This was spurned on by a post on Tumblr, talking about children of Aphrodite who might have the charm-speaking ability even though they are mute/unable to talk. As such, this was born. This story is a very minimum re-telling of The Lost Hero, featuring mute Piper.
This is sign language
Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus or any of the characters
Speechless Love
When Jason woke up on the bus to the Grand Canyon with no memories at all, none of Leo, of school, (of her) Piper was heartbroken. The act of Jason taking his hand from hers hurt even more, but not as much as the look of confusion on his face as Piper flicked through the signs asking,
Are you okay?
He stared blankly at her like she was something from a different planet, and Leo piped up from his spot hanging over the seat in front of them,
"You'd think you'd never seen common ASL before man." Jason had responded with another blank stare like he wasn't sure what was going on at all, and Piper felt like crying.
Leo waggled his eyebrows at Piper as he suggested a 'healing princess kiss' and Piper bit the inside of her cheek as she turned her head away to stare out the window, refusing to make eye contact with either boy.
As they got off the bus, Leo rambling how Jason better have his worksheet because he used them for spit balls (which he totally hadn't, Piper saw him draw some sort of schematics on the back of them and hide it in that jacket of his) Piper stopped Jason.
You really don't remember?
She made sure to go through the signs slowly. It didn't seem to help, and before Piper could do something else to convey the question, Coach Hedge called them off of the bus.
Going to Camp Half-Blood, finding out the truth, didn't help matters. But it couldn't be the truth, it just couldn't. Piper told Annabeth as much, signs slow, but like everyone else, she didn't know ASL and it frustrated Piper.
"Wait, wait, I have a solution right here," Annabeth fumbled at her side, before producing a cell-phone sized object that expanded into what appeared to be a laptop. She punched some keys on the laptop before setting it on Piper's lap, scooting closer to her so she could see the screen as well. "Just type what you want to say."
It wasn't anything new to Piper, but it had been a while since she had to do anything this way.
Piper explained the situation as much in detail but to the point as she could. Tears formed in her eyes as she typed, as Annabeth explained, because it couldn't be true, it just couldn't. Her entire relationship with Jason couldn't be a fraud, it was real, how could her feelings and their entire relationship be a lie? Jason learned ASL just to be able to be one of two people to regularly 'talk' with her, how could Piper imagine that?
But it was true, Piper knew as Annabeth explained the Mist, demi-gods, and everything to her. And with every word that came out of Annabeth's mouth, Piper felt her heart sink lower.
And lower.
And lower.
And lower.
Until Piper wasn't sure anything could raise it back up from the depths it had fallen to.
At the campfire that night, when Rachel Dare spoke the prophecy, Piper knew she had to go on the quest. 'The forge and dove shall break the cage', Piper knew that it was talking about her. Even though her godly mother hadn't claimed her, Piper was certain that she had to go on the quest with Jason and not just because Drew was volunteering to accompany Jason. (But making sure Drew kept her slimy hands off of her boyfriend was a bonus. Even though Piper guessed they weren't really dating, or never actually had dated. The protectiveness-jealousy over Jason being hers still lingered, and Piper wanted to try and at least see if Jason was interested for real in her. And Piper couldn't do that if Drew went on the quest and not her.)
So when Drew started to volunteer herself for the quest, Piper shot up out of her seat like someone had just set it on fire. Before she could remind herself that literally no one aside from Leo could understand ASL, Piper was flicking through hand signs at what seemed a mile a minute, trying to explain that she was the one who needed to go on the quest. Piper didn't remember this fact until Drew called out in that obnoxious honey-coated voice of hers,
"Sorry sweetie, we're getting ready for a quest, not land a plane," Piper burned red, partly from embarrassment, and partly from anger because how dare she make fun of someone with a disability like she was above them. She clenched her hands into fists, and Leo came to the rescue.
"She said that she should be the one to go on the quest, not Drew." He was looking between Jason and Piper, and if it wasn't for the uncertainty with Piper and Jason's relationship status, Piper would have kissed the Latino for the rescue.
An argument broke out, and Piper was barely restraining herself from heading down toward the fire and starting an all-out fist fight with the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin.
And then, Piper got zapped.
For as long as Piper could remember, she had never been able to talk. Her dad, grandpa, the teachers, the doctors- they tried everything but Piper was never able to make any sort of noise. There wasn't any explanation for it that they could find, medical or psychological or otherwise.
Piper just, wasn't able to talk.
She sometimes wished that there was some sort of cool story that she could put out as the reason why she couldn't talk, but there wasn't. Sometimes Piper thought of inventing one, but she always decided against it, because it wouldn't be right. She had always been taught not to lie, even though her dad always did with his false promises of listening to what Piper would have to tell him, but he always put work over her, always.
