"Are you sure she'll like me?"
Will threw his hands in the air, exasperated. "Jeez, Nico it's just my mom. If she can manage Apollo, I'm sure she'll love you."
"But..." Nico squeezed Will's arm and looked out the car window. "What if she doesn't like us...being together?"
Will laughed.
Nico's cheeks flared up and he folded his arms across his chest. "Whatever. Forget I said anything."
"No, no, it's not you." Will grabbed his boyfriend's hand back. "It's just that my mother is bisexual. You don't have to worry about anything like that. She probably even has a girlfriend right now."
Nico's eyebrow twitched, and his ears turned pink to match his cheeks. "...o-oh."
Nico couldn't believe the superfluous amount of corn he had seen so far. The obnoxious plant was everywhere, and triggered bad memories and woeful flashbacks from a dark encounter with a certain god of farming. To that day, he was still finding corn silk in new places.
"Hey, Nico, were you planning on helping me or were you just gonna watch the corn grow all day?" The son of Hades turned at the sound of Will's strained voice to see him struggling with their bags. He had successfully managed to get them out of the trunk and to the gravel just before Nico's zombie chauffeur, Jules-Albert, had raced off like he was on his way to the Indie 500.
"Sorry," Nico apologized and took his bag from Will's shoulder. "This place just looks so much like the Fields of Asphodel. Except minus the miserable souls and with corn everywhere instead of empty fields of grain and dead grass."
"Well, as nice as it is to stand around and observe our wonderful Underworld-y landscape, the house is just up this hill."
It was nearly dusk, and the sun cast a golden glow across the fields of corn. It was just the southern stereotype Nico had expected, but it was beautiful, and definitely nicer to look at than the Fields of Asphodel.
Will looked absolutely radiant. The glow from the setting sun was rivaled by the shine of his hair. He was beaming, literally. There seemed to be a slight shimmer where the light of the sun gathered around his body, creating a silhouette of sunshine, which Nico thought was pretty hot. In fact, it wasn't just hot; it was beautiful, and Nico found himself disappointed that neither of them had a free hand. He loved holding Will's hand more than he was willing to admit. Will's hands were a lot bigger than Nico's, but all of Will was bigger than all of Nico in general, and that was good, because Nico loved how Will could just completely engulf him in a hug or hold him to his chest like he was a cat.
When they reached the top of the hill, the house came into view, and Nico tried to hide the surprise in his voice when he asked, "only one person lives in this house?" It was three stories tall and painted a fading off-white. Some of the paint was peeling by the edges and the windows-which, by the way, were huge-and the porch, adorned with a wicker rocking chair and three matching Adirondack chairs, reminded Nico of the Big House back at Camp Half-Blood.
"Well," Will answered, "most of the houses around here are so big because way back in the olden days, before even you were born, Mr.1940's kid, the families who lived here were huge, and they all worked on the farm year round. This house is one of the newer ones; built in '87."
"1987?"
"1887," Will corrected.
Nico's eyes widened but he quickly brushed off his surprise. "No wonder it looks like it could collapse any second," he mumbled. "Are you positive this is safe?"
"Nico, I lived here for 10 years, and the worst that ever happened was a shutter falling on my foot. It's fine," Will said, rolling his eyes and smiling at his boyfriend.
Nico grumbled and narrowed his eyes at the nefarious-looking blue shutters, but continued down the dusty road.
"WIIIIIIIIILL!"
Suddenly, a shrill-but not shrieking-voice interrupted the rhythmic sound of sneakers treading on gravel. Nico's head perked up at the sudden intrusion of volume. He panicked at first when he realized that the lady on the porch waving them down like she was trying to signal an S.O.S must have been Will's mother. He stepped back so that he was slightly behind Will, and peeked around his shoulder. The first thing Nico noticed was that she looked nothing like Will, except for a spray of freckles around her nose. Her short auburn hair was tied back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck, and her hazel eyes reminded Nico of Persephone's. She wore a green t-shirt and blue jeans that were rolled up around her ankles. Her feet were bare, and she had on her head a worn yellow baseball cap with a black bear stitched on the front.
"Mom!" Will ran ahead of Nico and leapt up the steps to the porch and into his mother's arms.
"Oh, I'm so happy to see you! Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
Nico immediately caught wind of the accent on her words, and suddenly the nearly unnoticeable bits he heard occasionally in Will's dialect made sense.
"No phones for demigods, Mom," Will informed her. "I've missed you so much." He finally pulled out of his mother's embrace and looked back to where Nico was awkwardly watching the reunion.
"Who's this? Bring back a special someone looking for my blessing?" Will's mother elbowed her son in the ribs with a jokingly raised eyebrow. Will's entire face flushed. "Mom!" He complained. "Please be nice to him. This is Nico; he's my boyfriend. I thought it would be nice to bring him along."
Nico stood still and nodded in their general direction, hoping introductions would be over soon so he could go to bed. He wasn't really a fan of meeting new people.
"Ah, so you have managed to snag one. He's cute," Ms. Solace nudged Will's ribs again.
"Mom!"
"Well what are you standing all the way over there for, Nico? Come up here so I can really meet you." She smiled brightly at him, and Nico sighed, trudging across the remainder of the path and up the porch steps.
"Nico is a son of Hades, Mom; he's not really a social butterfly like you."
"Oh yes, the God of death, right?"
Nico looked at the hanging pot of azaleas and folded his hands behind his back. "Well, actually, Thanatos is the god of death. Hades is the god of the underworld. It's a common misconception," he corrected.
"Oh, is that so? I don't think I've heard about Thanatos before. See, I never really knew much about any sort of mythology.."
As Ms. Solace began the tale of how she met Apollo, she opened the screen door and led the two boys inside. Every room that Nico saw was a different color, and the living room that they were seated in was a maroon, and there were framed photographs lining the walls.
"And then I said, 'no way I'm getting in that thing! It looks like it was built before Mount Rushmore!' And he snapped his fingers, and suddenly it was the sports car I had always dreamed of!"
"I really hate to interrupt the story I've heard at least 13 times before, Mom," Will cut in, "but Nico and I are both very tired, and I think it's about time for us to head upstairs."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot you two have been traveling all day! Please, go on up and unpack; I have so much planning to do for tomorrow!" And with that, Will's mother vanished into another room.
"Gods," Nico sighed, flopping backwards onto Will's bed. "I thought that would never end. I can't believe I agreed to this. I must really like you."
Will laughed, sat down next to Nico, and began playing with his hair. He loved Nico's hair. It was so soft; so beautiful.
"Have I ever told you how much I love your hair?" Will twisted it around his fingers and Nico looked up at him.
"My hair? What's so special about it? It's just hair."
"But it's so silky!"
Nico groaned. "Whatever, Will. I'm going to sleep." He turned over onto his side and curled into the fetal position, waiting for Will to take his position behind him.
"You're so cute," Will said, nuzzling his face in Nico's hair.
The son of Hades rolled his eyes. "You say that a lot. I am not cute."
"You really are."
"Ugh, shut up before I flip you off your own bed and make you sleep on the floor," Nico laughed and closed his eyes.