Work Text:
Happy Birthday, di Angelo.
"Nico."
Nico grumbled and screwed his eyes shut a bit tighter, pulling his blanket further over his head. "Go away, Solace. You have no right to be awake at such a late hour."
"It is, in fact, almost lunchtime." Will hummed.
"This is why you're my significant annoyance." Nico tugged the covers down just enough to glare up at Will. Even in the dim lighting of Cabin Thirteen, the son of Apollo's hair seemed to glow, sky-blue eyes light with amusement. Freckles dotted his face from far too much time spent in the sun-in fact, Nico himself was starting to get freckles where Will kissed him-namely along his temples, nose, and cheeks.
Will shrugged. "Peace was attempted. Cocoa Puffs? Sic 'em."
Nico yelped as he felt a large weight fall onto him, when watched Will spin around and flop back onto the son of Hades himself. Nico sat up and scowled. "I hate you."
"Love you, too, darlin'." Will grinned, and Nico's scowl melted with the way Will's carefully concealed accent slipped out at the word. "Do you know what day it is?"
"The day we get a divorce." Nico grumbled.
"We're not married yet," Will sighed, seeming genuinely crestfallen, "But no! Today is January 28! Do you know what day it is?"
"The day my mom ejected me from her womb." Nico deadpanned.
"I dislike you," Will said in the same even, slightly upbeat tone he'd been talking in before. "Yes! It's your birthday!"
"Oh no." Nico sighed. "What are you gonna do to me?"
Will rose his eyebrows.
"no. stop."
"My bad." Will huffed a laugh. "I know it's your birthday and you're supposed to choose what you wanted to do, but I had an idea..."
"Tyche have mercy." Nico turned his face toward the roof.
"You could teach me how to make something Italian! I know you grew up in Venice and I bake sometimes, so it can't be that much of a disaster, can it?" Will beamed at him. Loneliness fled the cabin in favor of bothering someone else. Nico mourned the cacodemon's loss.
"I hate that it's a good idea."
Will's eyes lit up. "So we can?"
Nico sighed and leaned forward, kissing him. "Yes, tesoro, we can bake something Italian together."
Will squeaked and hopped up, then froze in place. "Oh shit."
"Oh no. What is it."
"I have to get something! Birthday secrets!" Will blew Nico a kiss and then dashed off.
Nico stared after him and mentally braced himself for an exhausting day.
"Happy Birthday, Nico!"
"Why are you here, Jackson?" Nico glared at the son of Poseidon out of the corner of his eye.
"Uh, because it's your birthday?" Percy crossed his arms and rose an eyebrow. "Am I not allowed to wish you well? Is this because I'm not your type?"
"Not this again..."
"Seriously, though! I'm everyone's type!"
Nico locked eyes with Will, who had a bright smile slightly cancelled out by the fact that he was petting Jealousy, the cyclops cacodemon, like a movie villain and staring at the two of them like he was going to commit a murder. "I think my boyfriend's about to kill you."
"As if." Percy turned to look at Will. "Actually..."
He took a wide step away from Nico. Will beamed again.
"Who are you and what have you done with my workaholic boyfriend?"
"Hush, or I'm never doing it again." Will hummed, locking the door to his office.
"You're taking a day away from the infirmary." Nico scanned him. "Are you sick?"
"I don't get sick. Apollo kid, remember?" Will beamed. "I'm staying away from the infirmary to spend time with you!"
A loud cough echoed from deeper in the infirmary.
Nico glanced over his shoulder. "You're using me as your alibi, aren't you?"
"What? No, of course not!" A bunch of Will's freckles flickered with sunlight.
"Your freckles are flickering. Did you give Percy a cold?"
"Stupid god of truth lights." Will covered his freckles. "No."
"I can see the back of your hand lighting up."
"Gods-dammit."
"Protective plague child," Nico muttered, but leaned up to kiss Will's cheek. Will smiled a lopsided smile and all of his freckles lit up at once.
"Fix him." Nico scowled down at his snotty sort-of friend.
"But Nicoooooo..." Will perched his chin on top of Nico's head, undoubtedly glaring at Percy. "I don't like him."
