Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“How the hell did you manage to fail this test?”

Students nearby in the classroom stopped their peer grading to glance over, then lost interest and went back to correcting.

Nico shrugged. “Probably because I didn't study.”

"But every single question wrong? That takes some special skill. I mean -" The boy sitting to Nico's left seemed to be unable to speak. He sputtered for a second before practically shouting, “It was true or false!"

“And?”

"The balance of probability alone..."

Nico hated peer assessments on tests. He’d rather the teacher grade them so he didn't have to deal with annoying blonds like this one who couldn't understand the concept of apathy.

The boy ran a hand through his shaggy curls. He had nice hair. Nico would give him that, at least. The boy said, “Like, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm really not. I guess I'm just confused?”

“What's so confusing?”

The boy leaned back in his chair and held Nico’s paper up. He cleared his throat and read aloud: “‘True or false - Sociology is a social science that sociologists study.’ And you put false.”

Nico shrugged again.

“Again, I’m really not trying to be rude here, but what else would a sociologist study? Plants? I don’t understand.”

Nico had misread that question; his dyslexia always kicked in more during tests. He crossed his arms. “I was hoping there would be more questions on Sigmund Freud.”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me,” the blond said. “You wrote in the margins: ‘Fun fact - Sigmund Freud smoked over 20 cigarettes a day. Please give me extra credit.’ Plus a drawing of a duck.”

“Did I get the extra credit?”

“Of course not! The class hasn’t talked about Sigmund Freud at all and I don’t think he’s even a sociology guy. He’s psychology.”

“There’s a difference?”

The boy let his head fall on his desk and pretended to cry.

“Guessing there’s a difference.” Nico was sort of enjoying tormenting this guy.

Lifting his head off the table, the boy looked almost entertained. “Have you been listening at all since the beginning of the school year?”

“Not really, no.”

A sigh.

Nico quickly graded the boy’s test, comparing it with the answers displayed on an overhead projector. He had terrible handwriting, like doctor's note level terrible, and Nico handed the test back to him. “You got a B-.”

“Sweet.”

“Wait.” Nico was flabbergasted. “You, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou, so shocked that I failed - you’re okay with a B-?”

“I never said I was an overachiever. I just try not to get every single question wrong on a true or false test.” The boy raised his eyebrows.

All of these insults sounded horrible, but there was no bite behind them. It was as if the guy were talking to an old friend and wasn’t afraid to insult them. Nico couldn’t tell if he liked it.

The guy's blond curls got more and more disheveled each time he ran his fingers through them. Nico pretended he wasn’t watching.

The guy looked over at Nico and snorted.

Nico narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“You had the gall to write a fun fact on your test and ask for extra credit.” He laughed for real this time. He had a really nice smile. And an even nicer laugh. Like, really nice. It was like sunshine.

“Five seconds ago you thought the extra credit thing was appalling,” Nico said.

“No, I was amazed that anyone could be that lazy. I salute you, my friend.”

Friend? They’d only known each other a few minutes and all they’d done in that time was bicker.

But the guy ran his hand through his hair again - Nico wondered if he was aware he was doing it - and something tugged in Nico’s chest that urged him to go along with it.

“I can’t be your friend if I don’t know your name," he said.

“Oh, I’m Will. And you’re, like… Nick? That isn’t right, you don’t look like a Nick. I'm close, right?”

“Yeah, it’s Nico.”

“I tried.”

“You tried.”

Nico was just surprised the guy - Will, he corrected himself - knew anything about him, even an incorrect name. Nico didn’t tend to make a big deal out of himself in this class and not a lot of people knew who he was. He was mostly okay with that.

“Well, there you have it. I know your name and you know mine. We’re friends now,” Will said as if he were discussing a very important business meeting.

“Oh, is that how it works?” Nico asked, amused. This felt like kindergarten, the simplicity of it. “I thought you had to actually know someone to be friends.”

“That’s the beauty of it. Your friendship lets you get to know each other.” Will’s lips barely suppressed a smile.

“If you insist.”

“I do insist.”

Will’s eyes were very, very blue. Just an observation.

A pause. Then another.

Will's confident air broke for a second. “I hope you don’t think I’m being weird. I just - I don't know. Ignore me."

“No, it’s…” What was the right word? “Refreshing. Most people don’t talk to me if they don’t have to.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Why?”

Will opened his mouth, eyes tracing Nico's face, and closed it again. “No reason." He shrugged. "I mean, also, you hang with Jason Grace and Percy Jackson and that whole gang. I've seen you around. They certainly talk to you."

Nico bristled. "That's different."

"How?"

The teacher (his name started with B, but Nico couldn’t remember anything other than that and too much time had passed to ask) announced that even though the bell would be ringing in about thirty seconds, there would be no packing up until he said so. Everyone took this as a cue to start packing up anyway, and Will blessedly seemed to let the topic go.

Will pulled a leather bag out from under the desk and crammed his binder in there. Why did Nico find it so funny that he used a shoulder bag? Nico’s black backpack was ripped up and about four years old, but it still held everything it needed to.

“Nico, I think your backpack is dying. Send it to the E.R.”

“My backpack is fine,” Nico said, struggling with a stuck zipper and passing up both of their papers to the teacher.

The computerized bell rang through the school. As the boys stood and left the sociology classroom, Nico was unsure if he should say goodbye. He stayed on the safe side and left with a nod to Will.

Whatever had just happened, it didn’t mean anything. Will had probably just been bored and would forget about the friend thing by class the next day. Nico shouldn’t get his hopes up. Had any of his newer friends really ever stuck around? No. This one wouldn’t, either.

No use in thinking about it.

Nevertheless, he spent the rest of the day with a small smile on his face and thoughts of blond curls in his brain.

Chapter Text

The most exciting things that ever tended to happen to Nico in sociology class were when birds showed up in the window or when Nico forgot how to spell bourgeois for the third time in five minutes (the latter happened an embarrassing amount). Watching paint dry would have been a welcome vacation. Not having any friends in the class didn’t help anything, either.

Well, there was that brief incident of actual human communication with that blond guy, Will, but they had only been seated next to each other for the sake of a temporary peer grading session. Will sat at the front left of the class and Nico in the back right, so not much natural interaction took place, but they still smiled at each other when brief eye contact happened or when they were standing in the same vicinity for a period of time. More precisely, Will smiled, sometimes even waving, while Nico was too late in reading quick social cues to really do anything before the unspoken moment passed.

That day, the dreaded mid-semester partner project was to be issued. Some privileged few students were granted the ability to pick their partners in exchange for winning meaningless classroom games or promising Mr. B a week’s worth of TA-ing, but Nico was not one of them. Still, he couldn't bring himself to care too much about who his partner would be, chiefly because he didn't really know anyone in the class anyway. He also knew next to nothing about the actual material, guaranteeing him a low grade no matter what.

Halfway between restless head-on-desk sleep and the waking world, Nico was jolted into consciousness by a hesitant nudge to his elbow.

He jumped in his seat and accidentally knocked his pencil to the floor. “WHA - huhwha?” he blurted.

Someone snorted above him.

Blinking sleep out of his eyes, Nico looked up and saw Will standing over his desk for some reason, looking amused. Not the worst face to wake up to, but still confusing.

“I’ll get that,” Will said, reaching down to retrieve the pencil and place it on Nico’s desk. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead.”

All Nico could manage was, “But you sit over there.” He shook his head in an attempt to shake the sleepiness away and checked the clock at the front of the room. “Class still has twenty minutes. Why are you here? Why is everyone standing up?”

“Uh, the partner project? We’re assigned together,” Will said, motioning his head toward the projector where pairs of names were listed together.

“What partner project?”

Will’s eyes widened in concern. “The one where we have to make a poster board on social classes. The one that's a quarter of our grade. Please tell me you know something, anything, about it.”

Nico shrugged.

Will's eyes widened with the fear of God. “That’s... Oh, wow. That's really very unfortunate for both of us." He ran an anxious hand through his hair. “I don’t really know why I didn’t see this coming. This is Asks-For-Extra-Credit-With-A-Picture-Of-A-Duck Guy, after all.”

“That’s me.”

Nico felt a little awkward sitting down while Will and everyone else stood up. He stood and took a place next to Will, who took this as an invitation to sit on top of Nico’s desk.

Will crossed his arms. “At this point, I’m going to assume you don’t really have any notes to compare, either.”

“Bingo.”

A long sigh. “I don’t even have the energy to be properly appalled. You are so lucky I like this class.” He opened his leather bag, which was already slung over his shoulder, and hauled out a huge three-ring binder with crumpled papers sticking out every which way. The corners were bent, sharpie doodles covered the entire (probably originally white) surface, and the rings refused to open or shut when Will attempted to get papers out.

Nico couldn’t help but smirk. It made him feel a little better that this guy, who definitely had the upper hand here with his whole “knowing the course materials” thing, was a wreck at organizing said course materials.

Will wrestled with the binder as half of the papers fell out of the rings and fluttered onto the floor. He cried, “No!”

This was really amusing. “Do you need any help there?” Nico asked, cracking a smile.

“It’s fine, this happens all the time.” Will knelt and started sorting through the papers on the ground, cursing whenever he dropped one back into the fray.

Nico was definitely tempted to knock the rest of the pages to the ground, or something equally annoying, just to see what the guy would do. Lucky for Will, Nico was feeling merciful.

“Aha!” Will held up a few note pages, looking very pleased with himself. “Found my notes on social classes!”

“Truly an amazing excavation.”

The blond stood again, apparently giving up and leaving the rest of the papers on the ground for now. “Better than no notes at all.”

“Touché.” Nico was starting to feel pretty guilty for not having anything to contribute. Maybe he could read some Wikipedia pages when he got home that night, but two month’s worth of classes probably superseded skimming a few articles.

It didn’t really matter anyway, he told himself. This was just a course in high school in a field of study he would never go into anyway. Who used sociology in their day-to-day jobs?

“Anyway,” Will said. “I took some good notes, but most of this is pretty basic anyhow. And we only have to fill a poster board. Half of that can just be definitions written really big, right?” He sat down in Nico’s seat and went to look for a pencil in his bag (that seemed to be equally as messy as his binder).

“Borrow mine,” Nico said. He pointed to the pencil that had fallen earlier. “So, when’s this thing due?”

Looking exasperated, Will said, “Mr. Brunner told us maybe one billion times and it is literally written in all caps on the whiteboard.” He nodded his head in the direction of the board.

Nico’s eyes lit up. “Brunner! That's it! God, I couldn't figure out what his name was. Thank you.”

“Wait, what? Did you seriously not know his name?” Will asked incredulously, looking up from sketching something on a sheet of binder paper. “It’s been months.”

“To be fair, people call him Mr. B a lot.”

“He wears a name badge.”

Nico was silent. He almost said something about his dyslexia to justify not having read it, but stopped before he embarrassed himself.

He was surprised, then, when Will casually said, “Of course, I couldn't read his name tag if I tried. The letters are too curly and my dyslexia doesn't like it. Do you have any colored pencils?”

Nico was stunned. He never mentioned his dyslexia if he didn't need to - he wasn't ashamed, exactly, but somewhere in that range. Assuming it was simply one of those things you didn't talk about, he usually would wait until absolutely necessary to share that information.

But here was his classmate, who barely knew Nico at all, mentioning it like it was the weather. Before he knew what he was doing, Nico excitedly blurted, “I have dyslexia too!”

“Nice!” Will smiled. Which would have made anyone’s heart skip a beat, for the record. “Okay, so you didn't answer about the colored pencils so I'm going to assume that you either don't own any or you’re hiding them from me out of spite. It's cool, I can just write the color name where the color should be.”

Nico wanted to ask more about the dyslexia thing, still caught in the surprise of having it treated as a non-shameful topic, but Will seemed to be done with that thought. Nico let his eyes fall to the binder paper Will was drawing on. It featured some boxes and a lot of scribbles.

“What is this?” he asked, gesturing to the paper.

“A layout for the poster board. I was thinking we could have “Social Classes” really big in the middle and have its subgroups branching out from it like a web.”

He looked at Nico expectantly with those very nice eyes. It took a second before Nico realized he was supposed to give feedback.

“Oh - well, that sounds good. I mean, I don't know what social classes really are, at least in the textbook sociology way, but the web takes up a lot of space. Less work to do.”

Will laughed. (In case anyone was asking, Nico definitely didn't mentally describe it as radiant. And certainly not heartstopping). “Great minds think alike. My thoughts exactly.”

The scuffle of backpacks being zipped up and the murmur of chatting students started, as was usual when only a few minutes remained in class. Nico was surprised. Time had always dragged when he spent class doodling on the desk and falling asleep, but these last twenty minutes had zipped by.

Unceremoniously grabbing fistfuls of remaining fallen papers from the floor and shoving them, loose, in his bag, Will said something Nico couldn't hear.

“What was that again?” Nico asked.

Will stood up, the last of his papers safely in the shoulder bag now. “I said, how should we contact each other to see when we can meet up? You might not know anything about sociology, but I could always use someone to glue everything and cut papers.”

“Oh,” Nico said. “I - I guess you could have my number. For project things.” Nico didn't give out his number much, but he figured a class project was a worthy exception. He also just kind of liked the idea of being able to contact Will. Which was stupid for too many reasons to count.

He told his number to Will, who entered it into his phone.

N-i-c-o, he saw Will type, and he felt inordinately pleased that his name had been remembered.

A jolt of movement, then a sudden flash of light went off in Nico’s face. “Hey! What was that?”

Will lowered his phone again and tapped around on the screen. “Always gotta have a contact picture,” he said with a regal and only-a-little-bit-adorable expression. Asshole.

Nico had no doubt the picture Will took was unflattering to say the least, but he let it go. Students were crowding towards the door, a sure sign the bell was about to ring. The two of them, Nico now noticed, were the only ones still by a desk.

The bell rang and the classroom emptied at light speed. Mr. Brunner shouted something about the project from his desk at the opposite corner of the room, but most everyone was already gone. Nico usually would have been one of them, but he found himself not wanting to leave.

He didn’t have anything to pack up, so he reluctantly shouldered his threadbare backpack and said, “Cool. I guess I’ll see you.” They walked together to the door.

“I’ll call you,” Will said. “About the project. I don’t want to let it wait until the last minute.” He laughed. “What am I talking about? Of course I want to wait until the last minute and have fun procrastinating. I just don’t think it would be smart.”

Nico found himself smiling. “I don’t really have the best phone presence. How about you just text?”

“Alright, cool. If you get a message from a strange number, that's me. Unless it isn't me and you have a stalker. Then you should call the police. But it's probably just me.”

Nico snorted. “Good advice.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

A beat.

Then, “Okay, I’m off. See you, Nico.” Will half-jogged towards whatever class owned him for the foreseeable future. Nico just stood there by the door for a second before walking away, too.

Well, at least Will was the only one with a number to text, so the ball was in his court. Nico didn't have to do anything until Will sent the first message. Which Nico didn’t care about either way. He didn’t care whether Will texted today or in a month. Either worked with him. Will was just a guy in Nico’s class and obviously Nico could hardly care less.

Not ten seconds later, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. And honestly, Nico couldn’t help it if he grinned.

Chapter Text

If anything in this cruel world could be called irredeemably evil, Nico thought, it would be gym class.

He was suffering through a mile and a half on the track and could practically hear the universe laughing at him. Look at this innocent kid suffer! That's quality entertainment.

Still a few more laps to go. Nico tried to to force his thoughts elsewhere. What was interesting? What would let his mind wander and not notice the torture?

After unsuccessfully trying to get a catchy song stuck in his head, Nico’s thoughts turned to his day. Gnawing in the back of his brain was that sociology project he had to do. It was bothering him more and more to let that guy Will do all the work. Usually he actually helped out when he got paired or grouped up with someone, but he didn’t know anything about this sociology class. Usually he wouldn’t have cared either way. Most of the school (outside of his friends) sure didn’t care about him, anyway.

But this was different. Nico couldn't really put his finger on it, but it was somehow just easy to talk to Will. They'd only spoken twice, and Nico reminded himself often not get his hopes up for an actual friendship, but still. It didn't feel right to let Will do all the work, even if he was likely to remain an acquaintance forevermore.

The burnt-rubber smell of the track beneath Nico’s sneakers, on top of being on the fifth lap, was starting to make Nico feel sick. He laughed at himself, his sister’s voice in his mind saying, Is that all you got? We do this much in our sleep in the Hunters.

Ever since Bianca had joined the Hunters, a selective and specialized military unit for women, she never let Nico wallow in any sort of physical misery. Was he carrying some really heavy groceries? Bianca had to carry 300-pound weights on the regular. Complaining about swim class? You bet Bianca swam miles without breaking a sweat. At this point it was a running joke, not actual criticism.

The thought of Bianca’s laughing face sent a sad note through Nico. She had been off doing whatever she did for the Hunters for a while now, and each deployment they called her away for longer and longer amounts of time. Nico really, really missed her. Bearing their massive, empty house and their father without her wit and humor made things tense around the di Angelo home.

Man, this run seemed longer than a mile and a half.

-

Bzzt.

Nico looked up from his laptop to check his phone, feeling the corner of his mouth twitch when the sender’s name popped up on the screen:

Will: do you care where we do the project?

It was nice that it wasn’t his father for once. Attention immediately dropped from his homework, Nico closed his laptop and tapped out:

Nico: Why?

Will: bc literally anywhere would be better than my house rn. my mom has been playing the same loud country album for four days straight and my calm and collected demeanor can only last so long

Nico laughed out loud at that. He was about to suggest they meet at Starbucks for the project when another text came through:

Will: does your place work? you don't seem the type to have crafting supplies so i’ll bring some of my own

Oh. It was probably just stupidity that made Nico not consider his own house as an option, but he immediately recoiled at the thought.

Nico’s house could be described in many ways, but the best word to sum it up would be cold. His father was insanely rich through some mysterious means and had apparently gone to the Oliver Warbucks School of Design - meaning their whole house was filled with marble columns and Greek statues and every stereotypically rich thing imaginable. It was comical. Nico hated to wear dress shoes in the house, because then he could hear the click-clack of his footsteps off the marble floor, echoing around the space and making him feel completely alone.

The halls were filled with priceless jewels and every piece of exquisite decor this side of the equator, but it all still added up to the same result: Emotionless. Soulless. Cold.

Then there was the issue of Nico’s father himself. Nico would have described him to a police sketch artist as a high-ranking member of the Illuminati who looked up to Jack Skellington for fashion advice. Even if he often tried to connect with Bianca and Nico, there was something chilling about his demeanor. Heck, the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees just being around him.

Nico could barely remember his mother, but his stepmother, Persephone, definitely disliked him. She didn’t actively make his life hell or anything, but she also couldn’t be described as warm or fuzzy. She wasn’t even in the country for half the year, though. Some sort of foreign exchange thing with her home country, Greece.

Nico stared down at his phone, reread Will’s suggestion to come over to his house, and reflected on his new friend.

Will was warm. Bright. He seemed to glow, as if the sun were radiating from his every move. The thought of Will in Nico’s cold mansion, strolling along through the impersonal marble and obsidian, was such a clash of concepts that Nico could hardly picture it. Someone who shone as brightly as Will wasn’t meant to be in this cold tomb of a building. People like Will were supposed to be in sunny indie coffee shops and laughing with big groups of friends.

Nico: I can't do my house either. What if we bring our supplies to the library or something?

They were still really new friends. Will didn't need to see his home life yet.

Will: you say “our supplies” as if you have anything to bring lol

Will: i’m joking. tone is hard through text

Will: whatever

Will: oh and yeah the library works

-

Nico didn’t know if studying was always this boring or if he was just bad at it.

He never had to try too hard in classes that involved formulas and definite ways to do things. As long as he read the instructions, his brain worked well for those concepts. So he could usually sleep through math as long as he skimmed the day’s textbook pages afterward. It would still get him an A.

For the other classes, Nico tried… enough. He passed them just fine, usually with As and Bs. He knew what he was capable of, had calculated what he needed for his GPA, and did that.

So Nico was expecting to be fine not listening to anything in sociology. According to his initial GPA calculation, it wouldn’t affect anything much if he got a low grade. All he had to do was pass, because it was the same number of graduation credits whether he got an A or a C. It wasn’t relevant to his life, it was worth half the credits of a regular class, and come on. Sociology? This would be a breeze.

But now Nico knew nothing. Not what they had been learning, not what the partner project was, not even the teacher’s name until recently. What little energy he had devoted to studying was for history and science, the subjects that actually had to be explained. He had never even bothered to crack open his sociology book.

Until now.

A sort of panic had motivated Nico to catch up fast. Even if he had given himself the freedom to get a C in this class, he had slipped farther than he had meant to. He hadn’t paid attention at all, which had seemed fine at the time, but now he was realizing that it took at least some understanding to pass.

And yeah, he felt guilty about pulling his own weight in the project with Will. The vague goal in Nico’s mind was to show up at the library full of newfound knowledge about sociology, dazzling Will with his exponential increase in intelligence. It was not going awesome.

He had pored over the chapter on social classes, since that was the project’s subject, but it was less of a chapter and more of a brief page with very little detail. The valuable information had probably been in the class lecture, and he had undoubtedly been sleeping through that.

Nico dropped the textbook to the ground, flopped back on his bed, and groaned. Hours of studying and he was only barely certain he would pass the class at all. He was just about ready to accept that he would walk into the library meeting with Will with his tail between his legs when his phone buzzed.

Turning his head toward the sound, Nico saw his phone all the way over on his dresser. He sighed. Could he rest for more than two seconds without an interruption?

He rolled off the bed, stepping on his textbook along the way, and snatched his phone off a pile of books. Grumbling about nothing in particular and expecting a text from his father about something meaningless, as usual, he read:

Will: this is a reach but do you have any glitter?

If Nico hadn’t been so tired he would have burst out laughing. As it was, he still snorted and thought for a second.

Nico: I was about to say no, but I might actually have some in this stupid house of mine. Just a minute

Tiredness forgotten, Nico bounded out of his room and down his stairs (Yes, his room had its own flight of stairs. Ridiculous). He screeched to a halt at the last step, though, realizing he would have to ask his father about it.

Nico wished Persephone were there. They might dislike each other, but at least he could ask her and get a quick, emotionless answer. She would say either yes or no, walk away, and then Nico would at least be on the right track. But if he had to ask his father, it would just be awkward and guilt-inducing. For someone who wanted to be close to him, Nico's father was was spectacularly bad at it. If Nico asked him about something as absurd as glitter, it would turn into a whole fiasco and Nico would be sorry he asked.

Nope. Not worth it. They probably didn’t have any, anyway. Who in this house would have ever purchased glitter?

Nico: Sorry. Don’t have any.

Will: worth a shot

Nico: Where would we even put glitter?

Will: i don’t know. maybe over the whole poster board. go for it

Nico: ...

Will: it’s art nico. you can’t explain it

Seeing Will use his name sent a happy note through Nico. He loved how it felt talking with Will. They barely knew each other, but in these little moments, everything felt easy. It was inexplicable. Comfortable. Effortless.

A smile crept up Nico's face as he typed:

Nico: You’re right. Can’t explain it.

Chapter Text

Nico was on edge. He felt like he was supposed to bring something to the library meeting with Will, but couldn’t figure out what. Supplies? All he had were scissors and highlighters. Notes? No, he didn’t write any. Maybe he could find that chapter on social classes in the sociology textbook and make some last minute notes just to look good.

He paced around his room, scanning every surface for potentially useful objects to bring. Calligraphy pens? No, those were embarrassing.

Settling on bringing just the textbook and himself, Nico hurriedly pulled on some shoes and scurried downstairs to the front door. Jules-Albert was waiting and he would have to leave soon.

But he stopped in his tracks when he saw his father by the door, waiting expectantly. Nico often wondered if the man had chosen a gleaming white mansion for the sole purpose of always standing out creepily in jet-black robes, because if so, it was working marvelously. He looked like a villain in a Disney movie. Groaning, Nico trudged to the door and looked up at his father’s disapproving gaze.

“Where are you going?”

Like he cared. “Out.”

His father raised an eyebrow.

“With a friend.” Were Will and him actually friends? The other boy had said so, but they still barely knew each other. Nico hoped they would end up real friends, but - whatever, he only needed to tell the simplified version.

“Would I approve?”

Nico glared. “It’s just to the library for a project. It’s the most appropriate activity I could possibly be doing.” He waved his textbook in the air for emphasis.

“Hm.”

Nico decided to take that as permission and ducked outside, where Jules-Albert was waiting in the overly luxurious family car. Nico hopped in, said, “Library,” and they were off.

Jules-Albert didn’t make conversation. He never did. And every time, Nico was grateful. It was one thing to have a French chauffeur appointed by his father to bring him places, but it was another to have one who always stayed quiet.

Nico checked his phone three separate times on the very short drive to the library. The first was to check the time. (They were on time.) The second was just to make sure Will hadn’t texted to say that the location had changed and he hated Nico and they would never really be friends. (Will hadn’t texted anything.) So the third was to check the time again, because what if he mysteriously all of a sudden was hours late or something? (He was not.)

As they pulled up in front of the big brick building, Jules-Albert moved like he was going to get out.

Nico saw where this was going. “Nonono, I can open my door by myself, really,” he protested, unbuckling his seatbelt and attempting to open his door. Locked.

It was no use. Jules-Albert was already outside the door, opening it full fancy-chauffeur-style. Nico rolled his eyes, grabbed the textbook, and got out, not making eye contact with anyone. He barely had time to feel embarrassed over his ridiculously expensive family car/chauffeur combo before he spotted an excited blond waving from the doors.

Nico walked very fast away from the car and motioned frantically behind himself to Jules-Albert, signalling that he should leave.

The man got the message, but not in time before Will jogged to meet Nico halfway and said, “May I ask about Your Highness’s car?”

Nico glared. “Whatever. Let’s go inside.”

Will dropped it, to Nico’s great relief. He gestured to some supplies as Nico held the door.

Will said, “Okay, I brought different types of poster board and some different markers we can use, but right now we just need to figure out what info we should put on here.”

“Right." Floundering for something to contribute, Nico held up his textbook. “I brought this, I guess.”

Will barely looked up from inspecting his markers. “Oh, thanks. I forgot mine. It doesn’t have much on social classes, but-”

“Yeah, I know. Just that little bit on 267. Can’t hurt, though.”

They chose a table far away from a group of obnoxious children. Will started to arrange the poster board so they could work on it, but paused. “Wait, how do you know that? You said you hadn’t read it at all.” Will’s eyes were really blue in this light, which was pretty unfair considering this was a public library with lights that most would consider unflattering. Jerk.

“I just flipped through it a bit. There's barely a page that's relevant to us,” Nico said. What he meant was, I spent hours going through this cursed book to impress you and found nothing but half a page. Life is disappointing and terrible. But I learned a lot about consumerism and the sociology of religion along the way, though. So there’s that.

Will looked skeptical, but shrugged it off. He penciled out a design on the poster board similar to the sketch from class. “If the web goes here, that's the maximum amount of space taken up by the least amount of work. And we can sub in definitions over there.” He pointed.

Nico cracked a smile. “‘Maximum amount of space taken up by the least amount of work’ sounds like a math rule. Call it The Principle of Laziness.”

Will looked up from his sketch, grinning. “I like it.”

“The Apathetic Theorem.”

“I’d pass that class in a heartbeat.” Will laughed. “Do you have good handwriting?”

“Oh.” Nico coughed uncomfortably and crossed his arms. “Good enough, yeah.”

Will gestured to the poster board. “I need to make this title look nice. Can you do it? I’ve been told my handwriting isn’t exactly stellar.”

Remembering Will’s doctor-note chicken scratch writing from that one quiz, Nico said, “Yeah, you’re not the neatest in the world. I can write some fancy letters if we need, though.”

“Really?” Will seemed intrigued. “How?”

Nico cringed. “My - uh, my father makes me take these… calligraphy classes. If I have the right pens I can do the title, I guess.” He shrank in on himself.

“That’s so cool! You’ll do all the titles, then.”

“My pens are at home.” Nico was suddenly glad he had decided not to bring them. Few things in this world were as lame as his mandatory calligraphy classes.

“Huh. Guessing you can’t just borrow my ballpoint for it.”

“Not quite.”

“Well, we can do that another day, then.” Will sorted through an enormous bucket of markers, blowing blond flyaway strands out of his eyes as he leaned forward. “Can you give me a hand? I swear, it should not be this hard to find a single marker in here that hasn’t dried up.”

Nico nodded and attempted to join the search, but there was really only room for one set of hands to be rooting through the box. If Nico tried to help, he would be getting a little too close for comfort. He resigned to awkwardly standing in the general vicinity and trying to give the vague impression that he was helping.

Eventually he worked up the courage to dart in and grab a giant handful of markers, bringing them off to the side so he could sit down opposite Will and actually help out. They inspected each marker by attempting to scribble on some scratch paper, and Will had been right: every single marker was dead.

“How did you come into owning so many of these that have all, without fail, died completely?" Nico waved a marker for emphasis. "A really bad garage sale?”

Will sighed. “Who knows? My mom is pretty crafty, so I might have grabbed the reject bucket or something.”

After testing another three duds, Nico said, “Yeah, you grabbed the reject bucket.”

Will laughed, which made his eyes sparkle, which was unfair to all those who had to witness it and keep their composure. “Sue me,” he said. He gave up on the markers, tossing one of them back to the bucket. It missed, which sent both of them into giggles. And Nico did not consider himself the giggling type, so that said something.

As they laughed, there was something in the way Will studied him for a moment - so kind and warm, as if he understood Nico perfectly, right down to his very core. As if they’d known each other for years instead of days.

Taking a deep breath, Will said, “Well, that leaves us with no markers and no calligraphy pens. I might not have thought this through as well as I thought.”

Nico tsk tsk’d him.

Will shifted in his chair. “So how did you even start calligraphy? That’s a pretty specific hobby.”

Ooh, straight for the embarrassing thing. Okay. Nico hesitated a moment before neutrally saying, “My father likes me to do it.”

“Do you like to do it?” Will’s eyes flashed with something between challenge and understanding.

Nico took a deep breath. “It helps with my dyslexia.” Wow, he brought it up again. He was on a roll lately, it seemed.

“Really?” Will looked up from the markers and raised his eyebrows. “I can never read those curly letters.”

“Usually I can’t either, but when I’m focusing on the calligraphy letters specifically, it helps separate them. But only if I’m the one writing them." Nico tried to look as if he weren’t talking more about his dyslexia right now than the last three years combined.

“Huh. Maybe I’ll look into that.”

An elderly librarian’s voice crackled over the speakers that the library would be closing in fifteen minutes.

Nico surveyed the table. “We haven’t gotten a single thing done.”

Will seemed surprised. “Oh! I didn’t even notice. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess."

Nico didn't know what to read into the look on Will's face. Was it anxiety or happiness there?

“Right," Will continued. "Let’s grab some glue sticks to at least get some colored paper backgrounds on this thing,” Will said, tossing Nico a glue stick from his bag. Nico caught it and nodded.

They worked in comfortable silence for a while that was broken when Will started to laugh quietly.

“What?” Nico looked up.

Looking pretty amused with himself, Will held up his hand, his palm covered in dried glue. “It’s that thing where you let glue dry on your skin and then peel it off. It’s fun, we all did it as kids.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’ll pass.”

“Your loss.”

“Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem like the best way to get the pages glued. Maybe if you used the glue on the paper… ” He pantomimed the process.

“Smartass,” Will said, no longer working on the poster board at all. He wiped the rest of the glue off onto his pants. “I’m sort of giving up. There’s only so much we can do in the next ten minutes before the library closes, anyway. But…”

“But what?”

“But before we go I should probably fix these.”

Will held up a pair of scissors so ridiculously covered in tape and glue and various doodads that it was a wonder you could see the blades at all. “I may have messed up a little,” he said, cheeks red. Upon a closer look, Nico could see there were also strings wound around the whole thing.

Nico was so astounded he laughed out loud. He quickly silenced himself, but still said, “How the hell? How did you manage - is that a paper clip chain around the handles?

“I… guess it is.” Will half-snorted and looked at it. “It’s all of the miscellaneous stuff from the bottom of the marker bin. Earlier, I was just passing the time by making a weird little sculpture thing out of all the odds and ends in here. But then I realized just now that these are my mom’s good scissors, so I have to, uh,” he regarded the disaster. “Rescue them. It’s not going too well.”

Rolling his eyes, Nico motioned for Will to hand them over. He did.

Will looked sheepish. “I was hoping to detangle it all before I got picked up, but I think it’s kind of clear that I wasn’t doing too great.”

“Yeah,” agreed Nico. “But it’s nice not to be the only one dropping the ball for a change.”

“Hey, don't drag yourself like that.” Will frowned. “You’re helping. You can help with the calligraphy. And taping things once I figure out what we should say.”

Will was being too nice, which just made Nico feel guilty. “I want to help with that, too. If I could just read your notes, I could help decide what to write. I could write half of it myself. I could write all of it!” He punctuated his statement by wrenching free a wad of dried glue from the scissors.

Will shook his head. “Then I would be dropping the ball. We can split it, how does that sound? I’ll show you my notes and we can each write half.”

“That works,” Nico said. Man, these scissors were so hopelessly entrenched in glue and string, it would be a miracle if he could get all of it off.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw an idea spark in Will’s mind, noticed tension forming in the other boy’s shoulders as he started to speak. ”I mean, as you’ve probably noticed, though, Nico, my handwriting is not the neatest. Plus, when I take notes I make all sorts of little symbols and shortcuts for myself that only I understand, so it wouldn’t really be fair to just dump the notes on you and hope you figure them out.” Will tapped his fingers anxiously on the table.

“Oh, okay. I do that, too.” Nico wasn’t used to seeing Will nervous. He could practically hear the boy trying out different words in his head before he spoke. But Nico was barely paying attention. He was so close to getting this certain paper clip dislodged from the scissor contraption, he was only focusing on that.

Will’s eyes darted around as he went on. “So maybe I could sort of,” he shrugged overly casually. “Walk you through the notes sometime if you want? Just us. We could go to Starbucks together or something and… make sure you understand all of it? Maybe get coffee. Or lunch. If you want. I mean, we don’t have to, and I could just tell you the gist of it now and you can write based on that. But, y’know, if you would want to have me there then we could do that. Together. If you want.”

Nico half-looked up from his project. Will was redder than Nico had ever seen him. Nico didn’t quite get why. He turned his attention back to the scissors and glue. “Why do we need to do that? Can’t you just show me the next time we meet up for the library?” Aha! He finally got one of the biggest strings out. Now he could focus on removing the paper clips.

Nico looked up again and also didn’t really understand why Will seemed to crumple at Nico’s words. It was just the obvious solution to the problem at hand.

Will ran a hand through his blond curls. “Oh. Yeah, totally, of course. I’ll just show you the next time we come to the library. That’s fine. Forget I said anything.”

A silence followed.

Pointing to the loudspeaker above them, Will said, “We should go. They are closing soon.”

-

It wasn’t until exactly 2:03 a.m. that night, when Nico woke with a start, that he realized what had just happened.

Chapter Text

SHIT.

Nico all but sprang out from his covers, instantly snapping wide awake and fumbling to get out of bed. He somehow accidentally wrapped himself in a sheet toga in the process, but he couldn’t be bothered to escape it.

Phone. Where was his phone? He scanned the room in a stupor that was groggy and on high alert all at once. Come on, he was glued to his phone at all times, where was it now when he needed it?

Traitor, Nico thought vehemently as he checked under his pillow for the second time.

Finally he saw it in the dim light, its corner peeking out from under his bed. He grabbed it up and turned it on. Nothing.

Huh. Nico didn't know what he’d been expecting. A follow-up text from Will about today, explaining everything? But the lack of messages did give his brain an opportunity to slow down and think for a second.

Had Will just asked him out?

Those words echoing in Nico’s mind felt foreign. This sort of thing just didn’t happen.

He ran through the scene in his head again and felt his stomach contract with something he refused to call butterflies. Resisting smacking himself, he turned over Will’s words in his memory. Starbucks? Suggesting a completely unnecessary study meeting? The way Will’s face had been red as a tomato while he fumbled over his words?

Shit. Shitshitshit.

How had Nico not seen it? Why had it taken until now, at this moment - he checked his digital clock - 2:03 a.m. - for him to realize? He groaned. This was a mess.

Then it really hit him. The whole situation. What it meant.

Will had actually asked Nico out.

A million questions surged through his head at top speed.

Really?

What?

Why?

How?

Was he sure?

Really?

His first impulse was to go to the messaging app and open up his conversation chain with Will, but he stopped still in his tracks when he got there. Just what was he thinking of writing? He needed to figure some things out.

Breathe, Nico. Start with the easy questions. What would he say, yes or no?

His immediate thought was yes, of course, absolutely. What kind of idiot would say no?

Then it was like his brain split into two warring sides.

Hold up! How do you even feel about Will?

-Shut up. Let me have this.

You can have this, but at least think about it seriously. Do you even like him?

-Yes! Dumb question. Next?

Because you were never really clear with yourself about it. What’s going on there?

Nico cursed at the logical part of his brain. Okay, he had never really let himself have an Official Crush on Will because it was such a long shot. It was so out of the range of possibility of things that would actually happen in Nico’s life that it would have just been painful to let himself really fall. But at the same time he also hadn’t been able to help looking at Will’s hair, or hearing his laugh, or watching his smile, or-

He was getting off-topic.

The point was, that was all just automatic and defensive to make sure he didn’t let himself fall for someone so unattainable. He hadn't noticed he was doing it, distancing himself. And besides, it hadn’t worked. At all. But now all that was turned on its head. This was a golden - if unforeseen - opportunity.

Nico thought about Will’s voice, the way he had jumped right into being friends with Nico and skipped the awkward acquaintance part, the way he found surprising ways to make Nico laugh, the way he was so bright and amazing but so real all at the same time, and - yeah. This could work.

He was about ready to text Will about it when the blank text box stopped him. There was still something missing.

Well, if he was being honest with himself, he just… couldn’t believe Will actually liked him. That wasn’t something people usually felt towards him. Disinterest? Yeah. Apathy? Yup. Vague tolerance? You bet. He felt blessed whenever he found someone who actually actively wanted to be his friend, much less this.

This. What exactly was this? It was insanely lucky is what it was. Not only did an actual living human being ask him out, but it was also the best possible person. The one he could talk with effortlessly after knowing for so short a time, the one who he felt genuinely happy being around. It was too good to be true.

His thoughts seemed to take that as an invitation to run with the idea. Too good to be true. It was, wasn’t it? These things didn’t happen to Nico. Was this real? Was it a joke? No, he had more faith in Will than that, but maybe Nico had misunderstood. Maybe he was blowing this out of proportion.

He played the scene yet again in his mind. Will had never actually said the word date. Was Nico reading into this too much?

Remembering more details didn’t help. Each little thing could be explained away with other possible factors. Will’s red face? Will was overheated, not embarrassed. The suggestion to go to Starbucks? A useful one, like Will had said. To decode his handwriting and make sure the project went well. Will’s crushed look when Nico declined? Imaginary. Nico might have made that up in his head. Who’s to say?

The more he thought about it, the less sure he was about anything. Maybe Will didn’t even think of Nico as a friend at all. Maybe Nico actually really annoyed Will but Nico was too dense to be able to tell. Maybe Will hoped to be rid of him once this project was over and was just putting on a polite, friendly face to be nice. That was it, wasn’t it? Nico was just making all of this up. None of this supposed friendship or date request or anything was real. None of it.

Hold up. Nico shook his head to clear his thoughts. Jumping to conclusions much? He took his phone and scrolled up through a few of the conversations he and Will had sent each other before, barely stifling a grin at the exchange about whether or not he had glitter, of all things.

The more he read through the messages, the more he started to notice things. Like how Will was always the first to text. How his responses were almost always longer and included questions to keep the conversation going. And how the reasons for initially texting Nico each new conversation turned flimsier and flimsier each time. As if Will had been looking for excuses to talk to him.

And suddenly Nico saw it all from Will’s point of view. Poor Will had been dealing with Nico, who never texted first, who often responded with short, if not one-word answers, and worst of all, who had said no to Will asking him out. If there was anyone here with valid worries about whether someone liked them, it was Will. Nico had to practically invent reasons to feel like Will didn’t like him, but Will had a treasure trove of actual reasons to think that Nico hated him.

And that was utterly ridiculous. Nico just needed to suck it up tell Will already. Will had put himself on the line, it was the least Nico could do to respond and put him out of his misery.

He eyed the keyboard. What should he say?

The clock flashed 2:08. It was still the middle of the night. Now wasn’t a good time to text. It would be weird. He should wait, right? Yeah. He would wait.

Before he could stop himself, he typed “yes” and hit send. Nothing else, just “yes”.

As fast as he could, he turned his phone to silent, chucked it under a pile of thick blankets, and retreated back to his bed as if the phone were a wild animal that could jump out and maul him at any moment.

He pledged to himself that he wouldn’t check his phone until morning - he wasn’t about to put himself through the torture of checking every two minutes. Settling uneasily back into bed, he laughed in spite of himself. This was going to be the least restful night of sleep in history.

Chapter Text

Ding.

Will half-opened his eyes, squinting at the bright light of his lock screen shining right by his face. Ugh. This was why he usually liked to sleep with his phone off. And for that matter, away from his pillow and face, where it could blind him like right now.

He grumbled and considered just pushing it away, but his curiosity combined with the bleary haze of bad judgement that came with grogginess and won out. He read the text:

Nico: yes

Will stared at the screen. What the hell?

Okay, first order of business before anything else, he needed to turn the screen brightness way the heck down. Phew. Now he could think.

He opened the lock screen and checked the conversation to see if there was anything else. There wasn't. Just “yes”.

Why was Nico texting him single words at - what time was it? He checked his phone’s clock: 2:10 a.m. The middle of the night. And while it was refreshing to see the boy actually text first for once, this was weird. He checked the above conversation to see if his own previous text had been a question or something that Nico was just responding to, but it wasn't. This was just out of the blue.

His eyes flicked to his autocorrect bar. “Yes” was one of the pre-done options sometimes. Maybe Nico had been tired and accidentally tapped that. In which case Will should just ignore this.

But that wouldn't explain why it was lowercase. The autocorrect bar was always capitalized if it was the first (or only) word in a sentence. This had been hand-typed. Well, that could have been an accident, too. And in that case it was likely that there would be a follow-up text correcting whatever typo he just made. Will elected to wait a moment and see.

Nothing else came through. He was just stuck with “yes” and a vague sense that he should know what it meant.

Text strangeness aside, Will still felt a surge of embarrassment just at the thought of Nico.

Great. Just as soon as he had managed to stop thinking about it, the guy had to show up on his screen at 2 a.m. and remind him all over again.

The library had been a disaster. Will had spent the whole night since going though his memory with a fine-toothed comb, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong, what signal he must have misread. No matter how it had happened, Will had officially secured the title of “World’s Most Mortified Individual.”

Why had he asked Nico out? Why had he done that? What part of him had thought that would be a good idea? They’d spoken a grand total of like, three times. And all probability pointed to Nico being straight. In retrospect, it was glaringly obvious that Will had been indulging in wishful thinking.

If he had been standing up instead of wrapped in a blanket cocoon, Will would have stomped his foot like a toddler. Nico had been shaping up to be really good friend material. Why did Will have to go and make it weird? Will would just have to tell Nico to forget this ever happened and hope that Nico would still be his friend. Would he still? Will wasn’t hopeful. Nothing like a rejected date request to damn a fledgling friendship to the fires of hell.

He sighed. The “yes” was still there, waiting patiently for a response. It had probably been an accidental text, anyway. No meaning behind it. Just a tiny reminder of Will’s wounded pride.

Just a lone word in a bright green chat bubble.

For the first time, he let his thoughts turn to exactly what that lone word was. “Yes” was a response. It was an answer. To what?

He batted away his first thought. Nico was not talking about that. About the date. People didn’t send single-word texts with no detail and no context to someone they were trying to communicate with. At least Will hoped not.

His eyes widened as he realized a certain fact: Nico hadn’t said no to the date thing. He’d just shrugged it off as not even being a date. Maybe he’d misunderstood. Maybe he hadn’t known Will was asking him out at all. Maybe -

Wishful thinking much? He couldn’t not have understood. Your face was probably the color of a fire truck.

Another sigh. His judgemental inner dialogue was right as always.

Still, there was just enough doubt in Will’s mind now to turn to the “yes” again and wonder. Yes what? Yes to some running joke that Will was forgetting?

...Yes to the date?

Stop. You’re embarrassing yourself. Go to bed.

Right again.

Will gave one last look to the text before closing the app and shutting his phone off. He wasn’t about to embarrass himself by responding to a 2-in-the-morning accidental text as if it were real. He was going to go back to sleep and pretend like he wasn’t flailing in a pit of gut-churning embarrassment, like a self-respecting person would do.

It took a grand total of two seconds after he closed his eyes before he started thinking about it again. What if the text was real? What if it meant something?

Go. To. Sleep.

Will turned to his other side, away from the cursed phone. He was just going to ignore it. Maybe Nico would explain in the morning. And either way, it was probably just an accident that he sent it. A series of coincidental events that led to Nico’s sleeping elbow or something pressing the keys. Will would stop thinking about it in 3… 2… 1. No more thinking. Good. He would close his eyes again and fall instantly into a deep and restful sleep right… now.

Immediately a series of images flooded Will’s brain: A halo of black hair. Nico’s eyebrow raised in disbelief. The warm sound of his sarcastic laugh. Nico casually leaning back in a chair, a set of deep, dark eyes, and the shadow of a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth.

At this point Will was mentally hitting himself with a broom. Go! To! Sleep!!!!

But it really was nice hanging out with Nico. And the library project meetup had actually been really fun before Will screwed it all up. Will thought they clicked together. And he could have sworn he caught Nico staring at him a few times.

Straight boys did not stare. In fact, straight boys avoided all eye contact and non-surface-level conversation like the plague. Plus Nico took calligraphy classes. That was pretty gay, right?

Stop stereotyping, Will. That’s not even a gay thing.

He ignored himself again. The text bounced around in his head. Maybe Will was right and Nico really had misunderstood earlier. Then Will could pretend like this all never happened and start over. Was he really so sure this wasn’t salvageable?

He turned back to his phone, hating himself as he opened up the conversation again. It hadn't changed. Shocker. Will needed more information, and he needed to ask in a way that wouldn't embarrass him if the “yes” really turned out to be a typo.

He typed “please clarify” but backspaced it all. Too technical. Just because he wanted to be a doctor someday didn't mean he had to text like one.

Then he tried “what does that mean?” but deleted that, too. Too formal.

He settled on typing a single question mark, hesitated for a moment, then hit send. If Nico was going to be brief, then so was he. And if the “yes” had been an accident, then Will’s response was still reasonable. It was normal to question being sent a single word in the middle of the night, right? Right. Will was in the clear.

After half an hour of going through various social media platforms on his phone and pretending he wasn't waiting for a text back, Will gave up and shut off the screen. He could just check in the morning. It wasn't like he should even care that much anyway, he told himself. This didn’t matter in the grand scheme of life. Will obviously considered getting a good night’s sleep more important than waiting for a text response.

Still, he made sure to keep his ringer on and let the phone stay next to his pillow.

Just in case.

Chapter Text

Will told himself to stop drumming his fingers on the table. His hand didn’t seem to care.

Focus on something else. What could he focus on? This was a sociology classroom. He looked to his left, where a poster on capitalism boasted facts about economies and other details Will had already memorized a hundred times. Trusty poster. It had helped him on a few quizzes.

Ugh. Now his leg was in on the gig, bouncing under his desk. Will didn’t bother trying to stop it. It would just start up again.

He always fidgeted when he was nervous, but this was getting excessive. He probably looked like he had downed two triple espressos after snorting pure caffeine. He resisted the urge to look up at the door again to see if Nico had shown up yet.

This was stupid. This was so stupid. Why was Will like this? Why was he a wreck waiting for some guy to walk through a door? He was a well-rounded individual with a multitude of activities, friends, and problems. This should not be eclipsing everything. This was not an important occasion. This was not cause to freak out. What was the worst that could happen?

Wait, no - he didn’t want to go down that route. What he meant was, why was he getting so worked up over this? He’d been in awkward situations before. He’d handled them. Why couldn’t he handle this now?

Nico hadn’t responded to his text in the morning, so Will was left with every bit of vagueness he’d felt that last night. So when Nico showed up to class that day, which would be any minute, Will still wouldn’t have enough information to go off of. Should he act distant and respectful, as if Nico really had rejected him? Should he act normal, as if Nico hadn’t understood the date thing? Should he talk to Nico at all?

Don’t look up. Don’t look up. Don’t look up. Will looked up at the door again. Nothing.

While waiting for class to start, a pair of kids somewhere behind Will were in the midst of a vicious thumb war battle. At least they sounded like they were, from the constant shouts of “You can’t take your hand off the table!” and “Cheater!”

Each time they started a new game, they sang the little chant that went along with it. Will let it ground him. Calm him. One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war…

Will let it wash over his brain, said it over and over again to himself in a whisper. Five, six, seven, eight, try to keep your thumb straight… He focused on the chant and kept repeating it. It had a nice rhythm. Calming. Breathe in, out. In, out.

Okay. He was fine. This didn’t matter in the grand scheme. This was stupid. He could do this.

He enjoyed a nice ten seconds of tranquility. Then Nico appeared at the door.

AAAAAAA -

No. Act like a human.

Nico was slouching to compensate for the giant backpack slung over one shoulder, but that was normal. His eyes darted around for a second as he stood in the doorway. For the tiniest of moments, he met Will’s gaze. Was that a smile? Hard to tell. Then he went to his desk in the back.

During the course of the lesson, Will only allowed himself one look over his shoulder, and he disguised it as looking at the clock in the back of the room. Nico’s head was on his desk as always, but his fingers were tapping on the table today. That was unusual. He was normally asleep.