Voice or no voice, there was one thing Piper could do.
She could convince people to give her things. Regardless of whether they knew sign language or not, in any manner of communication, Piper could get anyone to give her anything. All it really took was a smile, a bat of her eyes, and they'd give her it. She could write it down, smile, and then she'd have it. For free.
When Piper was sent to the Wilderness School, she had 'stolen' a BMW. The guy at the dealership had only known the alphabet for sign language. Piper had signed 'C-A-R', pointed at the BMW, gave him a smile, and the guy didn't even hesitate in giving her the keys.
Of course, later he had called the cops saying that Piper had stolen the car, but that was how it always went. Because people were just too embarrassed to admit that they had willingly given her that stuff.
Being claimed as a daughter of Aphrodite was something Piper hadn't been prepared for. They weren't prepared for her either, and the look on Drew's face when she had been claimed was something that gave Piper vicious glee when she thought about it.
Regardless of how shallow or anything that Piper felt towards the cabin as a whole, the only thing about the Aphrodite cabin that Piper actually hated was Drew. Drew was rude, and acted as if Piper's disability made her not only mute but dumb as well. Honestly, Piper was glad to leave the cabin to go out on the quest with Jason and Leo. Anything to get out of that environment, and she had only spent one night in the cabin.
The one thing that had made Piper's morning when they were leaving was Annabeth. She was leaving that morning as well to try and find her missing boyfriend, Percy Jackson, but before they left Annabeth had run up to give Piper a hug goodbye.
Standing in front of Piper, Annabeth raised her hands, putting them through slow motions that, while they weren't as refined as Piper's movements, quite obviously had a lot of effort put into them.
Good luck. Goodbye. Stay safe.
Annabeth didn't say anything else, but Piper smiled at her, and before Annabeth could turn to leave, Piper went through an equally slow sign.
Thank you.
It was touching; heartwarming really, that Annabeth would put in that effort for her.
It was like the start of a really bad joke- a hot guy, a mute girl, and an ice princess walk into a throne room. Except it wasn't a joke, and there was no punch line. Leo was out in the whatever-room with their ride Festus in the form of a suitcase and crazy Cal watching over him, and it was up to Piper and Jason to make sure that they could leave their meeting with Boreas intact.
Khione, the Goddess of Snow and aforementioned 'ice princess', was there to be a translator between Jason, Piper, and her father, Boreas. However, when Boreas spoke, Piper reacted, understanding instantly what he was saying, hands flickering through signs she didn't know she knew, curtsying to the god.
When Piper had first learned of gods and goddesses, she hadn't been sure that (if she ever had to run into one, which was the current case) they'd be able to understand her. ASL wasn't really universal, and after learning that demigods were hardwired to Ancient Greek, Piper wasn't sure if there was any sort of sign language for Ancient Greek.
Boreas, however, seemed to understand her hand signs, even delighted about them, speaking to Khione, dismissing her, and even signing to Piper, and Piper even understood it, even though she could tell that it wasn't ASL.
It was LSQ; langue des signes Québécoise, or Quebec Sign Language. Canadian French, which was what Boreas spoke, as his residence was in Quebec, Canada, and the gods took up the main language of their country of residence. For most of the gods and goddesses, that meant English as they were located in the States, but Boreas spoke French because he was located in Quebec. And Piper could speak-sign French (or at least LSQ) because her mom had claimed French as a language of love. So as a daughter of Aphrodite Piper could naturally understand and speak (well, sign) French.
(The gods claimed the weirdest things as their own, seriously.)
Jason wasn't able to follow their conversation because he couldn't speak French, and Piper sourly thought for a moment that he wouldn't be able to understand it anyway because he couldn't understand sign language. Piper was quick to squash that thought down though, because she knew that it wasn't his fault, and she shouldn't be so bitter about something that wasn't his fault.
Sometimes, Piper was thankful that she didn't have a voice. Because of her inability to talk, it had made Piper a better listener than most, allowing her hearing (in her opinion) to be better than most.
Not only that, but it made it so that the Cyclopes in the abandoned car factory that they crash landed into in Detroit unable to mimic her voice.
Piper listened to them talk in Jason's voice, trying to persuade her off of the catwalk and down into their grips, but she didn't fall for it. The voice was achingly familiar, but the footsteps don't match. She knew what it sounded like when Jason walks, Piper remembered the sound of it when he left a short while ago, and the sound tramping up the steps wasn't it.
