"Are you hiding out here so you don't have to see Dad again?" Will asks, and Anteros startles, nearly dropping what he's holding. A bunch of bandaids pour out all over the floor and he scowls, squatting down to pick them up.
"Thanks for suturing up Sherman Yang so I didn't have to deal with his antagonistic ass, Anteros. Thanks for taking over the afternoon shift so I could make kissy faces at my boyfriend, Anteros." Anteros says mockingly, and Will hits his brother's shoulder with a laugh.
"That's not what I was doin', and you know that. Nico had sword boot camp with the little ones to make sure they were all ready for tonight." Will says, and Anteros rolls his eyes.
"You would have if you could have." He points out, and Will shakes his head, willing the blush on his cheeks to go down. Is Anteros wrong? No. Would he EVER tell his brother that? Also no.
"Thank you for taking the shift, Anteros. It was real nice to be able to get some schoolwork done outside of the office." He says, and Anteros hums, scooping the rest of the bandaids back into the container.
"There's some bandages and stuff that need to be sorted out before the race tonight, but I thought that I would leave those to you, since you get super fuckin' anal about the bandages." Anteros says, running a hand through his blonde hair. "I'm gonna go see what Mal is up to. See ya later!" Will waves off his younger brother, watching his frame retreat before walking over to the storeroom and grabbing the bin of clean bandages.
He sits cross legged on one of the first beds in the infirmary, humming a Sabrina Carpenter song under his breath as he sorts and folds the bandages carefully, setting them into different piles. Once he's finished with that, he sits back, stretching his arms over his head and relishing in the few hours of warm sunshine that stream through the open window, his eyes closing.
"I knew you'd be in here." He doesn't even have to open his eyes at the sound of the voice to know who it is, a lazy smile appearing on his face.
"Where else would I be, darlin'?" He drawls, and Nico snorts, throwing something at him. Will doesn't feel what, since Nico misses spectacularly, just feels whatever it is sail past his cheek. "Did you finish up your trainin' and such?" Nico hums an affirmative. Will feels the bed dip a bit as Nico climbs into the space next to him. Will opens his eyes, tilting his head so that he can see his boyfriend. His eyes soften slightly and he reaches out to brush his fingers over one of the pins on Nico's lapel. "You're wearin' the flag one." He says, and a blush creeps up onto Nico's cheeks as he nods.
"I mean… it is really pretty colors." He offers after hesitating a second, and Will can't help the laugh that bubbles out of his chest. "Stop laughing at me!" Nico says with a huff, and Will just leans over to press a kiss to Nico's cheek.
"You gon' be my partner for the race tonight?" Will asks, and Nico nods, a grin overtaking his features.
"Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" Will shrugs his shoulders. "We're gonna win and it'll be awesome." Will snorts out another laugh, shaking his head at his boyfriend's antics.
"With you and all your little Underworld tricks, probably." Will teases, and Nico hits his shoulder against Will's, before leaning over so he can rest his cheek on Will's shoulder. Will just continues humming, reaching up to run his fingers through Nico's overgrown hair. "You need a haircut, sunshine." He says, and Nico huffs, blowing his bangs out of his face.
"Already?" He says, and Will chuckles.
"Your hair seems to grow fast, all things considered." He comments, and Nico frowns at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Will just hums, not answering Nico. He doesn't want to get into a whole fight about Nico's eating habits. He tries his best to get Nico to eat more, but the effects of the jar and everything still weigh heavily on Nico.
"Nothing, angel. But one does have to cut hair real often, ya know. It really seems to grow fast for you, mine ain't that bad because of the curls." Nico shrugs his shoulders, eyes closing as Will keeps messing with his hair. "Hey, don' fall asleep on me, Nico di Angelo." He chides gently, and Nico huffs, sitting up straight.
"Do you wanna talk strategy for tonight?" Nico asks, and Will shrugs.
"Figured you'd handle the fighty stuff, and I'd just freak out over everyone hurt while you stabby stabby." Will says, and Nico just sighs, shaking his head.
"Of course. You are actually going to bring your dagger, at least?" Will nods, grinning at his boyfriend, and Nico hums, jumping off the bed and adjusting his jacket.
"Alright then. See you at dinner, tesoro." Nico says, leaning in to press a kiss to Will's cheek before heading out of the infirmary, presumably to get back to his cabin. Will leans back against the pillows of the bed with a sigh.
Tonight is going to be rough. He has a bad feeling about this.
—
"Demigods, tie your legs together and follow me to your starting positions!" Chiron calls, and Will turns to Nico, who is already leaning down, tying his leg to Will's.
