Well, here we are again, I thought I was done, but then I realised I never wrote the actual meeting the parents, and I never really explained how Nico's family even worked. So this is an epilogue of sorts.

What? Someone encouraged me. Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: the only thing I'm responsible for is the amount of sleep I've lost to reading Solangelo fanfiction at 2am

Almost impossibly, (at least, it seemed impossible, given how long they'd actually been driving, and how many motels they'd crashed in for the night. It was almost like the good 'ol days of his mama dragging them out of the state as soon as they'd settled in) but they finally made it to the big 'Welcome to California' sign after a great four days later. (It wasn't like he'd been counting, or anything) They would have have made it in less, if it hadn't been for the car breaking down, and for the fact that the two of them together still had car repair knowledge in the negatives. And no, he wasn't overexaggerarting, they actually ended up confusing the couple who stopped over to help them, and they seemed to actually know what they were talking about. At least, they did before Will and Nico had gotten to them.

Will looked visably relieved, "Gods, it's amazing to be back in my home state. Don't get me wrong, New York is great, but it's not as beautiful as CA. "

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Really? All I see is grey sludge."

He grinned, "Hey, be respectful, it's California sludge. That automatically makes it way better than Manhattan sludge."

"Not like you're biased or anything."

"Of course not."

Will had looked ready to pass out at the wheel before, but it was like he was buzzing with energy now, just from being in his home state. Nico could almost smile at that... And probably have his mental stability questioned for randomly smiling at the window for absolutely no reason at all, but oh well.

Will kept his eyes on the road, humming something under his breath. And- was that My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark? Maybe his music taste wasn't beyond hope, after all. (Nico had had more than just a helping a helping hand in that, but still)

Just another few hours to wherever it was they were going.

"And I just realised I have no idea where you live. I'm just hoping it's not, like Malibu, or something."

He was suddenly very busy driving, successfully avoiding Nico's gaze, despite the fact that most sane people were off the road at gods-forsaken hours of the morining- actually, nope, the road was about as full as Manhattan, on a bad day.

Will was all but whistling innocently and twidling his thumbs.

"Please tell me you didn't spend all of your free time surfing on the beach."

"I didn't always surf!" he said defensively.

"And you're all blond, tonned, and tanned. I can't believe you right now."

"I know, I know, I am the reason Californian stereotypes exsist. "

"If your dad is a surfing teacher or something, I swear."

"Okay, not even I go that far. He owns his own music shop. Well, that's his thing right now. He's actually kept one of his 'things' going for almost five years, now, that's a record."

Nico gave him a questioning look.

"I should probably warn you, anyway. He just be a bit," Will just made vague hand gestures with his one free hand. Well, that explained everything, "Normal people usually have one midlife-crisis, maybe two. I stopped gave up counting by the time I was in eighth grade. I can actually organise the stages of my life one of his obsessions after the next."

"Really? When you were ten?"

"He owned a pottery shop. That was also the year ukulele was officially ruined for me."

"Twelve?"

"I still never want to hear another Limerick again in my life."

"There once was a man from-"

"Nico, babe, I will open the driver's seat and throw you out of this car. While it's still moving."

"And here I was, legitimately thinking that there wasn't a single violent bone in your body."

"Limericks bring that out in me."

"Good to know..."

There was a silence, mostly filled with Nico fearing for his life and questioning how non-threatening Solace really was.

"Hey, does your dad know?"

He hummed, rising it at the end to make it into a question.

"You, know, us; being a couple."

"Nah, I was just going to kind of spring it on him when we got there."

He looked over, startled.

Will snickered from the seat next to him, and Nico glared. Which, of course, did not deter Solace in the slightest. He did lean over and peck him lightly on the cheek.

"Isn't that breaking, like every road safety law? For shame, Jersey Shore."

"Did you just-"

Nico compleletly lost it, even though it probablywasn't that funny. But hey, everything is funny at four am, "I'm so calling you that from now on."

"Actually, that was Miami, but I'll give it to you.

Seriously though, my dad couldn't exactly be against it, he's okay with it. Actually, a lot more than okay."

"You mean," he trailed off.

"He's had his fair share of boyfriends, yes," he took in Nico's face and added, "hey, bisexuality is a thing."

"It's not that, it's just-"

He really didn't want to get into that, so he opted for subtly switching the subject. And by 'subtly', he meant 'completely obliviously, without even attempting to mask it as something else'.

"You know, I lived in CA for a bit."

Will raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of topic, but didn't press it any further. He breathed an actual sigh of relief.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but it wasn't my favourite. Mostly because, you know, I was the only one not out to get melanoma 24/7."

"Hate to break it to you, but the media has fed you lies, there are actually pale people here. "

"Yeah, well, I did it before it was cool," he said it with so much irony it practically dripped onto the floor mat.

"Wow, would you like a beanie and a starbucks with that?"

"You're forgetting the glasses."

"And the triangles."

