Chapter Text
It took two months for Will and Nico to put a number on how many Cocoa Puffs they had.
The thing is, they tended to cluster together.
Individually, the Cocoa Puffs looked like a solid shadow with an aura of shifting smoke surrounding them. When they were next to one another though, they blend together until their shapes are completely indiscernible from one another. Their eyes, for the ones that had them, did not glow white as Nico had originally thought. Instead, they reflect the light that shines on them. Thus, making the group look like one solid, black, shifting mass with flashing lights interspersed throughout.
Will had taken to calling them “The Cocoa Collective” when huddled up as it was impossible to tell which demons were which. Will and Nico wanted to give them all real names, but both of them felt too bad about leaving the unknown ones unnamed in the meantime. They had decided together to only start the naming process when all of the Cocoa Puffs had made themselves known.
Will had initially suggested counting the pairs of eyes they could see to determine the approximate number of Cocoa Puffs. It was a good idea until they remembered that two eyes were the exception when it came to the Cocoa Puffs, not the rule.
Mr. D had then berated them for sticking to a “human-normative” perspective.
Whatever.
When they first got back to the camp, only the more outgoing of the Cocoa Puffs would venture out of the cocoa collective. Luckily, each Cocoa Puff was distinct enough that Nico could keep track of them once he saw them.
Nico remembered the first six that had shown themselves in Tartarus but the others were either too scared or too shy to separate themselves from the collective right away. Even when separated though, the more adventurous ones didn’t go far from the group. The baby demons seemed to take comfort in the presence of their kin over anything else.
Neither Nico nor Will were willing to risk the Cocoa Puffs' comfort or trust by forcibly separating the babies apart from one another. Especially not for the sole purpose of counting them. So, they determined to wait until the demons were more comfortable and showed themselves on their own.
As time went on that's exactly what happened.
Nico and Will recorded the descriptions of each Cocoa puff on a whiteboard in the infirmary as soon as a new one revealed itself. Most of the Cocoa puffs resembled some type of mortal animal, albeit with a few extra limbs here and there. As they didn’t have names yet and Nico refused to define them as the emotion they were made from they decided to temporarily refer to them as the animal, or shape in one case, they most resemble.
“Okay, so we have the first six from Tartarus,”
“The deer, wolf, elephant, spider, cat, and sphere,”
“Right!” Will said, pointing his dry-erase marker at Nico in a rare show of frenetic energy. Will was convinced that they had the final count of the Cocoa Puffs. Nico wasn’t so sure.
Nico was sitting cross-legged on a cot in the infirmary as Will went over the revealed Cocoa Puffs. The demons in question were also in the infirmary, running around and generally wreaking havoc on the once orderly space.
“And then bear and otter showed themselves when they were fighting at dinner a week after we got back.”
“Is Aura still upset about tripping over them and spilling spaghetti all over herself?”
“If the wind that's constantly blowing your hair into our faces when we try to kiss is any clue, I’d say yes,”
“Figures, she shouldn’t have been standing in the way,” Nico grumbled.
“She was embarrassed. She’d been trying to get bluebell to notice her for weeks.”
“Well, she definitely noticed her then.”
“Anyway,” Will ignored Nico’s grumbling, “that makes eight. Hedgehog was next when he accidentally stabbed Mr. D in the leg and hummingbird when they made a nest in your hair during the campfire.”
“Don’t forget penguin when she got caught in my jacket,”
“That doesn’t count.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t count? That was the first time I saw her.”
“Well, I wasn’t there so it doesn’t count. The first time we saw her was when she slipped down the hill from Thalia’s tree.”
“Well, then hedgehog’s first reveal doesn’t count either because I didn’t see him then.”
“But I had Mr. D as a second witness.”
“Second witness? He was getting stabbed! He had little shadow spines in his leg!”
“There you go. There was evidence too!”
“That’s not—you know what, whatever. We’re at eleven,”
“Right, we have goat getting stuck on the climbing wall,”
“She wasn’t stuck. She just likes it up there. You didn’t need to climb up to get her.”
“Well, she wouldn’t get down! I was nervous!”
“Whatever, twelve.”
“Fine, twelve. Plus monkey stealing your sword and finally, snake,” Will gestured to his shoulders where a two-foot snake-like creature was curled around his shoulders. The multiple eyes along her back closed as she snoozed. “That brings us to a total of 14 Cocoa Puffs.” Will drew a big 14 on the board and circled it twice.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to finalize the number yet. I think we should wait a little longer.”
“We haven’t seen a new Cocoa Puff in weeks. Plus the number of eyes match! I counted.”
“There could be another eyeless one like otter.”
“I suppose so but we can always up the count if we discover them. It’s not like the number really matters anyway.”
Nico gave a noncommittal hum and refused to meet Will’s eyes.
“Nico,” Will knelt in front of the sullen boy, “What are you thinking?”
It took a few moments for Nico to respond. He was still working on being open with his feelings.
“I just don’t want any of them to feel left out… or like they don’t matter.”
“Oh, Nico. The number is just to keep track. It doesn’t really mean anything.”
“I know. It just—I don’t know. It feels weird for some reason.”
“What can I do? I can erase the board if it makes you uncomfortable.”
“No, the board isn’t the problem. Besides, I think the Cocoa Puffs like to see themselves on the board. They get so excited every time we add another. It’s nice to see them so happy.”
At that, Will let out a little gasp then clamped his mouth shut and refused to look Nico in the eye. Nico knew this look intimately. It’s was Wills I-think-I-know-what-you’re-upset-about-but-I-don’t-want-to-make-assumptions-or-tell-you-the-wrong-thing-and-make-you-more-emotionally-confused. Nico hated this look because Will was usually right.
“What? Tell me. What do you think?” Nico demanded.
“Nothing. Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“Will, just tell me. I really have no idea what I’m feeling, just tell me what you think.”
“Well, have you thought maybe you don’t want to stop counting because you’re hoping there’s more?”
Nico didn’t say anything. Will’s idea was ridiculous. Fourteen was too many baby demons for two teenagers who are barely legal to drive. Why on earth would Will think Nico was hoping for more?
Despite getting flashbacks of his worst memories whenever he touches one, Nico is incredibly fond of the demons. Discovering each one as they got comfortable enough to reveal themself, the consequential slow unraveling of their personality, learning their likes and dislikes. It was all so… rewarding. Nico may not have asked for the Cocoa Puffs but he’ll be damned if anything threatens to take them away now.
Maybe Will is right. Nico still didn’t say anything, but Will knows Nico’s looks just as well as Nico knows his. Nico was currently wearing his I-think-you’re-right-but-I-don’t-want-to-say-it-out-loud-because-it’s-embarrassing face.
Will let out a soft laugh.
“Nico,” he cooed, “Just because we know them all now doesn’t mean it’s over. It just means we move on to the next step in raising our Cocoa babies.”
“And what’s that?” Nico questioned, cheeks heating up pleasantly at the use of our.
“The most exciting step! Names!”
“Names?”
“Names!”