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cartoonfantic8 · 4 years ago

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Nico Di Angelo AU - Part 1

Spoliers for the entire Percy Jackson Serise. If your not caught up do not read.

Disclaimer - I don’t own the characters or any of the books plot. That is owned by Rick Riordan not me I sort of own the idea. There is other people in the internet who have this idea, this is just my take. Also I got most of the information of the plot and details thanks the the Fandom Wiki so credits to them.

AU - Nico Di Angelo was the child of the prophecy instead of Percy Jackson. Pretty much the serise as a Solangelo cannon instead of Percbeth. Some things are different but most things are kinda the same like the quests.

P.O.V - So in the orignal series it’s all in Percy’s POV but I got the idea that it switches POV’s like “Heroes of Olympus”. This is switched between Nico,Will,and Bianca

The Lightning Thief

Arrival at Camp

A twelve year old boy and thirteen year old girl were taken out of there military school by a lawyer (Alecto in disguise) to go to a Camp for them to be safe. There names were Bianca and Nico Di Angelo.

On the way they were attacked by the Minotaur which was chasing the limo.

Alecto told them to run to Percy’s tree and tell the people at the camp there that there haftbloods. Bianca and Nico ran towards a big pine tree but the Minotaur caught up to them. To protect her brother Bianca killed the Minotaur with her bare hands and somehow survived. Bianca and Nico fainted by the pine tree and before Nico passed out he yelled Help.

A camper immediately saw them and rushed them to the infirmary.

Nico woke up and saw a cute blonde hair boy (Will) rambling about how Bianca killed the Minotaur with her bare hands and how these kids are powerful. The boy noticed and got him a glass of water. Nico asked “Where am I”and “Where’s Bianca”. the boy said “Your okay and your safe” calming him down. Another boy (Lee Flecher) came in and told Will to take Nico to Mr.D and Chiron.

The blonde hair boy took Nico to two men both in there late 40s and Bianca who Nico immdently hugged. The men introduced both as Mr.D and Chiron. Chiron asked the blonde hair boy who he called Will to set up a place where Bianca and Nico to sleep in Cabin 11. Chiron explained to them about the Greek Gods and how there real. Nico was in shock while Bianca thought that it was all fake. Chiron asked them if they had ADHD or Dylexisia, if they’ve had an absent parent figure, or if werid thing have happened around them.

They both said yes and we’re taking it in. Chiron asked if they had any parents. Bianca responds with “Are mother died and are father was never around but after are mom died, are dad that we never met sent us to this hotel for a few weeks and then to a miterally school.” Chiron said “That’s strange, the records say - never mind there probely wrong. Mr.D told them to go to Hermes Cabin which Luke led them to since he was passing by.

Nico saw Will and went over to him. He thanked him for fixing his arm. Will blushed and told him that he didn’t and that was Lee. Will said that he really wants to be a child of Apollo because he loves working in the medicence field and that Lee let’s him help sometimes. Will asks him that if he knows the game Mythomagic and Will teaches him

Over the next few days Will and Nico became inseparable and did all there activitys togther. Until a few days before the Capture the Flag game a Aries camper was roughhousing with there sibling, which resulted in a wound on there arm. Will quickly fixed and healed with magic (Like Magnus Chase’s healing magic) and was claimed by Apollo. Nico was heartbroken. His best friend was claimed. Will and Nico still spent there free time togther but it wasn’t the same and Nico was all alone execpt he had Bianca

The Claiming

On the Capture the Flag game the captins were Athena and Aries. Athena took the Hermes and Apollo cabin while Aries took the rest. Nico and Will were on border patrol being kids but Will was asked to help in the infirmary as an Apollo kid so Nico was alone. Nico heard something in the woods and went to go look at what is was. It was a hellhound and it almost attacked Nico but Bianca stopped it and the hellhound backed away. Everyone saw what happened and were shocked. Bianca hugged Nico and made sure he was okay and then they were claimed by Hades. Everyone had fear in there eyes including Will.

No one talked to them after that and if they did they had fear in there voice. Everyone treated them differently as they were the black sheep of the camp. Chiron ended up letting them stay in the big house since the Hermes Cabin were terrified. He also gave them a new schedule so most of the time they wouldn’t be with the other campers.

One day they went to the forge to make weapons with Cabin 9. The Hephaestus kids were all terrified. Becknodorf didn’t care there were children of Hades and told them if his siblings gave any trouble talk to him. Bianca made a sliver bow and arrow and Nico makes a black Celsetial Bronze sword.

The Prophecy

Later that night in the big house. Nico couldn’t sleep because he heard noises from the room above him. He went to check it out and the Oracle started to speak to him and gave a prophecy to him.

“You shall go west and face the god who has turned,

You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned,

You will be betrayed by one who calls you friend,

And your journey shall be a fight till the end”

Chrion finds a terrified Nico and tells him a prophecy has been issuied. He calls a councilor meeting instantly. It was pretty much all the oldest campers in the camp with the exception of Annabeth because the head counselor for the Athena cabin was in the infirmary thanks to a grusesome sword fight with Clarisse and she went instead.

While taking Bianca decided to go on the quest since she could not leave her brother alone. Even though Annabeth has been waiting for her chance she decided not to go because two children of the big three will result in a “death trap” which Luke whispers in her ear something about being nice. Nico tells them the lines of the propchey and they all unpack it. They also explain to the Hades’s kids about what happened at the solstice and what’s at stake in which Nico is internally freaking out since the fate of the world is on his shoulders

They still needed a third quest member. Nico asks Becknodorf but he declines since he’s needed at camp. Bianca thinks that no one wants to come since there children of Hades but Nico still has some hope. The next day Will gives Nico a “Quest kit” packed with ambrosia, necter, a first aid kit, and money. Will tells him how this quest is important and he’ll do great. Nico dosen’t and says “I can’t. The fate of the world is in my shoulders and I don’t even have a third quest member”. Will calms him down and tells him he’ll go and Nico hugs him and says “Thank you”

Nico and Will tell Chrion and he announces it at Breakfest. Bianca is shocked but happy. Most of the camp is shocked that a son of Apollo is going on a quest with two children of Hades. The Apollo cabin is mostly mad execptially Micheal Yew.

After breakfest Will goes to his cabin to grab a few things before the quest. Micheal Yew is infuriated and yells at Will on how he’s going to get himeself killed and how he can’t trust children of Hades because there evil. Will yells back and tells all of his siblings how Bianca and Nico are good people and how there all judging them for their dad which is stupid. He leaves the cabin and is off to Percy’s tree. Before he leave Lee tells Will he’s proud of him for standing up for his friends and that he’s going to do great on the quest.

Bianca, Nico, and Will are by Percy’s tree off to find Zeus lighting bolt. Before they leave though Beckendorf gave Bianca a magic rope he made, to help her in tricky situations.

Starting the Quest

After Nico, Will, and Bianca are driven into town, they take a bus into New Jersey. When they get on the bus, Zeus send monsters after them which Bianca defeats with her bow and arrow

They escape to Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. After they are served food, Aunty Em wants to take a picture of them to use as models for her statues. However, she tries to turn them to stone instead of using them as models because she is Medusa. Nico cuts off her head, and they leave. They find a lost dog, return it, and get $200. They buy train tickets with that money and get off at the Gateway Arch.

When Nico is alone on the top, Echidna reveals herself, along with her pet, the Chimera. Nico battles the Chimera and is poisoned during the fight. Before he “dies” he prays to his father that Bianca and Will will be safe on the quest. Before Echidna kills him Nico accidentally shadow travels away ( there were shadows around him. I know it dosen’t make sense but I have to work with it) to the ground beneath him.

Going Futher West

Weaken, Nico tries to find Will and Bianca in which he dose. Will and Bianca are crying because Nico is on the verge of death. Will tries to use his healing magic but it isn’t enough. He was sobbing at that point and his tears healed him and took away the poison. They all cry happy tears and Bianca punches Nico is the shoulder and told him not to do that again.

The trio gets on the train and are taken to Denver.

They get off, and go into a diner. Ares comes in and tells them to get his shield at Waterland, and, in turn, he would give them a ride west

They go to Waterland and find out the ride was set up with a trap by Hephaestus. They get out with Aphrodite's Scarf and go back to the diner, and Ares shows them a Kindness International truck

Las Vegas

Once they reach Las Vegas, a bellhop from the Lotus Hotel and Casino invites them to come in. Bianca is a little skeptical and says this place is familiar. The bellhop insists and says it’s okay. The argee and went in. The receptionist asks for there names and when Bianca says them. The receptionist says that Nico and Bianca have a room and asks if they want to renew it. Bianca didn’t trust them but ends up going so Nico and Will are safe.

Nico, Will, and Bianca are given a room. After they enjoy the perks of staying in such a luxurious suite, they decide to go down to the arcade.

Will finds a boy, Darrin, who thinks the year is 1977. Will asks a few more people what the year is, to which they answer 1985 and 1993.

Will finds Nico and Bianca and they immediately leave the hotel

They are relieved to find out from a newspaper that it is still the same year. However, 5 days have already passed, leaving only one day to retrieve the lightning bolt.

The Night Outside

That night they decide to camp outside so they can get some rest. Nico decided to take first watch while Will and Bianca slept. Will woke up in the middle of his shift from a nightmare.

Nico asks if he was okay and Will said yes. Nico knew he lied and asked him again. Will said he dreamt of Nico dying in arms like he did before. Nico promised him he won’t do that again.

Will saw there was something wrong with Nico and asked him. He blurted it out of how he hates being a child of Hades. How everyone thinks of him as an outcast and that they wouldn’t cared if he was dead. Will told him he would upset if he was dead. Nico was his best friend.

Nico thanked him and also thanked him for coming on this quest. They stared into each other eyes for a moment and then Nico quickly looked away. He asked Will why is the pine tree on the hill called Percy?

Will tells him the story of Percy Jackson the other child of the big three. A group of haft bloods and a saytar were chased by a Cyclopes. There names were Annabeth Chase, Luke Castellan, Grover Underwood, and Percy Jackson son of Posiden. He was very loyal and did anything to protect his friends. They were about to reach Camp but the Cyclopes caught up to them. Percy sacrificed himself to save his friends. Posiden was upset his only son was dead and turned him into a pine tree. That tree watches over the camp and once you reach it you know your safe.

Bianca who wasn’t sleeping the whole time but the boys didn’t know that, decided to take watch. Nico and Will fell asleep and Bianca defently knew something was between them.

Reaching the Underworld

While searching for the entrance to the Underworld, they encounter Procrustes. Since Posiden is mad that Hades had two children breaking the oath twice, he sends his son Procrustes to trap Nico and Bianca. He traps Nico and Bianca using his signature technique — causing them to lie down on a bed while being stretched by ropes until they are exactly the same height of the bed

Will tricks him into lying down on one such bed. Procrustes is killed, and the trio proceed to DOA Recording Studios, the cover place for the gates to the Underworld, then enter. There Charon lets Nico and Bianca being children of the Underworld but doesn’t let Will in. Nico says that if he dosen’t his father will hear about this. (Please tell me someone got that reference)

Inside, they discover that the entrance to the Underworld proper is being guarded by Cerberus. Bianca tames him and then Will plays with the giant dog by using a little red ball to keep him distracted, giving Nico and Bianca enough time to pass to see there father

They walk through the Fields of Asphodel and pass by the path to the pit of Tartarus. As they approach the entrance to Tartarus, Beckendorf’s rope try to pull Bianca into it, but she manages to slip out of it. They get into there father’s place.

Nico confronts Hades who believes that he and Bianca were just some spawn and that he dosen’t care about them. He only cares because he needs them to clear his name. Hades says that’s not true and that he cares he just dosen’t have a good way of showing it. He then explains there past of how he put them in the Loucas Hotel for about 70 years to protect them from Zues. He also explains about there mother Maria Di Angelo and how he begged her and there children to live in the underworld which she declined. He also explains how Zues struck her with a lighting bolt and how he needed to protect them. Nico and Bianca were surprised but understood.

While Hades was taking, Nico realizes that Ares has tricked him when he discovers the Master Bolt is in his backpack. He and his friends were teleported by Hades out of the underworld

Fighting Aries

Hades return Nico, Bianca,and Will back to an ocean. They reach the shore, meet Ares, and confront him. Nico then challenges him to a fight.

He uses his sword to battle Ares. Nico eventually stabs him in the heel and Ares starts to bleed ichor. He is about to kill Nico when an evil force in the form of a dark aura convinces him to not strike Nico.

Ares then leaves, giving Nico the Helm of Darkness. Nico tosses it to the Furies, and they take it back to his father

Ending

Nico,Will,and Bianca fly back to New York City to give the lightning bolt to Zeus, despite the dangers of flying.

He proceeds to the Empire State Building and reaches the top, where Olympus is currently located. Zeus accepts the bolt and decided not to kill them. Hades was there to congratulate his children in not dying. Nico and Bianca have a short talk with there father before returning to camp.

Nico bumps into Beckendorf who reveals that he stole the bolt and helm for Kronos and then calls out a poisonous scorpion which stings and nearly kills Nico. Nico is unconscious after the attempt to kill him. Beckendorf manages to escape and leaves Camp Half-Blood. Will cures Nico and they, along with Bianca and Chrion discuss Beckendorf betrayal.

The camp beads are awarded, and the bead for this year - Nico, and Bianca’s first year is a white bead painted with a black helmet in the middle. Will’s was a black bead with a golden sun in the middle. Will leaves Camp Half-Blood to visit his mom Naomi Solace. Nico and Bianca stay at camp year around. The camp slowly learns to accept them and relized there kind, caring, funny people and didn’t judge them on there parentage. Sure some camper still have them dirty looks or talked behind there back but they didn’t care. They found a place where they belonged.

How was that? I worked pretty hard on it and I think it was great. This is going to be a serise and I’m planning on doing PJO and HOO but not TOA because I do not know how to write around that. I hoped you enjoyed that, I tried my best to make it different and tried for it to make sense. Thank you for reading.

@thatlitpollostan

#percy jackson #riordanverse #rick riordan #nico di angelo #bianca di angelo #will solace #annabeth chase #luke castellan #silena beauregard #charles beckendorf #clarrise la rue #solangelo #pjo series #percy jackon and the olympians

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lifeofroos · 4 years ago

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Part 25. Another chapter in third person. Now read, I won’t spoil it.

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. The rest is on AO3 and FanFiction.net! (And in Tumblr tags like Nico di Angelo, Dionysus, trails of Apollo etc.)

This Might be crazy: Chapter 25: Sunny Delight

Shortly after his shift in the medical bay ended, Will ran across the field, to the Big House, hoping and praying that Dionysus would still be awake. Today, Tyche seemed to be on his side. Dionysus was standing on the porch, with a small bottle next to him.

‘Will Solace. I thought I’d get to see you one of these days.’

Will stepped onto the porch. ‘Good evening, my lord. And weird. I thought all the clearvoiency was gone as soon as my father became a mortal.’

‘More as soon as the great snake took over his most important oracle.’

Will rolled his eyes. ‘That was about the same time.’

‘Was it now, Solace.’

Will sighed.‘I am not here for this. I wanted to…’

‘You wanted to talk about your boyfriend.’

‘Well, yes.’

Dionysus pushed the bottle towards him. ‘Okay then. Here. What is it that you have on your mind?’

Will picked up the bottle to see what it was. Sunny Delight. How hilarious. He slowly screwed off the cap. ‘Well, Nico has been in therapy for a few months now and I want to know how you think he is progressing.’

Dionysus smiled. ‘Well, first he learned a few skills to calm himself and we built trust. Then, he began talking about some of the big issues he has faced in life. I think he is still processing that stage. When he is done, we can work on becoming more stable, so that he can put it all behind him.’

Will nodded. ‘Yes. But is it all… helping?’

‘What do you see when you look at your boyfriend?’

Will took a sip of Sunny Delight. ‘After the first few months, he was happier. He began to eat more, socialize more and he looked healthier. Less pale, the bags under his eyes got smaller, less ribs poking out.’ Will stopped talking, while he looked at his bottle of Sunny D.

Dionysus raised an eyebrow. ‘I have the same experience. He is healthier and he has more trust in people.’ It was quiet for a moment. ‘But I sense a ‘but’ in your sentence.’

Will slowly nodded. ‘Yes, there is a but. Because in the past few weeks, he has started to look worse. He eats less, his skin is paler, and he isolates himself more. And I worry about that. I was wondering if you noticed it too, that is why I came.’ He bit his lip.

Dionysus looked out over the camp. The sun was going down. ‘Yes, I have noticed it.’ He turned back to Will. ‘I sense that you might know more about it than I do.’

Will was silent for a moment. ‘I don’t know if what I am going to say is a trust breach.’

‘Has Nico told you to keep it in confidence?’

‘Well, no. And I don’t think he would mind if I told his therapist. And anyway, I… I think it is important.’

‘You are the only one who can make the decision whether you want to tell me or not.’

Will stared at the bottle and sighed. ‘He told me the voices in his head have been louder the past few days. He is afraid something is going to happen.’ It looked like a weight dropped of Wills’ shoulders now that he finally said it.

‘Ah-ha. No, he has not told me that, even though I find that important to know. I thought the voices were almost gone.’

‘That is because they were. But now, they are back.’ Will took a sip. ‘He... I think he has not told you yet because he hoped it would just be a bump in the road. I believe he would have told you if it had gone on for longer.’

‘I think so too.’

Will looked at the god, trying to see if he was speaking the truth or not. It seemed so. ‘Lord, what can I do about it? What can we do about it?’

Dionysus put his hands on the fence of the veranda. The look in his eyes was serious. ‘I’ll talk to him as soon as possible. I think this is an emergency. And Solace, it is very good that you came to warn me.’

‘Eh, thanks.’

‘As for you: try to support him. Don’t force him into anything, but softly encourage him to open up, to eat more and to engage in more social activities. Let him know that you are there for him. I know you already do that, but the best thing you can do is keep doing it.’

‘Yes. Yes, alright.’ Will looked at his Sunny Delight. ‘Do you think he’ll be alright? Someday?’ Will asked with a small voice.

Dionysus gave him an encouraging smile. ‘I have met no-one who did not eventually feel better if they got the help that fitted them.’

‘Okay.’ Will sighed and leaned onto the wooden fence.

‘But, Solace, on a different note, how are you feeling?’

Will swayed his drink around. ‘Worried. For Nico.’

‘How are you feeling if you take Nico out of consideration?’

‘Aside from my worries about Nico… I am doing pretty alright. I have friends and my siblings and work at the infirmary. Next year, I was thinking of applying for med school, and as it stands, I have a good chance of getting in.’

‘I am sure that it is more than just ‘a good chance’.’

Will chuckled. ‘I mean, I am not that good…’

‘I have seen your work. You are that good.’ There was a small silence, while Will took another sip of Sunny Delight. ‘But Solace, I am asking you about yourself because it is important that you take care of your own mental health as well. I think it is very good of you that you want to be such a support to Nico, but you must not forget who needs you to be there for them the most: you yourself. If it gets too heavy to have Nico rely on you, you should take a step back. He won’t be hurt because of it, he would be more hurt if you let him hurt you.’

Will thought for a second, while nodding a few times. ‘Yes, I know, and I’ll keep it in mind.’ He slowly rustled with the plastic wrap around the bottle. ‘Eh… but on a related note, Nico told me that there is an institution that specialises in therapy for demigods. Yet not a lot of us know about it.’

‘Yes, I picked up on that.’

‘So… I wanted to do a mental health campaign. Not just me, the other medics as well. We should create awerness. Now that I am here anyway, It suddenly came to me that I might as well ask it right now.’

‘Ask what?’

Will gave him a funny look. ‘If such a campaign is okay…’

‘Of course it’s okay. Why do you suddenly need permission? Nobody thought to ask permission when there was a camp-wide nerf gun fight going on.’

Will shrugged. ‘We want to start the habit of asking permission, I guess?’

Dionysus rolled his eyes. ‘Well, permission granted. Go make the camp aware of mental health issues. No, but seriously.’ He sighed deeply. ‘I’ll talk to Nico. If the voices really are getting worse because something is about to happen, it is only important that we know as much about it as possible.’

‘Do you really think something is about to happen?’

‘Absolutely. After what happened at Camp jupiter…’ He got a sad look in his eyes. He took a deep breath. ‘Lester will be coming this way, together with everything that that implies.’ He was silent for a few seconds. ‘But that is not important at this moment. Go get some rest, Solace, you have had a long shift in the infirmary. Remember: Taking care of your own mental health is the most important thing and the only way you can take proper care of others.’

Will nodded. ‘Amen.’ He drank the last bit of Sunny D. ‘Thanks for talking to me. I trust that you are good for Nico.’ The god did not answer, perhaps because he did not want to, more likely because he was way off with his thoughts. Will darted off, to the Hades cabin, for a nice long rest.

A/N: Fun fact: I have seen absolutely no-one else write a therapy fanfiction between Dionysus and Nico, even though it is canon. It is a good thing I did not wait for someone else to do it, because I could have waited forever.

I am trying to upload a chapter every three days. With which I mean that, for example, on tuesday I upload. Then I’ll skip wednesday, thursday, friday, and I’ll upload again on saturday.

Take care of your own mental health, my dudes.

They don’t have Sunny D in the Netherlands. I have no idea what it tastes like or what it is made of.

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solangelover · 5 years ago

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3 Days + 1: Day 2

@solangeloweek ‘s Solangelo Spring Ball 2020 - Collab w/ @nicostolemybones

Read on AO3 or FF.Net

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Will was practically dead on his feet at this point. Working for the past few days straight, not including the entire battle that came before, he could feel the exhaustion pulling at his limbs. In moments of weakness, he considered curling up under his desk and napping right there. Instead, he’d shake his head and focus on what he was doing.

People are in pain, people need healing, I need to keep going. He knew this thinking wasn’t great for his health, but it helped him do as much as he could during the many battles they’d all been through. Besides, at some point, one of his siblings would always kick him out and force him to sleep in their cabin. It usually worked out.

Now that everything was winding down, he finally had time to track the son of Hades down and forcibly help him. He knew for a fact that Nico had been a major part of defeating Gaea, which also meant that his body needed some major recovery time. Will was honestly a bit surprised that he got the boy to come in so easily, but Nico had looked overtired, so maybe he just couldn’t protest anymore. Whatever the case, seeing Nico di Angelo, scary-emo-death-boy number one, sleeping peacefully in front of him, he knew he made the right move.

It’s always annoyed Will, how everyone judged Nico just because he was the son of Hades. He remembered him in the battle at Manhattan, where Nico really saved everyone at the perfect time. Even Will, as he frantically healed as many people as possible, stopped to watch the raw power of the prince of the underworld. It was frightening to know that one boy held so much power, but it was clear that he wielded it for the good of others. Will was glad that Nico was on their side.

Will yawned wide, jaw cracking, and he looked at the clock. Only 10 PM, he could still get a little more done before the night shift took over. He glanced again at the sleeping son of Hades, reluctant to leave him there.

When Will exited the curtain, he came face-to-face with Austin. “Dude, Will, it’s time for you to leave.”

“What?” Will asked, confused. “My shift goes to 11.”

Austin just shook his head. “Nu-uh. Nope. You’re leaving the infirmary and going back to the cabin to sleep. You’re tired and you know it.” His words left no room for argument.

But Will tried anyway. “But it wouldn’t be fair to whoever’s taking over.”

“I’m taking over, and I’m saying it’s fair. You’ve been here for days, Will.” He put a strong hand on his older brother’s shoulder, comforting, but firm. “You have to rest, you know that.”

Will sighed, glancing back toward the patient behind the curtain. “Yeah… but I finally got Nico here, and I don’t think I should leave him.”

Austin chuckled at that, peering around Will. “I can’t believe you got him here. I thought he would’ve bitten your hand off if you tried to touch him.” Will shot him a tired glare, like he’d heard the kind-of-not-a-joke too many times. “Look, I, quite frankly, don’t want to be the only person here when di Angelo wakes up, so let’s compromise. You sleep in that bed there,” he pointed to the bed neighboring Nico’s, “while I work the infirmary. If he wakes up or anything, I’ll get you. Otherwise, you will sleep tonight.”

Will nodded solemnly and saluted his brother, who scoffed and shoved him toward the aforementioned bed. It’s not like Will didn’t want to sleep, gods, did he want to sleep. But he was a “workaholic” according to his siblings and usually needed someone to look out for him. He was also immensely proud of his siblings as they’d been stepping up to help a lot in the past few weeks.

Will cast one last look toward Nico’s curtain before collapsing into his bed and knocking out instantly.

Will awoke to a loud cracking sound and his whole bed shaking.

He jolted upright and confirmed, yes, his bed was shaking, along with the entire infirmary. He thought it was an earthquake before he heard a strangled scream from the bed next door.

“Will!” Austin shouted, but Will was already out of bed, leaping over the one foot-wide fissure in the ground. He turned to see Austin a few feet back from Nico’s bed, his hands out in front of him and his face frozen in fear.

“What’s—”

“I don’t know! His powers are acting up!” Right as Austin said this, Will noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He spun around to see a hand clawing its way up the opening in the ground. He spit out a curse in ancient Greek, grabbing the closest thing to a weapon that was in reach—a mop, apparently—and brought it down on the decaying hand. The zombie flinched back, but more were on their way and, surely, they needed more than a mop to stop this.

Will shoved the mop into Austin’s hands. “Hold them off.”

He didn’t wait for his brother’s reply before he rushed to Nico’s bedside. The son of Hades was thrashing in his sleep, his face contorted in a mess of fear and pain. Will normally didn’t wake people when they had nightmares, knowing it was a normal process of the brain and especially common for demigods. But this was dangerous, something had to be done.

“Nico,” Will went for a softer tone, hoping that he could calm the boy down in his sleep. “Nico, listen to me. You’re in the infirmary. You’re safe. Please, calm down.” Will pushed as much meaning as he could into his words, threading his hands through Nico’s hair like he did earlier. Nico was sweating and his breathing was frantic still. Will began to sing a hymn to his father like he did while healing, pressing his palms to Nico’s head and cheek. Dark tendrils were leaking out between Nico’s fingers where he was clutching at the sheets desperately.

“Come on, Nico. I believe in you. I’m here for you. You’ve gotta calm down for me, okay? I’ve got you.” Will leaned over and pressed his forehead to Nico’s, pulsing his healing powers out from where they connected. “I’ve got you.”

Nico immediately stilled, his breathing ragged but slowing down. Will tentatively opened his eyes and gazed down at the son of Hades. His eyebrows were drawn together, but the panic had subsided. Will leaned back, trailing his hand down Nico’s arm to grip his hand. He looked back toward Austin, who was still wielding the mop and staring at the ground. Will looked down right when the fissure closed up, leaving only a thin crack behind.

The brothers met each other’s gaze, nodding as soldiers did at a job well done. Austin’s eyes flicked over to Nico, who was still asleep. Will rubbed his thumb across the back of the hand he was holding, staying there until the son of Hades was fully back to sleep.

Will sighed and stood up, placing Nico’s hand gently back at his side. Austin shook his head, but instead of making some snide comment about Nico’s heritage, he said, “We don’t get paid enough to clean up the gods’ shit.”

Will chuckled, knowing there was nothing really to say about that. He placed a comforting hand on Austin’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Thanks, Austin.”

They continued with clean up for a little before Will was directed back to bed. All he could think about as he fell asleep once more was the pain on Nico’s face. We’ve got a lot of healing to do.

Will woke at the crack of dawn like normal, and despite the interruption, last night was the most sleep he had gotten in a while. He pushed himself out of bed, cleaned up a bit in the infirmary bathroom, and walked over to his desk, where Austin was slumped over some paperwork.

