Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What colour do we get him?”

“Red?”

“No”

“Black?”

“No. That’s my colour. ‘member we all have different colours. I have black, you have pastel yellow, Renya has white, Leo has orange, Hazel has purple, Annabeth had grey, Percy had blue, or ocean as he calls it and piper has light pink!”

“Ok, ok. Neeks I get it. What about…”

It had become a joke that Will and Nico started, to buy the dreaded Crocs, it started when Will bought Nico a pair as a joke. Even though he would never admit it, Crocs paired with socks, kept his feet toasty warm.

Obviously Nico retaliated and bought Will a pair, who had the brilliant plan to get some for Reyna as a joke (she also would never admit it but she thought they where comfortable too), and of course she bought some for Piper who bought some for Leo who bought some for Annabeth who got some for Percy, you get the gist.

Now here they were, back at Nico and Will. The last pair they had bought was for Hazels birthday, after days of arguments and debates, they finally chose who was next. Frank.

“…Dark grey?”

“Perfect”.

They bought the $80, foam, pair of shoes, and an additional bright pink dog jibbet.

-
Will POV

Nico sat in the Hades cabin, surrounded by piles of clothes. Glaring at the, like he could intimidate them into folding themselves. He was getting more and more frustrated, by the moment.

“William!” He snapped.

I leaned through the bathroom door “Yeah?”

“I need help packing”

“With what?” I teased.

“Packing, I just said that” he glared at me as if I was the one needing help.

“Sorry, tiger” I chuckled.

His head snapped up, “Tiger?”

“Mmhm” I grinned leaning against the door frame, he was so easy to wind up. His eyes narrowed, we sat in an intense staring match, so silent you could hear a pin drop. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nico could win a staring match with a statue.

“Why should I help you pack. You didn’t appreciate my packing for Tartarus, did you?” I crossed my arms.

“I did… after we had gotten back and realised how much we needed all that junk.” Nico muttered.

“Nico you’re sixteen you can do it yourself. I can write a list if you need?” I suggested.

Nico looked down at his lap “Yes please” he whispered.

I wrote him up a quick list, with the essentials. Written in my chicken scratch, I’m sure Nico could hardly read.

Nico’s packing list
- clothes (x7)
- Undies (x10)
- Socks (x7-9)
- Togs (x3)
- Goggles?
- Murphy
- Pyjamas
- Pillow
- Blanket
- Weighted blanket
- Shoes

You can do it :)
If you really can’t, come get me <3

Love,
Will

(Ps. Don’t forget there’s a washing machine)

Nico scoffed, as I went back to cleaning the bathroom. After lots of stalling and no help from me, Nico managed to get his bag packed for the annual-week-long-beach trip or as he liked to call it, annual-one-day-too-many-week-in-Percy’s-domain trip.

-
Nico POV

I spent majority of the drive asleep my head resting on the window of Wills truck. At some point Will tucked a blanket around me, I pretend to be asleep.

The next thing I knew was I woke to a gentle shaking, and Wills sweet voice, “Hey Angel. Come on, Nico. Time to wake up”

“Five more minutes” I swatted at Will.

“No can do, sorry”

And then others voices, my friends voices.

“Yea come on sleeping beauty get up” Leo laughed

“Come on Nico we’re all waiting for you!” Grover bleated.

I peeled my eyes open to see, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Shel, Leo, Reyna, Clarisse, Grover, Juniper, Rachel, Thalia, Kayla, Austin and Calypso all staring amusingly at me, smirking.

“Come on Neeks” Will pulled the blanket off me, the menace.

“No”

“I’m gonna pick you up then” he threatened

“How embarrassing, your boyfriend—“

“Shut up Leo!” I growled “And you,” pointing my finger at Wills chest, I narrowed my eyes on Will “I can walk perfectly fine”

“Somebody needs a longer nap” Leo snickered

“SHUT UP LEO!” I hissed. Will offered his hand to help me get out of the car which I pointedly ignored, shuffling over to the holiday house, where everyone else was waiting.

