Hello everybody!

So… this is the second round of the Querencia Quarter Quell. If you've been following me (which I doubt most of you have) you will realize that I survived the first round. Hoorah. Someone was killed (I know not who) but anyway I made it. Pretty decent score, too.

Anyhoo. That fic before… definitely not my best work. I've been happier with some of my essays I have to turn in for school. BUT!

I had a longer window in which to write this. And I have an easier prompt. Last time… I was supposed to write from an actual plot point. I cannot do that, believe me. But this time!

This time, I get an AU to work with!

Yippee.

Yeah, I don't do well with AUs either. But. It's all good, man, right? Plus I get to expand my writing horizons… try new things… Although some people say that writing fanfics isn't good for you as a writer. I dunno.

Here you go! R&R! Read and Review!

(Oh. My prompts/ restrictions:

Pipercy

Flowershop!AU

Annabeth

Piper

Thalia)

Her name was Piper. Piper McLean.

She worked at the flower shop, just across the street, you might say. The local institution. It had been around for longer than anyone could remember, and no one could remember a time when it had been busy.

The business didn't belong to her. To be honest, she didn't know to whom it really did belong, except that they always paid her checks on time and never made her work overtime. And she had made a living there for two years. Two years past adulthood. Two years, as she said, that she would never get back.

New Year's Day had just passed. 2018. Amazing, people said. It's like living in a science fiction story. No hovercraft, no sentient robots, and the world is still in deep shit, but the numbers on the calendar make all the difference.

2018.

A new year.

Time to start something new, she told herself. Something different. Time to get out of this life, and live.

A man stopped in front of the counter, looking down at the phone he held in his hands. 'Can I help you?' she asked, in her special I-don't-want-to-help-you-so-don't-you-dare-say-yes voice.

'Ah, no,' he said, still looking down. 'No, I'm good.'

He moved deeper into the store, almost clipping his hip on a flower stand. The flower stand would have been the loser, she decided as she watched him. From the way he walked, it seemed like he was a street fighter. A confident, massively-built street fighter, who had put on normal clothes and cut his hair.

Then he turned. His hair was blonde, she thought. And his eyes were blue.

'Actually, yes,' he said, and stepped back to the counter. 'Where… do you know where you could get these?'

He showed her the image on his phone. A pink flower, she thought. Well. Wouldn't you know it.

Not that she knew the names of flowers. If someone could describe a flower to her, she could find it. But even after two years of working around plants, she hadn't the slightest interest in them, and couldn't tell you the names of things past a vague knowledge of roses and carnations.

'Um… I think we have some of those,' she said, racking her brain to remember if they did indeed have them. A weird flower, she thought. Weird petals. 'Who… who are they for?' she asked, a desperately obvious question. She hadn't given herself time for subtleties, she realized. And of course the answer was none of her business.

'For a friend,' he said, smiling easily at her. 'So…'

He left the word hanging, waiting for her help.

'Ah… yeah,' she said, ever-so-slightly deflated. 'Over here.'

She led him to a rack, where yes, they did have 'that kind'. He thanked her, paid, and left, the flowers slung over his shoulder in the plastic wrapping her owner insisted she include with each and every purchase.

And she sat back down in her chair behind the counter, wondering when she could get a drink, and wondering what the point of a new year was if nothing ever changed.

He came back. Two weeks later.

The blonde street fighter, she had been calling him in her mind. She had also been making up madly improbable fanfictions about him in her mind the whole day before.

And then he came back. She almost smiled, but restrained herself and nodded.

'Hi,' he said, smiling that smile again. 'So. I'm looking for a nice bundle of flowers. Bunch. Bouquet, I mean.'

'Who's it for?' she asked. 'I remember you from before,' (internally wincing) 'and I was just wondering if it would be the same kind of flowers…'

'Oh, yeah,' he said. 'Same guy.'

'Guy?' she breathed, wishing she could work at McDonald's or Walmart or anywhere other than this place where she had to interact with people who got her hopes up so damn badly. And unreasonably, she knew.

'Ah, no,' he said, smiling wider. 'I'm getting these flowers for a friend of mine so he can give them to his girlfriend.'

And suddenly the world gained about four new shades of color.

'Oh,' she said. 'Okay.'

And she hurried over the rack that held the flowers he had bought last time, hiding her smile behind a cough. 'Great.'

He took the flowers, paid, and walked out.

And she still didn't know his name.

The next time he came in, a few more weeks later, she was ready for him. 'Hi,' she said. 'You've been coming in so often, I thought I should introduce myself. I'm Piper McLean.' She had prepared herself, of course, and rattled off the line with as much nonchalance as she could muster at the moment.

