How did he end up here? A little closeted gay boy sat behind a fence, watching rainbow flags flying past, the shouts of protesters in his ear. Nico thought about what had lead up to this moment of complete and utter misery.

Nico had been in his school's "Sex Education" class. It was the same thing over "don't have sex until you're married." "Your dick goes in a girls vagina." "Gay sex? What the fuck is gay sex? What the fuck is a gay?" A voice interrupted the teachers boring ramblings.

"What about gay sex?" It was a tall blonde boy sat at the front, Will Solace. There were scattered snickers, but Will just rolled his eyes and looked back to the teacher.

"We won't be covering that." The teacher, an old man with thinning, graying hair, said.

"Why not?" Will asked incredulously.

"Because homosexual relations are against the bible." The man hissed. Will rolled his eyes dramatically.

"So is evolution, and you still teach us that in class!" Will shouted.

"Mr. Solace, lower your voice. We teach evolution because it is a theory that you ought to know about. Homosexuality is n-"

"So is gay sex and shit! We should know that!" Will said, standing up.

"Mr. Solace, I have told you this too many times in the past. I will not tolerate that kind of language in my classroom! I've only let you off until now because of how well you do in your other classes, and I-"

"Let me off?!" Will laughed disbelievingly. "You mean forcing me to sit here listening to your crack-pot ravings about heterosexuality, and shit, when you know fuck-all about real modern life. You don't even teach straight sex right!"

"Mr. Solace!"

"You talk to us like anyone in this room will actually wait until marriage! You act like everyone in this room is a fucking virgin! You haven't told us anything about safe sex, or any genders other than male and female, and I haven't heard you say the word consent since you were asking us to get our parents permission to go on a class trip! Maybe if you taught us about gay sex, we won't age into brain dead homophobic assholes like you!" Will shouted.

"William Solace, to the principal's office!" Will grabbed his bag and strode out of the classroom, high-fiving his friend, Cecil, on his way out. Nico stared at the door in awe. He would never be able to say that sort of thing to a teacher. Maybe it was because of their difference in parents. He knew that the Solaces were outsiders in town. They were major activists for the rights of all people, including LGBT+ people. There were a few other families like them, but the Solaces are definitely the most outspoken. The di Angelos however, were far from activists. His father was a deacon at the local church and was as homophobic as they came. If he caught wind of Nico doing something like that, he'd probably backhand him across the face with his ring hand and lock him in his room for a week, his only food source being what his sisters lowered in a basket from Bianca's room window down to his, which was directly below. When class was out Nico and one of his best friends, Jason Grace, left the classroom, muttering about the ordeal.

"That was amazing." Jason said, laughing.

"That was dangerous. Couldn't he get expelled?" Nico asked.

"Doubtful. His Aunt Diana works in the school. If he goes, so does she, and they can't afford to lose her." Jason explained. He glanced at his watch. "Shit I've got practice, coach'll kill me if I'm late again. See ya, Nico." Nico sent his friend a two fingered wave and walked off in the opposite direction. He was passing the office on his way to his locker and noticed Will sat on the bench outside. He gulped and walked over too him.

"Hey, Will, right?" He asked quietly. Will looked up from his phone.

"Yeah, that's me." Will shrugged. "You're...?"

"Nico, I'm in a few of your classes." Nico said.

"Oh yeah! You're Percy and Jason's friend, right?" Will asked. Nico nodded.

"I just wanted to say, I saw what happened in class earlier, and I think what you did was pretty amazing." Nico said, shyly. Will smiled widely, his blue eyes shining, and making Nico's heart do somersaults.

"Thanks! Gotta stand up from my people." Will laughed, shrugging as though it were nothing. Nico grinned a little. A red haired woman poked her head out of the office.

"Will, can I speak to you?" She asked.

"I'll be right in." He said, standing. "I gotta go talk to my hunter auntie." Will joked. Nico chuckled lightly. Will waved. "See ya 'round, Nico."

"See ya." Nico muttered as Will disappeared into the office. Nico met his older sister, Bianca, outside the school, and started toward the junior high school. There the got their younger sister, Hazel, and started for home. The town was small, making it easy to get anywhere.

"We're home, dad!" Bianca shouted when they opened the door. They heard their father mutter something back, probably engrossed with work and not caring enough to actually comprehend what she'd said. Nico tiredly wandered into his room, the only room on the first floor. Originally, he was on the second floor with everyone else, but he moved downstairs when his dad got a big, fast paced job, making it pertinent that he had an office next to his room. Nico dropped his bag and went on his computer. After a few minutes he heard a soft knock on the door. He turned in his computer chair to face the door.

"Come in." He said. His father entered, holding himself up just as straight as he did in public, not softening whatsoever around his children.

"Nico, I wish to speak with you." He said. Nico nodded toward a folding chair he had leaning by the door. His father rolled his eyes and grabbed the chair. He sat down and leaned forward.

"My son, I know you must have heard of the 'pride parade' that is going to be on tomorrow." He said disdainfully.

"Yes." Nico said, narrowing his eyes.

