Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nico started streaming during his freshman year of college as a way to de-stress after difficult classes, and also as a way to procrastinate doing his work. Turns out, people actually like watching a random emo boy play stupid games in his dorm room. He started gaining a lot of followers and viewers, even though he didn’t even show his face. Nico started focusing on his streaming career instead of his college work. To be fair, he never even wanted to go to college in the first place. But, college did have one good aspect; Will Solace. 

Nico first met him when he almost fainted on his way to class because he had sort of forgotten to eat for the last 2 days. Luckily, Will Solace, a pre-med student, had caught Nico before he could actually fall to the ground and Nico immediately fell in love. Will had gorgeous bright blue eyes that he could just stare into forever.

Nico and Will quickly became friends, and found themselves hanging out every single week. When sophomore year came around, the two boys decided to move into an off-campus apartment together. 

“It’s for financial reasons!” they had claimed, but really they just wanted to see each other more. Nico never talked about his streams and his popularity on twitch to Will. It just seemed like a stupid hobby that nobody would care about, but when they moved in together Will obviously found out about how his friend would play games for an audience of hundreds to thousands of people once a week. Will was supportive of it, obviously, and he was happy that his best friend had found a hobby that he really enjoyed. Will had also made it clear that he didn’t want to be in the streams, however. He knew from being around his parents that he just didn’t want to be known by thousands of people.

When Nico hit 1 million followers, he decided to finally bite the bullet and do a face reveal. Many people had speculated about what he looked like, and had practically begged for a face reveal. Nico wasn’t exactly insecure about his looks, but it was also nerve wracking knowing that so many people would be picking apart his face and hair when he finally showed it. 

At 8pm on a Friday night, Nico started streaming.He titled the stream, “Face Reveal! And some games.” He was on his starting soon screen, and Nico was making sure his camera was all set up and that the lighting was good. He watched the viewers wrack up, and he read chat.

Totallynotleah: Oh my god!! cant wait

frenchfryl0ver: You guys think hes gonna be hot?

Stateofgrace: Nico i cant believe ur finally doing this

SeaweedbrainPJ:  guys he’s hot dw

Nico streamed under the username “TheGhostKing”. It was more of an inside joke if anything. His viewers knew what his real name was, but it was just an unspoken agreement that everyone besides his friends called him by his screen name. He hadn’t exactly told any of his few friends about his hobby, but Percy Jackson, his first crush (long story), had found his stream by accident. Nico was embarrassed at first about it, but Percy was surprisingly supportive and he watched every single one of Nico’s streams. Eventually Jason had also found his streams and  started watching all of his streams too.

Nico wanted to wait a little longer for the views to go up more before he turned on his camera. Nico stayed on his starting soon screen, but he turned on his mic to talk to chat a little.

His views had skyrocketed to 10k while he was talking to chat, and he decided it was finally time to turn on his camera.

“Okay guys, give me one second,” Nico said, and turned off his mic. He looked over to the mirror next to him and attempted to fix his hair. He really should’ve gotten a haircut before this, but the face reveal was a partially impulse decision. Once he felt that his appearance was slightly more acceptable, he turned back to his computer. Taking a deep breath, Nico turned on his camera and mic.

“Uh-hi guys” Nico stuttered. His chat went absolutely wild when they finally saw his face. Nico had shaggy black hair that almost reached his shoulders, and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie, and a silver necklace. His background was plain, all that could be seen was a blank gray wall and a dresser in the corner of the screen.

strawberryyogurt: OMG 

TotallynotLeah: HOLY SHIT

basic._.b1tch: of course he's emo

call.me.amy: anyone know if he has a gf!?!?!

withgreatsorrow: bro.

“Uhh, so this is what I look like I guess,” He said awkwardly. He sat and read chat for a minute. It was mostly positive, but there were, however, a few weird comments every now and then. His views went up even more when he finally face revealed and the view count reached almost 20k. Nico was getting even more nervous watching it rise. It was scary knowing just how many people were looking at him. 

“So,umm, let’s play a game.” Nico was eager to take all the attention off himself, and put it on a game, but his chat was still talking about how he looked. Nico knew this would happen when he showed his face finally, but he wanted to do it since it opened a lot of doors for future content. For example, he decided to play Five Nights at Freddy’s that night. He could’ve played it before, but he also knew it was one of those games that was just more interesting with facial reactions.

“ma che cazzo!” He shouted loudly when he was jumped scared by chica. Nico wasn’t very good at fnaf, and he had started to get frustrated, but he was actually having fun.

frenchfryl0ver: what did he just say

maraudersstannn: What language was that?

SeaweedbrainPJ: wow u suck at this game

Nico hadn’t even realized he had spoken in Italian. He had talked about how it was his native language and he still spoke it every now and then before, but there were a lot of new viewers on this stream and they didn’t know that. Nico looked over at his phone that was on his desk, and 

he noticed a notification.

Will

Today 8:54 pm

You good?

Are you streaming?

I heard you yell

Nico quickly replied, not wanting to worry his friend.

Im good sorry

Ya im streaming

I’ll be quieter

Will texted back before Nico could even put his phone back down.

It’s all good

Idc

Just wanted to make sure ur ok

Nico slightly smiled at the text before putting his phone down to get back to the game.

SeaweedbrainPJ: who ya texting neeks ;)

“Fuck off Percy,” Nico said when he saw the chat. 

***

Nico had only grown since his face reveal, and he had gotten to almost 1.1 million followers only a week after it.

“What movie are we watching tonight?” Will asked Nico when he finally woke up and came into the kitchen for coffee. The two had started a tradition of having a movie night every Saturday. They alternated who picked the movie, and Will picked last week, so it was Nico’s turn.

“Not sure yet,” Nico said, picking up the coffee pot, pouring it into his mug. “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Well if you don’t pick anything, we're watching Star Wars again.” Will said, and grinned at Nico.

Nico groaned. “We are not watching those god awful movies again . I’d rather just skip out on movie night all together.”

Will put his hand to his chest and acted shocked. “I cannot believe you would even consider doing that!”

“God you’re so dramatic,” Nico mumbled, but Will heard it.

“Oh don't act like you don’t love it.” He said.

Nico just stuck up his middle finger and walked back to his room, coffee in hand and a faint blush on his cheeks.

***

Nico eventually decided on the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He and Will settled onto their cheap gray couch in the living room. Will had made popcorn and set it on the coffee table in front of them. Nico had the remote in his hand and was trying to find the movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't exactly one of Nico’s favorite movies, but he would watch anything if it meant he wouldn't have to watch Star Wars. Secretly Nico didn’t actually mind Star wars, but it was sort of a running joke between him and Will that he had a deep hatred for the franchise. It also made Will so much happier when Nico actually agreed to watch it. Nico just loved seeing that bright smile on his face.

He finally found the movie and pressed the play button. 

He tried to keep his eyes on the movie, but they just kept drifting back to his best friend. Nico had been crushing on Will since the moment he met him. The blonde boy was just so perfect, how could Nico not be in love with him? Nico could never actually act on his feelings, though. He didn’t even know if Will was gay! They had been bestfriends for over a year now, but the topic just never came up. He didn’t want to risk ruining the friendship just for some stupid feelings. Will was his best friend, and Nico was happy keeping it that way, at least he pretended he was.

They were about halfway through the movie when Nico started to feel tired. He had a fucked up sleep schedule, and had only slept for 3 hours the other night. His eyes started to get heavy, and he was struggling to keep them open. Eventually, he couldn’t fight it anymore, and he closed his eyes.

***

Nico woke up in his bed, but didn’t remember falling asleep there. He struggled to recount the events of last night, but he distinctly remembered falling asleep on the couch. Had Will carried him to his bed? No, he wouldn't do that. Or would he? Nico shook those thoughts away, and sat up in his bed. He ran his fingers through his hair and got fully out of bed after a second. 

Will was already in the small kitchen when he walked in. He was leaning against a counter, head in a textbook, and holding a cup of coffee.

“Mornin’ sleepyhead,” he said, looking up from the textbook for a second to look at Nico. His southern accent peeked through a lot more in the mornings, and Nico had to hide how much he loved it.

“Ugh, sorry for falling asleep early last night,” Nico said.

“All good, hope you don’t mind that i put you in your bed. Didn’t want your back gettin’ messed up on the couch.” Nico had suspected that Will carried him to his bed, but he didn’t think Will had actually done that. He had just thought that maybe he was going crazy and he did actually fall asleep in his own bed.

“Uh- No, it’s fine. Thanks,” Nico said.

Nico decided to stream that night. It was the second time that week, but one of his professors canceled the class he had the next day, so he decided to just go for it.

Nico played a lot of different games, ranging from horror games to simple indie games. That night, he was playing Stardew Valley. Many of his viewers enjoyed watching him play it, and they loved comparing him to one of the characters, Sebastian.

He was in the middle of yelling and cursing at a monster after he died in the mines for the 4th time that stream, when his door was pushed open.

“Nico!” Will said when he opened the door. Nico quickly turned off his mic and pulled off his headphones. Luckily his door was out of the frame of his camera, so nobody on his stream actually saw Will.

“Shit, you’re streaming, sorry.” Will started to close the door, but Nico called out.

“No, no, it's fine, I'm muted. What do you need?”

“Oh, I just wanted to know if you wanted Mcdonald’s for dinner.” Nico smiled.

“I think you already know the answer to that question.” Will nodded, and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Nico turned back to his computer, out his headphones back on, and unmuted. When he looked at chat, he was shocked by how many people were talking

broke.a$$.b1tch: WHO IS THAT

call.me.amy: gf?

child.saftey.lock: that was obviously a guys voice, u guys are insane

withgreatsorrow:  bro whos he talking to??

plastic.bag_floating: GhostKing actually knows people irl?!?!?

strawberryyogurt: i think that’s the first time i’ve ever seen him smile

“ Dio mio ,” Nico muttered under his breath. “Guys, that was literally just my roommate. Calm down.” He shook his head slightly before getting back to the game.

cry_myself2sleep: GhostKing has a social life?!

strawberryyogurt: “roommate” ;)

Nico almost screamed when he saw that in chat. He had never said he was gay or anything, and Will’s voice was obviously a man’s. Did people really think he was dating Will just from the tiny interaction they had seen, or was it just some kind of joke? Nico pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the game.

One McDonald's happy meal, and some yelling at Marnie later, Nico ended stream.

Chapter Text

Nico started to struggle in December. Finals week was coming up and he was already stressing about it. Nico had let some of his grades drop lower than usual, and he couldn’t afford to do badly on the finals. The winter was also always hard for Nico. His sister and his mother both died in December. It was years ago, but the grief never left him. Nico didn’t have any family to go home to during the holidays. His mom and sister were dead, and his dad was, shitty to say the least. He did have Hazel, his half sister, but she had a happy life with her boyfriend, and didn’t need Nico being there with his sad energy that just radiated off of him. Will always went home to his family for the holidays, so Nico was left alone during that time of year.

“Hey, you okay?” Will asked. It was a mid December afternoon and Nico had just woken up at 2pm.

“Yeah,” he said groggily. Nico had huge eye bags under his eyes and it looked as if he hadn’t slept in weeks.

“You sure? I just kind of noticed that you haven’t really been eating or sleeping that much lately.” Will knew all about Nicos old habits, they had met because of it after all, but they never talked about it much anymore.

Nico just ignored him and poured some black coffee before heading back to his room. He faintly heard Will say something before he closed the door behind him, but he ignored that too. Nico knew that he was probably making Will feel terrible, but he didn’t really care. Nico didn’t have the energy to care right now.

Nico also hadn’t streamed in two weeks. Usually streaming made him happy and distracted him from his own thoughts, but he just couldn’t bring himself to get on screen and act happy. It had been easier before he showed his face, at least then he didn’t have to look happy, but now his viewers would notice extremely quickly if he was acting weird. Nico just didn’t want more people worrying about him.

But, he also kept getting tweets and various other messages asking about when he would stream next. He couldn’t just stop streaming without saying anything. Nico knew he looked absolutely disgusting, but showing seemed like way too much work at the moment, so it was going to be a no facecam stream.

Ghost King @TheGhostKing

Stream tonight. No facecam :/

Em @loveinfocus_

replying to @TheGhostKing

Noooooooooooo. At least there’s a stream though

Yogurt @strawberryyogurt

replying to @TheGhostKing

Thank god. Been waiting for a stream for weeks

Nico didn't use twitter that much, but he liked to tweet about when he would be going live and other stuff related to his streams. Twitter scared him to be honest, so much shit was posted on that godforsaken app.

Nico started the stream at around 5. He had been growing steadily since the face reveal and he was almost at 1.1M followers on twitch already. He wanted an easy stream, so he would just be playing a simple game, Night in the Woods. He didn’t have very many viewers that night, only around 5k, but Nico didn’t care. He knew that a lot of people wouldn’t be watching since had already said there would be no facecam. 