'I'm Jason,' he said, and smiled. 'Jason Grace.'

'I…' she began, and then stopped. She didn't know what more to say.

'I'd like some flowers,' he said, smiling even wider. 'My friend… he wants some blue ones. Do you even have blue flowers?'

'Blue…' she whispered. 'Um… yes. I think so…'

She hurried away from the counter, deeper into the shelves of the store. 'Over here,' she called.

Jason followed her. She pointed to a few bundles of some kind of blue-ish flower. 'Are these okay?'

'I guess,' Jason said. 'He didn't specify any kind, so… These are great. Thanks.'

She nodded, silently, and almost ran back to the safety of behind-the-counter.

He paid and left.

'Bye, Piper,' he said at the door. 'See you later.'

She lifted a hand. 'Bye.'

Two weeks passed. Not that she expected him to come back, or had anything more than a vague idea that he might live nearby or something. The weeks were busy. Flowers were bought. Valentine's Day came and went.

And then he came back.

'Hey, Piper,' he said at the door.

Piper half-gasped. 'Hi…' she managed. 'Hi! Jason!'

'Hey,' he said, with a smile. 'How's it going?'

'Um… fine…' she said. 'How… are you?'

'Great, great,' Jason said, turning to the rack where he had found flowers before. 'Um… same as before, I guess. You remember?'

'Of course,' she said, and blushed. 'Yes. Here. Let me…'

She handed him the flowers, coughed, took them back, wrapped them, and swiped his card through the register.

'Thanks,' he said, not moving. 'Hey… are you busy today? Tonight?'

Before she processed the question, she had answered. Truthfully. 'Uh, yeah. I have a lot…' Then she realized what he had said, and what he was probably asking. 'I mean…'

'Oh, that's okay,' he said, with the slightest hint of disappointment in his voice. 'See you, then.'

She raised a hand as he walked out of the door.

The next time she saw Jason Grace, two weeks later, she was not in the store.

'Hey,' she heard, as she walked down a sidewalk in NYC. 'Hey… Piper!'

Her name was unusual enough that she half-turned and looked around.

It was, of course, Jason Grace, sprinting through the crowded intersection behind her and bumping into quite a few black-jacketed denim-wearing men who spared him about a half-second's thought.

'Piper! Hey, wait!'

She waited.

He came up to her and stopped, leaning on his knees.

'Hey,' he said. 'Listen… can you come to dinner tonight? At like eight?'

'What?' she asked weakly. 'What do you mean?'

'Dinner. With me. And my friend and his girlfriend that I'm always buying flowers for. That good with you?'

'Of… of course, but… why?'

'I'll tell you there. Thanks! Bye! See you!'

'Wait… where?' she called as he started to run away.

He stopped. 'Oh. Um. I don't know… outside the flower shop okay?'

She nodded, and he ran off.

'Eight,' she said. 'At eight.'

At seven, she had done everything to her hair and face that her few girlfriends assured her was good for her. At seven twenty, she was outside the flower shop, trying not to scream.

At seven fifty-seven, Jason Grace pulled up to the parking space outside the shop in his Mercedes.

He jumped out. 'Hi! You look great!'

She couldn't help smiling. 'Thank you. So do you…'

He nodded. 'So. We're gonna go to this place, kind of like a coffee shop but with a bigger menu. Percy and Annabeth will meet us there…'

'You friends?' she asked.

'Yeah. And we'll eat – well, Percy will eat – and then we'll discuss the fate of the universe and then if you want we could do something else. If you're done, we're done. Cool?'

'Why my decision?'

'Cause the new guy always makes the decision.'

'What?'

'Inside joke. Never mind. But it's cause you don't know these three creepy people who might drag you into a dark alley and beat you. We're fine with whatever, trust me.'

She had to laugh. 'Okay. Thanks.'

He grinned. 'Hop in.'

She did.

They arrived at the restaurant/coffee shop in less than ten minutes.

'Okay, here we are,' Jason said as he turned the car off. 'Percy and Annabeth aren't here yet. I don't think…' He scanned the inside of the place. 'Yeah, no, they're not. So… you want to go in?'

'Sure,' Piper said, still trying not to scream with excitement. This was a date. A double date.

'Okay.'

Jason jumped out. After she followed, he locked the car, and they went inside.

It was a nice little place. Not crowded, not loud, the ambient music overhead playing Nate Ruess' 'It Only Gets Much Worse': Here's to this, I'm used to it/ I stepped out for some cigarettes/ the neon lights, they called me in/ her eyes like yours, just different…

Jason looked around, a small smile on his face. 'This place is awesome,' he said. 'I came here with my parents when I was, like, this tall… And I've been coming here since. It hasn't changed. Much.'

