Will was practically dead on his feet at this point. Working for the past few days straight, not including the entire battle that came before, he could feel the exhaustion pulling at his limbs. In moments of weakness, he considered curling up under his desk and napping right there. Instead, he'd shake his head and focus on what he was doing.

People are in pain, people need healing, I need to keep going. He knew this thinking wasn't great for his health, but it helped him do as much as he could during the many battles they'd all been through. Besides, at some point, one of his siblings would always kick him out and force him to sleep in their cabin. It usually worked out.

Now that everything was winding down, he finally had time to track the son of Hades down and forcibly help him. He knew for a fact that Nico had been a major part of defeating Gaea, which also meant that his body needed some major recovery time. Will was honestly a bit surprised that he got the boy to come in so easily, but Nico had looked overtired, so maybe he just couldn't protest anymore. Whatever the case, seeing Nico di Angelo, scary-emo-death-boy number one, sleeping peacefully in front of him, he knew he made the right move.

It's always annoyed Will, how everyone judged Nico just because he was the son of Hades. He remembered him in the battle at Manhattan, where Nico really saved everyone at the perfect time. Even Will, as he frantically healed as many people as possible, stopped to watch the raw power of the prince of the underworld. It was frightening to know that one boy held so much power, but it was clear that he wielded it for the good of others. Will was glad that Nico was on their side.

Will yawned wide, jaw cracking, and he looked at the clock. Only 10 PM, he could still get a little more done before the night shift took over. He glanced again at the sleeping son of Hades, reluctant to leave him there.

When Will exited the curtain, he came face-to-face with Austin. "Dude, Will, it's time for you to leave."

"What?" Will asked, confused. "My shift goes to 11."

Austin just shook his head. "Nu-uh. Nope. You're leaving the infirmary and going back to the cabin to sleep. You're tired and you know it." His words left no room for argument.

But Will tried anyway. "But it wouldn't be fair to whoever's taking over."

"I'm taking over, and I'm saying it's fair. You've been here for days, Will." He put a strong hand on his older brother's shoulder, comforting, but firm. "You have to rest, you know that."

Will sighed, glancing back toward the patient behind the curtain. "Yeah… but I finally got Nico here, and I don't think I should leave him."

Austin chuckled at that, peering around Will. "I can't believe you got him here. I thought he would've bitten your hand off if you tried to touch him." Will shot him a tired glare, like he'd heard the kind-of-not-a-joke too many times. "Look, I, quite frankly, don't want to be the only person here when di Angelo wakes up, so let's compromise. You sleep in that bed there," he pointed to the bed neighboring Nico's, "while I work the infirmary. If he wakes up or anything, I'll get you. Otherwise, you will sleep tonight."

Will nodded solemnly and saluted his brother, who scoffed and shoved him toward the aforementioned bed. It's not like Will didn't want to sleep, gods, did he want to sleep. But he was a "workaholic" according to his siblings and usually needed someone to look out for him. He was also immensely proud of his siblings as they'd been stepping up to help a lot in the past few weeks.

Will cast one last look toward Nico's curtain before collapsing into his bed and knocking out instantly.

Will awoke to a loud cracking sound and his whole bed shaking.

He jolted upright and confirmed, yes, his bed was shaking, along with the entire infirmary. He thought it was an earthquake before he heard a strangled scream from the bed next door.

"Will!" Austin shouted, but Will was already out of bed, leaping over the one foot-wide fissure in the ground. He turned to see Austin a few feet back from Nico's bed, his hands out in front of him and his face frozen in fear.

"What's—"

"I don't know! His powers are acting up!" Right as Austin said this, Will noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He spun around to see a hand clawing its way up the opening in the ground. He spit out a curse in ancient Greek, grabbing the closest thing to a weapon that was in reach—a mop, apparently—and brought it down on the decaying hand. The zombie flinched back, but more were on their way and, surely, they needed more than a mop to stop this.

Will shoved the mop into Austin's hands. "Hold them off."

