Love And Blood - CelestialStrings - Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2024)

Chapter 1 Chapter Text

Rain slammed down into the mud. The darkness of the night was broken by flickering flames atop a cliff. Nico slowly lifted himself up. Pain spiderwebbed through his bones. Blood pooled in the dirt. He needed that inside him.

He looked upwards at the fire. The explosion lasted barely a second. One moment he was stepping through a shadowy gateway, and the next flames wreathed his body.

“I, William Solace, Son of Apollo The Radiance, swear upon the light of the Sun and Moon that I will always protect those in need. That I will always fight forces that seek harm, and will fight to save anyone threatened by evil-“

Will jolted awake, lifting his head up from his desk. His phone was violently ringing and neck ached from the sleeping position.

He hated dreams about his upbringing.

“What the hell, Leo, it’s half midnight,” Will’s voice sounded annoyingly hoarse.

“Hey, Will, there’s Someone injured down at the workshop, I need your help,”

Will shot up. He pulled on a jacket and a pair of boots as he talked on the phone.

“First aid?”

“I've done my best, he was bleeding and I think there’s some broken bones involved,” Even as the phone call’s quality dipped and rose, Will could hear the panic in Leo’s voice.

“Okay, keep him breathing, I’ll be there in five,”

Will hung up. His heart kinda fell slightly as he glanced across his mess of a bedroom and picked up his keys from his desk. Usually he prided himself on a clean living space, but recently he didn’t have the energy to clean.

He ran down the stairs and out the house. An old stone mansion, renovated cheaply over the last two hundred years. Two decades ago it was a hub of activity, but now there were barely any residents.

The streets were dark and cold. Old houses stood between the leering trees. The roads always took on an ominous edge at night, and Will knew more than most people about the monsters that lurked in the shadows.

The workshop was an old garage that sat maybe ten minutes away. It was technically owned by Will’s family, but Leo ended up being the only person to regularly use it.

Will picked up a key from under the doormat and entered. The large open space was always cold. Chains hung from the ceiling, machinery was littered around. A still damp trail of blood guided Will.

Leo was in the back room with the patient. He was laid across the sofa. A teenager, the same age as Will, with dark shaggy hair and pale skin. Leo had taken off his shirt and wrapped a bandage around his chest.

He had very delicate features. Will refused to be distracted. He was a Doctor, not just some teenager.

“Oh thank the gods,” Leo said as he saw Will enter.

John Doe was painted with blood and mud, the deep colours contrasting his pale skin. Leo’s army jacket was around him now also taking blood stains.

“Okay, what happened?” Will asked. He knelt down and started unwrapping and reapplying the dressings.

“Uh, I was just sitting here, doing my thing, when this guy dragged himself in, bleeding and shaking,” Leo said, his voice wavering, “His clothes were burnt and torn. He fell unconscious as soon as he entered,”

Will kept working silently. Blunt trauma, lacerations, puncture marks, burns. Really, the whole deal. Will was surprised he managed to make it this far. These injuries were some of the worse he had seen.

He was still breathing, which Will had discovered was always a good sign.

“W-what’s-“ The patient was awake, also a good sign.

“Hey, don’t worry, my name is Will. I’m here to help you. What’s your name?”

Chapter 2 Notes:

Warning for vampires being manipulative and generally bad people.

Chapter Text

The castle was always cold. And it was always dark. Presumably, that was about how castles were supposed to be.
Empty as well. It was empty more often than not.
Nico preferred it that way. He supposed it was in the nature of a vampire to enjoy lurking in the dark, far out of the way of people.
He shuffled down the stone corridor and pushed open the door. The library. A large room, two stories of bookshelves decorated with fine architecture and sweeping balconies looking inwards.
There was laughing.
There were figures.
The head of the royal guard, Lityerses, lounged on a table in the centre of the room, leaning back on a young woman. And in front of him was a young man, shirtless with back to Nico and neck exposed.
Lityerses looked over his “friend’s” shoulder.
“Oh, hello, Prince,” his voice was husky as ever, “You seem to be interrupting,”
Nico rolled his eyes, “It’s a library, for reading,”
Lit titled the head of the person in front of him, “This is Travis, I think, why don’t you come take a bite?”
“It’s fine, I’ll leave,”
“Aww, come on, Prince,” The guard stood up. He held himself with that casual aura of power and ease.
It always annoyed Nico that Lityerses was hot, and that he was aware of the fact. His long, dark brown hair curled down in a chaotic, ruffled way. His face and arms were covered in a tapestry of scars and cuts. All of his body was sculpted and lithe.
He took Travis by the hand and pulled him over to Nico. The boy smiled dopily. His eyes barely focused on Nico.
“Aren’t you supposed to inherit the Vampire Legacy?” His eyes glinted with malice, “Y’know it’s an insult to reject and offering of food, and he’s so excited,”
It wasn’t exactly a secret that vampires had no respect for humans, Lit always liked to take this to a new extreme.
“Lityerses, you’re disgusting,”
“You say that, but I can see the hunger in your eyes,” Lit pushed Travis closer to Nico.
Travis was tall and lanky, easily towering over Nico. Most people did. He smelt like the woodland. Nico could sense both crippling excitement and unfiltered calm in him.
And Nico couldn’t lie, he was hungry. And Travis’ neck was right there. His skin was smooth and tanned, pockmarked with freckles.
Nico leaned forwards. It was more than just the taste of blood he wanted at this point, but the animalistic, cathartic sensation of biting down hard into skin. He shook with anticipation, but stopped himself last second.
“Lityseres, f*ck off,” he muttered and backed away.
Lityseres cackled, and shrugged, “You really are a disappointment,”
He took Travis arm and spun him around in a mock dance, “Someday you’ll learn,”
He looked Nico dead in the eyes and bit down on Travis’ neck. There was an audible crunch.
The sound echoed through the room, reverberating into Nico’s bones. The world went dark, but Lityerses eyes kept glowing in the shadows.
Nico was swallowed by the nothingness. It was all just violence and whirling.
For just a second, there was a face, smiling warmly at him. Pretty blonde hair framing his face and glistening blue eyes. He asked Nico’s name, and said he would help.
And then the whirl-wind tornado of darkness encompassed him again.
Something hit his lips. He knew how blood tasted. The flavour was his only anchor in the chaos.
And then he was actually awake.
A small lamp glowed in the corner. Nico was very warm, tucked underneath a blanket in bed.
Wooden floorboards, brick walls, a small carpet in the centre of the room. Across the other side was another bed, neatly made, and a desk harbouring the lamp.
“So, you’re awake,” a voice spoke out.
Sitting crossed-legged on the other bed was a boy. His face was hidden in shadow, but Nico could still see it. It was the same one that he had seen in his dreams.
“H-hello,” Nico wanted to sound regal, but he couldn’t quite find the strength to, “I-I know you,”
Nico could tell that he was a human. Vampiric Intuition. The urge to hunt was there, it was always present around humans, though maybe Nico could control it for the time being.
“Yes, I saved your life,” he had a notebook in his lap that he put down, “Do vampires have a concept of a life-debt in their culture,”
f*ck. He knew. That made things more difficult. Nico attempted to sit up, though something sharp pulled against his wrist. A single handcuff tied him to the bed.
“W-what? What do you mean? Why am I handcuffed?” He tried to play dumb.
“Let’s be very clear,” the figure stood up. He was tall, or taller than Nico at least. “I know that you’re a creature of the darkness. I have been trained my entire life to kill your kind and I could have put you down last night without a second thought. But look, I didn’t. Because I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m giving you a chance. And if you dare threaten to hurt anyone, I won’t hesitate to send you to the grave,”
Nico slumped downwards. He was alive at the very least.
He went to speak several times. The boy looked at him expectantly.
“T-thank you,” He muttered.
The boy looked genuinely surprised, and said after a second, “You’re welcome. I’m Will,”
“Why would you save me?” No humans liked vampires. And Nico knew the worst sides of Vampires.
Will thought about it. He was wearing blue doctor’s scrubs as well as flannel pyjama trousers. It was a weird although endearing combination.
“I made a promise… that I’d always protect those in need. And you were in need,” Will walked over to the bedside, “Now, I’m a doctor, tell me how do you feel,”
“Weak, slightly nauseous, and aching everywhere,” Nico tried to smile.
“Yeah, that’s about what I expected.” He passed over a couple of pills, “Painkillers. They don’t really make these for undead creatures generally, so they’re quite strong and the dosage is mostly guesswork,”
Nico looked down at the pills, shrugged and took them.
“Now, I’m going to look at your wounds. If you try to attack me, I’m going to tear out your fangs and turn them into a bracelet.”
Nico felt somewhat offended, but understood the concern. Will knelt down and started unravelling the bandages, while trying to stay as far away from him as possible. The throbbing pain of the wounds started to calm down.
Nico was still hungry. Will’s arm. Nico’s mind flashed with images of him tearing into Will, drawing blood and drinking deeply. He closed his eyes and turned his head away.
“So, what’s a vampire doing down here?” Will asked casually.
“Trying to make friends, are we?” Nico gritted his teeth as he spoke.
Will laughed, “Well, the tension in this room is borderline lethal. I’m hoping to break the ice,”
Humans always had a specific scent. Will smelt of those human things, sweat and dirt and deodorant. Nico never really was a fan of that aroma, though when he was hungry it fully sent his Neurons firing.
“I-I just needed to get away,”
Will also smelt of lemons, slightly flowery. More clean than most humans. That smell actually helped calm Nico down, it masked the other scents hungering him.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really,”
Nico felt cold air hit the skin as his bandages were removed. He hissed out of impulse, then stopped himself.
“You’re looking better than last night. Undead fortitude I suppose,” Will whistled.
Nico had never really been ill or seriously injured. Maybe once as a kid. It was rare anyone had looked after him.
Vampires were not good at expressing feelings honestly. Nico inhaled, he wanted to be better. “I appreciate it,” that felt weird to say. Or maybe it was just the medication, “William, I don’t want to be a pain, but I’m hungry,”
Will gave a sympathetic smile, “Yeah I could foresee that being an issue, gimme a sec,”
He got up and walked to the door, before leaning out the door. He muttered something to someone unseen before he entered again, holding a fast food take-away cup.
“What is that?”
“Pig’s blood, I think. Leo thought the cup would be funny,” Will passed it over.
Nico drank from the straw. Animal blood was always a bit unsavoury, and this was somewhat stale.
Will chuckled slightly.
“What?”
“Sorry,” he laughed again, “I never expected to see a vampire drinking blood from a McDonald’s take away cup in my bedroom,”
Nico cracked a smile. His brain felt fuzzy. In all honesty, even if he wanted to attack Will, his limbs were far too weak.
“Okay, I want you to get some rest, there’s a bathroom through that door. Do vampires use the bathroom?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,”
“Anyway, you can take a shower, you’re covered in blood. I left clothes in your size-ish.” Will stood up unlocked the handcuffs slowly and went to the door, “I like you Nico, please don’t make me regret trusting you,”
Nico wanted to say something reassuring. Though the words refused to work with him. It just didn’t come naturally to Nico.
As Will left, Nico put down the cup and flopped into the bed, staring at the ceiling. Well, freedom was what he wanted after all.

