A/N: Hey guys! I am SO sorry this chapter took me so long to get out! I got sick again! Apparently, my immune system sucks. But anyway, I finally got around to writing another chapter, so I hope you all like it. and once again: SORRY FOR THE WAIT!

24

Nico

"Hey, Nico, Will!" As they walked inside, Jason half-stood from the table he and Piper were sitting at to wave at them. "Over here!"

Nico waved back and headed that way with Will close behind him, and they sat down when they reached the table. "Hey. I hope you didn't have to wait very long?"

Jason waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, don't worry about it." He reached across the end of the table and handed them both menus. "Anyway, we told them we'd wait to order till you got here, so no biggie." He picked up his own menu and flipped through it, glancing up at Nico with a look that he didn't like very much.

"So..." He leaned forward, resting his chin in the palm of his hand with a smile. "How are things going with you two?"

Nico face-palmed. "I knew it was coming." He ran a hand through his hair, looking back up at Jason with a grimace. "Jason, I've told you many times that if I ever had any semblance of a love life, you would have no part of it—zero, zilch. Do you recall having this conversation?"

"Hmmm..." Jason faked a contemplative look before shaking his head. "Nope, I don't remember that ever happening."

"Of course not," Nico muttered irritably. He let out an exhausted sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. Will, meanwhile, was glancing back and forth between them with a nervous smile. Nico glanced over at him and rolled his eyes. The blond was clearly terrified: He probably thought Jason was going to threaten him like Percy had. Reaching over, he discreetly squeezed Will's hand under the table. "Don't worry about Jason, Will. He's like a mama bear when it comes to his friends."

"Damn straight," the blond said with a finger-gun in his direction, as if this was something to be proud of.

Nico smirked at him before adding, "And Percy's like the dad."

Jason visibly deflated as Piper snickered into her hand beside him. "Y'know, he's not wrong."

"Whatever," Jason mumbled, fingering the edge of a napkin dejectedly. "Let's order."

"Sure thing, Mom," Nico said, sending Piper into another fit of loud snorty laughter. Will seemed way more relaxed now, and Nico squeezed his hand once more before releasing it and reaching for a menu. Across the table, Piper was poking Jason in the side while he swatted at her with a menu. Nico rolled his eyes.

Beside him, Will was struggling to extract his silverware from the napkin they were wrapped in when his phone rang. He reached into his pocket and fished it out, and Nico watched him answer it curiously. He didn't actually listen to what he was saying, instead tracing the shape of his moving lips, and his sharp cheekbones, and the places where his hair met his forehead. Geez, how could somebody be so perfect? It was seriously irritating.

Will nodded once, even though the person on the phone obviously couldn't see him, and then hung up. Nico, jolted out of his reverie, asked, "Who was it?"

"Lou." Will brushed some stray strands of golden hair out of his face and picked up his menu. "She wants me to meet her for laser tag practice later."

"You practice laser tag?" Nico asked incredulously. Will just got weirder and weirder...

The blond nodded happily. "Yep. We do this tournament every year, and it's coming up, so we have to practice."

"You're in a laser tag tournament?" It was Piper who asked. At Will's nod, she grinned, eyes shining. "That's so cool! I love laser tag but I'm nothing compared to Jason and Percy..." She sighed. "I can never play with them because they utterly crush me. It's embarrassing. The only person I can ever beat is Reyna. She's oddly ungifted at playing laser tag."

"Reyna?" Will inquired with a raised brow.

"One of our friends," Piper said dismissively. "I should introduce you two sometime. I bet you'd get along famously. She and Nico are like two peas in a pod."

"You only say that because we're both dark-skinned," Nico countered jokingly.

Piper rolled her eyes. "Well, yes, but you're both also super edgy and antisocial to the point of being scary. I mean you have, like, this vibe about you that makes people avoid you. Y'know?"

"That's oddly specific, but thank you." Nico spread open his menu and surveyed the drink selection. "It's not like it's our fault. In my opinion, the entire populace is just generally idiotic."

