A/N: Before I start this chapter, I just want to thank all of you for your continuous support. It means a lot to know that you guys are enjoying the story because I write for all of you ❤ Enjoy the chapter, everyone c:

Texting guide;

Bold and underlined = Jason

Bold = Nico

19

Nico

Nico couldn't get Will out of his head the rest of the night. It kept him from sleeping because every time he closed his eyes, their kiss replayed over and over in his mind. The pressure and warmth of Will's lips against his skin, his scent—honey and lilacs—making him weak in the knees. And even though it technically wasn't a real kiss, Nico couldn't stop thinking about it.

Which of course annoyed him to no end.

It was very obvious to him now that he was (unfortunately) deeply, incredibly, vastly in love with Will Solace. Which presented several problems. 1.) Jason would give Nico his 'I told you so' speech, 2.) So would Reyna, and 3.) All of his friends would probably try to get them together as soon as possible. And, knowing his friends, several things were bound to go severely wrong if that happened.

So what choices did that leave him? Don't tell them. That was an obvious one. But he was almost 100% sure that they would end up finding out somehow, and then they would be on his case about not telling them about it himself. Another option was to confess to Will and swear him to secrecy. That wasn't one he was super excited about, either.

Nico had always been somewhat of a shut-in. He'd only made friends with Jason and Percy because they'd pretty much bothered him 24/7 until he became too tired to ignore them further. And after he'd become friends with them, all of their friends seemed to become his through association.

And now he had Will to deal with. Though he supposed this was mostly his fault, since he'd decided to mess with Will in the first place. If he hadn't been such an asshole, they wouldn't be in this mess. But there was little he could do about that now.

He just had to man up and do it. Tell Will that he liked him. That was the only way to resolve this. And who knew; maybe Will liked him back. Sadly, he doubted that, but he figured there was always a chance. So he had to confess. But how could he do that? He wasn't usually a shy person (more antisocial), but around Will, he turned into a blushing, stammering mess. It was rather embarrassing, really.

Gods, this was too much thinking to do in one night. He'd never get to sleep at this rate. Why couldn't life just be simple and not full of all these complexities? The only way Nico could deal with his problems was to face them head-on. He'd learned from previous experience that if he ignored them, they would just become worse. But this problem in particular... He was afraid to face it.

Flipping onto his stomach with a groan, Nico reached for a pillow and covered his head with it, sighing into the mattress beneath. He flashed back to what had happened at the party earlier. That boy, Travis, grabbing Will's wrist. He was angry just thinking about it, even after it had happened. Do that again and I'll fucking kill you. Got it?

Groaning, Nico clutched the pillow tighter against the back of his head. Oh, gods, Will probably thought he was insane. But, then again, he'd kissed him afterward, so... What did that mean?

Nico grabbed his pillow and screamed into it, kicking his legs against the bed. He had a lot to think about. And hopefully, he'd have everything figured out by morning.

In the morning, Nico felt, in a word, like a zombie. His eyes were crusted from lack of sleep, his body was strained and sore from dancing at the party, his stomach was grumbling loudly, and when he got up to look in the mirror, heavy dark circles hung under his eyes, like someone had taken a black paintbrush and swept it under them.

He considered going back to bed and sleeping for the rest of the day, but his mind was even more full than it had been the previous night. He had to get himself together enough to go see Will and tell him how he felt. He didn't think he could stand waiting another second.

Though it was embarrassing to admit, he wanted to kiss him. He wanted to kiss Will so badly, it was like a deep ache, a stone weighing down in his chest. He had never kissed someone before, and he wanted, more than anything, for Will to be his first real kiss.

He blushed just thinking about it.

Slapping his cheeks to wake himself up, Nico squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. "Okay. I've gotta get ready. I'm gonna go see Will. I can do this. I can do this." He kept repeating that phrase to himself over and over as he got showered and dressed, trying to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do.

