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Leo was getting married - how, you might ask? Nico couldn’t tell you. He’d known Calypso for no more than three months, two of which were spent on planning the wedding, and now they were all on some island in Greece for the rehearsal dinner. He was trying to pace himself with the alcohol - because he knew that he would want to get hammered after that disaster of a wedding tomorrow - but after half an hour of sitting at a table with Jason and a handful of Calypso’s family members and listening to them arguing, Nico had to excuse himself to get a drink.
He went to the bar and poured himself a glass of wine, then scanned the room for someone else he could talk to - luckily for him, most of Calypso’s family only spoke Greek, so even if they tried to talk to Nico, they couldn’t hold a conversation. He found Reyna and Piper at one table, deep in conversation, then saw Leo across the room surrounded by a group of older women - probably Calypso’s aunts and grandmothers, and Nico was not about to jump into that.
He frowned when he realized that he didn’t see Will, and so he started walking around the room with his glass of wine in the hopes that he would find Will sooner or later. He kept his eyes on the tables, assuming that Will was just hidden behind someone else due to the angle Nico had been at, though doing so almost made him trip when he suddenly found someone sitting on the ground against the wall.
“Will,” Nico said, brow furrowing. “What are you doing?”
Will wrapped his hand around the neck of a champagne bottle and held it up for Nico to see. “Drinking.”
That couldn’t be good. Nico sat beside him and took the bottle from him, glad to notice that the bottle still felt full, and set it out of Will’s reach. “Why?”
Will dropped his head onto Nico’s shoulder with a heavy sigh. “It’s nothing.”
Nico poked him in the cheek. “Tell me what’s wrong, Will.”
Will grabbed his hand to keep him from poking him again, though when their hands dropped to their laps, Will still didn’t let go. “How come Leo was the first to get married?” he muttered, then groaned and turned to hide his face in Nico’s shoulder. “Oh no, that was really mean. I think I’m a little bit drunk right now, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Nico told him and squeezed Will’s hand. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“It’s just… When am I gonna find someone? Why can’t I ever find someone who wants to be with me for more than a few months?”
Nico felt his heart breaking at the absolutely defeated sound of Will’s voice. “I’m sure you’ll find the right girl soon.”
Will seemed to hesitate before he said, “What if I shouldn’t be looking for a girl?”
His heart skipped a beat. “Are you telling me you’re gay now?” Nico asked, hoping his tone was more joking and less hopeful.
Will’s head shook gently against his shoulder. “No, not gay. Bi, maybe, or pan. I dunno, I haven’t even dated a guy since college because it’s always been easier to just date girls. Like, I never know which guys to look for, or how to tell if they’re even into me, and...but you already know that much.” He sighed again. “Maybe it’s time I give up on girls.” Will tipped his head up to look at Nico at the same moment that Nico turned to do the same, and their eyes met. “Could you help me find guys? Like, be my wingman or something?”
Why couldn’t Will have told him this five years ago, when he first moved in across the hall and made Nico fall in love with him? He really hoped that Will couldn’t hear his heart pounding in his chest.
Nico cleared his throat and pulled his gaze away from Will’s, looking instead at the slowly-shrinking crowd of people in the room with him. He took a sip from his glass of wine as his eyes scanned the room. “Well, right now, I see three guys who probably aren’t straight, but probably don’t speak English, either. I also don’t really know your type, and I kind of need to know that to help you find a guy.” He hesitated before speaking again, though his noticed that the hand holding his wine glass had started to shake with nerves, so he set that on the ground and kept his eyes locked on it as he said, “However, I know for a fact that there is one guy here that does speak English, is definitely gay, and is really into you.”
Will’s head flew off Nico’s shoulder as he started looking around frantically, his hand squeezing Nico’s as he said, “Who? Where?”
“...me.”
Will looked at him with eyes the size of dinner plates, his jaw hanging open. After a few moments of staring, Will said, “Uh, do you want to...not be here anymore? Let’s go somewhere else.” In a second, he was on his feet, pulling at Nico’s hand until he followed him up - but not before he grabbed the champagne - and led Nico out into the hallway where it was much quieter and lacked the prying eyes of their friends.
