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Nico and Will were the last two people in infirmary when the soft, hollow chime of the curfew call swept through the camp. Close to 80 Mythomagic cards were scattered on the stretcher between them that was currently being used as a table.
Nico looked up from the cards in his hand, “I don’t think I’ll ever understand why they used that as the sound that summons Harpies to eat us when we’re out of bed.”
“Clepsydras” Will muttered, as if that explained anything, his brow furrowed in thought as he examined his cards.
“...Bless you?”
Will waved one hand dismissively. “It's a complicated water powered cuckoo clock created by the son of an Ancient Greek barber," he clarified.
“Huh.” Nico thought about it for a moment, “How’s that work?”
...
Will didn’t respond, his attention fully back on his hand. Nico shrugged and rolled his eyes.
“You ever gonna play, Solace?”
“Just… give me a minute.”
“I’ve given you ten,” Nico smirked. “Want any help deciding what card to use?”
“Nope, I’m going to crush you using my own strength.”
“Sure.”
…
…
“You know, I’ve been playing this game for decades. There’s no shame in losing… again.”
“Ugh. I’m winning this round. I just have to play this right.”
Nico took pity and laid his hand down face-up, “No, Will. There’s honestly no way for you to win this one. You lost like half an hour ago.”
Will’s attention snapped to Nico’s cards, “Don’t just do th-” he started angrily before processing Nico’s clear victory.
“I’ll get you one day Death Boy.” He groaned and placed his own cards face up. “Alright then, what would you have done differently?”
Nico smiled and began straightening the cards and resetting the game to where Will had made a crucial mistake.
“Alright, so this usually would have been a good mo-” Nico began, before being interrupted as Chiron waked into the infirmary.
“I just wanted to check in - Nico?” Chiron.
Nico glanced up “Hey, Chiron.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Nico has, and very kindly I may add, volunteered to help out in the infirmary.” Will said, gaze still fixed on the cards.
Nico nodded innocently as Chiron pointedly looked down at the cards splayed out in front of them.
“Will, when I agreed that healers were exempt from curfew I meant when, and only when, it was necessary to keep the infirmary running.”
“Yes. And I’m scheduled for tonight’s shift? Which is why I’m here.” Will said plainly as he finally looked up to consider Chiron in the doorway. After being involved in multiple wars and with the risk of injured new demigods arriving to camp at all hours, the Apollo cabin and Chiron had come to an agreement that the infirmary could be staffed at night.
“But that doesn’t explain why Nico is also here. You may not be breaking curfew, but Nico is.”
“The healer on site can permit other campers from curfew if they are injured or aiding in infirmary duties. Nico asked if he could help out tonight, and there’s always work to be done.”
“Cutting bandages can be done during the day.” Chiron said dryly.
“Nico has been training to respond to and treat trauma patients. Working the night shift is great practice for him!”
Nico looked down, a bit guilty. The main reason why Will was being so adamant about him staying in the infirmary tonight was that Nico had confided that he was finding it hard to sleep. It had been getting harder to push his nightmares away. Will had offered him a cot in the infirmary while he was working night shifts so that if Nico woke up and was unable to sleep, he wouldn’t be alone.
“Will, we both know that this isn’t what I meant when I said that healers could excuse other campers from curfew during emergency situations.” Chiron took a breath before continuing, “I can see that you two don’t care about personal consequences for breaking curfew, but both of you are camp counselors and you’re setting a horrible example for the rest of the campers.”
Will wasn’t having it.
“As head counselor of the Apollo cabin and therefore the top attending of the camp infirmary, I have the power to decide who is allowed to be present here. You can’t just overrule my medical decisions.”
“And you can’t just abuse your privileges in order to let your boyfriend break curfew” Chiron exclaimed. “Nico can be here during the day. But he better have a serious injury if he is staying the night.”
Nico looked back and forth as Chiron and Will continued to argue semantics. “It’s fine, Will. I’ll just go.”
Chiron glanced thankfully at Nico, surprised that the younger demigod was being so reasonable.
Nico walked briskly out of the infirmary, as Will gaped at him before turning back to Chiron to continue the argument.
