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Nico passes the last crate of supplies to Austin, who manages to jam it into the front seat of the camp van, next to Argus. Austin shuts the front passenger door, finally knocking his hip against it to get it to close properly. He scratches his head.
“Yeah, this is definitely more than I thought I ordered,” he says apologetically.
Will shrugs. “It’s fine, Austin. Just means we won’t have to stock up again for a while.”
They’ve made this six-hour trip to Pittsburgh to collect supplies for the infirmary - Kayla, Austin, Will and Nico. And Argus, of course. The drive out had been easy - Austin in the front with Argus, and plenty of room to stretch out in the back rows. The drive home is evidently going to be… less comfortable.
“Well, I think there’s enough room for me and Austin in the first row,” Kayla determines, rising on her toes to peer around a pile of boxes. She elbows Nico. “You and Will will have to make do in the back.”
Nico peers dubiously into the back of the van, pressing his face and hands to the smoked glass window. “There’s barely room for one of us back there.” There are boxes of supplies crammed into nearly every inch of the van's interior, packed up to the ceiling and covering most of the seating space.
Kayla shrugs. “You can sit on his lap, you’ll be fine.”
Nico grimaces. Not that he doesn’t enjoy sitting on his boyfriend’s lap, but it’s something they do occasionally when they’re short on seating at campfire or Will’s feeling particularly silly at mealtimes. Not something Nico really wants to do for six hours straight. Newly eighteen, Nico has managed to grow several inches since he first arrived at camp and he feels he’s mostly outgrown lap-sitting.
“I could just shadow-travel back…” he begins. But Will’s face falls, and Nico immediately backtracks. He agreed to come along on this trip to keep Will company, and he’d feel like a jerk backing out now.
Nico shakes his head. “You know what, it’s fine. Although you might change your mind once your legs fall asleep under my bony butt.”
“Pff. As if. You’re light as a feather,” Will grins, tugging him in by his waist for a warm kiss.
Nico can’t help the stupid smile that spreads over his face, despite the many kisses they’ve shared over the last months. He sees Kayla roll her eyes in his periphery, Austin lightly gagging.
It turns out there isn’t even any easy way into the back of the van, and as Kayla and Austin clamber over boxes into the first row of seats, Argus leads Nico and Will around to the back doors and they climb over the seat backs into the third row.
Nico settles himself on the taller boy’s lap, leaning back to allow Will to pull the seatbelt over both of them.
“Are you sure about this?” Nico asks his boyfriend. Because it can’t be comfortable for Will with those long legs of his. Those long legs and the… strong thighs Nico’s seated on. Gods. Nico swallows.
“Yup,” Will says easily, wrapping his arms around Nico’s middle. He drops his chin to Nico’s shoulder. “I have a chin rest and everything.”
Will nuzzles into his neck, his face scratchy against sensitive skin. Nico gasps and Will giggles.
“I guess I can put us both to sleep if we get too uncomfortable,” Nico muses. The sun is just dipping below the horizon, and Austin and Kayla had mentioned catching a nap on the way back to camp.
“Mmm. It’s fine,” Will says. “I like cuddling with you.”
Nico’s stomach flip-flops pleasantly. He likes it too, of course. It’s what they do with their time alone, mostly. Cuddling, and kissing. Talking. Then more cuddling and more kissing. Neither of them has been in any rush to venture into anything bolder. This, the two of them together has only spanned about six months. And it’s… really good. It’s been enough just to have the comfort of Will’s nearness. His sunny energy and easy touches. Will makes everything warmer, lighter.
They settle into the seat as best they can, chatting for a while before falling into a comfortable silence. Nico turns his head to Will’s, breathing him in, sinking into the heat that always seems to radiate off the boy behind him. He probably could actually sleep like this, he thinks. He shifts a bit, trying to find the most comfortable position for both of them in this tight space.
And that’s when he feels it.
