Will thought with a huff. His stomach was still churning as he made his way to the bathroom. Will decided he didn’t have time for a shower this morning so he walked to the mirror to fix his hair.
When he saw his reflection, Will thought that his tan skin might be a bit paler than usual and he still had a funny feeling in his stomach. Will did what he could for his hair, which wasn’t much, and decided to look through the cabinets to see if he could find any anti-nausea pills, just to be safe. After brushing his teeth, Will went back to his wardrobe and slipped into his usual orange Camp Halfblood t-shirt, cargos, and flip flops.
At last, Will was ready to walk out of the cabin when another wave of nausea hit him and had him doubled over. Will could feel his stomach muscles contract. He clamped his hand over his mouth and ran for the bathroom. He barely made it to the toilet before last nights dinner was making it’s way into the toilet. After a minute or so of heaving into the toilet, Will leaned back on his knees and tried to catch his breath.
“So much for those anti-nausea pills.” Said Will sarcastically to himself.
Will sat back for another minute to make sure he wasn’t going to have a repeat occurrence. Once he was positive that his stomach had settled for the moment, Will got up, brushed his teeth, and headed out the door toward the infirmary.
Will walked through the door of the infirmary and was immediately greeted by Nico Di Angelo. Nico had apparently made himself a permanent fixture in the infirmary in the weeks since the war.
“Morning Solace. I see you were the ultimate early bird today.”
“Even doctors sleep in sometimes, Di Angelo.” Will said with a half-hearted smile. He was busy focusing on not puking all over Nico at the moment to be very quippy.
“Will, are you okay? You’re paler than me and that’s really hard to do.” Nico moved toward Will with a little crinkle between his eyebrows. Will normally found this very cute but he was focused on other things at the moment.
Will once again felt his stomach start to cramp. He quickly turned to run into the bathroom and just had a chance to close the door behind him before he was sick. Will still had his head in the toilet when there was a knock at the door.
“Will, are you okay? Can I get you anything?” Nico sounded concerned.
“I-I’m okay. I just need a minute.” Will said shakily. He knew that he was far from okay but he had duties to attend to today. He couldn’t afford to be sick right now.
After another minute, Will stood up and opened the door to the bathroom. On the other side of the door was a worried Nico.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah Nico I’m fine. It must have just been something I ate. I feel much better now.” Will knew that this was a total lie, he had a stomach ache and he was feeling sweaty so that probably meant he had a fever, but he hoped Nico would buy it.
“Okay whatever.” Nico huffed. He didn’t let Will know that he saw right through his facade. The boy was sweating so he probably had a fever and his eyes were glassy, classic stomach flu. Nico knew that Will would admit he was sick eventually, but he wanted to see how far the other boy would take his fib.
Nico walked away and left Will standing alone. Will,thinking he had gotten away with it, started his duties for the day.
Will managed to make it through most of the day just fine, until lunch time that is. His sibling, Kayla, came to take over the infirmary and Will headed to the dining pavilion. There wasn’t a huge feast today though only some pizza, pasta, soup, and fruit. Will decided to play it safe just in case his stomach was still sensitive, and picked up a small bowl of soup. He sat down at his assigned table and was soon greeted by Nico Di Angelo.
“Hey, sunshine.”
“Hey death boy.” Will shot back. At least he could be quippy again.“I told you not to call me that.” Nico tried to look annoyed but Will knew he secretly loved that Will had a nickname for him.
“I can’t call you death boy but you can call me sunshine, how is that fair?” Will laughed. “A better question would be, why are you sitting here? We have to sit at our assigned tables.”
“I’m the son of Hades, who’s gonna make me move?”
“Good point, I guess.”
Soon, Will was done eating so the two boys decided to take a walk around the canoe lake before Will had to go to his afternoon archery lesson.
“So, you’ve been hanging around the infirmary a lot lately.” Said Will.
“Yeah, I guess I have.”
“Any particular reason?”
“I guess I’m just trying to make up for all of the people I’ve hurt.” Said Nico somberly.
“Oh. Ok.” Will had almost allowed himself to think that Nico was just trying to spend time with him. Will had started to like Nico when he was in the infirmary for his mandatory three day stay and he had thought the feeling was mutual.
“And maybe because of you.” Said Nico apprehensively.
“Oh. Ok.” Will said again.
Both boys turned to each other at the same time. They spent a moment studying each other, unsure of how to say what they felt.
“I just-” Nico and Will said at the same time.
“You first.” Said Will.
“I-I-I think that I like you, as in more than a friend.”
Will started at Nico for a moment with a thousand thoughts going through his head.
“I think-” Will cut off. At that very moment his stomach decided to revolt again and Will just barely had time to turn around before his lunch reappeared on ground in front of him.
Nico walked up behind Will and rubbed slow circles on his back until he could catch his breath again.
“So, are you ready?” Asked Nico with a smirk.
“Ready for what?” Said Will, feeling more miserable by the minute.
“Are you ready to admit that you’re sick? Honestly, I’m surprised you held out this long.”
“Uggh, fine! I might be-”
“Might be?”
“It’s possible that while in the infirmary-”
“Will, come on, it can’t be that hard.”
Will looked at Nico stubbornly and huffed. “Fine, I’m sick. Are you happy?”
Nico smirked. “Yes, now let’s get you back to your cabin. We’ll get you all warm and cozy. Then you can finish that declaration of love that you were about to make.”
Will blushed as he and Nico walked back towards the Apollo cabin. Once they were inside, Will layed down on his bed while Nico rummaged around. Nico finally reappeared at the side of Will’s bed with some pajamas, a thermometer, some ibuprofen, and a glass of water.
“Change into these, you’ll be more comfortable.”
Will silently changed his clothes. He hadn’t realized how bad he felt until just now. His stomach hurt, he could feel a headache coming on in the back of his head, and every muscle hurt.
Without a word, Nico popped the thermometer into Will’s mouth. They both stared at each other silently, waiting for the beep. When the thermometer finally beeped, both boys jumped slightly.
“100.4 that’s not too bad. Take this ibuprofen and it should help.” Nico handed Will two tablets and the glass of water.
After swallowing the pills, Will layed back on his pillow and immediately started to feel sleepy. He fought sleep for another moment though because he had to tell Nico something very important.
“Nico.”
“Yeah?”
“I like you too.” Will could have sworn that he saw Nico Di Angelo blushing.
“Well, we can figure out what to do with this new information when you’re better.”
“Nico, can I ask you something?” Asked Will sleepily.
“I guess.”
“Will you come cuddle with me?”
“Sure Will.” Nico said with a laugh.
With that, Nico was moving the covers on Will’s bed and soon they were both situated mostly comfortably in the bed. Before long, both boys were sound asleep. They stayed this way even after Will’s siblings started arriving back from dinner and their daily activities. Many pictures were taken of this moment and money changed hands because there had been an ongoing bet about how long it would actually take for Nico and Will to get together. The two boys slept the night away. Will only got sick once more and when he did Nico was right there rubbing his back and getting him whatever he needed.
The next morning Will felt much better and all was well for the next few days until Nico and about half of the Apollo campers came down with the stomach flu. Will helped care for all of the sick campers but everyone knew who his favorite patient was.
