Battle Wounds: Solangelo Soulmate AU

EIGHTEEN

WILL POV:
As much as I tried to convince him to let my mom just get him a doctor's note and not go back to school yet, he insists. I get worried when he's been in the bathroom a long time, and although I've been watching my arms, decide to go check on him.

I knock, "Nico? What's taking so long in there?"

"You can come in," he answers sounding distracted.

I open the door and see he's putting makeup on.

"What are you doing?" I ask furrowing my eyebrows quizzically and stepping closer. Upon further inspection, I realize he's covering the bruises on his face, and it's quite expertly done might I add.

"Is that how you've gone so long without anyone calling CPS on you?" I ask.

He nods, "I got good at this really quickly. Hazel helps sometimes when it's really bad though."

I sit on the counter and watch him finish. "That's good," I say a little sadly. As much as I know calling CPS would only make his life more difficult, I have to fight the urge every day.

"Do you want me to cover yours?" he asks me once he's done.

"Oh, uh, sure?" I say.

"You've never covered all the bruises?" He asks me.

"Not really, sometimes Ma will put some concealer on them so they aren't as obvious but not always. I've always just said they were soulmate injuries when anyone asked."

"I've done that too," he says sounding a little guilty.
"You need to sit on the toilet or something, I'm too short to reach you on the counter."

I hop down and sit on the toilet lid. Before I have time to process what's happening, Nicos' hand is on the side of my face and the other is putting some liquid on. I thought it was foundation till I realized it's green.

"Why is it green?" I ask pulling my face away, "Your not gonna turn me into Shrek are you."

He smirks at me, "I did think about it, but no it's color corrector."

He moves closer again and I move away. "What's that?"

"Stop moving, and just let me do this," he grumbles. "Just trust me."

"I do trust you!" I argue, "Just not with my face! You just admitted you wanted to make me look like Shrek!"

He rolls his eyes, "I said I considered it, I'm not going to though."

"Well tell me what you're doing before you actually do it then," I argue moving away from the green stuff again.

"William Solace," he says firmly, "Stop moving! Just let me do it!"

"No!" I say laughing pushing him away, just because I think it's cute when he gets all frustrated like this.

Suddenly, before even he has time to think about what he's doing, he sits in my lap to keep me still. We both kinda freeze just staring at each other. I can't help the smile that grows on my face and grows even more as a blush creeps up his neck.

"S-Sorry," he stutters as he moves to try and get up, but I grab his hips and pull him back in my lap.

"I'll stay still if you stay here," I say smirking at him, causing him to blush even more.

"Fine," he grumbles as he picks up a sponge to rub the green stuff in more.

To anyone who might walk in, Nico sitting on my lap might have seemed inherently sexual but it wasn't. Not for me at least, I just liked having him close to me. He seemed to relax very quickly too or else I would have let him stand back up if he had stayed uncomfortable. With Nico, I've learned you have to push him out of his comfort zone or else he'll stay there forever.

"Done," he finally says, looking me right in my eyes.

"Great," I say smiling back at him, "Thanks Neeks."

"No problem sunshine," he says naturally.

I would have assumed, no matter how comfortable he seemed to have gotten, he was gonna jump out of my lap as soon as he was done but he sat there with his hands on my shoulders looking me in the eye for a long time.

"Are you gonna stand up or are we gonna stay here for a while," I say cheekily, smiling at him.

"Actually," he says in a quiet voice like he's scared to say what he's thinking, "I'm pretty happy right here."

I grin at him, wrapping my arms around his waist tighter. "Fine by me."

I lean in and close the distance between us, capturing his lips with mine. He kisses me back immediately, wrapping his arms around my neck. We stay like that for much longer than we should considering we were already running late for school, but neither of us seem bothered.

When he finally pulls away I can tell he is trying not to smile, and I love his smile.

"You're beautiful," I whisper to him.

I see him battle with his smile for a little longer before it finally wins. "No Im not," he says.

"Yes, you are," I say pulling him in for another quick kiss. "Now as much as I'd love to sit here and make out more we're already late for school so we should really get going."

He groans, "You're right."

He pushes himself off me and grabs his crutches from against the counter. I stand up too and get both of our backpacks from his room. I had known I was gonna stay at his house so I had brought it along with extra clothes and the first aide kit I'd had packed ever since I met him for times like this. We walk outside and we start walking over to my beat-up hunk of junk I call my car.

"Does that thing still run?" Nico looks at it doubtfully.

"Sometimes," I say with a shrug. "But we missed the bus so unless you'll let me drive one of your cars to school it's all we got."

"Yeah, let's take mine," he says pulling out his keys and tossing them to me.

"How'd you know we were gonna take your car?" I ask him curiously.

"I remembered you telling me that you don't drive yours because it likes to break down," he says smirking as we walk over to his black BMW. "I almost grabbed the keys for the hearse just cause I think it would be fun to pull up to school in it, but then I realized it would be a pain in the ass to get from the back garage when we're running late."

"There's a back garage?" I ask incredulously, feeling my jaw drop.

"Where do you think we keep all the cars?" Nico looks at me like I'm stupid. "This one only holds 6."

"How was I supposed to know you had more than 6?"

"I haven't told you that I have 6 just in my name?" He looks at me like this is basic information. "And my dad has I think about 10 or something. Then there's a couple that are technically mine but they are in his name."

"Sometimes I forget how rich you are," I say laughing as I back out of the garage.

"Yes, as we pull out of my dad's mansion," Nico says sardonically. "It's easy to forget."

I don't think I've ever seen him this comfortable with me. Like he's making jokes about sensitive topics he normally skirts around, and he's leaning in the center council so close to me I thought he was gonna lean his head on my shoulder.

I grab his hand and hold it the whole drive to school and he lets me. I help him out of the car since it's a little difficult with his crutches, but he refuses to let me carry his backpack for him.

The bells already rang but we're only 5 minutes late thankfully and make it to our first classes not too late.

"Someone looks happy," Percy teases as I slide into my seat behind him.

"Oh shut up," I say.

"Nice of you to join us Mr. Solace," Mrs. Dodds says. "Hope you enjoyed your little, lye in."

"Sorry ma'am," I say sinking lower in my chair.

Thankfully she continues with whatever she was talking about and doesn't spare another look for me.