Nico had been having a relatively good time streaming. He had been playing the game for about an hour when he heard a knock on his door. He just paused the game, but didn’t turn off his mic. Will’s voice had been showing up more and more in his streams. The two had talked about it and Will agreed that he didn’t mind being heard in Nico’s streams, but he still wouldn’t show his face.

“Hey,” Will said, he was still hiding behind the slightly opened door, but Nico could tell he had something in his hand.

“Hi. What’s up?” Nico could see chat speeding up, but he didn’t acknowledge it.

Will stepped into his room, with a plate in his hand. “Brought you some food.” 

Nico took the plate, and thanked him. Will wasn’t the best cook, so it was just some plain spaghetti, but the thought that Will had cared enough to make him food warmed Nico’s heart just a bit.

When Will left, Nico took the time to fully read the chat.

Strawberryyogurt: the infamous roommate!!!!!!!

Mammamiaaa: wait im new here who is that?

Stateofgrace: can’t believe i'm the only one who knows his name

broke.a$$.b1tch: spill grace.

Cry_myself2sleep: why do you guys care about his roommate so much?!?!

Taylorswiftlover: AWWW HE BROUGHT YOU FOOD

Madwoman: totally ship it

SeaweedbrainPJ: the roommate™ 

Nico decided to just ignore the chat and go back to playing his game.

***

The anniversary of his mom and sisters death hit him like a ton of bricks. Will had already left to go home for winter break, so Nico was left alone.

When Nico was 10, his sister, Bianca, and his mother were driving home on a stormy night from Bianca’s dance class. The combination of rough rain, thunder and lightning, and a less than sober driver ended in tragedy. The drunk driver got out okay, but not Bianca or Maria di Angelo. After that it was just Nico and his father, Hades. Hades had once been a good and caring dad, but once his wife and daughter died, he kind of shut down. Not long after their deaths, Hades decided that he needed a new start, so they moved to America. It had been hard on Nico. He knew a little English, but not nearly enough to make any friends at his new school. Middle school had been tough. He didn’t make any friends the whole three years he was there, and he barely ever talked. Most people just assumed he was mute or something and didn’t even attempt to make conversation. Nico was still working on his English, so when someone did try and talk to him, he had a hard time holding the conversation. 

High school was where it got better, it was also when Nico discovered he actually had a half sister. Apparently, on one of Hades business trips to America, he had an affair with a woman in New orleans. Nico had a hard time accepting Hazel at first, but he learned to love her. Hazel never tried to replace Bianca. She just cared for Nico and even helped him become friends with some people in her friend group. That was where Nico met Percy and Jason. They were both older than him, but he admired them alot, though he would never admit that. 

Will had invited Nico to come with him and stay with his family for Christmas, but Nico declined. He didn’t want to impose on anything, and besides, Nico preferred to sit and sulk in his room all day anyways. And that’s exactly what he did. Will called him sometime during the day. He asked Nico how he was doing and all that fun stuff, but Nico wanted to keep the call short, he knew Will had family to be with, and he didn’t want him to be wasting precious time with them. 

***

Will came home 2 days after Christmas. Nico asked him all about it, since he knew that Will loved to talk about his family. Will loved his parents, though they could be a bit much sometimes. Both his mother and father were famous, but Will never wanted that kind of life. That was one of the reasons why he didn’t want to even be on Nico’s streams.

Nico decided to do a big stream for New years. He had a bunch of different games planned out, and he even got Percy and Jason in on it. The two boys came over December 31st and helped Nico set everything up. He felt bad having them sit in his apartment for new years, and even though they both claimed that they didn’t have anything better to do, he didn’t believe them. The boys took over Nico and Will's living room for the stream, and Nico relocated his streaming stuff into the room.

Nico started the stream at 9pm, and the views went up quickly, even just on the starting soon screen. He had made a tweet about going live, but he didn’t expect so many people to watch it already. The views were already at 25k after about 5 minutes of being live. 

The boys started out the stream by playing minecraft. They had created a world together some time ago, but it was a mess. Percy was always trying to build aquariums and underwater bases, but he sucked at building so it never actually worked out. Jason had actually tried and wanted to beat the game and everything. Nico just did whatever he wanted. He destroyed his friends' bases, built random things, and sometimes went mining if he really felt like it. On this stream, however, they were actually going to try and beat the ender dragon. It wasn't going well so far. They realized fairly quickly that none of them were actually good at playing minecraft and after an hour in, they had only got as far as the nether.

They decided to move onto the next game once they got bored of dying. The next game they had setup was Mario kart. Nico had an old Wii, so they were using that. They had 4 controllers, and Nico had an idea. As they set up the game, Nico sent Will a text.

Will

Today 10:14 pm

Wanna play mario kart with us on stream

You don't have to show ur face or anything

U can be off camera

We just have another controller and i thought it would be fun if u joined

Nico didn’t think Will would say anything, but he texted back moments later.

Sure

:)

Nico showed Jason and Percy the texts so they knew that Will was joining them. A minute later, Nico saw Will's door open, and the blonde walked into the living room. He didn’t say anything as he sat down on the couch, just barely off camera. Chat was still unaware that he was there.

Once the game was set up, they all picked their characters; Nico as kingboo, Jason as mario, Percy as koopa troopa, and Will as toad. 

Frenchfryl0ver: wait… who’s the 4th player?

Child.saftey.lock: is there supposed to be a fourth player?

call.me.amy: who else is playing with ya’ll? Is it a gf?

C00lestperson3ver: uhhhhhh

Nico looked over at Will, as if telling him to say something. Will still didn’t speak up. It wasn’t until they were in the heat of the game, and Nico was beating everyone, that he finally said something.

“Ugh, this is so unfair Neeks. How are you this good?” Nico just shrugged and kept winning. Chat did not dismiss this comment as easily as he did.

Strawberryyogurt: WAIT. I RECOGNIZE THAT VOICE

Totallynotleah: roommate!?!?!?!

Horsenamedfriday: OH MY GOD HE APPEARS AGAIN

When the first race was over, Will glanced at the chat.

“I have a name you know,” he said, but didn’t say anything else

“Are you gonna, you know, tell them it?” Nico asked.

“Nope!” Will said cheerfully.

It was 10 minutes til’ midnight when they stopped racing. Nico beat them all easily, which angered Percy and Jason endlessly. Nico put up a countdown to midnight on the screen. He decided that for the next ten he would just talk to chat and answer questions. Most of the chat was asking about Will, but Nico just ignored most of those questions. There was one, however, that Nico himself wanted to know the answer to.

“Okay so this one is a question for W- my roommate,” Nico quickly corrected himself. Will looked over at Nico, nodding for him to continue. Nico read the question, “‘When will your roommate show his face?’”

“Umm,” Will started. “When Nico gets 5 million followers.”

“Really?” Nico asked, clearly shocked by this new information.

“Uh huh,” Will nodded.

The New year came quickly, and apparently Nico’s chat had a resolution already set; get Nico to 5 million Followers.

Chapter Text

Nico was no stranger to nightmares. He’s had them practically every night since he was 10. Everyone just assumed he had a fucked up sleep schedule because he was a streamer. The real reason? Nico just hated sleeping. That was also another reason he started streaming, so he could stay up super late and have an excuse. When he did sleep, it was never for more than a couple hours. The less he slept, the less likely he was to get nightmares.

That night, Nico made the mistake of sleeping. His dream started out the same as it always did. 

It was thunder storming. Nico was in his childhood bedroom, in Venice. He knew that he wasn’t really there, he knew it was all a dream, but he just couldn’t wake up. His dreams forced him to relive that moment, the moment where his entire world flipped upside down, every single time.

Suddenly, he was standing on a sidewalk. He watched as the cars drove across the street, slick with rain. Then, he noticed a familiar car, and he knew what was about to happen. 

It all happened so fast. The screech of tires against the street, the crash, the screams, the thunder and lightning. Nico wanted to do something. He needed to do something. But he couldn’t. His stupid feet just wouldn’t move from their firm spot on the ground. He needed to go see his sister and mom one last time, but he couldn’t. All he could do was sit there and watch the scene unfold  in front of him with tears streaming down his face, mixing with the rain that drenched him. He couldn’t even make a sound, though he desperately wanted to. 

“Nico!” he heard a voice yell.

Bianca? He thought. No . But what if-

Nico could finally move. His legs felt wobbly, but he needed to get to her. The voice kept yelling his name. He ran into the road, and towards his mother’s car. The rain was pelting down on his skin, but he didn’t care.

“Nico!” The voice got louder. It didn’t sound like his sister.

He saw headlights come towards him, but he just kept running towards his mother and sister.

“NICO!”

Nico woke up with a start, just before the car would have hit him. He vaguely felt warm hands on his biceps, but he was still groggy from the dream.

“Nico?” The voice said softly. Nico was racking his brain, trying to figure out who it was. Will , he suddenly realized.

“Will?” Nico asked, his voice cracked as he tried to hold back tears.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Will promised. “It’s okay.” Will sat in front of Nico on his bed, his blonde curls shining faintly in the moonlight.

Nico felt a tear fall down his cheek, but he couldn’t care enough to wipe it away. Will was his best friend, there was no doubt about that, but he had still never been this vulnerable in front of him. Nico knew Will would never judge him for anything, but Nico was just scared of admitting anything to him. Will knew some of what Nico had been through. He knew about his Mom and Bianca, but he never knew just how badly it had affected Nico.

“W- why are you here?” Nico stuttered. 

“I heard you screamin’,” Will said softly. “You were thrashing around in your bed when I got in here. I know you’re not supposed to wake someone up from a nightmare, but you looked so scared and I…” Will trailed off. 

“But that’s besides the point.” Will was holding onto Nico’s arms, and that was probably the only thing keeping him from falling back down into his bed. Nico wasn’t usually a fan of people touching him, but something about Will doing it didn't bug him as much thanwhen others did.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Will asked.

Nico couldn’t stop the sobs from escaping. He leaned into Will, and his head fell onto Will’s chest. Will held and hugged him. Nico was full on sobbing now, and in the back of his mind he realized that he was probably ruining Will's shirt with his tears, but he didn’t care.

Will ran his hand through Nico’s jet black hair, and just held him closer. “Shhhh, it’s okay, angel. You’re okay. You’re safe.”

Nicp didn’t even have the energy to blush at the nickname, he just cried harder.

Once he calmed down enough, Nico pulled away from Will’s embrace. He could feel Will staring at him, but he just couldn’t bring himself to look the older boy in the eyes.

Nico lifted his hand to wipe the tears from his face, when he felt  hands on his cheeks. The warmth almost made him jump, but he fought back the urge.

Will lifted Nico’s face so that he had no choice but to look into Will's eyes. Will had the most beautiful eyes Nico had ever seen. They were a light, but intense, blue. Nico would never admit it to anyone, but blue had been his favorite color ever since he met Will. 

The blonde looked softly down at Nico, eyes filled with nothing but care and concern. Nico felt another tear slide down his cheek, but then he felt a calloused thumb wipe it away.

“Neeks?” Will said.

 Nico had to fight another round of sobs from breaking through. He had never broken down in front of someone like this before. Will probably, no, definitely thought he was pathetic.

“I- I’m sorry,” Nico choked out. His eyes fell from Will.

“What?” Will asked. He sounded so genuinely confused. “For what, darling?”

“For-for,” Nico took a deep breath. “For this.” He gestured to himself.

Will just kept staring at him, urging him to go on, so he did. “You didn’t need to see me like this. It’s stupid how pathetic I am. It was j-just a stupid dream, and I completely broke down.”

“Nico, look at me,” Will said seriously. Nico lifted his gaze to meet Will’s eyes again. “It is not your fault. You can’t control your dreams or your feelings. And you are not pathetic. It wasn’t just a stupid dream, and you know that.”

Nico didn’t trust himself to say anything, so he didn’t. He nodded slightly, and kept looking into Will’s caring eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Nico said again.

“Don’t apologize, di Angelo. It’s not your fault, you don’t ever have to apologize for something like this.”

“I’m s-” 

“What did I just say,” Will cut him off. “It’s O.K.”

Nico laughed slightly, but it was hollow. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Will’s hands had moved away from his face and were now holding Nico’s hands. 

Suddenly, Will seemed to notice where exactly they were and just how late it was.

“I’m sorry! I can go,” He said, quickly letting go of Nico’s hands and standing up. He was close to the door when Nico spoke up.

‘Wait!” He said quietly, but Will heard him anyways. He turned around and made eye contact with Nico.

“Can- can you,” Nico paused. “Can you stay?”

Will smiled brightly and quickly sat next to Nico again.

“Of course,” he said sincerely. “ Do you want to try and go back to sleep?”

