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“This is insane, why did we think this was a good idea?” Leo asks with red tassel on his hands
“Because we don’t celebrate and forgot other people do.” Nico tells him easily.
“You forgot?!” Lily asked flabbergasted, “How do you forget Christmas?!”
“The decorations for yule are the same” Leo defends.
“Stolen!” Ivera chimes from where she’s messing with a fake mistletoe.
“That’s right Vera,” Nyssa tells him, “everything about Christmas is stolen”
“Please don’t teach my daughter to say Christmas is stolen,” Leo pleads, “she already got in trouble for Halloween”
“This coming from the man who forgot it existed when planning his winter wedding” Nyssa counters immediately
“What did Leo forget?” Asks Hazel walking into the room with her mate.
“And what happened here?” Frank adds eyeing the room.
“The wedding date’s causing trouble with the catering” Reyna explains from her perch in the corner of the room.
“Christmas parties” Lily adds.
“That sucks” Frank says.
“Great news!” Jason says rushing into the room “you know Debbie?”
“Hot goth from advanced calc?” Leo asks teasingly, “you wouldn’t let us forget”
“Rude,” he remarks but steamrolls forwards, “she has a friend on the art department who can do the photography”
“Does the friend know the wedding’s on the 24?” Nyssa asks
“Yeah, but they’re Jewish so it doesn’t really matter to them” Jason answers
“See, this is why you’re the best man,” Leo tells him as he goes for his phone, leaving the tassel in the table, “free epiphanies”
“Congrats,” Nyssa comments, “you’re a rubber duck”
“Hm, sounds like jealousy” Jason tells her
“Cariño, do you have a preference between Asian restaurants?” Leo asks from the kitchen
“Hold on, I’ll come check the menus,” Nico says stopping to look at Ivera, “you wanna help pick the food Ivy?”
“Yes!” she says jumping off her seat and following him to the kitchen.
“Well, the wedding’s gonna have Asian food now” Lily comments
“It is a pagan wedding,” Hazel adds, “nothing about it was going to be normal”
“Alright, but do you think we should switch ties so we’re both wearing each other’s colors?” Leo asks
“That’s gay as hell, you should totally do it” Thalia tells him as she fixes another not-bouquet
“I know I said this already,” Percy comments, “but the metal flowers are so fucking cool”
“Thanks man,” Leo tells him, “they took forever to make”
“Youn made these?” Anabeth asks from two tables over
“Have been since I mated Nico,” Leo admits easily, “he doesn’t like normal flowers”
“More like flowers hate him,” Percy counters with a laugh, “he’s a cactus killer”
“Well I thought it was kind of sad,” Leo tells him. “so metal flowers”
“Gods, that’s the most romantic shit ever,” Thalia says, “real roses could never”
“Most people don’t combine four different celebrations into one!” Nico says exasperated.
“Well, no,” Hazel allows, “but most people don’t have four different things to celebrate at once”
“Hey,” Reyna tells him softly, “you know what’s gonna happen when you get in there?”
Nico looks away, hands clenching on the table in front of him, Reyna pries one away, holding it in her own.
“When you walk through that door,” she says, “you’re gonna see the boy you fell in love with”
She lifts their joined hands, coaxing Nico to look in her direction.
“You’ll see him,” she presses, “and he’s gonna look at you with so much love you’ll wonder how you’d ever doubted him, even for a second”
“Yeah,” Nico agrees, “I know you’re right”
“I don’t think there’s anyone who’s ever got me the way you do,” Leo tells him, “as though you saw through to my core”
He finally looks up from their joined hands and smiles.
“It’s a terrifying thing to be peeled raw like that,” he adds wildly, “but Nico, there’s no one I’d rather see me than you”
With his free hand, he lifts Nico’s and presses it against his chest.
“Because there’s no one I’d trust more with that knowledge,” he promises, “no one but you”
“When we first met, my first thought was how handsome you looked,” he says to scattered laughter, “and as I got to know you that attraction only grew”
Leo’s thumb rubs gently against his hand, and Nico’s oh so tempted to just cross the remaining distance.
“I was annoyed at Hazel, because she’d told me years ago, we’d probably hate each other,” he adds, “but I never clicked with anyone faster, and let’s be honest Ivera had me wrapped around her finger since the first hello.”
There’s more laughter from the crowd, and Leo himself chuckles wetly.
“Back then I had no idea just how blessed I’d become,” he tells Leo, “how much I would gain”
He closes his other hand, still over Leo’s heart, gripping into the fabric as his smile softens.
“I’m so glad it was you,” Nico says, “and if you continue choosing me then I’ll be terribly lucky.”