Disclaimer: All characters, situations and contexts are derived initially from Rick Riodran's Percy Jackson Series - primarily The Blood of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo. Again (seriously?), I do not make any profits or benefits from this work save for the sheer enjoyment of about one of my favourite pairings.

A/N: This story is the SEQUEL of 'The Error Of His Ways'. I guess it could probably be read as a stand alone but... up to you. It sort of acts as an intermission between the first installment and the story that follows - yes, I've written another one because I'm obsessed. Both the light, fluffy and superficial and the sort of deeper, more integral parts of the building of a relationship is included. Be prepared both for said fluffiness and explicit scenes, the latter of which, really, is only on one chapter. If it doesn't agree with you, then you could probably skip it :)

Chapter 1: First Games or How Will Solace created a monster.

"At least do me the favour of giving it a try."

"Why should I? I'm perfectly happy with the ones that I play. I don't need any new ones."

"Oh, so Risk was one of yours, then? From eighty years ago? And Dominion, and Carcassonne, and Monopoly, even."

"That's not the same –"

"What about Blackjack, or Poker, or Spades? You'd never played any of them before either."

Nico scowled in a way that always made Will smile, becoming the dark little cloud of grumbling shadow in the middle of the Apollo cabin. Will couldn't help himself, despite knowing that it baffled Nico to the point of frustration. Or maybe it was because he knew it did. There was something just so amusing about watching Nico scowl, or shoot daggers at people with his eyes, glaring menacingly in a way that would have slaughtered half of the camp if looks could kill. Did that make Will a little bit twisted, that he thought that way?

Maybe. Just a little.

Folding his arms, Nico pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. "For your information, Poker and Blackjack were around when I was born. I'm not that old."

Will shrugged. "Yeah, but you'd never played them before, right?"

"That's irrelevant."

"Oh, I think it's very relevant, actually. Really, Nico, why are you digging your heels in so much with this? Scared you'll lose?"

Will knew he'd taken his taunts one step too far when Nico's eyes drooped from a glare into a deceptively nonchalant hooded stare. The rest of the demigods of Apollo, chattering excitedly as they collected every known gaming device and accompanying games, fell watchfully silent as though they sensed the growing cloud. From his periphery – for Will didn't dare blink away from Nico's gaze; he'd probably make a lunge for his throat at the barest glimmer of distraction – Will could see a mixture of wariness, amusement and eagerness. As though they knew what was coming and looked forward to it.

"Are you challenging my capabilities, Will?" Nico asked. His voice was low, devoid of any amusement as though he was genuinely insulted by Will's suggesting.

Keeping it casual, Will shrugged. "That depends. Are you too chicken to try?"

The very air seemed to grow darker around Nico. Few would perhaps guess from the surly nonchalance he approached most things – even if he was getting better with his attempts at neutrality if not so much positivity – but Nico was fiercely competitive when it came to games. Closet competitive, until Will managed to draw him from that secretiveness and fling him into the open. Sometimes he wondered if it was such a good thing, even if it did mean that more often than not the team Nico was on for Capture the Flag – Will's team, obviously – would win.

With a jerk of his chin towards the wide television screen, turning with a speed that caused several children of Apollo to flinch and Fionn to fall bodily off the couch, Nico's face became deceptively blank. "Fine, then. Bring it on, stupid Quack."

Will barely even twitched at the derogatory nickname that Nico had adopted for him. He was distracted by the flurry of movement that abruptly erupted around him. As though Nico's words were a trigger invoking action, every member of the Apollo cabin present, of which was a large majority of their total number, leapt into action. Curtains were drawn across the windows to create an ambiance of focused intensity, the surround sound speakers plugged in and consoles hefted from their recharging stations. Chairs were drawn and cushions tossed onto the floor for where seating was scarce, and somewhere at the back of the cabin Will could make out the distinctive sound of jelly beans being poured into a bowl.

Grin widening, almost painfully when Nico turned his hooded, accusing stare upon him, he stepped up to his side, looping an arm around his neck – which Nico naturally tried to shrug off – and drew him towards the arrangement of couches. They seated themselves as their fellow demigods assembled the setting to the greatest ideal; Will was usually the sort of person who would be on his feet and attempting to help his half-siblings with whatever they were doing, but someone had to make sure Nico didn't act out in snarling aggression. Besides, it was his prerogative as the cabin counsellor to sit and order other people to work, a right Will rarely invoked.

