XXXV

NICO

Nico resurfaced to consciousness as his eyes fluttered open. The first thing he saw was a pair of light blue eyes. It was awfully close to his face and he briefly wondered if he was still dreaming.

"Nico?"

But the voice was too real and too clear. It wasn't echoing like how it had always been in his dreams.

"Nico?" The pair of blue eyes blinked at him. Then there was concerned frown etched on a tanned face.

Nico's vision focused. His brain did the same. Nope. It wasn't a dream. No other person had shown in his dreams. Then he recognized that the face belonged to Will and it was too close to his face. His eyes widened. He sat up clumsily while ignoring how his face had heat up because of the proximity of their faces.

"Easy" Will held his shoulders to steady him.

"Are you okay? You passed out earlier." Will said.

Nico looked around he was sitting in one of the hospital beds in the emergency room of JHH. Nico sighed. The last thing he needed was to be at the ER because of his mess up brain and body.

"I'm fine." Nico finally answered.

"Are you sure? You were holding to your chest earlier. Do you have any history of heat-related illness? I thought you had a cardiac arrest earlier." Will said. His voice all professional.

Nico sighed exasperatedly. "Yes. I'm good. No heart illness either. It just happened sometimes. . ."

"You randomly pass out? That's not good either." Will countered.

Nico stared at Will who had a stethoscope around his neck. "It's not a problem here." He pointed at his chest. "It's more of here." He tapped his temple.

"Be more specific." Will insisted.

"I have amnesia. So I'm ninety percent confused and ten percent frustrated all the time." Nico answered flatly. It was becoming his life's slogan. Maybe he should tattoo that somewhere on his body.

"I see," Will said. "You said something weird. What was that all about? Did you remember anything?"

That reminds me. . .

Nico looked directly at Will's eyes. He couldn't help but notice the small freckles dusting his cheeks. His light blue eyes were distracting too. Nico mentally shook himself. Focus up. There were more important matters here. So he spoke. "Don't take this the wrong way, but have we met before?"

Will stared back.

Nico searched his face for any signs of recognition. But all he saw was the same nonchalant and impassive face he had the second time they had met in this very same place.

Will finally spoke. "Yes. Yesterday. You were here with your sister.

"No. I mean before that?"

Will nodded. "Yeah. Remember in the café. When I mistook you for someone. . ."

"So you remembered." Nico nodded appreciatively. "But way before that, have we already met?"

Will remained silent for a second. Then he spoke. "What if we have?"

"Really? Have we?"

"No. we haven't," Will said, "but what's with your question?"

Nico deflated like a balloon. So he was wrong, then? "Nothing. I just feel strange. . ."

"Strange. How exactly?" Will asked, doctor mode on again.

Nico was getting annoyed. "Never mind that. It's not medical okay. I'm seriously truly and genuinely fine." He was about to hop down the bed when he noticed something over Will's shoulder.

From a nearby, a guy in a black trench coat was walking with a woman who seemed to be a patient because of her hospital gown.

Nico stared at them. Will noticed this. The doctor looked back and forth between the guy in black and to Nico.

"Y-you can see him?" Will asked stunned

Nico glanced up at Will, equally stunned as the blond doctor. "You too? I know they aren't human. What are they exactly? The one in black particularly?"

Will looked around. "Let's not talk about this here. Let's get out. You said you're fine, right?"

And so they found themselves walking aimlessly on the sidewalks while Will had explained it to him.

"Death angels huh?" Nico mused. "I mean I've been seeing them for a while now but I just learned to ignore them. How about the woman with the death angel? Was she a ghost or something?"

Will scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Oh, so he was with a woman. Probably you are talking about the soul they were escorting. I can't see them though. All I can see are death angels."

"Cool. It's good to know that I am not the only one who's like that." Nico hooked his thumbs in the pocket of his jeans. He dodged a man coming his way and whose eyes were at his phone.

"The first time I saw them, it was hard," Nico explained. "Especially when I was still at the hospital. There are a lot of them in a place like that. I thought they were humans before. I mistakenly pointed them out to one of the doctors spooking him out. That was when I realized I was the only one who could see them and they aren't human at all. Since when did you start seeing them?" He gave him a side-glance.

Will answered looking ahead. "When I was a kid. They are the reason why I became a doctor. I hate them at first. The nine-year-old me thought that they're the reason why people become miserable since they're taking away those people's souls. So I devoted myself to preventing that they won't be able to get those souls and people will be happy. Later on, I realized that I shouldn't hate them because they're just doing their job and they aren't bad at all."

Nico stopped walking so was Will. Nico turned to face Will. He tilted his head at him, smiling.

