Solangelo One-Shots

Will Solace both knew what he was getting into, and had absolutely no idea what he was about to dive into when he got into a relationship with Nico.

On one hand, he had heard and/or personally experienced Nico’s dark and introverted mood, which was only increased by Nico’s temporal misalignment and being the son of the Death god. So he knew he was going to have to slowly grow into Nico’s shut-off personality.

On the other hand, Nico was so impulsively angry and emotional that Will was starting to lose patience, and they had only been together for a year. Granted, that constituted a longer relationship than either of them had ever been in combined, but Will still felt like something was missing. He didn’t know what, but he felt off, somehow. And this was July, the sunniest month of the year. Will could not be off.

So, he decided to take matters into his own hands, and teach Nico archery. Why? Will had absolutely no idea. But it was something he was good at, something he needed to get better at, and something he could teach without boring Nico. He had tried to teach Nico medical stuff, and long story short, it hadn’t worked.

Will had told Nico to meet him at the Archery Range at 2:45, and when Will arrived at 3:00, Nico was there, waiting impatiently and sweating in his aviator jacket and jeans.

“You’re—”

“Late, I know, babe,” Will responded, calmly laying out two bows and two piles of twenty-four arrows in the lane next to Nico’s. He put one of the arrow piles in Nico’s stall along with the spare bow. Once that was done, he turned to face Nico, who was still staring at him, his hands on his hips, like he expected something.

Will answered Nico’s look by kissing him quickly on the lips. Nico leaned into the kiss, which relieved Will. He had thought that the son of Hades might actually be mad at him.

“Ugh, you are so annoying sometimes,” Nico tried to grumble after they released. But they both were smiling.

“C’mon,” Will said, “load your stall’s box of arrows with the pile I gave you and take a shot.”

“Without any training?” Nico asked, raising an eyebrow, “You’re the archery expert, Will, you show me.”

Will had been waiting for that one. Without looking, he drew an arrow and pulled back until just the right weight was on the string. He then released, and heard the arrow thud into the target.

He looked towards the target and saw that he had put it three inches right of the bulls’ eye from thirty yards.

He needed to get better.

“Great,” Nico said, “Whenever I’m using a bow, I’ll just no-look the shots. Nice job, Neutrino.”

“Ouch,” Will pouted, “Okay, Nico, if you want to learn—”

“That’s what you asked me out here for!”

“Then here’s how you do it.”

Will drew another arrow, pulled back to the desired weight, looked down the arrow shaft, and with perfect technique, released the arrow. Still, he placed it a half-inch from the bulls’ eye at thirty yards.

“Okay,” Nico said, picking up his bow and drawing an arrow, “I’ll try and you correct me?”

“That’s how we do everything in this relationship,” Will responded quickly. Nico left the door wide open for that one.

Without forgetting the bow, Nico looked straight into Will’s eyes with a look that said,

Really, Sun Boy? Really?

“Sorry,” Will apologized, “Okay, let’s see.”

Nico pulled the arrow back, and an idea struck Will that made him smile. He cleared his throat, and Nico stopped pulling the arrow back, demanding quiet with his eyes. HE pulled the arrow back again, and Will said, in the most outrageous Australian accent he could muster,

“Here we see the woild di Angelo, hunting for the first toime under his father’s goidance.”
Nico couldn’t help laugh at the ridiculous accent, causing him to not release the arrow again.

“Solace, shut up!” He giggled, “I can’t focus with you…you know, doing your antics. Now SHH!”

Will giggled, and Nico burst out laughing again.

“Gods dammit, Will!”

They both were tearing up with laughter now, and when Nico tried to pull his bw back again, will slowly moved forward to help him.

“Okay, Nico. Breathe.”

The son of Hades complied, and Will’s face reddened at how easily Nico did what Will told him to. Will walked up behind Nico as he stood, and said,

“Okay, now pull the string back. Two or three fingers on the string.”

Again, Nico did what he was ordered, but there were some flaws in his technique.

“Elbow up, level with your arrow.”

Will drew an arrow from his own stall and walked back to Nico, placing the arrow on his arm.

“Perfect. See how the arrow lies flat?”

Nico stopped holding the arrow up and slowly released the pressure, his arms fatiguing.

“This is hard, Will. I don’t know if I’m going to be any good at this.”

“Oh, come on!” Will encouraged, now standing right behind Nico, “You’ll be great. Also, your arms would probably tire slower if they weren’t weighed down by this jacket of yours.”

Will proceeded to quickly take the jacket off of Nico, who didn’t look pleased about it.

“Gods, your skin is pale!” Will noticed, and Nico’s face reddened, “You need more sunshine, Death Boy.”

“I thought I had enough already,” Nico said sweetly, and Will said,

“Love you too, now pull the string back again.”

Nico pulled the string, and Will corrected his technique again, saying,

“Now look down the arrow like a rifle. Same difference, except the arrow drops faster. But that’s over long distances, we don’t need to worry about that here. There are other factors like wind, elevation, humidity, temperature--”

“Done with the lecture?” Nico asked calmly, and Will put one hand under Nico’s support hand, and wrapped his other arm around Nico’s frail body, his skin cold under the short-sleeve shirt, even though it was mid-July.

“Okay. Are you aimed at the bulls’ eye?”

“Yeah,” Nico said, his voice all concentration. Will knew he was going to get a punch from Nico for what he was about to do, but he couldn’t help it.

“Okay,” he said, “Nico, when you’re ready, take a deep breath, and preferably between heartbeats, when you’re most still, release without impeding the string.”

Nico took a few normal breaths, and then a big one. He was about to release the string when Will lightly nibbled at his ear. Nico jumped, releasing the arrow way off target and nearly scaring the leaves off of a dryad.

“WILLIAM SOLACE!” Nico shouted, whipping around to face his boyfriend.

Will quickly wrapped both arms around Nico and kissed him deeply, even though Nico was trying to push him off. Will didn't know why he wanted to do that, but he could;t resist it. He loved Nico too much to let him take himself too seriously. Sometimes you have to mess up a person's first shot so that the know this isn't life-or-death anymore.

“Sorry?” Will said, looking deep into Nico’s brown eyes and making his boyfriend blush.

“Ugh, I hate you. I knew you’d pull some stupid little trick like that. Why I even bother is the question of the century.”

“You bother because you love me,” Will explained calmly, “now draw another arrow and do it again.”

Will wrapped his arm around Nico and positioned him correctly again. Nico drew back, but when he took a deep breath, Will released his arm, walking away from Nico. The son of Hades looked at him for reassurance, and Will took a deep breath, making a big show of puffing out his chest for stability. Nico copied Will’s movements, looked down the arrow, and released. The arrow thudded into the target, a perfect bulls’ eye shot.

Will grinned, and Nico looked astonished.

“Knew you had it in you,” Will said, and he high-fived his boyfriend.

“Thanks,” Nico said earnestly.

“No problem,” Will brushed off, and then they both took turns firing, seeing who could get closer to a perfect bulls’ eye once more. When all forty-eight arrows had been shot, they cleaned up and realized that it was the sun was just beginning to set. So, they locked hands and walked, shoulder to shoulder, down to the canoe lake.

Will no longer felt distant from his boyfriend. On the contrary, he felt as close as ever to his favorite son of Hades.

Notes

YAY I POSTED ANOTHER ONE. These won't be from strict POVs but this one was obviously from Will's.

Enjoy,
Grafon