He didn't wait for his brother's reply before he rushed to Nico's bedside. The son of Hades was thrashing in his sleep, his face contorted in a mess of fear and pain. Will normally didn't wake people when they had nightmares, knowing it was a normal process of the brain and especially common for demigods. But this was dangerous, something had to be done.

"Nico," Will went for a softer tone, hoping that he could calm the boy down in his sleep. "Nico, listen to me. You're in the infirmary. You're safe. Please, calm down." Will pushed as much meaning as he could into his words, threading his hands through Nico's hair like he did earlier. Nico was sweating and his breathing was frantic still. Will began to sing a hymn to his father like he did while healing, pressing his palms to Nico's head and cheek. Dark tendrils were leaking out between Nico's fingers where he was clutching at the sheets desperately.

"Come on, Nico. I believe in you. I'm here for you. You've gotta calm down for me, okay? I've got you." Will leaned over and pressed his forehead to Nico's, pulsing his healing powers out from where they connected. "I've got you."

Nico immediately stilled, his breathing ragged but slowing down. Will tentatively opened his eyes and gazed down at the son of Hades. His eyebrows were drawn together, but the panic had subsided. Will leaned back, trailing his hand down Nico's arm to grip his hand. He looked back toward Austin, who was still wielding the mop and staring at the ground. Will looked down right when the fissure closed up, leaving only a thin crack behind.

The brothers met each other's gaze, nodding as soldiers did at a job well done. Austin's eyes flicked over to Nico, who was still asleep. Will rubbed his thumb across the back of the hand he was holding, staying there until the son of Hades was fully back to sleep.

Will sighed and stood up, placing Nico's hand gently back at his side. Austin shook his head, but instead of making some snide comment about Nico's heritage, he said, "We don't get paid enough to clean up the gods' shit."

Will chuckled, knowing there was nothing really to say about that. He placed a comforting hand on Austin's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Thanks, Austin."

They continued with clean up for a little before Will was directed back to bed. All he could think about as he fell asleep once more was the pain on Nico's face. We've got a lot of healing to do.

Will woke at the crack of dawn like normal, and despite the interruption, last night was the most sleep he had gotten in a while. He pushed himself out of bed, cleaned up a bit in the infirmary bathroom, and walked over to his desk, where Austin was slumped over some paperwork.

He gently shook his brother awake. "Hey, Austin. You can go back to the cabin, I can take over." Austin grumbled as he woke up, rubbing his face.

"Ugh, Will, isn't it someone else's turn this morning?" He yawned wide. Really all of the healers had been going non-stop, not just Will.

"It's fine, Austin, I slept last night. I'm still head medic, anyway." Will chuckled as his brother rolled his eyes at him, finally standing up to leave.

Then, he suddenly looked more alert when he noticed the line across the ground. "Wait, oh shit, you remember what happened last night?"

Will frowned, but it wasn't directed at his brother. "Yes," he muttered as he glanced back to where Nico's curtain was still pulled closed.

"Dude, that was crazy. I don't think you should be here alone with him."

"It's fine. He was having a nightmare. We know a lot of demigods' powers are linked with their emotions." Will tapped his chin in thought. "I'll talk with Nico to learn more about it today. But I'm going to sanitize this area for now. Don't want any zombie remains in my infirmary."

Austin shuddered. "That's nasty. I'll send over whoever else is on shift to come and help." He then smirked when he met Will's eyes. "Seemed like you had di Angelo all under control last night, though."

Will felt his cheeks heat up. "Shut up, this is serious. I just did my job."

"Mhmm," Austin hummed as he strolled out of the infirmary. "Sure thing, Doctor Solace."

Will stared after him for a minute before shaking his head and sitting at his desk. He looked over what Austin was working on, trying to focus on something else besides the brown-eyed boy behind the curtain. After some preliminary checks, Will began to pull out cleaning supplies. He crouched on the ground and ran a finger over the newly formed crack in the ground. It seemed fine. You would never know that there was a gaping hole there last night.

Ten minutes later, two of Will's siblings stumbled into the infirmary. They greeted each other with a tired "good morning" each. Will only said that this area needed to be decontaminated. No one really needed to know the context—it was an infirmary, after all. All kinds of things happened in here.

