Solangelo Oneshots

Spider-Man should really go to therapy or something (Pt. 7)

Can you tell I bullshit every. Single. Spider-Man title. They keep getting worse and worse and I have no control.
-
Will's pov

~ July, a month after the Persephone catastrophe~

Considering I was dating New York's one and only superhero, life was pretty calm for me. Which was a good thing, of course.

It was summer, and oh how sweet it was.

To be specific, it was the summer before my last year in high school, and the sky was as bright as the future. All blue and cheery and iced-tea refreshing.

Persephone, thankfully, handled Nico's secrets as well as a mother could, after being bombarded with so much information at once.

The night went pretty smoothly, in my opinion. Smoother than I thought it would. Actually, it was the best possible outcome.
I sat next to Nico on the couch, an arm wrapped around his back, across from Persephone fretting in her green arm chair. He explained the Spider-Man situation first, staring at his sweaty hands clenching the fronts of his hastily thrown on sweatpants, exuding guilt. He refused to make eye contact with the either of us, but he never pushed me away. Really, he pressed into my side as close as he could, so we were fused from our ribs to our knees. Nico went as far as locking his ankle around mine, like he needed every inch of his body touching mine to stay calm. Maybe he did. Need me, that is.

When he finished, using as many plain words to explain the weird changes his body went through ("it was like explaining another puberty" Nico complained later that night) Persephone did not say anything. She just stared at my hand hooked around his waist until he winced and said "and, well, um... Will and I are dating. We have been for a month or so."
Persephone seemed to finally relax at this information, like she was afraid we were fooling around without any real attachment. I held Nico tight as he ran through our relationship for his step mother: how we started dating, when, and how we were still best friends, first and foremost. Then, he sucked a deep breath, like he was about to jump off a skyscraper (which he does quite often) and said "I'm gay, I'm sorry". 

It broke my heart, really. To hear him apologize for something he couldn't change. To apologize for being himself. Like he was something wrong or evil. He had said it a lot, in his room, in his panic, but it was worse to hear it steadily. To watch him pick the words on purpose.

But Persephone smiled, for the first time since we sat down, and actually laughed. "Well I would hope so!" She laughed, "if you were straight I'd be a little upset at you for leading Will on!"
Nico looked up at her, from his lap, with watery eyes and an expression like he wasn't sure whether to laugh with her or burst into tears.

"Sweetie, you don't have to apologize. I'm more concerned that you're putting yourself in danger every day than the fact that you kiss your best friend in a committed and healthy relationship. Really, Will is the best person for you. We've all known he was your be all and end all since day one, I just assumed it was... in the platonic way," Persephone had said, and Nico did start to cry, but he also started to laugh. A unstoppable giggle, borderline hysterical and oh so sincere, ripped through him as tears dropped down his rubbed-red cheeks, and he went boneless in my arms. 

"He— he is," Nico had hiccuped, wiping his face with the backs of his hands, sniffling loudly. I beamed with pride and hugged him with my one arm.
When Nico cooled down, he told Persephone that he was scared to say anything because of Hades' quips and their loose ties to religion. That he didn't want her to see him any different. That he didn't want her to put weird restrictions on our (me and Nico's) time together, or ban things like sleepovers and being home alone, because we were still best friends, and not having that time would feel... wrong. We needed that time together, and not having it would make the dating thing... well, almost not worth it. We loved each other, but we loved each other before we started dating, and spending time together, as much time as possible, was our... our love language. Quality time. Physical touch. We needed that to feel close.