#solangeloweek

[sclangelc]

will only suggested it because of the pirates. obviously

[solangeloweek]

[ID: a red banner a drawing of Nico and Will laying down (by @sclangelc​) are on the left, with alternating white and red words saying “Solangelo Week 2023″ on the right. / end ID]

Welcome to a vaguely TSATS-themed SolangeloWeek! We here at SWHQ have embraced the cringe, but have hopefully made an event week that everyone can participate in, whether you’ve read the new book or not!

Event rules can be found here, and any questions can be directed to the mods @solangeloweek. Prompts listed below as date - title, (prompt).

Sunday, June 18 - Night Light (Will Solace)

Monday, June 19- River Styx (Promise)

Tuesday, June 20 - River Acheron (Hurt/Comfort)

Wednesday, June 21 - River Phlegethon (Free Day!)

Thursday, June 22 - River Cocytus (Canon Divergence) 

Friday, June 23 - River Lethe (Memory) 

Saturday, June 24 - Grumpy Ball of Darkness (Nico di Angelo)

[thegoldenappleofdiscord]

paradox

summary:

He wondered if the cocoa puffs were aware of what happened when he touched them, but he thought not. As a child, he’d never noticed the pain he caused others. His mother had never let him catch her crying. If she had been scared for their waning futures, he never would have known. All he’d seen was her love, innocent and endless.

And he did love the cocoa puffs, endlessly.

day three: river achreon (hurt/comfort)

full fic on ao3!

The cocoa puffs were a paradox in every way, Nico thought. 

They held substance and weight, but never disturbed a thing around them. When they moved, they were silent. The wind and grass did not part for them, but they weren’t poltergeists. They bumped into things and stared up at walls in befuddlement, strangers to such obstacles. He’d watched in amusement as Guilt struggled to reach doorknobs and Shame pawed at the dining pavilion seats, so small it couldn’t leap on them.  

Their faces denied their natures. They writhed with darkness, but would crowd onto his lap and find peace there, snuggled up like kittens. Every time he saw one tumbling its way towards him, he was filled with the urge to spread his arms and let it collide into him; let them tumble downhill together. 

None of this changed what happened when he touched them. A wave of emotion passed over like a heavy, drifting cloud. Sometimes a rain shower, sometimes a raging storm. Once he’d touched Sadness, only briefly, and anguish tore through him without a moment to breath. He had sat on his bed, trembling from the onslaught.  

Sadness had only mewled, its sodden yellow eyes watching as he tried to recollect himself. He wondered if the creatures were aware of anything they did, but he thought not. As a child, he’d never noticed the pain he caused others. His mother had never let him catch her crying. If she had been scared for their waning futures, he never would have known. All he’d seen was her love, innocent and endless. 

And he did love the cocoa puffs, endlessly. They followed him loyally across camp, forming lines of dark soldiers across the wilting grass. He delighted in getting to know them, in watching them uncover the mortal world. They really were children in every sense, dragging him around to show him shiny pebbles and pretty feathers, sulking in corners when they were denied an extra pancake at breakfast.  

Just that morning, Will found Grief with string lights around its antlers, and now the puff refused to part with them. “We’ll call it Rudolph,” he joked. 

Nico batted him on the arm, which proved to be difficult when they were wrapped up in one another, tangled like shoelaces. “Try that and you lose custody.” 

full fic here!

[tsarisfanfiction]

The Midnight Healer

Fandom: Heroes of Olympus/Trials of Apollo Rating: Gen Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst Characters: Will Solace, Nico di Angelo Not all new campers arrived in the daylight, and it was usually the ones that arrived in the dead of night that needed the most help. Day one of @solangeloweek "Night Light (Will Solace)". This was my second attempt at writing something for this prompt because the first one just didn't want to co-operate, but I really like what I ended up with! This is set somewhen post-Trials of Apollo but could be anywhen afterwards! Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

It was dark.  Over the years, Will had got used to the dark – once upon a time it had been unfamiliar to him, a son of Apollo who slept with the sun and then rose with it again the next morning, even before he’d known who his father was, who he was, but then he’d got better and better and better at healing and not all new campers arrived in the daylight.

It was usually the ones that arrived in the dead of night that needed the most help, lingered closest to death and Thanatos’ waiting wings, and Will had long since lost count of the number of times he’d been pulled from his bed at some point during Artemis’ shift, when the sun wasn’t even a glimmer teasing the horizon, because someone was dying and he was their best chance at surviving until the morning.

Sometimes, he wasn’t enough.

