InsaneJournal

Nico was slowly getting used to the ship. Slowly. It was weird, although not in a bad way. With how it was laid out, he might actually be able to convince himself that they were just in a big house and work complex on some planet. Might. The ship had a more home feel than the Prettiest Star ever did at least, which helped ease his anxiety just a bit. A bit could mean a lot considering the whole no planet thing.

Especially since no one here really knew the extent of his powers. It was a new sensation he wasn’t sure if he was ok with. Even if he was used to this whole world hopping thing, he’d always had people from his world around with him. They may not remember as much as he did, but they were still there and knew him. Knowing so many people here, but them not knowing him, well, that was another level of weird and he was pretty sure that was bad weird.

So he’d been meditating. Trying to process through everything. Register all his feeling and what was going on instead of bottling it up like before. Use the tricks that his Anakin had taught him all those months ago.

Maybe it was because he was coming back from such a meditation session that it took him awhile to fully register the hallway around him. Or the people for that matter. His brow furrowed when he actually looked up and spotted a mop of blond hair. A very familiar mop of blond hair…. No... It couldn’t be….

“Will?” he called out uncertainly, not sure if maybe wishful thinking was getting the better of him.

Will paused, hand tracing along the wall of the spaceship. He still couldn't quite believe he was actually on the Enterprise. He swore he heard someone call his name. Turning he spotted a familiar mop of dark hair and that jacket.

"Nico?" he asked, not sure if something was playing tricks on him.

The boy turning around felt like a punch to the stomach. Because, yeah, that was definitely Will. Just as he remembered him. Or well, just as he looked in the last memories he’d gotten. And… There were still a lot of questions, but the fact that the blond said his name, that was more of a relief than he could ever admit. Sure, with how old he looked, it’d be weird for him to not know who he was, but, well, weirder things had happened, right?

A grin slowly spread across his face as the relief overcame the shock of the moment. “By the gods, Will,” he breathed out. Then, he couldn’t help himself. Maybe it was all the years apart. Maybe it was finally having something like an anchor on this ship. Either way, he closed the distance between him and Will and wrapped his arms around the blond in a tight hug.

Will smiled, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend who seemed … taller… than he remembered. Regardless, his arms wrapped tightly around Nico, holding him close. He just needed to hold onto him for a moment. Because wormholes and space travel were not something he was used to.

He pulled back, hands sliding under Nico's black t-shirt. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? How are you?"

Even though he’d gotten more used to the whole touch thing over his years traveling, Nico’s cheeks tinged pink at the contact even though he knew what the other boy was doing. Back home, he might’ve shied and wiggled away or smacked at the hands. Instead, he rolled his eyes and placed his hands on Will’s arms to pull his hands gently away. “Put the healer thing on pause for a second, ok? Just because I showed up here doesn’t mean I’m injured.”

Will gave Nico a look. "You're always in the middle of whatever's going on, Nico. I'm allowed to fuss about my boyfriend…" Will's voice trailed off. "You know it's not like the batsignal, right, you can't just switch it on and off."

He moved a half-step back and looked Nico over, not pulling his hands away just yet. No, Nico was definitely taller. And… older? He tilted his head to the side. "You grew."

Nico frowned. “Not always,” he pointed out. “Most of the time I’m more off to the side.” Even with the joke retort, his stomach did a little nervous flip flop. Boyfriend. That was one question answered and another relief even if it was… complicated… He had the memories after all, but those new memories also had come over a year ago. A busy year ago…

A year and more that was a bit obvious too with Will standing in front of him and the fact that Will wouldn’t have as easy a time leaning elbows on shoulders now being very clear. He nodded as he shifted uncomfortably, his fingers tapping against Will’s arms. “Uh, yeah… It’s been awhile.”

Will gave him a look and shook his head. "Not far enough to the side," he teased. He felt Nico's heart rate speed up under his finger tips and gave Nico a curious look. He pulled his hands back, dropping them awkwardly to his sides. "What do you mean…. A while?"

“Well someone has to fill the gaps when the idiots rush in,” Nico joked, although his mind wasn’t 100% behind it or focused on it considering… well, the answer to the question was simple, but it really was a whole Pandora’s box situation considering all the other questions that answer would bring up. His anxiety was already ratcheting up as he worried about how Will would react, but it was only made worse by the absence under his hands now. Without Will’s arms there, he wasn’t sure what to do with his own. He took a deep breath before puffing it out. “One to two years depending on how you look at it.”

"Years…?" Will asked quietly, his face growing pale. "But… I just saw you at lunch. You sat with our cabin, Doctor's orders and…"

Will's mind was trying to catch up with Nico's words. One to two years. What had happened in that time? What had Nico gone through. "This… this isn't like the hotel, is it?"

