Hello again! I've finished the second chapter, and chapter three will be like... a continuation in Will's p.o.v. Chapter two and three are like a two parter, in all honesty. But chap. 3 maybe be posted tomorrow or the day after. Depends on how much this story is actually liked.
Its filled with some Nico and Will tensity, because Olymus knows they'll have that tension until they confess their feelings. And big sister Reyna. And romance movies. And ice cream. Heck yeeeah.
Also I'm super angry because I've had to re-edit this story five times. Literally, FanFiction, get yo' stuff together.
So yeah. Sorry if there are any horrible spelling errors because... I got terribly sloppy after the fifth time of re-reading.
R&R please! If you don't, I cant get any better at this. c:
Pain. Stinging, agonizing pain. In more than one sense anyways.
Two long years had painfully dragged by. And as much as Nico chastised himself for it, he hadn't gained any romantic progress with Will. Either the guy's head was too full of sunlight, or he was just downright dense. Which was saying something, because Will was always so cheeky and knowledgeable.
More than once he had found himself openly flirting with him, and more than once it had ended with Will waving him goodbye and Nico sulking off with overly heated cheeks.
He cursed under his breath and managed to dislodge an annoying pebble with his foot. Romance never seemed to favor him. Or apparently Cupid — who he most certainly despised — was trying his best to make Nico's love life a living hell.
And not only that, but it was like everything else was teasing him. More and more often Nico would find himself getting hurt and having to see Will for his wounds. Well... he would admit to maybe 'accidentally' tripping a few times to see him but... that was besides the point.
The point was Nico had all but given up. Over the long nights of summer break at Camp Half-Blood, he'd spent enough time by alone to convince himself that Will just never would return his feelings. And starting next year when he returned, he would try to scout out a rational crush and just be really close friends with the healer.
His eyes narrowed and he clenched and unclenched his fists angrily. If only he wasn't so attracted to him, then it would be easier. Why was Will so damn hot all the time again? Oh right, he was the son of Apollo. How silly of Nico to wonder.
Inwardly he smacked himself and began to walk quicker. He shouldn't be thinking about this, not in his current predicament. The sooner he got this done, the better - and besides, his chest was starting to really hurt. Gods, what had that stupid Drakon done? Had its claws been tipped in poison?
Earlier that evening Nico had hunted down a rampaging Drakon. The creature had somehow managed to stampede the forest and tear up everything in his path. Apparently he was a tad bigger than the normal sized ones, and he had already had a tree nymph for breakfast. That was when Nico stepped in.
And on that particular quest, he had been embarrassingly surprised by the Drakon. The monster managed to tear a nasty gash in his chest. He could feel that it had opened up a wound that he had received from the lord of flea bags himself. It had healed pretty decently, but it seriously hurt when reopened. Bad.
He recalled facing that stupid mutt on his shadow jumping fiasco. Reyna and him had encounter Ly.. Leo... Lyn... well, it didn't matter if he remembered the name or not. The half wolf half man lunatic wasn't that important to remember, anyways.
Nico winced from both memories. His troubling thoughts about Will faltered and instead he was forced to direct his attention to the stinging pain across his abdomen. It pulsed angrily and he had to clutch his arm over the wound so it wouldn't soak his entire shirt in blood.
His feet didn't hesitate to bring him to the more-than-once visited clinic. He knew Will wouldn't be there, but every time he found himself approaching the steps his heart would speed up incredibly and his cheeks would flush. Coincidentally, this did not seem to help the painful gash he'd received.
With an agitated face, Nico rapped furiously on the front door with his fist and waited for someone to answer. It would most likely be the ditsy girl who was always shadowing Will when he was here. Every time Nico appeared with wounds, her smile grew even wider than the last. If Nico didn't know any better, he'd think she was crushing on him. But then that would be absolutely silly. Nobody ever crushed on the Lord of Death's son.
