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The bell chimed over the front door, and Nico heard the voice of the only waitress on staff that evening greeting the new customers just before he pushed through the doors into the kitchen. It was his turn to make dinner that night, which meant that it was time to force Irvin, the head chef, to take his break, or else he’d never allow Nico to actually use the kitchen (in his own restaurant!). He’d gotten better about acting like the boss rather than letting Irvin push him around, though sometimes Nico just couldn’t manage to stare Irvin down the way he needed to - something about the way the Mist tried to make Irvin’s singular eye appear as two always made Nico at least a little bit dizzy.
He had just managed to build up the courage to raise his eyes to Irvin’s singular one when he heard a voice calling for him from the seating area. Nico released his breath, then turned to walk out of the room. Great - now he’d have to start that process all over again once he figured out what the problem was out front.
“Mariah,” Nico said, meeting the waitress halfway across the restaurant as she came back to find him, “what’s up?”
“There’s another group of kids here,” she said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. “Said they’re looking for the Ghost King.”
Nico felt himself flush at the old nickname - for some reason, that name had been passed around the camps more often than his real one, no matter how hard he tried to stop it. It only made for situations like these, which were much more awkward than they needed to be. Nico had been tempted to hire a demigod to work there for him, but it was too much of a risk to his customers and the community to have such a strong scent of demigod in one spot - his being there was bad enough. And besides, nobody was better at their job than Mariah.
“Thanks,” Nico told her. “Give them a table in the back, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Mariah nodded, but she still looked at Nico skeptically, which, he figured, was fair. It probably did look weird to an outsider that so many random kids - who very clearly weren’t from Texas - would just show up at his restaurant, calling him by some old nickname. It wasn’t like Nico could tell her, they’re just kids from this summer camp that me and Will went to, and they only know how to find this place because I put it on a list of ‘safe havens’ to stop at while on life-threatening quests from the gods.
She probably thought he was doing something illegal, but hey, she hadn’t quit yet.
Nico popped into the back office while Mariah returned to the front, and he grabbed a hidden stash of menus that he kept in a locked drawer in his desk, as well as a single stack of papers, neatly stapled together in the corner. He took a pen from the mug-turned-pen-holder on the corner of his desk, and brought everything out to the table.
Mariah had seated the trio at the table nearest the kitchen door, which also happened to be the furthest away from any other diners, so that it would be easier for them to have a private conversation. Nico took a quick scan of the kids - two girls and a boy, all in decent enough shape from what he could tell - and when he couldn’t immediately see any specific camp identifiers, he said, “Greek or Roman?”
The kids all traded nervous glances, until finally one girl said, hesitantly, “Greek?”
Nico nodded, then shuffled the menus in his hand until he could pass around the copies printed in Ancient Greek. He set a stack of regular menus on the edge of the table as well, just in case.
“Are you…” the other girl started, then leaned in close to whisper, “the Ghost King?”
Nico rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the way he knew his face had flushed. “Please just call me Nico.” He set the packet on top of the stack of menus and dropped the pen on top. “Do me a favor and start filling this out when you get a second - it’s just some basic information about yourselves and your quest - and I’ll come back in a few minutes to take your order. First thing’s first, though: are any of you, like, actively dying?”
He knew they weren’t anywhere closer to death than the average demigod outside the safe boundaries of camp, but he still thought it polite to ask. Kids had lower pain tolerances, after all.
“Um,” the boy spoke up, and Nico noticed for the first time how stiffly he was holding his shoulder. “I’m probably not actively dying, but I think I’m closer than they are.”
Nico nodded. “Have you taken anything to kickstart the healing process?”
“No,” he said, suddenly sounding embarrassed, and Nico was about to assure him that there was nothing to be embarrassed about when one of the girls spoke up instead.
“We sort of lost our supplies,” said the girl to Nico’s left. “See, Wilson was carrying the bag, but then the snake showed up again, and--”
“It ripped the bag off my shoulder when it bit me,” the boy, Wilson, explained. “We weren’t even really planning on coming here, but then we lost all of our stuff…”
“And we didn’t know what else to do,” the other girl told him. “We don’t even have any money to pay for dinner, but if there’s anything you can do to help--”
Nico raised a hand to stop her. “You’re not paying for anything.” He tapped on the form once, twice, and then continued, “Fill this out as much as you can, and take a look at the menu. I’ll be right back.”
He turned away from the table and returned to the back room where he pulled out his emergency stash of ambrosia, and slipped the little baggie of it into his pocket. Then, he stepped into the kitchen and collected a few glasses of ice water to take out to the table. He set a glass in front of each kid, and then tossed Wilson the bag of ambrosia.
“Just eat a little bit of that, okay?” he instructed, hearing Will’s voice in his head as he said the next words: “You shouldn’t eat it on an empty stomach anyway, but I’ll make an exception this time.”
“Thank you,” Wilson said, and he fished inside the bag for a little corner piece of the cake.
Nico slipped a little notebook out of his pocket and asked, “So, are you ready to order?”
As the kids relayed their orders, Nico scribbled them down, then collected both sets of menus and the rest of the ambrosia before he left again. He put everything in its proper place in the back room, and took the orders to the kitchen, where Irvin started giving Nico a hard time for chickening out earlier.
“How can you expect to be the boss if you can’t even look me in the eye?” Irvin demanded, laughing at the way Nico crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
“By signing your paychecks,” Nico shot back, then huffed. “Don’t go thinking you’re special - I can barely look anybody in the eye--”
“Because you’re so short,” the Cyclops teased.
“Because I-- Oh, shut up, asshole!” Nico threw a dish towel across the kitchen, though he found himself laughing along. “Whatever. Just make the food for the kids, would you? Oh, and do me a favor and throw something together for Will, too.”
Irvin tsk ed. “He’ll know you didn’t make it.”
“I’ve suddenly become very busy!” Nico argued. “He’ll understand.”
“Fine, fine,” Irvin said with a shrug. “Just don’t come crying to me when he tells you that he likes my cooking better.”
“He won’t - he doesn’t like sleeping on the couch.”
