Hey everyone, Paradigm of Writing here with a brand new chapter of Cardinal Stasis, #4: Divide. This one will be a doozy, I've got quite a lot planned and I'm super excited for it, like I always am. I realize that this story is garnering some negative attention (I've had to delete a few guest reviews that were just... too aggressive.) I'm sorry if you don't like how I'm writing these characters, but this is an AU and I'm using artistic license to write them in a different way. Yes, Will is too aggressive, yes Thalia is a massive bitch, Piper is definitely different, Luke is different... I know, and they're gonna be like that as that's who I wanted to use. For those who are reading and liking it, thank you for letting me know in your PM's, they mean a lot. I do know that I can never appease everyone, so appeasing just one is a success. Hope you enjoy!


The sun lights amorous shadows on the tiled floor of Will's classroom as the haggard blonde walks in to teach. He rubs his face a few times because he's so damn tired of not being able to sleep. Last night, he dreamt of him. Of Jason. He dreamed about the boy's blue backpack, his nice smile, his gentle and soft hands and it is killing him that this is how he's remembering the dead. Of wishing he could've spent one last minute with him before the boy died. Will throws his briefcase on his desk, knocking over a container holding pencils and highlighters which tumble to the floor in a tumultuous crash. He winces, running a hand through his hair. He does not need this so early in the morning. Will reaches down to pick them up but decides against it. The teacher will just knock them over again someday. He takes a moment to appreciate the sunrise, the halcyon streams of light shooting out in various directions and it rests on him, giving a moment of calm.

He is surprised that of all the teachers who have excuses to leave and take a few days, it should be him. But he's not doing that. Will Solace is teaching an AP Literature course because he feels compelled to do so. It's the right thing to do, to not bail out on the few students who show up every period because they are supposed to. That's how it is meant to be done, and it is rightfully so.

Will leans into the window, pressing his forehead against the cool glass while his breath mists up the reflective surface. He runs a few fingers down it, Jason's reflection peering out in the horizon. Will hasn't slept. He needs sleep. He is so invested in the sunrise that he doesn't hear a knock from the other side of his classroom from Nico. The guidance counselor's cheery face is a even brighter than usual, but a frown is plastered on his face as he takes in his colleague's dismayed and transfixed state. He tries for the handle, surprised somewhat to see it open.

Nico steps in, closing the door. The closing is a little bit too loud for his liking, causing Will to jump over by the window. The blonde takes a moment to catch his breath before regaining his composure, swallowing, a shutting of the eyes, and then opening them again. The raven haired male grins sheepishly. "Hey, I'm sorry-"

"You can't just do that to me, Nico." Will pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Didn't mean to interrupt your staring or whatever..." Nico states, and the teacher notices that there's once again that bright blue backpack over his shoulder, the same one, the same one as Jason Grace's, except it isn't the same one. He knows it isn't the same one, but it reminds him of it.

"I wasn't staring." he tries to protest, throwing his hand up but he loses the meaning and groans.

Nico kicks at the floor, looking down at his shoes somewhat ashamedly. "Saw you through the door so captured by something so I just wanted to stop by and check up on you. Not check up on you or anything... but just say... hello." the raven haired male shuts up wisely in his explanation at Will's glare. He really isn't helping the situation here, and he knows it, but it's instilled in his soul to continue making things awkward as it is what he does and there's nothing to stop him doing it.

Will sighs, resigning for something even remotely good to say. "Thanks. I guess I needed it. Would be weird for the students to walk in and see that," he scratches his neck. "I'm just... overwhelmed. Tired. Work this morning, god... the drive here sucked so badly and-"

"I understand. Life is difficult. Don't need to try and explain anything."

"May I get organized?"

"Of course." Nico steps back.

Will walks to his briefcase, flipping it open quickly. The other male catches something in the case that gets his attention, and his face immediately pales. Rope? A bundle of rope... in a suitcase? What the hell? The blonde removes a few folders from the case, placing it against the side of his desk. Will grabs a pen, writes something on the folder, walks around to the back of the desk, flipping open his laptop, turning it on. Nico watches, now stuck on the rope in the briefcase, but holds his lips still. The two lock eyes for a minute, Nico smiles back all big and warm, and then Will smiles back, his heart fluttering somewhat. He hasn't had anyone look at him like that in a long time.

