Archive of Our Own ^beta

Nico’s music taste is questionable at worst. Eccentric at best.

On day eight, the start of week two, of moving into his new apartment, his earbuds are blasting music into his ears as he locks his door on his way to Jason’s apartment, which is why he doesn’t notice the small figure standing right behind him across the hall as he locks up carefully.

“Call me when its after dark, something in the way you wanna talk,” he hums under his breath as he somehow manages to lock the door even with the files and laptop perched precariously in the crook of one arm. He should really get a backpack that fits all of this stuff at one point. He turns around to head for the elevator.

He stops when he sees the little girl standing literally a foot away from him. “Uh? Hi?”

“Hi!” the girl chirps cheerfully. “You’re the new neighbor, right?”

“I guess I am?” Nico looks around. “Um, who are you?” and why are you standing there like a child spy planted by the government, a voice that distinctly sounds like Percy supplies not a second later in his mind, very unhelpfully.

“Daddy says I shouldn’t give my name to people I don’t know,” the girl says. Her eyes are a bright blue, sort of like the cornflowers Percy’s mother plants, and the sky outside right now. Her hair is blonde with streaks of a neon-green through it, which she doesn’t look old enough for. “He says strangers can be dangerous.”

“You’re talking to a stranger right now,” Nico points out. “Your dad is right, you know. Strangers can be very dangerous.”

The girl blinks. “Oh.”

Nico sighs. Thank god for the babysitting jobs he does for Sally sometimes, because he at least some experience with kids. Fourteen-year-old him would’ve had a breakdown a second ago. “Look, kid, where’re your parents? You shouldn’t be out here alone.”

She points at the door next to Nico. “I live there.”

Nico looks between his files, and the girl, for a second. Then he decides that the safety of an actual kid is much more important than an assignment he still has three weeks left to submit. He’d do the same for Estelle, anyway.

“Come on,” he says, “let’s get you inside. I’d like to meet your parents.”

He really wouldn’t, but that’s neither here nor there. He has to be a Responsible Adult™ and leaving a kid alone in a hallway is not behavior attributed to such adults. He follows the bouncy little girl to the door right next to his, and raps on it three times.

Half a minute later, the door swings open to reveal a tall blonde man with an extremely striking resemblance to the girl. “Hi, can I—Lena!” he gasps, immediately reaching for her. “I told you to stay inside!”

“Sorry, Daddy,” the girl actually looks abashed. “My car went under the door and I had to go get it. I heard the neighbor singing and I wanted to listen more.”

Nico’s face bursts into color. The girl was listening to him sing a literal sex song. He’s an idiot for not checking if anyone was around to begin with. “I am so sorry,” he blurts out, “I had no idea. She was right behind me when I turned around and I didn’t think she’d be safe if I just left her there.”

“Don’t apologize,” the man shakes his head. “Thank you for bringing her back. I swear I turned around for a minute to get some paperwork done and then she’s gone!” he has a cute smile. He offers Nico a hand. “I’m Will Solace. You just moved here, right?”

“Nico di Angelo,” he accepts the handshake just to be polite. He’s not the biggest fan of skin-to-skin touch. Jason, Reyna, Estelle, and hers and Percy’s mom, Sally, are about the only people he doesn’t mind close contact with. “Yeah, I live right next door. Moved in last week.”

“I would’ve said hello sooner, but I’ve only seen you once,” Will admits, his sunshine-y smile turning a little sheepish. “The day you moved in. How are you finding it here? Not too loud from this unit, I hope?”

“Oh, I didn’t even know a kid lived here,” Nico offers a tentative smile of his own both to the girl and Will. “She seems well-behaved, though.”

“She is,” Will says, “she just gets her ADHD from me, is all. This is Lena, by the way.”

“Lena Solace,” Nico says, his usual smile reserved only for Estelle coming out full-force. “That’s a nice name, kid. It’s pretty.”

“My uncle Austin named me that!” Lena says proudly. “He writes songs so he knows a lot of pretty words and names!”

Nico isn’t quite sure about the correlation there, but Lena just looks so prideful of that, he can’t bring himself to rain on her parade. “Your uncle Austin sounds like a creative person,” he remarks. He glances at Will. “No creativity here?”

“Oh, no,” Will shakes his head. “My siblings have a whole bunch of talents. I’m not an actually creatively-inclined person.”

“I see,” Nico says. He holds out a hand to Lena. “Well, I’ve gotta go. See you later?”

“See you!” Lena shakes his hand very vigorously. Nico stifles a giggle at this enthusiastic display. “Bye-bye. Mr. di Angelo!”

“Just call me Nico,” he insists. “Mr. di Angelo makes me sound old.”

“Okay,” she says agreeably. “Bye-bye, Nico!”

“Bye, Lena,” he responds. He lifts his gaze to Will. “See you around, I guess.”

“See you around,” Will waves as Nico nods and steps back. “It was nice meeting you!”

“You as well.”

***

“You have a crush,” Reyna announces. Nico throws a pen at her.

“I do not. I literally just met the guy and his kid once.” He pauses. “He’ll hate me so much when he finds out what I was singing in front of his daughter. She can’t have been more than like—kindergarten age, maybe. Six or seven.”

“What were you singing?” Jason asks.

In response, Nico picks up his phone and resumes the song he’d paused to talk to Will and Lena. Both his friends wince when they hear the chorus, “touch me, tease me, feel me up,” blasting from his speakers.

“Okay, I see why you’re freaking out,” Reyna says, “but you literally told him that you’d no idea that she was there until you turned around. He can’t fault you for that.”

“No, but who the fuck sings sex songs in public?” Nico slumps forward until his head is resting against the wood table. “This is all Lavinia’s fault. Why did I let her go through my playlists?”

“Why were you listening to that song if you didn’t like it?” Jason asks pointedly. “Also, you sing? I thought nobody was going to hear you singing even if it meant death.”

“Yes, you are correct. I unfortunately thought I was alone.” He scowls at both of them. “And it’s not my fault that the song is catchy as fuck.”

“Don’t bite my head off for a fair question,” Jason says. “Dude, calm down. The guy’s not going to murder you. Parents don’t generally set bad examples for their children.”

“We are all products of horrible parents here,” he deadpans. “Literally our entire friend group has bonded over terrible parent experiences.”

“This guy sounds like an exception, though,” Reyna says thoughtfully. “He was nice to you, wasn’t he?”

“I mean, yeah. Because his daughter was right there. She’s not so young that she’s dense.”

“He’s your neighbor,” she points out. “And he has a young child. I seriously doubt he’ll start some weird feud with you and make his life harder and set a bad example for a kid who’s already apparently pretty independent and observant, from the sound of it.”

Nico hates it when she gets all logical like that.

“More to the point,” Jason adds, “since when are you worried about what people think of you?”

“I’m always worried!” Nico throws his hands up.

“I know, but what I mean is usually you’re resigned, like, ‘that’s life, what can I do about it?’” Jason insists. “But this guy comes along and now you’re having a breakdown as if he’s already decided that you’re the worst person on Earth.”

Nico scowls at him. “I don’t have a crush.”

“The first thing you said about him was stupidly cute with stupidly distracting freckles,” Reyna leans back in her seat, arms crossed, “and an even more stupidly cute smile.”

