Chapter Text
Nico is still getting used to the concept of having a boyfriend.
Even though he’s known that he’s gay for a couple of years, meeting a cute boy who likes him and wants to be with him was not something he ever considered a realistic possibility. When he was crushing on Percy, it was under the supposition that the object of his affections could not and would not ever return them. Even when he became more familiar with the more accepting culture of the twenty-first century, seeing gay couples living their lives out in the open, he still figured that love was something that happened to other people. Boyfriends happen to people who are heroic, beloved, the object of admiration. They don’t happen to morbid, disturbed loners. They don’t happen to Nico di Angelo.
Except, apparently, they do.
About a year after the war with Gaea, after so much time spent painstakingly courting the friendship of the son of Hades, Will Solace asked if the two of them could try dating. Before he could consider the logistics of such a massive proposition, Nico said yes.
That was last month, and Nico still can’t believe it happened. He can’t believe it every time Will smiles at him with such barefaced affection, he can’t believe that no one stares at them when they hold hands. Will seems to intuit that Nico needs to take things slow, because he automatically backs off at the barest hint of hesitation or discomfort.
“I’m sorry,” Nico says one day, distancing himself from where Will sits on his bed in the Hades cabin. His face burns with shame, and he clenches his fingers in the loose sheets. They were just sitting and talking, trading banter on the border of flirting. There was a natural pause, and Will leaned close. The moment Nico recognized the oncoming kiss, he turned his head aside and backed away very smoothly.
“It’s okay,” Will says in that soothing tone. “You don’t need to apologize for not being ready for that.”
Nico groans. “Most people would be ready by now.”
Will shrugs. “Nico, you were born in 1932 to the god of the dead. You’re not most people.” He smiles. “ And I don’t want to be with anyone else.”
Not for the first time, Nico has the thought that Will is too good for him. “I’m just…frustrated,” he says. “I hate that I can’t seem to get past this.”
Will hums. “Are you saying you would like to get there eventually?”
“Yes,” Nico answers immediately.
“Because there’s nothing wrong with it if you’d rather not —”
“Will.” Nico levels his gaze on him. “I want to. I really, really do. I just…can’t, yet. I don’t know. There’s a lot of stuff I need to work through first.”
“Stuff?” Will asks. “Would it help to talk about it?”
Nico sighs. “Maybe another time.”
“Well,” Will says, putting an arm around Nico’s shoulders. “I’m content to wait until you’re ready. To talk, and to…do other things.”
Nico snorts. “You make it sound so dirty.”
Will holds his hands up. “Hey, I’m not judging —”
“Ugh. You are so annoying,” Nico says, rolling his eyes.
“And yet, you still like me so much,” Will says, making a pleading expression with his big blue eyes.
Nico shoves him. “Yeah, yeah. Gods willing, one of these days I’ll come to my senses.”
—
It doesn’t come up again until a few days later, during the fireworks on the beach for the Fourth of July. Will asked Nico to watch the show with him, which is basically the Camp Half-Blood equivalent to asking a date to prom.
The show itself is nice enough. Nico isn’t paying very close attention to the bright colorful explosions in the sky, because he’s too distracted by the starbursts reflected in Will’s eyes as he watches them dazzle overhead.
“Cabin 9 really pulled out all the stops this year,” Will remarks after a shimmery golden firework bursts into the distinct shape of the Athena Parthenos.
“Mm-hm,” Nico says. He sits a little closer and rests his head on Will’s shoulder, which makes Will hum with contentment and slide a hand around his waist.
After a few minutes, the fireworks end. Campers who aren’t coupled up pick up their beach towels and start clearing out, while those who remain snuggle closer. Nico waits for Will to get to his feet and call it a night, but he is perfectly still at his side.
Nico’s heart rate picks up the longer they sit together in silence. The message of I want to stay close to you gets louder in his mind. He feels a thrill jolt through him, and notices Will has taken his hand again.
