A/N: This story contains several OCs (obviously) who I hope will be interesting while not being the focus of the story. Two are introduced in this chapter, with several others planned.
Timeline wise, this is set somewhere after BoO with several predictions on what will be the general outcome including: Hazel and Frank both die (both are already on borrowed time now), Jason and Nico maintain a close friendship, Nico avoids the half blood world like he said he would to Jason.
Jason put his hand on Nico's shoulder reassuringly. "They're going to love you," he reassured his friend. "You're family."
Nico shrugged off the hand. "Yeah, and I look like this, and I'm from the 40s. What do I say to make them think I'm not a freak?"
Jason just shook his head at him. "Your uncle will never know if you were a grandson or an actual son of his sister. Just... bend the truth a little. I think it would be great if you got to know these people."
"Why?" Nico asked, giving him a glare. "I have a family. Hazel is my family."
"We're all your family," Jason corrected. Nico didn't contradict him, but he wasn't exactly jumping up with agreement. "Do you want me to wait in the car?"
Nico hesitated. "No. Come with me." He opened the passenger door of Jason's pick up truck and dropped onto the curb. Glancing up the street, he cringed at the sight of his family's house. His second cousins, he supposed, although if they asked, he was just another cousin.
Jason joined him on the sidewalk and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Let's go, it's freezing," Jason urged, his breath making a fine mist. As Nico watched, the mist spun itself into the shape of a well formed snowflake cloud before dissipating. A glance at Jason's eyes showed that it was the work of the demigod.
"Don't pull that trick for my cousins, got it?" Nico warned.
"I'm not dumb," Jason said. Nico buried his face in the scarf Jason had pushed on him when they left his apartment last night. At first, he'd thought it was dumb that Jason was so pushy about staying warm, but now he was grateful for the scarf... even if the bright purple knit stood out against his otherwise all black jacket and jeans. It smelled like Jason—reminiscent of the kind of breezes that would rock you to sleep in the middle of summer. Still, it was cold with no gloves or a hat and Nico rubbed his palms together. The ring on his thumb was like ice burning his skin, but he didn't take it off—the ring was a touch stone. Without it, he didn't think he'd be able to go in there.
They approached the house slowly, Nico hanging back and Jason pushing ahead eagerly. The house looked nice enough—white with a green trim and a shoveled front walk. Someone had built a snowman in the front yard and given him a stripey cap and mittens on his two branch arms. The branches were much too big—instead of being thin with a single fork on the end, they looked as if someone had torn them from a tree and tried to use them anyway. The snowman resembled Kampe the more he looked at it, and Nico shuddered.
Assuming he was cold, Jason grabbed his hands and rubbed them between his own. "Geez, you're an ice cube. Need gloves?"
Nico pulled back from the older boy. "I'm fine," he bit out.
They lingered on the front stoop for a moment. Finally, Jason reached out and knocked enthusiastically.
The door opened to reveal a frazzled looking Italian woman in an apron, her ear to the phone and her hands full with a plate that she was drying. Her face was worn, but not with sadness or age, but laughter lines. She took one look at Nico and Jason and began chattering away in Italian, gesturing them in.
"Ti chiamerò indietro, Sadie. Voi due, vieni dentro! Sembri congelato."
Nico walked over the stoop and glanced back at Jason, bewildered. "She says come in," he translated for Jason, who grinned and came in, wiping his feet politely on the welcome mat that read benvenuto!
She hung up the phone. "What can I do for you boys today?" she asked, already bustling back into the kitchen. They followed her into a warm room that smelled of baking bread and was tiled in blue counter tops. Tucked in the corner was a white table for four people.
"Are you... Are you Carlotta DiAngelo?" Nico asked, in a half whisper.
She sized him up and nodded. "Yes. What is the matter? Who are you? What is this about?"
"My name is Nico DiAngelo. I think you might be... my aunt."
When she didn't immediately start shouting and throwing them out, Nico let a little spark of hope kindle. Maybe this wasn't going to be a total disaster.
"I don't know if you ever met your aunt Maria," he asked.
She pursed her lips. "My father told me about her, si, that she ran off with an American stronzo. She is your grandmother?"
He hesitated, then nodded. Nico twisted his ring anxiously, watching her face.
"And had his daughter, of course. So Bianca is your mother?"
Nico opened his mouth to deny it, but then nodded in silent agreement. If that was what she had heard, he would go with that as the answer.