Nico hadn’t realized just how tired he still was. Even though he didn’t say anything, Will obviously noticed it.

“C’mon,” Will said softly. He pulled Nico back down onto his bed, and he lied down next to the smaller boy. 

Will had his arm around Nico as they laid in his bed together. If Nico had been fully awake, he would’ve been blushing like crazy, but thankfully, he wasn’t. 

Nico tried to fight off sleep, but with Will’s comforting arm around him, and him whispering affirmations in his ear, he easily fell back into sleep.

That was the first time since his sister and mom’s death that he actually slept peacefully.

Chapter Text

Nico and Will only grew closer after his nightmare. Nico had finally opened up fully to Will about the extent of how badly he had been doing since his sister and mother died. Will was Nico’s best friend, but it was like that last wall between them was finally knocked down. It was scary telling Will all these things that no one really knew. He told Will all about his experiences when he first moved to America, how his father was not really emotionally or mentally there most of his childhood. 

He even almost opened up to Will about what happened in high school. How he was outed to all his friends by a stupid homophobe. Nico never even did anything to the dick that outed him, Eros just wanted to ruin his life. Of course, that’s not what happened. All his friends were extremely supportive, but it was still terrifying to have people know a secret that Nico thought was so well kept. Nico was raised Catholic, and the church was not the most supportive. You know, “it’s Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve,” and all that other bullshit. Nico had it brainwashed into him that be gay was wrong, so he had pushed down all those feelings ever since he had known that thinking boys were pretty wasn’t “normal.” Nico had heard all his life that being gay was a sin and he would burn in the fiery pits of hell if he so much as looked at a boy the wrong way. He remembers when he just couldn’t take it anymore and came out to his sister. He cried to Bianca about how he was disgusting and a sinner. Bianca was extremely supportive and shut down all those ideas quickly, but she also told him not to tell anyone else. “Other people won’t be as accepting,” she had said.

The next day at church, the Father made a homily about how homosexuality was a growing epidemic that needed to be ended. He talked about conversion therapy and suggested it for anyone “struggling with impure thoughts.” It took everything in Nico not to burst out into tears right there.

Logically, Nico knew that the world had changed a lot in the over a decade since then. But it was still terrifying to let anyone know that he was gay, it still felt like a secret that he had to guard with his life. Will was one of the kindest people Nico knew, and Will would never judge Nico for anything, especially not for that, but it still scared him. Nico was also scared that if he came out to Will, he would find out about the massive crush he had on him. Nico had tried to push those feelings away time and time again, but no dice. If Will knew he was gay, he would definitely pick up more on the lingering stares and the blushing at literally everything Will said. 

Nico was pretty sure that Jason already suspected it, and he didn’t need anyone else to know he had a massive crush on his roommate. Besides, Will probably wasn’t even gay. Probably.

***

Nico accidentally pulled an all-nighter, so he decided to get out of his room early and make breakfast. Nico would often help his mother in the kitchen growing up, and he picked up a lot of skills. Cooking also helped him feel closer to her, it was something they always did together. Nico kept a cookbook of his mother’s old recipes and he had them all memorized.

 Will would probably burn down the whole apartment complex if he tried to cook, so Nico cooked dinner for the two of them most nights.

That morning, Nico decided to cook some pancakes. It wasn’t one of Maria’s recipes, but he knew that Will liked them, so he made them. Will always got up early, he was up the second the sun was, so Nico heard noises from his room while he was mixing ingredients together. Eventually Nico heard a door open and he turned his focus away from the pancakes to look at Will.

Will was wearing nothing but some gray sweatpants, his blonde hair was still messy and it was obvious that he had just woken up. Even in the morning, Will looked perfect as ever. The messy hair worked on him, and the spray of freckles against his sun-kissed skin made him look amazing. Nico had to practically tear his eyes off of Will, hoping that he hadn’t noticed his roommate staring. Nico refused to ogle his roommate. They were friends, it was weird.

“Nico?” Will said, as if he just noticed the younger boy’s presence.

“Hey,” Nico replied as he poured pancake batter into the pan.

“Whatcha cookin’,” Will asked as he walked towards the kitchen.

“Pancakes.”

Will smiled that perfect, bright ass smile. Apparently Will never even had braces growing up, his teeth were just naturally that straight. Just another reason why Will Solace was perfect, and also way out of Nicos league. “God, I love you.”

Nico knew that Will meant it in a friendly way, but it still made his heart stop everytime he said those simple words. Will was one of those people who would say “I love you” to everyone, it was his way of letting people he cared.

“You love my cooking,” Nico said after a few seconds.

“You wound me!” Will said and slammed a hand to his chest dramatically. “I’ll have you know that I love you and your cooking equally.”

NIco just scoffed and turned his attention back to the pancakes. Will had sat down on the couch and turned on a show. Once the pancakes were done, he put them on plates and set them down on the coffee table. Nico sat down next to Will on the couch.

“Thanks neeks,” Will said as he picked up the plate.

Nico hummed a reply as he sipped on the coffee he had made earlier.

“What show is this?” Nico asked after a few minutes of trying to figure out what was on the TV.

“Criminal Minds,” Will answered.

“Really? You never striked me as someone who likes a show about serial killers and all that.” Nico said, surprised. “You’re stealing my brand.”

Will laughed. “Well, this show is like a bi person’s dream. The whole cast is hot.”

Nico almost spit out his coffee. What?! Was Will really bi, or had Nico just interpreted that wrong? No. There’s no way Will could have meant anything else with that sentence.

“I wouldn’t say the whole cast,” Nico said, without really thinking about the words that came out of his mouth.

“Oh really?” Will turned towards Nico. “So who do you think isn’t hot?”

Nico took a shaky breath. It was now or never. Will had just come out to him, how could he not do the same.

“Well,” Nico paused for a second. “Like, I can respect that JJ is good looking, but she’s not really my type . You know?”

“So what is your type?”

Blonde hair, blue eyes. You.

Nico shrugged. “Boys,” he said after a moment, not meeting Will’s eyes.

Will’s smile seemed to brighten for a second, and he stared at Nico with a look in his eyes that he couldn’t read. “Fair enough, I don't know how you can look at Matthew Gray Gubler and not think he’s hot.”

They fell into a comfortable silence as they watched someone get brutally murdered on the TV. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of Nico’s shoulders. Nico had officially told Will every big secret he had. Well, maybe not every secret, but he was pretty sure he would never admit his feelings to Will. It wasn’t worth ruining their friendship over. He would just push those feelings down until they finally went away.

After breakfast and a few more episodes of the show, Nico went back to his room. Nico had been working on editing down some of his more popular streams to post on youtube. He had been posting his VODS on youtube, but some people had been requesting edited down versions of them. Nico wasn’t really doing the whole streaming thing for the money, but it was still nice, and posting on youtube would only add to that.

 Paying the rent wasn’t a problem at the moment, but Nico was sure it would be sometime. One thing he and Will had in common was rich parents. Hades was a very successful business man and both of Will’s parents were also rich and famous. Lester Papadopoulos, better known by his stage name Apollo, had done practically every job under the sun. He was an actor, singer, and even went to medical school at one point. 

Hades had been sending Nico money every month ever since he went to college. It was his way of trying to be a better father than he was during Nico’s childhood. But some things just couldn't be repaired, and their relationship was one of those things. Apollo had also been pitching in with money. He and Will had a better relationship than Nico did with his father, but it still wasn’t perfect. Apollo was under the impression that he could buy Will’s love, and while that wasn’t true, Will wasn’t going to just refuse the offer of him paying half of his rent.

Nico hadn’t checked his Youtube account in a while, and he was shocked when he did. Twitch was his main form of social media, so to see that he had way more subscribers on Youtube than followers on Twitch was shocking. One of the VODS that he uploaded had done surprisingly well. It was one posted after his face reveal, and the comments ranged from, wow i love this, great gameplay, to, he’s hot. Nico just ignored the comments about his looks.

Nico had recently started playing The walking dead, and that’s what he decided to stream after posting the new youtube video. He had finished the first game last time and was eager to start the second one. He was also eager for people to forget that they had seen a tear fall down his face when Lee died at the end of the last game. Embarrassing.

Nico turned on the stream and went on his starting soon screen. Will had decided to join Nico for this stream. It had sort of become a habit of his to sit in Nico’s room, out of sight from the camera, and just watch. He would make the occasional comment every now and then, but for the most part, Nico’s viewers were usually not aware of Will’s presence.

“Hey guys,” Nico said when he finally switched to a screen with his facecam in the top left corner. The rest of the screen was filled with the main menu of The Walking Dead: Season 2.

The stream was going well, Nico hadn’t made any terrible choices yet. Will did have to step out of the room when the dog showed up. Nico was confused when he saw Will walk out since he didn’t say anything, but he got a text a few seconds later.

Will

Today 6:46

I just know that damn dog is gonna die

I refuse to watch that happen

Will turned out to be right, of course he was, and Nico texted him once the coast was clear.

It did :(

RIP sam

The parts over now, you can come back if u want

Will returned shortly after, and was clearly confused to see the new characters, but he still didn’t say anything.

Will only spoke up when he noticed that the game had Nico collecting a needle, bandages, and hydrogen peroxide.

“Oh god, is she gonna do what I think she’s gonna do?” Will asked, horrified.

Horsenamedfriday: I always have to skip this part

Pioneer.woman.hater: OMG

Stateofgrace: neekssss why didn’t you tell us that he’s there

Maraudersstannn: the roommate™ 

Strawberryyogurt: ROOMMATE?!?!

“You’re literally in med school,” Nico said to Will, but kept his attention on the game. “Shouldn’t stitches be like, normal to you?”

“Well yeah, but not when they’re done in a shed. That cannot be sanitary.”

“No shit. It’s a zombie apocalypse, what did you expect?” Nico said as he started doing the stitches. It was disgusting, to be fair.

Once Nico had played the whole first episode of the game, he decided to end stream. 

“That was fun,” Will said when Nico ended.

“Yeah, it’s a lot better when you're here. Makes me feel less crazy for basically talking to myself for a few hours.”

Will laughed. “You know, it's still pretty early,” Nico looked at Will, confused. “Wanna watch a movie. It’s my turn to pick though,” he said.

“Sure! I swear to god if you pick Star Wars I will kill you in your sleep,” Nico threatened.

“Don't worry, I won't, already have a movie in mind.” Will replied as he opened Nicos bedroom door.

“That is?” Nico prompted.

“Tangled,” Will said cheerfully. Nico groaned.

“Oh my god, how old are you?” he said as the two boys walked into the living room.

“Seven.” Will laughed and Nico did too.

In truth, it didn’t really matter to Nico what movie they watched. Once the movie started, all he could focus on was Will, anyways. Usually they sat right next to each other on the couch during their movie nights, practically cuddling, but something felt different that night. Now that Will knew he was gay, Nico didn’t want to make it awkward, so he sat further from Will than usual, leaving almost a whole foot between them.

Will noticed. Ten minutes into the movie, he grabbed the remote and paused it, then turned towards Nico.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Will asked.

“What do you mean?” Nico replied, trying to sound as clueless as possible.

Will looked at Nico, unimpressed. ”Come on, you're literally sitting on the other end of the couch. What’s up?”

Nico took in a breath. What should he say? He couldn’t just say, “ I have a massive crush on you and im worried that now that you know im gay you’re going to notice it.” Or could he? No. Maybe…? No.

“I just-” Nico paused, “ I don’t want you to think I’m weird for like, being so close to you. I mean, I came out to you earlier. It would be weird for us to basically cuddle like we always do. Like would you think I have a crush on you or something? I mean I do but-” The words just poured out of him before he realized what he was saying. Shit. Did he really just say that? Nico’s eyes widened. Shit shit shit shit.

“Sorry. I-” Nico started to stand up, but a hand grabbed his wrist.

“Nico,” Will said, pulling him back down onto the couch. Nico avoided Will’s eyes.

Will took his hand away from Nico’s wrist and brought it up to the smaller boy’s face, lifting his chin up so his eyes met Will’s. 

“Can I kiss you?” Will asked. Nico’s eyes widened even more. What?! He had to be dreaming right now. There’s just no reasonable explanation for this. 

Nico must’ve nodded because he suddenly felt lips against his own. The butterflies in Nico’s stomach were fluttering like crazy. Will’s lips were warm and soft, and as quickly as it started, it ended. Will pulled away first. His hand was still on Nico’s face, and his eyes were staring right at him.

“Was that okay?” Will asked softly.

Nico couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. It was more than okay.”

“I really like you Nico,” Will admitted.

“I really like you too, Solace,” Nico said.

Their lips met again, but each other’s smile kept getting in the way. Nico didn’t know if he would ever experience anything better than this.

