Later at lunch he sat alone at the Hades table. He'd already heard bits of gossip floating around camp of his antics at the rock wall. Of course, it had been highly exaggerated. Nico ate quickly . He could feel the eyes on him. When he looked up, kids would suddenly look away or whisper to their friends while stealing glances at him out of the corner of their eye as though he couldn't see. It made him uncomfortable. He'd never liked being the center of attention unless it came to fighting. It was the one thing he had any real confidence in. Unable to help himself, Nico glanced at the Apollo table. Will met his gaze. He smiled and waved at Nico. Nico looked away, embarrassed. He didn't know what to feel at that moment. His heart felt like it was fluttering in his chest, but he still found himself uncomfortable at the thought of other people knowing that there was something between them. He was fine with his friends knowing, but he wasn't sure yet if he was ready to share who he really was with the rest of the camp. He hurriedly stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and strolled away from the dining pavilion to escape the stares.

He hadn't gotten far when he heard someone call out to him. "Hey! Wait up." Outwardly Nico groaned, but inside his stomach was doing flips. He really wished that would stop. Nico turned around. Will jogged to catch up. His golden hair shined in the sun. He wore a goofy smile. "What's the rush Sunshine?"

Nico grimaced. "Don't call me that."

"But it's cute. And you could use a little sunshine."

"I don't do cute."

Will's smile grew. "But at least you could do with some sunshine. Good thing I'm around."

Nico groaned. "What do you want, Will?"

Will wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders and began walking."I was just thinking, why wait til later for our date? We could just go now. No one will miss us for a few hours."

"Now?!" He tried to come up with an excuse to say no but failed. Mentally he cringed. He wasn't ready for this. He was barely even open about his feelings yet, and now he had no time to prepare himself. He would be a nervous wreck. His stomach was twisting into knots with anxiety, but he would be damned if he'd ever let it show."What do you have in mind?" He asked.

Will smiled warmly. "Nothing in particular. I figured we could go somewhere and just be alone for a little while and talk. You know, like a normal getting to know you kind of thing."

"Yeah, actually I don't know. Anti-social remember?" He replied sarcastically.

Will sighed. "Yeah, we need to work on your social skills. But what do you say?"

Nico smiled. "Sure." Will led Nico into the woods that surrounded the camp. Nico smiled "I hope you aren't really just dragging me out into the middle of the woods to take advantage of my innocent nature, Solace," He joked. Will' stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Nico. His face was bright red and he was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. Nico laughed. Will deserved some payback for this morning. "Is everything ok Will? You're looking a bit flustered." Nico laughed again and walked away.

Will closed his mouth and caught up with him in a couple of strides. He glared at Nico. "Very funny, Death Boy."

"Do NOT call me Death Boy." Nico warned.

"Or what? You'll glare at me to death? You can't use your powers yet, Doctors orders."

"I don't do orders," he glanced at Will who was still a bit red in the face and his tone softened. "But I suppose I can deal with a request this once. Besides, I have no desire to fade away."

Will smiled. "Glad to hear it Nico, because I really do want to get to know you better."

Nico shook his head in disbelief. "Why?"

"Because I obviously like you, doofus."

Nico ignored that. "But why? What have I done that anyone would care about at all? I'm nobody. Percy is everyone's golden boy. I'm nothing compared to that. Even Percy didn't trust me half the time."

"Why are you comparing yourself to Percy?" He asked genuinely confused. "I mean, yeah, he's had a few quests and fulfilled a few prophecies, but what's the big deal? It's not like he could have done any of that alone. He's always had someone to help him. How many times have you helped him?Percy is overrated, way to full of himself. You're much more interesting. You've got that dark, brooding, mysterious thing going. I like that. If you ever tell Percy I said this I will deny it, but you could take him in a fight easy. Being able to control water is nothing when your opponent can shadow travel and summon zombie hordes, not that you can do any of that stuff for a while," he added.

Nico rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. I know my limits. Maybe I pushed myself too far during the battle for the camp, but I knew what I was doing. It was just more important to stop the war between the camps and destroy Gaea at the moment than it was to worry about whether or not I'd be able to come back from it."

As they walked shoulder to shoulder Will brushed his fingers against the back of Nico's hand. "Well I hope next time there's a battle you put self preservation a little higher on your list of priorities. There are some people here at camp who'd be upset if you went and got yourself killed."

Nico's chest tightened. He'd never thought of himself as being important to anyone before. He'd always thought more of everyone else than he did of himself. Somewhere deep in his soul a spark flared. "Just because I'm a child of Hades doesn't mean I have any desire to die. Some things are just worth fighting for and If I can do something to help I will."