"Do you mind getting us some coffee?" Will asks after a minute of the two of them just smiling. It felt nice, it feels... good.

"Ah... no thanks," Nico dissents, waving his hand back and forth dismissively. "I was up all night drinking Red Bull. Works wonder for insomniacs. You got an idea of how much sleep I got?"

"How much?" the blonde teacher shakes his head, trying to clear himself of a memory for a moment, typing his password into the computer, waiting for it to load.

"Zero point zero hours. Only reason I'm still standing is..." the guidance counselor pauses for a moment, frowning. "Actually, I have no idea why I'm even up. Freak miracle of God or something."

Will shakes his head again. The lines start to appear on the screen, and he steps back, blinking rapidly. No, the booze was appearing that quickly? No... that can't be true. "That much?" he says distractedly, looking around for something.

"Yep," Nico nods, gripping the edge of a student's desk. "How about you? Get a good night's rest or did you stay up reading dreadful essays?"

The teacher shakes off the question, flipping frantically through his briefcase which he forgets to turn around, giving the raven haired male another glimpse at the coils of rope. Alarm rises in the other man's mind, but he needs to keep his mouth shut. Will flips his briefcase upside down, but nothing falls out. He remembers how he glued everything into the briefcase that morning, no wonder nothing will fall out. Stupid. No pills. Nothing. "You- you don't have..." Will trails off, so distracted that it hurts.

"Have what? I don't know what you're trying to tell me."

"Advil or a painkiller? Got this headache and-" Will tries to explain, collapsing into his chair exhausted. God, this job is killing him. Nico is killing him for lords sake.

"No, I don't. Nurse's office won't either. We're not allowed to have that stuff, remember?" Nico places his hand on the desk, leaning into the blonde's personal space, causing Will to itch. "You alright?"

"I'm fine. I just need... the painkiller. Or a cup of coffee."

"I'll make sure to get the coffee." Nico assures.

Will shakes his read rapidly, a smile gracing his lips. "That'll be wonderful, thank you." Due to his vigorous movement, a strand comes loose, causing the guidance counselor to smile. Nico likes seeing Will get all out of position so he can put him back together again. Like a puzzle that'll always have a missing piece and there's nothing anyone could do to replace it. Weird analogy, but he thinks it works.

"Oh, you..." the guidance counselor says, running a thin finger along the edge of the desk.

"What?" Will frowns. He hates being the center of attention, but not knowing why he is the center of attention. He likes things being orderly, it's his way of having everything checked and put together perfectly.

"You got... there's a... here..." Nico sighs, reaching across the desk, patting and putting Will's loose strand of hair back in place. The blonde shivers visibly at the gentle touch, it has been too long since someone has touched him in any manner other than cruelty, and it means a lot coming from the guidance counselor, means so much. Nico leans back, smiling at his work.

"Thank you."

"All ready for prom."

"Want to be my date?" the teacher quips, eyeing him with a laugh. Wow... Will stops and realizes he just laughed. It's been awhile since he's ever laughed.

"I don't need people talking about me. Too many people talk about me," Nico jokes along, but notices the souring of the teacher's expression which stings at his heart somewhat. He shift somewhat, the backpack falling to one shoulder. It reminds him of something. "Oh! I bet you're just wondering what's in this backpack, right?"

"No, I wasn't." Will responds truthfully. That was one thing that irritates him with knowing Nico Di Angelo for so many years. The boy, guy, the blonde corrects himself knowingly, goes around and expects that everyone wishes to know his intentions. Life shouldn't work that way, and it doesn't so it is annoying when the counselor does it so often and there's much that irritates him now because of it. Will wants to reach across the desk and shake the man so hard that he forgets what he was going on.

"Be prepared for it!" Nico says triumphantly, zipping open the backpack and dumping its contents on the desk. Collections of paper fall out of the backpack, sliding to the desk and some falling to the floor like feathers. Will grabs one, seeing a date of a couple years ago.

