This is earlier in the day then when the last chapter ended btw! (: Carry on, Sredaer

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Chapter X

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Nico was sitting on the edge of the lower bunk in his cabin, turning the vial Aphrodite had given him slowly in his hands. He'd beem trying to get rid of the stupid thing all day. It wasn't a mental thing, he wanted it gone but the thing was apparently indestructible in every way and very attached to him.

First, he'd tried burning it, but it had proved to be as fire-proof as Leo Valdez, and just as annoying. After that, he spent at least twenty minutes trying to smash it, but had ended up doing more damage to the hammer than anything else. The Hephaestus kid he'd borrowed it from wasn't going to be very happy about that, it looked like it had been melted and then solidified again on its own. Nico grimaced.

Once he'd decided there was absolutely no way to destroy it, he made the decision to bury it. Deep in the woods. Under a tree. Locked inside a metal box. He wasn't taking any chances.

After that was done, he came back to his cabin, feeling quite good about himself, that was short lived to say the least. He walked in the door, and sitting on his dresser was none other than the same little glass vial, taunting him.

Nico panicked and grabbed the vial, then proceded to shadow travel to the first place that popped into his head, which just so happened to be China. Once there, he wondered the streets attempting to sell the vial in broken Chinese. (He had to learn some considering how many times he'd accidentally shadow-jumped there when he was first learning)

Eventually he sold it to some old lady, saying that it was a magical concoction that could cure any sickness. She was probably pretty angry now since it had, of course, just appeared back in his cabin.

Basically, there was no way to get rid of it at all, and Nico was getting slightly frustrated. Actually frustrated was a bit of an understatement, he was getting to the point where he was considering taking drastic measures. Like barging into Olympus and demanding that the love goddess take it back himself.

The cabin door burst open and Nico quickly hid the vial behind his back and smiled serenely up at Will.

"Are you okay?" Will asked him.

"Who? Me?" He laughed nervously, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Do you want to come to the infirmary with me?"

"Will," he said, tucking the vial under his pillow, "I'm fine. I promise."

Will's eyes still looked skeptical, but he sighed in defeat, "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Nico felt a pang of guilt in his chest, "Of course."

Will gave him a smile that melted his insides, and only made the guilt worse "Okay."

Just tell him. Nico thought, "Will, I. . . Uhm. . ."

Will's eyebrows scrunched up in concern. "Is something wrong?"

Gears started turning in his head, What should I say? He thought, I have a potion that could kill you. . .? I was keeping something from you. . . Will, I haven't been completely honest. . . I've been trying to burn a little vial all day. . . Will, I was visted by Aphrodite. . . Oh my gods I'm terrible at this.

"Neeks?"

His voice snapped him out of his thoughts, "Oh. . . I was just. . . Wondering what you needed."

"Oh! I almost forgot! The Hephaestus cabin is having a party tonight and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me." His blue eyes were full of hope.

"Y-you mean like as your date?" All thoughts of the vial were swept aside.

"Well, if you're not ready to "come out" yet, I understand. We could just go as friends if you want." Will sat on the bed next to him.

Nico stared down at his hands, trying to sort through his thoughts. Sure, Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Jason, Coach Hedge and Reyna knew. . . And the entire Apollo cabin. . . And they'd all been supportive, but that didn't mean everyone else would.  "I'm just afraid of what people would think."

Will wrapped his arm around his shoulder, pulling him towards him and kissed him on the forehead, "I know, it's okay, I'm ready whenever you are, I'll wait however long you need."

Nico's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Of course, Nico."

"I-I don't think I'm ready. . . Yet."

Will nodded, "But you'll come with me?"

"Yeah, okay."

Will's face broke into a smile so wide thar Nico found himself momentarily wondering where the rest of his face went, and then his face disappeared as Will threw his arms around him and crushed him in a bear-hug.

"You don't have to get that excited. . . It's just me." he mumbled into Will's shirt, embarrassed.

"But you're everything to me." Will didn't let go.

"B-but-"

Will's laugh rumbled through his chest and he kissed Nico on top of his head, "Just accept it, Neeks."

Nico reluctantly wrapped his arms around Will, who smiled even bigger than before and buried his face in the Italian's hair. Nico couldn't hold back his own smile as Will held him.

"When's the party?" Nico asked.

"Sometime around midnight I guess." He lifted Nico's face to his and gave him a soft kiss, making him blush. "You're cute." He told him, a smile flitting over his lips.

"Shut up." Nico said, leaning his forehead against Will's.

"You didn't deny it." He said smugly.

Nico's eyes widened. "No. Will-"

"Just admit it." He kissed Nico on the nose.

"Will, I am not cute."

"Yes you are." He planted a new kiss along Nico's cheekbone with every word. Nico closed his eyes as he kissed down his face.