Nico turned back out of the kitchen and dropped into the booth beside one of the girls, startling every kid at the table. Sometimes he forgot that not everyone was accustomed to the way he seemingly appeared out of thin air - or the way that he sometimes actually appeared out of thin air.
“Food should be ready soon,” he told them plainly, and then held out a hand across the table to take back the paperwork. “Can I see that?”
The girl pulled it closer to herself. “I’m not done yet.”
Nico glanced at the paper - she looked to be on the last page. “You’re almost there. Really, it’s just a formality. It’s not like I’ll be sending a report back to camp, or anything.”
She didn’t seem happy about it, but after a second, she held the papers out to him. If Nico had to wager a guess, he’d probably say she was a daughter of Athena. “The medical section is just...very extensive.”
Nico felt himself start to smile. “Yeah, that would be Will’s doing. Would you believe me if I said that this is the edited version? He wanted to put a full medical history on here, but I talked him out of it.”
He flipped back to the front page and started skimming, his eyes catching on certain lines where the writing was half English and half Greek. Solea, she/they. Wilson, he/him. Ella, she/her.
“So-leah?” Nico asked, his gaze flickering up to the girl across from him. “This is your quest?”
“So- lay- uh,” she corrected. “And yes.”
“You wrote both she and they,” Nico noted, “do you have a preference for one over the other? Or should I alternate between the two?”
Solea waved a hand dismissively, almost seeming embarrassed by the question. “It doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does,” Nico said. “Will’s the same way - I mean, with he and they - and he prefers to alternate. You don’t have to answer right away, but let me know if you have a preference, okay?”
Solea nodded, so Nico turned to Wilson beside her. “Wilson, how’s the shoulder? Did the ambrosia help at all?”
“It helped a little,” he answered, “but it’s definitely been better.”
“Do you want someone to take a look at it for you?” Nico asked. “Not here, obviously, but after dinner, I can take you all back to my house, and Will can check it out for you. You can all spend the night there, and we can help you get back on track in the morning.”
Wilson nodded. “Yeah, that would be great.”
Nico glanced at Solea. “It’s your quest, so it’s ultimately your decision.”
“We asked for help,” Solea replied instantly, determination set in her eyes. “We’ll take all the help you can give us.”
Nico nodded. “Good answer.” He dropped his gaze back to the paper. Under the section of questions specifically about the quest, Nico saw, Is anything following you that we should be aware of? followed by, The giant snake. “Ella,” Nico said, looking to the girl beside him, “what can you tell me about the giant snake?”
Her eyes widened. “Um. Well, we don’t think it’s poisonous, or else Wilson would probably be dead by now.”
“It sure burns like poison, though,” Wilson added.
“Could be slow-acting,” Nico commented. “Anything else?”
“We tried fighting it, but I think its scales are too tough for our weapons to pierce,” Ella continued. “So far, we’ve been able to outrun it - well, we barely outran it this morning, and if it weren’t for that explosive in Wilson’s bag, it probably would’ve eaten all of us.”
Nico started wracking his brain for giant, invincible snakes, but the only one that came to mind was Python - though that was impossible, right? Because no monster ever regenerated that quickly, especially not one of Python’s size, and if Apollo had been telling the truth - which, considering he was the god of truth, you would think he would exaggerate things a little less - then Python had been destroyed. Not just temporarily killed.
“It’s been following you since New York?” Nico asked. “And you outrun it every day, but it catches up to you every morning, like, while you were sleeping?”
“Yeah, exactly!” Ella replied, her eyes lighting up excitedly, like she was expecting Nico to know exactly what it was, why it was following them, and how they could kill it.
“Huh,” was all Nico said in response. “Weird.”
He almost asked another question, but then he heard Irvin calling for him from the kitchen, so he got up to collect their meals. As he returned with his arms loaded up with plates, Irving called out, “Fatten up those demigods good for me, kid! Cyclopes gotta eat, too, you know!”
Nico met the eyes of three horrified demigods, and he had to take a deep breath to remind himself that Irvin was a good worker who should not have his essence sucked into Nico’s sword. “He’s kidding,” Nico assured the kids as he set down their plates. “Give me a shout if you need anything - I’m just gonna do a few things to make sure nobody burns the place down while I’m gone, and then we can head out when you’re all finished eating.”
Without waiting for a response, Nico turned and marched right back into the kitchen and shouted, “Irv, stop telling the kids you’re going to eat them, or I’ll send you to my own personal circle of hell.”
“But then who would make dinner for Will twice a week?” Irvin shot back, and rather than arguing, Nico turned on his heel and walked out the door he’d just entered through.
He caught Mariah at the register after she finished cashing out one of her tables. “Hey, I know I didn’t have you scheduled to close tonight, but--”
“But you need me to close tonight and open tomorrow,” Mariah cut in, “and you’ll make it up to me some other time, I know.”
“I--” Nico blinked. “What?”
She shrugged and she fussed with the bills in the register, neatening up the stacks and making sure all the bills were face-up. “You say that to me every time some group of kids shows up here. I already texted my roommates and told them I’d be home late. Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it handled.”
“Oh. Thanks.” He started to back away, but paused and said, “Don’t let Irv leave without mopping the kitchen - if he says he’ll do it in the morning, it’s a lie.”
“Got it,” Mariah said, and she brushed past him to check on the rest of her tables.
Nico went to the back room last, making sure that certain desk drawers were locked and pulling out a few things that would make it easier on Mariah when she closed the restaurant that night. He swung by the kids’ table on his way to the kitchen, mainly just checking to see how much time he had left to hopefully whip himself up something for dinner.
When he walked inside, though, he saw two takeout boxes sitting on the pickup counter. “Did you make me dinner?” Nico asked, taking the boxes hesitantly.
“No, the second box is empty,” Irvin replied with a grin. “I’m kidding! There’s a french dip for Will, and chicken salad for you.”
Nico smiled back. “Thanks, Irv. I’ll see you sometime tomorrow, okay? And don’t forget to mop the floor!”
Irvin waved him off with a greasy spatula. “Eh, I’ll do it--”
“Tonight,” Nico cut in, “and I already told Mariah not to let you leave until you do.”
Irvin rolled his eye. “Oh, sure. Now you start acting like the boss. Get out of here, kid, and get those demigods out of here before I throw one in the fryer.”