The members of Apollo's cabin didn't begrudge him assigning tasks. Far from it, they jumped to work with enthusiasm and eagerness. Since the moment that Will had let slip that he was finally going to introduce Nico to the world of gaming – Nico didn't have a choice, he was going to learn even rudimentarily – a flock of grinning siblings had practically lived in his shadow. Not only because they largely enjoyed watching Will be verbally beaten to a pulp – which had only actually really happened once – but because the children of Apollo had taken to Nico over the past months like fish to water. He was their pseudo-member, their dark little mascot and a communally acknowledged honorary child of Apollo, though no one dared to speak as much aloud for fear that Nico would hear them and growl accusingly at such coddling. They doted upon him, each in their own particular ways, but every demigod at Camp Half-Blood lived in fear of the moment Nico snapped and unleashed a legion of dead warrior upon them.

He hadn't done yet, but, as Tyler the resident Athena-mimic of cabin seven liked to claim, there was still time.

Kayla dropped down onto the couch beside Nico and handed him a controller which he resisted taking for a moment before taking gingerly. Somehow – Will didn't know how he managed – he made it look awkward to simply hold.

"Don't worry, it won't bite," Kayla said with a grin.

"I'm not worried it's going to bite. It's a bloody gaming controller."

"You look tense, Nico," Austin said, plopping himself down on Will's other side. He graciously offered his bowl of candy for the picking. "Have a jelly bean. Calms the nerves."

"I'm not nervous either. I told you, it's just a bloody game."

"And the day that you sincerely mean "it's just a game" is the day that pigs will fly," Will grinned, jostling Nico slightly. He received a scowl for his efforts. Evidently, Nico was not in the mood.

The rest of the children of Apollo scattered themselves around the television, half a dozen holding controllers while the rest fidgeted and rearranged pillows, handed around bowls of jelly beans and popcorn that had come from Gods knew where. Wesley was the one who fired up the screen and a blast of synthesised music blared with the appearance of the start menu, loud enough to make Fionn topple off her seat again.

Nico raised an eyebrow at the screen. "Mario Kart? Seriously?"

"Figured we'd just start off with the classics, the oldies but the goodies. Something easier," Wesley explained.

Sadly enough, he did so without glancing in Nico's direction so failed to see the dangerous shadow flash across his face. "Easy?"

"Not 'easy'," Will hastened to assure him. He didn't want Wesley pulverised for his carelessness. "Just easier." He waved an expansive hand as Nico turned his sceptically raised eyebrow towards him. "You know, not so structurally complex. Not like an RPG or button-masher that usually has more bulk and plotline going on. Or takes more practice."

"Are you belittling me?" Nico asked flatly.

"Of course not, Death Kid. Never."

"Don't call me Death Kid."

Will only grinned in reply as he accepted the controller that Kayla handed him. Or perhaps forsook to him with an expression of "rather you than me" clearly writ across her face. He nodded towards Wesley as the younger boy, hands grasping his own controller, turned to him expectantly. "Whenever you're ready, Wes."

He spared a glance for Nico as he deliberately ignored Kayla explanation as to which buttons to use for what. Nico stared at him with slowly blinking eyes. "I don't know why you're so keen for me to do this. You're the one who always calls me a techno retard."

"I am," Will nodded. "And as the one who accuses you of such I feel duty-bound to try and fix your incompetency."

"I'm…incompetent."

"With computers? Definitely." Will chose to ignore the cold accusation in Nico's stare. No, he wasn't in the mood at all. "And in the twenty-first century, Nico, that's not something that any self-respecting teenager should be."

Nico frowned. He dropped his gaze down to the controller and tentatively pressed at each of the buttons. "It seems kind of flimsy."

"Flimsy? What do you –?"

"Like if I happened to whack someone over the head with it then it might break."

Will snorted. "You'd never actually whack someone. You're all bark and no bite, Nico. Everyone knows it."

Nico shot him a glare, thumb giving a pointed flick at the joystick. "Don't tempt me to remedy that fact."

Will laughed but otherwise didn't reply. He didn't really get a chance, for in that moment he lost himself into choosing players and throwing himself into the focus of simulated racing. The cheering of the Apollo members as they egged onward the four players engaged in the first round renewed his grin, almost as much as lapping Nico for the second time did.

He didn't feel all that guilty for throwing his boyfriend under the bus. Not in this instance. Will figured that he may as well make the most of it for, technologically incompetent as he might now be, Will knew for a fact that sheer pride and competitiveness wouldn't allow Nico to remain as such for long.

Will quickly came to the realisation that he'd created a monster.