Chapter 3 Chapter Text

“Look into his angel eyes, One look and you're hypnotised,” Leo sat at his desk, tools in hand.
Once upon a time, the building at some point had been a boarding school. This meant that there weren’t bedrooms really, instead just dorms.
Thank god Leo didn’t have a roommate anymore, because his room was a mess. Tools, scraps of metal, wires. Not to mention the standard teenager crap of half dirty clothes and crisp packets.
“He'll take your heart and you must pay the price, Look into his angel eyes”
The radio was blaring. The sound of rain outside was just audible over it.
Leo pushed himself off the desk on one side of the room and his wheeled chair rolled across to the other side, where a collection of pens and barely started sketches lay.
Leo was fidgeting more than usual. His leg was shaking.
There was a hand on Leo’s shoulders. Leo actually didn’t know he could scream that loudly.
“Jesus, Will! I was focusing,”
“You can focus?”
Leo spun around in the chair. He kept spinning for an awkwardly long time.
“Whatever, how’s your patient? He better have enjoyed that drink because I had to go into a butcher’s and order a pint of blood. Do you know the looks you get doing that?”
“He seems quite nice actually. Didn’t even try to attack me,” Will fingered the silver necklace hiding just underneath his collar. Leo was genuinely shocked at the amount of silver, garlic and wooden shivs Will could hide on his person.
“Listen, Will, I trust your judgement. Lord knows it’s better than mine but are you sure any of this is safe?”
Will sat down on the second bed. He stared down at it with just a little bit of disgust. Despite the sheer quantity of rooms up for grabs, Leo felt better sharing while there was an active vampire under the roof.
“Leo, you’re an engineer. You’re a scientist, right? An adventurer, really. Sometimes you don’t know if something is right, but you just need to try,”
“Yeah, I guess. It’s about trying, right?”
Dramatically, Leo rolled his eyes, “Will, you’re so aggressively moral it’s sickening. Here I was thinking you just wanted an excuse to handcuff a boy to your bed,”
A red blush crept up the blonde’s features. “Shut up Leo, it’s not like that.”
Someone had to wind Will up, keep him on his toes. Leo turned back to his desk and smirked to himself.
Will stood up and started making his bed. Generally Leo slept in either one randomly depending on how he felt.
“Anyway, how are you feeling?” Will asked.
“Currently paranoid that my precious life essence will be drained from my helpless body as I sleep tonight,” Leo picked up a pencil and started drawing.
“You’ll be fine. He seems really friendly. Anyway this house was designed to mess with Vampires. Half the doorknobs are silver.” Will leant over and turned off the ABBA, earning a glare from Leo.
Leo noticed Will scratch at the dressing on his wrist. He didn’t know what to say about it, even though he thought he should say something.
“You’re basically nocturnal anyway,” Will lay down, and turned off the light, “Wake me if anything happens,”
Ice ran down Leo’s veins for just a second as darkness fell. His hand shot out messily and flicked on his desk light.
Really it wasn’t the Vampire that scared him. Well, sure, it was the most present issue. But really, what would happen if Will’s family found out.

Nico spent the next couple of hours lying there. His thoughts were suffocating.
He took a shower. His skin was caked in the duo of mud and blood.
Will had left out a pair of plaid pyjamas trousers and a shirt that read, ‘Enchilada fun club’. Nico had no clue what an Enchilada was, but he assumed some description of a small mammal.
He was fairly certain the clothes weren’t Wills. Slightly too small, and had a metallic smell to them.
The room was definitely Will. There was certainly evidence of someone having used it, clothes in drawers, a bag lying out. And again, Nico had a good sense of smell, most vampires did, the room smelled like him.
Nico limped around the bedroom. There were some books on the shelves, textbooks mainly. He stared out the window.
He thought about leaving. The door was right there. But he was still weak, and didn’t have anywhere to go.
So he sat there until the sun rose. Despite the blackout curtains, he could feel it deep inside him. The urge to sleep hit him like a freight train.
He didn’t even fully get into the bed. He woke up with his top half splayed across the mattress, his legs on the floor and his spine hurting like hell incarnate.
All of the emotions of the past couple of days hit him again when he awoke. Nico had run away from everything, everything he knew, everything he had been raised for. His father might not have been a good person, but he really did love Nico. He had betrayed all of them.
Will arrived soon after. He had an entire mixing bowl of blood. Nico downed it.
“Feeling better this morning?” He asked, passing a towel to Nico.
“I think so,” Nico wiped the scarlet liquid off his chin.
“Good, good. Lift up your shirt so I can see your wounds,”
Nico paused and then compiled. Nico had never been fond of feeding, and always fell on the skinner side of things. He felt self conscious for a second, then tried his best to shake off those feelings. Will knelt down to evaluate him. The cool air hit Nico’s stomach and felt aggressively sharp against his cuts.
“You look better than most humans would, but it’ll still take some time,” Even now, Will stayed a small distance away. Nico felt disappointed.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
Nico shrugged and sat back down on the bed.
“I know I barely know you but something seems wrong.” Will sat opposite him, still at a distance.
Shaking his head, Nico muttered, “I don’t really want to talk about it,”
Sympathy ran through Will’s face. It wasn’t something Nico was generally used to seeing.
“Do you wanna take your mind off things? Are you a fan of board games?”
“Maybe I can be convinced,”
Will gave a friendly smile. It made Nico feel slightly better, “Stay here, I’ll grab somethings,”