“You know, if you keep talking like that, one of these days I’ll think you’re serious,” Nico pointed out as he backed out of the room with the takeout boxes in hand. He nearly walked straight into Mariah, who had just cleared the plates from the kids’ table.
“See you tomorrow, Nico,” she said as they passed each other. “You better show up before the lunch rush starts.”
“Hey, it’s my restaurant, I’ll show up when I want to,” he called after her, and poked his head back into the kitchen to say, “And don’t forget that Will’s aunts are delivering some fresh vegetables tomorrow morning! I already set out the check for them on the desk for you.”
He turned back to the kids, who were all watching him quietly, so he asked, “Ready to go?”
The kids piled into Nico’s old car - which was actually the car that Will had gotten for his sixteenth birthday, though it had sat around for years because Will never learned to drive - and Nico started on the road home. The restaurant itself already seemed like it was out in the middle of nowhere, which had been an intentional purchase on Nico’s part to keep any monster attacks from destroying a more densely populated area, though the drive back home only seemed to take them further out into nothingness.
Nico and Will owned a small corner of the Solace family farms, and every day on his drive to work, Nico drove past miles and miles of fields full of different kinds of vegetables that got shipped all over the country - as well as right down the street to the restaurant. A short ways up ahead on the dirt road, Nico saw the familiar silhouette of a person on horseback - a common sight for that part of Texas - and started letting up on the gas so as to not spook the horse as he drove past. Then, as he got close enough to recognize the bright red of the horse’s hair, Nico grinned and started to roll down his window.
“Oh my gods,” Ella exclaimed from the seat behind him, sounding like her face was pressed to the window, “is that Apollo?”
Nico flinched at the sound of the god’s name, and half expected him to appear in the passenger’s seat as if summoned. “Dear gods, don’t scare me like that,” Nico said, “and no, that’s my husband.”
As they pulled up beside the horse, Nico leaned a little ways out the window to get a better look at Will and their bright smile and their cowboy hat - Nico would never get tired of seeing them with a cowboy hat - and he said, “Hey, handsome, where’re you headed?”
Will tipped the brim of their hat toward Nico, and Nico felt something bubble up in his chest. “Just heading home to wait for my loving husband, you?”
Nico grinned. “I was thinking the same thing. Race you?”
“Oh, you’re on, sweetheart,” Will replied. They clicked their teeth, and their horse took off at a sprint down the road, leaving Nico with nothing but a dust cloud to follow in.
Nico rolled up his window, and continued down the road at the same relaxed pace.
“You’re not even trying,” Solea pointed out, leaning up between the front seats, “he’s going to beat us!”
Nico shrugged. “Sure, he’ll beat us to the property, but we don’t have to hit the stables before going to the house.”
Another few minutes later, Nico pulled into the driveway of a tall farmhouse that was similar in style to the Big House. Nico parked and led the kids inside, straight through to the kitchen where he set the takeout boxes on the table right before Will came bursting in through the back door.
“Damn, I knew I should’ve waited at the door instead of running all the way to the stables,” Will said as they pulled off their hat and wrapped one arm around Nico to pull him in for a kiss. “Hi, darlin’, what are you doing here so early?”
Nico nodded toward the kids who were standing awkwardly in the entryway to the kitchen and said, “Well, I had some visitors.”
Will followed his gaze and jumped at the sight of the kids, straightening up and putting some distance between themself and Nico - as if to appear more appropriate - though they didn’t remove their arm from around Nico’s waist. “Oh! Uh, hi there! Sorry, I didn’t know we had company.” They punctuated the last word with a pinch to Nico’s hip, causing him to shove lightly at Will’s side with a grin.
Nico gestured with an open hand to the kids as he said, “Will, this is Solea, Wilson, and Ella. Kids, this is my husband, Will.”
Will waved with their free hand. “Nice to meet y’all.”
“Wilson has an injury he’d like you to look at,” Nico said, and he could almost see in Will’s eyes the way they switched into Doctor Mode. “It hasn’t been treated at all, aside from a little bit of ambrosia before dinner today - and don’t give me that look, I know you shouldn’t have ambrosia on an empty stomach but he could barely move his arm.”
Will had a frown etched into their face, but they nodded with determination. “Alright, I’ll let it slide this time.” Nico rolled his eyes. “Wilson, follow me, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Before they started out of the room, Will lifted the hat off their head and set it on Nico’s, telling him, “Hold on to this for me, would you, darlin’?”
Will started leading Wilson out of the room, and Nico called after his husband, “Quit using me as a portable hat rack!”
Still, Nico was smiling as he looked to the two girls standing in his kitchen. He glanced down the hall to make sure Will was out of sight, and then he said, “Hey, wanna help me with something? Don’t tell Will, but I forgot to collect the eggs from the chicken coup this morning.” He pulled Will’s hat off his head - which was actually Nico’s hat, one that he’d gotten from the trogs all those years ago - and set it on the actual hat rack by the door. “Go ahead and put your stuff down wherever, and then follow me.”
He stepped out the back door and picked up the small pail that always sat just under the awning, waiting there only a moment or two before Solea and Ella followed him outside. Nico led them toward the chicken coup, which was a short distance away from the house, and backed up to the barn that held their cows.
Nico opened the fence around the coup - more so used to keep predators out than to keep the chickens in - and held the gate open for Solea to walk through, though Ella stayed on the outside. “Not a fan of chickens?” Nico asked.
“They’re not gonna...peck me,” Ella asked, “or...chase me, are they?”
Nico shook his head. “No, the only reason they would peck at you would be because they thought your shoes were food. These ladies are harmless - some of them are actually cuddlers.”
Solea frowned. “Your chickens are...cuddly?”
“Mhm. Here, hold this.” Nico passed the pail to Solea, and then he crouched down and called one of the chickens over. After petting her for a second or two, he scooped her into his arms, and she instantly settled in against his chest. “See?” He carried the bird toward Ella and said, “Harmless, right? I bet she’d even let you hold her, if you wanted.”
Ella’s eyes widened, and she finally stepped inside the gate, holding her arms out to accept the chicken from Nico. The bird seemed confused to be passed around, but she settled just as easily into Ella’s arms as she had Nico’s.
