#nerd nico di Angelo

[thefuzzzz]

Jasico Bingo Challenge #18!!

Prompt: College AU

New Rome University was rather boring, in Nico's opinion. When he took up a job at the campus library, the Library of Alexander, he was trying to find something to make class less boring. That was certainly going to happen, just not in the way he expected.

Nico rearranged books all day. The nerdy kid in him who always spent far too much time in the library loved the job. His fear of heights and the giant library ladder did not.

Luckily, the gods-awful ladder couldn't bug him when all he did all day was rearrange books students often checked out--IE not the ones they all had to use the hated ladder for--and write his book recommendation blog.

He occasionally got questions from students who weren't quite as adept at the Dewey decimal system as him, and he'd briefly leave his book cart to help them. So, it was no surprise when his rearranging was halted by a student walking over.

It was, however, a surprise when the person stopping by was the one and only student Nico had a crush on, his lab partner Jason Grace.

Jason smiled at him as Nico looked over. "Hey, Nico. I didn't know you worked here." Jason smiled, the same smile that always managed to make Nico's face red. "Yeah, I usually work in the morning. There was just an open shift this afternoon and I took it." Nico mumbled, now acutely aware of his messy hair and the clips and claw clip in it. Jason's voice dragged him back to reality. "Do you know if this library has The Great Gatsby?"

Nico nodded, pulling out his phone to go on the library's website and see if it was checked out or not.

"I know we have it, I read it a few days ago. I'm not sure if it's checked out, though," Nico mumbled. He looked it up and found that it was checked out. "Ah, sorry. Looks like it's checked out."

Nico looked up at Jason, who clicked his tongue and thought about what his next step was. Nico felt bad. Usually, he'd leave people to their own devices by now, but Jason was different for some reason.

"Was it for a book report or something specific to that book?" Nico asked, avoiding eye contact. "It's just for a book report." "There's a book I like that's pretty similar. It's also about some rich guy who has a tragic life." Jason laughed. "What is it?" "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

Jason let Nico show him where the book was and took it with a smile. "Thanks, man," he said, giving Nico a pat on the back that almost knocked him over. "See you in lab tomorrow."

"See you," Nico mumbled, genuinely considering climbing to the top of the library ladder and jumping off at the thought of having to do a lab tomorrow.

The next day, after practically dragging himself to the laboratory on campus, Nico took his seat next to Jason.

"Hey," Jason greeted, smiling as always. Nico was slightly less chipper but made an effort to smile for Jason. "Hey, man."

A few seconds of silence passed. Nico tried not to look at Jason. He listened to the lab instructor intently.

After the instructor talked, everyone got to work on the project. Nico, a violent hater of chemistry in all forms, let Jason do his thing and gave occasional help when needed. 

"I'm enjoying that book, by the way," Jason said, still maintaining focus on the project while he had his beloved small talk. "I'm glad," Nico tried to smile back, "it's one of my favorites." "Is it now?"

Nico tried not to implode at the sound of Jason's voice and just nodded, hiding a blush behind the mop that was his hair when it wasn't tied up. He wrote something down on their lab sheets, mostly just to keep himself busy. 

"Maybe you can explain something to me, then," Jason said, a hint of question in his tone, something Nico was embarrassed he noticed. "Sure, I love that book." "What's the importance of Syble Vane's character? I'm only on page fifty, but I just don't get her." Nico chewed his lip before answering, "You have to read more to find out, she gets more important later."

Jason didn't seem satisfied with this response, but he was too enraptured in the project to fully explain his question yet. Nico took the opportunity to look him over, admiring details he hadn't yet noticed, which were few and far between.

"I mean," Jason clarified, "why does she exist?" Nico thought about that. "Well, for where you are, she's Dorian's first love. She's the one who makes him realize he's not the only important person alive. She breaks him out of his obsession with himself, if only for a second."  Jason laughed lightly. "Write that down, I'm stealing that for my book report."

Nico smiled a real smile. "I could be way off, that's just how I interpreted it." "Do you read a lot? Or is working at the library just a convenience?" Jason asked.

