Carmilla ruined me, along with the Aphrodite kid!Nico AU that blew up on Tumblr. I wrote a Solangelo one-shot about it called Glasses, check it out! Also Dan and Phil games are hilarious.

Shoutout to James! EfferevescentGrace told me about you. I'm actually shocked that you brought my story up in conversation I feel so special omg. No but seriously when she told me that when you guys started talking about fanfiction you brought mine up I nearly screamed. If you have an account PM me, we should totally talk sometime! In fact I'm up for talking with all of you lovely readers haha.

I was going to go straight to guest reviews but I really need to get hyped over that and something else and something else here okay

Okay you guys seriously need to read "The Times, They Are A-Changin'." My OC Shannon Walker was introduced in chapter 3 AND SHE IS JUST SO SWEET AND ADORABLE AND PERFECT AND SPOT-ON LIKE WOW I CAN'T

And my aunt gave birth to a baby girl on Saturday! Her name is Natalie and the pics of her are adorable amg

Ok guest reviews now

GUEST REVIEWS

Guest: Ye

Guest: The kiss will be very soon…Oh god don't hurt yourself with this torture.

Pi not Pie: You sure that you want this chapter?

Guest: Hahaha…Not really. Nico's happiness always comes first okay. He would, but he's still on doctor's orders from Will. Here's the update!

Guest: I'll say that they're heating up. And you'll still be dying after this.

Doublekitcat: AH YES THANK YOU MY FRIEND! I also love your username omg. I love cats and Kit-Kats.

MacaroniCheese: Look, I would reply to the rest of your reviews, but please don't say that I can call myself a demigod now. I used to think that it was cool too, but it's far from the truth. It's not, and I'm not gonna call myself a demigod because of it. Please don't say something like that again.

Guest: HERE IS THE UPDATE

Guest: I don't think so? I brought up the Addams Family in an earlier author's note, but that's about it, as far as I can remember.

This is the continuation of Ippiki Ookami no Fuyu's idea!

Disclaimer: You're gonna doubt that I'm not Rick Riordan. But I'm not, I promise.

Chapter 20: The Lament of Aphrodite, part 2

This was seriously pushing Nico over the edge.

He had woken up early this morning to a knock on his door. And when he said early, he meant an ungodly time where the sun still had yet to rise, and not even Apollo's kids were awake.

But then it got worse. After several minutes of harsh knocking against the door, he had opened it to find Drew Tanaka, of all people, shivering in a long-sleeved blue nightgown and matching slippers. Words had been exchanged, along with multiple death threats, until she convinced him that no, she would not do this again, yes, her sister Amy did send her to get him, and yes, he really needed to get down to the Big House as soon as possible. And no, the Solangelo club actually had nothing to do with it this time.

So Nico followed Drew down to the Big House. She refused to say anything else, but there was a look of genuine fear in her eyes. This was surprising to Nico. What could make Drew so scared?

It was only when he arrived at the Big House that he got his tall, red-eyed, black-haired, winged, and absolute douchebag of a person answer.

Cupid, son of Venus, Drew Tanaka's godly half-sibling, and all in all the dickiest god on Earth. In Nico's very popular opinion, at least.

"Can't you just leave me alone for once?" Nico complained.

He was sitting alone in one of the Big House's multiple rooms, with Cupid sitting across from him. The god was sitting on a chair, his wings tucked in and his arms crossed. He had been staring at Nico for the past few minutes, hardly saying a word. Nico himself was on the couch, legs folded up to his chest and his arms lying on top of them.

Cupid shook his head sadly. "No, I'm afraid that I can't."

Nico scowled. "Why is that?"

The god rearranged himself so that his legs were also crossed. "You see, son of Hades, you have come a long way from what you were at the palace. You've been able to reveal yourself and your feelings to others, and forged new relationships. You have changed. But not enough."

Nico groaned, hitting his head against his knees. "Is there no way for me to please you?"