"See, now that's something Reyna would totally say!" Piper exclaimed, pointing her menu at him. Nico shrugged and continued searching through the menu while Piper turned to Jason and started talking animatedly to him about something or other. Gods, sometimes that girl moved too fast for him.

Beside him, Will was studying—with far too much concentration, in Nico's opinion—his menu, brows furrowed. This, however, only lasted for about a minute before his eyes widened without warning and he turned to Nico as if just realizing something. "Hey, Nico, you should come with me! You were pretty good last time we played, and we could always use some more people on our team."

Realizing he was talking about laser tag again, Nico pursed his lips uncertainly. "I don't know... Are you sure?"

"Of course!" Will beamed at him. "Actually..." He turned to Jason and Piper, who had been watching, equally alarmed by his sudden exclamation. "You guys should come too! Right now, it's just me and Lou, so if you guys came, we'd have a perfect team of five!"

Piper blinked at him. "I mean, sure, but... I have work right after this. You should ask Percy. That idiot would probably be ridiculously psyched about it."

Will nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, you're right! He was pretty good when we played before."

"He'd probably be even better in a competition," Piper said sagely. "Anyway, I actually have another friend who does laser tag competitions. He gets really competitive, too. It's almost embarrassing to be seen with him, especially since he gets so egotistical when he plays against someone."

"Oh, really?" Will asked curiously. "I've never known anyone else that does it." He seemed like he wanted to keep talking about it, but before he could say anything else, the waiter came to take their orders. After they'd handed over the menus, Jason and Piper got into a heated conversation about something—Nico heard the word 'Spiderman' at least six times—and he turned to Will to spark up a conversation of his own. "So you really like laser tag a lot, don't you, sunshine?"

Will glanced over at him, blue eyes flashing with a smile. "Yep. It's fun, don't you think?"

Nico shrugged. "Maybe... But I'm more of a 'stay in and watch anime' kind of guy."

"Oh, trust me, I know," Will said with a laugh. "But you need to get out of the house more." He reached over and pinched Nico's cheek. "You wouldn't be so pale if you got some sun once in a while." Nico swatted his hand away in annoyance, only causing the blond to chuckle. "It's true, Nico. Have you ever even gotten a summer tan?"

"Uh..." Nico shook his head and smiled sheepishly. Will's eyes narrowed as he pointed an accusative finger at him. "Hey, wait a second, don't tell me you've never even been to the beach before? Or surely at least the pool?"

"Well..." He laughed nervously. "Water and I don't get along so well, and when you add sunlight to the equation... "

Will shook his head disbelievingly. "Nico! I'm taking you to the beach right now!"

Nico blinked and gave him an exasperated look. "Will, we haven't even gotten our food yet. And didn't you have laser tag practice?"

"Okay, fine, after we eat," Will said decisively, carefully picking his menu back up, which he had discarded in his fit of surprise at Nico having never been to the beach. "And I can cancel practice for today. This is more important."

"B-but, I c-can't just—" Nico spluttered in weak protest, but Will cut him off with a hand. "Shh! I am taking you to the beach after this, and that is final!" Nico tried to protest again but Will shot him such a harsh glare he shivered and nodded dejectedly, turning back to his own menu with a grimace. That was almost as scary as that time he forced me to eat soup... He shuddered.

Across the table, Jason and Piper were still arguing, and Nico tuned into the last vestiges of their conversation long enough to gather that they'd been arguing which superhero was the best. They might've been even nerdier than Nico... Although, he had to agree with Piper's firm stance that Spiderman (that's why it had been said so much) was the best. Before he could put in his two cents, however, their food was arriving, and Will enthusiastically started squirting ketchup in diagonal lines across his fries.

What a weirdo. Nico rolled his eyes with a minuscule, lifted-corner-of-the-mouth smile and turned to his own food, frowning as he pulled off the lettuce and onion. Was Will seriously going to take him to the beach...? After a while of debating this, Nico shook his head and took a bite of his burger. No way. He was probably just joking.

