"I feel stupid," commented Travis as he and the other boys practiced Lamaze breathing with their girlfriends, Hazel and Dakota since Frank was busy.
"Noted," replied Jason rolling his eyes.
"I was there when my mom was in labor with Stella and she said this stuff helped her with the pain," pointed out Percy as they were helped to their feet for the next part of the lesson.
The moms and helpers started to rub the lower backs of the expectant dads as they would when it's time to help with the pain.
"Uh…Teach…I have a problem," said Dakota as he rubbed Will's back.
"What is it? It looks like you're doing it right to me," said the teacher as she walked over to look, "Yep, you're doing it right."
"If I stop he growls at me!" the son of Bacchus told her moving his hands away to prove his point.
To the surprise of everyone else the son of Apollo, the one who seemed to be the most balanced and having the fewest mood swings of the group did indeed growl!
"Will, are you feeling alright?" asked his now worried boyfriend.
"I was enjoying being pampered for a change instead of babysitting you," the youngest blonde snapped having an angry mood swing.
He quickly realized his mistake when Nico's lip started to quiver, his eyes filling with tears.
"Well I'm sorry I'm such a burden to you!" the Italian shouted pushing himself up and leaving the room as his boyfriend tried to scramble to his feet then catch him to apologize.
"N-Nico…" Will managed to gasp out when he finally managed to catch the younger demigod holding onto his arm.
"Let go, Solace," Nico ordered coldly.
"I didn't mean to upset you," Will told him once the blonde had managed to catch his breath, "Running while five months pregnant is a bad idea…"
"Hmph!" was the only reply he got as the half Italian pulled his arm out of the other teen's grasp.
Will groaned and hung his head as Nico marched off, this wasn't fair! His boyfriend had thrown literal tantrums due to his mood swings caused by his overwhelming hormones and Will had never treated him like this! Over the next few days things only got worse for the blonde; Nico moved into a separate apartment, refusing to even speak to his now ex leaving poor Will alone to shut himself away. Unlike Nico, he had no real relationships with any of his Roman half-siblings or any of his father's descendants that lived there. So, he mostly stayed in his lonely apartment eating take-out and moping over his lost love.
"Poor Will…" commented Percy as he and the other dads-to-be along with Frank had a game night, neither Will or Nico in attendance.
Meanwhile the girls were having a movie night and Hazel was the one to bring up the breakup.
"He was so much happier when they were dating…now he's become more like he was when I first met him…"
"I've not seen Will come out of his apartment since the break-up, Leo and I are starting to worry, it's been a week! I think he missed his last check up," commented Calypso starting to wring her hands in worry.
Katie nodded, "Travis and I went to check on him on Halloween which was three days ago…he was in his pjs, smelt like he needed a shower, he had a lot of zits and we saw a lot of take out containers from places around here. So at least he's eating…just not that well…Is Nico eating?"
"Yes, thankfully," replied the daughter of Pluto, "But he's staring to have more and more trouble sleeping. I really think we need to get them back together before something goes wrong, they need each other."
A few days later the pairs new habits caught up with them; Nico had fainted from lack of sleep and Will had gotten sick. Jason, having had enough of them hurting each other, used his status as a former Praetor to get the two in the same room.
"I hope they make up…" Annabeth said after she and Percy dropped off get well card for the pair, making sure the curtain was open so whoever woke up first would see how badly the break up was affecting the other.
"I hope Nico wakes up first and realizes how badly he screwed up. I'm honestly amazed Will didn't have a mood swing like that sooner. I mean we saw Nico and Jason's first bad mood swings. I know I've snapped a few times as have Travis and Leo…I'm honestly amazed our apartment building hasn't burned down," her boyfriend replied running his hand over his belly.
"Is it moving?" she asked, hoping to finally feel her child shift.
Percy nodded before suddenly grabbing her hand to the domed flesh. Before she could ask she felt a thump against it and she couldn't help but smile as they headed back to their apartment. Not long after the couple had left Nico woke up, annoyed to find himself in a hospital again with an IV in his arm. He could hear equipment that wasn't attached to him, meaning he wasn't alone. His curiosity got the better of him, so he looked to see who was in the other bed and felt his blood run cold.
"Will!" he cried managing to get out of bed and wobbling over to the other bed using his IV pole to help him balance.
Tears filled his eyes as he noticed the puffiness of the blonde's face from crying and what Nico guess had put in the hospital…his peanut allergy.
"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" the Italian whispered holding Will's hand to his cheek as said tears flowed.
The son of Hades was too busy crying to notice the blue eyes of the other teen start to open.
"Ni…co? he asked softly.
Nico jerked back having not been expecting Will to be awake yet.
