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Hazel, Nico had decided, was far too smug right about now.
“Never thought I’d see the day that Nico di Angelo cared so much about whether his tie was done up right,” she teased from her spot on his bed, laying on her stomach and idly kicking her legs. Her chin rested upon her wrists. “One might almost think he was a little …” Her eyes narrowed, a sly smirk played upon her lips. “Smitten.”
Nico turned to level his half-sister with a scowl. “Maybe you ought to take a picture,” he groused. “Since you’ve said that exact thing three times already.”
“I’m thinking about it!” she chirped, entirely unperturbed.
He grumbled under his breath. Hazel was far too bright and cheery in the morning. Much like another lovable pain in the ass in his life. “So?”
“So what?”
Nico rolled his eyes. “So, what’s your point? Maybe I just got tired of Professor Chiron taking points.”
Hazel hummed and then shook her head. “Nope!” she replied, popping her lips. “That might work on someone else, but I know your tells. Including the way your lips twitch when you see Headmaster Dionysus rolling his eyes.”
“Fine. I’m hoping to see if I can make him worried I’m planning something.”
“Except, you never pull pranks on teachers. Ever.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. Percy, Jason, and I got Poseidon.”
She laughed. “Poseidon doesn’t count. He was here as a fill in while Professor Ares was called up to deal with that Hitwizard. Plus, he’s more of a troublemaker than Percy is sometimes.” Hazel shot him another smile far too smug for his liking. “Next!”
Nico exhaled a slow breath through his nose as he put on his robes, the deep green underside fluttering about his ankles. “Don’t you have a boyfriend to cuddle?”
“I sure do! You might know him—tall, pretty fit, with the personality of a teddy bear?”
“I literally introduced you two.” Nico shot her a glare. “So why don’t you go pester him instead of me?”
“Oh, I plan to.” Hazel hopped off the bed and skipped—gods, she actually skipped!—over to him, standing on tiptoe so she could him in a hug from behind and rest her chin upon his shoulder. Her eyes glittered with mirth. “I’m just trying to find out if you do!”
Nico hesitated, a mistake he realized too late. “If I’m going to pester Frank?” he asked, innocently as he could manage.
Hazel prodded his sides. “No, smart mouth.” Her eyes flashed dangerously. “I’m trying to find out if you have a boyfriend to pester now. Or, rather …” She smirked, leaning in to whisper in his ear, “Confirm it.”
Cursing internally, Nico did his level best to keep his expression neutral, but couldn’t help the slightest hint of a blush. “I’ll confirm that you’re a pain in the ass,” he said.
“Cute. But that doesn’t explain why you’re checking your robes for dog hair when we’ve not brought our things home since start of first term?”
Nico pressed his lips into a thin line. “Because I had Care of Magical Creatures yesterday,” he lied.
In the mirror, he saw Hazel’s smirk sharpen. She turned to press a kiss against his cheek and trilled, “Bu-giar-do!”
Not for the first time did he regret that his father and Persephone insisted upon teaching her Italian. Yes, of course, it wouldn’t be fair for Hazel to be the only one who couldn’t speak the language—gods, imagine being someone’s half-sibling and having to fret that your older brother was talking bad about you right in front of your face. And that, when you were the scandal of pureblood society as it was.
Evidently, Hades remarrying multiple times—marrying Persephone while young hadn’t worked out, and then they got back together after she helped him pick up the pieces when his subsequent wives, two dear friends of hers, passed tragically—had been fine. But the fact that one had been to a muggle-born and produced not only a half-blood child, but one of … “otherwise mixed” parentage.
Yeah. Delightful people.
Nico gave himself a little kick for even letting that line of thought enter his head. Fuck those dipshits.
“Mi stai uccidendo, sorellina,” he groaned.
“Lo sono? Dirò a Reyna di riportarti indietro.” She beamed and kissed his cheek again. “You haven’t gotten her permission to die.”
“I’ll blame you with my last breath.”
“It’s adorable you think that’ll make her spare you.”
That Nico couldn’t refute her point was a mite unsettling, but he wouldn’t let her see a hint. “I’m not telling you a thing,” he retorted, setting his jaw.
Hazel simply huffed and turned away with a flounce. “Fine! Be that way, then!”
Nico washed her stride toward the door, the clicking of her heels against the cool stone floor made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Hazel was many things. A sweetheart, above all else. A loving little sister, who would do just about anything for her brother, her boyfriend, and their friends.
But that didn’t mean she didn’t share a propensity for mischief herself.
Not that he had anything whatsoever to do with that. Not at all. Not even a little.
He could just imagine Bianca laughing herself silly at him, now.
