2The artwork for the cover image was edited by me but drawn by Viria. I found this post and just had to do a one-shot on this. Prompt being: If children of Hades, can shadow-travel, children of Apollo can light-travel, right? And thus a one-shot was born! Hope you enjoy. Also…
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Rick Riordan related whatsoever. Nor do I own the prompt I based this off of.
People say curiosity killed the cat. But no matter how many times Will heard that whenever he was in the middle of looking for an answer to some bizarre question of his, Will's response was always the same. "That may be true, but satisfaction brought it back."
Now, Will had a question. One that no one seemed to be able to answer. None of his fellow half-siblings in Cabin 7 knew it, nor did Chiron or Rachel (she was kind of a long shot, but Will was running low on options). He even tried to send an Iris Message to Apollo but as expected, Will received no response from his father.
Which left Will to feel very disappointed in himself, so for a week or so he just sulked in his room and occasionally moped around the campgrounds. Finally, Nico had enough.
"I don't know what's bugging you, but enough is enough. Quit being so depressed," Nico had never thought he would be the one to try and give someone a pep talk, but he guessed he could make an exception for his boyfriend. Nico grabbed Will's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "It's not a good look on you, Solace."
"I guess being dark and depressing is more your thing than mine, Death Boy," Will smiled softly bumping his shoulder against Nico's, who just rolled his eyes in response. "I have a question that no one seems to know the answer to."
"Only you would get this upset over a question," Nico shook his head, a fond smile on his face. Will didn't get upset often, unless someone (usually Nico) was injured or if he had a question without an answer. "What's the question?"
"Well, you're the son of Hades, and as a result, you can Shadow Travel," Will looked around to see who was around them. Will and Nico were sitting on the porch of Cabin 13, and there were a few demigods out and about, but none of them seemed to be paying any attention to the couple's conversation.
"No, really? I had no idea," Nico deadpanned. Will frowned slightly and nearly tugged his hand away but since Nico hardly ever held Will's hand in public, the blond wanted to enjoy the feeling of their hands entwined while it lasted.
"Anyway," Will shot a glare at Nico, a silent dare to interrupt him again. The dark-haired teen said nothing, just gestured for Will to continue. "I came up with a theory. If Annabeth hadn't gone with Percy to visit his family, I would've asked her about it. If you guys can travel by shadows, which is basically the dark, wouldn't it make sense that other demigods could travel like that?"
"Meaning?"
"Well, say someone was a child of Iris. Couldn't they travel via rainbow or something? I mean, Jason can fly and turn himself into electricity, so to speak, Percy can breathe and manipulate water, therefore traveling by water. Maybe a child of Athena could transform into an owl and travel that way," Will took a deep breath. He knew Nico wouldn't judge (well, wouldn't judge too harshly) but his face still flushed with embarrassment. "So could a child of Apollo travel by...light? Sunlight, I mean."
Nico said nothing for a moment. He wanted to put a hand up to Will's forehead, see if he was feeling alright, but Nico had the feeling Will wouldn't appreciate it. To be honest, his question did have some merit. After all, if Nico and Hazel, could Shadow Travel, the latter of whom hardly ever traveled that way but the point was that she was capable of it, then it was a possibility that Will was right. A small possibility, but there was still a (slim) chance that the answer to Will's question was yes.
"You might not be wrong. I'm not saying that's the case, but your question isn't that terrible," Nico replied, finally breaking the silence. Will's face lit up and Nico had to bite back a laugh. To think the blond would get so excited just because Nico had validated him, hadn't scoffed at the question, was both a little sad and a little touching. "How we're going to figure out if you're right or not, I'm not sure. Who all have you asked?"
"Everyone in my cabin, Chiron, Rachel, and I even tried to Iris Message my dad, but, well, you know how it is with our Godly parents," Will stated. Nico nodded before a lightbulb went off in his mind.