Will looked grim. "I know. Being a demigod, it's not easy and it's definitely not safe. I'm not much of a fighter but I know that I'll still fight when I need to and I'll be on the front lines to help anyone I can; I just want to know that you'll try not to die."

"In that case, I'll do my best not to die." Nico smiled. He looked up. They had ended up at Zeus' fist. No one really went near it much anymore. It had become a spot to avoid since the campers fought the Titans army at the entrance to the Labyrinth that was concealed by the outcropping of stone. Nico walked to the base of the Rock formation and sat on the ground with his back against the rocks. He dug his heels into the sandy dirt and rested his forearms on his knees. Will sat cross-legged beside him so that their shoulders were touching. "At least I know I'll have the best medic in camp around to save my life if I do something stupid."

"Only so I can kick your butt for it afterward." They both smiled.

"So what's your story, Solace? You probably know more about me than I know about you. Then again, I've never really bothered getting to know people. How long have you been at camp? I remember seeing you at the battle of the Labyrinth, but I wasn't really around much before that."

"I've been here about 5 years, since I was 12. It was... crazy. I never knew my dad and my mom never told me much about him. I didn't know that I was a demigod until she brought me here. That's usually how it goes though. I guess it's pretty hard to explain to a kid. Who would believe it? She lives in Austin. I don't really see her much anymore." Will grew quiet.

"Why not?" asked Nico gently. He might not be a social butterfly, but if there was one thing he was good at reading in people it was sadness and pain. Will wasn't saying anything, but Nico could tell that the conversation had dredged up some bad memories.

"It got too hard to go back. I couldn't take care of her anymore." He laughed bitterly. "She was diagnosed with early onset alzheimers. That's when she brought me to camp. She wanted to make sure that I could take care of myself because she knew that she wouldn't be able to; she knew that there would be things I wouldn't be able to fight on my own. She was managing for a while, and I would go and stay with her during the school year but now..." He trailed off. "Sometimes it seems like a bad joke. I'm a son of Apollo, god of medicine, and my mom has to be the one to end up with something I can't fix."

They sat in silence for several minutes. Will pulled himself together and put on a cheerful demeanor. "But that's life. You can't fix everything so I just have to do the best I can for the people I can help. I'm kind of glad that I inherited Apollo's gift for medicine and not his gift for music or archery. I can do a lot more good as a doctor."

He sounded happier though Nico knew that the sadness would always be there underneath. Still, he seemed to be able to shield himself from it. "I don't think I'll ever understand you, Solace. How do you manage to stay so positive?"

"I'm the son of the sun god," he said. "I can see the bright side of things. There's always going to be sadness, but there has to be happiness too or else what's the point? Maybe that's why I like you. I can see the bright side of you."

Nico scowled playfully. "I don't have a bright side."

Will beamed at Nico. "There's always a bright side, sunshine." Nico glared at him but Will ignored it. "You act so dark and brooding, but I know there's more to you than that. You're empathetic. You say you don't care about anyone, but you do. If you didn't you wouldn't have risked your life to bring the Athena Parthenos back. You wouldn't have stood with us against the Titans. You can fool everyone else, and maybe you can be a bit scary when you get worked up, but deep down, you're still the dorky overexcited little kid that came to camp." Nico opened his mouth to argue but didn't get a chance. "And before you even say it, yes you were. I remember. You talked to anyone who would listen about how cool you thought everything was."

Nico smiled sadly. "That was a long time ago. A lot has happened."

Will became more serious. "I'm sorry about Bianca. You two seemed close."

Nico shrugged. "She was all I had for as long as I could remember. I took her death hard. I've accepted it though. Not all deaths can be prevented," He said remembering his fathers words. "I have Hazel to think about now, even if I don't see her often. It's funny. Technically she's older than me, but I still feel like her big brother" he mused. "Anyway, there's been a lot more to deal with than losing Bianca."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Nico was tempted. He'd spent a lot of his time holding things in. He'd never really trusted anyone enough to share his pain before so he always internalized it and let it eat away at him. He knew it would be cathartic to talk with someone about things, but he was hesitant. "I don't know." He said. "There's a lot of pretty unpleasant stuff in my past."

Will leaned into Nico and put his arm around his shoulders again. He rested his cheek against the top of Nico's head and said, "I don't mind."

