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“Will! Did you grab the diaper bag?” Nico yells from their driveway, he’s currently attempting to buckle Michael into his car seat, while balancing Maria on his hip.
Will pops his head through the front door, “yeah I think so, it’s in the trunk I think. Let me check.” Will speed-walks over to the car and searches the trunk for the blue duffel bag that’s covered in little suns, a gift from Apollo when he and Hades blessed them with their children.
“Ah ha! Found it!” Will pulls out the bag from under the pile of towels, food, and pool toys.
Nico finishes strapping the kids in, “perfect, now get in the car. The pool opens in twenty and we want to be there before it gets busy.” Nico hops into the passenger seat and buckles himself in. He turns around and starts adjusting the twins matching, bucket hats, they keep trying to pull them off.
Will shuts the trunk and hops into the car. Turning on the gas, and checking the backseat to make sure both of his children are buckled in. Feeling satisfied with their safety, he puts the car in drive and pulls out of their driveway.
Halfway down the street Nico starts searching the front seat for something. Feeling his pockets and between the seats.
“Shit.”
”Nico! The kids are gonna pick up on your swearing soon!” Will tisks, “what did you forget?” He's already putting the car in reverse and turning it around.
”My phone, I don’t know how I forgot it, I triple checked.” He runs his hands through his hair, “I’m sorry.”
Will shakes his head, “it’s fine, don’t worry.” He pulls into their driveway, “be quick.” Will leans over the center console to peck Nico’s cheek.
Nico rolls his eyes, “you dork.”
~~~~~~
By the time they reach the pool it’s already been thirty minutes since opening. The pool is relatively empty though, must be the perks of going to the pool on a random Wednesday.
Will picks Maria up and places her on his hip, Nico does the same with Micheal. They both grab a giant bag of every possible thing they could need and begin walking.
They luckily find two seats next to each other, dumping all of their stuff on the floor. Nico thankfully already dressed the twins in their matching swimsuits, but Maria decided it would be fun to mess up her sun hat, which has shifted covering half her face.
Will sets Maria down on one of the lounge chairs, adjusting her hat, “Miss Maria, you need to keep your hat on, I wouldn’t want you to get sunburnt.” Will kisses her head and starts to search for the sunscreen, keeping one hand on Maria so she doesn’t fall off of the chair.
Nico, still carrying Micheal reaches into the pool bag and grabs the sunscreen.“Will, love, please tell me why you were searching in the cooler for the sunscreen?”
“I don’t know! I just started searching in the bag closest to me and that just happened to be the cooler, really it’s not my fault.”
Nico just shakes his head and passes Will the sunscreen. He squeezes some on his hand and starts carefully applying it to Maria’s face and ears. Kissing her nose after he finishes, causing her to giggle.
He tosses the bottle to Nico, who catches it perfectly, such a show off.
They finish getting the twins ready for the pool and walk over to the shallow end. Nico is clutching his child in fear of him falling in somehow, Will sees the whole debacle and laughs. “Nico honey, you got to loosen your grip on Michael, you’re gonna hurt him.”
”What if he falls in?” Nico argues, but his grip on Micheal loosens.
“He won’t, and I know if he does the first thing you’re gonna do is jump in after him, he won’t die on your watch.”
They finally reach the kids part of the pool, where it’s shallow enough that it only goes halfway up Will’s shin.
Will sits down, crossing his legs and setting Maria in his lap. Nico copies Will, but holds Micheal just above the water, his death grip he had on him previously coming back.
“Nico, he’s not going to die, you just have to keep them in your lap, like this,” he points down to Maria who’s giggling and splashing in the water.
“Okay,” Nico mumbles, still weary of the water. He carefully sets Micheal in his lap, who immediately starts splashing at Maria.
Maria giggles and they start a splash fight, getting water all over Will and Nico’s faces.
They play in the water for a good half hour, until Nico looks over and sees a woman eyeing them suspiciously. She has long, black hair that's slicked back into a bun, and is wearing a dark red one piece. She doesn’t appear to be with any children, or anyone for that matter.