"So you must understand that I can't stand for it." He said. "Myself and a few of my compatriots from the church shall be protesting, and... I wish for you and your sisters to come with me."

"What?!" Nico shouted, shooting up. "No! I don't want to go to your stupid protest."

"This is not a matter of what you want. This is a matter of clearing your mind of the filth that those peers of yours are infecting you with! I have heard what those children say! The Jacksons, the McLeans, the Solaces!" He hissed, saying the names with disgust, especially the latter.

"But-"

"Nico, tomorrow you and your sisters will be coming with us to the protest, and that's final." He shouted.

"Dad-" Nico choked out, feeling a lump in his throat and fist clenched around his stomach.

"NO NICO. YOU HAVE NO SAY IN THIS MATTER. I WILL BE TAKING YOU TO THE PROTEST TOMORROW AND THAT IS IT. TAKE MY WORD AS GOSPEL WHEN I SAY THAT, IF YOU EVER ASSOCIATE YOURSELF WITH THOSE- THOSE PEOPLE, YOU WILL NO LONGER BE WELCOME IN THIS FAMILY." He screamed fiercely, his words like knives slicing at Nico's flesh before taking a final blow and stabbing him in the chest. Nico swallowed hard.

"Get out." He hissed.

"What?" His father spat.

"Get out! If you're going to force me into this can't you at least give me some fucking privacy!" Nico growled.

"I will not take that kind of language from my own son!" His father said, sitting up.

"GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!" Nico shouted, his eyes starting to water. He shoved his father out and slammed the door being him, locking it and using the chair a extra protection to keep it shut. He swallowed, staring at the door before letting out one loud scream of anguish and frustration, tears leaking from his eyes, his head a whirling pool of emotion.

Then came the here and the now. Percy and Jason came along for moral support. Nico has one of those folding chairs people take to kids' sports matches and sat in it, bored, exhausted, and miserable. He leans his chin on the top of the police fence that was meant to keep the protesters back. Jason and Percy lean against said fences on their phones, probably texting their girlfriends. Or each other. They did that. They seemed to have a weird four way relationship. Percy and his girlfriend, Annabeth, were very much in love, as were Jason and his girlfriend, Piper, but they all had this joke that they were trying to "out gay" each other, Piper and Annabeth we such close friends that they had been mistaken for a couple, as were Percy and Jason, so it became a game. Hazel leans on the fence with Bianca, probably chatting about how much they hated this. Nico uncomfortably tugs at the collar of his sweatshirt that bore the ever so boring straight flag, which was just black stripes fading into white. On the back it said "God hates gays" with the name of their church under it. His friends and the other protesters all were wearing the same sweatshirt, a few of the protester were wearing it as a normal shirt, but he and his friends want to take it off as soon as possible.

Nico boredly stares at the people passing, laden with colorful clothing and carrying flags. A few of them shot them dirty looks, and even fewer looked at the group of teenagers sympathetically, knowing they didn't want to be there. Then Will steps into Nico's vision. He has a rainbow flag cape and a rainbow shirt with blue jeans and black high-tops with rainbow laces. His blonde hair was sprayed with the colors of the rainbow, and he was laughing along with a rainbow hair girl beside him and Cecil on the other side. He carries handfuls of flags, handing them to people as the passed empty handed. He looks over the girls shoulder and sees Nico. They lock eyes for a moment, and Nico feels his heart flipping again, but it felt more painful. It felt like his heart had done a flip, but hadn't stuck the landing. He was staring at this boy that made him feel butterflies in his stomach, but he was separated by a face and just about 100s of generations of homophobia. But that wasn't what kills him. What kills him is the look Will is giving him. He looks disappointed, sort of disgusted, and, above all, just sort of confused.

"What's he doing here?" Will's look seems to say. Nico feels his throat tighten. He breaks the eye contact to look at his dad, who's shouting abuse at the joyful paraders.

"When wasn't he shouting abuse." Nico thought. He wasn't proud to be his son. He felt disgusted. He didn't want to be a di Angelo if it meant he had to be like his father. It wasn't even his name. His father had taken his mother's name. He said that his name would haunt him as his father's name. Nico's mother, Maria, was a kind woman that died when he was young. He knows she wouldn't have cared that he was gay. The problem wasn't that Nico was a di Angelo, the problem was that his father shouldn't be. He father wasn't a di Angelo, but Nico was, so that meant he could decide what the di Angelo legacy was, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be homophobic. He shoots up and grabs the fence pulling himself over.

"Nico?" Hazel says, noticing him jumping over the fence. Nico doesn't turn back, he pulls the sweatshirt off and starts running toward the crowd, where he saw Will smiling his swoon-worthy smile.

"Nico? Son, what are you-" his father starts. Nico stops. He clenches his fist and turns around. He marches up to his father.

"Fuck you." He shouts in his father's face, throwing the sweatshirt into the mud in front of the fence and jumping on it, splattering mud all over his father and a few of the surrounding protesters. Nico marches back over to where Will and his two friends stopped on the sidewalk waiting for him. Nico glances back and his friends, who are all leaning on the fence, awestruck. He gestures for them to follow, and they cheer and whoop, hopping over the fence, and throwing their sweatshirts behind them. Nico runs over to Will, who was smiling brighter than the sun.