Chapter 4 Chapter Text

It was no secret that William Solace loved a good board game. His most cherished memories were sitting around the manor’s lounge with his friends as a kid and playing Exploding Kittens or Catan or one of the other thousand games that had been played.
“So I can buy these properties, and that will complete the monopoly?”
Will sat crossed legged on the opposite side of the Monopoly board from Nico. He nodded.
Really that evening he planned to march into the bedroom, check up on Nico quickly and leave, but he could see that guarded pain behind the Vampire’s eyes. He’d seen that look in so many of his friends. He had to do something. Even if he could help a lot, he could try something.
And it seemed to be helping. Nico looked like he was having fun. Furthermore, he was aggressively lucky with dice rolls.
“So do all humans spend their time pretending to buy fictional houses?”
Will rolled the dice again, moving past go, “I spend a lot of time reading personally,”
Attempting to find a good game for two players was difficult. Leo was practically catatonic at his desk.
“Y’know, Nico, I haven’t met someone new in forever. Leo’s lovely but his personally can be, uh, grating after a while,”
“Likewise,”
They continued playing for a while. Will burned with questions about Vampire life, though he was fairly certain that would be considered rude.
After they finished, (Nico completely wiped Will), Will stood up.
“Okay, Nico, you’re still unwell, so I want you to go back to bed and get some rest,” he walked over to his desk, “I can’t pretend to know how you feel right now and I don’t know if I ever could.”
Will’s breath was shaky. Emotional wounds weren’t as simple as physical ones. But he’d try his best to help anyway. That was his vow as a medic.
“Take this,” he passed Nico a pen and sheet of paper, “I can’t promise anything but it could help you to write it down,”
Nico stood up straight and took the stationary. Very slowly, he took off the jacket Will had lent him.
“Will, I don’t quite expect you to understand this,” he rolled up his sleeves, “it’s a sign of trust between Vampires to leave skin exposed between one another. I’m saying that you could bite me right now but I trust you not too,”
Will smiled, “Nico, I know what to say but thank you. Y’know what, I trust you as well,”
He copied his friend’s actions.
Nico let out a small grin. Just a little crack in the wall of melancholy Nico was projected, but it meant something.
“Now, you go lie down. I’ll check up on you in a couple hours and then I’ll be back tomorrow night,”
Will left the room. Best he try and get some sleep while he can.

Surprisingly, writing things down was actually helping Nico.
It was the next evening, he was sitting up in Will’s bed. In the next room music was playing.
Bullet points. Bullet points were great. The last couple of nights Nico had felt confused and out of control, he had hardly been able to remember things correctly.
He ran away. Or worse, teleported. The Shadowed Gateway was an artefact that Nico had always heard rumours about, and in a frenzy of fear and disgust he used it to run away.
The next memory he had was an explosion, hot fire and then cold mud, and then a smiling face.
“Knock knock,” the door creaked open, “How’s the slumbering?”
“Good,”
Will walked in. Nico had never seen the sunrise, but he could see that radiant beauty in Will’s smiling face.
He held another cup in his hand. He was wearing a loose tank top and a pair of baggy trousers.
As Will approached, Nico was definitely distracted by Will’s outfit, even if he wasn’t hungry. His arms were muscular enough to be noticed, tanned and dotted with freckles.
“Got you something to drink,”
“Thanks Will, but I’m full actually,” he sat up and put down the notebook. He did his best to ignore Will’s body.
Will shrugged and put down the paper cup, “Well that’s convenient because Leo left it out and it kinda smells funny,”
They went through their pleasantries, which was something else Nico was familiar with. Just a simple, nice conversation.
Nico lifted up his shirt again for Will to see, “So how was your day? Was the sunlight nice or whatever?”
“I also slept most of the day, we’re starting to have more and more in common,” and then Will scowled, it made Nico’s heart hurt, “Your healing is slowing down. I know you’re full but I think you need more human blood,”
“Will, I’m fine, I can just heal naturally,”
“No you can’t, you’ll need it eventually. Now I have a lot of blood and you can have some, okay,”
Will put out his arm and undid a bandage on his wrist. There were already two small marks pierced there.
“Are you sure?”
There was an encouraging nod before Will closed his eyes and leaned away.
Weirdly enough, Nico didn’t really ever bite people. Generally, blood was served to him.
No vampire however could escape that urge. The sensation of piercing through skin, feeling warm blood rush into his mouth. It breathed life into Nico, like a charge of electricity being shot through him.
And it tasted different. Nico had never tasted blood like Will’s, bold and sweet. It almost burned as it ran down Nico’s lips. Not a painful burn, an engaging burn. One he needed more of. It was somewhat faint, Nico knew that if he had more it would fulfil him.
He cracked open his eyes and looked at Will. His face was scrunched up, flicking between enjoyment and pain. It pulled Nico out of the moment.
He unclenched his jaw, releasing Will. There was a second of where the two just painted in silence.
“Good flavour?” Will said between breaths.
“Your blood isn’t normal. It tastes different from most humans. Far better,”
“Should I be complimented?”
Nico shrugged, “Thank you Will, I feel better already,”
The blonde gave a smile.
Another block of time passed. Nico couldn’t quite tell if it was awkward or not.
“I’ve spent my entire life being trained to resist Vampires, but wow I really wasn’t prepared for how the bite would feel,” Will stood up and shook his limbs, “Is it true that you can like, Lick the wound close?”
“I’ve never heard that before,”
“So, wanna get up to anything tonight?”
Nico felt his eyes light up, “Could we go out on a walk or something?”
“Oh, yeah, if you want to,” Will picked up a jumper, and offered it to Nico, “There’s a cute town nearby. I say cute, it’s okay, cute cafes,”
Nico politely took the clothes. He was slowly getting bored of stealing clothes off a mysterious unseen figure, but Will’s were nice.
They left the room. Standing outside, arms crossed like a disappointed parent, stood another boy their age.
His face seemed familiar, darker skin and angular features, curly brown hair and deep topaz eyes. He and Nico were uncomfortably eye level with each other.
“Going somewhere?” He asked.
“Nico, meet my roommate/friend/the only person I regularly talk to, Leo-“
“We met before, didn’t we?”
“Yes, you bled on my jacket.” Leo readjusted his weight. He was distractingly skinny, “Actually I would be mad but it happens surprisingly often. Will is weirdly prone to nosebleeds.”
“Okay, lovely tangent. We were going out for a walk,”
“Will, please do not make me be the responsible one, I do not one to be the responsible one, that is not our relationship,”
“It’s fine Leo. We’re just going on a walk. Maybe you should come with, you haven’t been out today,”
“Nope, not happening. Whatever Will, I don’t care just don’t get bitten by Nico, and Nico don’t get bitten by Will,” Smirking, Leo turned and left.
Walking away, Nico said, “You keep weird company,”
Will laughed. It was such a nice sound “Are you any exception?”