“And stupidly bright blue eyes with stupidly golden blonde hair,” Jason reminds her.

“Oh, that too,” Reyna amends. “I don’t know, Nico. This sounds like a crush to me.”

“You’re literally aroace,” Nico protests, “aren’t you supposed to not know about all this romance bullshit?”

“Okay, first of all,” Reyna frowns, “rude. Being aroace does not mean I’m an idiot. And second of all, sweetheart, I’ve seen you all hung up over Percy Jackson. This is nothing new to me. Or Jason, for that matter.”

“You spend too much time with Piper,” is Nico’s incredible comeback.

“Stop avoiding the subject.”

“Okay, fine!” Nico slams his head against the table again. “Fine, Will has a stupidly cute face that somehow outclasses his kid’s. Great. Thanks. Can we get back to this goddamn assignment now? I have other deadlines to meet.”

Jason and Reyna share a Look, but they let the subject drop.

Nico needs better friends.

***

The reason Nico has avoided romance like the literal plague was because of a four-year-long crush on Estelle’s older brother.

The thing about Percy Jackson: anybody can agree that he’s a very attractive man. Most people are able to admit that from an objective standpoint. Unfortunately, Nico wasn’t able to do so. His eleven-year-old self somehow managed to think that Percy was the coolest guy in the world. How he arrived at the conclusion, he doesn’t know, since the idiot is the biggest dork he’s ever met. Yeah, Percy’s nice and stupidly considerate but the more a mature Nico thought about it, the more he realized that he would’ve actually died trying to put up with Percy the way his girlfriend Annabeth does so lovingly.

But anyway. Eleven-year-old Nico practically idolized Percy, realized that it was a crush, and subsequently went through the five stages of grief. It’s really not funny that he was actually going through it for real, given that his sister Bianca had just died. That whole mess ended with Nico emotionally distancing himself from everyone, until high school, when Jason moved to their area of town and somehow befriended the weird emo guy in freshman year and also managed to hit it off with Percy in a weird bro-ship.

He’s a year younger than Percy, but somehow the guy’s best friend after his childhood friend Grover Underwood. He also considers Nico his closest friend more than anyone else, introduced him to his friend Reyna who took one look at Nico and decided that it was a good day for an adoption, and he forced him back into Percy’s friendship circle.

He also sicced a whole bunch of new people into the mix. And henceforth, for the first time since Bianca died, Nico acquired a social life filled with people who accepted him for who he was with all his weird quirks and tended to be even weirder sometimes. That was a novelty. It still is, sometimes. At least he can talk about boys without getting hate-crimed. Instead, he gets teased mercilessly.

To restate: Nico needs better friends.

But anyway.

Nico never actually told anyone the entire reason he just up and ghosted them all. Percy was rightfully hurt, because though he thought Nico was annoying, he also considered Nico kind of a little brother, and the day of Bianca’s death shattered his own childhood and Nico’s leaving didn’t make him feel any less like it was his own fault. It’s probably worth saying that Percy needing a therapist after that was also aided by the fact that an angry, grief-stricken eleven-year-old Nico screamed at Percy and blamed him for it, and it was obviously unfairly.

It only took three years of therapy to work that out.

His crush on Percy went largely unsaid. Everyone assumed that on top of Bianca’s death just short years after losing his mother, realizing that he had a half-sister a year younger than him meant that his father had cheated on his mother when he and Bianca were just kids, had been most of the reason. Of course, these were completely true—but he never told anyone, not even his half-sister Hazel, that struggling with his sexuality had really done it.

His coming-out story is one that everyone retells with tears of laughter almost every time it comes up.

It basically went like this:

Their entire group of friends had met up at Jason and his sister Thalia’s family mansion, that they’d inherited from their dad while he moved off to Hawaii for retirement, for a bimonthly hangout. Nico had only been there like five times, but he was already starting to feel like it was kind of a home.

“Attention, everyone!” a slightly tipsy Percy had yelled, cutting in through the loud noise of a couple of teenagers and young adults having their own types of fun. “I have a very important announcement to make!”

Annabeth sat beside him and squeezed his hand, nudging him. Percy making a scene is still a pretty normal thing, so of course not everyone paid attention immediately, at least not until Annabeth called for attention, too.

Percy took a deep breath, and then basically yelled, “I’m bisexual!”

This was met with silence, and then riotous laughter. “Of course,” Thalia shrieks at him, “Jackson would come out like that!”

Nico, meanwhile, was sputtering violently on his soda, in lieu of any alcoholic drinks or such because of a class the following morning, and Hazel patted his back reassuringly.

Percy was met with warm, supportive responses. Nico didn’t realize how much that was relieving a burden off of Percy’s shoulder until he slumped against Annabeth and said, “well, that went much better than it could have.”

“So, how’d you know?” Piper McLean wanted to know.

It was Annabeth who answered. “He took one look at my cousin Magnus and told me that he was cute. It took him a full three weeks to realize precisely what his exact thought process actually meant.”

She pulled out her phone and showed them her lock screen, herself with another similar boy, who looked to be around her age. “You do realize that this speaks volumes for his type,” Leo Valdez remarked, examining the picture.

Annabeth started laughing hysterically. “I know! That’s what I said!”

“Jackson’s type: blonde and gray-eyed,” Reyna announced gleefully. “It shows.”

Percy had absolutely nothing to say to that. He didn’t even defend himself at all, simply curled into Annabeth’s side and said, “I have eyes, that’s it.”

“And you weren’t worried about the fact that he found your cousin attractive?” is what Nico said, half-teasingly. Annabeth shrugged.

“I mean, he’s been obsessed with me since we were kids,” she said, “and Magnus would never look at Percy that way. He’s head-over-heels for his partner.”

Which sounded about right. Percy’s love for Annabeth was a long saga of petty rivalries, strangely befitting teamwork, several arguments, and a one-time kiss (from Annabeth) before they actually managed to get their shit together a year after that. Even Nico had to admit they were a good pair. Destined, even.

“This is actually so insulting,” Nico blurted out. He wanted to stop, but he didn’t. He’d rather get this over with quickly enough. “I had a crush on you for literally years and I only know that you’re not straight now, years after the fact?”

Percy actually choked on his drink. “Say what now?” he wheezed. Everyone started the riotous laughter again, more at Percy’s reaction than anything.

“You’re cute, but you’re not my type,” Nico shrugged.

“Wait. Not your type…so, you mean—you’re—”

“Gay, yes,” he raised an eyebrow. “Surprised, Jackson?”

“I—” Percy looked like a fish out of water, mouth opening and closing and just blinking at Nico in absolute shock. “What do you mean, I’m not your type?”

Nico squinted at him. “That’s what you’re focusing on?!” he gaped. “Oh, no, Jackson—you’re not doing this. You do not get to be insulted that you’re not my type anymore.”

The night ended with a lot of supportive hugs and love. Nico had never felt so happy—so included and loved.

***

So, yeah.

Given that Nico went through a whole existential crisis because of being gay, he’s eager to not curse himself like that again. Which is why Nico’s steadfastly ignoring the glaring fact that Will Solace is literally the cutest boy he’s ever met.

