"Nico di Angelo, will you go out with me?" The dining pavilion went silent, even though Will hadn't spoken loudly. A dark red blush spread on Nico's face as well as Will's as all of the campers stared at the two.

"Y-yes, of course," Nico grinned, and Will's face lit up. He got up from where he was kneeling on the ground and wrapped Nico into his warm embrace. What sounded like the entire camp roared with applause, wolf-whistles, and shrieks of "OH MY GODS IT HAPPENED! IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! YOU OWE ME TEN DRACHMAS!"

The newly minted couple looked at each other and smiled.

oOo

"Hey, Will, I, uh, have to talk to you about something," Nico said nervously. Will panicked. Is he breaking up with me already? It's only been three days! he thought. He composed himself.

"What is it?"

"Okay, so now that everyone knows about… us, you might get some people coming up to you, saying things…" Nico wrung his hands anxiously, looking not at all like the cool, calm, and collected Nico that Will was familiar with.

"What kind of things?" Will asked.

"Uh, well, they're kind of... protective, I guess, so… be prepared."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah… good luck with that."

oOo

The first of the "people" Nico had mentioned was Jason. He approached Will during archery, looking slightly menacing.

"So," Jason started coldly, "I heard you and Nico are a thing."

"Yes," Will replied cautiously.

"If you even think about hurting him, I will strike you into the ground before you can say 'Jupiter.' Nico is like my little brother. My little brother who has been hurt far too many times in his short, frankly miserable life. I will not allow you to cause him pain. Understand?"

Will nodded quickly.

"Good," Jason said, his manner changed in an instant. He clapped Will on the back with a genial smile. "See you at dinner, man."

Will shifted uncomfortably. One down, he thought.

oOo

Percy was arguably one of the most frightening of all of the people that had come to Will. His sea-green eyes had a weird glint to them, like he would not hesitate to rip Will to pieces if he did something wrong. At lunch, Percy sat next to him and feigned friendliness.

"Hey, Will!" Percy said cheerfully. Will coughed.

"H-hey," he answered warily. Percy flashed a predatory grin at him.

"Nico seems really happy about you two," Percy said.

"Um, yeah, I guess," Will replied.

"Well, that's good," Percy nodded. "It would be really bad if he wasn't happy, you know what I mean?" Will blinked.

"Totally," he said.

They sat there together awkwardly for a bit. After a couple of minutes, Percy got up and left. Will didn't even want to think about who might come next.

oOo

He was surprised to find that the next people to come to him were Hazel and Frank together. They were a little bit nicer to him, he supposed in hindsight. At least they didn't clutch their weaponry in their hands threateningly as they talked to him.

"Will," Hazel walked up to him, business-like, with Frank at her side. "I don't think you have any intention to hurt Nico."

"But if you do," Frank interjected, "You have us and Pluto to deal with. Pluto. The god of the Underworld, who has the power to put you in the Fields of Punishment and-" Hazel put up her hand to stop him in his tracks.

"You get the idea," she said coolly. They turned around and left as quickly as they came.

oOo

Piper went to him after lunch. She made small talk with him, chatting about silly things like the weather, what was for dinner, Chiron's new sweater vest. He should have known what was happening.

"Oh, yeah," she said in the middle of the conversation, as if she was remembering something, "How are you and Nico doing?"

"Um- fabulous," he stuttered. "Great, fantastic, awesome, it's really been-" he stopped when he noticed Piper's narrowed eyes.

"That's great! Nico needs some light in his life."

"Yeah, he's had a hard time since Tartarus…" Will replied.

"I know. You're a big part of why he's happy. You really shouldn't take that away from him."

"Oh, no, definitely not," Will agreed. Piper beamed, then her face turned harsh.

"Remember what I can make you do," she snarled, reminding him of her charmspeak. He gulped and nodded. She swiftly spun around on her heels and exited.

oOo

Reyna didn't say more than four words when she caught up with Will.

"If you hurt Nico…" she cracked her knuckles.

Will ran away as fast as he could.

oOo

Leo, followed by Calypso, arrived at Will's cabin right before dinner. Leo put his arm around Will.

"Will, buddy," he crowed. "So you and di Angelo, huh?" Will nodded, tired of this whole thing. Calypso just looked on, amused.

"Wow, that's awesome! You guys will be so, so, so happy together, am I right?"

"Yeah-no- of course," Will stumbled through his words.

"I have no doubt in my mind that you will make Nico super happy," Leo said. He lit his hand on fire. "But, you know, if you don't…" Leo left the sentence unfinished and walked out the door. Calypso rolled her eyes.

"Sorry about that," she said. "He's so dramatic. Just assume that goes for me as well."

"O-okay," Will said. Calypso grinned and followed her boyfriend out.

oOo

Dinner was a literal nightmare. Nico had gone to McDonald's for his weekly fix, leaving Will to the mercy of the Apollo and Aphrodite cabins.

Drew came up to him with the Aphrodite kids in tow at the Apollo table.

"Your cabin helped us come up with a poem," she said brightly. "Okay, here it goes:

Will and Nico- our OTP,

have finally started dating

Huzzah! Woo hoo! Hurray! Yippee!

We're so excited for the two

and yes we will definitely

kill Will if he screws this up. 'Kay?

"Okay," he answered, not knowing what else he could/should say. They seemed satisfied with this answer and left him alone. Finally.

oOo

By this point, Will had had enough of all of this. He got the idea; he would be dead meat if he ever so much as looked the wrong way at Nico. He especially didn't need Annabeth reinforcing that fact later that day.

"Will," she began seriously, "I'm sure that you've been threatened by pretty much everyone on the Argo II by now and some who haven't. I just want to let you know that all of what they said is true, and then some. Don't worry, though, I'm sure you'll do fine. Right?"

"Right," he choked out. She smiled innocently and patted his cheek.

"See you around, Solace," she called, sauntering out of the cabin.

oOo

Nico came back to Camp Half-Blood later that night.

"How was your day?" he asked.

"Quite possibly the scariest day of my life," Will answered.

"Sorry," Nico cringed.

"It's not your fault, Death Boy," Will smiled genuinely for the first time that day since he had asked Nico out. Nico snuggled into Will's embrace and Will knew everything was going to work out just fine.

Hey, USS! This was totally unexpected, even for me! I guess these things just happen sometimes. Well, I hope that you guys liked it. If you can, please check out my other stories, especially Museum of the Prophecy of Seven, or MotPoS, as I am now going to call it.

REVIEW PLEASE!

Beck