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gatesofember · 6 years

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Summer Grass

PJO Arranged Marriage/Royalty AU Part 8

Rating: M | Pairing: Solangelo

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Summary: Reyna has business in the City of Enlightenment and Prince Nico tags along to visit Will. Since confessing their feelings, Nico and his fiancé have grown even closer...and Nico has even more trouble keeping it in his pants.

They had stopped at the Sun Palace once more along the journey from Neptune to Pluto, but only for a day. Some nights they stayed at inns along the road and other nights they stayed as guests in noble estates, but sometimes, they only stopped to exchange horses before continuing to travel throughout the night. Nico and Will had fallen asleep against each other in the carriage on more than one occasion, and although Reyna’s expression made it clear that she did not approve, she did not stop them. They separated after reaching Divitia, when Will went to continue his studies in Venadica and Nico remained at the Palatium de Divitae. Nico bid him farewell with a few kisses and the promise to write, reminding him that it wouldn’t be long before he accompanied Reyna to the City of Enlightenment when she renewed her Sororal vows.

Will had started to be a bit more bold. He was always well within the boundaries of appropriate behavior, of course, but Nico’s confession in Neptune had given Will confidence. Nico appeared to like Will’s boldness, too. Whenever Will initiated some form of touch—even just to rest his hand on top of Nico’s—Nico rewarded him with at least a smile, but sometimes a kiss if he was especially pleased. Will was slowly starting to feel more comfortable with being affectionate towards Nico. Although he’d never attempted to hide his admiration, he’d always been careful to keep his behavior polite and gentlemanly; he hadn’t wanted to upset Nico’s chaperones or to make Nico uncomfortable by being too open with his feelings. After spending so much time alone with Nico while traveling, it became more natural for Will to casually touch him. He stopped questioning whether his feelings were welcome and started to trust Nico’s love for him instead.

When Nico arrived in Venadica that summer, the sky was still bright but the sun was descending. Will greeted him at the carriage door and was nearly knocked off his feet when the Prince’s huge bloodhound jumped out first. He sniffed Will’s stockings happily while waiting for his master.

“Will!” Nico said, nearly pushing Reyna out of the way to see him.

“I’m happy to see you, Your Highness,” Will said. He offered his hand to help Nico step down from the carriage and wasn’t surprised when Nico didn’t release it. However, he was surprised when Nico immediately kissed him there in the middle of the city without regard for the Sororal officials who had come to greet him. Reyna sighed in resignation as she stepped from the carriage, but Hedge looked like he might have a seizure. When Will turned back towards his aunt and the others waiting for Nico and Reyna, he noticed that Thalia seemed amused and Hestia had raised an eyebrow. He could already imagine Artemis teasing him about it later: “It seems there were a few developments in your engagement you neglected to mention to me,” she would say. “I must have done well to arrange your marriage.”

When they entered the palace, Nico and Will trailed a few steps behind Reyna and Artemis and her attendants. Normally, it would have been expected for Nico to walk beside Artemis, but because he was merely accompanying Reyna rather than acting as an official guest, it wasn’t very rude for Nico to ignore the Matestra in favor of his fiancé.

“I really am happy to see you,” Nico said. “I’ve missed you.”

“And I have missed you,” Will answered. “I’m glad you decided to visit. This time, I have a clear schedule. I’m staying at the palace, as well.”

“Not in your own rooms?” Nico asked.

Will shook his head happily. “My aunt offered me a place to stay for the week,” he explained. Like his first visit to Venadica, Nico would stay at the Sororal Palace for the duration of his stay. The palace had been full of guests during the Expo, but now had plenty of vacant rooms available for Will, too. He was grateful; the time it would have taken to travel from the consor dormitories to the palace every day would have left less time for Will to spend with his fiancé. “There are so many places I want to take you,” he said. “Last time, the city was so crowded that I couldn’t show you what it’s like normally. My friends and I used to have secret meeting spots when we were children—there’s a little nook at the bottom of the Cronius Turris in the square, then there’s the tunnel system in the palace. And we found plenty of places to hide in the children’s ward.”

“I’d love that,” Nico said. “Will you show me where you live?”

“No, I hadn’t planned to,” Will said. “It’s only a small room with a bed and a trunk.”

“I would still like to see.”

Will cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Your Highness, the way I live as a consor in Venadica is very different from the way I live as the son of a duke in Diana.”

“I know,” Nico said shortly. “This isn’t the first time that you have refused to show me this sort of thing. Last time I was here, you were hesitant to show me your lab and you didn’t want me to attend your lecture—”

“You know that’s not true at all,” Will interrupted. They’d had the same argument on more than one occasion. As patient as he tried to be, he was growing wearing of discussing that incident. Either Will and Nico had very different memories of what had happened, or Nico only kept arguing because he liked to argue—which seemed plausible, knowing Nico. “Of course I wanted you to attend the lecture,” Will said. “The problem was that I didn’t know you were interested.”

“Well, I am interested in seeing where you live. So why won’t you show me? Surely you’re not ashamed.”

“No, of course I’m not ashamed, I just...Your Highness, my living quarters are very small and uninteresting and I admit that I don’t take much pride in it—”

“I’m not expecting dormitories to be glamorous—”

“—but it’s not the size or plainness that is the issue. You must understand, I live quite independently here in Venadica. I dress myself, I sometimes cook for myself, and I clean after myself. But my living quarters are not a high priority and I often neglect them—”

“Ah. So it’s a mess,” Nico surmised.

Will sighed. “I may be unintentionally fostering a few colonies of bacteria, in fact. Out of respect for your safety, I cannot take you there.”

Nico snorted and laughed, loudly and unattractively. Will knew that Nico hated his own laugh, but Will loved it. It served as a reminder of just how human Nico was—imperfect and flawed, just like Will.

It wasn’t long after Nico’s arrival their meal was held. The dining hall was crowded, noisy, and full of life, just as it was every time Will went to the Sororal Palace for supper. While Artemis was also fond of small, private meals, she usually took her suppers in large gatherings. Will liked the variety, as well; sometimes, he preferred to have his aunt to himself when he visited, but Will always enjoyed himself at full sororal suppers. That evening, however, Will wished he could have eaten alone with Nico. He couldn’t have paid attention to the conversation around him even if he had wanted to.

“I love you,” Will said, quietly enough so that no one would overhear.

“I love you, too,” Nico answered.

Will didn’t even realize he and Nico had been leaning closer to each other until Reyna made a subtle gesture to get their attention and silently shook her head to indicate her disapproval. She didn’t stop glaring until they reluctantly scooted their chairs a bit farther apart. For the rest of the meal, Reyna kept a close watch on them, but Nico and Will kept their ankles secretly locked together beneath the table until supper was over.

“I have a meeting to attend until late in the evening,” Reyna told them after they left the table. “You may either—”

“I’m staying with Will,” Nico announced, his fingers clutching Will’s arm as if to demonstrate that he would not tolerate being separated. “He is going to take me through the city for the rest of the afternoon.”

Will had no memory of discussing that, but he wasn’t opposed.

“I am not able to follow you around the city,” Reyna said. “Unless you would rather have Hedge chaperone, I suggest you both stay with me.”

Nico scowled and Will flinched. To his credit, Hedge wasn’t nearly as overprotective as he had once been, but he still had a short temper and was quick to snap at Will. He was far from the ideal chaperone. In fact, Reyna had banned Hedge from chaperoning duties unless absolutely unavoidable. But as bad as having Hedge as a chaperone sounded, attending Reyna’s meeting did not sound much more pleasant.

To Will’s surprise, Hestia stepped forward. “I will chaperone them, if you and Her Divinity allow it.”

“I can handle the rest of the day without my aide,” Artemis said.

Reyna looked Hestia over thoughtfully before nodding. “But I must warn you that His Highness will take any opportunity to cause trouble. Do not allow them to leave your sight. Physical contact is to be kept to a minimum. If kisses are unavoidable, they must be chaste.”

Nico looked pleased with the arrangement, but Hestia looked concerned, like she was wondering exactly what she’s just volunteered for.

Will took Nico to the children’s ward first and they spoke to Emmie and Jo, but as it was already getting late in the day, they didn’t stay long. As they left, Will found Cal and Leo putting the youngest to bed and stopped to give them a quick greeting before letting them get back to the children. Before Will became engaged to Nico and before Cal and Leo started courting, Will and his friends had planned to run the children’s ward together when Emmie and Jo grew old. Will wondered if the two of them still shared that dream. He could imagine them chasing after the children together—Cal would teach the children to sing and Leo would entertain them with his inventions. Would they marry and have children of their own? Would they grow old together in Venadica?

Not for the first time, Will realized just how much he was giving up to marry Nico. He would leave his friends and family and would never live in Venadica or Diana again. He might visit, but the rest of his life he would live in Divitia. He would suffer through Plutonian winters every year. He wouldn’t be there to watch his sister Kayla grow into a brilliant and beautiful young lady.

But he would have Nico. He would find a second family and more people to call his friends. In time, he would learn to call Divitia home.

Before he finally managed to escort Nico back outside, Will was stopped several more times by children coming to see him. “I’m sorry for the delays,” Will apologized as they left the ward with Asterion and Hestia following behind them.

“It seems that children are fond of you,” Nico observed casually. “You will make a good father.”

Will blinked a few times as he stared at Nico, unsure how to react. Nico didn’t seem to think he’d said anything odd, but there was no doubt that Will had heard correctly. Even though Nico wasn’t a student of medicine, surely he must have understood how procreation occurred?

“But...Your Highness, we won’t have any children,” he said.

“Why, that’s absurd,” Nico said humorlessly. “Then who will help me raise Asterion?”

Will looked from Nico to his aging dog, then back to Nico, who was still wearing a serious, earnest expression. Finally, the corner of Nico’s mouth quirked up and Will tilted his head back and laughed.

“He is a good son, as you’ll soon discover,” Nico went on, patting Asterion’s head.

“Gods above, I love you,” Will said.

Nico frowned. “That’s not fair,” he said.

“And why not?” Will asked.

“You can’t say that and expect me to not kiss you.”

Will laughed again. “A kiss would be quite welcome, Your Highness,” he said.

So he gave one. But a single kiss was not enough for Nico.

By the time Hestia forced them to separate, it was starting to get dark, so Will took Nico to the Venadican Library to enjoy the rest of their evening in the quiet, peaceful atmosphere. Nico, however, seemed to be after a bit more than peace and quiet.

While he was reading, Will saw Nico moving out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t think much of it until he felt Nico’s fingers trace over his knuckles. “Yes, Your Highness?” Will asked, glancing up from his book.

“You look beautiful,” Nico said.

Will hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh,” he said when he finally managed to find his voice. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

“I want to ask my sister to paint you,” Nico added.

Will was flattered but confused by the sudden attention, and he couldn’t help wrinkling his nose in distaste at the idea of being painted.

“No?” Nico asked. Will thought he might have looked a bit disappointed. He could still have trouble reading Nico; his expressions were sometimes too subtle to make sense of.

“I don’t like sitting for portraits,” Will explained. He couldn’t stay still without anything to do long enough to pose and people always shouted at him for it.

“I’d like a portrait of you reading,” Nico said. “You may sit and keep yourself entertained with a book. You look pretty when you read.”

Will’s mouth felt dry. He tried to think of something to say, but all that came to mind was, “Thank you.”

“I always think you’re pretty,” Nico said. He put his knee on the seat beside Will and his forearm by Will’s shoulder on the back of his armchair. “Everytime I look at you, I want to kiss you.”

Will swallowed and his book fell forgotten on his lap. When Nico’s fingers grazed his jaw, Will closed his eyes and tilted his chin up. He felt Nico’s hot breath against his lips, then—

Across the room, Hestia cleared her throat. “Your Highness?” she said.

Will quickly pulled away while Nico turned to glare at their chaperone, but obediently moved to sit in the chair beside Will’s. He made it very clear that he wasn’t pleased, however; he slumped into his seat, crossed his arms, and grumbled to himself incoherently. Will bit his lip to suppress a grin. Nico could sometimes act like a spoiled child, but Will didn’t mind. He even found it endearing. Nico was rebellious but good-hearted, which made his defiance entertaining rather than annoying. When Will gently put his hand on Nico’s elbow to soothe him, Nico relaxed so immediately that Will felt warm with joy. Although his moods were sometimes amusing, it made Will happy to know that he was able to calm his fiancé.

Hestia must have also found it entertaining, because she politely stifled a giggle behind her hand.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Nico demanded.

“I am trying my very hardest not to,” Hestia assured.

Hestia and Nico exchanged a glance that gave off an air of familiarity, and Will tilted his head curiously. How could Hestia address Nico so casually? Even Will, Nico’s fiancé, used formal language when speaking to him. Although Nico had once mentioned that he and Hestia would occasionally chat, Will suspected there was far more to their relationship than Nico had let on. “If you don’t mind me prying, how long have you known each other?” Will dared to ask. “How did you meet?”

Nico and Hestia glanced at each other again before Nico said, “Almost ten years, I think. She was a kitchen maid in the estate where I lived during the outbreak of the Scarlet Delirium.”

“I see,” Will said, but the answer only gave him more questions. How did a kitchen maid become an aide to the Matestra and a friend of a prince? Nico was always vague when the topic of his stay on the countryside was brought up, so Will was careful not to ask more questions than Nico was willing to answer. He did wonder, however.

“One day, I will tell you the story,” Nico said, then he gestured to Will’s book. “What are you reading?”

Will decided not to comment on Nico’s quick change of topic, but he noted to himself that he would have to ask Nico about his relationship with Hestia again later if he was willing to discuss it. “It’s a collection of essays on theories of poverty,” Will answered. “At the moment I’m reading ‘Concerning the Origins of Human Inequality’ by Penia.”

“I’ve read it,” Nico said with a nod. “It contains some good points, but wasn’t very well-written.”

“Better than Euthenia, in my opinion,” Will said. “At least Penia’s direct. Euthenia somehow manages to fill entire pages without saying anything.”

“Oh, I hate reading Euthenia,” Nico agreed. “You mustn’t tell Reyna, but I never finished ‘A Treatise on Economic Disparity.’”

Will laughed humorlessly. “Truthfully, I think very few people other than Lady Reyna have finished it. I did, but it took a month to get through it. Personally, I prefer the works of Ma’at to either Penia or Euthenia.”

“Ma’at?” Nico asked, the syllables sounding awkward on his tongue. “I’m not familiar with name.”

“She is an Aegyptian theorist,” Will explained. “I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture she gave at the Expo last summer.”

“Ah,” said Nico. “I forgot that you spoke Aegyptian.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Many of the most brilliant scholars in the world come from Aegyptia. I have access to translated works, but sometimes ideas are lost in translation. Master Asclepius is fluent in Aegyptian and encouraged me to learn the language. Which reminds me: the Venadican choir and orchestra are preparing to perform an Aegyptian opera. Opera is only just starting to become popular in Aegyptia and the blend of traditional Aegyptian music with Romanus opera style is fascinating. Many musicians in the orchestra have even learned Aegyptian instruments just to perform it. The parts I have heard are brilliant.”

