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Chapter IV
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"Jason said you two had an argument," Mitchell said nonchalantly. He petted the thick mop of hair resting across the booth soothingly. Nico didn't need to look up to know that Mitchell waspitying him.
Next to him; Hazel sat, hand smoothly running up and down Nico's back in slow motions. "Jason's actually talking to you?"
"He talks to Leo." Mitchell took a long sip of his caramel frappuccino and sat idly at the back of his seat. "Which gets back to me. If it helps, he's a wreck."
"That doesn't help at all," Nico grumbled back. Hazel sighed against him, murmuring sweet words as she usually did to calm him down. She'd done this after Will had broken up with him all those years ago—but this time it didn't help. His heart ached with four times the pain and Nico couldn't ignore it.
With that in mind, Nico let out the most pathetic sound in the world and slumped against his seat. It'd been a week since Jason bolted out the door. Piper, Reyna, and Leo all popped up regardless, coming in and out of the apartment to gather things or make a fort out of their living room.
There was no way for him to make light of the situation. His boyfriend had run out of the apartment after leaving a nasty bruise on Nico's neck, which still looked as fresh as the day that he received it, aching with all of Nico's own pain and insecurities since then.
"I'm glad you're making use of that scarf that I got you," Mitchell ironically said, which was strategically interwoven around Nico's neck and dangling over his big aviator's jacket. He smiled quietly and tapped one of his many rings against the table. "That green really looks good with your eyes."
The explanation swelled in Nico's mouth, but he was too exhausted to admit it. He was lucky that after so many years of friendship, Scarf Day Every Day had come in handy. Nico tried every source of makeup and hickey remedy that he could get his hands on, but nothing would cover or scrub the wound off. Fortunately, neither Hazel nor Frank suspected a thing. The good news about approaching Thanksgiving was a fact that Nico could wear more layers than he already did.
"S'really comfortable," Nico muttered when he realized he hadn't responded.
"Let's go look for matching muffler hats once our last class is over." Mitchell grinned. "You'd look great in one."
"I could use a new knit cap," Hazel supplied.
"Oh! There's this cute boutique that just opened up at the mall. We should check it out, I think they have a hat that matches your eyes!"
Nico sighed in defeat and switched to rest the other cheek against the table. He cringed as strain shot across the god-awful bruise and moaned wretchedly.
Instead of babbling like excited children, Hazel and Mitchell stared at him with both pity and concern. His sister sighed with him, once again rubbing circles in Nico's back. "You've got it bad, don't you, bro?"
"What did you guys argue about?" Mitchell asked curiously.
Swallowing hard, Nico stared out the window into sunlight, hesitant. "I…asked if I could meet his mother and he got scared."
"Really?" Both his best friend and sister perked at this new sliver of information. Hazel's eyes widened tenfold, and she scooted away from Nico enough to face him fully. "Nico, that's—that's a huge commitment."
"I know," Nico groaned. His heart ached when he realized he couldn't get into it any more than that. He wanted to shout his frustrations to the world because that wasn't even what he was upset about.
His boyfriend wouldn't talk to him after one incident and Jason was blowing it into major proportions, and Jason was too fuzzy in the head to even get ahold of.
Reyna sat down with him once and assured Nico that Jason would come back. If Jason was loyal, then he wasn't going to abandon them over this. Not even the stupidest person could stay away from their pack that long.
(At that declaration, she reaffirmed that Nico was dealing with a vampire and that Thalia's wolfiness was a Girls Only Membership with a great dental plan. Piper looking like a peacock was still hard to wrap his mind around.)
Feeling his heart in his throat like when he was with Jason, Nico squeezed is eyes shut and felt his body trembling.
Hazel frowned. "Nico, you're—"
"I told him that I love him." Swallowing bitterly to keep his feelings from slipping out of his mouth, Nico brushed his cheek against his sleeve and faced the table once more. "And he says that he loves me back, but after asking about his mother and all of this other stuff he just—he didn't want to—we haven't seen each other in a week. I'm mad at him because he doesn't want to share that part of his life with me, but I am a little frustrated that he hasn't come back yet."
Nico wasn't even sure what he was referring to anymore. That part was the vampire part, but Juno and Jupiter were apparently human, so in an odd way, Jason didn't realize that yes, Nico had no choice but to love all of him.
Again, that frown only deepened across Hazel's face. She turned her body fully to focus on Nico, and shook her head. "Maybe…it's a little early to ask that."
The comment only made Nico feel worse.
"I mean," Hazel continued before Nico could have a momentary lapse of further frustration and irritation, "it took me four months before Frank would let me meet his grandmother. He was afraid that I would look down on him for not being fluent in Chinese and 'walking away from his culture.' But his grandma is great. She loves me."
"I hear she hits hard," Nico said.
"She does kickboxing," Hazel explained.
"Ah."
"I dunno. Nico and Jason's relationship has a few more severities than yours does with Frank." Mitchell smiled dearly, his blue eyes locking easily with Nico's.
"What do you know?" Nico frowned.
"Whatever Leo tells me," his friend said back, which was just as cryptic as the first proposal. Mitchell shrugged without a second thought, his hand strumming against his cup. He'd never been a good liar, which was obvious now. Mitchell's gesture might have been smooth, but that was only if he was in a room full of other bachelors that couldn't lie to save their own ass.
This was definitely not the right time to deal with his best friend discovering that he was making out with a vampire. It was an even worse time for his sister to find out that they've been living with demons for the past two and a half months.
Apparently, Hazel wasn't committed enough to notice. Instead, she rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. "Is this some sort of inside joke you two are never gonna tell me?"
"Yes," Nico said before Mitchell could even conjure a nervous answer.
He didn't miss Mitchell's sigh of relief.
At that moment, Leo Valdez trotted into the student union, hopping like a merry elf before Christmas day. He grinned as he walked over to their booth, covered head-to-toe in soot and grime with just a neon-colored hat and matching scarf that survived the apparent explosion. "Mitchell! The love of my life and mi corazoncito!"
Nico's mouth hung low in disbelief while Hazel stared at the walking disaster with nothing to say. Mitchell, on the other hand, smiled before gagging when Leo kissed him on the cheek.
"Move," Leo said.