He pulled out his phone. 'Let me text Percy, see when he's gonna get here.'

Piper looked around while Jason texted, noting everything about the place, and the moment, and Jason.

Jason looked up. 'He hasn't responded,' he grumbled. 'Probably on his way. He lives close.'

He walked up to the counter. 'Hi,' he said to the girl behind the counter. 'I will have… what I normally have, I guess.'

She gave him a look. 'I've never seen you before.'

'Oh, that's right, you're new,' he said. 'Okay. A chocolate muffin thingy, and a straight black coffee. And that peach nut salad.'

She shrugged and tapped it out on her tablet. 'Okay. That all?'

'No. Piper? What do you want?'

'What's good?' she asked, looking up at the menu.

'Anything, really.'

'Okay. I'll have… the same as him,' Piper said, half-embarrassed, half-laughing.

'You like black coffee?'

'Sure.'

Not that she had ever had it, but she was sure it would be great.

Five minutes later, Percy and Annabeth hadn't shown up, and Piper was enjoying herself.

They had sat down at a booth for four, and since they had sat down they had been talking. Jason was telling her stories, mainly, and mainly of the place they were in and the group of friends he and Percy and Annabeth were always going places with.

Jason's phone buzzed. He glanced out of the window before checking his phone. 'It's Percy,' he announced first, then scanned the screen. 'Damn.'

'What?' Piper asked.

'He's not gonna make it. What the hell… He said he was coming! And Annabeth. Not coming. Either of them.'

He began typing out an answer.

The girl behind the counter called, to the room in general, 'Forty-six,' though she knew very well whose the order was.

'I'll get it,' Piper said to Jason, and walked to the counter. The two orders were on two trays, and she carried them back to the table, where Jason was shoving his phone back in his pocket.

'Hey, thanks,' he said, giving her another smile. 'So, do you want to go?'

'Why?' she asked.

'Cause Percy and Annabeth aren't coming. Now you're here with me, by yourself. Do you care?'

'Of course not.' She grinned. 'This is fine. Great.'

'Really?' He looked relieved, she thought. 'Cool.'

He took a sip of his coffee. She mimicked him, but when she actually tasted it she felt like she was going to die. 'Mmm… strong,' she commented, using every ounce of willpower she had not to choke.

He laughed. 'Yeah.'

He dropped her off at the flowershop at ten. As soon as the car pulled away, she jumped in the air, internally screaming with joy and excitement.

'This… this was…' she tried to vocalize, but even to herself the words sounded shallow. The way she was feeling wouldn't be put into words. And she danced home that night.

Two days later, he called her. They had, of course, exchanged numbers the night before.

'Hey, Pipes,' he said. 'I told Percy and Annabeth about you. Annabeth wants to meet you.'

'Not Percy?' she asked, teasing, laughing.

'He's sick,' Jason said, a more serious note entering his voice. 'I guess he's really sick. Last night they took him to the ER, and he's still in there. I don't know what he has…'

'I'm sorry,' Piper said, and she meant it. Even though she had never met Percy, and knew nothing about him, he was one of Jason's friends. And even after first date, Jason's friends were her friends, right?

'So,' Jason said. 'Today's a Saturday. Got anything going on?'

'Not a thing,' she said, not exactly truthfully.

'Great. Wanna meet me and Annabeth outside the flower shop again today?'

'Yes!'

'What time?'

'Any time's good.'

'Noon?'

'Great.'

'Bye! See you!'

He hung up.

He pulled up to the flowershop right on time. A girl was in the front seat, laughing with or at him, and for a second Piper wondered who she was. Just a second. In that second she realized that she wanted to be part of this 'group', this group of friends who knew each other and did things and had a real life. Not a flower shop life.

'No!' Annabeth yelled as Jason got out of the other side of the car. 'You're lying.'

'It's what he told me,' Jason answered, but his face was surprisingly serious. 'He said it was our fault. I'm gonna be paying for it.'

Annabeth shrugged. 'I'll talk to him.'

She turned and gave Piper a hug. 'Piper! I have heard a ton about you in the last four hours.'

'Hi,' Piper said, suddenly shy.

'Come on. We're gonna go back to Jason's place and everyone will crowd around you and stare and make you feel really awkward for like four minutes and then you'll love us all.'

'Um…' Piper said, but Annabeth grinned and pulled her towards the passenger seat.

'Hey, Pipes,' Jason said as she got into the car. 'Good to see you again.'

