IM SO SORRY I THOUGHT I POSTED THIS LAST NIGHT BUT IT DIDNT GO UP?? so i'm really really sorry abt that but here it is and i hope u enjoy!

Nico's POV

Nico blinks as Will shines a bright light in his eyes, momentarily blinded by the glare until he blinks a few times and his vision returns, spots dancing in his vision. "Are you almost done?" he asks, his legs dangling off of the side of the hospital bed as Will frowns, crouching down and peering deeper into his eyes.

"Almost," he says, scribbling something down on his chart. "How'd it happen this time?"

"I was skateboarding," Nico says, scratching the back of his head. His file is tucked in between Will's arm and the side of his doctor's jacket, and he can only imagine all of the stupid injuries scribbled down in Will's terrible handwriting. "And Percy dared me to do a flip off of the top, but I the side of my head into the concrete on my way down." He rubs at the place where he smashed his head, wincing, and Will slaps his arm away.

"Don't touch it."

"Why are you trying to tell me what to do?"

"I'm your doctor, Nico." Nico laughs, only half registering his actions.

"Oh, yeah." He pauses, staring off into space. "Hey, aren't you technically only an intern?"

"I'm a fellow," Will says, his voice trailing off. "But yeah, basically." Nico laughs again, and part of him feels like he's floating.

"Loser."

"Don't you work at a pizza place? And come into the er about once a week?"

"Low blow, Will," Nico says. "Am I good to go?"

"Don't do anything stupid for at least a week," Will says, scribbling something down in Nico's file of shameful mistakes. "Get some rest, don't look at any screens, don't do anything that requires too much brain power. And if you throw up, come back."

"I already have."

"I mean if you throw up any more," Will says, sighing.

"Great, thanks." He slips off of the cot, slightly unsteady on his feet and Will grabs Nico underneath the arms, holding him steady as he regains his balance. He feels bile rise up in his throat but he swallows, wincing and wiping out his mouth, feeling dirty even though nothing came up. Will frowns, his eyes scanning Nico's body as if he's looking for any sign of injury he can find.

"You okay?" Nico lets out a shaky breath, squeezing his eyes shut and nodding.

"Just a little dizzy."

"If you feel like you need it we can keep you overnight for observation. We don't usually do it for concussions but you've had so many. I could talk to my supervisor, and-"

"Why do you want me to stick around so bad?" Nico asks a tiny smile playing across his face. Will rolls his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest with his pen still clenched in his hand. There's a spot of ink on the tip of his pen, and, for some reason, the sight of his name written in Will's handwriting makes his heart leap in his chest.

"Just go," Will says quietly, patting Nico on the back. "But come back if there are any complications, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill."

"See you later," Will says, smirking. Nico rolls his eyes but gives him a small wave, walking out of the room with Will's eyes on his back.

His head begins to spin as soon as he's out of the building and he has to lean against the wall of the building, fumbling to pull a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket as he dials Percy's number. The ringing makes his head pound even more than it already is and part of him wants to collapse onto the hospital bed in the air-conditioned room and sleep the day away. Will would check up on him every fifteen minutes- standard hospital procedure for concussions-and when he woke up, his headache would be gone. But he can't give Will that satisfaction so as he waits for Percy to pick up he sinks down against the outer wall of the hospital, his the concrete burning his butt as he ignores strange looks from passers-by. "Hey, Nico! How's the head?" Percy's loud voice makes his head throb even more and he drives the heel of his hand into his forehead, wincing.

"Bad. Can you come to pick me up?"

"I'm watching tv."

"It's your fault I'm here in the first place. You dared me to do the flip."

"I have a frozen pizza in the oven."

"It's a five-minute drive to the hospital. Just come get me." The phone crackles as Percy sighs, and he yells something to Annabeth about making sure his pizza doesn't burn. The heat of the day is making his stomach flip but he can't throw up again. He isn't sure there's anything left in his stomach to heave up.

"I'll be right there." The sound in his ear stops as Percy hangs up and Nico lets out a low groan, thoughtlessly letting his head fall back against the wall until he realizes that even that makes his head throb. But once it's there it feels good, letting his face bake in the hot summer sun. And with his eyes closed, he doesn't feel quite as nauseous so he lets himself drift off, his hands wrapped around his stomach as he's warmed by the sunlight on his face.

"Hey, dude, wake up." Someone is patting his cheek and he groans, lifting up his head and squinting up. Percy's head is framed in the sun and it glows from behind him, making his cheeks rosy. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired." Percy offers him his hand and Nico grabs it, pulling himself up. He's slightly unsteady and Percy claps his shoulder, guiding him gently to his car. It's parked in one of the ambulance zones and one of the employees throws an oblivious Percy a dirty look as he slips into the driver's seat.

"Should you be alone right now? Like, you're not going to die, are you?" Nico frowns, sitting down hard in the passenger's seat.

"I don't think I'm gonna die."

"I'll take you back to our apartment. You can sleep on the couch for the night if you want to."

"Thanks. Will would love you. He's so careful about stuff it's almost annoying." Percy laughs lightly, and it's laced with confusion.

