Chapter 4: First Flues or The time Nico discovered that Will was a massive hypochondriac, but never for himself, and Nico gets to rub his face in it.
Will was a worrier. That was what Nico had discovered and was something that he'd suspected even before their first big fight. Or at least what Will called their first big fight, because Nico maintained that it was mostly just Will being an idiot.
Which he was. Pretty much always. His worrying was only another example of that idiocy. How everyone at camp didn't realise just how much of a mother hen Will was Nico didn't know. It was bloody obvious to him.
That worrying aspect of Will's personality manifested itself through his healing. Nico had seen it time and time again at the end of each of their camp games when someone inevitably needed patching up, or when he doled out cold and flu meds to the puffy-eyed and sniffling demigods that hadn't thought to buy any for themselves. He had an bottomless well of patience for sick people, patience that wasn't exactly mirrored in every other aspect of his life, and at times Nico had to wonder at how healthy that concern was. Was it possibly to be too caring about other people's wellbeing?
Yes. Yes, it definitely was.
Will's worry-reflex was definitely put to the test in what was retrospectively called 'the epidemic'. It wasn't really an epidemic – Nico knew what an epidemic was and the sickness that spread throughout the camp definitely wasn't one. No one even died. It was positively tame in terms of outbreaks.
The first people that came down with it fell ill with the change of seasons. At first it had seemed like simple hay fever, sniffily noses, sore throats and mild temperatures. Still, mild as they were, Will's mother hen-ing reared its head and he gathered the self-pitying souls beneath him and drew them into the infirmary of the Big House. Nico could only roll his eyes and shake his head as he followed his clucking boyfriend.
Children of Apollo were naturally gifted at healing. With that gift came the inclination to heal, Nico always considered, and that inclination was demonstrated when Will drew the quartet of snuffling, sneezing and coughing demigods into the bright rooms and between cloud-like curtains that draped around each bed. Nico paused in the doorway as Will systematically sat each down upon a bed with the order to lie down, and proceeded to head towards the medicine cabinet that resembled more of a library of pill bottles, medication refrigerators and draws of scissors, syringes, cotton buds and bandages. Before he'd made it halfway there at least three other children of Apollo skirted pat Nico and hastened towards him, offers to help spilling from their lips.
Nico wandered idly into the room and stopped at the side of Kevin Lee's bed. The son of Hypnos was already reclined upon the bed, eyes drifting towards sleep beneath the fuzzy flop of fringe that entirely concealed his eyebrows. Nico flicked his foot – he still had his shoes on. Why in Hades wouldn't he take his shoes off before falling to sleep? – and Xavier started slightly. Slowly, if a startled flinch could possible be slow.
"Whazzup?"
"Don't fall to sleep yet," Nico said, folding his arms and catching the eye of Ai Miyagi in the next bed. "You've got to get dosed up first."
"Right, right," Kevin nodded. He scrubbed a hand across his reddened nose and sniffed wetly. Nico grimaced in distaste; he had no qualms about admitting that he was disinclined towards doctoring. Ever. "Sorry, I'm just so tired."
"You Hypnos kids are always tired. What's new?"
"Yeah, but I'm sick, so I feel even more tired."
"I think he feels he's justified in his tiredness now, rather than just being lazy," Ai commented from the next bed over. She paused, holding up a finger for a second before sneezing in a series of mouse-like squeaks. Her dark eyes were watery and even more puffy and red than Kevin's were. "Not that Hypnos kids ever feel the need to justify their sleeping habits."
"What's wrong with you?" Nico asked as Ai plucked a tissue from the nightstand. "Is it just hayfever or are you really sick? I have my suspicions that Clovis is just using it as an excuse to while away the day in bed." He shot a glance towards the Hypnos counsellor two beds down, who only glanced at him and raised a hand to wave in acknowledgement.
Ai shook her head so that her long dark hair did that weird fluffing thing that everyone seemed to complimented her for and scrubbed at her nose with a tissue. "Nope. I don't get hayfever. And to be honest, I feel too much like shit to think it's just an immunological overreaction." She sniffed once more and reattempted to blow her nose. "And yeah, maybe you're right. It's statistically unlikely that half of us would be from Hypnos' cabin out of the entire pickings of the camps demigods. But then, I guess if you've got a couple of people sick than sleeping in close proximity would spread it faster. So maybe they're not actually pulling a fast one."
Nico nodded, even if he didn't fully keep up with some of what the daughter of Athena had said. The speed and lecturing tone of her voice, even heavy with sickness, reminded him of when Will went off on a tangent riddled with medical terms. Although Nico had to admit that in this instance it wasn't overtly complex. "Spreading germs, right?"
"You got it."
"Okay. Stay away from me, then."
Ai gave a wan smile. "So compassionate of you, Nico."
"I never claimed to be."