“Then you haven’t seen the opera in its entirety?” Nico asked.

“No; the show doesn’t begin until after you leave,” Will said. “But if you’d like, I can arrange for us to watch a rehearsal. It won’t be a polished performance, but it would still be nice. We would have the theater to ourselves.”

“I would love to,” Nico said. “What is the story about?”

“It is the story of the king of their gods, Ra. I can find a collection of Aegyptian stories for you, if you would like. There’s an excellent translation of poems you might enjoy.”

When Nico answered that yes, he would like that, Will offered Nico his arm and led him through the aisles, Hestia walking quietly behind them as she read her own book. Asterion remained behind dozing until they got far enough away for him to feel obligated to get up and follow his master. Nico occupied himself by examining the titles on the spines while Will searched.

“I thought the Palatium de Divitae had a good library, but I was mistaken,” Nico mused. “You must love this place.”

“I can spend entire days here,” Will answered. “I may have even fallen asleep here once or twice.”

Nico laughed softly. “Some of these books look like they’ve been here for centuries,” he went on. “They must have been here even before the Scatinavian invasions.” Will heard the slide of Nico taking a book from the shelves looked over in time to see him blush and frantically shove it away again.

“Is that Sappho?” Will asked, glancing at the print on the cover.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“I like Sappho. Her work is so interesting, don’t you think?”

Nico stopped trying to shove the book away and looked at Will curiously. “Interesting?” he asked.

“Of course,” Will said. “She was banished from the sorority for writing love poetry and breaking her vows. Don’t you think that’s at least somewhat interesting? Even today, her life and her poetry are surrounded by debate.”

“Oh,” Nico said slowly. “So you don’t think it’s...well, scandalous?”

“Certainly it’s scandalous, but her poetry is still rich in artistic and literary value. She’s frank and her depictions are so vivid that her work is still banned in some areas, but it was her poetry that brought to public attention that sometimes, sorors fall in love, and when they do, it’s passionate and painful.” For a long time, Will had suspected that there was more to Emmie and Jo’s relationship than solely friendship. There was a subtle dynamic between them that he, Cal, and Leo had picked up on over time, but the three of them had agreed to protect Emmie and Jo’s secret. Will suspected that his aunt was deliberately turning a blind eye to it, but she wouldn’t be able to continue to do so if someone reported it to her directly. The Soror’s Oath was sacred; breaking it was a serious offence. Will wasn’t certain exactly what would happen to Emmie and Jo if there relationship was discovered. They would be expelled from the Sorority, but he wasn’t naive enough to hope that would be the end of it. Although the Sorority rarely condoned the death penalty—there had only been one formal death sentence in the Romanus Terris during Will’s lifetime—that was little comfort to Will. The kind of public ridicule and ostracism that would come from being excommunicated did not seem to be much kinder than a death sentence. Will didn’t want to see what happened to Sappho happen to Emmie and Jo.

“I’m surprised you have read Sappho,” Will said, trying to forget about how much danger Emmie and Jo could be in. “I was under the impression that her work is still banned in many places in Pluto.”

“The only time Sappho was ever mentioned in my lessons was when my tutor expressly forbade me to read her work,” Nico said as he leafed through the pages. “Naturally, when I stumbled upon a collection of Sappho’s poetry a few years later, I read it anyway. And I was horrified by it.”

Will laughed quietly. It was very like Nico to be both intrigued and scandalized by the work of Sappho. Nico’s opinion could be difficult to predict and often depended on how rebellious he was feeling that day.

“And are you still horrified?” Will asked.

“Maybe. But look at this.” Nico stepped closer so that Will could see the page he was looking at before he started to recite it outloud.

“Your lovely laughter, which, as it wafts by, sets the heart in my rib cage fluttering; if I glance at you even a moment, I can’t say a thing,

and my tongue stiffens into silence, thin flames underneath my skin prickle and spark, a rush of blood booms in my ears, and then my eyes go dark,

and sweat pours coldly over me, and all my body trembles, suddenly paler than summer grass am I, and I appear to have nearly died.

“How can I hate poetry that is so beautiful?” Nico asked. “Yes, it’s horrifying, but exhilarating. And it’s less shocking to me now that I’m in love.”

Will had expected the sentence to end with “now that I’m older,” so it took him a moment to process what Nico had actually said. He felt his face burn in embarrassment when he figured it out and he couldn’t help but wonder if Nico had said it just to see his reaction. Will thought he would laugh at his embarrassment, but Nico took a step closer instead. “You make my heart race so fast that it hurts,” he said. “I sometimes become so nervous around you that I can’t speak. My mouth gets dry. I can barely think. I feel like I’ve lost my mind. Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel like your skin is on fire? Does your heart ever beat so hard that you fear it might burst?”

“I do not think I have to fear that my organs will spontaneously rupture,” Will blurted out.

Nico opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped. For a second, he looked confused, then few indecipherable expressions flickered across his face before he settled on a grin. “Will, I swear to the gods,” he laughed.

While Will hadn’t actually been trying to make Nico laugh, he decided to pretend that he had indeed made a witty remark rather than the first comment his garbled mind could think of. “It’s the part you read first that I liked the most,” Will said, tapping the book in Nico’s hands. “‘Your lovely laughter, which, as it wafts by, sets the heart in my rib cage fluttering.’ I am sure that my heart is perfectly healthy, but it’s true that it beats harder for the sound of your laughter. I want to make you laugh every day.”

Nico looked at Will quietly for a moment before carefully closing the book. “And I like your voice,” he said, running his thumb over Will’s lower lip. “It’s warm. Soothing. I want to hear to your voice every day.”

Will reached up to hold Nico’s hand steady and kissed the back of his fingers. “I want to kiss you every day,” he whispered.

“Then I think you ought to make up for all the days you missed these past few months,” Nico said. He carelessly tucked the book in the shelves and grabbed the front of Will’s coat to pull him closer, then—

“Good evening, Your Highness; Lord William,” said a devastatingly familiar voice. Will and Nico slowly turned to find Reyna standing at the end of the aisle beside Hestia and Asterion, her arms folded and her expression like stone. Hestia was wise enough to take Reyna’s appearance as her cue to leave, but Nico and Will weren’t so fortunate.

“I think it’s time for you to escort His Highness to his chambers for the night, Lord William.” Her voice was clipped and cold, like the soft but ominous rumble of faraway thunder before a storm. Will would have preferred it if she’d shouted. Instead, she stepped aside and motioned for them to go ahead of her. Will quickly scrambled to put the book of poems away properly, hoping that Reyna hadn’t noticed what they were looking at. The entire way to Nico’s chambers, he felt like her eyes were stabbing into their backs. Apparently she liked to keep them on edge, because Reyna waited until they were outside Nico’s door to lecture them.

“Lady Hestia has informed me that she refuses to chaperone for you again,” she said.

Nico gasped. “But—”

“Perhaps if you had behaved yourself, she would have felt more comfortable being around the two you,” Reyna snapped. “Instead, I heard that you attempted to climb on your fiancé, then proceeded to read him Sappho, of all things.”

“‘Climb on’ is a highly exaggerated phrase—”

“So for the rest of our stay in Venadica, you will remain with me at all times. If I must attend meetings for an entire day, then you must attend them with me. The two of you may sit in the corner of the room and whisper about Sapphic love poems as much as your hearts desire, but under no circumstances are the both you to leave my sight at the same time.”

“Reyna—”

“No arguments,” Reyna interrupted. “Say goodnight, Your Highness.”

Nico sighed and turned back to Will and despite her anger, Reyna stepped back to give them some privacy. “I wish we could marry sooner,” Nico said. “I hate being separated. I miss you too much and I’m tired of being forced to listen to chaperones.”

“It won’t be long before I join you in Divitia,” Will said. “Then we’ll be together so much that I worry you’ll tire of me.”

“Impossible,” said Nico. “I will have the best husband in history.”

Will laughed shyly. “I love you,” he said as he traced Nico’s cheekbones with the back of his fingers. Nico’s cheeks darkened, but he held Will’s eyes. Will stepped closer. “May I...?”

“Yes,” Nico interrupted eagerly. He blushed harder and averted his eyes when Will chuckled.

“I didn’t finish my question,” Will said.

“I know what you were going to ask.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, I....” Nico frowned. “Surely I wasn’t wrong?”

Will smiled. “You weren’t wrong,” he assured. “But you really ought to listen to the whole question before answering. What if I’d asked for permission to keep Asterion or throw you in a lake? I once ruined an entire day’s work because I didn’t listen to Master Asclepius properly and assumed he wanted the particles absorbed in water rather than adsorbed from water, so I didn’t prepare the charcoal samples and—”

“Will, please.”

“My apologies. I...what were we talking about?”

“You were going to kiss me.”

“That’s right,” Will said with a grin. “Except I didn’t actually say—”

“Will. I have been waiting very patiently for you to kiss me. Are you laughing at me? Don’t laugh at me! Gods, Will, I swear....” Nico grabbed the front of Will’s coat to pull him into a kiss. Will laughed against Nico’s lips, but then Nico kissed him again, and then again, and Will suddenly wondered why he’d wasted valuable time teasing Nico when he could have been kissing him instead.

Will wasn’t sure if they ever would have stopped had Reyna not interrupted. “Your Highness, that’s enough,” she said. “Bid Lord William goodnight. Now.”

Nico pulled back far enough for Will to see his displeased expression. “I think you may have earned another lecture,” Will whispered.

Nico smirked. “I can handle a lecture if it means I can kiss you,” he said. To illustrate his point, he leaned closer to kiss Will’s cheek.

But the kiss didn’t come.

“Meet me later tonight,” Nico whispered against his skin.

Will shivered as Nico’s breath tickled his neck. His knees felt like they’d crumble beneath him and he wanted to go limp against Nico’s shoulder. “Where?” he asked.

“By the fountain in Aether’s square,” Nico answered. “That’s where we first met, isn’t it?”

Will swallowed and nodded. He didn’t trust his voice to remain steady.

“I’ll be there as soon as I’m able to get away. Don’t make me wait.” As Nico pulled back, he brushed his lips against Will’s cheek. Will wanted to reach out and keep him from leaving—and perhaps steal a dozen more kisses—but he felt frozen. He could only blush when Nico offered him a secretive smile and turned away before disappearing into his room.

* * *

Nico hadn’t expected Reyna to be so strict. Despite her declaration to not be lenient after the maze incident in Delphi, Reyna seemed to be getting lighter on Nico’s courting restrictions. Nico had discovered that Reyna could rarely refuse him when he looked at her as innocently as possible and said, “but it would make me so happy, Reyna.” In fact, it was so effective that during the journey from Neptune to Pluto, Nico had once even managed to get Reyna to agree to join Hedge on the bench at the back of the carriage for a while, leaving Nico and Will alone inside. He and Will had sat opposite each other at first, shyly talking about unimportant things. After a few awkward pauses, Nico had gotten up to sit beside Will and then kissed him. They’d proceeded to spend most of their allotted alone time kissing.

Even Hedge appeared to be warming up to Nico’s fiancé. One day during the journey to Pluto, Hedge aggressively informed Will that if he even thought about unbuttoning Nico’s breeches, he’d find himself chained up to a tree naked for a night—an image that Nico might have liked a bit too much. Will, eternally polite and pleasant, had quite sincerely told Hedge that he had only the highest respect for Nico and would never dream of doing anything that Hedge would disapprove of. Then Will had looked at Nico with the softest, purest smile and Hedge had nearly burst into tears. He’d reached up and patted Will’s shoulder, saying, “good man, Lord Solace, you’re a good man,” and then he’d walked away, sniffling and dabbing at his eyes. Nico would forever deny having been a bit disappointed when Will assured Hedge that his intentions were entirely pure. The thought had occurred to him that if any breeches were unbuttoned, it was much more likely to be Nico who was unbuttoning them. He’d quickly buried the thought in embarrassment, but he’d be lying if he said he’d never thought about it again.

Truthfully, Nico thought about that sort of thing fairly often. Nearly every night during that journey, Nico had lain awake in bed for hours, staring at unfamiliar ceilings and thinking about Will. On several occasions, he’d seriously considered sneaking out to visit his fiancé, maybe even to spend the night in his room. He’d tried to convince himself that he would be content with merely lying beside Will, but then his imagination would get the better of him and he’d end up lying on his belly and whimpering into his pillow as he wished away his arousal. He sometimes even dreamed about Will—strange, heated, impure dreams that he would never admit to outloud. And as shameful as those dreams were, Nico could not deny enjoying them. He enjoyed them quite a bit, in fact.

Although Nico knew restrictions were necessary, he’d come to the conclusion that it was alright to push the boundaries a little bit. Nico had once again decided that he would kiss his fiancé as much as he liked. If that meant he had to sneak out of the palace late at night, then so be it.

Escaping wasn’t difficult, but Nico ran into a few problems along the way. There was a guard posted outside his door at all times, so Nico was forced to exit through the window. Asterion wouldn’t stop whining every time Nico tried to leave. Worrying that the dog would alert someone to his absence, Nico was forced to bring Asterion along with him. Although Nico was on the ground floor, there was still a raised balcony outside his room. It wouldn’t have been difficult to climb if it hadn’t been for Asterion, who was starting to have hip trouble in his old age. It was a bit of a challenge to carry the dog when he kept wiggling. Then, after taking a few wrong turns in the garden, Nico managed to navigate his way to the fountain in Aether’s square, where he found Will waiting for him as planned. He looked happy and beautiful with the yellow light of gas lamps dancing in his eyes. It made Nico want to kiss him, so he did.

“I wasn’t expecting you to bring a friend,” Will commented, gesturing to Asterion.

“I hadn’t planned to, but he insisted,” Nico explained. “Have you been waiting long?”

Will laughed. “Only fifteen years or so,” he said, looking at the stone faces of the goddesses adorning the fountain. “When I first came to Venadica, I used to sit in this spot for hours every week and I’d imagine you coming to join me. I had a plan to introduce you to all my friends and impress you by having so many.”

“I can’t believe that the memory of meeting me once as a child was so important to you,” Nico said. “Are you sure you’re not lying just to flatter me?”

“Meeting royalty is always a memorable experience, Your Highness,” Will said. “But what’s more memorable is when you fall instantly in love. I thought you were amazing.”

“I must have thought very highly of you, as well,” Nico assured.

Will laughed. “No, you pitied me,” he said. “You were concerned that I didn’t have any friends and you thought that I didn’t have a tongue, then you lectured me for being a clumsy dancer. But I was so smitten that for years, I’d come here and imagine meeting you again. I was always a bit disappointed that you didn’t show.”

“I’m here now,” Nico said.