If Percy was emotionally unavailable because of a supersmart blonde with gray eyes and a tendency to simultaneously bully and adore him, Will Solace is definitely emotionally unavailable because he is a university student with a daughter to look after. Nico knows this because the first day they met, Will was wearing the hoodie for the same university they both attend. It didn’t sink in until after he’d left Jason’s apartment.

He doesn’t actually know if Will is married or has a girlfriend, because he’s never seen Lena with her mother, only Will. For all he knows the mother is only around when he’s not there to say hi to Lena (or Will). Or, judging from how Lena never talks about her mother, she isn’t around. Nico doesn’t ask. He knows what it’s like to grow up as a kid with only one parent. Maybe the circumstances are different for Lena and Will, but it’s better not to poke his nose where it doesn’t belong.

It’s kind of sad that he’s literally hung up over a cute boy next door at age twenty-six. It’s like high school all over again.

Except for the fact that high school was spent slowly opening himself up to a tiny little thing called human connection thanks to one Jason Grace, and getting over one Perseus Jackson. Estelle Blofis is so much cooler than her older brother. Might be because her dad is actually a nicer person than Percy’s dad.

(Although that doesn’t explain why Hazel is cooler than him when they’re siblings with the same dad.)

One Sunday morning, he’s stepping out for a coffee run, when he finds Will and Lena outside. Lena’s skipping in circles, as a motorized toy car races around their legs a little bit lopsidedly. Nico spots that one of the wheels lack the black rubber covering—she probably broke it again, but isn’t bothered about it.

A thing to be said about Lena Solace is that she loves her little Barbie dolls, which Nico personally finds very creepy, but her true love is cars. Race cars, even more so. Will says that it’s just like when he was a kid, and he adored cars above almost anything. At least, until he got his first doctor set, that is. Then it was a single-minded focus to become a doctor from there on.

Quite a far cry from Nico and his plastic and rubber skeletons and Mythomagic cards.

Will isn’t paying much attention to Lena’s race cars; he has his phone in his hand, typing aggressively and looking far too stressed for his own good. “Lena, don’t be so loud,” is what he says absently, before he brings his phone to his ear. “Hey, Cecil. Are you free?” The Cecil presumably says no, because he deflates. “Oh. Never mind then. I’ll get back to you later, after classes.”

He clasps the phone between both hands, leaning back against his door. “Damn it,” he hisses, clearly frustrated. “What do I do now?”

That’s when Nico realizes that he’s just been standing there, staring at the two Solaces. “Uh. Hey, Will.”

Will nearly jumps out of his skin. “Hi, Nico,” he says, placing a hand over his heart. “I didn’t see you there. Off to class?”

“Nah, just to get some coffee,” he says. “My coffee machine broke. What’s got you so worked up this early in the morning?”

“I can’t find a babysitter for Lena,” Will admits. “Usually, my sister Kayla watches her, just for the morning, but she left for training yesterday.” Nico knows this. His younger sister is competing in the Olympics for archery, representing Canada, if he remembers what Will said right. “My friend agreed to watch her, but I just saw her text. She’s been on a sudden morning shift since five a.m. and she did let me know as soon as she was called in, but I’ve been so busy juggling Lena and coursework that I just saw it.”

“Shift?” Nico wants to be sympathetic, or at least as best as he can, but now he’s just a little confused.

“She’s a nursing student,” Will tells him. “And nobody else is free right now. I have an eighty-thirty class and I need to go now or I’ll be late. But nobody is free to watch her. I tried Austin, but he’s got a gig in an hour.” His brother Austin is apparently one of those local musicians Nico tries to avoid. “And my friends are all at work!”

Will is slightly panting by the time he gets through all this. He looks so distressed, much like someone is threatening to cut his university funds or something. Nico feels so bad for him. He looks kinda like a kicked puppy, actually. He doesn’t know why he does it.

“I can watch her for you,” Nico blurts out. He immediately regrets it.

Will’s eyes are wide, rounded, in gratitude. “Would you really?!”

Nico cringes internally. It’ll be fine. Estelle was younger than Lena when he first began to watch her. She’s eleven years old right now. She was barely five when Nico first took his very first babysitting job. Besides, Will said Lena is a well-behaved child and it looks like she is! She never really gives Will much trouble other than being hyperactive.

“I mean, you’re clearly struggling,” Nico says. “I have a class at ten, but I’ll Zoom in.”

Will hesitates. “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

Nico rolls his eyes. “Oh, don’t be like that. I barely ever attend the in-person morning classes anyway. It’ll be fine. You’re a med student, aren’t you? Classes have got to be a very important part of your education, and all.”

“Well, actually, I’m not in med school yet, since I dropped out of college when this kid here was born to look after her, but yeah,” Will says. “On my way there. Are you sure?”

Nico nods, determined now. “I’m sure. You go off to class now. Lena and I will be fine. You’ll see, it’ll be like a normal day after class.”

Will gives in. “I’ll be back at four p.m.,” he warns. “I have work straight after classes. I can come back to take Lena with me if that’s too much for you to handle.”

“No, no, that works out fine,” Nico shakes his head. “My next class is at five p.m. That works for me. Mind if I take her along on my coffee run?”

“Sure, just give me your number,” Will takes out his phone. Nico’s cheeks flush, but he reminds himself that it’s just Will being a responsible parent. No sane father would let his daughter go off with someone else without at least swapping numbers, he reminds himself as he rattles off the digits. Within seconds, his phone pings with a notification, a text from Will.

unknown: hi! it’s will :)

“Lena,” Will turns to his still-distracted daughter (who’s already waved at Nico brightly before going back to her toy cars), “Auntie Lou can’t watch you today. How about you spend the day with Nico instead? Would you like that?”

Lena stops. Her grin is bright, happy. Nico’s heart hurts from the extreme cuteness. “I would!” she yelps happily. “Yes, please, Daddy!”

Will laughs, looking at Nico. “Well, you have an enthusiastic candidate here,” he teases. “I’ll be off now. Lena, you be a good girl, okay? I love you.” He kisses her forehead.

“Yes, Daddy,” she chirps, leaning up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. “I love you too! See you soon!”

“See you soon, baby,” the love on Will’s face is so evident. It makes Nico jealous. Hades di Angelo had never made time like this for any of his kids—not Nico, not Bianca, and definitely not Hazel. He definitely favored Bianca a little, going as far as to say that had Bianca been the one who lived that day, it would’ve been better.

It’s still undecided whether he really meant that or just said it in anger.

“Call me if anything happens, okay?” Will tells Nico, hiking his backpack farther up his shoulder. “Don’t keep your phone on silent or anything, I like to call every few hours to check in on Lena. Keep my girl safe, okay?”

“Okay,” Nico agrees, seeing that Will is serious. There’s even an undercurrent of a very real threat there—hurt my daughter, and you will pay. Damn, it’s actually kind of hot to hear, but he’s not going to say that. “Lena is in good hands, I promise.”

“Good. See you later,” he squeezes Nico’s shoulder affectionately as he walks past. In their three-weeks-old friendship, he’s seemingly picked up on Nico’s aversion to touch and never done much more than shake his hand or punch him lightly on the shoulder. This…this feels different. Much more affectionate than before.