Chiron had chivvied him out of the infirmary when Thanatos had come, a god Will had never seen face to face but knew the feel of better than almost any other.  It wasn’t an encouragement to go back to bed and sleep – there would be nightmares, now, if Will even tried – but the old centaur’s token effort to shield him from the loss.  Too little, too late, after Lee, after Joy and Robyn bleeding out beneath his hands, after Elias and Sally battered and clammy and dripping wet with water instead of life in their lungs, after Nathan’s torn off arm and Michael’s abandoned bow.

Being left alone to think after another life lost was no better than preparing the body for a funeral – and Will had done both enough times to know.

A hand caught his as he stumbled aimlessly across the camp, uncaring about the harpies circling – they wouldn’t attack him, never attacked Apollo kids for being out after-hours – and without even looking, Will sank bonelessly into waiting arms.  He couldn’t see in the dark, anyway, never had been able to.  Some Apollo kids could see as well in the dark as they could in the day, but others never got night vision no matter how long they were trapped in the dark – Will had always been the latter.

He didn’t need to see.

Nico’s arms wrapped around him tightly and they fell down into solid earth, through shadows that fought to get at Will but could never touch him, and he let his boyfriend take him wherever he was planning with no complaint.

They reappeared by the Sound, where the crescent of a waning moon reflected in the water, a reflection of a reflection of his father’s light, distorted so much that it was barely the same thing anymore.  Nico guided him to the water’s edge, half-carrying him before setting him down where the waves lapped near-soundlessly against the shore.

When Will slumped sideways, physically drained and mentally exhausted, Nico caught him again, settling him against his shoulder in a comforting hold.  A hand ran through his hair, just once, before lips pressed against his temple and fingers tangled with his own in his lap.

Neither of them spoke.  They didn’t need to.  Nico hadn’t been in the infirmary, hadn’t been summoned to save the life of a camper whose string the Fates had chosen to cut regardless, but the way he’d appeared, caught Will and whisked him away told him that Nico knew, had felt a soul pass from the living to the Underworld, and had come looking for him, because of course Will would be the healer on duty in the middle of the night.

It was always Will.  He was the best healer in the cabin – Jerry showed promise but he was still new, Raphael and Emma had gone home for the fall, and the rest of his siblings were better at inflicting wounds than healing them – but even if he hadn’t been, he was the head counsellor, the big brother.

Lee had never let Will be the one summoned in the middle of the night, always going himself despite Will surpassing him in healing ability after a year or two at camp, and at the time Will had never understood why.  Michael wasn’t a good enough healer to take the midnight shifts but Robyn had stepped up instead, and Will hadn’t understood why then, either – he was the better healer, he’d seen people die, had lost people he’d tried to save, why wasn’t it him?

He understood, now.

It was different, at night, when they had no evidence of their father in the sky and everyone else was sleeping.  When the darkness closed in, fought against the light of healing, dragged souls into Thanatos’ embrace.  When they were the light, not their father in the sky, and sometimes they weren’t enough.

Will would never let his siblings take the burden instead, not as long as he was around to shoulder it himself, the same way Lee, the same way Robyn, and all the other midnight healers before him had.

He wondered if they’d had someone to catch them, too.  If Lee had snuck into cabin ten to cry on Miri’s shoulder, sneaking back out at the first rays of dawn before her siblings awoke, if Robyn had kicked Nathan awake while the rest of them slept to rage silently at the injustice while Michael cursed along with her.

He hoped so.

He’d spent a year suffering the midnight healings alone, the ones where they made it but also the ones that didn’t, whose injuries were too much even for him, on top of the grief from the first war that still threatened to consume him when it struck, and now he had Nico he didn’t know how he’d managed without.

Nico didn’t say anything, just held him as grief and exhaustion crashed down and the tears fell.  Will burrowed his face in the junction of Nico’s throat and shoulder, into soft and worn fabric and cool skin, and sobbed.

[buoyantsaturn]

Team (1/1)

summary: Then, she added sweetly, “Don’t worry, I’ve only told him bad things.”

“That’s good,” Nico replied, his eyes sliding back to Will’s, “wouldn’t want anyone getting the wrong impression.” 

word count: 6,774

read on ao3

Will knew that most people tried to work somewhere related to their field while they were in college, because it looked better on a resume, and helped with networking, and blah, blah, blah. It wasn’t like it was easy to get a job working for a doctor when he didn’t have the degree to back it up, but he needed money to pay for the degree, so he worked wherever he would hire him.

He didn’t really look like he belonged behind the front desk at a tattoo parlor, but the people were nice, and the paycheck was livable, so he took what he could get.

His boss, Piper, was one of the tattoo artists and also happened to be the owner of the shop, and refused to wear anything with sleeves because it meant hiding the sleeves that had been inked into her skin. Her brother, Mitchell, was another artist, and their cousin Drew was the resident piercer. Lacy, who was maybe a distant cousin or maybe just an old family friend, ran their books, and seemed to only work one or two days a week, given how little Will had seen her since he started there.

