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Stacy wasn’t glaring. She absolutely was not glaring at the Big Three Table, where for some reason, the guy who taught her sword fighting was sat.
Sure, she didn’t know his godly parent - no one in their class had managed to get it out of him - but she was a daughter of Apollo, she was supposed to have premonitions about whether or not the hot boy instructing her and ten other kids how to wield deadly weapons was also a super powerful son of the Big Three.
And sure, maybe Will had mentioned that his boyfriend, a son of Hades, taught sword fighting, but she’d never actually seen Will’s boyfriend, and there was no way that Nicky was a son of Hades. Sons of Hades did not spent six hours every Tuesday and Thursday patiently teaching thirteen and fourteen year olds how to fight. Sons of Hades most certainly did not take off their shirts when it got too hot, sons of hades almost definitely did not blush endearingly when Drew Tanaka from Aphrodite wolf whistled as she walked past the arena, and sons of Hades undoubtedly did not speak fluid and fluent Italian at unwitting, easily flustered teenage girls.
Besides, Will’s boyfriend was Nico di Angelo, who Stacy had heard was as much of a vital player in the last two wars as Percy Jackson, who had apparently dragged Percy Jackson to the River Styx so that he could get the Curse of Achilles, who had, according to rumour, jumped into Tartarus before Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, and who almost definitely carried the Athena Parthenos from Greece to Camp Half Blood, alongside the Praetor of New Rome, who now considered him a little brother.
Nicky, gorgeous and ripped and funny as he may be, was definitely nothing like Nico di Angelo.
So why in Apollo’s name was Nicky sat at the Big Three table, squabbling and play fighting with Jason Grace and Percy Jackson, like they weren’t two of the most sought after male demigods alive?
Before Stacy could ask, Nicky, Jason Grace, and Percy Jackson all stood up, and walked out, the rest of the Seven who were still at camp falling into step, all laughing and shoving each other around.
After a moment, Will made started to stand up. “Poker night at Percy’s. Neeks will kill me if I leave him alone in there with Jason and Percy.” He explained at Kayla’s questioning glance.
Kayla nodded. “Okay. Tell Nico he owes me a pomegranate from Persephone’s garden, I’ve got some theories I wanna test.”
Stacy almost screamed. Nobody knew Nico di Angelo that well outside of Will and the Seven and Praetor Reyna. How did Kayla end up with him owing her one? How did Nicky end up invited to this heroes and their girlfriends and boyfriends only poker game? How had Will managed to assimilate into their group so well? Even Calypso, Leo Valdez’s girlfriend hadn’t managed to slot so nearly into their group as Stacy’s brother, who seemed as friendly with Annabeth Chase and Piper McLean as they were with each other.
——
The next day at sword fighting, Stacy resolved to finally get the truth out of Nicky, how did he know Percy Jackson and Jason Grace? How did he get permission to sit at the Big Three table? Where had he been eating before that, she’d never really seen him at meal times? Who was his godly parent?
That was all completely destroyed when she walked into the arena with Lacy and Hailey, to see Jason Grace and Percy Jackson waiting with Nicky.
“All I’m saying, bro,” Percy was saying loudly, grinning broadly and gesturing wildly. “Is that you showing up to the Battle of Manhattan, like two days into the fighting, with three gods and an army of the undead, is basically the same as you showing up to the Councillors meeting, fifteen minutes late with a Starbucks! Therefore, you should do it!”
Nicky rolled his eyes. “Chiron, Annabeth, Will, Clarisse, and probably Lou Ellen would all kill me if I did that. Individually. Will would call Hades and be like oh hey future dad-in-law, could you hold this idiot’s soul in place so that me and all of my friends can kill him and over again!”
Jason sighed dramatically. “Or, you could just bring everyone else Starbucks as well, bro. Then no one would hate you, and everyone would be free to appreciate the meme.”
Nicky paused for a second. “Okay that would work,” he made an over-exaggerated expression of disgust. “Bro.”
The other two cheered and bounced into and off of each other, chanting he called us bro!
“Hold up!” Jason’s eyes had gone crazy wide, and he threw his arms out to stop Percy. Stacy was definitely concerned. “You just said Hades is Will’s future dad-in-law! You’re planning to marry our very own doctor Solace? You know that Annabeth, Percy, the entire Apollo cabin, Clarisse, Cecil, and Lou Ellen are going to shovel talk you right?”
Wait - what?
Nicky went red, but didn’t deny it. “You are aware that the shovel talk happens at the start of the relationship right? I’ve already had shovel talks from everyone you’ve just listed, except Percy, because he’s my big brother so he can’t shovel talk me regarding Will. Annie just threatened both of us.”
Percy seemed to finally rejoin the conversation. “I have just considered something. Neeks, you showing up to the Battle of Manhatten two days late with three gods, an army, and a sassy one liner...were you trying to flirt with me?”
Jason absolutely lost it, whilst Nicky’s lip curled with disgust. “Dude I was like..twelve..sure I was trying to impress you, but I wasn’t trying to actually flirt. I still don’t know how to do that and I’ve been in a relationship for like two years. Anyways. I’ll do the Starbucks thing if you two take any and all blame. Both of your girlfriends wield sharp pointy things incredibly well, and Will’ll probably hold an arrow in his hand and stab me with it.”
