A/N I'm in love with writing solangelo right now. I don't know the most or even a whole lot about foster care and how everything works nor do I know how it feels to be super traumatized and I'm no doctor so excuse any mistakes please. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas and I'll take them into consideration.
"Hey Will, I'm gonna go to the school and start setting up my classroom," Nico pops his head into their room. "Wanna come?"
"Sure, I can come help but we have to check with Henry." Will stands up from his spot on the bed, "If he doesn't wanna come then I can stay home with him." The men go across the hall and knock on the teenager's room.
"Henry?" Nico calls.
"Yeah, come in." Henry allows them access. Will and Nico walk into the room to find the boy with his ankle iced and elevated while he sits in bed and reads a book.
"I'm gonna head to the school and start organizing my classroom for the year and I was wondering if you and Will would like to come with me?" Nico stands in the doorway next to his husband.
Henry sets his book to the side, "Um, sure? I don't care… If you want me to come I will."
"If you don't wanna go I can stay home with you. We can go another time if you don't feel up to it today." Will explains.
"I-it's fine. Sure, I'll come." Henry agrees.
"Okay, we're gonna leave in about five minutes." Nico tells him. The kid nods while Will and Nico go to grab their things. Once they're gone, Henry freely winces at the pain in his ankle while he removes the ice and tightens his boot on his foot. He swings his legs over the side of the bed and stands.
Henry doubles over, hands on his knees, from the white hot pain radiating from his injured ankle. He almost wants to tell his foster parents how much it hurts and accept the crutches that Will had offered him that morning, but that would mean facing the consequences would be a lot more painful in the long run. He doesn't have time to ponder that since he hears the garage door open at the same time the car starts.
The teenager gets his act together and meets the men in the car.
"Ready to go?" Will asks from the passenger seat.
"Yep." Henry responds.
"Good, we're going to hit up a smoothie shop just down the road from the school first," Nico says.
"Okay." Henry says. Radio music plays on their way there and it's the only thing filling the silence.
"Drive thru or go in?" Nico slows down and flicks on the turn signal.
"Henry, how's the ankle feeling?" Will turns around and asks.
"Fine." He quickly plays into downplaying it.
Will eyes him suspiciously and turns to Nico when Henry avoids eye contact, "Drive thru." The son of Hades pulls into the drive thru line while they try to decide what they want.
"I told you I don't need anything." Henry refuses to tell them what he wants.
"Yes, but do you want something?" Will presses.
"I don't care." Henry mumbles.
"Henry, we're happy to get you something but we don't know what you like." Nico assures him.
Henry huffs through his nose, "Fine."
"So what kind of smoothie do you want?" Will asks with a small smile.
"Strawberry-kiwi." Henry mutters.
"Okay." Nico rolls down his window and places the order. They receive their drinks and make their way to the school.
Nico's classroom is plain with boxes on boxes of textbooks printed in all different languages. There were some things leftover from the last year like beanbags and different kinds of chairs and stools. There was a standing desk with Nico's own desk in the corner.
Will had grabbed a giant box full of Nico's own books, binders, and disassembles shelves and drawers. Nico trailed behind him holding a box of posters and decorations and fidgets.
Of course Henry had offered to help carry something but Will insisted that since his ankle was supposed to be mostly non-weight bearing, he wasn't allowed to carry anything more than their drinks.
Because of this, the Solace-di Angelo's put Henry to work prepping textbooks and workbooks from the beanbag chair in the corner. The boys spent three hours of the afternoon prepping books, hanging posters, building shelves, and arranging desks.
"I'd say that's enough for today." Will declares as he flops down on a beanbag next to Henry. Nico throws himself onto his husband and lays his head on his chest. Henry watches closely, trying to distract himself from the throbbing coming from his ankle.
"Ready to go home?" Will asks both his husband and foster kid. Nico hums and nods while Henry remains fixated on the pain. "Henry? Are you okay?"
"Hmm?" He snaps his eyes up to meet Will's.
"Are you alright? Is your ankle bothering you?"
"Y-yeah, a little." Henry knots his hands together.
"We'll get you some medicine when we get home, but right now, can you walk?" Will doctors him. "It's totally okay if you can't." Will assurres him. "I brought the crutches along just in case, they're in the car."
Henry's chest tightens and he feels like his lungs no longer expand. "N-no. I-I can walk. I don't n-need the cr-crutches." His voice is fragile like glass in less than the couple seconds it took for Will to tell him it was okay. Breathing becomes increasingly more difficult as the son of Apollo attempts to persuade Henry to use crutches if walking hurts too badly.
"I can walk… I can walk. Pl-please… I can walk." Henry mutters as his hands start to claw at his chest. He needs air, he needs to get out of there. He needs to leave.
Henry stands quickly but when he takes a step with his left leg, he stumbles and almost collapses.
