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“The End.” Nico closed the book, but Bianca still didn’t look even a little bit tired.
“I want one more story,” She asked still wide awake and hyper.
“It’s pretty late Bee. You have to go to sleep.” Getting Bianca to go to sleep was one of the biggest challenges Nico had to face as a father. He understood that her ADHD was making her restless and giving her more energy, but if she didn’t go to sleep any time soon they would have bigger problems in the morning.
“But I’m not tired.” She complained. “Can you please read me another story?”
“If I read you one more story, you’ll go asleep right after?” Nico asked her.
“Yes!” She said with her blue eyes glowing in delight. She moved a little in her bed and clutched tightly her penguin plushie. “I’m ready.”
“Do you want to read one of your books or do you want me to tell you a story?” Bianca was the hardest person to impress with a story. She had learned every book in her library by heart which meant that he and Will had to improvise and make up their own stories. That was actually more convenient as their dyslexia was making it hard for them to read at her at least two stories per night.
“Tell me your story!” She said with a big smile on her face.
Nico thought about what story he was going to tell her. The perfect story came to him. “When I was 11, I went to the underworld for the first time. As soon as I got there I got lost and I didn’t know where to go next.”
“What did you do Papa?” Bianca asked with concern on her face.
“I heard a dog crying-“
“Like when Albus was sick?”
“Yes, like that. I went to find the dog. I thought that maybe he could help me find my way. After searching for a while, I found the dog.”
“Was he big or small?” Bianca was really interested to learn more about the dog.
“The biggest dog I’ve ever seen. He had three heads.” The last comment seemed to impress Bianca. Nico could swear that there was nothing that she was afraid of. “He had hurt himself to some bushes. I cleaned his paw, and right when I was about to leave he barked at me like he wanted me to follow him.” Nico paused.
“Did you follow him?” Bianca was all excited.
“Yes, and do you know where he took me?” He asked her. Bianca was curious about what he was going to say next. “He took me to Persephone’s Garden. I had never seen a garden like that, but the dog-“
“Didn’t the Dog have a name?”
“Cerberus” Bianca gave Nico a thumbs-up, “He showed me Hades’ palace. It was a huge palace. Maybe even bigger than Olympus. I went inside the palace. I was nervous, but I wanted to meet my dad. Long story short, I met my dad for the first time, and he told me that I could go and visit him, any time I wanted to.” Well, that wasn’t exactly how his first conversation with Hades went, but there was no reason for his three-year-old to find out.
“I want to go to the Underworld one day! I want to hug Cerberus. I can bring Albus with me too!” She said all excited.
“Hate to ruin the playdate, but you are too young to go the underworld yet.” Nico replied to her.
“Aw! But when I’m older?”
“We’ll see. Now, you have to go to sleep.” Nico told her. Bianca heard the front door opening which meant that Will got home. Bianca got off her bed and ran to the living room.
“Hey Bee.” Will kissed her on the cheek. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?”
“Maybe.” She replied innocently. “Papa told me about the time he saw Cerberus.”
Will stared at Nico smiling. “Really?”
“Yes! I want to meet him too!” Bianca pouted.
Will put Bianca in her bed. “We’ll talk about it someday. You really have to sleep now, okay?”
She nodded in agreement. “Goodnight Daddy. Goodnight Papa.” They both kissed her goodnight and they let her sleep for the night.