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itsomgitsgreenblogging · 7 years

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Break My Heart: Chapter 6 (A Solangelo Fanfic)

And here we have part one of the final day in the infirmary, as well as the end of the first act of this fic. I’m actually really proud at how soon I managed to update this. I’m putting this down as a victory.

I hope you enjoy!

Read on Tumblr: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five

Read it all on AO3

Preview:

“Why do I need to bother with that?” Nico asked, obviously not interested, but continuing to drink his smoothie.

“I don’t know, do you ever want to grow?” Will asked him honestly. “I’m not the one who’s going to be responsible for stunting your growth at two inches.”

“I am not that short,” Nico said with a scowl.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you from all the way down there.”

Suddenly a pillow was smacked against his head and Will was sent sprawling on the ground.

“I never liked Annabeth…I…I liked Percy Jackson.”

Will liked to think that in general his ADHD wasn’t as bad as say, Antonio who had a hard time keeping still, or Violet who would talk your ear off in a million directions. However, his brain shut down and went into full impulse mode. He grabbed Nico’s hands and blurted out,

“You liked Percy Jackson? Me too! What was it? The green eyes? The curly hair—oh! Oh! It was the sexy intense bad-boy expression right?”

When Will finally actually looked at Nico, he was outwardly staring at Will, as if Will had just offered to take Nico unicycling over burning coals while singing God Save The Queen backwards and in Spanish while in matching tutus. Will’s face burst into heat as he let go of Nico’s hands and stared up at the ceiling, trying to collect himself and the shattered illusion that he wasn’t an absolute wreck of a demigod.

To Will’s shock, Nico stifled a chuckle. He tried to hide it for a few moments before bursting into gut wrenching laughter, laughing so hard that he was wiping tears from his eyes. It took him a few tries to collect himself, but by that point Will was smiling along with him.

“Sorry, sorry, that just really took me by surprise,” Nico admitted, his low voice still warbling with the remnants of his laughing fit, fanning his face which had taken a pink tinge. “If I had to answer though, it was because he is a hero. The first one I ever saw, and I thought he was the coolest person I had ever met in my whole life.”

“Percy Jackson is a pretty cool dude,” Will promised him seriously. “Decently crush worthy.”

“But...you know…I accepted it, and when I did that I kind of grew out of it, if that makes any sense. So there it is, my tragic first love story,” Nico said, seemingly resigned about what seemed to have been a great ordeal. Will didn’t know much about Nico’s actual Tragic BackstoryTM, but he had heard whispers. What Nico was saying had probably been harder than he was letting on, and Nico was brave for that. It made Will admire him more…in a very platonic way obviously.

“Was that what you were talking about with him?” Will asked as he rested his hands on his knees to keep from doing something stupid again.

“Well, I admitted after the battle what I basically just told you but…he wanted to talk. Mostly apologize for things.”

“For what?”

“Well, for example he tried to kill me a few times, or at least made a serious attempt once and then wanted to kill me a few other times,” Nico said with a very nonchalant shrug. Will stared at him, and then realized that though sometimes with Nico it was hard to tell, Nico definitely wasn’t joking.

“Wait, he seriously tried to kill you? And you still liked him?” Will asked as he squinted at Nico.

“He also thought that I had betrayed him at that point, but yeah. Choked me out and everything.”

“Nico, seriously, you still liked a guy who tried to kill you?”

“I’m working on the self-worth thing,” Nico half-whined, rubbing his temples, before looking at Will with seemingly saintly patience. “Listen, that doesn’t come over night. I’m not the main character of some shitty novel. We’re demigods and besides that we’re Big Three kids. Sometimes baser natures take over and we just react. I know that better than anyone. I know those aren’t great excuses, but that’s what happened. Percy apologized for that stuff and I forgave him, that simple. We’re going to try to work on being friends, and that will be nice for a change.”

“I’m not going to say I understand, but I trust your judgment on that,” Will said, feeling oddly defensive of Nico and the situation he had been put in. But he had also been friends with Percy for years, and knew it wasn’t his nature to just lash out either. The grey area Nico was describing probably really did exist, and Will would just have to trust that they had worked through it. “Still, I’m sorry you were put in that position. That must’ve sucked.”

“Yeah, it really did,” Nico admitted, and Will could tell that it was hard for Nico to explain how bad it must’ve been. “I never really wanted to…come to terms with my feelings. Gods, that was part of the reason I was always getting into these giant messes. But running doesn’t suit me, Jason and Reyna both helped to show me that, and…you seem so happy being out. At peace. To feel peace…I would like that. Talking with Percy today was my third real step.”