"What happened to you?" Hazel asked, her eyebrows perking as high as her hair.
"You should move too," Leo supplied when he realized Hazel was sitting there. He wiggled his eyebrows at her and tipped his hat like a good cowboy. Which brought to attention his soot-covered leather boots and suspenders.
"Hey," Nico snapped. He secured an arm over Hazel's shoulders and tugged her protectively toward him. "That's rude."
"You can stay." Wiggling his eyebrows once again, Leo tugged at Mitchell's hand wrung his boyfriend out of the booth with freakish strength. After that, he looked over to Hazel, who grimaced, and wriggled his hands in a please move now gesture.
Mitchell, evidently not taking this action as an insult, chuckled and offered an arm out to Hazel. "Is this about Jason?"
"Jason. Jason, Jason, Jason," Leo rambled in a nasally tone. He flipped his hands again in different directions, and Nico quickly wondered how Jason and Mitchell had the patience for this. "What are we, the Brady Bunch? Can't I have two seconds alone with mi amigo here, Nico D? I need the D."
"You say that again and I'm smacking you," Nico growled. He glared irately, but Leo waved his hand off like the threat wasn't a big deal.
"Aw, c'mon, Angel Boy. Would I come all the way here just to annoy you?"
"Yes," was the unison answer.
"Yeah, I would." A devilish grin spread across Leo's lips, evil and demented like coal. He crawled into the booth, sitting across from Nico, and crossed his hands diligently on the table. "But we've got business to talk about. Think about me as the prelude to the in-laws."
Nico blinked, unsure if he heard that clearly or if Leo said something about breaking the law. At this point, probably both. He looked over to Hazel and Mitchell, who were now shrugging back before they waltzed toward the door.
"So this is the skinny," Leo declared before Nico could think of curses.
"Skinny," Nico repeated, flat. "What are you, from the 1940s?"
"Hah. No." Leo slapped the table like Nico told the funniest joke, and propped his tiny feet above him. The elfish grin disappeared, naughty glimmer gone from his eyes as his lips fell into a straight line. Nico blinked—wondering how the spastic guy not even seconds ago was now scanning him like radar. Eventually, his eyes fell to Nico's neck, and he gave only a tiny gesture. "Does it hurt?"
Immediately Nico's hand flew to the wound. He cringed at the sudden jolt of pain. "Why did it?"
"Lack of preparation," Leo replied simply. His voice had a splash of humor, but everything else was completely serious. "You see—the foreplay is what makes it really, really, really hot. Then you get so distracted from that that you barely notice the twin daggers stabbing you."
Nico cringed again at the word 'stab.'
"Plus—he's gotta be in into too. Part of the nuance in dating a guy as hot as Jay is that you make him all hot and bothered too." Leo took his scarf off and readjusted it over his neck. "Not to say that you don't—I mean, you two make enough oogly eyes at each other that Cupid would be jealous."
"Really?" Nico's gaze narrowed. "Cupid?"
Leo waved his hand around dismissively, and Nico wasn't sure if he imagined or if Leo actually said, Semantics.
"You're telling me that you managed to get Jason hot and horny better than I can?" The envy was already bubbling in Nico's stomach, venomous before he pressed a hand to his face. Why was he even talking about this?
"No. I mean, nothing really happened below the belt. Trust me—as great as jerkoff sessions would have been, Jason didn't really have to do much to get a rise out of me." Leo considered his options before admitting, "Believe it or not, up until last week I was a virgin. A very, very, very horny virgin."
"Gee, and I wonder what was stopping people." Nico barely wanted to ask Mitchell all the details of this. He barely wanted to be part of this conversation right now. First off, Leo Valdez was calling him a bad lay. Second, Jason probably thought he was a bad lay. Third—he had better things to do than sulk around and imagine his best friend and best friend's apparent boyfriend in their birthday suits.
"Hey," Leo said sharply, but went nowhere with it. Instead, he settled against his seat like an excited puppy and looked at Nico like he was the dog treat to earn. "I'm going to assume that you guys have a good butt-pinching life. He probably would have been hot and bothered, but his mind was literally elsewhere."
"I don't know what to do with that."
"Dude." Leo's gaze narrowed and he rapt his fingers against the table once more. "You asked about his mother. That's honestly forbidden territory for him. Like, mega forbidden."
A rebuttal deflated in Nico's throat. His gaze fell to his hands and he squeezed his bitten neck.
"So," Leo continued, "you wanna know why?"
What? "You just said—"
"Yeah, but I like you." Just as flippantly, Leo rolled his eyes and a smirk curled against his lips. It faded as fast as it appeared, and under all of that energy, Leo apparently softened. "I mean it. Jay doesn't just fall for anyone. I mean—he does, he…yearns a lot, but you're the first person since Piper that's actually yearned back."
Okay. Settling carefully in his seat, Nico made a face that let Leo know that he was all ears.
"Jason…" The thought trailed off before it even started. Leo's eyes hardened, and Nico realized this definitely wasn't all jokes and jabs at him. Suddenly Leo looked ten years older, demeanor stern despite his blackened face and nervousness. "He told you about his mother, right? Crazy rich old bat sonographer who has no problem giving him access to her patients' blood bank?"
"I…guess…so—?"
"Jason has—" Leo began tallying his fingers. "—nine other siblings, Thalia included. Do you wanna guess how many of them his stepmom and dad have together?"
"Uh…?" Nico's gaze narrowed as he tried to follow Leo's chaotic train of thought.
"Two. Ares and Vulcan. Strange fellows, they are." Leo nodded like a child and shrugged. "Mister Planet Spock looks like my dad, by the by. They work together at a workshop. Anyway. Nine siblings, only two that are Juno's. A real bitch, ain't it?"
Nico's mouth parted, his mind at as much loss as why Leo still looked like blackened chicken. "How long have they been married?"
"Hmm. Fifty years, give-or-take."
"What the—fifty years?"
"Yeah, they're like ancient. Super ancient. Jupiter is an old fart in his seventies. Believe it or not, Juno's even older than him. And—even without the menopause stopping her, very, very, very infertile. Ironic, huh?" Leo stole the Frappuccino sitting across from him and took a hard sip. "I think he's got some insemination fetish. Seriously, I bet he's never used birth control."
