Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nico

-

Having tea in Persephone's garden was not how Nico expected to spend his Sunday.

Persephone had spontaneously decided that she didn’t hate Nico’s guts and ‘wanted to get to know him better’. Whatever that means.

However, Nico, not wanting to face the wrath of an angry Queen of The Underworld, had agreed to meet her for tea in her garden. He was honestly shocked that she would ever even let him in her precious garden, let alone have tea in it with him. But the Gods work in strange ways, so who was he to question this definitely not suspicious invite.

So here he was, drinking tea in the underworld, while an immortal goddess was staring at him waiting for something.

“So… what did you want to talk to me about Persephone?” Nico asked cautiously, genuinely curious but also guarded in case it was a trap, he did not want to be turned into a flower again.

“Well it has come to my attention that I do not know much about you, Nico di Angelo.” She stated clearly, taking a sip of tea before speaking again, “I’ve noticed you spending a significant amount of your time with a certain child of Apollo..”

Nico felt his face turn red as a pomegranate, it was confirmed by Persephone’s slight smile as she observed him. “Yes, me and Will are friends, so of course I'm gonna hang out with him sometimes.” Nico quickly tried to recover.

Persephone seemed to find this quite amusing, however. “Yes and I suppose friends stare at each other when the other isn’t looking? Or notice when they are spoken over in a group of people?” She questioned him, Nico felt his face burn at this. He knew he liked Will a bit more than he did his other friends, but he didn’t need his immortal step-mother who he thought hated him until today, knowing that.

“I’m just trying to be a good friend, I don’t really have that much experience prior with friends considering I can’t remember the majority of my life from the time before I entered the Lotus Hotel. And after I got out, I was left by my sister and then being a demi-god decided to catch up with me.” Nico recalled bitterly, desperately trying to change the topic to anything other than Will.

Persephone’s eyes softened a bit at this, “Yes I know you’ve had a tough life Nico, but that doesn’t make love a bad thing to be feared. You and I both know that love, whether familial, platonic, or romantic, can bloom anywhere, even the strangest of places.” She paused for a moment to think before continuing, “There is a patch of sun for every flower, just because two flowers may look different from each other, does not mean that one is bad or wrong. They are simply unique and lovely in their own ways.” She gave Nico a small smile, which he returned with an unsure look.

She then stood and clapped her hands, the tea and small picnic disappearing from sight. “Thank you for joining me for tea today Nico, but I feel that you have someone waiting for you above.”
Nico gave her a polite wave, “Thank you Persephone.” and shadow travelled back to his cabin.

What a strange conversation. He really did not expect that conversation to take that turn, he maybe expected some threats to turn him into a plant for existing, not discussing his crush on Will.

Just then, there was a knock on the door of his cabin that pulled him out of his thoughts. Huh, Persephone was right, there was someone waiting for him when he got back.

Nico stood and walked to open the door, and standing on the porch of cabin 13, was none other than William Solace.

-

“Uh hey Will,” Nico started, very smoothly. "What’re you doing here?” He questioned, cringing a bit inside at how abrupt and probably rude that sounded.

Will didn’t seem to notice though, and if he did, he didn’t give any indication of it, “Well I just got off my shift at the infirmary so I came to ask if you maybe wanted to hang out before dinner?” He asked, eagerness seeping into his voice.

Who was Nico to turn down that offer?

“Oh yeah sure, I haven’t really got anything to do anyways.” Nico replied.

Will practically glowed. At this, he turned around and walked down the porch, turning behind expectantly to wait for Nico. Nico took a step forward towards Will, when something yellow and almost shiny caught his eye, a Sunflower laying at his foot where Will had just been standing. Where did that come from? Nico thought.

He brushed it off and kicked it behind him into the Hades cabin; he could deal with that later. He walked down the steps of the cabin towards Will, their steps fell into sync as they began walking with no real direction.

The two chatted mindlessly about the stuff going on around camp.