He gently shook his brother awake. “Hey, Austin. You can go back to the cabin, I can take over.” Austin grumbled as he woke up, rubbing his face.

“Ugh, Will, isn’t it someone else’s turn this morning?” He yawned wide. Really all of the healers had been going non-stop, not just Will.

“It’s fine, Austin, I slept last night. I’m still head medic, anyway.” Will chuckled as his brother rolled his eyes at him, finally standing up to leave.

Then, he suddenly looked more alert when he noticed the line across the ground. “Wait, oh shit, you remember what happened last night?”

Will frowned, but it wasn’t directed at his brother. “Yes,” he muttered as he glanced back to where Nico’s curtain was still pulled closed.

“Dude, that was crazy. I don’t think you should be here alone with him.”

“It’s fine. He was having a nightmare. We know a lot of demigods’ powers are linked with their emotions.” Will tapped his chin in thought. “I’ll talk with Nico to learn more about it today. But I’m going to sanitize this area for now. Don’t want any zombie remains in my infirmary.”

Austin shuddered. “That’s nasty. I’ll send over whoever else is on shift to come and help.” He then smirked when he met Will’s eyes. “Seemed like you had di Angelo all under control last night, though.”

Will felt his cheeks heat up. “Shut up, this is serious. I just did my job.”

“Mhmm,” Austin hummed as he strolled out of the infirmary. “Sure thing, Doctor Solace.”

Will stared after him for a minute before shaking his head and sitting at his desk. He looked over what Austin was working on, trying to focus on something else besides the brown-eyed boy behind the curtain. After some preliminary checks, Will began to pull out cleaning supplies. He crouched on the ground and ran a finger over the newly formed crack in the ground. It seemed fine. You would never know that there was a gaping hole there last night.

Ten minutes later, two of Will’s siblings stumbled into the infirmary. They greeted each other with a tired “good morning” each. Will only said that this area needed to be decontaminated. No one really needed to know the context—it was an infirmary, after all. All kinds of things happened in here.

As the others finished cleaning, Will washed up and went to check on Nico. He slipped behind the curtain, happy to see that Nico was still asleep. He was worried that Nico wouldn’t be able to sleep long after his nightmare, but he seemed fine now. Will blushed at the memory of pressing his face so close to Nico’s. At the time, Will was only thinking about how best to help Nico, but now he couldn’t help but be a little embarrassed by his actions. But it did help Nico calm down, so he wasn’t going to overthink it.

Will sat in the chair by Nico’s bed and looked over his clipboard. He frowned in thought, pondering over what he knew of Nico’s condition and how to treat everything. As he mumbled to himself, Nico stirred and slowly opened his eyes. Will looked over to see Nico rubbing his eyes and looking around, slightly disoriented from his setting. How cute, Will thought before he could stop himself.

He shook his head before clearing his throat. “Mornin’, Sunshine.” Nico turned his head toward the sound of Will’s voice, finally remembering exactly where he was. He groaned and threw his arms over his eyes in response.

Will laughed lightly and asked, “Sleep well?”

Nico groaned again before moving his arms and staring up at the ceiling. “I feel like I’m more tired.” He flexed his fingers, like he knew how tense they were throughout the night.

“Well, I have a few possible answers to that.” Nico swiveled his head, staring at Will in surprise. Will raised an eyebrow. “What? It’s my job to figure out what’s wrong, then hopefully fix the problem.”

“I guess, I just…” Nico trailed off, now looking confusedly at the ceiling. “I didn’t really think there was an explanation, I guess.”

Now, there was an interesting thought. Will hadn’t considered that Nico hadn’t considered finding a solution to his fatigue and exhaustion. Maybe the son of Hades wasn’t stubborn, he just never cared for himself properly before. Will hummed in acknowledgement as he jotted a quick note to be really clear in any future treatment instructions for Nico.

“Okay, first thing to address: you had a nightmare last night.”

“What?!” Nico burst out, sitting straight up and looking at Will with a slightly horrified expression.

Will put his hands out in front of him in a placating manner. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Austin and I were both here, and we handled it. You’re fine.”

Nico gazed down at his hands, which were slightly shaking now. “A nightmare… you said it could explain why I’m tired.” He looked up at Will. “I used my powers last night, didn’t I?”

He caught on fast, Will thought. “Yes, you did, but—”

“What did I do? Was anyone hurt? Did I destroy anything?” Nico glanced around frantically, looking for any signs of damage or any newly filled beds.

Will wanted to reach out like he did last night and help comfort Nico, but he wasn’t sure if that was welcomed at the moment. “Nico, look at me.” He waited for them to lock eyes before continuing. “You’re fine. We’re all fine. No one got hurt, we’ve decontaminated the area for any zombie—”

“Oh gods, I summoned zombies??” Nico seemed on the verge of despair, like Will was about to kick him out for something out of his control. Will really wanted to cry for the kind of expectations Nico had about his life, but he managed to hold back.

“You tried to summon zombies. Austin and I stopped it, and you actually calmed down enough to control your powers.” Will reached out, but Nico pulled his hand back, as thought he would hurt Will. “Nico, please, I promise it’s okay.”

Will slowly reached for one of Nico’s hands, and this time, Nico let him make contact. Will pushed out his power through his fingertips to where he touched the back of Nico’s hand. Nico’s posture relaxed immediately, his eyes fluttering shut as a sigh escaped his lips. Will smiled at him when he opened his eyes again.

Nico’s lips lifted upward for a brief second before he looked down and hid his face behind his bangs. “I’m really sorry about that. My powers are… difficult, sometimes.”

Will shook his head, not that Nico saw. “Everyone’s powers get out of hand at times. You’re extremely powerful, so it’s no surprise that they’re hard to control. Honestly, you utilize your powers really well, I’m sure it’s not easy.”

Nico looked back at Will, his mouth slightly open as he was taken aback by the words of praise. Will held his gaze and tried to convey his sincerity about what he said.

Before the silence could stretch on too long, Will spoke again. “So, yes, you had a nightmare and used your powers, accidentally, last night. You were already suffering from overusing your powers, so the extra usage didn’t help.” Addressing whatever he was dreaming about that made him react so strongly would have to wait for another time.

In the pause, Nico’s stomach grumbled loudly. Nico flushed red as Will chuckled. “Which brings me to my next point: you need food. You’re malnourished, as I’m sure you weren’t concerned with proper, nutritious meals while carrying the Athena Parthenos across the ocean.” That got a snort out of the son of Hades, which Will counted as a win.

The healer got up and grabbed a plate of food his sister had brought over from the pavilion. It was standard for the morning shift to come in with food for the overnighters. Nico got his own full plate per Will’s instructions, which he only got minimal teasing for.

Will placed the food on Nico’s bedside table. Nico scowled at the food and said, “I can’t eat all that.”

“We can share,” Will said before he lost the nerve. “But you’re going to have to eat as much as you can.” He moved toward the food first so that Nico felt more comfortable. It worked as he watched the son of Hades tentatively nibble on some toast.

A little into their breakfast, Will continued with his diagnoses. “So, aside from power drain adding to your tiredness, it sounds like you also have chronic fatigue.”

Nico looked confused, so Will added, “It’s a condition where you’re often tired for long periods of time, even if you slept a decent amount. You may also experience headaches, body aches, or lack of concentration.”

Will let that sink in, watching Nico mull over it for a minute. Then, the boy spoke up and said, “That makes sense.”

That really wasn’t what Will wanted to hear. “It does?”

Nico nodded. “I think so. I mean, I’m always tired, but I usually don’t get enough sleep, so I figured it was that. I didn’t know there was a name for it or anything.” Nico looked less concerned and more thoughtful. Did he never think to diagnose his symptoms as something treatable? Ever?

Will couldn’t really wipe the genuine concern off his face, so he turned toward his clipboard to write things down. “Well, this will require a bit of a lifestyle change. Actually, probably a lot of change for you. No underworld-y stuff, mister,” Will wagged his pen at the son of Hades, who rolled his eyes. “I’ll be developing a treatment plan for you over the next couple days.

“While I’m at it,” he turned back toward Nico, who had started on the pancakes. “You probably also have chronic pain. I’m guessing your body usually hurts, at least a little?” Nico hesitated before nodding. “Yeah, chronic pain and chronic fatigue can get mixed up sometimes since both may cause symptoms of the other. But, considering everything you’ve been through, I’m guessing the normal symptoms of both conditions have been overshadowed by, ah, everything else. Not that I think you’re recovered from the entire war yet, but I have a feeling that those underlying conditions are there.” Will’s lips pulled into a thin line as he thought about what he just said. Nico had gone through so much in both wars, and probably outside of the wars, too. His body has endured a lot of strain, it’s a miracle it hadn’t snapped yet. The gods really didn’t give this kid a break, did they?

Nico sighed and rolled his shoulders back. “Sure, why not? At least I’m probably used to it by now.” The son of Hades gazed upward, like he wanted to ask the gods why, but he was tired of it by now.

Will shook his head. “No, you deserve better than that.” Nico whipped his head back toward Will, eyes wide. Why is it that painful diagnoses are fine, but care from others is out of the ordinary? “You do, Nico. I promise, I’ll do whatever I can to help take that pain away. The gods owe you a break from all… this,” Will waved his hands around at nothing, but he knew Nico understood. Will huffed out a breath, upset that he couldn’t do as much as he’d like to help.

“I didn’t know,” Nico began quietly. He peeked up through his bangs at the son of Apollo before quickly looking away again. “I probably wouldn’t have admitted to—to having chronic pain, before today. I didn’t realize it until you used your powers on me.”

Will sucked in a breath. “You—”

“I’ve never felt… nothing before that.”

Will was not going to cry for Nico’s pain right now, he was not. Instead, he held out his hand, palm up, a clear invitation. Nico eyed it for a second before slowly, hesitantly, lifting his own hand and settling it lightly in Will’s. Will closed his hand around Nico’s with barely any pressure, not wanting to crowd the son of Hades or make him uncomfortable. He smiled, holding Nico’s gaze as he pushed out some of his healing powers. It didn’t actually heal, but it soothed nerve endings to bring temporary relief, which was very useful as a medic. But right now, as he watched the son of Hades nearly melt and the sensation, Will believed the entire purpose of his power was for this boy before him, who deserved peace and freedom from pain so, so much.

After a moment, Will gently lowered their hands. Nico’s eyes fluttered open and for a second, Will saw the eyes full of peace and joy. He really wanted to see that again. Both boys had blush painting their cheeks when they pulled their hands away.

“Hey, Will, could I—”

Will sprung backwards, away from Nico, at the sound of his sister’s voice. Nico jerked back as well, nearly knocking over the plate of food near him. Will’s sister stood just behind the curtain, unaware of the panic she just caused.

“What?” Will squeaked.

“Um, I wanted your opinion on the Ares boy. Are you—” The curtain rustled where she touched it.

“Fine!” Will called. “I’ll be there, just a sec.” He glanced back at Nico, who was red in the face and decidedly not meeting Will’s eyes.

“Sorry, I’ll be right back,” Will mumbled as he shuffled out through the curtain.

When he met his sister’s eyes, she looked concerned for all of two seconds before her smile turned sly. “If you’re too busy with your patient right now, I can probably—”

“Shut up and show me the problem,” he grumbled, moving past her and grabbing the clipboard from her hands as he went. The daughter of Apollo chuckled and followed, thankfully choosing to discuss the patient’s treatment plan and not her older brother’s flaming cheeks.

When Will returned, he found Nico staring out the window of the infirmary, which really only offered a view of the sky above. His breakfast, only halfway eaten, was pushed to the side. Will smiled at Nico as he cleared the plate away and straightened up things on his supply cart. He sat back in his chair with an exhale and picked up his clipboard again. But before he could say anything, Nico asked, “Aren’t you tired?”

The question caught Will off guard. “Huh?”

Nico twisted the skull ring on his finger nervously, but elaborated, “Didn’t you say you’d been working here for days? Shouldn’t you take a break?”

Will was caught by the worried expression on the son of Hades’s face. “Um, well I slept last night, and that was honestly pretty good.”

This only deepened Nico’s frown. “But I interrupted you.”

Will shook his head. “It wasn’t your fault, Nico. And still, I got a good amount of rest. But thank you for your concern.” He smiled, hoping to convince Nico to drop the subject, but also touched that he seemed to care so much. Though the hypocrisy of his words was borderline ridiculous.

Nico clearly wasn’t convinced, but Will began talking before anything else could be said on the subject. “So, to get back to your injuries we didn’t really address yesterday, I’m going to need you to take off your shirt.”

There was a solid three seconds where both boys just sat there, until Will’s words sunk in and they were back to being a blushing mess. Will, ever the professional, cleared his throat and said, “I need to get a good look at your injuries to start healing them, and since you’re awake, I won’t have to cut your shirt off.” Will was truly digging himself a hole that he could never climb out of. He really hoped his siblings weren’t listening right now.

“I-I-um, yeah, okay.” Nico, for his part, didn’t immediately shadow travel away. So that was good. “Like, right now?”

Not trusting himself to say anything intelligent, Will simply nodded and focused on his clipboard, attempting to give Nico some semblance of privacy while he stripped his shirt off.

Will didn’t notice Nico was done until the boy quietly cleared his throat. Will looked up to see a bare-chested son of Hades with a blush that spread down his neck. Don’t stare, don’t stare, don’t stare, Will chanted to himself. But it was so hard because Nico was a warrior meaning that he had muscle on his slender body that was apparently always swallowed up by his shirt or jacket. Not only that, but he had scars littering his torso. Will almost desperately wanted to reach out and touch them. Not in a weird way (okay, it’s a bit weird), but more of a reverent, almost sad touch, like he could take away the pain that caused the scars through touch alone. As head medic, Will has learned how to deal with the scars of demigods. He’s learned not to touch or to ask, just focus on the problems he was meant to deal with. But he’d never seen any demigod Nico’s age with as many scars as he had.

Will kept his eyes pinned to Nico’s right shoulder, maneuvering around him so he could get a good look. The gash was still a faint red, like it was irritated, and possibly previously infected. “I’m going to touch you, okay?” Will warned, getting a nod in response. Will gripped Nico’s outer shoulder to steady him as he continued his inspection. The wound wrapped from the front of Nico’s shoulder over and down his upper back. The deepest part seemed to be at the very top.

“Can I ask what caused this?”

Nico nodded again and spoke quietly. “It was, um, Lycaon. Reyna, Coach Hedge, and I encountered him while we were coming back.”

Will bit his tongue as he immediately wanted to yell. This was from someone as dangerous as Lycaon?? And he hadn’t come in to get it treated?? He took a deep breath before starting, “Nico…”

“I know, I know,” he huffed. “Reyna and Coach had fixed it up, I didn’t really think about it. It was fine enough for me to fight.” He tried to shrug his shoulders, wincing slightly now that he was really aware of the injury.

Will shook his head. “I get it. Just, come in sooner next time, okay?” Will stepped back and went to grab some ointment from his supplies. “Luckily, Hedge knows satyr healing magic, so he probably prevented any major infection.”

The healer turned back with a green salve in his hands. He got to work on Nico’s shoulder, operating in a focused silence. Nico sat there and avoided breathing too deeply so he both didn’t move his shoulder and didn’t smell the weird minty-medicinal scent of the ointment. The salve felt cool on Nico’s shoulder, though it definitely stung. Nico hissed through his teeth when Will was at the deepest part. The son of Apollo mumbled out an apology, but they both knew Will had to put more there to clean out the wound better. All in all, it didn’t seem to be as painful as Will expected, though he knew Nico had an extremely high pain tolerance.

Once Will was finished, he washed his hands and grabbed a roll of bandages on his way back to the bed. “We’ll just keep that for now and check on it daily. The salve should help push out any remaining infection and soothe the irritated skin around the wound. It may or may not need stitches later, but let’s just get it wrapped up, and we can be done with it for now.” Nico lifted his arm and was pliant as Will wound the bandage up and around his shoulder.

“So, Neeks,” Will broke the silence while he worked. He saw Nico make a face out of the corner of his eye at the nickname, making Will grin. “What is your favorite color?”

Now Nico just looked confused. “Why?”

Will rolled his eyes. “Because I’m curious. It’s a basic question, Ghosty.”

“Really? These are the nicknames you came up with?”

“I’ve got more, and I will use them all until you answer my question, Death Breath.”

“Tch,” Nico turned his head, but Will could’ve sworn the boy was fighting back a smile. “Blue.”

“Really?” Will asked, surprised. They met each other’s eyes as Will tucked the end of the bandage back in. “What shade?”

Nico cocked his head, and that’s just adorable. “Not sure yet.”

That was an odd answer that Will was not going to overthink at this moment.

“Okay, Mister Mysterio. My favorite color is black.”

“Really?” Nico didn’t believe him at all.

“Okay, fine, it’s yellow,” Will grinned brightly.

Nico scoffed, “Of course it is. Typical Apollo kid.”

Will put a hand to his chest in mock offense. “Well, excuse me, we can’t all be mysterious and cool like you, Prince of the Underworld.”

That got a breathy chuckle out of Nico, which was as close to a full laugh as Will had gotten thus far, so he was over the moon.

Will glanced at the clock, then jumped up in surprise. “Oh! It’s past lunch already!” He smiled sheepishly at Nico. “Sorry, I get caught up in my work easily. I’m going to go get us some food, be right back!” He bounded right out of there without waiting for a reply, largely because when he looked back at Nico, he realized he was still shirtless and they had just been joking around in close proximity and wow, Will was really pushing his luck on not messing up a new friendship (maybe more, Will’s not ready to talk about that just yet).

When Will came back with a full plate of food for the both of them, Nico was leaning back in bed, shirt on and eyes closed. It didn’t look like he was asleep, but he was definitely dozing off.

“Nico, hey, you gotta get up and eat. No sleeping yet,” Will spoke softly, hoping not to startle the son of Hades. Nico made a disgruntled noise but dutifully sat up, moving his bandaged shoulder around as he stretched.

“Hey, don’t move your shoulder so much,” Will chided.

“It’s uncomfortable,” Nico pouted.

“It’s healing, which may be an unfamiliar feeling to you, but that’s what’s supposed to happen.” Will settled the food between them and sat on the end of Nico’s bed.

“It’s not good for fighting,” Nico commented, and Will nearly choked on his fruit.

“Yeah, you’re not meant to be battle-ready at the moment, di Angelo.” Will leveled a glare at his patient, to which Nico simply shrugged as he picked up a sandwich.

They chatted a little as they ate, both of them mostly focused on the food. After clearing the plate away, Nico settled back against the bed while Will once again grabbed his clipboard and sat in his chair.

“One last thing before I let you rest again.” Will took a deep breath before continuing. “I remember feeling a lot of darkness in you at the end of the battle. I still felt it yesterday when I did my preliminary assessment, but I’d like to get a full picture of what we’re dealing with.” Will looked to Nico for confirmation, who solemnly nodded.

Will held both of his hands out, and Nico placed his hands on top, reaching over to grip Will’s wrists. The hold was a lot firmer and less comforting than the last time they held hands. They both understood the importance of this assessment. Will shut his eyes and concentrated. It felt like Will sent out feelers from where he connected with Nico, seeking out all of the issues in Nico’s body. The healer had to push past any of the physical injuries they previously discussed, focusing only on that sensation of darkness he remembered from during the battle. He thought about Nico’s shadow-traveling abilities, the dark swirls of energy emanating from his hands last night, the stories he heard about Nico fading out of existence. He could not—would not—let something like that happen again. Not when he was around to do something about it.

Will shuddered as he encountered large amounts of darkness spread throughout Nico’s body. It was much less than a few days ago, but last night’s incident didn’t help any. It was hard to describe, but the deep, swirling shadows felt contradictory to Will’s very soul.

Will gasped as the connection suddenly broke off. He looked up to find Nico sweating and staring at him, his hands held close to his chest.

“Nico?” Will breathed. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“What? No, you—” Nico’s eyebrows drew together in worry. “You looked like you were in pain. I thought I was hurting you.”

“Oh,” Will gulped, smoothing his sweaty hands down his shorts. “No, no you didn’t hurt me. I was just… there’s a lot there. Darkness. I—I’m not sure how to deal with it.”

Nico looked sad but resigned when he lowered his gaze to his lap. “Sorry,” he whispered, almost so quiet that Will didn’t hear.

“No, hey,” Will’s hand hovered over Nico’s knee, unsure if his touch was welcome. When Nico didn’t pull away, he took it as a sign and settled his hand down in a reassuring gesture. “We’ll figure it out, Nico. You’re not at risk of fading, thank the gods. But,” he let out a frustrated puff of air. “We’ll have to figure out how to purge the rest of the darkness out so you can better use your powers without risk.”

The son of Hades tentatively looked up at Will, his brown eyes wide with worry and the barest hint of hope. “So, I didn’t… hurt you?”

It did something to his heart, that Nico so strongly cared for Will yet immediately pinned the problem on himself. “No, you didn’t. I promise, I’m fine.” He sent him his most sincere smile, to which Nico breathed a sigh of relief and untensed a little.

Will leaned back and mumbled to himself as he noted his observations on Nico’s papers. He then put it aside, feeling a bit tired from using his powers all day. He turned to Nico, who was fiddling with his skull ring and bouncing his knee nervously. “I think,” Will started, causing Nico to still his movements and face the healer, “that we’ve done enough for today. You need to rest more, I think that’s the best thing for your body right now.”

Will waited for acknowledgement before adding, “Nico, I promise that we will figure out the best way to help you fully recover. I care a lot about you—r well-being.” Nice save, Will. “I want you to be at your best. But you’re going to have to trust me, okay? I know it might be asking a lot. You probably don’t remember me from before—”

“I do.”

Will blinked. “You… you do?”

Nico nodded, avoiding eye contact. “You were a medic during the battle of Manhattan, too. Saved a lot of lives.” He turned to face Will. “I trust you. At least that much.”

The son of Apollo was stunned silent for a few seconds. He did not expect Nico di Angelo, hero of two wars now, to remember him. He might’ve teared a little, blinking and turning away so that Nico didn’t notice. “You had to add on that last part, huh?”

They shared a small laugh. “Well, all I know about you is your favorite color, Solace.” Will glanced back over his shoulder to see Nico settling back in his bed, eyes already drooping.

“We’ll have to work on that, then,” he smirked. “Good night, Neeks.”

“Night, Will.”

A/N: Now passing onto my collab partner!

#solangelo #solangelo fanfic #solangelo fanfiction #fanfic #my writing #my fic #pjo #hoo #toa #the classic 3 days #3 days #will solace #nico di angelo #solangeloweek #solangelospringball2020 #solangelo spring ball 2020 #three days in the infirmary #my collab #collab

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gaymortagokat · 4 years ago

Text

What Drew Did During the War ArtofPadillaAZ

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan,

The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Silena Beauregard & Drew Tanaka, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano/Drew Tanaka, Silena Beauregard & Clarisse la Rue, Will Solace & Drew Tanaka

Characters: Katie Gardner, Kayla Knowles, Drew Tanaka, Clarisse La Rue, Will Solace, Lacy (Percy Jackson), Valentina Diaz, Mitchell (Percy Jackson), Frank Zhang, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Percy Jackson, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Nico di Angelo, Octavian (Percy Jackson), Piper McLean, Gaea (Percy Jackson), Leo Valdez, Jason Grace

Additional Tags: Blood, Blood and Injury, Violence, Slight canon diversion, Minor Character Death, Drew is a healer, she is actually good at it, Charmspeak (Percy Jackson), One Shot

Series: Part 3 of Shared Secrets

Summary: Set during the final scenes of Blood Of Olympus, Drew serves as a medic under her estranged friend Will. She's a fast runner and manages to weave through the fighting with ease. She patches up injured and brings other runners supplies. When the fighting is over she has a moment with Reyna before returning to her cabin to clean up and sleep.

It's not directly related to the Shared Secrets series but is what I had in mind when I wrote it.

Drew knew a war was coming for days, weeks even. She remembered the battles the Ancient Romans fought from world history courses that briefly covered the Greco-Roman world, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. If Camp Jupiter was anything like the old Roman Empire there was going to be a lot of injuries, and not to mention Gaea was trying to kill them all. So Drew spent the last few weeks training. She wasn't a fighter, but she was a runner. She could run for a long time; during spring break, she had participated in a 10K and finished in just under 50 minutes (49:55 to be exact). Drew had done that run with zero extra weight except for the mp3 strapped to her arm. Drew has spent the last few weeks training to carry a backpack filled with anything she might need to stabilize an injured person long enough to get them to the Apollo Cabin or at the very least away from the fighting.

She ran different routes every day pushing herself to go further each time. She weighed down her backpack with rocks she picked up around camp and filled it until she could feel it's weight but left it light enough to not make her lean forward like she had to do with her school backpack. She had even used the weighted backpack to strengthen her arms and legs, and after about a week and a half she felt stronger.

Each day got closer and closer to the fight against the Romans and Gaea and the day The Seven, Percy and Annabeth, Jason, two Romans, a tiny not so funny Latino who kept trying to flirt with her, and her slightly younger, daughter of a movie star sister, were supposed to save the world. The closer Drew got to that day the more determined she became to do a good job. She didn't want to lose another sibling and didn't know what she would do if she did.

The day before everything was supposed to fall apart Drew went to see an old friend, Will Solstice. They hadn't been particularly close the last few years, but she figured he would be expecting her. After all, he taught her basic first aid and how to use unconventional items as a tourniquet or splint (in return Drew taught him how to repair torn clothes and how to use a flat iron).

Drew found him taking inventory of all the medical supplies available in the med bay. "Hey, Hon, I need some supplies for tomorrow."

The curly haired blonde jumped and Drew snickered quietly. "Gods Drew. Learn to knock."

"Sorry, my schedule is a bit full."

"I'm sure you would have time if you cut a few minutes off your gossip time. You said you needed supplies for tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"I can't give you them, you know that. The day of anyone providing medical care receives a bag with prepackaged supplies."

"I know that. But you and I both know I'm the fastest runner you'll have tomorrow and many will decide to fight instead. You'll have extra bags."

"That better not have been Charmspeak, Drew."

"Oh please. Why would I use Charmspeak to convince you of the truth?"

Will thought for a second, his bright eyes taking in her expression while his brain decided her level of honesty. "Alright," Will decided, "I'll give you supplies. Come on." Will motioned for her to follow him.

He led her to a shelf containing gauze and medical tape. "Open your bag. I'm just going to toss things in and we'll organize once I've got everything."

Drew listened and held open her bag. They moved along the shelves as Will tossed gauze, tape, liquid bandage, rulers, rope, Neosporin, pre cut cloth, medical stapler, extra staples, antiseptic wipes, containers of ambrosia (liquid and solid) and other medical salves.

Will looked at the overflowing bag, "okay that's enough." He sat down where she was standing and Drew followed.

They organized the supplies, and as Will placed them in the bag he told her her instructions for the next day.

"You probably won't need the Neosporin until after the fight- only use it on smaller cuts and burns after they've been clean. The gauze is for heavier bleeding, use the cloths for lighter stuff if necessary- '' Drew of course knew all of this but a final reminder was always helpful. "Rulers and cloths are for splints. Cloths are also for tourniquets. Stapler to reattach limbs- remember a bit of ambrosia with major injuries. Liquid bandage for smaller cuts also to be used after all the fighting and once a cut is cleaned. Hence the antiseptic cloths. If you need to give stitches always rinse off blood so you can see. I didn't give you any supplies to give stitches. I know you have things that will work. The salve you will probably use after as well.

Tomorrow, I want you to handle the more major injuries. You see something. Just go to it. You can get to them faster than anyone and with major injuries and grave injuries every second makes a difference. Stabilized them then get them away from the fight. Do your best to get them to someone who can look after them. And please, Drew, have good bedside manner. A calm voice can do a lot to help people relax. And last but not least have a water bottle on you. You're going to be doing a lot of running. I don't need you passing out from dehydration."

