A/N: Trigger Warning: Homophobia. Bianca loves Nico and is incredibly supportive of him, but we must remember that she is from the 1930s. The world wasn't exactly gay-friendly back then, especially with WWII on the rise. So while Bianca does her best to support Nico, she's understandably scared for him, and doesn't know a whole lot about what being gay means. Because of these things, some things that Bianca says are not exactly the best.

When Bianca had seen that Nico had gotten more comfortable around Percy and Will, she had been relieved. She liked her brother, and he was one of just a few people whose company she enjoyed, but there was a lot of pressure that came with being his only friend. Bianca did her best for Nico, but she couldn't revolve her life around him. As Travis and Connor said, she needed to think about herself.

Bianca felt a lot better about easing away from her brother when he had some friends that he could get attention from. It felt less like she was abandoning him and more like she was allowing them both the chance to grow as individuals, instead of always being the di Angelo siblings.

For a few days Bianca sat back and watched her brother as he interacted with Percy and Will. He played that stupid Mythomagic game with Will, and ran around the camp to reinact some of the Greek myths they learned about. Percy sparred with Nico and turned everything into a game.

The only times that Nico wasn't around either Percy or Will was at night when they were hanging out in the Hermes cabin, and during meals, when everybody needed to eat with their cabins. During those times Nico would stick close to Bianca and ramble on and on about everything that had happened that day.

Bianca smiled and nodded, but she didn't pay complete attention to Nico. She'd been watching him carefully, so she already knew everything that he had done that day. Even if she hadn't been watching him, she knew what he would be rambling about. Nerding out over Mythomagic and Greek mythology, that was almost all he talked about.

One night before bed Nico's rambling felt just a little bit different than normal, and Bianca didn't know why. She started to pay more attention to what Nico was saying. It took a few minutes of listening, but Bianca was able to figure out what was going on.

Nico was still talking about his usual obsessions, but his focus wasn't on what he had done that day, but who he had done it with. Nico went on and on about Will, who had demonstrated some of his many demigod skills for him. Bianca knew that as a child of Apollo, Will could be very diverse in a lot of not so useful skills. Bianca wasn't impressed with Will's showing off, but Nico seemed to think that the other boy was the best thing since pelanos bread.

Nico didn't care that, compared to Will's siblings, the boy's poetry, singing, and archery skills were below average. Nico thought that Will was amazing, and the only person who seemed to compare with Percy.

Nico had learned that day that the older boy had gone to the underworld, and he was now Percy's biggest fan. According to Nico, it was something that only the best of the best of demigod heroes accomplished. Nico had begged Percy to tell him everything. Bianca had heard Nico pester Percy, and she knew that the older boy had shared very little with him, but her brother didn't seem to care. Nico ate up everything that Percy gave him and acted like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard.

It became apparent to Bianca that Nico looked up to Percy, and that he already saw Will as his best friend, even though he'd only known him for a short amount of time. At first Bianca was glad for this, because it was everything that Nico needed. A friend that he felt comfortable around, and a role model that he could rely on.

Nico was actually having a good time at camp. He was genuinely happy for one of the few times in his life, and Bianca felt like she didn't have to worry about him so much.

That night though as she was lying in bed Bianca found herself unable to sleep as she realized just why Nico's excitement about his new friends seemed so familiar to her. She had seen this particular kind of excitement from him a handful of times before, and it scared her.

Bianca tried to tell herself that everything would be okay. She was just being paranoid. Nico was probably just really excited to have people that he actually considered friends for one of the first times in his life. It didn't have to mean anything more.

But what if it did?

Bianca couldn't take that chance. If there was even a miniscule possibility that she was right, Nico was in serious, maybe even deadly, danger. Bianca may get annoyed with taking care of her brother, but she wasn't just going to sit back and let anything happen to him.

She had to do something before it was too late. She had to talk to Percy.

Bianca slowly climbed out of bed. She didn't bother getting dressed or even putting on shoes. That would just make unnecessary noise, and Bianca couldn't afford to wake anybody else up. They would stop her, and this was far too important to be put off. Nico's life was on the line. This wasn't the time for patiently waiting for things to work out by itself.

Bianca only paused long enough to pull Nico's blanket up over him, tucking him in. She kissed his forehead and brushed his hair out of his face. "Dormi bene, fratellino." Bianca tried to make her voice sound as much like their mom's as she could. Mamma was always so much better at this than she was.

