Will Solace hasn't been sleeping.
And to Nico's slight irritation, it is not him that rings the warning bell, but Connor Stoll, who slips him a note during a counsellor meeting, eyes bearing a question he doesn't have the answer for. Nico doesn't know why Will hasn't been sleeping.
But it's obvious. The ever-present purplish bags under Will's blue eyes are darker, digging more into his skin, carving his flesh into a hollow crevice that is even more noticeable because of his full cheeks.
Nico purses his lips, scanning for other telltales signs on the boy he has learned to know perfectly, and is striking : his usually bright and piercing eyes are dull, veiled by tiredness that has etched lines into his youthful face, by a heavy toll that drags his body forward, making him slump, shoulders dropped low. Will doesn't look tired, he looks exhausted. The last time Nico has seen him like this, it was a few months ago, during the aftermath of the battle against the Romans. People to heal, death to keep at bay, Will had been at the near point of passing out when his siblings had forcefully removed him from the infirmary.
It's not normal. Will always looks a bit tired, a bit worn out, it is the natural and inevitable consequences of stubbornly refusing to do fewer hours of shifts. But the boy in front of him looks like he just went four days and nights without sleep, and even Will is not hypocritical enough to submit himself to that.
Another slip of paper is discreetly thrown at him - how, Nico doesn't know. Connor is doing it in front of everyone, and yet nobody notices - with four badly written question marks, followed by one exclamation mark to end the message.
Nico, to his growing frustration, shrugs, because he does not know. Connor sends him a pointed look, tilting sharply his head towards the son of Apollo.
And Nico intends to. As soon as the meeting is over - two whole hours to finally shut down the idea of organising a giant paintball game in the forest - Nico practically jumps out of his chair to catch up with Will before he disappears where he usually is : the infirmary.
And once Will is in the infirmary, once he enters his stronghold where he has dominion over everything and everyone, he is an immovable force of nature. Nico cannot let that happen.
Of course, Will knows his wrongdoings. His boyfriend is intimately aware that his conduct is downright hypocritical and worthy of heavy judgement, and rightful intervention from his part.
"Do I really look that bad ?" The son of Apollo pouts, crossing his arms and slumping when Nico interposes himself between him and the door, cutting off his escape room, leaving him no other choice than facing the consequences of his sleep-deprived state.
It's terribly unfair, Nico inwardly and furiously thinks, that Will still looks good in his eyes. It's infuriating. It's a testament of how badly he has fallen, how deeply subjugated he is, and Nico likes to pretend he hates it. And thus, he hates it.
He doesn't. He really doesn't.
"You look like a whole hoard of pegasi trampled you." Nico shots back, lies with bravado and confidence. He doesn't know what a poor soul being trampled by pegasi looks like.
Unfortunately, Will does.
"You're being dramatic." He rolls his eyes, the beginning of a smile threatening to pull his lips up, though quickly squashed down by a good self-instinct of preservation. Because Will knows.
The son of Apollo sighs, and hunches over himself, a perfect picture of a boy caught of the middle of his foolishness, abashed. "I'm sorry, Nico, but-"
Nico waits, patient. When Will isn't being difficult and stubborn, when he is ready to walk the path of owning his mistakes, the worse he can do is push him off route, drag his walls back up.
Nico waits, but Will seems to be lost, dull eyes filled with pain and sadness. His parted mouth hangs open, unsure of what words to say, what sound to emit.
"Why aren't you sleeping ?" Nico provides, throws him a safeline.
And Will, drowning man on dry land, catches it. The remaining pieces of his usual mask fall apart and Will appears whole and real, aching and hurting. It's not often it happens. The times where he drops all pretences, where the charade stops, the crafted character disappears, and he turns back into a grieving teenager, into the younger sibling he once was, up to a few years ago.
"It's today." Will says, voice broken, hoarse. His blue eyes are brimming with unshed tears, and Nico gently cups his face to wash them away. Even if he is hunched, he still has to prop himself up on his tiptoes, and Nico is intimately glad that all the others have left already. It is also probably why Will let himself break down too.
Will clamps his own hands around his wrists, pulling him closer. Nico lets him. Physical contact soothes Will, always has, and Nico slides his hands around his neck, resting his head on his collarbone while Will buries his face into his hair.
"It's today." Will repeats in the same ragged tone, muffled this time.
Nico thinks briefly, and comes up with the date. June 30th.
The revelation dawns on him, as his mind connects the dots, remembers what on June 30th, a little more than two years ago.
The Battle of the Labyrinth.
And the name of the person tormenting Will's mind, haunting his nights so much that he cannot sleep, comes to him with strange ease. Or perhaps not so peculiar, because Will rarely ever talks about his older siblings, and Lee Fletcher has been the one Nico has known. Distantly, he recalls his arrival at Camp Half-Blood. It seems like another life, surrounded by white snow, still unmarred by his divine heritage, and more importantly, Bianca's death. He had met Lee, the counsellor of Apollo Cabin. A nice, older boy that had healed him after the "friendly" Capture the Flag with the hunters.
"I miss him." Will says, strangled. "I miss all of them, but L- Lee, he taught me how to heal, he..."
"It's okay." Nico says, his voice barely above a whisper when Will cannot finish his sentence. "I understand."
There are no words to describe what Lee had been for Will, just like Nico could never fully translate into simple words what Bianca had been to him.
Will doesn't seem ready to let go, and so Nico doesn't either. They will stay like this until Will deems it enough. If it is in a few minutes or in three hours, Nico doesn't care, and tightens his embrace.
