To the people who have requested specific scenes for me to write: I'm not ignoring them. I have a whole list of chapter ideas, and usually I decide to write one out whenever I come up with a piece of dialogue for it that I just love (I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm way better at writing dialogue than anything else, mostly because I want to be a playwright and plays are primarily dialogue). So I may or may not get to them depending on when inspiration kicks in. I just feel like if I try to write them all now, they'll be too forced and disappointing (which I already feel about some of the previous chapters). I hope you understand!
Anyway, this includes very established Solangelo.
Disclaimer: All characters and places relating to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus series belong to Rick Riordan.
Will wiped the sweat from his forehead as he trekked towards the Hades cabin. It had been a long morning in the infirmary due to a prank on the Aphrodite cabin going somewhat wrong, and he was happy to finally spend some time with his boyfriend.
"Death Boy?"
The son of Apollo swung open the door, expecting to find the son of Hades sitting in the dark (even now he still had a tendency to do that sometimes), but instead Nico di Angelo was nowhere to be seen. Will took another step inside, hoping that maybe his boyfriend was merely hiding in the shadows, when his foot landed on a piece of paper. In confusion, he picked it up, recognizing Nico's handwriting.
Dear Sunshine:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Catch me if you can! ;)
Will stared at the message.
"Well, that was a shitty poem."
He stuffed the paper into his pocket and left the cabin, wondering what in the world got into Nico. Sitting a short distance from the cabin were Jason and Piper, holding hands and admiring some sketches, most likely of the next shrine.
"Hey Jason, Piper, have you seen Nico?" Will asked when he approached them.
Jason shook his head.
Piper looked up at something behind Will's face. "Um, I think I have." She pointed, and Will turned around, surprised to find Nico lounging on top of his own cabin.
"Di Angelo, what are you doing up there? You're gonna fall!"
"Relax, Solace!" Nico responded.
Will fished out the piece of paper from his pocket. "And what does this mean exactly?"
Nico smirked. "It means exactly what you think it means."
"I think it means you've gone insane and—are you eating an apple?"
Will finally noticed that Nico held an apple in his hand, which he promptly took a large bite out of, taking Will by surprise since he had never seen his boyfriend eat a plain apple willingly.
"Well, you know what they say," Nico said, admiring the apple. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
Will placed his hands on his hips. "Guess I better burn that orchard down, eh?" Nico chuckled. "Come down here, Death Boy."
Said boy merely stood up. "Nah, you read the note. You gotta catch me… if you can!" And with that, Nico tossed him the apple and shadow traveled out of sight.
Will stared at the spot Nico had been in not even five seconds previously.
"Just because I gave him the all clear to shadow travel again, doesn't mean he can use it frivolously," he muttered to himself as he turned back towards Jason and Piper, who were giving him a strange look.
"Um, what did we just witness?" Jason asked warily.
Will showed them the paper. "What do you make of this? And this?" He peered at the apple now in his hands and realized that the bite Nico took out of it was unmistakably in the shape of a heart.
Piper attempted to stifle a laugh. "Will, do you know what day it is?"
He shrugged. "It's Saturday."
"Yes, but what is the date?"
"February fourteenth—oh. It's Valentine's Day." Will sat down on the grass. "I guess I was so preoccupied this morning that I just forgot. But that still doesn't explain anything. Nico told me he wanted to do the most unromantic thing today, so we made plans to take a boat trip on the River Styx."
"That is definitely not romantic," Jason agreed. "Although if you think about it, he is kinda running away from you, which could be an unromantic gesture."
Will fiddled with the paper. "Then why is he so… outright flirty?"
Jason clapped Will on the back. "That, my friend, I do not have an answer for."
"Just humor him," Piper suggested. "He obviously wants you to catch him, so," she gestured to the rest of the camp, "go catch him."
Will grinned and left the two of them in search for his slightly absurd boyfriend. He tried to think like Nico to figure out where he might be next, which led him into the woods and in front of a particularly tall tree.
"Took you long enough, Sunshine!" Nico called down.
"Did Dionysus slip you some wine?" Will asked as he stood directly under the tree.
Nico shook his head. "Not this time! You gonna come up or what?"
