Hi! First story for Solangelo/HoO so I hope you like it! Betaing done by the amazing MeggieBlack.

Disclaimer: I don't own, I'm not making money off of this, etc.

Will would have been the first to admit that he was not having the best day. Indeed, what had started out as a rather mediocre day had gone to shit in about ten minutes.

One of the baby hellhounds whimpered and flopped on the ground. Considering it was already the size of a pony, the resulting shockwaves made him grit his teeth as Nico moaned lowly.

Will loved the puppies. He did. As did the rest of the camp, but at their core they were monsters, and combined with the scent of a powerful demigod, an accident like this was just waiting to happen. But why it had to happen to Nico made Will grit his teeth. It was always shit like this that happened to Nico. Tartarus. The jar. His sister.

"Take the hellpuppies out, you said. It'll be easy, you said. Damnit Nico." Will whispered, trying his best to inspect Nico's wound without touching it with his bare hands. Side wounds were a blessing and a curse. It took longer for someone to die, but there was a bigger chance of internal issues. It wasn't being helped by the way his hands were shaking ever so slightly.

"Excuse you, I'm pretty sure I said nothing of the sort," Nico grumbled, trying to glare at his boyfriend. Will, now that he was in full healer mode, ignored him.

He shook some powdered unicorn horn onto the wound and began wrapping it with the spare bandages he kept in his backpack. Thank the gods there was no way he left camp without a kit. If he could just get Nico stabilized, he could get him onto one of the puppy's backs and get him the few miles back to camp. There was no reason for the fear rising in his throat, or the itchy panic that tried to tell him that something even worse was going to happen.

"Will, I can see your face, and while it is pretty, you also look like you're going to give yourself a heart attack." Nico said, before turning scarlet and looking in the other direction; however, he seemed to have forgotten that his bundled-up shirt was being used as an impromptu pillow and that his blushes always spread like wildfire on his pale skin.

"Oh you," Will batted his eyelashes dramatically, feeling his stomach settle. "You think I'm pretty? Aw shucks, mister, I don't think my poor little heart can take it." Nico's receding blush came back full force and he looked torn between absolute embarrassment and a quiet pleasure at distracting Will from his panic. Will winked and pressed a gentle kiss to Nico's collarbone in gratitude.

Will himself was ashamed at how he had reacted. It was one thing to worry, and another to panic so badly it frightened the patient. He always tried to remember that, but the thought of Nico being seriously injured had scared him, more than he sometimes liked to admit to himself.

Breathing deeply, Will secured the bandages and relaxed into a kneeling position. Gently, he ran a hand through Nico's long hair, trying to avoid the knots. It had been pulled back this morning, and Will felt his mouth curl into a smile as he remembered the warm domesticity of Nico in his bedroom.

"Can you sit up?" he asked, putting an arm around Nico's shoulders as he carefully pulled him into an upright position.

Nico hissed but nodded, his mouth in a tight line. The bandaging held, and color was already returning to his cheeks. The nearest puppy, Winnie, was also the calmest, and she allowed Nico and Will to mount her with very little wriggling or barking. Her brown-black fur was getting dirty again, and Will sighed as he imagined the effort it would take to clean her and the other puppies up in their baths.

Wasn't the Hermes cabin on rotation this time? That was not going to be fun.

Winnie was calm until they heard movement in the underbrush. Leo growled at the sound, quickly joined by Winnie. Will lifted his fingers to his mouth, prepared to whistle and get them back to camp as quickly as they could. Technically, the field they were on had been protected and masked, but if a hellhound could get here, so could something else. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Nico slowly drawing his sword. But the figures that emerged from the scant trees were vaguely familiar, which was reinforced when Leo stopped growling and began barking, his tail wagging wildly.

The five were approaching warily, and Will sighed in relief. It looked like Percy and Annabeth had just picked up a few new demigods on their way back from New Rome. Then he realized that even if they had, they were coming from the wrong direction and they certainly wouldn't have come all the way from California on foot. And if they had already visited camp, they would have dropped off the new campers.

"You stay," Will commanded, fixing Nico with a stern glare. Nico immediately slumped in a sulk, but stayed put. Will slid to the ground, absently palming one of his daggers. They weren't his best weapons, but if this turned out to be a trick he wanted to be prepared.

Leo ran off, bounding across the field away from the strangers. Will flexed his arm, torn between staying with his patient and boyfriend and drawing them away. Finally he moved towards them, trying to reason to himself that this would give Nico time to warn the camp if they were tricks. Pfft, as if Nico would just run.

"Will?" Annabeth asked, looking confused. Rightly so, because she was at least five years younger than when he had seen her last. Actually, upon a closer look, she seemed to be about fourteen, as did Percy. Thalia was looking as old as she ever did, so fifteen, the other girl looked to be about their age, maybe younger, and the boy. The boy was Nico, looking a great deal healthier and more excited than Will had ever seen the demigod.

Percy was squinting, which made sense; they hadn't really talked much before the Titan War and then his eventual relationship with Nico. Will tilted his head as he looked at the wound on Percy's arm. This was not, he reminded himself, the appropriate time to ask if he could inspect it because it was obviously poisoned.

"Annabeth." Will replied curtly. This could be any number of things; it almost seemed ridiculous that time travel, or a de-aging curse could be among them… yet. "What year is it?"

"I'd say December of 2007, but I think I'd be wrong." Annabeth replied archly.

"It's currently July of 2014." If the boy was Nico, then the girl had to be Bianca. Will took a moment to feel relieved that his boyfriend hadn't followed him. This would not be easy to swallow if his suspicions were correct, and it would be worrisome that someone would know Nico's biggest weak-spot if he was wrong.

