Based on the idea of Nico wanting to take Will to meet Cerberus, and the headcanon that Nico receives information from the bones he touches.
Will had learned, over the past few months, that sometimes, after difficult quests or nightmares, Nico would summon one or two skeletal dogs near Cabin Thirteen.
Old hunting hounds. Tiny mutts. Massive shepherds with missing ribs and wagging tails made entirely of bone.
Every single one had died loved by someone.
Or worse... unloved by everyone.
Nico never said much about where they came from. He knew their stories and the way they died just by touching them, and his expression almost always made it clear that it was better not to ask.
Today, though, Nico summoned only one.
The skeletal dog burst from the ground in a storm of black dirt and silver dust.
His skeleton was slightly uneven, one back leg crooked when he walked. He bounded across the field anyway, tripping over himself every few steps with the unstoppable determination only puppies seemed capable of possessing.
“Oh—” Will whispered immediately. “I love him”
The puppy spun in frantic circles, chasing his own tail. He caught it for exactly half a second before tumbling sideways into the grass.
Then, with absolute delight, he grabbed his own tibia in his mouth.
Nico snorted. “—You have got to be kidding me"
The puppy came trotting toward Will, tail rattling furiously, carrying the bone proudly like he’d discovered treasure.
“—Nico, he’s playing fetch... with himself.”
“—That does seem... inefficient”
The puppy dropped the tibia at Will’s feet and stared up expectantly with empty eye sockets.
“— I... okay, okay, buddy.”
He carefully picked up the tiny bone and tossed it across the field.
He sprinted after it in a frenzy of clicking paws, his crooked leg dragging slightly behind him. Halfway there, he tripped, rolled three times, and completely collapsed into a pile of scattered bones.
The puppy immediately reassembled himself.
Unfortunately, his tibia had snapped back into place during reconstruction.
The puppy looked around in confusion.
He sniffed frantically through the grass, tail twitching harder and harder. When he couldn’t find the missing bone, he let out a tiny distressed whine... more like air rattling through a flute than an actual sound.
“—Oh, sweetie ” Will said softly.
The puppy shook himself anxiously.
Slowly, proudly, he picked up the rib and trotted back toward Will.
Tail wagging so hard his entire spine shook.
He dropped the rib into Will’s hands.
Will looked absolutely devastated.
“—He is…” Will pressed a hand over his heart. “—He is so special and unique. I love him! Can we... keep him?”
Nico crossed his arms, trying and failing not to smile.
“—You want to adopt the undead disaster puppy?”
“—He’s literally falling apart.”
“—That makes him perfect.”
The puppy barked happily, a hollow clacking noise, before attempting another excited spin.
Two vertebrae flew off into the grass.
Will nearly started crying.
Nico sighed dramatically.
“—Congratulations,” he told the puppy. “—You just emotionally manipulated a son of Apollo.”
Will made a wounded sound. “—Nico!”
The puppy proudly brought Will his own jawbone.
“—... Okay, we can keep him.”
A real beagle puppy who loved playing, digging holes, chewing on his paws, and being alive.
I tried for months to take him away from the people who abandoned and neglected him, but legally, there was nothing we could do. The day they finally threw him into the street, I came home too late.
A neighbor told me he had been lying there for hours after being hit by a car.
I’m sorry we couldn’t save you.
I hope that somewhere... in the Underworld, in rebirth, in memory, anywhere... you are still running happily toward someone kind enough to throw the bone back.
You always gave everything you had. Even when it seemed like there was nothing left of you, you still found a way to play and to give your love.
It was never your fault for being “too” energetic or playful.
You deserved to be loved your entire life, not only when you were small and convenient.
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