A/N: Thanks for all the positive feedback, you guys! :) I was happy to see that people were interested, which made me write faster.
(Dunno if updates will always be this quick, considering that I've got quite a few projects to work on for school... But at least swim season is over, so that's a plus.)
Just to clear things up: we probably won't be seeing any canon PJO characters here (or if we do, they'll have minor parts). It's like Poketalia or Pottertalia, which is why I didn't put this under the crossover category.
Oh, and also, this is set a few years post-Giant War. If you haven't read the Heroes of Olympus series, all you need to know is that things are different in terms of Greco-Roman demigod interactions. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
"HEY! HEY, LUDWIG! LUUUUUUUUUDWIG!"
Alfred abruptly tore away from Arthur and sprinted some distance away to a blond boy talking to a shorter girl. The Ludwig in question barely had a chance to brace himself before Alfred had crashed into him.
Arthur supposed he had been lucky before.
Ludwig cursed, looking extremely irritated. Alfred cut him off and gestured wildly at Arthur, making Ludwig's eyes widen. Alfred then proceeded to physically drag the tall blond back to Arthur.
"This is Arthur," Alfred proclaimed brightly.
Arthur blinked. "Um. Hello. You must be Ludwig."
"WHOA! He's gotta be a son of Athena! He already knows your name and everything!"
Ludwig sighed.
Arthur informed Alfred, "I only know his name because you were shouting it at the top of your lungs, idiot."
Alfred deflated slightly. "Oh."
Ludwig coughed. "Um. Yes. Well, I see I don't really need to introduce myself, but I would like to do so nonetheless." He extended a hand. "Ludwig Beilschmidt."
"Arthur Kirkland." They shook. Arthur was pleased to note that Ludwig did not crush the life out of his hand.
"I'm the counselor for Cabin 9, which is-"
"Hephaestus!" Alfred blurted. "The god of blacksmiths and the forge!"
"...Hephaestus?" Arthur asked, but was ignored as Ludwig, who looked like he had a massive migraine, changed the subject.
"So, Arthur, Alfred tells me that you were just dropped off today?"
"Yes." Arthur frowned. "For some reason he acts as though that's an extraordinary thing."
Ludwig rubbed absently at his left bicep. "Well, it's certainly an uncommon occurrence." He gave Arthur a once-over with his stony blue eyes. "You're not injured anywhere?"
"No."
"Good." Ludwig's eyes softened just a little bit. "You're lucky."
"Ludwig, who's this?" The shorter girl that Ludwig had been talking to (before Alfred had interrupted) tapped the tall blond on the shoulder.
"This is Arthur," Ludwig answered. "He just got here."
At this, the girl's eyes widened. "Really? Does he need medical attention? I can get Lili..."
"That won't be necessary," Arthur assured her. "I'm perfectly fine."
"Ohh, you're so cute!" The girl trilled. She had wide brown eyes and wavy reddish-brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail. "My name's Feliciana, but you can just call me Feli! Everyone does."
Ludwig coughed, looking uncomfortable. "...Yes."
Alfred smiled and stage-whispered to Arthur, "I think she likes you!" to which Arthur responded with a light smack on the back of his head.
"Don't be an idiot."
Feliciana just giggled. "So, is it your mom or your dad?"
"...Beg your pardon?"
"Your godly parent," she explained.
"While both of my parents are amazing, I'm not sure that godly would be the adjective I'd choose to apply to them," Arthur said.
"Did you say both of your parents?" Feliciana looked astounded, as did Ludwig.
Arthur was more than a little bit confused. "Yes?"
Ludwig frowned. "Well, that does make things harder. Are they your birth parents?"
"No." Arthur flushed. "I was... adopted. When I was young, maybe two or three. I don't remember my birth parents."
He'd always wondered why his parents hadn't wanted him; was it because even then, as a toddler, he'd been a troublemaker? He'd always been more trouble than he was worth, but it was strange. His adopted parents said they loved him, but there was always room for doubt, and Arthur knew he'd been a pretty screwed-up child.
"Do you know the circumstances?" Ludwig inquired mildly.
Arthur just shrugged. "I guess my birth parents just didn't want me." He felt himself tearing up a bit, but he bit down on his lip and looked down at the grass. He wasn't about to cry when Ludwig had asked such a simple question.
He felt a warm hand on his back. He didn't even have to look to know that it was Alfred, patting him on the back as though he were a little kid.
"Oi. Cut that out. I'm not a baby," he snapped.
Alfred put his hands up in the air in surrender. "Fine, fine. Sorry." A pause. "But I know how you feel. You were branded a troublemaker in school, you got into fights way too often, and I'm going to go out on a wild guess here, but you were probably medicated for some sort of attention problem. Because you'd always see things that weren't there. Sound about right?"
Arthur looked up in surprise. How had Alfred so aptly been able to capture the essence of his life in just a few sentences?
"We've all been there," Ludwig said gruffly.
"We'll just have to wait for your claiming," Feliciana said cheerfully. "Like in the old days!"
"What is 'claiming'?" Arthur demanded.
Alfred opened his mouth to explain, but Feliciana cut him off. "Oh, oh, you should let my sorella do the introduction for him!"
"What, Lovina?" Alfred shook his head, smiling.
Ludwig looked positively stricken. "Absolutely not, do you want to scar him?"