Nico didn’t like that look on Will. At all. Only one of them was allowed to be pale and it definitely wasn’t Will. “I know,” he said softly. “I remember that. It’s just been… more days between that and now for me…” And that wasn’t even factoring in the headache of how the memories didn’t come in a timely matter and it’d been months between him remembering the battle with Gaia and deciding to stay at Camp Halfblood and then getting 6 months of camp and the shit with Apollo stuffed in his head.

He shuddered as he shook his head. “No, no. Not like the hotel.” His voice lowered. “Even if I’m still not sure about that space cruise ship…” Sighing, he opened and closed his hands a few times before focusing on twisting the silver skull ring around his finger. “It’s… hard to explain? It’s not like anything we have in our universe. I’m not sure how it happens, but people come and go and they can come from even different points in time. I’m the first of us here, but the other places I was, we’d come through from all different points in time.” He shook his head again. “Man, one time, there was an Annabeth who’d just been through the first war. She didn’t remember anything after Luke was defeated.”

More days. Something like 300-600 more days since Nico had seen Will. Was that how the math worked? He wasn't sure. His eyes were drawn to Nico's hands and he smiled at the familiar habit. "Here? Other places? Nico, you're not making sense.” None of this made sense. Well, it made less sense than what they'd told him when he'd arrived.

"Can we… can we go somewhere and talk and you can .. explain?"

Nico threw his hands out to the side as he looked up at the ceiling. “It’s not really like they cover ‘how to explain multi-dimensional travel’, well, anywhere. That’s not even close to being on the Camp Halfblood course list.” He offered Will a small smile. “But lucky for you, I have way too much practice explaining this.”

He worried his lip a moment, his eyes straying to Will’s hands. And there was that contradictory pull. Wanting the anchor point and contact and also being wary of those same things considering, well, space… He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets instead as he cleared his throat. “So, um, we can… explain… in my room.” He nodded slowly once and then another time more firmly at the solid plan. Yeah. This could work. Turning, he strode down the hallway, leading the way and hoping that Will would follow.

"Yeah, well the course lists at Camp Halfblood can always use improvement," Will commented with a small smile of his own. "You should really submit a list of recommendations to Chiron."

The fact that Nico seemed to be experienced with this worried Will - just what exactly had Nico gone through? He was talking as if this whole thing was a common occurrence. Will wasn't sure what to make of that, but it gnawed at him.

"Sure thing," Will said, falling into step beside Nico and letting the back of his hand brush against Nico's. If Nico had been gone for so long, what did this mean for them? Was there even a them?

Nico glanced over. He hesitated for a second, weighing his options again. Needing that anchor as well as the need to comfort the other boy finally won out. He reached out, loosely twining his fingers with Will’s. He wasn’t really sure where they stood. Oh, he could easily just fall back into those last memories of home, especially with just how Will was. It was hard not to just get swept up when Will got going. But time had passed. Even if he didn’t say anything, well, Will noticed things. He’d notice differences. Notice his moods. Questions would come eventually. So… best to try and explain all of this from the get go.

Right?

He tried to work through that as they walked, absently pointing out places of interest while they went, until they ended up at his room. While there was the shared sitting room, well, this might not be shared sitting room talk… He cleared his throat as he opened the door to his room and lead Will inside. It wasn’t much. He hadn’t been around that long and, well, decorating had never been his strong point. The farthest he’d gotten was what could maybe count as a shrine to his father if you could consider a mythomagic figurine, a mass of skull themed ribbons, and some rocks sitting on the desk as such. He shrugged as he gestured towards either the chair or bed in an offer of sitting.

“It’s not my cabin, but it’ll do I guess. At least it’s got some privacy.” He ran a hand through his hair. “So, um… which of the not making sense parts should I start with?”

Will was grateful for Nico's fingers in his and squeezed them in response. He let go when they got to Nico's room, walking around and taking everything in. He figured the rooms were pretty standard and he smiled when he saw Nico's mythomagic figurines. Good to know some things didn't change. His fingers traced over the skull themed ribbons. The ribbons made him smile - leave it to Nico have found something like that. As he pulled a ribbon free, he realized what it was, the large corsage type mass of ribbons. He'd grown up with them in every store during the fall. It was a Texas Tradition™.

"You have a homecoming mum…" He glanced from the mass of ribbons to Nico, wondering just how such a Texas thing was in Nico's room. And looking so distinctly Nico… like Nico had it made… or someone who knew him well made it for him. A lot could happen in a year or two. He turned and gave Nico a smile, before taking a seat at the desk. "Maybe the beginning? You said it's been awhile… what's happened to you since you left Camp Halfbood?"

