Nico's POV

He scribbles on the scratched up surface of his desk with his pencil, the granite bringing a black square into existence onto its surface with flecks and shavings of pencil lid springing up from the drawing. It isn't really a drawing, now that he thinks about it, staring at the box that stands darkly out among the faint shadows of penises and swears that still haven't been completely erased from last year. It's more of a habit, scribbling on the desk like that. Because there isn't much else to do as his chemistry teacher drones on and on about class conduct that year, what their syllabus looked like. He's heard the same thing over and over and now, as a junior, the same speech he gets every year in every class is starting to get old.

There isn't anything that really gets his heart going about being a junior, besides the looming threat of the SATs in April, the prospect of starting the long process of college tours. What was once an exciting day for him, picking out his outfit the night before and picking out nice pencils at Target but this year, there's nothing. No new things, no excitement to look forward to.

Everyone else in the class is feeling it, too, the wet blanket over the room that has replaced what used to be overwhelming excitement. Leo's elbow is slipping off of the desk as his eyes close, his head resting on his fist. It's too early in the morning to be hearing the words weekend homework and syllabus; normally, Nico wouldn't even be awake.

His day brightens up when Percy leans over, a grin playing across his face. "Hey. Top right."

"What?"

"Look at the dude in the top right seat."

"Are you trying to describe a seat as top right? That's not how you describe seat placement in a classroom."

"Yeah, but you know who I'm talking about."

"But it's not top right. You could say first row, or front of the classroom, or-"

"Damn it, Nico, just look at him. It's cute hallway boy." Nico's face flushes and he glances down at the black box he's been drawing onto the desk, brushing away the granite flakes with the tips of his fingers and letting it dye them black.

"There isn't a-"

"There is too a cute hallway boy and you know it. You point him out literally every time you see him and never once have you had him in one of your classes. Now's your chance. You should talk to him." Nico laughs softly, shaking his head as he expands the square. Their teacher is talking about the course material now, the complicated algebra that they'll have to teach themselves outside of school and where they can go to find their homework.

"You know I won't do that," Nico says. "I'm too scared." Even so, he glances at cute hallway boy from the corners of his eyes, the light from above bouncing off of his sleek blond hair and giving it that shine that you see in shampoo commercials. His head is dipped to the side as he scrawls something on some piece of paper that Nico didn't bother getting, his shirt clinging to his back muscles, moving with the motion of his arm. Hallway boy leans back, stretching out his limbs and when he turns to talk to his friend, Nico is struck by the soft profile of his face, the soft glisten of sweat on his forehead. He looks so much older than Nico; the strong jawline and smooth skin. Nico shrinks into his seat just looking at him. He looks like a child next to hallway boy; how does he ever think he could possibly manage to say a word?

Will's POV

"Look behind you, but don't make it obvious," Austin says, leaning in so subtly that even their teacher, five feet ahead of them, probably couldn't see.

"What?"

"It's cute hallway boy."

"Cute hallway boy? Where?" He extends his arms behind his head, stretching his muscles as he glances behind him.

"I said not too obvious."

"Shut up, Austin." Will isn't paying attention to his teacher anymore. Cute hallway boy is bent over, talking to his friend with his eyes darting nervously around the room, hitting everything but Will. The friend's name is Percy, Will knows. Austin has talked about having him in classes, but cute hallway boy is an enigma to him. They'll pass in the halls, avoiding his eyes so that he won't be able to tell how strangely attracted Will is to his feathery black hair, the sharp groove of his cheekbones. He looks like how Will would imagine a fairy to look. If he sprouted wings from his back and flew off to a home in his tree, Will wouldn't be surprised.

"Dude, you're so obviously staring."

"Shut up, Austin."

"You already said that."

"I don't think we should be friends anymore." Despite his words, he slumps over, resting his chin on his arms folded over the tables, watching his teacher drone on about safety procedures in the lab. He had gotten to the room first that day; he had the pick of the seats. A stupider him from fifteen minutes ago had chosen the front of the room, in a vain effort to do better in science that year. But now he was stuck looking at Mr. Gilmore's crotch, while hallway boy got the view from the back, the one where he could stare longingly at anyone for as long as he wanted, unencumbered by the possibility that the person he was staring longingly at would wonder why he had been turned around for so long. He had tried his hardest to prepare for this new school year, make sure to maximize productivity and pay the most attention and still, it seems as if hallway boy has it more figured out than Will does.

Nico's POV

School feels as if it flies by, the days blurring together, linked by homework assignments and three-hour study sessions that leave Nico's eyes burning. Soon they're diving into the lab periods in chemistry, smoke puffing up from the lips of beakers, goggles digging into their skin. The partners rotate daily and, as Nico is stuck with the girl who doesn't talk and the boy who smells strongly of pickles, he had to expect that he'd be partnered with cute hallway boy at some point. Will, he's found out by eavesdropping on conversations a couple of rows in front of him. It rolls off of the tongue, a simple one-syllable name that fits his look; simple and yet somehow, still so beautiful.

It's strange between them, as Nico pours the liquid into respective beakers and Will reads off the instructions, the goggles sitting on his forehead and carving a red line into his skin. Their conversation is kept light, bad jokes that both of them know will make the other laugh exchange because they're the same stupid jokes that make everyone laugh. But Nico doesn't go any deeper than small talk, doesn't mention how he can't help but look at Will whenever he walks through the halls, how he's been trying to muster up the courage for years to talk to him. Every time the words are on the tip of his tongue, the words to express his unbridled attraction to Will, he clams up and his face goes red. And as the clock winds down on their period, Will mopping up a spot of spilled chemicals and Nico dumping everything out, he wishes for the first time that they had another couple of minutes, just one last chance to talk to Will outside of the basic exchange between classmates. And as he makes his way to his next class, watching Will round a bend while Nico goes straight, his heart sinks to his stomach.

