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It’ll be fun, Will had said, with that adorable little smile on his face. Of course Nico had said yes, like he could ever deny Will anything; which is how he found himself coughing in a dusty attic, portable film camera in hand, regretting everything.
Really, Nico dug his own grave here (metaphorically, of course; his actual grave was dug by a man named Greg about seventy years ago). When he'd overheard Will and Will's friend Cecil talking about making a ghost hunting show a month ago, and Will'd asked for his opinion on the supernatural, he'd panicked and said that he didn't believe in any of it. Despite the fact that Nico was a demon, red pointy horns and all. And then Cecil had to drop out of the project, and Will had shown up on Nico's doorstep at two am panicking, and again, Nico was weak and horribly infatuated. How was he supposed to say no?
So here he was, getting gayer by the second, watching as Will eagerly recounted the gruesome history of this supposedly haunted house, his blonde hair perfectly fluffy and his perfectly straight teeth toothpaste-commercial white. Nico was aware that he didn't stand a chance with the perfect male specimen in front of him, even if Nico wasn't a demon, but that didn't mean he couldn't dream. He could ignore the awful musty smell of the attic with Will there, and suddenly, watching Will's smile, he understood why he agreed to come in the first place.
"They say the youngest daughter, Sally Alamo, sometimes appears in the attic, so we're going to try to contact her using this device!" Will announced to the camera, pulling a small black box out of his pocket.
"What is that?" Nico asked. As a rule of thumb, demons (and ghosts) weren't supposed to reveal themselves to regular humans. It was against the code or whatever that Nico was supposed to memorized before being deployed to Earth to steal human souls (to be honest, he's only here for the McDonalds. And the view isn't too bad either).
"It's called a spirit box! I got it for like thirty bucks on Amazon, it's supposed to scan like radio signals in a way that lets ghosts communicate with us."
"Sounds like a scam." Ghosts weren't radios, they were dead humans' souls. Big difference. Besides, most 'ghost hunting technology' was fake. How were ghosts supposed to show up on thermal cameras when they don't have any body heat?
"You're a skeptic, di Angelo, you think everything is a scam," Will replied, in a fond tone of voice that sent Nico's heart beating slightly faster. "Are you ready?"
"Ready to leave? Always."
Will snorted, hiding his laughter, before clearing his throat and turning on the spirit box with a flourish. And, damn, Nico wasn't expecting the spirit box to be this annoying. The unrelenting harsh, static-y noise filled the tiny attic, giving Nico a headache. He resisted the urge to rip the stupid box out of Will's hands and stomp it to death.
"Is anyone here with us right now?" Will asked, raising his voice over the harsh sounds of the spirit box.
Of course not, Nico thought, rolling his eyes. He'd know if this Sally chick was here. Hell, his general aura probably scared her off.
The spirit box let out a half-hearted attempt at making words. Will perked up, though, eyes widening.
"That sounded like a word!" Will stage-whispered, shoving the spirit box towards Nico. "You heard that too, right?"
"I think you're just hearing what you want to hear," Nico replied, giving the stupid, annoying box an ugly look. He wished Will would turn it off already.
"No, I could've sworn I heard a 'course'. Let's try again!" Will said confidently. He cleared his throat again. "Who's here with us?"
Not Sally, that's for sure.
"Your name isn't Sally?" Will asked, blinking, surprised.
Nico froze. Um. That had to be a coincidence, right? For the spirit box to repeat his thoughts? Maybe he heard it wrong. Yeah, he probably did. Will glanced at Nico, smiling like a total dork. A cute dork, but a dork nonetheless.
"I think we're getting somewhere!" Will said, bouncing a little as he cradled the spirit box in his hands like it was a baby.
You're adorable.
Will stopped bouncing, a red flush slowly spreading over his cheeks. Fuck. Nico stopped, barely breathing, staring daggers at the spirit box. It was on thin ice. Nico hadn't given up the idea of stomping it to death.
"Um. Thank you?" Will squeaked. "Nico, the ghost is flirting with me."
"Yes, I can see that," he replied through gritted teeth. That stupid spirit box was going to go straight to the worst part of Hell. He was sure Hades would approve of it. He was not about to be outed by a stupid little radio box.
"What's your name?" Will asked.
I swear to god, if this stupid box doesn't shut up--
"Please don't threaten my spirit box, Mr. Ghost sir," Will replied, chuckling nervously.
Don't call me Ghost Boy.
Fuck. The thought slipped out on impulse. It was a stupid little nickname that Will gave him years ago, when Nico was in his full-emo mode, and he'd hated it. Then he started to think everything Will did was adorable, but the impulse still stuck. Will didn't even say the nickname and his stupid little gay brain decided to-- goddamnit. There was no denying it now.
"Um," Will said eloquently, and Nico could see the bright red of his cheeks even though the attic was barely lit. "I think that's enough out of the spirit box."
He turned it off, and dead silence settled over the attic. Nico was looking anywhere but Will, and he could feel Will's eyes burning a hole through his soul.
"So...Ghost Boy, when were you going to tell me?"
"Tell you what?" Nico asked stubbornly, kicking at the hardwood floor with his shoe. Stupid attic making him talk about his stupid feelings.
Will sighed. "Come on, I think it's pretty obvious. To be honest, I'm a little hurt you didn't tell me."
Nico huffed. Really? Will was going to get mad at him over hiding the fact he was a demon? "Of course I didn't tell you, it was against the rules. Besides, you would've run away screaming and I--"
Will snorted. "Oh, come on, Death Boy, I may be dramatic, but I'm not that dramatic. Besides, it's definitely mutual, so--"
Nico's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull. "You're a demon too?"
"What? No, I'm talking about the whole flirting thing!" Will replied.
It was Nico's turn to blush. "Oh. You like me too?"
"Duh. I don't bring just anyone along with me on ghost hunting adventures." Will grinned. "And I definitely caught myself a very nice demon."
Nico crossed his arms. "I'm breaking up with you for that."
"What? Oh, come on, we haven't even been on a date yet."
God, Will's laugh was gorgeous. Will was going to be the death of him, Nico could tell. But he definitely wouldn't mind. "Do you really not care about the demon thing?"
"Nope. I figured it out like a month and a half ago. I walked in on you watching Lucifer and complaining about how inaccurate it was. Plus you make repeated jokes about being older than Captain America...it was fairly obvious."
"I hate you. Let's go."
Will scrambled after Nico as Nico left the dusty attic. "Where are we going?" he asked excitedly.
Nico rolled his eyes. "I think McDonald's is still open."
"Why are we going to McDonald's."
"Because apparently we need to go on a date."
In hindsight, maybe the spirit box wasn't so bad, if it led to this.