It sends electric currents zipping through his body, especially when Will’s long, nimble fingers brush accidentally against the bare skin of the junction between his shoulder and neck. He shivers, blinking a little stupidly at little Lena. She’s taller than any of the boys her age, but still short as compared to Nico’s kind of sad five-five, maybe five-six. Will’s a solid six-foot-something, so maybe Lena will inherit that part of him.

“So, Lena,” Nico says. “Come inside with me. I actually forgot my wallet.”

“Okay!” Lena skips up to him, and it almost seems like she’ll take his hand, but she just stands beside him as he opens his door again. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to get some coffee,” Nico answers. “Do you want some hot chocolate or something? When did you have breakfast?”

“Uh, seven-thirty,” Lena says after some thinking, following Nico inside. “Daddy says I shouldn’t have anything until at least a few hours.”

“When did he tell you that?” Nico asks, feeling a little offended at such a direct comment, hunting for his wallet through the mess on his coffee table. It’s filled with hard copies of assignments, notebooks of notes, and even bills. He should organize this mess soon.

“Auntie Lou gives me candy a lot,” Lena says. “But after I got sick one time, he said he doesn’t want me doing that again. So, I told Auntie Lou that I won’t eat candy until like three hours after breakfast.”

“Oh.” Nico finds that acceptable. “That’s fair. In that case, what do you do with your Auntie Lou when your dad drops you off?”

Lena points to the backpack on her back. “She sets me to read. It’s like a game, where we see how far I can read in an hour or something like that.”

Nico raises a brow. “You like reading?”

“Yep!” Lena says proudly. “I love reading! Daddy says it’s a good hobby to have.”

“Your dad is right,” Nico says. “It is a good hobby to have. How about you leave all of your stuff here on the couch until we get back? No point in carrying all of that around.”

Lena hesitates for a split second, before she sets her backpack on Nico’s black leather couch. She opens it and tosses in her three little motorized cars in her hand, zips it up, and turns to Nico, who’s found his wallet, expectantly. “Done!”

“Okay, let’s go,” he says, stepping outside and locking the door. “Just a warning, you’ll probably meet one of my friends.”

“I like making friends,” Lena says, unbothered. Huh. A far cry from the antisocial little girl Hazel had been, apparently, despite her outgoing personality these days. Then again, Nico was one weird little kid, too. “Is your friend nice?”

“Oh, very,” Nico assures her. “She’s very nice. I think you’ll like her.”

***

Lena Solace and Piper McLean do indeed get along very well.

“Hi!” Piper ignores him completely when the two of them step in, Lena bouncing along just ahead of him. “What’s your name? I’m Piper!”

“That’s a really pretty name,” Lena immediately takes to her. “I’m Lena!”

Piper gasps. “That’s such a cute name! Your parents have good taste, sweetie.”

“My uncle Austin named me,” Lena says, again with that hint of pride. “He writes songs and he knows a lot of pretty names for things and people!” She pauses to take in Piper’s hairstyle. “I like your hair. It’s really nice.”

Piper, who’s never been very confident in her appearance, reaches up to touch the blue-dyed dove feather braided into her chocolate brown hair, as usual done with little braids here and there, chopped a little unevenly the way she feels more comfortable in. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she says, genuinely grateful for the compliment. “I like your hair, too. Why is it green, though? I don’t see that color a lot.”

“My auntie Kayla wanted us to match, but Daddy was so-o-o mad when he found out,” Lena confides. “He said that Auntie Kayla was right and I’m pretty, but he was mad.”

“He didn’t know you were going to do it, huh,” Piper says sympathetically.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to ask Daddy first,” Lena pouts. “But he said he wasn’t angry with me. But Auntie Kayla isn’t allowed to touch my hair anymore. She was mad but now she says she’d rather teach me archery. She’s a really good archer!”

“Is that so? Are you?”

“No,” Lena says mournfully. “I can never hold the bow right. Auntie Kayla said she and her daddy could do it since they were kids, but me and my daddy just can’t, but that it’s okay, because I can read really good and I love cars more, anyway.”

“Aw, that’s rough,” Piper pats her head from over the counter. “Everyone’s talented in different ways, you know?”

Nico steps forward. “Are you going to continue ignoring me in favor of a small child?” he asks, only slightly sarcastically. The display is adorable and it’s great to find that she gets along with Lena, but he really needs his caffeine to function or he will actually die and be arrested for letting Lena out of his sight because he was caffeine-deprived.

“Oh, hey, di Angelo,” Piper grins. “Who is this kid? I thought the only kids you choose to associate with consisted of Estelle and Estelle only.”

“This is my neighbor’s kid,” he says dismissively. “Her usual babysitters are all busy so I decided to do her dad a favor and watch her until four.”

“You’re kidding. You, Nico di Angelo, agreed to babysit a kid who isn’t Estelle Blofis?” her grin grows ever-wider. “This isn’t that stupidly cute neighbor’s kid, is it? Hm, let’s see…the one with the stupidly cute smile that Jason mentioned?”

“Shut it, McLean,” Nico whines. “Get me my order or I will die.”

“Sure, sure,” Piper’s laugh is sweet and ringing and entirely too mocking. “The usual is coming right up.”

Nico and Lena wander over to sit at one of the tables until Piper manages to get to the coffee machine to make his order. Lena’s nicked a couple of tissues and is busy amusing herself by twisting and tearing them up. She spies a pen lying on a nearby table and she goes for it, coming back and promptly beginning on the squares of tissues she’s torn.

It’s actually kind of funny in a really endearing way to watch.

“Order up, di Angelo!” Piper calls in about two minutes. He goes to get his coffee, and after murmuring a thank-you to her, he begins to turn away. But Piper stops him. “Hey, uh, Nico. I want to tell you something.”

“Yeah?” normally, Piper would tell Annabeth or Hazel, if there was anything bothering her, but there’s a first for everything. He wouldn’t turn her away. “What is it?”

“So, uh,” he’s never seen her this nervous, and it makes him nervous, in turn. “You’re aware of how I broke up with Jason like a while ago, right?”

Nico nods. “That was like a year ago, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was,” Piper says. “I broke up with him because there were things I needed to think through, and I wasn’t sure I could keep dating him in good conscience, you know? We sort of, kind of promised to get back together if by the end of this whole thinking-period, we both felt the same.”

“Okay,” Nico nods, to let her know he’s listening.

“So, I. I have a date tonight,” Piper seems to be holding her breath, “and it’s…it’s not Jason. I don’t feel like that about him anymore.”

“And that’s bothering you? It shouldn’t, you know. You promised to get back together if you felt the same, and you don’t,” Nico says.

“I know that, it’s just,” she takes a deep breath. “It’s a girl. I’m going on a date with her. That girl who works in the back. The one with the earrings and nose piercing.”

Nico blinks. “I thought you were straight.”

Piper laughs weakly. “Yeah, well,” she gestures at herself. “I thought I was, too. Guess we’re all proved wrong by ourselves sometimes. I’ve never really allowed myself to think about that possibility, but things with Jason, they weren’t—okay. And I started to think about that possibility more and more and I guess. This is it.” She chews on her lip. “I’d say I’m bisexual or something, but I don’t know. I might be pan for all I know.”

