Solangelo One-Shots

Late Night Shifts

Will often had shifts late at night in the infirmary. He was always the only one working at that time. Occasionally, his siblings would help during this time but often he worried about them getting sleep. It was always so dark except for the moonlight that shined through some of the windows. Some days it was silent other days he'd hear the wails of some of his patients who were experiencing terrible nightmares.
      Will always felt saddened when he heard the dreadful screams. He would always walk over to their beds and gently shake the patient and whisper for them to wake up.  Sometimes it would take a moment or so to get them to. They were often thrashing around so very violently and would sometimes push his arms away when he tried to shake them awake. When they would awake some would still be screaming or sobbing while others just stared blankly at the wall. Will would pull them into one of his warm hugs and assure them that it was a dream that they are okay now. His soothing voice and his warm hugs always lured them back into calmness.

     Tonight it was silent for now at least. Will walked around the infirmary checking on the sleeping patients and waking some up to give medication to. Will did not expect for any visitors. He was walking around, watching the patients in their beds when he heard the door open. Will's eyes widened with alert. Usually, no one came along through those doors at all through out the night. There must be an intruder, someone– or something was here with the intention of doing harm. Will nervously turned around and headed back down the aisle of beds. His fists were clinched and shaking as he came closer to the entrance. Once the door was in sight he saw it was no monster of the sort. It was Nico.

    "Oh my gods, di Angelo. You scared me! What are you doing here?" Will asked.
     "Yeah I get that a lot and I'm here because I felt like it." Nico told him, shrugging.
    "Go get some rest, Nico," he said, his voice firm.
    "I tried that already. I can't sleep so I thought I would give you company. Is that okay with you?"
Will was so surprised he did not know what to say. Usually no one came just to spend time with him. At least not at this time. He was reluctant to say yes because he wanted Nico to get some sleep, but he knew Nico couldn't sleep right now so he told him that he could stay.
    Will and Nico would walk around together, talking about different things.
     "So, Nico. Any musical interests? Like favorite bands or music genre, stuff like that?" Will asked.
     "Yeah. Well I like rock music mainly, but I list to other stuff as well. I have had some musical instrument interests actually, I've always wanted to learn guitar."
Will's eyes lit up, "Oh, I could teach you!" He suddenly blushed and looked away. "I mean if you would like that. If you don't want me to teach you I-"
"No! That sounds great!" Nico's face was red now too. They both stared into each other's eyes before quickly turning away.

      Will could feel his heart pounding. Nico just came in, and now here he is offering him  guitar lessons? He grinned at the idea of spending time with the son Hades more.

༻༶༺

     "Hey, Will! Need some help?" Nico asked, walking in. "Nico, you need to get some sleep," Will told Nico the same thing he always did when Nico strolled in this late. "Says the doctor who hardly gets any sleep." Nico shook his head. "I'm not leaving so you're stuck with me, Solace."

     There was a sudden scream. Alarmed, they both looked towards the direction where there was a patient, a girl who looked about the age of ten tossing around in her bed. Will rushed to her side with the son of Hades behind him. Will watched her, whispering words of comfort. There was another shout from the other side of the infirmary. "I'll try to help." Nico ran off to the bed of the other patient. More cries resounded through the infirmary. Will and Nico did the best they could to help. Nico was having less luck with soothing the patients, but he tried to help as much as he could. Some of the patients they had to wake them up, knowing that would be the safest and best way to help them.

    Once the infirmary returned to silence. Will and Nico stood by an open window. They both stared at the sky as the night wind blew against their faces. "This is what I hate about working in the infirmary. Their screams from their unbearable nightmares. Even the young ones have nightmares most kids would never have."
     Nico nodded letting out a sigh, "I know. It's just terrible."
    "Nico?"
    "Hm?"
    "Is that why you avoid sleeping? Is it because of your nightmares?"
    "Well it depends, really. Some nights I feel as if I can fall asleep, but I avoid doing so to avoid my nightmares. Other nights I'm not trying to avoid sleep, I truly cannot fall asleep."
    "Nico if you ever want to talk about it I'm here." Will told him as he grabbed his hand, giving it a small squeeze. Nico flinched from the sudden contact. Will came to realization and started to pull away, but Nico stopped him, squeezing his hand back in return. Their eyes met and they smiled.

༻༶༺

    "Hey, on the bright side I get to spend time with you during your late night shift tonight," Nico grinned.
     Will rolled his eyes at the injured son of Hades, "You always keep me company during my late night shifts, injured or not."
     "Still a win-win situation."
     "Go to sleep, di Angelo."
      "I need to kiss goodnight, first." Nico crossed his arms, glaring at Will.
     Will laughed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Nico's face turned bright red. "I-I was kidding."
    "I wasn't."
     "Wait, you like me?"
     "Yes! You finally realize! You're the most oblivious person I've ever meant!"

༻༶༺

     Will stood next to Nico watching at the patients in their beds. The only sound was coming from the radio that played slow, calming music. Will had decided to play music from an old radio he found. Realizing that the music actually calmed a lot of the campers, he decided to play slow music every night. Will held out his hand to Nico. "Would you like to dance, Death Boy?"
"Don't call me Death Boy." Nico smiled, taking Will's hand.

There Will stood with Nico, dancing with him. He never expected some little shift to be so meaningful to him, but here he was together, with Nico di Angelo.