Okay. Can all of you guys put your arms around your computer and pretend I'm giving you a virtual hug? I don't know how else to thank you all for sticking with me for all this time. This is my first completed story that is not a one-shot.

I AM SO HAPPY! YAY! I MET MY GOAL! (Even if it was last minute! XD)

Though I probably won't write much for fan fiction in January, (I'll still update Dear Mortals, though, promise) because I'm entering these writing competitions and I need to get my pieces ready for those.

NOW ENJOY THE FINAL CHAPTER!

Nico's POV:

(One month later)

"I'm so glad all the hype has died down," Piper said as she carried the picnic basket, hand in hand with Jason.

"Don't like being in the newspapers, Beauty Queen?" Leo teased.

"Don't call me Beauty Queen," Piper snapped. "And yes, I don't. Besides, it was mostly about you and your 'brilliant' plan, anyways."

"Technically, it was my plan," Will cut in.

"Whatever," Leo said, and everyone laughed.

"But seriously," Percy said. "Citrus? I mean, when you told us that, Leo, I thought your lunch must have been contaminated with magic mushrooms. Seriously, citrus. I still can't believe that we defeated a psychopath by taking advantage of her citrus allergy. We should have yelled, 'Death by lemonade!'"

More laughter.

"Hey, it worked," Leo said. "So don't go criticizing my idea."

"It was my idea."

Leo pouted. "Shut up, Solace. Let me take credit for one measly thing, alright?"

Nico hung near the back of the group, trying to favour his good leg. The wound had healed, but it still hurt sometimes when he was running. The only reason he wasn't staying home was because his cousins had practically dragged him here.

After he'd gotten out of the hospital, he'd heard the rest of the story, along with what had happened to everyone. The citrus hadn't killed Gaea, however, it had put her into a coma. The police had gone after the escaping guards and had caught all of them (Thankfully).

Otis, one of the guys that had been chasing Leo, confirmed Leo's theory of revenge. He said that Kronos had been Gaea's favourite son, and how hard the blow had been when he died. Gaea had went to her older brother, Tartarus, who (true to his name) was a pit of evil that had contacts in the criminal world. Tartarus had recommended them to Gaea, who then in turn offered them this job for a truckload of money. They'd agreed, and the rest was history.

Otis had also confirmed the allergy theory. Gaea had told the guards to take them away so they couldn't interfere with the plan. Even if people didn't know about her weakness, she didn't want to take the risk that someone would have some citrus by chance. There were other grocery stores, but none of them were that close.

"Gaea didn't do much but stay behind and give instructions anyways," Otis had said. "So she thought it was unnecessary. I don't think she counted on someone already having them, even if she did, there was no way we could rob everyone of citrus if we wanted to."

Priapus, the owner of the grocery store, had willingly lent out his basement for their headquarters. He had an old grudge with Poseidon, Percy's father, and had wanted payback*.

Nico personally thought that was a sick way to get payback at someone. Who hates someone's dad and decides to try and murder the dad's kid? No, that wasn't messed up at all. Even Ares looked like he disapproved of that, and he loathed Percy.

Fortunately, the police had intercepted Priapus while he'd been trying to escape out the back door (Seriously. How lame was that?). He was also now in jail. Leo and Will weren't charged, thanks to a lot of arguing and a couple of calls from Piper's father, Tristan McLean (Will had taken the true identity of Piper's father calmly enough, though he'd been a little shocked at first).

The only criminal involved with this who'd escaped was probably Tatarus. Gaea's brother was no stranger to the police, having played a part in a ton of illegal doings. No one had ever caught him before, however, but apparently helping your sister attempt to murder an adolescent was so bad that now the police wanted to punch him even more.

Now they were looking for him more vigorously than ever.

One good thing that had come out of the whole kidnapping episode was that he'd grown a little closer to everyone. Except for maybe Will. He and Will hadn't talked since they'd escaped- though he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Mostly he felt disappointed, then angry at himself for feeling disappointed. It wasn't like he was friends with Will or anything.