“Hey, did you know that apparently, the Hermes cabin started a prank war with the Aphrodite kids?” Will started, “It began early this morning when the Hermes cabin dropped a glitter bomb on the Aphrodite kids at breakfast.”

Nico was not there at breakfast so he had no way of knowing, he was on his way to the underworld that morning. He had received the invitation to have tea with Persephone but got there early to play with Cerberus.

“Really? Was it just out of the blue or did something happen?” Nico questioned, his interest now piqued.

“A lot of people think that one of the Hermes kids has a crush on an Aphrodite camper and they’re doing this to get their attention.” Will speculated, grinning from ear to ear.

“Why do people think that?” Nico asked.

“Because the last prank war was between Hermes' campers and children of Demeter, that’s how Travis and Katie got together.” Will smiled as he recalled the memory.

“Oh and speaking of couples,” Will started. Nico held his breath, expecting Will to announce his own relationship and effectively break Nico’s heart without knowing it.

But Will just continued with, “There are rumors of Sherman Yang and Miranda Gardiner dating, apparently some child of Athena saw Sherman making a bouquet of flowers himself.” Will paused before continuing, “Then Lacy from Aphrodite, saw Sherman give the bouquet to Miranda, along with a basket of strawberries.”

Nico hummed thoughtfully at this news, “The Aphrodite kids must be having fun with this.” Nico remarked.

“Probably, I heard they’re planning a firework show too next week, likely for all the new couples and to figure out which Hermes kid has a crush on one of them.” He commented.

“That doesn’t sound that bad, are you gonna go?” Nico asked cautiously, not wanting to reveal his own feelings and increasing curiosity.

“I don’t have a particular person to go with if that’s what you’re asking” Will smirked at Nico, then continued, “but I was thinking I’d just go with Kayla and Austin."

Will paused for a moment as if to say something more, but then stopped himself seemingly thinking better of it, and they kept walking.

Just as they came to a stop in the strawberry fields, Nico spotted another Sunflower just behind Will. Seriously where were these coming from? Nico had an idea of who it could be, a certain meddling goddess with a love for flora..

Nico ducked down and tried to pick it up before Will could turn around, but he wasn’t so lucky. Will turned and just as he was about to look down and see the flower, Nico grabbed at a bushel of strawberries and threw them straight into Will’s face. He stood up with the flower now safely tucked into the back of his shirt and stared at Will with wide eyes.

He realised what he had just done but knew it was for the greater good. It would’ve looked really strange to see Nico on the ground kneeling with a sunflower in hand while talking to a child of Apollo, that could’ve been bad. However, now he had a different problem to deal with. They were in the strawberry fields and he had just flung strawberries into Will’s face, he had basically dug his own grave with that one.

“What-” Will’s shocked expression morphed into a grin as he reached down and flung a handful of strawberries back at Nico.

There was no way Nico was getting out of this safely now. It turned into a full on strawberry war, the duo took turns trying and failing to duck behind the small strawberry shrubs, and flinging handfuls of ripe strawberries at each other.

“Stop throwing strawberries at me!” Nico shouted, being a complete hypocrite as he threw 3 strawberries in Will’s direction.

“You were the one who started it!” Will yelled back, drawing the attention of nearby campers.

Some other campers who were strawberry picking nearby, saw the whole ordeal and soon joined in with them. Will laughed so hard he was nearly tearing up. The red guts of the strawberry dyed his hair half pink, the sticky fruit was now stuck all over his clothes and face.

Will turned to Nico who had just picked up a handful of soon to be squashed strawberries, and before Nico could throw them, Will had tackled him to the ground. Will fell beside him as Nico screamed in shock, Will began cackling. As they laid on the ground beside each other, the pair saw the strawberries being sent sailing over their heads as the fight continued.

Nico turned on his side to face Will, about to finally speak when something once again caught his attention. It was yet another stupid flower, this time a hyacinth, laying just above Will’s head. Shit.

