Part 1 - The Beginning

Will couldn't believe what he was doing. He was kissing Nico Di Angelo. In public. His mom would be so mad, especially without his dad to calm her down. But even though he knew he shouldn't do it, he loved it. He loved kissing him, the man he had loved for so long. Eventually, though, he had to pull away, dreading what would happen if he was caught.

Nico smiled at him. "Thank you, Will. You have no idea how amazing that was." "Your welcome Neeks." Nico raised an eyebrow. "Really? We've been together for less than a minute and you already have a nickname for me?" As he realized what he said his cheeks flushed red. "I, what I meant, I didn't really mean," Will stopped him with a kiss.

"I would love to be your boyfriend, but could you just try to not mention it to mom? I would rather tell her when my dad is around, he has a calming effect on her." Nico smiled at Will and said "Yeah, speaking of which, where is your dad? I feel like he's never around." Will hesitated a moment before responding. "He's a singer," he said, "that's why he's never here." Nico nodded, and after a moment, a look of comprehension dawned on his face.

"Is he, ya know?" "Yeah. My dad is the famous Apollo." Nico looked shocked at the information. "How did I not figure it out before? Actually, why have you never said anything about it? If my dad was famous, I would be flaunting it to everyone." Will grinned saying, "You would think that, wouldn't you? That's what I did back when I lived in Texas, but I soon found out that when you have a famous parent, a lot of people want to be your friend, but most of the time it's for personal gains, like getting an autograph or something." Will shook his head. "But enough about that, what about your family?" Nico's demeanor dropped suddenly, but he managed to tell him.

"My dad, Hades, runs a big mining and oil business, so he's never around. He always gets home late and leaves early. I rarely see him. My mom Maria," he faltered on the word, "she died a long time ago when a hotel we were staying at got struck by lightning and a fire started. My dad managed to get us out, but my mom didn't make it out. That's why we moved to the states."

"My dad was devastated, but he never was as distant as he was now. But that was because of my sister, Bianca. Even if she was having a bad day, she managed to cheer him up, to make him laugh. That is until two years ago. My sister was out hunting with some friends and didn't come home until dark. She was driving home when out of nowhere, a car came and hit hers."

"She was rushed to the hospital, and Dad and I also went. We refused to leave that night, but it was too late. The next afternoon, she died. My dad was so lost in grief, having lost his wife, and now his daughter, that he refused to talk to anyone for a month. He started going into the office more and more, becoming more distant, and a smaller part of my life. Even though I still have him, at times it feels like it's just me." He stopped talking, breaking down into silent tears.

Will pulled Nico in for a hug, giving him a shoulder to cry on, and giving him some emotional support. After a minute or two, Nico pulled away, going over to his bike, and pedaling away. He turned around and saw his mom's car coming to a stop. He started to panic, hoping that she hadn't seen too much. He hesitantly stepped into the car and breathed a sigh of relief when he was greeted by, not his mom, but his sister, Kayla.

Part 2 - The Project

"Hi sunshine," she greeted him, using her nickname for him. "Hey sis. Why isn't mom here?" "I wanted to see you earlier, and mom had a long day at work. She wanted me to ask you something though." "Hmm" "She wanted to know if you wanted to do that camp again, the Greek mythology one?" Will was a bit taken aback by the question, he was expecting something different, but he nodded anyway because he did.

"K, good," said Kayla, "Another thing. Who was that boy back there?" Will blushed, hoping his sister wouldn't freak out. "Nico di Angelo." "Are you happy?" Asked Kayla. Will nodded. "Is he a good boyfriend?" Again, Will nodded. "Then I don't have a problem. I bet you don't want to mention it to mom though." "Not until dad's home at least. Just wait until then." Kayla smiled and nodded. She mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.

When they got home, after the normal how was your day, did you have any homework stuff from his mom, he went up to his room and pulled out his phone. He saw that he had a couple of texts from Nico.