"Just living up to the expectations of your character, then, huh?"
"Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone."
Ai snorted, which set her off into another round of mouse-sneezes and, grimacing once more, Nico withdrew from the sickbeds to the other side of the room. He hadn't been lying – Nico couldn't remember the last time he'd been and didn't intend to contract anything any time soon.
Will and his platoon of doctors descended upon their patients moments later. Dishing out medication, cough lollies, nasal sprays – which completely disconcerted Nico to watch being administered – and some thick, sharp smelling balm that was rubbed on backs and collar bones and made the snifflers sigh with evident relief.
Will stepped back to Nico's side when he'd finished, rubbing hand sanitiser into his fingers as he did so and frowning slightly. Nico watched him as he watched his patients until that watching just became too ridiculously extensive. "For Gods' sake, Will, they've just got head colds."
Twisting his lips slightly, Will shook his head. More to himself than to Nico, though. "No, I think it might be something besides that."
"What, your doctor senses are tingling or something, are they?"
"You don't have to make fun of that every time I suggest it, you know. And I know you actually understand that it's a real thing." Will turned a long-suffering glance towards Nico.
Nico only shrugged. He did know, yes, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy himself with teasing Will about it. "I'm still sceptical."
"You're always sceptical."
"Of course I am. It makes for less disappointment when reality is proved wrong."
"That's very pessimistic of you."
"No. It's very realistic of me."
"Pessimist."
"Realist."
Will shook his head in exasperation, but Nico was satisfied to see a small smile playing upon his lips. It was always a relief to see Will smile. Nico had in the past found it annoying – and still did sometimes – but after he'd seen him grow so angry after that weekend that he'd helped out Hazel and Frank… Nico hadn't realised that someone else's emotions could so strongly affect him until that moment.
Like the fact that, though Nico hardly cared to become involved in the doctoring care that Will was administering, his evident concern and focus wore off on Nico and he found himself joining Will in the infirmary or the Apollo cabin for reasons entirely different to what they usually were. He wasn't the only one. Like a physical need, at least half a dozen of the children of Apollo were dancing and darting around their infirmary in an attempt to be useful, to heal their ailing peers through emotional support as much as dishing out medication. Nico didn't do so well with the emotional stuff, but he could hand out pills easily enough.
It was because of this assistance that he found himself working in the infirmary alongside Will. It was also how, barely three days later, Nico found himself kicked out of said infirmary. Naturally, it was Will's neurotic worrying that made it happen.
The number of sickly demigods had more than doubled in number over the past few days, and was only growing as more developed the tell-tale signs of puffy eyes, grogginess and explosive sneezing. Half of Hypnos' cabin escaped combat practice with the excuse that they were 'sick', and despite Will and his half-siblings verifying that they were indeed unwell, Nico had Ai's words and his natural scepticism niggling a the back of his thoughts the whole time. Funny, that though unwell, they seemed perfectly happy to simply remain in their own beds rather than moving to the infirmary. Everyone knew that Hypnos' cabin had the most comfortable beds in camp. Probably because they spent so much time in them.
Ai herself had developed a horrendous cough that was at odds with the delicacy of her sneezes. She sounded like a barking dog for the hoarseness of the sound, and it evidently hadn't taken Will all that long to figure out what was wrong with her. He frowned as he stood over her bed.
After administering the appropriate medication – Nico didn't know what it was and didn't have the desire to learn the complicated and excessively long names of the drugs – he drew across the room to where Nico had taken up residence leaning against the back of one of the infirmary's arm chairs. He sighed heavily.
"That sounds depressing," Nico commented.
"Sorry," Will muttered, evidently oblivious to Nico's sarcasm. It was a testament to how thoroughly he was considering – or brooding over – the situation that he overlooked it, had the concerned frown upon his forehead not been telling enough. Will was usually pretty sharp with that sort of thing. "I just always feel really useless in these sort of situations."
"Useless?" Nico nudged him with an accusing foot. "How exactly do you figure you're being useless? No one else can diagnose and medicate as well as you can, let alone actually heal. Well, maybe some of the rest of Apollo's kids could do nearly as well, but…"
"It's not that. I mean, I always have more difficulty handling illnesses and stuff than injuries. Injuries are at least easier to fix."
"So you'd rather someone be in pain over a broken leg then struggling with the snuffles of a head cold?" Nico said sarcastically.
"Yeah, pretty much," Will said, overlooking Nico's sarcasm once more as his frown turned towards Ai. "At least with a break or something I can usually heal it just with my gift from Dad rather than having to use ambrosia or nectar or even having to strap it or something."
"Gods forbid you'd have to resort to strapping."
