Request for ffoodie and I took a few liberties with the prompt so I hope it's okay!

Will's POV

He wasn't expecting to find anyone good on Grindr. The vast majority of men are either too horny, too ugly or both so when Will found Nico Di Angelo, 5 miles away, likes dogs, McDonald's and long walks in Central Park. Looking for something real, he swipes right immediately. Part of Will doesn't expect to get an answer. Who would swipe right on freckled, blond, stocky Will Solace, 22, med student, loves Netflix a little too much. So when Nico Di Angelo swipes right on him, too, his heart feels like it's soaring.

Hey. Will is surprised that Nico texts him so soon and he shoots back a hey after waiting about five minutes. He can't come off as too desperate.

Nico- how r u?

Will- good. bored. watching tv instead of studying for a test tomorrow. wbu?

Nico- i was browsing grindr to find a good guy. but it seems like i already found one, so now i have to find something else to do. Will almost laughs and his heart gives a small flutter in his chest. He smiles, his fingers hovering over the keyboard as he thinks of a response.

Will- you're a lot smoother than a lot of the other guys on here, you know that? most of the guys on here are either absolute losers or just looking for a quick bone. or a catfish, but you don't seem like any of those. He sees the three dots pop up where Nico is typing and they disappear for a second before they pop back up again, and a message pops up on his screen.

Nico- yeah, you too. unless you're actually a total loser and i just don't know you well enough, but you seem cool. a little too cool to be flirting with me on grindr, but we can ignore that for now. This time Will laughs out loud and somehow, through the bright glow of his phone screen, he knows he's made a connection.

Percy's POV

"This is a bad idea, Perce, I'm serious," Annabeth says, running her hand up his arm. "He's gonna hate you."

"No, he won't," Percy says, his eyes still trained on the chat. "He'll love me. He needs more confidence anyway. Can't get a boyfriend my ass. Nico could get whoever he wanted. He's attractive, he just won't admit it." He frowns at the screen. "Hey, how do you flirt?"

"You got me just fine," Annabeth says, kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Yeah, but this is gay flirting," Percy says. "It's different. You gotta make different jokes, and talk about different things." He shoots out a quick text to Will Solace, 22, five miles away, med student, loves Netflix a little too much. Part of him feels bad- Will seems nice enough. But that could mean he was doing Nico a favor.

"You're being an idiot," Annabeth says, rolling her eyes. "Say this does work out, and Nico and this Will person somehow meet up. Nico isn't going to respond well when he finds out that you used his picture to catfish people on grindr so that Nico could then get a boyfriend. Not to mention that Nico might even like Will when they meet."

"He'll figure it out," Percy says. "Nico's a resourceful guy. Besides, he complains about being lonely and single every day, so he's not really in a position to be turning nice, attractive guys down right now." He waits for Will's response, glancing at Annabeth to see her roll her eyes. "Hey, excuse me for trying to do something nice for my friend."

"You're making a mistake." Annabeth settles down in the bed, pulling the sheets up over their bodies and glancing over Percy's shoulder. "How's it going?"

"I knew you were interested," Percy says with a smirk. "It's going well, actually. I sort of struck gold." His fingers are rapid fire on the keyboard and halfway through a text, he pauses, glancing down at his girlfriend. "Nico mentioned going to the library to study for a test he has tomorrow at two, right?"

"I think so." Annabeth props herself up on her elbow for a better view of the screen, her breath warm on Percy's cheek. "Why?" Percy grins as he types out the second part of the text and she gives him a look of death. "Perce, no. That's going too far."

"They've got plans at the library for two," Percy says. "Nico will be texting us tomorrow, thanking us for being such good friends."

"Doubtful," Annabeth says, watching Percy put the phone down. "You're not gonna text him anymore?"

"Nah," Percy says. "Don't wanna set their relationship up too much for them. Although I do think I've done a pretty good job myself."

"You're such an idiot," Annabeth says, kissing Percy on the lips. She tastes like her strawberry lip gloss and Percy cups her cheek, the tips of their noses touching. When they pull apart her gray eyes are shining, and her cheek is a light pink.

"Yeah, and you love it."

" I guess I do." Percy wraps his arm around her and she tucks herself into the curve of his body, her head on his chest as he wraps a shimmering strand of blonde hair around his finger. Nico had always wanted a strong relationship, a solid one, one with meaningful dates and kisses at midnight and sleeping with their foreheads touching, listening to his boyfriend's steady breath. Was it really so bad to try and give that to him?

Nico's POV

He's flipping through a test he has for his comparative literature course when he hears a chair pulling out next to him and he glances up to see a tall blonde boy sitting down next to him, his blue eyes shimmering. "Hey," the boy says. Nico hesitates before responding, glancing around him but the rest of the library is empty.

"Hey," Nico says once he realizes that he's the only one the boy could be talking to. He turns his head back down to his book but the boy doesn't relent; he scoots closer, propping his elbows up on the table and giving Nico a cheeky smile.

"So, were you really just gonna study this whole time? I thought that was, like, code for something."

"I'm sorry, do we know each other?" Nico slips a scrap of paper inside the book, frowning. "Like, sorry if I'm being rude, but I've never seen you in my life."

"What?" The boy frowns and he leans back, his eyes sweeping over Nico's face. "You are Nico Di Angelo, right? Likes dogs, McDonald's and long walks in Central Park?"

"That's me. Still, don't know how we know each other."

"We talked on grindr for, like, two hours last night," Will says, pulling out his phone. "Here, you can look through our conversation if you want." Nico grabs the phone, scrolling through texts between Will and 'Nico'. He clicks on his profile, pictures of him from his Instagram, iMessage, snapchats he only sent to one person.

