Chapter Text
Every two weeks or so, Camp Half-Blood needs to restock on medicinal inventory, just as any other clinic does. Will Solace, counsellor of the Apollo Cabin and Best Healer of His Generation, is usually tasked with getting any supplies the camp will need.
Since campers generally aren’t allowed to leave camp unless a quest is forced upon them or its time for them to reenter the real world, Chiron has Will take his friend, Nico Di Angelo. Nico’s ability to quickly shadow-travel away from dangerous situations comes in handy when caught off guard, bent over collecting mint leaves or in a tree tapping sap. Every second Saturday, Nico and Will set off into forests and department stores all around Long Island Sound, collecting anything that could help heal the Heroes of Camp Half-Blood.
Day 1
Nico sat on the ground, collecting clovers and putting them in a bag tied around his waist. It looked like he was wearing a green camouflage fanny-pack, which Will had pointed out many times. Will was sat in a tree a few yards away, pulling woodpecker eggs out of a nest and placing them in a canvas over-the-shoulder bag.
“Hey Nico, you almost done over there?” Will called from the tree.
“Yeah, just a second,” Nico replied as he put one last fistful of clovers in his fanny pack. Apparently, these clovers were special-related to the Irish faeries somehow. Will had talked about it for a while, explaining to Nico how these clovers were much different from regular clovers, but Nico thought they just looked the same. Either way, he picked what Will told him to pick and didn’t question it. “What’s next, boss?” Nico called to the tree.
“Uh,” Will swivelled his head around, looking for something to have Nico grab. “Oh, there! Theres some pinkish-looking flowers over there, go grab a bunch of those.” He instructed, and Nico nodded once before stalking off to where Will had pointed.
Before him, Nico saw two sets of pinkish flowers. Some were in a bush, and some were growing from the ground. In a stroke of brilliance, he decided to pick one of each and ask Will which one he wanted. So Nico did just that, though the flower he picked from the bush came with thistles, and he hissed as the flower poked his thumb, drawing blood.
Will, upon seeing that Nico had picked both sets of flowers, shouted. Nico isn’t sure what Will shouted, but he knows it was loud.
Will climbed down the tree and ran toward Nico, frantically spewing half-sentences and dead-end thoughts.
“Will, slow down. What’s the problem?” Nico asked
“Where did you get that?!” Will demanded
“From over there,” he pointed behind him, “just like you said. But there were two pinkish flowers so I grabbed both”
“Nico! That one,” Will started, pointing to the pinkish flower in his left hand, “is orange, for starters. Secondly, it’s dangerous!”
“This is clearly pinkish, like you said”
“No, that one is!” Will was shouting as he raised Nico’s right hand with his own, showing off the flower he meant for Nico to grab. When Will let Nico’s hand drop, it felt cold.
“They’re both on the pink spectrum!” Nico shouted back. Will scoffed.
“Whatever! Lets just hope that one doesn’t effect you!”
“Effect me how?”
“Nico, you don’t want to know.”
Nico knew better than to question Will Solace. He knew how the other got when frustrated, and Will was clearly very frustrated with him right now. Nico mumbled a small “sorry” and Will sighed.
“I’m just worried about you. It didn’t prick you, did it?”
“No.” Nico lied.
“Good. Lets get back to camp.” Will said, and Nico didn’t protest. Together, they shadow travelled back to camp.
-
Will kept sneaking glances at Nico for the rest of the day, worried that Nico really had pricked himself. He was right, of course, but Nico didn’t want him to know that. Nico’s logic was as follows: if I can survive Tartarus, I can deal with whatever Will is worried about.
Nico expected a stomach bug, or a minor curse that would cause him to trip every fifth step. Something stupid like that.
At dinner, Nico sat with the Apollo kids. For the first 3 days after the war, Nico was instructed to stay by Will’s side until he was completely solid and healthy again-he even got an official doctor’s off Will. However, once the 3 days were up, Will invited Nico to his table again, and nobody questioned Nico when he sat down beside his friend. Since then, Nico’s enjoyed every mean with the Apollo table.
About half way through the meal, Nico decided he needed to excuse himself to the restroom. Instead of saying, “I’ll be right back,” or “excuse me for a minute,” like he would any other time he needed to visit the little ghost-king’s room, he simply stated, “I’m gonna go take a piss.” And stood up. The bluntness of his statement alone was enough to make Kayla, one of Will’s sisters, choke on her lasagna. Nico wasn’t quite sure why he decided to word his sentence like that, but he blamed it on a ‘brain-fart’ and carried on. The rest of dinner carried no issues.
The true trouble came at the campfire that night. Percy, Annabeth, and Piper sat to Nico’s left, and Will, Jason, and Cecil sat to his right. The campers had all been singing a rendition of The Wheels on the Chariot when Nico happily announced that he loved this song, and that this one was one of his favourites.
The whole camp went quiet.
“Nico? Is that you?” Jason asked, and everyone snickered.
“Can’t be,” Percy said. “What have you done with our Nico?!” He demanded, and Nico rolled his eyes.
“I can’t like things now?” He asked sarcastically, and Percy smiled.
“Sure, you can like things, but I’ve never heard you say you love anything. Especially not a campfire song.” Percy said, and Nico stared at him until one of Will’s siblings started strumming the guitar again.
The tension died pretty quickly after that, but Nico knew something was wrong.
After the campfire, he decided to pull Will aside.
“What does that flower I picked today do if it pricks you?” Nico asked, and Will just sighed.
“It pricked you, didn’t it.”
“Maybe”
“Damn it, Di Angelo.” Will said, but Nico’s expression went unchanged. Will took a breath. “No, no, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”
“So what does it do?”
“Well,” Will swallowed. “It’s called the Aletheia Flower.”
“After the goddess of truth,” Nico guessed, and Will nodded.
“Yep. If it pricks you, it forces you to speak your truths for about a week.”
“What do you mean, ‘speak my truths’?”
“Any thoughts you have, no matter how embarrassing or minor, you’ll say out loud.”
Nico was quiet for a moment, and then said, “I’m going to make a fool of myself, aren’t I?”
“Most likely,” Will smiled, crossing his arms over his chest. “If you want, I’ll stick with you until it wears off. Y’know, help police you.”
“Great idea. You’re already my best friend so nobody will suspect anything.”
At that, Will’s face softened slightly.
“I’m your best friend?” He asked, and Nico swallowed hard.
“Shit. Well, yeah, I guess.”
“Huh.” Was all Will said before they parted ways for the night, leaving Nico to talk to himself alone in his cabin before bed, scalding himself for picking up that stupid flower.