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Two weeks after the twin’s 10th birthday, Nico and Will were relaxing in their bed. Nico rolled onto his side to face Will.
“Hey Will,” he started, Will made a humming sound to confirm he heard Nico.
“This is serious,” Nico continues, Will nods and sets his phone down, sitting up and giving his husband his undivided attention.
“What’s up Neeks?”
Nico looked down at his lap, ”I was thinking, since you’re going to retire in a year, what do you think about another kid?”
Will released the breath he had been holding. For some irrational reason he thought Nico wanted a divorce or something.
”I would love another kid, but I’m perfectly content with the twins. What would you like?”
Nico sighs in relief, “I want another kid too. I was worried you didn’t, I mean I would respect you, but I’d always imagined having three kids all close together. Having the twins kind of changed that but,” Nico smiles, “I don’t know, I still want a third.”
Will leans over and connects their lips. Nico responds, it’s nothing like a normal kiss, it’s deeper, with meaning.
Will pulls back, “alright then. Why don’t we wait a year till I retire and then ask our dads. That’ll give us some time to prepare and stuff.”
Nico smiles and captures Will’s lips in another kiss, “I love you,” he mumbles in between breaths.
~~~~~~
It was 1AM in the morning. The whole house was quietly sleeping, courtesy of the fact that the kids are now ten, (“I’m ten and a half, Papa,” Maria would say.)
There was a loud thud at the door, waking Nico. He had become somewhat of a light sleeper, not only because he needed it for survival, but having two ADHD kids can make it hard to trust random noises.
Nico slowly removes himself from Will’s grip, making sure to not wake him. He puts his feet into Will’s bunny slippers and pads downstairs over to the front door, grabbing his sword, just in case.
Quietly opening the door, he looks out, expecting some kind of monster or maybe a wild animal, except for the fact that nothing was there. Nico sighs, running a hand through his long hair, he really should get that cut, and going to shut the door. So much for an uninterrupted rest.
As Nico is shutting the door he hears a little coo. What the fuck. He looks down at his feet and low and behold, a sleeping baby, looking about 3 months old, is on their doormat. The baby is in a silver basket, wrapped in a swaddle of the same silver color.
The whole ordeal screamed Hunters of Artemis, but why hell would they be behind this whole baby drop off? He can figure that out later, who knows how long that baby has been outside.
He grabs the baby from the basket, making sure to support their head like he did with the twins, and shutting the door.
Nico shuffles upstairs to his bedroom, making sure he doesn’t wake the baby. He opens the door and whispers, “Will.”
Will groans and gets up, Nico shushes him, looking down at the bundle in his arms and back at Will.
Will still half asleep slurs his words, “Nico please tell me that’s not a baby, and if it happens to be a child, which I’m pretty sure that’s what it is, where did you get that,” Will sighs, “I swear to gods if our dads sent a baby earlier than we asked they’re going to hear some choice words,”
Nico shuffles his feet, which are still in those obnoxious bunny slippers, “uhm, wanna hold them?”
Will’s gaze softens, he smiles and puts his hands out for Nico, “of course, let me see.”
When Nico sees his husband hold the baby, he knows he’s done for. The way Will can just fall in love and smile at anything, it’s magical.
The moment is wrecked by Will’s worrying, “so Nico, as much as I love you, you are going to need to tell me where this baby came from.”
Nico groans and puts his head in his hands, “I actually have no clue, I heard a noise and went to go check and the baby was just there, the basket and blanket were silver, so I think they're from Artemis, but why?”
“Was there a note or anything? Did you even think to check?” The baby starts to stir, Will rocks them to try to get them back to sleep.
”I’ll go check, one sec,” Nico jumps into the shadow created by their dresser, and then pops back out, with a, you guessed it, silver envelope in his hand.
He stumbles back to the bed, plopping right next to Will and the baby. Nico tears open the envelope, making Will cringe, why was he ripping it open starting from the middle?
Nico holds the letter, reading its contents out loud,
~~~~~~
Nico & Will Solace,
Hello, this is the child’s mother, I am a mortal woman who joined the hunters, I was sick of normal life and I had no family back home, joining them was my only escape.
Now you are probably wondering why I joined the hunters while pregnant, and to be honest I didn’t know. I only like women, so the possibility of me getting pregnant was practically zero, and since I barely dated or had flings with people, I didn’t even take that as a possibility.
I apparently caught the eye of the goddess Aphrodite, though at the time I didn’t know that was her. We were around each other for awhile, I thought I was in love, she was all I had left.
Until, like all good things in my life, our relationship came to an end. I was heartbroken and empty, so I did the only thing I thought I could do, joined the hunters. It went well for the first six months, until I started to get suspicious. I was getting what somewhat resembled a baby bump and I was much more fatigued. Normal hunter activities tired me. I was scared, I couldn’t fathom how I possibly got pregnant.
After confirming my suspicions about my pregnancy, Aphrodite visited me, looking the same as she did the day she left. She explained that I was pregnant with a demigod. Pregnant. By a cis woman. With a demigod. That was not what I wanted, I wanted to be free, I didn’t want the responsibility of a child.
I was already in my late 3rd trimester, the baby was coming and there’s nothing I could do about it. The hunters let me stay with them while I cared for the newborn and recovered. After three months Artemis herself came to me, she said that she knew a family that would keep the baby, Rue, safe. I was ecstatic, a safe home for my little girl, I could be free and live the life I’d always wanted.
It was a tough decision but I decided to let her take Rue, which brings us to right now. Please keep my baby safe. I have decided to not be in her life, so please don’t let her look for me, it’ll only make it worse. Raise her as your own, make sure she knows her mother will always love her.
L.W.
~~~~~~
“Okay well that’s fucked,” Nico mumbles,
”Nico! Not in front of the baby, we are not making that mistake again!” Will scolds,
”not in front of our baby” Nico corrects,
”our baby” Will repeats.