Nico blinked at Will before looking at the mass of ribbons and then back. Oh. Right. Austin. Guess it went into that part of Texas too. Must’ve because he didn’t know anyone else who had any clue what those things were other than the people in Tumbleweed. He nodded as he waved his hand at it. “Not the beginning, but Texas happened.” He made a face. “Small, tiny middle of the desert-ish…” He frowned, his eyes going ceiling ward as he tried to mentally picture the maps he’d seen. “... western Texas. You have my sympathies if your hometown is anything like it.”

He blew out a sigh. The beginning. It should be easy, shouldn’t it? Except the beginning had happened when he was still battling through the House of Hades to find the Gates of Death. Ok… Better to just leave that bit to be explained later. For now… “First I got transported to this other world. Post apocalyptic future where they had us all living in this mountain and just rebuilding society sort of thing. I was there-” He stumbled a moment over whether to give times and hope Will didn’t notice the differences or keep it vague. “-awhile and then this… portal thing happened.” He rolled his eyes as he started to pace along the length of the room. “Then it was staying on this deserted island that just was weird and then Texas. Then there was different space which was a big cruise ship before back to Texas and then…” He spread his hands out. “Here.”

Will felt like he needed a drink. Or at least a walk in the sunshine. Something. But the sun would be difficult here, which was something he didn't really want to think about. Better to focus on the things Nico was saying.

"So.. four different worlds in two years…" And somehow there was a homecoming mum involved. Which wasn't something he necessarily wanted to think about either. "How'd you survive? It sounds… intense.."

“Five now,” Nico said softly as he glanced round. “I think this is different space than the space I was in before.”

Now there was a question. He shrugged as he flopped down to sit on the edge of his bed. “High constitution? I did survive Tartarus, remember? Compared to everything that happens in our world, this hasn’t been nearly as bad.” He wrinkled his nose. “Although your guess is as good as mine of how I survived school.” Picking absently at the blanket, he blew out sigh. “I wasn’t alone. Reyna was there most of the time and you know how she can get. Other campers too.” He rolled his eyes. “Your dad even showed up for a bit. Pre-Lester.”

"Just because you survived it, doesn't mean it was doctor recommended," Will said, managing to give Nico a small smile in an attempt to lessen the mood. "Well, that explains part of how you survived. Or at least gives me reassurance that there was someone there to stop you from doing something stupid. But I still want to check you over later. Healers orders."

The fact that Apollo had shown up in one of those worlds was surprising. But then again, he supposed nothing should surprise him anymore. "Well, he certainly does manage to get around. Although he's probably less annoying as himself."

Nico rolled his eyes. “I might’ve broken that ‘less Underworld magic’ healer’s orders a few times. Maybe,” he admitted. He still didn’t fully understand the whole level of worry thing, but he knew that Will meant well. Plus, well, it was part of who he was. It’d be hard to make him stop that. He puffed out a breath as he shook his head. “He’s still just as annoying, you just don’t have to worry about him as much while the immortality thing is still in tact. Still annoying though.” He shifted a little awkwardly, his mind circling back to that whole… inspection thing… “There’s more scars. Just so you… don’t freak out…”

"Nico…" Will said, his voice growing quiet with worry as his hand stilled in his lap. "What happened?"

“Will…” Nico breathed out before he shook his head. “It was a year in a post apocalyptic wilderness sort of thing. People’d attack. They had me helping build things. We had games of Capture the Flag going. Stuff’d happen.” His hands rubbed over his thighs before halting and his fingers spreading out to tap against his pants. “There were werewolves though. I’d say nothing worse than the others I dealt with except…” His brow furrowed. “It was strange… fighting monsters that wouldn’t just be sent to Tartarus…”

Will wanted to be mad. He wanted time to think, to wrap his mind around all that Nico was saying, to clear his head… but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea. Instead, he got up from the chair and moved over to the bed, wrapping his arm around Nico's shoulder. This wasn't about him, this was about Nico. And he would do anything for Nico. "Hey. Nico. It's okay. You don't have to tell me everything now. I get that it was a lot. And you know I just worry because I care."

Nico looked up and then slowly narrowed his eyes. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate or like the contact. Or the words. But shouldn’t the situation be the other way around. He reached over and lightly poked Will in the ribs. “No. Don’t go doing that. I know it’s because you care, but no. This is old hat to me. You’re the one that has a lot to deal with here, Will. So, I’m doing the it’s okay thing.” His expression softened into a shy smile though as he bumped his shoulder against Will’s arm. “But I’m glad to have a friendly face around. Even if I’m not good at showing it.”

Will squirmed slightly, trying to get out of reach with a laugh. "Hey! I know it's been a few years for you, but I'm still ticklish!"