"Alright. Thanks Doll. For the supplies." Drew stood to leave slipping on her backpack as she did so. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night, Drew."

"Night."

Drew exited the cabin and made her way to her own. She walked past Hephaestus and Ares kids as they rushed off in various directions to set up more defences along the camp's border. They have been doing that for days. Aries kids laid landmines near one of the predicted entrances the Romans would take while Hephaestus kids with some help from the Athena Cabin built and set up blockades at strategic points.

Drew twisted the knob to her cabin door feeling the cool metal on her palm and releasing a heavy sigh from deep in her chest as she pushed open the door. Inside the cabin were all her brother's and sisters- she slipped off her shoes and went to her bed. Her siblings were laying out their clothes for tomorrow. Drew followed her siblings lead and grabbed running shorts with a 6 inseam, a light sleeveless shirt, the most comfortable sports bra she owned, running socks that had a second layer at the toes and heel, had arch support and would rest above her ankles (every time she wore no show socks something went wrong on her run), and her favorite running shoes. Her favorite running shoes matched her shorts (turquoise and pink). They were her favorite brand because they consistently were breathable, comfortable, and beautiful. The first pair she ever wore were from Silena.

About four summers ago Silena arrived to camp a few days later than usual with a loosely wrapped box. When the two of them had a moment alone Silena smiled softly and handed Drew the box. "I'm sorry it's wrapped poorly. I was in a hurry."

"It's alright, Silena." Drew hooked a finger under the paper and pulled. When she opened the box she saw pink running shoes.

"They're trail running shoes. They'll work a thousand times better than your Vans."

"Thank you Silena. Can't wait to use them."

"I hope I got the size right."

Drew checked the inside tag. "You did."

"Do you wanna go on a run tomorrow morning?"

"Only if we go swimming after."

"I think we can."

Drew smiled at the memory. Since that summer Drew always came to camp with trail running shoes. She set her shoes and clothes on the foot of her bed and laid down. She closed her eyes listening to the occasional chatter of her siblings. They were quieter today, but Drew guessed that was what happened when people were preparing for war.

"Drew" -One of her brothers said carefully- "are you awake?"

She opened her eyes and sat up. "I am. What's wrong Hon?"

"What's going to happen tomorrow?" He asked. He was three years younger than Drew and had arrived at camp the last year. If it wasn't for the impending fight Drew would have considered him lucky for having never known anyone who has died in a demi-god related battle.

"Tomorrow most of the campers will be fighting. And when it's over many will have various injuries." Drew said simply.

"But what will it be like?"

"Loud. Lots of yelling. You'll hear cabin leaders giving orders, and you might get a bit disoriented."

"You're our cabin leader. Won't you be fighting?"

"No. I'll be pulling injured from the fighting."

"What does that mean for us?" Another sibling asked.

"I want you all in pairs at the minimum. Look after each other. If you want to fight I won't stop you. You'll partner up with another cabin if that's what you choose. If you don't want to fight you'll be treating the wounded. Pulling people out of the fighting and patching up wounds until they can be seen by any member of the Apollo Cabin. If that's what you want to do, look out for siblings and others doing that job. It's a solo job but do your best to know where others are. And when the fighting is over and everyone is in camp borders we all meet back here. No exceptions."

The siblings all nodded. No charmspeak was necessary for them to do what Drew wanted this time.

"We all need sleep. If you're not done preparing for tomorrow you have five minutes then all lights are being turned off." Drew laid back down and closed her eyes once more.

In the morning Drew started her day with stretches. There was no telling when her job would start and it was important to have her muscles warmed up unless she wanted to pull something after running for a short period of time. Once she was finished she met with her cabin for breakfast where she had something high in sugar and fulfilling.

The next several hours passed in anxious waiting. The Romans and the monsters standing behind them were closer to camp than they ever had been before, and the number of monsters had grown double what they were when Drew saw them last. Drew had snuck out of camp to see them days earlier. If they weren't intimidating then with their silhouettes outlined by the sun they sure are now when they could attack camp at any moment.

Will gathered all his medics in the early evening and went over their job. Drew looked around at the group. There were a few of the youngest Apollo, Athena, Iris, and Demeter kids, and half of her cabin. Drew was the oldest having just turned 16 before summer began. She was also the tallest and the only one not wearing leg and thigh guards and arm guards since she found the metal to be restrictive.

Will finished speaking and everyone split up to head to different points where the battle was predicted to take place. Drew stayed behind to find out where Will was going to be.

"Drew. What's up?"

"Just wondering' where you'll be?"

"I'm on sabotage duty. We're going to try to take down as many catapults as possible. Just remember to go where you think you're needed, and here," Will pulled out what looked like a thin metal box and held it out to her.

Once it was in her hand she recognized it. A butterfly knife. Drew looked at him quizzically, "What do i need this for?"

"Just in case. I w-" yelling outside camp caught their attention. "I got to go. You need to head out too."

Drew nodded and they both ran off. Drew pushed past the Cave of the Oracle and Thalia's Tree towards the farm road. The closer she got the louder the fighting became. Just before the road was Camp Jupiter holding a line. Behind them was a line of monsters. They weren't moving. Just watching. A figure In front of them appeared to be the one giving the orders. He said something to the person next to him and disappeared into the army of monsters. A scream nearby caught her attention and she ran towards it.

It was an eighteen-year-old from the Hephestus cabin he had been at camp since before Drew first arrived, and he had taken an arrow to the knee. Drew knelt at his side. "Hey," Drew said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, just breathe. I'm gonna get you out of here."

"Drew?"

"Yeah it's me-" Drew wanted to use his name knowing it would help him calm down, but she simply did not know what it was. "-Sweetheart. I have to get this arrow out of your leg then I'm going to heal you a bit and get you out of here."

She pulled out a container of cubed ambrosia, gauze and opened the butterfly knife. One hand held the shaft of the arrow while the other tried to snap off the arrow head. She could hear the wood creak as she tried to carefully remove the metal. It wasn't working. "Screw it," she muttered. She gripped the metal firmly and pulled hard. The arrow head broke off with a snap and the son of Hephestus groaned in pain.

"Sorry Hon. That was just the easy part. I need you to stay as still as you can." She placed a small piece of ambrosia in his hand and closed his hand. "Don't eat this til after the arrow is out."

He gave her a small nod. Drew pulls her hand straight up as fast as she could. Blood poured from the wound for a few seconds until the ambrosia took effect. The worst of the damage was healed. Drew wrapped his knee then put the ambrosia away.

She held the knife in one hand and helped him to his feet. He was heavy. Drew adjusted the weight and began walking. Their first few steps were shaky and they had both nearly fallen, but they worked out s system. They walked at least forty feet away from the battle. Deciding it was a safe enough distance, Drew helped him sit down under a tree.

"Stay here. Someone from the Apollo Cabin will finish healing you."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem, Sweetheart. I've got to go, but you stay safe." Drew closed the knife and jogged off.

It wasn't long before she saw another camper on the ground. A few others stood in front shielding them from further injury. Drew increased her speed. She dodged a few Romans and zipped around her fellow campers.

She recognized this camper too. He was younger than her, and had been at camp maybe a year now. He dated a brother? Or a sister? Maybe it was both? Drew wasn't sure.

"Drew, thank gods! You gotta help me."

"I plan on it." She looked closely at him, finding only a broken arm. "You got a broken arm. I'll set it. I don't recommend still fighting."

The splint was easy to make even with the unconventional supplies. The hardest part was focusing long enough to finish it. She was closer to the center of the fighting and the three peers protecting her and the younger boy were actively fighting Romans. Metal hit metal and rang in her ears uncomfortably. "Alright, you're done. I gotta go. Try not to break anything else."

They both stood and went their separate ways. Drew ran to the next person and the boy returned to fighting but moved further back.

She finished setting a broken leg and was in the middle of pulling the girl to her feet when two of her siblings stopped her.

"Drew, we can take her back. There's someone bleeding that way."

"Well why aren't you two heading over there?!"

"It's nearly a mile. We'll never make it." The ‘on time’ went unsaid.

"Alright. I left someone back there," she pointed the direction where she left the Hephestus kid. "It's away from the fighting."

"We'll take her there." Both her siblings took the girl from Drew, and as soon as Drew was free she began running.

There was no guarantee she was going to make it on time. She had no idea what this person's injuries were like. She made her way through the fighting. She ran a few minutes and ended up in the area with little fighting. Looking ahead she spotted a group of 3 kneeling around something she couldn't see. Figuring it was the injured she was told about. She sped up, and Gods she hated being right.

There was blood. A lot of it. Coming from the arm. A sister's hands were covered in it. Her sister looked up at her, blue eyes filled with fear. "Drew, thank gods. You gotta help us. The bleeding has slowed, but we don't know what else to do."

Drew looked between the three trying to save the mystery campers life and noticed none of them were wearing a backpack. "Alright. One of you needs to move over."

Drew reached in her backpack and grabbed ambrosia, gasuse and medical tape. She handed the ambrosia to the person to her left and leaned over to press the gauze on the cut. "Did you give them some ambrosia?"

"Yeah."

Drew lifted her hands and checked the wound. "The bleeding has stopped but it's still open. Give them a little bit more." She looked at someone else. "There's antiseptic wipes in my bag. We have to clean off some of the blood if the tape is gonna stick."

They got the area around the stab wound cleaned and were taping down a new sheet of gauze when her sister said "What is that?"

They all followed her gaze and spotted monsters and dog headed men and Centaurs. They wore the symbol of Camp Jupiter, but it was obvious they weren't campers. They had moved closer to the Roman Campers line and had begun to attack them. Things were about to get a whole lot worse.

"You three stay here. Protect them. I'll send someone over to help." She zipped up her backpack and left.

She ran straight towards the fighting. Camp Jupiter was getting hit from both sides. She looked around trying to find any one she knew. She spotted an orange shirt and moved towards it. They got knocked down, but not without taking a Roman with them. Drew stood between the two and assessed their injuries. The Camp Half-Blood camper had a dislocated or broken elbow, Drew wasn't really sure she would have to get a closer look, and the Roman had a deep laceration on his arm. She wasn't even sure if she should help him; they weren't exactly on the same side. She remembered the promise she made to herself and what the army of monsters have begun doing. She wouldn't let someone else lose a sibling if she could help it. She knelt at his side slipping off her backpack- "What the hell, Drew!" She reached for the liquid ambrosia and a cloth. "Why you helping him?"

Drew's eyes narrowed. She let a few drops of ambrosia drip onto the cut as she said, "If you haven't noticed, Someone told the monsters to begin attacking. The Roman's are fighting a war on two fronts, and if history has taught us anything they won't last long. It would be better if we worked together instead of trying to kill each other which Gaea wants to do to all of us." She found an antiseptic cloth and wiped away the blood to find that the cut was shallower than before. She put a few more drops of Ambrosia and watched as the laceration became more like a papercut. "You're all healed now, Hon."

"Thanks."

Drew turned around and did her best to set the broken arm. "There's some campers back there," Drew pointed to the direction she came from, "they might need some help. A camper is down. Blood loss from a cut on their arm. I healed them enough to stop the bleeding but they can't fight anymore. Three others are there protecting them."

"There are three people, why do they need help?" The Roman asked like the concept was foreign to him.

Drew popped the joint back in place and looked back at the Roman surprised he hadn't returned to the fighting. "Two of them are my siblings and we aren't exactly known for being good fighters." Her words confused him more.

"I'll go," the other boy said.

"You have a broken arm."

"It's alright. Clarisse made all of us learn how to fight with one arm and the other hand."

Drew nodded. "Try not to undo my work."

“I’ll go with him.” The Roman stated.

“Isn’t that technically desertion? A crime if I am remembering military law correctly.”

“The Praetors are missing, my camp is being attacked by monsters and fighting yours because orders are orders. When the Praetors come back just don’t tell them what I did.”

Drew nodded and together they helped the Ares kid to his feet, and Drew handed him his sword before moving on to the next person.

Drew was finishing the knot on the cloth bandage when an explosion caught her attention. She looked in the direction of the noise and saw a mix of dirt and smoke in the air. A second explosion went off a short distance away and Drew realized the cause. The landmines.

She ran as fast as she could twisting around campers, ducking swords and jumping over kicked out legs. A few times she dropped to the ground and slid a few feet. At the edge of the minefield she saw a small group of Greeks were the closest to her off to her left directly in front of her were Romans. A quick glance at the Greeks told her they have a medic with them. A few Romans tried to get closer to the group sitting on the ground. Drew yelled at them filling her voice with Charmspeak, "Everybody stop walking!" She called to the Greeks attempting to give medical aid to one of their friends, "Do you have enough supplies?"

"Could use some more ambrosia."

"Alright, I'll come to you." She looked back at the Romans finding a few of them had moved a few steps. "Hey! What did I tell you!" Drew yelled using Charmspeak once more, "stop walking!"

Drew looked at the ground between her and her peers finding circles where the ground had been disturbed. Those must be the mines. She plotted a path and carefully followed it. She handed one of the campers a few cubes of ambrosia and looked at the larger group of Romans.

"What are the injuries over there?"

"Uh she's bleeding a lot from her leg and arm. It's bad."

Drew plotted the path she would take step by step. She couldn't take her time. A Roman created a space or her and she dropped to her knees and began to access the damage.

The girl had shrapnel in her legs and arms. The bleeding in her left leg was the most worrying. One of her brothers in arms appeared to have his fingers inside her leg pinching something closed. The leg looked torn apart everywhere metal armor wasn't. The girls pants have been ripped around her wounds to reveal her dark skin. She needed the metal shards removed from her arms and legs before she could be healed.

"What happens if you remove your fingers?"

"She'll bleed, a lot."

Drew nodded and broke off a piece of ambrosia and handed it to the only other person without bloody hands. "She needs to eat this. It will heal her a little bit. Hopefully enough to stop the bleeding but not enough to make her heal around the metal."

She pulled out gauze and the butterfly knife and laid them on the girl's stomach. She grabbed a few larger strips of cloth and medical tape and laid them out as well.

"Remove your fingers slowly."

Drew watched ready to reapply pressure to the girl's leg. The girl was still bleeding, not a dangerous amount. She cut a piece of gauze into a smaller square and placed it over the wound applying the slightest bit of pressure.

"Now we can pull out the metal." She looked at the girl, "we'll try to be quick. Do your best to stay as still as you can."

"We can help." A voice said from behind her. Drew turned and saw the Romans who were trying to get here earlier. Looks like they've figured out how to navigate the minefield.

One knelt down next to her and placed his hands on the injured teen's leg just above her ankle. The other held down her shoulders so they could remove the metal from her arms.

They all did the best they could to pull the metal out with their bare hands. It became more difficult as their hands became slick with blood. Drew found herself wiping her hands on her shirt. A large number of metal shards were impeded deep in the girl's skin; they had to make the cut larger in order to pinch the metal between their fingers and pull it out. The entire time the girl screamed and moaned in pain. She occasionally broke free and accidentally slapped or kicked someone (not that anyone could blame her).

They had only been working a few minutes when they heard the armies of both camps and the army of monsters stop fighting. Drew looked over confused. She had heard no orders for them to do that. Campers were looking west at the setting sun that had turned the sky orange. Drew followed their gaze and spotted pegasi outlined by the orange sun. And on the lead pegasus was a figure. Drew could make out a cloak sparkling in the sunlight and what could be a long braid, and below the girl and the pegasi was a statue. It was a statue Drew had only ever seen in drawings in textbooks and documentaries. The Athena Parthenos.

The statue was set down near Thalia's Tree and the girl on the pegasus, Guido, landed in the clearing behind the Greeks. She yelled that she was returning it in an act of peace. Her voice carried to even the person furthest away from her. She wanted the Romans to stand with the Greeks.

A smaller darker figure ran up to join her. It was Nico Di Angelo. "Listen to her!" He yelled. "Reyna risked her life for all of you!"

It was out of character for Nico to speak in front of a large group of people let alone tell them what to do. Drew had to admit, it was very brave of him. "If you haven't noticed Gaea is rising. If-"

YOU WILL DIE.

The voice shook the earth. Drew felt her chest tighten as the wind picked up. The ground felt stickier than it had been seconds earlier. Drew looked down and saw the bloody earth bubbling slightly. A bubble popped below her leg and she felt the bloody mixture stick to her leg and move as if it was trying to pull her down. Gaea was officially awake, and they were surrounded.

The Roman girl yelled, "CLOSE RANKS!" Everyone standing rushed to stand shoulder to shoulder with the nearest person.

Some pasty blond Drew recognized as the Roman who led the army to Camp pushed through his auxilia troops- the monsters Drew understood to be the ones everyone was concerned about. The ones that had the Romans fighting on two fronts.

Drew rushed to finish removing the metal from the girl and quickly bandaged her. “By camp over there. I’ve been leaving injured. Can you take her there?” Drew asked all the Romans knowing she was unable to carry the girl let alone drag her through a minefield without accidentally blowing them up.

“Yes.”

“Here’s an extra piece of ambrosia. You only need a tiny bit to heal. Too much and it will kill you.”

Drew heard the clopping of horse hooves and turned to look. There was a squad of Centaurs joining the fight. “Don’t look those dudes in the eye unless you want to fight them.” one of the other boys told her.

“You two take her to where the other injured are, we’ll try to create a space to reach the others.” One decided standing up.

“Who says you get to be the one to decide what we do?” A girl asked.

“I’m the oldest.”

Drew knew the type of arguing. Siblings. “It doesn’t matter who does what job,” Drew snapped using a bit of charmspeak, “we can’t stay here long.”

“The Greek is right. Whatever we do we need to decide fast. I don’t wanna be in this minefield once it’s dark.”

They all stood to leave when Drew felt something warm hit her arm. She brushed her hand down her arm and found fresh blood on her hand. She looked at the person next to her and saw blood dripping down his hand. “Hey, wait. You’re bleeding.”

He looked at her and in the setting sun his helmet reflected the light. She looked past the reflective metal into his dark eyes. “I’m alright. I’ll take care of it later.”

“I can take care of it right now.”

“No, it’s alright.”

“Okay. You have the ambrosia I gave you. Take a small piece of it. It will at least stop your bleeding.”

He nodded and jogged to catch up with his fellow soldiers.

Drew stayed where she was and studied the battle infront of her. How was she going to slip into that and pull an injured person away from that. She looked for any space and thought she spotted a way in when an explosion nearby knocked her down.

Disoriented, she looked around off to one side and spotted a very injured Two Headed man; there were more behind them as well as a few Dog-headed men. Both creatures had very little fashion sense. The Two Headed men seemed to be wearing whatever cloth they found that fit around them. They were poorly dressed and made Brooklyn’s homeless look like kings (at least the few Drew had met had tried to keep clean and wore outfits while nearly monochromatic at least had their entire bodies covered).

The other Two Headed men hadn’t seen her yet. She thought she could use this to her advantage and picked up a few rocks before she stood up. She faced them then looked behind her. If she did everything right she could clear the minefield without injury.

She threw a rock at the Two Headed men, she had missed hitting them but captured their attention. She turned slightly and threw the rest of the rocks in the direction of the Dog-headed men and captured their attention as well as some Centaurs. A Centaur ran at her and she spun on her heel and ran. She ran on the sections of raised earth avoiding the pits. Explosions went off behind her hitting enemies with celestial bronze shards. One explosion was close enough to her that it knocked her flat on her stomach. Her face connected with her forearms. After a few moments she stood silently thanking the Ares Cabin for making the path she was on wide enough for a person twice her size to lay on it. An arrow blew past her head, and she yelped before sprinting. She ran towards Half-Blood Hill and darted around some trees pausing behind what she hoped was adequate cover. In her brief pause to catch her breath she felt a dull ache in her thigh. She twisted to look at the area and found the source of her pain- a piece of metal easily the size of her hand was embedded in her toned thigh. She heard the crunching of sticks and leaves nearby. She covered her mouth with a hand and pulled out the metal. One of the Dog-headed men spotted her and alerted the rest of his group. Drew dropped the metal and began running once more before any of the monsters could get close.

She looped back around to the campers and spotted her brother who looked at her with wide eyes. A few other campers noticed her and created a space. Drew slipped in the army a few seconds later Dog-headed men slammed into Roman shields. Behind them were a few Two Headed men and a Centaur.

Someone tapped Drew’s shoulder. She whirled around and faced a helmet-less Roman with freckles and copper hair. “You’re a medic, right?”

“Today.”

He made a motion for her to follow. “My brother is hurt bad. We pulled him to the center. There are other injured there. Reyna wants to get them out of here to somewhere safe.

Drew had no idea who Reyna was but nodded anyways. In the center was a larger open space where some injured were laying. There was only one medic tending to the six injured. She slipped off her backpack and pulled out both forms of ambrosia.

The Roman led her to where the other medic was and kneeled at the injured boy’s side. He had been hit on part of the face and upper arm. Drew swore if she looked close enough she would see the boy’s bone.

She opened the cubed ambrosia and grabbed the most appropriate bite sized piece. “Make sure he eats this. It will help heal him.” She put the cubed ambrosia away and grabbed gauze. She passed some to the other medic and placed the rest on the boys shoulder and applied pressure. He had healed a lot but was still bleeding. Blood seeped through the layers of gauze soaking Drew’s hands. She increased the pressure. After some time she removed her hands. He was still bleeding. Drew grabbed the medical stapler to close the wound and watched his breathing.

She patted his face, “Hey stay awake, Dear. You can’t fall asleep right now.” his breathing was slow and his eyes were half closed. “Wake up,” Drew said with Charmspeak. The boy’s eyes snapped open. “You’re alright. I’m going to close the wound. It might hurt a bit.”

She pinched the skin together and stapled it. Three staples and it was closed. The other medic looked at her like she was a genius. “There are a few others who could use that.” he told her. “Can I borrow that?”

“Yeah, here.”

She turned back to the injured boy. She opened the liquid ambrosia and pulled out the eye dropper. She released a few drops of the golden liquid over the now closed cut and watched as his bleeding had completely stopped. She moved her hand and released a few more drops over the cut on his face. Now she had to clean him up and cover the wounds. Salve and gauze went over his cuts. “Stay awake, okay. I need to go check on the others. I’ll be back shortly.”

She made her way to the other medic. “What have the other injuries been like?”

“Mostly the same. There’s a few broken bones. I don’t have anything to heal them with. We need to think about how we are going to move them.”

“I can do it. Keep the ones here stable and awake. I’ll go around and give them some ambrosia. The first boy is ready. He lost a lot of blood. We might not be able to move him.”

“I’m working my way back. I'll check on him.”

Drew nodded. She worked her way around the group of injured and passed out ambrosia. Those with broken bones were near completely healed and decided to stick around and help move the other injured.

The first boy was standing with the support of the Roman medic. Drew traded places with them and handed him the bottle of liquid ambrosia. She instructed him on how to use it.

With the help from a few fighters Drew walked the injured boy to the spot where she had been leaving injured just before the border of Camp Half-Blood. There were more injured than she remembered bringing.

The fighters who had protected Drew and the boy helped her lay him down. They got him settled when a son of Apollo walked up to her. “Are the bandages his only injuries. From what I could tell. Do you have supplies here?”

“Some. Could use some more ambrosia.”

“There’s a few boxes in my backpack, feel free to take one.” she turned away from him and lowered herself to his height. She waited until she heard the backpack close before turning back to him. “There’s at least three more I’ll be bringing back here.”

“Alright. If you see any of my siblings send them here. I could use another set of hands.”

“Will do. See you in a bit, Hon.”

Drew rushed back to the fighting and saw that the combined camps managed to push their enemies back a few inches. It was easier for Drew and the others to make their way back to the center. She helped another person to their feet. It was hard to support this girl. She was at least a foot shorter than Drew.

The Roman medic approached her before she left. “I’m out of supplies.”

Drew looked around for anyone wearing a backpack to call them over to help. When she didn’t find someone she did the next best thing: capturing the attention of a CHB camper. “Hey, I need you to find another medic. Someone wearing a backpack. We’re running low on supplies here.”

“I’m on it.” the camper ran off.

The ground began to shake. Softly at first then it was like a rug had been pulled out from other them. Campers fell to the ground, including Drew and the young teen she was supporting. Through all the chatter of people and surprised screams the voice of the girl who returned the Athena Parthenos boomed. “EVERYBODY UP!” Drew struggled to find her footing in the shaking dirt. She was about to fall again when someone’s arm wrapped around her, holding her inplace. The person walked around her and helped the girl up. Drew realized it was Clarisse- Silena’s former best friend whom she wanted nothing to do with. “Thanks.”

Clarisse gave her a small smile and nodded towards the girl. “Get her out of here.”

Drew returned to her previous position and took careful steps. Together they fought their way across the quaking earth step by step. The pair nearly collapsed steps away from their destination. One of the self appointed guards led them to an empty space.

“Have you seen any of my siblings, Drew.”

Oh shit, I forgot I was supposed to find one of Apollo’s children. “No, not yet, Hon. I sent someone to find another person with a backpack the medic down there is out of supplies”

“Give them some of your gauze and cloths since you’re bringing people here.”

Drew noticed the grass wrapping itself around the fingers of the people laying down. “What is going on here?”

“The grass is trying to hold those who aren’t moving much down. I’ve been having people go around and cut it.”

“You're still good on supplies, Sweetheart?”

“For now.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Drew began to jog back when the earth shook violently once more. She stumbled but stayed upright. The ground split open in front of her. She jumped over the crack with ease and continued on. She made it back to the other injured campers and saw mostly new faces. The others have been moved by other campers. Drew remembered seeing them on her way back.

“Drew! You’re here.” Lacy yelled.

“Sweetheart, you're the one they found?”

“Yes. I am running low on supplies.”

Drew opened her hiking backpack and pulled out an unopened box of gauze and a lump of cut cloth. “I have extras.” She handed the stack to Lacey. Then moved on to the Roman medic. “Hey, you’re out of supplies, right?”

“Yes.”

She placed a box of gauze in his hands. “I’m looking for an Apollo kid; have any come by. They need help at the makeshift field hospital. There’s only one medic there.”

“I’m an Apollo kid.”

“Any siblings nearby?”

“I’m sure I can find a few. You start patching people up and I’ll go look.” He handed back the gause.

“Alright.”

They parted ways. Drew knelt at someone's side and applied pressure to their arm. The bleeding was too much. Drew reached in her bag for a strip of cloth, tucked in under the person’s arm above the wound and tied it. She pulled it as tight as she could then knotted it. She needed to get them out of here and to a child of Apollo. She pulled them to their feet and put their good arm over her shoulder. She was going to hand them off to someone else to take them to the field hospital when the Roman came back with a few others.

“This is my brother and sister.”

“Great, we need to get this person to the field hospital. At least one of you need to come with me.”

“I’ll go.” The sister volunteered. “I’ll trade you places.”

Drew nodded. And transferred the nearly unconscious person to the other person. Drew led the two Romans to the field hospital. On the very edges of the campers line she spotted Katie. She put a hand on their arm and said, “I need your help, follow me.”

“Drew, you’re back.”

“He’s got a deep cut on his arm. We need to take care of this immediately.” Roman said.

“Who’s this?”

“Roman daughter of Apollo. She’s gonna stay here and help.”

“What did you need me for, Drew.”

“The grass is starting to grow around people’s bodies. I figured you could do something.”

“I’ll try. I make no promises.”

Drew furrowed her brows. A sound captured her attention instinct told her it was Charmspeek, which was weird she hadn’t said anything. She looked at camp and saw what she thought were two floating figures in the deep orange sky. Then she realized where the Charmspeak came from; Piper. The Seven had returned.

