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Nico opened his eyes slowly, getting used to the brightness of his surroundings. Wait… brightness? When he went to sleep he had been in his own cabin which was dark even during the day. (Thanks to the heavy-duty blackout curtains he had put up.) And Nico liked it that way, so why was it so bright?
Nico’s eyes quickly adjusted, then he noticed why it was so bright in his cabin. His boyfriend Will Solace was standing at the foot of his bed with a huge grin on his face. He had thrown open all the curtains Nico had so carefully shut last night. “Wheeeeell, go away” he whined, -His accent was always stronger in the morning before he was fully awake causing him to slur Will’s name.- before flipping over to bury his face back in his pillow. Nico would be lying if he said he didn’t smile even slightly at Will’s familiar and melodic laugh.
“No can do sleepyhead. You have to get up, it's already 11 and you're gonna miss the parade.” Nico turned back over at that with a confused look on his face
“What parade?” He asked. Will giggled and rolled his eyes.
“The pride parade, silly. We are heading into NY city to go. Chiron said we could as long as we took weapons and skilled fighters.” Nico nodded.
“Okay okay I’m getting up.” Nico was actually super excited this was going to be his first pride parade.
He got ready quickly before asking Will to help him with his face paint. He decided on putting two rainbow flags on his cheeks under his eyes like war paint. He was wearing his usual black skinny jeans with holes and a black T-shirt with ‘Be gay do Crime’ in rainbow letters across the front, Will had gotten it for him on his last birthday. Will was wearing blue skinny jeans and a white t-shirt with a sun in the middle that was the color of the Bi flag. He also painted half his face in the same colors.
The rest of their friends were waiting for them. Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Calypso, Lou Ellen, Cecil, Austin, Kayla, there were some other people but Nico didn’t remember their names. A few kids from the Aphrodite cabin, 3 from Hermes, and 6 others from various other cabins. Nico realized right away that the camp car was not going to fit everyone so he stepped aside to call Jules Albert, who pulled up within minutes. Will gave him a look when the black limo pulled up but didn’t say anything. Nico shrugged and sat next to his boyfriend laying his head on his shoulder.
The next time Nico was aware of his surroundings was when the car stopped signaling that they had arrived. Everyone piled out of the car and Nico thanked Jules Albert before dismissing him until they needed to be picked up.
Nico had never seen so much color in one place it was blinding but also really cool. Nico couldn’t stop looking around. There was so much to see. He tried to tone down his inner 8-year-old energy, refusing to allow Percy the opportunity to tease him about the first time they met.
Nico and Will walked further into the mob of people when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He whipped around ready to get into a fighting stance when he noticed who tapped him.
“Hazel! What the fuck I could have hurt you or something!” Hazel just smiled.
“Good to see you too, Neeks.” Nico rolled his eyes at the nickname.
“Yeah, whatever.” They melted back into the crowd, each sibling gripping the hand of their respective archer(ish) boyfriends. They eventually found the rest of the gang who had also stumbled upon old friends. Piper was there with her girlfriend Shelly, Lavinia who was IMing Poison Oak since it was too far for her to come. As the rest of the Demigods were setting up the picnic blanket, Nico got the sense that there was something very much not alive coming their way. Nico sat up and he was on high alert now he had no idea what it was but it probably wasn’t good. Will noticed Nico’s demeanor change.
“Hey Nico, are you okay? You seem on edge all of a sudden. Did something happen?” Nico looked over at his boyfriend's concerned face.
“Oh… no. It's probably nothing, just nerves from being out of camp most likely.” Nico responded. Will didn’t say anything else but he wasn’t convinced either.
Nico kept scanning the crowd hoping he could spot whatever it was that was coming toward them. When Nico was about to tell the rest of the group about his suspicion that there was something undead lurking around, Annabeth jumped up and started waving to two people standing a few feet away. As the two people got closer Nico felt the weird presence get stronger too. The two people Annabeth had waved over looked normal enough, one was blonde and vaguely reminded him of a male Annabeth but without the intense ‘I’ll rip your throat out’ stare. The other was on the shorter side and had bright green hair and heterochromatic eyes.
Annabeth introduced the blonde as her cousin Magnus Chase and his Significant Other as Alex Fierro.
When Nico was expected to introduce himself (last obviously) he looked at the two and in a deadpan voice said; “Hi I’m Nico Di Angelo and You’re both dead.” Percy and Annabeth busted up laughing the rest of the group looked confused. Will was horrified and tried to apologize on behalf of his boyfriend.
“I’m so sorry! I have no idea what came over him, he usually doesn’t do this… gosh.” Nico butted into Will’s ranting.
“I did it to your Dad when he showed up at camp.” Mangus was smirking while Alex just looked bored.
“Yes, dipshit. I think we know.” Alex drawled. Now everyone but Percy and Annabeth looked confused. Oh, and Nico wasn’t confused, he was just smug. Mangus immediately went into a brief explanation of how they were dead but still standing in front of them. After that Nico told Will that he should stop doubting him when he said people were dead or were going to be dead soon. After all, he was a son of Hades and was usually right about that stuff. Will gave him a lecture about manners again and pointed out the fact that as a son of Apollo he could also sense when people were close to death but he didn’t feel the need to tell them because it was rude. Nico shrugged off the rebuke and noticed that Alex seemed to be getting a similar lecture about swearing and being rude from his own boyfriend a little farther down the path…
Alex was paying way less attention to her boyfriend than Nico had been paying to his so he thought that that earned him at least half a point. Nico knew when Alex switched Genders probably faster than Alex did since he could feel the shift in her energies. It was kinda weird but cool at the same time.