Chapter One: Altruistic

Nico had not particularly wanted to go to the circus, but Bianca was enraptured with the idea and had dragged him along anyway. She did not seem to care that they couldn't possibly afford two tickets into the circus tent, that they possibly needed an adult with them and that the circus sounded dreadfully boring.

If Nico had been younger he would have been enthralled with the idea of the circus- flying acrobats, lion tamers, trapeze artists and all other performances that aim to impress the hearts of the audience. But as it was, Nico was now closing in on his sixteenth birthday, and would much prefer reading about the circus than actually attending.

It was not even that the real world had lost its appeal to Nico; he was still amazed by the simple things other people were amazed by. But when you were a foreigner who could not even speak fluently in that country's language, some of the wonders lost their allure. Nico wondered how Bianca could be so charmed by such a place like America, where the people looked down on them because they were underprivileged immigrants in the 1930s who just wanted to live safely.

"Nico, come on!" Bianca called in Italian, grabbing his wrist and dragging him over to the tent opening. She was nearly sparkling with excited energy, and despite his best efforts, Nico smiled slightly. It quickly vanished, however, when they saw the cost for one seat each in the tent. They glanced at one another, and the disappointment in Bianca's eyes was jarring.

"You can go in," Nico offered, watching as Bianca's entire expression lit up in joy- before crumbling into a sad expression.

"I cannot leave you out here, it wouldn't be fair," Bianca said, turning to leave the grounds. Nico placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her towards the ticket booth, where a man was watching them, an eyebrow raised as if to say 'Are you coming in or not?'

"I don't want to see the circus," Nico said firmly. "You do. Go."

Bianca looked uncertainly between Nico's determined expression and the tent. After a few conflicted moments, she darted forward and hugged Nico tightly, digging crumbled notes out of her pocket to hand to the man with the tickets. She gave Nico one last thankful look before slipping into the tent.

Nico sighed and looked around, wondering what he was going to do while Bianca was inside. Other than the tent, there was not much else to do. The grounds consisted of patchy grass and dusty dirt, people wandering in and out, children laughing though there wasn't much to laugh at. Nico decided to sit down on a barrel of crates and wait out the performance. The ticket man gave him a wary look, but shrugged when Nico only sat.

Nico wondered how long the performance was going to take. A couple of hours, most likely, for how much the ticket prices were. He hoped Bianca enjoyed herself; it wasn't often that she was able to do things for her own benefit. It made Nico happy to see that joy on her face.

But… sitting around was going to be awfully boring.

He wished he had bought one of his books with him. He didn't have many, as books were a luxury, but the ones he did have he cherished greatly. They were an escape from the cruelty and roughness of the world around him- he was able to immerse himself in words of beauty and adventure, imagine the scenes; women in gowns the colours of flowers, men who tried to woo them with words equally as extravagant. Boys who never age and live with mermaids, fairies and pirates; girls who age too fast, weary from the hardships of the world and wanting to fall in love with the handsome prince, doing so in the end.

Nico was so enraptured with the thought of his precious stories that he didn't notice the woman standing in front of him until she spoke.

"What are you doing out here?"

Nico startled and looked up quickly, staring wide- eyed at the woman. She was possibly in her late teens, with corn silk curls tied back in a untidy do, deep sun tanned skin, and eyes as grey as storm clouds. Almost immediately, Nico realised this woman was both beautiful and dangerous.

She raised a critical brow at him, and Nico remembered she asked him a question. He opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again, trying to order the Italian into English in his mind.

"My sister," He said carefully. "Inside. Not enough currency- for two." He winced at his choppy English, but the woman seemed to understand and amazed Nico by smiling lightly.

"Your sister is inside and left you out here?" She asked, stunning Nico by speaking Italian. He slowly relaxed when he realised there would be no language barrier, his shoulders sagging in relief.

"There was only enough money for one person, the tickets are expensive." He explained, and the woman nodded in understanding.