"I'm sorry! This is all my fault!" the dark-haired demigod sobbed into Will's chest, hugging him before letting out a yawn, his IV pumping in an all-natural, pregnancy safe sleep aid.
Will called for a nurse who moved Nico's bed closer as he kept the younger boy awake until he was back in bed, holding his hand as he slept.
"No more nightmares, king of my heart," Will whispered giving his hand a little kiss.
…
"Thanks for letting those of us with mortal relatives to invite them here for Christmas," Katie told Reyna and Frank as they waited with the others to greet their families.
"You Greeks have taught us the importance of all our family ties, something many of us had sadly forgotten," the female Praetor replied as the minibus pulled up with their guests, a small smile on their face.
"Per-cee!" cried squealed Stella as she was carried off the bus by her father, attracting her brother's attention from where he was talking with Tyson.
"Hi Stella!" he cooed walking over to greet his family, Tyson following him.
The young Cyclops's face split in a huge grin, "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Blofis, it's nice to see you again. Is that little Estelle? Percy talks about her a lot."
Paul nodded, "We call her Stella for short and you can use our first names, Tyson. How have you been?"
"Good! I have a girlfriend now; her name is Ella and she's a Harpy. Oh, before I forget I have something for Stella," Tyson said digging around in his bag.
"You didn't have to do that," Sally protested.
"I wanted to," replied the one-eyed male pulling out a plush seahorse, offering it to the baby.
"Oooh!" cooed the little girl hugging it blinking when the toy started to play music before smiling.
"That's beautiful, thank you Tyson," said Sally, "What do you say honey?"
"Tank you Ty!" replied the little girl.
Tyson nodded, "It has a switch in the back for bed and nap time to make it play lullabies."
"You are so sweet!" Percy said hugging his little brother.
Annabeth smiled as her younger brothers told her about what they had been up to since they had last seen her.
"Boys let your sister at least get a word in!" scolded Mrs. Chase before hugging her step daughter, "I hope you're up to making cinnamon rolls this year, Annabeth."
The blonde nodded smiling, making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning was a Chase family custom that was well loved.
"Hopefully this time your brothers will ice the rolls and not each other!" Fredrick joked.
"You started it last year Dad and you know it!" Annabeth pointed out as her stepmother giggled.
"You are so cute! I can see why my Willy likes you so much!" cooed Will's mother; Naomi, as she hugged Nico whose eye had started to twitch, "But you're so skinny and pale! Are you sure he's healthy sweetie?"
Will noticed this and spoke up, "Momma, Nico doesn't like being touched by people he doesn't know, you're upsetting him. And yes, he and the baby inside him are perfectly healthy."
"Oh! I'm sorry!" the singer said letting him go, "Willy has just said so much about you I was so excited to meet you in person."
"I'm ok," Nico assured his boyfriend and his mother.
Katie smile as her father fussed over her as her boyfriend hugged his brother whom had come along. Once everyone had been introduced they headed further into the city to have lunch, Mr. Chase being nice enough to take over pushing Leo around in his wheelchair though the Latino had protested at first the chair was a lot more comfortable and easier on him. As they walked Jason noticed Piper was hanging back looking sad and worried.
"What's wrong?"
"I still haven't told my dad about our baby," she told him resting her hand on the seven-month-old bump as the child inside wiggled as if feeling its mother's worry, "I'm scared of what he might say or do."
The blonde male cupped her cheek, "I think we should just tell him and get it over with. If he tells us to get rid of the baby, we'll refuse; the best place for our child is with us."
She smiled at him feeling better.
"Now come on Pipes, we're starving!"
Piper laughed as they caught up with the rest of the group.
"What took you guys?" asked Leo kicking a little in his chair.
Calypso told him off for moving around too much making him pout, "You could fall."
Leo looked up at her, "You're right…sorry…it's just-"
She hugged him, "I know, it's hard for you to sit still."
"ADHD, something all demigods suffer from," commented Frank as they entered the hotel they were using for their holiday get together heading for the restaurant.
Once inside Sally, Paul and Stella had a little surprise for Percy; the little girl was let out of her stroller and she walked to her high chair amazing her brother.
"You're walking! Mom! Why didn't you tell me she was walking!?" the son of Poseidon asked, ecstatic as the little girl grabbed onto Tyson's pant leg and asked to be lifted up by the cyclops.
Percy's half brother happily obliged lifting her up in a fun fashion before gently setting her into the chair.
"You're pretty good with kids," commented Sally as the rest sat.
Tyson couldn't help but blush, "I've seen many of the other cyclopes at the forges with their families, I've even babysat for them from time to time to earn extra money for side projects. Also, before I forget Dad says hi."
This confused Stella, so she pointed at Paul, "Dat Dada."
"That's right, that is your dad, Tyson and I have a different dad."