“Yes, you are,” Will agreed. “In fact, you arranged to meet me here alone, scandalously late at night. I can’t help thinking this is a very bad idea.”

“I know it is,” Nico admitted. “But I don’t particularly care. Do you?”

Will grinned. “No.”

“Good,” Nico said, stepping closer and reaching for Will’s hand. “Because right now, I would very much like to be alone with my fiancé. I haven’t seen you in months.”

Will cocked his head to the side curiously. “But we’ve been apart longer before,” he pointed out.

Nico pursed his lips in frustration. As much as he adored Will, he couldn’t help feeling impatient when Will didn’t understand his intentions. Nico had always had trouble finding the right words to express how he felt and what he wanted, but he’d been working to improve that for Will. He was doing his very best to be honest and express himself clearly, so it seemed that the very least Will could do was work a bit harder to understand. Sometimes, Will could be a bit too innocent—too chaste, too pure....

I can change that, Nico immediately thought, then he flushed as he vividly imagined himself sullying Will’s virtue.

“We were together for a long time this spring,” Nico stammered. “It felt strange to suddenly not be together and—”

Will squeezed Nico’s hand. Nico fell silent almost instantaneously when he looked up and found Will smiling at him. “I know, Your Highness,” Will said. “I was teasing.”

“Oh,” Nico breathed. So maybe Will was working harder to understand.

He noticed that the corners of Will’s eyes wrinkled when he smiled. It was distracting. Nico wanted to reach out and gently run his thumb over Will’s golden eyelashes. He wanted to trace the lines of Will’s face. He wanted to touch Will. Anywhere. Everywhere .

“Would you like to go to the laboratories?” Will said, breaking their eye contact and pointing the opposite direction. “I’d love to show you around my workspace again.”

Nico sighed. Then again, maybe Will couldn’t read Nico’s intentions at all. He’d wanted to kiss Will, not tour his lab. He pretended to happily agree anyway.

“I actually haven’t spent as much time as I usually do in the labs lately,” Will admitted as he offered Nico his arm.

“Why not?” Nico asked. “Has there been trouble?” Will had explained that research could often be stalled if there was not enough financial support. He’d mentioned several projects that he and Asclepius had wanted to take on, but were unable to pursue due to a lack of funding. Sometimes funders were uninterested in his research or prefered to invest in different projects. Will had even once mentioned that he worried Asclepius was being funded less frequently now that he was in his older years and had started to acquire a reputation for being forgetful and scatterbrained.

But Will shook his head. “No; no trouble,” he answered. “I’m still assisting Asclepius and Hygeia in the infirmary, but lately I haven’t had much time to spend on other medical studies. I’ve been devoting more time than usual to my other studies—trade, history, political theory, and such.”

“Why?” Nico asked. Although Will was enthusiastic about all his studies, he prefered to focus on healing and medicine.

Will bowed his head and blushed, then looked at Nico out of the corner of his eye and smiled shyly. “Because in less than one year, I’ll marry a prince,” he answered quietly. “I want to be a good consort for you.”

Nico wanted to tell Will that he already thought he was perfect, but his mouth felt dry. It was impossible for Nico to say something so embarrassing.

No, Nico reminded himself. It was very much possible; he was just afraid.

“You’re already perfect,” Nico forced himself to say. It came out sounding stiff and uncomfortable, but he meant it. “But thank you,” he added, so that he sounded a bit more grateful. He was so flattered that he wanted nothing more than to pull Will close and kiss him.

Admittedly, he always wanted to kiss Will, but he was still flattered.

The summer night air was pleasant; cooler than it was in the heat of the day, but still warm. Nico couldn’t decide if Will’s body heat was soothing or thrilling. He teetered between feeling calm and feeling like he was on fire, but the longer they walked, the more he leaned towards fire. That made him quite irritated when Will started babbling about medicine instead of kissing him after they got to the lab.

It was nice to see the way Will lit up, however, so Nico allowed Will to ramble on for a while. He smiled, nodded along, and tried to pay attention, but his thoughts kept drifting to other things Will could do with his very nice lips.

Finally, Nico put his hand on Will’s arm to stop him. “I think you should kiss me,” he said.

Will, who was holding a bundle of plants in each hand, tilted his head to the side and looked confused. “This doesn’t interest you?” he asked in a hurt voice.

Nico cursed Will for being so adorable. “Of course I’m interested,” he said gently. “But you can tell me about this another time. Right now I’d rather take advantage of the fact that we don’t have any chaperones and—” Nico broke off when he noticed Will smirking. “You’re teasing me again,” he realized. “Gods, Will, why do you do these things to me?”

“I admit that I can be a bit slow to pick up on your intentions, but I’m not completely hopeless,” Will said, putting the plants back down on the work table behind Nico.

“You should focus less on teasing me and more on kissing me,” Nico said, running his fingers down the lapel of Will’s coat. “Have I made myself clear enough for you?”

“What I don’t understand is why you haven’t just kissed me yet,” Will said.

“Gods, Will, you weren’t always this difficult,” Nico growled, but he tugged Will close and kissed him anyway. Will’s laugh felt nice when it tickled his lips. His laughter was always contagious, even when it made it difficult to coordinate a proper kiss.

Nico heard Asterion whimper in the doorway, so he cracked his eyes open to check on him. The dog was watching with pathetic, droopy eyes, and his tail started to wag when he noticed Nico paying attention to him. Will broke away from the kiss and followed Nico’s eyes to Asterion. “Is—” he started, but Nico forced him to turn back and kissed him again.

“Ignore him,” Nico said against Will’s lips. “He’ll be fine.” Asterion whimpered again, but Nico just waved in his direction to silence him before focusing on Will’s kisses again.

That time, they didn’t laugh. Nico felt unbelievably good, like a part of him that had long been empty was suddenly whole now that he had Will. But he needed more. Nico wrapped his arms around Will’s neck and pulled him closer. He pushed his chest against Will’s, hoping that Will would touch him back, but Will’s hands remained lightly on Nico’s upper arms. “Hold me,” Nico mumbled between kisses.

“How?” Will asked.

Nico was so frustrated that he almost bit Will. “I don’t know,” he growled. “Just hold me.”

Will’s hands hesitantly reached for Nico’s waist before he slid his arms around Nico’s back. Then Nico hungrily pushed against Will’s lips and Will pushed back, tightening Nico inside his embrace. The pressure of Will’s arms around his waist, the feeling of Will’s lips on his, the heat of Will’s breath...it was too good, too intoxicating. Nico tugged Will closer and Will stumbled forward, pressing Nico against the table behind him.

“Too tight,” Will gasped, tugging at one of Nico’s arms around his neck. Nico mumbled an apology when he realized he’d been choking Will, but didn’t stop kissing him. Will didn’t stop, either.

He felt hot, so hot, like he was burning alive and he needed Will to live. A voice in his head growled for more like a mad, predatory beast. His thoughts were filthy and scandalous, yet Nico wasn’t bothered by that. He wanted to be filthy. He wanted to make Will filthy. He wanted to shred Will’s clothes off his body and touch his skin, then put his mouth on Will and taste him. And Will’s legs, his legs— Nico wanted to look at those legs. He would get his hands on Will’s thighs and feel the strong muscles working beneath his skin, then he would bite them and listen to Will’s responding cries of pleasure.

Nico imagined Will underneath him, legs wrapped around Nico’s waist while Nico pounded into him. Or perhaps Will could be astride him, his thighs on either side of Nico’s hips. And what would it be like to feel the force in those powerful legs when Will took him? How would it feel when Will slammed inside? Would Will drive into him hard and fast? Would he make Nico scream?

Nico gasped against Will’s lips at the thought. More, growled the hungry beast inside him. Nico pulled Will closer, pressed their bodies against each other—

It took far too long for Nico to realize his mistake. So occupied with his obscene desires, Nico had neglected to consider how his body might react to his fantasies. He was unable to suppress a pathetic whimper when Will’s thigh pressed against his groin, sending a wave of heat scorching through his entire body. Delirious with pleasure, Nico rutted against Will’s leg once before the belated horor finally set in.

The fantasies he entertained about his fiancé were crude and shameful enough, but at least Nico’s thoughts were private. He could imagine the most debauched scenarios without revealing them to anyone, keeping his name clean even if his mind was corrupted by wanton desires. Nico had assuaged the feelings of guilt and shame with assurances that it was all in his head and that he would never act on them. And yet, at his first opportunity to be alone with his fiancé without chaperones to control his behavior, Nico’s filthy desires had taken over his body. He was unmarried—an unmarried prince, at that. His behavior was unacceptable, disgusting, vile...and it felt good, so very good.

Nico quickly pushed Will away before the cloud of lust settled back over him. He prayed to the gods that Will hadn’t noticed his body’s predicament, but it was clear that Will had. His eyes were wide, his face was red, and his gaze briefly flickered to Nico’s breeches. Thankfully, Nico’s waistcoat was long enough to hide his problem, but that offered Nico little comfort.

“It’s not...I’m not...I didn’t mean....” Nico stuttered. “Please forgive me. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Will stared wordlessly and Nico had to bite his tongue to keep himself from rambling apologies for being so rude, knowing that he’d only make it worse. After a second of silence that felt like a century, Will cleared his throat. “It’s quite alright, Your Highness. It’s a typical, automatic reaction of the male body in...um...in that sort of situation.”

Male body. Will had a male body. A very nice male body. A male body that must have those same ‘typical reactions.’ Nico wanted to see Will react that way. He wanted to make Will react that way. He wanted to touch Will, to tear off Will’s clothes, to run his hands over Will’s bare skin, and to bite....

Nico blinked away the vivid, enticing scenes infiltrating his mind and realized that Will was still talking. “—so no apologies are necessary,” Will was saying. “It was unintentional, I understand.”

It had not been completely unintentional. The reaction of his body had been automatic, and rutting against Will’s thigh had been an almost reflexive response to the pleasure of being touched, but the thoughts that had led Nico to his predicament in the first place? Those had been very much intentional.

Nico decided that there was no reason to correct him.

“I...” Nico started, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Will didn’t ask him to continue. In fact, Will didn’t say anything at all. Nico wanted to run back to the Sororal Palace and hide under the blankets on his bed forever.

And then a voice called, “Will, is that you?”

Will and Nico’s heads both snapped to the door. The awkward tension fizzled away, but was quickly replaced with terror as Nico realized they were about to be caught. Will glanced at Nico and looked like he was about to say something, but then he hurried to the door and left Nico alone in the room.

“Aw, look at you dressed in your fancy clothes,” cooed the voice. “I saw the light on from the woodshop and I thought it might be you. Have you got a minute to help me with—why is there a dog in here?”

“I...I don’t know,” Nico heard Will say. “I’ll come if you’ll give me a moment to clean the lab.”

“I can help.”

“I can do it on my own. Just go back to the shop and I’ll—”

“Why are you standing like that? Are you hiding something in there?”

“Leo—”

“Let me—”

“Leo, no—”

Nico didn’t realize that he ought to hide until it was too late and Will’s friend had already poked his head inside the room.

“Oh,” said Will’s friend. “That’s interesting.”

“Leo,” Will said, pulling him from the doorway. “Please give me a moment and then I’ll come help you in the shop.”

“Right, yeah, of course,” said Leo blankly. “Take your time. You have to...make sure the lab is clean....”

“Leave,” Will ordered.

Nico hated his body and he hated that he couldn’t help shivering at Will’s tone. He’d never heard Will use such a commanding voice before. It opened up all sorts of new scenarios for Nico to imagine later on.

With Leo’s footsteps fading away, the room fell silent again. Nico pretended to be looking at the floor and prayed that Will would follow after his friend quickly so that Nico could wallow in misery alone.

But instead, Will cleared his throat and stepped back inside the room to approach Nico again. “I’ll escort you back,” Will said. When Nico glanced up, Will’s cheeks were pink and his gaze fixed on his shoes.

He doesn’t want to be around me anymore, Nico realized. He’d made Will uncomfortable. He’d disgusted Will.

“I can do it on my own,” Nico said. “Your friend is waiting for you.”

Will shook his head, but still didn’t meet Nico’s eyes. “I can’t leave you to walk through the city alone at night.”

“I have Asterion,” Nico pointed out.

“At least allow me to escort you to the entrance of the palace,” said Will. “I’d like to see you there safely, if only for my own peace of mind.” Will’s eyes finally flickered up and he held Nico’s gaze for a second before blushing and looking away again.

Nico sighed. “To the palace,” he agreed.

Will offered Nico his arm, but Nico knew it was only to be polite. The entire left side of his body felt like it was burning with Will next to him, like Will was sending over waves of fire to sear off whatever Nico’s touch was contaminating him with.

They didn’t talk. The only sounds were their footsteps and Asterion panting beside them. Nico’s throat itched and he wanted to cough, but he didn’t dare make a noise. He only wanted the walk to be over as quickly as possible. It seemed that the gods had cursed him by making it stretch on for an eternity.

“I’ll meet you again in the morning,” Will said when they finally reached the palace. “Sleep well, Your Highness.”

“Sleep well,” Nico answered.

He made to turn away and leave, but Will touched his shoulder and held him back. Before Nico could even react, Will brushed his lips against Nico’s cheek. Nico felt a spark of hope, realizing that perhaps he hadn’t disgusted Will—but hope was quickly replaced by dread, because Will’s kiss was so chaste that it felt like a rejection.

Will turned away first, but Nico didn’t wait for him to leave before he escaped with Asterion back to the side of the palace to climb back into his room through the window. He quickly picked Asterion up and climbed onto the balcony before helping him back inside, then he ducked into the room to hide in his blankets and pity himself for the rest of his life.

But then a voice said, “Perhaps it would have been easier to use the door.”

Nico whirled around to find Reyna standing in the dark, the moonlight illuminating the hard, disapproving lines of her face. Her arms were crossed and her lips were pursed, her dark eyes burning with anger.

“I was...I...” Nico started, but he faltered when Reyna crossed the room to stand in front of him. Her glare felt even more crippling up close.

“Hedge had the sense to check your chambers at the start of his watch,” Reyna said. “Imagine how worried he was to find you missing. For all we knew, you could have been kidnapped.”

“I wasn’t—”

“I know you weren’t. Fortunately for your reputation, I assumed that you’d run off with your fiancé and I kept your disappearance quiet. When your guards searched the palace without finding you, I nearly sent out the city’s night watch. Imagine the scandal it would have caused if you’d been discovered alone with a suitor at night.”

“Reyna—”

“I won’t cover for you again,” Reyna interrupted. “I shouldn’t have covered for you at all! What if I’d been wrong? What if something had happened to you and I didn’t do anything about it? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to be out after dark in such a large city? Even Venadica has its crime, Your Highness. I need to be able to trust that you take your own safety seriously.”

“I know,” Nico said before Reyna could lecture him further. “I won’t do it again.”

Reyna looked both skeptical and perplexed by Nico’s lack of resistance.

