Nico clapped in his hands with a smug grin on his face. 'So Hestia tried this on Olympus...'

'I think cooking on Olympus is more advanced than us just sneaking into the kitchen of your dads' palace because we want food,' Castor cut him off.

'Shhh. We are going to make a masterpiece, Castor! I don't need your negativity!' Nico said, while flipping his hair (Which wasn't really possible, because it was too short, but it's the statement that mattered).

Will rolled his eyes. 'I don't think we will be Gordon Ramsay in Persephone's kitchen, Nico.'

'Well, maybe we can microwave a banana or two,' Lee said, sounding completely serious. Selena and Beckendorf both snickered. Will gave them all the stare of death. 'I'll keep my eyes on you all!' He said. He felt a pat on his shoulder.

'It's alright, Will. Me and Silena will not let them microwave banan's.' Will nodded slowly.

'That's a relief,' he answered, in a tone that signaled that he didn't really believe it.

Nico pushed open the door to Persephone's kitchen. 'Why don't we just use our own kitchen? Or the kitchen in the Dionysus' kids palace?' Silena suddenly asked.

'Because that would be less fun,' Nico answered. 'And also because Amelia kicked me out of the kitchen in the Dionysus' kids house.' Castor rolled his eyes.

'You exploded our oven!'

'So a usual day for you all.' He stepped into the kitchen. It was not that big - it was just a small kitchen for Persephone, not the big kitchen with the man who also cooked soup-goop for the ghosts in Asphodel, who were all dead but still had to eat once a week for some reason.

Will looked around. 'Alright, so there is some fruit on the fridge, if we have yoghurt we can make popsicles with that...'

'Yes, or we microwave it!' Castor cheered, seemingly only half-joking.

'Castor, no microwaving food, please stop,' Silena sighed. Castor gave her a look that was anything but assuring.

Beckendorf opened a small cupboard. 'We got some flour and sugar here, plus some other stuff I do not recognise...' Silena looked into the cupboard as well.

'That over there is vanilla, I think.'

The heard a crash behind them, followed by Lee screaming and ducking away. A lot of pans, pots and other stuff tumbled out of a high shelf. Lee shook his head. Will patted him on the back. 'It's alright, no one got hurt.'

'Did Fred waddle into the kitchen?!' Someone yelled.

'No, he was asleep on my pillow when we left and there is no way that one small, really fat hydra is faster than us,' Nico answered. None of them were bothered by the fact that they had been in a queens' kitchen for the whole of a minute and a half and that they had already made a mess.

Castor rummaged through the pots, pans and other utensils. 'Hey! A muffin mold!' He pulled a hot pink silicone muffin mold from the pile. 'Say, do we have butter or milk or something?'

Nico tried to open the fridge. 'Oof. Who makes the door to a fridge so heavy?'

'Probably a queen goddess who has to deal with one to five teenagers in her house,' Will answered dryly. Nobody answered - they were to busy with raiding the kitchen to think about Persephone's wrath.

Nico and Beckendorf pulled open the fridge. A ray of light fell from it like a beam of light from Apollo himself while the sight of mountains of food welcomed them. Everybody, even Will, had to take it in for some time. They never saw this much delicious food in the Underworld. Castor was the one who broke the silence. 'I see butter. If somebody can find baking soda, we can make fruit muffins. Which we can safely put into the...'

'If we are going to say 'microwave,' I will immediately be against this plan. I am not going to make muffins only to stuff them into the microwave,' Silena broke him off, glaring at the son of Dionysus. Castor gave her a smug smile. '...oven,' he continued his sentence. Silena looked like she could put him into the oven.

'Eh, muffins is a good idea, can anybody find a mixer and baking soda? We can use the vanilla as well...' Silena and castor huffed, but they started to look for the missing ingredients and utensils.

After five minutes of seeking, they decided that there was no baking soda currently inside Persephone's kitchen. There was a mixer though, in a really obscure corner of a cupboard. Castor rolled his eyes. 'Wait right here,' he told the others, before sprinting out of the kitchen.

He came back with three small bags of baking soda. 'I got it. Also, help me remember to get more baking soda before Amelia and oenopion find out there is no baking soda left. They might get angry and work together for once, which would be fighting. Everybody save for Will bobbed their heads up and down.

'Is... is that so scary? They are children of Dionysus, after all...' He accidently made eye contact with Castor. 'Will, believe me, it is frightening. You don't want to know why.' Will swallowed. Castor made his way to the kitchen counter, where Silena, Beckendorf and Lee were already laying down the other stuff.

Nico leaned closer to Will. 'Oenopion is a son of Ariadne. Basically three quarters god. Died somehow, is still powerful. Amelia... total powerhouse. Don't know why. So, yes, scary. Now, let's go make muffins before Castor shoves that orange over there into the microwave and calls it cuisine.

'How do we do this? Just throw together all of the fruit and mix it through the basic recipe, so that we get a surprise muffin?'

'Horrible idea, Lee. I say we smash up all of the fruit individually and mix it through specific muffins.'

'Silena, that's boring...'

'Cas, there is no way we are going to make alcohol out of it and put that into the muffins!'

