So He Glows???

Will is a Human Glowstick

Capture the flag had sucked. Nico and Will had been on opposite teams, meaning Nico was bored out of his mind the whole time. After a few hours of boredom, Nico had started poking around. He had expected to find nothing, maybe old bits of armor or small weapons from previous games, but not a new entrance to the labyrinth. He'd found it the same way he found the first one: by accident. He'd tripped, and grabbed for a stone to catch himself, then he fell through the ground, and landed awkwardly on his wrist, more hearing it snap than feeling it. "Well shit," Echoed through the maze. Nico knew the labyrinth well enough not to move any more than sitting up. It was dark. Really dark, and it didn't help that Nico was wearing all black. Alright then, he'd have to go on touch. He stood and reached out, not daring to move his foot from the spot he'd landed.. he reached out with his good arm trying to feel for the delta he knew must be near. He prayed to the gods it wasn't on the ceiling. He turned full circle and still couldn't find the damn mark. Maybe he'd tumbled farther than he first thought. Nico cursed as he made a decision. He'd have to shadow travel. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and dissolved into shadow.

Will had been trying very very hard not to have a panic attack. The game of capture the flag had ended THREE HOURS AGO! They had the whole camp looking and no one could find Nico. The sun was setting and fast, soon I would be dark and the more dangerous monsters would come out. As soon as the sun's light had completely disappeared Chiron called the campers back to the big house for a report before bed. As everyone else confirmed that Nico was gone without a trace, Will actually started to cry. He cursed whatever deity was covering for Apollo for going far too fast. Once Will had calmed down a bit, stopped crying, that is, Chiron sent everyone back to their cabins and called for an early lights out. As soon as the Apollo kids got back to their cabin, Austin, Kayla, JJ, Arrow, and a few others turned to Will.

"You're going to keep looking aren't you?" Asked Kayla.

"Duh! He's my boyfriend Kayla I can't just go to sleep when he's still out there!"

Arrow spoke up, "but this wouldn't be the first time he disappeared, what makes this one different?"

"Well, normally he'll tell me where he's going, or leave a note at least. But disappearing with no trace? That's not like him."

"But I thought he used-"

"Oh shut up Mark. Look none of you can stop me. I've got this really horrible gut feeling that something bad happened. I HAVE to find him," His siblings nodded, knowing Will had his heart set on this and wasn't going to back down.

It was freezing in the spring's night air, but Will didn't wear more than a tank top and shorts. He'd need all the light he could get. Personally, Will thought it was a stupid power. Glowing in the dark? Yeah VERY useful in battle. But right now he was thankful for it. He carried his bow, quiver, and first-aid kit just in case. Running through the woods with Nico in mind was the adrenaline rush that kept him warm. Will was constantly muttering to himself about how stupid Nico be to stay out here alone in the cold dark, and frankly very dangerous forest. As he was running Will heard a noise from the creek, a splash like something had fallen in. Despite the fear that it was a monster Will ran straight at the sound.

Nico had tried to pop up IN the camp, but he was tired and the maze had really thrown him off. So with Nico's AMAZING luck in mind, he landed near the geyser spirits. Nico sat down hard as one of the two spirits started blabbering about yell-up something. Nico very gracefully, passed the fuck out, knowing the very loud, very annoying geyser spirit would keep any monsters away. Not that he wouldn't have passed out anywhere else.

Will had very nearly died fighting with the stupid scorpion snake thing. Running at the sound from the creek probably hadn't been his best idea. Glad for his first-aid kit, Will kept running, approaching noise a lot more cautiously now.

It was maybe two in the morning and the sky was still as black and star-filled as ever when Will realized where he was, very near the grove of Dodona. Only then did he realize he could hear voices, but not from the grove. It was faint, but it sounded like a car salesman asking for a review on Yelp. Will moved towards the sound carefully, he had learned his lesson a few hours ago. As he moved out from behind a tree trunk the glow from his skin fell on two figures. One was a geyser spirit talking mostly to himself, the other was laying in the dirt, wearing all black.

"Nico!" Will ran forward, desperate to check on his boyfriend. Nico was passed out clearly, but alive. Will wiped the tears from his face and shook Nico gently.

Nico opened his eyes to see Will above him, which didn't surprise him but, "How the fuck are you so bright? Like you're actually fucking glowing," was all that came out of his mouth.

Will laughed to himself, "stupid Apollo kid power, I'm the only one in my cabin to have it. But what happened to you? Are you ok? Why'd you disappear for what six, seven hours now?"

"Long story short, I found another entrance to the labyrinth. I fell in and I think my wrist is broken. I'll tell you more once you fix my arm and get us back into Camp ok glowy boy?"

Will leaned in and kissed Nico on the nose. "Sounds like a plan death breath," so that's what they did. Will patched up Nico's wrist and a quick splint and they walked back to camp together. That is to say Will carried Nico on his back, piggyback style. Nico told Will all the details in the Hades cabin while Will fixed Nico's broken bones in a more permanent sense.

They both knew that shit was gonna get weird the next time Apollo showed up at camp.

AN: I spent way longer on that than I intend to. Writing that took a lot more energy than I'd like to admit lol.