Nico: Hi!

Nico: How are you

Nico: Will?

Nico: Hello?

Nico: Ciao? Sei qui?

Nico: WILL!

Nico: Why are you ignoring me?

Will: My god Nico.

Nico: :)

Will: 🤦

Will: I was going home, and getting interrogated by my mom about homework and stuff. You can't leave me alone for 5 minutes?

Nico: Love you too

Will: *sighs*

Will: I'm leaving this conversation.

Nico: Tu fai quella fidanzata

Will: Nico, I don't speak or read Italian

Nico: Sembra il tuo problema

Will: Goodbye Neeks

The next morning, Will had Social Studies, which was nice, because Nico also had it. "Sole mattutino," said Nico. "Nico. I didn't learn Italian in 8 hours." "You could've if you wanted to." Will sighed and went to sit down. Nico followed him, sitting next to him. "Alright," said Mr. Brunner, their Social Studies teacher, "for the next couple of weeks, we are going to be learning about world religions. You will get into groups of two, which I will assign." At this, the class collectively groaned.

Mr. Brunner smiled and continued. "Your group will get a country to research, again assigned by me. You will find out religious facts about your country. These are things like what religions are practiced there, what are those religions, is there a state religion, what are the religious freedom laws, all that stuff. Also, please note, if you do my summer camp, I am not giving you Greece." Will smiled a bit.

Mr. Brunner co-ran, along with a man named Mr. D who hated everything, a summer camp fashioned around Greek mythology. Nico also went there, and so, Will was pretty sure they were both hoping to get Greece. But alas, it looks like we would have to do something else.

"Now then, for the groups." Will sort of zoned out, waiting for his name to be called. "Will Solace and Nico Di Angelo, you will have Italy. Nico looked as though he were hiding a grin, and Will felt like that too. He was A) paired with Nico, and B) had Italy? This project would be a breeze. After Mr. Brunner had finished calling out names, he rolled his motorized wheelchair over to his desk, and Will went to talk to him.

"Ch- Mr. Brunner," he said, nearly slipping and using the name Chiron, who Mr. Brunner went by at camp if only to add to the immersion. "Yes Will?" he asked. "What influenced your group decisions?" "Oh, I just picked them at random. The fact that you and Mr. Di Angelo are paired together is completely random. As is the fact that you got Italy. All random luck." Mr. Brunner looked down at his book, but Will could tell that it was not just luck. Either way, Will went back to where Nico was sitting.

"So," said Nico, "What's the plan?" Will smiled and said, "The plan is that you put your Italian brain to use, and tell us everything we need to know about religion in Italy." Nico smiled and rubbed his hands. "Since I know a lot about Italy, we can spend less time researching, and more time creating an awesome presentation. Do you want to come over later to work?" Will hesitated until Nico said, "We can get pizza." Will's willpower crumbled and agreed.

Later that day, he thought of one small hiccup. He needed to convince his mom. It shouldn't be too hard to convince her, he told himself, just tell her it's for school. Luckily, when he explained the situation, she agreed and said that Kayla could take him in about an hour.

Part 3 - The Date

After an hour he was in his sister's car, driving to Nico's. He had shot him a text beforehand, and Nico had seemed plenty happy. So, as he drove by rows of houses, he wondered what Nico's would look like. As the car slowed down, Will looked at the addresses. He saw Nico's and told his sister to stop.

The outside looked like a normal house and was perfectly lovely. It wasn't at all dark or gloomy like Will might have imagined. He wondered if it would change when he got inside. The only hint that Nico lived there was thick black drapes covering one window.

Will walked up and knocked on the door. After waiting for a second, Nico opened the door. "Hi there," he said, "come on in." Will turned and waved to his sister, before walking in. It looked like a normal house on the inside too. The room directly inside was their living room, as it had a large couch facing a television screen. The walls were noticeably bare, the only decoration being a mirror bordered by some deep black mineral, which could only be described as blacker than a nightmare.

