They spent the morning taking care of the other two campers and Will was surprised how well Nico handled himself. The other two had come away with quite grave injuries. But then again, as a son of the Underworld, Nico had probably seen way worse. Will tried to maintain easy conversation and the two of them found that they shared a secret desire for McDonald's food that neither of them could really explain.

"Heh." Will stifled a laugh. "We should sneak out of camp one day and get a takeaway."

"We – I guess we could."

Will didn't dare look at Nico, fearing his racing heart would give him away. Had they just (kind of) agreed on a date. Will grinned.

"Death Boy at McDonald's," he said. "I can't picture it."

"Don't call me that!" Nico pouted and it took all of Will's willpower not to pinch his cheek.

After a few hours, Nico's stomach rumbled audibly. Will smirked.

"Hungry?"

"Not really," Nico lied. Will found that extremely adorable.

"Well, I know I am," he said pleasantly. "Shall we go get some food?"

"But your patients." Nico frowned.

"Will be fine without me for a while."

"If you say so." He still scanned the room critically, but Will grabbed his wrist.

"Come on," he said. "Doctor's orders."

He had dragged Nico halfway over the green when Death Boy came to a sudden halt.

"Solace!" He stared at his wrist. Will realised he had been holding on to Nico the entire time, but he was in such a good mood, he wasn't going to let this go.

"What?" He smiled easily. "Embarrassed to be holding hands with a friend?"

Nico blushed and stared at his feet. Again. Will found him the most adorable thing in demigod history.

"This isn't holding hands," Nico mumbled.

"Hm? You're right."

With a sudden burst of courage, Will interlocked his fingers with Nico's. "This is."

"Will!" Nico hissed, glancing sideways. A couple of Aphrodite girls passed them, giggling away.

Nico looked quite tortured and Will decided not to take this too far. He didn't want the other boy to hate him.

"Alright, alright." He let go and shrugged. "Let's go get lunch, Death Boy."

He marched off, ignoring Nico who, hurrying after him, called out:

"Don't call me that!"

Nico's heart was still racing when he sat down for lunch at the Apollo table. Some of Will's cabin mates eyed him curiously, but made no comment. When Will had taken his hand Nico thought he was about to have a stroke. And then Piper's cabin mates even saw them. He feared he'd never hear the end of it now. Still, he was happy and the tiniest seed of hope started to grow in his chest.

As Nico feared, Piper and Jason approached them, grinning maliciously.

"Hey, Nico, Will!" Jason called out, the epitome of subtleness.

"Hello Jason." Nico rubbed his temples.

"Feeling rested?" Piper smiled and, had Nico been into girls, he probably would have been attracted to that smile.

"Yes," he answered curtly, unwilling to give the two of them an opening. It was bad enough that Jason was eyeing the clueless Will who was checking his sandwich for tomatoes. He had told Nico earlier that he hated tomatoes.

Nico took a sip from his coke.

"So, Will," Jason asked. "Is there anyone you like?"

Nico almost choked. He forced himself to swallow and tried very hard not to cough. Piper smirked. The Apollo kids burst out laughing. Will looked up stupefied.

"I'm sorry?" he asked.

"Well, you see, this friend of mine kind of fancies you, I think." His eyes flicker to Nico ever so slightly. "And she was wondering whether you are with someone."

Nico felt extremely embarrassed with a strong desire to open up the earth and disappear; which he actually was capable of doing.

"You can tell her friend that she doesn't have a chance," one of the other Apollo Campers said.

"Austin." Will shot him a warning glance.

"Oh, come on, it's not like you're secretive about this." Austin rolled his eyes.

Will sighed.

"What?" Jason asked.

"Will doesn't swing that way." Austin grinned. "He doesn't go after girls."

"What?!" Nico gasped and immediately covered his mouth. Will buried his face in his hands.

"You're…" Jason blinked at him.

"…gay, yes," Will confirmed weakly and waved Jason off. "It's not like I'm ashamed about it or anything."

"There's no reason to be!" Piper agreed eagerly.

"I just don't want things to get awkward in the showers or something." Will sighed again.

"We told you we're cool with it." Austin looked offended and Will smiled.

"Yeah, I know."

All this Nico only processed with about ten percent of his brain. The other ninety percent tried processing Will's statement. He was… gay; just like Nico! He couldn't believe it. Was there actually a chance for him? But… why hadn't Will told him about this before? After all, Nico had come out to him. He stared at Will, both elated and confused and a little hurt. When Will caught his eye, he blushed.

"I'm full," he said and pushed his half-eaten sandwich away. "I'll start checking up the wounded warriors."

And with that, he got up and left.

Nico still sat there, twisting his skull ring and thinking about the meaning of it all when Piper talked to him.

"Nico, hey, Nico!"

Nico looked up, startled.

"Huh, what?" he asked.

"I asked whether you could hold on to Leo's letter," she told him.

"What? Why?"

Jason and Piper had immediately offered to hold on to the parchment.

"Because," Jason explained, "if Piper keeps it any longer she will shred it and cast it into the Long Island Sound."

Nico furrowed his eyebrows.

"He just makes me so angry!" Piper stated. "Caring more about his girlfriend than his friends!"

"You really shouldn't be talking," Nico murmured unconsciously.

"What?!" Piper snapped and Nico shut up. He respected her almost as much as he respected Reyna and Annabeth, which meant he feared her almost as much.

"Nothing," he said. "I'll take the letter."

Piper handed it to him and he tucked it into a pocket of his jeans.

"Anything else?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Nope." Jason put an arm around Piper. "That's it."

"Okay then." Nico got to his feet. "See you guys later."

Then he lumbered off, determined to find Will and assist him with his chores.

Will was just stepping out of the Ares cabin when he ran into Nico. Naturally, the Ares kids had fought on the front line and come away with the worst superficial injuries, but they had great healing abilities and loathed staying in the infirmary. Clarisse had amused them all by showing them pictures of Coach Hedge's little baby boy, an adorable goatling with snow white fur and hair.

The son of Hades faced him head on, arms crossed in front of his chest, and pierced him with those dark eyes.

Will still hadn't gotten over what had happened over lunch. Sure, he wasn't ashamed of his sexuality, his mother had taught him that, but the fact that Nico had heard him… well, he just didn't want the other boy to fall for him purely because he was the only other gay kid around. He almost sighed, but caught himself. He was glad Nico had come to him on his own accord.

"Nico," he said calmly.

"Will."

And with that, without another word, Nico joined him on his tour round Camp, assisting him in removing bandages, checking on casks and cleaning out scratches. They had a lot to do and so, by the time the sun was standing low on the sky, they sat down by the lake together.

"Has someone collected Buford?" Nico asked.

"Buford?" Will asked, puzzled.

"Uh… it's a flying wonder table that Leo created."

When Will stared at him in confusion, Nico shrugged.

"I guess the other Hephaestus kids have picked it up."

"Hm."

They stared out onto the water for a while, neither one speaking. When Nico finally said something, it was in such a low voice that Will could barely make out his words.

"Why didn't you tell me?" The son of Hades asked.

"What?" Will blinked, his thoughts still with Buford, the flying wonder table.

"About that, you know…" Nico rested his chin on his knees awkwardly. "What we talked about during lunch today."

"Oh." Will blushed. "You mean that."

"Yup."

"I, er…" He could hardly tell him the truth, really. "It never really came up."

What a stupid answer. Apparently, Nico thought so as well, because he got to his feet and glared and Will angrily. Then he stormed away without another way.

Will immediately ran after him.