Wow look it's alive

I want to do an au where Nico is in marching band and he plays the clarinet and I have the best idea for it and it's angst Oof

———

Nico woke up, and frowned. He groaned, feeling his head pounding, and moved his hands to cover his eyes, effectively blocking the light.

Memories of last night flashed in his mind.

Yesterday, he was upset and he felt alone. So, Percy and Jason dragged him off to a gay bar, and he got drunk. He vaguely remembers talking to someone, going home with them, and stumbling through the apartment halls with him.

He vividly remembers getting into the apartment, after he had fumbled with the key. He remembers falling onto the couch, he remembers warm breath and lips trailing down his jaw, his neck, his stomach.

He remembers getting up and going to the guy's bedroom with him, falling back into a heated kiss and hands trailing down and, gods, how could he forget that big-

He hears a yawn, and he's startled out of his thoughts. He moves his hands and sees the guy laying next to him. He lets out a groan, and Nico wonders how much they both drank, he can't really remember that part.

Blue eyes are suddenly on him, going wide.

"You're still here?" He asks, and if Nico didn't know any better, he'd think he sounded hopeful. Instead, he flushed a bit, shrinking in on himself.

"Is that okay?" He asks, voice small, "should I have left? I've never done this before, I'm sorry, I'll just-" Nico starts to get up, grabbing his underwater form the ground. He feels a hand go to rest on his shoulder and looks up.

"It's okay," he mumbles, "I had a good time, you know, before we-" he blushes, "uh, I don't remember what we talked about, but I remember that I really liked talking to you." Nico smiles, turning and looking at Will again.

"I liked talking to you, too," he says quietly, "that's- that's why I didn't leave. I didn't want this to be a one night stand thing, I want to get to know you." Will smiles, shifting so he's sitting, and Nico blushes at the multiple dark bruises blooming down his neck, "I do need to go though," Nico mumbles, "I have a class today."

Will nods in understanding.

"Are you free on Saturday? We could go get coffee or something," he says quietly, and Nico smiles, nods. He checks his phone, sees a couple messages from Percy and Jason, and looks up again.

"I can give you my number?" He says, and it comes out as a question even if he didn't mean for it to. Will's smile widens as he nods, unlocking his phone and handing it to Nico. He hands Will his phone as he takes Will's, and they both type out their numbers.

When he has his phone back, he sees the name Will at the top and smiles, then he sends a quick text to both Percy and Jason, asking if one of them could pick him up. Percy says he will, and after asking Will for the address and sending it to Percy, he looks over at Will again.

He jumps when Will's door opens, his eyes widening. He quickly draws the blankets up over his chest, and Will scoffed.

"Lou, what I have I said about knocking?!" Lou snorts, wordlessly shutting the door again. Will groaned, laying back down on the bed. Nico pursed his lips, looking at him then looking out the window in his room.

"I should get dressed," he mumbled, reaching down and picking up his underwear again. After he puts them on, he gets out of the bed and grabs his pants. When he turns and faces Will, only to see him looking at him, and flushes.

He finds his shirt, and puts it on. He hears Will clear his throat, and turns to look at him again.

"You, uh, might not want to wear that shirt," he mumbles, and Nico frowns, looking down at it.

"Why?"

"Well, it's uh," Will's red cheeks turns a shade darker, and Nico's frown deepens, "it's dirty, you know?"

Nico's frown lifts, and he takes the shirt off, scanning it. When he sees the white, messy streaks smeared across the back of it, he blushes, muttering an 'oh', and scrunches the shirt up before tossing it to the floor again.

"You can borrow one of mine," Will says, starting to stand up. Nico's heart starts pounding as he blanket falls from his waist, and he quickly averts his eyes. When he looked up again, it was because Will was handing him a shirt, thankfully (and unthankfully) with pants on now.

"Thank you," Nico mumbles, slipping the shirt over his head, and Will smiles at him.

"Yeah, of course," he says, then, "I can wash your shirt and give it to you on Saturday." Nico nods, and together, they sitting back down on the bed and just talking.

It's a while before his phone dings, and it's a text from Percy saying that he's here. Nico feels disappointment bubble in his chest, because he really just wants to talk to Will, but he sends back 'okay, I'll be down in a second.'

Will walks down with him, because Nico doesn't really know where he's going. When they're at the door, Will mumbles that he can't wait to see Nico again, making Nico smile and blush.

When he's in the car with Percy, he gets bombed with questions. Nico lets out a loud groan over Percy's voice. Percy laughs, putting the car into drive after Nico buckles up.

"How was it though? He wasn't creepy or anything, right?"

"No," Nico sighs, almost dreamily, leaning his head against the headrest and closing his eyes, "he was actually a god? Like, seriously he had some fucking skills."

"Fucking skills? Or fucking skills?" Percy asks, and Nico snorts, looking over at him.