“Alright, Solea, follow me,” Nico instructed, and she followed him into the coup, where he started to collect eggs from the many nests built inside.
“Hey, Nico?” Ella called from outside. “Why is that cow so red?”
“That’s a sun cow,” Nico answered, poking his head out the door and placing a handful of eggs in the pail. “We have two. They were a wedding present from my father-in-law.”
“Your father-in-law?” she repeated, then gasped. “You mean Apollo?”
Nico winced. “Yeah, but I try not to say his name if I can help it. I swear, anytime I bring him up in conversation, he just appears and expects to be invited to dinner.”
“If the red cows are from Apollo,” Solea started, “then does that mean the red horse is, too?”
Nico set another handful of eggs in the pail before stepping back out into the open air. “She is. Roxy was a graduation present, from when Will graduated from veterinary school.”
Solea’s face twisted up in disapproval. “Hang on, he’s a vet, but he’s in there patching up our human friend?”
Nico crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow, as if challenging Solea to start an argument. “Yes, he’s a vet. He’s actually one of the best big animal vets in the state of Texas, if not the best. He’s also the greatest healer Camp Half Blood has seen in a century, but yeah. His degree is in animal medicine.”
“Oh,” Solea said, her voice small. “Sorry.”
“Thank you,” Nico replied with a nod, “apology accepted. Now, let’s take these eggs inside and see how Wilson’s doing.”
Ella looked like setting the chicken down was the most difficult thing she’d ever done, and Nico wondered how she could possibly go from fearing an animal to practically falling in love with it in less than five minutes. Maybe it had something to do with her godly parent - he’d have to take a closer look at their paperwork sometime.
Nico had just enough time to put away the newly collected eggs before Will returned to the kitchen, Wilson following close behind with bandages visible under the edge of his t-shirt sleeve. The girls immediately approached Wilson, asking how he felt, and noting how his wound didn’t seem to be fully healed, despite Nico’s comments that Will was the best of the best.
“Aw, babe, were you bragging about me again?” Will asked, then told the kids, “I didn’t heal him completely because too much magical healing weakens the body’s natural ability to heal. But I was able to clean out the poison and heal it enough that the scarring shouldn’t be too bad.”
“Slow-acting poison?” Nico asked, leaning back against the counter, and Will hummed in agreement. “Cool, I was right.”
Will snickered at Nico’s reaction and muttered, “Cool, the kid could’ve lost his arm, or worse.”
Nico shoved at him playfully, and his eyes drifted toward the table. “Hey, did you see that I brought dinner?”
Will’s eyes lit up. “Oh? What’d you bring me?” He was already moving to sit at the table before Nico could answer. He popped open the takeout box and grinned at the sight, then turned his gaze up toward Nico. “A french dip! Tell Irvin thanks for me.”
Nico spluttered. “You didn’t even taste it!”
“I don’t need to,” Will laughed. “When have you ever made me a french dip?”
Nico waved his arms out and exclaimed, “I could!”
“I know. It’s the thought that counts.” Will picked up the sandwich, about to take a bite but stopping to say, “But you know what doesn’t count? This, as one of your nights to cook.”
With a huff and a roll of his eyes, Nico turned toward the cabinets and started pulling out glasses. He looked over his shoulders and said, “Hey, kids, take a seat.” He brought over three glasses of water, one of each of them, and went back for two more, for him and Will. By the time he sat down beside Will at the table, Will was already a quarter of the way through his sandwich and halfway through the paperwork the kids had filled out at the restaurant.
Will frowned at something while Nico cracked open his own takeout box, and he seemed to read one section over and over again before he finally looked up at the kids and asked, “Y’all are going to the Underworld?”
“What?” Nico slid the paper toward himself, skimming it until he saw Hades, Hypnos, and the Underworld. “Why the hell would they send you kids to the Underworld? I’m literally going to visit my dad next weekend - I could’ve just gone early! What’s so important that they couldn’t just ask me, instead of making you three risk your lives?”
“There’s some kind of disruption to the Hypnos cabin’s connection with the Lethe,” Solea explained. “We’re not really sure what the problem is, so we basically have to go investigate.”
“Oh.” Just as quickly as Nico had gotten fired up, he cooled right down. “Okay, yeah, you go right ahead.”
Will set a comforting hand on Nico’s leg and told the kids, “Nico’s got a bit of a complicated history with the Lethe.”
“Hey, let’s talk about something else,” Nico said. “Anything else. Oh, I know, let’s talk about that giant snake that’s been chasing you around.”
“Giant snake?” Will repeated. He listened intently as the kids described their interactions with the giant snake, and then turned to Nico with a frown. “That sounds like Python, right? Always right at sunrise, like he’s trying to get to my dad. But that’s not possible, because my dad said he literally disintegrated Python.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Nico agreed. “I’m almost tempted to call Annabeth, just to see what she thinks…”
“Oh!” Will exclaimed, and then quickly stuffed another bite of his sandwich into his mouth before he jumped to his feet. He swallowed the bite before saying, “Sorry, I just realized that I forgot to check on the cows when I got home. Hang tight, y’all, I’ll be right back.”
“Hey, hang on a second,” Nico said, following Will up, “I wanna see the cows. Kids, do you wanna see the cows? C’mon.”
Will led them all out to the barn, at some point reaching out for Nico’s hand and letting their arms sway together. It had already gotten significantly darker outside, now that the sun had finally set, but the barn was close enough to the house that their path was well-enough illuminated by the porch light.
There was already a single light on in the center of the barn when Will pulled the door open, and laying underneath that light was a massive, bright red cow. She was breathing heavy, and her big, dark eyes widened at the sight of them.
“What’s wrong with it?” Wilson asked as Nico and Will walked closer to her. Nico knelt down near her head and stroked a hand over her nose and across her forehead until she was nuzzling against him, while Will laid a hand over her stomach.
“There’s nothing wrong,” Will replied with a smile, “she’s just very pregnant. Actually, if we’re lucky, y’all might get to meet a new baby cow before you leave.”
