Nico's not-so-surprise party.
Prompt: Happy birthday Nico!
On January 28th, Nico woke up, groggy as always. He'd slept exceptionally well last night, full and warm of happiness. He'd taught Will Machiavelli, Will's siblings listening in, and the four of them had played it for hours after. At camp fire, Will had made him five s'mores. Nico almost got sick to his stomach from them. Still, he definitely didn't mind.
He stretched and decided to clean his room before showering and getting dressed. Seeing as he cleaned it every day for inspection—hey, he wasn't cleaning stables if he could get away with it—it wasn't much he needed to do. He threw his dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, made his bed, and quickly swept the floors. They weren't gross enough to need a washing.
He'd just shrugged on his jacket when a knock came from his door. He went over, rubbing the last of the sleep out of his eyes and opened the door. Will stood outside with a bright smile on his face, a bit of a challenging glint in his eyes.
"I was startin' to worry you weren't awake yet," Will said.
Nico rolled his eyes and gave him a chat. "I was just cleaning the cabin quickly."
"Before breakfast?"
Nico shrugged. "Hazel told me yesterday some of them might come over today."
Will raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" Nico nodded. "How come?"
Nico looked at him. The glimmer in his eyes and his easy smile. As if Will Solace would forget Nico's birthday. Nico remembered Will's. He decided not to say anything, instead opting to shrug and give Will a shove with his shoulder. Will laughed, bright and loud, and shoved him back. Will kept pretending to pry information from him, why today was so important anyway, or if anything special was happening, ignoring Nico every time he told him to shut up and stop playing around.
They sat at the breakfast table, Austin and Kayla playing cards while eating. Nico couldn't help the surge of pride when he recognised the game. They were playing Machiavelli.
Will rolled his eyes and sighed. "You should be eating breakfast. Not playing cards."
Austin shushed him, while Kayla looked up, competitiveness in her eyes. "We're getting better so we can beat Nico."
"Good luck with that," Nico teased, biting into his pancakes.
"We're getting good," Austin muttered, not tearing his eyes away from the game.
"That might be, but you need to eat. You can play after breakfast." Will scolded, a smile of disbelief gracing his lips.
"Yeah, yeah," Austin muttered, annoyance in his voice. "After this game."
Will rolled his eyes. "Because I haven't heard that before."
He let them be regardless. Even though Nico had only seen him reigning in all of his siblings for a month, it was easy to tell Will was a lot more lenient in the off-season. Nico had seen him confiscate stuff for lesser reasons than skipping breakfast. Austin stayed true to his word though, and Will got off his case after that.
Today was one of those rare days where the Apollo campers made a schedule to not get completely bored. After breakfast and cabin inspections, they had arts and crafts, then music. After lunch, Will had planned Archery for Austin and Kayla, while he'd planned sword fight lessons for himself. Apparently, Nico was teaching him. They could do whatever they pleased after that until dinner, and apparently Austin wanted to share his new sax music at the camp fire.
It sounded good to Nico, so he agreed to tag along and teach Will sword fight. In arts and crafts, Austin and Kayla taught him to braid leather bracelets while Will was working on something that was supposedly a secret, because he wanted to give it to Nico when it was done. At music, Austin convinced Nico to jam out with him on the piano, while Austin played jazz tunes on his saxophone. Will joined on ukulele and Kayla sang. Nico briefly wondered why Will didn't play the acoustic guitar instead, since he knew how and it would probably sound better than the ukulele, but he didn't comment on it. Somehow it worked out this way, and it didn't sound half bad. Nico had a good time as well, getting more and more familiar with the keys. He remembered when he was younger, and he played with ether his mother or Bianca. They would play the main melody, usually on the higher scale, and he would play the rhythm melody, usually on the lower scale. Now, he sat with the piano on his own, still learning to play everything alone. Luckily, Will, Kayla, and Austin didn't tease him for it. Instead they were patient with him and didn't mind playing certain segments a thousand times over, until Nico got the keys right.
When they didn't jam together, Nico still enjoyed spending time practising the piano and getting a grip on the keys and the scales. He still needed a lot of help to understand how to read notes. Austin was good at teaching, although sometimes he'd get a bit ahead of himself. Luckily, Nico found he was quite good at learning how to play a song by hearing it and copying it. Jamming was easier than listening and copying, since Austin took the lead and the others mostly played scales to fit the sax. It was quite relaxing and made Nico feel warm and happy.