“Thank you for telling me, Piper,” Nico says genuinely. “You don’t need to know right away, you know? Even a year isn’t enough sometimes. Go on that date and show her a good time. Let her know what a keeper you are.”

Piper barks out a relieved sort of laugh. “Thanks, Neeks. I appreciate that so much.”

“Any time,” Nico says. “I gotta get back to Lena. Text me about the date tonight. Even if it goes badly or well.”

“Roger,” Piper salutes him. “And you go make a move on that hot dad of hers.”

“I never called him hot,” Nico protests, “and no way. I’ve only known him for like two or three weeks by now.”

“Don’t miss your chance,” Piper teases, “or someone else will snatch up his attention!”

“Oh, fuck off.”

***

When they get back to the apartment, Lena puts the tissue scraps in her backpack (she’d left the pen in the café, though), and settles down to read. Nico tells her to see how far she can read her copy of the Famous Five book in two hours, adequate enough time to get some work done on his newest assignment.

The pair work in silence for the next two hours. Nico works on an essay for a while, and then Zooms into his ten-a.m. class after he gets up to get a drink of water for himself and Lena, and tries to get through the rest of it. His professor sets them a task that’ll take the rest of class to work on, and he works with complete concentration, until the timer pings on his phone. He’s suddenly grateful that he’s muted.

It startles an extremely absorbed Lena out of her reverie. “Two hours already?” she asks Nico, peering at his phone. He’d set it just to let Lena get a little exercise instead of her just staying on the couch for hours on end. “Look at how far I’ve gone, Nico!”

Nico looks at her holding out the open book proudly. “Wow,” he whistles, impressed. She’s read more than half the book already. “You’re good. I’m impressed, Lena.”

“Thank you,” her cheeks flush, apparently just as bad at taking compliments as her dad. “Can I play with my cars now?”

“Yes, just don’t be very loud,” Nico says, pointing at his laptop. “I’m in class.”

“Okay!” she chirps, reaching into her backpack for her cars.

And she isn’t much loud at all. She makes her special effects noises, of course, and she runs a commentary on whatever is happening in the story she weaves out, but she stays quieter than usual and reduces her noise to a whisper.

Nico smiles at her over the screen of his laptop. Yeah, she’s a good kid, alright.

***

In the afternoon, Nico whips up a simple pasta for lunch after checking to see if Lena’s able to eat it. He calls Will to ask about any allergies she might have, and finds that she has skin-allergy issues, and can’t consume too much of any dairy product and artificial strawberry products.

“Lena hates that fact,” Will sighs over the chatter of students streaming out the lecture hall in the class he just finished. “She loves cheese and milk, and strawberry products—but we found out she was allergic to them the hard way. Sudden allergy attacks had me so worried until a series of tests and a check of her eating habits told us what was up.”

“So, I just remove the cheese from the recipe then?” Nico clarifies.

“Just a little bit should be okay,” Will says. “Avoid giving her anything else like that for the rest of the day, though. Then she should be fine. Let her indulge in what she likes.”

So, Nico adds enough cheese just for the pasta to be a little sticky, no more. Lena says that it’s the best pasta she’s ever eaten with sparkling eyes.

“Thank you,” Nico tells her sincerely. “It was my mom’s recipe. Me and my sister used to make it all the time.”

Lena pauses. “Was?” she asks. Nico purses his lips, knowing that Lena wouldn’t know that it’s a sensitive subject for him. She’s a kid and kids ask questions.

“She died when I was only a little bit older than you,” he tells Lena. He can’t tell her about Bianca. That memory was too raw, too full of hurtful areas that he can’t go into, not in front of anyone, much less a kid. His therapist had a hard enough time trying to help him when he was struggling to tell her everything.

“Oh.” Lena looks down at her pasta. “I don’t have a mommy either. Daddy says…that some kids just don’t have one, but that doesn’t mean their parents love them any less.”

“If their parents are good people, like your dad,” Nico says firmly, “then that’s true. I’m going to promise you, right now, that your dad loves you more than anyone else in the whole work. You’re everything to him, Lena. Some people don’t have mommies and it doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

“I know,” Lena grins at him, but she’d seemed so upset about the fact that she doesn’t have a mother. It might be because of what kids were saying at school, or something in that respect, but he makes a mental note to talk to Will about it. He understands first-hand how absent parents can affect a child’s life, especially from such a young age.

It’s what fucked him up so badly, after all.

***

Lena falls asleep on his couch just before Will picks her up.

When Will knocks on the door, Nico rushes to get it before the sound wakes her up? It wouldn’t do for that to happen. He’s not quite sure if Lena still cries or gets grumpy at being awoken. He knows Estelle cried until she was nine years old.

“Hi,” he says, trying not to make his smile look too stupid. Will looks exhausted, but it doesn’t dim the frequency of his sunny smile. “She just fell asleep, actually.”

“There goes her sleep schedule,” Will sighs, but he doesn’t look too irritated. “I can get a couple hours of sleep too, then, before starting dinner and keeping her occupied until she falls asleep. She has school tomorrow, so.”

“Monday, huh,” Nico says. He glances at the papers cradled in one arm, and the grocery bag in his other hand. “I can carry her inside, if you want. Your arms are kind of full.”

“Sure, I’d appreciate that,” Will looks entirely too relieved at that. “But can you?”

“I’m not that scrawny, Solace,” Nico scoffs. “My friend’s sister is older and bigger than her and I can carry her just fine.”

Will’s eyebrows and mouth quirks. “I’m sure. Just don’t drop my child.”

“I’ll drop you out the window first,” Nico mutters, turning to pick up Lena. Her blonde hair is tied back in a braid, courtesy of Nico (who learned for Bianca, and then kept on doing it for Hazel, despite her curly hair making it a tough job), and it makes it easier to carry her without getting it in his face. He follows Will into his apartment as he opens the door with a little fumbling due to his full hands.

The apartment is relatively neat. The walls are painted in pale yellow, not so bright that it hurts, but just kind of nice to look at, a contrast to Nico’s pale gray-painted walls. The couch sitting against the far wall is brown, the armchair against the nearest wall in the same color. Nico has no armchair. There’s no coffee table, but there is a TV near the door, a regular-sized one. There are a few cars and other assorted toys scattered around, but most are neatly put away in a basket by the armchair. There’s a stack of books on the couch—college textbooks. Will puts the papers on top of them with the groceries.

“Sorry about the mess,” Will says sheepishly, pitching his voice low, leading Nico to the second doorway through a short hall near the couch. He opens the door to a pleasantly cool room, the walls painted a soft rose-pink, but one wall done in white paint and it’s covered in scribbles and squiggles. “Her art wall. I thought it would be good to let her have a space for that, since I can’t really afford to buy sketchbooks all the time. Damn, I forgot to turn off the air-conditioning, but never mind.”

He takes Lena from Will. She immediately curls into him, her somewhat tense-looking expression melting into something more serene. Will sighs, hugging her for a minute, pressing a soft, tender kiss to her forehead. Nico’s heart melts, watching the scene. It’s such an adorable, loving gesture.

