OliviaEGlory, Olivia E Glory (Liv)

Fallin' For The Sun- 2023 Red's Pick Winner and Reader Pick Runner-Up

Synopsis: How will a Valentine's Day with the son of Hades and son of Apollo end?

Not so obvious but super cute cliffhanger: Will Nico accept who he is, let go of his fears, and embrace his relationship with Will Solace?

As a son of Hades, Nico Di Angelo was used to being alone - though all of that had changed after he met Will Solace; the golden-haired son of Apollo.

During the war with Gaea, Nico had seen Will unleash death whistles, heal wounds with his hymns, and skillfully dismantle several of the onagers that had been aimed at Camp-Half-Blood.

In fact, his now-boyfriend had even been one of the few heroes who'd had the courage to rip the Roman Praetor Octavian a new one right before the demigods from either camp had gotten to watch the toga-wearing idiot fling himself gloriously into the sky.

Yeah, their first meeting hadn't exactly been cute - or intentional - but Nico didn't care so long as he was with Will.

Will Solace - or as he liked to call him, Captain Sunshine, was his, and he'd damn anyone to Hades who said otherwise.

It seemed fitting then that Nico now lay in a bed at Camp Half-Bloods infirmary, his boyfriend wrapping and unwrapping the dressings covering his burns.

They'd gotten to know each other more after he'd almost died during the battle, and Nico had found himself coming back to the infirmary ever since.

"I'm starting to think you're injuring yourself just so you can spend time with me, Death Boy." Will said with a smirk, arching one of his oh-so-perfect eyebrows at him.

"No, but it's cute that you think that," Nico said, stretching his arms till one of them wrapped around Will's shoulders. "Are you done mummy-wrapping me? Cuz' I know something else we could be doing..."

His arms and legs were covered in so much wrapping that he looked like one of the mummified guards that guarded the Fields of Asphodel.

"Almost," Will promised, tying a bandage around his free hand. "There. Maybe this'll teach you to not fight with people from the Ares cabin."

Nico growled, recalling the fight he'd gotten into with Pierce Hansen.

It had begun with an insult - one Nico didn't care to repeat - and had ended with Pierce getting swarmed by an army of skeleton warriors. Nico had held his ground quite well, though his aviator jacket had caught on fire from Hansen's electrified spear.

"That stupid Son of Ares got what he deserved, I promise you."

Will shrugged his shoulders, never one to argue with him. "Sure, Nico. I just think that maaaaybe fighting everyone who upsets you isn't the right answer?"

Nico wriggled his fingers a bit, feeling the nectar at last numbing the pain. "Sure is fun though."

"Do I even want to know what this fight was about?"

Nico got quiet for a moment. "It doesn't matter."

Will's cerulean eyes surveyed him. "You sure about that?"

No, Nico thought. But I don't want to talk about what happened right now, thanks. Especially given what day it is.

"Where's my jacket?"

Will looked away from him, his face breaking out into a smile. "I have it right here," he said, handing it over to Nico.

Holding the jacket in his hands, Nico went to shrug it on over his shoulders only to notice a small change. A tiny golden sun had been embroidered onto one of the sleeves with a skull in the center of it - A symbol of Hades and Apollo joined together.

"When did you do this?"

"Do you like it?" Will asked, his eyes shining. "I thought about getting you something for Valentine's Day-,"

Nico groaned, hating anything and everything to do with Valentine's Day ever since his showdown with Eros, or Cupid, or whatever the hell his name was.

"But I know you don't like that sort of thing" Will said, "So I thought something small like a new patch for your jacket would be ok for a son of Hades?"

Nico eyed the patch. The sun and skull covered up the wear and tear his jacket had received after having worn it into so many battles.

And it did look pretty cool.

He normally didn't approve of anyone taking his things - like his jacket or the mythomagic cards he'd collected over the years since childhood, but he could make an exception for Will.

"It's okay," Nico said, only to panic when he realized he hadn't gotten his boyfriend anything. "Oh gods! I'm sorry, Will... I don't have anything for you."

"Aw, It's okay," Will said, forcing a smile to his face. "I know why Valentine's Day is hard for you. I understand."

And Nico knew he meant it. Will was the only person he'd confessed his encounter with Cupid to besides Jason.

Still... he could see despite his boyfriend's reassurances that they didn't need to do anything for Valentine's Day, that Will clearly wanted to spend the holiday with him.

It would, after all, be their first Valentine's Day together as a couple.

Before he could stop himself, Nico blurted out. "Do you want to go to the Flower Ball with me?"

