Prompt from thatbiapollogirl on tumblr:
can you write a fic with will and his squirrel?
Thank you for the prompt/request! I had so much fun writing this one khfjdhkdf; for a little more context on the fic idea, you can check out this post discourse on Tumblr. But yeah, this could fall under mOrE wiLL sOLAcE bAckStoRy.
That's really all I have to say. Sorry that stories are taking a little while; I've been a little stuck with writing along with other things. I've got a couple I uploaded on Ao3 that I'll be uploading here, so that's why there are two today!
Enjoy! :)
- alltheglowingeyes
Will sat down at the back of the infirmary, pulling out a PB&J sandwich from the plastic baggie next to him. He was planning on working through lunch, or at least shadowing his sister Courtney for a little bit, but was kicked out after his siblings found out he had taken three extra shifts that week.
The son of Apollo slumped forward, begrudgingly taking a bite out of his sandwich. He liked spending time in the infirmary; it seemed like healing was his best talent, so it made sense for him to put the time in honing in on his skills. He supposed he understood why his siblings would send him out; overworking himself would just lead to more problems in the future, but sometimes when he wasn't working, he felt… useless.
Suddenly, a weak chittering from behind him drew him out of his thoughts as he turned to look at the source of noise, forsaking his sandwich as he found himself face to face with a… baby squirrel?
Will stared at the squirrel, tilting his head slightly as he stepped forward. The squirrel seemed to curl away, and Will could tell that something was wrong when it didn't speed off.
"Are you ok?" he asked, crouching down in front of the squirrel. The squirrel only chittered weakly in response, seeming to almost glare at Will in response. Will pouted at the squirrel expression.
"Aw, don't look at me like that. I was just checking," Will huffed, outstretching a hand slowly. At first, the squirrel looked scared, ready to shuffle away. However, upon realizing Will was the furthest thing from a threat, the squirrel allowed the son of Apollo to hover his hands and take a reading of its health.
Will's brow furrowed, mouth opening slightly. "Oh, that's not good. You hurt your leg, hm?"
Upon remembering the squirrel couldn't answer, Will clicked his tongue, gently scooping up the shaking animal. "Don't worry! I'll fix you right up," he chirped, immediately dashing to the Apollo Cabin.
Within an hour, Will had managed to set the little squirrel's leg and use some minimal healing hymns to ensure it wasn't in much pain. He got lucky that his siblings were out for music lessons, but he also knew that they would be back soon. He didn't feel like explaining to his siblings why he had a baby squirrel now, so he opted to try and find a comfortable hiding space for his new friend, carrying the small animal around the cabin as he pointed to different spots where it could hide out.
"You can hide here, in my suitcase! I can leave it open for you a bit, and it's pretty empty so you can try and move around it you want," Will offered. The squirrel didn't answer (yet again) as Will hummed.
"You're right, it'll be scary," he remarked, moving on. He tried looking through other spaces, but everything had something wrong.
In the midst of his search, he heard a knock on the door and rapid rattling of the doorknob.
"Will! You can't just lock the cabin? What are you doing?" he heard one of his sister's shout. There was a murmur of assent from a group that could only be the rest of his half-siblings.
Will's eyes widened as he glanced at the baby squirrel now curled comfortably in his warm hands. He quickly ran to the nearest bag he found, stashing it under his bed. He was pretty sure it was one of his sister's makeup bags, but it was empty so it was good enough for him. Shoving a pair of socks for comfort, Will gently placed the now-confused looking little squirrel.
"Don't worry buddy, I'll get you out soon. But right now, you've got to stay here for a bit."
Not waiting for the squirrel to answer this time with another judgemental expression, Will closed the flexible lid just enough so that it was still getting enough air. Immediately after, he ran to the door, moving the chair he had set in front of the door to keep it shut.
As he opened the door, he was met with the multiple vaguely annoyed and concerned faces of his siblings. Pushing to the front, Lee stepped forward, immediately fluffing Will's hair despite the look of worry on his face.
"You good, kiddo? We were starting to get a little worried," he said, squinting at his younger brother. Will gave him his brightest smile in response.
"Yeah, sorry. I was looking for something and had moved stuff around. Must have accidentally blocked the door."
Lee smiled at that, nodding as the rest of the Apollo kids were herded into the cabin. "It's all good. Just wanted to make sure everything was alright."
As Lee entered the cabin, Will followed after him when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Michael staring at him critically as he winced internally already knowing what was coming.
"You're lying," Michael grumbled, eyeing the younger boy critically. Will puffed himself up, trying to match his older brother's intensity.
"Oh yeah? And why would you say that?"
"You started doing that thing where you crack your knuckles. Probably to drown out the sound of your sins," Michael added, grinning slightly at his own comment. Will just rolled his eyes at his brother.
"Was not. Stop trying to annoy me," he huffed, turning away and entering the cabin. He could feel Michael's gaze on him as he went to his bed, making a mental note to be more careful with his lying tells (Michael was way too good at catching him; it was really annoying).
For about ten minutes, Will sat down on his bed and flipped through one of the many books in the Apollo cabin as his siblings went about their own business. The chaotic sort of peace was broken by a knock on the cabin door, revealing a worried looking Connor Stoll.
His siblings immediately seemed on guard, as if ready for an onslaught of paint bombs or something. Instead, Connor strode straight up to Will's bed, frowning deeply.