They headed for lunch together, Kayla still humming while Austin cleaned his mouthpiece. He whistled along to Kayla's singing, even though he really sucked at whistling. Barely a sound escaped his lips, but he seemed happy all the same. Will bumped his hand into Nico's and took a hold. Nico didn't feel as flustered as he did last, so he took that as a good sign. At the moment, he felt such at ease, he could be floating. He laughed and joked around with Will and his siblings at lunch, creating music with plates and glasses. Some of the Ares campers groaned, and Sherman Yang snapped at them to keep it down. All Nico had to do was give Sherman a glare. A challenge. What are you going to do about it, Yang?
The Ares campers stayed quiet after that. Sherman gave Nico a glare when he and Will followed the Ares campers to the practice ring, but it didn't escalate beyond glares. At least not for now, and Nico wasn't going to start a situation. Will had helped him discover the sweet satisfaction of never starting a fight, even if he finished it, because when Chiron inevitably came to scold the brawlers, Nico would mostly get a slap on the wrist since multiple people could attest to his fighting back being self-defence. So he let it go and waited patiently. If Sherman Yang, or one of the other Ares campers, wanted to start something with him, he wasn't going to stop them. On the contrary. Watching them carry out whatever punishment they got for starting something was the sweetest revenge in existence.
Nico and Will went to get themselves some armour, and because the Ares campers were fidgeting and shooting him glances—Sherman clearly stopping them from actually asking him—Nico raised some skeletons for them. At least no one could claim he hadn't kept it civil, then. He looked at Will, who stood with an easy smile, watching the Ares campers sparring with the skeletons despite Sherman's protests.
"I have a feeling he'll do something to you out of spite," Will mused.
"Let him," Nico said, rolling his shoulders. "Let's forget about that for now and focus on you."
Will's smile brightened. "Why, I never," he teased.
Nico gave him a pointed look and rolled his eyes. "Focus, Solace. We're gonna figure out how to make you capable of protecting yourself, in case of a new war. You may be a brave medic, but running out into battle with nothing is as stupid as doing heroic deeds."
Will nodded. "Heroic deeds really are stupid. Even if they save the world. Because the heroes nearly kill themselves," he gave Nico a telling look.
Nico poked him in the arm for good measure. "Keep that up Solace, and I'll refuse to go easy on you."
Will chuckled, mirth in his eyes, but stood at Nico's full attention regardless. Nico gave him a cynical look, just to get his point across, and then they started their lesson. They started out very basic, slow and without breaking much sweat. It was all stance and holding a sword. Nico even gave Will his very own instructor skeleton to spar with. The skeleton would relay pointers to Nico, so it felt like they were two teaching Will now. In a way, they had to do it like this. Even though Nico might hold back, he didn't want Will holding back, and Will probably would for the sake of not having to spend time healing wounds he inflicted.
First, Nico tried to get Will to fight on the offence, but he seemed a bit reluctant to strike so furiously; not to mention a bit too heavy-footed for it. Will was the kind of person who was used to standing his ground and not taking any nonsense. After watching a few matches where Will kept making simple mistakes, Nico called for a time-out so Will could get something to drink. He should probably have convinced Will to change clothes before the match, because while Nico was just instructing, not moving much, Will was working hard.
"Maybe, I'm not cut out for fighting," Will huffed, gulping water and Gatorade.
"Hmm," Nico mused, trying not to get distracted by Will's sweaty biceps. "I don't think that's it."
Will raised an eyebrow. "No? Did you miss how I got my butt whooped by a skeleton who, by all biological laws, should not be able to move at all?"
"I didn't." Nico stole a sip from Will's Gatorade. "But until now, we've tried having you do offence attacks. We haven't tried defence yet. I'm thinking, maybe defence will merge better with your natural healer instincts than offence."
"Sounds plausible."
"Name something you can do that at least renders someone immobile."
Will blinked before speaking with a blush. "I mean. I know pressure-points. If I wanted, I could make you numb with just one touch if I got access to the right spot."
Nico looked at him, almost in disbelief. The extend of Will's medical knowledge and abilities had never been something they discussed much. They hardly discussed Nico's power beyond how he could use them without passing out. Will shuffled, almost shyly, as if Nico was going to shun him for being able to poke someone and have them lying numbly on the ground. That was actually quite good. He could use that.
"Alright," he said. "I'm guessing you also know which veins are deadliest to cut during battle?"
"Of course."
Nico nodded. "That's good. We can definitely work with that. Alright. I'll teach you defence stances instead, then. Defence is a bit tricky for me, because I'm definitely more on the offence. But it should be possible. Mostly you will need to focus on reading your opponent's body and blocking their attack. Don't be scared to egg them on by playing a game of chicken. Get close and retreat, block them and look for openings."
Nico sparred with Will, using slow movements, explaining everything as they moved, and where Will could spot his openings in the blink of an eye. They weren't going to do a full sword fight right away, although they did speed up a bit and used light taps. Almost like fencing.