It hadn't taken Nico a day to grow accustomed to the basic game of Mario Kart. It hadn't even taken him an hour. Three games. Three games was all it took and he begun to beat his fellow racers. It didn't matter that he'd never played a computer game before, nor that he cringed slightly at even the thought of receiving a phone call. Technologically incompetent he may be, but his stubbornness to admit defeat, or to even let anyone beat him, quickly overrode the discrepancy between his skill level and those of the Apollo demigods.

By the end of the day, he'd beaten them all.

It seemed to have opened up a channel of unexplored wonder for Nico. Will hadn't exactly intended for that to happen – oh, he wanted Nico to learn how to use a computer, to feel comfortable with exploring the internet and to be able to make a phone call when safe to do so without exploding the device in his hand, for sure. He'd thought that attacking the issue of reluctance through games would be a stepping-stone to that end. And he was right. It was. A very briefly stepped upon stepping-stone.

After one day, Nico mastered rudimentary games. By the end of the week, he was most likely to be found with his head bent over a computer, or a portable gaming device, or sprawled upon the couch in Apollo's cabin with an almost bored expression as he blasted his fellow demigods in various multiplayer and shoot-'em-up games. More likely than he was to be practicing in combat – which wasn't unexpected given that he tended towards practicing at night anyway – or with his nose in a book, or simply lying in the shade with his headphones on and detaching himself from the world. It was a step in the right direction that he interacted more with the rest of the campers, although much of that interaction was smirks as he pummelled them in defeat or scowls when they managed to get a shot in. Intimidation, unfortunately, naturally followed.

Will felt like almost more like a proud parent than a boyfriend in that instance. A proud, slightly unnerved, and just a little apologetic parent. He'd gotten more than a few glances over the last few days from his half siblings of faint horror that clearly asked, "What have you done?"

Will didn't exactly know. He only knew that he felt an obligation of sorts towards Nico to teach him something that he was so vastly out of his depth in so that he was just slightly less ostracised. It was infrequent enough that Will was the one to teach Nico anything anyway. 'To teach' was more like pulling teeth when it came to the son of Hades.

He couldn't have predicted the full impact of his actions. It was more than slightly amusing, though, and though they still played endless amounts of board games and cards, it was a good change of pace to lose themselves in Halo, or Call of Duty, or, because Nico was and always would be a massive nerd for anything mythological or fantastical, World of Warcraft. Will doubted that after a week or two anyone watching would even be able to tell that he'd only picked up a gaming controller, only touched a laptop with the intentions of using it, so recently.

And yes, Will might just be a little be satisfied with the unexpected intimacy of playing one another in on handheld games. To his delight – an unexpected delight, because he honestly hadn't anticipated it – they would quite often link their devices and simply laze against one another with casual comfort, Nico dropping his head into Will's lap as often as the reverse. It was an unexpected and thoroughly satisfying discovery, especially considering that in most every other instance Nico would be more likely to kick him skyward with a well-aimed boot of his foot than allow himself to be touched so casually in an even remotely public situation.

Not with gaming. It was like a switch was flicked in his mind that overwhelmed his aversion to most anything else in exchange for fixated, almost obsessive focus. Nico became like that sometimes with games. It was as unnerving as it was amusing.

Will lying across Nico's lap as they battled alongside one another on their own devices of an afternoon was how Percy found them. It would have been nearly two weeks after Nico's induction to the world of computerised gaming but Will wouldn't have been able to pick him from the crowd as being a newbie. And that was to say nothing of his previous hesitancy to use anything technological. Nico even logged onto the internet the other day for no other reason that to conduct a quick internet search rather than hook himself up for an online game.

Will was so proud of him. Proud, and a little surprised at just how natural it seemed to come to Nico, not to mention more than a little smug that after years of living in the twenty-first century it was Will that had finally pushed him into it.

"Knock, knock."

Will glanced up briefly from his screen, only to curse when, in his brief distraction, his avatar was riddled with machine-gun fire. The latest obsession they'd both fallen into – in the last two days – was a game appropriately called Chaos in the Underworld, and Will had already lost a significant number of hours into gunfire and sword-fights, quests and missions. It might have been nothing but a game but he'd become invested in both the game and his character. Thankfully, Nico's avatar to stepped on screen a second later to protect him in offensive defence.

"Thanks."

Nico only gave a small grunt of acknowledgement. He didn't even glance up

Lifting his head from where it rested on Nico's leg – he hadn't even seemed to notice when Will had stretched himself half across him on the couch – Will turned once more towards the doorway to the cabin. Percy was poking his head inside, his typical crooked grin stretching across his face and nodding a greeting to Margery across the room who raised a brief hand of welcome.

