Solangelo Week Day 5 (Trope Combo): Childhood Friends to Lovers x Boarding School AU

World Count: 2343

TWs: Implied/referenced character death (happens in canon too)

Okay rambling time so I wrote the majority of this on a plane and I wrote it out of order and then moved it around after everything was done ajdjwjdjs. It's unedited but I still really like how it turned out! This is also kind of (like one specific part of it) is based off of that one scene in Stranger Things 2 with Nancy and Jonathan. So yeah.

—

"She's comin' to New York!"

Will burst through the door of Nico's dorm with a smile so big he was practically growing. He sat on the foot of the bed and the sheets crinkled under his weight, inconveniently shifting the precise placement of Nico's blanket, leaving his arms exposed in the cold air.

"Who's coming?" Nico asked, setting his homework aside. He didn't mind the interruption. Not if it involved procrastinating his homework, and certainly not if it was his best friend doing the interrupting.

"My mom!" Will exclaimed, practically buzzing with excitement. "She just told me the tour dates for her new album, and she's goin' to Madison Square Garden. That's only an hour away from here!"

At that, Nico perked up. "Your mom is coming?"

He also knew Will's mom. The Solace and di Angelo families had become next door neighbors nine years ago, when Nico had moved from Italy and Will from Texas. Naomi Solace had helped Nico through a lot when his own family was at a loss.

"Yeah! We're gettin' dinner the day before and she's stayin' in this real fancy tour bus that has like, four bedrooms. She said you can come too if you'd like!"

Nico thought about it for a second. He hadn't seen Naomi since he and Will had left for the new school year, almost two months ago.

"Yeah, I'll come. When's the concert?"

"May. We're gonna drive back home with her for Memorial Day weekend."

So they had a few breaks to go home in between. Still, Nico knew how excited Will must be. He was a lot closer with his mom than Nico and his dad, but neither of them had gotten to see their parents much since they'd started boarding school last year.

"Alright. Cool."

—

Nico and Will first met when they were six years old.

Nico's father, Hades, had opened the front door a few days after they had moved into their new home. The blond boy had been with his mom, who was smiling brightly. She'd introduced herself as Naomi Solace, which was a name Bianca had gaped at but Nico didn't know because he didn't listen to American country music. She'd said that her son had just moved from Texas to the house next door about a month ago, and they were more than welcome to come over anytime if they'd like. Hades had smiled politely and said that they might come around sometime, though he clearly had no intentions to.

It was Bianca who had convinced Nico to go next door with her.

"She's Naomi Solace!" Nico wasn't sure if his sister's stubbornness had come from being the older sibling or being an eight-year-old, but she had been determined. "The singer! She lives next door! A celebrity lives next door to us! And she has a kid that's Nico's age!"

That was all Nico needed. The little kid at the door with his mom had intrigued him, being the first person his age he had seen since they'd moved. What if he liked pirates too? Or that new game Mythomagic Hades had just gotten him?

Eventually, Bianca won the war. She and Nico went to Will's house the next day, and the rest was history.

—

Will was standing in front of him, and Nico's heart seemed to be exploding.

It was stupid. He wasn't dressed all nice for him, after all. The crisp white shirt and dress pants were for dinner with his mom. Naomi Solace's album had come out in October, instantly becoming a hit among her fans. They were going to her concert tomorrow, which was the last one in her USA tour. Tonight, the three of them were going to a restaurant, and Will had insisted on dressing up. And since Nico couldn't say no a smile like that, he was now in a matching black outfit.

"You ready?" Will asked, and Nico snapped back to reality, nodding in response.

They walked out of campus, where most kids were waiting for their parents to pick them up for Memorial Day weekend or walking in the same direction as Will and Nico to get on the bus into the City.

One hour later, the two boys stepped off the bus and onto the streets of Manhattan. Eventually, Will led them to the entrance of a restaurant. Nico tried to read the name of it, but the sign was written in cursive, and his dyslexia couldn't handle that.

