Well, seeing as only one person participated in my little poll I had up in the last chapter, you guys got a WillxNyssa one-shot. Thank you Wisest Owl for you participation.

In other news, I have decided that this is now going to be a friendship series of one-shots as well as a romantic series of one-shots. Meaning, you may see one-shots on, say, Apollo and Artemis, or Grover and Percy. As family or friends respectively. It also means that Thalico fans can still get their dose of Thalia and Nico, but they won't always be as couples (I'm a little uncomfortable with putting cousins together. same thing goes with Thalia and Percy).

Other than that, I hope you realise that I do not own anything on PJO, HOO or Rick Riordan. And I hope you enjoy.

Don't Cry

The death of Beckendorf was hard on the entire camp, but none felt the sting more than Silena and the Hephaestus cabin. Burning his shroud was hard for everyone; even harder for some because he was a respected counsellor and friend. That, for some reason, made the sting even worse. And Will Solace, and the rest of the Apollo cabin, knew exactly how it felt for Beckendorf's brothers and sisters, what with having lost their own leader and brother to The Battle of the Labyrinth only the year before.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Nyssa bow her head in the attempt to stop her free-falling tears. Just the sight of her, with her strong shield shattered by the news of her brother, brought tears to his own eyes. She looked so broken – not at all like her usual movie heroine self that he had seen her as before. This was not the way he wanted her, or any one of her brothers and sisters, to be like or remembered if something happened to them during the oncoming war. Before he knew what he was doing, Will found himself by Nyssa's side.

" Hey, hey, Nyssa. Look at me. Please. It's all going to be okay. Beckendorf will always be a hero. He's made it so that we'll win this." He said softly, comforting himself as much as the daughter of Hephaestus.

" I hope you're right, Solace." Nyssa whispered through the knot in her throat.

" Trust me. Kronos is a sick bastard. None of us here are going to let him get away with what his done. Especially for this."

" I guess you're right."

" Of course I am."

" Don't get cocky, Solace."

Will gave Nyssa a small smile, noticing that her tears were no longer running down her cheeks, before turning to look around at the rest of the camp. The rest of the Hephaestus campers were trying to be strong for their fallen brother. Other campers were still finding it hard to believe that Beckendorf really was gone. Mrs O'Leary was whimpering (not so quietly considering her size) somewhere at the back of the crowd. Then there was Silena. The poor girl wouldn't stop crying. At the time, Will didn't notice how much people were caring more about how the daughter of Aphrodite was faring. It wasn't until a couple of days later that he realised.

The day before the camp was due to go off and defend Olympus, Will walked around in his 'free-time' period, helping anyone who needed it get ready for the upcoming fight. Beckendorf's death still weighed heavily over the camp but, once again, the war was the main focus on everyone's minds. But he couldn't help but notice that, as he walked around, talk of trying to help Silena through the ordeal seemed to be everywhere and he couldn't help but wonder, what about the Hephaestus cabin?

As he pondered this, he realised that people seemed to be expecting the cabin in question to be comforting each other. There was not one single thought on the other's minds about whether or not they needed comforting as well. He never realised that his feet were carrying him over to the forges where he was almost certain Nyssa would be until he heard the familiar clanging of tools on metal. And it wasn't until he heard the faint grumbles around the far corner of the forges that he stopped and went to check it out.

What he found was a girl with dark brown hair covering her hands and eyes. Her skin was smudged with oil, grease, battle scars and accidents from the forge, and the fallen yet silent tears of anger. And it was obvious that she had not long left the forges on impulse forced on her by her anger. It took Will a few seconds to realise that it was his movie heroine sitting there, curled up in a ball and otherwise hating the world.

" Nyssa?" He asked softly.

" Go away, Solace." Came the muffled growl as a reply.

" What's wrong?"

" No one cares about us. That's what's wrong. They all care about Silena. Not us."

" That's not true."

" Name one person, then."

" Okay." Will thought for a minute before continuing. " Well, he has blue eyes and blonde hair."

" That could be anyone, Solace." Nyssa interrupted.

" True. But this guy's tall and kind of athletic… I guess."

" That still could be anyone… in fact it could even be anyone from the Apollo cabin."

Will smiled slightly before adding the final piece of the puzzle. " And he's standing right here."

Nyssa looked up at him, her eyes no longer as fierce and angry, as he sat down next to her. He was right… again. Not everyone in camp was being obsessive over how Silena Beauregard had lost her boyfriend. Here was proof. The only question was why hadn't he shown up earlier? She didn't realise she had voiced her question until Will answered.