Chapter 5 Chapter Text

The two of them sauntered down the road. The town seemed dreary at best, quiet and dark. A couple all night shops are still open. Rain at first slowly wetted Nico’s hair, but then Will pulled out an umbrella.
It was good to be out though. Nico was full and basking in the rain and darkness. All a vampire could ask for really.
Will was, as ever, friendly. He asked about Nico’s hobbies while they turned around the street corner. The two of them had a shared love of reading. Not that they had read much in common, though. Nico’s library hadn’t been updated in the last forty years.
Definitely much easier to focus on Will now that Nico wasn’t hungry. Or, more accurately, beforehand he was focused on the concept of eating Will. But now it was easier to listen to him talk, and easier to see how pretty he was.
The flavour of his blood still lingered on Nico’s lips. He was in a better headspace to think about it. It certainly wasn’t quite perfectly human, there was something unique about it.
It was weird talking to a human. While outwardly they seemed similar, Nico could always sense Will’s humanity. His hands were warm and Nico could hear his heart beating. His breathing even changed depending on how fast they were walking. Vampires didn’t technically need to breathe. Many vampires refused to. Nico just did it out of instinct.
Will stopped them and asked if he could get something to eat. Nico nodded so they went into some random burger place open 24/7.
Will apologised profusely for getting a meal while Nico couldn’t, but honestly he didn’t mind. Sitting on the uncomfortable plastic chairs beneath the harsh, white light with Will was just nice.
“So, do you have a TV in your spooky vampire castle?” Will asked.
“Yes, I have a TV,” Nico rolled his eyes, “I do actually try and keep up with the mortal world,”
“Nice, favourite genre? I want to guess horror,”
Nico leaned back. It was certainly weird watching Will eat.
“Not sure, I kind of like comedy, I guess. I could never get into slasher films, made me hungry,”
Will smirked at Nico’s joke.
The weirdest part was talking to a human, without them being bathed in fear and paranoia. Nico understood why they’d feel that way, they were probably wise too, but after a while it felt very isolating.
“So, what’s with the big house? It isn’t decorated like someone lives there?” Nico asked.
In between a handful of fries, Will replied, “My family bought it a couple decades ago as a school to train vampire hunters. There used to be loads of people living with us, but people have moved out and no one has come in,”
“Is vampire hunting not a popular career choice?”
“Not at all,” he took a sip of his drink, “I noticed you don’t have any bite marks on your neck, were you born a vampire?”
“Yep, I’ve never been human. To be completely honest, the idea of your food is disgusting,”
“Really? Come on, this is a great burger,”
“The meat maybe, but vegetables,” Nico stuck out his tongue, “How can you put that in your mouth,”
“Okay but if you were born a vampire, were you born the age you are now?” Will used a French fry to gesture.
“I was born a baby, I age, but it slows down over time. At some point It’ll just stop,”
Will nodded in rapt attention, “You get out much? You know a lot about humans, lots of your kind don’t”
Nico laughed, “This is the longest I’ve been out of the castle. I just watch a lot of tv and read a lot of books,”
Will finished his food and stood up, before offering Nico a hand, “Ready to go back now, I’d hate to disgust you looking at more human food,”
“Yeah, we probably should,” Nico said. It was soft. He just wanted to hold it forever.
As they left, Will asked, “So, can you chew gum? Is it specifically swallowing human food?”
The landscape was pretty. The sky was a slate of grey so the only details Nico could make out was where silhouettes sat. Mountains in the distance, trees bending inwards.
He didn’t get out much. It was wild to him that even on this stormy night, the word was still beautiful.
It was beautiful, but even so it was eclipsed by Will’s presence.
The house was in sight when Nico felt the hair on the back of his neck stand to attention. He stopped as Will kept walking.
“Something wrong?”
“I don’t know but-“ Nico’s sentence was cut off when something heavy battered into his side.
He was thrown away, straight into the slate wall at the side of the road. It was hard. He felt his warm blood spread out through his shirt and mingling with the cold rainwater.
Nico turned his head weakly. A dark shape congealed.
“Stay back!” Will stood there, in between Nico and whatever was there.
The shape fully solidified into a person. Nico’s stomach dropped when he recognised him.
The rain dripped into Nico’s eyes. He tried to stand up. The figure continued walking forwards.
Will lunged forwards, a glint of chrome in his hands. The figure easily sidestepped. It spun around and swept Will’s leg out from under him. Will hit the ground hard.
The attacker dropped down, slamming his knee into Will’s chest with his entire body weight.
“Lityerses, stop!”
The figure looked up from Will. There was wild, carnal joy burning in his eyes. Nico couldn’t believe he looked up to him for so long.
“Oh, hello, prince. I hardly noticed you there, I was having so much fun with this one,”
Nico stumbled forwards, “Go away. Can’t you just leave me alone?”
Lityerses was lit up for a second by lightning. More important was Will, unconscious on the floor.
Lityseres stood up and took Will’s dagger with him.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Your dad is really, really worried about you, Neeks,” he looked down at the blade, twisting it in his hand, “but imagine my shock to see you out here, playing with a human,”
“Lityerses-“
He leaped towards Nico. The Reaper of Men was fast. Nico drew himself backwards as fast as he could, but felt several short cuts blossoming across his body. They burned.
“Come on! Your dad isn’t here, show me some grit!” Lityseres dipped his hand into Will’s shadow and pulled a sword out of the ground. He tossed to Nico.
The hilt felt unsteady in Nico’s grasp. It once had ornate elements, but they had been worn away with time.
Nico felt the power humming in the blade. It had slowly been amassed by the slaughter of humans and vampires alike.
He raised it up and slashed at Lit. Lityerses moved in short, sharp bursts. He deftly danced out of reach of Nico’s attacks.
And then he went to strike. He launched a barrage of aggression. The dagger shot forwards with precision and force. Nico blocked one attack, dodged another, and then felt the blade in his lower stomach.
Before Nico could recover, Lityseres dodged under his arm and stood behind him.
He twisted the sword out of Nico’s hand with one arm and pinned Nico’s other hand behind his back.
“Wow, that really was pitiful,” Lityseres spat. He pushed Nico back over towards Will, “Neeks, you always acted like you were better than us. You never had to live through the pain of being human, you were born straight at the top, and then you always sat up on your high horse of morality,”
Anger bubbled inside of Nico. He couldn’t do anything against Lityseres.
“And then you run away, and you’re out here messing with humans anyway-“
“-No! I’m not like you. You’re just a monster who sees them as playthings,”
Nico’s wounds felt like fire. Silver blades. Will’s dagger was probably impure, but enough to hurt.
“Oh, you just need a little push,” Lityerses took Nico’s hand and held it over Will’s unconscious face.
“What… no, Lityerses stop!”
The blade streaked along Nico’s palm. Pain and numbness encompassed the limb.
Crimson liquid dribbled out of his hand. It cascaded downwards almost in slow motion, onto Will’s face. Into Will’s mouth.
“Now, you have no excuse. You’re going to know what it’s like someday. You’re just a baby bird needing to be pushed out of the nest,” Lityerses voice didn’t feel real. Nico felt lightheaded.
Nico didn’t know he had that much blood in him.
Eventually Lityerses dropped Nico, who collapsed to the floor. Nico saw him pick up his sword out of the corner of his eye.
He could sense the blade as Lityerses drew it through the air behind him. It was the Perfect balance of steel and silver.
“Neeks, you’re gonna make me feel bad,” Lityerses crouched next to Nico’s head, “Remember when you were a kid, and you’d run around the castle. You’d beg to come hunting with me. You were so cute then,”
Nico’s limbs felt like lead, but he managed to prop himself up.
“You know the only way you’re healing from this is by feeding. Lucky for you, there’s a human right there,”
Nico felt something very cold and very sharp run through him. Like rage, but focused. Like fear but weaponised.
He turned to Lityerses and it all exploded out of him.
The next thing he knew, he was face down on the tarmac again. Lityerses was gone.