For a moment he thinks it must be Will’s wallet. Maybe a pack of gum? A roll of gauze? He’s reached halfway back to adjust whatever it is that’s poking him in the ass when he freezes. Because that’s definitely not a wallet. That’s -
“I’m so sorry,” Will whispers, tense.
“Oh. That’s - it’s fine.” Nico huffs out a laugh, a little embarrassed as he realizes that’s his boyfriend’s dick. “It’s um. It’s not like you’re doing it on purpose.”
“I’m really, really not,” Will says in a rush. “I’m so sorry, I just -”
“Hey. Will.” Nico reaches back awkwardly to pat the other boy’s cheek. “It’s fine. Really. Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal.”
Will sighs and Nico feels the tension in his body ease, marginally.
But the thing is… it kind of feels like a big deal, and Nico’s never really felt it before, except for maybe the occasional brush or bump during times their kissing has become particularly heated. But at those times, Will’s always taken things down a notch, pulled back, shifted away. And that’s not really an option at the moment.
Nico tries, though, carefully tilting his hips to the side and trying to shift his weight forward. But Will hisses, his hands shooting to Nico’s waist, fingers gripping painfully.
“Maybe don’t… move,” he grits out.
“Sorry, I was just trying to -”
“I know, but can you just - can you just hold still?”
Will sounds desperate, pained, and Nico nods, freezing so abruptly that his muscles begin to ache with the effort after only a moment. He tries to focus on the landscape flashing by outside the window, but there’s not much distraction there. It’s fully dark now, and the only thing to divert Nico from the bulge pressing insistently into his backside is the occasional flash of light from a passing car.
Nico’s trying, very hard, not to let his own body get too… interested… in their current predicament. It won’t help matters. Will’s already tense, and Nico doesn’t want to make things worse. And besides, he feels kind of awful being turned on when Will is clearly uncomfortable. Nico tries to turn his attention to the boxes stacked around them instead, resolutely reading the labels.
Wrapped tongue depressors. Medium alcohol swabs. Nonwoven sponges.
It’s just… there, though, hot and hard against his backside, and he can feel every inch of it.
No. Stop it.
Non-adherent pads. Conforming gauze.
It feels really hard. And... big. Is it big? Or is it just because he’s sitting on it? Sort of… against it. Whatever. How big is it, exactly?
Nico shakes his head, a twitch. This line of enquiry is not helping matters.
Cotton-tipped applicators.
The thing is, the two of them have done a lot of kissing, for months now. Even more, lately. And, inevitably, there are the thoughts that follow when Nico’s alone in his cabin. Not to mention the dreams that sometimes wake him - so much warmer and softer than the nightmares that have plagued him for years. If he’s being completely honest with himself, he’s more than ready to move things to the next level with Will, whatever that might mean for them.
Have you considered, Nico’s brain offers helpfully, what it would be like if you were both wearing far fewer clothes right now?
No.
Nico’s in jeans, but Will’s penchant for cargo shorts even now, in February… well it’s difficult not to be extraordinarily aware of just how thin that layer of fabric is -
No. No.
Nico swallows, determinedly ignoring the way his jeans are becoming uncomfortably snug. Will is still stiff as a board behind him. In more ways than one.
Nico’s learned, over the last few years, that when Will is relaxed, it’s much easier for him to relax, too. And unfortunately the opposite is also true. He’s never been sure whether this has something to do with Will’s powers or if it’s just the bond the two of them share, this bond that’s grown closer and more certain with each year that passes. The way they know each other instinctively, inside and out.
Nico’s shoulders are in knots and he really wants to lean back again, but he doesn’t want to make things any more difficult for Will. But a moment later the decision is made for him as Argus floors the gas. Luckily the walls of boxes around them are packed in so tightly that they don’t shift much, but Nico is thrown back against his boyfriend’s chest, his ass pressing firmly into… well.
Will whimpers softly.
Nico cringes in sympathy. He turns to press a kiss to Will’s jaw. “You okay?”