"And she just—what—" Nico sputtered, eyebrows darting high in the air with confusion. "They're still together?"
"Yeah. No remarriages or anything, they're just—together." Leo wiggled his eyebrows, evidently finding it as disbelieving as Nico did. "That's the thing. I'm pretty sure all she has down there now is an old dusty cave—"
"—that is disgusting—"
"—and Jupiter fucks up by fucking, and Juno just deals with it. She hates most of the kids. Most. Thalia included." After another hard sip, Leo pushed the drink aside and sat back against the chair. "But other than Vulcan and Ares, Jason was the one she got to name. He's the one she considers a son, even if she managed to have two kids with Jupiter over her own."
At that point, Nico's eyebrows furrowed together and he couldn't help his frown. "And?"
"Juno is powerful." Leo sighed, his hands curling together. He took in a breath, meeting eyes with Nico for the first time since the confession began. His lips curled into a grimace and he winced, clearly thinking of nothing but bad thoughts of this woman. One who Nico still had a hard time imagining as a wrinkly old thing. "Really powerful. More so than the dad. I…I don't know how, man. Jason doesn't know either. But…one of his half-siblings, Heracles—we call him Herk, by the way—Juno hates him.
"A lot. Jupiter named Herk Heracles because it's apparently a name in his crazy wife's family. She…don't get me wrong, he's a good looking guy. Played on the football team in high school and was gonna go on into the NFL. But she made his family go away.
"Like, by the age of thirty-four, Herk had six kids and a wife and it's been twelve years and he hasn't seen them again. He swears he doesn't remember anything from the night before, only that he saw his wife once and then he woke up and she was gone. He's…he's a broken man now.
"And it didn't make the news. That's the thing—Juno made Herk's family disappear, but no one reported it. It was like Herk never had a family to begin with. Like someone paid everyone off in the city of New York so no one got suspicious that this big shot NFL player's family was gone."
"You…really expect me to believe all of this?" Nico couldn't even sound like he didn't believe Leo. His voice was soft, cracking slightly at the accusation. Of the two and a half months since Nico met Leo, he never knew the guy to ever sound this morbid.
Leo suddenly maneuvered his hands again, fiddling with the straw of the empty Frappuccino. He smiled grimly, eyes falling to his ashy knuckles. "The world can be a scary place, man. Even on the flip side with handsome mortals like us."
Silence followed.
"I," Leo continued quietly, "watched my mother burn to the ground at her own workshop. By myself. And I have to tell myself every day that it wasn't my fault. But it was."
"I'm sorry," Nico croaked.
"Yeah." Then, Leo waved his hand again, dismissive once more as he shook his head. "Anyway, that was one extreme. The other extreme is Jason. Juno likes Jason. Loves him. Even more than her own two kids. She's willing to do anything for him."
"I know. That's why he's freaking out about the fact that she uses a blood bank—"
"No. The blood bank is new." Leo's lips pressed into a straight line and he watched Nico's reaction carefully. He bit the inside of his cheek and folded his arms together. Brown eyes looked to dark ones, completely hard. "But that's only one example of what Junie here would do for her stepson. You think that's bad enough, but it gets worse. He's…a fourth incubus and a fourth vampire. You fit the pieces together."
Nico blinked, his lips curling into a suspicious frown. "What do you—?"
"And his crazy stepmom is willing to do just about anything for him." Leo drew a breath, never breaking eye contact. "Anything."
It dawned on Nico immediately. He opened his mouth, jaw slackening in too much shock to stay up, but never had the chance to continue.
The double door opened once again, and Nico's whirling mind was directed to Piper, who was dragging his pathetic boyfriend toward their booth. He suddenly had a headache, demeanor twisting in so much shock that Nico wasn't sure what he looked like at the moment.
Jason, and that stepmother.
"Hey Superman!" The heavy tone that Leo adopted was now replaced with his usual quirkiness. He slid out the booth, dirty feet planted to the ground, and grinned at his best friend before lunging for a hug.
"Oof—dude, what were you in?"
"Oh, a tar pit. No big deal." Wiggling his eyebrows in good nature, Leo slapped a hand over Jason's back and made extra sure soot rubbed off. "You know, those things still have the capability to explode."
"So I've gathered." Jason chuckled softly before manually pulling his best friend away from him.
Leo made one noise of protest before turning his attentions over to the third of their trio. "Pipes. C'mon, Beauty Queen?"
"Oh—no, hell no." Piper's voice was stern, but she was giggling through all of it before she leaped a foot away, hands guarding her body. "You know that doesn't wash out of my feathers easily!"
"Big deal! You'll just molt!" Leo refused all of her protests and latched onto her.
"Get your dirty head off my boobs!"
"It's not on your boobs!"
Nico patiently looked over to Jason, waiting for the blond of that trio to fall into chortles, but it never happened. He nearly jumped when his gaze was met with Jason's own, followed by a soft smile that looked hard to maintain.
His own heart shot for his throat, ready to spill out through his lips and through his eyes as he realized he missed Jason even more than he thought he did. Nico couldn't even force a smile over his lips. Never could. That was the bad thing about him—he could never fake his emotions.
With Leo's implication in mind, it was pushing its way through his thoughts like a needle piercing his brain. Nico swallowed hard to keep his emotions in check—and failed immediately.
"We're…gonna go look for a school sweatshirt. And a hose." Piper yanked Leo by the back of his dirty jump suit and pulled him toward a store.
Once they left, Jason tentatively took it as his cue to sit down. Nico's gaze fell up and down his timid boyfriend, unintentionally searching for any signs of Leo's explanation, and only felt his heart tighten in his chest.
A week without each other made Jason look horrifying. It still didn't beat the first impression Nico ever had of him, but it came pretty close. The bags under Jason's eyes were an ugly black, while his wide frame looked bony and narrow. Jason's flesh was a pasty gray, looking no better under this lighting. He looked like he could pass out at any second, but it didn't stop his gaze over Nico's bruise.
"It still hurts." It was better to get it out now. Every stubborn bone and defense mechanism that usually whirled in Nico's mind in a spinning loop halted into an awkward stop. He couldn't summon the anger and frustration that he held days ago, even though he knew he should be mad at Jason for abandoning him.
