Hello!
So, this is the sequel to '600 Floors'. If you haven't read that yet, I would strongly advise you to do so, because this won't make much sense otherwise.
I also want to thank all my readers for the nice reviews in '600 Floors' and hope you will enjoy this as well. I'm open for more ideas if you have them because I kind of like this AU a lot. If you do too and want me to write more, just give me ideas.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
~OoOoOoO~
11 Heroes
To say Will Solace knew much about the world of the gods was an understatement. He knew the basics, of course, and he knew three demigods and a hellhound. It wasn't much to go by. Sometimes, when listening to the conversations between Percy, Annabeth and Nico he was horribly confused, but never got a straight answer from them when he asked after the topic. He knew it was about something that happened in the war (which was still weird to hear about, because literally no-one knew about it), but that was it. Will had hoped that Nico would open up to him more now that they were dating, but it had been two months and still nothing. Slowly he got used to Nico's secrecy. It still frustrated him that the demigod wasn't willing to share anything about his life with Will, but he tried to live with that. Instead, Will told Nico a lot about him and he got a few unimportant facts back. Annabeth had once apologized for Nico's behaviour, saying that he had a not so nice life and didn't talk to anyone about it.
Understandably, it came as a surprise when Nico asked Will to come over for Thanksgiving to meet some of the other demigods and Nico's sister. Will had gladly accepted, of course, and was now getting ready for a Thanksgiving dinner at the Jackson-Blofis household.
He was a nervous wreck.
Will was pacing up and down in his room, trying to decide what to wear. Should it be formal or not? If he knew Sally Blofis at all, she wouldn't expect him to wear something formal for a dinner but it still felt wrong to go there in jeans and a t-shirt.
"William, stop freaking out over this!", a voice scolded from his doorway.
Will turned around to find his mother standing in the doorway, he arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
"You are trying to decide your outfit, aren't you?", she said.
Will nodded and looked at his feet in embarrassment. His mother sighed.
"Just wear something you feel comfortable with. You have no obligation to dress up, it's just a dinner.", she said in a somewhat softer tone.
"Okay"
"And don't forget to take a scarf and a hat, you know how easily you catch a cold"
His mother left, the door slamming shut behind her and Will was left standing awkwardly in his room.
~OoO~
In the end he had decided on a simple blue sweatshirt and dark jeans. His mother was right, he should wear something that he liked.
Now he was standing in front of door number 18 and was hesitating to knock. He could hear loud laughter coming from inside and it seemed that it belonged to more than just one person. If he was honest, Will was terrified of meeting these other demigods. He was picturing them in his mind like Hercules from Disney, glowing beautiful people with superhuman strength. (He knew from experience that Nico was stronger than him even though he was so tiny. And the beautiful applied, too)
"Are you ever planning on knocking?", someone said next Will, making him jump a couple feet in the air.
"Dammit, Nico! Don't scare me like that!", he said and glared at his boyfriend who was smirking at him. "Where did you come from, anyway?"
Nico held up a brown bag he was carrying.
"Leo smashed the cookies so I had to buy some new ones.", Nico explained. He sounded really annoyed at this and he wondered if this 'Leo' didn't do that for the first time. Will also knew that Percy was crazy for cookies, so it was understandable why this was a crisis.
"Can you hold this for a second?", Nico asked and gave Will the bag.
He pushed past him and unlocked the door. The sounds from inside doubled in volume and Will wondered what exactly was going on there. He hesitated a bit before following Nico into the apartment. Thankfully Nico looked a bit nervous, too.
The two boys walked silently to the kitchen, were Will was greeted by a smiling Sally. She took the bag from him and thanked Nico for helping out in a state of crisis. Then she told them that the rest was in Percy and Annabeth's room, playing truth or dare. Will didn't want to play this game, it was the most horrible game ever invented, but if Nico wanted to, then he would sit through it.
"Do you want to play?", said boy asked him.
"No! I mean I guess I can play a rou-"
"Thank the gods", Nico interrupted him and pulled him out of the kitchen. Instead of going into Percy's room, where all the shouting and laughter was coming from, they crossed the hallway and entered Nico's.
"I really hate truth or dare", he said.
"Me too", Will responded and sat down on Nico's bed.
It still had a black bedspread, but it was sporting a giant yellow smiley face with x for the eyes.
"That's new", Will muttered and poked the smiley.
Nico blushed a bright red but didn't respond.
Shortly after, Will launched into a story about an attempt at riding a horse and Nico told him a story about his friend Reyna making friends with all the pegasi and leading them to victory over Mrs. O'Leary, some party ponies and Hannibal the elephant in a friendly game of war. Demigods had strange hobbies.
~OoO~
It was an hour later when Sally called for everybody to come to dinner and Will's hands started sweating. He was a nervous.
"You're going to be fine", Nico said.
