Solangelo Oneshots

Get Up

Will gasped in pain, clinging to his side as he dug out his supplies of ambrosia. Shakily, he brought a piece to his lips. Drowsiness cloaked him. He wanted to close his eyes and savour the taste of his mother's pie.

No.

No, Will, don't close your eyes.

He took a deep breath, trying to slow down his heart rate. A fast heart would mean he'd bleed out quicker. He couldn't go yet.

Not yet.

Will propped himself up against a tree, distracting himself from the pain with the discomfort of the gnarled bark.

Above him, the trees swayed and spread to create a canopy. Privacy for his passing. A gift of the little peace they could offer. Will whispered his gratitude.

In the distance, Will saw a figure. It could have been Nico. It could have.

But he was too tall, his face too gaunt, his ebony hair cascading down his back and his crown of thorns pricking blood from his forehead. Ethereal. Beautiful.

Not Nico.

The figure loomed over him. His robes brushed against the moss. He did not deign to crouch down. Will didn't expect him too.

"Not yet," Will croaked. "Lord Hades, not yet."

Hades remained impassive. His sharp features carved in marble did not flicker. His eyes were an empty pit. Void of anything, except perhaps the slightest hint of sorrow.

"I know it's my time," Will pleaded. "I know. I won't fight. But just give me a while longer. We've lost so many people... Nico has lost so many people without getting to say goodbye. Don't make me one of them. Let me say goodbye."

His voice cracked. Heaving cries rattled his ribcage. He pressed down harder on his wound, tilting his head against the tree. Life. Life in his death. Will thought of Persephone.

"I can't go yet," he whispered. "I need to say goodbye to my baby. Please. Please, I need to say goodbye to Nico."

He was too tired to contemplate the sharp absurdity of begging with the God of the Dead for a few more minutes of life.

You must stay awake.

Hades stared at him for a long time.

Seconds.

Minutes.

The God stepped minutely back. Will sobbed a sigh of relief.

He could feel himself fading. The gentle breeze nudged at him.

Get up, it whispered, get up. Get up.

Will couldn't fight.

He prayed to Micheal and to Lee. They weren't gods. They weren't.

Let me believe they can hear me. Just for a moment.

Very well. Will struggled as his eyes started to close.

He couldn't move.

His breath was rasping. A morbid opera of scratching exhales and wheezing inhales.

Nico.

Let me say goodbye to Nico.

Please.

Please.

-

Nico stumbled, feeling his stomach drop.

"No," he murmured, shoving aside Percy's worrying hands. "No, no, no, no."

He pulled himself upright, dizzy from the loss.

"No!" he screamed, tugging the shadows towards him. They spun and twisted, rapidly flying to their master, embracing his pain.

Nico collapsed unsteadily, one hundred miles away, beside Will's corpse.

"No." He beat the ground, cracks flying.

"Niccolò, stop this."

Nico's head snapped up at the sound of his father's voice.

"Fix this!" he screeched, the earth trembling beneath him. "Fix it now!"

"I can't."

Bones, jagged and broken, stabbed out of the ground. Twisted, fractured skeletons crawled towards the sky, screaming. All of them were screaming and screaming and screaming.

"Listen to me." Hades stepped forward, taking his son's face roughly in his hands. "Nico, listen to me."

"Bring him back!" Nico sobbed violently, retching. Someone was reaching down his throat and pulling out his insides.

"I can't!" Hades bellowed. "Nico, listen! I can't because I am bound by laws and rituals as a god. I cannot do what others can for Will."

Destruction raged but the bubble that held father and son quietened. Nico held still.

"I do not have the ability as a god nor the level of grief necessary to have anything to do with resurrection."

Nico tensed. Hades released him.

Nico grabbed Will's backpack, digging out the ambrosia reserves.

"Food," he muttered to himself. "Food."

He knew the words. He knew the spell by heart. He's spent years searching and committing everything to memory. It didn't save Bianca. She'd been gone for a long time. She was at peace.

There might still be time.

Nico held his breath and watched as the spirit of his boyfriend rose in wisps of translucent blue.

"Nico!" Will exclaimed. "Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I tried to hold on! I didn't mean to leave you like that."

Nico felt like curling up and crying for a long, long time.

"It's okay," he said hoarsely. "I'm here, Will. Do you trust me?"

"Of course."

Nico's breath hitched at the lack of hesitation.

"I need you to go back into your body," he said. "You died very recently. It should accept you back. Amore, it's going to be hard. It's going to be painful. But I can help you."

"Nico." Will smiled fondly. "I'll take any odds so long as there's a chance to get back to you."

Will dived towards his body, pushing at the barrier. Nico kept his eyes wide open, forcing the shadows and his skeletons to scrape at the barrier's walls.

He just needed to find one tiny rip, one slither of space.

A shadow snagged.

"Will, I found it!" Nico shouted, concentrating all his power on tearing that snag bigger and bigger and bigger.

He watched as Will's beautiful soul slipped through.

The skeletons collapsed. The shadows dissipated. Nico was briefly aware of his father standing behind him but he brushed that to the side, taking Will's hand tightly in his own.

He felt a weak squeeze and watched in awe as blue eyes peeked open.

The weary smile on Will's face was the sun.

Something inside Nico snapped. He fell into Will's chest, shaking with exhaustion.  He held Will tightly and Will's arms wrapped around him in return.

"Hey, Nico."