WPOV:

Nico squirmed and looked up at me. He had been having another nightmare. I had tried calming him down using words instead of touch but it didn't work.

"Nico, shh, it's okay. It's okay, Nico." I told him.

"Nico, it's just a dream." I said.

"Nico, you're okay."I comforted.

"They can't hurt you now."I soothed.

Nothing I said seemed to work so I sat on the bed with him and just hugged him.

I shouldn't have comforted him. He was just going to hate me more now. I quickly started to get up. He always said I shouldn't touch him.

Why couldn't I listen for once?

Something snagged my shirt. I turned around to face Nico who was gripping my shirt tightly.

Sitting in front of me, with tears stains down his cheeks, he looked broken. Beaten. Lost.

"Will." He said with tears in his eyes, "Please don't go."

I nodded slowly.

"Please." His voice cracked.

I repositioned myself next to him and gathered him in my arms.

"I won't." I told him, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise?" He whimpered.

"Promise."

✨✨✨✨

The next morning I was sitting by Nico's bed preparing him for the check-up. We hadn't had anymore deaths since Nico had been here, which was great. I wasn't sure how many more deaths I could take. Nico watched everything I did carefully. Memorizing how I did it. I didn't mind. Without a word I started to lift his shirt to check his heart beat. He flinched.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." I told him softly.

He nodded and kept watching.

Proper heart rate? Check.

Even blood pressure? Check.

Reflexes? Check.

The only thing that had bothered me was his body temperature. It was way below where it should have been. But there wasn't much I could do about that. So I started to leave then remembered something and turned back around.

"Oh, and you can leave this evening."

Nico seemed confused so I clarified.

"You can leave the infirmary this evening. That'll make three days. That was all I asked of you."

He still only blinked at me.

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. His raven black hair bounced around his face.

"N-No, th-that's fine." He stuttered.

I raised my eyebrow and sat in the chair next to him.

"Come on, Nico. What's wrong? A few days ago, you were itching to be out of place. You can tell me."

He looked at me with his big brown eyes. They held so much pain, I almost looked away. Instead, I held his stare.

"It's okay." I told him.

He looked down.

"T-the nightmares. Th-they're getting w-worse and I j-just thought..." He drifted off.

I cupped my hands around his face. This boy had seen his share of death while he was awake. He didn't deserve to see it while he slept.

"It's okay, Nico. You can stay here as long as you need, alright? If you don't want to go back to your cabin just yet, that's fine. I'll care for you here."

He blinked back tears and looked away.

"I'm sorry." He croaked.

I took his hand in mine which he didn't seem to mind anymore.

"It's okay, Nico, you haven't don't anything wrong."

He nodded and took a deep breath.

"I'll check back on you later okay? And bring you something to eat, you haven't eaten real food in days."

We'd had him hooked up to an IV for the first two days but we unplugged it today because we only could afford a few and we needed it for another patient.

He nodded.

"You're amazing." I told him.

He didn't say anything and I walked over to the next patient, a daughter of Demeter named Emma, I had to check up on. She was an incredibly kind girl. Always upbeat and smiley. I always joked with her or worked up a long conversation filled to the brim with puns. She had been stabbed in battle and I was absolutely terrified that she would die soon. Seeing her get worse everyday made my chest twist and knot.

I pretended it wasn't twisting my chest and started joking. She laughed softly.

Jacob walked up to me and started to help with the check up.

"How is Nico doing? I saw he was awake. He gets to go home tonight. Did you tell him?" He asked me.

"Nico's physical strength is definitely improving. But I'm just not sure, I mean I think between Tartarus and Bianca," I paused before going on, "He's just broken. It's as if something in him snapped."

I was tearing up now.

"He deserves better, Will. He deserves you. He's forgotten what it's felt like to be loved by someone. But you, you can show him again." Jacob told me.

He sounded confident. I shook my head.

"He doesn't like me. Especially not in that way, for all I know, he's not even-"

"Stop." Jacob interrupted me.

"What?"

I was almost crying now. Almost. Emma noticed and touched my arm.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

I nodded.

"Thank you." I told her.

She smiled weakly and I returned it.

We moved on to the next patient.

"Will, of course he's not going to jump at the chance to love someone. But no one can blame him. Everyone he's ever loved ends up dead. Keep trying, Will. One day he'll realize how great you are."

I wasn't so sure.

✨✨✨✨

For lunch I brought Nico spaghetti. I figured it was the thing he was most likely to eat. As soon as I walked in with the food he scowled and sat up.

"Do you not like spaghetti?" I asked him.

"No. I don't." He lied.

I could tell he lied based on the way he looked to the left.

"Well, I guess you're eating it anyway then."

He mumbled something.

"What?" I asked.

"I said you can't make me."

I sighed and sat in the chair next to his bed and carefully sat the bowl on his lap with the fork.

"Nico, please eat the food. I know you don't want to, but it's really not healthy-"

"What do you care?" He snapped.

"What?" I thought surely I'd heard him wrong.

Does he really think I still don't care about what happens to him?

"What do you care if I'm healthy or not? It doesn't effect your life any."

How could he say that?

I'd spent nearly three days watching over him while he slept so he didn't get nightmares. So he didn't have to remember what happened. And he still thought that if he died that I wouldn't care?

I looked him I the eye. He glared back at me.

"Nico, I'm sorry if I offended you or something. I'm just worried about you. You need to eat. If you died, I don't know what..." I hesitated, "Nico, I love you. I have since you first came here. Maybe you're not ready to love me yet, or maybe you never will. That's fine. But you can't keep pushing me away, Nico. Please, stop pushing me away. I can't stop the memories, or the nightmares, okay? I know that. But when I see you laying in that bed night after night with the same nightmares, crying. You have to know that it hurts me too. Alright?"

I was briefly aware of the tears that were now streaming down my cheeks steadily. I didn't care. People could think want they want. I was hurt.

Nico stared back at me his face was unreadable but had tears welling up in his eyes. He blinked them back.

"Why do you like me? I'm creepy and mean and-"

"Amazing. You're amazing." I finished.