Chapter Text
Nico was going to make it to BINGO Night or die trying.
Based on the look in Annabeth’s eyes and the amount of equipment she’d hauled into his apartment, he was starting to think the latter was more likely.
Will, their man on the inside, had picked up a grappling hook gun that looked like it had been pulled straight out of a Batman comic, only to have it swatted out of his hands.
“I still have no idea why he’s part of this,” Nico commented as Will retreated to the couch. “How did you know he wouldn’t sell us out?”
Will made a noise of affront, muffled slightly by the pizza in his mouth. Dinner had been his idea, garlic allergy be damned.
“Oh, please, he’d do anything for you, no questions asked. He looks at you like you’ve hung the fucking moon.” Annabeth set her own slice of pizza down, using it as a paperweight. Nico fought the urge to remind her that there was a perfectly good not-greasy coffee cup right there.
“Moon and stars,” Will replied simply. “Don’t sell me short.”
Nico’s face flushed, and Will grinned at him through a mouthful of crust.
“Okay, team, huddle up.” Nico and Will made their way to Annabeth’s side, looking down at the blueprint she’d drawn up of the county activity center.
“My first plan when staging a heist,” she said, as if heists were her day job, “is to make a copy of the janitor’s uniform and secure some wigs. That way, we can just walk in the front door. The only problem there is that Barry Altman, the lead janitor for the community center, will be working that night.” She tapped a printout of a Facebook post. “He wrote here that he’s ‘excited to finally get a break from work to visit his daughter for the holidays,’ which means he’ll be working straight through ‘till Christmas.”
“No, he won’t. He’s out of town already.” Will snagged another slice of pizza from the box.
“Will, I did my research. The Facebook post clearly says—”
“That he’s going to visit his daughter for the holidays, I know.” Will pointed to the edge of the printout, where “Linda Altman” was listed among Barry’s Facebook friends. “Linda sat next to me in Hebrew school. Barry is visiting her for Hanukkah, which means he’s gone already.”
“Oh.” Annabeth frowned. “That throws a wrench into things.”
“Doesn’t everyone at this party know us?” Nico asked. “So they’d recognize us even with disguises.”
“That’s true.” Annabeth tapped her pen against her chin, leaving little blue marks everywhere that neither Will nor Nico felt like pointing out. "Alright, Plan C."
"C? What happened to B?"
"That was Plan B," she explained, like it was obvious. "Plan A was to walk in the front door, which won't work because whoever is in charge of inviting the vampires in will know we're human."
"It'll probably be Octavian," Will sighed. "He likes to pretend he's a doorman at some high-end thing. He prints out a whole list and makes a big deal about it."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course he does. So Plan C..."
Nico watched as she laid a series of events so complicated that he'd forgotten the first six steps by the time she was done.
"...And then we'll change out of our black clothes and walk into the rec room like nothing ever happened," she finished, moving the salt and pepper shakers into the room on the blueprint to illustrate. Nico had wanted to be a shot glass, but she'd been stubborn. Will was a pretzel stick.
"Won't someone try to make us leave once we're there, though?" Nico asked, not sure he understood the plan itself well enough to question it.
Annabeth grinned, happy to show off her thoroughness. "We shouldn't have to worry about that. Vampires have that code of honor about not turning away a guest who's already been invited in, and all the people who aren't vampires are our friends. Most of them will probably think we came as plus-ones."
"But we weren't invited." For as long as Nico had known Hazel was attending these BINGO nights, he'd been practically begging her to let him tag along, and he'd only doubled down since meeting Will. "We've basically been uninvited." Having a witch sister and vampire boyfriend should have qualified him for entry, but Annabeth was married to a siren and still couldn't get in.
Will’s grin turned a little evil, and Nico half expected his fangs to appear, even though he never did that around guests. “By helping y’all out here, I am technically inviting you in, even though I’m breaking the other honor code thing about not letting uninvited guests in somewhere.”
“And why are you okay with that now, but not any of the other million times I’ve asked?” Nico was starting to feel a little betrayed.
“They lit the chanukiah all wrong,” Will explained, gesturing to his own in the window. “If they’re not gonna bother to get my holiday right during the actual holiday, I’m not gonna bother with following the rules of who is and is not allowed.”
“Fair enough.”
“Plus, the holiday party is the most fun BINGO night by far, so it makes sense to put this much effort into getting in. Any other night would be overkill.”
“Let’s get back on task.” Annabeth took a bite of her pizza paperweight. “Nico, how good are you at parkour?”