Without the Sun -A Nico Di Angelo Fanfiction-

IV. I tell Bianca the Truth

While Bianca and I did chores I thought it would be a good time to bring up the question about Dad. We were hanging laundry outside under the drainage vent when I asked her.

"Don't you think it's funny we don't know anything about dad? Why do you think that is" I asked casually.

"What?" She asked her face draining of color.

"You know, I never met him, I was just wondering if mom ever told you anything about him" I clarified.

"No, she never talks about him, you know. Ever since he left she's had to raise him on her own, which is already hard with one kid, but with two, well, it's not easy" she talked in such a way that it was easy to understand.

"I know he left when I was born but, did you ever find out why?" I pushed the question further.

"No, mom just said he left one day. You already know this, same as me" she spoke with a nervousness about her.

"Well don't you think it's strange...we can do things that aren't normal for borrowers?"

Bianca turned to me with a quizzical look on her face "w-What kind of things are we talking about"

"Oh you know, like superpowers" I said nonchalantly "can you pass me the clips" I reached for the small basket of makeshift laundry clips and began hanging the laundry.

"Wait Superpowers?! I don't remember anything that has to do with superpowers!"

I looked at her confused "wait, so you can't like, talk to the dead skeletons or anything?"

She looked at me in complete bafflement "NO? Wait Nico...DO YOU HAVE SUPERPOWERS?!"

"YOU DON'T?!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!"

"kids, quiet down, your going to attract the beans if you keep yelling like that" mom yelled from the kitchen entrance.

Bianca whispered to me "Nico, tell me honestly, what is going on with you?"

"I-I uh...." I gulped "I can talk to mice skeletons and stuff..." I showed her as I focused on my power and the earth beneath us. Then it began to happen. A mouse skull emerged from the ground along with its other bones. 'Welcome prince of darkness, how may I serve thee' "see!" I said after it spoke.

Bianca stared at me in shock "what the heck" she began to back away.

"Wait it's not like that! I'm not hurting them or anything they just follow me and talk to me and get me things. Is this not normal?!"

"N-Nico...I don't think your normal..." she said and I could see she was trembling.

"Wait Bianca, don't be scared, he won't hurt you!" As my focus wavered, so did my power. The skull began to rattle and settle itself back into the freshly uncovered dirt.

"W-what was that Nico?! Why did it call you that?" She asked a shadow passing over her face.

"This may sound crazy, but I think..." I took a deep breath "I think I know who dad really is."

Bianca stared at me with a mix of fear and shock "you think you know who dad is?"

I nodded "I think dad is, a god"

Bianca was silent for a moment but finally spoke "what do you mean"

"Bianca, I think our dad is Hades, god of the underworld. I think... we're demigods"

Bianca didn't speak for a long time after that. I continued to ramble on about why a thought that but I wasn't sure if she was even listening. We finished our chores in silence and then went our septet ways to do other menial tasks around the house.

The next time we spoke was at dinner when mom began talking about the new people moving in.

"-so far I don't think they suspect anything which is good. The husband is messy and easy to borrow from and the others seem neat enough, but overall I think they should be safe enough to live around." She spoke

"Hey mom, when do you think I'll be allowed to start day-borrowing like you?" Bianca asked hopefully.

" I don't know sweetie, it's really not very safe for someone your age to be going out in broad daylight. But I suppose you've been careful enough when going out with Nico. Maybe sometime next week, if all goes well and you prove your responsible enough"

Bianca was elated and happily finished her meal without stall.

The next few days passed in a blur, I hadn't yet gotten a chance to meet Percy again which disappointed me. But Bianca did let me train with her, and she even made a new hook so I could have her old one. We still hadn't talked any more about my powers or Dad, and I think she was training so hard to keep her mind off things.

She worked on her climbing and running and after a while I got bored and began playing with my figurines. I acted out mini battles but after a while I got bored of that too.

"Bianca play with me" I wined

"No I'm- too busy- practicing" she said in between grunts.

"Ugh, fiiiine, I'll just go exploring or something..."

"Don't go too far, it's almost dark" she yelled as I walked to the exit tunnel. I yelled a quick reply back and headed to go see what else I could do.

After a while of walking through the tunnels I ended up in an inevitable place. Percy's room. He had changed quite a few things about it. For one, he actually had a bed this time. His room wasn't extremely cluttered like most boys rooms, but there were a few things that I noticed seemed out of place in a child's room.

He had a long and very pointy horn that curved a wired way, and it looked roughly cut. Another thing was a watch hanging on the wall. There was a picture of him with two other kids, a blonde girl with grey eyes and a freckled boy with curly brown hair.

There was also a necklace that I had seen him wearing earlier that had two clay beads on it. The beads looked like they had little drawings on them but I was too far away to see the. I didn't understand what was so significant about those items in particular but they littered his desk and walls at random so I just figured they were keepsakes or something.

I looked around to see where he might be but he appeared to be out of his room at the moment. I was about to go back home when I heard steps approaching and door began to open.