Jason drew a breath, cringing as he did so, and squeezed his temples gingerly. "I am so—"
"It hurt more that I couldn't see you for a week. That I scared you off." Nico's eyes fell closed and his hands fell onto his lap. His heart painfully begged him to say I love you, but those words needed to stay still until Nico could think clearly. "It hurt me more that I hurt you."
"Nico." Jason grimaced. "I—"
"No. Do you know how much I hate it when people put me first and hurt themselves?" Tapping the table with his hand, Nico pulled back against the seat and made sure to keep eye contact with him. He was trembling because he had no idea what he was supposed to do, but he wanted everything to be all right. "I want us to be okay. Okay?"
The edge of Jason's lips curled into a tiny line. Again, his gaze remained at Nico's shoulder.
"I'm okay, Jason." Slowly, Nico reached over and curled a hand over Jason's own. His thumbs ran smoothly over his boyfriend's knuckles, and he nervously gave the hand a squeeze. "I still love you."
"I love you too," Jason murmured quietly. He squeezed back, hands as cold as ice and lips curling into a hard smile.
"I'm not going to ask about your mom again."
Blue eyes perked at the confession. Nico bit his tongue to keep from babbling what he learned.
"I…I want to meet her. Eventually. But I want you to want me to meet her." If his emotions weren't already hanging in frustration, they were now. He tried to smooth out his thoughts and make logical sense of them, but they ended up swelling into an ugly knot. "I did it because I want to protect you. If we love each other like…like I want us to, and you want us to, then I want you to be there with every decision I make. And I hope it's the same for you."
Finally, to Nico's utter surprise, the corner of Jason's lips curled into a tiny smile. He settled against the booth, palm still blanketing Nico's own in sweet comfort.
Jason drew a heavy breath before letting it go completely, the sigh sounding like a jab at his own pride. Then, he gave Nico's hand an experimental squeeze. "Piper says that…if I love you, then I need to show you all of me. Including my family."
Nico blinked. His lips curled into a grimace and he opened his mouth to assure Jason that it was okay, but didn't get the chance.
"I called Juno. We're having dinner with her on Friday." Jason's lips curled thoughtfully, his eyebrows knitting until they became one. "You're…the first person in a long time that I've felt this way for. I want that feeling to last. But I guess I can't keep that to myself now. Not if we're together. And I—I want us to be together for a long time."
The rush of heat glowed in Nico's cheeks. His heart felt like it was soaring. He opened his mouth to speak, but the gesture was too complicated for him to vocalize.
"You proposing?" Nico murmured wryly. His gaze fell to their interlaced hands, unable to endure the sight of Jason's smile.
There wasn't an immediate reply. Not one dedicated to Nico's little joke. Instead, Jason bowed his head submissively and drew another broken breath. "When you meet my family, I—I can't promise that—"
"I love you," Nico repeated. The assurance eased out of his throat without much thought. Way, way easier than it'd ever been with Will, even when his first boyfriend was badgering him for the answers. Nico didn't understand why he was always comparing this relationship with the first one—but he knew that it only made him feel ten times better. Jason understood every part of him, even when Nico didn't understand it all himself. He didn't need to verbalize every thought, but the message always got through, even through the frustration and painstaking truths.
Lazily rotating his wrist, Nico moved from his side of the booth and slowly eased his way to his boyfriend's end. Jason watched him wordlessly before their lips met. Hands still knotted together, Nico decided they were going to stay that way for as long as Jason wanted, and hopefully that would be a long, long time.
One kiss immediately became two as Nico's anxiety diminished completely with Jason's lips pressed against his own. With overwhelming relief, Nico was flying. This was good for them, and they were together again. He thought he heard Leo whoop, but it wasn't important right now.
"You still need my blood?" Nico asked. Cold fingers lightly prickled his spine over his sweatshirt and he shuddered. He knew the answer was yes, and that his response would be yes, but lazy kisses were just his favorite thing.
Jason smiled in amusement before shaking his head. "We're in a public place."
"You blew me behind a Dunkin' Donuts," Nico pointed out.
This time, Jason's demeanor faltered. He sighed before shrugging reluctantly. His face was still gray, flesh as cold as ice, and breath even colder. If possible, the question made him look even more so. "Let's work our way up to that."
Nico's first instinct was to open his mouth and reassure, once again, that he was fine. But from all the time Jason and he spent together, that was probably the worst way to go about things. The past week was an example of why they should take it slow.
When he didn't answer immediately, Jason supplied another explanation. "I just…don't want to hurt you again."
The reason made sense enough, even if all Nico wanted was to make to him. Jason's face twisted with palpable guilt, eyebrows furrowed together with worry.
Jason didn't show it a lot, but it was obvious that he was as hardheaded as Nico was. The decision was final, and there was no way arguing about it, even if it was for Jason's sake.
And the compromise was already a struggle for Jason to go through with.
(Nico couldn't consider it a victory for him. Not even a small one.)
But he did want to make Jason feel comfortable with him. The pessimistic voice in the back of Nico's head wondered if Jason ever was. Before his insecurities could get the better of him (and the nagging voice telling him that Jason was terrified and Nico was being selfish), he buried his face at Jason's nape. Another sigh left Jason's lips, but this one was filled with relief and satisfaction.
"Small steps," Nico agreed. He reached up and pressed a small kiss to Jason's jawline.
-x-
"You know they're making an anime for Mythomagic," Jason said quietly. His lips pressed softly to the shell of Nico's ear and he chuckled when his boyfriend shuddered.
Then, Nico groaned when he realized what Jason just said. "How are they going to manage that?"
"They're going to adapt it to include holograms for a gaming system, of course."
Opening one unwilling eye, Nico briefly muttered curses at the setting sun outside and read the clock. 6:02PM. He twisted his body, only to realize that somewhere in his two-hour long nap, Jason had reappeared in his bedroom and now had an arm snaked beneath his waist.
How Jason managed that without him waking in between, Nico had no clue. His classes ended early today, but with finals creeping up on them in the next two weeks or so, all of his professors were cramming second-to-last exams into the curriculum before the semester was over. He was still experiencing burn-out from yesterday.
