Will knocked on the old oak door again and he wished the walls and door weren't so soundproof so he could know if they were going to get the door anytime soon. But after knocking for the hundredth time it seemed, the door swung open. An irritated Nico had opened the door. He glared at him from under his bangs, "What?"

"We're leaving in maybe 5 minutes. Would have been 20 if I wasn't knocking for 15 minutes."

"What are you talking about Solace? It's Saturday and I'd really like to sleep in so bye." He moved to close the door but Will intercepted and walked in.

"You said you'd come with my friends and I today so, get dressed or I'm not leaving this room." He sat on Jason's bed, which was empty. He must've left early to be with Piper.

Nico, as usual, glared. "You can't be serious."

"Did you really think you'd get out of this? You promised and now the time has come. And if you don't get dressed, I'm not leaving."

"Fuck you, Solace."

"Name the place and time, I'll be there."

A furious blush bloomed on Nico's cheeks. His glare intensified. "Fine."

He didn't move. "I'd like it if you weren't staring at me as I changed."

It was Will's turn to blush. "Oh, right." He turned away and waited.

Not too long afterwards, "Let's get this over with."

☀☀

Reyna, Cecil, and Lou Ellen were waiting for them by the gates out front. Most of the students had left already. They were some of the few who'd stayed in later. Usually, they were some of the first to leave, at least when they went out but today was different thanks to Nico. And it wasn't a bad thing. Will had been super exited all day Friday and had had issues sleeping because he was so excited to spend a day with the new Italian boy. Who by the way had avoided him all day Friday but that was okay, he was with him now and they would have a fantastic time. Will would make sure of it.

"So..." Lou started. "You must be Nico." She smiled and held out her hand, Nico hesitantly took it. "I'm Lou Ellen, usually just Lou, and Will's very best friend no matter what Cecil says. Just ask Will."

Nico turned to look at Will and raised an eyebrow.

"It's true. Cecil thinks he's my best friend and we all go with it, but really, it's Lou." He shrugged.

Cecil cleared his throat, "Excuse me, no. I am your best friend." He looked at Nico. "I am his best friend, they're just being fuckweasels."

Nico nodded once, "Right..."

"I apologize for them." Reyna held out her hand, "I'm Reyna."

Nico took her hand, "You know my name."

She nodded, "Will's...mentioned you. But I guess you already know that."

Will blushed. "Yeah. Uh huh. So let's get going yeah?"

But they all ignored him and Cecil leaned in his ear like he was about to tell him a secret but he spoke aloud, “We all know your name, I mean, Will's definitely spoken about you and according to him, you have a really nice—”

"Oh- kay." Will pushed Nico from the back away from Cecil before he finished that sentence, his cheeks were already flaming.

"Dammit Solace. Don't touch me." Nico glared at him and made a show at brushing off his shoulders and straightening his jacket even though Will had only touched his back.

Will rolled his eyes, "Let's just get going. Where to Lou?"

"That crêpe place downtown. We need to have breakfast, well I guess it'd be brunch now, and their crêpes are the best."

"Good choice." Reyna walked up next to Lou (their earlier tension had seemed to dissipate and they seemed to be back to normal) and Cecil and they all made their way down the street with the occasional chatter.

Nico looked a little out of place with them and he didn't seem very comfortable with all these people he didn't know so Will started telling him about the day he met Lou.

"Nico, let me tell you the day I met this wonderful friend of mine, this was, what Lou? 6 years ago?"

She looked back, "Seven."

"So seven years ago I met Lou Ellen. My aunts driver had dropped me off at the front gates and we were taking my bags up to my room when this girl dressed as a witch with the whole pointy hat and nails runs up to me and says Abra cadabra! I just stood there and stared at her and she was standing there waiting for something to happen but nothing does."

Lou then fell in step with us on the other side of Nico. "See, I saw Will and I was like, Gee, this boy has beautiful hair. But he wasn't a girl so I tried turning him into a girl."