He didn't have to wait long, thankfully, as some feet rushed to the door and clumsy hands seemed to wrestle with the door handle. This little reaction felt oddly familiar to Nico, like he had practiced it many times before. He tried to pinpoint it. The hurried stumble of footsteps. The almost anticipated fumble with the handle...
Realization hit him like a freight train only after the door swung open to show a familiar face. An overly happy and muscular looking tall blond standing there. His hair was tousled perfectly around his face. The sun seemed to appraise it as well and clung to every strand, making it glimmer golden-orange.
Will seemed to shine a beam of light right at him, blue eyes, freckles, and all. Nico stopped himself from giving the nemesis of his heart a once over and only managed to splutter in surprise. "I thought you weren't back yet - everyone else - the camps not even - why?"
Nonsense babbled out of Nico's mouth and that only encouraged the doctor — as Will loved to call himself — to smirk further. If a smile could be blinding and melt you to goop right there, Will's would win by a landslide. Literally. If his didn't win, Nico would be forced to take out all the other competitors in a landslide. Whether that landslide were dead zombies or skeletons, that was to be decided.
There was a long silence as Will began to size him up. Apparently he hadn't seen the crimson stained shirt before, but now he began to recoil in surprise and horror. "Nico, what in the name of Hades have you done to yourself this time?" he barked angrily. "I leave you for one summer, and this happens?!"
Nico hardly had a chance to reply as Will gently but firmly pulled him into the infirmary and ushered him towards a hospital bed. The son of Hades was reminded all too achingly of his first time at this place. Will had practically done the same thing, and Nico had boiled up on the spot.
And now he wasn't any better. His body was shot with electric currents at Will's touch. Nico cursed quietly as he tried to recall exactly how he had coped with it for two years. Obviously he had to grow used to the accidental skin touching and bumping into each other again.
He had almost leaned into the touch, for goodness sake. And those lips... were they that full and delicious looking before? Nico found his mind begin to wander, and he wondered how hard it would be to turn and pin his crush against the wall.
Then his body registered exactly who was touching him and what his mind was thinking. He growled at himself angrily at his willingness — no pun intended ( okay, maybe a little ) — to jump his best friend and kiss him silly. What was he thinking? That would definitely screw up his plans for this year.
For all he knew, Will liked girls. For all he knew, Will wasn't even interested in dating if there was the off-chance of him being homosexual.
Nico flinched away from Will finally and walked the rest of the way to the hospital bed. He swung himself on the bed and hunched over. He could feel Will's eyes following his every movement but tried to push it to the back of his head. He couldn't think about those things now. Will didn't like him like that. Will was just a friend. But he desperately looked around at everything but Will, which included the rapidly fading light from the sky.
"Nico?" came the hesitant voice of Will. He sounded concerned.
He jumped and brought his eyes up to gaze at him. Will looked at him and raised an eye questioningly, and Nico suddenly realized he and been scowling while twisting his skull ring at a dizzying rate. He willed his heart to stop thumping against his rib cage and smiled sheepishly.
"F-fine. The scratch just... really... hurts," he managed. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth.
That didn't entirely work in convincing Will, but it seemed to have shut him up. Nico had half expected to prepare for more arguing, but he realized that Will was much more focused on his wound. His shirt began to feel uncomfortable as the blood was starting to dry and become stiff.
He'd almost forgot about it, but as soon as he remember it he felt the full force of its infliction. He winced at the stinging sensation and that began to fully convince Will as he rushed off to probably grab medical supplies.
A few lights flickered on in his wake to bring more light to the darkening place. Some bangs and shuffling followed, before Will showed his face again and rounded the corner, carrying aglass of liquid in one hand and a tray of supplies in the other.
Nico was surprised when he could label most of the things he was carrying; Unicorn Draught of course, a gauze, things for stitching, and some medicinal goop looking stuff. The son of Hades found himself glaring at the goop. It looked like it would sting when applied, as all wound cleaning medicine did.
"Shirt. Off. Now," came Will's startling command. It jostled him out of his thoughts on how painful it would be to... well, be less painful.
