To the Sun, to the Stars, to the Sky (A Soldier/Rebellion AU)

Chapter 13: We Start the Trek

// A/N: Heyyy okay so note that 1. I've never written an actual kiss scene and 2. I am a poor ace who is kinda opposed to myself kissing anyone so kiss scenes are very difficult for me to picture. Any help or feedback is appreciated.

Also thanks for reading. You are all so awesome I can't even begin to describe, and is the only reason I can update at all so please also thank them (also they've been a great editor so double thanks) <3
[E/n Awww, thanks.]
Alrighty, here we go, you've been warned: //

Will POV

We were informed that we would be packing up the camp in order to attack the castle. It was a shock to a lot of the camp, which was a relief to know I was not the only one unprepared for this. The news came to us through a short address given by Reyna on Monday. She was teaming up with rebel groups all over the country, and we were meeting outside the capital. We had a long way to go, so we were packing up tonight. [E/n Let's roll out!]

It was terrifying. It had been terrifying to join the rebellion in the first place, but this more so. The realization that I was really doing this, that I or anyone else here could easily lose their life. Before, I was preparing for war; now I was actually marching into it, with little warning and little knowledge about what the heck I was supposed to be doing.

We were packed up by dawn on Tuesday. Nico held his sleeping bag and extra pair of clothes with a surprising calm on his face that left me with an ugly jealousy in my stomach. Of course, he wouldn't be afraid of fighting the crown. Of course, he wouldn't be fazed by a war, while I struggle to keep myself from falling apart.

Right.

The capital was called Zeuskeepurpanceon [E/n Please take this advice]. It was set up with the castle in the center, and military forts surrounding the castle. From there, it was only nobles and merchants who we were fairly certain wouldn't put up much of a fight. The most difficult part would be getting through the military bases, and we had enough former soldiers that we were fairly certain we could blend in.

But Reyna brought up a fair point as we marched through the woods. Well, Nico and I marched with most of the soldiers, and Reyna rode a horse since she was the leader. Also, to annoy Octavian by riding too close to him. Nico and I had stuck near her ever since Octavian's outbursts.

She glanced back at us for a millisecond before talking. "I've been thinking, Nico."

Nico's hair was perfect today; he'd fixed it this morning and I'd been admiring him as discreetly as I could all day. "Thinking about what, ma'am?"

Her face was stolid. She'd been stressed ever since we received the letter, and while I'm sure being around Nico and I all the time didn't help considering we're suspects, but she never told us to leave and we knew she would if she wanted to; Reyna's not one for politeness.

"About getting through those bases. I used to be a soldier, but as we saw that first night you were with us, there are things I've forgotten, and you suffered from that as much as anyone."

Nico's cheeks went a little pink, utterly destroying his I-have-a-scary-man-bun aesthetic [E/n *cough* Asahi *cough*] and putting butterflies in my stomach not for the first time that day. "I'm sure you're a terrific soldier, Ma'am, and it was really okay. I was fine."

She frowned. "Not really. But as I was saying, I'm not caught up on everything and I don't want to let it affect our attack. I think...I think you should take the lead when we get there."

Nico seemed to choke, and I laughed at him a little before asking if he was alright.

His eyes were glued to Reyna. "I'm sorry, are you serious?"

I thought I saw an amused smile cross Reyna's face for a moment. "You're the most recent soldier we have. And you obviously memorized the rules well; you still haven't broken off from them entirely." Something else flickered across her face for a moment, something dark. It left me with a bad feeling in my stomach.

Nico's eyes were huge. Kinda dreamy, I'm not gonna lie. "I'd be honored to accept that position, Reyna, but are you sure it's a good idea? I have no leadership training. No...no training with anything like this except for just a normal, rank-three soldier. I don't think I could do as well as you."

"I'm not saying you'll make every decision," Reyna admitted, "but you should be the one training the rest of us, and you'll know better how to get through the bases, even if you haven't been there. We can assume they used the same petty arrogance to design this one as they do every other one; no general housing near the lower-ranked soldiers' housing and such."

Nico was almost speechless, and I had to elbow him to get him to talk again. "Yes. Okay. That's...It's an honor, ma'am."