“What’s her name?” Ella asked as she stepped closer and leaned down with her hands on her knees.
Will grinned at Nico. “Do you wanna take this one?”
Nico rolled his eyes, feeling like his face had probably turned as red as the cow’s hide. “We’re not good at naming things, okay?”
“This is Mrs. Cowie,” Will said, smiling so wide that Nico’s cheeks hurt just looking at him, “and the one outside is Mr. Cowie.”
“What are you gonna name the baby?” Solea asked, teasing. “Cowie Junior?”
Nico huffed. “Not anymore,” he grumbled.
“You should name it Buttons,” Ella offered. “I think that would be a cute name for a little baby cow.”
“I dunno,” Will said, “I’m kind of fond of Cowie Junior now.”
“I get it!” Nico exclaimed, startling Mrs. Cowie and immediately returning to stroking her head to calm her back down. “I’m bad at naming things! This is why we’re never having kids. Cows I could name Cowie One, Two, Three and Four, and they’d never know the difference. I can’t do that with kids.”
Will bit his lip, as if that would keep him from bursting out laughing. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason. And, you know, cows are smarter than you’re giving them credit for. So, you’d better watch what you’re saying, or else you’ll get taken out in the cow uprising.”
Nico picked up a fistful of hay from the ground and tossed it in Will’s direction, though it mostly fluttered to the ground as soon as it left Nico’s hand. “Shut up.”
Mrs. Cowie mooed lowly, and Will, whose hand was still resting on her stomach, whipped his head to the side to look at her, his eyes widening. “I think she just went into labor,” Will whispered, and he beamed up at Nico.
“Uh--” Nico glanced back at the kids at the sound of Wilson’s voice, and noted that he suddenly looked much paler than before. “You’re not gonna make us watch a live cow birth, are you?”
“Oh, y’all probably don’t wanna see that, huh,” Will said, actually sounding a little disappointed.
Nico gave Mrs. Cowie one more pat on the head before rising to his feet, and said, “C’mon, I’ll show you where you can sleep tonight.”
Will caught Nico’s hand before he could walk away, looking up at Nico with pleading eyes. “You’re coming back, though, right?”
Nico grinned. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Will smiled and pressed a quick kiss to the back of Nico’s hand before releasing him, and Nico walked the kids back into the house. They grabbed their bags, which had been left in the kitchen, and started following Nico down the hall and toward the stairs, when Solea said suddenly, “Hey, I’ve seen this picture in the Big House.”
Nico paused and looked back, his eyes landing on the one picture among many on the wall that the girl was pointing at. It was from Percy and Annabeth’s wedding, where Nico stood as one of Percy’s groomsmen.
“Are they demigods, too?” Solea asked, and Nico almost snorted. Is Percy Jackson a demigod?
“You’ve heard about Percy Jackson, right?” Nico asked, and the kids nodded. “That’s his wedding.”
“What?” Wilson exclaimed, leaning so close to the frame that his nose bumped into it. “You were in Percy Jackson’s wedding?”
Gods, if only these kids knew the whole story. “We go way back,” was all Nico said in response.
“This picture looks like it’s at the Waystation,” Ella said, pointing to a photo of Reyna with a birthday cake holding twenty-five candles. “That’s...a lot of candles for somebody who looks like she’s, like, our age.”
“She’s technically immortal,” Nico explained, “but she’s really only around my age. Well, Will’s age.” He wasn’t about to mention that he’d recently celebrated his hundredth birthday - these kids were already getting enough new information thrown at them.
Solea pointed to another picture further down the wall. “Hey, is this Meg?”
Nico grinned. “You know Meg?”
“Yeah,” she replied with a smile. “She was the Demeter cabin counselor my first summer at camp. Did you and Will go to her graduation?”
Nico took a step closer to see exactly which picture she was looking at - Meg stood in a black cap and gown, smiling while obviously trying to keep her composure, with Apollo looking every bit like a proud parent beside her. “We did,” Nico answered, “but that’s actually my father-in-law in the picture.”
“What?” Ella shrieked, and bumped Solea out of the way to get a closer look. “You just have a picture of Apollo on your wall? Oh my gods, he and Will look so similar!”
Nico laughed. “Trust me, we know.”
Wilson, having finally unglued himself from the picture of Percy and Annabeth’s wedding, had only moved on to the next frame over. “Hey, this is the Oracle, right? Rachel? Are you guys friends with her?”
“We are,” Nico replied, his eyes flickering over to the picture of Rachel beside one of her own paintings that had just been hung up inside Nico’s restaurant when the photo was taken. “She actually did all of the art in my restaurant.”
“Cool,” Wilson said, and moved on to the next frame. “Hang on, is that--” He leaned in closer, squinting at the image as he said, “Is that Naomi Solace?”
“Naomi Solace?” Solea shouted, shoving past the other two to see the picture, and finally losing her composure for the first time all day. “Oh my gods, that’s Will with Naomi Solace.”
Nico grinned. “Oh, yeah, that’s his mom.”
“WHAT?”
After settling the kids into their own bedrooms upstairs, Nico ran back out to the barn. Will had clearly been prepared ahead of time, because Nico noticed a wagon in the corner that held a bucket of water, a stack of towels, and what looked to be a bottle of milk.
“How’s it going?” Nico asked as he joined Will on the ground at Mrs. Cowie’s side. At some point, Mr. Cowie had returned inside as well, and had taken Nico’s spot near Mrs. Cowie’s head.
“I don’t think there’s been any change,” Will replied, “but it’s hard to tell, because I’ve never birthed a sun cow before. I don’t know if it’s any different from a regular cow.”
Nico leaned against Will’s side, resting his head on his husband’s shoulder. “Is she in pain?”
Will placed their hand on Mrs. Cowie’s belly. “No more than you would expect with a pregnancy. Everything feels normal, as far as I can tell, so really, we just have to wait.”
“About six hours, right?” Nico asked. “That’s how long it usually takes for a cow?”
Will smiled down at him. “Right. But, like I said, she might be different. I might just end up sleeping out here tonight so I can be close if anything goes wrong.”
“I hope you’re not planning on sleeping in the barn all by yourself,” Nico commented.