“The earthquakes stopped.” Katie noted.

Drew looked at one of the campers laying down. The grass that was once snugly around their fingers was now loose and made no effort to grow and retighten. Not only that, the wind had stopped howling. “Gaea’s asleep.”

“Does that mean we won?”

“No.” Drew said simply. “We still have work to do.”

“How much gauze do you have?”

“Few boxes I think.”

“Leave some of it here. I’ll be out soon.”

Drew nodded and handed over two boxes and a vial of liquid ambrosia. She only had two boxes of gauze left and 1 full bottle of ambrosia.

Drew ran back, dodging swings from Dog-headed men and Two Headed men. She pushed past the first few lines and nearly ran into Annabeth. They both stared at each other for a moment before looking away and continuing their tasks.

Back at the center Drew knelt next to one of Clarisse’s siblings. They needed stitches, something that was too hard to give in near darkness. She grabbed the stapler from her bag and used it in place of staples. She applied a salve and moved on to the next person.

“Drew?” Will asked carefully.

“Yes, Hon?”

“Were running out of supplies here.”

“So is the field hospital.”

Will sighed. “Give them the rest of your gauze and ambrosia. And leave the cloth strips here. The other medics are on their way here anyone with gauze will give it to you to take to the field hospital. We’ll have some staplers here. I’ll have you take some as well.”

“Do I keep the half full bottle of ambrosia? I have a full one in my backpack.”

“Yes keep the half full bottle, a few cloth strips and rulers, and your stapler.”

“Alright.” Drew removed all the bundles of cloth strips except one and handed them to Will along with most of the rulers.

More medics with backpacks arrived and handed over what little gauze and ambrosia they had left. Drew zipped the backpack closed. “Drew, before you come back here,” Will began, “Can you grab more cloth from camp. We’re gonna need it.”

Drew nodded. “I’ll grab what I can.”

“Hurry.”

Drew took off running. She dropped off the gauze and ambrosia and staplers. Before she left she told one of the Apollo kids that more would join them soon and Will was assigning new jobs.

In the distance she spotted the lights from cabins and ran to the nearest one. She tossed open the door. There was a pile of freshly cleaned sheets on a table. Thank the gods, the Demeter Cabin hadn’t changed their sheets yet. Drew opened her backpack and stuffed as many sheets as she could inside. She closed it as much as she could and ran back to the medics.

Both camps had increased the ground they held in the minutes she was gone. She easily made her way back and began taking out the sheets. The people not helping the injured began to tear the sheets into strips. A small pile was created in seconds. Will handed her the entire thing. “Take this back to the field hospital. I’ll be going with you.” Will told her. Drew waited until Will had helped someone to their feet and was successfully supporting them.

They moved as quickly as they could in the dark. Drew had the cloth strips bundled in one arm and the Celestial bronze butterfly knife in her other hand. The metal glowed in the near complete darkness and provided some extra light. Halfway to the field hospital an explosion went off in the minefield. Will and Drew looked that direction then at each other. “Go, I’ve got this.”

Drew ran over and scanned the field. She couldn’t see anything that told her who or what set off the landmine. “Hey! We’re over here.” Drew turned to the sounds and spotted a group of campers in the middle of the field. Two Headed men were crossing the field towards them. Drew looked down at her feet then ahead a few feet. It was flat. She stepped forward. The spot where she would be taking her next step appeared to dip. She squatted and brought the knife closer to it. She was right so she looked to the space next to her. Clear. She repeated the process while the Two Headed men walked across the field setting off mines.

Dirt hit her as she moved closer to the group. An explosion close to her knocked her back. Fear rose in her chest. She did not want to get killed by a mine. She had ringing in her ears, an intense headache, and pain nearly all over her body. Carefully she rose to her feet and continued crossing the field placing more weight on her left leg. One of the campers grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards them. “You have to help us.” A higher pitched voice said. “She’s bleeding too much. I don’t know what to do.”

Drew knelt down and did her best to feel what was wrong. The ground beneath her was wet and sticky and she could feel what she thought could have been Jeans. She squinted attempting to focus better on the figure in front of her. She looked up and saw the injured girl’s face. She was blinking slowly. Drew dragged her eyes down to the teens arms. She couldn’t see anything except a faint outline, but she reached out feeling for a hand and found it. It was ice cold. Winter’s in New York cold. Blood Loss. She pressed two fingers into their wrist and felt a weak pulse. Her eyes moved further down and began to panic. She was sitting where her legs should be.

She acted quickly and put tourniquets on what was left of the teens legs. She pulled as tight as she could. “One of you need to carry her. Follow me. Single file.” Drew stood and led them back the way she came. Silently praying she hadn’t mixed up her directions.

Drew led the campers all the way to the field hospital as fast as she could while making sure they were keeping up. At the field hospital Drew turned to face them. She helped lay the girl on the ground then Drew registered the way the girl had moved when they laid her down and the glassiness in her eyes. Drew nearly burst into tears. The girl was dead. Drew stumbled back. Maybe if I had been faster- someone touched her shoulder. Drew slowly turned and came face to face with Will.

“It’s not the time, Drew. We can’t stop yet.”

“I promised I wouldn’t-”

“You did everything you could. Injuries like that are hard to heal in the middle of the day, let alone in the dark.”

“If I just noticed sooner.”

“I don’t think it would have made much difference. Come on. I need help bringing more people here.”

Drew took a deep breath and winced at the smell of blood and something charred. “Let’s go.”

Drew ran back steps in front of Will, picked up an injured person and walked them back. She turned around to head back and saw a pack of Dog-headed men in the distance. The camps had gone through over half of the army or monsters. This new group would extend the battle by a few minutes.

She rushed back and grabbed another person and brought them back. She repeated this a few times when a Roman Camper stopped her.

“Will said you’re the fastest runner.”

“What do you need.”

“We’re running low on ambrosia here. In our camp we might have the draught we use there, but camp is on the other side of the road about two miles from here. I don’t know if any of it is there. I wasn’t in charge of supplies, and I haven’t been able to find my brother who was.”

“Which tent will it be in?”

“It will be in the open there will be a canopy over it. It will look like a stack of crates. You’ll probably find it next to a larger tent. One of the biggest there. There may be a cart nearby. Bring as much as you can back.”

“What do you need?”

“The draught. It's labeled. And bandages.” He held out a flashlight. “You might need this.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Drew ran as fast as she could. If her speed was consistent with her other times it would be eight to ten minutes to run the two miles. Her feet hit the ground at a standard rhythm. She focused on her breathing and keeping her arms from crossing in front of her. She slid under the swing of a Two Headed man and quickly jumped to her feet and kept going

“Drew! Where are you going?” Annabeth yelled.

“I’ll be right back! Have to go get something!” Drew yelled back, not wasting a second to turn around.

The sounds of battle grew quieter. Drew could hear the pounding of footsteps behind her, some were heavier than others. She looked behind her and spotted Annabeth and Dog-headed men. Annabeth drew a sword that was the same color as the moon. Drew couldn’t stop even if she wanted to. She said she would be back as fast as she could and she knew Annabeth could handle herself; Drew on the other hand wouldn’t be able to last in a fight.

She faced forward and kept running. Her muscles performed movements she was familiar with. Drew looked down briefly watching the separation in her steps she looked up to see the remains of the Romans camp. She focused on taking wider steps.

As she drew closer, smaller tents for sleeping were missing. Larger tents had been destroyed. The only thing still standing was a canopy type tent like the ones used at marathons over the water tables. Hopefully that’s the supplies.

Drew skid to a stop and turned on the flashlight. She shined the light towards the canopy and saw crates. The butterfly knife fit under the wooden lid and she lifted to pry the box open. The wood creaked then the lid came free. Peering inside she found bandages. She moved to another box and saw it was labeled ‘Draught’. She opened the box and found water bottles.

There was no way Drew could fit more than one box of water bottles in her backpack. She looked around for a cart and found one roughly three times the size of a child’s red Radio Flyer wagon overturned feet away. She jogged over and exclaimed it. The wheels looked fine. She spun it to be sure. It turned without an issue. Drew held the flashlight between her teeth and reached under the cart and began lifting it.

The wooden cart was awkward to move. It wasn’t terribly heavy; she pushed it on the side. It came up to her chest. She crouched down once more and slowly rolled it on its wheels praying something wouldn’t break as she did so. It shook into place, but stayed together. Drew let out a sigh in relief. She placed her hands on the bar and pushed it to the pile of crates and began loading it when Annabeth arrived out of breath.

“I think- this is the- last time- I call you lazy.”

“Thanks. Help me load this cart with bandages and the boxes labeled ‘draught’.”

They finished packing the cart with two layers of boxes and pushed it. It was difficult to get moving. Drew and Annabeth had to lean into it to get the wheels rolling, but once it was moving steadily Drew started to speed up. Drew and Annabeth reached the perfect speed. Not too fast to knock anything off.

The battle was still going on when they arrived back. A few Two Headed men charged at them. Drew pushed the cart onto the dirt road and worked her way across while Annabeth kept the Two Headed men away. The ground was raised on the other side of the road and caught the wheels. Drew ran to the otherside of the cart and attempted to lift it while pulling it. The wheels popped up and Drew continued pulling until the other wheels were on the grass.

She was moving the cart once more. A few feet away from the field hospital Drew and Will caught each other's eyes. Will ran over to help her.

“You made it!”

“There’s still more supplies back there.”

“This is enough. The battle is almost over. Someone can go get the rest later.”

“The top boxes are all bandages. The bottom ones are draught.”

Will motioned to what little soldiers were still guarding the field hospital to come over. “Where are all the guards?”

“Many returned to the fighting; there aren't many monsters left. A few minutes more and the fighting will be over.” Will explained handing a box to a fellow camper. “Get this to Kayla.”

Drew handed a box of Draught to a Roman Camper. “Give this to the Roman medic. She said she was out.”

“Drew,” Will said, handing her bandages, “Get these to the medics in the fighting. They’re out.”

Drew opened her backpack and shoved them inside. “I can take a few more.”

Will shoved another handful in her backpack. Then a third and fourth. Finally he picked up the box and dumped it in. some fell on the ground. Drew didn’t bother to pick them up. She closed her backpack and ran to the center.

Her brother Mitchell was the first person she saw. “Hey, where’s Lacy? Thought you two were together?”

“Drew!” He gave her a quick hug. “She went with Val to take Conner to the field hospital.”

Drew opened her backpack revealing the bandages. “Heard you were out of these down here.”

“We are. There’s our pile of supplies.” he pointed at a stapler laying on the ground.

They removed the bandages from her backpack and Drew added her extra box of staples to the pile. She was about to head back to the field hospital when she spotted the mysterious girl with the cloak catch the person next to her as they fell. They had been stabbed. The girl stabbed the monster who injured her colleague in retaliation.

Drew rushed over and put an arm around the bleeding person’s waist and helped them stand. She looked in the girl's brown eyes and said “I got them from here.” the girl gave her a silent nod and returned to fighting. Drew walked the person around campers too engaged in a fight to step out of the way and towards the center and sat them down. They had been stabbed in the neck and shoulder and bleeding heavily.

Drew slipped off their helmet and applied pressure to the side of their neck. “Hey, Hon,” Drew said calmly, noticing their panic, “I need you to calm down. I’m gonna get you patched up. Mitchell! Come here.”

“Yes, Drew?”

“There’s ambrosia in my backpack; Get it for me.”

“Here,”

“I can’t take it. You need to give them some.” Drew waited for her brother to give ambrosia then slowly removed her hands. They were still bleeding. “Shit. Give them a bit more.”

“But too much will-”

“I know, but they’re not chugging it.” Drew removed her hands once more finding the bleeding had stopped. She looked into the person’s eyes and smiled softly, “The bleeding has stopped. A bit more and you’ll be completely healed.”

“Thank you.”

“Not a problem, Dear.” She wiped her hands on her shirt and took the ambrosia from her brother. “Just a bit more of this and you should be good as new.” She dripped ambrosia on their neck and shoulder. The skin began to fuse back together. It wasn’t quite healed, so she added a bit more. “There. All done.”

“Thank you. I’m Jon.”

Drew stood offering her and to help him up. “Drew.”

“I heard.”

It was weirdly quiet for a war. Drew looked around and spotted no monsters, just the glow of celestial bronze. The war was over. The mysterious girl appeared at Jon’s side. “You alright?” Drew’s eyes went wide at her voice; it sounded like how Belgium chocolate tastes.

“I am now, Praetor.”

“Come on, Let’s get the injured inside Camp Half-Blood’s border.” The girl began to lead Jon towards the field hospital. She turned and looked at Drew, “You coming?”

“Y-yeah.” She jogged to catch up.

The three of them arrived at the field hospital to find other campers preparing the most injured for transport via gurney. While a few others were helping injured walk to the Apollo cabin infirmary.

“Drew,” Will said. “We could use your help patching people up and getting them to infirmary. I’ve already sent people to get the rest of the supplies. Annabeth and Percy went with them.”

“Alright.”

Nico ran up to the Praetor, “Reyna, I talked to Dakota. He and Jason are taking a group to start setting up camp. I think Frank went with them.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Nico.”

Drew and Praetor Reyna went around tending to people's wounds and occasionally handing people new tasks (mostly Reyna). Reyna told her campers which of the injured to take back or where to head next, whether it was to Jason to help set up camp or to the supply crates the group led by Percy and Annabeth brought back to carry them into camp.

As injured were carried back to camp someone brought back stretchers. Drew helped load people on to them. Most of the people had been taken back to camp when Drew realized an Ares Camper she said needed to be taken back was still laying on a stretcher. She walked over to him and noticed he was asleep. She found the straps to the stretcher and strapped him in.

She lifted up one side and began pulling him back to camp centimeter by centimeter. “My gods,” she muttered, “What have you been eating.” Someone chuckled in front of her.

“Let me help.” Drew froze. She knew that voice; Praetor Reyna. Reyna picked up the other end of the stretcher and Drew realized, to her surprise, they were the same height.

“Of course,” she muttered, shaking her head.

“Used to being the tallest?”

“Yes. Having someone the same height sure makes this easier.”

“That, and you’re not pulling at least 200 pounds by yourself.”

“I would have made it to camp eventually.” This made Reyna laugh and Drew found herself wanting to make it happen again.

“Yeah, tomorrow morning.”

Drew chuckled.

They fell into an awkward silence as they walked past the Temple of the Oracle. Drew looked at the Praetor’s forearm. She had a tattoo similar to the one Drew had seen on Jason months earlier. Reyna’s tattoo was a torch and sword, and the only reason Drew could see it was because it was glowing and pulsing like a slow heartbeat. The tattoo looked like burning coal, and Drew wondered if the girl's skin was actually burning. “Does it hurt?”

“Hmm?”

“Your tattoo. It’s glowing.”

Reyna looked down then turned her wrist slightly as if she was trying to hide the tattoo. “It’s fine.”

“I think I have a salve in my bag for burns.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary at the moment.”

“Alright.”

“I should thank you.”

“For what?”

“I’ve heard a few stories from the Legion. You helped them before our camps were allies. It makes me believe lasting peace is possible.”

“Is that why you returned the Athena Parthenos?”

“Annabeth found it, but it could only be returned by a Roman.”

“Because the Romans stole it. Mortals history textbooks sometimes say it was destroyed during The Crusades after it was moved to Constantinople.”

“Yes. And every war between our camps since has been because of the theft.”

“We’re almost to the infirmary it’s past the lake and on the other side of the showers.”

Reyna nodded, and looked more tired than she had when they first started walking. Drew could still see the pulsing glow from her tattoo, but it had grown dimmer.

Outside the cabins campers were standing around. Many had lost the adrenaline they had during the battle and were struggling to complete tasks. “Hey,” Drew said using her most commanding voice, “Wake up. I’m sure most of you have jobs to do.”

The campers who heard her looked at her quizzically. “Finish the task you started.” People returned to their tasks with new energy.

Reyna threw Drew a confused look, and Drew realized her Charmspeak may not have affected the Praetor. She chose not to press the topic not sure if it was an answer she wanted to hear.

They arrived at the Apollo Cabin. Campers moved out of their way and Piper and Kayla helped them move the still sleeping camper to an empty cot.

Drew could see the Praetor’s tattoo better in the light. It was not black like Jason’s tattoo. She looked around at the other Roman campers and saw that their tattoos were also black. Her eyes went back to Reyna’s forearm. Her tattoo was dark red and the area surrounding it looked more like a sunburn the further from the tattoo Drew looked. It was like someone put a torch to her arm and attempted to trace over the tattoo.

She looked at Piper then back at Reyna’s arm. If the Praetor was going to listen to anyone here it was probably her sister. Piper grabbed Reyna’s hand while Drew grabbed the salve she had in her backpack and handed it to Piper. “I’m going to our cabin. I told everyone we had to do a check in as soon as the battle was over.”

Piper nodded, “I’ll be there soon.”

Drew made her way back to her cabin. It was the first time she registered the ache in her shins, knees, shoulders and upper back as well as the coolness in her shoes and the weird squish they made with each step. Her head felt heavy and she could feel a slight pressure behind her eyes from tiredness.

Upon opening her cabin door she was hit with the smell of her sisters’ flowery perfume and acid like scent of her youngest brother's cologne.

“Drew, you’re here.” multiple siblings said in unison.

“Hey, I don’t think we’re doing gossip time tonight.” Drew told them, slipping off her wet shoes.

Her socked feet made an effort to stick to the cabin's wood floor as she crossed the room to the bathroom. She closed the door behind her.

She turned on the sink and put her hands under the water. After a few moments the water turned pink. She grabbed a bar of soap not caring if it wasn’t hers and began to scrub her hand and forearms. The soap reached part of her arm and she hissed in pain. Quickly she rinsed off the soap and saw the reason for the stinging pain. Pieces of metal were in her arm, and now that she wiped off the dried blood and hit the metal, she was bleeding again.

Drew reached for a towel and patted her arms dry. She then grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled a mix of Celestial bronze and regular metal from her arm and dropped it in the sink where the pieces made a little ‘tink’ upon hitting the porcelain. Once all the metal was out she turned on the water once more and held her arm under it until the water was nearly clear. She pat her arm dry once more then pulled off her shirt that suddenly felt very restrictive.

She tossed it in the sink and gave it a weird look. I don’t remember putting on a red shirt. The shirt had patches of scarlet red and some smaller patches of pink. Drew studied it for a second then looked in the mirror. The first thing she noticed was the color of her sports bra. Okay, I definitely know I didn’t put on a bra this dark. She took it off and grabbed the towel. She wet a section of it and began wiping her upper arms. She needed to get rid of this mix of something sticky on her skin and something dried on her skin pinching it.

This method wasn’t working too well. Upon realizing this she soaked the towel and dragged it over her skin. Cold water ran down her arms and chest cooling her down. She put down the towel and grabbed a second to pat herself dry.

She could feel this stickiness on her skin. She set the towel aside and picked up the wet one. She soaked it once more and was once again wiping down her skin. She dried her skin off once more. The towel was laid on one side of the counter and the wet cloths on the other.

Drew searched through the bottles of soap on the counter looking for a face wash. Finding one she wet her face with closed eyes. Drew felt stinging on her cheek and forehead. Looking into the mirror she spotted the flash of metal. Using the tweezers she pulled out the shards then returned to washing her face. The water woke her up a bit helping her focus a bit better.

Sitting on the edge of the toilet seat, Drew removed her reddish brown socks. It was more difficult than it should have been since they were wet and sticking to her skin. Once they were off Drew tossed them to the side and used the wet towel to wash her feet.

Next, she soaked the towel she had used to dry herself and placed it over her lower legs. The towel was heavy on her legs and she could feel patches of stinging on her legs like she had razor burn.

She rested her left heel on the counter and pulled out all the metal she could see. Her knees were caked in mud mixture that smelled like iron. She noticed a piece of metal poking through the mud and tried to pull it out. Her leg jerked and she hissed in pain once more. She would deal with it later. She went to put her right leg on the counter and felt a sharp ache in her thigh. “Son of a-”

She put her leg down and soaked the towel once more. She sat on the floor and wiggled her way out of the rest of her clothes. After the clothes had been kicked aside Drew began to carefully wiping away blood, mud and sweat. Once she was satisfied she began to remove all the metal she could leaving the larger pieces as they were too painful to remove on her own.

Reaching for her backpack without getting up hurt her thigh more than anything, but she was too tired and determined to care. She wanted to finish cleaning up so she could sleep. She dragged the backpack across the floor and opened it. Her fingers found the vial of ambrosia. Drew pulled it out of the bag, tossed the eyedropper aside and drank what little of the ambrosia was left. She felt the smaller scrapes heal. Then she grabbed the liquid bandage and the healing salve.

She painted on the bandage on her smaller wounds then stood up carefully balancing on her left leg remembering she didn’t grab clean clothes. She held one of the towels in front of her and opened the door. “Hey, can one of you get me some clean clothes?”

“Yeah, Give me a second.” Valentina said.

“Thanks Dear.” Drew waited for her younger sister to return silently, adjusting her position to avoid falling over.

Valentina returned with a pastel pink and purple robe. Drew took it with one hand as Valentina's eyes flicked down to her legs, “Do you need help?” she asked, voice filled with concern.

“No.” Drew said, quickly closing the door in the girl’s face.

Drew returned to her spot on the floor and yawned. She rubbed her eyes then unfolded the robe dropping a matching pair of boy shorts and a bralette. Inch by inch she put on the boy shorts trying to avoid every point of pain on her legs. The bra was easier to put on.

The little bit of wakefulness she had was gone. She laid down, robe and pain forgotten and fell asleep.

Piper returned to her cabin after helping the rest of the seven, Reyna, and other cabin leaders locate the rest of the campers under their leadership. She knew her cabin mates had all returned. She wanted a shower like most campers did, but it was too late to argue over who got to shower first, so everyone seemed to collectively decide showers were closed for the night.

Before returning to the Aphrodite Cabin she stopped at Canoe Lake deciding to rinse off the dirt and sweat. She decided she’d rather smell like the fishy lake than feel sticky the rest of the night.

Entering the cabin she found her siblings sitting on their beds quietly talking to each other. A few were whipping themselves down with makeup removing wipes and baby wipes. A glance around the room told her every one was there except one.

“Where’s Drew?”

“Piper, you're back.” Lacy said.

“We waited up for you.” Mitchell added.

“You didn’t have to.”

“I know.”

“Drew said we all had to check in. We figured it meant you too.”

“Where’s Drew?”

“Bathroom.” Valentina stated.

“She’s been in there since she got back.” Another sibling clarified.

“How long has that been?”

“About an hour and a half.”

Piper made her way to the bathroom and knocked. “Drew, everyone made it back to the cabin alright. We’re gonna go to bed.”

No answer. Piper twisted the door knob finding it unlocked and pushed open the door. Drew was curled up on the floor in her underwear. Blood soaked towels were nearby. Piper stepped inside and saw Drew’s bloody shirt in the sink and the rest of her clothes near the towels.

Piper knelt in front of her and gently shook her shoulder, “Drew, wake up.”

The Asian didn’t stir.

Piper grabbed the girl's robe, put it on her and tied it closed. She looked out the door. A few of her siblings had gathered.

“We can carry her.” Her twin fourteen-year-old brothers said.

Piper nodded and stood up stepping back near the sink. The boys walked in and picked her up standing on either side of her. Piper noticed the cut on Drews leg. It was bleeding slightly. She followed her brothers out.

Lacy and Mitchell pulled back the blanket on Drew’s bed and the twins laid her on it. The white sheet began to turn pink. “Do any of you still have a stapler?”

“Yeah, I have mine, Piper.” Mitchell jogged to his bunk and grabbed it.

Piper and Lacy rolled Drew on her side revealing the gash. It was at least a few inches long. Piper pinched the skin together and Mitchell stapled it hoping his older sister wouldn’t wake up and yell at him.

A sister handed over what little bandages she had left and another fetched the salve from the bathroom. Piper bound Drew’s thigh and rolled her on her back.

“Is all the blood in the bathroom hers?” a brother asked.

“No,” Piper said, “I would say much of it isn’t. If you want to go to bed you may. We’ll clean up tomorrow.”

As siblings returned to their bunks Piper, Lacy and Mitchell continued to patch up Drew. There wasn’t much to do. Drew had removed all the metal from her legs except for a few pieces. When they were done Piper left a bottle of draught for her with a note saying she didn’t need to worry about how much she drank since it wasn’t ambrosia.

Drew woke up to the sound of the cabin’s CD player playing a cabin favorite, Carly Rae Jepsen. She sat up slowly, her limbs feeling heavy. A few of her siblings were scrubbing the floor and she could see the light on in the bathroom.

“What’s going on?”

“You’re awake. You missed breakfast.”

“We’re just cleaning up the cabin.”

“I didn’t realize it was dirty.”

“You kinda left bloody footprints on the way to the bathroom last night. And some of us brought in mud. There’s the Roman’s water plus draught mixture on your nightstand. Piper said it doesn’t have the same deadly effects as ambrosia, so you can drink as much as you want.”

Drew pulled off her blanket and saw bandages wrapped around her thigh, both her knees and calves. Her eyes moved to her arms and found there was a bandage around one of them. “How-”

“You fell asleep in the bathroom. We brought you to bed and patched you up. Will was in here after breakfast to change your bandages.” Lacy explained.

Drew reached for the water bottle and twisted off the cap. She brought it to her lips. It tasted like regular water, but she could feel the soreness in her legs lessen. She put the bottle aside and carefully stood up. Her muscles felt weak, but she wasn’t shaking. Next she tried taking a few steps. They were slow, but she didn’t fall. Now all she had to do was get dressed.

By the time Drew got dressed (which would have gone faster if she had accepted her siblings help) it was time for lunch. She followed her siblings to the Mess Hall carrying the water bottle she had been taking sips from since she woke up.

Lunch went as it usually did even with all the guests. Camp Jupiter separated by cabin willing to follow Camp Half-Blood’s rules about meals. When most were finished eating, Praetors Reyna and the only other one (Drew didn’t know much about him let alone his name) got up to speak to both camps. Drew noticed Reyna had the forearm where her tattoo was, wrapped. “Tomorrow morning,” Reyna began, “We Romans must return home. We appreciate your hospitality, especially since we almost killed you-”

“You almost got killed,” Annabeth corrected.

Reyna rolled her eyes. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly and she said, “Whatever, Chase.”

Campers burst into a collective “Ooooohh!” followed by laughter and playful shoving.

“Anyways,” the other Praetor said, “Reyna and I agree this marks a new era of friendship between the camps.”

Drew listened to the Praetors speak and the playful banter of others. Drew like to take it as a sign of their friendship sticking and their bond growing stronger. After all, Drew had learned the bonds between friends were often stronger and longer lasting than the bonds created from romantic love and hate, and she couldn’t wait to see what they could do with it.

#My writing #Drew Tanaka #reyna avila ramirez arellano #tw blood #will solace #Heroes of Olympus #percy jackson

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illumiiiz · 4 years ago

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I'm glad you're feeling good! And aw omg I'd love to see those pretty pictures of the snow. It must be nice, have you made snowmen and stuff??

Also 👉👈 when's your birthday, Eve-chan?

Here's a pjo meme, because I was reading the books today (they're honestly my comfort books, I love them), and it just reminded me how much I adore those characters jshdjsks. My favourite characters are Nico, and Will, who's yours? Their last names are just so precious too. Di Angelo and Solace?? Yes please >.<

Thank you for those kind words, Eve, they cheered me up and great deal, and I'm feeling much more hopeful. I sincerely thank you for the comfort you've provided me with,

I hope you are still connected with that friend of yours tho? :) Or did you reconnect anytime recently?

