A/N: Full disclosure here, this story is going to completely ignore the whole 'Bianca and Nico got their memories erased' thing. Their timeline is just so confusing and difficult to keep straight.
Usually when I write stories I try to stay as true to the rules of canon as I can, but it got overwhelming with this. I want to be able to write about these kids going to camp and struggling to adjust to everything without panicking every five seconds about whether or not they would have memory of such-and-such a thing.
Besides, I absolutely live for Italian di Angelo siblings, and I want to play with that.
Bianca hated camp. It was a little hard to narrow down just why she didn't like it. Almost everything about it seemed to rub her the wrong way. From the second that the young man, Luke, had brought her and her brother to camp she had known that she wouldn't enjoy her time here.
Everybody was just as obsessed with Greek mythology as Nico was, though they all insisted it wasn't really mythology, but the reality of their world. Bianca still didn't quite believe it. Even though she saw satyrs, nymphs, and all kinds of magic at camp, it was so hard to just accept that not only were the gods real, but her father was supposedly one of them.
Bianca didn't know who her father was, but she didn't really care. She'd never cared much about the man. She had vague memories of him from when they had first moved to America, and she remembered his aura when he'd been around for a little bit just before Nico had been born. Bianca mostly just remembered her father's aura because Nico reminded her a lot of it, especially when he got mad and threw a temper tantrum.
When Bianca was younger she had been resentful that she didn't have a dad around like so many other kids did, but as she got older she grew out of it. She'd had her mom, and she had her brother. That was all the family she ever needed. If her dad showed up, fine. If she never saw him again, that was fine too.
As much as she didn't care about her father, it seemed to be all that everybody at camp cared about. She'd only been at camp for a week and she'd already been asked a dozen times if she had any idea who her dad was. She was getting tired of all the questions. She and Nico weren't the only ones who hadn't been claimed, but she seemed to be the only one that the campers so blatantly asked.
Bianca tried to be patient with all the interrogation. She gave the other campers as much information as she knew, but after she mentioned that she thought that Nico reminded her of their father everybody started questioning her about her brother. Bianca had barely tolerated questions about their father, but she drew the line when they tried to drag Nico into it.
"I don't know who my dad is, and I don't care." Bianca snapped at the girl from the Apollo cabin who was her latest interrogator. "But don't you dare drag my brother into this. If you really wanted to get to know Nico, you could have befriended him yourself, but now if I see you anywhere near him I will rip your hair out."
"Hey, hey, why don't we just calm down?" Travis, who was one of the few campers that Bianca tolerated, grabbed Bianca's arm and gently pulled her back. "Come on, Bianca." She very reluctantly let him drag her away from the crowd. "Don't worry about them. Some people get antsy during the last few weeks of camp, so they latch onto any bit of excitement that shows up."
Bianca crossed her arms and pouted slightly. "Trust me, if I didn't have to be here I wouldn't." Bianca had not been happy when she'd been told that Luke was hers and Nico's new guardian. She'd been even less happy when the first thing that Luke did was take them to this summer camp, even though it was almost August and the camp would be ending the summer session soon anyways.
There were only two reasons why Bianca was giving the camp even a small chance. First, Luke had told them that once summer ended at camp she and Nico wouldn't have to stay there anymore. If they wanted they could choose to stay at his small apartment with him and go to school, or they could stay at camp during the rest of the year, which Bianca doubted she would do.
The second reason she gave camp a try was because of Nico. He'd always had an even harder time making friends than Bianca did, and being at a simple camp, always in the outdoors, it might do him some good.
Besides, while they were at camp they would have camp counselors whose job it was to keep an eye on Nico. For once Bianca could relax and take her eyes off her brother for more than five minutes.
"Camp's not so bad," Travis said. "You'll come to love it. Everybody does." Bianca wasn't so sure. She had never been very much like everybody else. "And the other campers will soon find something else to focus on."
"Why do they care so much about who my dad is anyways?" Bianca crossed her arms.
"Luke told me and Connor that a lot of half-bloods are worried that you have the same godly parent as they do." Travis said. "It's not all that common for gods to have multiple kids with the same mortal. Gods rarely pay any attention to their demigod kids, so it's easy for us to get jealous when anybody gets more attention than we do, but especially if that somebody is our half sibling. If your dad returned to your mom, even if it was just for a bit, you would have gotten more attention from him than most demigods get from their godly parents."
"Yeah, when I was two." Bianca was even more annoyed than before. In fact, she'd been even younger than that when her dad would have been around.
"Don't let them get to you." Travis said. "Come on, let's go rejoin the others." Bianca scowled. She'd wandered away for a reason. The other kids at the Hermes cabin were pretty decent. If Bianca was forced to spend time with anybody, at least these guys were tolerable. However, Bianca didn't like being around so many people, and she didn't really enjoy most of the activities that they did. She would much rather spend time with herself than work on sword fighting.
