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Nico wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans, trying to keep his breathing steady. He stood before a sign. It was the most terrifying sign he had ever seen in his life. It was quite possibly the most terrifying thing he had seen in his life.
"Beware. The dog bites," Will read, slipping an arm casually around Nico’s waist as if Nico wasn't holding him up and struggling too. "Hmph. She doesn't even have a dog."
Nico rolled his eyes and kicked opened the gate, heaving Will along past the garden. Persephone would approve of the roses, he thought absentmindedly. Right now that wasn't the problem.
He shifted his weight and kicked the door three times. Will was leaning even more on him now. Nico prayed to his father that the house wasn't empty. Then he prayed to Apollo. The he prayed to Hestia on the off chance she remembered him.
The door swung open.
There are many ways, times and approaches that people take advantage of when meeting their potential mother-in-law. Nico doubted one of them was to show up at her doorstep with her son bleeding out to death.
Naomi was a short woman with strawberry blonde hair, a round face and deep blue eyes. Those eyes hardened exactly like Will’s did when she saw the sorry sight before her.
"Will! What the ever-loving fuck, young man?"
Nico couldn't even open his mouth before he and Will were being ushered in and the door was firmly locked behind them. Nico set Will down on the first sofa he found and started digging in the medical bag Will kept for some ambrosia and bandages. Will made a small whimper of pain.
"I know, sweetheart." Nico was trying very hard to keep his voice from shaking. "I know. Eat this for me."
He had never been more grateful for all the lectures Will had given him and all the time he'd spent being forced to help out at the infirmary.
As Will chewed the ambrosia, Nico found the antiseptic and the bandages. Wincing, he lifted up Will’s shirt to see the gash left by the hell hound. It was deep and Will was loosing a lot of blood but the ambrosia seemed to help a little.
"Okay, tesoro," Nico said in his best interpretation of Will’s bedside manner. "This is going to sting, okay?"
"Yeah," Will croaked. Nico took Will’s hand, which gripped painfully hard as the antiseptic was applyed to the wound. Nico didn't dare do much but he knew enough to know that infection was a very bad thing.
"Mio Dio." Nico squeezed his eyes shut at the sound Will made. "I'm so sorry, baby. Mi dispiace tanto. Fanculo. You're doing so well. Can you sit up for me? Sì è quello."
He helped Will sit as best he could and wrapped the bandages around Will’s torso, covering the wound. Will exhaled shakily as Nico helped him lie back on the sofa, brushing the curls from his face. His hands were trembling.
"You rest now," Nico soothed, kissing Will’s forehead. "Get some sleep, caro."
With Will settling down, Nico’s breathing rate slowed back to a more normal pace.
He turned and jumped when he saw Naomi standing there with a deep frown and her mouth hanging open. Nico winced. He'd forgotten about that.
"Um, hi," he offered weakly. "Sorry to barge in like this."
Naomi blinked, seeming to come to.
"Why don't I get us some cookies and you tell me what happened?" she suggested in a worryingly calm tone.
"Yeah. That would... That would be great. Do you have any gatorade as well?"
She nodded and silently left, coming back with a tray of cookies and the drink. She set it on the coffee table and sat on the armchair next to her son, reaching to stroke his hair. Nico crouched awkwardly on the floor beside his boyfriend.
Luckily, she broke the silence first.
"He's such an idiot."
She spoke so abruptly and so matter of factly that Nico couldn't help a stared laugh.
"Yes. He really is," he agreed. "I left him alone for two minutes to get popcorn for the movie and he got attacked by a hell hound. He killed it just as I arrived and said your address so I came here. I didn't know where else to bring him. Camp was too far away."
Naomi nodded. "You must be Nico."
There was no question in her tone but Nico nodded anyway.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I swear I take him on dates that don't end in near fatalities."
Naomi snorted. "Oh, honey, you can barely take him anywhere without near fatalities. Monsters or not."
Nico chuckled softly. "Yeah, that sounds like Will."
"Are you alright, sugar?" Naomi asked as if she'd just thought to. "Didn't get hurt?"
"Just tired from shadow travel." Nico poured some gatorade down his thirsty throat. "And a little embarrassed to be meeting you under the circumstances."
"Yes, they aren't the best." Naomi met his eyes, her face etched with sincerity as she chewed on a cookie. "Thank you for bringing him to me."
Nico cleared his throat. "I just brought him back from death. You're the one who gave him life in the first place."
"My greatest creation," Naomi said and Nico had to agree.
-
A few hours later, Will woke up, groggy and feeling very sorry for himself. He tried to sit up but was met with an intense pain and yelped. Within less than a second, Nico was by his side, pushing him back down.