In fact, he thought he saw her even less than he saw the florist who worked across the street - and not just because Will always found his eyes drawn out the windows in the hopes of catching sight of the most gorgeous man Will had ever seen.

read the rest here

buy me a coffee | more solangeoweek stuff

[kotenokk]

wow how crazy that we cosplayed solangelo just in time for @solangeloweek … happy will day to all fanny pack wearing stoner cowboy lovers everywhere + a sprinkle of nico for flavor

[njcodjangelo]

jovially harassing your boyfriend who is a serial killer

[whizzerd]

day 5: five years later for @solangeloweek !

Nico visits camp for the first time in a couple years only to see that a certain Will Solace still works there

[burning-moths]

Day 4 of @solangeloweek: AU/free day

Will is sad so Nico gives him hugs

[thebhorror]

Summary: “I think he’s trying to be the death of me,” Nico complained on the phone to his sister on Saturday night, while he painstakingly glued rhinestones on a giant witch’s cauldron that he planned to use as the prize box for the rest of the month.

“How fitting for the spooky season,” Hazel replied, sounding incredibly amused, when really she should be someone concerned for Nico’s sanity.

Or, Mr. Solace, Nico's coworker, seems hellbent on outdoing him when it comes to Halloween

for @solangeloweek Auctober- Day Twelve: Teachers

[thelordofshrimp]

@solangeloweek

boom here’s my submission for AU day! this one might become a series who knows 👀

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace Characters: Will Solace, Nico di Angelo, Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, Jason Grace, Leo Valdez Additional Tags: Vampires, Pre-Relationship, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Blood, in case the first tag wasn't clear Summary:

a lot can happen when you find out that the hot nurse at the blood drive is a little more than meets the eye

[athenafire2000]

Sorry I’m late to the @solangeloweek party but I am a procrastinator by nature so 💀 gonna try to get the rest of the prompts done... eventually... heh.

Here is the first chapter of my submission for “Night Light” :)

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan, The Sun and The Star - Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Will Solace, Naomi Solace, Travis Stoll, Connor Stoll, Chiron (Percy Jackson), Dionysus (Percy Jackson), Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew, Cecil Markowitz, Argus (Percy Jackson) Additional Tags: Young Will Solace, Pre-Canon, Will Solace Needs a Hug, Panic Attacks Summary:

If Will thought his day couldn’t get any weirder, he was proven wrong the moment he walked through the door. At first he thought there was a horse standing in the living room, but as he looked up, he realized it was a man with a horse’s body. Will must have been gaping again because Maron sighed and lifted Will’s chin to close his mouth. Will blushed. “Um, h-hello,” he said, taking a tentative step forward. “I’m Will Solace.”

In other words, Will Solace's introduction to Camp Half-Blood. Minor (backstory-related) spoilers for TSATS. Title from "Just the Beginning" by Greek Fire.

[solangeloweek]

The AO3 Collection is Live!

For anyone getting ready ahead of time for this year’s SolangeloWeek event, you can start uploading your drafts to AO3 and add them to this year’s collection. 

How to Add: 

Under Associations, type “solangeloweek” into the “Post to Collections/Challenges” text bar, and select this year’s event. Make sure you don’t accidentally add your work to one of the previous years’ collections!

And, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to send us an ask!

[thegoldenappleofdiscord]

dumb, dumb love

summary:

Will stretched, a yawn tumbling from his open mouth. He made to rub at his eyelids, but Nico rose from his lap to do it for him with the corner of his wide, fluffy sleeves. “Morning,” he murmured.  

“You didn’t have to,” said Will, reaching for Nico’s hand.  

“You’re supposed to say, ‘morning’ back. Didn’t anyone teach you proper manners?” 

“For this early in the morning?” Will chuckled, though his smile broke into a groan as he popped his back. “Gods, that hurt.” 

“Scoliosis at seventeen.” Nico’s tone was droll. “How’s it feel?” 

“Wonderful. Me and my boyfriend match now.”

full fic on ao3!

i.

By now, Kayla should have known to never open the office door without knocking. 

In her defense, the door wasn’t exactly closed. It had been open just a bit, faint amber light spilling from the crack like an egg yolk. In search of a lollipop, she entered the room without a second thought. The tinkle of chimes flew through the open window, brought in by a misty breeze. Inside, a familiar scene, one she’d seldom had the pleasure to see. Still, she paused in her steps, a smile splitting on her face as it had every other time before. 

