Sunkissed Solangelo

☠Nico☠

With Will's scream of agony still ringing in his ears, Nico quickly stirred from his two-day long coma. He at first had trouble registering that he wasn't dreaming (more like nightmare-ing). As his eyes gradually came to focus and adjusted to the bright sunlight from a nearby window, he remembered what had led him here.

Having overspent his already limited energy in battling Tityos the giant, Nico had fallen unconscious because the pain had finally become too much for him to handle. So here he was, once again a patient in the infirmary. He really had hoped several days ago the next time he visited this building would be voluntary, and with the sole purpose of seeing Will in all his diligence.

All thoughts towards Will Solace now, his eyes laid upon a head of matted blonde hair in front of his bed footboard, as if drenched in sweat. From this angle, a horizontal sleeping position, Nico couldn't see the person, but he knew for sure it was Will. Then once again he heard a golden boy's scream echo in his mind, and with a jolt of panic that Will wasn't just taking a nap, he abruptly sat up and nudged Will's head with his foot.

"Hey Will, wake up! I'm awake now! What a miracle right?"

"Will?!"

"Sunny Guy?"

"Doctor Solace??"

"IM HERE TO TAKE YOUR DOCTOR'S ORDERS FOR HADES'S SAKE WAKE UP!!"

At this point there was no way Will had just nodded off as he watched over Nico. Nico leaped as gallantly as a comatose patient could out of his hospital bed. Landing on all fours, he half-scooted, half-crawled over to Will.

Will was propped against the wooden backboard, eyes shut tightly as if locked with a key. His forehead glistened with sweat, which suggested a possibility of a high fever. All golden aura usually associated with him was lost. Nico felt his wrist for a pulse. Nothing. Nico felt the side of his neck for a pulse. Nothing.

Nico could feel the pounding of his own heart, from all the escalating adrenaline, stop.

"No, no, no, no, you're going to wake up. You have to, you have to. Y-you saved my life, and I don't even know how you did it. P-please, just get up and order me around. Tell me to eat, and I'll eat. T-tell me to sleep, and I'll sleep. Tell me to..."

And he broke down. He couldn't speak. He didn't ever think he could form words again. Tears spilled down his pale cheeks like puddles of rain. It wasn't supposed to end like this, Nico thought. It was me, not Will, who should be dead.

After all, he acted like it most of the time.

Will was the doctor, not him. Doctors live, patients sometimes don't. And it's sad, but the doctor should never feel the need to sacrifice their own life for the patient. Now Nico was the inept doctor who didn't know how to cope with this- this vacant feeling. It felt like he was stranded on an unmapped island with no one scouting for his S.O.S, or being left shivering on the summit of a ice capped mountain and not knowing how to climb down its frozen peak.

His sense of loss and loneliness could not nearly compare to what he experienced in his mentally scarring coma. In his dreams, he had all of his five senses: he could taste the blood on his mouth, hear the screams of agony, smell the waves of fear that radiated off himself, touch the thick unbreathable air as he slowly suffocated, and see the prolonged version of all the horrible parts of his life. But as kneeled over Will's body, he couldn't sense anything else but what he was feeling in his mind.

It was like reliving what happened to Bianca all over again, except perhaps even worse. Nico never got the chance to tell Will how he really felt about him. How sickeningly ironic it was that death can make love so obvious. What he wanted more than anything: for Will to give one of his dazzling smiles that outshone the sun so much it made the star look like a black hole.