AN: Am I doing this because it's the first chapter? Yes.
(Isn't that picture just absolutely adorable?)
Nico
In this world, your 16th birthday was one of the most important days of your life. Well, to Nico it was. It was the day you got your soulmate mark, a roman numeral on your left wrist. It could be anything, from one digit numbers to 7 digit ones, to ones that took hours to read, but your soulmate's number mirrored your own.
Usually, soulmates would be in the same school or institution, since soulmate magic had a way that attracted each other, but there were exceptions.
Nico had always been slightly obsessed with the topic of soulmates. Bianca tended to laugh at him, telling him to wait until he turned 16, but that didn't stop him from spending hours staring dreamily at his wrist, wondering what his number could possibly be.
So when his 16th birthday finally arrived, well, to say he was excited would be an understatement. He couldn't fall asleep, and was pacing around his room close to midnight when Hazel - who's room was directly below Nico's - finally threw the door open and threatened to tie him to the post for a week if he didn't stop pacing and go to sleep.
Nico woke, blinking and confused, wondering why he was this worked up so early in the morning. It took him less than 5 seconds to remember what day it was, and he promptly sat up, throwing the covers off as he brought his wrist up to his face.
Nico's heart sank.
No no no. This couldn't be happening.
Nico glared at his hand, willing the number to change, but it simply twinkled up at him in dark glory, contrasting against his pale skin.
After he realised that the number would not, in fact, change, he got up and rummaged through his drawer until he found a bead bracelet - a gift from Bianca 6 years ago, which he hadn't bothered to take out until then. He slipped it onto his wrist.
It fitted perfectly.
Not even a hint of ink could be seen.
Then he dug out a black denim long sleeve jacket which he had definitely never used before, and tried it on, making sure it covered his arms completely.
When he went downstairs, his parents and sisters were waiting with presents and a freshly baked cake. Bianca demanded to see his wrist, but Nico refused. Then Hazel asked. He refused again. They asked a couple more times, but eventually, they dropped the subject, sensing that Nico didn't want to talk about it.
Oh, and the bracelet?
He never took it off again.
Will
His 16th birthday had come way to fast.
Don't get him wrong, Will was super excited and stuff...but he was just nervous. Like, a lot. Okay, more than a lot. Like, really, really, really nervous for his number.
He had been awake for more than 10 minutes by now, but he still refused to look at his number until Kayla and Austin could check and confirm that no one they knew had it.
Eventually, Will realised that he would have to get up, or he'd miss school. He rolled out of bed, sighing, and went downstairs, detecting the scent of waffles - no doubt his mother's wonderful creation of a birthday breakfast. Will had barely stepped into the kitchen when Kayla and Austin cornered him.
"Well?" Kayla demanded. "Did you look yet?"
Will shook his head, so she held out a hand expectantly, and he cautiously let her take his wrist and inspect it. Austin was looking over her shoulder.
The two of them had a silent conversation with raised eyebrows and shrugs.
"I think you're safe, Will." Austin said finally. "I've never seen anyone with this number before."
"Go on," Kayla urged him. "Take a look. It won't bite you."
"It might," he argued, peering at the number that now adorned his wrist like a tattoo that made absolutely no sense: I.
One.
. . .
"You know, I never knew you could have single digit numbers," Annabeth mused, more to herself than anyone else. "I thought we'd be past those by this point. It's the twenty first century."
She had an expression which said that she'd be passing by the library later on today.
As soon as Will had slipped in through the front gates of the school building, he'd been pounced on by his friends, despite all his efforts to be discreet.
"You're gonna have a hard day, man," Jason told him, bumping his shoulder lightly. "I hear there's a waiting list of people wanting to see your number."
Will cringed inwardly, realising that he wouldn't be able to focus in class that day, if any of what Jason said was true.
"Yeah, well," he started towards his locker, deciding that sooner was better than later. "Wish me luck."
. . .
The first four periods were a headache. It was like no one wanted him to listen to the lessons at all. No, it was like he simply wasn't allowed to listen to the lessons. From the very beginning of his first period, people swarmed him, begging to see his number, and Will, being the nice person he was, let them.
When the bell rang to signal the end of the fourth period, Will practically flew to the cafeteria before he could be cornered again.
"Please kill me," he groaned, slipping into a seat between Annabeth and Piper.
"I feel you, man," Percy said, sparing him a sympathetic look before turning back to his pancakes. Will didn't even want to know why he was eating pancakes for lunch, or why they were blue.
"The chaos will die down after a day or two," Piper assured him. "Besides, by the end of the week, someone will probably have claimed you. It pretty much always happens."
"I'm my own person," Will grumbled, but nodded reluctantly.
. . . (*7 months later*) (AN: Ha ha I'm not sorry, put the knife down.)
"You know, I really can't believe that you still haven't found your soulmate," Jason said one day, while they were walking to their fourth period Maths class, and making small talk to get there as slowly as possible. Will picked up the pace a little, forcing Jason to walk faster. "I would've thought that 7 months is enough time for any guy or girl to get up the the courage to tell you that you're their soulmate."
"I mean, my soulmate might not even be in this school," Will reminded.
"Yeah, but that's not true, is it? You can feel it," Jason said matter of factly, more a statement than a question.
