Nico got home from work to Will sitting in the dark kitchen, his head on the table but not asleep. Those golden curls of his needed washed, those bags under his eyes were too dark. Half the time, Nico didn't know if he would make it through med school alive.

"You okay?" Nico moved some hair out of Will's face before rubbing his shoulders. "Was the test that hard?"

"I met another sister today," Will mumbled. "And apparently she's got a full-blooded brother. Or, that's what she made it sound like."

Nico frowned. "Then why are you so upset? Don't you like having siblings?"

Will turned to face him. "She said dad beat her mother while she was pregnant. I...I just can't stomach my dad doing that. I can't."

"Oh..." Nico sat next to him. "Have you asked your dad about it?"

Will shook his head. "Not yet."

"Do you want me to? Make sure she's telling the truth?" Nico asked.

"Why would she lie?" Will asked. "She was angry, Nico. She was pissed. You could tell it happened. I just...I just don't know what to do, how I can make it right."

Nico sighed. "Will...I know you're all 'make the world a better place' or whatever, but it's not your obligation to make it better. You didn't do it. You weren't even conceived at the time."

"You don't understand." Will stood up and threw the fridge open, grabbing a beer. "You don't understand, Nico."

Nico grabbed the beer before Will could open it and threw it back into the fridge. "Then explain."

"He...he's my dad," Will started. "He's my dad and he was always such a great dad. He was perfect to me, to my mom. And how did I deserve that side of him while all his other kids got the worse side? Why do I get to have such a perfect life when they can't?"

Nico grabbed his shoulders. "Will... I know how you feel, okay? But it isn't your fault. It was your dad's decisions, his bad thinking, his dark side. Not yours. You can do what you want to make it right, but don't think for one second I'm going to let you beat yourself up over it."

Will stood in silence for a minute before sighing. "But what can I do? She hates my guts. I doubt she'd ever want to be friends."

"Then that's her decision, let her go." Nico set his bag down and moved to the fridge. "What do you want for dinner?"

Will sat at the table again, Mary's face never leaving his mind. "I don't know if it's going to be that easy, Nico. I can't just forget it happened."

"I know." Nico blew some hair out of his face before throwing it up into a ponytail. "But we can't do anything about it right now. Let's start dinner, maybe pour a few glasses of wine. Then we'll sit and talk."

Will nodded in acceptance. "Sounds good."

"So...what for dinner?" Nico asked. "Nothing big cause Bianca's not here to eat."

Will started to stack his books on the edge of the table to move them out of the way. "Spaghetti?"

Nico nodded once before starting to grab the ingredients. "Spaghetti it is."


Mary slammed the door to their small apartment open before throwing her things onto the coffee table. It was a one-room, little living space down in the bad areas of town, but it was shelter and heat and the door had a lock on it.

"Bad day?" Milo asked. Technically he was older than her by six minutes, but everything about their personalities screamed that she was the older twin. Their hair was the same, light and thin, while his was already half gray. She had none so far, or that's what her hair dye claimed.

"Bad life." Mary sat next to him on his makeshift bed and pulled her phone out. "Guess who I met today."

Milo finally sat up with a groan. "You know I work nights, right?"

"Will Solace," she continued. "He goes there, too. And his stupid ass was so happy with life."

"Being happy with life...is a bad thing?"

She elbowed him. "You know what I mean. You can tell he doesn't think about us, think about what Apollo did to mom."

Milo sighed. "Well...did he act like you knew when you told him?"

"I don't know..." she put her head in her hands before giving out a low sigh. "You know how it makes me angry..."

"Everything makes you angry." Milo gave her back a soft pat before pulling himself to his feet. "If I'm up, I should probably be studying. My test is tonight."

"You're just going to act as nothing happened?" she asked. "You're not mad as hell? It's fucking shit that he goes around with such a great life and we can't-"

"I'm too tired to be pissed, I leave that all to you." His left hand was normal, it held her shoulder with a comforting hold that only he could manage on her. His right hand, however, permanently mangled and scarred, only rested at his side like usual. "You've been at work and school all day. Take a nap."

The one bedroom was hers. That had been decided right away. But nothing about that bed seemed appealing. "I'm going to take a shower first."

"That works, too."