Nico was in tears when Will walked into the Hades cabin.

"Hey..." Will slowly bent down in front of Nico, who was sitting on his cabin bed. "What's going on, my star?"

Nico angrily pulled away as Will tried reaching to take his hand. He stood up abruptly and walked to the other cabin bed, the one that was covered in blue sheets and yellow pillows and was intended for Will whenever he spent the night.

Will was sweaty and had blood stains on his clothes, having just worked an extensive shift at the infirmary. Nico was done up, but Will couldn't place why, even though it was on the tip of his tongue.

Nico quickly wiped his cheeks dry and avoided eye contact, keeping his brooding eyes down and his hair brushed back behind his shoulders. The shadows in the room curled around him, showing how much inner turmoil he was in that he wasn't expressing.

"There's cake in the fridge," Nico said bluntly, glaring at Will ever so slightly.

Will furrowed his eyebrows, "Should I make dinner?"

"I don't care," Nico replied coldly, turning around and laying against the bed, facing the wall with his back to Will.

Will swallowed. What did I do now? Not that Nico was angry like this all the time, but Will was pretty socially oblivious in general, so maybe he messed up with Nico this time.

Slowly, Will walked over to the other side of the room, opening the mini fridge that Nico had gotten from the Hephaestus cabin, plugged into nothing but a battery on the inside. When he opened it, he saw an uneaten cake. It looked to be plain chocolate, with chocolate frosting, and only had a few crumbs taken out of it. On the top it read Happy birthday! and there were partially melted candles on top.

Shit... The realization dawned on Will. He'd missed Nico's birthday party.

By now, Nico had started crying again, silently into Will's pillow. Everyone from the Argo II had showed up for the party by the lake, and a few other acquaintances Nico had too. Even a few younger kids who saw Nico as a hero, and Chiron made a short appearance. For hours, Nico had insisted that they needed to wait until his boyfriend, Will, arrived to eat the cake.

Will never showed.

By the end of the day, Nico decided to take the cake home. Maybe it'd be a better day tomorrow, and he'd eat the cake for lunch or something. Worse case scenario, it would be his depression snack, since he was out of ice cream.

Will exhaled, shutting the fridge without pulling anything out. He walked to the bed that Nico was sitting at. When Nico felt the bed dip backwards as Will gingerly sat down, he wiped his cheeks again to hide the face that he was so worked up.

"I'm sorry," Will said firstly. "I got busy at the infirmary. I lost track of time..."

"You forgot," Nico clarified, sitting up and angrily facing him. "Like you always do."

"Like I always do?" Will asked, taken a bit aback.

"Yes, like you always do!" Nico raised his voice. "You forget our dates, you forget our training, and now you forgot by birthday!"

"Nico, I'm sorr-"

"Don't you understand how embarrassed I was?!" Nico started to cry again. "I was waiting for you all day! I've never celebrated my birthday since... since Bianca died. It was supposed to be special and a happy day and I deserved to have my boyfriend there supporting me, but  you couldn't care less! Your camp responsibilities always come before me and I'm not going to be your convenience boyfriend, Will! You're supposed to make an effort to be there for me!"

With that, he threw his legs over the bed and walked back to his bed, avoiding Will's physical proximity again.

Will let his head hang low. He couldn't even argue back. Nico was right. Will wasn't putting Nico first, and he had let Nico down on numerous occasions, including today. Nico never let Will down, and now he felt like the shittiest boyfriend in the world. He probably was.

"How do I fix this?" Will asked, trying to capture Nico's eye contact but Nico had his arms folded and his sad eyes on the wall of his cabin.

"I don't know, Will, but making this up to me better be good," Nico warned.

With a heavy heart and angry veins, Nico flipped around and faced the wall again, laying down and deciding to sleep for the night, going to bed angry for the first time throughout their entire relationship.