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Nico had been making an effort to branch out.
It had been almost a year since the war ended and he was still getting used to the feeling of normalcy that being at Camp Half Blood gave him. He never thought he’d get to enjoy little things like movie nights or shopping, but those are the kind of things you’re forced to do when you have normal and completely overbearing friends. Before, he was always too busy working in the Underworld and running away with his problems (*cough* Percy) to have any of those things and even though he complained about it, he was pretty sure he secretly loved it. It was also nice getting into a daily routine. He would eat breakfast with his boyfriend before he started his Infirmary shift, teach a sword fighting class with Percy about every week, and even attend campfire sometimes. Those usually ended up badly because, well, have you seen Percy and Jason together.
Despite sounding normal, his life was still pretty chaotic. He never knew how much work it was to simply help out in the infirmary and play capture the flag and have a social life and attempt to catch up on some school work and just have a normal, overage, insanely busy, and incredibly entertaining life. A large part of that was was Will.
He was one of the kindest people Nico had ever met. Despite having a lot of problems himself, he always put others first. He was possessive and protecting and completely annoying and Nico was pretty sure he was falling in love. When they had first become friends, Nico worried that he just thought of him as some pity case. Someone Will would patch up and send on his way like a little kid who had skinned his knee. But Will was more than that. Yes, he cared about Nico and obsessed over his health obsessively, but Nico would be lying if he said he didn’t do the same thing. Over the six months they had been dating, they had both picked up on each other’s ticks and had learned to rely on one another. Lot’s of other campers said it was kinda gross how in tune with each other they were, and Nico decided that was the one insult he didn’t mind.
Because he had been spending so much time with Will, he'd ended up spending quite a lot of time with the son of Apollo's friends. At first, Nico had been wary of these loud new people and had tried to stay out of conversations and (ew) social events. But Nico couldn't help growing to like them fairly quickly. Lou Ellen was the first one he had gotten to know. She helped in the Infirmary a lot, despite being a daughter of Hecate. She was sweet most of the time, but she was also as sharp as a knife covered with barbed wire. Nico didn’t understand how Ceil could deal with her constant bickering, but then he realized that Will did the same thing for him. She was always getting on Will's case about something, honestly anything she could find, which was hilarious no matter what it was about because Will would get this adorable little pouty face when she was scolding him.
Cecil was another one of Will's friends, which surprised Nico because they were almost nothing alike. The son of Hermes was up for pretty much everything and anything, which resulted in many insane dares and secret schemes that went on for months. Will disapproved of them, if only because he was the one who had to patch him and all of the other innocent demigods who got caught up in it up afterwards.
Connor and Mitchell were a cute couple, almost as cute as Will and Nico, (definitely not Nico’s words) and Michell had quickly taken a liking to Nico's dry humor and sarcastic banter. They had all hung out frequently and he had learned to appreciate Mitchell's caring and kirt attitude. It wasn’t the same as Will’s, it was more like you didn’t realized how nice he was being until he’d gotten you food on multiple occasions and had tutored you for hours when you asked for help with only one problem. Plus, while Connor plotted yet another elaborate plan and Will would point out all the flaws and try to talk him out of every life decision he’d ever made, there was a surprising amount of time for Mitchell and Nico to talk. Well, Mitchell mostly talked and Nico listened, but he was one of the first people Nico was comfortable around and got to know naturally. As in, not forced to save the world together.
Like he said, Nico tried to branch out, which is how he ended up shopping along with the son of Aphrodite one sunny afternoon. He'd never really been much for fashion, other than the fact that color of almost any kind was unacceptable, but when Mitchell heard he'd never been properly shopping he'd practically dragged him off to the nearest mall.
Nico was a little apprehensive in the beginning but he gave in for Mitchell's sake and he'd even gotten a haircut. (he'd gotten something called an undercut? Mitchell went on this long rant on how it would complement his cheek bones or something and eventually Nico just let him do whatever he wanted. It had nothing to do with the fact that he said Will would go crazy for it. Nothing. at. all.) They’d also gotten Nico some new jeans and even some shirts that were slightly off black (the scandal). Mitchell had also gotten a ton of clothes that he definitely didn’t need but insisted he did.