Will sat at his desk, wrinkled sheets of paper spread out under his arms, a pen abandoned at his fingertips. In his lap was Nico, face partly obstructed by the fluff of his coat’s collar. He clung to Will’s side like a sloth, the slope of his nose pressed into Will’s neck. They slouched in the velvet chair’s berth, unworried, unbothered. Candlelight flickered on waning stubs, and the flames illuminated their sleeping faces – the lines carved deep from stress had been painted over with serene curves at the edges of their lips - the closest smiles one could have in slumber.  

Kayla had seen them like this once or twice, wrapped up like ribbons. The rigid square length of her brother’s shoulders had sunk, as though the weight on them had evaporated. Nico slept with his chest open and wide, vulnerable. He had always seemed like a person bound together, shrinking into himself, wrapping his thin limbs around and around his body, making himself as small as he could. Even in sleep it showed – she had treated him before and found him with his arms crossed over his heart, legs swathed with invisible twine.  

In Will’s loose grasp, he unraveled. He seemed smaller, shorter, less menacing. He looked like a boy, not the disheveled, wilted remainder of one.  

Kayla smiled, deciding to leave them to their rest. She stuck a lollipop under her lip and stepped out just as the couple began to stir.  

Will stretched, a yawn tumbling from his open mouth. He made to rub at his eyelids, but Nico rose from his lap to do it for him with the corner of his wide, fluffy sleeves. “Morning,” he murmured.  

“You didn’t have to,” said Will, reaching for Nico’s hand.  

“You’re supposed to say, ‘morning’ back. Didn’t anyone teach you proper manners?” 

“For this early in the morning?” Will chuckled, though his smile broke into a groan as he popped his back. “Gods, that hurt.” 

“Scoliosis at seventeen.” Nico’s tone was droll. “How’s it feel?” 

“Wonderful. Me and my boyfriend match now.” He ignored Nico’s indignant glower and reached for the papers on his desk. 

“Don’t even think about it, Will.” 

“I’m not thinking, I’m doing.” He clicked his pen, but Nico pried it out of his palm and shoved it in a drawer. Will frowned. “It’s just a couple more. I need to finish these.” 

“You’ll collapse.”  

“Oh, is Nico di Angelo lecturing me on sleep deprivation?” 

Nico rolled his eyes, pushing a swath of hair from Will’s forehead. “Sleep. You’ll get through these later, okay?” 

Kayla expected Will to argue, to politely decline in the way he always did. But the fight left his face and he sagged into Nico’s shoulders, fatigue puppeting his weary body. “You win this one.” 

“About time I did.” Nico lifted the boy up to the waist, settling him gently on the desk. “Get on my back?” 

“Piggy-back rides?” Will murmured, a sleepy smile curling at the edge of his lips. “What’ve you become, Lord of Darkness?” 

“Don’t you know? Yours.” Laughter spilled from Will, lively even as his bodied dulled. He managed to climb onto Will’s back, lolling head of curls tucked into the collar of his boyfriend’s puffy jacket. “It’s a terrible change.” 

Will brushed a kiss against Nico’s neck. “I kind of like it.” 

It was Nico’s turn to laugh, and his was light, airy, less restrained than the quiet chuckles he let out sporadically during campfires or pavilion meals. Kayla doubted she’d ever hear a sound that free come from him again. She hoped not. 

She ducked into a shadowy corner by the supply closet as they left the office. Their chatter broke the silence like a splatter of paint to a bleak canvas, and they smeared their rosy colors over everything they passed. They bumped into boxes of ambrosia, salves, countertops. They nearly toppled into unmade beds. Will pressed kiss after kiss onto Nico’s neck, and the son of Hades cursed as his steps grew dizzy and reckless.  

They laughed the whole way out.  

full fic here!

[tsarisfanfiction]

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You

Fandom: Trials of Apollo Rating: Teen Genre: Family, Romance Characters: Apollo, Will Solace, Nico di Angelo, Naomi Solace

Naomi Solace is performing at a black tie event, and neither her son nor his boyfriend know much about formalwear.

Day two of @solangeloweek “black tie event”; this prompt had me stuck for ages because I couldn’t think of a situation where they’d ever be likely to go to a black tie event, but I figured it out eventually.  Timeline-wise, we’re post-TOA here.

Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one!  If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

Will was fidgeting.  The ace bandage had made a reappearance around his wrist, something his son only pulled out when he was particularly agitated and needed something to absent-mindedly fiddle with, and had been repeatedly wrapped and unwrapped throughout Apollo’s entire visit to camp and his children.  Of course, ADHD was something that Will, like most demigods, had, so that by itself wasn’t enough to get more than a passing mental note, but the way Nico kept nudging him in the side as though he wanted Will to do something in particular caught Apollo’s attention and held it.

