Nico really hated health class.
It's not like they learned anything anyway, the entire class just talked over Mr. Asclepius as he tried to show them a diagram of the female genitals. He sat in the back corner, hiding his novel behind a Healthy Eating: The Benefits Of A Vegan Diet textbook, and tried to block out the constant drone of the class.
"Alright, kids! Settle down, yes, uh, have a seat Mr. Solace, Mr. Valdez, please put that down, it is very fragile! Alright, everyone…" Mr. Asclepius ran around the room, for once disciplining his students. It took a few minutes, but finally he returned to his stand at the front of the class, holding a large stack of papers.
"We are going to be starting a project on the joys of child care." He smiled brightly, as the rest of the class groaned loudly. People immediately began turning to one another, deciding who would be their partner, what the gender would be, how many babies they wanted, names, etc.
"Oh no, you won't be picking your own partners," Mr. Asclepius smiled again, "I will be choosing for you, and the rest will be left to the fates."
Nico almost added in his own groan with his classmates.
"Hush, it won't be that bad! I'm coming around with a hat and you will pick from it until everyone is chosen."
They started at the other end of the classroom, with Percy Jackson.
Percy was laughing at something Grover Underwood said, when the cowboy hat of names was pushed into his chest.
"Pick one, Mr. Jackson."
Nico quickly looked down at his book, trying to concentrate on anything except Percy.
It didn't work.
"Annabeth Chase… No way! Annabeth!" Percy crowd, leaping out of his chair and crossing the room to where Annabeth was grimacing.
Nico tried to keep busy as the cowboy hat was passed around. Anxiety was eating at his stomach while the partners were being assigned.
He forced himself to read the words in his book, but distracting himself was never a strong suit. As he turned the page of his book, Nico managed to pick up his name through the chaotic noise of the class.
"Nico di Angelo."
It was just Nico's luck that he would be paired up with Jason Grace. Really, he should have seen it coming. Jason's friends began slapping him on the back, congratulating him on being the only gay parent in the class. Jason laughed good naturedly, and swatted away their hands, not seeming bothered by their jeers.
But Nico was. He could feel his face heating up, and he busied himself by placing his bookmark neatly inside his book.
"Now, I'm telling you right now, these dolls are going to act like real babies." Mr. Asclepius perched on his desk and grinned madly at the class, "You will be getting a bag full of clothes, diapers, bottles, and anything else you will need. Everything has a censor on it, so I will be able to monitor your progress. It's supposed to be fun kids, so enjoy it! It's an experience you will remember forever!" Mr. Asclepius clapped his hand together, "And one more thing. These babies are going to cry. A lot. So be ready! I'm going to give you this packet, where you will record your daily progress with your child. Be honest! Remember, I can see everything. Okay, everyone? Meet by the door to pick up your baby or for some of you, babies!"
Groaning inwardly, Nico began packing up his bag, trying to ignore the person walking towards him.
"Hey, Nico!" Jason greeted, leaning against his table, bag slung over his shoulders.
"Hello." Nico said sharply, only glancing up at the blonde for a second.
"You wanna go pick up our child?"
"Sure."
Nico followed behind Jason as they walked to the two giant boxes full of creepy baby dolls.
"Mr. Grace, Mr. di Angelo, take your pick," Their teacher said, holding out another slip of paper.
"Care to do the honors?" Jason asked, smiling down at him.
Wordlessly, Nico picked a piece of paper and read the instructions out loud.
"Congrats! You have given birth to a beautiful baby girl," Nico looked up from the paper and raised an eyebrow.
Mr. Asclepius gave a quick gasp, "Oh right, you two get a different piece of paper…" Scrambling around his desk, he brought back another slip and quickly switched it with the one Nico was holding. "There you are."
Clearing his throat, Nico began reading again, "Congrats! You are free to adopt your own baby! Please choose it's gender, race, and ethnicity."
"You can pick." He told Jason without looking up from the paper.
"Okay," Jason chirped. Nico watched timidly as Jason thrust a hand into the box of babies, dug around, until he pulled one out by the foot.
"Careful, Mr. Grace, that is your child," Mr. Asclepius warned.
