Hello my loves! I got a request from Mermaidatheart7 for some care taking featuring our fave gays! I should feel bad that this sat in my inbox for four months, but I now have an excuse to write about Solangelo at Pride, so do with that what you will. As always, let me know what you think in the comments and feel free to drop into my inbox to gift me a prompt or for a chat!
Is this out of character? Yes. Do I care? No.
P.S. Read to the end to see the makeup looks I imagine for Will and Nico!
P.S. Wattpad was being Big Dumb and deleted like half of the story when I posted it the first time. I finished this story at midnight and then re-finished it at 2 a.m. I have to work at 10. END ME.
"Hold Still!" Nico grabbed Will's chin and held it in place to finish his eyeliner.
"I'm excited!" Will complained.
You'll be really excited when I stab you in the eye, or have to start over on your makeup." Nico smirked. His tongue stuck out slightly with concentration.
"And...Done!" Nico let go of Will's chin, examining his masterpiece, and motioned towards the mirror in their bedroom.
Will walked over to the mirror and looked shocked for a moment.
"Well?" Nico barely contained his excitement.
"Woah. Nico, this is insane!" Will exclaimed as he admired his reflection.
"I try." Nico said haughtily.
"I have to go show Instagram!" Will said, walking towards the living room.
Nico laughed and rolled his eyes as he walked over to the mirror and sat down to do his own makeup. Sure enough, an Instagram notification from @wheretheresawilltheresaway pinged on his phone. Nico felt pride swell in his chest as he read the post with his boyfriend gushing over his makeup abilities. Then, spreading out his tools, Nico got to work on his own look.
When he was finished with his own makeup look, Nico walked to the living room to get a first impression from Will.
"Well?" Nico batted his long false lashes.
"Woah. Babe, you're hot." Will grinned, looking a little dumbfounded.
"Tell me something I don't know." Nico put on his best flirting face and glanced sideways at Will as he wheeled around to go find his shoes.
A whistle followed Nico to the bedroom. He quickly found his new platform boots, that had been bought especially for the occasion.
Nico returned to the living room to see Will getting into his outfit, a long-sleeved black mesh shirt that clung to him in all the right places and black skinny jeans.
"First of all, wow. Second of all, you'll get heat stroke in that thing." Nico said trying to contain his sudden appreciation for mesh.
I'll be fine. It's mesh." Will shrugged it off as he left to find his shoes, making sure to walk away slowly for Nico's enjoyment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nico was glad he was holding on to Will; He might have gotten lost in the crowd otherwise.
At last, they made it to the front of the crowd, where there appeared to be several drag queens doing a synchronized dance to Ariana Grande's "Seven Rings." Nico bobbled along to the music, which was pretty much the extent of his dancing thanks to his choice of footwear.
Nico pulled closer to Will and looked up after a moment to see him fanning himself lightly.
"It's hot out here." Will explained, having to yell slightly to be heard over the music, seeing Nico's questioning look.
"It's June. In New York. The humidity today is straight out of Hades. What did you expect? Plus, wearing a long sleeve black shirt may not have been the best choice of outfit." Nico pointed out.
"It's mesh." Will countered. He knew Nico wasn't wrong, but the added body heat certainly wasn't helping. Nico usually wasn't overly comfortable with PDA though, so Will tried his best not to pull away.
Nico looked like he was about to respond, but his jaw dropped as he looked back to the parade.
"OHMYGODSTHATSALYSSAEDWARDS!" Nico screeched indignantly.
Will pushed the sleeves of his shirt up and looked out into the crowd to see a drag queen riding by in a bright pink convertible.
"Am I a bad gay if I don't know who that is?" Will questioned.
"Yes." Nico said simply, still watching the convertible pass in awe.
Over the next hour or so, Will found he could pay less and less attention to the parade. It was getting a little hard to focus with all of the noise and visuals. He tried his best to stay present, but it was just so hot. He was still dripping with sweat, and his makeup had blurred into a puddle on his face.
By hour three, Will was starting to feel slightly nauseous. It was getting harder to conceal the cramping in his stomach and could feel a headache coming on. He was starting to feel like he might fall over if Nico wasn't holding him.
Will wanted to leave, but Nico was having so much fun and Will knew how much coming to his first Pride parade meant to him.
By hour four, Will could feel that he wasn't sweating anymore.
At hour five, Will felt the urge to pee. He leaned down to Nico's ear and mumbled something about finding a bathroom and walked away without waiting for a response.
Will looked around at the surrounding buildings. He walked towards a bar. It was still really hard to focus and Will could feel himself swaying as he walked. He just wanted to go home. He felt like he might be sick.
