Will
My cabin was too bright, everything looked like the freaking sun. It made being an Apollo kid seem so glorious, but it was the opposite of that, it was hell. We had to see people die every day, be held up to the highest of standards, and most of us died pretty young, at least in camp history.
My two older brothers both died pretty early on in their lives, I was left as the oldest Apollo kid at camp, it was pretty likely that I would die too. I didn't really mind that.
Being a healer made it so I was more in tune with other people, their heart rate, that was the loudest part. That wasn't the worst though, the worst was the pain. I would sometimes go to sleep felling like there was a stab wound that wasn't there, I could absorb some of the pain, the anger, but oh gods it hurt. When someone died it was probably the hardest, I felt the absence of pain, but also the ache of whatever happened to them.
The Hades kid, Nico, had tried to talk me after a few times where I lost a patient.
"Hey, I know you don't want to talk, but you really should, this isn't good for you," he sighed, chasing after me when I had just lost someone.
"Leave me alone Nico," I growled, turning the corner.
He was directly in front of me, damn his shadow traveling "Talk to me Will, come on."
I didn't know if there was any way around it, he would eventually pester me to the point where I would either punch him in his stupid pretty face.
"Okay, just, not here," I grumbled.
He smiled and gently touched my arm, after a few moments of nauseating darkness I blinked and we were in his cabin.
I jerked my arm away from his hand, I could practically feel how much energy it took from him to shadow travel.
"So, what do you want?" I scoffed, shoving my hands into the pockets of my black hoodie.
He lead me to the edge of my bed, where he sat, I stayed standing "I can tell how much people's death bothers you, I just thought you might want to talk about it, I am a son of Hades after all. Death and I are pretty close."
I rolled my eyes, he didn't know half of it "Sure."
He struggled to smile again, then sighed, letting the smile drop "I feel people die you know, all the pain they go through as their soul leaves, their efforts to stay. I know some Apollo kids can feel different things when it comes to other people, so I thought you were the most likely."
He was looking down at his hands, it was as if he was a light that was dimmed, even hid bright orange camp shirt seemed dull.
"Well so what if I am?"
The air in the room around us was thick, it was almost hard to breathe.
"Well, what are you feeling right now?"
I wasn't used to people actually asking that "I-I-I feel like I can't breathe."
Nico took my hand, making his steady heart beat speed up a little. He helped me sit down.
"It seems a bit overwhelming, why don't your siblings feel like this?"
I shrugged "Maybe I'm cursed or some shit, that would make sense."
Nico's hand traced the leather on my glove, occasionally touching my skin, he was actually really calm.
"No, you aren't cursed, that feels different. You're just unlucky," he whispered.
Looking at Nico amazed me, if he really dealt with feeling people die, how could he be this nice? How could he bare looking people in the eyes?
"Can you tell if somebody is going to die soon?" I asked out of the blue.
"Sometimes, the person just gives off this aura," he sighed "Can you?"
I nodded "Kind of, like if someone was poisoned, has a tumor, is really sick, I can feel all of it."
He clasped our hands together, he was so much more tan than I, which I found odd because he was a child of Hades and I was one of the fucking sun god.
"I get it," he whispered.
After a while he smiled at me, that same god damn fake smile,
"Stop doing that," I muttered.
His smile fell again "Doing what?"
"That fake smile you keep doing."
"Oh," he looked down at our hands "That."
He rubbed his thumb around my hand.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
He looked up, his eyes were sad "You look so angry, and sad, all the time. I don't want you to have to feel like that."
"Why not? It doesn't have anything to do with you," I asked.
He nodded and pulled his hands away "I just, don't like seeing you like that."
I rolled my eyes "Then don't look at me."
I stood up and headed to the door "Wait! Where are you going?"
"Back to the infirmary."
I opened the door and he was suddenly in front of it "You will talk to me Solace, it's not good to keep it in."
I tried to move him out of my way but he was surprisingly strong "I don't care if it's good or not, just leave me alone!"
"No!"
"Why the hell not!"
He grabbed my face and smashed our lips together. He felt so warm, so beautiful. His heart was rapid, his lungs were full of air, he was healthy. His touch made me melt.
I kissed him back, then realized what I was doing "Why did you do that?"
Nico looked scared "Shit I'm sorry."
He moved away from the door and cowered a little. I didn't like seeing him scared.
"Nico, what's wrong?"
"You can leave now," he muttered "I can understand if you don't want to talk to me ever again."
I grabbed him and kissed him again, not something I usually did, he just felt, different. I wasn't uncomfortable feeling how he felt, he was nice.
This time he shoved me off "You're emotionally unstable, you don't know what you're doing."
I looked into his eyes, something I never did "Yes I do, I'm kissing you. And I'm always gonna be emotionally unstable in one way or another, so we might as well do this now."
He looked amazed "Okay."
