#this is part of me rewriting the solangelo timeline so that it makes sense

[lucius-i-ran]

The sound of a basketball going through the hoop, cheers rising, slaps on the shoulder and laughs. The air was nose-numbing and Will was actually convinced he caught a glimpse of Frosty the Snowman strolling around but all he and his friends needed was some extra sweater, a gallon of warm, rigorously unsweetened tea and the sun shining on their backs.

"Do something with that damn ball, Solace! My shoes will freeze on the damn floor"

Heavy breaths, steps and soles grating the ground. 

"Shut up, Cecil" a frustrated huff parted Will's lips, his breath suddenly visible. Will had always been good at athletics and generally physical stuff. He was a marvel in P.E. and he basically grew up on meemaw's farm doing all sorts of chores; but damn Cecil needed to give him a break. He had only been playing basket for three months. 

He was a wonder alright, but not that much.

Will looked at the basketball in his red and unnaturally warm fingers. In a confused and irritated jam, he tossed the ball, a little too hard, not clear what he was aiming for. 

It went over the edge of the field. It bounced once, then a second time, then a third one, out of their sight and "Ow!" a small voice whined.

A blissfull but brief moment of silence had the nearby tree nymphs thanking the gods; but a basketball field full of eleven year olds can only be silent for so much time.

"Go get the ball" Cecil demanded

"Why me?" Will barked back 

"You tossed it there on purpose!" 

"No I didn't!"

"Then you're a ham!"

"Am not"

"Totally are" 

Will felt his freckled cheeks get hotter 

"I'll go just b'cause I know that if I stay here I'm g'nna have t'hurt you" and he went searching for the ball, stomping his feet (and almost eating it because of the icy floor).

Of course, being the caring and thoughtful healer that he was (and that no one appreciated) he didn't forget about the poor guy that had to suffer the might of Will's absolutely calculated toss. After retrieving the basketball, he followed the direction of that tiny, high-pitched voice.

On the grass, just behind the public restrooms nearby, a small boy sat with figurines and cards scattered in front of him. His small and olive hand place on his head, massaging his jet black hair.

Will cleared his voice and sniffled "Sorry"

The boy looked at him with a little pout and a line crossing right bewteen the furrowed brows.

"You okay?" 

The boy nodded, his face muscles relaxing a bit.

Will knew he had a relaxing effect on people. Mostly. Probably. 

"Basketballs are pretty hard, they can really rattle your head y'know. You sure you don't want an ice packet?" Will got concerned in real Apollo kid style.

The boy shook is head. 

"You new here?" 

He nodded again.

"Hey Solace! The game isn't over" Kayla yelled from the field. Will looked down at the freezing cold basketball in his hands and then over at the boy.

A scarf made of thick red wool was covering most of his face, but Will could still see his bright red cheeks from the cold. He looked like how Will pictured the orphan boys from Charles Dickens's books his momma used to read him. He couldn't have been that far from Will's age. He remembered so much from his first weeks on Camp, alone and miserable. Will also remembered how his siblings and friends had been patient and kind enough to warm him up, going unimaginable distances to welcome him in the family. 

He tossed the ball back at his friends.  "You go on without me" he yelled back. 

Questioning glances and shoulder shrugs were shared but Will could not give two hoots and sticked a hand out to the boy.

"William Andrew Solace, Apollo Cabin, age 11 and blood type B. Everyone calls me Will, pleasure to meet you" he bared his teeth in a wide smile, like he always did.

The boy studied it for a while "My sister told me not to speak with strangers when she's not here" 

The boy got a funny little accent. Will liked that and mentally checked one little box on his imaginary Things I Could Bond Over With The Newbie list.

"Well.. where is she?" Will quickly understood that the question stung a little, because the little line between his brows was back.

"On a" he put two fingers up and mimed quotes  " 'quest'. With strangers" he strongly concluded.

"So what are you gonna do, not talk to anyone until she comes back?" 

