Why, hello again!

This was beta'd by the amazing and talented AbbieDabbie, who is in Germany on exchange, and then went to Spain on vacation, and is now being eaten alive by flies, suffering sunburns and accidentally poisoning her friend's chickens as punishment.

Not Rick. Srry.

"Wait just one second!" Will burst into the dimly lit Long Term Stay wing and slapped his hand onto the light switch. "You stole my soul, you little schist!'

" . . . . It is way too early for this," Nico muttered, glaring at Will grumpily from where his sleep-mussed head was poking out of a mound of covers. "And tell me you didn't just realize that. Three days after I actually did it."

Will slammed Nico's medical file onto the bedside table and looked at him furiously. "Don't you dare joke about this di Angelo! What in the name of all that is good and holy were you thinking!?"

"It was something along the lines of 'oh crap dad's going kill us and the suicidal idiots won't leave what the fuck am I going to do?'"

"And your first idea was to trick me into giving you my soul!"

"Well, would you rather I had just left you to my father? And I didn't trick you into anything; you signed your own damn name and I didn't see you complaining when you lied to the Lord of the Underworld about being fully informed!"

"Oh gods. I lied to the Lord of the Underworld," Will moaned, sinking into a chair my Nico's bed and putting his head in his hands. "He's going to send me to the Fields of Punishment for the rest of eternity!"

"Don't by stupid," Nico scoffed. "I won't do anything of the sort."

"No, you'll probably do it just to spite me," Will muttered into his hands.

"Mm, maybe."

Will lifted his head to glare at the wall, crossing his arms tightly and hunching his shoulders – showing his displeasure with very clear body language. Nico looked at him and sighed.

"Are you really mad?"

"Yes. I'm. Mad," Will ground out. "You stole my freaking soul; that is not in any way okay!"

"You're right. I am deeply sorry for saving your life and I promise I won't do it ever again."

"That's not the problem!" hissed Will.

"Well then what do you want me to say!?" Nico burst out, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry you wasted your time coming down to the Underworld to drag my sorry ass back home. I'm sorry you had to deal with my dad trying to kill you, and I'm sorry you had to lie to him, but the contract was the only thing I could think of on such short notice and I'll never be sorry for doing whatever it took to save you!"

"That's not the point!" Will shouted, standing up, so angry his face was turning red under his freckles. "You could have asked!"

". . . What?"

"I-I just mean you should ask before doing something like that!" Will said. "You didn't have to trick me; you could have told me the truth about what that contract really was, but what, you didn't trust?"

"Wait, wait. You're pissed because I didn't ask your permission before stealing your soul?"

"Well it wouldn't have been stealing if you had asked, now would it?" Will said matter-of-factly. "It's very rude, you know? And I wouldn't have had to lie if you had just told me in the first place."

"Are you seriously telling me you would have been okay with what I did if I had just asked?" Nico was staring at him in utter confusion.

"Well, I don't know, you didn't ask!" Will shifted uncomfortably, blushing and scratching the back of his neck. "But . . . I don't mind. I mean, I mind that you didn't ask first and you didn't trust me and it really ticks me off that now you'll think you can just threaten me with this every time I make you do something you don't want to do; which you can't, by the way, Doctor's orders, but-"

"Will," Nico interrupted, and Will trailed off nervously. Nico was staring at him as if he had never seen anything quite like him before in his life.

"You . . ." Nico swallowed and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Why are you so . . . ?" He shut his mouth and shook his head. Will waited patiently.

"It doesn't work like that," he said finally. "The soul thing, I mean . . . It's still yours right now, obviously, since you're not dead. I don't have any control over what you do, I just made it so when you die . . . Hades won't be able to . . . touch you. It's kind of hard to explain."

Will tilted his head consideringly. "Can you control when or how I die?" he asked, just out of curiosity.

Nico raised an eyebrow. "No more than before."

"Hmm." Will worried his bottom lip thoughtfully, gazing out of the window. It was a traditionally beautiful day, and sunlight streamed through the infirmary windows.

