Will was working in the infirmary when Nico walked in. At first, he didn’t notice the son of Hades since he was taking care of a patient. Just another son of Hermes with a prank gone wrong. No matter how few campers were at camp, the infirmary was never empty. When Will finished up, he saw Nico standing near his desk, looking at the various books on the shelf.
“Oh, Nico! I didn’t see you come in.” Will washed his hands and strode over to where Nico was perusing.
“I just got here, it’s fine.” Soft Christmas music could be heard filtering through the speakers of the infirmary radio.
“What are you up to?” It was about mid-afternoon. The son of Hades usually had some class to attend or teach at this time.
Nico shrugged. “Just bored.” It seemed like he wanted to say more but didn’t exactly know how to ask to hang out. Especially since Will was clearly still working. It was at times like these that Will really wished he wasn’t head counselor of Cabin Seven and head healer.
“Well,” Will started, trying to think of something to do. “You could hang out here if you want? There’s always bandages to cut, items to restock, all that fun stuff.”
Nico brightened up a little, like he was glad for something to do. Will liked to think his presence made it a little more enjoyable. “Sure, I can do that.”
Will set up his helper with some tasks to do, nothing Nico hadn’t done before. No new campers came in, thankfully, so both boys took to cleaning and organizing the infirmary in a comfortable silence. Will hummed along to the music, occasionally singing the words despite his mediocre singing skills. It was Christmas music; he couldn’t not sing some of them.
Nico broke the silence. “How do you know all these songs?”
“Hm?” Will looked over to where Nico was standing near the radio. “Oh, well, I just… do? They’re all Christmas songs, so I’ve heard them, like, a billion times by now.”
Nico was still frowning at the radio as Will made his way over, ditching his broom in the corner of the room for now. “You’ve never heard any of these songs, huh?”
Nico shook his head. “No, I assume they all came out after…”
Will hummed, thinking over what he could do to help Nico out. He had a lot of pop culture to catch up on, for one. But Will also didn’t like the look in his eyes whenever he encountered something to remind him that he’s not in his time period. It was sad, and a little distant; a little too similar to the Nico Will met that day on the hill during the Second Giant War.
Then, a thought occurred to Will. “Oh!” Nico stared at him in question. “Wait here, I’m going to go find something.”
Will ran out of the infirmary, leaving Nico to wonder what was going on, or what to do. Figuring he could only wait and see, Nico shrugged and moved to grab Will’s discarded broom.
After about seven minutes, Will burst back into the infirmary, startling Nico slightly.
“Sorry! I may have made a big mess in my cabin, but I found this!” He held up a square plastic case, something Nico had seen around camp a lot.
Will laughed lightly as he gestured Nico over to the stereo. “No, no, but it is a CD. This one is all music.” He glanced over at Nico nervously as he slid the disc into place. “My siblings and I have a collection of CDs. Some are bought and some people put together themselves. There are many different genres in music, like different styles, instruments, purposes, etcetera. This one I actually made a few years back. It’s mostly rock or variations of that with some random songs.”
Will’s cheeks colored as he continued. “I think you’ll like a lot of these, but I don’t really know your taste? And maybe you don’t know either, I guess. But, uh, we can listen to this and then you can have the CD if you like it…?”
Nico was a bit stunned. He knew that Will wanted him to be included and was always pushing him to learn about modern culture, but he hadn’t really been given something like this. It seemed like something kind of personal to Will. After all, music was an important aspect in a child of Apollo’s life. “A-are you sure I can have that?”
Will smiled his normal thousand-Watt smile, his cheeks still pink. “Of course! I have more where that came from too, if you want to listen to more.”
With the image of Nico and Will chilling in his cabin, laying on his bed as they listened to music, Will ranting about the song’s meaning and origin, Nico said, “That’d be great.”
A/N: I threw together a playlist here! Imagine picking songs out that Nico may or may not like, that’s what’s here.