"You are kind to let your sister go without you," She said. Nico wanted to say he didn't wish to see the circus anyway, but noticed the outfit she was wearing suddenly. A tightly ribboned silver corset wrapped her upper-half, swirls of emerald lacing through it. She wore pants, which were also green, and she had a flick of emerald on the line of her eyelashes. At her waist were gleaming silver daggers. Nico glanced at them, and felt a sharp tingle as they hair on the back of his neck stood on end. She was undoubtedly a performer for the evening, and it would be unwise to disrespect her and her comrades.

"It was no problem," He said haltingly, eyes flickering between the daggers and her equally sharp grey eyes. Beautiful, dangerous and carrying sharp objects. It didn't seem like the best combination, in Nico's opinion. "She enjoys the circus very much."

The girl looked him over, resting a hand on her hip casually. Even with her nonchalant stance, she still looked lethal. After a few moments, she jerked her head to the side. "Come."

She began walking off, and it took Nico a moment to realise she wished for him to follow her. Hastily jogging to keep up with her long strides, Nico cursed both his short stature and her long legs. She had to be three inches taller than him. Nico wondered how old she was.

The girl led him around the side of the tent to where Nico presumed the performers all set up. She pointed to a lawn chair and said curtly, "Sit there, please."

Nico obeyed, sitting awkwardly. The girl looked around, pursing her lips, seeming to look for someone. She sighed after a moment and turned back to Nico. "Wait here. If anyone asked who you are, say you are with Annabeth."

Nico nodded and then Annabeth stalked off, looking as if she intimidated passersby. Nico looked around, wondering what he could possibly do while he waited for Annabeth to come back from… where ever she had gone. Nico didn't even know why he was sitting here on this flimsy lawn chair behind the circus tent.

Nico took the time while Annabeth was gone to observe his surroundings. The first thing that stuck out to him was the trailers littering the field. Nico could see the hazy silhouettes of people getting ready for their performances. Nico wondered what it was like to be in a circus- it couldn't possibly be dreary or dull, constantly travelling and performing like they did. It was possibly exerting, working all the time, but it had to be amazing, travelling over the country.

"I am back," Nico jumped, head snapping to look at Annabeth, only to see that there was a boy standing next to her. Nico stared slightly, and not just because he was very handsome with his sea green eyes, dark shaggy hair and deeply tan skin. He was the ringmaster, it was obvious from his sweeping red coat and charismatic smile- but he was much too young. Nico knew for a fact that teenagers were never that important in a circus- it was always an older, perhaps middle-aged man who was the ringmaster. But it was apparent that this wasn't the case at this particular circus.

"Annabeth," The boy said energetically, glancing at Annabeth. "This is the kid?"

"Yes," She replied, and they looked back at Nico, who tried not to seem nervous. He still had no idea what exactly was going on. After a moment, the boy spoke again.

"Hello," He said to Nico. "I heard you let your sister inside without you. I think it would be good for you to see what you'd otherwise miss out on, don't you?"

Nico didn't quite understand. He looked between the two of them hesitantly, and the boy smiled.

"I'm Percy," He said, and held out a hand. Nico looked at it for a moment before taking it and allowing Percy to pull him up. Percy looked pleased, and beckoned them forward.

"Annabeth, when are you on?" He asked. Annabeth immediately answered.

"In ten minutes," She said. She looked towards one of the trailers. "Which reminds me, I have to go see Drew. Will you be alright with… sorry, I never caught your name?" She switched to Italian to ask Nico her question, and he started once again.

"Er, my name is Nico," He said quietly, and Annabeth nodded, giving Nico a slight smile that seemed as if it was rare.

"Alright, NIco, you go along with Percy. I need to go," She said, giving him one last nod before hurrying off towards a trailer. Percy watched her go with a fond expression.

"Well, let's get going then!" Percy said cheerfully. Nico nodded, still unsure of what was happening. Percy led them to the side of the tent and opened a flap, ducking inside and pulling Nico along with him. They were in a narrow passage, and Nico could hear laughter and shouting. He realised they must have been behind the stands that held the audience.