With today over, that just left two more exams on Monday and Tuesday to deal with. They had the semi-dinner party with Juno tonight, and after that Nico would rush home and study the last possible bits so he could collapse for most of dead week.
It was easier said than done. Most of Nico's worries at the beginning of this semester were directed toward his grades, but now he couldn't let his mind wander to this big dinner party without the uneasiness hitting him full force.
Jason talked to him like nothing stressful happened, and they always ended up knotted together and spooning by the end of the night. It was hard to tell if Jason had made peace with everything, or if he was faking it so Nico wouldn't worry. But Nico did, and his mind wouldn't shut up about it.
"They might be basing it off of Heracles. Like, him and his twelve labors. Then modern day Greek mythology."
"I don't think that's easily transposed from Yu-Gi-Oh." Nico wrinkled his nose and turned so that he was buried against Jason's side. He yawned, head against Jason's shoulder, and settled. "Don't tell me it's from the same company."
"I like Yu-Gi-Oh."
Snort. "You would."
"You don't?"
"I never said that."
Chuckle. "We have to get ready soon."
Ugh. At this time of night, the bus to Long Island would be two hours long, if not longer. Once they got there, they would have to take another one to Brookville into the rich suburbs. Nico was never one for public transportation. Too much touching.
"Juno called a limo," Jason said, reading Nico's mind.
"Just how rich is your family?" Nico's face scrunched as he realized the word limo was involved. Without complaint, he sat up and stretched is limbs from two hours of disuse. Rotating his arm, he realized that Jason hadn't commented back.
Instead, Jason was staring at the ceiling, obviously hoping for it to swallow him up before this dinner party could get started.
Nico swallowed hard, the guilt and the worry from the whole thing still eating him up inside. He reached over, craned his neck, and pressed a small kiss to the corner of Jason's lip.
Enraptured with the gesture, Jason's eyes raised until they met Nico's own. Nico wondered if Jason could see his nerves boiling in turmoil, or the guilt that he felt. Nico wanted to say I'm sorry, but he didn't even know where to start.
Before the guilt could eat him up, Nico dragged himself out of bed and started for his closet. "When Christmas break comes, you should come to LA with me."
"What's in LA?"
"My family. My—dad and Uncle Thanatos. And Persephone." Nico shrugged off his shirt and looked for something parentally acceptable in his closet. It mostly consisted of t-shirts and extra jackets for when Nico got cold during the day. "I think Dad just proposed, actually."
"Any reason for the sudden thought?" Jason asked carefully. He slid off the bed and pulled out a spare set of clothes from nowhere. "Wear some nice pants. Nothing too tight, no t-shirts."
"Since when do I wear anything tight?" Nico snorted. He chucked a rolled up sock in Jason's direction when he heard, tight enough. "Well—since you're letting me meet your family, I…it's only right if you can meet mine."
"Juno likes khaki pants."
"I don't own khaki."
"Ah." Jason's eyebrows furrowed together and he frowned. "We could probably drop by a store on the way over."
"It can't be black?"
"Khaki puts her in a good mood."
When Nico looked over, he caught sight of Jason in a royal purple polo that fit all too snugly and a pair of khakis that accentuated how long and taut those legs were. Jason also had a set of loafers huddled in his arm, along with a pair of long socks.
Overall, it looked like his boyfriend was getting ready to go to the country club.
"You…want me to dress like that," Nico muttered slowly.
"Do you own a polo?"
"No."
"Okay. Wear this for the time being." Jason pulled out a v-neck that Nico had bought months ago but never wore because the color was too light. Along with that was the violet school sweater Persephone had gotten him as a truce.
"And the pants?" Nico mused.
"Just wear your sweats for now." As an after thought, Jason added, "Is it possible for you to….?"
"Get rid of the piercings?" Through all the worry and frustration, a wicked smirk still curled against Nico's lips. He hid it as he pulled his t-shirt over his head in favor of the pastel v-neck. As Nico changed from the belt up and unscrewed his four piercings, he stared at himself for the first time and wrinkled his nose. He hated the baby face he had without them.
In his silence, Jason picked up on their earlier conversation. "I don't have to meet your family if you're not comfortable, man."
If he wasn't comfortable? Nico whirled around, nearly chipping his tooth on the back plate of his left labret in disbelief. Arching an eyebrow, he gave Jason a onceover to see if the guy was actually serious.
The shock in his eyes apparently gave it away. Regardless, Jason shrugged casually and pressed one of those soft kisses on Nico's forehead. The ones that usually halted all of Nico's thoughts and made him forget what his own name in embarrassment.
"You don't have to," Jason repeated. He reached for the small tub of gel that Nico kept on the corner of his dresser and began moussing his hair. "We can just get this dinner party over with without Juno being overbearing and that can be the interaction with the parental units for the rest of the year."
That only irked Nico even more. The last thing he wanted to do was get a rise out of Jason before their night started. He huffed as the last of his studs were taken out and readjusted his hair.
To his surprise, Jason reached for it first and dug a comb in his curls.
"Jason—ow."
"Sorry." Jason's eyebrows furrowed together in worry, but it didn't hide the grin over his face. He paused before flicking parts of Nico's unruly hair over his forehead. "I just want to make you look…presentable."
"I look like I'm fourteen." Nico didn't like it, but he didn't protest. "If I get to meet your family, isn't it fair that you meet mine?"
"I've met Hazel and Frank."
Yeah. And they were always the first two people to come to mind when family was mentioned. Nico didn't doubt that it was the same with Piper, Reyna, and Leo for Jason. After nearly three months together though, Nico was coming around to the idea of all of them being one little domestic group of their own.
Looking up and ready to voice his frustration, he was cut off as he realized that Jason was frowning. Not just any frown, either—Nico saw that frown on Frank many times before Hazel dragged her sweet boyfriend across the country to get their father's blessing. Nico hadn't been there himself since he took some winter classes, but he knew his father well enough to presume the result.
And, being as tactful, calm, and straightforward as Nico was himself, he knew Frank went weak in the knees when Dad gave his blessing.
Come to think of it, Will never met his father. It was still another year before Nico could gather up the nerve to tell his father something Dad already surmised.