"W-what?" Nico spluttered. He was utterly surprised by Will's demand. And there went his cheeks again, flushing with heat. He guessed he probably looked like he had a fever, which probably wouldn't make Will let up.
"You heard me. You have to take your shirt off for me to be able to heal you," Will responded with a sigh of exasperation. He sounded to Nico like he was prepared to say that.
Why hadn't he realized he'd have to do that sooner? There was no way he was taking his shirt off in front of Will. It would most likely be the first time he'd ever done that. He'd honestly expected to show his bare chest to Will under more... pleasant circumstances. What would Will think? That he was still scrawny? And it probably didn't help any with his chest all scratched up. From the feel of it he could tell it was inflamed.
Will fixed him with an annoyed glare as he reached forward and grabbed at the fabric that covered his stomach. His warm fingers brushed against the skin lying there. Even if Nico mentally knew it before it happened, the surprise of the instant burning sensation still shocked him. The electricity he could deal with, but this... his breath hitched on instinct.
Will seemed to be surprised as well, because Nico saw he'd frozen in place and was staring intensely at the spot his fingers were touching. It was as if they had suddenly become glued to the very spot.
Nico's heart pattered painfully and his chest seized up tightly in that familiar little way it always did when Will was around. He could feel his face heat up even more - and did he just see the heat on Will's face or was he hallucinating? But when he glanced back for a second time the red had left and was replaced by a pale white color on Will's usually handsome and bright face. That was bad. No, that was... very, very wrong. Will never looked like this.
He squirmed away from his frozen in place hands and he reached down to pull the t-shirt up and over his head to snap Will out of it. As long as Will didn't look like he'd seen a ghost, Nico was alright. It took all his strength to shift his fixed gaze from the floor to Will's pale expression. He hated it when Will adopted that look, it didn't fit him.
"Well?" he snapped, unable to bear the heavy silence. "Get on with it."
Will suddenly snapped out of his trance to lean away tand grab the wretched goop looking crap. As he doused the gauze in it, his expression did not let up. If anything, it looked even more tense and sullen than it already had. It was beginning to worry him.
Nico shifted and tried not to let concern consume him, but he couldn't hold back. His voice was shakily tentative as he asked, "Will...?"
He saw the tanned boy — no, man, since Will had turned eighteen over the summer — jump at Nico's voice and looked at him in surprise. A wide smile spread over his face and as he leaned forward and began to clean Nico's wound. "Yeah?"
Nico was not at all convinced by the smile, not one bit. It was probably meant to be charming, but it looked so out-of-place and forced. It caused his heart to twist. Had he done something to upset Will? It had all started after... the damned shirt. If only he hadn't gotten clawed by the Drakon, he wouldn't be in this horribly awkward situation.
And Will was usually so gentle while healing wounds, but the way he was handling Nico would suggest otherwise. Nico probably winced every few seconds and after a minute of doing so he finally let out a hiss of pain and smacked Will's hand away.
Nico said through gritted teeth, "Could you possibly press any harder? I'm not sure the wound hurts enough."
Will peeled back in surprise. Had he not been paying attention? Gods, he was daft sometimes, but not that daft. Especially when he was healing someone. Especially when he was healing Nico. That made the blood rush to his face, but now wasn't the time to be embarrassed over a silly crush. Right now he needed to know why exactly Will was acting so strangely.
"Will... are you okay?" he asked finally in a strained voice.
The amount of time it took Will to answer felt suffocating. The air around him turned stale and he could visibly see the both of them had stopped breathing. Again he asked Will's name, and again silence followed. He counted seconds by until the silence broke.
Though Nico finally let out a breath of air when Will inhaled and replied, "Its nothing. Just... didn't get much sleep is all. I've been really busy since I got back, ya' know? Been back for a couple of days. Healing and all, cleaning, supplies... I swear I'm the only handy doctor around here. Did I mention I may be sleep deprived?"
"Twice," Nico said wryly as he pulled at the shirt that was clutched in his hand. If shirts had feelings, Nico would have been slapped.