Standing outside of the nameless restaurant was a woman with wavy blonde hair and sunglasses over her face, though Nico knew her eyes were blue. When she met their eyes, Will ran up to her and hugged his mom.

"Will!" she exclaimed, squeezing her sun in between her arms. "You've gotten so tall!"

Not really. He had hit his growth spurt in eighth grade, and although Nico had followed a year later, he still only came up to Will's nose.

Naomi let go of her son and turned towards Nico. "And how are you, sweetheart?"

He smiled. "I'm good. How's the tour?"

The three of them continued to talk as they walked inside the restaurant and sat down at the table. The chatter was nice. It had been a while since Nico had talked to Naomi, other than the quick hellos when she was on FaceTime with Will.

Speaking of Will, he was practically glowing. His best friend was a lot closer to his family than Nico was to his. If something happened to Naomi the way something had happened to Bianca, Will's entire world would be destroyed. Nico watched the way he looked completely entranced, as if hearing about his mother's show in Philadelphia was the most interesting topic in the world.

Oh, he was staring. Nico quickly whipped his head away focusing on the salt and pepper instead. Still, he wasn't quick enough.

Naomi smiled. "So, do you two have any crushes?"

Nico's eyes widened at the same time Will's cheeks turned red. "No," they answered in unison.

Naomi scoffed at their reactions. "Are you sure?"

Nico regained his composure, turning to Will. "Didn't you reject that one girl eariler this year?"

"Oh. Oh yeah. I felt real bad about it, so I just lied and said I liked someone else."

Lied. Because Will didn't like anyone. Especially not his best friend. So Nico just had to figure out how to get over his stupid crush before it ruined a decade of friendship.

Naomi didn't look like she was buying it. Nico bit the inside of his cheek. Thankfully, the waiter came and saved them, asking what drinks they wanted.

Good.

—

Nico was thirteen when his heart started pounding around Will.

Sometimes, in those shitty rom-coms that the Solace family always had playing in the background, the characters talked about the moment they fell in love with the other. That didn't really happen to Nico. It was a little bit everyday, and he didn't notice until it was too late, and the only thing Will had to go was smile for Nico's chest to constrict.

First, he had told himself it wasn't real. It was just that he was so scared of losing someone again the way he lost Bianca, but that car had hit Bianca four years before, and his dad had sent him to therapy for years by the time he hit eighth grade. Then, he had told himself that he just thought of Will as a really good friend, but he hadn't felt the same way around those other few kids he befriended over the years.

Eventually, he just accepted it. Will was a boy. Nico was a boy. Nico liked Will. There was nothing Nico could do to get rid of that, so he could just be Will's friend. It was okay if he never liked him back, because Will was such an amazing person that Nico was grateful to have him in his life, no matter what form.

So he didn't say anything.

—

Naomi's tour bus was huge.

There was a kitchenette in the corner, along with a small dining table that could fit six. There was a few rooms with the doors open, where Nico could see a few other people—members of Naomi's band—talking in a group with instruments near them. None of them got up when the three of them walked in, but they did wave.

There were more rooms too: bedrooms and bathrooms, storage closets, and a laundry room, tucked into the corner.

They didn't talk much after dinner, all three of them tired and knowing they had to get up early to set up for the concert the next day, so Naomi pointed Nico to the room he could sleep in.

Except Nico couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about what Naomi had said, and how Will said he liked someone else. He had also said that that was a lie, but the way his face looked...a part of Nico dared to hope.

He knew Will liked boys. They had come out to each other last year. But liking Nico? That was a different story. He would have to love to boy who lost his mother, and then his sister, which messed him up so badly he had to go to therapy for four years, and—

He needed to do a few laps.

Nico crawled out of bed and opened the door to his room...

...to find Will right in front of him, about to knock.

