Nico

Nico stood outside the castle doors rigidly, watching as the boy with a mess of blond hair disappeared into the forest. He stood outside in the cold for a bit longer before he turned around and headed back inside, trying to sort out the whirlwind of thoughts in his head.

Will had said that they were friends. Nico had a friend. One that he made all by himself, without the help of Reyna, or Jason, or even his younger sister Hazel. Nico felt giddy, his face starting to hurt from grinning for so long. He just couldn't believe that something so wonderful was happening to him and right after his day had started out so rotten too.

He recalled being rudely woken up by one of the servants. He may be a prince but he is not a morning person in the slightest. The servant, while trying to avoid the tirade of pillows that was being launched at him, informed Nico that his father had wished to see him. That had certainly caused Nico to pause in his pillow throwing. His father had never requested to see him unless it was to prepare for a special meeting or ball. They never had any balls anymore, since King Hades had never wished to celebrate anything after Bianca's death, and as far as Nico knew, there was no political issue that would require any meetings. He had dismissed the servant, before getting dressed and hurrying to the throne room to see what his father wanted to discuss. And discuss they did. When Nico heard his father's idea he was shocked and horrified. He tried to convince him otherwise but as time wore on, with his father continuing to refuse changing his mind, Nico's shock turned to anger. It ignited a yelling match between the two until Nico had finally had enough and stormed out, saddling his horse and riding out into the forest.

Thinking about his father's decision still made his blood boil to the point where he punched the castle wall. That ended up hurting a lot so Nico resolved not to do it again and headed back to his room. After everything that happened today, he figured it would be best to just relax in his bed and read. Definitely not going to think about it anymore. Nope.

"Your highness! A moment please!"

Nico stopped walking and turned around, greeted with the sight of the nurse from the infirmary running towards him, a file folder in hand. He stopped in front of the prince before handing him the folder with a neutral expression.

"That town boy's medical report." He explained. "Dr. Krumwell said to give this to you in case you were interested." Nico nodded and took the folder, opening to look through the doctor's notes. He was quite surprised to find that the notes had been written on just a scratch piece of paper instead of an actual medical form but then again, judging from the way that Will had said the doctor was acting, Nico shouldn't have been so surprised. He sighed and read through it.

William Solace
Male, 16
Height: 5'8
Weight: 128 lbs; slightly underweight

Injuries: Significant trauma to the back of the head. Patient also shows signs of unconsciousness for a substantial period of time.

Other injuries include gashes on the palms, most likely caused from a sharp object(s) slicing the skin open.

Nico frowned at it. Will had said he had fallen out of a tree right? He had never fallen out of one himself but he didn't think the injuries would be that bad. Unconscious? Well, maybe he had hit his head on a rock when he fell. The sliced palms could probably be from the bark, but something didn't add up. Will was acting suspicious earlier too, now that Nico thought about it. Why would he even be so deep in the woods anyways?

He frowned and folded the medical report and took it to his room, keeping it somewhere safe. If-no when, he saw Will again, he would get to the bottom of it. His thoughts strayed to that of what else they would do if they met again and Nico found himself smiling. Will was his first friend that he had made all by himself without higher influences forcing them together. The first friend that he had made because they had purely liked Nico for himself.

But then again, Nico wasnt being his usual self, was he? He wasn't usually this talkative or sociable. Hell, he didnt even like being touched but how many times did he voluntarily touch Will today? He usually pushed people away, learning long ago to never get attached. He'd had his emotions messed with and his heart broken one too many times for him to open up to anyone anymore. He'd learned to keep his thoughts guarded, his expressions monotoned and to never speak of what was bothering him because nobody cared. Okay, there were the rare couple of people who did care; Queen Reyna for instance. She was only a few years older than him but she had taken the throne at a young age. Don't let that fool you though, she was one of the strongest leaders there were. There was also his half-sister Hazel, King Hades' illegitimate daughter. They both cared about Nico a lot and vice versa. Nico could find himself being able to share his troubles with them almost easily. Almost. Reyna's kingdom was all the way across the country and Hazel was usually away to visit a prince that she was getting married to when she came of age. And before you ask, yes, Nico did make sure to look into him and threaten him accordingly. The guy was a marshmallow though and Hazel seemed to be infatuated with him so Nico was okay with it. The problem was that it meant Hazel wasn't around as much anymore, thus leaving Nico with no one to talk to. Well, he now had Will, but he barely knew him. Nico didnt even know how long he would stick around anyways. Everything he touched died or turned miserable and poisonous, what if he did that to Will? Will had been so bright and cheery and he always smiled. Literally always. Nico had always thought that everyone had their own troubles and insecurities, but Will showed nothing of the sort. The same cheerful smile, the same bounce in his step, the same happy glint in his eyes. It was as if the Fates had found someone who they couldn't harm in any way. Or maybe that was why Will met him. Perhaps he was the one who was supposed to bring suffering and sadness into Will's life.