“Third?”

“First was telling Percy how I felt. The second was…” Nico stopped himself and looked away quickly. “Forget it.”

“Was it becoming friends with me?” Will asked teasingly, pointing at himself. When Nico didn’t respond Will felt a large smile break out across his face. “Aw, Death Boy, that’s so nice. I think I’m going to throw up kittens and rainbows.”

“Shut up,” Nico grumbled, still refusing to look at him. “You are out and friends with…with gay people. I just thought it would be a good idea to have an ally is all.”

“Well I’m happy,” Will promised him. “That’s a great honor that you’ve bestowed upon me. I’ll take it very seriously.”

“Gods you are such a weirdo,” Nico said, looking annoyed.

“But you are friends with this weirdo.”

“Nope. Nevermind. I’m not.”

“Sorry, you can’t just take back the friend check I’ve already cashed it in my friend bank and it’s nonrefundable,” Will said with a shrug and a sympathetic look. Nico just scoffed and rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t hide his yawn. “Tired?”

“Yeah…I guess that conversation took more out of me then I thought,” Nico actually admitted which maintained Will’s smile.

“I’ll let you rest then,” Will said as he stood up. “And I’ll let you know when dinner’s coming.”

“Hey…Will?” Nico asked as he pulled up his covers. “Thanks for…not freaking out or anything.”

“No problem.”

The first thing that Will did as soon as he left the infirmary for that evening was to high-tail it to where Lou Ellen was standing by the edge of the campfire pit, wrap his arms around her, and scream into her shoulder while jumping with her up and down.

“Oh my Gods what is happening?! Who broke Will Solace?” Lou Ellen cried out as Cecil looked on at the outburst with amusement. Will let her go and tried to compose himself, but found it much more difficult than he had been expecting.

“I think I figured out my dream,” Will told them both before clarifying, “well, I can’t tell you what maybe I think it’s about because privacy issues but I think I figured it out.”

“Uh, wow, vague answer much,” Cecil noted, eyebrow raised at him.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m just so relieved,” Will said as he stretched, letting his sweatshirt sleeves dip and pressing up on his tippy toes. He felt the evening air cool and sweet against his face, the scent of campfire and cut grass and deep woods a gentle and wonderful in his breath, and it was all wonderful. “I feel refreshed.”

And he ought to. He figured out what had been weighing on him for two whole days. Obviously what Nico had not wanted to do anymore was keep his sexuality a secret. Will was comforting him like a friend and Nico was ready to move on. Obviously. This was it. No more reason to push, no more reason to worry. Done. Finished. Will had figured it out. Will wasn’t going to fall in love and get his heart broken, nope, Will had taken on a role of dear friend and confidante. And if those thoughts sounded like he was just trying to fool himself, Will was just facing reality. Reality. Yep. Nothing else to see here.

“Not to rain on your parade but…there was kind of a situation,” Lou Ellen said regretfully, patting Will’s shoulder.

And that’s how Will ended up waiting outside the Aphrodite Cabin with two bags of makeup that had been responsible for the simultaneous makeovers of the dumb campers who had dared to steal them from the cabin; i.e. the Stolls, Alice and Julia, and Antonio. Will hadn’t needed to know that Aphrodite Cabin and Hecate Cabin had a collab on some hexes and makeup, nor wanted to see what that would create, so not he was not happy. Not a single bit. In fact it was safe to say his good mood was completely ruined.

This was especially the case when Drew walked up, obviously pissed but still making her tee shirt and jeans look fabulous. She glared at him darkly, as if he insulted her by just being in her presence. She immediately crossed her arms over her chest, showing off her rings on her fingers and turned up her nose at him.

“Piper,” she muttered under her breath. “That little no good thieving—“

“You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Will interrupted, earning another seething glare. “I’m just as happy about this as you are, trust me. If I could, I would ignore the situation. But obviously that isn’t working for either of us. So how about we do this instead? Do you want to tell Piper why we don’t get along, or should I. Because if we don’t she’ll keep trying to make peace between us, and we both know you don’t want that.”

“Oh please, sweetie. I don’t care about my dirty laundry, not enough to give my meddling sister ammo to use against me,” Drew sighed softly and sweetly, her lips colored a bubblegum pink. Will gritted his teeth, knowing that she was attempting to goad him. Ammo? Him? Was that all he was to her?

