"I can't believe you're serious about this," Hazel said, watching Nico's white knuckles grip the steering wheel.

Nico didn't respond, keeping his eyes on the road. When he didn't acknowledge her, Hazel reached over and tucked a stray hair behind his ear. "I mean, asking him to meet your family? That's a big step, Nico. I didn't realize you liked him so much." Her voice was full of sympathy, but Nico could see out of the corner of his eye that her eyes were twinkling.

"Quit making fun of me, Hazel," he mumbled. "'S just ice cream. And I brought you because I thought you two would get along."

"Alright." Hazel raised her hands defensively, but Nico knew she didn't believe him. He also knew she was right. With both his and Hazel's parents absent, bringing his sister to meet Will was the best he could do to show him he was serious about their friendship. Their friendship. That was all. Nothing more. Just friends.

"I don't like him," Nico decided to say after a moment of quiet.

Hazel had the nerve to laugh. "Please, Nico, don't try that with me."

"I do not like him."

"Then why am I here?"

"Because he's my friend!"

"Uh-huh."

There was another minute of silence as Nico tried to think of a response. To be honest, he didn't know how he felt about Will. He tried not to think about it.

Finally, he pulled up in front of Will's apartment building. Sighing, he picked up his phone and texted: here.

A few minutes later, Will clambered into their backseat. Hazel turned around in the passenger's seat to address him.

"Hello, Will!" She offered him her hand, smiling. "I'm Hazel, Nico's sister. He's told me so much about you!"

Will smiled too and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you! All good things, I hope?"

Hazel shook her head. "He hasn't spoken one ill word of you."

Nico cleared his throat, giving Hazel the cue to sink back into her seat normally.

"Hey, Will," he said. "How have you been?"

.

.

By the time they pulled into the parking lot, Nico was starting to regret his decision. Being trapped in a car with two very happy, optimistic people was simultaneously making his head hurt and his heart glow. It was confusing.

As soon as they stepped into the ice cream shop, Nico regretted it even more. The line was huge, and there were absolutely no tables left. People stood leaning against the walls throughout the whole shop; there was barely enough room to move.

"Maybe we should just go to another ice cream place," Nico said.

"Nooo, this place is special!" Hazel protested. "They make those huge shakes with the cups as wide as your face, covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce- they're the best place in town! We have to go here!"

"I'm willing to wait for that," Will agreed. Nico sighed.

"Looks like I've been outvoted, then. But there's not way I'm waiting for a table."

As soon as they stepped in line, Hazel glanced at Nico and Will, then grinned. "Um, I- I have to go the bathroom! You two have fun!" She shoved her bag into Nico's hands and then disappeared into the crowded shop.

"I hate you so much," Nico mumbled, knowing exactly what she was doing. He turned to Will awkwardly and cleared his throat. "So, uh… yeah."

Will smirked. "How eloquent."

"Shut up, Doctor Sunshine."

"Make me, Death Boy."

Nico glanced away quickly, trying to keep himself from thinking about what that line meant. It didn't work.

It took a few moments for Nico to contain his blush enough to turn back to Will, but what he saw set him red as a strawberry all over again. Will had a dusting of pink on his cheeks as well, proving he knew how flirty that response had sounded. But he'd obviously stopped thinking about it, because he was now focused on something new. Nico followed his gaze to see a baby swaddled in pink grabbing at a mobile which dangled above their stroller. But the baby wasn't what made him blush, obviously. It was the way Will looked at them, his eyes twinkling. Caught off guard, Nico wasn't alert enough to stop himself from observing Will's blue eyes that always mirrored the sky, now greyed from the oncoming thunderstorm. He didn't stop himself from noticing how Will was tilting head head to one side slightly, making locks of sandy blond hair fall lazily on the side of his face. He didn't stop himself from trying to count every little freckle speckled all over Will's face.

