Chapter Text
Toby looked at himself in the mirror, he was wearing a navy blue button down shirt underneath a dark brown blazer with a pair of well-tailored dress pants of the same shade of brown.
The polished black shoes Toby was wearing shined a little against his reflection, brand new, courtesy of Trender Man, one of Slender Man’s brothers, more on the fashion side of things instead of horror.
“Neat, the belt is a nice touch too.” Toby says, his face turning away from the large mirror to face Nico, his boyfriend.
It was a simple belt, a darker shade of brown with a silver buckle, dark enough to differentiate it from the blazer and dress pants.
Nico gives Toby a small, fond smile, giving him a little nod of agreement, watching as Toby moved a little far away from the mirror.
“You look stunning, c-c’mon look at yourself!” Toby says in an enthusiastic manner, the small stutter in his speech passing unnoticed.
Nico chuckles at Toby’s enthusiasm, moving closer to the mirror.
“Alright, if you say so, Toby.” Nico says fondly, eyeing his own appearance in the mirror.
He was wearing an all-black outfit, a black turtleneck underneath a long black coat, a pair of well-tailored black dress pants matched with a pair of polished black shoes.
There was a silver chain brooch with a miniature cross on the right side of Nico’s black coat, and a silver skull brooch on the left side of Nico’s coat, with a small silver necklace on top of the black turtleneck.
Amused, Toby watched as Nico’s silver jewelry shined, a contrast to the rest of his outfit, taking his attention towards Nico’s face, his hair was styled nicely, a bit more neat than usual.
Toby’s own hair was a little messier compared to Nico’s, but nonetheless neat-looking, the back of Toby’s brown hair was pulled up into a small bun, something different to how he usually does his hair on the regular.
“You okay? We aren’t going to be the only odd ones out, remember? Nat and Leo will be there too.” Toby tells Nico in a reassuring voice, noticing Nico’s sudden quietness.
Nico visibly deflates before he speaks up again, his voice a little lower this time.
“Yeah, I can just get us there by shadow travel in an instant, it’s just… I don’t know how they’ll react to you or Nat, and…” Nico tells Toby, a slight uneasiness in his voice as he trails off.
Toby’s expression immediately changes, “Hey, hey, Nico, don’t worry about those things, it’s a wedding and we’re the guests, they’ll just have to suck it up!”
This manages to make Nico let out a soft chuckle, Toby managing to relieve his mood to a more relaxed state.
“You dork.” Nico says, restraining a laugh as he looks up to see Toby’s giddy, goofy grin.
—— —— ——
Toby thinks back to the time his relationship with Nico hadn’t fully blossomed yet.
In this case, he means romantically, as they had been friends since months prior.
It’s dark out, already in the dead of night, when Toby gets up, and leaves his room in order to get a glass of water from the kitchen downstairs.
Toby’s walking down the hallway in order to get to the stairs when he hears muffled voices from one of the rooms.
Nico’s room.
Now, Toby wouldn’t consider himself a snitch, or an eavesdropper to say, but he was genuinely curious.
What was Nico doing? Sleep talking? Having a late night conversation with Ira? Casting a spooky spell?
Therefore, naturally Toby had discreetly placed himself against the locked door, intending to eavesdrop.
A sound of a phone ringing, Nico’s phone, Toby hears Nico utter some swear words in Italian, sounding both annoyed and stressed out.
Whoever is on the other side of the call picks up, it’s a guy, must be one of Nico’s old demigod friends, the guy speaks to Nico over the phone in thick southern accent, he sounds to be older than Nico, absolutely pissed.
Nico speaks to the guy, and Toby holds his breath.
“Listen, Solace, I mean- Will, listen to me, don’t berate me for not being at camp, you know how I feel about the other campers, and how they… think of me, you can’t make me not shadow travel elsewhere, I know how my own powers work…! Just, please listen to me, just this once.”
Toby’s eyes widen in the dark.
This is the guy Nico’s dating, huh? What the hell…? Toby feels concern, genuine concern wash all over his body.
The back and forth arguing between Nico and that guy, who now has a name, Will Solace, continues over the phone, even if Toby can only hear what Nico’s saying, the muffled sound of the guy speaking gives Toby a few clues on how rocky the relationship between them is.
At the sound of Nico hanging up, Toby’s heart stops, it’s dead silent now, and Toby doesn’t want Nico to assume him to be some huge asshole, so he resumes to his original plan, going down the stairs in quick silence.
Toby gets a glass of ice cold water, and chugs it down his throat, intending to get his mind off things, trying to calm himself down.
Leaving the glass by the sink, Toby sighs, and rests his arms against the kitchen counter, taking slow, deep breaths.
Once he’s managed to calm himself down, Toby stands back up normally, feeling his feet get cold even if he’s wearing his pair of indoor sandals, Nico.