The next thing Will was aware of, he was in a bathroom. He was dizzy.
Everything was tinged a weird shade of orange. Almost like someone had turned the saturation up to high in a photo.
Completely without warning, Will pitched forward towards the toilet and threw up, nearly knocking himself out on the seat before weakly catching himself. There wasn't much in it. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten, but the bile burned his nose and throat.
Will sat down hard on the floor. He tried to get up, but couldn't find the strength. He leaned against the stall and found himself trying hard not to pass out.
Will couldn't seem to make his eyes focus on anything. Everything was spinning.
Something was wrong.
Will clung to that thought so hard it made his head hurt. He needed to tell Nico.
Everything felt too loud and too bright and Will couldn't focus, but he wrestled his phone out of his pocket and found Nico's name in his phone. With the world blinking in and out of focus, Will pressed call and held the phone to his ear.
*Blink*
Will thought he must be hallucinating somehow because he could hear his phone ringing, but he could also hear Nico's phone ringing with the ringtone set for Will.
"Will?" Nico's voice said from somewhere that Will couldn't see.
Everything was still going in and out and it was tinged with that weird saturation filter again.
*Blink*
Nico's face was in front of Will. When had that happened?
"Nico?" Will was confused.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Nico sounded scared.
"'M fin. Jus' tir'd." Will slurred. He just wanted to go to sleep.
"Did somebody hurt you?" Nico took Will's chin and tried to get his eyes to focus on him.
*Blink*
Nico was rubbing his face.
"H'rt me?" Will was still confused. Why was Nico here? Why was he on the floor?
Without warning once again, Will felt the urge to throw up. Nico seemed to understand and quickly helped push Will towards the toilet.
Nico rubbed Will's back as snot and bile dripped into the toilet. Will really just wanted to go to sleep now.
*Blink*
Nico's lips were moving in slow motion; Will couldn't make sense of the words. It was like a TV with a bad connection, the words Nico was talking faster than his words were coming out.
*Blink*
Nico was gone. Where did he go? Will tried to think, but couldn't make his brain move fast enough.
*Blink*
Nico was back. There were lots of people with him now. Lots of people in white shirts.
So much noise and light. It was hurting his head. It felt like it might explode.
*Blink*
Sleep. Just need sleep.
*Blink*
Will looked around and he wasn't in the bathroom anymore. He thought he must have been outside now.
He was moving, but he wasn't walking. Floating? Yes. Floating.
The floating wasn't helping Will's stomach. He was going to be sick again.
Still so much noise. The light had gotten brighter.
*Blink*
Noise.
*Blink*
Lights.
*Blink*
Nico. Looked scared. Scared?
*Blink*
Nothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will was aware of two things: he was cold and he was thirsty.
He opened his eyes and looked around.
Will looked around to see that he was in a yellow room with the generic pictures and paintings like they put up in hotels.
He was in a hotel? No.
Will looked to his right to see an IV pole with something hanging from it as well as a monitor that showed what he assumed were his vitals.
He was in a hospital?
Why was he in the hospital?
Will tried to remember where he'd been before the hospital.
The parade!
Had something happened at the parade?
Where was Nico?
Had something happened to Nico at the parade?
Will could feel panic creeping up his throat, but tried to logic his way out of it. That was proving difficult.
Will looked around wildly to find anything that might explain what was going on. In spite of his effort to stay calm, Will felt salty tears running down his cheeks. If something had happened to Nico, he'd never forgive himself.
Will's breath caught in his throat as he heard the door opening.
A mop of black curly hair in one of Will's t-shirts and ripped skinny jeans came around the corner licking the lid of a pudding container.
Nico! Will felt the knot of worry in his stomach loosen.
Nico looked up as he heard the bed shifting and met Will's bright blue eyes.
"Oh my gods! You're awake!" Nico said, relieved and then looked confused as he took in the crying mess in front of him. He put down his pudding and walked over to the bed and took Will's hand.
"What's wrong, baby?" Nico sounded scared.
"Y-y-you were g-gone and I-I tho-I thought you were dead." Will cried, now starting to feel silly but still unable to control his emotions.
Nico sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Hey. Shh. I'm okay. You're okay. We're okay." Nico tried to sound soothing. He cupped Will's cheek and used his thumb to wipe away the tears still steadily streaming down his cheeks.
The two sat like that for a moment, waiting for Will to catch his breath.
After a moment, Will felt the knot of fear in his stomach loosen itself. Without mind numbing fear taking over most of his headspace, questions bubbled up to the forefront of Will's thoughts.