He didn’t act on it, though; whatever it was, it was Will’s business and Apollo might be curious, but he wasn’t about to push his son if he didn’t want to talk, no matter how blatant Nico’s hints grew throughout the day.

His son’s boyfriend, however, seemed to have no such qualms and as the shadows began to lengthen and Apollo realised he ought to leave sooner rather than later, Nico di Angelo grabbed Will by the bandage-free wrist and bodily dragged him until Apollo had two demigods standing in front of him after the rest of his children had bid him good evening and filtered towards the campfire.

Will had moved onto worrying his lower lip with his teeth, and Apollo frowned in concern.

“What’s wrong?” he asked; there had to be something wrong if Nico was physically intervening. The son of Hades knew better than to do that unless Will needed it.

His son’s cheeks had flushed faintly, a dusting of pale pink peeking out from beneath his freckles, and Will’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

“Will needs your help,” Nico told him after a moment, when it was clear that Will wasn’t going to find his voice.

“What’s wrong?” Apollo repeated again, more urgently as he gave his son a thorough visual inspection. There was no sign of injury, no pain crying out on the edges of his awareness, but that didn’t eliminate many possibilities in the grand scheme of things.  “Will, are you okay?”  He reached out and put his hands on his son’s shoulders, resisting the urge to drag him into a hug while he performed a more thorough check on his welfare.

Will’s cheeks flushed darker.  “It’s nothing, Dad,” he mumbled, his voice managing to escape his throat again.  Apollo was not at all reassured by the words when he was well aware that Will had a disposition for hiding things so as not to worry others.  “I’m okay, I just…”

He trailed off, but Apollo was the god of music and his hearing was easily sharp enough to pick out the words past the stage a mortal would have found them audible.  I just need some help with some clothes.

Whatever Apollo had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t that, and his immediate thought was why the two demigods – because Nico was clearly aware of whatever was causing this – had decided to ask him over the fashion-conscious members of cabin ten, or even the sensible and experienced Chiron.

That thought was almost instantly overtaken by a growing bubble of joy in his chest as he realised Will was asking him because he was his father, and trusted him to be able to help.  He had to concentrate to make sure he didn’t flash like a lightbulb in delight; as his child, Will might not have his retinas permanently damaged by such a display, but Nico would be another matter entirely, as well as the other campers in the vicinity.

“I’d love to help!” he beamed, giving in to the urge to hug his son – and Nico, because Nico was still holding onto Will’s wrist, although his fingers had slipped down to tangle with Will’s, and Apollo wasn’t planning on pulling them apart – because it was the safest way to showcase his delight and relief.  “Show me what you’ve got so far and I’ll see what I can do.  Any particular theme?”

He was no Aphrodite, but he certainly kept up with fashionable trends.  The fact that Will looked enough like his preferred appearance that the same things would look good on both of them definitely didn’t hurt.

“It’s one of Mom’s concerts,” Will told him from where he was squished against the side of Apollo’s throat, and Apollo reluctantly let him pull back so they could talk more easily. “She got requested to perform for some rich guys and it’s near here so she asked me and Nico to come, but it’s a black tie sort of thing and, well.”  He shrugged, gesturing at his current ensemble of camp t-shirt, denim cut-offs and flip-flops.  “I know nothing about formal clothes.”

Apollo glanced over at Nico, whose own pale skin had gained a splash of colour.  “Is it just Will who needs my help?” he asked, and the son of Hades looked away.

“I know how to wear smart stuff,” the black-haired boy huffed, and Apollo let the subject drop for the moment, but made a mental note to revisit it once Will was sorted, because that was more of a half-truth than a full truth.

He turned his attention back to his son.  Will was right that formal was definitely not his son’s usual style, or anything remotely close to it, but he also knew that Will would want to get it right, if not for himself, then for Naomi.

Black tie was particularly fussy to get right, and if Apollo was honest, not really his preference – but then again, he was a god who was supposed to stand out, not blend in seamlessly with peers, and while some sky blue accents to match Will’s eyes would look amazing on his son, it was a major faux pas for such a formal event.

“Well, let’s get started,” he said, already sizing up his son and imagining him in various shades of midnight blue, trying to find the perfect one.

“Now?” Will asked, eyes wide.  Apollo detected some hope in them.  “But the concert isn’t until-”

“Now,” Apollo confirmed, putting an arm around his shoulders and steering him towards the Big House.  “This will take some time.”

At the last word, the look on his son’s face changed to one that could almost have been of horror.

“You’ll look fantastic when I’m done,” Apollo assured him.  “Nico won’t be able to keep his eyes off of you all evening.”  He sent a wink at the son of Hades, whose pale complexion was completely swallowed by crimson.

