Wreck This Ship

Summary: Will re-enacted the entire scene in his head again, this time from an uninterested Nico's point of view. He could almost see his own too-eager smile and sweaty hands. Nico's revulsion was clear as day as he tried to think of a way to let Will down easy. Uh, sorry dude. I'm not gay. Oh gods, didn't Nico originally live in the 1940's? Will was pretty sure it was illegal to be having any homosexual feelings back then.

Status: Chapter 1 of 2

Pairing: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace

A/N: this turned out longer than I expected it to be. 2nd chapter should be out shortly. hopefully.

title is reminiscent of Florence + the Machine's "Ship To Wreck"

my tumblr is ensemble-of-dolphins. I'm not really a solangelo blog or even a pjo blog at the moment. but feel free to send me solangelo fic prompts if you want. (nsfw prompts also welcomed - i haven't started down that path yet with this ship though)

The day began off simply enough – one of the demigods in the infirmary were complaining about swelling in one of their body parts and Will was roused from sleep by some of the less experienced medics. He grumbled, throwing his bed sheets onto the ground as he went to check on the patient. He didn't have anything against being a medic. It was just that he hadn't had a good amount of sleep for a while and he really, really needed some uninterrupted sleep.

Maybe he could go ask Clovis of Hypnos' cabin to help him out.

After being disturbed from his rest, there seemed to be a never-ending line of demigods in the infirmary who were all too happy to file complaints. Will tended their wounds and adjusted their beds patiently as he listened to the complaints.

Finally it was the afternoon, and Will was the first one out of the infirmary. It probably wasn't setting the best example for the younger demigods of his cabin, but at this point he just needed out. And he hadn't eaten since yesterday at lunch. (He purposely missed dinner and his cabin sing-along in an attempt to catch up on sleep. Gods, he was tired after those excessive shifts at the infirmary.)

Apparently the gods didn't want to give him a break today. After he offered his share of the lunch to the Olympian gods, he sat down at the Apollo table and chewed slowly. Maybe he could miss two cabin sing-alongs in a row. He could already see Chiron's disappointed face. But who cared if he was the head counsellor? He wouldn't be much of a counsellor anyway if he fell asleep in the middle of a sing-along.

Before he could finish up the rest of his lunch and head back to bed, Percy had sat down in front of him. The son of Poseidon was cheery as ever. "Hey there, Will," he greeted, shoving an entire piece of steak down his mouth and chewing with his mouth open.

He didn't even have the energy to be slightly irritated. "What," he asked, but it came out sounding more like a statement rather than a question.

"I was just wondering," Percy said as he continued to chew on the steak, "have you seen Nico today?"

Will was about to reply that he had been stuck in the infirmary since forever thank you very much when he suddenly realized that he had definitely not seen Nico all day. Or yesterday. Or the day before that. The last time he had seen him, Will had been trying to coax Nico to stay over at the infirmary. He had completely forgotten about it due to the fact that A) he had never seen Nico again and B) been metaphorically drowning in the substantial amount of work he was given.

Sleep suddenly seemed incredibly unimportant, and Will studied Percy carefully. While the demigod was all cheery and upbeat, the worry lines around his eyes spoke of concern. He chose his words with caution. "No, I haven't. What's up?" His tone was steady and nonchalant, but his heartbeat had picked up at the thought of horrible scenarios befalling the son of Hades.

Percy swallowed down the food he was chewing, now serious. "You were the last one to talk to him," Percy said in a tone that was half-accusing. Before Will had the time to feel offended, he sighed and corrected his statement. "Hey, I don't mean to be laying it down on you, but we're all really worried and he seems to, ah…like you best." For some reason a light blush appeared on Percy's cheeks. "Anyway I was just wondering if you've been hiding him out in the infirmary…for, um, reasons." Percy's emphasis was suggestive enough that it made Will frown and flush red at the thought.

"Of course not!" the son of Apollo said loudly, causing other demigods to glance at the two of them curiously. "I haven't seen him since the day before yesterday." A thought came to his mind – something that Nico had announced to him and a couple of other demigods right before they walked into warzone. It made him feel nauseous to think of it. "Did Nico leave?" he asked quietly, feeling a clenching at his heart at the thought. He had been so sure that he had convinced Nico to stay at Camp Half-Blood. (It had partially been because Will had had a crush on the moody boy since forever and couldn't bear the thought of never seeing him again without even making a move.)

