If you recognise it, it's not mine.

The first person to do it was, surprisingly, Annabeth.

The girl strode up to Will in the middle of the courtyard one day when she and Percy were visiting, and stared at him for a minute. Before Will could say anything, she pulled a knife out and pointed it at him.

"I know it's usually a sibling or someone who does this, but I think he's still trying to figure out how to tell Hazel, and Bianca..." She trailed off for a second before continuing, grey eyes staring at him with an intensity which unnerved him. "Thalia's busy with the Hunters, and I'm not sure she knows either, Jason says he thinks you're a good guy, and Percy's still trying to get his head round the fact that he didn't notice Nico had a crush on him." She rolled her eyes, muttering something which sounded like 'Seaweed Brain', then prodded him just hard enough to hurt with the point of her knife.

Will gulped.

"So I guess I'd better do it. You treat Nico badly, I'll send Percy, Jason and Thalia after you."

She sheathed her knife again and walked away.

Will made a silent vow to never, ever annoy her.

The second person to do it was Jason.

"Hey, dude."

"Hey?" Will said back. He'd never really talked to the son of Zeus, or Jupiter, whatever, before.

"Listen, Nico's a good kid, right?"

Will nodded, unsure where this was going.

Jason sighed, looking uncomfortable. "Look, I was the first person he told, you know? And he was forced to do that." The boy twisted the coin in his hands uncertainly. "What I'm trying to say is... Nico doesn't trust people easily. If he trusts you, I trust you. Are we cool?"

"Yeah, sure," Will said, still slightly confused. Jason nodded, flashing him a smile, and walked away towards the Big House. Almost absentmindedly, he tossed the coin in the air. When he caught it again, he was holding a very big, very sharp-looking golden sword.

Will winced.

As it turned out, Thalia did know.

Will was out in the woods, trying to find his shoes (blame the Stoll brothers) when a silver arrow thunked into a tree beside his head. Will turned round, looking for the archer, but there was nobody there. Then he noticed the note pinned to the tree by the arrow. In small, spiky handwriting, it said "Hurt Nico, and we will hunt you down."

Will nodded. "Understood," he called to the empty forest.

"Listen up, cupcake, you better play nice to di Angelo, or you're going to feel the wrong end of a baseball bat."

Will did his best to look like he was taking the sleep-deprived satyr holding a cuddly Minotaur toy seriously as he nodded.

Piper simply marched up to him and told him not to hurt Nico so forcefully that the son of Hades demanded that he stopped treating him like cotton wool even three hours later.

Will was used to it by the time Percy showed up. So when the son of the sea god approached him, he raised his hands in surrender. "It's okay, I promise, I'm not going to hurt, betray, or cause any distress at all to Nico di Angelo."

Percy looked taken aback. "Actually, I was going to ask if there were any free medics, I got an arrowhead wedged in my arm, and Terminus won't let me into the city with it in, because it apparently counts as a weapon."

Will raised an eyebrow. "So you came all the way here because?"

"All their medics are in the city too. Some big meeting. Blackjack gave me a lift."

Will laughed, gesturing to a nearby bench as he went to fetch a kit.

When he got back, Percy had taken off the makeshift bandage, revealing the stone arrowhead in his forearm. It wasn't deep, but it looked like it should be painful. Then Will noticed the mushed leaves smeared around the wound. Someone must've known nature healing or something.

"How'd you get that?"

"Someone thought it would be a good idea to give Tyson a bow. Ella recited some sort of herbal remedy," Percy replied, pointing to the leaves with his other hand.

Will nodded. "Right." He'd met the Cyclops before, when he'd had ask him to come and coax the nervous harpy off the roof of the Apollo cabin.

"But what you said about Nico earlier, what was that about?"

Will shrugged. "A few of his friends have been telling me not to hurt him, to be nice to him, that sort of thing."

Percy's face was a picture. "Who?"

"Uh...Jason, Piper, Coach Hedge, Annabeth, Thalia."

"Why would they do that?" Will laughed until he realised Percy was serious.

"You don't know?" Gods, this is awkward... Nico had told him, with a great deal of embarrassment, that he'd had a crush on Percy for several years.

"What is it? Is Nico in trouble?" Despite the fact that Will was halfway through cleaning the cut on his arm, Percy looked ready to fight someone.

"Um...no." Will didn't meet Percy's eyes as he grabbed a bandage. "Nico's like... I mean, we're..." He trailed off. He could really see why Annabeth called the other boy 'Seaweed Brain' sometimes. Percy still looked completely blank.

"So... What's going on?"

"MeandNicoaresortofgoingout," Will blurted suddenly. "Please don't stab me," he added, flinching as he finished tying the bandage.

Percy frowned. "You and Nico? Oh. Oh."

"Yeah?" Will tried hopefully.

"So when he said not his type..." Percy shook his head. "Okay."

Will dared to relax, then Percy grabbed him by the shirt. "But if you hurt him, I will personally send you to Tartarus." He glared at him for a moment, then laughed. "Kidding. Just be nice, and look out for him. Deal?" He held up a hand for a high-five.

Will laughed. "Sure."

When Nico asked him to come with him to meet his sister, Will was excited, because he'd heard a lot about Camp Jupiter, and then he panicked, because oh gods, this was like 'hey, come meet the family'. And then Nico had dragged him into a bit of shadow, saying "this won't hurt", and they were suddenly standing in a Roman street.

Will shook his head. "Was that shadow-travel?" he asked. Nico nodded. "Gods, that's horrible," he said immediately. "Never again? Please?"

