A/N: Apologies for the late update. I was off at a planetarium yesterday. Here's the next chapter! I hope you like it. :3.
When Nico woke up, it was a few hours later. The sun was high enough in the sky for the time to be almost noon. Will was elsewhere. He could tell that much by the absence of the incessant pestering that often came with his presence.
There was no dip in the bed to indicate that Will had been sleeping there. The son of Apollo was nowhere to be seen. The chair where Will so often sat was unfolded, but empty. A cup of unicorn draught was on Nico's nightstand.
Nico would have ignored it if not for the fact that upon further inspection, he saw that there was a note underneath it. "I have a few errands to run," it said, "If you wake up and I'm not back yet, drink this." Nico made a face at the unicorn draught.
Nico was already feeling better. He didn't think he needed the unicorn drought. His body gave him the benefit of that delusion for a good two seconds before it dawned on him that all his muscles hurt. He was aching all over!
So much for that healing light.
Nico knew he wasn't being fair. He knew that the light had fixed something about him. He no longer felt at risk of just fading, becoming a wandering soul with no purpose.
At the very least, the pull of death was no longer as powerful as it had been before.
Nico looked at the note again and realized there was more to it. "If you're having second thoughts," said the note, "Flip me over." Nico frowned, but, curious, did as the note asked. "Doctor's orders, di Angelo."
Nico rolled his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows. It seemed easier than it was.
Not without much difficulty, Nico picked up the glass of draught and drank it. It was pleasant, compared to the gum that Will had forced him to chew during the battle. Soon after, Nico felt the ache dull in his arms and legs, then the rest of his body soon after.
Nico sighed and laid himself back down on the bed. He folded his arms on his stomach. "Three days of this?" he mused. It almost seemed surreal. Nico had not had a single day's rest or refuge from terrible thoughts since the beginning of the war with Gaea, after all.
It was very strange to finally be able to spend some time in peace and quiet. It wasn't until then that Nico realized how much he'd missed the quiet.
Half a minute passed before finally Nico's tranquillity was shattered. The infirmary was unnaturally quiet. Nico sat bolt upright and looked around. There was no one else in the infirmary save for himself, two sleeping demigods, and a third that he had never seen before, who was awake and eating a square of ambrosia gingerly.
Judging from the boy's looks, Nico decided that the demigod was a son of Ares. Well, the demigod's looks and the fact that the boy had a swollen cheek, and a really bad black eye. He glared at Nico as though daring him to say something.
Nico knew that he shouldn't have used his powers then, but he felt like terrorizing someone. It was fun when he meant to. It was just a trickle of power anyway. He summoned the shadows to himself, knowing that his face was probably darkening, and his eyes were burning with the fires of the Phlegethon itself.
Nico glared back at the son of Ares. The boy whimpered, shoved the rest of the ambrosia in his mouth, and turned away all in the space of three seconds.
Nico had to bite back a laugh.
Nico lay back down on his pillow. Where was everyone? He wondered. Of course, the few Romans that had remained in Camp Half-Blood were probably gone now, having just stayed a little while longer so that they could recover enough to make the trip back to Camp Jupiter, but that did not explain the distinct lack of Greek demigods that were both working in the infirmary, and staying in it.
Other than the scrawny Apollo kid Andrew, who was sitting in a corner and reading a book, there was no one else. Andrew looked up from his book every once in a while, checking on the rest of the demigods in the infirmary. Nico frowned at the strangeness of it all.
Soon enough, Nico's day brightened considerably when Will Solace walked in through the open doorway of the infirmary. His day got worse when he realized that it had gotten better when Will appeared.
Nico made a face at himself and tried to scowl at Will. It probably looked more like constipated squinting. Nico forced himself to look at the ceiling instead, so he wouldn't seem so much a fool.
Nico thought that Will would go and take care of the other patients first, but much to his surprise, there was a beaming ray of sunshine—highly annoying—in his face. "Good morning, di Angelo!" said Will, cheerily, "I wasn't sure you would wake up while the sun was out."
"Shut up," grumbled Nico. If he could have, he would have slept until nightfall. As it was, it didn't seem like his body was giving him that much of a choice. "The morning isn't good," said Nico, "It's never good."
