🌚🫂

“can I be honest with you?” Austin scoffs before he said; “William Andrew Solace, if you say you miss your boyfriend for the 37th time today, I’ll dismiss myself and leave you alone in this shift.”

Will acted surprised with all dramatic hand-on-chest. “you counted? damn. but seriously it’s been—“

“3 days, Will. ”

“3 days! how wounded i am being left? can’t you see here I’m suffering with all these loving feeling all alone? Austin! please!” Austin rolled his eyes as he open the storage box, lining bandages, gauzes, adhesives, elastics, and triangular in their respective lines. “oh please, what is Nico doing anyway?” Will shrugged as he rolled a tray of scalpels into sterilizer.

“his father called him. saying he needs Nico for the underworld things. complicated applications, judge control and all that stuff. he said he needs to check up on Menoetes’ work too, for the nectar and ambrosia collecting. you know, being the prince of the underworld. he promised not going on Tartarus though. he said to check on Asphodel and Elysium too.” Austin nods on that.

“I just- I just-? you know I’m-“ Will sat down before Austin walks to him. “you’re worrying his safety. Will, you do know he survived two wars with and without us. he went to tartarus twice, Will. he’ll be okay. he’ll be fine.” Will sighed. “he only pack his stygian iron sword and the clothes he wear!” Austin shrugged. “pretty sure he has his own room is his dad’s palace? era, ero?-“ “Erebos. you’re right. but what if he gets hurt? what if-“ graaughhr

“Sweet Apollo! you scar’d me!”

“Will, wha- is this a zombie?!”

Will gives Austin’s weirded out look the same look. “I don’t know? what are you doing here, Mr. Zombie?” graughrhs. said the undead, while holding out a surprisingly clean letter—sealed with black stamp, and a black box filled with two family packs of golden Oreos , enough ambrosia squares and canteens full with nectar. the zombie—somehow shyly—also held out a flower bouquet of night-blooming cereus (which is the flower persephone offer to him), hyacinthus and asphodels.

the Mr. Zombie then take a few space from both Will Solace and Austin Lake and stood there as Will processing of what just happened. “dude, I think it’s from Nico.” Austin gets a hold of the box and bouquet onto the table as he watch his brother holding onto the letter as if it was an ancient victorian fragile artifact. “whoa, do I need to get Cecil and Lou Ellen?” “nah, stay with me, Austin. catch me if I pass out.”

“and fill the shift alone? damn man.” but he agreed anyway as Will undo the stamp after reading the swift writing on the envelope.

to : Will Solace, My significant annoyance.

Dear Will,

I hope you don’t trouble yourself any harm.

I’m writing to you from Menoetes’ farm here. I’m fine and my journey went incredibly well, I might finish the tasks before next week comes. how are you, Night Light? Menoetes and Geryon here say hi. the troglodytes also give hail to Will Solace the Texan Son of Apollo.

Do you miss me? do you like the bouquet? Persephone insists on sending the bouquet, talking about ‘darkness’ and all. next meeting, I need you to tell me your conversation with her, seriously. I asked John to buy golden Oreos and put it with ambrosia and nectar. is it done? those are for you and infirmary needs. do you need me to get you anything for yourself? share the oreos with Kayla and Austin, you greedy dork.

this sound incredibly sappy, I can’t believe you turned me this way, Solace. either way, I miss you. ugh how do you cross words without making the ink spill? you can send me anything in return through John—I mean if you want to, I’m not forcing you or anything. you know that, don’t you?

I’ll soon be back, don’t miss me too much, Carebear. I love you.

Love, Nico Di Angelo

“that’s real sappy. just saying—wait, how come you are so red? it’s been a year and a half and you’re still flustered over him? gods, you guys are so gay” Austin fake gag while Will softly slap his shoulders “oh shut up, you are gay too, dumb ass. now let me write my return letter in peace” “oh please, like a pigeon war love letter? spare me your emotional train-wreck please.” Austin waves as he walk to the beds, to fix up the bed? he don’t know, all he know is he want to avoid Will Solace’s flustered manner as good as possible.

————————————

Months, years later…

“what’s with the pout, Will? it’s only been 5 days since Nico’s next mission! I’m sure he’ll be fine, doing his prince duty and allat” Lou Ellen shrugs as she punch Will’s upper arms jokingly, while Will is still fidgeting on top of the picnic mat near the lake.

“it’s been 5 days, Lou! without any messages!” Lou Ellen rolled his eyes. “oh come on, he’s probably too busy. he’ll send those ‘elite-victorian, love-letter-pigeon-like zombie sooner or later.”