'Hi,' Piper said again. 'Where… where are we going?'

Jason laughed. 'Ignore Annabeth. We are going to my place, but I think there're only about five other people there.'

'Do I know any of them?'

'Just from what I've told you,' he said, as he pulled the car out of the parking lot and onto the semi-busy streets. 'Leo. Frank. Hazel and Nico. And my sister Thalia.'

'Really?' she asked. Jason had told her about Thalia, and she had wanted to meet her, but Jason had said she was always out of town.

'She came in really late last night. She might be asleep…' He laughed. 'Probably not. If you come to my place, you don't expect to get much sleep. People come in and out a lot of the time. I don't honestly know who might have showed up after I left.'

They pulled into the driveway of a mansion that looked so huge, Piper hadn't really noticed it. As Jason pulled the car to a stop, she looked around. 'What part of the city is this?'

'North,' Jason said. 'Literally no one knows about it. It's actually pretty hidden… I planted trees around it so people couldn't see the lights from outside. I think most people think this is an orchard.'

He hopped out of the car. Annabeth followed. Piper, staring at the building, got out about three seconds later.

Annabeth laughed. 'Yeah,' she said, when Piper looked at her. 'Pretty much. We don't all live like this, you know. I live with other people, and my only house is in California with my dad. Percy lives with his mom. Leo, I know, sleeps in a garage.'

'Nico's place is bigger than mine,' Jason put in, grinning. 'Thalia has her own. Reyna… her too.'

'And Frank lived with his grandma until their house burned down,' Annabeth answered. 'And…'

'Okay,' Jason said. 'We're good. How did we even get in this conversation anyway?' He led the way through the open double front door.

The inside of the house was just as massively impressive as the outside. A chandelier hung from the twenty-four-foot high ceiling. A coat rack with a pile of bags stood next to the door. The room the door opened into looked like a living room, and it was filled with sofas and black beanbags.

Sitting in the room were five people, who turned and watched as Jason, Piper, and Annabeth walked in.

'Hey, Piper,' they more or less chorused. Jason waved.

'Okay, Piper. Quick intro. This is Leo, Hazel, Frank, Nico, and Will Solace who you haven't heard about yet. He's Nico's boyfriend. Hey, Will. When'd you get here?'

'Last night. Right after Thalia,' Will said. 'I am so tired.' He flopped onto Nico's back.

'And guys, of course, this is Piper McLean.'

Nico nodded. 'How's Percy?' he asked Jason.

'He's… we're not sure. Annabeth, you haven't gotten anything, right?'

She shook her head. 'We still don't know.'

Piper felt like she should try to comfort, to say something like 'I'm so sorry,' but she also felt like if she did she would only make it worse. And so she didn't say anything.

'Anyway, guys,' Jason said. 'What're you planning on doing today? And where's Thalia'

'We were just going to hang here,' Nico said, stretching. 'I don't want to do anything in particular.'

'Come on. I have this huge house and all this stuff and you just sit on my couch and eat…' He took two steps to where he was sitting and grabbed the bag of chips. 'Fritos. Really?'

'They're good.'

'Taste. Not healthy.'

'Whatever.'

Jason laughed. 'Where's my sister?'

'She went somewhere. She should be back soon.'

Jason turned back to Piper. 'Is there anything you want to do?'

Piper was immensely conscious of everyone in the room looking at her. She concentrated on Jason. 'I'm… I'm fine with anything. Whatever you guys are doing.'

'I like her,' Nico announced. 'Let's all sit and talk.'

'Can we not?' Jason asked. 'Let me at least show her the house. Where the drinks are and everything.'

'I'm coming too,' Leo said, jumping up. Frank, who hadn't been following the conversation and had just been looking at his phone, and who was closest to Leo, stood too.

'What are we doing?' he asked, looking up.

'Showing Piper around,' Leo answered.

'Cool.' He looked back at his screen.

Hazel followed. Nico, her brother, came after her. Will followed him, and so it turned out that the whole group took Piper on the house tour.

'And this is…' Jason said, opening the door and looking in, '… the bathroom… Wait, really? Anna, how many are there?'

'I do not know.'

'Okay. Never mind. And this one is…' he opened the door, '… a closet. With a lot of stuff. Leo, is this yours?'

'Yeah. Is that cool?'

'I guess. What is it?' Jason picked up the nearest item, which turned out to be a hacksaw. 'This is dangerous, man.'

He closed the door carefully. 'Put a padlock on there, okay?'

He led them down a flight of stairs. Piper had completely lost track of where they were, other than a vague idea that they were on the second floor.

