It's Nico's fifth day in the hospital when it registers to Will that his soulmate could die, that he might not be able to share anything with him.
The thought hits him all of a sudden, when he's sitting by the bed once again, holding Nico's lifeless hand and staring at the steady light. Kayla has just left, being done with her check-up, and Will is once again met with the silence that is only interrupted by the heart monitor and Nico's heavy breathing through the oxygen mask.
Nico's been unconscious for days now. Jason's been in and out of Nico's room every time he's been able, sometimes alone, sometimes with his wife, and Will has given up several cases to other doctors so he can be with Nico when he wakes up. Nico's physical recovery is starting great, but even as the swelling in his brain has been treated, there's no signs of him waking up. No one is saying it out loud, but as a doctor Will knows there are possibilities he doesn't like.
How he makes it to Michael's office is beyond him, but once there Will keeps rambling and pacing back and forth and tugging on his own hair like a madman, and Michael has to forcefully untangle his hands from his curls before he manages to scalp himself.
"Sit down, Will", Michael commands, and his voice is friendly with a sharp undertone of it, like Will has heard it when Michael talks to panicking relatives. (That's what Will is now, right? A panicking relative, a family member? It's so strange.) He guides Will to a chair and offers him a water bottle. "Deep breaths. He's going to be just fine."
Will grips the bottle in his hands, doesn't take a sip in fear of choking. His palms feel clammy and his head spins and his heart feels like it's thumping out of his chest. It's not a good feeling at all. "If he ever wakes up, you mean."
Maybe he kind of expects Michael to deny it. Maybe he was hoping to be told that he's over reacting, that Nico is just taking a nap and is going to wake up any second now. Whatever the case, it feels like a punch in the gut when Will feels Michael's quiet, regretful voice agreeing with him like from somewhere far away. "Right. If he ever wakes up."
He knows Michael is just doing his job, that no doctor would tell a relative or next of kin lies, give them false hope. Still, Michael's words sound so harsh. "But he will." Will doesn't know how he knows this, or if he's just being a stubborn ass as always, but as he stands up to leave the room he gives Michael an almost glare before marching away. "He has to."
Will knows there's nothing he can actually do to help Nico at this point. All he can do is make sure he stays stable, and that requires little actual actions. Still he finds himself back in the chair by Nico's bed, staring at the man with eyes that see nothing but the pale skin and black hair, fighting back tears.
Even as he thinks of himself a compassionate man, Will has never been able to understand why people talk to unconscious patients. There's no scientific proof that any words reach them, not that Will is aware of anyway. To Will, talking to unconscious people has always been just a coping mechanism for the families, for the people mourning for their loved ones. He remembers thinking once that he'd never be that person to cry at a bedside and beg for someone to wake up when it clearly never, ever helps.
And yet.
"Please, Nico. Please wake up. Don't leave me here." Will keeps his voice a whisper and draws circles to the back of Nico's hand, around the IV. The hand is so cold that Will worries, even if he knows that it's probably just poor peripheral circulation. He tries to take a deep breath as he looks at the light that pulses through Nico's thin hospital gown. A tear rolls down his cheek and he bites down a sob. "Don't leave me alone before I get the chance to meet you."
Nico is six when he asks why mamma's heart light is the color of the sunset instead of the pretty blue like father's. He doesn't understand why this makes her eyes look so sad, and pats her hand in an attempt to make her smile again.
"Sometimes soulmates see things a little differently, passerotto", she says and strokes his hair gently, moving it away from his eyes until resting her palm against his cheek. Her voice has a tone of a song like a lullaby, and her pretty golden earrings glint in the afternoon sunlight that reflects from the pool, and to Nico she's the most beautiful thing in the world. "Sometimes they disagree on the way they love each other, and it shows on their heartlights."
Mamma looks quietly as Bianca jumps in the pool, splashing water around and making the hem of mamma's green skirt wet. It looks almost black now, but she doesn't seem to mind. Nico still doesn't understand.
"Bianca says zia Diana's heart is blue when she hugs Zoë from the country club."
