Nico POV

"Say what now?!" I asked, alarmed.

"Nico, when I saw you, I saw color, and now that you've seen me you can to. That means soulmates."

So, I'm gay. Good to know. Another thing that would be good to know, what to say to this Dr. Solace person, also knowing how to go about life with this now, that would be great to know too.

I finally decided on saying, "That's- that's not very normal."

He looked down and said, "I know."

Then there was awkward silence for approximately 1 minute.

"So, Solace," I said. "You got a first name?"

"Yeah, Will," he answered.

Well, we've established the fact that this is not normal, and I found out his name. I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I just stared at him and waited for him to talk.

"If after you get released from the hospital you don't want to ever see me again, I completely understand."

"No!" I said quickly. "I mean, it's not your fault that we're both guys. You actually seem really nice. It's kind of funny. The reason I'm in the hospital is because I got beat up by some people that thought that I secretly was gay and had a male soulmate. It wasn't true then, but now it..." I trailed off. "This is so strange," I concluded.

"I know," he responded. "All I've been thinking about is how hard it's going to be to pretend that I never met you."

I thought about it. I had a job, but I didn't talk to anyone, so no problem there. I haven't spoken to my dad in a long time, my mother's dead, and the only person I have any contact with is my little sister Hazel.

I voiced this aloud to Will, "I only have one person I talk to anyways, so I won't have it too hard."

"Your sister?" He guessed.

"How did you know?"

"She's the only one who came and visited you while you were out."

"Oh, what about you? You talk to a lot of people?"

"Kind of..." he stated.

"Like how many?" I asked.

"Well, for the people I talk to at work and stuff I could just say that I met my soulmate, and she is a girl, and they won't question it. My closer friends and my family I have to make sure not to slip because they will demand to meet her and that leads to more problems."

"Did you ever know someone that was in our situation before?" I asked him.

"No, have you?"

"My sister."

"Hazel!?"

"No, my other one."

"How did that work out for her?"

"She was murdered by the people that got me sent here in the first place."

"I'm sorry."

"It was a long time ago. The point is that these people- they like, stalk me. If someone's going to find out, it's going to be them."

"Good to know," he sighed.

"Will, I'm going to be honest with you, if we continue talking after I'm released from the hospital, we have twice the chance of getting caught," I told him.

"I understand that." He looked like he had been expecting that answer.

I wasn't really sure why I was talking so much; I hadn't talked to anyone this much in a long time, but I continued. "There is a plus side of getting to know each other though."

He looked up a little, "Really?"

"Yeah," I started, "If we knew each other and managed to play it off as we are friends, it might take suspicion away. Also we would at least go through this together and if one of us gets caught, the other will know and not just be surprised when they suddenly die."

Will smiled a little at that. "That seems like a great idea!"

"Alright. It's settled then."

We exchanged our phones and put in our numbers.

"Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"We shouldn't say anything about this over text just in case someone finds a way to watch what we're saying."

"True."

I got out of the hospital 2 weeks after I met Will. I'm just going to say we did a great job of acting like we were just doctor and patient around people. We were both completely aware that hiding this for the rest of our lives was not going to be easy in the slightest, but so far so good. Ya know.