Percy grimaced at his words. "I think so. The last time he spoke to me…" Percy cleared his throat, the blush coming back to his cheeks for a reason that Will didn't understand. "I mean the last time we spoke objectively about where he was going, he told me he was going to Camp Jupiter. Apparently Reyna called him there for some business or closure or something." Percy shrugged and Will felt wary. He had known that Reyna and Nico had travelled together for some time (and don't forget Coach Hedge!), but did they have that kind of relationship? The more he thought about it, the more depressed he felt. Maybe he had something going on with Reyna the entire time and Will brutishly assumed Nico could ever be interested in him and scared him off with some aggressive pick-up lines.

Will re-enacted the entire scene in his head again, this time from an uninterested Nico's point of view. He could almost see his own too-eager smile and sweaty hands. Nico's revulsion was clear as day as he tried to think of a way to let Will down easy. Uh, sorry dude. I'm not gay. Oh gods, didn't Nico originally live in the 1940's? Will was pretty sure it was illegal to be having any homosexual feelings back then.

The other demigod was still talking. "…but I IM'd Reyna this morning and she said that he had never shown up." He looked at Will expectantly.

He took a breath and tried not to show how the thought of Reyna and Nico in a romantic relationship together really freaked him out. "When Nico and I spoke on the battlefield, he said he was planning to lone wolf his way out of the two camps," Will said calmly. "I thought I managed to convince him out of it." He also thought that Nico might have been romantically interested in him. Apparently Will was really bad at these things. He wished he was a son of Aphrodite and gifted with charm-speak so then this whole romancing your love interest thing wouldn't be so hard.

"Yeah, me too," Percy mumbled. Before Will could ask him what exactly he meant by that, he was already standing up. "Well, update me if you hear anything about him, all right?" Will nodded solemnly and Percy waved goodbye, heading back to his table.

Now not only was he tired, upset, and confused – he was also internally kicking himself for making such a bold move on Nico. He really freaked him out with his Big Gay Feelings. He wondered what Nico was thinking now. Probably thank the gods that I'm away from that oblivious demigod. But he hadn't gone to Reyna straight afterwards – or maybe Reyna was hiding the fact that Nico was in Camp Jupiter.

Yeah, that was probably it. Nico probably shadow-travelled all the way to Camp Jupiter (gods, Will told him it was dangerous to shadow-travel in his state) the moment they had parted and told Reyna all about it. The two probably had a good laugh about it before Reyna proposed that Nico stay in Camp Jupiter. Now that he thought about it, maybe Reyna and Nico were having a steamy make-out session in whatever the Roman version of the cabins were…

Will lost his appetite. He dumped the rest of his food in the fire and headed straight for the infirmary. Now that these horrible, heartbreaking thoughts were occupying his mind, he found himself less sleepy with every step. He had set his mind: he was going to work until every darn demigod in the infirmary was happy enough that they wanted to stay there forever. (Which was actually quite an impossible task, considering how the Ares kids drove everyone crazy with their constant itch to be moving.) That way, he would forget about Nico and Reyna and their happy romantic life together.

He didn't need romance anyway. He just needed to pine after a sullen dark haired boy that always stole his breath every time he looked his way…

Will gritted his teeth and marched on straight into the infirmary where he was greeted by the sounds of a wailing girl and panicked medics. The medics all looked relieved when they saw that Will had entered and hurriedly rushed to his side. "Solace! We need some help over here!"

"I can see that," the son of Apollo replied dryly. He headed over to the girl, noticing that she had an extensive scratch mark that went down the length of her arm. He winced at the sight. "Did you give her ambrosia or nectar yet?" he asked one of the medics.

Her eyes went wide. "About that…," she began. "Um…we're sort of out of stock…"

Will frowned, wondering how this predicament came to be. "Have you contacted the Big House? Hermes should deliver some within moments."

