Nico was abruptly awoken from his usual nightmare ridden sleep by a loud knocking on his cabin door. "Mmmm, go away...too early." mumbled Nico still partly asleep.

The knocking stopped for a moment then, "Ya no Death boy," came the voice of none other than Will Solace, "It's Christmas and it's not even early, it's only half past eight! I'm not going to allow you to sleep the day away!" He proceeded to continue knocking again.

Uhhh, it definitely is too early for this, why is he so excited for Christmas anyway, Nico thought. Nico got up obviously realizing that Will was not going to stop until he did. He quickly gets dressed, putting his usual array of clothes on, a skeleton shirt and black jeans. Then he goes and opens the door.

"If you don't open this door right now I swear-" Will cut himself off when he noticed that Nico was now standing in the doorway. "Dio... I'm up now, Solace. You don't need to shout anymore." Will's cheeks turn a light tint of pink. "Uh- well, now that you are up we can finally celebrate Christmas!" Will cheered, doing little jazz hands.

Will was wearing a pair of khakis and a Camp HalfBlood t-shirt with a green patterned plaid flannel over the top of it. A classic Christmas hat.

"Mhm. Quick question? Why do you want to celebrate Christmas with me anyway?" Will looked taken aback, "Well one, you are my best friend and two, I heard from a little bird that you haven't celebrated Christmas in a long time, so I think that it is mandatory that you celebrate it." Little bird....? Percy... Nico thinks to himself.

They walk down the steps, Will leading the way, and Nico asks, "I see your points here, but how are you going to make me comply with this? You realize that I can just not. Right?" Will turns his head toward Nico and says, "Why, doctors orders of course!"

"Ah, well I guess I can't argue with that." Will smiles real big at that, his dimples cutely showing.

Will continues to lead them both towards the part of the woods near the archery range. Wonder why we're going there, thinks Nico.

Once they get close to the archery range they are spotted by Kayla, Will's half sister, who waves to them. "Merry Christmas you two!" she shouts to them. She then racks her bow up and jogs over to them.

Will runs straight to her, engulfing her in a big hug. "Merry Christmas to you too," he says. They break apart from their hug and Nico stands awkwardly behind them. "Hi," Nico says.

"Hi," says Kayla, "Isn't it nice that Chiron let snow in for Christmas this year?" Nico looked up and realized that he had not noticed that it had been snowing.

"Ya!" Will says.

"Anyway," Kayla comments, "I can't help but notice that two seem to be off to someplace. Care to fill me in on what you two are up to?"

"I don't really know myself," replies Nico, "Sunshine here has not really filled me in on that matter either."

"Well, it's a surprise so I can't tell either of you still," Will says matter of factly. Kayla frowns. Will leans over to her, "Don't worry, I'll tell you everything later. And watch over the infirmary for me please." Kayla raises an eyebrow and then goes back to smiling again, but in more of a sinister kind of way, "Well I better let you two go off then. I look forward to hearing all about it!~" Kayla walks away.

"Alright no more stops!" Will announces, "Let's keep going!"

"Alright." Nico says.

They make it not too far into the woods when Will navigates them to a little spot in the woods. The spot has a gorgeous view of the camp's lake. There in the spot is a blanket lightly covered in snow, a tiny tree with Christmas lights, a few small gifts, and some treats.

"It isn't much," Will says, scratching the back of his neck, "But I hope you like it!" Will's face turns a light shade of pink.

"Will, I, uh-" Nico says, trying to find the words to speak.

"You don't like it do-"

"No!" Nico blurts, "I do like it! It's just no one has done something nice like this for me in a while." Nico's face turns a light shade of pink as well.

Will's cheeks turn a little darker shade and smiles real big. "Well, then let's celebrate this Christmas!" Nico nods his head in agreement.

Will brushes off the snow on the blanket and they both sit down on it. They don't say anything to each other for a bit, just eat cookies while staring at the lake.

Nico decides to finally break the silence. "Uh, I hope this doesn't sound rude, but why are you still here, at camp, on Christmas? Shouldn't you be with your family?" Will glances up at Nico. He has an almost sad look on his face.

