After threatening to murder anyone if they tried a stunt like that again, everyone gathered inside Aeneas's living room. Will stood in front of them, his eyes glowing green. To be honest, it sort of freaked Nico out when smoke poured out of his lips.

"One from Heaven, two of Hell

Envenom and soothe the wrath of the King.

Astray, Midway, in journey one fell.

Then, through Passion's kiss and sting,

The bells of Death once more shall ring."

Will blinked once, and the light vanished from his eyes. He leaned forward and almost toppled over, and Nico lunged, catching the blond in his arms.

Will giggled, and reached a hand up, petting Nico's face. He froze.

"Aww, you're so warm." He traced a finger along Nico's chin.

Percy laughed. "Yeah, that green stuff is basically coke. Back in the day, Will used to end up basically high for a few hours after delivering a prophecy."

Nico looked down at the giggling boy, writhing in his arms, and felt heat flush across his cheeks. Beside him, Luke pulled out a phone and typed a few things in.

"I'm calling Annabeth. I don't know what changed, but Will's living prophecies were basically in standard prose. This shit is Shakespeare."

Within a few minutes, there was a knocking on the door, and Annabeth walked in. She scanned her eyes, noting Nico blushing uncomfortably while holding a giggling Will; Percy and Aeneas talking down a flustered Achilles, who had somehow missed the message that this was all a ruse; Hazel sitting on the couch, and Luke staring straight ahead with cold eyes.

She sat down. "Okay, let me see the prophecy."

Luke reached over and handed her a piece of paper, on which someone had written the prophecy.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Did you, perhaps, let Percy write this?"

At the mention of his name, the brown-haired hero turned and grinned. "Aww, is my handwriting that amazing?"

Annabeth deadpanned, and flipped the paper over. On it, at various places, an array of doodles that Percy somehow managed to make while transcribing were scribbled. Above the word "kiss"- a small heart with the letters "W + N" in it.

He didn't need to be a longtime resident to recognize what those letters meant, and Nico felt his heartbeat quicken.

"People, people, focus." It was Hazel who spoke, sitting quietly on the couch, and Nico felt a twinge of anger at her. He knew it wasn't her fault; they needed to bait him in, and yet he still felt hurt. She was his sister.

Annabeth peered at the page, quickly taking in the words despite Percy's rough handwriting. "One from Heaven, two of Hell? Are we in Heaven or in Hell?"

"A difficult question, though Nico's clearly in heaven right now," Luke said, beckoning to the bright-red boy. Nico let go of Will quickly, letting him fall onto the sofa, although his heart screamed at him for doing so.

Will pouted. "Babe, why did you let go of me?"

Nico turned around, as he knew he couldn't resist that pout for long, and turned towards the page. "What if Hell is Hades?" He pointed at himself and Hazel. "Maybe it could be referring to us two."

"But if that's true, what would Heaven represent?" Annabeth said, following his train of thought.

Percy grinned. "That's easy. Nico and Hazel are both dark and mysterious; Heaven will probably be someone who is brighter and happier, maybe, sunnier." He wagged his eyebrows on the last word and winked at Nico.

"That's stupid."

"Nico, my stupid ex might actually have a point." Percy grinned, then frowned.

"Wait, stupid?"

Everyone ignored him, as Annabeth spoke. "Will's an obvious one, with his healing and stuff." The blond perked up at his name, somehow snapping out of his giggling. "I guess that's probably it."

Nico looked around the room, hoping that someone would pose an objection. Anyone at all, because he really didn't want to go on a quest with a semi-boyfriend and his semi-traitorous sister.

No one spoke. Achilles grunted, Aeneas just looked disgruntled, and Percy stared at Annabeth with large pleading eyes.

"Can't I go on the quest?"

….

The time passed fairly fast afterwards. Although all Nico really wanted to do was to find a corner, curl up and fall asleep, but apparently, a questing hero had to listen to the details.

Annabeth, easily the smartest of the group, figured out everything else pretty quickly.

