Battle Wounds: Solangelo Soulmate AU

𝑁𝐼𝑁𝐸

NICO POV:
I've known Will for about a month now, and he still sticks around no matter how much I try to just scare him off. The amount of times he's witnessed me having a panic attack because my dad got home early I've lost count of. After the first, well second, time he came over and Hazel and him had had me eat too much and I threw up I figured he'd realise I'm more fucked up than he thought. I wanted him to give up and just leave me alone it was better that way, safer even; if you don't let anyone close they can't hurt you. But the more he was around the more I wanted to open up to him. There was even a few times I caught my self allowing him to basically hug me. I know that sounds crazy, like cmon it's just a hug, but I don't like being touched. So the fact that Ive even considered letting him put his arm around me while I'm in the middle of a panic attack or something is really scary to me.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Will said looking up from his geometry book.
"Hmm?" I said, my head snapping up in surprise as he interrupted my thoughts. "Oh yeah, just, uh, focused."
I was not focused, at all. With him sitting right in front of me it was hard to focus, I kept catching my self staring at him.
"Are you sure?" his eyebrows creased in concern as he closed his book.
"Yeah," I half lied.
"Well I'm bored of doing school so," Will said throwing his book to the side by his backpack.
"Me too," I say, following his lead.
We sat there for about a minute just looking at each other, before I caught my self and jerked my gaze away probably a little too quickly.
"Do you want to go get a snack for dinner?" Will asked, although I knew I didn't have a choice. He's been making me eat at least small things for every meal, but he never makes me eat full meals thankfully. Hazel tries but he always stands up for me and, to my surprise, she fold under his pressure.
"I guess," I respond.
Will smiled brightly at me as he jumped up. He offered me his hand to help me up but I didn't take it. We walked down stairs to the kitchen where Hazel was making spaghetti.
"Just in time, dinners ready!" Hazel said as she sees us walk in. She dumped a bowl full of Spaghetti and meatballs and then handed it to me. I stared down at it and clenched my jaw, there was no way i could eat THAT much. I think will noticed my silent panic cause he pulled the bowl to himself and smiled at me. I smiled at him gratefully as he started to eat.
"Hey, that was Nicos!" Hazel protested when she noticed. As much as I love her, her idea of fixing things is to just force me to eat as much as possible even though she knows I'm going to throw up after.
"I couldn't eat that much," I say truthfully.
"It's your moms recipe, you love her spaghetti!" She said exasperated. I glared at her, I hadn't told Will about my mom and sister and now he was probably going to ask me about her. Thankfully she just got me another bowl with slightly less food. I knew I wasn't gonna eat it all but decided I could just sneak some to Mrs. O'leary under the table to make her happy.
After a few minutes I heard the door to the garage open and heavy footsteps come trudging in. I choked on my bite of pasta as I realised my Dad was home.
"Hey Dad," Hazel said as he walked into the kitchen. "Would you like some spaghetti?"
"Sure, thanks," he said as Hazel handed him a bowl.
To my horror he sat right next to me.
I continued to stare at my bowl, suddenly loosing what little appetite I had.
"H-How was work?" I asked him, trying to just be polite.
"Fine, fired someone so that was fun," he said with a mouth full of meatball. He eyed my bowl and my fork just pushing everything around and slammed his fist in the table. "Why aren't you eating?" he commanded.
I saw Will jump out of the corner of my eye. "Uh, not all that hungry."
He grabbed the collar of my swearshirt and pulled me close to his face. "Your sister made dinner for you, be grateful and eat it!" he yelled.
"I-It's alright Dad, he had a really full bowl before," Hazel said, trying to calm down the situation which only ever made it worse.
"No respect!" my dad spat in my face. I could smell the boos on his breath. "I'll have to teach it to you!" He grabbed the back of my hair tight making my eyes water than shoved my face into the bowl hard. I heard a crack and felt pieces of glass poke into my face. He pulled my head back up and sneered at me.
"Pathetic boy," he sneered, picking up his bowl and taking it to his study. I reached for the napkins in the middle of the table to wipe my face.
"No i'll do," Will interjected grabbing the napkin from my hand. "I don't want you to accidently push the glass from the bowl further in."
He wiped the sauce and stray noodles off of my face and my eyes cleared. I looked at him and saw he had fresh cuts across his face. I reached up to my own and felt the same cuts littering mine.
"I'll go get the first aid kit," Hazel said running off to the bathroom.
"I'm sorry," I said, chocking back tears. I reached up and touched the cuts on his face, surprising not only Will but myself.
"No it's okay Neeks," Will said, looking at me with concern.
"Your always hurt because of me. . ." my words trailed off as I realised what I had just said. I had just admitted that I believed we were soulmates. I had been careful not to reveal this because it would be easier to scare him off, but the truth was, I'm kinda attached.
"I don't feel it," Will ushered, "Don't be sorry, you can't help it."
My eyes wandered to his rolled up sleeves and saw all the scars and cuts that were all because of me. I broke down crying, and to my surprise I wrapped my arms around Will and buried my face in his chest as I sobbed.