“No, I won’t be alone,” Will replied, “I have Mr. and Mrs. Cowie to keep me company, and soon enough, Cowie Junior, too.”
“I thought we were going with Buttons.”
“Nah, you were right. Cowie Junior grew on me. We’ll save Buttons for the next one.”
Nico laughed, and settled further against Will, leaning fully against them and sighing contentedly when their arm wrapped around him. “You know, those kids are gonna be treating you like a celebrity in the morning,” Nico said quietly.
Will frowned. “Because I helped birth a cow?”
Nico snickered. “No, they finally looked at that picture wall. They found the one of your dad and Meg, and thought it was you. And the one of you and your mom at that awards show. Solea is apparently a very big country music fan.”
Will laughed, but it didn’t quite hide their groan. “Great, hopefully she doesn’t ask if I have any of my mom’s autograph lying around.”
They continued to chat about everything and nothing, talking about their days and trading ideas on how they could help the kids with their quest. After an hour or two, just when Nico felt like he might nod off against Will’s shoulder, Mrs. Cowie shifted and mooed, rolling fully onto her side. Mr. Cowie licked her head comfortingly.
Will gasped. “I think it’s time!” They jumped up and moved closer to Mrs. Cowie, resting a hand on her belly once more, then looked back to Nico with a grin. “We’re about to have a baby Cowie. Grab me a couple of towels, would you? And the water, and-- Actually, just pull the whole wagon over.”
Nico got up and did as Will asked, then stood over Will’s shoulder as they grabbed a pair of rubber gardening gloves from the wagon and slipped them on. Suddenly, Nico thought he might be sick. “Uh--”
Will glanced up at him, immediately able to read the look on Nico’s face, and they paused. Will rose up on their knees, reaching out for Nico’s hand and kissing his knuckles. “It’s okay, darlin’, go wait outside. I’ll shout for you when we’re done.”
Nico breathed a sigh of relief, and leaned down to kiss Will’s forehead. “Thank you. Good luck.”
Will grinned. “I don’t think we’ll need it, but thanks.” They squeezed Nico’s hand before releasing him, and Nico turned on his heel to leave the barn. For the first few minutes, he leaned against the exterior wall, letting the cool breeze hit his face as he took a few deep breaths and tried to calm his stomach. He listened to Mrs. Cowie’s low moos and Will’s words of encouragement, and then, without being asked, his brain tried to picture what might be happening inside the barn, and Nico had to walk away.
He wandered toward the chicken coup, though all of the ladies had already wandered inside for the night. Just to be safe - and to give himself something to do - Nico double-checked the latch on the gate before walking away. He swung by the stable, just because he hadn’t had much of a chance to see Roxy that day, and took a few minutes to say hello before he left again. He didn’t want to stray too far from the barn for too long, in case he didn’t hear Will shouting for him.
Nico had just gone back to leaning against the exterior of the barn when Will called out, “Nico! C’mon, quick, you’re gonna miss it!”
Nico rushed back inside, practically skidding to a stop at Will’s side when his eyes landed on the tiny baby cow Will had just unwrapped from one towel. Almost immediately, the calf pushed up on one leg, then another, wobbling its way onto all four hooves and taking its first steps.
Nico’s eyes widened at the sight. “It… It’s walking. How is it walking already?”
Will shrugged. “Cows are just like that. A lot of animals are.” He leaned over and kissed the side of Nico’s head. “Do me a favor and keep Mom and Dad occupied while I give Junior a check up, okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” Nico said, unable to take his eyes off the toddling calf until Will stood and scooped the creature up with one arm looped under its ribs. Nico quickly looked to the parents, both watching Will with curiosity as he took Cowie Junior off to the far side of the barn. “It’s okay,” Nico assured them, crawling over to them and leaning against Mr. Cowie’s side. He stroked Mrs. Cowie’s head as he said, “Your baby’s in good hands, but you already know that.”
Mrs. Cowie leaned into his touch, and Nico got a good look at her big, dark eyes. Nico was reminded of the time when he was about sixteen, when Will told him he had cow eyes, and at the time, Nico had been offended, thinking that Will was implying there was nothing behind Nico’s eyes but an empty head. Now, though, he knew what it really meant - there was love in those big, beautiful eyes.
“Alright, baby,” he heard Will say, and looked up to see Will setting Cowie Junior on the ground, “go back to mama.”
Cowie Junior wobbled forward, heading straight for Mrs. Cowie until it bumped into Nico’s leg and apparently decided that Nico’s lap was the perfect place to rest its head. Nico’s heart almost burst at the sight.
“Hi, baby,” he whispered, and carefully stroked a hand down Cowie Junior’s back.
Will came and knelt beside Nico and reached back to scratch behind Mr. and Mrs. Cowie’s ears. “Congrats, you two. You have made one healthy, beautiful baby boy.”
“It’s a boy?” Nico asked, leaning back to meet Will’s eyes with a smile.
“It is. And you--” Will cupped Nico’s face in his hands and pulled him in for a kiss, “--my beautiful boy, are going to be the first one to feed him, if you want to.”
Nico’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?”
Will nodded. “Yeah, you want to?”
“Yes!”
Will grinned and gave Nico another peck on the lips before he moved away to grab the pre-made bottle off the wagon. He sat down beside Nico and draped an arm around his back, then passed Nico the bottle and instructed him on how to hold it before coaxing Cowie Junior to lift his head and drink.
“You are a natural, darlin’,” Will muttered into the side of Nico’s neck before he pulled himself away entirely and got to his feet. “Hold still, I’m gonna get a picture.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a few steps back, most likely trying to get all three cows in the frame, and when he’d finished, he beamed down at Nico and said, “You are the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m sending this to everyone.”
It was late, even for Nico, when the two finally crawled into bed, and it hardly even seemed like twenty minutes had passed before Nico woke again to the sun shining in his eyes. When he married Will, he figured he’d be doomed to wake up at the crack of dawn every morning, just because children of Apollo tended to rise with the sun. Nico failed to take into consideration the fact that Apollo had taken a special interest in Will - and by extension, Nico - and Nico had convinced himself that Apollo had cursed Nico to become an early riser.
