Learn Italian With Nicolo di Angelo!

Silent H

The afternoon sun filtered through the leaves of the oak tree, dappling the picnic blanket where Will and Nico sat. Nico flipped through his notebook, a playful smile on his lips.

"Alright, Solace," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Ready to tackle the next seven letters of the Italian alphabet?"

Will, who had been struggling with a particularly tricky pronunciation, looked up with a hopeful grin. "Absolutely! Hit me with your best shot, Professor di Morte."

Nico chuckled. "Alright, alright. Today, we'll conquer letters H to P." He opened the notebook to a fresh page and began writing in his neat, loopy handwriting.

"First up is 'H,'" Nico announced, pointing to the letter. "Unlike English, 'H' is silent in Italian. So, words like 'hora' (oh-rah) (meaning hour) don't have that strong 'h' sound at the beginning."

Will furrowed his brow, processing the information. "Silent, huh? Interesting. What's next?"

"Next is 'I,'" Nico continued, writing the letter. "This one's a vowel, pronounced just like the 'ee' sound in 'see.'"

"I don't think vowels like me very much." Will said, pretending to ponder why this might be so.

"Here comes 'L.'" He wrote the letter. "'L' is pronounced just like the English 'L' in 'lamp.'"

"woah woah woah, where'd J and K go?"

"Replaced by versions of 'C' and 'J', remember?" Nico asked, smirking.

Will heaved a breath of relief. "Oh, yeah! I forgot about those!"

"We'll see," Nico said, writing the next letter, 'M'. "M is also pronounced the same as English – 'emme.'"

Will copied it down, feeling a growing sense of accomplishment. "This is going well!"

"Next up! N. 'N' is similar to 'M,' pronounced just like the English 'enne.'"

Will copied it down with a confident nod. "Easy peasy."

"Let's see if you can handle this one," Nico said, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he wrote the letter 'O'. "'O' is another vowel, Solace. It can have two sounds depending on whether it's open or closed."

"Open and closed?" Will echoed, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.

"Yep," Nico explained. "A closed 'O' sounds like the 'oh' in 'bone,' while an open 'O' sounds like the 'aw' in 'law.'"

"Confusing. I think I might have to study that one," Will says, his confidence dying.

Nico can sense the change in his boyfriend's posture, and cups a hand around his chin, lifting it upwards so Will looks at him with his bright, sky blue eyes. "Hey, it's okay, you'll get the hang of it eventually!"

"Yeah, but..." Will starts, then trails off.

"But what?" Nico asks, confused.

"Every time I forget something, or don't understand something, I... I feel like I'm letting you down." Will confesses, tears dripping slowly down his face.

"Hey, hey, don't think like that! You could never let me down!"

"But this is a part of you, Nico! And it's... it's like I don't understand you fully without this."

"No, Will, it's okay, remember? It took me years to understand English! Sometimes, I'm not even sure if I do!" Nico says, and Will chuckles.

"That's my ray of sunshine." he says, and Will perks up.

"Okay. What's next?" he says, confident.

Nico wrote the final letter of the day. "'P' is pronounced just like the English 'peh.'"

Will copied it down with a satisfied smile. "Fourteen letters down, and I'm still standing! I feel like I'm actually starting to learn something, Nico."

Nico reached across the blanket and squeezed Will's hand gently. "You are, Solace. You're doing great. But remember, learning a language takes time and practice. Don't get discouraged if you stumble a bit along the way."

Will squeezed his hand back. "Thanks, Nico. I won't. So, what's next? Are we going to practice some words with these new letters?"

"Not quite yet. There are still 7 letters you need to learn!"

"Oh, yeah... can we just like, skip those?" Will asked sarcastically, but there was a hint of hope in his voice.

"'fraid not, darlin'" Nico said with a smirk, then added, "looks like I'm getting the hang of Texan pretty well though, huh?"

"Yeah, but next up is all the proper uses of the word 'ain't'!"

"Noooooooo!" Nico groaned, and smiled. He was ready. He could do this. He leaned in, and gave Will a quick peck on the lips. I did it! I finally did it! Our first kiss, and I'm the one who initiated it! Nico thought.

Will looked surprised at first, then he smiled genuinely. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Nico responded, surprising himself with the words that came out of his mouth without his permission. Saying it felt natural. Saying it felt good.

"I'm glad." Will responded, and helped Nico up, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as they walked back to the Hades cabin, speaking in Italian the whole way there.