Will’s notes were even more hectic than usual. The lecture was interesting, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Finally it was the end of class and everyone around him started packing up. Will still didn't know what to do. He packed, too, and stood with his leather bag in hand. But he didn't leave the classroom just yet, so he stalled by fiddling with some strap on his bag. What was he waiting for?

“Hey, Solace.”

Apparently, that.

Will’s head whipped around to find Nico standing about a foot behind him. He seemed tense. His dark eyes and darker hair were as amazing as ever, though. Don’t think about that don’t think about that -

“Oh. Hi, Nico.” Will didn’t know what else to say. “How’s your - how are you?” Stupid. Stupid.

“I’m good. I’m - I didn’t want to text you about… this again, so I waited until now, I guess. In person.”

Will’s stomach felt akin to when someone said We need to talk: churning and anxious and terrified. “About what?”

Nico twisted what looked like a skull ring on his finger, not meeting Will’s eyes. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

Will was keenly aware that they were the only ones left in the classroom; Mr. B had left for the teacher’s lounge and all the other students had cleared out. A stillness hung in the air, an expectant silence. For what, Will didn’t know.

Will decided to go out on a limb. “If this is about what I said at the library, just forget about it. Really, forget I said anything. It was stupid.”

Nico resembled a hawk watching for the slightest prey. He seemed to hang onto each syllable Will uttered, dissecting the words in his head.

Nico glanced between Will’s face and his skull ring as he said, “I actually… Would you mind -” He coughed. “What exactly did you say at the library?”

“What?” Was this evil boy trying to make him go through all this again?

“I’m not -” Nico sighed and looked Will in the eye. His eyes were a little jarring, like broken glass. “I'm not sure what exactly you said before. And I’d like to be certain before I say anything else stupid.”

Was he serious? “Oh, man. You’re not going to make me say all... that, again, are you?” Will’s smile probably looked more nervous than easygoing. He couldn’t repeat asking Nico out. He really didn’t love the idea of making a fool of himself not once, but twice.

Nico’s fingers drummed against his leg. “I just don’t want to look like an idiot if I misunderstood-”

“God - I asked you out, okay? Like, on a date. But forget about it, I misread the situation and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Just… forget I said anything.”

Silence.

Will hadn’t meant to say it like that. His pride was just on the line and he felt defensive. “Sorry. I was hoping we could keep being friends, though. If it’s not too weird.” He looked down and fiddled with something on his bag.

Nico’s face had been like a deer in the headlights this whole time, but now he shook himself out of his stupor. “No, nonono wait. That would be good. I - I’d like that.” He still looked terrified, but his words had more life in them. “That would be good."

Everything screeched to a halt. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Really.” Nico kept looking at him and looking away, back and forth, there and away.

Whatwhatwhatwhat. Will could feel his eyebrows raise. “But earlier you said-”

“I misunderstood.” Nico’s face was red. It was very cute. Don’t think about that.

“So is that a yes?”

With a very unconvincing eye-roll, Nico said, “Yes, I would like to go on a date with you, Will Solace.”

Will gave a disbelieving laugh. “Well, that’s really good news for me, then, isn’t it?”

Nico laughed, too. “I guess it is." His whole demeanor had changed. His confidence seemed to be back.

Will couldn’t believe it. There was that laugh again, paired with Nico’s relieved expression and a newfound easiness in his posture. Nico’s laugh was always so much warmer than Will expected. As if despite his skull ring and black band shirts, his laugh hadn’t gotten the darkness memo and was full of joy.

“I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do now,” Nico said.

Will couldn’t stop wearing a stupid grin. “You know, neither do I. Didn’t think I’d get this far.”

“Same." Nico's face got red all over again.

Will laughed again, barely believing this was going on. Nico had thought about this too, which was insane, and that whirled around Will’s head at the speed of a spinning roller coaster.

The bell sounded, announcing that break was over. There would be hordes of students flooding the classroom soon, but Will had trouble breaking away from Nico’s laugh and the intoxicating truth that this was real.

Nico restated his posture, a permanent tug at the corners of his lips. “I have a question for Mr. B when he comes back, so I’m staying here, but you should probably get going. This would be a stupid reason to get a tardy detention.”

This. There was a this. Will said, “Right,” and slowly started for the door. He didn’t mean to, but he turned around so many times to see Nico that he was practically walking backwards. He looked over his shoulder again for a second too long and tripped over a desk.

Nico crossed his arms and snorted. “Look where you’re going.”

Will continued backwards toward the door and pointed at Nico. “I’ll text you. I will.”

“Good. Do that. And look where you’re going in the meantime.” Nico was suppressing a grin.

“Will do.”

The last thing Will saw as he left the classroom was Nico slowly shaking his head with that suppressed smile still lighting up his face. Will loved knowing he was the cause of that. That he was going to get to go out with that, at least once.

Elation still bright in his chest, he sprinted to his next class in the hopes that everyone would still be waiting outside the building. He slipped in the door just in time and took his seat, quickly checking his phone once he was settled. His text conversation with Nico was already on the screen and he saw that little “yes” Nico had sent at 2:10 a.m. It struck him as very funny now that he knew what it meant.

Will ignored the odd looks he was attracting. His classmates didn’t need to know why he was grinning like an idiot.

Will knew why, and he would not stop smiling for God himself.

Chapter Text

Their next library project meeting had already been scheduled, so there was really no need for Nico to send Will:

Nico: Olympus library @ 4, right?

But dammit, he wanted to, so he did. He was feeling confident and no one could stop him. Next, he might do something really crazy, like asking an employee where something was in a grocery store or liking a moderately old picture on Instagram. As it was now, he was curled in a blanket cocoon, hoping that a green text bubble would pop up soon and that his father would leave him alone for the rest of the night to surf the internet in peace. He was already on his phone, so he might as well be talking to Will, too, as nice of a pastime as it was.

Also, it was hard to start up a text chain with someone for the first time after having a conversation like he had had with Will earlier. An asking-out-on-a-date type of conversation. Which was an actual thing that had happened. In real life.

Was Nico floating on air? Possibly. He had heard his father rasp something from the next room over as he opened the door to the house, and he had heard himself say something in reply that must have been satisfactory, because his father left him alone after that. He knew that factually, he must have climbed the stairs to his room and done his homework, because there it all was, completed over on his desk. Yet he was still left with the distinct sense that he had floated there and done all that in a daze.

The awaited bubble popped up on his screen:

Will: right, 4:00

Nico didn’t know what else to say. How did you strike up a chat with someone when there was an elephant in the room like this? “Hey there, you asked me out today. Am I allowed to say that I like your face now or is that weird?”

Although accurate to how Nico felt, no thank you. Not going to send that. Were there protocols for these types of situations? Probably, but hell if Nico knew them.

Another text from Will came through:

Will: have you seen la la land yet?

Nico had not. Maybe Will wanted to discuss some aspect of the plot or other.

Nico: Not yet. Why, did some movie doctor use blood that looked too fake?

He pressed send in satisfaction, liking the feeling of having past conversations between them to reference. Will had gone on a tirade about a badly done independent film a few days before that had apparently used fruit juice as fake blood.

Will: no, i haven’t seen it either

Will: i meant like. do you want to see it

Will: with me

Oh. Right. Will was inviting him to a movie because movies were good first dates because this was the type of thing that could happen now because they were going out. Together. No biggie. This was cool.

Nico didn’t bother containing his smile as he typed, feeling more self-assured than usual.

Nico: I'd love to

Will: cool good. it’s kind of a romance but also a musical I think? so we’ll just see

They went back and forth for a bit, arranging specific times and theaters until they could decide on something that worked for both of them. Who should pay? Maybe they should just buy their own tickets. Nico didn’t know. He usually liked to pretend he hated musicals, but he didn't see the use this time. And even though it was just in the context of the genre, the mention of the romance movie made him feel so cheesily teenager-on-a-first-date-ish that he had to mentally chastise himself.

Will: my friend lou ellen says it's really good

Will: unfortunately she's actually sitting right next to me. and wouldn’t stop poking me until I promised to go see la la land. so I guess I'm dragging you along

Nico: Bummer

Panic.

Nico: That was a joke I'm kidding

Nico: I'm looking forward to it

Nico all but smacked himself in the forehead. Could he have at least one ounce of chill?

A FaceTime request popped up on the screen. Startled, Nico pressed accept without thinking. Shoot. He at least had the good sense to angle the screen away from his face so the camera wouldn't start rolling on him curled up in about ten blankets.

The FaceTime started and his screen showed a blur of walls and ceiling, the vague sounds of a scuffle coming from an unseen source. Did Will not know the call was going?

“Will?” he tried.

Audio came from the phone:

“- NOT EVEN TYPING HALF THE CUTE SHIT YOU’RE MUTTERING, WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”

“GIVE ME BACK MY PHONE!”

The second voice was Will’s. The other one must have been his friend Lou Ellen. He couldn't tell if she knew about the FaceTime, either. He tried to hang up, but the button was greyed out. What the hell? He could stand his phone being glitchy, but this was not the time.

Now the screen turned dark, muffled by something purple. Nico was pretty sure Will’s phone was under a pillow.

Muffled, he heard, “You get this back when you stop being such a wimp!”

“Fuck you, Lou.”

“You'll thank me later.”

“I'll thank you by banning you from coming over on Thursdays.”

A gasp. “Not fried chicken Thursdays!”

“Give it back and we needn’t use such drastic methods.”

A long pause. Nico started to panic. Why couldn’t he hang up? Why had the gods forsaken him at that moment?

“Will? There’s a call going!” Nico tried loudly. They must not have been able to hear him from under the pillow. He pressed the home button. Nothing. Frozen.

“They’re a junior, right? Or a sophomore? You know I'll find them. I won't even harass them, I promise,” Lou Ellen said. Nico felt distinctly talked-about. Figures, the one time he didn’t want FaceTime to work, it decided to be the only thing to work.

“I don't think there's even one part of me that believes that,” Will said.

“Depends on what you consider harassment.”

“Anything. Literally anything you say to him I will consider harassment.”

It felt strange to be a him and not a you to Will. But it still sent odd excitement through him to know Will was talking about him with people, or at least this Lou Ellen. No! Find a way to hang up! He pressed random buttons and shook his phone in frustration.

Lou Ellen shouted, “Aha, you said him! My search criteria just got narrowed by fifty percent!”

“I can't believe this. Just give me my goddamn phone.”

“Hm.”

Nico’s own phone wouldn’t even turn off. This was like when the TV blared a required announcement that you couldn’t stop watching even if you wanted to. Maybe he should hide his phone under a pillow, drown out the talking until Will figured out there was a call going on and hung up on that end.

“Please?” Nico heard Will say, more resigned. “I don’t know what you’re planning on doing with it - probably going to text him all my most embarrassing secrets or something - but I don’t want to mess this up. I really like him, okay? Don’t scare him off.” A pause. "I think you'd like him, too. He's convinced he's a loner or something, which is hilarious, because he 100% hangs with Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson and their whole popular clique, but you guys have a similar sense of humor."

Silence. Nico’s heart beat so loud in his chest it almost seemed like it was someone else’s. He forgot all about about trying to hang up. Will said he really likes me Will said he really likes me Will -

Will’s voice again. “The fried chicken Thursday ban could still happen.”

A grumble. “I’ll give it if you agree to stop being so pathetic,” Lou Ellen said.

“Sure. Whatever.”

-Will said he really likes me Will said he really li-

“And for the record, I wasn’t going to text him your secrets. Just revoke your phone privileges until you start typing all the cute things you’re saying aloud. For your own good.”

At that moment, Nico would have paid an embarrassingly large amount to hear what Will had been saying aloud about him. We’re talking stacks of cash. Diamonds. Pure gold stolen from his father’s statues.

“Whatever. Can I have it now?” Will asked.

The screen changed, as if the phone were being taken out from under the pillow. Nico swore and frantically hoped that the call would be terminated before Will saw he was there.

By the looks of it, Lou Ellen’s hand brushed against the screen as she brought the phone out from under the pillow. And blessedly, it must have hit the hang-up button on Will’s phone. The end-of-call screen flashed just in time and Nico’s phone returned to the messaging app. Jesus, that was convenient timing. Maybe the gods were on his side after all. More likely, Lou Ellen had subtly hit it so Will wouldn't notice.

Shit. Nico should not have listened for as long as he did. He had just been trying to hang up. He waited anxiously for Will to say anything. After a minute or two:

Will: oops it says i facetimed you, did it even show up on your screen or was that a glitch? my phone can be weird idk, sometimes it says things happened that actually didn’t

Oh man. This was one of those crossroads moments, Nico could feel it. He should lie. It would be easier. Will even gave him an out with the glitch thing.

Nico: Yeah

No! Wrong answer, Nico! He could still turn back. Make up some lie about hanging up right away.

Nico: Something about your phone being stolen

Nico: I tried to say something?

Nico: It wouldn’t let me hang up I’m sorry

Jesus Christ. If Nico were ever trusted with classified government secrets, the world would be doomed.

He hadn't meant to word vomit all that. He hadn't meant to tell the truth. But some part of him was glad he wouldn't have to deal with the secret. It was healthier, he supposed. However, the part that was furious with himself, waiting eagle-eyed for Will’s response and drowning in a pit of agony was louder at the moment.

Will wasn’t responding. He was probably having a long, serious talk with himself about the pros and cons of actually going out with an idiot like Nico. Still no response. Until:

Will: my phone says the call was a few minutes

Will: did you hear anything

His brain screamed, No! Nothing! Tell him you didn’t hear anything!

Nico: Kind of. Yeah

Nico wasn’t feeling particularly inclined to recount any of it though. He wasn’t that stupid.

Nico: I’m sorry, I tried to hang up

Another delay, another minute or two of gut-churning waiting.

Will: well

Will: embarrassing

Will: i’m just going to. pretend that all didn’t happen. ok ok

That was so supremely okay with Nico. All he could think was, Will said he really likes m-

Nico: Sounds good

Will: good

Will: i’m going to kill lou ellen

Nico: I don’t know if she knew the call was going either

Will: oh she did. def going to kill her

Nico felt bad for Will. If Nico were in his shoes, he would have packed up and started over in Venezuela with a new name. Or maybe he would have just sat there feeling embarrassed, more realistically. Neither was a fun prospect.

Nico: Sorry

Will: for what

Nico: Listening

Nico: It wouldn’t let me hang up but I could have muffled it or something

Will: tell you what, if we pretend this didn’t happen we can both recover our pride ok

Nico: I agree

That was about as good as Nico could ask for. Still feeling intensely awkward, he tried:

Nico: So

Nico: For the project

Nico: Should we write the written parts at home or together at the library

Will responded quickly, probably grateful to have a new topic. They discussed the project more, slowly but surely gaining back that easy back and forth Nico loved so much. Nico felt his shoulders relax and his heartbeat rest as they very seriously debated who they thought the other would be in a zombie apocalypse. (Will said he would be a medic, but Nico argued that most of the useful medical equipment would already have been destroyed.) (Will argued back that someone had to be performing all those makeshift surgeries using sewing needles and no antibiotics, so he might as well do it.) (Will also straight-up laughed at Nico’s insisting that he would be a badass zombie killer.) (Jerk.)

A raspy voice from downstairs cut through Nico’s bubble of happiness, yelling, “Tuxedo! You’re coming to a dinner tonight.”

Groaning, Nico stood and made his way to the bedroom door. He had stopped trying to memorize the ever-expanding list of dinners he was supposed to go to for his father’s business, but he had thought that night was free. Wrong. With Bianca, the dinners were at least bearable. But with her off in the military? The events had about as much life as a graveyard.

Nico: Gtg, the king of hell hath summoned me to dine with demons

Will: translation?

Nico: My father wants me to have dinner with his business friends. gtg

Will: :( bye

Nico: Bye

Will: so i’ll see you at olympus library at 4

Nico: Right

Will: and you’ll bring your calligraphy pens

Nico: Ugh

Nico: Ok but only for you

Nico: That was cheesy, I revoke that text

Will: too late

The chorus in his head again: Will said he really likes me Will said-

Nico’s father yelled again and Nico opened his door so the man would be able to hear that Nico was coming.

Nico: Whatever

Nico: Ok I actually gtg now, don’t blow anything up while I’m gone

Will: darn there go my weekend plans

After shaking his head fondly and leaving his phone on the desk, Nico descended the stairs to don his Fancy Dinner Tuxedo. And hey, he found he didn’t mind it half as much as usual.

Chapter Text

Nico was actually at the library early this time. He felt more proud than he should have, but he had to concede that Jules-Albert was why he was so anxious to be early. Nico wasn’t itching for a repeat performance of last time where he had to hope Will ignored the limo. There were only so many times he could pretend he wasn’t insanely rich when there was a chauffeur staring Will right in the face.

Soon he would get his full license and then he would drive absolutely everywhere by himself. His father insisted on barely letting him drive places while he only had his provisional, but just a few more weeks and he would be free.  

Tapping his foot absentmindedly, Nico leaned against the side of a table in the library, his sociology textbook and calligraphy pens sitting a few feet away. They were having another library meeting to work on their project, which was kind of odd because they were supposed to have their first date (!) that weekend at the theater. Was this jinxing it? Like seeing the bride before the wedding (except way less intense)?

Surveying his meager amount of supplies, Nico still didn’t know exactly what else he should have brought, but he felt much less anxious about it than he had before. The whole imminent date thing made most interactions with Will easier, actually. Worried that one of Will’s texts meant he wished he had never met Nico? Objectively untrue. Wondering if Will hated him and wanted to smack him upside the head? Nope, shut up, idiot. He asked you out. You’re good. It was great.

Nico gazed up at a poster on the wall that detailed the Dewey Decimal system. Had anyone actually learned all of it? He was in the middle of a mental debate on whether librarians should have to do a test on it to be hired (maybe they fought it out, Hunger Games-style, for the privilege of working at Olympus Library) when a tap on his shoulder made him jump and turn around.

Will. He was beaming, looking unfairly attractive while carrying a different array of crafting things from last time. Nico had to wonder if they were his or his mother’s, but mostly Nico was recovering from the shock to his senses that came from seeing Will again. A few days of only texting had somehow diluted Nico’s memory, and now he was hit with a wave of THIS BEAUTIFUL CREATURE ASKED ME OUT. Had Will’s hair always fallen around his eyes this perfectly?

“Hi!” Will greeted him. He looked so happy, it made Nico want to grin forever. Which was lame.

Getting words out was impossible for a moment. Then Nico managed, “Hi.” It was a miracle he could speak at all.

“What were you humming?”

Nico hadn’t realized he’d been humming at all. He did not usually hum. But now that he thought about it, “Oh, ‘Walking on Sunshine’, I guess. Which is weird - I don’t even like that song.”

“Very punk. I’m sure whoever’s on your shirt would be intimidated.”

Nico scowled down at his black band shirt (Combat Ukulele was an awesome band, thank you very much). “Whatever.”

Will shifted the box of markers in his arms. “Hey, though, I’m looking forward to this weekend. It is this weekend, right?”

“Do you mean the movie?” Nico felt like he was going red. Was he going red?

“Yeah. I've been really excited - I've heard crazy mixed reviews for La La Land so I am very ready to form an opinion and fight people about it.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I'm glad you have your priorities straight. How've you been?”

Will hadn’t stopped grinning this whole time. “I gotta tell you, Nico, I am doing awesome. If I were a fancy food critic of my life, I would say it was ‘simply superb’.”

“That’s an interesting analogy.”

“My mom was just watching this pretentious food show a few hours ago and a chef said that. Apparently it made an impression.”

“Ah.”

“I’m being weird. Sorry.”

Nico snorted. “No! No, it’s just... different. What did you bring?” He gestured to the crafting supplies. “Also, you can put those down if you want.”

“Right.” Will set the supplies on the table. “This time I brought markers that actually work, and trust me - I tested them all. Plus the poster board, tape, glue, miscellaneous stuff and a ruler to make straight lines with. And yes, I’ve already resisted the temptation to make a straight joke.”

Nico actually laughed in surprise. Somehow it was still surprising to Nico that Will wasn’t straight, despite the blatant evidence to the contrary. They hadn't really talked about it that much and there was no way in hell Nico was going to make Will talk about it if he didn't want to. Staying on the safe side was always his MO.

It was the first time he’d seen Will face-to-face since they’d had the conversation, but Nico found himself feeling way less awkward than he’d anticipated. He decided to take his blessings where he could find them, but some questions still nagged. Like, how was he supposed to act? Should he acknowledge that they liked each other? Since this library meeting was just for school, did it count as a date? Were they supposed to act different or hold hands or something? There was no manual for this!

Will smiled and held his gaze a moment longer than necessary, but Nico flicked his gaze away to the crafting things on the table. His heart was beating fast enough already, thanks. If he was going to survive this meeting, he had to pace himself.

God, he sounded stupid. Just relax, dingbat.

Nico took one of the chairs at the table and Will followed suit, sitting directly next to him. He had sat across from Nico last time. Nico definitely noticed the shift, even if it was unintentional. Anxiety did wonders for one’s power of observation.

He also noticed how Will’s fingers had been drumming on his leg, then immediately switched over to tapping on the table from the moment he sat down. Like they couldn’t stop if they wanted to.

Will picked up Nico’s pack of calligraphy pens and inspected them. “These look fancy.”

“No, no they're normal. I mean, of the, uh, price levels that these pens can be at, these are normal.” Jesus, how long was Nico going to avoid the whole “rich” thing? It wasn't like he was a goddamn leper. This was not a secret worth keeping. Not even something he should be embarrassed about. But still, it felt like Nico could keep Will in a bubble far away from the real world if he kept those worlds separate.

Just a little longer.

Either way, Will didn’t seem to be listening. He held up a few of the pens and uncapped them, inspecting the tips. He said, “I think these pens think they’re better than my pen.” He picked up his own cheap ballpoint and said, “Don’t listen to them, Jeremy. You’re beautiful in your own way.”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “You named your pen?”

“He needed a name. It was spur-of-the-moment.”

Rolling his eyes, Nico pulled out his phone to open Google Docs. “I have the outline for my paragraphs right here. I can get started on formatting them once I see your paragraphs, too. Then we can print on the computers here. What’s your email so we can share the docs with each other?”

Will hesitated. “Please understand that I was in fifth grade.”

Nico could feel himself grinning. “Oh my god. What is it?”

“...CoolioMinecraftBoy77 at gmail.”

Nico burst out laughing. “Oh my god. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.”

“Try handing it out to employers. Not so fun then.”

Still laughing, Nico managed, “Why don’t you change it?”

“Every variation of my name is taken and I refuse to use numbers this time. Also everything in my life since fifth grade is tied to that stupid thing. Also I’m lazy.”

“It’s fucking glorious.”

Will raised his eyebrows, too, and smiled. “I’m glad you think so.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me your school email? Those are standardized.”

Will paused, his eyes narrowing. “Shoot.” He pointed to Nico’s phone. “Scratch all that, can you use my school one?”

“Too late,” Nico said, typing in the terrible email address and pressing Share.

A sigh. “Great, yet another thing that address is tied to now,” Will sighed and shook his head.

“You’re welcome.”

Will halfheartedly flipped him off. “Alright, we should get to work. And for real this time. Last time we accomplished nothing and the deadline is coming up.”

Regrettably, Will was right. They discussed details and finalized where each part of the web would go on the poster board. All of the work was much less annoying to do with Will there, too.

After everything was figured out, Will said, “While I’m gone, you can do the titles.“ He pointed towards Nico’s calligraphy pens, then stood and walked to the library’s “Technology Center” that consisted of a single ancient computer and a printer that was quite possibly haunted.

After watching him go, Nico grimaced and grabbed his pens. Time for his required hobby to come in handy for once. He uncapped them and went to work on the poster board, zoning out in his work until a few minutes later when Will came back to their table. He pushed in his old chair, which had been left out before, and darted back to the computers on the other side of the room before Nico could even look up.

Bewildered, Nico half-shouted across the room, “Did you only come back to push in your chair?”

“Yeah,” Will shouted back.

“Oh my god. Dork.”

“It was bothering me!”

A loud “SHH” came from an unseen source and Nico turned back to his calligraphy, an amused smirk spreading up his face.

A while later, Will came back for real and said, “Woah. That looks good.”

“Thanks,” Nico replied, forcing himself not to deflect the compliment.

Nico had to admit, he was pretty skilled at calligraphy. The posterboard looked great so far. He had taken some liberties with their initial plans, adding in swirling designs here and there around where they had planned the paragraphs would go. Far from wanting to be an overachiever, Nico had figured that the longer he took on the calligraphy, the less time would be left for actual work. Now that he was going to actually be helping with the writing, he didn’t feel half as bad about slacking on the easy things.

He had been right. Will said, “Okay, while I was over there I just went ahead and filled in your outline, too. I think I know where you were headed with it. Here’s all of the work.” He handed Nico a few sheets of paper.

Here’s all of the work. What a wonderful phrase to hear. Nico was going to have to do projects with Will more often if he kept up this tendency to voluntarily do all of the hard stuff.

As if reading his mind, Will sat down again next to Nico and continued, “And to even out this imbalance in amount of work, you can treat me to ice cream or something after we’re done here, unless you want to have to do all that writing yourself. Frozen yogurt works, too. I’m not picky.”

Was Nico imagining the reddish tinge to Will’s cheeks?

“Are you using blackmail and/or bribery to get me to go to ice cream with you?”

“Possibly. I wouldn't call it blackmail, just reminding you of an imbalance that could possibly be evened out with cookies and cream. There is a Cold Stone within walking distance.”

Nico took in Will for a moment. He was looking Nico in the eye, an easy smile on his lips despite his face burning gently red. Half-leaned back in his chair and fiddling with Jeremy the Pen, he was as close to perfect as Nico could imagine.

“Tell you what,” Nico said.

“What?”

“I pay for both of our ice creams, but you have to show me a picture of you in fifth grade so I can see the genius who came up with CoolioMinecraftBoy77.”

Will’s smile only grew. “Hm. You drive a hard bargain, but I suppose I can fulfill your lowly treaty.”

“Good. When should we go?”

Will looked down at the table. “We got a lot done today, so we should be able to leave now. I can leave my supplies here while we walk there and I'll pick them up later.”

“You won't hear me complaining.” Nico shrugged.

They packed up and walked out the doors, trusting that no one would steal the supply of markers and the poster board they had left behind.

Nico turned away from Will, scanning the horizon. “Okay, I think the Cold Stone is that way, so-”

“Nico?”

“Yeah?”

He turned back to face Will, who was crossing his arms with a fond, thoughtful expression softly washing over his face. A few blond flyaways blew in the wind as he looked at Nico and smiled. “I just… I'm really glad you got chosen as my partner for this project. That's all.”

Nico was overrun with lame sentiment he was in no hurry to banish. He managed, “Me too,” and held Will’s gaze. “It was good luck.”

They stood there for a moment outside the library doors, suspended in time. In a glass ornament so fragile, one move would shatter it.

Will took a deep breath, staring pensively in the distance. Nico braced for something else deep or sentimental.

“Alright, I bet I can quote an entire episode of SpongeBob by the time we make it to Cold Stone. Let's do this.”

Nico laughed and shook his head at this marvelous creature. “Yeah. Let's do this.”

Chapter Text

As it turned out, Will could not actually quote an entire episode of SpongeBob. Not because he wasn’t able to - he would fight anyone who said he couldn’t - it was just that apparently, Nico had never seen the show. Will was flabbergasted.

"What? How old are you, sixteen? How have you never seen SpongeBob?”

Nico shrugged, hands in his pockets. Walking to ice cream was actually turning out to be a great way to get an isolated conversation with him. Will decided he should trap him into conversations more often.

Nico brushed some dark strands away from his eyes absentmindedly and Will quite possibly imploded. “I dunno. My father was never the type to switch on Nickelodeon, I guess.”

“At least tell me you watched some cartoons. Pokémon? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Anything?”

“I did watch Tom and Jerry. That counts, right?”

Will clutched his head. “How do you miss all of the cartoons that play constantly, but still manage to find Tom and Jerry? Also, that’s precious. Tiny Nico watching old cartoons.”

Will was pretty sure Nico’s glare was supposed to be shooting daggers, but it was really only shooting mild annoyance. It was rather like being threatened by a ten-year-old on Halloween with a fake gun. The kind with a little orange tag to show the gun was fake.

That was what Nico’s reluctant smile was. It was his little orange tag.

Will found this very funny for some reason and snorted.

“What?” Nico asked.

“You’re just…” Will smiled and shrugged. “I dunno.”

“What?”

You’re just really cute, Will thought.

“It’s nothing,” he said. “You said something about your dad. What’s he like?”

“Oh.” Nico shrunk in on himself. “He’s… interesting.”

“Oooh. Fun adjective. Should I ask?”

“Probably not. Suffice it to say that he and Lucifer would get along.”

“Yikes.”

“Yikes."

They walked for a while in comfortable silence until they reached a stoplight. Will didn’t think twice before using his foot to hit the crosswalk button, but Nico stared at him like he was from Mars.

“Why not use your hand? Like a normal person?”

“Why not use your foot?” Will retorted. “Like a delightful, quirky person?” That sounded so stupid. He was so stupid. Why did he say that? It didn’t even make sense.

But Nico gave a confused smile and followed Will’s example, pushing the button with his foot, too. “There. We’re both delightful, quirky people now.”

Will was the one rolling his eyes for once.

As they crossed the street and continued on, Will saw Nico cross and uncross his arms a few times. It made him notice Nico’s hands. And how it was probably technically maybe okay for Will to in theory grab one of them. Maybe.

They were getting somewhat close to Cold Stone now and Nico’s hand was still hanging at his side, very much unheld. What was the etiquette here? It would probably be weird to try it before he knew if Nico was publicly out. Will didn’t want to be insensitive. He silently cursed the politics of a homophobic society.

They chatted about nothing of importance until a dog on the other side of the road distracted them. Well, distracted Will, anyway. Nico was horrifyingly blasé about it.

Will mock-glared at Nico. “Let me guess - you’re a cat person.”

“You got me.”

Shocked and disappointed. “Have any cats at home?”

“No. My stepmother is allergic.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah,” Nico said. “You? Got any dogs?”

“A golden retriever named Bella. She is objectively better than both of us put together.”

Nico snorted. “Of course you have a golden retriever.”

“What does that mean?”

“You know.” Nico waved his arms around Will’s general vicinity. “You - y’know. It suits you.”

“Is it because I’m blond?”

Nico smiled, shook his head, and started playing with his skull ring. “Yeah. That’s probably it.”

“Because in that case, I would typecast you as owning a black cat.”

“That’s me: Halloween Boy.”

“Ha. I hate Halloween.”

Will didn’t know if it was possible for a human being to look more offended than Nico did in that moment.

“What do you mean, you hate Halloween?” Nico had even stopped twisting his skull ring, presumably to focus all his energy on judging Will. “It’s the best holiday.”

Will put his hands up in surrender. “Hey, hey, I used to like it when we were all little and we could trick-or-treat, but now everyone just uses it to get drunk. It’s like they took the purest thing in our childhoods and turned it into this gross adult thing. Why do you like it?”

Nico was silent for a moment. “Well, now I just sound stupid. Your reason was all deep.”

“Why, why do you like it?”

“...I like the skeleton aesthetic.”

Will burst out laughing. Nico joined in. Nico did this really cute thing when he laughed, where he ducked his head down as if hiding the fact that he was happy. By the time they reached the door to Cold Stone, Will felt dizzy.

He quickly grabbed the door handle and exaggeratedly opened the door for Nico as if he were a fancy butler. He was nothing if not a gentleman, even if it made him extremely nervous to do anything remotely date-like. But Nico turned red, too, so Will considered it a victory.

Upon seeing Will’s ice cream order, Nico recoiled. “Is that rainbow sherbet and chocolate mixed together?” he asked, his eyes wide with horror.

“Yes. And they’re very happy together.”

“Please love yourself,” Nico said, stepping up to place his own order. He ordered not one or two, not three or four, but five jumbo scoops of chocolate with obscene amounts of hot fudge and Oreos. If Nico had looked scared of Will’s order, then Will was straight-up terrified of Nico’s.

“Jesus Christ,” Will muttered. “Are you eating all of that now?”

Nico stared him down. “Just try and stop me.”

“O-okay.”

The probably minimum-wage employee serving them looked sympathetically at Nico, as if to confirm that the boy was indeed going to pass out from massive ice cream intake.

Will started to fish out his wallet, but then he remembered the whole reason they were there was that Nico was going to pay. He said, “Nico. Money.”

“Right.” Nico paid the cost and left a ten-dollar bill in the tip jar. Whoa. Nico was either a very strong believer in Cold Stone employees or he was rich. Will tucked that away in his brain for later.

When they got to a table, Will shook his head again at Nico’s monstrosity of an ice cream order. “You’re going to get sick.”

“You’re going to get sick first. Who mixes sherbet with chocolate?”

“People with taste, di Angelo. More importantly, who orders five mega scoops and Oreos for one serving?”

“Strong people, that’s who,” Nico deadpanned. “People who are pure of heart and mighty of appetite.” He punctuated his statement by eating a spoonful and making defiant eye contact with Will the whole time.

Will tsk-tsk’d but said nothing, tapping his foot on the ground absentmindedly.

After eating for a while in silence and watching Nico inhale a carton’s worth of ice cream, Will couldn’t stand it anymore. “I support your right to eat whatever you want, but as a future med student I have to inform you that you’re going to explode.”

“A future med student?”

“Yeah. I want to be a doctor.”

“That doesn’t mean you actually know any medical things now.”

“Okay, common sense then. Common sense states that you’re going to explode into a million pieces.”

“That’s a risk I’ll have to take.”

“They have to-go boxes, you know.”

“Why would they have boxes for ice cream?”

“Lids. They have to-go lids. Don't avoid on a technicality.”

“I have a reason for this, you know.” As soon as he finished talking, Nico clamped his mouth shut, as if he'd said something he hadn't meant to.

“Oh? What's that?”

Nico drew in on himself, giving a nervous laugh. “What, do you want the whole sob story?”

Nico looked really cagey now. Whatever it was he was skirting around, Will didn't want to push it. “Uh, never mind,” he said. “Tell you what, next time we can switch orders to see who’s right. That way I, too, can explode from hot fudge overload and you can understand the magic that is sherbet/chocolate.”

Visibly relaxing, Nico nodded. “Next time,” he mused.

Shoot. What if Nico didn’t want a next time? “Well-” Will rushed. “I hope we can have a next time. I mean, I'm still looking forward to this weekend. The movie. All of that.” Shut up, Will. Why did his cursed mouth have to ramble so?

Nico went red again. “Right. The movie. That'll be fun.” He seemed to shake himself out of a trance and smiled. “Yeah. I'm going to order the biggest popcorn you've ever seen and give you another heart attack.”

Will laughed. “As long as I can share some.”

They people-watched out the wall-length window for a bit, eating their respective desserts and making the occasional comment on the people walking by outside. After a minute or two, Nico looked up at Will, somewhat nervous. He stayed silent, then seemed to muster up the nerve to say, “Is this a date?”

Will almost choked on his ice cream. He felt heat rush up his neck. “Um. I don't know. Is it?” Lame. Stupid. Idiot.

“Because we’re going out this weekend but I didn't know if this counted but it seems pretty... I don’t know,” Nico rushed, avoiding eye contact, each word quieter than the last.

At least Nico seemed equally terrified of this discussion as Will was. Will settled on joking, “Uh, I don't think it's a date unless we hold hands.”

Will could see Nico was biting back a smile. “Is that so.”

“Yeah,” Will said serenely, trying to look suave but positive that he was failing. “It's the rules.” Take the bait Nico Take the bait Nico Take the bait -

After a moment of deliberation, Nico rolled his eyes and matter-of-factly plunked one of his hands on the table, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

Houston, he took the bait!

Heart pounding, Will took Nico’s hand, their fingers twining and finding a comfortable position on the table together. Nico’s hand was warmer than Will had expected. It was nice.

They stared at each other for not even a second before they both dissolved into quiet laughter. Will ducked his head and said, “Oh my god, I feel like I’m in kindergarten.”

Nico covered his mouth with his free hand to hide his smile. “I-” He cleared his throat, looking right at Will once more. His dark hair fell in his eyes just enough to make Will want to reach up and brush it aside.

“Hey. Happy first date, Will,” Nico said.

Will was grinning. “I don’t have a champagne glass to clink.”

Nico held up his cardboard ice cream cup and Will laughed, holding up his own cup so they could clink them together.

“May the odds be ever in our favor.”

“That’s a terrible quote for this situation, Will.”

“Perhaps not my finest.”

“Are we going to die in a dystopian death game?”

“I already said it wasn’t my finest.”

Nico sighed, pretending to be disappointed. He opened his mouth, paused, then apparently thought better of whatever he was going to say. Instead he shook his head and said, “The movie this weekend had better be good.”

Chapter Text

 One-track minds were funny things. On a survival note, it made sense why people should think about one thing and then proceed to think of only it for hours on a loop. Maybe some cave person back in cave times had found it useful when hunting antelope or finding greens to harvest. Congratulations, Susie the cavewoman, you get to enjoy a human brain that can focus for a long time like nobody’s business. How nifty for you!

But it was 6:32 p.m. and Nico was lying on his back on his bed and the only thoughts in his entire brain for the past five hours had been about how the movie with Will was soon and that he would have to persuade his father to let him drive alone and oh god who was he kidding, he wasn’t cut out for this.

It wasn’t like he had just been lying there for hours, purposefully mulling it over. No, he had been obsessing over it while also going about his daily duties, like a self-respecting anxious teen. But it also wasn’t like the thoughts needed an invitation. His brain was a Gatsby party, apparently.

Nico decided that My Mind is a Gatsby Party should be the name of a hit single and snorted. The comparison was just enough of a distraction to let him temporarily escape the trap that was Thinking.

He forced himself to sit up and start to actually get dressed. A giant black sweatshirt and way-too-short old gym shorts were probably not the best attire for a date.

Date. Aaah. Why did Nico feel so freaked out about it all of a sudden? And by all of a sudden he meant for the last five hours. Still.

He checked his hair in the mirror. It was… fine? Adequate? Good enough.

Rummaging around in his drawers, Nico tried to find a shirt that would somehow bring out all of his best qualities and also make his hair look good and also make him an overall higher quality human being than he really was. A long search proved such a shirt did not exist. He settled for a plain black one, because it counted as kind of dressing nice if he didn’t wear a band tee, right?

Without really thinking about it, Nico dug his old leather jacket out from the back of his closet. He stared at it in his hands for a second before shaking his head and stuffing it back in. He wasn’t cool enough to pull it off. There was a reason it had been hidden in the back of the closet.

For whatever reason, some switch had turned in Nico that made him ten times more nervous than he had been the day before. It was just that Will seemed like he had his life together. He was always happy. Sure, he made dumb jokes and things like that, but lately Nico couldn’t shake the feeling that Will was on a higher caliber than he was. Like it was a mistake Nico had met him.

And all of this was stupid in the first place. Because he was spiral-thinking and he was being mean to himself, which were the two things his therapist had recently expressly made him promise not to do, but it all felt like such a mess anyway that he didn’t see the point in resisting the storm. It wasn’t like he was actually in a bad place, he just had slipped somewhere along the way and couldn’t find solid ground. He was fine. He would get over it.

Nico finished getting dressed and checked the clock. It would be time to go soon. He would drive himself and it would be great and he just needed to get a grip.

But the thought still nagged.

Glancing over to the closet where the leather jacket resided once again, Nico felt another whim to get it out. He picked it up and inspected it. Tried it on. It still fit.

He took it off and lightly tossed it on his bed in frustration. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t a cool leather jacket kind of guy. He would have liked to be, but he wasn’t.

Nico mulled it all over with certainty as he put on his shoes (Were black Converse okay? Hopefully). He was almost scared to show up, lest he remind Will of all the bad things about himself.

Stop this. Be nice to yourself. This is stupid and you know it.

That was right. Where had all of this come from? He was a perfectly fine person who deserved to have a nice night out. He could do this.

Nico took a deep breath and found that he actually believed himself. Nice. Now he just needed to distract his overactive brain until the theater and he would be okay.

Time to go. Nico took one last look around the room, at himself, and at his phone to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. He moved toward the door, but stopped mid-step. After a moment of deliberation, he grabbed the leather jacket off his bed and put it on. Screw it - even if he wasn’t a cool enough person to wear it, could a guy at least pretend?

A few minutes later, Nico had successfully navigated through getting his father to let him drive by himself (just a little longer until that sweet sweet full license), and he sat in the driver's seat of yet another ridiculously expensive vehicle owned by the di Angelo family. Still way too flashy, but it would have to do.

Nico couldn’t help but feel a final flash of nervousness. What was he doing? Who was he to show up to the First Real Official Date in his life in a leather jacket and a car that probably could have paid for someone’s college tuition? Who was he to be going on a date at all? He would probably just look like a joke to Will. Hell, Will was probably there already, looking perfect and generally having his life together more than Nico.

Right before he was about to put the key in, Nico’s phone buzzed and he fished it out of his pocket.

Will: wait shit i wasn’t supposed to pick you up right

Nico laughed and texted him No, then shifted the car into drive. He did his best to shake off his feeling of inadequacy and smiled. Will could be a mess, too. If that text wasn’t a good reality check, he didn’t know what was.

When he got off the freeway, Nico felt another buzz in his pocket and pulled over in a parking lot to check it. His reasoning was that on the off-chance it was Will telling him plan-changing information, Nico probably needed to know it before he got to the theater.

Will: i’m just standing in front of the theater whenever you get here

Will: sorry are you driving

Will: never mind don’t text me back just drive

Rolling his eyes, Nico put his phone away without bothering to respond and continued toward the theater.

When he got there, he turned into a parking space right at the front. Giving himself one last round of mental motivational speeches, he took a deep breath and nodded to himself. He could do this.

-

Will felt… pretty good, if keyed up and fidgety. Standing by the doors of the theater, he waited for Nico and tried not to psych himself out. The night breeze was cool on his face, his favorite constellation was shining bright, and he overall felt more excited than nervous for the night to come. Things were good.

He was absentmindedly watching his foot tap against the pavement and trying to quell any anxious thoughts swirling in his head when he heard, “Will!”

Will quickly looked up, opening his mouth to respond, but any words he was planning to say immediately died on his lips.

Damn. Damn.

Nico stood before him, his hair backlit by a lamppost behind him that gave him a halo of sorts, and god he looked so good that Will was sure he was going to die just from looking at him. 

He took in Nico’s all-black ensemble, complete with a leather jacket Will wished he were able to pull off as well as him. Because damn, if he could look half as badass as Nico did, he wouldn't have to worry about assholes in the cafeteria anymore. His hands were in his pockets and Will knew logically that Nico was not actually a cool drifter who had a motorcycle and led a greaser gang, but in that moment his brain really didn't know the difference.

He managed, “Hi, Nico.” It was quiet and he was kind of breathless and he probably had visible stars in his eyes but he didn't care. He didn't care. “Uh, I didn’t see you get here. Did you drive?”

“Yeah, I’m over there,” Nico said, gesturing to a car parked right in front. Which, excuse him if he was wrong, was that a fucking convertible Jaguar?

What the hell. What the hell. With every passing second Will was more and more sure that Nico did not belong near mere mortals like Will. People didn’t just show up looking like models, driving Jaguars, and generally being intimidating and then also want to date Will. That didn’t happen in the real world. Something had gone wonderfully, cosmically wrong, like when the vending machine accidentally spit out two candy bars instead of one. Sure, it wasn’t how things were supposed to go, but you wouldn’t catch Will complaining.

Nico smiled (aaaaa) and gestured to the doors. “Should we go in?”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure,” Will said, not really hearing him. (Everything about Nico seemed to glow tonight. Like a star. It was like he was made to be in the night.)

Nico gave him a confused look and led the way inside. Will was still staring. He couldn't seem to stop. He didn't want to stop. He should probably stop.

As they waited in line for tickets, Nico asked, “Uh, how are you?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

Shit. Will attempted to, as science called it, get a grip. “I mean, good! Very good.”

Nico eyed him disbelievingly. “What’s going on?”

“Uh.” Will was still kind of useless in the brain department right then. “I guess it's just that… Well, you look… really good tonight. Like holy cow. Wow.” He paused for a second. “Also, I think I might have said that out loud.”

Nico looked way more shocked than he should have. Will summoned enough wits to realize he maybe shouldn't have said that. Why had he said that? “Sorry!” Will cringed. “Was that an okay thing to say?”

Eyes still wide, Nico said, “I - I - Yeah. No, that's good. Yeah.” His face burned and it somehow just made him even more attractive, which was unfair. “You look nice, too.”

Will suddenly grew very self-conscious about his blue jeans and plain sweater. They had seemed fine at home, but now that he was standing by what seemed to be a Greek god, he felt painfully average.

Did I really get ice cream with this gorgeous creature just the other day? he thought. He didn’t know if it was the nighttime or the clothes or what, but something felt different. Good different.

But there was no use in being in Nico’s presence if he couldn’t get himself to act like a normal person. Will shook his head as if to shake off a fly and restated his posture. “Sorry. Sorry, I’m good now.” He stepped up to the ticket booth. “Two for La La Land, please.”

Nico stepped forward and pulled out his wallet. “I can pay.”

“You paid for ice cream. I’ll pay this time.”

Nico looked like there was something he wanted to say but wouldn’t say it. “Fine,” he said. “But I can cover, I dunno,” his voice got smaller and he shrugged. “Dinner sometime or something. If you want.”

Will stared at him for a second before nodding earnestly. “Yeah. Yeah, sounds good.” He smiled.

It struck Will with a pang when he turned back to the ticket-seller’s confused face that their whole exchange had sounded very date-like. Well, it was, but still. He couldn’t tell if he cared or not.

But after Will paid for the tickets and they headed for the snacks, he realized with a start that Nico’s hand had been brushing by his for much longer than could have been an accident. Not even holding hands, but so close. And as Will pressed his hand back to that barely-there touch, the sleeve of his sweater meeting the cuff of Nico’s leather jacket, he found he didn’t care one bit what that ticket-seller might have to say.

Chapter Text

“Okay,” Nico sighed. “Okay. I can live with you hating Halloween, I can work with you liking sherbet/chocolate, but I draw the line at Twizzlers.”

Will laughed. (Let the record state that it was radiant.) He leaned back on a soda fridge as they waited in the concession line, crossing his arms. “Let me guess. You’re a Red Vines snob.”

“It’s not being a snob if I’m right.”

Will’s smile only grew. “Well, it’s not that far of a walk to the parking lot. You can always just leave here in your fancy sports car if you’re that disgusted.”

Shoot. Nico hadn’t meant to point the car out earlier, but the damage was done. “It’s not that fancy.”

Will raised his eyebrows.

“Okay, maybe it is. But it wasn’t my idea.”

“Whose idea was it, then?”

Nico sighed and put his hands in his pockets. Time to give up the game. “Well, my family is really rich. Like, really rich. It’s embarrassing. So it wasn’t my idea to bring it, it’s just the only kind of thing my father owns.” Time to stop talking. “I mean, he has others, too. But this one is the most normal-looking I could find. It’s whatever. What candy are you getting?” Change subject change subject -

“Wait, back up. Why is that embarrassing? That sounds awesome.”

Nico had known Will wouldn’t let it go, but the topic still made his stomach churn with dread. “I dunno. People just treat you differently. Show up to school one too many times with a chauffeur and people act like you're an alien specimen. Or worse, they become friends with you because they’re hoping your father can fund their college tuition.” He was staring down at his feet, refusing to make eye contact. “I mean, I have my group of friends, like, my real friends, who I've known for forever, but I haven't really had anyone new around in a long time." That was too much information. Shit. "Like I said, it’s whatever. Doesn’t matter.”

Will said nothing for a second. Then he snorted. “Would this be a bad time to make a joke about my upcoming medical school bills?”

Nico gave him a glare that turned into a small smile that turned into a laugh. “Yeah. Pretty bad time.”

“Well, that does explain how you tipped the person in Cold Stone like, ten dollars. I was confused.”

Oops. "No, yeah, you’re right. My father gives me an insane allowance that I don’t really know what to do with, so most of it goes to tipping and the homeless.” He grimaced. "I hate how that sounds."

"What? Like you're a charitable and selfless person?"

He shifted, crossing his arms uncomfortably. "No. Ugh, just the fact that it sounds like I'm saying that. It's literally the only ethical choice."

"Nah, you're Robin Hood now. It's official."

Nico grimaced. "Sure. Robin Hood in black skinny jeans.”

“Oh my god, are those really skinny jeans?”

“I feel it beneath my dignity to answer.”

They reached the front of the line and got their snacks, Nico giving Will a death glare as the boy bought Twizzlers, like a heathen.

“I hope you know you’re the only person in the entire universe who likes those things,” Nico said. “The company only stays afloat through your patronage.”

Will mock-glared back. As the cashier got out their snacks, Will leaned on the counter and asked, “Sorry to bother you, but tell me, which is better: Twizzlers or Red Vines?”

They laughed. “Oh man, Twizzlers for sure.”

The cashier at the register next to theirs nodded. “Twizzlers.”

Nico could have opened up a dictionary for the word “smug” and found a picture of Will’s face. Shocked and disappointed, Nico shook his head and mumbled something about inferior taste buds before ordering a massive popcorn. He raised his eyebrows, silently challenging Will to say anything about it, but Will just put his arms up in surrender and said, “As long as I get some, too.”

The theatre was crowded, so their only seat options were in the very back or very front. Not being a fan of neck cramps, Nico led them to the back. The movie wouldn’t start for another fifteen minutes, which gave them time to eat and talk and make fun of each other’s licorice choices.

“I think this is becoming a pattern,” Will said, gesturing to their snacks.

“What, that we hate each other’s food?”

“Well, I was going to phrase the problem as 'your terrible taste in food’, but you could put it that way, too.”

“Jerk.” Nico threw a piece of popcorn at him.

Will seemed unfazed. He looked at Nico with one eye through a licorice straw. “I see you.”