Will actually heard Nico's teasing that time. He cast him a small smile before turning back to look at Ai as she bent double beneath another coughing fit. Wesley stepped up to her side and rubbed her back supportively. His frown resettled and he gestured towards Ai. "Like this, for instance. I know what's wrong with her now, but sicknesses are a lot harder to just fix than something like a broken fingers or a bruise is. It's wispy and hard to grasp, and even if I do manage to grab it and shake it loose there's usually a little bit of the disease that gets left behind."
Pausing for a moment to consider Will's description of his healing – it always baffled Nico as much as it did fascinate him; hearing of anyone else's godly gifts generally invoked similar reactions, and not just from Nico – he shook his head. "What's she got, then?"
"Ai? Whooping cough, as far as I can work out. Her immune systems pretty shot, though, so she's riddled with a whole heap of secondary illnesses too."
"Whooping cough? That's why she's making that barking sound?"
Will actually shot him another small smile at that. "Barking sound?"
"She sounds like a dog."
Will snorted. "Fair enough. I guess that's a pretty accurate description of it."
"Can you fix it? Not with your Apollo magic-fingers or whatever –"
"Magic fingers?"
"- but can't you give her some medicine or something? Or what about those shots things? They usually fix people up, don't they?"
"'Shots things'," Will quoted with a smirk and a shake of his head. Though Nico knew he was being condescending he didn't mind so much. At least he was showing another emotion besides concern. "No, shots don't work after you've contracted the disease. That would be basically redundant."
"Why?"
Nico regretted asking as soon as he'd spoken when Will adopted his faintly lecturing tone. "Because a shot – a vaccination – is injecting a portion of a disease into the body – it could be just a part of the disease, destroyed cells, cells without their nucleus; something like that – so that the body recognises the, ah… fingerprint of sorts that the disease has. Like a personalised pattern. That recognition's stored in the immune system as memory cells, which are basically the leftover cells that have fought the invasion of foreign cells and whose job is basically just to exist and remember the fingerprint of the disease. They just sit around and wait for the potential infection of that disease as it really is, not just the less dangerous version of it, so that the body can react and fight the disease before it can get a solid foothold." He paused, glancing towards Nico with a slightly quirked eyebrow. "Get it?"
Nico blinked at Will blankly for a moment. He wouldn't admit that most of Will's words had just gone in one ear and out the other. Instead, he responded to the only part that had really made all that much sense. "Sucks to be a memory cell. Poor bastards, just sitting around and waiting for their chance to shine."
Will gave a brief chuckle. "Yeah, I can't imagine you'd make a very good memory cell. You're too impatient."
"I resent that."
"Doesn't make it any less true."
"I still resent it."
They fell into silence for a moment, watching Wesley talk quietly to Ai and her croaking replies, Kayla as she chatted to Austin across a bed as they made it together – Miranda Gardiner, the fourth of the initial quartet to have arrived, had checked herself out of the infirmary that morning – and Sammy as she strummed as her lute in an attempt to add some uplifting spirit to the room of the sickly. It was a good thing she was a decent player, because she'd been going for hours.
"Obviously the shots don't work, then," Nico finally said.
"How do you mean?"
Nico gestured towards Ai. "She still got sick."
Will quirked his lips then shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes it might still happen if you're a little ill-equipped to handle a pathological invasion at the time. Worn down, already sick, all that. Or maybe she just hasn't been vaccinated."
"Isn't that sort of thing obligatory these days?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Although some idiot parents think it's a bad idea and it's actually detrimental to their kid's health." He grumbled something derogatory beneath his breath. Then he glanced towards Nico. "It wasn't when you were a kid?"
Nico shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it was. Not in my town, though."
Will stared at him for a moment blankly, slowly blinking. "Then… you're not immunised."
"Against what?"
"Against anything. You're entirely defenceless."
"Well, that's a little harsh. Didn't you say you develop immunity when you're exposed to it or something?"
"Yeah, but you haven't – you don't – you can't have –" Will stuttered and his blank expression became wide-eyed and faintly horrified. Then, before Nico even had the chance to grow defensive, Will grabbed him by the arm and practically flew from the infirmary.
Nico nearly tumbled down the stairs as he was dragged after him. "Will, what the hell?"
Will drew to a stop, spun Nico around and planted him a good distance away from the Big House with his hands on Nico's shoulders. "You. Stay here. Or, well, no, you don't have to stay here, just don't come back into the infirmary."
Nico frowned. "Are you telling me what to do? Because I thought we talked about this -"
"In this instance, Nico, I don't give a shit if it pisses you off. You're not coming into my infirmary again until everyone's better."
"Your infirmary?"
Will nodded curtly. "Yes. Mine. I don't want you contracting every known disease under the sun because you weren't properly immunised as a kid. First chance I get, we're going to go see my mum and you're going to get so many shots you won't be able to lift your arms for a week."
Nico deliberately folded his arms across his chest and scowled. "I highly doubt you have every known disease in your little backyard infirmary there."