"Crap." Percy said, looking a little awed. A shadow fell over the group that was suspiciously dog shaped. The shadow also had a rider, who was suspiciously Nico-shaped. Will pursed his lips. Thalia summoned her spear from her mace canister. Right, chased by the Kindly Ones and hellhounds to the camp borders. This could not end well.

"I thought I told you to stay put." Will addressed the shadow. Maybe it was petulant, but Will had grown used to the way his orders were obeyed in the infirmary.

"On Winnie. If she wanted to come over…" Nico trailed off, and Will didn't need to see his face to imagine the smirk on the son of Hades. But he also didn't miss the fine tremor in his voice that suggested that said son of Hades was really just coming up with an excuse to see if it was really his sister.

"You're terrible." The 'I'm sorry' went unsaid, but Will knew he could make it up later.

"Why do you have hellhounds," Thalia said. It wasn't a question, and her eyes darted between Will and Winnie, breaking the moment.

"Father gave them to me for my birthday last year." Nico said stiffly, petting Winnie's neck to calm her, all trace of fear or hope gone. At that moment Leo came galloping towards the group, only to stop at the last moment to rear and fall back on the ground, his tail wagging. Nico, the little one, fell over, but he was smiling so broadly that Will doubted he was hurt.

Thalia eyed the puppies but didn't say anything else, though she looked like she wanted to say something inappropriate for a ten year old to hear. But as the puppies kept acting like, well, puppies, she put away the spear.

"Your dad gave you two hellhounds as a birthday present?' Thalia repeated, and Annabeth's eyes widened in shock. After a moment, Percy's did too.

"Yeah, something about a sweet sixteen in America, Normal kids get cars, I got hellhounds." Nico was beginning to look uncomfortable with all the talking, which Will took as his cue to explain more.

"They're sort of like camp dogs for now. Everyone's been training them, playing with them, that sort of stuff." At the mention of camp, Nico's dark eyes gleamed. Will stifled a groan.

"Look, I'll head back to camp, talk to Chiron, come back and tell you the verdict. Is everybody okay with that?" Nico asked with false cheer. Will knew that it wasn't really a question as Nico slid off Winnie to land on the ground. He was going back whether they liked it or not.

Will mentally applauded that his boyfriend didn't even wince from the fall. He paled, but didn't wince. Either the unicorn horn had mostly repaired the claw wound already or Nico was going to start pushing himself again. Yay.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. If Will had to guess, he'd say she was trying to come up with an explanation for this scenario, or an escape route. To be fair, this wasn't exactly a situation he had ever thought to consider.

"What if we aren't?" Thalia's blue eyes flashed. "Why should we believe anything you say? How do we know this isn't a trick?"

"How do we know you aren't a trick, hmm?" Nico retorted. "This could all be part of some convoluted plan to destroy Camp Half-Blood."

"Look, I don't know what's going on," Bianca said sharply, "and I don't care, just leave me and my brother out of this, we're not part of whatever camp you're talking about."

"Then why did Dr. Thorn attack you guys? He was a manticore, and monsters only come after demigods." Nico snapped back. "We don't get a choice in this, Bianca!"

Nico's face softened at the fear and confusion on his sister's face, and made as if to move forward, before blanching and grasping at his side. In a flash Will was there and lifting up his boyfriend's shirt. There was a moment of struggling, Nico trying to make Will stop fussing and Will trying to get the shirt off and fuss more. It ended with Nico on his back, Will straddling his thighs, one hand rucking up the t-shirt to Nico's chest and the other prodding at the bandages.

"Looks like you're just dizzy from blood loss. I told you to stay put for a reason, Death Boy. Get some ambrosia as soon at you're done talking to Chiron." Nico stared at him balefully from his position on the ground. It was ridiculous how long his eyelashes were. He had such a pretty boyfriend sometimes. "I think the unicorn horn's fixed most of it, all that's really needed is a day or two of good, old-fashioned bed rest!"

"You say that about everything. One of these days you're going to be on a quest and you're going to stop everything to make sure I get my bed rest and get us all killed." Will tried to stay strong in the face of Nico's teasing but failed after a few seconds.

Will attempted a frown. "Bed rest is very important." But he clambered to his feet and pulled Nico up as well, his face pulling into a more natural smile.

"Unicorn horn?" Annabeth asked, looking a little grossed out. Percy had a pretty similar expression and, wow, no wonder they were still dating. They had already reached the 'makes same faces' stage.

The healer cocked his head for a moment, not quite certain of her tone, before it dawned on him. "Oh, they're just shavings, imported from New Rome," he sniffed, "they won't let us have even one unicorn, which I feel is deeply unfair."

"Don't do anything stupid, and try not land in any walls or roofs." Will chided belatedly. It had become a sort of habit, a way to tell Nico to be safe in a way he would accept. This was usually the point where Nico kissed him goodbye, and if they were alone or not being rushed, maybe touched foreheads for a moment. But it was obvious that this wasn't the time for those little affections.

"Yes, mother," Nico rolled his eyes, but he seemed strained. To compensate, he added several things in Italian that made Bianca gasp and clap her hands over little Nico's ears. Little Nico, gods, they were going to have to come up with some sort of nickname for him, looked put out.

Will pinched Nico's cheek affectionately and said in a bad falsetto, "And make sure you drink enough milk and mind your manners." Too quick for Nico to react, he blew a raspberry against his cheek.

"Gah! Stop that, you're the worst." Nico all but threw himself out of Will's grip and into the nearest shadow and vanished.

Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are super awesome and appreciated. Thanks for reading. For any of those curious, Nico is 17 (canon birthday: January 28th 1924) and Will is 18 (fanon birthday: November 17th, 1995).