“Fine, I’ll take responsibility since you are incapable of doing so. A running theme I’ve found,” Will snapped, trying to channel his most calm and composed self but finding it difficult. “Not caring about actual leadership, not helping your siblings in any meaningful way, not actually coming up with a good excuse for hurting me just blaming everything on an outdated hazing ritual—“

“What you saw was what you got, honey,” Drew said as she motioned to herself before crooning as if he was a child, “is Silly Willy still all sad because he got dumped.”

“Yes Drew. I was sad for a while, but I’m not sad anymore about anything but you. Forgive me for thinking that maybe, just maybe, that we had something worth a damn and for knowing that you are more than some Empousa with a better hairstylist like you like to make everyone think you are, but seeing that the image of the impenetrable Drew Tanaka is more important than anyone else will ever be,” Will just sighed tiredly, rubbing his eyes. “Your act didn’t work, no one followed your lead, and now you’re knocked down a few pegs and just looking for cheap shots. Honestly Drew, you just exhaust me. Take your makeup and let it rest.”

“Why? So you can go back to your boyfriend who you’ve got all holed up in the clinic?” Drew asked angrily, her perfectly plucked eyebrow twitching. He took satisfaction with the idea that he had needled her just a little.

Will felt his rarely there temper begin to boil over.

“Drew, seriously, you either drop this or prepare yourself. Choose your words wisely,” Will growled at her, feeling his battle honed instincts begging to be kicked in. Will wasn’t a fighter, not by nature, but he certainly wasn’t a push over. He had just about had enough of Drew’s bad attitude.

“Make me,” Drew challenged him, seemingly just as ready as he was.

“Apollo versus Aphrodite, next game of Capture the Flag. And you can tell Piper how she got herself into this mess when Clarisse la Rue and I kick your butts into next year,” Will announced to Drew and anyone within ear shot, his control cracking like ice on a warm day.

“I don’t know what’s happening but hell yeah!” shouted Mark Wilkinson, one of the Ares kids from across the green as he dragged a dozing Clovis from where he had fallen asleep. Clovis’ slumbering body knocked over a couple spears which sent the child of Ares swearing like a sailor. Will pressed his palm to his face.

“Shit Solace, I'm proud of you. Way to finally stand your ground, and what a way to cash that favor I owe you for Ellis. Ares cabin is with you all the way," Clarisse said as she grasped his arm before walking away with her posse of siblings following close behind, giving hoots and hollers to Aphrodite Cabin. Piper hadn’t looked up from where she was resting her head against the table the whole breakfast, and the rest of the cabin was looking pretty pissed at Drew who primly tore apart her toast as if she had no clue what was happening.

Will collapsed back on his seat heavily. This sucked, and Will wasn’t happy. He had every reason to be, but he wasn’t.

"You didn't follow your What Would Grandpa Vernon Do rule, did you?" Cecil asked him suspiciously from the seat across from Will. “That was impulsive, even for you.”

Will winced at that as he toyed with his beads. Will had grown up tucked away from most of the world with his Grandparents in a place called Abundance, Texas. It had been a wholesome normal upbringing by any stretch of the imagination, until he had almost died in a monster attack. The ruse was that his mother had wanted a stable life for him, away from fame and touring. And thought it was definitely a part of it, it was mostly because of the horrible things that lurked in big cities and the bad things that kept happening.

His grandfather was the town's patriarch. A stern, but caring man who had raised Will alongside his Grandma Florence. He could almost see his grandfather in his mind's eye, tapping his booted foot, crossing his arms over his pastor garb, narrowing his grey-blue eyes and drawling, "what in God's green earth do you think you solved with that little temper tantrum William Elijah?"

He missed him, and Will swallowed that tinge of homesickness as he considered mental Grandpa’s advice.

"That's the problem, as my pastor he would probably admonish me for giving in to my anger and not listening to my good sense. As my Papa, once, he almost stabbed a man with a spork when the guy said something disparaging about my mom. And when I mean almost, I mean it was in his hand and prepared to be plunged," Will explained as he mimed the action of Spork-Assaulting to Lou Ellen and Cecil before sighing. "Do you understand my problem? Papa sent me mixed messages."

“Will…” Lou Ellen said to him, tapping her black-painted nails against the picnic table, obviously trying to find a way to help but seeing nothing.

“Can I count on Hermes and Hecate? I know Piper’s going to recruit Jason and Percy, and she’s in talks with Athena Cabin. And I also know that Jake Mason owes Annabeth after she found those scrolls for him so I think Hephaestus is going to them too.”