"I- " Will blinked. "How do you know that?" It was true, actually. He got this weird tingle sometimes, which he had identified as a signal for your soulmate is near you. "Can you feel it when Piper's close?"
"Nah. But I've heard of it. That sometimes you can tell when your soulmate is near you. Intuition? I dunno."
"I guess." Out of the blue, Will's wrist started tingling, and he swept the building with his eyes. As far as he could see, it was deserted apart from him and Jason.
"What is it? Is it happening now?" Jason asked, immediately alert.
"I...yeah." Just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. "It's - it's gone now. Come on. Let's get to class. We're already late."
. . .
Sure enough, once they got to class, their Maths teacher, Mrs. Dodds, gave them an extreme scolding and told them to sit at the back. It was good that Will had done a his homework. It was bad that Jason hadn't, since she ordered him to do it standing. Jason simply grinned at him and proceeded to do as he was asked.
When the bell rang for lunch, she seemed to have forgotten about them being late, because she didn't even check Jason's homework (Which he hadn't done).
They ducked out of the classroom, laughing.
"Did you see her face? I thought she was gonna have a heart attack, the way she was turning red," Jason said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Yeah. You should be careful, though. She might go to Mr.D any day now."
Jason waved it away.
"Nah, man. No one would believe her. I'm a good student in all the other classes except Mr. Brunner's and Mrs. Dodds. Besides, Mr. D hates her as well. Can you blame him, really?"
Will shook his head, exasperated. His friends were so weirdly irresponsible. He wasn't even sure how he became friends with them, considering that only Annabeth was keeping them from getting expelled. He and Annabeth weren't even that close.
"Come on, Will. The others are gonna wonder what we're up to," Jason said, snapping him out of his thoughts and dragging him towards the cafeteria.
"Right. We don't want that happening."
"Again," Jason added, reminding him of an incident that he really did not need reminding of.
Will winced at the memory.
"You just had to bring that up."
Jason grinned. "Course I did. That's what friends are for, right?" He didn't leave Will any time to respond, and continued to drag him in the direction of their table. Yes, 'their' table. It was like their group literally owned it. They were the only ones who ever sat there.
Halfway there, he ran into someone.
Or, more accurately, someone ran into him.
The boy - Nico, if Will remembered correctly - had been engrossed in a heavy argument with his sister and not paid attention to where he went and crashed head-first into Will, which sent them both hurtling to the ground.
"Oh, fanculo. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention," he cursed, as he brushed himself and picked up his stuff, glaring at his sister. He offered a hand to Will, which he accepted.
"It's fine," Will laughed. "Mistakes happen. Just don't do that on the road, yeah?"
Nico - Will was pretty sure his name was Nico - rolled his eyes. "Right. Sorry again."
He and Jason started walking back to their place, but Will could hear Nico's exasperated voice.
"Bianca, really?"
"Live a little, Nico. Besides, he didn't even care."
"I care about bumping into random strangers for your entertainment!"
"It wasn't my fault that you weren't paying attention to where you going."
"Dio, I hate you."
The conversation faded away as the two siblings walked out the cafeteria, leaving a bemused Will with a cackling Jason.
"Oh my gods you should've seen your face," he said, laughing.
"Oh shut up. He just pushed me accidentally."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Will," Jason replied, grinning.
. . . (Time skip to after school)
"Hey, man, are you free today?" Percy asked as they were walking back to their houses from school.
"Uh...yeah, why do you ask?"
"Oh, well, um..." Will caught sight of the others nodding encouragingly at Percy, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"What are you guys up to?"
"Nothing!" Percy said, a little too quickly. "We just wanted to know if you wanna hang out at Hazel's place today at around 5.00!"
Will rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding? Of course."
"Right, um, well," Percy looked at Hazel.
She sighed. "Well, my brother's going to be there. Is that fine?"
Will started at them quizzically. "Uh, yeah. When has that ever been a problem..?"
"He's not a very, ah, sunshiny, interactive person, I suppose you could say."
Will shrugged, amused. "It's fine."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, which was admittedly a little weird, but Will has seen a lot weirder, so he brushed it off as Monday Jitters.
"Okay, good. I'll see you all at five then?" When they all nodded in confirmation, Hazel waved and got into a waiting Lamborghini and drove off. (They had found out a long time ago that Hazel's family was filthy rich and after years of knowing her, it barely affected them anymore.)
Everyone else separated in different directions, until he and Percy were the only ones left.
"You are coming tonight right?"
Will stared at him. "What's going on?" He asked, stunned. "All of you have been acting really weird. Why wouldn't I come?"
Percy shrugged, looking around awkwardly. "Nothing, man, just..."
"Just what?"
"Um, it's just Nico."
"Percy, I can handle people. I don't see the problem."
"That's the problem. Nico...doesn't handle people very well unless you earn his trust."
"I'm sure he's not bad."
Percy shook his head. "Whatever, man. I guess we'll see."
AN: I was gonna make it one huge chapter, but I was super lazy and I have to go now but I also really wanted to post something today, so. A short chapter for a long one.
Constructive criticism is appreciated.
Also, thank you so much for 65 views!!! I was not expecting it.
Word count: 2114