Nico shook his head. “I am unamused.”

“You’re smiling.”

He was. “I’m not.”

Will threw a piece of popcorn back.

And so it went. It was… really, really nice. The seat in front of Will was empty and there was no one behind them to block the view of, so Will propped his feet up on the seat in front of him. Nico complained because the seat in front of him was taken, so he couldn’t follow suit, but he didn’t really mind. As they talked favorite movies and bands, Will looked so relaxed, so happy, that Nico could actually feel his affection level build up, like a palpable object that took up real space in his chest. He didn’t even bother to wave the feeling away.

Eventually, Will was slouched so far down in his seat that Nico had to lean over to see him. He was essentially lying down with his feet still propped up on the seat in front of him.

“I’m not telling you how to live your life, but you’re not going to be able to see the movie if you’re that low.”

Will looked up at Nico innocently. “But the seat is such a nice pillow.”

“All the blood will rush to your head.”

“Hm. Good point.” Will said, sitting up, but Nico had been leaning so far over the seat that this caused their faces to get very close very quickly and AAA - the briefest of moments saw their noses touch.

Nico jumped back and rigidly turned his attention back to the screen, face burning. As far as he could tell, Will had hurriedly done the same. The next commercial passed without a word between them, the silence only broken when Will made some comment or other about the production value of said commercial. Something about the terrible lighting, but Nico didn’t really hear. He was paying more attention to the split-second memory of Will’s face an inch from his.

“Um,” Nico half-met Will’s gaze, who was looking at him with a mixture of expectancy and… was that a blush? Desperate for something to break through the awkwardness, Nico said the first thing that popped into his head.

“Read any good books lately?” What? What kind of a transition is that?

“Oh.” Will cleared his throat and sat back in his seat, his shoulders relaxing. Nico took this as a sign that he could go ahead and pretend that hadn't happened, too.

Will took a moment to think. “I haven’t really had the time or motivation to read lately, but I wish I did. What about you?”

Shoot. Why had he asked this in the first place? He didn’t even have a good answer himself. “No, I just keep rereading Harry Potter. Hm, favorite Potter book?” If he just never stopped asking questions, then there wouldn’t ever be another awkward silence to remember how many freckles he’d noticed dusting Will’s cheeks up close in that split second earlier, right? Right?

Will laughed and took a deep breath. “Nico, we almost started a war over ice cream flavors and licorice. I don’t really trust us to exchange Harry Potter opinions without causing a nuclear fallout.”

Us. We. The casual language made Nico feel warm down to his toes. Laughing, too, Nico leaned back and nodded. “That’s a good point.”

“But hey, in theory, we could be adults about this. I can respect your opinions even if they’re different than mine. I can be quite tolerant when I try.”

Nico raised his eyebrows.

“Okay, when I try really, really hard. So actually, for the sake of maturity, I will choose not to grill you on Harry Potter opinions.”

“How righteous of you.”

“Wouldn’t want to get into a fight to the death right now, anyways. The good movie trailers start in like, a minute.”

Nico nodded solemnly. “A fight to the death would be inconvenient.”

Will paused as if to consider something. “...On the other hand, just for the sake of making absolutely sure, I do need to ask you one thing. Before this-,” Will gestured vaguely between them. “-can go any further, I do need to hear your thoughts on Snape.”

Nico burst out laughing. He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it and instead took a bite out of a Red Vine. “You know what, I’m not going to tell you my thoughts. Just to annoy you.”

Will’s eyes widened. He started to protest, but the trailers chose that beautifully serendipitous moment to start playing. So Nico just shushed him and ignored his plea.

Three trailers later, Will leaned over to him and whispered, “Tell me.”

Grinning, Nico didn’t take his eyes off the screen. “Shh, I can’t hear the previews.”

“At least tell me your thoughts on Snape in general. Positive? Negative?”

Nico just kept watching the trailer. This was fun.

Will sighed. “I’m just going to assume you agree with me so that I can get through this movie without the distraction of you possibly being a Snape sympathizer, okay? Okay.”

Shrugging mysteriously, Nico took another handful of popcorn. Will shook his head in disappointment.

The lights went dim and finally the movie started. Nico allowed himself a moment to notice how good he felt, how easy this all was. How comfortable he felt to be sitting there, Will in the next seat over and leaning toward Nico. He felt as if Congratulations balloons from the universe should pop out from the shadows at any moment.

After a long and extremely elaborate opening musical number, Will leaned over and whispered, “I think there's a small chance that this might be a musical.”

Nico snorted, still reveling in the ease of the night so far. Thanks, Universe, he thought. Minimal awkwardness or panicking, maximum fun. I owe you one.

So really, it kind of felt like it was his fault when everything subsequently started working against him. After all, he had just placed a massive jinx on the whole situation. How irresponsible of him. Of course the universe would retaliate.

By a quarter of the way through, Nico was drowning in a pit of hellfire. Because this movie was a lot more romantically driven than he’d anticipated, which would have been weird enough, but it also had to go and have a scene where the characters sat in a movie theatre, silently being cute and making moves on each other. And Jesus Christ, it was like the writers of this movie were trying to make Nico feel as awkward as possible as he sat next to his real date, together awkwardly watching an on-screen couple in their exact situation being super romantic.

Nico refused to reach up for their communal popcorn during the entire scene, fearing that Will would think he was being weird and taking advantage of the moment by taking his hand at the same time as the characters did. Maybe he would have worked up the nerve to take Will’s hand if none of this had happened, but now he couldn't. It would be too cheesy. Thanks, La La Land.

However, he did risk looking over at Will once during the scene. They were still sitting really close, especially because they kept whispering snarky comments about the movie in each other’s ears. But now Will, too, sat stock-still, not saying anything or making eye contact. At least the scene seemed like it would be over soon.

But - dear God why - the movie characters chose that time to tilt their heads and slowly lean in for a kiss. Because screw Nico di Angelo, that's why.

This was terrible. How was he supposed to sit in a movie theatre with a date and watch characters on a screen in a movie theatre with their dates and not feel some level of a parallel?

Never had Nico felt his complete lack of dating experience so keenly. Was he supposed to do the same as what was on screen? Was this how movie dates worked - synchronize your actions with the romance leads? But no, that would be stupid, he wasn't going to kiss Will in the middle of a movie just because Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling told him to. He didn't want to do that. Well, he did want to kiss Will in general because that would be really nice but oh god this wasn't the time to be figuring all this out. Why did people see romantic movies on dates? This was horrendous! Thanks again, La La Land!

The on-screen couple got interrupted before they could actually kiss and Nico could have actually stood up and cheered. In lieu of that, he let himself relax a bit in his seat as the scene changed. He could have sworn he saw Will take a deep breath and calm down, too, out of the corner of his eye.

As the film went on and became significantly less about people on first dates in movie theaters, Nico was able to relax more and more. In fact, he was even about to silently apologize to La La Land for all the negativity he'd mentally hurled at it when he was reminded yet again why romance movies in the theaters were terrible: a couple sitting right in front of Will and Nico had started making out, hard. And they weren't showing any signs of stopping. Nico realized that sitting in the very back had been a terrible, terrible choice on his part.

Will coughed uncomfortably. Nico resisted the urge to yell at them both, whack his head on the safety railing, or both. Why was this happening? Why couldn't he just watch a movie with a cute boy without this practical minefield of awkward onslaughts?

Wow. They really weren’t stopping. This was really awkward. Ah yes, who didn't love sitting next to someone on a very fragile first real date, watching strangers making out two feet away? Nico could definitely see why people loved movie dates so much.

In order to not lose his mind, Nico had to very consciously focus on the movie and attempt to ignore the two. It worked as well as one would expect. Eventually, after many heinous minutes of Nico uncomfortably shifting his seat as the couple in front of them shoved their tongues down each other’s throats, he accidentally made eye contact with Will. It only took a half second of meeting Will’s equally uncomfortable gaze before they both broke down in nervous giggles.

Will hid his face behind his hand, whispering, “Oh my godddd.”

Nico bent, cradling his head in his hands, then leaned back in his seat. “This is the worst thing that's ever happened, ever,” he half-joked, really more of an internal thought that had escaped his lips.

Still faintly giggling, Will gestured vaguely to the couple and whispered to Nico, “Why, you guys? This is a sad part of the movie! What are they getting out of this?”

Nico turned to him, whispering back, “Right? Seb and Mia’s relationship is falling apart on-screen, what exactly here is romantic?”

“Nothing. I mean, there was all that nice singing stuff in the beginning, but now it’s mostly done.”

“Exactly. Not romantic.” To be heard without disturbing other people, Nico had to lean even closer.

Will didn’t move away. “Glad we see eye to eye on this.”

“Me, too.”

“No romance there at all.”

“Right.”

“Nice to finally agree on something.”

“Ha. Yeah.” Nico noticed they were much closer than he’d intended. “It’s a Christmas miracle.”

Will was mere inches away, the light that flickered from the screen illuminating his face in a washed-out glow. He smiled. “A Christmas miracle in October?”

“Truly miraculous.”

A beat - their eyes met and Nico was overwhelmed by the sense that he had absolutely no idea what the next few seconds would bring. Was he holding his breath? He couldn’t tell.

But another second passed and Will blinked hard, then turned his head back to the screen. Oh.

Nico was confused. Had he missed something? Was this just how things worked? He hesitated, then turned back to the movie, too. He had missed enough of the story by talking with Will that he had to piece together what was happening from guesswork. His brain remained fuzzy, dizzy from the general closeness of the night and from whatever had just happened.

They spent most of the rest of the movie in comfortable silence, save for the occasional sarcastic comment about the script. Just when Nico thought the rest of the movie would pass without much more interaction between them, he felt a few pokes on his arm to get his attention as he reached for popcorn.

Nico turned to Will, who was avoiding eye contact but sheepishly holding out his hand. Nico laughed and took it, his heart hammering in his chest, letting their fingers twine as their hands rested on the armrest they shared. The armrest’s fabric was scratchy against his skin, but he didn’t dare move. He didn't even dare to breathe, just staring at the way their hands fit together in the flickering dark like one would watch a particularly radiant moon at midnight. 

He spared a glance in Will’s direction, expecting him to be watching the screen, but was surprised to see Will already looking at him. And in the split second they held eye contact, Nico saw something he couldn’t put words to. An otherworldly sense of safety and excitement and well-being seemed to fade over them, like the soft, illuminating glow from the screen.

And as they leaned on each other, shoulder-to-shoulder and hands wound together next to the popcorn, Nico noticed a soft smile creeping up Will’s face.

Nico finished his licorice and decided that maybe, just maybe, he could consider forgiving whoever came up with the idiotic concept of movie dates.

Chapter Text

“Here’s a hypothetical: you get a million dollars but it can only be spent buying amazing, expensive presents for people you hate. What do you do?”

Will watched as Nico leaned back against the outside of the theater, mulling over his answer. Nico blew a dark lock of hair out of his eyes and said, “I sit on the money my entire life, making sure the person I hate knows that I have it but won’t spend it.”

Will cracked a smile. “Wow. Ruthless. Your turn.”

“Hm,” Nico said. Will couldn’t help staring at that adorable, thoughtful expression. After a second, Nico smiled and said, “Your favorite TV show decides to kill your favorite character unless you kill someone in real life. What do you do?”

“Holy shit, would that actually be a difficult decision for you?” Will tried to look shocked, but probably just looked amused. “Of course I let the character die rather than committing an actual murder, oh my god.”

“No, no, no,” Nico said, waving his hands like stop. “You’re not thinking about it enough. What if you can just kill someone who’s already on death row? Wouldn’t that be worth keeping your favorite character alive?”

“This conversation took a bit of a turn.”

“Come on! They were going to die anyways. And they’re all terrible people.”

Will laughed. "Is this the part in the movie where I realize it wasn’t actually a hypothetical?”

Nico groaned. “I answered your question.”

Holding up his hands as if setting a scene, Will said, “The audience hears dramatic music. Nico di Angelo steps out of the shadows with a knife and the Psycho theme plays.”

“I - come on, it’s not real. Who’s your favorite character, would you rather some serial killer live than them?” Nico talked with his hands so much it was like he was directing a hectic symphony.

Will stifled another laugh, shaking his head. “Sorry, I’m ten seconds away from turning you in as the Zodiac Killer.”

Nico rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in defeat. It was like a cat curling up in a ball, having decided that you were unworthy to continue being in its presence. A smile did peek through his demeanor, however. So maybe he was more like a cat that walks two feet away, expecting you to follow.

Sigh. Will didn’t miss an opportunity to appreciate that Nico di Angelo - cute human being extraordinaire, leather-jacket-clad and leaning up against the front of a movie theater like a cool greaser in a movie - was on a date with him. Surreal. Will would have to bring home a souvenir like a ticket stub to convince himself later that this hadn’t been some sort of cruel dream.

Will shook his head, absentmindedly playing with fuzz on the sleeve of his sweater, and spoke again. “Hypothetical: if something were to come up tonight where you had to stay out later than your parents originally thought, would that be okay?”

“That doesn’t sound like a hypothetical.”

"Okay, I guess my real question is if you want to go get any food. There’s a diner across the parking lot and I’m hungry.” Will gestured in the vague direction of the restaurant.

Nico looked surprised. “Oh! Um, I guess. Yeah.”

Will noted his hesitation. “You have money?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, I was just figuring out if I was still within curfew. But I realized that since I never leave the house, I don’t even have a curfew. Which I guess would be cool if it wasn’t sad.” He coughed at the end of that, as if he hadn’t realized he was still talking.

“Relatable,” Will said. He pointed across the street to the diner. “Shall we?”

Nico nodded.

The large parking lot between them and the diner proved to be as difficult an obstacle course as anything on American Ninja Warrior. All of the cars seemed to have teamed up beforehand, agreeing that a prize would go to the first one of them to run the boys over.

“Jesus!” Will yelled as a third car swerved way too close to them. “Is this a movie lot or a race track?”

Nico didn’t seem fazed, his hands remaining undisturbed in his pockets.

“You seem really calm about all these grown adults nearly killing us,” Will said.

“Midterms are soon,” Nico deadpanned. “I fear death not.”

Will snorted as they stepped off the street onto the diner’s sidewalk. He said, “Don’t even be worried. Our school goes super easy on sophomore midterms. A bunch of my friends barely studied last year and got A’s - you’ll be fine.”

Nico stared at him, brows furrowed for a moment. “I’m a junior.”

“What?” Will halted their walk, flabbergasted. Everything he knew was a lie. “Really? Are you sure?”

Nico suppressed a laugh. “Yeah, 80% sure. Could be wrong.”

“But - then why do we only have sociology together?”

“I don’t know. Take it up with the school board.”

Will was still dumbfounded. “Why was I so sure you were a sophomore?”

“It’s my youthful glow,” Nico said dryly.

“Whatever,” said Will, elbowing Nico’s arm with a playful jab without thinking. He then promptly had a three-second fit of terror until it was clear that Nico hadn’t minded. Phew. It hadn’t been flirtatious or anything, anyhow. Plenty of friends elbowed each other. It was a very platonic thing to do.

Jesus Christ. Will mentally shook his head at himself. He was on a date. It was okay to be flirtatious. It was kind of the point. Honestly, at this rate, he would probably apologize for being too forward at his own wedding.

Will shrugged it off and continued, “So we’re both juniors. Do you have Mrs. Dodds for Algebra 2? She’s the worst, right?”

Nico enthusiastically agreed and they both went through each of their classes, checking if they shared any teachers or classmates and complaining about both.

They were interrupted from a shared rant about how short the school’s breaks were compared to how much ground one needed to cover to reach their next class when they came to the diner’s double doors. Without thinking, they each grabbed a door and held it open for the other. They stood, stubbornly stuck, facing each other from across the doorway with the doors pulled open.

Nico tilted his head toward the inside. “Go on. I get to hold the door this time.”

“No, you go. I have a Southern mother - I’ve been conditioned to hold doors on dates.”

Gah. Every time Will acknowledged the whole ‘date’ situation, he felt more and more like tunneling underground and living forevermore with the gophers. It just felt weird to say it out loud.

Nico flushed. “Well, I was raised on my father’s business luncheon etiquette, so I, too, am required to hold doors for dates.”

“Oh, yeah. Gender roles and all that.”

“Just go inside, Will. You can’t outlast me.”

“Really? I will honest-to-God set up a tent overnight and wait for you to go inside. I don’t play.”

Someone from inside at a booth yelled, “You’re letting the cold air in!”

Will and Nico continued their staring contest for a few more seconds until Nico said, “On three?”

Will nodded. “One… two… three.”

They entered the diner at the same time with a sort of flourish. After a moment, Will snorted and Nico said, “That was the stupidest forty seconds of my life.”

“Agreed.”

“Alright.” Nico mock-rolled up his sleeves. “Who do I have to talk to to get some cheese fries around here?”

-

As they slid into the booth, Will pulled out his phone and quickly started a text to his mom regarding his later return time. Noticing Nico’s worried glance at the phone, Will said. “Sorry, I’m just texting my… parents.” He paused. “No, wait, that was weird. I was going to say that I was texting my mom, but then I thought I would sound like a nine-year-old, so I said parents, but I only have one parent which is my mom and now it's weird. Sorry.” Why couldn't Will just say things? Like a normal person?

Nico didn't seem to mind, even if he got a little closed off for some reason. “I do that sometimes. The parent thing. It's easier to say ‘parents’ sometimes than get into the whole situation, I guess.”

Will hesitated. “I mean, you just said a thing about not wanting to divulge family details, but now I feel like I should ask. So, like. What’s up with your family?”

Crossing and uncrossing his arms, Nico mused, “Well.” He leaned back in his booth seat and Will could practically see him trying out different words in his head. “It’s mostly just my father and I. I have a sister, but she’s off in the military, and a stepmother who’s only here about half the time. So there’s that, I guess.” He paused. “What about you?”

Will started fiddling with his fork. “Pretty much just me and my mom. I probably have a bunch of half-siblings, too, but I don’t know who they are.” Will hoped Nico wouldn’t ask further questions. The fork he was playing with got extra interesting all of a sudden.

A sort of heavy silence hung in the air. Will could tell they were both holding things back. Should he say more? He took a deep breath and changed the subject instead. “So. Do you think this is a ‘50s-themed diner or a diner that’s been here since the ‘50s?”

Nico visibly relaxed - he seemed just as willing to drop the family talk. He looked around and said, “Neither. It’s a new diner that unfortunately got interior design consulting from a grandmother.”

Will snapped in triumph. “That’s it.”

“And I like the karaoke stage in the back. Very classy.”

Glancing over his shoulder, Will saw he was right: a small raised stage with a karaoke set-up rested in the back of the diner, looking slightly out of place amidst all of the ‘50s jukeboxes and vintage photographs. “Oh, wow. We should for sure go and sing something,” Will said, not even one tiny part of him being sincere. You could not have paid him to go up there and perform.

“Definitely,” Nico joked. A small smile formed on his face, quiet yet radiant and overall contributing to his whole beautiful-human-being-who-by-some-stroke-of-nature-deigned-to-talk-to-Will-Solace vibe. Will felt a sudden urge to reach out and - what? Touch his face? No, that was stupid. Bad plan.

Forcing himself to look away, Will held up a menu and said, “We should probably decide.”

“Cheese fries.” Nico didn’t even look at the menu.

“... Um. Okay. Have you been here before?”

“No, my psychic powers alerted me to the fries,” Nico said nonchalantly, fiddling with the mini jukebox at the edge of their table. Upon Will’s quizzical look, he said, “There was a sign by the door.”

“Ah.”

A member of the waitstaff came to take their orders. Upon seeing that Will was ordering a shake, they asked if Nico wanted one, too. Nico shook his head. “I don’t need one. You go ahead.”

Will eyed him meaningfully. “You realize this means you can’t just steal half of my shake.”

Long stare. “... Never mind. I’ll get my own, then.”

Will snorted.

Later, after Will’s food was gone and Nico’s cheese fries had been devoured in a sight that could only be described as terrifying, Nico was messing with the mini jukebox a lot. But for all the flipping through songs that he did, he never actually played one of them. More importantly, it was a good thirty seconds where Nico was adorably focused on something and Will got to stare at him like an idiot. After making a mental note to write an ode later to dark hair and cute boys, Will shook himself out of the daze and asked, “Do you not have any quarters?”

“What?” Nico looked startled. “No. I mean, yes, I do, I just.” He shrugged. “Don’t really want to disturb anyone by playing it out loud.”

“That’s dumb. There’s like, no one in here." Will gestured around to the near-empty diner. “Did you have a song in mind?”

“Well, yes. I mean, no, it’s fine, I don’t need to play it.” Nico’s body language shrank.

Will fished a quarter out of his pocket and glanced at the track Nico had left the jukebox on. “Smooth Criminal?” he asked, reaching to deposit the quarter.

Nico said, “No, you don’t need to-”

“Too late.” Will inserted the quarter and the song started playing.

Very loudly. Much louder than a mini jukebox should.

“Okay. I guess this is happening.” Nico stared into the middle distance, looking every bit as if he had checked out of this plane of reality in search of a better one, one that didn’t involve Michael Jackson songs being played against his will.

As the funky beats of Smooth Criminal rang out in the almost-empty diner, Will had very little sympathy for Nico’s level of apathy. Instead he began to break out ridiculous half-dance moves from his seat at the booth. Did he look stupid? Yes. Did he care? Strangely, no.

Nico sat back in his seat, raising his eyebrows like Really? But he was most definitely cracking a smile. Will held on to that as he made a mock-solemn face at Nico and said, “Don’t lie. I can tell you want to dance.”

“I assure you, I do not. And now that I think about it, why is an ‘80s Michael Jackson song even available on a ‘50s-themed jukebox?”

“Don’t think,” Will said, still doing his dumb dancing. “Just jam.”

After some very serious deliberation, Nico reluctantly and halfheartedly started doing the Travolta disco-arm dance move. Will’s grin just lit up like the damn sun.

Finally, Nico rolled his eyes and seemed to let himself have fun, his dance moves wonderfully worsening and his smile finally emerging as wonderfully cheesy ‘80s beats pumped in the background. As the music kept asking, Annie, are you okay? Nico responded, “I don’t know, Michael! It kind of sounds like Annie is dead! It was the smooth criminal, I thought we established this!”

Will was laughing so hard that it caught on to Nico, too. Until, as the song played on, they both sat, doubled over in laughter, unable to speak or even badly dance anymore. Nico’s laugh was so rich, so unrestrained and joyous for once, and his hair was falling in his eyes in that way that made Will’s heart skip, and as Will laughed, he saw something that could only be described as a spark in Nico’s eyes. Something bright and full of possibility, that fleeting potential to catch into a flame.

Without thinking, he reached out and took one of Nico’s hands on the table. And the thing was, he didn’t feel nervous this time. Nico’s laughter calmed down just the tiniest bit and he squeezed back, but he barely seemed to be paying attention to their touch at all.

Will had spent a lot of time feeling like Nico was too good for him, but in that moment there was a sense of ease and surety that had been missing before. He didn’t feel like he was on a high-stakes movie/dinner date with a cute boy he barely knew. Rather, he was just hanging out with his really cute friend whom he really wanted to kiss. All the pressure he had felt to be perfect tonight felt a little silly. It was just Nico, after all. Wonderful, remarkable, beautiful Nico.

The song ended and Nico had to wipe a tear out of his eye, they had been laughing so hard. Will could tell they were both thinking about how they already got their check and that they should probably leave for the night, but they were in silent agreement: Just a few more minutes.

Once they were both fully recovered from their laughing stint, Will looked up at Nico and squeezed his hand again, already interlocked with his. Nico squeezed back.

Will felt like he was supposed to say something funny or profound or meaningful, but honestly? All he could manage was, “Nico?”

“Yeah?” Nico’s face was still red from laughing. It was just… criminally cute.

Will softly laughed. “How can we go about doing this again sometime?”

Chapter Text

Bzzt.

Shoot. Why was the ringer on? Nico’s eyes darted to the front of the classroom, making sure Mr. Brunner wasn’t looking, then he set his phone to silent and checked the message.

Jason: Did I leave my glasses at your house?

Without meaning to, Nico snorted. He hadn’t been planning on responding, but the text was so stupid that he had to.

Nico: Jason. You haven’t been over for two months

Jason: They’ve been missing a long time

Nico didn’t have time for this. He and Will were presenting their project soon. He sent:

Nico: Go back to calculus Mr. lightning in a bottle

Jason: I said not to call me that

Nico rolled his eyes and put his phone back in his pocket. Jason had won the basketball team a major victory a few weeks back and the local paper had described him as “a rocky team’s lightning in a bottle”. The nickname caught on, even though it bothered Modest Jason, and Nico was never one to waste a good sarcastic nickname opportunity.

His phone kept lighting up, but Nico ignored it. Instead he twiddled his thumbs, feeling uncharacteristically awake considering he was in Sociology. He made a quick mental tally of all the times he had looked at Will this class period, decided it wouldn’t be creepy to look again, and spared a glance.

Will was drumming his fingers on the table much faster than he usually did. Not that Nico had been watching, but still. It made sense, considering they were both about to speak in front of a room full of idiots, but his anxious fidgeting seemed like it was due to even more than the presentation. What was going on? Nico wished he could do something to ease his stress.

Right now, some other pair was presenting their project, except it was on the cycle of rebellions, not social classes. Both kids looked like they were ready to shoot themselves to be done with the whole affair. Nico hadn't been listening to a word, instead staring off into space and halfheartedly reviewing his cue cards to no avail.

Will chose that moment to look back at Nico, and he jumped slightly in surprise when he saw that Nico was already staring at him. Shoot. Nico tried to direct his attention back to the students up front, but not before Will mouthed, You good?

Nico knew it was probably just a generic assurance on Will’s part to make sure his presentation partner wasn't about to faint, but Nico let it make his heart flutter anyway. He nodded in response and flashed a small smile, then returned to fiddling with his cue cards.

It occurred to him a few seconds later that he should have asked the same in return, but Will had looked away by then. Nico wished he could get his attention again, because Will actually did look kind of troubled, but there wasn't a way to do that silently from the back row besides staring at the back of his head and hoping. Oh, well. Nico would just have to go down in history as the least considerate or attentive friend in history. Hopefully St. Peter would forgive him.

Wait - friend? No, that wasn't what one used to describe someone he’d been on dates with. The most obvious word for that would be -

No. Nico didn't even let himself think it. A few dates did not necessarily mandate a capital-R Relationship. He really, really didn't want to start thinking like that, only for Will to declare that it had been fun but he wasn’t looking for anything serious. Nico had been trying to let himself be fairly gung-ho about this so far, going for risks he otherwise never would have taken, but if there was one way he would internally insist on remaining guarded, it was this. Plus, if he let himself get used to the B-word, what if it led to him accidentally using it in conversation? In front of Will? What if they weren't on the same page and Nico made everything awkward? Horrifying. No, Nico would keep to himself re: relationship definitions, thank you very much.

“Nico!”

He jumped in his chair. Everyone was staring at him expectantly, including Will, who was now standing at the front and holding their poster board. Nico must have missed their names being called up in his stupor. Seemed they were off to a great start.

Nico took a deep breath and joined Will up front. In, out. This was whatever. Both of them were only shooting for B’s anyhow.

As they introduced their topic, Will gave Nico a sidelong glance and a thought immediately struck: Could everyone else tell about them? Should they? Was there even anything really to tell?

Nico hated public speaking in the best of times, but now that he was so acutely aware of this new concern, it was a borderline nightmare. They put on the presentation, Nico mostly checking out of the process and leaving it to autopilot. But whenever he finished one of Will’s sentences or shared a smile with him, he worried he was being too obvious and looked away. And then he would scold himself for even feeling like he should hide it, and then he’d scold himself for scolding himself because he was supposed to be practicing “positive self-talk”, and then he’d scold himself for being distracted during the presentation, and it was overall a mess.

The good news was that when they finished, Nico’s autopilot seemed to have gotten the job done and not led to any embarrassing disasters. Phew. The bad news was that as they took down the poster board, Will seemed a million miles away. What was going on with him?

Screw that noise. Nico just took his seat and tuned out the world until the end of class.

After the bell rang and the classroom cleared out, Nico leaned on the building outside and - what? Waited for Will? He supposed so. It wasn’t like he had any other reason to stick around the classroom.

When Will emerged, Nico caught his eye and Will joined him. Will nervously smiled and said, “Well, we didn’t crash and burn, huh? That’s good.”

“Yeah,” Nico agreed with a smile. “At least a B for both of us.”

Will nodded, his mind seemingly elsewhere. He went as if to turn away to his next class, but paused, then turned back to Nico and asked, “Are you okay?”

That caught Nico off guard. “What? - No, yeah, I’m fine.” Nico was suddenly struck with a memory of himself asking others if they were okay, when really he was hoping they would ask him in return. Was that Will’s case?

Still looking uneasy, Will said, “... Cool. I thought you might have a thing with public speaking up there and I realized I should have asked beforehand. Should have like, checked, you know?”

‘No, no, you’re good,” Nico rushed. “I mean, I didn’t ask you, either. And yeah, public speaking isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but I’m fine.” He paused, then felt proud for remembering this time to ask, “Are you okay?”

“...Yeah.” Will reshouldered his bag. “No. Yes. I’m fine.” He made to leave again, but Nico caught him by his bag’s strap (immediately regretting the action) and got him to turn around.

“Will, is something wrong?” Nico asked.

Will ran a hand through his sunny hair (which Nico had to force himself to ignore) and said, “No. I mean, nothing serious. Don’t worry. Just a lot on my mind.” His eyes flitted back up to Nico’s as he smiled apologetically. “Seriously. Don’t worry about me. I just have to… think some things over.”

The bell rang. Shoot. Neither of them was anywhere near their next class.

“Okay, bye,” Nico said, brisker than he meant to. Normal humans probably didn't cut off conversations in the middle like that, but then again, normal humans also didn't have a ridiculous number of tardies already piled up, counting against their permanent records. Both of them waved and split off, starting to run to their respective classes.

From across the quad, Nico heard, “I’ll text you!”

He responded with a thumbs-up over his shoulder, hoping blindly that Will could see.

-

From underneath a math textbook in his room, Nico heard his phone buzz. Will, perhaps?

Nope. It was Jason, this time in the group chat.

Jason: So everyone’s SURE they haven’t seen my glasses

Piper: babe we’re ALL SURE

Piper: for the last time just buy a new pair

Nico turned off the group chat notifications and tossed his phone aside. He wasn’t about to devote any more of his valuable brain space to Jason’s neverending glasses debacle. Not when that brain space could be easily saved for worthier topics, like mentally ranting about his father or lowkey obsessing over Will’s texts. Important stuff. He had standards, you know.

It wasn’t until later, when Nico was considering turning in early at maybe 10:30 or so, that Will texted.

Will: hi

Nico wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just texted Will himself, but here he was, having waited nonetheless. A small smile formed on his face as typed back, Hi.

Will: sorry for being weird earlier

Will: i was just

Will: i’m good now

That didn’t sound like a person who was doing good. Was Nico supposed to let it go or ask more? It was always, always his first instinct to shut down any conversation involving real emotions, but lately he had been trying to fight that tendency. So as hard as it was to not just let it go, he typed,

Nico: Anything you want to talk about?

A response took longer than usual, and even then it only said, no.

So much for opening up to real conversations. Nico lay down on his bed, phone held up in the air over him, and stared at the screen blankly. He waited in case Will had changed his mind, but no follow-up text reared its head.

Just as Nico was about to make a clumsy attempt at a new topic, another text came through.

Will: wait. yes

Shoot.

Will: you said something before about it being just you and your dad and stepmom right

Panic struck Nico. What was this about? How could Will’s mental state possibly be tied to Nico’s family?

Nico: Yeah why?

Pause.

Will: did you ever know your mom?

Nico could feel everything in him shut down. Why was this happening? His least favorite topic, randomly brought up by his crush? Was this the universe evening things out for that amazing movie night last weekend? He gathered enough wits to say,

Nico: No. She died when I was little

Will: …

Will: i’m sorry. shit. i’m sorry

Will: i was going to ask the whole “if you could meet your mom, would you” thing, but like. your situation is different than mine of course you would

Now Nico was just concerned.

Nico: What’s going on? Are you okay?

Will took a minute to respond.

Will: i’m sorry i’m not trying to dump this on you i just thought you might have a similar situation i’m sorry it’s fine. how are you how was your day

Shit. Shit shit shit. Should he let it go? There were red flags all over this. Obviously Will was not fine. And Nico was determined not to be that friend that let it go, even when you actually really wanted to talk about something but didn’t know how to say it. Nico tried to channel Jason during the many times he’d calmed Nico down from something like this. What Would Jason Do?

Nico: Are you sure you're okay?

Why was he still asking this? He was even annoying himself. If he were asked that question, his first instinct would be to say he was fine, no matter the real answer. Why would it work on Will?

Will: i'm fine

Well, Nico called that one.

Will: it's just i don't want to burden people (you) with random stuff from a guy you barely know, so i’m doing fine how about you

That sent Nico onto high alert. Immediately a kaleidoscope of memories hit him, each of them of one of many times he’d tried to check with people to make sure he wasn't a burden. Always shifting the focus away from himself. The similarities here left a bad taste in his mouth.

What was going on? What should he do? What would Jason do?

Well, for starters, Will had asked how he was doing a few times now, so Nico should probably respond.

Nico: I’m doing good. And you don't have to tell me anything but you're not a burden okay

No immediate response. Shit. Was he saying the right thing? He just wanted to help Will. There was something jarring and wrong and just... off about the mere concept of Will in a state like this. Will was supposed to be smiling in the sun and looking gorgeous in cozy-looking sweaters on the beach. Shining, magical stuff like that. But now he was talking in a way that reminded Nico scarily of himself. What was even going on? It wasn’t like he could just come out and ask. Could he just ask? Maybe he could just...

Nico: Can I ask what's going on?

Immediately a thousand possible futures flooded Nico’s mind, each one more horrible and involving an angrier Will than the last. What if he was overstepping his boundaries?

Nico: I’m sorry I don’t want to pry it’s your business, I can drop it I’m sorry

It felt like a small eternity (probably twenty seconds), but the bubble popped up:

Will: no no no it’s not you you’re fine you’re really great in fact

Nico barely had time to internally glow at that before the next texts came in. Will must have been venting now if he was sending them this fast.

Will: okay so like. it's just me and my mom as far back as i can remember and she's really great and my dad was never around, just kind of left my mom with a baby (me) and checked out.

Will: but for whatever reason we know his name now and he's back in town for the first time EVER and wants to meet me

Will: i’ve never even seen this dude before? i can't decide what to do bc like. i’ve always talked a big game about how i don’t even care that i don’t know my dad because that random guy doesn’t define me but… now that it comes down to it i don’t know if i can pass up a chance to meet him. but what if i do and it all goes badly?? i like to think he isn’t TOO horrible of a person but what if he proves me wrong?? just thinking about it makes me sick. is it better to never know him or meet him and have it go terribly?? does this asshole stranger even deserve to know me??? i mean it’s not like knowing me is a privilege or anything but you know what i mean

Pause.

Will: shit. i’m really sorry for getting you involved in this i really wasn't planning on roping you into my personal ridiculousness

Nico was at a loss. He was glad the issue wasn't something he’d done wrong, but this was some heavy stuff.

Blinking blankly at the screen, Nico was hit by another wave of irony. The sheer role reversal of Nico, usually the comforted, becoming the comforter was just sort of laughable. Who was he to help Will with this? He could barely calm himself down when he needed to.

But something possessed him to keep going.

Why? Why not just de-escalate the situation and change the subject? He and Will didn't know each other that well; he could still definitely get away with pulling that card without being a jerk. Will would understand.

Nevertheless, Nico felt almost fired up now. He was going to take all those half-baked healthy habits he’d learned from Jason (and to a lesser extent, Hazel and the rest of the gang) and years of therapy and try to put them to good use. Hopefully he wouldn't say anything too catastrophic and life-ruining in the process.

Nico: Okay yeah that's heavy. But no you don't need to feel bad about telling me, you're fine

Nico: When do you need to decide by? Like how long is he in town?

Will: thanks. about a week

Nico: Do you actually WANT to see him or is it just obligation?

Will: that's the problem i can’t decode

Will: *decide. ah yes, i must decode the ancient scrolls that will tell me whether or not to meet my father. autocorrect at its finest

Nico considered. It was hard to have fluid conversations on text. And avoiding autocorrect and other obstacles in the way was annoying. As much as he despised phone calls, some demon must have taken over him and made him say:

Nico: Feel free to kick me out of the millennial club for saying this but. Do you want to just talk on the phone?

Will: you know what? i never would have thought to do that that but sure why not. i will have to revoke your Millennial Badge tho

Nico: Damn. And after I dabbed all those times to become a gold member

Nico: That's a lie I hate dabbing. Whatever I'm calling you

There must have been some sort of drug in the air that made Nico do this, because he couldn’t remember the last time he had called anyone he wasn't related to, ever. But for whatever reason, he felt it was necessary that night.

Nico stopped for a moment, psyched himself up, then hit Call.

Chapter Text

As the phone rang, Nico had a four-second panic attack and saw in his mind’s eye every single way in which this could go wrong. Possible threats ranged from mild embarrassment to severe embarrassment to fiery monsters riding dragons in quicksand while also causing Nico embarrassment. There was a common theme, it seemed.

Finally, Will picked up. Nico didn’t know what had taken so long unless Will had also been staring at his screen, building the courage to talk out loud like Nico had. Nico chose to believe this was true, if only to help calm himself down.

Will’s phone-crackly voice tried, “Uhh… Hi?”

Shit. This was happening. Why had Nico suggested this? “Hi.”

“Hey! Nico. Hey.” A pause. “I have no idea how to talk on the phone.”

Nico laughed. “Me neither.”

“Should I do the thing where I pretend you’re in the room with me and talk to imaginary you? I think I will.”

“That’s your prerogative.”

Some shuffling. “Okay, the stuffed animal duck at the foot of my bed is now you. Hi, Nico. I’m now waving to the duck, in case you can’t already tell that I’ve lost my mind.”

Nico tried not to smile. “I know we were talking about serious stuff, but I need a second to hone in on the fact that you have a duck plushie on demand in case of midnight phone calls.”

“Quackers answers to no man. And it’s only 11.”

“Hm.” Nico forced himself to let go of the name “Quackers” and took a deep breath. “Okay, but about the actual reason we’re talking…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Will said, growing quiet for a moment. “It’s just… What would you do if you were in my shoes? Should I do it? Meet my dad?”

Immediately Nico’s first instinct was to say he would want to meet this mysterious father figure. But he knew that was clouded by his desire to meet his mother, to really meet her. Not as a young child, but as he was now. To have a real conversation with her, adult to… well, young adult. But that wasn’t Will’s situation.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m seeing it with a clear head. With my,” Nico cleared his throat. “You know. My mother and all.”

“Right. Shoot. Sorry. Um, yeah, I guess this is all - it’s just an overall shitfest, isn’t it? And by this time next month he’ll be gone, probably for good.”

“Why is he even in town if he isn’t going to stay or help out?”

Will scoffed. “You overestimate his devotion. He’s not here to meet me, he’s here because his cover band is playing in the area. I’m just an afterthought.”

Will’s words were closed off, scornful, but Nico heard the raw hurt prickling beneath the surface. “That’s messed up."

“Yeah. But what else can I expect from a guy I only know about from stories? Actually, scratch that. I don’t even have stories. Just a basic description of his face from my mom - apparently I look like him.”

“Why don’t you have any stories about him?”

Will gave a bitter laugh. “Well, I don’t bring it up if I can help it, ‘cause like. My dad left real quick. As in, he found out my mom was pregnant and split. As in, I don’t want to ask my mom how they met because I don’t really want to be treated to a story that’s probably about my mom having a one-night stand in a nightclub, you feel?”

“Yuck.”

“My sentiments exactly. Yuck. I do know that he knew I existed, but left her without any sort of child support anyway, so there’s another ‘You’re an Asshole’ point for him, I guess.”

Nico shook his head. Which didn’t appear over the phone, so he said, “Remind me, why do you want to meet this guy again?”

“Yeah.” The humor left Will’s voice. “I know what you mean. But it’s my dad, you know? I only have one of them. I just don’t want to regret not going for it. But I could also regret not not going for it. Imagine if you’d never met your dad. You’d probably want to meet him, right?”

Nico actually laughed at that one. “Hell no. My father's awful.” He cleared his throat. “Sorry. That was insensitive.”

“Ha. You’re fine, as long as I get to complain about my mom without being offensive to your whole situation.”

“Cool. Screw all fathers! Sorry, Will!” Nico joked, raising a triumphant fist in the air. Which Will also did not see. Oops.

“Screw all mothers! Sorry, Nico!” Will replied, laughing.

“This is a pretty messed-up level of humor we’re operating on here.”

“Laugh through the pain, right?”

“Hear, hear.”

They grew quiet. After a moment, Will said, “I actually shouldn’t badmouth my mom. She’s pretty great. If only one parent is going to give a damn about me, at least the one that does is cool. Not that I even des -” He stopped short.

Pause. Nico asked, “What?”

“Never mind.”

Nico said, “I’m raising my eyebrows expectantly. You can’t see it, but I am.”

“Funny, Quackers doesn’t seem to be raising his eyebrows.”

“Oh my god, are you still using that duck as a stand-in for me?”

“Maybe.”

Nico snorted, very aware that Will was changing the topic, but decided to let it go. He absentmindedly curled his blanket between his fingers. Rows of light from the moon through his blinds fell on his sheets, washing the room in a serene glow. Staring absently across the room at his precious rocks collection on his bookshelf, he said, “I don’t feel like you’re any closer to a decision.”

Will sighed. “No, I don’t think I am. But this helps a lot.”

“This?”

“Talking. With you.” Was it possible to hear someone blushing? “Whatever.”

“Glad I could help, then,” Nico said, meaning it more genuinely than he had intended.

“You know, I usually wait ‘til the third date to dump my innermost struggles and fears on people.” Will laughed, the joke not completely covering the edge to his words. 

Nico stopped short at the acknowledgement of the dates. He wanted to ask about it, to clarify if this all meant they were actually officially Dating or not, but he figured now wasn’t the time.

Before he could respond, Will continued, “But hey, now I’ve been talking your ear off about my problems, yet I have no dirt on you. What’s up in your life?”

Nico snorted. “You would be the worst therapist. ‘So, Jimmy, how about you spill all that hot goss? Give me the juicy dirt off the street, Ol' Jim.’”

Will laughed at that, but pushed on. “No, I worded that badly. What I mean is, I feel bad about this very one-sided conversation, so is there anything you - gah, I sound cheesy. Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“See, now there’s your therapist line. You got there eventually.”

“You’re dodging.”

Nico grumbled. “I don’t know. There’s always things I can rant about in my life, but it’s whatever. Nothing’s jumping out at me.” There had already been a lot of emotional honesty that night. Shouldn't there be a quota?

He continued, “No, things are good. I miss my sister and my father reminds me of that devil that people make deals with in the movies, but overall I’m fine. I’m actually -” Nico thought about it. He surprised himself when he finished with, “- happy.” He stopped to process that. “Huh. Yeah, I think I’m happy.”

The novelty of the concept was near-mind-blowing. Happiness? Being okay? What was that?

He expected Will to make some joke about it, but he was just softly quiet. After a moment, Nico heard a small voice: “Good. I’m glad.”

Nico nodded. Then he realized that must have just sounded like nothing. “Yeah,” he added.

They sat for a minute in comfortable silence, and Nico took the second to marvel at the sweet strangeness that anyone could manage to make phone silence feel easy. Will was certainly talented.

“Hey." There was a smile in Will's voice.

“What?”

“We’re done with our sociology project.”

“So?”

“I guess you can delete me off your contacts now. Tell me to get lost.”

Nico could hear Will’s grin, but also that the statement ended with a question mark.

Nico thought hard about how best to phrase his answer, but couldn’t come up with anything meaningful or deep or even nice. So he just smiled and said, “Nah.”

“What?”

“Nah. I think I’ll keep you.” Thank God for the faceless nature of phones, because by now Nico was feeling red as a tomato.

Will took a second to respond, but his voice was lighter when he said, “Well, that’s good. You know too much about me now - I would have had to kill you.”

Nico snorted.

Apparently continuing his statement, Will said, “And killing you would have been a bummer. Partly because I would be a terrible assassin, and partly because I really… really like you?” Will stopped short. “Okay, I - I just actually said that out loud for some reason. Sorry. Um. ...Can I say that?”

AAAAA. Nico’s heart leapt into his throat. He wanted to respond with beautiful and intelligent words that would artistically, eloquently attempt to express how he was feeling at that exact moment, 11:23 on an otherwise forgettable weeknight, but his mind was blank. None of those beautiful words seemed to be at his disposal right then.

“I - I really like you, too,” Nico stammered, curling up into a ball on his side and pulling the covers over his head. “I don’t know how to do this. Am I saying the right things? Am I - shit. I don’t know.”

“No clue, either. I’m just going with it.” Nico could hear the nervous grin in Will’s voice.

Nico laughed, his heart still pounding but winding down now, bit by bit. Will really likes me. “As long as we’re doing candid confessions, I’ll just say that I’m really glad we’re talking instead of texting. I can’t remember the last time I had an actual conversation with someone via phone. I don’t know if I ever have.”

“Me too! I never call people, but I confess this is... really nice. Maybe we should make it a habit.”

There it was again, a joke that was really a question. Nico answered it with, “I agree.”

“Your turn,” Will said.

“What, are we doing turns now? Of confessions?”

“Unless I’m mistaken.”

“Fine.” Nico huffed. “I actually like that your duck is named Quackers.”

Will laughed a little. “He says thank you. My turn: Uh, your eyebrows do this cute thing when you think something is weird and it’s really great.” Will stopped short, as if he’d forced himself to stop talking. Nico tried to stave off an actual heart attack.

Was there a Getting Flustered Olympics? Because Nico was about ready to win it. He choked out, “Oh my god. Thanks? Are we doing confessions about each other now? Did I miss that, too?”

Will grimaced, sounding thoroughly exasperated with himself. “It seems Midnight Will was really feeling the whole ‘impromptu saying things without consulting brain’ thing. Sorry.”

Challenge accepted. “Fine, then. I’ll do that, too: You run your hand through your hair about fifty times a day and I’m affected every. Single. Time. It’s a problem. There, I did it.” He wanted to stick his head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend he hadn’t just said that, but what could a guy do?

Pause. “I - uh, I - Shit. Um. Thanks.”

“If you leave me hanging after that last one, Solace, I swear I will strangle you.”

“Okay! Okay!” Will was laughing, but in that highly nervous way. “Um, I really love your laugh. And your smile. And I think about them all the time and they’re really amazing and dammit that was two confessions, you go now.”

Nico was absolutely burning up with embarrassment now, but his competitive drive took over, full force. “Yeah? Well, your eyes make me understand why young adult authors are so obsessed with describing irises as the color of ‘sapphire skies’ and all that crap!”

Will choked on air. "Um. Okay, your constant wearing of band tees and skinny jeans should make you seem like the poster child for Hot Topic, but instead it’s just really hot! What the hell is up with that?”

That was the first time Will had called Nico hot, and Nico noticed it very, very much. He flushed and said, “Well, you have a habit of naming inanimate objects and it’s very endearing.”

“You have a habit of falling asleep in class and it’s even more endearing. Boom.” 

Nico was in this now, all out. “That’s not endearing, it’s irresponsible. Here's one: I really like your brand of humor, which coincidentally makes me smile way more than I usually do, so there.”

“Oh yeah? You think that’s good - I nearly passed out when I saw you in a leather jacket. Beat that.”

That old leather jacket Nico had been worrying about? Duly noted.

Nico’s heart was hammering so loud, he could practically hear it in the dark room. He was stuck between being terrified and never wanting this game to stop, ever. He laughed, drunk on this feeling, and grinned. “Holy shit. Are we that annoying couple in the lunchroom that won’t shut up about the other’s eyes?”

“Depends,” said Will slowly. “... Are we a couple?”

Immediately that easygoing feeling deserted Nico faster than a roadrunner in a cartoon. “Oh. Um, I didn’t - I - you -”

“- Because I thought -”

In a burst of courage, Nico bit the bullet: “Can we be? An actual couple?”

Nothing. Dead static phone silence. Nico wished his phone had a cord so he could anxiously curl it around his finger. His brain went on panic mode for a second that felt like a year until:

“Shit. Oh -  um, I mean, yeah. Uh... yeah. ” Will said, dazed and sounding very much like he had something else on his mind.

...Damn, that was a lot of hesitation. Nico was about to decide that everything was made out of pain and God wasn’t real, but then Will followed it up with, “Oh god. I mean - no, don’t take that the wrong way! It’s just that I spent like, all weekend stressing about how to ask that question and then you just did it for me.”

The tension left Nico in a big whoosh and he laughed, too loudly to be cool. “Well, yeah. I’m annoying that way.” He was beaming and his heart was beating so loud for so long that he didn’t even register it anymore and he was clutching the phone so tight that it would definitely leave marks on his hand, but he didn’t even care.

Will laughed, too. “Um - So, does that mean we’re Facebook official? Like, capital-T Together?”

Nico’s face was burning something fierce, butterflies seizing up his stomach. “I - I mean, yeah, if you want.”

“I do want,” Will said immediately.

“Me, too.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

Silence.

“I have absolutely no idea how to proceed from here,” Will said.

Nico laughed, heart in his throat. “Me neither. Um." He cringed. "Seen any good movies lately?”

Will snorted at the clumsy transition, but it evolved into infectious laughter. Soon enough, Nico was laughing, too, and they spent who-knows-how-long like that, grinning and cracking up over the stupidest of jokes, stretching out this intoxicating moment as far as they could. Nico’s iron grip on his sheets had relaxed somewhere along the way, and the butterflies in his stomach had reached a happy mellow, fluttering contentedly. The moon still shone through the room in slits of light, but Nico felt as if he were barely in the room at all. As if he had floated past the ceiling altogether as they talked about everything and nothing.