As the others finished cleaning, Will washed up and went to check on Nico. He slipped behind the curtain, happy to see that Nico was still asleep. He was worried that Nico wouldn't be able to sleep long after his nightmare, but he seemed fine now. Will blushed at the memory of pressing his face so close to Nico's. At the time, Will was only thinking about how best to help Nico, but now he couldn't help but be a little embarrassed by his actions. But it did help Nico calm down, so he wasn't going to overthink it.

Will sat in the chair by Nico's bed and looked over his clipboard. He frowned in thought, pondering over what he knew of Nico's condition and how to treat everything. As he mumbled to himself, Nico stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Will looked over to see Nico rubbing his eyes and looking around, slightly disoriented from his setting. How cute, Will thought before he could stop himself.

He shook his head before clearing his throat. "Mornin', Sunshine." Nico turned his head toward the sound of Will's voice, finally remembering exactly where he was. He groaned and threw his arms over his eyes in response.

Will laughed lightly and asked, "Sleep well?"

Nico groaned again before moving his arms and staring up at the ceiling. "I feel like I'm more tired." He flexed his fingers, like he knew how tense they were throughout the night.

"Well, I have a few possible answers to that." Nico swiveled his head, staring at Will in surprise. Will raised an eyebrow. "What? It's my job to figure out what's wrong, then hopefully fix the problem."

"I guess, I just…" Nico trailed off, now looking confusedly at the ceiling. "I didn't really think there was an explanation, I guess."

Now, there was an interesting thought. Will hadn't considered that Nico hadn't considered finding a solution to his fatigue and exhaustion. Maybe the son of Hades wasn't stubborn, he just never cared for himself properly before. Will hummed in acknowledgement as he jotted a quick note to be really clear in any future treatment instructions for Nico.

"Okay, first thing to address: you had a nightmare last night."

"What?!" Nico burst out, sitting straight up and looking at Will with a slightly horrified expression.

Will put his hands out in front of him in a placating manner. "Don't worry, it's fine. Austin and I were both here, and we handled it. You're fine."

Nico gazed down at his hands, which were slightly shaking now. "A nightmare… you said it could explain why I'm tired." He looked up at Will. "I used my powers last night, didn't I?"

He caught on fast, Will thought. "Yes, you did, but—"

"What did I do? Was anyone hurt? Did I destroy anything?" Nico glanced around frantically, looking for any signs of damage or any newly filled beds.

Will wanted to reach out like he did last night and help comfort Nico, but he wasn't sure if that was welcomed at the moment. "Nico, look at me." He waited for them to lock eyes before continuing. "You're fine. We're all fine. No one got hurt, we've decontaminated the area for any zombie—"

"Oh gods, I summoned zombies?" Nico seemed on the verge of despair, like Will was about to kick him out for something out of his control. Will really wanted to cry for the kind of expectations Nico had about his life, but he managed to hold back.

"You tried to summon zombies. Austin and I stopped it, and you actually calmed down enough to control your powers." Will reached out, but Nico pulled his hand back, as thought he would hurt Will. "Nico, please, I promise it's okay."

Will slowly reached for one of Nico's hands, and this time, Nico let him make contact. Will pushed out his power through his fingertips to where he touched the back of Nico's hand. Nico's posture relaxed immediately, his eyes fluttering shut as a sigh escaped his lips. Will smiled at him when he opened his eyes again.

Nico's lips lifted upward for a brief second before he looked down and hid his face behind his bangs. "I'm really sorry about that. My powers are… difficult, sometimes."

Will shook his head, not that Nico saw. "Everyone's powers get out of hand at times. You're extremely powerful, so it's no surprise that they're hard to control. Honestly, you utilize your powers really well, I'm sure it's not easy."

Nico looked back at Will, his mouth slightly open as he was taken aback by the words of praise. Will held his gaze and tried to convey his sincerity about what he said.

Before the silence could stretch on too long, Will spoke again. "So, yes, you had a nightmare and used your powers, accidentally, last night. You were already suffering from overusing your powers, so the extra usage didn't help." Addressing whatever he was dreaming about that made him react so strongly would have to wait for another time.