"Still have to get back," Nico mumbled, before staggering against Will. The healer caught him, noting the way he felt freezing cold, despite the sun overhead. Stupid shadow tricks. Camp Jupiter was in what, California?

"Hey, are you okay, Death Boy?"

"Hazel's probably... that way," Nico muttered drowsily, pointing. "And... don't call me that."

Will helped the other boy walk down the busy street in the direction he'd indicated, until they reached a smart-looking white building. Here, Nico tugged on Will's arm, gesturing to the door, and Will knocked apprehensively.

A girl with curly hair and bright tawny eyes opened the door. "Hello?" Her eyes widened. "Oh, gods, Nico! Frank!" The tall, bulky guy Will could've sworn he'd seen turn into a dragon and back at the battle appeared beside her, took in the scene, and reached out to help Will support Nico. The son of Hades blinked sleepily.

"Um...hey, Hazel. Thanks, Frank," he added, leaning his head on the other boy's shoulder.

Hazel frowned at him as they went inside. "Nico, did you try and shadow-travel between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter again? With...er," she glanced at Will in confusion.

"Will. Son of Apollo."

"Okay." She smiled quickly at him, then went back to scolding her brother. "Nico, I told you last month, you have to stop and rest halfway, you can't just leapfrog across the country like that! Especially not with two people!" Nico nodded, although he looked pretty used to this sort of thing.

Frank stood next to Will. "Do you want a drink or something?"

"Sure."

"She'll calm down in a bit. She just worries about him."

"Look, Nico, I'm serious. You can't keep doing this! Why are you here, anyway? Why did you bring Will?"

Will jumped, and glanced at Nico, remembering Annabeth mentioning that Nico hadn't told his sister yet.

"Will's...uh..."

"We're..."

Beside him, he could tell that it was dawning on Frank. Will sent him a desperate glance, like 'a little help here?'

Frank turned into an iguana.

"Great," Will muttered, trying not to freak out at the transformation.

Hazel rolled her eyes, and fixed both of them with a stern look. "Tell me what's going on."

"Will's my sort of..uh... boyfriend?" Nico said quickly. Then he ducked, although it turned out that wasn't necessary. Hazel sat, looking shellshocked. She fanned herself with her hand, the old-fashioned gesture surprising Will a little.

Beside him, Frank de-iguanafied and sat down next to her, talking quickly and quietly.

"She's from the forties," Nico said. Will jumped. He hadn't even noticed the demigod come up behind him. "Long story. But this sort of thing is a bit..." He waved his hand in the air vaguely. Will nodded, still somewhat nervous.

"And...uh, Frank?"

Nico laughed slightly. "He does that sometimes. Percy's got this great story about how he turned into a goldfish by mistake once."

At that moment, Hazel stood up and walked over to them. First, she punched Nico in the arm. "You know, a little warning would have been nice," she said, before pulling him into a hug.

"Noted," Nico replied, rubbing his arm. Hazel let him go and turned to Will. Will flinched and stepped backwards. She laughed and hugged him too, tugging his head down to her shoulder level.

She whispered, "My boyfriend can turn into a lot of things besides iguanas. Ever tried to fight a swarm of bees?" before letting go. Will winced- she had a really strong grip. "So we're good, Sun Boy?"

"Yeah, sure," Will said.

Hazel insisted on giving them lunch, and eventually, when Nico said they should probably go, she turned on him and very calmly said that there was no way she was letting him shadow-travel two people across the country again. She led them out to the stables, where a golden horse pranced amongst a herd of unicorns and pegasi.

Hazel beamed. "Arion can take us at least most of the way. Come on!"

The horse was insanely fast. It only took an hour and a half to get to Long Island. It was terrifying and Will felt like he was going to fall off most of the time, but it was a billion times better than shadow travel. When they finally dismounted, Hazel made several lumps of gold rise out of the ground. While Will stared at the horse eating chunks of solid metal, she hugged Nico fiercely.

"And you," she said, jabbing a finger into Will's chest, "don't let him do anything stupid."

Will saluted. "Yes, ma'am. Nice to meet you."

"You too." Then she was gone, a streak of dust in the distance.

Nico started looking around for a patch of shadow to disappear into, until Will caught his arm. "We can walk. It's like, ten minutes. Come on."

Grudgingly, Nico followed him. "Well, that went well."

"Yeah. No death threats or magical powers or anything."

"Nope. Wait- death threats?"

"Let's just say you have some very overprotective friends."

"What happened? Will, tell me what they did!" Nico looked completely outraged.

"Nothing serious, really. Annabeth just reminded me that you had a lot of powerful friends, Jason was very nice about the whole thing... Uh, Coach Hedge threatened to hit me with a baseball bat, Thalia shot an arrow at me-"

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm serious! Percy actually hadn't realised we were going out-"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Wait, he knows now, though? Anything else?"

"Yeah. Um, I'm pretty sure Piper used charmspeak on me-"

"Oh gods, she didn't." Nico was bright pink with embarrassment. "I'm going to kill all of them."

"You don't have to do that," Will said quickly. "Hazel just told me that Frank can turn into a swarm of bees. How does that even work?"

"No idea," Nico said. "He can do dragon, lion and elephant, too." Then he went back to plotting the murder of most of his friends.

That night, at dinner, Will scraped a portion of his meal into the fire, along with his usual prayer to Apollo. Then he paused, before adding another slice of pizza. He didn't know if you were supposed to pray to someone other than your godly parent, but he wasn't taking any chances. "I promise I'll take care of him, Hades," he murmured.

He could swear the room got colder for a moment, even next to the brazier.