“I learned my lesson,” Nico added. “From now until the wedding, I’ll be sure to stay with a chaperone every time I meet Will. I won’t sneak away again.”

Reyna drummed her fingers against her elbow. She looked him over silently for a moment, then pointed to a chair by the window and said, “Sit.”

Nico wanted nothing more than to fall into his bed and wallow in self-pity until the morning, but he obeyed. Reyna lit a standing gas lamp in the corner of the room before joining him. She did not sit; instead, she stood over him, her expression still so harsh and disappointed that Nico slumped into his chair in defeat.

“Your posture,” Reyna reminded, and Nico forced himself to sit up straight. “Tell me exactly what happened,” she said.

Nico shook his head. It had been so mortifying, so unspeakable, and he had no desire to relive it. He’d never tell anyone what had happened.

“You won’t tell my father about this, will you?” he asked.

“I am obligated to report to His Majesty,” Reyna said.

“But—”

“I have already kept enough secrets for you,” she reminded.

“Please, Reyna,” Nico said. “I won’t ask you to do this again. Telling my father won’t accomplish anything other than making me more miserable. I’ve learned my lesson and I won’t cause any more trouble—I swear it.”

Reyna was quiet as she carefully looked him over. “Alright. I’ll trust that you are being sincere.”

Nico let out a breath in relief.

“But,” Reyna went on, and Nico tensed again. “If something went wrong while you were off frolicking with your fiancé—” Nico tried to object to the word ‘frolicking,’ but Reyna ignored him, “—then I need to know what happened.”

Nico felt the blood drain from his face. “No. I can’t say.”

Reyna sighed and when she spoke again, her voice was softer. “You won’t be in any trouble, Your Highness. I only need you to tell me if Lord William did anything that I, as a chaperone, should be aware of.”

Nico frowned. “What? Will? No! Do you think Will is the most problematic of the two of us?”

“No, but I assumed you would be boasting about it if it had been your fault. Was I wrong?”

“It wasn’t exactly my fault, either,” Nico said defensively. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, I just...just...Will said it was normal! An automatic response!”

Reyna’s eyes widened before Nico realized he’d said too much. “Do you mean...” she trailed off and vaguely gestured to Nico’s lower body. “And it was unplanned?”

Nico’s face burned, but he couldn’t deny it. “I do have some shame,” he snapped. “I didn’t sneak out with the intention of bedding him. I just...got excited.”

“And Lord William noticed?”

Nico whimpered.

It was rare to hear Reyna laugh. While she smiled at Nico and sometimes softly chuckled, full laughs did not happen often. But when Nico was unable to do more than whine pathetically, Reyna laughed so hard that she clutched her sides and doubled over.

“Stop laughing at me!” Nico demanded, but Reyna did not obey.

“Impossibile,” she said. “You see: laughing, much like the engorgement a certain part of your anatomy, is an automatic response to certain stimuli. You cannot order me to stop laughing any more than you can order your physiology to stop functioning.”

“I don’t appear to have very good control over my anatomy,” Nico grumbled.

“I would say that you got what you deserved, but I must admit...that is too severe a punishment,” she said, dabbing at her eyes.

Nico was outraged—was she crying from laughing so hard? “And that is why I’m promising to behave!” he snapped. “I have suffered enough already, so stop laughing!”

“I shouldn’t taunt, I know,” Reyna said. She took a deep breath and used her sleeve to wipe tears from her eyes. Sighing, Nico pulled a handkerchief from the pocket in his coat and offered it to her. She thanked him and tried to compose herself.

“It’s nice to know that the most embarrassing moment of my life offers you some amusement,” Nico said sarcastically when she offered the handkerchief back. “At least some good came out of it; that makes it entirely worthwhile. Now do you believe that I will behave?”

“I believe you for now,” Reyna said. “Once the embarrassment wears off, I’m sure you’ll go back to causing trouble.”

“I wouldn’t—actually, that’s true. But for now, I am mortified and you ought to console me.”

“I’m sure your fiancé understands your automatic anatomical troubles. After all, he has the same equipment and he is a student of medicine.”

“Thank you, Reyna,” Nico grumbled, not feeling any better. “But you won’t tell my father, will you?”

“No, I won’t tell your father,” Reyna promised. “That would be uncomfortable for everyone. But that being said, there is no need to be ashamed of your feelings, Your Highness. Of course I have to make sure you behave a certain way, but that does not mean that your love for him is shameful. Now, I may be from Mars, but I understand that Pluto is more strict about this sort of thing than Jupiter is. I respect Pluto’s modesty and I have chaperoned you with Plutonian standards, but I do worry about what sort of pressure that has put on you. I was not in charge of your sexual education—”

Nico flushed. “Reyna, must we talk about—”

“Yes, Your Highness. I think it is very important that we discuss this, no matter how uncomfortable it is. As I was saying, I was not in charge of your sexual education and I do not know how you were taught, but I suspect you were led to believe that desires were shameful. Is that correct?”

Still embarrassingly red in the face, Nico nodded.

“Then allow me to assure you that there is absolutely nothing shameful about your body or your physical desires. No, I can’t allow you to act on them until you are married, but you ought to know that there is nothing wrong with your feelings. They are perfectly normal.”

Nico sank into his chair. “I shouldn’t think about Will that way. It’s disrespectful.”

“I do not believe you would would ever want to hurt or disrespect him. It seems much more plausible to say that he was surprised, not offended.”

“I suppose so. But...it’s disgusting.”

“It’s not,” Reyna said. “And I cannot speak for Lord William, but I think I can promise that he does not find you or your attraction to him disgusting.”

“Reyna, I just can’t stop thinking about him and it scares me. Then I started feeling like this and I was so afraid that he’d find out, but now he has found out and I don’t know what to do. What am I going to do next time I see him? What if it happens again?”

“It won’t happen again because from now on, I won’t let you out of my sight,” Reyna assured, with surprisingly little anger. “Not only will you have to stay by my side for the remainder of this trip, I am also going to request that you are moved to a room on a higher floor to keep you from sneaking out the window.”

Nico sighed. “I knew that was coming.”

“Then you know that you won’t get another chance to be alone with him until your wedding. After that, I won’t stop you.”

He blushed and avoided Reyna’s eyes.

“As for tomorrow: you will smile and wish him a good morning,” Reyna continued. “I will take you to a private balcony for breakfast. I’ll give you enough space for you to talk with him openly. It may be uncomfortable, but I want you to at least try.”

“I’d rather just stay in bed all day,” Nico muttered.

“When have I ever allowed you to do that?”

“I keep hoping.”

Reyna smiled at him fondly. “We’ll worry about it tomorrow,” she said. “For now, it’s best if you get some sleep.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Nico mumbled.

“Then at least rest,” Reyna said. “And if my opinion is worth anything, I don’t believe that it will take long to work this out.”

* * *

Will wasn’t sure how Leo had gotten him to agree to help, but it was already in the early hours of the next day and Will was still locked up in one of the wood shops, working with Leo on a section of the spinning machine he and Calypso were inventing together. Jo was helping them build it, but she had to take care of the children and Calypso had evening rehearsal for a show with the Venadican choir. To Leo’s credit, he hadn’t mentioned the awkward scene he’d walked in on earlier in the evening—in fact, Leo had such a short attention span that Will wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d forgotten about it. Still, Will was tired and his mind was still spinning from the incident with Nico. He wanted nothing more than to go to bed.

“At least let me finish the roller,” Leo said when Will suggested they turn in for the night.

Will sighed but resigned himself to staying awake a while longer. His arm was sore from spinning the lathe so Leo could carve one of the machine’s rollers. The carpentry shop Leo liked to use had plenty of treadle lathes, but Leo claimed to prefer using the two-person one because his foot got tired from spinning it himself. Will thought that was only an excuse so that he didn’t have to be in the shop on his own; despite his enthusiasm about eliminating the need for manual labor in favor of automatic machinery, Leo liked the company. So Will was stuck with his friend in the carpentry shop late at night, nodding along sleepily while Leo shouted to be heard over the sound of the knife scraping against the wood.

“Hydraulic power is easier to harness, but soon the steam engine...Will? Are you even listening?”

“I’m trying to,” Will answered. “Leo, I’m meeting the Prince tomorrow and I’d like to at least get a bit of sleep.”

“Oh, fine,” Leo sighed, putting aside his knife. “Jo is better at carpentry than I am, anyway. I’ll ask for her help tomorrow.”

Will let his arm fall to his side, relieved to finally get a rest. While Leo put away his tools, Will sat by Leo’s bench and let his eyes shut in exhaustion. He could feel himself starting to drift to sleep.

Suddenly, against the back of his eyelids, Will saw Nico—Nico standing so close that their chests touched, Nico gazing at him with that odd, predatory look in his eyes, Nico kissing him, Nico’s face painted red in embarrassment after Will accidentally felt between his legs.

Will blushed and snapped his eyes back open. As a student of medicine, he was rarely uncomfortable with any aspect of anatomy. Will had also learned about breeding and seen the way animals behaved during their mating seasons while growing up near his family’s ranch. Although many people around his age were embarrassed or aroused by the topic of physical excitement, Will rarely felt particularly bothered because he simply viewed it as a natural phenomenon. Erections were the male body’s involuntary response to direct stimulation. Nico’s reaction had been typical for someone of his sex, even indicative of good health.

Will couldn’t remember ever feeling so flustered over something as trivial as anatomy. Although he had assured Nico that it was a physically normal reaction, he couldn’t help but think that it had been a bit more complex than an involuntary anatomical response. There had been no “direct stimulation” prior to Will accidentally pressing against Nico; all they had done was kiss. If Nico had felt aroused while kissing Will, the only explanation was that Nico was attracted to Will.

Of course Will had considered the fact that he and Nico would eventually enter into a sexual relationship, but he hadn’t put much thought into it. It had been something in the back of his mind, something that seemed far off and not immediately important. The only time Will had actually worried about it was when Octavian had mentioned offering Nico his “services”—which was, quite possibly, the most repulsive thought that had ever been forced into Will’s head.

But if Nico was attracted to Will, did that mean that Nico wanted to sleep with Will? Nico had told Will that he loved him, but that didn’t necessarily imply he wanted to be with Will that way. Or did it? After all, Will had a tendency to misunderstand or even underestimate Nico’s feelings for him.

The idea had entered Will’s mind several times—mostly when his older siblings were teasing him about it—but Will couldn’t remember actively desiring Nico that way. When Will touched himself, he sometimes considered the fact that he’d eventually touch Nico the same way, and the idea certainly hadn’t been unappealing. Intimacy with Nico sounded nice. Will would be happy to share that with Nico, if it would bring Nico pleasure. The wedding was still months away, however, so there was no need to worry about it yet. Will wouldn’t touch Nico that way before they married.

Of course, he knew that marriage was not a requirement for intimacy. If Apollo’s complex web of lovers wasn’t enough evidence of that, Will was also an accidental witness of the fact that Cal and Leo were in a very active sexual relationship. But Nico was a prince. Cal and Leo didn’t have the same pressures that royalty would.

“Are you ready?” Leo asked, suddenly pulling Will from his thoughts.

“Right, of course,” Will said, getting to his feet and brushing off his breeches. He sighed when he realized that he may very well have ruined his suit with the dust in the woodshop.

“So,” Leo started casually as they walked outside. “Is there anything you’d like to share?”

“Not particularly,” Will said. “Leo, do you remember the time that I went to your room without knocking and accidentally walked in on—”

“I try to forget,” Leo answered.

“What is...why...how do you...?”

Leo looked unimpressed. “I think you know how it’s done, Will.”

“I don’t mean physically. I mean...how did you know she wanted to?”

Leo laughed. “I admit that I have trouble understanding other people, but Cal wasn’t shy.”

“How did you know you wanted to?”

“I don’t know; I just did. I’ve been attracted to her for a long time, same as you and your prince.”

Will had been in love with Nico for a long time, not attracted to him, but he decided not to correct Leo. “Sometimes he looks at me in an odd way, like you and Cal look at each other before you drag each other off somewhere alone,” Will said. “And he kisses me a lot. I’m just a bit confused—”

“What is there to be confused about?” Leo asked. “I’m fairly certain that I witnessed something I wasn’t supposed to this evening. He obviously wants you.”

Will frowned.

“Your body,” Leo explained. “More specifically, your genitalia.”

“I understand that, Leo,” Will sighed. “Today, he kissed me and I accidentally rubbed against his—”

“Gods, Will, I don’t need that much detail,” Leo interrupted.

“Right,” Will said, deciding to give up. He wasn’t quite sure how to express what he was thinking and feeling, and Leo didn’t appear to understand. He bid Leo goodnight and set off for the Palace on his own, still feeling confused.

Will had enjoyed kissing Nico earlier. He had started to feel less concerned about the rules of courting a prince and instead had felt excited when they escaped from their chaperones.

Will reached up to touch his lips, remembering the Nico’s passionate enthusiasm—the way he’d kissed Will, held Will, pulled Will closer. And when Will wrapped his arms around Nico....

As much as Will loved to kiss Nico, nothing felt better than holding Nico in his arms. Nico’s build was firm and strong. When Will held him, it was like he’d found something safe and solid to keep himself steady in a storm. Will had wanted to cling to Nico and to squeeze him tightly against his chest. He’d wanted to press his nose into the top of Nico’s head and hide his face in Nico’s black hair so that he could pretend that nothing else in the world mattered.

Will sighed when he got back to his bedchamber and barely managed to undress himself before falling onto the bed in exhaustion.

The idea of sharing a bed with someone felt foreign to him. It seemed foolish not to have considered it more; after all, their wedding was only months away. How had Will neglected to consider intimacy for so long?

Perhaps Will still hadn’t completely grasped how real Nico was. Although Will had grown so much closer to him over the past year, he’d admired Nico as more of an idol than a person for much of his childhood. The idea of a physical relationship with someone who existed only on a pedestal was so absurd that Nico may as well have been an object rather than a person.

But Nico was a real person, no different from Will. Yes, he was a prince, but Nico and Will were equal in dignity and value. Will had slowly been realizing that since the beginning of their engagement, but he had failed to consider other ways in which they were equal. As Will had been recently reminded, he and Nico were also the same physically. Nico had an ordinary male body and experienced ordinary desires. It shouldn’t have been surprising that Nico had reacted to Will the way he did. The surprising thing was that Will remained so far behind. Why hadn’t he noticed Nico’s attraction? Why hadn’t he reacted the same way?

Perhaps the real root of Will’s problem was that he had never completely understood ‘desire’ to begin with. Did he even want intimacy?

I wouldn’t mind, said a voice in Will’s head.

He wanted to be close to Nico, that much was certain. He would feel comfortable lying beside Nico, kissing Nico, and opening his heart to Nico. But as for touching Nico that way?

