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“Remind me again why we’re at a release party on a Wednesday,” Nico grumbled, leaning back against the table he’d claimed for their little group, though Will had run off to talk with someone else, and Nico had yet to see Lou and Kayla arrive.
“Annabeth said today is an important anniversary,” Jason answered. “I’m sure either she or Grover will talk about it later when people start doing speeches.”
Nico grimaced. “Remind me to conveniently disappear for a few days around Will’s next album release, just to be safe.”
Jason nudged him with an elbow. “C’mon, I’m sure you can manage to say a few nice words to the production staff.”
“I can also thank them in private,” Nico shot back, and Jason gave him a look. “Yeah, probably over email, you caught me. Quit looking at me. Do you see Will anywhere?”
Jason, thankfully, turned his eyes on the slowly growing crowd. “Might be in the bathroom,” he settled on after a quick scan. “Looks like Lou and Kayla just walked in, though.”
Nico followed the direction of Jason’s nod, and found Lou and Kayla near the entrance, heading in the direction of the bar. “Thanks. I should check in with them.”
“Any luck convincing Will to let you sign her?” Jason asked.
Nico scoffed. “Of course not. He’s more stubborn than I am, sometimes.”
Jason gasped. “You, stubborn? No!”
Nico rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We got into another fight about it yesterday, and Kayla disappeared without telling either of us. It really freaked Will out until Lou texted both of us to say Kayla was heading over to her place for the night. I have to let Kayla know that she at least needs to let Will know she’s okay, even if she’s still pissed at him.”
“Wow, look at you,” Jason said with a smile, “being all mature and shit.”
“The curse of loving someone who can throw a temper tantrum to rival a toddler’s,” Nico replied, and before Jason could tease him for openly admitting to loving the man he’d been with for almost two years, Nico added, “I’ll catch up with you later.”
He went off toward the bar, noting as he got closer that Kayla seemed to be in an argument with the bartender. “It’s my real ID,” she was saying, but the bartender wasn’t buying it.
“Looks fake to me,” he told her. “I’ve never seen one like it.”
“It’s Canadian,” Kayla said. “You’ve never met a Canadian before?”
The bartender shrugged. “If I don’t trust it, I don’t serve it. Take a step back so I can help the next guest.”
“It’s a white claw,” she argued. “There’s hardly even any alcohol in that!”
“Step back, miss,” the bartender said again, more forcefully, and so Lou grabbed Kayla’s arm and tugged her back.
Nico stepped up to the bar while the two of them were distracted. “White claw,” he said before the bartender had a chance to ask for his order. He saw the man’s eyes flicker over Nico’s shoulder, in the direction he knew Lou and Kayla had gone. “Sorry, did you need to see my ID?” he asked, already reaching for his wallet.
“Of course not, Mr. di Angelo.” The bartender jumped into action, grabbing a canned drink and pouring it into a glass - to avoid any accidental promotional pictures over the course of the event, Nico knew.
He took the drink off the bartop and carried it through the crowds, following after Lou and Kayla and finally catching up to them when they stopped beside a table.
“Your shitty seltzer,” Nico said, holding the glass out in front of Kayla as she startled away from him.
Kayla frowned as she accepted it. “Why is it in a glass?”
“It’s how they do things at this kind of party,” Lou answered. She turned to Nico. “Everything alright? Or did you chase us across the room for a reason?”
Nico fought not to roll his eyes and snark back, I didn’t chase you. “I just wanted to make sure you’re both okay after yesterday.” His eyes flickered toward Kayla. “Will was pretty shaken up.”
“Yeah, well, so was I,” Kayla replied. “Do you two always fight like that? So much yelling, and--” She tensed so rapidly that Nico saw ripples in her glass.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, sure that it was better than admitting that they’d had worse fights. “We shouldn’t have let it get to that point, especially when you were in the house. It’s… tense right now, and I wish I could do more to fix it, but I promise, I’m doing everything I can.”
“By trying to get me signed,” Kayla continued for him, “which is what’s causing the fights in the first place.”
Nico’s eyes darted to Lou, who couldn’t quite suppress a wince. “I’m not going to lie to you. For some reason, he’s refusing to budge. He won’t even give me a straight answer about why he has such a problem with it, but I think… If I stop playing the middleman, you might be able to get to the bottom of it better than me or Lou.”