Will smiled, "Right, so she just looks at me and goes, 'You aren't a girl.' and she's all surprised like I should be a girl but I'm not so I tell her, 'It's because I'm a boy.' so then she stares at me some more and says, 'I like your hair so we'll be best friends.' And she hooked our elbows together and introduced herself."

"And then Will introduced himself as Doctor Will Solace and we've been best friends ever since." She laughed.

"Why'd you try to turn him into a girl?" Nico looked at her quizzically.

"Oh, well I wanted to be a witch and I like girls and Will's hair. So I figured if I turned him into a girl, I could date a girl with pretty blonde curls."

"Why not just find a girl who already had petty blonde curls?"

"I was 9, I didn't think like that. I acted on instinct." She shrugged but smiled.

"And we're here ladies and gentlemen." Cecil glanced back at them and they stepped inside. It was a busy day. "Do you think we'll even get a table together?"

Before any of them could respond, a waitress came up to them, "A party of five?"

Reyna nodded.

The waitress walkie talkied some other waitress probably and they all waited for their reply. Over all the bustling and chatter, they didn't hear when they replied but they knew it wasn't good news when the waitress nodded and her brow creased. She looked at them apologetically. "We have a table of two and a table of four but they aren't close together. The table of two is by the window and the table of four at the back."

Reyna spoke up immediately. "That's alright. We'll take those." She then gestured to herself, Lou and Cecil. "We'll take the table of four." She gestured to Will and Nico. "They'll take the table of two."

Before any of them could interject, the waitress nodded, "Very well, right this way." She led them to their tables, first Nico and Will. "Your menus are on the table. Someone will come by to take your orders."

As they sat down, Will saw Reyna smirk and wave as Lou thumbed up, Cecil winked and made some obscene gestures with his hands. Will blushed.

"If I remember correctly. This wasn't a date." Nico grumbled as he stared at his menu.

"It's not. I did tell you you needed to make friends with other people. I was trying to have you get to know my friends as a start. So you could have friends."

Nico raised an eyebrow. He looked utterly irked.

"Well, Death Boy, you're stuck with me either way so might as well make the best of it." Will smiled.

He grumbled a bit more until a waiter came up to them. "Are you two ready?"

"Strawberry banana Nutella crêpe please and orange black tea."

"How many?"

"Oh two and ginger ice cream."

The waiter wrote it down and turned to Nico, who stared at his menu as he answered. "Strawberry caramel Nutella crêpe and hot chocolate."

He wrote it down, "Anything else?"

Nico poked his head above the menu, "Do you have gelatto?"

"Yeah, mango and peach."

"I'll have both."

"Okay. I'll be back in a few with your order." The waiter left and they had a stare down. Neither of them would speak. Finally, Will couldn't take it. But as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, the waiter was back with their orders. "Here you are." He set their orders down and walked away. It smelled delicious.

They said nothing as they ate and it soon got awkward but still they said nothing. Nico finished before Will and sat still, staring at the people pass by the window. He suddenly looked sad and vulnerable. Will stared without realizing it until Nico turned his head and his defenses were drawn up again. "What?"

"Nothing." He paused. "Is something wrong?"

"No." But Will saw him start twirling a ring on his finger. Nervous energy. Nico didn't like the question. He changed the subject.

"How did you like the crêpe?"

"It was fine."

Will nodded, unsure of what to say next. Something was up with Nico but Will didn't want to push him, especially since he barely knew him. But he was saved when Reyna came up to them, the others in tow. "We finished, did you?"

Will nodded, "Yeah."

"Then let's bounce." Reyna quickly added, "It's too early to head to Blue Buffalo so what should we do to kill time?"

"Library?" Will suggested.

"For that, we might as well go home." Lou pointed out. And it was true. They had a library back at school and it was much nicer than the public one a couple blocks over.

Everyone was quiet as they thought of places to go. Having lived here for seven years or more left them with not much to do anymore. But Will remembered his promise to himself that he'd make this day wonderful for him and Nico. And his friends of course. That's when he remembered the new planetarium that'd opened this summer. They hadn't had a chance to go and they currently had time to spare. Everyone else had gone and claimed it to be amazing. Especially the star gazing at the dome. Will's lips widened into a grin.