“Hey…” Nico mutters out to Toby, his voice a little strained from arguing over the phone.
Nico walks down the stairs towards the kitchen too, walking a little towards Toby so he’s close enough to meet the taller teens gaze.
“Hey, bad night…?”
Toby asks Nico, trying to be discreet and casual as possible, as if he wasn’t just eavesdropping Nico arguing with his boyfriend.
“Kind of… did I wake you up? I was having a fight with my boyfriend.” Nico says to Toby, making a face as he admits that fact.
“Nah, I was just getting a glass of water in the first place, but I heard… that.” Toby manages to explain to Nico, mentally trying to ignore the fact that he was sweating bullets.
“Oh, sorry about that, I just-…” Nico begins saying in response, but Toby cuts him off.
“Don’t be, Nico, he sounds like a shitty asshole.” Toby says, his voice suddenly serious with concern, catching Nico a bit off guard.
“I know…” Nico says with a sigh.
“Do you… need any help with anything…?” Toby asks Nico, although a bit hesitant at first.
Nico starts walking away, but Toby hears his breath hitch, as if he were hesitant to speak up too.
“Toby, if I do… anything, could you help me prevent that…? If I’m alone then that’ll mean I’ll do something I might regret… I-…” Nico begins saying, nervous, hesitant, something uncharacteristic of him.
“You don’t… want to be alone…?” Toby asks, concerned etched across his face, walking towards Nico.
Nico just nods at Toby’s question, taking the first step up the flight upstairs, as Toby rests his larger hand gently on the small of Nico’s shoulder as to reassure him.
“You can stay in my room… if you want, or maybe… you could leave a pair of spare pajamas if you’re more comfortable with that.” Toby proposes the idea to Nico, still not wanting to overstep any boundaries.
“That would be nice.” Nico says to Toby, giving the both older and taller teen a weak smile that makes Toby’s heart crumble down into pieces.
—— —— ——
“Hello?! Earth to Toby?! There’s no way… are you sniffling…?!”
Nat’s loud voice snaps Toby out of his thoughts, giving him a scrutinizing look as she holds back from laughing her ass off.
“Nat?! What the fuck!?” Toby yells at her, feeling both offended and shocked.
“You-! You should’ve seen your face! All mopey for Nico! Ha!” Nat makes fun of him unashamed, her stitched mouth forming into a shit eating grin.
“As if you’re not the same with Leo, hypocrite.” Toby shoots back at Nat, giving her an unimpressed look.
Even if he’s giving his best friend an unimpressed look, Toby takes the chance to see what her outfit choice for the wedding they were all invited to.
Nat’s wearing a long, dark green dress with long sleeves that were of a slight see through fabric, and a pair of black boots for footwear.
In Toby’s opinion, it’s probably the most tame outfit he’s ever had to see her wear, but in a way, it makes sense, as they weren’t even invited to the wedding, their boyfriends were invited, and the two of them are just tagging along as plus ones.
Neither of them even know the bride and groom, nor any of the guests either, the basic idea either of them have are of dumb stories Nico and Leo have told them about their former demigod companions.
That’s quite literally it.
“Speaking of the devil… go get ‘em tiger.” Toby says with a laugh, elbowing Nat in the process.
“Rude, asshole— oh, Leo! Over here!” Nat says, doing a complete 360 once she sees Leo.
Leo quickly notices the two of them, giving Toby a silly little wave before he rushes off towards them.
He’s wearing a plain red buttoned shirt, the top button undone, with a pair of white dress pants, some dark-colored belt, and a pair of black shoes too.
“Dude!”
Leo says excitedly to Toby, as the two of them proceed to do a cheesy little handshake.
“Since when do you two have your own handshake? Huh?!” Nat asks, genuinely perplexed.
“Since that time Nina dragged you off on that trip, that errand she had that turned into a pseudo road trip? We got really bored.” Leo explains to Nat with a laugh.
“Dork.” Nat mutters fondly at Leo, completely ignoring Toby in the process.
Suddenly, the three of them heard Nico speak, catching their attention, he spoke rather awkwardly.
“Uh, do any of you have an irrational hatred for the color blue…?” Nico begins saying, mentally scrambling in order to find a way to make his phrasing as normal as possible.
Leo holds in a laugh, knowing exactly what Nico’s talking about.
“Blue? What do you mean by ‘blue’…?” Toby and Nat asked simultaneously, both equally confused, as if they were in sync.
Nico sighs before he speaks once again.
“Yeah, blue.” Nico murmurs awkwardly.
“There’s going to be lots of blue.” Leo says with a snicker.
And this doesn’t help Toby and Nat’s confusion in the slightest.
The two of them can’t even begin to ask for an explanation as Nico’s already grabbed both of them, including Leo, in order to get them all to the wedding via shadow travel.