Each morning, no matter the weather or the direction Nico was facing, he always seemed to wake up with the sun in his eyes.
He groaned quietly and tucked his face against Will’s chest, which he had apparently chosen to use as his pillow during the night, in an attempt to hide from the sun. But it was useless - he was already awake.
Will shifted, stroking an arm up and down Nico’s back as he woke up. Nico let himself enjoy a few quiet moments with his husband in the soft glow of the sun, almost being lulled back to sleep by the beat of Will’s heart and the steady rhythm of his hand over Nico’s spine, until--
Thud.
Will’s hand froze. “D’you hear somethin’?”
Nico pressed himself closer and determinedly kept his eyes shut. “If something wants us dead, it’s gonna have to try harder than that.” Nico tried to force himself back into that relaxed state, but he knew it wouldn’t work, not when he kept hearing more thuds and bumps from upstairs, and even outside the house.
Wait, outside?
“Nico!” Solea shouted from outside the room. “Will, help! The snake found us!”
“Shit,” Will hissed, and they both scrambled out of bed, throwing on the first articles of clothing they could find. Nico summoned his sword from the nearest shadow while Will dug through the closet to fish out his bow and arrows.
They burst out of the room, running through the kitchen and out the back door. The snake wasn’t hard to find. It was massive, its body easily six feet wide and so long that it could’ve wrapped halfway around the house. One heavy swipe of its tail probably could’ve turned the barn into a pile of splinters, so Nico knew their first task was to get that thing as far away from the buildings as possible.
“Lure it into the road,” Nico said to Will before jumping into a shadow and reappearing at the snake’s tail. He stabbed the blade into the scales, but it deflected his sword easily.
“Weapons don’t work on it!” Solea shouted to him from across the yard, even as she trained her crossbow on the monster and fired.
The snake turned toward her and started slithering toward the house.
“Go to the road!” Nico yelled, and slashed at the snake’s tail again in an attempt to draw its attention.
Will started firing arrows from across the street, pulling the creature’s attention and giving Nico an opportunity to survey the area. Wilson seemed to be keeping his distance, probably traumatized from his near-death experience. Ella was digging through her backpack on the front porch.
“Ella, what are you doing?” Nico demanded.
“Looking for explosives!” she called back. “It’s the only thing that worked before, but I think the only ones we had were in Wilson’s bag!”
We’ll have to think of something else, then, Nico thought. He took a few more seconds to observe the fight - Will and Solea firing arrow after arrow to no avail, the snake only seeming to get aggravated by each little poke - and realized that they were going to need to do something drastic.
He just hoped that he and Will were on the same page.
“Will!” he shouted, running towards him. “You have to do the thing!”
Will nodded. “Cover me!”
Nico lunged forward, dragging his sword across the snake’s body with as much force as he could, and shouted, “Hey, asshole!”
The snake looked at him and hissed, though before it could do anything, something caught its attention. Nico looked toward Will to see him glowing like a second sun, and Nico almost shouted, No, not that thing, the other thing!
His glowing ability almost seemed to mesmerize the snake, and Will was able to step closer while the monster was completely frozen.
And then, while they were all distracted, the snake’s tail whipped out and coiled around Will, pulling him off the ground.
“No!” Nico screamed, but it only sounded like a distant ringing in his ears over the sound of a new voice speaking in his head - the voice of the snake.
You fool, it hissed, I am the enemy of light - I am destined to destroy you!
The snake drew Will closer to its head, and Nico thought he might black out from rage, but then Will’s glow changed. It burned brighter, hotter, and he appeared almost green in color until Nico realized that that was just a cloud of fog that seemed to be rising from Will’s throat, circling Will before, as if a strong breeze had come to blow the smoke away, it all rushed into the snake’s open mouth.
The creature choked, its hold on Will loosening as, slowly, the snake’s tail began to lower, and Will was released. He stumbled on his feet for a few seconds, just long enough for Nico to run over and catch him before he fell, and he carefully lowered Will to the ground.
Fools, the snake hissed weakly, somehow still living despite inhaling a cloud of what was essentially pure poison. I cannot be stopped so easily. Even when I fall into death, I rise with every new morning - I am unstoppable…!
“Fall into death?” Nico repeated, lifting his gaze from Will’s unconscious form on the ground. He did a mental self-scan and decided that, yeah, he had a few more jumps left in him. “I think that can be arranged.”
Nico got up and grabbed the snake’s tail, pulling it with him as he slipped into the nearest shadow. He definitely didn't have the strength to pull the entire snake, but he knew someone who might.
He emerged from the shadow of a familiar E-Z Death sign, and he started to whistle. “Cerberus, c’mere, boy!”
The giant, three-headed dog immediately abandoned his post and spun around to face Nico with two faces of excitement and one of curiosity.
“Let’s play tug-of-war,” Nico said, and the dog instantly bounded over, taking the snake’s tail just as Nico dropped it. Cerberus pulled easily at the monster, dragging it out of the shadow until the entire being appeared in Hades, and Nico breathed a sigh of relief. This was his dad’s problem, now. “Good boy. Go take your new toy to Dad, okay?”
One of Cerberus’s heads licked at Nico happily, and then all three heads picked up a section of the snake’s body, dragging the rest along the ground as he ran toward the palace.
Nico stepped back into the shadow and appeared in his yard. Solea, Wilson, and Ella were all kneeling beside Will’s motionless form. “Is he gonna be okay?” Ella asked tearfully.
Nico nodded. He kind of wanted to curl up on the ground beside Will and sleep all day - he hadn’t felt this tired since he was a teenager. “He’s fine, he just overexerted himself. Used to happen to me all the time. You kids head back inside, and I’ll take care of him.”
As the kids stood and started back toward the house, Nico pulled Will up and into a fireman’s carry so that he could take him through the nearest shadow. They appeared in the living room, having beat the kids into the house, and Nico carefully laid Will down on the couch.
Nico pulled away to get a blanket to cover Will with, but as soon as he moved, he felt something brush against his hand. He glanced back at Will to see him struggling to open his eyes. His mouth fell open just far enough for him to whisper, “Safe?”
Nico smiled and brushed a lock of hair out of Will’s face. “Yeah, sunshine, it’s safe. You did amazing, now go ahead and get some rest.”