Chapter 6 Chapter Text

Sure an empty mansion could be lonely and spooky, but Leo kinda liked it. Lots of space for him to run around, sing at the top of his lungs, and set the occasional object on fire. Also, the owners were rich enough to not look at the bills, so Leo could absolutely crank up the thermostat.
He danced down the corridor, into the lobby and down the staircase. One of his best inventions was a wearable Bluetooth speaker. Headphones just weren’t his style.
Undeniably, he was worried about Will. The upshot of having severe ADHD was he could forget about even the most pressing issues, and just be left with a lingering sense of dread.
Will seemed to like Nico. And outwardly Nico wasn’t aggressive, but Leo was sceptical. He had been raised by Vampire hunters, he knew how they could be clever. He just had a bad feeling about what was going on.
Right now, he was hungry. The lobby was beautifully large, which meant it was annoying to go between there and his bedroom. He should really just convert one of the dorm rooms into a kitchen.
He had just reached the base of the stairs, when the doorbell rang. It rang five times in a row.
“Yep, hello, calm down,” Leo paused his music and unlocked the door.
“f*cking hell!” Leo really was not prepared for what he saw.
Crouched low to the ground, clutching his chest, Nico limped forwards. Will was perched on his back, unconscious.
“What the f*ck happened?”
Clearly pained, Nico dragged himself inside, “W-we were attacked,”
First aid kit next to the door, Leo grabbed it. Nico lay Will on the floor. Besides from just several wounds, blood also congealed over his mouth. Leo saw Nico’s eyes glint with anger for a second when he touched Will.
“Okay, minor uh stab or slash wounds, and some bruising I think,” Leo unbuttoned Will’s shirt to look at the damage. His medical knowledge really was limited. That was Will’s thing.
Nico was watching him the entire time. His face painted with about twenty different emotions, all clearly fighting for dominance.
And then Leo had to deal with the whole part about them being attacked. There was someone aggressive in the vicinity. But one thing at a time.
After cleaning Will’s wounds, they took him to the living room. It wasn’t worth attempting to drag him up the stairs.
“We’re gonna need him to wake up, he's the expert here,” Leo rubbed the back of his neck.
Nico stared at Will. He seemed to be looking straight through him.
“He drank my blood,”
“What? Please tell me you didn’t just say what I think you said,”
“The attacker made him drink my blood,”
And just like that everything got ten times worse for Leo.
Vampiric rituals weren’t something Leo was well versed in, but everyone who’s anyone knew the first step in most of them. To transform a human into a new vampire, or thrall or ghoul, the first step was always feeding them vampiric blood. The effects were never good, leaving humans in a dazed, intoxicated state in the best of circ*mstances.
“Okay, okay, okay… I’m gonna put up the defences,” Leo took out his phone and went through his apps. He’d been trying his best to link the house’s arcane defences with his phone. Despite how bad the situation was, he was kinda excited to test it out.
There was an energetic whirring from somewhere in the house. Magic began permeating through the air, Leo could feel it. He saw Nico’s brow furrow.
“Leo,” the vampire’s breathing was clearly laboured. He didn’t even technically need to breathe, “Leo, I’m really injured. I don’t want to but tell me I can have some of Will’s blood,”
“What? No. Why do you need Will’s blood,”
Nico gave him a look screaming ‘are you stupid?’, “Because I need to eat to heal. If I don’t I am going to actually die!”
“Yes, but why Wills blood?”
“Because…because,” the thought looked painful going through Nico’s head, “Because I’ve already hurt him so badly. I can’t make it any worse for him,”
Leo hated being decisive, he hated taking authority. “No, I can’t let you do that. He’s injured and poisoned with your blood. I can’t let you bite him again,”
“Well what do you want me to do?”
Leo lowered his hands in defeat. He didn’t exactly like Nico, but as far as he could determine, he had protected Will as best he could. Despite the overall bad result of the situation, things could have been far worse.
“Fine, then bite me,” he exhaled sharply.
Nico stepped closer to Leo. He felt suddenly kind of afraid.
“Only if you’re sure,”
“Not at all, but it’s what Will would do,”
The way Nico walked was terrifying. He was shambling towards Leo. His eyes burned with hunger.
“Any advice. It’s my first time and all that,” backing up, Leo fell onto the sofa. He tried to laugh, but it didn’t quite work.
“Just make sure I’m not there on you for long,”
Leo held his eyes tight, and titled his head. And then he realised that he was probably going to get blood on his shirt. He liked that shirt. But taking it off would unnecessarily increase the present hom*oeroticism-
Pain shot through his neck. It pierced through him, but quickly was replaced with numb pressure. That then evolved into a pulsing sensation that was sickly enjoyable.
His arms fell limply to his side. If he wasn’t sitting down he would have fallen over. Calmness spread over him like a blanket, that quietness that he could never quite achieve was right in front of him.
His eyes opened, and fell over Nico’s face. Usually, this level of closeness with an undeniably attractive, other boy would make him feel awkward. Right now that didn't seem relevant.
Then he saw Will, unconscious, dried blood around his mouth. Panic flickered across his brain.
“Nico, okay, enough,” Leo’s emotions soured, and his heart started beating aggressively.
His hand fumbled with his pocket but before he could take the silver crucifix out, Nico let go.
They pulled apart. Leo was panting. Not exactly the most enjoyable experience in his life, but definitely not the worst.
“How did I taste then?” He said between breaths, “Please tell me better then Blondie,”
Nico wiped his mouth, “I’m not going to compliment it because that’ll just make you paranoid,”
“True,” trying to stand up was a challenge, but Leo managed it, “Now go get to bed and heal or whatever, Blood-Boy. I’m gonna call a friend, figure out what to do about him,”
Nico nodded and walked to the door. He was about to exit and said, “I promise I didn’t mean for this to happen…” he attempted to keep talking. No words came out.
“Against my better judgement, I believe you. Now go on, get into your coffin,”
Will tossed in his sleep. Vampires blood was used to f*ck with the human mind. Leo was fairly sure his textbooks used more eloquent words, but that was the long and short of it. It was almost like an angler fish’s lure, convincing people to want to give up their blood. It induced feelings of comfort and devotion, which allowed the vampire to kick back and relax as their prey kept willingly returning to them.
He scratched his neck. He really needed a lie down, but there wasn’t enough time right now.
At least the blood ruining his shirt almost looked cool. Almost.