For a few seconds, both of them stood there in silence. Then, Will opened his mouth said, "Y'know how, earlier this year, that girl asked me out? And I said I liked someone else?"

"I just brought it up a few hours ago, so yeah, I remember." Nico responded, heart threatening to beat out of his chest.

"Uh, well, I...I wasn't really lying. Or, not really. I wasn't lying."

Shit.

"Uh..." Nico responded, eloquent as always, "So who do you like?"

Will have Nico a look, and a moment of silent understanding past through them. It wasn't like all the other times, when they were younger and they were both agreeing on messing with Bianca. It was deeper than that, like they could see exactly want the other wanted. Then, when they were sure the other was okay with it, they leaned in.

Will's lips pressed against Nico's, and all those butterflies he had been feeling in his stomach for years seemed to be beating their wings at the speed of light. It was...Nico didn't really have a better word for it other than nice. It only lasted a second before Will pulled away. Both of them were grinning.

"Uh..." Will looked at Nico for a second, and said, "Goodnight!" He spun on his heel and turned the other way.

Maybe under different circumstances, Nico would've worried that he had done something wrong. But he was so giddy the only thing he could do was laugh.

—

Nico and Will were fourteen when they went to boarding school.

Hades had sat down his son and asked him, "Do you want to go to the public school?"

It was one of the few times they had sat down and talked together since Bianca died. Hades hadn't known what to do, losing a wife in Italy and a daughter in America, while Nico had spent his days next door, helping Naomi Solace make dinner instead of his dad.

Nico had shook his head. "Not really," the kids at school were getting more aggressive, lightly shoving his shoulders instead of the usual yelling of slurs.

Hades had nodded at that. Nico hadn't told him anything, but there were a few calls from school. They looked at private schools and charter schools, but didn't really decide until Will had said that he was going to a boarding school in Long Island.

"My mom is gonna start releasin' music again," he had told Nico on another one of those days together. Naomi Solace had started putting out music less and less frequently when she had her son, and had stopped completely right before he had gone into middle school. "And if she does tours and stuff, I can't stay at home while she travels around the continent."

Nico has ran home that day and told Hades about the school. Both of them had enrolled. They didn't get to be roommates, but they were in the same building, so it was good enough for them.

They did their freshman year, and now they were in their Sophmore year, where they still got to be together.

Even after all this time.

—

Will and Naomi were already in the kitchenette by the time Nico woke up. When he walked in, still rubbing his eyes, Will was talking to his mom. His cheeks were pink, and he was so giddy he was practically bouncing.

"And then, we were both standin' there. And we were  kind of just starin' at each other. And I didn't really know what to say, so I was like—"

He saw Nico out of the corner of his eye, and Will's voice seemed to die in his throat.

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked, not being able to repress the smile stretching across his face.

Naomi rolled her eyes when Will sputtered, though her face was warm.

"I'm going to go check on the band," she announced, walking into another room and closing the door behind her.

Nico and Will stared at each other.

"So..." Nico started, "you kind of confessed to me last night."

Will nodded, eyes dropping to the floor. "I did."

Nico sucked in a breath. "Does this mean that we're dating?" He didn't know how relationships worked. Neither of them had ever been in one.

Will looked back up at him. "I mean...if you want to be...I would say yes."

Wow. Ten years of friendship, and now they were being awkward.

"I want to be."

Will smiled, and Nico couldn't help but grin back.

—

They went to the concert. It was amazing.

—

This is the longest thing I've ever written lmao. Thank you so much for reading! This all started because I had a tiny vision in my head of Will RAMBLING to Naomi about Nico because he is so down bad. (Still it's all from Nico's POV because Will's POV is coming...soon...)

There is a lot that I had to fit into a oneshot but in my head this plot was so intricate (there are so many things here that got like two sentences but have layers and layers of backstory behind them in my head 😭) and I'd love to make this a multi chapter thing one day if I ever have the time! Someday perhaps.

Also Tangled AU drops tomorrow get hyped