Cecil pops his stolen lolly. “I don’t know, Will. how are you so calm about a zombie being your transpor of sending messages? aren’t you scared?” Will shrugs. “at first, it does. but now? I’m waiting for his presence! to know what my boyfriend’s doing!”

Lou Ellen gives Cecil a look. “he’s down bad, he doesn’t care about the transport and all this undead things” Cecil laughs. “I don’t know, Lou. he fell head over heels, what do you expect him to not like about Nico Di Angelo?”

——————

hc credit and tag ; @princessofghosts-posts

It’s not your fault king that pole came out of nowhere !!🙏🙏

Nico di Angelo is in love.

Unfortunately.

Not with Percy Jackson anymore. That would’ve been easy. Unattainable, sure, but at least he could’ve filed it away under Stupid Mistakes I Make When I’m ten. Curse you, Aphrodite.

He knows the feeling — that jittery, restless buzz, like waiting for the sun to rise after an all-nighter you know was a terrible idea. It’s an old enemy by now. Like most of his enemies, it’s winning.

Will Solace is light and butterflies and every other nauseating thing Nico pretends not to give a crap about. His laugh lights up the room — because of course it does — like the universe personally handed him a spotlight and said, Here, make everyone else look worse. 

His absurdly long fingers drum a rhythm on the table, like he’s starring in some indie coming-of-age movie nobody asked for. Nico included.

Every stupidly perfect curl, every freckle that looks like Aphrodite got drunk and decided to show off — it’s enough to make Nico want to set himself on fire. He wonders how much gold it would take to recreate this disaster. Everything in Hades’ palace. Twice. Maybe throw in Cerberus for good measure.

Will’s eyes crinkle when he smiles — soft and blue and filled with that unbearable, stupid early-morning light that makes you want to punch the sunrise and then crawl into a pit and die.

“Oh my gods, Cecil, please don’t—”

Will’s laughter detonates — loud, wild, full-body laughter — and Nico feels it like a bomb going off right inside his ribcage.

He bends over clutching his chest dramatically — Nico’s chest, technically, since that’s where the explosion hits.

His back curves like some stupid heroic mountain or whatever. It’s disgusting.

The first sound of his laugh practically plants flowers in the air. Actual, metaphorical, revolting flowers. Nico would throw up if he weren’t too busy mentally composing sonnets about Will’s jawline. He is a disaster.

“Yo, Death Boy, what are you staring at?”

Will waves a freckly hand in front of his face because of course he notices. Of course he has functioning eyes. Meanwhile, Nico can barely remember how breathing works.

“Nothing,” Nico says, dead inside. “Just the sunrise.”

And somehow, Pandora opened the box and you didn’t fall out. Miraculous.

“Sunrise? D’Angelo, it’s literally ten in the morning. And raining.”

“Cecil, shut up before I hand-deliver every skeleton middle finger we planted on the Ares cabin roof last night into your bunk.”

“Geez, Nico! Fine! Shutting up!” 

Guys, Gals, and nonbinary pals. If all are big Percy Jackson fans like I am, you should check out Soreilly on YouTube and other platforms. It is gorgeous. Is mostly Pjo but there is a couple other ones in there

"Don't cry."

"...I'm not."

"Omigods. Will. Don't cry."

"I'm not!"

But there are welled up tears making his eyes looking huge, and even as he bites it his lip still trembles. In seconds there is the slightest of sniffles.

Nico groans, slumping against the handle of the grocery cart. A WASPy mother glares at him in passing. He glares back and sics an errant soul onto her monstrosity of a hairdo for good measure.

"Will," he groans, metal bar digging into his forehead, "Will, it's a lemon."

"I know," Will sniffles, bravely. "Just -- leave it. Let's go."

Nico moves his arm, just enough to watch his too-tall over-empathetic dumbass best friend try and fail to pull himself together in the, and Nico cannot emphasize this enough, very public grocery store in the suburbs of Long Island, where people stare.

And, like.

The staring is not too unusual.

Will is in cutoff shorts and flip-flops. It's early March. Climate change is not that bad yet. The two of them are wearing neon camp t-shirts -- Nico's good, goth t-shirts have been stolen from him to be 'washed' -- and are both, Nico must emphasize again, fifteen years of age, with a grocery cart each full to the actual brim with Pop Tarts, Twizzlers, medical supplies, socks, and silly string. Will is approximately nineteen feet tall. They make a scene. That is a fair evaluation.

But rare is the day where Nico cannot quell the stares by reflecting hellfire into his eyes. Mortals usually flee in terror or at least walk away traumatized. Today they aren't even looking.

