When Nico awoke, he had a horrid migraine. He spent part of the morning regurgitating, but soon decided to drink some rum in his coffee to take the edge off.

When he heard a knock at the door, he had just finished his coffee and was about to grab his bottle of rum. He snatched it and then opened the door, revealing an apologetic looking Will.

Nico was immediately displeased. "What do you want?" he asked emotionlessly, and took a sip of his bottle.

"You're drinking this early?" Will asked, but not judgementally.

Nico shrugged, "It's not that early, I slept in."

"It's nine in the morning," Will replied.

"So?" Nico shrugged again, ignoring the deal.

Will sighed and let it go, "Is it okay if I come in? I need to talk to you."

"I didn't know you needed to be indoors to use your tongue," Nico replied, snark in-tact.

Will bit his lip, "I don't. But it's getting hot out here."

"Grab a water bottle," Nico urged.

Will shook his head, "Okay, fine. So I came because I needed to apologize and explain a few things."

At that Nico stayed silent, taking a large gulp of his drink. He thought about putting it down, but decided against it.

"I wasn't talking about your daughter when I said those things. I was talking about us, and all of our family and friends. And the fact that you haven't cared about any of us for a while." Will explained.

Nico sighed, and waited a moment. Then he kicked his door open wider and turned around, "Come in."

He sat on his bed and waited for Will to take the other end, "So..."

Will nodded, ignoring how uncomfy the old mattress was, "So... I'm sorry that I fought with you. But I miss you, Nico. So much. And I need you to know that I'm here for you, and that you're allowed to be there for others too."

Nico rolled his eyes, "What, you think I need permission?"

Will hesitated, so Nico kept going, "I know I'm allowed to be there for people. But I don't want to be. Because at the end of the day, I'm not dependable. So that's that. That's why I'm not going on the quest, that's why I haven't talked to my sister in years, and that's why we're never getting back together. You guys deserve better and I deserve peace and quiet."

"You don't want peace and quiet," Will countered.

Nico shrugged, "I lost what I wanted. I don't really care anymore."

"And that's my point, Nico. You can care."

"But I don't."

"But you want to."

Nico hesitated. "I don't want to talk about this anymore, Will."

Will sighed. "You can't grieve forever." He knew he crossed a line when he said that, but his daughter died three years ago. And Nico's allowed to grieve as long as he needed, but he was just letting it consume him instead.

Nico swallowed and wouldn't meet Will's eyes, "You know... I haven't seen her in the Underworld. But I call my dad every week to see how she's doing. She's in Elysium, he made sure of it."

Will stiffened a little, "How come you haven't gone to see her?"

Nico took a large drink out of his bottle, swallowing a fourth of it, "I couldn't look her in the eyes and tell her that daddy's gonna get older and it's his fault she'll never see the sun again."

"There's a sun in Elysium," Will said.

"Yeah, but... It's not the same. And honestly? She might know that. She was two but she was witty, like her mother."

And here's when Will crosses another line, "Nico, you adopted her. She was still your daughter, but that also means you're the last person who gave up on her."

Nico didn't reply. Will kept going, "You're loving. And you're caring. And you're smart. And you were a good dad. And something happened that was out of your control, and because you were such a good dad, you're letting it consume you. But you're more than what happened."

To be continued...