Chapter 4:
A Heart to Heart with Will and Nico
Nico had long ago decided that 'stalking' was a far too harsh word for what he did. And 'intense study of a specimen at long distances' was a little scientific. He'd seen other people – read: Percy Jackson – hiding in the trees and bushes outside Lupa's Academy just to get a secret snapshot of their girlfriends in her natural environment. On Percy's phone his folder of Annabeth pictures was called When Wise Girl Doesn't Know I'm There. It was by far the creepiest picture file Nico had ever seen.
So Nico had opted for a more subtle approach.
That was where he was now, lying on his back on his bed in the Hades cabin, listening to music, the snoring of Mrs O'Leary, and looking through the pictures in his simply named Sunshine folder. As of yet no one had caught on to his modus operandi of classified Will Solace photos. Maybe it was because he never gave his phone to people. Maybe it was because he had triple password locked the file. In any case, the only people who'd seen it were a couple of his friends and even Percy had thought they were just snaps of a sunrise.
Well, they sort of were. In a poetic sense.
Nico was just admiring a particularly nice photo of Will practicing archery when a quiet but demanding knock rang over the noise of the Fall Out Boy quietly playing through the room. Nico practically fell off his bed, instinctively turning off his phone and holding it close like his own personal baby. He stared at the door.
It was past the time all students were meant to be in their beds. The affectionately named 'patrol harpies' would be after any butts that moved from their designated seats. Someone had risked life and limb to knock on Nico's door.
He didn't particularly want to answer it.
Another knock, louder this time, echoed through his cabin. Nico edged closer, his unoccupied hand reaching for the three-foot black sword next to his door. Yes, it was his sword. No, there was no problem with it being in his cabin. He'd made it, he could do what he liked with it. Dems the rules. Their school was a little unorthodox.
Nico leaned against the door, sword in hand.
"Nico!"
Nico jumped back from the crack, dropping his sword on the floor and stuffing his phone in his pocket as though the person outside had X-Ray vision and could see that his pictures folder was full to bursting with photos of them.
Why was Will Solace outside his door at eight-thirty in the evening?
Nico inched back to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked one eye out and was greeted with the sheepish smile of aptly named Sunshine.
"Hi," Will whispered. Nico raised an eyebrow and opened the door a little wider.
"Keep going," he suggested. "Get to the part where you tell me why you're outside my cabin after hours."
Will rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"The others locked me out," he said, his cheeks pink. "Lee said that Percy wanted to see me so we could work out a schedule for tomorrow because it's Saturday and there's no classes."
"Yeah, I know that," Nico rolled his eyes. "I've been going to this school for four years, I think I know by now we don't have lessons on the weekend. But why are you here?"
Will shuffled his feet.
"Well, I said my cabin locked me out. They said Percy wanted to talk to me and I left, but when I got to the Poseidon cabin it was locked and the lights were out. So I went back to my rooms but when I got there it was locked too!" He threw up his arms in exasperation. "And I was wandering around, trying to avoid the harpies when I saw your cabin and…"
He looked down.
"I suppose I was wondering if I could hide in here for a little bit."
It took Nico's brain a couple of seconds to compute what Will said. Then a couple more seconds to have a tiny mental party that Will considered them close enough to come to him for help when his cabin mates played a prank on him. He wondered if he should close the door though. His sanity might not be able to handle being alone in his cabin with Will Solace.
"Get in quick so the harpies don't see," Nico found himself saying, because he is a weak, weak person who had already lost his mind long ago so what does one night with Will mean to him. A lot, was his silent answer when he found himself blushing at Will's grateful smile.
"Thank you so much, Nico," Will breathed, holding his chest and collapsing on the floor while Nico closed the door. "I thought I was going to get eaten!"
"I heard a rumour the harpies were cannibals," Nico added helpfully. The harpies were what the students called the guard patrol who made sure no one was out of their cabins after eight. They were vicious things and attacked on sight. The director, Chiron, assured the students that they were safe as long as they stayed indoors. The harpies were there for their protection, anyway. From what, Nico had a small theory.
Will shot him a look.
"Not helping, di Angelo," he huffed, rolling onto his back. "I was sure I was going to die. Thank the gods you're such a kind soul."
Nico gave a shocked snort and frowned at his temporary roommate.
"You're kidding," he deadpanned. Will shook his head, his breathing still heavy.
"Not," he replied. "You're a nice person. You just don't accept it because no one tells you."
Nico rolled his eyes and sat down on his bed, leaning against the wall.
"I'm not nice," he refused. Will flopped onto his side to look at Nico.
"Yes, you are," the Apollo kid said. "Just now you saved my butt from cannibalistic school guards."
"That's one time," Nico objected. Will held his arm up in the air for silence.