"Fuck," he says, sliding Will back his phone. "I know what's going on."

"Care to tell?" A small smile appears on Will's face and as Nico looks at him more closely, he realizes that he is cute. A smattering of freckles across his nose, a tiny gap in between his teeth. He seemed like a nice person and he was gay if he was using grindr.

"My friend, Percy, keeps saying how much I need to find a boyfriend and he keeps getting pissed when I don't actually make a move to find someone, so he uses my pictures to catfish and then wonders why I never actually end up with the guys he 'sets me up with'. He did it with tinder, too." He leans back in his seat, thinking hard. "You seem nice, though. You wanna have some fun?"

"Like what kind of fun?"

"Come on." Nico stands up, offering Will his hand. "I'll show you." He's almost surprised when Will takes his hand but neither of them pulls away so Nico leaves his textbook on the table, pulling Will in the direction of Percy's apartment.

------

"Hey, Perce," he yells out as soon as the door slams shut behind him and he's standing in the foyer, still holding Will's hand. It's soft and Will steps up closer to him, gazing around at the apartment.

He hears a clunk and Percy yells "coming!" just as Will leans down to whisper into his ear.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Of course I have a plan," Nico says, grinning as he hears footsteps growing closer. "I wouldn't drag you into this if I didn't." Will is smiling softly and Nico can't explain why but his body feels light and he swings their hands softly at his side.

"Hey," Percy says as he steps into the room, grinning at the two boys slyly. "Who's this, Nico?"

"I want you to meet Will," Nico says, bringing Will's hand up to his lips and giving it a light kiss. "We were just about to go grab some hot cocoa, but I thought I'd stop over here first and introduce you since you were on the way."

"Well, Will, it's great to meet you." Percy's gaze is flitting between Will and Nico, and Nico can tell he's proud of his plan.

"We actually talked a lot at the library, he's a really interesting guy," Nico says, continuing on as if it's normal. Will is quiet at his side, letting Nico run with his idea. "He told me his ingenious way of how he escaped his job in a drug cartel."

"Wait-" Percy's beginning to look confused, his brow furrowing.

"I can't tell you too much about it, in case they somehow find me again," Will says. "But it involved a shoelace and half a gallon of cinnamon lube." Nico has to fight to hold back his laughter.

"But I thought- I-" Percy's face is white, and he's staring hard at Will. "You were in pre-med."

"Funny how you knew that," Nico says, cocking his head. He gives Will's hand a squeeze, and Will's other hand is on his back, pulling him close. "But yeah, and it's come in handy. Don't tell anyone, but he sells organs on the black market to make ends meet since his drug thing ended."

"And I use the stuff I'm learning in school to make sure they don't die." Will's comment is perfectly timed and Nico finds himself gravitating closer to Will, his smile genuine. "Well, most of the time, anyway. But I can use the money to buy Nico something nice."

"Drugs," Nico says. "Let's buy very, very illegal drugs. Not from your old friends, though. That might not be good for us." He isn't sure how Percy still looks so terrified; they've both dropped the charade ages ago, and they don't even try to hide their smiles. But Percy is petrified.

"Sounds great." Will sweeps him up in a long, passionate kiss and Nico can't tell if they're faking it for Percy's sake or not. "Anyway, you wanna grab that hot cocoa now?"

"Yeah." Nico pulls away from Will, and he's positive he's blushing hard. He can feel his cheeks burning but as long as Percy is still taking the lie, he has to stay in character, the boy going out with a drug selling, organ harvesting criminal. Not the one who might be falling for the slightly nerdy pre-med student, willing to go along with any plan that Nico cooked up."By, Perce. See you later."

"Nice to meet you." Will holds out his hand and Percy takes it as if it's a bomb, giving it a quick shake before letting it drop to his side.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, too," Percy mumbles. Nico and Will are about to walk out the door when Percy calls out a frantic "wait!" and Nico turns around, firmly grabbing onto Will's hand. "Maybe we should talk. There's something I should-"

"Can we talk about it later?" Nico asks. "We're just about to go."

"But-"

"By, Percy." Nico turns around, throwing up a hand in goodbye as he and Will walk out the door hand in hand, leaving Percy standing in his foyer, shook to his core.

"That was really, really fun," Will says with a small laugh as soon as they're out of a range where Percy had a chance of hearing them. "You came up with that plan pretty quickly." They step out of the apartment building and immediately a gust of cold winter air hits them and almost as an instinct Nico steps closer to Will.

"I prepared myself after Percy made his first tinder account for me," Nico says with a small laugh. "Never found someone who was cool with it, though."

"Well, you're welcome." Nico laughs softly, his breath pluming up in the air. A shiver runs through his body and Will winds his scarf around Nico's neck and when Nico glances up at him, there's a sweet smile on his face. "Hey, were you serious about wanting to grab hot cocoa? I know it's weird circumstances but still, it could be nice."

"I was hoping you'd ask that," Will says. "Do you have a place in mind?"

"Yeah, right down the corner." They talk and laugh as Nico leads them to the street corner and while he might not exactly be happy about it maybe Percy had made a good decision, for once in his life. Maybe, if things went well that day, he'd have to tell Percy the truth, that Will wasn't a hardened criminal who could harvest organs and outwit a drug cartel with a shoelace and a half gallon of cinnamon lube. Well, he'd tell Percy eventually.

Hi guys, I was tired when I wrote this and I didn't look it over at all(shocker) but I hope you liked it!

Nina