(Set the night after the Battle with the Colossus in The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle)
Nico sat up abruptly, his whole body shaking. He buried his head in his arms, his body covered with a layer of cool sweat. He opened one eye, looking sideways at Will, sleeping beside him. As he snored softly, Nico began to relax, the shaking slowing, until he sat still in the bed.
His head buzzed with the events of the past day, and the images of the nightmare he had awoken from. He saw the metal giant, Talos, looming above him, and his sister, his real sister, running towards it. She opened the hatch under its foot and climbed to the control panel in the head. She successfully shut the automaton down, but the victory was in vain. The statue staggered sideways, pitched forward and collapsed onto the electrical power lines that ran through the junkyard. The shock from the electricity killed her instantly, in spite of being a hunter of Artemis. She was never found. All that they found was that stupid lead figurine she got for him. It was a daily reminder of how cruel fate was, how unfair his parentage was, and how he had lost her forever.
"Nico!" Will had woken up without him noticing. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" he asked as he gently wiped Nico's tears away, the tears he hadn't noticed until Will had acknowledged them. Nico lifted his head and turned fully to face Will before dissolving fully into tears and collapsing into Will's arms. As Will gently stroked his hair, Nico explained what had happened to Bianca, how fighting the Colossus that day had caused these repressed memories to rise again, and how, by trying to make him happy by completing his childish set of characters, she had doomed her own life.
Nico's breathing slowed and he began to relax into Will's arms, but he realised Will had stopped stroking his hair, had stopped reassuring him that everything was OK. He looked up at Will, only to see tears of his own forming.
"Oh, Nico!" he sobbed "If only I'd known, I would've... I mean I could've... I-I wish you'd told me sooner, I could've helped you."
Nico gazed up at him. "Will, you did help me. I came from a generation when people, well, people like me weren't socially accepted. You helped me to become more confident about myself, healed my insecurities."
"Yeah," Will sighed, "that's all I'm good for, isn't it. Healing."
Nico reached out and cupped his face in his hands.
"That's what makes us different. A demigod of death and darkness infatuated with a demigod of health and light."
Will sighed, then smiled. "It's worth the effort to bridge our differences to make the relationship work."
They sat there quietly for a few minutes, the lack of awkwardness displaying the trust and comfort they now felt around each other. As Will wrapped one arm around Nico, he softly whispered "Kiss me. Doctors orders."
Nico turned to see his grinning face. He raised an eyebrow before wiping the smug look on his face as he kissed him. They lay there for a while, tangled in each other's arms before sleep pulled them under, and they dozed off, still smiling faintly in the moonlight.
Please let me know if you want another part of this or if you want a full story made from it. (^-^) That's all for now!;)