"Well, don't this make me feel like Cinderella." Will teases, and Nico rolls his eyes, pinching Will's leg.
"Shut up, Solace, or I'll tie it tighter and cut off blood flow." Nico grits, and Will just laughs. Nico gets violent when he's embarrassed sometimes, and Will must say he finds it quite adorable.
"Sure, sure Neeks. Hurry up so we can get over to Apollo and the others." Before long, Nico stands back up, teetering a little bit.
"You know, this would be a lot easier if you weren't a giant." Nico huffs, and Will throws his head back in a laugh before starting to make his way over to where his siblings and father are.
Will settles, watching the pair of twins from the Nike Cabin squabble over who gets to be closest to the starting line, and he props his arm up on Nico's shoulder. "I miss Grover." He says to no one in particular. "He was real good at organizing things like this."
"I'd settle for Coach Hedge." Nico says, pushing his arm off with a glare. "Besides, you know you shouldn't talk about Grover too loudly when Juniper is right over there." Nico points to the dryad, and Apollo gives him a quizzical look.
"Grover's girlfriend." Will says, smiling gently at his dad. "She misses him somethin' terrible."
"Spread out everyone!" One of the satyrs, Woodrow, calls out. "You need lots of space so that if you die, you won't take all of the other teams with you." Will sighs, running a hand through his messy blonde curls.
"I am ecstatic." He deadpans, and Nico elbows him before motioning for them to move a ways off. Nico slips his hand into Will's, his other hand moving to the pommel of his sword on his hip.
"You gonna be okay with all of this?" He asks, squeezing Will's hand. Will sighs, running his free hand down his face.
"I dunno, Neeks. I know Harley is real excited and alla that, but I've had a bad feeling since earlier, and you know how my bad feelings are." Will says quietly, and Nico frowns, nodding, pushing a piece of dark hair out of his face. He scans the faces of the campers around them, bottom lip jutting out more as he thinks. Neither one of them are listening to the rules.
"Let's just focus on making sure no one gets hurt." Nico says after a bit, and Will nods.
"But don't you want to win?" He says, and Nico snorts, turning back to look up at Will, a gleam in his eye.
"We can win another time, but since this is a new game, we should figure out how it works and see what doesn't." Will smiles, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of Nico's head, but Nico ducks out of the way before he can. "Nope, none of that right now. Focus, Solace!"
Will can only laugh before they're dropped into the Labyrinth.
Luckily, both of them have survived two wars, therefore a little drop is nothing. Nico stumbles a bit, swearing in Italian under his breath, but Will grabs onto his upper arm, pulling him upright. "Careful there, Neeks." Nico just gives him a small smile before he's turning, listening carefully.
"This way. Take out your dagger." He commands, and Will salutes him playfully before unsheathing his bronze dagger.
Nico leads them through the Labyrinth for what feels like hours, like he's been here before. Will knows enough to not ask at this point. There's so much that Nico has done that Will has barely scratched the surface of, and his boyfriend is prickly enough about some of it to warn Will off from asking too much about all of it. The thought makes him frown, and Nico glances up at him.
"What?" He says, and Will just shakes his head, plastering a smile onto his face.
"Don't worry your pretty lil head 'bout it." He says, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of Nico's head. "Just thinkin'." Nico eyes him like he's not sure he believes him, but a shriek draws both of their attentions away.
They run over quickly, and a couple of campers come into view, the pair of them sitting on the floor of the Labyrinth, one clutching her arm. Will recognizes the pair of them right away, moving closer faster.
"Valentina! Aurora!" The blonde daughter of Iris looks up, scrambling to her feet at the sight of Nico and Will.
"Will! Val broke her arm!" She cries, and Will's mouth sets into a line. He looks over at Nico, and his boyfriend nods, reaching down to untie their legs. Aurora helps Will get Valentina to stand, the Hispanic girl listing to the side as she stands, clearly disorientated.
"Let's get her back to the Big House, or at least the clearing. I'll have to do field work rather than in the infirmary, I'm sure of it. Neeks, can you grab my dagger?" He calls over his shoulder, and Nico makes an affirmative noise, taking the sheath off of Will's belt loop and grabbing his dagger from where he'd tossed it aside in his hurry to help Valentina. Will lifts her into his arms, careful that her bad arm is cradled against her body so that it doesn't get jostled.
It's chaos when they reach the surface, and Will breathes out noisily through his nose. Nico presses a hand to the small of Will's back in reassurance, and helps him get Valentina to a sitting position on one of the makeshift beds set up in the clearing.