Carlotta reached out and pinched his cheeks. "It is good fortune you found me. I am impressed—I did not think I would ever hear from Maria or her children after we recieved news of the accident. To tell the truth, I thought her children died in the accident as well."
Nico nodded. "Bianca survived, but her son... passed away with her." To tell the truth, he had played out that scenario thousands of times in his head. It wouldn't have been a terrible thing, he thought, to have died with his mother in the 40s. To tell the truth, he had always wondered how things would be different today if he had never come around.
"Where is Bianca now?" Carlotta asked, pursing her lips and glancing around as if she might appear.
He hesitated. "She... passed away," he said. "A few years ago."
Carlotta looked as if she was going to say something to him, but suddenly the door swung open again. "Mo-om, I'm home," someone shouted. Nico glanced at Jason, who shrugged. A moment later, there were heavy footsteps thundering down the hall and a wild haired boy burst into the kitchen, grinning. "Can I borrow the car tonight?" he asked. "Derek and I want to go see the new Michael Bay movie."
His family members had bad taste in film, apparently. Nico rolled his eyes, an expression that didn't go unnoticed by the boy.
"Who's he?" the boy asked, gesturing at Nico and helping himself to an apple out of the fruit bowl on the counter.
"This is your cousin, Nico. On Nonno's side," she added. Grandfather, in Italian. Nico waited to see how the kid reacted. On the surface, the two of them were nothing alike. Even though they couldn't have been more than a few years apart (if you didn't count the seventy years Nico was out of commission), they looked as different as night and day. Nico wore a black peacoat and jeans with combat boots and a skull ring. His cousin(or second cousin—but that was getting complicated to think about) wore a high school letter jacket with a scorpion insignia and a pair of jeans with Nike sneakers. Still, anyone could have told they were related. Nico saw his same olive skin and shaggy black hair reflected back at him like a mirror, and their faces were both sharp angles and hollowed cheek bones, although the other boy was a few inches taller and much more built.
"Cool," the kid said.
"Nico, this is my son, Dante," Carlotta introduced. "Dante, Nico and his friend..."
"Jason Grace," Jason supplied helpfully. Jason seemed cheered by Dante's presence. He stuck out his hand to Dante, who shook it emphatically.
"Nice to meet you," he said to Jason, ignoring Nico. "I go by Dan, by the way. You from around here? What school are you at?"
Jason shifted uncomfortably. "No... I'm from California. I'm living in San Francisco," he said, which was true, although it left out the part about his not attending high school because he was the praetor of the Roman legion.
"You play any sports?" Dan asked, grinning easily at Jason. "You look like a quarterback. Am I right?"
"No, I'm not a football player," Jason said, unable to stop from grinning back.
"You two stay for dinner, yes?" Carlotta asked, patting Nico's hand where it rested on the counter. He jerked the hand back in surprise and immediately felt guilty about it, realizing she hadn't been trying to hurt him.
Jason opened his mouth, looking happy to stay, but Nico beat him to it. "Sorry," he said, "can't stay. Jason's got to take me back to my dad's place tonight." And he gave Jason a look that said if he contradicted him, he'd be sorry. Jason nodded, looking unhappy about it.
"Stay and meet Nora," Carlotta insisted, but Nico rose from his seat and shoved his shoulders up to his ears. "She'll be sad if she misses you. She's just out walking Tito."
"Really, leaving so soon? What a shame," Dan said flatly, looking at Nico without much interest.
"Give your aunt a kiss, at least, before you go," Carlotta ordered, coming around the counter and approaching Nico. He staggered backwards uncomfortably and cringed away from her, and she stopped coming closer. "Where are you living? Come over more often," she said, giving him a careful look.
"I'm from... Los Angelos," Nico lied quickly. DOA Recording Studios's location was technically the entrance to one of his homes, although calling the Underworld a 'home' might be a bit of a stretch. Officially, he was homeless.
Jason put his hands on Nico's shoulders. "So we've got a long drive," he said. "Maybe Nico and I will come back for dinner another time," he suggested. Dan looked more excited at Jason coming back than Nico.
Before he could stop her, Carlotta reached out and pinched Nico's cheek. "Sooner rather than later, I hope," she told him.
A/N: That's the first chapter! It's very short bc I wasn't sure if there was enough interest to continue it. So if you like it, review / fav and I'll make more. Other planning does exist, but I haven't really fleshed the rest out!
Thank you for spending your time reading my work, I appreciate it!