Chapter Text
"She's had a full breakfast, a blowout, and fell off of her buggy," Will said, passing Nico a bag as he listed each new thing Sage had done that morning. "Oh, and she's learned how to blow raspberries, so prepare to get spit on everything you own."
Sage, tucked under Will's left arm, took this as a cue to demonstrate her newest skill.
"Would you stop holding her like that?" Nico pulled her out from Will’s grasp, balancing her on his hip. "She's not a football."
"I think she'd disagree." Will grinned and bent over to get on her level. "Isn't that right, Sagie-bug?"
Sage giggled and blew a raspberry into his face, nailing him in the eye. Nico joined her in laughing at Will, who stood up and wiped baby spit out of his eye, still smiling.
"Sounds like you've had an exciting morning, huh, piccolina ?" Nico turned to his daughter, who squished his face between her hands. Nico took that as an affirmative.
"Are her mornings always this chaotic, or did I just get lucky on my day off?"
Nico set a squirming Sage down by his feet, where she busied herself by pulling on the strap of her diaper bag. "Normally she only does one exciting thing before eight."
"I'm glad it's just a me problem, then. I'd feel bad if you had to deal with that much excitement that early in the morning." Will grinned and pressed a kiss to Nico’s cheek.
Nico returned the gesture. "It's usually not bad at all, but I have to admit I enjoyed the extra sleep. Though," he added, a smile creeping its way across his face, "I do miss my shitty burrito."
Will's grin grew. "Boy, do I have a treat for you!" From his back pocket he produced a Texas gas station's best excuse for Mexican food, still frozen solid and wrapped in plastic.
"My hero!" Nico swooned dramatically, taking the flashlight-sized log out of Will’s hands. He turned it over to reveal letters scrawled on the label in Sharpie. "WO?" he questioned, turning the burrito to face Will.
The blond's eyes widened. "Oh, shit, I forgot that was there." Hastily, he pulled another burrito out and fiddled with it, turning it over in his hands so quickly Nico couldn't make out what letters were written.
"Listen, Nico, I know this isn't really something you'd do, so I don't really know why I'm asking, but I figured the worst you can say is no, which you're obviously allowed to say." Will was running his hand through his hair, which wasn't a great sign, and he was rambling, which was an even worse sign. "I'm not going to be upset if you say no, though obviously I'd be really happy if you said yes, or else I wouldn't really be asking, and you don't even have to answer now, you can answer later tonight or even later next week, and—"
"Will." Nico cut him off before he could work himself up to the point of hyperventilating, which had happened when he'd proposed adopting Sage. "Just ask me."
What on earth could he possibly have to ask that was making him this nervous? They had already hit all of the typical relationship milestones, admittedly a little out of order. Sage had joined them in September and, after clearing it with Naomi, Nico had proposed that winter. He couldn’t think of a single thing Will could ask that would stress him out like this.
"I— I was just wondering if—" Oh gods, he was stuttering. This couldn't be good. "Ifyouwannagotopromwithme."
"What?"
"Do you want to go to prom with me?" Will stopped turning his burrito over, revealing the letters PR. He reached out and turned Nico’s over so the WO became OM.
P-R-O-M. Prom.
"What is a prom?"
Will blinked. "Oh. Right. Forgot about that. Prom is a dance."
"A dance? You're asking me to do a dance with you?"
"Go to a dance with me," Will clarified. "Prom is, like, the big event of high school, and you dress up nice and eat dinner and dance and drink punch, or so I'm told."
"Oh." This was the first time Will had mentioned interest in anything his high school did since Sage had been born. They’d been to a few football games in early August, usually walking out halfway through to spend time somewhere else with Will’s friends, and he'd never joined any extracurriculars. It wasn't like he had time for them, between working mornings at the gas station and taking care of Sage as soon as school got out, so Nico had assumed he was focused on getting his diploma and getting out. "And you want me to go with you?"
"Yeah. As my date." Will's smile was shy, exactly the way it had been when he'd asked Nico out for the first time. That felt like ages ago, but the butterflies in Nico’s stomach fluttered their wings again, and he almost forgot who he was, what he'd been through, believing for a moment that he was just a normal eighteen-year-old being asked to a school dance by his boyfriend.
"Yeah," Nico answered, half-lost in Will’s eyes. "Yeah, I'll go with you."
At their feet, Sage punctuated the event with a very loud and very wet raspberry, blowing spit all over Nico’s sweatpants. Will beamed and picked her up, sweeping Nico into a three-person hug that Nico happily returned.
"When is prom?" Nico asked once they'd broken apart. "And what" —he poked Sage in the stomach, making her laugh— "are we going to do with this one?"
"It's the last Saturday of the month, and my mom already said she'd watch her for the night. She said she'd disown me if I didn't do one typical teenager thing before I graduate." Will rolled his eyes, a gesture Nico had learned was generally affectionate, used when Naomi decided to over-parent her eighteen-year-old. "I told her I already had a baby, which she didn't think was very funny."
Nico chuckled and took Sage out of Will’s arms. "I can't say I blame her."
Will checked his nonexistent watch. "Oh shit, I'm already late." Apollo's children didn't need to look at their wrists to know what time it was, their connection to the sun did that all on its own, but Lee had apparently decided it was funny, and it had stayed as an unconscious habit even years after he'd passed.
"I love you, I'll see you this afternoon." Will kissed the both of them on the forehead and moved to leave, but Nico caught him by the shirt and pulled him in for one more. Will hummed happily, the feeling sending shivers down Nico’s spine before he finally pulled away.
As important as it was that Will finish school, Nico hated watching him leave.