Everywhere I Go Leads Me Back To You

Wishin' I'd realized what I had when you were mine

Nico felt like he had been punched. No, actually, he felt like he had been run over by a train.

He wasn't ashamed of his dreams about Will. They always involved someone he cared about, Bianca, Hazel, it wasn't a surprise Will would show up in a few of them.

But Will finding out about them? That was a whole different story.

"W- what do you mean?" Nico asked, his voice quivering.

"I, um" Will scratched the back of his neck. "I heard you calling my name... something like 'don't go'" then he added. "I've might been mistaken though-"

"You're mistaken." Nico cut him off and Will winced. He cleared his throat and continued in a gentler tone. "What I mean is that I've been having all sort of dreams, I don't even remember you being in any of them," he lied, "But if you were, it's just the fever, it doesn't mean anything."

The second the words left his mouth Nico regretted it.

Maybe he should've told Will the truth- dying of embarrassment seemed like a way better option than hurting his feelings now that Nico thought about it.

He desperately searched for a way to fix their situation without straight up admitting that he lied, but before he could come up with anything Will stood up like he had been electrocuted.

"I forgot to do something!" He blurted out, already on his way out. "I'll- I'll be back soon."

The door slammed behind him and Nico covered his face with his hands.

"What the hell did I just do?" He sighed.

-x-

Thankfully, Will managed to get to the on-call room before the tears started falling.

It took all of his strength not to dramatically slide against the door and curl into a ball on the floor. Instead, he opted for throwing himself on a bed and burying his face on the pillow.

Suddenly it became so perfectly clear to Will how tightly he had been holding on to the possibility that Nico dreamt of him —regardless of how many times he told himself not to hope for it.

Austin, who happened to be sleeping in the bunk bed next to it, woke up with a start and hit the bed above him.

"Shit!" He exclaimed, rubbing his wounded head. "What the hell Will?"

"Why can't he love me back, Austin?" Will cried, his voice muffled by the pillow, "Am I that bad?" he sobbed. "Why won't he feel the same? What do I have to do for him to love me?"

"Wow, hold on, Will hold on." Austin raised his hands as if to stop him. "Let's take a breath okay? This is about Nico right?"

"Yeah," Will said, breathing deeply to calm his nerves. "I can't believe it's happening again." He shook his head. "This is exactly what happened last time I fell for him. I misinterpreted all the signs, made things up in my head and let myself believe that he loved me back even when he clearly didn't."