A/N: Still Hades. Shout out to my music generator on Youtube for always being with me.

I wasn't going to sleep tonight, I could feel it. Instead, I got up, grabbed a juice box from my closet and shadow travelled out of my cabin, to the Big House. A few minutes later, I was at Denny's with Dionysus.

'I thought it would be a good idea to make use of this time instead of just laying in my bed and thinking about tomorrow.'

'Yeah, sure, but there is a tomorrow for me as well. A tomorrow in a very busy camp filled with teenagers.'

'I mean, we don't have to…'

'Yes, we do. You want to talk right now, and there are important things for you to talk about.'

'Hades.'

'Yes, Hades.'

'Can I just begin?'

'If you feel like you know what to talk about, you can begin.'

'Than I will not hold you up,' Mary, our regular server, piped in. She put down a sweet tea, winked and dashed back to the counter. I looked at my sweet tea and took a breather. Alright. I got this. 'So, last time… last time we got to the point where I actually had to live with my dad. And how he… was not the nicest to me.'

'Yes. We talked about that.'

'Yes. I also told you he… told me he had wanted Bianca to survive, rather than me.' So. That. 'But… I do not think he fully meant it. I think he was grieving, or disappointed because he thought his plan to let his children save the day could not go through. He…' I bit my lip. 'He… he definitely wanted that last thing. He even locked Percy Jackson into a dungeon in his palace, because he wanted me to get up and do what Percy was slated to do. That…'

'Telling you that he would rather have Bianca survive than you is unacceptable, no matter what he was feeling or what his intentions were. I already said that last time. Even if he did want one of his kids to succeed so that they would be respected, he could have done that by actually training you instead of releasing you from the Lotus hotel when he thought your time was ripe to be useful. And locking Percy Jackson in a dungeon, no matter how attractive, is also a terrible way of solving things.'

I thought about that. 'Yes. But, at some point during those months I was there, he seemed to… comply with the fact that I was what he had. He, and Persephone…' Oh, man, Persephone. Help me gods. 'And… and Demeter, she was also there… at some point, they decided to listen to me and helped with defeating the army attacking Olympus while the other gods were off fighting Typhon. That.' I looked at the table. 'I mean to say that he began to listen to me. After the war, I got my own cabin in camp Half-blood and the other campers began to accept me, but I was still not in camp very often. Some of the time, I was in camp Jupiter and sometimes in the Underworld. The contact with my father… became less as when I lived in the Underworld for an entire year, of course, but we kept it up. Now, I am in camp half-blood more often, but I still go to the Underworld now and then. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes not. He… Hades… he gave me a French taxi-driver. He is dead. The taxi driver. I… don't know if that means anything.'

'He did not coach you more? About your powers, or just as a father?'

'No. I think he is trying to be a better dad now, but he is not really sure how to do that. But…' I shrugged and took a long sip of iced tea. Dionysus took a moment to think about what had been said. 'Do you want to forgive him for how he treated you?'

'I don't know.' I have been defending him and I would actually like a relationship with my father, but...

'Nico, whether you forgive him or not is completely up to you. I won't tell you how I feel about the situation. As long as he does not hurt you anymore and if you really think he changed his ways, or at least tries to do so… it's up to you.'

Hm. This was one of those moments where it would have been easy if he had done all of that thinking for me. Alas, I nodded. 'I'll have to think about that some more.'

'Take all the time you need. It is not something you need to rush to a conclusion for.'

'No. Until that time, I… I just mentioned Persephone. I want to say something about her as well, now that I am talking anyway.'

Dionysus nodded. 'That's okay if you want to.'

I swallowed. The talking was more difficult this time than it had been last time, even if what we were saying had mostly been said before. 'I don't know when Persephone learned that we existed, but when she did, she ignored me until I was moved into the palace and she simply could not do that anymore. Which, can I give her credit for that?' It seemed weird, giving someone credit for ignoring me. But it was better than being hunted down.

'I wish I could say you could not.'

I showed him a small smile. 'Well, I am. While I was living in the Underworld… she still ignored me. From the few words she did say to me, I could make up that she did not like me, but she accepted that I was in the palace. She was not going to punish me for what my father did. That, or she was afraid that he would get angry if she tried to touch me.' I looked at my cup.

