Addi

“You are the ghost king, a voice said.

I am, Nico thought.

This is where you belong.

But then Nico raised his head. Looked at the other two passengers. Will, whose face was strained as he reached down with a shaking hand to grab at him.

Nico took it, gripped his boyfriend’s hand tight, and thought, No. This is where I belong.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star

“Hey, don’t do that.’ Will touched Nico’s face, stared into his dark eyes.
‘You survived. You continue to survive. You’ve been through more in your fifteen years than most people will endure in an entire lifetime.’
Nico looked away, but Will knew this grumpy ball of darkness – his grumpy ball of darkness – and he refused to let Nico off the hook.
‘I don’t always understand you, Nico,’ he said, ‘but I do know that you’re resilient. And in that sense you are just like this garden.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star

“Will had kissed Nico for the first time in a moment of impulsiveness, something Nico didn’t know Will had in him. The kiss had been just like this one, short and sweet.
Then Will had pulled away, worry on his face, an apology tumbling from his lips.
Nico had stopped him. Then kissed him back.
In a moment so full of grief and rage and sadness, Will had given him …
Light.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star

“You did,’ confirmed Nico. ‘But it was the way you did it. You made it clear that you wanted me around. You said you wanted me to come to the infirmary and help, because … because you could use a “friendly face”.’
‘It was true. And you did help.’
‘You brought me closer instead of rejecting me,’ Nico said, his voice cracking. ‘I’d never been called a friendly face. Ever. You made me rethink everything – my place in camp, my crush on Percy, my future. It took you scolding me like you were the camp director to make me realize that I was … wanted.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sun and the Star