Nico threw up his arm over his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look at Will, though he hoped that it would come across as him shielding himself from the bright light streaming into the infirmary through the wide-open windows. "Why can't it always be dark instead?" he complained.
There was a chuckle from somewhere to Nico's side. He assumed that Will had taken a seat on the chair again. He heard the scrape of the chair against the floor as it was dragged closer to the bed. "Because we're not all vampires, Nico," said Will.
Will was cheery again. He was entirely Will Solace again. Or at least, he was the Will Solace that Nico, along with everyone else, saw on the surface. "Now, I know this is going to sound ridiculous," said Will, his voice tentative, and the words measured, "I need to check if I missed anything when I healed you."
"Okay?" said Nico. He couldn't help the rising inflection of his voice. It came out as more of a question than a statement. He was not liking where this was heading.
Will was blushing, but Nico, with his arm over his eyes, did not see it. "I need you to take your shirt off," said Will. Nico felt his entire face ignite. Had he heard that right? "Yeah," said Will, his bluster faltering. "Y-you h-heard me," he said. "I need you to t-take your shirt off."
Nico lifted his arm from his eyes and squinted in the light. As his vision focused, he paid particular attention to Will's face. The boy was probably every bit as red, if not more red, than Nico felt. "Doctor's orders?" asked Nico, voice small and uncertain.
Will's blush lessened, and he flashed Nico with a smile. "Yeah," said the son of Apollo, "Doctor's orders," he said.
Nico grumbled before shyly turning his back to Will. He lifted his shirt by the bottom hem. "You know I'm still going to have to look at your front, Nico," said Will. Will smiled when he saw Nico's ears turn crimson.
"S-shut up, Solace!" Nico said, stammering. "I am trying to preserve my dignity here," he said. Still, he knew, despite his protestations, he was only delaying the inevitable. Sure enough, he was soon topless, and being examined by the head counsellor of the Apollo cabin.
A stray thought entered Nico's mind. He wondered if Will appreciated the sight of his naked torso and all the scars that lined it. He turned even redder as he considered what he would think if the tables were turned.
Nico found himself wondering how Will would look without his shirt on.
Nico blinked three times. He forced the thoughts down as bile came up his throat. Why was he having these thoughts? They were inappropriate! "Shit," was the one word that Nico did not want to hear. Well, that or 'fuck.'
Nico winced when he felt Will's fingers on a particularly sensitive part of his arm. "I forgot about this when I healed you last night…" said Will, tracing the stitched cuts from Lycaon. Nico had to bite his lip to keep from whimpering.
"I'll be right back," said Will, leaving a confused and shirtless Nico di Angelo blinking after him. "These stitches need to get ripped out and replaced." Nico winced. That did not sound very pleasant. Will chuckled. "You've been through Tartarus, di Angelo," he said, "You can take a needle and some thread."
Nico scowled. "No offense to Reyna's medical skills, but this was very makeshift. You need better stitches." Nico made a sound of protest, but, yet again, he didn't really have a choice. Nico was the healer, so of course he knew better. Under his voice, the son of Apollo said "Or maybe no stitches at all…"
"Don't move," said Will, "I'll be right back."
Will walked toward the nearest cart of medical supplies and stood there, rummaging for something to remove the stitches with. He'd been standing there, hunched over the damn thing for a while before Nico noticed that Will was not moving.
Nico looked to one side. The son of Ares, who'd decided that Nico was sufficiently distracted, was frozen in the middle of taking a bite of another square of ambrosia. One of the other patients had his arms extended as though he was stretching. Andrew was suspended motionless in the middle of flipping a page on his book.
Then he saw them. The Moirai. It was never a good sign when the Fates made themselves known in person.
Lachesis held up two lengths of yarn. One was considerably longer than the other. She passed the threads to Atropos. The old woman smiled at Nico. Then, her wretched shears snipped across the two threads. The sound reached across the infirmary, and echoed inside of Nico's soul.
