okay this is lowkey weird but 🤷🤷
also au that kayla has charmspeak
also TW mentions of self harm
Camp Half Blood had just finished a game of Capture the Flag. The blue team, comprised of the Apollo, Athena, Hades, Poseidon, Hermes, and Dionysus cabins just crossed the creek into their territory, wielding the dark crimson banner. Nico was running behind Percy and Annabeth, who had the flag. He summoned skeleton warriors to annihilate anyone on their tails (safely, not harming anyone). Nico had his fists in the air and was jumping and celebrating with Annabeth and Percy. He scanned the crowd. Where’s Will? Nico was confused as to why Will wasn’t jumping and yelling with them. He waded his way through the crowd, not seeing his beautiful blonde boyfriend smiling down at him. Maybe he was still guarding the blue team’s banner, unaware the game was over. Nico strolled through the woods, calling Will’s name and searching for him. Finally, he saw him laying on the ground on his side, facing away from Nico. Odd, but okay. He was probably exhausted from the game.
“Will! There you are! We won, Will! C’mon let’s go celebrate and watch Percy and Annabeth get crowned with the laurels!” Nico said excitedly. No response. ‘He might be asleep lol’ Nico thought. He walked over to his boyfriend, and pulled his shoulder to the earth to flip him on his back. Nico gasped shakily at what he saw. Will’s armor was ripped way, leaving a jagged edge and revealing his blood stained shirt.
“Oh…hey Neeks,” Will said between gasping breaths.
“Will! What happened?” Nico asked, as his eyes started to sting.
“Sons…of Ares,” Will said shakily. Nico’s mind was blank. He didn’t know what to do. He yelled and screamed for help, but everyone was celebrating the win of the blue team.
“Hey..Neeks?”
“Yeah?”
“Call my dad….I want to say…goodbye. And save me a spot in….Elysium, would ya?” Will was breathing laboriously.
“No! You can’t die, Will! I need you!” Nico sobbed. He thought about what Will had said. Call my dad….
“Apollo! Apollo help! Help me, please! Help me…help him! I need you Apollo!” Nico screamed to the sky. Suddenly, a flash started about 10 feet behind him. The light grew brighter and brighter. Nico breathed a small sigh of relief. The god of healing had heard his prayer.
“Nico? What’s wrong?” Apollo asked.
“It’s..it’s Will, he..he got stabbed or something! Help me!” Nico cried. Apollo rushed to Nico’s side.
“Oh…Dad. It’s me…i-it’s Will, Dad.”
“Hi, Will. You’ll be okay.” Apollo started working on how he was going to save his son. Nico was holding Will’s hand tight and had his head in his lap. He was sobbing, the tears spilling over his cheeks.
“Hey, Neeks. C’mere. I g-gotta tell you…something.” Nico bent his head down to Will so he could whisper in his ear.
“I love you, Nico,” Will whispered. Nico gasped between sobs.
“Will, I….I love you too, Will. Come on, don’t leave me. Not like Bianca. Come on Will. Hold my hand, hang on.” Nico held Will’s hand tighter. By now Apollo had bandaged Will for the most part. He had to take off his armor and use his blood stained shirt to bandage him. Nico looked at Will. He was turning grayer by the second. Nico could physically see his soul starting to leave his body.
“No, Will! Just hang on!”
“Look…at the stars…Neeks.” Nico was crying harder and rubbing the tears out of his eyes with his forearm. Apollo checked his pockets. He cursed in Greek.
“Do you have nectar or ambrosia?” he asked.
“No…you don’t have any?” Nico was appalled and annoyed that the god of healing didn’t have nectar or ambrosia. Will was dying. He knew he shouldn’t, but this was urgent. Nico quickly stood up and shadow traveled to the infirmary. It was full of kids on cots who had mild concussions or sprains from the game. He ran over to the supply closet, and grabbed bandage wrappings, nectar and ambrosia. He quickly shadow traveled back to the woods where Apollo was trying to coax Will into keeping his eyes open. Nico could see his soul leaving his body. It was practically gone. Nico felt as though he would faint, but he couldn’t, not now. Apollo broke open one of the vials of nectar, and poured it onto Will’s wound. It stopped bleeding and was starting to close up. Nico saw his soul returning to his body. Will’s breathing evened out and he blinked.
“Neeks? Dad? What happened?” Will asked. Nico tackled him in a hug while sobbing into his shoulder. Will was surprised, but he hugged Nico back.
“I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, don’t ever leave me ever again. I love you, William Andrew Solace. I love you.” Will was shocked at his words. He hugged Nico tighter.
“I love you too, Nico di Angelo.”
Campers were walking through the woods, looking for Nico and Will. They were calling their names, and being led by a worried Percy and Annabeth. Percy spotted the two boys and the god together in a clearing of the trees.
“Nico! Will! Are you guys okay?” Percy asked. He then realized their companion was actually Apollo.
“What happened guys? And why’s Apollo here?” Percy asked. Nico and Will broke from their hug, and turned to Percy. Nico was sitting on Will’s legs, rubbing his eyes with one hand. Will had an arm around Nico’s waist and his other hand was clasped with Nico’s.
“My dad had to heal me, I…I kinda died,” Will said.
