February, 1941( a year after Nico's 8th birthday)

"Mr. di Angelo? Are you even listening?"

Nico groaned as Mr. Jones continued to drone on and on about the importance of math.

Mr. Jones was an old math teacher who, in his day, had been successful in teaching several young boys and girls various things about the world. A few months ago, Hades had asked the deceased teacher to serve as Nico's personal tutor, and the old man had readily accepted. At first, he had seemed rather eager to spend his afterlife drilling monotonous facts into poor Nico's head. Nico had been excited as well, he had been looking forward to getting proper education.

Unfortunately, as they both soon discovered, Nico was a terrible student.

It wasn't as though Nico tried to ignore him! He just happened to have a really short attention span, that's all. But Mr. Jones wasn't really very understanding when it came to that. The old man was an excellent teacher, and was willing to help him if he didn't understand, but the poor old soul simply couldn't fathom why his pupil barely ever payed attention when he tried to teach him something, or why the boy could barely read English.

Nico had tried explaining that he had ADHD and dyslexia, but Mr. Jones never really believed him, and said that he was just being lazy and making excuses.

"Mr. di Angelo, do you want me to tell your father that you aren't paying attention to the lesson?"

Nico shook his head meekly and tried his best to understand how on earth fractions worked.

Mr. Jones sank into a chair and sighed as he watched his pupil work out the sums he had given him. Why wouldn't Nico pay attention for once? He would usually have dismissed it as lazy, but he had come to realize that Nico di Angelo was anything but lazy.

Was the boy actually telling the truth when he said that he had certain conditions that limited his attention span and reading capabilities? He rose from his chair, there was only one way to find out.

"Keep practicing those sums. I'll be right back."

*******Line break*******

Hades raised an eyebrow as he examined the fidgeting spirit in front of him.

"My Lord, your son claims that he has certain... conditions that affect his attention span and reading capabilities. Please don't take this the wrong way, but... could you confirm this is true?"

"Are you implying that my son is a liar, Mr. Jones?"

The teacher began to stutter, "N- No, not at all, my lord! It's just.. I've never come across such a child in all my days as a teacher, and it seemed rather unlikely."

Hades couldn't help but hide a grin as he watched him stammer excuses. He had known that this question would come up eventually. He could probably have answered the question without scaring the old man half to death(pun not intended), but where was the fun in that?

"Yes, Yes," he said, waving a hand dismissively, "He may find it difficult to read English. Try teaching him Greek, or Latin maybe. You'll find that much easier."

"But I only know Latin." pointed out Mr. Jones.

"Then hire someone to teach Greek! I'm sure you'd appreciate a partner, wouldn't you?"

Mr. Jones winced and nodded stiffly, "Yes, I'd... certainly appreciate that, my Lord. Thank you for you assistance."

After Jones had left the room, Hades groaned and let his head rest on his desk.

"Now that that's out of the way, looks like I'm back to paperwork."

******Line Break******

"Dodge faster! If this was a real fight, you would have lost a lung by now!"

Nico panted as he desperately tried to avoid the wooden sword that was being swung at him.

"You know," he huffed as he tried to land a blow on the spartan warrior in front of him, "You could slow down a bit!"

The skeletal warrior scowled, and started to push him even harder, "The enemy will not just slow down in the middle of a fight! You need to learn to keep up!"

Nico parried the next blow before it could do any damage, "I'm trying!"

The Spartan disarmed him with ease, "Try harder! You're nine years old, boy! Back in Sparta, boys your age would be able to fight with ease. And yet, you can't even disarm me with a wooden stick."

Nico frowned but kept quiet. Sword-fighting was by far the favorite part of his day. But it was so exhausting, going up against seasoned Spartan warriors, who would tell him that he needed to speed up and take advantage of his size, which didn't really help much seeing as his skeletal teacher always seemed to predict his next move. It wasn't that he was terrible at sword fighting, he just didn't stand a chance against the spartan.

"You've had your break! Now, let's try that again, sword at the ready!"

Nico groaned, this was going to be a long day.

********Time Skip*******

17th December, 1941 (aka Hazel's 13th birthday)

Hades wasn't usually one to obsess over little things.

However, choosing a present for his daughter on her 13th birthday was an exception.

What was he supposed to get for a girl he had never met in person? He had been watching Hazel for years. He had seen her every triumph, every failure, and every single time someone had bullied her. The fact that he couldn't do anything about it filled him with a sense of hopelessness. He had considered bringing Hazel to the Underworld, where he could raise her away from all of that suffering. But each time, he knew that it was impossible. Gods, Roman Gods especially, couldn't directly interfere with their children's lives.