The thought itself was enough to make Nico laugh. A short chuckle furled at his throat and he shook his head in disbelief. "You know that you're perfect, right?"
That tipped the iceberg. Jason made a face and rolled his eyes before he took Nico by the shoulders and made them face each other. "If your dad is anything like you are when it comes to Frank and Hazel, I'm going to kiss a lot of ass before I get his approval."
"Frank does not kiss my—ass!" Nico clutched his ribs and nearly lost it. "And my dad likes Frank!"
"Hazel said it took you a while before you warmed up to him." Jason tried to let the frustration poke through in his voice, but he was laughing quietly too. After all, most of the things said around this apartment either had Nico rolling his eyes, scowling, or at most, a snicker in the right direction.
"Because Frank is even taller than you and he's my sister's first boyfriend. And I'm an insecure baby who needs my sister." Nico scoffed under his smile and swatted Jason's hand away when he reached for a big glob of hair gel.
"You're not an insecure baby."
"Of course I am. I don't like to share," Nico insisted flippantly. He waltzed back to his closet and pulled out the old aviator's jacket that he kept in the very back for especially cold winters. "And after Bianca, my mother, and my stepmom, it's not like I wanted to share her with anyone. Hazel gets mad I treat her like glass."
Jason wrinkled his nose, apparently knowing first hand what happened when you got on Hazel's bad side. It wasn't pretty. She was short and still had baby fat in her cheeks and still at times reminded Nico of the thirteen-year-old girl he met for the first time at his dad and Marie's wedding, but she also took fencing classes with Percy and Annabeth and loved to go horseback riding. Nico wouldn't hesitate to bet on his sister winning against even the best riders.
"But you're not. Not anymore, then." Jason draped an arm over Nico's waist once more.
"If you think buttering me up is going to distract me from visiting my dad, then you've got another thing coming." Rolling his eyes, Nico decided on a temporary truce and fluff his own hair like his mother had done and Bianca had come to learn. He inspected himself carefully and shrugged. To him, he looked presentable from the waist up.
That was exactly the point, if Jason's sudden whine meant anything. "You said that you and his girlfriend don't get along. I wouldn't want you to stress out over that and choose between pleasing me and your parents."
Nico guffawed in disbelief, immediately whirling around to make eye contact with his boyfriend. "I'm making you stress out with your family. And yours is way worse since—" Since your stepmom has the nerve to throwherself at you.
He stopped in his tracks there and watched Jason blink owlishly in curiosity.
"I haven't taken any blood from her blood bank. Not since you gave me yours two months ago," Jason said. He shrugged. Clearly he'd picked up the lapse in Nico's accusation, but not in the direction Nico was going.
It'd been a terrible thing to mull over. When Nico worried, he worried. He meant to ask Leo for more details and ways to approach the subject—because there was no way for Nico to walk out of that rich house, arm-in-arm with Jason, and feel good about himself. Jason wasn't good at deflecting his feelings with humor. Not like Percy or Leo.
Dragging the collar of his shirt down a third of an inch, Nico looked into his full-length mirror. His dark bruise had faded into an ugly puce. It didn't hurt unless you touched it—which Nico ended up doing daily out of curiosity and bitter resentment of himself.
Beside him, Jason sucked in a quiet breath, obviously still uncomfortable over the bite himself.
"Why did it hurt?" Nico asked. He curled his finger into the collar until it was a crescent, and traced the spot with his other hand.
"Because I'm an idiot." Jason sighed. He stuffed his hands into his bright khakis and leaned over, body ajar so he could see it for himself. "And I didn't prep you the proper way."
That was what Leo had said.
Turning around to face Jason fully, he kept his fingers curled over the bruise and arched an eyebrow, ready for an explanation.
Jason nudged his own front teeth and bared his fangs. They didn't look that sharp, but he'd explained that they got sharper at the peak of his emotions. It was the same for Reyna, but they had a tendency of coming out involuntarily, too.
"Female mosquitos put their own saliva on human flesh before they suck blood." With a heavy shrug, Jason walked back to the bed and plopped into place. He gestured for Nico to sit beside him. "Vampires sort of work the same way. I gave you a hickey the first time I took your blood. When I pierced your skin, my venom flowed in it, too. It numbed your body long enough for me to drink."
At the mention of that, Nico blinked. He covered the bruise with his palm and felt his face glow with heat.
That, ahem, was his favorite part of kissing Jason.
"It's like when the dentists give you those shots in your mouth before they drill your teeth apart." Wrinkling his nose, Jason sat back and frowned. "And I forgot to do that. And—vampire saliva is a very good numbing solution. A lot of witch doctors use it before they make the teeth disappear."
"Witch doctors."
"Yup." With another shrug, Jason sat back and curled his arms over his polo. "And I guess I was just. No. No excuses. I'm completely to blame for hurting you."
"You didn't do it on purpose," Nico said. "You were freaking out."
"It's not an excuse." With a miserable, breathy laugh, Jason shook his head, clearly wanting the incident to go away altogether. "It's—it's not. I hurt you, and you're the last person I would ever want to hurt."
Which was why Jason ran out the door. Nico tried to sigh, but his own frustration was a lump in his throat. Hesitant of what to say, he chose to lean against Jason instead and curled a hand over Jason's own.
On one hand, Nico's heart swelled in his chest from the fact that Jason valued him that much. But on the other, it was still Nico's fault that Jason was unable to forgive himself. He brought it up, lost his temper, and out of envy and betrayal couldn't hold his own tongue. On the other, it was his fault that any of this started. It was an issue that was going to be brought up eventually if they were going to stay in Manhattan and close to Juno, but Nico didn't know if it would've been better or worse if it'd been brought up later.
He chewed on his own lip when he realized the solution was out of his reach. "What can I do to make you feel better?"
Another laugh fell from Jason's lips, full and angrily bittersweet. All of it was directed at himself. "You could leave me forever so you'd never have to be in harm's way ever again."
"Not gonna happen." Nico reached over and gripped Jason's hand tightly. "Too complicated."
His heart fluttered when Jason's gaze slowly locked onto his own. Nico's lips pressed tightly together and he narrowed his eyes, just waiting for Jason to deny it.
