Heroes of Olympus: After Gaea

Will

Extra chapter for 600 reads x

Will, Percy and Nico set up for sleep.

"Tomorrow, we'll be there." Will told Percy and Nico. Percy greeted the couple night and went to his tent. Nico and Will went to their tent and set up their sleeping bags.

"Night, babes." Will whispered to Nico.

Nico blew him a kiss back and sleep instantly. Will looked over to Nico and smiled.

Nico was the most peaceful person when he slept. His slight smile and him hugging his legs made him look like the happiest person in the world.

Will frowned. If only Nico could be this stress free when he was awake. Percy told him that Nico used to be a slightly chubby, olive-skinned jumpy boy who was annoying, talkative and always had a smile on his face. The exact opposite of Nico now. Will knew exactly what he was suffering with. It was easy to diagnose Nico. PTSD and Depression, and other mental illnesses that Will couldn't possibly understand. Will loved Nico too much to see him that way.

Will knew how Nico felt. Will may have not went through Tartarus, but he went through his own hell after he-

No. Will knew it wasn't good for him to think about.

Children of Apollo were actually the most depressed, as they were too prideful and needing to look happy to share their feelings. Seeing people die everyday in your hands wasn't too good for someone's emotional health. Not to mention the pressure of being the child of the powerful, multi purpose Apollo.

Will beat his depression ages ago. Now, he's tried to make others in his cabin do the same.

Will's zoning out distracted him from the twitching he saw in Nico's left eye. He started to twitch all around, as if he was fighting an inner struggle. Nico's pale, skinny face was scrunched up as if he was in immense pain.

"Nico?" Will asked, placing his hand on Nico's arm. His usual cold touch was replaced by sweat and heat. He looked like he was running a marathon.

"Will... no... come here." Nico was murmuring. He started to cry. "Run! Run!"

Will was panicking. He never saw his boyfriend cry before, nor has he dealt with patients having nightmares as bad as this.

This wasn't a nightmare. This was hell for Nico.

He was shaking Nico but Nico wasn't awakening. Will thought for a second, not knowing what else he could do. He knew this wouldn't work, but he tried it again. He slammed his lips against Nico.

Nico didn't respond. But, he started to murmur less and he stopped twitching slowly. The tears, however, were still gushing out.

Will kept lightning pecking him, and Nico started to calm down. Finally, he opened his eyes.

"You're... you're safe." Nico breathed, relieved. He hugged Will tightly and Will hugged back. Nico sniffed a bit and broke from Will.

"I mean... of course you'd be safe. Why wouldn't you? Just sleep. I'm fine. I'm fine." Nico said, his face drooping.

Will raised an eyebrow and went into Nico's sleeping bag.

"What... what are you doing?" Nico asked. Will squeezed into the sleeping bag and faced Nico. There was, surprisingly, a bit of space.

"I've had experience with patients with nightmares. I usually hold their hand whilst they sleep. Yours was much more extreme, so I'm sure I can only help if I cuddle you whilst you sleep." Will told him. "And don't you dare argue with me." He added.

"Oh, okay. If you insist." Nico rolled his eyes and turned over. Will hugged him and put one leg over his, ending up in a spooning position.

"Will?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you." Nico said, holding Will's hands.

"When you wanna tell me, I'll be there to listen."

Nico's grip loosened, and his breathing became steady. Will soon joined him in slumber.

*

Nico didn't speak of it the next day. He acted normal... well, Nic-normal. Percy didn't notice anything, so Nico was very good at poker face.

He must've had a lot of practise.

They packed up their things.

"It's only a ten minute walk." Will assured the group.

They walked, Nico ignoring Will, Percy speaking to Nico and Will guiding them. Soon, they got to the source of the light. 

"I don't think I can go and see it." Nico said, shielding his eyes.

"I'll go." Will told them. Hesitantly, he crawled into the beam of bright light. His eyes stinged a bit but he ignored the pain. 

He walked in, until he became very tired. Will started to hallucinate and the world got in weird colours, like it was a dream. He ignored this and pressed through. Finally he got to a massive book.

"This is too weird." He muttered to himself.

He walked up to the book and he nearly jumped back. There was a baby who was covered in a blanket of peacock designs. The baby, who had sprouts of blonde hair (like Will's), opened her large eyes to reveal golden coloured eyes. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

Will slowly reached out to the baby and cradled it close to him. She started to cry but Will quickly rocked the baby.

"It's okay, sweetie." Will assured her. "You're safe."

The baby gripped Will's finger. The scenes around him started to collapse and Will's mind started to clear.

"I'm... holding a baby that was inside a book that was inside some beam which messed up my brain." Will said out loud. "Am I taking LSD?"

"Um, Will, care to explain?" Perry asked, staring at Will.

Nico and Percy were standing a few feet away from where Will left them.

"Have you adopted a kid?" Nico asked him. "Cos it's a bit too early in the relationship, Will."

"No, no! I just walked into the beam and my head went fuzzy and stuff were floating around and oh my there were so many colours and I saw a massive book and then this pretty thing was in it and was covered by some peacock thing and then as it held my finger the structures fell apart and then now I'm here looking at you two!" Will concluded. Percy and Nico looked at each other then back at Will. Percy went up to Will and patted him on the shoulder.

"I think the light's done something in your brain." Percy concluded.

"I think we've completed what we needed to do." Nico said. "Now, I'm going to call Leo. Will... keep care of the baby. And Percy, I can't believe I'm saying this but, keep care of Will."