Terrible Things (Solangelo AU)

One Plus One Equals 2

So we've been friends since September and it's December and I just know he likes me back. And it's not just because I overheard Reyna teasing him about it. So I've got this plan to ask him out and its perfect. Because even if it fails, I win. Here's the plan: I'm going to ask him out by passing a note in class.

See, Nico had recently told me he was made fun of all through middle school. One of the ways they liked to do it was through notes. They'd draw ugly pictures of him, pass each other notes and snicker. I don't want him to have those bad memories resurfacing alone. I don't want his main memory of passing notes as a kid to be about immature little assholes making fun of him. So I want him to have a memory of a good note. And if he says yes, it won't be the only nice note he'll be getting.

Oh, what about me still winning if it fails? See, our teacher was weird. We could be in class and caring nothing about his lecture and he would say he doesn't care either, we're the ones paying so what does he care. But as soon as we disrupted as a group, he would tell us to either be quiet or get out of his classroom if we weren't going to learn. So if he caught the note, he would most likely read it out loud. If he did, Nico would still "get" my note. So it would work out either way.

I chose the day before winter break. I wanted to take him on a date and I also wanted time together without school in the way. Winter break was perfect for that.

I wrote my note beforehand, I wanted it to be neat and pretty. At first I thought it would be cute to do that answer thing with "yes" and "definitely" but decided against it. Nico didn't have to say yes. If he wanted to say no then the choice was his. I wouldn't force him into a relationship he didn't want. If he said no then that's how it would be and I wouldn't ask again. No is no. Always. If he said he just wasn't ready then I would wait until he was but I would never force him. So I left a blank space for his answer and sent the note to the top.

Our teacher didn't catch on and soon, I had the note back. And his answer: sure. It was the most blasé and disinterested answer I had ever heard but it had me smiling like a maniac. I couldn't help but turn and look at him. He was furiously blushing and typing away at his laptop like his life depended on it. It was uber cute.

After class, I caught up to him. I had to tell him my plans for the date after all. "So di Angelo, I have a plan for our date and I was wondering what day would work best for you? Tonight? Tomorrow?"

"Tonight's fine, Solace."

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

I started walking backwards. He said tonight, that meant I needed to get in an order for food so we could pick it up on the way. "Okay so I'll see you at six?"

"Where?" He stopped, confused to see me go.

"I'll come by your place."

He only nodded, not seeming to care that I would obviously not explain why I was leaving, and turned away from me. I turned away too and jogged all the way to the restaurant I was ordering food from. I took care of that as fast as I could and headed home to shower and change. I would like to say that I was ten minutes early and very proud of myself for that. I had dressed casually because I thought it might be weird if I dressed completely fancy for a date that was not fancy. Being a broke college student, I couldn't afford the expensive date I thought Nico deserved so I had to do what I could with what I had. 

So at five-fifty I stood at his door and knocked. I had wanted to buy him flowers but I used up my money on dinner so as a compromise, I bought him a pomegranate with the change I had left. Except I hadn't found a real one that time a year so I bought a fake one from a craft store. See, we had this inside joke that Nico was actually a son of the Greek god Hades. How perfect he fit into the role of the son of the god of the Underworld. So I bought it in hopes of seeing his adorable sarcastic smile. And when he opened the door, that was exactly what I got when handed him the plastic fruit.

"Really Solace?"

I shrugged, "I didn't have enough money for flowers."

"And naturally your thoughts went to pomegranate." He rolled his eyes but his smile turned genuine. "You're a fudging dork." (A/N: Just to be clear, Will is cleaning up the language for his children because he's obviously not going to tell them: so kids what he actually said was fucking so I'm telling you guys instead.)

"Yeah but you like me anyway." I tried to play it off as a joke but I actually wan't joking. I was hoping he would say, "Yes, yes I do." And while he didn't say exactly that, he did not disappoint.

"Unfortunately." He turned to leave his pomegranate on the desk by the door. Then he exited the room and locked the door. "So let's do this."

I grinned and immediately started with the corny jokes. I loved to see him smile and make him laugh and boy did I do everything in my power to make him do so at all times. Between the jokes and flirty bantering, we picked up the food and then I led him to a park. There was a small hill I had him go up and the entire time, he complained about his lack of exercise but it was tiny so we made it up fine.

At the top, a blanket was already set out and there was a perfect view of the cloudless sky and the full full moon. I told Nico to pick a spot and we set to eat. When we finished I thought it would be nice to pick out constellations but then discovered neither of us knew any so we laid back and made up our own. We started out teasing each other with them but when he described my eyes reflecting the night sky, it took a different turn. I stopped and turned to look at him. He was looking at me and blushing which made me blush too. I couldn't help myself from saying, "If you see the stars in my eyes then I see galaxies in yours."

"Dad that's so cute." Alyn said once I was done. "I'm going to use that when I'm older."

I laughed, "Are you now?"

"Totally." He nodded enthusiastically.

"What about you Solstice? Will you say that to someone?"

She nodded. "When I find my soulmate like you did with dad, I will."

"So Dad," Alyn interjected, "That was the day you started dating?"

I nodded, "Yes it was. When we walked back home, I told him I hoped we could continue seeing each other. He agreed. I was so happy, I kissed his cheek and saw his cute blush again."

"Did you kiss properly?" Solstice asked.

"Ew, Sol." Alyn made a face and I chuckled.

Solstice stuck her tongue out at him, "Everyone does it Alyn. They did it when they got married. Or else they wouldn't have been married."

Quick to take the opportunity to change the subject, Alyn went on about our wedding. "Tell us about your wedding dad!"

Solstice clapped happily, "OOooo! Yes! Yes! Tell us!"

I shook my head. "It's time for bed. Tomorrow."

"Again?" Solstice complained.

"Sorry guys. I have to be a responsible parent and get you two to bed. C'mon." I stood and they followed me to their rooms. Before turning off the light for Solstice that night I let her know that yes, we had kissed after I told Nico my thoughts on his eyes. She was happy to hear that, claiming that cemented our relationship like the kiss at a wedding does. I laughed and told her it definitely had. What I hadn't told her though was that we had actually made out for at least ten minutes. She did not need that information. I turned off the light for Alyn afterwards and then went into my own room. I kissed Nico's picture and went to bed.