Vegas Skies (Solangelo AU)

PART NINE

After that night, Nico had become more wary. He wasn't sure Will had meant what he had said. It had been the middle of the night. Would he really be there for him? Did peolle always mean what they said when they were sleep deprived? Maybe he hadn't been sleep deprived but he had certaintly been sleepy after being awaken in the middle of the fucking night.

He sighed, two weeks had passed and instead of being a friend, a friend Will deserved, he was avoiding him. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just be his friend? Nico had other friends, one more wouldn't be so different. But he couldn't. He couldn't be the friend Will deserved, because as much as he tried, he knew he would let him down at some point. And he couldn't bring himself to do that. Not again. Not after so many let downs.

"Nico? Hey, we should be heading toward luggage claim, Frank will be waiting for us there." Hazel nudged him gently and he came back to the present.

They were at the airport, waiting for Frank, Hazel's very buff, very shy boyfriend. After a moth of trying to set up everything in his and Hazel's new apartment back in New York, he was finally able to come to L.A. with his girlfriend.

Nico nodded and followed Hazel to the luggage claim area. Frank was there already and his face broke into a smile when he saw her. Hazel ran up to hug him. She was grinning. He was so buff that Hazel was almost completely lost in hus embrace and she was on her tiptoes too.

Nico didn't think he'd ever seen a more adorable couple.

When they broke apart Frank saw Nico and waved awkwardly, "Hey Nico."

Nico waved back with the same awkwardness, "Hey Frank. Glad you could join us."

"Yeah...Will's not with you?" He seemed genuinely curious as to why Nico's husband wasn't with him.

Hazel was the one who shook her head and nodded, "They haven't been spending a lot of time together lately, we left before he woke up today."

That was when Nico realized Hazel had been telling Frank all about him and Will and he probably wanted them togther as much as Hazel did. That made him blush. People actually wanted them together.

When Frank saw Nico blush, he blushed too. "Oh uh, did something happen?"

No fucking way. Frank Zhang shipped Nico and Will. Then again, it shouldn't surprise him. Frank was one of the sweetest and nicest people Nico had met. He no doubt wanted Nico to find someone who could understand him as much as Hazel and maybe Jason and Reyna too.

Nico turned away, "Nothing happened. We're just not hanging out. It's no big deal."

Frank picked up the luggage he'd dropped when he hugged Hazel, "Oh okay. Well um, I hope you hang out again."

"We still see each other," Nico said as they made their way out of the airport. And it was true. They shared a room for fuck's sake, it wasn't like he could just pretend he didn't exist. He just kept his distance.

Will of course had tried to shorten that distance the whole time Nico tried to lengthen it but Nico wouldn't let him. He, as he mentioned so many times already, refused to let him down. The best way to do that was to not be friends.

Those days, Hades had become weaker and sicker so he didn't come out of his room anymore. Persephone rarely left his side too. She would come out for breakfast sometimes but for the most part, either Hazel, Nico or even Will made meals and brought them up to their room. It made avoiding Will that much easier.

As the walked back to the car, Frank and Hazel talked and smiled, lost in their own little world. Nico tried to ignore the fact that he wished he were like that with someone sometimes.