Hi guys, so just want to let you know that I wrote this on a five-hour bus trip with like thirty other people around me, so please be grateful because it was nervewracking and I almost got caught a couple of times. Anyway, enjoy!

Nico's POV

They're both sticky with sweat in the burning heat of the sun, bare arms rubbing together as Will presses Nico up against the trunk of the tree, their lips locked together. Nico can feel the heat of Wil's body and when he opens his eyes for a split second he can see the flush in his cheeks from the sun, bright red against the normal pale of the skin. Will doesn't tan, he's learned as summer has set in, even despite the hours they've spent walking the city, eating ice cream and talking about absolutely nothing. But he likes it, and it's funny to listen to him complain about burning so easily when Nico can brag because he never gets a sunburn, even when he lies out in the sun for hours on end with nothing to protect him from the rays.

He breaks apart from the kiss, running the back of his hand down Will's cheek. When he's this close he can see the colors of Will's eyes, and he watches the light of the sun glitter in it. There was a time when all he knew about them was that they were blue; three months ago if you had asked him about the flecks of green or how long his lashes were, he wouldn't have an answer. But he's spent what feels like hours in this position, with his chest still heaving from the kiss and his smile wide, just looking. He could map out the colors of Will's eyes from memory, and the thought makes his heart leap. "What?" Will asks, giving him the same idiotic smile that he always does, the one that turns up more on the right than the left, the one that brings out the curves of his dimples. Nico opens his mouth but it suddenly occurs to him that he can't put into words why he's smiling. He doesn't think he'll ever be able to describe the feeling of warmth that blossoms in his chest every time he sees Will, the way his heart skips a beat and then makes up for it by beating five times faster.

"Nothing," he says, shaking his head. Will frowns, his eyebrows creasing in the middle and Nico leans in to kiss him again, cupping a hand around WIll's cheek. When they break apart, the frown is gone.

"We should go," Will says quietly, tentatively, like it takes effort to force himself to say it. "My grandparents are coming in a few hours, and my parents want me home."

"Your grandparents aren't coming for a few hours," Nico says, giving Will's arm a squeeze. Will's face flushes more, and Nico has to refrain from laughing. "You can stay a little longer."

"I have to go home," Will says again, laughing softly. He kisses Nico, a soft peck on the lips, before grabbing his hand. "Come on, I'll walk you home."

Nico kicks at the gravel underneath his feet, feeling it press through the worn soles of his shoes. He needs to get new ones; the color in these ones are faded, and there's a hole in the bottom and there's mud permanently caked onto the ends of the laces. But he wants to wear them through the summer, at least. These are the shoes that he pulled hastily just before stumbling out of Will's house more hungover than he's ever been in his life on that first morning after, these are the shoes that to the disappointment of his friends walked him up that podium to get his diploma, and these are the shoes that he wore when he had to push himself up to kiss Will for the first time completely sober. It feels that each step in them brings a new memory, and he feels like when he tosses them into the back of his closet for the last time, the memories will be buried underneath a mountain of old clothes and papers with them.

They push branches out of the trees as they walk, mud caking to the soles of their shoes. The leaves rustle as a bird takes off from where it had been perched, swallowed up by the bright blue sky. Nico's seen these woods hundreds of times, the most popular hookup spot in the town. It was just a fact, that if you walked through them on any given day, there was a good chance you'd see two people wrapped in each other's arms, their faces mashing together. It was where Percy took him, gave Nico his half-hearted kisses while his mind was occupied by a girl with long blonde hair. It was where Octavian took him, kissing him with such a ferocious passion that it was still hard to believe that he had taken Rachel Peterson there just hours before he and Octavian had gone. The branches still sometimes feel like claws, reaching for his clothes and threatening to tear them off and do something that ended up being meaningless to them, but carried so much depth to Nico. He shivers despite the heat as he slips back into memories of the past, and when he steps across the border that separates the woods from the school recess area, he feels warmer.

Until Will pats his arm incessantly, with a panic that makes Nico's heart stop. Until Will's eyes widen, flashing with fear as he stares at the doors of the school. "Will?"

"It's my mom." He grabs Nico's hand more harshly than he would have liked, pulling him along with his chest heaving, both from the panicked movements and the terror in his chest. "Nico, come on, she's gonna see us." Nico is stumbling to keep up with his pace-there were disadvantages to having a tall boyfriend-and when his foot catches on a root he's falling, head over heels down a hill until he lands hard at the bottom, the world spinning around him. He hears Will cursing as branches break and soon Will's face is hovering above him, his eyes wide. He's pale, breathing heavy and he looks like he's scrambling for words. "How many fingers am I holding up?" he asks, his hand shaking slightly.

