for the querencia forum, quarter quell round 2

prompts: calypso, flowershop!au, nico x will, piper, thalia

young, dumb, broke
word count: 1839

i'm so high at the moment

i'm so caught up in this

When Nico di Angelo steps into the little shop, he knows that he's in trouble.

It's not because of the shop itself that he stiffens up, no. It's because of the gorgeous blonde boy manning the counter, with what looks like a perpetually bright smile and annoyingly beautiful blue eyes. He perks up as soon as he sees Nico at the doorway, and waves in a friendly manner.

Nico doesn't like the way he makes his heart beat faster.

Slowly, he makes his way around the cloyingly beautiful posies and bouquets, all the while begging for someone anyone to come and save him from this stupid situation. He makes a mental list of curses to hurl at Leo the next time he sees the little shit. He's the reason Nico is stuck in a shop full of too many fragrances that give him a headache and one blonde guy who makes his heart beat faster.

He finally comes to a stop in front of a basket named Lavender and Roses – this is the one he's supposed to be buying for Calypso right? After debating for a little while, he picks them up. Even if they are the wrong flowers, the idiot deserves them because what kind of boyfriend forgets to buy his girlfriend their favourite flowers on a date and then asks his completely clueless friend to buy them for him?

Leo Valdez, apparently.

Perhaps it's due to his irate expression, or maybe his general aura of touch-me-and-you'll-die but the cashier doesn't talk much, leaving Nico slightly disappointed. He quickly pushes those feelings down, choosing to focus on pulling out the right amount from his wallet instead.

Only to discover, to his utter shame and embarrassment, that he doesn't have forty dollars in his purse – no matter how many times he pulls at the lint at the bottom, he just doesn't have it.

"Are you broke?" Someone's lilting voice cuts in, making Nico look up quickly, cheeks stained red with embarrassment.

"Er – What?" Nico feels indignant. Broke? Who does this guy think Nico is? A penniless teenager scrambling to buy flowers for his girlfriend because he totally forgot about Valentine's Day?

"It's okay, you know, I understand." His smile is a little too sympathetic for Nico's tastes. "Look, you've paid twenty bucks – that's half the amount. It's more than enough – gods know that Mrs Grace's prices are way too high." Nico is fuming – How dare he imply that Nico is broke and destitute? – but somehow, he can't bring himself to burn the blonde to ashes with his death glare.

He's much too cute for that.

Something about the owner's name rings a bell.

"Mrs Grace? She wouldn't happen to be Beryl Grace, would she? Thalia Grace's mum?" Nico asks with what dignity he has left.

Well it's not my fault, is it? Which kind of shop charges forty fucking dollars for a stupid bouquet? No wonder Leo didn't want to buy these himself.

The cashier lights up with recognition – and something a bit more unpleasant. "Ah. Thalia. The Death To Barbie girl. In other words, the bitchy little daughter who fancies herself to be a revolutionary." He rolls his eyes and Nico suppresses a smirk. It wouldn't be prudent to make fun of Thalia in her own shop when he owes her some money.

And especially since she's standing right behind the derisive guy with a perfectly arched eyebrow.

"For your information, the bitchy little daughter is right behind you," she begins and the blonde stiffens. "And I do fancy myself a revolutionary and the first thing I'm going to do when I start a mutiny is kick your sorry ass. Keep your mouth shut, Will, unless you want me to tell Mom to put you on the night shift with dear Lilah. Bet you'll love that won't you?" Smiling sadistically at the pale face of the blonde – Will, Thalia faces Nico. "And what do you want, Death Face? You're the last person I'd expect to see in this hellhole." She snickers, spiky hair falling into her face as she does so.

"Um, Leo forgot to pick the flowers for his and Calypso's date, so he sent me. But I didn't have enough to pay the entire amount, so – "

Thalia waves a hand. "Ah, if that's the problem then forget it. You can give it to me sometime later. Now go and give those flowers to Mr McShizzle – " Thalia rolls her eyes. " – before he spontaneously combusts."

And just as suddenly as she appeared, Thalia is gone, leaving Will to shrug weakly and smile nervously and Nico to twitch a goodbye to the blonde and beat a hasty retreat from the shop.

The next time Nico hears about Will, it's at Piper's birthday party in the flat she shares with Jason.

He's standing, hiding in the balcony as usual. The party is in full swing, with Percy already murmuring nonsense to Annabeth, who's looking more annoyed than Reyna herself, (and that's saying something, because Reyna hates anything related to the word party) and Frank pretending he's a chicken, with Hazel running around behind the big guy – making everything quite hilarious, really.

Nico is smirking into his can of beer when a voice says, "So, I heard you met Will Solace." Nico starts because Piper is so quiet that even he doesn't notice her approach.

(Or maybe he was so lost in another world, thinking about said Will Solace. As if Nico will ever admit that.)