Mamma smiles. She doesn't look so sad anymore, and Nico is glad. "That's right, tesoro. That means Zoë is the best friend zia could ask for, the very best."
"Like me and Jason?"
"A little like you and Jason, yes. A pure friendship, so strong and deep that you can almost read each other's minds."
In the brief moment that mamma is silent, Nico wonders how cool it would be if he could read Jason's thoughts and Jason could read his. But that is not the part of this conversation that Nico will remember for years and years to come. What he does remember, what will echo in his head one day as he lies in a hospital bed, barely even able to move and blinded by a bright white light with a pure golden edge to it, is this:
"But the strongest, most secure form of soulmate heartlight is golden. Bagliore d'oro vitale. Remember that, passerotto. Because that is the heartlight that is destined to you, the light that you deserve. You and Bianca both. I can feel it."
(Of course, there is no way mamma could have known what kind of light was destined for Nico. Nor could she have known that three days after that conversation Bianca jumps to the pool again and hits her head to the edge, that she'll be dead before the ambulance gets there, that she'll never get to meet her soulmate. Nico's mother won't be there herself to witness Nico seeing his heartlight turn on, after years of thinking he'll never have one.
But then again, even Nico isn't there for the first few times.)
When Nico wakes up, the first person he sees is a nurse, and that tells him he's in a hospital. He hates hospitals; they remind him of the long months visiting his mother, seeing her warm orange heartlight pulsing weaker and weaker each time father held her hand until it faded entirely and Nico never saw her face again. His heart starts racing, alarming the nurse that he's awake.
"Welcome back, Nico", she smiles brightly in a way that Nico supposes is meant to be calming. "You gave us a few serious scares there, but luckily your soulmate has quite a bit of influence around here, so you got the best of the best working for you."
The words don't quite register to Nico yet. He's in a hospital. He doesn't know why. He tries to speak, but his throat is dry. He tries to sit up but everything hurts. He tries to lift an arm but it feels like it weights a thousand pounds. His pulse gets faster and his breathing turns ragged, and it echoes and mists in the oxygen mask he only now realizes he's wearing.
His panic must show on his face, because the nurse presses a button next to his bed and places a calming hand to Nico's shoulder. "It's okay, Nico, you're fine. Breath with me, slowly, in and out."
She keeps talking, and Nico doesn't know how much time passes before he's somewhat relaxed again. The nurse babbles on and on about something that is probably important, but Nico can't really bring himself to listen. Only a few words like accident and surgery and miracle make it through until the door to the room opens and a doctor walks in.
Nico thinks the doctor might also be an angel.
His hair is golden like in those paintings mamma used to show him of celestial warriors, golden and curly and beautiful like a halo around his head, and his eyes are big and bright and blue. Nico is pretty sure his heart skips a beat or two or ten when his eyes take in the angel's features, the straight nose, the freckles, the beautifully constructed jawline. The scrubs and the jacket indicate he's a doctor, a real human being with a real job, but he's so achingly beautiful Nico finds it hard to believe his own eyes.
"You're awake." Damn, even his voice is beautiful. The doctor comes closer slowly, but to Nico it looks like he's trying to contain himself from rushing. Once he's close enough to gently touch the back of Nico's hand with the tips of his fingers, Nico notices a glow on his chest. "You're awake."
It takes Nico approximately sixteen heart beats to understand why the doctor's heart lights up when he touches Nico's hand. It takes three more to remember the nurse saying something about his soulmate being a doctor.
Nico's soulmate. One he hasn't met before, one that apparently found him when he was a drooling mess in the hospital sheets.
Even Nico's blurry, pained, disoriented mind has the decency to be embarrassed by that.
The light in the doctor's chest is pulsing fast, now, so fast and strong. It's bright, almost blinding to Nico, and there's a soft golden hue to the white light – not pure gold, like Jason and Piper's, but a clean undertone that Nico knows will one day take over all the whiteness, if they're lucky. Bagliore d'oro vitale, his mother had once called it, and suddenly he can hear her voice like it was yesterday. Bagliore d'oro vitale. Remember that, passerotto. He feels his own heart start beating a little faster (and hears it, too, thanks to the machines), and it hurts more than it normally would due to the surgery he apparently underwent sometime while unconscious.