“Don’t worry, bro, I’ll talk with the Stolls. But considering last night’s debacle, you got an ally with Hermes Cabin,” Cecil promised him and offered a fist bump.

“I don’t like the way Drew talks to you, I think some pig bombs are in her future,” Lou Ellen said with another fist bump, before returning to her table with a wave. Cecil turned around and relayed his news to his siblings who began happily discussing plans.

When Will finally got to the infirmary after dealing with his siblings, he felt like he had already been through a whole day. His favorite patient, i.e. his only patient, was sitting in bed reading. Will smiled at Nico, but quickly noted the shadows like rims under his eyes, filled to the brink with darkness.

“Didn’t sleep well?” Will asked him, thankful to focus on something that wasn’t himself. “Nightmares?”

Nico shrugged and closed his book, which seemed to be his answer. Will tried to read the title but it took a few moments for the words to come together into something he could actually understand.

“Tolkien, eh?” Will asked him. “Going with a brother of mine is always a good choice.”

“J.R.R. Tolkien was a son of Apollo?” Nico asked, seemingly startled by that revelation.

“Is it that surprising that a man that obsessed with poetry and language could be a son of Apollo?” Will pointed out to him as he took his hand, feeling out with his powers for Nico’s state. “Unlike our father, some of us have to be half way decent at it. So? What do you think? Like it so far?”

“I think I do, a lot of the names and words keep making it difficult,” Nico admitted before huffing, sounding very frustrated. “My dyslexia isn’t usually so bad.”

“You are also sleep deprived,” Will pointed out to him. Thankfully the darkness hadn’t built back up in his system, though he wasn’t about to talk to Nico’s ear off about the absorption qualities of magic muck. He checked Nico’s wounds and saw that the steady doses of ambrosia and nectar had healed up his outward injuries, with a day of rest and food, Will might even able to confidently discharge Nico the next morning. “Good, besides the sleepiness. I had the nymphs fix you up something for breakfast.”

Will offered the bottle of smoothie he had kept in the fridge. Nico took an experimental sip before finding it palatable enough that he didn’t try to kill him.

“What’s in this thing? Besides strawberries.”

“Well besides our camp-grown strawberries, it has quick oats, banana, yogurt, milk, and honey in it. It’s a good recipe and has everything you need for the most important meal of the day in drinkable form,” Will pointed out as he sipped his own smoothie. “I figured smoothie breakfasts would be a good way to go for a while, I’ll print out the action plan I made for you, but basically the gist is to get you to gain healthy weight in a way that won’t make you want to kill someone. Three meals a day, and post work out snacks since I know that as soon as you get out of here you are probably going to be hitting the training fields. I’m sure it’ll feel a bit like bootcamp, but as soon as you are in a healthy weight zone it’ll just be about maintenance.”

“Why do I need to bother with that?” Nico asked, obviously not interested, but continuing to drink his smoothie.

“I don’t know, do you ever want to grow?” Will asked him honestly. “I’m not the one who’s going to be responsible for stunting your growth at two inches.”

“I am not that short,” Nico said with a scowl.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you from all the way down there.”

Suddenly a pillow was smacked against his head and Will was sent sprawling on the ground. Will leveled a halfhearted glare at Nico, who sat as proudly as any king upon his throne, looking at Will from over his sharp nose as if he were a mere peasant who had dared to insult his royal person. Will just shook his head with a smile before pulling himself up on his feet.

“Oh, hello,” a voice greeted. “Am I interrupting something?”

Will looked over to see Jason Grace standing in the hallway, carrying a backpack. Good looking guy, though, not Will’s type at all. Maybe it was the blonde-blue-eyes thing, since Will couldn’t really ever see himself flirting with a dude who could be his cousin (not that they weren’t related as all Greek and Roman demigods were technically somehow related but not physically and genetically…it was all rather confusing and everyone just chose to ignore it for their own good). It might have also been that, though Will knew that Jason had loosened up quite a bit since he had first been introduced at CHB, he was still a rather serious and honorable guy, both perfectly fine qualities but Will had always preferred boys who knew how to cut loose and joke.

Like Nico di Angelo? His brain unhelpfully supplied.

Shut up, you. We’ve solved this. Don’t do that.

“Nothing important,” Nico told him, cool and composed.

“How is he doing, Will?” Jason asked, intently scanning Nico’s face as if searching him for illness and disease and injury.