Chapter 7 Chapter Text

Will’s head spun. He felt like he was on a rollercoaster.
Last night, what happened last night? The memories slowly reasserted themselves. They got attacked, presumably by vampires. The entire story eluded Will, he wasn’t conscious for most of it, but the fact that he was currently alive told him one thing. Nico saved him.
Nico. He needed to thank Nico. He needed to see Nico right now and make sure he understood how much he meant to Will. Those thoughts felt weird in his head.
Through some struggle, Will managed to get up off the sofa. He was in the lounge room, which no one ever used anymore. It had all the things one would want when hanging out with friends, seats, tables, board games. Will had warm memories of playing the different games with other kids here growing up. The memories hurt just a little bit.
Thinking about Nico made him feel better. Nico was just so pretty and fun and helpful, Will’s burned with desire to see him.
He hobbled his way out of the room. His legs were screaming in pain and he could feel how bruised his ribs were. It was about halfway up the stairs when he realised he was going to collapse.
“Jesus, Will,” Leo rushed out of the hallway and down to Will.
With Leo’s help, they reached the top. He continued to support Will as they went to the dormitories.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Mostly fine. I need to go see Nico,” It was a certainty in Will’s head that once he saw Nico everything would be fine.
“Will, I can’t let you do that,” Leo pulled Will into their shared bedroom. He was far too Injured to resist.
“Why not?”
“Last night, while you were unconscious on the pavement or whatever, Nico said that you got poisoned with his blood. You’re not going to be thinking straight,”
That explained things. It explained why his thoughts felt like they’d been put through a blender. That memory of Nico sitting across the table in the burger joint, smiling in laughter was the only consistent factor.
“Well, I’m not straight, I’ve still got to see him,” Will attempted to leave and Leo pushed him back down onto his bed.
“That makes things worse, Vampires are famous for seducing people, it's kind of their thing. You’ve literally been drugged with vampiric blood magic to want him to drink you like a f*cking can of co*ke,”
The idea of Nico clamping back down on his neck wasn’t the worst thing. Will shook those thoughts out of his head.
Will crossed his arms, which shot pain through his ribs so he stopped, “It wasn’t that big a dose, I’ll be fine,”
“For the love of god, Solace,” Leo attempted to finish the sentence but was cut off by a massive yawn, “I have been awake for the last twenty something hours trying to figure out a way to cure you, do not go getting killed now,”
Silently fuming, Will lay back down. Leo was right, of course. But that didn’t make Will any less mad.
“Thank you,” Leo stretched and flopped down onto his bed, “I rang up Annabeth and she said that you should be fine in like a day or two, you can go see him then.“
“Fine.”
“Now, I really need go to bed,”
And just like that he was asleep. He didn’t even get into pyjamas.
Will lay silently, listening to Leo snoring. His stomach twisted thinking about Nico and he couldn’t tell if that was him or the vampire mind control.
He turned and looked at Leo. It made him strangely upset that Leo was right.
Then, in the half darkness of the room, he noticed two little puncture marks on Leo’s neck. Anger rose up into him or, more accurately, jealousy.
It was Will who went so far out of his way to save Nico, not Leo. He was the one who fed Nico the first time, it was his job, it was his right. No one else deserved to have Nico that close.
Next thing Will knew, he was opening the door to his bedroom where Nico was.
“William, no,”
Nico sat on the bed. He had Will’s annotated copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in his lap.
“Nico please, I just want to talk,”
Nico’s features were pulled into a face of sadness. His eyes were stormy and distant.
Will’s throat felt dry. His brain was a molten heap of half formed emotions and half understood thoughts. He walked over to the bed and knelt down next to it.
“I wanted to see you,”
“You don’t know what you want,” Nico drew himself away from Will, “You should be staying away from me right now. It’s dangerous,”
“Nico, you saved my life, can I at least say thank you?”
Nico’s face was uneasy and unsure. Something about the way he looked at Will, like he wasn’t actually there in front of him.
“Please leave Will, we can talk when you’re better,”
Will attempted to disentangle his feelings. He couldn’t quite tell which ones were real or not.
“Nico… I love you,“ that felt real.
Nico looked surprised. He closed the book, “Will, don’t say that, it’s not true,”
And then that anger came back. Will’s body shook. His words just slid off Nico like he didn’t even care.
Tears welled in his eyes. Will put his face into the mattress. He could smell Nico. His scent slowly took on that fiery quality from Leo’s clothes, but underneath was this chaotic mishmash of half understood aromas that just screamed enjoyment and comfort to Will.
A hand patted him awkwardly on the shoulder, “I just don’t want you saying anything now that you’ll regret. I’m trying to help-“
“You say something then! Help me. If my feelings aren’t real, if they don’t matter, how do you feel?”
Silence fell across the room. It was suffocating.
“You’ve shown me more friendship in the last couple of days than I have seen across my entire life. Despite everything you’ve been taught, you went out of your way for me, trusted me, and saved my life,” Nico’s voice was cautious and controlled, “You mean a lot to me already. And it hurts me to see you like this, okay,”
That answer made Will both very happy and very sad.
“William, I know it’s hard for you right now. But when your head’s clearer, we can talk about this. You only drank a bit, you should be fine soon,”
Will took Nico’s hand into his own. His skin was pale and soft. His fingers were delicate.
“I… I don’t really care if these emotions are fake, Nico. I’m feeling them right now, so they’re real to me,”
“Will, please, I am begging you, please leave. Something bad is going to happen, I just know it,”
Once again, Will’s words held no weight. He felt unseen, his friend didn’t even care that he was there, begging for help.
He splayed out Nico’s fingers in his hand. He lifted up the limb in front of his face. The hand filled with the same blood that had poisoned him.
They wanted to talk about when Will got over it, when he recovered from this. What if he never felt better.
In a moment of pure adrenaline, Will took Nico’s hand and bit down on it, straight into the muscle between his finger and thumb.
Will felt himself draw blood and he drank it. It tasted like the way blood tastes, metallic and coppery, but there was something else there. A flavour like darkness, so antithetical to his very being, that he needed to have more.
Nico hissed. His leg shot out and kicked Will in the chest. It wasn’t that hard a kick, but Will felt his already bruised ribs fracture further.
He fell backwards and rested against the other bed. His brain felt even fuzzier than before.
“Will, you idiot, are you okay?”
Will traced his tongue around his lips and giggled, “You know, I’m started to understand why you like blood so much,”

Chapter 8 Chapter Text

The way Will looked at Nico. Goofy grin, eyes wide. It was the same look he’d seen so many human victims take on. It twisted Nico’s undead heart.
“Oh, wow, Will’s really got a strong jaw on him,” Leo commented while inspecting Nico’s hand.
“Yes, yes, it’s impressive,”
Will’s head lolled back, he was sitting on the floor, damp blood dripping down his chin. Nico was sitting on the bed itself, with Will hugging his leg.
“f*ck, do we have a plan?” Nico asked.
“You… you could turn me into a vampire… that would be funny,” Will said. His sentences were fractured, “We could drink more of each others blood,”
“No, Will, shut the hell up, you lost all right to participate in the conversation when you tore off Nico’s skin with your mouth,” Leo chastised, “Annabeth said that it leaves the system naturally, but that was based on a smaller dose,”
“So is he stuck like that?” As Nico talked he felt like he would cry.
“Nico… you look upset, want to hug?” Will earned another glare from Leo.
The mechanic ran his fingers through his hair, “I think she mentioned a cleansing ritual or something at like a mystic lake,”
“Okay yes that let’s do that. When can we leave?”
Leo hands dipped into his pockets and pulled out a bottle of Five hour energy which he downed in seconds.
“Uh, we have a car, the lake is nearby. Gimme like thirty minutes to check things.”
He turned to the door and left, muttering, “Guess I’m not f*cking sleeping tonight either,” before sticking his head back inside, “Neither of you bite each other!”
Will wrapped his arms around Nico’s leg. It seemed easier just to let him.
“I feel like… I feel like I should apologise,” the blonde said slowly, “Sorry that I Bit you. And sorry that I drunk your blood,”
“Suppose I’ve done the same to you,” Nico patted Will on the head slowly, “I need to apologise to you. It’s my fault we were attacked, you drank my blood, I left you in here for too long,”
“But… but I’m the failure, blood boy. My dad is The Radiance. I've been training my whole life to fight vampires. The power of the sun itself is in my DNA, and I was useless,”
The Radiance. A name Nico had heard in whispers and fear at the palace. A divine warrior who lives to hunt the darkness.
Though there probably wasn’t enough time for that.
“That was Lityseres, you didn’t stand a chance anyway. I’ve watched him fight twelve men at once,”
Will hummed in half hearted agreement. Like a cat, he head-butted Nico in the knee.
There was the stabbing urge in Nico to attack Will. He could just do it so easily, Will would probably welcome it, enjoy the feeling. But currently it was completely fought off with deep, genuine concern. For once, Nico understood what it really meant to feel responsible for someone else.
“Nico, have I told you that you’re sooo pretty?” the words swirled around Will’s mouth.
“Will, you need to stop,”
“But you’re really pretty. You are the prettiest boy I’ve ever seen. It’s just true,”
Nico stood up, “How about we get you something warm to wear for when we go out?”
“What if… what if we swapped clothes, that’d be cute,” Will giggled again.
“Nope, we’ll get you a fun jacket or something,”
While waiting for Leo, Nico spent his hardest trying to distract Will, which was difficult.
Nico borrowed one of Will’s jumpers, which Will found to be the funniest thing. Really he was just getting bored of wearing Leo’s clothes.