“Dad!”  Will’s cheeks had reached the same colour, and Apollo squeezed him against his side briefly.

“It’s a perfectly natural reaction,” he promised with a smile.  “I can assure you, you’ll only have eyes for Nico, too.”  He refrained from providing personal anecdotes at the last moment; the boys were, after all, still minors by current societal standards and his own experiences of partners in formalwear had very different endings to the evening.

“I’m just gonna-”  The rest of Nico’s words were swallowed up by shadows as he escaped the conversation, to a distressed noise from Will, who clearly hadn’t expected the abandonment.

Apollo wasn’t surprised that Nico had decided not to hang around for Will’s fitting, although if the son of Hades thought that meant he was escaping his own appointment afterwards, he was sorely mistaken.  Regardless whether or not they were attending as an open couple or as closeted friends – a decision he would leave entirely in their hands – they were going to match if Apollo had any say in it at all.

“Did you have to do that?” his son sulked at him, cheeks stubbornly red even as blue eyes fixed him with a disapproving look.

“It’ll be better if he doesn’t see your look in advance,” Apollo advised, guiding Will across the threshold of the Big House and towards one of the lesser-used rooms.  Once upon a time, back when the camp was new, it had been Asclepius’ bedroom; now, rather aptly, it was a long-stay room for those who needed extended medical attention.  “First impressions only happen once!”

The next noise out of Will’s throat was a considering one, as though he hadn’t thought about it from that angle.  Well, he was only fifteen, and this was his first properly formal occasion.

Apollo nudged his son into standing in the middle of the room – it was well-lit, one of the reasons he’d selected this particular lesser-used room – and persuaded him to stand as still as he could while he paced around him, gauging his son’s athletic build and visualising exactly where the seams would need to fall.

Then he snapped his fingers, and a Tom Ford outfit materialised on the bed.  Not one of the biggest names in fashion – more up and coming than anything else – but both Naomi and Will were Texan.  It felt natural to go with a Texan designer.

That nuance, understandably, escaped Will, who was staring at the midnight blue silk as though it was about to bite him.

“Try it on,” Apollo coaxed, and Will jerked.

“That?” he asked, as though he thought there might be something else Apollo was referring to.

Apollo smiled encouragingly at him.  “That,” he confirmed.

“Do I want to know how much this is worth?” Will asked as he cautiously stepped forwards to touch the fabric.  “No,” he decided before Apollo could even open his mouth to give an answer.  “No, I don’t.”

Out of respect for his son’s modesty, Apollo averted his eyes as Will stripped off his regular attire and pulled on the formal clothing, only turning back around when his son let him know he was decent.

The sockless feet poking out from beneath the trouser hems were an amusing sight, but Apollo decided to focus on making sure the fit of all the fabric was perfect before details like adding socks – something he knew Will wasn’t going to be overly impressed with.

As he’d warned, sorting out the outfit, from the tuxedo and shirt to cufflinks and socks, took hours. Curfew had certainly passed by the time he deemed himself satisfied, and Will was obviously rather overwhelmed by the complexity of it all, but Apollo was confident that once the shock of wearing something smart had worn off, he’d be satisfied with how he looked, too.

Nico wasn’t going to know what hit him when he saw Will – and on that note, Nico was next.

The harpies didn’t dare bother Will as Apollo walked him – back in his usual, casual outfit with the black tie attire safely secured in Apollo’s palace on Olympus where no harm could possibly come to it ahead of time – back to cabin seven, via a detour to cabin thirteen so he could say goodnight to his boyfriend.  Nico had managed to lose the blush in the interim hours, and Apollo tried not to seem like too awkward a chaperone as he let them bid each other goodnight before chivvying his son to bed where children of the sun were supposed to be during Artemis’ shift.

All children really ought to be asleep by then, but with Will absent and unaware, Apollo found it to be the best opportunity to get Nico sorted out, too – the son of Hades was far less reluctant about it without Will watching, no doubt because he wanted to surprise him – and they spent half the night arranging Nico’s own attire, before it was secreted away in the shadows, ready and waiting for the big day.

The big day – or, to be more precise, evening – was two months later, during which time Apollo had quietly reassured Naomi that Will and Nico both had appropriately black tie outfits, no she didn’t need to buy them anything, and also wrangled his own invitation to the event.  He refused to miss any of it, from the boys’ reactions to each other to Naomi in her fabulous dress (he hadn’t had any say in that, unfortunately, but it was appropriately stunning for a stunning woman) and, of course, her performance.