Will frowned. "Th-the Flower Ball?"

"Erm, yes? It's um...It's a dance? One that Persephone hosts every year. There's lots of flowers and dancing and stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Lots of stuff. So much stuff," Nico agreed, wishing he could shrink into the shadows.

Why in Hades did he always unravel whenever he was around Will?

It was honestly a wonder to him why Captain Sunshine stuck around with someone like him at all.

Will beamed. "Oh my Fates! Are you asking me to be your Valentine, Nico Di Angelo?"

Nico grimaced, wondering what Persephone would think seeing him wearing the patch Will had made when they walked into The Flower Ball together.

Nico forced a smile to his face. "Maybe..."

Will shrieked in excitement, prompting Nico to feel those butterflies in his stomach again.

"You are! You definitely are!"

Still smiling, Will leaned over and kissed him on his cheek. "When's the party, Death Boy?"

Nico blushed and wrapped his bandaged hand around Will's perfect one.

"Right after the sun goes down."

"Ah," Will said , clearing his throat. "That totally makes sense! Persephone probably doesn't want my dad showing up and ruining things with one of his terrible haiku's: I am Apollo! I annoy all with my poems! I am so awesome!"

The two of them burst out laughing at this, with Nico laughing so hard he could feel tears pricking the corners of his eyes, the anger he'd felt from his fight with Pierce momentarily forgotten.

Nico had no doubt that he and Will would be the ultimate power couple - the sun and the shadows together as one.

Location: The Underworld (The Flower Ball)

When Nico asked Will to be his date for the Flower Ball, a part of him felt like slapping himself upside the face.

Valentine's Day was for losers who hated themselves - not a child of Hades!

When his sister Bianca had been alive, Valentine's had been an especially lonely time for the Di Angelo's as their mother had been mourning their father - Hades - who'd all but up and left her.

The gods were champions at crushing the hearts of the mortals they fell in love with, though that didn't seem to deter them from coming down from Olympus to partake in all kinds of godly amusements.

And then of course, Nico had wound up in the Lotus Hotel and had been trapped in time for many loveless, lonely, years.

Needless to say, Nico didn't feel all lovey dovey as he knew couples were supposed to feel on Valentine's Day.

Holding Will's hand felt great - and he especially liked whenever he made his boyfriend smile, but it was difficult to imagine anything beyond what Nico already knew they were: guy friends who kissed - essentially, the best kind of friends.

Not that that was the only reason for the skeletal butterflies in his stomach.

Perhaps, the most important reason was that he was not used to being the center of attention or the 'life of the party' like Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, or the infamous Party Ponies were.

Being the Son of Hades, all eyes in the Underworld would be on him and Will, so there was no room for him to show shyness or fear or anything that would make his father remotely think of turning Will into a grease spot.

Attending the Flower Ball with his boyfriend would be a new step in their year-long relationship - one he wasn't sure if he was ready to take, but was diving headfirst into the waters of love all the same.

Thankfully, the Flower Ball that Persephone hosted meant that all the heroes of Elysium, a couple of hand-picked spirits, and ghosts would be in attendance, which meant he had a small chance of being able to blend in with the crowd.

Nico looked around him at the decorations.

As far as the eye could see, there were hundreds of ruby red flowers, gemstones in the shape of flowers, flower wreaths, flowers that sang songs of the damned, and flowers that kept trying to braid themselves into Nico's hair no matter how many times he told them to "shove their flower-petaled selves somewhere else".

"Nico!" a cheerful voice cooed.

Wincing, Nico turned around, recognizing the voice of the springtime goddess. Persephone had changed from her usual pink petal dress, to one with flowers of every kind and color.

"Hey, Persephone," Nico said weakly. Had she heard him talk back to her flowers and was about to turn him into one?

The goddess had turned him into a petunia once during one of her rages, and it had taken his father Hades three whole days to find him in her enormous underworld garden.

"I was just wondering," she said, "if you saw the suit I picked out for you?"

You mean that hideous flower covered thing lying on my bed?

"Yeah," Nico said. "It... wasn't really my style."

Persephone's laugh was melodious. "Nonsense! It's called the Flower Ball. Everyone should be wearing my beautiful flowers!"

Before he could say 'no', She waved her hand at him. Nico looked down and saw that his usual skull t-shirt now sported a skeletal flower with the saying "power to the flowers!" below it. Not only that, but small gray flowers curled up and down the arms of his aviator jacket.