“Want to lie down?” Will asks, his voice gentler than daybreak. His thumb strokes across Nico’s knuckles, and Nico wonders when he started feeling this okay with being touched.
Nico nods shakily and leans back on their shared towel. Will follows, laying down on his side and facing him. Nico glances at him and is hit all at once with the realization that he is lying beside a boy in plain view, on the camp’s most romantic occasion of the summer. Panic rapidly boils in his gut, and he tears his gaze away like he’s been caught staring.
“It’s okay,” Will assures him, immediately picking up on Nico’s fright. “It’s safe here.”
“I — I know,” Nico says, despite his trembling nerves.
He feels Will watching him for a moment, and he knows it’s not a judgmental stare. Will has never shamed Nico and he’s not about to start now. “I’ll walk you to the Hades cabin if this is too much,” he whispers.
Gods, Will is so patient with him, so gentle. He makes Nico feel enveloped in the kind of quiet darkness that allows the stars to shine. Nico is so fond of him, so immensely fond that he feels like his feelings for this boy have overflowed the cup of his heart, pouring out into his chest, filling him up to the tips of his fingers. He breathes out the last of his panic, and turns on his side to face his boyfriend. “It’s not too much,” he says.
Will’s face melts into a smile. He squeezes Nico’s hand. “Can I tell you something?”
“Tell me.”
Will leans his head close, just close enough for his blond bangs to tickle Nico’s forehead. When he speaks, it is in the lowest, most secretive whisper: “I really want to kiss you.”
The mere admission sends a gust of excitement shooting its way through Nico’s chest, flipping over everything on its way up. His heart pounds in his ears. He looks Will in the eyes. “I really want to kiss you, too.”
They let the mutual confession settle between them like powdery snowfall. For a minute they simply look at each other, both of them perfectly still. Nico realizes Will is waiting for him to make the move, and he shifts anxiously, pulling his hand out of Will’s.
Will lets him go. “Are you scared?” he asks.
“…A little,” Nico admits.
Will cracks a smile. “After all the terrifying monsters you’ve faced, kissing me is what scares you? Should I be flattered or insulted?”
Nico narrows his eyes. “You know what, you’re starting to sound like you don’t want to get kissed.”
Will laughs, a sound as bright and melodic as Apollo’s own lyre. “It’s okay if you’re still not ready, Nico. We can just —”
“Shut up. I want to,” Nico insists.
Will raises his eyebrows. “You do?”
“I do. Just…” Nico swallows. “H-hold still.”
“Okay.”
“And close your eyes.”
Will obeys.
Nico regards him in the faint moonlight, and documents the freckles on his nose, the pale eyelashes touching his cheeks, the smile curving his lips. He reaches out and places the tips of his fingers on Will’s face, just below his cheekbone, and sweeps them down to his chin.
Nico takes a deep breath, bids farewell to the last vestiges of his shame, and leans in.
Will responds immediately, the warm press of his mouth chasing after Nico’s. It doesn’t feel quite how Nico imagined — he is surprised by just how soft and pliant the other boy’s lips feel. But he certainly recognizes the skeletal butterflies causing a galeforce in his belly. Will pulls him close and kisses him again, and Nico is astonished that something so wonderful could have seemed so terrifying just a few moments ago.
Nico pulls away after a short while, breathless and grinning. They shifted a bit, with Will’s torso half-leaning over Nico where he lies on his back. “You’re smiling,” Will observes, rather hypocritically.
Nico tries to stop, but he can’t seem to be able to. Will touches his cheek and says, “No, I’m not teasing you for once. It’s nice.”
“You might have to get used to it, if there’s more of that in our future,” Nico says.
Will shakes his head. “I don’t think I ever, ever will. And I’m totally fine with that.”
Nico drapes his arms around Will’s neck and tugs him back down, and it’s not until later that he realizes: he doesn’t care who sees.