But eventually Leo came back, with a map and a vague idea of a plan. They left the house and got into a beaten up old pickup truck.
Nico sat in the centre seat. Will rested his head on Nico’s shoulder and tightly held his hand.
As he drove, Leo bobbed aggressively up and down. Every thirty or so seconds he fiddled with the radio.
“Leo, are you mad at me?” Nico asked after some time. Will was snoring softly on his shoulder.
“Well, no, not right now. Currently I am on so much caffeine I can’t feel much of anything. Either way, we don’t have time to be bickering,” he flashed Nico an absolutely insane smile, “Afterwards I’ll probably be pissed. But for now we’re cool,”
“Great, that makes me feel better,” Will’s hand felt so warm interlocked with Nico’s.
“It’s not your fault, well mostly. I’m gonna be just as mad at Will. Hell, I’m going to throw him off the roof.“
The stars glinted over a mountain quickly approaching. Leo had finally settled on a choice of radio station. Will’s rhythmic breathing was comforting. The entire situation was almost relaxing.
“What happens if we’re attacked again?” The idea hit Nico. It filled him with genuine terror. He wasn’t quite sure what happened to Lityseres, yet he could always return.
“I have a gun,” Leo stated, “And i think a grenade in my pocket, wait lemme check,” he shifted around on his seat.
“I believe you, please do not accidentally blow us up,”
“I generally try not to,”
Leo turned off the motorway, onto one of the backroads.
They weaved through the country roads in near silence. Leo occasionally burst into song.
Sleepily, Will whispered, “Niiiiico, I wanna talk,”
“Don’t worry, we’ll talk soon. You should just sleep for now,” Nico really didn’t know what to say. How to be responsible and caring. Yet he had to try.
“Yeah but… right now my brain’s all weird. I’ve lost all the confusing parts and just the important things remain. You’re the important thing.” He looked up smiling at Nico. It was pure, if confused.
“You’re… you’re important to me as well, Will,”
Nico didn’t quite know what to do, so he patted Will on the head again. Will hummed against his shoulder.
“Wow, he’s a right Casanova,” Leo whistled.
Nico‘s head slowly drifted downwards, slowly until he rested on Will’s hair. He almost fell asleep, somehow.
“You want a caffeine shot?”
“I don’t know if I can even drink caffeine,”
“Understood, we’ll do some experiments tomorrow,”
Before Nico could understand the implications of that statement, the car stopped.
“It’s f*cking freezing,” Leo said as he jumped out of the truck.
Nico stood with Will in the cold, the blonde wrapped around his arm. The size difference made it slightly awkward.
Technically, it wasn’t a mountain, just a really big hill they were atop of. It seemed like a pretty regular tourist destination, a car park, picnic tables and a couple signs saying random fun facts about the place.
Moonlight reflected off the still lake just in view. From this distance it didn’t seem particularly magical.
“Could you do spooky vampiric hypnotism on me to feel warm?” Leo grabbed a toolbox from the back of the truck.
Nico shrugged. He could only half feel the temperature anyway, “I can’t do hypnosis. If I could I would make Will act normal,”
“I feel just fine,” Will whispered.
The air coming out of the humans’ mouth stemmed into mist. It was kind of cute.
“Okay, let’s do this and get f*cking home; I need a nap,” Leo grabbed Will’s wrist and started pulling him towards the lake, “We Just through him in under the light of the full moon or whatever, give it five, and he pops out good as new,”
“I’ve never claimed to be an expert on the human nervous system, but surely don’t you have to think about things like hypothermia or something?”
“We’ll worry about that later,”
“I’m always warm when I am around someone as hot as you…” Will said disjointedly.
Nico could hear Leo sigh.
A wooden pier led up the water.
They had almost reached it when Nico realised there was a silhouette standing there.
“Nico, it’s time to finish this. It’s time for you to come home,” That voice echoed across the hilltop.
Leo fumbled with a torch, “Oh, f*ck, is this the guy?”
“That’s the guy,”
The light danced its way across Lityerses’ body, up to his face.
“Lityerses, can you stop please. Just go our own ways.” Nico felt his voice shake.
“I don’t know what you did to me, Neeks, but it f*cking hurt. I think I’m going to drain these two you’ve brought for me, maybe throw you off a building, and then take you home,”
The sword twirled in his hand, and then pointed it towards Nico.
“You wish you goth bitch!” There was a bang as Leo quickly drew a revolver and shot at the royal guard.
The blade met the bullet, slicing it out of the air.
“Did he just deflect my-“ Leo was cut off as Lityerses dashed forwards in a cloud of dark mist.
He leaped into the midst of the group. A boot snapped out and met Nico in the chest while a sword flicked across Leo’s stomach. Leo’s toolbox clattered to the floor.
Nico’s eyes watered as he stumbled back, falling onto a bench.When he gathered his senses, he saw Will being pulled away by Lityerses.
“Wow, he really is not with us, is he?” He dragged Will up onto a perched rock. The wooden bench cracked underneath Nico’s hand. “Nico I know that they’re cute and funny under a blood pact, but you really can’t leave humans like this. It’s immoral.“
He leaned in really close to the back of Will’s head. The blonde face flickered with confused emotions.
“Waste not want not, I guess,”
Leo screamed as Lityerses’ mouth clamped down on Will’s neck. His body twitched, his eyes rolling backwards into his head.
“Lityerses, put him down, and I’ll come with you,” Rage and fear fought their way through Nico’s chest. He felt the shard of wood wobble its way loose from the seating.
Blood dribbled down Will, staining its way through his shirt. The soldier released his hold and Will’s head limply rolled down.
“Look at that, you’ve finally learnt diplomacy. But I think it’s best you learnt a lesson about responsibility from all this,” Lityerses bit down on Will again. He made intense, violently joyful eye contact with Nico.
And that was enough for Nico. Like a knife he threw the wooden stake at Lityerses. It careened forwards, and slashed past his shirt.
His eyes widened for a second, and then narrowed again in curiosity. He let go of Will, who collapsed to the ground.
“Fine then, Niccolò, I’m more then willing to bring you back to your father in a body bag,”
Slowly approaching, Lityerses wiped the thin layer of blood off his blade.
The toolbox lay on its side, gleaming weapons spilling out of it. Nico grabbed at the first one he could see.
“Leo, go take Will, I’ll deal with this guy,” Nico looked down at the weapon. A foot long chrome sword, presumably of vampire killing quality.
“Got it,”
Nico yelled as he charged. The sword cut through the air, which narrowly swept past Lityerses. He attacked again and again, which the royal guard continued to dodge.
“You should have let me teach you,” Lityerses struck at Nico. Their blades clashed together, “We could have had so much fun together hunting humans.”
The same anger pushed Nico’s offhand wrist out, cloaked in shadow. Lityerses was violently shoved backwards by a pulse of darkness.
Nico looked down in shock at his own hand. Smoke curled off it.
He saw Leo in the corner of his eye helping up Will. Nico didn’t stand a chance in this fight, but at the very least he could buy them some time.
Nico threw himself back at Lityerses as he pulled himself to his feet. He managed to drive the weapon into the warrior's lower stomach.
“f*cking traitor,” He spat at Nico. They both had their hands on the sword, their muscles shaking in conflict.
“Don’t act like you care about me, Lit. you only ever cared about yourself!”
Lityerses’ smirk was filled with thinly veiled anger. He let go and the sword sank deeper into him.
“Go on then, do it, kill me. Your father made me into this monster, best you should destroy it,”
Nico didn’t know what to do. His hands felt weak around the hilt.
“Admit it, you enjoy watching the pain in someone else’s eyes. All of us do,”
Frozen, Nico looked deeply at Lityerses, until he flinched as he was stabbed in the leg by a dagger.
Nico recoiled, the air filling with a cold laughter.
“God, Neeks, you should have just done it while you could,” Lityerses wrenched the blade out of his gut, sending blood arching.
Shadows bobbed and whirled at Nico’s feet. The pain in his leg made it difficult to focus.
Lityerses spun around and brought the two swords to either end of Nico’s neck.
“Now, why don’t you-“ the taunt began, but Lityerses’ voice failed.
Golden light reflected off his eyes as they widened in fear. Nico felt his back prickle like it was exposed to a blowtorch.
Lityerses screamed and fell away, smoke curling from his hands as he covered his eyes. The landscape was illuminated, shadows dissolving.
Nico felt the light burn its way across him. He had the urge to turn and look, but resisted.
As the light dissipated, a gunshot shattered the air, a bullet settling itself into the soldier.
Legs giving out, Nico almost collapsed, but comforting hands grabbed him.
“It’s okay, I’m here, I got you,” Wills voice, calm and collected and confident.
“Get back,” Leo ran forward, waving his revolver angrily.
Numbness danced through Nico’s body, but Will’s arms stabilised him. He slowly looked up, and met the blonde’s eyes. Warm and kind.
Nico smiled.
“You’re… you’re in love,” Lityerses sounded small and weak. As he messily picked himself up.
Nico wanted to speak. He looked back at Will. He didn’t know what to say.
But slowly, he managed to say, “Yes, I am. And if that makes you angry-“
“f*cking hell, I’m not angry, Neeks, I’m jealous.”
“Why on earth would you be jealous? I know what you’re like, Lityerses. You torture people, or sleep with any man or woman you desire, or you do whatever the hell you want,”
“Why do you think I do that? Why do you think I have to go to inflicting such extremes on people Nico?” He looked down at the floor, “I can’t… I can’t muster those emotions in myself. I need to see if through the eyes of another, I need to taste the blood of someone feeling something real to have it myself. Without that, I’m not a human, I’m not a vampire, I’m just an empty husk seeking out anything to fulfil me,”
He turned away. He slowly walked, aggressively limping, “Look at you, all you need is his presence. No, I’m not mad, I’m just jealous you can have him and simply be happy. I lost that so long ago,”
He continued walking, “Don’t expect to see me again. I’ll tell your father you fell off a cliff or something,”
“Lityerses, Lit,” Nico took a couple steps forward, “Don’t go back to my father, stay here. Maybe we can fix this, fix you,”
The soldier laughed. It started off cold, moved into genuine entertainment, and ended as little more than a sob.
“Nico, you’re so full of hope. If I can ask for you to do anything, keep that flame alive,”
His arm hung limply, the sword dragging along the tarmac as Lityerses walked into the shadows.
Panting, Nico stared forwards. There was just silence in the park.
“You love me?”
Nico turned back around. He didn’t know if he could blush. He felt luminous.
Will grinned. He was so tall and strong, his hair was damp and attractively messy.
“Uh, yeah…. Maybe uh-“
He was cut off as Will kissed him.
Nico had never kissed anyone. Their lips met, the solace contact slowly becoming more and more messy.
“Guys, can we do this back at the house?” An annoyed voice said.
Nico forgot Leo was there.
“You can go sit in the car,” Will replied.
Leo grumbled something and walked off.
Nico felt breathless. He hated the way his body reacted to some things.
“I think we’re glazing past you exploding with the power of the sun back there,” Nico panted.
“Yep. Magic lake and I guess I’ve got magic blood, did I burn you?”
“I’m fine really, better with you,” Nico reached up again for another kiss, which he got.
“So, let’s put it in words. Nico, I love you,”
Nico was about to confirm that he felt the same, then his voice stuck.
“Will… but how can I know that’s you. What if it’s still a little bit of my blood making you feel like that,”
Will smiled. That fixed Nico’s emotions. He brushed Nico’s hair out of his face.
“Nico, you care so much. Listen, my brain is a boiling pot of chemicals and hormones, and they all love you. Whatever’s left of your blood is a drop in the bucket of emotions in my system that want you with me,”
Words. Nico wanted to use words.
“Okay sunbeam, I love you too.”
And one more time they kissed. Each one felt equally new and earth-shattering. Nico didn’t understand how people could just kiss and not want to talk about it forever.
“Okay, the sun magic in my system is leaving and I can actually feel how cold it is. Can we go back in the car?”
“You humans and your feeble little nervous systems. A little bit of subzero temperatures and you start losing fingers and toes,”