“No! Y-you didn’t!” Nico yelled. He was paler than normal, and his eyelids drooped. “You..you didn’t…you didn’t..” Nico was cut off as he slumped into Will’s chest. Will shook his shoulders worriedly, but Apollo stopped him.
“He is okay, son. He is exhausted, mentally, emotionally, and physically. He saw your soul leaving your body. He almost lost you, and he had to shadow travel in order to get supplies to save your gods dam life, because your dumb dad didn’t have any. He’s tired, let him rest.”
Nico woke up in the infirmary. Will was by him, sitting in a chair on his left. His fingers were laced with Will’s, and Will used his other hand to flip the pages of his book. Nico squeezed his hand. Will looked over in confusion. He smiled at Nico.
“You’re awake! Hi sunshine!” Will squeezed Nico’s hand back.
“Good morning, tesoro.” Nico smiled. He began to sit up, only to be pushed back by a different pair of hands on his opposite side. Kayla Knowles, another Apollo kid, was on his right, measuring out a sedative into a needle for a different patient.
“Stay down, Death Boy,” she said, as she pushed the medicine into Connor Stoll’s arm.
“Hey, only I get to call him Death Boy!” Will protested.
“Sorry. I meant Ghost King,” Kayla said, as if Ghost King was any better. “Whoever you are, stay down. You have to rest, you’ve been out for four days.”
“What are you talking about?” Nico asked.
“Neeks, when you fainted, you didn’t wake up for four days.” Will tried to explain lightly, but there was no way to sugarcoat it. Nico had a perplexed look on his face. He slowly seemed to understand what happened, and frowned.
“So how long do I have to stay here?” he asked impatiently.
“Just for the rest of the day, Kayla and I wanted to make sure your levels were ok,” Will explained as Kayla nodded. Nico grimaced. “But…you can come with me for dinner, so…that’s great. Chiron said you could sit at our table, so we could keep on eye on you, and make sure you ate enough.” Nico nodded.
“Do you want anything? I can grab you something if you want.” Will smiled his beautiful sunshiney smile. It always melted Nico from the inside out.
“Can you get me my book? F-from my cabin? We can read together to pass the time.” Nico was trying to get Will to leave the infirmary so he could sneak out.
“Sure. Just stay here, ok?” Nico nodded as Will got up and left. As soon as he was gone, Nico stood up and tried to sneak behind Kayla.
“Nico, lay back down.” Kayla was looking at him with a stern face. Nico got a sudden urge to obey her, and laid down on the bed. He realized what she had done, he’d had a similar reaction to commands with Piper around….
“You have charmspeak, huh?” he asked.
“Yes, I do,” Kayla said with a look that just said “duh idiot”.
“Why? Why would an Apollo kid have charmspeak, of all things? I thought that was an Aphrodite thing.”
“I have it to make sure my patients obey me,” Kayla responded with a pointed look in Nico’s direction. He scowled.
“So why do I have to stay here?” Nico asked.
“Well, I think you’re fine but—”
“So byeee,” Nico said. He started to walk out until Kayla grabbed him and pulled him back to the bed.
“But as I was saying…Will is worried. I am not letting you leave because I don’t want you disobeying my brother.”
“You don’t trust me?” Nico said, with a hint of malice.
“No, I never said that, Nico.”
“So what did you say, Kayla?”
“I said…” Kayla paused and sighed. “I said I know that you hate this infirmary. I know you hate all hospitals.”
Nico gasped. He didn’t think Will would’ve told anyone. “He told you?!”
“Will didn’t tell me anything. I’m extremely observant. Every time you’re in the infirmary, you count down the seconds until you’re out. Will’s the only one you trust to give you any kind of medicine. You’re always extremely fidgety and you hold his hand a lot more in here than you do outside.” Kayla wasn’t even using her charmspeak. Nico realized he was more readable than he thought. “Hospitals remind you of your past, right?”
Nico didn’t really want to respond. “Y-Yeah. But I don’t want to talk about it.” He gazed into the infirmary sheets, fidgeting with his hands and the rings and bracelets that were wrapped around his wrists and his fingers. He wore the rings so he could play with them, and the bracelets to cover his scars. It was true that he hated hospitals. He had had too many bad experiences from them. His mother’s death, attempted suicide, panic attacks, and he couldn’t help but think that maybe if Bianca had gotten to a hospital, would she have survived?
“Will just wants to help, Nico.” Kayla had a serious look on her face. Nico scowled.
“Everyone just ‘wants to help’, and then when I go to them, they don’t give a shit,” Nico said angrily.
“Will is different. He wants you to come to him with your problems. It’s unhealthy to bottle it all up, he knows that. He loves you, Nico. Truly. Just let him in your heart,” Kayla said, sounding like an Aphrodite kid. Nico thought about her words. Kayla got up and left as Will came back in the room.
“Here ya go! I grabbed three, just in case because I didn’t know which one you would want.” Nico smiled a true smile. Will laughed.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. You’re just…amazing,” Nico answered. Will’s ears turned red. He smiled sheepishly.
“I just got your book, i-it’s nothing really.” Nico laughed and smiled. He grasped Will’s hand, and brought the back of it to his lips.
“I do love you, you know.”
“I know.” Will leaned over and kissed his beautiful black-haired boyfriend.
1968 words 😱😱
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