In the pause, Nico's stomach grumbled loudly. Nico flushed red as Will chuckled. "Which brings me to my next point: you need food. You're malnourished, as I'm sure you weren't concerned with proper, nutritious meals while carrying the Athena Parthenos across the ocean." That got a snort out of the son of Hades, which Will counted as a win.

The healer got up and grabbed a plate of food his sister had brought over from the pavilion. It was standard for the morning shift to come in with food for the overnighters. Nico got his own full plate per Will's instructions, which he only got minimal teasing for.

Will placed the food on Nico's bedside table. Nico scowled at the food and said, "I can't eat all that."

"We can share," Will said before he lost the nerve. "But you're going to have to eat as much as you can." He moved toward the food first so that Nico felt more comfortable. It worked as he watched the son of Hades tentatively nibble on some toast.

A little into their breakfast, Will continued with his diagnoses. "So, aside from power drain adding to your tiredness, it sounds like you also have chronic fatigue."

Nico looked confused, so Will added, "It's a condition where you're often tired for long periods of time, even if you slept a decent amount. You may also experience headaches, body aches, or lack of concentration."

Will let that sink in, watching Nico mull over it for a minute. Then, the boy spoke up and said, "That makes sense."

That really wasn't what Will wanted to hear. "It does?"

Nico nodded. "I think so. I mean, I'm always tired, but I usually don't get enough sleep, so I figured it was that. I didn't know there was a name for it or anything." Nico looked less concerned and more thoughtful. Did he never think to diagnose his symptoms as something treatable? Ever?

Will couldn't really wipe the genuine concern off his face, so he turned toward his clipboard to write things down. "Well, this will require a bit of a lifestyle change. Actually, probably a lot of change for you. No underworld-y stuff, mister," Will wagged his pen at the son of Hades, who rolled his eyes. "I'll be developing a treatment plan for you over the next couple days.

"While I'm at it," he turned back toward Nico, who had started on the pancakes. "You probably also have chronic pain. I'm guessing your body usually hurts, at least a little?" Nico hesitated before nodding. "Yeah, chronic pain and chronic fatigue can get mixed up sometimes since both may cause symptoms of the other. But, considering everything you've been through, I'm guessing the normal symptoms of both conditions have been overshadowed by, ah, everything else. Not that I think you're recovered from the entire war yet, but I have a feeling that those underlying conditions are there." Will's lips pulled into a thin line as he thought about what he just said. Nico had gone through so much in both wars, and probably outside of the wars, too. His body has endured a lot of strain, it's a miracle it hadn't snapped yet. The gods really didn't give this kid a break, did they?

Nico sighed and rolled his shoulders back. "Sure, why not? At least I'm probably used to it by now." The son of Hades gazed upward, like he wanted to ask the gods why, but he was tired of it by now.

Will shook his head. "No, you deserve better than that." Nico whipped his head back toward Will, eyes wide. Why is it that painful diagnoses are fine, but care from others is out of the ordinary? "You do, Nico. I promise, I'll do whatever I can to help take that pain away. The gods owe you a break from all… this," Will waved his hands around at nothing, but he knew Nico understood. Will huffed out a breath, upset that he couldn't do as much as he'd like to help.

"I didn't know," Nico began quietly. He peeked up through his bangs at the son of Apollo before quickly looking away again. "I probably wouldn't have admitted to—to having chronic pain, before today. I didn't realize it until you used your powers on me."

Will sucked in a breath. "You—"

"I've never felt… nothing before that."

Will was not going to cry for Nico's pain right now, he was not. Instead, he held out his hand, palm up, a clear invitation. Nico eyed it for a second before slowly, hesitantly, lifting his own hand and settling it lightly in Will's. Will closed his hand around Nico's with barely any pressure, not wanting to crowd the son of Hades or make him uncomfortable. He smiled, holding Nico's gaze as he pushed out some of his healing powers. It didn't actually heal, but it soothed nerve endings to bring temporary relief, which was very useful as a medic. But right now, as he watched the son of Hades nearly melt and the sensation, Will believed the entire purpose of his power was for this boy before him, who deserved peace and freedom from pain so, so much.