"What?" Will raised an eyebrow.

"Will Solace, there is more to you than you are letting on. Am I right?" Nico said. He resumed walking. "Well, you are kind of cool too."

He stopped again when he realized that Will wasn't following anymore. He looked back. Will was just standing there, staring at him. There. Like Hazel had said, there was a melancholy look on his face.

Nico strode back to him. "Is there something wrong?"

"How did you know my name?" Will asked.

"Of course, I'd know. You are my sister's doctor. You introduced yourself to Hazel as Will Solace." Nico answered.

"Right." Will sighed.

"And that reminds me, we haven't formally introduced each other. I'm Nico di Angelo. Nice to meet you." Nico held out his hand for a handshake.

Will stared at Nico's hand for a moment but eventually accepted Nico's hand. "Will Solace. But you already know that."

Nico couldn't help but gaze down at their hands intertwined. Here it was again, that bittersweet feeling. Why couldn't Nico shake this kind of feeling when he was with him? Will cleared his throat and pulled his hand away.

"S-sorry," Nico muttered embarrassed. He mentally hit himself in the head. Way to go, Nico.

"Well, where are we?" Will looked around. They both realized that they stopped in front of McDonald's.

"Do you want to eat there? My treat." Nico said. He mentally winced at his ever-loving mouth who was acting on his own before Nico could even command it as to what to say. Also, stupid addiction to Mcdonald's. So he added hastily. "We can eat somewhere if you don't-"

"Fine," Will said. "My shift just ended so I haven't eaten breakfast yet."

"Really?" Nico tried to act casual but he couldn't hide his smile.

"Someone's happy." Will noticed.

Nico bit his lip and sheepishly said, "No one would eat with me there nowadays. I'm glad you're okay with it. It's kind of childish but I like eating there. . ."

"I'm also glad that some things never changed," Will said walking inside the McDonald's.

"What?" Nico followed him inside.

They had both ordered hash browns, big mac value meal burger and a cup of coffee. Soon, they were sitting opposite to each other.

Before they could start eating, a blonde in a pink mini skirt approached them. The latter guys looked up.

"Sorry to interrupt but hi. I'm Suzy." The blonde introduced herself sweetly to Nico. "It was just a dare with my friends over there-" She pointed on the other side of the room. There was a group of girls sitting there. They all waved at Nico. "-but if you're interested, here's my number. Call me. You're cute." Then she winked at Nico.

Nico's mouth hung open.

The blonde was about to leave when Nico held her wrist. Suzy smiled, biting her lip.

Nico picked up the piece of paper with his other hand and put it back on Suzy's palm. She looked confusedly at him.

Nico looked up at her. "You've asked the wrong person. I'm gay." Then he released her wrist.

This time, it was Suzy's mouth was hanging open. She looked back at Will, with the same dumbfounded expression.

Will raised his hand. "I'm gay too."

Nico kindly motioned the blonde to go back to her place. Suzy stiffly obliged.

There was a lapse of silence as the blonde had finally left them alone. Will spared a discreet glance at the table where Suzy was sitting.

"They all looked like a fish out of the water," Will muttered and casually sipped his coffee.

"Can I laugh?" Nico said seriously as he tried to focus on his hash browns but failed

"Go on. No one's stopping you." Will urged.

Then Will and Nico started laughing softly while shaking their heads.

"Seriously." Nico continued to shake his head. His laughter subsided but he was smiling.

"Badass are ladies' type nowadays," Will commented.

Nico only snorted. "But you didn't have to pretend that you are gay-"

"I wasn't pretending."

A moment of silence again.

Nico released a shaky breath. "Okay."

This time, Nico smiled like an idiot.

"Have you always been at night shift?" Nico asked curiously. He started to eat the hash browns.

Will paused for a moment. "Yes. Come to think of it. I have never been removed from the night shift ever since I started my residency there." He took a bite of his burger.

"So you were there for a long time? I've heard you're really intelligent that you got accelerated in medical school-"

Will raised an eyebrow at him, burger still in his mouth.

"I saw you in the magazine actually." Nico flushed. "Well, technically my sister Hazel saw you first. Hazel acted like she's your number one fan."

Will suddenly snorted with laughter, putting down his burger. He immediately covered his mouth with a napkin. He swallowed the food in his mouth and cleared his throat.

"You okay? Do you need water?" Nico asked. "What's so funny?"

Will sipped his coffee "No. I'm fine. I just thought of something. . . Nevermind." Will shook his head and dabbed his mouth with the napkin. He crumbled the napkin. "I was just glad that your sister likes me, somehow." He resumed eating.

Meanwhile, Nico stopped eating and stared at Will.