“I’m right here, Jason,” Nico said crossly before Will could answer the question.

“And I trust Will, who is not only a counselor but also the head healer of the camp to give it to me straight. Unlike you, since I actually know what you are like,” Jason pointed out to Nico’s chagrin, who slumped back in his bed with a pout.

“Damn Romans and their regard for authority,” Nico muttered under his breath. “You are just as bad as Reyna.”

“Nico’s actually doing much better,” Will said holding his hands out and waving Nico down. That seemingly defused the other’s annoyance. “His infections are gone and the darkness isn’t going to make him disappear if he isn’t stupid about it. Like I was just explaining to Nico, we’re mostly going to be focusing on maintaining health and gaining weight once I release him.”

“If you could give me the plan too, I would be really grateful. Just so I can make sure this one stays on track,” Jason said with a jerk of his head towards where Nico was sitting, blowing bubbles into his smoothie, obviously ignoring the two of them. “It’s important to keep Nico honest, otherwise he’ll just avoid.”

“You see Will, everyone lies, but people only get up in your business about it if you are a child of Hades. That’s what I learned,” Nico told Will bitterly. “Double standards, all of them.”

“I didn’t come to argue, just know I care,” Jason said seemingly giving up for the moment, before turning to Will as he sat down on Nico’s bed. Nico made a show of glaring and looking like he was about to hiss at him, but there wasn’t much actual heat in it. “Talking about arguing, I heard about what happened with Drew, Will. Can’t say I’m not sympathetic. Just wanted to let you know that before our team wins at Capture the Flag next week.”

“Capture the Flag?” Nico asked, his interest piqued. Will groaned, his nightmare still seemingly unfolding no matter where he went.

“If you were really so righteous you would join my team. They already have Percy and Annabeth. Why do they get you too?”

“Boyfriend duty,” Jason said and Will made a face. Nico was still obviously confused, and Will decided for the sake of everyone it was just easier for him to get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Basically me and Drew got into it last night. The challenge was put forth,” Will explained the less gruesome version to Nico.

“I can’t believe you used to go out with her,” Jason said with a shudder, shattering Will’s hopes of keeping it less gruesome. Nico blinked, obviously absorbing the information slowly.

Will looked at Jason Grace for a moment. Somewhat hurt, somewhat surprised that a guy so powerful and with so much prestige could be so utterly clueless. Then again, considering Jason’s infamous love triangle situation, Will figured that love wasn’t Jason’s strong suit. It wasn’t Will’s either, but still. Any guy who was dumb enough to get himself into a love triangle and then stay in it for a while because he was indecisive wouldn’t get it.

“I went out with Drew because at the time I liked Drew. Even if our relationship is over and Drew is difficult I was always true to myself,” Will told him sternly and completely unamused, donning his head counselor tone. “I know everyone would like me to be happy about this, but I’m really not since I basically fell right into what Drew wanted. I’m going to work things out with her somehow, either on or off the Capture the Flag game, but in the meantime, I don’t appreciate the implications of what you just said. You owe me an apology. Now.”

Jason was staring at him with outward shock like Will had just slapped him in the face with a dead fish. Will realized that Phoebe was right, he did the authority of a praetor when it came to Romans. If only he could shock his siblings into silence too. Nico’s mouth twisted into a savage sharp grin that cut wide and wild across his face and sent pleasant shivers down Will’s spine.

“Jason, you might want to apologize. Not only does Will historically have no fear when it comes to Big Three Kids, but he’ll also be the one stitching up your team after we kick your sorry butts,” Nico di Angelo announced, propping his feet on Jason’s lap, looking like a cat who had gotten the cream. “Will’s my ally, so I’m going to be his.”

“Singing Sirens, di Angelo is on our team! Yes!” Austin cried, and Emma, Violet, and Antonio who were peaking in from down the hall began jumping up in down and slapping high fives. Someone began blasting DJ Khalid from the front, and Chiron’s voice echoed as he tried to reprimand over the music.

“I really walked myself into that one, didn’t I?” Jason said, looking legitimately sorry and with a small nervous grin. “I’m really sorry, Will. Seriously. When Piper decides to skin me, will you consider healing me?”

“I’ll even do it free of charge and with a complimentary lollipop,” Will said with a smile of his own. Nico reached over to pat Jason’s shoulder and Jason accepted it like a good sport. Maybe this wasn’t going to be all bad, Will thought to himself. Just maybe.

#Solangelo #Solangelo fanfic #Nico di Angelo #Will Solace

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