Eventually, after waging a particularly sleepy battle over which Avenger was the best, Will quieted down a bit. “...We should probably go to bed soon.”

“Should we?” Nico challenged, glancing at his alarm clock. It read 2:33. “Okay, maybe we should. You’re just trying to get out of admitting that I’m right about the Avengers, but I’ll allow it.”

“What? I - ...no, you’re baiting me. I’m smarter now, di Angelo. Can’t get me this time. We should sleep.”

Nico smiled. “If it helps, I usually go to bed around now anyway. So don’t feel bad about keeping me up.”

“Well, I usually get to sleep around 11 or midnight, so do feel bad about keeping me up, I guess.”

“Oh, well. Who needs sleep?”

“Healthy, growing teenagers?”

“Hm. Got me there.”

Nico could just barely hear Will chuckle softly before pausing. “This has been really nice,” he said.

There was that boa constrictor around his heart again. “Yeah, definitely. Even if you have really backwards views on Marvel.”

“Very funny. I could say the same.” There was a muffled noise on Will's end. “And before I get another chance to say anything else weird and spoil everything, I just wanted to say, like, thank you? I know I already said this before, and how I didn’t want to push all my personal drama on you, but I really, really -” He sighed. “I appreciate it. That’s all.”

“Of course,” Nico said, a little blindsided by all this genuine gratitude. Usually he was the one thanking people for basic kindness. “I’m not even doing anything. Really, it’s okay.”

“I’ll expect a bill for your therapeutic services in the mail tomorrow."

“Oh, yeah, I charge $200 an hour. I’m about to be rich.”

“Aren’t you rich already?”

“Shut up.”

Will laughed a bit. “Okay, but for real, thank you. I started this night about to cry, and I'm ending it smiling so hard it actually kind of hurts. So thanks for that.”

How did he respond to something like that? ‘You’re welcome’ would sound self-important. And laughing it off would be rude.

If this were a movie, this would be when Nico would just respond by looking into Will’s blue eyes, nodding slowly as an understanding sparked between them - time would slow and the music would swell and Nico would finally go in for the kiss -

But this wasn’t a movie, and they were on the phone, not in person, and Nico was too much of a coward to do anything like that anyway.

So instead he smiled softly and said, “Any time.”

“Thanks." Will cleared his throat. “And really, we should go to bed.”

As much as it pained Nico, he said, “You’re probably right.”

“I tend to be.”

“Okay, so I should just… hang up?”

“That’s the idea.”

Nico smiled at the ceiling. “But consider this: I don’t want to.”

“I could hang up, too, you know. I also have a red button.”

“You don’t seem to be pressing it.”

“Well, you aren’t either.”

Nico’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, are we doing the ‘No, you hang up’ thing?”

“Oh no, we are.”

“I’m hanging up right now.”

“Please do. I don’t want to be that cliche of a couple."

Nico felt his stomach flutter one last time and he smiled. “Okay. Hanging up.”

“Bye, Nico.” Will was almost whispering.

Nico took one last moment to commit Will’s words to memory, to soak in being in his presence, to bathe in the warm glow that accompanied every conversation with him, and whispered, “Bye, Will.”

He forced himself to hit End Call.

The screen flashed with the call’s stats and Nico had to laugh to himself at how long it had run. He couldn’t remember ever having a call that was over three hours long.

Nico stashed the phone by his pillow and curled up under the blankets, but he didn’t even attempt to go to sleep. Instead, he played over and over again everything that had happened until it all swirled around in his head like the world’s happiest blender.

Will’s voice, his kind streak, that adorable, indignant sound he made when he was flustered, his talent for making anything funny, and the fact that they were capital-D Dating now echoed around Nico’s brain until, eventually, his eyes fluttered shut.

Sleep found him grinning.

Chapter Text

Nico couldn't believe this.

Nico could not fucking believe this.

He hugged a stack of textbooks close to his chest, hiding his shirt, and checked to see if the coast was clear. Breathe in, out.

The sociology classroom. He could make it to the sociology classroom. He started speedwalking there so fast it probably looked like sprinting. He didn't care.

This was a damn crisis. How had he let this happen? How had he let a dare go this far? Why had he been stupid enough to trust his - (scoff) friends - about anything involving his clothing choices?

Alright. He reached Sociology with no issue. He made sure his shirt was covered by his books and then entered the building, hurriedly taking his seat and avoiding eye contact like the plague. Yet again, he checked that his shirt was covered. He was good.

For now.

Honestly, it was his own damn fault for letting himself take any dare that Piper, Percy, Jason, and Leo had all come up with (and the rest of his friends had enthusiastically agreed on). (Especially Leo.) If all of them had decided on something involving Nico’s clothes, Nico should have known to run away. Fast.

But here he was, sitting as low in his seat as he possibly could, waiting for class to start, and praying to every god out there that no one would point out his shirt. Well, tank top, to be more precise.

That part of it was extra annoying - he could cover up the contents of the horrifying shirt, but he couldn't pretend it wasn't a tank top. (He'd tried, but Leo had reminded him that covering it up with another layer terminated the dare.) Nico never wore tank tops if he could help it, instead opting for more of a how-does-that-guy-manage-to-wear-a-hoodie-and-jeans-in-100-degree-heat vibe. His shoulders felt so vulnerable.

He was also, regrettably, wearing shorts. More specifically, basketball shorts. Plus very offensive footwear.

That's all he was going to say about it.

Nico could tell Mr. Brunner was about to start class, and he could not have been happier about it. Class starting meant less opportunities for someone to ask why he looked so panicked, anxiously hiding his chest with textbooks and trying to act casual about it.

As Mr. Brunner sorted through his notes, Nico saw Will turn around in his seat at the front of the classroom. He waved to Nico in the back, smiling that sunshine smile that usually made Nico secretly melt. Nico’s first instinct was nobody look at me today, but he gathered enough wits to wave and smile back, his stomach producing the appropriate amount of butterflies before turning straight back to gut-churning anxiety.

After a short prelude, Mr. Brunner put on a video and announced that he would be grading papers during this period, so the class could just relax today. A collective sigh of relief sounded through the room.

But just as he was rolling his wheelchair over to switch off the lights, Mr. Brunner did the dreaded squint at him and asked, ”What does your shirt say, Nico?”

Nico paled. “It's not important.”

Mr. Brunner raised his eyebrows expectantly. Shit. Nico was going to get dress coded. Why hadn't he devoted even more attention to covering the words? “No one will care,” Piper had said. “Do you want to hold up your end of the bargain or not?” Piper had said.

Well, Piper was evil. This was more like blackmail.

Now he would have to either say what the shirt said out loud or actually show it to everyone. This was it, boys. This was the nightmare scenario.

All decency, dignity, and self-esteem deserted him - he was more like a personified husk of embarrassment than an actual human at this point. Nico was left with no choice but to stand, staring unseeingly at Mr. Brunner, and show the tank top in all its glory, welcoming the void.

-

Will actually cackled out loud at the shirt.

Oh god. This was the best thing to ever happen.

Everyone, including Will, had turned around in their seats to see what was happening, and Will was extremely satisfied with his decision to turn and look. Nico di Angelo, a boy Will had once seen wear a hoodie on top of another normal hoodie, was standing at his desk, a look on his face as if he had already accepted his own death, wearing basketball shorts, socks with sandals, and an “ALL DAMN DAY” Nike tank top.

God was real.

Will shut his mouth, quickly noticing that he was the only person to actually laugh out loud at this development. Probably because, as far as Will could tell, he was the only one that actually knew Nico in this class.

Nico glanced at Will following his outburst, but looked back to Mr. Brunner as the man rubbed his temples, unable to hide his amusement. Mr. Brunner explained that while he didn't care what they all wore, as long as it didn't hurt others, he was obligated by school rules to send Nico to the office on a dress code violation for a change of clothes. One swear word on a shirt in a school where “fuck you” was practically the student catchphrase was apparently too inappropriate. Nico just nodded, his soul seeming to have left his body a while ago, and moved to leave. He grabbed his bag, hefted it over his shoulder, and floated, ghost-like, to the door.

Just as he was about to leave, Mr. Brunner added, “Oh, and choose a buddy to go with you. I'm sure plenty of people would be fine skipping the video.”

Nico glanced back at the classroom and caught Will’s eye. And even though Nico’s choice was the only logical one in a room of people Will presumed didn't even know Nico, something about being Nico’s immediate first choice to lock eyes with made Will’s cheeks flush.

Deadpan, Nico asked, “Will you be my buddy?”

Will felt the corners of his mouth turn up. He shook his head in disbelief and mouthed, “You,” gathering his things, “are a dork.” He zipped his bag up and joined him by the door.

By now, the video had started, and the class turned back to that. Now Will stood by Nico in the doorway, grinning in delight at Nico’s ridiculous clothing, as Nico glared back and started on the way to the office. Will followed, trailing behind.

“Should I ask?” Will asked, still beaming. “Can I ask?”

“Not a word, Solace.”

“This has to be a prank. Or a dare. I refuse to believe that this is an actual outfit of clothing Nico di Angelo picked out and then decided to purchase because he unironically liked it.”

Nico’s pace slowed a bit and he let Will fall into step with him. “My friends blackmailed me.”

Will raised his eyebrows. “Do tell.”

“There's a certain foreign brand of dark chocolate that's really expensive and hard to get, and my friend Piper’s dad is… connected enough to get it. Usually she just gives it to us in exchange for small favors, but now she wants me to do a stupid dare for her in order to get another 3 months’ worth. So here I am.”

“So, less of a blackmailing and more of a willing trade that you agreed to.”

Nico shot him daggers. Adorable. “I don't think you understand how good this dark chocolate is. Once it’s a staple of your diet, taking it away is equivalent to violence. All my friends are addicted and she has us all under her thumb now.”

“I'm going to move past how hilariously pathetic that entire situation is and instead note that since I don't really like dark chocolate, am I immune to this friend now?”

“No, she'll find something else to threaten you with,” said Nico casually, still crossing his arms to hide his shirt. Will nodded, heeding the warning.

They arrived at the office and Will remembered that Nico would have to face actual consequences for this. This only put a slight damper on Will’s Nike-clothing-induced mood.

Before they talked to anyone, Nico turned to Will and said, “Okay, I heard girls talking about doing this, where they get out of calling home by having someone they know with them when they get dress coded. So when the office tells me to call home and asks you to make sure I do it, you just wait a few minutes, come back, and say I did, okay? Then we get out as quickly as possible to make sure they don't fact-check.”

“Damn, is this a heist?”

Nico rolled his eyes and steeled his gaze, all business. It was kind of hot. “Can you do that? My father would kill me if he knew I wore this to school.”

“Yeah, I got your back. You've already paid me with the frankly amazing image of you in quintessential fuckboi clothing. That, my friend, can never be erased.”

Nico seemed to ignore that, instead clutching his books over the “DAMN” again. He even switched around his backpack, carrying the bag part on his chest and stomach to hide the shirt. Needless to say, it was an awkward and beautiful sight. Will said, “I think it's a little late for that.”

Nico glared in response, then approached the desk and set their plan into motion. Watching Nico explain the situation to the unamused desk clerk was a theatregoing experience Will would highly recommend to anybody.

After a minute, Nico returned - and oh god that outfit really was hilarious - and walked past Will to the door, scooping up his backpack along the way. He said, “Come on, Will. I have to call my father,” smoothly and headed for the back of the building outside. Will nodded and gathered his bag, too.

As he rose, the desk clerk waved to him and said, “Make sure he actually calls, okay?” and smiled conspiratorially, as if they were sharing in some amusing secret.

Will nodded and smiled in a You got it way, hoping it was enough to throw her off the scent, before following Nico outside and out of the office’s field of vision.

Nico was waiting, tapping his foot anxiously and holding his phone. “Did everything go according to plan?"

“The diamond is waiting in Vault Z for the next leg of the crew to transport it to Madagascar.”

“What?”

“I was doing the heist - whatever, nevermind. Yeah, the secretary bought it.”

Nico's shoulders relaxed. “Thank god. I had gotten my phone out in case they were watching, but I was worried I was going to have to stage a fake conversation, too.”

“I'm incredibly disappointed I didn't get to see that.”

Nico glare-smiled, a patented di Angelo maneuver that left Will smiling back but duly warned. “Thanks, Will. This is cool of you.”

“Oh.” Will blinked. “You're welcome. It's not like I would just throw you to the wolves.”

Will meant it as an of course type of thing, but Nico seemed to take it to heart, smiling softly.

After a minute or two of idle waiting, Will tapped an imaginary watch, communicating that he was unsure if enough time had passed for the ruse. Instead of responding, Nico cracked a smile (Will’s heart did a flip) and chose to remark, “You're not even wearing a watch.”

“It's a hundreds-of-years-old cultural gesture, smartass. You know what I mean. Tick tock.”

“Hm. You could draw one on.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “You got a pen?”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, we have time to kill before we can go back there and now I want a fake watch. Gimme.”

Nico rolled his eyes and fished out a blue marker from his bag. “I can't find a normal pen or pencil, but I do have this, some loose gold glitter at the bottom, and for some reason one of those stamp markers that makes grey skulls. I think it’s from when I accidentally turned in a presentation on the California Ghost instead of the California Coast. Here you go.” He handed the pen over.

“Thanks. And let me just say, I loved each and every word in that sentence more than the last.”

Just as Will was uncapping the marker, Nico held out his hand. “Wait. I'll do it. You don't want to draw on your own right hand, that'll be hard.” He held his hand out for the pen.

Will gave it hesitantly. “Are you going to write “Loser” in all caps down my arm?”

“Yep,” Nico deadpanned, instead starting to draw a very respectable watch on Will’s wrist.

Oop. This was one of those moments where Will very abruptly remembered they were dating. With his right hand, Nico had taken ahold of Will’s wrist and arm to hold them still while he drew a cartoon watch with his left. His grip on Will’s wrist shifted, the touch very warm and distracting.

Will pushed away everything he actually wanted to say and instead opted for, “You're left handed?”

“Yeah. Did you not notice during the many hours we’ve spent on school projects together?”

“Sue me.”

“Hmph. Hey - what time is it?” Nico asked. “I need to draw the hands of the clock.”

“Hammer time,” Will responded without thinking. “Wait, I mean-”

“Cool,” Nico interrupted, skipping clock hands and instead writing “HAMMER TIME” in the clock’s face. He stepped back and flicked his hair out of his face. “There. That's art.”

Will grinned and admired Nico’s work. “It's a comment on the ever-shrinking amount of land allotted to Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.”

“I was thinking more of a scathing critique on the new age of technology.”

Will beamed, caught in the moment, and stared for longer than was probably necessary. He came back to Earth when he realized, “We should head back to the office. Say we just called your father.”

“Oh!” Nico shook his head as if shaking off a fly and nodded. They started back to the office, Will staring at the beautiful watch and unable to stop thinking about how warm Nico’s touch had been around his wrist. If they hadn’t been headed right back to a room full of secretaries, Will would have taken his hand.

Everything went fine at the office. The secretary caught Will’s eye, as if to ask if Nico really called, and Will made an “ok” sign surreptitiously as if he were hiding this exchange from Nico.

Nico was given a giant gym shirt to change into, and would get his beautiful “ALL DAMN DAY” shirt back at the end of the school day. Will waited as Nico changed in the bathroom. He shook his head to himself about the whole situation, because honestly, this was all ridiculous.

From inside the bathroom, Nico complained, “I don’t get my clothes back until 3 p.m. What will I say to my friends? They’ll just think it’s hilarious. I can’t give them that.”

Will, still beaming, called back, “Aww, will you have to wait for your clothes All Damn Day?”

A pause. “I wish you could see how hard I’m glaring at you right now.”

Will laughed. He had won - the death stare could not touch him out here. 

When Nico emerged, swallowed up by this massive gym shirt that reached his knees, he halfheartedly posed, embodying peak sarcasm. “It looks really good, right?” He still wore the basketball shorts and socks with sandals, really rounding out the whole look.

Will was already laughing his ass off at this point. “Oh my god,” he managed. “My day literally cannot get any better.”

Nico help up a finger like wait, then tucked the giant shirt into the basketball shorts, creating a massive muffin top.

Will was practically crying. "Holy shit, never mind, it got better!”

By now, Nico was laughing, too. He hid his face in his hands and lamented, “I have to walk around like this and be seen by actual people.”

“I don't see the problem. It's not any worse than the original shirt. It's better, even, I would say.”

“You're not the one who looks like they’re cosplaying a garbage bag.”

That sent Will into even more giggles. This was the best day ever. “My only regret is not getting a picture of you in the original shirt,” he said. “Whose was it, anyways?”

“Oh, a friend of mine bought it as a joke last year, but everyone thought he was serious, so he stopped wearing it.”

“Do I know them?”

“Eh, maybe. Percy Jackson?”

“Oh yeah, I know him. I mean, I know of him. Swim team guy.”

Nico nodded and Will watched him turn his attention back to the hall pass Mr. Brunner had given them.

“Huh,” Nico said.

“What?”

“This excuses us for the whole period.”

“So? That doesn’t mean anyth - wait.” Will raised an eyebrow. “We’re not due back for another hour and a half?”

Nico looked up from the hall pass and grinned. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Dairy Queen?” Will suggested.

“Burger King?” Nico countered.

“Catch a really short movie?”

“Go to a really short concert?”

“Disneyland really fast?”

“Laser tagging?”

Will’s eyes widened and he snapped like, that’s it. “Yes.”

“Wait, seriously?” Nico raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, let’s go laser tagging. It'll be amazing.”

Nico smiled, then tried to hide it, but Will definitely noticed. God, it was cute. Nico said, “You do remember we have to be back in an hour and a half, right?”

“The rounds last like, twenty minutes. We’re golden. It's perfect.” Will felt like a little kid convincing an adult to let him ride the carousel.  

“Hm.” Nico took a moment to consider. “As long as you know beforehand that I'll demolish you.”

Will scoffed and nodded toward the back of the school, signalling the path they should take toward the parking lot. They would have to walk out the back way so no one would stop them, then they would have to loop back around to the parking lot to be able to escape. It was convoluted, but it was the price of freedom.

As they embarked on their maximum-of-90-minutes-long adventure and started toward the back exit, Will took advantage of the empty walkways and relative privacy from being in the middle of the period. He used his spare courage to sling his arm over Nico’s shoulders, blushing in satisfaction when Nico turned toward him in surprise: beet red, their noses inches away.

Heart hammering in his chest, Will cracked a nervous smile and was delighted when Nico leaned his shoulder closer, but then turned his face away in embarrassment. That was okay. Nico was wonderfully warm at Will’s side, ridiculous clothes and all, and though Will was sure Nico must have felt Will’s pulse, it was thrumming so fast, Nico walked with him without comment or snarky remark. He even took the hand that Will had put around his shoulder and grabbed hold of it, cementing them together as they crossed the ocean of pavement. They let themselves fall into a comfortable gait together, crossing the parking lot with idiotic talking back and forth, until they reached Nico’s car.

They didn’t move from their comfortable position, but Nico did look up at Will and smirk. “I really will crush you at laser tag,” he said.

Will snorted, not breaking eye contact. Nico was so close he could even see tiny dustings of freckles on his nose as his cheeks burned a warm pink.

He smiled fondly, in awe of what he held mere inches away. The car waited next to them, but first he raised a hand to smooth away some flyaways by Nico’s eyes. Nico’s breath seemed to catch beneath Will, his eyes wide and his hand gripping Will’s. All he would have to do was lean in an inch or two -

Will could barely breathe, but he did manage to listen to the screaming voice in his head telling him to backpedal just a bit. Not right now. Wait. A flustered smile crept up his face instead, and Nico matched it, looking equal parts disappointed and relieved.

Will grinned in response and opened the car door. “We’ll see about that.”

Chapter Text

This was a mistake.

Will gazed up at the laser tag all-time leaderboards, silent in horror as Nico pointed and said, “That one’s me.”

Will turned and stared at him, terrified and mouth agape. “You’re third on the best-players-ever-at-this-arena list.”

“Yep.”

Nico was suppressing a grin, Will could tell. That little shit. He had let Will “convince” him into doing this without telling him of his true godlike status. Nico’s hands were in his pockets and Will suspected it was in an effort not to give away his excitement.

“Oh god. I’m going to lose so bad, aren’t I?” Will asked, still staring at the high score Nico had on the board. It was over one-hundred-forty thousand. Will felt proud when he got eighty thousand on a good day.

“I did warn you,” Nico said smugly.

“Shit. Well, we’ve come this far,” Will said in a daze. “We should probably buy tickets.”

“I got this.” Nico strode up to the desk, Will following along, and said, “Hi, Rachel. ”

Will was going to explode. “You even know the people who work here?”

A redhead behind the counter looked up from ticket counting and seemed surprised. “Hey, Nico. Where’s the gang?”

“Who is this?” Will asked at the same time.

“Oh.” Nico’s head swiveled blankly between them. He rushed, “Rachel, he’s Will, Will, she’s Rachel.” He turned back to her and said, “And it’s just me today. Us. Whatever.” Nico went red and started tapping his foot as if he’d love to get out of this conversation as quickly as possible. “Any specials today? No? I’ll just pay now, then. And leave.” He thrust a bill at her and raised his eyebrows like hurry up.

She looked not quite hurt, but definitely weirded out as she handed him the tickets. “Uh. Okay. Is your friend paying separately?”

Even redder. “No, he already paid me back earlier. Any change? No? Bye.” Nico took the tickets and beelined for the laser tag room. Will supposed he should follow. He waved awkwardly to Rachel as he left, half-jogging to keep up with Nico.

Once they were in the other room and out of sight. Will turned to Nico. “What was that all about? I didn’t pay you back earlier. Am I missing something?”

Nico cringed. “No, everything’s fine, it’s just.” He sighed. “She knows all of my friends.”

“And?”

“And I’d rather she not know about -” he coughed. “Y’know. This.”

“That you’re skipping class?”

Nico was a fire truck at this point. “No! I mean like, this.” He gestured between the two of them, embarrassed. “She’ll tell them all.”

“Oh.” Will hadn’t really thought of that. “I thought you said you were out,” he said stupidly.

Nico’s hand was balled up in his hair, annoyed. “I am, I am, they’ll just give me hell for it. I know they will. It's not you, it's them. They always baby me and they’ll pounce on you.”

“They?”

“All of my friends. Shit. They’ll give you so many shovel talks you’ll run away from me at the first chance and leave the country.” Nico was quietly seething now, like he barely realized he was talking aloud.

“Uh, I’m fine with that. I’ve never been given a shovel talk before. Seems like kind of a rite of passage.” Will was just happy this was an issue in the first place. Can’t get shovel talks unless you’re dating the dude, he supposed. It was more than an even tradeoff.

Nico scoffed, eyes darting around and still practically talking to himself. “You’re in luck. You might get about eight in a row.”

Will raised his eyebrows. “Eight?”

“You’ll see.”

The bell announcing the next round of laser tag rang. Will said, “Well, we can figure that out later. Now it’s time for me to be utterly annihilated in a laser war.”

Nico snorted, some of the stress leaving his posture. “You got that right.”

They approached the booths to register for the game. In order to play, they needed screen names. Without hesitation, Nico punched in GHOST KING and hit submit.

Will laughed. “What does that even mean?”

“It’s my name every time I come here with my friends. I chose it a few years ago because I thought I was being edgy and now I can’t change it.” Nico grimaced. “We all have aliases, like SEAWEED BRAIN and BLONDE SUPERMAN up there.” He pointed back up to the leaderboards. “I have to use the same name so my stats won’t be off. It would mess up my shot percentages and overall game averages.”

Will stared. “This is like, a science to you, isn’t it? I thought you were just supposed to show up and shoot lasers at twelve-year-olds.”

“Nope.” Nico smiled proudly. “This is a game of strategy and war. That’s why my friend Annabeth is number one.” He gestured to WISE GIRL at the top. “She’s also the one that made Percy’s name Seaweed Brain before he could do anything about it. Now he’s stuck.”

“Geez, is the whole Top 10 made of your friends?”

Will had been joking, but Nico nodded. “Basically.”

“Oh.” Will paused. He turned back to the name machine. “Well, uh, what should my nickname be?”

Nico tore his eyes away from admiring his own game averages back over to Will’s screen. “Don't you have any nicknames already?”

“Not really. Not much you can do with a name like Will. My mom called me Sir William when I was little, does that count?”

The corners of Nico’s mouth turned up. “That’s cute.” He coughed and hastily changed the subject with, “Uh, just choose a character you like or something. It doesn’t matter as long you’re not planning to go for the leaderboard.”

“Alright.” Will thought a moment and smiled at the memory of another nickname his mom had given him years ago. He typed it in: SUNSHINE.

Nico read it and quirked an eyebrow. “Ghost King and Sunshine?”

Will laughed. “Only slightly mismatched.”

“Only slightly.”

The bell announcing the next game rang. Nico shot Will a look filled with so much fierce determination that Will had to smile in adoration. Nico asked, “You ready?”

“To lose horrifically? Yes.”

“Good.” Nico gave a rare hundred-watt grin and led the way inside.

-

It was a massacre. Nico won on behalf of his entire team and got more points than half of them combined. Will actually tried the first few rounds, but scored in the negatives and ended up just staying in healer mode whenever he could. He was better at that, anyway.

As they emerged from the glow-in-the-dark hellscape, Will said, “That was fun.”

“Yeah!” Nico looked like he'd just downed three Redbulls. They were both sweaty and kind of breathless, but Nico had a special sort of manic glint in his eye as he gathered their stat sheets from the printer. “I love it when they turn on Raise-the-Dead mode.”

“Hmph. You’re the only one who ever seemed to get it.”

“Says Mr. Spent-Half-the-Time-in-Healer-Mode.”

“I kept getting randomly selected!”

“That’s what they all say.”

They found their way to a table by the arcade food court and sat down, Nico spreading out their stat sheets on the table in a big array like he was trying to connect the dots of a mystery. He started going down the sheets with his finger, listing off the complexities of different percentages and stats and bonuses Will had never even heard of, but he seemed intent on analyzing the data to help Will understand. Will really wanted to listen to him, to hear about all of this stuff that made Nico happy, but he figured out thirty seconds in that he had no idea what Nico was talking about.

Nico’s hair fell in his eyes as he pointed out one of the numbers on Will’s paper and he reached up to brush the locks away periodically. He talked with his hands a lot. It was endearing. Nico didn’t seem to notice that Will had tuned out a long time ago, which was more than fine. Will enjoyed every moment where he could rest his chin in his hand and stare with hearts in his eyes without being caught. The excited fire in Nico’s eyes as he talked about something he loved was more than enough of an occasion for Will to grin stupidly and pretend to listen.

A sudden glance from Nico made Will jump, then nod like he was listening. Shoot. Okay, he would actually try to understand now. Shot-to-hit ratios. Pulse ranges. Effectiveness percentages. Intense dark eyes. A crooked smile. Hair that was probably heaven to run your fingers through. Yep, listening 100%.

Nico finished, “...and that’s why I always win.”

Will nodded. “Super cool,” he guessed.

“I’m actually down a few points from last time. Usually my friends and I have this whole formation thing we do.” Holding up the papers, he asked, “Do you want to keep yours?”

“Nah.” Will shook his head. “I think I’ll just stick with my shoot-blindly-and-cower method.”

Nico smiled. “Suit yourself.” He folded up his own statistics and put them in his pocket of his dress code Nike basketball shorts, which, yep, he was still wearing.

Will looked down at his hands, which made him smile at the watch Nico had drawn on his wrist, which made him suddenly remember their time limit. “Shoot. What time is it? We need to get back to class.”

Nico cursed and pulled out his phone to check. “Oh. We need to go now.”

Their eyes met for a moment before they all but ran to the doors. Right as they left, Nico’s friend Rachel called from the counter, “Bye, guys!”

Will had forgotten she was there. Nico cringed.

“Bye!” Nico called back before holding the door open for Will. In the interest of time, Will let him have door-holding privileges without comment.

They sprinted to Nico’s car on the far side of the parking lot - why had they parked so far away - huffing and puffing and laughing their heads off until they breathlessly reached the doors and hopped inside.

Nico turned the key before either of them had buckled and he started them on their journey back, way faster than on the ride over. By the time they reached a safer cruising speed, there was still a fair amount of time until they reached the school. Will checked his phone. Hopefully they had budgeted just enough time to get them there without a tardy.

Will stashed his phone away and said, “Okay, we should be good. Just keep toeing the line on that speed limit.”

Nico laughed. “With all the ‘Don’t you dare let me catch you speeding’ lectures I’ve gotten, I never even get close.”

“Why, did you used to speed a lot?”

“No, this is just a really expensive car.”

By whatever strange logic, this sent both of them into giggles. Will loved that - the inexplicable feeling of cracking up with someone for absolutely no reason.

Nico reached for the music dial. “Any requests?”

“Got any Russian death metal?”

Nico stared at him. “You’re joking.”

“Yes, I’m joking. Idiot.” Will smiled.

“Just look through my CDs if you want. Or the AUX chord is over there.” He pointed.

Will hefted up a big CD album and started to flip through it. “A lot of emo stuff,” he remarked.

Nico bristled. “Fall Out Boy is not emo. It’s mainstream by now and you know it. I’m done with that chapter in my life.”

Will immediately dropped the album to his lap, music completely forgotten. “Wait.” The wheels turned in his brain as he grew a shiteating grin. “Did you have an emo phase?”

“No,” Nico deadpanned, eyes intent on the road. Silence. Tumbleweeds. “Yes.”

Will could feel his eyes fucking light up. “Oh my god. Are you serious?”

Seemingly refusing to look at Will, Nico curled in on himself (as much as he could while driving) and said, “Uh. This is classified information you have to be at level 12 to unlock. No more questions.” He took a turn particularly fast and jolted the whole car.

Nothing could ruin this for Will. Still grinning, he went along with it. “Oh yeah? What level am I on right now? Because I will do everything in my power to see a picture of you in a middle-school emo phase. I will pay money, di Angelo. Millions.”

Nico mulled it over. “Hm… You’re about at level 2.”

“What?” Will groaned. “We’re dating.”

Nico went red. “And anyone who sees pictures of my emo phase has to immediately die, so really this is in your favor.”

“This is where I should give some speech about respecting your privacy, but if we’re being honest, you know I’m about to make it my life’s mission to find those pictures.” He paused. “But forreal though, I’ll drop it if you want.”

“Please do. That’s part the reason I’m in this -” Nico gestured to his dress code outfit. “- thing in the first place. My friend that was blackmailing me with the chocolate also has certain pictures of certain haircuts I may or may not have had in middle school and this dare was partly to make her delete them.”

“That friend is Piper McLean, right? You mentioned her earlier?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately.”

Will pulled out his phone. “Completely unrelated, but what is her Instagram and also what’s a way to contact her about some hypothetical pictures she might possibly have?”

“Whatever,” Nico grumbled. “It was actually really stressful, trying to avoid being dress coded today. The girls at school are always breaking dress code. Is that what their lives are like all the time? How can they take that stress?”

“They’re the real heroes,” Will said solemnly. “Like your friend Piper will be if she gives me those pictures.”

Nico hit his arm. Will supposed he deserved it.

Deciding to be a merciful god, Will let it drop. Instead, he picked the CD album up again and resumed flipping through.

After a minute or two of comfortable silence, Will commenting on a CD every now and then, Nico’s eyes went wide and he was struck by a panicked look. “Shit!” he said. “I didn’t even remember to ask you about your dad! What did you decide on?”

Will was surprised, too, not at Nico’s forgetting but at his own. He hadn’t thought about it since class. “Oh! Right. Yeah, it actually went pretty well. I decided to meet him. Not for his sake but for mine, you know? I didn’t want to have that what-if hanging over me forever.”

“That’s really cool,” said Nico, smiling but reserved.

“Yeah. He was pretty lame and flakey, but at least I know who he is, you know?”

“Of course,” Nico had a faraway look in his eyes. “Why would anyone pass up that opportunity?”

Will knew he was thinking about his mom. He had mentioned it earlier, and Will was trying to be sensitive. “He tried to get me to come to his latest show. Apparently he’s on tour.” Will wiggled his fingers as if casting a magic spell. “Which probably means he and his band will go and set up camp in subway stations to play for nickels. He's one of those guys who records himself playing in public and posts it to YouTube pretending to be some impressed passerby who just had to share this guy’s gift with the world.”

Nico rolled his eyes.

Will continued, “The weird thing was, though, I watched a couple of the videos and he's actually really good. Which was… surprising.”

Will smiled at that little crinkle between Nico’s brows he got when he disapproved of something. “That’s not fair,” Nico said. “Assholes shouldn’t get to be talented.”

“That’s what I said!” Will laughed. “To my mom. Except I didn’t swear because that would make her blow a fuse.”

Nico steered another turn, blessedly not at thirty miles an hour this time. “Is she really against cursing?”

“Yeah. Southern belle and all that.”

“You’re Southern?”

“Not since I was little. My mom still insists on talking in an accent, though. Don’t tell anyone, but I found a learn-to-use-a-Southern-accent video in her search history. After all this time it’s faded - it’s totally artificial.”

That made Nico snort. He asked, “What state are you from?”

“Texas.”

“Wow.” Nico paused. “Is she like… cool? About things?”

“She knows I’m bi, if that’s what you mean.”

“You read my mind.”

“I’m talented that way. Yeah, she’s cool with it. She makes pride flag cookies on National Coming Out Day and everything.”

“Really? Cookies?”

Will smiled. “Yeah. She’s still kind of clueless about a lot of things, but she’s learning. She’s trying. How about you?”

Nico immediately closed off. “My… people are all fine enough. I thought they were going to kick me out once they knew, but it turns out they’re all apparently secret progressives. They’d be fine if I brought you to dinner or something, but it would be weird. My sister’s great about it, but she’s been off in the military since forever.”

“I'm sorry.”

“It’s fine. They’re all supportive, they’re just weird about it. There’s a full three-second gap when my father says, ‘Nico can bring a… date... to the luncheon if he wishes.’” Nico did a stuffy rich person voice for that that made Will laugh. “And my stepmother hates me, but at least it’s only for my winning personality, not my sexuality.”

“Yikes.”

“Yikes.”

Will’s brow furrowed. “Wait. I don’t know if I already asked this, but are you gay?”

Nico stared at him. He said, “Now it’s my turn to remind you that we are in fact dating.” He went red again.

Will rolled his eyes. “I mean like, are you bi or pan or whatever or gay?” He paused, nervous. “I mean, I know it’s really personal and you don’t have to say -”

“Oh,” Nico said. “No, yeah, I’m gay. You’re fine.”

“Cool. Just curious.”

Nico looked slightly troubled and seemed like he wanted to say something else in that vein, but instead changed the subject. “Well, I’m glad you’re happy with your decision. With your dad, I mean. I was worried about you, I can’t believe I forgot to ask about it until now.” He shook his head in disbelief. Will felt a tug in his heart at the notion of Nico worrying about his well-being when they weren’t together.

He decided he would make Nico drive him places more often. It presented Will with an excellent amount of opportunities to study his profile. Nico had a freckle at the corner of his jaw and Will wanted to lean over and kiss it.

Nico hit a button on the dashboard and the radio started playing some talk show. He asked, “Do you care what station?”

Will shook his head. “Try flipping to a random one. Let fate steer the way.”

He did. A twangy country song started blasting from the speakers.

“NO,” they both yelled.

They burst out laughing. “My mom has conditioned me to hate country music,” Will said. “She plays the same ten songs over and over until I hear them in my dreams. It’s horrible.”

Nico smiled and changed the station again. This time, some new pop song started playing from a Top 40 station. Will expected Nico to change it again, but he left it. Alright. Will could work with this.

“You call that volume?” Will asked, cranking the dial up to very loud. Nico gave him a thumbs up and rolled down all the windows. And the sunroof. God, this was an expensive car. Will double-checked to make sure he hadn’t accidentally tracked any dirt in.

He waved his arms outside, the wind pushing at his hands at seventy miles an hour, drowning out his voice as he sang along. Nico continued being a good driver, which Will appreciated, but he smiled and danced along, too. Will noticed it was a lot easier to get Nico to let go today than the last time they had tried to dance, back in that diner. Nico looked so happy it made Will’s heart sigh.

As they zoomed across the freeway, the wind rushing through their hair as they laughed and whooped and jammed to the tune of terrible pop music, Will thought this must be exactly what everyone was talking about when they jabbered on about the exhilarating freedom of the teenage years. This, this feeling of laughing with someone who had just been supporting him a second ago, the clearness in his chest as he breathed in the biting air, the freezing wind on his arm as he held it out the window, this was everything right that could be right.

Will turned to the driver’s seat. Nico was laughing and singing along to the bubblegum pop chorus with all of his might. It didn’t seem like something he did often. In fact, it looked positively out of place: Nico di Angelo in socks and sandals and a giant gym shirt dancing to Top 40. But he seemed to be having a great time. What a great human. Will laughed at the sight and joined in the song, scream-singing along to the dancey beats.

Over those few magical minutes, Will became convinced this was exactly what life was supposed to be.

Nico was everything life was supposed to be.

-

They arrived just in time for their next class to start in a minute or two. They would still need to book it to get there, though.

As soon as they pulled in, they both launched themselves out of the car, slamming the doors behind them, and right off toward the school. Will laughed when Nico’s laser tag stats fell out of his loose basketball shorts and he had to stop their run to pick them up. Priorities.

They didn’t stop again until they reached the school’s back entrance, where the roads split. Will pointed to the right and asked, out of breath, “I’m that way. Where’s your next class?”

Nico pointed the opposite direction, still bouncing on his heels as he prepared to run off again in a second. “Guess this is bye for now,” he said with what Will chose to believe was a twinge of disappointment.

“Bye.” Will smiled, already regretting that they had to part ways. He felt like he should do something. Or say something. Anything to keep Nico around for even one more second, but they were definitely in a hurry here.

Just as Nico started to turn away, Will caught him by the wrist. Nico turned back to him, seeming more than willing to stay here a moment longer, too, and without thinking, Will pulled him closer by the arm and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Nico’s eyes went wide. Will panicked, froze, then waved, “Bye!” before dashing off.

Behind him, Nico was silent for a second before laughing and yelling, “Wait, get back here! You can’t just-”

Will laughed, too, and interrupted him over his shoulder, “Can’t! We’re in a hurry!”

“Dork!”

“Idiot!”

Will laughed to himself, heart pounding, as he sprinted away.

Maybe he could make it up to Nico sometime.

Chapter Text

Nico groaned and let his head fall on his desk.

It was that point in the semester.

Every word out of every student’s mouth was something akin to “I just wrote a whole paper in Spanish by accident” or “How much do strippers make?” or “Anyone know when the next train is due to run me over and let me embrace the sweet cushion of death?”

Nico hadn’t been hit too hard by the workload this year, save for his brief panic in sociology, but midterms were what really got him. He could get his math homework done just fine, just don’t give him a high-stakes test on it. He did well in high-stakes situations, but still.

Speaking of math, here he was: Algebra 2 with Mrs. Dodds, colloquially known as every circle of hell wrapped into one big croissant of pain. It was a miracle that Nico was still passing the class, what with Dodds constantly handing out detentions for transgressions like “smiling too much”.

Nico’s phone lit up in his bag and he glanced to see what it was. Carefully, of course, because this was Mrs. Dodds he was dealing with, he angled the bag to let him read the text. This had better be worth risking detention.

Will: meet me in the quad after class?

Yep. Worth it. And then a few minutes later:

Will: can you respond either way (soon) so i know if i should wait

Nico didn’t know why Will wanted to meet him, but already his entire brain had shifted over from algebra to exploring every possible reason Will could have texted. Possibilities ranged from a horrible breakup to a picnic date to mortal combat.

It was a testament to his feelings that Nico braved texting back during Mrs. Dodd’s class. As stealthily as he could, he typed Ok and dropped the phone back in the bag like it would give him the consumption.

The rest of that class felt even longer than usual. By the time Nico escaped the period and shamelessly speedwalked to the quad, he had already mentally made Will four different playlists of music with varying degrees of lameness. None of them would ever, ever come to Will’s attention. Ever.

Nico sat down on a quad bench and looked around. No Will yet. They had a long break right now, so he got out his phone lost himself in an addicting app until he felt a sharp tap on his shoulder. He yelped and turned.

“Hey, Neeks.”

“Hi, Will.” Nico couldn’t tell how he felt about the nickname. Some of his friends already used it, of course, but that didn’t mean he endorsed it.

Will was sunny as always, even though he was bundled up in a knit sweater and a scarf. Nico let his heart pang at seeing him again. If he was going to be lame about having a boyfriend, he might as well embrace it. Will smiled down at Nico from behind the bench and said, “Beautiful day, huh?”

Nico stared at him, then at the bleak grey skies and Will’s scarf. “Um. I guess?”

“The air is so clear.” Will circled around and joined Nico, plunking down next to him with an air of ease. “Just take a deep breath.” He inhaled like life’s essence was in the air.

Nico did. In, out. The air was nice. He smiled. No one else he knew would have noticed that.

Nico certainly couldn’t be accused yet of knowing Will really well, but he thought he might be starting to be able to tell when Will was really relaxed or not. At times like right now, he seemed authentically chill, the way he probably always wished he looked. Like he could hop on a breeze if he wanted to and ride it to his next class.

“You said to meet here…?” Nico prompted.

“Oh. Yeah!” Will turned to him, their knees touching. Nico had an urge to reach out a hand to where they touched and rest it there. Then he ignored that because it was stupid.

Will continued, “I was wondering if midterms are kicking your ass like they’re kicking mine.” His ease wavered for a second. “Because, I dunno, I could kind of use a study buddy?”

Nico was silent for a second, the gears turning in his brain. “Are you just asking if I’ll study with you?” It wasn’t a picnic date, but it also wasn’t mortal combat. Happy medium. “Of course, yeah. When? Free period?”

Will bit his lip, and nope, Nico had zero thoughts concerning that, none. “I was thinking maybe you could come over. Like, to my house. My mom makes really good hot chocolate...?”

“Oh.” Nico’s heart beat a bit faster. “Okay. Yeah. Um, what subjects?”

“All of them, man. All of them. What about you?”

“Hm. Let’s just say Mrs. Dodds will be the downfall of my GPA.”

“Say no more.” Will laughed. “Well, cool then. We shall vanquish the beast of Algebra 2 together.”

Nico had thought that was pretty adorable, but Will winced and continued, “That was stupid. Disregard. Anyway, when are you free?”

Nico mentally reviewed his near-blank social calendar. “Always.”

Cracking a smile, Will said, “I guess that means you can just be at my house at all times. It’s settled.” Then Will cringed at himself again before finishing, “No, um, I mean, that’s good. How about after school, then? Just whatever days you can before midterms?” The hopeful glimmer in his eyes did not go unnoticed by Nico.

“But that would be every day,” Nico said hesitantly.

Will brought up his hands in nervous defense. “I mean, only when you want to, of course. I wouldn’t like, demand that you come to my house every day for the foreseeable future, that would be weird - Of course, I’d love that, but I know that would probably be too much for you and again, kinda weird if I straight up asked that -”

“Every day works for me,” Nico shot in before Will could say anything else. He was probably blushing. It didn’t matter.

Will’s cheeks were red, too, but probably just from the cold. “Oh. Good!”

He just kind of smiled and stared at Nico like he was somewhere else, somewhere happy, until Nico slowly asked, “So should I just meet you there, or…”

“Oh.” Will came back to Earth. “It’s actually within walking distance. Well, biking distance. I bike to school when my mom doesn’t drive me.” He scowled. “God, I sound like I’m twelve. I mean, I have my permit but I just keep not driving -”

Nico had to smile. Will kept adorably rambling and Nico just wanted to shut him up. How, he didn’t know. It might have had something to do with the fact that he kept staring at Will’s lips. He was still working out the details.

Nico said, “I drive. You can just put your bike in my car and we can ride that way.”

Will considered. “Works for me. I’ll meet you in the parking lot?”

“Yeah. See you after school.” There wasn’t even a strict end time. This was like the permission slip to always hang out with Will that Nico hadn’t known he needed. It was fantastic.

Nico tried not to grin at the thought of spending every afternoon at Will’s all the way until midterms. And it would force him to get studying done, too, which Nico considered to be the ultimate of win-wins.

He thought absentmindedly about how if he had his way, not much actual studying would get done. He wanted to shove the thought aside, but all he could muster was halfheartedly shooing it away.

-

“I don’t think we thought this through,” Will said, looking back and forth between his muddy bike and Nico’s car.

Nico rolled his eyes. Will’s concern was sweet, but Nico had long since stopped caring about keeping his father’s cars perfectly clean. “It’s fine, just load it in. My father gets this thing cleaned all the time anyway.”

Will seemed to be having a personal crisis. “But… I can’t just…”

Nico sighed and took the bike from him, putting it in the trunk himself. This was why he didn’t let people know he owned expensive things. They were always so respectful about it.

Still cringing at the muddy bike tires touching the spotless trunk interior, Will nodded and circled around to the passenger seat while Nico shut the trunk and followed him to the front.

Nico got settled and turned the key, glancing over at Will and immediately forgetting what they were doing. Will existing just a foot away from Nico, his eyes alive and his hands fiddling with his scarf, was palpably distracting. God, Nico wanted to run his fingers through Will’s hair. He’d still never done that and it was really starting to kill him. Instead he gripped his hands harder on the wheel and asked, “Where to?”

“Ideally? Disneyland. Realistically, my house.”

Stop being adorable and give me a task so I don’t explode, Nico wanted to say. Instead he said, “I got that. I mean, where is it?”

“Oh.” Will hooked up a map service on his phone that started saying directions aloud. Will made fun of the computer lady’s voice, making Nico laugh as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Two Imagine Dragons songs (Nico had always really identified with them) and lots of Siri impersonations later, they parked at a faintly yellow-orange one-story with a small patch of sunflowers out front. A worn mural of a garden covered the garage door and a small cartoon ladybug smiled from one of the painted leaves. Nico had to smile along with it, because of course Will lived here.

Will looked a bit less at ease. “Uh. Here's the abode, I guess.”

“I love it,” Nico said without meaning to. He might have been grinning.

They got out and Will led the way to the front door. The walkway was lined with multicolored beads and childhood pottery projects. Nico pointed to one of them and asked, “Do you have younger siblings?”

Will scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “Um, no. Those were mine. When I was like, seven. I dunno, my mom refuses to let me take them down.”

One of them was a crudely shaped dinosaur. Nico loved it. Not a trace of Nico’s childhood was present in his own house. He didn't see why Will seemed embarrassed - this was wonderful.

Will fumbled with his keys, trying and failing to find the right one. Then, “Oh!” Will looked sharply up at Nico. ”I'll explain later but would you mind not mentioning the whole dating thing to my mom -”

The door banged open to reveal a strawberry brunette woman looking down at her phone. Will yelped and dropped his keys.

The woman (Nico assumed she was Will’s mom) also shouted out when she saw them, her kind eyes wide in alarm. “You're early! Who's this?”

“Mom! You gave me a heart attack!”

“I'm just checking the mail, you gave me a heart attack!”

Will took a deep breath and started over. “Okay. Sorry, I'm home early because Nico drove me. Mom, Nico, Nico, Mom. He’s over to study.”

Will’s mom had to shuffle her phone and her mail keys over to one hand in order to reach out to shake Nico’s. Nico let her, but stood silent and terrified. This definitely wasn't how he wanted to meet Will’s mom. Ideally they would never meet, and Nico would exist as a ghost that appeared from the shadows only to see Will alone so that situations like this wouldn't happen.

“Hello, Ms. Solace,” he managed. He remembered Will saying something about her being Southern. Should he mention, uh, Texas? Cowboys? Conservative politics? No, bad plan. Just nod and smile and hope.

“Call me Naomi,” she said, although she had to have known Nico would drop dead before ever calling her anything other than Ms. Solace. She looked Nico right in the eyes as she shook his hand and it made him feel special. He decided he could like her and be terrified of her at the same time.

Will smiled like, let’s move this along. “Well, cool. Midterms are coming up, so we should really hit the books,” he said, indicating with a nod of his head that Nico should follow him inside.

“Alright,” Ms. Solace said with a smile. She had a fading Southern accent that felt rustic and warm. “Let me know if you need anything.” Then she really did leave to get the mail from the next street down. The door shut behind her with a thud.

The house was cozy. It had its fair share of mess and clutter without being dirty, and it had enough design without being planned out. One of those birds that dips its beak into a glass of water stood by the sink and the stucco walls were adorned with various sun, moon, and star decorations.

Will found a chair in the kitchen and fell down into it. “Sorry about that,” he said.

“It's fine.” Nico stood in the middle of the room, feeling awkward. “Uh, I wasn't going to mention it in the first place, but why did you say not to tell your mom about… the thing? I thought you said she was cool with it all.”

Will sighed. “That's just the problem. She wants so badly to be a good ally that I'd rather breach the subject with her alone and avoid her asking you twenty questions about how she can support you best.”

The fact that Will would be having a talk about him with his mom staggered Nico. He was still only beginning to grasp the fact that Will liked him, much less that he was worth having a talk about.

A golden retriever paced outside on the other side of a glass door. Will noticed Nico looking and said, “That’s Bella. I would die for her without hesitation.”

Nico nodded, believing him 100%.

“Anyway,” Will continued. “Do you want any water? Lemonade?”

“You have lemonade?”

“We have a lemon tree out back. I put it to good use.”

Nico smiled, leaning against a counter. Usually he would have declined a drink until he died of thirst out of politeness, but today he said, “That, please.”

He was dating a boy who regularly made homemade lemonade. Nico hadn't made anything that wasn't burnt toast in years. That tickled him.

Will seemed particularly hurried, darting around from the fridge to the cupboards to fetch a round of snacks. “We can bring these to my room,” he said, hefting three bags of various snacks under his arm. He handed Nico a glass of the lemonade and gestured with his head to the hallway. “We have a good chance of avoiding interrogation if we slip away before she gets back with the mail.”