Nico felt oddly flustered. Jason managed to have that effect. It really felt like the things he asked weren't just small talk, but a true care for people. Nico convinced himself it was all chatter, and swallowed any fluster still left within him.

"I read a lot. I always have," Nico said, shrugging. "I might have to start getting all my book recommendations from you," Jason smiled.

Nico was flustered, once again.

At the end of class, Nico wished they could talk just a little more. However, he resigned to the cruelty of labs and walked back to his dorm, unable to shake the semi-compliment from Jason that was now infecting all his thoughts. Nico went back to his dorm, worked on his book blog, and fell asleep with Jason's voice swarming in his thoughts.

A few weeks later, Jason came practically running into the library at seven in the morning. Nico had been chatting with Clovis, who worked the book check counter. He looked over at Jason curiously, wondering what book-related drama was so important it needed to take place at such an unreasonable hour of the morning.

"Are you GhostReader?!" Jason practically yelled, making Clovis point at the sign telling everyone to quiet down. "I-uh-" Nico fumbles. "How on earth did you find that blog?" His cheeks turned red. Suddenly, that horrible ladder didn't look so bad.

Clovis took this as his sign to suddenly have something to do in the other room and stood to meander through the doorway to the back.

"I've used that blog for my book reports since I was a freshman here!" Jason said. "I've been plagiarizing your work since I even knew what a blog was." Nico laughed, "Well, I'm glad you liked it, I guess?"  "Are you kidding? I love everything you write!"

Nico smiled, and just as quickly as he had entered, Jason left. he said something about having a class to get to, but Nico wasn't paying attention. It was hard to hear him over Nico's heartbeat in his ears.

Clovis walked out from the back room once Jason had left. "So, when's the wedding?" "Shut up." 

For the next week or so, Nico and Jason discussed books regularly. While Nico's mental library was quite a bit larger, they still had some points of conversation.

One morning, months later, Nico sat at the counter beside Clovis, on break. He looked up when Clovis elbowed him, snickering.

Jason walked in, face red, and sat a to-go cup down on the counter before turning and silently leaving. Nico picked it up and examined black Sharpie written on the side of the cup in messy, panicked handwriting.

"A tea for all the help you've given me on my book reports (P.S. I think you're really cute)"

Beneath the writing was a phone number. Nico felt his face grow hot immediately, a small smile overtaking him.

Clovis leaned over Nico's shoulder to read the messy Sharpie. "Nice. How's the tea taste, loverboy?" Nico took a sip before laughing. "It's so awful." "At least you got his number."

This is also on AO3:

My card:

[ace-writer-lani]

Headcanon Will would totally initiate random lightsaber fights

Like he would attack his siblings all the time just...out of nowhere (it's the ADHD).

Kayla would roll her eyes and threaten to snap the saber in half.

Austin would play along and fall to the floor and dramatically die.

But the first person to actually fight back was Nico, who secretly has his own lightsaber hidden in the shadows. And he would disarm Will in some sort of fancy move that would leave Will stuttering and blushing because it was hot.

(Fastest way to get to Will's heart is with a lightsaber)

Sort of part two: here

[mediumgayitalian]

“Happy birthday!”

“Still not my birthday, Solace.”

“Eh. One day I’ll say it and it’ll be right.”

The flowers he’s holding — pretty, ruffled deep red, although Nico doesn’t recognise them — remains extended between them, clutched fist unwavering. Nico rolls his eyes, biting the inside of his cheek, and takes them.

“Of course, you could also just tell me when your birthday is.”

“No.” A pause. He brings the flowers up to his face, pointedly ignoring Will’s wink, and inhales. They smell almost identical to the shampoo Will wears. “You’re such a loser.”

“And yet you spend all your time with me.”

“Not — all,” Nico protests, cheeks burning. “I spend —”

Time with others, he was about to say, and while it is indeed true that he does, in fact, socialize with more than one person, he realises with startling clarity that Will is almost always there.

