Turns out it was hard to not admire or be attracted to William Andrew Solace. Very hard.
Things started to change, once again, another week later, or Halloween.
Nico decided that he didn't really understand the point of the holiday, so he didn't dress up.
Well, that's what he wanted to do and planned on doing until Will stopped by his cabin the day before Halloween to make sure Nico had a costume. Of course he didn't, so Will got him one he found in the Big House. It was, to Nico's chagrin, a skeleton costume. Also, it was barely even qualified to be called one. The 'costume' was black clothes with fake bones taped or painted on, depending on where it was on the body. There wasn't even a mask or anything to cover his face to go with.
Nico thought it was odd that they celebrate Halloween, but when he asked Will, he just responded, "It's fun for the younger campers to get candy and the older ones, us, have a party after the trick-or-treating. We also do some Christmas traditions like gift-giving and decorating with a tree and lights." Will's eyes sparkled when he talked.
The smaller demigod learned that Mr.D and Chiron turned a blind eye to the party because they wanted the campers to feel like normal teens when they could. If he was being honest, Nico was not looking forward to the party since he never did well with socializing.
On Halloween, the older campers had to give out candy, chocolate and all different kinds of treats to the smaller ones. The counsellors for each cabin would be giving them out, but if the campers wanted to help or hang out with another cabin's counsellor, they could.
For Demeter it was Miranda Gardiner, Ares it was Sherman Yang and Ellis Wakefield, Athena was Malcolm Pace, Apollo was, of course, Will and, surprisingly, Cecil, Hephaestus was Nyssa Barrera, Valentina Diaz was doing it for Aphrodite, Hermes was Connor Stoll, Butch Walker was doing Iris cabin, Hypnos was supposed to be Clovis if he could wake up in time, Nemesis was Damien White, Laurel and Holly Victor were both doing Nike, Hebe was Paolo Montes, Chiara Benevenuti was doing Tyche's and Hecate was Lou Ellen.
Earlier that week, a group of them went out and bought what Nico had thought was enough to last a month. They purchased so many kinds, some for kids with allergies or food restrictions, some for variety between cabins, some of their favourite kinds for themselves or for the party.
Around 7:00, campers started trick-or-treating. Nico was decked out in his Halloween costume. All the demigods who wanted to go, went. A surprising amount of people came to Cabin 13 for candy, but he guessed that is what happens after being at camp for months and getting close with some of the others.
Nico was disappointed when he didn't see Will at all, though he didn't know why he was expecting to. Maybe he just got used to Will always being near to his person. But he knew Will would not come and get him after everyone was done with trick-or-treating, because he was doing the same thing Nico was, answering the door, handing out candies.
When the younger campers went around to every cabin and received a respectable amount of treats, everyone made their way to the Big House to watch movies. As predicted, Will came around with Cecil wearing a cowboy outfit. A freaking cowboy costume.
"Wow, Solace," Nico deadpanned.
"You like the costume, hon?" Will asked with an added extra twang that was usually only detectable in his voice when he was emotional.
Nico just sighed in answer.
"Okay, now that you two did that, let's go?"
Did what, Nico wasn't sure, but he followed the son of Hermes anyway.
The three of them met up with the remainder of the demigods and all found comfortable spots in the cinema room.
They ended up watching The Nightmare Before Christmas after some debating on whether it was a Christmas or Halloween movie.
Eventually, the small campers got tired and some of the older campers went with them to go to bed and supervise them while the rest of the teens partied.
Almost immediately, everyone moved into a bigger room and people set up tables of snacks and drinks and started blasting music. From where and what? Nico didn't know.
Nico quickly retreated into a dark corner. He contemplated shadow traveling out of there then, but part of him wanted to stay to see what was so good and fun about this whole scene.
The son of Hades saw blonde hair poking out near the center of the crowd and continued to see it several times in the span of five minutes, in different places of the room each time.
Suddenly, Will was in front of him, grinning like an idiot and holding a red solo cup.
"I hope that's not alcohol," Nico muttered, but Will heard him anyway.
"It is not, in fact, alcohol. Mr. D and Chiron may be allowing us to have this party, but they would never let us or give us access to any drink with alcoholic substances. Besides, I'm a doctor, I wouldn't allow that, it all ruins your body," Will told him.
"Of course, Doctor. How did I not see that coming?" The Italian replied snarkily, yet truthfully. Really, how did he not see that coming? Obviously, if there was anything of that sort at this party, Will would be freaking out and demanding everyone to stop.
"If you are wondering, it's punch," the healer informed him. "You want some?"
"No thanks."
Will sighed, then perked up. "Wanna dance?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "I don't dance, Solace."
"Oh, um, okay." Will deflated.
The ravenette was quiet for a couple seconds then, "I'm going." There was no point in staying when all he was doing was standing in a corner, by himself for most of the party.
"Are you sure you want to leave?" Will seemed disappointed, but Nico assumed he must be reading the older boy incorrectly. Why would he be sad about Nico leaving?
"Yeah," he admitted truthfully, looking around the room at all the demigods dancing and singing along to the current song playing.
"Okay. Have a goodnight," Will said softly.
Nico started walking then looked back with an equally soft smile, "You too."
He walked away.
The shorter teen was on the porch of the Big House when he heard Will call after him.
"Nico, wait!" So he turned around and did.
Will ran out of the building, skidded to a halt in front of Nico and smiled sheepishly. "I was wondering if we could walk back to the cabins together?"
Honestly, Nico was tired and just wanted to get back, but he agreed anyway and they started walking in a comfortable silence. They stayed quiet until they reached Cabin 13.
