Solangelo One-Shots

Archery Class

Nico only went to archery class because Will Solace taught it. He was absolutely horrible at using a bow and arrow but his stupid crush on the son of Apollo drove him to show up to archery every other day.

Usually Nico could get away with just staring at Will and listening without paying attention, managing to deal with his bow and arrow with surprisingly little casualties.

But today he noticed Will was watching him too and this realization made Nico fumble with an arrow, slicing his finger. "Ow!" he yelped.

"Careful, these are real arrows." Will addressed the whole class, but started walking towards Nico. "You okay?" he asked once he reached him.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," Nico said, smearing the blood between his fingers, "It's just a cut."

"Alright." Will started to walk away, and then stopped and turned back around, "You're a strange case, you know that? Usually when someone goes to practice something three days a week, they get better at it. You've only gotten worse."

"Maybe you're just a horrible teacher." Nico said.

"Nah, I'm a great teacher," Will said, gesturing to the people around them, "Everyone else is doing fine."

Nico lifted his bow and attempted to shoot an arrow, but it sprung out of his hands and landed 2 feet to left. "Why am I failing, then?"

Will watched him and sighed, "Because you clearly haven't been paying attention. You're holding the bow upside down, for starters."

"Oh," Nico flipped the bow, "Now what?"

"Now keep the bow straight out in front of you and grab an arrow." Will said.

It seemed like Nico could do nothing right when it came to archery. When he tried to nock the arrow, he dropped it again. He picked it up with a frustrated sigh and moved to try again.

"You're holding the arrow wrong, too. Here." Will reached out to guide Nico's fingers to the right positions around the bow and arrow.

A jolt ran through Nico when they touched, though he knew there was nothing behind that gesture.

"Can I shoot it now?" Nico asked, talking to distract himself from his own racing heart.

"Almost. You just need to stand up straight, you won't be able to aim right if you're slouching," Will told him, his hands moving to Nico's shoulders to push them back a bit. "There. Now pull the arrow back all the way to the corner of your mouth, and let go."

"Okay." Nico said, though he was finding it hard to concentrate with Will standing so close to him. Gods, did he know how distracting he was? Nico sighed, imagining the target was his feelings as he fired the arrow with conviction.

The arrow missed the target by inches.

"You were close this time, at least." Will said, the optimism his voice genuine enough, but he was clearly trying not to laugh.

"Shut up. I'm horrible at this." Nico said.

"Yeah, you kind of are." Will agreed. Then he smirked, "Listen, you don't have to come to every archery class.... If you want an excuse to stare at me for two hours, you just have to ask."

Nico froze, "What?"

"I'm not an idiot, you know," Will said, "I've seen the way you look at me. And I think everyone's noticed how you never really follow camp schedule, and yet you always show up here at my class every time on time. I know you like me."

Nico swore in Italian, turning around to face Will, "You're ego is worse than your dad's,"

Will laughed, "But am I wrong?"

"No, you're absolutely right." Nico admitted.

"Good," Will said, and he smiled, "Because the feeling is mutual."

A/N: just a reminder to check out my tumblr (@ oneshots-by-claire) and send me prompts there! I usually post some stuff from there here anyways, but if you mention you're from Wattpad, I'll be sure to.