Based on this: daily au . tumblr post / 140046138477 / i - proposed - to - you - as - a - joke - but - my - mom - whos - been

"Have you ever thought about how we're nearly a quarter way to death, and neither of us have ever had a long term romantic relationship?" Nico asked as he and his best friend, Will, lounged around in his parent's living room. It was thanksgiving, and Will was staying over. Nico's family was much more mellow than Will's, and he was too stressed with school and the like to worry about his insane family.

"Hey, don't think about it like that. Look at it this way, at least, whoever "the one" is, at least we'll probably know for sure. Maybe even sooner into the relationship." Will reasoned. "Who knows, maybe we've already met 'em"

I sure hope so Nico thought cause I'm pretty sure he's looking right at me.

"I'm still not convinced." Nico said. "What if we both die alone, sharing a house, with like five cats, and debt."

"Pfft, don't be ridiculous. we'd have dogs, not cats, and 6 at the very least." Will joked. Nico hit him with a throw pillow.

"Will, I'm being serious." Nico laughed.

"You know what, fine, here." Will twisted a silver ring off his finger and knelt down in front of Nico. Nico raised an eyebrow at the boy. Will cleared his throat and lifted the ring, jokingly. "Nico di Angelo, would you do me the honor of marrying me and shit." Nico laughed and took the ring. He pretended to check how expensive it was (it just looked like a ring you could buy for like $50 at a Marshalls). Nico slipped it onto his ring finger and looked at it on his hand.

"Hmm, yeah, sure, why not?" He laughed. Will grinned and picked Nico up and swung him around, the smaller boy shouting and pounding on his shoulder. "Hey, put me down!" Nico laughed. Will chuckled and dropped him back onto his feet. Will held out his hand, about to ask for the ring back, but they were interrupted.

"Oh my god, Nico!" Their heads turned to the source of the voice and found Nico's stepmother, Persephone, stood in the doorway of the living room. "Nico, you're going to get married!"

"Oh, no, um-" Nico said, his heart dropping into his feet.

"I have to go tell your father." She squealed happily.

"No!" But before Nico could stop her, she disappeared down the hall. Nico's arms dropped at his sides dejectedly.

"I am so sorry about her." Nico sighed, wiggling the ring off his finger. "She's been prodding me into settling down for a while, now. Now that Hazel and Frank are newlyweds, she's been anxious as ever. It'll kill me to have to break it to her. Here." He held out the ring to Will. Will took the ring and rolled it around in the palm of his hand.

"She sure seemed excited." Will muttered.

"Oh, yeah. She really wants to plan a wedding, and she loves kids. She really wants grandkids." Nico chuckled.

"She does know we wouldn't be able to have kids, right?" Will laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. She just wants as many grandkids as possible, and adopted grandkids are still grandkids."

"I would hate to break her heart." Will said, staring at the ring in his hand.

"Well we can't get married, can we?" Nico said. Will looked him with one eyebrow cocked. "Are you suggesting we stay engaged?" Will held out the ring nonchalantly.

"I'm just suggesting that we keep the act up until we figure out how to break it to her gently." Will said. Nico stared at Will for a moment before sighing and taking the ring. He slipped it on his finger.

"Fine, but if we get caught, this is your fault."

"So..." Hades muttered at the dinner table that evening. Nico looked up. "Persephone tells me you two just got engaged." Hazel made a choking sound and Frank put a hand on her back, leaning in to see if she was ok.

"What?" She shouted.

"Oh... uh yeah..." Nico muttered, holding up the hand with the ring and continuing to eat.

"Hmm. Looks a bit inexpensive..." His father muttered. Nico looked back up.

"Dad." Hazel hissed. Persephone put a hand on her husband's, indicating to him to shut the hell up. "Oh my god, Nico, you're going to get married!" Hazel smiled. Nico smiled slightly.

"Yeah..." He said.

"How long have you been together?" Frank asked. Nico's eyes widened slightly and he glanced at Will, who looked back.

"Oh, uh, a while." Will said.

"How long?"

"A few years?" Will said, nervously.

"Years? And you didn't tell me?" Hazel laughed and punched Nico. Nico rubbed his arm and smiled.