“See?” Lou said to Kayla. “That’s the only way this is all going to get better.”
“I can back off until you feel ready,” Nico assured her. “I won’t bring it up to him, and try to keep things calm around the house. I really think you should at least let him know sooner than later that you’re okay after yesterday.”
“We’ve already talked about this,” Lou said. “She’s going to talk to him tonight.”
Kayla drank about half of her white claw in one go.
Lou shot her a look of concern. “Um.”
“Not yet,” Kayla said, gasping for breath. “Maybe, um. After another one of these.”
Nico traded a look with Lou. “I’ll try to find Will and make sure he’s in a good mood.”
Lou glanced away, a forced look of neutrality on her face that made Nico suspect that she didn’t trust Nico to be the one that could put Will in a good mood. Given how things had gone lately, Nico wasn’t entirely confident in it himself.
He took his leave, heading back through the party, weaving in and out of crowds in search of familiar faces - ones that wouldn’t make him want to jump through the nearest window if he got stuck in a conversation. He kept his head low as he passed by a cluster of DOA executives, not interested in hearing any of them praise each other for the excellent work they did on Heavenly Bodies’ new release. Nico wasn’t sure he’d be able to bite his tongue when the man who considered himself the king of marketing in their company started bragging about his success in making the band’s last album go platinum.
Nico darted past members of the production staff, friends and family of the band, and other DOA musicians before he finally set his eyes on the back of a set of blond curls, and nudged his way to Will’s side. His fingers brushed over the small of Will’s back, hardly enough pressure to be felt through his shirt and suit jacket, but Will turned toward the touch in surprise.
“Hey,” Will said, his eyes lighting up even as the rest of his face refused to allow any pleasant emotion to show. “Has your obligatory hour passed already?”
Nico forced himself not to roll his eyes. “Maybe I thought the time would pass faster if I could talk to someone who didn’t make me want to gouge out my own eyes.”
Will grinned, seemingly genuinely. “You flatterer.” He raised a hand, brushing his knuckles over Nico’s hip, the secret touch burning when Nico felt like Will hadn’t even wanted to be near him in days. “Percy and I were just talking about how our workaholic significant others only seem to know how to flirt through song. I guess I was wrong.”
This time, Nico was happy to let his eyes roll at Will’s teasing, crossing his arms over his chest for emphasis.
“This is a whole new side for you, Neeks,” Percy said, smiling brightly in Nico’s direction. “I mean, not only are you talking to another person at a party, but flirting with your boyfriend where people can hear you? I don’t believe it.”
Nico turned to Will. “This is what I meant about gouging out my own eyes.”
“He’s just embarrassed at being caught,” Will told Percy, still smiling - and yes, it was real. Nico felt like he hadn’t seen a real smile out of him in ages. He wished he had a camera to make sure he got at least one picture of Will’s real smile that night. “We haven’t gone public yet, though, so we try to avoid the word boyfriend.”
Nico bumped him with his shoulder in appreciation.
Percy’s gaze flickered between them. “Really? But it’s been over a year by now, hasn’t it?”
“Almost two,” Will replied, and Nico felt his heart swell at how happy, how proud Will sounded.
“Wow.” Percy’s eyes went wide. “That’s crazy that you guys haven’t been found out. Annabeth and I were all over the internet for a month before Reyna said we had to make an official announcement, just to keep people from digging too much into our personal lives. Not that they didn’t do that anyway.”
“Maybe if the two of you hadn’t gotten caught together every single day,” Nico commented. He had been an avid Twitter user back then, and very narrowly avoided jumping into shipwar discourse a few times when he was still certain that Annabeth and Percy couldn’t possibly be together.
Will elbowed him lightly. “We’ve been very careful,” Will said. “And we decided that it doesn’t matter what people say about us online. There are still a ton of people out there who think Lou and I are together, no matter how many times we talk about just being friends. People are going to think whatever they want, you know?”
“Good for you guys,” Percy told them. “If it helps, even after you do go public, people will leave you alone after a while. The hype always dies down eventually. But then you get married, and the wedding pictures leak, and--” He waved a hand and rolled his eyes, then let out a sigh. “You guys probably aren’t thinking about the wedding yet, though. It’s always just about the next album with you people, right?”