"What about Artemis? If Apollo could travel by sunlight, then surely she would be able to use moonlight for the same thing. If she can. Then one of her Hunters of Artemis might know something. Thalia's staying here for a couple of days to visit with Jason. Maybe she'll know," Nico was glad that the week that Will had come up with his question was the same week that Thalia conveniently happened to be visiting. Despite Nico's very...strained relationship with the Hunters of Artemis.
But even so, it was still pretty lucky that Thalia was at Camp Half-Blood. It was as if there was some Author writing this out as a fanfiction story who wanted there to be an easy-ish solution to their predicament that would only last long enough for a one-shot.
"Great idea!" Will beamed brightly. For Nico's sake (the boy was awfully shy), Will looked back and forth to make sure the coast was clear before he kissed Nico quickly. He pulled away and smirked when he saw how red Nico's face was compared to the boy's usual pale complexion. "Thank you, Sunshine."
"Don't mention it," Nico muttered as he stood up and helped Will to his feet, his eyes glued to the ground. "Let's see if Thalia even knows anything before you thank me just yet."
They had to ask around, see if any of their friends knew where the Grace siblings were before they finally found Jason and Thalia by the beach. Sparring. The perfect brother-sister bonding activity.
"Oh, hey guys!" Jason exclaimed right as he dodged his sister's left hook and swung back, a scowl on his face when Thalia gracefully avoided the hit. Barely. "What's up?"
"We had a question about Artemis. And by we, I mean the dork standing next to me," Nico jerked his thumb to point at Will, who just smiled and shook his head. He knew that it was all in good fun whenever Nico called him a name. Most of the time, anyway.
"I'm kind of in the middle of something," Thalia stated right before she did a leg sweep, effectively knocking Jason to the ground. She placed a foot on Jason's chest to pin him down.
"Okay, okay, you win. Again," Jason grumbled as Thalia helped him back on his feet. He sent his sister a glare before he turned to face Will and Nico. "Don't tell anybody, especially Piper."
"You act like everyone doesn't already know I'm a better fighter than you," Thalia teased. She didn't often joke around, but it seemed like having her brother around made the daughter of Zeus lighten up. "So what's your question, Will?"
Will quickly explained what he and Nico had been discussing earlier, though he had to pause a couple of times whenever Jason tried to interrupt with his own opinion. And by opinion, I mean he kept trying to argue with Will until Nico would give his signature death glare with a scary aura surrounding him that shut up the son of Jupiter right away.
"So...can Artemis do something like that?"
"I'm not sure if she travels by the moon's light, starlight, or something like that, but she does do something similar," Thalia stated. "She can only do it at night when the moon is at it's brightest. Then Artemis turns herself into a beam of light and then zips through the sky until she reaches her destination."
"That's actually pretty cool when you think about it," Jason commented. "What made you think about this stuff, Will?"
"I was just thinking about how unfair it is that Nico can Shadow Travel while the rest of us have to walk. Present flying company excluded," Will sent a knowing look at both Jason and Thalia, the flying children of Zeus/Jupiter. "If Artemis can do something like that, do you think Apollo could? Or maybe a son of Apollo?"
"Maybe. I'm not entirely sure how she does it though," Thalia shrugged apologetically. Will and Nico said their goodbyes to the Grace siblings before they headed back to Nico's cabin.
Nico spent the next twenty minutes trying to explain how exactly he Shadow Traveled. It was something that was easier to just show Will than try to put it into words. "Look, I'll just Shadow Travel with you. If you can handle it."
"Are you even up for that?" Will asked as he looked Nico over. The son of Hades was healthy enough, but Will hated to see how it affected his boyfriend. Nico was always so exhausted and physically drained, paler than usual (though how that was possible was beyond Will).
"If by 'up for it', you mean am I well enough to do it, then yes. I'm healthy enough and you're the one who gave me clearance to Shadow Travel weeks ago, remember?" Nico smirked as the blond smiled sheepishly. Will thought about it for a minute then nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, now you got to board the Nico Express. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride. If you're scared of the dark, strange noises, or don't want to feel like your face is peeling off, then this is the wrong ride for you."