"What'd I do?" Percy demanded, then coughed loudly.
"He was joking." Nico shook his head, biting back a smile.
"Nicoooo..." Will's accent slipped into his voice, though Nico knew it was fully intentional.
"Tesoro. Actually-wait." Nico narrowed his eyes. "Hey. Hey Percy."
Percy sneezed.
"Will'll heal your cold if you agree to never mention my old crush ever again."
"I will?"
"Yes, tesoro."
"Aww..."
Percy frowned. "...But I'm everyone's type..."
"I think that cold is your type." Will hummed cheerfully. Nico shook his head again. He was never sure if Will's hatred of Percy was genuine or a joke between the two-every time it went one way, it seemed to catapult the other.
"You're not actually jealous of him, are you?"
Will dipped his head to murmur, "No, but it's funny to knock him off his high-horse every once in a while," Into Nico's ear.
Percy sneezed again.
"So, Jackson. Promise?"
Percy looked absolutely miserable. "I promise..."
"Will. Heal him." Nico looked up at Will.
"Can I do it later?"
"Swear it." Nico spun around to face him.
"I pinky swear that I will un-cold Jackson later." Will held up his pinky.
Nico shook it with his own. "Welp. Good enough for me."
"WAi-" Percy sneezed again.
Nico held back a snicker.
"We wanted to host a small party later. Yknow, for your birthday." Will hummed, pressing his forehead to Nico's. "Would that be okay?"
The two stood in the threshold, just standing in front of each other and talking.
"Why a small party?" Nico blinked.
"I know you get overwhelmed after a while..."
"You guys do realize that I'm not a vicious introvert all the time, right? That's mostly just the isolation." Nico tilted his head.
Will blinked, then smiled a small smile. "Can I invite my sibs?"
Nico sighed. Will had a new habit of calling his younger half-siblings his 'sibs' now that an influx of new campers had boosted the Apollo cabin's numbers. "Yes, Will. You can invite your sibs."
Will beamed. "You'll love them. One of them-his name's Jamie-just had his gay awakening."
"It was Percy." Nico guessed.
"Yeah, it was Percy."
"Why is Percy everyone's gay awakening? Was he yours?" Nico was vagueluy aware of a cacodemon winding around his legs, almost certainly Jealousy.
"Oh, no. Ew." Will made a face. "No, mines was Beckendorf."
Nico rose his eyebrows.
"He was hot." Will sighed solemnly.
Nico tried to recall the son of Hephaestus. "He was..."
Will laughed and pulled Nico into a bridal carry. "Come on. To the kitchen!"
"So. What're we making, Chef di Angelo?" Will hummed, tying his blue apron. Nico rose an eyebrow at him. "Per gli dei, Will, never call me that again."
"But it made you speak Italian," Will kissed Nico on the nose. "I love when you speak Italian."
"If you kiss me every time I speak Italian, this recipe is going to take longer than it needs to." Nico tightened his own skull-pattern apron. "We're making baicoli biscuits."
"Hm. What do we do first?"
"Get the ingredients?" Nico raised an eyebrow. "Bianca...she used to let me help her when she made them." He bit his lip and blinked back tears, and Will must've noticed because he placed another kiss on Nico's nose. "Right, uh...ingredients...Chiron said he'd get a list...here. 3 cups of flour, 4 tablespoons of soft butter, 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of dry yeast..." Nico skimmed over the optional additions, "1 vanilla pod, 2 pinches of salt, and an egg white."
"Uh...." Will hesitated. "Again?"
Nico sighed and went through the ingredient list a bit slower, helping Will to collect the ingredients as he did.
Things had been going well until Will started kneading the dough and glowing while he did, baking the dough.
"Will-uh-yknow what, let me do it." Nico kissed Will and took his position kneading the dough, sighing at Will's crestfallen expression. "It's okay, tesoro, you didn't mean to."
Will shook his head as if to clear it and nodded. "Right."
Eventually, they divided the dough into sections and set them aside to rise, and Will hopped up to sit on the counter and looked over at Nico, kicking his legs as he did. "So. What do you want for your birthday, Neeks?"