He couldn’t let Will see it, so he reached over and grabbed strawberry gunk out of Will’s hair and as he pulled his hand back, a doe eyed Will solace was staring at him. Nico quickly recovered and threw the strawberry mush back in Will’s face, which he just laughed at. While Will was still cleaning the strawberries out of his face, Nico snatched the flower and hid it behind his back.

The two sat there for a moment, both facing the sky, strawberries soaring over their heads as they watched in awe. However, the moment was quickly ruined by the horrified screams of the Demeter cabin.

“Our strawberries! We spent ages growing those!” Miranda wailed.

Nico and Will sat straight up as a bunch of campers pointed to them, “They started it, we just joined in!” Harley from Hephaestus defended.

The duo looked at each other, stood up, and booked it to the forest, desperate to get away from the fuming Demeter kids. Unfortunately, their efforts were short lived, when a root tripped them and they were dragged by the grass pulling at their feet all the way back to a furious Miranda Gardiner.

“Do you two have any idea how long it took to grow all those!” She screamed, exasperated.

“We grow them to sell to fund this camp, and to eat! Not for you to throw at each other and destroy!” She screeched in their faces, they had the decency to look sheepish at least.

“You two are going to clean up this mess and then you’re on dish cleaning duty for a week!” Miranda then stormed off to the big house, probably to inform Chiron and seal their punishment.

Nico and Will were released from the grips of the grass beneath their feet. Will doubled over laughing while Nico scowled in an attempt to hide the small smile threatening to creep onto his face.

“This is all your fault.” Nico glared at Will who was clutching his sides in a desperate attempt to stop his cackling.

“M-My fault!?” Will managed to sputter out through his laughing fit, “You were the one who threw strawberries first, if this is anyone's fault, it’s yours death breath.” Will grinned at Nico’s exasperation.

Nico couldn’t help but think about the way the sunlight reflected off of Will's hair, forming an almost halo around his strawberry covered hair.

“Whatever, we need to start cleaning up this mess anyways unless we want to be stuck out here with the harpies swooping at us.” Nico mumbled at the floor, refusing to look in Will’s direction.

“Wait, can’t the cleaning harpies just clean this up?” Will questioned, looking genuinely confused.

“Unless you want an early visit to my father, then no Will.” Nico stated.

“Fair enough.” Will’s eyes widened, and he turned to face the messed up field of now destroyed strawberries.

As Will turned around, Nico’s eye caught something at Will’s foot. Another flower, a daffodil this time, one of Persephone’s favourites. This confirmed Nico’s theory as to who was making the flowers appear, although Nico still didn’t know why his step-mother would be doing all of this. Was it to help him? Because it sure wasn’t making his life any easier. He pushed the thought aside and ducked to pocket the flower while Will was distracted.

The rest of the day consisted of the two cleaning the strawberry guts from the ground as best they could. With Nico distracting Will every now and then to pick up the assortment of flowers that kept appearing at Will’s feet. Persephone was going to be the death of him, he couldn’t just follow Will around, picking up the mysterious flowers that appeared at his feet.

What was he going to do, and what would happen when Will would eventually go back to his cabin only to wake to a pile of flowers. It’s not like Nico could break into his cabin or anything just to take the flowers.

Finally, they had finished cleaning up the majority of the red mess splattered across the field. It was dinner time and they made their way over to the dining pavilion. Nico scraped half his food into the fire, sending a quick prayer to Persephone to stop with the flowers. During dinner, Nico sat with the Apollo table as usual and his prayer to Persephone had no effect as he had to hide 3 more flowers. He was nearly caught by Kayla, but luckily she’s easily distracted, especially by infirmary horror stories.

After dinner, they went to the campfire and Nico watched Will screech during the sing-along, singing dramatically in Nico’s face. Nico couldn’t help but notice how pretty Will looked in the light of the fire, the orange light reflecting like a glow off of his tan skin.