Nico looked up at Will and realized how close they were and, well, he panicked. The only thing his brain could think was: He's so close, oh my gods, are we about to kiss right now? Later that night, when replaying this in his head, he thought of how stupid he acted, Will Solace would never want to kiss him.
"Uh- goodnight!" Nico said quickly, almost shouting in his rush to get inside to the safety of his cabin.
Once inside, he heard a muffled response from Will through the door he may or may not have been leaning against, trying to rein in his thoughts, calm himself and his breathing down and analyze what just happened.
That night, he didn't sleep a wink. He stayed up all night, first, trying to convince himself that Will didn't notice his mini panic attack, then, he decided not to sleep since it was so late, or, well, early, and he played Mythomagic to attempt to distract his mind and keep it from wandering.
Nico made an effort in the next couple of days to act normal, but he knew that Will knew something was up.
Soon, he stopped going to the infirmary in his free time, the less time spent with Will alone, the better. He continued to go to meals and activities with the Apollo cabin, he just prevented any awkward situations by not being alone with Will.
Slowly, he distanced himself even further from the blonde demigod.
The next few days Nico spent avoiding Will, going as far as to either skip meals, have someone bring it to him or go before or after Will was there. He even switched his daily activity schedule so that he would be with other cabins. When Will would walk past he would hide and/or blend into nearby shadows, a child of Hades ability he was very thankful for and used often. Luckily, he didn't get injured at all so he didn't have to go to the infirmary.
One day, he was approached by two upset looking children of Apollo while walking back to his cabin.
He picked up his pace as they gained on him. A part of him wanted to talk, but he knew that was crazy because those siblings were crazy protective and he already knew that this was about Will.
"Wait!!!" He heard Kayla practically screech from behind him. Nico kept walking though, and didn't look back until he felt a hand on his wrist and pulled him between cabins. Nico had gotten used to some touch, but ever since his realization about his crush on Will a couple weeks ago, he got startled by every one. He could shadow travel, but Kayla was still holding on to him, so she would shadow travel as well and it wouldn't work out well.
He was turned around and Kayla and Austin were standing there looking very stern and angry.
"We need to talk," Austin said.
He couldn't pinpoint it, but something made him nervous. Then it hit him. These weren't just Will's siblings, they were his friends, too. They were mad at him though, without even hearing his explanation, even though he probably wasn't going to give them one. Maybe they never liked him, maybe everyone is better when he's not around.
"Okay." Nico was surprised when hearing his own voice sound so sure.
"You've been avoiding Will," Kayla stated. "And us," Austin added on to what his sister said.
Kayla narrowed his eyes when he didn't deny it. "Why?" She prompted him, crossing her arms and glaring as if the harder she looked at him the more he would confess.
"Well, are you going to answer or not?" Austin waved his hands in a 'go on' movement when Nico didn't say anything.
"I just- I can't talk or see him, right now," he told them, looking at his shoes before he continued, "I know it's a lame excuse, but I-I can't. I need space. I-I can't explain, you wouldn't understand." Not after what happened, he finished in his head.
"You're lucky Will respects your wishes when you want to be alone," Kayla claimed, yet it sounded more like a threat than anything. How she made it sound that way, Nico didn't know.
"But if you hurt him, you'll have to face us," Austin warned.
Nico knew they were being serious. He had heard of other children of Apollo that had died in recent battles and that they are all very protective of each other now.
He nodded in acknowledgement.
"Bye, Nico," Kayla and Austin said, still mad at him.
He spent the day contemplating whether it would have been better to just talk to Will instead. The ravenette concluded that he was in no state to have a good conversation with the son of Apollo and that what happened was for the better.
Nico's theory was tested the next day when Will cornered him in the dining pavilion and asked to talk.
Before thinking he blurted out, possibly a bit too eagerly, "Yes." If he was being honest, Nico knew he had to have a conversation with Will at some point or another, and he wanted things to go back to how they were, if that was possible. This didn't mean he wasn't nervous or afraid though.
Nico followed him out of the mess hall and to a more private area for what he knew was sure to be a private discussion.
As soon as they put distance between themselves and the rest of the campers, Will asked the obvious question. "Have you been avoiding me?"
The shorter teen sighed. "Look, Solace, it's just- it's complicated." That's all he could say, really. What else could he say? It was complicated, at least to him it was.
"What's complicated? Did I do something wrong?"
How is he supposed to answer that? In a way, it was, but it also wasn't, at all. Will would never purposely do anything that would upset or make Nico uncomfortable.
"Uh- no, not really," Nico replied, still not having sorted out whose fault it was in his head.
"Not really? Neeks, you're not making any sense," Will paused then added on a bit hastily, "I understand if you want space, but could you tell me. I feel like you're mad at me." He said that last sentence as if it were a secret or that he was admitting something he wasn't supposed to.
Nico took a deep breath, though he didn't respond, he didn't know how. He didn't know how. That seemed to be something he thought a lot these days, actually he did it a lot before that, too, but had always gotten through things, someway or another.
Will took that as an invitation to proceed to rant his thoughts. "Are we even friends? Do you only hang out with me because I'm your doctor or because I make you?"
"Will, of-"
"-Do you even like me?" The blond interrupted Nico, seemingly unknowingly because he was distracted by his raving. They were silent for a few seconds while both of them comprehended what came out of Will's mouth.
Nico's heart cracked when Will said that. Before he could start crying in front of the son of Apollo, he ran into the nearest shadow, which happened to be a nearby tree, and shadow traveled to the first place he could think of.