As if she could hear his thoughts or sense his faltering resolve, Hazel lingered near the door and shot him a coy look. “Right before Christmas?” she posed. “You were practically floating. And I’ve never seen you so thrilled when you got to go visit his family before.”
Nico turned slowly, leveling her with a smirk. “Not even close.”
Her smile faded. “Fine, then!” she huffed. “I’ll just let Piper and Annie Beth have their way with you. Not to mention when Reyna finds out!”
His eyes widened. Oh, shit.
He’d completely forgotten about Reyna.
And Hazel, the conniving little brat that she was, leveled him with a wicked grin as she watched that realization play out on his face. “Unless, of course,” she mused. “You’d like to share with the class?”
Heck no. Nico wasn’t going to cave to her quite so easily.
If he was going down with his ship, then Nico would go down with it—defiantly raising two middle fingers as he did so.
“Do your worst,” Nico said with a smile. “I’ve already won.”
“A victory which will come at high cost,” Hazel vowed, her tone one of faux gravitas as she left him to finish his preparations.
And with his thoughts now centered on just how each of his friends would react.
He sighed and turned his gaze skyward. “Well, fuck me.”
***
Nico spent his trek from the dungeons to the Great Hall trying to think of how he could mitigate the coming disaster. So far, he’d come up entirely blank.
This was going to be a goddamn train wreck, and not even in the funny way.
Now, here, it was important to clarify that Nico wasn’t nearly as surly and grumpy as he liked to let the rest of the school think. Sure, he didn’t do particularly well at large, crowded events—Quidditch games were about all he would do, even then only because he wanted to support his friends. And yes, it was true that mornings were an utterly heinous time of day, regardless of what a certain handsome sunshine boyfriend of his said.
But still. He wasn’t so bad as people thought. Nico just liked to keep himself to his small circle. Anyone who joined it had earned their way in through mutual trust and respect.
Or, in Percy’s case, a rather embarrassing one-sided crush that ended in terribly awkward conversation two months after Bianca’s funeral. And a hug.
That’d been nice, actually.
Percy gave top tier hugs.
Anyway. Nico adored his friends. But that also meant that he knew just about everything there was to know about each of them. Including how each of them reacted when Nico decided to keep secrets … and then spilled them.
He came to a stop just outside the Great Hall, swallowing a lump in his throat. Normally, Reyna and Thalia wouldn’t care—unless it was something Thalia could needle him for, in which case, she would be throwing elbows and kicks with Percy and Jason to get to the front of that line. The older girls had been Bianca’s closest and dearest friends, and they still felt some urging to look after her “angioletto”.
And no, Thalia would never permit the nickname Maria and Bianca di Angelo had bestowed upon him to die. No matter how much of a little shit he was when it came time to prank everyone.
Percy, Leo, Frank ,and Jason … really, Nico didn’t have a prayer. Frank would just murmur his congratulations quietly, in private, and let things go. Leo would be incredibly Leo about everything, the older pair would catch him in a headlock, Percy might noogie him mercilessly and tease him for hiding things, and they’d wheedle a few things out of him and then turn him right over to the terrible trio for interrogation.
Thus, he arrived at the root of his dilemma.
Hazel on her own, he could deal with easily. Add in Annabeth, however …
And then add in Piper McLean …
Yeah. Piper wasn’t quite as bad as her half-siblings, but that was an incredibly low bar. She would never really play matchmaker like them. But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t become the embodiment of pure happiness, beaming a million-watt smile, and drag you off to tell her everything—well, everything you were comfortable sharing. Trying to resist that was a fool’s errand.
Right now, Nico found himself wondering if he should just go ahead and conjure himself a jester’s hat, bells and all.
So far, nothing had come to him. There wasn’t exactly a whole lot he could do to diffuse the situation unless he just … somehow managed to pre-empt their questioning. Easier said than done.
“Hey, guys! I’ve been dating Will Solace for a while,” he said to himself in a voice full of all the cheer and innocence of the nine-year-old boy he’d been when he’d first met several of them years ago. “Yeah, you know Will? Literal sunshine boy, handsome, and Texan drawl? Anyway, been about a year and a half now—crazy, right?”
Yeah. That’d go over like a lead balloon—gods, those damn sayings Will picked up from his muggle-born mother were starting to penetrate his thoughts now. But there was certainly a lot of truth to it.
How exactly was he going to weasel his way out of this one?
With a sigh, Nico resigned himself to his fate and drew in a deep breath to steady himself. He’d more than made his bed, now it was time to lay in it. But then, just as he’d readied to enter, Nico heard a familiar sound.
