Will woke up energized and ready to woo. And then he laughed. There was no way he'd be wooing anyone, at least not yet. He'd promised Nico he'd be his friend. He didn't want to ruin that just because he had a crush on him.

"Will, I have a plan." Cecil startled Will as he came out of the bathroom with toothpaste foaming at his mouth and holding a toothbrush.

He was up early.

Before Will.

That could only mean one thing.

He was planning a prank.

"Cecil, not again." Will groaned.

"But listen to this Will, the Stolls have asked me to join them for this! I can't pass up this chance!" He returned to the bathroom to rinse.

Will threw off his covers and joined Cecil in the bathroom. "Their last prank almost got them expelled! What if you were expelled? Where would your parents take you then?"

He shot him a crooked smile but didn't say anything and left the room altogether. Only stopping to wave goodbye at the door. Will groaned again. I hose three boys, and who knows wo else, were going to get themselves expelled. And there was nothing Will could do or say to make them change their mind.

For the moment, Will decided not to think about it for the moment and dressed. He wanted to go find Nico. He thought he didn't know enough about his interests and wanted to take him back to his library alcove and learn all about him. Friends did that right?

Will looked in the mirror tacked on the bathroom door. He looked okay, he could work with what he wore today. It was supposed to be a casual affair anyway. So he turned to leave and he remembered it was finals week. The week before winter break. I hey had three days of testing and then Thursday was the first day of break. Which meant Will could not go find Nico. It was Monday and he had tests to do.

His face fell. He'd have no time to see him. Most likely not even lunch. During finals, the teachers had lunch and breakfast brought to the classrooms in order to save time and have more time for tests. Dinner wouldn't be okay either, Will usually took the time to study for the next tests. And helping Cecil study too, and whoever else showed up to his studying sessions in search of help. So unless Nico came to see him, he'd go without seeing him for the next three days.

But he wanted to be a doctor and this was the hard work it took to accomplish that.

So with a sullen expression and a determined set of mind, he set off to take his finals head on.

☀💀☀

The three days went by in a blur.

Waking up. Heading to class. Everyone nervously eating breakfast in class. Testing. More jitters as everyone ate their lunch, not knowing how they did on the last couple of tests and anxious about the upcoming ones. Going to the library and having study sessions with students who needed help in harder subjects. Annabeth had come in to help him aid the other students. He helped with math and sciences. She took over English and languages and history until Hazel came in and helped with the history. Piper coming along with her and helping with French. Everyone heading to grab dinner and bring it back to the library to study and eat. Going to sleep and repeat.

Cecil had showed up to all their studying and did his tests, along with the Stolls so Will never thought back on the prank Cecil had mentioned. And he forgot about it all. Maybe they'd changed their mind.

After Will's last test on Wednesday, he was so exhausted, as most other students were, he just headed to his room and passed out until Thursday morning. And the only reason he woke up was all the commotion outside hid room. He looked over to ask Cecil if he knew what was going on when he realized he wasn't there and because he'd been asleep, he never saw if he even came to sleep the night before. Then it hit him when he wasn't there and why all the fuss outside.

The prank was done.

Will bolted out of bed, changed and hoped his best friend wasn't about to be expelled. He ran out the door, simultaneously slipping his shoes on. When he stepped out, he stopped dead in his tracks.

There were ducks everywhere.

There were stuffed llamas and alpacas. Yellow, green, red, blue, purple, orange, indigo, everything. They were all over the carpeted floor. And down the stairs, lining the way down, were small wooden llamas on the right and alpacas on the he left. All the pictures had been switched with pictures of those animals. The signs on the bathrooms had been switched to a llama and a alpaca. Will didn't know which was which. He didn't realize when he'd started walking but he was now down the stairs when Cecil came out of nowhere and threw an arm around his shoulders.

He had a crooked grin across his face, "So Will, what do you think about the new décor?"

"Llamas." Was all he could think to say. "Alpacas Cecil."

"I know, don't you just love it? I heard they have some live ones outside. Wanna go see?"

Will cracked a smile, "I have no idea how you pulled this off but lead the way."

When he stepped out and saw about ten of them eating, he laughed. But he didn't have much of a laugh because Headmaster Zeus stormed out of the doors and bellowed, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. After two seconds of silence he yelled, "WHOEVER DID THIS MUST CONFESS AND TAKE THEIR PUNISHMENT!"

He obviously expected someone to say something right away and when they didn't his face got red with rage and he shrieked, "ALL OF YOU ARE UNDER LOCKDOWN. GO TO YOUR ROOMS. NO ONE CAN LEAVE UNTIL THE CULPRITS HAVE BEEN FOUND AND TAKEN CARE OF." After this announcement he turned back to school and returned to his office. The angry teachers were left to usher everyone back to their rooms.

Once Will and Cecil were back in the safety of their room, they cracked up.

"Did you see his face?" Cecil was heaving.

"I know!" Will collapsed on his bed, still laughing.

When they calmed, Will asked, "How long do you think we'll be stuck here until he realizes no one will give in?"

"Until parents complain about their kids missing their flights home."

"So maybe about three days?"

"Most likely."

They sighed concurrently. Will said, "Daredevil marathon?"