"What?" Will stopped eating too.

Nico smiled. "It's just nice to be here and talk to you. . ."

Will swallowed and looked down. "Don't get used to it. This is going to be the first and last."

Nico frowned. "What do you mean?"

Will glanced up at Nico. "Let's not meet again after this. Well, except for medical reasons, that I might accept. But other than that, let's not see each other again."

Nico's stomach flipped like he might throw out all the food he had eaten. "Why? Have I done something wrong to offend you?"

Will smiled a little bit and shook his head. "No, you haven't. But let's keep it that way. Just think of me as a villain in your life that will give you a hard time and confused and upset you even more."

"I'm just curious, why do you look so sad? Are you doing this because you wanted to be alone or something?"

Will pursed his lips. "Can you do me a favor?"

"What favor?"

"Can you pretend that you are someone I really know? I just wanted to say something that I never got to tell someone?"

"Will that make you happy if I agreed?"

"Yes."

"Will I be able to meet you again if I agreed?"

"No."

"Then I don't-"

"I missed you."

Nico was startled. Will was looking at him in a way that it was hard to believe that everything was just pretending.

"I missed you every single day that sometimes I wish that I would grow tired of it but of course, it never happened because I couldn't forget you no matter how hard I tried. You said that I shouldn't wait for you anymore and find new love. Can I really do that? Is that even possible when your love was everything to me?"

Then Will suddenly smiled. It was over. "Thank you for pretending and cooperating, Mr. di Angelo. That made me feel a little bit better. Let's call it a day." He stood up and left Nico frozen in his spot.

oo00oo

"Percy! Percy! Here she comes." Jason scrambled towards Percy's desk at NYPD.

"Shit!" Percy stood up in a panic. "What do I do? She's here to execute me, right?"

"It's either you hide or you die," Jason said.

"DETECTIVE JACKSON!" A female voice shouted from the far distance.

Percy dived under his table.

Jason turned around and stood up straighter. Reyna Ramirez-Arellano strode into the room.

"Yes, Detective Ramirez-Arellano? Can I help you with something?"

Reyna stopped in front of Jason and put her hand on her hip. "Yes, bring out Percy Jackson."

"He's not here at the moment," Jason said casually.

"Don't lie in my face. I know for a fact that he's hiding under the table. I could see his fingers underneath." Reyna said not missing a beat and still looking at Jason.

Jason winced and muttered. "What an idiotic Kelp Head."

Percy emerged from the table. "Ah, my desk was so dusty. I need to clean it-Oh! Here you are Detective, what brings you here?"

Reyna walked past Jason. "I've heard that you're poking into my case files without my permission despite knowing how much I hated that. Why?"

Percy muttered. "Took you long enough to know."

Reyna slammed her hands on the table that made the latter detectives jumped. "I said why?"

"I just thought that Nico di Angelo's case was kind of related to what I was investigating and I was in a hurry so I looked into it without your permission," Percy said smoothly. He had practiced that line a hundred times.

Reyna narrowed her eyes on him. "Another lie and you'll regret it."

Percy sighed in defeat. "Worth a shot. Sit down. I may have something important to tell that might help you with your case with Nico di Angelo."

Reyna frowned but obliged as Percy sat back down. She sat across from Percy and Jason walked closer to them.

"The night of October 20th." Percy began clasping his hands together on the table. "Detective Grace and I saw di Angelo earlier before the time he got hit by a car. We just remembered that a while back."

Reyna's eyes widened. "Where? And what time?"

"Around 10:30 p.m.? He was in front of a burning building where we were at that time. We were rescuing some people out there kidnapped by a syndicate we're still investigating and chasing until now."

"And who are those people you've rescued?"

"Only two," Percy answered, "Will Solace and Austin Lake"

Reyna's frown deepened. "Why would Nico be there?"

Percy shrugged. "We just briefly saw him and di Angelo disappeared. We initially thought that he'd gone to the building alone to rescue Will Solace and Austin Lake. But he wasn't just there and the two victims escaped already. But here's the thing." Percy raised his index finger. "One of the victims seemed to know Nico di Angelo."

"Who?"

"Will Solace. He's a doctor at Jupiter Half-blood Hospital."

"And how did you know their relation?"

"He said it himself, that he was a forgotten friend of Nico. He's the reason why I looked into your files. He's also a friend of mine and asked me a favor. He asked me what happened to Nico di Angelo's hit and run case. Also, that burned building is only a few blocks away from di Angelo's incident."

Reyna stood up and walked out of the room.

"Hey!" Percy shouted as he stood up. "I told you a piece of valuable information so spare me on this one okay!"