Nico caught himself staring and looked to the ground where he saw a violet sprouting, which he then picked and pocketed before anyone noticed. As the fire went out and they heard the harpies begin to screech, they headed back to their cabins.

Nico promptly emptied his pockets of the flowers and stuffed them into his drawers. He was so lucky Hazel wasn’t visiting at the moment or else she would’ve teased him mercilessly for this little problem of his.

Nico prayed one last time to Persephone to at least hold off the flowers while they slept, although he had a feeling that his prayer may not be answered.

Chapter Text

Will

-

Will awoke to the fresh scent of pollen in his cabin.

That’s strange. The Apollo cabin usually doesn’t have flowers in it unless it’s the hyacinths on the windowsill outside, but the fragrant smell seemed much too close to be from out there. Will tore off the covers of his warm bed, needing to get up to take his shift at the infirmary, but more importantly to find the cause of the strange but welcome smell.

As soon as Will sat up he was greeted with a small pile of flowers on the foot of his bed. There were an assortment of sunflowers, lilies, hyacinths, crocuses, daffodils, and wildflowers all scattered. Where did that come from?

He stared at the flowers curiously, he had no idea who would’ve left him flowers or how they would’ve gotten into the cabin. Unless.. Maybe it was Kayla and Austin pulling some weird prank on him, on that thought, maybe it was a Hermes camper? Or could it have been a child of Demter maybe? Will had no clue and the longer he thought about it, the more he realised it could really be anyone.

Was it maybe… No, he wouldn’t leave flowers of all things in Will’s cabin and he didn’t have a reason to either. Unless.. No, that's outrageous, he would never like Will back. They were only friends and it seemed strange for someone to break into his cabin while he was sleeping and leave flowers at the foot of his bed.

All this weird flower business was starting to make Will’s head hurt, and he had more important things to attend to. So on that note, Will blinked away his bewilderment and abandoned the pile of flowers to get ready for the infirmary.

Once he had his usual cargo shorts and camp t-shirt on, he made his way towards the camp infirmary. Stopping once at the dining pavilion to grab a granola bar before continuing on his way.

Just as he was about to walk through the door to the infirmary, Kayla walked out.

“Hey Will, by the way there’s no one in the infirmary yet but we are running low on ambrosia so I’m gonna let Connor know after I wake up for his next supply run.” She quickly informed him.

Will was about to stop her to ask if she knew anything about the strange situation he had woken up to when she beat him to it.

“Um Will,” Kayla paused, her eyes seemingly catching something on the ground behind him. “Why is there a flower trail behind you? Did you get in a fight with a Demeter kid or something?” She questioned, her head snapping up to eye him suspiciously.

“That’s actually what I was going to ask you about. When I woke up this morning, there was a whole pile of flowers at the end of my bed.” Will paused to think something over before continuing, “I thought maybe it was you or even Austin, but now I think I have a better idea of who it may be. Thanks Kayla.” And with that, Will ruffled her hair and strolled past her through the infirmary doors.

Kayla just shrugged, still confused but she made her way back to her cabin. She could pester him about whatever he meant later, for now, she just really wanted to sleep.

-

Will now had a pretty good idea of who was cursing him, although was it really a curse if it was just having flowers following him? That didn’t seem very horrible to him. Miranda should really step up her game if he was being honest. He was kind of surprised she didn’t curse him with grass grabbing at his feet when he walked or have rotten tomatoes being hurled at him, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He started his usual infirmary business, sterilising the cots, tidying up the storage room because his siblings never cleaned in there. And then he sat down at the desk to fill out any unfinished paperwork (which if he was being honest, there was a lot).

Will was in the middle of filling out a form for a new demi-god that had arrived just a week ago, they had recently been claimed as a child hephaestus. Their name was Charlie and they had to stay in the infirmary overnight the first day they came. On the way over they were attacked by a hellhound and they were bit pretty bad on their left arm.