Will could basically hear the thoughts in the boy's black haired head, like one could hear an old computer's fan. Then, after pondering for quite a while, the boy hesitantly took Will's hand and shook it. "Niccolò Marco di Angelo. or- ah.. Nico. I'm not sure what cabin yet" he looked down at his game "and uhm.. blood".

Will looked down at the game, too. "Whatch'ya playing?" 

"Mythomagic" 

"What's that?" 

A glint flashed in Nico's eyes, like had been waiting centuries for someone to ask him. "It's this, like, super cool card game where, like, you have cards with gods and- and monsters and they have powers and points. Best game ever" he sniffled from the cold "You can even collect figurines!" He studied the plastic little guys spreaded out and finally reached for one "This is the Apollo one" 

Will, like the massive nerd he was, could only take it and stare in awe "Cool.." he whispered.

"You can keep it, if you want to" 

"Seriously? I couldn't- I mean.. it's yours"

Nico shrugged "It's okay, Apollo is not the rarest one. I've got like three of him. I've been searching for the Hades one for a while, though"

"Thanks.." Will muttered and he studied the figurine a little more. "It's like Yu-gi-Oh!" 

Nico grew that little wrinkle between his brows again, like Will just blubbered the most deranged sequence of words to ever be uttered  "You do what?" 

"You're not from here, are you?" 

Nico looked in the distance, like he was trying to recall something "I'm not sure" 

If both their attention span could be measured and summed, on a scale of one to ten the number would probably not go over 0.8; consequently, the topic was forgotten just as quickly as it was introduced. 

"Why are you playing behind the bathrooms, though? People play games on the lunch tables all the time" 

Nico got a little pout. 

"I did! But some kids said I was lame and playing with dolls. They called me a nerd. I don't even know what that means!" 

"I bet it was the Stolls" Will squinted and seethed between his teeth. 

"Connor and Travis?" 

Will nodded and just as quickly, Nico vigorously shook his head like his life depended on defending the Stoll's honor. "No, they would never do that! I think they like blackjack better but they never teased me" 

"Well, that's weird. Last time me and my friends played DnD they picked on us for like a month! How can you come up with at least forty jokes a day, everyday, for thirty days straight?" Will shook his head and threw his hands in the air in exasperation "The Hermes kids, I swear"

Nico got a pout again, this time it was a little more sorrowful "If my sister was here, she would have totally kicked their butt" he sighed "She's awesome, you know" 

"Something happened to her?" 

"Nothing! I mean, I think nothing happened. She just went on this quest, alright? But I can't shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen" 

Will made a face that said 'yeah, tell me about it' "I understand, y'know" he said "It's the worst when my siblings go on missions. It's scary, but they always come back" he smiled, reassuringly. 

Then Will felt the warmth from the imaginary light bulb that appeared on his head. "You should come play DnD with us. You'd love it!" Will wasn't sure actually. Mythomagic sounded almost nothing like Dungeons and Dragons, but this Nico di Angelo kid looked friendly and nerdy enough. 

"What's that?" 

"It's this game where you meet with a bunch of friends and you go on, like, this cool imaginary adventure where you explore dungeons and, you know.. you fight dragons. You also get to create your own character!" 

Nico's eyes lit up "Sweet"

Will thought anyone with an average level of social skills would understand how definitely not convincing the proposal sounded, but Nico must have been a real, huge nerd or very, very lonely. The two didn't mutually exlude each other. 

"We meet every friday in the Dionysius cabin at five in the afternoon"

Nico nodded and Will started to get up 

"Great! See you then, di Angelo. Oh and, try to be on time, the harpies are not that nice to demigods up past the curfew"

5:08 p.m. Will and his friends were all there but no signs of Nico. 

"C'mon Will, it's freezing"

"I'm sure he's coming, Kayla. He just got here, so maybe he got lost" 

His sister shook her braided head. She wasn't there to play DnD. She was nothing like the nerdy type to get into stuff like this, actually. She was more like the jocks that shoved guys like Will in lockers. Will was actually very much surprised her dad got her to see Star Wars; he was even more surprised when he found out she liked it almost as much as he did. Almost. It was difficult to reach Will's level.