Nico gives a noise of assent, watching as Piper's iridescent eyes swirl excitedly.

This can't be good.

"Ooh, good, I've been trying to set you both up for weeks, you know. You'd look so cute with each other and he's all sunshine and you're all angsty darkness – poetic, really and – "

Nico wants to stop her, but something tells him to let her ramble on till she runs out of things to tell. And he's right – because, in a span of fifteen minutes, Nico finds out more about Will Solace than a Facebook profile could ever tell him. He feels like a stalker, but he doesn't care because Nico can admit that he'd been crushing on the blonde ever since their encounter in the flower shop.

" – and you'll really really really be the cutest couple ever!" Piper squeals and Nico is almost relieved that she's done but not quite. He wants to know more about Will, but he really doesn't need Piper The Love Expert on his case, egging him on his 'mission' to go on a date with the said blonde.

He quietly slips away from the crowd, already forming a plan in his mind.

He'll ask Will Solace out tomorrow.

Probably.

Maybe.

If he actually builds up the courage to speak above a stutter in his presence.

As it turns out, there is no need for his courage because Will doesn't work on Sundays.

He discovers this from a smirking Thalia when he approaches the counter of the all-too-familiar shop on the day after the party. She seems smug – and Nico doesn't want to know why.

He bites his lip as Thalia opens her mouth to speak, a smirk still tugging at the corners of her lips. "He isn't here. Works only on Tuesdays and Thursdays." A pause as Nico blushes and Thalia cackles. "I'm sure that he'd love to see you, though."

"Er – um, who's Lilah?" Nico blurts out unthinkingly because he seems to that a lot nowadays. Oh, good gods.

Thalia's ever-present annoying smirk deepens. "Lilah? Who's she?" She lounges on the chair behind the cash counter, with all the lazy grace of a cat baiting its prey.

"The person you mentioned, when you were talking to Will." Nico clenches his teeth, praying that he doesn't snap at the smug girl before him.

"Oh, I don't know much, do I? All I know that they went to school together in Minnesota and she managed to follow him here when he got accepted by NYU. Oh, did I mention it? She has a major crush on him." Thalia gives the chair a little spin, stretching her limbs out as she turns. She looks like a flailing animal, but Nico bites his lip to prevent himself from telling her that.

"Oh." It's all Nico can say because Oh, gosh, he misjudged Will, he actually thought that he might be into him, who was he kidding –

"Relax, Death Boy," Thalia says, quietly. "She's really not his type. In fact, he prefers someone rather different." Nico looks at her, confused and she says, "Do I need to spell it out? Will Solace is gay and he likes you, you fucking moron. Honestly, boys and their obliviousness – how do you manage to survive in this world?" She stands up, looking past her as the doorbell jingles. "Now, it seems that I was wrong. Will actually does come on Sundays – look behind you." And lo and behold, there he was, in all his sunshiny glory. Nico felt his heart speed up instantly, and a blush worked its way towards his pale cheeks yet again.

"Hey Will." Thalia waves at him, uncharacteristically cheerful – he doesn't blame Will for looking downright suspicious. "I was just explaining that the money Nico owes us should actually go to you because Mum didn't add it to your weekly pay." She smiles at them sweetly. "Nico? May I have a private word?"

Her vice–grip almost pulls his right arm out of a socket as she drags him behind a shelf and hisses, "Don't mess this up, idiot. I have given you a golden opportunity for you to ask him out on a date." She holds up a hand as Nico opens his mouth to speak. "Don't ask me how. Are you so dumb that you can't work it out?" She stares at him with electric blue eyes as the cogs turn in his brain, and they finally click.

"Yeah, that's what you've got to do, moron." She mutters some unintelligible curse involving the whole of the male species and shoves him back to the counter, where Will is waiting, curiosity etched in every part of his face. "Go." She hisses threateningly and disappears.

Nico blinks.

"Er, are you quite alright?" Will asks, cornflower-blue eyes staring at him with concern. He can almost hear his heart in his throat.

"Um – about the money – I don't have the cash today. M–maybe we c-could go for lunch or something today?" Nico swallows. "T-together?"

With that single word, Will's eyes widen and an inscrutable emotion is etched in them. "L-like a d-date?"

Nico's first instinct is to say no but something – it sounds suspiciously like Thalia's voice – prompts him to say, "Yeah, something like that. S-so, is that okay?"

Will beams and Nico swears that it's the brightest thing he's ever seen. And then, the blonde is grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the little store that started everything in the first place and babbling about the great Italian place that's two blocks away and everything is perfect.

yeah, we're just young, dumb and broke

but we still got love to give

yay,i wrote the solangelo fic that i always wanted to write! the lyrics and the title are from khalid's young dumb and broke which is just amazing. i kinda think it was a bit too rushed but okay, i can make it work. :)