This is the first piece I've written. Wish me luck! I have no idea how it will turn out.

Nico was lying in the infirmary wondering what his life had come to. Will had been nursing him back to health for the last two days, although he felt perfectly fine. What he didn't understand was why Will cared. He almost seemed eager to take care of Nico. Who would want to take care of the son of Hades? That's like, doomed to fail. Will Solace really confused him, in more ways than one.

In fact, he was walking toward Nico then, checking on the other patients as he came. Nico sat up instinctively, then wondered why he did that.

"How's my favourite patient doing?" Will's smile was so obnoxiously adorable it irritated Nico. Did he seriously just call Will adorable? He needed to get himself together.

He groaned, "Haven't summoned any skeletons lately. I've been here for 2 days. Can I at least go for a walk now?"

"No way. You owe me 3 days of rest, you're not stepping foot off of the bed until the 3 days are up.

Nico glared at him, shifting his position so that he could put one of his feet on the floor. Will didn't back down, he simply laughed at the gesture. He could be stubborn as a mule when he wanted to which really annoyed Nico. Although he definitely wasn't afraid of Nico, which had to count for something. He might even not be half bad to be around.

"Geez, I'm not evil. I made you tomato soup, that's your favourite right?"

"I don't even like soup!" A lie. Soup was Nico's favourite food, although he wasn't sure how Will knew. It reminded him of Bianca, when it was just the two of them she would always make it.

Will mocked offense. "Just for that, you're not getting the sandwich I made for you. How do you like that di Angelo?"

"Whatever, I don't want food anyways." Nico was surprised that Will bothered to make him food, anyways. Most days he just asked one of the nurses to bring him something from the mess hall.

"You have visitors by the way."

That excited Nico, nobody except Will had come to see him since he came to the infirmary. Not that Will was all that bad. "Who?"

Will turned and walked away with a smirk. "You'll see."

"Solace! Who is it?!" Nico yelled after Will but he didn't respond. Nico sighed out of exasperation. He yelled after Will's receding figure. "Do I at least get the soup?"

"I thought you weren't hungry," he yelled back.

Will was probably enjoying this, leaving him wondering. It really pissed Nico off, though Will did seem to enjoy doing that too. Nico thought about the smirk Not long after, Annabeth walked in. Holding a bowl of tomato soup. "You two need to talk."

He didn't have to ask what she was talking about, Nico hadn't spoken to Percy since he admitted to having a crush on him. He hadn't actually spoken to Annabeth either, but he trusted that she wouldn't be weird about it. Percy, he wasn't so sure about. He seemed pretty bewildered when Nico told him. Nico would much rather think about the warm tomato soup in his hands, which was actually pretty tasty, but this was a problem that he could no longer run away from. He tried, he did for a while, but in the end the truth always seems to find a way of getting itself out in the open.

"What does Percy think?" Nico asked. He was a bit scared to hear the response.

Annabeth's brow furrowed in concern, she seemed to sense Nico's fear. "Oh! It's not like that, trust me. He's totally cool with it, just a bit surprised."

Nico sighed with relief, he'd been freaking out over that since he told Percy and it was like a huge weight was lifted off of his chest. Percy was one of the few people who he might call his friend, and he didn't want to lose that. "Good. I guess I should probably talk to him, I left a bit abruptly after telling him such big news."

"It's fine. You were a bit distracted at the time. You had other things to do." There was a glint in Annabeth's eyes.

Shit. Annabeth saw him talking to Will. She totally thought that Nico liked him. But he didn't, did he? No he did not. Will Solace was just a… friend?

"I-it's not what you think." Nico's face flushed and the corners of Annabeth's lips twitched.

"I figured you might say something like that. You're not exactly the kind of person to express your feelings. Which is why I may have brought a little bit of backup?"

"What? Please, tell me you didn't bring Percy." Nico said he would talk to him, but he wasn't ready to do it. Not yet.

"No, you can talk to him whenever you want to. I don't know if you noticed, but he's not the best at this kind of thing." Nico smirked at that. Percy could be a little bit clueless sometimes which was kind of cute and probably part of the reason why he had liked him. The realization hit him that even though Percy wasn't coming somebody else had to be.

"Who?"

"Piper and Hazel?" Annabeth said the names with caution, worried about how Nico would react.

A wave of emotions came over Nico. He felt flustered, confused, enraged. "What the hell?!" Nico yelled so loudly the other patients turned to stare at him. Annabeth recoiled due to his sudden outburst. She looked fearful, as if she expected Nico to cause the ground to swallow her whole. Great, just when Nico thought people might not be afraid of him. He had to screw it up with that. He took a few calming breaths.

"You didn't tell them anything right?"

Now Annabeth was confused, "What?"

"About Percy, I mean."

Annabeth nodded slowly, grasping the situation. "No, I didn't tell them anything, although I assumed you had. Don't feel pressured to do anything if you're not ready. Besides, the main reason they're coming is to see you. Again, not trying to force you to do anything but I think you should tell them. They'll both love and support you no matter what."

Maybe Annabeth was right, maybe he should tell them. Hazel was his sister, and he cared more about her than anybody else. And Piper, Nico had never really opened up to her but she did have a trustworthy kind of aura. "Okay…"

As if on cue, Hazel and Piper walked in making light conversation with each other.

"Hey, you decided to visit? I thought you would be at Camp Jupiter by now."

Hazel smiled and said, "I was going to go, but once I found out about the condition you were in, I had to stay to make sure you were okay."

Nico huffed, "I'm fine, really."

"I don't doubt it, you're in good hands. Best healer in Camp Half-blood." Piper cut in.

