Death Boy and Sunshine (Solangelo)

1- Exhaustion

Nico POV

Have you ever tried to shadow travel halfway across the world, with a giant statue, a roman, and a satyr? No? Well I have, and can I just say that its exhausting. Not to mention I still fought in the war against Gaia afterwards. Anyways, after that it all went downhill. How can anything be worse than almost fading into the underworld, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

About two days after the war, I had finished all of the death rituals for those who died fighting. I was finally at my cabin, ready to drop into a week long nap, but I noticed Will Solace calling me over to him. Will is a son of Apollo, and we fought together in the war for a bit but recently he'd been working in the infirmary. I decide my nap can wait so I go over to him and he looks mad.

"Where have you been?" He says, definitely angry. "Uh-" is my stupid reply. He then goes on to say that I could've visited or helped in the infirmary, and once he's done yelling at me he says "3 days in the infirmary." 

"What?" I ask. Again, another stupid reply.

"You've done too much underworld magic, so 3 days in the infirmary is doctors orders." He says, looking as if he won't give up. I notice Percy and Annabeth talking happily, and at that moment I do the stupidest thing ever (which is saying a lot considering all of the stupid things I've done). 

"Yeah sure but can you give me a second? I'll come back, I swear on the River Styx but I need to do something first." I explain, and Will nods. I rush over to Percy and Annabeth.

"Hey guys. I just wanted to clear the air about something, since we'll be seeing each other a lot more now." I say nervously. Annabeth and Percy look at me encouragingly, which only makes it harder. "Uh, well I had a crush on you, Percy, for a while and you're a great guy and all but I'm over it now so I figured there's no harm in letting you know." I say quickly.

Annabeth just smiles, but Percy looks confused. "So, you mean-" He starts but I cut him off. "Yep." I say, and just smile as I walked back to Will. Two more people know. I start to think maybe I can be accepted.

Will puts his arm around me as we walk into the infirmary. He shows me to a room and I sit cross legged on the bed. He sits on the bed and it's a little awkward because we both don't say anything. I want to ask him to leave so I can just sleep but he looks so hot- wait what? 

"Um so I need to a regular checkup type thing to make sure you won't die or anything. Normally I wouldn't do this but you did almost fade into the underworld forever so it's just a precaution and-" 

"You're rambling." I cut him off. "Just... do what you need to do so I can go to sleep" I'm nervous because he can't find out about my secret, that would only make him hate me more than he probably already does. 

It starts out fine, with Will taking my height, weight, and blood pressure. He looks a little startled at my weight but doesn't comment. 

"Take off your shirt please, I need to check your breathing and heartbeat." Will says while writing something down. This is exactly what I didn't want. "No." I say, crossing my arms over my chest. "Nico please, I won't make fun of you or judge you." He replies. I stay silent. He looks at me for a minute before nodding and saying "Fine." Then he listens to me breathe with his stethoscope and says I have good lung capacity, whatever that means. 

Finally he says that he's done, and he leaves me. Alone. I'm too tired to dwell on whether or not he noticed anything about my... situation, and I fall asleep quickly. For once, I don't have any dreams.