"How is she?" Was the first thing Nico said to Will as he found him in the bonfire.
Two and a half hours had passed since he brought a badly wounded Alliah to the infirmary to be treated. Two hours had passed since Chiron decided to keep the issue quiet until the game was over. Forty five minutes had passed since the game finished (the blue team ended up winning, attacking from the area Nico had left unattended after the bird incident).
Forty minutes he had been fidgeting with his fingers on his seat in front of the fire, trying to ignore the fact a fellow camper was getting a very dangerous surgery because he had been too much of a coward to fight alongside her. He thought maybe trying to focus on the song some of the Apollo kids were singing would make him feel better, but not seeing Will there made it a lot less enjoyable.
Until the blonde finally decided to appear.
"Asleep." He replied, and let out a sight. Nico looked at him, urging him to elaborate. "The surgery went fine, though it was a little tricky to restore the missing skin." Nico was nodding with his head slightly, not looking into his eyes. "I told her to rest. We'll check on her again tomorrow."
"Good, good." Nico muttered quietly, nodding. He was relieved she was alright. For a moment he thought the worst. "How–how long did it take?" His voice was still a murmur as he looked up at Will's insanely blue eyes.
"About two hours?" Will shrugged, looking away. He rubbed his neck, "it felt like a lot more, though..."
"Yeah..." Nico nodded, thinking exactly the same thing. "Hey, um, did Chiron say anything about telling the other campers about the –little incident to the others?"
"Oh, he hasn't told them?" Nico shook his head. "He was waiting for the surgery to be over, then, I guess."
"Are you okay?" Will brought up after a moment, snapping Nico back to reality.
"Uh– yeah... Just–" He shrugged his shoulder, "exhausted."
"You should go rest, too." Will reached over with his hand to touch Nico's cheek. He smiled a little as Nico's eyes flickered curiously to his. "I'll treat those when you wake up."
Nico found himself tongue tied. Will's touch had that effect on him lately, it seemed. So he just nodded with his head rapidly, and turned away before the other could notice the flush on his cheeks.
"What kind would you like?" Will asked, showing him two different packs of Band-Aids that looked the same for Nico.
"Any. You choose." He shrugged slightly.
Will rolled his eyes. "The thinner ones, then." He said, then added quietly. "We have more of those on stock..." He took one of the boxes, and ripped it open. He placed a band-aid in each of Nico's ugliest cuts. When they were finished, Nico had a band-aids over his cheek, one in the forehead, two in the chest (placing them had caused A LOT of complaining and blushing), and three on each arm.
"We are done..." Will spread his palms out and stood. Nico was beginning to do so as well when he said, "unless..." He reached for something inside his coat pocket, and turned to him with a grin. He had a black sharpie in hand. "Can I draw over your band-aids?"
Nico had at least to chuckle at how childish that had sounded. Though when he looked back at him, he noticed he was being serious.
"Uh, yeah– sure." Nico chuckled a little as Will uncapped the marker and stepped closer to him.
"Shh, don't laugh so much or I'll spoil my doodle." Will smiled as he traced something over the one in his cheek.
Nico was aware of the closeness between their faces. If he leaned forward, just a little, their lips would brush against each other without much effort. He tried not to imagine the scene, but he gave up as the idea started forming in his mind. His lips against his were soft and warm, and they tasted like mint.
From this close, Nico could smell the fresh scent of Will's cologne; he thought it was delicious.
"O–kay." Will broke his trail of thought. "I think I'm done." His blue eyes drifted from Nico's cheek to his eyes, and smiled a croaked smile. "Come, see it for yourself." Will held his hand –and you want Nico to keep calm?!– and guided him to the closest mirror. He was still touching the dark haired boy's shoulder when he looked at himself in the mirror. Tilting his head to the side he spotted a smiley face in the center of the band-aid in his cheek.
He grinned, and met eyes with Will briefly through the mirror's reflection. "Cute face." He smiled, looking back at the tiny doodle.
"Not as cute as yours." Will said it so quietly it was almost a whisper. Nico frowned.
"What?" He turned to look at him. Had he heard wrong, or did he just say...?
"That happy face is not as cute as yours." The blonde repeated, a little louder this time.
Nico's cheeks were definitely red by now. He could tell without having to peek at himself in the mirror. Will had called his face cute. William Solace, the cutest, nicest, and coolest person in the universe, had called him cute.
Dam.
Will rubbed his neck, glancing down to his shoes. "I–I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." He cleared his throat quietly. "Sorry."
Uncomfortable? What? "No." Nico replied, a little bit too quickly. "No, no, it doesn't make me uncomfortable at all..." He immediately regretted his words as they came out. Now Will would figure out he had a huge crush on him and would start to hate him or wouldn't talk to him anymore because he'd think he was gross.
Will's expression lightened up. "Oh... alright." He smiled hesitantly after that, and Nico tried to return the smile.
"So, uhm..." Will continued, taking a deep breath. "We... are done here. You can– go if you want to." He wasn't looking at him. Nico had messed up.
"Oh, yeah." He muttered, trying to hide his disappointment. "I'll see you later."
"Unless you wanna stay..." Nico looked up at him, confusion clear on his face. Will's cheeks were tinted pink and he seemed hesitant to continue, but he still did. "You could– help me clean up a bit..."
Nico nodded. "Uh, yeah. Okay. Sure." What else did he have to say? Will had just called him cute and invited him to stay a bit longer. He couldn't refuse that.
/
AN: I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long. I had to take a break from writing because it was getting a little stressful. Also, I wanted to say that I'll be posting this fanfic on Wattpad and Instagram, so it'd be great if you could support me on those platforms as well. My username is jackthediscosword on Wattpad and . on Instagram.
Thank you sososo much for the reviews, they motivate me to keep writing :D!