Nico knew the message. Whomever those two threads belonged to would face death at the same time. How, and under what circumstances, the Fates did not say. They could not say. Yet, the warm smiles they sent Nico's way were far more unsettling than they were comforting.
Nico had to wonder whom the threads belonged to.
The Fates vanished, leaving the two strands floating in the air. The yarn turned golden, then spun around each other. Again, the message was clear. Those two threads had a destiny intertwined. A destiny shared. There was a niggling fear in the back of Nico's mind but he forced it down.
Nico was, after all, the son of the Lord of the Dead. One day he would die and sit at the foot of his father's throne. Those two lives that had just been shown to him would be two of infinitely many fated to end. Nico was not afraid. If the thread did represent him, he was not afraid.
Nico took a deep breath, having not realized that he had stopped breathing. Then, time began to flow again. The two threads of life dissolved into flecks of light.
Nico blinked once, and all of a sudden, Will was on him, pushing him back down on the bed.
"I told you not to move, Nico," said Will, as Nico's mind struggled to comprehend everything. "I don't need you accidentally busting those open," he said, gesturing at the wounds.
Will sat down and told Nico to relax, none the wiser to the ominous visitation that Nico had just had. He got to work immediately after. The stitches came off rather easily as they were, after all, just makeshift ones. Nico made a few sounds of discomfort as Will sewed the wounds shut with newer, sturdier stitches.
Over all, however, Will's hands were surprisingly steady and gentle. The experiences was far more pleasant than he had anticipated.
Will dabbed at the area with a cotton ball. That part was unpleasant. Will's hands came away bloody from the whole ordeal. The wounds didn't look like they had properly closed, probably because of the lack of proper attention that had been given to them.
Will had to wonder why. Usually, demigods healed faster. Then again, he supposed, most demigods did not have to deal with shadow-travelling two people, and a forty-foot gold-and-ivory statue of Athena across half the world.
Will sighed and wiped his hand on a clean towel he'd brought before tossing the cloth into a bin of soiled fabrics. "There," said Will, turning on his smile, "Sorry for all the touching, but it was kinda necessary."
Nico shrugged, then winced when the sudden action made the wound and the new stitches sting. "Ow," he said. Will rolled his eyes. "Thanks for a lot for reopening them," said Nico, the sarcasm plain enough on his voice to cause no offence. Will rolled his eyes again.
"Where is everyone, Solace?" said Nico. "This place was packed yesterday…"
Will thought it would be better to provide a demonstration rather than an explanation. It was easier to keep it secret that way. Will's hands began to glow again, and Nico found himself, invariably, enchanted by the way that the light danced upon Will's skin like sunlight filtering through water onto something in the depths.
The wound closed a little. Will sighed and the light died. It took a lot out of him to try and close the wound just a little bit. Despite the fact that the light had rejuvenated him when he'd first discovered it, it now took a toll on his body.
Will supposed that the way the light restored his own vitality was a blessing of his father's. He was snapped out of his thoughts by Nico's question.
"Have you been practising that?" asked the son of Hades, "It seems like you're more in control now."
Will's eyes darted around the infirmary for a moment. There was a nervous energy about the son of Apollo. "All of the others had miraculous recoveries," said Will, "and were discharged early this morning."
Will leaned in, much to Nico's chagrin, and whispered in his ear, "I talked to Chiron about it. He doesn't really know, but he said he'd think about it and tell me if he remembers anything." Will rubbed his upper arm.
"If you don't mind, Nico," Will said, "I'd like to keep it just between us three for now. Nico was confused. He didn't know why Will would want to keep his incredible powers under wraps, but he went with it anyway. It dawned on Will that he was still clutching Nico's arm. He quickly withdrew his hands and backed away.
"Alright," said Nico, edging slightly away from Will. There was a part of him that wanted to feel Will's touch again so much that he was actually afraid of it. Aside from his touch aversion, that was the other reason he moved away. There was a gentleness to the son of Apollo's touch, at least when he wasn't angry, that was so different. In a good way. Nico didn't like the fact that he was thinking like that.
"Just a healer my ass, Solace," said Nico with a smirk. "I take it you healed the others?" Will nodded. Nico had not been awake to see it, but Will found himself unable to sleep until everyone else was healed. The blessing that made his own light rejuvenate him lasted well into the morning.