Cupid continued, as though he hadn't heard him. "You're still holding yourself back. Right now, you're at a point where you can make a relationship stay the same, or change it completely, for better or for worse. And you do nothing? Cowardice."

Nico felt himself bristle. The last time that he had encountered Cupid was bad enough. The guy was all about annoying you, getting himself under your skin and worming out all of your feelings. What was his game now? "It's like you said: for better or for worse. Things could go smoothly or be a hullabaloo as always. And I'd rather not risk the hullabaloo."

"Ah, see? Cowardice. You hold the cards in your hands, and yet you refuse to play them."

"I don't even know what you're talking about! I have no power to change any of my relationships to something…more. None!"

Cupid chuckled, deep and throaty. "Ah, my mother was right. You are both so dense that it's almost enough to tear one's hair out."

Now Nico really was confused. "Both?"

Cupid leaned forward. "Oops, looks as though I let something slip. Yes, I did say that. Are you wondering why?"

Nico fought to keep down the rush of emotions that he knew were threatening to show on his face. "No, I'm not."

"So sad," Cupid tutted. "Because I can tell you all you want to know involving your dilemma with the son of Apollo…"

"Will?" Nico blurted out, before clamping a hand over his mouth. Oh, shit, Cupid was going to have a field day with that.

Cupid grinned. "So you do know what I'm talking about! I knew that you were hiding things from me. Obviously, you're not the only one hiding things."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't stress, don't stress. Just that you've seen how he acts now. Giving you those weird looks, his glares at Percy, his touchiness, his moodiness-it's almost like he's become you."

Nico growled. "Shut up."

Cupid chuckled again. "No, it doesn't work like that. Haven't you asked him about it yet? Wonder why he's acting like that?"

Against his will, Nico nodded. Yes, he had asked Will multiple times about what was bothering him, even though Will avoided it every time. And of course Nico had wondered about it. What kind of…of friend would he be if he haven't?

Cupid straightened back up again. "Well, you see, there is a lot of stress on Will's mind. He's having to deal with some unwanted feelings, after all, and you of all people know what that can do to a person."

"Please stop."

"I can tell you what you want to know."

Nico's heart pounded. Cupid knew what was stressing Will out? Well, of course he does, he mentally chided himself. Cupid's up in everyone's business, that jackass. "You-You do?" he asked.

Cupid nodded. "Why, yes, of course I do. After all, it does fall under my domain."

Nico decided to ignore that. "And you really do know?"

Cupid raised an eyebrow. "Do you mock me? Why don't I just tell you?"

Nico couldn't believe it. After all these months, wondering what was bothering Will, he could finally know what it was?

But…No. Nico couldn't do that. No matter what he felt for him, Will was his friend. And friends couldn't just invade each other's privacy like that. If Will would ever tell him what was bothering him, then he'd tell him himself. Someday.

"No."

Cupid raised an eyebrow. "You say no? Aren't you dying to know what it is?"

"I said no." Nico glared at Cupid. "I'm not betraying Will's privacy like that. If he wants to tell me, then he'll tell me."

Cupid stared at him, and for a second Nico thought that he was about to be killed in some horrible way. Probably shot by multiple arrows of love. But then Cupid did something surprising: He threw his head back and laughed.

"What?" Nico asked, confused.

Cupid stopped laughing, and looked at Nico with a wide grin. "Perhaps I was mistaken. Indeed, you have grown in ways other than I expected."

"Oh." Nico wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Will you be going now?"

Cupid pursed his lips together. "No, I'm afraid not. My escort just so happens to be in another room, and I can't exactly leave without him."

"Favinous? What's he doing here?"

"Sort of the same job as me, except my mother wants him to talk to a certain someone who's not you."

Nico's stomach plummeted. "Will."

"Yes, that's it, and-Where are you going?!"

But Nico had already leapt off the couch and raced out the door. Wherever Will was, he had to find him. Gods know what Favinous was up to.