Nico instinctively clutches Micheal tighter to his chest, glaring back at the woman. She bares her teeth at him, and makes a low hissing noise. Shit, he didn’t expect a monster to be here. Can’t he just catch a break? He looks at Will who is having a mini splash fight with Maria, Nico hates to interrupt such an adorable moment.
“Will,” he whispers, subtly looking at the woman and back. Will seems to get the message and he clutches Maria to his chest, beginning to stand up.
Nico follows after, refusing to take his eyes off of the woman for too long. The twins must sense the urgency because they aren’t crying about having to leave early.
Will starts to pack up the stuff one handed, Nico stops him, “just grab your phone and get out of here!” Nico passes Will his phone which he places in his pocket.
Will quickly grabs Micheal out of Nico’s grasp, now balancing two babies. Nico reaches into the shadows and pulls out his sword, adjusting the grip of it in his hand. The monster seems to have noticed they left the pool and was slowly making their way towards Nico.
Nico gives one last look to his family, before making a shooing motion with his hand. “Quick Will! Go!” He commands, which seems to bring Will out of his trance since he books it out of there. It must’ve looked crazy to anyone watching, a grown man with two infants running out of the pool building as fast as he can.
The woman approaches Nico, “such a nice family you have there,” she hisses, “I was kind of hoping to eat one of the hybrid babies, but you should do.” Her fingers morph into claws, but she doesn’t make a move to attack Nico.
Nico scoffs, “like you could beat me in a fight, I can raise armies, I could send your soul to Tartarus with one swipe.”
The monster just laughs, “you could raise armies, you’ve grown too soft. You should’ve expected it, marrying a freak like him.“
Nico knows she was just antagonising him, but nobody, and he means nobody, insults his family.
Shadows surround him as he charges at the monster.
~~~~~~
Will pulls into their driveway, quickly unbuckling and removing his children from the car. He somehow manages to get the door open and he enters his house, closing the door with his foot. He quickly sets the twins into their playpen, hoping they just entertain themselves for once.
He fishes his phone out of his pocket and dials Nico, chanting in his mind, “please pick up, please pick up.”
On the last ring he hears his husband's voice, he has never been more relieved to have someone answer the phone.
”Nico, are you okay?” Will asks, praying to all of the gods that he’s alright. Will knows Nico can fight way more than whatever that woman secretly was, but he still worries.
”Yes Will, I’m fine, I’m just picking up our stuff then I’ll shadow travel home. Are the twins okay? Are you home safe?” Will could hear the panic in Nico’s voice.
“Kids are home safe, everything is fine. I have to go check up on them, love you.”
”Love you too, goodbye.”
~~~~~~
The second Nico materialized in his kitchen he ran to the living room. Will was sitting there with Micheal asleep on one arm, using his other arm to play with Maria, who was bouncing and giggling at the toy giraffe in Will’s hand.
Will was pretending the giraffe was eating Maria, making fake gobbling noises and putting the animal’s face to Maria’s stomach. Maria must’ve never seen Leo drunk, because she was laughing like this was the funniest thing on the planet.
Nico let out a sigh of relief, making Will jump. Maria saw Nico and started babbling, crawling over to him as fast as her little limbs could take her.
Nico bent down and snatched her up, holding her to his chest protectively. He cooed at her and peppered kisses all over her head, making her giggle and squirm. He sets Maria on his hip and goes over to Will, bending down to peck a kiss on his lips. Will gives him a look of concern, “you’re not hurt right? Everything went okay?”
Nico tried to look annoyed but Will saw right through it, “yes Will, it literally took one slash of my sword and she died. The only reason it took so long was because the mortals were trying to figure out why I ’attacked a lady with a pool noodle, and how she was suddenly gone,’ I had to gaslight my way out of it.”
That seemed to satisfy Will enough, because he hummed in approval and let it go.
Nico sat down next to Will and laid his head on his shoulder. Maria didn’t seem sleepy at all, and was squirming around, trying to get out of Nico’s grasp. Nico let her free and she started crawling and babbling, slamming the toy giraffe’s head into the floor like it had personally insulted her.
Will was the first to speak up, “next time we go to the Jackson’s pool.”
Nico, who was half asleep, nodded, “agreed.”