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It’s been six months since we moved into the cabin. My fingers twisted the ring on my second-to-last finger, a skull wrapped in a wreath of holly, as I stared out the kitchen window into the forest. Joel played between the trees with two other children and Rick, our hellhound, party hats on all their heads. He laughed as Rick knocked the three of them over to lick them mercilessly, causing a smile to subconsciously form on my face. I can’t believe he’s six already. I didn’t feel sad or remorseful about it. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Joel’s growing so fast, learning so much. I just want to do everything I can to make him happy.

“You ok?”

I turned when Nico’s hand was placed on my shoulder. I felt his own ring digging lightly into my back. We married four months ago in camp, the traditional Spartan way. The Spartan man was supposed to show his wife that he was strong enough to protect her by beating her in a wrestling match. The people in camp thought it was hilarious, because we were both guys. So it was both a test of our strength and the loss of someone’s dignity. It was completely ridiculous: Nico and I were wearing the long wedding gowns of Sparta and crowns of hemlock and berries in our hair, circling each other, waiting for the other to make his move. Annabeth and Percy stood in the crowd with Joel, the three of them shouting and smiling with the rest of camp, while Calypso held a sleeping Elena in her arms, Leo beside her and Rachel peering over her shoulder curiously. The wrestling lasted about five minutes, by the end of which I was sweaty and panting and dirt-covered and probably flushed, and he was about the same. Close to the end, I was definitely winning, which was mostly due to my height. He looked so frustrated, so determined, though, that I let him eventually shove me into the dirt and pin my wrists down, calling the end of the match. I don’t really care who wins, just so long as it ends and we’re married. We panted together on the ground for a minute, and he glared down at me, his gaze full of suspicion. Everyone clapped and cheered and hooted, and I pecked his lips while he pulled me up just to effectively replace his frown with a cheeky grin.

Our godly parents had shown up for a few minutes, unfortunately at the same time. Apollo appeared in a flash of light as bright as the sun, just after Hades had emerged from a cave that formed instantly out of the dirt and sealed itself behind him. They shared wary glances, Apollo openly complaining that he was now even more related to “the god of zombies”- to which Hades replied that it was worse for him, who had to deal more often with the “Haiku-loving shaman child”. A fuming 15-year-old Apollo clenched his fists and muttered some more insults. The campers all stood in uncomfortable and tense silence, unsure if they should run and hide or not. Luckily it didn’t turn into a full-out god war. They were able to give us their gifts before it came to that. Apollo handed us a beautiful scroll, on which was written a poem surrounded by minimalist decoration.

A higher power
Presides above all others
All-knowing and just

Have faith in that which
Works in silence and secret
Unseen by the eye

Hades smirked when I read the Haiku out loud, and Apollo’s face went slightly red. But I thanked him and hugged him, and was very surprised when he, after a moment, hugged me back in earnest. “I’ve never told you this,” he whispered in my ear. “And I’ve not been there enough for you as a father. For any of you, really. But I love you. You’ve made me proud to call you my son.”

I’d only ever been called son by Joel. This was entirely different. My heart ached all of a sudden with a lack of fatherly attention that spanned my whole lifetime. I had never acknowledged the desire for a father, because I had to be a father to Joel. But now it poured out of me like an unstoppable avalanche of emotion that made me squeeze him tighter, and he did the same.

Hades began to give his gift. Nico was being lectured privately by a stern and dangerous looking God of Medicine, so I received the gift for the both of us. It was a small stone statue of a Greek soldier with a taut stance and an unsheathed sword. On the bottom of the base of the statue, “Προστάτης” was written, which I translated immediately into English, “Protector”. “Say the Greek word when you need help,” Hades explained, glancing in Apollo’s direction as he disappeared after his talk with Nico. “Thanatos, my second-in-command, will pass through it and fight your foes.” He stared down at me with Nico’s eyes and his lips in a firm line. “Persephone wants you both to visit at some point. She is convinced you will have children.” And with that unsettling statement followed by a scoff, he, too, vanished into thin air, leaving me to process that sentence in stunned silence.

The following feast lasted hours into the early morning, accompanied by music-making nymphs and satyrs and dancing campers. Elena slept through it all, first in Calypso’s arms while Nico and I danced for a while, then in mine so that Calypso and Theo- no, Leo- could slow-dance. I sat with the baby under the pavilion by the huge campfire, Joel sleeping against my arm. It was about 2 a.m. I was thinking about heading back to the cabin with the kids- a bridge had been built across the lake, so I wouldn’t have to shadow travel and Nico wouldn’t have to constantly take me everywhere. Before I could decide to leave, Nico walked under the roof and sat across from me, a shadow against the light of the fire. He leaned close to gently touch Elena’s gradually thickening hair, smiling as he did so. “I’m going to enjoy being a parent with you.”

First that sentence made me remember what Hades had told me, and I felt my face heat up, at which he smirked smugly. Then I felt incredibly sad. I frowned, pulling her a little closer without disturbing Joel. “I am too. But everyone deserves a mother.” I thought about what my dad said to me earlier, and then of how, when my mother lived with us, I constantly craved her love. Even when she was drunk and high, and throwing things and yelling and smoking and cussing at me. I’m glad she left before Joel was old enough for her actions to be committed to his memory.

