"Nico! Nico, wake up!" A hand shook the boy awake.

Nico groggily rubbed his eyes. He felt terrible. Bile rose in his throat. He had a headache. He was sweating. His memories of the night before were blurry; the only thing he completely remembered was his and Percy's 'kiss'. The thought made the bile in his throat rose even higher, and he coughed.

The voice called to him again. "It's me, Piper. Stop screaming, please," she soothed him.

I was screaming again? I didn't even realize I was having a nightmare... I'm so exhausted...How did I not realize?

Piper tentatively placed a hand on his arm. "Nico," she breathed.

"I-I'm sorry," Nico whispered.

"It's okay. Who's Will?"

"Huh?" He sat up, hand on his head. Piper removed her arm. 

"You were yelling for someone named Will. It kinda sounded something like 'Wheel,' though. Your accent was really heavy, and I was like, 'why would he be yelling the word wheel?' Then I realized you were saying 'Will,'" she explained.

"Oh," was all Nico replied.

"So, isn't he your roommate or something? I remember Hazel vaguely bringing it up to me."

"Yeah." Nico didn't feel like telling her about him at the moment.

"Do you want me to call him for you? I'm sure he could bring you home," Piper suggested.

"Uhh, he might be busy. What if he's working?"

"I'm sure he'd do anything for you." She smiled mysteriously.

Nico slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. When he turned it on, he noticed two things:

One, his phone was at four percent, and two, he had a bunch of messages (as well as three missed calls and a voicemail) from Will. Of course. He mentally rolled his eyes and swiped to read them.

The first message was a picture of him and Mrs. O'Leary, with a caption of: 'Mrs. O'Leary misses you, when will you be back?' It was a great photo; Nico saved it to his album.

That was the only photo there was. He scrolled to the next message, 'Hope you're having fun!'

'it's past midnight, please come home.'

'I hope you aren't dead, Nico.'

'I'm not sleeping until I hear from you.'

'I hope you aren't having nightmares, wherever you decided to crash.'

'I'm sorry.'

His heart leaped when he saw the last one, '...I miss you.'

Nico didn't want to overthink this, but there were a lot of reasons Will could've sent that. Maybe he didn't like being alone. Maybe he missed the extra company. Maybe it was just an excuse to get Nico back to the apartment. Or maybe, just maybe, Will just missed...him.

'...I miss you.'

Nico had completely forgotten about Piper being in the room until she asked, "What are you looking at?"

He scowled. "Why do you care?"

"You look as if you're in a trance."

"It's-it's just that Will sent me a bunch of messages. My phone was on, but I didn't hear it. He's fretting over me for no reason... I go out all the time when I'm working. I probably blew a lot of money last night, why did I ever think I could manage alone? I'm going to be broke if I don't do anything soon, I-"

Piper cut off his rambling. "Oh, Nico. I may not know this guy, but I know he cares about you. He cares a lot."

"He's just being nice. He is nice. Not just his personality, either. He's probably got some super hot people all over him."

"So he's cute?" Piper giggled. "I mean, I'm sure you don't consider guys 'cute' but-"

"He's breathtaking, McLean. Absolutely breathtaking." Nico mentally slapped himself for that comment.

Her eyebrows raised, and she looked like she was thinking about something, and then she said,  "I want you to promise me something."

"Okay."

Piper repositioned herself so she was on the edge of the bed with her feet dangling off the side, and Nico was at the head of it. "When you go home, I want you to apologize, and if he hugs you, do not let go. I know about your no-touch policy, but I want you to forget about it this one time, okay?"

"Piper, I can't do that. I mean, when we're touching, whether it be a simple brushing of hands or a full on hug, -that only happened once- it just...feels so wrong. It makes me uncomfortable. But at the same time, it feels so... right."

Piper pursed her lips. "I think I know what's going on here," she said, mostly to herself.

"What?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Piper patted his feet. "Now, I'm going to get you something to eat, so stay here. Call Will."

"My phone is almost dead."

"Okay, well, I guess you can use mine. Don't snoop, though." She retrieved her phone from her pants pocket and handed it to Nico before leaving the room to get breakfast.

Luckily, he had just enough battery left to find and type Will's phone number into the keypad on Piper's phone.

Will answered on the first ring, despite not having her number. He was probably desperate at this point. Nico was actually surprised he hadn't passed out. 

"H-hello?" He breathed. Will's voice was husky, tired.

"Will, I'm so, so, sorry," Nico told him.

"Nico." Will said each letter so carefully, making it sound like 'Neeek-ohhh.'

"I'm here. I'm safe. I'm sick. Oh Will, I'm so sorry. I'll be home when I can. I had so many drinks last night, so many shots, and I didn't see your messages..."

