HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA! Seriously though, what a good day to have. At my school the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club is painting nails in rainbow colours in exchange for rainbow candy. My flannel game is strong.

I thought something similar while reading The Hidden Oracle. All the mentions of Nico and Will bickering and holding hands and partnering up for games and taking care of each other... Every single time Apollo flirted with a boy, mourned Hyacinth,or mentioned how his daughter Kayla had a mortal dad too... It wasn't just cute for me, it was so hopeful. It was heartwarming. It's getting better and better for kids coming out, and better and better for those of us who already are. Or at least I hope so, and I like to think so. The ammount of backlash on behalf of the homophobic parents outraged at the inclusion of diverse characters in Blood of Olympus is still hurtful, but hardly a day goes by when something isn't. The simple fact that the queer or LGBT+ community can have these things, these beautiful love stories and characters in mainstream media, are a good sign.

And so I thought that I'd give you a series of drabbles on Nico and Will as adults, raising a truckload of adopted demigods in a big, beautiful house. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the premise of the Rick Riordan mythological universe or the characters of Nico and Will.

Dedication: to us.

you are my sunshine

introduction : grow old with me

Nico held on to Emilia's chain of rings. She had left it home on purpose, saying that she wouldn't need to twirl the rings between her fingers half as much now that high school was over, but Nico wasn't sure. He was going to wrap them up in a properly addressed envelope, more than ready to ship them out at the first sign of trouble and anxiety on his daughter's behalf.

He looked at the other things Emilia had left in her bedroom. A big, ornate mirror hung by the closet, her curling iron rested on the desk, anything related to school had been abandoned. All the strands of lights had been unplugged and packed, and even Emilia's desk chair had gone. He peeked under her grown-up monochromatic comforter and saw that Emmie had also taken her ballerina sheets with her (she hadn't slept without them since she'd been four- she even brought them to camp every summer). There was a shelf above her bed on which the left slipper of every pair she'd danced with since she was a child was proudly displayed, along with a picture of Emilia at that age. Nico had a feeling that he would be spending a lot of time looking at those and reaching out for the silk. Gods, these children had ruined him and made him soft.

It was a bit of a miracle that Emilia had finished high school. Everything about it had come to her hard. There were times when it felt like every week a new learning disability was diagnosed. Nico remembered feeling like he'd been punched in the stomach during a parent-teacher meeting when M. O'Hanson had told him that Emilia had little to no chances of ever being able to read fluently, or of having a future. Of course, since that one asshat had been particularly cynical and critical of every child that Nico and Will had raised, Will had made a formal complaint about this. But with Emilia, Nico couldn't shake the feeling that maybe he was right this time. But no; Emilia had worked hard. She'd gotten an astounding 87% on her English exam this year. And now she was going off to school too.

It wasn't that Nico felt old, exactly. Demigods didn't tend to feel bad about growing old considering how unlikely it was. It just felt odd to have the house so… empty now. When you had six kids -oh yes, six of them- an empty house was usually a sign of trouble. The contrast was especially striking since all of them had been home for Emilia's graduation. With an unexpected twist in the gut, Nico had no idea when they'd all be together again.

He crept out of Emilia's room and slipped her necklace in his back pocket. Across the hall was the twins' room. Bright, light green walls made the room look sleek. The twins' bunkbeds were shoved in a corner of the room, which were mostly cluttered by their desks. The only blueprints, plans, lists and highlighted research papers they had left behind were in Persian, to make sure that nobody else could read them. Nico would have respected their privacy even if everything would have been circled by blinking lights and neon arrows. He didn't dwell in the room for long, he just made a mental note to call them later and make sure that they were eating and sleeping as well as studying and creating. Children of Athena problems, he supposed.

Daniel's was right next door. The technicolour Beatles' bed spread jumped to Nico's eyes first. High school picture were hanging on clotheslines across the room. Old music equipment was neatly piled up in a corner- Daniel kept promising to bring it over to London soon, but never did. Nico was in no rush for him to do it, it's not like they were going to reassign his room.

