A/N: Hades time babey. Also happy Sinterklaas to everyone who is a fellow Dutchperson.

I knocked on the door of my fathers' private chambers. 'Lord?'

'Nico?' I heard some stumbling around in the room. When Hades opened the door, he looked just as stern as always. He had a gaze that you could break rocks with. Which was better than the look he used for people he did not like, which was strong enough to slice through steel. 'Are you not supposed to be training right now?'

'Dionysus gave me extra free time so that I could have a talk with you.'

'Why would my nephew want you to talk to me?'

'I'll explain that once we begin. Look, I even brought a juice box…' I stopped talking and shrugged, 'Which probably does not make sense to you at all.'

'You can't drink here, Nico.' The look in his eyes changed. I could not tell if it was for the better or worse. 'Did you consume anything while you were here?'

I shook my head. 'No. And I can eat and drink here, dad, as long as I bring what I eat down here myself.'

'Hm.' Again, I was not sure what he meant with that. 'Well, say what you want, but make it quick.'

'I actually wanted to have a…'

'I don't have time for long conversations.' I took a deep breath. Alright, quick it was.

'I… I have been having therapy sessions with Dionysus. He reached out to me and Will encouraged me to go. We have discussed a few subjects, including… well, we are going to be talking about Bianca next time.' I had wanted to tell my father that we talked about him a few times, but I swallowed that. I was not sure I wanted to tell him that yet.

He did not immediately answer. He stared at me, with a look of… something incomprehensible in his eyes.

'You have been talking about your personal issues with… Dionysus.' He carefully pronounced the name, as if he was tasting something he did not like.

I straightened my shoulders. 'Yes. I honestly thought you would have heard of it by now.' Hm. That might have been a little rude.

He broke eye contact and stared ahead of him. '...I heard something like it, but I did not believe it was true. I thought the ghosts were just gossiping. You don't know how many untruths have been spread that way.'

'Well, this was really the case.'

'And now you are going to talk, with Dionysus, about… your sister.' There was a small twitch by the corner of his mouth.

'Yes. I have agreed to it. He has helped me feel better about a few other issues I had. I think he can help with this as well.'

'Come in.' He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me into the room.

'We need to have a conversation.' Silently, I walked further into the chamber. Hades gestured towards a couch (that looked like it was made of upholstered bones) which was standing next to a coffee table, with another couch in front of it. I sat down on the right couch, so he went to the left one. I waited for him to start.

'How much did you talk about your sister?'

'I said nothing about her yet. That is what we are going to be doing next session. But I said I first wanted to talk to you before we would talk about her.'

'Why did you not tell me about this before?' Finally, I could recognise emotions in his voice. He sounded angry, but also hurt.

'If I can be honest, I did not really think about that. It was only when Dionysus suggested that I talk to you that I decided that it was a good idea.'

He stared at the coffee table. 'You talked about me, didn't you?'

I took a deep breath and waited a few moments before replying. 'Yes, we did talk about you.' He seemed too repulsed to say anything. 'Can I go on?'

'What did you tell him?'

'I told him what happened between us and what I thought about that. With that I mean that I told him how you rescued me out of Fascist Italy, that you let me live in the palace and that you gave me my own chauffeur as a birthday gift, but I also told him that you put me in the Lotus hotel and that you did not want to listen to me in the months leading up to the Titan war.'

'I kept you safe in the Underworld during the Titan war.'

'I know.' He did not respond, so I went on. 'I know you wanted to keep me safe. And I know that you wanted a child of Hades to have a roll in the prophecy for once, so that both us and you would be accepted.'

His looked up at me. His gaze was somewhere between stone and steel. 'I did.'

'Yes. Yet, it is also so that you still hurt me, whether it was intentional or not.' His eyes drifted to the wall behind him. 'Dad?'

He turned to me again. His look got a little softer. 'I realise I might have done that.' I had not expected him to be so honest.

'Oh… ah.' I shifted on the couch. 'Well… I…' I looked at my hands.

'But I am trying to do better.' Oh, he was not finished yet. I did not immediately continue, wondering whether something else was going to come out. But he just looked at me, in silence.

I took another deep breath. 'Yes, you are trying to do better. I know that. But you still hurt me in the past…'

'Sorry.'

'And eh… what?'

'Sorry. That is what you want to hear, right?' He looked up. His gaze was harder again. I looked at the table, wondering how I was going to say the thing I wanted to say. Now I understood why Dionysus usually gave me something to drink during therapy. It was easier to focus on the problem ahead when you could take a small mental break.

'I mean... I said that I knew you are trying to do better, because I have noticed that you do. You've given me Jules-Albert, you told me you accept Will and you try to make my time in the Underworld comfortable. And I appreciate that you do all that, because it means there is a wide open way to work through what happened in the past. If we do that, we might be able to go on as an… actual father and son.' He looked up and raised his chin. '...but that is certainly not something that can happen right away.'

'You sound like a shrink.'

'Well, I noted that shrinks are not a negative thing.'

Hades stared ahead of him again. 'Nico?'

'Dad?'

He looked at the floor. 'Sorry if I hurt you, Nico.' He still sounded like he did not fully mean it.

'Thanks, dad,' I said anyway. It sounded as if he understood what I was saying.

'I want to have a good relationship with you.' He looked me straight in the eyes. 'But it might be better if you leave now. You have done a few things that were unwise and I need to think about that.'

I felt a little dejected after that comment, but I stood up. 'Yes, I'll go.'

'After you have spoken about Bianca with… with him, I want you to talk to me again.'

'Gladly.'

'I am glad that you also put some trust in me, after who knows how long.' He did not look at me anymore. 'Now leave. You need to train.' I left without another word.

'It could have been much, much worse, lets keep it at that.' Will slowly nodded. 'I mean, he did try to wash the blame of his hands a few times, but at the same time he seemed to notice that that was not going to work. At least wants to talk to me a second time.'

Will pulled me into a closer hug. 'It's a hell of a situation you are in, no pun intended.'

'I just need you to say stuff like that sometimes. Make me feel comfortable.'

'I know and I will...'

'Yes, you are Will.'

'Shh. You don't need to hear groundbreaking statements from me other than 'eat your dinner…'

As if it was planned, the horn for dinner sounded from the dining pavilion. Will got up and pulled me along with him. 'About that…'

'Let's go to the dining pavilion. Before my stomach tries to make a statement.'

\Will laughed and grabbed my hand. 'You should tell Dionysus about this talk with your dad too.'

'Yes, obviously. I think I'll do that before our next session. I don't really feel like analysing it before I have had that second talk with him.' Will squeezed my hand, and that was all I needed right then.

A/N: I could not think of a good title so I went with this gnggfhhgngh

Next chapter might take longer than usual. I think the subject of Bianca is something that should be carefully written about and I also think it is something that might take multiple chapters, even if the main talking point is not Bianca anymore but she is more of a… trauma in the background.