Bianca was disappointed but not surprised when Travis led her to the sword fighting arena. She really wished that she could enjoy this. The sword fighting itself was fun enough, but Bianca hated how competitive all the guys seemed to be.
Bianca was used to seeing guys acting like idiots and trying to show each other up, even if they didn't have the skills to back up their confidence. It was bad enough when the guys were doing it with basketballs, but here at Camp Half-Blood somebody seemed to think it was a good idea to give everybody a sharp sword. It was a miracle that nobody had poked somebody's eyes out yet.
When they got to the arena Bianca was alarmed to see Nico sitting on the ground, a large cut on his head. There was an alarming amount of blood. "Fratellino!" Bianca ran towards her brother. She pushed aside the boy who was sitting next to her brother, not caring who he was or what he was doing there. Her attention was just on her brother. She knelt in front of him and brushed his hair away from the cut.
"Ow!" Nico flinched and pushed her hand away. "That hurts." Nico practically whined, and Bianca relaxed. If Nico was whining instead of crying or screaming, maybe the pain wasn't too bad.
Bianca glared at Connor, who was looking a little sheepish. "What happened and who did this?" She was going to absolutely destroy whichever idiot thought that proving he was tougher than a nine-year old was a good idea.
"It was an accident." Connor said quickly. "Some of us were sparring, and we didn't notice Nico behind us."
Bianca wanted to be absolutely furious, as Connor was one of the counselors for the Hermes cabin. It was his job to be aware of any potential danger that the other kids might be in. However, she couldn't bring herself to completely blame him. She knew her brother, and she knew that he was a natural at something that she tried really hard to do. Nico could blend in with every little shadow out there and he was frequently overlooked and unnoticed.
Bianca glared at her brother and whacked his arm slightly. "What were you thinking?"
"I wanted to get a closer look at the swords," Nico said. His eyes brightened excitedly like they frequently did when he got really into things. Bianca sighed in annoyance. Only her brother would care more about his obsession with ancient Greece than his badly bleeding head.
"Scemo," Bianca scowled. She didn't know whether she was more concerned that her brother was hurt or annoyed that he'd done something so stupid. "Why aren't you getting that taken care of?"
"We were going to." Connor said with a frown. "I sent Chris to find an Apollo kid who could handle the healing. I was going to take Nico to meet them at first-aid as soon as Travis got back." Bianca stiffened and shrunk in on herself slightly. She understood why Connor had been waiting for his brother, as he couldn't exactly leave the other kids unsupervised. Travis had only been absent because he'd gone after Bianca. If she hadn't wandered off they could have already gotten Nico to first-aid.
"I'll take him." Bianca volunteered. Nico was her little brother, her responsibility. Still, she couldn't help but be a little disappointed. Luke had assured her that other kids could keep an eye on Nico, finally giving her a chance to relax, but she'd yet to see any of that. She was still the one who watched him all the time.
"I don't think so." Travis teased. "I didn't go out of my way to find you just to let you sneak away from classes again. You need to know how to sword fight just as much as the rest of us." Bianca didn't know whether to be disappointed or relieved. She didn't want to swordfight, but she also didn't want to constantly babysit her little brother. It would be nice to get a small break from Nico.
"I'll take him," Connor volunteered. He looked guilty about letting Nico get hurt on his watch. Bianca reluctantly stepped aside to let Connor hold a hand out to help Nico up. Her little brother completely ignored Connor's hand and stood up on his own. Nico staggered slightly, but flinched back when Connor tried to steady him.
"I can do it myself," Nico said. Connor raised a dubious eyebrow, but he nodded and gave Nico a little bit of space. Connor led Nico out of the arena and towards first-aid.
"Your brother will be fine," Travis said. "Just worry about yourself right now." That was a lot easier said than done. Bianca had been taking care of her brother since their mom had died, and even before then she'd always been helping her mom keep an eye on him. Nico needed a lot of attention and care, though he claimed otherwise. Bianca didn't think she knew how to worry about herself instead of her brother.
"I'm not quite sure what to do." Bianca said.
"Well, first you need a sword." Travis said. He looked towards the boy that Bianca had pushed aside to get to her brother. "Percy, you mind taking Bianca to the armory and helping her find a sword? Maybe then you can get her started on the basics."
"Sure," The boy, who looked a little older than Bianca, stood up. He gave her an easy smile. "Come on,"
Bianca blinked and numbly followed him out of the arena. It took her a long moment to really process who this boy must be. "You're Percy? Percy Jackson?"
The boy, Percy, paused for just a moment and gave her a cautious look. "Yeah. Why do you want to know?"
Bianca felt like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. "I have something for you." Bianca took Percy's arm and pulled him in the direction of the cabins. She let herself into the Hermes cabin, ignoring Percy's questions and small protests. They would only have to be there for a moment while Bianca grabbed what she needed.