As he was pulling on a pair of black Converses, his phone buzzed in the pocket of his jeans. Holding his breath, he slid it out and checked the screen. Luckily, it wasn't Will (he didn't think he could handle a text from him right now), but instead from Jason. But that really wasn't any better. If he found out about the kiss...

But no, when he read the message, it had nothing to do with the party.

9:34 AM - Hey, Neeks, you up yet? Pipes wants you to come to brunch with us

He quickly came up with a safe response.

9:35 AM - Can't. Got stuff to do today. Sorry :(

Luckily, Jason didn't ask him what 'stuff' he had to do.

9:36 AM - Oh, ok, cool. Text ya later ;)

Breathing a sigh of relief, Nico stuck his phone back in his pocket, pulled on his last shoe, and hopped on his motorcycle to head to Will's house, his heart in his throat, fluttering like a hummingbird beneath his skin.

Pulling up in Will's driveway, Nico put his Ducati Monster in neutral and pulled off his black helmet. Now he was starting to feel the nerves. He thought he might puke. But it was too late to go back. Still, he kept repeating his mantra in his head; I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...

Kicking down his stand, he turned off the bike and hopped off, placing his helmet on the seat. Before he could chicken out, Nico forced his legs to move, walking the few feet to Will's door and knocking twice, his brain screaming at him that this was a stupid idea, and his legs begging to run away.

Luckily, the door opened before he could act on that instinct. Will leaned against the doorway, wearing a baggy blue Harvard T-shirt and black-and-orange plaid pajama pants, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Yeah?"

"Um..." Nico was temporarily stunned into speechlessness. Will should've looked terrible, as he was clearly not even half awake, but he looked... better like this. His blond hair was the perfect amount of messy, and his too-big, crumpled clothes made him look, well... adorable. "Uh..."

Will blinked, seeming all the way awake now as he stared down at Nico with wide blue eyes. "Oh, Nico." His cheeks were tinged slightly pink, though that may have just been from the morning sun shining down on them. "You should've told me you were coming over." He looked down at his bedraggled pajamas, his blush deepening. "I would've... dressed."

"Uh, no... That's, um— It's fine." Nico closed his mouth and cleared his throat, trying to bring his mind back around to the spot it was supposed to be at. "Uh, can we... Can we talk?"

"Oh, um..." Will looked surprised. "Yeah, sure. Come in." He moved aside to let Nico pass before closing the door and leading him through the living room, towards the stairs. "Dad!" he called along the way. "Nico's here! We're going up to my room!"

There was a mumble something along the lines of, "Maith go leor, spraoi a bheith agat," from the kitchen, where Nico gathered Will's dad was. He raised an eyebrow as they started up the stairs. "Did he just... speak in Irish?"

"Yeah," Will said with a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about it. It's normal. He sometimes slips into other languages when he gets up too early."

"Oh..." Nico mumbled. "Now I see where you get it from..."

Will laughed. "Yeah, I guess he passed it along to me. Here we are." He gestured to an open door, which must've been his room. Nico walked inside, his eyes sweeping the room as he took everything in. The walls were painted a beautiful navy blue, and the ceiling was completely covered in glow-in-the-dark stars. "Whoa..."

Closing the door behind them, Will flopped down on an orange beanbag chair in the corner with a smile. "Yeah, it's pretty, huh? It took me forever to put up all those stars, though." He laughed. "It took Lou, Dad, Cecil, and I almost three whole days to do it."

"I like it," Nico said, looking over at him with a small smile. Just being around Will was already making him feel better. But even so, he was still nervous about what he had to do...

Will flashed him one of his signature huge, genuine smiles. "I'm glad. Wanna sit down?"

"Uh, no, I'm okay..." Nico took a deep breath and clenched his fists. "I have something important to tell you."

With a concerned look, Will stood and took a step towards him, causing Nico to retreat a step backward. "What's wrong, Nico? Are you okay? It's nothing serious, is it?"