“The more I try not to think about it, the more I… can’t stop thinking about it,” Will mumbles. His eyes are squeezed shut, breath shallow.
“Sorry,” Nico murmurs. “I’ll try to stop being so hot.”
Will breathes out a laugh. “Yeah, could you?”
Nico feels a little rush of relief. Because, look. They’ve been in far, far worse predicaments together, right? This, by comparison, is honestly funny. Or maybe it will be later, at least.
Nico turns his head and cranes his neck, letting his breath brush Will’s ear. “Star Trek is far superior to Star Wars. True crime is the worst kind of crime,” he whispers.
Will laughs nervously. “What are you doing?”
“Shh, I’m trying to help you be repulsed by me,” Nico answers, right in his ear. Will giggles. It sounds a little tense, but Nico decides it still counts.
Nico keeps it up as long as he can (Golden Oreos are an abomination, your dad is the god of too many things, sometimes when you ask me if I’ve eaten any vegetables today - I lie.), until Will is shaking with laughter, Nico giggling in whispers against his head.
Finally he runs out of ideas and he settles back against his boyfriend, gently rocked by the last of their laughter, the rise and fall of Will’s breath. Will’s arms are looped loosely around him.
Nico shifts his hips cautiously and Will gasps, sharp.
“Sorry,” Nico grimaces. “That didn’t help?”
“Well. I feel better,” Will says softly, “so thanks for that. But I’m still um… you know.” He sighs. “I’m really -”
“Don’t be sorry,” Nico interrupts.
“I’ll try,” Will murmurs. He presses his nose to the place where Nico’s shoulder meets his neck, and Nico can tell the other boy is trying to settle his breathing. He reaches a hand up to twine in Will’s hair, a gentle tether. From what he can tell, Will’s… issue… hasn’t improved at all. But his body feels more relaxed in most of the places they’re pressed together.
“You know I wanna… do stuff. With you. Right?” Nico murmurs, after a few minutes have passed in silence.
“What stuff?”
“Like, this kind of stuff.” Nico rolls his hips in demonstration and Will’s breath hitches.
Nico pauses. “Do you… do you not want to do that kind of stuff with me?” he asks, as it suddenly occurs to him that maybe he should be worried about it.
“Nico, no.” Will shakes his head immediately, pressing a kiss to the side of Nico’s head. “Of course I want to do that stuff with you. Just - not like this. Not because - not because I can’t control myself. I want us to do it because we both want to. I want it to be special.”
Nico considers. “Will you tease me if I tell you that everything we do together is special?”
Will huffs out a laugh, warm on Nico’s neck. “Maybe a little. But… I feel that way too. Obviously.”
“What do we do, then?” Nico asks.
Because the thing is, Nico’s first impulse, always, is to help Will, in whatever form that might take - just as Will’s done for him a hundred times over. And if they’re forced to be pressed against each other for hours, still, with the evidence of Will’s arousal trapped between their bodies… Nico can’t think of many solutions. Really just the one, honestly.
“What do we… do? What do you mean?”
“Well,” Nico swallows, trying to summon as much courage as he can. “We’ve still got a long drive ahead of us. The way I see it, we can… take care of this,” he presses his hips back gently, “and then get some sleep. Or, we can wait it out for another…” Nico reaches for Will’s wrist, turning it to squint at his watch, “five hours and twelve minutes.” He presses his lips to Will’s palm, an apology.
Will groans weakly, pressing his face into Nico’s hair. After a long moment Nico feels him take in a deep breath. “Even if we did… like, how…”
Nico squeezes his arms around Will’s where they’re wound around his waist. “You said you wanted us both to want to, right? I want to,” he says softly. “If you don’t, that’s totally okay. But I want you to know that I’m ready whenever you are. Okay?”
“Okay,” Will whispers after a long moment.
“Okay?”
“Okay. I - I think I want to.”
“Yeah?” Nico feels a grin blooming across his face, butterflies erupting in his stomach.
Are they actually doing this?