He looks back down and says. "Oh. Well my mom's on tour right now and it wouldn't be safe for me to visit her even if she wasn't anyway for Christmas," Will's head quickly shoots up, "But! Not I'm sad or anything about it! I mean, I get to spend Christmas with you and I'm going to iris message her in a little bit. So it's fine"

Nico stares at Will and offers him something that he never thought he would, "Do you want a hug Will?" Will stares back at him, eyes watery, and nodes. Nico leans over and wraps arms around Will. Will wraps his arms around Nico as well and Nico can feel a few tears from Will wetting his shirt.

It feels weird, but not like a bad weird, like Nico originally thought it would. Actually, he didn't even want to let go, but he couldn't hold on to Will forever and they broke apart their hug. Will quickly wiped away his tears. "I'm sorry for crying. But thank you. Thank you for that."

"No need to be sorry and you're welcome."

"Anyway! I have a few presents for you, I hope you don't mind. I don't really know exactly what you like, so I tried my best."

Will handed Nico a small rectangular present. Nico slowly opened it and pulled out a card pack. "I remembered when you first came to camp how you liked Mythomagic a lot, you would never stop talking about it, so I thought I'd get you it, maybe you could teach me how to play too."

Nico tucked the card pack in his pants pocket. "If you really want to, I can." Will beamed and handed him another gift.

It was a flimsy looking present. Nico opened it, unfolded what was inside it, and held it up. "Is this....?" Nico said in awe because it is an aviator jacket just like the old one he lost in the war with Gaea. "It is. I heard you lost yours, so while I was out on a supply run I noticed it in a shop window and got it."

"Thank you Will." Nico says and puts the aviator jacket on.

"It's nothing really."

Nico paused for a moment thinking, then said, "Now I feel like an asshole for not getting you anything."

"You didn't know I was going to get you anything, plus you just hanging out with me right now is a gift itself." Nevertheless, Nico quickly tried to think of something that he could get fast right this minute, but only one thing came to mind. Nico's face turned a deep shade of red at the thought.

"Nico? Are you catching a cold? I knew we shouldn't have been outside when Chiron was letting in snow without jackets!"

"You're one to talk, but no, it's not that. I..." It's now or never Nico thought. He might as well try. Will stared at him waiting patiently. Nico gulped, "Well Will, it seems that I am down one present," Nico started to fidget and looked Will in the eyes, "How would you like for your second one to be a kiss... From me."

Nico anxiously waited for a response, afraid that he just now ruined their friendship. Instead of a verbal reply, Will gently grabbed Nico's chin and pulled him in, planting a soft kiss on his lips. "I thought you would never ask Death Boy."

Both their faces were bright red and had smiles. "Oh, and how long was that I may ask?" Nico asked teasingly. "Oh, why just five years." Nico was genuinely surprised that anyone could have liked him for that long, but didn't comment on it.

For a while they sat chatting away, Nico's hand on Will's, curious to see where this new revelation would bring them together.

They got up after a while and headed back to the camp grounds so Will could get back to his head medic duties. Will took Nico to the Hades cabin, lightly pulling him by his hand. They made it to the door and we're about to go inside when a whoosh sound passed over their heads.

They looked in the direction it came from to see Kayla bow at the ready not that far away from the cabin. "Hi boys! I believe that you two had some fun, but I am here on official business." Kayla told them.

"And what would that business be?" asked Will.

"Well. First off Austin says hello, and I have a bet to win, so I would just like to confirm that I won.", Kayla then pointed above them, "Now, could you both please look above and do what I know you know I'm implying?"

Nico and Will look above them and above them, embedded in the top of the doorway, an arrow with a mistletoe was lodged in it.

Will looks right back at Nico. "I, uh, only if you want to." Will says. Kayla raises an eyebrow, staring at Nico.

Nico then leans in and kisses Will.

Kayla in the distance nods her head in approval, satisfied. She then runs off, whisper–shouting "Yesssss!!"

Will and Nico break apart. "This is definitely the best Christmas ever." said Nico, catching his breath.

"Definitely the best Christmas ever." Will agrees breathlessly, "Want to actually come help me down in the infirmary?"

"I would love to, Amore."

Words: 1,743

Merry Christmas!!! I'm sorry if they seem out character at all, I tried to make them as in character as I could. This is my first written fanfic after all, so there is always room for improvement! I hope your all have as amazing happy holiday!!<3