The blond boy's voice suddenly went cold. "Didn't you know I would be worried? I entered my number in your phone for a for a reason, you idiot! I haven't gotten any sleep because of you."

"Well, actually, I thought you could trust that I would be okay. I understand one text, but I had like, what, eight? Nine? And three missed calls, as well as a voice mail? What am I, twelve?" The bile rose in his throat again.

Will didn't respond for a long time. Nico just listened to his heavy breaths on the phone. It sounded almost as if he was having a panic attack after a while, but Nico didn't dare saying anything.

And then he heard it. He heard Will break. He'd probably forgotten to end the call, unless for some reason he wanted Nico to hear him cry. Oh, it was such an ugly sound.

Nico hung up, and Piper walked in. "How did it go?" She asked, tray of waffles and juice in her hand.

"Uhm... Not so good," he admitted.

"Oh, why so?" She asked with genuine curiosity in her voice. Nico had talked to Piper previously before, they'd actually used to be great friends in high school. But now things were changing. Everyone either had a job or was at college, or even both. Everyone just got drunk on hangout nights, no one even cared.

If there was one person Nico trusted as much as his sister, it would be Piper. So, while he ate his waffles, -which he had to admit were delicious- he told her everything.

Nico told Piper about how Will had come in the first day, how they'd ordered pizza, and about all of their mini arguments. He talked about how Cecil and Lou Ellen had shown up, and about Mrs. O'Leary. He just told her... everything. There wasn't really a better word to describe it. 

Piper, of course, listened intently. She asked a couple of questions, and Nico answered them honestly. He never answered personal questions honestly.

"What could I do for him, to show him I care?" Nico asked. He knew she'd have an answer.

"Well, what did you just do with me?"

"I explained stuff."

"That's essentially what you should do with Will. Open up to him, tell him all the stuff you want him to know, make him know he's wanted," Piper ordered.

"Wanted?"

"Oh, Nico. You need him. He's your Solace. I mean, I don't really do puns, but that was kind of intended." She laughed awkwardly.

Her words echoed in Nico's head.

'You need him.'

"Well, do you want to shower and get ready here, or are you going to at home?" Piper suddenly asked.

"Do you have any clothes here that I could borrow?"

"Well, yeah, but I guess I don't have ones that you'd  like. I mean, maybe. I don't know."

Nico pushed his now empty tray aside and stepped out of the bed. "Nah, it's fine. Will and I got off on kind of a bad note after the phone call, so I don't know if he'd pick me up, though."

"He will. I know he will. Give him another call on my phone." Piper tossed her cellphone to Nico, who caught it just barely.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Now, I'll give you some privacy while I check on the others," she said as she picked up his tray and left the room.

Nico took a deep breath before typing the number in again, hands shaking.

Once again, Will picked up on the first ring.

"Could you bring me home?" Nico asked quietly.

He could hear his roommate breathing heavily, almost like he had earlier. "Sunshine, I'm sorry."

"Will, stop it. I'm not going through this again. You can start crying again when I get home." Nico hadn't realized his words might've hurt Will until it was too late. "I mean, maybe I don't deserve you to come-"

"I'm coming. Just give me the address," Will snapped.

Nico did, and Will said he'd be over in a few minutes.

He straightened up the bed a bit, stuffed his dead phone in his pocket, and then went to find Piper so he could return her own phone. There was a mirror in the hallway, and Nico took a couple of minutes to make himself look presentable.

He soon saw Piper in the kitchen. "Here's your phone," he said, handing it over. "He'll be over soon."

Piper grinned. "Told you. Don't screw this up, Nico. You already have my number, so if you need...advice, go ahead and shoot me a text."

Nico nodded, though he wasn't sure what she meant. "Thank you, by the way. For everything."

"Anytime, Nico. We should all hang out as a group again sometime, without getting so drunk. We could actually have some real fun."

"Oh, yeah, sure. That'd be great," he replied awkwardly.

He suddenly heard a loud honk from outside. Will had arrived early. He didn't know how long away the mansion was from his and Will's apartment, but he couldn't have possibly gotten there that fast. He'd probably broken speed limits maybe even run a few red lights. 

When he was about to turn around and leave, Piper stopped him. "I want to meet him sometime. So does Hazel. Bring him along with you, okay?"

"O-okay. Bye, Piper. Tell everyone else I'll see them later," Nico said, before leaving the house to see Will.

Piper's earlier words still rang in his mind.

'You need him. He's your Solace.'

~~~

This was either really really good, or really really bad, and I can't decide which. Sorry not that much happens, but platonic Piper and Nico is cute, so yeah. I seriously need ideas for this fic, so lemme know if you got any. As always, comments, votes, follows, and criticism are appreciated! Have a *surfer dude voice* radical day!