Will closed his eyes and imagined that Nico was with him. They were in the Palatium de Divitae, sharing a large, soft bed. Sheer curtains covered the windows for privacy, but they could see the night sky outside. They had been watching the stars together, then Will had turned to look at Nico instead.

“I love you,” he whispered. His fingers curled in the bedsheets, imagining that he was holding Nico’s hand. In his mind, he saw Nico smile and heard him whisper the words back. Nico leaned closer, touched Will’s shoulder, and kissed him. The kiss lasted so long that Will forgot how to tell time and turned to liquid under Nico’s hands when they started to roam over his body. Will imagined himself responding and answering Nico’s touches with his own. Every time Will’s hands felt him, Nico’s skin would flush, his body would arch, and he would make the most amazing, mesmerizing sounds. They would whisper words of love over and over again, even when it was over, and then they would hold each other until morning.

Yes, Will decided; intimacy with Nico sounded quite nice.

* * *

Nico did manage to fall asleep at some point, but he woke up feeling groggy and confused. When he remembered what had happened the night before, he groaned and hid back under his blankets.

“Get up,” Reyna demanded, pulling the blankets back down. “There’s no point in lying around feeling miserable. Today, you’re going to put on a nice suit and walk to breakfast with your head held high.”

“Impossible,” Nico scowled, trying to dive under the blankets again.

“I will raise the kissing quota if you stop acting so pathetic.”

Nico pulled down the blankets a little bit to peer out at her. It was rare for Reyna to resort to bribing. “You’re lying, aren’t you?” he said skeptically.

“I’m not,” Reyna assured. “I will allow more kisses per day if you get out of bed right now and wear a smile.”

Nico considered. “It’s not worth it,” he decided, then covered himself in blankets again.

“I swear to the gods!” Reyna shouted.

After a bit more bickering, Reyna did manage to get Nico out of bed. Unfortunately, he’d missed the opportunity to raise the kissing quota, but he wasn’t sure if Will wanted to kiss him anyway.

But when they got to the balcony, there was Will waiting for him wearing a sunny smile like nothing was wrong at all. If anything, he looked happier than usual.

“Good morning,” Will said. “I hope you slept well?”

“Yes, thank you,” Nico croaked, even though he hadn’t. “And you?”

“Very well, yes,” Will answered. He sounded surprisingly genuine.

“Good,” Nico said. “Well, shall we—”

“Wait,” Will said, grabbing Nico’s arm before he could sit down. “I wanted to tell you that...I mean...I wanted you to know...uh...I love you.”

Even after what I did last night? Nico wanted to ask, but Will didn’t give Nico the chance to question him. He kissed Nico for so long that he started to feel dizzy from holding his breath. With Will’s warm lips moving slowly against his, Nico was melting, falling into Will. Yet he was weightless—his feet were lifting up from the ground and all that kept him from floating away was the need to touch Will.

Nico’s fingers grasped Will’s sleeve firmly to keep himself grounded. For the first time, it was like Will understood the way he made Nico’s heart race, his mind spin, and his body ache. Will knew exactly what he did to Nico. And Will wasn’t disgusted or afraid; he chose to touch Nico even though he was aware of the way Nico reacted to him. And yes, Nico was afraid that he’d become aroused and ruin everything, but he knew that if he hadn’t scared Will away before, he certainly wouldn’t that time. Nico loved Will, he wanted Will, and maybe it wasn’t completely shameful that he felt the way he did.

When Will pulled back and waved for Nico to take a seat at their table, Nico glanced over his shoulder at Reyna to confirm that he hadn’t imagined that Will had, in fact, kissed him. Reyna just smiled at him and took a few steps back.

Nico turned back to Will and cleared his throat as they sat down. “We should talk about....” Nico gestured vaguely between them.

Will nodded in agreement as a maid in silver came to pour their tea. Nico waited until she left for Will to speak, but even after they were alone, Will just watched him patiently like he was waiting for Nico to start. Nico cleared his throat again and tried to think of how to start. Finally, he said, “I was afraid that you’d be disgusted.”

“By something like that?” Will said with a disbelieving shake of his head. “No, of course not. It was normal physiology.”

Nico took a deep breath. “But it means...you know what it means, don’t you? About how I feel about you?”

Will was silent for half a second before answering. “Yes. I know.”

Nico waited. Will didn’t continue. He took a deep breath and asked, “What about you?”

Will’s smile wavered and he glanced down, away from Nico’s eyes. “I intend to follow the rules of courting, Your Highness.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

Will nodded. “I know.”

Nico waited, but Will didn’t add anything else. “Never mind,” Nico said, trying not to sound disappointed. “It doesn’t matter right now anyway—”

“Wait,” Will interrupted. He started to say something else, but stopped. After trying a few more times, he smiled sheepishly. “Last night, I stayed awake for hours planning what to say, and now I’m suddenly too nervous to talk,” he said with a shy laugh. “At least give me the chance to explain?”

“What do you mean?” Nico asked.

“I mean that we went too far yesterday, but I didn’t dislike it,” Will said. “When we kissed like that...I felt good.”

“Oh,” Nico whispered. “I...I did, too.”

“Yes, I noticed,” Will said, his cheeks reddening. “And I think that I would also like...uh...with you.”

Nico was so distracted by how pretty Will looked wearing that embarrassed expression that it took a moment for him to understand what Will had said. “That’s...you would?”

Will nodded and he put his hand on the table between them, palm up. Without even thinking, Nico took it. “I love you,” Will said simply and easily, like he wasn’t at all embarrassed or uncomfortable about his feelings. He put his other hand over Nico’s on the table and squeezed it. “Yesterday, you asked me if I’d ever felt the things Sappho wrote about, and I have—with you. I know what it’s like when your heart beats so hard that it hurts. I get cold chills when you whisper in my ear. My limbs feel numb every time you kiss me. And this is all new to me, but I think when it’s with you...that would be very nice.” He cleared his throat. “We can’t, of course. I think it would be wise for us to have someone chaperoning at all times to ensure that what happened yesterday doesn’t happen again.”

“I understand,” Nico said.

“That being said,” Will continued, “I know that you have a tendency to break the rules. So perhaps it would be alright to push the boundaries a little bit.”

“Oh,” said Nico. The taste of Will’s mouth was still lingering on his lips, but it was fading. Suddenly, his desire to kiss Will came roaring back and he had to bite his cheek to distract himself from his desire to pounce on his fiancé. “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

“Well, I did enjoy what we did yesterday,” Will said, running his thumbs over Nico’s fingers. “And as long as we don’t let it get out of hand...I said having a chaperone would be ‘wise,’ but I think we can be wise enough on our own.”

“Reyna caught me coming back in last night,” Nico said with a shake of his head. “She’s moving my room to the upper floors so that I can’t sneak out the window at night again.”

“Pity,” Will said. “Well, we’ll have to think of something else. I’m sure there will be another opportunity to sneak away at some point this week.” He raised Nico’s hand to his lips, kissed it, and gave Nico a reassuring smile, and they spent the rest of the meal plotting their escape when they weren’t too busy kissing.

#Nico di Angelo #Will solace #solangelo #solangelo fanfiction #solangelo fanfic #royalty au #arranged marriage AU #solangelo arranged marriage au #pjo Arranged Marriage au #pjo royalty au #solangelo royalty au #pjo fanfiction #my fic #toa #trials of apollo #Heroes of Olympus #hoo #pjo #Percy Jackson and the Olympians

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gatesofember · 6 years

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Meadows of the Sea: Chapter 2

PJO Arranged Marriage/Royalty AU Part 7

Rating: M | Pairing: Percabeth, Jiper, Solangelo

Prev | Next | AU directory | Read it on AO3 (Recommended) | Arranged Marriage AU Masterpage

Summary: Prince Percy couldn’t be happier. After years of waiting, he is finally marrying the friend and lover he has been betrothed to since childhood. Prince Nico invites his fiancé to accompany him to the wedding, where he can’t help but dream about his own pending marriage. Prince Jason, who has been unable to secure a new engagement after Reyna’s rejection, may finally find the right woman to make his empress.

Nico and Will had arrived in Neptune a day before the wedding began. They hadn’t gotten much of a chance to explore the city on their own yet; Percy had taken the time to meet with Nico for a while and then Jason had accompanied them for the remainder of the afternoon. Nico had been obviously displeased about it, but Will hadn’t minded. Will thought Jason was easy to get along with. Besides, he knew that he would have plenty of time alone with his fiancé later on.

Will had never been with Nico for so long before. Other times they’d met, it had been for a few days at a time, a week at most. This time, however, they would be together for over a month—from the time Nico arrived in Phoebus, during their journey to Neptune, through Percy and Annabeth’s wedding festivities, until they went back to Pluto and Will left to continue his schooling in Venadica.

It had taken a day to travel by carriage to the Dianan coast. Reyna had been in the carriage with them while Hedge was seated on the outside with Mellie, supposedly acting as Nico’s guard. Mellie was accompanying Will as a chaperone after a suspiciously sudden change of plans made Chiron unable to leave Diana.

Reyna’s presence in the carriage left Nico and Will with a pleasant excuse to sit beside each other instead of opposite. However, it also made Will too nervous to enjoy their time together. He’d always been a bit intimidated by Reyna, but her rage following their disappearance in Delphi had terrified him. He had been careful to act like the perfect gentleman ever since.

Nico had not been so concerned. He had touched Will’s hand, then held it, then linked their fingers, which left Will’s mind occupied with uninvited images of holding and kissing him. He tried to subtly and politely communicate his discomfort, but Nico hadn’t appeared to have gotten the message. Reyna finally scolded them when Nico started to inch a bit closer, so then Nico had behaved for a little while. Soon after, however, he reached out and put his hand on Will’s and the cycle repeated itself. The third time Reyna intervened, she banned all unnecessary physical contact.

Naturally, that didn’t completely stop Nico. Will was beginning to understand that Nico did not enjoy being told what to do. He was somewhat glad for it, even if it did get Will in trouble now and then.

After reaching the Dianan coast, they’d gone the rest of the way by sea. Will had seen the Juvian coast and he had been on the water before, but sailing to Neptune was an entirely different experience. The Prata Pontonia had grown more beautiful the closer to Neptune they got, and Will fell more in love every second he spent with Nico. He suspected that the voyage from Diana to Neptune was not one that he would forget.

Will had entertained Nico with stories about his friend Leo’s silly ideas about using steam to propel boats through the water. They’d tried—and failed—to steal a few secret kisses when they thought no one was looking. They’d met clandestinely on the deck late in the evening, only to be caught by Reyna and Hedge. There had been a long lecture about their behavior before they were sent off to their private rooms onboard the ship, but when Nico smiled at him during breakfast the next morning, Will nearly forgot that it had even happened.

Nico was falling in love with him. He could hear it in Nico’s voice and he could feel it every time Nico reached out to touch him. When Nico looked at him, he gazed with an intensity like Will consumed his whole mind. Nico’s expressions had been so blunted at the beginning of their engagement, but Nico had begun to show Will so many new faces. There were gentle smiles like the ones he wore when talking about his sister, shy blushes that Will had never expected to see from the Prince, and serious, passionate faces that made Will feel like he was melting.

And Will was falling in love, too. He always had admired Nico, but something about the realization that his feelings were reciprocated made the entire thing so much more real. Could it be that Nico saw something in Will that was just as amazing as what Will saw in Nico? What did Will look like to Nico’s eyes? Did Will have the same effect on Nico’s heart that Nico did on his? Was it possible that Will occupied Nico’s mind even half as often as Nico occupied his? These were terrifying and alien ideas. Will still hadn’t quite been able to grasp that it was true: he was important—just as important as Nico.

I am in love and I am loved, Will had been telling himself every day since Nico had asked Will to kiss him. I am in love and I am loved.

They had arrived in Neptune the night before the wedding celebrations began and Reyna sent them both to their rooms, allowing them no time to explore the city. On the morning of the first day of the wedding, they met for a meal but separated to prepare for the evening’s masked ball. Mellie helped Will get ready, but she seemed very distracted by concerns about her own appearance, constantly checking her hair and the gathers on her skirts. Will suspected it had to do with Nico’s guard.

It was early in the evening when Will left with Mellie to meet Nico before the ball. Will was glad that he had time to compose himself while waiting for Nico to emerge from his quarters. He couldn’t stop looking at his coat for imaginary wrinkles or touching his hair, which Mellie had relentlessly managed to tackle into something somewhat tamed. Mellie had told him to stop. Will had responded to good-naturedly tease her about how she was similarly concerned with smoothing out her skirts.

Will hadn’t grown used to the mask on his face quite yet. Although Apollo had offered to have a new one made when Will learned that there would be a masked ball on the first day of the wedding, Will had asked if he could use an old one that belonged to Lee instead. He’d seen Lee wear it when he was still courting Lou Ellen and remembered being in awe of the golden sun emblem of the Dianan house that was on the forehead. Lee, having noticed how much Will loved the mask, had promised to pass it down to him. Lee’s nose was smaller than Will’s, however, so the mask didn’t lay quite right.

Will was still running his hands over his coat when the door opened and he immediately snapped his arms to his sides. “Your Highness,” he greeted with a bow, and then he looked up. Nico was wearing green, just like he had on the night they first met. His coat was lined in black and silver and his mask was green like his coat, with a vaguely reptilian texture that made him look terrifying—but still handsome.

Nico looked at him in silence. His expression was indiscernible and unnerving behind his mask. “Your Highness?” Will asked.

Nico cleared his throat. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear black,” he said.

“Oh,” Will said, glancing down at his own coat. “No, I don’t usually. But it is a masked ball. There’s no better time to pretend not to be yourself.”

Nico was quiet for a second, and Will hated that he couldn’t read Nico’s expression. “Yes,” Nico said, his lips finally smiling. “It has been a very long time since I have been to one.”

“Then I’m delighted to escort you,” Will said, offering his arm. Reyna hadn’t lifted the ban on unnecessary physical contact, but touching arms to escort each other was permitted. He glanced at Reyna and Hedge nervously to make sure he hadn’t done anything wrong. Hedge was too busy ogling at Mellie, who looked very pretty in her pale dress and mask, but Reyna seemed to be on high alert. She was also masked, but still wore the Sorority’s silver gown and looked as intimidating as ever. Despite Nico’s assurances that Reyna approved of him, Will always felt like he wasn’t meeting her expectations.

Reyna nodded to him, which Will took to mean that he had permission to continue, so he led Nico out of the guest wing. “You look stunning,” Will said, realizing that he’d forgotten to compliment Nico earlier. Hopefully, his absent mindedness hadn’t made him seem like a neglectful escort.

Nico was quiet for a moment and Will wondered if Nico had heard him. Then Nico cleared his throat and said, “Well, you...you look very...good.”

“Thank you,” Will said, deciding not to question Nico’s strange tone. He did wonder, though—was it because Will had complimented him? Will always felt flustered when Nico complimented him. Or perhaps Nico really meant what he’d said; he thought Will looked nice.