"Hey, hey, hey, easy there, Nico", the doctor says, and his voice is so soft and maybe a little breathless. Nico breathes hard through his oxygen mask. "You need to relax. We don't want to have you in another operation quite so soon, now, do we?"
The light shining from his own chest and pulsing in time with the beeping machine is so bright it prevents Nico from seeing much of the doctor's face, at least from where he's lying in the hospital bed. But what he does see is beautiful, so bright and calming and kind it makes his pulse pick up again, despite his best efforts to calm down.
Bagliore d'oro vitale.
Nico thinks that if this is the way he dies, he'll go happily, now that he's see the face of an angel.
"I'm serious, Nico. Deep breaths. I need you to – "
All fades back to darkness.
Nico doesn't die, but when he wakes up again he's in so much pain he almost wishes he did. He spends the short minutes he's awake trying to make sense of his surroundings, staring at a pair of blue eyes that look so very familiar that it almost makes him want to keep his consciousness. But if they're so familiar, why is he this disappointed? Why are the eyes so wrong, so different from what he wants to see?
It isn't until his third time waking up that Nico finally manages to actually do something. The room is dark, the only light coming from the machines and the slowly rising sun behind the blinds. It must be early morning. Nico succeeds in turning his head, groaning when the action strains his neck, and the noise apparently stirs his early morning visitor awake.
"Nico?" Jason's voice is disoriented and heavy with sleep, the way Nico remembers it sounding many times, back when they were kids and having sleepovers at each other's houses every other night. "Oh god, Nico – are you in pain? Do you need me to call a nurse?"
Nico shakes his head and quickly realizes that wasn't his best choice. His pain must show on his face, because Jason looks worried when he sits on the edge of Nico's bed, careful not to touch him. While Nico appreciates the sentiment (he's never been one for physical contact, not since his mother died), he can't help but wonder why Jason is so reserved. It's not like him at all. Worrying, yes, and apparently sleeping in a crappy hospital chair, and having great bedside manner (Nico is resigned to think that Jason is great at everything he does, by now), but not this.
"Wha – " Nico tries to speak, but his mouth is dry and his voice dies in his throat. Jason leans up to help him out of his oxygen mask, then holds a plastic cup to his lips. The water is cold, and it stings on his dry lips, and swallowing is surprisingly hard, but when Nico opens his mouth again, the words come a little easier. "What happened?" It's scary, how raspy his voice is, and Nico thinks he's never been this scared of himself before. The heart monitor picks up a little.
Jason looks uneasy as he cradles the half empty cup in his hands, looking at the water instead of Nico. "What's the last thing you remember?"
What an odd question, Nico thinks, but then he wonders if the answer is even more strange. He had lunch with Jason, the other day. He seems to remember everything perfectly well up until the point where he sits down at the table, then it gets blurry. Did they eat? What happened after that? Nico recalls loud noises and a brief feeling of weightlessness, then nothing. Emptiness. And just when he's about to tell Jason that, he remembers something else, too.
Eyes. Blue eyes, not unlike Jason's but somehow so much more intense. And he remembers thinking about his mother – why did I think about my mother? Must be the hospital.
"I – " It's annoying, the way he can't seem to form proper words without being in pain. "Lunch? You… wanted to talk?"
Jason offers him more water before he speaks again. "Yeah. We had lunch. I mean", he laughs, but Nico doesn't detect any humour in it, "you came by the café, and we ordered, but we didn't get to the eating before I fucked up and you stormed away. You left everything behind – your jacket, your wallet, even your phone. That's why they had trouble identifying you before I came asking for you." Nico is already opening his mouth to ask what Jason means by fucking up, but he's interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. "That's not important right now, though. You ran out and took the bike, but I guess you were pretty messed up and didn't see the car coming from your left. The bike was crashed beyond repair, so it was taken away."
