Requested by Bailey on AO3: Maybe, as stated in your other story, Toby should keep his word and drag Nico shopping, he said Nico may be fun to shop for

"Nico?" Toby asked. He was sitting on the floor in front of Nico's chair and leaning back against Nico's legs. Nico had been absentmindedly running his fingers through Toby's hair and half dozing. He had yet to completely recover from the Gaian war and was still almost always tired.

"Hmm?" He questioned contentedly, absently braiding a small patch of hair near the back of Toby's head.

"We should go shopping." Toby suggested softly. "Months ago before we even got together I think I mentioned I'd like to shop for you, but it's been go go go and we never got a chance."

Nico blinked. He had completely forgotten about that too, but Toby was right, now that he mentioned it Nico could remember that. He still didn't have that many clothes, at least not that many he would wear now. It wasn't that long ago that he had started wearing exclusively black and he didn't have that much black. Not to mention that most of his clothes had been bought for him when he was nine and were to small now, though not as much as Nico would have liked.

"You're right. We should." Nico agreed. Toby bounced to his feet immediately. Leaving the few small braids Nico had made in, he helped Nico up instead. Nico's bones had been sore and cold recently. He felt more like the age it said on his birth certificate than he would have liked, but E.J. said it was just the affects of overworking himself and they would fade soon. Will agreed too, so Nico was inclined to believe them. "I don't know any shop though. I'm assuming the ones that were around when I was a kid are closed."

"Ya almost definitely." Toby laughed. "Don't worry though I know what I'm doing. We'll find you some cool clothes. I'll just bully someone into driving us into town."

"Don't worry about I'll just call Jules-Albert. He's a zombie, but my father gave him to me so he doesn't take any of my power and the mist hides him from mortals. He can drive."

"The zombie can drive?" Toby repeated raising his eyebrows.

"Ya he was a cab driver when he was alive. That's why dad gave him to me. It's not as if Hades can take time out of his day to drive me places but he got the impression it had to be done somehow." Nico explained as they headed to the garage to borrow a car. Nico went outside to call Jules so he wouldn't have to break the floor to rise, then they piled in a car and got going. Toby panicked a little at first but then he calmed down enough to give Jules directions. He was getting better with cars.

The first stop was a place called Hot Topic where Nico managed to find a few shirts he liked, but mostly just got frustrated that everything had prints on them. Toby laughed at him when he started grumbling that 'back in his day not everything had to be so flashy'. He ended up getting one shirt with a Nightmare before Christmas design, one that said 'Normal people scare me', one that said 'why are you still talking' and one with some grumpy cat face and the word 'No' because Toby threw it at him saying 'you'. Mostly the trip just consisted of Nico pointing at patterns on shirts and asking Toby what they were and what they meant. But Toby had fun too, it was worth it.

After that they just went to a mall which was much more productive because Nico was able to find plainer clothes which were more his style. Sure he likes skulls, but he'd much rather wear plain black any day. Though he did end up getting a chain belt and some necklaces because Toby thought they would look cool on him and Nico didn't feel like arguing. He needed a belt anyway and he already wore a ring all the time.

While they were at the mall Toby insisted Nico get a 'booster juice' thing because Nico sill had weight to get back. After that Nico was tired and done shopping. Toby would have kept going since they didn't really have that much stuff but he could see that Nico needed a break.

"Should we go home?" Toby asked Nico, wrapping his arm protectively around Nico's waist so he could lean against him. Which Nico did, even though public affection still made him just a little uncomfortable.

"Soon." Nico said feeling a little guilty. Recently he hadn't been able to keep up with Toby and he felt pretty bad about it.

"Okay." Toby said reassuringly. "There's one more place I wanted to take you though. It's not in the mall but this town has a pretty cool antique store and I thought you might like to check it out since you complain about modern things sometimes."

"I don't do it that much, do I?" Nico asked letting Toby steer him towards the exit.

"Nahhh but it's funny when you do." Toby said.

"Oh okay." Nico said shrugging. "All those old people who talk about how much better it was back in their day are lying though. It sucked, it's better now." Nco rambled as they found the car.

"Okay grandpa, get in the automobile." Toby teased.

"I called them automobiles one time ." Nico grumbled getting into the car. "And only because I was talking to Hazel and that's what she calls them." Toby laughed and leaned forward to give Jules -who had been waiting in the car- directions to the next location.

Toby bounced in his seat shaking the car a little as they drove and Nico chuckled at him a bit. They chatted as they drove, catching up on what Toby had been up to while Nico was in Tartarus. Nico hardly noticed when they pulled up in front of the antique shop until Jules pointed it out.

"Oops, thanks Jules." Nico said and they got out of the car heading into the antique shop. Toby said hello to the shopkeeper as Nico wandered deeper into the shop as he looked at some of the things. He paused to pick up an old hairbrush when Toby walked up to him.

"My mom had one like this." Nico said chuckling, then put it back down and kept looking around. He was drawn to the section of toys because, of course, those were the things he had been really paying attention to in the 1940s. His eye was caught by a wooden puppet.

"That's kind of a creepy thing isn't it?" Toby chuckled following Nico's eyes.

"It looks really familiar." Nico said cocking his head to the side and picking up the toy.

"Be careful with that." The store owner called. Nico ignored him.

"I think I had one like this." Nico said absently weighing it in his hands. "I lost it when we moved to America…. My mom… my mom put our names on all our toys to try and stop that but I still managed…. Actually." Nico said and pulled the puppet's blue shirt up just a little and blinked when he saw the remnants of his own name in pen.

"Holy shit it actually was yours?" Toby said leaning over.

"I guess it was." Nico said laughing. "That is so funny! I can't believe it still exists. Wow."

"Do you want it back?' Toby asked, resting his hand on Nico's lower back.

"I don't think so." Nico said putting the toy back. "Someone else will appreciate it more than me now. Obviously I didn't know how to look after it in the first place."

"Good point." Toby chuckled. "Besides I don't want that in our room, it's weird looking." He said, making Nico laugh.