"Alright, " Nico continued reading, "Now that you have a child, a lifestyle will be chosen for you. You and your partner are upper class citizens with one working parent, to be decided later. The working parent will take the baby for nights, while the stay at home parent takes it for the day. You will be given two free babysitter passes, where you will be allowed to give your baby back for up to two hours per pass-"
"That's a very good deal, you two got lucky," Mr. Asclepius interrupted. Nico continued reading.
"This project will teach you how to care for a child, and the hardships of being a parent. See your teacher if you have any problems, and good luck!"
"Yup, good luck to you two!" Their teacher said, before shooing them out the door and onto the next partnership.
"So…" Jason said, running a hand across the back of the neck.
"Do you want to be the working parent?" Nico asked.
"Whatever you want." Jason replied, giving him a friendly smile.
"I take a lot of night shifts at my job so I suppose it would work better if I took him for the day."
"Okay! Do you want to meet up later to switch off?"
Nico shrugged, "Sure."
"Here? End of the day?"
"Okay."
"See you then."
"Bye." Nico said, walking away with their new child.
Jason and Nico had a son. His skin was a light brown/olive, and he had brown, almond shaped eyes. He cried a lot. Like, a lot.
"Mr. di Angelo, could you please quiet that child?" His world history teacher asked him, stopping her lecture to yell at him.
"Yeah, I'm trying…" Nico muttered, before getting up from his seat and walking out of the class. "I just need to go find my partner…"
Ms. Athena nodded, her lips pressed tightly into a line.
Nico speed walked down the hall and quickly texted his sister.
Nico: Is Jason Grace in your class?
Nico prayed he was, he knew that Hazel was friends with the jock, and it would really save him the trouble of having to hunt Jason down. His phone pinged almost immediately.
Hazel: He is, what's wrong? Are you in trouble?
Nico: He can explain, tell him to meet me outside. Now.
When Nico made it the west wing of the school, Jason was standing outside the Marine Bio room with his hands in his pockets.
"What's going on?" He said as Nico approached, "I heard you all the way down the hall."
"Your son won't shut up."
"I believe he is your son too," Jason grinned, reaching out to take the baby from Nico.
"Did you bring the bag of stuff?"
"What do you think this giant bag is for?" Nico snapped, irritated from having to hear the baby scream for the past hour.
Jason shot him a pointed stare, and repositioned the baby in his arms. He began cooing at it, and rocking it in his arms.
"What are you doing?" Nico asked, furrowing his nose.
Jason looked up surprised, "I'm putting him to sleep."
"What are those noises coming from your mouth?" Nico asked, fighting a smile.
"I'm relaxing him, didn't you read the brochure?" Jason grinned, still rocking the baby.
"No, I must have forgotten, too busy trying not to throw it out the window."
Jason laughed, "It? You didn't name him?"
"I thought we were supposed to decide that as parents." Nico remarked quietly. Jason's rocking and cooing were actually working, and the doll was quieting down.
"See? That wasn't so hard," Jason smirked at him.
"Shut up, Grace. What are we going to name it?" Nico asked, taking the baby from Jason's arms and mimicking the way he was holding him.
"How about, Jico? Or Niason?"
Nico shook his head, "No."
"Okay... How about something cool, like Thor or Drogo?"
"Why don't we just stick to something simple… like Steve Rogers."
"Okay, so you would rather Steve Rogers over Thor?"
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier was fantastic, it was so much better than Thor: The Dark world."
"Um, I beg to differ-"
"Why don't we just name it Chris then?" Nico interrupted.
Jason grinned at him, "Okay, we'll name him Chris."
Nico rolled his eyes, "I have to get back to class, Ms. Athena is gonna be so passive aggressive to me."
Jason grimaced, "Yeah, good luck with that, shes tough to win over. By the way, how did you know where I was?"
"I stalk you in my free time. It's a hobby I picked up a few years ago."
"I see," Jason nodded, smiling. "Okay, I have to get back to class."
"Same. Bye, Jason."
"Bye, Nico. Bye, Chris!" Jason cooed at the doll.
"You're kinda weird, Jason."
"You're one to talk. Bye, Nico."
"See you later, Grace."
The next morning, Nico waited for Jason and Chris at his locker. He had been more than happy to give Chris over to Jason for the night, and appreciated the quiet he got at his job at the library. Having a baby scream in your ear constantly, all day long, was enough to drive him crazy.