Will finally dropped Nico’s hand, though he grabbed Nico’s face with both of his hands instead. In that second, with the smell of alcohol on the breath that puffed against Nico’s cheeks, he realized that Will was much more drunk than he’d let on. “Tell me you like me,” Will whispered, staring into Nico’s eyes and holding his face millimeters from his own.
“I like you.”
Will dropped his forehead against Nico’s. “Tell me you’re not lying.”
“I’m not lying.”
Will pressed his lips to Nico’s, and pulled back a moment later, just far enough that he could speak without really moving away. “Promise me this will still be real in the morning.”
Nico twisted the fingers of one hand into the fabric of Will’s shirt, keeping him close. “God, I hope so.”
When Will woke up in his hotel room, he didn’t remember how he got there. He recognized the head of dark brown hair beside him as Nico, but it did not immediately register that something had to have happened between them to lead to Will waking up beside his best friend. When it did register, Will shot up so fast that he nearly fell out of the bed, then panicked and crawled back under the covers when he realized he was naked.
Nico rolled over, eyes cracking open as he propped himself up on an elbow, and the blankets dropped away to reveal his bare chest - and the final dots connected in Will’s head. “Will?” Nico asked sleepily. “Are you okay?”
“What happened last night?” he demanded, hoping he didn’t sound as panicked as he felt. His heart nearly broke at the way that Nico’s expression dropped, and a realization hit him in that moment that Nico’s heart probably had broken.
“You...don’t remember?” Nico whispered. “No, there’s no way you were that drunk, you have to remember, please!”
Will sat up and gathered the blankets to cover as much of himself as possible while trying his best not to accidentally reveal anything below Nico’s waist. “I mean… We slept together, I know that, but… Nico. You’re my best friend! People don’t sleep with their best friend!”
“So you don’t actually want to be with me?” Nico asked, and Will thought he might’ve seen the beginning of tears in his eyes. “You made me promise that this would still be real in the morning, and now you’re going back on your promise?”
“I don’t know!” Will exclaimed. “I don’t know how I feel, it’s like it was all a dream! Like… Like I was sleepwalking last night, like it was me, but it wasn’t me, you know?”
“No, Will, I have no idea what you’re trying to say!” Nico flopped back onto the bed and ground his palms into his eyes. “If you want me to leave, just say so. If you want to forget about all of this, or if you never want to see me again--”
“Woah, what?” Will pulled Nico’s hands from his face and forced him to look up at him. “Did you not just hear me? You’re my best friend, I’m not about to cut you out of my life! I just don’t want to complicate things because we’re sleeping together.”
“We already did it, Will, it’s not like you can just take it back!”
“I know that! But what about when we go home? Do we go back to the way things were, or are we suddenly, like...together?”
“Why don’t we just play it by ear?”
Will flopped onto his back beside Nico with a groan. “I think… I think what happens in Greece stays in Greece, you know?” Even as he said the words, Will felt like he was arguing with himself. Why couldn’t they play it by ear? Why couldn’t they just be together when they so clearly liked each other? Okay, maybe Will had never allowed himself to even think about liking Nico before, but this was no way to start a relationship, right? They’d be back in New York in a few days, so if Will really wanted to try things with Nico, then he could try it at home.
“Oh. Okay, fine.” Nico stared up at the ceiling, his expression forcefully blank, and Will hated that he was the cause of that look.
“I’m sorry--”
“No, I get it,” Nico said, then sighed, his eyes closing.
A moment later, his eyes opened again, his gaze still painfully neutral as he tipped his head to look at Will, and he said, “So… While we’re still in Greece…”
Will pressed him into the mattress with a nearly-bruising kiss.
Leo’s wedding fell apart, just as Nico had expected, though it happened quicker than anyone could have imagined. Somewhere between the end of the ceremony and the start of the reception, the couple had broken up, meaning that Leo arrived to the reception alone and had to announce the end of his marriage.
The next morning, the group of friends - sans Leo - boarded a plane back to New York, while Leo had to remain in Greece for another five days to celebrate his honeymoon on his own. Somehow, Will had managed to convince Jason to swap seats with him - which really wasn’t that hard, since they all knew that Jason had had a crush on Piper since day one - and so for the next twelve hours, Nico and Will sat next to each other.