Will grins, wide and cheeky and knowing. “Having some thoughts, there, Neeks.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Will gasps dramatically, and when that is not enough he holds up a hand, digs a string of plastic pearls out from his many pockets, clasps them around his neck, clears his throat, and gasps even more dramatically, clutching said pearls.

Nico laughs.

Unfortunately.

But he chokes it back last minute and turns it into a weird horse noise instead, so he’s victorious, basically.

“How dare,” says Will, indeed dramatically, “how dare, di Angelo, deride me, your closest friend, in such a way —”

Nico deliberates his options. Should Will have the space unimpeded to continue on than he shall do so, with increasing gusto. At the six minute mark he will graduate to elevating himself on whatever surface makes itself available, from an infirmary stool to An Actual Roof, and project his voice to make sure that everyone suffers his Elizabethan histrionics, not just Nico (or Kayla or Austin or Lou especially Cecil or Mitchell or Piper or or or or). At the nine minute mark he will be accompanied, magically, by intense background music, because Apollo deserves all of his trauma. Nico doesn’t know what the ten minute mark will bring, but frankly he’d rather walk on hot coals with open sores on his feet than find out, so.

“— good friends, sweet friends, from this group I hail, and to such a sudden flood of mutiny! To bend to the leadborn suffering —”

When Nico gestures he is graceful, obviously. And poised. When Will gestures he narrowly avoids smacking himself square in the face nine times out of ten, and sometimes, like now, he actually does smack himself in the face, but for some reason this does not deter or embarrass him. Perhaps because he, like most Apollo children, does not actually have the part of his brain that produces shame, and such gleeful shamelessness shows in his devastatingly wide eyes. Which are, Nico notices, beginning searching for the nearest climbable surface.

Ah. Level one has been exceeded.

“Hide not thy poison with such sugar’s words —”

Drastic times, drastic measures; in time of theatre kid, regress to caveman instincts. Et cetera. Nico knows the drill. He’s a twice-adorned war hero. He understands sacrifice. He understands betrayal. He knows timing, knows difficulty. He knows the burden of doing the right thing to prevent further tragedy.

He sets his flowers delicately on the ground beside him, ties his hair back out of his face, does a couple stretches, exhales peacefully, and tackles Will to the floor.

“Shut up,” he grunts, over Will’s screeching. Will, predictably, does not shut up, moaning instead about his spleen, his spine, pausing to yell, loudly, et tu, Brutus?!, moaning about his kidneys, and then once again wallowing about Brutus and betrayal.

“Someone should take away your Riverside,” Nico says solemnly, pinching Will on the arm one last time for good measure before crawling off him.

Will remains on the floor, arm thrown over his eyes. “I would sooner live without the lungs in my chest.”

“It’s gonna be me. I’m taking away your Riverside.”

Will lifts his arm, searching to meet Nico’s eyes before pouting. It is a remarkably well-planned strategy, because he has very pretty eyes, and Nico is a flaming homosexual who is openly weak to Will’s wiles. Will, who is a shit and judging by the smirk he is barely fighting back in favour of a quivering lip, knows this.

“Don’t you love me?”

“No,” Nico lies. He forces himself away from Will’s gaze, ears burning. “Go away, you walking annoyance. I never want to see you or anything about you ever again.” He scoops up his flowers and stomps off, smiling as Will cackles.

He carries around the flowers for the rest of the day.

[onlythestar]

they missed the chance to do the funniest thing in tsats and have Will call Nico “DEATH STAR” – LIKE CMON IT'S RIGHT THERE

[aroaceleovaldez]

Jason, Reyna, and Nico have one billion in-jokes about Mediterranean history between the bronze age to the renaissance that they find absolutely hilarious and no one else understands in the slightest. i know this in my heart to be true.

[g0thnico]

I haven't slept in a few days, I'm tired, a little irritable and under the influence of caffeine, but: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! I hope you can achieve your goals and that 2024 will be a better year than 2023🌟🌟🌟

[batcavescolony]

Nico Di Angelo was born around 1932. the beginning of WW2 was 1939, this is probably about when he came to the USA. Do you know what else happened in 1939? Detective Comics #27, now you're probably wondering 'batcaves why does this random comic matter?' It's matters because that comic is the introduction of Detective Comics newest story, following the adventures of 'The Bat-Man'. It is fully possible for 7 year old Nico DiAngelo to have read the first few issues of Batman comics, do with this what you will.