But they'd been held captive together, tried to escape together. Nico had told Will what happened with Minos, and countless other things he'd never told anyone before. Besides, Will had come looking for Nicotwice, once when he ran off into the closet, the other time when he'd been abducted by Gaea. Surely that had to mean something, right?

And as much as Nico loathed to admit it, as much as he was trying to convince himself otherwise, he was really starting to miss the blond-haired boy and their somewhat confusing relationship.

Speaking of Will, he was heading Nico's way now, and he didn't look happy.

Will walked up to Nico and focused him with a look that said, I have something to tell you.

"Are you trying to ignore me or something?" Will deadpanned.

"What?" Nico looked indignant. "Why would you think that?"

"Because!" Will snapped. "Ever since we got back, you haven't been contacting me. No emails, no phone calls, nothing. You could have asked someone to take a message. Why didn't you?"

"Wait a minute," Nico said, "I've think you've got it all backwards. Aren't you the one that's been ignoring me? I mean, you'd have a good reason to. I mean-"

"What do you mean, good reason?" Will demanded. " I admit I haven't been seeing you lately, but it's because Apollo's my father."

Nico opened his mouth to state all the reasons why Will would not want to hang out with him. The he did a double-take on the last part. "Wait, what? Who's your what?"

"Apollo, the head doctor at Half-Blood Hospital," Will said. "You know him, right? He was one of the people who arrived with the ambulance. Anyways, you remember after the battle, when they took you to the hospital, and I came to visit?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, Apollo said he had a hunch about it, so he researched me and found out that my mom, Josephine, was the same one that he'd been high-school sweethearts with in high school. Apparently, she'd had a baby but never told him. They're fighting over who gets custody of me now."

"Seriously? That sucks." Nico himself didn't have the best relationship with his parents. His mom, Maria, had been nice...until she died. His father, Hades, had come to take care of him after that, but they'd never been that close. His father was one of the most anti-social people Nico had ever met. He's probably where Nico inherited his totally superbpeople skills from. "Don't you get a say, though?"

"Yeah," Will said, looking sad for some reason. "I do. And I think...well, I've thought it over, and...I've decided to go with my mom."

"Your mom?" The shock must have shown on Nico's face, because Will almost cracked a smile.

"Yeah. I mean, I know she can be a jerk sometimes, but...she also raised me, you know? She didn't take off like my father did, even though technically he didn't know I existed. In fact, I think she was afraid of me taking off, of me leaving, like he did. So I can kind of understand why she was so controlling all those years, why she wanted me to be a musician and not a doctor like him." Will sighed, looking lost in memories. "She can be nice, too, you know. And I think, after nearly losing me, it's starting to make her look at our relationship differently. We talked about it yesterday, and to be honest, I think I'm going to get a lot more independence from now on."

"Really? That's great!" The thought made Nico strangely happy. "I have some good news, too."

"What news?"

"Well," Nico began, "I just learned this recently, but after Gaea's arrest the police ransacked their headquarters to see any important documents there, and they found some footage of Minos murdering Daedalus that had been recorded by the hotel's video cameras. Apparently, Gaea disliked him too, and had organized his murder as well. The police hadn't bothered to check them before because it had seemed like such an open-and-shut case. I'm getting released from the hospital, I can go to Goode High this year."

"Are you kidding? That's awesome!"

"I know, Percy just about exploded when he heard," Nico said. "Congratulated me about twenty times and ended up getting kicked out of my room because he was creating such a disturbance."

Will laughed, and Nico felt his cheeks heat up. "Why can I imagine that all too well?"

He didn't bother to answer that, instead waiting for Will to calm down. "Anyways, by some miracle, I don't have to repeat a year, though I need to get a tutor to help me."

"Really?" Will said. "Who?"

"The principal said I could chose," Nico answered, scanning Will's face for a reaction. "So I'm looking for a person to do it."

"I see," Will had an excellent poker face on. "Any particular reason you're telling me this? I'd thought you'd ask Annabeth. I mean, she's the smartest out of all your friends."

Nico gritted his teeth. "Are you playing dumb on purpose?"

