When Nico woke up the next morning he found himself in a bit of a panic. Will Solace was on the bed next to him. Will fucking Solace. He recalled the events of the last night, and relaxed a bit as he remembered Will falling asleep, and remembered him not having the energy to care, so he just fell asleep right next to him. 4 days to go until he may or may not work himself to death. If he does end up doing it, he'd deserve it, I mean, he was the one who created the gaping pit and let out the damn king in the first place.
Gods, he was getting ahead of himself. He still had to deal with the matter at hand. Will Solace was asleep. On his bed. He could wake Will up, but he looked so peaceful. And, gods, if any of his friends saw Will walking out of his cabin he would never hear the end of it. As far as he could tell, the only reasonable option to avoid humiliation would be to sneak Will out of the cabin. Well, now all he had to do was explain to Will why he wanted Will to sneak out of his cabin.
He gently shook Will awake. "Hey."
Will opened his eyes groggily, "Hi?" He looked around and his eyes widened. "Oh gods."
"Yeah, you fell asleep here last night." Well, might as well get it over with, "This may sound a bit weird, but if you don't mind, could you sneak out? There's a back entrance. It's just my friends are so-"
"Sure" Will gave him a smile, and Nico couldn't tell whether Will was trying to be understanding or if he was relieved, "My friends are the same."
Nico didn't know what that might mean, or how to respond, so he just nodded, probably a bit awkwardly.
After a bit of silence, Will spoke, "So where is this back entrance?"
Nico moved a bookcase revealing a hidden door. "Why do you hide it?" Will asked.
"It doesn't have a lock, so, gods forbid any of the Hermes kids find it. I would literally have to nail down all my possessions."
Will laughed and Nico laughed with him.
"Well, i'm going to head out. I better see you at breakfast. 5 days of rest, also means 5 days of not starving yourself, so no skipping any meals as you so like to." Gods, Will was so damn observant, Nico couldn't get anything by him.
Nico rolled his eyes but nonetheless relented, "Fine. But it's 4 days now." He watched as Will left the cabin, looking both ways to make sure nobody saw him as he emerged into the open.
Nico washed up in his bathroom which he didn't have to share with anyone, perks of being the only one in the cabin. He a little less than reluctantly left for lunch, seeing as he knew Will would be waiting for him.
Sure enough, he saw Will waiting for him at the entrance as he walked into the dining pavilion. Wow, he wasn't kidding about monitoring Nico.
"So how are you doing?" Will asked, as if they didn't just see each other 5 minutes ago. He gave Will an odd look, but before he could answer, one of the Apollo kids called out to Will. "Where were you? None of us saw you go to sleep, or wake up in the morning."
Will's face reddened, "Nowhere… I just went for a walk." Nico raised an eyebrow at him, and he glared back at Nico. Nico held back laughter.
"All night?" Another Apollo kid asked with a smirk. Nico resisted the temptation to punch the smug smirks off of their faces, but he knew that if there was one thing that you never messed with, it was sibling dynamics. That, and all mighty gods that practically hold the fate of the world in the palm of their hand. So maybe there are two things you never mess with.
Will blushed even harder, but tried to play it cool. "Yeah, I… erm… couldn't sleep."
Before they could ask him any more questions, Will grabbed Nico's arm and hastily steered him towards where the food was set down. He stiffened instinctively, but he relaxed himself quickly. He didn't want Will to think that he was making Nico uncomfortable.
"Couldn't sleep?" Nico asked in a voice that may or may not have had flirtatious undertones.
"What would you rather I say?" Will said matching his tone.
Nico rolled his eyes and shook his head, unable to come up with a response that wouldn't be him outright asking Will out. He preferred keeping Will as a friend, thank you very much. But of course, the nagging voice in his head refused to shut up. Will was gay, or at least not straight. He knew that much. So when Will matched his tone, it could mean something. Of course, Will could just be joking with him. Gods, he probably was. It was probably a mindless comment, and here he was, overthinking every word that Will said, like some kind of obsessive creep. What the fuck was wrong with him?
"What're you going to eat?" The sound of Will's voice snapped Nico backed to reality.
"I dunno."
"Pancakes it is." Will was back shortly with two plates of pancakes topped with lots of syrup.
Nico gave Will an incredulous look, "That was fast."
"Really? I was in no hurry, I can't imagine you would say such a thing." Will said with a smirk.
Nico simply rolled his eyes and laughed at Will's ridiculousness. As if he didn't see Will quite literally running towards him holding the two plates in a rather precarious grip.
"Thanks." He took one of the plates from Will with a small smile.
The pancakes were double chocolate chip, his favorite. Well, it was Bianca's favorite and they always reminded him of her. She loved everything chocolate. The thought of her left a dull ache in his chest. She was the one person that was always there for him. The only one he could rely on. After she died, he didn't think that he would ever smile again, let alone feel happiness. But with Will, there was hope. Like, the world could be crashing around them but he could count on Will to anchor him to the ground. He probably sounded ridiculous, he hardly knew Will. They'd only been friends for 1…2 weeks? It felt like so much longer. Like he could trust Will with all of his secrets. To be entirely honest, it scared him. Especially the thought of losing Will. If that happened, he didn't think he would ever recover. Which is why Will could never know that he liked him. Never.
For the most part, they ate their pancakes in silence, as Will deliberately avoided eye contact with any of his cabin mates.
After breakfast, the day was for the most part uneventful. He didn't talk to anyone much, he spent the day alone in his cabin. It's how he spent most of his days, so he'd gotten used to the solitude, but after spending so much time with Will, it felt weird not having someone by his side to talk to.
AN: Oh my gods Will and Nico are just too cute for life itself, I wish they would just start dating. Also, please r&r!
