Archive of Our Own ^beta

The hotel room door clicked shut behind Nico di Angelo with a soft thud. He scanned the small, slightly outdated space: one queen-sized bed, a nightstand, and a weirdly cheerful sunflower painting above the headboard. His eyes narrowed. Of course.
Will Solace dropped their shared duffel bag on the floor and looked around. “One bed,” he said brightly, as if stating the obvious made it less awkward.
Nico crossed his arms. “Didn’t Percy say this place had double rooms?”
Will shrugged, flopping onto the bed like it was no big deal. “I mean, technically, it is a double—double occupancy. One bed. Two people. Room shared. Math checks out.”
Nico glared, contemplating whether melting into shadows would be worth the energy. It had been a long day of monster attacks, Leo’s bad playlist, and Annabeth trying to read aloud from a history book over Piper’s loud snoring. Now this?
He walked to the foot of the bed, crouching slightly.
And then he saw it.
A second bed frame, neatly tucked underneath. A pull-out trundle bed.
He stared at it.
Looked back at Will.
Will was staring at him with a slight flush on his cheeks.
They locked eyes for a fraction too long.
Neither said a word.
Nico slowly stood and walked to the window, pretending to examine the view of a sad parking lot while his heart pounded. Behind him, Will busied himself with his bag, too focused, too casual.
The second bed remained unmentioned.
Night fell faster than either would have liked. After a shared silence that somehow filled the entire room, Will finally turned off the lamp.
Nico lay stiffly on the farthest edge of the mattress, arms tucked tightly against himself. Will was doing the same on the other side, their backs nearly touching but not quite.
“You awake?” Will whispered after what felt like hours.
“Obviously,” Nico muttered.
More silence.
“I could, um… sleep on the floor,” Will offered, voice quiet. “Or maybe you could, like, shadow travel to the lobby couch or something?”
Nico scoffed. “You sleep on the floor and you’ll be useless tomorrow. You sleep in your half, I sleep in mine. Deal?”
Will was quiet for a moment. “Okay. Deal.”
Minutes passed. Then—
“This is dumb,” Will said suddenly. “There’s a second bed under the main one, isn’t there?”
Nico didn’t answer.
“Yeah,” Will sighed. “I saw it too.”
“…Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why didn’t you?”
They both went quiet again, then broke into muffled laughter, trying not to wake anyone in the next room.
Eventually, the laughter faded, and the room grew peaceful. Will rolled slightly, his hand brushing against Nico’s. Nico didn’t move away this time.
“We’ll pull out the bed tomorrow,” Will said softly.
“Yeah,” Nico murmured. “Tomorrow.”
But neither of them moved. Not tonight.
And somehow, that one shared bed didn’t feel so crowded after all.