Solace, Solace

Chapter 9

Nico had just gotten out of the shower and was again staring at his lean torso in the fogged up mirror. He brushed his teeth so that his breath wouldn't smell and searched the bathroom cabinets for a razor and shaving cream: Nico did not have anything to shave, so he should have expected not to find anything. He glanced down at the clock, it was 7:12 pm. The horn would blow for dinner at 7:30 which would be when Nico would leave his cabin and go to the forest. His stomach was already crawling with spiders.

He left the bathroom with a towel on his waist, Hazel wasn't in the cabin anyway, and stared at his open closet. There wasn't much to stare at: black, skulls, more black. Still, Nico was stressed about what to wear. Since it would be evening, he took out some long jeans which had rips in the knees. Then he thought "Well, I'm going to be sweating since I'm so nervous," and pulled out a pair of black Bermuda shorts. He stared at the two articles of clothing and decided on the ripped long jeans because he was insecure about his legs, along with the rest of his body.

He scrambled back into the bathroom once he was wearing the jeans and a black and silver belt. He found some cologne that he didn't even know he had, but was thankful for it, and sprayed it excessively around his collarbone. He checked the time again: 7:22. "Shit!"

Nico ran back to the closet where he stared at his closet again, trying to find a shirt. He was torn between a black button down and an off-black, vintage, graphic-tee. He eventually came to the conclusion that the button down would be too much, so he pulled on the t-shirt.

It was slightly over-sized, but Nico hated tight shirts. He tucked and untucked his shirt several times before settling on it casually tucked in. It was now 7:27.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" yelled Nico walking back into the bathroom. He ran some gel through his hair, which he then realized looked horrible so he rinsed his hair, realizing only when his face was under the water that now his hair would be soaking wet. "Great!" said Nico sarcastically, rubbing a towel frantically over his head.

The horn blew, it was 7:30. Nico swore multiple times while walking out of the bathroom to stare at his coat hanger. Leather or black denim? That was the question. He heard all the campers going to lunch so he quickly grabbed his leather jacket and snuck out to the woods.

As he walked, Nico's palms were sweaty, he definitely had to pee, and he felt like he was going to vomit spiders any minute. He took a couple of deep breaths, but that didn't really help.

Before he knew it he was in the woods and could see a blonde-haired son of Apollo sitting on the log. Nico felt like turning around and running, but his legs kept pulling him forward.

"H-Hey," said Will, looking up at the son of Hades. Nico could tell he was nervous, but that only made him feel slightly better.

Will was hiding something behind his back, so Nico asked "Watcha got there?" blushing. Will also turned red, as he took out two bouquets.

"OK, I know it's cheesy, but I thought it would be a nice gesture but then I thought that maybe flowers weren't your thing so I thought I'd be original and get black roses but they're just so sad so then I got another bouquet of red roses which are more romantic and I still don't know which you'd like better. "

Will took a deep breath because he had just talked at an insane speed and Nico had barely understood anything.

"Hey, hey, slow down," said Nico wrapping his hands around Will's wrists which were holding the bouquets. "

Will looked at Nico, who looked up at him. Their eyes met and they stood there; Nico's hands on Will's wrists with nothing but the flowers in between them.

Will dropped the flowers, letting them fall to the ground and placed his hands around Nico's neck. Before Nico could process what was happening Will was pulling him into a kiss.

Nico didn't need to process what was happening. He put one hand around Will's waist and one on his back gently tugging on the orange fabric of his shirt. He gently bit Will's lower lip, who gave out a small moan and continued to kiss the son of Hades. He removed one hand from Nico's neck and glided it through his black hair.

Although Nico was thoroughly enjoying the moment, he pulled away to catch his breath. The two demigods smiled at each other, nuzzling their noses. Nico didn't say anything and buried his forehead into Will's chest, who wrapped an arm around him gently, rubbing his thumb back and forth.

Will gently pulled Nico away from him. "C'mon, if we don't move we're going to miss it!" said Will.
"Miss what?"
"What I'm gonna show you."
"Wait, there's more than the cheesy roses?"

Will laughed and grabbed Nico's hand. Together they ran up half-blood hill laughing with each other. When they got to the top Nico was out of breath both from laughing and running uphill.

"Look!" said Will wrapping his arm around Nico's shoulder and pressing the boy close to him. "We almost missed it."

Nico leaned his head on Will's holder and put a hand around his waist. "Boy Solace, between the roses and the sunset..."

Will chuckled rolling his eyes. "Admit it, you love it." he said rubbing Nico's shoulder. Nico smiled and didn't say anything, he knew Will was right.

Back where the other campers were having dinner you could see two small silhouettes standing on half-blood hill in the sunset. Jason was the first to notice and immediately got up out of his seat. Next was Leo, who spat out some spaghetti when he saw the two boys in the sunset. Then followed Percy, Hazel, Piper, Annabeth, and Frank. They all looked at each other and smiled.

"Hmm," said Leo scratching his chin sarcastically. "I wonder where Nico is?" They all grinned even wider, except Frank who was kind of lost.
"Yeah," snickered a girl from the Apollo table. "Will's missing too."

Everyone was now watching the silhouette of the two boys up on the hill. Right as the sun was setting, just as the silhouettes were almost invisible, the taller boy took his arm off the smaller boy's shoulder, grabbed his waist and joined their lips.

There was silence among the campers for a moment until Leo began a slow clap and shouted "Whooo!!"

The other campers joined in on the cheering, and even if they couldn't see them, they knew Nico and Will were blushing.