A/N: Title inspired by My Chemical Romance, even though the story has barely anything to do with the song. Just the whole eeriness of it all, but that's about it. Ending is a bit corny, so be expecting that.

*NOT PROOFREAD*

I do not own the Percy Jackson characters at all.

Screw himself. Jason didn't freaking deserve to go through with this. But he knew that if he didn't ask her to go with him, then he'd have to ask somebody else and there was no telling what they'd think about it. If he asked Leo, he'd tease him all the way through about it as would Percy and most likely Frank, and if he'd asked Reyna...well, she wouldn't be very amused and up for it, and then he wouldn't see the fun in it anymore. Plus, she would have taken the invitation the wrong way as something more in which he didn't want to deal with right then. But asking Piper McLean?

Most definitely the most retarded thing he had thought of doing yet.

But he couldn't be a wimp about it now. Plus, if she got scared while they were at the haunted house, then he'd be the one to comfort her. Maybe even wrap his arms around her consolingly. Yep, this idea definitely had its plus sides, he thought with an awkward blush. He really shouldn't be thinking about this right now. Especially when everything could go wrong.

"What's up, Jason? You're not even saying anything anymore." Crap. Shit. Fuck. She'd noticed. The silence had become so quiet that he almost forgot that Piper herself was right next to him on the sidewalk the entire time. Emphasis on almost.

"Nah, it's nothing," he tried to wave it off, his heart faltering after seeing she'd frowned, obviously knowing that he was lying, before turning away from him, dropping it.

He shouldn't do it. Why should he? She might not even be into all that kind of stuff. Hell, she could be a crier and he wouldn't even know it until she did it. He could just imagine the conversation: the tears being shed, the numbers of how-could-yous being thrown from left and right, and all of it would be his fault. He shouldn't do it.

But, right before he decided that he was a coward that couldn't complete the act, a dark flyer stood out in the afternoon sun. Cliche skulls scattered over the paper, with the typical bloody font labeled House of Wolves popped out of the dark background behind it. Eyes widening at the sight, he figured maybe they should have turned the other way...the food that they had been planning to get didn't seem so appealing to him anymore...

"Oh, hey, check this out," Piper said calmly from beside him walking closer to the flyer than he would've liked. He tried to stop her by reaching out to hold her hand, but she had left his side before he could grasp the soft fingers like he'd intended to. "It's a flyer."

He snorted. "For real?" They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but he didn't care. Piper was the mother of all things sarcasm and all Jason was doing was giving her a taste of her own medicine, despite how meager it was.

She smirked, "Oh, shut up, you," before shoving the paper into his face, making him scoot backwards a little before reluctantly taking it in his hands and peering at it, pretending to read it though he already knew it by heart. When Jason was done, he looked back up at her before giving her a blank expression. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

Piper flailed her arms around like she couldn't believe he seriously asked that question. "Don't you want to go?"

He shrugged. "It seems a little bit expensive, don't you think?"

It was Piper's turn to shoot him a blank stare. "Well, if that's the only thing you care about, then I'll pay."

"Wait," he had to breathe out a bit, take a deep sigh before finishing his sentence. "That's not what I meant."

"What do you mean, then?"

"All I'm saying is that you shouldn't have to deal with going to some place like this. You could get scared."

She blinked. And then, slowly, she laughed. "You're kidding me, right?" Ouch. To be honest, it hurt to hear her laugh like this. It wasn't like the type that he was used to; the kind that set his insides on fire and his heart melting enough to make him feel like his masculinity was already giving up on him. That last part was true, though. She made him feel like...like a girl. He hated feeling like a girl.

He coughed awkwardly, not quite understanding why she seemed so pissed at him all of a sudden. And he really couldn't afford having her pissed at him. It was bad enough that Reyna hated him as it was. And Jason only thought of her as a friend. He didn't know what he'd do to himself if Piper avoided talking to him as well.

Now in front of him, Piper stopped her disbelieving laugh. "Wait. You're serious?"

