Solangelo One-Shots

Daffodils

Summary: The flowers blooming in Will's lungs were poetic, really, if not for the fact that they were killing him. And the cure? To surgically cut out his unrequited feelings for one Nico di Angelo. Real poetic, huh?

Notes: I wrote this bc I was super writer's blocked for Ballad of the Sun Prince, and I thought I'd go back to the basics. So here's some canon-verse Solangelo set before the Trials of Apollo. Flower language here is not super accurate bc there's always different interpretations from different cultures etc. Also, I'm not a trained flower arranger either.

-

There it was: a bright yellow blemish mixed with the splatter of his blood clots, like a single flower blooming in the acrid red soil, where its very presence should have been snuffed out before it reached maturity.

Will stared at the sink, remnants of his blood clinging onto the corner of his mouth when he had coughed it out. He reached a hand down in the sink, picking up the yellow...thing that was covered in splotches of blood. The thing was featherlight and about half the length of his finger, with a waxy sort of feeling when he rubbed it in between his thumb and index finger.

A flower petal; it was a flower petal.

-

It had all started a few days ago, when the end of summer finally approached after the events of the Gaea War. The Roman demigods were long-gone, back to Camp Jupiter, and most of the other demigods were packing up, preparing to return to the mortal world for another boring year at school. Will was standing over at his bookshelf in his cabin, reorganizing the mess someone else left for him.

"You heading home, Will?" his half brother, Austin, asked, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "That means I'll be the head counselor until you come back next summer, yeah?"

Will chuckled at his way of asking for the position. "You wish," he said with a shake of his head. "I'll be here all year."

"What? Really?" He let his arm fall off Will's shoulder in surprise. "But I thought you said you were heading home this year! What happened to staying on track for medical school?"

"Um," Will said, a hand on his chin in thought. There wasn't a real reason why he was staying at Camp Half-Blood instead of returning to high school in Texas like he usually did. He hadn't known what possessed him when he IM'ed to his mom about staying at camp, but he had a feeling that he would find the answer if he dug just a little deeper. A feeling that it had something to do with a certain scowling boy. "Let's just say I'm still on track for medical school to take a gap year," he offered with a smile, hoping that the answer was enough.

Austin sighed, looking only half-disappointed. "Well, there goes my ploy for making Kayla do the bathroom cleaning."

"Hey!" Kayla shouted from deeper inside the cabin. "I heard that!"

A grin snuck its way onto Will's face despite himself while his two siblings bickered, and he continued to reorder the bookshelf. Where was I? he wondered. Oh right, the 'N' section –

There was the sound of someone knocking on the doorframe. Will spun around to face the open front door of the cabin, immediately switching into work mode. Usually when someone came knocking at the Apollo Cabin, there was some sort of medical emergency. He scoured through his brain for today's schedule and a list of possible accidents that could have happened: a case of nonstop nose bleeding, bad poetry curses, or a limb being hacked off in today's combat training. It was safe to say that Will was prepared for anything.

Well, anything except for this.

Nico di Angelo, shadow traveling extraordinaire and the captor of Will's heart, was standing at the door, his knuckles resting on the door frame where he had knocked. Despite having seen him just yesterday, Will felt like he had the breath knocked out of him at Nico's unexpected appearance. He stared with his mouth half-opened a little too long before he scolded himself with a sharp Act normal.