"Jesus, Will, get off," he says, pushing himself up on shaking arms. His elbow is scraped up and there's a thin line of blood running down his arm and he winces, rubbing it off. Every part of his body is aching and he can feel his body bruising as he stands there, trying to rub the pain out of his body.

"Lemme see that," Will says, grabbing Nico's arm and twisting it so he can see the scrapes on his elbow. He frowns, rubbing off a spot of blood from Nico's skin. "You should put something on that," he says. "Make sure it doesn't get infected. And your head doesn't hurt at all?"

"Not any more than is normal for someone who fell ten feet down a hill," Nico says, his tone slightly more bitter than he intended. He throws a glare at WIll who hangs his head, eyes trained on the ground.

"Sorry," he says, his voice barely above a whisper. "I just kinda panicked. I forgot that she had a meeting about Kayla's classes today."

"You haven't told them yet?"

"No." Will still won't look at Nico, and he scratches absentmindedly at his arm. "I was going to, I really was. But I just-couldn't. It's really not about you."

"I know." He doesn't believe his own words and part of him is glad for the aches in his body so that he can focus on that instead of the stories running circles in his mind. "Just do it when you're ready, I guess."

"Thanks." He clears his throat, still avoiding Nico's eyes. He's almost glad for it because despite what Will tells him, he knows he'll never believe him. It'll always feel too personal, every time that Will panics to hide their relationship or gets quiet when Nico finally asks him about coming out to his parents. It isn't right for him to think that way, but he can't help it. Every move not for their relationship feels like a move against it, and Nico doesn't know how much longer he can go hiding his love without his heart re-breaking into two.

The walk to Nico's house feels longer, especially in the silence. Will's face is stony and he's disconnected from the world; he gets like this enough to know that he's thinking, and Nico isn't in the mood to talk, either. He's scared that if he opens his mouth, even for a second, he'll burst into tears. "Are you okay?" WIll asks, giving Nico's hand a squeeze. "Are you sure nothing hurts too bad? You're not dizzy?"

"I'm fine, Will." There's something in him that isn't fine, that aches every time he looks at Will, every time he thinks about the fear in his eyes at even the prospect of their relationship being exposed. And there was something else in his eyes, too, something that makes Nico's heart shatter when he thinks about the brief flash of shame that lived in his eyes for half a second, but that will live in Nico's mind for weeks to come. "Really. I'm fine." HIs words sound dull, even to him.

"Good." Will smiles and when he kisses Nico it feels real, but Nico still feels uneasy, past actions lingering in his mind and making him doubt the last three months that have been so good but so painful. "I love you.." His words sound real, but Nico feels like he could spend hours picking apart the nuances of Will's tone, trying to figure out if there's a hidden meaning behind his words.

"Love you, too." His words are dull, not as convincing as WIll's. Will gives him a small smile and Nico does his best to return it before stepping inside, waiting until he hears Will's footsteps disappear before making a move into the house.

"Who was that?" His mom is sitting at the kitchen table, slowly stirring tv dinner mac and cheese still in the plastic container.

"My boyfriend." He opens the fridge; it's bare, but he manages to find a few leftover pieces of pizza wrapped in tinfoil and he tosses them into the microwave before getting a cup of water, taking a slow sip.

"Oh." The kitchen falls silent, a silence broken when the microwave beeps and he takes a bite of his pizza without bothering to put it on a plate first. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I know." He takes another bite of pizza, chewing to avoid answering. It's a must in his mouth before he answers. "It never came up." She nods, turning back to her pizza and the reality tv show she's streaming on her shitty laptop that she found at a yard sale. She doesn't ask anything else; not about who, when, why, if they're staying safe. She doesn't ask about the scrapes on his face, arms, the tiny tear in his pants, the sadness in his eyes. So he doesn't bring it up.

He crams the rest of the first piece into his mouth and brings the second into his room, falling onto his bed and biting off the tip. There's sun filtering through his window and it makes him sweat so he throws off his shirt, lying in light black shorts as he watches the ceiling fan putter in a circle. When he finishes his pizza he isn't sure what to do. His friends are busy, Will is busy, and he doesn't want it to happen but his mind begins to wander and it brings up memories of the past, of wondering whether he'll see his mom that night or who she'll bring home, the look of shame on WIll's face when there was even a chance of being seen with Nico. The word shame bounces around his head like the logo on the black tv screens, taking up all of the room in his brain besides bad memories of before, the reluctance and the sneakiness that feel like it's coming back this time around. It brings back his old feelings, the fear of not knowing and the worry, the unrequited love that still makes his heart hurt, even to this day. Eventually, the emotions boil over and he curls in on himself, squeezing his eyes shut as three-month-old sobs come up from inside of him.

