With Will's scream of agony still ringing in his ears, Nico quickly stirred from his two-day long coma. He at first had trouble registering that he wasn't dreaming (more like nightmare-ing). As his eyes gradually came to focus and adjusted to the bright sunlight from a nearby window, he remembered what had led him here.

Having overspent his already limited energy in battling Tityos the giant, Nico had fallen unconscious because the pain had finally become too much for him to handle. So here he was, once again a patient in the infirmary. He really had hoped several days ago the next time he visited this building would be voluntary, and with the sole purpose of seeing Will in all his diligence.

All thoughts towards Will Solace now, his eyes laid upon a head of matted blonde hair in front of his bed footboard, as if drenched in sweat. From this angle, a horizontal sleeping position, Nico couldn't see the person, but he knew for sure it was Will. Then once again he heard a golden boy's scream echo in his mind, and with a jolt of panic that Will wasn't just taking a nap, he abruptly sat up and nudged Will's head with his foot.

"Hey Will, wake up! I'm awake now! What a miracle right?"

"Will?!"

"Sunny Guy?"

"Doctor Solace??"

"IM HERE TO TAKE YOUR DOCTOR'S ORDERS FOR HADES'S SAKE WAKE UP!!"

At this point there was no way Will had just nodded off as he watched over Nico. Nico leaped as gallantly as a comatose patient could out of his hospital bed. Landing on all fours, he half-scooted, half-crawled over to Will.

Will was propped against the wooden backboard, eyes shut tightly as if locked with a key. His forehead glistened with sweat, which suggested a possibility of a high fever. All golden aura usually associated with him was lost. Nico felt his wrist for a pulse. Nothing. Nico felt the side of his neck for a pulse. Nothing.

Nico could feel the pounding of his own heart, from all the escalating adrenaline, stop.

"No, no, no, no, you're going to wake up. You have to, you have to. Y-you saved my life, and I don't even know how you did it. P-please, just get up and order me around. Tell me to eat, and I'll eat. T-tell me to sleep, and I'll sleep. Tell me to..."

And he broke down. He couldn't speak. He didn't ever think he could form words again. Tears spilled down his pale cheeks like puddles of rain. It wasn't supposed to end like this, Nico thought. It was me, not Will, who should be dead.

After all, he acted like it most of the time.

Will was the doctor, not him. Doctors live, patients sometimes don't. And it's sad, but the doctor should never feel the need to sacrifice their own life for the patient. Now Nico was the inept doctor who didn't know how to cope with this- this vacant feeling. It felt like he was stranded on an unmapped island with no one scouting for his S.O.S, or being left shivering on the summit of a ice capped mountain and not knowing how to climb down its frozen peak.

His sense of loss and loneliness could not nearly compare to what he experienced in his mentally scarring coma. In his dreams, he had all of his five senses: he could taste the blood on his mouth, hear the screams of agony, smell the waves of fear that radiated off himself, touch the thick unbreathable air as he slowly suffocated, and see the prolonged version of all the horrible parts of his life. But as kneeled over Will's body, he couldn't sense anything else but what he was feeling in his mind.

It was like reliving what happened to Bianca all over again, except perhaps even worse. Nico never got the chance to tell Will how he really felt about him. How sickeningly ironic it was that death can make love so obvious. What he wanted more than anything: for Will to give one of his dazzling smiles that outshone the sun so much it made the star look like a black hole.

Avoiding Will's closed eyes, Nico shifted his sitting position, tucking his legs into his arms as if hugging them and tucking his head in the remaining space. He couldn't bear to see an unmoving Will Solace yet. It seemed that no one heard him crying yet; the infirmary door stayed closed even now as he sobbed louder.

"Uhh... Nico... why are you crying?"

Great. Now he was hearing things. If he looked up, he'd probably hallucinate as well.

Then he felt a poke on his arm. Nico shook it off. Not ghosts now, too.

But as warm arms, full of life, engulfed his body in a back-hug, Nico finally was compelled to glance behind him.

Nico yelped. It really was Will, alive and well. It wasn't until then did he realize he had panicked so intensely he forgot to use his demigod senses to check if Will was actually dead in the Underworld.

"Boy, it's a relief to see you're alright," Will grinned cheerfully. The smile he thought he'd never see again was back, and what the hades, it was more attractive than ever.

Nico punched him hard in the arm. "Ouch, miss me much?" Will exclaimed, rubbing the hit.

"I thought you were dead!" Nico exhaled loudly, as if he hadn't been breathing for a long time.

"Huh, really? So you're saying my heartbeat literally stopped?"

"Yeah," Nico grumbled. "But clearly you're as irritatingly healthy as ever. Explain that, would you?"

Sarcasm dripped from his tongue like venom. He doubted Will would be able to explain any of the miracle that just happened.

"Wish I could tell you," Will replied genuinely. "I was just following my dad's advice." He almost looked sorry.

Before Nico knew it, he felt warm, comforting fingers wipe the tears from his cheeks. His heart suddenly sounded like Leo Valdez with his hammer.