"There," Persephone cooed, looking quite pleased with her handiwork. "Now you look somewhat presentable and less like something Cerberus choked up."

Nico bit back an insult. "Thanks so much, Lady Persephone. Where's my father?"

Persephone smiled then, and Nico found himself wishing that he could hide amongst all the flowers. "Oh, I imagine he's with that handsome son of Apollo you managed to ensnare - Will Solace."

Nico's eyes widened, wondering why he hadn't felt Will's presence the minute he'd entered the Underworld. He'd planned on meeting Will at the gate!

No, no, no!

"Will's already here?!"

How long had his boyfriend been alone with his father in the throne room? The Furies liked to hang out there, which is why Nico did his best to avoid that room at all costs. Not only that, but he hadn't yet introduced Will to him.

"Relax," Persephone said. "My husband has only killed maybe three demigods who've annoyed him in his realm over the years. Come smell the flowers with me while we wait and see!"

"Yeah, I'll pass on that," Nico said, hurrying himself along past the skeletal soldiers that guarded the palace.

The souls who recognized him bowed their heads in respect, but Nico didn't care.

He had to find Will before his father, Hades, did something to ruin everything.

Nico found Will, pale-faced but otherwise ok at the foot of his fathers throne. He was sporting a golden suit and tie so bright that it no doubt outshone the sun.

His father on the other hand was not at all sunny, as everything about his complexion was ghostly and dark from his olive eyes, to his black head of hair, which surprisingly had a flower crown on it - Persephone's doing no doubt.

The woman was insane when it came to her flowers.

"Everything alright here?" Nico asked, bowing respectfully to his father. At least, he hoped it looked respectful.

The Furies sat perched above his fathers throne, watching the scene below in amusement.

Will shot him a wry smile. "Yeah. I was just telling your father about the cabin I helped build for you at camp. You know - how I made it so the torches would burn green in honor of him all day and all night?"

Nico nodded his head in agreement, relieved that his boyfriend had found a way to break the ice without him.

"Is that all you talked about?"

Will chuckled. "Well, I suppose we did talk a bit about how lucky I am to be standing here without succumbing to a tragic fate like the three others before me?"

Nico turned to glare daggers at his father.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that. I'd never let anything happen to you."

This made his father laugh. "Relax Nico. Will seems like a nice young man. Although," his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he turned to look at Will. "There will be no spouting off ridiculous haikus in my realm. I get enough of that from your father."

Will laughed, the sound so loud that its echo made the Furies shift uncomfortably from their perch.

"Yes sir. I mean, Had-Lord Hades."

Hades looked at Will now with approving eyes. "Then you may stay. Please enjoy the festivities. I would stick around, but I appear to have fallen victim to my wife's floral decorations." His eyes wandered up to where the wreath sat on his head in disdain, before he evaporated into shadows.

With his father gone, Will turned to Nico. "How about that dance, Death Boy?"

Nico blushed and took Will's hand, surprised when his boyfriend led him along as if he knew where he was going.

While he knew that hundreds of spirits, and ghosts mingled about the outskirts of the Underworld, Nico had eyes only for Will as the son of Apollo led him to the center of the palace's ballroom.

"I suppose now would be a good time to say that I don't know how to dance?" Nico said, shifting his feet rather awkwardly.

Will nodded and took his hand, kissing it. "It's a good thing I'm a son of Apollo then. We Apollo kids tend to be rather skilled at dancing."

An orchestra began playing somewhere off in the distance at precisely the moment when he and Will started their dance. They swayed rather awkwardly at first, though Nico quickly got the hang of things and allowed Will to lead him.

It was all too perfect, too nice, too....

"Nico? Are you alright?"

Was he? He thought back to all the fights he'd been getting into ever since Eros. It seemed like he'd been having to prove himself over and over.

"I'm just afraid," Nico admitted, hoping his words were drowned out by the music. The ghosts swirling around them didn't seem to notice, but he kept his next words quiet. "Of what we are -and what that means. The entire world is so judgey, and it seems that no matter how hard I fight to prove myself - to prove that we have every right to be with each other as boyfriend and boyfriend - something always has to go wrong."

It wasn't fair that he had to look both ways before holding his boyfriend's hand.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't....

Will looked at him then, and Nico's thoughts stopped. "Is that why you fought with Pierce today? Because he was-," He let his voice trail off, no doubt knowing quite well what had been said.

"Yeah..." Nico said, inching closer to Will as they danced. "I was going to let my skeleton soldiers finish him off when Chiron stopped me - said something annoying about how 'killing campers won't solve anything'.