“Yeah,” Will breathes. “But like… how would we - what do we even -”
“Like this?” Nico rolls his hips once, then again. Slow, careful, trying to concentrate pressure on the bulge pressing into his ass.
“Oh,” Will breathes against his neck. His hips jerk up, just the tiniest bit, and Nico’s face floods with warmth.
“Is that okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Would that… work?” Nico asks, hoping very much that Will understands his meaning and he won’t be forced to explain himself more explicitly.
“Um. Yeah,” Will breathes. “Yeah.”
“Want me to keep going?”
“Yes.” Will sounds certain about this, and it makes Nico’s breath catch.
“Tell me if you want to stop?”
Will nods.
They’re actually doing this.
Then - “wait.” Will’s hold tightens, and Nico freezes.
“Kayla and Austin?” Will whispers.
Nico blinks, taking a moment to register what his boyfriend is asking. “Oh - sleeping. Both of them.”
“Okay,” Will breathes. “Argus?”
“Um. Not sleeping. But that’s what you want in a driver, usually.”
Will giggles, nervous. Then he shifts just the slightest bit under Nico, an invitation. Nico takes a sharp inhale, resuming the measured rolling of his hips, a slow grind into his boyfriend’s erection. Will lets out a soft, desperate sound, then presses his face into Nico’s neck, hard, as if he’s trying to pretend he didn’t.
“Okay?” Nico whispers. He wishes he could properly see Will’s face, have a better gauge of how the other boy is feeling. Next time, he hopes. The thought makes his stomach flutter pleasantly.
“Mmm,” Will responds, almost as if the sound is being pushed out of him. Nico feels him swallow, hears his inhale and the parting of Will’s lips, like he wants to say something more.
“Yeah?” he asks, needing to know.
“Yeah,” Will breathes. “You’re really really good at that,” he whispers in a rush.
Nico chokes down a giggle. “I’ve literally never done this before in my life.” His voice comes out incredulous, a bit squeaky, and Will snorts, then dissolves into a fit of giggles, his arms tight around Nico’s middle, laughter huffed out into Nico’s hair. It’s contagious, and they press against each other, giddy, shaking with soft laughter.
Nico turns his head for a kiss and though the angle is awkward, Will responds eagerly. He always does.
They part, and Nico presses his head against Will’s, resuming the motion of his hips, pressing down and back, and Will lets out another soft sound, his hands hesitantly moving to Nico’s thighs. Nico rests his hands on the other boy’s, encouraging.
“I love you,” he whispers, and Will takes a long, shuddering breath.
Sometimes, when Will’s feeling anxious, he’ll tell Nico, “talk to me,” and Nico will murmur any soothing thing he can think of - you’re okay, I’m right here, everything’s fine, breathe. He does something similar now, grinding against his boyfriend in the back of a van - I love you so much, Will, you’re so beautiful, I love the way you kiss me.
The effect on the other boy is intoxicating, Will’s breath coming rougher against Nico’s skin, his body tensing, not with nerves this time, but with pleasure, anticipation. There’s a rush of heat through Nico’s body, too, but he does his best to put that aside. This isn’t about him. Apart from the arousal though, this feels… good. Right. It feels really nice to take care of Will this way.
Will takes a shaky little breath in, pressing a hot kiss to the back of Nico’s neck, then another, and another, nuzzling. Nico’s eyes flutter shut.
“Um,” Will whispers against his skin.
“Okay?” Nico pauses.
“Yeah. Could you um… could you do that… more?” Will asks. Soft, shy, breathless.
“More?”
“H-harder?” Will whispers, almost too soft to hear.
Nico feels a dizzy rush of heat to his lips, tingling down to his fingers.
“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”
Nico shifts forward a bit, bracing a forearm on the seat back in front of them and grinding back, hard. Will lets out a quiet moan, his hips jerking up, involuntary. Electricity sparks through Nico’s body and he digs his heels into the floor of the van. Harder.
