If one were to take a look around CHB,and compare it to just ten years ago, they'd find an astounding difference.
One: two wars. The demigods had never been this war-bred since the ages of Sparta over 2500 years ago.
Two: the sheer number of cabins and the addition of shrines. Hundreds if not thousands of minor gods and goddesses existed, and it would be an absolute pain to build several hundred cabins, even if godly building speed was used. So most were simply honored with a shrine in their name, but it was a hell of an upgrade from square one.
And looking deep into the minds of all the campers, you would see that there was one man, one leader that had worked his way on every demigod's good side.
Perseus Jackson. He had accomplished much in his most recent ten - or was it eleven? years of his life. Slayer of probably tens of thousands of monsters, including Titans, Giants and standing toe to toe with one of the Elder Primordials.
But in his eyes, he'd trade all of that away in a split second if it meant a second chance with his Wise Girl.
Her stormy grey eyes when she gotreal pissed, her sarcastic laugh whenever he'd do something stupid, but then it would almost always end in a makeout session, her honey blonde curls -
Stop,he chided himself. Wistful thinking won't bring her back.
Here he laughed bitterly. Wistful thinking most certainly wouldn't bring someone back if an attempted break in to Elysium didn't.
Most think he's won everything, the golden boy, the hero oftwo frickin' Great Prophecies.
But after a while, all the stress gets to him, as it would have eventually, should have years ago.
Perseus Jackson was dead. He was slaughtered the moment the life left his lover's eyes. In his place was a hollow husk, devoid of any emotion.
It should have been me:thoughts running aimlessly but on time in his head. Not even bothering to turn his head to see the clock- since he thought that at 10:47 every night anyway, Percy slowly climbed into his bunk in the Poseidon Cabin.
"G'night, Wise Girl...wherever you may be." His routine goodnight speech every time. Same emotions, right down to the slight voice crack at the nickname and the general decrescendo until he was whispering the last words.
Only tonight, he didn't know that he was getting an unexpected visitor.
But then again, who knows about the unexpected better than the man in question?
She can't sleep. Visions of her boyfriend seem to be dancing everywhere she looked. The golden handles of her dresser, the intricate designs on the bed, even the hilt of her dagger. Oh how she wished she could take it all back.
But the past should really stay unchanged, and she unfortunately knew that. Saving Jason meant killing herself, and that would just kill him internally.
Her thoughts drifted to the Seven's undoubted leader. Oh gods, he must be taking it tenfold harder than I am...without Annabeth to soothe his nightmares about hell.
Perseus rarely left his cabin anymore, never socialized, and never spoke to anyone but himself. If she didn't know better, she'd probably mistake him for being emo or goth. His former tan was now pale and almost gray, and his eyes were dull.
And how could this become of the jovial 17 year old they all respected on the Argo II?
She looked outside her window. Same old sights, Artemis cabin glowing softly in the moonlight, Ares cabin with the minefields, Poseidon cabin with a single light on, and the two end cabins, Zeus and Hera, once again empty.
Wait. Percy's light was on.
Percy was awake.
She grinned. It was time to pay a visit to the son of the Earthshaker.
Writing a quick note explaining where she'd gone, she set her plan into action. Removing her window, she slipped down to the soil outside the Aphrodite cabin. Running across the field to the other side, she almost made it, she would just need to sneak past the Ares cabin and -
Squawk.
Shit. A harpy.
Not bothering to charmspeak it, she altered the Mist to make the harpy chase a nonexistent camper to the Hebe cabin. Returning her focus to the situation at hand, she sneaked to the back of the Poseidon cabin (finally!) and knocked quietly on the back door.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Ten seconds and she wondered if he was actually awake.
Fifteen se -
The door opened, revealing Percy in all his glory - but not his former glory. He looked like a Holocaust survivor - which when you count the fact that he fought wars from 6th grade, really wasn't that much of a jump.
"Hey Pipes, didn't expect you to visit, especially so late. What can I do for you?" He smiled, but even that had lost its color. Now it felt forced, crammed.
Piper sighed. "I think we both know that we're here to heal. It's been five years, Percy. Don't you think the three would want us to move on?"
