Under Apollo's Sun
Summary: Nico spends a date with Will thinking back on the year that's past, and how things have changed for the better. Set after the Heroes of Olympus series, a cute fluff piece from Nico's pov. One-shot.
It's a warm, sunny day in the early weeks of May. Most campers haven't gotten back to Camp Half-Blood yet for the summer, although the Camp has had more year rounders in the last few months than ever before. There could always be heard some sword clashing from the fighting arena, sudden shrieking when someone pranked another cabin, or some annoyed camper grumbling about Chiron's favourite cd playing way too loudly during dinner.
Nico di Angelo was lying on a picnic quilt near the strawberry fields, with his head in Will's lap. The picnic had been Will's idea, something that Nico had protested wildly, but eventually agreed to. Now that they were here he had to admit that it was actually rather wonderful. The smell of strawberries wafted slowly though the air, a couple satyrs were playing reed pipes close by, and Will was lazily running his hands through Nico's hair.
Camp Half-Blood had become his home in a way no other place had really been before, and in a way he certainly never thought that Camp Half-Blood would ever be. He'd run away several years ago, and he'd gotten used to the idea that his only homelike place would be his father's palace in the Underworld. He did have a luxurious room, his own chauffeur, other servants, and a friendly Titan to talk to, but it still lacked the feeling of an actual home. Maybe it was the wailing of suffering souls nearby, or the fact that his stepmom Persephone couldn't seem to get off his case. Or just the plain fact that Hades was a lousy father who would rather give Nico a limitless account of pocket money than actually spend time with his son. Nico just never felt very comfy in the land of the dead, but he also never felt like he fit in with the living. Eventually he kind of stopped caring either way and just tried to exist as best he could.
The past year had been the best of Nico's life, save maybe some years before his memory was wiped in the river of Lethe and he was living with his mother and sister. Of course he didn't really remember any of that, but he had a feeling he had been very loved. So, apart from those years in the long gone past, the last year had been the best of his life. He'd decorated the Hades cabin (with Will's and some girls from the Aphrodite cabin's help), and he found that he actually liked the place now. It looked wicked cool from the outside, but felt homey and nice on the inside. And he didn't mind that he didn't have any siblings to share it with. On the few occasions Hazel came to visit she would share it with him, but she spent most of her time at Camp Jupiter. Plus, if she was here all the time then Will wouldn't be able to sneak in as much, and although Nico liked hanging out with Hazel, he kind of liked having Will over more. What had also helped was not being around Percy as much. The son of Poseidon had one year left of high school in New York, and then he would move to Camp Jupiter to go to college there. Secretly, Nico was glad. He had mixed feelings about Percy, and even though he didn't have a crush on him any more, it was still a bit weird being around him. He wanted to be his friend and hoped to feel comfortable with that eventually, but it was nice to have a bit more time to breathe. Nico looked up at Will, smiling absent mindedly. Will was so much better than Percy. Cuter, too. Especially when he wrinkled his nose the way he did when he was reading. Will spent a lot of time reading about biology and medicine and other things that Nico only really cared about because Will cared about them. He would tell Nico about it, too, but often stopped, somewhat annoyed but mostly just amused, when he realised that Nico wasn't so much listening to what he said, as he was just staring at him. Then Nico would stutter and feel bad, but Will would kiss him, and it would all be okay. Sometimes he felt sad that Bianca never got a chance to get to know Will, he was sure she would have liked him. But he'd let go of the anger and grief surrounding her death, and tried to only think of her with happiness. All in all, it had been a very good year.
"What are you brooding about? You always brood, it's not good for your complexion," Will interrupted his line of though, and made Nico sit up. "I take you outside on a lovely picnic date and you still brood? That's just rude. Here, have some pie," he said, and picked up a small piece of apple pie from his picnic basket. Nico smiled but still rolled his eyes at him.
"I wasn't brooding, I was thinking. There's a difference."
"Yeah, not in your case. Now eat, doctor's orders."
Nico rolled his eyes again, but took a bite out of the apple pie. It was delicious.