Solangelo Oneshots

Quarantine

Interesting and super original take that no one could have thought of: Nico and Will were both away in different places when New York went in lockdown.... adventures occur
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The underworld, for lack of a better word, kinda smelt like death. I didn't enjoy staying there- not that I was there very often- but Will's mum wanted Will to go to school for his second term. I now travel back and forth from camp, mostly to avoid my father. Will wasn't around, not since Christmas, and I was particularly missing him as I walked through the dark, echoing hallways of the palace.

My father had called me to the throne room, in which he transformed into his moping room since Persephone left 2 days before. She won't be back until the first day of autumn, and as always, he was taking it poorly.

I slouched along, one hand in my jacket pocket (did the palace have really cold air conditioning or was the underworld (besides the fields of punishment) just freezing cold?) and my other hand dragging against the dark wall. I avoided my father as much as possible when Persephone was absent for one reason- Hades purposefully bugged me because he was bored. Not even torturing the dead was enough to please him. No, he had to bother his only son to the point of insanity.

I eventually started thinking about Will again- as per usual. I was 16 years old (ha, Will was still 15 until June) and I was allowed to think about my boyfriend of 8 months. I found it absolutely unnecessary that Will had to go to school again where it was not safe, after the fiasco of his first semester of grade 10. Y'know, the usual, monster tries to blow up the school on you. But, in the end Naomi had final say, and she thought that in person learning would be better than online like I took. Plus, Will was super excited to take grade 12 health and science and biology to learn more about the body, hoping it might help him at camp. As if he wasn't the best healer at camp. As if he wasn't a son of Apollo. As if dissecting a pig will help him when someone falls off the lava wall with third degree burns. But he was excited, so I wouldn't say any of that to him.

Unfortunately, even with my stalling, I arrived at the throne room. I could try to turn back and sneak away to gain some time, but Hades probably felt my presence from the middle of the huge black throne room. The decor? Very distasteful. You would think being surrounded by the dead all day and night you would want your home to be the exact opposite so you don't go insane. Not Hades case. Piles of bones, piles of gold and jewels, ornate chairs and framed photos of the three fields in the underworld. Even though he constantly had skeletons roaming around him, he has a chandelier made from skulls, a coffee table made of femur bones, and wall hangings that are literally just human spines. Horrible taste for a throne room. How was he ever supposed to make guests feel welcome after they were greeted with his pale face (which he always made to look like a black haired villain in his early thirty's) and cold dead personality?

It just didn't have the "live laugh love" and "family home" vibe written all over it. It was also the worst place to bring a boy home. I refused to let Will in the underworld, for the key reason that it was smelly, dark, creepy, and filled with the bones of humans. My sunshiney, doctor, ukulele playing boyfriend might have an aneurysm and die while shaking my fathers hand, and not because Hades might vaporize him.
Plus, I wasn't even sure if I could shadow travel someone into the underworld (if Will would even let me) or if we would have to take Orpheus' route. Will was both tone deaf and excitable, and I wasn't sure if that was the safest bet.

"Nico stop lingering outside the door and come to see your father," Hades boomed from his throne of tortured souls and bones. I groaned, slumped my head foreword and shoved both hands in my pockets before dragging his feet into the room.
The room was lit by Greek fire torches today, which cast everything in this weird, greenish hue. The floor was shining black marble, like the walls, without a single scratch. I wondered what Hades would do if I did a little sword practice in here...