"Don't fight me on this one, Nico. I'm not going to cave." Will made a gesture with his hand as though shooing him away. "Now go away," he said, confirming Nico's suspicions to the nature of the gesture. "And steer clear of anyone who even looks like they have a cold."
"It's nearly winter, Will. Just about everyone has a cold."
"Then stay away from everyone!" Without another word, Will turned on his heel and strode back into the Big House. The door slammed shut behind him.
Nico was peeved. Pissed off, really, as much because Will had attempted to tell him what to do as because he'd been effectively abandoned. And yet, unexpectedly, he didn't feel himself growing actually angry. Not this time, anyway. Because despite Will's dictatorial ordering, Nico had been able to hear the worry in his tone. A deep, deep worry, and it didn't taken much of a leap for Nico to work out where that worry had sprung from.
He was concerned about Nico's health, not that he was sick but because he might get sick. It was the same sort of situation that Will had described not all that long ago when he'd flipped a switch over Nico helping Hazel on her quest, something that Nico did feel just a little bit guilty about now, if only because it had so obviously upset Will. This was the same sort of thing: Will wasn't so much concerned for Nico's wellbeing now as he was for what could happen to it in the future.
It was a strangely surreal understanding, one that smothered any rising anger or bouts of exceptional disgruntlement that he might find himself experiencing. Nico wasn't used to people caring for him so much; he'd never really considered that he needed anyone to, not after Bianca. Not after his mother, whose memory was so long past and hazy that she was barely a half-remembered face. But Will worried incessantly about everything, and thought too much, and more than just worrying about everything he seemed to worry about Nico. He worried about Nico a lot.
Shaking his head, Nico turned away from the Big House. Just this once he would abide by Will's request. Or more correctly his order, because driven by concern though it was, Nico recognised it for what it was. He'd let it slide this time, and he'd do what he was told. Just this once. To make Will happy.
Nico's resolution was sorely tested over the next three days. Leaning against the fountain in the middle of camp, he drew his attention back from glaring at the Big House and the infirmary buried within to the console in his hand. Only for a second, however, because for once the game couldn't hold his attention. He was too frustrated, even to shoot the brains out of the digital undead.
He turned his gaze upon the bubbling fountain instead. Someone had been throwing golden drachma into it as though it was a wishing well, which was pretty useless all things considered because Nico knew for a fact that most demigods used the fountain for Iris-messaging and the coins wouldn't last long before the plucking hands of a caller a bit stripped for cash.
He was idly flicking at his console once more, not even looking at the screen, when Leo found him. Leo and Jason, actually, though Nico hadn't known that Jason was even visiting Camp Half-Blood; he and Piper had effectively graduated of a sort and only came to visit about as often as Percy and Annabeth did these days. The pair of chatting voices drew his attention and he raised his eyebrows as Jason lifted a hand in greeting.
The two boys were the best of friends. That much was apparent to anyone who had a pair of eyes. Nico could still remember the blubbering mess that Jason had been the first time he'd visited after Leo's return – not in front of everyone, of course, and he vehemently denied that he had been so momentarily unhinged. It was apparent from the casual way that Jason propped an arm on Leo's shoulder, similar but not quite the same to how Nico always found Will doing with him, and the way that Leo flashed a smile up at his taller friend.
Taller, yes, but then Leo had actually grown a bit in the past months too. Since his return, and since the debacle around Apollo's temporary humanisation and to near-disastrous mess that had followed, Leo appeared to have been putting all of his efforts into growing another foot in height. Naturally, Jason couldn't allow him to have an inch on him, and somehow stretched to match. Nico wasn't entirely without his own growth, but it was nothing compared to the inhuman bursts of height of the other two boys. It was in-demigod, even.
"Hey, Nico, how's it going?" Jason asked, dropping down to sit on the edge of the fountain with a friendly smile.
Nico shrugged, despite wanting to spit and grumble that it was going very frustratingly indeed. He flicked his console off and shoved it into his pocket. "Same old. How about you? When did you get here?"
"This morning," Leo said, taking a seat beside Jason on the fountain and extending his legs before him. Despite his height, he was still elfishly thin and with more protruding bony joints than a skeleton. "Him and Piper just flew in and she's just taken a swing by Aphrodite's cabin to patch up any disasters that Veronique hasn't been able to hand. We were up in the bunker and I was showing him some of my latest inventions."
"Oh, so that's where the smell of burnt toast's coming from."
Jason turned an accusing glare towards Leo. "See? I told you I still stunk from that Poppy-thing!"
"Poppilector," Leo corrected. "And you don't stink. Nico just knows that I've been having trouble with my Poppilector so he's being a pain. You should hear him; he pretty much comments something on it every time I'm down at camp."
