Solangelo One-Shots

Bunker 9 - Solangelo

Nico was pretty sure he was the only son of Aphrodite who was absolutely hopeless at love. All of his siblings were naturals at crushing, flirting, dating—well, he couldn't get the hang of it and he didn't really want to, thank you very much.

Sometimes he felt like he wasn't supposed to be in cabin 10 at all. When Aphrodite claimed him, a scrawny 10-year-old in a ratty aviator jacket with messy hair and not an ounce of charm to his name...Well, it all seemed like a mistake, and it felt like his siblings thought the same.

They'd tried. They'd brought him in, given him a bunk—Hades, they'd given him a makeover. They taught him how to do makeup, how to have fun with it, taught him the most bearable ways to make the orange camp shirts work in an outfit. But after Bianca joined the hunters...he couldn't help but feel it was because being in cabin 10 was just too much for her. And he couldn't help but agree. He was just glad no one looked disgusted by his jacket anymore. One mention of the word 'vintage' and suddenly he had to sleep in the thing so no one 'borrowed' it.

It wasn't awful, though, living with them. The older kids, the ones who went on runs into the city with Argus, could always hook him up with eyeliner. One of his brothers said he 'appreciated the sick grunge aesthetic." No one bugged him about his wrinkled camp shirt and baggy jeans. And like it or not, you were never alone in cabin 10. Someone was always there and...well, at least Nico could appreciate that he didn't have to live alone in creepy cabin 13 like Jason Grace did. His sister didn't even stay there with him when the hunters were in town—but then, neither did Bianca. Hunters stayed cabin 8 and that was that.

It didn't do any good to focus on that, though. He and Jason had found that out early on. It's not that their sisters didn't love them, it's just...Nope. Nope, nope, nope. He was not falling into that rabbit hole today. Not a chance. Not today.

Will had flicked a note at his head during dinner last night. (Not like they didn't sit next to each other at every bonfire—he just liked to show off all the origami folds he knew. This one was a frog. What a show-off.) It was cryptic as Hades, too, because all the note had said when he opened it was 'meet me by Zeus' fist after breakfast.' Will refused to elaborate. Nico hated not knowing things, so of course, he was there bright and early, arms crossed and foot tapping in anticipation when the son of Hephaestus finally turned up, coming not from the dining pavilion but from deeper in the forest.

There were bags under his eyes and soot in his hair. He was spattered in thick globs of oil, grinning away.

Nico tried to keep the smile from creeping onto his face. (He failed miserably.) "Okay, I'll bite, what's this all about?"

"You're gonna lobe this—well, maybe. I dunno. You might not care at all, actually, but I mean I hope you love it," he rambled.

"Will, dude. What in Hades are you talking about?"

Will grabbed his hand and began to drag him deeper into the trees. "I can't explain, I have to show you."

But all Nico could focus on was Will's hand on his, warmth enveloping his cold fingers and Will gently tugging him along, completely oblivious to Nico's pulse going haywire. Thank the gods he wasn't a child of Apollo or Nico's secret would be out in a blink.

Oh, Nico may have had...a very big crush on Will Solace, son of Hephestus and his best friend. Because of course he did. Of course the only Aphrodite kid that couldn't manage to comb his hair would crush on the only Hephestus kid that couldn't even take a pen apart and put it back together. They were both completely useless—they were perfect for each other. Even Nico could see that, but he couldn't risk losing their friendship. If Nico made a move and Will didn't feel the same, well...With Will was the only place Nico didn't feel less than. He...he couldn't give that up. He wasn't going to risk it—no matter how much Nico wanted free-license to hold Will's hand whenever he wanted.