Nico didn't have to be told twice. He followed Will to his room, trying to spot as many hilarious baby pictures in the hall as he could despite Will muttering to ignore them.

Will’s room felt distinctly lived-in. Various shirts and plants and records were scattered over the available surfaces, causing Will’s eyes to widen in regret. He quickly got rid of the worst of the clutter in a big sweep around the room. “Sorry about the mess,” he said when he was done, scrunching his eyes closed and chastising himself.

“Don't worry about it." Nico liked the room. He liked that he could feel Will’s essence here. Oh, and of course, there was Quackers the duck, propped up on a pillow. "Ah, yes. We finally meet."

Will went red. "Oh. Yeah. Quackers says hi."

Nico smiled. He expected Will to sit on the bed, but instead he went cross-legged on the carpeted floor and leaned back against the long side of the bed, slinging his backpack next to him and pulling out a math textbook. He patted the ground next to him to tell Nico to do the same. It was cute.

Also shedding his backpack on the floor, Nico joined him in leaning back against the bed. He tapped his math book and asked, “You ready to not fail algebra?”

“I'm ready. Dodds' got nothing on me.” Will turned his head to Nico and wow they had sat close to each other. Nico swore it was an accident.

He was suddenly keenly aware that he was alone in a bedroom with his boyfriend. His brain wasn't working fast enough to process this information and come up with an action in response, so instead he just kept staring at the same problem in his textbook. Yep. That sure was a piece of information.

The front door slammed shut from the other side of the house. Will’s mom was back. Nico told himself this didn't matter. It was just more information.

After some apathetic arguing between them over studying techniques, they developed a joint study method and lost themselves in the math.

Well, that was a little bit of a lie. Nico was better than Will at algebra, so he didn't have to try quite as hard. This led to a large amount of time being spent watching Will’s jaw move as he talked or his exasperated expression when he made a stupid mistake or the victory grin that painted his face when he finally got an equation memorized.

Nico could look around and see a lava lamp by Will’s bed, a pinwheel peeking out from behind his dresser, a ski jacket draped over a chair. He saw the straight line of Will’s nose and the way his hair was begging to have fingers run through it and -

Oh - math. Okay. Nico took his turn quizzing Will and laughed when Will messed up and swore halfway through the quadratic formula.

Time passed. Will’s mom never came knocking, but she could still come in at any moment, as there was no lock. Nico felt like he was getting away with something, even though he knew he wasn't actually doing anything worth keeping secret. He was just studying.

Still, it was hard for Nico not to let their legs touch or hands hold or or something. The longer they sat there, aiding their grades while also aiding Nico’s perpetual frustration, the more Nico wondered if this much exposure to Will was a good thing. Was he was like radiation that killed in large doses? That would explain why Nico felt like he was dying.

The door was shut. Will squinted down at a question that involved someone buying 300 watermelons. He looked up, probably to see if Nico thought it was funny, too, and Nico was caught unawares. Will’s blue eyes meeting his for just that moment - door or no door, Nico was seconds away from doing something out of desperation.

Will said something Nico could barely register. “What?”

“I said, do you want to take a break?”

It took Nico a second to realize that Will just meant a normal break, like for snacks. Not a break for disappearing into a locked room somewhere. Shame.

“Oh. Yeah, okay.” Nico tried to smile and stood up. Without thinking, he offered Will a hand to help him up. Will took it. After building up frustration for the last hour or two, the touch was like a punch to the gut. Nico was overcome by the urge to keep an iron grip on Will’s hand and use it to pull him so close that even atom scientists couldn’t find any distance between them. Instead he squeezed his hand, let it go, and nodded. They made their way to the kitchen for more drinks and Nico’s gaze clung to Will as he led the way.

After they settled at the table, Will said, “If I have to recite the quadratic formula one more time, I'm going to explode.”

“Quick, recite the quadratic formula.”

Will did, seemingly without thinking.

Nico laughed. “I've trained you well.”

Will rubbed his temples. “Yikes. But hey, I've learned I study a lot better with you than by myself. Or with Lou Ellen, for that matter.”

“I'm honored.”

“You should be. The prophecy called for someone with too many band tees to save me from a C grade, and here we are.”

“Hm.” Nico raised his eyebrows. Will smiled, happily munching on a cracker, and Nico was incapable of doing anything but watching. Maybe if Nico just stared at Will hard enough it would resolve all of this tension he was suffering from. So far, staring had had the opposite effect, but hey, a guy could try.

Will suggested that they get back to studying and Nico agreed. He made sure to take another look around the cozy kitchen to commit it to memory before following Will back to his room. Will’s hair from the back was a thing divine, as were his easy, comfortable gait and his hands as he tried to hide the baby photos in the hall as they went. As if an embarrassing picture would make Nico any less head-over-heels.

This was stupid. He was dating Will - shouldn't that mean that they got to make out 100% of the time? Or even at all? Was this how relationships worked? Nico had no idea what he was doing and he didn't know if it was okay to do something, anything other than slowly boil to death in this pit of despair. How would one approach this topic? Hello, we’re dating now. Would it be acceptable for me to disregard our studying for something significantly more interesting?

Either way, there was a divide right now that felt impossible to cross. Nico felt he had to stick to hand-holding and fleeting touches. He couldn't say why, he just did. It didn’t stop him from yearning for more, though. He wondered what would happen if he told Will all of this. Will would probably be weirded out. Better keep it to himself - didn’t want to be too forward.

At the room’s doorway, their shoulders brushed. When they sat down, their knees touched. When they had to move apart from each other to reach the textbooks, Nico internally burst into flames of mourning.

And it was going to be like this every day until midterms.

This was too much. It was killing him.

As Will checked an answer with Nico, smiling mock-flirtatiously in reference to an inside joke they had made earlier, Nico wondered distantly if he would be dead by the time midterms hit.

Chapter Text

Study Hell: Day 2

Nico had been hoping that with the first day out of the way, studying with Will would become more bearable. This level of thirst couldn’t continue indefinitely. It wasn’t sustainable. Things had to get better, right?

Things did not get better.

In fact, they got worse. Right now Will was making some joke about Mrs. Dodds probably being a demon. Nico agreed, of course, but he was more focused on the way Will’s dumb smile lit up his face than the joke itself.

After another batch of practice problems, Will sighed, picked up his textbook, and balanced it on his head. “I'm giving up. Now the numbers can just drain directly into my brain. Try it.”

Nico laughed and did the same. Count on Will to get him to do ridiculous crap he wouldn’t do with anyone else. “I can practically feel myself getting smarter.”

“Why are we even studying at all? All we needed was this,” Will said. He struck a pose and the book fell onto his face and onto Nico’s lap. “Oops.”

Nico couldn’t resist the laughter that bubbled up in him at the sight of Will’s face all scrunched up in avoiding the falling book. Will was glowing, and when he opened his eyes, they locked directly with Nico’s.

Nico choked and handed the book back, and Will opened it again so they could continue memorizing. Guess that was the end of social hour for now.

Time crawled. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Will continued to exist near Nico, which was rude. His eyes were gorgeous and his nose was cute and his whole face was just very distracting and it was incredibly inconsiderate of him to not be wrapped around Nico’s lap right now.

Nico eyed the door. He wished he could forcefully install a lock on it himself and casually remind Will via lips that they were in fact dating.

Instead he blinked hard and tried to focus on the math. Maybe the next day would be easier.

Day 3

Hey! The next day actually was shaping up to be way easier!

Nico was able to focus like a pro, they got lots of studying done, and Nico was confident he would at least pass the class. Perhaps this was the start of an upturn in Nico’s ability to stop pining like an idiot for his own boyfriend.

Day 4

Wrong. So wrong. So very, very wrong. Nothing was changing and Nico was in hell. God wasn’t real. Will would never kiss him or hold him or even touch him and the world would end in flames. His personal purgatory consisted of endless formulas and math problems and Will’s jaw and neck existing right by Nico, very much unkissed. The door remained closed but Nico could hear Ms. Solace walking through the house and there was no way he would try to do anything while she could walk by. No real studying would get done today or forevermore due to Nico’s skin being on fire from needing to touch Will. Heaven was a lie, life was suffering, and Nico was dying.

Day 5

Hellfire. The door had to stay open the whole time because Will accidentally left it cracked, followed by Ms. Solace immediately choosing that spot and that time to start testing paint samples in the hall. And getting up to purposely close the door would send a hell of a message, so even if Nico actually did want to send that message, he did nothing. He just continued to sit cross-legged on the ground, gritting his teeth through their studying, shuffling through flashcards more and more violently until Will offhandedly asked what was wrong.

Nico’s head jerked up and he stared at Will, probably more maniacally than he'd meant to. He wanted to leap forward and harshly close any distance between them. He wanted to karate-kick the door shut so Will would get the goddamn hint. But he couldn't do any of that, so he just clenched his jaw and attempted to smile.

“Nothing,” he said, his eye twitching. “Nothing.”

Day 6

Nico and Will barely saw each other at school nowadays, so Nico started kind of looking forward to their study sessions. It was the only time he really saw Will lately, and any interaction had to be better than none, right? But with day after day of close proximity, dating Will but being unable to jump on him like he wanted was slowly killing Nico.

As the days kept ticking by, Nico started experiencing the strange contradiction of becoming more comfortable around Will while simultaneously getting more and more jumpy every time their hands brushed.

He didn't know how much longer he could do this without bursting.

Day 7

Nico winced as a paper cut sliced through his thumb, punishing him for turning a page in his textbook. Perhaps the universe was telling him something about continuing to study with Will.

Will’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. ”Ouch. Paper cut?”

“No, I lost a battle with Pythagoras.”

Will smiled in response but stood up anyway. “I’ll get you a Band-Aid.”

“You don’t have to.” Looking up at Will while Nico was still on the ground where they had been sitting together was slightly imposing. From this angle Will was a Greek statue: beautiful, striking, and untouchable. Though fortunately, his head and arms were still attached.

“Tough. I’m getting one,” Will said and left the room to go who-knows-where. He left the door ajar. Was Nico supposed to follow? Would Will return in a minute to annoyedly ask why Nico hadn’t? Or alternatively, would Will come back with a bouquet of flowers and suggest they forget studying and go to a fancy restaurant instead?

Wow. Days and days of algebra really did wonders for a guy’s imagination.

Nico made the split-second decision to follow Will. Maybe he could distract him in the kitchen with some dumb conversation and stay over there, away from the Studying Room of Pain.

Wait. Bad decision. He didn’t know where Will had gone. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to yell out for Will when Will’s mom was also there. If Nico could remain but a phantom in her mind, that would be optimal.

Standing in the hall, intensely aware that he was wearing all black and a skull ring and might look like a Bad Influence Teen in front of Ms. Solace, his panic grew. This woman held Nico’s entire romantic future in her hands. What if she saw him and decided to throw him out and never let him talk to Will again? What if -

Ms. Solace appeared at the other end of the hallway from the master bedroom and Nico just about jumped out of his skin.

“Whoa there!” Mrs. Solace said, laughing and holding out an arm to calm him. It did not calm him. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

Nico talked louder than he meant to. “I’m sorry for being here!” he half-yelled without knowing why.

Ms. Solace, predictably, looked at him weird. “What? You don’t have to - what?”

And then they stood there on opposite sides of the hall, both with apprehension in their eyes. Or maybe that was just Nico, because after a second Ms. Solace smiled, nodded toward the kitchen, and asked, “Mind if I get through?”

“Oh!” Nico snapped back into reality. “Yes. Sorry. Yeah.” He slinked back into Will’s room as Ms. Solace walked past. Time for him to close the door behind him and regret all his life’s decisions.

Will returned a minute later as Nico was slowly and repeatedly hitting his head with a textbook. He blessedly didn’t ask questions, just sat down on the floor next to him and said, “Same.”

Nico decided not to mention that he’d seen Will’s mom. He still didn’t know if Will had talked with her yet about the Thing, but he preferred to err on the side of not reminding him. He didn’t want Will to decide Nico wasn’t worth the hassle.

So he was surprised when Will said, “My mom said she likes your shirt. I saw her in the kitchen.”

“Oh.” Nico looked down at his black band tee. “Nice. She seems cool.”

“Moderately,” Will said with a smile. He left the mom discussion at that, so Nico did, too. Will continued, “Alright, how's your injury?”

“You mean my microscopic cut?”

“Yes, your gaping flesh wound. We’re saying the same thing.”

Nico snorted. “You should cut your finger, too,” he joked. “Blood brothers.”

Will’s eyes narrowed and Nico took a moment to commit that frustrated, very attractive face to memory. “I know that was a joke, di Angelo, but I do have to make sure you're not actually dumb enough to ever do that.”

Nico laughed, still distracted by the way Will’s brow furrowed when he suspected something. “Relax, I've never done it. My sister and I almost did, but the pencil wasn’t sharp enough.”

Will looked like he was about to have a conniption. “Seriously? A pencil?”

“In my defense, I was eleven.”

“We’re lucky you don't have AIDS.”

“Tiniest bit of an overreaction there.”

Will rolled his eyes and shook his head like, What am I going to do with you? But he was smiling, so Nico did, too.

Sigh. Nico wondered idly for the millionth time that day what Will’s lips would feel like on his. Would they be soft and insistent or slightly chapped and fleeting, only leaving the barest of touches? Would he favor chaste kisses or making out? Most importantly, how soon could Nico find out?

Then Will stretched, exposing part of his stomach, and sweet Jesus - Nico had to exercise all of his restraint not to lunge forward, run his hands up under his shirt (pudge and all), and mash their faces together. Christ, maybe he needed to excuse himself to go splash cold water in his face.

Scooching closer, Will said, “Gimme.”

Nico’s thoughts went a lot of ways at once. “Uh. What?”

“Your hand. For the Band-Aid.”

“Oh.” Nico did. Will took his hand probably closer than necessary and started to apply the strip to Nico’s thumb. Angels heralded the glorious contact as literally any touch in this driest of spells, but quickly Nico almost felt dizzy from overwhelm. He knew not getting to touch Will had been really bad when just the pad of Will’s thumb brushing his wrist pulse was enough to make him practically see spots. No big deal, but the pushing and brushing of Will’s fingers on his was going to drive Nico insane in about two seconds. But again, no big deal.

“It's a good thing I've been volunteering at the hospital,” Will said, assessing Nico’s hand. “You almost certainly would have died from this.”

Nico laughed, but he couldn't focus. Just as he was anticipating how much he was about to mourn the loss of touch, Will shifted their position so they were both leaning up against the bed side-by-side, and he snaked his hand around that had been helping Nico so now they were actually holding hands. Will grabbed a textbook with his other arm and opened it on their shared lap like nothing had happened.

Nico was still Error 404-ing over the first acknowledgement of his pining in the last week, but the warm, dry press of Will’s hand clasped around his own made him move past his violently pounding chest to say, “That’s cheating.”

Will, now that Nico was paying attention, also seemed nervous, not letting their hands move for the world, but he raised his eyebrows innocently and said, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Were you waiting for me to get a cut so you could trick me with a Band-Aid?”

“Absolutely.” Will turned his head so they were both leaning their heads on the bed, facing each other a few inches away. Nico was struck by Will’s eyelashes. People didn’t mention male eyelashes enough, he thought. It was a shame, because Nico was about ready to write an ode to them. Will’s eyes were slightly widened, maybe at how close they were, but he smiled and continued, “I actually organized you getting hurt in the first place. I have a friend in the textbook business who hooked me up with extra-sharp pages.” His thumb started to trace patterns on Nico’s.

Nico’s heart beat faster. The curve of Will’s palm and the heat of his eyes mere inches away were starting to get overwhelming. “Mm. Pretty convoluted,” Nico murmured.

“I’ll submit a formal request in writing before holding your hand next time.”

Why did that get Nico as flustered as it did?

Okay, now Will really was close. Wow.

Next time. Will liked him enough to sneakily find ways to make contact again in the future.

“I’ll get back to you in three to five business days,” Nico said, not even knowing what he was saying anymore. Their shoulders were touching now and the door was closed and he didn’t know what to do with this information.

Everything slowed down. Will’s hair was curled around his ears and Nico wanted, like always, to run his hands through it. Well, just one hand, because the other one would pull away from holding Will’s over his dead body. Blue eyes stared into his. The sleeve of Will’s Coke-logo t-shirt leaned into Nico’s black tee where their shoulders met and the tiny sliver of touch was somehow overwhelming all on its own. And wow, Nico couldn’t tell if the hot puff of Will’s breath was really mingling with his or if he was imagining it, but it was dizzying.

Will reached up with his free hand to tuck a strand of Nico’s hair behind his ear (was Nico imagining Will’s hand shaking just a bit?) and fire spread wherever his touch grazed. Nico’s heart pounded, his mind racing as he tried to process that this was happening. Will bit his lip for a second and Nico could barely take it - he was more charged than a telephone pole, electricity buzzing in his ears and crackling down his spine. He managed to lean even closer, silently letting Will know he was very okay with this. His heart raced and his mind ran through every desperate thought he’d had over the last week, threatening to spill out of Nico in a lack of self-control.

Will’s eyes had been locked with his, but now they flickered down to Nico’s lips for just a half-second and that was it, Nico had to make contact with this boy now or he was going to explode. He took a shaky breath, bit the bullet, and got as far as their noses touching before three sharp bangs on the door cut through like a knife.

SHIT.

Nico actually yelped and jumped away from Will, and Will flailed and immediately jumped to his feet.

“YES?” Will yelled to the door, flushed red and standing in a very unnatural position in an effort to look natural. Nico wasn’t much better, hugging his knees to his chest, still on the ground and staring wide-eyed at the door like it might attack him.

Ms. Solace opened the door and peeked through the crack. “You guys want me to make anything from the freezer for dinner? If Nico is staying any longer, I think I’m supposed to feed him. It’s the Mom Rules.”

Both Will and Nico were still staring at the door, definitely not at each other, because this was so uniquely, hilariously awkward Nico didn’t even know where to start. Will managed to say, “We’re good!” and his voice didn’t quite crack but damn, it got close.

“Alright, have fun!” Ms. Solace said. “You can make yourselves dinner if you want anything, then.” She closed the door and walked away and Nico took a moment to thank every god he knew that Ms. Solace wasn’t the type to open doors without asking.

After a moment still staring at the door, Nico spared a glance Will’s way. He found Will’s eyes already on him, his face still red, and it took less than a second before they both broke down in hysterical, face-hiding laughter.

-

Later that night, Nico paced his room, desperate to see Will in a way that didn’t involve school or their parents. He had already ripped his old Silly Putty (he used to play with it in class to help him concentrate) to shreds and squished it back together a hundred times before working up the courage to text:

Nico: Here’s an idea: Studying is great, but how about an actual date? There’s no school tomorrow. Meet me in front of my house at 11?

He set the phone down on a stack of perpetually unread books and, despite his nervousness, smiled to himself. He hadn’t technically ever made the first move with Will before this. Usually Will did the heavy lifting.

Now they were even, and Nico would not let God himself interrupt them this time.

Chapter Text

Will had just enough pride remaining to restrain himself from looking up “How long should a first kiss take?”

Like, that line was razor-fucking-thin.

He had spent the whole night so far staring at the ceiling, his thoughts racing as he went over every tiny little thing Nico had ever said to him, especially that day. Had they actually gotten that close earlier or had Will been imagining things? Was Will trying to move too fast? Was Nico even aware of his suffering? He knew people who made out before the first date was over and he knew people who took months and months to get close at all. What was he supposed to do? What did Nico want? How could he close the metaphorical and physical distance between them?

It wasn't until the next morning that he saw Nico’s text. Meet him at his house? Yes please. Will tapped out a quick reply and set his phone far away again, lest he succumb to temptation and ask the foul Internet for advice. He was stronger than that.

… Was he?

Yes. He turned his back to any electronics in the room and tried to get dressed, but now that today was a date, that changed things. Should he look up what to wear?

No. No no no. He couldn't go down that rabbit hole.

... But could he?

Jesus. He shook his head firmly and finished getting dressed as fast as he could. No time for thoughts, no time for thoughts. What was he wearing? He didn’t know, he was too busy not thinking.

He ended up halfway down the hall in a Big Bird t-shirt from seventh grade and green jeans he should have thrown out a long time ago.

He stopped and smacked his head. Maybe a little more thinking would do.

As he turned back and tried to find something less ridiculous to wear, he mulled over what Nico might have in mind for the day. The uncertainty was killing him. Should he mentally gear himself for a big event? An intimate date? Disneyland?

Too much thinking again. Without realizing it, he’d ended up in his only black band tee, plus black jeans and converse. How the hell? He never wore these. And he couldn’t show up like some Nico clone - that would be weird. Or would it be hot? No, it would be weird.

Okay, change again. This time he found something closer to normalcy, but that didn't stop his brain from churning through ideas at the speed of light.

As he brushed his teeth, he pretended he wasn't doing an extra-good job in case anything happened with Nico. It was juvenile, but he couldn't help it. If he spent another day with Nico without kissing him, especially under the maddening guise of studying, he would rocket-launch himself into the sun. He had been practically shaking the last few days just being around him this much.

Will shuddered and headed to grab some breakfast. After feeding Bella and asking her if his hair looked okay (he got a wagging tail in response, so he figured it was good), Will sat down. He texted a picture of the unintentionally terrifying mascot on the back of his cereal box to Nico, even though he was pretty sure that violated some sort of pre-interaction rule. He probably wasn't supposed to text right before they saw each other, but it was worth it when Nico immediately responded, Oh God kill it with fire. Will laughed out loud and then clamped his mouth shut, lest his mother hear and ask why. Which made no sense, as he was home alone, but rational thought had gone out the window a long time ago on this journey. He just needed to last until Nico got there. Which would be in…

Huh. It was later than he thought. Where was Nico? Will checked the text Nico had sent the night before and his heart sank.

He had thought it had said Nico would pick him up, but rereading it showed that Will was supposed to meet him there. And he was home alone with no car.

Shoot. Even if the car had been home, the thought of asking his Mom for a ride to a date was so horrifying he wouldn't have even considered it. He still hadn't breached the Nico topic with her and he planned on putting it off as long as possible. Not that he had anything to fear from her, but still. It was daunting. He wouldn't want to tell her if he had a girlfriend, either.

Asking Nico to pick him up also wasn't an option. He already felt like enough of a burden - he didn't want to make Nico go out of his way to get him, like a child.

This was ridiculous. He really, really needed to get his license already. Maybe this could be his motivation: He could tape a picture of Nico to his rearview mirror like a soldier with a picture in their helmet.

The thought made Will smile. He knocked back the rest of his green smoothie and sugary cavity cereal (because it was still healthy as long as you had a smoothie, right?) and sighed. He wasn't wild about the option he was left with, but it was all he could do if he insisted on being stubborn.

-

The look on Nico’s face when Will got out of a Lyft at his front door was a little bit priceless. Nico had been waiting on the front lawn of a mansion (but Will would get to that later) and looked so excited to see the car pull up that Will felt his heart melt. But when he came down the walkway to meet Will at the car, his brow furrowed.

“Lyft,” Will explained through the rolled-down window, no questions needed.

Nico looked mystified. “Did you come here on your way from something?”

“No. Just from my house.” Will got out and waved the driver goodbye. The car drove off and left them standing at the curb alone. This was the first time he’d seen Nico outside of studying all week and it was glorious. He was in that leather jacket again, because apparently he was trying to kill Will. Nico's gaze darted to Will’s toes and back up again (aaa) and oh, Will wanted to sketch those deep-set eyes so he could show the doctors later exactly what gave him a heart attack.

Nico seemed too taken aback to notice Will’s staring. “You didn't need to do that,” he said, incredulous. “I would have picked you up if you didn't have a ride.”

Oh no. This was becoming a thing. Will’s express goal in all this was to not make it a thing. He scrambled for something to say. “It's fine. I mean, I didn't want to inconvenience you -”

“- We were just going to get in my car and drive away anyway, so I could’ve -”

“- didn't want -”

Nico cracked a smile and covered his face with his hand. “Okay. Next time I can come get you, alright? It's not a big deal.” He stopped to breathe and look Will in the eye for the first time since Will arrived and seemed struck into silence. (Probably unrelated to Will.) After a beat, Nico tried, “Um, how are you?”

“Oh. Well, great, now that I'm here,” Will said, thinking it would be cute and immediately regretting it. Just because he'd spent all of his free time obsessing over Nico's voice and hair and laugh and generally everything didn't mean Nico had been, too. He knew Nico logically must like him, but he had to be realistic about this. Will shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up. “You?”

Nico was staring at him with a starry look in his eyes. He was probably just spacing out. “Great,” he said. “Now that... you're... also… here.” He went red and scowled, “I mean - whatever.” He turned and led the way to his car.

Will followed, unable to help laughing at Nico’s equally clumsy attempt. “Nailed it,” he said as they buckled in. “Got it in one.”

Nico glared at him. “Shut up.” He still snorted a self conscious laugh, though, so Will figured he was good.

They had settled into a bit of a rhythm over the last week of driving to Will’s house, so Will didn’t think twice before hooking up his phone to the AUX cord. Without looking up from scrolling through his music, Will asked, “Alright, where are we going, chauffeur?”

Nico backed out the driveway. “You’ll see.”

“Am I getting kidnapped?”

“Yes.”

“Cool.”

Nico smiled again and looked over at Will, effectively stopping his heart.

“Beautiful, huh?” Will said about the scenery while looking at Nico, because he was cheesy like that.

“Yeah,” Nico said, not noticing and instead looking around at the brilliant red and orange leaves changing on the edges of the road. “It'll all be gone soon, though. Just empty trees.”

Will didn't like the finality in his tone. “We still have a few more days,” he said, daring to poke playfully at Nico’s arm. “Appreciate it now.”

What he meant was, Appreciate me now. And Look at me, you unfairly attractive idiot. And No wait, don't look at me, I'll spontaneously burst into flames if you look at me.

Instead he dismissed all of that and leaned back in his seat, letting the day wash over him and staring at the trees instead of those Italian features.

Will loved that he felt comfortable enough to lean on the window and only occasionally look at Nico as they talked. That easiness made the day even better. Shotgun in a fancy car with his boyfriend to a mystery destination while the trees were turning - what more could he ask for?

He eyed Nico, particularly his lips. Well, maybe there was one more thing he could ask for.

Being able to casually exist with each other was of course nice for their relationship, but to be honest, averting his eyes was also a strategy for Will’s own self-preservation. If he let too much Nico get into his brain, it would fry his circuits.

Will turned back to his phone and put on some soft guitar music that Nico had always said he liked when Will played it before. Maybe Nico would mention it now.

As the first notes jumped from the speakers, Nico smiled. “Hey, I like this one.”

Booyah. Will mentally patted himself on the back. “Alexi Murdoch,” he volunteered. “It's called Song for You.”

“It’s nice,” Nico said. The corners of his mouth turned up and he nodded sagely. (And yes, it was very cute.) “Nice and quiet.”

“Mmhm.” Will smiled softly out the window.

They spent a long time like that, just watching the trees while the acoustic strings created a low murmur of sound that settled over them like a comforting blanket.

The drive was turning out to be kind of long, so Will was glad he didn’t have anything else to do that day. “How much farther?” he asked after a while.

“Fifteen minutes?” Nico guessed. “Sorry, I didn't know it would take this long.”

“No, I don't mind.” Will took Nico’s available hand with surprisingly little anxiety. He might have imagined Nico’s breath hitching, but maybe not.

The hazy quality of the afternoon kind of acted like an anti-anxiety pill. All (well, most) of the horrible Nico frustration he'd been suffering through for the last however-long felt quieter, which was a relief. Not that he’d say no to pulling off into a secluded alley at any moment, but still. “I was just curious,” he said.

Another acoustic song was playing, this one with more of a beat. Nico nodded toward the speakers and said, “These are really good. Where do you find your music?”

“I don't really find it, my friend Kayla uses her witchcraft to find every type of music imaginable and I scavenge for the ones I like. I'm pretty sure she has some ridiculous number like ten thousand songs on her phone. And a hundred of them are just my other friend’s saxophone compositions.”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “Saxophone compositions?”

“Don't ask. He’s like, a genius prodigy. You know how it is.”

Nico laughed. “Actually, I don't know how it is. You know, just one of those genius saxophone prodigies, I guess?”

Will realized that it maybe wasn't the best universal experience to draw upon. “Oh. Well, anyway, yeah, I don't know where she gets it. Probably the dark web where they sell baby organs and stuff.”

“Or just the obscure corners of YouTube.”

“I like mine better.”

They continued like that until they got there, Nico saying cute things and Will quietly swooning, caught between inner peace and pining.

When they finally pulled up to a parking lot, it was in a town Will had never been to. For good reason - everything here looked like it was made of money. There were fountains made out of marble. Marble. It was like a parody of rich pavilions.

But Nico paid the surroundings no mind as they got out of the car and started together toward a large building in the center. Nico said, “Okay, I hate this whole place, but there is one restaurant here that's so good, and you mentioned a lot of times how much you love cheesy food and this place has a whole cheese bar and I thought it would be cool but now I realize it's probably too much and -”

“Nico.” Will laughed. “You don't have to apologize for being too good at choosing places.”

Still looking pained, Nico muttered, “Yeah, but this is really expensive, and even though I'm the one paying I don't want to weird you out.”

“I just sat in a car for like, forty-five minutes. We’re going to eat that delicious cheese and we are going to like it.” Will pounded his fist in his hand and Nico laughed, looking more at ease.

They were at the door now, which - Jesus Christ -  had marble columns on either side. Will had to hold back from staring at the building. He knew logically that Nico hated his wealth and didn't want Will to be impressed, but he couldn't help it. Some primal, capitalistic part of his brain was wowed.

Will exaggeratedly went to open the gold-handled door for Nico, but frowned when it wouldn't open. He dropped the joking act and tried to pull on it with both hands. Locked.

He pointed to the door in confusion. “It won't open.”

Nico’s brow furrowed and he tried, too. Nothing.

Going around the side to the windows, Will peered through the tinted glass. “Uh, Neeks? I think it's closed.”

“No,” Nico said, as if that were simply not an option. He joined Will in cupping his hands like binoculars to see through the glass better and their shoulders leaned together. Nico stepped back again and said, “Shit.”

“Shit,” Will agreed.

“Maybe they also celebrate whatever obscure holiday that got us out of school today.”

“Is there even a holiday? I thought the teachers were just tired and called for a faculty break.” Will shrugged. “Either way, we’re out of luck.”

Nico put his head in his hands. “Fuck, I’m sorry. Colossal waste of your time.”

“You kidding? I'm having a great time!” Will said. “I got to listen to you pretend you weren't singing along to my music in the car. That was hilarious.”

Nico went red and looked up at him again. “I'm sorry, though. I should have checked beforehand.”

“Hey. No. Nico.” Will waited until he got eye contact. He pushed away the butterflies that came along with that and said, “It's no big. Seriously. And we don't have to go home, right? We’ve got the whole wide world and a licensed driver. And I've got all day cleared off. Let's go see the Statue of Liberty!”

That did get a laugh. “Thank you. For being cool. Okay, yeah, we can hit someplace else. Where do want to go?”

“We established this. Statue of Liberty.”

Nico raised his eyebrows, waiting for the real answer.

“I dunno. What if we just drive back and get out anywhere along the way that looks good? It would be like a mini pretend road trip. Stop at every ice cream place we see and argue over the flavors.” Will didn't realize he much he wanted that until he finished talking. He just wanted to spend time with Nico. Didn't matter how.  

Nico’s eyes held so much affection Will didn't know what to do with it. Nico said, “That sounds… kind of awesome.”

“Kind of?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Very.”

Will gestured like a butler toward the car. “Then after you, good sir.”

Nico laughed (which Will of course took a moment to appreciate) and started toward the driver's seat. “Thank you, kind sir.”

They got settled in the car, Will hooking up the music again to something more upbeat. Just before Nico turned the key, they accidentally turned toward each other at the same time.

A laugh still danced on Will's tongue from the moment before, but now Nico’s face was way closer than he’d intended. Hm. Nico’s expression went from surprise to resolve in a split second - Will heard his breath catch - and then Nico leaned their foreheads together.

Will went stock-still, but Nico pulled away just as quickly.

Just a forehead touch. Okay. Still dizzying and amazing. Will wanted to swat the keys out of his hands and make him finish what he’d started, but Nico had already turned the ignition and started driving again.

A slight smile curved up Nico’s face (unless Will was imagining it) and he seemed really focused on his driving now as he merged onto the freeway, not once glancing at Will for those few minutes.

Will expected to be mentally on fire, but he was actually handling it well. Just about every thought that had crossed Will’s mind for the last few weeks had involved Nico and how they were much too far apart at any given moment. He’d wanted nothing more than to get in private with Nico, to cup his jaw and pull him close, but for whatever reason, he felt completely calm right now. All that desire was still there, but the lack of anything concrete yet felt more exciting than frustrating. At this point all of that felt like an inevitability, not an unreachable destination.

He took Nico’s hand again, smiling when Nico squeezed back. The trees were beautiful and the music was lovely and Nico’s hand was warm. He didn’t want to ruin this moment for anything, even for telling Nico to pull over so he could kiss him into oblivion.

So Will also said nothing, just gazing and gazing at Nico with stars in his eyes, rubbing small circles on his hand with his thumb, and drinking in the sight of him for as long as he could possibly get away with.

Chapter Text

“I know I said we should stop at every ice cream place we see, but I don’t know if I meant every ice cream place we see, Nico.”

Will knew it was no use. Nico was pretending not to hear Will, but he was failing badly - a smile peeked through his demeanor anyway.

Despite Will’s halfhearted protests, Nico pulled them into their third stop so far. After their failed attempt at the fancy restaurant earlier, Will hadn’t expected Nico to get so stoked about all these low-budget places. Either way, it was adorable.

As they burst through the doors of a local ice cream parlor with a flourish (because why not), Nico walked in a trance toward a large banner advertising triple the ice cream for a fraction of the price. Oh no. Will caught him by the collar of his leather jacket to halt him in his tracks. (He privately thought of this as the next best thing to taking that jacket off fully and a) setting fire to it for all the frustration and anguish it had caused him, or b) setting up a religious service to hail it for every second it had let Will’s eyes be graced by Nico In That Jacket).

He held Nico from going any farther and laughed. “Nonono. From here on out, we are getting samples only. I can’t eat another full serving at every place we stop.”

Nico turned back and his eyes blazed at Will with the fiercest of skepticism. But then he sighed. “You’re right. Okay, you first.”

Happy that he’d won that easily, Will started to say to the person at the counter, “I’ll try th-”

Nico cut in. “Wait! I just remembered something.”

Will raised an impatient eyebrow.

Nico was holding his hands up like listen. “When we went to Cold Stone that one time, after you insulted my ice cream -”

“And you insulted mine.”

“Unimportant. Anyway, you said that next time we should switch orders. So we can see who’s right.”

That sounded like a ruse to get more ice cream. “I don’t remember that.”

“It happened.”

“I’m sure.”

“It did!” Nico turned to the employee as if they could back him up. They just held their hands up in innocence and continued cleaning the machines. Nico quickly looked away, embarrassed, which was fun to watch. “I’m not just saying that to get more ice cream.”

“Your sincerity is palpable.”

“I -” Nico huffed. Very amusing. “Whatever. History will note that I was right.”

“We can do that some other time. When we haven’t just had more dessert than a person should have in a week.”

Another long look, and Nico couldn’t quite seem to bite back a smile this time. “Alright. Some other time. At this rate, every ice cream place in the state is going to know us by name.”

“That’s the goal, isn’t it?” Will asked, marveling at how just a bit of time could change things. He didn’t even think twice now at Nico suggesting a future date. It used to make him nervous like no one’s business whenever they talked about things like that, but now he just felt ease. Of course he would see Nico again and again and again. That just felt like an inevitability at this point. Now that he’d found Nico, he wasn’t going to do something stupid like let him go.

Woah. Deeper than he’d meant for this ice cream conversation to go. What were they talking about again?

“Agreed,” Nico said. “Let’s get sampling.”

Oh, right.

After lots of judging of Will’s flavor choice (“You only get one bite and you choose vanilla?”), they got their samples and went on their way. Nico made sure to tip well on their non-purchase to apologize for them being obnoxious in the store without buying anything.

The quest continued, although they expanded their horizons on possible stops. It was amazing how much stuff was nearby where they lived, just in a different direction than Will usually drove. A few more ice cream places got to meet the boys, plus a low-budget aquarium (“Oh god, they actually have a goldfish bowl on display”), a jewelry store (“Nico, we should leave before they think we’re stealing.” “But we are stealing.” “No we’re not, stop it!”), and a comic shop (“Neeks, how many times can I, a white male, point out the epidemic of white males in comics without sounding like an asshole?” “I don’t know, kinda sounds like bragging.” “Fair”).

The air on the road was crisp and cool and the sky was doing a breathtaking collage of blue and pink and even green. Before they knew it, hours had passed and they had slowly worked their way almost back to their town. Well, Nico’s part of town, also known as the rich part. In the passenger seat, Will slumped a bit in disappointment. This probably meant he had to go home. He looked over at Nico, expecting to see a goodbye pending on his lips, but instead found determination written on his face. Nico was scanning the horizon, looking for something. Will didn’t know what.

Nico's eyes were darting around. “Do you want pizza? Or we could go to the grocery store. We should do that.”

“Really? When we’re so close to your house?” Will asked. “I mean, I’m down, but I thought we were going home.”

There was something desperate in Nico’s eyes. He shifted lanes to start them toward the grocery store and said, “Uh, it’s -” He sighed. “Straight up? I really don’t want to go back there if my father is home. I can’t tell from the outside if he’s there so I’m waiting on a text from him to confirm where he is before I go inside. And -” He paused again, taking a yellow light a little faster than he needed to. He had been totally focused on the road, but now he started glancing at Will every two seconds. “And uh, I wanted to invite you... in, but I’m kind of waiting to make sure he’s not there and of course you don’t have to but if you wanted to you could come in and I - I have some movies and stuff and I don’t know, that’s good, right? Um. But I have to wait until he texts me back. I don’t know. Am I making any sense?”

Will stared at Nico. He hadn’t been this nervous all day. His hair was blowing a bit in the wind and his eyes were tense. “Are you just asking if I’ll go to the grocery store with you until we can go to your house?”

The tension deflated from Nico’s shoulders. “Yes. Thank you. Words.”

“Words,” Will agreed.

Nico nodded again. “I just didn’t want it to sound weird that I was making sure we were home alone or anything. My father’s just awful, that’s all. I know the ‘alone’ thing could have sounded - whatever, you get it.”

Oh. Will hadn’t even thought of that until Nico said it just now. Now he got why Nico was so flustered.

Nico gave Will a distracted smile, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, and mused to himself, “Okay, okay, okay.” He seemed to realize he was speaking aloud and he straightened in his seat, self-conscious. He made another turn and said, “Look! We’re here.” They pulled into the grocery lot.

Will thought Nico would continue to act weird, but as soon as they crossed the lot and stepped inside toward a huge display of marshmallows, he perked up like a little kid.

Will laughed, shielding his eyes against the harsh fluorescents. “You’re getting predictable.”

Nico ignored Will, grabbing a bag of mega marshmallows, but surprised him by pulling him by the hand toward the aisles. Will wouldn’t be caught complaining, and neither would the butterflies in his stomach.

As they wandered past frozen meals for soccer moms and ogled the cookie dough section, Will couldn't help but watch the way Nico walked, like each step was an important decision. And how cute it was when he rolled his eyes at Will making stupid jokes about ramen. And the way he bit his lip whenever he snuck a glance at Will. There was a practical cornucopia of stuff to soak in.

“Nico, we don’t need another bag of fun-sized chocolate bars.”

“Don’t we?” Nico raised his eyebrows and solemnly stared Will down. His dark eyes rendered Will powerless.

“You’re right. Throw it in.” Dammit. Will was too weak for this.

Nico nodded in satisfaction and did so. He turned away to the rest of the aisle and god, Will wanted so badly to kiss that jawline.

They drew smiley faces on the insides of freezer doors and played hopscotch on multicolored floor tiles and laughed at bad translations in the foreign imports section. Without really thinking about it, Will kind of realized as he laughed that he might actually know what to call this warm, growing feeling in his chest.

He was scared to say its name aloud, even to himself.

No. It was way too early for the L-word. Calm down, Will. One leather jacket and he was apparently ready to sign a goddamn marriage licence. Jesus.

They ended up leaning on a display of donuts, surveying the bounty in their basket. They were going to have heart attacks from all this food and Will was ready. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already been lowkey having a heart attack all day.

Will crossed his arms and tried not to stare at where Nico’s collarbone met his leather jacket. He sighed. “I think I eat more sugar when I’m with you than in the rest of my life combined.”

Nico snorted. “You’re welcome, then.”

“I’m not sure it’s a good thing.”

“It’s a good thing.” Nico’s eyes darkened for some reason. “We’re all going to die and the universe will eventually fall into oblivion. If you can eat your chocolate, you should.”

Will studied Nico’s expression for a moment, unsure of what to make of it. Then he nodded slowly. “Right.” Hm. Then he remembered what Nico had said about going back to the house. “Has your dad texted back yet?”

“No,” Nico said, checking his phone again for good measure.

“Guess we’re stuck here forever, then.”

“That’s not the worst thing in the world.” Nico gestured to the rest of the store. “Food. Camping supplies. Deodorant. Chocolate. We’re all set.”

“Yeah. I’d rather go to your place, though.” Will realized how that might have sounded and quickly followed it up with, “Because there’s no TV here.”

As if on cue, Nico’s phone buzzed. He checked it. “Oh. Apparently my father’s doing some sort of days-long conference in Japan. He brought my stepmother, too. You’d think he would have said literally anything about this before he left in the middle of the day, but here we are.” Nico shook his head in annoyance. “He always does this. Well, that means we can check out. Do you want anything else?”

Somewhere, in an alternate universe, Will took that moment to cheesily say, “You.” But this was real life, so he shook his head.

After they checked out, avoiding their annoying classmate Octavian (who was browsing the teddy bear section for some reason), they headed out. Will felt a pang of domesticity at them carrying their grocery bags to Nico’s car. He could almost imagine them finishing their shopping and driving to a college apartment they shared together.

Will rolled his eyes at himself. It really didn't take much to get him picking out daffodils for a spring wedding, huh? He still needed to get through this one date in junior year without failing horribly. Thinking about the future wouldn’t do him any favors.

Still, Will loved the fact that climbing into Nico’s car was becoming commonplace, reflexive, comfortable. He loved that Nico knew by now which heating settings Will liked and switched them on before Will even had to ask. And he loved that he already knew which songs Nico liked on the radio and could adjust accordingly without having to say a word.

On the way to Nico’s house, they listened to a song that Will hadn’t cared about until a few weeks ago when Nico had heard it come on the radio and got excited. Now Will knew every word.

Wow. Daylight savings meant it was starting to get dark early, even if it was only about six. The darkness suited Nico, and his eyes seemed to sparkle more and more as each minute ticked by. As if all the colors from the sky were siphoning down into him.

As they pulled into the driveway of what was unquestionably a mansion, Nico cringed. “I know, it’s ridiculous. Just ignore it,” he said.

Will grabbed the groceries (read: junk food) and followed him out of the car. “One of these days you’re going to have to accept that I’m not disgusted by all these cool things.”

“Well, I am.” Nico left it at that. The path to the door was paved with sparkling obsidian. Will suddenly felt very self-conscious about his own front walkway, which was lined with his old pottery projects from when he was a kid. Nico opened the door and gestured Will inside.

Will tried to hide his amazement for Nico’s sake, but he couldn’t help it. He stared up at a series of spiraling marble staircases. “Woah.”

Nico frowned, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. “Alright, you have thirty seconds get it out of your system.”

Will laughed and did, inspecting the ornate paintings on the walls and the obsidian detailing everywhere and the general grandiosity until Nico shouted, “Time!”

“Cool.” Will looked back at Nico. “I’m over it now. I’ll ignore it. So, what do you want to do, person who lives in a house that is incredibly normal in both size and expense?”

Nico laughed at that and seemed to relax a bit. “I don’t know. I have movies, I guess? What about you?”

They debated for a while, and eventually ended up in what Nico called the “most normal TV room”, which wasn’t really something Will knew was a thing until that moment. He resisted the urge to ask why they even had more than one, instead following Nico there and joining him near the couch.

This room was more ordinary than the rest of the house, resembling maybe a TV room for someone who made six figures, not seven. Will forced himself not to pay attention.

After finding the remotes, Nico sat on the couch. Will tried to casually follow suit, but it occurred to him halfway there that this was a very big couch and it would be weird if he sat too far away and it would also be weird if he sat too close and even though ideally he would wrap himself around Nico like a koala, that wouldn’t be acceptable and -

Will shut himself up and just chose a random spot, close enough to Nico to be, well, close. Then he started worrying that it was too close and sending the wrong message and hoo boy, this was going to be a long night if he was going to overthink this much.

Nico hadn't yet chosen anything on the TV and the screen was defaulting to a bad cop show.

“Alright, cable, do your worst.” Will grabbed the remote, shut his eyes and pressed a random button. “Hm. Gardening infomercial. You give it a try.”

Nico smiled and did the same. “Jewelry infomercial. I’m fancier.”

Will’s turn. “Teletubbies, which feels foreboding but I don't know why.”

Nico took it back, and Will couldn't help but notice the loss of distance between them with each switch as they unconsciously leaned their shoulders closer and closer together. “I’m sure mine will demonstrate exactly who I am,” Nico said. Another blind button press. “Shit. It’s What Not To Wear.”

Will burst out laughing. “Finally the universe tells the truth about those jeans.”

“What? I like these jeans.” Nico looked down at them like he was only now noticing all the holes and frayed edges.

“Do you?”

Nico raised his eyebrows.

Will pointed directly to a food stain that he was certain was not from that day. “Do you?”

Silent eye contact battle. Then Will broke down laughing, Nico following.

“No, I like your clothes,” Will said as they started to recover. “I only have like, one shirt that resembles your vibe, but I always wish I would wear it.”

Nico’s eyes widened for a second, though Will didn’t know why. He cleared his throat. “Uh, why don’t you, might I ask?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ever wear shorts?”

Bristling, Nico said, “Don’t give me traumatic flashbacks to the basketball shorts.”

Will felt his eyes light up and he pounced on that memory of the Dress Code Day, recounting it in dramatic detail. Nico chimed in too, the whole situation even funnier in retrospect, and Will absolutely loved having at least a small history to draw upon between them.

They spent a while like that: complaining about school policies, making fun of each other’s clothing choices, and discussing the solidity of the Harry Potter universe in terms of worldbuilding. And though Will would die before pointing it out, there was no question that they seemed to be scooting closer and closer on the couch. Where a foot had been between them, inches remained. They still were leaning back into the way-too-nice head cushions, but somehow gravity had pulled them together. So now it felt like nothing separated them as they talked about nothing, the content buzz of each other’s presences creating a bubble of warmth while tacky reality TV played in the background. Very different from the fancy date he'd expected that morning.

Will couldn’t possibly have thought of a better way to spend an evening.

-

As the night went on, they ended up hopping around to different parts of the house without really meaning to. At one point, they sat and talked on the ground of a way-too-big game room, in the shadow of a pool table that Nico informed Will with an eye roll had never been used once. Will suggested that they be the first, and they played a ridiculous version of the game in which neither of them knew the rules. Will’s grin grew bigger with each atrocious miss.

At another point, they were sitting on a tile kitchen counter, discussing theories on which politicians were in the Illuminati. Will had no idea when or how they’d gotten up there, but he was lying down, the tiles cool on the back of his head. At some point they had switched to debating about the freedom of the monkeys in the Wizard of Oz, which led to talking about flying, which led to space, until Will asked, “What if a black hole eventually swallows the Earth?”

He didn’t know why he’d asked. They had kind of just gotten to that point in the night where everything was fair game, he guessed.

Nico rested his chin on his knees, thinking it over more seriously than Will had intended it. “I don’t think it would really be that bad,” he said. “What better way to go out than in a beautiful outburst of the sun, forever compounded and spun into ourselves until nothing but our purest essence remains?”

Will sat up and stared at him. “That was beautiful.”

“Um.” Nico looked down.

“Was that from something?”

His face went adorably red. “No. I’m just… being pretentious, I guess.”

“Well,” Will started. Nico’s face was burning gently, but he still had that endless grace about him that Will loved so much. His heart panged at that sheepish face, arms still wrapped around his knees like a safety cocoon. Will said, “I think it’s beautiful.”

Nico allowed a small peek up to meet Will’s eyes. Will stared back like an idiot.

All Will could think about was how much he wanted to kiss him.

-

They lay on the floor of a long hallway, feet propped up on the same wall. Nico had offhandedly referred to it as his “wing of the house”, which, again, Will did not know was a thing. Will had texted his mom letting him know he wouldn't be home until late, so now the night was wide open. One of the bags of fun-size chocolate bars sat in what little space was between them, and as they slowly devoured the candy, they discussed deep and meaningful issues.

“- but what was Candace really hoping to achieve by busting her brothers? Phineas and Ferb didn’t really do anything wrong. And by the looks of their parents, they probably would have loved those wacky shenanigans.”

Nico sighed as if this were an important philosophy lecture. “Don’t you see, Will? Trying to bust her brothers was all that was holding Candace together. If she achieved it, she wouldn’t know what to do. In fact, they did a dream sequence episode where that happened and Candace had a breakdown. She needs this purpose in her life.”

“Fair.” Will stroked an imaginary beard.

Nico snorted. They turned their heads toward each other at the same time and Will’s heart leapt.

He really wanted to kiss him.

-

They eventually reached Nico’s room, which struck Will as funny. In a normal house, it would be the first place they'd go, but here it was like a maze even reaching it.

