Nico woke up slowly, emerging from the heavy, almost painful haze that always came when he overslept. He breathed in deeply, and when the scent of Will hit him, sighed with relief and comfort. It had been so long since he'd spent the night with someone—except last night, but they hadn't slept at all then. This feeling of waking up with a lover pressed against him, the intimacy of it, Nico had missed it.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

Morning? It had still been morning when he'd drifted off. "How long have I been asleep?"

"I think we're nearing fifteen hours now."

Nico swore as he jolted awake, but Will's arms pressed around him, holding him down. "I probably have tons of work! Did my phone ring?"

"Nope. Not that I would have woken you if it had. You needed it."

"I need money to live, you know."

"You also need to not die to live. Believe me, I have a lot of experience with healing people back from the brink of death. You needed the rest."

Nico sighed, but he relaxed into Will's embrace, resting his head on Will's chest. "My ghost boyfriend is lecturing me on the art of not dying," he teased. "Makes perfect sense." Will laughed, and Nico felt the vibrations in his own body. In moments like these, it would be so easy to just forget that Will wasn't dead, he briefly thought.

He was almost certain he'd dozed off when his stomach's growling brought him back to reality. "Come on, I'm starving."

"I can make you breakfast," Will offered.

Nico eyed him curiously, but, remembering the first time he'd cooked for him, he nodded. "What's your deal with cooking for me?"

Will pushed Nico off of him and got up, stretching—and grinning as Nico's eyes trailed over his naked body. "My 'deal' is that I like to do it and I'm good at it. Unlike you."

"I can cook!" Nico protested.

"I'll believe it when I see it." He left the bedroom, not letting Nico time to retort.

Nico scoffed, but he guessed Will had a point. It had been a while since he'd cooked a proper meal for himself. It was a little too depressing. Maybe he could show off when Bianca and Hazel came over, though—

Shit. He'd forgotten to call Hazel. He rushed out of bed, grabbing sweatpants and an old Spiderman t-shirt, and struggling to put them on as he rushed to his phone.

Too late. A text from Bianca was already waiting, sent the night before. Hazel said you never called. I told her to use Labyrinth magic to get there tomorrow night for dinner. Hope that's okay with you, because if it wasn't, you SHOULD HAVE CALLED HER YOURSELF.

'Tomorrow night', that meant tonight. That wouldn't leave Nico a lot of time to get ready. Not that he really needed to get ready, he only needed to make the place look presentable. And to make Will look presentable, he noted, glancing towards the kitchen to see him naked under his apron.

By the time evening came, Nico was fairly satisfied with the state of his apartment and his boyfriend. He'd gotten Will to conjure up the same clothes he'd worn on their first date, blue jeans and a tight, pale yellow t-shirt.

He'd spent the afternoon trying to come up with an idea of something to make for dinner, and eventually had just given up on original ideas and gone for homemade pizza. It was his mom's recipe: maybe it would help mellow out Bianca, if she was still pissed that he hadn't called Hazel as he'd promised.

Everything was ready far too long in advance, giving Nico plenty of time to grow irrationally anxious. What if they didn't like Will? What if Bianca forced him to go to the Underworld? Worse, what if their meeting somehow got Hades' attention and he got involved? Things could get messy, and Nico was starting to question whether this was a good idea at all. It was too late to back down, though.

Hazel was the first to arrive, clad in colorful, casual clothes as she usually was in meetings like this. As soon as Nico let her in, she rushed to Will, greeting warmly but not bothering to hide her staring him up and down.

Finally, she turned to Nico with a smirk. "'I'm not that desperate for a boyfriend'," she said, in a perfect impression of Nico's voice.

Nico felt himself blushing. He could barely remember discussing it with Hazel, even though it had barely been over a week ago. "Well, I—it wasn't about desperation anymore."

Hazel's smile turned a little warmer. "That's good to hear." She turned to Will. "Nice to meet you! I'm Hazel Levesque. His half-sister, in case he never told you about me."

"Of course he did. I'm Will Solace."