He reached over and took one of Will's hands into his and gave it a squeeze. Will smiled slightly at his boyfriend (wow, that still sounded fantastic, even after nearly three months) and nodded. He was still nervous about meeting these other demigods, but Nico was right. Everything was going to be fine.
The living room was in chaos. Teenagers were running all over the place, some carrying plates, others were talking and one was laughing loudly.
Mr. Blofis was setting the table and Sally was talking to a big Asian looking guy. And when Will said big, he meant big. The boy was tall with broad shoulders and visible muscles. The only thing that didn't go with that look was the sort of boyish face he had.
Nico noticed him staring with wide eyes and chuckled.
"That's just Frank. You really don't need to be afraid of him"
Will looked at him, still wide eyed. "But...he's so big"
Before Nico could reply to that, Percy called Will's name. Everyone of the new kids stopped what they were doing and stared at him. Will flushed a bright red colour.
"When did you get here? I wanted to play truth or dare with you, I had really good dares", Percy said, totally oblivious to the quiet.
"Uhh...", Will said, not quite sure what to say to that.
"Anyway, could you get the salad? It's standing in the kitchen", Percy continued.
Will nodded wildly and then sprinted out of the room, nearly slamming in the door frame.
As soon as he was in the kitchen he sunk to the floor and buried his head in his hands. This was so embarrassing. They probably thought he was some stupid mortal that couldn't even walk straight. It got him thinking why he even bothered with all this godly crap. Sometimes he wondered if he should have ignored it when Nico explained it all to him, but then he wouldn't have had these fantastic last months.
Someone was sitting down next to him and took his hand and pulled it away from his face.
"Are you alright?", Nico asked.
Will nodded. Nico didn't look convinced, but didn't say anything else.
"They are more than I thought", Will finally said.
"Yeah, Thalia showed up without invitation and Coach dropped off his son for the weekend. Also, Leo dragged Calypso along, which I didn't even know was free"
Will was a bit confused by the last sentence but didn't ask.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea", Nico muttered after a few seconds. Will looked over at him questioningly. "They can be a bit … overwhelming, I guess. Meeting them all together is maybe not that good of an idea"
Will shook his head. "It's fine. I was just not prepared to be stared at. I guess I do look as good as everyone says"
Nico snorted and then looked away so that Will couldn't see his smile. Will grinned too. Nico looked really adorable when he was smiling. Without thinking, he leaned over and kissed him. Will could feel Nico smiling into the kiss and couldn't help but laugh slightly.
"Shut up", Nico muttered and pulled Will towards him to deepen the kiss.
"Nico, can I help – Oh my gods!"
Will abruptly pulled away when he heard the girl shout. In the entrance to the kitchen stood a petite, dark skinned girl with curly brown hair. She was wearing a green summer dress with leggings underneath and she was pressing her hands to her face. Will could see a light blush on her cheeks and golden eyes peaking out between her fingers.
"Uhh...hi", Will said.
"Hi", squeaked the girl. She was slowly lowering her hands and straightened he jumper.
"Hi Hazel", Nico said awkwardly.
Wait, Hazel? Wasn't that Nico's sister? They looked nothing alike.
The following silence was awkward with Hazel shuffling around a bit and Will looking at everything but her. What a horrible way to get introduced to Nico's family.
"I'm sorry, I have a bit of a problem with PDA", Hazel said finally and then gave Will a bright smile.
This, again, shocked him because it was so unlike Nico that he was sure those two couldn't be related.
"I'm Hazel Levesque, nice to meet you, Will", she said.
Will immediately climbed to his feet to shake her hand. Instead of shaking it, she pulled him in a hug.
"I'm so happy that my idiotic brother finally found someone. But be aware that if you hurt him, you'll have to deal with me", she said, her tone becoming dangerous at the end.
Will gulped and nodded. For someone who looked so nice she sounded as if she could kill him with a flick of her wrist.
"Umm...Hazel? Why exactly are you here?", Nico asked. He looked flustered but at the same time annoyed.
"I wondered if I could help you with anything, because you took a while to come back", Hazel explained.
She grabbed the salad bowl from the kitchen counter and turned to leave the room again.
"Please don't mention this to Percy. Or Reyna. Or Jason. Or anybody", Nico said and Hazel giggled but nodded and left.
"So that's your sister?", Will asked, a bit unsure of what to do.
"Yeah..."
"Oh, okay. I imagined her different, more like you but she seems alright"
Nico smiled slightly. "Yes, she is the best person ever. Now come on or Percy is going to make some stupid comments about us taking so long"
Will was horrified at the thought of Percy's jokes. He had come across them quite a few times in the last weeks and they always left him flustered and awkward. Today wasn't a good time to repeat that.