The others that were in the infirmary presently were patients that Will did not have the energy to get to, or, in the case of the Ares kid, new arrivals.
"I won't tell anyone," said Nico, "Don't worry." He still didn't understand why Will wouldn't want the others to know about the amazing ability to heal with light.
It took Nico a moment to realize that perhaps the only possible reason was the same one that explained why he didn't want to get recognized for his so-called 'accomplishment' of surviving Tartarus.
"Solace," said Nico, venturing to start the conversation for once. "About what we talked about last night…" Will was taken by surprise. He actually flinched at the reference. Sadness briefly shadowed his handsome—Nico smacked himself mentally for the observation—features. Then, the sadness was gone, replaced by a stupid smile and an obviously-fabricated facade of ignorance.
"What do you mean?" said Will, in an altogether too-enthusiastic tone of voice, "You slept like a baby!" Nico glared at Will. "We… didn't… talk last… night…" Will coughed to clear his throat, then hung his head.
"It was worth a shot," said Will, with a shrug. "Look, it's okay. I understand you don't believe me. I thought about it this morning, too. I wouldn't have believed it myself."
There was bitterness in Will's voice. "So just…" he said, "Let it go, please?" Nico was about to speak, when Will continued. "I thought you would understand, but I guess I sprang it on you without warning, so it was totally my bad—" Will clamped his mouth shut when he realized that he was rambling.
Will gripped his hand tightly to prevent it from trembling.
Nico wanted to slap Will. He sincerely did. Will was not helping alleviate the guilt he had for shooting down Will's attempt at making him feel like there were people that cared enough to try to understand what he'd been through.
Then again, Nico supposed, Will didn't owe it to him to get rid of the guilt. It was, after all, Nico's fault.
"No," said Nico. "No. I don't want to let it go." Nico looked at Will. "I feel bad." Will rolled his eyes. The temptation to slap the son of Apollo came back twice as hard. "Don't do that!" Nico hadn't meant to snap, but Will had gone and aggravated him.
"I really do feel bad. You were trying to make me feel better," said Nico with a small smile. "You're giving me a chance." Nico sighed. "I owe it to you to do the same."
Will was twitching slightly. Nico did not know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. "But," Nico said, "I don't trust people easily. You said it yourself, too. What you said is difficult to believe." Will shrugged apologetically.
"You?" said Nico, incredulity plain in his voice, even if he tried to hide it. "Will Solace. Head counsellor of Apollo cabin. Head healer. You feel like you don't belong?" he said. Nico tried to keep from being too cynical, but it was difficult since cynicism was second nature to him now.
"It sounds ridiculous!" Will bit his lip. He looked hurt. Nico had gone a tad too far. "Sorry," said Nico, stammering. "I didn't mean to—Fuck." Nico slapped himself mentally. "Anyway," said Nico, "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt." A smile split Will's face.
Will went in, arms outstretched, as though he was going for a hug. It was something he did a lot, but he'd forgotten one crucial thing about Nico. The son of Hades edged away from him as much as possible without risking falling off the edge of the bed. "Oh. Right," said Will, "No touching." The son of Apollo looked somewhat disappointed.
Will blushed. He sat back down in his chair and regarded Nico with a level, unreadable look. "Thank you," he said, gratefulness in his voice, though there was an undertone of disappointment about the hug.
Will leaned forward and smiled bitterly. "I suppose it is difficult to believe, isn't it?" he said. "I mean, after all, I'm pretty sure that all you saw before all this—" Will gestured at the infirmary. "—was happy Will. Right?"
Nico nodded, though he had to admit that prior to this whole infirmary thing he'd stupidly committed himself to, he had never given much thought to who Will Solace actually could be underneath all the smiles and the laid-back attitude.
By Hades, Nico had not even known that Will had the capacity to be aggressive. He had not known that Will could be brave enough to stare him down, the child of Hades, feared by all the other demigods.