Will was glad that his mask would cover most of his blush. He still hadn’t quite grown used to the idea that Nico actually loved him and he hadn’t considered that Nico might find him attractive. Will knew that he wasn’t especially handsome, but it didn’t bother him much. His older brothers were the most attractive ones in the family, so Will wasn’t used to people commenting on his appearance; he was more often praised for his kindness. It was embarrassing and almost uncomfortable to think that Nico might consider him handsome. But he was also flattered, even if he did feel a bit confused.

“I don’t think Hedge will be a problem tonight,” Nico said in a low voice.

Will looked over his shoulder to see Hedge and Mellie whispering and blushing. It seemed that Hedge would be too occupied to pay them much attention.

“So we only have to worry about losing Reyna,” Nico continued.

Will couldn’t decide whether to sigh or laugh. “Your Highness, I am trying to make a good impression on Lady Reyna—”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve told you, Reyna knows I’m the troublesome one. I have years of practice sneaking.”

“I don’t her to be upset with you, either.”

“I can deal with it. Anyway, I think she’ll be more lenient tonight because of the masks.”

Will wondered if Nico was thinking about kissing him again. He hoped so. The first time they’d kissed, Will had been so overcome with a desire to wrap his arms around Nico and hold him that he’d almost given in. He had been careful not to overstep any boundaries, however; he hadn’t been absolutely sure what Nico wanted and he’d feared that he’d only ruin it.

The corridors were lined with guests outfitted in gorgeous costumes and the hall was already crowded when they entered. Will gawked at the blue and gold walls, the massive windows overlooking the sea, and the painted ceiling depicting Pontus and his children, but Nico hurried him along. “We’ll lose them in the crowd, just as we did the last time,” Nico was saying.

Will sighed, but followed him anyway. “And I do recall warning you last time that it was a bad idea to hide from the chaperones.”

“Yes, and you were wrong. It was a brilliant idea last time and it is brilliant this time. Didn’t you enjoy being alone in Delphi?”

Will blushed. “Of course I did,” he replied quietly. He knew that those secret first kisses would always be among his favorite memories.

Nico glanced over his shoulder again before leading Will to the chocolate fountain. Will reminded himself that he would have to mention it to Leo; he had never heard of filling a fountain with chocolate rather than water before. Percy was known for being rather extravagant when it came to celebrations. Although it had only just begun, Will suspected that Prince Percy’s wedding would be remembered for years to come.

Will left Nico for a moment to get cups of chocolate for Nico and himself. “I love Neptunian chocolate,” Will said as he offered Nico his drink. “In Diana, we import cocoa from Venus.”

“My mother grows cocoa, but even with our conservatories, Plutonian chocolate isn’t quite as good as Neptunian,” Nico replied. “Our weather isn’t right for it.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Will said. He’d had Plutonian chocolate in Venadica. “Nothing is ever quite as good when grown outside of its native range.”

“Cocoa is not native to Neptune,” Nico corrected. “The climate may be good for it, but cocoa comes from islands south of Aegyptia.”

“Does it?” Will asked. He really did need to pay better attention in his trade and economics lessons.

“Neptune merely made chocolate famous in the Romanus Terris,” Nico said. “Neptunians have a habit of claiming things that are not theirs. For another, Neptune is famous for its masked balls, but Pluto is where they originated.” The corner of Nico’s mouth quirked up, but his eyes remained unreadable behind his mask. Once again, Will felt a bit intimidated by the reptilian features obscuring Nico’s expression. But it was still Nico, whom Will had grown to not only admire but love. It was still Nico, whom Will had kissed in a hedge maze while smoke from fireworks cooled in the dark sky. It was still Nico, only wrapped back up in the mystery that had absorbed him before Will had grown to know him.

“Of course, masked balls are rare in Pluto now,” Nico continued, walking off towards the side of the hall like he was unaware of exactly how much he captivated Will. “I have not attended one since....”

Nico hesitated. Will thought he understood: Nico had not attended a masked ball since he was a child, since Pluto’s wealth was depleted, since the Scarlet Delirium ravaged his kingdom.

“Bianca and I used to play games when we donned our masks,” Nico went on after taking a sip of chocolate from his cup. “We would pretend to be legendary heroes or farmers or miners or even animals.”

Will couldn’t think of a response before Nico turned to look at him. His dark eyes were still beautiful and frightening and made Will stop in his tracks. Nico took a step closer to Will, so close that Will almost moved back. “I don’t see Reyna anymore,” Nico said.

The sudden switch in conversation confused Will for a moment. “Reyna...?” he asked, glancing around and realizing that Nico had led him to a less crowded corner of the room, where one wall was lined with windows and the other was paneled with gold.

“It has been a while since we managed to be alone,” Nico continued.

“Less than a week,” Will pointed out nervously as Nico stepped even closer—so close that they were only separated by the cups of chocolate they held in front of themselves. “And we aren’t really alone right now, so perhaps—”

“We are alone enough,” Nico said. “With masks, we can pretend.”

“Pretend...?” Will asked, looking over his shoulder again. He was almost relieved to spot a blond head in the crowd. Most of the guests had dark Neptunian hair, so Will did not have much trouble recognizing Jupiter’s prince. “I think that might be Prince Jason,” Will commented as he glanced back at Nico. “Would you like to—”

Nico’s lips set in a firm line. “No.”

“I really don’t understand why you dislike him so much,” Will said. After Nico had left the Expo that summer, Jason had extended a few invitations to dine with him, Thalia, and Annabeth. He had even gone to Will’s exhibit with Annabeth one morning and seemed genuinely interested in Will’s project. Will thought that Jason seemed very likable, but Nico disagreed whenever Will expressed that. Eventually, Nico had explained his discomfort with the fact that Jason had courted Reyna, but had admitted he knew his fear that they might resume their engagement was groundless.

“I don’t dislike him,” Nico replied in a bitter voice. “He’s very difficult to dislike. Did I tell you that he wrote to me a few times over the past several months?” He said it like he was scandalized by Jason’s insolence and resentful that Jason was so agreeable.

“His Imperial Highness seems like a very kind young man,” Will said, suppressing a smile. He found that Nico’s stubbornness could be quite endearing, even though it did sometimes confuse him.

Nico pursed his lips. “I’d much rather spend the evening with you,” he said, then his lips softened and he smiled up at Will.

Will had to wonder if Nico had only said that because he knew that it would silence any further arguments. Will hadn’t bothered to keep his admiration of Nico secret and Nico was clearly cunning enough to take advantage of that, as demonstrated by his tendency to cause trouble for his chaperone and guard. But Will also knew that even if Nico was taking advantage of Will’s feelings, he hadn’t lied. He did want to spend the evening with Will. And how could Will argue against that?

“Stop thinking about everyone else,” Nico said, setting his cup down on the ledge of the window beside them. “Are you trying to escape from me? Do you not want to be alone with me?”

Will was fairly certain that Nico was taunting him. Nico may not have had Will’s education, but he was intelligent and cunning. He must have known exactly what he was doing to Will.

“Of course I want to be alone with you,” Will said. “I only...I’m...I’m a bit nervous.”

“Why would you be nervous?”

“I don’t think I’m allowed—”

“Don’t think about what is allowed.” Nico’s hands slid over Will’s and brought Will’s cup to his lips. Will flushed when Nico took a long sip of chocolate, his dark eyes fixed on Will unblinkingly.

“Your Hi—” Will started.

Nico put his finger against Will’s lips to silence him. “Don’t call me that now. That’s the fun of masks, isn’t it? I’m not Prince Nico. You’re not Lord William.”

Will swallowed nervously as Nico’s finger slid back away, tugging gently at his lower lip. His eyes darted around, looking for either Reyna or Hedge and fearing their disapproval, but then Nico stepped even closer and Will’s worries disappeared. After all, it was a masked ball. If they were not the Prince and his fiancé, what did they need chaperones for?

“Who shall we be?” Will asked.

“You are a healer in a small town in Ceres,” Nico answered. “I am a local hunter. We have known each other all our lives and we’ve been friends since childhood.”

“Are we engaged?” Will asked in a whisper.

“Not yet.”

“Will we be engaged soon?”

Nico grinned. “That depends on how the game plays out. Are you prepared to woo me?”

“I’ll certainly try,” Will said, but he didn’t know how. Why had Nico wanted to kiss him in Delphi? What had Will done to make Nico start to love him?

“You must,” Nico said. “I’ve nearly given up on you. You’ve barely spoken to me this past year. We were so close when we were young, but then we suddenly grew apart. I hardly see you anymore; we only meet occasionally if we’re both in the square or I find an excuse to visit your clinic. What happened?”

Will wet his lips nervously. It wasn’t easy to be creative with Nico standing so close or with Nico’s bottomless eyes staring at him from behind a terrifying, reptilian mask. He thought back to times when he had played make believe with his siblings or his friends as a child. He remembered how just a few weeks ago Kayla had suddenly handed him a doll and demanded he play with her. He imagined the night that he had met Nico as a child, recalling how immediately he had been captivated by the other boy. Even the next morning, he hadn’t been sure if it had really happened or if he had made the whole incident up. For years after that, Nico had been a character in every childish fantasy Will made up. Will had been imagining silly stories of a life with Nico since he was only six years old, but had never expected that Nico would make up those stories, too.

“I suppose I was afraid,” Will said slowly. “I admired you even as a child, but you became so beautiful and strong as the years went by. I thought you had outgrown me, so I let us go our separate ways.”

Nico shook his head. “I didn’t want that.”

“Then what do you want me to do now?”

Nico didn’t answer immediately. He plucked Will’s cup from his fingers and set it beside his on the window ledge to be collected by the servants. “Ask me to dance,” Nico finally said. His fingers touched Will’s wrist and slipped down to hold Will’s hand. “We used to dance together as children, but we haven’t in so long. You didn’t even dance with me last Chronalia.”

It took Will a second to realize that Nico wasn’t talking about dancing as children in Aether’s Square at his aunt’s inauguration; he was still talking about their made-up life in Ceres.

“I was too nervous,” Will said, slowly starting to understand Nico’s game. “I loved dancing with you when we were children. We would dance together every time we heard music and sometimes when there was no music at all. But last Chronalia, I...I thought I would only burden you.”

“You made me feel so lonely. I thought you had tired of me.”

“Never, Your Highness.”

Nico put his finger against Will’s lips again. “You mustn’t call me that tonight, remember?”

“What shall I call you?” Will asked, his lips brushing against the pad of Nico’s finger. Without thinking, he took Nico’s hand but kept it close to his mouth. He barely was able to stop himself from kissing it.

Nico’s lips smiled, his eyes still dark and unreadable. “You will call me ‘dearest,’ and I will call you ‘treasure,’” he answered.

“‘Dearest,’” Will repeated. His thumb brushed over Nico’s hand. “My dearest.”

“My treasure,” Nico answered, then he pulled their hands away from Will’s mouth and towards his own to kiss Will’s knuckles. “Pretend we are celebrating my cousin’s wedding in the town square. Tell me you want to dance with me.”

“Of course I do,” Will said. His mind felt fuzzy as Nico kissed his hand again. “Will you come share a dance with me, dearest?”

Will didn’t know what to make of the smile Nico gave him. Was it sweet and kind? Was it teasing? The mask made it impossible to tell. “I would love to,” Nico said, tugging on Will’s hand to lead him to the center of the hall, where a group was preparing for an allemande.

Will lost count of how many dances they shared. He was blinded by the gleam of lights reflected on gemstones, by the dizzying whirl of skirts, and by the masks obscuring the faces of each dancer that passed him. Will lost Nico to another partner for a while, but it didn’t take long to find him again. Even when masked, there was a quality about Nico’s presence that had always drawn Will to him. Will had felt it even as a child, when he had been in awe of the strange, brave, and talented prince Artemis had introduced him to. He had felt it again when they met ten years later and Nico had grown into a handsome, mysterious young man who Will did not understand, but desperately wanted to know. Whatever games they might play, something as mundane as a mask couldn’t disguise Nico’s distinct aura.

Will wanted to reach behind Nico and untie the ribbon holding his mask in place. He wanted to see Nico’s face and read his expressions. But when Will found those words tumbling past his lips, Nico shook his head. “Not tonight,” he said. “For now, let us have our game. After all, my treasure, it is the last night that we will see each other for a while; I am going on a hunt and I won’t return for at least a week. You have told me that you admire me, but you must promise that you won’t forget me while I’m away.”

Will shook his head. “Forget you? How could I ever forget you? I’ll think of you every day, my dearest. I won’t be able to sleep until you return.”

“And so after my cousin’s wedding, I left on my hunt,” Nico said, tangling his fingers in Will’s. “But I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I wanted to see you again.”

“You came home early,” Will said. “You were attacked by a wolf while hunting and your wounds forced you to stay in my clinic for three days.”

“And then I decided to stay forever.”

Nico’s smile became gentle and Will could almost believe he saw love in Nico’s eyes. Will didn’t think, he didn’t plan, and he didn’t even recognize that he ought to restrain himself. In one moment, his lips had found Nico’s and Will was kissing him for the first time since Delphi.

He came to his senses quickly and drew back, stammering his apologies. “I should have asked, I—”

But then his lips were on Nico’s again, except Nico had initiated.

“Kiss me again,” Nico said. “And then again. And again. Kiss me and dance with me until the night ends and we must stop pretending. Kiss me like nothing else matters, like you have wanted to forever, like it’s our wedding and you have been waiting for this day your whole life.”

* * *

It seemed that the Fates had bestowed upon Jason the curse of terrible luck with women. It wasn’t just women in the sense of suitors, but all the women in his life. He always seemed to be left behind or let down.

Firstly, there was his birth mother, a courtesan of Emperor Zeus who had never cared for her children very much. Jason had been so young when Beryl died that he couldn’t even remember her enough to hate her, but he still thought it was odd that he had absolutely no memories of interacting with his mother whatsoever. Hera told Jason enough about what a nasty woman she’d been before getting herself killed, and while Jason usually would doubt his stepmother’s account, the fact that Thalia had verified it made Hera’s story seem much more credible. It was hard to tell which of the two detested his mother more.

But Thalia, like Beryl, left him behind. Although Jason did not blame her, Thalia was the hardest to lose. She had always been his one reliable ally in Olympus, but when she left, she had dropped all the responsibilities of being heir to the empire on him. When they were children, she had shared her fantasies about running away late at night when she and Jason were alone, but Jason had never realized how serious she’d been. Of course Thalia had offered to take Jason with her to Venadica, but Jason hadn’t had a choice. If Jason didn’t take her place as heir, there was no telling what kind of upheaval the battle for succession would cause. It was Jason’s duty to stay, carrying the responsibilities that two older sisters had denied—first Athena, then Thalia.