"You've asked me this five times this week and every time I tell you the same thing." Nico leaned his weight forward, propping himself up against the counter so he could look up at Will.
"'My Will to live' is not a birthday present and also a very bad pun." Will pointed out, dipping his head down so that their noses touched. "Give me something tangible like...I don't know, cookies."
"Cookies." Nico deadpanned.
"Darlin', I love you, but you are insufferable." Will grinned with all of his teeth, and Nico smiled. He could tell the son of Apollo was frustrated, because a bit more accent snuck into the words.
"Hm. I will tell you..." Nico watched Will perk up, "...If you say something funny in your accent."
Will snorted. "Why are you so obsessed with my accent?"
"Same reason you're obsessed with mine, tesoro." Nico grinned.
Will rolled his eyes. "Okay. Fine. Your old crush's dumb as a fence post 'n as welcome as a rattlesnake at a square dance. Happy?"
Nico smiled and bit back a laugh. "Very. I was considering getting back into Mythomagic...some cards would be an adequate birthday gift."
"Adequate?" Will snickered.
"My Will to live would be better." Nico said solemnly.
Will barked a laugh and slid off the counter.
After they put the baicoli biscuits in the oven, Will grabbed Nico and spun him around, dipping him like a ballroom dancer. "Is dancing in the kitchen allowed, Chef?"
"You're horrible." Nico rolled his eyes. "Insopportabile."
Will kissed him, then pulled him upright. "You love me."
"Unfortunately." Nico shook his head and allowed Will to guide him in the steps of a dance, humming under his breath. He was glowing again, warm against Nico's cold, and Nico closed his eyes and let the kitchen fade away, trusting Will to guide him away from the counters.
"Happy birthday, Neeks." Will kissed Nico's temple.
"This is why I have so many freckles." Nico shook his head. "You're de-paling me, you sun child."
"Hm. You love it." Will kissed his temple again.
"I'm going to make lasagna to throw at you."
"You can make lasagna?" Nico didn't have to open his eyes to see Will's awed expression. "Marry me."
(They burnt the baicoli.)
(Will insisted that they still weren't that bad. Nico had to disagree.)
Mr. D let them use Cabin 12 for Nico's party, and the son of Hades was pleased to see a not-sneezing Percy Jackson there, being comforted by Annabeth while Leo fiddled with some sort of contraption in the corner connected to the lights. Austin ws tuning his guitar on a mini-stage, and Kayla ran up to Nico and Will-who was still snacking on the burnt baicoli-and grinned. "Hsppy Birthday, Nico!"
"Thanks." Nico glanced over at Will. "Last I checked, Leo, Percy, and Annabeth were not year-rounders."
"I wanted your friends to be here." Will smiled. "Hazel and Frank are supposed to arrive soon. Piper said she couldn't make it, but she'll IM you later."
"Hm." Nico leaned a bit of his weight against Will. "I thought you said your sibs would be here."
"They're getting ready. I should probably go get them, but...Cecil promised he'd coral them for me." Will gave a nervous smile. "I'm sure I can trust him."
"I'm sure you can't." Nico nodded. "Come on, Night-Light, let's go."
Nico was only somewhat prepared for the four Apollo kids that burst into Cabin 12, ages ranging between 10 and 14.
"Those are my sibs!" Will beamed. He led Nico over to them. "This is Jamie, he's 14, he's the one who found out he was gay, this is Leia, she's 10 and is an archery gal," Nico snickered at the word, "This is Hailey, she's 12 and is giving Austin a run for his money withher guitar skills, and this is Jake! He's 13 and he got claimed yesterday, when he got here."
Nico waved at them. They waved back, except for Jake, who had a small frown. Before Nico could ask him about it, Will nudged Jamie and they all chorused, "Happy Birthday, Nico!"
Nico's face flushed. "Really?"
"Of course!" Will grinned. "Happy Birthday, Neeks."
Will kissed him on the cheek and started helping his half-siblings to whtever they wanted to do (Jamie went to pine after Percy with Jake in tow, Leia went to help Kayla with whatever she was doing, and Hailey tugged a guitar case over to the mini stage with Austin), leaving Nico to scan his party-a party to celebrate him being born-and smiled.