'I could not tell you which one of those is true, but I can tell you that Persephone was never a harsh stepmother,' Dionysus filled in.

'Hm. In the time after the titan war, she did once get fed up with my presence in the Underworld, so she changed me into a dandelion.' He was trying not to laugh. I was telling about my trauma and he was trying not to laugh. 'Hades found out quite soon and ordered her to change me back. Afterwards, she did give me the pomegranate seeds that saved my life while I was in the jar that the twin giants put me in. I think they were meant as a make up gift, and at first I thought it was worthless, but boy.' A few loud-talking people passed the restaurant. I looked over my shoulder until they were gone. 'So, it might seem like Hades and Persephone are kind of… they both try. Hades to sort-of be a good parental figure and Persephone to accept me, or at least not make my life more difficult. But both…'

'It is the same thing as I said before. They are both trying now, and it is up to you if you accept that or if you find that it is too little, too late. But it does not erase the fact that they hurt you in some way. In order to really work through that, you'll have to talk to them as well.'

'... Alright. But…'

My sentence was cut off by a herd of drunken twenty-somethings hurdling into the Denny's. I turned around so I could take a look. A few of them were laughing, one was crying and what seemed to be the least drunk guy of the bunch winked at Mary. 'A stack of three waffles for each of the boys, please.' Mary sighed. 'Coming right up. What kind of toppings do you want?'

'Nothing but you, darling.' He winked again and I cringed. That almost physically hurt.

Mary was completely unfazed by it. 'Alright, that will be six plain waffles. Do you want anything to drink with that?'

'Nothing but your…'

'Alright, alright, I know you can go on for the entire night, but that is more, more than enough.' Dionysus stood up and walked towards the herd of drunken men. The 'leader' looked at him from head to toe. 'And who do you think…'

'Actually your lord and savior, seeing how you are drunk in a Denny's at the moment, but I really wish I wasn't.'

'My… what?' The guy was just drunk enough to get confused by that statement, it seemed.

'I'll give you this.' Dionysus tapped the guy on his forehead. His pupils grew creepily wide. 'You go to the door. You'll just wait outside, aghast, until your friends have finished their waffles. Then, you will never be able to find this place again. Your pals will know about the restaurant, but you won't. You'll never know what they are talking about and it might make your mind break in the future - who knows!.' He twirled the guy around and pushed him in the back, towards the door. 'Now leave.' The guy left without a look around.

Mary arched her brow. 'I assume that is just five stacks of waffles, then.' Dionysus smiled at her. She rolled her eyes and disappeared to make the waffles. I picked up my iced tea, stood up and walked over to Dionysus. 'That… I mean…'

'There are loads of people who make the party scene unsafe for the other party-goers. It is quite literally my job to root those people out. They, again quite literally, ruin my health.'

'Right.' I drank my sweet tea until there was no more. 'Is the session over?'

He nodded. 'Just one more thing: Do you want to talk to Hades?'

'I'll have to think about that.' I put my cup on the counter. 'But I might.'

'If you decide that you want to, I'll make sure you have extra free time.'

'Does Chiron agree to it, then?'

'Chiron finds it just as important as I and your sunny boyfriend do that you get proper help.' He gave me a reassuring smile. I nodded, after which I yawned. 'Alright.'

'Good, then we can go back. But first…' he pointed at the waffle makers. The next moment, five plates with plain waffles were standing on the counter.

Mary came walking back, with her eyebrows raised. 'That's special.' She looked at Dionysus. 'Well, thanks.' In reaction, he put a fifty dollar bill on the counter.

'No, you thanks. For letting us sit here, for serving us and for putting up with scum like that.' Mary looked at the money. Then she smiled the warmest smile I had seen from her yet. 'I am really, truly glad to be doing it.' She waved us goodbye, while Dionysus transported us back to camp.

A/N: next chapter, he won't be talking about, but with Hades. Thanks to Rickandrowling28 for that idea! I also hope I did not skip anything that happened between Hades and Nico. Fandom wiki had been a real help, but it does not erase the fact that it is at least three years ago that I read the books (I got the first one from a friend on my fourteenth birthday and binge read the rest in three weeks or so after that).