They hooked up in the bathroom, defying their “only in Greece” rule because everyone knew that the rules didn’t apply over international waters, and promised each other that that would be the last time.
When they finally returned home, Reyna said her goodbyes to the group on the sidewalk before heading into her building across the street from the rest of them, and Will and Piper parted ways with Jason and Nico in the hallway between their two apartments. While Jason immediately went to his room to take a nap, Nico got to work unpacking his suitcase, and prepared a load of laundry. When he went to open his front door so that he could head down to the laundry room, he found Will on the other side, his hand raised as if to knock.
“Uh, hi.” Will said, lowering his hand awkwardly and scratching at the back of his neck instead. “I was just, uh…” He sighed, and dropped his hand completely. “Does it count if I’m still on Greece time?”
After they slept together for the - fourth? Fifth? - time since the rehearsal dinner, Nico and Will laid back on Nico’s bed. Will rubbed at his face with a groan, then dropped his hands down onto the bed. He turned to Nico when he said, “I don’t think my whole what happens in Greece plan is going to work very well.”
Nico rolled onto his side and gave Will a blank stare. “I did try to tell you.”
“I know,” Will said, resting a hand on Nico’s cheek and leaning in for a quick kiss. “I’ll listen to you from now on, I promise.”
“I don’t know that I trust your promises anymore,” Nico shot back as he narrowed his eyes. “But… Does that mean we’re dropping the only in Greece rule?”
“Do you want to?”
Nico shoved at Will’s chest. “Of course I do, you idiot, I didn’t want that rule in the first place!”
“Ow, hey!” Will rubbed at his chest. “Is this what I’m getting myself into? Is this going to be an abusive relationship?”
“Of course not, stupid, shut up.” Nico grabbed Will’s face and pulled him close for a kiss, slowly licking his way into Will’s mouth as his hands traveled into Will’s hair, and Will’s arms wrapped around Nico’s back to hold him against him.
Will broke the kiss and stroked a hand up and down Nico’s back. “So, if we’re dropping the only in Greece rule, then that means we can be together here and now. And if we’re going to be together, then do you think we should tell the others?”
Nico scrunched up his nose, and immediately Will darted forward to kiss the wrinkled skin. “What was that for?”
Will grinned. “You looked cute.”
“Shut up,” Nico laughed, and tugged at the hair on Will’s head. Will rolled himself on top of Nico and blew a raspberry into the crook of his neck, causing Nico to shriek and try to shove Will away. “Get off of me!” After he did manage to push Will away, it took a few moments for his laughter to finally subside, until he was laying beside Will in the quiet room, sharing soft gazes as Nico’s fingers continued brushing through Will’s hair and Will’s hand started up and down his back once again. “What if we tell the others, and it ruins this?” he whispered, his gentle smile fading away. “What if we...hold off on saying anything for a little while. We can go out a few times and make sure this is what we really want before anyone else has to know.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Will told him, and leaned in for another kiss.
From somewhere else in the apartment, Nico heard a door close, then Jason’s voice called out, “Hey, Neeks, what’s this laundry basket doing on the floor?”
“Oh, shit,” Nico whispered, and jumped out of bed. He found his discarded boxers on the ground and pulled them on as he heard Jason knocking on his door, and shouted, “Hang on a second!” He spun around and yanked the bedsheets over Will’s head as if that would hide him. He rushed to the door next and cracked it open just far enough to stick his head out. “What?”
“Dude, have you been sleeping this whole time?” Jason asked. “Look, I’m tired too, but sleeping for so long is just going to make your jetlag worse.”
“Did you need something, or are you just here to pester me?”
“Yeah, you left a full laundry basket just laying in the middle of the floor, I almost killed myself on the way to the bathroom.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic, you’re fine.”
“I know I am, but do something with it before somebody else comes over and trips over it,” Jason told him.
“I’ll do it in a minute,” Nico said, and started to shut the door, though Jason stopped it with his hand.
“Hang on a second,” Jason said, and stepped closer, narrowing his eyes as he looked over Nico’s face, then down to his neck and chest. “Are those hickeys?”
“What? No, what the hell?”
Jason grinned. “Dude, did you get some in Greece?”
“Don’t say get some,” Nico said defensively.
