Soldatino (A Solangelo Short Story)

Day One

3rd person POV:

The son of Apollo and the son of Hades walked to the infirmary, Nico trailing behind his doctor by about a foot, never getting too close or too far away from Will Solace. He was walking a little bit faster than usual because, no matter how much he hated the idea, Will was right, he was exhausted and needed time to rest in peace and he wanted to get to the infirmary as quickly as possible so he could go to sleep sooner, rather than later.

Will, on the other hand, walked at a slower pace than normal, trying to stay as close to the small boy as he could, without making Nico uncomfortable. He didn't try to make conversation, knowing the Italian would just ignore him anyway, but he did look back about every other minute, to make sure the quiet son of Hades hadn't run off.

When the two finally arrived, Will led Nico to an empty bed he had labelled Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, 14 years of age, three days of rest. Of course all that was written in ancient Greek, so everybody could read it and when the small Italian did, he just shook his head, too tired to comment.

The infirmary wasn't nearly as full as it had been three days prior. Most of the people that were injured in the war had either been healed or were dead. Though some of the demigods had more serious injuries and had to stay longer than others. But just because only about a quarter of the original number of patients were currently in the infirmary, doesn't mean there weren't many left in total. No there were still fifty to a hundred, seriously injured patients laying in beds in the infirmary. But, for once, Nico didn't care how many people were around him.

Nico looked at his doctor who said, "Lay down and sleep, doctor's orders.

The son of Hades wasn't as reluctant to listen to Will this time, he simply climbed under the covers of the bed and drifted off to sleep.

Once Will was sure the Italian boy was asleep, he reluctantly walked away to check on other the patients. Most of them were sleeping, but he saw one that was lying awake on her bed. It wasn't until he was standing next to her bed that Will realized it was Drew Tanaka. How she of all people got injured so seriously in the war, was beyond him.

"Hi there, handsome." She said when she saw Will standing next to her. "What's your name?"

"Will and I'm only here to heal you, that's it." The girl giggled, "Are you sure? Don't you want to go out with me?" Will found that he did, indeed want to go out on a date with this girl, but then he looked at her arms and gasped.

It was no wonder Drew had to stay longer at the infirmary, her arms, legs, and whole body were completely covered in bites, scratches, and blood. Will immediately went off to grab some ambrosia and nectar and was quick to be back next to the girl again.

Will tried to force-feed the injured girl, but she just giggled and said, "Willy-poo, stop flirting with me. Can't you see I'm busy?" Then she passed out and Will sighed in relief, immediately shoving a piece of ambrosia down her throat. Then he walked off, making a mental note to check on her again in a few hours.

He walked around the room, but the only patients that were awake were already under care from one of his siblings. Then Will heard a faint humming sound and traced it back to a certain son of Hades.

Will walked over to the small Italian, just as Nico started to sing something that was barely audible.

"Close your eyes, I know what you see. The darkness is high, and you're in ten feet deep."

Where have I heard this before? Will asked himself as he listened to Nico sing. I know I've heard it somewhere before.

"But we've survived, more terrible monsters than sleep. And you know I will be here, to tell you to breathe."

Then Will remembered where he'd heard this song, back right before Bianca had met up with the other Hunters, he'd heard this same song being sung by her. She had sung this to little Nico and that was the last time he'd ever heard her voice and it was a truly beautiful voice.

"Tu sei il mio soldatino, la ragione per cui vivo. Non ti scordar di me, io vegliero su di te."

Just as he finished the chorus, Nico woke up. He started shaking violently, though he had looked peaceful as an angel just a minute before.

Will immediately rushed to the small boy and sat next to him on the bed. He held Nico close to him and whispered soothing words that meant nothing to Nico, but meant the whole world to him, at the same time.

Nico leaned into Will and soon ran out of tears and calmed down, slightly. He decided that if Will asked, Nico would say he had a nightmare about Tartarus. But he couldn't stop thinking about his sister and his mother and the lullaby they had always sung to him before he went to bed. When he was younger, his mom sang to both him and Bia, but after his mother's death, Bianca took over the job and started singing to her little brother. Then, after she was gone too, Nico never sang the song again, but he never forgot it either.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Will pulled Nico out of his thoughts, using a calming, and sweet voice. Nico shook his head, but muttered, "T-tartarus." In a whisper that Will could barely hear.

Will thought about the song he heard Nico singing in his sleep and frowned. It was clear Nico was lying to him, but was it because he didn't trust Will or some other reason? But, whatever the reason and no matter how curious Will was, he didn't push. If Nico wished to tell him, he would, but he would do so of his own free will.

Soon the two were both comfortable, wrapped up in each other's arms and they drifted off to sleep, still laying together.

A/N I hope you all liked this, it took a while to make, but I came up with this idea earlier and thought it would be cool to actually write this.

And the song at the top, soldatino, is the inspiration for this whole book.

Goodbye my lolzipop readers.