" I thought you may have wanted some time alone." He said quietly.

" And we've all been busy." Nyssa replied, her words as gentle as his despite her obvious anger.

" That too. But seriously…"

" Thanks."

" It's what friends do, Nyssa. They look out for each other. Now." Gently, Will leaned closer to the daughter of Hephaestus and wiped the angry tears from her cheeks. " No more tears?"

" No more tears. Or sudden bursts of anger." Nyssa added.

" That's good to hear. Come on." Will then got up and extended his hand to Nyssa. " We've got to make sure Kronos knows what's coming for him for Beckendorf's death. And we'll make sure that he learns to fear you with the amount of anger that you've got bottled up right now."

" He won't know what hit him." Nyssa smirked, tempted at the thought.

With that, Nyssa took Will's hand and together they walked back into the forges. And, like he had done with Nyssa moments before, Will made sure that every member of the Hephaestus cabin knew that they hadn't been forgotten and that Beckendorf would be proud of what they were doing. He also brought it upon himself to make sure that they knew Kronos was a bastard for taking one of the best and that he was going to regret doing it.

And regret it he most certainly did when Percy led the demigods of Camp Half-Blood to victory and Olympus was saved. Beckendorf's death had been avenged with the amazing works of his brothers and sisters. But when Will turned to them at the end of the battle, he found Nyssa off to one side and rubbing at her face furiously like she was trying to hide something. And at the sight of her, he began wondering if he was ever going to see her laugh again.

" Don't cry, Nyssa." He said, going up to stand with her. " You'll ruin the perfect image."

" What perfect image?" Nyssa asked, looking at him like he had just grown a pair of horns despite the silver streaks down her face.

" We won, didn't we? Just like I said we would."

" But we lost so many."

" Yeah. Apollo lost another counsellor this year. But they didn't die for nothing. No hero ever dies for nothing."

Nyssa looked up at him and noticed the distant look in his eye, like he was convincing himself as much as, if not more than, her. He usually got that way when he was purposefully forgetting to add something in when he was talking about something. And she knew that there was no finding out what that something was until after it had been announced to the entire camp. She knew perfectly. Unless you wanted something going around camp like rapid fire, you had to try not to create rumours.

Will must have realised what was happening because he suddenly shook his head and gave the daughter of Hephaestus a small smile. It didn't mean anything, really. It wasn't the one that he specially reserved for his dates. But part of it seemed like it had been forced slightly, like he knew he had to keep up the smile around her despite what had happened.

" And you're the one who's telling me not to cry." Nyssa quietly mused.

" I'm not crying." Will protested. " I'm just thinking."

" What about?"

" That we need to get back to camp and that we need to hope that there won't be another war after this." With that, Will began to lead Nyssa to the elevator that led down to the Empire State Building.

" You did know that you saying that just jinxed us." Nyssa countered, not allowing him to take her arm like she was some kind of princess.

" Then we pray to Lady Tyche and hope for the best."

Said goddess merely smiled at the two as they passed her, knowing full well that that was not her way of doing things. Demigods, just like mortals, had to earn that kind of luck and not beg for it. But the two demigods noticed the smile and took it as a sign that she may help bring about that request. How wrong they were. Nyssa, though, seemed to remember something that Will had apparently forgotten.

" Unfortunately, our semi-normal lives prevent luck from ever finding us. Sorry, Will, but you jinxed us."

Will stared at her blankly for a few minutes as they waited for the elevator. Never had he actually heard her say his name to him before. Then again, the end of the war signalled the start of a whole lot of other things too. Maybe that was the start of a friendship forming between the two that Will had witnessed.

" Semi-normal?" He had to ask. " Unfortunately, the lives of a demigod can't be classed even as that."

" I guess you're right." Nyssa sighed, realising what he said was true. " One more thing."

" Yes?"

As quick as lightning, Nyssa then reached up and pecked the son of Apollo lightly on the cheek. " Thanks. For everything. It made… all of us happy."

And with that, Nyssa walked into the awaiting elevator, leaving a stunned and confused Will Solace to stare awkwardly at the now closing doors, not knowing what to think of what had just happened.

And that was WillxNyssa. Hope you liked it and that there wasn't any OOC.

Inspired by (sort of) the song 'Don't Cry' by Seal.

Now I'm going to try again with this poll thing. You get to chose between:

a) Thalico

b) Frazel

c) Beckelena (BeckendorfxSilena)

d) Gruniper (GroverxJuniper)

Review and let me know. :)