"Nope, not happening. You're resting right now. You almost died, asshole."
"Oops." Will frowned, longing to reach up and kiss away Nico’s furrowed brow. "You okay, angel?"
Nico gave him a glare that could wither plants.
"Am I okay? Am I okay? No, I'm not because you nearly met my father and that would be the second unplanned meet the parents today!"
It was then that Will made sense of where he was. He remembered this sofa and those photos. He remembered the fake plants in the window and the hideous curtains and the wooden floor with the mark on it from when he accidentally started a fire with a magnifying glass. He was home.
And that meant...
"William Andrew Solace!"
Will sighed. "Hi, Ma."
"You absolute dimwit!" His mother marched over. "I hear from you for the first time in months and it's because I find your boyfriend dragging your bloody corpse through the front door!"
"It wasn't a corpse!" Will protested. "I'm fine."
"You damn well are not," Naomi scolded. "And you damn well won't be once I finish with you! Have a cookie."
She shoved a cookie in his face and Will stared at it for a moment before accepting it and nibbling at it sheepishly. He could sense Nico’s glare on him as he watched his mother pace up and down.
"Of all the irresponsible things! Imagine if you had died! Imagine if the first time I speak to you in months is at your funeral. No, you better sort yourself out, young man. I'm grateful one of the two of you still has their head attached!"
Will spluttered. "Nico? Nico is the responsible one?"
In the corner of his eye, Nico smirked.
"Are you going to help me with this?" Will rounded on his boyfriend.
"No thanks." Nico wrinkled his nose. "Although I will say you need a proper bed to sleep in. Get up, I'll help."
Will wrapped an arm around Nico’s shoulders and the other around his mother, who immediately came to help. The pain was sharp and he couldn't help the giveaway expression before he settled into a more professional neutral one.
It was definitely a two person job to get him up the stairs and he ended up collapsed in his bed with Naomi and Nico out of breath.
"Why are you so jacked, Solace?" Nico complained. "I've literally never seen you do any excersise except running after people who pissed you off."
"I do push ups every night." Will defended himself.
"No more push ups for you," Naomi warned him. "You're going to rest for a very long time."
"I can't," Will retorted. "I have to get back to camp."
"Screw camp. They can manage without you," Nico said, unable to stifle a yawn as he took a seat at the end of Will’s bed. The duvet was yellow with sunshines on it.
Naomi grimaced. "I'll leave you to sleep. I'm making breakfast in the morning and this conversation is far from over. Oh, and lovely to meet you, Nico."
She shut the door and Will and Nico were left alone. Will opened his mouth to say something when he noticed that Nico was shaking.
"Nico, you okay?"
Nico shook his head violently. "You fucking scared me, Will. I thought you might die."
"Oh, darling."
Will opened his arms and Nico crawled into them, getting under the duvet too. It was a single bed but they made it work with every inch of them pressing against each other.
"Don't you dare do that again." Nico tried to sound intimidating but his voice was too close to breaking. "I am not saving your ass a second time."
"I'm not planning on it," Will reassured him. He kept holding Nico tight and eventually they drifted off.
-
Nico woke up before Will and carefully disentangle himself so as not to wake him. Pulling on one of Will’s t-shirts, he crept downstairs and was mildly suprised to see Naomi in the kitchen.
"Morning, Nico," she said wearily. Nico knew the feeling.
"Good morning, Ms. Solace. Will’s still sleeping."
"I saw. I checked on you this morning and you looked very cosy."
Nico blushed.
"Sorry if that was inappropriate. I just didn't want to leave him."
"Honey, I've done way worse things than cuddle under this roof." She winked at him and he felt a little more at ease.
"What's all this?" Will’s sleepy voice drifted into the room. His arms wrapped around Nico’s waist from behind.
"Will!" Nico said exasperated. "Why aren't you resting?"
"I wanted to see you," Will answered, burying his face in Nico’s hair and giving it a kiss. "You look very pretty in my t-shirt, by the way."
"Does tiredness make you drunk? Or is that the blood loss?"
Nico could feel Will scowling.
"It's your face," he countered. "And how godsdamn pretty it is."
"This would be very sweet," Naomi interrupted, "if you weren't in such deep shit."
Will sighed, tightening his grip around Nico.
"Come to my funeral, hon."
"Your possible funeral is exactly what we're pissed about," Nico chided.
"No," Will whined. "Don't gang up on me."
He turned Nico around in his arms and kissed his gently and tenderly, breaking away and resting their foreheads together.
"You still mad at me?"
"Yep."
"Ah, fuck."