"Henry?!" Nico and Will shout in unison.
"NO! No! No! Please! No, please! Please… no… I'm sorry…" The traumatized kid gives up running away and hugs his knees to his chest as he curls up next to the wall.
"Hen, Henry, we're not gonna hurt you or be mad, we just want to help you." Nico leans down to be at Henry's eye level.
"Henry, we need you to try to breathe for us." Will squats down about three feet away from the panicked boy. "Can I take your hand so you can try to match my breathing?" Will asks.
"N-no." Henry responds. "I'm sorry, please don't hurt me." He quickly adds.
"Okay, that's okay. I won't touch you but you still need to try to slow down your breathing."
"Can you do that?" Nico chimes in.
"M-mhm." Henry takes to breathing through his nose which is no better than breathing through his mouth was.
"Breathe with us okay?" Will says. The teenager nods and Will, along with Nico, begins taking deep, exaggerated breaths. "In. Two… three… four… Hold. Two… three… four… Out. Two… three… four… Hold." Will counts the steps to box breathing. Henry struggles to reciprocate through the pain and his hand reaches out to latch onto Nico's.
"It hu-hurts. My ch-chest. It hurts." Henry's left hand continues to claw and scratch at his chest.
"Shh, shh. It only hurts because you're not breathing properly. It's gonna hurt to take deep breaths but it'll get better, I promise." Will explains. He continues talking Henry through his panic attack while the boy's free hand tightly grips his sweats.
It takes ten more minutes but Henry's breathing goes back to normal and the death grip he had on Nico's hand and his pants goes slack.
"Better?" Will finally asks.
"Yes, sir. Thank you." Henry stares at his hands in his lap.
"Do you know what triggered the attack?" Nico asks after a silent moment. Henry nods. "Do you want to talk about it?" The teen shakes his head.
"Let's go home then." Will says. He sticks out his hand to help up the boy but Henry ignores him and takes Nico's outstretched hand to get up. Nico notices this and shoots his husband an apologetic look.
"Can you walk?" Nico asks, softly.
"Yes." Henry pulls himself the rest of the way up and shoves his hands in his pockets and looks down at his feet.
"Come on. How about we go get something to eat?" Will suggests.
"Sure. We can get some fast food then head home." Nico says. They start to walk out of the school with Will leading and Nico and Henry, with a severe limp, following behind.
— — —
"Did I do something wrong?" Will wonders out loud.
"No, Sunshine. Even if you did, you didn't mean to. I'm sure he's just adjusting and that's hard for him. I mean, it took me a little while to warm up to you when I first got to camp." Nico assures him.
"I know that but…" Will groans and buries his face in his hands.
"Henry's building his trust. It's gonna take him a little bit. He's been to other foster homes before I'm sure not all of them have been great, we just need to show him that we're different and that we care. That takes time, okay?" Nico lies down next to his husband. Will's eyes start to water with tears and he leans into Nico's side. "Okay?"
"Okay." Will whimpers.
"I love you." Nico kisses him on the head and hugs him closer so that Will's face is buried in his chest.
— — —
"Hey, Cowboy, I'm gonna head to the school for a workday. Wanna come?" Nico asks Will.
"What did I say about calling me 'Cowboy'?" Will side eyes Nico.
"You told me to 'Stop calling me that, Nico!'" The son of Hades imitates his husband. "But I know you love it because you blush so hard every time I do." Nico grins.
"Have you ever thought that maybe you're the cowboy?" Will points out, blush starting to make its way up his neck.
"Oh, and why's that?" Nico asks, humoring Will.
"Cuz you're usually the one who rides me." Will's face continues to grow hot at the thought of the last time they'd had sex.
"Maybe we should change that…" Nico whispers in his ear.
"Shut up! We can't do that while Henry's here. He's gonna know what we're doing." Will groans, holding his head in his hands, trying to hide a blush.
"Ha! You're trying to hide your blush. Too bad I can see it!" Nico celebrates. This ultimately makes the son of Apollo blush ten times harder. "I love you." Nico takes Will's hands off his face to kiss both of them then kisses up his neck and jawline before making his way to his lips.
"Nico-" Will's statement is smothered by Nico's lips on his. "Nico-" Will moans, "Don't you have somewhere to be?"
"Oh right." Nico pushes back. "Anyway. Wanna come?"
"Not this time. I gotta talk to Henry about his ankle." Will states.
"What about it?" Nico looks concerned.
"It's gotten worse. He's pushing it too hard, it's a stress fracture now. I really need to get him using the crutches." Will explains.
"Okay, call me if you need me to come home." Nico tells him.
"I will, don't worry." Will gets up to find Henry and Nico kisses him one more time on the cheek then grabs his backpack and heads out the door.
Will finds their foster kid in his room, drawing at his desk.
"Hey Hen," Will cracks open the door with a knock. "Can I come in?"