The party started in earnest when Hazel and Frank arrived, each carrying a large paper bag filled with more paper.
"What is this?" Nico frowned at the bags.
"Your birthday gifts?" Frank rose his eyes, then gasped. "You...didn't expect presents?"
Nico absolutely did not, but Frank looked so heartbroken that he just shrugged and said, "I thought you'd only get one."
"We had different ideas, so this was our compromise." Hazel looked over at Frank with a fond smile. Nico still wasn't sure how he felt about the two being together, seeing as Hazel was his little sister (no matter what she said), but Frank wasn't a bad guy, so he put up with it.
"Happy Birthday, Nico." Hazel smiled. "Now! Where do we put them?"
"Gift table's over there," Will hummed, stepping out of the growing chaos and slipping an arm around Nico, using the other hand to point to the gift table. When Hazel and Frank left, Nico rose his eyebrows and muttered, "Gift table?"
"Only the best for my grumpy little ball of darkness." Will grinned.
"I'm, like, less than a foot shorter than you." Nico muttered.
"Midget," Will agreed, nodding sagely, and then disappeared into party preparations before Nico could respond.
"Will, it's my birthday. Can I have you wearing anything other than cargo shorts as a present?"
"But I like cargo shorts." Will pouted.
"I dislike your fashion sense." Nico shook his head.
Will clapped a hand to his chest and threw his head back. "You wound me. Love truly is a cruel mistress..."
"Yet you still stay with me." Nico shook his head again, a smile blooming on his phase.
"Always, Neeks. Always and forever." The humor faded from Will's eyes, replaced by fierce sincerity.
Nico rolled his eyes. "You too, or whatever."
"Don't think I haven't noticed that you gave Austin my playlist."
Will and Nico were by the snack bar, where Will was snacking on mini chocolate bars. "What? I have no idea what you're talking about."
"It's either that, or you chose a bunch of your mom's songs for fun." Nico rose his eyebrows. "Does it ever get weird? Having a famous mom?"
"It's only weird if people make it weird." Will mumbled after finishing another chocolate bar. Nico leaned over and wiped some chocolate off the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "It's a wonder that you don't have diabetes, Night-Light."
"Chocolate bars are worth it, Death Boy." Will grinned.
Nico rolled his eyes and went back to watching the party.
Kayla ended up dragging Will away about thirty minutes into the party-"Birthday secrets," She'd hissed, then darted away with Will in tow-so Nico was left to survey the party and give out flat "thank you"s to anyone who told him Happy Birthday. It was during this people watching that he spotted Jake, frowning at Nico from where he was leaning against a wall.
Nico tilted his head and walked over.
"Not having fun?" Nico tilted his head.
Jake shrugged. "You and Will are really close."
"That tends to happen when you are dating someone." Nico nodded.
Jake frowned a bit more. "Oh. I didn't know he was one of...them."
Nico narrowed his eyes, his usual scowl deepining slightly. "One of who? The gays? There is no way you're a homophobic child of Apollo."
Jake just huffed and looked away.
"First of all, Will's bi, not gay, second of all, so is your dad?"
"What?" Jake made a face that looked something like disgust. The shadows in the room darkened. "No he's not."
"He absolutely is," Will chirped from somewhere over Nico's shoulder. His voice was upbeat, and Nico glanced up at him. He looked like he was beaming, but his sky-blue eyes were dark with frustration. "I should know, I've met him. Is there a problem over here?"
Jake looked away, glaring at the two of them out of the corner of his eye. "No."
"Great!" Will grinned and spun Nico around so he was facing him. "So, darlin', shall we dance?"
Nico imagined Jake glowering while he and Will had the time of their lives. "Very well, tesoro."
"Hey. Hey Will?"
Will paused in the action of swinging Nico and the son of Hades glanced over to see Jamie fidgeting awkwardly. "Jake said he felt like throwing up and when I touched him, it felt like he had a fever, so I think I might take him back to the cabin..."
