Work Text:
To be perfectly honest, Nico was feeling betrayed by every piece of romantic media he'd ever consumed. Love was supposed to be fun, he was told. It made you feel all warm and nice inside. But they all lied to him, Nico thought angrily, staring at the ceiling of the Apollo Cabin, love wasn't fun at all. It was mortifying. It was bad enough that his face got all red whenever Will touched him, or how his stomach curled with jealousy whenever Will talked with that girl from Aphrodite who clearly was in love with him. It was bad enough that he thought of Will right before he went to bed and as soon as he woke up, smiling like a total idiot when he did so. Now he couldn't even escape his annoying, embarrassing crush on the Head Medic even when he was asleep.
Absolutely. Mortifying.
For the tenth time in the last two and a half weeks, Nico di Angelo fell asleep in the Hades Cabin and woke up, having shadow-travelled straight into Will Solace's bed.
He didn't know why this was happening. Okay, he did, because of course his stupid brain would run straight to Will's comforting glow whenever he had another nightmare. But he didn't know how to stop it, aside from just never sleeping, which Will would most certainly kill him for.
Nico felt heat rush up to his cheeks as Will shifted in his sleep, one arm thrown around Nico's chest like Nico belonged there. Nico wished he could blame the warmth in his stomach on the fact that Will was basically a heater. He knew he should move before Will woke up. The prospect of trying to explain him suddenly showing up in Will's bed because of his stupid, pining subconscious made Nico want to leave camp and run away forever to the Underworld. But he knew Will would track him down anyway, and then probably give Nico a speech about how he just wanted to be friends but Will would obviously feel super uncomfortable around him and then Will would leave him just like everyone else--
"You think too much," Will said, head half-buried in his pillow.
Crap. In a blink, Nico rolled out of Will's bed and shadow-travelled back to his own Cabin. His worst fear just came true. Will knew. Nico was so, so screwed, and he might as well start packing for the Underworld now. He looked at the clock; it was almost five in the morning. If he left now, he could get to Camp Jupiter to say a quick goodbye to Hazel before he ran away to the Underworld and collapsed into a puddle of embarrassed shadowy goo. It would save Will the trouble of trying to reject him, at any rate. Because Nico knew that Will would probably feel genuinely bad about not being able to return his feelings.
Nico's panicking was interrupted by a knock at the door. It was Will, he knew it would be. His stomach churned, the butterflies from before turning against him.
"Nico?" Will asked.
Nico stood in the middle of his room, frozen, not wanting to say anything.
Outside his door, Will sighed. "You do know I have a key to your Cabin, right?"
Nico swore. He forgot about that. Jason made him do it because of Nico's stubborn habit of never going to the Infimary without someone forcing him. He considered yelling at Jason for this, but Jason would probably laugh at him.
"Just give me a second," Nico said, feeling like he was signing his own death warrant. He opened the door, and Will stepped inside, wearing bright yellow pajamas and fuzzy socks.
"Give me your hand," Will said, all but demanding it, and Nico reluctantly showed Will his hand.
Will grabbed it, checking his fingertips for any sign of shadowing. Nico looked away, hoping Will wouldn’t see the faint blush on his cheeks as Will’s fingers trailed gently over his.
“I thought we talked about you not shadow-traveling any more than you had to,” Will chided gently, a frown on his face. “How do you feel? Any nausea, exhaustion?”
"I'm fine, Doctor Solace," Nico grumbled. "And I didn't mean to shadow-travel. I was asleep. It just happened."
Will looked up suddenly at Nico, grinning. "I meant how you shadow-travelled out of my bed. Unless you finally want to talk about you sleep shadow-travelling?"
Nico blanched. "You noticed?"
Will laughed. "What, do you think I didn't?" His smile faded when he saw that Nico was pointedly looking away from him. Will froze. "To be honest, I thought it was just one of those things that we didn't talk about. Like the age thing."
"What age thing?"
Will raised an eyebrow, like he couldn't believe Nico was serious. Nico felt like he was definitely missing something. Will knew that Nico had been shadow-travelling into his bed, and he was just, what? Okay with it? Not even going to question it? Will always questioned everything Nico told him.
"You wrote on your medical forms that you were born in 1932," Will deadpanned. "You seemed...weird about your past, so I didn't want to ask and bring up any memories, but-- why are you looking at me like that?" Will chuckled nervously, looking suddenly self-conscious.
Nico quickly closed his mouth. "No, I just-- I didn't realize you...noticed that." He suddenly felt warm again. He realized that Will was still gently holding his hand.
"I'm your doctor, it's my job." Will seemed to notice the hand thing, too, because he cleared his throat and dropped his hand. "I mean, it doesn't bother me, by the way. The whole shadow travelling into my bed thing." Nico pretended like he didn't miss the contact. Will always seemed to be able to comfort him, awake or asleep, and it probably should've scared Nico more than it did.
"It doesn't mean anything," Nico said quickly, way too quickly.
"I didn't say it did," Will said. "I just-- I don't mind. I mean, you've obviously been through am lot, and I--"
"I sleep better with other people in the room," Nico said, then promptly shut his mouth again before any other traitorous little words could escape. "I don't get nightmares when there's other people nearby."
"Good. I mean, it's good that I can help you get less nightmares. I do want to help you Nico."
Right. Because Will was his doctor. And his friend. Nothing more.
Will hesitated, like he was going to say something else, and Nico was secretly hoping he would leave Nico alone to dwell in his misery. He didn't care what Will said, he was never sleep-shadow-travelling again.
Will groaned. "Okay, this is going to be so awkward. Is it everyone or is it just...me?"
Nico's face flashed bright red. Crap. Gods, he knew Will was going to ask, he should've just run when he had the chance. Before he could run away, though, his mouth opened of its own accord, and words started spilling out.
"Yes, it's just you. I don't know why it keeps happening but all I know is you're...comforting, you make all the nightmares better and lighter and I can't explain it but I trust you. I don't even know if I should, but I do, and--"
He was cut off by Will stepping forwards and pressing their lips together, one warm hand cupping Nico's cheek. Nico melted into the kiss, forgetting all his anxiety and nerves. It probably wasn't the most perfect kiss in the world, but it didn't matter because Nico could feel it, that warmth and energy that pulsed in his veins that every romance singer sung about. It was the most perfect kiss Nico had ever experienced.
Will pulled away after a few moments, and it took everything in Nico to not chase after that contact and just kiss Will again.
"I'm sorry, I should have asked," Will said, having the nerve to look shy about it.
"Don't be sorry," Nico said, and it came out a little too pleadingly for his liking.
"Okay, good, because I'm not really," Will said, and that smile was back, and there were nice, warm butterflies in Nico's stomach again. "I like you a lot, Nico. As...more than a friend."
Nico nodded because he didn't trust himself to form words. Will seemed to get it, because he smiled even wider.
"And I definitely don't mind if you want to share a bed with me. For your own health, of course," Will said quickly. "And maybe next time, you can just...start there. I don't know. Like a sleepover."
"A sleepover?"
"A medically required sleepover. Doctor's orders."
Nico found himself smiling. "That doesn't sound too bad." Maybe all those love songs weren't lying to him after all. Because this...this was very nice.