The mention of Will caused Nico's face to redden once again. He tried to play it off. "Who, Solace? He's alright I guess."

Annabeth looked at him, raising an eyebrow. He glared back at her. Annabeth raised her hands in surrender, but there was still a knowing smirk on her face.

Piper viewed the exchange quizzically. "Is something going on?"

Nico mentally cussed himself out, he didn't want to lie to Piper, and he definitely didn't want Annabeth to lie for him. That felt like she was taking pity on him, and Nico definitely did not want pity from anybody. He saw Annabeth give him an encouraging look.

"I'm gay." Holy fucking shit. He just did that. As he said it, he realized that was his first time saying, or even thinking those words. Every other time he just told people he had a crush on Percy and the fact that he was gay was implied. It felt kind of good, almost as if he was validating his own sexuality, not that it needed validity. Even though he knew he was gay, he felt like maybe he was lying to himself sometimes. Which was really stupid, since being gay hasn't really done him any good, it only made him feel like more of an outsider, which he definitely didn't need. The point was, not being heterosexual was confusing. Although, for all he knew straight people went through the same thing, he doubted it though.

He broke out of his thoughts, which were on the verge of spiraling out of control, to gauge the reactions of Hazel and Piper. Hazel's mouth was slightly agape, and Piper was smiling. Surprisingly enough, the most shocked person was Annabeth.

Piper was the first to break the silence, "Percy?"

That caught NIco off guard, he figured Piper might've had an inking about his sexuality but she seemed pretty sure of herself. "Well, before. I think i'm over that."

At this point Hazel was smiling, she ran to hug Nico and hesitated remembering how he felt about contact. Nico hugged her anyways, and Hazel's smile got even bigger.

"I'm so proud of you," Hazel said.

"Why, what did I do?" Nico didn't get that, why was she proud of him for not being straight.

Hazel laughed, "You had the courage to tell us."

Nico blushed, which he seemed to do pretty often lately. "Well, I have summoned the dead, so in comparison…" He trailed off as Will walked by, watching him pass.

Will turned to grin at him. "How's the soup?"

"It's fine. Could use some salt," Nico looked down to see that his bowl was empty.

"I believe a thanks is in order," Will teased.

"I would thank you if you added more salt to the soup." Nico stared him down.

Will held his gaze, "I would, if there was any left."

He had Nico there, and Nico sighed out of frustration, "Shut up, Solace."

Try me," Will raised his eyebrows, an unspoken challenge. Nico blushed, trying to think of anything except how cute Will looked like that, resulting in him thinking of nothing but that. Will walked from the flustered Nico, smirking.

When he was out of earshot Annabeth turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Friends?"

"Yes!" Nico blushed even more profusely than before, if that was even possible.

"You guys are adorable," Piper playfully nudged him.

Nico buried his face in his palm, "Not you too! Come on, Hazel…"

"Well…" Hazel shrugged.

Nico flopped back onto the bed. "You're really going to gang up on me like that? You guys are even worse than Will. I wouldn't mind him showing up right about now." Why the hell would he say that? He really needed to shut up.

Annabeth opened her mouth to reply but Nico cut her off. "Shut up! I do not like Will!"

He said it loud enough that a few of the other patients turned to look at him. Nico was positively mortified, the only relief was that Will wasn't there. He glared at all the people who were looking at him as if to say 'Mention one word of this to anybody and you're dead to me. Which is basically the same as being dead. So you better keep your lips zipped if you value your life. And it'd probably be best if you just turned around now.' That is, if all that could be said in a glare. If anybody could do it, it would be Nico, he was a pretty experienced glarer.

Nico buried himself under the covers and mumbled 'Get out' to the trio sitting on his bed without much conviction. He was glad that they obliged, he couldn't stand to think about his feelings for Will (which he did not have!) any longer. He stayed under his blankets, not wanting to get out.

"I thought hibernation happened in the winter." So much for solidarity, he felt Will poke him through the blanket which sent a tingle down his spine. For purely anatomical reasons, obviously.
"Well, you thought wrong."

Will smiled, "I'm never wrong, Death Boy."

"Yeah, whatever Solace." A smile hinted at the corner of Nico's lips, which was weird because he hated nicknames. Well, unless he was the one giving them. All the nicknames he had were gloomy, like Death Boy for instance. Really sounds like the type of person you want to be friends with, doesn't it. But when Will said it, it was different, he didn't say it out of fear, or to mock him, it was just a friendly nickname. It irked Nico a bit, but he didn't mind it all that much. So Nico might like Will a little bit. But it was pointless, Will only liked him now because he hardly knew Nico. If Will ever really got to know him, he would probably think that Nico was a freak, just like everybody else. And Nico couldn't let that happen, so he always kept a guard up with Will, making sure to never seem too much of something or the other so as not to scare him away.

He looked up and saw that Will was staring at him. "Hey," he waved his hand in Nico's face, "You there?"

"Do you have to be so obnoxious all the time?" Nico grumped.

"Do you have to be so arrogant all the time?" Will countered.

"Do you have to be so cheerful?"

"Do you have to be so sad?"

Nico looked at Will dead in the eye. "Yes." Why the hell did he just say that? Nico seemed to have been saying a lot of stupid things lately. So much for not scaring Will off.

Realizing Nico wasn't joking anymore, not really, Will's face turned more solemn, and curious. "Why?" That was a really tough question for Nico to answer. He asked it to himself so many times a day, so if anybody had an answer he would be grateful. Not that he was going to tell any of that to Will.

He simply shrugged off the question. "I dunno, I guess that's just how I am."