After a moment, Will gently lowered their hands. Nico's eyes fluttered open and for a second, Will saw the eyes full of peace and joy. He really wanted to see that again. Both boys had blush painting their cheeks when they pulled their hands away.

"Hey, Will, could I—"

Will sprung backwards, away from Nico, at the sound of his sister's voice. Nico jerked back as well, nearly knocking over the plate of food near him. Will's sister stood just behind the curtain, unaware of the panic she just caused.

"What?" Will squeaked.

"Um, I wanted your opinion on the Ares boy. Are you—" The curtain rustled where she touched it.

"Fine!" Will called. "I'll be there, just a sec." He glanced back at Nico, who was red in the face and decidedly not meeting Will's eyes.

"Sorry, I'll be right back," Will mumbled as he shuffled out through the curtain.

When he met his sister's eyes, she looked concerned for all of two seconds before her smile turned sly. "If you're too busy with your patient right now, I can probably—"

"Shut up and show me the problem," he grumbled, moving past her and grabbing the clipboard from her hands as he went. The daughter of Apollo chuckled and followed, thankfully choosing to discuss the patient's treatment plan and not her older brother's flaming cheeks.

When Will returned, he found Nico staring out the window of the infirmary, which really only offered a view of the sky above. His breakfast, only halfway eaten, was pushed to the side. Will smiled at Nico as he cleared the plate away and straightened up things on his supply cart. He sat back in his chair with an exhale and picked up his clipboard again. But before he could say anything, Nico asked, "Aren't you tired?"

The question caught Will off guard. "Huh?"

Nico twisted the skull ring on his finger nervously, but elaborated, "Didn't you say you'd been working here for days? Shouldn't you take a break?"

Will was caught by the worried expression on the son of Hades's face. "Um, well I slept last night, and that was honestly pretty good."

This only deepened Nico's frown. "But I interrupted you."

Will shook his head. "It wasn't your fault, Nico. And still, I got a good amount of rest. But thank you for your concern." He smiled, hoping to convince Nico to drop the subject, but also touched that he seemed to care so much. Though the hypocrisy of his words was borderline ridiculous.

Nico clearly wasn't convinced, but Will began talking before anything else could be said on the subject. "So, to get back to your injuries we didn't really address yesterday, I'm going to need you to take off your shirt."

There was a solid three seconds where both boys just sat there, until Will's words sunk in and they were back to being a blushing mess. Will, ever the professional, cleared his throat and said, "I need to get a good look at your injuries to start healing them, and since you're awake, I won't have to cut your shirt off." Will was truly digging himself a hole that he could never climb out of. He really hoped his siblings weren't listening right now.

"I-I-um, yeah, okay." Nico, for his part, didn't immediately shadow travel away. So that was good. "Like, right now?"

Not trusting himself to say anything intelligent, Will simply nodded and focused on his clipboard, attempting to give Nico some semblance of privacy while he stripped his shirt off.

Will didn't notice Nico was done until the boy quietly cleared his throat. Will looked up to see a bare-chested son of Hades with a blush that spread down his neck. Don't stare, don't stare, don't stare, Will chanted to himself. But it was so hard because Nico was a warrior meaning that he had muscle on his slender body that was apparently always swallowed up by his shirt or jacket. Not only that, but he had scars littering his torso. Will almost desperately wanted to reach out and touch them. Not in a weird way (okay, it's a bit weird), but more of a reverent, almost sad touch, like he could take away the pain that caused the scars through touch alone. As head medic, Will has learned how to deal with the scars of demigods. He's learned not to touch or to ask, just focus on the problems he was meant to deal with. But he'd never seen any demigod Nico's age with as many scars as he had.

Will kept his eyes pinned to Nico's right shoulder, maneuvering around him so he could get a good look. The gash was still a faint red, like it was irritated, and possibly previously infected. "I'm going to touch you, okay?" Will warned, getting a nod in response. Will gripped Nico's outer shoulder to steady him as he continued his inspection. The wound wrapped from the front of Nico's shoulder over and down his upper back. The deepest part seemed to be at the very top.