Will was surprised at the room. He hadn't known what he was expecting, but everything was a bit mellower than he'd thought it would be. For starters, it was the only part of the house so far that didn't follow a strict design plan. Small white lights lined the edges of the ceiling. Posters and records and papers decorated the room, and a collection of precious metals and fossils took up a lot of desk space in the corner.

Nico looked self-consciously around the room, but Will said, “This is great.” He tried not to feel too on-edge at being in his boyfriend’s room for the first time. With how tonight was going, he had no idea what was going to happen. His imagination ran away with him, but he also knew that most likely, just saying goodbye without anything happening was more probable. Besides, the thought of initiating anything more than a hand-hold was terrifying.

“Thanks.” Nico rubbed his own arm nervously. “Uh, do you want to sit down?”

They did. There were no chairs except for one that was a Clutter Chair piled high with clothes, not for sitting (Will understood that struggle), so instead they sat on the ground. Nico made some joke about how they always seemed to end up sitting on the floor, and Will said something back, but really he barely heard. Nico's face was distracting.

They talked about philosophy (“Oh, I agree, Neeks, Freud can go fuck himself.” “He'd probably think that fucking himself is evidence of excessive pride.” “HA!”). They went through old yearbooks to see if they knew any of the same people and cringed when they did. They messed with a Magic 8 ball and got told over and over again to ask again later, to which Nico responded by throwing it in his laundry hamper. Will was perpetually caught between light, easy fun and freaking out about Nico’s every move.

Time went on and Nico looked so comfortable and happy that Will could barely focus on anything else. He lost himself in their conversations, and he thought idly as they laughed how he'd talked more easily with Nico tonight than with people he'd known for a decade.

He really, really wanted to kiss him.

-

It was definitely dark out now. They lay on their backs on a makeshift bed (made of every spare blanket they could find) on the carpet, Nico pointing out Greek constellations he’d made years ago with glow stickers on the ceiling. They'd dimmed the lights low so they could see the glow better, and Will listened to Nico tell about the things that were written in the stars. He knew a lot about constellations for whatever reason. His voice was quiet and soothing and just the slightest bit gravelly and Will could have lain there for hours, nothing but him and Nico and stories that had lasted thousands of years so that Will could hear them now from this amazing boy.

At some point as Nico told about Orion and Sagittarius, Will looked away from the ceiling and over at Nico. Nico didn't notice and kept telling of adventures and love and wars, his eyes softly lit up just as much as the stars.

And Will stayed like that, watching Nico watch the painted night sky, the room dim enough to make everything fall away but light enough so that Will could count every one of Nico’s eyelashes.

Without really thinking about it, he reached across the inches-long distance that separated their forms and took Nico’s hand.

Nico stopped talking and looked down to Will. He blushed slightly, as if he’d just realized how long he’d been talking, and Will’s heart physically hurt at how beautiful he was. Those dark eyes, so close to Will’s, stood out in crystal clarity, and Will could practically feel how soft Nico’s jaw would be without even touching him.

“I'm talking too much,” Nico said, his face burning but making no effort to move away. “Sorry. I’ll shut up.”

Will could barely breathe, could barely move without knowing their noses would touch. “No,” he whispered. “I like listening to you.”

Nico opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. Instead he was quiet, his eyes darting over Will’s face and his lips slightly parted, and Will was going to have a heart attack.

Their hands were still intertwined and Will wanted to kiss him. Their bodies were turned so close in their makeshift bed and Will so wanted to kiss him. Their faces were mere inches away and Will just wanted to kiss him.

“Will?” Nico asked, his voice unsteady.

“Yeah?”

He never got to hear what Nico had to ask, because then Nico took a quick, shaky breath, cupped Will’s jaw, and kissed him.

Will lost the ability to think. Nico’s lips were slightly chapped and Will caught on fire where Nico’s hand touched his face and hell, if this was what he’d been waiting for, he would have waited another eternity just to get it again. He was kissing back, pressing into those amazing lips and curling his hand around the nape of Nico’s neck and the only thing left in his thoughts were stars. He forgot who he was. All he knew was the push and pull of Nico and the exquisite working of their mouths and the heat of his touch until he couldn't breathe and had to, had to pull away.

He did and they stared at each other for a second, noses still almost touching. Nico was red, his breath heavy and eyes wide, and fuck, he was more attractive in that second than Will’s brain knew how to handle.

Will couldn't imagine what he looked like right then, but if it was anything like he felt, he probably looked completely whipped. His heart was pounding in his throat, his mind spinning a thousand miles an hour, but slowly a ridiculous grin grew on his face.

Nico smiled, too, and then they were laughing, foreheads leaning into each other like a lifeline.

“I -” Nico started to say.

Will didn't let him finish.

Chapter Text

Nico was a wreck.

A contained wreck, but a wreck nonetheless.

There was a special place in hell for whatever had made him think that volunteering to drive Will home was a good idea. Sure, it was polite, and it avoided making Will call for a ride late at night, but this was horribly un-thought-through.

Because it required Will (whom Nico had just kissed for the first time, who had kissed him again until he couldn’t breathe, who Nico was reasonably sure was an actual demigod at this point) to sit right by Nico in the next seat as they embarked on the long, excruciatingly slow ride back to Will’s house.

Will pointed out the window to the signal. “Nico,” he said. Nico still barely registered. Will gestured to the light again and said, “It’s green.”

Oh. ”Right,” he said, hurriedly hitting the gas. Another car behind him honked and he waved in apology.

“Are you okay?” Will asked.

Nico looked over to him, something he’d been trying to avoid. It was a sucker punch in a good way, if that was possible. Will’s concerned eyes made Nico’s heart flutter, and he scrambled for something to say that wouldn’t make him sound like an idiot.

I can’t focus when you’re sitting right there. True, but weird to say.

Can we pull into a back alley, please? Definitely not saying. (But true.)

I really, really don’t want you to go. Truest of all. And the closest to accidentally slipping from Nico’s lips.

“Um,” is what he really said, which he was sure earned him points for eloquence.

Will waited for the rest, woefully unaware that there was none.

“I’m good,” Nico said eventually once he remembered the question. “It’s nothing.” God, he needed to get a grip.

Will shrugged it off and looked back out the window.

Nico’s fingers tapped nervously on the steering wheel in an attempt to distract him from the fact that Will was in the passenger seat. It wasn’t working. Nothing was working. Will was the single most distracting thing in the universe and Nico was sure this must count as driving while under the influence, because there was no room for road safety laws when Will existed so near and was so amazing.

Now Will was babbling on about some sort of school policy that Nico was barely paying attention to. He was pretty sure Will wasn’t paying attention to his own words, either. It was just noise to fill the static, but Nico was grateful for it.

This whole night had been so full of effortless conversation, but that was when Nico’s mind hadn't been completely full of memories that demanded his attention.

Meaning Will’s lips.

“Will?” Nico asked, interrupting Will’s meaningless chatter. He didn’t know why. He didn't even have anything to say. He just wanted Will to look at him.

Will did. Mission accomplished, he guessed. Now what?

Nico slowed for a stop sign in an out-of-the-way street and noticed that they were getting close to Will’s house. If he wanted to say something, he needed to say it now. With the car stopped, he had time to make actual eye contact with Will for the first time the whole ride.

Will looked… well, Nico couldn’t quite decipher it. Confused? Hopeful? Unsure?

Nico’s throat caught in the silence. He was supposed to say something. He wanted to say everything. About how much he’d loved tonight, how beautiful Will looked in the moonlight, how much he wanted to kiss him again. How he’d laughed more in the last few months than in certain years combined and how he couldn’t even begin to describe the things Will’s smile did to him.

But there were no words.

Will’s eyebrows knit. “What?” he asked, the ghost of a nervous laugh on his lips. Oh, his lips.

“I -” Nico choked. There was so much to say and so little time to say it. “You -”

Will waited. Nico cringed and tried, “Listen, you -”

Nope.

“Right, so -  you, uh, you’re -”

Will’s eyes were flickering, darting over Nico’s face like he was looking for an answer. Nico wanted to be that answer.

He was about to finish, with what, he didn’t know, but Will first quietly said, "... Am I doing something wrong?”

What. “No!” That sure woke up his senses. He quickly parked the car on the side of the road and said, “No! No, I’m - No, you’re amazing, you’re perfect, you’re doing everything right, I think, I don’t actually know how this works so I’m not the best judge, but - No, it’s me, I just can’t -” Nico ducked his head for a moment before looking up again. Will’s eyes were wide with fear.

Nico realized what Will was thinking and continued, “Oh god, this sounds like I’m breaking up with you! I’m not, I promise I’m not, I can’t even believe you’re dating me in the first place honestly -”

Will’s shoulders untensed a bit and Nico tried again, avoiding eye contact. “This is just me - hi, Nico here - trying to say that this was one of the best days I can remember." So far, so good. "And I like you more than I know what to do with and kissing you is definitely my new favorite thing to do, and that I usually don’t say this sort of thing, so I’m not good at it, but I guess I’m trying. Because you deserve for someone who thinks you’re amazing to tell you that your smile could light up the sun.”

Silence.

Oh no. That was too much, wasn’t it? Backpedal backpedal -

Will started to say something but choked. Nico risked a glance up at him.

His eyes were wide like he’d just seen proof of magic in the world, lips parted in shock. A neverending second passed before Will said, “... Wow.”

Nico wanted to jump out of the parked car. “I’m sorry, that’s too much, I -”

“Nico?”

Silence again. Nico met his gaze, heart in his throat.

Will’s eyes shone in the moonlight. “Can I kiss you?”

Nico short-circuited. He’d barely started nodding when Will practically attacked him, lips crashing together wonderfully like they'd forgotten the meaning of restraint. Nico reached to cup Will’s jaw and kissed him back, heart pounding and absolutely drinking in the way their faces fit together. Will tasted like the chocolate from earlier and Nico couldn’t help but smile at the memory of them devouring the bags of fun-sizes and laughing into the night.

They kissed again and again and again and it seemed like Will was trying his best to devour Nico, to consume him whole. Nico wholeheartedly supported this action, snaking his hand into Will’s hair like he’d always wanted to and feeling like he would cry at how it felt between his fingers. They were kissing like it was breathing and Nico was gone, gone, gone.

Will tried to lean in even further, but got stuck on his seat belt. He broke the kiss, frustrated, to unbuckle before launching back to Nico’s lips. Nico laughed at the quick turnaround and undid his own seat belt, leaning further and further into Will until it felt like they were fusing. Will pulled Nico’s jaw in closer until nothing remained but Will’s hands and his lips and the way his breath hitched whenever Nico leaned in particularly harshly.

Will pulled back to breathe and then kissed him on the forehead, jaw, cheek, wherever. Nico couldn’t help but smile stupidly at each new kiss, overwhelmed and high. This was his life. This was him making out with Will Solace on a random street corner in the middle of the night. Unbelievable.

“I can’t believe I get to do this,” Will murmured like he could read Nico’s mind, kissing down his jaw and effectively driving Nico insane.

He took Will’s face in his hands and let their eyes meet for a moment. Will was flustered, too, his hair a mess due to Nico running his hands through it, and Nico’s heart ached at the way his eyes shone, slightly embarrassed at the attention. Nico leaned in for one more long kiss, just because he could.

He carded his fingers through Will’s hair again and started to say something, but soft laughter bubbled up instead.

Will cracked a smile, too, and couldn’t stop it this time. They ended up staying there, suspended in time, until Will sighed and leaned his head on Nico’s shoulder. Nico felt like he shouldn't move, as if a rare bird had perched there and he mustn’t scare it off.

He could feel Will breathing. He couldn’t say why, but felt important, like he were being let in on a secret.

His heart had been pounding this whole time, but now he really started to notice how loud it was. Will must have been able to hear it - astronauts could probably have heard it. But he couldn’t help it - he was shaky and amazed and still couldn’t believe this was his reality. Of course his heartbeat reflected that.

Eventually this position morphed into a hug, which was quite a feat when they were still technically in different seats, but somehow it worked. Will was warm, his arms tight around Nico as their collarbones met, and Nico would have gladly just died right there.

Will moved so that his lips were next to Nico’s ear. Nico shivered, but Will didn’t make any contact. Instead he said, “Hey.”

“What?” Nico was nervous.

“You know what?”

“What?”

Nico could hear the smile in Will’s voice when he said, “You’re the one who could light up the sun.”

Chapter Text

When they finally parked in front of Will’s house, Nico took a deep breath. “Well,” he said, glancing at Will with a smile he still hadn’t quite managed to get rid of. “This is it.”

“This is it,” Will responded. Their eyes met and neither of them could hold back from quietly laughing. Will fiddled with his seat belt and said, “I wish I didn’t have to go.”

Nico’s heart fluttered. “Me neither.”

“We can just stay here forever, right? We have provisions. I’m pretty sure I saw some snacks in the backseat earlier.” Will reached back and grabbed them. “Aha! These should last us twenty years!”

Nico took them from him. It was mostly chocolate and potato chips Nico had accumulated from various gas stations over the last few weeks (because everyone should have a stash). He opened one of the potato chip bags with a pop and handed it to Will as if it were on a fancy dish.

Will laughed and took it. “Thanks. Now I have to stay, right? It’s rude to leave while eating someone else’s food.”

Nico relaxed. He got to be around Will more, got to take in those beautiful eyes just a little longer. He nodded. “It’s only fair. Pomegranate seeds in the Underworld type of thing."

Will hummed in agreement and glanced up at his house. “I think my mom is asleep. The living room light isn’t on.”

“Or maybe she’s lying in wait,” Nico said, opening up a chocolate bar for himself. “Ready to interrogate you about your whereabouts.”

“Ha. No, I told her where I was, so that should be good. I mean, I didn’t tell her about, y’know -” Will paused, gestured vaguely between them, and then immediately cringed in regret. “Us. Yeah, I have to get better at saying that out loud.”

Nico’s confidence evaporated, too. It was one thing to make out with someone in your car in the middle of the night - it was another to discuss your relationship afterwards. He went red. “I haven’t told anyone either. Mostly because my parental units don’t care and my friends care too much.”

Will smiled and chomped another chip. “Do tell.”

Nico shook his head. “I think I’ve said this before, but I plan on keeping you away from my friends with a ten-foot-pole. Even the ones who would be chill would just tell the others, who are,” Nico laughed anxiously. “Decidedly un-chill.”

“What’re we talking? Hazing rituals? Shovel talks? I’m ready.”

Nico’s heart grew two sizes at Will’s willingness to put up with ridiculous crap for him, but he still said, “No. You haven’t seen them. They’re insane.”

“My friends, too,” Will said. “Except, actually, they do know. Like Lou Ellen, you met her, right?”

Nico remembered the disastrous video call and tried not to cringe. “Not formally.”

“Well, she really likes you. I pointed you out at school one time and she said she ‘digs your style’, whatever that means.”

Nico went absolutely red at the thought of Will talking about him with other people. “Really?” he asked. “I just wear the same five band tees over and over again.”

“I know! That’s what I said to her.”

Nico shoved his arm. “You’re not supposed to agree.”

“Mm. Anyway, she’s being pretty cool so far. Not nearly as bad as that time I had a girlfriend a million years ago.”

Freeze. Ice in Nico’s heart. Oh. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.” That was fine. This was fine. Will was under no obligation to only have ever been with Nico. He was his own person and had existed for a very long time before they met. Most people their age had dated before. Nico was completely fine. Fine. Fine.

Will shivered, like shaking off a bad memory. “Oh yeah. Seventh grade. Year of good decisions. It was one of those things where she asked me out, and I said yeah because okay, I guess, and then nothing happened because nobody knew what it actually meant to have a girlfriend or boyfriend back then. It was so ridiculous. I literally thought she had dropped out of school for a few months because she was avoiding me so hard, but then she came up to me during lunch with all of her Abercrombie and Fitch friends and told me that she was dumping me. So that was that.” Will started laughing. “It was so stupid, but middle-school-me was pretty worked up over it. Lou Ellen wouldn’t let me forget it for years.”

Nico laughed, too, some of his anxieties melting away. Even if it was true that Will was perfectly at liberty to have dated anyone in the past, it still felt better to Nico that it hadn’t really been real. Even if Nico didn’t like to admit it, a small, possessive part of him liked that thought. He also just might have felt insecure about his own lack of history. Whatever. It wasn't important.

Oh, but wait. Shoot, that didn’t mean there wasn’t more. Just because Will had had some meaningless girlfriend in middle school didn’t mean he hadn’t dated anyone more recently. Get with it, di Angelo.

He felt like he should have some similar story to tell, to bond with Will over past relationships, but he really had nothing. He was hoping Will wouldn’t ask, so of course Will followed it up with, “How about you? Any ex horror stories?”

“No. No stories at all, actually. I’m not really, uh.” Nico shifted in his seat. “I’m new at this.” The car suddenly felt very cramped. Was it cramped? Was it getting smaller in there?

Will opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, instead just nodding. Nico would have paid a million dollars to hear what was running through his head.

It was quiet. Just comfortable enough to be fine, just silent enough to be terrifying. Nico suddenly grew very aware of their surroundings, of the suburban trees and lawns all around them, of the way the moonlight made Will’s cheerful house look so distant and peaceful.

The quiet also conjured other memories that, to be honest, were already flying through Nico’s head anyway. Like earlier, lying down in Nico’s room, counting the constellations. Laughing at dumb jokes and eating way too much ice cream.

Their first kiss.

Aah. Nico knew better than to bring that up again (or the… numerous ones following). He was reasonably sure people didn’t do a SparkNotes rehashing of every kiss they had, and that he was supposed to just go with the flow and not freak out about it. To just act like it was all cool.

But acting was never his strong suit, and this was a big deal for him.

In the passenger seat, Will ate more chips and checked his phone, and Nico wanted to talk about it. But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He’d already had one emotional outburst in this car tonight - his dignity couldn’t handle a second.

(Although considering that the first monologue landed him practically in Will’s lap in the passenger seat a few minutes ago, maybe it wasn’t such a terrible idea.)

But no, it was the end of the night. Nico knew Will should probably get going.

Will was staring straight ahead out the driver’s window. Nico checked to see if anything was in that line of vision, but nothing was there. Will’s shoulders were tensing, too, and Nico was pretty sure it was an I’m-about-to-say-something face. He should wait to see what it was.

But watching Will in the passenger seat, his curiosity grew. Suddenly there were a million questions he needed to ask, and none of them felt easy.

Will turned to Nico. This was probably important. If Will had taken this much time to speak, it was most likely definitely worth hearing and not something that Nico should interrupt with his ridiculous bursting questions and -

“Was that your first kiss?” Nico asked. And yep, immediately regretted it. This was the exact opposite of the plan.

Will blinked in surprise, dropping whatever it was that he was about to say. “Um.” He looked down, embarrassed. “I assume you’re only asking because it wasn’t yours.”

Nico’s heart was racing. “No, I mean - I mean, I was just curious and it just seemed really important all of a sudden -”

“Yes, then. It was.” Only the briefest of eye contact as Will brought his knees to his chest. “My first kiss. Whatever.”

Nico couldn’t form words, because he was an absolute idiot. “Me, too,” he said after a second, voice wavering.

A pause.

Nico sat up straight. “I don’t know why I asked, nevermind, it’s fine, I’ll stop talking about it right -”

“I’m glad,” Will said.

Nico halted. “What?”

“I’m glad. That you were my first kiss.” Will grew quiet, avoiding eye contact like the plague. It was really cute.

Nico let that register for a second, his heart threatening to explode. Then, quiet as a whisper, “Me, too.”

A long silence stretched after, but it was actually nice. They milked those last little traces of interaction until the air just kind of shifted, and Nico knew the timer was up.

“Today’s been really great,” Will said, a small smile on his face.

Nico nodded and smiled. He agreed more than he could say.

“I have to go now. My mom might wake up and wonder why I’m not inside yet.”

Nico nodded again. His eyes flicked to Will’s hair, his smile, that twinkle in his eye, and he might have said something stupid and sappy if not for the last vestiges of his self-control.

Instead Nico said, “I can walk you up if you want.”

“Oh.” Will smiled. “Yeah. Thanks.”

As they got out of the car and headed up the walkway, Nico felt a million strings of fate pulling him a million different ways. With each step closer he noticed things like Will’s arms (begging to be touched), his nose (very much unkissed), and his mouth (tragically alone). He only had a few seconds left with Will and there was so much left to do and say.

They reached the doorframe, the windows unlit because Ms. Solace was likely asleep, and they stopped there. Nico’s heart sped up at Will’s eyes, how they were meeting gazes for the first time in a while, and how he could get absolutely lost in the blue. Will’s hand started toward the doorknob, then stopped, smiling like a new thought had struck him. Instead he changed course and reached out for Nico’s jaw.

Nico’s breath hitched. He leaned into the warm touch and closed most of the distance between them without thinking about it, and even with Will’s face a mere inch away all he could think was that this distance was practically a galaxy wide.

Will paused there, their noses touching, and softly laughed. Nico melted and noticed a stupid sweet smile on his own face, too, as Will leaned in that tiny bit extra and kissed him.

Will’s lips were still slightly chapped and Nico could hardly think because his heartbeat was so loud in his ears, and he reached up to run his hand through Will’s hair until they pulled away a moment later. Nico wanted to yank him back in for more, but they were on the doorstep and he figured Will wouldn’t appreciate being caught making out on his front porch. God, he still couldn’t even believe this was a possible problem in the first place.

Then Nico smiled, sort of shaking, as Will (the angel) said, “G’night, Neeks,” and went for the door.

“Oh,” Nico said, still starstruck. “Bye.”

“See you at school.”

“Yeah. School. See ya.” Nico was probably staring.

Will (the man, the myth, the legend) shook his head and laughed. “Night.” He closed the door behind him.

And that left Nico, dazed and kind of giddy, on the doorstep alone with his thoughts. The night air was cool and crisp, and the streetlights gave everything a cool glow that was much more chill than he would ever be.

“Night,” he whispered to the ghost of where Will (the glowing demigod) had been.

This was crazy. Absolutely insane. There was no way this was Nico’s life now. He hadn’t a clue what his cacophonous thoughts meant, but his ear-to-ear grin and pounding heart didn’t need deciphering.

It was a long time before he calmed down enough to drive back home.

Chapter Text

Will was overjoyed that their school’s whole parking lot had started breaking out in pavement fissures.

Well, no, that wasn’t what he meant. Really, he was happy because it forced Nico to start parking on a curb right by a set of bike racks. And therefore, as long as Will changed his route to school and made sure to park at those specific racks, he got to see Nico before school started. This was, needless to say, absolutely excellent.

It was five minutes to the first bell and Will was just clicking his bike lock into place when Nico pulled up in his new usual spot. Will swore, immediately standing up straight and running a hand through his hair in the hopes of dissuading any helmet messiness (a futile effort).

He waved to Nico, but Nico hadn’t finished parking yet. Will kept himself in control: only a few minor heart attacks. Only a few moments of dopey staring. He was a master of stoicism.

Nico looked up from the driver's seat and waved to Will when he saw him. Will smiled and shifted his weight, unsure of whether to go to him or wait for him to make it to the pavement. This before-school thing was still new and they hadn’t figured out a routine yet. Will just pretended to check something on his phone until Nico made his way toward the school gate, joining him.

“Hey,” Will said, pretending he wasn’t completely, totally, and lamely floating on air. Christ, he swore this guy got better-looking with each new day. Perhaps it was witchcraft.

Nico was wearing color for a change - a nice dark blue tee. Not exactly neon, but baby steps. “Hey.”

“Happy Wednesday.”

Nico snorted. “No, it’s not.”

“Okay, no, it’s not. It’s a horrible Wednesday full of horrible classes. But I’m happy to see you.”

Yep, there was that full blush. Will felt proud. Nico mumbled, “Happy to see you too,” not making eye contact. He took a deep breath, still adorably red, and changed the subject with, “I still can’t believe my new parking spot is right by your bike rack.”

“Ha. Yeah. Lucky.” They started toward the buildings.

Nico’s brows furrowed as he said, “Wait, didn’t you used to use the racks on the other side of the school?”

Yes. It was directly out of his way to use these racks. “No. It’s just a cool coincidence.”

“I don’t know if I believe that.”

“You probably shouldn’t. It’s a lie.”

Nico laughed. Will loved seeing that laugh first thing in the morning. How had he ever started the day without it? Forget coffee - Will just needed to soak in the way Nico grinned to power him through History.

“But I don’t mind,” Will continued. “I’m happy adding a few minutes to my ride if it gets me some good company on the way in.” He nudged Nico with his elbow as they passed a window and he pointed to Nico’s reflection.

Nico rolled his eyes and ignored it. “Just sounds inconvenient, but suit yourself. They wouldn’t let me park this close to the school before all the fissures started breaking out, so it actually worked out pretty well for me.”

“Don’t tell me: You were in on it.” Will gestured in the air like a bad Shakespearean actor. “You made the Earth erupt from underneath and do your bidding.”

“Yep, that’s it. I’m the lord of the underworld,” Nico deadpanned.

Will smiled at that, then sighed and studied Nico’s lips as Nico checked something on his phone. Wisps of his dark hair blew around in the wind and Will wanted to reach out a hand to smooth them down, but he settled for just gazing like an idiot at that stupid face. (He also might have almost ran into a pole because he wasn’t watching where he was going. It wasn’t important.)

They reached the point between buildings where the paths to their respective homerooms would split, so they slowed to a stop. Will wanted to kiss him goodbye (actually, he always wanted to kiss Nico, but that was another story), but in the forefront of his mind was Nico saying again and again that he wanted to avoid bringing up anything around his friends. And tragically, students were milling around everywhere before class.

But that was okay. He could respect that. Instead, Will just reached out and quietly squeezed Nico’s hand before smiling and turning away. “See you after school.”

As soon as Will started to go, Nico said, “Wait.”

Will turned back around. “What?”

“Uh,” Nico said, eyes darting around.

If this was just something to get Will to stay a moment longer, Will definitely didn’t object, but he had places to be. “Yeah?”

"I was just - uh. I wanted to ask if you wanted to sit with my friends and me at lunch today?”

“Oh.” Will blinked. “Yeah. Sure.” He let that process for a second. “Wait - does that mean you’re -”

“I still don’t want to tell them yet.” Nico cringed. “I know, I promise, it’ll be soon. But I was thinking that they would probably be cooler if they already knew you before I say anything. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I think so. So we’re just staying on the down-low until further notice, then?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, this is stupid of me to drag you into -”

Will laughed. “I really don’t mind. I promise. It’s totally worth it.”

Nico gave a small smile that went straight to Will’s heart. Will smiled back, then nodded and said, “Okay, then. I’m actually going to head to homeroom this time.”

“I’ll still see you after school?”

“Yeah. To study.”

“Cool. Okay.” A pause. “Oh, and we all sit under the big tree by the philosophy building.”

“Noted.” Will gestured toward his homeroom. "Now I’m going. See you then.”

“See you then.”

-

It was ten minutes to lunch and Will hadn’t paid attention to anything in this lecture since he remembered abruptly that meeting Nico’s friends was soon. It was more important than anything in the entire universe. It was a fact - nuclear codes had nothing on winning over these scary teenagers.

He tried to run over in his head what he already knew. Nico had mentioned Percy Jackson, and Will kind of knew him, at least in the same way everyone else knew him: He was the swim team guy. Good hair. Mission plan: Talk about fish or something. Solid.

Nico had also talked about someone named Piper, whose name didn't ring as much of a bell. Will remembered that she had blackmailed Nico with chocolate and pictures of him in a middle school emo phase to get him to wear fuckboy clothes to school. Needless to say, even setting Nico aside for a moment, Will had a fervent desire to get on her good side and possibly become best friends.

There were some others he knew of, but not with enough information to work with in the quest to make them like him. Other than that, he didn’t know what to expect. How should he act? What if they hated him? Would there be any possible escape routes? It would definitely be a good idea to mull over these questions ad nauseam instead of taking good notes on what would be on the midterm.

The bell rang much too soon and Will took extra time to pack up in the hopes that magical confidence would grace him in those extra fifteen seconds. It did not.

Okay, this was it. He shouldered his leather bag and headed out toward the philosophy building, alternating between telling himself everything would be great and preparing doomsday measures. Every student walking around for the lunch period seemed to be looking at him. Were they? Was there something in his hair? Was this a good idea? Was -

He smacked right into Nico. “Shit!”

“Hey!” Nico had appeared in front of him somewhere during all this and held out his hands to steady Will. “You okay? You look like you just got told you’d never be allowed to wear cable-knit sweaters again. What’s wrong?”

Looking down sheepishly at his third sweater that week and back up at Nico, Will said, “Nothing. Um, unrelated, but I realized I don’t know how to approach your friends. Like, do I just say, hey, I’m eating here now, or is there a blood sacrifice involved, or…?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “No blood sacrifices. I’ll just introduce you. It’s not a big deal.” But no matter what he said, his breathing did seem a little shakier than usual.

Most students had already settled somewhere on campus to eat by now, so Will felt out of place still standing in the walkway. “Okay.” Deep breath. “Yeah. Okay. We should go, then.”

Nico nodded and led the way. As they passed behind the philosophy building, Will grew determined, his heart pounding. Nico gave him a small nod and then brought both of them the last little bit toward the big tree.

They saw a small guy in a bright red first. He was leaning against the base of the tree, hunched over some device. Will started to wave, but Nico quickly slapped his hand down and said, “That’s Leo. He’s been trying to beat Pokemon in a record twenty-two hours, one hour at a time, during each day’s lunch hour for the past few weeks. If you disturb him, he’ll burn you alive.”

“Awesome.” Will’s eyes were wide. “Great start.”

Nico pulled him toward the rest of a large group, which was… surprising. Will wouldn’t bring it up, but he definitely felt like he was the more outgoing out of the two, and he only had a small group of a few good people. He couldn’t seem to compute that Nico had this giant squad. How had this happened?

“Nico!” a sweet-looking girl called out, waving with a charming smile. “Come tell Percy that he’s being stupid.”

“Hey, Hazel. Percy, you’re being stupid,” Nico responded without a thought. “Um, guys, attention. This is Will.” Nico gestured toward Will like an awkward auctioneer trying to sell off an item. “He’s sitting with us today. He’s cool.” Nico was just the slightest bit jittery.

As for Will, he was more tense than a Thanksgiving dinner involving a racist uncle. He stood, stock-still, only moving to wave and say, “Hi. I’m Will. Nico already said that. I don’t know why I said it, too.” A pause. He didn’t know what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t the perfectly civil and amicable welcome that he got. There was a blonde girl next to Percy whom Will recognized as Annabeth Chase, the girl who led that school-wide protest against standardized testing last year. She gave a surprisingly friendly smile and a number of other people said a chorus of “Hi, Will”, plus a girl with really interesting eyes said, “I like your sweater.”

Will looked down, having forgotten the shirt, and said, “Oh! Thank you.” He turned to Nico with a smug expression. “She likes my sweaters.”

“I do, too. Shut up,” Nico said before hurriedly coughing, stepping away from Will, and choosing a spot to sit down. “Anyway, introductions. This - Will, sit down.”

Will realized he had frozen in place and he hurriedly sat on the grass with the rest of them, cursing his entire existence.

Nico continued, “This is Hazel, Annabeth, Frank, Percy, Jason, and Piper.” He pointed to each person along the way, ending with the girl with pretty eyes. Pretty everything, actually. It was distracting. “And you already met Leo.” The kid playing the Gameboy flipped Nico off without looking up from his game.

“Don’t say it all at once, he’ll just go into overload,” said the girl with the kind aura. She turned to Will. “Sorry for the flurry of names. I’m Hazel, the one with candy. How are you? Do you want one?” She held out a bag of Sour Patch Kids.

Will accepted some with a "Thank you," and turned to Nico. “Why don't you always have candy? It would be an improvement.”

“Hilarious. Go choke on a Sour Patch,” Nico (probably) joked, taking a bite of a sandwich he’d pulled out of his backpack. He seemed calm, but Will noticed him fidgeting with a zipper on his bag like he did when he was nervous. Nico turned to Hazel and said, “And Will’s doing good, since he didn’t answer your question.”

Will cracked a smile for the first time during all this. “How do you know that I’m doing good?”

“I decided.”

Will laughed, loosening up a bit and looking back at the girl with the Eyes. “Did he say you were Piper?”

“Yeah, hi. Why?” She was wearing sweats and it was somehow more glamorous than anything anyone else in that school was capable of.

Will had to ask. “You’re the one who made him wear the All Damn Day shirt?”

At that, the others burst into yelling, whoops, and laughter. Well, everyone who was listening, as some of the others were talking about something else in their own half-clump.

Will shrank into himself. “Did I say something?”

Piper laughed and pushed away Hazel, who was glaring at her. “You're fine. Yes, that was me.” she said. “And it was glorious. How do you know about that?”

“I’m the one who bailed him out of a dress code call home,” Will said, shooting a glance to Nico as if to ask, Is that an okay amount of information to give?

Nico shrugged and nodded slightly.

Will continued, “It was hilarious. Thank you for doing that.”

Piper grinned. “It was hilarious. And thanks for bailing our boy out. I swear I didn’t think they would actually enforce those rules.”

Hazel rolled her eyes. “I warned y’all twenty times and you still went through with it.”

“Sue me.” Piper yawned.

Nico said, “Thank you, Hazel. At least someone was looking out for me. I'm still bitter.”

“Oh, I still wanted to embarrass you. I just thought we should have made the dare something you couldn’t get dress-coded for. That way you wouldn’t have an excuse to take it off. Simple strategy,” she explained. From across the group, Annabeth interrupted her conversation with Percy to give Hazel a thumbs-up.

Will was loving this, until, “Shoot.” He’d forgotten to grab his lunch off the counter. He rooted through his bag, but only found some smashed-up saltines in a Ziploc. “Forgot my lunch.”

Frank turned away from his other conversation and asked, “Really? Do you want the other slice of my pizza?”

“Oh! Yeah, sure. Thanks, man.” Will took it with a smile. Then he turned to Nico and said, “How are your friends so nice? Frank’s known me for ten seconds and he gave me half his food, meanwhile I’ve had to trick you into sharing your ice cream on three separate occasions.”

Hazel nodded solemnly in agreement, reaching out to rub Frank’s shoulder in appreciation for his heroic kind deed. The blond guy (Jason?) piped in with, “That’s just because Frank is very nice to people in need and Nico is very mean.”

Nico flipped him off. “Untrue. I’m basically Gandhi.”

Will leaned back on his bag and took a bite of the pizza, just watching all of this unfold. He enjoyed seeing this side of Nico: more relaxed, more confident, more snarky. It was fun.

The group weaved in and out of some other various topics, most notably whether or not it counted as cheating that Percy could naturally hold his breath for a freakishly long time during swim meets. Will didn’t feel at ease, exactly, but he certainly wasn’t dying like he thought he would be. Everyone was actually really cool, and his distant and silly dream of becoming friends with Piper was going strong.

He was just starting to think that he could definitely do this more often when Hazel asked, “So, Will, how do you know Nico?”

Will froze. He hadn’t prepared for this. A whole hour wasted in class obsessing over this and he hadn’t thought up any lies? Why was he such a mess?

“Um.” Will looked over at Nico, who seemed rooted in place, too. After a beat that felt like a million years, he said, “He’s in my sociology class.” That was true, at least.

Piper smiled. “Well, I’m glad he brought you along, Will. You’re nice to have around.”

Will might as well have done cartwheels. Nico’s friends liked him! Well, so far only one had said they did, but that was so many more than zero! And it was the one he wanted to befriend himself!

He felt like dancing with joy, but instead he said, “Thank you! I like being here, too.” He grinned at all of them, ending on Nico. Nico smiled right back, and Will so would have kissed him if not for the setting. He couldn’t wait until he could be with him in front of all of his friends, in front of the school, in front of the whole world. He was sure Nico would soon be confident enough in his friends to reveal it.

Hazel smiled, too, and said, “Same. And I’m glad Nico has a new friend.”

-

The door to Nico’s room had barely slammed shut behind them before Will yanked him in, kissing him like he’d wanted to kiss him all day. Nico made a muffled noise of assent, pulling Will in right back, and Will felt like he was floating on air. God, he’d needed this. He cupped Nico’s jaw in his hand and let that warm skin anchor him, let Nico’s lips overtake him and overwhelm him and make him forget about absolutely everything. He wasn't quite sure when they'd passed that barrier into the land of being able to do this kind of thing with such comfort and ease, but either way, they hadn't been able to spend a second alone lately without it turning into this. Now that the dam had broken, there was no putting it back up. Will's heart pounded in his ears and no matter how many times he did it, kissing Nico always made him feel like he was backflipping off a waterfall into the unknown. It was terrifying and exhilarating and wonderful all at once, but Will didn't know how to say all of that, so he just pulled Nico in even closer until he couldn't breathe.

After a while he regained just enough brainpower to pull away for a second and say, “Uh. I think sometime we actually need to study.”

“Do we, though?” Nico asked, red and breathless and ridiculously attractive.

Will couldn’t argue with that logic. He let Nico pull him back in with a sharp tug on his collar, midterms completely forgotten.

-

It was a new day and the sun was unusually bright for the season, so most of Nico’s friend group was huddled underneath the one shady patch under the big tree. Leo (who had paused his game for the day) and Piper had poked face shapes in some slices of bologna and were now using them as masks, with everyone else cheering them on.

It was bright and breezy and Will was just soaking in this whole sense of community, not to mention the fact that he’d been invited back to the group for lunch indefinitely. He knew his other friends wouldn’t mind - Lou Ellen, Kayla, Austin, and Cecil ditched him half the time anyway to work on their projects in the art classroom. Now he had a place to go ditch, too. It also didn’t hurt that he was in an excellent mood from the past day’s study session.

“You two make a beautiful bologna pair,” said Annabeth in between sketches in her notebook.

“You really do,” Percy agreed, putting an overly heartfelt hand to his chest. (And wow, that boy had a nice face. Why were all of Nico’s friends so attractive?)

Piper and Leo laughed and high-fived. Then Piper turned to Jason on the other side of her, the slice slowly slipping off her face, and said, “No, you’re the other half of my lunch meat pair.”

Jason raised his eyebrows with a slight smile. “That’s… sweet, I think?”

“Mmhm. C’mere.” She tried to lean in for a kiss.

Jason burst out laughing and leaned away. “I’m not kissing you with bologna on your face!”

“Oh, yes you are. Get over here.”

Everyone else laughed at the idiocy, and Will turned to Nico. “I presume they’re dating?”

“Yeah.” Nico was wearing all black with multiple layers again today, despite the high temperature. He had strength greater than Will could ever imagine. And lucky for Nico, the all-black was hot (not just in temperature). Nico stretched, which should’ve marked a new national holiday, and said, “Also Percy and Annabeth are, and Hazel and Frank.”

“Got it.” Will tried to commit it all to memory. Now that he thought about it, he’d definitely seen Annabeth and Percy power-coupling around the school before. They tended to be at the front of assemblies a lot.

“How about you?” Piper asked, face clear of bologna by now. (Leo also had abandoned his, opting for creating a miniature sculpture with paper clips.) “You with anyone, Will?”

Will’s shoulders tensed. He forced himself not to look at Nico. “Uh.” His mouth was dry. Was it normal for it to be this dry? Could he die from this?

He shrugged, hoping to look cool and carefree. “Nope. Not at the moment.”

-

Will winced as Nico pulled his hair, kissing him so hard he had to fight for breath. They were home alone on one of Nico’s couches (god knew there were a billion), Nico sort of on top of Will as they tried to get as close as humanly possible. Will wasn’t even sure which room in the gigantic house they were in - they had just sort of stumbled onto the nearest available surface. This cycle of constrained school lunches and considerably less constrained “study sessions” had continued every day for a week now, and it was more and more frustrating each time. Will was glad to be able to get out some aggression here.

“I can’t believe this,” Will murmured, taking a break from Nico’s lips to kiss down his jaw.

“What?” Nico said, only now getting his breath back. “Something wrong?”

“No! It’s just - I mean.” He kissed the corner of his jaw one more time and pulled back just enough to look Nico in the eye. “You’re amazing and I -”

“Shut up.” Nico kissed him again. “Shut up. No talking feelings.”

Shoot. Will always got too honest when they were like this. “Can I just say -”

Nico tried to cut him off again, but Will just laughed this time and pushed him away. “I’m not continuing until you let me talk.”

Nico had crazed, desperate look, and he was almost buzzing with energy, but after long, jittery pause, he said, “Fine. But this is blackmail.”

Will was too high off the fact that apparently, not being able to kiss him was blackmail-bait-worthy to Nico to care about his tone. Will traced Nico’s jaw with his hand, enjoying the feeling of spreading fire with his touch. He smiled. “I just really, really like you, okay? That’s all I needed to say.” His heart panged at Nico’s messed-up hair and adorable expression and generally amazing everything. “And you’re really cute and wonderful and I’m crazy lucky, like wow -”

Nico cut him off with another kiss, and this time Will let him. His lips still buzzed with that energy when they pulled away, and Will’s heart continued to pound. Nico gave him a long, thoughtful look and eventually said, “Fine. You win. That was nice.”

Will couldn’t help his laughter. “Yeah, I know! Feelings are great!”

“Feelings are okay,” Nico said, but Will saw the corners of his mouth turning up. His blush had been fading, but now it returned with a vengeance. “And you’re not allowed to respond, but I really like you, too.”

Will felt a slow grin creep up his face. He reached up to kiss Nico again, long and slow this time, and it sent his head reeling just like every single other one had.

When they pulled away, Will softly smiled up at him. He said, “And not to pressure you, but at some point you should probably tell your friends. I promise I can deal with whatever shovel talks they give me.”

Nico sighed. "I know. Just a little longer. They'd still freak out at this point. But soon, because this is stupid. We can’t keep acting like friends at school and acting like -” he gestured to their general position. “- this at home.”

Will went red again and he felt his gaze grow sappy. This was all overwhelming and new and Nico was just so beautiful.

“Shut up,” Nico said.

Will laughed. “I didn’t say anything!”

“You didn’t have to. I saw it. You're thinking like a greeting card.” He ran his hand through Will’s hair, which Will very much appreciated, and said, “Just shut up and kiss me. Please?”

Will was physically incapable of not succumbing to an offer like that, so he did. But then he paused again, much to Nico’s chagrin, and said, “Also, I’m not saying right now, but just making sure we remember we still have to study for -”

“Oh my god,” Nico groaned.

“Come on,” Will said. “I mean, I know we’ve said this every day for a week and it never happens, but today’s the day. We’re gonna get those formulas down.”

Nico ignored him and started kissing his neck, his hand still curling through Will’s hair.

Will shivered. “On second thought, yeah, that’s a better idea. Good plan. Good plan.”

Will closed his eyes for a moment and thanked his lucky stars that this was his reality, letting himself ignore the possibility of failing junior year and the fact that his new relationship was a secret to most people. He’d figure all that out later. Right now there was Nico.

He sighed. “Good plan.”

Chapter Text

Nico swore he was planning to tell them.

It just… hadn’t happened yet.

Every day after that at lunch, he would try to psych himself up, only to chicken out at the last second. A few times, there were even perfect opportunities laid at his feet, but he couldn’t do it. He could remember every embarrassing, over-the-top, cringeworthy thing the gang had done in the past when Nico did anything resembling romantic, and he just couldn’t bring himself to deal with that again. Especially if it meant making Will go through it, too.

The wind was chilly, the December air making everyone huddle up for warmth. Annabeth had brought a blanket for Percy and her to warm up with together, which was on another level of genius.

Percy said, “Annabeth, this blanket is the smartest thing you’ve ever done.”

She raised her eyebrows. “One time NASA actually used the theoretical blueprints I sent in for that school contest.”

“I stand by my statement.”

Piper laughed and accepted a varsity jacket Jason lent to her (she already had one on for volleyball, but she wanted two for the cold). Hazel and Frank were also acting adorable, with Hazel leaning her head on Frank’s shoulder as they took turns eating Sour Patch Kids out of a mutual container.

Nico and Will sat awkwardly a foot apart, trying not laugh. Nico could tell Will was trying not to say anything about the brazen display of couple-dom in front of them, and it was hard not to think about him and Will.

Nico looked over at those blond curls and checked Will’s expression. There was an unmistakably meaningful look waiting there. Do it now, it said.

Nico widened his eyes and slightly shook his head. Not now. Not now.

-

Another day, the whole group started planning ahead for prom at the end of the year, even though they hadn’t even reached midterms yet. Percy and Jason were having a not-so-subtle conversation where they each thought they were going to win Prom King but wouldn’t say it out loud, which was absolutely hilarious, and Hazel was trying to convince Piper not to wear sweats.

“Please? I know you don’t like to dress up much, but it’s prom. I’d never want you to be uncomfortable, but if I pick out a dress for you, will you wear it?”

Long silence. Piper huddled up in her two varsity jackets and said, “I’ll consider it. It could actually be fun, I guess. But only if you go back and find that beautiful smoky gold dress we saw in J. C. Penny that one time and actually buy it for yourself. It matches your eyes and honestly, I almost fainted when you tried it on.”

“Aww, deal.” Hazel hugged her, to which Piper responded by squeezing so tight Hazel had to push her away, laughing and kind of wheezing.

Nico checked Will’s expression, surprised to see him absolutely grinning at this. “What?” Nico asked.

Will seemed shaken out of a trance. “Huh? Nothing.” He was still smiling, though, which was always a treat for Nico’s eyes, heart, and general soul. “It’s always fun to hear girls planning prom outfits. Us guys are stuck with boring tuxes and carnations.”

“Speak for yourself,” Leo said from where he had ditched his other projects and was now creating a propeller-like toy from Frank’s sandwich twist ties (that flew surprisingly well). “I showed up to prom last year in the coolest outfit you’ve ever seen in your life. All the ladies were dying to get a glimpse of the Leo-meister that night.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Translation: You asked three girls to dance in a row and got fruit punch thrown in your face by all three. In a row.”

“Two of which who went on to date each other,” Jason piped in.

“You guys weren’t there.” Leo laid back on his bag, propping his hands behind his head. “I coulda had them. I’ll do it this year.”

Piper scoffed affectionately. “Point is, Will, I was planning on showing up in sweats until recently, and Leo’s tux last year was actually pretty amazing -”

“It had flame patterns.”  Leo interrupted. “Like a babe magnet car!”

“Yes,” Piper said. “As the scholars put it, like a babe magnet car. What we mean is that you don’t have to go traditional.”

Will’s expression at Piper giving him friend advice was akin to a puppy watching its bowl get filled with filet mignon, for whatever reason. It was adorable. Nico said, “Don’t say that, Piper. Will is gonna take that to heart and show up to prom in yet another cable-knit sweater.”

Will groaned. “Sweaters are cool! They’re warm! I don’t understand all the sweater hate!”

Nico shook his head, taking a bite of the Burger King he’d gotten Jules-Albert to bring the gang. “Not hating, just wondering how you could possibly own so many. Like, with the laws of physics.”

Will flipped him off, much to the amusement of the group. “I’ll just be cozy and warm while you freeze, it’s fine. Look, this one has little stars on it. You only wish you could be this fashionable.”

Nico smiled, careful not to let his gaze look too adoring. Gotta keep it under control. “Yep. Gotta love the star sweater.”

“Speaking of prom,” Hazel said. “Do you know if you’re going with anyone, Nico? Not to pry. Obviously you can come with all of us even if you’re alone.”

Shit. Nico stared at her. Another meaningful look from Will.

“Um,” Nico said, louder and higher than normal. He pretended Will’s gaze wasn’t burning a hole in the side of his head. “Nope. Have you guys tried the school’s new smiley fries?”

-

Third day was the charm. He was going to tell them today. No matter how horribly overbearing and awful they became afterward. No matter how many times they tried to give him inappropriate love advice. No matter how much it ruined their abilities to have normal conversations with Nico for months afterward.

… Why was he doing this again?

He saw Will out of the corner of his eye, staring at him like an angry bull in a ring. He distinctly remembered Will finishing the previous night’s study session (because those were still definitely happening) with the half-joke, “This is ridiculous. Unless you want to actually study tomorrow...” Which put the fear of God in Nico.

Oh yeah. That was why.

Nico picked at some grass as an excuse not to look any of his friends in the eye and said, “Uh, guys?”

They all looked up. Will did especially, perking up and hanging onto Nico’s next words.

Nico looked at his whole group of friends, some of which he’d known since middle school, some even longer, and choked at their collective innocent expressions. Everything had been so easy these last few weeks. Will had integrated wonderfully into the group and Nico really felt like his worlds might have a shot at mixing for the better. They were all treating him as an equal, not as some little kid to be patronized like they used to. They had even all forgotten about that crush he’d had in eighth grade that had been their topic of conversation for a solid year.

Was saying this going to throw all that away?

Nico stared at them all, feeling his gaze grow desperate. After a moment that felt like an eternity, he swallowed, hating himself, and said, “Nothing.”

-

The boys were sitting on the floor of one of Nico’s living rooms, ten feet away, actually studying that day. The room was decorated with luxurious red sofas, but they sat on the plush carpet instead, each leaning up against a different piece of furniture. Nico had been trying to read the air in the room for the last hour, but Will betrayed little, instead just briskly quizzing him on formulas with a starkly neutral expression. And now not even that, just separate book-reading.

It didn’t take a genius to puzzle out that something was different. Almost every day up until then, they’d barely made it through the door of Nico’s empty house without them leaping on to each other and Will leading the way to the nearest available surface. Now the silence was cold and deafening.

Nico flipped a page. The sound was crystal-clear in the quiet room.

Tick. Tock.

Nico tried to watch Will out of the corner of his eye as stealthily as he could. Will’s expression was even and he seemed to actually be reading the text. Good for him.

Nico turned his gaze back to his textbook and read another few pages without really retaining anything. He wished he could say something. Well, no, of course he could say something. No one was stopping him. This was about the friend thing, right? He should totally say something.

But here he was, not saying anything.

Making his peace with just never bringing anything up ever, Nico settled back into his textbook, feeling like a coward. But then Will set his book aside and stood. Nico waited anxiously for any new developments, but Will just asked, “Do you want anything from the kitchen?”