Nico realized, at that moment, that sometimes people used happiness to mask their sorrows. He realized that sometimes the happiest faces hid the most tormented of souls. Nico had never bothered to hide himself, because sadness was sort-of expected of children of Hades anyway. He had not considered how difficult it must have been to be a brooding son of Apollo, one of the most boisterous and eccentric gods in the pantheon.
"Yeah," said Nico, "You have to admit, it's pretty damn convincing." He didn't want to look Will in the eye. He missed the fact that Will's lips curled up in a smile when he implied that he was beginning to believe that there was more to Will than met the eye.
Nico stared at the ceiling. "But why don't you feel like you belong?" he asked. "You have everything you could want. Friends. A family that loves you. You're popular. You're a valued member of the camp." Nico looked briefly at Will. "Next to you, what am I to Camp Half-Blood?"
"I'm that creepy kid no one likes." Nico felt something prickling at his skin. He wondered if Will was doing that. "Sorry, mostly no one likes. How does someone in your position feel like he doesn't belong, Will Solace?" said Nico. "I don't understand."
Seeking advice from Chiron on how to get Nico to open up to him was something that Will had never thought he would do. In retrospect it was rather stupid of him to have not done so earlier. Chiron was older than all the demigods in camp put together, after all.
Will remembered Chiron's words clearly.
"He's had a difficult life, Nico di Angelo… Trusting people is not very high on the list of things he's good at. If you ask me, I think sometimes he prefers the company of the dead to the living. They can't lie to him. He commands them, after all. They can't hurt him like others have."
Will agreed with Chiron's wisdom. "If you want him to open his heart to you, maybe you should take a chance and open yours to him?"
Will breathed deeply. He looked at Nico with a serious expression. "Maybe all those things are true," said Will. "Maybe." Will shook his head. "But what if I tell you that it all just makes me feel like I don't belong even more? That I don't deserve all the praise and the responsibility?"
Nico frowned. He couldn't understand why.
"I'm a son of Apollo," said Will, "All of my brothers and sisters are great at archery. They're great at singing. At playing musical instruments. Some of them are even healers almost as good as me!" Despite the rising volume of his voice, Will was still speaking in a muted tone.
"What have I got?" said Will, bitterly, "Only the last, and almost none of the others."
Will's hands were trembling. "I can't shoot an arrow straight to save my life," he said, "You've experienced that the best my musical abilities can get is a whistle that is so bad it can literally incapacitate people."
"I'm just a healer. I feel like I'm not a worthy son of Apollo. While everyone else is out there saving the world, I'm in here, helping the ones that got hurt in the process. What have I ever done that's been brave?" asked Will. Maybe he was hoping for an answer. He didn't get one. "What have I ever done that's worth being proud of? I'm just a healer," he said.
If Will had been trembling earlier, he was shaking, now.
Nico could feel the vibrations coming through the bed. If he'd ventured to look closer, he would have noticed that Will was crying. "During the battle," said Will, "You summoned skeletons even when I told you not to, but you managed to save us. Cecil saved the camp by messing with those onager things. Lou Ellen fought the Romans and turned some of them into piglets. What did I do? I ran away as a distraction."
Nico's breath hitched in his throat. He wanted to say that it wasn't true, but that was the extent of what Will had done then. Still, it had been vital for their success. If Will had not distracted the Romans, gods knew what would have happened. Nico's voice wouldn't come. "Sometimes, I don't even feel worthy of being a demigod."
Nico didn't know what to say. He said the first thing that came to mind. "You had a mighty fine dog whistle…" he said, softly. Nico turned on his side. He only managed to see Will's red, tear-streaked face before Will turned away to hide his shame.
The laugh that came from the healer was artificial and bitter.
Nico sighed.
After a deep breath, Nico started talking. He didn't know why he felt comfortable talking, but the fact that Will had opened up to him definitely helped. "After the Battle of Manhattan," said Nico, "They loved me because of the way I fought in the war. I practically saved Olympus because I managed to convince my father to fight for us. Even the Ares kids thought I was cool." That memory was warm.
"They were in awe when I built the Hades cabin with an army of skeletal warriors. I was accepted. Or, well, I was at least really well tolerated," said Nico, his tone turning bitter. "For a while."
