For Amber. Merry Christmas. You said that you don't get enough platonic stuff, so I decided to fix that. I love you!

Notes: set almost immediately following Blood of Olympus but before Trials of Apollo.


"Piper told me that I could find you up here. Can I join you?"

Jason looks behind him to see his sister, Thalia. She looks exactly like he remembers - choppy dark hair decorated with a silver tiara that signifies her lieutenant status among the Hunters, black clothes, a silver chain, and the bracelet that turns into a shield. There's a silver aura around her that he knows is because of the Hunters; Annabeth explained it him once.

He turns back to looking out at the water. He gestures. "Sure. I thought the Hunters coming to Camp was a huge deal, though."

"Usually, yes, but I'm not here with the Hunters. I asked Artemis if I could come here for a day and she agreed," Thalia explains as she takes a seat. "After everything settled, I wanted to have more time with you. Much more than just an hour while you're on a quest anyways."

He smiles. "It's a little weird to find out that I had a sister the entire time I was at Camp Jupiter."

"I heard that you weren't going back."

He nods, glancing at her. "It never felt like home. And I can't explain it, but being here," he says, gesturing around, "it feels like home."

Thalia laughs. It sounds like a bell ringing. "Look at us," she says. "We both found homes in places we never expected." She meets his questioning stare. "You felt out of place at Camp Jupiter, and I felt out of place here. Who would've imagined that we both would've turned away from our intended homes."

"Why didn't you feel at home here?" Jason asks before he can stop himself, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Thalia turns away from him. Her hand traces the cold marble under them. "They didn't tell you much about me, did they?"

He shakes his head.

"Come here," Thalia says, standing. They walk to the opposite side of the cabin. "I told you that your disappearance was the last straw. I ran away. I was nine at the time. It's dangerous to be a child of the Big Three alone, but by the time Percy's friend Grover found me, I had already found two other demigods - Annabeth and L-luke. I wouldn't go without them," she says softly. "You see the big tree on the hill?"

She's pointing to the biggest one on the Half-Blood Hill. The glasses are the only reason that Jason can even see it. He nods. "What about it?"

"We were almost here when the monsters we encountered caught up. I told Grover to get the other two over the boundary. That tree is where I made my last stand. I was dying; Apollo's children would've never made it to me in time to save me, so dad used my final breaths to turn me into that tree," she explains. She closes her eyes against Jason's concerned expression. "My tree was protecting my friends. For the first time since you disappeared, I was at peace."

"How did you…" he trails off, unable to finish his thought.

She frowns. "Become a person again? My tree was poisoned. Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse found the Golden Fleece to save my tree. It worked a little too well because I appeared. I don't remember much of how it happened. One minute, I was a tree and then I was waking up to Annabeth's concerned look. I should've been nearly eighteen, but instead I was just shy of my sixteenth birthday. My time as the tree slowed my aging."

"You feel like Nico and Hazel," Jason realizes. "Out of place and out of time."

"Something like that," she agrees quietly. "Only they lost decades and I only lost about six years."

He puts a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him. "That's still a big difference. Things still change."

She nods. "I woke up and suddenly I was faced with friends that I could recognize, but I no longer knew. I tried to grab onto my old life, the friendship I had with Annabeth, but I couldn't manage it. It never felt right. And the war came up. I didn't know Luke anymore, but he still knew me. I was tempted by the offer he made me, tempted to take my anger out on the gods."

"Instead you joined the Hunters," Jason finished for her.

"I was in the middle of two people I cared about - Annabeth and Luke. As good as Luke's offer sounded, it wasn't for me. I joined the Hunters so that I wouldn't be tempted like that again. Percy always managed to make the right decision so I left it up to him," she explains.

They are quiet for a long time, before Jason speaks. "Annabeth told me that you can chose to leave the Hunters," he says tentatively.

She smiles sadly. "I'm not leaving that Hunter. It's the closest to peace I've felt since I was a tree. Besides, there are always going to be another prophecy. And my fatal flaw, on top of my pride, is the need for power. Best if I just avoid it."

As Jason looks at her closer, he can't help but realize that she looks older than the fifteen that she appears. He sees the weight of the world in her eyes and the tension in her shoulders. He tries to imagine her in another decade, another century, another millennia, looking exactly like this, but he can't.

"Am I going to see you again?" he asks.

"I don't know," she answers truthfully. "There is always a chance that the Hunters run into questers. Artemis comes by camp occasionally. But there's no guarantee that we'll see each other."

He turns away from her, closing his eyes. "I just learned I had a sister. I'm not ready to lose you."

"I know," she tells him softly. "I spent most of my life wondering if you were out there somewhere. I look at you now, and I see all of the missed opportunities we had. You've grown into a good person, a strong one, and I wish I could've been there to see it. But this is my life now, Jason, and the Hunters have become my family."

"If I was there," Jason starts. "If you would've known I was alive, would it have changed anything?"

He feels her move next to him, her hand pulling him closer to her. He can't help but think that this is the first time he remembers hugging his sister. "Of course it would've. I spent weeks searching for you. If I would've known about you, a lot of my life would've been different. But we're talking about what could have been and it's not what happened."

He leans into her embrace. "I get it," he says. "It doesn't make it easier, but I get it."

"You have great people around you - Percy, Annabeth, Piper. You don't need me anymore," she whispers softly as she pulls away. "You're strong by yourself and in your own right. I'm proud of you. You're going to do well here. But I am wondering why you chose to stay here."

He smiles. "I was probably three when I found my way to Camp Jupiter. I don't remember much of it, actually. I was the youngest to find their way to camp and to be claimed. It was years before they actually let do the dangerous things; you know, like a responsible adult." That earns him a snort from Thalia. "The others, they all knew who their mortal parent was and I didn't. I didn't know a life outside of camp."

"You felt like an outsider," Thalia says in understanding.

"Yeah," he agrees softly. "So I worked hard to prove myself. To bring honor back to my legion. But no matter what I did, I didn't feel like I really belonged there. It never felt like home. On that quest, while we were still in the mess hall of the ship, I felt like I belonged for the time in my life. I didn't feel the need to prove myself because they already accepted me."

She smiles at him. "I'm glad that you found a place to belong. You're going to be okay."

He smiles back at her. They sit on top of Cabin One, talking throughout the evening and well into the night; each sharing their memories of their life until the stars come out and the patrol harpies were awake. Thalia bids him a good night, with a reminder that she'll be gone before the rest of the camp stirs. He may not want her to go, but he knows he has to. He stays up there, looking at the stars, wondering where Leo was, and he realizes that he has his own family at camp like Thalia has with the Hunters. And his sister is right; he doesn't need her anymore.