Will had no idea why the form hadn’t been filled out yet but assumed it was probably due to Kayla being the one in charge that day. He was gonna have to talk to her about that for like the fifth time this month, she would probably forget again but whatever.

Just as he got to the bottom of the form, the bell to the door of the infirmary dinged. He looked out from behind his mountain of paperwork to see a familiar face walk through and into the infirmary.

Drew strolled into the infirmary with a worried looking Mitchell. Will jumped up from his desk and headed over to where the two stood near the door.

“Mitchell, stop worrying, it’s just a cut. You know my face tends to bleed more than anywhere else.” Drew reassured, just barely masking her care under a nonchalant facade that was easy to see through if you knew her.

“Hey Drew, what brought you to the infirmary today? Another makeup experiment gone wrong?” Will questioned, having calmed down with the small knowledge of the unserious injury.

“Kind of, I was microblading my eyebrows when the razor slipped down my face. I don’t think it’s too deep but I don’t want it to scar so I came for some ambrosia.” Drew explained calmly with Mitchell still bouncing from anxiety at her side.

“Ok, just take a seat and I'll be right back.” Will motioned for her to sit down on an empty cot which she obliged to. “And Mitchell, you can go or wait outside unless you need something.” And with that, Mitchell gave a quick wave and headed out, still a bit anxious.

Will returned with an apple, a damp cloth, disinfectant spray, and dragged a nearby stool to sit down in front of her.

“We’re running low on ambrosia so I’m just going to clean the cut and heal you myself, sorry but we need to save the ambrosia for more urgent injuries until we get more from the Hermes cabin’s next supply run. Kayla said she’ll let Connor know once she wakes up from her nap, so we’ll probably be getting stock of ambrosia in about 2 days.” Will explained while cleaning up the blood with the damp cloth.

He sprayed some disinfectant on her face and asked her to fan it while he threw the cloth into the sink.

“Speaking of Hermes cabin, how are the pranks going for you guys, and have you figured out which Hermes camper has a crush on which of your siblings?” Will questioned as he sat back down across from her.

“I think I’ve figured out who this is about. I’m getting really fed up with the pranks though, it would be nice to be able to wake up and walk outside without getting paint bombed or some other stupid petty prank.” Drew sighed, putting her hand down from fanning her face so Will could heal her.

“Oh really? Who’s your lucky or unlucky sibling?” Will asked, putting a hand to her face, beginning to hum a healing hymn.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Connor and I think he likes Mitchell, I can see a faint pink aura glowing around him and it gets slightly stronger whenever he’s around Mitchell.” Drew explained, her eyes flitted over to outside of the infirmary where Connor was spotted sneaking up on an unsuspecting Mitchell.

Will hummed in response, hands still glowing as neared the end of a hymn.

“Speaking of love..” Drew began to speak, Will did not like where this was going. “How’s Nico?” She asked, fighting back a wicked grin as she raised an eyebrow at him.

Will paused for a second before returning his composed expression, “Why don’t you ask him yourself Drew?” Will deflected.

Drew wasn’t giving up so easily though, “Come on Solace, I can see it written all over your face, why don’t you just ask him out already. I’m sure it’ll be pretty easy for you, seeing as you don’t even have to buy him flowers.” She smirked, eyes flitting down to Will’s feet.

Embarrassed, Will buried his face in his hands, with a muffled groan. “Shut up Drew, why do you love to see me miserable?” He complained.

Drew ignored Will’s despair, “Why are there flowers trailing you though?” She questioned, looking genuinely curious.

“I’m honestly not sure, but I think it has something to do with yesterday.” Will stated.

Drew waited for a moment, but at the lack of explanation from Will, “So.. what happened yesterday?” She prompted.

“Well I was out in the strawberry fields with Nico-” He was cut off by Drew’s loud burst of laughter.

“You and Nico were out in the strawberry fields, just you two, yesterday?” She smirked before composing herself to continue, “Will, as a child of Aphrodite, I’m just disappointed in your obliviousness.” Drew shook her head in mock disappointment.

