Chapter 3: Free to go
Will had never been more excited while filling out paperwork. He wasn't excited because he was filling out paperwork. No, not at all. He was just excited.
A feast in New Rome. Wow.
Will tried to act casual about it in front of Nico, but he really really wanted to go. The only things Will had heard of New Rome were from the Romans themselves, so they were probably a bit biased, but that didn't change the fact that Will wanted to see it for himself. He wanted to see New Rome with Nico.

Will was practically drooling over the thought of Nico inviting him to New Rome. Will only realized he was daydreaming when one of his brothers came and asked him if he was okay, snapping Will out of his fantasies. "Oh yeah I'm fine. Just...ummm... filling out paperwork." Will hummed.
Will's brother eyed him suspiciously "uh huh. Well, I'm just going to go back to work now."

Will looked back down at his paperwork and his mood instantly dampened. Nico's release form.
He instantly felt guilty for being upset about letting Nico leave. But he had to. He felt bad about keeping Nico here so long. He feared if he didn't let Nico out soon, Nico would probably hate Will, if he already didn't.

Will had to be truthful with himself. He had a crush on Nico Di Angelo. Will wasn't necessarily upset with himself because of it. It was a fact of his life. He had no control over it, so why punish himself for it?
And to be even more honest with himself, he really didn't want Nico to leave. He enjoyed seeing Nico everyday and making sure the boy ate properly. He enjoyed taking care of Nico and nagging him about his health.
But he knew he had kept Nico locked up in the infirmary long enough. Will wasn't sure if Nico would go out of his way to talk to Will or visit Will after he let him out, but Will was tired of putting it off.

Will filled out the paper and hesitantly signed his name at the bottom. He filled out a few other papers for other patients and decided to go see how the other patients were doing.
As he passed Conner and Travis, who were frequent patients at the infirmary, they said "Will! Will!"
Will looked at the Stolls, one of which had a huge cast on their leg, other having an equally huge cast on their arm, both covered with signatures.
"Just the man we'd been looking for!" Travis had a sly grin on his face that scared Will. Even in the hospital, he was up to something.
"Hey Will," Conner said sweetly. "Would you mind doing us a favor?"
"Yes, I would mind. I'm not getting caught by Chiron doing your dirty work."
"How do you know you'll be doing our dirty work?" Travis asked.
Will rolled his eyes. "Because almost every time I walk by here, you guys ask me to pull some kind of pranks on someone for you."
"But we're just three arms and three legs right now!" Conner cried, waving a finger at the giant white cast on his leg.
"Which means you'll have trouble pranking for a while. I don't see how that's a bad thing." Will chimed.
"Will, will you at least sign our casts?" Travis put on a puppy dog face that he was somehow convinced would work.
"Hmmm..." Will thought aloud. "Maybe, you know, if I didn't already know you were going to use it to forage my signature."
Travis and Conner were quiet for a moment, quite a rare occurrence. "Touchè." Conner muttered as Will walked away to check on other patients.
He stopped to check on Lou Ellen, who had been carried to the infirmary after she had accidentally used the wrong magic and it back fired. She still had a tail and a few warts left, but the worst of it was gone.
"Feeling any better?" Will asked gently, sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Shouldn't you be checking a certain someone?" Lou Ellen hummed, wiggling her eyebrows. She then began to do her new favorite Will impression: "oh Nico, you're so handsome and brave."
"Lou Ellen, I suggest you stop right there or I'll hire the Stolls to do something horrible."
Lou Ellen rolled her eyes. "Suuure you will. So how's he doing?"
"Better. Not necessarily good, but better. I still don't think he'll be able to use his underworld-y stuff for a few months. I'm releasing him today."
"Oh, really? And what if he tries to use his powers as soon as he gets out?"
"Lou Ellen, I don't think he's that much of an idiot. Dense? Yes. Stubborn? Yes. Stupid? Not quite."
Lou Ellen laughed a little bit, which quickly turned into a yawn.
"You need to get some rest." Will insisted.
Lou Ellen yawned again. "No need to tell me twice."

Will retreated to his workspace, putting everything away in its correct place. He then took the brave walk down the hallway to Mr. Di angelo's room.

Will peeked inside hoping Nico was either asleep or hadn't finished his lunch so Will wouldn't have tell him he could leave. Neither of those were the case.

Nico sat up in his bed with the blandest expression on his face, practically glaring at the TV screen. For a misleading moment, Will was scared Nico was glaring at him.

"So, you finished your lunch. I guess your free to go. You just need to sign a few things." Will said awkwardly.
"Shhhhh this episode is almost over." Nico hissed.
Will cranked his neck to see what was on, which was a show called Olympian Idol.
"So, the son of the God of the underworld, who can raise the dead from the ground and command armies of skeletons and has literally lived in Hell, likes reality TV shows."
Now, Nico really was glaring at him. "So the son of the God of healing, who is practically a doctor, has just asked to be killed."
"Oh please." Will rolled his eyes. "You couldn't kill me right now, even if you wanted to. Which brings us to our next order of business: your powers. Unless you start recovering miraculously fast, I don't think you'll be able to use your powers for at least two or three months."

A look of shock took over Nico's face. "Three months?!"
"Hey, three months isn't that bad. It's better than not being able to use them again at all, which would be a very likely probability if you had kept using your powers."
Nico said in silence, in shock, for a moment or two. It was clear Nico had never really regarded not being able to use his powers as something that could actually happen to him. Nico stared at himself, his hands, probably realizing how close he was to never using his powers again.
Will finally broke the awkward silence. "You need to gather your things and come with me so you can sign some paperwork."
Nico obliged, still silent and gloomy from the bad news Will had dropped on him.
Will already missed the new Nico he had come to know the past few days. Happy Nico. Will was afraid that the bad news had ruined whatever chances he had had with this son of Hades. But Will wasn't sorry. Nico deserved to know just how close he came to losing his powers, if not losing his life.
Will lead Nico to his workspace, where Will searched his ever so clustered desk for Nico's release form. He finally spotted it half hidden under a bunch of other papers. "Aaah, here we are." Will yanked the file out from underneath the rest (Will had had enough practice to not send the other papers flying).
Will pointed at the few unfilled in blanks on the page. "Sign here and here."
Nico quietly did as he was told. His cursive was surprisingly very very neat, virtually perfect. Much much better than Will's sloppy scribbles.
"Okay." Will said. His voice was unintentionally shaky. "You're free to go."
Nico started shuffling for the door. He stopped midway through and poked his head back through. "Hey, Will?"
"Yeah?" Will responded.
Nico kind of looked down at his feet in a shy way. "I know the Apollo table at mealtime is kind of crowded. You're welcome to come sit with me and Jason, if you want."
Will's heart felt like it was about to explode. It was only a simple offer but it held so much potential.
"Ill be sure to take you up on that offer." Will tried to keep his voice as smooth as possible.
Nico gave Will the slightest smile and said "See you tonight then". Nico took himself and his belongings outside, into the blinding sunlight.

Will wanted to sing at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately, he was a very bad singer. He could barely keep himself contained. Will sat in his spinning office chair and spun in circles until he got dizzy.