Finally he began to size Will up with a suspicious look. Hey, he had an excuse. Will had claimed he was sleep deprived, and Nico was only seeing if his friend was all right. There was nothing wrong with that, right?
Will hadn't changed too much, besides gaining a few more muscles. Then again, Nico wasn't anything to sneeze at as well. Over the two years he'd spent here, he had added on some muscles as well. Not to mention he'd grown taller and his skin looked a tiny bit healthier. Though he cursed and began to clear his wandering thoughts, delving deeper into the Will inspection.
The blonds clothes were his normal doctor scrubs, probably covering his nicely toned body and rather tight camp Half-Blood gear. Just the thought of it threatened to make Nico's mouth water, but he pushed against the urge and let out a sigh. From his frustration at the scrubs or Will, he didn't know.
"It's seriously nothing. I'm just really tired," he said stubbornly.
Supposedly, Nico's sigh had said more than words could. And thank the Gods he hadn't noticed his ogling and prodding gaze. In retrospect, it wouldn't have helped any. It probably would have caused things to be even more awkward than it already was.
"Will, that's not fair. I shared all of my problems with you a year back - remember? I even told you about..." Nico began softly, and swallowed hard. He'd told Will about his time in Tartarus before Will left for the summer. It had felt great to relieve some stress to his close comrade.
This was so out of character for him. Usually Will would be the one doing the poking and nosy detective work. If it were up to that guy, he would have bugged Nico into yelling it out. He quieted his wandering thoughts and tried again. It tasted weird on his tongue to be so... nice. Ew. "C'mon. You can tell me anything.. we're good friends, right?"
For a moment he saw him hesitate and felt an inkling of hope. But then Will shook his head decisively and set his lips into a stubborn, and annoying thin line. Gods. Why Nico liked him, he had no idea.
"I appreciate it Nico, but its em... nothing that can be helped," Will finally said. "I..." he began, then trailed off and shook his head furiously.
Instead he turned away and began to stitch up Nico's body. He hissed in pain and didn't reply back. It had probably been Will's plan in the first place, but he wasn't the only stubborn demigod around, and Nico would not give up that easily.
After his wound was done being stitched, he was given some Unicorn Draught and watched as Will reached to grab the bandages. All the while Nico thought about what he was about to do. It panicked him, but it wasn't the end of the world. If Will would be stubborn, Nico would have to share something as well.
He managed to breathe when he set the drink down and stared ahead at the window with a deadly expression. On the outside, he felt calm and collected. But on the inside... he could felt his stomach recoil nervously. Besides, if Nico wanted to progress any further with Will...
"That day, when I was talking to Percy and Annabeth... two years ago you asked what it was about, and I said catching up. That wasn't entirely true," Nico began. His throat felt dry, like he'd swallowed a ton of dirt. Right. He was really doing this. He couldn't stop now. Especially when Will had turned his beautiful blue eyes on him. Not to mention Will was slowly wrapping the cloth round his chest to cover the wound. Every so often, he could feel Will's fingers brush the sensitive skin and cause him to bristle.
And that's when Nico decided to continue, "When... when I was younger..." one, two, three, "I had a huge crush on Percy. It's why I hated him so much. Or actually... I hated myself for it. And when I highfived Annabeth, that was after I told him about it to clear the air. He wasn't awkward about it, and that's that," Nico finished. "So..."
Nico felt like he would throw up. He'd just revealed his inner most deep secret to his best friend, and readied for the worse. And god's was the waiting horrible.
Will didn't say anything as he finished covering his chest with the bandages. If it was possible... Will looked even more sulking than he did before. He also looked increasingly annoyed. And his eyes looked as if it were on fire - dangerous, blue fire.
"I see," came Will's cold reply.
That was it. Nico was sure he'd throw up. He felt like his stomach was endlessly plunging down, as if he were being thrown into the very pits of Tartarus again. That was it...? All he got was a "I see"?