There was a loud crash outside, followed by unintelligible muttering. Nico stumbled back into the infirmary blood running down his face. His eyes were unfocused and somewhat glazed.
“I am in need of a doctor.” He slurred and then giggled uncharacteristically before wincing in pain.
“Styx, Nico!” Will ran to his boyfriend who was swaying.
“Hey, it’s my doctor!”
Will wrapped his arm around Nico’s back, helping support his stupid boyfriend as he half dragged Nico to a cot.
“Hurts,” Nico said pointing towards his forehead.
“Yeah, I figured. What did you d- nevermind. Does anything else hurt?” Will had made sure that Nico was stable on the cot before running around, pulling open multiple drawers, and grabbing supplies.
Nico toggled his gaze until he found Chiron’s eyes, “Hmmmm... that depends.” He gave Chiron a sloppy grin only to quickly furrow his brows in confusion, “Did you always have so many eyes and faces?”
Will whipped his head around, noticing that Nico’s complexion has shifted slightly. His face turning a dull shade of green.
Will grabbed a nearby trashcan and managed to throw it under Nico’s face right before the demigod heaved up the contents of his dinner. Nico brought his arms around the can, hugging it to his chest.
“Owwww” he groaned.
Chiron considered Nico for a moment.
“You can stay the night.” Chiron sighed.
“Of course, he’s staying the night!” Will hissed angrily. “And again, that’s not your call to make!”
“Please stop shouting.” Nico interrupted them, not realizing that they had both been speaking at a normal volume.
Chiron rolled his eyes, “However, I will be sending one of your siblings to help you out Will.” He trotted out of the infirmary, heading straight to the Apollo cabin.
“You’re an idiot.” Will shook his head at Nico.
“I am the Dark Lord.” Nico replied very seriously. He maintained eye contact with Will for a few seconds and then wretched again.
Will held Nico’s hair out of his face, looking very unimpressed by his boyfriend.
“Nope, you’re an idiot” Will repeated. “An idiot with a concussion.” He cleaned the blood off of Nico’s face and quickly applied gauze to Nico’s head wound.
“Styx. This seemed like a better idea before I committed to it.”
“Can you tell me what you were thinking?” Will asked as he wrapped a bandage around Nico’s head in order to ensure that consistent pressure was being applied to the injury.
“That head trauma requires observation.” Nico muttered and then yawned. His let his body go slack and collapsed. His head hit his pillow before Will could catch him.
“Owwww.” Nico covered his head with both arms, “That was bad idea.” He said as he curled into the fetal position.
Will jabbed him in the side and Nico groaned, “No sleeping.”
“Fuck the rules,” Nico mumbled defiantly into his pillow.
“Doctor’s order.”
Nico scrunched up his face and turned it towards Will, “Fine.”
Will jabbed Nico’s side again, “Open your eyes, Sunshine.”
Nico winced and barely opened his eyelids. “Too bright,” he hissed.
“Alright then. I’m going to need you to talk to me while I adjust the lights.”
“Don’t wanna. Thoughts are too loud, they echo echo echo.” Nico stumbled over his words.
“Keep talking, Sunshine,” Will encouraged as he flipped the lamp on the bedside table on, pointing it away from Nico.
“Sunshine is too bright, morning sucks, I was born in the darkness – to the darkness I must return.” Nico rambled and slurred while Will rolled his eyes and flicked off the overhead lights.
“The sun casts shadows. Come back here Shadow Caster. It is cuddle time.” Nico held his arms out towards Will who was walking back from across the room.
Will chuckled incredulously. “Did you just give me a nickname while coming up with a haiku?”
“Hike you?” Nico questioned. “No, come here so things can be hi you.”
“You’re not making any sense.” Will informed the dark mass on the bed.
“Not incest, god parents don’t count.” Nico mumbled.
Will stopped in his tracks, blushing. “I- I said you aren’t making sense.”
“Cents don’t matter here, dollars neither, only drachma. Charon want’s a raise and leather loafers. No amount of drachma is enough. Only cuddles can fill the void.”