"Yeah," said Nico, "The mirror's a little weird. I've never been quite sure what it is. I call it dark iron since Dad says it's some sort of iron alloy, but I don't know what would make it that black. Onyx maybe? I dunno. But anyway, this is our living room, and if you look over here," he made a gesture like a TV show host, "you will see our kitchen."

The kitchen was quite large, with a square shape. On the walls were countertops made out of the same strange dark iron material. They surrounded the room, only having two gaps for entrances. In the center was an island, about 3 feet on all sides. Around the kitchen on the counters were your various utilities such as stoves, ovens, microwaves, dishwashers, and a refrigerator and freezer.

Will stepped in to take a better look around, and nearly tripped on the small lip, so he flung out his hands to catch himself. An instant later he jerked his hands up, nearly falling again, but Nico caught him at the last minute.

Nico smiled slightly and said, "I guess I should have warned you. There's a small lip in our doorways, and dark iron is freezing to the touch. You have to be careful." Will gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Thanks," he said, "That's good to know." Nico blushed slightly before continuing with the tour. "If you go through the kitchen, being careful not to trip or touch the counters, you will find our dining room."

He led Will through the kitchen, into a circular room about half the size of the kitchen. There was a circular table made out of a light-colored wood in the center, with two chairs on either side. In the center of the table was a bowl of pomegranates. Nico took a breath and continued showing off his house.

"So this is our dining room. It's not giant, but with only two people it certainly feels like I'm so small in a room that feels so big." For a second he looked as though sad, and then shook his head and smiled. "Anyway, so yeah, this is our dining room, and if you go through that door there, you just go outside, and if you go through that other door, you go back to the living room."

Nico waved for Will to follow him and showed him around the rest of the house and outside. After Nico had shown him around the house, they went back up to Nico's room to start work on their presentation. "K," said Will, "so how do we want to approach this? What theme do we want to use?" Nico immediately replied "Cheesy tourist scrapbook."

Will looked at him oddly but nodded anyway. After a bit of working Nico collapsed onto his bed and sighed. "I'm finished with working tonight. Let's order pizza and watch something on TV." Will looked at the presentation and back at his boyfriend. He had a point since the presentation creation was getting increasingly boring, and he had been promised pizza.

After the pizza arrived we went downstairs to the TV and set the open pizza box in front of us. Nico sat down on the couch and Will layed down, resting my head on his side. He gave me a small glare, but Will just smiled at him. "Sooo, what do you want to watch," asked Nico. Will thought for a moment before answering with Hercules.

"Huh," said Nico, "I've never watched that one." Will smiled a bit and responded, "you'll like it." Nico turned it on and was enjoying it, vibing to the music, until Hades came on. Upon seeing him Nico fell off of the couch. When he got up Will saw a mixture of shock and humor on the Italian boy's face.

"THAT'S Hades," he asked, "What is he? The god of Fire?" Will laughed at his boyfriend's shock, and pressed the play button. After it was finished Will turned to Nico, asking if he liked it. "It was gooood. I feel like it could have used some more accuracy. I mean, my 'dad' is not the villain here, people. That would be Hera. She's the one that went psycho on Hercules. Also it's technically Heracles, but whatever."

Will smiled at Nico and said "Take it up with Disney Neeks. I can't do much." They looked at each other for a moment before Nico broke the silence by saying "I guess you have to go now. Don't you?" Will smiled sadly and nodded. "Well. I'll see you later then." "Yeah," said Nico. Will looked at him for a second more before saying "can I kiss you?"

"Yeah." Said Nico. Will inched closer to him, eventually pressing his lips against Nico's. They stood there, their lips pressed together, neither of them wanting to leave. Their arms wrapped around each other, both of them wanting time to stop.

"I love you Will."

"I love you too, Neeks."

Against all odds, Will had ended up with the perfect boy.