Nico quickly cut off that train of thought before it could spiral into self-deprecation and anger. He was not pushing someone else away just because he felt he wasn't good enough, again. He was the crown prince for god sake and he'd be damned if he let something like friendship and other people scare him. Anyways, Will wouldn't have said they were friends if he didn't mean it, would he? Or maybe that was just something he was saying since Nico was royalty...

'Nope. Nope, not doing this again.' He thought to himself, marching off to his bedroom. He walked in and closed the door behind him, throwing himself face first on the bed. He would not think about his past, he would not think about Will and he would most certainly not think about his father's horrid plans for his 16th birthday in a few months.

He sighed into his pillow and wondered about what he could do now, rolling onto his back to scan the room. Contrary to popular belief, princes did not spend their time running around the city, looking for stuff to fight and damsels in distress to save. Nico, himself, preferred if all the monsters in the kingdom stayed the hell away, and he was about as straight as a circle so no damsels for him. He could read like he had wanted to earlier, but the books he had were mostly about proper prince etiquette since his father was hell-bent on getting him to look, act and think like a proper prince. Ha. As if.

Nico scanned the room again before sighing in defeat. He supposed he could dress up as a commoner and go out to the village like he usually did when he wanted to explore but what if he saw Will? He didn't want to creep the other out by randomly showing up in the village, especially right after he left. Besides, what would he even do if he saw Will? Run up to him and hang out? No, that would make him seem desperate. Ignore him and continue on his way? No, what if Will saw him and thought he was being rude for not saying hi?

Nico groaned and rolled over, burying his face in the pillow. Why was he so obessed about him? Maybe it was because he'd never had a commoner friend before. Could he even call him that? A friend? Sure, Will had said that they were, but they had only known each other for a couple hours. Who knew if they'd even see each other again? Maybe Will was just saying that so that he wouldn't offend Nico and get his head chopped off. Maybe-

'Gods dammit, I said no more thinking about him!' Nico scolded himself, covering his ears as if that could stop his thoughts. Since when had he been so hung up about some boy?! Well, there was that one time, but Nico refused to think about it.

In attempt to get his brain to shut up, Nico got up and closed the curtains before crawling back into his bed and burying his face in his pillow. He was going to take a nice long nap. Yes, fall into a dreamless sleep where he wouldn't be able to think of sky blue eyes and golden hair.

And that's what he did.

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When Nico woke up there was a soft light peeking out between the midnight black curtains. He slowly got up and rubbed his eyes sleepily, shuffling over to the window and throwing the curtains open. He was not proud to say that he hissed like a vampire as the light from the sun suddenly burned his retinas. He blinked a couple times to let his eyes get used to the harsh brightness before looking outside. The sun was peeking up over the horizon, the sky painted beautiful shades of red, orange and pink. It was a bit too colourful for Nico's tastes.

It suddenly dawned on Nico that he had slept through half the day yesterday and all through the night. Nico did usually stay up into the late hours of night for...personal matters but he didn't think he was this sleep-deprived. Despite this, Nico still couldn't find it in himself to try and go to sleep during normal sleeping hours. Especially not when something else occurred to Nico. His dad would want to talk about what happened yesterday. And considering that Nico had run off during the middle of their conversation, he was fairly certain that his father would be furious with him and even more stubborn about his decision. Nico did not want to deal with that.

He hurried around his room, changing into some more common clothes than his regal garb and yes, he left his hideous eggplant shoes behind. He grabbed his riding helmet, not even bothering to brush his hair before carefully peering out into the hall to make sure the coast was clear of servants. If anyone saw him, they would alert his father and then it would be game over. Once he deemed it safe, he slowly crept out of his room and down the hallways. The guard dog almost caught Nico and gave him a heart attack but whatever celestial being there was in the sky must have been in his favour today and he made it out of the castle undetected.

He quickly made his way to the stables and saddled up his horse, Midnight. Yes, a black horse named Midnight, very original. He wasn't the best at naming things, okay? He put his foot in the stirrup and swung himself up into the saddle and with a few clicks of his tongue, Midnight raced out of the stables and into the forest. Which had absolutely nothing to do with Nico wanting to find his new blond friend. Not at all. He was only doing this to avoid his father. At least, that's what he told himself.

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Sorry it's so late guys! There was school and exams were only like a week ago and now I'm in Seattle with no phone service and I only got wifi now. Plus writers block is a bitch. Haha, anyways here it is hope you like it.😅