The Colors of Your Soul (Solangelo)

Revelation and Disclosure

     Nico was thrumming with excitement. Knowing Will loved him back lifted a big weight off his chest. Hazel has even pointed out he was even happier than usual today while they were getting ready to leave the house. There was a spring in his step while he traversed the hallways too.

He still couldn't get Will's messages out of his head. They were constantly in the back of his mind. Will felt the same as him, yet they were both completely oblivious. Nico understands, though, they weren't very obvious about their feelings.

When Nico sat down in Science class, he saw no sign of Will. Then the bell rang, yet still no sign of Will.

The class was dismissed after a while, but Will was still nowhere. Did Will chicken out? Nico thought, but then calmed himself. Even if Will did chicken out, he would eventually see him again. He was his soulmate, after all, they're spiritually tethered together; he spiritually cannot escape him.

He could understand if Will was nervous, he's nervous too, and he already knows his feelings are reciprocated.

Yet, when it was his 6th period, there was still no sign of Will. He ran into Reyna, and as she is the student council president, he asked her if she had seen Will. Reyna told him she saw him near the Studio Art department building, which was strange; he's seen Will's "artistic" abilities and believed Will should stay six feet away from there at all times.

He made his way over to the building, calm and composed of course—with the exception of his sweaty hands, trembling body, and a facial expression that made another believe he might've murdered someone.

Nico found Will covered in paint.

He didn't understand why, but maybe it was better to remain oblivious.

Will was staring at Nico, then Nico's bare hands, and then his own paint-covered ones. Nico watched Will sigh, sounding disappointed. He knew exactly why Will was sighing, and he knew the true answer that Will didn't know.

"How did you get covered in paint?" Nico asked.

Will sounded dejected, "I...a paint bucket toppled, I tried to catch it. Failed miserably, as you can see." His eyes were still staring at Nico's bare hands.

"Well, you're lucky your soulmate wouldn't be affected by that, they'd probably kill you."

"Wha..." Will's head jerked up to stare at Nico, "what do you mean they wouldn't be affected?"

Nico rolled his eyes, "Soulbonds don't pick up marks you don't deliberately draw on yourself."

Will started stammering as if his whole life had been a lie. Faintly, Nico could hear an "I can't believe it. . . all these years . . . what if..." He watched the boy in front of him lose his mind over what he had said. All these years, what did that mean?

"Calm down, Solace. Just be happy that if your soulmate's friend drew some phallic image on their face, you wouldn't even know until you saw them." Yeah, be happy, Will, you weren't the one subject to it. Although Nico wishes he was.

Will was still muttering, the paint drying on his hands. All of a sudden, Will stared directly into Nico's eyes, walking towards him, and grabbed his shoulders.

"Wow, okay Solace, take me out to dinner for—"

"Nico di Angelo," Will declared, still staring into Nico's eyes, their faces an inch apart, "I'm in love with you."

Even after the confession last night, even after repeating Will's words of affection last night, even after he reassured himself that he would keep his calm, his heart convulsed and his head became dizzy. He went weak in Will's hands, staring helplessly back into the eyes he used to only dream of staring into.

"I've been in love with you a month after I met you. You were so cool and beautiful. I believed you were the one. We hadn't even talked that much, but I loved you all the same." Will took a deep breath, and Nico felt like his breath was stolen away. "My hand had gotten stained from an ink pen I chewed through, and I hoped that when I saw you you would have the same mark. But then you didn't and I felt so hopeless and desperate and miserable and—" Will choked on a sob as if all the feelings he had felt before were rushing back to him.

Nico could barely breathe, Will was so close yet so far away and he wanted to wipe those tears away, but his hands were limp at his sides. He could barely process the words Will was saying. A month after he met him? That was years ago. He had loved him back then? When Nico was that nerdy kid who never stopped talking?

"I love you," Will repeated. "And even though I'm not your soulmate—or maybe, maybe I am—I'll always love you. I tried so hard to restrain myself every day I saw you, you were the highlight of my day. I want to grow old with you, I want to be a family with you. A family can be just us if you want, it doesn't matter. As long as it's with you. Please, be mine."

Nico couldn't stand there and do nothing anymore. He dipped his thumb in black paint and caressed Will's cheek. He could feel the mark on his cheek mirroring Will's. "Mi tesoro, I was always yours."

Will's tears smudged the new paint on his cheek, and he grabbed Nico's face. "What...what...I- you..."

Before Will could speak any longer, Nico wrapped one arm around Will's neck, and the other around his head and kissed him. His eyes were closed, and he couldn't see Will's reaction, but he could feel it in his heart, on his skin, on his lips. Will held him tighter, his arms wrapping around Nico. They broke apart, but the separation didn't last long.

The bell rang, breaking them apart for the last time. Nico's lips were swollen and Will's hair was tousled. There was no secret to what they had been doing. They stared at each other in silence before Will let out a small laugh. He gently kissed Nico's forehead, murmured a quiet "I'll see you after class," and left for the seventh period.

Nico was dumbstruck, standing still in the doorway where Will had left him. His hand went up to where Will had kissed him, and then down to his lips.

"Wow..." he mumbled, astonished. "Wow."

He spent the rest of the class dazed, his mind somewhere else. Drew, the ever-observant person, watched him keenly. She crumpled up a piece of paper she had written in and threw it to Nico.

Nico jolted, picking up the paper ball. Unfurling it, he saw a sloppy "Congrats" written in yellow pen. When his gaze met Drew, she raised her eyebrows and smirked before looking elsewhere.

Is it that obvious? He thought before continuing the mental reply of his first kiss for the fiftieth time.

Maybe it was that obvious, as later Hazel, Percy, Jason, and Reyna individually congratulated him as he was walking down the hall. It didn't matter though, what he really cared about was seeing Will again.

Then, there he was, standing near the school entrance, looking as amazing as when he first fell for him. Will waved to him, to which he waved back, his pace quickening.

"Well, you certainly got your man, didn't you?" Nico teased.

Will froze in his spot. "Hey..." he narrowed his eyes, "you knew!"

"Well, of course, I was the one who wrote it after all."

"You played me!"

"And you liked it, didn't you?"

"...No."

"Sure, Solace, I'll pretend you didn't think it was hot when I kissed you."

Will sputtered and then grabbed Nico's hand to walk him home. 

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Been a long time comin'. srry it took so long my laptop broke and the my laptop is what gets me in the writing mood. got another dog, hes a dramatic rat. alright see u guys in the next chapter