"The King, I'm guessing Minos, has been unleashing this wrath on the Underworld. It would be him; he's had a grudge against Hades for years."

Everyone nodded, even Percy, who had been staring at Annabeth fearfully as she thought.

"And then, midway, one falls, which doesn't sound so good. But…"

Nico finished her sentence, his brain clearing up at the puzzle. "It's that old logic puzzle. We can't tell what midway is until we finish, which means that line is essentially useless."

Annabeth nodded, a newfound respect appearing in her eyes. "That's what I was thinking, but still…" Her eyes glazed over a second, then refocused. "Whatever."

Nico looked cautiously at her, who nodded her head. The whole room seemed to cling onto their words, he could barely hear a single sound other than breathing.

"Passion's kiss and sting; Passion's sorta like love, right? It could be Eros, I've met him before and it's not pretty." Nico said.

"As for the bells of Death ringing, that's easy- we get Death to function properly again, and Elysium and everything else is restored back to normal."

Annabeth looked at him, and nodded. "That sounds about right, though I'm still not sure if that's it. It feels too simple for a prophecy, especially those last few lines."

He felt himself grinning, for the first time in hours, and fist-bumped her from across the table. Then, a loud clattering noise made them turn around.

Percy lay, snoring, on the ground, with his sword a few feet away. In fact, the whole room was asleep, Will curled up at Nico's feet.

…

They met to leave the next morning. Minos worked at the gates to Hell, and so they planned to confront him there. Nico met them at the gates to Elysium, near the beach where Luke first found. From where he stood, the lagoon looked as pristine as when he got here. It seemed like ages ago, when he first watched the sun rise and fall, first met Will again.

Speaking of Will, the blonde jogged towards him casually. He felt his heart flutter as he saw the massive knapsack, and smile, he carried.

"Hey, babe." He leaned in for a kiss, and Nico frowned. They weren't really still dating, were they?

Will noticed his frown, and tried to match it to no success; his mouth just didn't seem suited to sadness. Finally, after an awkward few seconds, he gave up and ran his fingers through his hair.

"What's wrong? I thought we all settled everything. Anyways, I got you a gift."

He held out a handmade scarf to Nico. It was black, with stripes of golden yarn.

Nico raised his hands. "Sorry, I don't wear scarves," he blurted out, before realizing what he had said.

But the damage was already done. Will's smile instantly died, and his head looked down at the sand. "I should've known. After all, I was married to you." He raised his head a little bit, a hint of a smile forming. "You remember?"

Nico shook his head, then looked up at Will's pale blue eyes, and was stunned to see a thin layer of moisture forming. "I- I'm sorry, but I think I need a bit more time. The memories still feel like they aren't there." A lie. He remembered everything.

Will smiled softly, and patted Nico on the head. "I understand, bud. It's just that- it's been so long since I've seen you. I really missed you, you know."

Nico opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off with the sound of people laughing. Frowning over his shoulder, he saw Hazel and Luke laughing about something as they walked across the beach. Damn morning people.

Luke grinned as he saw Nico, and waved his hand in the air. "Hey, dude, you ready?"

"Yeah, sorta."

Luke reached behind him, into a blue knapsack, and pulled out a watch.

"Here, this is for you," Luke said, holding it out to Nico.

Nico held up his necklace from inside of his shirt. "Um, thanks man, but this can already tell the time-"

Luke laughed. "Bud, this isn't for telling the time. If you shatter it, it'll stop time for a few minutes, for everyone around you at least. A perk I have from my time as Kronos."

Nico gingerly held the watch. It had a golden clasp, and the links felt too cold on his wrist. "Thanks." He smiled tightly.

He turned around, and found Will staring blankly at him, expressionless. Nico could see the pain etched into his face, but the blonde quickly turned around.

"Will-"

Will shrugged him off. "Let's get going."

A/N: I know I'm not very good at this, but it would really mean the world to me if I could get some more reviews. It's just a bit hard knowing that I'm doing something wrong, but not having any clue what it is :/ Anyways, here's the chapter. Thanks for reading!