"No, no," Nico said quickly, holding his hands up as a barrier between them. If Will touched him, he was afraid he would completely forget everything he wanted to say. "I'm fine. It's just, um, it's about the party, and what happened..."

Will's face fell. "Oh, gods, listen; about the party, I'm so, so sorry for kissing you. I shouldn't have done that without asking your permission first, and I totally understand if you don't want to be friends anymore, or if you want to punch me or something..." He squeezed his eyes shut and held his arms out. "Go right ahead and do it."

"No, I—" Nico shook his head, taking a shaky breath. "You're right... I don't want to be friends anymore."

"You— You don't?" Will opened his eyes, his tone sounding sad and hurt.

Nico almost ran to him to tackle him in a hug right then, but he managed to hold his ground. "No. I... I..." He felt himself blushing. "I don't want to be just friends. I— I— I r-really like you, and I want..." He swallowed, feeling like his heart was about to burst out of his chest. "I w-want to be m-more than friends."

He was almost afraid to see Will's reaction. When he looked up, the blond was staring at him open-mouthed, his blue eyes wide. The stress of the whole situation hit him, and the fight-or-flight response finally kicked in. Nico whirled around and made a break for it, feeling tears in his eyes. Dammit, I'm so stupid!

But he didn't make it more than four steps before a hand closed around his wrist, jerking him back around. A small, startled sound of protest came from Nico's throat but died a second later as Will kissed him. He felt his knees weaken and clutched at Will's shoulders for support, the tears drying on his cheeks as he melted into the kiss.

It was true what they said about fireworks. It felt like a whole symphony of them was going off inside Nico's chest, nearly causing his heart to beat right out of his ribcage. Though he knew it was impossible, he felt electricity race up and down his arms, as if touching Will was like sticking a fork in a socket.

This is really happening.

Will pulled away far too soon, and Nico stood there in shock, holding a hand to his lips, which still tingled with electricity. "You kissed me."

"Um, yes?" Will looked nervous. "You told me you liked me."

"I— I do." Nico was struggling to talk now. "Do you— Does this mean... you like me too?"

"Yeah," Will said with an embarrassed smile. "I think so."

Nico let out a long breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He was slightly light-headed. "You— You like me." He thought he might faint. No, scratch that; he would definitely faint.

"You like me," Will retorted with a smile. Nico let out a breathy laugh and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah I do. I really do."

"Good," Will said with a shy smile. "Because there's something I want to ask you, too."

"What?" Nico asked, staring up at him, finally able to do it now that an enormous weight had been lifted off his chest. He felt free. He felt... he felt... happy. Unbearably, incredibly, ridiculously happy. He hadn't felt like this since his mother was still alive. It was almost too much.

Will rested his hands on Nico's shoulders and looked him right in the eyes, smiling a smile that was for him, and only him. "Call me old school, but I'd like to formally ask..." He took a deep breath, blue eyes sparkling, trapping Nico in their intense brilliance. "Nico di Angelo, will you be my boyfriend?"

"Oh, miei dèi," Nico mumbled, feeling his face flush hotter. "Penso che sto ancora sognando..." As soon as the words left his mouth, he finally collapsed, the last thing he saw Will's wide, sky-blue eyes staring down at him in shock.

A/N: IT HAPPENED! THEY FINALLY GOT TOGETTTTHHHER! XD I hope you guys are happy now lol :p Don't worry, though; the story isn't over yet, not by a long shot. I have a lot more planned for it, maybe 10 or more chapters, so stay tuned, and continue to support the story by following, favoriting, and leaving comments, corrections, and suggestions down in the review section :)

And yes, NICO DRIVES A MOTORCYCLE! XD How cute is that?

Translations;

- Maith go leor, spraoi a bheith agat. - Okay, have fun.

- Oh, miei dèi. - Oh, my gods.

- Penso che sto ancora sognando... - I think I'm still dreaming...