Being able to be in multiple places simultaneously was, as always, incredibly useful, and Apollo utilised it to its full capacity as he helped both boys wrangle the delicacies of tying a bow tie – of course they had the real things and not imitation clip-ons – in their respective “dressing rooms” (Asclepius’ room and cabin thirteen) at the same time, whilst also dressing himself in an equally appropriate outfit up on Olympus. Neither of the boys knew he was going to be there, and he was planning on keeping it that way as long as possible – no need to distract them from the visions of each other.

Vision was the perfect word to describe both boys, and as Apollo stepped back from straightening Will’s black bow tie at the same moment he finished Nico’s, he knew his words from two months earlier would come true – neither of them would be able to take their eyes off of each other.

It was difficult to say which boy’s jaw dropped first when they finally caught sight of the other in full black tie regalia, and Apollo contentedly stepped back to watch and appraise the pair of them together.

Clad in identical midnight blue, the traditional black tie colour, shawl-lapelled tuxedoes cut crisp silhouettes while braided trousers fell precisely to their ankles.  White pleated shirts met the waistband under black cummerbunds, and both boys’ shoes shone so much they could be used as mirrors.

The differences lay in their accessories; Nico, as always, wore his polished silver skull ring, and his cufflinks were equally polished silver.  Will, as befitting a son of Apollo, was instead accessorised with gold cufflinks.

With both sets of wavy locks tamed – neither were quite long enough to tie back, to Apollo’s private disappointment, but there was a smooth sheen to Nico’s now slicked-back black hair, while Will’s golden waves seemed to almost glow in the setting sun – and weapons out of sight (Apollo was particularly proud of the way he’d concealed Will’s knife in the cummerbund without it showing any signs of its presence, yet easily accessible should his son need it; Nico’s Stygian Iron sword was stored in the shadows), they looked like respectable, high-class young men.

If Apollo snapped a few photographs with a camera Naomi had passed to him for that exact reason while they were too distracted by each other’s appearance to remember his presence, well, Will’s mother would be delighted.

He allowed them a few minutes of admiring each other, tints to their cheeks that they couldn’t quite blame on the sunset, before he reminded them of his presence.  The concert was in New York, but Apollo had volunteered to get the boys there himself rather than risk their outfits by leaving them to travel by mortal means – the last thing anyone wanted was for them to be attacked, and Nico’s mention of shadow travel had been vetoed before he’s even finished mentioning it.

“Close your eyes,” he warned, placing a light hand on each boy’s shoulder, and as soon as they did so, he transported them directly outside of the venue.  He also took that moment to merge with his self on Olympus, transforming his own appearance into his own attire for the evening.

“Dad, you- what?” Will asked, the first to open his eyes and see the change.  Apollo grinned at him.

“I wouldn’t miss your Mom’s concert for anything,” he declared.  “Shall we?”

He was delighted to see tension bleed from his son’s shoulders as the knowledge that he wasn’t going to be leaving them to navigate the high-class world of black tie events alone sank in.  Even Nico looked relieved when Apollo materialised all three invitations in his hand and led the way to the entrance, breezing them all in without drawing too much attention to the boys.

Being a god, it was very easy to draw all eyes on him instead, no matter how amazing Will and Nico looked.  A little bit of intentional presence leaking out, and the boys turned near enough invisible in his shadow, much to their clear relief.

Naomi was, as always, breath-taking.  While Apollo was sat near the boys – absolutely by design, although he left them enough space to not crowd what was effectively a date – his attention was entirely on the gorgeous singer on the stage, reminded not for the first time why Will existed. Clad in a floor-length deep burgundy gown, with her dirty blond hair coiffed in a simple yet elegant style, the only thing more attractive than her appearance was her voice.

The boys more or less slipped under his radar for the entire time she was performing, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

It wasn’t until Naomi came over, her performance finished, that he let his attention fall back towards the demigods.

“They look fantastic,” Naomi commented quietly.  “I don’t think I saw them take their eyes off of each other once.”

Apollo shrugged.  “I was too enraptured watching you,” he admitted shamelessly and she laughed, a melodic sound that finally drew her son’s attention away from his sharply-dressed boyfriend.

“Mom, that was amazing!”  Will almost stumbled as he stood, Nico’s quick reflexes catching his elbow.

Naomi glowed and peeled away from Apollo’s side to embrace her – their – son.  “Thank you, darling.”  She pressed a light kiss into blond waves before pulling back to inspect Will. “You look gorgeous, doesn’t he, Nico?”

Nico’s agreement was immediate, and Will blushed at the praise.

“Like mother, like son,” Apollo had to say, and Naomi laughed again.

“Like father, like son,” she returned, and Apollo might have preened a little at that while Will attempted to hide his face in an amused Nico’s shoulder.

“Mind the tux,” the son of Hades commented lightly, and got a mumbled shut up in response.

