“You look so constipated, Nico,” Reyna tilted her head amused.
The two of them had gone to law-school together and became friends quite quickly and after graduation, Nico pulled some strings to make sure Reyna would get a spot at his father's law-firm. Their law-firm. Nico had to get used to that. Now that he was working his way up. The two of them were partners already and even though everyone knew it was a given for Nico, seeing he was the son, he had worked hard to actually earn this place.
“You know how much I hate meeting new people,” Nico grumbled a little. “Thank you, for being here, Reyna. It means a lot to have someone else backing me up.”
“Backing you up,” parroted Reyna with a chuckle. “You're not facing an opposition in a court, Nico. These are your wife's friends, who are finally coming over for dinner. You kept them waiting for long enough, she's been working at that school for nearly a year now.”
Nico made a face, instead busying himself with the pasta he was preparing as a side-dish for the chicken Parmesan he was making for dinner. It was true that he had ditched a couple of dinners already, but he really hated meeting new people. He was happy enough that Rachel enjoyed her job at the school and happier even that she had made friends, since she'd said that she felt lonely before. But must he meet these new people too? He didn't need any more friends. He had Rachel and Reyna, was that not enough? How many friends must one have?
“Besides,” Reyna tried to sound nonchalant and failed. “Among them, if I'm not mistaken, is that omega she keeps talking about, right? Percy Jackson.”
That gave Nico pause and made him frown annoyed. Reyna knew. She knew everything. It was why they had become such good friends. She'd caught him in college, sneaking around with her high school best friend Jason Grace when he had been visiting. She knew he was gay, she knew his marriage to Rachel was one of friendship. Recently, Rachel had started talking about someone, for the first time since their wedding. While Nico had the occasional fling – at first only one-night-stands, but soon even something akin to relationships, as he grew more confident in himself and more accepting of his own homosexuality – Rachel had never quite shown any interest in someone before. She said her true love was art and that she was quite happy with the arrangement the two of them had; if she needed anything more, she would tell him, as he had told her.
(excerpt from The Unexpected Swim Coach, a Perchel/Nicercy fic where Nico and Rachel are in a queerplatonic marriage, that is to be blamed on @justonemorechapternicercy and will be posted on the 11th~)