Only, Jason didn't and he raised Nico's hand to his lips. "I love you."
Goosebumps rose when Jason ran his thumb over Nico's knuckles and heat flushed in Nico's cheeks. He reached up, craning his neck ever so slightly, and molded his hands to the stiff jawline across from him.
Jason met him there with eager lips, breathing life into Nico's mouth like it was just a gust in the wind and with sugary sweetness dancing through his veins.
The kiss was warm and chaste, and slow and mind-boggling. Nico sighed into Jason, readily planning out the rest of his life so all he had to do was stay like this and never leave, and he wondered if Jason felt the same way.
Because this was as good as it got in Nico's life.
When they parted for air, Nico didn't want to stop. His face flushed with pink as everything around him seemed to float, and he buried his face into Jason's chest so he could hear the heavy cadence of that heartbeat. "Me too."
-x-
There wasn't a limo, unfortunately.
This was much, much more disturbing.
Jason's hand tightened over Nico's when the Maserati Spyder pulled up in the parking lot. The yellow paint on it was so obnoxiously bright that he swore that someone stole the sun to coat it on the smooth four doors. The guy that was sitting inside of it was worse.
With Thanksgiving only two weeks away, the sky was usually dark by the time Nico got home from classes. This was one of those times.
However, you wouldn't notice the sunset if you saw the car and the guy sitting inside.
"Apollo," Jason greeted carefully.
"Yo! Little bro!" Jason's brother rolled down the window of the passenger seat and pushed his pink aviators above his head. He flashed a pearly white grin and gestured to the car. "Guess what I took from Dad!"
Jason shifted uncomfortably from foot-to-foot, eyes falling to Nico. "I have ten siblings."
"Yeah," Nico replied faintly. He was too enamored by the car to care what Jason just said. Nico was in no way a mechanophiliac—especially to Leo's extreme—but even he had to take a moment to breathe in the way the leather just breathed.
If Jupiter really owned a car like this, it was no wonder why he always got laid.
"Wait—this your boy toy?"
Nico stood straighter at the name and felt Jason basically clinch onto him like a steel bear trap. He frowned at the nickname, eyebrow darting high in the air, but either Apollo didn't pick up on his disdain or he didn't care.
"Cute," Apollo chirped. He lowered his head and arched an eyebrow affectionately, lips curled into a delicate smile. "I won't tell Junejune. Promise."
A sigh of relief left Jason's lips. Nico could hear it flowing onto his own veins once his boyfriend let go of his hand.
"This," Jason said steadily. "Doesn't exactly scream three-seater."
True. Ogling aside, the spyder wasn't a family-friendly car.
"What?" Apollo turned around and made eye contact with Nico, who couldn't help but flinch. A Cheshire grin curled against his lips and he laughed. "When you said you had a hot date, I thought it was obvious that there'd be seatsie gropies."
Seatsie gropies? Nico cocked his head to Jason and arched an eyebrow.
Who quickly flushed pink and coughed. "Ahem. I didn't call you a hot date."
"You don't think I'm hot?"
"I think you're hot," Apollo said.
Wow. Nico opened his mouth to say something, but the words were beyond his reach. He looked over to Apollo, who looked unbelievingly penchant, and then to Jason, who was looking at the sky with a 'kill me now,' look.
"I think you're very hot," Jason assured. He opened the side door carefully before plopping in and patted his lap expectantly.
Nico stared at Jason's lap carefully. Really, he did like sitting in it. Very comfortable. But he also didn't have the patience to hear his boyfriend's brother tease them for two hours on the way to Brookville.
Apollo saluted him. "There's always room for one more over here."
"Coming," Nico grumbled. He slid into Jason's lap and felt heat rush to his ears. "We've gotta be careful though. We don't want to get pulled over."
"Aw, no worries man," Apollo said. "I can charm my way out of any ticket."
Jason didn't say a word, so Nico assumed it wasn't a lie.
Ten minutes into their drive, Apollo pulled out his phone and fiddled with the buttons before music blasted through the stereo. Nico sighed and leaned back until his neck was against Jason's collar bone. From the corner of his eye, he caught view of Apollo's grin.
"C'mon," their driver chirped. "You can't be wearing those sweatpants without thinking about seatsie gropies."
Nico didn't even know what that meant.
"He doesn't own a pair of khakis," Jason explained. His arms curled around Nico's waist and hands found Nico's fingers. "Do you think we could—"
"Ah, ah, ah! Say no more, little brother!"
They bought him Armani khakis.
(Correction—the price tag specifically announced them as "desert-colored skinny chinos.")
Nico wasn't sure whether he was shocked or if he'd seen it coming. They fit and accentuated his legs way too well, and Nico had a brief thought of dying his hair blond and throwing his sweater over his shoulders.
Once Nico had them on, Jason pulled out a platinum card and let the cashier swipe it without even bothering to check the price tag.
"You okay?" Jason asked when he realized that Nico refused to say a word from store to car.
"I could have paid for them myself," Nico said flatly. He stared at his pants carefully and scrunched his nose as Jason pulled him into the car.
"You don't even like them," Jason pointed out. "Besides, you'll probably need them anyway. You know, when you're a doctor."
"What do you think scrubs are for?" Nico reached for his back pocket before remembering all he'd brought was his house key. He groaned and glared at his boyfriend. "I'm paying you back when we get home."
"You don't have to."
"Jason," Nico said, exasperated.
"Nico." Jason matched his tone.
"You just rolled your eyes at me."
"What—no I didn't!"
"I felt it!"
"How can you feel me?"
"I just can!" Nico leaned into the car door and faced his boyfriend with a frown over his lips. He was really helpless here—he had no wallet and no way to get home since Frank and Hazel decided to take another surprise trip to Canada.
"Wow." Apollo clicked his tongue. "You two argue like an old married couple."
At the declaration, they both shut up. Nico's inert stubbornness wasn't going to drill through Jason's hard head. He heard Jason sigh against his neck before Nico was left pouting and Jason kept his mouth shut.
It lasted maybe five minutes.
"So Neeks," Apollo chirped cheerily. "Haven't seen you in a long time. You've gotten pretty tall, man."
Uh… "I've never seen you before in my life." As an afterthought, he added, "And it's just…Nico. I go by Nico."