Bianca grabbed her jacket, which was too big for her, as it used to be her mother's. She slipped out of the cabin and into the night.

It was such a shame that there was a designated time for lights out at camp, no exceptions allowed. Bianca loved the late hours of the night, when the rest of the world was asleep and she felt like she was the only person in the world. It was so peaceful.

It reminded Bianca of the rare moments when her mom would wake her up in the middle of the night after a particularly bad day and took her for a walk around the city, just the two of them. Those were some of Bianca's favorite memories.

Bianca walked the short distance from the Hermes cabin to Poseidon's cabin. She was almost disappointed that she reached her destination so quickly. Maybe she would go for an evening hike after she accomplished what she had come out here for.

First things first, she needed to make sure that Nico was safe. Her brother was her number one priority, always.

Bianca didn't even consider knocking on the door, she just let herself right in. Maybe she would be more polite and cautious if anybody else was in here, but the only person she could bother was the very person she wanted to wake up. So Bianca had no regrets slamming the door shut behind her.

"Wha-" Percy shot awake. He instinctively reached for the pen sitting on his bedside table. He aimed it at Bianca, still too tired to realize that he hadn't remembered to take the cap off. Bianca couldn't help but giggle. There was just something hilarious about the boy that her brother seemed to think was the greatest modern Greek hero trying to threaten her with a pen.

"Bianca?" Percy lowered his pen after a long moment. He tilted his head at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I really needed to talk to you about something." Bianca said. She pulled her jacket around her as she approached Percy. "It's about Nico."

Thanks to the moonlight Bianca could see Percy's gaze soften. "Is something wrong? He hasn't gone and hurt himself again, has he?" Percy's tone was teasing, but there was an underlayer of concern in it. He genuinely seemed concerned about Nico's well-being. Bianca let herself relax a little bit. This was a good sign that Percy would be sympathetic to what she was about to say.

"He's okay, for now." Bianca said. She sat cross legged on Percy's bed. He frowned and sat next to her.

"What's going on?" Percy asked.

Bianca took a deep breath. She was starting to second guess herself, but she made herself continue. This wouldn't be fair, and Bianca felt like she was a horrible sister for what she was about to do, but this was what was necessary. Nico would probably hate her if he ever found out about this, but at least he would be alive to hate her.

"I need you to stop hanging out with Nico." Bianca said.

"You...what?" Percy looked at her in shock. "Why?"

"It's not safe for him." Bianca said.

"Is this about the sword thing?" Percy rubbed the back of his neck and gave a little laugh. His amusement went away when he saw Bianca's glare. This wasn't funny.

"No, it's not about that." Bianca was still frustrated that her brother had gotten hurt, but she knew that it had just been an accident. Things happened. "It's...it's about…" Bianca bit her lip. She looked around anxiously, just to make sure nobody else was listening, even though she knew nobody else was around. There was a reason why she was doing this in the middle of the night, so there wouldn't be the risk of being overheard.

"It's just, you know, Nico really likes you, and you know how passionate Nico gets about things that he likes." Bianca said nervously.

Percy grinned. "Yeah, the kid's really enthusiastic. It's kinda cute."

Bianca felt like her heart stopped. She lurched forward and slammed a hand over Percy's mouth so forcefully that she pushed him over. He was lying on the bed with her kneeling over him. "You can't say that!"

Percy's brow furrowed. He pushed Bianca's hand away from his mouth. "Why not?"

"It...you just can't." Bianca said. How could Percy not realize the issue with what he had said? Bianca knew what Percy really meant when he said that Nico was cute. He meant it in the way that a little puppy was cute, or a baby, or little kids trying to act intimidating when they were just so small that it was hard to take them seriously. Bianca knew that he didn't mean it in the way that other kids might say 'oh, she has cute eyes', or 'that's a cute smile'. Still, just because Bianca knew what Percy meant didn't mean that other people would. They might bet the wrong idea, and then both Percy and Nico would be in trouble.

"You can't tell anybody what I'm about to say." Bianca hissed. When Percy didn't immediately answer her she shook his shoulders a bit. "Swear it!"

"Okay, okay, I swear on the River Styx." Percy said. He grimaced slightly. "Actually, I swear it in the name of my mom, Sally Jackson."