“Would you be getting some right now if I weren’t here?” Jason pressed against the door to open it further, and no matter how hard Nico tried, he couldn’t keep the door shut.
“Jason, don’t you dare--”
“Is it someone I know?” Jason teased as he finally pushed the door open far enough that he could peek inside...and see Will out of bed, shirtless and tugging up his pants, freezing solid when he noticed Jason’s gaze on him. “Oh shit.”
As Jason backed out of the doorway, he tried to shut the door, though Nico stopped him and followed after him. “Jason--”
“Was that Will?”
“Please forget you ever saw anything,” Nico said, “and get out.”
“But...I live here.”
“I don’t care! Go hang out with Piper or something!” Without waiting for another argument, Nico ran back into his room, shutting the door behind himself and leaning back against it. To Will, he said, “So, uh. Jason knows.”
Will tugged his shirt on over his head. “Did you ask him not to tell anybody?”
“Oh, uh--” He spun around and ripped the door open again, calling out, “Jason! Don’t you dare say a word to anybody about this, or I’ll kill you!” Nico stepped back into his room, shutting the door, and said, “I think we’re safe.”
Surprisingly enough, after Jason’s immediate discovery of their relationship, Nico and Will managed to sneak around for the next two weeks - though they probably couldn’t have done so without Jason covering for them whenever they went out together. It was only once they’d gotten to comfortable and too careless that they ended up being caught again.
They were in Will and Piper’s apartment this time, making out on the couch. Will was laying back on the cushions with Nico straddling his lap, kissing and sucking at biting at Will’s neck while Will’s hands traveled underneath Nico’s clothes. Neither of them heard the key turning in the lock, nor the front door opening.
Only when Piper screamed, “Oh my god!” did Nico finally pull back, and Will raised his hands as if to say I wasn’t doing anything!
“Piper! You weren’t supposed to be home yet!” Will exclaimed, sitting up and practically lifting Nico off of his lap so that he could stand. “Uh, this isn’t what it looks like?”
Piper scoffed. “It looked like you had your hand down Nico’s pants! How is that not what was happening?”
“It was a trick of the light,” Nico replied in complete seriousness.
Piper crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the two of them. “How long have you two been together without telling me?”
“Together?” Will laughed awkwardly. “What? I don’t know what you mean, we’re not--”
“Since Greece,” Nico cut in, tipping forward and burying his face in his hands.
“Since Greece?” Piper shrieked.
“Shut up!” Will hissed. “Leo’s across the hall, we can’t let him know that we were hooking up at his wedding!”
“You did what?”
Leo had gotten back from Greece a week after the rest of his friends, and was still so lost in heartbreak that he needed constant consoling from his best friends - but Piper was busy. Leo let himself into Nico and Jason’s apartment, ready to throw himself into Jason’s arms and weep and whine for an hour before Jason finally kicked him out to sleep. However, instead of the usually bright and lively apartment, Leo walked into a dark room, the only light coming from whatever movie was playing on TV, and the only voices talking in hushed whispers.
That is, until he heard Nico shout, “William Andrew Solace, I’m trying to watch this movie!” followed by peels of laughter as Leo saw the vague shapes of who must be Nico and Will tip over on the couch. As Leo walked further into the apartment, the laughter stopped, replaced by hums and other sounds of...no, they couldn’t be--
Leo came up to the edge of the couch - and since it was dark, he couldn’t be certain of what he was seeing, but his mind didn’t normally play these kinds of tricks on him - and he saw Will and Nico... kissing.
He ran straight for Jason’s room, not even knocking before bursting through the door. “Jason!” he hissed. “Will and Nico are out there...and they’re kissing! Right out there in the open, where you could just walk it at any time!”
“I know, Leo, which is why I’m in here and not out there,” Jason replied from where he was lounging on his bed. “Nobody wants to see that.”
“What do you mean, you know?”
“Dude, calm down,” Jason told him, sitting up and setting his phone aside. “They’re dating, but they’re not telling anyone, okay? I found out by accident, and so did Piper.”
“Piper knows too?”
Jason rolled his eyes and hopped out of bed, heading toward the door and nudging Leo aside so that he could open the door. He peeked out cautiously, just in case things had escalated in the living room, though once he deemed it safe, Jason said, “Hey, Nico, Will. Leo knows now.”