"It's an honor. Do you know how many of Nico's boyfriends I've met? One!" She paused, her eyes suddenly going wide, and glanced at Nico, silently asking if this was a misstep. Nico rolled his eyes, but he smiled at her.

"Sorry if I only introduce the serious ones," Nico quipped. He did his best not to stare at Will, but he still noticed the way his face lit up. "Have you heard from Bianca?"

"I assumed she'd be shadow-traveling here."

"You assumed right." Nico couldn't help but jump as Bianca emerged from the shadows of his entrance hall.

"How long have you been standing there?"

Bianca shrugged, as if this were a perfectly normal thing to do. "A minute or so."

Nico sighed. "Well, Bianca, this is Will. Will, Bianca. Can we try to act like a normal family now?"

"Only if you bring out the booze," Hazel said.

That, Nico had expected—he'd restocked on beer and wine in the afternoon from a local satyr who owed him, Hedge. That was all he could get, because anything else would require buying from a mortal, and Nico really couldn't spare the cash. But Hazel seemed content with it when he tossed her a bottle.

They gathered on Nico's old couches, and to his surprise, neither of his sisters said anything about Will being a ghost. If he hadn't known better—if Will wasn't the only one without a drink—this would have looked just like any other 'meet the family' scene. Boring small talk, Hazel teasing the way Nico and Will leaned into each other, Bianca getting slightly inquisitive about Will's past—especially about Kayla. No mention of ghosts or potentially turning into a vengeful spirit, nothing about monsters killing demigods.

Deep down, Nico knew he shouldn't be surprised by this. Of course his sisters would have his back. And of course Will would charm them. Still, he couldn't help but feel relief washing over him. He didn't even fear a surprise exorcism would happen while he went to put his pizza in the oven.

He couldn't help but feel sorry his sisters had come for dinner, since that meant Will was basically excluded by default. So much for trying to impress him with his cooking skills. Sure, Will complimented the smell of his pizza and was all but drooling at the sight of it, but he'd never get to taste it. Stupid ghost rules. But Will's mood didn't waver even then, so Nico refused to let that get him down.

Bianca helped him do the dishes after they were done, in an all-too-obvious attempt at getting to talk to him privately.

"I'm sorry I blew up at you yesterday morning," she said. "I was just—when you said he was a ghost, I—"

"I understand, you know."

"Yeah, that's why I'm sorry. I should have known you'd already gone through all the questioning and the second-guessing on your own. When you left my place yesterday, I—I feared you'd break up with him because of me."

Nico couldn't help but chuckle at her. "You really think I'm that much of a pushover?"

"No, but you do have a history of denying yourself happiness. I had no right to try and push you even further in that direction."

She paused, but Nico said nothing. He didn't like it when Bianca became serious about him—even less so when she was right.

"He's great, by the way. I'm happy for you. Really."

Nico looked up from the plate he was drying to find his sister staring at him with a concerned look. "I'm glad you could see it."

"Let's make a deal. I won't bring up the ghost thing with you anymore, but only if you promise me that you won't hesitate to call me if you need to talk about it. Especially if you're afraid things are going wrong."

Nico laughed softly. "You just had to have an agenda in the end."

"I was being sincere!"

He only laughed harder at her grimace. "I know. I'm just teasing." She glared at him, and he wrestled his hilarity back under control. "Fine. It's a deal."

They came back out of the kitchen to find Will and Hazel absorbed in a discussion about what sex was like for a ghost, which, to Nico's surprise, didn't seem to fluster Will in the slightest—though Nico was painfully aware of the blush creeping up his own face.

He was about to change the subject, but a loud, firm knock on his door did the trick for him.

"You expecting anyone?" Bianca asked.

Nico shook his head, frowning—and really, who could he possibly expect?—but went to open the door anyway. They'd been way too loud to pretend no one was home anyway.

There on his doorstep, stood Kayla, scowling at Nico, bow in hand with an arrow nocked. Lou Ellen was standing a couple steps behind her, manipulating Mist to cover their presence from any unwanted eyes.

"I'm here to talk to my brother," the daughter of Apollo said.