Midnight Coffee (Solangelo AU)

Floor 19

The early November air that had frozen me on my date with Will had rolled into early December and the cafe was flooded with new seasonal drinks to accommodate. Luckily I doubted I'd ever have to make or taste them since they sounded like jolly atrocities.

During that time though, I'd gone from sitting across from Will to being right next to him as we studied for our looming finals. We'd been on several dates at this point, five to be exact, and each one had left me feeling more and more comfortable around him. For example, he had his arm over my shoulders as he did an assigned reading; now to be clear, I was still tense but I didn't mind my tension.

After 26 more minutes of us sitting together like this, I told him an idea that had been rooted in my brain. "Our friends should hang out." Now I'm not sure if it was the fact that I suddenly spoke, or if it was the idea itself, but Will laughed and looked over at me confused.

"I'm sorry, why exactly?"

"Well," I sat up more and turned to face him better. "The people a person surrounds themselves with is in a sense a reflection of the person and their values, so if our friends don't get along, it could spell trouble for our relationship."

He laughed again and ran his hand through his hair. "Relationship?" No, we hadn't talked about what we were yet, but I thought it was implied. I had done research and found out that after 3 dates people were typically considered a couple so I figured that was that. I felt my gut twisting from embarrassment as I realized he didn't hold the same belief. It must have been very obvious because he kissed my temple and I could feel his stupid smile. "I'll ask my friends about it ok?"

I nodded and settled back into him as I had been before, the night simply continued like that. We'd chat every now and then, but we really didn't need to, we were fine just existing with each other.

However, when I brought it up to Reyna the next morning, she had a million questions. "Why, are you just telling me?"

Because she's the best at planning big events, obviously. "Well, you're an amazing organizer, and I need somebody else to tell the others so I don't have to deal with them." I don't think even I can roll my eyes as hard as she did.

"Fine." She pulled out her phone and texted... someone. After that, she just put her phone away and continued. "Where's it gonna be?" I opened my mouth, but I probably looked like a fish out of water because I had no dam idea. "Ok, time?" Again, I had no answer to her sensible questions. "Do we have to bring anything?" I just shrugged. "Who's even going, Nico?"

This one I could answer. "His friends and mine."

"Which include?" She stumped me again. I mean, I knew who I was bringing but I didn't know who Will would bring. Luckily I thought of the perfect excuse to get her off my back and let me breathe.

"Look, me and Will need to check and make sure our friends even want to do it before we can start thinking about all these small details." She crossed her arms and clearly knew I was bullshitting her.

I simply stared back at her until the door to my dorm was thrown open by an overly excited oceanographer. "WE GET TO MEET WILL'S FRIENDS?" I had to cover my ears to keep them from bleeding.

"Reyna you texted them?" Our friends poured into my dorm and found spots to sit but there was barely enough room for the nine of us to comfortably exist.

"I'm guessing our friends are in." Reyna said and smiled at me like she'd done nothing.

"I hate all of you." I told them and rubbed my eyes. This was ridiculous. I suddenly couldn't wait to return to the cafe with Will tonight.

"Yeah yeah sure, what are his friends like?" Leo asked sprawled over Jason's lap on the floor.

I honestly had no clue. "I'm guessing as awesome as him."

"We should do it at the cafe." Percy was sitting on my desk and braiding Annabeth's hair while she sat in my desk chair.

"No way I'm working when I meet all of his friends. I would like to leave a good first impression." Percy just sighed and waved me off like that was a crazy idea or something.

"So, where then?" Of course, Piper had to back up Reyna's question.

"Look, I'll text him and ask." So that's what I did. Within 4 minutes my phone started ringing with a call from Will. "Be right back guys." I got up and left the dorm answering in the hall. "Hello?"

"That's a good question." I couldn't help but laugh at how he answered the phone.

"Yeah, it is, and I've been asked it twice now so... what do you think?" He was silent for a second before responding.

"Well, all my friends live on the same floor of the same apartment building so I could probably get one of them to let us do it in their places."

I snapped my fingers and felt myself smiling. "That's great, and we won't get complaints from other floor mates." I heard him laugh at me now. "What floor is it?"

"Floor 19."

"Ok, what's the building?"

"The Valhalla Apartments. It's not that far from my school."

"Isn't Valhalla the name of a Norse afterlife?" I'm a big mythology buff, but you should already know that.

"I think yeah." I just shook my head a bit and continued down the list of questions Reyna had supplied me with.

"Cool. Do we need to bring anything, like food or drinks?"

"I'll get back to you on that Nico." I could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke.

"Ok, well, I assume you'll also have to get back to me on the time then?" He laughed which I took as a yes. "Ok well, my friends want a list of your friends."

I heard him sigh quietly before speaking. "Ok, but I need a list from you too."

"But you've met my friends."

"Yeah, and there were way too many for me to remember." That was a fair point.

"Ok, we'll text each other lists then. Also, how did you meet these people? Like they all live in the same place, so knowing one another makes sense but how did you get involved?"

I heard him laugh again before he spoke. "One of the guys, Magnus, he's in some of my classes because he's training to be a nurse. And he gets along super well with a couple of the professors, who I think are dating but that's a different story."

"As long as we don't have to hang out with crusty professors I'm good." 

"Alright, I gotta go but I'll see you later."

"Bye, see you later." And I hung up. I started writing a list for Will as I went back into my dorm. I sat back down and felt everyone's eyes on me.

"Well?" Frank asked me as he held my sister. I held up one finger to him because I was still typing. Will got his list to me a little faster than I got mine to him. Probably because he only had six names. Though one did have a question mark behind it that I'd ask him about later.

Once I'd sent out my list I turned to Frank and put my phone facedown. "Well, what?"

Hey guys, gals, and non-binary pals! How you doing?

I know it's insane! Will knowing the Valhalla squad? Who would have thunk it

Me that's who lol

Also I looked up 'floor 19' to find an image for this chapter and it was JUST Magnus Chase stuff so I had to adjust the search 

Have a great day/night!