We sat there for a long time, listening to the music and the crackling of burning logs. Joel’s breath was a steady flurry of air down my arm, and Elena’s tiny heartbeat thrummed in my chest. Nico stared at us, his fingers reaching out to trace down my temple a moment. “Two fathers are better than no mother,” he whispered finally. And I had to agree.

Quintenn had visited that night as well. Just to tell me he was happy. And that he was happy for me too. "You won't believe what it's like," he whispered, his eyes taking on a far-away look. "An hour there is weeks here. I've never felt so... so consistently joyful." Suddenly, he wasn't the blood-sucking, half-dead Strigoi that I'd lived with for almost a decade. He was a depressed kid who had killed himself in a moment of inescapable sorrow, and had turned into a monster for it.

A thumb on my cheek brought me back to the present. Nico had grown slightly, though he still remained a couple inches shorter than myself. His eyes were that magnificent dark brown, captivating as always. I smiled at him and nodded in answer to his question. “I’m fine. Just a little tired.” We’d gotten up early for me to bake a cake and for Nico to distract Joel in camp so he would be surprised later. I was able to get a discount on black olives from work. Joel loves black olives. I spent a few hours on the cake, during which time Mandy and Jake had arrived with impromptu birthday decorations that were just finished being set up when Nico carried Joel through the front door with two of his friends from school, pleasantly surprising him. Since then, he’d had cake and opened presents and played until the sun was slowly descending.

Nico pecked my cheek and pulled me lazily into the other room, where Mandy sat beside Jake on the couch, holding a larger and dozing baby. “Elena does nothing but sleep, doesn’t she?” she asked, incredulity lacing her voice as she rubbed the baby’s nose with a single finger lovingly. Jake leaned into her and stared down into the blankets. In the golden sunlight from the windows and in front of the fireplace, they were the image of a perfect family. They had announced, once they’d arrived, that they were pregnant. She giggled on about how the doctor said it was the size of a blueberry, and how she was going to buy baby furniture, and that she was going to pursue her dream of being a teacher and Jake was studying to be a computer scientist, and they would struggle with money for a little but eventually would have “a million kids and ten dogs!”

I personally didn’t approve of children before marriage, just as a result of my past experiences and watching my mother. The relationships seem not to last if children aren’t had through marriage. And if the relationship ends, the kids suffer from it as well. But I was happy for them. And they were my friends, and they were happy. Jake whispered to me that he was going to propose next month anyways, slipping a picture of the ring he’d ordered out of his wallet, glancing at Mandy adoringly while she was preoccupied with Elena. So I believed things would be ok.

An hour later, after hugs and kisses were exchanged, Mandy and Jake left for their shared apartment. Nico shadow-travelled the children to their houses. I covered the cake in foil and slipped it into the fridge, glancing at all the sticky notes covering the walls. This was a new system that Nico had invented for me shortly after we moved in. I still wrote in a journal (I’d gone through two more), but on the notes were facts about the house- where certain things were, what times I should do certain things, reminders. They were placed where they were relevant. For instance, there were three of them on the fridge, each reminding me to eat at 7:30, 12, and 7. For dinner, I didn’t usually have to be reminded, since we all ate together. But I would literally forget to eat if I wasn’t told to. This was only figured out once Nico noticed I’d lost ten pounds. These notes covered almost every wall in the house. At first I was kind of embarrassed when people came over. Then it didn’t matter anymore, because they were working.

Joel hung his jacket on the hook by the door and slid his shoes off, calling Rick into the house. The back door had to be made a whole lot larger for the hellhound, and a massive dog bed invested in. Rick padded in, heading straight for his ginormous bed. I patted him lightly between his ears, and he hummed appreciatively. After picking up a still-sleeping Elena, I led Joel to the bedroom, listening to him chat about Susan and Caspar, his new friends. He helped me pull the covers over Elena, just as Nico walked into the dimly-lit room. He kissed her forehead and jumped into his own bed with his goofy smile and tired eyes, clutching his new stuffed toy.

“Thank you for cake,” he said, his voice dropping low with sleep. “And the party. I love you.”

I kissed his head and tucked him in tight. “I love you too. I’m glad you enjoyed your birthday.” I stood to turn off the lamp, watching as Nico kissed Joel as well and they exchanged “I love you’s”. It made my heart wrench in the best way possible. Then we exited the room, flicking the switch to the hallway light as we walked through our bedroom door. The shadows of the few sticky notes here and there glinted across the floor and furniture. I yawned and stretched, and Nico used the opportunity to get close and kiss me. I tiredly kissed back, pretty much leaning all my weight on him. Today had been a long day. “Thanks for helping out with Joel,” I murmured when we separated for a moment.

He chuckled at my slurred words, pulling me out of my clothes and into sweatpants, doing the same. He pushed me towards the bed. “It was fun,” he responded as he pulled back the covers and lay me down between them. He then crawled on top of me and pulled the covers over us, supporting his weight while he kissed me. I was too tired to playfully complain. “Jason came by today to work on the Erebos temple. He says hi.” He pecked my lips again before rolling next to me, and I curled against his warmth, only half-listening. “Percy and Annabeth sent an Iris message from Camp Jupiter to Chiron, apparently. They’ll be coming to visit next month.”

I hummed in response. His finger rubbed against the scar in my side left by Timor’s dagger.

“I love you.” He kissed my shoulder softly, holding me about my waist.

“I love you too,” I whispered back, smiling sleepily in the dark.