, and she tore her gaze from the television box. Maria di Angelo, though out of Nico's range of sight, stilled completely.
"Why," Bianca demanded, "did someone call you that?" Her hands were running though her dark hair, a nervous habit she had acquired from watching her mother, who seemed to be always nervous about something.
"Yes," Nico said, taken aback at Bianca's sharp tone of voice.
"Who?" she asked.
"I do not know his name," Nico admitted. "He had a red backpack, though."
"Mario," Bianca muttered.
"Who is he?" Nico asked.
"He is a boy from my class," Bianca said, fuming. "He is so rude; the other day he called me a dame, but he thinks that it is cool because he was born in America."
Nico nodded, only half listening to Bianca. He didn't even know what a dame was, anyway. "But what is queer? Nico asked.
Bianca frowned. "It is a man who loves a man," she said.
"It is a sin," Maria said to Nico from the kitchen table where she was sipping tea. Nico started. He had not realized that she was listening to himself and Bianca.
"A sin?" Nico asked.
"Yes," Maria said. "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
"Oh, alright," Nico said, surprised. He went back to playing mythomagic, but he could not stop thinking about what his mother had said. His mother had always told him that love between people was always good. Why was this love bad?
Nico and Luca never spoke about the boy with the red backpack, but something was different between them. Nico started seeing how Luca used every colored pencil except the purple ones and how he used a different smile with Nico than with Ms. Bacchi and many other things that Nico was slightly to young (and much too naive) to understand.
Nico thought that Luca was quite like the sun: he he was the most popular boy in kindergarten, and he caused people to lean to him, like sunflowers. His little round face always shone with excitement whenever he saw Nico, almost too happy to look at. Nico told Luca that one day, but he just grinned even bigger, showing off his dimples.
Nico thought that Luca looked vey pretty when he smiled like that.
ii. America, 2007
Nico got his first good look at Percy Jackson when he was hysterical with despair, carefully disguised as rage. His girlfriend had fallen off of a cliff.
That was sad and all, but it gave Nico the perfect opportunity to study Percy's profile. His tan skin shone in the moonlight, and his silky dark hair perfectly reflected the light that was coming from a bunch of shiny girls (one shiny girl in particular, who Nico later learned to be the actual moon goddess).
Percy was a real hero.
This was after Percy, a goth, and the shiny girls in parkas fought off a monster. Percy was pretty awesome with his sword, but what was even more awesome was that his dad was a Greek god and so was Nico's – like the ones off of his mythomagic cards. He hoped that his dad would be Apollo; maybe he would inherit some of his 800 attack points or 1200 regeneration power.
He couldn't help but pester Percy with questions, which were probably annoying, but Nico didn't care. Besides, he'd noticed Bianca doing the same out of the corner of his eye, albeit with a lot more hesitation. If Bianca didn't look weird, then neither did he.
It turned out that he shouldn't trust Bianca after all, because she was a brother-deserter. She decided to join the shiny girls (who Percy told him were called Hunters of Artemis) where she wouldn't need to look after Nico anymore. Nico got that she needed her own space, but did she really need to join an immortal girl gang?
Then all of a sudden the sun came scorching its way through the mountainside until it stopped right in front of the makeshift camp the shiny girls had made.
It turned out that the sun was actually a sportscar, and then it was a bus. Nico heard the goth girl mutter, "Wow, Apollo is hot," and Nico couldn't help but agree. The man in front of him was literally too bright to look at, but Nico managed. If Apollo was really the sun, then Percy might as well be the moon god instead of the twelve year old goddess who was apparently Apollo's sister.
Nico's life had undergone some changes since he had been rescued by Thalia Grace and Annabeth Chase (and Percy and the Hunters of Artemis) If you could call losing a sister, becoming the Ghost King, and learning to control the dead changes.
One change that Nico definitely did make for the better was to stop liking (stop loving) Percy Jackson. Whatever else he did for Percy Jackson was because of friendship or the good of the world.
He didn't tell Percy to bathe in the river Stx because he liked (loved) him, it was to save the world (and to get information on his mother).
He hadn't convinced his father to help Percy because he liked (loved) him, it was because it was the right thing to do.
He didn't go to Tartarus alone to prove to Percy he wasn't a little kid anymore, it was because he knew the underworld (because he knew death).
He didn't promise to lead the seven to the Doors of Death because he liked (loved) Percy, it was because it was what was best for the quest.
He didn't tell Cupid about himself because he thought that it would help him move on (help him stop loving Percy), it was because it was he had to do.
Nico di Angelo loved Percy Jackson. (Nico di Angelo loved the idea Percy Jackson)
iii. Long Island South, 2015
After Percy, Nico's life was filled with maybes (a lot of them). Maybe go, maybe stay, maybe run, maybe Percy (he definitely wasn't doing any of those things, not with freaking Will Solace still around because if there was one definitely in his life it was Will Solace).
Nico di Angelo was definitely taken aback by Will Solace. He treated Nico like an equal. Not that Nico didn't want to be treated like an equal, but nobody really did. They gave him a wide berth at all (most) times, and though Nico didn't necessarily like it, he understood it.
Will Solace, however, was different. He acted like Nico was just a camper (Maybe more than just a camper). When Nico tried to intimidate (read: scare away because he's afraid of emotional attachments) Will, he brushed it off in the most aggravating way, as if Nico was an overactive but well meaning puppy.
"Right now you couldn't summon a wishbone without turning into a puddle of darkness." (Really? Did this Solace guy know who Nico was?)
Nico certainly didn't find it refreshing that Will treated him like a normal camper (he totally did), even if he was as hot as the sun (Really, di Angelo, really?).
Nico wasn't very excited to spend time in theh infirmary (but he was excited to spend time with Will). In fact, he was dreading it (dreading fading away again).
But that was put to the back of his mind for a while during the (second? third? fourth?) battle at Camp Half-Blood. Then it was brought to the front of his mind when Will saw Nico (inadvertently?) kill Will's sort-of brother, no matter how much of a watered down Will Octavian was.
During his three day stay in the infirmary, Nico might have spent a little bit of time (a lot of time) observing Will.
His skillful hands, his absurdly bright teeth (his beautiful smile), his freckles.
His freckles. They covered his whole body, and Nico may or may not have imagined tracing patterns with Will's freckles into his skin (he absolutely did).
But then three days passed too fast and Nico couldn't stare at Will's freckles anymore. The freckles that reminded him of the stars, the way they made different patterns whenever they moved.
Nico di Angelo knew one thing about his interest (infatuation) with Will Solace.
He was probably (definitely) going to act on it.
AN: AAAANNNDD . . . FINISHED. I wrote this at 2am because I couldn't sleep, so I don't think it's all that bad. This isn't the first fic I've written, but it's the first fic I've posted. As always feedback would be appreciated yada yada yada (find my mistakes please). Anyways. I'm not completely satisfied with this because I used strikethroughs in the darkish!Nico section, but I didn't know that you couldn't use them on this website, so I had to change up that section a bit. :( The version with strikthroughs is wayyyyy better though, so if you PM me I can send you that version if you want to read it.
Bisous,
Mamatobs