Chapter Text

His life was definitely the best it had ever been, Nico decided. Nico wasn’t much of a people person, that was a fact that was obvious to most, but Will was the exception. The two boys had only gotten closer since they started dating, which was something that Nico didn’t think was even possible. He found himself telling Will practically everything about himself, even the stupid little details about his life, Will now knew about. It was sort of scary, being so vulnerable to someone, but something about Will just made Nico feel so safe. Will was easy to trust, that was just another thing he loved about him. That and how fucking gorgeous he was.

Anyways… 

Nico had kind of started to blow up again. The YouTube video he posted a few weeks ago got over two million views, and that led to his twitch channel to gain a lot more followers.

Sunshine <3

Today 1:56 PM

Hey ik ur in class rn but i wanted to ask u

Do you mind if i say your name on stream

And also kind of describe your face

But also not really, its kinda complicated

I can show you my idea when you get home

Sure!

***

Ghost King @TheGhostKing

Special stream tonight

Percy @seaweed.brainn

replying to @TheGhostKing

Nico I tihnk we need to wrk on your tweets

|

Ghost King @TheGhostKing

get back to me when you can spell

Leila D @snailmilk12_

replying to @TheGhostKing

HELLO?!?! You can't just say that and give no context

I <3 emo boys @everyone_luvsme

replying to @TheGhostKing

what.

***

Will decided to join in on this stream. It was something he did frequently, he would just sit in Nico’s room off camera while he streamed. Whether he was writing an essay, or just watching Nico play a stupid game, Will loved to be there. Now that they were finally dating, Nico was slightly worried he would accidentally say something to give away their relationship. But also, Nico was pretty sure he had enough self control to not do that.

Will sat on the floor of Nico’s room, against his bed. He was just barely out of frame, but it was the best position so that he still had a clear view of Nico and his computer. 

“You are still okay with this right?” Nico asked Will just before he started the stream. 

“Yes,” Will laughed slightly, “I am okay with this Neeks. I think it’s gonna be fun.”

“Good, just making sure, people might figure out who you are from your name you know.” Nico said.

“I know, but the only photos they’ll find of me will be from years ago.” Will got up from his place on the floor and walked towards Nico. He placed a soft kiss on Nico’s lips. “It's ok. I promise.”

Nico felt his face go pink. Even after a couple weeks of that, he would never get over it.

“Okay, just don’t do that during the stream,”Nico said. Will sat back down and pouted. “You are so annoying, you know that?” 

“Yeah but you love it,” Will smirked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Nico muttered. He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard. “Ok, i'm starting the stream now.”

Nico watched as the viewers rose on his stream. It was titled “Playing The Sims.” 

Mammamiaaa: soooo whats happening this stream

Notnamedalyssa: HI 

Strawberryyogurt: WHATS GOING ON!?!?!

After a few minutes Nico went off his starting soon screen and changed it to a screen with his facecam and the main menu of The Sims 4. 

“Hey guys,” Nico said. “So um, I’m playing the sims today.” After a few clicks, he went into create a sim. He started to make one sim and named it “Nico,” and leaving the last name blank.

Nico started making himself in the sims. It was a little weird making himself and trying to get his own features correct. After a while of trying, he decided to give up on making the face accurate and moved on to the hair. He clicked on a few options before deciding on one.

“Oh come on, your hair is longer than that, death boy,” Will said. Usually Nico would punch someone if they called him that stupid nickname, but since it was Will, Nico decided to just throw a pen at him instead.

Basic._.b1tch: of course hes there

Pizza_.za: you better be making your roommate to

Strawberryyogurt: ROOMMATE!!!!!!!

Nico changed the hair he had picked and moved onto the outfit. That was the easy part, Nico wore practically the same thing every single day; black jeans and a black shirt of some kind (maybe a dark colored band tee if he was feeling colorful.)

“What traits do I choose?” Nico asked Will.

“Umm, definitely gloomy. Maybe even geek. Oh! Loner too-”

“Oh shut up,” Nico interrupted. 

“Nico, you know it's true,” Will smiled.

Nico grumbled but selected those traits. He wouldn’t admit it, but Will was right.

Once he was finished, it was time to move onto the real reason Nico was playing the sims. He clicked around a little bit and added another sim to the household. He clicked to type in the name. 

Will, he typed.

The chat sped up after this action, Nico just ignored it. He just moved on to making the sim actually look like his boyfriend. It was easy, Nico had stared at that face long enough to not even have to look behind him at Will to make the sim. 

“Is that really what I look like?” Will asked after a few minutes of watching Nico manipulate the sim on the screen.

“I’m pretty sure I know what my b-” he paused, “best friend looks like.” Nico silently cursed himself for almost slipping up, hopefully no one noticed. 

Withgreatsorrow: SO HE IS MAKING HIS ROOMMATE

Taylorswiftlover: oh my god.

Totallynotleah: holy shit

Listentomusic2cope: wait. Will lowkey looks really familiar 

Breakupsong_: so this is basically a roommate reveal

Stateofgrace: neeks i hate to break it to you but that does not look even somewhat close to what Will looks like

Okay, maybe Nico wasn’t the best at this game, but he was trying. That’s what counts anyways right? 

The game didn’t have a hair that looked like Will’s so he just picked the closest one. Maybe the sim didn’t actually look like Will, but Nico made sure to get the little details right. Will’s bright blue eyes, the freckles that were all over his body, him wearing the brightest clothes ever.

Nico didn't even think twice as he chose the traits; cheerful, good, and outgoing. Will groaned when he saw what Nico picked, but didn’t deny it.

Once Nico was done, he moved on to making the house. Originally, he had tried to recreate their apartment, but that was too hard and quickly gave up. He settled on a giant box with some furniture in it.

After some killing of sims, flirting with the grim reaper, and an accidental fire that resulted in the death of his sims, Nico finally ended stream.

“That was fun,” Will said after the stream was over.

Nico kissed Will. “I'm glad you had fun. I know a lot of the attention was on you.”

“It’s okay, I had a good time. It’s not like I was actually on screen anyways,” Will said.

The two boys talked together for a while before falling asleep in Nico’s bed together.

***

Yogurt @strawberryyogurt

Question. Anyone else notice Nico pause before saying “bestfriend” during the tonight stream?

Veronica @not.beautiful.yet

replying to @strawberryyogurt

I noticed that too! Could just be a mess up on words. i dunno his first language isn't English so

***

For his birthday, Nico was surprised by all his friends being in his apartment when he came home from a class. And by “all his friends” he means Hazel, Jason, Percy, Reyna, and Will of course. Percy and Jason also brought their girlfriends, Annabeth and Piper. Nico used to feel awkward around Annabeth and he even used to hate her, but they were good now and Nico realized that she was actually a pretty cool person. Nico didn’t know Piper as well, but from the few conversations they shared, he knew that she was also pretty cool.

Nico wasn’t usually the biggest fan of surprises, and he was pretty sure he told his friends he didn’t want to do anything for his birthday, but this one wasn’t the worst. It was nice to see all of them again. Nico hadn’t seen Reyna in a while and they desperately needed to do some catching up. She was the first friend Nico had that he actually got to properly come out to. They became friends after the “incident” and she was like another sister to him. 

Someone had picked up cupcakes from a bakery on the way to his apartment. They were chocolate with black icing, of course. Not many people had time to pick up a present, apparently Jason had conducted the whole gathering only a week earlier, but a few did. He got a shirt, some candy, and a few gift cards. Will made Nico a few friendship bracelets and he had also apologized for “not being able to get a better gift” but Nico loved them. He could tell that they must've taken a lot of time, each tiny knot made to create a picture. One bracelet had skulls all over it and was black and white, another had suns on it, and the last one was just a simple rainbow.

It was such a simple gift, but for some reason it meant so much to Nico. He immediately flung himself at Will upon seeing it. Nico hugged Will tightly and then pushed him away to be able to kiss him. Everyone else in the room disappeared. All that mattered was that he was with Will. They had only been dating for a couple weeks at this point, but it felt like forever.

“Okay what the fuck?” Nico heard Percy say, and he quickly pulled away from Will. Nico had honestly forgotten that his friends were there and that they didn’t know about their relationship.

“How long has that been going?” Jason asked. 

“Like 3 weeks I think,” Nico answered sheepishly.

“Oh my god!” Hazel squealed. “I'm so happy for you Nico!” She pulled him into a tight hug. She pulled away after what felt like forever and turned towards Will, a stern look on her face. “If you hurt him I swear to god you will never see the light of day again and-”

Will held his arms up in surrender. “Wasn’t planning on doing anything to hurt him,” he said sincerely. “ But if I do, I give you my full permission to murder me.”

Hazel seemed satisfied with that answer. “Good. Now, back to the festivities.”

Nico felt even happier for the rest of the night. He had pushed people away from his life for a while, worried about letting people in, but Nico was glad that he actually had friends now. Some of them had maybe even saved his life, whether they knew it or not. Life had been so miserable without anyone to trust and be himself around. Nico was always worried about fake friends and people only being around him out of pity, but he knew that these people were his true friends. They actually cared about him, that was evident tonight but how happy they had all been after finding out that Nico and Will were dating. It was such a freeing experience to let yourself go around people and just be who you are. Nico was glad that he had finally found a good group of people to be with.

The rest of the night they played a few board games and talked about life and other stupid things. They were in the middle of watching a movie when Percy interrupted the silence.

“Wait,” he turned towards Nico with a smirk on his face, “So he's your type.”

Nico slapped Percy.

Chapter Text

After a few months of Nico only falling asleep in Will’s bed, they decide to do a bit of redecorating. Nico’s room had always felt a little cramp. With the whole streaming set-up, bed, dresser, and bookcase, it was a lot. With the bed moved out, there was more room for activities. Will had also gone on some rant about how it was important to separate the areas where you work and where you sleep. It was adorable, to say the least, how much he could care about something so simple. That was one of the many things Nico loved about Will. 

Nico had bought some decor to add to his streaming background to make it more interesting. He never really cared about his facecam and how interesting his room looked, but as he grew in followers, he grew in care for the little things. Amongst the decorations he bought, was a rainbow pride flag. It was another little thing that Nico cared so much about. After being scared of showing who he truly was his whole childhood, Nico finally felt comfortable about his identity. 

It was a risk, having so many people know that he was gay, but he didn’t care. Nico knew that there were still people out there who would hate him for it, but he also knew that there were a lot more people that didn’t care, and who would support him. Nico proudly hung the flag on his wall, where it would be proudly shown in the background of all his streams.

When Nico started his stream that night, he was slightly nervous about it. It was stupid, he didn't care about a homophobes opinion, but just knowing that there could be someone out there who would hate him after only just seeing a rainbow flag in his background.

“Hey guys,” Nico said, when he changed the screen so it showed his face. “Uh, so today I’m gonna be playing some Animal Crossing with Percy.”

“Hi Nico’s stream!” Percy said, on a discord call.

Pioneer.woman.hater: HI PERCY

Call.me.amy: The flag!?!?!

Strawberryyogurt: OMG

Nico went onto Percy island to help him with different things. Percy had only just bought ACNH and had barely anything done yet. Nico made sure to bring over stacks of different materials and some bells to gift percy so he had an easier time getting started.

“Percy, you can’t just hit him with your net everytime you see him!” Nico laughed.

“Listen, it’s not my fault that Klaus is so fucking ugly!” Percy said. He was chasing the villager with his net. “Why did I get stuck with the stupidest villagers?”

“”I mean, I’ve been trying to get Rocko off my island for months,” Nico replied.

“Yeah but you also have, like, all the cute ones. You literally have Stitches and Lucky.

Child.saftey.lock: Ive had beef with rocko since new leaf

Taylorswiftlover: I literally love stitches sm

C00lestperson3ver: what happened to Nico’s bed???

Nico decided to finally respond to some of the chat. “Oh, um, I just moved my bed to a different room. Apparently it’s good to separate your work and sleeping space.” Nico was smiling at the simple thought of his boyfriend. God, he had an obsession.

“Sure, that’s definitely what happened.” Percy said. Nico could practically hear the smirk on his face.

“Shut up!” Nico yelled, and hit percy with his ax in the game. “Let’s just get back to chopping down trees.”

“Why is this fucking racoon allowed to just take all my money?” Percy asked.

“That’s basically what this whole game is,” Nico said.

“Ugh, I can’t believe I’m even playing this. I’m bored, can we go to your island?”

“Sure,” Nico said. 

On Nico’s island, they sat on a bench and stopped really playing the game, the two boys were just talking about random stuff at that point.

“So,” Percy dragged out the “o”, “How’s your roommate ?”

Nico groaned, knowing that Percy wanted to say another word that wasn’t “roommate.”

“Will’s fine, thanks for asking. Pretty sure he’s studying right now,” Nico said.

SunshineWill: Nope!

