I turned to see someone, Persephone, Nico's stepmother, who married Nico's father right before we headed off to college. I went to the wedding as Nico's date, but no one knew that back then, when Nico barely even came out to anyone. The only people that truly knew that Nico was at least gay, was Jason, Annabeth, and Percy. Just thinking of Percy knowing Nico was gay, reminds me of how Nico used to have a crush on Percy, but apparently Percy just ain't his type.

Though he thinks Percy is cute, he doesn't have any romantic feeling for him anymore.

"Y-yes." Nico started stuttering again, as I sighed. He's so afraid of anyone being homophobic. I don't think anyone here was homophobic, but if someone was, I'd murder their ass if they do anything to Nico.

I'm serious.

"Oh." She said as she took a seat next to Hades. "Congratulations on your engagement. I'm happy you found someone that makes you happy." She smiled.

I took Nico's shocked face as a sign for me to reply to her. "Thank you." Her eyes seemed to scan me, searching me, as if checking to see if I was worthy enough for Nico. "So, you're the one and only Will Solace, huh?"

Guess it's time for me to stutter.

"Yes." But I will prove that I am worthy of Nico and I will protect him from anything and everything. I fucking love him.

"I didn't know that you two were ever dating, and even though you two are getting married, that's not going to stop me from questioning you, Will." Nico's father said, making me nervous.

But what could possibly go wrong? It shouldn't be hard to show that I won't hurt Nico and that he means everything to me. "That seems fair."

"What do you intend to do with my son?" He looked at me, like he was searching me for any signs of discomfort or even lies. But lying wouldn't even benefit me. I am not going to mess up this first impression with my soon to be father in law.

"I intend to marry him, no matter what." I stated boldly, no one could possibly change my mind. Well, no one besides Nico. If he doesn't want me to marry him, I wouldn't. But he said yes and he made it clear that this was something he really wants.

Before Hades could even ask another question, Hazel cut in, "Father, do you really think you need to interrogate Will now? At their engagement party? They're already getting married, everything is settled. Just leave it be."

"Hazel, it's okay." Nico said in a small voice, clearly not wanting to step between his father and his fathers interests.

"No, Nico, Hazel's right. I shouldn't be asking so much of your fiancé. We should be celebrating. I'm sure you love Will just as much as he loves you, and he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

"I appreciate that, father." Nico said, for once in a loud voice, not afraid anymore. That was how Nico was. When he's afraid or scared and unsure he usually speaks in a low quiet voice or he gets upset and angrily leaves and isolates himself.

But he's learned to control himself a little but and now he doesn't get angry or upset when he's scared. He doesn't want to be isolated. He'd rather be with me, even though he'd still speak in a quiet voice.

And when Nico's comfortable and feels safer, he's himself. No quiet voices. He speaks how he pleases. He's happy.

And that's how I like him. Comfortable, safe, and happy.

"You guys should go get some food." I suggested to them, pointing towards the tables full of food. With that being said, the three of them got up to go get some food, leaving me with Nico. Which I didn't mind.

"Nico, are you okay." I looked at my fiancé. He nodded, even smiled a little, "I'm just happy they are okay with us." That boy was going to make me go crazy one day. It doesn't matter what he says, just the way he says it. His face says it all. His expressions, his eyes, the way he looks at me. I couldn't stand it. I love him so much.

I gently pressed my lips against his. He gasped a little at first, obviously not expecting me to kiss him. But soon enough, he kissed me back. The kiss wasn't meant to be a long kiss, it was meant to be a short, sweet, and passionate kiss, letting Nico know how much I love him.

His lips were soft and tasted like strawberries. Our lips moved in sync, until I pulled away, seeing Nico pout. "I've told you a million times, but I'll tell you again; you look adorable when you pout, but irresistible when you're both pouting and blushing." I whispered selectively into his ears.

His eyes widened in shock as I just smirked. "Will! You can't just say that kind of stuff whenever you want!" Nico tried to protest, trying to hid his embarrassment, even though no one was looking.