"What-what happened?" Will sniffled. He moved so he could look Nico in the eye. "The last thing I remember, I told you I had to pee. After that, everything gets fuzzy and then nothing."
"Well, you didn't so much tell me you had to pee as you mumbled something about a bathroom. I saw you walk into the bar and then went back to the parade. You were gone for probably thirty minutes before the my-dumb-boyfriend-is-in-danger alarms went off. At first, I figured you had just stopped on your way back to get us some drinks. I walked over to the bar, but didn't see you. When I asked the bartender if she'd seen you, she said that you'd gone to the bathroom, but she hadn't seen you come out." Nico pause to take a breath.
"I think it was around this time that you called me. I walked into the bathroom and found you passed out on the floor beside the toilet. I swear I thought someone had drugged you. It took me a minute to wake you up." Nico looked scared just remembering the event. Will squeezed his hand gently, just to remind him that he was there.
"After I got you to wake up a little, I told the bartender to call an ambulance. In the ambulance they said you were severely dehydrated and your body had quit producing sweat!" Nico sounded angry now, his eyes red, like he might cry. "You're temperature was 103.5 and climbing! They said you could have had a stroke. They said you could have perm-permanent brain damage!" Nico was close to yelling now and hot, angry tears rolled down his face. He wouldn't look at Will. "You could have died! God's Will, I can't-I-I won't-"
"Hey. It's okay. I'm here. I'm safe." Will took Nico's hand and put it to his chest so he could feel his heartbeat.
"Nico" Will said after a minute.
No response.
"Nico. Look at me."
Still nothing.
Will hooked a finger under Nico's chin and gently pushed his head up so he was looking into his eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere. I love you." Will said, firm, but soft. He wiped away a tear that was slowly trailing it's way through Nico's smudged makeup.
"I love you too." Nico let out a long, slow breath.
Will's eyes drifted to the window of his hospital room for the first time. He was shocked at how dark it was.
"What time is it?"
"Somewhere around 2 a.m. We got to the emergency room around five yesterday, and they moved you to a private room around midnight." Nico explained as he settled back down into the divot he'd made for himself beside Will in the bed.
"Have you slept at all?" Will asked, trying to decide if the dark circles under Nico's eyes were darker than usual.
"Sleep is overrated." Nico said nonchalantly, stifling a yawn. "You're the one that should be resting."
"I swear, sometimes I wonder if you have any self preservation skills at all. Plus, I just slept for nearly ten hours." Will huffed a laugh.
"Says the guy who just had a major medical event. Also, you were passed out, not sleeping. There's a difference."
"No there isn't. Plus, it wasn't a major medical event." Will mocked using air quotes. He hated to admit it, but Nico might be right. Despite just having woken up for sleeping for almost ten hours, Will could feel exhaustion starting to creep back into his bones. He yawned.
"Aha!" Nico exclaimed, right before yawning himself.
"Aha, yourself." Will laughed.
"Did the doctor say when I would be discharged?" Will asked.
"Mostly, the doctor just wanted to wait for you to wake up and make sure the heat hadn't turned your brain into oatmeal. She said you should be discharged by tomorrow afternoon." Nico explained.
"I doubt she used the term oatmeal."
"Yep. "Oatmeal Brain" is the medically accurate term." Nico said matter-of-factly as he worked to get as close to Will as humanly possible, his normal sleeping position.
"Significant annoyance." Will laughed into Nico's hair. He smelled like an odd mix of hospital, body wash, and something that smelled vaguely like grass. Minus the smell of hospital, that was how Nico always smelled. Will guessed the vague grass smell was something that was common among all children of Hades.
"Oatmeal Brain." Nico breathed. Will listened for his breathing to even out, signifying that he was asleep. Will wiggled around for a moment, he'd always hated sleeping on his back, trying to find a comfortable position that didn't jostle his sleeping boyfriend too much and didn't put him in danger of pulling out any of the various tubes or wires attaching him to the machines beside the bed. Finally, Will decided that comfort was futile and just settle for turning onto his side slightly and curling himself around Nico.
Sure enough, Will was discharged that afternoon, but not before having two more IV bags of fluids pushed into him, Will would swear he peed fifteen times before leaving the hospital, and passing a few basic neurological exams. He was sent home with instructions of rest and hydration. Nico looked like he was taking a solemn vow when he told the doctor that he'd make sure Will followed the instructions.
After that day, much to Will's chagrin, "Oatmeal Brain" became Nico's new favorite nickname for Will and he was all too happy to explain the nickname to anyone who asked.
**The first picture is the look that Nico did for Will and the second picture is the look Nico did for himself**