Nico hadn’t left camp in a while, except the few times that he’d gone out on dates with Will or forced somebody to drive him to McDonald’s (actually looking back, it was mostly Mitchell. That was probably why Nico was letting him dress him up like an emo barbie.)
Now, they were both standing next to the counter of a Starbucks in the mall, waiting for his coffee, and Nico was getting surprisingly tired. Mitchell had already gotten his drink and there were a lot of people in the small stop. He propped up an elbow on the counter and sighed.
“Dude, you’ve been through like two wars and used to lived on the street, how the hell are you tired already?” Mitchell asked, still holding the many, many bags contain the clothes he bought for himself.
“Well, dude, you made made me go to like seven fucking stores and I just want coffee right now ok.”
“Geez alright, now I get what Will meant when he said you get hangry but for caffeine.”
“I’m not even going to ask what those jumbled sounds meant.”
Before Mitchell could go off about how he had to adapt to slang and “you’re a gay teenage boy, you have to know this stuff,” a blond teenage girl called from behind the counter.
“Double Americano for. . . Deathboy?” Nico shot Mitch a glare and turned around to get his drink. She was scribbling something on it when he reached where she was standing. She met his eyes and handed over the coffee.
“I don’t know why they call you Deathboy, but boy I have a feeling you’ll be the death of me.” She winked at him and maintained eye contact for a good few seconds before leaving to take another order.
Nico really didn’t understand what in Hades just happened and he just kind of froze for a few seconds. He turned back to look at Mitchell questionably to find he was barely holding in a laugh, his face bright red from holding it in. As soon as they stepped out he lost it.
“Oh my gods, yo-your face.” he almost started wheezing and Nico wanted to hit him with the belt he was forced to buy.
“And kudos to her for that line, ugh, genius. Come on, stop scowling, if Will finds out about this he’s going to lock you in your cabin for days and leave so many hickies no one would dare to hit on you again, so this is a good thing.”
Nico felt his face grow hot and pushed Mitchell into a trashcan they were walking past.
“Shut up. Do we even know she was hitting on me? I’m pretty sure she was just making a joke or something.” Nico knew it was a stretch, but he couldn’t bring himself to admit it. It was still weird to think his boyfriend found him attractive, let alone someone random on the street.
Mitchell stopped walking and grabbed to cup from Nico’s hands. “Look Nico, these numbers, it’s her phone number and OH MY GODS.” The laughter returned even harder than before and he was just staring at the cup.
“What did she do?” Nico grabbed the cup back and scanned the plastic. Ten numbers were written on one side and on the other the word Deathboy had been scribbled out. Instead, she had written two word, that cake, complete with a poorly drawn winky face.
“Cake, what the hell is that suppose to mean?” he sputtered. Mitchell calmed down and look sympathetically at him.
“You’ll figure it out eventually, sweet innocent little Nico. Come on, let’s go, I have to show you this store you’re going to absolutely love, it’s called Victoria’s Secret.”
After a week, the incident was almost completely forgotten by Nico. Mitchell had moved on to other things to tease him about and Will had only locked him in Cabin 13 for one night, which Nico really wasn’t complaining about.
Now, all Nico wanted to buy was some earplugs and a very large fan. He was training sword fighting with Percy and the heat was almost unbearable. He would’ve bailed on the whole thing, but as soon as Percy took his shirt off the crowd almost doubled. Percy didn’t seem to noticed and continued fixing a daughter of Demeter’s stance. He wanted to take his own off, but he doubted the class would appreciate having to look at all of the jagged scars running up and town his back and chest.
Finally, the class ended an hour late and Nico made his way to the water station, where Piper, Annabeth, and Will were standing. Just as he had gotten to know Will’s friends, he had gotten to know Nico’s. Will and Piper hung out regularly, and we basically one of the biggest power friendships in camp, second only to Percy and Jason.
“Oh gods, please stop talking Piper.” Will begged as Nico started to chug some water.
“What? It’s not like I’m talking about my period or something.” She defended, looking at Annabeth for support.
