AN: I did not think the story would get this far. It was meant to be a short, like five chapters, all fluff. And now we're here.

Without a second though, Will carried Nico and sprinted through the trees, running over and around the ones that had fallen. How that had happened, Will had no idea. When they had come through there, Will didn't remember seeing anything of the sort. At one point, Will stumbled and dropped Nico. He winced thinking about the pain and wanted to make sure that Nico was okay, but there was no time. He picked Nico right back off, and took off once again. He saw a small rock formation that he hoped would provide a hiding place for him and Nico. He gently lay Nico down on the ground, but he promptly stood back up. Will got ready to grab Nico if he collapsed, but it never happened. Nico was, however, clutching his head.

"So, you can walk. That's good."

Nico glared at Will, "Yeah, right. Good. Aside from the fact that my head is on fire, and some crazed beast is chasing after us."

"I can fix the headache you know, it wasn't caused by your overuse of your powers, so it should only take a minute."

Will sat down, and Nico hesitantly laid his head in Will's lap. The contact sent shivers through Will's body. He pressed his hands against Nico's head and began to softly chant.

"Flower gleam and glow-"

"You have got to be kidding me." Nico rolled his eyes.

Will stifled a laugh. The incantation wasn't necessary, but Nico didn't need to know that. "Sh, you'll break my concentration."

"Flower gleam and glow, let your powers shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Change the fates design, save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine. What once was mineeee."

Will sang the last bit in a ridiculously high falsetto, and Nico let out a small laugh, which made Will smile.

He had just prepared a retort that was sure to get Nico to blush because Nico looked it made Nico look so fucking adorable, which he did surprisingly often for an emo son of Hades, when it suddenly went pitch black. In an instant he could see again.

He felt a hand clamp his mouth and turned to see Nico slowly withdrawing his hand with an apologetic look. "Sorry, instincts." Nico whispered.

Will wasn't sure what instincts those were, or how Nico had developed them, but Nico had been through a lot of shit and Will knew it. "It's alright," Will mouthed back.

Nico got up, turning away from Will, and glanced out of their cave, and Will joined him. There was a figure, walking off in the direction that Will and Nico would've been going if they hadn't slipped into the cave. With all the distance between them, it was hard to gauge its size, but it was evidently large enough to block off the entire cave opening with its foot.

"Come on, now's our chance to get back to camp." Nico nudged Will starting to walk out of the cave, but Will pulled him back into the cave, "What the hell was that for?"

Will figured this might be their only chance at least for a while, but he had no idea what condition Nico was in, and he refused to let Nico risk it. "It's nearly a 7 hour walk!"

"So?"

Will sighed. Nico claimed he didn't care about the camps, but he would quite nearly kill himself for them. In fact, he has. Multiple times. "Just because you can walk, doesn't mean that you can handle a 7 hour one. This is the longest you've been standing up for, and it's hardly been a minute."

"Why don't you just go without me? You don't need to worry about me so much. You're not my family, nobody's asking you to care. Just leave me here. I'll figure it out, I'll shadow travel or something."

He got annoyed, "Oh my gods. Get over yourself. I care about you. Can't you see that?"

Will stormed out to get some air, and ended up grabbing bunches of leaves that he could hopefully form into pillows, or blankets, or something, since he had decided they were going to have to sleep in that cave until Nico was well enough to walk. He came back to find Nico collapsed on the ground. He shook Nico, who was bewildered and pushed Will off of him. Will knew it was instinctive, but couldn't help feeling hurt.

"You passed out."

"Fuck. I did? How long?"

"I'm not sure, I was only out there for a few minutes, but I think it's because you were standing up for too long. Don't strain yourself."

Nico, all out of fight, decided to listen. He was asleep on a rock when Will had finished weaving the makeshift sleeping bags. Will put Nico in one of them and curled into the other.

He tried to sleep, but he couldn't. He was up almost all night thinking about Nico, trying to figure it out. He kept getting shut out, and it was discouraging, but Nico was… Nico. He wasn't exactly the most open camper. Will was surprised that Nico had talked to him about some stuff that even he wouldn't normally share with other campers.

Like, when Nico told Will that he was gay. That was… wow. Will couldn't help but replay that scene over and over again in his head. Nico was the third person he had come out to, after his closest friends. He might've told his dad, but that wasn't exactly the easiest thing, seeing as he was never around. He really wanted to tell his mom, but he wasn't sure how accepting she would be. This wasn't exactly the kind of stuff they talk about, it was all pretty taboo. Their conversations were more like, "How's camp?", "Heal anyone today?", "What did you do at school?". You know, typical mom stuff. He couldn't exactly remember his mom being like, "Hey, who do you want to sleep with?". They didn't ever talk about sex, ever. Not even hetero sex. The whole concept is pretty surreal. It's like, if you don't only want to sleep with someone of the opposite gender, you're expected to 'come out' and tell people who you wanted to sleep with. He kind of liked how with Nico, it wasn't some big thing. It was just there. Just two gay guys, alone, in the middle of the woods, where they might die… friends. Yeah, just friends.

In your fucking dreams, Solace. He is way out of your league. Will could finally feel himself drifting off to sleep, much to his relief.

Will woke up in a panic, unable to find Nico. Once his eyes had adjusted to the light he could clearly see that Nico's 'sleeping bag', if you could call it that, was not where he had left it, across from him. He rolled over to get out of his own makeshift bed, and saw that Nico's bed had been moved to be next to his. He had no idea how or when Nico had managed that, but the fact that he did made Will smile. He figured Nico would say it was the wind or something, because Nico was like that, but he knew better. That is, of course, unless his dad decided now was a good time to fuck with his practically non existent love life.

After some contemplation, he figured that was the most likely explanation, and he walked outside and flipped off the sky, hoping his dad would see it.

"How- wh- Will, what are you doing? And how did my bed thing move?"

Will sighed sheepishly, "It's a long story. I think it had something to do with my dad, forever the hopeless romantic."

At this, Nico blushed. Still, Nico tried to play it off as if it were nothing, "Oh, so we're cussing out our godly parents now? I want in."

Nico went on to say several things in Italian while glaring at the ground. Although he had no idea what Nico was saying, he got the sense that it wasn't exactly the kind of thing one might want to repeat. Meanwhile, Will was silently cursing himself out for being an idiot. He practically told Nico that his dad was trying to get them together, just like himself and Hyacinthus. His dad acted like it was some big secret, but he told the story whenever he got the chance.

Essentially, his dad was an arrogant ass. But then again, so are most of the gods, and as far as parents go, he didn't have the worst. At least Apollo was trying. Will felt a bit of remorse now, for cussing at his dad, but it quickly dissipated when he saw a sudden shadow pass over the two of them. Typical sun god, always abusing his power. His dad could be so petty sometimes, it was probably where Will got it from.

He took a step back, appreciating the scene in front of him. Nico was still glaring at the ground, cursing in Italian which sounded extremely hot. As well, the light just so happened to accentuate Nico's features so perfectly WIll may have let out an audible sigh. Luckily, Nico was too busy yelling at his dad to notice.