"No!" Apollo threw his head back into the seat and clutched his heart. "You don't remember me? I'm so wounded!"
Nico wrinkled his nose in distaste. He turned to face Jason, despite their current spat.
"He did a lot of theater in high school," Jason supplied helpfully. "Very good at Hamlet."
"I also do music! My band and me, Apollo Archer and the 9 Muses!" Apollo grinned with all the arrogance in the world. He raised his head and even had the gall to wink at Nico. Which—was how Nico finally placed the face and understood. "My band and I signed with DOA Records when you were, like, ten. I remember. Cute kid, you were. Pretty sure you had an orgasm when you saw us walk through the door."
Again, Nico's eyebrows furrowed. His attention flew to Jason immediately, who looked torn between choking his brother and finding the nearest pothole to bury himself in for the rest of eternity.
"He was a minor, 'pol." Eventually Jason sighed and gestured to Apollo in a, he means no harm kind of way.
"Well you're not now, right?"
"'pol!"
"There were only four of you." Nico decided to ignore the flirting altogether and tried to bring back all he knew about AA9. It wasn't very much, but he did remember getting weak in the knees for that pearly white smile.
(Man, was he an idiot.)
"Semantics." Apollo waved his hand dismissively and that was the end of it.
"That doesn't even—" Nico gave up on the sentence before he could finish it. There wasn't any point in arguing with this family if you didn't expect a headache. He opted for a glare instead, directing it straight at Jason with all of his pent up frustration (which was close to none, other than at himself, but he hoped Jason realized that that impracticality was apparently hereditary among all the Maximus family.)
Jason blinked at him, clearly getting none of that.
Ugh.
The rest of the drive was in silence. Nico had a splitting headache from hearing Apollo match the tone of every song on the radio. Apollo was good—there was no doubt about that—but an obnoxious personality like Apollo's wasn't something he liked being stuck in a car with. It was on par with both Percy and Leo, with even less tact.
As they got closer to Brookville, Nico could feel the tension knotting up in Jason's pulse. He leaned against his unsteady boyfriend, hand curling against the flat surface of Jason's wrist, and squeezed it tightly.
Apollo's choice of song switched from a nifty Ed Sheeran ballad to Shania Twain. His lips fell straight as they pulled out of the freeway and onto the streets. "So did Jay here tell you the rules?"
Nico looked to his boyfriend, waiting. Jason looked terrified.
Which…was something that was hard to look at. Too hard. The guilt surfaced at the tip of Nico's throat again, and he was ready to jump out the car and beat himself up for being a terrible boyfriend.
The thought died as soon as it surfaced. Nico knew better than to make this about him. It was about Jason and how Jason felt about his mother and how they were going to get through this dinner intact and still together. Jason still obeyed every whim of Juno's and was afraid of defying her. No matter how much they were willing to sacrifice for each other, Nico feared that Jason would put Juno in front of him. And he was sure Jason feared that too.
His hand went from Jason's wrist to Jason's fingers, winding carefully around them before giving an apprehensive squeeze.
Jason's nervous breath fell on his lips. "We can't do this when we get there."
He tugged on Nico's hand to provide an example and Nico understood immediately.
"That's what Apollo means. Juno—she's not one for PDA." Jason grimaced, and Nico tightened his grip over their hands. He leaned back, ear against the pulse in Jason's neck, and thanked the gods that it seemed to calm both of them down. "Especially of the same-sex persuasion."
"Juno doesn't know you're bi," Nico translated simply. "Okay."
"As far as she's concerned, she just thinks you're a friend that I've met on the way who also plans on being a doctor," Jason explained. He fell into a thoughtful silence before adding, "She likes that you want to be a doctor."
"Oh yeah, bro—" Apollo brazenly interfered without shame. "Juno once caught me with my ass up in the air with my boyfriend, Cinth, and sent me off to doctoring school. I got the highest score out of all the applicants on my MCATs because of her."
Doctoring School. Nico's jaw tightened and he twitched.
"I'm a neurosurgeon now," Jason's brother went on.
"Don't disagree with her, either. From now on, everything that she says is right." Jason's eyes lashed to Nico reluctantly, and Nico had no trouble reading this particular look. There was an underlying tone of begging because disagreeing was a vital part of their relationship that came with pros and cons.
For Jason, Nico could swallow his own tongue. He nodded slowly before bobbing his head up and down and crossed his arms. "Okay."
"And whatever she says—"
"Agree with her," Nico finished. Even if he had a feeling he'd rather jump into a minefield than watch one of his loved ones suffer.
"Whatever she says about me," Jason continued. His lips pressed together, eyes darkening with disgust. It killed Nico, because he knew all of that bitterness was still drilling into Jason's own self. "Don't...I can't help it if she—"
"What I know about you now," Nico cut him off, "makes me love you. What happens today shouldn't—won't—change how I feel about you."
He swallowed the lump in his throat and watched Jason blink away the beginning of tears.
"We can always back out," Nico said firmly. He squeezed his eyes shut, wondering if anyone felt as horrible as he felt, and knew that wasn't possible. "I'll still love you."
"Actually…we can't." Out of nowhere, Apollo parked the car alongside four Ferraris inside of a garage neither Nico nor Jason noticed they were sitting in. "We're here."
Nico glared irritably at Apollo. He promised not to give an attitude to Juno—Apollo was a different story. Nico was beginning to think that most of this flew over the apparent musician/neurosurgeon's head anyway.
"I'll just go inside and change into my best pair of chinos. Feel free to get out after a quickie if you want." Apollo smiled, tipped his invisible hat, and left the car. For maybe a second—before peeking his head through the car door. "Lysol wipes are under the passenger's seat. They work really well to remove cum stains."
"Oh my god—" With every ounce of patience gone, Nico slapped a hand over his eyes while Apollo sang, Bye~!
He only opened them when he heard Jason's laugh. "Pfft—"
It erupted into a bark—and through all that pain, Jason was grinning.
The uneasiness of that smile struck Nico's heart with a dagger. He crawled out of the front seat and offered a hand to his boyfriend. "Ready?"
Blue eyes narrowed hesitantly before Jason conjured a nod. "As I'll ever be."