Nico absentmindedly twisted the ring on his finger. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

Bit by agonizing bit Nico slowly unloaded his pain. All of the miseries that had built up in the past 4 years came to the surface and were finally released. He told Will about running away from camp, afraid of his power and blaming Percy for Bianca's death, of his fathers disappointment in him, of Bianca's refusal to speak to him, of being manipulated by Minos and his own father. He talked about finding out about his mothers death and how Hades had destroyed all of his memories of her. He talked about feeling isolated and out of place, of hating himself for being gay and the pain of seeing the boy he thought he loved with someone else, and the fear he felt as he faced Cupid and was forced to reveal what he'd considered for a long time to be his darkest secret. He recounted the pain and misery of Tartarus and his capture by Gaea's agents, his battle with Lycaon and his fear that the shadows would consume him as he struggled to bring the Athena Parthenos to camp. Nico seemed to shrink into himself as he spoke. Will held him tightly, a reassuring pressure, a reminder that he needn't rely on only his own strength to hold him up anymore. When Nico became silent Will kissed the top of his head and whispered a hymn to Apollo. Nico looked up at him quizzically. "Will smiled and spoke softly. "A hymn of healing. They don't do much for psychological wounds, but maybe if we're lucky it can at least help to keep the demons from your dreams."

Nico's dark eyes had a faraway look to them and they were shining with unspilled tears. He looked away and sat, staring at his shoes. His voice was quiet and his words heavy as he spoke."Will, there's something else I need to tell you."
"You can tell me anything," He said.

Nico shuddered as he inhaled deeply. "I'm serious. It's about something that happened before the battle for camp half blood. Something unforgivable." Nico's tone was suddenly grave. Will pushed himself up and sat waiting with his hands folded in his lap. Nico took another deep breath to steel himself for what he had to say. "I killed someone Will. I'm a murderer, a monster. You shouldn't be here with me." His eyes never strayed from the ground between his feet. Now the truth was out and he was too afraid to see the look on Will's face.

Will began to brush him off. "If this is about what happened to that Octavian creep..." he began and then stopped. "Wait, before the battle of Camp Half Blood?" He asked. Nico looked even more dejected and miserable than Will had ever seen him. "I think you need to tell me exactly what happened from the beginning."

Nico never moved as he related what had happened. His voice was dead calm and quiet. "It happened after the last shadow jump I made with coach Hedge and Reyna. We ended up at a mass grave in Buford, South Carolina. It was weird. I couldn't sense the dead. It was a mass grave for slaughtered revolutionaries and I couldn't sense anything from it. I was talking with Reyna and then everything went wrong. There was a guy, Bryce Lawrence. He'd apparently been kicked out of Camp Jupiter for having some serious psychopathic tendencies, but Octavian had reinstated him and sent him to find Reyna so he could bring her back to New Rome to face trial for some trumped up charges. He was a legacy of the god Orcus, god of oaths. It gave him the power to command the souls of the soldiers that had committed the massacre. That's why I couldn't sense anything from the grave. The slaughtered soldiers were buried there, but that particular spot wasn't under Hades dominion. It was an ambush. He commanded the souls of the oath breakers to capture us and I had no power over them. Bryce was threatening to torture coach Hedge to death, he threatened to tell the senate at Camp Jupiter that Reyna killed her father. He was gloating about wanting to see her execution. I couldn't help myself. I lost control. I don't even remember most of it myself. Reyna and the coach had to tell me what happened. I let the darkness out. All the pain and misery I'd kept locked away surged through everyone in the clearing. The soldiers holding us dissolved, the temperature dropped, the ground opened up. I... I commanded that Bryce would forget who he was. That he would be a ghost with no name, and even though he begged me to stop, I let the underworld swallow him. He's dead, Will. I killed him. I can't deny that, and I'm not sorry about it either."

There was a brief silence. "Nico, as a healer I am sworn first to do no harm."

"I know..." Nico began, his voice little more than a whisper.

"But," Will continued, "I can't uphold that oath if it means sacrificing the innocent or the people that I care about. I've seen you fight. Whenever you've been pitted against other demi-gods you've always fought honestly. You never go for a killing blow. You aren't a murderer. You defend those you care for, you fight for those that can't. Sometimes bloodshed can't be avoided. I understand that. I have no doubt that if he'd threatened you, you wouldn't have killed him unless he made you. But he threatened your friends. That was his mistake, because we'll all fight to the death for the ones we care about. I don't blame you for what you did. And I don't think it makes you a murderer."Nico let what Will had said sink in. All of his fears and secrets were out in the open now and Will had accepted all of it. Will smiled and Nico leaned against him, comforted by the contact. They sat together for a while longer, neither one speaking, until Will stood up and held his hand out to Nico. He pulled Nico up and they walked hand in hand back to camp. As they approached the edge of the tree line Nico pulled his hand free, to Will's disappointment, and they went their separate ways. The rest of the day seemed to pass quickly and before long he found himself lying in bed and thinking about Will. He'd enjoyed the quiet hours spent talking and being held and fell asleep to the memory of Will's arm around him. For the first time in a long time, he didn't have nightmares.