"And if you're listening, Nico," he continued, "you'll hear the contented snores of a gigantic dog who you took in after the owner died right on our campus. Sans owner, that dog would have gone to the pound. What did you do? You said anyone who tried to take Mrs O'Leary would get your Stygian sword up their asses and a kick to boot." Will looked over at aforementioned 'gigantic dog', who was making throaty noises as she slept on one of the unused beds. Nico felt his face heat up.
"That was one time," he repeated. Will shook a crafty finger.
"According to your count it's two now," he replied, grinning. "And I have plenty more evidence, di Angelo, so just sit back and listen to a recount of your heroic deeds."
"I'm starting to wish I left you outside," Nico grumbled, flopping down onto his pillow. He waited in trepidation for the onslaught of bull that was about to come out of Will's mouth, but it never came. Nico shifted his gaze over to the blond boy on his rug to find him with a small, happy smile on his face and his fingers pointing to the iPod dock player that was still humming away through the room. With growing horror Nico realised he had simply done a deal with the devil and traded one hell for another.
"There are times when I don't know where I stand, wow, sometimes,
You make me feel like I'm a boy and not a man, wow, sometimes."
The iPod had betrayed him and played one of his more sentimental songs. Heart to Heart had been one of Nico's favourites for a long time standing. It reminded him of Bianca, his full sister, who'd died the same time he came to Chiron's Academy. She'd been at her own boarding school, run by a Lady Artemis. One day there was an attack and Bianca and another girl Percy knew, Zoe Nightshade, were killed. Nico often wondered if this was why Chiron's and Lupa's had cannibals as patrol guards.
"I didn't know you liked James Blunt," Will said. Nico looked away.
"I don't," he said quietly. "I just… like that song."
Will sat up, apparently sensing that there was a time for jokes and this was not it.
"Is there a reason?" he asked softly. Nico took a deep breath. Bianca had been a sore subject for most of his life, even when she was alive. Even as a kid he loved and defended her to his last breath, or at least he tried. When she died, no one went near Nico for weeks in case he cut their heads off. Even years later he still wasn't over it.
But Will was nice. He was kind. Nico knew he understood what losing a sibling was like. One of Will's cabin mates died on her way to school in a car crash and at the Academy, your cabin was your family.
"It reminds me of my sister," Nico replied, looking at his hands.
"Hazel?" Will asked. Nico shook his head.
"No, my other one. My full sister. She… died, four years ago. In the attack on Huntress College."
Will got up off the floor and silently sat down beside Nico, laying his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder.
"It's a nice song," he said finally. "I bet she was a lovely person."
"She was," Nico agreed, twisting the skull ring on his finger. That had been a gift from Bianca, a week before the school was compromised. Nico still had the letter she'd attached to it.
"Does it make you sad?" Will suddenly asked. Nico looked at him, frowning.
"What?"
"The song," Will clarified. "Does it make you sad?"
Nico shrugged, not used to talking about it.
"A little," he admitted. He felt Will grin beside him.
"Well, we're going to make it happy," he announced. "Every time you hear it you'll grin like a moron."
"Like you're doing now?" Nico teased. Will looked at him with an exaggerated expression of hurt.
"That is not nice!" he yelped, dramatically falling off the bed.
"Told you," Nico said, lying back down. "I'm not nice."
Will sighed as he rolled on the floor some more.
"I don't know how a simple rescue turned into a Deep and Meaningful," he pouted. "Isn't the hero supposed to kiss the damsel and they get married happily ever after?"
Nico hid his furious blush in his pillow. Why, Will?
"Are you calling yourself a damsel?" he asked, his voice muffled. Will squawked in dissent.
"No!" he squeaked. "…yes. No! I didn't- I'm Romeo!"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Will pointed an accusing finger at Nico.
"You're the damsel," he said, "you go get into trouble so I can rescue you."
"Yes," Nico hummed, his face still buried in the pillow. "Juliet's really good at doing what she's told."
"Oh shut up, di Angelo!" Something hit Nico's leg and he looked around long enough to see what it was.
"Did you just throw your shoe at me?"
"I might have," Will sniffed.
"You're the worst Romeo."
"Yeah, well, you have the wrong colour hair for Juliet."
"That's the best you can do?"
"So what if it is?"
"Maybe we should swap, since you're obviously better Juliet material."
"I never said that!"
"It was implied."
"You're impossible."
"Thank you."
Psht, those two. This sort of wrote itself, sorry if it sucks.
NOW, QUESTION TIME FOR MY FELLOW SOLANGELO-IANS!
I had this new idea for another Solangelo story because I'm just the Queen of the trash-tip. So my question is:
Would any of you read a Solangelo story where Will is a pirate and Nico is a mermaid and Will kidnaps him? I've got like, three chapters of it already but I don't know whether to post it or not.
Replies are nice.
Jasmine Out!
P.S. Remember that song. It's important because plot.
