Chapter Text
The Big House had always been a little creepy. When Nico had first arrived at camp he had been told that he must never go in there without permission, and even then only where Charon specifically allowed. In the days at camp when his older sister was on her first and only quest, Nico had sat on the bunk shared by the Stole brothers and listened wide-eyed to stories of young campers lured into the Big House by a monster that dwelled there never to be seen again.
Nico forgot about those stories once his sister died and everything in his life went to hell. He left camp and was barely around the place for several more years. Not until after the Titan War when things calmed down did he discover that there might have been some truth to those warnings.
On that fateful day Nico was in a bad mood. He didn’t want to admit that it was because he’d seen Percy stealing a kiss from Annabeth after the bonfire when he thought no one was looking. Nico was almost always looking, if he was honest. But lying to himself had always been the much more appealing alternative so he told himself he was just feeling surly at the idea of sleeping in the Hermes Cabin(the Hades Cabin was still under construction). The prospect of suffering through Connor and Travis’s pranks all night long was simply insufferable.
Then he remembered that there were a ton of empty rooms in the Big House.
It wasn’t difficult to slip away from the crowd of people unnoticed- people generally didn’t pay much attention to him- and sneak into the Big House. Somehow, it seemed even bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. Knowing what he did about Greek magic, Nico wouldn’t be surprised if this were true. Cautiously, he began trying doors. Most of them were either locked or filled with piles of weird shit that he didn’t want to mess with. Eventually he wandered into an empty room that held nothing but a door with a button like keyhole.
“Who’s there?! Campers are not allowed back here!” called an angry voice from down the hall where Nico had just come.
Panicking, he tried the door in front of him. It was locked, but whoever was holding the flashlight and coming down the hall was just about to the room, so Nico simply shadow traveled to the other side of the door.
He held very still until the sound of grumbling and foot steps faded and Nico let out a slow breath. Relaxing a bit, he glanced around him. The furnishings and architecture were incredibly old fashioned, like something you might have seen in the 40’s. Still, it had a very homely feel and was a lot more comfortable to Nico than a lot of modern places he’d stayed in. In fact… it was almost familiar… Nico frowned as his next breath brought with it the most delicious smell. As far as he knew, the only kitchens in the camp were located near the Dinning pavilion and closely guarded by angry Harpies. Also, he estimated that he was in the center of the Big House which was an exceedingly poor choice for a kitchen given the fire hazard it posed. Then again… any kitchen this deep in the Big House was likely created by or for Mr. D so it wouldn’t be surprising if nothing about it made sense.
‘Maybe… I’ll just steal some fruit or something…’ Nico told himself as his stomach noisily reminded him that he had skipped both lunch and dinner for the same reason that he was looking for a different place to sleep: there was no real place for a Son of Hades at Camp Half-Blood.
‘That’s going to change,’ he scolded himself, even though he didn’t really believe it, ‘Percy made the gods promise that it would change.’
Shaking off unpleasant thoughts, Nico carefully crept through narrow hallways towards a lit door. Inside he could hear the sound of a woman singing lightly in Italian and the clattering of dishes. Something… something about that song, about these weirdly familiar rooms, made Nico’s skin crawl with apprehension. There was some part of him that was screaming ‘Danger! Danger! Danger!’ though why he wasn’t sure. He almost decided to go with his gut instinct and shadow travel away, but first he peeked inside the lit room.
Nico gasped.
Laid before him was feast. And not just any feast, but piles and piles of his favorite foods from childhood… ones that he didn’t even think they had all the ingredients to make in America. His heartbeat picked up even as his mouth watered.
“Nico! Mio bambino! Thank goodness you’re just in time for super! Good gracious, you definitely caught us off guard! We didn’t know you’d be visiting today! Good thing your mother is always prepared, no?” trilled a voice so familiar it made his heart ache. He turned slowly towards the woman he only half remembered but had dreamed and dreamed of seeing again. Yet, even with his vague memories, this was without a doubt-
“B-buttons-!” was all he managed to choke out retreating first one step then two.
“Hm? Oh they’re quite nice aren’t they? Everyone has them around here.” Maria di Angelo smiled warmly at him, so full of love, her skin crinkling at the corners of those black buttons she had instead of eyes.
“Um-! Uh, who are you?” Nico asked, unable to hide the way his voice cracked. Against his permission he felt his eyes drinking in the sight and smell of her like he wanted to memorize it. Maybe he did.
“Ah bambino, I am your Other Mother of course!” she smiled tenderly as if that explained everything and reached out a hand to ruffle his hair affectionately, “Now go call your Other Father and your Other Sister for dinner!”
“I- Okay.” Said Nico stumbling quickly out of the room. As soon as he was a bit away from the woman who looked to be his mother he stopped and stared blankly at the wall. This was weird. This was beyond weird. Nico was an extremely suspicious and cynical person and all this affection and domesticity(never mind the fact that his mother was supposed to have died almost 80 years ago) just could not be real. Even though there didn’t seem to be any sort of obvious danger, he had a feeling that he should get out of here while he still coul-
“Nico? You’re here!” beamed a button eyed Bianca hurrying down the stairs and Nico didn't even think he just ran to her and threw himself into her arms.
“Bianca! Bianca!” he practically sobbed. This really really could be real. Bianca was dead. His mom was dead. They both had buttons for eyes… and yet- and yet she smelled and felt just the way he remembered her. She held him warm and familiar, just as she used to when he was a child, with a hand rubbing soothing circles into his back and pressing soft kisses onto his forehead and hair.
“I missed you too.” She told him and Nico clutched her tighter. Worried that he’d disappear, that he’d wake up. That’s it, this must be some kind of fucked up dream and he was going to wake up any minute… He didn’t want to wake up.
“Ah… I’ll go tell your Mother that you two need a moment.” Came a gruff voice from the door and Nico glanced over Bianca’s shoulder to see a button eyed Hades smiling awkwardly at the two of them… except Nico couldn’t ever remember his father looking at him like that, with such pride and honest affection.
“Bianca, what’s going on?” Nico asked the moment their dad was out of sight, “Everyone has button eyes, and its all so impossible…”
“You can think of this as an alternate universe of sorts where all of us are your “other” family. The better one. A Universe where everything didn’t get so messed up. The buttons are just a characteristic that people from this universe have.” Bianca explained.
“That’s- okay, so is there another me? One with buttons?” asked Nico trying to wrap his head around it.
“Oh Nico, there could never be another you.” Smiled Bianca pressing another kiss to his forehead before leading him to the dinning room.
The rest of the evening passed a bit surreally for Nico. He ate until he couldn’t anymore while his Other Mom and Dad told stories from Italy, stories that he vaguely remembered hearing before but forgot. Then after dinner they somehow all ended up playing Mythomagic in the living room, him and the Other Mother against the Other Bianca and the Other Hades. They utterly slaughtered them. Nico couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun. He ended up dozing off between the Other Mother and Other Bianca feeling warm and safe and loved.