'No fun! We could give them to Hades and see what happens.'

'Castor, we are not going to give my father muffins with alcohol in them!' Will sighed and clapped in his hands. 'Alright, we need a plan, otherwise this entire cooking operation will go like Hestia's cooking class on Olympus...'

'How do you know what happened on Olympus?' Lee asked.

'I needed to ask something to Chiron and Dionysus and I heard Dionysus rant about Hestia almost crying and Poseidon being a drama queen or something and Zeus not being able to do anything and being hyped on coffee with Artemis...' He rattled on for a while, but everyone had stopped listening after 'Hestia almost crying.'

'...Those a..,' Nico begun. Will gave him a stern look. '...absolutely unpleasant... ducklings... almost made Hestia cry?' He enunciated. Will rolled his eyes and nodded.

'Yes, but it got resolved...'

Nico gave a single clap. 'We're mixing all of the fruits together for these muffins and then I'll bring them to the Olympians. I can film it. Let's go!' Everybody else cheered, except for Will, who just stood in the corner, wondering why oh why he just said that.

He got the spirit, eventually. When it was time to mix all of the fruits together, he laughed maniacally when he turned around the hot pink mixer. Beckendorf and Silena were putting dough into the muffin mold. Only filling them one third, so that they could put in fruit and then more dough. 'We have to much dough!' Silena yelled over her shoulder.

They heard someone rummage through the mountain of kitchen utensils behind them. 'Not anymore,' Castors' voice announced, while he pulled out four more muffin molds, so that they had enough for about fifty muffins. Silena grinned when she saw it. Beckendorf slowly shook his head, but he took the mold without complaining.

Will made a little bit of a mess. Pieces of fruit stuck to him, Lee who had been standing next to him, the floors, walls, kitchen aisles, other utensils and Nico, who Will had given a hug after. Yet, still nobody really cared. In the back of their minds, they all knew they were going to have to speed clean after they had trashed the entire kitchen, but they decided to think it was all fine instead.

'I found chocolate! If we have to little fruit, we can make some chocolate filled muffins for ourselves!' Lee announced. More cheering all around. Lee also pulled a bag of... something out of the closet. 'Ew, Lee, what in the world is that?' Silena asked.

'Liver. Kind of great for the people who upset poor Hestia, don't you think?'

'Lee! When you were alive you never had these malicious tendencies!' Will exclaimed.

'That was before I had to live next to Batty Bob, who got aisles of the blessed through some absolute nonsense, and these are my friends,' He said, before waving around the room. Will sighed deeply.

'Yeah, true. Oh, eh, Poseidon, Zeus and Ares were the one who upset her the most, I suppose, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Artemis and Aphrodite take a widely shared second place, and... the rest acted sort of normal. Oh, no, Apollo and Hermes too...'

'We'll add liver to Poseidon, Zeus and Ares muffin and the rest will just get wildly mixed fruit. That will leave... a heck of a lot of muffins for ourselves to fill up with chocolate and whatever other tasty thing we find around here,' Silena answered. Will walked towards the muffin molds. He giggled.

'Wait, Will! Add some yoghurt! It will make it sour!' Castor screeched. Will laughed and took the yoghurt from his hands. He mixed it through the fruit.

'Well, I guess we are far beyond reason, if even Will gets swept up into the excitement,' Silena whispered to Beckendorf. The son of Hephaestus slowly nodded.

Castor grinned evilly. He too realised that Will was becoming a little reckless. 'Say, Will, we could also make it grosser by putting it into the microwa...' immediately, Will was pulled out of it. 'Castor. No microwaving fruit.' Will pushed Silena and Beckendorf aside and started to put the yoghurt-fruit-liver goop into twelve of the muffins.

Castor shrugged. 'Was worth a try. I'll just melt the chocolate...' Lee smacked his hands away.

'No. You don't touch the hot things.' Lee grabbed two small pans. 'I will melt the chocolate. Au bain marie, not in the microwave.' Castor rolled his eyes.

'Of course you don't put chocolate in the microwave, I am not that dense.' This clever answer was met with silence.

The chocolate was slowly melting, while the twelve special (but not microwaved) muffins where baking in the oven. 'Ugh. Those things smell horrible. We might as well have microwaved fruit,' Nico casually said. Silena, Charles and Will all looked at him like they wanted to strangle him and accept the consequences.

'I think... the chocolate might be melting too quickly,' Lee whispered. Within a nanosecond, everyone else was standing right behind him, trying to look into the pan. 'Guys! Stop!' Lee turned down the gas and picked up the pan. Slowly he started to drip the chocolate into the muffin dough cups.

After that, Silena and Beckendorf covered them up with more dough. They both stared at the muffins, ready to be baked in the oven. They just had to wait for the other batch to be done. 'How long have the prank muffins still left?'

Castor checked the clock.

'Eh... forty minutes.'

'What?' Silena gasped. 'That long?'

'Yeah. I think we should put the unbaked dough into the fridge.'

They did, before just dropping to the ground, wondering what to do.

'We should clean up,' Will contemplated.