It’s so, so clear that Lena means the absolute world to Will. This man needs to stop this. Well, Nico will murder him if he stops loving Lena, because he’s pretty attached to her by now, but this is just making him fall harder for the guy even more.

Ugh, feelings. So unpredictable and such a minefield.

Will places Lena gently on her twin-sized bed, pulling a blanket decorated with a photo of Lightning McQueen over her. The two of them silently step out and close the door behind them.

“Thank you so much for today,” Will says gratefully when Nico’s by the front door. “It means so much that you’d be willing to do this. I think Lena had a good time today.”

“She certainly had a lot of fun,” Nico admits. “She even helped out with cooking today. She’s surprisingly adept at a lot of things.”

“A natural, unlike me,” Will laughs. “It took me a solid seven months just to learn how to cook properly, and look at her, all of seven years old and already getting there.”

“She’s just more talented,” Nico teases. Will shoves playfully at his shoulder.

“You obviously favor my daughter more.”

“What gave it away?” he laughs at the scandalized expression on Will’s face. He hesitates for a second, and then he says, “Will, actually, I need to tell you something. It’s about Lena…you should know.”

Will’s expression immediately sobers. “What?”

“Today the topic of my mother came up,” Nico says, “and she seemed really upset that she…apparently doesn’t have a mother? I told her that you love her to bits and not all people have moms. She took it in her stride, but she looked so sad that it worried me.”

“Oh.” Will’s worried expression becomes more tired. “That’s…a long, difficult story. I wish I could give her those things, that normal children have, like an actual set of parents, but it’s just not possible. I’ve only recently gone back to uni and it’s a struggle, juggling both a kid and that. I’m just grateful she’s old enough to be apart from me for most of the day, even if it breaks my heart to do so.”

“I’m sorry things are hard,” Nico says. “If you’d like, I’ll keep babysitting her every day. She likes spending time with me, and it’s nice to have her around. You won’t have to go and get her somewhere else, too. Of course, that’s only if you’re okay with it.”

Will smiles, tired, soft, grateful. Nico’s heart skips a beat in his chest. “Thank you, Nico,” he says. “That’s the best offer I’ve received all year. How about I drop her off straight after school tomorrow at two? I’ll be dropping her off at eight and be back for her same time as today.”

“That’s fine with me,” Nico agrees. He catches sight of the clock above Will’s couch—almost four-thirty. “Oh, shit, I gotta go get ready for class. See you tomorrow, Will!”

“See you,” Will offers one last smile before closing the door. Nico rushes back inside his own apartment and hunts for his hoodie and jeans.

Will’s smile is permanently ingrained into his brain as he throws them on and grabs his backpack. Crushes are the worst.

***

So, yeah. April gives way into May, and the summer weather really starts to show itself, Lena Solace and her father become a permanent fixation in Nico’s life. He finds that he actually enjoys babysitting her as much as he enjoys those moments he spends after the fact with her dad, just talking, occasionally drinking coffee, sometimes watching stuff.

Oh—that’s an addition to their daily routine. Once Will gets back from work and Lena’s either put to bed or sat down to do her homework (on school days)/play with whatever it is she wants to play with (on weekends), Nico is invited inside to just talk with Will, or watch something on TV with him. They’ve learned things about each other in that time, and Nico’s not surprised at half of them.

Like how Will is from Texas, and his father’s had enough flings that Will ended up with seven siblings, and two of them are older than him. The famed Uncle Austin is about a little over two years younger, and the famed Auntie Kayla a year or so younger. Gracie, Jerry, and Yan are all a year younger than Kayla.

Nico needs a moment to process that when he hears it. “Wow,” he says. “Your dad…is certainly something, isn’t he?”

“Discounting the numerous kids,” Will says with a half-exasperated, half-fond sigh, “he is quite something. He’s not a bad dad, as far as they go. He keeps up with us all, insists on seeing us all at least once a month. Lena and I are going to go pick him up tomorrow at the airport, actually. He’ll be staying with Austin since I have no room and Kayla’s not even here. He travels a lot for work, though he’s based somewhere in Greece these days, I think.”

Will, in turn, learns that Nico is from Venice, Italy. He learns that Nico’s mother is dead, learns that he has a younger sister named Hazel and an older sister named Bianca. He’s not privy to the knowledge that Bianca died fifteen years ago and Nico still struggles to deal with that fact to this day. He doesn’t know that Nico is gay and has a crush on him.

Will has learned about Nico’s obsession with Mythomagic, and Nico’s currently being roped into watching Star Wars with him. “You’ll have to play a Mythomagic round with me to make up for this,” he grumbles, trying not to shiver at the feeling of Will leaning against him. They’ve gotten more comfortable with skin contact lately.

“Okay,” Will says agreeably. “Bring the deck with you tomorrow, then.”

Nico doesn’t say that he’d much rather sit like this, with Will, than ever move away. He keeps quiet about it, and misses most of what they watch that night, as focused as he is on Will gradually falling asleep on his shoulder. Lena’s asleep in her room tonight and he doesn’t have to worry about getting caught staring at Will.

When Will wakes up almost an hour later, he apologizes profusely? Nico brushes them all off and practically bolts home, probably making Will feel even worse but Nico’s so flustered and overwhelmed that he literally cannot sit in the Solace apartment anymore.

nico: im fucked help sos
jason: ???

***

“So, wait,” Percy stares at him. “You have a crush on a dude who isn’t involved with anyone right now and you’re getting close to him. The guy literally fell asleep on you.”

“Yes, I know, Perseus,” Nico scowls. “Why are you here again?”

“Because you wanted relationship advice from somebody, and I quote, ‘suitable for this bullshit,’” Percy raises a brow. “That’s what Jason said, anyway.”

“Ugh.” He’d panic-texted Jason, who hasn’t dated anyone since the whole Piper thing, and he realized that the only person he knows who’s qualified to give advice on messy relationships is actually Percy given his history with Annabeth, and begrudgingly asked Jason to relay the message. He was going to die if he asked Percy by himself.

“Look, Nico,” Percy says, “I don’t see why you shouldn’t make a move.”

“I don’t even know if he likes guys!” Nico throws his hands up, exasperated. More than Percy, at himself. “And he has a daughter!”

“You won’t know unless you ask,” Percy points out. “Just because he has a kid doesn’t have to mean he’s emotionally unavailable, you know. Maybe he won’t want to pursue a relationship in interest of focusing on his studies and his kid, but again, how will you know until you ask? You do realize that you’re beating yourself up over assumptions?”

“Damn it, this is why I gave up on you,” Nico bangs his head against the café table. Just behind him, he hears the sound of Piper talking to one of the customers, confirming a coffee order. Her love life is going great. She officially has a girlfriend now. Shel is pretty cool, and she’s been introduced to their friend group.

“Nico,” Percy sighs. “You remind me of myself.”

Nico pulls himself up to glare at him. “Explain. That is a traitorous comparison.”

“I didn’t want to do anything about Annabeth at first because, you know, Luke,” is his first sentence. Nico winces; the much-older boy who’d been Annabeth’s older brother figure and, for a while, her crush, is a messy topic. “And then there were just so many things going on with her family, and her own life, not to mention the weird rivalries the two of us had going on? I just assumed that she wasn’t emotionally ready for anything because of that, when finally getting to admit she loved me would’ve been a reprieve from everything for her.”

