Nico woke, not to the daylight seeping through the cracks in the door or the clamor of campers outside, but to the creak of the cabin door, through which Will Solace appeared. Upon stepping into the cabin, Will strode across the room and pulled heavy emerald curtains back from the windows.

"No wonder you're deathly pale and sickly looking. You're shutting out the sun," Will crossed the room to Nico's bed, where the gaunt boy was still blinking sleepily. "Vitamin D, Nico," Will tapped on the nightstand nearby with the glass he was holding for emphasis. "Vitamin D. It's an important vitamin. It comes from sunlight, something that you are not getting enough of."

"W-Will?" Nico scrambled into a sitting position, his voice panicky. "Wha- Why are you here? Nico shoved his hands under his sheets, hoping to hide his fingers, indistinct and smoky in the Hades cabin, where everything seemed to be in shadow. If Will sees my hands...

Eyes twinkling, Will laughed lightly at Nico, whose hair was rumpled and eyes were thick with sleep. "As I recall, you pronounced yourself as 'healthy.' I'm not sure I'd call sleeping seventeen hours healthy, would you?"

Nico pulled the long sleeve of his shirt down to cover his indistinct fingers before reaching for a pillow from the next bed to throw at Will. "Fine, I'm still sick. Doesn't that give you more reason to let me sleep, though? Why are you disrupting my 'slumber of healing'?"

"I'm worried that you secretly yearn to join the Hypnos cabin." Will grinned and fiddled with strand of his honey colored hair. "Clovis would..." Nico's eyes stayed on Will's hair. It's honey, he thought, drenched in sunshine. His eyes followed the lock of hair from the top of Will's head to where it waved out slightly, and then curled around his ear. He felt a strange urge to brush it back from Will's face.

"Anyway," Nico blinked and refocused on what Will was saying. "I came because you left the infirmary a little, ah, abruptly yesterday. If I would have been thinking clearly, I would have given you a bottle of pills to take with. I think rest and some meds for a few more days could do you some good. You're already sleeping an inordinate amount, so I don't need to hassle you about that, but really," Will held out a glass of water and two blue capsules. "Take these. It's a good idea."

Shoot. Nico glanced at where his hands were, buried under the covers. How can I take that without him seeing my hands? His eyes flitted to the glass of water, and then rested on Will's face. "Leave it on the table. I'll take it in a minute."

Will gave him a knowing smile. "Sure you will, as soon as I shoot an arrow straight." Will's lack of archery skills, despite his father being Apollo, were well known. He'd shoot an arrow straight when Hera became friends with Annabeth. That is to say, never. "Take it," Will intoned goodheartedly. "It's not poison."

Nico grabbed the glass with his sleeve covering his fingers, then snatched at the pills, hoping to move his hand fast enough for them to evade Will's notice.

"Hey!" Will caught Nico's retreating hand, encircling the gaunt boy's wrist with his thumb and middle finger. Will's grip was strong, and warm. Nico felt his cheeks burn scarlet. "Your hand..."

Will studied Nico's face for a long moment, then looked down to where he'd caught Nico's wrist. Uncurling Nico's fingers, he examined how Nico's fingertips had turned to smoky mirages of themselves. The pills Nico was holding fell to the floor and rolled under the bed.

"You lied." Will's eyes, the same color as a cloudless afternoon, meet the brown ones across from him. Nico could read dismay, and, possibly, sadness in Will's gaze. "You lied so you could leave the infirmary...but why did you want to leave it so badly? ...Is it...me? Am I bothering you too much?"

Nico drew in a breath. "No, it's...not you, it's more...I can't think. When you're around, I mean, I'm...confused, maybe, or...my thoughts don't make sense," he finished, wincing at how his words had come out.

Will's face fell. "You can just tell me you don't want to be friends, Nico." Will let Nico's hand drop back onto the bed. "I'll have one of my siblings see if they can do something about your hands." Will pulled a small plastic container out of his pocket and set it on the nightstand.

"Will, no, it's not that-"

Will cut him off. "Two pills, twice a day, for another week. I'll have someone check in then." Will's shook his head, his disappointment evident.

Nico closed his eyes, and didn't open them until the door wheezed shut. Inexplicably, felt his throat tighten. You've lost friends before. Get over it. He looked at the spot where Will had stood moments before. You have lost friends before. But this isn't the same. This feels...different.

Shadowed walls, polished floors; Nico knew where he was. But at the same time, he was lost. Completely lost.