Out of the Shadows: A Solangelo Fanfiction

Chapter 4: Rest

   Will's hands moved across the medical supplies. He bandaged patients. Sang Hymns to his father. Took people's temperatures. But his mind was elsewhere. It was on Nico. It was always on Nico. The way his mid-neck length hair stuck up in tufts, how his dark eyes looked so broken that desperately needed his healing, the way he adjusted his skull ring subconsciously whenever he was thinking. He tried to stop thinking about him. He really, really did. He needed to focus, campers needed him.

   When Nico first came back to camp to help defeat Gaea, Will was ecstatic! He finally had a chance to talk to his crush! It had been a while since he had seen him, and he was afraid he would never see him again. He was especially scared when Nico told Octavian that he wasn't staying, that he was leaving both camps forever. He had barely kept his cool! Will had hoped that these three days they spent together in the infirmary would bring them closer, maybe drop some of the hints that he liked him, but Nico seemed pretty dense when it came to romance. And impossibly stubborn.

   Will sighed as he tried to focus on the task at hand. He was in the middle of changing bandages on a girl around 15. She was a daughter of Hermes, Morgan Steele. She had black hair and hazel-colored eyes, along with the mischievous grin that all Hermes' kids have. She had gotten hurt when she was fighting off one of Octavian's lieutenant when she was stabbed in the thigh pretty deeply, but she had assured Will that he should have seen the damage to the other guy. Luckily for her, she should be out by tomorrow.

   "Will?" Will whipped around as one of his sisters tapped him on the shoulder.

   "O-oh! Hey, Daisy!" She had taken him by surprise. Will was in the middle of thinking about Nico's rare smile.

   She looked at him in concern. "Will, you've been really overworking yourself, and you seem pretty distracted. Maybe you should rest for a while."

   "I'm fine, Daisy, but thank you for your concern." Will responded, turning around to continue bandaging Morgan's thigh.

   Daisy gripped his arm and turned him back around. "Hey, I know you think that healing is the only thing you're good at, but you don't need to overwork yourself to prove that you're good. Will, you're the best healer at both camps, probably the best in generations. And for the record, that isn't the only thing you're good at. You're nice and cheerful and sweet. So what if you aren't good at archery or musical instruments? Just lay off yourself, okay?"

   "This is my job, though." Before thinking about what he was saying, he quietly said, "Plus, Nico is here!" He blushed immediately.

   Daisy laughed. "You still have a thing for him, huh? Don't worry, I'm sure he'll turn around sooner or later. Just give him some time. You know better than a lot of people that he isn't the best with other people and socializing. Soon he'll realize how cool you are, if he doesn't already. You don't need to be a show-off, 'kay?" She punched him in the arm.

   Will smiled. "You're right. About resting, I mean. I don't know if Nico will ever like me, but I guess I can take a little break."

   Daisy grinned, showing off brilliant white teeth. "That's the spirit! You can seriously be as stubborn as di Angelo sometimes, you know. I'll take your shift. Go get some sleep in our cabin."

   "Wake me up in three hours?"

   She nodded. "Three hours. Now go!"

   "Okay, okay!" She all but pushed him out the door. Daisy was right about resting, but was she right about Nico? Will wasn't sure. The only thing he was sure about was that the son of Hades had stolen his heart long ago.