"Just tell him to head to the infirmary." Will offered Jamie a small smile. "Don't miss out of the fun for him."
Nico watched Jamie nod and run off, then looked over at Will. "You did that, didn't you?"
"What? Of course not! Maybe all that bigotry got him sick."
"You're freckles are flickering."
"Irrelevant."
Nico watched Leo haul a concerningly large box over to the gift table and frowned. "What in the name of Hades is that?"
"It's a gift, E-man!" Leo grinned.
"Please never call me that again. Why E?"
"'Cause you're emo as fuck." Leo nodded sagely.
"Remind me why I tolerate you again?"
"Because I get you awsome birthday gifts." Leo grinned, then glanced over his shoulder. "Harvey, don't dial that all the way--HARVEY NO-"
All the lights went out and Nico blinked, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. "You should probably fix that."
Leo sighed. "Probably. Maybe I could..." He lifted a finger and it started to spark, but Nico raised a hand. "Nope. I got this."
He cleared his throat and raised his voice, "I present to you all-Will Solace, my glow in the dark boyfriend."
The room lit up, Will glowing proudly like a beacon. Nico tried very hard to ignore the fact that his shirt was off, but couldn't help tracing the lines of his tattoo from where he stood. "Thanks, tesoro."
"Anything for the chocolates." Will crossed his arms and grinned.
"Present time!" Will declared, and Nico covered his ears when he stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled, though he could still hear it. Ow.
"I hope my birthday present wasn't broken eardrums." Nico deadpanned, and Will frowned. "Do they still hurt? I've been working on volume control, but-"
"Sarcasm, idiota." Nico leaned over and kissed Will on the cheek. "Aren't you supposed to do cake first?"
"The Demeter Cabin is running a bit late, so we're doing presents first instead." Will took Nico's hand and led him over to the gift table. Nico scanned the frankly overwhelming pile of gifts before selecting a small one from the top. "From Annabeth." He looked up and locked eyes with the blonde, who offered a small smile and nodded.
Nico sat down on one of the chairs and carefully undid the ribbon, setting it to the side and opening the box. Inside were hairbands with small skull markings on them.
"For when you're fighting." Annabeth explained. "Will mentioned that your hair kept getting in the way, so..."
Nico's face flushed. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it wasn't this level of consioderation. "Thanks."
"Mine next!" Percy demanded. "It's the blue one."
"Of course it is." Nico shook his head and grabbed the blue gift, unwrapping this one with the same amount of care. Inside was a pack of markers and sketchbook.
"I remember one time you mentioned wanting to get into art, so...tadaa!" Percy grinned. Nico's face flushed again. How were these people so considerate?
"Thank you," Nico put the art supplies with the hairbands and eyed Leo's gift warily before standing up to unwrap it. He stared at the contraption in front of him and made a face. "What is this?"
"Giant humidifier." Leo nodded. "I know you and Hazel wanted to connect more often, so you can use this to Iris-message her and it'll be like she's right there. The lights are built in-that button there-and it also doubles as a thermostat-here."
"By the gods, what is wrong with you?" Nico's eyes widened. "I thought you would get me, like, a picture or something."
"And ruin my gift-giving rep? Absolutely not." Leo snickered.
Nico rolled his eyes and moved on to one of the paper bags, pulling a journal out of it.
"Last time we IM'd, you mentioned wanting somewhere to make your thoughts less messy whenever things got..bad." Hazel smiled sheepishly. "So I got you a journal! For, uh. Journaling."
Nico looked away, sure his face was tomato red. "Thank you." He put the journal on top of Leo's thoughtful monstrosity and moved on to Frank's bag. "Blackout curtains?"
"So you can draw them before you leave Cabin 13 and shadow-travel back whenever you get overwhelmed. It'll always be dark." Frank beamed, then caught Will's slight frown and winced. "Sorry, Will. I'm sure he'll use it responsibly and not tire himself out."
"Definitely." Nico nodded. He set them aside and reached for a gift wrapped in yellow paper. "'The Apollo Cabin'." He glanced over at Will's siblings, who were crowded together, eyes wide with anticipation.
Nico opened the package and tilted his head. "What is this?"