-
Will POV

After Nicos peaceful nap and much persuading from me, he begrudgingly came on the group walk, though he stayed several steps behind, I walked next to him, as he pouted ‘angrily’. As we neared the boardwalk, Nico gave me a look. I should have known he was planning something as soon as he started dragging his fingers along the boardwalk railing.

“Nico,” I caught his hand, pulling it off the railing “don’t do that, it’s germy”. Nico gave me a pure gremlin look, and we continued walking

A few minutes later I saw, why he gave me that look. I gave him a frustrated look and he smirked.

“Nico!” I snatched his hand. This time to stop him from doing it again, I wiped his hand off on my shirt and laced our fingers together. For about thirty seconds it worked, then a big group of people came from the other way. Nico darted forward, weaving between our friends, and victoriously grabbed the railing again, smirking at me behind him.

“Dude what is your problem!” I shouted, stuck behind the human traffic. By the time i had made my way through the crowd, nico was at least ten metres in front of us all, looking smug.

“Nico! Don’t you get how gross that is?” I called out still trying to catch up.

Ignored.

“Neeks!” I had almost caught up to Nico.

I lunged, catching his wrist, just before the railing ended. “Gotcha”

His palm was covered in a fat smudge of dirt. Knew it.

I pulled a packet of wipes out of my pocket.

“Will, why in all of Tartarus did you bring wipes ?” Nico asked, dumbfounded.

“Well, when you’re dating a certain childish son of the underworld— Cough, cough, you— You’ll find out that they are very useful.” I explained, watching as Nicos face showed an offended look.

“I am not childish” Nico ripped his hand back from mine, with a scowl.

“Stop bickering, it’s disgustingly cute” Renya sighed.

-
Nico POV

The others were crouched around the rock pools, touching sea anemones like it was no big deal. Percy was grinning, Will was laughing, everyone was reaching in, running their hands along them.

I crouched too, staring at the strange creatures. They looked harmless enough. I leaned in to stroke one, freezing half way. I just stayed there frozen, a thousand thoughts running through my head.

“Nico?” Will chuckled. “You gonna touch them?”

“… I’m scared.”

He blinked, Will looked genuinely surprised. “Nico…” Will awkwardly laughed, he search me face for any sign of this being a joke. Finding no evidence of me joking around, he shuffled closer.

“Nico, you have been to Tartarus… Twice!”

“I know! And I can’t even feel a stupid sea ane-ne-men-eay”

“Anemone,” Will corrected, me. “Honestly. They just feel like putting your finger in honey, and you can pull away straight away” Will rubbed my back in an attempt for comfort.

I tried. Pulled away. Tried again, pulled away again.

I tried several times putting my finger close to the water, but pulling away before it could touch.

“Nico,” he whispered, “you don’t have to, you know?”

“I know,” I muttered, I tried again. I got closer to the water this time, but pulled away last second as the hair on my neck began to prickle.

Will ran his hand over the anemones again “see, look, nothing happened”. He showed me his hand.

I worked up the nerve to finally touch my finger to the water, ripping it back almost immediately. I tried again touching my finger to the surface of the water, before I could pull back, the water gave a sharp tug on my finger. I would have fell face first into the Rockpool full of anemones if Will hadn’t grabbed hold of my waist, stopping me from going in. For a moment I was baffled, Percy…

I looked up to see Will already glaring at the culprit.

“PERCY” I stood up, ready to run after the fat turd who had already sprinted away, cackling. Will pulled me back down, with a tug of my wrist.

“Come on, finish your mission you were so close.”

“Ok…” I reached down again, pausing “Jackson, I swear if you do that again I will murder you”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself” Percy laughed walking back.

I finally worked up the courage and touched them, they stuck to my fingers for a second, ticking my fingertips. Just like Will said. I pulled back, subconsciously looking at Will for reassurance, I got an extremely proud smile and a kiss on the cheek. As the others stood and continued to wonder around the rock pools, Will stood up pulling me into a hug.

“I’m proud of you, you touched the anemones.” He pulled me closer whispering in my ear, “and I’m proud you told me you were afraid, that takes guts”. I was certain I was now flushing a right shade of crimson as Will kissed my forehead, linking our arms together as we followed our friends along the beach.