Athena had never been much of a sister to begin with, so he couldn’t accuse her of ‘leaving’ him. She was emotionally distant and generally disinterested in Jason, only bothering to approach him when she needed to discuss some sort of duty. Even then, she usually sent Annabeth in her place. Annabeth had always been more of a sister than Athena and had acted as his one remaining ally after Thalia joined the Sorority, but even Annabeth was leaving him. Jason would return to Jupiter not only fiancée-less, but adviser-less, as well. Judging by Jason’s record, he doubted he’d be any more successful at finding a new adviser than he had been at finding a new fiancée.

And that brought him to Reyna. He had not loved her in a romantic sense—although he believed that he would have come to in time—but Jason had cared deeply for Reyna. She had been perfect. She was intelligent, reliable, persistent, and strong, and Jason had found her to be empathetic underneath her tough façade. They had always gotten along well. Jason had felt safe knowing that she would be both his wife and adviser; he knew he could trust her. But Reyna had sought a different path in the end.

So now that Annabeth, his final ally, was leaving, Jason felt alone. When he returned to Olympus, the only person who cared enough to speak to him would be Hera, but Hera wasn’t any more of a mother than Beryl—except for the fact that she actually interacted with Jason. She was manipulative and calculating, resentful towards Zeus, and only interested in Jason to use him. Jason wasn’t ignorant of her manipulative intentions, but there was very little he could do to resist.

“I’m letting you see your sister,” Hera had told him before he left for Neptune with Annabeth. “It’s the second time I’ve allowed it this year. You ought to be grateful.”

As though she controlled every decision made in Olympus.

Maybe she did.

Jason had fought to stay calm. It was the only way to deal with Hera. “Yes, Mother,” he’d said evenly. He had no choice but to tell her what she wanted to hear.

He truly was glad to see Thalia. It was always a bit awkward between them for a little while every time they met. Jason knew that Thalia felt terrible for leaving him behind and although she’d had every right to choose the Sorority over the Empire, Jason might have held the smallest of grudges. He would never tell that to Thalia, however. She felt guilty enough already.

But yes, Jason was glad to see Thalia. He knew that even from afar, she remained his constant ally. “I may have become a sister to all, but you will always be my favorite brother,” she had told him after joining the Sorority. Despite the tiny twinge of resentment he still felt, Jason knew that Thalia hadn’t truly abandoned him. He trusted her more than anyone.

Thalia had only just arrived in Neptune the day before, while Jason was attempting to make friends with Nico. Jason had been in Neptune for about a month, having made the journey from Olympus to Salacia with Annabeth long before the wedding. Earlier, Jason and Thalia had been in the city together, but neither of them had seen the wedding couple all day. It was to be expected, as Percy and Annabeth would have been busy with their prayers, but Thalia was quite irate that she had barely seen either of them since her arrival. And now, Percy and Annabeth were nowhere to be seen. Jason wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d already found an opportunity to sneak away from the party and were spending the evening alone together. They could be sneaky when they wanted to.

Jason glanced at Thalia. She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, but her posture softened when she noticed him watching her. “I can’t believe the two of them,” Thalia said. “Their own party, and they can’t be found.”

“Perhaps they’re just very well-masked,” Jason suggested.

Jason knew Thalia well enough to imagine the expression behind her mask. Really, Jason? it would have said. Do you really believe that?

“We both know they’ve run off somewhere to cause one last scandal before they’re married,” Thalia said, but she sounded amused. “But anyway, tell me more news from Olympus. How has the bitch been treating you?”

“Thalia,” Jason scolded.

“What? There’s no reason to paint it over and make it pretty.”

Jason sighed. “I’m trying to remain polite. She’s the Empress, whether we like it or not.”

“Brother dear, I find it hard to believe that anyone likes it. Besides, she’s not my Empress. I serve no one but Artemis and the Protogenoi. So tell me, is everything alright?”

Jason made a vague sound in weak affirmation.

“Jason,” Thalia said in a warning tone.

“I won’t complain,” Jason said. “It is what it is, Thalia. Hera will always be Hera, and I can’t expect anything else from her.”

“It’s perfectly reasonable to expect her to be a decent human rather than a reptile,” Thalia scowled. “You know that you’d have the Sorority’s protection if—”

“No,” Jason interrupted. “My answer hasn’t changed. You know I can’t do that.”

“And there’s your obnoxious sense of duty again,” Thalia sighed. “Your answer may always be the same, but I’ll never take back the invitation. You are welcome in Venadica. Olympus doesn’t deserve you, Jason. You shouldn’t have to put up with that snake.”

“This has nothing to do with what anyone deserves, Thalia.”

Thalia sighed tiredly. “Let’s not fight over this again. It’s rare for us to see each other.”

Jason nodded in agreement. He admired how independent and adventurous Thalia was, but he was not destined to be like her. Although part of him wished he could run away from Olympus and forsake the throne like his sister had, he knew he could not. Jason and Thalia had argued about it in the past, but his place was Jupiter.

“Any progress on finding a fiancée?” Thalia asked. She held her hands up in surrender when Jason narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m only making conversation.”

“No progress whatsoever,” Jason said stiffly.

“I’d send you a few suitors, but most of the women I know are sorors,” Thalia said.

Jason snorted in amusement. “I appreciate the offer, but I think our family has caused enough scandals.”

“I’m sure they can afford a few more.”

“I am not going to have affairs with sorors, Thalia.”

“No, but you should let yourself have a bit of fun,” Thalia replied.

Jason sighed. If there was anything he feared more than falling in love, it was that someone would fall in love with him. Jason didn’t think he’d be able to bear the pain of heartbreak, but it would be far worse the other way around. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he hurt someone that way.

That was part of the reason he’d been so unsuccessful in finding a new suitor. It was also because Reyna had been so ideal that everyone else paled by comparison, but more than that, Jason was terrified that he would only end up hurting someone. Nullified engagements were messy, scandalous affairs; if he ended up making an unwise decision, Jason feared that he’d go through that again. He certainly didn’t want to put someone else through it, either.

And then, if he did end up married to someone, that was hardly a happy ending. What if something went wrong in their marriage? What if he couldn’t make his wife happy? What if he only made her life miserable? How could anyone have a happy life in Olympus?

“I’d rather spend the evening with my sister,” Jason said.

“How sweet of you,” Thalia said in a mocking tone, but Jason knew she was being genuine. “But really, you ought to take advantage of the mask. Hera isn’t even here! No one will be throwing power-hungry women at you tonight, so you have an opportunity to actually enjoy yourself. That’s all I’m suggesting, Jason. I’m not asking you to find a wife.”

It almost would have been easier if she had asked him to find a wife. Jason did not excel at ‘enjoying himself.’

“Thalia—”

“Oh, look over there,” Thalia said in a staged voice. “Another soror. I ought to greet her.”

“Thalia!”

“Enjoy your evening, brother,” Thalia said without listening to him, and then she disappeared into the crowd.

Jason sighed. Yes, he considered Thalia to be his strongest ally, but they often had very different ideas about how his allies could help him.

Enjoy his evening? Not likely. Thalia had abandoned him, Percy and Annabeth were nowhere to be found, and Nico wouldn’t spend time with Jason unless he was forced to. He could try to find Reyna—he’d always enjoyed her friendship—but he got the feeling that would be a bad idea. Reyna was probably busy playing chaperone for the Pluton Prince, anyway, and he was fairly certain Nico would hate Jason even more if he attempted to speak to her.

Which left Jason alone as usual. Thalia thought it was good for him to exercise his independence (and perhaps she was right), but she didn’t realize that what Jason really wanted was to take advantage of what limited time they had together. Jason might as well get used to it, however. Now that Annabeth was leaving to get married, he’d find himself even more alone than before.

But perhaps it was for the best. Because neither Annabeth nor Percy were going to inherit significant land or power, they could have decided to live in either Jupiter or Neptune. It was only natural that they chose Salacia over Olympus; Jason would have done the same. Between Zeus’ hubris, Hera’s selfishness, and the rest of the court drama, no one could have a good life there. Jason wouldn’t ask anyone he cared about to live in the imperial palace.

So as much as Jason yearned for Thalia and Reyna and Annabeth to come back to him, he knew it was better that they stayed away. And as much as Jason yearned for a friend and ally to keep him from feeling so alone, Jason couldn’t allow himself to bring anyone into his life. Jason was alone, and alone he should remain.

Of course, he would need to marry. He was beginning to think that he ought to give in to one of the suitors that Hera kept throwing at him. After all, might be better if Jason didn’t love his wife; it would save him the pain of knowing that he had ruined someone’s life by bringing them to Olympus. Jason doubted that any of the Empress’ picks would be much different from Hera herself.

Sighing to himself again, Jason turned to leave the hall, thinking that maybe he ought to spend the evening on the balcony. Neptunian nights were pleasantly cool and Jason might even be able to snag a book to read under the moonlight. That seemed like the best way for him to enjoy himself.

“No partner?” asked a voice. “What a coincidence, neither have I. Would you like a plantain chip?”

Jason turned to the woman’s voice in surprise. His first impression was that she was very pretty, and probably Neptunian. She had the characteristic coloring of the people of Neptune—of course, that might not mean anything, as the upper classes often married foreigners. Her gown and pearls were enough evidence of her wealth and high birth. But the young woman also had the accent of the islanders, although Jason couldn’t discern exactly which part. His untrained ear had never quite been able to pick up the subtle differences in Neptunian dialects.

“Have we met?” Jason asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” said the woman. When Jason didn’t take the fried plantain, she shrugged and munched on the chip, as if to say, ‘suit yourself.’ Jason tried to suppress an amused smile. Pretty, humble, and even-tempered, it seemed. A nice combination.

Jason scolded himself for the thought. He wasn’t there to look for a wife. He was celebrating the wedding of his friends.

“Well, we did run into each other earlier this evening,” the young woman continued when she finished her chip. “Quite literally. You complimented my gown. Personally, I hate this gown, but I was flattered nonetheless.”

“Oh, right,” Jason said. “By the chocolate fountain?”

“That’s it. I hope I didn’t embarrass myself so much that I’ve lost the opportunity to ask you for a dance?”

“Oh,” Jason said in surprise. “I...um...” He glanced around for Thalia, hoping that she’d come to his rescue, but she was nowhere to be seen. Although he was used to having women thrown at him at every opportunity, Jason was terrible at rejecting their advances and found himself tangled in awkward situations more often than he’d like to admit. Thalia sometimes fought off the worst of them. That was, if she was present and not too busy coaching his independence.

“Unless you already have a partner,” the young woman continued. “I saw that you were speaking to someone before.”

Jason got the sense that she was offering him an opportunity to politely refuse her. True, he had been with Thalia earlier, but Thalia dressed as a soror even while masked. It would have been obvious to anyone that they were not partners.

“I’d be honored to dance with you,” Jason said. “May I have your name?”

“No,” she said, the corner of her mouth quirking up like she was amused by the question. “What would be the purpose of a mask if I told you my name?”

She had a point, but Jason was disappointed. He had to remind himself that she’d only asked for a dance; she hadn’t offered her hand in marriage. It wasn’t fair of him to expect more—especially not at a masked ball, which was meant to be a night of hedonistic disregard for duty.

“But perhaps I’ll tell you later in the evening, depending on how good a dancer you are,” said the young woman. She grinned playfully and tapped him with her elbow before taking his arm and leading him to the center of the hall for a dance.

Looking more closely, Jason was beginning to see that she must not have a completely Neptunian ancestry. Her hair was long and beautiful but slightly lighter than typical Neptunian hair—dark brown rather than black. Her eyes were not Neptunian either, although he couldn’t begin to guess where they might have come from. Perhaps it was because of her mask, but every time she moved, the light seemed to reflect different colors in her eyes.

She was a wonderful dancer. It was obvious that she had received excellent lessons from a capable instructor, which was further proof of her eligibility to be a suitor. “You dance beautifully,” Jason said as she passed him, trying to keep himself from thinking about marriage for at least one evening.

“As do you,” said the young woman. “Dancing is one of the least exhausting part of a ball. Almost makes it worth how tightly they tied this awful stay.”

Jason was so surprised that his laugh came out as a snort. “Well, you look beautiful,” he tried to console.

“I’d still look beautiful in a softer bodice. I’d probably feel less restricted after making my rounds through the snacks, as well. Have you tried the coconut shrimp yet? It’s amazing.”

“I haven’t had a chance to try anything but the chocolate,” Jason admitted.

“Fantastic! I’ll show you all the wonderful food, and you’ll get me a cup of chocolate. My mother wouldn’t let me have any.”

“Your mother wouldn’t allow chocolate?” Jason asked.

“It’s the most barbaric form of torture, I know,” the woman sighed. “She thinks I’ll ruin my gown.”

Jason laughed as the music came to an end. “How very cruel,” he agreed as he bowed to her to finish their dance. “The chocolate is worth a ruined gown.”

The woman smiled at him. “I’m glad you agree, monsieur. Seeing as we’re both here unaccompanied, would you like to be my partner for the evening?”

Jason hesitated and glanced around for Thalia, but didn’t see her. She was probably watching him from hiding, applauding herself for leaving him to manage on his own. But the young woman he had met seemed to be of a high enough status for the court to approve of, so—

Jason stopped that thought there and reminded himself that he wasn’t supposed to worry about marriage that night. He was supposed to enjoy himself. The young woman was pleasant company, and that was why he would accept her offer.

“I would be honored to accompany you,” Jason said. “Will you give me your name at the end of the evening?”

She grinned at him mischievously. “We shall see,” she replied. “Come, I must show you the shrimp.”

The young woman took his arm and led him away from the assembling dancers, telling him that as much as she enjoyed dancing, the most important part of any ball was the food. She found the shrimp first, then grabbed a few more plantain chips. She fed Jason crab cakes and told him that they were good, but she preferred king crab to blue crab. Jason told her that blue crab was Prince Percy’s favorite, and she laughed and commented on Percy’s odd appreciation of blue food. Either Percy’s strange preference was well-known in Neptune or she knew Percy personally, which might be further evidence of her high status.

Of course, Jason was getting ahead of himself again. They had barely met. They weren’t courting. He didn’t even know her name. She may not be seriously interested in him.

Jason shook his head and forced the thought away just as the young woman was returning with an oyster and eating another fried plantain. “Here,” she said, pressing the oyster’s shell against his lower lip. “Try this.”

Jason obeyed. “It’s amazing,” he said.

“Where I come from, we are known for our oyster dishes,” she told him.

Jason tried to remember which areas of Neptune specialized in oysters, but he couldn’t recall. To someone from Jupiter, it seemed that all of Neptune specialized in oysters. “Are you from Jafilius?” he asked.

“No, no, the oysters here aren’t nearly as good as they are in my home,” she said, then she grabbed a few more plantain chips before pointing to the chocolate fountain and requesting a cup.

Jason wondered if he’d ever meet her again after that night. Would it all be over in the morning? Would he ever even know her name?

And how would she react after learning his identity? What if she decided she didn’t want him? Or worse, what if that became the only reason she sought him out again?