"Which isn't all that often, or so I've heard," Jason said, raising his eyebrows as though reprimanding the currently standing Hephaestus cabin counsellor for his laxness.
"In my defence, you do smell kind of crispy most of the time."
"True, but truthful or not, it's unappreciated, Nico." Leo shot Nico a frowning glare that held absolutely no heat to it at all. Honestly, did Leo actually think it was intimidating in the slightest?
"I'm just trying to alert you to your own stupidity," Nico said. "What the possible motivation for improving the perfectly good toaster is –"
"There's just so much else I could do to it! Imagine, self-buttering toasters, being able to toast bread after you've made a sandwich –"
"I'm pretty sure you've just described a sandwich grill," Jason pointed out.
"Thank you, Jason. My point exactly." Nico turned towards Leo and raised his eyebrows. "If you're not going to listen to me then listen to him."
"Him has a name, you know."
"Irrelevant, Fly-Boy."
Leo snorted, nodding his appreciation for Nico's disregard of their friend's indignation. Leo was like that; he could switch from affront and discontent to friendly banter and camaraderie in an instant. "But disregarding my inventing successes –"
"Failures, you mean?"
"Moving on!" Leo overrode Nico's words. "What are you up to, Nico? Will still quarantining the infirmary?"
"What's this?" Jason asked, glancing between the two of them.
Nico sighed. "Will's being an overprotective idiot. Again."
"I can hear the affection in your words, Nico. It's buried deeply, but it's there."
Nico only spared Leo an unimpressed glance before turning his attention back to Jason. "You've heard about the apparent epidemic going around?"
Jason shrugged. "Heard about it, yeah. Leo told me when I got here this morning and warned me not to drink the water, which is absolutely ridiculous – you know we don't even get the water from around camp, Leo. It doesn't really seem like an epidemic exactly, though. Is it?"
"Of course not. It's just some people with a cold."
"And three others with Whooping Cough," Leo added. He winced in sympathy. "Poor sods. See, this is why I spend so much time up in the Bunker. The air's less contaminated up there."
"Well done, Leo. I can really feel compassion for the welfare of your fellow demigods from all the way over here."
"Compassion? That's a sort of hypocritical word coming from you, isn't it, Nico?"
Jason chuckled as he glanced between the two of them and Nico deliberately turned his attention back towards him and him only. Leo was friendly enough, but he was a bit of an idiot sometimes – even worse than Will could be – and Nico couldn't help but grow exasperated in his very presence. He'd brought a fiery light to Hephaestus' cabin in the months since his return and Nico was more than happy for him to keep that light away from him and his shadows.
"I've been effectively locked out of the infirmary."
"Just you?" Jason asked with a small smile.
"Just me. Will nearly popped a vein when he found out I wasn't vaccinated."
"You're not vaccinated?" Jason blinked before a frown of concern tightened his brow. "You should get that seen to, Nico. You could get seriously sick."
Ignoring Leo's smirk, Nico rolled his eyes. "Fantastic. Now I have two mother hen's clucking over me. You do realise I don't get sick. I mean, ever. I can't even remember the last time I was."
"You've just been lucky," Leo said, sliding down from his seat on the fountain so that he was leaning propped against the marble edge. "You wait, next time you get a cold or something –"
"Piper calls it 'man-flu' when I get a cold," Jason muttered a little dejectedly.
"- then you won't be so keen to throw yourself into the cesspool of disease ridden invalids."
"Is that your affectionate name for them, Leo?"
Leo grinned at Jason's raised eyebrow. "Only always."
Nico turned and leaned against the fountain himself, just as Jason slid himself to the ground to sit between he and Leo. Nico frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm not lucky."
"I'd say you're pretty lucky to never get sick," Jason said.
"No, I mean it's not luck. I just don't get sick. Hazel doesn't either. We've actually talked about it – think it might have something to do with being a child of Hades or something and, I don't know, too touched by death or something. Maybe viruses just don't like me."
There was silence for a moment as Nico glanced up towards the Big House once more. It stretched long enough for him to realise that it was a deliberate rather than circumstantial quietness. He turned back towards Jason and Leo to see them wearing identical expressions of incredulity. "What?"
Leo's surprise snapped with its usual speed into a grin. "You are a lucky bastard! Man, I'd kill not to get sick ever."
"Is that really how it works, Nico?" Jason asked, a smile drawing across his face a moment later. "I didn't know that. When did you find out you had this sort of power?"
Nico shrugged. "I don't know if it's any particular power exactly. Maybe Hazel and I have just inherited really good immune systems?"
"I doubt it." Jason shook his head. "Even the hardiest people get sick sometimes. You mean, never?"
"Not that I can remember."
"Damn, I wish I was a son of Hades," Leo muttered.
"Ha. Funny you should say that, seeing as you said the exact opposite just last week."