"Who's Will?"

"He's my-" At first, he's confused. He's in the er so often with dislocated bones or bloody wounds so often that Will feels like just another person in his life, someone he sees a couple of times a month, jokes around with, makes small talk with. But it's suddenly dawning on him that most people only see Will for what he is on the outside- just a fellow at the hospital. "Never mind." He groans slightly, letting his head rest against the seat as he wraps his hands around the stomach, the bumping making it flip and flip in his stomach as Percy drives.

Will's POV

"So, what have you been doing with your afternoon?" Kayla asks, adjusting her tiny ponytail, a bounce in her step. "Doctor Reed let me sit in on an appendectomy. It was kinda gross, considering her guts were out, but it was also cool, considering her guts were out."

"Sounds more interesting than mine," Will says, flipping back through his files. He hasn't done a lot, he realizes as his finger lingers on Nico's file. Besides the brief concussion excitement, his afternoon has been dry. "I helped out Nico with a concussion."

"Nico?" Kayla frowns, and Will suddenly realizes that while he thinks about Nico almost daily, wondering how the bone he set was healing up or wondering whether or not he was dead in a ditch, Nico was just another familiar face around the hospital. "The kid who comes in, like, once a week?" She laughs softly, leaning against the counter top. "He probably has brain damage at this point."

"I think he's fine," Will says, frowning. "Although he seemed a little more unsteady this time around."

"I'd say he'd be back, but he's probably too stupid to know when there's a problem." She's scribbling down notes on her pad, not even glancing up. Her words are so careless, slipping out of her mouth as if she's not even thinking about them. They joke around about patients nearly every day, laughing about the man who got a pencil lodged in his ear canal, or the woman who claimed she didn't know you weren't supposed to eat random berries in the woods. But this feels different, and he feels fire in his chest.

"He's not stupid," he says quickly, frowning. "Just a little careless. But you're supposed to mess around when you're twenty-one."

"You're twenty-two and you already have a fellowship at a hospital," Kayla points out. "Nico's just reckless."

"Yeah, well, he's a good guy," Will snaps. "He's nice and funny." Kayla looks taken aback, her eyebrows creasing in the middle until a small smile begins to spread across her face, and she nods her head as if she knows something that Will doesn't.

"I get it."

"Get what?"

"He's cute." She grabs her notebook off of the counter, shoving it into the pocket of her jacket. "You should talk to him sometime. Because I can guarantee that he'll be back soon."

"Kayla, I-" he searches for something to say, shaking his head and steadying his breathing. "There's nothing-"

"Yeah, okay." She pats him on the shoulder, shaking his head. "I would say you should get his number, but we have it on file." She laughs at her own joke, walking off to Doctor Reed's office to go over her day before she can go home. That leaves Will leaning against the counter, gripping it until his knuckles turn white with questions he doesn't have answers to running through his mind. Nico is dumb. So, so incredibly dumb. But there's something about the stupid grin on his face when he comes into the emergency room with a crooked nose or his arm clutched to his chest, knowing that he's going to get that disappointed yet slightly smug look from Will again, that leaves his heart spinning every time. And, suddenly, he realizes that maybe he does have an answer to the questions in his mind.

Nico's POV

He's awoken by a painful throbbing in his head and the flipping of his stomach and almost immediately he jolts up, Percy's ugly blue blanket pooling around his waist, one hand clutching the edge the side of Percy's brown couch, fingers digging into the material and the other wrapped around his abdomen, squeezing hard. Annabeth glances up, a book in one hand and a chip in the other. She raises her eyebrows and for a second they're both quiet but it seems as if she's waiting for something to happen. Time feels suspended for just a split second as Nico sits up, dizzy and woozy before leaning over and vomiting into a bucket that had been placed next to the couch. Nico has no clue how he knew it was there; he has no recollection of it being placed there, or anyone telling him about it. But he's glad he knew. Annabeth is very picky about her rug.

He doesn't throw up for much longer but Annabeth rubs his back throughout all of it, her eyebrows creasing in the middle, her eyes trained on Nico. At some point he hears Percy walk into the room but he doesn't have a second to register it until he's done, falling down against the pillows and letting out a shaky sigh. "I take it you still feel like shit?" Percy says, scratching the back of his head and frowning down at Nico.

"No, Percy, I feel amazing. I could do a triathalon right now, if I really wanted to."

"You don't have to be so mean about it."

"It is kind of your fault."

"It's not kind of my fault," Percy says, his frown deepening. He glances at Annabeth. "Is it kind of my fault?"

"Yeah, pretty much," she says matter of factly, shrugging. Percy's mouth twists up on the left side, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Ok, so maybe it is kind of my fault," he says. "But you still don't have to be so mean about it."

"Percy, I don't-" Nico stops mid-sentence, his eyes going wide and immediately he claps a hand over his mouth, trying to calm his shaky breathing. He can still taste the vomit in his mouth, and he doesn't think he can take the feeling of acid rocketing up his throat one more time that day.

"You good?" Percy asks as Annabeth rubs Nico's arm, chewing visibly on her lip.