When they'd sped up sufficiently, Nico had Will spar his skeleton. Will pointed out the skeleton couldn't feel pressure points, so he had to show where it would be for the skeleton to play along. After that, Will did a lot better. He was clearly cut out for defence. His body wasn't as rigid, and he didn't seem as unsure and lost and guilty. Nico let Will spar for another twenty minutes before he called for break and followed Will to his cabin so he could take a shower. Even though Nico wasn't super sweaty himself, a quick shower didn't sound unwelcome. Especially considering he might be getting guests later.
He dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans—new and not scuffed—and a white T-shirt the Apollo cabin had given him after they found out he was really into old rock bands; including The Rolling Stones. It had red sleeves, and a red Rolling Stones logo taking up the front. He had a black zip-up hoodie he decided to shrug over his shoulders, instead of wearing his jacket. He was just about to go outside again, after popping on his shoes, when a knock came from his door. He rolled his eyes, figuring it must be Will who had probably finished up before him and was getting impatient for him to come back out to hang around until dinner.
"Calm down, Solace. I'm coming out." He opened the door and immediately had confetti shot in his face, and the shrill of party blowouts mixed with voices yelling happy birthday at him.
When the thin shreds of coloured papers were done falling around him, and obscuring his vision, he blinked and took a moment to take in the scene. At the very front, stood Hazel, her golden eyes twinkling with happiness, carrying a box. Behind her stood Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo, and Will. Percy and Jason imitated taking pictures of Nico's shocked expression, shit-eating grins to boot. Nico was really happy Hazel told him yesterday they might come over to surprise him. He'd been somewhat prepared for this all day.
"Hey guys," he said, trying to not act as surprised as he was. "Feel free to come in."
"Boo, Hazel," Leo complained. "I can't believe you actually told him."
Nico rolled his eyes, and Hazel gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He was glad his cabin was clean, the beds made, the floor clear. He found some of the cushions from the unused bunks and moved them to the floor in a circle, so they all could see each other. Piper and Annabeth put a large box they'd been carrying between them onto the floor, and Will took off a bag pack Nico hadn't even noticed him wearing until now. Inside Will's bag pack was plastic plates, plastic cups, plastic forks, and cone-shaped, white party hats with colourful circles and confetti printed on them. Will passed them around to everyone but Nico, and none of the others complained. For Nico himself, Will fished out a black paper-crown with a hand-painted ghost on it.
"I made it for you in arts and craft. Because you're the Ghost King," he grinned, and Nico rolled his eyes at him, but he kept the hat on.
Inside the giant box Piper and Annabeth had carried in, was a three-layer black cake, decorated with light-grey whipped cream shaped like tomb stones, skeletons, zombies, and ghosts. Nico had to choke back his tears.
"My mum made it for you," Percy said. "I just told a bit about you, and then she figured you'd like your cake like this."
Nico nodded, not trusting his voice, and smiled around at his friends.
"I also brought a pack of playing cards," Will announced. "In case you want to beat us all in… what was that Italian one called you taught me the other day?"
"Machiavelli," Nico snorted, quickly wiping away his tears.
"That one," Will smiled.
Nico shoved him, took the cards, and shuffled them. He hoped no one else would need these cards later on, since they were eating Sally's really nice cake while playing, and Nico had gotten a bit of the decorative whipped cream onto his cards. Judging by the state of everyone else's cards, he saw he wasn't the only one. The light reflected greasy fingerprints, until the cards were nothing but sticky cake residue. Leo had brought another card game called Cards Against Humanity. It sounded simple enough, but some of these sentences were abhorrently crude. Nico never felt so offended before, and Hazel fanned herself more than she played. The others were having a blast though. Both at the game, and at Nico's and Hazel's embarrassment.
When dinner rolled around, they gathered at the Hades table. Chiron was about to complain, when out of nowhere, Will presented a note. Chiron seemed defeated while Will smiled innocently at his stunt; a doctor's note where he excused the company at the Hades table by using Nico's mental health and well-being as a catalyst. Nico didn't complain about it. Because who, ever complained about gaming the rules? They sat in their stupid party hats and the others still teased Nico and Hazel about their reaction to Cards Against Humanity. Nico got them back by creating small localised earthquakes that had them choking on their food and drink.
He was already tired when they went back to his cabin to lounge around, and he wondered if the others would stay over at camp. It was kind of nice to have most of them gathered. Sure, Frank and Reyna hadn't been able to tag along because of their Praetor duties, but Hazel said they sent their best. Nico sat against his bed, Hazel on one side, Will on the other. He'd somehow found a hole in-between all of the crazy to properly introduce them to each other. He had felt a bit tongue tied, and a bit silly, because it wasn't like they didn't know each other or their relation to Nico. This was just the first time they had physically been in the same proximity since Nico and Will started dating.
