AN: I don't own PJO.

"Leo, are you sure this is a good idea?" Calypso asked, frowning at Leo. Leo was sitting on the kitchen counter and drinking coffee.

"Sure! It's great. Nico and Will love her, everything will be fine."

"Leo. They have no experience with little kids. She's four. Couldn't she stay with Jason and Piper? She and Raiden love each other."

"They'll be fine!"

"For a whole week?"
"Sparky and Beauty Queen are at camp half-blood. Beast Boy and Hazel still aren't back from their trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Piper and Annabeth have their hands full with Cassie and Charles. Reyna is…. I don't even know. But the worst thing that could happen is Will spoiling her. Harley and Nyssa promised they would stop by a few times and make sure the house wasn't on fire or anything. It will be great!"

"What if she's crying? Or she gets hurt? Or what if she asks Nico about the Giant war? He doesn't know to sugarcoat stuff!" Calypso was practically hyperventilating.

"Don't worry, Sunshine!" Leo slid off the counter and linked their arms. "Max adores them. I'm sure she'll be good."
Calypso gave him a look like, she really won't.

"Well, she won't light stuff on fire."

Another look.

"She won't light anything important on fire."
Another look.

"She might kill them. But we need a vacation. Everything will be fine, Cally. Don't worry."

"I'm worrying!"

But that afternoon, Leo and Calypso dropped Max off at Nico and Will's house. It was a reasonably sized villa in the middle of the city, near the college where Nico was a professor. Will was a doctor working at Fort Jupiter.

"Uncle Nico!" Max tackle-hugged Nico when the front door opened, almost making him fall over. "I'm here!"

"I can tell, shortstop." Nico said with a slight smile. "Hi, Leo. Hi, Calypso."

Will appeared behind Nico, beaming. Max released Nico's legs to get picked up by Will and set on his shoulders. She cackled and hugged his neck. "Hi Uncle Will!"

"You good, bonita?" Leo asked, looking up at his cheerful daughter.

Will smirked and pretended to blush. "Oh, you."

"Don't blush, darling." Leo cackled, and Nico and Calypso rolled their eyes. Will and Leo had the weirdest habit of either pretending to flirt or pretending to make fun of each other when they met. Nobody could fathom it. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Leo had been the first to find out about, as he called it, Solangelo. After he accidentally walked into the Hades cabin while they were kissing. And he had kept quiet about it for three more weeks until Will and Nico agreed to tell everybody (which they were sure had almost made the ADHD demigod's brain explode).

Once Leo and Calypso were gone on their weeklong trip to Hawaii (Calypso had been missing the island climate), Will carried Max into the house.

Nico eyed the four-year-old nervously as his husband Will pretended to almost drop her. Nico didn't know much about little kids-by which he meant absolutely zip. Apparently Will had delivered babies, and he said it was probably roundabout the same thing. Nico had told him he had a head full of schist. And now they were taking care of the smallest Valdez for a week. And it didn't help that this little kid apparently caught on fire when she was angry or upset, or just whenever she felt like it. Nico had stocked up on fire extinguishers at the store and double-checked the fire alarms, even though Will had told him he was being paranoid.

"Uncle Nico! Uncle Nico!"

Max was tugging on the sleeve of his hoodie. Nico looked down at her and smiled-he couldn't help it. She was the cutest kid he had ever seen, with big innocent dark brown eyes. "Yes, piccolo?" (translation from Italian: tiny).

"Can we have ice-cream for dinner? Pleeease?" She slid her tiny hand into his, and Nico couldn't say no.

"I guess so…."
"That's so unhealthy!" Will scolded from the couch. "Half your plate should be green."

"Pistachio ice-cream?" Max said hopefully. Nico smirked.

"She's got you, doc. Pistachio ice-cream is green."

Will groaned. "If you never tell your parents, then sure. As long as we eat healthier tomorrow."

"We will." Nico said, winking at Max, who giggled.

They went down the street to the ice-cream place, but Max took so long deciding what flavor she wanted they just got a pint of everything (the way she probably knew they would, from the smug look on her face). They ate their "dinner" while watching the Avengers movies. Max's favorite was Ironman, and she chattered away about how her papa had ideas for how to build a suit like that for her for her birthday and how he said she shouldn't tell anyone so her mommy wouldn't find out and make them not build it but Uncle Will and Uncle Leo wouldn't tell anyone, right?

Will's favorite was Hawkeye, and he watched him shoot arrows with curiosity. Will was pretty skilled with the bow, but he was better with medicine. Nico said he didn't have a favorite because they were all dumb, but he geeked out about Captain America twice.

Everything was going extremely well until it was time for Max to go to sleep. "Bedtime" was apparently not a concept she was friendly with. So instead she lit on fire and made a break for it down the street.

"Max!" Will shouted, sprinting after her. But she was fast for a four-year-old.

Nico rolled his eyes and shadow-travelled to right in front of Maxine. He sprayed her with a hose until the fire was put out, then carried her inside. She tried to kick him several times, but Will finally promised her more ice-cream tomorrow if she did what she was supposed to (Nico was sure it physically pained his husband to encourage unhealthy eating), and Max gave in.

When she was almost asleep in the guest bedroom, she asked Nico sleepily, "How come you and Uncle Will don't have a kid? That I could play with?"

"Um… your parents haven't explained this? I think you should ask Calypso this."

"No…" Max frowned. "Uncle Nico, where to babies come from?"
Nico ran for his life.