Solangelo: The Infirmary

Shadows and Gold

Nico shot strait up, gasping for air. The infirmary was dark except for a few torches lit across the room and two on each end of the infirmary.
A shadowy figure hurried over to Nico from a couple beds down. Will knelt next to Nico. "What's wrong? Are you okay? What can I do for you?" His voice was so full of concern, it put Nico on edge. But he relaxed as Will placed a cool cloth on his forehead.
Still slightly out of breath, he refused a herb tea to "calm his nerves."
"It was just a dream."
"We're demigods. It's never just a dream. What happened?" Sadness built up in him again, remembering Festus and the two mystery riders.
"Well this one was, okay!?"
Nico immediately regretted the tone he'd used. Clearly visible in the poor light quality was Will's hurt face.
After a moment, Will stood up and sat on the empty bed next to Nico's. "Okay then." Nico desperately wanted to apologize to his... Friend? Doctor? Fellow half blood? Nico had no idea.
"You should really go back to sleep ya' know. It's like, 2:00 in the morning."
"Okay. Sure. Let me guess, doctor's orders?"
As Nico's eyes adjusted to the darkness, Will seemed to give off a warm yellow glow.
'A warm yellow glow...' Nico thought. Nico's eyes closed as his mind was turning in circles.
He and Will stayed in silence for what felt like forever. The silence from Will was killing him though Nico spent more time with the dead who don't always talk than with alive people.
As Nico was thinking of something to say, Will rose from the bed opposite of Nico, and sat at the foot of Nico's bed. Nico kept his eyes closed in fear he'd slipped into sleep and it was another dream. Another moment of silence, then Will reached and grabbed Nico's hand. A comforting warm surge flooded Nico's senses. His heart was beating so fast and hard, he was sure the other boy could hear it. His whole body tingled with a giddiness Nico had never felt anything close to before. 'He must think I'm asleep.'
Nico did the only thing he could think of without making either of them uncomfortable. Nico didn't want Will to let go. Nico stayed the rest of the night, fully conscious, pretending to be asleep, holding Will's hand.
*****
The second day in the infirmary wasn't too bad. Well, except the part when Will left.
Once the light of the sun flooded into the infirmary, Apollo kids started to shuffle in. Just before the first of the kids came in, Will squeezed Nico's hand. As he let go to go see his brothers and sisters, he traced the length of of Nico's hand from Nico's wrist to His fingertips with his fingertips.
*****
About an hour or so later, Will left the infirmary. He had taken the night shift and was looking pretty tired. He probably went to his cabin for a couple of hours.
Nico suddenly felt alone without Will checking on him. Nico was almost ready to give up on scolding himself. His thoughts wouldn't stop coming.
What made things worse was the fact that other Apollo kids came to check on him. Not Nearly as often as Will, but it still put Nico in a bad mood whenever they did.
They also didn't fuss over him like Will did, or had the same amount of worry he did. But they were generally concerned about Nico, which surprised him. 'They probably want to know how long until I leave.'
*****
Around lunch time, Nico was ready to fight Tartarus himself. 'I can't take any more of this!' As he was beginning to get out of bed, a voice from behind him stopped Nico in his tracks.
"Where do you think you're going, Mr. Underworld?" A tall blond boy stood behind Nico with his arms crossed and a smirk planted across his face.
"Don't call me that Will!" Nico snapped, though he was relieved to the boy again. "Fine death boy. I'll ask again, where are you going?"
"Away! I've stayed here 24 hours! Isn't that enough?" Will chuckled and shook his head like he was enjoying Nico getting boiled up. "Nope. Three days, remember? But, your health has improved from yesterday, so I guess you could take a walk around camp." A walk wasn't being clear from the infirmary, but it was better that sticking around there.
"Alright, cool. I'll be back-"
"Not so fast death boy. You can't go by yourself, you're a patient. Someone is going to have to go with you."
"What? No." Will shrugged. "I don't make the rules. But that's okay because I have a solution. I'm not quite ready to go back to work yet, so I will go with you!"
'Horray.' Nico thought. "Fine. But don't call me death boy."