Nico leaned his head against Will, listening to the others' stories about how school and homework was. Jason was ranting about his Pontifex Maximus project and how it was a bit larger than he initially had thought. Leo talked about living with Calypso, Emmie, and Jo. It sounded really nice, Nico thought. Hazel spoke fondly of Camp Jupiter and how it was to lead a cohort. Nico greatly admired her and felt a surge of pride for his sister. He could fall asleep like this.
As his eyelids drooped, the others seemed to remember themselves. Both Percy and Annabeth had promised Sally to come back for the night. Jason and Piper had promised Piper's dad the same, and Leo had promised Calypso he'd also make it back at least before midnight. Only Hazel would stay at camp this time around, and even though it wasn't exactly what Nico had hoped, he was still glad.
They got up to break, Nico standing with them. But none of them headed to the door. Instead, Will placed Nico in front of his bed, and stood next to him as he accepted presents from his guests. Even though he knew it was customary to give gifts at a birthday, he hadn't expected it.
Annabeth gave him a history book of Italy, from the 1920's up to modern time. She said she'd hoped to find something dating a bit farther back for him, but Nico honestly didn't mind. He was too happy for words. Percy gave him a parrot plush toy with an eye-patch and made a dumb pirate joke. The others chuckled at Nico's embarrassment, and Nico shoved Percy, pretending he didn't care for the parrot, but secretly, he really loved it. Jason gave him an amazing, up-to-date, sword-cleaning-kit, including a sharpening tool, and Nico gave him half a hug for it. Piper gave him a bracelet she had braided herself of multicoloured pieces of threat with a cactus charm on it. She explained to him that Native Americans believed the cactus to represent protection and endurance, so a cactus charm was believed to help people endure tough situations. Nico put it on immediately and was just about to hug her when she added a home-made dream catcher for his nightmares to the mix. Even though Nico wasn't that superstitious, he was immensely grateful for Piper's kind thoughts. Leo gave him a set of fireproof clothes he and Calypso had made and tested together. Although Nico wasn't sure when he would ever need it—or wear it—he thanked Leo nonetheless, and told him to thank Calypso for him.
Last up was Hazel. She carried three gifts with her. One from Reyna, one from Frank, and one from herself. Reyna's gift was a full spa-treatment day at Camp Jupiter for him and a friend of his own choice. He could cash it in at any time and Nico was so happy he might have let out a single laugh. Frank's gift was a binder with Mythomagic cards. Hazel let him know Frank had found all the cards he had extra copies of, and collected them for Nico, hoping they could have a match next time they saw each other. Nico told Hazel to tell Frank he was on. As for herself, Hazel pulled out a large canvas where she'd painted a family portrait that had Nico in tears. Hades/Pluto in the back, splitting down the middle, holding a hand on either of their mothers' shoulders. Hazel, Nico, and Bianca were in the front, Nico between his sisters. He hugged Hazel tight, choking on his tears, not embarrassed about it.
He waved them all goodbye as they had to leave, and while Hazel hung up the portrait in the cabin, Will turned to him with a smile and gave him a half-hug, presenting his own present.
"I don't think anyone can top what Hazel got for you. But hey, I tried."
Nico snorted and took Will's present. "It's not about who gives the best present, Will. You all put thoughts into it, so I appreciate it regardless. Truly."
He unwrapped Will's present and saw a CD with a hand-drawn cover. The drawing depicted a skeleton with a beating heart. It wasn't anything pretty or extraordinaire, but Nico could decipher it nonetheless. There was writing on the cover; Best of Nico di Angelo.
"It's your favourite songs," Will told. "I figured you'd like it, since you finally got a CD player."
Nico nodded and smiled. "Thanks."
"There's more." Will shuffled a bit. Almost shyly?
Nico gave Will the CD and dug further into the box until his hands caught a leather cord with what could only be two beads on it. One of the beads was the one all the campers got after the battle of Manhattan, and the other bead was the one they all got after defeating Gaea.
"I noticed you never got a leather chord, or beads," Will said. "So I decided to get at least those two for you, since you were vital to our success. You deserve them as much as the rest of us do."
Nico was almost embarrassed by how much he'd been teary-eyed today, so he wiped his eyes before he got started, and hugged Will tight. Just for good measure, he gave Will a kiss as well.
Will smiled into the kiss. "Happy birthday, Nico di Angelo."
Criticism and/or advice on improvement is always welcome and highly appreciated.
Also, in case you wonder where I got my titles, listen to The Happy Happy Birthday Song by Arrogant Worms.
THERE IS STILL TIME TO NOMINATE FICS FOR THE 2019 SOLANGELO FIC AWARD (link in bio)