The little girl blinked not really understanding. Half way through the salad course a certain black-haired hunter tip toed over to Jason and covered his eyes, "Guess who!"
"Aunt Ruthie?" he jokingly guessed knowing it was his big sister.
"Oh, ha-ha, very funny stapler breath," Thalia said uncovering his eyes giving him a quick hug before going to give Annabeth one too, "Sorry I'm late, I had to pick someone to keep the hunters in line while I came here."
"Are you even allowed to be here?" asked Percy.
Thalia sat, "I asked Lady Artemis and she said feeling love for my family was normal. Though it's rare there are some other hunters who have brothers though in most cases they were separated from them or said brothers are dead. I'm just not allowed to fall in love with a boy."
"Okay since everyone's here we can do something we've been waiting to do until today," Will said as he and the other boys pulled out envelopes from the doctor, "The doctor found out what the babies will be so we asked for her to write down the babies genders so we can share them with you as we find out."
"Calypso and I are having two, so I should go first," said Leo, ready to open his.
Nico glared at him, "Will and I are also having two so by that logic we have every right to go first too, and Will's mother is here so it's only fair."
"It's fine, I can wait, go ahead Leo," Naomi told him.
Leo grinned tearing his paper work open, "Calypso and I are having a boy and a girl!"
Everyone clapped supportively smiling for them.
Before anyone could say anything about who would go next, Nico's own eagerness to find out what he was having cause him to rip open his envelope, "I'm having a girl!"
"Nico!" scolded Will.
"I couldn't help it, I've wanted to know for a while…" admitted the Italian born male as Naomi laughed.
"I'm honestly excited to have a little girl to dress up, what are you having Willy?" Naomi asked her son.
Will groaned honestly sick of the nickname but opened his own envelope, "Looks like you'll have two little girls to dress up Momma because I'm having one too."
"Good thing they'll have plenty of aunts and their grandma when it comes for that talk," commented Frank smiling at his girlfriend who turned pink.
Reyna rolled her eyes but kind of understood where they were coming from since they likely had no idea how to use feminine products correctly.
"Open yours Travis!" begged Conner, "the Demeter and Hermes cabins are divided about the gender of the baby you and Katie are having."
Katie snorted into her drink, "Seriously? It's that big of a deal to them? We've still not decided if we're keeping it."
Travis gave her a dirty look as he opened the envelope, "You, you're undecided, I want to keep our child…who's really shy...The doctor couldn't tell the gender. It decided to moon her."
Conner cracked up at this.
"I read online that stress can effect the gender of the baby," said Annabeth as their waiter came up to take their orders for their meals.
"Really? Wow," said Hazel as Calypso fussed over Leo who had a coughing fit due to the pressure on his lungs.
Around the table the other dads-to-be winced, poor Leo was having the hardest time of any of them and he had told them that the doctors wanted to get the twins out as soon as he hit forty weeks. Honestly the rest of them couldn't say there were looking forward to the point Leo was at…it looked painful, but the way Leo and Calypso's eyes would light up when they talked about their twins didn't go unnoticed either. While this was going on Jason opened his, laughing as Piper eager to find out what their child was peeked over his shoulder. In the end he handed her the paper to announce it.
"We're having a boy too!" she said grinning.
"Sorry sis," added Jason.
Thalia smirked playfully, "Hopefully he doesn't take after his daddy and try to eat a stapler!"
This statement shocked Will causing him to choke on his juice from trying to not laugh and the Annabeth's brothers to cackle as Nico started smacking his boyfriend's back.
"Will you stop bringing that up?" Jason whined.
"Ok."
"Thank you, si- "
"After I tell my nephew."
"Thalia!" Jason growled as his girlfriend started to rub his back to calm him.
"Sorry, Jason," his dark-haired sister told him, giving him a hug, "You know I love ya."
He looked up at her, "Then why do you insist on driving me nuts?"
"Big sister rights," Artemis's lieutenant replied.
"Here that you two? You better be nice to your big sister or else…" Fredrick warned his sons who both gulped, they knew who Annabeth's mom was now and did not want to find out how she could torment them if she so desired.
"It's Percy's turn," Sally chirped excited to find out what her grandchild would be.
"Percy!" agreed Stella smiling at her brother.
The son of Poseidon chuckled as he opened his envelope, "Drum roll please."
He couldn't help as both Stella and Tyson did their own versions of a drum roll, his little sister's banging knocked her sippy cup off the high chair table attachment and Tyson's shook the table making everyone laugh.
"Smooth move, Seaweed brain!" laughed Jason as Leo tried to not laugh to prevent another coughing fit.
"Only my Wise Girl can call me that, Sparky," Percy jointed out with a playful grin as he pulled out the paper, "The baby is a boy!"
Everyone clapped as their food was served, smiles all around.
TBC
Decided to edit things a little.