You're right, we'll just have to make the most of the time right now :))

Love you loads, Eve!! Thank you, once again.

—Ari

I hope we get more snow again soon, so I can get some to show you!! (it got warmish and rainy, and most of it melted now, and the rest is kinda just yucky slush 😔😔) Yes sometimes if we get a lot! :D And when I was little my dad would always make snowforts for me and my siblings, too!! I actually haven’t made a snowman in quite a while.. I'll have to get out and make one next time I can ^^ Snow angels are my favorite though- if you can find a huge drift it’s even better, bc you can just close your eyes and fall backwards into it and you just kinda go *pouf* and sink into it a bit- it’s so so fun!! 😄☺ I hope you can experience snow for yourself sometime, I really love it and I think you would too 🥺💕

Ooh um, my birthday is in May, May 11 👉👈 (I’ve always wished I had a winter birthday instead of a spring/summer one, but I guess sometimes it rains on my birthday and I loveee rain so that’s always nice^^) When’s yours, Ari-san?

OMG I LOVE THE PJO BOOKS!!! 😭😭💕💖💞 Same for me, they're a HUGE comfort series for me, and gosh I'm too inactive in that fandom.. 😔 I should reread them again to get back into it again. But!! Gosh, Nico and Will are definitely two of my favorites too, though it’s hard to pick bc i love them all so much fkdhsj- Leo is high on the list too, he’s such a dork, and of course Annabeth’s always been a favorite. And Frank too is so cute omw 🥺🥺💗 And lowkey Juniper too, Grover’s girlfriend; idk I've just always really liked her for some reason. BUT THAT MEME OH MY GOODNESS 😂😂 Percy darling why are you like this skngks I-

Aww you’re welcome!! 🥺🥺 I’m so glad I could comfort you a little 💗 I hope you continue being hopeful and enjoy the experience as much as you can! 🥺 And yep we’re still keeping in touch, my friend and I! Luckily he didn’t end up having to go to another, closer church like we thought he might, so we still see each other every week and he’s got a phone now so we text each other a lot too!! ^^ (I’m glad I got to see him again today too, even tho I just saw him yesterday briefly)

You and your friend should plan to do something special together before she moves, maybe? Maybe you two could have a sleepover or something like that! But yes just make the most of the time, and have lots of fun and make happy memories :))

You’re welcome honey, anytime 🥺💖 Sending lots of love right back atchu, mwa!

- Eve

P.S. I’m so sorry for the super late reply to this 😭😭 I got busy and forgot to post it ksgjkd sorry babes 😔

#eve's asks #Ari 🖋#answered

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officiallynuts · 5 years ago

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Omg can we get a Solangelo get-together next? Pleeeaase?

A/N: Of course! And I’m so sorry this took so long, my mind couldn’t make up how it wanted to write this. But I hope this pleases you nonnie!

(Note: I do not own the characters. All credit goes to Rick Riordian.)

Words: 2,047

“Di Angelo!” An angry voice called out through the crowd, immediately causing Nico to freeze his hand in mid-high-five with Jason Grace. They had just won a game of Capture the Flag, thanks to Nico’s shadow skills.

“I am going to kill you if you did what I think you did!” The voice hollered out again, getting closer to the two cousins.

“Uh-Oh,” Jason sang out, lowering his hand with a small snicker. “Someone’s in trouble.”

“Shut up, Jason,” Nico scolded before turning his body around. When he turned, he was met with an angry face of a son of Apollo. “What now, Solace? My three days in the infirmary are over, you can stop acting to care.” He sighed.

“Acting to- No. You know what? Oh, my gods.” Nico watched the head of the Apollo cabin, Will, groan loudly before leveling him with a glare.

“What?” Nico scoffed, crossing his arms, watching Will shake his head quickly.

“You spent three days in my infirmary, knocked out completely! The whole time! Do you seriously think that the moment you are out, you can jump into the first game and use your unworldly powers the second you got the chance?! It’s only been three weeks, you can’t just jump right into things!” Will started to rant, his blonde hair and skin seemed to glow the angrier he got.

“Well, yeah,” Nico started, pausing for an effect. Will had paused to glare at him then. “Because they are my powers. What do you care? It’s not like we’re friends or anything.” Who would willingly be friends with dark and gloom Nico Di Angelo?

“Not.. friends.” The glow started to deem then as Will’s expression became unreadable. “Right. Of course not. It’s not like I spent three whole days making sure you were still alive, not fading away, even had Clovis come by to make sure you weren’t having nightmares! I spent three whole days with you, Death boy. It was my only real excuse to be near you since you refused to stop by for a visit before then like I told you I wanted! I had to be kicked out by my siblings to eat, and I still came right back to you when I was done! But clearly, I mean nothing to you. My feelings for you mean nothing. I get it now. Fine. Next time, I’ll just let you fade away from me.” His rant ended with a mutter as he turned and walked away. The other campers quickly clearing out of the way as everyone went quiet.

“What..” Nico whispered, pausing for a moment, “what just happened?”

“You, Neeks, just messed up.” Jason patted his shoulder before pulling the son of Hades away from the staring campers.

“Jason..,” Nico whispered as he let the boy pull him away from the crowd. “I’m so confused. Please explain what that was all about.”

“That was Will Solace exploding, obviously,” Jason started, taking Nico to the Hades Cabin. He knew no one would bother them there. “Man, Neeks. You are so thick sometimes, truly. Maybe worse than Percy.”

“I feel like I should be offended,” Nico frowned, sitting on his bed.

“The first time I met Will,” Jason started, ignoring Nico’s comment. Though he did send him a look of agreement. “He asked if I knew you. Then asked what you were like. He told me about how you helped Percy and the other campers in the wars. How he desperately wanted to go up to you, be your friend, because you looked so lonely and sad when you were at camp. Then he’d go in a worried frenzy whenever you left, wanting to know if you were okay. He told me he always wanted to talk to you, see if you were okay. But he was scared.”

“Right.” Nico huffed quickly in denial, turning his head away. “Scared of the big bad Son of Hades, I suppose? Everyone is.”

“No!” Jason grabbed the nearest pillow, throwing it at him. “You idiot. Scared that you wouldn’t like him! Come on, son of Apollo, polar opposite? He was afraid that he would be too much for you. He likes you, Nico. And it’s about time someone notices how amazing you are. Be nice to him.”

“He.. likes me?” Nico started slowly, frowning to himself. “Why..?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Jason shot back gently as he nodded to the doorway. “He’s probably sulking in the infirmary right now. Go, Nico.”

“But.. what if you’re wrong?” Nico whispered, wanting nothing more than to sink himself into a tight ball in a corner.

“I’m not.” Jason sent him a gentle smile and rested his hand on his shoulder. “Talk to him, Nico. And for the love of gods, give him a chance. We all see you looking at him when you tried to avoid him. A part of you likes him, don’t deny it.”

Nico let out a sigh as he slowly stood up, not wanting to say it out loud but the scared look in his eyes proved his feelings anyways. “The infirmary, you said?”

“If not there, then the Apollo cabin. Or sitting by the lake.” Jason nodded, smiling a bit to himself as he watched his cousin leave his cabin slowly. “Go get him, tiger!” He couldn’t help but yell after the boy, laughing when Nico turned to glare at him.

True to his words, Will Solace was in the infirmary. Sitting at the back table, he was slouched over in his seat while cutting the gauzes. Cutting them all exactly fourteen inches, if the ruler nearby proved anything. But what got to Nico was the red and puffiness of his eyes.

“You’re a couple of inches short.” Nico watched as Will practically shot up, groaning as his knee hit the table.

“What?” Will hissed as he rubbed his knee, turning his head to avoid looking at him.

“The gauze. I know it’s supposed to be fourteen inches, but you’re cutting them at ten.” Nico infirmed, watching as Will finally turned to look at him, surprised. He rolled his eyes. “What? I pay attention.”

“Do you?” Will slowly raised an eyebrow, frowning at him. “You didn’t pay attention to me.”

“No,” Nico admitted, slowly walked over to sit at the table. “You know, the Goddess of Misery cried the moment she met me. Said I was perfect.”

“What?” Will sat up at that, frowning still. “Why?” His own thoughts left him almost immediately, he was curious now. And confused about where the conversation was going.

“Because I couldn’t be more miserable. I have so much pain and anger inside me, Will. Lost my mother and sister, was stuck in the Lotus hotel for seventy years, and I’m still trying to learn the twenty-first century. Been through hell and back- literately. And I had to hide who I was when I was younger, before the hotel.”

Will finally let out a wince at the last sentence. “Catholic Italy in that time period must have been terrifying.”

“I hear the times have gotten better,” Nico started, nodding a bit in agreement. “But you have to understand why I just.. don’t get it. Why? I’m full of pain, even more than what I just listed. Why would you, the sunniest person I’ve met, want to associate themselves with me?”

“Because you’re still here,” Will answered easily after a moment. This was it. Admit your feelings with a brave face, and accept the rejection. “You have been through so much more than all of us demigods combined, and you’re still here. You still fought for the good, when you had every right to turn your back on everything. Saved the world on multiple occasions and never asked for a thank you, and you deserve it the most. But more importantly, you saved yourself. You’re a hero, Nico.”

Will stopped his little speech to reach out slowly and rest his hand on top of Nico’s. He knew Nico had a ‘no touching’ rule and figured that Nico would snatch his hand away. But miraculously, he didn’t.

“In fact; you’re my hero.” Will waited till Nico looked at him when he said that, then smiled at him. “Yeah, that’s right Death boy, I’m your biggest fan. I’ve seen you grow into this great Hero, burdened with pain, yes, but your eyes? They’re still warm. I think you want that warmth, Nico. And I want to bring it out.”

“I..” Nico started in a whisper. “I have noticed, you know.” He went a different route, trying the right words to say. “When I agreed to the three days in the infirmary, I got these… butterfly-like feelings in my stomach. I still do, when I think of you. Why do you think I avoided you after the three days?”

“So, you..” Will started to smile widely, the glow coming back to him. Even his freckles shined. “You like me?”

“Gods know why, you smile too much,” Nico grumbled, slouching in his seat. But he smiled a bit to himself when Will simply laughed.

“One of us has to be smiling to even everything out,” Will joked lightly, letting his fingers slowly curl around Nico’s hand to hold it. He smiled more when Nico let him.

“I don’t want to ruin you,” Nico admitted with a sigh. “Will, you are just so… happy. And good. More good than I ever will be. I don’t want to ruin that with my problems. And I have I lot. I don’t want to dim your glow.”

“Nico, shut up already,” Will rolled his eyes lightly, laughing when Nico sent him a shocked look. “I get to decide who I want to like, okay? And I chose you. So take it or leave it, Di Angelo. Say yes and you’re stuck with me.”

“Oh miei dei (oh my gods),” Nico sighed in his native tongue, shaking his head when Will seemed to just shine and smile more. “Fine, Solace. Yes.”

“Really?” Will grinned, sitting straighter as he turned to face him. “Best get ready then, Death boy. You are going to be blinded by me soon!” He joked happily, watching him. Now that they came to an agreement, he didn’t know what to do. Saying yes was one thing, but was Nico ready for everything else? Will wanted to kiss him so badly now, but he was scared to.

“I think I’ll live.” Nico murmured as he stood up from his seat slowly. Using their still joined hands, he pulled Will up with him. And almost immediately had to sulk. Will was taller than him; Nico hated being short.

“Yeah?” Will grinned as he stood next to him, chuckling as he looked at him sulk. He couldn’t stop smiling now, even more so when Nico took a cautious step closer to him.

“Yeah,” Nico whispered as he slowly let go of Will’s hand. Will wanted to whine at the loss, but his mind became preoccupied with something else. By Nico resting his hands on his neck and pulling him down.

Nico huffed as he still had to lean up on his toes, pulling Will down more as he finally pressed his lips to his. Granted Nico had no idea what he was doing, it was his first kiss. So he kept it soft, and slow, hoping that Will would respond to take the lead.

Which Will did after letting out a noise of surprise. But once his mind caught up, he finally moved his lips to kiss back, wrapping his arms around Nico to pull him in. He also kept everything soft and slow, leading the way in gentle movements.

To reassure Nico and himself that it was real, their feelings were real. And Will was going to be there for him no matter where Nico’s troubled mind took him. He was going to guide him back to the light he lost. Show him that love isn’t pain.

Nico never felt so cared for at that moment, in the gentle touch of Will’s arms around him, the soft, happy, sighs Will gave against his lips. Nico then let a single tear slip down. The wall around his heart was falling at that moment, and Will was there to catch him.

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buoyantsaturn · 5 years ago

Text

I’m in Hell (8/?)

summary: Halloween is the ONLY thing that happens in this chapter

word count: 5,571 (104,865 total) ((finally broke 100k!!!))

read on ao3

It was Reyna’s last day in New York, though rather than going out and doing as many touristy things as possible, Nico and Reyna stayed back at the Solace household for the day. She had all of her belongings packed up just after lunch, which left her and Nico sprawled out on the couch for the next few hours until she had to leave to catch her flight.

“Is this what you do all day?” Reyna asked.

“Not usually,” Nico replied, and then tipped his head back in thought. “Well, I don’t know what I usually do anymore, not since I graduated and now that Bi’s back in school. And Will’s back to work. God, I’m going to be so bored when you leave.”

A moment passed between them until Reyna said, “Do you think you would want to have another kid?”

Nico frowned. “What? No, why?”

She shrugged. “Another kid would definitely keep you busy. Have you talked to Will about it?”

“About what, being bored? He’s got plenty to worry about besides me being bored.”

Reyna rolled her eyes. “No, you idiot, about having another kid. Does he know you don’t want another one?”

Nico sat up a little straighter. “No, we haven’t talked about it. Do you think he wants another kid?”

“You’ll have to ask him.”

“What do I do if he does want another kid?” Nico continued, already starting to spiral. “What if that’s some kind of a dealbreaker for him?”

Reyna sighed. “He would have told you already if it was that big of a deal. Just talk to him when he gets home - he loves you, and he’s going to support your choices. You have got to stop spiraling so fast, you know? Especially when everything can be solved with a quick conversation.”

Nico huffed. “I know, I just-- I don’t want to ruin this, you know? This is the best relationship I’ve ever been in, and I want to hold on to him for as long as I can.”

Shortly after Will and Bianca returned home from work and school respectively, Reyna packed her bags into her rental car and drove herself back to the airport. Bianca was sent to bed sometime after dinner, and as soon as Will had finished tucking her in, he grabbed his fiance by the hand and dragged Nico into their bedroom.

“What are you doing?” Nico asked with a laugh as he watched Will flop back onto the bed.

“Trying to cuddle with my fiance,” Will told him, pouting and reaching his hands out for Nico. “Babe, come on!”

Nico snorted and grabbed Will’s hand, only to get pulled off his feet and onto the bed. Will rolled himself halfway on top of Nico and buried his face in Nico’s neck, sighing contentedly and wrapping his arms around him as best he could in that position.

“I feel like I haven’t had any alone time with you in so long,” Will complained. “I’ve missed this.

“It’s been a week, maybe,” Nico pointed out, running a hand through Will’s hair.

“Feels longer,” Will muttered. “Did you have a nice time with Reyna before she left?”

Nico hummed noncommittally.

Will lifted his head and looked at Nico with a furrowed brow. “Did something happen?”

“No, we just sort of talked about...stuff.”

“Are you being intentionally vague because you think it’ll get me to drop this?” Will asked. “Because you should know by now that that won’t work.”

Nico sighed. He patted Will’s shoulder and shifted slightly until Will moved off of him enough that he could sit up and hug his knees to his chest. “I don’t think I ever told you that I never wanted kids.” He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes dropping to the sheets between them. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Bianca more than I ever thought it would be possible for me to love a kid, but the thought of having my own kid--” He shook his head. “I don’t know how you did it. Even with your help, I just… I don’t think I could.”

“Did you think I wanted another kid?” Will asked gently. Nico shrugged, and so Will sat up to wrap an arm around Nico’s shoulders. “I don’t. I never really wanted kids either, to be honest. Bi ended up as more of a...pleasant surprise, you could say.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she’s technically my sister, you know?” Will reminded him. “I didn’t even know she existed until my dad showed up at my mom’s house one day when I was in med school, and he asked me to babysit for a few hours. I should’ve realized he wasn’t coming back, considering I don’t even think he gave me an excuse for why he couldn’t take Bi with him wherever he was going. I took Bi to the police station to get somebody to find my dad so he could take her back, but the police officer said she would’ve ended up in foster care until they found him. Honestly, I didn’t want anything to do with her, but I wasn’t going to force her into foster care either, and then soon enough...she just felt like she was mine, you know?”

Nico finally looked up at his fiance. “Apollo didn’t fight back when you adopted her?”

“He never even showed up to court,” Will replied, shaking his head. “I think Bi was probably a year and a half, maybe two years old at that point, and the judge decided that since I’d been taking care of her for so long already, and since Apollo couldn’t even bother to show up, that all of her parental rights should be transferred to me.” He sighed, leaning against Nico heavily and pressing a kiss to the side of his head. “I guess everything happens for a reason, right? If I didn’t have Bianca, then I never would have met you.”

“I’m sure we would have found each other,” Nico said softly, leaning back against Will just as much. “True love always finds a way, right?” Even as he said it, Nico couldn’t keep a straight face at the cheesiness of his words.

Will snorted unattractively in Nico’s ear. “That was so dumb.”

Nico pouted up at him. “I thought you loved me.”

“Of course I do, but that doesn’t change the fact that you just said a very silly thing.”

Nico turned himself to face Will fully, though Will’s arm around him didn’t allow Nico to go very far, which left Nico kneeling at Will’s side. “Oh, so now I’m dumb and silly?”

Will tugged him forward until Nico fell against his chest. “I love you so much. It’s dumb how much I love you. My love for you makes me silly.”

Nico rolled his eyes and tried to shove himself away from Will. “Oh, god, okay! I get it, now get off of me--”

“Get on top of you?” Will grinned at Nico’s loud complaints, and tipped them to the side until Will was laying on top of his fiance once more.

“No, you’re crushing me!” Nico moaned, tossing his head from side to side as Will tried to pepper his face and neck with kisses.

When Nico finally settled down, Will set his forehead against Nico’s and smiled down at him. “I think I’m going to change my name.”

“Huh?”

“When we get married,” Will clarified, “I want to change my name. I just haven’t decided which I like better: Solace-di Angelo or di Angelo-Solace.”

Nico’s breath caught in his throat. His mouth went dry and he felt a sting behind his eyes. He croaked out, “I guess we’ll each have to pick one, then.”

Will beamed, and pressed his lips to Nico’s once more.

Will didn’t remember the last time he heard from his sister Kayla, but, to be fair, he didn’t remember what day of the week it was half of the time, either. He got a text from her one day in October - really? Was it October already? That couldn’t be right, could it? - which made Will realize that he really should be making more of an effort to get into contact with his siblings.

From: Kayla; hey, bro! long time no see. I’m throwing a halloween party next weekend and you should totally come! costumes aren’t mandatory but I’ll have to disown you if you show up in normal people clothes.

To: Kayla; Sounds great! Mind if I bring a date?

From: Kayla; well now you HAVE TO!

Will tried to bring it up to Nico as soon as he got home, after spending the rest of the day trying to think up any decent Halloween costume he could craft for himself in the next week - he was not a store-bought costume kind of man.

He entered the kitchen where Nico and Bianca were sitting at the table while Bianca did her homework, and he walked up behind them to press a kiss to the top of Bianca’s head.

Nico tipped his head back to accept his own kiss on the lips. “Hey, Sunshine.”

“Hey, did you two know that Halloween is only two weeks away?” Will asked.

Will took Nico’s wide-eyed stare as a no.

“Yep!” Bianca replied.

Will and Nico exchanged a look. “Uh, Bi, do you know what you want to dress up as?” Will asked.

“I wanna be a pikachu,” she replied without looking up from her homework.

Will frowned. He had no idea that Bianca even knew what a pikachu was. “Like, the pokemon?”

“Yeah!”

Nico smiled, glancing between the two of them. “We’ve been watching Pokemon before dinner most days.”

“That show’s still on?”

“Please,” Nico scoffed, “we’ve been watching it from the beginning.”

Will smiled fondly at his fiance. Of course Nico would get defensive over something like that. “Alright, Bi, we’ll go out sometime soon to get your costume, because I’ll need to get one anyway.”

“What do you need a costume for?” Nico asked.

“Halloween. What else? You’re going to need one, too, by the way. I hope you don’t think you can get away with a skeleton t-shirt and devil horns two years in a row.”

Nico narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, alright, I’ve got something in mind.”

“Just going to keep it a secret?”

Nico winked up at him before Bianca drew his attention to her homework.

Once her homework was finished, Bianca went to the living room to watch another episode of Pokemon while Nico started making dinner - Will offered his help a few times, though Nico shut him down each time. Out of love, of course.

Since he couldn’t help, Will leaned against the counter, resting on his elbows as he watched Nico work.

“So…” Will started, drawing out the word. “Gonna tell me what you’re dressing up as?”

“Depends. Are you going to tell me why I need a costume in the first place?”

Will tapped his fingers on the counter. “Well, uh, you know how I’ve met like, all of your friends and family? How do you feel about meeting my siblings at Kayla’s Halloween party next weekend?”

“The same siblings that threw that Christmas party last year?” Nico asked innocently, though he snorted when he looked over his shoulder to see the look of realization on Will’s face. “Forgot about that, didn’t you?”

“Not...entirely,” Will replied, then groaned, dropping his head. “Nico, do you think Austin and Kayla remember me making an ass out of myself last year? I made such a horrible first impression - I can’t let something like that happen again!”

“Not to mention how you came back here and hit on me while I was emotionally vulnerable,” Nico reminded him.

“Yes, thank you for that reminder.” Will lowering his head onto the counter. “Maybe I can get away with it if I just don’t drink. That’ll work, right?”

“Depends on how pushy Kayla is, I guess,” Nico replied with a shrug. “If anything you should probably be more worried about finding a costume than getting drunk.”

Will sighed, and straightened back upright. “Yeah. What are you thinking about doing? Maybe we can do some kind of couple’s costume or something.”

“Oh, no, no. I’ve already got mine, and it’s a surprise. You’ll have to come up with something on your own.”

Will pouted. “Don’t you want to do a couple’s costume with me?”

Nico glanced at him over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like the couple’s costume type?”

“No,” Will huffed. “Alright. I’m done a little early tomorrow, so I can pick Bi up from school, and I’ll take her costume shopping. Hopefully I can find something for myself while we’re out.”

It took Will about an hour to put on his Frankenstein monster makeup. It probably would’ve been easier to just ask for Nico’s help, but if Nico was keeping his costume a secret, then so would Will. He probably didn’t need to be quite so detailed with his stitches and skin discoloration, but he was a doctor, what else would he do?

When Will finally left the bathroom, he called out, “Hey, babe, are you gonna be ready to go soon?”

Their bedroom door swung open, and Nico stepped out, wearing familiar blue scrubs and a long white coat. Will’s heart leapt into his throat as he felt himself falling in love with his fiance all over again at the sight of Nico in Will’s scrubs.

Will took a hesitant step forward, as though his movement might break whatever spell had made Nico look so unreasonably perfect, then rushed forward to drag Nico back into their bedroom and press him against the closed door.

“I’ll take that to mean you like my costume,” Nico said as Will raked his eyes up and down Nico’s form again and again.

“You look too good,” Will told him. “I can’t let the world see you like this. You’re too good looking for any eyes that aren’t mine.”

Nico laughed breathily. “Is it better or worse that I had to roll up the cuffs on the pants, like, three times?”

Will dropped his forehead to rest against Nico’s as he failed to contain his own laughter. “Worse! That’s adorable!”

“Alright, what about this?” Nico reached for the pocket of his - Will’s - lab coat, and unclipped the name badge to show Will.

Will recognized it as his own ID badge, though Nico had taped a piece of paper over it so that it looked identical to the real badge aside from the picture and name - Nico’s picture replaced Will’s, and the name beside the photo read Nico Solace.

Will’s eyes widened at the sight and his heart started to pound in his chest. Was he sure he wasn’t dreaming?

“Nico Solace,” he whispered, his voice shaking, and he felt tears pricking at the backs of his eyes as he felt himself flooding with emotion. Will wrapped his arms around Nico’s waist and hid his face in his shoulder before the tears could start to fall. “You’re going to be a Solace.”

Nico rubbed his hands soothingly up and down Will’s back. “Hey, you’d better not be crying on me, di Angelo,” he teased. “You’re going to smudge your makeup.”

Will tugged Nico toward the bed, sitting on the edge of the mattress and pulling Nico down beside him. Nico lifted Will’s head and held his face in his hands.

“Are you going to cry like this at the wedding?” Nico asked gently.

“Probably! Like you’re not going to cry when we’re getting married?” Will argued, and then a moment later, realization hit. “Oh my god, we’re getting married in, like, two months.”

Nico tipped his head to the side. “More like one month, at this point. A month and a half, maybe.”

Will darted forward for a kiss. “I love you so much.” He kissed him again and again, and pressed him back onto the bed, kissing all over his face and down his neck as he hands traveled underneath Nico’s - Will’s - scrub shirt.

“Hey, you’re gonna rub all your makeup off on me!” Nico laughed.

He expected to touch skin underneath Nico’s shirt, though all he noticed was more fabric, so Will pushed himself back and pulled Nico’s shirt up to see that Nico had pulled the waistband of the scrub pants up nearly to his ribs.

Will started laughing so hard that he couldn’t speak, just dropping himself onto Nico’s stomach.

Nico shoved him away, rolling him onto his back on the bed beside him. “Shut up, it’s not my fault you’re a tree!”

They dropped Bianca off with Hazel and Frank on their way to Kayla’s, who threw the door to her apartment open only seconds after they knocked.

“Will, you’re here!” she exclaimed, and threw her arms around her brother. Then she pulled back and turned to Nico, throwing her arms up but holding back from hugging him. “And you must be his date!”

“Fiance. Nico, nice to meet you,” Nico replied.

“Fiance?” Kayla repeated, then grabbed Nico’s hand and dragged him into the apartment, up to the island that appeared to be the bar for the night. “Austin! Will brought his fiance!”

A man popped up from behind the island - Will’s brother Austin, Nico presumed - and said, “Oh! You must be Nico, right?”

Will followed behind them and took Nico’s free hand. “Have I told you about Nico?”

“Yeah, at the Christmas party, remember?” Austin answered. “You wouldn’t shut up about him.”

Will looked away in an attempt to hide his blush, but Nico saw right through him. He squeezed his hand and grinned. “You had such a crush on me.”

“Yeah, well, it paid off, didn’t it?” Will muttered.

“We should do celebratory shots!” Kayla exclaimed, already pouring out four shots. She handed one to Will, slid one over to Austin, and then held one out for Nico, though he held up his hands and shook his head.

“Oh, no thanks, I have to drive home later,” he said calmly.

Kayla and Austin downed their shots, though Will hesitated, shooting a look at Nico.

“Go on, one shot isn’t going to kill you,” Nico told him, and Will took another second or two before he drank his own shot.

Nico didn’t make it further than the kitchen for a while, though it was probably for the best that he could keep an eye on how much Will was drinking - he’d counted four shots in total, plus most of two mixed drinks that Austin made for him. Austin was a pretty good person to stand around and chat with, too.

Eventually, Nico ventured into the rest of the apartment in search of Will, and found himself pushed down onto a couch with his fiance dropping into his lap.

“God, you’re heavy,” Nico groaned, though he wrapped his arms around Will’s waist rather than pushing him away.

“Babe,” Will said, his face pink and warm from the alcohol, “Nico, babe, we have to invite everybody here to the wedding!”