*UPTOWN FUNK IS GONNA GIVE IT TO YA*

Favinous was mocking him somehow, Will just knew it. The god's lips were pulled down in an exaggerated pout, and his eyes were sparkling and huge like a puppy's. "Aw, why don't you listen to me?" he complained.

"Because these stories that you're telling me are just weird and have no point? I already know about Hyacinthus! And I don't need to hear about any more of your love affairs!" Will protested.

Will was having a bad day. Amy from Aphrodite, of all people, had woken him up earlier than he usually got up at. Then she dragged him to the Big House, to listen to some god complain about the tragedies of his sex life. His father had been bad enough, but this was just cruel.

"I'm just trying to help!" Favinous argued back, crossing his arms. His wings fluttered, lifting him momentarily off of his chair. "My advice will come in handy someday-trust me!"

Will growled, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Really? How? By telling me to avoid discus fights?"

Favinous tutted. "Nooooo. Haven't you picked up on the moral of the stories?"

"What moral?"

The god shrugged. "To just go for it, man. I mean, you're all gonna die in the end, so why not just do it all?"

Will stared. "You can't be serious."

Favinous laughed gently. "I'm a god. Most of the time, we are very serious."

"Whatever. You have to be here for another reason. I'm sick of all of these gods coming out of nowhere and disturbing my life."

"Hmm…" Favinous tapped his lip. "Well, I suppose I could tell you. I mean, Cupid's probably already told him and all…"

"What?"

"Oops," Favinous muttered, pausing mid-tap. "Well, let's just say that I'm not the only god, and let's just say that that other god who we are not naming right now is talking to another demigod."

"Cupid's here."

Favinous sighed. "Yes, he is."

"Who is he talking to?"

The god looked at him. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Not telling."

"Are you serious?"

"We gods are very serious most of the time."

The gears began to turn in Will's head. Every time that a god had talked to him in the past few months, it had been because of the little shipping business that he was trying to ignore. So if Cupid was here, and he was talking to another demigod…

"Nico!" Will jolted upright. "Why is Cupid talking to Nico?!"

"His mother sent us. She's getting temperamental about this whole business of shipping you with him, and decided to take matters in her own hands."

But Will was only half-listening. He knew that Nico had encountered Cupid before, although Nico refused to tell him about what had happened between them. Will just let the subject drop, guessing that he would tell him in time.

Yet it bothered him. Cupid was the god of love, even if his powers weren't as strong as his mothers. He cursed people to fall in love with his bows and arrows, pretty much ruining their lives. If he targeted you specifically, it was game over for your love life. But Nico never mentioned liking someone before, so why was Cupid talking to him?

Wait, he did. Percy fucking Jackson.

Okay, it was a long shot, since Will had only heard this from Amy and Martha's conversation on Halloween. But it made sense. Nico seemed more awkward around Percy than he was with all of his other friends, and there were times when Will could've sworn he saw Nico staring/glaring at Percy. Not to mention that Percy had a lot of the same activities as Nico did, and both of them were pretty chummy with each other.

Maybe he was jumping to conclusions here, but Nico almost seemed to have a crush on Percy. And when you added that with the fact that Cupid was here…

Cupid was talking about Percy with Nico. He had to be.

Will took a shaky breath. "I'm leaving."

Favinous glanced back up from his wing, where he had been picking dirt out of it. "Huh?"

"I-I have to go. My cabin will be wondering where I am." Will stood up and stomped over to the door.

"Wait! I wasn't done-"

SLAM!

The door was shut so hard behind Will that the entire room trembled. Favinous cringed. "Ah, shit, Aphrodite is gonna kill me," he muttered.

*I expect to see reviews after this segment.*

Two doors slammed shut, and Amy and Drew jumped.

"Are they done? It's only been a few minutes?" Amy wondered.

"Yeah, we should go find them. What if those gods, I don't know…" Drew gestured vaguely. "You know how gods can get."