Placing textbooks into his locker, Nico didn't hear Jason approach until he was tapped on the shoulder.
"Good morning, Nico!"
"Good morning, Jason, did your night go well?" Nico peeked around his locker to look at his partner. His heart beat picked up when he noticed how crooked Jason's glasses were, and without even thinking the question tumbled out of his mouth.
"I didn't know you wore glasses,"
Jason chuckled, "I normally wear contacts, but was too lazy to put them in today. Something tells me with Chris around, I'll be wearing them a lot more."
"Oh," Nico stared for a second more, then returned to putting his books away, "I take it your night was tiring?"
"Not as bad as I thought it would be," Jason said, leaning against a locker, "Chris does have quite the set of pipes on him though."
"Now you understand my pain." Nico said, slamming his locker shut by accident. Chris immediately started to cry, and Jason groaned under his breath.
"I'm so sorry," Nico apologized, taking the baby from Jason's arms.
"It's alright, it just took him a while to sleep…"
"Don't worry, I'll calm him down."
"Do you know how?" Jason asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose,
"I can figure it out," Nico fumbled with Chris in his arms and picked his bag up off the ground. "Don't worry about it."
"Alright," Jason hesitated, "Do you want to sit together at lunch? We can start filling out the sheets and stuff,"
"Yeah, sure," Nico hastily agreed, rocking Chris in his arms.
"Great, I'll come find you after 5th period!" Jason said, before falling in line with his friends and disappearing down the hallway.
"Just you and me Chris…" Nico muttered, heading on his way to his first period class.
Lunch could not have come sooner. Nico almost cried when he saw Jason walking towards his empty table.
"Remember how I said I would figure it out? Well, I cannot understand this baby. At all."
Jason gave him a sympathetic smile, "It's harder than it looks, let me see him…"
It took Jason a minute to calm down, and soon Chris was sleeping silently in his car seat. They began working on all the paperwork together, reviewing how often Chris cries (all the time), how well they are working together (smoothly), and the income they are getting from Jason's "job".
"How much are you making?" Nico asked.
"Well, in my pretend job, Mr. Asclepius said I could choose and because we have a higher income than most of the people in the class, I just went with lawyer."
Nico nodded while filling in the sheet, "Alright...So, on paper it looks like we're doing pretty well, and we still have two babysitter passes left-"
Nico was interrupted by a very tired Percy falling into the chair next to him. Annabeth followed behind holding their baby, her expression annoyed.
"Hey guys," she said, sitting down next to Jason, "How's the project going for you?"
"Pretty good," Jason smiled, "And for you?"
Annabeth gave a pointed glare at Percy's hunched over form, "Let's just say not everyone should have kids."
"It's so much harder than I thought!" Percy moaned, rubbing his eyes, "I give so many props to my mom for doing this by herself."
Annabeth sighed, "We came over because Mr. Asclepius said for extra credit we could schedule a playdate. You guys in?"
Jason looked over at Nico and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Nico nodded.
"Sure, why not, tomorrow good for you?"
"Yeah, perfect," Annabeth grinned.
"What's your kids name?" Nico asked.
A triumphant smile crossed Annabeth's lips, and Percy looked up at them annoyed.
"We had some difficulty deciding the name," He said, frowning, "I wanted to give him a cool name, something all the other kids would remember him by-"
"Drizzle is not a name, Percy!" Annabeth insisted.
"Magnus is so such a prissy name!"
"So is Percy!"
"I wouldn't mind being called Drizzle. In fact, I would thank my parents for naming me Drizzle." Percy argued.
"It's a doll, Percy, he can't thank you for anything!" She sighed, rubbing her temples.
"It's the thought that counts, Annabeth!"
"Anyway," Annabeth said, focusing on Jason and Nico, "Magnus is a family name, Percy just can't see how intelligent it makes our child."
"I wanted to name ours Thor," Jason sympathized with Percy.
"See, even Jason understands the importance of a cool name!" Percy exclaimed, nudging Nico "What did you end up naming it?"
"Chris," Nico said, starting to doodle on his paper.
Annabeth nodded, "That's cute. Alright, well, Percy and I need to go fill out the extra credit application. See you guys tomorrow,"
"Bye," Jason waved.