A faint memory of a babbling nurse comes to Nico's mind, but he still can't recall what it is that she said about his injuries. He has a feeling his mind was elsewhere then. "Am I – "
"You're perfectly fine", Jason says, succesfully reading Nico's mind like he has so many times before. "I mean, you have some pretty bad cuts all around, as well as other injuries, and I'll admit I was really scared for a while there, but I think I'll let Doctor Soulmate explain the medical stuff to you." His voice turns teasing towards the end, and Nico can see an annoying gleam in his eyes.
"Doctor Soulmate?"
"Yeah, well, apparently he's not really your doctor, since he was taken off the case due to being too close to you, but holy crap, Nico, I take everything I've ever said about you not having soulmate back because boy do you have a soulmate."
What. Nico doesn't even add the question mark to the thought. He's so confused. He doesn't remember having a soulmate. He tries to think, closes his eyes briefly to concentrate, but all he can think of is the pair of blue eyes he can't place on anyone he's ever met. Jason has blue eyes, sure, but they're really not the same.
"I… have a soulmate?" he manages to ask while listening to the heart monitor tell Jason that his heart is beating faster than normal. His throat aches a little less now, and he shakes his head when Jason tries to offer more water.
Jason smirks. "Yeah. He – " But before he can tell Nico whatever it is that he was about to tell about his soulmate, a man walks in and gets their attention. Jason's smirk just gets wider. "Well, speak of the devil." He stands up from the bed and nods to the newcomer. "I'll give you two a minute. Or, like, twenty."
Nico's initial reaction is to tell Jason not to go, to not leave him alone with a stranger when he can barely talk to defend himself. But when his eyes land on the man he changes his mind completely, because he remembers now. Not just the blue eyes, but who they belong to, too. And in that moment Nico hears the heart monitor go nuts.
The man that Nco remembers was wearing a doctor's jacket before doesn't speak before Jason is out of the room. "Hi, Nico." He comes closer and sits in the chair left vacant by Jason, never looking away from Nico's face. "How long have you been awake?"
Just like before, Nico thinks that this man looks like an angel. But his mind is clearer now, and he can pay real attention to detail; to the dark circles under the beautiful blue eyes; to the spray of freckles that paints constellations across the tanned skin; the golden mop of curly hair that casts a delicate shadow to the man's forehead under the raw electric light. He looks so beautiful that it's hard to believe he's actually real – and yet he seems to be looking at Nico like he's the miraculous one in the room.
"I – a couple of minutes, I guess", is what Nico manages to choke out before his throat is too dry again. The man notices this (so he is a doctor, after all) and helps Nico sip on water, not unlike Jason just minutes before. "Jason was telling me what happened. Didn't get very far, though."
The man hums and places the cup back on the table. His hand hovers over Nico's, like he wants to touch but doesn't know if that would be okay. "Did he… mention me?"
"Barely. And not by name."
It's not very subtle, but Nico doesn't think that matters right now. Not when his heart is beating super fast and they can both hear it from the monitor. Not when they both know what they're not saying, what they really need to address in order to move forward.
The man smiles softly, and even though he looks so tired that Nico feels his own eyelids turn heavy just by looking at him, the twinkle in his eyes is awake and clear and wonderful, and it makes him look happy. "My name is Will", he says quietly and finally covers Nico's fingers with his own. The light that lights up the room takes Nico's breath away. "Will Solace."
Nico knows he should say something. Maybe something clever, or even just nice. He remembers when he was fifteen and he and Jason spent hours coming up with something to say when they finally met their soulmates, but he can't for the life of him remember what they ended up with. Nothing he can think of seems to apply to the situation at hand. Should he introduce himself? That'd probably be unnecessary. Is he supposed to be super friendly? Does Will Solace expect him to flirt? Nico is terrible at flirting.
So he says nothing at first. He just stares at Will (and a part of him wonders if Will is short for something, or maybe he's just Will, that would be cool too), stares at those blue eyes and the light that reflects from them, the light that's so much brighter than Jason and Pipers. He notices that Will's light has a golden undertone to it already, and how is that even possible, I just woke up?
Will's hand feels warm on Nico's. Nico finds the strength to turn his hand around to slot their fingers together, and both of their hearts pick up some speed.