She nodded. "To the stars, di Angelo."

He swallowed. "To the stars."

He swallowed and looked at me. I took his hand. "Wow," I said. "I never knew I'd be the boyfriend of a rebellion leader." I realized I'd said it too late and the word was already out of my mouth. "Oh, uh, shit. I mean if you want to be my boyfriend. You know, because um. You don't have to, and wow, you're kind of gorgeous but that's—"

He cut me off by putting his hands on my shoulders and pulling me closer to himself. "Permission to kiss y—"

I closed the distance and heard him gasp as I hit him full force with my arms and chest and everything else in me. I held the front of his uniform. One of his hands was on my shoulder and the other cupping my face. I pulled away to look at him. He opened his eyes slowly and leaned his forehead against mine. The early morning sun filtered through the trees and landed on him as if he really was the angel I'd been comparing him to since I met him. (Ayye that's the first actual kiss scene I think I've ever written aside from my novel and like I said earlier, I am only a small kiss-repulsed asexual enby trying to write a semi-decent fanfic. Please send help. I realize it's not the best. I'm working on it.) [E/n Make that two asexuals trying to get a good kissing scene and what is an "enby"?]

"I was not expecting to be kissing you this morning," he whispered to me, smiling. His eyes closed again. "What a nice surprise."

I grinned at him. "Nice surprise? You sound minimally excited, Nico. Maybe I didn't do it right."

His eyes sparkled. "Permission to kiss you again, Will?"

I laughed and for the second time, I kissed him in the early morning light.

He broke away this time, eyes bright when he opened them. "We should probably go catch up to Reyna."

I realized he was right. We'd fallen back in the time that we'd been kissing, because Reyna was not one to wait around on anybody, but especially not two randos kissing. The rest of our camp had followed her, and while we were still in the body of people moving, we'd lost Reyna.

We made our way back through the crowd, laughing and holding hands and quite honestly having way too much fun. Adrenaline still courses through my veins and by God, I was going to use it while I could.

We caught up to our friends. Thalia looked down at us from the horse she had decided to share with Reyna. She had gifted her own horse to Luke, who decided to use his new position as teasing ground.

"How does it feel to be so lowly ranked you have to use your feet?" He asked jokingly.

Nico grinned and gave him a little shove, which surprised Luke to the point of almost knocking him off the horse. "You were literally on the ground with us like five minutes ago, dude."

"That was before I was gifted this wonderful creature by those two beautiful women over there." Luke winked at Thalia who hollered back "Taken!"

"Imagine having so little training that you're completely able-bodied but you don't have the endurance to even do a little walking." Nico poked Luke's leg.

"Neither of you are talking about the right things," Thalia told us, a glint in her eye. "The important question is: how was that kiss, Solace? Is di Angelo as good at kissing as he is at fighting?"

I went bright red and Nico cracked up. "Oh, Thalia. You wish you could kiss your girlfriend as well as I could kiss Will."

"I'll have you know," Reyna called, "Thalia is, in fact, a great kisser."

Luke looked tired of this conversation. "I feel like you guys are intentionally rubbing it in that I don't have a girlfriend."

Nico gasped. "Oh, sorry, Luke! I thought you did have one, with the way you talk about that horse and all."

Thalia cracked up. "That was good, di Angelo! No one told me you had some smarts, too."

Nico side-eyed me with a smile on his face, proud and wanting to see my reaction. I kissed his cheek in response, making his smile grow wider.

"See?" I said. "What you had been talking about the other day; nothing has caught up to you, and we're going to make it out of this with a smile on our faces."

As if I'd managed to somehow steal it from him, his grin disappeared. "The end of the month isn't here yet, Will. We're not done yet and we've got a hell of a journey in front of us."

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Sorry for the absence of update on Wednesday. I'm not going to come with some lame excuse I'm just going to tell the truth, it simply slipped my mind.

The gif doesn't really have anything to do with the chapter, but I felt people needed to see it. The song is by a famous singer and song writer in my country, that's half the reason I choose it, it's also a very energetic and refreshing song after silent, slow and slightly sad songs.

I also published chapter 14 instead of 13 a little while ago, sorry 'bout that.

- Chris