He gave Nico a look. "It's okay for me because you're here, you realize that right? I mean, sure, it's weird, but I just had to deal with my dad being human. Weird is kind of what we do as demigods. And I mean, Captain Kirk - his ass is just as good as it looks in the movies. I just.. I just want to know all about what happened while you were gone. It's been two hours for me and two years for you. That's kind of a difference."

Will grinned. "Not to mention you always say 'it's nothing' when it's not nothing." He reached over and tickled Nico in response.

Nico groaned and flopped back on the bed, covering his face with one hand as the other absently tried to bat Will’s hands away. “Oh Hades, this is going to be a thing, isn’t it? It’s going to be Paolo’s arms all over again. Could we not? Please.” He moved his hand enough so he could peek out at Will with one eye. “Because if this is going to be a thing, I might have to rethink that whole being glad you’re here and everything feeling ok because of it on my end too.”

"Oh really?" Will said, smirking as he flopped on the bed next to Nico. "Do we not oogle asses and arms together? I'm a child of Apollo. I appreciate beauty where I see it. Only ass I want to be near is yours. Same goes for arms. Which, gotta say, yours are looking good. Better than Paolo's.."

Will trailed his fingers down Nico's arm and leaned in to brush his lips against Nico's shoulder. "No more comments on Captain Kirk's ass. I promise."

“You can’t even see them,” Nico pointed out, even as his cheeks flushed behind his hand. His jaw set out of principle. “And I don’t ‘oogle’. I casually observe.” He risked another peek at Will through his fingers before letting his arm fall to the side. He shifted carefully so as not to upset Will’s flop, slipping first one arm and then the other out of his bomber jacket. He didn’t bother to pull the jacket out from under him, leaving it pinned between him and the bed.

Raising his hand, he wiggled his fingers and raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Still think it’s better?” True, his t-shirt was still covering part of his arm, including the old werewolf scars from their world, but if he phrased it this way, he could push down the self-consciousness easier. Even if he’d gotten a bit more used to not being fully covered and someone actually liking his body, that didn’t make the nerves go away like he was that scrawny pre-teen trying to keep up with the older teens. Even if he’d filled out over the years thanks to good food and exercise and his skin was darker than it’ been in years thanks to the sun on the island and in Texas.

Will caught the fingers in his hands before skimming his fingers over Nico's arm, taking note of every detail that was different. Nico had grown and filled out and Will was fairly certain he would enjoy taking the time to get to know every inch of him again. His fingers traced from Nico's fingertips up to the edge of his t-shirt. He pressed his lips against Nico's biceps. "Much better than Paolo's."

Will's fingers stroked over Nico's shirt. "So.. it's been more time for you than me…. What does that mean for us..?"

The touch was soothing. Something familiar in this untethered universe, even through the haze of a few extra months of history between the memory and now. Sure, he’d make a show of making a fuss at the attention back in their world, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like it… And maybe that soothing helped him not tense at the question.

The question was difficult and easy at the same time. Easy in wants, difficult in what that actually meant. He worried his lower lip as he thought it over slowly. “I want there to be an us,” he finally said softly. “Part of me wants to just…” He shrugged as a way to tap and point out Will’s hand on his arm. “...go back. Act like it was two hours ago for both of us. But I’m not sure that’s fair and if I just want that because…” He puffed out a sigh. “Space stinks. I’m better when I have someone.”

"I want there to be an us too," Will said, shifting to lean against Nico. At least there was still something there on Nico's side. He could work with that. And even if it didn't lead to anything, he was grateful to still have Nico as a friend. Better that than nothing. "Even if it's going to be a little complicated with the time warp stuff."

Will bit his lip. "And the other part of you?"

“The other part thinks stealing a shuttle, running away for a few weeks of intense overthinking, and then coming back to get yelled and set straight at sounds like a great idea,” Nico deadpanned. A slight overexaggeration of his old coping habits, but he figured Will would get the general idea at the wry jest. Shifting carefully, he moved his arm to wrap lightly around Will. “Or maybe it’s saying nap. Those two signals can get really confusing sometimes.”

"I'll have you know I've spoken to your doctor and he told me that you're prohibited from overthinking. For at least six months." He gave Nico his best healer glare as he rolled on his side to rest his chin on Nico's chest. "But I believe naps are allowed."

Nico couldn’t help the sly smirk as he raised an eyebrow. “Maybe my doctor should write me a prescription then if he’s so against the overthinking.”

"But if he writes it on a piece of paper, you might lose it." Will fished in his pocket for pen before shifting to get a better angle on the arm that was wrapped around him. "Maybe I better write it on your arm instead."