I DON'T OWN PJO OR HOO CHARACTERS OR SETTING. THE ONLY THING I OWN IS THE PLOT AND MILO.

Will was in front of Nico in a heartbeat. His mouth opened, ready to throw harsh words like stones towards his half-brother, but he found himself cut off.

"Will, I'm so sorry..." Milo began.

"I don't want to hear it."

"No, please, hear me out-"

"She's dead because of you." Will accused, the painful words slicing into his heart. "Kayla's dead." He felt a reassuring hand on his, and Will turned around to find himself being pulled into Nico's arms. "You... you poisoned her... she died and I couldn't even save her..." That's when the tears really started to come down. Since he was stabbed and spent most of his recovery period sedated, Will never had time to properly mourn. And when he did, he didn't want to mourn. He didn't want his sister to be gone. The full effect of the grief hit Will in that moment, and his knees buckled. Nico pulled Will closer to him and whispered some soothing words into his ear.

"Will, I- I wasn't myself, I swear..." Milo tried to say, but he was cut off by Percy and the rest who had come to celebrate Nico regaining his memories pushing him away from Will and Nico. The dark haired boy continued to whisper soothing phrases in Italian to him, and along with the pain and grief, Will also felt guilt.

This was wrong. Will should be the one comforting Nico, not the other way around. The son of Hades had died, came back, lost his memories, regained them, and then lost some of his newer memories all in the time frame of about a week. And yet Will was the one being comforted. He was so selfish to be doing this, to be crying into Nico's shoulder when Nico had had it so much worse than Will had. He tried to pull away, an apology on his lips, but Nico pulled Will back and placed a gentle kiss on the forehead. Despite the current mood, Will weakly chuckled at the effort as Nico was so short.

"I know how it feels to lose a sister, Will. It sucks. It really, really sucks." Nico murmured into Will's ear, his warm breath tickling it slightly. "But I found out the hard way that once the dead are gone, they won't come back. You can try and bring them back, sure. You can visit the underworld multiple times a week, you can plead with Hades to just free one soul, you can beg and beg, but the dead will always stay dead. So you stop. And you mourn. And no matter how hard it is, you accept their death. You live." His voice was firm now. "Will, you must live."

Will burned with guilt. "I'm sorry, Neeks. I'm sorry for this. I'm so sorry."

"You don't need to be, Tesoro." Treasure. Nico had called Will a treasure. A faint blush dusted  his cheeks as Will bent down to kiss Nico's lips softly. 

It was this moment that Percy chose to grace the duo with his clumsy presence. "What's up, my bro- OH-" Percy caught sight of the kiss and almost fell over. "Oh my gods! UWU UWU JASON C'MERE!" he yelled, and both Nico and Will went red.

"Shut up, Jackson." Nico hissed, his voice harsh. Will flinched a bit, the harsh tone slightly reminding him of Milo's taunts. Nico's grip on Will's hand tightened reassuringly.

Will sighed. "Look, I don't feel so good. I'm gonna go back to my cabin..." 

"I'll come with you." Nico responded, his beautiful dark eyes filled with concern. 

Will simply nodded in turn, and turned to cabin 7, ignoring Percy's half-hearted "use protection" comments as the pair walked together to the Apollo cabin. A tired Austin greeted them at the entrance, it was clear he'd been crying. The brothers embraced as Nico went inside, muttering something about needing the toilet.

"We burnt her shroud with some arrows." Austin told him, his voice raw from crying.

"Good." was all Will could say in response.

The two Apollo sons stood, facing each other, for a moment of silence. That moment contained all the unsaid words, the unspoken promises that Will and Austin had ever had. They had each other now, no matter what. And they would not let Kayla's death be in vain.