[lierenprotectionsquad]

I regret going into the tsats tag because I was hoping to see a bunch of gay nerds nerding out over the Solangelo book, but instead I mainly saw trash takes, hate and blatant misunderstanding of literally everything that happened in the book.

[yonemurishiroku]

Nobody told me we have snow under the sea that's made up of  organic debris from the upper waters. And what am I supposed to do with this new inspiration? Write a Percico one shot? Wth?

[ineffablejaymee]

oof im rereading the titans curse and

ouch

i forgot how happy, and excited and 10 years old Nico was

he was just a boy, a child, and he lost everything

he felt so alone and abandoned he turnet to monsters for guidance, no wonder he was so easily manipulated

everywhere he went he was treated as an outcast, even percy and annabeth acted shifty around him

tbh noone besides hazel treates him like a normal person until jason

oh and if that wasnt enough on this c h i l d s plate, he was struggiling hlwith his sexuality after he was ripped from time for decades, and was raised in 1930' Italy

edit: i forgot abiut that funny moment where all of the 7 was discussing whether it was worth saving him from certain death

great work you guys i love the effort

10/10

[demideific]

Yall are excited for Will and his Stars Wars references(absolutely as you should), but also please do consider the absolute amazing addition of Nico geeking out over Spiderman.

I need that in my life, I've been obsessing over it since he said,

“With great power... comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”

ABSOLUTE Spidey nerd, please let me have this–!!

[squarecloud73]

*I worship you Tumblr don’t remove it

He has grown so much🥹

[ace-writer-lani]

Headcanon Will isn't as bad with a sword as people think

(This is a slight parallel to this post.)

Everyone knows Will is shit at archery, and people think that lack of skill applies to all weapons because he's the healer, right?

Wrong. Will is actually very dexterous, not to mention he grew up watching Star Wars over and over so obviously he learned all the Jedi lightsaber forms cause he's a nerd.

So yeah, he can do all the cool little spins and twists, but no one knows that because he only reveals his true inner Star Wars fanatic around the people closest to him.

One of those people is Nico (obviously) and Nico likes to drag him out of the infirmary to spar every once in a while because Will would kind of make the lightsaber sound effects whenever he swung his sword and Nico thinks it's absolutely adorable.

(It throws Nico off guard sometimes too as he can't really focus on the spar because he's too busy admiring how cute Will is.)

But all jokes aside, if there's a monster/enemy fight and Nico or his friends/family somehow get hurt, you best believe Will would pick up a fallen sword and go all Anakin Skywalker on them to protect his loved ones.

(Might incorporate this into Languages of Love by Solangelo)

Update: added lightsaber Will to this fic

[glassamphibians]

if we get to titans curse and nico isn’t absolutely disgustingly obnoxious im breaking into the set and taking matters into my own hands i need him to be so lame and loud and overeager and i need percy to be exhausted after every interaction they have

[percicosoftcore]

a reader shared a comment on my newest fic ‘on how angels come unbound’ on ao3 and their words are like ‘this changed my brain chemistry…’ AND ‘do you want to ruin me for others? because if so you’re achieving it…’ and YES i want to ruin you. not necessarily to be the person who does it (though i’m honored) but i want you ruined. this is exactly what percico is made to offer you. mutual affection severed by a miscommunication complex, sexual tension so tangible every word tightens itself around your throat and, of course, the promise of ruins crumpling under the eartshakers’ feet. ♡

[wild-flowerhoney]

to the ends of the earth (would you follow me?) - cabin13

Percy Jackson is twelve years old when he steps into the Lotus Hotel with Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood.

Five days later, they step back out – with two more children trailing after them.

Percy Jackson is twelve years old when he meets Nico di Angelo. His refusal to let go of his new friend is enough to change what had already been written. Permanently.

inspired by @g0thnico

(sorry, it took me far too long, i know!!)