As quick as she could with her bum ankle, Piper crept off the catwalk on the other side, and set out to find Leo. They needed to locate Jason and get out of there, and Piper knew that if the Cyclopes were mimicking Jason's voice, they already had him, and Superman needed Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to rescue him.
(Leo was the hero of the day, destroying all three of the Cyclopes and getting Festus operational, while the only thing Piper could do was stand in front of them, smiling sweetly and giving disagreeing or agreeing nods to whatever they were saying to distract them from Leo. It was alright though, because at 15 years old Piper is a professional at charades.)
Medea didn't know sign language. But neither did Jason. It was a blessing and a curse.
A blessing because seeing as Medea didn't know sign language, it was relatively easy for Piper to convince Leo to snap out of it. A curse, because Jason didn't know sign language, so all Piper could do was smile, bat her eyes, and do simple signs and charades to try and get him to snap out of it. Even with Leo helping, having broken free from Medea, didn't do much.
They managed, eventually, even making off with Coach Hedge and the storm spirits, but Piper couldn't help but feel as though even though they won, she had lost.
There was something with Greek villains and the letter M, as not much later the trio (plus Coach Hedge) had to face down King Midas, a guy that once was a king with the penchant of turning everything (even his daughter) into gold.
It was, unfortunately, also another situation where Piper found herself horribly useless. She barely did anything before Midas touched him with that magic of his, turning her into a solid-gold Piper statue. At least she wouldn't miss talking. Everything else, she would.
Even after Piper got turned back from a golden statue, she wasn't much help. Sitting on the cusp of hypothermia, all Piper could really do was sit back and let her boys protect her as Lycaon and his pack attacked them.
After they were rescued by the Hunters of Artemis, Piper still wasn't of much use. She got to sit out by the outside of the cave with Coach Hedge while Leo and Jason stayed inside and talked with Thalia. (Thalia was Jason's older sister, which made things slightly embarrassing for Piper because when she initially found a picture of her among some of Jason's things, Piper had made the jump to conclusions on that Thalia was possibly a love-interest for Jason from before. Yeah, like she said, embarrassing.)
The Hunter of Artemis she was outside with, a nice girl named Phoebe, to Piper's amazing luck did know some ASL. Not much, but enough to get by. That was nice having some other than Leo to talk with, and Piper also managed to get some dry clothes and a cup of hot cocoa out of it.
Then Thalia Grace was leading them to Aeolus' palace, so they could finally drop off the storm spirits they had acquired back at Medea's store.
(It was also yet another instance in which Piper felt useless, and unable to do anything other than stand there and look pretty.)
Piper had always imagined meeting her mother. She had imagined what she'd say to her mother when she first met her, the questions she would ask, everything there just sitting on the tip of Piper's tongue. Why had she left dad? Did she know why Piper couldn't speak? Why hadn't she visited before?
Once, at the Wilderness School, someone had told Piper that she'd only meet her mother 'in her dreams'.
Oh, the irony.
Watching her mother ruffle through clothing racks in Medea's store, quite obviously in a dream as they had just been flying from Aeolus' palace (which was nowhere near Medea's store), Piper was a bit, well, speechless. Leo had mentioned before that his dad, Hephaestus, had hijacked his dream before they crash landed in King Midas' yard, but Piper hadn't expected her mom to do the same.
(Speaking of Leo's dad, in Greek mythology weren't Aphrodite and Hephaestus married? Didn't that make Leo and her something like, step-siblings? Greek mythology was really trippy family-wise, seriously.)
Piper tried approaching her mother, and managed to trip over a clothing rack, nearly sending it sprawling across the floor. It did have the intended affect though, catching Aphrodite's attention.
Her mom turned around, and upon spotting Piper, she beamed at her. Piper didn't really feel all that smiley toward her mother, especially after the zapping fiasco right before she left camp for the quest. Not only that, but this all was just preluding her biggest fear of whenever she imagined meeting her mother. Piper not being able to communicate with her mom, because of her disability.
It really shouldn't have been, but it was an enormous surprise to Piper when her mother started communicating with her in ASL. Boreas had known sign language when Piper had chatted with him, she remembered that, so why was it that big of a surprise that Aphrodite knew it as well?
When their chat came to a close, a pink vial in Piper's possession that could wipe her father of his memories of his time with Enceladus, Piper needed to- no, had to -ask Aphrodite one last question.
Why can't I talk?
There was no rhyme or reason as to why Piper thought her mother, a goddess, would know the answer when so many did not. But asking never hurt.
Aphrodite hesitated, a small frown gracing her features for the first time. She paused, before going through the signs slowly, like she was trying to think of the proper way to phrase her answer.