"Hi, Will Solace", he manages to say, then clears his throat a little. "I've been looking for you." And no matter how silly it feels to say it like that when Nico has been careful not to touch anyone new in years, the words are not untrue. Something settles in Nico's heart with those words, and he finds himself smiling slightly. (The muscles needed for that are a little stiff, so he can't hold the expression for long, but it's a start.)
Will returns the smile and strokes Nico's palm gently with his thumb. When he speaks, his voice is incredibly tender. "And I've been waiting for you to wake up."
During the next few days Nico learns exactly what happened to him after he left the café a week ago. Jason and Piper tell him about how they didn't hear from him in days, how Jason thought to give him space after the fight, how only when he came to Nico's apartment to apologize and return his stuff did they realize something was wrong. How Jason went through all their friends and neighbors before calling every hospital until hearing about a John Doe that sounded like Nico.
Piper tells Nico how Jason took a week off work so he could stay by Nico's side in case he woke up. How Jason and Will spent all those hours talking or just looking at him silently. She even has a few pictures. They make Nico feel a little warmer.
It's Will who takes care of explaining all the medical stuff to Nico. Dr. Yew is there, too, but Nico finds that he can't really focus on his doctor when Will's in the room, and Will absolutely refuses to leave during the day. (Nico doesn't mind. He doesn't mind one bit, to be honest.) So Will talks and Nico listens, and Dr. Yew listens with a weird look on his face, and Will holds Nico's hand all the time and it just makes everything that much better, if maybe a little difficult.
Nico's never been a medical geek, so he doesn't understand some of the things he's told. He knows organ bruising and a punctured lung and a grade III concussion do not sound good, no matter how gently you say them, but it's the dislocated shoulder, broken arm and shattered knee that hurt the most physically. Well, to be fair, most of his left side was crushed in impact, so pretty much everything hurts right now. Laughing, coughing and turning his head. Trying to sit up. Even looking at their heartlights for too long makes his head hurt, but he doesn't want to look away.
Still, when Will is trying to explain again how and why his heart stopped during the surgery, Nico has to interrupt and say something because he hasn't heard a word.
"Can you – ", Nico starts, then frowns a little. "Okay, I know this is going to sound so bad, but can you maybe let go of my hand? The light… it's really distracting."
The doctor – Will, Nico reminds himself, his short term memory still a little shaky – looks confused for a second, then snaps out of it. "Oh. Oh, of course." He lets go of Nico's hand, and Nico immediately regrets it. He doesn't like the electric lights in the room half as much as he liked the white pulse from Will's chest. (And his own. But mostly Will's. It's warmer, somehow, possibly because of the gold in it.) "I'm so sorry, I'm totally out of line, I should have asked – "
"No! No, that's not what I meant." Nico feels himself blush a little when he tries to come up with the words to explain. "I just… Trying to understand the medical shit is hard enough. You holding my hand… it's very nice, but it doesn't exactly make it easier."
Nico expects Will to continue on the facts. He isn't prepared for the slight blush and bashful smile that quickly takes a sad tone when Will rests his eyes on Nico's hand. Long fingers trace patterns on olive skin, and when Will continues talking his voice is low and desperate. Nico isn't sure he wants to hear Will's voice like that ever again.
"While you were unconscious, that was all I could do." The soft patterns make Nico's skin burn. He can hear the heart monitor beeping and wishes he could kick it. "Hold your hand. They wouldn't let me in the theater while you were operated, and I felt so helpless, you have no idea… All I could do was wait, and when they brought you to recovery I couldn't – I couldn't leave you."
Will doesn't look up. Nico can see the sadness in every muscle on Will's face, and it makes his heart ache. He can't even imagine how Will must have felt – he just knows he would have been losing his mind had it been the other way around.
Will's hand stops on Nico's wrist, fingers pressing on the pulse point, and Nico knows that Will feels and hears and sees his heartbeat. Maybe that's how Will keeps calm, surrounding himself with Nico's pulse. It's actually kind of romantic, Nico thinks, and he has to fight off the smile that threatens to creep on his face. "We didn't know who you were, not your name or who to contact, and I just… Holding your hand and watching our lights was all I could do."
