even in the silver light

THREE.

"Yes, I added that to the list."

"And the jump bags?"

"Yes."

"And the—"

"Kayla," Will says firmly as Austin sighs heavily. "Eat your dinner."

She almost pouts, frowning and grumpily taking a bite as Austin snickers at her.

Will rolls his eyes, looking up past her at the Hades table.

Nico is looking down at a book, his face coveted by fallen hair, and Will watches as he absentmindedly twists his skull ring. There's a plate in front of him, half-full of food.

"Hey," Will starts, tearing his eyes away from him. "Have you guys ever thought about, like, therapy? For demigods?"

"Yeah, all the time," Kayla says with a mouth full of food. Will grimaces, looking away from her. (Even as the head doctor he gets grossed out.)

"Really?"

"Mmhmm."

"Everyone here needs it, honestly," Austin says, and Kayla hums in agreement. "But it's not like we can just go see some shrink in town and tell them all our trauma."

"That's true."

"Why do you ask?" Kayla says after swallowing, and Will can look at her.

"Dunno. Just wondering." He pauses. "How— Would we be able to do some kind of therapy at camp?"

Kayla hums thoughtfully, frowning.

"I don't see why not," she says. "I don't know how we would go about it but..." She shrugs. "You can figure that out while we're at school."

He rolls his eyes.

Nico leaves about as soon as dinner is over, right as the first few campers are getting up to leave, shovelling the rest of his food into the pavilion fire. Will watches him go.

"You're coming to the campfire, right?" Austin asks as he starts to stand, his fork and knife clattering on his plate.

"Uh..." He sighs, pushing his plate away before pulling it close again. "No, I think I might get some more work done."

Kayla groans dramatically, snatching her plate. (Will covers his so she doesn't move to take it.)

"Man graduates high school and thinks he's a grown up," she grumbles, and he calls "I'm almost twenty!" after her as she follows Austin.

- - -

Will doesn't go until he can hear distant singing, mixing in the air with guitar strums and giggles. He almost sneaks, even though he knows he won't get in trouble.

"Okay," he breathes to himself, inhaling deeply and shrugging his shoulders, glancing down at the plate hes holding. It's piling with fruit, strawberries and grapes and apple slices, and bread and cheese and ham. Okay.

He knocks, the sound of it loud over the campfire songs.

There's no response, and Will eyes widen as it occurs to him that Nico could be asleep. Before he can panic, though, the door swings open and Nico is standing there, with his signature narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, looking simultaneously suspicious and confused.

"Hi, sunshine," Will says, blanking on what he had been meaning to say. Nico really is so pretty.

He's wearing a heavy sweater, and the sleeves hang over his hand, making him look tiny, even though he isn't much shorter than Will. His hair is messy.

"Hi," Nico says back, his hand still holding the door, looking at Will's face before he looks down at the plate of food.

"I, uhm—" Will holds it out. "I brought you food."