Will's POV

Kayla looks up him when he walks through the door, raising an eyebrow as he kicks off his shoes. "Were you with Nico?"

"No." His face flushes, and he wonders why it's almost an automatic excuse to lie. She raises her second eyebrow and Will sighs, his shoulders deflating. "Yeah." She shuts off her phone, letting it drop against her chest, and nods at the chair next to her. He sits, jamming his hands in between his legs with his entire body tense. She's a couple of years younger but somehow she feels too wise. It's less like talking to his sister and more like talking to a therapist, and it makes him nervous.

"You haven't told Mom and Dad yet, have you?" Will shakes his head, a lump rising up in his throat. "I thought you were going to. Didn't you promise Nico?"

"I-" Will chews on his lips, avoiding Kayla's piercing gaze. He's too hot, hotter than he had even been in the sweltering sun and he shifts, trying to unstick the clothes from his body. "Yeah, I did." It pains him to think about his promise, at the beginning, one that went unfulfilled out of sheer fear. He has an array of excuses at this point, I want to tell them together, I want to tell them separately, they're in a bad mood, they're dealing with a lot, now's just not the right time. He's told himself these excuses time and time again, managing to lie to himself for three months but now, with Kayla calling him out with no warning, he can't lie to himself any longer. He made one promise at the beginning of their relationship, one that Nico said he needed, and it's the one thing he still can't bring himself to do.

"What are you going to do?" Will isn't sure if he's imagining it, but there's a hint of sympathy in his voice. If she had been all judgment, he might have broken down crying. "You don't want them to catch you, because that's going to be really awkward. And what if you get, like, AIDS or something and that's how you have to tell them you're gay?"

"I'm not going to get AIDS," Will snaps.

"You might."

"That would require either me or Nico to- you know what, never mind. The point is, I'm not going to get AIDS."

"Still, if you keep pushing this off, they're going to find out on their own, and it's not going to be pretty." Will isn't sure how she can be so smart, but she is. It makes him feel self-conscious. "I"m serious, Will, you're going to have to tell them eventually. Besides, what if you want to marry a guy? Is that how long you really want to wait?"

"No." Will's voice is hoarse, and he clears his throat. "No. Definitely not."

"So, when are you going to tell them?"

"It feels like you're jumping into things a little."

"I'm not, Will, I'm just trying to help." Her face is stony. "When?"

"I- I can't." It hurts to finally admit it to himself, but he's terrified. That's the stuff that's in his nightmares, the stuff that wakes him up sweating. "We're fine like we are now, anyway. Mom and Dad don't need to know at this point. And Nico, he's- he's-" his voice falters and he hangs his head. He can't trick himself into pretending that Nico likes sneaking around, darting behind trees and falling down hills to avoid being seen. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Will-"

"I'm going upstairs," he says quietly, pushing himself up. His legs feel shaky underneath him. "I'll see you when Grandma and Grandpa get here." She watches him walk upstairs and it feels like he's being observed if she's waiting for him to turn around and announce his gayness to the house. But it doesn't happen and when he finally shuts his door all he does is collapse onto his bed and fall into a restless sleep.

------

He wakes up to his phone lit up and his parents calling his name. He sits up groggily, rubbing his eyes as he grabs his phone from where it had fallen onto the floor. There are a few texts from his friends, an email from John Hopkins about dorm etiquette. At the top is a text from Nico, asking if had thought any more about coming out to his parents. Immediately his heart sinks and his thumbs hover above the keypad as he searches for something to say. He can't lie; it would kill Nico if he found out, but the truth would kill him more, that Will doesn't think he'll be ready for years to come. His heart feels heavy when he types out the lie, and part of him thinks that it was stupid to tell him that he'd do it that day. He said it would be good to tell them at the same time, with his grandparents there. He feels guilt rising up in his chest and Nico will be able to see through the lie, no doubt. But the text has already been sent and there's no going back, so all he can do is shut off his phone, step out of his room, and try not to think about it. 

Hi guys, so I just want to first say that I'm sorry, I know that the ending is abrupt but it was that or probably having to write another two thousand words to get to a spot that I could end it. Also, I know that there are probably some things that don't make sense because I wrote this in size eight font on google docs so no one could see what I was writing but also I couldn't see what I was writing and I never checked it over, but hopefully it's not too bad. Also, I'm planning on making this a four-part series with parts three and four coming in the next two weeks. I'm honestly really excited for those because I love this series so far, and I hope you guys like it too!

Nina