That may have been the most mentally exhausting thing Nico had ever done. Half of his attention was focused on climbing the wall, and the rest was focused on not screwing anything up with Will. Only afterwards did it even occur to him that it might count as a date. Will was out of the infirmary for a bit, so Nico had some time alone to sort out his thoughts. The first one being that rock climbing was definitely not a date, it couldn't be. Will was probably straight, and even if he wasn't, Will was way out of Nico's league. Will probably liked people with stable mental health conditions, so, not Nico. In fact, most people probably did, which was why he tried to hide himself from the rest of the world most of the time. There were very few people who might actually care about him and Nico was worried that if they saw how messed up he was they would ghost him. Ironic, the son of Hades getting ghosted. He twisted the ring on his finger, wondering what it would be like if he was somebody else. Maybe somebody like Percy, that guy who everybody loved. Percy was a part of two of the Great Prophecies, and had been on like 4 quests, all of them successes. Nico was just there in the background, doing the stuff nobody else wanted to. It was almost unfair, Nico went through Tartarus and when he came back he felt even more isolated than before. But when Percy and Annabeth came back they were welcomed back with cheers, as the heroes who saved the day. Nico had risked his life so many times for that guy, him and everybody else. Percy was irresistible. And Nico was… not. He was none of those things, and he never would be.
As much as he enjoyed blaming the universe for all his problems, he knew he couldn't. It was his fault, and he knew that. After observing people from the background Nico knew that. People trusted you a lot more if you put some trust in them, so for somebody as reserved as Nico, a lack of trust was really no surprise. And it seemed like people like cheerful optimists. That another fail for Nico. He was hopeless, nobody would like him. He had spent his whole life faking it trying to make himself seem any less damaged than he actually was, and now he didn't know how to do anything else. Nico knew he had to get out of this. He had spiralled like this before, and it didn't end well. He wasn't in much of a mindset to do anything but he decided to tell his brain to go fuck off and confront Percy. Anything to take his mind off of all of that.
He got out of his bed and went to Poseidon Cabin but the only one there was Percy's half-brother, the cyclops, Tyson.
"Hey, cousin!" Tyson saw Nico and ran to hug him.
He avoided the hug, leaving the confused Tyson. "Not quite. Where's Percy?"
"Oh! Percy went to do archery." Tyson went back to cleaning the room as Nico went to go find Percy, who was just putting away his bow as Nico arrived.
Uh, hey Percy,"
Percy turned around, surprised to see him. "Oh, hey Nico. So, about what you said-"
"Yeah, about that. I was really abrupt with it, so um… sorry if I surprised you."
Percy looked almost confused, "Sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for. No, I should be the one apologizing to you. You told me something that was pretty important to you and I acted all weird about it. I should've been more supportive, but I just want you to know that I do one hundred percent support you. I was just caught a little off guard when you told me."
Nico, being the idiot that he was, said, "Oh, um. Thanks."
They both looked at each other awkwardly after that, until Percy said, "But, just a quick question. What did you mean I'm not your type? Am I doing something wrong…or…?"
"It means I don't like you. I'm over it." Nico started walking away.
"But what did I do?" Percy called after him. Nico didn't have the energy to deal with him so he just ignored it.
Nico cussed himself out for what was probably the fifth time that day. He went back to the infirmary, only to find Will standing at the entrance, chiding look on his face.
"Where were you?!"
Nico tried to push past Will, but he found that his path was cut off entirely.
"Hey! Answer the question! You didn't use any dark magic did you?" Will checked his pulse, and found that his body was in a stable state.
"No," Nico grumbled. Will still wouldn't move so Nico explained, "I went to go talk to Percy."
"And you didn't think to tell me? I was worried about you!" Will exclaimed.
"Yeah, whatever. I'm going to go sleep." Nico walked by Will and saw that he was following him. Will looked agitated by the way Nico was treating him, and Nico felt a pang of guilt. Which was weird. Usually he didn't care. He stopped and turned to look at Will. "What do you want?"
"What is it going to take for you to like me?" Will looked exasperated. "Seriously, I'm doing my part, friendship has to be mutual!"
"Friendship?"
"Umm… yeah! Do you not want to be friends or something?"
Nico hesitated before answering that question. The answer was obviously a yes, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to say so. Even openly admitting that he wanted to be friends with somebody made Nico feel vulnerable. It meant that he had to ditch his act of indifference. But with Will, he felt like maybe he could do that. "I-I do."
"Would it kill you to show it?" Nico expected to see that Will was smirking, but his face was one of concern and care.
"I guess not. I'm sorry, alright. Next time I leave I'll tell you. Friendship is… new territory for me."
Will smiled, "Thanks. That means a lot. By the way, you're free to leave the infirmary now."
"Really?"
"Yeah, you're fine now. Just lay off the magic for a bit. Try walking from place to place like the rest of us," Will teased.
"Okay, I will. Hey Solace, you need any help in the infirmary?" Nico wasn't exactly sure why he said that but spending a little more time with Will didn't sound like the worst idea. They were friends, after all.
"Totally! You are talking about you helping me right?" Will gave hima lopsided smile.
Nico rolled his eyes. "Yes."
"Then yes. Do you know any medical procedures?"
"No, I'm not exactly the best at this kind of thing."
"That's fine, you can just keep me company. This is going to be great!"