Nico cocked an eyebrow. “Did you already invite everyone?”

Will pouted. “No, I didn’t! Of course not! I had to ask you first, but we have to, okay?”

“We only brought two invites, you know that,” Nico reminded him. “Do you really want to invite some people you just met over your own brother and sister?”

Will turned himself sideways in Nico’s lap and held himself directly in front of him, nose-to-nose. “Just think about it.”

Nico snorted. “Okay, sure.”

Will hummed and tipped forward, leaning heavier against Nico. “You look so pretty right now. And all the time, but especially right now.”

“You’re just saying that because you think I look hot in your clothes,” Nico replied.

“That’s true, too.” Will pressed his lips to Nico’s sweetly, though as his kisses trailed down toward Nico’s neck, they grew progressively sloppier.

Nico pushed him back before Will could go too much further, and said, “Do you need to go home?”

Will pressed himself closer once again to whisper into Nico’s ear. “Or we could just find a dark corner and see what happens.”

“Nope,” Nico said, loud and clear, and shoved Will off of his lap. He stood before Will could return to his seat, and said to him, “Start saying your goodbyes. I’m going to get Austin and Kayla’s invites from the car.”

Will pouted as Nico walked away, fully leaving the apartment and running down to the car for the invites. They fit perfectly in the deep pockets of the lab coat Nico was wearing - why hadn’t he thought to just stuff them in there hours ago?

When he made his way back into the apartment, he found Austin before he found either Will or Kayla. “Hey,” Nico said when he walked up to him, “have you seen Will?”

Austin nodded. “Yeah, he was just over here. He said something about inviting people to your wedding, and, I mean, I doubt you guys have my address, but--”

“Yeah, I have an invite for you,” Nico cut in, fishing the two envelopes out of his pocket. “Actually, could you take Kayla’s, too? I really have to find Will.”

Austin smiled the same sunshiney smile as Will always did - it was the first thing that really convinced Nico that Austin and Will were brothers. He took the invitations with a thank you, and promised that Kayla would get her invitation.

Nico wandered further into the apartment where he finally found both Will and Kayla, standing in the hallway outside the bathroom, hugging like they would never see each other again. When Will finally noticed Nico, he practically shoved his sister away, and he threw his arms around Nico instead.

“Nico! Nico, babe, Nico, Kayla has this friend who’s an ordained minister, and he’s here! RIght now!” Will exclaimed. “He could marry us right now! Let’s do it as, like, a practice wedding!” Will was practically bouncing in place, so Nico set his hands on Will’s shoulders to hold him still.

“You’re the one that wanted to get married in a church, remember?” Nico reminded him. “And it won’t be a practice wedding if the guy’s ordained. That’s just a wedding.”

Will pouted again, and Nico was starting to think that he looked like a kicked puppy when he did that. “Okay. Kayla can come to the real wedding still, right?”

“Yeah, I just gave her invite to Austin.”

“But if Austin has Kayla’s invite, then who has Austin’s invite?”

“Austin does. He has both of them.”

“Why does he get two invites?”

Nico sighed, dropping his head against Will’s chest. “Babe, please. Have you said goodbye to everyone yet?”

“Everyone but Austin,” he answered.

“Go say goodbye, then,” he said, and then turned around to talk to Kayla once Will had walked away. “Thanks for having us, Kayla, I--”

She threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him over. Yeah, she was definitely Will’s sister. “Of course! We have to hang out more, okay? I’m gonna have another Christmas party this year, and you and Will have to come, okay?”

“We’ll try to make it,” Nico told her, patting her back awkwardly until she released him. “And hopefully you can come to our wedding in a couple of months.”

“Hell yeah, I’ll be there! I’ll see you then! Drive safe!” Kayla bounced into the living room as she waved back at Nico. He really was curious to see what she was like sober.

He turned back toward the kitchen, and found Will giving Austin the same bear hug treatment that he’d given to Kayla.

“You’re my favorite brother, you know?” Nico heard Will saying as he approached the two.

“I think I’m your only brother,” Austin replied, laughing.

“We need to hang out more than once a year. I’ll see you again this year, right?”

“I hope so, man.”

“Our wedding is in December,” Nico cut in, drawing both of their attention and causing them to break the hug. “So, as long as you come to that, you’ll see each other again before the end of the year.”

Will draped an arm around Nico’s shoulders and pulled him close enough to press a kiss to the side of his head. “You’re so smart, babe.”

Nico smiled up at him. “Go find your coat, Sunshine.”

As Will stepped away, Nico turned to Austin. “Could you, uh, do me a favor and not mention tonight to Will the next time you see him? He was so worried about making a fool of himself in front of you again, and I don’t want him to get bummed out the next time we see you.”

“What?” Austin asked, his head tilting in confusion. “My cool older brother the doctor was worried about what I think of him? Dude, tell him that he can act like as much of a fool as he wants, and I’ll always be impressed by him.”

Will started getting handsy again as soon as they were alone again, and kept trying to touch Nico while he was driving. After Will’s hand found its way to Nico’s lap for the third time, Nico grabbed his hand and held it tight in his own, telling him, “You either hold my hand, or you keep your hands to yourself while I’m driving, got it?”

“Sorry, Darlin’,” Will replied, and pressed a kiss to Nico’s knuckles. Then another. And another. He untangled their fingers and pressed a kiss to Nico’s open palm, then a few more down his wrist before moving back up. He hummed against Nico’s hand for a moment before he stuck out his tongue and licked the length of Nico’s middle finger.

He ripped his hand away. “Will, I swear, if you don’t stop, then I’m going to make you sit in the backseat for the rest of the drive.”

“Sorry,” Will said again, and folded his hands on his lap, this time keeping them there until they arrived at home.

As soon as they were out of the car, Will was on Nico once again, pressing himself against Nico’s back and kissing up and down his neck as Nico tried to unlock the front door. Once they had made it inside, Will spun him around and pulled Nico in for a kiss, though Nico recoiled at the taste of alcohol on Will’s tongue.

Will had that kicked puppy look one his face once again when Nico pushed him back. “What’s wrong?” Will asked.

“You taste like alcohol,” Nico answered. “You know how I am about alcohol.”

Will’s shoulders slumped. “You still love me, though, right?”

“Of course I do,” Nico assured him, and then got an idea. “Maybe if you drink a bunch of water, then the alcohol taste will go away, and I’ll kiss you again.”

“Okay!” In his haste to get to the sink, Will nearly knocked Nico over when he rushed past him. He pulled a glass from the cabinet and held it under the faucet, chugging two full glasses before he turned back to Nico. “Can I kiss you now?”

Nico tapped a finger to his lips in thought. “Let’s find out.”

Will moved toward him again, wrapping an arm around Nico’s waist while he leaned in for a kiss. The taste of alcohol was diluted, but it was still there, and Nico pulled back once again. Will frowned. “Still there?”

Nico nodded. “Maybe it’ll help if you brush your teeth.”

“Good idea,” Will replied, and took off down the hallway, tripping over something in the dark before he managed to find his way into the bathroom. Nico followed after him, much slower than Will had gone, and found Will already brushing furiously at his tongue.

Nico grabbed his own toothbrush and bumped Will aside with his hip before he started brushing his own teeth. Approximately two minutes later, after Will had gargled with mouthwash, he dragged Nico out of the bathroom and across the hall to their bedroom. When he kissed him again, all Nico tasted was mint, but he still pushed Will back gently.

“Noooo,” Will groaned, wrapping his arms around Nico and holding him close, “c’mon, babe, I just wanna kiss you.”

“I know, Sunshine, but I want to change out of my costume first,” Nico told him. “And you should probably wipe that makeup off your face.”

“Then I can kiss you?”

“Yes.”

Will left the room, and while he was gone, Nico shed the coat and scrubs he had been wearing, and changed into the pajamas he’d been wearing the night before - which also just so happened to be Will’s clothes. He climbed into bed once he was changed, and was just plugging his phone in for the night when Will returned. He shed the sweater he was wearing and crawled on top of Nico on the bed, resting his full weight on top of him and guiding their lips together.

“Don’t you want to change into pajamas?” Nico asked when Will broke the kiss to breathe.

Will licked the side of Nico’s neck. “I’d rather we both get naked.”

Nico rolled Will off of him and laid him on his side. “Well, that’s not going to happen, because I’m already in my pajamas. I know what you’re trying to do, Will, but I’m not having sex with you until tomorrow morning at the earliest.”

Will pressed himself up against Nico, draping an arm around Nico’s waist to tug him even closer, and said, “Oh, I’m going to blow your mind tomorrow morning, babe.”

He pressed a forceful kiss to Nico’s lips, then dropped his head onto the pillow and fell asleep instantly. Nico snorted, and drifted off to sleep to the sound of Will’s quiet snores.

In the morning, Will woke up with a pounding headache and a weight across his hips. He cracked his eyes open, squinting against the glaring light, and saw Nico straddling his lap.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Nico said, grinning down at him and laughing at Will’s groan in return. “I’m ready for you to blow my mind.”

Will’s groan was ten times louder than before as he reached for Nico’s pillow, hitting him with it once before pressing it over his own face. Will complained, his voice muffled by the pillow, “You’re the worst!”

Bianca dressed in her new pikachu onesie for school on Halloween, and Nico wore another borrowed pair of Will’s scrubs - without the name badge, unfortunately, since Will needed that to get around the hospital. Nico accompanied Bianca to school, just like he had the year before, and made sure to take as many pictures as he could of Bianca, her friends, and the costume parade.

Will managed to get off of work just in time to join Nico and Bianca for trick-or-treating, though he didn’t have time to change into his Frankenstein monster costume before they left. That just made Will and Nico’s matching scrubs look like a couple’s costume, though, so Will finally got his Halloween wish.

As they waited on the sidewalk while Bianca ran up to a house for candy, Nico grabbed Will’s hand and laced their fingers together. “I’m glad you’re here this year,” he said, squeezing Will’s hand. “I felt so weird last year, just loitering on the sidewalk for an hour or two.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too,” Will said with a soft smile. “It’s always better to loiter in pairs, after all.”

Nico snorted and leaned against Will’s chest until Bianca returned to the sidewalk.

After another hour of wandering through the neighborhood, the three returned home. Bianca was sent off to get ready for bed while Will dumped out her bag of candy onto the living room floor to start sorting through it all. Once Bianca was all tucked into bed, Nico put on whatever Halloween movie just happened to be on TV, then joined Will on the living room floor.

Will cracked open an Almond Joy and took a bite out of it. He leaned back against the front of the couch, draped and arm around Nico’s shoulders, and said, “Do you want to show me the pictures you took at the costume parade?”

Nico pulled his phone out of his pocket and settled against Will’s side. Before he opened up his gallery, though, he looked up at Will - still in his scrubs, backlit by a single lamp in the corner of the room, and eating a piece of his daughter’s candy. This was shaping up to be a lot like last Halloween - only so much better.

“You know, I think it was this time last year that I realized how much I liked you,” Nico whispered. “I mean, I knew I liked you for a little while before then, but right around Halloween was when it really hit.”

Will pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I think I was already a little bit in love with you by then.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Alright, fine. I’m trying to have a nice moment here, but if you’re just going to one-up me, then whatever.”

Will wound his other arm around Nico’s chest and pulled him close, kissing all over the side of his face. “A lot sure can change in a year, huh?”

thanks for reading!

buy me a coffee | more auctober stuff

#solangelo #will solace #nico di angelo #auctober #me trying to hyperlink the kofi link: ....coffee.......#mine #my writing #i'm in hell

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ilu-writes · 5 years ago

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New Clothes

Days and Nights (solangelo)

Rating: G | Warnings: None

AO3 | FF.net |

Prev | x | Next

Will decides it’s time for a much needed change.

Will knocked on the door to the Hades cabin, bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation. There was a soft groan from inside, and then the black door opened slightly and a face appeared in it.

“Why?” Asked a groggy voice, before Nico blinked and focused on Will, frowning. “Solace? What are you doing here?”

Nico had only been at camp for a week, and Will still got kind of flustered seeing him. Especially when his hair was sticking up in all directions and his voice was still raspy from just waking up.

“Um…” He tried to recollect his thoughts. “I came to… talk to you.” He mentally facepalmed at how lame that sounded, but Nico didn’t seem phased.

“What about? Did something happen?”

“No, no, I just want to- talk.”

Nico gave the healer a quick once over, looking confused and suspicious, before shrugging.

“Sure, whatever.” He moved back to let the boy passed. “But I’m warning you, the décor in here is… awful.”

Will let out a short laugh as he walked in, but then faltered when he saw the room. Nico hadn’t been kidding. The walls were a deep, pure black made from solid oblivion and lined with columns. The only light came from flickering green torches set up against the wall, setting a ghostly tint over everything.

“Is that a coffin?” Asked Will, after a second, glancing at the black and red bunks. Only one of them was clearly used, the blankets and pillows tossed haphazardly across it.

“Yep.”

“Wow.”

“I know.” Nico closed the door behind him. “I’m going to have to entirely redesign it at some point. What did you need?”

Will looked at him, taking in his rumpled, half open shirt and pants. “Have you just woken up?” He asked instead of answering, even though it was obvious that he had.

“I, uh, still have trouble sleeping.” Nico muttered. “Was that when you wanted to talk about?”

“What- Oh! No, I…” He shook his head slightly. “I was just thinking- don’t you think it’s time you got new clothes?”

“New clothes?” Repeated Nico, glancing down at himself.

“I just mean- you can’t wear the same shirt and pants for the rest of your life, y’know.”

Nico absolutely knew that, given that said shirt was a jarringly bright tropical number. “Why do you care about that?” He asked, which was a little harsher than he’d intended, but in his defence, he was still half asleep.

“I care because first of all, as entertaining as it is to look at, that t-shirt is garish,“ Will pointed out, gesturing at him, and Nico didn’t disagree. “And secondly, I’m your friend, and making your friend own more than one outfit that you also sleep in.”

Although at this specific point in time, Will kind of thought that was a good thing.

Nico sighed. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

“I’m going to bring over some clothes for you to try on.” Said Will, simply. “And you can wear some of them until we manage to get out of here and do some shopping, though gods knows when that’ll be.”

Nico felt a pang of sympathy for the other boy. He’d been turning up at the infirmary at least once a day to help out, mostly by cutting bandages or helping write stuff down. It definitely wasn’t his favourite job, but recently, the impeding sensation of death had started to ease up, which was a relief. Will, on the other hand, spent nearly every moment of his day tending to patients, and only took breaks at all because his siblings forced him to go home and sleep.

Still, Nico felt a small feeling of warmth in his stomach when he realised that Will was deliberately using his one break to talk to him.

“I’m guessing I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” He asked, mostly for show.

“Nope.” Will grinned.

“In that case, sure.” He conceded with a shrug. “Just give me twenty minutes or so. I need to get ready.”

“Sure,” said Will, nodding. “I need to go grab some clothes anyway. I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”

“Great.” Nico held the door open as Will left. “See you then.”

Exactly twenty minutes later, Will knocked on Nico’s door again, a bag full of clothes in one hand. This time, the door opened immediately and Nico let him in. “Let’s get this over with.” He muttered, and Will felt a grin tugging at his lips. He was getting used to Nico’s grumpy comments.

“That’s the attitude I’m looking for!” He responded with an exaggeratedly happy tone, before dropping the bag onto one of the bottom bunks. Nico had clearly tried to clean up a little, since the top bunk was no kind of made (although he wouldn’t be getting any points on the inspection), and the boy himself had smoothed his hair down and adjusted his shirt properly.

Will tried not to be too disappointed with the lack of bedhead, and instead tossed a t-shirt at him. “Here.” Nico caught it instinctively, and then gave him a questioning glance. “Put it on.” Said Will, slowly and with emphasis.

“Now?”

“Why not?” Asked Will, and felt his cheeks heat up as he realised the implication. “I won’t look.” He added quickly.

Nico rolled his eyes, and Will turned around and flopped on the bed as he started to get changed, burying his face in a pillow.

Pulling off his Hawaiian-style shirt, Nico couldn’t help but be a little relieved. Aside from the fact that this gave him an excuse to hang out with Will (which he definitely didn’t care about), anything that meant he could get rid of his current outfit was a relief. He’d already adjusted to the brightness of it, but he couldn’t deny that not being able to change was kind of gross.

“Done.” He said, once he’d pulled the second t-shirt on.

Will peaked up cautiously. Seeing that he was, in fact, done, he rolled onto his side. The Camp Half-Blood shirt hung off him, clearly way too big. “Ah,” He said, doing a bad job at supressing a laugh. “I guess I’m a few sizes bigger than you.”

Nico gave him a look that seemed to say you think?, but then tugged at the material. “I don’t think orange is my colour.” He decided. Will was inclined to agree, but he didn’t, because there was something weirdly amusing about seeing Nico in bright colours.

“You look fine.” He said instead, reaching into the bag and tossing him another t-shirt. “Here.”

Nico changed again as Will buried his face back into the pillow, and frowned down at the shirt. “Done.”

Will turned back to him. The t-shirt was blue, with a lighter blue strip round the middle, and still clearly too big. “Do you not like it?” He asked, examining the boys face.

“It’s so bright.” He complained.

“It’s not bright, it’s blue. Stop whining.”

“Don’t you own anything in black?”

“Do I look like I usually wear black?”

He had a point there, much to Nico’s chagrin. “I look like an idiot.” He said, instead of admitting it. Will rolled his eyes.

“Shut up. You look cute.”

There was a beat before Will realised what he’d said, and Nico’s head snapped up so fast he was worried he got whiplash. He stared at the blonde in shock.

“Um.” Said Will, before realising he had absolutely no excuse. “I just mean, uh, you look good. In colours. That aren’t black.”

There was another pause. “Thank you?” Said Nico, after a few seconds, still looking stunned.

“Right,” said Will, seriously wishing the floor would swallow him whole. Normally, he could make those comments without blinking, but normally he didn’t actually like the person like that, and normally the person wasn’t Nico di Angelo. Mr Can’t-process-someone-saying-he-has-a-friendly-face di Angelo. “Um, I should go- I mean, there’s still t-shirts in the bag, which you can look through, but I should probably, um, leave-“

“Wait,” Nico frowned at him as he tried to edge towards the door, and Will stopped, even though it was taking all his willpower not to get anymore flustered right now. “You don’t have to leave. I mean, I don’t- this definitely doesn’t suit me, and I’m going to have to try on more clothes, so…” He trailed off awkwardly, but Will thought he got the point.

“I should stay to give you advice?” He suggested, lightly, and Nico nodded.

“Basically, yeah.”

Will tried not to show any of his relief on his face. “Okay. I mean, sure.” He made his way a little awkwardly back to the bed. “I have, like, another hour of my break left, I can stay.”

“Okay.” Said Nico, before pausing. “Do you, uh, happen to have any clothes that aren’t bright?”

“That shirt isn’t bright.” Muttered Will, but he scanned through the back anyway and pulled out a plain grey t-shirt. It was one of what he referred to as his ‘healer t-shirts’, which basically meant a t-shirt he didn’t mind getting gross when his surgeon shirts were covered in… anything. “How about grey?” He offered, holding it out.

“Good enough.” Said Nico, taking the t-shirt, and Will turned to bury his face back in the cushion. It felt like Nico had decided to pretend the cute comment hadn’t happened, which was a relief.

As he lay there, it occurred to him that maybe having Nico walking around in his clothes for the foreseeable future might actually be counterproductive, but he pushed that thought down with the butterflies in his stomach.

#solangelo #will solace #nico di angelo #solangelo fanfiction #days and nights #pjo #hoo #toa #percy jackon and the olympians #Heroes of Olympus #trials of apollo #mine #my works

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thebluesideofmyworld · 7 years ago

Text

Emotions: Care - A Solangelo Fic

Summary: care (v): 1. to feel concern or interest 2. to be interested in someone and want them to be well and happy

Word Count: 2800 words || Rating: Teenage and Up Audience || Read on AO3

***

Nico just could not take it any longer. Will had been overworking himself again. And Nico hated that. He hated how Will’s smile looked hollow. How his eyes looked empty. And most of all, Nico hated how Will blamed himself, how Will kept on carrying this guilt for not being a more useful demigod.

Because it was not true. It was totally not true.

Will might not be the best in sword fighting. He might feel like he wasn’t as good in archery as well as what an Apollo camper should be. But Nico would fight anyone who would dare to even think that Will was useless.

But it was Will himself who kept on saying that he wished he had had a more useful power, anything more useful than just healing power.

Well, Nico didn’t want to fight him.

But at the same time, it hurt him to see how Will felt so low like that.

So Nico decided that he needed to do something. And that’s what he told Austin and Kayla when they were hanging out in the infirmary’s front office.

“I want to take Will out. To somewhere nice.”

Kayla and Austin both turned their heads to Nico. Nico himself was too busy thinking about this vague plan that started to form in his head as he read the article in the magazine. He didn’t even see how Austin and Kayla exchanged looks, as he skimmed the list of places that someone could go in New York City. After a few seconds passed by, he realized that neither Austin nor Kayla responded. He lifted his gaze up from the magazine, and found both of Will’s half-siblings staring at him with a weird look in their eyes.

Nico’s eyes darted from Austin to Kayla.

“What?” He asked.

Austin and Kayla exchanged looks again before they stared at Nico. But it was Kayla who spoke first.

“What do you mean you want to take him out? Why?”

Nico let out a huff and closed the magazine. He threw it to the desk, then he crossed his arms over his chest. With his legs propped on the desk, crossing on the ankles, he balanced the chair that he was sitting on two legs, leaning against the wall.

“Will has been overworking. Again. He needs a break.”

Austin raised his eyebrows while Kayla lifted a hand up, palm facing Nico. “Wait a second. So when you said that you want to take Will out, what was in your mind exactly?”

Nico shrugged his shoulders. “Just like what I said. I want to take him out so he can have some good time to relax. To take his mind off from all the stress.”

“I thought you are taking him out for a-“

Austin was cut mid-sentence by Kayla who elbowed him on the rib.

Nico furrowed his eyebrows but after a second of strange coughing, Austin continued his sentence. “I mean, I thought you were also going to take us too!”

Kayla’s eyes widened as Nico stared at Austin.

Well, yeah, Austin, Kayla and him had become closer for the last few weeks, ever since those three days in the infirmary. It wasn’t something unusual for all of them do whatever together. But somehow, Nico kind of wanted to spend the time with just Will.

And yes, Nico could provide some justification for that. His main reason for taking Will out was to take Will’s mind off from the stress of his work in the Infirmary. What if Austin and Kayla started talking about infirmary-related things? What if Austin and Kayla, in any way, did something that only made Will regret not being in the infirmary? What if Austin, Kayla and Will had this inside joke that only the Apollo kids would understand, and then they would-

Nico scratched the back of his ear. “Well, you know. That would be nice. But, I mean,” Nico said and paused to clear his throat. “I mean, if all of you, are taking a break at the same time…Who would be in charge of the Infirmary? And your cabin?”

Nico didn’t know why he felt the tips of his ears were burning. And the amused look that Austin had didn’t make it any better.

“Yeah, sure,” Austin said, giving him a half-nod with a small smirk on his lips. “Whatever you say, dude.”

“That’s actually make sense,” Kayla said. “I’m pretty sure that one of the reasons why Will wouldn’t want to leave the camp, was him over thinking about his responsibilities in the camp. But we can handle it, right Austin?” Kayla turned her head to Austin, who gave them a thumb up.

“Yeah. We’ll take care of the infirmary and the cabin. You take Will out, dude. Go entertain him.”

“Well, that settles it then,” Nico said. A feeling of relief washed over him.

“Where are you going to take him?” Kayla asked.

Nico sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. He brought his chair back to the normal position.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “What do you guys think? Where should I take him?”

Kayla shrugged her shoulders. “Lunch or dinner sounds nice. And Will is not that picky about food. Just take him to somewhere fancier than McDonalds, and he’ll be happy.”

Nico nodded. The vague idea in his head started to get clearer. He leaned forward to grab a pen and one of the small yellow post-it on the desk.

“So, a nice meal,” he said as he was scribbling the words lunch/dinner on the post it. He tapped the pen on his chin. “What else? What other things that you think can make Will feel more relaxed?”

“You can take him to see a movie. Either before or after the movie,” Kayla said. “I would suggest you to do it before you have your meal, though. So you can talk about the movie during the meal.”

“That’s a great idea,” Nico said, scribbling the word movie on his list. He looked up at Austin and Kayla. “Do you guys have recommendation on the movie?”

“I know Will has been wanting to watch 'La La Land' for a while,” Austin offered his idea. “I know that it might not be the kind of movie that you like-“

Nico waved his hand dismissively as he jotted down the title of the movie. “It’s fine. As long as it’s something that he likes, I’m okay with that.”

With his eyes fixed on his list, Nico didn’t see the way Austin and Kayla exchanged glances of amusement.

“Any other ideas? Movies? Places to go? Anything?” Nico looked up again at the two Apollo kids.

Austin had a small teasing smirk on his lips. “You’re really taking this seriously, aren’t you?”

A strange heat rushed inside Nico as he crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned against the backrest of his chair, schooling his face into a nonchalant expression.

“Of course I do. I care about Will. He’s my friend, and I hate seeing him all stressed out like that.” He glared at Austin and Kayla. “You two supposed to care too! He’s your brother!”

Austin snorted before he answered. “Hey, we’ll be taking care of the Infirmary and Cabin 7 while you’re taking him out!”

Nico rolled his eyes, but he looked back to his list.

“You know, even though he’s often being nosy about eating healthy food, Will can never say no to ice cream. It’s like one of his guilty pleasures,” Kayla suggested.

“Really?”

Kayla hummed as she nodded. “Or, maybe frozen yogurt. Probably it will make him feel less guilty because he would consider it to be a bit healthier than ice cream.”

“I’ve never had frozen yogurt before,” Nico said.

“Then maybe it’s time for you to try some,” Kayla said.

“Well, yeah. But do you think Will would like it?”

Kayla laughed. “Sure. Don’t worry about it. Just remind him that frozen yogurt has less sugar and fat than ice cream, and he wouldn’t say no.”

“Okay,” Nico said, adding frozen yogurt into his list.

He studied his list, started planning the day out.

“Do you think the Hephaestus cabin would let me borrow their laptop and use the internet connection they have?” Nico asked them again. “I need to do some planning,” he said, brushing his hair from his forehead.

“Sure,” Kayla said, standing up from the chair. “I can go there with you.”

“Cool!” Nico stood up from his chair. He slid his list and the pen into the pocket of his jacket as he quickly followed Kayla who already walked to the door.

“Yeah. Sure. Just leave me all alone here while you go planning your date, di Angelo,” Austin said, more like mumbling to himself.

Nico was already too far away to hear it.

And even if he heard it, he was already too excited with the plan to care about what Austin just said.

***

It was after lunch on Thursday when Nico marched to the table where Apollo kids were sitting. Will was standing up from the bench, ready to leave the dining pavilion when he saw Nico.

A smile light up his face, even though Nico could still see faint shadows below his eyes that looked a bit tired.

“Hey, Nico! What’s up?”

“Can we talk?”

Will raised up his brows, clearly surprised.

“Yeah. Sure,” Will said, even though he sounded unsure. He glanced at his siblings who started leaving the table. A few of them were stealing glances at Will, looking curious. But Kayla quickly jumped off the bench, and herded the younger kids to walk out of the dining pavilion, giving instructions for them to follow her to the Arts and Crafts Centre where they would have their next camp activity.

Nico turned his head to the group of Apollo campers that were leaving the pavilion, and caught Austin smirking at him. Austin winked, and gave him a thumb up before quickly joined his siblings.

“Uh… Where do you want to talk?”

Nico turned his head back to Will.

