I'll Fight The Fear Away- Solangelo

I'm Here

I'd left the infirmary a couple of days ago, finally. It had been awkward enough until my stupid nightmares had happened again and I'd been weird around Will. And now I can barely look at him without blushing. Considering how pale I am, it's really obvious too, so I pretty much just hide whenever I see him.

"Hey Nico," Hazel called, waving me over to our table. "I got your favorite for breakfast."

"Thanks, Haze," I said, sitting down to eat.

"So, how are you? That shadow-traveling looked scary!"

"I'm pretty much better now," I said, smiling at her to prove it. She leaned onto my shoulder and stole one of my marshmallows from my cereal. "Hey! That's mine!"

"Not anymore."

"So, how'd everyone take the news? I was kind of passed out for the whole time."

"Oh... well, they were all mostly good with it. Jason and Piper were really proud of you. Percy was, well, kind of weirded out. Annabeth had a tiny existential crisis, mostly because she was so sure you were straight. She still owes Piper ten bucks."

"What about you?"

"It took a little bit of getting used to," she said, blushing a little. "But Piper helped me understand it."

I was happy that my friends were okay with me. But there was one other thing I had to know- I needed to know what Will thought. He'd seemed to be okay with it when he was treating me, but was that just professionalism? I had to go talk to Will soon. But first, breakfast.

I headed over to the Hades shrine and put the remainder of my croissant in. Then I headed over to the Apollo table and grabbed Will's wrist. 

"Hey, wha-?" I dragged him out to the edge of the woods, ignoring Jason and Percy whistling obnoxiously. "Hey! Stop!"

"You know I'm gay. You know who I am. Are you okay with it?"

"Of course I'm okay with it!"

"Fine," I said, grabbing his arm and starting to drag him back to the Apollo table. 

"Wait," he said, pulling me back. "Why does it matter to you?" 

I stayed silent.

Will turned me around to face him and put both his hands onto my shoulders. I looked away, certain that my face was bright red at this point. I tried to pull away, but he stayed steady, keeping his hands solidly on my shoulders. He wasn't that much taller than me, but I felt tiny right then. He moved his hands to my face, tilting it up to face his. 

"Nico, why does it matter what I think?" He was looking down on me with those stupid eyes that made me want to tell him anything. I was sure he could see me blushing now. "Oh..."

I wrenched myself away from him. "Go away! I don't care anymore! Your opinion doesn't matter to me. I don't care!!"

And suddenly I was even redder and I could barely breathe.