They made their way back into the living room where a long table, made out of three smaller ones, was set and a wide variety of chairs surrounded it. It looked like someone just went and bought different sets of chairs and mixed them all together. There were the chairs from the kitchen table, the ones from the dining room table, desk chairs, folding chairs and many more. Most of the others were already seated and were now back to staring at Will.
Nico rolled his eyes and dragged him to one end of the table were a tall dark haired girl sat. Next to her was a small boy, who couldn't be older than two, and next to him was Sally.
"Hi", Will said quietly and gave the girl a short wave.
She studied him for a second before giving him a nod in return. Then she smiled at Nico and started complaining about Percy and his ridiculous dares.
Will turned to the little boy and waved at him, too. He started giggling and babbled something Will couldn't understand.
"That's Chuck", Nico explained to him, interrupting the girl in the middle of her sentence.
Chuck nodded and started playing with his plastic plate.
"I'm Reyna, daughter of Bellona and praetor of New Rome", the girl introduced herself.
Will nodded and smiled but in truth he had no idea what that meant. New Rome was the demigod city, right? But what was a praetor? And which god was Bellona? He decided to ask someone later as not to make a fool out of himself right now.
Nico and Reyna picked up their conversation and Will realized that she must be Nico's friend he talked about sometimes.
"So, who are you?", a voice asked at the other side of Will.
Confused and surprised he turned and came face to face with a Latino elf. That was honestly what he looked like. He was short, with curly hair and pointy ears and looked like he had too much sugar.
"I'm Will and you are?"
The elf boy looked a bit surprised but then grinned widely.
"Well, I'm The Supersized McShizzle, the Awesome Leo Flamin' Valdez!", he yelled and the promptly burst into flames.
Will screamed in shock and scrambled backwards, which resulted into him falling of the chair.
Leo started giggling like crazy and, still engulfed in flames, leaned on the table for support. Will watched in horror as the fire spread and set the whole tablecloth on fire. The others started screaming, most of them yelling at Leo for being a dumbass, the rest at Percy to put out the flames. An ice cold stream of water shot from the other room, drenching the table, effectively putting out the flames and drenching Will completely.
"Oops?", Leo said.
"Gods dammit, Leo!", a pretty Native American girl yelled. Her very colourful eyes sparkled dangerously.
"Stop setting yourself on fire every time you meet someone. You scared the living heck out of the poor boy", she scolded.
All eyes turned back to Will, who was sitting on the floor, eyes wide open in horror and soaking wet. Suddenly the shock waved off and the cold hit him full force.
"Cold, cold, cold", he started to mutter and shivered.
"You need some new clothes", Nico stated. He looked worried.
Will nodded and pushed himself off the floor.
"Sorry", Leo muttered, but he still grinned so Will doubted he actually meant it.
Nico led him out of the room and into Percy's room.
He had never been in here before and was shocked at how blue it was.
Nico grimaced.
"He's eighteen, I swear"
Then he went and pulled some clothes out of Percy's dresser and showed him where the bathroom was.
"Can I use these?", Will asked.
Nico nodded. "They are the only ones that will fit you and he made you all wet, so yes, you can use them"
~OoO~
After a hot shower and slipping into comfortable and dry clothes, Will entered Nico's room to find his boyfriend on Sally's laptop.
"Why aren't you with the others?", Will asked and sat down next to him.
He looked at the screen and found a terrified looking Harry Potter on it. Shortly, he wondered when Nico had started watching Harry Potter and if it had anything to do with Will complaining about Nico's lack of knowledge about pop culture.
Nico sighed and closed the laptop.
"Are you alright now?", he asked instead of answering his question.
Will nodded and crossed his arms and glared at him.
"I wanted to wait for you and seeing as you take ages in the shower...", Nico explained and motioned to his film.
"They also started to trade war stories and I can really do without that", he added quietly.
It awoke Will's curiosity about the war and he had to force himself not to ask about it. Instead he just said "okay".
"You want to get back?"
"There won't be anymore people on fire, right?", Will asked cautiously.
He still wasn't over the fact that Leo was burning and seemed absolutely fine with that.
"Hopefully not, but I can't guarantee for anything"
"This is all so embarrassing", Will said after a short while. "I know meeting the family is never a pleasant experience, but this is awful"
"That's perfectly normal. They do this stupid shit all the time", Nico explained.
Will stared at him wide eyed. "Demigods are crazy"
"Yes"
Will flopped back on the bed and dramatically sighed. "I'm dating a crazy person!"
"Yes"
"And he doesn't even deny it!"
Nico started laughing and Will couldn't help but join in. Nico's laughs were so contagious, maybe because he rarely laughed.
"So, are you ready to go back and eat something", Nico asked later.
Will nodded.
He would survive this, even when they were demigods and did dangerous things for fun and he was just a 'mortal' who could easily die because of that. Okay, maybe meeting a bunch of highly skilled warriors wasn't that good of an idea.