Nico glanced at chat. “Will what the fuck? Since when do you have a twitch account?”

SunshineWill: since like 2 minutes ago

“Go back to studying. You have a test tomorrow,” Nico said.

“You guys are like best friends right?” Percy teased.

“Oh my god. Percy shut the fuck up,” Nico scolded, knowing what Percy meant by it.

“What? I’m just asking a simple question. What’s so wrong with that?” 

“I’m actually gonna kill you I swear to god,” Nico threatened, but it was more of a joke if anything. He, once again, hit Percy with his ax in the game. Percy’s character got up and started running away, but Nico chased him.

“Oh yeah, and what would Will say about that?” Percy prodded.

“Percy!” He shouted. Nico desperately hoped that the growing blush on his face wasn’t obvious. 

SunshineWill: i support it

Strawberryyogurt: what is happening right now!?!

Horsenamedfriday: i'm actually cry-laughing at this

Madwoman: GET HIM!

After a few more minutes of Nico hitting Percy with his ax and Percy not learning his lesson and making more teasing comments, they calmed down and Nico got ready to end the stream for the night.

“Well, this stream was interesting,” Nico said. His stream was now just his facecam, and Nico’s messy hair and all black outfit was on full view. “But, I think it’s finally time to turn in for the night. I’ll see you all tomorrow for another stream.”

“Bye!” Percy said excitedly.

“Bye guys.” Nico waved, and waited a few seconds before finally turning off his stream. 

He ended the call with Percy and went to join Will in their room.

“Hi,” Will said softly as Nico fell onto the bed face first. He had been scrolling on his phone, but put it down the second his boyfriend walked in.

Nico sat up after a few seconds and kissed Will on the lips. It started out as a soft, sweet kiss, but quickly turned into something more passionate. Nico’s fingers laced into Will’s golden curls. Will held Nico’s waist, pulling him in closer. This was territory the boys were very familiar with. The four months they have been together felt like years, and it might as well have been with the years of pining. 

“Will,” Nico breathed.

Will pushed him into the bed, continuing the kiss from above. He kissed Nico’s jaw, eliciting a noise out of him. Nico’s hands fell away from his boyfriend’s hair and slipped under his shirt. 

Eventually, their shirts were ripped off, and the kissing continued. Will’s hands explored Nico’s body as he kissed his neck. He sucked the sensitive skin, leaving an angry red mark.

“Will,” Nico said again, even more breathless. “It’s late, you have an early class tomorrow.”

Will stopped for a moment. “And?” He asked.

“You have a test,” Nico said. He was rarely the voice of reason in their relationship, but he was in this moment. Nico didn’t want to be the reason that Will was too tired and ended up failing his test.

Will groaned. “Fine.” Will obviously realized that he wouldn’t be able to convince his boyfriend to do anything more that night. “But we are continuing this tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Nico hummed. He moved his hands to Will’s face, pulling him in for another kiss.

***

#1 swiftie @taylorswift.lover13

The pride flag in ghost king’s stream last night!?!?!?! Can’t believe he’s gay!

Lou ellen @probably.not.a.witch

replying to @taylorswift.lover13

Let’s not speculate about people's sexuality? Doesn’t matter how popular he is, privacy is important. He could just be showing support, a flag means nothing.

***

Nico was confused when he started streaming. His whole chat was going crazy about something, and it was moving way too quickly for him to comprehend anything.

It wasn’t until he got a text from Jason of a zoomed in screenshot from the stream of his neck that he realized what was happening. 

“Fuckkkk,” Nico muttered. He completely forgot about the mark left on his neck from last night. 

He quickly got up, not bothering to say anything, and pulled on a sweatshirt. It was one of Will’s sweatshirts and Nico would not normally wear something so colorful on stream, but it was the first thing he saw. Nico pulled up the hood, covering most of the hickey on his neck.

“So. Let’s get back to Minecraft, yeah?” He said, sitting back down in his chair.

Strawberryyogurt: OH MY GOD. 

broke.a$$.b1tch: Wtf

Maraudersstannn: damn, emo boy has more game than me 

Call.me.amy: YOU HAVE A GF?!?! 

Call.me.amy: im crying

Totallynotleah: Do you not see the rainbow flag? The closet is literally glass. Pretty sure it’s not a gf that did that

Strawberryyogurt: HE 'S WEARING COLOR. I REPEAT, GHOST KING IS WEARING COLOR

Chapter Text

When Nico woke up the morning after the “incident” as he started calling it, he went onto twitter, only to be horrified at what he saw. 

He was trending on twitter.

What. The. Fuck.

Apparently there had been a lot of tweets regarding his stream the other night, and many people were speculating who he was dating. How so many people cared about a twitch streamer who didn't even have over 1 million followers was beyond him. Well, with him now trending, Nico was getting really close to 5 million followers. 

It was scary how many people actually watched Nico’s stupid streams now. He never thought that he would ever have that many followers.

Nico begrudgingly got out of bed and walked into the kitchen. Will was already up, because of course he was. Will had an annoyingly good sleep schedule. He always went to bed before midnight and got up super early. Nico, on the other hand, was not as good at sleeping. Sometimes he forgot to do it all together.

“Morning, Sunshine!” Will said, far too cheerfully for the morning, when he saw his boyfriend walk into the room.

Will was cooking something. He had started making breakfast for the two of them every morning. Nico was still better at cooking than him, but it made sense for Will to make breakfast considering how consistently early he gets up. Will could usually handle putting bagels in the toaster or frying up some eggs. Usually. There had been some close calls…

Nico hopped up on the counter next to where Will was standing in front of the stove. “Watcha’ making?” He asked.

Will laughed softly. “ Pancakes.”

“Oh god,” Nico groaned. “You better not burn anything this time.”

“That was one time, and it wasn’t even my fault!”

“Oh yeah? Whose fault was it then?” Nico questioned through laughs.

Will turned to face Nico. “Yours, duh,” he said. They both laughed.

Will kissed Nico before turning his attention back to the pancakes. He flipped them soon after realizing they were about to burn.

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while, but Nico decided to break it:

“I’m trending on Twitter.”

“What?”

“Yeah, people saw the hickey on stream last night,” Nico said. “Twitter went crazy over it.”

“Sorry,” Will said sheepishly.

 Nico just shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal, really. It was kind of funny actually.”

***

[ An Instagram post by @TheGhostKing showing a picture of two people holding hands with only their arms visible ]

***

Yogurt @strawberryyogurt

Is it possible to find out who someone is just by their hand?!?! If so I’m doing it

[ image attached: a screenshot of Nico’s recent Instagram post ]

twitch.tv/TheGhostKing

TheGhostKing

I'm bored so lets talk (Percy and Jason are here too)

Just chatting

Nico was in a discord call with Percy and Jason. They were mostly just talking about stupid things, but occasionally, they answered a question from chat. Nico was obviously avoiding all the questions about who he was dating. People had definitely seen his recent Instagram post, and they wanted to talk about it.

Call.me.amy: PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TELL US WHO YOU’RE DATING

broke.a$$.b1tch: soooo about that boyfriend…

Cloudy.emotionally: what’s your favorite color?

Pioneer.woman.hater: HI PERCY

“Guys calm down about my boyfriend, please,” Nico said, finally having enough of all the questions. “He doesn’t really want to be flaunted around on my twitch channel.”

That was kind of true. While Will had originally not wanted to be on Nico’s streams, he didn’t really care anymore. They hadn’t really talked about whether or not they should say that they were dating. It would bring a lot more attention onto Will, which he probably didn’t want.

“Neeks, what are you gonna do for 5 mil? You’re getting really close,” Jason said further into the stream.

“Well, for starters, Will agreed a while ago to do a face reveal when I got there. So, that probably,” Nico said after a minute. “I don't really know what else to do though.”

“You could do like a mega stream where you just do a bunch of stuff,” Percy suggested.

“What, like what we did for new years?” 

“Yeah, basically.”

“Maybe, that could be fun. You and Jason better come over again,” Nico demanded.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, death boy,” Percy said.

“If you were here right now, I would have smacked you.”

***

Ghost King @TheGhostKing

No streams for a bit, Spring break.

When Will asked Nico to come with him to meet his family for Spring break, Nico said yes, which surprised even himself. Did Nico really want to meet his boyfriend’s parents? No, not really. Did he want to spend more time with his boyfriend? Yes, of course.

So, the two boys got on a plane to Texas. Nico fell asleep on Will’s shoulder during the flight. He wasn’t all that tired, but he wanted to stop his brain from thinking for a few hours. Nico was nervous to meet Will’s family. They seemed like great people from what Will had said, but would they like Nico? He didn’t want his boyfriend’s family to hate him. That would be bad.

When they touched ground almost 4 hours later, Nico was still worried, but less so. They walked out of the airport and started looking around for Will’s mom. Naomi Solace had agreed to pick them up from the airport. 

There were dark clouds in the sky, which wasn’t ideal. Texas tended to be rainy in the spring, much like a lot of other states, but rain was still never fun. Especially while driving. After a few minutes of searching, Will finally spotted his mother’s red car amongst the sea of other people waiting for their loved ones.

Naomi was standing outside of her car, obviously looking around too. She perked up immediately when she noticed her son coming towards her

“Will!” she said, and hugged her son tightly.

“Hi mom,” Will said, hugging her back, equally as tight.

Nico just stood there awkwardly as he watched the mother-son reunion. It hurt his heart in all honesty. He missed his own mother so much. But, he pushed those thoughts out of his head. No need to ruin the sweet moment.

Will seemed to suddenly realize Nico was still there, and he pulled away from the hug.

“Uh, mom, this is Nico,” Will said, gesturing to him, “My boyfriend.”

“Nico, hi!” Naomi looked as though she was going to hug Nico, but she obviously noticed his discomfort and went with a handshake instead. “You can call me Naomi, it’s so nice to finally meet you. Will never shuts up about you.”

“Mom!” Will whined, but both Nico and Naomi ignored him.

“Hi,” Nico said, not really sure what else to say.

“Well, we better get going,” Will’s mom said. “Your siblings are so excited to see you again,” she said to Will.

They got into the car and took off. 

The house was basically in the middle of nowhere. There were houses around it, but they were spaced pretty far apart. It was a sweet house, very obviously the kind of house made for a family. There were already a few cars parked in the driveway, most of Will’s family lived close, so they arrived much sooner than them. Will had a lot of family; two siblings, and a fuck ton of cousins. Both Austin and Kayla, his brother and sister, were still in high school, so they still lived at home. They were technically half-siblings, but after living together for most of their life, they had dropped the “half” when talking about each other

Nico and Will brought their stuff up to his childhood room, and then went to talk with his family. A good amount of them were religious, so they intended to celebrate Easter together. Nico hadn’t celebrated Easter in years. While it wasn’t the most religious holiday, it was still more jesus-y then Christmas, for example. His favorite part of the holiday was going to the store Easter Monday and buying all the candy that was on sale.

Will’s extended family were all talking in the kitchen, but they didn’t really talk to any of them. After a quick introduction, Will led Nico in the living room where Kayla and Austin were sitting and playing Mario Kart Wii.

“Hey guys,” Will said and sat next to his siblings on the couch. Nico stood for a second before Will pulled him down onto the couch too.

“Will!” Austin said and pulled him into a hug.

Kayla took advantage of her brother’s distraction and overtook his place in first on coconut mall. After the race was over, however, she greeted Will.

“Do you guys wanna play with us?” Austin asked. “We have two other controllers.”

“Sure!” Will replied, answering for Nico as well.

Kayla was scary good at Mario Kart. Like, Nico was good, great even, but she was better. They played a lot of races, which Kayla won most of. Nico only won a couple, which was disappointing, and also somewhat embarrassing.

“Hey Nico?” Kayla asked when they were done playing.

“Yeah?” he said.

“Can I get a photo with you? Me and my friends watch your streams and they would freak out if they saw it.”

“Yeah, sure.” 

No one had really asked him for a photo before. Even stranger that the request was coming from his boyfriend’s little sister.

Nico awkwardly posed for a picture with Kayla and she then immediately sent it to her friends.

***

The rest of their visit went well. Will’s family was nice, but it was still somewhat awkward for Nico. To be fair, he knew none of them and Nico wasn’t really a people person. He enjoyed seeing Will so happy with his family, and Nico actually didn’t mind hanging out with Kayla and Austin, but he was still glad to finally go back to New York after a few days.

Nico hadn’t checked social media during spring break, and he was definitely in for a surprise when he finally did.

TheGhostKing

5M Followers

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you still want to do this?” Nico said while setting up for the stream.

“Yeah! Of course,” Will replied. “It’ll be fun.”