"It's an MP3 player. And some CDs for it." Will smiled. "Entirely their idea, not mine."
"Thank you." Nico gave them his least-grimacy smile. It must've been pretty good, because Jamie and Leia beamed.
When the Demeter Cabin finally arrived with the cake, Will made a big deal of handing the cake knife to Nico so he could cut his slice first.
"Your sword, my leige." Will held the knife handle out to Nico as if it were Excaliber.
"Absolute drama queen." Nico took the knife and looked over at the cake. It had white icing with black skulls-"All black icing will make the cake taste gross," Will had explained-and in black icing, said 'Happy Birthday Nico di Angelo!'
Nico scanned the cake before chosing somewhere to cut in and serving himself a slice. He grabbed a plastic fork and took a bite. "Hm. Not bad."
Will beamed. "I helped bake it."
"Is that why it took forever to get here?" Nico tilted his head. "Did you burn it?"
"Tch. No." Will's freckles flickered. "...Maybe. But this one isn't burnt, so there."
Nico rolled his eyes. "I appreciate the sentiment, tesoro."
Eventually, about an hour before curfew, campers started leaving. Hasel and Frank had left for New Rome-though not without a bone-crushing hug-and Percy and Annabeth had returned to Cabin Three to gather their stuff, preparing to leave, too. Nico had wanted to help take down the decorations, but Will had insisted he return to Cabin Thirteen-"Don't worry, if the harpies come for us after curfew, I'll blow their eardrums."-where he was lying now, reflecting on his day.
An entire celebration, with cake and presents and music, dedicated to him.
A small smile slipped onto Nico's face. He belonged here. He blonged at Camp Half-Blood, with his dramatic glow-in-the-dark boyfriend and scarily considerate friends.
A knock brought him out of his thoughts. "Knock knock!"
"Who's there?" Nico called.
"Cow!" Will's grin was evident in his voice.
Nico sighed. "Cow who?"
"Cow says happy birthday to moo!"
"Get in here, you idiot." Nico bit back a smile and heard the door open, then felt Will flop down on the bed beside him. "So. Birthday success?"
"Hm." Nico glanced over. "I don't know. You still haven't given me my present from you."
"Oh, how could I have forgotten? Woe is me." Will smiled, glowing faintly. "I beg for thou'r forgiveness, King Nico."
Nico rolled his eyes. "Idiota. You can just say it if you don't have one. I'll be fine, I've gotten a lot of gifts today."
"I have a gift." Will sat up and fished a small orange box from his cargo shorts. "I just wanted to give it in private."
"Oh, no." Nico sat up too and Will put the box in his hands gingerly, as if it were precious cargo.
Nico eased the box's top off and stared at the contents. "Mythomagic cards. But why are they-"
"In the last 80 years," Will interrupted, bringing his hands up to rest beneath his, "Mythomagic got a video game adaption. I know we can't use technology because monsters will appear, so...I made this instead." Will took one of the cards-Apollo-up and placed it down on the bed like you're supposed to when you play the game, and Nico's eyebrows shot up as music drifted out of the card. "Is that his theme? In the game?"
Will smiled a nervous smile and looked away. "One of the Romans taught me how to enchant objects with music, so..."
Nico stood up and dragged one of the tables over, dark eyes wide. "I need to hear all of them."
Will blinked and then laughed. "Alright, Neeks. What do you want to hear next?"
Will ended up pulling hot chocolate packets out of his cargo pants-"See, Neeks? They are useful!"-and made the two hot chocolate with marshmallows, and afterwards, the two laid down in Nico's bed, half-asleep, every word a mumble.
"Did you like your birthday party?" Will's voice was low, a bit husky with the first hint of sleep. his sky-blue eyes lidded and tired.
"I loved it, tesoro." Nico said honestly, his own eyelids heavy. "I loved it so much. It was the best birthday I've ever had."
Will made a happy noise and pulled Nico in close to his chest, then let out a long, soft snore.
Nico allowed himself a wide smile and closed his eyes, tilting his head up so it brushed Will's chin.
Overall, was a good birthday.
[fine]