How Will and Nico Got Together.

Nico and his mother left early the next morning and disappeared from Will's life. While he struggled with his sexuality, Will threw himself into his studies. It wasn't always easy to succeed in school when living in a small town, but with an insurmountable amount of work and dedication, Will became the youngest person to get into medical school. He didn't know if he had gotten in based only on his merit or if his father had arranged it. He didn't really want to know, honestly. He started in the fall of 1910, having made the move to London for school.

Will didn't have a strong relationship with his father. Dr. Julius Apollo was a genius doctor, but a terrible parent. After the short fling of a marriage with his mother, Julius had left, divorcing her. Naomi raised Will on her own in the countryside, closer to her family. She had told Julius about Will, but the newfound father didn't want anything to do with him. He only started to pay attention when Will began to excel in school, proving him to be a prodigy as well.

As Julius began to show a semblance of an effort, Will let him; sustaining a relationship if only for the purpose of having someone else to pay off his medical school expenses. His mother didn't need any more expenditures after bearing the monetary weight of his upbringing all on her own, working a measly job and ignoring the judgements she received from being an unwed mother. Will thought that it was only fair that Dr. Apollo had his turn and made a point of keeping his mother's maiden name as his own, Solace.

Meanwhile, on the other side of London all together, Nico carried on. Life had not been kind to him over the years leading up to 1913, and if possible, he became even more reclusive. A series of tragedies befell his family, one after the other. In November of 1910, Bianca di Angelo died. She had been marching with her sister suffragettes for the right to vote, traipsing up the streets towards the Houses of Parliament. She endured the leers of bystander men as well as other abuses—all surmounting to nothing, just hundreds of arrests on the day they would call Black Friday. The police did nothing but stoke the riots, and even participated in the assault of the protesters. Bianca died from a head trauma sustained from the brutality of the Metropolitan Police. Her brain hemorrhaged and there was nothing that could be done. Nico and his family mourned her and were deeply angered by the arrogant dismissal from the authorities that they were at fault for her death.

Maria grew quiet at the passing of her daughter. She resigned from her post as a diplomat and stayed home. One thing that came out of their consecutive loss was that Nico's parents stopped fighting about everything. Gone were the debates at the dinner table. It was just silent now. Nico couldn't tell which was worse. Then, in the August of 1911, a second tragedy befell the di Angelou family. While Nico attended school and his father went to work, Maria left to visit a friend in a nearby hotel. It had been a while since she had left their home, so she didn't tell her husband and child of her plans. Just as she had sat down to tea, the building began to shake.

Nico didn't know that something was wrong until the next day. After all, his mother was often already in bed when he returned from school, so how was he supposed to expect her absence?

Maria di Angelo joined her daughter after the hotel building collapsed with her inside of it. And the remaining members of the family? They grew even further apart.

Both boys, though they hadn't seen each other in years, shared a similar "guilty conscience", though for different reasons. Nico blamed himself that he was the one to be alive when his father clearly would have preferred his mother or sister to be the survivor. Will felt bad, taking his father's money and not giving anything in return, as much as he might hide it on the outside. For this reasoning, both boys agreed to do whatever their fathers asked of them, and one night, it was their attendance of a party.

ENGLAND – 9 May 1913

Will yawned and rubbed at his eyes. Despite the loud music and the raucous sounds of laughter and discussion that floated through the room, he was still falling asleep. He really didn't know why he had been asked to attend a party for socialites, but he made it a habit not to get on his father's bad side, so there he was. Actually, after making the rounds and introducing himself to several of the dignitaries, Will had snuck upstairs to the balcony of the majestic room to where musicians would used to sit and play live music. There were none present that day, thank goodness, because Will really needed a break…that and he had a rather important medical exam coming up and he needed to cram for it.

The balcony was, in truth, an excellent place to observe the crowd below without having to be within the throng of it. He studied his notes for a while, having managed to slip the pages into his coat pocket before arriving. After a while though, Will found that he could hardly focus. The sharp smell of cigarette smoke polluted the room and the dim lighting was giving him a headache. So, Will found himself watching those who milled below him.

Someone near the door caught his eye. A shorter boy had just entered alongside a man in uniform. He wasn't dressed in a standard British military uniform—his bore the colors of the Italian flag on the arm. The older man promptly left the younger one on his own, the latter of whom scowled and adjusted his own Italian flag pin. He seemed blatantly familiar to Will, but he couldn't discern why. It irked him really, and he couldn't help but let his eyes follow the boy as he moved around the room. After a good ten minutes of staring, it hit him. Nico di Angelo. Will couldn't help but smile. Dressed in all black, he didn't live up to his surname. Angel? More like the prince of darkness.