"Both. Oh my gods, Percy, you wish you had half the skills he does-"

"How do you know I don't?"

"Because he's a god," Nico states, and Percy laughs, "I can't even express how good he is, it the best I've had in years," he groans, dropping his head back down. It may be fuzzy, but he just remembers how good everything felt.

"Hey, man, stop thinking too hard over there," Percy says after a minute, and Nico opens his eyes to look over at him, "I don't want you getting too excited in my car."

"Shut up," Nico grumbles, glaring as his cheeks turn pink, "I was just trying to think about what we talked about before we left for his place," he easily lies.

Percy hums in disbelief.

"Anyway, you want to know what the best part is?" Nico asks, smiling wide, and Percy raises an eyebrow in question. Nico holds his phone up, "I got his number. And we're meeting up this Saturday."

"Nice," Percy said, smiling, and Nico laughed, relaxing back into the chair, "You can thank me for dragging you to the bar by getting me a coffee." Nico scoffed at him, but took his wallet and handed him a ten anyway.

———

When Saturday finally come around, Nico excitedly made his way to the cafe the agreed to, finding an empty booth after ordering.

Checking the time, he sees that he's early, so he plays random games on his phone.

Nico sighs, checking his phone again. Will was officially fifteen minutes late, now, and he pouted his lips. He sent a couple texts, not getting a response.

Nico sighs when the clock continues to tick by, and eventually it reaches thirty minutes. He sends a Will a quick 'I'm leaving' before going through the cafe doors.

It's a quick walk back home, and when Percy asks how it went from the couch, he simply groans and goes to his room, closing the door harder than needed and flopping face first onto his bed.

———

It's when he's sleeping later that night. His phone rings, waking him, and he grumbles in Italian as he looks at the caller.

It's Will, surprise surprise, and Nico makes a face, declining the call. He puts his phone on his bedside table, staring at it definitely not hoping that Will sends him a text. But he does - not that he wanted Will to - and when he hears his phone chime, he moves embarrassingly quick to look at it.

He scanned over the text, which was basically an essay, but his hazy, sleepy mind managed to pick up the important details. It was a huge apology and an explanation - something about medical school and his residency, he couldn't have his phone and he tried to leave as soon as possible - and it managed to leave hope bubbling in Nico's chest.

'It's only six,' Nico typed, 'maybe we could get dinner or something?' After sending the text, he sat up, anxiously chewing on his thumb nail as he waited for a response. He got a yes, and he smiled widely, and they both quickly made plans as to where they should go.

When it was decided, Nico changed, shoving his shoes on and running a hand through his bed head to make it look semi decent.

———

Will was already there when Nico walked through the door, and it made him smile. He was dressed in scrubs, but Nico didn't mind, they looked good on him anyway. They idly talked as they ordered and ate, and there were a multiple times where Will didn't look like he was listening or that he was seconds away from face planting his food and falling asleep.

"Are you okay?" He asks, after Will let out his another yawn, "If I'm boring you or something-"

"No," Will said quickly, eyes widening, "You're not- No, the hospital called me really late last night, and as soon as I got off, I came to see you, I'm just really tired."

"When did they call you?" Nico asked, frowning.

"Uh," Will thought for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing, "around three-ish, this morning?"

"What?" Nico asks, surprised, "Will that's- you haven't slept in sixteen hours? Why would you have dinner with me? You could have told me, Will, I would have understood."

"I-" Will flushes, shoulders hunching together, "I didn't want you to be upset? I didn't want you to think I'm not interested in you or anything." Nico groans, shifting to get his wallet out of his back pocket before flagging down a waiter.

"What are you doing?" Will asked as Nico got handed a check. Nico looked at him.

"You need to sleep, Will," Nico gave a soft smile, "we can do this some other time, okay?" Will sighs.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles, "at least let me pay?"

"To late," Nico said, smiling down at the receipt as he signed it, then looked up at him, "I can walk you home if you want me to?" Will smiled softly, but shook his head.

"I drove here," he said, "I can drive you home? It's getting kind of dark." Nico nodded, and after getting their unfinished meals into boxes, Will led Nico over to his car.

———

(Unedited)

This chapter took a legit month to write and I kind of hate how it turned out, like I had a completely different ending for it then I just didn't and I'm disappointed in myself but anyway-

Little update on everything-

I'm trying? I don't understand but I really can't seem to write? Also my anxiety is gradually getting worse which sucks I've had, like, six panic attacks this past week Oof for marching season, the scheduale recently changed to only Thursdays and Fridays for after school, but concert band is starting and it's going to change back to the older schedule pretty soon, plus our school made play offs and we have to be there for them + personal stuff I can't say because people I know irl follow me lmao <3 you guys

Anyway, I don't know, I really am trying to write as much as possible, and I only have one chapter left for How to Seduce Will Solace, and I have another idea for a one shot, so I'll get started in that as soon as possible, thanks for being patient <3

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