That laugh, so full of warmth, even at this ungodly hour, sent pleasant shivers down his spine. A smile already spreading across his features, Nico turned to face the direction of the kitchens, toward the Hufflepuffs’ common room to find Lou Ellen Blackstone and Cecil Markowitz holding hands and laughing, the brilliant yellow of Hufflepuff vibrant against the cold gray stone. And by their side, like a miniature sun personified, was Will Solace.
If anyone else said that they fell in love all over again whenever they saw their partner, Nico almost surely would’ve had a quip ready with one of his patented wry smiles that never failed to make them seethe. If anyone ever thought to return the favor, Nico would almost surely kick them in the groin. Hard.
All that is to say that Leo had better be wearing a cup when he surely opened his mouth.
He stood taller than his friends, though a bit more lanky than muscular, with blonde hair that glowed when the sunlight hit just right and eyes as blue as a cloudless sky. And when he smiled?
Gods. Nico wasn’t sure whether it was the way his cheeks dimpled or the dusting of freckles across his nose and cheeks just seemed to light up, but he found himself compelled to kiss them ‘till Will couldn’t do anything more than laugh.
Just then, Will’s eyes found his. Nico felt like he could fly without a broom.
Will crossed the distance between them and swept Nico into a tight hug, the young Italian boy beaming as he buried his face in his boyfriend’s chest. Their typical ritual when out of sight.
Which might just explain the surprised gasp Will gave. “N-Nico?” he sputtered, his Texan drawl sounding odd with the slight hitching in his voice.
“Gonna need to talk real quick,” Nico said, humming contentedly at his position. Will’s hugs were always so warm. “Hazel’s kinda … forcing the issue.”
“The issue?”
Nico could hear the way Will arched his brow and smirked in his tone. He drew back and glared petulantly at his boyfriend. “You. You are the issue. You, Will Solace, sit atop the pinnacle of issues which constitute my life.”
That earned a sunny grin. “Aww, ain’t he jes’ the sweetest?” Will crooned to his friends. He reached up and mussed up Nico’s hair, and took the retaliatory swat with a laugh. “It’s so nice to know I mean that much, darlin’.”
“Shut up. You barely rate higher than Valdez.”
“So, was that rumor ya had a lil’ thang for him true?”
Will took the second, sharper swat with a playful smile. “Yeah, I deserved that one.”
“No kidding.” Nico released his embrace and let his hands slide down Will’s shoulders to his chest, lingering a moment. His thumbs began to brush, idly, against the gold trimmed edges of his boyfriend’s robes. “S-So … can we, uh, talk real quick?”
The smile faded from Will’s face. “Everything okay?”
“Huh—oh! Yeah. Everything’s good. Just, uh, need to prep you for something that might get … hectic.”
Humming, Will turned to his friends and offered a slight smile. “Y’all go ahead. I’ll catch up inna bit.”
“Sure, thang,” Cecil replied, mimicking his friend’s drawl. “You want us to save you a seat or are you two about to lob a dungbomb into the mix?”
“Uhhhh, well.” Will glanced at Nico for a moment, his brows raised slightly. “Imma haveta go with the second one there, Cecil.”
This time, it was Lou Ellen’s turn to huff a laugh. “Hoo boy! Fun times ahead!” With a wink, she tugged Cecil onward, into the Great Hall so they could find their seats and enjoy their breakfast.
And, no doubt, whatever show was sure to come.
Will drew Nico in close, wrapping him in another hug. “Talk to me, Sunshine. What’samatter?”
Nico gave him a hesitant smile. The whole secret relationship thing hadn’t necessarily been on purpose, but neither really cared to make a big deal of things in front of their friends, let alone the school. Personally, he liked how Will and his mother took it—they were together, and that was all that really mattered.
The only reason he liked to drag it out, really, was because, honestly, it was funny to watch Hazel and Piper react. And, Annabeth, lately, had definitely been a source of amusement now that she’d gotten all invested. For both of them, as a matter of fact.
Boy, were those chickens coming home to roost—gods-damn it all, another one!
“So, uh,” Nico began. “Y’know how it’s been fun playing dumb with my sister and friends?”
“Certainly gives my life a lil’ excitement,” came his reply, coupled with a lazy smile. “What about it?”
“Wellll … my sister mayyyyy be pressing a bit more.” Nico fidgeted in Will’s arms as a heat arose in his cheeks. “Sooooo … y-yeah. We’re, uh, gonna have to deal with that—oh, shut up!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, that lazy smile bloomed into a full-blown grin. The sort that Nico knew would come with no shortage of teasings and “I told you so’s”, some more well-deserved than others.
And this one, Nico knew, was so well-deserved Will could just hardly stand to wait any longer.