He didn't stop himself, that is, until Will looked back at him. Immediately, Nico's gaze shot to the ground, and he prayed that Will hadn't seen what he was doing. He kept his eyes trained on the floor for a long time, until he felt sure enough to look up again. Will was staring at him now the same way Nico had just been staring in reverse. Except Will didn't look away. They stayed, locking eyes, and Nico swallowed hard, preparing to say something, and maybe he would have said something, except-

"Can you two stop making love eyes at each other and move forward, please?" A gruff-sounding man said behind them. The boys both jumped, hurrying forward to close the gap they'd accidentally left in the line.

Nico's head was filled with nothing but swear words, and the occasional plea for Hazel to come back and save him.

"Uhhh- so, what are you going to get?" Will asked quickly, his voice shaking.

"I- I don't know. Hazel said the shakes are good," Nico replied, just as eager to change the subject.

"Yeah. Shakes." Will still wouldn't look at him.

Hazel did arrive back soon enough, smirking at Nico until she saw how he and Will refused to touch each other even the slightest bit. She shot Nico a quizzical look, but said nothing.

Ordering took Nico's mind off of what had just happened, and he laughed when Will accidentally said 'sparkles' instead of 'sprinkles'.

"It's not a crafts project, Solace," he had teased. Will had laughed, too, and just like that, the previous awkwardness seemed forgotten.

Once the three of them had their shakes, they stepped out of the shop, eager to escape the oppressive crowd.

"Where should we sit?" Will asked. "Is there a bench nearby?"

"Let's go on the boardwalk!" Hazel suggested. "It's right there." She pointed with her free hand.

Nico opened his mouth to protest that he didn't even like the beach, but Will was already off. Hazel shrugged at Nico smugly before following.

Outvoted again, Nico thought, although some part of him wondered if he might have made a bigger protest if Will wasn't the one wanting to go.

Pushing that thought out of his mind, he followed the other two.

Eventually, they fell into a sort of rhythm, walking in a line of three. Nico was walking closest to the edge, most likely intentionally done by Hazel just to torture him, and Will had somehow been shoved to the middle, also most likely Hazel's doing, and definitely to torture him. They talked and laughed, making jokes and enjoying the ocean breeze. Nico decided that he couldn't finish his ice cream and Will graciously volunteered to eat the rest of it. Hazel and Will got along incredibly well, just as Nico had predicted. Too well, actually. Their puns were getting sort of annoying.

Still, he thought, maybe the beach wasn't too bad, especially when he got to be there with these losers.

None of them noticed the rain at first, as they assumed it was just ocean mist. They didn't notice it at all, actually, until the sun started to dip.

Nico asked, "Why is the boardwalk deserted?"

Hazel asked, "How is my bag all wet when I'm the furthest from the ocean?"

Will asked, "Why did it get so dark all of a sudden?"

The three of them locked eyes for a moment, realizing the answer to their questions, a millisecond before water started pouring.

Immediately, they all turned on their heels and started running back along the boardwalk, but they had walked way too far down.

"How did it just go from nothing to flood levels?!" Will yelled over the water pounding on the wood. "Rain doesn't even do that!"

"My question is why they didn't put any dam shades on this stupid beach!" Hazel called back.

By the time they got back to the car, all three of them were soaking wet. They clambered inside hurriedly, climbing over each other, drenched but laughing. Once they were all settled, Nico said: "I'm sorry, Will. Didn't mean to ruin your shoes, we just wanted to take you out for ice cream. I'm sorry."

"It's fine!" He laughed. "This was fun! And besides, I'm wearing flip flops."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Okay, let's get home before this rain gets any worse."

A/N I know I haven't uploaded in like a week, I'm sorry! I'll try to be more frequent in the future. But I have the rest of the story blocked out now, so that's nice. Up until now, I've just been writing as I go without a real plan, but now I actually have a vague idea of where the story is going! There should be three more chapters after this, making it nine chapters in total! Thank you so much for reading!