“Will you stop and let me finish my story? It wasn’t even like that.” Will complained.

Drew made a zipping gesture over her lips, throwing away the key, and allowing Will to continue.

“Thank you. So like I said, we were out in the strawberry fields, when Nico bent to the ground while I was distracted. And as I turned around, he had a handful of strawberries and chucked them straight at my face.” Drew chuckled a bit at this but didn’t interrupt.

“And so like any gentleman would do in my situation, I grabbed some strawberries and very politely threw them into his face” Will deadpanned before continuing, “And then it turned into a whole strawberry war and other people nearby joined in too. But then when the Demeter kids found out, they were really mad and we were blamed for the whole mess because we started it.” Will finished.

“So you think the Demeter kids cursed you?” Drew asked.

“Well probably, Miranda was pretty mad at us and now we both have dishwashing duty for like a week.” Will reasoned, but for some reason, Drew wasn’t so convinced.

“What about Nico?” She questioned, Will was a bit taken aback, what did Nico have to do with him getting cursed?

“What about him?” Will was genuinely confused at this point.

“Well did he get some weird flower curse too? You guys both were throwing strawberries right, so wouldn’t you both be cursed? Especially him since he started the whole thing.” Drew reasoned.

“Well I haven’t seen him since yesterday, so I haven’t gotten a chance to even talk to him.” Will paused before continuing, “I guess I could just ask him later today after my shift. He wanted to finally teach me how to play Mythomagic in his cabin later today anyway.” He explained.

Drew chuckled at this. Will blushed fiercely realising how it sounded.

“Okay fine.” She paused for a moment, thinking something over before smirking, “So… when are you gonna ask him out? You’ve liked him for ages and now you finally have your chance. He’s staying at camp, right?” Will nodded, “Exactly, so what’s stopping you?” She asked.

“Well for one, I don’t even know if he likes guys!” Will exclaimed, “I mean, what if he’s homophobic or something? He was born in the 1930s.” He tried to further prove his point with this, but Drew just laughed.

“Why don’t you just ask him, you guys are best friends.” She explained with knowing eyes.

“That's another problem! How can I ask him without making it obvious that I like him, and even if he was gay, that doesn’t mean he likes me!” Will threw up his hands in exasperation.

“Trust me, I don’t think he’s homophobic.” Drew started, Will gave her a look as she continued, “And if he’s really your friend, even if he didn’t like you back like that, he wouldn’t end your friendship over it. If he did, then I don’t think you want to be friends with him anyways.” She explained.

Will really hates it when Drew makes sense. He decided to not argue further and finish up healing her cheek, not wanting to continue the current conversation, although he felt a small smile creeping its way onto his face. Drew just smiled at him, and thankfully didn’t keep going.

“Alright!” Will exclaimed, taking his hand back from her cheek to check the now fully healed cut.

“Luckily it wasn’t deep enough to scar and it’s fully healed.” Will paused for a second, turning behind him to grab something, “Eat this apple just so you don’t feel dizzy or anything. Although the cut wasn’t deep, there was an unusual amount of blood so I don’t want you to feel close to fainting or something similar.”

“Thanks Will!” Drew smiled as she stood, putting a hand to her cheek to check the now healed cut.

“You're welcome, just be careful when you’re doing your makeup stuff, especially with a razor on your face!” Will cautioned, waving to her as she walked out of the infirmary doors.

As Will turned back to his desk, he thought he saw a figure move outside the infirmary doors. But when he did a double take to check if there was someone else in need of the infirmary, there was no one there. Huh, maybe it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.

Only one other person came into the infirmary while Will was working, and had a scraped knee. Thankfully the 8 year old child of Athena was not invested in his love life unlike certain daughters of Aphrodite.

Will finished up most of the paperwork before switching with Austin who was taking the afternoon shift. With his infirmary business out of the way, he made his way over to cabin 13.