Nico was an exception. Apart from that fact that he was Greek, and that Greeks were never really into following rules, Nico was also an orphan. His family had been killed by godly interference, which gave Hades a bit of elbow room to interfere in the matter himself. But Hazel's mother was alive, which meant that Hades had no right to even consider raising her. The gods wouldn't care about the fact that her mother hated her, or that she was bullied at school. To them, it was just a normal thing that demigods had to face, alone.

What could he possibly give her to make up for his absence these last 13 years? A few years ago, he would have bought her a pair of diamond earrings and dismissed the matter. But raising a child had changed his perspective. What would Hazel think if she knew that while she was forced to spend day after day suffering through her mother's neglect and the cruel rumors surrounding her, her own brother had been living a carefree life down in the Underworld? On one hand, she and Nico might actually get along, but on the other hand, Hazel might resent her younger half-brother for being able to spend so much time with her father, who she had never met before. Hades was leaning towards the first option.

It wouldn't do for this gift to be something random that any girl would envy, this gift had to mean something. It had to be able to express how sorry he felt about not being there for her, and hopefully make her hate him a little less. Oh, who was he kidding? The girl probably despised him! He was willing to bet that Marie had told her all sorts of terrible tales about him, it sounded like the sort of thing she would do.

Hazel liked to draw, didn't she? Maybe she would like a sketchpad, and some crayons to go with it? It was a lame present, but maybe she would know that he had been watching her, and that he was proud of the kind person she had become.

He waved his hand and a drawing notebook along with some crayons appeared in front of him. He eyed them sceptically, would Hazel really like these? He personally didn't find them very appealing, but as long as Hazel liked them, he could deal with their rather... normal appearance.

Now that the present was taken care of, Hades focused on the other thing that had been bothering him. The aura of death around Hazel. It wasn't the aura that usually surrounded his children, which showed their connection to the Underworld. The aura around Hazel mostly resembled the aura of a person who was approaching death. It worried Hades that his daughter was in danger of dying so young. He kept trying to tell himself that he wouldn't really be able to know for sure until he met Hazel in person. But as much as he tried to deny it, he knew that Hazel and Marie would die within the next year.

But what could possibly harm them under his protection? He had kept them safe from most monsters, so it couldn't be that. He frowned, as long as Marie and Hazel were under his protection, nothing should happen to them. Unless... no, Marie wouldn't do that! Would she? He discarded that theory, Marie wasn't stupid enough to voluntarily abandon his protection and expose their daughter to the full extent of danger faced by a child of the big three. No one in their right mind would do that!

Just then, Nico burst into the room carrying a bag that he presumed was full of books. He made his way towards a small, black throne that Hades had added to the throne room, right next to his own throne. Nico stopped when he saw him pacing in the middle of the room.

"Papa!" he cried gleefully, running up to hug him. As if acting on instinct, he scooped up his son into a hug. Nico returned the hug, giving him a tight squeeze, before sinking into his throne and taking out a notebook and pen. Without further ado, he began to write down something or the other.

Hades arched an eyebrow elegantly, something he had perfected over the years.

"Doing your homework, I see?"

Nico nodded, still not taking his eyes off the notebook. Hades bit his lip awkwardly. Nico was still as sprightly and cheerful as ever, but now that he put his energy to good use, he was usually left rather quiet and exhausted by the end of the day.

It seemed as though he barely ever saw his son anymore. Nico was always busy with his lessons, sword-fighting practice, or he would be playing in his room with a few young spirits he had befriended. Hades would be lying if he said that he didn't miss the days when he and Nico would spend hours playing with Nico's toys, walking through the palace gardens, or just chasing after Nico as he dashed from room to room.

Hades decided that it was high time that they had a bit of a father-son bonding trip. And if Nico and Hazel just happened to get along as well, that would be an added bonus.

"Nico, how about we go to a birthday party today, hmm?"

A.N:

Okay, so someone told me about the timeline issues, so I've gone back and edited them a bit.

So just for clarity, HAZEL IS ALIVE! She only dies in 1942, so seeing as it's 1941 now, she is very much alive.

This is just a filler chapter that's mainly about Nico's training. I wasn't really sure how to write this so... I hope that it's okay. I don't really think that Mr. Jones would know what ADHD and dyslexia are, seeing as it's 1941. Poor guy, he's not really a bad teacher, just a bit oblivious and stiff.

As for the sword-fighting... I have no idea how to write a sword fight(even if it's just with wooden sticks). I was basically just improvising, so I have no idea how accurate this is.

Anyway, in the next chapter, Hazel meets Nico!

As usual, please review!