Leo smirked. "Look at this, Jason. I think Nico just laughed. Rare sight, that is."
"I'm pretty sure that's just derision, Leo," Jason grinned.
"Thank you, Jason, for explaining the obvious to the simpleton of our group."
"Hey, are you calling me simple?"
"I do believe that's what I just said."
They descended into banter and teasing insults that had more than the odd elbow in the ribs or push to the shoulder. Nico found he was enjoying himself a little bit for the first time in days. He wouldn't admit it aloud but he missed being around Will. He'd grown so used to them spending almost every minute of the day together that he felt almost as though he was missing a limb. That feeling had grown only more pronounced after they'd fought, and Nico wondered how having such an explosive argument and getting so angry at Will could possibly make him actually like him more. It was illogical, but he couldn't deny it was the truth.
Finally, they subsided in their jostling games, falling into stillness and quietness but for Leo's discordant humming.
"Please stop that," Nico murmured.
"If you don't like it, go away."
"I was here first."
"You're the one who has a problem with my voice."
"To be fair, I'm pretty sure just about everyone would have a problem with your voice, Leo." Jason said with a small smile that took the sting out of his words.
"Thanks, Jason. Appreciate it," Leo replied with an equally stupidly harmless smile.
"Any time."
There was another moment of silence. Then Jason broke it as he turned to Nico. "You're really kind of upset about this, aren't you?"
Nico turned from where he'd been unconsciously staring once more at the Big House – okay, mostly glaring – and attempted to smooth his expression beneath Jason's expectant gaze. "What?"
"About Will kicking you out."
"I don't really care, actually."
Leo muttered something snide beneath his breath and Jason jabbed him hard enough to provoke a yelp of objection. Jason ignored him. "If you have such a problem with it, why don't you just go up and help out."
"He told me not to."
"When have you ever done what you've been told to?"
Nico gave a small smile. He liked Jason, and not just because they got on well enough. While someone like Annabeth or Hazel – or Will, for that matter – tended to act as his voice of reason, more often than not Jason would take the role of the 'what if' or the 'maybe just'. He wouldn't exactly urge Nico into something dangerous – even Jason was level-headed enough to know a threat when it stared him in the face – but it was nice just to have someone who at least sometimes aligned their words with Nico's thoughts.
"True."
"So why don't you?"
Nico shrugged, dropping his head back onto the fountain. "Will just seemed really worried. And, believe it or not, I'm not always fond of pissing my boyfriend off. When he gets annoyed he's just sort of…"
Nico trailed off, but both Jason and Leo nodded in commiseration. Nico could have anticipated such a response from the pair of them. Both Piper and Calypso were at least nearly as strong-willed as was Will. They could probably relate to his situation better than most people could.
"Does he know you don't get sick?" Jason asked after another brief pause for thoughtful silence. "I mean, that you think you don't get sick?"
Nico shook his head. "We haven't even really talk about any of that except for the fact that I haven't had my shots. He kicked me out straight away and I haven't seen him since."
"Then go tell him," Leo prompted. In an awkward, ungainly and entirely unnecessary stretch of his foot over Jason's lap, he poked Nico in the side of the leg. Nico stared at his boot unblinkingly until he retracted it. "Will's being a… what was it you called him? A mother –"
"Hen, yeah, a mother hen," Jason confirmed, laughing as he nodded his understanding.
"Yeah, so he's probably overreacting a little bit. Just go and tell him. And, you know, you don't have to actually go into the infirmary. You could just sort of yell it at him from the doorway or whatever."
Nico flicked his gaze between his two friends as they turned with once more identical expressions – of expectancy this time – towards him. He felt wrong for considering taking them up on their suggestion, which was a strange enough feeling itself. Nico always did what he wanted. When had he begun to actually take orders, or even suggestions, from other people? Okay, maybe not just other people, but from Will at least.
Since you started to care enough about him that you didn't want to make him angry, or upset, or sad, or worried, or…
Nico pursed his lips at the thought. It was the truth, though. He didn't want to distress Will, especially when he was already highly strung with his own worries for other people. But then, Nico was… was he worried? About Will? Or did he just want to be around him? He wasn't sure, but regardless of what reason drove him, Nico knew he wanted to be in infirmary.
Nodding decisively to the synchronous grins of his friends, Nico rose to his feet. "Alright, then."
"Good man," Jason said, climbing to his own feet and clapping Nico on the shoulder hard enough to knock him a step forwards. "Standing up for what you believe in. I'm proud of you."
"Oh Gods help me…"
"All the best facing off with your dragon-boyfriend," Leo added, grin flashing even wider.
"Dragon-boyfriend?"
"Yeah, you know, 'cause he spits fire at you when he's angry and he has his little nest up there in the Big House and…" He trailed off as Nico and Jason both stared at him blankly. "No? Well, whatever. Don't die from contracting a heinous disease."