Will hummed in response, his eyes falling shut as he leaned against Nico’s hand, and in seconds, he was asleep.
Nico had just draped a blanket over Will when he heard the door open as the kids walked inside. They found Nico in the living room, though he gestured for them to follow him back into the kitchen, where he started a pot of coffee, and got each of the kids a glass of water.
“So…” Wilson started, “it’s gone, right?”
Nico nodded. “As best as I can figure, yes.”
“Where did you take it?” Solea asked.
“Hades,” Nico answered. “Hopefully my dad will deal with it before you get there, and hopefully he keeps it from escaping before then, too.”
“Do you have any other guesses as to what it is, now that you’ve seen it?” Solea asked. “You and Will kept mentioning Python - was that it?”
Nico shook his head. “No, I’ve… We’ve never actually seen Python, but he wasn’t invulnerable like that. This was something else - I’m starting to wonder if it was from a different pantheon, even, which might explain why our weapons were useless against it.”
“A different pantheon?” Ella repeated. “What do you mean?”
“Like, Egyptian, Norse, Hindu, maybe something else.” He took a sip of his coffee, both to give the kids a chance to take in his words, and because he would probably pass out soon if he didn’t. Absently, he wondered if they had any KitKats in the house, and if they would do any good for Will. “I’m leaning toward Egyptian.”
“Why’s that?” Wilson asked.
“It called itself the enemy of light,” Nico reminded them. “The only thing I know of that goes by that name is an Egyptian serpent called Apep that battles Ra each morning as the sun rises - obviously, that would explain a few things regarding your situation. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is why it came after you three specifically.” He sized each of them up. “Unless...somebody here has any Egyptian ties?”
Solea’s eyes widened. “How would we know if we did?”
Nico shrugged. “Same way you know you’re Greek and not Roman - your upbringing, the forms in which the gods visit you. There are some gods who can cross pantheons, so if you’ve ever met a god and called them by their Greek name, you could’ve been talking to their Egyptian form. I’d ask Chiron, if you’re really curious. He’d probably be able to help you out. And I’ll try to get a hold of Anubis sometime to see what he thinks about my Apep theory.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Anyway, breakfast? How does eggs and toast sound to everybody?”
Nico sent the girls out to collect the fresh eggs that morning while he used up all of the eggs they had in the house for breakfast. He put Wilson on toast duty, both to keep the kid occupied and to make life a little easier on Nico, and then once everything was ready, he went to wake Will.
He helped Will walk to the table and sat him down at his usual seat. He looked like he’d caught a nasty cold, which was typical for him whenever he summoned his father’s plague-casting ability, which meant that Will was tired and nauseous, and couldn’t stomach much more than plain toast and water. Nico hated seeing him like that, but he was so proud of Will for the way he’d weakened the monster enough for Nico to get rid of it.
“So, do you know what your next steps are?” Nico asked as the kids all started shoveling food into their mouths.
“Get to the Underworld,” Solea answered, “find Hypnos, see if he knows what’s up.”
“I still think we should go to the river, first,” Ella said. “There might be a physical blockage somewhere, and Hypnos might not even know about it.”
Nico nodded. “Both are good options. The river will be easier to find, I can promise you that. Do you know how to get to the Underworld?”
“Besides dying?” Wilson asked, and Nico smiled.
“We know it’s in California,” Solea replied. “I was kind of hoping that once we got close, it would just...become clear, somehow.”
“I’ll write down the address for you,” Nico offered. “When you get there, you’ll want to talk to the man at reception - his name is Charon. Don’t try to fake him out or anything, just tell him that you need to get to the Underworld for a quest. Give him--” Nico reached into a shadow with one hand, suddenly feeling dizzy at expending some of his already diminished energy, and he pulled out a handful of drachmas, “--these. That’s your fee for crossing the river Styx. If he tries giving you a hard time, just tell him that I sent you, and that should clear things up for you.”
“He won’t be happy that Nico sent you,” Will said softly, a bit of laughter in his eyes, “but he won’t give you any more trouble.”
“Good point,” Nico said, and seeing his husband beside him reminded him of another point. “Oh, and are any of you musically talented? It doesn’t matter in what - you could probably play the kazoo if that’s all you know - but you should ask to use the Doors of Orpheus when you leave. That’ll put you out in Manhattan instead of LA, and it’ll be so much easier to get back to camp from there.” Under the table, he reached out for Will’s hand, giving it a squeeze, and felt Will flinch at the touch.
“Wow, you need a nap,” Will said suddenly, and Nico laughed. Said the pot to the kettle.
When everyone finished eating, the kids went back upstairs to pack up their things while Nico and Will cleared the table. Will had decided he was going to sleep for the next century, or maybe the next few hours and gave Nico a kiss on the cheek before he started toward their bedroom.
“I’ll bring home some soup for you,” Nico called after him, quietly, in case Will had a headache.
“Still doesn’t count for your night to cook,” Will replied. “Love you, be safe.”
Nico met the kids at the front door, handing Solea a small amount of nectar and ambrosia to replenish the supply they’d lost, and then took them out to the car. There was a bus station on the other side of town, so he dropped them off there after buying them tickets to California, and then waved them off as they boarded the bus.
He got into work during that quiet period between breakfast and lunch, and greeted Mariah when he walked through the door. “How are your temporary adoptees?” she asked when she noticed he came in alone.
“Safely on a bus to California,” he said with a proud smile. Mariah raised an eyebrow at him. “They’re, uh. Visiting my dad next.”
“What is this, some kind of weird family reunion tour?” she asked.
Nico shrugged. “Something like that. Anyway, did you have any issues with the delivery this morning?”
“No,” she replied with a shake of her head, “but they didn’t have the honey with them. They said Naomi’s gonna swing by later and drop it off herself.”
Nico perked up. He’d forgotten that he’d ordered more honey - maybe there would be enough that he could take some home with him. If anything was going to help Will feel better, it was tea with fresh honey from his mother’s beehive. Maybe Nico would just have to take the afternoon off again so that he could go home and take care of his husband.
They wouldn’t have two questing groups show up in the same week.
Right?