It's not that Nico understands. Not exactly. There's no way he could possibly understand what Will has been through since Nico's heart stopped that first time (Jason had made sure Nico knew exactly how the heartlights first started pulsing, and yes, it was sort of like a fairytale), not without going through all of it himself, and, well, that isn't really an option. Looking at Will like he's doing now, all Nico wants is to see him smile again, that smile that sparkles in his eyes. Smile and be happy, and not have a trace of that sadness and quiet desperation left on his beautiful face.
That being said, Nico slowly and carefully turns his hand under Will's and stretches his fingers until he can mirror Will's actions and hear his pulse, too. There's something very calming about it, feeling as well as seeing the rhythm in which Will's heart beats, picking up speed at first and then calming down the longer the silence stretches on.
"So", Nico whispers, his fingers wrapping around Will's wrist so that he can trace his thumb on the back of his hand. For a moment there it almost looks like Will stops breathing completely. "You were saying something about venticular fibrillation?"
The thing about the heartlights is that sometimes they can help you pinpoint the exact moment you fall in love with your soulmate.
For Nico, it's the Wednesday after he wakes up. Just a Wednesday. Later he jokingly thinks that he's lucky it wasn't a Thursday, but it really doesn't matter to him what day it is. He can't even really tell what it was that made the light turn golden all of a sudden, but he remembers the moment for the rest of his life.
Will has just come back from a coffee run. A double espresso for Nico and some sugary monstrosity for Will. They have been talking a lot lately, of everything and anything and nothing at all, and Nico has been watching how Will's heartlight has steadily gotten more and more golden by every day that passes while his own has stayed stubbornly white. It wouldn't bother him this much if they weren't touching constantly; it's like when they're in the same room they can't stop holding hands, or maybe Will kicks off his shoes to prop his feet on the bed and their ankles cross, or Nico draws pictures around the freckles on Will's arms with his fingertips. They're constantly touching, and their heartlights are glowing, and Nico's just stays pure and white. It's frustrating.
Will doesn't mention it, but Nico is sure he's wondering about the color, too. It's hard not to. A part of Nico wants Will to bring it up so he doesn't have to, but mostly he just wishes the color would change already. After all, it's rare for a heartlight to stay white forever.
It's in one of those more quiet moments, when Will is scrolling through his social media and Nico is distracted by the sheer beauty that is Will Solace, that things change. Will is still holding his hand, they're not saying anything, they're just sitting there and listening to the silence. Nico can't tell what it is that turns his world upside down. All he knows is that one second he's just looking at Will, and the next he has a stupidly giddy smile on his face and his heart is doing cartwheels.
Had it not been for the heartlights, no one else wouldn't have noticed anything new. But as it is, Will's head snaps up the second Nico's light turns from burning white to pure gold, all in a blink of an eye.
Will drops his phone.
It doesn't need to be said. They've both heard about this at school, back in fifth grade when they tell you the differences between soulmate colors. Nico sat at the back of the class room with Jason and barely paid any attention, but even he remembers the mention on how sometimes people fall in love with their soulmate so suddenly and so completely that the light accommodates the situation.
(The reason Nico remembers this so clearly might have something to do with the fact that this explains his cousin Percy, who's heartlight turned golden in first grade in the middle of a game of tag. But that's not important right now.)
So Nico just watches as Will stares at his light, the new color of it, and is very aware of the way the blinking is starting to resemble a disco light.
The fact that Nico notices Will biting his lip the second it happens says a lot about what Nico has been thinking for days now. It's no news to him that Will's lips look very pink and full and so incredibly kissable, especially when the white teeth sink to the lower lip like that. How many times has Nico imagined it; leaning a little closer and pressing their lips together, or letting his tongue find the aftertaste of Will's breakfast muffin, or even just reaching out to touch with the tip of his finger…
Nico swallows hard and gathers his thoughts. It's probably time.
"Hey, Will?" Will turns his eyes to Nico's. "I want to try this… thing." Nico's never been good at flirting, in fact he's always been quite terrible at it – not that he's ever had anyone to really practice on, either. But he does now, and he's so nervous that he's doing this wrong, but he has to try.