"Travis got hurt and it's… not good. Can you please do your glowy thing?" he asked. Normally, Will would have been a little cautious, but between the sincere expression on Connor's face and his knowledge that Connor wouldn't joke about this was enough for him to immediately react.
His siblings didn't try to stop him or anything; even though Will was the youngest, his healing skills were enough to gain him respect among his medically-inclined siblings. He still gestured for his sister Valerie to come with him, following Connor out of the cabin. However, as they left, Will remembered his squirrel friend, wincing slightly.
It's fine, he thought to himself. How much could go wrong while I'm gone?
Apparently, a lot could go wrong.
By the time Valerie and Will had got back to the cabin, there was pure chaos everywhere. all of his siblings had clambered onto different pieces of furniture, jumping when the duo opened the cabin door.
"Protect the children," one of his sister's shrieked, pointing at Will and Valerie.
"No offense, but screw the children, man!" one of his brother's snapped in response, holding a notebook like he was about to frisbee-throw it.
Will blinked in confusion, staring at his siblings. Valerie spoke up, looking a little on edge from their siblings' panicked states. "Can you guys be a little more clear? What's wrong?"
Kassy spoke up, her eyes rimmed slightly red. "I just wanted my makeup bag, a-and I found it but… there was a fu- a flipping rat in it."
"It was horrible," Shawn remarked, eyes darting around nervously as though he was scared something would pop up. "It might have bit me- oh gods, I don't want to die of rabies," he cried suddenly. Next to him, Kassy seemed ready to try and leap to Veronica's bed.
Before Will could answer, he felt a pair of arms scoop him up as he was seated next to Lee. His older brother looked just as freaked out as their siblings, but nonetheless stepped off the bed.
"I'll find it, ok? Everyone needs to calm- Michael, drop the candle! Shawn, you're not going to die of rabies. Courtney, I appreciate the enthusiasm but we are not providing a sacrifice to whatever this is. It's probably just some tiny little-"
There was a clear chittering noise suddenly as Lee yelped, immediately flying straight back to the bed. The rest of the cabin was in a clear panic as a familiar small creature made its way to the middle of the cabin.
Will grinned, jumping off the bed and ignoring his siblings shrieks of horror.
"You're ok!" he squealed, picking up the baby squirrel in his hands. He took a quick reading of the animal, noting that it seemed to be in less pain and that the hymns seemed to have at least set it's leg a little better.
As he cradled the small animal in his hands, he became aware of his siblings' hard gazes on him. He blinked, looking up at their horrified expressions and gave them all a toothy grin.
"He's befriended the rat! Why has he befriended the damn rat?" Kassy cried, looking ready to pass out. His siblings murmured in assent as Lee made a shushing noise, stepping off the bed and slowly walking over to Will and his new friend.
"Uh, kiddo? Why do you… how do you know the, um, thing?" he asked awkwardly, gesturing to the squirrel in Will's arms. Will just smiled back.
"Well, first of all, he's not a rat! He's my new squirrel friend. He was hurt, so I healed him! See?" he said, extending the baby squirrel for Lee to see his handiwork. The older demigod winced slightly at the small animal being shoved in his face, but nonetheless smiled.
"Right, right. Well, he looks better now… um, would you mind letting him go? I think he's all set, so he should go back to his home, y'know, outside."
The other Apollo kids began to nod vigorously in agreement as Will blinked, eyes widening.
"But he's my friend now… and he's not completely ok yet. I've got to keep him with me for a little longer," Will mumbled, pouting slightly.
Lee took one look at Will's sad, blue eyes and immediately knew he was in trouble. He glanced at the other Apollo campers for support, only to find them suddenly silent and looking anywhere else.
"Will…" Lee began, but then noticed- were those actual tears in his eyes?
"Please, just for a little longer? I don't want him to get hurt out there. He just needs to finish healing..."
Lee sighed, rubbing his temples as he gave a short nod. Will cheered, immediately running throughout the cabin in search of a better home for his new friend. There was a chorus of protests from other campers as Lee turned to them, glaring in annoyance at his siblings.
"You guys can't just shut up when he makes puppy eyes and then blame me for giving in," he hissed at his siblings. Before anyone could argue, Will had pulled out an empty shoebox from the closet, running over to his bed and setting it down.
"I'm going to make him a whole room! Bed and all… oh, would he want grass? What should I get him to eat? I'm going to go ask Katie," he announced, dashing out of the cabin with the baby squirrel now settled comfortably in the box.
Silence settled among the siblings as Veronica spoke up first, fiddling with the ends of her braids.
"I mean, can anyone really say anything to that enthusiasm?"
The other campers sighed, murmuring in agreement. And sure enough, when Will came back to the cabin with a now-decked out shoebox for his new friend, not one of his siblings made another complaint about the little animal.
(Even Michael stayed quiet when he found the squirrel had chewed through his toothbrush; although, he was pretty sure that was intentional payback ordered by his younger brother).
A/N: Uhhhhh, the ending was a little lame, but honestly I had no idea what to do lol, so I hope you liked it. I just like to write the Apollo cabin being overly dramatic over things like this lmao.
I hope you enjoyed reading, at any rate. Leave any requests/headcanons, if you want!
You can follow me on my tumblr alltheglowingeyess for updates on multichapter fics/a compiled list of my one-shots/random Riordanverse shit, or to just say hi. :)