"You mind if I join?" Nico asks, exhilarated, and tuning out the screams of his father.

"Of course." Will smiles. "You'll need this." He says, handing him a flag. He undoes the knot of the cape on his neck and takes it off, draping it over Nico's shoulders. "I've got plenty of rainbow anyway." Nico smiles at him. His friends run over, their faces full of joy and excitement. They pass around flags, and the girl, Lou Ellen, takes face paint out of her bag and gives them each rainbow war paint. They hear Nico's father screaming bloody murder.

"YOU ARE NO LONGER A DI ANGELO!" He screams

"AS IF YOU EVER WERE?" Nico shouts back.

"IF YOU EVER SHOW YOUR FACE IN MY HOME AGAIN, I WILL REPORT YOU TOO THE POLICE." He hollers. Nico holds up a middle finger and turns back to his friends, who are laughing hysterically. They all rejoin the parade, laughing and talking to each other.

"So why did you guy decide to walk in the parade? Are you guys supporters or gay, or what?" Percy asks at one point.

"I'm gay, Cecil is a straight supporter, and Lou said she might be Bi, but she's not entirely sure." Will explains. They all nod. "What about you guys."

"I'm straight." Hazel says.

"Bi." Jason summarizes.

"Me too." Bianca says.

"I'd say I'm heteroflexible." Percy says.

"I'm as straight as a fucking circle." Nico laughs. They all snicker as they parade.

That night, after they parade, they all sit together in the park during the small fireworks display that Charles Beckendorf, the boyfriend of a cousin of the McLeans, put on. It was mostly because he really wanted an excuse to use his firework handling license, but that didn't take away from the fact that they were beautiful. After the show Will coaxes Nico over to a spot by the fire truck.

"That was great wasn't it?" Will says.

"Amazing." Nico agrees.

"Not as amazing as you." Will says quietly. Nico turns so red it makes the fire truck look like untouched snow.

"Thanks." He chokes out shyly.

"Nico, what you did back there, with your dad and everything." Will Ruffles the back of his hair nervously. "I was just wondering, would you- maybe consider- l-like to- I don't know-"

"Go out on a date?" Nico guesses. Will nods, his blush one to try that of Nico. "I'd love to."

~•~ 1 year later ~•~

Nico marches through the crowd, his fingers interlocked with that of a certain blonde. Percy and Jason walk ahead of them, each with their girlfriends, but still talking to each other like they were alone. They were the strangest kind of people. Lou and Cecil had disappeared into the crowd. Hazel had fallen behind with her boyfriend, Frank, laughing and making friends with the other paraders. Leo was chatting up some girls (and about a handful of guys) although he knew he'd be struck down. Bianca was in the crowd to their right, goofing off with her knew girlfriend, and childhood best friend, Reyna. They heard the faint sound of protesters trying to be heard over the roar of the parade.

Nico glances over at the protesters to see his dad amongst the small crowd. He hadn't seen him in about a year. After he was basically disowned, he went straight to the Jacksons. He'd know Percy since he was young, and was really good friends with him. He borrowed Percy's clothes and used his old backpack for school. His teachers understood when he had to explain his missing books. After a few days Hazel and Bianca showed up with some of the stuff they could grab, including his backpack, a duffle bag full of his clothes, and his laptop. They moved in with the Jacksons a few months later too, but Bianca moved out when she turned 18 just two months after moving in. Bianca promised him and Hazel that, once they had enough money, they'd buy an apartment with room for all three of them. Nico had gotten a job at their local library, and Hazel babysat for a family that lived down the road.

Nico looks up at Will, his boyfriend of about 10 months, who is staring at the protesters, his face scheming. Nico narrows his eyes at him for a moment before Will drags him off to the edge of the crowd, in clear view of the protesters.

"Will, what are you-?" Nico laughed. Will cut him off, quickly brushing his hair out of his face, leaning down, and kissing him. Nico kissed back, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's neck. He heard the protesters shouting at them, and Nico couldn't help but laugh, making Will laugh too. They broke apart, giggling like children, their foreheads touching together. A voice broke their giggly euphoria and brought them back to the real world.

"C'mon you two, you can make out after the parade." It was Reyna, stood with her arm slung around her shorter girlfriend's shoulders.

"Must you always ruin my fun?" Nico questioned, looking past Will to look at them. Will turned to look at them, grabbing Nico's hand as he moved.

"Yes." The girls chorused, laughing.

"Neeks, you're gonna give dad a heart attack." Bianca laughed, nodding toward their father, who was seething on the sidelines, a vein popping out of his forehead.

"Good. Let him die, we'll get the house." Nico laughed. Bianca rolled her eyes and gestured for them to follow. She looked over at her father and then dramatically pecked Reyna on the cheek. She waved goodbye to their fuming father before running off with her girlfriend, a hysterical and happy Will and Nico following suit.