SOLANGELO!

The Sun in Hell

The ten of them were surrounded by the most elite soldiers in the country, but they couldn't seem to care less. Nico was torn between being flattered and very, very scared. If they were willing to ignore that kind of threat… he was in some deep shit.

"I think I should come with you," Alex said from behind him. Nico glanced back with a grimace.

"I don't think so, Cub," he replied. "If they're going to commit parricide, let's not make it plus one."

"Devil," the Sargent said in a low voice. "If those kids are going to kill you-"

"Oh, don't worry," Nico interrupted. "I don't think they'll kill me."

"Well-"

"No," Nico said, "they'll probably tear me limb from limb and send me to my father the hard way."

"Which," Alex translated, "means they're going to kill him."

"The hell has your father got to do with this?" Sanders asked. Nico sighed as he replied.

"Everything." With that he walked out of the office and towards his doom.

"Devil!" The Sargent yelled after him.

"Stay where you are!" Nico shouted back. "This could get ugly."

Then he faced the people in front of him, who were bubbling with emotions, rage boiling in their bloodstreams.

Nico walked until he was a couple of meters away from the first person, the one who'd shouted. He heard the multiple clicks of the guns all around him being loaded, their safety off and ready to fire. They were surrounded in a circle by his teammates while his family was in the middle with him.

Staring into the faces of the ten people, he said, "What're you all doing here?"

His response was a hard and painful fist to the face, followed by the sound of his nose breaking and an angry yell from the group.

"What are we doing here?!" Thalia Grace repeated. "What do you think, di Angelo!? You left for no reason, then months later we get an IM saying you're off to rescue some soldiers and that you might die but, OH, don't worry guys I won't tell you I survived because I'm Nico-"

She punched his stomach.

"-di-"

Another fist connected with his shoulder.

"-fucking-"

A kick to his leg.

"-Angelo!"

Thalia was breathing heavily as she leant away, staring at Nico, who was calmly bleeding all over his uniform. He winced as his nose gave a painful twinge, until Thalia rushed him again. He felt arms go around him as what little air he had was crushed out in the most painful hug he'd ever had.

"That the gods you're okay," she whispered. Nico, struggling for air at this point, tried to hug back. He gasped as she let go, almost collapsing as he panted. He'd been starved of oxygen enough recently.

Thalia moved away and two more people took her place. Nico held his throat as he looked at them guiltily.

"If you give me some ambrosia," he said, "you can punch me too."

They didn't punch him, just grabbed him and squashed him between them like a little kid.

"Percy…" he choked. "Annabeth… can't… breathe."

Percy held him tighter.

"Don't you ever scare us again like that, Nico," he said sternly. "Do you know how hard it was to track that Iris message? Do you understand how worried we were?"

"Very?" Nico asked as they let him go.

"Yes," Annabeth said, ruffling his hair and glaring at him. It was an odd combination of affection and intimidation. "Don't run off again, Nico."

With that he was promptly swallowed by the rest of the Seven. Hazel cried on him, which made him feel so bad he nearly cried too, while Piper and Jason deprived him of air again. Frank gave him a stern look like, 'Don't make Hazel cry ever again,' and Nico made an eye-contact promise. Then the son of Mars engulfed him in a huge bear-hug. Nico tolerated all this, even Leo Valdez's tiny smacks to his back for being a "freaky-ass jerk for leaving like that," until he got a skinny embrace from the Hephaestus boy.

When they'd all finished as much as they could, Nico was faced with Reyna. He gulped. Honorary sisters were the scariest.

"If your nose wasn't already broken," she said darkly, "I'd hit you so hard you'd be seeing stars."

"Sorry, Reyna," he said quietly. She cupped his cheek with her hand and smiled warmly. Like Bianca.

"I'm so glad you're alright," she said, planting a small kiss on his forehead. Then he squeezed him and this time he managed to get his own hug in. Hazel and Reyna were the people whose reaction he'd been fearing the most. Well, besides…

As Reyna stepped aside, Nico got a full view of him. He hadn't seen him in months, and there was a large difference. He'd gotten a little paler, his hair was messier, and his eyes had bags under them. But it was still the same tanned, blond haired, blue eyed son of Apollo who'd probably unintentionally stolen his affections. Here was the reason he'd gone to Hades looking for something to distract himself with. Hunting spirits he could handle. Crushes on Will Solace he could not.