"I think so." He leans his head back against the pillow, kneading at the headache blossoming between his eyes. The throb is concentrated in one place but it's so painful that it feels as if his entire body is beating, like when the music at a party is just slightly too loud, and you can feel the vibrations through your feet. But the beat distracts him from the way his stomach flips so he lets it absorb him as he slips in and out of awareness, solely concentrated in the steady beat in his body.

Annabeth and Percy are talking next to him but despite how close they are he can only make out snippets of conversation as if it's through staticky radio and not two people standing next to him. "-back to the hospital," Annabeth is saying. Her hand is still on his arm, digging in just enough so that there's a slight sting.

"He has had a ton of concussions before this one," Percy says. "Maybe it's a good idea." He laughs quietly, almost to himself. "What if he gets, like, brain damage?"

"Percy." Nico can hear skin on skin as Annabeth slaps him lightly. "It's not funny."

"Yeah, yeah." He feels another hand, this one bigger and colder on his arm. "Dude, come on. I'm gonna take you back to the hospital." Nico stands without argument, leaning on Percy for support as he waits for his legs to stop trembling underneath him.

"I was expecting more of an argument," Annabeth says, smirking at Nico.

"I wasn't," Percy says. "He gets to see his doctor friend who's probably cute." Nico feels his face flush.

"He's not- I'm not-"

"Told you," Percy says, throwing a grin at Annabeth over his shoulder. "I'll be right back." He feels as if he's walking through jelly, every muscle protesting. For the first time in his life, he wishes he was back underneath Percy's ugly blue blanket. But he forces himself down the stairs, out the door, into Percy's car. But when his head is rolling against the passenger's seat, the heat on full blast, he realizes that, for the first time, he doesn't mind going to the hospital. Maybe it's because his brain isn't functioning right, or maybe it's because he was too tired to argue, or maybe it was because, after having so many stupid injuries that landed him in the er, he had a certain fellow's schedule memorized, and he knew that the same familar half-smug and half-disappointed smile would be waiting for him when he arrived.

------

"You really need to stop getting concussions," Will says, scribbling something down on his chart. Nico has always wondered what was on that chart. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been good. "You're going to end up with permanent brain damage one day."

"Yeah, but I made it through this one all right," Nico says, grinning sleepily. Will frowns.

"We don't know that yet."

"Yeah, but probably." Will sighs.

"Yeah, probably. You need more responsible friends. The ones you have now seem like idiots."

"Yeah, that's because they are." Will laughs quietly and Nico quiets, glancing down at his hands. "Were you talking about you?" The grin drops off of Will's face and suddenly he blushes, drumming his pen against his clipboard. His fingers tremble slightly and suddenly it strikes Nico that even someone on track to be a doctor, someone who was so responsible and so intelligent, had feelings just like he did. Could get nervous just like he did. Get crushes, just like he did.

"I mean, I was just kinda making a statement about-"

"It's fine if you were," Nico says, cutting him off as quickly as possible. "Because you know, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. For us to, like, hang out some other time." His heart is pounding in his chest and despite the stomach settlers, the pain killers, the drowsy medicine, he feels his lunch flip. But he doesn't break eye contact, even when he's scared that he might throw up again, or when his throat constricts so much that he can barely breathe.

"But not in the hospital, right? Because I do like seeing you around, but if you come in here too much more, you're going to die early." The slight crack at a joke breaks the rope that's been wound around Nico's throat and he laughs, rubbing at the headache still pounding between his eyes.

"Yeah, no, of course not. I was thinking, there's a movie I wanna see, and I was wondering if you were working Friday night? Because maybe if not, we could go together?" He gives Will a smile that probably looks more like a grimace but Will smiles back, soft and sweet. With his notepad clutched to his chest, his pen sticking out from between his fingers he looks so professional, and Nico has no clue why, but he loves it. Maybe it's the pain but there's something about him that day that looks different, and Nico has never wanted to get to know anyone more in his life.

"Sounds great," Will says, smiling. This time it shows a few teeth, just a flash of white, and Nico's heart skips a beat. "Just as long as you promise not to do anything stupid and end up here in the next few days?"

"No promises," Nico says softly. He leans his head against the pillow, the drowsy pills suddenly kicking in and he yawns, his eyelids heavy. Will pats his leg, his hand lingering just a few seconds longer than normal and even half asleep, a chill runs up Nico's spine.

"Let me know if you need anything." His voice is near a whisper and Nico nods, the hospital blanket suddenly feeling amazing against his skin. He nods against the pillow, his eyes fluttering shut but just before he closes them he sees Will's smile, beaming and bright as the sun.

Hi guys, so, first of all, I just want to apologize because I feel like this is completely and totally incoherent in places. I didn't have much time this week between work, heritage days and also my project for Camp NaNoWriMo and also I feel like the idea itself was a little juvenile but I hope you liked it anyway! Also, we're at 299k which is insane but just a reminder that I'll be posting the series for 300k once we hit it, and it'll be posted on Wednesdays. It might not be up right when we hit it just because I'm scrapping my old idea and starting a completely new one, but it'll be up as soon as possible!

Nina