"Guys! The Planetarium! We can check it out!"

"Will, you genius! We'd totally forgotten about that. Finally! I've been dying to go." Lou matched his grin and instantly turned in the direction of the planetarium. It didn't take long to get there and soon they were lining up to pay for their tickets.

As they entered, they were given a pamphlet talking about all the different rooms, shows and displays.

"Different rooms?" Will heard Lou say.

"Apparently so." Reyna replied.

"What do you wanna check out first Neeks?" Will looked at Nico and smiled down at him.

"Shut up, Solace." He sounded irritated but there was a spark of amusement in his eyes.

Will's smile widened. "I don't know... Neeks is cute dontcha think?"

Nico shook his head and turned away. Will had just gone back to his pamphlet when he spoke up again. "Where are Reyna, Cecil and Lou?"

His head snapped up, "What?" He looked around and sure enough, they were out of sight. The only thing left in their wake was one of their pamphlets. Will annoyed, reached down to pick it up. He opened it to find the constellation and stars show circled with a little note in Reyna's cursive, Show him the stars, lover boy. Then in Lou's writing, Show him the world. And meet us at Blue Buffalo's at seven. Will blushed and stuffed the pamphlet in his pocket after checking the show times. The next one was in three minutes. "They left us...again. But let's go see a constellation show shall we?"

When they sat on the cushiony seats, Nico grumbled, "And it's not a date?"

"We're just friends casually watching a show about the constellations."

"Right." As the words left his lips the lights dimmed and their seats tilted back.

The show progressed quickly enough. At least Will thought so. The show was actually really enticing and interesting. Before he knew it, it had ended but their seats stayed back as the narrator said they could stay until a half hour before the next show or stay until then for the show. Will thought Cecil would have loved to set up some pranks in here but right now wasn't the time to think about that, so Will shifted his body to face Nico's.

"So, Nico, are you ever going to tell me anything about yourself? We've barely talked."

"I thought this wasn't a date." He was facing up and his eyes were closed but under the dim light, he couldn't quite make out his expression. He was twirling his ring.

"Friends are allowed to know stuff about each other. And I want to know more about you."

"Sounds like a date to me." He muttered.

"Then why are you still here?" Will swore he blushed right then.

"Not having to see you for an entire week sounds pleasant."

"C'mon sunshine, tell me something, anything."

"You irritate me."

Despite the intended insult, Will chuckled. He propped his head on the palm of his hand and stared at Nico's face underneath the projected stars. "Anything else?"

"É stato incredibile blu gli occhi che scintillano quando il tuo sorriso e la risata coinvolgente, ho potuto ascoltare tutto il giorno. E vorrei sapere se i vostri capelli è morbida come sembra."

"What?"

"You don't know Italian."

"I know a bit of French. They make us take a language." A small smile appeared on Will's lips. "See, you're learning about me. It's only fair I learn about you too."

Nico sighed. "I lived in Italy as a kid. My mom died in an earthquake. My birthday is January 28. I'm 15. I know Italian. My favorite colour is black. And my favourite Fall Out Boy song is Pavlove."

"I'm sorry for what happened to your mom."

"I'm only letting you say sorry because you know how it feels to loose your mom and well," he seemed to swallow and scrunch up his face, "shit happens."

"Yeah." Will's voice drifted off and they were quiet for a while. And he took the time to stare at Nico. Under the dim lighting, he seemed to glow. He features were sharper and the shadows made him look like a beautiful sculpted statue. He didn't know how long they'd been that way when Nico moved his head to the side and His hair fell over his closed eyes and Will was suddenly reaching over to move it away when Nico opened his eyes and a blush overtook his perfect features as he instantly glared.

Will flushed, "Er...your hair is in your face." He pulled back his hand.

Nico only glared at him and stood up. "Don't touch me."

Will's phone started vibrating and he took it out. Lou was calling. When he answered, he heard music in the background. "Guyss, you were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!"

"Sorry Lou, I lost track of time. Is something supposed to be happening?" He jerked his head to side to gesture they should leave and they stood, walking out of the room and planetarium.

