"Ugh, I'm tired."

"That's why we're going to sleep, Ghosty."

Nico hummed noncommittally as he flopped down onto his bed. It was late, nearly midnight, and he was more than ready to be dead to the world. They had had a busy day of classes, training (for Nico), working (for Will), and dealing with the general chaos that came with living at Camp Half-Blood.

Will's siblings let the head counselor sneak off to the Hades cabin for the night. While they all teased their older brother about having a "fun night," they all really just wanted him to get a good night's sleep, and cuddling with his boyfriend almost always did the trick.

After doing the minimal to get ready for bed, the boys hit the lights and shuffled beneath the covers. Immediately, their hands found each other, and they tangled their limbs together. It was easy, a comfortable routine they developed over the course of their relationship. They were hardly cuddly in public, so their private time together had to make up for that. And it was really just that—cuddling and sleeping together—and nothing more.

"Good night, Neeks."

"Good night, Sunshine."

Will shifted onto his back, giving Nico the space to move even closer so that his head rested on the blonde's chest.

It was nice and cozy. Perfect for sleeping.

And yet.

Will laid there for a solid fifteen minutes, not thinking anything in particular as he stared off into the darkness. He tried not to shift restlessly so as not to disturb his boyfriend, but that just made him stiff and less than comfortable.

He tried to focus on Nico's breathing for the next fifteen minutes. The boy's breaths had evened out, but Will had a feeling that he wasn't quite asleep yet either.

Why couldn't he sleep? Was something bothering him? Normally, he'd have his to do list for the next day on his mind. When that kept him up, he simply got up, wrote it down, then climbed back in bed and was out like a light. But that's not what was happening now. He squared away his to do list earlier, on a small note that sat on his desk in the infirmary.

What was on the list? Maybe if Will recounted it to himself, he'd fall asleep out of boredom.

Cut bandages. Well, that was a daily task, but sometimes it was nice just to check it off at the end of the day.

Check inventory. A weekly task, but sometimes Will would compulsively check it, just in case, or when there was nothing else to do.

Practice nutrition plans. Since the son of Apollo hoped to be a real doctor someday, he'd been exploring different medical fields to see how he liked them. He was currently exploring the nutritionist route, which could help as a family physician or pediatrician anyway. He would ask the Demeter kids about different vegetables, herbs, grains, all that stuff, and practice writing up specific diets for hypothetical needs. It was kind of interesting so far, but not Will's favorite.

I wonder what kind of plan a child of Hypnos might need. If you consider the narcolepsy, possible lack of sunlight, there's bound to be some nutritional deficiency going on, he thought to himself. Hmm, deficiency. De-fi-shi-en-see. That's how you spell it, right? D-E-F-I—she-en-see—C-I-E—defishy—um where was I? Okay, wait, D-E—honestly, who spelled this word this way? It's confusing. Why is C-I-E pronounced "she"? What—

"Will," a stern voice pulled Will from his musings. He turned his head down to see his boyfriend squinting up at him in the dark, his eyes having adjusted long ago. "You're thinking too loud. You're practically yelling."

"Wha—that doesn't even make sense," Will responded, his voice sounding loud in the quiet of the cabin.

"It does. It's loud. You're loud." Nico shifted so he was more even with Will and could look him in the eyes properly. "What are you thinking about that's making your head wrinkle?" He poked Will directly in the forehead to punctuate his point.

Will swatted his hand away. Nico kept looking at him and he sighed. Whatever. "Why are words words?" He looked back up at the ceiling, confusion clear on his face.

Not hearing an immediate response, he turned to see his boyfriend staring at him, his expression a mix of perplexity, incredulity, and amusement. The son of Hades simply raised an eyebrow, apparently not planning on giving Will the answer he so desperately needed.

So, he continued. "You know, like, words. Why are they what they are? Why is the word 'word' a word? Why is it spelled like it is? And why does it mean word? Actually, how do you even define 'word'?" He tapped his chin in thought, once again staring at the ceiling. He saw Nico glance up at the ceiling out of the corner of his eye, probably mocking Will. But the son of Apollo was too preoccupied to comment.

"A word is a word," Nico replied, like it was that easy.

"You can't use the word being defined in the definition," he rolled his eyes, like Nico should've obviously thought about this before and know that that's not an acceptable answer.

Will took a breath to begin another senseless rant about language when his boyfriend cut him off. "Words are words, letters are letters, languages are way they are because people decided that's how they wanted to communicate. Nothing more to it. Please sleep." His deadpan words were probably meant to be patronizing or flippant in some way, but Will actually felt like that answered his wonderings quite well.

"Huh," Will said, mostly to himself. He paused as the words processed in his brain. "That makes sense."

"Oh my gods," is all Nico said before he rolled over, his back to Will. "Go to sleep, idiota."

Will beamed, throwing his arms around the dark-haired boy to hug him from behind. "I'm so lucky my boyfriend is a genius."

"You're dumb, now sleep."

"Okayyy," Will drew out. But now that his mind was satisfied, he remembered that he had an exhausting day and that he really really wanted to sleep.

He settled in further before whispering a "good night" to the air, the boy next to him already breathing deeply.