"I—I have to go, bye Will," sure Nico was cold, but he was in shock. How could his boyfriend, the most out person in the world, be in the closet at home? It's not possible, it's just not possible, Nico tried to convince himself, but it wasn't working. Nico needed to talk to someone, unfortunately the Camp was practically, only a few other demigods stayed all year round, only the ones with no parents stayed really. Nico figured he could talk to Chiron, but that would be way to awkward. Then it hit him, the one person who Nico could always count on answering his calls, except for Will of course, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano. The Roman Praetor. She had become like an older sister to Nico, and she would never ignore him. He clicked on her name, and his phone dialed the number. Nico was still getting used to having a cell phone, so when the ringing began, he jumped a little. He would never admit that though.

"Hello, Praetor Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, of the 12th Legion, who is this?" Reyna asked on the phone, she sounded so official.

"It's me Reyna, Nico," Nico responded, a palpable tone of concern in his voice. Reyna, like Will, had become very attuned to Nico's different emotional states, she could tell when something was wrong.

"Nico? What's wrong? What happened? Are you ok?" Reyna was frantic. That made Nico smile a little. He missed how Bianca would do exactly the same thing when she thought Nico was in pain.

"Everything is fine Reyna, I just wanted to talk." Nico tried to hide it, but it was obviously a lie. There was something wrong. Reyna knew it.

"Don't you dare lie to me Nico di Angelo. Tell me what is wrong. Now." She was forceful.

"Ugh, fine. I'm not sure how to feel about it, but apparently, Will is still in the closet at home. He doesn't correct people when they ask if I'm his girlfriend. He will just let it slide, or he doesn't tell people about me at all. What am I supposed to do?" Nico's normal uninterested façade, was replaced completely by fear. He was having a real crisis.

"Ok first, calm down. Second, are you sure that Will is in the closet, that boy is the most open person I've ever met." Reyna had only met Will on the battlefield, but even then, he didn't make any attempts to hide his attractions, he commented about how cute Nico was like every ten seconds.

"It's true, he told me himself." Nico admitted, after he took a few deep breathes to calm down. "What should I do, do I make him come out, or do I let him keep lying about me. I'm so confused. I can't even think about a life without him I—I," Nico almost burst into tears. He loved Will, he really did, but he didn't want to live in the dark anymore. He wanted to be out. He wanted to be happy.

"Ok listen to me Nico, and listen closely." The roman Praetor spoke in a commanding voice, the same voice she used when leading a battle, "you two are going to get through this. That boy is crazy about you, and he's probably planning how to come out to his friends tonight. I really think you need to talk to him about this, maybe there is a reason he hasn't come out. Maybe it isn't safe to come out in the town he lives in, uhhhh where does he live again?"

"New Mexico. A small town outside of Santa Fey, like a really small town." Some of the normal sassy undertones to Nico's speech started to return. "I don't know if I can talk to him right now, I'm just so hurt that he would hide me from his friends and family. Like I can't help but feel it's because he feels ashamed that he's dating me." The sassy tone that had returned was gone again, and Nico had to hold in his tears, he still didn't like crying in front of people, except Will.

"Will is so not ashamed of dating you, he practically screamed it from the top of Half-Blood hill, and if he was, I would personally go to where-ever-the-Hades New Mexico, and beat him up." Reyna took on a defensive big sister tone, that helped comfort Nico.

"He did actually." Nico responded.

"What?" Reyna was very confused.

"He did shout from the top of Half-Blood that we were dating, it was weird. He did it at like 6 in the morning too, I didn't even know people could be awake at that time." Finally, Nico sounded like he normally did. That was good, Reyna had done exactly what Nico had hoped she would, she had calmed him down, and helped him focus. She was very reliable, and always seemed to come through for Nico. He liked that.

"Well, as I said, that is something Will would do," Reyna chuckled. "So, are you done freaking out now, cause if you want me to, I will drop everything and go beat his ass."

"No! I just need time to think I guess." Reyna seemed to hear Nico's frown.

"Well, I'm going to call him and give him an earful, don't you worry. When I'm done with him, he'll never hurt you again." Reyna was trying to cheer him up, sure, but she was completely serious about calling Will, that was obvious, Nico appreciated it.

"If you must, please just go easy on him, I want to have a boyfriend after this. Not an empty sack of a man," Nico half-heartedly chuckled, he was trying. He then hung up the phone, and when he did he noticed he had several texts from Will, and a missed call.

Nico went to listen to the voicemail, but he decided to not let Will talk to him, not even a recording. Nico did, however, look at the text messages, they were,

4:34 pm Hey N, can we talk about this? We can't work it out unless we do

4:45 pm Nico I'm sorry, please just text me or call me so we can talk we need to talk

5:40 pm Nico please I just need to talk it out with you! Please just call me!

Nico almost laughed. Will was actually trying to get Nico to call him, just after he had admitted he was hiding him from his friends. Nico would have to eventually respond, but he planned on giving it several hours, or even days. Will deserved to stew in his own juices for a little bit, Nico figured. He decided he would turn his phone off, and since it was almost 6:00 pm, he decided to head to the Dining Pavilion for dinner.