It was close enough. Bianca leaned closer to Percy. "When I said that Nico really likes you, I mean that he like likes you."

Percy's eyes widened in realization. "But...but he's just a kid. How do you know that he...I mean, he's so young."

Bianca gave Percy an unimpressed look. "How old were you when you had your first crush?"

Percy opened his mouth to answer, only to quickly close it. "Okay, fair point. What's the big deal?"

"What's the big-" Bianca couldn't even finish. Was Percy really so oblivious? "It's dangerous!"

"Dangerous?" Percy frowned. His eyes darkened as he finally pushed Bianca off of him with just a bit more force than was necessary. "What do you mean?" He looked angry and protective. Bianca thought he was just a few wrong words away from threatening her with his pen again.

"I mean it's not safe for Nico to like boys the way he should like girls." Bianca said.

"Not safe?" Percy narrowed his eyes at her. "You...how could you...gah!" Percy shouted in frustration and got off his bed. He started pacing around the room, twisting the cap of his pen. "He's your brother!"

"Exactly." Bianca said. "And I'm not going to let anybody hurt him just because he doesn't know any better."

Percy paused in his pacing and gave Bianca an odd look. "We'll get back to the 'doesn't know any better' thing later. What do you mean you don't want him to get hurt? Who's going to hurt him?"

"I don't know, but I know that people are out there." Bianca said anxiously. Whenever she imagined just who would do the hurting, all she saw were faceless people wearing soldiers' uniforms.

Percy's gaze softened. "How do you know?"

"I've seen it." Bianca said. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself as she remembered something that she had been trying to forget for several years.

"What happened?" Percy asked.

Bianca sighed and pulled her hair in front of her face. She wished she had thought to grab her hat. She desperately needed to feel the comforting weight on her head. "A few years ago there was this kid at school who had an older sister who suddenly went missing. Everybody was talking about it. The sister was rumored to be just a little too close to her female roommate. I don't know if the rumors were actually true, but it didn't matter."

Bianca bit her lip and sniffled slightly. "I can't let Nico be taken away like that woman was. I-I can't."

"Whoa, whoa, hey, it's okay." Percy put a hand on Bianca's shoulder. "Nobody's going to be taking Nico anywhere."

"You don't know that." Bianca whimpered.

"Yes, I do." Percy insisted. "Because I'm not going to let it happen. If anybody is going to try to lay a hand on Nico, they'll have to go through me first."

"You...you'd do that for him?" Bianca looked at Percy in near awe. Forget travelling to the underworld, this was what really told Bianca that Percy was a great hero."

"Yeah, nobody hurts my friends." Percy said fiercely. He gave Bianca a stern, almost scolding look, which Bianca returned with an unimpressed look of her own. She wasn't going to let some boy act like he knew better than her. "And that includes me, and you know that me dropping him as a friend with no real explanation is going to hurt him."

Bianca sighed. She knew that Percy was right, she was just scared. She still didn't know how she felt about Nico's admiration for Percy getting stronger, but she felt a little better about it than before. Percy was protective, and he knew how to use his two swords. Just as long as Percy remembered to not try to threaten someone with a pen, maybe he really could protect Nico.

"Okay," Bianca said reluctantly. She wanted to keep Nico safe, but the thought of taking his friends from him when it wasn't necessary, it was killing her. "Just don't tell Nico anything about this."

Percy grinned slightly, though it looked a little awkward and uncomfortable. "I guess he wouldn't want me to know about his crush."

Bianca grimaced. "I doubt Nico knows about his little crush."

Percy blinked. "What? But...how do you know?"

Bianca shrugged. "Like you said, Nico's still a kid. I don't think he knows what he's feeling. I recognize it though."

"Has he had a crush before?" Percy asked.

"I don't know about a crush, exactly." Bianca said. She smiled fondly as she remembered the last time she had seen this excitement from Nico. "When we first moved to America I really didn't like it. I didn't want to like it. My mom did a lot of things to show me how amazing America could be for us. One of her attempts she tried to point out how cute the American boys were."

Percy snorted. "Ah, man, my mom tried to do that once when I didn't want to go to a new boarding school."

"Well, I really didn't want to participate in that game. Nico was more than happy to pick up my slack." Bianca smiled to herself. "He tried to help me by pointing out guys that he thought were cute. He and mamma started arguing about which boy at the playground was the cutest. It was so embarrassing."