Nico knew how Will felt about being in the public eye. Both his mother and father were famous – his dad being a very popular actor (and doctor, author, archer, dancer etc…), and his mom being a popular singer – and it had torn them apart. When they got married and had a child, people all across the internet had made it very clear about how they felt about the relationship. People were saying all types of things, mostly how they thought that their relationship wouldn't last, or that they weren’t good together. Apparently all the hate got to be too much for Will’s father, because when Will was only 3 years old, he left. Him and Naomi got divorced and he went on to a couple other lovers before disappearing from the public eye entirely.

Will didn’t have any memories of his father – just a couple pictures – but he had confessed many times that he wished he did. Sure, he absolutely adored his mother, but his family had always felt like it was lacking something.

Will had said he wanted to show his face on Nico’s streams, but he was still a bit unsure about revealing their relationship. Nico perfectly understood that and he would do anything to make Will happy.

The plan for the stream where Will revealed his face was simple. They would be baking a cake. It had been Will’s idea, and Nico thought it would be fun and chaotic. Percy and Jason had also come over and would be in the background of the stream, talking and whatnot. 

Right then, they were in the kitchen setting up, Nico making sure the camera angles and equipment was alright, and Will making sure they had all the ingredients and proper measuring cups.

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure, you can still back out you know? Me and Jason could bake the cake or something, you don't have to show your face if you don't want to. It’s really okay if you don't want to–”

Will cut Nico off with a kiss, he distantly heard Percy fake gagging.

“Babe, really, it's fine,” Will said, pulling back from the kiss. “You seem more worried than me. What? Are you worried people are gonna try and flirt with your very hot, very sexy boyfriend?”

“They already flirt with you,” Nico mumbled under his breath, his face still tinted pink from the kiss. Nico wasn’t much of a PDA kind of person. Sure, it was only Percy and Jason, but there were still people around to witness it.

Will just laughed and pecked Nico’s lips again before going back to setting up.

“You guys are worse than Percy and Annabeth,” Jason said from the couch he was lounging on.

“Hey! I’m allowed to be affectionate with my fiance!” Percy slapped Jason’s arm. “You’re just upset that you and Piper broke up.”

“That happened when I was 16, and it was mutual!” he huffed.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say.”

“Just because your relationship has lasted years doesn't mean all of ours can.”

“Speak for yourself,” Will chimed in, “Me and Nico are gonna grow old and wrinkly together.”

Nico couldn’t help but smile brightly at that. They had only been dating for a couple months but god, Nico was so far gone for Will. He would just say things randomly, things that made Nico melt into a puddle. Love didn’t usually come easy Nico, but for Will, it came as easy as breathing. 

“Okay, okay, are you guys all ready for me to start the stream?” Nico said instead of addressing what Will had said. He didn’t need to be getting completely mushy at that moment.

“Wait!” Will called.

Nico turned to face his boyfriend, concerned at what the problem could be. 

Will grabbed his face and pulled him in for a quick kiss. “Okay, I’m good now. You can start.”

“Disgusting,” Percy mumbled.

Nico smiled. “Shut up, I’m starting the stream.”

Nico clicked a button on the computer in front of him. He stared at it for a minute, waiting for the view count to go up. “Hi everyone.”

Will, standing next to him, waved at the camera, smiling that signature Will Solace smile.

The camera was on the kitchen island, showing the items on it. Nico and Will stood behind the island, only their torsos visible. There was a mess of ingredients on the counters behind them, including a massive amount of sprinkles and frosting.

twitch.tv/TheGhostKing

TheGhostKing

Celebrating 5 mil (ft. The roommate™ )

Just chatting

Jamespottersforgottenwand: IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS

 Notbeingcoolaboutit: who tf is that!?!?!?!

Pioneer.woman.hater: HELLO WHAT

Notagenius.justaboy: who is that very hot man.

“Chat,” Nico started, “as some of you know, my roommate made a promise that when I got to 5 mil, he would show his face. So, here he is, my roommate, Will.”

Nico held up his hands towards him, as if he was presenting Will to the camera.

“Uh, hi,” Will said.

Nico almost laughed at how awkward Will was in front of the camera. He would get used to it quickly though, always a social butterfly, that one. Nico however, still had not fully gotten over his awkwardness, despite it literally being his job to be in front of the camera.

“Anyways, that doesn't really matter.” Will held his hand to his heart, looking hurt at Nico’s words. “Today, we are gonna be baking a cake to celebrate 5 mil.”

“Which I will be amazing at by the way,” Will said matter-of-factly.

“You are absolute dog shit at cooking, Will,” Nico replied.

“No I am not!”

“You burnt butter once.”

“Ok maybe, but cooking and baking are two very different things!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Cooking is an art, baking is a science, and I,” Will pointed at himself, “am very good at science.”

“Yeah, yeah you're smart, get over it.” Nico grabbed a glass bowl from off camera and pulled it into view. “Let’s get into the fun part.” Nico held up a computer that was next to him, showing the camera the screen which was open on a website of a cake recipe. “We’re following a recipe because, shockingly, we are not professional bakers.”

“Hey, I think I would at least do good on The Great British Bake Off ,” Will complained.

“Will, you’re from Texas.”

“Yeah, and I would still be amazing on it.” Nico bet that if Will had longer hair, he would’ve flipped it dramatically at that moment.

“ Anyways ,” Nico reigned in the conversation, “the recipe was just the first one I found on google when I searched up ‘chocolate cake recipe’. It’s called ‘The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {Ever}’ so it's obviously gonna be good.”

“Oh, obviously,” Percy said, voice thick with sarcasm

Oh, yeah,” Nico was suddenly reminded about the two boys sitting on his couch, “Percy and Jason are here too. Say ‘hi’ Percy and Jason.”

“Hi,” Jason said.

“Hi Percy and Jason,” Percy said.

“You dumbass,” Nico said to Percy.

Nico turned back to his boyfriend, “Will can you grab the ingredients?”

Will saluted, “Yes ma’am!”

Nico shot a death glare towards Will. “What is wrong with you?” he asked jokingly.

“A lot,” he shrugged, “probably.”

Nico shook his head, “I hate you.”

“No you don’t,” Will countered

Nico thought for a second. “No I don't,” he agreed.

Strawberryyogurt: THEY HAVE TO BE DATING ISTG

Withgreatsorrow: im actually crying over this stream

Pizza_.za: i think im in love with will

Pioneer.woman.hater:  HI PERCY

“Okay,” Nico began, now reading off of the recipe, “first we need to mix the dry ingredients together.”

“Which are…” Will prompted.

“Flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder,” Nico read off.

“I feel like espresso powder isn't usually in chocolate cakes,” Jason said.

“Yeah, well, the lady who wrote the recipe wrote, like, a whole paragraph about how amazing it is in cakes, so we have to use it.”

“God forbid you disrespect this mysterious author and not use espresso powder,” Percy said.

“Well, I’m scared that if I change the recipe the cake will turn into a bomb or something,” Nico confessed.

“I'm pretty sure that's not how baking works,” Percy mumbled.

“Couldn't you just… I don't know, find another recipe?” Jason questioned.

“That would've been way too much work,” Nico said.

Nico turned back towards Will and a gasp left his mouth. Turns out, during this conversation, he had started putting the ingredients into the bowl, which would’ve been all fine and dandy, if not for the fact that he spilled half the flour all over the island.

“ Tesoro ,” Nico mumbled under his breath,  out of habit more than anything, taking the measuring cup out of Will’s hand. “You absolute fucking idiot.”

“I tried, okay!” Will defended himself.

“I thought you said you would be good at baking?” 

“Well, I thought I would be, but I was wrong.”

Nico scooped up the flour as best as he could and attempted to pour it back into the bag. They cleaned the island before the stream started, it would be fine.

“You’re lucky you're my,” he paused, “ best friend.” Nico could practically feel Percy holding in a laugh. Will, however, very obviously giggled and pulled Nico into a hug.

Strawberryyogurt: that was suspicious…

Totallynotleah: all streams after this better include Will

Maraudersstannn: WHO IS YOUR BOYFRIEND

I.am.stupid1236: okay hear me out; percy and ghostking

After mixing together the wet and dry ingredients – not without a fight over who got to crack the egg – Nico poured the batter into two cake pans and then popped them in the oven.

“Okay, now it has to bake for 30 minutes. What do we do now?” Nico asked.

“Answer questions from chat?” Percy suggested.

Nico shrugged, “Sure, why not? Ask away, chat.”

The chat was immediately flooded with various questions that they wanted answered. Nico had to pause and scroll through it for a minute before finding one he wanted to answer. “Okay, this one is from @all.my.love asking ‘how did you meet Percy and Jason?’ Well, I met Percy when I was 10. He was a friend of my sister,” Nico looked sad for a moment, but then seemed to remember he was on camera, and perked up again, “But, I also went to highschool with him. Jason was a friend of Percy, and I met him in highschool.”

Will leaned in slighting, pressing their shoulder together, knowing Nico was upset by the mention of his sister.

Nico answered a few more questions ranging from ‘how old are you’ to ‘would you still stream if you were a worm’ (“how the fuck would I even stream if I was a worm?”).

Apparently, Percy had been scrolling through chat on his phone, because in the middle of Nico speaking he burst out; “‘ARE YOU AND PERCY DATING?’”

Nico looked bewildered. “What?”

“That’s what somebody asked.”

Nico groaned, running his hand through his hair and over his face. “Oh god, please tell me people don't actually think that.”

“Apparently they do.” Percy had a shit-eating grin on his face, as usual.

Nico turned to the camera, looking extremely serious. “Chat, I can promise you, me and Percy are not dating. Plus, he’s not even my type.”

Percy started laughing even harder than before. “Oh really!?” he huffed out. “Cause I seem to remember that in middle school you–”

Nico grabbed the closest thing to him, a whisk, and threw it at percy. It missed, but seemed to get his point across enough that Percy decided to shut up. Nico tended to be murderous when angry.

“You will not continue that sentence,” Nico demanded.

“Fine, Jesus, okay,” Percy held up his hands in surrender.”Calm down death boy.”

“I fucking hate you Percy.”

“Yeah, well, pretty sure middle school you would disagree with that–”

“Okay!” Will interrupted. “Let's maybe not ask questions about Percy and Nico’s relationship anymore.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea,” Nico grumbled, still upset at Percy.

Will laughed. “You’re cute when you’re upset.”

Nico flipped Will off.

frenchfryl0ver:  are they dating or not i'm confused

Plastic.bag_floating: well that gave more questions that answers

Strawberryyogurt: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING SHIT

Nico continued to answer questions, seeing as it was really the only thing he could do. “Someone asked if I could dance, why the fuck would they ask that.”

“Well, you can dance,” Will said, answering the question for him.

“You weren't supposed to say that!”

The chat was filled with people asking Nico to show off his dancing skills. Will obviously saw the chat, because suddenly, he grabbed Nico’s hand, pulling it above his head. He spun Nico around. “There,” he said, smiling brightly, “he danced.”

Nico kicked Will, but was holding back a smile. He grabbed Will’s hand, hidden from the camera by the island, and squeezed it three times. ‘I. love. You.’ That was big. Neither had said that yet, although it was very obvious that they did. Whilst it wasn't exactly words yet, it was something. And that’s all that mattered.

Will’s smile at that moment seemed to resemble the sun. He squeezed Nicos hand back. Three. Times. He let go suddenly, though. Nico looked confused for a second before Will said;

“Shit the cake!”

It had been well over 30 minutes by then, the cake long forgotten.

“Why didn’t anyone set an alarm?” Nico asked, walking over to the oven.

“Neeks, everyone in this room right now has ADHD,” Jason commented.

Nico ignored him in favor of opening the oven. It smelled slightly burnt, but was probably salvageable,

“Hey Nico, I think you burned your cake,” Percy said. He was now lying down completely on the couch, legs on Jason's lap.

“No shit sherlock.”

He took the cakes out of the oven and placed them on the counter. They didn't look too bad, maybe a little darker than what was intended, but not entirely burnt.

Nico shook the cakes out of their pans and onto a place. Some of the cake got stuck to the bottom of the pans, but once again, nothing that wasn't salvageable.

“So, the recipe says to wait for them to cool for ten minutes,” Nico said, “but I ain’t waiting that long, so we're decorating now.” Nico slid three containers of frosting into the view of the camera. “We’re using store-bought frosting ‘cause I don't want to deal with making it.”

While Will grabbed some other decorating supplies, Nico scooped up a huge glob of frosting with a knife and plopped it on top of the cakes. He spread it around rather aggressively.

“That can't be right,” Will said, turning back towards the mess that was their cake.

“Probably not,” Nico shrugged.

“Let me do it.” Will gently shoved Nico over and grabbed the knife from him. He did not do that much better of a job, seeing as the frosting quite literally slid off of the hot cake. “I don't think this is working.”

“It's okay, maybe the sprinkles will save it,” Nico responded.