"I'm sorry you thought I was dead. But to be fair, I thought you were dead,too."

"Guess we're even then." Then Nico recalled what Will had said moments ago. "Wait... Apollo's back?"

"No," he smiled sadly. "He visited me in my dreams. He's gone for awhile."

"Oh... I'm sorry." Nico had never been the sun god's number one fan, since the poetry he recited occasionally gave him minor headaches, but he knew that without Apollo, Will would understandably feel fatherless. Not to mention the world being off-balance, and he was just beginning to take a liking to the daytime.

"No need to be," Will said, regaining his elatedness. "I believe that he'll be back soon. But anyway," his friend continued. "'Bout time for your checkup you think?"

Still beyond grateful Will was alive, Nico gave his consent without any groaning or grumpy behavior. Hence, he allowed him to help him up to his feet, returning to the infirmary bed. After a few minutes of confusing medical procedures Nico just couldn't comprehend, Will gave him the thumbs up, handing him a glass of an unusual liquid, which he knew was nectar.

"I've always wondered, what does your nectar taste like?" Will asked.

Nico hesitated. He never told anyone this before, as it suggested a secret he had always wanted to remain veiled. But then, if any time was the time for honesty, it was now with Will.

"Blue frosted birthday cake."

Will gaped silently at him for a few whole seconds.

"How do you know its blue frosting?" Will inquired, though he sounded like he meant to ask something completely different.

"Because it's the only birthday cake I've ever had," Nico said matter-of-factly, but Will continued to look at him as if he had rainbow confetti in his hair. "It was for Percy Jackson's birthday actually," he added before he could stop himself.

"I might as well tell you now, you know... before you go off dying again... for awhile I used to have a crush on Percy." And the secret he had been dreading to tell anyone was out, revealed to the very person it wasn't relevant to.

He expected Will to scoff at him. Mock him. Ridicule him for ever liking one of the most popular campers here, who was way out of his league.

Instead, Will giggled. A strange choice of a verb, but accurate. It sort of sounded like a cross between a snort and a hiccup. Cute even, as Will was unable to stop.

"What's so funny?" Nico demanded, feeling a slight twinge of annoyance that Will didn't understand how much courage it took for him just to get those words out.

Will just stared at him, eyes twinkling almost to the point of tears, his mouth still wide open as he struggled to breathe through each laugh. It suddenly occurred to Nico that he did not seem the slightest bit surprised. But how?

Will's rather adorable giggles finally died down. "Well, truth is, I found out as I was healing you..."

The son of Apollo promptly explained exactly how he had done so, everything from the so-called 'extraction of pain' to the scene that Will had 'mentally time traveled' to. Strangely though, Nico got the feeling he was leaving something out... something important. He found the way Will unprecedentedly stuttered on words somewhat suspicious.

"So yeah, then I woke up." Will scratched his head. "It's strange, I had no idea I was screaming." It could've been his imagination, but Will's cheeks look flushed even though he was semi-dead a few minutes ago. Blood couldn't have circulated so quickly right?

Nico considered dropping it, this premonition. But it felt like a bucket of rotten carp was being shoved up his nose; he couldn't just ignore the fishy odor.

"So..." Nico looked Will dead straight in the eye. "You were laughing as you saw me suffer through all that humiliation?!" Something was off, and he would get to the bottom of it.

Will gulped, and he could see his Adam's apple bob up then down. The son of Apollo looked so unsettled that Nico could've mistaken him for a lone ranger in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

"No, no, no, of course not," Will wringed his hands. He looked like he was being held captive by invisible handcuffs.

"Have I mentioned that you're a terrible liar? Because you are." It wasn't a revelation, really. Will Solace was such a bright ball of sunshine he probably never had to lie once in his life.

Nico held eye contact with him, so long it might have broken the Guinness world record, if such a feat existed in the book.

And so a staring contest ensued. Not that Nico was complaining. He could never get tired of Will's pale blue eyes, which were beginning to water from not blinking for so long.

Will was getting antsy and desperate though. He was doing this squinting method that technically didn't count as closing his eyes. To Nico, it was called cheating.

"You cheater," Nico protested. But Will was clearly determined, as if his life depended on it.

Twenty seconds. Twenty-five seconds. Thirty seconds.

At thirty-one seconds Nico sighed and gave in. "Fine, you win. Just tell me the truth this time. Why were you having a complete giggling fit just now?!"

"First of all, I DO NOT GIGGLE, thank you very much."

"Spill it Solace, and stop denying your cute laughs." Oh gods, what was he thinking?

"Huh... you really find them cute? I don't believe-"

"JUST GET ON WITH IT MR. SUNSHINE!" What the Hades was wrong with him, new nicknames too?

"If you say so, Zombie-dead DiAngelo. So... basically... I, Will Solace, also had a crush on Percy Jackson... that's what was so funny..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Then, for the first time in a very long time, Nico laughed a real laugh.

And it felt good.

Lots of diseases are contagious, Nico thought. But laughter is one of the good kinds of contagion.

And so Will felt entitled to join in.