At the foot of the stairs, Jason stopped. 'And this is the kitchen. More like a dining room and bar, really. But it's where the drinks are.'

He opened the fridge. 'Do you want anything?' Everyone took Cokes. He closed the fridge. 'Okay. I guess… that's it.'

'Bro, there are like four more floors. And the whole separate guest section,' Will said.

'Later.'

He led the way through a doorway, where they ended up in the living room.

'And that's the house,' he finished, as Nico flung himself into a chair.

'Wow,' Piper said, still in awe of the sheer size of the place. She shared a flat with two other girls.

'So,' Will said, from where he lay draped across Nico's lap. 'What are we doing now?'

The front door opened.

'Thalia!' Jason said, and walked to the door, where she stood draped in a full-length, movie-theater type Deadpool 2 poster. 'What the hell. Did you steal this?'

'Took. I took it. Stealing is illegal.'

'Why?'

'Deadpool is awesome.'

'This is Piper.'

'Hey, Piper,' Thalia said, dropping the poster on the coat rack and giving her a hug. 'Jason's been texting me all yesterday.'

She turned and yelled to the room. 'Hey! Wake up! We're going!'

'Where?' Nico groaned.

'Normal tour. Come on, get up.'

Outside, it was getting darker. The sun was setting. The group got into a van in the driveway and it shot down the road, Thalia driving.

Piper never really remembered the details of the night. They ate somewhere. They watched a movie. They might have gone to the beach, though looking back she doubted it.

What she did remember was that the night was one long quiet conversation with Jason, and that the rest of the group faded into the background as they talked.

The next morning she woke up, having a vague memory of being dropped off at her apartment. She felt fine. She felt great.

She laughed and rolled over in her bed. It was eight forty-five. How long had she been out last night?

She got dressed. She had no school, no work. She walked into the city, and tried to remember where they had gone the night before.

Two days passed. Jason texted her but briefly, saying that he had a lot of school and a job he was trying to apply for, and sorry they couldn't get together for a while.

She texted back that she understood.

A week passed.

Then she saw Jason and Annabeth, walking through New York one Saturday. Holding hands. Laughing.

She went back to the apartment, and wondered what the point of a new year was if nothing ever got any better.

She worked at the flower shop, just across the street, you might say. The local institution. It had been around for longer than anyone could remember, and no one could remember a time when it had been busy. And she had made a living there for two years. Two years past adulthood. Two years, as she said, that she would never get back.

One Monday, in the summer, on a day when she had nothing better to do than count the number of scratches on the counter in front of her and wonder which of the people passing outside would consider themselves to have a good life... she had another customer.

He wore a hoodie, his phone in his hands.

'Hi,' she said. 'Can I help you?'

'No, thanks,' he said, and walked further into the store.

She decided he was a skateboarder/surfer/snowboarding kind of person. Not massively built, but strong and quick. And the hoodie helped with the look, of course.

'Actually, yes,' he said, and turned. He showed her the screen of his phone. 'Is this real? Do black flowers exist?'

'Um…' she said, taken aback. 'I think… I don't know if we have them. Let me check.'

She stepped out from behind the counter and scanned the aisles. 'Sorry, no, we don't have those. Do you mind if I ask… why would you want black flowers?'

'My friend is getting married, and his favorite color is black. Will – I mean, the guy he's marrying – asked me for black flowers, I guess as a joke. Okay. So then I just want some big yellow ones. I mean… if you have them.'

He put the phone in his pocket. She pointed out some 'big yellow ones' and he hurried to get some of each. 'Thanks. I assume we'll get more, but these are just to show them and see which they like.'

'Okay,' Piper said. 'That's fine.'

She took his card and swiped it through the register.

Then froze.

'Wait… Will? Will Solace?'

He frowned. 'Yeah. Why? Do you know him?'

She nodded. 'I met him. Them. Once. How do you know them?'

'I'm a good friend, I guess,' he said. 'Nico's adopted brother. Kind of.'

She smiled. 'Okay. I'm Piper, by the way. Piper McLean.'

He held out a hand. 'I'm Percy Jackson.'

And it's a wrap.

Did you like it? Yes or goddamn no, guys. Seriously, you gotta review.

Anyway. Like I said, this is for Round Two of the Querencia Quarter Quell. A blessing on me? Put it in the bloody comments. A curse? Yeah, put it in the comments too.

For the rest of the Quarter Quell-ers: May the road rise to meet you. May the grass never grow at your doorstep.

And may those who love us, love us, and those who don't, may God turn their hearts, and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.

Farewell, my good people!

Survive!