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In the throne room of the palace of Hades, a figure slouched in a throne carved of onyx. He looked to be about 14 years old, very pale and battered, and thin to the point of malnutrition. He drummed his fingers on the armrest impatiently until another figure came into the room, tall, blond, and looking like the peak of physical perfection for a 25 year old. As the blond caught sight of him, he ran toward the throne, a look of concern on his face.
“Nico, babe, are you alright? What happened to you?”
“Since it’s been 500 years to the day since you dragged me into that damned infirmary, I thought you’d appreciate the retro look.” With that, his features shifted until he also looked 25, taller, his wounds healed, and the gaunt look replaced by wiry muscles. He pulled his relieved lover into a kiss.
“Happy anniversary, babe. Sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I had to sort out some business on the outskirts of Asphodel,” replied the blond when the kiss had broken. The blond was, of course, Will Solace, but these days he’d acquired several other names, as was common among gods. He simply went by the name, “Solace” as his partner preferred to be called “The Dark Angel.” There was not a demigod or mortal currently alive that knew that this was a way of keeping their mothers’ memories alive through the centuries.
So, it was 500 years ago that their relationship had started. Then it was about 430 years ago that they had died. Thanatos had thoughtfully waited to take Nico until the shock of his death had stopped Will’s heart. Will knew that Nico would be taken directly to Hades’ palace; the promise of a room there still stood. He was quite surprised that he’d also bypassed the normal post-mortem Underworld queue, but Hades and Persephone looked at him impassively as he knelt before them.
The god of the Underworld spoke. “I wish to offer my son godhood and make him my lieutenant. He will need a fitting consort. Are you willing to accept this offer?” (Hades didn’t mention that he was jealous of Aphrodite and Eros having all those Erotes looking after the many different aspects of love, while all he had was Thanatos. Who better to take up the task than a warrior and a doctor who’d spent their lives around death? The fact that it was his favorite son and his favorite son-in-law (sorry, Frank) was all the sweeter.)
There was no hesitation in the son of Apollo. After 70 mortal years together, a surprisingly long life for demigods (neither of the boys at that point knew of their fathers’ pact to ensure their sons “a long and happy life”), he knew that he didn’t want to spend eternity anywhere but at his husband’s side.
After the apotheosis was complete, Persephone, who’d not said a word until then, looked at them sternly. “Godly marriages are complicated. I hope you won’t spoil yours by chasing after nymphs.”
To both of the boys’ surprise, she then winked at them. Of course she knew that nymphs or any females for that matter held no appeal for either of the boys, but was Nico’s stern, cold stepmother joking with them?
Now that they were gods, they became privy to certain secrets, primarily the reasons for his step-mother’s feigned coldness toward him and his family. As mortals, they could be threatened by other gods, Demeter in particular if either Hades or Persephone showed them any favor, but now that they were safe, Persephone could reveal the close friendship she’d had with both Nico’s mother and sister. In fact, she was able to let him know just how much Bianca had cared for him, even after she’d left him, first for the Hunters of Artemis, and then for death.
Their duties as gods seemed to follow the paths they had in life. Nico was given the job of arbiter, deciding the fate of those walking the border between life and death. Will’s role was to ease the mortally wounded heroes who lingered too long in agony before death’s kindly release. When they were not busy with their divine duties, they spent their time on date nights, world travels, and hanging out with their friends in Elysium. They still kept up with their friends from their days at Camp Half Blood, and occasionally Nico would summon some of them up to the mortal world for “field trips,” or the two gods would spend a weekend on the Isle of the Blessed for some serious partying.
There was that time that Isabella Ramirez-Arellano-Valdez, the pontifex maximus of her generation, had Iris messaged them in the middle of a game of strip twister with their friends. The poor girl just wanted some details on offerings (“No, I never really liked Happy Meals, they were just a convenient offering for raising ghosts.”) but instead was traumatized by the sight of several of her dead great-grandparents in various states of undress and wrapped around each other in compromising positions.
In spite of the fact that, after several centuries there, most of their friends engaged in occasional spouse swapping, neither Nico nor Will ever had the slightest desire for anyone but each other. Of course, the godly ability to change their appearance may have had something to do with it, giving them considerable variety. Once Will thought it would be funny to show up in the bedroom looking like Percy. Nico had no trouble seeing through the disguise, but retaliated by changing his own appearance to that of his former zombie chauffeur, Jules-Albert. As Will was a chthonic deity, he was not that put off by zombies, but the sight of rotting flesh and protruding bones was a serious boner kill.
And now it was five centuries later. Time flies when you’re immortal. They celebrated their anniversary in the privacy of their chambers, with divine passion, with words of endearment, with an array of toys that would make their cousin Hephaestus proud, and moans that really could wake the dead. When they emerged for a celebratory dinner with Hades and Persephone, the goddess of flowers presented them with a book. Although most of the world ignored or denied the Greco-Roman pantheon, there were still those who followed it, being offspring or descendants of the gods, mortals who could see through the mist, or fantasy writers. This book, entitled “New Myths, New Gods,” was the product of one of those.
“Read the chapter I’ve bookmarked. Welcome to the lies people tell about us,” said Persephone. She had that look in her eye.
Nico flipped the book open to the marked page and began to read out loud. (Demigod dyslexia apparently was cured by being made a god.)
“The Dark Angel could not find a proper mate, so, like his father, Hades, he resorted to trickery and kidnapping. Assuming the form of a wounded teenager, he played upon the sympathy of Solace, who admitted him to the infirmary where he worked. For three days the Angel plied his wiles and on the last day swept Solace into a shadow and carried him off to his Underworld palace.”
At this point, Nico had to stop reading, he was laughing so hard. Will just giggled, repeating the words “plied his wiles.” The two older gods were only smirking, but all of them collapsed with laughter when Nico choked out, “It doesn’t say what kind of seed you swallowed so you had to stay here.”
When they were finally able to talk again, Will looked at the other boy and said, “Death boy, you took me away, whether by guile, by force, or by love. I’m yours. Now and forever.”