“Here is fine,” Nico said, slumping himself down on the bench. Following him, Will sat back to bench, the wooden table separate them.

“What’s your plan for tomorrow?” Nico asked.

For the second time, Will’s brows raised up in surprise. But then he shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing in particular. My shift tomorrow at the infirmary started at-“

“Cancel it.”

Will froze. He stared at Nico, his blue eyes were wide. He blinked, then he asked Nico.

“What?”

Nico folded his arms on the table, and leaned forward a little.

“Cancel your afternoon shift in the infirmary. You’re going out tomorrow. With me. To New York City.”

Two or three heartbeats passed in silence before Will finally said something.

“What?”

Nico huffed.

“I said, we’re going for a day out tomorrow. To New York City. You and me.”

“But… The infir-“

“Austin would be the one taking charge in the infirmary tomorrow. And Kayla will take care of the Apollo cabin.”

“But they-“

“It’s about time for them to do it, Will. You need to learn how to share responsibilities. It’s not just good for you, it’s good for them too.” Nico cut Will again.

“What would-“

“I’ve asked Chiron and he gave us permission to.”

Will blinked.

“How would-“

“Jules-Albert will pick us up. So you don’t have to worry about me using shadow travel, and we’ll get back to the Camp before the curfew.”

Will stared at Nico with confusion in his blue eyes. After two or three second passed without Will saying anything, Nico started to shift uncomfortably.

“But, why?”

Nico took out a deep breath and let it out in a long exhale. “Will, you’ve been working a bit too hard. You need a break. That’s why I am taking you out tomorrow.”

Will held his gaze at Nico, like he was trying to process what Nico just told him.

“So…you’re…taking me out so I can have a break?”

Nico gave Will a small smile that he hoped was an assuring one. “Yeah. That’s the main intention. So you can catch a break and relax.”

“Why?”

Nico raised an eyebrow at Will. “Why not? Everyone deserves a break, Will. You deserve some time to relax and do things that you enjoy.”

Will shook his head. “No, I mean. Why you’re doing this?”

“Because I care about you, Will. You’re my best friend, and I hate to see you not taking care of yourself.”

There was a mix of emotions on Will’s face. Will looked confused, surprised, and his cheeks were blushing. But for a fleeting second, Nico thought he saw something that almost looked like a slight disappointment. But perhaps it was just the lights playing trick or nothing but Nico’s imagination, because it was already gone now.

“Are you sure?” Will asked once again.

“I’m sure, Will. I’ve already had everything planned out for tomorrow.”

The tips of Will’s lips were curling up slightly, forming a shy smile.

“Oh,” Will said. He looked away for a second as he tucked some rebellious strands of his hair to the back of his hair. When he looked back at Nico, he had a shy smile and the look in his blue eyes was soft.

For a second, Nico felt strangely breathless.

Will nodded. “Okay,” he said, almost whispering, like he himself still couldn't believe it.Without even thinking, Nico smiled back at him. He didn’t know why but it was like his heart was jumping around in his chest.

“Great,” he said. “So, tomorrow? At 2? So you still have some time after lunch if you want to…you know, get ready or anything.”

“Cool,” Will said. “Should we meet at the-“

“I’ll pick you up at your Cabin.”

Will’s mouth left opened for a second, then he coughed a little. Nico felt heat creeping in on his cheeks as he cleared his throat.

“I was the one asking you-“ he paused and cleared his throat again. “I mean, this was my idea? So I guess… Somehow it only feels right for me if I pick you up at your cabin? Then we can walk to where Jules Albert will be waiting…” Nico paused, peeking up at Will.

Will was biting his lower lip, like he was trying to hold back a smile.

“Okay then,” Will said. “I’ll be.. uhmm… waiting in my cabin.”

“Great,” Nico said, knowing for sure that he was grinning but at the same time, he felt like he couldn’t care less.

“So… I need to go to the Infirmary now,” Will said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” Nico said, standing up from the bench. “And I have a sword-fighting class to teach.”

Nico slid his hands into the pocket of his jacket. He shifted his weight to his heels. “So. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

Will’s smile was soft and for a second, Nico thought of how he liked it so much when Will smiled like that.

“Yeah,” Will said, nodding as he rubbed the side of his neck. “Tomorrow.”

“Great,” Nico said. “Tomorrow. At 2. I’ll pick you up. At your cabin.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“So. Uh. Bye, Will. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Will let out a laugh and finally, after it’s been gone for days, the light in his eyes came back, twinkling as he smiled at Nico.

(Gosh, Nico just like it so so very much when Will smiled like that at him.)

“Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow, Neeks.”

Nico turned on his heels, and walking away from the table with wide steps. When he reached the doorway, he turned around to look at Will. Will was still sitting on the bench. His elbow was on the table, propping his chin as he was watching Nico. When he saw Nico looking at him, he smiled, and raised his other hand to give Nico a small wave. Nico waved back at him. Then he turned around, and walked out of the pavilion.

Nico was feeling a bit giddy as he made his way to the sword fighting arena. He had tomorrow all planned out, and he could not even lie to himself about how excited he was about it. He could not wait to take Will out, could not wait to make Will relax and have some great time.

Because at the moment, there was nothing that Nico wanted more other than to see that genuine smile lighting up Will’s face back. Just thinking about how tomorrow would make Will feel happy already gave Nico a pleasant warm feeling inside of him.

He just wanted to make Will happy.

Because Nico cared about Will. So so very much.

***

Author’s notes:

Comments and feedbacks are always loved!

I feel guilty that it took quite a while for me to update this. So really, i even feel more guilty to tell you this. It might even take longer for me for the next update. I am at the very last stages of my degree now. My professor is reviewing the draft of my dissertation (that has been sitting on his desk since... oh, i don't know, November 2017?), and since the deadline to have a defense if I want to graduate this semester is on April 20, let me just say that the next few weeks would be...intense, to say the least. And even after that, I still have to deal with moving back to my country so I need to deal with packing and paper works and basically, stuff... So yeah. You get the idea. I will try to write another chapter for the other Solangelo fic that I have on-going right now (the Musician!AU one) but then after that, I'm sorry to say that it might take a few weeks before I finally update my fics. But don't worry, I am not going to abandon my fics. Honestly, at this point, fics and my football teams are the only things that keep me sane. So yeah. Once again, I apologize for this.

Also, on a side note, regardless of whether it's healthier or no, I personally like frozen yogurt more than ice cream. I think Nico would prefer Gelato, though. He's Italian, after all

#Solangelo #Will Solace #Nico di Angelo #Solangelo fanfic #Solangelo fanfiction #pjo #pjo fanfic #emotions

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itsomgitsgreenblogging · 7 years ago

Text

Break My Heart: Chapter 9 (A Solangelo Fanfic)

It’s time again, for another installment of Break My Heart! This just in: ROMANTIC PROGRESSION! Also body mutilation. But what’s any activity at Camp Half-Blood without any danger, am I right?

Enjoy!

Read on Tumblr: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8

Read on AO3

Preview:

“Well you know what? We are going to change your fate then. You will take Nico on the best first date ever, then everything will be great. So let’s just do it. Mama didn’t raise no quitters. Understand me?”

“Okay, okay,” Will said as he put his hands up in surrender, before suddenly panic washed over him. “Oh my Gods, I’m going to ask Nico di Angelo on a date.”

“Everything will work out. Just wait and see, after all, what could possibly go wrong?”

“Lou Ellen, you do realize that people only say that before something horrible happens right?”

“Okay…so…I might have definitely lied,” Will admitted awkwardly. It was after Arts and Crafts, and as head counselors both he and Lou Ellen had stayed behind to help clean up. It was good because Will really wanted to talk to his friend without any of his siblings eavesdropping, and if there was anything that made them scarce it was the idea of cleaning up after themselves.

“About what?” Lou Ellen asked as she looked up from brushing uncooked-red-painted macaroni into the dust pan.

“I have a crush on Nico I think,” Will said as he palmed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I already knew that you are a dumbass,” Lou Ellen scoffed as she dumped the dust and the discarded pasta in the trash can.

“Hey! I just admitted my feelings! That’s a big step for me alright?”

“You’ve been admitting your feelings every time you’ve looked at Nico for the past week. Gods, you are so dense,” Lou Ellen sighed heavily as she leaned against the broom. “Okay, okay. You like Nico. What are you going to do about it?”

“Um…I haven’t…really…worked out that part yet?”

“Oh Gods protect me,” Lou Ellen groaned as she face-palmed. “Will Solace, you are the biggest pain in the ass! Here’s what you do, ask the boy out on a date.”

“But I—”

“Nu-uh. No tip toeing around this. You, William Elijah Solace, will ask Nico di Angelo on a date. And preferably sooner rather than later. All of your awkward pining is making my hair frizz!” Lou Ellen said as she stroked down her hair in emphasis.

“I am not awkward pining!” Will whined, probably very annoyingly.

“You are the definition of awkward, and you are pining. Awkward. Pining. You. Just bite the bullet and ask the boy out on a date!”

“But he’s going to dump me! Eventually? Maybe?” Will said, as he kicked a ball of crunched up newspaper. Will was suddenly yanked down by Lou Ellen, whose green eyes nearly burned into his with sheer determination.

“Okay, okay,” Will said as he put his hands up in surrender, before suddenly panic washed over him. “Oh my Gods, I’m going to ask Nico di Angelo on a date.”

“Everything will work out. Just wait and see, after all, what could possibly go wrong?”

“Lou Ellen, you do realize that people only say that before something horrible happens right?”

Cecil planted himself down next to Will with a huff while Will downed half a water bottle. Harley was excitedly talking to Chiron as campers began to set up the Three-Legged Race that was going to take place the next day. Will’s stomach was still doing funny flips ever since he decided he was going to ask Nico out on a date, however Cecil’s presence distracted him enough to keep him semi-concentrated on the task at hand.

“He’s a tricky guy,” Cecil said suddenly, forcing Will to really concentrate on what Cecil was actually saying instead of just hearing words being strung in meaningless sentences.

“What?”

“Nico di Angelo. You know that Hermes Cabin has poker nights, we usually sweep the floor with everyone. Nico came in first among the Non-Hermes circuit, you know, the thing we had to start doing after Malcom made a threat against Travis’s life? Anyways, he won like a hundred dollars.”

“How did Nico know about the poker night?”

“Annabeth brought him. I guess they’re friends now, which is nice. I mean, it always sucks when your crush gets with someone else, but it’s good they worked past the awkwardness,” Cecil said with an appreciative nod. Will almost corrected him before snapping his traitorous mouth shut. Right. Only a few people were privy to Nico’s sexuality.

Oh no, Will thought with a crippling wave of anxiety. What if Nico didn’t want to come out yet? A date with Will would definitely out him. What if—what if—?

No, Will thought sternly. Too late to turn back now, I’ve already made my decision. The worst he can say is no. And then I’ll just wallow for a few days before working past it and hope that Nico wouldn’t be awkward with me.

“Do you know where Nico is now? I need to…uh…ask him something?” Will asked Cecil.

“I think I saw him going to the training fields with Ares Cabin,” Cecil said in return, looking somewhat suspicious but not saying anything. Cecil followed Will as he made his way to the training arena and all the while Will did his best to try to stay calm. He was going to be cool, he was going to just go up to Nico and ask him if he wanted to—

Will saw Nico and almost fell on his own face.

Nico was currently in the middle of sword training, practicing blows on a dummy. More importantly he was doing it shirtless. He had obviously gained color in the sun, and Will saw wiry back muscles pulling and flexing and dark curls pulled back into a ponytail and—

“Will, you alright?” Cecil asked with a raised brow.

“Oh no, oh no,” Will suddenly blurted out, his face was on fire and quite possibly sizzling. “I can’t do this too gay—I mean today. I mean—”

“Uh, okay then dude,” Cecil said, looking as if he was ready to catch Will in case he was about to faint. “You wanna tell me what’s going on…?”

“Is there a shovel so I can bury myself?” Will asked him miserably with a groan at his own stupidity. “It’ll just take a quick second. After this all goes horribly that is.”

“I’ll get on that,” Cecil said as he tried to hide his amusement.

“Solace, Markowitz! What are you doing here?” Clarisse barked as she approached, dressed in full on combat gear. She looked between them, obviously somewhere between curiosity and wanting to skewer them for interrupting their practice.

“Sorry Clarisse. I just need to talk to Nico for a quick second,” Will apologized as he scooted to get as far away from the pointy spear she was holding as he could. “I’ll get out of your way right away.”

“I just tagged along,” Cecil chirped.

“Uh, Cecil…could you give me a minute too?” Will asked and Cecil stared at him.

“Wait you are going to leave me with—”

“Markowitz!” Ellis’ shout came from the left, and he was holding a spear and looked half ready to use it. He smiled almost sweetly at Cecil, though it looked like he was about to pop a vein, which was the most terrifying thing that Will had ever seen. “We need to talk about my twenty bucks that you cheated off me last night.”

“Uh…we can talk if you drop the spear—?” Cecil half squeaked as he wheeled around to dive behind Will before Ellis grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him away. “Will, help me!”

“I’ll never forget you!” Will called back to him, miming waving a handkerchief. Clarisse wiped a fake tear away for good dramatic measure.

“SCREW YOU!”

“Well, anyways, I’m going to go see Nico,” Will said as he motioned with his head in the direction Nico was after Cecil’s cries had faded away. Clarisse nodded her assent and let him go.

Will finally got to where Nico was practicing, and suddenly was faced with the utter challenge of what he was about to do. How could he possibly convince Nico—

“Hey Will,” Nico greeted, unaware of Will’s internal drama. His expression was neutral but appeared relaxed, his eyes—the strange shade that they were, seemed warm at the very least. He had placed a towel over his shoulders and was currently half-chugging a Gatorade. Red Gatorade, which tinted his teeth with the color. It was kind of funny and cute, and Will couldn’t help but feel his mouth turn up in a smile despite everything. Nico, obviously noticing, gave Will a glare before snatching the water bottle next to the Gatorade and swishing with it with spite.

“Hey Nico,” Will said with a smile that felt rubbery with nerves before breathing in deeply. “I’ve…uh, got a question for you.”

“Oh,” Nico said with a blink. “Oh, you mean about the Three-Legged Race?”

“Yes—what?” Will asked suddenly, taken aback.

“I’ll be your partner for the Three-Legged Race,” Nico told him before looking over where Ellis and Cecil were currently having a shouting match. “I don’t think I trust Cecil to keep you alive, considering he has a few people who want him at least partially maimed.”

“I can keep myself alive,” Will argued weakly. Nico looked away somewhat, digging the heel of his boot into the ground.

“Well, I mean, sort of. Your skills of self-preservation are questionable,” Nico pointed out sarcastically before drawing in a breath and saying, “I thought it would be…well…we were a pretty good team during Capture the Flag weren’t we?”

“The best,” Will agreed quickly.

“People here are still a little wary of me, but, it might be fun if I was with you. At least it’ll be tolerable,” Nico said with an aristocratic sniff that did nothing to subtract from the sincerity of the thought.

“Sure, Nico. Let’s be partners,” Will agreed before really thinking about it. It took him a moment to realize as Nico waved and returned to training, that he had utterly flubbed what he had come there for.

“You were supposed to ask him on a date!” Lou Ellen hissed under her breath as they walked towards their cabins after the campfire.

“You were asking Nico on a date?” Cecil asked in surprise before shoving his hands into his pockets. “Alright, I’m only slightly less mad about getting stuck with Ellis in the Three-Legged Death Race now, where I’m definitely going to die. Thanks a lot for that Will, by the way. I really appreciate that”

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault that Chiron caught you and Ellis arguing,” Will told him with a sigh. “And I know that’s what I was supposed to do, but obviously now I’m on Plan B.”

“What is Plan B?” Lou Ellen asked him suspiciously.

“Improvise!” Will said with a wave of his arms before ducking into his cabin and shutting the door behind him. He leaned against it before groaning. When he opened his eyes, he saw all of his siblings staring at him. He cursed his luck as he watched wide grins crack across all of their faces.

“You’re asking Nico on a date?” Kayla demanded as she grabbed first punched him but then his hands and hopped up and down. “Oh my Gods, I knew it! I knew it! You do like Nico di Angelo you liar!”

“No, no, you guys didn’t hear anything!” Will told them all sternly before covering his ears with his hands. “Lalala I can hear no gloating—Antonio stop gloating! Austin, don’t give Emma money! I can’t believe you guys were betting on my love life!”

“I owe Lacey a drachma now,” Violet said petulantly as she punched a teddy bear for good measure.

“Gods you guys suck,” Will said as he stomped his way to his bed and sat down. He took out the bag of M&Ms he had stashed (that tragically had no more blue ones, those had all been donated to the Charity Case known as Percy Jackson). “And no, I didn’t ask Nico out on a date because I am utterly incapable of romance. I have no romantic bones in my body—Antonio, don’t even start with that pun I know you were about to make.”

Antonio pouted before sticking his tongue out at Will. Will made a face at him in return before leaning against his headboard, hoping they would allow him to wallow in self-pity for a few moments. As always his siblings had other ideas, and demanded that he relay them all of the information, which he did with the exception of telling them about the dream. He figured that was just one more thing on the plate that they didn’t need to know about. It was okay to keep somethings close to the chest after all. When he finished explaining everything he got his few moments of quiet before his siblings started up.

“Well isn’t this the best outcome imaginable?” Austin pointed out as he played with his saxophone. “You’re going to be alone with Nico. You’ll have an opportunity to ask him out at some point.”

“Do you even know me?” Will asked him suspiciously.

“Oh come on, Will. You’re a son of Apollo. You have to have some game in you,” Emma said with a hand on her hip.

“Ugh, do not compare me to Dad,” Will said with a shudder. “Since when is Dad’s record with lovers something to aspire to?”

“Well I’m just saying, there are plenty of people at camp who find you cute. Be confident! You can make it work!” Emma told him firmly. “Believe in yourself.”

“And don’t die tomorrow. That might also help you with asking Nico out on a date, that is,” Kayla reminded them.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence guys,” Will said as he fell over with a huff.

That night he had a bad dream that he couldn’t quite remember everything about. It had something to do with Nico di Angelo and a machete at a carnival with a half-pound of cotton candy and a jar of pennies. It was safe to say that he didn’t sleep well. He trudged through the day sleep deprived and not looking forward to the Three-Legged Death race.

“Hi Will!” Harley greeted as he approached the race track. Harley, the littlest member of Hephaestus Cabin, was bouncing on his heels.

“Hey Harley, I’m excited to see what you have in store for us,” Will promised him with a pat on his head. Harley beamed up at him.

“Oh yeah, it’s going to be great! Just you wait and see!” Harley said before bouncing off to say hi to some of the other younger kids.

“It’s good to see him happy,” Jake Mason commented with a sigh as he crossed his scarred but rather nice-looking arms. “He’s been really down since…you know, what happened to Leo. I think that’s the reason Chiron let him go all out and design this death trap.”

“Is he doing okay?” Will asked Jake, and Jake offered a weak smile.

“Holding up, just like the rest of us. It’s just hard…as you know.”

Will couldn’t help but frown sadly. He had only known Leo briefly, it had been his responsibility to show him around camp and they had been on friendly terms, but even so it didn’t do the heart good to see the way he went out. And it especially hurt him to see his longtime friends mourning the loss of their half-brother. As Will had learned, no matter what a demigod did in life, they often did not deserve the fates that were woven and cut for them.

“He’ll be back,” a voice cut in, and both Will and Jake were startled by Nico who was glaring as if something had personally insulted him. “His death was all…all weird. I felt him die, but…it was like when you miss a step and then you regain your balance. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. Mark my words, Leo Valdez will be back and causing trouble somehow and in some way, and when I see him I’m going to punch his lights out.”

“What did Leo do to you?” Jake asked shortly.

“Did you not hear me? He gave me a headache,” Nico scoffed before he glared at the sky as if Leo might come floating down from it like Mary Poppins. “Also he made Hazel cry, and I can’t forgive that. For that he deserves to die one more death of my construction.”

“You are morbid,” Will said as a chuckle burst past his lips. Nico blinked before looking away quickly. Were his ears red? Will wondered if he was feeling okay. Will waved goodbye to Jake as he went to join the rest of his siblings before turning to Nico. He tried to swallow his nervousness. There was no way he would ask before the Three-Legged Death Race, he didn’t want Nico distracted. He would ask maybe after. Maybe. Hopefully. “Are you ready for the race?”

“I’ve never done one of these before,” Nico admitted as he crossed his arms over his chest, brow furrowed. “I don’t actually know what’s going to happen.”

“Well, we’ve got to try to run through the obstacle course with our legs tied together,” Will explained.

“Tied together?” Nico said, really looking like he wasn’t happy about that. Will couldn’t help but deflate.

“Is it…is that okay?” Will asked nervously.

“Well I mean, we’re going to be pretty close then, right?” Nico asked, not meeting Will’s gaze. “Is that going to bother you?”

“Why would that bother me?” Will asked. Though it would bother him because Nico was his crush and being close to him might make Will flustered, it wasn’t like he was going to hate it. In fact, he was worried about being too happy about it.

“I’ve been told I give off a creepy vibe,” Nico said looking half suspicious. “Haven’t you noticed?”

“Well, you are creepy. But that’s just part of your personality, and I like that about you,” Will promised him, before feeling his cheeks reddened. “I-I mean…yeah…”

“Oh…okay,” Nico said slowly, swallowing before walking forward somewhat stiffly.

Was it really going to bother him? Will thought worriedly. He knew that Nico wasn’t all that great with the touching-people thing. Will really didn’t want to do anything that would make Nico uncomfortable, but he also knew that bringing it up might be annoying to Nico. And as far as Will could tell, Nico was really trying to get involved in things in the camp. Will decided what would be best was to just be supportive. If Nico was uncomfortable, Will hoped he would speak up.

“Alright everybody,” Harley said as he got up on the little chair that he had set up by the starting line. “Welcome to our first Three-Legged Race! We’re going to be mostly getting the kinks out this time since it’s a new activity. The goal is to get to the end of the obstacle course which is the other end of the forest! First place gets a special candy basket, curtsey of Aphrodite Cabin. Thanks guys! Please tie your leg to your partner’s with the approved knot, and no funny stuff! Me or Chiron will be checking them so no cheating! Other than that there isn’t any rules besides the standard rules of engagement for CHB!”

There was a dramatic groan from Hermes Cabin kids as people began to line up and get their legs tied together. Will bent down and tied Nico and his own legs together with a snug knot before testing it by pulling his leg to the side a bit. Nico lost his balance for a moment before leveling an annoyed look at him.

“What? Too tight?” Will asked him concerned.

“No, you are too tall,” Nico said as he crossed his arms over his chest and squinted at him angrily, despite the color to his face. Maybe he had gotten sunburnt? “It pisses me off.”

“Aw, Neeks, thank you!”

“That wasn’t a compliment!” Nico grumbled.

“Hey Nico! See you at the finish line!” Percy called as he waved, Annabeth just rolled her eyes and elbowed him. He threw an arm over her shoulder and Annabeth gazed at Percy with a melting kind of sweetness, Percy returned it with a fond kiss to her hairline. Annabeth batted him away, with a little color in her cheeks, before looking ready to crush some enemies.

“They’re so cute,” Will said with a jealous sigh, clutching his heart. “I actually can’t take it.”

“Hey Will?” Nico asked, breaking Will from his internal reflection on the transformative power of love.

“Yeah?”

“No matter what, we are beating Percy,” Nico said, looking less impressed with Percy and Annabeth’s love and more ready to break some femurs if that was what it was going to take to win. That, in its own way, was rather adorable. Terrifying, but adorable. Will thought.

“Wait—what—”

“All contenders, take your marks! Get set, go!”

Nico, despite his shorter stride, was a fast runner. Thankfully Will was able to mostly keep in step with him. Nico made a show off hissing at him when their arms continued to smack each other while they moved, however, that annoyance was quickly stopped when suddenly something caught Will’s eye and he yelped, hooked his arm around Nico, and ducked. They both sprawled out on the ground, but Julia and Alice were not so lucky as they got snared by a net which pinned them to a tree.

“What kind of obstacles did they say we are dealing with here?” Nico asked as he glared forward.

“They didn’t,” Will said slowly as he nervously looked around. “Harley didn’t even say we needed armor.”

“I’m going to strangle that kid,” Nico said as he blew a leaf that had gotten stuck on his face away before they both got up. “Okay, let’s go before something causes us grievous bodily harm.”

It seemed like they only made it a few steps in any direction without some sort of horrid trap springing on them. They dodged flaming banana cream pies, pissed off dryads with gardening supplies, disturbed bee hives, and Nico even pulled Will back before he fell into a spike pit. A real spike pit.

“Oh my Gods we are going to die! We’re seriously going to die! Who in the name of Zeus let Harley do all of this? Were they on drugs?” Will demanded as he pointed at the spike pit in utter horror. It continued to stay there, gaping wide open, as if agreeing with Will’s shock and dismay. Nico, despite looking as thoroughly inconvenienced as any soccer mom waiting at the customer service desk, appeared to appreciate and approve of the aesthetic statement the spike pit was making.

“Oh, okay, so you’re fine with the lava wall, teenagers fighting each other with weapons that can actually hurt them, Gods and monsters, and the occasional prophecy. But you draw the line at spike pits? What are your standards?” Nico said with a roll of his eyes.

“Well guess what, I’m drawing the line right here. I am not moving from this spot. I am not participating in this hell race—”

Suddenly all of the words that were coming out of Will’s throat got caught like a rabbit in a snare, as Nico grabbed his hand squeezed it and began walking them both forward at a fast trudge. Will was sure that he was still trying to say words, but literally nothing but half garbled gasps were coming out of his face.

“You aren’t going to die,” Nico said firmly, facing forward and wearing an expression of pure determination. “Because I’m not going to let you die. Will Solace, you are not allowed to die. Just stay with me and I’ll get us out of here but we definitely won’t get out of here if we don’t keep moving.”

“Nico...you’re so cool,” Will blurted out, probably sounding like an idiot, but he couldn’t help but be in awe of Nico di Angelo’s raw confidence. Nico pulled Will along with a completely self-assured gait despite the danger, and Will couldn’t help but keep blushing. “I...uh, Nico, my hand. You’re holding my hand.”

“Did you need it for something?” Nico asked him briskly, pointedly keeping his head facing forward.

“I...well, no, but I…” Will stuttered, his words scraping over his teeth.

“Then shut up, Capri Sun,” Nico gruffly responded. And could almost believe that Nico was just annoyed at him and was leading him through the woods by the hand out of pure necessity, except that Nico’s ears were red and his hand was sweaty just like Will’s. And just that was enough to give Will confidence.

“Nico—Nico wait,” Will said urgently, all common sense currently at the bottom of the spike pit, as he tugged on Nico’s arm. “I need to ask you something, something important.”

“Can’t it wait until we’re out of mortal danger?” Nico asked impatiently.

“We’re demigods! Since when are we ever out of danger?”

“Well? What?”

“Do you—”

There was suddenly a scream, the kind of animalistic cry of pain and terror that made Will’s blood curdle in his veins. Nico’s head whipped to the side and his expression was alarmed, which didn’t make Will feel any better.

“Someone’s close to death,” Nico said, confirming Will’s fear as he tapped the side of head. “Life Alert. Fun little power of mine.”

“Not if I can help it,” Will said as he took a throwing knife and cut the band holding them together in one motion. Newly separated and disqualified, they both took off in the direction of the scream with Nico guiding the way.

The scene itself was grisly when Will burst through the underbrush, his brain catching details. Paolo Montes on the ground, axe covered in blood buried in a nearby tree and two rather sickening looking lumps that were Paolo Montes’ arms lying beneath it. Mitchell was ashen and shuddering uncontrollably on the ground.