“I don't think sprinkles can fix that ,” Percy laughed.

“I will throw another whisk at you, Percy,” he threatened.

Once Will gave up on frosting the cake, Nico grabbed a bottle of black sprinkles and opened it. He carelessly flipped it upside down over the cake, not expecting them to come out as  fast as they did. The whole entire bottle spilled out, covering the entire cake and falling onto the island and floor.

“Well now you’ve gone and made the cake all emo!” Will threw his hands up in exasperation.

“I wasn't trying to!” Nico said through a laugh.

After a bit of cleaning (Not completely, because that was going to take hours), Will grabbed the frosting covered knife again and, using the tip of the knife, carefully wrote letters onto the cake

Will’s handwriting was already atrocious, but on a cake using frosting, it was somehow worse. The words were barely legible but Nico was able to make out the words “Yay 5 mil!”

Nico laughed at his boyfriend's utter stupidity.

“You’re cake looks like shit,” Percy remarked.

“I’m a bit worried for you if your shit looks like this,” Nico countered.

“Awh, you care about me.” Percy had those big puppy dog eyes.

“Shut up.” 

Nico picked up the cake and tilted it slightly towards the camera, making sure the stream could see it clearly but also making sure it didn't slide off the plate. A few sprinkles fell off in the process.

“This is the finished cake, that also apparently looks like Percy’s shit,” Nico grinned.

Cry_myself2sleep: percy is right

Thisissmetrying:  it's… great! (pls let my family go)

Taylorswiftlover: wowwwwwwww…

Horsenamedfriday: oh my fucking god

“Chat stop being mean, me and Will worked very hard on this,” Nico pouted. “It’s basically our baby.”

Will choked out a laugh. “Okay then. It’s still not done though. We need to put the candles on it.”

“Will wanted to get five million candles, but I told him that was impractical.” Nico turned around and grabbed the package containing five candles from the table behind him. 

“Oh yeah ‘impractical’,” Jason said with air quotes. “Totally wouldn't have burnt down this whole apartment or anything.”

Nico took out the candles and placed them on the cake. He grabbed a lighter from the drawer in front of him and lit each one of them.

“Whelp,” he sighed. “This stream has been a rollercoaster, but I wanted to thank you all once again for five mil. You guys have completely changed my life, and I don't think I could ever thank you all enough.” Nico leaned down slightly towards the cake, “Thank you all for watching this stream, bye.”

He blew out the candles and ended the stream immediately after.

***

Ghost King @TheGhostKing

Thank you so much for 5 million on Twitch!

[ image attached: a photo of the cake from the stream]

***

Alyssa @Notnamedalyssa

Okay so, during ghost king’s stream, he mumbled something, and im pretty sure it was italian. Can anyone tell me what he said?

[ video attached ]

Hello :P @listentomusic2cope

replying to @Notnamedalyssa

Certified Italian here, pretty sure he said “tesoro” which means “darling” !?!?!

***

Tiktok: @strawberryyogurt

[video description: an edit of Will and Nico during the five million celebration stream to the song “Someone New” by Hozier. The video ends with the clip of Will spinning Nico around ]

Caption: I have my theories… #fyp #foryoupage #Ghostshine #ghostking 

Comments:

@ghostkingisswiftie

Why the fuck is their ship name “ghostshine” I mean i get the ghost part, but what abt the shine.

     @strawberryyogurt - Creator

     Cause Will is literally sunshine   personified

@SeaweedbrainPJ

Sending this to Neeks rn

Chapter Text

To be fair, Nico knew that they weren’t being subtle. As much as he wanted to deny it, literally anyone watching the stream could easily guess that there was at least something going on between him and Will. Whether people thought they were actually dating or not was another problem, but there was obviously something.

Will, for some reason, didn’t actually seem to mind all that much. Nico had watched him scroll through twitter, and he had laughed at all the people saying their “theories” about all of it. Apparently people had even created a ship name for the two of them. 

When Nico went live for the first time after the celebration stream, Will obviously had to be there too. Not only because his views skyrocketed whenever he was there, but also because Will being there made the streams more fun. Sure, Percy and Jason were entertaining, but they got annoying very easily. Nico was also pretty sure he was in love with Will, go figure.

twitch.tv/TheGhostKing

TheGhostKing

Teaching Will how to play Minecraft

Minecraft

Nico had pulled up another chair at his desk so they could both be in the view of the camera. He was still on his ‘starting soon’ screen, so the viewers couldn't actually see the two of them yet. For the stream, Nico would be attempting to get Will to beat the game. He knew it would take a while, but that was part of the fun. 

“You ready?” Nico asked right before he was going to switch screens so that the face cam would show up.

Will grabbed Nico’s hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles before nodding.

Nico blushed a bit, but quickly switched screens.

Astronomy.freak: AHHHHHHHHHH

Call.me.amy:  hi ghostking

SeaweedbrainPJ: neeks why didn't you ask me to be in this stream :(

“Percy, you suck at minecraft,” Nico said, reading the chat.

He read through a couple more of people’s messages before switching the screen again so that the face cam was smaller and the rest of the screen was taken up by minecraft.

“Okay, so the goal of this stream is to get Will to kill the ender dragon,” he announced.

“Which I'm totally gonna do,” Will replied.

Nico patted his shoulder, “We’ll try.”

Will was definitely not going to be able to beat minecraft. By the two hour mark, he hadn't even gotten to the nether yet. He kept dying in the stupidest ways and Nico was struggling immensely to not step in and help. Will just kept insisting that he “could do it” and “didn't need help” even though he definitely did. All Nico could do was sigh and shake his head in frustration.

The one good thing about this situation was that his chat was eating it up. His view count just kept going up and chat was going crazy.

After getting killed by a zombie for the third time, Nico had to try and step in.

“Will, please just let me help you,” he pleaded.

“No!” Will protested, “I want to do it without any help.”

“We’ve been here for two hours and you've made zero progress,” Nico replied.

“Hey, I’ve made a lot of progress!”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Nico asked.

Will did not reply, he just simply clicked respawn and continued playing.

“Can we atleast turn on keep inventory so you don't have to get all your stuff back every time?” Nico said.

“But that’s like, basically cheating,” Will frowned.

“This is gonna take forever if we don't!”

Will shook his head, “You have zero faith in me!”

“I have so much faith in you!”

“Liar!”

The two stared at each other. Will looked so serious, but Nico could tell he was holding back a laugh. Nico, too, was holding back a laugh, but it didn't show on his face as much. Looking into his eyes, he couldn't help notice just how blue they were. It was almost scary, well, as scary as Will could possibly be. 

They were still staring at each other when Will took his hand off the keyboard and poked Nico in the stomach. That action finally broke Nico, and he started laughing. His head fell onto Will’s shoulder and he laughed even harder into it. 

When he finally picked his head up, Nico had to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes.

Mammamiaaa: that was genuinely one of the cutest things i've ever seen

Strawberryyogurt: so either Will is ghostking’s bf or his actual bf is VERY jealous rn

Call.me.amy: i am tragically single

Cry_myself2sleep: this confuses me even more

During their fit of laughter, another zombie had come up and killed Will. When he finally noticed, he groaned.

“Okay, maybe you can help a bit,” he admitted.

“Finally,” Nico sighed with relief.

***

When Nico woke up the next day, his head was lying on Will’s chest. Will was already awake, playing with Nico’s hair with one hand, and scrolling through his phone with the other.

“Good morning,” Will said when he noticed that Nico was awake.

“Hi,” Nico replied groggily. “What are you doing?”

“I think we should get a cat,” he said, not actually answering Nico’s question.

“Huh.” Nico sat up.

“A cat. Let's get one,” Will declared.

“Where did this idea come from?” Nico asked.

Will turned his phone towards Nico so that he could see the screen. It was a video of a cat knocking things off of somebody’s table.

“I saw this video, it made me want one.”

“I mean, I'm not against it. I just feel like we should talk this out a bit more,” Nico replied.

There were unsaid words between them. If they got a cat together that would be a big commitment. Sure, they both knew that they loved each other, even if it hadn't been said yet, but an animal would be putting that to the test. Not only would it be a huge responsibility, but they would have to trust one another to take care of something that wasn’t themselves. 

“Sure, let's talk.” Will put his phone down.

“We would have to get stuff for it first,” Nico started, “and that’s a whole life to take care of. Not to mention the fact that animals don't tend to like me all that much.”

“Maybe you just haven't met the right one yet,” Will was staring at him with an expression that Nico couldn’t quite place.

“I don't think so. Also, you literally have to remind me to eat and drink water most of the time, I don't think I'd be good at taking care of something else,” Nico admitted.

“We’d be working together,” the blonde insisted, “It wouldn't be all on your shoulders.”

Nico thought for a second. “Fine,” he finally said. “But we have to do some research first.”

***

They did a lot of research and some more talking over breakfast, and the next day they found themselves at Petsmart buying everything a cat could ever possibly need. They had decided that they wanted to adopt from an animal shelter, so the next week, they walked into their local animal shelter, hoping for the best. 

The person at the front desk looked up when they saw the door open. 

“Hi,” they said with a bright smile, “What can I help you with today?”

“Hi!” Will smiled back. “We were thinking about adopting a cat.”

“That's great! The cat room is right through those doors,” they pointed at a set of doors to the right of them. “You can have a look around, just don't open any of the kennels or anything without permission. If you have any questions feel free to ask!”

“Thank you so much,” Will beamed as he and Nico made their way to the cat room.

There were two sides to the room. On the left, the wall was lined with smaller kennels that stacked on top of one another. On the right side were fewer kennels, but the ones there were much bigger on the actual floor rather than being its own box. There were also two doors that led to rooms that also housed cats, probably the shyer ones that needed more space to hide from prying eyes.

A couple other people were in the room and looking around, some even in the bigger kennels and playing with a cat. Most of the cats had stupid names like “Wrinkle Sprinkle” or “Cliff.”

They walked around and looked in the various kennels. For the most part, the cats either walked up to the kennel bars, begging to be pet, or they stayed asleep. They read the description of each cat that was posted on the kennel glass. Most said things like “purr-fect companion” or “softest fur ever” but a certain cat caught their eye immediately.

The cat’s name was Holly and she was in one of the rooms. Her description read: ‘Holly is the sweetest girl ever. Beyond her shy exterior is a loving and cuddly cat. It may take her a while to warm up, but once she does, she will definitely steal your heart. Interested in learning more about Holly? Talk to a staff member for more information.’

Looking through the window of the door, Holly was unable to be seen. The only evidence that there was a cat even in the room was the  toys, blankets, towels, and cat beds everywhere.

Nico was still looking through the glass when Will asked a person wearing a blue volunteer shirt, “Would we be able to learn more about this cat?” 

The person he asked looked to be about in her late teens and had long brown hair with pink streaks dyed throughout it. She turned around and stared at him for a second, studying him, before her eyes flicked over to Nico for a split second and they widened.

“Uh-I just, uh, volunteer here…” she stuttered. “You’ll have to ask someone at the-uh front desk.” 

She gave them one last look before picking up a stack of towels and leaving the room.

“That was… strange,” Will pointed out. Nico just shrugged. “Well, I guess I’ll go ask someone at the front desk then.”

“ ‘kay,” Nico replied, but he was more distracted by the black tail he could just barely see poking out of a cat tree in the room.

A couple minutes later they were talking with a very nice employee. The employee had dark red hair cut short and also had a multitude of piercings. Based on the nametag they were wearing, their name was Sam. “So, you guys are interested in Holly, correct?”

“Yeah!” Will answered.

Sam opened up a computer on the counter near them and pulled up a page on all the cats. They clicked on Holly’s profile. Sam scrolled down to the writing on the profile. “Like her description, Holly is definitely a very shy cat.” Both boys nodded. “We’ve had kind of a difficult time getting her to adjust to being here and just being around people in general.

“She was an owner surrender, meaning that her previous owner gave her up to the shelter because they didn't want her anymore or weren't able to take care of her properly.” Sam scrolled down further on the page. “According to the previous owner, she is very outgoing and loves meeting new people. That has definitely changed since she arrived here. It probably has something to do with missing her past owner. She’s been here for a couple months and has just barely begun warming up to some of the employees.”

Sam turned to face them. “I am not at all trying to discourage you both from meeting her, but I also didn’t want to get your hopes up. She usually spends most of the day hiding, and she hasn't come out at all when others have visited her. Are you sure you still want to go in there?”

Will and Nico looked at eachother. Animals have never really been the fondest of Nico, and this cat surely wouldn't like him based on that story. But, it also wouldn’t hurt to try. Who knew? Maybe Nico could be an optimist.

“Sure,” Nico shrugged.

