Solangelo Oneshots

50

By CassieWolfe

Trigger warnings: main character death and abusive relation ship

Will Solace was the sun. He was the sun, and Nico the shadows cast by it. Will lit up every room he was in; everyone loved and admired him. Even Percy and Annabeth, when Nico asked them what they thought of Will, said he was kind and honest and brave. All things Nico wasn't, so if he thought those things were lacking in Will's character, maybe he was wrong. Maybe he just didn't know how to truly see Will's virtues, as a shadow can never look upon the face of the sun.

("Go out with me," Will said, and Nico didn't know how to say no, so he said yes instead.)

Nico knew he should be grateful. Will sacrificed so much to be with him, and was such a steadfast pillar of strength, always telling Nico that it didn't matter how people said he was weird and creepy and a freak. (Nico had never heard anyone say those things, but maybe he just hadn't paid enough attention. Will wouldn't lie to him, after all. Not about this. Maybe he lied to Nico sometimes, about little things, but never about something so big.)

("Come to bed with me," Will said, and Nico didn't know how to explain that he was uncomfortable, so he obeyed.)

Some part of Nico thought their relationship might be moving too fast. He didn't know Will's favourite food or any of his hobbies, or even where Will had grown up. When he expressed this, though, Will just laughed and called him old-fashioned. Asked if Nico wanted to meet his mother, too, maybe ask her blessing like it was still the forties. Nico kind of did, but he didn't know how to say that, when Will said it with such a sneering laugh.

("Marry me," Will said, and Nico didn't know what to say, so he said nothing, and Will took silence as agreement.)

The wedding was a haze of dancing and laughter and fancy, formal clothes. Nico felt like a doll, his body responding without his input as he accepted his friends' congratulations, Will's arm around his waist pinning him in place like a butterfly. Everyone told him how lucky he was, how he and Will were such a cute couple. Nico wondered how they failed to notice his stiff back, his monosyllabic answers to their rehearsed platitudes. (Lie. People saw what they wanted to see, and Nico's friends wanted to believe he was happy.)

Married life was torture. They stayed at Camp Half-Blood - Nico had wanted to get an apartment in New York, live on their own like adults, but Will refused to leave his position as head healer, and like always, Nico was the one to cave. Will was right, after all; there was no reason to leave camp, and every reason to stay. The truth was, they needed the protection living in camp afforded them. Even five years after the Giant War had ended, Nico's powers were weak and he exhausted himself just summoning a mouse skeleton. (Sometimes he wondered if that was because he'd been strictly forbidden from using shadow-travel or summoning the dead, but that had to be wrong. Will was sure he was just weak, that he'd overstrained himself and rest would help.)

Somehow, Will had managed to persuade Chiron that married couples should have their own space, wink, wink, and as his wedding gift, the centaur allowed him to move into Nico's cabin. Nico knew he should be happy. Every couple in camp wanted that kind of allowance, and he'd gotten it. He should be thrilled with the privacy and intimacy provided by living together; Will certainly was, taking shameless advantage of it at every chance.

("These curtains are terrible," Will said, tearing them from the wall with a yank. "Help me redecorate." Nico didn't want to redecorate, but Will did, and so he shut up and nodded along as Will picked out yellow floral curtains and white wallpaper and pale blue upholstery that looked like it belonged in an interior decorating catalogue.)

They settled into a routine. Will cooked, cleaned, and worked at the infirmary, while Nico spent most of his time practising sword fighting or wandering the forest with Mrs. O'Leary, since Will didn't want him to work too hard. He wasn't sure why Will was so determined to look after him, but Will brought home enough drachmas to pay for their necessities at the camp store, and so Nico did his best to ignore the lingering discomfort at being so dependent on another person.