"I'm pretty sure this fever thing that's going around wouldn't kill me even if I caught it," Nico said, turning and starting towards the infirmary.
"You never know. If you do survive, lend me some of your blood, will you?"
"Lend? Ew, Leo, what the hell?" Jason exclaimed.
Nico glanced over his shoulder and caught the entirely unbashful grin that Leo plastered upon his chin as he shrugged. "Okay, maybe not lend. But I've got to get me some of this sickness-less elixir you've got, Nico."
"That's his blood, Leo."
"Which is why I asked for it."
"That's so twisted, I don't even…"
Their exchange faded as Nico, ignoring Leo's request and leaving his counterargument in the more than capable hands of Jason, strode up towards the Big House.
The door was open just a crack when he stepped up to the veranda. He eased it open on well-oiled hinges and peeked inside the dimly lit hallway that branched off directly into the infirmary as the front room.
It was pretty much exactly the same as it always was, but Nico looked upon the lengthy room with new eyes. It seemed like it had been longer than three days since he'd been inside and, after a moment of consideration, he realised that his brief exclusion from the infirmary was the longest he'd been so excluded from it in a 'time of crisis' since he and Will had started dating. The boredom and endless waiting of the past days made it seem like it had been longer.
He stepped inside and made his way down the aisle between the beds and barely spared a glance for the patients, mostly asleep, half-hidden by the white, shrouding curtains that he passed. There were about twelve all up by his count, and there appeared to have been a complete turnover since Nico had last visited. Ai had finally left – Nico had already known as he'd seen her just that morning at breakfast where she'd exclaimed over the apparent miracle workings of the kids of Apollo.
Those kids were drifting with their usual efficiency around the beds, down to the medicine cabinets, talking quietly to their fellow campers as they lay tucked abed. Nico nodded to Austin as he passed and caught Kayla's eye just before she turned towards Fionn and quickly called, "You owe me twenty bucks, Fionn! Told you he'd come in before the end of the week". Nico couldn't even find it within himself to feel disgruntled at being used in a bet as he passed her, shaking his head as he caught Fionn's distant reply of, "Just had to stay loyal to my cabin counsellor. I didn't actually believe it".
Will was nowhere in sight, which was strange. At least not immediately in sight, not until little Zip bounced towards Nico and pointed him in the direction of the second living area at the end of the cabin. The crop of Will's curly head was just visible over the back of the cream-coloured two-seater and Nico headed straight towards it.
Don't tell me he's finally gained enough sense to sit down and rest for a second, he thought, faintly surprised. Will wasn't the kind of person to take a break from helping others until he passed out from sheer exhaustion. Nico hadn't seen such a situation arise before – thankfully – but he wouldn't put it past Will to do so.
Will wasn't taking a rest. At least not because he wanted to. Because he had to was the reality that quickly became apparent when Nico rounded the couch and saw his face.
No, he hadn't had a brief burst of sanity and clarity. Will was sick.
Nico nearly burst out laughing in genuine, teasing merriment, despite the fact that Will looked absolutely terrible and despite the fact that really, it was a bit horrifying to see him so. Nico even felt a touch of sympathy that he struggled to shunt aside. Will was pale, his skin washed from its usually healthy golden glow, his eyes heavy and red and his nose looked to have been rubbed raw. Chapped lips drew heavy breaths as his nose was evidently too blocked to act in their place, and there was a definite slump of exhaustion to his carriage that Will struggled to remedy the second that Nico stepped into his line of sight.
Nico folded his arms as Will fell wearily back into his seat, evidently giving up the fight against his weariness. He raised an eyebrow. "Well. Congratulations. You managed to make yourself sick."
"I'm not the only one from cabin seven to have gotten sick," Will muttered objectionably. His voice was thick and as clogged as his nose sounded when he sniffed. "And it's just a cold. I'm fine, just needed to take a break for a second."
"He nearly passed out," Kayla offered as she passed with arms full of used sheets.
Will half-turned to glare at his sister. "Thank you for that, Kayla, you're always such a help."
"Anytime."
Nico raised his eyebrows further and deliberately kept his lips clamped shut in muteness. It worked a treat, for Will seemed to grow more sheepish and uncomfortable the longer the silence extended. Finally, he sighed. "Alright, let me hear it."
Nico allowed himself a small smile. Only small, though, because he wasn't so heartless as to jeer in the face of his sick boyfriend. Even if he would have been entirely justified in doing so. "I guess it wasn't me we should have been worrying about."
"It could have been," Will attempted, snuffling and pressing a crumpled tissue to his nose. "Probably a good thing that I kicked you out when I did because otherwise –"
"Nothing would have happened, most likely."
"It could have –"
"No, actually, turns out it probably couldn't have. Hazel and I think that we're naturally immune to most if not all illnesses anyway."