“Sounds great!” Sam said. “I’ll just need to ask you both a few questions. We like to make sure that before going and trying to meet the cat, that you would actually be able to adopt them. We wouldn't want a cat getting attached to someone who couldn't ever take them home, would we?” Will  and Nico shook their heads. 

“So, just to clarify, who would be adopting her? Is it both of you together, or just one of you?” 

“Both of us,” Will answered. “We live together.”

Sam nodded. “Do you have any other pets at home currently?”

“Nope,” both of them said at the same time.

“Any kids?”

Nico couldn't help but laugh as he shook his head, but he also felt a slight blush grow across his cheeks.

“Well, that all seems to check out.” Sam closed their computer. “If you two could just wash your hands, and then you can go into the room.”

They washed their hands quickly and efficiently and then met Sam by the door to Holly’s room. 

Sam put their hand on the handle. “I would recommend you just go and sit on the couch in there and see if she comes to you. Make sure not to force anything, that will just result in a bunch of scratches. Okay?”

They both nodded. Sam opened the door to let them in and they both went to sit down on the hard plastic couch. Sam stayed outside the room and closed the door.

“So, what now?” Nico asked. “Do we just sit here and hope the cat magically decides to like us?”

Will nudged Nico with his shoulder. “Have some hope, darling.”

Nico let out an indigent sigh. Suddenly, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. It came from the cat tree that he previously saw a tail hanging out of.

The next thing he knew, Holly had jumped out of the cat tree and onto the ground. She was a skinny black cat with a splotch of white on her forehead, almost in the shape of a crescent moon. Her pupils were wide, showing just a sliver of her bright yellow eyes.

Will let out a gasp when he saw her, and went to say something, but Nico gently shushed him. Holly had come up to them and was walking next to Nico’s legs, rubbing her face against them. He didn’t want to move out of fear of scaring her away, so he just sat there in awe.

After another minute, Holly jumped up onto the couch and walked onto Nico’s lap. He held his arms out in a panic.

 “What do I do?” he whispered to Will.

He smiled, “Pet her!”

Cautiously, Nico lifted a hand towards Holly and held it in front of her. She considered the hand for a second before butting her head against it.

“I thought you said that animals don't like you,” Will laughed.

“They don't!” Nico argued. “This is a fluke.”

“Why can’t you just accept that people can like you?” 

Although Will said it with a smile, probably not even thinking about it, it made Nico pause for a moment. Logically, he knew people liked him, he wouldn't have as many followers as he did if they didn't. But, sometimes it was just hard to fully accept that fact. Nico had grown up without much love after his mom and sister’s deaths. Sure, he had Percy and Jason, but they had always felt more like pity friends if anything. Will was one of the first people that made Nico realize that somebody could actually like him for who he was. He still struggled with accepting love, but Will helped him with it everyday.

While Nico was deep in thought, Holly had curled up in his lap and seemingly fell asleep. 

Nico continued to pet her, and eventually Will had leaned down to lie his head on Nico’s shoulder. They sat there in silence, just existing together and enjoying each other’s presence.

When it was time to leave the room, Nico had to gently lift Holly up and place her on the couch. Her meow when she realized that Nico was leaving just about broke his heart.

Sam was shocked by how friendly Holly had been with them and said how that was the most interaction they had ever seen from her the whole time she had been there. 

It was an easy decision to adopt Holly, and they quickly got to filling out all the necessary paperwork. While they were filling them out, the volunteer from earlier came up to them. 

“Hi,” she said a bit too excitedly. “Sorry I acted a bit weird earlier.”

“Oh! It's no problem, really,” Will said sincerely.

“I was just wondering…” she paused. “Would I be able to get a picture with you guys?”

Well that definitely made sense. Her being a fan of Nico explained the nervousness and shock upon seeing him.

“Sure!” Nico replied.

“I can take it,” Will volunteered.

“Oh,” the fan seemed sad. “I was actually hoping you would be in it too.”

Will paused.

“Or not!” she amended. “You don't have to do anything you don't want to!”

“No, it's fine!” Will chuckled. “I was just shocked you would want a picture with me is all.”

They took a picture with the girl and she thanked them an upwards of a thousand times.

***

Yogurt @strawberryyogurt

Can someone tell me why the actual fuck I just met @Theghostking and Will while volunteering at my local animal shelter. I was just trying to get service hours for graduation and all of a sudden they showed up!?!?!?!?! 

[ image attached: a picture of Nico, Will, and the fan, all smiling widely. ]

Chapter Text

They walked out of the shelter that day with a cat, and a week later Nico went live.

twitch.tv/TheGhostKing

TheGhostKing

New member of the family

Just Chatting

“Hey everyone,” Nico said to the camera. He and Will were sitting in chairs next to each other once again, and there was a huge box behind them.

Withgreatsorrow: is he fucking pregnant or something?

Notnamedalyssa: imagine he just pulls out a goddamn baby

Horsenamedfriday: it has to be a pet, right?

SeaweedbrainPJ: Neeks! Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?

Nico laughed at the chat. “I can assure you, I am not pregnant. Percy, stop fueling the fire.”

Once more people joined the stream, Nico announced the news. 

“So, last week, me and Will adopted a cat!”

Strawberryyogurt: FUKCING TOLD YOU SO! And to think that twitter didn't believe me. Smh

Maraudersstannn: So you're telling me he got a pet with will and not his bf?

Pizza_za: they’re rlly never gonna beat the dating allegations

C00lestperson3ver: show us the goddamn cat already

“She’s a bit camera shy,” Nico explained, “but hopefully she’ll come out at least once during this stream. Her name’s Holly and she's a 3 year old black cat.”

“Today we’re gonna build a cat tree for her,” Will told the chat.

“Yep!” Nico replied. “And it's probably going to go horribly wrong knowing me.”

Will hit him in the ribs with his elbow. “Do you have to be so pessimistic all the time?”

“Sorry, I’ve made it my internet personality to be constantly cold and brooding.”

Will sighed and rubbed his fingers into his forehead. “You worry me sometimes, you know that?”

Nico just shrugged. “Oh well. Anyways! Let’s get to building this damn thing.”

Turns out, the cat tree was even more complicated than they had expected. They were both sitting on the ground surrounded by parts and instructions written in badly translated english.

Nico groaned. “This can’t even be possible.”

“Sure it is!” Will encouraged. 

“Will, we’ve been sitting on the ground for thirty minutes and have made zero progress,” Nico complained.

“I sorted the hardware,” Will pointed out. “That’s got to count for something.”

“No,” he shook his head, “it really doesn't.”

Nico lay down on the floor with his head near Will’s legs. Will put his hand near Nico’s hair, just barely touching the ends of it that were on the floor. Nico stared up at his boyfriend, just enjoying his company. Will smiled widely. Nico smiled back. 

He suddenly realized that he was still streaming and popped back up into a sitting position. 

Shalalalala: if anyone has bet money that they arent dating, I hope you know that you are gonna be broke

Frenchfryl0ver: i refuse to see anything platonic about this

Totallynotleah:  hey guys! Let's not speculate about other people's relationships, especially strangers on the internet!

After a few more minutes of struggling with the instructions, the door to Nico’s office started to open. On the other side of the door, pushing it open, was none other than Holly. Nico tapped the floor to get her to come into view of the camera. When she finally did, he looked up.

“This is Holly,” he said to the camera while petting her. They had quickly learned throughout the week of owning her that she was very much a lap cat, and that was further proven by the way she immediately climbed onto Nico’s lap.

“She likes him more than me,” Will pouted.

“She is like the one animal that has ever liked me,” Nico said to him. “Dogs literally run up to you on the sidewalk.”

“That only happened once!”

Nico gave him an incredulous look.

“Okay, maybe a couple times. But that’s besides the point! She’s my cat too. I feel like she should actually like me!”

“We’ve only had her for a week,” Nico reasoned. “I'm sure she’ll warm up eventually.”

“It took her all of two seconds to warm up to you.”

“That was a fluke!”

Will laughed and threw a plastic bag from the mess on the ground at Nico. 

Nico punched his shoulder, “You fucker.”

Will stuck out his tongue playfully and punched him back, albeit lighter than Nico had. That led to even more throwing of items and punches and pinches being received. 

Stopping for a moment, Will looked up at Nico, and then at the camera, and back to Nico again. Nico was confused, he looked as though he was planning something, but what exactly? Nico was unsure.

Suddenly, Will pulled Nico and himself just out of the view of the camera, leaving just their lower bodies still on screen,  and kissed him quickly. They both popped into screen again, Nico looking slightly more flustered than before.

Sunlight..girl: PLEASE tell me someone else saw that…

Strawberryyogurt:  HUH?!?!?

Girl_idiot: what just happened? 

Frenchfryl0ver: was that what i think it was?

They play-fought for a few more minutes before calming down. “Okay,” Nico said finally. “Let's actually try and do this.”

“... I think these two go together?” Will tried to attach two pieces of the cat tree together that, very obviously, did not go together at all. Nico shook his head lovingly and took the pieces away from him. 

“No,” he said, “They really do not go together.”

“Ugh,” Will groaned. “Can't we just get someone else to do this? I feel like Annabeth would be able to do it, it's basically architecture.”

“Sure…?” Nico wasn't sure putting together a cat tree counted as architecture, nor did he think Annabeth would be willing to take time off working her very busy and very important job just to help them with this.

Will stared at the instructions for the billionth time. “Wait!” he yelled, probably annoying all of their neighbors. “I think I figured it out!” He picked up some of the parts and actually started putting it together correctly.

He had attempted to explain what they had been doing wrong to Nico, but he still didn't understand. Nico just went back to lying on the floor while Will worked. Every now and again, Will would look at Nico and smile, his bright, annoying, and beautiful smile. Nico would smile back softly, a silent conversation passing between the boys, ‘I love you’s at the tips of their tongues. Even though it was unsaid, Nico could feel the love Will radiated every single day, he felt it even before they had started dating, words or no words, the love was there no matter what.

“Finally,” Nico sighed as he spoke to the camera. “After two hours, we finally got this thing built.”

“I told you we could do it,” Will said.

“Yeah, well, I had good reason for doubting our success. It still took us hours.”

Will shrugged, but smiled.

Nico sighed again, “I think this is gonna be the end of this stream. Thank you everyone for joining us on this adventure–if you could call it that.”

Nico had his finger on his mouse, ready to click the ‘end stream’ button. “Bye everybody, see-”

“Nico,” Will interrupted.

He whipped his head around to look at Will, forgetting what he had been doing just a second before.

“Huh?”he asked, and without any reply, Will grabbed his chin and pulled him in for another kiss, very much still on camera. Very much still on live. Before Nico could even realize what had happened, Will reached over to end the stream for him.

Nico’s jaw was dropped slightly, and he almost definitely looked like a fish out of water. “What did you do that for?”

“I love you.”

Nico’s jaw dropped further, and he sputtered before replied, “I love you too,” almost subconsciously. “But, you do know what you just did, right?”

Will had been hesitant to share much on social media, but then he went and pulled something like that? Was he insane? Or just in love , a voice in the back of Nico’s mind supplied.\

“You have been keeping us more or less a secret because of me, and I just don't really care anymore,” Will said, almost sheepishly. “I do really, truly love you, god, it feels so good to finally say that,” he admitted. “I will love you no matter what anyone else says. You make me so, so happy, and I want everyone else to know that too.”

Nico was sure that he was as red as ever, but he couldn't help it. Will had always been better with words than him, and his proclamation of love was better than anything Nico had ever heard before. How was he supposed to reply to that? 

No words could describe Nico’s undying love for the man beside him, so he kissed Will. Nico tried his best to pour all of his adoration and love into the kiss, and Will returned it with the same passion. His hands cupped Nico’s face. When they pulled apart to catch their breaths, Nico couldn't help but whisper against Will’s lips, “I love you.”

***

Yogurt @strawberryyogurt

YOUVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. FUCKING. TOLD. YOU. SO

[ image attached: a screenshot from Nico’s stream of him and Will kissing ]

Amy @call.me.amy

Nooooooo. I'm actually crying over Theghostking’s recent stream.

Lucy @drown.it.out

I would like to formally apologize to all of those who I told were crazy for thinking #ghostshine is real. You were right.

***

twitch.tv/TheGhostKing

TheGhostKing

The cat’s out of the bag | Q&A ft: my boyfriend

Just Chatting

Nico began the stream sitting alone in the office. “Hey everybody.” He scrolled through chat before picking a message to read aloud, “‘who is your boyfriend?’ Hmm,” he thought for a moment, “I wonder who my boyfriend is,” he questioned sarcastically.

Just then, the door opened and Will walked in. He strode over to where Nico sat by his desk and wrapped his arms around him from behind. Will rested his chin on Nico’s head and looked at the camera.

“Oh!” Nico said. “Everybody, meet Will.” He gestured up at him.

 “I don't know if you've met him before, but he's my boyfriend.”