They watched them leave, fighting over who got to hold the baby, and Percy ended up tripping over two chairs.
"Can you imagine if they ever did have kids together?" Nico pondered.
"They would be an... interesting family." Jason agreed.
The rest of the week went by alright. Chris still cried all the time, he didn't do much else, and Nico began to wonder if they had a defective baby. He was struggling to keep up with his school work too, he had three projects introduced this week, all of which he hadn't started yet. He totally bombed a quiz they had in AP stats. Not to mention Chris whimpering during the entire thing…
Their playdate with Percy and Annabeth had been hilarious. Not only did Percy drop the baby twice, Annabeth nearly forgot it at the park. They had been walking for a few minutes when she remembered that they had a child to look after, and they had to race back to the park.
Compared to them, Nico and Jason seemed like perfect parents.
Granted, Percy and Annabeth's situation was a lot harder. They only had one working parent, and Mr. Asclepius had given them a minimum wage job, Percy worked at McDonalds. Their baby also had gotten "sick" during the week, with diarrhea, so they had to change his diaper at least twice every hour or else Magnus would start screaming. Jason and Nico had the unfortunate luck of hearing it, and it literally sounded like a cat was dying in the dolls stomach.
When Percy heard they had two babysitter passes, he had begged and pleaded with Nico until he agreed to give him one.
"Thanks man!" Percy cheered when Nico handed him the pink card.
"Don't mention it."
"Seriously, this is sick! I owe you one," Percy grinned, and gave Nico a pat on the back before running over to Annabeth.
They used the other pass in the middle of the week when both Jason and Nico had big tests in a class. It was so refreshing to not have to deal with Chris for two hours, Nico almost felt like crying when they had to take him back.
Jason and Nico had gone closer over the course of a week. Nico started to expect Jason at lunch, and would wait for his loud laugh after he said something particularly witty. He liked to watch the small line form between Jason's eyebrows when he was fussing over Chris, and the way his glasses were somehow always crooked.
Nico had started to like fixing them.
He would also stare at Jason's nose all the time. It was so perfect, the slope looked like it was drawn with a ruler, like someone had sculpted it.
"What are you staring at?" Jason asked one day, finally noticing Nico's looks.
"I heard a rumor today that you got a nose job."
Jason stared at him for a second, before bursting into thunderous laughter, causing the entire lunch room to stare.
"Do people actually say that?" Jason asked, smiling broadly.
"They say a lot of other stuff too."
"What freaks…" Jason muttered, before going back to his paper.
Everything about Jason seemed perfect, but Nico sometimes saw parts that weren't. His home life didn't sound too great. he didn't talk about it often, but his step mother seemed very controlling, whereas his father probably couldn't care less. Some of his friends were total dicks, and Nico couldn't understand why Jason put up with it. One time when they were walking by with Chris, a small group of his friends followed closely behind.
"Look at these fags," Octavian leered, "Jason, we didn't know you played for the other team." And the rest of the guys started joining in.
"Shut up, guys," Jason said good naturedly, but the demanding look in his eyes made them stop. After they had left, Nico had asked Jason, "Why do you put up with that?"
"What? Octavian?" Jason said, "It's not that big of a deal."
"How could you say that?"
"If I brought it up they would just freak out even more, Nico. I don't like it either, but then again, I don't even like them." Jason kept his head turned straight ahead and Nico knew their conversation was over.
He was much more complex than Nico had ever thought, he had always passed Jason off as a typical jock. He was starting to dread friday afternoon, when they would turn Chris back in. Not because he would miss Chris, no, he hated Chris. But because it wouldn't give him an excuse to hang out with Jason anymore. He figured Jason was done with all the teasing, and would probably distance himself as far away from Nico as possible.
Nico never really had crushes, he thought he liked Annabeth for a while but then he realized he actually liked Percy...
So did he know have a crush on Jason? He really didn't know. Jason was almost as unattainable as Percy. Nico wished he could crawl into a cave and just lay in bed all day, with Netflix and an infinite amount of fast food. Yeah, that would be good.
Wednesday night, Nico got a call from Jason.
"Hello?" he said, thankful he was in the stacks during work, no one ever bothered him in there and he wasn't supposed to be on his phone.
