I took a deep breath and focused all my frustration into my exhale, soothing me in a sense. "Okay," I said. "Okay, I'm good. This isn't my responsibility. If the gods need us, they know how to find us."

"Yeah," Will agreed. He snipped a bandage and rested it in the bowl of cut bandages. We were sitting on the floor in the infirmary, and something about just sitting on the floor with Will, the lights off but the windows open so as to present the sun and a nice breeze, was almost therapeutic. I reached over and grabbed a pair of scissors.

"About this long for the bandages, right?" I asked him, positioning my scissors to show him a stretch of bandage.

"Close," he said, sliding my scissors so that the bandage was shortened. "More about like that."

"Okay. Cool. So is there some impending battle nobody's bothered to tell me about or something? Or are we cutting bandages for fun?"

"Not exactly," Will replied. "I don't know if you saw. It's Capture the Flag tonight."

I couldn't help but groan. "Now I have to scramble to find a team? Do you know the lead cabins this round?"

"Uh." Will pulled a face, looking like he was trying very hard to recall the information. "I think Hermes and Ares?"

"Yikes," I said, wrinkling my nose. "No connections could help me there."

"Well why don't you help me out in the infirmary this time? And then before next time you can join a team?" Will suggested.

As a rule of thumb, I despised charity. I always turned it down. But this time I hesitated. Even if it was charity, I didn't want to turn down some extra time with Will. So after a brief consideration, I said, "yeah, that's a good idea." There was another pause. "Will your siblings mind, though?"

"Nope. I'm gonna be the only medic on call tonight. If we need more hands, though, then my siblings won't hesitate to help," Will assured me with a smile.

"Alright. It's a date," I joked, cutting another bandage. I winced, remembering the somewhat awkward conversation we had had a week or so ago, by the Big House. After the hellhound debacle. The one where I called him cute. And then we both agreed that we liked each other, but weren't going to like, date or anything. Yet. "Uh. I mean-"

"A date," Will agreed. I couldn't tell if he was teasing or not. I had been feeling a lot better this past week. But I wasn't sure if it was considered substantial progress.

"Oh, another thing," I suddenly piped up, prompted by the reminder of our previous conversation. "I've thought about it. When the mortal technology starts working again, I... think it'd be a good idea if I tried talking to one of those New Rome therapists, assuming they exist." I considered the concept for a moment. "New Rome probably has demigod therapists, right? I mean, they have a whole city. A whole college. All of that stuff."

I felt Will pause, I imagined in thought. "I mean, I'd imagine so. They probably teach psychology at the college, right? At least one of their psych majors must've stuck around to help the traumatized demigods. You're friends with the Roman praetors, right? Uh, Reyna, I wanna say? And Frank?"

It felt odd to me. That Will didn't feel so certain of either praetor's name. I mean, it made sense. He had probably had such limited interaction with them. The praetors were busy people. But I had spent the better part of my summer with them. Certainly more time with them than I had with so many people in such a long time. I knew a lot about each of them. They were both close to me, in different ways. Reyna, like a sister, Frank... he reminded me a lot of myself, before Bianca died. I pushed the thoughts aside, recognizing my digression. "Yeah, I am."

"So when communications open up, you could probably talk to them. Ask if they have therapists, and if any of said therapists would be willing to do phone appointments," Will suggested.

"Yeah." I'd been staring down at the bandage I was cutting, but I finally wrenched my gaze away, instead looking at Will once more. He still had a smile on his face. "What?" I asked, suddenly feeling... self-conscious? No. There were also those damned skeletal (or, at least I imagined them to be skeletal) butterflies (wait, do butterflies even have skeletons?) swarming in my stomach. Not very self-conscious-y of me.

"I'm glad you're considering therapy. Even if it doesn't go far, just trying it is a big step forward. I'm... proud of you. Really proud," he explained.

I hesitated. "Thank you." My scissors snip once more and another bandage goes into the pile. "Yeah, I thought a lot about it and... if it doesn't work, if I don't like it, I don't need to keep doing it, right? So... I suppose there's no harm in trying."

"Exactly," Will agreed, dropping a bandage into the pile. We fell into a comfortable silence. Which was something I've noticed a few times; with Will I'm content to just sit with him in silence. The only other people I'm like that with are Hazel and Reyna. Leo sometimes, but not nearly as frequently as I've been with Will. None of them as frequently as I am with Will. I'm happy to just... exist with him. It's a warm feeling that I don't really recognize, but it makes me content and happy to just sit on the floor and cut bandages.

I smile to myself, which doesn't happen often, either. I glance at Will once more, and back down at my bandage, happy to exist.

A/N: okay, next chapter is done. im doing my best to organically shift to more fluff. and, to be clear, will isn't fixing nico; nico is healing himself, and will is encouraging/helping him. i don't want the message of this story to be "fall in love and get rid of all your trauma". it should be about supporting your loved one, recognizing when you need to improve your health, etc. :)