disclaimed.

song (and title) by coldplay.

It was Friday evening (also known as "sing stupid songs around a potentially-perilous magical campfire night"), and Will had managed to force Nico into attending.

"You do realize I'm only agreeing to go because of the s'mores, right?" Nico had said.

"Yeah, whatever," Will had replied.

He also brought his guitar, which Nico hadn't found suspicious at the time (the whole point of the "sing stupid songs around a potentially-perilous magical campfire night" was to sing stupid songs around a campfire, and a guitar greatly facilitated that matter), but he quickly realized that the guitar was all part of Will's scheme to embarrass him in front of the entirety of Camp Half-Blood.

After a particularly tortuous rendition of Ninety-Nine Bottles of Nectar on the Wall, Will made his way into the center of the circle—dangerously close to the potentially-perilous fire—with his guitar.

"Um…" He strummed a few chords, gathering everyone's attention. "So, this is a song for my significant annoyance."

A few people clapped (namely Annabeth and Piper), and someone whistled.

"I hope… well, I know he won't like it. But hope the rest of you will."

And he began. Nico desperately wanted to summon a few skeletons to draw everyone's attention away, but he was under "doctor's orders" not to do any "dark stuff."

"Look at the stars," Will sang.

The guitar thrummed expectantly, so Nico craned his neck back. He wished he was up in the sky, away from the people who were all fucking staring at him.

"Look how they shine for you…"

They weren't shining for him, stupid.

"And all the things you do…"

They were shining for you.

Slowly, the campers began looking away from Nico, and they started doing that dumb-looking thing where people wave their phones off-beat to the music—only half-bloods and phones don't really work together, so they just waved glow sticks instead (or some, like Leo, used a torch of Greek fire).

"I wrote a song," continued Will.

You didn't write the song, idiot, Nico resisted saying. Coldplay wrote the song.

"I wrote a song for you… And all the things you do…"

Nico looked down and met Will's eyes. Will was smiling.

There really wasn't anything he would exchange for this, Nico thought. As much as he hated to admit it (and he never knew why), he was really really happy right now. And he wanted the feeling of this moment to last forever.

"You know I love you so…"

And Nico smiled back at the boy he loved.