"Can I ask what caused this?"

Nico nodded again and spoke quietly. "It was, um, Lycaon. Reyna, Coach Hedge, and I encountered him while we were coming back."

Will bit his tongue as he immediately wanted to yell. This was from someone as dangerous as Lycaon? And he hadn't come in to get it treated? He took a deep breath before starting, "Nico…"

"I know, I know," he huffed. "Reyna and Coach had fixed it up, I didn't really think about it. It was fine enough for me to fight." He tried to shrug his shoulders, wincing slightly now that he was really aware of the injury.

Will shook his head. "I get it. Just, come in sooner next time, okay?" Will stepped back and went to grab some ointment from his supplies. "Luckily, Hedge knows satyr healing magic, so he probably prevented any major infection."

The healer turned back with a green salve in his hands. He got to work on Nico's shoulder, operating in a focused silence. Nico sat there and avoided breathing too deeply so he both didn't move his shoulder and didn't smell the weird minty-medicinal scent of the ointment. The salve felt cool on Nico's shoulder, though it definitely stung. Nico hissed through his teeth when Will was at the deepest part. The son of Apollo mumbled out an apology, but they both knew Will had to put more there to clean out the wound better. All in all, it didn't seem to be as painful as Will expected, though he knew Nico had an extremely high pain tolerance.

Once Will was finished, he washed his hands and grabbed a roll of bandages on his way back to the bed. "We'll just keep that for now and check on it daily. The salve should help push out any remaining infection and soothe the irritated skin around the wound. It may or may not need stitches later, but let's just get it wrapped up, and we can be done with it for now." Nico lifted his arm and was pliant as Will wound the bandage up and around his shoulder.

"So, Neeks," Will broke the silence while he worked. He saw Nico make a face out of the corner of his eye at the nickname, making Will grin. "What is your favorite color?"

Now Nico just looked confused. "Why?"

Will rolled his eyes. "Because I'm curious. It's a basic question, Ghosty."

"Really? These are the nicknames you came up with?"

"I've got more, and I will use them all until you answer my question, Death Breath."

"Tch," Nico turned his head, but Will could've sworn the boy was fighting back a smile. "Blue."

"Really?" Will asked, surprised. They met each other's eyes as Will tucked the end of the bandage back in. "What shade?"

Nico cocked his head, and that's just adorable. "Not sure yet."

That was an odd answer that Will was not going to overthink at this moment.

"Okay, Mister Mysterio. My favorite color is black."

"Really?" Nico didn't believe him at all.

"Okay, fine, it's yellow," Will grinned brightly.

Nico scoffed, "Of course it is. Typical Apollo kid."

Will put a hand to his chest in mock offense. "Well, excuse me, we can't all be mysterious and cool like you, Prince of the Underworld."

That got a breathy chuckle out of Nico, which was as close to a full laugh as Will had gotten thus far, so he was over the moon.

Will glanced at the clock, then jumped up in surprise. "Oh! It's past lunch already!" He smiled sheepishly at Nico. "Sorry, I get caught up in my work easily. I'm going to go get us some food, be right back!" He bounded right out of there without waiting for a reply, largely because when he looked back at Nico, he realized he was still shirtless and they had just been joking around in close proximity and wow, Will was really pushing his luck on not messing up a new friendship (maybe more, Will's not ready to talk about that just yet).

When Will came back with a full plate of food for the both of them, Nico was leaning back in bed, shirt on and eyes closed. It didn't look like he was asleep, but he was definitely dozing off.

"Nico, hey, you gotta get up and eat. No sleeping yet," Will spoke softly, hoping not to startle the son of Hades. Nico made a disgruntled noise but dutifully sat up, moving his bandaged shoulder around as he stretched.

"Hey, don't move your shoulder so much," Will chided.

"It's uncomfortable," Nico pouted.

"It's healing, which may be an unfamiliar feeling to you, but that's what's supposed to happen." Will settled the food between them and sat on the end of Nico's bed.

"It's not good for fighting," Nico commented, and Will nearly choked on his fruit.

