Nico and Will - Beginning at the Infirmary [Solangelo fanfic]

Awake, but with a Twist

Nico felt himself stumble through hazy dreams as he struggled to claw himself back into consciousness. In one instance, he remembered bronzed fingers pressing a cup of warm, sweet liquid to his lips. In another vision, Chiron and Will Solace stood murmuring beside his bed as they occasionally cast him nervous glance. 

Eventually, Nico began to regain a tingling sensation in his fingers and toes. He fluttered his eyelids and found his view gradually came into focus. A chair scraped against the ground as its user abruptly stood up and raced over to Nico.  

"Great, you're awake," remarked a looming figure approaching Nico's bed. 

Nico rubbed his eyes with the backs of his knuckles. He strained against the soreness in his triceps to lift his arms. 

"Will, what am I doing here?" Nico groaned.

"Well, Death Boy, you nearly pulled off a disappearing act. Your essence is fading-- any more time without medical assistance, and things really wouldn't have ended well for you," Will replied.

"I had everything under control," Nico said as he gritted his teeth to suppress the pain in his jaw. 

"Sure you did," said Will, rolling his eyes. 

"Well, thanks anyway," Nico mumbled. 

"Sorry?" Will inquired with feigned concern. "I didn't quite hear you there." Fire seemed to flicker behind Will's amused eyes-- as though this were some sort of game for him. 

Nico could have sworn Will had winked at him just now. His cheeks warmed and his insides seemed churn at the thought. He opened his mouth as his mind scrambled to find a satisfactory retort, but his response was interrupted by a spoonful of warm, homemade risotto, slightly crunchy in the way that his mother always used to prepare it. Ambrosia. 

"I've been feeding you as much ambrosia as you can handle every few hours," Will explained. "You've been really out of it for the last few days. I don't what kind of dark stuff you're messing with, but you need to be more careful. I was so worried that you--" His face seemed to go pale as his voice trailed off. 

Three loud clunks interrupted the serenity within the nearly-empty Apollo cabin. Will got up to answer the door. Chiron, in all his centaur glory, galloped up next to Nico's bed. 

"Good, you're conscious," he remarked. 

Will positioned himself firmly at the head of Nico's bed, and glowered at Chiron. "I told you," he said with uncharacteristic venom. "He needs to rest. He's not ready to talk." 

Nico's heart fluttered at the sense of concern in Will's voice, but his intrinsic stubborn independence won out. Grinding his teeth together against the agony burning through his body, Nico pushed his palms down on his sheets to sit up. "What's there to talk about? I'm not fragile. We can discuss it now." 

Will's eyes flashed in Nico's direction, but he said nothing. 

Chiron cleared his throat. "I haven't seen a case like yours in hundreds of years, but it's happened before. Your soul is slowly being shut out from the mortal world, and you'll need a Quest to solve it." 

Nico screwed his face up in confusion. "What are you saying here?" he asked.

"You're fading, Child of Hades," Chiron said. "And unless you do something to save yourself soon, you'll completely cease to exist in the mortal world." 

Nico squeezed his eyes shut although he knew that in a sense, he'd known this all along.