November 18

Nico

Nico watched Will sleep, using a bunched up jacket against the train window as a pillow. It was mid afternoon and they were speeding back to New Jersey. Nico kept replaying their conversation from the night before. He was still basking in how happy Will had looked when he asked him out, and could practically feel the heat left from where Will had hissed him on the cheek. Nico wanted to curl up next to Will again, but didn't want to wake him up in the process. Or really do that in front of the whole train. Also, Will's date from the Feast kept walking by every hour or so casting sad glances at Will, and even though Nico avoided his gaze each time, it didn't make him feel any less guilty. It wasn't Nico's fault their night didn't end well, but the fact that other boy's terrible evening had resulted in one of Nico's best weeks made him uncomfortable.

Lou Ellen and Kayla had walked by a few times too. The first time, Will had still been awake and the four of them chatted for a few minutes. Lou Ellen didn't look at Nico or even acknowledge his presence. He assumed she was giving him the cold shoulder because of everything that happened over the past couple months, and he couldn't really blame her. His belief was confirmed when she stopped by a couple hours later when Will sleeping. She glared at Nico and quietly told him that if he pulled something like that again she had a bunch of mist experiments she'd been wanting to try out on someone.

Kayla was more welcoming, and had just said, "glad you're back," with a punch in the shoulder as she walked by.

As the train sped closer to the East Coast, Nico's worries about what camp would be like grew louder. Many of them had nothing to do with his feelings for Will, though those still lurked in the background. At Camp Jupiter he wasn't expected to fully participate in anything or follow the schedule given to the other campers. He was there temporarily, and only reported to Hazel and Reyna. At Camp Half Blood he would have to attend classes and meals and 'team activities' along with everyone else. But this time there would be no Percy or Jason to have classes and eat with. There would be no Piper or Annabeth to drag him along to campfires. The only people Nico had really talked to before who would be there were Will and his friends, and regardless of whatever he and Will were, Nico didn't want to just trail after them for the rest of the year. Besides, Will was head counselor for his cabin, a cabin that actually had other people in it. He'd be busy wrangling his siblings and running the infirmary. Nico sighed and looked around the train. There were only about 50 campers who stayed through the school year, and their ages ranged from a couple of 11 year olds up to 18 or so. Apart from Will and his friends, there were a handful of other campers around his age. Nico wasn't sure it would be worth the effort to try to get to know them, and didn't know how to start even if he wanted to. He resigned himself to taking on a very demanding hobby.

"Hey." Will had woken up and was stretching. Nico was temporarily distracted by the muscles in his shoulders. "Stop brooding, I can practically feel you overthinking things."

Nico gave him a half-hearted smile. "Yeah, sorry. Just … camp."

"Nico, less than six months ago you were fighting giants and saving the world. Camp is a vacation compared to that."

"That's what I'm worried about," Nico said, staring at the ground. "What am I going to do?"

Will smiled and grabbed Nico's hand, lacing their fingers together. Nico looked up at him and tried to focus on what Will was saying rather than how well their hands fit together and how his heart had picked up speed.

"Nico, you're going go to class, maybe teach one if you want," Nico took a breath to protest but Will stopped him. "Most of us would be lucky if we could handle a sword half as well as you could, you'd probably have a waiting list, I'm serious. You'll help me in the infirmary - I'm holding you to your promise to do filing and clean bedpans, don't think I've forgotten. You'll come to the campfires, probably win capture the flag every week with the help of a skeleton army or something. You have nothing to worry about. I promise. I have a long list of movies and tv shows I'm going to make you watch, too. Honestly, in some ways I like camp better during the school year. There are so many of us there over the summer that the schedules have to be pretty strict and cover the basics and it can get overwhelming - even without end-of-the-world battles - but now with fewer of us we can sort of pick what we want to focus on in class and capture the flag is way less intense and sometimes there are snow days and older campers get to do fieldtrip type things. It's nice."

Will squeezed his hand and and smiled and Nico forgot most of his arguments. He wasn't going to bring up not having any friends besides Will, or whatever they were. But he was right, there was always plenty to do. He smiled and leaned his head back on the seat.

"Fine. I'll wait until we actually get there before I start worrying."

"If you ever get bored just come find me and we'll figure something out," Will said as he gazed out the window at the midwest landscape and rolled his neck to get the stiffness out after sleeping against the window.

Nico's eyes caught on the skin along Will's collarbone. Nico blushed. He was sure Will didn't mean anything like that but Nico's mind had jumped to a few different ways to kill time with Will that definitely weren't camp approved. He was distracted from thoughts about him and Will not actually watching movies in his cabin by Kayla appearing and leaning over the seat in front of them.

"Thank the gods you're awake, Will. How did you even manage to sleep so long? Anyway, Lou Ellen and Cecil won't stop bickering about something boring and Austin has been practicing the same song on his ukulele for the last hour. I was about to wake you up myself so I wouldn't jump off this train out of boredom." She looked over at Nico, "Hey, hope Lou Ellen wasn't too intense earlier. She sometimes gets wrapped up in the spooky Hecate stuff but really she's harmless. The worst she'll do is turn you into a lamp or something, but her magic wears off in a few hours if she isn't concentrating on it."

Nico assumed that was supposed to make him feel better, but it didn't.

"She did what?" Will asked, looking over the seats to find her.

"Will, it was nothing. She was just being protective and lectured Nico a little. It was nothing, right?" Kayla looked at Nico for confirmation and he nodded hesitantly. "Really, she's been in a mood all day. I think it was that Roman kid who she danced with all night on Sunday but basically ignored her at the procession yesterday. Speaking of… where did you two disappear to?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Nico blushed, unintentionally thinking about movie nights and Will and his dark cabin again.

Will glanced over and must have taken his deer-in-headlights expression as a sign of panic, rather than a struggle to not think those things in the middle of a conversation with Will's sister. "Kayla," Will said in hushed tones, unlacing their hands, "Nico isn't out yet. Quiet. Also, none of your business."

That cleared Nico's head. "Will, no, it's fine. I don't care if people know, really."

Kayla smiled brightly at him. "Well that's for the best, because I made up that you two were somewhere with Reyna when we got to the barracks and you weren't with us, but don't expect me to cover for you next time - I have my own romantic rendezvous to worry about," she said, smirking.

"Really, we just watched the fireworks and stars and stuff… but thanks, I guess." Will shook his head and smiled at her.

"Yeah, the 'and stuff' is what I was talking about," she teased.

"You are the worst," Will laughed. But then he looked over at Nico and smiled and grabbed his hand again and Nico couldn't've cared less what Kayla said next.

Nico smiled and listened to them joke with each other for the rest of the train ride. Nico thought about how he really didn't mind her talking about them like a couple … it felt nice. If Drew had walked up to them in that moment, Nico couldn't imagine feeling any sort of fear or panic, though he might still consider sending a dead mouse after her. Kayla also made an effort to pull Nico into their conversation, and coaxed a few laughs out of him by the time they reached the East Coast. A few hours later, when he finally dropped his bags next to his bed in the Hades cabin, Nico felt much more optimistic about what the next few months might bring.