"But. . ."

Will smiled as he kissed Nico on the lips again, "No buts." He started kissing down his boyfriend's neck, "I love you."

Nico tilted his head back, giving Will, more exposure to his neck. Electricity sparked wherever Will's lips moved against his skin and his heart flipped at his words, He loves me? The idea seemed absolutely absurd, Will was basically the definition of perfect; with his tanned skin, wavy blonde hair, angelic blue eyes and athletic build, and Nico was just so. . . Average.

Will trailed his lips back to Nico's, kissing him softly, telling him with every caress what he couldn't with words, moving his hands up Nico's back under his shirt, making him gasp. All of his doubts vanished, and it was just him and Will. He would've told Will that he loved him too, he would have screamed it from the top of his lungs for everyone to hear in that moment, but he didn't want to pull away, not even for a second.

Nico pushed his fingers through Will's hair, pulling him closer, tugging slightly on his wavy blonde locks and Will pulled his lip between his teeth. Their bodies fit together perfectly, their lips moving in perfect sync. Nico's entire body felt like ot was on fire, every nerve crackling with tension as Will's soft lips parted his expertly.

Nico wasn't entirely sure what happened next but the next thing he knew Will was on top of him, his shirt was gone and Nico ran his fingers over his chest in amazement while Will kissed across his face.

"I love you." He whispered, not even noticing that his hands were shaking.

* * * * *

Sorry for all of you people who wanted it *cough*Neeks*cough* (not Nico Neeks like different Neeks like... you know who you are) but I refuse to write smut. . . So yeah, if it's leading up to smut, just keep reading, I'll cut it off or something before anything happens. . . Anyways. . .

Nico woke up drowsily, tangled in Will's arms, he smiled and carefully slipped from his embrace. He picked up the nearest peice of clothing, his vision still muddled from sleep, and then slipped it over his head. He cuddled back into his boyfriend, burrying his face in Will's neck, and drifting off again.

* * * * *

He woke up again to the sound of someone knocking on the door. "One second. . ." He grumbled, he yawned and dragged himself out of bed then padded across the floor and opened it. Standing outside was Jason, Nico still wasn't used to him wearing glasses. "Yeah?"

For a brief moment Jason looked like he was about to burst into laughter, then quickly smoothed over his expression, Nico decided to ignore it.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you were going to the party."

"Oh, yeah, Will invited me."

Jason rose his eyebrows, "Did he now?"

Nico folded his arms crossly, "Yeah, he did."

"Did he help you pick out your outfit too?"

"What?"

"Well, I was just wondering if I could get a Camp Half-Blood dress in my size."

Nico looked down at himself in confusion and then balked as he realized he was wearing Will's Camp-Half Blood T-shirt, and it was, in fact, a knee-length dress on him. His face turned bright red as he looked back up at Jason, who was smirking, "Looks like I owe Carter six drachma."

"What?"

Jason's lips trembled with barely contained laughter, "Oh, nothing. I just never thought that you of all peop-"

Nico glared, snatched the glasses off of his face, and promptly snapped them in half. He then slammed the door, leaving a very shocked Jason standing outside. He wasn't laughing anymore. Nico locked the door and stuck his tongue out at it, then turned around to face his bed again, Will was gone. Nico was wearing the only evidence he'd been in the room (along with his rumpled hair and the odd smell that remained). He grumbled and started changing for the party.

* * * * *

Nico stood half-naked in the midst of mountains of clothes, it looked like a tornado had just moved through, or more accurately, a very frustrated Italian. Will was supposed to come in five minutes and he still had no idea what shirt to wear.

Should he wear the plain long-sleeved black shirt? The short-sleeved skull shirt? The one with the little skulls all over it... or the one with the mustard stain? Maybe the plain black short-sleeved shirt. . . or the black long-sleeved skull shirt. . . maybe his black dress shirt? There were just so many choices!

Plus, Nico had actually never even been to a party, which was understandable considering he'd spent most of his life in a magical casino and the rest trying to keep the world from collapsing in on itself.

Think, di Angelo. What in this room says, 'party'? The answer was absolutely nothing. The only colors in the room were black, red, a couple of different shades of grey, and white. If anything, the whole cabin screamed, 'DEATH!' Which was probably the point since it was dedicated to the king of the dead.

"Thanks a lot, Dad." He muttered, "Why couldn't I be the child of the god of. . . Social lives or something?"

Just then, a knock sounded at the door. "You ready, Neeks?"

"NO!" He started frantically digging through his clothes.

Nico heard Will chuckle outside the door, "Can I come in?"

Nico pulled different shirts out of the mass, looked them over and threw them to the side in quick succession, "NO."

Will laughed again, "Okay."