"Are these old essays for my class?"

"Yep!"

"Why did you keep these?"

"I had to have all of them for an English course in college, which was just last year... haven't gotten around to throwing them away," Nico says, but he's lying to Will. In truth, he did it because he still sometime glances over the writing that his old English teacher would leave on the papers, little comments and such in a fancy purple ink pen handwriting that had the swoops of the g's and y's, and sometimes little smiley faces to represent he did a good job. Nico Di Angelo likes to brag in saying to some of the other teachers on campus that he was Will Solace's favorite his year. Maybe... just maybe he still is, in a whole different way.

Will looks at his former student, now the adult he's morphed into, and there's a smile on his lips, a somewhat warm feeling fluttering in his heart that he kept the old essays, and there had to be a bullshit reason as to why. "It's commitment. Your writing was excellent. Is excellent, I should say."

"Too much credit," Nico blushes. "You were the one to put me on the right path?"

"I'm not so sure I'd call it that, but you may if you'd like."

"I find myself from time to time going through them and reading what you wrote. I particularly like the one where you mentioned your own writing experiences, and the like."

"Oh, that paper!" Will cries suddenly, shifting upward. "I remember that assignment. To look at the world and imagine where you'd be in twenty years from now. It was a good, introspective paper from you. I remember that one all too well. Gave you a 100."

Nico grabs that particular essay from the pile on the desk, flipping to the last page, reading his last quote. "I feel as if the world will end tomorrow, and here I am writing your stupid, great assignment. Thanks, Mr. Solace, for this assignment. I want to say and perhaps think that this'll be me, writing about the issues in the world and more. Enjoy whatever else I may do."

"And what did I say to that?"

He scans the bottom of the paper, and there is a long paragraph written there, in the swirly purple ink. "God, Nico Di Angelo, you really want me to give you a bad grade on this, huh? I can't do that. It's good. You're a good writer, and don't forget that. Loved the essay, love your work, and I can't wait to see how you'll do on that AP exam. Your teacher, Will Solace."

"It was like a teacher's Chicken Soup for the Soul type of response, I think." Will says, spinning around in his chair with an exalted laugh. The paper brings memories to him of when he was younger, six years younger... maybe even further and there were oil spills covering his driveway and he had that same briefcase except it was a lot heavier. A women who stands on his porch, smiling as he passes, and that's all he likes to think about in his old life, and till Jason Grace walks into his class on that one day, does it make everything worse.

Nico places the paper back, stuffing them into his backpack, scoffing. "You know..." he starts.

"What?" this breaks the concentrating stare plastered along the blonde's face.

"Did you write comments like that for everyone?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm just asking." Nico shrugs.

"Am I going to offend you if I say otherwise?"

"No... just curious."

Will pulls a pen out of the container by his computer, clicking the ball. "Yeah, always a gave paragraph or so to every student. Some were nicer than others, as we had good students in your year. However, I don't do that anymore. Gets me attached to the students and that's not right. I have to care about you all, but in a different way, you know?"

"How long would it take you to do that?"

"Not long."

"Lying to me?"

"You just don't want to believe me, do you?" Will raises a tan eyebrow. This side of Nico was odd.

Nico shrugs. "You're hard to figure out, is all. I'm trying to get a gauge of you."

"And why is that?"

The guidance counselor stops his breathing momentarily. This got serious too fast. He bites down on his lip, looking out the window. Nico is afraid to say that he cares for Will's wellbeing a little bit too much in a non healthy way. The reason why he continues to drink Red Bull and stay up is because he's thinking of the blonde teacher and how he's doing, that's what he does and will continue to do as long as things continue going the way they will. How can he just spurt things out like that? Issue is, you can't. You can't just do things like that. It's not healthy.

"I've been reading..." Nico trails off.

"I have a hard time believing that."

"Well, I have been. Interpretations of dreams and things like that, trauma and dramatic events that led to tragedies..." the raven haired male trails off, causing Will to blanch, the blonde stands and goes back to the windows. He knows where this is going, and he really, really doesn't like where it is going. "I don't know how I am around you in the terms of swearing, but I'm going to outright say it. You're fucking scaring me."