He shrugged again, not knowing what to do. "I'm just trying to keep you from scarring yourself," he defended, the words coming out awful, even to his own ears. It was truly no wonder she hated him.

"Oh, come on!" she exclaimed, her expression forming into shock. "Look at this!" Her finger jabbed at the creepy hands pulling out of the dirt by its grave on the picture. "This shit is the oldest trick in the book! You seriously don't think I can handle this?"

Jason kept silent, realizing that that was the only way to keep her from yelling at him. From the corner of his eye, he could see pedestrians starting to stare at them. A group of guys the opposite of them stared at him pitifully, knowing as well as him that he was going to get it bad. Two girls nearer to Piper's side gave approving looks at her, nodding their heads in agreement. Feminism. He figured he deserved it.

Without saying anything else, Piper's arms dropped back to her sides in defeat, grabbing his right arm in a scolding manner before stomping off, dragging him along with her.

"So I'm guessing we're going to anyway?"

"You bet your sexist ass, we are."

Worst. Idea. Ever. Jason was absolutely positive of that much. So far, they'd already run into five pedophile-looking clowns, three white-masked people with drilling chainsaws, and eight hideous zombies, but they weren't even there for an hour yet. He'd watched his fair share of horror films, but he was pretty sure that the clown's arm wasn't supposed to detach from its socket, blood spraying like the mini Niagara. In his defense, the clown was wearing a tank top, so it all looked pretty real to him.

Beside him, Piper McLean was laughing. And not the disbelieving laugh she had been doing earlier. A real, internal intestines fire bringing, masculinity questioning, heart floating laugh. He hated that laugh, too, but for different reasons. "Oh, crap. This is awesome."

He airily chuckled. "Glad you're enjoying this," he muttered under his breath, ducking when a swinging dead pale-faced vampire fell from somewhere above his head. The only reason why he knew it was there was because he could hear the wind whistling from above, not because he could actually see anything.

"What's wrong, Jason? Do you need to leave? You shouldn't have to deal with going to some place like this, after all. You could get scared, " she mocked. Even though he couldn't see her most likely smug face, he knew she was having the time of her life.

"Oh, real mature, McLean," he stated, rolling his eyes though he knew she wouldn't be able to see him. "You freaking wish I was scared at a place like this."

His annoyance at her was diminishing after he realized she didn't reply back with another sarcastic scorn. That itself was something to set edge on. She always replied back with a sarcastic scorn. "Piper?...You there?" he asked out quietly, his muscles tensing a bit. He knew he shouldn't have brought her here. For all he knew, one of the clown could have taken her in the dark when he didn't notice. Maybe that's why this place had looked so shady...maybe this whole thing had an alternative motive to it -

"BOO!" a fake deep voice sprung up from behind him, making him spin around in his place in tension before having it released when he realized it was Piper herself, her iPhone's flashlight illuminating her face to make it seem ghoulish.

"That's not fucking funny, Piper," Jason grumbled despite his relief. All he wanted to do now was bury his arms around her thin little body and dig his face into her hair. She had no freaking idea how much she scared him. "Don't do that."

She laughed again. "Lighten up. Not everything has to go your way, you know," she said before punching him lightly on the arm.

"You scared me. I thought you were taken or something."

There was a long pause before she finally let out, "I'm sorry," and for once, it seemed like she actually meant it. "You wanna go now? I think this place is finally getting boring."

Jason knew she only said that last part for his sake and his sake only (she was obviously enjoying the place way too much than she was supposed to), but he still felt a tremendous wave of relief hit him. He'd sacrifice anything to leave. But considering what Piper did to scare him with, how her absence affected his emotions so much, he realized that he'd almost sacrifice anything to leave.

"Yeah. I think you're right," he said nonchalantly, ignoring Piper's scoff beside him.

The moment the daylight struck his eyesight, he reached over and gripped Piper's hand in his own, something he should have done a long time ago (he was still pretty stricken by the fact that he almost lost her back there). From his peripheral vision, she raised an eyebrow at him but thankfully, she didn't let go either nor did she say anything in the matter.

