soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

twenty-two.

N i c o

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Percy, once again, had to practically drag Nico to P.E. class that afternoon. The two had almost fallen into a tradition, despite their junior year not having gone for too long yet. Nico would try to fake an illness or procrastinate leaving for class, and Percy would have to force Nico out of the lunchroom and to the locker room to get changed.
"All you have to do is show up for attendance," Percy told him like he did every day. "Then you can sneak out and make out with your favorite blonde nurse for as long as you want."

"Alright, first of all, there's nothing going on between me and Will." Percy raised an eyebrow at this, and Nico rolled his eyes in response, fighting back the urge to smack the smirk off of Percy's face. "Second of all, I don't even want to show up."

"Well that's pretty clear," Percy laughed as he pushed open the door to the locker room. "Anyways, have you been noticing how weird Leo's been acting? He's been even more jittery and nervous than usual, and that's saying a lot."

Nico had noticed. Ever since the weekend before, Leo had been especially jumpy. He was still smiley and cracking jokes like usual, but Leo was just a little different. Nothing too noticeable, but since Nico and his friends had known Leo for so many years, they could pick up on it.

Nico also happened to notice Leo and Calypso conveniently missing from the lunch room at similar times on multiple occasions this past week.

But he didn't want to bring that up to Percy. If Leo hadn't mentioned it, then Nico wasn't going to talk about it either.

"Don't really know what's happening with him," Nico eventually answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Then again, Leo's...Leo."

The subject soon changed from whatever was going on with Leo, and the two continued to talk as they walked out to the gym area. Kids were already walking around the gym and doing warm-ups in the middle, which Nico didn't quite understand. It was a high school gym class, and some people in the class were acting as if this was the Olympics.

"Are you going to hide under the bleachers again?" Percy questioned aloud as if he was reading Nico's mind.

"I'll stay for attendance, and then go hide out somewhere."

"The nurses office?" Percy winked while nudging him in the shoulder. "You certainly seem to be spending a lot of time there this year. Care to tell me why?"

Rolling his eyes, Nico couldn't help but let out a small groan as he responded, "You know exactly why, idiot."

"Hey, hey, hey," Percy laughed, holding up his palms in front of him as if he was trying to defend himself. "You guys tease me all the time about Annabeth. It's about time I return the favor."

"I'm not even going into whatever's going on between you and her," Nico mumbled, shaking his head as he thought about Percy's complete idiocy when it comes to girls – specifically Annabeth. "Anyways, isn't swim season starting up soon?"

"The first practice is two weeks from now, and tryouts for captains are that day," Percy said as the two started walking in a lap around the gym, both of them a little terrified of what might happen if Coach Hedge saw them 'dawdling around'. "I really want to make captain this year, but there's a bunch of seniors, so I don't think I'm going to get it."

"You're getting it, trust me. There's a reason why there's that rumor you're a merman in disguise."

"Because I have 'eyes that look like the Mediterranean Sea'?" Percy smirked, wiggling his eyebrows in a joking sort of way. "At least, that's what all the ladies say."

"No, idiot, it's because you swim like you're part-fish."

The sound of a shrill whistle being blown cut through Percy and Nico's conversation. "We're running suicides, kids!" Coach Hedge bellowed into the megaphone.

"Are you kidding me?" Percy muttered under his breath, resting his hand on his forehead. "Those are the absolute worst..."

"Yeah...I'm heading out to go hide in the nurse's office."

"You mean the brooms closet?" Percy winked as he began to back away from Nico.

Nico flipped him off before slipping out the side entrance of the gym. He was thankful that Coach Hedge didn't really notice when students were missing from class. The gym teacher was probably so focused on yelling at his students that he wouldn't realize that a few students were gone.

Nico made his way over to the nurse's office and faked a limp once he got nearer so it looked like he actually had a reason to be there. He was thankful that the office was empty, minus Will who let out a small groan when he saw Nico standing there.

"Are you seriously ditching PE class again?" Will said to him, trying his best to sound annoyed even though Nico could tell he was hiding back laughter. "I swear Coach Hedge is going to catch you one of these days."

Nico let out a small chuckle as he sat down on the nurse's bed. "You obviously haven't been here long enough to know about Coach Hedge's ways."

"You do realize he's my cross country coach, right?"

"I totally knew that."

"Uh huh," Will mocked as he pulled out his clipboard. "I'm going to ask you a few questions now."

"Are you serious?"

"You're here anyways!" He responded. "Might as well give you an excuse to be here in case someone else comes back here."

Nico let out an overdramatic sigh that made Will laugh loudly. "Fine," He relented. "But it better not take too long."

"Number one," Will began, trying to be serious, but Nico could see the corner of his lip twitch as if he was about to smile. "Name?"

"William Solace."

"That's my name, not yours. Name?"

"Nico 'I'm going to strangle you if you keep asking me stupid questions' Di Angelo."

"What a lovely name. I especially enjoyed the middle part."

Nico shoved him in the shoulder, and Will let out a small chuckle as he sat down on the bed across from him. Will continued to ask him redundant questions, and, per usual, Nico refused to answer any of them properly. While a part of him just liked annoying Will, he also liked the way Will's face lit up whenever Nico cracked one of his dry, sarcastic jokes.

"Okay, okay...one final question," Will managed to say in between his laughter. He then calmed himself down before saying, "What are you doing Saturday night?"

Well Nico certainly didn't expect that.

"Uhm, nothing," Nico answered, trying to appear nonchalant when his stomach was twisting and turning into knots. "Why?"

Will shrugged in an almost awkward way, and Nico realized that this was the first time he had truly seen Will nervous in front of him. "I was just wondering if you wanted to see a movie with me. I don't know what movie, which I know is kind of ridiculous. But I want to...hang out with you."

Nico couldn't help but notice the hesitation when Will said "hang out", and his brain went haywire as he thought about the possibilities of what Will could've said instead.

God, Nico was overthinking this way too much. Will is just asking him to go as a friend. He didn't want to get his hopes up and think otherwise.

"Yeah, yeah," Nico eventually answered, trying to act as if he wasn't completely freaking out on the inside. "That sounds cool."

"Awesome," Will beamed. "Pick you up at 6?"

Still not believing what was happening was even real, Nico confirmed with a small smile, "Pick me up at 6."

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