Nico spent a couple more minutes rifling through the mess and then threw the nearest object with a scream of frustration.

"Nico. . . Are you alright?"

"I am perfectly fine, thank you." Nico said grumpily.

"I'm coming in." Will said.

"Wait! You ca-"

But Will had already pushed the door open (with some difficulty considering the huge pile of stuff resting against it). He looked around with an expression of pure amusement, "Having trouble figuring out what to wear? Personally, I like you best this way." He winked.

Nico looked down at himself and remembered he was currently shirtless and looked up at Will with a glare. "Shut up."

"In your dreams, Ghost Boy."

Nico rolled his eyes, "Why am I dating you again?"

Will laughed, "Because you love me." He smirked, walking over.

"I never said that." Nico said, a tiny smile tugging at his lips.

"But I know you're thinking it."

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Oh, so now you're a mind-reader?"

"I never said that." Will said, stepping closer to him so their was barely a half-inch of space separating them, Nico barely came up to his shoulder. Will looked down at him through his eyelashes and Nico stood up on his tippy toes to kiss him, holding onto his shirt.

Will smiled into the kiss and hooked his fingers through Nico's beltloops, pulling him closer.

"Hey guys, the p- oh, woah. Hey I'm sorry."

Nico pulled away from Will, to look at Leo, who was rushing out of the cabin, shielding his eyes.

Will broke away from Nico and hurried after him, "What?"

Leo turned around right before he reached the door, "Hey, it's okay, just. . . next time, put a sock on the door."

"What? Why would we put a sock on the door?" Nico asked.

Leo looked extremely uncomfortable. "You know, it's the sign." They stared in confusion, "Like. . . If you're going to. . . Well. . . Do what you two were about to do."

"No! It's not like that!" Nico's face started burning.

"I was helping Nico find a shirt." Will supplied.

Leo rose an inquisitive brow, "Really? Because it looks like you were trying to help him loose his shirt. . . and you were obviously pretty successful." He stated, looking at the Italian pointedly.

Nico made a futile attempt to cover himself as Leo took a look around the room, "What did you guys do in here? You know what, don't answer that."

"Nico couldn't decide what to wear for the party." Will insisted. "We were searching through his drawers."

"Suuuuuurrre." Leo said, "So then you just decided that no clothes would be better for the both of you."

Nico threw his arms up in exasperation, "YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE!"

"So I've been told." Leo replied, unruffled by the two other boys' death glares.

"Just get out." Will said, annoyed.

"Make sure to use protection, we don't wa-"

"OUT!" Will said, pointing towards the door.

"Alright, be safe!" Leo said in a mother tone, slipping out the door.

"I hate him." Nico grumbled.

"Hate is such a strong word." Will said, handing him a shirt. "Try something. . . Nicer, we are going to his party."

"Fine." Nico said, pulling the shirt over his head, "I loathe him."

"Better." Will said merrily, taking his hand and pulling him towards the door. He reluctantly let go of Nico's hand as they approached the cabin, which looked completely deserted from the outside. Nico instantly missed the warmth of the older boys hand and resisted the urge to take it back.

"You ready?" Will asked, like they were secret agents about to step foot in enemy territory.

Nico nodded confidently and Will opened the door, which involved a lot of gears turning and steam rushing out. A loud burst of music hit them like a wall, along with enough flashing lights to give someone a seizure.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!" About twenty people yelled over the music, Will did as he was told and Nico stared around at the scene before him.

The place was packed with demigods. Demigods dancing, demigods making out in shaded corners, demigods drinking and laughing. Everywhere he looked there were seemingly normal teens doing normal things and somehow, he was going to have to fit in. "Well, we came." Nico said, turning back towards the door.

Will wasn't letting him get away that easy, he caught him by the arm, dragging him away from his salvation, "And we're staying."

He pulled him to what was apparently a safe distance away from the exit, and then turned to face him. "Neeks, it'll be fine."

Nico gulped, looking around, "What should we do?"

"We dance."

Nico thought that it would have been less terrifying if Will had suggested they follow in the footsteps of the couple next to them. Or maybe not. . . Nico averted his eyes, feeling like he'd just crossed a very strict line of intrusion.

"I don't. . ."

"Know how?"

Nico nodded.

"No one really does," Nico balked at this. "Take Leo for example," Will gestured to where the Latino was doing some strange version of the robot, "He obviously has no clue what he's doing, but since he's confident about it, no one is questioning him."

"Yeah. . . But he's also Leo."

"Fair point."

That didn't help things much, "Can we please leave?" Nico gave Will his best puppy-dog eyes.

"Don't look at me like that." Will said, visibly melting, "It isn't fair."

"What isn't fair?" Nico asked innocently, making his eyes even wider.

