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Apollo kids are immune to alcohol.
Well, not really, but they have a high high tolerance for it.
Will’s friends decided to throw him a birthday party at a dive bar, the small one downtown, the one with only old people, and occasional college kids, in it. Will didn’t have a problem with it since he’d known the owner since he was a kid and his mom used to sing there when he was a kid. He practically spent most of his elementary school nights there.
But tonight, he’s watching the door for a certain someone.
He asked his friends to invite a few people from the camp; Kayla, Austin, and Cecil. His friends gave him weird looks and asked why he even knew these people.
“They’re from the camp I go to every year. They’re visiting that week so why not invite them.”
And there they were. Austin has been singing on stage for close to an hour now while Kayla is annihilating smarmy college kids at darts. Cecil tripped, hit his head on the wall, and spilled the drinks earlier so he’s been told to stay put in the middle of the booth between Will’s friends so he won’t get into an accident again. It wasn’t hard enough for a concussion so it’s fine, plus he sneakily whammied Cecil’s forehead so he’s not in pain now.
The door opens slightly and a pale boy in black enters. Nico is holding a yellow box with a blue ribbon on top. Will smiles widely.
“Nico’s here,” he says. His friends immediately turn to the door, one standing up to watch him approach Nico.
“You came!” Will beams and pulls him in for a hug.
“You invited me,” Nico grins slightly.
“You didn’t have to bring me a gift,”
“It’s only polite to bring one to a birthday party,”
“Not my birthday party. Your presence is already a gift,” Nico’s face slightly turns red. Will is about to ask him if he’s alright but he turns away.
“Come on. My friends want to meet you,” He pulls Nico to their booth.
“Hey, Nico,” Cecil raises a hand in greeting. Nico nods at him in acknowledgment.
“Guys, this is Nico. He’s also from the camp,”
“Hi, Nico,” “Hi,” “Love your style, man!” “Are you okay?” “Girl, why ask that?” “He’s really pale,” “Oh yeah, he is,”
“Here,” Will taps the space beside him. Nico sits without a word.
“Guys! Oh, hey, Nico! You’re just in time.” Kayla sits beside Nico, forcing him to scoot over to give space for her. “Those creeps gave me $500 so the next round’s on me!” Will’s friends cheers and Kayla leaves immediately.
“Man, you gotta try this wing. It’s so good! Real spicy though, so be careful,” Cecil pushes the plate of buffalo wings towards him. Nico picks one, examines it for a bit, and bites into it, red sauce in the corner of his mouth. The self-control Will had to muster to not lean down and lick the sauce from him. They already kissed once, two months ago before Will left the camp, just a short, chaste kiss on the lips. They haven’t discussed anything yet since then and Will is dying to risk everything right now to do it again.
“Mm, it’s good. I like the little tang,” Nico licks the tips of his fingers quickly and finishes the wing in record time. Will’s friends are all impressed. Nico eats three more before declaring he’s full.
“I ate with Hazel and Frank before I got here,”
Hazel and Frank are in California.
“Dude, aren’t they in California?!“ Cecil exclaims.
“No, I, er… yeah. I got here a few hours ago,” Nico smiles awkwardly with all teeth, his gaze bouncing back and forth on Will’s friends. Will kicked Cecil under the table. Cecil makes a face realizing what he just asked.
Kayla, may the gods bless her incredible timing, slams the small buckets with sixteen beers in them on the table, startling everyone. “Let’s party!!!!!” she squeals and everybody cheers again. Will opens the beers and hands them to everyone, including Austin on stage who just won’t stop performing with the live band like he’s a part of them. So far, he’s played the fiddle (playing a few songs that suspiciously sounds like an Irish folk song), the drum solo scenes of Whiplash (one patron screamed ‘not my fucking tempo’, Austin laughed so hard he stopped playing), convinced the band to play Train’s Soul Sister, and before Nico came he busted out his saxophone and pleaded for them to play Lady Gaga’s Edge of Glory so he could show off his genius. Everybody applauded after his solo.
They finish the first bucket in no time, and Alyssa (one of his friends) starts opening up beers and distributing them to everyone. She slides one to Nico but he declines, pointing at his still-full drink. She shrugs and drinks it herself.