"I'm going to leave you backstage for a bit," Percy said, shuffling along the corridor, his voice soft as if the audience would somehow be able to hear them despite the roar of noise. "I hope that's alright? It's just I need to go on soon, I promise I'll leave you in good hands."

Nico shrugged hesitantly, looking around at the dirt floor and the wooden stands."What…" He began, his face instantly twisting in frustration as he tried to find the English words for his sentence. "Where is going?"

Percy looked back at him, still smiling. "Annabeth said you couldn't speak English well, but that's okay." He frowned. "You can understand me though, can't you?"

Nico nodded quickly, not trusting his English enough to attempt answering verbally and fighting an embarrassed blush. Percy brightened.

"Good," He said, seeming satisfied. "I'd hate it if you couldn't. Okay, so you wanted to know where we are going, yes?"

"Yes," Nico responded. he stumbled on a loose piece of gravel on the path and mumbled a curse that would have caused disapproval if Bianca was here. But as it was, it was not Bianca but Percy who he was speaking to, and he didn't seem like the sort to care about cursing anyhow. It wasn't like he could understand Nico, which was also a plus in this situation, though a burden in almost all others. Nico hated the language barrier between the Americans and himself.

"We're going backstage first," Percy explained, drawing Nico's attention back to him. "And you can meet all the performers, then go and see the last performers from the best seats in the house."

Nico started at that, his eyebrows drawing together in utter confusion. There was no way that was something that was normally done. "Why?" he asked.

Percy raised an eyebrow at him, still grinning. "Because you were really nice to let your sister in without you. It was a good thing to do,"

Nico didn't think he should be rewarded for doing good deeds, but nonetheless he continued following Percy until they reached an area with a few people sitting. The area was filled with different fabrics and objects, so much colours that it nearly hurt Nico's eyes. In fact, there was so much all at once that Nico didn't notice the people in the room at first.

There was a petite girl with short dark hair wearing a bright blue, skin-tight outfit that made Nico avert his eyes. Standing beside her was a tall boy with pale hair wearing an outfit that matched. Nico supposed that they were a double act, if they were wearing matching costumes.

The boy looked helpless as he gazed down at the girl, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. As Nico and Percy walked forward, Nico caught the end of his sentence. "...lia, please, Piper can't perform tonight and you're the only other person who can do it."

"What's wrong?" Percy asked, and his tone changed, more professional than friendly. The girl turned and looked at him and Nico nearly flinched at the amount of panic in her eyes.

"Percy," She said, her voice trembling. "I can't go out there- I was told by Chiron that I was only doing my routine. I didn't sign up for this!"

Percy placed a hand on her shoulder, grimacing. "It'll only be for a minute, Thalia. Two minutes at the most."

Thalia shook her head. "I really can't- Percy-you know how I am with heights… I can't…"

Percy sighed, running a hand over his face tiredly. It was silent for a moment while he seemed to think.

"Okay," He said finally. "We'll just have to tell the guests that the flying trapeze won't be happening tonight."

Thalia released a breath of relief, but looked incredibly guilty. "I'm really s-"

"It's okay," Percy interrupted, giving her a smile. "Do you think Katie will be able to get the lions ready while Annabeth does her act?"

Thalia turned to the boy by her side. "Jason-"

"I'm on it," He said quickly, darting out of the room. Nico watched him go, before snapping his head back around when he felt Percy tap him on the shoulder.

"Stay here with Thalia," He ordered, not unkindly. "I have to go out and present the next act."

Nico nodded, then Percy left, leaving them in silence. Thalia threw herself back into a sofa, looking distraught.

"Sorry about the bad company," She said after a few heavy minutes, gesturing to herself. "I just feel like utter shit."

Nico was taken aback by the language. He had never heard a girl swear before. His surprise must have shown on his face, because she grinned wryly and stood.

"Hey, you wanna see Annabeth's performance?" She asked. Nico hesitated, then accepted with a nod. Thalia grinned widely and grabbed him by the wrist, hastily dragging him to a narrow walkway, opening a flap at the end to show the roaring laughter of the crowd, bright lights and Percy standing in the middle of the ring.

Nico supposed this night might be more interesting than he originally thought.