Quick as a cat, Nico clamped a hand over Will’s mouth and said, “If you will hold off rubbing this in my face like I know you want to, I will sit quietly while you lecture me about health whatever for an hour.”
Will blinked. Nico felt his lips pull into a smirk as he gently tugged Nico’s hand away from his lips. “And you’ll pay attention?” Will asked.
Nico groaned. “I’ll even take notes.”
“A’ight. Stay of execution it is then.” Will gave him a wink and a kiss upon his forehead. Then, he slid his hand down Nico’s arm and interlaced their fingers together. “So, how d’ya wanna handle this, then?”
“I …” Nico shook his head as he turned to walk toward the Great Hall. He felt pleasant shivers running up and down his arm like tickling charm right beneath his skin. “I don’t really know.”
“Well, better figure it out,” Will muttered. “‘Cuz we’re about to be in full view, Sunshine.”
“Look, I have literally no idea right now. So, I’m taking suggestions.”
Humming, Will led him into the Great Hall, still holding his hand, still with a slight smirk upon his features as the first students noticed them and let out gasps, and began to whisper. Nico could’ve sworn he saw the Stoll twins turn to several others at the Hufflepuff table and hold out their hands before a flash of coins confirmed his suspicions.
Gods. They’d bet on his relationship with Will?
As if sensing his embarrassment, Will gave his hand a squeeze and one of those bright, sunny smiles that made his insides melt. Then, Nico saw them.
His sister and all their friends were there, all seated in a cluster at the Ravenclaw table today in open defiance of the seating norms. Nico saw Percy glance over, those green eyes of his widening and a grin spreading across his features as he elbowed Jason and pointed in their direction. Which, naturally, got everyone else in the group to look over.
Nico was reminded of one of those Japanese shows Will convinced him to watch over Christmas Break. The main character would walk in, with their new boyfriend or girlfriend or after having just spoken to them on the phone, and their best friend would be there with the rest of the cast, leading them like a pack of wolves with eyes gleaming, waiting to interrogate them. Then, Nico realized why and shot Will a flat glare.
They were still holding hands.
And, so, Nico found himself in that main character position.
“So,” Will mused. “Still takin’ suggestions, Sunshine?”
“You mean now that you’ve made us the center of attention?” Nico hissed.
“Think of it as my way of gettin’ ya, too. Don’t gimme that look. I just went along with ya ‘cuz it sounded funny. I wanted to tell ‘em the start of the year.” With a teasing wink, he tugged Nico closer and turned so they were facing one another again, catching him in a loose embrace. “Way I figure it, after this, we got two options—first, we run ’n hide in the kitchens. Lou ’n Cecil won’t sell us out, but we’re done once Piper catches us later.”
Doing his level best to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks at the attention they were attracting, Nico crossed his arms over his chest. “And the other one? Also, ‘this’? What do you mean ‘this?’”
“The other way,” Will continued, “is that we go sit down right next to ‘em, act like nothin’ happened, and watch your sister ’n Piper short-circuit.”
That part, Nico definitely liked. A quick glance at the pair nearly made him laugh at how he could see Piper and Hazel gawking openly, matching grins slowly spreading across their features while Annabeth studied them with her piercing gray eyes and a hint of a smirk.
Nico felt Will’s hands slide up to cup his cheeks, drawing his attention back just in time to shoot him a questioning look before Will gave him one of those brilliant smiles, and then kissed him.
The blush bled from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. Nico gave a surprised squeak, tensing for a second before he relaxed and seemed almost to melt into the kiss, his eyes fluttering as he let out a deep, contented sigh through his nose. His hands slid up to Will’s chest again, lingering a moment before he wrapped his arms around the taller boy’s neck and turned his head to the side just slightly enough to deepen the kiss.
When at last they parted, Nico found himself left gasping for breath. His eyes were wide and face flushed a bright pink. He licked his lips and said, “I’m guessing … I’m guessing that’s what you meant by ‘after this?’”
Will’s shameless grin could’ve been answer enough. “Yup,” he replied. “So. We runnin’ or we playin’ dumb s’more?”
Nico stole a quick glance at the table. “Well, Piper looks like she’s vibrating and might explode either way …” Slowly, a wicked grin spread across his features. “Honestly? I’d rather ask my boyfriend if he’d like to go to the kitchens and have breakfast alone, damn the consequences.”
Will pecked his lips. “Darlin’, I thought you’d never ask!”
The pair plastered their most innocent smiles upon their faces and turned to walk out of the Great Hall, their fingers interlaced and Will’s thumb tracing gentle circles around Nico’s knuckles. As soon as they were through the doors, they broke into a dead sprint, laughing as they hurried to make their escape before their friends could catch them.