My finals are starting to kill me *yay yay yay*I'm having a lot of fun right now exploring all the different Solace children, and Francesca is particularily near and dear to my heart because she's just super sweet in my head, but she's also an explorer which really resonates with me because I love traveling. Also I'm about to move across Canada for school in Vancouver (yay yay yay). Turns out that moving is a lot of trouble, but I confirmed that I have a place to live today and if that doesn't help well what does? Enjoy this short one! The next one is bigger, I promise.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything!


xiv : complicated

Behind Nico, the doors burst open. Heels clicked against the floor, and he heard the whoosh of heavy skirts dragging against the ground. He spun around and saw Persephone, who saw him and immediately became wary.

"Your father will be here for you in a minute," she said annoyed.

"I didn't ask them for my father, I asked them for the Queen," Nico said.

"Flattering," Persephone answered. "Like I said, your father will be here in a minute. Shouldn't you stop running back to daddy all the time, at your age?"

"I don't think you want me talking to my father about this," he said. "Trust me."

"I hope that just because you've done a bit of growing up and beard-growing at the surface doesn't mean you have any more delusions than you used to have about what your place is around here."

Nico reached for his phone, flicked through his pictures (Cata, wedding, Cata, stupid selfie from Will, stupid selfie, Cata, stupid selfie, stupid selfie, Cata, Cata, aha). He showed Persephone the screen.

"Does she look familiar?" Nico asked.

Persephone paled and her jaw twitched with anger.

"How did you find her?" Persephone asked.

"She found us," Nico said. "Nearly literally. We have a friend at Child Services who sees through the mist. She did some more-or-less ethical paperwork to direct this child to Will and I and we got custody of her in record-speed. She's yours, isn't she?"

"That's none of your concern," Nico said.

"Save it. I don't care if you slept with a mortal, and Olympus knows my dad probably doesn't either. I mean, here I am," Nico said. "But it would help if we knew who she was. She feels like a child of the Underworld to me."

"There are plenty of Underworld gods."

"But only one Queen," Nico said.

"You're dismissed, di Angelo."

"Look," Nico said. "I know that you don't like me. You're pissed that I exist, you're pissed that Hades loved my mom for so long because he never got to say goodbye, you're pissed that I'm powerful, you're pissed that I was always in the Underworld as a kid- I get it. You don't like me. But I think that Francesca is your daughter, and now she's mine. And I think that we can agree that Francesca matters more."

Perspehone was quiet. "Francesca?"

"I'm telling you; we have no idea who she is. We gave her a new name and everything because this girl has nothing," Nico said. "Who's her father-should we be looking for him, is he a deadbeat-"

Persephone gave Nico a deadly glance. Nico restarted his sentence.

"Look, maybe she was yours first but now... She's my daughter," Nico said. "This might be awkward and I can see how it's unpleasant for you, but I really don't care right now. Help me raise her as best as I can by telling me who she is and what she needs. I won't stop bothering you about this, because Francesca is worth it."

"Shall I call the guards on you, or would you prefer being turned into a dandelion? That would be a shame, I hear you have a life now." Persephone said.

Nico raised up her phone, started showing her pictures.

"She's only about six months old, we think. She's just learned how to roll over and she laughs every time she does it, it's incredibly amusing. She's remarkably good with animal sounds, which is also incredibly amusing- really she's just a hoot and a half, this baby," Nico said. "It's too bad that she's also really good at grabbing at house plants and having them flower weeks in advance. And that she's starting to lose that power and when she stomps around on the lawn, the grass withers under her feet- or she seems to shy away from sunlight now that it's fall. I mean, maybe she's sick. Or maybe she's showing powers at way too young an age that might get her into trouble. I wouldn't know, since nobody's telling me, which means I can't do everything and anything I possibly could to-"

"Her name was Josephine Mendoza," Persephone cut. The goddess turned her back and left. Nico would have considered that an answer and enough of a victory, but she kept going before he could shadow-travel away. "You should file paperwork for permanent adoption. Her father wouldn't have abandoned her, he was a good man."

"I'm sorry," Nico said. "About whatever happened to him."

Perspehone shot him one of the darkest looks Nico had ever deserved. "And maybe, just maybe, I have hope in her new ones."

Nico swallowed.

« Don't dissapoint me, » Persephone said.

« Thanks, but I'll focus on keeping her happy before I do your bidding, » Nico said. "But if that's what you're expecting, you have nothing to worry about."

Hades walked into the throne room.

"Nico," he said. "I was told you were here. Why?"

"Nothing," Nico said. "I was just showing My Lady baby pictures."

"Catalina," Hades said.

"No," Persephone said. "Francesca."