Out Of The Shadows: A Solangelo Fanfiction Chapter 25: What’s Next?

   Nico woke up in the morning with Will lying across his bed right next to him. Nico jumped out of his bed and ran to the corner of the cabin.

   Will yawned and opened his eyes. He looked over to where Nico was in the corner, and a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

   “What are you doing in the corner, Nico? Do I really snore that bad?”

   Nico knew his face was bright red. “W-well, I’ve only ever shared a bed with my mom, Bianca, and Hazel.”

   “Oh, I see. Well, friends share beds all the time. I used to have sleepovers at my house when I was younger, and I shared beds with my friends.”

   “W-well, not friends that you just kissed!”

   Will sat up and grinned. “I wanted to do that for a long time.”

   “I-I didn’t know you liked boys.”

   “Yep. I realized that when I was 10 years old. The same age you were, I guess.”

   “I really didn’t expect you to be gay.”

   “I’m not.”

   Nico looked at him with a confused look on his face. “What do you mean?”

   Will laughed. “I guess you’ve never heard of bisexual?”

   Nico shook his head.

   “Nico, you need to learn about your culture.”

   “I thought Italian was my culture.”

   Will laughed again. “Well, it is. But people that are in the gay community kind of think of it as culture. Gay culture or LGBT+ culture.”

   “What is ‘LGBT+?'”

   “It stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and the + stands for more.”

   “Huh?”

   “Okay, I’ll help you out here. So bisexual, what I am, means I’m attracted to both girls and boys. Lesbian means the same thing as gay, but it’s used for girls who just like girls. Transgender is the term for people who feel like they aren’t the same gender they were assigned at birth. For example, let’s say there is a girl. As she gets older, she realizes there’s something different with her. She realizes she feels like she’s a boy, so she starts using he/him pronouns, changes his name, gets surgery so he can have boy body parts, cuts his hair, and wears ‘boy’ clothes. Even though this boy wasn’t born a boy, he’s still a boy no matter what.”

   “Wow. That’s a lot of information.”

   “And that’s not it.”

   Will went on to talk about all these sexualities and genders. Nico thought there were so many, his head started to hurt.

   “That is…a lot.”

   “It is, but every one of these terms, there are people who identify with it. So anyways, yes I’m bisexual. Because Apollo is the god most known for liking multiple genders, many of his kids end up being LGBT+; more so than most people or other demigods.”

   The two boys stood there quietly for a moment. Finally, Nico broke the silence.

   “So….you kissed me.”

   Will nodded. “And you kissed me back.”

   “So what now?”

   “Whatever you want to do, Nico. I want you to do what you feel is right and comfortable. Don’t worry about me.”

   “I…”

   “Do you want to date me, Nico?”

   Nico felt his face get red. “I…I don’t know. It feels really weird being this open about things, and showing my emotions this much. From when I’m from, boys weren’t supposed to show emotion. And I guess it’s been a long time since I’ve actually shown my true feelings. Apparently instead of people knowing I liked Percy for all these years, they thought I hated Percy for not protecting Bianca, and I was jealous of him because I really liked Annabeth. Even Annabeth thought that.”

   Will started laughing. “They all really thought that?!”

   “That was exactly my reaction!”

   After Will got his laughter under control, he continued talking. “But anyways, didn’t it really help to talk things out like that? Now I can understand you more, and you can feel more at peace with everything.”

   “I guess it did feel good…”

   “So, what do you want to do? If you just want to stay friends, that’s alright. I’d rather be your friend than nothing at all, even if I couldn’t be with you.”

   “I…I guess I’m still just trying to accept that I don’t like girls. And I’m just really scared about people knowing.”

   “People don’t have to know. We can keep it a secret for as long as you like. We can take it as slow as you like. Does that sound good?”

   Nico paused. He could see the worry in Will’s eyes. He really wanted to be with Nico. And Nico really wanted to be with him. “I guess that would be alright.” Nico grumbled.

   “Yes!” Will exclaimed. He ran over to Nico and planted a kiss on his forehead and wrapped his arms around him. Nico felt himself blush from head to toe.

   “Okay, okay, that’s enough.” Nico said, pushing Will off.

   “Okay, so is there anybody I can tell, or is it just between us?”

   Nico sighed. “I suppose you can tell your siblings. And Lou Ellen and Cecil, I guess. Even though I don’t know if you can contact Lou.”

   This time, Will was the one to squeal. “Thanks! I’ll be right back!” Will ran out of his cabin.

   Nico shook his head and rolled his eyes, Will was so stubborn, he waited all of this time. He was so annoying. But Nico couldn’t help but feel happy that that sunshiny annoying dork was with him, even if he was still coming to terms with himself.

   He remembered long ago, when he had realized Percy would never love him. He promised himself he would never fall for anyone ever again. All it brought was pain. Nico had thought being gay was a curse brought onto him by some god. But he started to realize, for the first time, that wasn’t true. Because here he was, not hiding himself. Here he was, falling for Will Solace.