AN: Very short chapter, but it will make more sense with the chapter break.

Disclaimer: All rights to Rick Riordan. I own nothing, but the plot.

Themes of self-harm, anxiety, and depression are expressed within this story. TRIGGER WARNING! Please do NOT read if these themes upset you. TRIGGER WARNING!

Criticism is appreciated, but please no hate. Please review and leave me suggestions! Enjoy!

Will's POV:

His eyes opened blearily. His head was still pounding. He looked around the room, trying to figure out, first, where he was, and second, what had woken him. The room was dark, black, and elegant; it was the Hades cabin. He vaguely remembered falling asleep. He refocused himself, realizing that the door opening is what had woken him.

"Nico?" He whispered.

There was rustling and suddenly, the room lit up. Will flinched from the light, shielding his eyes.

"Will, what are you doing here?" Nico asked.

"Can't—please turn the light out," there was a click and the light left the room again. The pain lessened considerably. "Thank you."

"What are you doing here?" Nico repeated. The bed dipped as he sat. "I was going to change and then head back to the infirmary to see you."

"I was looking for you," Will reached to where Nico's voice was issuing from. He latched onto a hand. "Holy Hera, you are freezing. Where were you?"

"You should be in the infirmary; you have a concussion," Nico ignored the question, admonishing him lightly.

"And you shouldn't have run off like that. I was worried that you hurt yourself," Will opened his arms. "Come here; I can warm you up."

"I'm fine right here," Nico's tone was short. He was hiding something.

"What's going on?"

"Why does something have to be going on?" Nico asked.

"You disappeared and you won't tell me where you went; that's not a coincidence," Nico didn't respond to Will's claim. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"You should be asleep. It already midnight—"

"Nico!" Will tried to sit up, but his head ached. He fell back against the pillows.

"You aren't in any condition to be lecturing me when you are in such bad shape yourself," Nico said. "Because of me."

The last statement came out as a whisper. Will opened his mouth to assure Nico that it wasn't his fault, but Nico interrupted him, putting a cool finger to his forehead.

"Now, sleep."

The desire for sleep flooded into Will's system and he found himself falling backward, into a dreamless sleep.

Nico's POV:

He was in the arena at Camp Half-Blood. He didn't really want to be at Camp, but he also really didn't want to be in the Underworld either. After storming out on his father, he had locked himself in his room. He sliced his thighs open, avoiding his arms so as not to be caught by Will. He also didn't want Will to hurt himself while healing him. Eventually, he returned to Camp to check on Will and found Will in his bed. Not wanting to be questioned about his whereabouts the previous day, Nico had put Will to sleep. He hadn't put anyone to sleep for a while, so the attempt had knocked him out until 10 the next morning.

Nico then headed to the arena. He had spent most of the morning using the punching bag in an attempt to get his feeling out, but it wasn't working. He felt confused about the disappearances, guilt about hurting Will, anger at Kayla, frustration with his father, and, most of all, hate for himself for not being able to fix the problems he was having. He understood that healing takes time, but how much? For how much longer would he have to be feeling shitty all the time?

"There you are," Will's voice stopped Nico. He slowly removed his hand from the punching bag.

"Here I am," Nico turned around, giving Will the once-over. "You look better; how do you feel?"

"I'm okay. The nectar finally did its thing and the sleep really helped," Will explained. He paused for a moment. "Why did you put me to sleep? We talked about how it wasn't good for you to use your hypnokinesis since it drains you some much."

Nico shrugged. "You needed sleep."

"No," Will said. "I mean yes, I did need sleep, but that wasn't why you knocked me out," Nico said nothing so Will continued. "I think you put me to sleep because you didn't want to talk about where you went."

"My father summoned me to the Underworld," Nico revealed.

"Why?" Will's voice was surprised. Apparently, he hadn't expected Nico to be honest with him.

"Wanted to make sure I was okay after yesterday."

"Which you aren't," Will reasoned.

"I'm f—"

"I swear to the gods if you give me that bullshit answer one more time—"

Nico interrupted him. "What would you like me to say then?"

Will crossed his arms over his chest. "The truth."

"The truth?" Nico laughed bitterly. "The truth is that I am a fucking wreck. I haven't gotten any better since I got out of Tartarus. I thought I was doing okay and then Aaron fucked that all up again! If anything, I'm worse than when I first got out."

"I don't think that's true," Will said softly.

"I can't use any powers without fucking pass out. And when I am able to use them, I end up hurting people."

"Hurting who?"

"Need I remind you that you have a huge headache right now?" Nico spat. "Because of me?"

"I've already forgiven you for that," Will explained. "You couldn't have prevented what happened and I should have known better than to try and touch you."

Nico started undoing and redoing his gloves in agitation. He usually twisted his skull ring, but it didn't fit under the gloves. "I should be able to prevent what happened. It's my head; they are my panic attacks. I- I shouldn't even be having them."

"You went through traumatic event after traumatic event, Nico. I would be concerned if you didn't have some sort of PTS—"

"Don't," Nico cut Will off. "Don't say it."

"You have PTSD, Nico," Will said. "That is nothing to be ashamed of."

"It is when you hurt the people you love!" Nico shouted.

"I'm okay, Nico," Will assure. "It was an accident. I know you would never purposefully hurt me."

"Your siblings think otherwise!" The words came out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"What?" Will's face was tight with surprise. "What are you talking about?"

Nico realized the huge mess he was getting himself into. "Nevermind."

"No," Will said forcefully. "You can't say something like that and then pretend like you said nothing! What happened?"

"Nothing!"

"Was is Kayla?"

"She didn't say anything."

"Nico," Will reprimanded.

"She didn't!" Nico defended. "I- I overheard her talking about me to Austin."

"What did she say?" Will questioned.

"It doesn't matter," Nico dismissed.

"Nico!"

"She said that you get hurt because of me!" Nico yelled, silencing Will. "Your siblings don't think I'm good enough for you! And they are right."

There was sadness in Will's eyes. "Nico—"

"No! Don't say it's not true, because it is. I hurt you. Unintentionally, but I do! And they hate me for it."

"They don't hate you," Will said. "They shouldn't be talking about you in the first place. But I'm sure if they had known you were awake, they wouldn't have said anything of the sort."

"Maybe they wanted me to hear," Nico murmured to himself. He looked up at Will. "Maybe they wanted me to hear so that I will break up with you and stop causing you pain."

"You aren't causing me pain, Nico," Will reassured.

Nico closed his eyes and swallowed. "Okay."

"I want to know everything they said," Will pushed.

Nico's eyes opened, looking away. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Nico," Will started.

"It doesn't matter!" Nico snapped.

"Of course it does!" Will exclaimed. "Because I can tell that you don't believe me. You think you cause me pain."

I do. "I don't," Nico lied.

"Are you just saying that to get me to shut up?" Will asked.

"No, I understand what you are saying."

"Do you believe it?" Will asked.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes," Will stepped forward. "I want you to know that I am happy with you. You aren't causing me pain."

Will reached forward and grabbed Nico's hand. Nico looked into his eyes; the sapphire orbs were filled with sincerity.

"Okay," Nico conceded, not really believing his words.