"Is it just the media feeding me lies again, or is Malibu actually really freaking expensive? You know, residence and stuff."

"Actually, that part is true. Let's just say the sum of money used to buy a beach house in Malibu is enough to keep an unemployed person afloat for a good couple of years."

"Sooo, your dad could easily pay for your full tutition fees, rent, food, the works?"

He shrugged," Yeah, but I'm stubborn."

"What? You, Stubborn? I would never have guessed," he deadpanned.

Solace just grinned unapologeticall and went back to focusing on the road.

Nervousness settled itself in the bottom of his stomach as the unmistakable blue of the ocean filled out more and more of the expanse of the horizon.

"You do realise I didn't actually live in a beach house in Malibu, right," Will spoke up from the driver's side, suddenly breaking the silence. He phrased it more like a statement than anything else, like it was obvious.

"What?"

He snorted adorably, "I'm from Santa Monica."

Nico nodded vaguely in response.

Ever the choiccia, Will picked up on his anxiety about the whole thing.

"You have nothing to worry about, he'll probably make a bad haiku about our relationship."

"Well that settles it, I'm officially out."

Solace just grinned again, "You don't know the half of it."

"Dad jokes?"

"Yup."

"Bring it on."

Before he knew it, he was unpacking his suitcase from the trunk of Will's car and wheeling it up to the house. Well, trying,anyway. Have you ever tried pulling a suitcase over beach sand? Not exactly easy. But he was almost grateful to have that as an excuse to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. Until his far-too-nice-for-his-or-anyone-else's good boyfriend took it from him and proceeded to manage two suitcases along the sand, without either one capsizing. Nico huffed, successfully blowing his bangs out of his eyes for a second, before they settled back down again.

"Showoff," he muttered.

"Of course," he stuck out his tongue.

Nico snorted, "What are you, twelve?"

"Yes, on a scale of one to ten."

"Well someone got all of their comebacks from Tumblr."

He grinned, then was suddenly serious.

Will nodded in the direction of the house, "I'll just go ahead of you."

He all but sprinted with the suitcases to the front door. Well, that was weird...

Nico sighed and trudged through the sand towards the building, made into an almost silhouette in the early morining light.

He took back his suitcase at the doorway- Will had left it there for him- and wondered if he should head inside. Well, the door was open.

He stepped out into the living room and took in wooden flooring, baby blue couches, a few scattered string-instruments either sitting on stands or just laying around, a counter stacked full with family portraits and empty vases. Nico just couldn't stand still, actually pacing with nervousness, so he crossed the distance and picked up a frame in the hopes of distracting himself. Because apparerently already reached that level of creepy boyfriend within the two minutes he'd been in the house. He groaned- it was a baby picture, to top it all off.

There was a smiling woman next to him in the frame, with wavy golden hair cut close to her jaw, and a splash of freckles on her cheeks. The only thing that cut her off from looking creepily like Will's exact clone were the light etches of worry lines -so light that they were basically just an impliction, but there nonetheless-, and a row of small red spots across her cheek(*). He didn't have to be a Sherlock to figure out who she was.

He looked closer, almost taking the creepy to a whole new level and smiling. There was an inscription on the lower half of the frame that read Naomi Solace, 1983-2005

The sudden opening of a door startled him into dropping the frame back onto the counter top.

Yeah, because that would fool anyone. What, looking at random family portraits? Him? *suspicious dropping noises* Pssh, nope.

A snatch of the conversation made its way downstairs.

"-great, but I really miss the CA beaches," Will's laugh," and I can just hear Nico's 'really?' from here."

Another voice, one he didn't recognise this time, "That loyal to his home state?"

"He's Italian, actually."

That was about all he caught before the footsetps stopped abruptly.

All he could hear was a mumbled exchange, a few words jumping out every now and then. Then silence, followed by the unmistakable sound of two pairs of feet starting up again- this time on the padded staircase.

He might've forgotten how to breathe, and was very aware of just how much his palms were sweating. (This was what a heart attack felt like, right?)

Aside from all that, he reacted pretty calmly. You know, like a normal person would.

If he'd thought Naomi Solace looked like Will before... scratch that. In fact it took him longer than it probably should have to figure out that his boyfriend had not actually walked down the stairs twice, Apollo just looked pretty much exactly like him- give or take a few years.

The man in question gave an easy smile almost immediately, and Nico thought he pretty much had him pinned down in the first five seconds of their meeting.

He probably had himself convinced that he could charm his way out of almost everything- or at least, he always tried his damnedest to, anyway- he would bet away the deed to his house that Naomi was far from the first partner he'd had, and was definitely not the last either.

"It's Nico, right?"

(*) early symptom of leukemia

Well, this was getting a bit too long, and it's taken me so long to write this, so I'm going to split it into two. I was thinking of writing two or three of these at the end like a couple of other writers have done, but we'll see how this goes.

-He's-Beauty out!