"Hey, Percy. What are you doing in camp?"

Percy shrugged, stepping into the cabin and immediately shrugging off his heavy overcoat as the door clicked shut behind him. It was rather warm inside cabin seven, Will had to admit. Just the way that, without exception, every child of Apollo liked it. "Annabeth just wanted to swing by and ask Chiron something or other so we made it a day trip."

"That's a big trip considering she just wanted to ask something."

"You telling me. But it was either that or give a call, and Iris messages have been playing up lately."

Will nodded his understanding. No one quite knew what was going on with that but so long as it wasn't greatly distressing anyone it didn't much matter. Phone calls were rarely used more as a precaution than any great concern, but even if they weren't Chiron wasn't really prone to using them. "What's up?"

Percy shrugged and strolled over towards them. Will swung his legs from the end of the couch to make room for him to take a seat and sat up. Nico barely even glanced towards Percy, giving a brief nod before turning back towards his screen. The fluttering twitch and infinitesimal switching of his fingers was as slight and natural as that of an expert. "Just coming to say hi. And to see…" He trailed off and shook his head at Nico. "Unbelievable."

"I know, right?" Will agreed with a smirk.

"When did this happen, exactly?"

"About two weeks ago."

"No shit. You wouldn't pick it."

"Right?"

"I can hear you, you know," Nico said in a bored tone. He didn't glance up from his screen. "It's called multitasking."

"Wow, you can do that, too?"

"Shut up, Percy."

Percy only snickered, then fell back to assuming an expression of incredulity. "I never would have picked it. I mean, when we first met, Nico, you were kind of a mythomagic nerd –"

"I resent the connotations of your use of the term 'nerd'."

"- but you wouldn't use a computer or a cell phone to save your life." Percy turned towards Will, who was only distractedly thumbing at his own game, and clapped him on the shoulder. "I assume this was your doing? Well done, my man. This is a giant's step, this is. You know Jason and I had to load up an Ipod for him with his weird playlist because he wouldn't bend his neck to learn to do it himself?"

Will gave him a grin. He liked Percy – naturally, because everybody liked Percy – and not even begrudgingly as he once had when he'd discovered that Nico had harboured a secret crush on him. Granted, the fact that he and Nico had officially started 'dating', even if dates as such weren't expressly involved all that much, probably had a lot to do with that. It just made it funnier that Nico, after a sidelong glare, only disregarded Percy's comment in favour of his game.

"You up for a challenge then, Nico?" Percy asked, turning his attention towards Nico once more.

"Depends," Nico said distractedly. "I doubt you'd be much of a challenge."

"Hey, that's not fair! I'm capable. What have you got, Will?" Percy slipped off the couch and crawled across the floor towards the tangle of cables, gaming devices and controls plugged in a mess around the wide television. "Anything good?"

"Define good."

"Fun, not too hard core, doesn't require me to have spent hours learning the background of a kingdom or anything." Percy grinned over his shoulder. "The classics, you know?"

"If you're going classics, Wesley apparently thinks that Mario Kart is the prime contender," Nico muttered, and to anyone listening he probably sounded like he was barely even aware of his own words. Will wouldn't be all that surprised if he wasn't. "To hear him preach, it's the be all and end all of games." Nico snorted and muttered something that may have been Italian under his breath.

"Mario Kart? Gods, I haven't played that in years." Percy was already riffling through the exhaustive library of games. "You up for it?"

Nico actually paused his game at that. He glanced up from his screen, eyebrows rising slightly. "Seriously? You actually want to get smashed?"

"Don't underestimate my abilities, Nico. I know what I'm doing – been playing this kind of thing since I was a kid."

"Don't speak too soon," Will cautioned, though he could already feel the rising tide of amusement well within him. It was actually hilarious to see anyone challenge Nico for the first time, as though they had to experience for themselves a thrashing defeat before they believed the truth. All of Apollo's cabin, Hephaestus' cabin and most of Hermes' kids had reached the conclusion that he had been pulling a fast one with claiming that he'd never played a video game before that first afternoon.

"You have a character preference?" Percy asked as he handed a controller to Nico. He offered one to Will, but Will only shook his head with a smile. It was always more fun to watch this sort of encounter than to participate in it.

"As the son of Hades I think it's my right to be the ghost."

"Does this mean that I can call you 'King Boo' from now on?"

Nico afforded him a flat stare that he only dared him too. Percy just laughed.