Feliciana pouted. "But... Ludwig..."
Arthur had to hand it to the girl; she knew how to do some serious puppy eyes.
"She just wants to feel helpful again," Feli pleaded. "Please? And Alfred will be there, she'll be nicer because Alfred's there..."
"Yeah," Alfred chimed in. He was also making watery blue puppy dog eyes. "Come on, Ludwig. I'll chaperone!"
"Fine," Ludwig sighed. "But I'm not liable for any damages caused."
"Yay!" Feliciana beamed and wrapped her arms around the tall, stony-faced blond. "Ludwig is the best!"
Aforementioned boy blushed and muttered, "Feli, there are people here!"
Feliciana lowered her lashes. "Well, we could go somewhere more private, if you'd like..." She winked at Alfred and Arthur as Ludwig started sputtering about how she shouldn't speak so improperly, and how people might get the wrong idea, and had she been hanging around Francis again?
Alfred dragged Arthur away by the arm, shouting, "Bye! You kids have fun! Play it safe!"
When they were out of earshot, he snickered, "Man, I love messing with Ludwig. Guy's got such a huge stick up his ass all the time."
"He seemed fine to me," Arthur said. He scowled. "Why was he so against me meeting Lovina?"
Alfred shrugged. "They don't get along, mostly because Lovina's a super overprotective big sister and she hates it when Feli hangs out with him. But she's awesome." He grinned breezily. "Don't worry, she's not scary or anything."
"I see..." Arthur wasn't quite convinced with that explanation.
Arthur made a mental note to never trust Alfred's judge of character again.
Lovina was easily one of the most frightening people that Arthur had ever met.
She'd been happy enough to see Alfred, but that tentative smile of hers had done a 180-degree flip once she saw Arthur.
"Who the fuck is the eyebrow bastard?" she'd commented snappishly, setting down the bow she held (bronze, Arthur noticed, like all the other weapons at this camp). They were at the archery range, which was mostly empty; besides the three of them, there was one other kid there, but he was all the way at the other end of the range, shooting at a target posted on a bale of hay.
Alfred had simply smiled as though she hadn't just insulted Arthur's eyebrows. "This is Arthur! Arthur, this is Lovina!"
"Nice to fucking meet you." Lovina rolled her eyes. "Why'd you bring him here? Is he new? If he is, I'm not going to do a welcome song for him."
Alfred looked way too amused for the situation, in Arthur's opinion. This was arguably the most unpleasant person he'd ever had the displeasure of meeting.
"I thought you could give him the low-down on everything," he said. "Since you did a great job with the intro you gave me."
She eyed Alfred suspiciously. "Did Feli put you up to this?"
"Why on earth would you think that?" he asked innocently. "I can't just take a newbie to you for a great intro?"
She glared at him with hazel eyes-Arthur was struck by how similar she and Feliciana looked; the only difference was their eye color and Lovina's darker hair-before relenting after a moment.
"Okay," she said. "I'll do it. But only because I can do a heck of a lot better job than that stupid introduction film!"
Alfred flashed her a grin and thumbs-up.
Lovina drew in a deep breath, then turned her fierce hazel gaze on Arthur.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," she began. "The best fucking safe haven on earth for creatures like you and me."
What a lovely beginning. Arthur had a headache building up already.
"What kind of creatures are we? Half-bloods, as the name of the camp implies, you dipshit. Which means that you're half human and half Greek god. Or Roman. It depends. In the past, there used to be a big deal about the difference between Greek and Roman, but we're past that now because we're not a bunch of fucking idiots like the people in the past."
Alfred looked like he was trying not to laugh.
"My dad is Apollo, the goddamn bastard god of the sun, music-"
"Poetry, archery, and healing," Arthur interrupted. "Right?"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, fan-effing-tastic. He's a scholar! Wow! Somebody give him a gods-damned prize!"
Arthur bristled. "Well, excuse me!"
"You're not excused," Lovina said tonelessly before continuing on. "In any case, you're a demigod. Your godly parent should probably claim you within the next few days. In the meantime, you'll probably have a temporary stay with the Hermes cabin, yada yada yada, be careful of the lava on the climbing wall, don't feed the pegasi donuts, go visit Ludwig or some other Hephaestus kid in the armory so you can pick out a weapon. Have fun and don't die. The counselors will put together a schedule for you probably by tomorrow."
"Thanks, Lovina!" Alfred chirped. He turned to Arthur. "So does that explain everything for you?"
"Wha..." He shook his head, trying to get over the extreme feeling of irritation boiling inside of him. Lovina's speech hadn't even begun to sink in yet.
"Well, thanks again!" Alfred waved. He started to whisk Arthur away again, but Arthur stopped him by smacking his hand off of his arm.
"Wait a minute." His brow furrowed.
"Yeah?" Alfred asked, looking a little bit concerned.
"Did she say pegasi?"
A/N: I see fem!Italy as being kind of a flirt (like her male counterpart), but with slightly less clueless innocence? LOL. Well, you'll definitely see Feliciana making Ludwig uncomfortable on purpose, rather than by accident. XD
Anyone else want to fangirl/fanboy with me? Only five months till Blood of Olympus!
Feel free to drop me a line on tumblr. I'm paintdripps there. :) Oh, and also you guys should get on my case if I don't update, because that tends to happen :I