It was nighttime, and Nico felt at home.

Nico lay down in his coffin-like bed and closed his eyes. After a long day, he was finally drifting off to sleep...

There was a knock at the door. At first, Nico thought he was hearing things, and ignored it.

The knocking grew louder, and more persistent. Nico's eyes flew open. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he stood and headed for the door, mumbling Greek curses under his breath.

Nico threw open the door and found himself face-to-face with Will Solace.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Nico hissed.

"Hello to you too, Death Boy," Will replied, casually strolling inside. Nico shut the door as quickly and quietly as he could behind him. In the midst of this, he mumbled: "Don't call me Death Boy,"

"Sorry, Death Boy," a smirking Solace replied, sitting gently on the edge of Nico's bed.

"So, what are you doing here?" Nico asked again. He leaned against the far wall, trying to seem nonchalant.

"Well...I, um," All the confidence appeared to drain from Will. He exhaled slowly and seemed to deflate like a balloon. After a beat, he pulled a small rectangular object from his pocket, stared at the floor, and simply said: "Here. I hope you like it,"

Nico shuffled over and took the object from Will. On the front there was a sliver of white tape that had "For Nico" scrawled on it in smudged blue Sharpie. Despite Nico and Will's touch, dust still clung to the object. It looked ancient and worn-out.

"A mixtape?" Nico asked in disbelief, turning it over in his hands.

Will nodded, still very interested in the wood his feet were resting on.

"So let me get this straight," The son of Hades said as he sat on the bed beside Will.

"Okay,"

"You made me a mixtape?"

"Mmhm,"

"At three in the morning?"

"Yup,"

"And you felt the need to give it to me now?"

Will nodded.

"Even though you could have been eaten by harpies?"

"Bingo,"

"Why?"

This question was a bit of a shock to Will's system, as he couldn't give a one-word response.

Gathering all the courage he had, Will looked at Nico and said:

"I like you, di Angelo. A lot. And I couldn't sleep and I ended up doing...this," he gestured toward the tape and held his breath, waiting for a response.

Will couldn't tell what the other boy was thinking. His face was blank, wiped clean of all emotion. Then, he sat the tape down.

Feeling defeated, Will got to his feet.

"I'm sorry. Just forget I even did this. You don't have to-"

Nico shot up and grabbed Will's hand. This action alone caused a wave of vertigo to crash into Nico like a wave, but he tried to ignore it as he asked:

"Where do you think you're going?"

Will blinked, stunned.

"I thought you didn't like it. Or...me,"

The ghost of a smile played at Nico's lips, but was gone in an instant. Will couldn't help but stare.

At this point, Nico was all out of words. He wanted desperately to tell Will how he felt, but nothing would come.

Before Will could process what was happening, Nico crashed his lips into his. Cold shock filled Will at first, followed by pure bliss.

Inside Nico, the skeletal butterflies that stirred whenever Will was around were a thousand times more lively, sending panic through his body. However, with Will's lips on his, Nico could hardly feel a thing.

After a while, the two boys gently pulled away to catch their breath. Their faces were only inches apart.

"Thank you for the tape. I'll have to listen to it sometime," Nico whispered, grinning. His voice was small and breathless from lack of air.

"Sometime," Will whispered, moving in slowly, "But not now. Right now, you're not going anywhere," With that Will closed the gap between their lips.