Before Will had a chance to process Nico’s request for cuddles, Kayla staggered into the infirmary wearing a green scrubs shirt over her pajamas. Without thinking, she flipped on the lights and immediately took a pillow to the face.
“What in Hades!” She looked for where the projectile had come from and saw a mass completely hidden by blankets which was now muttering curses. Shadows were swirling towards the masses bed.
“No shadows, Nico.” Will said sternly.
“Fuck everything.” Came the grumbled response, but the shadows slipped away from Nico’s cot.
“Can you turn the lights back off Kayla?” Will asked, “This idiot gave himself a concussion.”
“Chiron woke me up for a concussion?” Kayla hissed as she turned the overhead light back off.
“Don’t worry about it, feel free to take the long-term patient room. I got this covered.”
Kayla muttered darkly as she headed towards the private room but was mindful enough to not slam the door before leaving the two alone again.
With the intruder gone and the vicious light extinguished, Nico untangled himself from his shield of blankets. He slowly reached out his arms and frowned as he studied Will, “Why no hi?”
Will was trying his best not to laugh. He grabbed some unicorn draught, quickly calculated and measured a proper dose, and poured it into a dixie cup.
“Ok it’s time for hi... I guess?” Nico opened his eyes a bit more as Will began to prop him into a sitting position.
“But first drink this, moron.” Will muttered as he brought Nico’s hand to the cup.
“Not moron. Ghost King... grrr.”
“Alright, alright. You’re very terrifying.”
“Oh no.” Nico whimpered. “Did I scare you? Styx.”
“Are you being serious right now Nico?”
“Don’t want to scare you,” Nico looked up at Will. Despite squinting, he still looked extremely concerned.
“Just drink the medicine.”
Nico took the cup and drank. The screaming pain in his head diminished until a dull pounding.
“Better?”
“Much.” Nico sighed as some of the tension left his face.
Will gave him an assessing look and held up his hand, his index raised, “I want you to track my finger without - .”
“- moving my head.” Nico grumbled, finishing Will’s sentence. “I know Will, I’ve watched you treat concussions like three times this week.”
Will gave him a sharp look, and Nico sighed but tracked his finger. Will quickly ran through some more quick tests to see how quickly Nico’s concussion was reacting to medicine.
“Looks like you’re going to be fine.” Will nodded sharply before punching Nico’s arm.
“Ow, what the fu–”
“You’re never doing that again.”
“... but Chiron said I had to be –”
“Nope. You will NOT intentionally hurt yourself so that you can stay in the infirmary.”
“... fine” Nico muttered.
Will sighed and the two sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment. Will had known that Nico even telling him about having trouble sleeping, meant that his nightmares had to be bad. The fact that Nico had considered Chiron’s declaration that he could only stay if he had a ‘serious’ injury a loophole was more than concerning.
A large part of him really wanted to pry and ask Nico more about his dreams. If he knew more details about what Nico had gone through, what triggered him, what haunted him; surely, he could help more. But… he also knew that he would never fully understand what Nico had gone through. Having all the facts would never change that and it wouldn’t change what he did know was helping – just being present, being a friend, making sure that Nico had the space to be a normal kid.
Nico might not be ready or willing to talk about what plagued his nightmares, but he had told Will that he was having them and had accepted his attempt to help. So, he bit back his curiosity and mentally regrouped.
“Alright, time for a pop quiz.”
Nico glanced at Will questioningly.
“What is one sign of concussion that I haven’t tested for yet?”
“Umm… the lemon or lime test?”
“No… well yes.” Will blanched. “Huh. I don’t think we have any limes in the infirmary.” Maybe he could convince the wood nymphs to send some his way tomorrow. The only citrus they usually served was oranges though. Did oranges even smell like anything? He shook his head trying to get back to his previous train of thought.
“But I was thinking a quick recall test would be good.”
Will walked over to the stretcher that they had been playing on earlier and rolled it over to Nico’s cot.
“So, where did I go wrong?”
Nico took a moment before sitting up and picking up the cards again. Giving Will a small smile, he started to go over the previous game – highlighting where Will had made smart moves and clarifying some of the more obscure strategy of Mythomagic.