Will lunged forward, pressing his pressing his palm down on Paolo Montes’ chest in the CPR position. Will felt his magic gush past his usually well-constructed and maintained barriers and push right into Paolo, reinvigorating his dwindling life force and making Paolo’s body jerk. He groaned, and breathed.

“Mitchell,” Will called quietly, looking to the demigod who was obviously going into shock. “Mitchell, are you hurt?”

“I-I’m okay, I think,” Mitchell managed to get out from chattering teeth. “Oh Gods, oh Gods his arms—”

“Mitchell, stay with me,” Will ordered, looking him right in the eyes. “I need you to get a hold of yourself. I can’t move from where I am right now, so I need your help. Do you understand?”

“Okay, okay,” Mitchell said nodding his head hard and fast.

“I need you to get Chiron now. Tell him that there is an emergency and the game is off by order of the camp head medic. I need all of my cabin members, two containers of ice and large plastic bags, and all of the traps in the forest to be unset now. Can you repeat that back to me, Mitchell?”

“You need Chiron, the game is off. Your cabin members...ice and containers, and the traps need to be unset.”

“Good job. Now go, and be careful okay?” Mitchell went sprinting away, and Will squeezed his eyes shut as he organized his thoughts. “Nico, I need help.”

“What do you need?” Nico asked immediately.

“I need you to go into my pack and grab the ace gauze and two sturdy sticks, I’ll talk you through how to make an emergency tourniquet. Do you have any nectar or ambrosia?”

“I have unicorn draught,” Nico said as he gathered the sticks and sat back down by him.

“It’ll have to do. If he wakes up we’ll give him that. After that, it isn’t going to be pretty, but I’ll someone to get Paolo’s arms. If we’re going to have any hope of reattaching then I’ll need them clean and cold.”

“I can try to keep them from starting to rot,” Nico said as he pulled off his sweatshirt and began rummaging through his first aid pack. “I’ve never done it before, but if I can reanimate the dead, then I have to be able to preserve it right?”

“Honestly, that’s some of the best news I’ve heard all day. If you can do that, great, if not I’m more concerned about keeping Paolo alive,” Will admitted, feeling himself start to sweat, heat beginning to build within him. He winced. He didn’t need to sing to use his magic, but it was easier, especially when most of his power was going to keeping someone alive. But he needed to give directions, he would have to tough it out for the moment and conserve where he could. Chiron would probably need him on the reattachment so he would need to be in alright shape. “Okay, we’ll get going on the tourniquets.”

“Are you sure I should be touching him?” Nico asked concerned. “What if I…speed up the process?”

“He’s already lost his arms, how much faster do you think death could possibly approach?” Will snapped at him, before giving Nico an apologetic look. “It’ll be okay, I guarantee it. You aren’t the only one with Life Alert. Now come on, and start wrapping a few inches above the wounds.”

Despite his initial hesitation Nico followed Will’s direction on creating the knot and twisting with the stick, well enough that Will was honestly considering asking Chiron to put Nico on infirmary duty more often. Will could feel the pressure that had built up in the back of his head as he had desperately held back the blood-flow release. Nico held both tourniquets easily, and Will was able to focus his healing magic to keep Paolo’s heart beating, his lungs moving air, and to keep shock from setting in. Thank all the merciful Gods that Paolo was still unconscious, Will thought wryly. Even if he could speak Portuguese, he doubted he could come up with a good explanation for this.

“And now we wait,” Will said as he breathed in and out in a steady rhythm, the rhythm of a heartbeat, the rhythm of healing. “You did a good job, Nico.”

“He isn’t out of the woods yet, not by a long shot,” Nico added. “And I just followed your directions.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you’re good in a crisis. And well,” Will said with a wry grin. “Now’s when the challenge is going to start. I’ve never attached a fully detached limb, let alone two limbs before.”

“And you say I’m morbid,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes, and seemed to listen as Will began to sing.

“Nico, I did it!” Will said excitedly as he exited the Big House. Nico was standing there in different clothes and Will was still wearing his bloodstained scrubs. Weird, Will thought, as he half stumbled, hadn’t it been like noon? Why was it pink outside? “I reattached Paolo’s arms! I really did it! I—oh Gods—”

Suddenly the world turned and Will went with it. Will tripped and sank against a post for the volleyball court, scrabbling at it to help claw his way up, but he found that his arms had apparently been replaced by overcooked noodles. Who would have done such a horrible thing? Nico went over and grabbed him by the side to haul him up straight, which was really attractive. Like Nico who was also super attractive. And Will would have told him so if he could’ve made the words go in his brain space. Had it only been a week ago, maybe two weeks, that Nico had flinched away at Will’s touch? What was with this development? How could one guy be so lucky, Will thought with a rather dopey grin.

“Idiot, and you said I overdo it! You worked through the night and the whole day and you expect…” Nico trailed off, catching Will’s look, as he helped Will walk forward. “I can’t believe you. You are lucky that Cecil and Lou Ellen sent me over here to get you. Did you really think you could walk in this state?”

“Ha ha, sorry Nico,” Will said with what was probably still a smile but he really couldn’t feel his face. And he was pretty sure every part of him was aching. Could hair even hurt? If it could, it was definitely hurting. “I promised you I would help you beat Percy.”

“Why are you even still worried about that?” Nico said with a shake of his head. “Solace, you need to stop worrying about other people and take a day off.”

“Chiron probably won’t let me back in the infirmary for a few days,” Will said as he swayed like tall grass waving in the wind and the world waved back at him. “Power fatigue is rough.”

“Well…that’s good,” Nico said as he chewed his bottom lip. “If you have a few days off…maybe…I won that hundred dollars. Do you want to maybe go somewhere with me?”

“Are you asking me on a date?” Will asked as he blinked furiously. Was this happening? Was this really happening? Will wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t happening because he felt like if he fell over his head would crack like an egg and sunshine and looney tunes might come out of it. Nocturnal lagophthalmos which was the inability to sleep with one’s eyes closed was a thing, and then of course son…sun? Somnambulism—sleep walking. Was Will sleep walking? Was Will even walking? Was Will even alive? Was he next level sleep walking where not only was his body moving for him but the world became a weird dream place where Nico asked him—Will Solace—out on dates? What would possess such a cute boy like him to do such a thing?

“I—If you want it to be a date,” Nico repeated firmly, seemingly tearing his eyes off from the horizon and looking at Will, dark eyes hopeful. “If you want it to be a date, then it’s a date.”

“What do you want?” Will asked.

“I…I want it to be a date,” Nico admitted as he ducked his head back down, and just like that Will wouldn’t have been happier if he could have petted a puppy at Disney World.

“Awesome! Then it’s a date. Woah…was…was the sky always open like that?” Will asked very eloquently, before he toppled over and passed out.

#Solangelo #solangelo fanfic #will solace #nico di angelo

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marshmallow-fireside-keith · 7 years ago

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Aphrodite! Nico, Part 1

#jasicoweek17 #jasico #jason grace #nico di angelo #aphrodite nico #autistic nico

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rosesnvines · 7 years ago

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The Minotaur

Dawn came all bright and glorious the next morning, rousing everyone from their beds. Lucy merely groaned and rolled over, though her eyes were open so as not to knock off the little lion sleeping on her decorative pillow. She watched him sleep as she mulled over the conversation and events of the day before. To summarize, Hades had chosen her and two others to be superheroes! What fun! And the little lion that slept by her side, the Nemean Lion, as she found out, was the only way she could turn into a superhero. All she had to say was, Nemea, power up and the invincible hide of the lion would cover her in a super suit. Almost like Hercules! Except, she was a girl and Hercules was a guy, but Nemea told her that he liked her way better than Hercules already. She rubbed the Nemean Lion’s tummy, causing him to purr happily, while she thought to their conversation the day before. She learned that, besides the invincible coat, she could extend the claws on her gloves and even turn them into knives that could cut into anything; she could create illusions; she had enhanced speed, strength, and endurance; a super sonic roar that could push anything backwards; she could even create a magical shield, which she had done to protect herself and Ghost Hound from the Hydra’s flame; and her special power, which was basically to create a more detailed illusion showcasing whatever the monster wanted to see. She wondered if she’d in fact ever need to use that power, seeing as how Ghost Hound alone needed his powers to revert the monsters back into stones. She and Firebird were only needed to make sure that Ghost Hound was able to turn the monsters into stones and deliver them to Hades. Still, it felt good to be able to help. It gave her something to do to help the Narnians until she and her siblings became old enough to inherit the throne. Well, primarily Lucy had to be old enough for them to inherit the throne, but the four of them were really close in age, so it wouldn’t be long before they would ascend to the throne.

A soft knock was rapped on her door followed by her sister’s voice, “Come on Lucy, it’s time to get up. Mother and Father will be here soon.”

“Right! I’ll be out in a minute!” Lucy called back. She bounced out of bed and dressed quickly, softly explaining to Nemea what was going on as her movement had woken him.

“Will there be breakfast?” mumbled Nemea as he rolled over with a yawn.

“Only if you hurry it up and get those lazy bones out of bed,” teased Lucy.

“OK, OK, I’m up, I’m up.” Nemea took a couple of steps forward on the bed before plopping down again. “Nope, too tired.” His stomach growled. “And I’m hungry too.” Lucy merely chuckled as she walked back to the bed.

“Oh, come on, hop into my pocket. I’ll try and get you something to eat. But you have to be very quiet.”

“I’m so tired, I don’t think I could even snore.”

“Well, you were just a few minutes ago.”

“I was?”

“Yup, but I don’t think it was loud enough for anyone else to hear.”

“Oh good. Don’t scare me like that.” Lucy merely snickered before closing the pocket flap and leaving her room.

“There you are. What took you so long? Mom and Dad are practically here!” Susan berated her.

“Sorry, Susan, I had completely forgotten that I had already gotten my clothes set up the night before and was looking for them in the drawers.”

Susan sighed, “Of course, go figure. Well, go brush your teeth at least, breakfast will be ready in a minute, and Mom and Dad will be here any second.”

“Right!” Lucy dashed off into the bathroom and quickly brushed her teeth. She rushed right back out, right as a car pulled into the driveway.

“Mom, Dad!” she called out as she rushed outside to greet her parents, followed by her siblings.

“Hello! How are you doing?” Mrs. Pevensie hugged each of her children.

“Since last week? Not bad,” quipped Edmund as he gave his mother a hug.

“Not bad? What about that report last night of a monster and superheroes arriving to save the day?” asked their father as he led the way back into the cottage.

“Oh, that, yeah, um, we’re still fine, thanks to those superheroes,” replied Edmund.

Peter chuckled before taking up the narrative, “No, we don’t know who’s behind the masks, but two of them, Lioness and Firebird, explained that Gaia was trying to take over Narnia by combining monsters with her gems to make them more powerful. Hades was the one who found out, and, with Hephaestus’ help, created the gems that gave the superheroes the power to defeat the monsters and hand them over to Hades for safe-keeping.” The family proceeded to sit around the table as Mrs. Pevensie helped Susan serve breakfast.

“Wasn’t there a third one?” asked Mr. Pevensie.

“Yes sir, Ghost Hound they said his name was, he was bringing the stone right away to Hades and had asked them to check to make sure that everybody was alright,” replied Peter. Lucy began picking at her food to prevent anyone noticing her sneaking food to Nemea. Was it the right thing to say? Ghost Hound hadn’t really asked them to per se, that was just what she had said to help put Ghost Hound in a better light to those who had seen him, and were wondering whether he was really a member of the team or not. Lucy also hoped to establish the fact that Ghost Hound was basically the leader of the group since, as Nemea had put it, Cerberus knew more about the whole situation. And yes, Cerberus was the three-headed guardian of Hades’ gates, but he was still a dog, and probably so much cuter than how many described him.

“And Firebird was openly flirting with Susan,” quipped Edmund.

“Ed!” hissed Susan.

Mr. Pevensie’s eyebrow went up as he glanced at his eldest daughter and asked, “So, does this Firebird seem like an excellent character?”

“You mean, besides his quips that reminded us of Edmund? So far so good,” replied Peter with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Which is funny, because he really reminds me of Leo Valdez, and I know Susan doesn’t care too much for Leo . . . man, wouldn’t it be really funny if the only difference was the mask,” quipped Edmund. He shot a glance at Susan, but she clearly caught on to what he was indicating, and refused to look at him to either deny or confirm his idea. Lucy shook her head, everyone knew that, though Leo flirted with every pretty girl who crossed his path, he always seemed to care the most for Susan. And who couldn’t? She was clearly one of the most beautiful girls in all of Narnia, and as a son of Hephaestus, Leo had an eye for beauty. Not to say that Lucy didn’t get caught with some of his corny one-liners, or anyone else for that matter, but Leo seemed to save the special ones for Susan in particular. And Edmund, of course, being practically his best friend along with Prince Corin of Archenland, tried his best to help his sister come to love the mischievous imp. It was a slow progress, but Lucy had noticed that Susan was warming up to him. And now with Firebird, well, if Lucy could find out that he was in fact Leo Valdez, she wouldn’t try to stop him as Lioness. But if it wasn’t, well, she just hoped that she wouldn’t have to use brute force with him. But now that Edmund had mentioned the similarities, Lucy was beginning to think that Firebird was in fact Leo Valdez. But then, who was Ghost Hound?

“Well, it’s good to know that at least Hades has our best interests at heart. I hope the Hydra didn’t mess with your Michaelmas celebrations.”

“Oh, if anything, it made it more fun!” replied Susan with a big grin. The others quickly chorused an affirmation, big smiles lighting up their faces.

“Oh my, now this, I have to hear,” quipped their father as he sat back in his chair with his arms folded and a big smile on his face. The children shot each other big grins before delving into the whole tale. Lucy stayed out as much as possible during the time she had been Lioness, mostly easy considering Peter had just about locked her in the safest room at the barracks, often nicknamed the panic room. Thankfully, he hadn’t actually locked her in, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to save Ghost Hound as Lioness.

“Oh, and we did get to meet Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades,” blurted Lucy.

“Hazel’s half-brother, right?” asked their mother. They had met Hazel before, but not her reclusive half-brother. The children nodded.

“He’s really not all that bad, mainly quiet. I think that’s mainly because so many others despise him merely because he’s the son of Hades. We watched as he pretty much made the rounds, trying to get people to talk to him,” explained Peter.

“We sent Lucy to fetch him to our table when he just about gave up trying to find anyone to talk to,” continued Edmund.

“Did they have any problems with him besides being the son of Hades?” asked their father.

The children shook their heads as Susan replied, “Well besides looking scary, they never really gave him a chance to open up to anyone. He really didn’t open up much to us either, but, he seemed quite content to be just finally included in something.”

“Is he really that scary-looking?” asked their mother.

“Oh, no more than a lion, and I think he became less scary the more we opened up to him,” blurted Lucy. “I think he was enjoying himself for the first time in years.”

“Oh, how horrible!” exclaimed Mrs. Pevensie.

“Well done! You made someone lonely feel wanted and cared for. Good job, all of you!”

“Thanks dad!” they chorused.

“Should we tell them, Frank?”

Mr. Pevensie merely smiled and replied with, “How about we show them?”

“Show us what?” asked everyone excitedly.

“Come with us, and you’ll find out.” That was all they could get out of their parents. With their curiosity aroused, they piled into the car and began the two hour trek to the seashore. Meanwhile , the children continued to give all they could recall learning about Nico di Angelo.

Mr. Pevensie surprised them with a question, “Do you think he would make a good advisor?”

“Dad?”

“As in, someone you can trust to give sound advice and wise judgment when you need it.”

“I think so. I mean, we haven’t asked him to advise us on anything, or judge anything, but I observed him as much as he observed us. He’s not stupid and he notices more than what others give him credit for. Though, now that you mention it, I would like to discuss a couple of battle strategies with him. Perhaps being a son of Hades, he might know a thing or two that could help turn a battle,” pondered Edmund.

“Compared to, say, Ares or Athena?” asked Susan.

“Well, they do have some good strategies, well, Ares has a few questionable ones, but, since Hades is the ruler of the underworld and all, he might have a few tips that only a child of HAdes could obtain.”

“Don’t make it the first thing you talk to him about.”

“I know, I know. We could probably connect over making fun of the school snobs.”

“Edmund!” berated his mother.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Learn about his interests, and go from there,” suggested their father.

“Yes sir.”

“Oh look, there it is!” exclaimed their mother.

“What is?” asked Lucy as the children all attempted to press against the right-side window.

“Ow! You pulled my hair!”

“Get off of me!”

“Hey! Stop pushing, will you?”

“Will you quit that? I’m not a jungle gym!”

“Everybody, sit down!” The four quickly sat down, a couple of hands still pinching at each other. “Give us a minute and you can get out to take a look for yourself.”

“Though you can see a bit of it through the front window,” added their mother.

“Wait a second, is that a castle?” blurted Edmund.

“Is that, our castle?” asked Peter.

Mr. Pevensie shot them a grin in the rearview mirror before replying with, “You got it. That’s Cair Paravel, just about fully restored. It should be completed by your coronation.”

“It looks magnificent!” exclaimed Susan.

“Wait until you see the rest of it,” blurted Mrs. Pevensie.

“Ooh! I can’t wait!” squealed Lucy.

“Well we can’t wait to show you!” said Mrs. Pevensie. In a couple of minutes, Mr. Pevensie had parked the car and everyone practically dove out of the car to get a good look at the progress on Cair Paravel.

“Whoa,” they all gasped. The sight was certainly breathtaking with the castle overlooking the sea.

“And to think that, long long ago, four kings and queens actually used to sit here,” muttered Edmund.

“Exactly, one of whom your brother was named after,” remarked Mr. Pevensie, indicating Peter.

“Yes, Ann, Martin, Rose, and Peter,” rattled off Lucy.

“Well, thank you for not naming us all after them,” quipped Edmund.

Mr. Pevensie laughed, “Now, now, we didn’t know we were going to have just four. Once Lucy was born, we had considered it for future children, but, well, you know your mother can’t have any more children.”

“Which is so sad. I wish I could have some younger siblings,” stated Lucy.

“I know, dear, but, you do have the rest of the country because, in a way, I am their mother as well.”

“But in a few years, that will be Susan and I, and the girls Peter and Edmund marry.”

“That is true, but for now, be their sister,” said Mrs. Pevensie as she hugged her youngest. The family got a quick tour of the first floor of Cair Paravel, the overseer not wanting anything to happen to the royal family. Once the tour was over, the family made the two hour drive back to Imiaimos, the entire time chatting away about how grand Cair Paravel was going to look once finished. As they got closer, a certain dread seemed to fill them, but only Lucy knew immediately what it meant, another monster had arrived.

“Hey, um, I think this same feeling came over me yesterday before the Hydra arrived,” quipped Edmund. His siblings echoed that the same had happened to them.

“Then that must mean that another monster has arrived. Let’s go see if we can help,” said Mr. Pevensie as the car was pulling into town.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Frank?” “They need us right now, Helen. Besides, if we can do anything to allow our superheroes to handle this monster without worrying about the safety of civilians, then that’s something, right?”

“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Pevensie, though she wasn’t too certain. Lucy, however, was itching to get out of the car so she could a hidden spot, become Lioness, and help her team. She had to make sure that the two of them were alright, especially Ghost Hound, he was the most important part. He alone could turn the monsters back into stones. Was Firebird looking after him effectively? She had to get out there, Nemea was the only one who could cut through anything and could shield them from the worst attacks. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before they came across people running from the monster.

“Everyone out! We need to get these people to the barracks!” called out Mr. Pevensie as he brought the car to a stop. Lucy tried desperately to think of some reason to get away from her family to turn into Lioness. Oh why couldn’t she tell them? Nemea said that no one could know, but it was hard having to keep secrets from her family. Aslan, help me, she thought desperately. A thought hit her to run towards the incoming crowd. She acted on instinct and rushed forward. In a matter of minutes, she was lost within the crowd and quickly took her chance to get to a secluded spot.

“Let’s do this! Nemea, power up!” The little ion flew out of her pocket and into the sunstone set in her barrette. The changes happened instantaneously, and Lucy was soon dressed in a leonide suit with the lion’s mane for a hood. She bounded off in search of her team, and it didn’t take long for her to find them. They were moving the monster away from the crowd, but this monster was proving to be rather difficult. Lucy gasped when she paused long enough to get a good look at the monster. It was a minotaur! And it was covered in dark armour! She slowed down her approach, yes, the original minotaur was a horrible monster, but, minotaurs in Narnia had become some of its greatest citizens. Even now, some were helping get the crowds to safety. One approached Lucy when he noticed her stop.

“Lioness, I appreciate knowing that you among so many see us now as friends and family, but please, help your team take out this minotaur. That is the original minotaur and was no doubt sent by Gaia to raise tension between our races. We may be descended from him, but we do not believe as he does. So please, for the love of Aslan, help your team destroy him!”

Lucy glanced at him, determination in her eyes as she nodded and said, “I will.” She took off, reaching Ghost Hound’s side right before the minotaur attacked and blocked the attack with her shield.

“What took you so long?” shouted Ghost Hound, relief evident in his voice at seeing her.

“Sorry, got caught up in crowd control. The royal family is helping get people to safety!”

“Say what?” Lioness nodded at Ghost Hound’s surprised expression. “All the more reason to take this beast down.”

“Right. Where’s the stone located?”

“Hey! No fair!” shouted Firebird as he went sailing over their heads and slammed into a tree.

“It’s on his chest, but be careful, he’s fast.”

“Well then, I guess it’s time for Nemea to show me just how good he is,” said Lucy with a wink. She pulled out a couple of the claws, the two turning into knives the instant they left her paw-like gloves, and rushed towards the minotaur. The minotaur bellowed as he rushed into her attack.

“Lioness, what are you doing? Stop!” called out Ghost Hound. But Lucy just kept on going, though she could tell that Ghost Hound and Firebird were following behind her. They were going to be a while, so she had to work fast, and work fast she did. She could hear Nemea’s voice suggesting a few moves, and she acted on them. She dove under the minotaur’s legs, came up quickly behind him, and thrust a dagger into his side. The minotaur bellowed in rage and pain as he swung out his arm to knock her over, but she ducked and thrust the other knife into his chest armour, cracking it. She jumped out of the way as his big hands came down on her, barely missing her by inches.

“Hey, Lioness, wait!” The sound of Firebird’s voice indicated that the two were coming up quick, but Lucy didn’t wait. She pulled out another claw and sent it flying into the crack. There was a silent pause as the minotaur’s armour cracked open and fell off him.

“Ghost Hound, now!” Lucy kept her eyes on the minotaur as Ghost Hound practically flew by her and brought his glowing scythes down on the minotaur’s chest. It screamed as it melted away into a stone.

“Wow, that was awesome, Lioness!” exclaimed Firebird as he raised his hand for a high five. Lucy gave it to him, big grins on their faces.

“Thanks!”

“Where did you learn to throw knives like that?”

“Oh, I’ve been practising,” replied Lucy with a shrug.

“Nice! Hey, Ghost Hound, aren’t you going to thank her, praise her, or something? She did just save our necks back there.”

“Uh, yeah, good job,” mumbled Ghost Hound as he offered his hand. Lucy shook it, but she began to wonder if there was something else.

“Something on your mind?” she asked. Ghost Hound let out a sigh, she hit the bull’s eye.

“Hades said we shouldn’t reveal our identities to each other, not yet. He thinks we should work on being able to keep our own identities hidden before learning each other’s.”

“Oh, OK.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“Is that what’s been bothering you this entire time,” asked Lucy when she noticed Ghost Hound’s surprised expression.

“Well, I mean . . .”

“What? You said we could at a later time, that’s not a never, man,” remarked Firebird.

Ghost Hound seemed to relax a lot as he said with a smile, “That’s true. I guess I just overthink things, especially things like this because you were really wanting to do it.”

“Well of course we really want to do it! But we understand what Hades is trying to get at. I am finding it rather hard to keep my identity a secret,” stated Lucy.

“Same goes for me,” remarked Firebird.

“Well, I’m glad you understand. Oh, I should get this to Hades, and you should check on the royal family!”

“Say what?” exclaimed Firebird.

“Yeah, Lioness told me that the royal family was helping with the evacuation.”

Firebird glanced at Lioness for confirmation, “Really?”

Lucy nodded as she replied with, “Yes, I saw them before I came over.”

“Then yeah, we’ll go check on them!”

“You go ahead, Nemea is telling me he’s exhausted and hungry, I’d better find the little guy some food.”

Ghost Hound nodded, “Good idea, the both of you deserve it. Good work today, team.”

“Yeah, for our second time at this, we’re pretty good!” grinned Firebird.

“Yeah, well, there was one other thing that was worrying me . . .” began Ghost HOund. He let out a sigh before continuing, “Hades says it’s only going to get worse.”

“Oh.”

“But he told me that Hephaestus is making more to help us when the time comes.”

“Wait, Hephaestus made these?” asked Firebird.

“Um, yeah, the two are clearly working together for our benefit.”

“Wow,” Firebird softly muttered.

“Well, now that we’ve got that cleared up, shall we part ways now? I can practically hear Nemea’s stomach.”

“Oh, right, sorry Lioness, yes. I’ll bring this to Hades.”

“And I’m off to check on the royal family,” blurted Firebird before taking to the skies. In the next second, Lucy was racing back to the barracks, ducking behind a tree for Nemea to change her back into her regular clothes.

“Oh, please hurry and find me some food. I am so hungry!” moaned Nemea.

“I will, but first, I have to get back to my family before Firebird gets to them!” It didn’t take long for her to find them, the all-clear had been given and people were filing out of the barracks.

“Lucy! Where have you been? Don’t ever run off on us like that again!” exclaimed her mother as she wrapped Lucy in a bear hug.

“I’m sorry, mom, but I wanted to see the superheroes in action. They were so amazing!”

“Well, now that your curiosity has been quenched, I hope, you won’t run out on us again,” stated her father. Lucy bit her lip, that was something she couldn’t fully promise.

“I’ll, I’ll do my best, sir,” she finally said. Her father seemed satisfied with the answer and gave her a hug.

“Oh good, you’re alright!” Everyone glanced up as Firebird landed gracefully. “Lioness saw you on her way to help us, and we got worried about you, so, I came to check on you.”

“What about Ghost Hound and Lioness?” asked Peter.

“Ghost Hound is taking the monster to Hades, and Lioness had used all of her power to defeat the minotaur, so she went home to recharge,” replied Firebird.

“That was kind of you to come and check on us,” remarked Mrs. Pevensie.

“And I know this is only the second time you guys have defeated a monster, but is Ghost Hound going to always avoid talking to us by using the excuse to get the stones to Hades?” asked Edmund.

Firebird shrugged, “I don’t know, but if this happens again next time, Lioness and I will have a word with him.” He then turned to Susan and bowed. “Is there anything else you require of me, your highness?”

Susan stifled a giggle before replying with, “Nothing for now, thank you.”

“If there’s ever anything, don’t hesitate to ask.” He took her hand and pressed it to his lips before shooting her a wink and flying off. Lucy noticed a slight blush coming to her sister’s cheeks.

“Oh boy, Leo’s got quite the competition,” muttered Edmund before the family turned to walk back to their car. Lucy and Peter glanced at each other before letting out soft snorts. Yeah, he did, but Lucy wasn’t too worried about it. If it was Leo beneath that mask, then Susan was falling for him. But if it wasn’t, well, things would eventually work themselves out, and Leo would get himself a new girl. Just, in that moment, Lucy was never happier to be alive, and a superhero.

#Guardians of Narnia #narniaweek2017 #narniaweek #Narnia #heroes of olympus #modern AU #superhero AU #super narnians

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supernarnians · 7 years ago