I rolled my eyes playfully, "No one's watching."

"You can't use that as an excuse!" He glared at me, as I laughed. "Fine. I won't use it as an excuse... next time." He rolled his eyes, but didn't respond. He was being oddly quiet. "Baby, you okay?" I asked him, curious as to why he suddenly became so quiet.

"Are your parents coming?" He broke the silence, though he seemed nervous while asking this question.
I sighed, this was going to be addressed at one point, so why not now?

"I invited them and Austin said our dad came, but I don't know about my mom." I said. Nico nodded, understandingly. He always understands me, like I always understand him. This has always been the biggest thing about our relationship that we cared about.

Communication.

We always tried to talk to each other and not hid secrets. We learned to trust each other and be comfortable with each other. He is no stranger to me, as I know everything about him and he knows everything about me.

"Did you see him yet?" Nico asked me, being careful of how he phrased it. He knew how I feel about my parents. My divorced parents. He understood what it felt to lose a parent. Whether they're dead or alive, he understood what it felt.

Him losing his mom affected him so much. He needed her and he wasn't ready to accept her death or even move on. The fact that he also lost his sister didn't help. He even blamed himself, but it wasn't his fault. He was only a kid. But eventually he started understanding things, he accepted the fact that they're dead. Stopped blaming himself, and moved on.

That's how he knew how I felt too. He understood what I was going through when my parents got divorced. They stopped caring about each other, and I kept becoming less of a priority to them.

They cared more about what the other spent money on, did, agreed to, as well as many other things that clearly didn't involve me. They screamed at each other, even at me when I didn't do anything wrong. Don't get me wrong, my parents love me, they were just so fed up with each other that they didn't see how they were affecting me.

Eventually, it became clear that my dad was cheating on my mom. It wasn't that he didn't love her, he most definitely did love her, it was that they always fought and never agreed on anything. He didn't care about that women he had an affair with, but that didn't change what he did. It didn't matter if he didn't care about her.

The damage was done, and my mom wasn't going to have any of his bullshit, so she divorced him. I begged and cried for her to stay. I mean, I was a young boy. But she didn't care at the time. She pushed me away, just as she pushed my dad away.

But she regretted it very much. Not divorcing my dad, but pushing me away. She never tried to contact either of us, until a couple years back. She wanted to make it up to me, for abandoning me at such a young age.

I didn't forgive her at first, but Nico helped me see that she was trying to make things better between us. It took a while for me to forgive her, but with help from Nico, I did. But forgiving her didn't mean I wanted her back in my life. She left me.

But I didn't want anything to do with my dad either. This was his fault in the first fault. So I left them both.

I left them for someone I knew wouldn't betray or hurt me. I left them for Nico. And I don't regret it.

"Wait what did you say?" I asked, entering reality once again. Nico rolled his eyes, he was used to me spacing out when someone spoke about my parents. I always had flashbacks or thoughts about them when someone mentioned them.

"I asked, did you see your dad yet?" Nico asked. I shook my head. "Not yet, I guess. But he's here somewhere." Nico pulled my hand from where they were, resting of my lap, and interlocked our hands together.

We stayed there for a moment, everything seemed so peaceful and simple. It was at this moment when I realized that I made the right decision when I asked Nico to marry me. After all, he was the love of my life.

"I wonder what's taking everyone so long to get food." I broke the peaceful silence, but our hands never broke contact. Nico glanced over towards the back, where the food was, probably looking for everyone. "There's, surprisingly, a lot of people." Nico said, half shocked.

"Why are you so shocked?" I was curious to hear his reasons, even though I know he's going to say that he's shocked this many people care. "You know the reason, Will." He sighed.

"Nico, I've told you millions of times; people care about you. About me. About us. Okay?"

"Okay." He agreed.

"We should wait for everyone before we eat, right?" I asked Nico. In response he mumbled a small yes and tightened his grip on my hand. Nico leaned his head on my shoulder, while we patiently waited for everyone to come. We only waited because I didn't to walk around and risk seeing either of my parents just yet, if my mom even came.