"Yeah." Amy leapt off the couch. "Hey, did you hear that?"

Drew concentrated, and heard what sounded like a very faint, "Will? Will! Will, where are you?"

"It's Nico! Gods, we better find him." Amy ran in his direction.

"Wait! Amy, who has seniority over-"

But the redhead was gone. Muttering several Japanese curses, Drew jogged after her. She was wishing that she had brought her inhaler.

By the time that she caught up to her, Amy was chattering away to a confused Nico. She hunched over and began to pant.

"I mean, two gods? You kinda have to listen to that-Drew! Are you okay?"

"Fine." Drew waved awkwardly at them. "We found Nico. Where's Will?"

"Right here."

Everyone jumped. Drew nearly got whiplash when she jerked her head up to see Will, and the sight of him made both her immortal and mortal blood run cold.

If it had been deemed impossible to look angry in an old Mickey Mouse shirt and pajama pants before, then Will certainly made it possible now. What had happened between him and Favinous?

"Will!" Nico sounded relieved. "Cupid said that you were with Favinous. What did he say to you?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about I tell you after you tell me what you and Cupid talked about?"

Drew didn't think that it was possible for children of Apollo to sound frosty. Unless if it was Alice, but she was just grumpy all-around. But Will sounded deeply angry, and all of Drew's instincts told her to back away from him.

"Um, Amy, hon, let's stand over here while they sort this out," Drew said, gently tugging on Amy's arm.

"What? Drew, what's going on?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to be in the middle of it," Drew told her as she yanked her against the wall.

Will and Nico continued speaking. "What? We didn't talk about a lot either. He told me that you were with Favinous, though, so I had to go and find you."

"Really? Not anything else?"

Nico's face flushed pink. "He wanted to continue our…last encounter."

Drew and Amy shared twin looks of shock. Nico had met Cupid before? And Cupid had wanted to talk to him again? This was getting weirder and weirder.

"Oh, yeah, that one." Will stepped closer to Nico, his arms still crossed.

Nico wasn't budging. "Look, what's your problem? Did Favinous do something to make you mad? Because both he and Cupid can be jerks, trust me-"

"This isn't about Favinous and the visit he paid to me."

"Really? Then what is it?" Nico snapped. Amy gasped, then clasped a hand over her mouth.

"You wanna know what's been bothering me for the last few months? Why I keep on avoiding it whenever you bring it up?"

Drew was confused. "Uh, what is he talking about?" she whispered to Amy, who just shrugged.

"Well, yeah. Of course I do. Why do you think I kept on asking you about it?" Nico glared at Will, crossing his arms.

"It was obvious that you wanted to know."

"Yeah, so you should've just told me whatever the damn thing was!"

"Oh, no, you should've told me whatever it was."

Nico's face twisted in confusion. "What?"

"Oh, nothing, just that you have a crush on someone?" Will spat.

Amy clutched at Drew's arm, and it took all of Drew's willpower not to shove her off.

Nico's face turned even redder. "What-I-I do not have a crush on anyone!"

"Liar."

Nico glared at Will again. "Shut up."

"No. I know what you were talking about with Cupid."

"Oh, really? Enlighten me then, Solace. What was I talking about with Cupid?" The temperature in the room seemed to drop two degrees with every word that Nico spoke.

"Your crush."

"Oh, yeah? Who's my crush?"

"Percy."

What? He…what? What is Will talking about? Drew was even more confused.

Nico seemed to be as confused as Drew was. "What…Percy? You think that I like-what?"

"It's true, isn't it?" Will asked.

"Where did you get this idea from?"

"A little bird was talking about it with her friend." Will stopped glaring at Nico to glare at Amy.

"Amelia. What did you do?" Drew whispered as calmly as she could.

"Nothing! I don't even know what he's talking about-oh." Her face turned almost the same color as her freckles. "On Halloween, I was talking with Martha…"

Drew facepalmed.