"That was your chance," Percy says, leaning in close. Their feet pound on the linoleum floor, dirt stirred up as their feet. The hallway bustles with activity, the sound of lockers slamming and chatter about homework and tests. "You had that entire lab period to talk to him, and what did you talk about?"

"The number of sigfigs in the problem."

"And is that sexy?"

"No."

"And why didn't you talk about something sexier?"

"I got nervous."

"You're never going to get anywhere with him if you only ever talk about science," Percy reminds him gently. He's clearly trying not to be judgemental, with the softness of his tone and the squeeze on the shoulder. But Nico still feels sweaty, and it still hurts to look into Percy's eyes.

"I know." He scratches on his arm, staring down at the tiled floor, the fluorescent lights reflecting a line onto them. "I'm working on it."

"Well, you better work faster. Anyway, I gotta go to history. See you at lunch?"

"Yeah," Nico says, still staring at the glint of light on the floor. "See you then." Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Percy slipping into the history room and yeah, Nico has his pre-calc class in two minutes, but he doesn't want to move, still lingering in front of the history room staring at the floor. Maybe if he stands for long enough time will start to move the other way and bring him back to the time where he still had a chance to talk to Will.

Will's POV

"Have I told you you're stupid yet today?"

"No," Will says with an eye roll, scribbling out math problems onto his sheet amid the quiet hum of conversation in study hall.

"Well, you're stupid," Austin says, leaning back in the booth and stretching out his legs so far that they brush against Will's feet. "You had an entire lab period to talk to him and I don't think I heard you say a single word."

"I talked to him," Will says, doodling circles in the margins of his math homework. He's never been an artist, but the circles help keep his mind occupied so he draws until his paper looks like swiss cheese and there's barely any more room to draw.

"What I meant was that you didn't talk about anything that would remotely lead to you two making out in the janitor's closet."

"Neither of us want that."

"How do you know that? You've never actually talked to him." Will's face heats up and he starts to fill in his circles, shading them lightly with the side of his pencil. Austin won't stop staring at him, his eyebrows raised. "Come on. You need to talk to him. You've been staring at him in the hallways for going on three years, you have to."

"Yeah, yeah, I will." Will bends down lower over his math homework, typing out some numbers on the calculator and waiting for Austin to stop staring at him like that, with all of the judgment in the world. But maybe Will deserves the judgement because Austin was right; the universe gave him one chance, one chance to talk to Nico, make an impression, and he blew it, without even realizing the chance that he had.

Nico's POV

"Nico! Wait up!" Nico spins around to see Will slipping through the hall, pushing past slow freshmen and lethargic seniors until he's caught up to Nico, stuck behind a chattering line of sophomores. "You going to chem?"

"Oh, yeah." Nico's heart threatens to break the walls of his chest and his fingers tremble, sweat making them slip from the zippers of his backpack, barely able to close the pockets without them slipping. "You wanna walk together?" He has to force himself to speak but when he does, when he finally makes a move in the direction of something that at least resembles friendship, he lets out a sigh he's been holding in for nearly three years.

"So, you ready for chem?"

"To listen to Mr. Gilmore talk about chemical safety while something burns in the background? Yeah, I'm ready."

"For someone who's supposed to be keeping a class of twenty safe, he's not very careful," Will says, grinning. Nico is gifted with a flash of white teeth, the shine in Will's eyes from the smile.

"I'll be shocked if the whole class makes it through the year," Nico says, running his thumbs down his backpack straps as the hallway starts to empty and people slip into their respective classes. He hadn't expected his terrible joke to land but Will laughs; unforced and real. It's a softer laugh than he expected, but he likes it. He just wishes it hadn't taken him so long to hear it. "My money's on Percy. He's stupider than Mr. Gilmore." Will laughs again, and Nico curses the chemistry for being so close. The door is open a couple of hundred feet down, and he catches a glimpse of a fire sitting on a burner, licking at the air.

"Too bad we don't have, like, a study hall together or something," Will says, staring at the chemistry room with just as much distaste as Nico feels. "It kinda sucks trying to get to know someone over bunsen burners and wondering whether or not the newest chemical spill is going to kill us." Will looks pale, but still, his smile is sincere. "Maybe we could hang out sometime. You wanna get coffee after school sometime?" Nico opens his mouth and for a second it feels as if he's underwater and he can't breathe. But then the world gives him back his oxygen and he takes a deep breath, smiling. He hopes it doesn't look too tight, too forced, but Will's bright expression never wavers, and after a second, Nico's face relaxes.

"Yeah. That sounds nice, actually. I'd love to."

"Great. Meet in the lobby?"

"See you there." When he looks to the back of the room Percy flashes him a very obvious thumbs up and Nico rolls his eyes, shaking his head as Percy bites down hard on his pencil to contain the excitement. If he looks away from Percy hopefully Nico's face won't go too red so his eyes go to the front of the room where Will is pulling out his chair, earning a slap on the back from Austin even before he's sitting. Austin turns and he makes awkward eye contact with Nico for half a second before his head snaps back around and he whispers into Will's ear. Nico frowns, his eyebrows creasing. He had always thought that there was no way the attraction had been mutual; until this class, Nico had never even spent more than five seconds looking at him. But maybe there was a chance that in passing interactions and quick glances, that Will had developed the same attraction to Nico as Nico had developed toward Will. Maybe, Nico was Will's cute Hallway boy, just like Will was to Nico.

Hi guys, I'm gonna start out by saying that I know this isn't that great, I'm hoping to get a better system as I get into school but for now the one shots might be a little rocky for a while. Anyway, hope it was slightly coherent, and you liked it!

Nina