She did, however, clear her throat before speaking. "I guess I took that prank a little too far than I should have."

He shook his head immediately. "No, you didn't. To be honest, I..." It took a lot of effort to say what he was going to next. "I was actually going to ask you to come here with me in the first place. I just didn't know if you were up to it also."

She looked at him then, confused. "Well, then, why did you get so...annoying when I asked if you wanted to come with me?"

"Because I was pissed that you were the one that made the first move." She stopped walking, leaving him to halt beside her as well. He didn't get why she looked at him strangely until he registered what he just said before cursing himself mentally. Great.

"Wait..." she finally said, her eyebrows furrowing and her colorful eyes flashing with puzzlement. "Was this...was this supposed to be a - "

"No!" Jason exclaimed, eyes widening all over again, finally releasing his hands from hers, not quite noticing the look of hurt that barely registered on her face before crossing her arms on her chest. "I mean...well, no."

"Oh," Piper said quietly before resuming to walk again, him padding after her like a lost puppy. Which he was, actually. He had no idea what was going on anymore.

After a few agonizing minutes that passed between them, he found himself blurting out, "But do you?"

She raised an eyebrow again. "Do I what?"

"Er...never mind."

When they reached Piper's house, Jason took out his wallet and handed her a couple of bills. "What is this?" she asked, staring at the money blankly.

Jason sighed; he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. He'd been a jerk, he knew it, and the way she hadn't spoken to him ever since he vaguely mentioned that they should go out sometime only drove him even more nuts. Screw her, screw himself. He'd never get tired of thinking that. Though with the initial part...he didn't know in what way he meant it. "It's for the scream house thing. You paid for it even when I should have. So I'm making up for it."

"What if I don't want it?"

"What if I don't care?" he shot back, already annoyed with the conversation. Couldn't she just accept it and drop it?

She finally sighed, almost as if reading his thoughts and dug the money into her back pocket. She looked back up at him, her eyes squinting as if she expected him to say something else. He racked his mind, trying to figure out the right words to say before he lost it all. Sighing again, she rolled her eyes at him. "What?"

"You're so stupid, you know that Jason?"

Yes. He did know that. He knew that with all his heart. And hearing that from Piper McLean, the girl he'd been feeling highly emotionally unstable about, only multiplied that theory by a number that didn't even exist. Leaving one last huff escape through her nose, she closed the space between them in one large step and kissed him, leaving his brain to lose interest in even trying to be not stupid and did the only thing that he knew wasn't stupid in this particular situation.

So, hell yes, he kissed her back. She only pulled away when they realized that oxygen was still a necessary component in the idea of living, even though that was the last thing he felt he needed at the moment. Surprisingly, Jason was the one who found it in him to speak up first, despite his being incoherent. "So you will, then?"

"Will what?"

He rolled his eyes, still breathing unnaturally heavily (he freaking played football; he was pretty sure that one girl wasn't supposed to make him feel so wound up like this). "Will you go out with me, duh. Or do I have to invite you to another haunted house for you to accept?"

"If I recall, I'm the one who invited you. And I'm also the one who scared your egotistic little self of yours, so do us both a favor and shove - " Wrong, he did them both a favor when he cut her off with another kiss, saving himself from getting another round of mockery thrown at him (plus some benefits that he was happily getting used to).

Despite the fact that they were now technically going out, she'd never let that very day go that easily. Moral lesson? Jason wasn't afraid of some stupid rundown scream house, even though his mental yells of fright threatened to escape his lips at times whenever that horrendous chainsaw guy appeared. Nor was he afraid of the fact that Piper was somehow going to find a way to tell the rest of their school how many times he kept on gripping her waist whenever something unusual popped from out of the blue.

No, he was afraid of something far much scarring. He was afraid of losing Piper altogether. Coming straight from his heart, the rumors were true. Jason Grace's masculinity was lost in the hands of Piper McLean.

Too bad he wasn't sorry.