And judging by the out of breath expression combined with the half smile on Will's lips (that Nico has spent an embarrassingly huge amount of time staring at during the past few days), he's doing at least something right. "A thing?"
"Yeah." Will's fingers trail up and down Nico's forearm, and Nico is so thankful that they turned off the sound on the heart monitor. The rapidly blinking light on his chest is embarrassing enough. "But since I'm bound to this bed, as advised by both my doctor and my personal medical professional, you're going to have to come a little closer for it."
If Nico didn't know any better, he'd say that's a blush on Will's cheeks. "Is that so?"
"Hmm-mh."
"How much closer?" Will asks, already leaning in just the way Nico wants him to. Will's heartlight is gaining speed, too. It's surprisingly satisfying.
"Just a little more." Nico keeps his voice barely above a whisper as their faces inch closer and he can feel Will's warm breath across his cheeks. He smiles. "Come on, Will, closer."
Will's huff of laughter tingles Nico's lips. "So bossy."
Nico is about to say something else, still, but their lips are already so close to each other that when he opens his lips to speak he's met with Will's mouth pressed to his. And that's more than okay, because Will's lips are just as soft as they look, and they taste like that awfully sweet cup of diabetes that he calls coffee, with an undertone of the same lip balm he's spread on Nico's lips once or twice in the past week. And it's kind of funny to think that Will's fingertips have been there on his lips before Will's mouth has, but before Nico can dwell on that too much Will is already leaning back from the kiss with a soft sigh.
"As your personal medical professional", Will whispers, and Nico feels giddy when their lips graze each other in a feather like touch, "I approve of this thing and think I'm going to have to assign a fair daily dose of things for you." The second kiss is even shorter than the first one, but not any less sweet. "But just to be sure, I think I should be the one providing these things. I don't think I'll trust anyone else with this."
"Yes, definitely." Forming clever come backs is surprisingly hard when your lips are otherwise occupied. "I might throw quite a fit if anyone else tried."
"Good."
Nico quickly learns that he really likes kissing Will. He also learns that it's a good way to tell Jason to get lost without having to say anything, and that the same doesn't apply to Piper, who gladly stays and documents every kiss with additional cooing. Will's friend Cecil shows up one day, and Will tries the trick when he thinks Cecil's told one too many embarrassing stories, but Nico isn't sure if it works – he gets so distracted he doesn't pay attention to anyone else for half an hour.
A week after their first kiss they get scolded by both Doctor Yew and Kayla the nurse when Kayla comes in to check on Nico in the morning and finds Will curled up in the bed with him. Technically there are rules that prevent families from sleeping in the hospital, but Will being Will and also an employed doctor there they had managed to sidestep them. Still, Doctor Yew is not pleased, and while Kayla may have taken twenty pictures before waking them up, she makes it very clear that other nurses wouldn't have been as nice about it as her. Nico finds that he doesn't give a crap what the other nurses think.
(Also when Kayla sends the pictures to Will who then forwards them to Nico, it doesn't take longer than two hours until Nico gives in and sets one of them as his home screen. When Will finds out he teases Nico relentlessly before doing the exact same thing.)
So they don't snuggle up in one bed together anymore (except for maybe once or twice when they're absolutely certain Kayla has a morning shift and they have ways to bribe her), but that doesn't mean Will doesn't spend the night. Nico keeps complaining that Will is going to ruin his back in the terrible chair, and Will always says that Nico is so worth it. Nico doesn't say it, but those nights he sleeps better than when he's in the room alone. Will seems to know anyway, if his smirk is any indication.
It should be weird, Nico thinks, how well Will fits in his life all of a sudden. Will helps him with his physical therapy. Will brings him lunch from a thai place across the street when he's tired of the tasteless hospital food. Will steals him extra pudding and brings his laptop so they can watch Project Runway before Kayla comes in to draw more blood.
As Will sleeps in the god awful chair, snoring lightly with his feet up in Nico's lap, Nico thinks it shouldn't be possible for someone to crawl under his skin like this. It shouldn't be possible for Will to have made himself comfortable in Nico's life – and Nico letting him. He carefully touches Will's ankle with his fingertips, right there where the jean sleeve is riding up and the sock has rolled down, and when he sees the golden lights he smiles.