“Oh.” Nico calmed the butterflies in his stomach at the first thing Will had said out loud in a long time. “Um, I don’t think so.”

Will nodded and started off. Nico, desperate for something else to say, added, “Actually, could I have another Pop-Tart?”

“Yeah.” Will left.

Nico could practically hear the silence. He tried to plan ahead for when Will came back to capitalize off the moment. Why was he like this? He shouldn’t feel the need to seize on the moment of Will bringing snacks to say anything. He should just be able to ask what he needed to know.

He reread the same sentence another thirty times, waiting for Will to return. When he did, Nico spent far too much energy making it seem like he was looking up at a totally normal speed, not like he’d been anxiously waiting or anything. That would be ridiculous.

Will handed him the package wordlessly and returned to his spot all the way over there. Way to capitalize off the moment.

Nico shook that off and steeled himself. As Will finished settling back into his spot, Nico asked, “Will?” before he could stop himself.

Will looked up, neutral as ever. “Hm?”

What’s wrong? “How… are you?”

“Uh. Good?” That beautiful face was guarded and suspicious.

Stupid, di Angelo. “I mean, I meant -” What a wreck. “Is something wrong?”

Will opened his mouth, but Nico spoke again and cut him off: “I’m sorry I haven’t told them.”

“What? No.” Will looked around as if for an exit. “That’s… it’s fine. It’s your life and friends and it’s not my job to tell you how to handle them. It’s none of my business.”

“But it is your business. It’s not fair to you.”

Will closed his book. “It doesn’t matter. Telling them is your thing, and I don’t want to force you.” A pause. Will’s eyes flitted to a piece of Renaissance art hanging on the wall and he grew quiet. “But… if you’re not going to tell them, could you please just be honest about it?”

Nico choked. His chest seized up and he was unable to look away from Will’s hurt expression that wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I - I am. I mean, I was going to.”

“You don’t have to, though. That’s what I’m saying.”

“I do have to!” Nico felt panic flutter in his voice. “I’m not just going to - I won’t lie every day just so I can avoid a little discomfort.”

The expression on Will’s face was clear, even if he was too kind to say anything: Then why have you been doing that every day for weeks?

Nico ran a hand through his hair, trying to think. Calm down, calm down.

As he tried to get his thoughts together, Will spoke again, deathly quiet and still looking over at the painting. “I just didn’t want you to feel like there was this random guy who popped into your life and started demanding you tell everyone about him. Or…” Quieter still. “Or who assumed this was a bigger deal than you did. I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable if you weren’t planning for… this to last long enough to warrant that.” Silence. Even Will’s breathing felt restrained, tense.

Nico was shell-shocked. Through the hurricane swirling in his brain, he managed, “No! No, of course I - ” Was he suddenly devoid of rational thought?

“I’m sorry.” Will put his face in his hands. “I know people aren’t supposed to bring that stuff up and it just makes it weird but right now it just feels like weeks of you saying over and over again that I’m not worth it.” Pause. “Which of course would be fine, you’re not obligated or anything, I don’t even know what I’m saying -”

“That’s not what I mean at all!” Eyes wide, Nico found more words just in time to say, “I’m sorry. God, I wasn’t thinking about that. I should have been thinking about that.” Honestly, the fact that Will cared at all about the thought of not being with Nico was kind of mind-blowing all on its own, but he pushed that aside. “You have no idea how much that isn’t true. I’m just scared of -”

What? What was he so scared of? Some momentary embarrassment with friends? Of being doted on by all those people he cared about, albeit in a misguided fashion? Of having people know that Will, this beautiful, shining beam of a person, was somehow dating him?

“...I don’t know. I think I’m just afraid of change.” Oh. He hadn’t known he would say that before he opened his mouth. “I’m going to tell them tomorrow. This time I really am.”

Will was more more earnest now. “I don’t want to you to do it just because you feel guilted into it.”

“I’m not. I promise. I want to.” Nico smiled, trying to find some level ground in those blue eyes and deciding to go out on a limb. “Because I have the hottest boyfriend in the world and I can’t deal with everyone in the school asking him to the next school dance because they don’t know he’s taken.” Nico tried to look cool about it, but failed completely, feeling his face go red.

Will laughed, and there it was, there was the light switch flicking up. This finally felt like something approaching normal again.

Will smiled and said, “Well, we couldn’t have that.” He wiped his eye all casual, like there was just some dust, and Nico wouldn’t bring it up, but it kind of looked as if a tear had been there. “Although I'd have to disagree. I'd say I have the hottest boyfriend in the world.”

Nico covered his face with the Pop-Tart wrapper to hide his blush. “Nope. Shut up. We’re not doing this. I won't go down that rabbit hole again. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.”

Will laughed again and stood, moving his study setup to actually sit next to Nico now. “Fine. Quiz me on pages 42 and 43, then.”

Nico hadn't realized how much he’d missed Will’s warm presence at his side. It felt like he’d finally starting charging up again after draining his battery all day. He scooched in to meet Will the rest of the distance between them and said, “Got it.”

And so they actually studied, which was a small feat on its own, Nico’s eyes never leaving Will’s face for long enough to lose sight of the freckles that seemed to glow on his cheeks. His heartbeat was still calming down because real conversations like these were new and scary, and he was still playing everything Will had said over and over again in his head to make sense of it. How could Will not know that he was ninety percent of what Nico thought about on a daily basis? How could it not be overwhelmingly obvious, like an aura around Nico that screamed “I am infatuated!!”  to every passerby?

Nico didn’t want to jeopardize the normalcy that was slowly creeping back into Will’s smile, so he just kissed his warm cheek, heart pounding and still marveling at the very fact that he could, and turned back to the book. Will smiled sweetly and took his hand as they started drilling vocabulary terms again.

The next day was going to be a nightmare of overbearing shovel talks and patronizing looks, but over each new flashcard and shared glance, there wasn’t a shadow of doubt in Nico’s mind that Will was absolutely worth it.

(And hours after they finished studying for the day, they might have had to rush Will out of the house with one of Nico’s shirts thrown on in a hurry, because Will’s mom texted that she was parked right outside to surprise pick him up and Will’s sweater might have gotten lost somewhere in Nico’s room sometime before then.)

(Might have. Scientists have yet to agree.)

-

Crisp afternoon air. Last few days of green on the trees. This was the day.

Nico wasn’t even that nervous leading up to lunch. He had completely accepted his short-term fate of dealing with everything his friends would do, and now it was just a matter of saying it. A sense of calm washed over him, and he was completely certain.

The group was eating like usual, all in a vague circle with idle chatter firing between them. Nico wasn’t really paying attention. Will sat next to him, his hand propped on the ground in reaching distance, reminding Nico of what was to gain by this.

His morning had been awful. He’d awoken so sleepy and irritable that he’d barely kept his eyes open a sliver as he rolled out of bed and checked the weather for the day: Freezing cold. Awesome. Only opening his eyes enough to ensure that he didn’t trip over his own two feet, Nico snatched the nearest warm shirt he could find on his floor littered with clothes, yanked it on with a yawn, and grabbed his leather jacket, zipping it up completely so it was the only thing showing. It wasn't until second period that he finally started to wake up, and now he was fine, but it had been rough.

Now, he watched his friends talk and continued to mentally rehearse what he’d say, like he had been all day. He nodded along with the conversation, but really he was working on his confession. Well, not confession. This was high school dating, not a medieval scandal. But still. Was it actually getting hotter or was it just him? Either way, Nico shed his leather jacket and tossed it beside him, now pretending to check a text on his phone while he amped himself up.

After checking every possible thing to check on his phone to give him time to think, Nico looked up at his friends and steeled his nerves. This was it. “Hey, guys?”

They all already seemed to be looking at him, except Will, who had also been on his phone for a while. That was weird, but maybe he’d just imagined it.

No, actually, it was real. Now they were all looking between each other and whispering.

Whatever. It was probably nothing. No more excuses.

Okay. “I just wanted to say that -”

Nico actually, genuinely, honest to God was going to finish, but Piper interrupted, “Ohhh, you and Will are together?”

Silence.

Nico was too shocked to respond intelligently. “I - what?” He looked at Will, who seemed equally confused. “How…”

Piper pointed where all the others were looking, at Nico’s chest where he'd just taken off his jacket.

Oh, hell.

“You're wearing his sweater,” Piper said.

Nico’s stomach dropped. He looked down to check and lots of knit stars greeted him.

God fucking dammit.

Will’s arms were wrapped around his knees, just sitting there looking intensely awkward. He waved. “Hi.”

His friends were all kind of silent, waiting for Nico to say something. Will looked at him, too, uncertain.

Nico broke the silence with an annoyed groan, slapping a hand over his face. “No! No no no! This was a whole thing! I had to accept my fate and think about my goals and everything - nope. Will, you take this one. I'm out.” Nico stood and walked away, doing a circle in the grass, to Will’s laughter. But he immediately returned, sat down again, and said, “Yes, okay. Will and I are dating. It's a thing. Now go ahead and do all your weird over-possessive crap and threats to murder him and we can begin the long process of letting this go.”

A sea of eyes blinked back at Nico. Hazel asked, “Why would we do that?”

Nico stared back blankly. “Because you always do. You always have. Come on, just get it out of the way.”

Piper looked with concern between Nico’s other friends. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

Annabeth shook her head. “No.”

“Nuh-uh,” Frank said through his sandwich.

“Come on,” Nico said. “Remember Taco Guy? Eighth grade? I liked him for ten seconds and he ate a taco one time and all I hear about is Taco Guy for a whole year!”

“Oh, yeah, Taco Guy!” Piper said.

“I forgot about Taco Guy. That was fun!” Leo agreed. All the others nodded like Yeah, Taco Guy.

Nico threw his hands in the air. “That was not fun! That was humiliating!”

“Wait, what?” Piper’s smile faded. “Really? But you know that was a joke.”

“A shitty joke. And it wasn't just that. Any time I've done anything resembling romantic you all patronize me.”

Jason held out his hands. “Oh, no. We're sorry, Nico. I think I speak for all of us that none of us meant anything like that as a rag on you.”

Leo said, “Taco Guy was more than that. He was an idea. An icon. He lives in our memories still.” He placed a hand on his heart.

“But they were kind of embarrassing jokes.” Annabeth said, Percy nodding along with her. “I can get that. I’m sorry, Nico. We didn’t know it was a big deal to you.”

"Completely," Hazel said.

“Yeah, but that was back when we were like, three years old,” Leo said. “Wee babes in the wood.”

Piper pushed him. “What Leo means is that we were all a lot younger and we all did a lot of embarrassing stuff. Not that you’re not allowed to be mad, but we’ve all kinda of outgrown doing that stuff, especially if you’ve said it hurt you.”

Nico was going to explode, but he continued to sit as calmly and quietly as he could. “So… it’s fine? It’s chill? You’re not going to make this awful forever and ruin everything?”

Everyone hesitantly shook their heads, waiting for a trap.

Nico crossed his arms. “Of course. Perfect. Of course you’re cool. Fuck. I had a speech written!” He stood and pulled some slips of paper out of his pocket. “Notecards! A thesis statement! MLA format!” He ignored Will laughing at him, although God did he love that laugh. “I had sources! I had testimonies!” Now everyone was laughing. “I was so ready!”

Will reached up and tugged Nico’s hand down, looking more normal again after his awkwardness a moment before. “Nico, sit down.”

Nico wanted to rant more, use the stage, go full-on Shakespearean actor going mad, but Will’s smile was too radiant to refuse. He sat down again beside him, still grumbling. The one time he didn't pay attention to which shirt he picked out.

“This is what you wanted!” Will said, still laughing. “This is the reverse nightmare scenario.”

Nico waved the notecards around again. “I. Had. A. Speech!”

Will quickly grabbed the notecards from him and Nico had never felt more betrayed. Will looked at them and said, “This is beautiful. I can’t believe you said my sweaters are amazing.”

“It does not say that.”

Piper said, “You know, I only noticed you were wearing one of Will’s sweaters because you kept making fun of them all the time.”

Will stuck out his tongue at Nico. “Hubris claims another victim.”

Leo looked over Will’s shoulder at the notecards. “Aww, he wrote ‘Leo is Amazing’ twenty times in a row! Thanks, dude, I know.”

“It does not say that!”

Will handed them back to Nico, face smug, like a traitor. “You can read it yourself if you want. The Tony Awards are in June. Make a performance of it!”

Nico put his face in his hands. “Oh, god, Will, you’re one of them now. You guys ruin everything.” Nico tried to look annoyed, but a smile peeked through. Dammit.

Piper grinned and started chanting, “One of us! One of us!” Some of the others joined in, and Piper offered Will a fist bump. Will took it, looking over the moon for some reason. Nico didn’t really get why - it was just Piper.

“But forreal, Nico,” Percy spoke up for the first time in a while. “We’re happy for you guys and solemnly swear not to be weird about it. Right, everyone?”

The others agreed, a smattering of “Right”s and “Yep”s. Leo was crossing his fingers, but Nico stared him down until he slowly uncrossed them.

It meant a lot to Nico that Percy, whom everyone but the two of them had pretty much forgotten Nico had a crush on in middle school, was stepping up for him about this. It felt a bit like closure.

Nico looked over at Will to find those blue eyes already on him “Hi.”

“Hi.” Will took his hand. In front of everyone.

Nico went red. “This is the most embarrassing thing in the world. I hope you know that.”

“Yep.” Will was grinning.

Jason cleared his throat. “As long as we’re on the subject, though… Don’t hurt him, Will. You seem cool, but just… continue being cool.”

“Yeah. Don’t hurt him. I have a black belt,” Annabeth said.

“THANK YOU!” Nico yelled. “Thank! You! This is what I prepared for! Where’s my speech?”

Will took the notecards again. “He doesn’t need it. I’m not hurting him in a million years.”

There were some “Aww”s, but Nico interrupted, “Nope! That’s enough.” His ears were red and he signaled an “all done” motion. “This was great, we all learned things about each other, this sweater is actually very cozy and I understand why Will wears them all the time, and I didn’t get to use my very nice speech, so no one can say that not enough things happened this lunch. Enough things have happened for forever. Someone make a food joke, for the love of God, so we can move on."

“I’m actually happy you said that,” said Leo. He held up an elaborate statue of a man he’d made of everyone’s Burger King meals while they were all paying attention to the conversation. “I‘ve been wanting to show everyone this for the last, like, ten minutes, but you were busy having feelings or whatever.”

Piper shook hands with the french fry that was the arm, Percy and Annabeth tipped their baseball caps to it from across the group, and Will and Nico leaned back on their bags and stared with dumb smiles at their interlocked hands on the grass in the glorious open. Nico felt the warm press of Will’s thumb on his and he looked up to meet his eyes.

“Well,” Will said.

“Well, what?”

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Nico thought about it, long and hard. Then he looked out at all of his friends making idiots of themselves, squeezed Will’s hand, and slowly started laughing harder than he had in a long, long time.

Chapter Text

Midterms.

Will wasn’t sure where he ended and the coffee began.

He and Nico finally got their acts together the last few days before testing and ramped up the studying, cramming like nobody’s business just enough to let Will scrape by with mid-to-high Bs on all of his exams. Thank God, Jesus above, and all of the baby angels in heaven.

Will was slouched over on the block of concrete he usually used to wait for Nico after school, waiting for him to show up, half-asleep and fighting to keep his eyes open. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he woke with a start to a tap on his shoulder.

Swearing loudly, Will whipped his head around to find the source.

Nico stood over him, almost laughing. He lacked the quintessential dead, bloodshot eyes that haunted Will and most of the other students, which seemed unfair. Nico seemed to glide through school on roller skates, wearing shades and sipping a smoothie while the rest of them suffered. "You good?"

Will grunted in response. Then, in case it wasn’t clear, he added, “Tired.”

“I couldn’t tell.”

Will flipped him off.

Nico smiled, which Will could only vaguely appreciate in his stupor. “Usually you’re the one waking me up at school," he said. "Nice change of pace. Alright, let’s get you in the car so you can go home and sleep. I’m guessing you don’t want to come over today?”

“I don’t think I physically can.” Will could barely keep his head up.

“Understood.” Nico offered Will a hand. “Here.”

Will took it, letting Nico haul him up, and he tripped over his own two feet as soon as he was standing. Nico laughed at him, which Will chose to hear as affection, not mockery. (Maybe a bit of both.) They walked the rest of the distance to the car, Nico’s hand on his back guiding him, and Will all but fell into the passenger seat. Nico opened the door for him like a true gentleman. He even volunteered to load Will’s bike into the trunk.

Will was about to drift off again, but Nico started the ignition and the car’s rumble woke him. He wiped his eyes and yawned, noticing that Nico was watching him with, god, just the fondest damn expression in the world. Sunshine ran through Will’s body right down to his toes.

Will raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“Nothing.” Nico shrugged, still smiling. “Just don’t usually get to see you sleepy.” He thankfully turned his attention back to the wheel then, because Will most definitely went red. Nico started navigating them out of there and continued, “I know we said we were maybe getting ice cream today to celebrate, but I guess we can do that another day. We have all of break for that now.”

Will looked up. “Say that again.”

“What? That we can get ice cream later?”

“No. The thing about break. And celebrating.”

“Christmas break? It’s started now that all of the tests are done. We were going to, yeah, celebrate. Why?”

“But that’s after Friday. Today's Thursday.”

“...It’s Friday." Nico watched him carefully. “Holy shit. I’m so happy to tell you this: You don’t have to do jack for the next two weeks. Just sleeping and snacks.”

Will sat there, dead weight, staring out the window as they drove down suburban surface streets. His thoughts slowly came together, a spinning beach ball icon marking his slowly crystallizing thought process until he finally absorbed the information in a beautiful, shining moment and almost teared up with joy.

“There is a God,” he whispered. “And he loves us.”

Nico laughed. “Yeah, you wouldn’t have made it through another day. God knows I wouldn’t have.”

“Oh, shut up. You seem fine. Mr. Peppy over here.” Will gestured vaguely over to Nico and his stupid perfect lack of extra eye bags.

Nico’s eyes narrowed. “I’m exhausted. The only difference is I’m not falling asleep in public. Which, I admit, is usually my MO.”

Will draped his jacket over his eyes like a sleepmask. “True. Oh, what are you doing for Christmas?”

Nico bristled. “Well, my father hasn’t said anything, but I assume we’ll be doing our yearly tradition.”

“What’s that?”

“Waking up in the house alone because they always ditch me to go to Greece with my stepmother’s family. Sometimes he’ll have some special tree-shaped cookies delivered or something while I pace around and do homework. It’s a blast.”

Will’s jaw dropped. He took off his makeshift sleepmask to properly stare at Nico in shock. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. It’s fine, though. I don’t really mind anymore.”

Will’s heart deflated at Nico’s neutral shrug. His dark hair was falling in his eyes like usual, and Will wanted to brush it aside, like usual, but he couldn’t even focus on that. How could this fantastic human being not have good Christmases, not even sometimes?

“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard." In Will's sleep-addled, sentimental brain, he meant it. He probably would have started tearing up if he'd thought about it too much more. He immediately blurted, “Come to my house. Come do Christmas with me.”

Nico stared at him. “What? No. I couldn’t -” He stopped. “I mean - do you mean it?”

“Of course! Just the thought of you spending Christmas alone in that tomb is smashing my soul through a meat grinder. No. You’re completely welcome.”

“What about your mom? I’m sure you guys have family stuff. I don’t want to intrude. Really. It’s okay.”

“Shit. I wasn’t thinking about my mom. Um, how about this - I’ll ask her tonight if it’s even a possibility. You don’t have to say yes or no right now, but the offer is out there.” He couldn't help but smile at that idiot (his idiot) and finished, “I don’t let people I care about have awful Christmases. It’s in my 10 Commandments.”

“Right up there with Thou Shalt Not joke about improper bandaging techniques?”

Will shoved his arm, accidentally causing the car to swerve slightly. Oops. 

Before Will could say anything, Nico course-corrected and ventured, "Does she...?"

Will blinked. Then, "Oh. Um." His face heated. "No. I still haven't said anything. I really don't want her to go full Pride Mom in your face. It's lethal in large doses."

Nico nodded. "Just wondering."

Will studied his face. Always so closed-off. He noticed Nico tap his skull ring against the steering wheel in thought.

After a moment, Nico spoke again. “But seriously… Uh, thank you. That means a lot.” Nico wouldn’t quite look Will head-on. “Depending on how it goes with permission and stuff, I'd be… open to that, at least. Thank you.”

Will so wanted to kiss him, even if it might make the car swerve and combust in a ditch somewhere. Worth it. He just wanted to wrap Nico up in a koala hug forever while flipping off Nico’s father, whom Will still hadn’t met. How could people who got to live with Nico every day squander this privilege by ditching him on Christmas? It was cosmically unjust.

Nico seemed to be off in other world, which was a little bit worrisome considering he was still driving, but he quietly mused, “That would be nice.”

Will reached over and squeezed his hand.

Nico looked down at their interlocked fingers and smiled. He nodded slowly and repeated, “Yeah. That would be really nice.”

-

Christmas Eve. Most of the lights in Will’s house were dimmed, a fire was roaring in the fireplace, and candles wafted some indeterminate warm scent throughout the small house.

Will checked his phone. It was just past afternoon, but it was already dark out. Will would never get used to how quickly the sun set during winter. But Nico would be there soon, and Will needed everything to be perfect. If this boy never got proper Christmases, Will wanted to give him one great enough to make up for all of them.

Will turned at the sound of his mom entering the living room. She was wearing that candy-cane apron Will had always loved over her clothes.

She nodded to the tree. “Any sign of Corgi yet?”

“No, sorry.” Will crossed to the tree, the carpet soft under his festive socks. He looked up at it, a stout evergreen decorated with multicolored lights that his mom had owned even before he was born. Same with most of the ornaments - there was no rhyme or reason to them, just a wonderful assortment of various themes and trinkets and photos tied to strings, and every single one of them Will had an emotional attachment to. They used to get pretty into the popcorn garland stuff, too, until they got Bella, who would bark until she got some of it for herself. The corgi-in-a-scarf ornament they were looking for was a special one he and his mom had found at a random rest stop, way in the middle of the night on their beach trip when he was nine. It had always been his favorite.

Will said, “I’ll let you know if I see it. It might be in that last box in the garage."

“Okay.” She joined him by the tree, adjusted the star on top, and kissed him on the head. “You’re getting too tall for me to do that,” she said, smiling as she walked back to the kitchen. “Oh, shoot,” she called once she was over there. “I didn’t set a timer. Do you remember how long ago I put the cookies in? I’m trying a test batch before we do the real ones.”

“Uh, five minutes? Seven?”

“Thanks.” She checked the window into the oven. “I’ll just have to eyeball them.”

Will hummed in agreement. He checked his phone - Nico had sent a picture from inside his car on the mansion's driveway, where a squirrel had scurried up onto the windshield. It looked like it was floating there above him. Nico had sent, This is it. This is the end. If I don’t show up, this squirrel killed me.

Will laughed to himself. That message was from not too long ago, so either Nico had perished via squirrelcide or he was on his way. Will took a deep breath. This was going to be great.

He wandered over to the kitchen, warm tones on the walls and sun decals on all the knobs, and joined his mom, who was leaning up against a messy counter and checking the cookies every few minutes. Her steadily deepening wrinkles seemed especially pronounced here in the dim candlelight, but she maintained that youthful energy about her, as if she were a college student wearing a mom mask.

“Mom?”

“Hm?” She looked up from the oven.

“I just wanted to say thank you again. Nico didn’t have anyone and -”

“Honey, of course.” She ruffled his hair, and he didn’t even pretend to be annoyed. “We’ll have other years with just the two of us. We don’t let friends be lonely on Christmas.”

“Exactly. Thank you.” Will smiled. Then a thought appeared, stabbing him in the stomach, sharp. Oh god. He didn’t even let himself think over what it really was before he blurted, “But he’s not my friend.”

Silence.

Oh shit. Oh shit! Bad timing! Nico would be there any minute to spend the night and then spend all of Christmas there. What was Will doing? This would ruin everything everywhere forever!

His mom’s brows furrowed. She stood upright from where she had been leaning on the counter and asked, “What? Did something happen? He’s been here almost every day. Did you get in a fight?”

“No, I mean -” Will cursed the universe for letting him impulsively dig this hole so deep. “I mean we’re not… just friends.”

His heart pounded so loud and hard that he knew she had to be able to hear it. His breath was shallow and his arms felt shaky and he absolutely wouldn’t meet his mom’s eyes. This was the single most embarrassing and awful thing to ever happen, ever, and it was all Will’s fault for bringing it up at the worst time. Shame on him.

Will’s mom shifted her weight. “Oh. So…”

“He’s my boyfriend. It’s a thing. I’ve been meaning to tell you.” He forced himself to look at her, beet red.

His mom opened her mouth, but Will cut her off. “And I hope that doesn’t change anything about tonight because Nico really does need someone to spend Christmas with but I don’t want anything to be weird or different just because we’re dating but -”

The doorbell rang. Both Will and his mom turned their heads to the front window to see Nico waving from outside, bearing presents wrapped in red and green.

“Um,” Will said, looking back to his mom, who looked like someone had just tried to explain quantum physics to her. “Finish this talk later?”

Chapter Text

Will didn’t know how to move.

Nico knocked at the door again, perhaps thinking that maybe the doorbell hadn’t worked, waiting for Will to open it. Will’s mom was still standing at the counter, expression blank, and he needed at least an hour or more to talk with her about this before she met Nico, but here he was, and this was awful, but oh god he needed to get the door -

He rushed over and opened it to let Nico in (he was incredibly cute in a red scarf), but then he thought better of it and joined him outside, signalling One moment to his mom over in the kitchen before closing the door on her and joining Nico on the porch.

Nico looked so confused. Shit. Will cringed and said, “...Hi.”

“Uh, hi? Merry Christmas Eve.” Nico held up the presents in his arms. “I like your sweater.”

Will glanced down at his candy cane ensemble. “Oh, thanks. It’s for Christmas.” That was obvious. He was stupid. He saw Nico’s hand-wrapped gifts and said, “Oh god, you brought presents. Thank you, you’re the best.” Will scratched the back of his neck. “I… may have done something very stupid.”

Nico’s eyes narrowed. “Like, eat-sherbert/chocolate-ice-cream stupid or chug-Windex stupid?”

“You’re never going to let that ice cream go, are you? But, um, somewhere in between. Try just-told-my-mother-ten-seconds-ago-that-we’re-dating stupid.”

Nico stared at him. “Just now?”

Will nodded.

“As in just now? As in, you said you wanted to brief her in private so there wouldn’t be a big scene so you did it just now?”

Will slapped a hand over his face. “Yes. Just now. And there’s not a ton I can do about it, so just come in and I apologize in advance for anything she might do.”

Nico took a deep breath. “Okay. If I remember correctly, she’s not homophobic, right? This should be fine.”

Will cringed. “Well, she’s trying her very best. She’s learning. But no, not actively homophobic at all. She might ask insensitive questions in her quest to be a good ally, though. And even if you were a girl, this would be awkward.”

“Okay, fair.” Nico looked up at him. “I thought my friends would be awful and they turned out fine. Maybe it’ll be the same?”

“Maybe.” Will tried for a smile. Nico really did look great in that scarf. He wanted to get a picture of him like this and keep it in his room. Wait. Focus. He looked into Nico’s deep-set eyes and said, “I’m sorry about this. Thank you for - uh, for dealing with this.”

“Of course. You had to deal with all of my friends. It only seems fair.”

Will couldn’t help a sappy smile. He kissed him on the cheek, the warmth of Nico’s skin lingering on his lips when he pulled away, and said, “Alright. Ready to go in, soldier?”

Nico saluted. Then, “Oh, wait - what’s your mom’s name again? Just in case.”

“Naomi.”

“Naomi,” Nico repeated to himself. “Got it. This is probably going to be fine. Maybe. Possibly.”

Will laughed and couldn’t help but kiss him again, for real this time. Nico must have gotten a new Chapstick or something, because it tasted nice. When he pulled away, Nico looked at little more at ease.

They shared one more nod to confirm the plan and Will opened the door.

His mom was sitting on the couch right by the window. Oh. Will had assumed she would stay over by the kitchen. Had she seen them out there? That would be mortifying.

He pushed that aside and said, “Hi, Mom. Nico’s here.”

Nico gave a tiny wave, standing almost behind Will. “Thank you for having me, Ms. Solace. I really appreciate it.” He held up the gifts. “Should I put these under the tree?”

For someone so stressed a moment ago, Nico was covering very well. Will was sure he didn’t have that same poise as Nico. He was kind of shaking.

“Oh! Aren’t you a sweetheart. Under the tree is fine.” She stood up with a smile and approached Nico, who looked her in the eye with a pleasant, easygoing expression that Will was in awe of. Was this boy a wizard of Mom conversation?

At least, until Will’s mom gave Nico a greeting hug. Curse her Southern hospitality. Will caught Nico’s eye from over her shoulder and Nico shot him a panicked I have no idea what I’m doing look. Okay. Seemed like Nico wasn’t so pulled together.

Then Will’s mom stepped back and looked Nico over, head to toe. Will would have dissolved into the wallpaper if he could.

She put her hands on her hips and said, “Merry Christmas Eve, Nico. I realize I haven’t really had a chance to talk to you, which is silly. You’re here all the time.” She took a deep breath, smiled, and nodded. “This is good. I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too. Again, thank you so much.” Nico looked to Will. “I didn’t want to encroach on any family traditions or anything.” An idea crossed his face. “Speaking of which, Will mentioned something about your guys’ crazy traditions...?”

And that was all she needed. Nico was a genius.

“Yes!” his mom exclaimed. She got a fire in her eyes and hurriedly moved to the kitchen table, gesturing for the boys to follow. They did. On the table was an array of baking sheets, flour, butter, other baking items, and a ridiculous number of novelty cookie cutters.

Nico raised his eyebrows. “Wow.”

“Later we’ll have the bake-a-thon,” she said.

Will nodded and gestured grandly to the table’s contents, attempting to shake off his nerves. There were jazz hands involved. “It will be decadent and unnecessary.”

“With a ridiculous number of cookies -”

“Shaped like a ridiculous number of things!" Will finished. "And all of the cookie dough is fair game for snacking before the bake."

Will's mom nodded in agreement. “We hope you like gingerbread.”

“I do." Nico was beaming. He turned between the two of them with this look in his eye that Will couldn’t decipher. Wistfulness, maybe?

“Good.” Ms. Solace nodded firmly. “Alright, I still have a bit of work to finish up before Christmas Eve officially starts, and the test batch of the gingerbread needs to be taken out in a minute, so you two can do something else until I finish. A few hours, maybe?”

“Okay.” Will was more than happy to step away for a bit. “Nico, do you want to head to my room?” He worried for a second that his mom might misinterpret his words, but he figured context would show that it was innocent. They were fine, right? Yes? God, this night was going to involve a lot of overthinking.

“Sure.” Nico looked to Will’s mom as if to check if that was okay. Adorable.

She nodded in encouragement and waved a hand to shoo them away. “Go on ahead. I’ll see y'all later!”

That was easy. Will turned and led them down the hall, but happened to look over his shoulder along the way. His mom met his eye, pointed at Nico’s back, and gave Will a thumbs-up.

Will went red. Dear god. He turned quickly back to the hall, gesturing for Nico to go into his room first, and closed the door behind them.

Nico sat on the bed immediately, eyes wide, and quietly started freaking out. “Oh my god. Did I do it right? Does she hate me? I’m sorry. I’m just making it up as I go.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re killing it. You looked so calm. I’m actually impressed.”

“Really?” Nico’s nervous energy deflated. “I’m just on autopilot. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Hey. Look at me.” Will joined him, standing right in front of where Nico was sitting. He tilted Nico’s chin up so their eyes met. “It’s going great. We’re going to have an amazing Christmas. And if you ever think you don’t know what you’re doing, think of me. Because I’m even stupider and probably have even less of an idea of what I’m doing.”

Nico laughed at that, which Will considered a victory. “Thank you. I’m deeply moved.”

“I can have that effect,” Will said solemnly. “I’m just so full of beautiful, sage wisdom. It’s a gift.” He looked in the distance dramatically. “And a curse.”

Nico laughed again, which was the most beautiful and rewarding sound in the world, and Will cracked a smile at the fact that he got to listen to it whenever he wanted. He was the luckiest guy on Earth. Especially now, because Nico grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss, because why not? Will strongly agreed with this genius line of logic. Nico's kisses always sent electricity crackling down his spine, but they couldn't even go in a second time because they were both smiling too much.

God, his life was charmed. This was the best possible problem to have.

When they pulled away, Will smiled and took a seat next to Nico on the bed. He grabbed his hand, just because he could. “We’ve got a couple hours before festivities and stuff. What do you want to do?"

Nico shrugged, still red from a second ago. “I dunno. I’m never over here when we’re not studying. It’s weird. Do you have Netflix?”

“Why, are we Netflix and Chilling like the hip cool kids?”

“Please never say that combination of words ever again with your face.”

“Fair.” Will laughed. “But yeah, I got some stuff. Let’s look.”

Twenty minutes and lots of mocking bad movies that Netflix had no excuse for adding to their service later, they finally settled on Tangled. They leaned on Will’s wall and some pillows while the laptop rested on their shared lap, illuminating the dim room as they huddled up in the blankets. Nico rested his head on Will’s shoulder, the weight warm and welcome. Will leaned his head on Nico’s, closed his eyes, and really tried to remember this feeling. Everything these days with Nico felt surreal, but in a good way. He was the most insanely blessed person in the universe and that was a little overwhelming.

As they watched Rapunzel and Flynn flirt by the campfire, Will laughed and said, “I probably would have figured out I was bi way earlier if this movie had been out when I was younger.”

Nico snorted. “If only.”

“Did you know that they did focus groups and stuff to try to create the most perfectly attractive man when they were making Flynn Rider?”

“I didn’t,” Nico said through a mouth of chips. “But I can tell. They did a good job.”

“And I think we’re all a little in love with Rapunzel.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Will laughed. “All of us. Deep in our souls. No exceptions.”

“Eh,” Nico said, popping another chip in his mouth. “She’s so…”

“Female?”

“Yeah.”

Will got the giggles after that, and Nico was laughing, too, so Will almost didn’t notice the knock on the door.

“Come in,” he called.

He realized a second too late that maybe they should have looked less cuddly for his mom, but it was probably fine. They were just leaning into each other's shoulders. In any case, Nico sat up upon Will’s mom’s arrival, a little red.

If she was fazed, she didn’t show it. “Hey, I’m done with my work stuff. You guys wanna pause and join me in the kitchen?”

“Yeah, just a sec.” Will closed the laptop and hopped off the bed. “Man, she was just about to learn Mother Gothel’s true identity.”

“Huh?”

“Tangled.”

“Ah. Alright, the oven is preheating, so let’s start baking! Come on.” She gestured for them to follow.

Nico stood up, too, back in Meet the Parents Mode, and gave what only Will could tell was a nervous smile. “Be right there, Ms. Solace.”

She nodded and turned away, back to the kitchen. Nico stopped Will once she was out of earshot, nice demeanor dropped, and said, “Is this okay? Is she mad?”

“What? Why would she be mad?”

“I don’t know. We… existed kind of close to each other? Is that allowed?”

Will stared at him.

Nico looked toward the kitchen. “...I may be a little jumpy.”

“A little?”

“A lot.” Nico shuddered as if a cold breeze had hit him. “I just don’t want to ruin your Christmas.”

Will groaned. “Seriously, what? You’re not ruining anything.”

“But I -”

“No. I am ecstatic that you’re here. My mom already likes you. It’s not like this is the first time you’re meeting.”

Nico opened his mouth to speak, then closed it.

Will squeezed his hand. “This is going to be fun.”

Nico took a deep breath and exhaled. “Fun.”

Will smiled at him. God, he could get lost in those eyes. He leaned forward to kiss Nico's forehead and laughed when Nico bristled.

Nico pushed him away, nose scrunching as he said, “Alright, this is making me sick. Let’s go.”

Will laughed. Mission accomplished.

As they re-emerged into the main area, Will grew self-conscious for the millionth time over his home. There were papers all over the kitchen and the yellow paint on the walls had started to peel in some areas, but Nico was looking around, smiling.

“What?” Will asked.

“Nothing. I just really like your house.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Will watched the way Nico’s eyes moved around the place, as if he were trying to memorize every detail. Will couldn’t figure out why. He said, “It’s not much.”

“It’s amazing.” Nico looked Will in the eye as if that were simply the truth. No more arguing allowed.

In the kitchen, Will’s mom was switching between different fun oven mitts as she prepared various gingerbread fixings. Will had always liked their oven mitts, an odd assortment of novelty ones they had picked up at roadside shops over the years.

Nico smiled at her. With what must have been a Herculean effort to look comfortable and excited, he said, “Here we are. How can we help?”

-

The rest of the night passed in a pleasant blur. Cookies went right as planned and Will and Nico both ended up covered in flour. This presented Will with the opportunity to wipe some of it off Nico’s cheek with his thumb, which got the desired blush from Nico, but it was also seen by his mom, which was absolutely mortifying. Every time she saw them being cute, she would get this knowing smile that made Will want to dive into a canyon.

The rest of their traditions went about normal, too. At one point Nico was able to find the pickle ornament before either Will or his mom, which led to her staring at Will like, Wherever you found this boy, don’t let him out of your sight. He’s too powerful.

After all of the must-do’s were finished, Ms. Solace suggested a Christmas movie, and now the boys were kneeling in front of the TV, perusing DVDs.

Will gestured to the assortment of discs and said, “Choose your favorite.”

But Nico stared at them blankly. After a moment, he tried, “I know Peanuts? ...I think.”

Will looked up from the movies to stare at him. “What? These are classics!”

“I know,” Nico said, quieter. “I’ve just never seen them.”

Will was flabbergasted. “Wow. Alright, that’s it. We’re watching The Grinch, pronto.”

“Hold on, Will,” his mom interrupted. She was in a side armchair and absentmindedly swirling a glass of wine, leaving the big couch open for the boys. “We want everyone to feel cozy. Let’s do Peanuts if it’s the one Nico knows.”

“Oh, I -“ Nico started.

“It’s decided,” she said.

Nico wisely heeded the final word of Mama Solace.

Will nodded and got the movie ready, then followed Nico back to the couch. Once they were settled with all the appropriate Christmas blankets, Will had just been thinking about how chill and non-invasive his mom was being about all of this when she asked, “So, how long have you guys been together?”

Will’s words caught in his throat. He exchanged a glance with Nico, who looked at him in full panic.

“Um,” Will said, redness creeping up his neck as he glanced between Nico and his mom. “I think three months? Four?” He tried to silently check his math with Nico, but Nico was out of order at the moment. The best Will got was a shrug.

Desperate to fill the silence, Will kept talking. “I think it’s three and a half. I’m not sure. We don’t have, like, a specific anniversary or anything. I mean, do we?” He checked with Nico again and got another tense shrug. This was way more embarrassing than it should have been. “Uh. Can we start the movie?”

His mom ignored that last bit. “Okay. No one is giving you guys a hard time, right? Because I used to be on the PTA and I can still definitely get some kids suspended -”

“Oh my god. Mom. No. It’s fine, really.” Will spared another glance at Nico, who was coming up with new and creative ways to hide his face.

“Good." She watched them like interesting test subjects. Will wanted to crawl out of his skin. “Because I remember when I was in high school, and kids can be cruel -”

“It’s fine! Really! Thank you, but this is a chill school. Please. It’s really fine.” Will mimed pressing the remote to play the movie. “Can we please just watch?”

She took a second to think it all over, but then nodded. “Go ahead. As long as everything is really fine.” She paused for a moment and looked both of them in the eye, one after the other. “I support you.”

Oh man. Will had to force himself to remember that this was all with the best of intentions. She wasn’t meaning to be monumentally embarrassing in front of Will's new boyfriend. And Will was of course appreciative of her support. Who was he to get annoyed with all this love and tolerance when so many people would kill for the same situation? “Thanks, Mom.”

Nico spoke up for the first time in all of this, not quite making eye contact with her, but close. He quietly said, “Thank you.”

The air in the room hung still for a moment before Will slowly pressed play.

The classic theme song started up and as the beginning credits started to play. Phew. Will finally started to relax, until -

“Am I supposed to make you guys sleep in separate rooms?”

“What?” Fuck. If Will hadn’t been red before, he sure as hell was now. He paused the show so it wouldn't be interrupted.

“I don’t what I’m supposed to do. Am I being responsible as a mother if I let you guys sleep alone in your room? Or is not allowing that old-fashioned? Or is not not allowing that naive? I mean, I know how teenagers work -”

Nico looked about to spontaneously combust. Will felt about the same, but he quickly jumped in with, “We’ll sleep out here! Nico can take the couch and I’ll pull out the futon. Okay? Can we please not talk about this anymore?”

Will’s mom put her hands up in surrender. “Yes, sure, I just figured we had to discuss it sometime -”

“Cool, great.” Will turned back to the screen and pressed play at lightning speed. Dear heavens above, let the Peanuts save them from this atrocity of a conversation.

The opening music continued, and slowly everything in the room faded back to normal. Thank god.

Nico took a deep breath and relaxed. They shared a look of mutual relief and Will mouthed, Sorry.

Nico shook his head, smiling a bit. He mouthed back, It’s fine.

God, Will wanted to wrap him up and watch all these old classics with him while holding him close, but that obviously wasn’t in the cards at the moment. Instead, Will found Nico’s hand under the covers and squeezed it. Nico squeezed back.

After that, the movie took over. At some point, Nico leaned into Will’s side a bit, safe because Ms. Solace probably wasn't paying attention to them from the other side of the room, and Will very much appreciated it. Will fought the urge to grin at the sight of Nico in his arms, perfectly matching such an innocent holiday. It was just astonishing that Nico was real. Rare and miraculous and bewildering that Will had managed to reach this point in the Choose Your Own Adventure of his life. Over the course of the movie, Will kept getting distracted from Snoopy and the gang to watch Nico’s beautiful features as the colors from the TV washed over him. He was so lucky.

By the end, Will’s mom had fallen asleep in the armchair on the other side of the room, her now-empty glass of wine in her lap. Will felt a pang of affection at her passed-out face. He was lucky to have her, too.

After the credits finished, the screen went dark. Will and Nico looked at each other.

“I guess that’s that,” Nico said.

“Yep.”

Nico leaned forward to try to catch sight of the clock in the kitchen. “What time is it?”

Will pulled out his phone. “12:30.”

“Huh. I guess it’s morning.”

“Yep." What that meant dawned on Will a second too slow, but once he realized, he smiled. "Merry Christmas, Nico.” Will's heart ached at that mess of dark hair in front of him. He checked that his mom was still asleep, then turned back to Nico and kissed his forehead.

Nico smiled, too, a strange mix of fondness and emotion in his eyes. “Merry Christmas, Will.”

Nico looked off to the side and Will followed his gaze. The Christmas tree was all lit up with tinsel and colorful lights and un-cohesive ornaments that each held love in them. With the TV dead, the tree was the only source of light in the room. Will hadn’t realized just how dark it had gotten until that moment, but he could only barely make out Nico’s features in the shadows.

“Will?”

He turned back away from the tree to meet Nico's gaze. “Hm?” 

“Thank you.” Nico rested his head on Will’s shoulder. “I don’t know how much I’ve told you about this, but I don’t... I haven’t really had this - uh, sort of thing. I’m not used to...”

Quiet. He didn’t finish. Just left it there.

Will knew words weren’t Nico’s strong suit sometimes. He wrapped an arm around him, pulling him that last inch closer, and absentmindedly ran his thumb over the nape of his neck in small circles. Crickets were chirping outside, the only other sound in the night besides their hushed voices.

“You deserve it, you know,” Will ventured. “Real Christmases. Not alone. Lots of dumb traditions and people who care about you.”

Nico picked his head up off Will’s shoulder. He didn’t seem to be able to say anything back, but he smiled with an emotion that Will couldn't quite decipher. Nico's eyes traced over Will's face, looking for all the world like he thought Will was the Holy Grail, and it made Will feel so distinctly loved and seen and special. Will wondered if Nico was going to kiss him. He certainly wouldn’t have objected.

But instead, Nico gave him a crushing hug, burying his face in the collar of Will’s sweater, and this was so much better. Will didn’t even think before wrapping his arms around him, too, feeling that warmth that was always so surprising about Nico emanating through his shirt. He rested his chin on Nico’s shoulder and closed his eyes and they stayed there for a long while, holding each other in the light of the Christmas tree in the quiet house. Will would have stayed there forever if he could have.

Time didn't exist there, but eventually they slowly pulled away. Once they were able to see each other again, Will could have sworn he saw a tear in Nico’s eye. He knew him well enough not to bring it up.

“Thank you,” Will said, not even particularly sure what he was referring to. But he meant it.

Nico smiled, so so soft. “Thank you.”

Although he couldn't have told you what Nico meant, either, Will felt he understood.

He leaned in to press a soft kiss to Nico’s lips and his chest almost hurt in that moment with how much Nico meant to him. He didn't want to look away after they pulled back.

The room was absolutely silent except for the crickets, and Will didn’t want to interrupt their chirping. So instead, he settled into Nico’s side and closed his eyes, smiling when he felt Nico do the same a moment later.

They leaned together, just horizontal enough to sleep, and Will felt every blessing in the world in his lips resting at the line of Nico’s collarbone. Will briefly thought about his agreement to sleep separately on the futon, but they could just say they fell asleep during the movie along with his mom.

The sounds of the night echoed on in a peaceful rhythm, singing along to the soft beat of Will’s heart, and just before Will drifted out of consciousness, he whispered a single, gentle, “‘Night.”

Chapter Text

After that, the days started to blend together.

Not in a negative way, not at all. Time became a dripping syrup - glowing like honey, sweet like a promise. Nico often mixed up conversations in his head now because he couldn’t keep track of if they happened when he studied with Will, or spent Christmas with him, or during ice cream runs, or really in any of the heaps of time they spent together nowadays. Nico started tracking time by landmarks, holidays.

Like a few days after Christmas, the New Year’s Eve fireworks on the town’s dock were magical. There was a setup on the edge of a lake where they stood together and watched the lights in awe. Will’s arms were wrapped around Nico and he rested his chin on his shoulder, which made Nico feel like a small, protected thing. He hadn’t thought that was a feeling he would even like, but Will was talented like that.

Nico felt Will shiver. They were bundled up in every coat and scarf and hat they could find, but the night was still freezing. And Nico knew Will got cold easily, so he tolerated it with a reluctant smile when Will found creative ways to subtly steal Nico’s cozy hat and scarf for his own. The combination of Will’s occasional dumb jokes in his ear, the reflection of the fireworks on the water, and the slight brushing of Will’s cheek against his added up to so much peace in Nico's chest. The wind was biting but the sky was a symphony of color, and as Will smiled and squeezed him at the sight of a heart-shaped firework, Nico didn’t feel cold in the slightest.

On Valentine’s Day, they got each other the same panic-buy of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate from the grocery store, but ended up tossing those aside to just lie in bed together, Nico tracing the lines of Will’s face with his thumb in sheer awe of what he held. When he remembered it later, he could still feel Will’s hand slung around his waist and the slow, intoxicating press of his lips between murmurs of “Happy Valentine’s."

Nico ran his hand through that golden hair and pulled back. He would never get over seeing Will’s face this close, not now, not ever. He felt like he should say something. It was Valentine’s, after all, and if there was a time, it was now.

But in the sacred quiet of his room, he couldn’t even begin to break the silence and articulate his feelings. Did infatuated cover it? No. That didn’t fit anymore, like a sweater he’d outgrown over the six months they’d been together.

He had a stronger word in mind, but he was scared to even think it.

How about, instead, the fact that the only times he was sure he was doing anything right were when Will looked at him like that, like he was a priceless, delicate treasure and a meal all at once?

Nico couldn’t put words to it. But his whole body filled with that feeling he so associated with Will by now, where his heart pounded and his limbs pulsed with energy and he felt almost dizzy with how overwhelming it was. Will’s face inches away on the bed studied his. Nico thought Will would check if anything was wrong or ask what he was thinking about, but he just let their foreheads fall together softly.

“Shh,” Will whispered, even though Nico hadn’t said anything. A smile crept up his face. He looked into Nico’s eyes like he could solve every riddle found within and said, “It’s okay. I know.” His smile turned stupidly sentimental. “I feel the same.”

-

After winter break, the P.E. classes switched around for the semester. So now, Nico, Will, Hazel, and Piper were all together, which was amazing. Before, Nico had been stuck with a sea of people he couldn’t care enough to get to know. Now he was never alone, plus he always had his pick of friends to pair with for the many, many paired exercises Coach Hedge required. He and Will often teamed up, but actually, more often than not, Will went with Piper and Nico with Hazel.

That struck Nico as miraculous. He had spent plenty of energy trying to spend more time with Will, or scrambling for his attention, but this feeling of neutrality? This was new. He wasn’t used to being fine passing up opportunities to be with Will. The thought of that used to make him nervous, like he was missing out on essential opportunities to cement himself in Will’s life as a regular presence, but now he didn’t feel it was necessary. Of course he was a central person to Will. He didn’t need to work overtime to prove himself worthy. It was like, go have fun with Piper, Will. Nico would be waiting whenever he was ready to come back.

He hadn’t even realized that was a problem until it was gone. He hadn’t known how calm it would feel.

It was nice.

Plus, Will was always over the moon when he paired with Piper. Nico still wasn’t sure why, but if Will was happy, he was happy. He had even heard mentions of the two of them hanging out outside of school. Crazy.

One day, Nico walked with Will into the gym with a smug expression on his face, feeling superior. They sat on the linoleum floor by Piper and Hazel while everyone was warming up.

“What are you grinning about?” Hazel asked by way of greeting, looking up from re-tying her laces.