Kayla was just kind enough to escort Will to the Dionysius cabin so that the other kids knew better than to tease.

Steps were heard from behind. It was one of the kids he was supposed to be playing with ten minutes ago. "Ten minutes, Solace!" she scolded "We're giving you another ten, then we start without you" 

5:16 p.m. and no sign of Nico di Angelo. 

Will waited around another minute. For some reason a horrible feeling of dread grasped his stomach, like something awful happened and he so desperately wanted to see Di Angelo come out of the light blizzard to ease all of his bad thoughts. 

He tried to ignore the cold slipping into his coat, cupping his hands in front of his mouth and blowing some hot air, clinging onto hope until the very last minute. 

Eventually, feeling his nose falling off from his face, he got inside. 

The warmth engulfed him but that bitter feeling in his stomach didn't melt away.

"Isn't di Angelo that sandwich place on 62nd?"

"I heard he had a fight" 

Three days had passed from friday and Nico di Angelo was still missing. For some reason Percy, Grover and Annabeth pushed for the best demigods to go with them, searching for him.

And they did. They went on without pauses, three days and not only the little guy disappeared from the face of the earth, but nothing seemed to get them to track him. No traces, no footsteps, no nothing.

It was like he just dissolved into thin air. With monsters roaming around and Luke's army on the hunt, that couldn't have been a good sign.

Will really tried to push back those thoughts, at least for Christmas dinner, but some of his siblings just came back from a fresh gossip session with the Aphrodite cabin and they were on a roll. 

"A fight?" 

"Yeah, with Percy Jackson" 

Michael Yew shook his head "The kid was ten" 

"Is" Will corrected, his voice cold but faint. 

Nico di Angelo was just one year younger than him and the sole thought that he might be dead made Will's stomach churn. 

"Sorry, Will" Michael said as an awkward silence spreaded on the Apollo table. Will's mind settled for a minute, thinking that he might have escaped his siblings's absolutely necessary insights and evaluations but boy, was he wrong.

"Don't underestimate the kid, Mike. You see that crack in the floor?" the table turned around to look at the dent in the marble floor. All the table but Will. He kept looking at the nothing straight ahead like his head was glued in place. "Apparently he caused it. People have been doing theories and stuff and I heard some kids say that most likely he is the son of.. you know" the son of Apllo pointed downwards.

"The table?" 

"No, nimrod" the he mouthed 'Hades'. 

A grim silence fell on the table again and Will's stomach dropped. He really wanted to doubt that was true; after all, demigod speculation was a dangerous thing but everyone on camp knew it was mostly empty talk. Right then, however, all proof looked like it in favour of the empty chatter.

And if that were to be true- and if the other side got to find out-

Will felt panic starting to bubble against his throat.

Austin shook his head this time. "We all know and trust Percy. I do, for sure. I mean, he has his moments but he's a good guy" he chimed in "What could have he possibly done?"

"Beats me, but some people have heard it has got to do with Di Angelo's sister. And guess what? She's dead. Now, I'm not saying Percy Jackson killed the poor gal but y'know, to get that reaction you must-" 

Will couldn't take it anymore. He slammed two hands on the table, making some of his siblings jump. Heads from other tables turned but he didn't care and left, anger and panic stirring in his chest in an uncomfortably familiar storm. The sly chattering behind his back didn't help.

"He's too sensitive"

"Or maybe you're too much if an ass" Kayla yelled.

"Honestly, you're so tone deaf" He heard Lee's cold voice cutting the air "A girl died and most likely so did her brother-" he lowered his voice  "her ten year old brother. Just one year younger than Will and you're here, eating your stupid fucking Christmas dinner, talking like it's gossip! You know what?"

His voice faded with the strong wind rising before Will could 'what' but the cold and the tears stung his eyes, so he concluded that right then and there he had bigger problems to solve.

Nico di Angelo was not dead and he had to find him.

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next part

- this, along with all my future solangelo posts, goes out to you bestie @nicodisigma -