“You don’t drink?” Will asks. He’s not shaming him or anything for not drinking, just genuinely curious.
“I do. I just, uh, do it by myself,”
“Why? Don’t worry, we can Uber back home or we can crash at Cecil and Austin’s hotel room,”
“It’s not that. I was told I’m an embarrassing drunk,”
Will blows a raspberry. “That’s nonsense. Unless you smear your face in dog shit when you’re drunk, you’re not embarrassing. Trust me, I know someone who smeared his face with dog shit once. We never lived it down until now,”
Nico considers for a moment, then finally drinks.
“Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! Happy birthday to me!” Will clinks his bottle on Nico’s.
“I said, excuse me you're a hell of a guy I mean my, my, my, my you're like pelican fly
I mean, you're so shy and I'm loving your tie You're like slicker than the guy with the thing on his eye, oh”
Kayla bats her eyes at the crowd, pointing at some guy then to the boys behind him.
“Yes, I did, yes, I did Somebody please tell him who the eff I is I am Nicki Minaj, I mack them dudes up Back coupes up and chuck the deuce up” Cecil and Nico scream at the microphone between them, pointing at themselves in the ‘I am Nicki Minaj’ part.
The three sing, in the loosest sense of the word, the chorus with Will’s other friends. Kayla passes the microphone to Austin.
Will is having the best time; It’s his birthday, his friends from both of his worlds are here, Nico is finally hanging out with his friends, and most importantly, Nico is here and he’s a freaking lightweight. He literally had two beers and is nursing his third one. Will’s not drunk (plus he never drank that much), Kayla is acting drunk but he guesses she’s just delighted she’s with comfortable company to be feeling silly. Austin, though also difficult to get drunk on normal occasions, might be feeling a little tipsy since the band has been giving him drinks the whole night when he was playing with them. The band went home two hours ago so the only entertainment the patrons have now is his friends. Cecil is drunk, no question about that.
Nico and Cecil have their arms on each other’s shoulders, jumping up and down with beers in their hands like a bunch of frat boys at a party. When Austin’s had enough, he gave the microphone to Nico so now both men have a microphone of their own.
“Excuse me, you're a hell of a guy you know I really got a thing for American guys
I mean, sigh, sickenin' eyes I can tell that you're in touch with your feminine side, uh”
Nico holds his gaze and then turns again to Cecil as they belt out the chorus.
Kayla picks a Beyonce song when the song is over. Will recognizes it as the one that gets higher as the song ends.
This is the first time Will has seen Nico have this much fun. Smile never leaves his face and he’s always scream-laughing with Cecil. Makes him kinda wish it was him who was there and not Cecil. He shakes his head, dismissing the idea. If he wants to be there he can just be there. He takes his drink with him and heads to his friends, it’s his birthday after all.
“Hey,” he leans in close to Nico and shouts it in his ear. Nico turns to him immediately, beams, and wraps his arms around Will’s neck, the condensation of Nico’s drink wetting the back of his neck. His face is red, and sweat is making his bangs clump together.
“Happy birthday!” Nico screams back and plants a hard kiss on Will’s lips. He lets Will go and immediately leaves to find Cecil and his new friends as they help Kayla sing the high parts of the song.
The kiss was brief, the kiss was ten minutes long. His lips felt soft, his lips felt chapped. It was the most romantic thing that happened to him. It was the weirdest event in his life. Will wants to do it again.
He does nothing, of course. He goes to the bar and asks for two bottles of water. He opens one and finishes the drink in five gulps. He squeezes through the throng of people until he finds Nico. Nico gives him the beer without protest and drinks the water even faster. He goes back to their empty booth and opens Nico’s gift; a new medical bag. Will remembers mentioning it in passing almost six months ago when Nico was in the infirmary. He wasn’t even talking to Nico that time, it was Gracie.
Goddammit, he really is in love with Nico di Angelo.
Will turns his attention to his friends in the middle near the TV, more specifically to Nico who has another beer bottle in his hands. Will laughs, Nico is surely going to have a bitch of a headache tomorrow. He will be there, though. Hell, he might never even leave his side ever again.