The other two lost it again, and in turning away to roll his eyes, Nicky- well, Nico- finally noticed them. “Oh.” He said dumbly. “Shit, is it Tuesday?”
“Are you Nico di Angelo?” Stacy blurted, unable to stop herself. She’d heard the story about the Battle of Manhattan, about how Nico di Angelo had managed to persuade the King and Queen of Underworld, as well as Demeter, to fight, alongside an army of the undead, plus it would explain everything about last night, even if she couldn’t exactly reconcile one of The Heroes of Olympus with the guy she’d been crushing on for months.
Nico blinked. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” He managed, before Will, who’d been sat in the stands of the arena, completely unnoticed, started laughing and walking down to join them.
“I told you!” He crowed, wrapping an around Nico. “I told you that if you started socialising with your idiot brothers in front of people everyone would know.”
Percy and Jason looked suitably offended. “Wait..what the fuck is happening here?”
Nico shrugged. “In my first lesson, I introduced myself as Nico di Angelo, and someone told me that I was an emo wannabe, who wished I was the son of Hades, that couldn’t get Will Solace to bang me if I had the blessing of Aphrodite herself, so I just introduced myself to all my classes as Nicky and waited for someone to notice. It’s been eight months.”
“You..didn’t think of just..I don’t know..shadow travelling?” Jason asked, after a moment.
Percy shook his head. “I bet it was the best moment of his life.” He grinned. “Neeks has always loved a chance to fuck with people.”
“You realise that if any of you actually referred to me by name, then none of this would happen, right? Neeks isn’t that weird for Nicky, and ever since you two morons helped me secretly put a kitchen in my cabin, I haven’t had to go for meals. You aided and abetted.”
“I’m pretty sure you have to be aware of what’s going on to aid and abet, babe,” Will mused, “if you’re on your way somewhere, and I tell you that park avenue is closed, but there’s a shortcut around back, which means you happen to get murdered whilst you’re around back, I haven’t exactly aided and abetted.”
“Tesoro, if I ended up dead because of instructions you gave me, I’d take over the judges panel downstairs and send you to Elysium for services rendered to the Prince of the Underworld.” Nico retorted, wincing when the crowd of chattering teenagers went silent, even as Percy and Jason started practically screaming with laughter.
“Sunshine,” Will thunked his forehead on the top of Nico’s head and stayed like that. “What did we talk about?”
Nico heaved a sigh. “No scaring children or mortals with jokes about my unrelenting wish for death because they won’t understand that if I really wanted to die I’d just hit my dad up and offer my soul, so I’m obviously not actually suicidal,” he recited dutifully.
“Pops totally wouldn’t take your soul.” Will waved a hand dismissively. “He likes me too much.”
“Pops?” Jason and Percy echoed in unison.
Nico flushed red. Stacy was honestly surprised he was alive with how much blood was rushing to his face. “Will went for lunch in my stead last Sunday with mom and dad, and they got all weird and awkward and said Will could call them mom and dad too if they wanted. Since that would be weird, he calls them mom and pops, so as not to confuse with his mama and dad.”
Stacy clutched Hailey’s hand. “I need to lay down.” She whispered. “I’m so stupid. We’re all so stupid,” she lamented.
Hailey nodded dramatically. “Nico di Angelo sleeps in our cabin with Will sometimes, and we didn’t notice that he and Nicky are the same person.”
Lacy peaked over. “You guys really didn’t know?”
“What? You did?” Stacy was tempted to shriek, but managed to keep her voice down.
“Sure.” Lacy shrugged. “Nico and Piper are super close, and he and Drew and Mitch are pretty good friends too. He’s in my cabin, like, all the time. He lets us dress him up before his dates with Will.”
——
The next thing Stacy knew, she was laying in a cot in the infirmary, Will leaning over her. “You okay, Stace?”
She groaned and nodded. “You didn’t tell us our sword fighting instructor was Nico di Angelo, traitor.”
He laughed. “Stace, he stays over in our cabin all the time. I thought y’all calling him Nicky was a runnin’ joke.”
“I don’t have night vision! All I ever see of him is dark hair in your bed, and sometimes an aviator jacket hung on your hook on the door,” she pouted, “why didn’t you tell us your boyfriend is super hot?”
“I do,” he raised an eyebrow. “All the time. Kayla and Austin time how long I talk about Neeks and make me stop after two minutes.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re still a traitor.”
“Even if I assigned the “hottest guy in camp” to bring you your lunch?” He made air quotes around hottest guy in camp.
“Did you? Really? Aw Will you’re the best.”
“Actually,” A voice said from the other side of the room. “I have the food, so I think that makes me the best.”
Oh fuck, oh fuck, Nico di Angelo was walking towards her in a tank top, the silvery scars crossing over his arms - the scars that Stacy now realised were probably from fighting Lycaon - clearly visible. He handed her the tray he was holding, then tucked himself into Will’s side.
“Hey, luce de sol,” He murmured, pressing a kiss to Will’s cheek. “Do you think Jay and Perce will kill me if I show up to this big three movie night half an hour late with bed hair and McDonald’s? I want a nap and I want some McNuggets.”