Well folks, that disappearance was brought to you by moving away for the summer and training that kicked my ass for a full time job that has taken over my life and that I am in love with. This has actually been ready forever. My bad.

Disclaimer: No own.


xx: sunset

Chiron flipped a coin and Will called 'heads'. He was right.

"Well then," Chiron said. "By the power invested in me by the state of New York, I declare you lawfully wedded husbands. Will, you may kiss your groom."

Will grinned and tugged on Nico's hands, pulling him forwards. It took about two seconds for his hands to be caught in Nico's hair. He could faintly hear clapping and cheering behind them, but mostly he was caught in Nico. When he was this close, Will could feel his heartbeat like the roar of an ocean in the back of his head. It washed over him completely- the only detail that may slip by was the way Nico's arms looped around his neck. The second Nico broke off the kiss, their foreheads leaned on one another. Will could see Nico's smile, which only made him smile more.

"That was in your top ten best ones," Will said.

"Stop," Nico said. "Don't make me dread a lifetime of ratings."


They'd chosen to get married in the evening. It had given Will more wiggle room, should he have been kept late at work. It also meant they got some killer pictures, with lights hung around them in strands and the setting sun and the stars outside. It also meant that a lot of wedding bullshit had been skipped throughout the day. Nico and Will had gotten to eat cereal in bed and bully each other into making more coffee that morning until about noon, when they had to get their butts in gear. From that moment on, Hazel had been on very strict Nico Anxiety Supervision Duty, and Percy had sent Will updates throughout the day. There had been a one hour window starting at about 3:00 when Nico was so nervous, he was randomly shadow-traveling to Arkansas. They'd talked him down before Nico left the country, so it was just a minor glitch that Will didn't even need to know about until they had been, with a little luck, happily married for fifty years and nothing could change.

Also it meant the wedding was going to be hell of a lot shorter, which was good since most in attendance were half-bloods or straight up gods. The Hunters of Artemis had showed up fully armed, vowing to defend the premise in honour of Bianca- which Will was pretty sure had made Nico cry a bit, not that he would ever mention it. Also they were skipping nearly immediately to the party.

Will was passing by with a flute of champagne when Nico grabbed his hand.

"There you are," he said. He smiled and kissed Nico's forehead.

"Put your drink down," Nico said.

"What?"

"You heard me," Nico said. Will, always a sucker for Nico's bossy voice, listened. Nico squeezed his hand and suddenly they weren't in New York anymore.

"Nico di Angelo," Will hissed. "You cannot shadow travel us away at will."

"That's Nico di Angelo Solace to you," Nico said. That tempered Will's outrage for a bit, but he bounced back rather efficiently.

"No," Will said. "No, that's not… we were at our wedding Nico."

"Exactly," Nico said. "They can't really do anything without us there, we won't miss shit."

"Where are we now?" Will asked.

"The dock at Camp Half-Blood," Nico said simply.

"That's far Nico!"

"There's alcohol back there. That'll keep everyone busy."

"That's worrying logic," Will said.

"But it is correct. Look," Nico said fumbling with something in his pocket. The light caught on Nico's wedding band for a second which also shot a little burst of excitement and contentment in Will. He'd been wearing it on a chain around his neck until the day of. Nico finally extracted his phone and unraveled his earbuds.

"I know it's a tradition and that that's important to you, but I didn't want our first dance to be in front of a bunch of strangers," Nico said. He offered one of the earbuds to Will, who stared at it for a second before taking it and putting it into his ear. Nico started looking for a song.

"I know you're shy, and that this wedding is a lot for you," Will said. "I really do appreciate it, Nico…"

"You'll make it up to me later. Now shut up and dance with me," Nico said, selecting a song and putting the phone away.

Will did; he put one hand on the small of Nico's back and held the other, trying to figure out which song Nico had picked. Surprisingly, it sounded both rather modern and not about people screaming.

"When the earth was still flat
And the clouds made of fire
And mountains stretched up to the sky
Sometimes higher
Folks roamed the earth
Like big rolling kegs
They had two sets of arms
They had two sets of legs
They had two faces peering
Out of one giant head
So they could watch all around them
As they talked while they read
And they never knew nothing of love
It was before the origin of love
The origin of love…"

Nico's head rested on Will's shoulder, which surprised Will a little bit. Although he supposed they were quite alone with the stars above their heads and the wooden dock creaking under their feet.

"And there were three sexes then
One that looked like two men
Glued up back to back
Called the children of the sun
And similar in shape and girth
Were the children of the earth
They looked like two girls
Rolled up in one
And the children of the moon
Were like a fork shoved on a spoon
They were part sun, part earth
Part daughter, part son
The origin of love."

Will had heard this before. It sounded familiar.

"Now the gods grew quite scared
Of our strength and defiance
And Thor said
'I'm gonna kill them all
With my hammer
Like I killed the giants.'
But Zeus said, 'No
You better let me
Use my lightening, like scissors
Like I cut the legs off the whales
And dinosaurs into lizards.'
Then he grabbed up some bolts
And he let out a laugh
Said, 'I'll split them right down the middle
Gonna cut them right up in half.'
And then storm clouds gathered above
Into great balls of fire
And then fire shot down
From the sky in bolts
Like shining blades
Of a knife
And it ripped
Right through the flesh
Of the children of the sun
And the moon
And the earth."

Nico tenses up in Will's arms. Will held him even harder, kissing his ear -definite weak spot, to relax him.

"And some Indian god
Sewed the wound up into a hole
Pulled it round to our belly
To remind us of the price we pay…"

Nico's hand was squeezing Will's fingers now.

"And Osiris and the gods of the Nile
Gathered up a big storm
To blow a hurricane
To scatter us away
In a flood of wind and rain
And a sea of tidal waves
To wash us all away
And if we don't behave
They'll cut us down again
And we'll be hopping round on one foot
And looking through one eye…"

There was a quiet, calm bit of guitar. That's when he realised that Nico was mouthing the words of the song against Will's shoulder. Not singing, just saying them.

"Last time I saw you
We had just split in two
You were looking at me
I was looking at you…"

Will buried his nose in Nico's hair and nudged for him to look up. He did. He didn't stop singing.

"You had a way so familiar
But I could not recognize
Cause you had blood on your face
I had blood in my eyes
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine…"

Nico's eyes were suddenly full -not teary, that was Will's job in this duo- but heavy and weary.

"That's the pain
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart
We called it love"

Nico's heartbeat echoed behind Will's ears again. Even. Strong. Close.

"So we wrapped our arms around each other
Trying to sew ourselves back together
We were making love
Making love
It was a cold dark evening
Such a long time ago
When by the mighty hand of Jove
It was the sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures
It's the story of
The origin of love
That's the origin of love."

Will pulled the earbud from his ear and pulled Nico to him and squeezed him.

"I love you," Nico said. "I love you so much Will, I wrote vows and I'm walking through all the steps of a wedding and I put a ring on your finger today but I don't even know how to say it properly, so you know how much I love you…"

"We're two halves of a sun split in two," Will said. "You don't have to tell me anything. I know."