"Will," he says, as gently as he can manage. Will looks over, after a minute, and his bright eyes look so glassy and miserable that whoa, hey, Nico can manage a whole lot gentler than he thought he could, can't he. He reaches up and pats a palm against Will's wet cheek, swiping a thumb under his eyes. "Do you. Want." He glances over at the lone, half-dried up lemon on the floor by the produce baskets. "Would you like to take the lemon home with us.

"Yes," says Will quietly. Nico's hand falls away and Will wipes his face, crouching down to scoop it up. He hesitates before putting it in the cart, cradling it against his chest. "It's just." He looks at Nico through his eyelashes. Nico tries to smile encouragingly. Based on the immediate tears and sobbing of a child directly behind Will's shoulders, he is unsuccessful. "If we don't take it, no one will, you know."

"Yes," agrees Nico slowly. "Due to the fact that it is garbage."

Will snatches his hand back like Nico had smacked it, glaring hard. Nico is really starting to consider those bipolar pamphlets Kayla left pointedly on the Apollo table. Yeesh.

"It's not -- garbage! Just because -- just because something isn't as good as everything else doesn't mean it's garbage!"

...Or not.

Ah.

"Ah," says Nico. He clears his throat. "Ah."

Some cultures attribute tact and gentleness to his father -- Death accepts all, and in facts invites all, to reside with Him. He will take your hand and guide you to whence you have never travelled, where you have no kin. He will speak to you in your shock of your life and your triumphs. He, when you have no one, is your compassionate, voluble friend.

Hazel inherited all that, unfortunately. Nico got the dead-eyed stare and fruitiness.

"Uh," he tries, anyway, "if you were a rotten lemon, I would take you home."

Will looks at him skeptically. "You would?"

"Y -- uh, yes. I would make." He wracks his brain. "I would use you to clean surfaces."

"...Oh."

"Yes. Like -- chopping boards, and the like." He makes a karate chop motion with his hand. He immediately takes the hand and shoves it into the untraveled depths of his pocket, which is a challenge due to the fact that it took him forty minutes to paint his jeans on this morning, and vows to cut its quisling digits off as quickly as possible. Why is he alive.

He is grateful at least that his friend is about as stupid as he is.

"That would be a good use for me if I was a rotting lemon," Will agrees. He looks down at the rotting lemon cradled in his hands. "Maybe we will use you to clean."

"Yes," Nico says, gentle coaxing. "Now let's put the lemon in the cart, okay? We're almost done. We just need the nineteen quarts of ice cream Cecil paid me ninety dollars not to disclose to Chiron. Let's go."

"'Kay."

Garbage lemon safely laid among a braid of licorice packages, dead centre in the cart, they move on. The stares follow them, but Will at least does not seem to mind -- used to it, veteran camper that he is -- and slides his arm through Nico's crooked elbow. Nico takes that as the opportunity it is to steer him away from the cake that a nefarious teenager has pushed to the floor, lest that set him off next. They have only minutes until they make it to the cash register, where Nico will pay for whatever Will is watching him scan, and are home free.

"Hey, Nico."

Nico hums, eyeing the self-checkout line. "Yeah?"

"Would we still be friends if I was a worm?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

Stop getting mad at me I raise undead when im in distress

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it’s aidens fault they’re in the phantom world actually

Will Solace will not want to work as a doctor. That boy is so traumatized from being a field medic at such a young age and losing all his siblings.

He had to become Head of Cabin Seven and Head medic at 12 or 13, so he would have to be the person the campers go to when they're bleeding out or have a bone sticking out of their arm. He has all the pressure on him to save lives when he is just a teenager, and he should be living his life instead of having everyone in a camp counting on him to save others. So why would he want to continue to do so in the real world when he could be something else that's not so trauma-inducing

Will has a talent for healing, so I don't think he would leave the medical field

But I don't believe that he would be a doctor, but there are other opportunities that he could take, and not have to see gruesome wounds and people dying all the time

He could be a veterinarian. It can be gruesome at times, but I feel like Will loves animals and would love to take care of them, but he also gets to use his healing skills.

Or he could be a wildlife conservationist. Protecting Wild animals and wildlife. still doing some things in the medical field, but not as much as he would be doing as a Doctor

I have a strong feeling he would be a pediatric therapist (after healing his trauma), helping kids who have hard lives or those with mental disorders, because he wouldn't want kids and teens to go through what he went through when he was growing up

Thanks for listening to me yap

Credit to @onetiny-inkdropuniverse for the idea In the most recent chapter of Binary Stars