Chapter 9 Chapter Text

Historically, Will loved a midnight drive. Him and the dark and the relaxing thrum of the engine.
Leo snored in the passenger seat. Between the two of them, he generally did the driving, but Will knew his way around things.
“Sorry that I bit you,” he said.
“I also bit you,” Nico replied. He was sitting in the middle seat, leaning on WIll, “And anyway you were completely out of it at the time,”
“Yeah but maybe if I wasn’t so stubborn I wouldn’t have done it,”
“It was kind of cute, if nothing else,”
Will smiled to himself.
The occasional droplet of water ran down from his hair and over his face.
His brain had been so messed up over the last couple hours. The world had turned to a blurry mess, which calmed down slightly around Nico. Then the lake was like a purifying flame burning through his body. It actually felt great. His skin felt clear, his breathing felt easier. Hell, even his knee felt better for the first time since Annabeth judo flipped him into an antique cabinet three years ago.
“But I do really need to apologise to you Nico. I know how uncomfortable I made you feel, I can remember that look in your eyes as I pushed on your boundaries-“
“Shush. It’s not about what you said, but I just didn’t want you to do something that wasn’t you.”
“Well, then to be completely honest, everything I said felt real. Nico, I do love you and I do think you’re the prettiest boy in the world and I would do anything just to see you smile,”
“Well sorry about that whole thing that happened,”
“Not my worst first date. It was kinda relaxing being on that blood high. Maybe sometime when I’m stressed we can do it again,”
“That sounds like an awful coping mechanism,”
“I live with Leo Valdez, any coping mechanism is a good one,”
Nico rested his head on Will’s shoulder. He didn’t give off any heat, but still warmed Will’s body.
“So, who was that guy who attacked us? There was definitely something between you two I missed out,”
Nico inhaled deeply, “Well, he was the head of the guard at my family’s household. I grew up around him. I always used to look up to him as a kid, but as you can see he’s not the nicest person,”
“You had a crush on him didn’t you?”
“Shut up, how did you know?”
“I’m psychic and also I know how gay people work,”
“But y’know how it is, growing up around this cool and strong and handsome older boy. I used to want to just talk to him for hours,”
Will would be lying if he said he couldn’t relate. He grew up in the same building as so many older teens. There was always the urge to impress them, because they were so cool and you just had to make them know you were cool too.
He took a hand off the wheel and put it around Nico, “I’m sorry he turned out to be so f*cked up, Nico, you deserved better role models,”
“That’s how vampires are, I guess. It’s just in our nature,”
“You’re not though. Nico you could have killed me earlier or used me or manipulated me, and you didn’t,”
In the corner of his eye, Will saw Nico smile. That goddamn smile. It deserved to be in an art gallery.

Chapter 10: Epilogue

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It was nice lying down on the sofa, especially after the night Will had had.
The lounge was so unlived in. It screamed of a space made for uneasy group cooperation, instead of one for people actually to use.
But now, the tv hummed softly in the background, and Will lay there. On top of him, Nico snuggled up.
It was so good to just be close to someone. Nico’s was resting just underneath Will’s shirt. Will was doing something similar. Close to someone not just physically, but emotionally as well. They were on the same page about feelings and thoughts that Will hadn't directed to anyone really before.
They just turned themselves into a messy tangle of limbs. It was a mutual, mostly innocent, quiet curiosity about each other’s bodies.
Thankfully, Leo wasn’t there to make jokes, he was still asleep.
Nico’s skin was cold and refreshing. A shocking sensation at first, but Will was starting to enjoy it.
He could lie there forever.
One of his favourite parts was that Nico was wearing Will’s oversized jumper. A yellow one with a sun on it. The irony wasn’t lost on either of them.
Will kissed Nico’s hair again. Nico hummed softly in a half asleep state.
“Love you,” he whispered.

Notes:

Boys, who are in love. They drive me absolutely insane.