"You weren't joking." Nico's tone held a note of distinct irritation, and he stared at Will with a chagrined expression. The blond frowned, as he was currently sorting through a rack of swimsuits at Walmart. "Of course I wasn't joking." He pulled a blue one from the rack and scowled at it before putting it back. "I can't believe you don't have a swimsuit, Nico."

"If I've never been to the pool or the beach, why would I have a swimsuit?" Nico pointed out incredulously. Will shot him a sharp look. "Hey, shut up. Now stop standing all emo-ey over there with your arms crossed and come pick one of these."

Nico scowled but went over anyway. "I hate them all."

"If you don't pick one, I'll pick for you," Will warned. "And trust me; you do not want that."

"Ugh." Nico grimaced and flipped through the rack slowly. He paused on one in particular and sighed. "Here." He plucked it from the rack and shoved it in Will's arms with an annoyed huff. "This one?" Will laughed outright and Nico blushed and turned away from him. "Stop laughing. It's the only one in black."

Will continued giggling like a little girl and Nico shot him a glare over his shoulder. "Solace, honestly, it's not that funny," he huffed. Will didn't seem to agree as he was struggling to hold back tears at this point. "But"—he had to pause here to catch his breath—"I just can't picture you wearing something cute like this!"

Nico's blush deepened to a dark vermillion and he scowled harder. "Will."

"I mean—" Will gasped and shook his head. "It's so adorable!" He gestured at the black swim trunks to emphasize the cute cartoon skulls printed on them, which brought on another violent fit of laughter. People were beginning to stare at this point, and Nico had the overwhelming urge to football-tackle Will to the ground and slap a hand over his mouth.

However, since he had never played a sport in his life, instead: "William Solace!" Nico stomped his foot and gave the boy the best death glare he could muster. "Stop laughing before you keel over and die." He pointed threateningly. "That, or I kill you first!"

Will only laughed harder at that, and Nico let out an angry growl. "Will!" It came out whinier than he would have liked, but Will finally seemed to steel himself and managed to look him in the eyes without bursting into a fit of hyena-esque cackling. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry." He took a deep breath, seeming to completely compose himself. "I'm sorry. Let's go."

"It's about time," Nico muttered, trudging towards the check-out with Will beside him. The blond poked him in the cheek, earning a glare. "Aw, Nico, stop being so gloomy!" Will poked him again. "You'll get wrinkles if you frown all the time. Besides, you're way cuter when you smile."

"Shut up!" Nico whipped his head around and glared at the floor. "I won't get wrinkles..." He touched his face and frowned slightly, then immediately slapped himself for listening to a single thing that came out of that ridiculous perfect mouth of Will's and punched him in the arm, eliciting a light protest. "Ow, Nico! It's not nice to hit people!"

"It's not nice to give out false information," Nico shot back. Will laughed at him and bumped their shoulders together—definitely not causing his heart to skip a beat, nope. "Haha, very funny. Come on; let's check out. The sooner we leave the more beach time we have!"

Nico let out a tortured sigh and followed after the exuberant blond as he hopped into the nearest checkout line. I have a feeling I'm going to regret agreeing to this...

A/N: FINALLY GOT THE CHAPTER OUT WOOT WOOT! Wow, it's been so long since the last one. Sorry guys. I've been super swamped so I haven't had much chance to write, and I like to do chapters for HTMM when I'm at my best, so it was, unfortunately, a long while of working on it in bits and pieces, but it's finally done! YES, NEXT TIME IS THE OBLIGATORY BEACH EPISODE! Will dragging Nico's pale little ass to the beach is like my aesthetic so be prepared for begrudging fluff, scowling, and sunburns XD

Anyways, on another note, I have about 4-6 more chapter for this planned out but idk if that's too many. Are you guys getting bored with the story? (I really hope not.) Also, I was planning a sequel to this. What do you guys think about that? Let me know the answers to both questions down in the review section, and as always, follow and favorite if you like the story and want to support it, and leave corrections, suggestions, and comments down in the review section! Until next time! ;)