Out Of The Shadows: A Solangelo Fanfiction Chapter 2: The Infirmary

   Nightmares weren’t strangers to Nico. As soon as he fell asleep, his mind began to swim with dreams. He found himself in the jar, slowly dying of lack of oxygen, with nothing but magical pomegranate seeds to keep him alive…..

   Nico woke up in a cold sweat, screaming. A figure sitting in a chair beside his bed stirred and woke up. It was Will.

   Will steadied himself before he could fall off his chair. “Nico! Are you okay?”

   Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, the dark haired demigod stared at the son of Apollo. “Will? What are you doing here?” He demanded.

   “I told you I would be here when you woke up,” Will grinned.

   Nico felt the skeletal butterflies in his stomach again. He glanced around the room. It was dark outside, and most of the demigods in the surrounding beds were fast asleep. “How long was I out?”

   Will glanced at the golden watch on his arm. “You were out for 14 hours. It’s 4 am.”

   “Huh. So you slept there the whole time waiting for me to wake up?” Nico asked him.

   Will blushed slightly. “Well, since around 10 pm, yeah. I wanted to make sure you were okay. And it looks like I was right to do so.”

   “Well, just because I have to spend three days in here doesn’t mean that you have to be with me the whole time.” Nico scoffed. “Besides, don’t you have your own cabin to sleep in?”

   Will shrugged. “I’m a doctor, Nico. And I’m your doctor. I’m just making sure you weren’t alone when you woke up. All demigods know about nightmares. Besides, when a major thing happens that ends up in a lot of campers severely injured, sometimes I sleep in here. I need to be ready to help someone.”

   Nico huffed, sitting up in his bed. He admired Will’s dedication to help those in need. “So, what can I do to make these dreadful days go faster?”

   Will grinned again, his blue eyes shining. “I thought you might ask! Do you want to play Uno?”

   Nico stared in confusion as Will brought out a deck of colorful cards. “Um, what is Uno?”

   Will stopped shuffling the cards and looked at the smaller boy. “Dude, how do you not know what Uno is? I thought everybody did.”

   “Well, I don’t. I’m not exactly from the same century as you.”

   “Oh, that’s right. I heard a rumor you were born in the 1940’s.” Will accounted.

   “Actually, 1932. So are you going to explain the rules or not?” He sighed. He had nothing better to do.

   After explaining the rules, Nico somehow won the first round.

   Will gently punched him in the arm. “What? How did you win on your first time playing?! Must be beginner’s luck.”

   Nico flinched at the physical contact, but didn’t say anything.

   They played rounds of Uno until dawn when Will had to get back to work.

   Will came back around a couple of hours later to deliver him breakfast. He set the tray of food down in front of him. It was stacked full of waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausages. “Eat.”

   Nico looked at the food and looked back up at Will. “I’m not hungry.” In truth, the only times he actually ate full meals was after he shadow traveled.

   The blond haired boy crossed his arms. “I don’t care. You need your protein! Look at you, you’re like 90 pounds!”

   The son of Hades rolled his eyes. “But I’m not hungry! You can’t make me eat.”

   Will glared at Nico, a glare that matched his own. “I’m not backing down, death boy. You’ll eat all your food, and then I’ll look at your injuries to see how they’re healing up, and then I’ll be out of your hair until I bring you lunch.”

   “Fine, whatever. I’ll eat my food, so leave me alone.”

   Will’s glare faded. “Thank you.” And with that, he left to go check on other patients.

   After finishing his breakfast and getting another check up from Will, Nico felt tired again. The shadow traveling really did do a number on him. He took a short nap with thankfully no dreams, and was woken again by a smiling son of Apollo as he was handed his lunch.

   Nico shoved a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his mouth as Will flopped onto the chair next to his bed.

   “Tired?” he asked him. Will had bags under his eyes and his hair was messy.

   Will nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been working non-stop all day today. I barely had any sleep last night because I was worried about you.”

   “Why were you worried about me? You should’ve been resting, knowing you had a long day of work ahead of you.That was dumb.” Nico scolded.

   “Really, di Angelo? Says the one who almost faded out of existence.”

   “The fate of both camps relied on me to bring the statue, Solace! I didn’t have a choice!”

   Will sighed. “You’re insufferable. And to answer your question, I was worried about you because I had to make sure you were going to wake up! Yeah, I heard. When you shadow traveled, you didn’t wake up for a week and would’ve died if Gleeson didn’t use his satyr healing. I felt that sleep wasn’t as important as your life.”

   Nico’s stomach tied up into knots. Did he really think that? “Whatever. Do what you want, I guess.”

   No one talked for a few minutes as Nico ate in silence. As Nico was about to take a bite of his second sandwich, Will’s stomach growled. Will blushed.

   “Um, you want my sandwich?” Nico asked him.

   “No, Nico. You’re not getting out of eating. You need it more than me.”

   “Well, here. At least take half of it.” Nico split his sandwich in half and gave one to Will. Why did he care so much if Will was hungry?

   Will raised an eyebrow. “Thanks,” he said, taking it from him. Their hands touched for a second. His hand was warm, and Nico felt all jittery as he pulled his hand away.

   “Well, enjoy the rest of your lunch, Nico,” Will said, getting up after finishing his sandwich. “Don’t forget to just call me if you need anything.” And with that, he was off to go treat patients.