Percy's smile slowly fell off his face. A single tear made its way to the corner of his eye before he steeled himself and dried his eyes. "Come in. I feel like we have a lot to discuss."
Ushering herself into the room, Piper was surprised at how utterly plain the room was. She'd honestly expected maybe a couple photos on his dresser, a poster on his wall perhaps? She wasn't exactly sure of Percy's preferences. The only decoration was the Minotaur horn, a remnant of the second monster he'd killed (well, knowingly).
Percy smiled thinly. "The place looks barren, but it's good enough for me. Most of my stuff was with Wise Girl."
That was also true. But that didn't mean Piper liked it.
"So." Percy flopped down on his bed, turning his head towards Piper, though his eyes were unfocused. "Moving on, you say?"
"Yeah." She sat down next to him, making the bed creak. "Like I said, Leo, Jason and Annabeth wouldn't like us moping about their deaths. For Olympus' sake, Percy, you're 22 and I'm 21. You've still got your -" Percy focused his eyes back in, and Piper choked back a sob.
Truly looking at his eyes for the first time that night, Piper now realized how veryshatteredhe was. He put up a good show, a good mask, but in the end, his eyes betrayed him. If Akhlys was here, she'd be damn proud.
Except Percy totally humiliated her in Tartarus, a place with Misery galore, so maybe she'd be more -
"Piper!" Snapping back to reality, Percy was shaking her shoulders. Seeing her now focused gaze, he sighed and motioned for her to continue.
"Um, I think I've said everything," Piper managed, still shellshocked from the haunted look. Percy nodded.
"I've tried moving on every day for the past 4 years and 364 days. But..." he looked longingly at the Minotaur horn, never completing his sentence.
"You drool in your sleep," Percy whispered, so quietly it might have been that he was just reminiscing.
"Pardon me?"
"Wha-wait what?" Percy looked thoroughly surprised and shaken up.
"Wereyou thinking back on the past?" Piper was now smirking slightly, knowing that she had a one-up on her raven haired companion.
If it weren't for his tan, Piper was sure he would be red.
"N-no, of course not, I was merely, uhh...oh screw it, there's no getting out of this one huh?"
Piper giggled. "You're a smart one."
Percy smiled faintly, still remembering the old days. "Well, after I fought the Minotaur, I was exhausted, so I carried myself to the top of the hill and the last thing I saw was Annabeth and Chiron carrying me. When I finally came around enough to be let out of the infirmary, one of the first things she said to me was, 'you drool in your sleep'."
Piper cocked her head. "I guess that beats when I first actually met Jason. He was all amnesiac and going whatthehellamidoinghere." She laughed.
And so it went. Percy and Piper would swap stories, going from the topic of Annabeth and Jason to other things, like their life before camp, mortal parents, etc.
And maybe neither one of them knew, but on Olympus, one goddess of love was smiling tearfully at the two, watching as they mended the holes in each other's hearts.
Percy woke the next morningwith a mess of hairon his chest that was definitely not his.
Then the events of the previous night hit him, and he suddenly felt sick to his stomach.
Piper slept with him. As in,they were in the same bed.
Oh gods. He felt like he was betraying Annabeth.
Stop it, she's dead. Relationships aren't above the laws of death.
Still, he couldn't shake that ice cold feeling of guilt.
At least we still have all our clothes on, he thinks dryly.
As if on cue, Piper started to stir. Lifting her head up, she expected to see her pillow back at the Aphrodite cabin.
She did not expect to see the sea green eyes of Percy Jackson.
For what felt like an eternity, they stared at each other, mere inches apart.
"Um...hi? Good morning?" Piper wanted to laugh at his awkward attempt at conversation. She didn't want her legs to carry her away to the woods. She didn't want a tidal wave of pent up emotion to be released as soon as she collapsed onto a pile of leaves.
She could faintly hear Percy getting closer, desperately yelling out her name. She wanted to make herself a beacon, to make herself grow bigger. Instead, she seemed to be blending in more, and slowly sinking in the earth.
A couple minutes later, Percy burst into the clearing where she was. "Piper! Why'd you run off?"
Hearing the fact that she'd run off was the last straw. She sat down, wailing her heart out like there's no tomorrow. The world narrowed down to her and her emotions.
