The Plea of Apollo || COMPLETED

CHRISTMAS EVE EVE

It was the day before Christmas Eve when the group of demigods got together to say their goodbyes. They were all going to be celebrating Christmas at their respective homes (mostly). Chiron would be watching over the pups while they were away.

Annabeth was going to stay with her family, much to Percy's disappointment. Percy, Tyson, Ella, and even Grover were going to stay at the new house his mother and Paul had moved into a few months before. Piper had told Jason, Leo, and Calypso they could spend Christmas at her father's estate since none of them had any family to stay with. Lou Ellen was going to her own home while Cecil stayed with his biological mother. Hazel was going to be with Frank at his grandmother's apartment (since their home had been burned down). Frank had invited Reyna and Nico, but both of them had declined his offer. Nico was going home with Will, with Reyna accompanying him much to everyone's surprise.

"Leo your hat looks ridiculous," Hazel sighed.

"My hat is awesome is what you mean," Leo remarked, as the mistletoe hanging from the end of a string, caught on fire. Luckily, Calypso had enchanted his clothes (and the hat) so they would be fireproof.

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Only Calypso is really allowed to take advantage of that though. She'll also kill you if a girl sees that and wants to carry on the tradition."

Suddenly Will and Nico were standing on either side of Leo. They grinned at him, who stared at them in confusion.

"You should really take that obnoxious hat off," Nico said as he edged closer to his friend.

Will nodded as he moved closer on the other side. Soon both of their faces were inches away from either side of Leo's. "Wouldn't want girls, or guys for that matter, getting any ideas would you?"

Just before Leo thought they would kiss him as some sort of sick joke, the two moved in front of him and began kissing each other. It didn't last long, but by the time they were done Leo had taken the hat off and passed it to a slightly shocked but even more amused Praetor.

"Take it. The hat takes away from my natural hotness anyway," he said while turning to where Jason and Percy were hugging tightly.

"I'm going to miss you, bro!" Percy said with pretend tears in eyes.

Jason looked down at him before turning away dramatically. "It's for the best. We'll see each other again someday, bro."

"For the love of Athena," Annabeth sighed before pulling her boyfriend away and kissing him quickly on the mouth. "My dad is waiting, Percy. I need to go now. See me off?"

He smiled lovingly, eyes losing their playfulness and softening. "Of course, Wise Girl."

Once they disappeared down the hill, it was Will who said his mother should be almost there. She had driven nine hours the previous day to New York, staying at a hotel for the night before leaving around nine that morning to pick them up. It was nearing ten now, which meant she was probably already waiting for the trio.

"Have a great time," Jason said to Nico, Will, and Reyna as they gathered their backpacks. Quietly he whispered to the son of Hades, "I made sure to slip a couple drachmas into your bag. If you ever need to talk over break, IM me. Or Hazel for that matter."

Nico smiled at him. Jason was a pretty awesome big brother figure despite being his cousin. "Thanks, Sparky."

"Sparky? Not you too!"

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

It was a few minutes later when Will, Nico, and Reyna piled into the blue car driven by Ms. Solace. Reyna was in the passenger seat while Will cuddled Nico in the back. The taller of the two had his tan arms wrapped around the smaller boy, his chin resting on top of black hair. Nico leaned against him comfortably, only blushing slightly when Reyna turned around and winked at him.

"So you must be Reyna," Will's mother said as they began their journey. "I'm Naomi Solace, but you can just call me Naomi or Ms. Solace. Nico's told me a number of good things about you the times he visited."

Reyna smiled as she snuck a glance at her practically brother. "Well I'm flattered, although I think I should the one praising him."

"Trust me, Will does enough of that for everyone," Ms. Solace laughed while Will turned a bit pink. "It's always Nico this and Nico that with this one. While it's adorable it can get a little repetitive; I know he can summon a skeleton army, my boy. There's no need to tell me a hundred times."

Will blew a raspberry at his mother but said nothing.

After an hour or so of driving in silence, Reyna decided to initiate some small talk with Ms. Solace since the two in the back seat were fast asleep.

"So what do you do for a living?" Reyna asked in a polite tone. She was guessing it she was a nurse or maybe a poet, but she didn't want to voice these Apollo stereotypes out loud.

The older woman beamed at having someone to talk to. In truth she had been bored out of her mind driving to New York all by her lonesome. "Oh, I'm a jack of all trades I suppose. I'm currently working part time in a home for people with disabilities while also teaching violin lessons on the side. I used to be a fulltime nurse, but that got tiring. I'm a substitute teacher as well, filling in for English and Science teachers every so often. Writing poetry for the local newspaper is also a thing every month, courtesy of Apollo's influence, though that is for my own benefit so I am not paid for my work."

"Wow," Reyna said before nodding her head in respect. "You're a busy woman, I see."

Ms. Solace smiled knowingly. "When you're doing something you love you never work a day of your life, young one."

"You're a wise woman too."

"I had to balance out Will's father's side somehow, didn't I? If not I don't know how Will would fare in college."

Reyna quirked an eyebrow. "So he's planning on going to college, huh? Let me guess; he wants to go to medical school to become a real doctor?"

The mother's eyes shone with pride as she answered. "He's already so gifted when it comes to healing, but he's been telling me for years now that he wants to become even better. Will aspires to be able to perform surgeries with very low success rates perfectly while also wanting to be there to help those in critical conditions, so in the ER I think. He really wants to save as many lives as he can," she said softly.

"Your son has a big heart, Ms. Solace. He has saved so many lives and helped countless others. I'm most grateful for what he's done for Nico though."

"Ah, I have heard the boy has experienced much pain in his lifetime," she admitted as her eyes darted to the rearview mirror. The two boys still appeared to be asleep so she kept talking. "He was so shy when I first met him. It was like he was scared of me to be honest. However, when he didn't know I was looking I noticed how he looked at my son. There was such love in those shattered eyes of his; just as much love that enters my son's eyes when he speaks of little Nico. I am so happy they found each other."

Reyna allowed a ghost of a smile to sweep across her face. She loved Nico like a brother, and cared for Will because of the happiness he brought the son of Hades, but it still hit her like a brick when she remembered she had no one looking at her with such love-filled eyes.

Suddenly, a yawned escaped one of the boys in the backseat. Said boy blinked sleepily before immediately falling back asleep against his boyfriend's warm chest. Ms. Solace watched this from the rearview mirror with amused eyes before chuckling.

"It's hard to think my future son-in-law is a son of Hades. He's just as cute as Will says he is."