"Yeah, sorry." Nico chuckled. "I was a bit..." he glanced over at Will, "distracted." Hazel laughed. Will smiled and interlocked his fingers with Nico's. Nico looked up at him, surprised, but realized what he was doing not soon after looking at him. They had their fingers interlocked for the rest of dinner, and, afterward, raced up to Nico's room to talk.

"That was... strange." Will mutter. Nico plopped down on his bed.

"Very." Nico said. He pulled himself up so he was leaning on his arms. "So what's the game plan?"

"Um... keep it, pretend to fight and call the wedding off? She probably will leave you alone after that too. It'd be rude not to." Will suggested.

"Ok, yeah, that could work. We live together already anyway, and we go home tomorrow. It's not like we'll be seeing any of my family and stuff any time soon.

"But how will we explain our still living together?"

"We don't." Nico said. "I don't mention it to my dad or stepmom, and we tell our friends what happened after it's all over."

"Why only after."

"Trust me, if they knew, they wouldn't be able to keep it secret." Nico said.

"So we probably shouldn't tell them about the engagement itself, either?" Will asked.

"Nope." Nico agreed.

"Hey, lovebirds, I know you might've just gotten engaged, but this ain't your honeymoon. You can't be getting freaky in dad's house. That's just weird." Hazel shouted, pounding on the door.

"We're not!" Nico shouted back. "We're just talking. Can't I just talk to my fiancé? Is that so strange?"

"Whatever." She said. "Speaking of your engagement, I just called Jason and Percy, I mentioned it to them and they went insane. You're normally crap at lying to me. How did you manage to hide this for so long?"

"Well, ya know," Nico said, he looked at Will for help, but the blonde just shrugged, "love and shit."

"Oh, Nico, my dear brother, you've always been so... eloquent." She chuckled before walking off.

"Thank god." Will said.

"She's right, I am crap at lying to her." Nico muttered.

"You did fine." Will said. "I'm beat, I'm going to go to sleep." Nico nodded. Will tugged off his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Nico asked.

"I can't sleep without my shirt off." Will said.

"I know that, I've lived with you for four years, but why are you still in my room?"

"They'll get suspicious if we don't sleep in the same room." Will said. Nico looked uncomfortable. Will sat down next to him and nudged his arm. "C'mon, it'll be like when we were kids, when we'd have sleepovers every weekend, and we'd always share a bed." Nico looked up at him, and they locked eyes for a moment.

"Fine, but you sleep on the right side." Nico laughed.

"Per usual." Will chuckled. They climbed under the covers and flicked off the lights.

"Night."

"Night."

"Bye Dad, bye Persephone." Nico smiled as he went to leave, Will was already waiting by the car. Persephone grabbed his wrist.

"Remember, call me when you start planning the wedding." She said.

"I know, I know. Bye." Nico said, breaking away from her. He walked over to Will, who opened the car door for him.

"What a gentleman." Nico rolled his eyes. Will laughed as they climbed in. Nico laced his fingers between Wills, and when the blonde looked confused, Nico nodded toward their driver, Jules Albert. He was as old as God and looked like he hadn't spoken a word in centuries. They kept their fingers interlocked for the duration of the short car ride to the train station.

When they'd finally made it home, they did not expect to walk into their apartment and find it filled with their friends.

"Happy Engagement!" They all shouted when the two entered. They froze.

"What the hell?" Nico shouted. There were streamers hanging from the ceiling and a load of party food. There was a speaker on the coffee table with Percy's phone plugged into it.

"Hazel told us about how you guys getting engaged, so we put together a quick little party." Jason said.

"Oh, you didn't have to-"

"Thanks, guys." Will laughed, throwing an arm over Nico's shoulder, and hugging him close. Nico looked up, and Will winked down at him. Nico felt his cheeks heat up. The rest of the night was spent goofing off with their friends. Will and Nico sat together on the couch, Nico sat between Will's legs and leaning his back on Will's chest, the blonde's arms snaked around his waist. A good hour was spent watching Percy and Jason have a "dance off".

"So, now I hate eating fish." Percy finished his story. Will laughed.