Will nodded. His head was still turned to the side. His eyes were still averted. He was too ashamed to show his face to Nico.
Will remembered those times very well. That was when he had started developing feelings for Nico. He'd simply not had the courage then, much like now, to do anything about the burgeoning infatuation in his heart. When he'd finally managed to work up the courage to talk to Nico, he'd vanished.
"Then," said Nico, his voice shakier than he'd expected it to be. To be entirely truthful, he was afraid that the same thing would happen now as it had then. "The glory of victory faded…" Nico laughed bitterly.
"Something happened. Almost as soon as they accepted me, they started turning me away," said Nico. He didn't remember Will at all after the battle. He couldn't think of a time when he had interacted with Will. The truth was that Will had only ever dared watch Nico from afar back then. "They started looking uneasy around me whenever I showed up. Eventually they started avoiding me."
Nico drew a deep breath. "They did all they could to forget that I was even in the camp." There was an old pain in Nico's words that was so palpable that it made Will cringe.
Will felt guilty. He did not regret driving Nico away. He had done no such thing. What he did regret was not doing more to make Nico feel welcome. At the same time, Will couldn't help but also feel anger. He felt anger toward the other campers for judging Nico for being a son of Hades.
"I left," said Nico, a weariness overtaking the bitterness in his voice. "I wasn't welcome." There was a sour twist to Nico's lips. "It's not like anyone noticed I was gone.
Will wanted to say that he had noticed. That he had hoped Nico would show up and stay again. Only, Nico never did. He showed up from time to time, but only for brief periods of time, and Will never got the chance to approach him. "I went to the underworld," said Nico, "I helped there. I found my half-sister… I found the Romans… Even they were wary of me. Child of Pluto. Bad omen. Not welcome. Not always."
Will was satisfied that his face was no longer as red as it had been, but he could do nothing about the tear-tracks across his cheeks. He looked at Nico and found the expression on Nico's face to be so world-weary, he felt like he was looking at the face of an old man. "I left there, too." Nico had no right to be so tired of the world at such a young age. "I wasn't welcome anywhere. Of course I wasn't."
Nico bared his teeth at Will in an effort to inject levity into the conversation. "I'm a child of the Underworld, after all," he said. "People fear me." Nico's voice trailed off into little more than a whisper when his little joke failed. It was difficult to hear his words. They were just barely discernible through the ambient sounds of the infirmary and the camp outside it.
Will sniffled. He wiped his eyes and nose with the back of his hand. "Well," he said, forcing a little smile, "You are somewhat abrasive, di Angelo." Will found that even forcing a smile helped to lighten a situation. "But I'm not afraid of you," he said. Defiance burned in his startlingly-blue eyes.
"You should be," said Nico, matter-of-factly, looking into Will's eyes. The pain that he'd been carrying around for years felt somewhat lessened. He had received a measure of trust from Will. He'd extended the same in response. It was just like that time with Reyna, except he was in the position that Reyna had been.
"Dream on," said Will. He looked Nico in the eye. He told the son of Hades the truest words he had yet spoken. "What's there to be afraid of? That you're different? That you're the son of Hades? I'm not afraid of you any more than I am afraid of the dark." Will wasn't afraid of the dark. At all.
"I want to know you," said Will, "And I want you to know that there is someone who kind-of understands how you feel."
Nico raised an eyebrow at Will. "Really?" he said, cracking a smirk. "Can I meet this someone?"
Will blushed. "Oh shut up, di Angelo," he said.
Nico's smirk widened. "You first, Solace."
A/N: Alright. There we are. Ominous appearance of the Fates, setting up for a really long series, check. Now to find an ancient evil that will be the primary antagonist. :P. I'm just kidding. I am not following Rick Riordan's formula.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did, writing it. Aren't you glad that Nico and Will are making some progress? Yes? 3. Oh my dears, you have no idea what's coming.
Anyway. Leave a review, please! I love reading them. They motivate me to get the coming weeks' chapters out there. I would love it if you could visit my tumblr over at .com and leave me an ask. My inbox is feeling rather lonely at the moment.
I'll see you all again on Thursday!