Will laughed. "Well, he's not wrong, but I'm sorry that happened to you, Nico. I wish I had been there to kick Pierce's ass too. Although I could always curse him to speak in rhymes, if that's what you wish?"

Nico smirked, pleased with his boyfriend's idea of punishment. "Oooh, I definitely do. The prick deserves that so much."

"Look at us," Will said, twirling him once more as the music picked up speed. "Concocting plans of revenge. This is turning out to be quite the Valentine's Day, no?"

"Yeah," Nico said, sighing. He had to admit that it was kind of good.

"Don't hate me," Will said, holding up his hands, "....but I have another surprise for you."

Nico frowned. "It's not a makeover is it? Cuz Persephone kinda already sprung that on me."

"No," Will said, taking his hands.

The two of them now stood in the center of the ballroom as the spirits continued their dances around them.

He could feel a familiar presence moving closer to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

"I just thought you might want to talk to her given that you haven't seen her in a long time - and that you might want to be with someone else you love this Valentine's Day."

Someone else?

Will pointed to something behind him.

Nico turned around and saw a ghost of a girl standing before him. Her ghostly form shimmered, but he knew those features well: they had the same dark eyes and jet black hair.

"Bianca!" Nico said, stumbling a bit at the sight of his older sister.

Will caught his arm and helped him go towards Bianca; his sibling whom he hadn't seen in many years ever since the Battle in the Labyrinth when he'd tried to resurrect her.

"Hello Nico," His sister said, smiling. "You've grown up."

"I've missed you, Bianca" Nico said, the words pouring from his mouth. "I-I wish you didn't have to die so soon."

"I know, Nico," Bianca said sadly. "But everyone must die eventually - even heroes." Her eyes took in Will next to him. "I take it you're the boy my little brother is dating?"

Will cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. He's my boyfriend. We kiss quite a bit too."

Nico glared at him, but thankfully Bianca found Will's comment funny and laughed.

"I'm glad you found someone. I've always wondered if our mother had had the strength to move on, if she would have lived a better life. We shouldn't care what other people say or do. We're the masters of our own destiny - which was one of the reasons why I became a hunter."

A master of his own destiny...

Nico liked the sound of that, but he wasn't a hunter like his older sister - nor was he as strong as her.

Could he let go of his fear? Could he accept that he and Will were all that mattered and nothing else?

Having Will and Bianca here with him now made him feel as if such a thing could be possible - even if his being with Bianca would be temporary. Her spirit would return to Elysium after the Flower Ball just as all the others would - only he and Will would remain.

"Did Will bring you here?" Nico asked his sister.

Bianca smiled. "He did. We wanted to show you that it's okay to let go and not be in control of things all the time. I know it's difficult - especially for a child of Hades - but you can be yourself Nico. You can be in love and be happy."

"That's exactly what I've been trying to tell him," Will said, planting a kiss on his cheek. "I'm hoping Nico might listen to his big sister, if not me."

Nico rolled eyes and punched Will in his shoulder.

"Hey!" Will protested, pouting a little.

"I think I'll leave you two now," Bianca said, smiling. "I'll see you later Nico."

Nico watched Bianca go before turning back to look at Will.

"I just wish that things could be different. But I suppose fallin' for the sun won't be such a bad thing if it means I get to see more of your stupid face."

Will's eyes widened. "Nico Di Angelo! Did you just make a pun and insult me in the same sentence?"

Nico smirked. "I did. And...I think I'm ready to be in love and be happy. Just so long as you promise me one thing?"

Will nodded. "Sure. Anything."

Nico narrowed his eyes, hoping he looked just as dangerous and serious as his father. "You will never tell Apollo I used a pun, or I will let Cerberus use you as his chew toy."

Will laughed, and the sound brought a warmth far greater than the fires of the Underworld to Nico's soul.

He didn't know if he'd ever be able to fully open himself up to the world, but he would start with Will and see what happened next.

He was the son of Hades, he was in love, and he would be damned if he didn't fight for the relationship he had with his boyfriend.

The only question still left unanswered was just how in Hades was he going to tell Will he loved him.

He had an idea forming in the base of his brain....Maybe he could have Annabeth or someone at camp help him? Saying "I love you" would definitely show Bianca how ready he was to move on.

But for now, Nico settled for taking Will's hand and guiding him gently back to the dance floor.

He would come out to the world when he was ready - if he ever was. Right now, he wanted to dance with his boyfriend.

"Come on, Solace," he said, grinning. "You owe me one more dance before the night is done."