'Yeah, we should,' Nico answered. The four ghosts nodded. 'Yeah, you two are right,' Silena sighed. She picked up a spoon and started flicking it around.

Forty five minutes later, they were all still sitting on the floor. Nico had his head on Wills' chest. He was asleep. Somewhere on he other side of the room, Castor was asleep as well. Beckendorf was braiding Silena's hair. Lee was nowhere to be found.

Yet, when the bell of the oven dinged, Nico jumped up (he almost punched Will in the stomach). He pulled open the oven door so fast it almost fell off. 'Carefull! Otherwise we can't bake the chocolate muffins!' Lee yelled. He seemingly dropped out of nowhere, but nobody really cared anyway.

'Yeah, yeah.' Nico got out the muffins. 'Ugh. Let's just put this out in the hallway.' Silena took over the baking plate and put it out in the hallway, because nothing could go wrong that way, nooo.

Silena twirled around and clapped her hands. 'Alright! Let's put the chocolate muffins into the stove!' She pulled open the fridge.

Castor jumped in front her and got out the plate. 'Come, I'll put them in!' He was standing dangerously close to the microwave, made a move towards it that made Will want to jerk the plate with muffins out of his hands, and eventually put it into the oven.

After which they had to wait another fifty minutes. Beckendorf continued with his masterpiece in Silena's hair, Nico fell asleep again (and Will as well this time), Castor got an old gameboy out of nowhere and Lee just stared into the oven, like that was going to make them bake quicker.

Which, uh, worked. Somehow. Maybe it was the power he had from the isles of the blessed, or something. Yet, within twenty minutes, the oven started making noise. Lee pulled open the oven door with such strength that it really did fall off (but who cares? The muffins are already baked).

He squealed. 'Ugh, they smell good.' He softly patted one with his finger. 'They feel... just right.' Silena, Beckendorf, Nico and Castor all picked one. Castor was the first one to take a bite. His eyes rolled back into his ghostly head. 'Hmmm.'

'These are good...' Silena said, with a mouth full of muffin. The others didn't even say anything. They were too busy gorging on the muffins.

Will was standing in the middle of the kitchen. His stomach rumbled. 'Eh... not to ruin your euphoria, but does anybody have a plastic box, or something?'

Beckendorf heard him. While still chewing on a bit of muffin, he rummaged through the utensil pile. He got out a metal box. 'Here. It'll keep the muffins warm until you are back on earth.' Will smiled thankfully and put three muffins into the box.

Five minutes later, almost all the muffins were gone. Just eaten up by five hungry teenagers who were bored. Nico stretched. 'Hm. Great. Now, let's get that batch in the hallway, so Will and I can leave and Will can taste one of these muffins as well.' Overdramatically, he threw open the door.

He saw two things he didn't want to see. The first thing was his stepmother looking at him with a cold, dead stare. The second thing was Fred the small, fat Hydra eating up the special muffins.

'Nico.'

'...Persephone. What, eh...'

'What are you and probably your little friends, which are very much vulnerable and not invincible, doing in my kitchen?' She asked, with a voice that was supposed to be harsh and dark, but sounded more like she thought it was hilarious.

'We were making muffins...'

'These?' She pointed at the batch that Fred had completely eaten. He seemed to like the taste. 'No. We made chocolate as well. This was meant for... some people... who...'

'Who made Hestia cry!' Silena yelled behind him. Persephone's eyes twitched.

'...they did what now?'

'They...'

'I heard it, I heard it.' She shook her head. 'Gods, they totally deserved... whatever the filing of those were.' She gestured towards the mold with only a few bits and pieces of muffin left. Her gaze hardened again.

'Yet, that doesn't mean that all of you will clean up my kitchen. On your own. Without magic. Right now.'

'Uh, Persephone...'

'No talking back!'

'But Will hasn't even for four hours or so...'

'He should have thought about that before you all ravaged my kitchen. Now clean up.'

It took them two hours to completely clean up the kitchen. By this point, Will was seeing spots in front of his eyes from hunger (partly because his body really needed food, partly because he had been thinking about food for so long that his body got hungrier and hungrier). Persephone told him and Nico to get back to earth, while the four ghosts desperately tried to get out of there. Nico and Will were gone before they knew if their friends had made it.

The next day, Will knocked on Nico's door. He had an old handkerchief in his hands. 'In.' Will stepped into Nico's cabin, which looked like it needed to be cleaned again. 'Hey Neeks. Is everyone send to eternal punishment in Tartarus, or...' Nico looked at him like he was crazy, until he remembered what Will was talking about. He shook his head.

'No, but their in service of Hades for a week, which means they basically have to run errands for him. Nothing they haven't done before.' Will took a deep breath.

'Good. Otherwise eating this last muffin might feel to bad.' He got the last chocolate muffin out of the handkerchief and broke it in two. He gave half of it to Nico. 'Here.' Nico stared at the part of muffin, While Will took a bite out of his.

Before Will could take another bite, Nico pulled him onto his couch and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. Will blushed a little and laid his head on Nico's shoulder. Nico took a bite of muffin. A smile grew on his face; it tasted like heaven, where it technically came from, of course.