Nico stepped up to Will. "What, one daughter of Aphrodite says something, and all of a sudden you believe it? Since when could you trust their gossip?"

Will turned back to Nico. "What was I supposed to think? After I heard her say it, so many things clicked into place. You act differently around Percy than you do your other friends."

"Because they're different people?"

"Why didn't you say anything about it?"

"About liking Percy?"

"Yes!"

"Gods of Olympus-Will, this is not what you think it is."

"Really?" Will was raising his voice at this point. "Maybe you should've said something about it sooner, then!"

"I didn't even know that people were talking about this! Why would I bring it up?!" Now Nico was shouting as well.

"This is what friends do! They tell each other things, not just shove them away and forget about them!"

"Oh, so I'm being a shitty friend?! Wow, thanks, I'm not even surprised! The son of Hades is a shitty friend! News at eleven, followed by 'Holy fuck Apollo is the god of poetry! Wow, no wonder he spews haikus everywhere!'"

"Don't you dare bring my father into this."

"Sooner or later, you'll bring mine into this!"

"Why?!"

"You know damn well who my father is!" Every shadow in the room pointed towards Nico. Drew and Amy yelped when their shadows followed the path of the others, but neither boy heard them.

"He's hardly relevant to this!" Will shouted.

"Oh, yeah, because this is about how shit of a friend I am!" The shadows began to coil around Nico now, but if either boy noticed, they didn't say a word.

"I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that you did a shitty thing that friends sometimes do that they really shouldn't do!"

"What, tell their other friends about some 'crush' that they have on one of their other friends?!"

"Yes!"

"Is that what we are to you?! Friends?!"

"What did you think, we had something more?!"

Drew could've sworn that she saw tears glistening in Nico's eyes. "I don't know what I was thinking, but obviously I was wrong!"

"What were you thinking, then?!"

"Shut UP!" Nico screamed, and the room exploded into darkness. Amy and Drew shrieked, covering their eyes. Pounding feet were the only other thing that Drew could make out, and a door slamming shut.

By the time that the darkness had cleared, Nico was gone. Will stared at where he had stood, breathing heavily, hands clenched into fists.

"…Will? Is everything alright, hun?" Drew asked tentatively.

Will shouted something and slammed his fist into the wall next to him. Drew squeaked and backed away.

Amy stepped forward. "Will, I'm sorry, I was just joking with Martha! I didn't know that you heard what we said-"

Will muttered something.

"What was that?"

He whirled around. "Shut up! I don't want your apologies right now! All I want is for you to never speak to me again, and to never gossip about Nico again!" he yelled. Amy backed into the wall, looking absolutely terrified.

Drew swallowed. "Do you want us to do something?" she murmured.

"Just…Just go away and leave me alone…" Will's voice cracked on the last word, and he wiped his face with the back of his hand. "Oh, gods, I just fucked everything up…"

Drew nodded. "Right. Amy, follow me."

Amy didn't protest, she only nodded and followed Drew out of the hallway. As they walked towards the front doors of the Big House, she could've sworn that she heard what sounded like crying. But there wasn't anything that she could do about it.

The matter was out of her hands, out of everyone's hands, because it looked like Will and Nico would never want to speak to each other again.

Am I more than you bargained for yet?

I've been dying to write this chapter

Since I read Ippiki Ookami's idea

All comments, questions, and/or concerns may be directed to the review box, my PM Inbox, and/or my Tumblr at autisticwillsolace! Yes, I changed my URL lmfao. The link to my Tumblr may be found at the top of my profile page on this site, although it may not be for a while.

And if you know me in real life (Looking at you, Shi) next time you see me you can punch me in the face.

Have a lovely day!

Also prolly gonna go and clean this one up later bluh

Bluh I'm actually really glad that this is up and written now I've just been subconsciously putting it off lol. Along with being so dissatisfied with certain scenes and certain things ugh.

Deranged Shadow Fangirl