The Plea of Apollo || COMPLETED

A CHRISTMAS TALE

"There's so much snow," Nico said in awe as Will, Reyna, and he walked into field behind the Solace house. He was wearing the winter gear he had gotten for his birthday since the temperature had dropped into the single digits. Will really did not want to go outside, since he hated cold weather with a passion, but Nico had insisted. There had not been more than two inches of snow the night before; however, it had seemed to snow overnight. Now there were at least nine eight inches of the crystalline substance. He had never allowed himself to look at the beauty of it until now.

The older demigods shared a look as the youngest squatted down to gather a handful of snow. When he was done forming it into a ball, he placed it on the ground before rolling it around to make it bigger.

"Nico, are you going to make a snowman?" Will asked with surprise evident in his voice.

He shrugged, continuing his efforts until the ball was bigger than a beach ball. "When my family and I first moved to America snow was a big deal to my sister and I. I was always obsessed with building snowmen," he admitted reluctantly. "My sister liked making snow angels better but she always helped me anyway. I haven't made a snowman in years so I just thought..." He wasn't looking, but he heard Will's loud footfalls as he ran towards his house.

Reyna smiled, walking over to aid Nico in his endeavor. "I'll make the head, you make the rest of the body."

Nico grinned. "Okay, Ra-Ra."

The snowball she had made to make the snowman's head hit the son of Hades in the back, causing him to chuckle. He was the only one that got away with calling her that.

A few minutes later, just as Reyna placed the smallest ball of snow on the other two already stacked together, Will came running through the snow at them. In his hand he held a carrot, two sticks, and several dark gray rocks.

"Here you go!" He said with a bright smile on his face. Despite his constant tan, Nico could see the pink on his cheeks from the cold.

"Thanks, Sunshine." Within a minute a snowman a little under four feet tall was standing proudly in front of the trio, arms raised in the air and a smile made from rocks on its "face". Its carrot nose stuck out crookedly, but that gave it character.

Will put his hand on Nico's shoulder, an idea bubbling though his lips and out into the open. "We should make snow angels!"

"But then I'll get my pants all wet," the son of Hades whined.

Reyna rolled her eyes. "You can attack the first werewolf head on, but you're against making a snow angel because you'll get a little wet? You're so silly sometimes."

"Silly? Me, the son of Hades and Ghost King, silly? I am the prince of the Underworld; I am not—"

He was cut off as a snowball thrown by his boyfriend hit him square in the chest.

"If you don't want to make a snow angel, di Angelo," Will said with a teasing grin as he formed another tiny spherical weapon, "then we're going to have a snowball fight instead."

"Oh you're on! Reyna, let's get him!"

"That was totally not fair. Two against one is just cruel, and Reyna's hits packed a punch. Do you have a mechanical arm or something?" The son of Apollo complained.

Reyna let a small laugh escape her. "No, but I have two mechanical dogs."

"Very funny."

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After the three had shed themselves of their winter gear and such, Will's mother surprised the teenagers with chocolate chip cookies and milk in the kitchen. There was also something else sitting in the middle of the table. This something made Nico's eyes widen in shock and left him with his jaw hanging in awe.