“I run the infirmary and hand of at least ten tampons a day, that would be way better than this.” Will sighed. “Hey, babe.” he acknowledged Nico.
“Hey, do I want to know what this is about?” he asked apprehensively.
Piper shrugged. “Just lingerie. Nico, your boyfriend’s a prude.”
Nico barely held back a grin. Will was a lot of things, but a prude was definitely not one of them.
“Nico, you don’t need to know what that is and Piper, please stop trying to poison his mind.”
This time Nico actually laughed.
“I think my mind has already been tainted but thank you for trying.”
They all turned to him. Will pulled him closer and pretended to cradle him into his chest. “Who has done this to you?”
“Um, have you met Mitchell?” Nico responded, pulling away from the embrace. He felt too sticky to touch anyone for a while, even Will.
“Mitchell wears lingerie? Oh, this is interesting.” Piper added.
“Trust me, it’s horrifying. Let’s never speak of this again. Ever.” Nico shuddered. He wanted to keep that Victoria’s Secret changing room memory sealed away in the back of his mind. Forever.
“What’s horrifying?” Percy walked up to the group, ruffling a towel in his sweaty hair.
“The fact that most of your students spend more time staring at your abs than actually fighting.” Annabeth deadpanned.
“Woah, woah, ok it wasn’t like that. I think I actually got through to some of them.” he said sincerely. “Also I’m hurt, if you’re going to blame my abs then you should also blame Nico’s cake.”
Annabeth rolled her eyes in defeat and Piper just nodded. “I’m with Percy, that’s fair.”
“Wait, what?” Nico glanced from person to person, trying to decode what they were saying. He’d been too embarrassed and honestly a little scared to ask what cake meant, but for some reason the pastry was always associated with him.
Piper waved away his question. “Nevermind. Now Percy, what’s your opinion on ling-”
“Yeah nope, I’m leaving. Will let’s go.” Nico grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from his weird ass friends.
A few days later, Nico and Will were curled up in Cabin 13, enjoying the quiet that night brought. Will’s head rested in Nico’s lap as he played with his curly blond hair. Will was reading a medical textbook that was resting on his knees. Nico got a headache just looking at all the words. He was just admiring the way Will’s face looked when he would come across a sentence he didn’t understand or how he would mouth long medical terms silently to memorize it.
“Will?” He didn't respond. "Will?" Nico asked a bit louder. This time Will hummed in response.
“What does cake mean?”
Will laughed and looked up at Nico’s face. "What?"
"Cake. People keep talking about mine and I still don't know what it means."
“Wait, you really don’t know?” He shook his head.
“Your ass.” Will said after pausing, still smiling brightly.
“Wh-what does cake have to do with my ass?”
He giggled and threw his book onto the floor. “It just means that you have a nice ass, but if anyone says that to you other than me please punch them for me.”
“But I don’t understand. Why would someone think I have a nice ass?” Nico wasn’t stupid, he knew he was fairly attractive because of his muscles, but he was still short and scrawny. Nothing about him was really special, especially his ass.
“Nico, I don’t even know how you fit it into your skinny jeans. You’re fucking hot, just accept it. Also, that undercut is not helping me think any differently.”
Nico grinned and leaned down closer to Will's face and whispered, “I still think it’s weird that people have been talking about my ass and I didn’t even realize it.”
“Hmm, I do too. But I find it weirder that you didn’t know how much you drive me crazy.” Will turned over and moved up so he was leaning over Nico. “You wanna know something?” He whispered right into Nico’s ear.
“Mmm?”
“I didn’t learn shit at training because I was too busy staring at your ass.” He said even quieter.
Nico laughed loudly and wrapped his arms around his neck, grabbing at the hair on the back of his neck. He fit their mouths together and savored the feeling. He loved being able to relax and the comfort that came with being with Will gave him. “Well, now you can do more than just stare.” Nico's voice was quiet and dropped an octave.
It was Will’s turn to laugh. “And your friends think you’re innocent. Shame on you, di Angelo.”
“Shut up, Solace.”
“Make me.”
Nico did, and Will did in fact grab his cake only moments later.