Love can be powerful, Piper. True love especially so. Its power is beyond imagination, or knowledge. Sometimes it just… leaves you speechless. Aphrodite gave a small shrug, sort of helplessly like even she was uncertain if her answer was accurate.
She placed her hand on Piper's shoulder, staring into her eyes. Watching back, Piper realized that if she looked closely, she could almost see her entire love life unfolding in her mother's eyes.
It was with great difficulty that Piper looked away.
Aphrodite shook her shoulder lightly, coaxing Piper to look at her mother once more. She signed one last thing to her.
Love is powerful, Aphrodite repeated. And I believe, Piper, that you also are powerful. That is why you cannot speak. You see all the beauty, all the love and possibilities that surround you so much so that it leaves you speechless.
Upon defeating Enceladus, rescuing her father, Piper faced one of her toughest decisions of the quest. She held the pink vial of potion in her hand, which held the determiner of Piper's relationship with her dad in it. If her father drank its contents, he would never know the truth. Tristan McLean would never know that Piper's mom was a goddess, or that he had been kidnapped by a giant named Enceladus. He would never know that his daughter was a hero who risked her life to rescue him.
But they would be able to rebuild their relationship.
That's why, as Piper watched her dad take the vial, drinking it, she knew that everything would be alright. Even if she died rescuing Hera from the Wolf House, at least Piper would die with knowledge that she did the right thing.
Convincing the pilot to let her take the copter for Leo to pilot was laughably easy.
Convincing a cage, Gaea, containing a goddess, Hera, to release her and go back to sleep, not so much.
Piper imagined that if she could speak, all she'd have to do is tell it to go back to sleep, and it would probably listen. But Piper couldn't speak.
Leo was doing his part, hacking at the cage bars, being the 'forge' to release Hera from her cage, but Piper wasn't really living up to that 'dove' part of the prophecy.
Still, she needed to do something. Jason was risking his life, fighting to buy them time to release Hera, and the Hunters of Artemis had already all been frozen by Khione, back for revenge after her embarrassment back in Quebec.
Piper took a deep breath, and marched up to the cage, off to the side from Leo, out of spark range, closed her eyes and placed her hands on it, spreading her fingertips so they touched as many bars as they could. Then, giving the nicest, prettiest smile she could manage, summoned all her courage and willpower, and willed the cage, Gaea, to go back to sleep, encouraging it.
And it worked, slowly but surely.
Coupled with Leo's work, the two of them got the cage to release Hera, convinced Gaea to go back to sleep for even just a little bit longer.
Upon being freed, Hera revealed her true form to eradicate the last of the combatants.
And then Jason died.
The thing about godly forms was, you weren't supposed to look upon them. That was probably lesson number one back at Camp Half-Blood, but Piper wasn't certain because they all had missed that one.
The universal lesson about death was that you couldn't come back from it. Everyone knew that. Even so, Piper couldn't let Jason die. He didn't deserve to die. He couldn't die, not before, before…
Tears in her eyes, Piper placed her hands on Jason. Her left hand splayed across his heart, her right covering his face. She closed her eyes, and prayed that this would work.
Then, Piper willed Jason to come back to life.
To come back to her.
Returning to Camp Half-Blood after the quest, to life in Camp Half-Blood, the three of them were head counselors in their cabins. Jason by default, as he was the only camper in the Zeus cabin, Leo because his cabin mates all agreed that he should be head counselor, and then Piper…
Well, she wasn't quite proud of her rise to power. But coming back to the Aphrodite cabin, Piper had known that there needed to be a change in leadership, and she knew that she was probably the only one who would dare to take a stand against Drew. And hey, actions always were louder than words, even though Piper admitted that it probably wasn't all that mature to go and stick a dagger at Drew's throat. But it was a message that all the members of the Aphrodite cabin understood- a challenge of leadership.
In camp, there were a handful of different ways to be the head counselor of your cabin.
You could receive the position by being the longest camp resident in the cabin (such as Annabeth). You could also receive the position by being the only member of your cabin (like Jason, or the missing Percy Jackson). The position could be given to you as a result of the death of the prior head counselor (which was how Drew was the head counselor of Aphrodite), or the previous counselor could step down and grant the position to someone else (how Leo became head counselor). Or you could challenge the current head counselor for the position, if you felt as if you could do a better job. Which was how Piper went about becoming Aphrodite's head counselor.
In order to be eligible to be a head counselor, you either had to be the longest resident of your cabin, or complete the same amount of quests or more than the current head counselor.