"Nico, so help me, I will snuggle you if you don't cut it out." Nico immediately smoothed over his expression, even though cuddling into his boyfriend didn't seem like such a bad idea right now. . . Well, if there weren't tons of people surrounding them.

"I'm just not good at. . . Socializing." Nico said the word like it tasted foul in his mouth.

I relate to him so much in this moment.

"You socialize with me."

"Yeah but you're. . . Different."

This brought a stupid grin to Will's face, "How so?"

Nico blushed and stared down at the floor, crossing his arms, "Nothing."

Will sighed frustratedly, causing Nico to look up at him in concern, "What?"

"This is killing me." Nico didn't like where this was going, "You need to stop being so cute or I won't be able to keep from kissing you."

Nico's cheeks burned even more, "You're not helping." He muttered, glancing around to see if anyone had heard.

"No one is listening to us, Nico." Will said, one side of his mouth rose higher than the other, which Nico found highly attractive. Not that he'd ever admit that. . .

"Nico?" Will eyes sparkled with barely contained laughter, "You're staring."

"Shut up." He mumbled.

Will grinned at him and Nico narrowed his eyes, "What are you thinking?"

Will shrugged, "That's for me to know. . . And you to find out." He winked.

"WILL!"

His boyfriend burst into laughter, earning a few stares, including Leo, who froze, mid-dance-move and darted over to the DJ (an Apollo camper of course) to whisper something in his ear. The song immediately changed from an upbeat dubstep to romantic slow song. Nico slowly turned towards Leo and glared at him.

Leo smirked and winked as if to say, "You're welcome." And disappeared into the crowd.

Nico turned around to look at Will, who was, of course, smiling. "No. We are not dancing. Especially not to a slow song."

"But we did it before a-"

"That was different." Nico cut him off, "Everyone will stare at us."

Will pouted, "Please Neeks? This is one of my favorite songs."

Nico listened, it was Look After You by The Fray, he narrowed his eyes, "You guys are just conspiring against me, aren't you?"

"IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY!" Will wailed dramatically.

Nico pointed an accusing finger, "Don't mock me!"

"Mock you?" Will said, acting hurt, "Why would I do such a thing?"

Nico rolled his eyes, "You are such an a-"

He was cut off by Will careening into him, the smaller boy did his best to catch Will, stumbling backwards with his weight.

"What the. . ." Carter waved at him from behind Will, smiling.

"Sorry." Will mumbled, stepping back, he turned around to glare at his brother, "What was that?"

"Was just helping you out."

"By shoving me into my boyfriend?"

"SSSSSHHHHHHHHH!" Nico said from behind him.

They ignored him. "PRECISELY!" Carter exclaimed happily. "Look, the whole fandom is waiting for proof that this is cannon so if you two could hurry it along, please, th-"

"Woah, wait, fandom?" Will said, "We have a fandom?"

"Well, yeah!" Carter said like this was the most obvious thing on the planet, "Solangelo is OTP!"

"What's a fandom?"

They both turned towards Nico in disbelief. "Oh, you poor, deprived child." Will said sympathetically.

"You, Will Solace, have not been doing your job." Carter shook his head disappointedly.

Will sighed, "I promise I'll convert Nico later, but right now, I need to know just how large this fandom is."

"Uhm. . . Well, Leo accidentally let it slip to an Aphrodite camper. . . Who was already shipping it. . . But she didn't know it was canon. . . And it sort of maybe spread throughout the camp from there. . ."

"WHAT?!" Nico practically screamed.

"I'm guessing you don't like that very much?"

Nico lunged foreward, tackling Carter to the floor. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"FIGHT! FI- I uh. . . I mean, GET OFF MY FRIEND, YOU FEIND!" Leo yelled, running towards them.

Will pulled Nico off of his brother with some difficulty. "Well, you certainly are feisty, aren't you?"

Nico pushed him away, tears forming in his eyes, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Will looked astonished, "Neeks?" He reached out for his boyfriend, who smacked his hand away and turned around and bolted to the door, pushing people aside as he went.

Will, Leo and Carter stared after him in shock. Will whipped around to face his friends, "YOU IDIOTS!"

"Will, wha-" Leo started.

"Shut up." Will snarled.

Carter stared, "We didn't know-"

Will turned away from them without a word and stormed out of the cabin.

Well, I was not planning for that to happen. . . But okay. . . I kind of. . . Yeah. . . Oh my gods. . . I'm just. . . I. . . I just broke up my OTP. . .guys. . . I just. . . I brOKE UP MY OTP OH MY GODS I AM TERRIBLE OH GODS GODS GODS NONONONONONONONO *dies* *wails as a ghost* AND THE SONG I CHOSE JUST MAKES IT WORSE FOR SOME REASON I CAN'T- *breaks into sobs*