The day that Nico is released from the hospital is surprisingly sunny. He has mixed feelings of the day; on one hand, he's very happy to get home to his own apartment, away from the heart monitor and bi-daily blood tests and the smell of antiseptic; on the other hand, he's very accustomed to getting to see Will every other hour, every time he doesn't have patients to check on.
So when Jason helps him to the car under Will's watchful eye, Nico feels a little pain that has nothing to do with the fact that Jason keeps accidentally bumping to the bruises still covering all of the left side of his body. (Jason has joked multiple times now that he looks like those rotting corpses on zombie movies. Will has not been very amused.)
Nico rolls the car window down and Will leans in. "Text me when you get home, okay?" he asks for the tenth time that morning, and Nico has to smile a little when Will reaches for his uninjured hand. "I'll come there straight from work. We'll order take-out. Sound good?"
With a soft smile, Nico squeezes Will's hand and ignores Jason's eye roll. Nico's golden heartlight is only barely blocked by his sling. Will's light is blinding. "Everything sounds good after weeks of hospital food."
"Right." Will laughs nervously. Nico doesn't get what he's so nervous about; they've been pretty much all over each other for the past two weeks. It's not like everything's going to drastically change now that he isn't bound to a hospital bed anymore. "And no overworking yourself, okay? Absolutely no moving from the couch until I get there. Jason, I'm putting you in charge."
"Ay ay, captain", Jason salutes and Nico rolls his eyes.
"I'm twenty-seven, I don't need a babysitter."
"Oh?" Will's smile turns playful as he leans in closer, his breath ghosting over Nico's face when he speaks quietly. "Too bad, I was going to volunteer myself for the night shift."
When Will kisses him, Nico feels so stupidly in love that he almost feels bad for complaining to Jason and Piper about their mushiness all these years.
That is, until Jason grumbles about them needing to get a room.
"Shut up, Jason", Nico grins without turning to look at his friend, keeping as much focus on Will as possible, "I've had to deal with you and Piper for years. I have a lot of catching up to do." He presses his lips to Will's again, ignoring Jason's complaints, and loses himself in the kiss, if even just for a few moments. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?" he mutters against Will's mouth, feeling it curve into a smile without even opening his eyes.
"Do you see me complaining?" Will asks just as quietly and gives him one last lingering kiss before leaning back slightly with a small sigh. "I hate to say this, but I'm afraid you really do need to go now. You're sort of blocking the entrance."
Nico smirks a little as Jason checks the rearview mirror in case they really need to move. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you're trying to get rid of me."
It's meant as a joke, of course, and Nico knows that Will gets that, even if his face turns all serious. "Never." The word sounds heavy with promise, and Nico's heart starts beating faster. He lets go of Will's hand, and when the heartlights turn off he hopes Jason didn't notice the increase of speed. (Nico is ever so thankful for finally getting rid of the offensive heart monitor.) Will straightens his back and smiles politely at Jason. "Drive safe."
Nico thinks that Jason might throw a halfheartedly hurt comment about his driving skills, but he just nods and shifts the gear. Will takes a few steps back and keeps his eyes on Nico the entire time until they turn around the corner and Nico can't see him anymore. Nico's chest feels strange when he rolls the window back up, and it has nothing to do with his still delicate ribs.
"Piper has filled your fridge and cleaned up your apartment", Jason says conversationally, and Nico nods. "She's going to meet us there, then she'll stay with you while I run to the drug store for your prescription meds. That okay?"
"It's fine." Nico hears his phone ping with an incoming message, so he doesn't repeat that he doesn't need a babysitter, but concentrates on trying to get the phone from his jacket pocket. "Who's clever idea was it to put it in the left pocket?"
From: will: [11:43] i miss you already
It's stupid, really stupid, the way the text makes Nico smile like an idiot and ignore Jason's comments for the rest of the drive home. But it's also all sorts of wonderful, and if this is how it feels to have a soulmate, Nico thinks he owes a lot of people a lot of apologies.