"Yes, because that makes me feel so much better."
"At least you can't say I didn't try to help," Nico retorted before he grabbed Will's hand and walked over to the shadow coming from one of the lights. "We're only going as far as the campfire, so pay close attention."
Will could say with no doubt whatsoever that he did not like Shadow Traveling. Not at all. But he did notice the way Nico's face scrunched up as he concentrated. He felt the way the paler teen exerted magic and, while Will wasn't certain, he thought he felt Nico trying to connect with the shadows if that made any sense. And he felt the way the shadows gripped tightly onto them, pulling both teens into a cold embrace.
"You can open your eyes now," Nico announced when they'd made it to the campfire and he saw that Will's eyes were shut tightly. Will reluctantly blinked and had to put a hand up to shield his poor eyes from the harsh rays of sunlight. "If you throw up, I'm not kissing you for the rest of the day."
"Duly noted," Will replied. "Okay, I think I see what you did there. Can we go back to your cabin so I can practice in private? By foot, not by shadows."
Nico consented to let Will drag him back to Cabin 13 (again) and sat down on the porch (again) and watched as Will stood in front of him, the sunlight making his golden hair shine even more than usual. Not that Nico noticed that. Nope, he definitely did not pay special attention to his boyfriend's hair.
Will was oblivious, as usual, to what Nico was thinking about. He focused all his energy on trying to connect with the sunlight like Nico had connected to the shadows. He felt every ray of light that bounced off everything. Will even thought that he could sense the magical energy that surrounded him.
It took a few minutes before Will noticed that the air around him had gotten a lot warmer. Wil guessed he should've expected the sunlight to feel less like the icy shadows and more like, well, the sun.
Then, it was like someone had flipped a switch. Everything just clicked for Will. One second, Nico was watching the son of Apollo crinkle his cute nose (not that Nico would ever say that out loud) and then the next thing he knew, Will had disappeared. Well, it was more like he had slowly melted into the light.
Nico looked around for a second, a panicked expression on his face. Every memory the teen had of his first few attempts of Shadow Traveling came to his mind, and how he'd had no control over where the shadows had taken him.
But this time, it was Will who had...Light Traveled. Nico made a mental note to try and come up with a better name for it later as he took off running to try and find the blond. Before he'd gotten too far, Nico saw Will reappear near the dining pavilion.
Nico ran over to Will, who looked both confused and excited. "Did you see that, Sunshine? I did it! I really did it!"
"You really are a dork," Nico wrapped his arms around Will's waist, for once not caring if anybody saw. "You scared me for a second, Tesoro."
"Tesoro? What's that mean?" Will asked. He was both ecstatic that he was able to figure out how to Light Travel (he needed a different name for that) and a little tired. He knew Nico was pretty worn out after Shadow Traveling too much, but Will hadn't realized just how tiring it was after one trip.
"I'll tell you later. How'd it feel to travel by light?" Nico ignored the stares from a couple of the younger demigods and just hugged Will tighter. "Was it as much fun as you thought it would be?"
"Yeah...but I'm feeling pretty tired," Will admitted with a yawn. Nico smiled sympathetically as he let Will lean on him for support. "I need a nap."
"At 3 in the afternoon? And you say I'm an old man," Nico teased as they made their way towards Cabin 7 (the Apollo Cabin). "You happy to know the answer to your question, Grandpa?"
"Yeah. I just need to figure out what to call it instead of Light Travel. Hey, I think I have a new question!"
'Here we go again,' Nico thought begrudgingly. 'This is going to be a long day.'
AN: I have no regrets. I hope you enjoyed! I have a few other stories based on the Percy Jackson universe (a couple based on Magnus Chase as well) if you're interested. Have a great day (or night, depending on when you read this). And Tesoro means 'Treasure'.
- Kitkat Out!