"This is why we shouldn't play games like this." Will hisses, and Nico just hums, handing Will his healer bag. Anteros bounds over a second later, a smear of blood and dirt across his cheek and nose.
"Will." He says, and Will knows that voice. That voice means something is wrong, and he's trying to hide it from Will for as long as physically possible, but also is incapable of keeping a secret. Anteros is a VERY bad liar.
"What?" He says, and Anteros shuffles from side to side, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "Out with it, Tero. Neither one of us have time for this." He bites, and Anteros sighs.
"Apollo and Meg aren't back yet. And…." Anteros's eyebrows furrow, and Will can see that his brother is about to cry.
"What aren't you telling me, Anteros?" He says, his hands itching to reach out and grab his brother, maybe shake him a few times.
"Kayla and Austin… they're gone."
You could hear a pin drop in the clearing, even with the campers milling about. Will feels his pulse rushing in his ears, feels the nails of his right hand digging into the meaty part of his palm.
"What are you talking about?" Will says calmly, feeling anything but. Anteros motions around.
"You four were some of the last back, but neither Meg and Apollo nor Kayla and Austin are back, and Connor said he and Paolo basically saw them disappear… Kayls and Austin I mean. Chiron's already sending out a search party for them but…" Will sees a bit of gold out of the corner of his eye and closes his fist, willing the glow to go down.
"Will!" Sohee's voice rings out, and Will turns, and his heart drops into his feet.
"Oh, you're fucking kidding me." Anteros says behind him, and Will makes eye contact with Nico.
"Tero, go tend to some of the other wounded. Take Sohee with you." He says, and Anteros touches his shoulder from behind before he's taking off, yelling for Sohee to follow him and grab her bag.
Paolo is screaming. The sound fills Will's ears, even with his best efforts to drown it out. He can't understand most of what he's saying anyway, but he's struggling to keep Paolo down, even with Nico keeping most of his weight on Paolo's upper body.
There's blood everywhere, streaked up Will's arms, dripping off the bed, even on Nico's cheek. Will can barely focus, too many things going through his mind all at once. A familiar voice breaks through the noise, and he turns his head to see the teenaged body of his dad, talking to Chiron.
"Apollo!" He says loudly, and Apollo turns to face him, blue eyes wide. "I need you over here!" The other boy jogs over to him, wincing at the sight in front of him. Will feels like he could keel over out of exhaustion. "I got it reattached." He says, and even he can hear the waver in his voice. "I need someone to keep him stable."
"But–" Apollo motions towards the woods.
"I know!" Will snaps back, turning to face his dad fully. "Don't you think I want to be out there looking for them too? We ain't have enough healers. It's me and you and Sohee 'n' Tero. That's it. And Sohee is too young to do much of anything, she has to tag along with Tero." Apollo looks a bit shocked, and Will knows he sounds mean right now, but there's so many thoughts swirling in his brain, and his hands are glowing and–
"Yes, of course." Apollo stutters, and Will lets out a sigh as his father sets to work.
"We will find them. We have to." He mutters, taking off his gloves.
"Hey." Nico says softly, holding up a canteen. "Drink. You haven't in hours. Right now, though, this is where you need to be. Your siblings need you, and the entire camp is looking for them." Will lets Nico tilt some water into his mouth, giving his boyfriend a grateful look.
Gods, he likes Nico so much it should be illegal. What had he ever done to deserve this, really?
"You're right, Neeks." Will says softly, and Nico gives him a small smile. "Don't make me feel better though." Nico just shakes his head. "I have to go set Valentina's arm now. You wanna come with?" Nico's pretty lips turn up into a brilliant smile, his eyes glimmering.
"Sounds gruesome. Let's go." Nico says, and Will just laughs, grabbing his boyfriend's arm and pulling him away from Paolo and Apollo.
Nico only lets them get a few steps away before he stops, tugging Will back to him. Will blinks in surprise as Nico pulls him down into a hug, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's waist. He buries his nose into Nico's shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent.
"You can fall apart later." Nico says quietly, just loud enough for only Will to hear. After everyone is cleared, you can stay in my cabin tonight. I know you hate when your siblings hear you." Will nods, feeling a slight weight lift from his shoulders.
"Thank you, Nico." He says softly, and Will feels the hum emitting from his boyfriend's chest before Nico lets him go.
"Let's get her arm set, then we both need showers. Alright?" Nico says, and Will nods.
"Sounds 'bout right." Nico turns to start walking again, and Will trails after him just a second later.
He can do this. They can do this.
He looks towards the woods, willing himself not to cry.
We're coming Kayls, Austin.
I promise.