Will was ecstatic. Nico was finally reaching out to him! He was so excited but tried to keep his cool. He felt like he practically dragged Nico into the infirmary with him.

"I'm so glad you've decided to pursue a career in medicine," he joked. "Wait right here, I have a few patients to check on, unless you want to come with?"

"No, I don't exactly think that this"—he gestured towards his face— "is what people want to see in a hospital."
"Alright, but don't go anywhere. I'll be back in a sec." Will went to go check up on the other patients, most of whom were suffering minor injuries that were tended to by the other healers. There were a few with injuries that had the potential to be life threatening, those were the ones that Will took special care to monitor. At the moment, all of them had stable vitals and nothing was infected. He dosed out a few portions of ambrosia as needed and went back to Nico.

"Everything good?"

"Yup. Anyways, what changed your mind?"

"What about?"

"Helping me. I thought you said the idea doesn't make sense to you." They had that conversation only a few days ago, and suddenly Nico was all eager to help. Not that Will could remember every conversation he had with Nico or anything like that, but it was surprising.

"It doesn't. I'm not sure what changed my mind actually." Nico looked thoughtful, twisting the skull ring he wore.

"Why do you wear that ring?" Will asked cautiously.

The pale boy froze up.

Will felt bad, the last thing he wanted to do was seem like somebody who Nico couldn't trust. "I-i'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. It's none of my business."

Nico shook his head, "It's fine. It was a gift from my sister."
"Hazel?" The moment he saw Nico's face he knew that was the wrong thing to say. Why did he have to be so insensitive?

"No, my sister Bianca. It was the last thing she gave me before… passing away. I-it was during the Second Titan War."

"I'm sorry for your loss. Losing a member of your family can be tough."
"Yeah… well that's how I got the ring." Nico seemed anxious to change the topic so Will didn't press the subject any further. The fact that Nico told him that really meant a lot to Will, he knew how hard it was to put your trust in somebody.

"Hey di Angelo, want to learn how to make a tourniquet? I have some free time and that is seriously a life saving skill."

Nico's face relaxed, seemingly relieved to get off the topic of his late sister. "Yeah sure. I think I've heard of those."

"Heard of them? They could be the difference between life and death in a combat scenario! Come to the back with me and I'll show you." Will grabbed Nico's arm, who surprisingly didn't flinch. He brought him to the storage closet where they kept all of the non-magical medical equipment, where Will found pieces of scrap bandages that wouldn't be useful for anything but would be fine for a demonstration.

"Give me your hand," Will blushed, then wondered why. Nonetheless, he was stuttering when he said, "for the demonstration." What was happening to him? He'd had small crushes before, but nothing like this. He shook it off and tried to act calm as he demonstrated the proper technique to create a tourniquet. Nico was mostly silent but he seemed genuinely interested in the tourniquet, asking the occasional question. Will was lucky he was as experienced as he was doing that, because everytime he touched Nico's arm his heart fluttered which took up most of his brain space at the moment. After Will was satisfied with Nico's tourniquet, which was really good for his first time, he took the scraps of cloth and wrapped them around his head. The sight was so ridiculous that Nico cracked up. Will saw himself in a mirror and started laughing with him. Will shook the bandages out of his tousled hair and him and Nico walked out of the storage room laughing.

Only to meet Lou Ellen standing there, eyebrow raised. "Hey Will, hi Nico." Frick. He had just walked out of a storage closet with Nico with messy hair, laughing. Will blushed so hard he probably looked like a tomato. "Oh hey, Lou."

Nico, who was blushing equally as much, said, "I'm going to go for… a walk." He proceeded to show himself out the door.

Lou Ellen looked at him curiously and Will wished the floor would swallow him. He thought about Nico, and how he could make that happen cursing him to blush even harder. "Should I even ask?"

"It's not what it looks like!" Will blurted, "I was showing him how to make a tourniquet and then I just wrapped some bandages around my head…" Will trailed off, burying his face in his palms. Lou was the first person Will had come out too, and also the only person that knew about his crush on Nico. He was never going to hear the end of that.

Lou started laughing, "Sure," she playfully nudged him, "I came to see how you were doing, assuming you might be a little bored having only the ill to keep you company. But clearly you're preoccupied enough as is."

"Oh gods, will you please stop," Will murmured.

"Stop what?"

Will groaned, "Talking."

Lou rested her hand on Will's shoulder, "You should tell him, really. I think he's into you."

"What?" The statement was so shocking Will took his face out of his palms. "Why would you say that?"

"Have you seen the way he looks at you? He blushes every time you talk to him, and so do you. Don't think I haven't noticed. You two would be perfect for each other. Just talk to him."

Will did not like the way this conversation was going, Lou could be pretty persuasive and he didn't want to end up making an ass of himself in front of Nico. So he decided to nudge the conversation in a slightly different direction. "I'll talk to him when you talk to Cecil." He smirked at Lou who was now glaring at him. "Unlike my so-called crush on Cecil, yours actually exists."

Will shook his head, clucking his tongue, "Denial is never the answer." He repeated the line Lou had said to him days ago while they were talking.

"Shut up, Solace." Will thought back to all the times Nico had said that to him, and there were a lot. He saw that Lou Ellen was watching him zone out with a smirk on her face.

"Shut up."

She grinned wider, "I didn't even say anything. You were thinking about di Angelo again, weren't you?"

"No… maybe… yes?" Will blushed again.

"I knew it! Just ask him out, you don't have to be obvious about it. I'm not saying you have to confess your love to him or anything, just go do something." Lou threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Well… we did go rock climbing together, but he probably thinks it was just me trying to get him to exercise." Will chuckled.

"Did he have fun? Did you have fun?"

Will kicked at the ground, blushing. "Of course I had fun, and I guess it seemed like he did too."

Lou gave him a 'see I told you' look, "He must like you! That kid never likes doing anything."

Will knew that Lou was just trying to prove a point, but he felt like that was a rude thing to say about Nico. "What do you mean? He's really great once you get to know him! Maybe if you just took the chance to, you would know."

Lou was a pretty understanding person and took a step back saying, "You're right, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have judged him before really getting to know him."

That answer satisfied Will, "Thank you."

"And he does have pretty good taste in gu-"

"Shut up!"

"I'm just saying…" Lou raised her hand defensively, but she was smirking.

Will sighed and walked away from Lou. Then ended up having to go right back because he was needed in the infirmary. Lou left, laughing.