Nico was finding it very hard not to laugh, and Will had given up on that front, full-on snickering now. Nico tried to keep it deadpan as he said, “Guess who never has to run the mile again?”

Hazel’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“It’s this guy!” Will answered, gesturing grandly to Nico like he was an expensive car up for grabs in a game show. It may have made Nico blush. “Isn’t that amazing?”

“Are you serious? How?” Piper’s eyes were wide as dinner plates.

Nico kept a cool demeanor. “I have a note from my doctor.”

Will raised his hand. “I’m his doctor.”

Piper started laughing. “Holy shit. Did you forge something?”

“Better,” Will said. “I volunteer at the hospital on the weekends and my coordinator is the coolest person in the world, so he offered to pay me for all my labor with these golden tickets.” He waved some slips of paper dramatically. “We already tried Nico’s. Coach Hedge totally bought it. Said he legally can’t reject a note from a real doctor, even if he doubts its legitimacy. So as of two minutes ago, Nico is the first of us to not have to run the mile for the rest of the year for ‘medical reasons.’” Will fanned out the three remaining papers, all with official-looking script and gold seals on them. “You want in?”

The girls stared at each other, then at Will with awestruck expressions. Then they were both grinning and whooping and exclaiming assorted variations of “YES!” and “I love you!” and “God is real!”

Nico broke - he couldn’t keep hiding his beaming smile.

-

Prom fever struck the school insufferably early that year. Nico wasn’t sure how much more ride planning and restaurant comparing he could take.

“For the last time, Piper, we are not going to Chipotle for prom," Jason said.

“You just don’t understand my artistic vision.”

The group was eating lunch under the big tree, split half and half on who remembered to bring jackets warm enough for the chill.

Leo, who didn’t have any warm clothes to speak of but didn’t seem to notice the cold, crossed his arms. “For the record, I’m all for an actual Mexican place or full-on fast food. Just not the bastard island in between.”

“What are you talking about? You love Chipotle.”

“But not for prom! It’s a medium place! What are we telling the universe? That we want to have a medium prom? Leo doesn’t think so.”

“He’s referring to himself in the third person again,” Annabeth sighed. She barely looked up from her book. “Annabeth doesn’t like.”

“Percy dislike-y, too”

“Nico is ready to commit homicide.”

“Woah.” Leo put his hands up in defense. “Slight departure, My Chemical Romance.”

Nico was covering his ears. “It is March. Prom is in May. Why are you guys like this?”

Will was snacking on some sour gummy worms, not minding any of this, because he was insane. “Aw, get into it. It’s fun.”

“You guys are lucky I’m even considering going.”

“What?” Will stopped eating. “Of course you’re going.”

Nico shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t know if I'll feel like it.”

Nico didn’t expect Will to look so hurt. Was this a bigger deal than he thought it was?

He tried again. “I mean, I guess I could - What, why are you looking at me like that?”

Will stared at him. “You have to go! It’s prom. It’s a whole thing.”

“Exactly. It’s a whole thing. It’s a hassle.”

Will narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to argue something else, then flicked his eyes around the group as if to say, Not here. “We can talk about this later.”

There were some calls of ‘Ooo, someone’s in trouble’  from the group, but Nico shut them down with a death glare. They were right, though.

Nico wasn’t looking forward to later.

-

They both sat cross-legged on Will’s bed, working on homework. The room was quiet.

At least it was, until Will broke the silence by saying, “Hey. Why did you say you didn’t want to go to prom earlier?”

Shit. Nico pretended to read over a question again to avoid eye contact. “Uh, I don’t know.” He wrote down an answer. “I didn’t think it was a big deal?”

“I guess it isn’t a big deal, but -” Will paused. “I don’t know. I guess I had just been…”

“What?”

“If you don’t want to go, I don’t want to drag you along. I just thought it would be this important thing we would do together.”

Nico cringed. Dammit. “I can go. Like, it’s fine, I can go, it’s just -” He sighed. “It’s fine,” he repeated. “I’ll go.”

“I don’t want you there if you don’t want to be -”

“Really! It’s fine!”

Will looked around the room, as if he were asking the walls, Are you seeing this?  “I feel like I’m being an asshole. Am I? I don’t feel like I am.”

Nico didn’t point out that he’d just contradicted himself. “No, I just didn’t know you cared about that kind of stuff. I really don’t care either way. I’ll go.”

Will didn’t say anything. Nico looked him in the eye and said again, “I’ll go.”

Will sighed. He wiped a hand over his face, but Nico could almost detect a tired smile. “This isn’t how I thought this would go.”

“How what would go?”

“Nothing.” Will laughed, though Nico couldn’t tell what at. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it. I’m making a big deal out of nothing.” He shrunk in on himself. “I guess I just wanted you to be as excited. I don’t know why I thought that. You don’t seem the type to like this stuff anyway.”

“Will. If it’s important to you, it’s important to me, okay?” Nico looked for steady ground in Will’s eyes, surprising himself with his own clarity. His heart was pounding and he didn’t like the way Will was shifting his gaze everywhere but him. He definitely didn’t know how to do this. He tried, “Just because I don’t usually care about these things doesn’t mean I can’t, right? I can do, uh. I don’t know. Whatever you want. I can be excited! I’ll be a basic prom bitch for you.”

Will laughed at the uncharacteristic statement and Nico felt the first rays of victory over the horizon. He cracked a shaky smile and tried some of Will’s optimism on. “It’ll be fun. I’ll get to see you in a tux! No one can say I’m not excited for that.”

Will finally looked at him again, thankfully calm, and observed him for a moment. He really was gorgeous.

“Thank you,” Will said. “As long as you promise not to secretly hate it.”

Nico raised his hand in a boy scout pledge. “I promise not to secretly hate it.”

Will smiled and let go of a deep breath. He squeezed Nico’s hand and Nico felt something relax in his chest.

“Okay,” Will continued. “So did you understand that last cosine or whatever? Because I definitely didn’t.”

-

The last few months of school were passing at record speed, especially because his senior friends were graduating soon. It was funny how impending disaster had a way of speeding up the clock.

But really, all of the focus was on prom. If he’d thought his friends were awful about it a month ago, they were literal demons when they were only a few weeks away. If Nico heard one more comment on how “floaty” Annabeth’s light grey gown was, he was going to do something seriously not encouraged by law enforcement.

But really, if he was being honest, it was all kind of starting to sound suspiciously like fun. Will’s friends didn’t mind if he spent prom with Nico and his gang, so there was a whole drama nest avoided. And Percy had found the perfect beautiful restaurant for all of them to eat at. When Nico saw pictures of the fancy interior online, so warm and different from his father's idea of wealth, he could think of worse things than eating there with all of his friends in a grand night of spectacle and idiocy.

And then there was the endless talk of outfits and the girls comparing makeup tips and the school’s general buzz about the whole concept of a dance itself. Nico had skipped every single school dance ever held in his life, so he had no idea what to expect, but Jason assured him that you didn’t actually have to know how to dance. Something about just needing to jump around and/or sway. It sounded weird and honestly kind of embarrassing.

But then he saw how excited Will got at lunch about making plans, saying words like “vermillion” and “ambiance” on the regular like some sort of maniac, or interrupting Nico on his way to class to let him know he’d found a rose color that would look great with both of their skin tones, and Nico couldn’t help but smile.

There were only two weeks to go now, and all of the details were arranged. Nico was walking with Hazel during break to his next class, which they shared together, talking about whether or not they thought Piper might ever give them any more dark chocolate without blackmail. But then Hazel stopped short.

“Come on,” Nico said. “What is it?”

“Do you hear that?”

Nico listened. All he could hear was the chatter coming from all the other students milling around them. He shook his head.

“I definitely hear something,” she said, and grabbed his hand. “I think it’s coming from Mr. Brunner’s classroom.”

“Let go of me!” He took his hand back, but still followed where Hazel was walking. “It’s probably just some idiots rehearsing spirit chants or something. Come on, let’s go.”

“It sounds like an ice cream truck.”

“What?” Nico listened again. Nothing. “I don’t hear anything.”

She shrugged mysteriously and grabbed his arm again, pulling him toward the sociology classroom on the other side of the square.

“Hazel? What is this? You’re acting weird.”

She batted her eyes innocently as she pulled him across the quad. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Seriously, what is -” They arrived at the sociology room and Nico got even more confused. Will was leaning against the front of the building, holding a massive container of chocolate ice cream against his hip.

“Uh, hi, Will. What’s going -”

Hazel waved goodbye and ran off. Nico stared at her figure running away, then back at Will. “What is this?”

“Nico di Angelo,” Will said, using his best high-and-mighty voice. “It has come to my attention that you are a lover of the ice cream family of foodery.”

“Foodery?”

“Particularly of the chocolate variety. Due to your love of this delicacy, your proclivity for stealing my share of it, and your rather excellent face -”

“Oh my god. Did you use a thesaurus for this?”

“- it seemed only appropriate to incorporate such an item into a formal invitation to the Promenade.”

“No. No. This cannot be a promposal.”

“It’s a promposal!” Will was grinning like crazy. He did some jazz hands for emphasis.

Nico could feel his face going red. “If the word “Prom?” is spelled out in chocolate chips in the ice cream, I’m going to -”

Will burst out laughing and opened the ice cream. It was exactly that.

“Holy shit.” Nico covered his face. “I thought you were better than this.”

Will’s grin would have lit up the damn sun. “Absolutely not. Nico, would you do me the honor of going to junior prom with me?”

Nico raised his eyebrows and started to say something about how he had just assumed they would be going together, but choked on his words and ended up just laughing his face off. He pulled Will in by his collar and kissed him, loving Will’s surprised noise and how he cupped Nico's jaw once he got his bearings.

Nico pulled away, resting their foreheads together, and said, “Yes. As long as you promise never to say the word ‘proclivity’ ever again.”

Will laughed again, those blue eyes filled with so much warmth that Nico felt it on his skin. “Deal.”

Nico ran a hand through Will’s hair and kissed him again for good measure. What a wonderful idiot he had managed to snag. His heart was pounding and he wanted to go in for more, but when he pulled away, he suddenly remembered they were in the middle of the quad with people walking around. Shit. His face got even redder and he stepped away from Will, coughing awkwardly.

Will was still beaming at him, and he handed Nico the ice cream. “Here. There’s no way you can eat all this by yourself, which is to say that my strategy is to eat what you can’t finish.”

Nico scoffed, scraping back a bit of his dignity. “You should know by now that I can eat all this and more, mere mortal.”

Will ignored him, pulling him in and kissing him again, despite the people around. Nico humored him, and when they were eye to eye again, Will looked at Nico like he was something glowing. Nico was probably about to say something stupid and sappy when he heard a loud snicker from somewhere behind them.

He whipped his head around, ready to fight. But all he found were Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, and all of his other friends hiding badly behind a stone planter, grinning like children.

Nico reached Peak Red. “Jesus. Have you guys been here the whole time?”

“Yes!” Hazel blurted.

“It’s a rite of passage,” said Annabeth. “You’ll all do it to me when Percy does his aquatic promposal next week.”

“Hey!” Percy said. “How do you know about that?”

“You’re not subtle, seaweed brain.” Annabeth kissed his forehead sweetly.

Percy grumbled to himself about how much it cost to rent baby sharks for promposals in this economy. Will cleared his throat and said, “Alright, you guys got your free entertainment. Successful promposal. Go off to your regularly scheduled programs.”

There were lots of aww’s, but Will was right. Class did start in a few minutes. They all reluctantly headed off to their next destinations, except Nico and Will, who stayed by the classroom.

“Are we here because it’s where we first met?” Nico asked, appreciating the detail.

“What?” Will looked behind him. “Oh. No, this is just the random spot I chose. That’s a cool coincidence, though.”

“Oh.” Nico couldn’t help but be amused. “Well, it’s the thought that counts.”

“Well, the point is that I didn’t think of it, so I don’t know where that lands me.”

“Shut up.” Nico suppressed another laugh and let their foreheads fall together again. “This is going to be…”

“I know, I know,” Will said. “Awful.”

“A cringe-fest.”

“A night of embarrassments and bad outfits.”

“Exactly.” Nico took Will’s hand. “I can’t wait.”

Chapter Text

Prom shopping was exhausting.

It was the end of a long day of dress comparing, tux fittings, and way too much food court Thai food. At this point, Will was ready for prom to just get there already. Everyone had slowly trickled out of the mall by then for their own various reasons - Annabeth had a social activism meeting to go to and Percy wanted to be early for his study group, while everyone else had just split off because they were done shopping.

Will and Nico were the only ones left, milling around a department store without much of a destination. They both already had tuxes at home (well, Will had a hand-me-down that his mom had found in the garage, but that wasn’t important).

Nico interrupted their discussion on whether or not celebrities actually had any say in their signature perfumes to ask, “Do you want to get any dessert? There’s that slushie place we passed back there.”

“Normally I would, but -” Will checked his watch. “I probably shouldn’t be out too much longer. My mother does have her limits.”

“Eh, next time.” Nico checked all around them. “Where even is the door here?”

Will looked around, too. “I don't know. I think they want to trap us here forever.”

“Moderately-priced handbags! My one deadly weakness!”

Will laughed. He studied Nico’s face for a moment - no special reason, just because he wanted to. He smiled at that one freckle at the corner of his jaw that was always so damn kissable. He resisted doing that, which should have earned him some sort of trophy, and then realized, “Oh, shit. We parked on the exact opposite side of the mall, didn’t we?”

Nico’s smile fell. “Fuck.”

Will groaned. “That’s four million miles away. My feet are already tired.” He saw a fitting room section a few feet ahead and nodded toward it. “Want to sit for a sec before we begin our pilgrimage?”

“Please don’t say words like ‘pilgrimage.’” But Nico followed him to the section.

They fell onto a padded bench made for the people waiting. They were the only ones in there, maybe even in the whole store. Will hadn’t checked anytime recently, but he was pretty sure the mall would be closing soon, and they were two of very few stragglers.

Nico rubbed his heel. “Remind me never to wear these Converse out walking again.”

“Nico, don’t wear those Converse out walking again.”

Nico breezily flipped him off. “Shut up.”

“Make me.”

Record scratch.

Nico suddenly shifted and stared at him, expression unreadable. “...Will. “

Will was so confused.

Nico’s eyes darted around. “You can’t do that in public.”

“Do what?”

Nico had turned red.

A smile crept up Will’s face. “Ohh, I get it. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be cute.”

“It happens anyway,” Nico muttered, and Will let himself be a little flattered. Nico looked to him again. “Come on, you know that saying ‘make me’ is the ancient and sacred way of stoking sexual tension.”

Will suppressed a laugh. He shifted toward Nico on the bench. “Sorry. I guess I forgot.”

Nico glanced down at the reduced space between them. “Uh,” he remarked intelligently. That gorgeous face was best when flustered - all of the scientists agreed.

Will didn’t know why he was feeling so self-assured. Something about being alone out here cleared his mind. That and eight months’ worth of familiarity with this ridiculous boy. “You’re cute when you’re like this.”

Oh, that was a magnificent shade of red. “Like what?”

Will dragged his gaze up and down Nico’s frame, smiling when Nico seemed affected. “All of it. It’s all very excellent. Just noting for posterity.”

“That’s it, no more talking.”

Will liked the sound of that, but Nico apparently didn’t mean it the way Will wanted. Nico made an X sign with his arms and finished, “This is ridiculous. You can’t come in here and be all, ‘Wow, my hair looks really good today’ and get me all flustered in a department store. Not today.”

“Did you say my hair looks really good today?”

Nico narrowed his eyes. His face was carefully neutral. His breathing was very controlled. He had that look in his eye like he usually did when he was trying not to reach for that king-size box of candy in the student store. “It certainly is hair.”

Will leaned a little closer. “And you certainly look tempting right now.”

Nico’s eyes widened, but he didn’t back away. “And you certainly are confident today.”

“It’s all that celebrity designer perfume. It’s gotten to my brain.”

Ha. Will loved the way the corner of Nico’s mouth tugged involuntarily, not having gotten the memo to be cool and collected all the time.

Nico looked up at Will, breathing even. “We should probably start heading back.”

Will scooted a bit closer, idly counting Nico’s eyelashes. The absence of touch tingled on his skin. “Have I mentioned today how much I like your face?’

Nico choked. “Not today.” He was trying so hard to remain cool, Will could tell. Knowing the behind-the-scenes made Will feel special, like only he could see truth inside Nico’s eyes. Those very, very attractive eyes. Wow.

“You’re saying a lot of… things,” Nico said.

“Eloquent.” Will smiled. “Wow, he’s smart, too. Dreamy.”

“See, that was a thing, right there. Stop saying them. You’re distracting.” Nico was suppressing a smile.

“Alright. I just won’t say anything ever again. Got it.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I can’t respond, sorry. I’m not allowed to say things.”

“Stop it.”

Will grinned. “Make me.”

Nico took a deep breath. Something in his eyes changed in a way that made heat pool in Will’s stomach. Nico said, “Come on. Just tone it down for like, ten minutes until we get to the car, okay?”

Will’s breath hitched. He couldn’t help but ask: “And what happens then?”

“Will.” Nico locked eyes with him. Will could feel those dark irises tracing over his mouth, his face, his chest. It was palpable, like fingers fleeting over everywhere Nico looked.

Will was probably about to say something else stupid in his dizziness. Nico was staring at him. He was staring back. His gaze flicked to Nico’s lips and back up again and then all of his confidence vanished at once.

This was too far. What was he doing? He wasn’t this confident Casanova. He was a nervous teen in a mall dressing room sitting way too close to his boyfriend. Nico probably thought he was stupid for trying to be all fun and spontaneous. He should probably -

Nico pulled him in by the collar and kissed him so forcefully that Will let out a little mmph in protest. Immediately Will completely forgot everything sensible and started kissing back. Adrenaline spiked in his chest. He devoted his entire brain to yes, to that mouth and that skin and the general holy shit that was kissing Nico. Without thinking, his hand went to the nape of Nico's neck to pull him in closer, lips pressing insistently and touch overwhelming him and Nico’s hand was on his chest and -

Will pulled away, panting. “We’re in public.”

Nico looked like he was going to lose it. “You’re the one who -”

"Right." Will kissed him again and Nico leaned into it before Will pulled away again. "Well -"

"What?" Nico tried to pull Will's collar again. “If you're just trying to mess with me, there is going to be a talk.”

“What if someone walks in?”

"No one's..."

At the same time, they both noticed the dressing rooms immediately next to them. They locked eyes again. Nico nodded.

In one fluid motion, Will kissed Nico and they clumsily twirled away from their seats into the most secluded dressing room, Nico slamming the door behind them without looking up and wasting no time pushing Will up against one of the walls.

Will’s heart was pounding in his ears. He kissed Nico fiercer than felt technically possible, hand curling through his hair and skin prickling at Nico gripping his arm like it was a anchor. That mess of dark hair in his fists, that absolutely fucking heart-stopping face, that hot and insistent press of Nico’s skin into his - it was more than he could process. The fact that he could just do this, just kiss him and kiss him and kiss him, and that Nico would be here kissing back just as hard - in fact, ow, that grip was tight - was such an insane reality that Will still couldn’t even begin to comprehend it.

Will pulled away to breathe for a second, but got distracted at the sight of Nico. He would have paid a million dollars for every second he got to see Nico like this: red, breathless, and reaching out to try and pull Will back in, as if the fact that Will had ever broken away was a simple and fixable glitch.

In a magnificent feat of self control, Will stayed away for a moment. He dimly registered how fluorescent lights shone down on them and a pleasant jingle played dimly in the background.

Nico’s eyes narrowed in annoyance. “What?”

“This is really stupid, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Just checking.”

Nico rolled his eyes (with a small smile) and pulled him back in. Will forgot what he was talking about again and let Nico kiss away his rational brain.

He took advantage of a shift in balance to turn them around and push Nico against the wall, at which Nico practically growled in a way that made heat flood Will’s system. He gave Nico one more kiss and then moved to the corner of his jaw, his earlobe, that perfect neck.

Nico was breathing hard now with his mouth finally free and his hand moved to the back of Will's head, holding it where it was. Will was more than happy to go along with that. He moved his way down Nico’s neck, stopping to appreciate that glorious collarbone like it deserved, and almost didn’t even notice himself murmur, “Gorgeous.”

Nico’s breath hitched. He started to say, “You -” but then stopped. Will figured it was nothing and gave some more attention to a spot at the crook of Nico’s neck until Nico reached down and took Will by the jaw, pulling him up so they were at eye level.

Nico was a masterpiece, stars in his eyes and a hint of a smile on that brilliant face. Will was practically holding his breath, suspended there by a string. Nico’s hand was cupping his jaw, but then he trailed his fingers down to Will’s chin, observing him there like he was a work of art, and Will felt every little brush of those fingers on his skin as if they’d been magnified by a thousand.

Will felt Nico look all over his face, every little detail from Will’s barely-there freckles to that scar on his left ear he’d gotten as a kid. Those dark eyes had a way of making him feel so seen, so wholly understood, when they took him in. There was tenderness written all over Nico’s face when he tried again, “You…”

He still didn't finish. They stayed there for a moment, Will feeling more gentle than he would have expected from being in a dressing room in a department store with half a hickey forming on his boyfriend’s neck. Nico couldn’t seem to find the words, eyes darting around Will’s face as a dumb smile glowed. Will was about to suggest something to finish Nico’s statement, but Nico finished instead with something more eloquent: He gave up and started kissing Will again.

Will almost laughed at Nico’s spectacular way with words there, but got distracted by Nico running his hands up his back and those lips pressing long and slow until, through some sort of manic magic, Will's heart was pounding even harder than before. It made him want to press into Nico so close that they'd fuse, so close that scientists would have trouble spotting an atom between them, and boy, was he going to try. Will’s hands were roaming with no logical rhyme or reason: One second they were in Nico’s hair, dark and messy between his fingers, and the next they were exploring Nico’s hips, trailing up and down like something out of one of Will's dreams. He pushed harder into their kiss and Nico responded in suit, slipping his hand under the hem of Will’s shirt and sending shivers up his spine.

Will let Nico push him back again until he hit the wall with a thud (there seemed to be a lot of that going on) and he vaguely thought in the back of his mind that they should probably keep it quieter. He couldn’t pay that much mind when Nico’s hands were pressing, hot and insistent, up his stomach and chest, hiking up his shirt in the most distracting way possible.

God. Will was kissing Nico as hard as he knew how, with all of his being, and even that didn’t feel like enough. He would never get enough of this, never get enough of Nico and Nico’s hair and Nico’s hands and just Nico. He could have played this breathless game for an eternity. He bit down on Nico's lip and got an actual noise in response, which sent electricity to every cell in Will's body and meant holy shit he needed to do that again.

A loud crackle went over the store’s loudspeaker. Nico flinched and they pulled away in a panic to look up.

“Attention, customers: We will be closing in ten minutes. Please make your final purchases at the front register and thank you for choosing Medea's.”

There was another crackle as the voice logged off and the boys looked at each other, pausing to actually think for the first time in all of this.

Will felt himself go red. “We should probably go.”

Nico was still catching his breath. "Probably."

“The others will be wondering why we’re not responding to the group chat.”

Nico laughed. “Yeah. They’re observant like that.”

Will tilted Nico’s head up and kissed him one more time. Then he looked to the latch on the door, but couldn’t bring himself to unlock it. There was a whole world of Not Nico out there and he just wasn't ready to deal with that.

He let his gaze fall away from the door and instead looked to the thoroughly disheveled Nico in front of him. “Or,” Will said.

“Or what?”

A sly smile slowly formed on Will's face. He pulled Nico back in by the waist.

“We still have a few minutes.”

Chapter Text

“Nico, this may shock you, but when she says ‘smile’, you actually need to smile.”

Nico scowled at Jason. Everyone was dressed up like it was the Oscars, crowding in his personal space with assorted poses and arms around shoulders, and he wanted to disappear to a deserted island with no prom dresses or itchy tuxes or preening parents to speak of.

Ms. Jackson waved to get their attention again. “Let’s try again. One… two…”

Nico tried for a smile. Jason elbowed him.

“I’m smiling!” Nico protested.

“You look like you’re dying.”

Annabeth nodded, her arm wrapped around Percy’s waist in the middle of their elaborate group pose. “A little bit.”

“It’s part of my artistic technique,” he muttered, hoping they would slip in his dripping sarcasm. “Are we done yet? Where’s Will?”

Ms. Jackson glanced over to the apartment. “Oh, he just texted. He got here a few minutes ago from the hospital. He’s changing, then he’ll join us.”

“The hospital? Is he okay?” Frank’s eyes were wide.

Nico stared at him. “He volunteers there.”

“Oh.” Frank looked between them all. “Did we know that?”

Everyone nodded.

“How did I not know that?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Ms. Jackson, do we have a photo that works? Because if so, I’m going to go inside and say hey to Will.”

“Nico, you know you can call me Sally.”

His face heated. “Yes. Sally. Uh -”

“But yes, I think we have a winner. Anyone want to see?” She held up the camera.

Everyone crowded her to see exactly which frame won out, Leo exclaiming loudly at how hot he looked in every single one. Nico gratefully slipped away and ran back to the apartment.

Once he was inside, he took a deep breath and leaned back against the door. Phew. This night had already had so much people-ing and it hadn’t even technically started yet. He had to soak in little moments away from the group as much as he could. He was already drained.

There was some scuffling and a voice called, “Ms. Jackson? Is that you?”

Nico looked up. “Will?”

Will peeked his head around a corner. “Oh, thank god, it’s you. Quick, which tie am I supposed to wear? I brought both because I don’t know how anything works.”

Suddenly, Nico wasn’t tired of people anymore. “Hey.”

Will waved the ties for emphasis.

“Oh. Uh, the blue one.”

“Thanks.” He ducked away from the corner, gone again.

“Wait!” Nico started to follow him, probably toward Percy’s room. “Where are you going?”

Will closed a door on Nico before he could see him again. “I only came out to grab something because I thought no one was here. I’m not all the way dressed.”

“Oh, horrors.”

Will loudly suppressed a laugh. “Shut up.”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

The door opened again just far enough for Will to throw a pillow at Nico. Nico caught it (after it hit him in the face) and he burst out laughing. “Okay, fine, you win. Change fast. I’ll be out here.”

Nico wandered away and fell onto the living room couch, an inexplicable grin on his face. What was wrong with him? He must have been losing his edge.

While he waited, he saw a decoration of a turkey across the Jacksons’ kitchen and his thoughts turned to Thanksgiving. He already knew his first one at the Solaces’ was going to be better than every one at home without Bianca combined. He thought idly of normal dishes and a normal turkey and so many things to be thankful for, for once. It was still half a year away, but Nico found he liked thinking ahead. At least, once there were things to look forward to.

“Nico?”

“Hm?” He broke from his trance and looked up to the sound of Will’s voice. “Are you ready?”

“I think so,” Will’s muffled voice called out. “Ninety-three percent sure this is how you’re supposed to wear it.”

“But not ninety-four, of course.”

“I’m flipping you off. You can’t see it, but it’s happening.”

Nico smiled and shifted on the couch to try to catch a glimpse of him. “Are you -”

And that’s when Will emerged.

Nico forgot how to think.

Will wore a classic black tuxedo. Crisp. Sharp. Hands in his pockets, stance easy, and holy fucking shit.

Like, holy shit. Holy shit. There must have been some sort of mind-altering magic happening right then, because Nico couldn’t seem to remember any words that weren’t holy shit.

Will had done something with his hair that Nico couldn’t quite pin down, but it was different and amazing and although that mess of blonde curls was always perfect, even when it had been hopelessly messed up by Nico’s fingers, it was on a new level of wow.

That face. There wasn’t even anything different, but somehow it hit Nico anew like a tidal wave how absolutely fucking gorgeous Will was. Nico wished he were ancient Greek sculptor so he could immortalize it in marble. Was he being dramatic? Probably. He couldn’t quite seem to remember what that meant at the moment.

Nico finally understood what people meant when they said “devastatingly handsome”. Here it was. Right here. Nico was devastated. Holy shit.

“Nico?”

Nico stared at Will, awestruck and stupid.

“What? Is it that bad?”

“Huh?”

“Do I look ridiculous?”

“No.” Nico only dimly registered the question. Then, “No! No. No. You look…” He got distracted again. The tie brought out the blue in Will’s eyes.

Will half-laughed. “What?”

“Wow.”

Will stared at him. There was a slight tug at the corner of his lips. Holy shit. “Is that all you have to say?”

“No.” Nico kept staring.

Will waited. “...Well?”

“Oh, you mean I should say it?”

“That is how human communication works.”

“Oh. Well…” Nico traced his eyes over every curve and edge and detail of Will’s face and hair and everything. “I… think…” He swallowed. “That… you should wear those more often.”

“What? These?” He looked at his shoes. “Or just all of thi-”

“All of it. The clothes one. I forget what it’s called.”

Will raised his eyebrows. It was unfairly hot. “A tuxedo?”

“Tuxedo. Yes. You’re really smart.”

Will laughed, which, it should have gone without saying, holy shit. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

Nico wanted to kiss him. But then he got sad, because he couldn’t. There was no way he could ever be with someone like that.

But then he remembered that, no wait, of course he could, this was his boyfriend and he could kiss him whenever he wanted and once again holy shit!

“Uh, Will?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Will’s entertained smile grew into a laugh. “You’re ridiculous.” He pulled Nico up from the couch (holy shit), paused a second to flit his gaze up and down Nico’s frame (holy shit), then pulled him in for a kiss. (Holy shit!)

Nico felt as dizzy as he had at their first kiss all those months ago, which was saying something. He kissed back hard and brought his hand up Will’s arm, clutching the fabric of the suit and the warmth underneath and -

Will pulled away. He was just as hot as before, which was unfair all over again. “Don’t we need to get out there for pictures?”

“What?” Only his confusion stopped Nico from going back in for more.

“Pictures. For prom.” Will enunciated as if for a preschooler.

“Prom.” Shit. “Do we really have to go pretend to like fruit punch while surrounded by everyone we've ever known? Let’s stay here. I have ideas.”

Will was red. “You promised not to hate it.”

“Shit. You’re right.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, I won’t hate it. I’ve decided. Good?”

Will nodded. Nico kissed him again.

Will moved his thumb across Nico’s cheek and pulled away. “I’m extremely sad I’m saying this, but we really have to get back. We’ve already stayed here way too long.”

That made sense back in some dim part of Nico’s mind, but it still sounded bad. “Counterpoint: We run to Siberia and start over with new names. No classmates. No posing for pictures.”

Will looked to the side, as if that were a very convincing argument. “But… if any of the Dream Team comes in here, they’re going to give us hell for the rest of forever.”

Nico considered, then sighed. “You’re right.”

“For once. Miracle of the century.”

“Tragedy of the century.”

Will offered his hand and nodded back toward the door. Nico took it, accepting that warm palm as a consolation prize, and they made their way out of the apartment.

Nico glanced over Will’s frame again and squeezed his hand. “‘And just in case I didn’t make it clear, you look really good in a suit.”

Will laughed hard and squeezed back. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”

Chapter Text

Nico tugged at his collar. Music pulsed from the building in front of them, balloons and lights lining the path to the door, and Will’s hand was warm on his arm. Anticipation buzzed in the air, surrounding everyone like a electrical hum.

Were everyone’s prom outfits this uncomfortable? Because yikes. Nico supposed he shouldn’t complain to the girls, though. They were all wearing shoes that looked like torture devices and none of them could turn their heads too fast for fear of messing up their three-hour hairdos. Nico lived in fear of their raw power.

“Nico!”

“What?” He turned to Jason.

Sigh. Of course Jason’s whole classy act fit perfectly with prom attire. He and Piper matched, Piper in a dress that Nico had heard took four bribes and three copied homework assignments to get her to wear, but she seemed to be dealing with it just fine. Nico suspected she had used her reputation of hating fashion to collect more bribes. He was no small amount impressed.

“Do you have the camera?” Jason asked.

“No, I lost it.”

“What?”

“Relax.” Nico fished out a white Polaroid from inside his jacket and handed it over. “Here. I refrained from chucking it down a well.”

“Don’t even joke like that.” Jason took it, looking it over painstakingly for scratches. “Thanks for holding, though.”

Will (who looked like a fucking daydream, by the way) leaned in and stage-whispered in Nico’s ear, “One day we’ll legalize the beautiful love a man feels for his Polaroid, and then we’ll all have to go to the wedding.”

Nico laughed, louder than he meant to out of surprise. “I better be best man,” he said, leaning into Will's touch. He still wasn’t used to Will talking to his friends the same way he did, and it was the actual best. Nico couldn't help but glance up at him with eyes probably embarrassingly full of love.

But no - wait.

That would mean...

Nope. Not thinking about the L-word. He was not doing that. He was looking at Will with... like. Strong like. A year's worth of like. There it was. That was how normal people talked. This was fine.

Annabeth and Percy were looking down at Annabeth's phone and whispering about something. Annabeth had on that grey gown no one had been able to shut up about for the last few months and of course looked stunning, and Percy in his tux looked... well, Like That. Nico let himself stare for a few seconds, like probably everyone else did, before moving on.

Annabeth snapped for everyone’s attention, holding her phone up. “Alright, everyone. I just received the affirmative from Rachel that Octavian’s already gone home sick, and therefore cannot heckle us the whole night like he vaguetweeted about on Thursday. We’re going in.” The way she talked gave Nico the delightful mental image of her kicking down the door and ushering the rest of them in like a SWAT team.

Everyone nodded with equal seriousness. They approached the door and flashed their student IDs like this was an exclusive club, not a teenage sweat lodge, and pushed open the doors.

Wow.

The room was....

Okay, Nico had to admit it. It was spectacular.

Lights shone from everywhere, streamers were strewn across the rafters, and balloons bopped around the whole place along with a dancing mass that was absolutely living it up to a crazy-loud pop song from at least a decade ago.

Will and Nico split from the group toward a huge table of foods and drinks. Will’s hand moved from Nico’s arm to his hand, squeezing it excitedly. He grinned said something Nico couldn’t hear through the music.

“Can’t hear you!”

Will shouted back, “What?”

Nico rolled his eyes and was going to try again, but Will just laughed and pulled him by the hand toward the dance floor.

Nico’s eyes widened and he frantically shook his head. He shouted into Will’s ear, “No way!”

The music toned down a bit so Nico could actually hear Will speak now. “Are you serious? We didn’t come to prom not to dance.”

“You can dance. I’ll just stay over here. There’s snacks.”

Will’s eyes narrowed.

And right there, Nico knew he had no chance of winning. “... Can I take some of these finger foods to go?”

“Grab a handful - we’ll need them for fuel. Let’s go!”

-

Things went about as normal as a giant party of two hundred teenagers could go. Leo was, of course, being Leo. When Nico wasn’t busy trying to figure out how to dance like a human person, he and the others were on Leo Watch. Everyone had dedicated to making sure that he was never out of sight, lest he burn down a building or ruin any stable relationships. So far he had almost set the DJ on fire and put it out with Gatorade, spiked the lemonade with more lemonade from home just to be chaotic, and walked through the crowds during slow dances handing out his phone number on premade laminated cards to girls who looked like they weren’t enjoying themselves. They were only thirty minutes into the dance.

Frank and Hazel kept splitting off from the group to do gross things like hold hands and smile and look cute, which, disgusting. Hazel flashed Nico a smile over Frank’s shoulder from the other side of the room at one point and he couldn’t help but give her a thumbs-up back. Who was he becoming?

At least he made up for that niceness by working with Annabeth to hide all of Percy’s fruit punch cups when his back was turned. After about four rounds of this, everyone was trying so hard not to give away the joke that Will and Piper were almost crying, arms linked in petty solidarity as they fell to the floor laughing at Percy’s confusion. (“Guys, I swear to God that I put it right there!”)

The universe evened it out, though - Percy won Prom King. He looked appropriately Greek-statue-esque up there on the podium, accepting everyone’s applause and cheers with that stupid grace and kind dignity he could somehow always genuinely exude. Jason only pouted for a minute before joining in on the cheering, too.

Once he had a moment to himself, Nico slunk into a corner and took a deep breath. Nothing had exploded yet. Maybe this night would work out after all! As long as there were no more of those dance-move songs that everyone but him seemed to love.

Aaand, yep. He should have known better than to think that. The Cha-Cha Slide started blaring from the speakers.

Annabeth and Piper whooped and started assembling everyone so they could all dance together. Nico attempted to flee before they saw him.

Will (who was suddenly, inexplicably there) caught him by the shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uh." Shit. "I don’t know this one.”

“Yes, you do! You went to public school like the rest of us!”

“But -”

The rest of the group approached with Will and eyed Nico menacingly. Dammit. These teenagers were as good at peer pressuring as those anti-bullying videos from freshman year had warned.

Nico was forced to dance along with everyone for the entire cringe-worthy duration, and the results were most definitely a sin against God. Leo tried to take pictures of Nico’s train wreck of a Cha-Cha-Real-Smooth, but Nico threatened him with a bloody demise until he handed over his phone.

Mostly, though, he danced with Will, who was kind and decent enough to not force Nico to dance as much when it was just the two of them. Nico just swayed side to side most of the time, watching Will in idle amazement. So much life was stuffed in one person. It was beautiful.

Songs churned through, everything from the classic to the meme-tastic, and any hope Nico had of looking cool and collected was dashed. He didn’t really even care anymore, though. Different twos and threes from their big group joined him and Will from time to time, cycling in and out. Piper was a great dancer, despite having been worried for weeks about hating looking flashy, and Hazel was short enough to be able to dance with any of them as her partner, so they all took turns twirling her. She was in a gorgeous gold dress that gave her a magical, glowing energy.

Jason was making sure everything was well-documented with his Polaroid and Nico liked the idea of looking back at all of these photos in the distant future, only half-remembering the night through fond, fuzzy memories. Or something like that. Obviously he wasn’t enjoying himself or anything.

Annabeth and Percy absolutely demolished all of the other couples during the slow dances. They were well-practiced at their waltzing from years of going to school dances together, while everyone else did the awkward middle-school leave-room-for-Jesus shuffle. (Not including Nico and Will - Nico conveniently chose to go grab drinks and snacks whenever slow songs came on. He couldn’t stomach the idea of going in front of the whole school with his heart on his sleeve like that. The crowd’s eyes were crawling all over his skin.)

He and Will were sitting on the sidelines, catching their breath from the rap number that had just ended. They were sharing a full plate of finger foods they’d stolen, ignoring yet again the “Please Take Two” sign, and Nico had just been about to point out Frank breakdancing surprisingly well on the other side of the room when Will poked his arm.

“Hm?”

Will popped another mini-sandwich in his mouth. Nico liked to watch his jaw move. “The next slow song that plays, we’re going up there.”

“What?” Nico set down his bite, jawlines forgotten. “No. Not happening.”

“If we don’t dance at all, I’m going to complain about it forever.”

“But-”

“Nope.”

Nico opened his mouth to argue more, but got distracted by Will’s face again. Nothing new, he was just weak. Shit. Could he say he loved that face? Was that allowed? That wasn't saying he loved Will, right? He was pretty sure that wasn't weird to think. He was good.

Right?

Will kept talking. “Whenever I need a favor, it’ll be like, 'Remember that time we went to prom together and didn’t even slow-dance? I remember that. Do you remember that?’  I’ll be so annoying. You don’t want that.”

“Why do you even want to? All of those idiots don’t need to see -” He blushed. This was stupid. “This is stupid.”

“Nobody’s watching.”

“Everybody’s watching!”

“Nico, I promise we’re not that interesting. I mean, have you seen Leo tonight? He was just trying to tap-dance to Party in the USA. Didn’t even put his hands up on the appropriate lyrics, the absolute maniac.”

Some of their other friends were also in the area, and Piper chimed in, “I will also be annoying about it if you don’t slow-dance with him, Nico. There will be an after-prom gab session and you won’t come off nicely. Just saying.” She smiled at Will.

Nico grumbled. “Well, maybe if -“

“Tell you what,” Will said. “How about we go back in there right now so we’re ready for the next slow song that plays?”

“Here’s a thought: How about we don’t do that and instead stay here and eat snacks?”

Will stood and offered his hand, raising his eyebrow. Wow, he was cute. The strobe lights backlit him with a blue halo that really brought out his eyes and Nico was so in -

Will took him by the arm and pulled him up while he was distracted. Dammit. Foiled again.

Nico pulled back. “This is cruel and unusual punishment!”

“How horrible for you. I’m so moved by your plight that I’m already writing a hit movie based on your inspirational story.”

“I'm being antagonized and I'd like to sue."

Will laughed. “You’re not escaping this one, Emo Phase.” He pulled again and Nico was forced to stumble along behind him, muttering about pushy teenagers and how he thought they agreed never to discuss that again, Will. He pretended he didn’t notice all his friends hooting and hollering at them. He flipped them off over his shoulder and begrudgingly let Will get him lost in the hordes of people jumping around like they were all the simultaneous winners of the lottery.

It was dark and crowded on the floor. Will steered them to the middle, because of course he wanted to be in the middle, and started swaying to the song. He said something that was drowned out by the music.

Nico yelled, “At some point, you’re going to have to remember that I can’t hear you!”

Will mouthed, Oh. The nice thing about the music being so loud that it was probably waking up Singapore was that it required Nico to get really close to Will’s face to be able to talk. And vice versa. Will’s fleeting breath on his ear almost made up for the crowd being packed in like sardines. Or like t-shirts in the hamper of a person in serious denial about needing to do laundry. Or wads of money desperately stuffed in a suitcase by a convict about to jump out a window on the run from the police.

It was crowded. That was what Nico was going for.

He seemed to be the only one who minded this, though. He tried to force himself to be fine with all of the stranger-touching that was happening. Yep. Cool. This was great.

Will leaned in. “This isn’t too bad, huh?”

“I’m not answering that.”

Will booed him and ramped up the dancing.

“Oh, okay. Cool. I guess we’re doing this.” Nico watched Will make a fool of himself to the Taylor Swift song thudding through the room. “This is hell.”

“If you don’t dance, too, I’m starting a dance circle and pushing you in the center so people look at you and expect you to do a trick.”

“Weaponized social anxiety. Fucking ruthless,” Nico muttered in awe. He heaved a dramatic sigh and looked around to try and study other people’s dancing. He had tried a bit earlier, but it wasn’t getting any easier. Everyone else seemed so natural, but it just felt weird when he did it.

“Oh my god.”

“What?” Nico stopped, face red.

“You’re just precious.” Will looked like he was watching a line of ducklings go down the street. “Okay, we’re starting from the basics, then. Just loosen up. Feel the music. Act like a normal human person.”

It was like Will was asking him to speak Latin. Nico tried again, certain he looked like an idiot. But, to be fair, so did everyone else. He noticed the dance floor was almost devoid of all of the stilettos people had started the night with, abandoned in a giant pile in the corner like a graveyard of foot pain. Nico tried to focus on the lights or the music or all the people, but all of that was just overwhelming, so instead he turned his sights on Will.

Nico studied his movements. They were really more of a jumping/spinning/fist-pumping combo than anything resembling dance, but that didn’t even matter. He was so into it, unabashedly screaming along to the lyrics and scrunching his eyes shut on big notes and laughing at his own ineptitude, that it made him sparkle in the pulsing lights. He was a bright light all on his own, exuding life from his beaming smile, and Nico was too caught up to stop himself from idly thinking that, god, he was so in love with this boy.

Nico’s brain caught up with itself and froze. Shit. It had never totally gotten all the way through his filter before. His first instinct was to throw it right back in the pit of denial where it belonged, but this time, he paused.

Will was doing the YMCA along with everyone else with zero shame. Oh, that wonderful disaster of a human, with his now-disheveled hair and rumpled suit. Nico’s gaze went fond. As his eyes traveled over Will’s curls and down to his face, Nico tried the word out in his head. Love.

I am in love with Will Solace.

It felt like so much of an of course that it almost didn’t feel as panic-inducing as he’d expected. Huh. Neither of them had brought up that word in the many months they’d been together, but now that Nico tried it in his mind, it just fit.

He was in love with Will Solace. Obviously.

It was one of those things that just made cosmic sense.

“How’re you doing tonight, Mr. di Angelo?”

Nico blinked out of his trance. “Huh? Me? I’m good. How are you?”

“Tired!” Will certainly didn’t look tired. He’d only just now stopped dancing like a lunatic, eyes alight. “I’m really getting my cardio in.”

Nico’s mind was caught in a loop of I love you I love you I love you, but he forced himself to look past that golden hair and said, “Should’ve brought your Fitbit.”

“Aw, dammit! My very real Fitbit that I definitely have!”

Nico cracked a smile, still distracted by the way Will’s mouth moved. Wow, he was in love. Now that he’d thought it, he couldn’t stop. He imagined maybe actually telling Will someday, in the distant future where it would make more sense. The future was always the best time to do these things.

Stretching his arms, Will said, “Well, I’m glad you at least look like you don’t hate it.”

A new song started playing that was about ten times as loud as the last one. The crowd roared deafeningly, but like almost all of the other songs, Nico didn’t know it.

He took in the glowing room around them. “You know what, you're right. I guess I don’t hate it. You win.”

“Can’t hear you!”

Nico yelled over the crowd, “You win!”

“What?”

Nico rolled his eyes. He pulled Will closer so he could hear. God, he loved him.

All of a sudden, everything stopped.

In slow motion, it occurred to him the wild possibility of saying what he was thinking. Was that even physically possible?

He wanted to.

Could he run and jump off the cliff?

Nico shouted it before he could stop himself: “I think I’m in love with you!”

Will froze.

Oh, shit.

It was like his mind had been zapped away. Immediately panic flooded Nico’s chest. Why in the ever-loving hell had he said that?

Nico flashed back to when they first met, to Will's shoulder bag and stupid email address, to countless ice cream trips and study sessions gone wrong. He thought of holidays and phone calls and gingerbread cookies, of miscommunication and tuxedos and lemonade, and a sort of calm washed over him. This was the Will he loved.

There was nothing to be afraid of.

As if on cue, Will slowly broke out in a thousand-watt grin. Nico was physically incapable of not doing the same.

Will took his hand. "You have to know at this point that I'm in love with you, too, Nico.“ Those kind eyes were staring at him like he was the Holy Grail, almost sparkling under the lights. He pulled him closer. “Everyone who has eyes knows."

Nico laughed. Something in his chest cracked like a glow stick and now there was light, light everywhere. His smile was so big it hurt.

Will kept talking. “I didn’t know if I was allowed to say it because you hadn’t said it, but then it was too long and I wasn’t sure if it would be weird if I said it but then what if you didn’t say it back and -”

Nico shushed him. “Idiot.” He smiled. He wanted to kiss him so badly. The only reason he didn’t was the crowd.

Will looped his arms around Nico’s neck and they started to slow dance. Nico’s heart pounded like a jackhammer. The song in the background was still a blaring pop anthem, and the kids were still screaming the lyrics with all their might, but it was like he and Will were in their own little bubble. Even after everything, Nico’s breath still hitched when Will leaned in to speak into his ear:

“I cannot describe how glad I am that that stupid sociology project forced me to find you.”

Nico couldn't find the words.

To be honest, he’d forgotten about that. He leaned back so he could see Will’s earnest gaze again. And there he was, real as the day they’d met, with his fancy new hairdo completely reverted back to its usual mess, those alive eyes that had never judged him, not even once, and that kind smile that understood him inside and out.

“Me, too,” Nico managed. His hand was solid around the side of Will’s neck and it felt like an anchor. “And Will?” Nico didn’t know why he was still talking. This is usually where he would shut up. “While we’re on the topic, I’m also in love with that tuxedo.”

Will laughed.

Nico couldn’t stop talking. “And your hair. And how you make fun of my ice cream and name inanimate objects and don’t put up with my bullshit. Also, I love your duck, Quackers.” He mentally weighed all of that. “It’s mostly that last one.”

Will was trying to avoid laughing more. “Nico, I am in love with the fact that you love Quackers.” He was grinning. “Also with you. But we’ve been over that. I kinda want to say it again, though.” He let their foreheads fall together. “Have you heard? I’m in love with you.” He somehow grinned even bigger. “I like saying those words. Love? You? You bet. Can I say that in Spanish? I’ve been taking a class, wait, let’s see. Yo soy  - ”

Nico pushed Will’s face away, ignoring the fire probably painting his cheeks. “Oh, god. I’ve created a monster.”

“ - No, wait, maybe an intransitive verb would be better? Me encantan -”

Nico ducked his head. “That's not how you say - Ugh, we’re the worst. Like, the absolute worst. I’m surprised the heavens haven’t parted so some god can come down and shame us for being embarrassing.”

“That’s the goal. I aim to be insufferable.”

“And succeeding with flying colors.”

They both slid into ridiculous, snickering laughter. Nico felt dizzy and elated and grounded all at once. His heart was beating wild in his chest and Will’s arms were slung around his neck and he couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do than get to watch that amazing human being laugh so hard that he turned red.

Nico didn’t even know what they were talking about anymore. All he knew was that he was laughing now, and Will was laughing with him. And maybe he was just being a dramatic teenager in that star-kissed moment, but he had never been more sure of anything than he was right then that he was in love. Full-on, cheesy, melodramatic love. And maybe it was okay to be dramatic. Maybe it was okay to feel recklessly and look stupid. There was no better place for that than here, surrounded by balloons and screaming teenagers and strobe lights that made everyone fall into a surreal craze of pure-heartedness and exhilaration.

Nico fell back into reality and Will was still there, gorgeous and beaming and getting over his laughing fit. Nico couldn’t help a soft smile. He reached up and touched the side of Will’s face.

Will grinned for another moment longer, shook his head slowly, and leaned in to kiss him.

For once, Nico didn’t care who might be watching.

Chapter Text

Okay, this isn't a new chapter because this one is done, but I figured I would say here that the summer sequel is out! It's called A Place in the Sun and it's in the Quiz-verse collection above/below. So if you're ready for more, go on ahead! I figured this would be a good way to let people know. It's here! More content! Enjoy!