"Sure." Henry closes the book and sets down his pencil to spin around in the chair.
"I wanna talk to you about your ankle." Will sits down on the bed across from him. A flash of fear crosses the boy's face but quickly disappears.
"Okay…" Henry swallows hard.
"Has it been hurting more than usual lately? Any more swelling, bruising, throbbing, tenderness? Anything like that?" The healer asks.
"Um… ma-maybe." The teen mumbles.
"Is there any reason you haven't told us? You know I'm a doctor and you know that we wouldn't make you go to hospital for something that I could treat here." Will says.
"I-I… I knew… you… cr-crutches." Henry manages to get out.
"I know that you really don't want to use the crutches and I respect that, but Henry, you've been pushing your ankle too hard. It may not seem like you've been doing too much or anything at all, but it's been enough that there's a stress fracture in your ankle now which is worse than a sprain." Will explains. "I should've had you using crutches the whole time to prevent this but I knew you would hate it. I don't want to have to force you to do anything but now if you don't keep all weight off your ankle for at least a couple days, it's not gonna get better."
"No. Please, no." Henry pleads.
"Okay… Let's try this, why don't you tell me why you don't want to use crutches so badly, then we can see if there's any way we can work around it and if we can't then I'll help you through it." Will suggests.
"M-my youngest foster sister- we were climbing trees in the backyard. She-she fell and broke her leg. When they ca-came home," Henry's breathing starts to pick up. "They-they sent her to bed and the re-rest of their kids too and they took her cru-crutches from her room and… and… they… they beat me… they said it was all my f-fault… I had bru-bruises all over and th-they gave me a c-concussion. I had to stay home with them f-for a fe-few days so my teach-teachers wouldn't know." Henry panics through his explanation.
"Henry, bud. Deep breaths. You're okay. That's never going to happen ever again. You're safe here. Deep breaths." Will gets up and kneels in front of Henry. He grabs the kid's hands from pulling at his hair and takes them in his own. "Henry, I know you're scared and this will feel uncomfortable but I need you to sit up and lean against the back of the chair. You can lay your head back on the top too if you want but it'll help open up your diaphragm so you breathe easier." Will tells him.
Henry slowly straightens and relaxes against the back of the chair once he can breathe again. Will lets him sit with his eyes closed and deep breathing for as long as he needs. The son of Apollo rubs circles on the top of his hands and massages them until Henry opens his eyes.
"Thank you sir." Henry doesn't break eye contact.
"Absolutely, but can I ask one more thing?" Will says.
"Sure?" Henry sounds unsure.
"Why do you call me 'sir'? I've never asked you to and really, you shouldn't have to." Will asks.
"I- one of my old foster parents made me call him that or he would…" Henry trails off.
"He would what?" Will presses, knowing that he's done more than enough of that today.
"Can we not talk about this today? I-I can't do it today." Henry pleads. "I promise that I'll tell you later. I just can't today. I'm not ready yet."
"Okay. That's okay. You can tell me whenever you're ready and if you're never ready, then that's perfectly okay." Will assures him.
"Thank you." Henry squeezes his hands.
"You're very welcome. Now, let's see what we can do about dealing with your crutches. We can't work around it so I'm gonna help you work through it, okay?" Will starts.
"How?" Henry looks up, eyes shining with unshed tears.
"Well, you can set some boundaries that would make you feel more comfortable using crutches and living here in general. So, let's see if there's anything you do or do not want me and Nico to do and then we'll go from there." Will never lets go of Henry's hands.
"Um, I-I don't know." Henry looks down defeated.
"That's okay. Let's break it down a little further." Will says. "What exactly makes you so scared or uncomfortable with using crutches?"
"I-I'm scared that you're gonna hit me with them." Henry whispers.
"Okay, anything else?"
"It makes me unco-uncomfortable when I'm that vulnerable." He continues.
"Thank you for telling me. Is there anything we can do to help with that?" Will asks.
"C-can you just not touch them unless I ask you to? And maybe not walk behind me?" Henry asks. When Will takes a second to mentally list this, Henry freaks out and slips his hands out of his parent's to cradle them to his chest. "I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't've asked." He quickly apologizes.
"Hey, hey, no. It's okay. I was just trying to lock it in and make sure I don't forget. We can absolutely do this for you." Will makes sure he knows this.
"Are you sure?" Henry asks.
"Yes." He confirms. "What other things do you want or not want us to do?"
"I don't know. Can I think about it a little more and maybe tell you later?" Henry mumbles.
"Yes. We'll listen when you're ready. For right now though, can I go get your crutches so you can start using them? Or do you want to come with me to get them yourself?" Will displays options.
"Can I um, can I come with and get them myself? It's not that I don't trust you, it's just-" Henry says.
"It's just you don't trust me fully yet. That's okay, I get it." Will assures him. "Let's go."