Naomi let out another melodic peal of laughter, hooking her arm through a very willing Apollo’s.  “Don’t they look adorable together?” she asked. “They both wear formal clothes so well.”

“Absolutely,” Apollo agreed easily, leaning into the body pressed against his side and slipping an arm around Naomi’s waist.  From the way she reciprocated the action, and the look in her eyes as she glanced at him, Apollo’s advances were clearly far from unwelcome.

Will, who had just lifted his head, let out a whine before burying his face back in Nico’s shoulder again.  “I’m not sure how I feel about my parents flirting in front of me,” he muttered.

“Well, honey, you’ve got your own eye candy to focus on if you don’t want to see me appreciating mine,” Naomi chirped, and both boys flushed red.  “Nico, darling, you look precious.  I can understand why Will barely looked at me tonight.”

“Mom!”

“No need to be embarrassed, honey,” she assured him.  “I know Nico was looking at you, too.”

“Ms Solace!”  The call interrupted Nico’s stammered response and Apollo felt her sigh against him.

“The woes of popularity,” she commented, slipping out of Apollo’s hold.  He let her go, but with no small amount of reluctance.  “I’ll be back again later, boys.  Enjoy yourselves in the meantime.”

Will and Nico both got light kisses to the hair, and Apollo had to consciously stop himself from glowing when her glossed lips made contact with his cheek.

Then she was gone, her burgundy dress slipping between the sea of dark tuxedos and evening gowns towards whoever had called her.  Apollo watched her go until she was blocked from sight by the other bodies, before turning back to the boys.

His son’s face was a little screwed up, as though something was bothering him.

“That’s weird to watch,” Will muttered, and Apollo’s brain must have followed Naomi because his mouth didn’t wait for approval before speaking.

“There’s a reason you exist.”

Will’s face once again reacquainted itself with Nico’s shoulder.  “Dad!”

“Well, I’m happy that reason exists,” Nico commented, and got a betrayed noise from his boyfriend, who straightened with a huff.

“This is very high on the list of things I never want to think about,” Will complained.  “Can we please change the topic?”

Apollo chuckled, but acquiesced.  “I’m going to go mingle for a while,” he said, eyeing the other guests.  There were some familiar faces he wanted to touch base with while he had the excuse; Naomi Solace was not the only talent around, although she was the only one he had more than a talent scouting eye for that evening.  It felt wrong even considering anyone else like that with her son in the vicinity. “Stay together and don’t touch the alcohol.”

He got matching eyerolls for his bit of responsible parenting, but neither boy protested the idea of him leaving them to fend for themselves for a while (not that he was going to completely ignore them; as minors they were supposed to be under supervision), so with one last, “be good,” he slipped away into the crowd.

Unsurprisingly, they immediately retreated into their own little bubble, and he watched them for a moment as they found some seats again and bent their heads together, quickly absorbed in a quiet conversation that was overlooked and ignored by the surrounding adults, before, satisfied, he shimmied over to his first conversation target.

They’d be fine. No-one should disturb them, and when it got too late, Apollo could whisk them back to camp and make sure they didn’t ruin their clothes taking them off half-asleep.

Then he could see how much of her time Naomi was willing to give him without the children around.

[buoyantsaturn]

if anybody asks, i’m taken (he is too) (2+3/5)

summary: “You can’t fall asleep,” Nico insisted, though his fingers didn’t so much as pause in his hair, and his voice remained light. “You still owe me pizza.”

Will managed to weasel one of his arms between Nico’s back and the cushion behind him, allowing himself to lay more comfortably against his friend. “Already ordered.” 

word count: 4,930

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Will dragged his feet all the way to Nico’s apartment after his lab. He’d done an online order for pizza before he left the science building, and even though he hadn’t received a direct invitation to hang out with Nico that evening, he figured the demand for pizza was close enough. He half expected that Nico might not even let him in without a pizza box in hand, so he was a little bit surprised when Nico let him inside without a fuss.

Will kicked off his shoes, dropped his backpack on top of them, and slumped onto the couch with a huff. He wanted to curl up into a ball with a fluffy blanket to watch some cheesy movies, maybe cuddle up next to a certain someone--

No, he couldn’t let his mind wander like that, not when Nico was in the same room. It was fine if he was by himself, staring down at the screenshot of Nico, middle finger raised, a silver band across his ring finger, the words my husband written on the screen… Will could let himself imagine then. But when Nico, the real person and his best friend, with his hair tied back out of his face to give Will a perfect view of his cheekbones, and his skull ring properly situated on his - right - hand, was sitting next to him on the couch, Will had to force himself to stay in the moment. No fantasizing, no hoping, no longing stares. Nico was never going to like him like that.

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