“Nico. Fuck,” Will breathes. Nico can feel every ounce of tension in the other boy’s body, coiled like a spring. He’s squirming a little, a bit more with each movement of Nico’s hips, and Nico abruptly registers that Will’s squeezing his thighs in a gentle rhythm, tugging him in with each motion of Nico’s hips, guiding him into the rhythm that Will needs to get off.
Gods.
“Tell me how?” Nico whispers, unsteady, mostly just wanting the reassurance that this is still okay, that Will’s not going to regret this.
“It’s - it’s good. That’s - you’re - it’s really good. It feels - fuck,” Will gasps, sounding as if he’s having difficulty piecing words together. Nico glances back to see Will’s head tilted against the seat, eyes squeezed shut, lips parted. And fuck. Will is always, always gorgeous. Breathtaking, luminous. But this - knowing it’s the two of them together making Will feel this way, that it’s Nico causing this… gods. He’s hooked, lost in it.
“Keep going?” Nico whispers.
“Yes. Please.”
Will’s grip on his thighs is hard enough to bruise now, and Nico’s struck rather violently by the thought that he hopes it will, that he wants to see the evidence of this, later. It sends a rush of heat to his groin. Is that… weird? Now is probably not the time to examine that, he decides.
Nico’s sweaty, dizzy, his back beginning to ache with the motion of his hips. He leans back, turns his head towards Will’s, pressing messy kisses and murmured words wherever he can reach; “you’re so gorgeous, Will, I love you, it’s okay, baby, I’ve got you.”
“Oh,” Will gasps, sharp, and his hands shoot to Nico’s waist, fingers curling around hip bones. He pulls Nico in hard, thrusting up once, twice, and then Will’s body is trembling, hips jerking helplessly, mouth pressed into Nico’s shoulder as he tries to stifle a moan.
He finally goes limp, sweaty and spent, and Nico flops back as Will’s arms wind around his waist, his chest heaving. Will drops his head heavily to Nico’s shoulder.
Nico strokes Will’s arm gently, warmth blooming in his chest, a slow smile spreading across his face.
“Wow,” he whispers, finally. He feels light, warm.
“Wow,” Will giggles. He presses kisses to Nico’s shoulder, then his neck, finally burying his nose in Nico’s hair.
“Um. I really like it when you call me baby,” Will mutters, sounding embarrassed.
Nico blinks. Then, “oh.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll. Um. That’s - good to know.”
Will laughs, breathless.
Nico closes his eyes, still smiling, soothed by the sensation of Will’s breath rocking their bodies together as he floats back down. Just the two of them surrounded by the hum of the van and stacks of boxes and the night sky.
“I love you,” Will whispers, when he’s finally caught his breath.
“Love you too,” Nico murmurs, turning his head towards his boyfriend, pressing a clumsy kiss to his jaw. “That was - that was okay, right? We’re okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” Will says. “Better than okay.” He turns his head towards Nico and they manage a few clumsy kisses, off-centre, messy.
“Um,” Will nuzzles against Nico’s face, sounding shy. “I um… I want it to be your turn. Next time.”
“Oh.” Nico’s stomach flip-flops pleasantly. “Yeah, that sounds… yeah. Okay,” he manages. “Not like - not now, though.”
Will laughs, soft. “Not now. I was thinking somewhere with a bit more privacy.”
Nico can only manage a nod, then a couple of deep breaths, trying valiantly to focus his attention anywhere other than next time and more privacy. Will’s back to nuzzling, which doesn’t especially help.
Will sighs, breath brushing Nico’s skin. “I feel all… dopey and cuddly.”
“So just like usual, then,” Nico teases.
Will giggles.
“Feel like you could nap now?” Nico asks finally, soft. He can feel tiredness pulling at his own body, and Will’s right there behind him like a favourite pillow.
“Yeah, probably.”
“I’ve got you, baby,” Nico murmurs again, squeezing Will’s arms.
Will giggles, the sound drifting into a contented hum. “I’ve got you, too.”