Nico couldn't help but be in a bad mood. He was kicking himself for agreeing to attend the stupid party full of rich bluebloods. His father had too many connections, being a rich man himself, and Nico felt like he was being paraded around as the hostess dragged him to meet each and every person who was in attendance. He looked over his shoulder, catching the eye of his acquaintance, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano. They weren't friends, exactly. They just knew each other and often found themselves in the same boat, being flaunted around high society like prized horses.

Reyna rolled her eyes and approached him, taking his arm so that they could take a turn around the room without being interrupted by other people. They didn't talk, and for good reason. It's difficult to keep up appearances when arguments easily form between two people. They pretended with each other for pretenses sake. With another nod, the two of them dispersed. Reyna disappeared into the crowd and Nico tried to do the same. He just needed to find a quieter place to hide until it was time for him to leave.

Meanwhile, Will started to make his way downstairs, hoping to find his long-lost friend. To his luck, it wasn't too difficult. As he had started down the steps, Nico had started up them. Nico was lost in thought, just trying to escape the downstairs commotion, so he jumped when Will cleared his throat. Will watched with some level of amusement as Nico reacted, tripping up the stairs for the second time since he had known him.

"You know, you're still just as clumsy as you were when we first met." Will's hand locked on the shorter boy's forearm as he helped haul him upright.

Nico seemed flustered. "Will?"

Will felt himself blush. Nico's accent hadn't changed, and the way he pronounced Will's name came out something like "Weel".

"Yeah." He replied brightly.

Will led him up to the balcony, where the two of them settled into somewhat of an uneasy silence.

"What are you doing here?" Nico asked. "I thought you lived in the countryside."

Will slouched in his seat, getting comfortable. "I got into medical school. Had to move here with my father."

Nico raised his eyebrows. Medical school? He must have been some sort of wunderkind to be doing that in his teens. Nico recalled that Will was only a year older than him, placing him at fourteen. Nico couldn't stop staring. Will's hair seemed yellow in the lowlight; a smattering of freckles had appeared in the years that had passed since they had seen each other last. And just like that, the two found themselves lost in conversation again, like they had on the night they had first met.

"Who was that you were walking around with?" Will asked. "In the purple dress?"

"Who?" Nico said, then realized. "Oh, Reyna. She's a family friend. We tolerate each other."

Will held back a smile at Nico's apparent dismay. As the night carried on, the two spoke of more personal things. Nico was finally able to talk to someone about the deaths of his sister and mother. Will was disheartened to hear that Maria had died. He had always wanted to thank her for encouraging him to pursue medicine. Now he never could. There in the balcony, having moved to the floor so that no one on the ground floor could see them, Will and Nico sat shoulder to shoulder, sharing in their losses together instead of alone.

In the days that followed, the two met up multiple times, learning each other's schedules until every spare moment could be spent together. Afternoons were filled with studying for exams and evenings catching up on the latest Sherlock Holmes stories. Without even noticing, Will and Nico had grown closer than any friends could have. They progressed into something more. They had to be careful, of course. Their relationship, however honest and true, was illegal in the eyes of the law.

Months went by and soon enough, Will had entered his last semester of medical school in January of 1914. Nico had finished his own general schooling and was moving up to enter Officer Training School within the Italian Army. His twelve-week program would graduate him as a liaison officer between the Italian and British governments. They appeared to grow up in those months, each becoming surer of themselves and their careers, just as tensions in the world grew more severe.

Anglo-Italian relations were becoming more dismal each day. Within a week of completing his training, Nico received his deployment papers. He was being sent oversees to navigate the deceitful waters of diplomacy. War had begun in July, with Great Britain joining the French in August while Italy maintained its neutrality.

On the last night that Will and Nico had together, they met on the rooftop of the London Library in James Square. It was a place they had met before—in fact, they had spent several nights there, just looking out over the city and all of its streetlights. It was that night that Nico confessed that he loved Will, who reciprocated in turn almost immediately.

There were so many reasons that Nico loved Will, but there were a couple that stood out above all else. Will was the first person in his life that truly valued his opinion above others. He would actively seek out Nico's company to ask his thoughts and viewpoints. Perhaps more importantly, Will wanted to help people. Genuinely. He didn't do things in order to receive favors from others, he legitimately believed it was his duty to help other people, asking for nothing in return. Nico lived in the chaos of an upended relationship with his father, so being with someone who lived to aid others was exactly what he needed.

And Will? Will loved the survivor in Nico. Nico, who had gone through so much hell in the past few years yet kept on going. Nothing could completely break him, which gave Will hope every time he wanted to give up. But another thing? Nico knew his limits and capabilities. Nico's rationality was enough to remind him that he can't save everyone; a sobering understanding that every doctor must come to terms with.

They said goodbye that night, not knowing if or when they would see each other again. They would write, of course. And while it wouldn't be the same, it would have to be enough. It had to be.