He suddenly felt hurt and angry and he stared at will incredulously. He'd just poured his heart out."What... do you mean? I just told you - you're so infuriating!" he growled. "Why can't you just tell me whats bothering you already?"
Will's voice sounded strained as he stood up suddenly and opened the door. "Its late. You should get some rest, and I should as well. Bye, Nico." He gave one last curt nod before opening the door wider and setting a stone cold face of determination. If Nico didn't care for Will so much, he would have slapped him.
His face twisted in disbelief and he rose to his feet. He didn't need to be told twice to know when he wasn't wanted. Though that didn't mean it didn't hurt any less. To be fair, it probably hurt even worse than the Drakon scratch. But this wound wasn't anything Will could apparently heal. It seemed he'd have to heal it on his own. Again.
He gave a rushed reply of fine, and hurriedly walked out of the door whilst pulling his shirt over his head. There were some swooning sounds of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' from a few giggling Aphrodite girls hanging about outside, but he ignored it. He was too angry and upset to care as he stormed off too his Cabin. If Will was going to be that way, fine. But Nico would not be the one apologizing this time.
Nico couldn't express how happy he was that Reyna had come to visit from Camp Jupitor.
So there he was, storming out of the infirmary and almost about to knock aside a few satyrs when he bumped into golden Armour. His head throbbed painfully and he clutched it with a groan - seriously, how man injuries was that in two days?
"Sorr - Nico!" exclaimed an excited voice.
As Nico looked up to give a death glare, he let out a startled intake of breath. There was Reyna, in all her Roman glory. Here she was to save the day... even if she'd probably caused a major bruise on his forehead.
Unsure of whether to hug or cry, he instead chose upon telling her off and waving his hands angrily. "Where were you? No visit in five months - I thought you'd have forgotten about me! Of all the... you could have at least, you know, sent a letter or something," he finished in huffing breaths.
Reyna didn't look phased at his scolding, though. Instead, her lips tugged up into a smile and she insisted on squashing the little life left in Nico out. He was just glad she missed his tender wound that had just gotten patched up.
After she let him go, she let out a hearty laugh and smiled at him with twinkling brown eyes. "Glad to see you too, Nico."
Nico cursed with annoyance, but he couldn't express his relief. If anyone would know about heartbreak and problems, he was sure Reyna would. He remembered her longing glances at Percy or Jason. Not to mention she had proved a surprisingly good listener many times. His expression faltered when he recalled his earlier argument with Will and turned sour.
Reyna saw it and instantly grabbed his shoulders in a steel grip of concern. "Nico?" she asked hesitantly.
"Can we talk?" Nico finally growled out. His voice probably sounded flustered and high pitched. When he saw her confused face, he wondered if she thought he was actually angry at her. That made him force a smile and shake his head. "I'm not actually angry at you. Its more.. uh... personal stuff."
He didn't even need to convince her as she quickly turned and began a beeline for his cabin. He smiled dryly and followed after her without a word, even if he wasn't sure he'd tell his secret a second time that night.
When they were finally safely inside, she shut the door and pointed at a sofa by the fireplace as if to say "Sit".
Nico obliged willingly and trudged over to it, glancing around on the way. Son to the God of riches he was indeed. Golden and other gem like colors patterned everywhere in fancy ways. The colors were toned down and pale, with cream and gray hues. Though in all honestly, Nico wasn't feeling rather rich at the moment.
He paused to light a fire and make the room appear more cozy before clambering tiredly to the sofa and plopping down. He watched the warm firelight that flickered across the walls and Reyna's serious face. It reminded him of when he and Will would sit around the campfire and chat.
Suddenly those two years of pent-up emotions spilled out. It was like an agonizing wait he could no longer hold. He told Reyna about Percy and his old crush on him, he told her of his new crush and how weird Will had reacted.
When he was all done his eyes were stinging and sore from the tears that threatened to spill out. But Nico wasn't about to give Cupid the satisfaction of seeing him cry over his heartache. He sniffed angrily and began to twirl his skull ring nervously. Reyna hadn't known of his sexual orientation before, but now she did. And he wasn't sure if she would accept or not.
