King of My Miserable Life

Chapter 16

Long dresses, high heels, suits and tuxedos, the long aisles of the cathedral. Nico stood beside his father at the front, let himself be crowned in front of all those at the church and all those watching on TV. At his request, Will Solace was in the front row and kept him sane.

The crown was heavy, red and black. It stunk of blood and was sticky to prove it. On his head, it felt as if the weight of the world was resting upon him. Who ever wanted to be prince? Who ever wanted to be king? No freedom would ever come with it.

The applause, the fake happiness radiating from the crowd. Hades' large figure looming over him. The feeling as if he was going to throw up. The ceremony was nothing more, nothing less.

It was at the ball with shaking hands and failing legs did Nico meet the people he was destined to reign over. At least a hundred had come for the large event, their heels exchanged for dancing shoes and their suit coats left in their cars. Nico watched them dance from his throne, the throne that was right next to his father. It sickened him to sit so close to that man, but it didn't feel too dangerous. Hades himself was smiling, watching the dancing as if it were more entertaining than anything else he had seen.

Finally, Nico found it in himself to speak. The crown was crushing him, his soul was slipping out. His bandaged wrists ached and he could almost smell the blood from them. "Sir?"

Hades glanced over at his son. "What? Do you not like the party? It's thrown for the prince when he comes of age to be crowned. It's a pleasantry. If you had been raised here, then you would have known."

Nico shut his mouth, not knowing whether to thank him or be rude. He put on this pleasantry for him, actually did something nice, but blamed it on Nico for not knowing. It was Hades' fault he grew up in America, but apparently, nothing was his fault in his eyes.

"May I talk to you later, sir?" Nico finally asked. "Privately, if you don't mind."

Hades looked his son over. "Hmm...very well. After the party should be fine. Now, are you going to sit up here the whole time or dance with that boyfriend of yours?"

Nico felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment and shock. "H-How-"

"Did I know?" Hades laughed. "He told me. He had to if he knew what was good for him."

Nico looked to Will, who stood in the corner of the room in his servant attire, ready to help anyone in need of it.

"Don't worry, son." Hades leaned back on his throne. "Why don't you go dance with him? If you've bothered to look up your home country, you would have seen that this was the first country to legalize gay marriage. A stupid decree. It should be common sense that the marriage would be fine, but so many people were idiots and thought otherwise. I didn't think I even had to legalize it until two young men came to me, asking me to."

Nico tried to fit all the pieces together, suddenly realizing that his father wasn't a great talker as they always said the king would be. "You're for gay rights?"

"It was always fine with me," Hades replied. "But apparently it wasn't with everyone. I had to put a law out there for something that should have just been common sense. Did I have to make a law for straight marriages? Nope. Then why for gays? As soon as I found out about those two gentlemen, I made the law and had it carried out."

Nico couldn't stop himself from smiling. "So...I can go dance with Will?"

Hades nodded. "I don't see why not."

Nico jumped from his throne and marched towards the crowd. He passed Percy and Annabeth, who were dancing to the slow song that burst from the speakers. Percy kept stepping on Annabeth's toes, but the blonde girl didn't get too mad. Instead, she kept trying to correct his posture as the night went on.

"Perfect couple," Nico muttered to himself. He waved to Percy before getting to the corner where Will stood. As soon as Will saw him, his blue eyes lit up.

"Nico!" Will ran to meet him. "Hi."

"Hi, Will." Nico grinned. "Dad said we can dance. Do you want to?"

Will's eyes widened. "What? You...and a servant...oh, what will the people think...?"

"Will." Nico grabbed his shoulders. "Dad doesn't mind so I doubt anything will turn out bad. Okay? And who cares what they think. I want to dance with you."

Will looked into Nico's eyes, that simple act calming him. "Okay... I...I want to dance with you, too."

Nico grinned. "Glad the feeling is mutual. Though I've never...danced before. Not a slow dance or ballroom dance or anything."

"Me neither." Will admitted. "Do you want to just...try? Copy off of others?"

"Sure." Nico glanced around them. "Do you want to stay here at first before going onto the dance floor?"

Will nodded. He looked to the other dancers before moving his arm around Nico's waist. "I think this is right?"

Nico shrugged. "Looks right." He moved his hands to Will's shoulders. "Is this too uncomfortable?"

Will looked back to the dance floor. "I think we're supposed to hold hands. Like, you hold my shoulder and I hold your waist. The other hand is to hold the other person's hand."

Nico eyed him closely before moving his left hand off of Will's shoulder. Will grabbed Nico's hand with his own, leaving only one hand on the boy's small waist.

Nico looked into Will's eyes, scowling at how he was at least a head shorter than the servant. "Why are you so tall?"

Will laughed. "Why are you so short?"

"I am not short!" Nico argued. "I'm normal! You're the odd one."

"Whatever you say." Will began to move his feet, trying to get them into a rhythm. "Don't step on my feet too much."

Nico kicked him in the shin. "I bet I'm a better dancer than you."

"Then prove it."

He did.