"Bring it on." Cecil got up for snacks they stored in the closet and Will was setting up the laptop when Cecil said, "Will."

"What?"

"We have one bag of Trolli gummy eggs."

"No."

"Yes."

"Fudge in a tire." And then he opened chrome. "Cecil."

"What?" He had just settled next to him on the floor. He hadn't noticed yet, he was opening the bag of candy.

"He turned off the Wifi."

His head snapped up, "FUCK."

"I really hope parents start complaining right about now."

They sighed and slumped back to their respective beds. "Fear not Will, we have our phones. And cards, which we can play when we run out of high speed data."

And that's how it went for a couple hours but then Will's mind drifted to Nico and how he hadn't seen him in three days.

"Cecil, I'm gonna go see Nico." He put on his shoes and got up.

He just waved at him from his bed, "Use protection. "

"Cecil!" And then he snuck out and stuck to the walls, hoping a Harpy wouldn't come running around the corner. During lockdowns, the patrolled too, making sure no students left their rooms.

Luckily, he made it to Nico and Jason's room without being detected. He just hoped they'd open the door soon so he wouldn't get caught standing out in the hall.

Jason opened the door, naturally. "Will? You aren't supposed to be out of —"

"I know, can I come in?"

Jason opened the door wider and let him in. Nico was sprawled on his bed with his arm covering his eyes.

"Three days! You didn't come see me for three days! Didn't you think I could stand to see a a friendly face between all that testing?"

He bolted upright, "Will-? What, my face?"

"Yes!" He threw his arms up.

"Um, I'll be in the bathroom," Jason slipped in the bathroom and closed the door quietly, like he didn't want to disturb them.

"I had testing too." He frowned.

"But I couldn't come see you, I had a study group!"

"Tough luck, Solace." He shrugged, "You're seeing me now."

"That's it, you're coming with me."

"I'm good here, thanks." He laid back down and put his arm over his face.

"We're going to my library room."

"What do you want to go there for?"

"So we can hang out, I haven't seen you in three days! Friends don't go days without seeing each other unless its distance related but even then there's Skype and stuff."

"We can hang out here." He took a peek at him from over his arm. "Just in case you haven't noticed we're on lockdown."

"Have you forgotten about the walls di Angelo?"

"How could I ever? That's how I know it was your friend and a couple others who did the llama takeover."

"What?"

"I don't always go to your room when I can't sleep."

Will sighed, "Please? I have books there, as you know. Snacks and a deck of cards."

Nico took another peek and saw his pleasing face, he had to give in. He lowered his arm and his hair covered his forehead again and a little of his eyes, "Fine."

Will beamed, "Let's get going then."

Nico knocked on the bathroom door, "Jason, we're leaving," he rolled his eyes," You can come out now."

They left the room before Jason emerged and made their way quietly between the walls to Will's secret room. It turned out there was a secret tunnel that led to it. Will wondered if Nico had looked for it on purpose or stumbled upon it by accident. He fantasised about Nico looking for it on purpose to come and see him.

"I call dibs on the top." Nico said immediately.

"We're hanging out together not separately. " Will said.

Nico sighed, "Right."

He grabbed some cookies from Will's makeshift pantry like he was at home and headed up the winding metal staircase. Halfway up Nico mumbled, "Well? Are you coming? You're the one who wanted to hang out."

He smiled, "Right behind you."

Will grabbed the deck of cards off a shelf before heading up the spiral stairs himself. They settled on the pillows and blankets and looked out at the pink and purple sky from under the domed ceiling for a couple minutes. Not for the first time, Will wondered how the staff hadn't wondered about the small glass dome to the side of the library and why they hadn't tried to find it. But he chased the thought away, just glad he'd ever found it.

"Let's play twenty-one questions, di Angelo." Will wanted to get know him better. He wanted to know him like the back of his hand.

Nico leaned back against the railing. "Bring it on, Solace."

"Favourite cartoon as a kid?"

He shrugged, "Didn't watch much TV, I usually played outside with my sister instead. What's your favourite colour?"

"Pastel yellow." Nico snorted. "What?" Will said defensively and turned to look at him. "What's wrong with pastel yellow?"

"It's just so you. I should've guessed. It's your personality. It's the color of your hair under the fluorescent lights of this place. It's just so you." He moved his hair to the side and before Nico's words registered in his brain, Will saw a cut running above Nico's eyebrow.

Will reached out to turn his face to his and moved more of his hair away from his face, "What happened?"

Nico tried to swap his hand away but Will didn't let him. "Nothing Jesus."

"Did you disinfect it? Clean it? How did it happen?"

"Jesus Christ, Solace. I just fell out of bed alright? I'm fine. I'm not going to die."

Will tore his eyes away from the cut and meant to meet his eyes to explain to him the dangers of germs and infections but his eyes accidentally drifted lower.

God, Will thought, he has such beautiful pink lips. With the thought, Will frowned. He shouldn't be thinking that. And yet, he licked his lips at the thought of having them on Nico's. He was so focused on Nico's lips and his own warring thoughts, he didn't notice when Nico's eyes wandered to Will's lips as a blush spread across his cheeks. It was like he knew what was going through Will's head.

But then Will's brain seemed to make up its mind.

Will leaned in and planted his lips on Nico's.