Will paused in his open-mouthed attempt to continue and blinked. He looked momentarily baffled, though the brief squeezing of his eyes closed and the slight shake of his head suggested that he thought his confusion more a product of his sickness-induced grogginess than any incomprehension on his part. "What?"
Nico shrugged casually. "Yeah, that's what we think. Probably something about being a child of Hades or something. We compared notes, though, a while ago. Neither of us has ever been sick that we can remember. And before you say anything, Hazel hasn't had any shots either."
Will stared at him in stupefaction. The expression was made more comical by the blotchiness of his face and the squinting of his eyes as though to simply look at Nico was making them water. "W-what?"
"Yeah, that's what we think."
"Since when?"
"I'm assuming since always."
"No, I mean – since when have you known?"
Nico pursed his lips thoughtfully for a moment. "Hm. We mentioned it to one another a couple of months ago when Frank got a stomach flu, but I've just never really thought about it much up till now."
Will blinked at him in squints once more. "You didn't think to maybe tell me this?"
"I just told you, I didn't really think about it."
"You, the boyfriend of a medic who treats sick people, didn't think to mention that you don't actually get sick yourself."
"No, apparently not."
Will gave a croaking, choked sound of disbelief. Then he shook his head, winced as it obviously shook something uncomfortably loose, and narrowed his eyes at Nico. "You don't know that for sure, though."
"Don't know…?"
"That you're immune. It could have just been luck."
Nico raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, sixteen years of luck. I should be a child of Tyche, really."
"It could be."
"You're looking for an excuse to justify your actions of kicking me out three days ago."
"I don't need to justify anything. Especially since it's true."
"Probably not, though."
"What is the likelihood of you actually having that sort of skill? Or luck, whatever." Will frowned, and Nico could see him fortifying himself against the unexpected revelation. "No, you need to get out of the infirmary right now before you do get sick."
"Will –"
"Seriously, I don't want you to get sick!"
Right. That's it. Sighing, rolling his eyes, Nico leant forwards, grabbed Will behind his neck and pressed their lips together in a brief, chaste kiss. Nico wasn't particularly partial to such displays where anyone else could see, but exceptions had to be made when absolutely necessary. It was actually Will attempting to pull away from Nico this time, which was a strange experience in and of itself.
"Nico!" He blurted out in a squawk as soon as he pulled himself free. "Dammit, what the hell?"
"Now we'll really be able to see if I don't get sick. I think this whole exposure experiment is a good idea, actually." Nico ignored the faintly horrified expression on Will's face as he drew his eyes sidewards in mock thoughtfulness. "It would be kind of funny, actually, if I did have some sort of immunity. What with having a doctor for a boyfriend an all. Sort of ironic."
"You. Could. Get. Sick," Will said in clipped words.
"Yeah, well, then at least we'd know for sure."
"If you end up dying from this –"
"That's very dramatic of you, don't you think? Who ever died from a cough in this day and age?"
Will glared at him while Nico struggled not to smirk. He was detachedly aware of the strange role reversal they appeared to have assumed, which only made his struggles all the harder. "You'd manage. Just to spite me, I'd bet."
"I am a very spiteful person, I have to admit."
"I'd never forgive you for dying on me, you realise that."
"Well, then I'll have to try really, really hard not to," Nico replied, and plopped himself down into the chair beside Will. He ignored his boyfriend's further protests and reprimands and instead leaned comfortably against his shoulder and pulled his console from his pocket and set about really enjoying himself for the first time in days. Strangely enough, just sitting beside Will – even a very sick Will – was the main drive for that enjoyment.
As it turned out, Nico didn't get sick. Will was apparently at war with himself, torn between relief, incredulity and even more profound relief at the possibility that Nico might not be able to get sick, and mulish disgruntlement that he'd been wrong to worry so much. Nico took particular delight in prodding his stung pride at that last, and took every opportunity to do so.
He could anticipate the Epidemic Incident as being one he would refer to on numerous occasions in the future. It was a prime example of Will's overprotective stupidity being entirely unfounded.
Still, even unfounded as it was, Nico was oddly pleased for the fact. Because Will had been worried for him, and this time, when Nico recognised that worry, it wasn't shrouded by anger and overriding demands. It might have been wrong for him to think it, but Nico felt almost… happy for the fact.
There was something profoundly wonderful about having someone care about you enough to worry.
A/N: Hi again. Hope you liked the chapter. Yeah, I know Nico was a little bit heartless - bad, Nico! Bad! - but I feel that coddling and commiserating isn't exactly a part of his repertoire. At least not yet. In the future, maybe :)
Anyway, I should be updating within the week again (hopefully). If you have a chance to leave a word - question, suggestion or just wanted to say hi - please do. Thank you!
