It was a week before Hades came to his children at dinner, his eyes lit up with one of his many loves. "Tomorrow's Saturday. Do you know what that means?"
"Party time?" Nico guessed.
Hazel elbowed him in the stomach. "Be serious."
"I am," Nico retorted. "It's gonna be Saturday night."
"Nico, no going out tomorrow." Hades started to pace nervously. "Naomi and Will are moving in tomorrow. We'll start helping them at eight, so we have to get up early."
Nico looked between his father and stepsister. "Who's Will?"
Hades stopped pacing. "Nico..."
"She's got a son, doesn't she?" Nico started to bounce his knee. "Why are you hiding that from me?"
"He's worried you're going to either hate him or make a pass at him," Hazel admitted.
Nico looked at his father. "Really? You can't trust me?"
"Trust you?" Hades' face turned dark. "You get drunk every night and you're asking me if I trust you? It would be one thing if you were of age, but you're four years under!"
Hazel's eyes moved downcast nervously.
"Maybe if you trusted me, I wouldn't have to get drunk every night." Nico stood up in a fit. "Maybe if you acted like a father, or stuck with one woman long enough for your friends to know her name."
Anger turned Hades' face purple. "Get to your room, Nico. I don't want to see you today."
Nico looked down at Hazel before leaving the room, going up to his bedroom as his father said. There were some things you just didn't disobey. And with Hades as a father...these things were magnified.
He shut and locked his bedroom door as soon as he was in, the old wood creaking at his request. The house was too old, nothing ever worked, the floorboards wanted to give up almost as much as he did. But he had lived in the house ever since he could remember. His father had bought it for his mother, and if she loved it, so would he.
But the hallways never ended. Some rooms hadn't been seen in years. In the back wing, some maids lived but he wasn't sure if they were real. The house could be called a haunted mansion but was his definition of home.
Nico's bedroom itself was dark. The walls were painted black, the windows were covered. The only source of color were the ducks his mother had painted around the room. He had left those as yellow as the day she had made them.
But they didn't help much. As the night went on, nothing did. And in the morning, all he could do was lay in bed and stare at the ceiling as he heard the noises of the day start.
"Nico?" Hazel knocked on the door. "It's breakfast time...Naomi and Will are here, too. We're going to help them move their stuff after we eat."
Nico sat up, wincing at his aching back. "Do I have to?"
"Dad wants you to meet them, Nico."
"Fine, fine. I'll be down in a minute." Nico dragged himself off the bed and slipped his jacket on. He had never changed out of his clothes. In his pocket, his phone rested just as dead as he felt.
He first heard them when he got to the top of the steps. Laughter. Innocence. Something the house hadn't seen much of in some time. He went to the kitchen, his eyes landing on the two new arrivals. The boy his age took his breath away.
Will, they said his name was. He wasn't sure his last. Fit, tan, blue eyes, and blond hair. His smile was contagious. He sat by his mother and ate the food Hazel had made, neat and clean even though he wasn't trying. Nico didn't realize he was smiling until he felt the pain in his face.
"Nico," Hades rose to his feet. "This is Naomi and Will. Naomi, this is my son, Nico. He's seventeen like Will."
"It's nice to meet you." Naomi walked over to Nico and shook his hand. He kept his limp in distaste.
"Yeah, okay." Nico's eyes met Will's. "And you're Will?"
Will's cheeks had turned a faint pink. "Yeah...we're going to be going to the same school. I'm transferring over to yours."
Nico's lips twitched. "Okay..."
"Let's finish eating." Hades lead Naomi back to the table after her awkward encounter with his son. "The sooner we're done, the sooner you two can move in here for good."
Nico walked over to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup. "How much stuff do they have to move?"
"We were living in a small apartment," Naomi answered. "Not much stuff but a decent amount. We won't need to take our beds and things like that."
"Right..." Nico dumped sugar into his coffee. "So it's going to take all day."
"Nico..." Hades warned.
"It's okay," Naomi whispered to her fiance, leaving the others out of the conversation. But both looked pretty happy.
It was silent amongst the others until Will spoke up, his eyes not having left Nico. "Nico, aren't you going to eat?"
Those who knew Nico froze, waiting for the reaction they knew all too well. But Nico didn't explode like he usually did.
"I don't usually," he said simply. "It's too early. It'll make me sick."
"Then you won't eat much, but you should eat something." Will stood up and walked over to Nico with his plate. "Here, have a slice of bacon at least-"
Nico slapped the plate out of the boy's hand after seeing the way Naomi had snuggled up against Hades. Once there was a root to his anger, it would lash out against anything—a fact his family knew all too well.
"Nico!" his father yelled after him as he left the room, but Nico didn't bother turning back. The anger was still there and boiling. He didn't want to use it against anyone else.
"Nico, I know you get angry." Bianca's voice seemed to echo around him as he stomped up to his room. Walls could talk to those who remembered. "You need to control it. And if you can't do that, you need to take it somewhere where it can't hurt anyone else."
Where it can't hurt anyone else... He slammed the door, picked up his phone and threw it at the wall. If he couldn't hurt people, he'd hurt things. It was the only way to get the anger gone. That or alcohol, and there was no alcohol in reach.
So he grabbed his lamp, threw that. Threw his picture frames and bookbag. Smashed the glass shards. Punched his fist through the wall.
When his energy was gone along with the anger, he sank to the ground with an ache in his knuckles. "I'm sorry, Bianca. I'm sorry."