"Hey," Jason mellow voice greeted.
"What's going on?"
"We have a problem…"
"What is it?" Nico said, setting down the book he was stacking.
"I have an away game tomorrow for football."
"So?"
"I'm going to be gone all day, the bus leaves at 8 AM and we get back at 9 or 10 that night."
"Oh…"
"Do you think you can handle an entire day of Chris?" Jason sounded concerned.
"I'm sure I will be fine." Nico assured him, but inside he was really anxious.
"I just feel so bad, it's the last day of the project and you're probably so tired and Chris is such a handful-"
"I can handle it, Jason." Nico said, annoyance started to creep in.
Jason paused on the phone, "Nico, you've never taken care of Chris at night before, it's a lot harder than it seems."
"Don't underestimate me, Grace." Nico growled.
"I'm not, Nico. I'm just saying, it's really freakin hard." Nico could hear how exhausted Jason was though the phone, but at that moment, Nico didn't care.
"Here's an idea, why didn't you tell me about the away game a few days ago? I would have rather taken my anatomy test with Chris, and we could have saved up our babysitter passes."
"I'm sorry, there was a cancellation and coach only told us about it today. Also, you gave our other pass to Percy, without even asking me, so I wouldn't be talking right now." Jason snapped back.
"Don't turn this on to me, Jason, I'm not the one that fucked up!" Nico hissed into the phone. Normally he wouldn't have acted this way, especially not to Jason, someone he actually liked. But, he was running on a few hours sleep, and between school, his feelings for Jason, work, and Chris, he was near his breaking point.
"Fucked up?! Are you kidding me, Nico? You're being so unfair right now."
"Whatever, Jason, I told you I would be fine. I'll find you tomorrow morning before the bus leaves. Good luck at your game." He said finally, before ending the conversation. If he was honest, it embarrassed him how dramatic he just was, but he was really freakin stressed. Sighing loudly, he returned to stacking the shelves and tried to focus his mind on the books.
Focusing his mind on something else never really worked for Nico.
Thursday night rolled around, and as Jason predicted, Nico was struggling. In health class today, Mr. Asclepius had passed around a curve ball for the night. Percy and Annabeth finally caught a break though, Percy had won employee of the month and earned them a two day trip to the mountains, with a family member to look after Magnus. Percy had started crying. Nico hadn't been so lucky, Chris had come down with the flu, and without Jason to help him take care of him, it was hard. He had texted Jason with updates, but so far no response.
Chris was screaming in his ear as Nico continued to press the medicine bottle to his lips.
"Come on, fucking censor, pick it up!" Nico whispered under his breath as he pressed the bottle harder against Chris's plastic lips.
"Bahhh!" Nico shouted, throwing down the bottle as Chris cried even more. He sat there for a while, and listened to Chris scream and cry. His conscience kicked in though when he remembered that they were being graded on how often Chris cried. Picking up his son, Nico began doing awkward back and forth movements, trying to calm the screaming baby.
"Come on, baby, please stop crying, please stop crying…" Nico hummed, rocking him even more. Nothing was working though, Chris kept on crying.
"Nico?" Hazel asked, standing in the doorway of his room.
"What?"
"Do you need help?"
"No, Hazel, I don't need help!" Nico snapped, glaring at his sister.
Hazel stiffened and cleared her throat, "Fine then, I'm going over Piper's. Tell Dad I'll be home at 10." And she turned and left, her skirt swishing down the hall.
Nico sighed, and began constructing his apology in his head. Hazel didn't deserve his anger, no one did. Except Chris.
"Goddamn it, you stupid baby." Nico snapped. He started to walk out of the room, to find Hazel and apologize, when he tripped over one of his shoes, and let Chris fall from his hands so he could catch himself.
The crying stopped the minute Chris hit the ground.
"Shit."
Nico and Chris (still silent) waited in his car outside of Jason's house. Yes, it was creepy, and no, Nico didn't care. He never thought he would wish for Chris to cry, but right now he really did. Nico also prayed no one was home, because he looked really creepy just sitting in Jason's driveway. Then again, if someone was home, Nico would never be able to tell. The house was massive, bigger than he had ever seen. He had gotten the address from Hazel after he had apologized and explained what had happened with Chris.
