Its a Little Complicated ( Solangelo / Nico Di Angelo)

Chapter 23

**will**

Nico starts getting ready, and I turn to the wall as if it's extremely interesting. I want to look for scars or any traces of anything that needs healing on his body. The issue with that is that we are attracted to each other, and I don't know if he's actually fine with me regularly examining him. He might get insecure, and I just want him to be comfortable.

"Hey, " he says very quietly. I turn to him and make sure im just staring at his face. "Can you see if- if..." His voice falters. "I just want to show you that im tying." His face turns red, and he looks frustrated with himself, "I just don't know if what I'm doing is enough."

I nod as I walk up to him. "Its a process, it takes time, and you just need to take it easy on yourself." I look at him and smile before trying to examine him, " never patient death breathe." That got him to smile along with rolling his eyes, "shut up, solace."

We laugh as I start looking at his back. A few healed scars and bones still poking out. As if they wanna cut out through the skin. I strain to keep my face straight since I can feel him staring through the mirror on the wall he's facing. Above his hip are a dark purple and yellowish bruise.  "What happened here?"

He gives me a sheepish look as he says, "I wasn't paying attention, and I accidentally hit myself with the doorknob."

"Were you in a hurry?"

"No, actually, it was a small bump, but it started to hurt soon after. I've noticed that even after training, I started getting bruised from things that never given be some in the past."

"Well, you were pretty malnourished at the beginning of taking care of you. It wasn't your fault that you had to survive off of tiny seeds. Then soon after, you charged in fighting with everyone else without making a proper recovery or giving your body a small rest. You do seem to have gained some more pounds, which im happy about, but your still unhealthily thin."

His expression turns sad after what I had said. "It's okay that you are still not at your goal. I understand that you can't intake regular amounts of food as you have been able to before. After your body is adjusted to a small intake of food, it could make you ill to just randomly shove food down your throat." That eases his expression a little.

I move in front of him and feel his skin where you could see his rib cage sticking out. It is way better than before. Just scars now and small bruises. I look at his shoulder and travel down to his arm. I can sense him stiffen, and before I can say anything, he goes, "I'm sorry."

That worried me a bit.

I quickly let my eyes scan all over his arms and wrists. But I don't find any new scars, which has me relieved and also confused. "Why are you, sorry?" I look over his wrists again and their healing well. "I don't know."

"You can tell me at any time that you feel uncomfortable, and I will stop." I don't want him to feel anything negative around me. I want to be his comfort. He looks down at the floor before closing his eyes with a pained expression, "no."

**Nicos POV**

"It's just..." I try to explain. "I know you were probably hurt, or I made you worry so much when you found out what I was doing." I put on my shirt and avoid eye contact. Will stays quiet before finally speaking, "It's okay. I know that you wouldn't do that voluntarily unless you felt like it was for your own survival."

I feel my gut twist a little. "No it's not."

"And why not?"

"Because I know how it feels."

I forced the sentence out my mouth. There. I wrap my arms around myself. I wish I could say that finally speaking about it made me feel relief, but all I felt is a sense of dread. I fight back any emotion as I make eye contact with him. He looks at me worried, and it makes me feel like I swallowed sandpaper.

Will opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a knock from the door. He turns to me and hugs me before saying, "we can continue this conversation later if you are still up to it." I hug him back and nod my head.

I go to open the door and Rey waved at us. "Hey, the rest already got here, we are going to start heading out to the restaurant."

"Alrighty."

We both follow her downstairs to greet the rest before making our way for breakfast.

****
Hey guys, I ditched business and went back to psychology as a major.

But anyways, is the pace of the story okay or do you guys feel like I need to speed it to the interesting parts?