"All right then," he said suddenly, leaning forward to prop his elbows on the bed and rest his chin in his hands. "I forgive you . . . on one condition."

"Oh gods. I'm not going to like this am I?"

"You . . ." Will grinned, "Have to take me to see Home: Worlds Collide in theaters – with snacks, obviously – and then out to dinner afterward."

" . . . How about I just rip up the contract and we'll call it even?" Nico groaned, covering his face with a pillow.

"Nope~!" Will said triumphantly. "I think this arrangement works quite well, actually. Unless, of course, you're going break your promise-"

"I DON'T break promises!" Nico grumbled into his pillow. Will giggled. Nico lowered the pillow and glared at him.

"Fine. Where do you want to go for dinner? I assume it's ridiculously expensive, otherwise you wouldn't be smirking so very unattractively right now."

"I will have you know my smirks are very attractive," Will sniffed dramatically. "And I don't care where we go so long as it isn't McDonald's."

"Oh well, deal's off then," Nico said teasingly.

"Har hardy har," Will said dryly. "Seriously though, I don't care."

"How about Spain?" Nico mused. "I know a guy in Barcelona who owns a place called Cerveseria Catatlana; nice little restaurant, and they serve the best paella you've ever had. I could probably talk them into giving us a discount-"

Will was laughing. "And I suppose you'd be willing to lower yourself to the level of us mere mortals and just take a boat like a normal person instead of shadow-traveling yourself into oblivion?"

"I'm serious." Nico gave a little half-smile, but his dark eyes were sincere. "I'll take you anywhere you like."

"Anywhere?" Will had a silly smile stretching his freckled cheeks.

"I'd take you to the moon, if you asked me to," Nico told him.

"Ah," Will beamed, "But would you slay it for me?"

Okay, who gets the reference?

I know this is kind of a crappy ending for such a long chaptered, involved fic, but really this more like an epilogue or an oneshot, the last chapter was the real ending. Endings.

A couple people have asked me what Nico said to the Furies in Greek. The answer: I don't remember. And Google translate was being a poop. I think it was something like,

"That's enough! Get away from him; if you so much as touch him I'll strap you to a skeleton cat and throw you in Tartarus myself, you mangy old fleabags!"

Or something like that.

So it occurs to me that some of you may have been expecting a kiss. WELL I HOPE YOU LIKE DISAPPOINTMENT SUCKAS! Seriously, I had no intention of getting them together in this fic. Or in the next one, which is kind of a sequel. But despair not! The third fic in this series will be nothing but kisses!

So goodbye and farewell to this fic! Be on the look out for my next one, which will be continuing the train of wonderfully twisted cliche-ness with Nico and Will's quest for the oracle. It will be posted anytime from this summer to next year, so don't get your hopes up of seeing it anytime soon. I don't plan on posting it until the whole thing is finished, and I'm a slow writer (I still haven't finished AbbieDabbie's birthday fic . . . her birthday was in September . . . as in last year . . .oops) si it may take a while. But it will be full of awesome badassery and fluffy moments and wry humor, so I hope you'll author follow me to find out!

Here's the summery. It's not going to be the official summery because it's too long (stupid character limit) but this is the real one.

'Nico has a problem: now that he's not fading, his powers are overwhelming him, and he's stuck at self-destruct. Will feels powerless: he's trying to deal with his dad showing up out of the blue to ask for his help, and keep Nico from spinning away and out of control. They are both still figuring out where they stand with each other, and reconcile their own feelings. Lou Ellen is ready for adventure, but still misses her girlfriend; Cecil wants to prove himself and help his friends; Rachel and Apollo just want the Oracle back so they can go back to their normal lives. A quest is issued, but it might not necessarily be the answer they were all looking for.

Rated T for Nico di Angelo. Because there is no Dark!Nico or Depressed!Nico or BAMF!Nico or Self-Destructive!Nico or BastartdPrinceofHell!Nico or YouAdorableLittleShit!Nico. Those are all under the name of Canon!Nico, and are therefore non-applicable.'

Also, did you know BAMF means Bad Ass Mother Fucker? I must admit, that took me a while to figure out.