Learn Italian With Nicolo di Angelo!

The Reasons Why

"Hey, Nico?" Will asks, his voice slightly shaky, walking into the Hades cabin with practiced ease. He can't believe he really used to be scared of this place. Yeah, the decor needed some work, okay, a lot of work, but the vibe no longer set him off.

"What?" Nico asks, then, noticing his discomfort in his tone of voice, adds, "Did someone hurt you? Who do I need to kill, I'll do it, you know I'll do it, just say the word, and I'll--"

"Nico," Will said, slightly amused. Good. Nico thought. Amused is a lot better than anxious. I don't like to see him anxious.

"Yeah?" Nico responded, pretending he didn't understand the mood shift.

"Can you teach me Italian?"

Nico's eyes widened. "You're kidding, right? Of course you're kidding, you'd never want to actually learn Italian. I was stupid to ever think you would have wanted to. Wait, you still love me, right? What if this whole relationship was just a heist, what if you never loved me in the first place, what if--"

"Neeks! Quit that!" Will cut him off, slightly hurt by his words, but not too much, considering all he had lost during The Blood of Olympus.He had lost everything. But he still had Will. "You realize this is our 1 month anniversary, right?"

"Huh? It is?" Nico said, horror flashing through his eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry Will! I forgot..." nico didn't even tell him to knock off the nickname that time. Poor Nico.

"Nico, it's alri--"

"I'm a horrible boyfriend! I can't believe this, I don't deserve you, you deserve better, maybe we should break--"

"Nico!" Will yelled, silencing the fretting child of Hades.

"...yeah?" Nico asked, flinching. This was the first time Will had elevated his voice level to Nico, but he cowered like it was a hand he'd raised, rather than his voice.

"Hey," Will quickly switched to a soft, calm tone.

"I'm sorry, okay? Just hear me out."

"...okay." Nico responded, still worried Will might hit him. This has nothing to do with me, Will thought. it was his childhood that did this, not me, he continued in his head, though he couldn't push away the thought that this could all be his fault.

"I want to learn Italian with you, I am not kidding, I always have, and always will, love you, it's okay that you forgot-- you've had a lot on your plate lately--, and..." Will said, taking Nico's hands in his. "You are the greatest boyfriend a guy could ever ask for. If anything, you deserve better. Not me. You."

Nico had nothing to say, so he just hugged Will, tight, as he rubbed circles against the fabric of his shirt with 2 fingers, a soothing method he had picked up as a child.

Nico gently nodded. "Okay," he whispered, and gave Will a quick squeeze before letting letting go.

"Va bene! Immagino che ti insegnero l'italiano, allora."

"...Huh?"

Nico laughed softly. "You'll get there."

"Really? 'Cause that sounded like a lot."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Maybe after this you could teach me Texan!"

"There ain't no stoppin' me, darlin'. Wadaya wanna know?" Will said with his signature Texan wink.

"Ooh, that sounds complicated. I'll just stick to," Nico started counting on his fingers. "Italian, Latin, English, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Span-- Well would you look at that!" Nico said sarcastically. "I've run out of fingers! Oh, well, sorry Spanish and Chinese!"

Will rolled his eyes for the third time in the last 10 minutes. "You have 10 digits, you do realize that, right, Deathboy?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Nico said, his Italian kicking in, and doing an upwards flappy motion with his hands.

"Okay, so where do we start?"

"Le base."

"The base?" Will said, but as soon as he did, he figured it out. The basics.