Will stops, turning around. "Why am I doing that to you?"

"Did you sleep here last night? Were you up all night, here, which is why your trip here sucked because you didn't even take a trip to school?"

"No! What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Will balks, walking up to Nico, hands curled into fists. What was his problem? What gave him the right to demand stuff of that degree? Was he is personal shrink? No, nowhere, anywhere, did it say that Nico Di Angelo is Will Solace's therapist, so this personal and private intrusion was starting to hurt. It is hurting him, the blonde teacher feels pained at realizing that, but it is going to help him somehow.

"Nothing-" Nico flinches.

"You can't just ask me that and not have a reason for-"

"I saw you sleeping here last night, after the bell rang. You must've been dreaming or something because I had stopped in the doorway, contemplating whether or not to go in. You had awoken, all startled and stuff which freaked me out beyond words, and God, it was terrifying, Will."

"So?"

"It's going to be none of my business?" Nico suggests weakly, running a hand through his hair.

"It shouldn't be your business, that is correct." Will snaps.

"But..." the guidance counselor is not giving up on his favorite person in the entire world like this, this is not going to happen in a way where Will resigns himself to secrecy and lets everything fall apart while there are people who can help him. "Actually, Will, it is sort of my business. Professional to another professional. I'm trying to look out for the students, and it is no unknown secret that the kids all look up to you, you're a role model whether or not you want to be. If you're here... having nightmares, and I know you said it was what's been troubling you ever since the assembly, you've been thinking about Jason! That's not good, Will. Things like that shouldn't be happening, they shouldn't be happening and you know that. If you just dreamed about what you've been last thinking about, I'd be alright. Jets, super hot models, even me, or whatever... but not Jason."

Will takes all of this in, his face grimacing into a scowl, as he says, "Okay. Good point."

"Thank you for at least seeing that."

"So... I'm a bit shaken up after what's happened? Don't I have the right to be?" Will's voice is hinting at a challenge, and he's even bucking up his chin to seem a little bit more impressive and dominating, but Nico simply raises an eyebrow back at him. No, this won't work, no way in hell. "It's natural, Nico."

"For you to be dreaming about Jason?" Nico asks, his face giving the signal that this isn't normal behavior.

"No..." Will rubs his shoulder innocuously, uncomfortable. The bell felt like it rang, why aren't there any students coming into his classroom yet? Have they all skipped or what?

"What was the last dream you had about?"

"I can't do this-"

"It's important, Will," Nico urges, placing a hand on the teacher's shoulder. They both look into each other's eyes, and the raven haired male has a deep urge resting in him to just kiss the blonde and let everything dissolve, and it'd be just the two of them clinging on to flimsy sheets that smell of lavender in a drowning green light under amber curtains that hide the sun. "Talking about it helps you more than you think."

The teacher removes himself from the other's grip, walking to his desk, running a hand through his hair because he's so tired of all the mind games going on, but there's got to be a reason to the madness plaguing him, the darkness that follows his steps. "It's nothing, okay? Nico, I've just been... I've been having that afternoon replay in my head over and over again. With the same ending. Last time I saw him."

"Jason?"

"Yes."

"Okay," A pause. "Have you had this dream more than once?"

"Every day. Sometimes multiple times a day..." Will answers, and now he really wants that stupid cup of coffee. Perhaps it'll act as a placebo to his tiredness and cause everything to melt away. This sucks.

"Hmm..." Nico rubs his chin.

The blonde's response feels general and almost instinctual, but it gives him comfort, and it gives him so much warmth. "I'm fine."

"I know. But, would you like to talk some more about this? I can't pressure you, but it'll help."

"No," Will says, sighing. He checks the clock on the back wall, opens his mouth to answer, but is cut off by the ringing of the morning bell. Students will be arriving shortly, they can't continue to have this conversation, not now. "But, what we can do is let the students get to class right now. It'll be for the best, Nico. I got to finish getting everything together."