It takes a minute, but Nico sees the similarity.

“I know the thing with you and Will is different,” Percy says, “but seriously, just gather up some of that iron will of yours and tell him. If he rejects you, then it’ll hurt, I know, but if he was ever your friend, he wouldn’t just cut ties between you two.”

“I hate it when you’re being so wise,” Nico complains. “Annabeth likes you for reasons like this. And you doubt what she sees in you?”

“You’re being hypocritical.” Percy laughs. “So, what do you say?”

“I’ll…eventually get around do it,” Nico finally relents. Percy has a point. “Just…now’s not a good time, really. Maybe in a couple of weeks.”

Percy raises an eyebrow. “You better get there before somebody else beats you to the punch, then.”

Nico promises himself that he will.

***

Lena is acting a little restless today, so Nico takes her out to the nearby park to let her blow off some steam. She loves it, running around with a couple of girls she immediately makes friends with. When she drags one of them over to say hi to her dad’s supposed best friend, Nico’s startled to see Estelle.

“Stella!” he exclaims, scooping his favorite little girl (sorry, Lena) into a quick hug. “Why are you here? Where’s your mom?”

“I’m here with Annabeth and her cousin and his girlfriend,” Estelle says, pointing right towards the trio, sitting at a bench. She grabs Nico’s hand. “Come say hi!”

“Okay,” he agrees, knowing Annabeth will be upset if he didn’t come by and say hello. Estelle races ahead, while Nico takes Lena’s hand and walks her along. “Is Estelle one of your friends, Lena?” he asks.

“Yeah! She’s one of the nice big kids at school,” Lena says. “How do you know her?”

“Her big brother is one of my best friends,” he tells her, surprised to hear that he really means it. Damn it, it’s truly a sad day when Jackson is one of his best friends. “I’ve been babysitting her since she was younger than you are right now.”

“Oh, that’s why you’re so good at watching me?”

“I guess so,” Nico chuckles. They draw up to Annabeth. “Hey, Annabeth. Out with the kid today?”

“This is Magnus and Alex,” she indicates them. “They’re visiting from Boston and Sally asked me to take Estelle along while the three of us are out. Magnus is my cousin and Alex is his—”

“Boyfriend, now,” the person next to the blonde man cuts in. He has dyed green hair, black at the roots, and is dressed in a strange but pretty combination of green and pink. “Alex Fierro, Magnus Chase’s boyfriend.”

He holds out a friendly hand, but his smile is sharp, assessing Nico. He can appreciate that kind of cautiousness and matches it with one of his own as he shakes Alex’s hand. Magnus, on the other hand, has a much more easygoing smile, weirdly reminiscent of Annabeth’s but more relaxed. Sort of like Percy, actually. His grip as he shakes Nico’s hand is relaxed and much more friendly.

“Apologies for Alex, he has trust issues,” Magnus says. Alex snorts.

“You have at least as many trust issues as I do, Maggie,” he says dryly.

“I’m just better at hiding them,” Magnus says agreeably.

Annabeth elbows him. “Go get me that ice cream,” she demands. She looks at Nico, “I bet that they wouldn’t get lost if I let them explore by themselves, and they did so now they owe me and Stella ice cream.”

“Ugh, fine, thanks for the support, cuz,” Magnus grumbles, getting to his feet, tugging Alex with him. “C’mon, Alex. You’re coming with me.”

Alex tugs free of his grip and drapes an arm over his shoulders. “With pleasure, Maggie.”

Nico watches the two of them walk away. “They’re somehow the weirdest yet the most sensible couple I’ve seen,” he remarks to Annabeth.

“I know, right?” she agrees. “I keep wondering how they’re not married yet. Alex is just not ready for that kind of development, I think. He’s genderfluid, and marriage is ‘much too heteronormative.’ I’m not sure I really understand, but I think I get the reason.”

“I’m sort of marriage-averse for similar reasons,” Nico says. Annabeth nods, getting it. In the distance, Magnus says something that makes Alex shove him, and then he pulls Magnus in for a kiss. It makes the two of them giggle. “Truly a married couple, I see.”

“Exactly. Who needs state law to say they’re together when it’s already that serious?”

Nico notices Lena looking away from the sight of Magnus and Alex. “Something wrong, kid?” he asks, suddenly feeling a little ill at ease.

“Daddy says I shouldn’t stare when people do that, especially if it’s not a girl and a boy,” Lena says seriously.

Nico stares. “Why?” it comes out harsher than intended. Suddenly he’s terrified that for all he’s been falling hard for Lena’s father, Will’s some kind of homophobe. He couldn’t take it if Will is that kind of person. His heart would break into pieces.

Lena shrinks back a little, having never seen him look anything close to agitated in front of her. “Because he says it’ll make them uncomfortable, especially if it’s not a girl and a boy,” she says in a small voice. “He said the world already makes it hard enough to love, so I shouldn’t make them feel as if I’m judging them. They deserve to love freely.”

Nico’s sigh of relief whooshes out of him with force. “Thank god,” he mutters. He was so worried…

He reaches for Lena, and she comes. “I’m sorry, baby,” he says, hugging her. “I had no idea I would scare you. I didn’t mean to. Your dad is right when he says that, you know. He’s very, very right.”

“It’s okay,” Lena says, not sounding at all scared of him. She steps back when he releases her. “My dad wouldn’t be mad about that kind of thing.”

“Your dad sounds very wise,” Annabeth cuts in. She gives Nico a knowing look. “He’s absolutely right.”

She leans towards Nico, and whispers, “well? There’s one question answered.”

“Damn it, Jackson’s keeping you updated, isn’t he?” he groans.

Annabeth winks. “You know it.”

***

Nico di Angelo is officially in love.

It’s barely been three months since he and Will met, and he already loves him. He’ll not be breathing a word of this to anyone, not until a decision is made. By which he means if he and Will get together or not.

Tonight, he’s going to tell Will. He needs to. The feelings sit just under his skin, waiting to come to the surface, wanting to sing and dance and be known to Will. He hasn’t ever felt this way with anyone. Well, Percy being the singular person he’s been into.

When Lena is put to bed, he and Will sit on the couch, some nameless movie playing—purely for the purpose of background noise—but both of them talking about something so enthusiastically that they don’t really pay attention. Nico ends up doubling over with laughter at something Will says. The moment that sticks out the most in his memory is how, right before his mood soured, Will looks at him with sparkling, happy eyes, a blue like the sky and the sea and cornflowers and sapphires squeezed together into one great, pretty shade. His tanned skin glows in the amber light of the lamp standing in the near corner, freckles like constellations dotting his skin.

Will Solace is the picture of everything beautiful and good and fuck Nico is so in love.

Then his phone pings, and when Nico glances at the notification, his face automatically assumes the usual scowl reserved for his father. Will notices and sobers, too, even if it’s out of worry than irritation.

“Fuck,” Nico mutters, looking at the message from his father, maintaining that both of his children are expected to be present at home for at least a week during summer break.