"Cool story, but I think we're going to have to cut this short as the Lord of Darkness here seems to have nodded off." Will smiled, gesturing to the sleeping Italian curled up against his chest. His friends left and started to gather their stuff together. He scooped up Nico like he weighed nothing and carried him into his bedroom. He laid him down on his bed and threw a blanket over him. He went back out into the living room to help the others clean up.

"Go to sleep Will, we've got it under control." Jason said, holding a broom. Will smiled.

"Thanks, just don't take the streamers down, I like them." Will laughed. He went into the bedroom and joined his "fiancé" in bed. he flicked off the light and turned to look at Nico. The boy was fast asleep and curled up in ball. His face was relaxed and he looked calm. He had olive skin and just the lightest sprinkling of freckles across his cheeks and nose. Will fell asleep listening to him breathing.

The next morning Nico woke up alone in his bed, wrapped in a blanket. He got up and walked out into shelving room, rubbing his eyes. There was music coming from the kitchen. Will was singing and dancing along as he made himself eggs.

"You could never dance for shit, could you?" Nico laughed as he grabbed a bowl to make himself cereal. Will jumped. He narrowed his eyes at the short Italian.

"Like you could do better."

"I can." Nico laughed. "I may not be able to dance to modern music, but I can ballroom dance. I took classes as a kid."

"You did?"

"I was a spoiled rich kid, of course I did." Nico laughed. "C'mon, I'll show you." He clicked on a different song and dragged Will into an open area in their living room.

"Why am I doing this?" Will complained.

"Because, I'm telling you too. Besides, if we're going to get married you're going to have to know how to dance." Nico joked. Will rolled his eyes, but laughed. Nico took one of Will's hands and put it on his shoulder and laced his fingers with the other. He placed his own hand on Will's shoulder and locked eyes with him. They blushed and looked back down at their feet.

"So you step back with your right foot, and I step forward with my left." Nico started to instruct. He continued to try to teach him. "That is my foot." He mumbled.

"Sorry." Will apologized for probably the hundredth time. Nico laughed and looked up at the blonde.

"You're just thinking about it too much. Dancing looks better when it's basically second nature to you. You just have to do what feels natural." Nico smiled.

"What feels natural?" Will asked, slightly zoned out. He was staring at Nico, taking in every aspect of his face, his round cheeks, his straight white teeth, his messy mop of black hair, his warm dark brown eyes. Then he did what felt natural. He quickly moved his hands to cup Nico's face and kissed him suddenly. Nico froze for a moment, but quickly melted into it.

"Darling don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years..." Nico felt warm. It was the night before Christmas eve they next year. He stood in his parent's living room, arms wrapped his 'fiancé's' neck as they danced goofily. They both wore flannel pajama pants, gigantic fuzzy socks and the most hideous Christmas sweaters ever. Nico leaned his head on Will's shoulder, and Will hugged him tightly around the middle as the rocked silently, listening to the song.

"Nico...?" Will said, leaning his chin on the top of Nico's head.

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot." Will stepped back and started twisting a ring off his finger, Nico's eyes widened. Will smirked and held up the ring.

"Will Solace, don't you dare." Nico said, covering his mouth. "If you bend your leg I swear-" Will smiled and got down on one knee.

"Nico, we have been friends since diapers. You know me better than anyone else, and you are the one person I'd want to share my life with. We do basically everything together, hell, we've already done this once before." Will smiled. Nico gave a watery laugh, his eyes full of tears and his mouth still hidden behind his hands. "Nico di Angelo, would you, once again, do me the honor of marrying me and shit." Nico had tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Yeah, sure why not?" He laughed, moving his hands and wiping away his tears. He tugged the old 'engagement' ring off his finger and threw it on the ground, replacing it with the new ring. He threw his arm around Will's neck, and his blonde fiancé picked him up and swung him around, laughing. Will set him back down and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. They broke apart when they heard someone clear their throat. Stood in the doorway was Persephone.

"What just happened?" She asked, eyes narrowed. Will and Nico looked at each other quickly and grinned. Nico smiled at his stepmom.

"Merry Christmas!"