She usually kept her things really organized, but she and Nico were sharing a space where they put their personal belongings, and her brother's things got absolutely everywhere. Bianca scowled in annoyance as she had to push aside Nico's Mythomagic cards just to find her things.
While she searched Percy seemed to move on from asking what she was up to. Instead he sat on one of the beds and watched her search.
"So...how are you liking camp so far?" Percy asked awkwardly. Bianca shot him an annoyed glance. She hated it when people felt the need to fill the silence. Nico could be the same way sometimes. Why couldn't people just learn how to be comfortable with being quiet for five minutes instead of forcing everybody else into needless smalltalk?
"I don't." Bianca said simply. She expected Percy to start the familiar lecture about how she'll eventually come to love camp. He just laughed.
"Yeah, I get that," Percy said. "Let me guess, the campers aren't the best at rolling out the old welcoming mat?"
"They're horrible," Bianca said. She hated when people involved themselves in her business. It was why she tried to avoid bringing attention to herself. She had even worked really hard to hide her accent, though it came out sometimes when she was upset. Of course, Nico didn't understand the concept of hiding his Italian accent, so when kids heard him speak they usually knew that he, as well as Bianca, weren't originally from America.
Nobody at Camp Half-Blood had mentioned anything about Bianca or Nico's accents yet, but she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It always came up sooner or later.
"I was given a hard time when I first came too," Percy said. "It didn't really do any favors to get me to warm up to my dad."
Bianca scowled. She hated this obsession with the gods. She couldn't care less about whether they existed or not, but did she really have to be dragged into the middle of it? "Why did you have trouble fitting in?"
"My dad's Poseidon," Percy said. "He and his brothers, you know, Zeus and Hades, promised to not have any more demigod children, so it was kinda a big deal when I was claimed."
"That's so dumb," Bianca frowned. "It's not like you asked to be born." Bianca relaxed slightly when she found what she was looking for. She sat up and held an envelope out to Percy. "Here."
"Uh, thanks," Percy looked at the envelope curiously. "What is it?"
Bianca shrugged. She hadn't opened it. "The man who brought me and Nico to Luke told me to give it to you." She hoped that Percy didn't get mad at her for not giving it to him immediately. She'd had no idea who Percy was, and she'd felt too awkward to just go up to someone she didn't know and ask about somebody that she'd never met. If she hadn't just so happened to run into Percy she would have just given the envelope to Travis or Connor and asked them to give it to him.
Percy frowned and opened up the envelope. There was a small letter inside. Percy read it for just a few seconds before his eyes widened in surprise. Bianca was alarmed to see tears start to gather in Percy's eyes. She thought that something horrible must have happened, but then Percy sniffled and he was smiling wetly.
"I-I have to go." Percy jumped off the bed. He started to move towards the door, but Bianca grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Hang on," Bianca said. "What happened? Is everything okay?"
"Y-yeah," Percy grinned weakly. "It...it's about my mom. She's okay." Percy laughed and embraced Bianca. She stiffened and didn't relax even after he let her go. "My mom's okay!"
"That's great," Bianca adjusted her hat, partially to fix it, as it had gotten tilted when Percy had embraced her so suddenly. Her larger motivation though was that she wanted to make it hide her face a little more. She didn't like physical contact, especially not so suddenly, and certainly never from boys. It all felt far too intimate to Bianca, and certainly not something that most people deserved from her.
Still, she decided to forgive Percy just this once. He was emotional and excited about his mom, and Bianca had just been the most convenient person for him to express that emotion with. Just so long as Perc didn't do it again.
"I need to talk to Chiron," Percy said. Bianca knew that he wanted to get permission to leave camp. It usually wasn't allowed, but this was clearly a special case. Percy stopped and he seemed to wilt slightly. "But I'm supposed to help you with your sword work."
"We can do it later." Bianca said quickly. She didn't want to be the reason why Percy didn't go see his mom. Besides, she wanted to check on Nico. She didn't know if she trusted the magical healing that they did here. "Please, go. I'll be fine."
Percy looked reluctant for about a second before his face broke into a wide grin. "Thanks, Bianca. I owe you one." Bianca didn't quite agree. She hadn't appreciated it at the time, but she had noticed Percy sitting next to Nico back in the Arena. He'd been keeping an eye on her brother instead of working on his swordwork, and Bianca appreciated it. However, she wasn't about to disagree with Percy about this. If he wanted to feel indebted to her, that was his business.
"Good luck," Bianca said. Percy gave her one last smile before he ran out of the cabin and towards the Big House. Bianca knelt down in front of their things again and started to organize them. She didn't want to deal with this mess again. Nico would probably throw a fit when he saw that she was rearranging his things, as he sometimes took comfort in his chaotic mess, but Bianca would deal with that when it came up. At the moment she just wanted this mess tidied up.
She would make sure her brother was okay just as soon as she was finished cleaning up his mess.