He turns off his phone and shoves it into his pocket, his good mood entirely ruined. So typical of his father to ruin everything at the worst moment. “What’s the matter?” Will asks carefully, knowing that if Nico’s in a bad mood, he’s likely not to say anything of use anytime soon.

“My father,” he mutters. “Hazel and I are expected to go back home for at least a week at the start of summer break. I’ll go insane if I have to stay there any longer than that.”

“Not a good history with him?” Will guesses.

“He’s always been emotionally distant,” Nico decides to tell him a few things, if there’s going to be any possibility of them being together. “When Bianca died back when I was eleven, he just sort of became the guy who was there. Didn’t support me, didn’t help in any way. Left me to fend for myself…even implied that it would be better if I died, not her. Not Bianca.”

Will knows about Bianca by now, but he doesn’t know what his father had said up until now. His eyes widen. “Oh, wow. Nico, I’m so sorry, that’s so shitty of him.”

Nico shrugs. “I took therapy during my high school years because Jason insisted. It’s a work in progress, getting over it, but I’m getting there. Hazel really got the short end of the stick, there. She was the accident child, the one who was never welcome. He’s never even properly acknowledged her.”

“Your father has issues,” Will says, frowning. “He sounds like my grandfather. Always on my mom’s case for having me out of wedlock…you can imagine how well it went over when he found out about Lena.”

Nico winces. “Damn. It’s not his business, though.”

“Close-minded people will always be the way they are,” Will shrugs. “It’s fine, we don’t even talk to him anymore. Lena doesn’t know exactly why she never sees him, but I’m waiting until she’s old enough to tell her the truth about that. And, well, her own birth.”

“There’s some messy details there, huh?” Nico’s tried to imagine multiple scenarios but he’s never been able to bring himself to actually ask. It’s Will’s business, and clearly he hasn’t been willing enough to share yet.

“Yeah,” Will says, looking at his hands. “Lena was never planned. She came along, and suddenly I had to drop out of college just to look after her. I was on the pre-med track, and on my way to med school once I graduated…never expected that I would dropout in my second year. I was eighteen. I…Lena was born the day before I turned nineteen.”

“Wait.” Nico’s mind was calculating the math of that. Will’s birthday is in August, which is when semester begins. “The math of that…I’m slightly confused here.”

“The pregnancy was when we were still in first year. I tried online classes, but…”

“Looking after a kid isn’t easy?”

“Yeah. Especially not on a course as demanding as that.”

“Will, if you don’t mind me asking…” Nico swallows. “What happened to her mom?”

“Her mom, huh,” Will doesn’t look at Nico. He stares at his hands, staying silent. There seems to be something he’s turning over in his mind, but he looks so conflicted and sad that Nico almost doesn’t want to know the story there.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me,” he blurts out. “It’s none of my business.”

Will glances up. His gaze looks so conflicted, and Nico can’t bring himself to confess—not when Will is clearly upset. He’s an idiot for assuming that this would go well.

“You’re too good for me, Nico,” he mutters. “You’re just so wonderful and perfect. I feel like I must be dreaming sometimes.”

Nico’s heart stutters in his chest. “Wh-what?” he croaks. “Did you just say—?”

Will sighs. “I really like you, Nico,” he admits, cheeks burning, looking at anywhere but Nico. “I’ve liked you a lot since we met. And it’s just the confirmation I needed that I could have you if things went well without worrying for Lena that you’ve been so good to her, and she just adores you. Lena will always be my priority, and the fact you have been so understanding about that, so kind and wonderful to her—yeah, I’m gone.”

“Will,” Nico breathes. “Can I kiss you?”

His smile is as bright as a thousand suns. “You can.”

Nico lurches forward and crashes their lips together, and oh, it’s wonderful, it’s beautiful, it’s everything he ever dreamed of. Will tastes of the cinnamon cake he’d brought home for the three of them to share, and the coffee he’d had right afterwards, and he tastes a lot like home. His kisses are like sunlight in dark water, cleansing and light.

Beautiful.

“You dork,” he whispers, resting his forehead against Will’s. “I’ve been in love with you for a while now.” He grins. “Maybe this is too much, but I fall hard and fast, usually.”

“I didn’t want to freak you out,” Will breathes. “I love you too.”

Nico giggles. “We’re such idiots, aren’t we?”

Will’s expression sobers. “Wait. There’s something you have to know about me, before we get into this.” He pushes Nico off gently as he sits up.

Nico’s suddenly worried. “What is it, Will?”

Will takes a deep breath, and he says, a little panicked and rough, “I’m trans.”

Nico blinks. “You’re trans?”

“I’m trans,” Will agrees. “Before Lena, I didn’t have much of a problem admitting it to people. Being trans, it’s something to be proud of. But Lena…she complicates things. I’m not saying I regret her, she’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me, but being a trans man and having a child…people ask weird things. They think weird things. Lena has no mother because I was pregnant with her. She has two dads.”

He’s trembling, terrified at what Nico’s reaction will be. It’s clear that he doesn’t often admit this to just anyone. Nico’s heart breaks at the clear terror in his eyes.

He leans forward and hugs Will tightly. “I don’t care that you’re trans. You’re the most amazing dad I’ve ever seen in my entire life and I’m sure Lena would say the same thing she’s always said about you even if she knew. I love you all the same, I promise.”

Will inhales shakily. “The pregnancy wasn’t easy. Neither me nor my partner expected I would get pregnant. I mean, obviously we knew it was a possibility since I haven’t yet gotten bottom surgery, but I must’ve missed the pill or something. We were half-drunk the last time we, uh, you know. Before I realized.”

His hands are clenched tightly on his jeans. “The dysphoria…it’s never been that bad—in all my life, I’ve never felt such extreme dysphoria as I did when I was pregnant with her. I had to stop getting the testosterone shots. Most days I couldn’t wear my binder because I was so sore and achy all over. And it’s not like they make men’s maternity wear, as you might imagine.” He laughs, a hollow, bitter sound. “It was awful. People tried to convince me to get an abortion. I was a mess. But I couldn’t. I’ve always wanted children, and…as horrible and awful as it felt, Lena was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, you know?”

He pauses. “I don’t support shaming people who do get them. It’s just, for me, that just wasn’t something I felt I could do. I was bringing a new life into this world, and I knew I wanted to give her a good life. There was no chance of me giving her up for adoption, either. Honestly, if I’d dealt with all that and then given her up, I think my mama would have personally flayed me alive.” He heaves a sigh. “It’s been seven years and I’m still saving up for at least top surgery. I had to use all my savings for that on her baby things.”

Nico hugs him even more tightly. “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met, Will. That’s not…I think you’ve been doing great so far. At least you had your parents, right?”

“Yeah,” he agrees, “at least I had them. Lena’s dad—her other dad, has been really good, too. He doesn’t see Lena nearly as much as I would like him to, but he’s nice. She doesn’t talk about him anymore because of a little…incident at school when some kids found out about us.” He purses his lips. “But she knows she’s loved by us, at least.”

“That’s really good,” Nico tells him. “And don’t think for a second that I don’t want to be with you, even after all this. I promise you, I love you all the same. I want you, Solace.”

Will laughs, happier and relieved. “I love you too, di Angelo. Kiss me again?”

Nico gladly obliges.