He couldn’t help but feel like he was toying with her feelings. Jason was looking for a wife. And not just any wife—as heir to the throne, he was very restricted when it came to searching for suitors. If it turned out that she wasn’t from a birth high enough for the imperial court to approve of, Jason would have to leave her.

But once again, Jason was assuming too much. She might not be looking for a husband. Perhaps Jason’s expectations were not the same as hers. For all Jason knew, she could already be engaged—even married. Besides, no one went to a masked ball to seek out a potential spouse.

Masked balls were the sort of events where scandals began and where hearts were broken. It wasn’t uncommon for the first night of wedding celebrations to be masked; they were meant to be nights without inhibitions, to revel in the freedom of being unwed and anonymous before the bonds of marriage tied one to responsibility. For Annabeth and Percy, it was an excuse for them to have their fun together without the threat of repercussions, not a night of unrestricted lust. But for Jason, it was too reminiscent of his father’s adulterous habits.

Jason wasn’t looking for a brief affair; he had decided that long ago. He’d seen enough evidence of the consequences that went along with lust and infidelity. Affairs, he had learned, only ended with chaos and tragedy. If Hera’s rage had taught him anything, it was that hearts were fragile and he must never even look at anyone but his wife.

Jason’s resolution had never wavered before. Even when he’d been engaged to Reyna, he had never allowed himself to think of anyone else. No, they had never been romantically involved, but he’d been arduously loyal to her. He had sworn that he would never hurt her the way Zeus had hurt Hera. Jason had cared for her and it had broken his heart when she left. He’d never blamed her for it, however; Reyna had the freedom to make her own choices and he would not hold that against her. Losing her had only solidified his resolution to be the perfect husband. He never wanted to make anyone to go through the pain he had when Reyna left him.

But would it really be so wrong for Jason to allow himself to enjoy an evening with a strange, exciting, beautiful young woman? He hadn’t made her any promises. He hadn’t even made himself promises. So why did he feel as if he was doing something wrong?

Because he knew that if he ended up with a wife like Hera, she would hunt the mystery lady down and drown her life in misery. She would want do the same to Reyna, but Reyna had the protection of the Sorority.

Jason tried to stop himself again. It was just one evening. He wasn’t having an affair; he was talking to a dance partner.

The young woman celebrated when Jason retrieved a cup of chocolate for her. “I have been waiting all evening for this,” she said before taking a sip, then she sighed happily.

Jason smiled, but his thoughts wouldn’t stop. He heard himself clear his throat, then he said, “I know this isn’t an appropriate topic for a masked event, but if I may not have your name, will you at least tell me if you are...if...is there anyone...?”

She finished taking a long drink before she answered. “I am unmarried,” she said. “I have no serious suitors at this time. But I am looking.”

“And if you don’t mind my asking, what sort of marriage are you looking for?” Jason asked. Depending on birth order, number of siblings, and the needs of her family, she may not be eligible to marry him.

“I am not the eldest,” she said. “I have enough siblings to have the freedom to choose what sort of marriage I’d like. And you?”

“I’m...um...I’m the eldest,” Jason said. He wasn’t the eldest, but his older sisters had both pulled out of the succession, so it was simpler to claim that he was. “I will inherit and take a wife.”

Another happy sip of chocolate. “And am I to assume that you have yet to find a wife?”

“Yes, I’m...I’m looking. I apologize, I know that a masked ball isn’t the place to play suitors and I don’t mean to assume—”

The young woman put a plantain chip in Jason’s mouth to make him stop talking. “Then for tonight, we’ll have our fun. If it goes well, we will play suitors tomorrow. Are we in agreement?”

Jason chewed the chip and swallowed it. It was the first one he’d had all evening; the young woman had ended up eating all the ones she’d picked up. He suddenly understood why she hadn’t shared. “I...yes. But I don’t...if it doesn’t work out....”

“I’m not about to get my heart broken by a man I’ve just met,” she said. “I can handle rejection. There are no promises between us, and no expectations past tonight. Just for this evening, forget everything else.”

Jason didn’t know how. Thalia loved to remind him that he was too much of a worrier, but none of her advice had made it easier for him to stop. And very little scared him more than marriage.

But then the young woman tilted her head back to empty her cup of chocolate and ended up spilling it on her dress. She and Jason laughed so hard that he finally managed to forget.

After trying and failing to fix her gown with Jason’s handkerchief, the young woman dragged Jason back to the center of the hall to dance again. Jason couldn’t recall the last time he had laughed so much. Had dancing ever been so enjoyable? Had Neptunian cuisine ever tasted so good?

The worries had stopped, but Jason couldn’t help wondering about the identity of his mysterious partner. She was from somewhere in the Neptunian isles. Somewhere known for oysters and pearls. Surely he knew enough about Neptunian trade to figure out where she was from. He thought her accent was slightly different from Percy’s, so it was unlikely that she was from the islands around Jafilius. Perhaps she was from one of the more southern isles, then?

Oysters. Pearls. South.

He suddenly recalled Hera bragging about a new gown that was being tailored for her. She’d claimed that she intended to wear it to the Neptunian royal wedding, but Jason was certain that she had never really meant to attend. She despised Annabeth and her opinion of Percy wasn’t much higher, so it had most likely been an excuse to get an expensive new gown. It was vibrant turquoise, accented with peafowl feathers imported from Bacchus and Venusian pearls....

Venusian pearls. It was the island of Venus that was most known for its pearl trade. Could his mystery lady be from Venus?

Jason wasn’t brave enough to ask. They danced and ate and danced again, and Jason’s partner spilled chocolate on her gown a few more times. He invited the young woman onto the balcony and loaned her his coat, and they stayed there talking and laughing until Jason noticed her eyes drooping shut.

“Perhaps we’ve stayed out too late,” Jason suggested, as much as he wanted to stay even longer.

“Definitely,” the young woman said. “I don’t think I’ll wake up until noon tomorrow.”

“Then is this goodnight?” Jason asked.

“Perhaps,” she replied. “But only if I may meet you again tomorrow.”

“I would like to,” Jason said. “You haven’t told me your name.”

She looked up at him with a mischievous smile, like she knew something he didn’t. “Find me again tomorrow evening and I will introduce you to Piper of Venus,” she said.

“Piper of Venus,” Jason repeated. So he had been correct; she was from Venus. “And I’m....” he stopped himself before continuing. Would she even believe him if he told her he was the Crown Prince of Jupiter? Would it frighten her away? Would it change the way she acted towards him?

“I know who you are, Your Highness,” Piper said before Jason could worry himself more. Her smile faltered a bit. “Even a mask can’t stop gossip, especially not for someone of your position.”

“Oh,” Jason whispered, unsure how he ought to feel about that. She’d known all along? Had that been why she sought him out to begin with?

“I would have approached you regardless, and I wouldn’t have spent the entire evening with you if I didn’t enjoy your company,” Piper said, as though she’d heard his thoughts. Her mischievous smile was now gone, replaced by one that looked more serious and perhaps even apologetic. “But I won’t lie to you; I knew. I would like to meet you again tomorrow evening, Your Highness. No masks. Face-to-face. But I won’t seek you out again; it’s only fair that I leave the choice to you. If you would like to meet, then ask for Piper of Venus.”

Before Jason could collect his thoughts enough to reply, Piper returned Jason’s coat and kissed the back of his hand, then she left him alone on the balcony.

* * *

Nico was not pleased when Reyna interrupted him while he was busy kissing his fiancé. They had spent the evening dancing and kissing and making up ridiculous stories about planning their pretend wedding in Ceres. Hedge had been busy with Mellie and Nico thought he had spotted Reyna conversing with Thalia, but Reyna had eventually found them again to say that it was time for the evening to end. She had brought Percy with her, as he had apparently been looking for Nico to invite him to the ritual bathing ceremony that was to take place on the second day of the wedding. Usually, only brothers or other close male kin attended a groom’s ritual bathing ceremony, so Nico was scandalized by the invitation. He had barely spoken to Percy since arriving in Neptune. Before that, he hadn’t met Percy since they were children. He had tried to turn Percy down, but a glare from Reyna was enough to remind him that a rejection would seem rude.

“I’d be honored, Your Highness,” Nico grumbled.

“Oh, don’t call me that,” Percy said. “People only call me ‘Your Highness’ if they’re upset with me.”

Percy started to ramble enthusiastically about the palace’s baths. Nico had heard that Neptunians bathed together in large pools, but he’d assumed that it was only a malicious rumor. He hoped that Percy did not expect Nico to join him in the baths. That was a line Nico refused to cross.

After Percy left to deliver the same invitation to Jason, Reyna ordered Nico to stay put so she could get Hedge to take Nico back to his bedchamber while she tried to locate Jules-Albert. “Lord William can escort me to my guest chambers instead,” Nico said, tightening his grip on Will’s arm. He didn’t want to part with Will just yet. He wanted a moment alone with Will. He didn’t want to let go of Will.

Reyna looked at Nico disapprovingly and Nico blinked at her with the best pleading expression he could muster. Please, Reyna, he thought. Just this one time, allow me this much.

As strict as Reyna was, Nico knew that she had a soft spot for him. If he looked at her with a pitiful enough expression, she sometimes gave in. Reyna couldn’t always resist wanting to see Nico happy. “I will send Jules-Albert to ready you for bed shortly,” Reyna said in a stiff voice. “You will have only a few moments to say goodnight.”

Nico let out a sigh of relief and smiled at her thankfully.

Will bowed his head politely. “I will behave appropriately, Lady Reyna; you need not worry about that.”

“I trust you, Lord William,” Reyna replied tiredly. “You are not the one causing me concern.”

Nico tugged Will closer and led him away from Reyna, happily resting his head on Will’s shoulder. “I enjoyed this evening,” he said. “My treasure.”

“As did I, my dearest,” Will answered.

Nico tilted his head up, expecting a kiss, but Will did nothing. Sighing, he supposed that Will had taken his promise to Reyna a bit too seriously. He tried to lure Will into kissing him a few more times, but Will didn’t appear to realize Nico’s intentions. Nico wondered if it would always be that way or if Will would eventually start to understand.

“Well, Your Highness,” Will said when they reached Nico’s door. “This is where we part.”

Nico didn’t want to let go of Will’s arm. He wanted to stand close to Will. He wanted Will to kiss him. He wanted Will to touch him, even if it was only to brush his hand against Nico’s.

Nico reached behind his head and untied his mask, then he looked up at Will and untied his, too. Like Nico, Will had black makeup smeared over his eyes to hide them even more behind his mask. The makeup did nothing to hide his eyes, however. It only made them brighter and more blue.

Kiss me, Nico thought, as though Will would be able to hear him if he wished hard enough. He wanted Will to kiss him suddenly and passionately just like he had earlier that evening, when they were pretending to be people they weren’t. But even when Nico removed their masks, Will did nothing but stare at him. Will wouldn’t kiss him again—not unless Nico gave clear permission.

Nico returned Will’s mask and clasped his hands together behind his back to keep himself from reaching out. “Yes. Um. Sleep well, Lord William.”

“I wish you the same.”

“And I suppose I’ll meet you after the ceremony in the morning?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Nico reluctantly put his hand on the door to his room. “Goodnight,” he said.

“Goodnight, Your Highness.”

Nico forced himself to look away and face his door. Will started to leave. Don’t look up, Nico told himself, squeezing his eyes shut. Don’t ask him to come back. Don’t—

Nico looked back up. “Will?” he called.

Will turned, his blue eyes as bright as ever, shining against the black makeup. “Yes, Your Highness?”

Nico knew he should make an excuse and go to bed. He was making himself look like a fool. He needed to stop. He—

Nico’s feet were already carrying him away. He stopped in front of Will and put his hands on Will’s arms, then leaned up and quickly kissed him. Will looked shocked when Nico pulled back. “Right,” Nico stammered. He felt like his heart was going to burst and he knew his face was flushing, but there was nothing he could do about that. He stepped back, folded his hands together behind his back, and said, “Well, goodnight, then.”

Nico turned away and fled to his room, only leaving the door open long enough for Asterion to follow him in. He did not look back at Will again out of fear that he’d do something foolish, like invite Will into his bedchamber and ask him to stay—

Nico leaned against the closed door and hid his face in his hands, his mask dangling from the ribbon around his fingers. He did want Will there with him. What would it be like to share a bed with Will? Would Will hold him while they slept? Would Will kiss him in the morning?

Nico bit back the impulse to curse as he remembered the black silk that Will had worn that evening. It had been in such stark contrast to his bright, warm skin and golden hair. Will’s clothes had looked like ink every time he moved, with an almost liquid sheen that had Nico imagining the clothes melting off and....

What would their wedding night be like? How would Will touch him? Would Will blush when Nico kissed him? Would he call Nico pretty names like he did in his letters? Would he...?

Nico whimpered in embarrassment, sliding down the door until he sat on the floor with his knees against his chest. He was disgusting, thinking about things like that. Nico would wait until his own wedding. They would marry in a year, and then they could....

Nico shook his head, stood back up, and composed himself, then he waited for Jules-Albert to come ready him for bed. Nico’s unbanished thoughts kept returning, however, and he dismissed Jules-Albert after being undressed only halfway. Nico had suffered enough mortification for one night; he didn’t need anyone discovering what sorts of effects his thoughts were having on him.

Nico finished dressing for bed on his own, then he took a sip of his sleeping medicine and climbed into his bed, where Asterion was already lying down. He didn’t take the sleeping medicine nearly as often as he had a few years before, but he knew that if he did not take it that night, his racing heart would keep him up with thoughts of his fiancé until morning. As he curled up under his blankets, he could not help but imagine Will being there with him. Will would be warm, similar to the way Asterion was when he cuddled next to Nico, but Will would put his arms on Nico and make him feel loved and secure. Nico imagined Will holding him—and he could be happy with just that much, with just Will’s arms around him and his arms around Will.

Nico reached out to hug Asterion instead, burrowing his face in his dog’s coarse fur to hide his sudden giggle. “I’m very fortunate, aren’t I, Asterion?” he said, pulling back to rub his side. He avoided the scar on Asterion’s hip; it had healed nicely, but Asterion still flinched if Nico pet him too close to the old wound.

“I know you like him, too,” Nico said. “He gives me reasons to be happy. He has a very pretty smile, don’t you think?”

Asterion responded by sloppily licking Nico’s cheek.

“Oh, you’re disgusting,” Nico said, but he wiped his face dry and pecked the top of Asterion’s head affectionately. Asterion rolled onto his back. “Don’t worry, you can still sleep with me after I’m married,” Nico said, rubbing Asterion’s belly. “He’ll have his own room, after all, and if he comes to stay the night with me, then...well, it’ll be a bit crowded, but I don’t think he’ll mind.” Nico yawned and stretched out on the bed, smiling sleepily. “I think I will like being married to him. I will like it very much.”

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