"Oh, Nico, I'm so sorry,"
"It's fine, but do you have the address?"
"Yeah, I've been to a few parties there, I think I remember…"
"Wait a minute, you go to parties?"
"Uhhhh…."
Nico saw headlights pull up to the driveway and park just outside the garage. Jason got out of the car, and waved to whoever was driving. As he walked up to the front door, he noticed Nico's car sitting in the driveway, and paused. Nico got out, and speed walked over to Jason.
"Nico?" Jason's voice was surprised.
"Jason, I did something, really, really, stupid."
"What is it?" Jason asked, reaching a hand out to touch Nico's shoulder, "Is that Chris? Why isn't he crying"
And then Nico started crying.
"I feel so stupid," Nico said, sitting on the marble steps outside of Jason's house.
"Don't, I would cry too," Jason promised, giving Nico a squeeze. He had thrown his arm around Nico while he cried, and normally he hated to be touched, but with Jason, he found it was alright.
"I doubt that…" Nico said, wiping the tears from his eyes and groaning, "I'm so tired."
Jason laughed and Nico joined in for once.
"You deserve a vacation," Jason said, causing Nico to snort.
"I'm serious!" Jason pressed, "Well, maybe not a vacation, but a trip to the toy store or something,"
"The toy store?" Nico laughed.
"Okay, well, not that either, but you know what I mean. I'll take you to go get frozen yogurt sometime and then we can go buy video games."
Nico's heart picked up, and he really hoped it didn't show on his face, "Okay, I'm going to hold you to that."
"Don't worry, I'll remember. I'd do anything for my sweet husband,"
"Oh, shut up, Grace."
"Do you want to come inside?" Jason asked.
"Sure…" Nico said, holding Chris closer to him. They hadn't been able to turn him back on, but Jason hadn't seemed too bothered by it.
"C'mon," Jason said, holding out his hand.
If Nico thought the outside of his house was impressive, the inside didn't even compare. Nico must have been staring at it in awe, because Jason suddenly grew embarrassed as they walked inside.
"It looks intimidating, I know, but it's not so bad."
The front door was massive, and the inner hall was even grander. There was a giant spiral staircase leading up to a balcony that overlooked the foyer. An open doorway was on the right, leading into what looked like a dining room, and to their left was a elegant piano and a set of polished french doors leading into an office.
Jason cleared his throat, "Uh, just take off your shoes and leave them here, my step mother likes to keep everything clean."
"Oh, yeah sure." Quickly, Nico toed off his beat up converse and followed Jason up the huge stairs. They passed many other doors on there way to Jason's room, all closed shut. Paintings and sculptures were displayed tastefully along the walls, making the house seem more like a museum than a home. Everything was spotless, making Nico wonder how many people lived here.
They pass one more set of stairs before reaching the end of the hall, Jason's bedroom.
"Sorry, it's a little messy." Jason said, opening the door and beckoning Nico in.
Nico let out a loud laugh when he saw the state of Jason's room.
"What?" Jason smiled at him, setting his bag down on the bed.
"You call this messy?"
The room was much like the rest of the house, perfect. The walls were a light blue, the bed spread a cream color, and the floor covered in thick, white carpet. A desk was pushed in the far corner, a dresser on the opposite side. A closet door swung open, the bathroom door shut, a large mirror on one wall. As far as messy goes, Nico only noticed a shirt tucked over the desk chair, a cluttered desktop, a slightly overflooded closet, and a few papers on the floor. The only thing giving the room personality was a small cork board above the desk, covered in photos.
"Sorry my rooms messiness isn't up to your standards." Jason grinned, sitting down on the neatly made bed.
"You're house is like a hotel," Nico noted, sitting on the bed.
"Yeah, I guess so…" Jason agreed, leaning against the door. "Do you mind if I take a quick shower? I just back from the game so I'm kinda gross…"
"Oh, yeah, sure, how did that go by the way?" Nico asked, picking at the duvet.
"We lost," Jason shrugged, pulling clothes out of the closet.
"I'm sorry," Nico said.
"Don't worry about it, we've been having an off season so I wasn't really surprised. I'll just be a minute…"
"Take your time," Nico assured him.
Five minutes later, Jason emerged. His blonde hair was damp, making it a shade darker, and he was dressed in grey sweatpants and a royal purple shirt.