Percy laughed and hid his face in his hands. "That...you gotta admit, it's kinda adorable."

"It is." Bianca agreed. "I'm just worried about him."

"I'm sure Nico will be fine." Percy assured her. "Nobody at camp will give him a hard time, and if they do I'm sure Chiron or even Mr. D. will step in and put a stop to it before anything happens."

"And outside of camp?" Bianca asked.

"Oh, Luke would go nuts if someone tried something." Percy chuckled. "He doesn't let anybody mess around with those that he's taken under his wing." Percy spinned his pen in his hand. "And even though the point of camp is for us to learn how to protect ourselves from monsters, I think those skills should translate well to self-defense from mortals."

"In that case, I guess I'm going to have to start paying attention during sword fighting myself." Bianca said. If it meant protecting her brother, she could bear through the ridiculousness of rock climbing lava walls.

"It's not so bad." Percy said. "And if you don't like sword fighting, there are plenty of other things you can do. There's pegasus riding, archery, weapon making. I bet you would kill it at wrestling."

Bianca smirked. She didn't like being touched, which would just make her even more desperate of a wrestler. "I'd definitely be able to kick your butt."

"Oh, you think so?" Percy raised an eyebrow at her and chuckled. "We'll have to put that to the test tomorrow."

"You're on." Bianca agreed. She adjusted her jacket and stood up. "I should probably go back to bed before someone notices I'm gone. I don't know if the counselors can ground us, but I don't want to find out."

"I'll walk you back." Percy said. Bianca gave him an annoyed look.

"I don't need an escort." Bianca said.

"Oh, I know." Percy said with a grin. "But if you get caught at least I'd be able to put in a good word for you."

"How chivalrous." Bianca said dryly. She wasn't in the mood to debate this. She shrugged and walked towards the door. "Come along if you want." Percy eagerly followed her, walking side by side with her.

"So, uh, sorry for waking you up and completely freaking out." Bianca said sheepishly.

"It's okay." Percy said easily. "Everybody needs to be allowed to freak out in the middle of the night every once and awhile. I'm just glad I could do something to make that freak out a little less, you know, freaky."

"Just be gentle with Nico." Bianca said.

"I told you, I'm not planning on hurting him." Percy said. The two of them stopped in front of the Hermes cabin. "You know, he's a tough kid. It's great that you want to help him, but from what I've heard I think it would help both of you if you maybe tried to help him a little less." Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "You might have a few less sleepless nights."

Bianca sighed. "I'll think about it." If it was just Percy saying it, Bianca would brush it off without a second thought. However, Travis and Connor had been saying things similar to this. If three guys could independently tell her the same thing in less than two weeks, maybe it was some advice that she could at least take with a grain of salt.

Percy smiled at Bianca. "Get some sleep. And while I'm here to talk whenever you need it, maybe try to need help at a more reasonable hour, if it's possible."

Bianca smirked. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to startle you awake again. Next time you might actually end up drawing on me."

"You never know." Percy laughed and made a slashing movement with his pen. Bianca rolled her eyes and opened the cabin door. "Goodnight, Bianca."

She paused for a moment and turned to look back at the older boy. He looked completely comfortable and content, even though she had woken him up just so she could try to threaten him. He was a nice boy. He'd be a good friend for Nico, and for her as well. "Goodnight, Percy."

The boy nodded and turned to make his way back to his cabin. Bianca watched him for a minute. When he got back to his cabin door he turned and gave her a small wave. She waved back and went inside.

Bianca was still scared for Nico. Everything about him seemed to make him different from most people, and Bianca knew what happened to people who were different. She wanted to protect him, but maybe Percy was right. Maybe some of her protection was going too far and doing more harm than good. Maybe it would be better if Nico learned how to take care of himself.

Bianca tugged her jacket closer to her as she climbed back into bed next to Nico, who she was sharing a bed with because the Hermes cabin was too overcrowded to comfortably accommodate everyone. Bianca knew that she would be too warm with the jacket and blankets, but she didn't want to let go of her mom's jacket. She would take some discomfort if it meant pretending just for a few hours that her mom was here. She would know what to do.

A/N: Percy and Bianca's relationship is kinda a lot more adorable than I meant it to be. I didn't really mean for it to be like this, but these kids decided that they wanted to go all cute on me.