He crept up to the attic, to Francesca and Cata's shared space. Their beds were nestled under the roofs' pitches, lightened up by windows and curtained off. Each girl had a desk and a dressing table. They'd both contributed to the colourful rugs on the floor and the mismatched beanbags, but it was more than clear where each girl lived. Francesca's side was plastered with travel posters, and completed with a hammock. Catalina's was basically empty now that the mountains of make-up and bins of costumes were gone, but two horror movie posters were left- though Nico and Will had started to paste movie tickets on her mirror, one for every film they saw where she'd taken care of the special effects. It made Cata smile every time she came by. Francesca's drawers were still stuffed with clothes since she lived out of a backpack at the moment, and for the foreseeable future. For lack of permanent address, souvenirs for trips also ended up on her old dresser- there was a Ukrainian music box, a Czech marionette, Chinese pearls, Thai silks… Nico made a point to keep the sheets on her bed fresh just in case she dropped by out of the blue (which she had, might, and eventually would again).

He rearranged Francesca's Matryoshka dolls, nesting them all into one another. And then he took them back out again and realigned them one next to the other. Then he sat on Cata's bed, twisting the fabric of her blanket in his fingers. His wedding ring, engagement ring and the skeleton ring caught in the yarn.

Catalina was their second oldest child, but their first adoption. It had just so happened that Nico and Will were enjoying a break from med school (or from helping their significant other cope with med school and residency and so forth) at Camp. That was when Catalina's father had stumbled across the camp lines with the year old baby curled up against his chest. The dragon chasing them had taken a ton of camp resources to handle. Will had been busy in the infirmary, counsellors were busy rallying their kids, and so the baby had been plopped into Nico's arms. She was a daughter of Hecate, already showing signs of magical activity, with no other family found outside of camp… If the baby had liked Nico, she'd loved Will. And they understood her. They knew her. And so Chiron had offered the baby to them once they'd realised she had nowhere to go. Nico had been on quests and he'd led armies, but it was the very first time that anybody had given him something to take care of. Cata was the first.

The stairs creaked. Will surfaced in the attic.

"Hey," he said. It was a miracle to see someone grow old. Seriously. To be able to track the wrinkles like trenches as they grew in bunches at the corners of someone's eyes and lips. To watch the silver and grey streak across someone's hair. It was a thing of wonder, after growing up being told not to be attached to your life, to wake up every morning knowing that not only you were alive, but the person you'd picked for your forever was there too.

"Hey," Nico answered. Will walked over and leaned down for a kiss, and sat down next to him. He was still wearing the sweater and clean jeans that he wore to and from work.

"Emmie called while you were at work," Nico said. "First day of classes went really well. She and another girl in her dorm knew each other from a summer dance camp, and they've been going out for coffee every morning to avoid getting lost on campus."

"Good," Will said. "That's good."

"How was work?" Nico asked.

"Busy," Will said. "Met a new patient today and everything. Did you catch up on paperwork?"

"I did," Nico said. "I found time to get the bills done too."

"Thank you," Will said. "I was going to do that tonight. I guess we can watch a movie or something now."

"Yeah," Nico said. He got caught in a starring contest with the Silence of the Lambs movie poster and he bit his lip.

"Are you okay?" Will asked. Nico nodded.

"It was just quiet today," Nico said. "I mean, I worked with my office door closed, but I didn't need to. There was nobody coming home from school, nobody dropping by, nobody calling... I made so much extra pasta for supper because I forgot it was just the two of us."

"It is just the two of us," Will realised. He nodded. "Do you feel old?"

"I feel… strange," Nico said.

Will nodded, starring ahead. "There are virtually no shoes by the front door. Did we not have six kids here, like, five days ago?"

"We did," Nico said. His head fell against Will's shoulder.

"It's so strange," Will said.

"All of this is strange," Nico said gesturing vaguely.

"What's 'this'?" Will said mimicking the gesture.

"Everything. You, this house, these kids…" Nico said.

"Strange?" Will repeated. "How am I supposed to take that, babe?"

"I don't know," Nico said. "I just… never expected to be this happy. To have all these things and all these people in my life and you and kids and love and family…"

"So well," Will said. He kissed Nico's hair. "I'm going to take it well. Better than I'm taking all these kids going to college."

"Why are they all going to college," Nico repeated.

"I don't know," Will said- suddenly breathing deeply. He rubbed at his eye.

"Don't make me cry, you're so annoying," Nico said.

"But I'm your annoyance," Will said suddenly crying. Nico too burst into tears.