Will crossed his arms. "I know if I climb up there, you're just going to shadow travel away again, despite the fact that I told you to be careful with it!"
"I'm not gonna shadow travel away!"
"Promise?"
"I swear it on the Styx."
This seemed to satisfy Will, so he began his climb up the tree. About halfway to Nico, the son of Hades let out a shrill whistle, and a huge, black fur ball came bounding towards the tree. Nico winked at Will before jumping off his branch and landing on the back of Mrs. O'Leary.
"You little shit!" Will exclaimed as he attempted to quickly climb back down.
"Hey, I'm not shadow traveling!" Nico replied before he and Mrs. O'Leary took off back to camp.
By the time Will's feet felt the ground once more, Nico was completely out of sight.
For the next few hours, the son of Apollo journeyed around camp in search of the son of Hades. He ran into him several more times, including in the bathroom (which nearly proved disastrous when Nico almost made Will crap his pants, quite literally).
Four o'clock rolled around and Will found himself wandering into the strawberry fields, even though he could clearly see that not a soul was there. A soft breeze blew and the air smelt like fresh berries, so Will stood there for a minute and let the scene relax him. He got so lost in his tranquility that he didn't notice a hand grasp his ankle until he fell face first into the delicious tasting dirt.
"What the hell—Nico?"
He sat up to see his boyfriend crouching beside him.
"Hey," Nico said, brushing the dirt off of Will's face. "Looks like you caught me. Well, technically I caught you, but I'll still count it."
Will opened his mouth to question Nico about his strange behavior when Nico's lips found his own, erasing any logical thought running through his mind. He didn't know how long they stayed there with their faces pressed together and their fingers intertwined in each other's hair—a minute? Ten minutes? An hour? Will had no clue.
"That was much better than an Underworld canoe ride, huh?" Nico said when he eventually pulled away.
"What, the wild goose chase around camp or the making out? Because if your goal was to be unromantic, then you failed at the end."
Nico shrugged. "I enjoyed myself."
"And you enjoyed making me run everywhere like a lunatic."
"I don't have to try hard to make you look like a lunatic, Sunshine."
Will scoffed. "But seriously, what's with you today? It's like you've slipped into someone else's skin or something."
Nico pinched his arm. "Nope. Still my skin."
"So why are you all of a sudden consciously flirty and very enthusiastic about Valentine's day? Were you shot with Cupid's arrow?" Will teased, to which Nico huffed in response. "Oh gods, you actually were shot with Cupid's arrow?"
Nico nodded. "He was in my cabin this morning when I woke up, and I tried to strangle him. The bastard wasn't too pleased, so he shot me."
"Well, that explains everything," Will laughed.
"It's mostly worn off now, but it was way worse earlier. I was drawing little hearts on every piece of paper I could find and giggling, and I swear I started squealing worse than you did that one time we ran into Orlando Bloom in the city."
Will lay down beside Nico. "I would pay a hundred drachmas to have witnessed you in complete love-struck mode." He laced his fingers in Nico's. "So you're not Cupid-ified anymore?"
"Nah, just stupid-ified." He peered into Will's blue eyes. "Although I feel a little flirty still."
Will smirked. "Well, I guess we're just gonna have to cuddle then." He wrapped his arm around Nico's shoulders and pulled him closer.
Nico leaned his head against Will's chest. "Don't get used to this."
Will kissed his boyfriend's head. "Wouldn't dream of it. I like my grumpy force of darkness the way he is. But I am going to scold you."
The son of Hades sighed. "I promise not to use my shadow traveling for non-important things, I promise not to stand on the cabin roofs, and I'm sorry for tricking you into climbing that tree."
Will chuckled. "No, not that. I'm very disappointed in your terrible poetry. It didn't even rhyme!"
"Not all poems rhyme, Solace. It's called free verse."
"In your case, it's called crap."
Nico rolled his eyes. "Oh please, have you heard some of the poems your father's come up with? Now those are crap."
"My father's probably gonna curse you for that comment."
Nico lifted his head and peered at the bright sun above them. "Catch me if you can."
A/N: Was that slightly more mature at the end? I realize I'm way better at writing cutesy stuff, but the whole purpose of this story is for me to work on improving my writing and expanding my horizons, so I'll keep trying different things. Thanks guys!