"Yeah, you're not meant to be battle-ready at the moment, di Angelo." Will leveled a glare at his patient, to which Nico simply shrugged as he picked up a sandwich.

They chatted a little as they ate, both of them mostly focused on the food. After clearing the plate away, Nico settled back against the bed while Will once again grabbed his clipboard and sat in his chair.

"One last thing before I let you rest again." Will took a deep breath before continuing. "I remember feeling a lot of darkness in you at the end of the battle. I still felt it yesterday when I did my preliminary assessment, but I'd like to get a full picture of what we're dealing with." Will looked to Nico for confirmation, who solemnly nodded.

Will held both of his hands out, and Nico placed his hands on top, reaching over to grip Will's wrists. The hold was a lot firmer and less comforting than the last time they held hands. They both understood the importance of this assessment. Will shut his eyes and concentrated. It felt like Will sent out feelers from where he connected with Nico, seeking out all of the issues in Nico's body. The healer had to push past any of the physical injuries they previously discussed, focusing only on that sensation of darkness he remembered from during the battle. He thought about Nico's shadow-traveling abilities, the dark swirls of energy emanating from his hands last night, the stories he heard about Nico fading out of existence. He could not—would not—let something like that happen again. Not when he was around to do something about it.

Will shuddered as he encountered large amounts of darkness spread throughout Nico's body. It was much less than a few days ago, but last night's incident didn't help any. It was hard to describe, but the deep, swirling shadows felt contradictory to Will's very soul.

Will gasped as the connection suddenly broke off. He looked up to find Nico sweating and staring at him, his hands held close to his chest.

"Nico?" Will breathed. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

"What? No, you—" Nico's eyebrows drew together in worry. "You looked like you were in pain. I thought I was hurting you."

"Oh," Will gulped, smoothing his sweaty hands down his shorts. "No, no you didn't hurt me. I was just… there's a lot there. Darkness. I—I'm not sure how to deal with it."

Nico looked sad but resigned when he lowered his gaze to his lap. "Sorry," he whispered, almost so quiet that Will didn't hear.

"No, hey," Will's hand hovered over Nico's knee, unsure if his touch was welcome. When Nico didn't pull away, he took it as a sign and settled his hand down in a reassuring gesture. "We'll figure it out, Nico. You're not at risk of fading, thank the gods. But," he let out a frustrated puff of air. "We'll have to figure out how to purge the rest of the darkness out so you can better use your powers without risk."

The son of Hades tentatively looked up at Will, his brown eyes wide with worry and the barest hint of hope. "So, I didn't… hurt you?"

It did something to his heart, that Nico so strongly cared for Will yet immediately pinned the problem on himself. "No, you didn't. I promise, I'm fine." He sent him his most sincere smile, to which Nico breathed a sigh of relief and untensed a little.

Will leaned back and mumbled to himself as he noted his observations on Nico's papers. He then put it aside, feeling a bit tired from using his powers all day. He turned to Nico, who was fiddling with his skull ring and bouncing his knee nervously. "I think," Will started, causing Nico to still his movements and face the healer, "that we've done enough for today. You need to rest more, I think that's the best thing for your body right now."

Will waited for acknowledgement before adding, "Nico, I promise that we will figure out the best way to help you fully recover. I care a lot about you—r well-being." Nice save, Will. "I want you to be at your best. But you're going to have to trust me, okay? I know it might be asking a lot. You probably don't remember me from before—"

"I do."

Will blinked. "You… you do?"

Nico nodded, avoiding eye contact. "You were a medic during the battle of Manhattan, too. Saved a lot of lives." He turned to face Will. "I trust you. At least that much."

The son of Apollo was stunned silent for a few seconds. He did not expect Nico di Angelo, hero of two wars now, to remember him. He might've teared a little, blinking and turning away so that Nico didn't notice. "You had to add on that last part, huh?"

They shared a small laugh. "Well, all I know about you is your favorite color, Solace." Will glanced back over his shoulder to see Nico settling back in his bed, eyes already drooping.

"We'll have to work on that, then," he smirked. "Good night, Neeks."

"Night, Will."