Nico found himself grinning, tipping his head back to gaze up at Will, who was turning a faint pink - the same color that always rose on his cheeks whenever marriage was brought up. “I don’t know, Will, any thoughts about getting married?”
“Man, I’m thirsty,” Will said, his arm suddenly hooking around Nico’s waist. “Let’s grab a drink. See you later, Percy!” He steered a laughing Nico away from the conversation, and off toward the bar. “You just love to torment me, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t have to keep reminding you if you would just marry me--”
“Niccolo!”
The smile fell from his face, and he stepped out of Will’s hold. Nico turned toward the sound of his father’s voice, finding himself dragged toward a group of executives by a skeletal hand on his shoulder. “Join the celebration, son,” Hades told him. “Thanatos was just reminding us of how he discovered The Heavenly Body at a bar.”
Nico kept his expression neutral. He had promised to keep things calm with Will that night, and that included not starting shit with anyone else at the company. He would not make corrections about the name of the band, or about how Nico had known Annabeth in high school, after having been introduced by Rachel. Heavenly Bodies could easily have been considered Nico’s first big break at DOA, when he had them signed by the company while he was still in college. He had organized the bar show and invited his father out to see the band play - Hades had simply sent Thanatos in his place, allowing him to take all of the credit.
Nico stood silently, playing the part of a good company heir as the group of executives talked and laughed over fabricated stories. He stared blankly off into the distance, until he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. The self-proclaimed king of marketing himself had pulled open one side of his jacket, reaching into the inner pocket and flashing something to the other executive standing beside him.
“Excuse us,” the man said with a grin, clapping the king of marketing on the shoulder before they both dipped out of the conversation.
Nico took the distraction as an opportunity to disappear himself, wanting to be as far away from his father and whatever situation those executives planned on getting themselves into.
Will wasn’t at the bar when he reached it, but Nico grabbed himself a glass of water before taking off on his hunt. He tried to stay in the shadows, moving quickly through the room and dipping in and out of conversations with people who couldn’t be avoided - Annabeth and Piper and Rachel among others - before finding himself back at the bar again. He’d circled the entire room, he was sure of it, and yet there was no sight of Will anywhere. It was like he’d disappeared.
He leaned back against the bar and pulled out his phone. His required hour of attendance had passed, which meant he was free to leave whenever he found Will, but unfortunately, there were no texts from him, either. He stuffed his phone back into his pocket when flashes of silver and gold appeared at his side.
“Nico, hey, I was just looking for you,” Kayla said.
“Have you talked to Will yet?” Nico asked.
She shook her head. “Not yet. I was kind of hoping you could get me another drink first? That asshole bartender keeps, like, staring me down, so I can’t even try to order from somebody else.”
Nico scanned the room again. “You should really try to be sober when you talk to him,” he commented, and his heart jumped when he saw a flash of blond curls across the room, nearby an emergency exit. “Hang on, there he is. I’ll go get him.”
He started to step away from the bar, but Kayla grabbed his arm. “Wait, can’t you get my drink first?”
“Why can’t Lou get it for you?”
“That bartender knows we’re here together,” Lou answered.
Nico’s eyes flickered over to her, and when he looked back at where Will had just been, he saw the exit door hanging open, one of the DOA executives pulling it shut behind himself. From across the room, Nico couldn’t make out who it was.
“Where the fuck is he going?” Nico muttered to himself, his eyes darting around for Will again, but he was already gone, likely exiting the way of the executive.
“Who?” Lou asked. “Will? I just saw him over that way.” She waved a hand in the general direction that Nico was already looking. “It looked like he was talking to the fucker of marketing. Dude, Will’s going to be pissed when he finds out that guy offered Kayla coke.”
Nico’s head snapped toward her. “He’s pushing coke on people?”
“I didn’t take any, obviously,” Kayla assured him.
“Will just left with him,” Nico said, his heart thudding in his chest. He’d been lucky enough in his career not to have witnessed too many musicians with bad drug habits - in his experience, it was the upper floors that tended to dabble in that sort of thing more often - but the fear still lingered every day.
Will was twenty-six. He was running out of time to make the exact number of wrong choices to end up in one very exclusive club.
Lou scoffed. “You don’t think Will’s stupid enough to do coke, do you?”
As soon as the words were out of Lou’s mouth, Nico’s feet left the ground.