Percy grinned as he saw Piper across the room. "Hey, look who it is." He nudged Annabeth's side.
Annabeth seemed to spot their friends, too, and made her way over, trading a hug with Jason before plucking Piper's drink from her hands. Piper rolled her eyes. "Hey, Percy," she said.
"Hey Pipes, how are you?"
"Eh, same old, same old."
The five of them slowly formed a circle- Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Jason, and… some Hecate kid that Percy was certain he hadn't had more than three conversations with, but who was talking animatedly with Jason. What was her name again? It was one of those two-parter names, like Mary Claire or Sarah Anne. Or… Lou Ellen! That was it.
Their circle huddled in the corner of the front room. Apparently, Percy and Annabeth visiting camp, Jason and Piper coming back to stay for a little bit, and Chiron going out of town for an 'errand' had all coincided this weekend. So, of course, a loud, large party was thrown, utilizing the entire first floor of the Big House. It was a miracle someone hadn't spiked the punch. Yet.
"Hey, has anyone seen Nico?" Jason asked when the conversation fell into a lull. "I haven't said hi to him yet."
"Oh, he's with Will," Lou Ellen said, as if that explained everything.
"There they are." Piper nodded towards the open front door, where Will and Nico were sitting side by side on the edge of the porch. Jason set his drink down and started to walk over to it, but Lou Ellen hopped in front of him.
"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! We've been trying to get them to admit it for months and this is the closest they've gotten! Don't interrupt them!"
"Admit it?" Annabeth asked. "Admit what?"
Percy's gaze shifted from the standoff between Jason and Lou (a strange sight, as Jason was probably an entire foot taller than Lou Ellen) to Will and Nico behind them. Will was telling some kind of joke, Nico shaking his head in response. They were sitting so close together that Percy thought there was a blanket wrapped around them at first. He had to squint to see that it was two separate jackets covering them. Even though they were pressed up against each other, their heads still tilted in, as if they each had some magnetic pull to the other. Nico turned to face Will, and Percy caught a glimpse of his face. He was smiling.
"Ah," Percy said. "They like each other."
"Uh, duh," Lou Ellen responded, rolling her eyes. "Did you guys not know that?"
"No," Annabeth said. "Wait, how long have they-"
A sound pierced through the air, cutting her off. It took Percy a second to realize that it was Nico's laugh. Percy's head snapped back over to where the son of Hades was sitting. Nico had busted out laughing at something Will said, and now he doubled over, his head falling onto Will's shoulder. The whole group stood in stunned silence- a full out Nico laugh was a rare occurrence indeed. Will, too, looked surprised that Nico was that openly amused, but seemed thrilled, and started telling his story even faster. Nico slowly recovered, shaking his head and sitting up. "You're absolutely ridiculous," he told Will, loud enough for Percy- and probably all of the other partygoers- to hear. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
Will grinned, leaning forward with Nico to continue his story. One hand flailed around wildly, aiding the story, but his other arm, which had been resting behind Nico, moved unconsciously to fall on Nico's waist. If Nico noticed that Will now had an arm around him, he didn't show it. In fact, neither of them seemed to have noticed.
The people standing inside noticed, though. Lou Ellen raised her eyebrows. "Wow. Skipped the arm-around-shoulder and went straight for the arm-around-waist. Bold move, Solace." She shook her head violently, turning around. "Okay, we need to stop staring at them, we look like a bunch of creeps."
"Is that not what we are?" Piper mumbled, but she drifted off toward the punch table. Jason followed her.
Percy mingled with Annabeth for a while, catching up with old camp friends, but he cast a glance back over at Nico every once in a while. Every time he looked, Nico had slouched over onto Will more and more, until eventually he was almost completely diagonal, leaning his head on Will's chest. At one point, Will had let his own head fall on top of Nico's. From the back, Percy couldn't even tell if they were still awake.
.
.
Nico blinked his eyes open, ignoring how heavy his eyelids were. "Gods, I'm tired," he mumbled, adjusting slightly. How he'd ended up with his face buried in Will Solace's shirt on the front steps of the Big House, he didn't know. But at this point he was too tired to be embarrassed.
Will stifled a yawn, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "Yeah, me too." Nico couldn't see his face, but his speech was slurred from exhaustion, something that Nico couldn't help but find cute, for some reason. Still, he didn't actually want to fall asleep here.
"I should probably… head back to my cabin." Nico sat up, separating himself from Will and almost immediately missing Will's heat.
"Yeah. 'Course." Will nodded, but disappointment covered his face. It made some part of Nico strangely satisfied to know that Will was disappointed to say goodbye. He held Will's gaze. Nico reached out to touch Will's face, tucking a blond curl behind his ear. His hand slipped down to cup Will's cheek, and his eyes flicked back up to meet Will's again. Nico's throat suddenly constricted with emotion- what emotion, he didn't know, but it was so intense he could barely breathe. He leaned forward, slowly, and pressed his lips to Will's cheek. Will's arm around Nico's waist tightened.
Nico pulled away cautiously, his hand falling, and then stood up. "Good night, Will," he said, his voice softer than he meant it to be and his heartbeat thundering in his ears.
"Night, Nico."