"I'm really sorry about Chris." Nico apologized again.
"Nico, don't worry about it. Leo said he broke his the first day, and reprogrammed it to spout out Game of Thrones sayings."
"Are you serious?" Nico laughed.
"He said in the middle of class it malfunctioned and kept repeating, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."
"Too bad ours just kinda...died." Nico frowned, tracing Chris's button nose with his fingers. Jason came over and perched next to Nico on the bed.
"I'm not that good with people…" Nico whispered.
"Lucky for you, it's just a doll." Jason whispered back, and Nico could hear the reassuring smile in his voice.
"I wasn't talking about Chris…" Nico said, not looking at Jason.
"Oh…"
"I'm sorry for yelling at you, it wasn't your fault at all."
"It's okay, Nico, I'm sorry I underestimated you."
"I should have listened. Your were so right, it was so fucking hard, and I only had him for a few hours more."
Jason was quiet for a minute before speaking.
"I dropped Chris down the stairs the first night."
"What?"
"I dropped him down those ginormous stairs we just walked up."
Nico looked up at Jason and met his clear blue eyes. They stared at each other for a minute, before bursting into laughter.
"Fuck" Jason whispered after they had calmed down, "We are horrible parents."
"And I thought Annabeth and Percy were bad." Nico chuckled, nudging Jason with his shoulder. They laughed some more until they eventually ended up laying side by side, with their legs hanging over the bed.
"This reminds me of that Spongebob episode," Nico mused.
Jason nodded.
"Where they find that baby clam and take care of it...that was a good episode…"
"I wouldn't know, I've never seen it." Jason said.
Nico sat up and stared down at Jason in disbelief, "Are you kidding me?"
"No, I'm not, my stepmother would never let me watch Spongebob."
"Well, now we have to watch it!" Nico said, getting up from off the bed, "Where's your laptop?"
"On the desk." Jason said, scooting up to the top of the bed.
Nico looked the episode up online, and for the next 20 minutes, they watched Rock-a-Bye Bivalve. They watched a few more episodes after that, Nico tried to catch Jason up on all the classics. He seemed to like them, laughing at all of the jokes and imitating them back to Nico after they finished the episode. It was fun to watch.
At one point, Nico ended up resting on Jason's shoulder during Chocolate With Nuts. Jason was laughing at something on the screen, and when he looked down to see if Nico was laughing, he noticed him staring.
Jason didn't say anything, just slowly let his head fall down until his lips were on Nico's. Nico didn't pull away, instead he pushed himself up more, pressing his lips harder against Jason's. Jason's lips were soft and surprisingly pouty, and Nico liked the way they felt against his own. They both pulled away in surprise, when the heard a loud noise on the screen. Jason chuckled and looked back at Nico.
"I should go." Nico said suddenly, getting up from the bed and straightening his clothes.
"What?" Jason asked, following Nico off the bed.
"I just need to go home, you have Chris so just bring him to school tomorrow, I'll meet you by my locker again, and we can-" Nico was interrupted though, by a pair of lips pressing against his own.
Jason pulled away and stared down at Nico. He only noticed now, how much taller Jason was compared to him, it must be at least 10 inches.
"I like you, Nico." Jason said, his hands resting on his shoulders.
"I like you too." Nico whispered back.
Jason laughed, "Then stop being so dramatic and kiss me."
So Nico did.
The next morning, they were more than happy to give Chris back to Mr. Asclepius.
"You two seemed to have worked well together," he remarked as he took back the baby. The Jason and Nico held their breaths as their teacher inspected the baby, before dropping him unceremoniously back into the box.
"Next!" he shouted, shooing Nico and Jason back up the line.
"I can't believe he didn't notice anything," Jason whispered to Nico as they took their seats.
"I know," Nico agreed.
"Hey, Jason!" A few of Jason's other friends started calling him over, waving their hands madly in the air to get his attention. Jason turned and motioned to them that he was fine where he is. They seemed confused but continued what they were doing before; shoving each other into surrounding objects.
"You don't care?" Nico asked.
"Not really, no," Jason smiled at Nico, "I still have to take you out to the toy store."
"Okay, Jason," Nico laughed, "take me to the toy store."