"Well. It was about time," she said nonchalantly and nudged his shoulder in a playful way.
Nico looked up at her with surprise. "About.. time?" he asked stupidly.
"I mean... its one thing to go on without a girlfriend from the time your puberty piqued but... it's another to ignore the most beautiful Roman praetor to ever exist," she said lightly. It was meant teasingly and he knew it, but he could tell she was trying to be kind as well. Nico felt flustered at her reply, especially when she said that thing about puberty.
"Your not... going to be weird about it as well?" Nico asked sorely. After Will's reaction, he was sure if she would be understanding, or as cold as he had been. Apparently as much as Annabeth and Piper had assured him homosexuality was beginning to be accepted, it seemed the opposite for Nico. Painfully so.
"Why would I be upset? Gods, Nico," she laughed, then seemed to reconsider as Nico shot her daggers with his eyes. She sighed and continued carefully, "I mean... of course not. Nico... you shouldn't feel so down about it. I'm sure Will was just surprised. Actually, by the way you described it..." she trailed off with that twinkle in her eye and a smirk across her darker skin.
"What?" Nico asked. He felt calmer, but he was still strongly agitated. Reyna's all mysterious attitude wasn't helping any. What had he described? What was she talking about? It was driving him insane.
Reyna regarded him with pause, then shook her head. The action sent dark curls spilling over her shoulders as she replied, "Nothing. I'm sure it'll brighten up eventually. This is probably really hard for you, coming from the 1940's and all. I'm sorry." She was probably trying to assure him... though it wasn't helping any.
When his mood didn't let up, she continued with, "You know... I think you just need to unwind and rid of all your unwanted stress. You know... take a small break and get away from all that's troubling you. It wouldn't hurt, and who knows, maybe it'll blow over when you get back."
Nico glanced down at his hands and realized he had wrung them to the point of looking white. He took a few calming breaths and glanced up at her with a curious expression. It sounded like she already had an idea. "What did you have in mind?"
Reyna mused quietly, but Nico knew she was just giving dramatic pause. "Come and visit Camp Jupitor with me. I have a few sappy romance movies and some ice cream just calling your name," she said easily after a minute. "You can stay at my place if you want. It'd be like a mini-vacation."
And that was how Nico found himself spending a week at the Roman camp with Reyna.
It hadn't entirely appealed to him at first. He just didn't do sappy movies or cheesy pick up lines. He just knew he'd implode at a cliché coffee shop moment. And Gods forbid those unrelated love songs at the end.
But when he actually began watching them, he found himself enjoying comfort snacks and sniffling along with Reyna. It was probably his lowest of moments for him but... it gave him an excuse to let out all of his frustration and held back tears. That way if anyone saw and asked, he would say they were watching a very sad movie.
After an hour of conversations and catching, the lights went out and Nico curled up on a mattress Reyna had mysteriously pulled out. He tugged the warm blankets over his head and began to go over the horribly long day he'd had yesterday.
That was it. Nico finally decided after an hour of seething that he had hopelessly fallen for Will. The child of Hades was madly in love with the sun. How horribly poetic. So far, and so hard to reach. It was cruel. The child of death, sitting in the shadows, watching the Sun's brilliant light. He couldn't touch it. And he could most definitely not confess his undying love...
Why can't romance be like those stupid movies, Nico thought angrily to himself.
Ouch. My back hurts from typing so much while slouching over. I felt like this chapter was rushed but... that may just be me. Sorry if its too short or not as eventful - pah - and sorry for my little puns. c;
Ahhh! I love Reyna comforting him and everything, its just so darn cute.
Also, the next chapter will be about Will. It'll leave off with him watching Nico leave the infirmary. Yeeaaaaah. Then we can see what he was really thinking. Winkedy winkkkk.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! And if you did, you should totally leave a review and stuff! Who knows, I could always make a little mini story based around Solangelo. Something more than a few cute and fluffy moments.