"Uh…" Nico said articulately. "Hi?"

Will stormed up the small hill, glaring at Nico with so much fury the son of Hades thought he might disintegrate. When the Apollo boy reached the black haired soldier, he gazed over him for a moment before yanking him in for the roughest hug he'd ever endured. Will held him so tight he was sure he'd have more bruises than ever.

"You complete ass, di Angelo," Will whispered raggedly. Nico was alarmed to see the other had tears in his eyes. Nico allowed himself the weak wish of resting his head on Will's shoulder.

"I'm really sorry," he replied quietly. Will grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away, digging his fingers into Nico's arms and staring at him.

"Sorry?" he repeated. "You scared me shitless, Nico! Even Hades hadn't seen you for months! How can the Lord of the Dead not know where his own son is? Only that exploding building and the Iris Message let us find you. For Apollo's sake, di Angelo, what is wrong with you!"

Nico looked at him.

"How do you know my Father hadn't seen me?" he asked. Will had metaphorical smoke pouring out his ears.

"Well I went and bloody asked him didn't I?" he fumed. Nico stared.

"You went to the Underworld to look for me?" he asked. Will raised his eyebrows angrily.

"Yes," he replied, glaring still.

"But I talked to Hades not long ago," Nico objected. "A few weeks at most."

"Yeah? Well that's news to me, di Angelo." Will crushed him again. "Do you have any idea of how worried I was?"

"A little?" Nico guessed. He was completely ignoring that the whole of Brecon Beacons was watching this.

"A little?" Will repeated again. "A little? My patient goes off to hunt souls and blow buildings and join armies and you think I'm a little worried. It doesn't help that that patient is also one of my friends. You scared the Hades out of me, Nico!"

"We, uh, covered that, Will."

"Still!" Will flung his arms out and glared again. "Now, di Angelo, what I want you to do is show me this Alex Rider guy so I can thank him for looking after your reckless ass."

Nico wordlessly agreed and led the ten still-fuming demigods up the hill to where K-Unit, Cub and the Sargent were waiting, watching them.

"Cub," Nico called as they approached, "they want to meet you."

Alex visibly gulped. He'd seen the front girl punch Nico, and his friend was still bleeding, his nose at a bit of a strange angle.

"Hold up, Devil!" Sargent Sanders barked. "These are hostiles!"

"Not so much," Nico answered. "They're just worried family."

Thalia glared harshly at the Sargent before her eyes landed on Alex. Will, Percy, Jason, Reyna and Hazel came to the front and stared at the blond boy backed by four big army men, with which Nico was standing. He looked happy.

"Alex Rider," Reyna greeted, holding out her hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Thank you for looking after my little brother."

Hazel nodded eagerly, smiling at Alex.

"Yes, thank you!"

"Uh." Alex rubbed his head. "To be honest, he looked after me more than I did him."

"But you accepted who he was," Jason said. "That's what we mean."

"Oh."

"So, who're you?"

"Does it matter?"

"If my little buddy's going to be spending time with you, yeah, it does."

Wolf and Percy had gotten into a heated discussion, and Nico hurried to soothe the tension. They were getting worse than Percy and Jason.

"Alright!" Sanders shouted over the noise. "I seem to be the only one not knowing what's going on here, and I don't like it! Devil! Cub! You and K-Unit, in my office, now. You ten-" he pointed to the demigods "-come with. I want to know it all."

The mentioned parties shrugged and crowded into the office. Nico stood in front of the desk with Alex. They shared a nod.

"Start from the beginning," Sanders ordered.

Nico breathed in deeply.

"Sir, do you know any Greek Mythology?"

So, we're almost done! I wanted to put some Will and Nico interaction in there and I did *proud grin* yassssss.

Until next time!

Jasmine Out!