Drew, while she was the longest resident of the Aphrodite cabin, had never been on a quest, while Piper had just completed one, which Piper knew made her eligible to challenge Drew for leadership.
And Drew had two options- accept the challenge, or willingly step down from her position of head counselor.
Drew stepped down from her position, and she was the only one who wasn't happy with that decision.
After Leo had shown everyone Bunker 9, and Jason made the announcement that the missing Percy Jackson was most likely at his old camp, Camp Jupiter, a Roman camp, Jason had asked her if she wanted to- if she would be willing to -go on a walk with him.
Piper had hesitantly agreed, giving Jason a nervous nod to show him that she was okay with that.
Piper had already come to terms with her feelings, acknowledging the fact that she was in love with the son of Zeus (well, Jupiter, she supposed seeing as he was Roman, not Greek). She also knew that it was most likely that he didn't feel the same, and Piper was prepared to accept that fact. Jason, after all, did have all of his memories, and pretty much his entire life, stolen by a goddess, and Piper, for the most part, completely understood if Jason decided he couldn't be with her, whether it was because he didn't feel the same, or if it was because there was someone else back home.
They walked through the woods, heading back out of the woods they had come in. From there, Jason led them down along the tree line, until they were standing between the woods and the strawberry fields that the camp kept. Piper fidgeted with her hands, a nervous habit she never could quite kick, looking anywhere other than Jason. She had been bracing herself for this moment since they had returned from the quest, and Piper had known it was only a matter of time before this happened.
"Hey," Jason was shuffling a bit awkwardly, like he was just as uncertain as Piper about something of his own. Piper gave him a shy smile, trying to ease both his nervousness and her own.
"So, I've, um, been practicing on Leo with this." Jason said, before realizing the horrible phrasing he used. He colored, a shade of red that Piper noticed looked rather pretty on him, before she was laughing at his expense.
It wasn't really laughter, not really, but more so huffs of air as she went through the motions of laughing- a hand covering her mouth, doubled over as she tried to breathe. There was a moment of just the silence of her imitated laughter, before Jason was laughing as well, and Piper swore she was falling in love all over again. Jason had a gorgeous laugh, and Piper stopped laughing just to watch him laugh. When he stopped, giving a small cough, Piper quickly looked away, feeling her cheeks color just a tad.
"So," Jason coughed awkwardly. "What I meant was…" He stopped short, looking uncertain of himself, and Piper placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile, nodding to tell him to go on.
He hesitated, before he raised his hands, slowly working throw signs.
I'm sorry about before. Jason signed slowly, pausing as he really thought about signs, sometimes just spelling out the word if he couldn't remember the sign. I didn't mean to make you sad.
Piper's hearted fluttered, taking wing as she watched Jason work through the signs. She remembered the false memories given to her by the Mist, by Hera, when Jason first appeared, the memories Piper was given about her relationship with Jason. Jason had learned this for her.
It's okay, Piper signed back slowly, trying not to let the fluttering of her heart show on her face. Jason shook his head in disagreement.
No, Jason signed back, quickly, before his signs got slow once more. I'm sorry. If you hate me because of that I understand.
Piper shook her head quickly, heat growing on her cheeks, signing back, I don't hate you!, because Piper could never, never hate Jason, but she must have been too quick for Jason to catch the entire thing, because Piper watched as his face fell, and he turned away.
"Okay," He said aloud, and he sounded upset. "I understand. I'll just, go now."
And Piper panicked.
Jason had gotten the wrong idea, and she panicked, and did the first thing that came to mind.
Before he could get too far away, Piper caught him by the shoulder, turning him around. She fisted his orange camp shirt, yanking him down to her level, kissing him full on the mouth. Belatedly, Piper realized what she had done, and released Jason's shirt (and Jason), backing away, covering her mouth as her face flushed red.
Jason was also, covering his mouth, face probably matching Piper's with the red filling his cheeks.
And then, he started laughing. Piper's embarrassment fled her, and it was quickly replaced with rage. How dare he laugh at her? In a swift motion, Piper socked Jason as hard as she could in the stomach, turning away, intent on stalking back to her cabin in a huff.
Piper had barely made it two paces before there was a hand on hers, yanking her back around. There wasn't time enough to process much of anything else before a pair of warm, slightly chapped, lips was on hers.
After what seemed to be an eternity of just them, Jason pulled away, releasing her hand. One hand came up to brush some hair away from her face, and he was smiling fondly at her, making Piper's stomach do flips.
Jason opened his mouth, most predictably to say something that would more than likely ruin the mood, so Piper grinned and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down for another kiss.
Love, after all, needed no words.