A Small Heart to Heart

"Percy." She began as she finally dropped back to the point where she was walking in stride with him. He glanced over at Thalia for a moment, and she stared back before rolling her eyes and jogging a little to go ahead. He stopped and she did too. She took a deep breath, before looking him dead in the eyes with her own pitch black pair. "Did you talk Lady Artemis out of recruiting me to the Hunters?"

"What?" He said with a start, balking immediately that she had ever gotten such an idea. "Why would you think that."

"Because I'd made my decision. I had chosen to join the hunters, and I was going to tell her. And it was like she could read my thoughts, because just when I was about to accept she said I should hear from a representative of Camp first, and then you came along, and I got sent away, and Lady Artemis never mentioned it again before she left." Once she started, she didn't stop, the words just rolling off of her tongue like waves as she steadily outpoured her accusation.

It wasn't something he had considered. He'd been worried about what people might think about his time with Artemis, but he hadn't actually considered exactly what they would come up with to fill in the blanks. And now Bianca honestly believed he had talked the Goddess into rejecting her. He should definitely nip that in the bud. "Bianca, I swear on the Styx that I didn't talk Artemis out of recruiting you to the Hunters." He said, and immediately thunder boomed in the sky above to mark the oath.

"What was that?" Bianca asked, looking up at the cloudless sky, having dropped into a crouch when the thunder cracked across the sky with no storms abound.

"Oath on the Styx. Make as few as you can. If you break them... well I've been told that there are worse things than ****, and breaking an oath on the Styx is the best way to earn yourself one."

"So you really didn't have anything to do with it then?"

"I wouldn't say that." He admitted, scratching the back of his head. He didn't want to lie to the girl just flat out, it just felt wrong. So he tried his best to wrack his brain for something to say. "Artemis and I... we ended up talking about some very important things that are going on right now. I'm sure she was just distracted. Once she gets back, you can become a Hunter if you still want to."

"But you don't want me to, do you?" She asked accusingly, though not angrily. She was pressing, but not really upset.

"No. For me, Camp is one of the best things that ever happened to me. And I can't even imagine that there is any Demigod out there who wouldn't choose it if given the chance. But... It's not just that. The Hunters are all Girls. You'd be leaving your brother behind. I'm not you, I don't know how you are with your brother. But I can't imagine ever being in your place and just leaving him behind."

"Are you saying he wouldn't be safe here?"

"No! Not at all." He pedalled to make sure she didn't get the wrong idea. "But the Hunters and Camp... well I've been doing this a few years and I didn't even know they existed until the other day. You would be away from Nico for years at a time, maybe even decades, I don't know. Could you really stand to watch your brother grow up without you?"

She looked incredibly conflicted. She'd been conflicted the entire time, since before they even started talking, she'd just been able to hide it until now because she didn't have to think about it. Now she couldn't. "I don't know!" She said at last, before she tossed out her hands to the side and turning in a circle before looking back at him. "But it's just exhausting taking care of him all the time. Since we lost our mother, I've had to be the one who takes care of Nico all the time, and I just can't keep doing it. I just can't."

For a while, Percy really didn't know what he should say. Bianca was an incredibly responsible person. She had taken care of her brother for years, and only now after she was sure that he would be safe was she finally beginning to show how it chafed on her, and how much she wanted to be something beyond just her brother's carer. After so long being selfless, wasn't it alright for her to finally be selfish and do something just for her own benefit? More than likely yes. But still...

"I can't say I understand the feeling." He said, slowly walking over to her, and leading her to sit down on a slightly frosted bench just to the side of them, exerting his water powers over the snow to melt and shove it away so she didn't get wet sitting there. He plopped down right beside her. "I've never had to take care of anyone like that before. Through all the good times and the bad, I've always had my mom." He said, and that lit a spark inside of him.

"You're a lot like her. My mom that is." Bianca turned to look at him, a redness to her eyes as if she was on the verge of tears, the conflict inside her threatening to tear her apart. "For years she was with this terrible guy. Just the worst. He beat her and belittled her, and I always wanted to stand up to him and save her from him, protect her from him. But then, when I found out about my dad, I also found out why she did it."

"We Demigods have a scent. A stink to use, and Monsters like Thorn can smell it. It's how they find us. As long as we don't know what we are, it's not too bad. Once we know there is no avoiding it, but as long as we're kept unaware of our divine nature, they can pass us over if we're lucky. My mom went the extra mile. Because you see, that guy she stuck with for so many years despite how terrible he was, he stank too. And not just like he smelt like he'd need a bath in bleach just to get clean, but also magically. He was so pure crappy human that he stank of just pure terribleness. And it hid me. My scent was camouflaged within his, and so for years of my life where I should have been on the run, scared of monsters around every corner, I was living a perfectly normal life. I never knew how much she was sacrificing for me."

"And that's what you've been for Nico all these years. Watching over him, keeping him safe, doing your very best to protect him from everything out there in the world. You're just like my mom."

"What happened once you found out what you were? When you couldn't hide anymore?"

"Mom got rid of him." He replied, somewhat wisely keeping the fact that his mother had in fact turned him to stone with the head of Medusa and then sold him off as a piece of modern art to himself. That might be a bit much. "And now she gets to live for herself. Happily. She worries of course, she'll always worry. But she doesn't have to sacrifice herself for me anymore. So, I get it. You want to live your own life now that you think Nico is safe without you. But this isn't just knowing he is safe. I still talk with my mom all the time, I would be back home with her right now if I hadn't been on the mission to rescue you and your brother. You'd just be leaving."

She was about to protest, but he raised one hand to quiet her, and she fumed but allowed him to keep going. "I'm not saying that you shouldn't join the Hunt if you think it is right. I'm not saying that you aren't entitled to go about what you want to do with your own life. But think about if maybe you're reflexively swinging to the opposite ****. Jumping onto the first ride that drives past and just running away." She looked pensive for a moment, but this time she wasn't confused or conflicted. Now she was honestly assessing herself, thinking through everything that had happened and was happening, and how she felt about all of it.

"You know what?" He said at least after staring at her for a few minutes, and offered her a hand to pull her back to her feet. "If you want, I think you should call my mom, and get her opinion on this. Demigods aren't supposed to have phones, using them is like sending up a ping to all the Monsters in the area that you are there and they come running, but I'm sure the Stoll brothers have a few stolen mobiles Chiron doesn't know about. I'll go get you one off of them, and you can talk it out with my mom. And whatever you choose, you'll know you made it for the right reasons."

She stared up at him for a moment, those coal eyes grazing up and down his form. And then she took his hand with hers and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "I thought you were a son of Poseidon, not Athena. You're surprisingly wise." He would later admit that he did in fact blush at the compliment. "I'd like that. Maybe this extra time to think things over is for the best. Thanks Percy."

"Don't mention it." He said smiling. "Now, I think I've skivved out of helping Thalia for long enough, and you're missing your tour. I'll see you at dinner tonight and I'll bring you the phone. And if you do choose to become a Hunter, I'll be the first person clapping you on once you've taken the oath."

"You don't need to go that far." Bianca replied with a giggle.