-
Will POV

“Nico, time to go!” I called, Nico ignored me and continued to dig around in the sand, like he had been doing for the past half-hour. I walked over to him.

“Nico—“ I stared, stopping when I saw his face “Hey, hey, you ok?” I asked, putting a hand on Nicos shoulder. His eyes were red rimmed and about to burst, Nico looked at me for a few seconds, before look back down to continue searching.

“Mmh”

“…did you lose something?” I asked

“Mmh”

“What is it?”

“A-a rock” Nico looked embarrassed

“A rock?”. How did he lose a rock?

“Mmh, I threw it”. Well now I’m just confused.

“Why did you throw it if you wanted it?” I was completely baffled

“It fell out of my pocket, and I picked it up, and threw it” Nico told me.

“But why?”

“I just did”. Nico snapped, ADHD response maybe?

“Is that what you have been doing for the past half an hour? Looking for the rock?” I questioned

“Yea… I’m sorry it’s stupid.” Tears started to roll down Nicos cheeks, it hurt me, seeing him like this.

“No, it’s not!” I pulled Nico into my chest, wrapping my arms around him.

“What if I help you search for it, just for a few minutes, cause we really do, need to leave, and if we don’t then we can find you one just as cool, yea?”

“Ok, it was black, shiny and…” Nico gestured the size with his fingers “this big. I didn’t throw it far, so it will only be in this little space”

“Alright”

I helped Nico search for a while, with no luck. He started sobbing, as we started to trail our way back to the house.

“Hey… you wanna hug?” I asked. Nico nodded, I opened my arms up. He melted my arms as the rest of the group continued walking.

We resumed walking, I couldn’t help but noticed Nicos lack of energy, he had dropped behind everyone (including me), practically dragging his feat. His eyes were drooping, his breaths still slightly uneven, he was still sniffing, it had been a big day. I stopped and waited for Nico to catch up, as he shuffled his way next to me, he look up, tears threatening to poor out again.

“Hey… you want me to piggy back you, the rest of the way?”

Nico nodded, I hoisted him up, Nico looped his arms around my neck. His head dropped onto my shoulder as I carried him home.

Renya hung back a bit walking beside me, “he’s ok? Right?”

“Yea, just tried and overwhelmed, I think he might be catching something”

“Your good for him Solace”

I turned red at the praetors words “t-thanks”.

As we slowly walked back to our holiday house, I could feel Nico slowly holding up less and less of his weight as his slipped into slumber.

-

Will tucked me in. My chest hurt, my nose was clogged, but I didn’t have the energy to hide it. He came to check on me after he had safely deposited me on our bed, tucking me in ,a little over an hour ago.

“Hey, you doing ok?” Will tucked a strand of hair out of my face

“Better now that you’re here,” I croaked. “Cuddles?”

“Dinner first?”

“No thanks”

“Please?”

“I’ll drink some water?” I negotiated.

“Deal” Will helped me sit up as he grabbed a bottle of water, holding it out to me as he sat down.

“Thanks”

“It’s aright sweets,” Will rubbed my back as I drank majority of the water. Will helped me lay back down, he tucked us in together. I snuggled close as Will started running his fingers through my hair, humming as he did so. We fell into a comfortable silence

“Nico?” Will broke the silence

“Mmm”

“What was so special about that rock you lost?” He asked.

I— um”, Will opened his mouth, probably to tell me that I didn’t have to tell him, but I continued, “i found two sitting next to each other,” I pulled a beautiful yellow rock, that shimmered with gold streaks, out of my pocket.

“This one…” i showed him. “A-and a black one with shifts of rainbow through it… they reminded me of… us.” I admitted, slightly embarrassed.

“Nico…” he murmured “that’s the sweetest thing you have ever said” Will gave me a kiss on the head and we settled back into comfortable silence, drifting off to sleep.

-
Bonus!
-
A few days later

“Solace!” Nico snapped, cornering me against a wall.

“Mmh?”

“Don’t you ever call me ‘dude’ again, or I will never let your tongue near my mouth again.”

My hands shot up in surrender “Sorry, sorry” I did everything in my power from laughing and just gave him a peck on the lips, before he sharpened his glare and walked off, blushing.