"DINNER! We're starving! Get your butts over here so we can order!"

"We're on our way Lou. Just order, the food will be there by the time we get there. We aren't that far from Buffalo's."

"Alright, just hurry. We didn't get to eat together earlier because of your date—"

"It's not—"

"It's so a date. Don't even try denying it. Now hurry up." She hung up and they hurried over to Blue Buffalo.

"What's Blue Buffalo?" Nico asked when they were a block away.

Will smiled, "You'll see, it's our favourite spot."

When they got there, they could hear the music coming from inside.

"A club?"

"Nope." Will opened the door under the blue neon sign letting people know it was Blue Buffalo and ushered Nico inside. He noticed the stage instantly and the random citizen singing along to a popular pop song.

"Karaoke? Really?"

"What can I say? We like music." Will grinned. He saw Reyna, Cecil and Lou chatting animatedly. They headed over to them. A waitress came to them from their other side and set down their food. Buffalo wings, fries, dip and a bottle of orange Fanta. She came back later with cups.

"Enjoy your food guys." She smiled and started heading for other tables.

"Thanks Janice." Reyna called after her. They knew the staff. That's how often they went there.

They dug in and called over all the waiters and waitresses so they could introduce them to Nico. Everytime someone walked away, Nico would turn and glare at Will but was nice to them nonetheless. After a while, they realized no one had gone up to sing and Will hatched an idea. He turned to Nico. "Sing with me."

"What? No. No way, Solace."

"Please? It's fun, I promise."

"No." He shot him a death glare.

"Guys," he looked at their table mates, "tell him it's fun."

"It actually is fun." Reyna said. "I'll probably go up later."

"And I'll be joining her." Lou chipped in. "You'll like it, give it a shot Neeks."

"Just once. Please?" Will said again.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Just once."

"Awesome." Will stood and almost left but Cecil stopped him.

“Wait, wait,” he pointed at himself, “So who's going with me?”

“Guess you'll have to go alone, you've done it before.” Said Lou.

Cecil sighed, “Fine.”

And so Will gave his back a pat and gestured for Nico to follow him up the stage. "Hey, Robert! Uma Thurman, Fall Out Boy." He shouted to the DJ. He noded. And Will grabbed a mic. Nico grabbed another and stood awkwardly as the music started playing and people quieted.

Words started rolling across the screens and Will sang first, "I can move mountains

I can work a miracle, work a miracle

I'll keep you like an oath

'May nothing but death do us part...'" He grinned and tapped his foot to the beat.

Nico was still awkward but closed his eyes and copied Will's movement, singing the next verse, "He wants to dance like Uma Thurman

Bury me 'til I confess

He wants to dance like Uma Thurman

And I can't get you out of my head" His voice was magnificent.

Will's grin widened impossibly more and turned away from the audience to face Nico, who in turn heard his movement and turned his head to him, opening his eyes as Will sang again, "The stench, the stench of summer sex

And CK eternity, oh, hell, yes

Divide me down to the smallest I can be

Put your, put your v-v-venom in me" He motioned to himself as he took dramatic steps toward him to the beat of the song.

Nico's lips twitched into an almost smile and started nodding his head a little and tapping his free hand on his thigh along with his foot, his eyes didn't stray from Will. "I can move mountains

I can work a miracle, work a miracle

I'll keep you like an oath

'May nothing but death do us part...'"

Will walked the rest of the way to Nico and they stood center stage, he started moving his hips to the beat. "He wants to dance like Uma Thurman

Bury me 'til I confess

He wants to dance like Uma Thurman

And I can't get you out of my head" He pointed to Nico.

Nico surprised Will by fully facing him and smirking, his eyes shone, "The blood, the blood, the blood of the lamb

Is worth two lions, but here I am," at that, he spread his arm, indicating that here he was, "And I slept in last night's clothes and tomorrow's dreams

But they're not quite what they seem"

"I can move mountains

I can work a miracle, work a miracle

I'll keep you like an oath

'May nothing but death do us part...'" Will pointed from himself to Nico and leaned in closer.