Chapter Text

Nico

-

Nico had just shadow travelled back to his cabin and immediately face planted onto his bed. Shit.

He now had two problems to take care of. 1. Will obviously found out about the flower trail, luckily he probably has no idea it was Persephone. Hopefully. And 2. Will likes Drew! It was so obvious, he was smiling at her, blushing, and even had his hand on her cheek!

Nico was so screwed, at least with Percy, he knew he had no chance whatsoever. But with Will, even if it was stupid he thought that maybe, just maybe, Will might’ve liked him back. He was so stupid for ever hoping he had a chance, Will probably didn’t even like guys.

Nico had to pause his moping as he heard a knock on the door of his cabin and a familiar voice sounding through the door. “Nico, are you in there?” Will called through the door.

In his despair, Nico had totally forgotten about the reason why he even went to the infirmary to get Will in the first place. He was meant to finally teach Will the card game he had been obsessed with when he first came to camp. The one that killed Bianca. He pushed the thought aside and scrambled to get to the door, taking a quick composing breath before opening it.

“Uh hey Will.” Nico greeted awkwardly.

“Hi Nico!” Will said, seemingly not noticing Nico’s awkwardness.

Nico opened the door to his cabin a bit wider, stepping aside so Will could walk through and into the cabin. Nico silently cursed at the terrible timing, he really didn’t want to talk to Will right now but he had no choice.

As the two sat down across from each other on the floor of the Hades cabin, Nico noticed a stray flower appear behind Will. He must’ve noticed Nico looking behind him at the flower, “Oh yeah, the flowers. They only started appearing this morning, I think Miranda cursed me because of yesterday.” Will chuckled before pausing and then asking, “Have you noticed anything strange happening with you?”

Nico paused. He hadn’t thought about that, wouldn’t it look suspicious if it was only Will that was affected? But then again, he didn’t want to be caught in such an obvious lie. “Oh that’s strange, I haven’t been cursed or anything, well not that I know of.” Nico then added, “I don’t know why it’s only you though.” He said, like a liar.

Now that he thought about it, he was kind of confused that he hadn’t been cursed. After all, Demeter does hate his dad. And after yesterday he would’ve assumed something would have happened, whether it be from Demeter herself or her kids. Weird.

“I know right!?” Will exclaimed, throwing his hands up, “You were the one who started the whole thing! This is so unfair!” He shouted, exasperated.

Nico hummed in agreement, afraid his own words would rat him out.

Will rolled his eyes but stopped when his eyes caught something. “Hey wait, why are there flowers poking out of your drawer?” He questioned.

Nico’s eyes widened and he turned his body sharply to look at the drawer behind him. Why does this stuff always seem to happen to him? “Oh uh, well-” He stumbled out, not sure what to say that wouldn’t sound suspicious.

“You didn’t need to lie about it if you got cursed too, you know? I kinda thought it was even more strange whe-” Suddenly Nico cut off Will’s questioning. He didn’t want Will to think he was a liar, and he wouldn’t have been able to fake the curse anyways, so he blurted out, “I’m not cursed, I got them for someone I like.” Not technically a lie, just not the whole truth.

Will stopped talking at Nico’s sudden outburst and just stared at him with wide eyes for a moment. “Oh.”

There was a beat of stiff silence for a second before Will spoke again, “I didn’t know you liked anyone.” He stated simply. There was a strange tenseness that hadn’t been there before and Nico had no idea why.

“Oh uh yeah, I just didn’t know how to bring it.. Up..?” he ended his sentence as more of a question, not understanding why Will suddenly seemed upset at this news. Why did it matter that much to him anyways?

Will began to stand, “Makes sense, sorry, I uh forgot something I had to do in the infirmary. I gotta go, I’ll see you later.” With that, he headed out of the Hades cabin, shutting the door behind him with a slam.

Nico just sat there staring at the door where Will had stood only seconds ago. What the fuck just happened.