What If Three Days Meant Forever?

This Is A Date

Will POV

I smile as I drag the son of Hades through the forest of Camp Half-Blood. Zigzagging through the trees brings on a feeling of almost being infinite. The twigs crunching on the dirt floor, us having to avoid low hanging branches impaling us, Nico's cold hand clutched in mine, it almost feels like a dream. One that ends all too soon because suddenly, we're there.

"The strawberry fields?" He says with slight amusement. The vast open area has always been sort of comforting to me. It's just such a natural place, nothing too manmade about it (disregarding the magic aspect).

There's a circle of bushes that are over nine feet tall, residing a couple yards in front of us. I'd asked Billie Ng from Demeter Cabin to grow them that high for me a couple days ago. The Ares kids were getting a little, ah, temperamental and the strawberry capsule (coined that name myself) was so they could slash at its walls without doing too much damage. Billie's magic made it so the walls self repaired.

Since that day, the Ares campers have been pretty calm and back to the more or less organized battle ready cabin they usually are.

Which means the strawberry capsule is open and could totally be turned into a sanctuary.

Nico and I circle around it once, twice, thrice before actually finding the small opening at the bottom. I go to crawl through and pause halfway when I hear a complaint from the boy behind me. "Really?" There's amusement in his voice and I sigh.

"I get why you might be enjoying the view back there, Nico, but it'll be dark soon, so-"

"Just go!" He says quickly, voice sounding a little higher in pitch. "Before I kick you." I smirk before crawling all the way through and plopping myself down on the other side of the secluded area. Nico comes through a moment later and looks around before his eyes land on the picnic basket sitting on a red and white plaid blanket. He looks up at me before looking back down at the basket and simply saying, "Cute." before shifting to sit cross legged on the grass. "Is this what normal guys do for hang outs?"

"Well, we're not really normal guys, Nico." I say while smiling. He shrugs his shoulders.

"I guess I was just under the impression that normal guys played some sort of sport or something. Going on picnics alone seems a little romantic, don't you think?" He says this while giving no trace of what he's feeling, yet managing to hold eye contact with me for every syllable.

"Maybe I wanted it to be romantic." I challenge, meeting his eyes with the same confidence. He narrows his eyes at me before looking down to play with the corner of the blanket between his fingers.

"Jeez Will," he starts, voice almost shaky. "if I didn't know you, I would've thought you were, like, a homo or something." He finishes with a rather forced scoff.

"I guess you don't know me then." I say simply.

"Wait, what?" He says, looking up with absolute bewilderment. "You're... You're actually-"

"Yes, Nico. I like guys. Does that shock you?"

"Shut up." He says, sensing my teasing. I feel myself snort but I don't say anything. For a while, we just sit, and let what I said hang in the air, perhaps trying to digest it.

Nico has closed himself off physically. He's now pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, sort of caging himself in.

It's almost like a second defense. Nico's already pretty closed off mentally and emotionally, but perhaps taking up this position makes him think he's safer, that the world can't get in and hurt him if he's defending himself in more ways than one. I don't even know if he realizes he's done it. "Same." He says, so quietly that I almost miss it.