Will makes a couple more trips to the Underworld after Tartarus. Nico gets to show him his room and they have dinner with his father, who Will is sure is glaring at him for the majority of the dinner until he realizes that's really just his face. Will turns 17 one week later.
Apollo laughs when Hades comes to him and asks for a favor. Not out of malice, more out of the absurdity of the situation. Even with Apollo's many children, none of theirs have ever paired up before. They're from different worlds, he supposes. While opposites may attract, love doesn't follow the same rules as a magnet. Hades' children tend to be loners by nature, it just comes with the territory of having death be your realm: it scares people.
It especially scares those who work so hard to try and prevent it, those who don't wish to think too closely about the bloodier targets their arrows land upon, those musicians and poets who work so hard to claw their way up from the pits of grief and to the pillars of fame, to become legends who escape the erasure of death.
Despite all that, their sons work.
Apollo knows this, he spent plenty of time marvelling at how Nico and Will just fit together, as cute and excited as new lovers and as deeply intertwined as any pair of soulmates hes witnessed over his eternity.
To know Hades sees it too, though? He has to laugh. It's so confusing and so obvious. More than anything, its out of character. Hades treasures his family more than most other gods. He loves his wife and rarely strays from her, and the demigod children he does sire he sees and cares for. Making a connection with a demigod that is not one of his own is new, though. He genuinely likes Will.
Nico is trying to do it, trying to be the child of his who is happy, and Will is helping him every step of the way. He's kind, understanding, every bit as fucking weird and off beat as Nico, anxious, still young and stupid. Flawed, but good.
Hades wants Will to be with Nico wherever his son goes. Nico will always venture back into the second home below he loves so much, the one that is a part of him he wishes so badly to share with Will and Will learns every day to love more.
On the morning of his 17th birthday, Will finds a box on the doorstep of Cabin 7, addressed to him. Inside is a small golden pendant, shaped into an open half of a pomegranate with tiny silver seeds. The note next to it only reads: For William Andrew Solace, with no clue of who it's from other than that the whole ensemble smells of the fire and brimstone of the Underworld. Nico hasn't been down there lately, so he assumes it's a joking gift from Persephone. 'Better like these if you're gonna be with my stepson,' maybe. It's beautiful, though. He attaches it to his necklace and laughs with Nico when he sees it, and carries on with his day. Apollo visits him for the celebrations and smiles at the pendant, but he doesn't say anything more.
The next time he visits the Underworld he feels...better. Fine, actually. He assumes he must be getting used to the place. When he eats dinner with Nico and his family that night, he thanks Persephone for her gift, holding the pendant on his chain over his shirt for the first time since he's arrived. She looks confused before she smirks and turns towards her husband, who calmly sips his wine.
"You're clearly going to be here for quite a while, I thought it would be helpful. Your father assisted."
Nico's eyes widen, and Will notices for the first time the odd warmth of the pendant. It's just a bit more intense than the rest of the chain and Nico's skull ring, more than it could be warmed from his skin. It feels like sunshine.
He does not feel tired. He feels in the Underworld exactly as he would above ground; he doesn't have to keep his visits limited to a couple of hours. He can be with Nico in his home without distinctly feeling like he wasn't meant for it, even with all of the love he holds for his boyfriend.
He could not have a more tacit approval from Hades.
More than that, it's a pomegranate. he is wearing on his neck a symbol that he is of the Underworld by virtue of his partner. Gods, a wedding ring might be less symbolically binding. Persephone speaks again.
"Should we start calling you Prince-Consort?"
Nico and Will blush right down to the roots of their hair.
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