Another medic spoke up. "We did. Hermes is off radar and can't be reached at the moment. We have to deal with this the mortal way and um, we don't know how." He winced a little at the end like he expected Will to lash out at him. He had been in a grumpy mood lately, and the others had took notice.

Will only sighed. "All right, fine." He didn't like fixing up wounds the mortal way, but they had no choice at this point. Plus, this really helped Will keep his mind off Nico and Reyna as he dabbed the demigod girl's wound with disinfectant. The other medics watched in silence until one of the other patients called them over, and eventually it left Will and the girl alone.

"That should be it," Will said when he was done. The girl looked at him, eyes full of tears. He had never seen this demigod before so he assumed that she was new. "Just don't put pressure on it," he told her, keeping his tone kind. "May I ask you where you got the injury?"

The girl sniffled. "There was a cat."

Will frowned. As far as he knew, there were no cats at Camp Half-Blood. "Pardon me?"

"I saw a cat and I grabbed it and it scratched me." She rubbed at her eyes with her good hand. "Stupid cat!" she said out loud and then grabbed down at her injured arm harshly. She cried out in pain but didn't let go.

"Hey! Whoa there!" Will firmly but gently removed her hand from the wound. So she was the self-destructive kind of person, which reminded him of a certain missing demigod… "Okay, we're going to find you a bed here. Do not touch your wound, all right? When we stock up on ambrosia and nectar, we'll make the injury go away and you won't have to worry about strange cats." He paused. "Though you probably shouldn't grab wild cats in the future."

The girl let out a noise of indignation. Before she could speak, Will asked her, "Where did you see the cat?"

"In the forest," she said glumly as she plopped down on the bed. "Are you going to find it? Tell it I hate him."

She was going to be one grumpy demigod, Will mused. Almost like Nico… He shook the thought away. He was not going to think of Nico anymore. It was just a silly unrequited crush – which he had been sporting since the first day he saw Nico in Camp Half-Blood. "Yeah, I'm going to find the cat to make sure it doesn't hurt anyone else," Will told her. "Let the others take care of you while I'm gone, all right?"

The demigod's arms were crossed and she mumbled something under her breath that Will didn't completely catch, but he thought he heard the word "incompetent". A smile appeared on his lips before he could stop himself and he quickly headed out of the infirmary and to the forest in search of a wild cat.

When he had entered the forest, he suddenly realized he forgot to ask her what the cat looked like.

Of course, there was probably only one cat in the forest, but a description of it would have been helpful.

So instead, Will spent the first five minutes traipsing around the edges of the forest in search of a nondescript cat, which was harder than he expected.

Finally, he heard rustling in the trees above and glanced up just in time to catch sight of dark eyes looking at him. The creature emerged from the foliage, and Will could see a black cat looking down at him almost curiously. "Here, kitty," Will hummed softly, hoping that his voice would lure the cat down.

The cat meowed almost indignantly at him and then pounced down from the tree in front of Will. It took a few steps forward and then stopped, tail flicking behind it.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Will said, crouching down a little. He had no idea how to lure cats without getting his eyeballs scratched out, but hopefully being a son of Apollo had some sort of perk over animals. Maybe he could entice the animal with a lyre or something like his father could. Unfortunately, he only had a Harmonica on him at the moment, which he couldn't play very well. "Come here," he said.

The cat meowed again and took a few more steps toward him. Now they were close enough that Will could snatch the cat up. Instead, he held out his palm gingerly, hoping that the cat wouldn't strike him and run away. "Come on, come with me. We're going to find you a real home."

He didn't even have enough time to finish the words before the cat padded close enough to nuzzle its' head against the back of his hand. He held back a noise of surprise, feeling the soft fur on his skin and the rumbling purrs of the cat.

Gently, Will brought his other hand to pet the cat. Its' purrs became louder and it arched into his touch. An unbidden smile came to Will's lips. "Seems like you like me, huh?" he said. "More than some other demigod who ran away without even telling me that he wasn't interested."

With that, he scooped the cat in his arms. It was surprisingly heavy for something so small, and Will was glad that the cat didn't turn violent. Lifting the cat up, he began to carry it over to the Big House where he would decide what to do with it next.

TBC