Nico rubs his cheeks some, adding color to his pallid face. Will watches as the guidance counselor reach down and grab the bright blue backpack, and the twitching of his eyes returns. Screw this. Screw it. The raven haired male sighs, he continues to sigh as he examines the classroom and realizes it feels so empty, and Will must be so lonely to have to wallow around in this depressing filth all the time. "I'm sorry for bugging you, Will. I'm sorry for seeming like I'm so intrusive and all, but I care about you. I am going to be in the teacher's lounge pretty much all day except for lunch, so I'll get you a cup of coffee after first, if you can manage. Just know that now I am no longer a student of yours, I'm your equal and you can come to me for anything. I hope I can do the same, too."

"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with that type of friendship." Will says, watching the contentment go on the man's face. He catches himself staring, but not in the lovey dove way or anything.

"What?"

"I'm just looking at you," the blonde responds. "You've grown up. Grown up a lot, actually. Works out rather nice, seeing you do things for yourself."

"Well, I'm glad I can be of help to you."

The late bell rings, causing Will to glance up at the ceiling with equal levels of anticipation and nervousness for the day to begin. "You should-" he starts.

"Go, yeah, I'm leaving," Nico says hurriedly, staring to walk for the door. The raven haired male has one foot in the classroom, one in the hallway, which causes Will's heart to hammer because that's how he left Jason when they spoke last, lord the man needs to get off that particular tile. The twitch in his eye returns, but it interrupts itself as he tries listening to Nico finish talking. "If you need to talk, Will, I'm free this afternoon. I don't know if you'd like to talk to me at all about this whole thing, or maybe with someone who has a little bit more professional knowledge... but I'm out there. Just in case."

"Thank you. I mean it too."

"Thanks, but a no thanks, right?"

Will's lips press themselves into a firm frown. "No, actually, not at all. I'll- I'll stop by sometime."

"How about after school today? I could order a pizza from the front, and you can lie down on the floor and act like this is a session by a Freud or something." Nico suggests.

"I'll think about it. Which more than likely means that I'll show up." Will answers.

"If you're going to stay late for grading, you have to eat. I'll make sure it goes on my tab and everything."

"I don't need you to-"

"Don't insult me like that, Will," Nico says gently, stepping back into the classroom. "I'm trying to buy you a pizza! How many guys in the world can say that someone else will do that for them? I mean, I'm your best friend and all..."

"Are you, really?"

"Well..."

"I'm pulling your leg. Where'd you get the pizza from?" Will asks, a smile creeping at his lips.

"Probably from the Stoll's. They make the thin crust pepperoni pizza that is to die for, and you know it too."

Will nods, and now he's grinning because, good lord, the pizza from the Stoll brother pizza company is heaven in a slice on a plate. "Sounds good. I'll be there."

Nico returns the empathetic gesture, nodding. "Okay! Sounds good!" the raven haired man does a small jump in the air that almost looks super childish and gay, but because it is Nico Di Angelo, no one cares.

The blonde waits for the man to disappear around the corner till he goes back to the front of his desk, leaning up against it. He tilts his head back, trying to pitch puzzle pieces together in the roof. This is a fun thing to do in passing the time, he likes it. Jason's face flickers by for a moment, and then he stops, clutching his head because he never got the painkiller. He shakes his head, and freezes, someone else is standing in the doorway.

Thalia Grace. And oh, does she look freaked out.

Will swallows.

This won't be good.


Ah there we are guys, Chapter #4 of Cardinal Stasis! I was originally going to have this chapter, Divide, be a lot longer, but I realize that it'll just be too much for me to type and it's getting super late, like in twenty minutes it's going to be Sunday and no longer Saturday meaning this needs to get posted ASAP. Nothing like late night posting. Looks like I'm adding an extra chapter to this story, so, with #5, we'll continue along with how this scene was supposed to go, full of bitterness and now the teen trio of Thalia, Luke, and Piper will return. Thank you for reading, and we shall get Chapter #5: Perjury, out soon enough, whenever my fingers relax from all this typing as I'm a busy bee. Please review and let me know what you thought, I'm still intrigued in where you all think this is going. I love you all so much! Have an amazing day! Bye!

~ Paradigm