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Nico's foot had been swinging back and forth like a pendulum for the past ten minutes as he sat in the infirmary waiting for Will to finish up with a patient so they could go to lunch together, as they had done almost every day for the last few months. The Italian boy was humming a poppy love song (an inescapable habit when friends with a child of Apollo) when Will rushed through the archway to where Nico was sitting, he was holding his medical equipment (which worryingly included a saw, Nico wasn't sure if he even wanted to know why) and his golden hair was in complete disarray from where he had raked his hands through it but still there was a smile on his face.
"I'm so sorry I'm late sunshine," he apologised as he bent down in the storage room opposite Nico's chair to put away the supplies "the injury was more complicated than I had originally thought and needed a few extra healing hymns."
Nico watched absentmindedly and found his eyes straying to one of Will's best assets (no pun intended) as it was on full display - with the loose material of his scrubs stretched tight over the backs of his strong thighs and butt - of their own volition, before he could look away Will turned back to ask him a question but stopped when he saw the direction of the son of Hades' gaze.
"Like what you see?" Will asked, his smile transforming into an almost predatory smirk - the likes of which Nico had never seen on his face before.
"N-no, I wasn't," Nico panicked at having been caught and a sense of dread slowly washed over him like being submerged in the river Cocytus, there was no way Will would want to be friends with him now. He was disgusting and wrong and the only reason Jason and Percy were still nice to him was that he didn't like either of them in that way (not any more at least) and they had been through a lot together. "I swear I wasn't.."
Will's care free demeanour slipped away and he quickly walked over, "Hey, Nico, it's fine. I was just kidding around."
"Right, yeah, should we go then?"
"Yeah, but just-" Will paused with a slightly concerned and confused expression painting his face with lines between his furrowed eyebrows, "you- you know that I like guys, right?"
The question made Nico's blood turn to ice, he was right, Will was just teasing him now. He probably thought Nico wouldn't realise and then would try to humiliate him.
"I honestly thought you were better than that," Nico said with venom lacing his voice. He quickly left before Will would be able to see the tears that were gathering in his eyes, he hadn't cried for a very long time but he had thought he and Will were closer than that and he didn't really have many other close friends at camp, not ones Will hadn't introduced him to at least.
Nico rushed to his cabin and flung himself into his bed, hurriedly burrowing under his covers and blocking out the world - he was well within his rights to mope for a while.