“What the hell, Jason? Did you tell him?” Nico asked.
“No, you idiot, he walked right past you two minutes ago.”
“Oh.” Nico turned his attention back to Will who was hovering over him, and poked him in the chest. “That’s your fault.”
“How is it my fault?” Will argued.
“I was just trying to watch a movie! It’s you that couldn’t keep your hands off of me.”
“It’s your fault for being so tempting--”
“Alright, please stop,” Jason cut in, rubbing at his eyes, before a realization struck him. “Wait, if we all know, then you might as well tell Reyna, too. It’s pointless to keep her out of the loop when the rest of us know.”
Will glanced down at Nico - and finally moved off of him, as if just noticing the compromising position they were in - and said, “Uh, I would actually rather we not tell Reyna just yet.”
“Yeah,” Nico agreed. “She’s scared off some of my boyfriends in the past, I don’t need her to threaten Will’s life, too.”
Will smiled at Nico so bright that it could’ve lit up the room. “Aw, I think that’s the first time you’ve called me your boyfriend.”
Nico shoved at him, and if Will’s smile had lit up the room, then his friends would have seen the blush rising on his cheeks. “Shut up.”
Reyna had moved into an open apartment directly across the street from Nico and Jason’s apartment about six months ago. It was nice to be so close to the rest of her friends, and she liked being able to look across the street to see whether anyone was home rather than waiting for someone to text her back.
There were other times that weren’t so great, though - like the rare occasion that she brought a date home and her phone immediately started blowing up with group texts because they’d seen her through the window. Or even worse, having to see the people that Jason or - more often - Nico brought over for the night. She always happened to look over at the worst possible moment whenever that happened. At least she had curtains, unlike Nico and Jason, those monsters.
There was one night, maybe a month after Leo’s failed wedding, where Reyna was relaxing on the couch in her apartment and just so happened to look across the way to see Nico standing by his window. Her curiosity got the best of her, and so she watched as Will appeared in her line of sight and stepped up behind Nico, wrapping his arms around his waist. Reyna narrowed her eyes as Will tucked his face against Nico’s neck and seemed to be...kissing him? No, that couldn’t be right.
Then Will’s hand slipped down the front of Nico’s pants, and Reyna shouted, “Oh hell no!”
She leapt off the couch and ran out the door, across the street and up to Nico’s apartment in record speed, trying to throw the door open once she got there, though it only opened a crack due to the locked chain.
“William Andrew Solace get your hands off of him!” she growled, and heard a long string of curses from inside the apartment.
Behind her, Piper’s door opened to reveal Jason, Leo, and Piper herself, likely all coming to check on the commotion. From inside, Reyna saw Nico rushing toward the door and coaxing her back a step so that he could undo the chain. In a second, she burst through the door, not even slowed down by Nico trying to hold her back - his socks just slid right across the wood floor.
When Reyna’s eyes landed on Will, he was as pale as a sheet, eyes darting frantically from side to side as if searching for an escape. As Reyna continued forward, she finally pushed Nico aside, and Will scrambled backwards, eventually tripping and falling onto his back on the ground.
“If you ever lay a hand on him again, Solace,” Reyna threatened, “you won’t live to see another day.”
“I didn’t--” Will stuttered, “I would never--”
Nico jumped in between them, arms out and presenting himself as a human shield for Will as he announced, “Reyna, stop! I love him!”
Time seemed to stop. All of Reyna’s anger and protective instincts melted away in that second. She watched as Nico’s eyes widened, like he hadn’t realized what he’d said until that moment.
Over Reyna’s shoulder, Nico could see the rest of his friends in shock, trying not to laugh, and somewhere in between. Behind him, Will slowly rose to his feet - still cautious in case Reyna had another quick change of mind - and grabbed one of Nico’s hands to spin him around.
“You...what?” Will whispered.
“I…” Nico hesitated. “Uh, I mean, I--”
Will cupped Nico’s face in his hands and dropped his forehead against Nico’s, whispering, “I love you too.”
Nico took hold of the front of Will’s shirt, pulling him the rest of the way down to kiss him, and from somewhere behind him, he heard a wolf whistle.