Author's note: Well, this is my first fic so.. please have mercy. I wrote this in sort of stream of consciousness, I didn't wanna over-think it since I just thought it was a cute idea and wanted it written down. Any helpful feedback is appreciated! Oh, and I don't own any of the characters.

On the eve of his second day in the infirmary, Nico was starting to get agitated. Just the day before, his healer had been friendly, talkative and had personally made sure Nico had company during most of his waking hours. The rest of the time Nico spent sleeping or resting, he sensed the the sun god's kid's presence near him, and had even had a dream vision of Will falling asleep at his bedside. Now, he very much doubted that vision's validity, and concluded that it must've been (possibly for the first time ever in demigod history) just a dream. Because all day, Will had definitely been avoiding him.

What was worse, Nico suspected that he was hiding something as well. Because every time he caught himself walking into the ward Nico was in, he looked troubled and confused. The source of confusion seemed to be on clipboard he carried around, which he immediately would hide out of Nico's view as soon as he saw him. He'd smile politely and stammer out some excuse about how he had to leave, and he'd promise to come by later in the day. See you soon, he'd say. I'll be back in just a bit!

At first Nico held out hope that he was just busy, but as the day went on, he was starting to feel tired and miserable. He fell in an out of restless sleep, wondering what could have possibly changed in the span of one night to change Will's mind about him.

That morning, Will woke up with a pain in his neck from having slept on the hard wooden chair next to Nico's bed that night. Morning was being generous, really. The sun was barely rising. The day before, he'd checked in on Nico every chance he got, chatting lightly with him and joking. When the son of Hades had finally fallen asleep for the night, Will came up with excuse after the other to stay in late at the infirmary, until he was the last one left. He couldn't remember falling asleep.

He got out of his chair and stretched, looking at the serene face of the demigod sleeping on the bed next to him. He still couldn't believe his luck. How often do people get a second chance at love?

Love was maybe a big word for this, whatever "this" was.. but it was in the right ballpark. Ever since Will had met Nico, he'd felt this strange fascination with the son of Hades. At first, he thought it was just his curiosity... but as time passed and the rest of the demigods in Camp Half-Blood started to shy away from the brooding demigod, Will's fascination had only grown stronger. The Aphrodite kids made love sound exhausting and nauseating... with all that talk of feeling butterflies in your stomach and being so nervous you could hear your heart beat.. That wasn't what he felt around Nico. Even just observing the lone demigod from afar, Will felt almost at peace. As if just taking in the image of Nico filled him with an inner light that warmed him right up, like having his own tiny sun glowing somewhere along with his internal organs, spreading a glow through his body. He thought he had time to break through through the icy demigod's shell the last time he was in Camp Half-Blood, before he'd disappeared for... Gods know how long. Has it been 6 months? 7? He'd lost count.

Will missed his chance last time, and seeing Nico two nights ago at the battle where the world almost ended had made him realize two things: life was short, and he wasn't going to waste his time waiting for Nico's icy shell to thaw; he would do whatever it takes to make the boy comfortable with him and to show him that he cared.

And this is how Will ended up trying to learn and memorize the rules of this stupid, unnecessarily difficult card game. He knew Nico realized something was up, but he couldn't explain without giving the element of surprise away. Besides, he didn't want the boy to realize how hard this STUPID game was for Will to learn. From what he saw of Nico, the boy didn't appreciate being a burden, and making him feel that way was the last thing Will wanted to do.

He'd woken up that morning and rushed to Percy's cabin, asking the older boy if he knew about anything Nico was interested in. Something to make him more comfortable around Will... Percy was more than eager to help, for some reason. He mentioned Nico's childhood obsession: Mythomagic.

And thus, Will spent the entire day memorizing the rules and cards. He borrowed a manual from one of his younger half-brothers who was so into the game, he barely needed it anymore, and set to work on reading it and trying to understand the rules of play. The manual came along with a list of cards and each character's powers. He wandered the infirmary, checking in on patients while trying to remember that Zeus's lightening bolts do 600 damage, and that Kronos had infinite attack and defense powers.

It took him all day, but he finally got it down. By sunset, he'd finally felt comfortable enough with his knowledge of the game to ask his little half-brother to borrow his Mythomagic cards for the night. He collected the cards and hurried to Nico's ward in the infirmary.

The only other inhabitant of Nico's ward by that night was a daughter of Hypnos who'd suffered a nasty broken leg in the final battle. She was fast asleep three beds down from Nico. After falling in and out of sleep all day, since he had no sons of Apollo to visit him, he sat cross-legged on his bed, reading a book Jason had insisted he had to read if he was going to join them in this century(it was about some boy wizard who went to a magical boarding school, which seemed a bit unbelievable to Nico). He was a third of the way through it when he heard footsteps approaching, almost at a run. He looked up to find Will Solace, the subject of his discontentment, jogging lightly through the door with an excited look on his face. He dropped a white cardboard box on Nico's bed and sat across from him, on his bed, as if he hadn't been totally ignoring Nico all day.

Before Nico could make a biting remark, Will had already begun speaking.

"I'm so glad you're awake. I've been working on this all day... I hope you like this edition, I mean, I know you're a pro at this, and they said you'd had the Africanus Extreme expansion pack so this starter pack shouldn't be that impressive but I figure, you probably haven't played this in what, seven, eight months at least? I thought you'd enjoy it,"

"What are you doing?"

Will looked up and seemed to realize how he must look. He hadn't slept much at all the night before, sleeping next to Nico's bed, and he'd spent the entire day running through the infirmary trying to learn an unnecessarily overly complex card game while healing minor injuries. And he was getting too excited. A blush crept into his face, but he remembered what he promised himself: to not lose his second chance with this boy who filled him with the warmth of the sun.

"Well... They told me you liked Mythomagic, so I asked around the cabin and Chris had a pack and he let me borrow it for the night, and I spent all day learning the rules.. I thought you'd enjoy a familiar game after everything that's happened."

The dark-haired demigod looked at him thoughtfully for a few seconds, and Will saw the change in emotions on his face. At first, he looked taken aback, then slowly his doubt and mistrust were replaced with a look of gratitude and.. something else, something Will couldn't put his finger on..

Nico grinned and opened the cardboard box. "Prepare to eat dirt, Harp Boy."

Will broke out in a big relieved smile. "Not a chance, Zombie dude."

They played well into the night. The next morning, they were found sound asleep, surrounded by Mythomagic cards by a couple of Apollo girls who were starting to take bets on how soon they'd beat Jason and Piper as the camp's new favorite couple.