Percy Jackson Ships

A Love Like This -//- Solangelo

Will had come into Nico's cabin with a surprise. He had placed Nico on cabin arrest because so much shadow travelling was becoming dangerous. Nico was sleeping, but that was fine. Will knew Nico wouldn't mind him curling up next to him and napping. So that's what he did. 
Nico woke up, his breath ragged and his hands sweaty. He saw his boyfriend sleeping next to him, and he closed his eyes, focusing on Will breathing in and out, and breathing with him. His hands clenched, willing himself to stay strong. It was just a nightmare about Tartarus and the bronze jar again. He'd gotten through this alone before. He could do it again. He wasn't going to wake Will up. He was going to calm down and sleep some more. Nico quietly stood up and went to the bathroom, splashing water all over his face, and he felt a little more down to Earth. He turned back to his bed, and in the dark, he saw the piercing blue eyes that still shocked him every day. The blue eyes he fell so hard for.
"Nico? Are you okay?" Will asked sleepily. Nico gulped, nodding. "You sure?" he asked. Nico sighed.
"No. But I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it... not yet...." Nico mumbled, climbing back on the bed. 
"We can just sit here until you feel better, then." Will said, as Nico cuddled up against him.
"Okay." Nico whispered, as Will wrapped them both in a blanket, effectively making them even closer together. 

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please, don't take my sunshine away." Will sang softly, holding Nico. Nico was now trying very hard not to cry. Will sang the song over and over. "Oh! I almost forgot! I have a surprise for you! Hold on." Will got up and went outside, coming back with a little black lump. Nico wasn't really sure what it was. Will settled back down next to Nico, and smiled. 
"She's just waking up." he whispered, and Nico's mouth made a perfect letter 'o'. It was a little black kitten.
"F-for me?" he asked, eyes lighting up as Will nodded. "I-I've never had a.." he trailed off as Will placed the kitten in his arms. He was already on the verge of tears. Now he was crying. "She's so soft." he whispered after a minute. Will smiled, watching as the kitten started crawling all over the son of Hades. Eventually, she curled up on his shoulder and fell asleep again. 

"You like her?" Will asked. Nico smiled, nodding, and Will could see little tears in his eyes.

"Yeah. I love her. Thank you." Nico said, sliding the kitten into his arms again, petting her softly.
"What are you going to name her?" Will asked. Nico shrugged.
"She looks like a little ink spot, doesn't she? What about Inky?" Nico asked. Will thought for a minute.

"What about InkBlot?" Will suggested. Nico nodded.
"Even better. I love it." Nico promised. He took a deep breath.
"Have you really never been given a pet before?" Will asked, and Nico shook his head.
"Will, I haven't been given a gift since my mom was alive. It's been decades." he admitted. 
"Well I'm honored to be the first person to give you a gift since the 20th century then." Will grinned. Nico laughed softly. "Feeling any better?" He checked.
"About some things. But not about the nightmare." Nico told him. 
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it? Any of it? You don't have to tell me the whole thing. But if it would make you feel any better to talk about any of it, you can." Will promised, slowly wrapping an arm around Nico. Nico sighed.
"You sure it's okay?" Nico checked on more time. Will nodded down at him. "If it gets too scary or upsetting for either of us, I'm going to stop, and maybe talk more tomorrow. We'll see." Nico told him. Nico took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and felt Will's warm arms around him, and his legs were going around his waist, effectively warming Nico up, and creating a support for him to lean into. "Okay. The dream starts. I'm walking. I'm in Tartarus. My feet are lead, my eyes are heavy. I have to sleep, but monsters are trailing me, and I can't. The burning fire river is my coffee. When I take a drink every hour or so, the burning sensation will shake me awake. I almost fall asleep walking, and fall over. I crawl to get my hourly drink or fire, and I am half awake immediately. I haven't been fully awake in days, maybe weeks. I conserve my energy in case I have to fight, or veer off the river. So I move slowly. But then I see in front of me. Night. The Night. Nyx. I'm headed into her territory. I look behind me. The monsters -- two giants from Gaea, are are closing in, faster every second I don't make a decision. So I go. I plunge straight into Night. Percy and Annabeth talked about how dark Night was. They wouldn't have been able to direct their hand to each others', much less to their own faces. But I saw something different. I saw what children's nightmares are about. Burning black fires, skeletons, to lighten the mood, I'll call it the scary part of my Father's palace on steroids. It is part of the Underworld, true. But not Father's palace. Okay. I can't see anything. Nothing at all. But at the same thing, I know what's in front of me. I just don't know when I'm going to get to it. Suddenly, I stumble, and true, true horror grips my whole body. It's a 20 foot jump across. I can't make that. I was paralyzed with fear. I don't know for how long I actually prayed. Because I prayed to every god I could. Greek, Roman, Christian, tribal, you name it, I probably prayed to them. That's honestly hilarious to me now. It'd be even funnier if I wasn't almost completely insane, terrified, and thinking I was never going to see the sun, moon, stars, or any of you all ever again. I legitimately thought I was going to die. But however long it took those thoughts to come to be, the giants caught up with me. I didn't have any energy. As soon as I was off the ground, in one of their hands, I was asleep. I woke up, and it looked like it had been days, because we were finally through Tartarus, but we were still walking. I never actually figured out how much time had passed. But we only walked enough to get Underground again, and then the next thing I knew, I was throw in a bronze jar, and they were taunting me. Awful, horrible things. I-I don't even want t-to talk about th-them. I waited a day, because when they finally left me alone, they were making plans for the 7 demigods, getting here any day. I waited as long as I could, but eventually I was either going to die there or go into death trance. About as happy as it sounds. I don't want to die. I know it's just going to be me sitting by my father's throne for a millennia, but I realize right then that that isn't what I want. I want to come back to camp and be free. To live my life, find love. So I decide to go into the death trance. I go for 5 days. I feel closer and closer to dying.. it all goes black, and then I wake up." Nico says it all so quietly, with his eyes closed, and he's shaking by the end, and Will can see the tears in his eyes when he looks up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to burden you with all this." Nico whispered, looking down again. 

"Hey. Hey. Look at me, Nico." Will said softly, and Nico turned around, brown eyes glistening. Will's hands framed his face, thumb tracing his cheekbone. "Neeks, I love you so much. You are never a burden on me. You can talk to me about anything. You can cry until you're okay. You can count on me. Okay?" Will said. Nico set Inkblot down and hugged Will tightly, his face in his chest. "Do you wanna cry until you're okay?" Will asked. Nico nodded into his chest, breaking down. Will buried his face in the smaller boy's silky black hair and kissed his scalp a million times, rubbing Nico's back. Nico cried and cried and cried. Will didn't even think about letting him go. He only held him tighter when the sobs increased, and when Nico would almost be in hysterics, Will would have his hand, and they'd get through it. Nico cried for a long time. When he finally pulled away, his eyes and face were red and puffy. Nico expected a sarcastic comment to make him smile, but Will couldn't think of anything.
"You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Will whispered after a minute. Nico smiled. 
"I love you more than life, Will. I don't know what I did to deserve this love." he murmured, cuddling closer to his boyfriend, kissing him on the lips. 
"I'll be by your side through anything, Neeks. That's a promise." Will whispered, feeling a little tired. Nico, noticing, laid down, his head on Will's chest to hear his favorite sound: Will's heartbeat. They both smiled as Inkblot crawled next to them and curled up. 

"I love you, Will Solace." Nico whispered, smiling. Will was already sleeping.