"I'm playing what?" Will looked so innocent that Nico almost wanted to punch him. Almost. His cheeks were on fire, though. Why did Will have to open his eyes so wide when he did that face? It made the cerulean in them stand out even more. Nico felt like there were a thousand butterflies in his stomach trying to fly away.

"Alright, fine, I'm telling you this because I want you to be my tutor," Nico felt flustered, but still managed a glare at Will, who looked all to proud of himself. "Happy?"

"Very," Will admitted. "Though I must warn you, I'm not the best student. I mean, I'm okay, but not extremely spectacular."

"Is that your way of saying your top of the class?" Nico teased. "Anyways, where should we host the sessions?"

"How about my house?" Will suggested. "And after we're done, we can go to the park, maybe walk to the cinema and watch a movie or two."

Nico gave him a suspicious look. "Will Solace, are you trying to ask me out?"

"...And if I am?"

"Well, if you are," said Nico, emphasizing the if, "then I might, you know, possibly say yes."

"I'm trying to ask you out."

Nico smiled. "It's a date, then."

Will beamed, looking the happiest Nico had ever seen the boy. Nico felt light, like there wasn't anything wrong with the world. For a few blissful seconds, both of them just stood there, grinning their heads off and looking like total goofs.

At least, until from behind them Thalia chirped, "I win the bet."

Will and Nico spun around to see their so-called friends standing there with the most ridiculous smiles on their faces. Well, everyone except Leo. He looked upset.

"You guys are so mean," he whined. "It's not my fault I was an hour off! I'd thought Will would ask after the picnic, like every sane person would. But no, Solace had to absolutely daring and ask now. And I thought we were friends!"

"Too bad, Valdez," Piper smirked. "You should have gone with the time I picked. Me and Thalia get to collect."

"What about me?" Percy's grin fell off his face. "I bet this time, too!"

"No you didn't," Annabeth reminded him. "You chose earlier, remember?"

"One minute earlier! One freaking minute! Sixty seconds! It's practically the same thing, right?"

"One minute earlier still is off," Jason told his cousin smugly. "I didn't bet."

"Well, that's because you're a-"

"Language," Annabeth snapped. Then she smiled. "If it makes you feel any better, Seaweed Brain, I bet wrong too. Mine was about-"she checked her watch. "43 seconds earlier precisely."

Percy gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Thanks, Wise Girl."

"Anytime, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth leaned in toward her boyfriend, and they passionately kissed. Everyone else groaned, including Nico.

"This," said Thalia, miming gagging, "Is why I stay single."

"I feel sorry for you," Percy said, once he and Annabeth had pulled away. "You don't know what you're missing."

Personally, Nico agreed with Percy. Not that he'd ever kissed anyone -yet. Who knew where his date with Will would lead? Maybe it would go well, and they could have a second date. And a third. Maybe they could even double date with someone, though perhaps not Percy since he would probably get all protective of his cousin. Hazel and Frank were nice, though, Nico was glad they had also been invited to this picnic along with Calypso and Reyna. Those four were getting a drive from Hazel's father, and were meeting them at the picnic site.

Nico sighed contently. For the time being, things were peaceful (Or as peaceful as can be, with friends like his). He was going to school with Will come September. For the first time, Nico was looking forward to education.

Sometime during the walk, (Nico wasn't sure when) Will's hand slipped into Nico's (Or maybe Nico's hand slipped into his) and they stayed like that for the rest of the trip.

(Behind their backs, Jason and Percy continued the best man discussion. Thalia just grinned maniacally and snapped a photo for blackmail.)

I hope this makes up for the lack of Solangelo the past few chapters.

*Priapus is the god of vegetables. He hit on Hestia once by accident and the gods got seriously angry at him for it. DO NOT SEARCH GOOGLE HIM. EVER. And if you do, DO NOT look at any pictures of him! Just like Zeus's symbol is his thunderbolt, his is, ugh, how do I put this...his vital regions.(Private parts. He has nothing covering that area. I am scarred for life, I tell you!)

By the way, tell me if I forgot to add an explanation for something. It's probably not because I don't have a reason for it, but because I forgot to add it. So make sure to point out any mistakes (Nicely)!

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LAST EDITED: 08/22/15