Without thinking, Percy wrapped his arms round Piper in a hug. Burying her face into his chest, the sound of her misery eventually tapered off.
Separating himself from her slightly, he whispered, "better?" After a nod, he went back to his original question. "Whydidyou run?"
"I'd always thought you deserved so much more and I wouldn't be able to deliver what you did you me. But I - Percy raised a hand to stop her.
"Pipes, if we ever got together, then that would have never mattered. What happened last night was a fluke. I don't think it will happen again."
Sadness flitted in four eyes before they moved onto the next point.
"Thank you Percy."
Percy turned. Piper was half smiling at him, turning to go back to camp.
"Anytime."
And that just made the emotions in Piper's internal battlegrounds worse.
Seconds blurred into minutes. Hours merged to days. Soon those became weeks and months, all in the past.
And Percy and Piper had grown steadily closer. They were the substitutes, filling the gaps that their girl or boyfriend had left.
Over time, though, they saw each other as less of substitutes and more like...alternate solutions.
Thank Olympus it wasn't as morbid as it sounded.
Inseparable. That's what they were now. Too afraid to let each other go.
Best friends, partners, a duo, you name it. Percy and Piper were closer than what those words signified - hell, if they woke up one morning and they were joined at the waist they wouldn't have minded.
The only thing they weren't were consorts.
And it was a Percy and Annabeth story again, how years of gradually getting closer eventually lead a friendship into something more intimate. Only this time, Percy and Piper were consciously trying not to like each other.
Except that only made them like each other more. Clear as day.
And it was only a matter of time beforetheir desires overpowered their fear.
For Percy, it was three years.
The arena had always calmed him down and allowed him to be level headed. Slashing and hacking at the dummies, his face neutralized and his thoughts narrowed down to the next target.
After what had seemed to be the 9000th dummy, Percy dropped his sword. Who was he kidding, he couldn't outrun his thoughts forever.
And that's how he ended up in the showers, reflecting on his emotions thrown in turmoil.
He had to face it. He likedPiper. He just had to pray that she felt the same way as he did.
Because he'd rather face the risk of another Annabeth scenario than never trying.
There was something that clicked about Piper, something that he hadn't felt around Annabeth. And it had felt some sort of right to be dating Annabeth, but with Piper it was...eye-opening, tosay the least.
Percy stood up, turned off the shower, changed and went off to find Piper.
Sitting on a tree stump,Piper was unknowingly doing thesame thing Percy was.
Fingering a stray piece of wood, a version of a habit she'd picked up somewhere, she was -
Crack!
In an instant, Piper had Katoptris out, swinging at the newfound presence. A clang of metal on metal was heard, and that's when she realized it was Percy.
"Oh, uh...hi...," Piper trailed off, looking down at her feet. It was pretty embarrassing to try to kill someone.
Percy laughed, a slow and melodic sound. "It's ok, I would have been scared too." He gestured to her tree stump. "Doing some thinking?"
"Yeah, about you actually." Instantly, both pairs of eyes widened for very different reasons.
Piper was cursing her ADHD mouth out and also waiting nervously for Percy's reaction like oh shit oh shit oh shit...you get the point.
Percy was speechless. He wanted to either pass it off as nothing or push further.
"Oh?" Casually sitting down on the tree stump, he tried to downplay his racing heart and wide eyes. "What about me?"
What does she tell him? Lies or truth, lies or truth, lies or truth...
Oh, what the hell?
"Are we friends, or...more than that?" Bam. The news drop. If it weren't for the context, Piper would have laughed at Percy's face.
"Do you like me?" The question came out so quietly, Piper almost missed it. What should she tell him? Again, would it be lies or truth...
She mused that would become her motto some day, maybe -
"Piper?" Percy was now standing in front of her, probably only a foot away. "You there?"
So close. So, so close.
And then she leaned over, got on her tippy toes and kissed him.
AN: And I leave the rest to your imagination.
Holy shit this was fun to write. I was bored after writing my other story so I decided, eh what the hell.
Speaking of my other story, IT IS NOT ABANDONED. AT ALL. SCHOOL IS A DICK.
Anyways, uh, bye!
(Damn I have the social skills of 13 year old Percy)