Percabeth: As We Grow

💕Special Edition: A Different Kind of Love (Bianca)💕

Bianca's POV

Most girls at my age, 15, would be squealing over boys. Or sometimes, even other girls.

Not me.

I don't know why. I've always been different in matters of love. I don't like cute boys (or girls if I were lesbian---I wish). I don't feel anything when someone asks me out. And trust me, I've been asked out plenty of times.

They say I'm pretty. So what? Just because I'm pretty means I have to date, have to marry, have to love?

I'm scared to tell Papa and Dad. I'm afraid they won't understand.

So I do the only thing  I can think of, to call someone who understands, who can console me, because she's gone through the same thing.

Aunt Reyna.

~💕~

Aunt Reyna's always been asexual. Then again, all the Hunters are. They're not allowed to date. Sometimes I wish I could join them. Then I could have an excuse for not loving anyone.

I take out the silver locket of my mom's that Aunt Reyna bewitched, in case I need her. Out of all my honorary aunts, Aunt Reyna's always been my favorite. She could stand tall and brave, and not be ashamed of herself like me.

Of course, Papa and Dad made me feel a lot better. Before I went to the orphanage, my biological dad made me feel like crap. My mom couldn't do anything against him when he started hitting her in drunken stupor. That one night he was out all night, and when he came back he was mad for no reason at all. He just flew into a rage for nothing.

My mom died trying to protect me from getting hit by the glass bottles. Before she died, she gave me her silver heart locket.

I hold the locket in my hands now and press, hard.

The heart gives a little bzzt sound and I jump. Suddenly I realize how strange I must look to a passer-by, kneeling in my room and cupping a faded silver locket.

Well, it used to be silver. After pressing it, it glows gold and stays gold.

I stare at the gold locket, hoping Aunt Reyna will come soon.

And she does.

"Did someone call me?" I hear a voice outside.

"Aunt Reyna!" I call, smiling.

She looks fit as ever. It's strange. She joined the Hunters of Artemis, so she looks 16, only one year older than me, but there's a lot of wisdom in her dark eyes.

"Hey, Bianca!" she calls back, jumping off her pegasus, Butter, who whinnies. "Hold on!"

Somehow, after patting Butter and telling him to stay there, she leaps from the ground into my room through the window with incredible grace. Of course, she's a Hunter.

I clap and cheer for her, which Aunt Reyna brushes off with a smile. "So, Bianca," she says, "what am I here for?"

My smile falters. "Uh...well." I say awkwardly. "It's just that..." I trail off, looking at the ground. "I think I'm ace. Asexual. Like you."

Aunt Reyna doesn't say anything, but her eyes say it all.

Finally she speaks. "So what?" she says defiantly.

I furrow my brow in confusion. "So I'm weird and stuff! Don't you care that I can't love anyone in the way everyone expects me to? I'm a monster! I don't have feelings! I don't have a heart!"

At this tears finally spill out. Aunt Reyna sighs.

"Don't say that about yourself, Bianca!" she comforts me. "Look at me, I'm asexual too, aren't I, and do you think I'm a monster?"

I timidly shake my head.

"And just because you don't have romantic feelings doesn't mean you don't have normal ones." Aunt Reyna rubs her hand on my back in small circles.

"B-but I can't love..." I trail off.

Aunt Reyna immediately jumps up, a fierce expression on her regal face.

"Of course you can! It just doesn't have to be romantic love! You love me, don't you, and your dads, and your friends...see?" she says, seeing my expression of realization.

"I think I understand now, Aunt Reyna." I say slowly, wiping off my tears with the back of my hand.

A grin spreads on Aunt Reyna's face. "Good. Oh, Bianca, and here..."

She pulls out a silver leaflet from nowhere and tosses it to me.

It's a beautiful thing, shimmering silver like the moon. On it are benefits of...the Hunters of Artemis?

"Aunt Reyna!" I chuckle playfully.

She winks back at me. "Hey, you never know, and Lady Artemis would kill me if I didn't promote us everywhere!" she says. "Bye, Bianca."

"Bye!" I tuck the leaflet away in my lowest drawer while watching Aunt Reyna leap out the window.

Maybe, just one day, I'll join the Hunters. I think.