He wasn't laughing ten minutes and three races later when they finally ended their brief competition. Instead, he turned incredulous eyes to Nico once more, faintly shaking his head. Nico, naturally, had deliberately picked up his hand-held gamer, slumped back into his seat and fallen back into Chaos in the Underworld. Will didn't miss the faintly smug expression on his face, however.

Slowly, Percy turned his attention to Will. "What have you created?"

"You'd be surprised how often I've been asked that question over the past few weeks."

"Seriously, dude, what the hell?" He turned back to Nico, the shaking of his head becoming more prominent as a grin renewed itself upon his face. "How does someone even learn that quickly?"

"He does spend a lot of time on the computer, and the TV, and online these days." Will idly flicked at his own game and booted it back into wakefulness as he spoke. "It's more of a struggle to pull him away from them, actually. He finished the main story of Halo – the version that Alex has, I'm not sure what it was; Combat Evolved I think it was? – in not even half a day."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here, Will," Nico repeated once more in his distracted tone. It was hardly even a reprimand.

"So what, practice and persistence?" Percy gave a sharp shake of his head. "You should start up a motivational speaking blog for gamers, although… well, they probably wouldn't need it. But you mustn't sleep at all!"

"Sleep is for the weak. There's more important stuff to do."

"You're not sleeping?" Will glanced up at Nico with a frown, lowering the device in his hands. He knew Nico didn't sleep well, that he often actively avoided sleep at times for reasons he had yet to fully explain but that Will could deduce for himself. But to not sleep at all?

"Will, settle down. Your Quack is leaking out again." Nico didn't even look up from his screen.

Struggling to smooth his frown – they'd talk about that later, regardless of what Nico would say about him being an overprotective nag – Will glanced back towards Percy. "You know he's basically commandeered my laptop."

"Sucks to be you, bro."

"Tell me about it. I actually thought some satyr had nicked it for the first three days it was missing."

Percy chuckled, rising to his feet. "You really have created a monster."

Will glanced back towards Nico and couldn't withhold a smile at the expression of blank fixation on his face as he clicked and swiped his fingers compulsively. "Don't I know it. He's just your regular old competitive little Goth Boy boyfriend."

"Don't call me Goth Boy, Will, or I'll –"

"Glare at me, I know." Will finished. He smirked as Nico, predictably, flashed him a hooded glance.

"You're too good to him," Percy said, rounding the couch and swiping a companionable ruffle of Nico's hair as he past. Nico batted him away with a scowl. "Letting him steal your laptop and beat you in games? He's walking all over you, Will."

Will shrugged, readjusting himself so he was lying extended along the couch once more and dropping his head onto the edge of Nico's lap. It was a testament to the fact that they were progressing in their relationship, if slowly, that Nico didn't shrug him off of him while Percy was still in attendance. "Yeah, maybe. But if being mowed down in an RPG shoot off means he doesn't do it in real life, then that's fine with me."

"You say that like it's actually happened before," Nico muttered.

"Hasn't it?"

"When have I ever mowed you down in real life?"

"Try last week after we fought that weird-arse zombie with the purple hair and then you challenged me. What do you call that, exactly?"

"I call that me coaching you into using a sword as a proper weapon rather than that handful of sticks that you throw at people."

"You mean a bow and arrows?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course."

Percy laughed as he turned and made his way towards the cabin door. As he slipped his coat back onto his shoulders, Will caught his eye and the distinct mouthing of "whipped" that preceded his departure through the door.

Will didn't dispute the suggestion, calling only a casual "Later" to Percy's farewell as the door to the cabin clicked shut. He didn't dispute because he considered it more than a little bit true. Yeah, he probably was a bit whipped. And it was probably a bit pathetic too, maybe a little embarrassing, and he should probably tone it down.

But then he would think about the hours that he and Nico were practically joined at the hip, or that in Capture the Flag or combat training Nico would always have his back regardless of the fact that he claimed time and time again that he intended to leave him to face his opponents head on so he could 'get some proper practice'. He would remember that out of the vast number of potential companions that offered themselves Nico would only ever partied with Will in multiplayer games, and that Will was the only one spared the full weight of Nico's seething wrath when he'd beat him in his early days of learning a new game.

And he would remember that no one else on earth, Olympus or the Underworld was able to get close enough to Nico to kiss without being kicked into Tartarus. And no one else was kissed back.

Will smiled at his screen, at the little helmeted avatar that was his boyfriend as he gunned down another potential assailant. He liked to think that maybe, just slightly, Nico might be a bit whipped too.

A/N: Please leave a review to let me know what you think! I love to hear from you :D