Okay, wow. Long time no see, right? Seriously it's been at least a year since I did a Jasper one shot, but I was reading some old stuff of mine (CRINGE) and I decided to write this. Life update at the end.

"Head counsellors, don't forget about the upcoming chariot race." Chiron announced. The meeting room in the Big House buzzed with excited chatter, and Jason tried his best to appear as pumped about the upcoming event as they were, despite the headache that had been ailing him for the past few hours. Percy nudged his arm, grinning, and Jason smiled weakly back at him, as the halfhearted smile was all that he could muster with the tiny hammers pounding at his skull. It was all Jason could do not to groan in misery. He'd had a square of ambrosia a little bit ago, but apparently, the godly food had no effect on a raging headache.

It was terrible timing, too. It was Piper's birthday, and not only that, but he'd planned to surprise Piper tonight and take her on a date, and he wasn't just going to abandon that, regardless on how much his head was throbbing. As everyone left the room at the end of the meeting, Jason smiled at Piper, hoping that it didn't come across as tired or in pain. It worked. Piper smiled back, then stepped over to him.

"So I'll meet you in your cabin in half an hour?" She questioned, already knowing the answer. Jason had told her this earlier, but she was obviously just making sure. He nodded. "Alright, cool. See ya."

They parted ways, and Jason trudged to cabin one. He looked in the mirror. He didn't look bad, not nearly as bad as he felt, at least. That was good.

As he grabbed his coin/sword and slipped it into his pocket, Jason felt the urge to cough. There was an annoying little tickle in his throat, he realized. He tried clearing his throat, and while it offered relief for a few seconds, the tickle came back relentlessly.

"That's weird," Jason muttered to himself, pausing afterwards. His voice sounded... Off. In the back of his mind, the thought that he might be getting sick arose, but he pushed it away.

Impossible.

Jason Grace does not get sick.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. He cleared his throat once more and opened the door.

There stood Piper, dressed in jeans and an oversized purple sweatshirt. It was his old Camp Jupiter sweatshirt, Jason realized.

"So that's where that went." He chuckled. "I was looking for that the other day."

"Hey." Piper raised her hands in mock defense. "I've gotta do what I've gotta do to stay warm. Seriously, it's freezing out here."

Jason nodded. The late October weather was always cold, but tonight was just frigid. Like, way colder than normal.

"Well, should we go?" He asked.

Piper slipped her hand into his. "So where are we going?"

"It's a surprise." Jason grinned, momentarily forgetting about his malaise. Key word: momentarily. As soon as they got into the cab, the pain hit him full force. His plan was actually to take Piper into the city for dinner, then to watch the sunset, but all he longed for right now was to be in bed with some Tylenol.

Piper nudged his arm. "You alright?"

"I'm great." Jason forced a smile. This was her night, and he wasn't going to ruin it because of a stupid headache. Speaking of which, why the Hades did his head hurt so bad?

"You sure?"

"Positive." Jason paid the cab driver as he and Piper climbed out of the car and onto the sidewalk. "Let's go, the restaurant is a few blocks that way."

They walked, hand in hand, to the restaurant, which was a little French themed cafe, with the name- Bonne Nourriture- in big neon letters.

Jason realized that his nose was running and sniffled as they entered the restaurant. A friendly looking girl showed them to their seats and took their orders; chicken noodle soup for Jason and tomato soup for Piper.

When the waiter left, Piper eyed Jason critically.

"What?" He asked.

"You're sick." She answered.

"I feel fine."

"You only ever eat soup when you're not feeling well." Piper pressed on. "If you don't feel up to this, we can go back to camp and rest."

Yes, please. Jason thought. "Pipes, I'm good. Maybe I'm looking to expand my eating choices, I don't know. But I feel fine."

His head was still pounding when the food arrived. Piper looked like she was enjoying her meal, but Jason could barely manage to eat. Fortunately, they finished dinner without any more drawing attention to his inevitable illness.

You're not sick, you're not sick, you're not sick, Jason repeated in his head. For Piper, remember?

They came upon a bench facing the direction of the sunset.

"Let's stop here and watch the sunset," Jason suggested, partly because that was part of the plan, but also because he was really starting to feel ill and didn't think he could walk for much longer. It was perfect timing, though. The sun was just beginning to dip below the skyscrapers and the sky seemed to be painted with oranges and reds.

The lower the sun sunk, the sicker Jason felt. His stomach churned, his head pounded, his throat and nose itched, his ears were clogged, and every single one of his bones was weighed down with fatigue.

Piper leaned her head against his shoulder, oblivious to how awful he was feeling. It was like the illness hit him like a bullet train. Jason had been feeling perfectly fine this morning. Nausea bubbled up in his stomach, and a sense of dread told him that he couldn't hide how poorly he was feeling for much longer.

"Piper," Jason said softly. His head was swimming. Something rose in his throat. His heart was pounding. "I don't... Feel so good."

"What do you mean?" Piper's eyebrows knit in concern, but Jason didn't have much time to notice this. He leaned over the side of the bench and threw up.

"Jason!" Piper exclaimed worriedly, beginning to rub circles on his back.

Jason took a deep breath. He probably looked so pathetic right now; for one he'd just puked all over the sidewalk, but he was also sweating and shivering at the same time (which was probably not a good thing), and his cheeks were wet with tears.

"Sorry," he choked out.

"Oh, Sparky." Piper said sympathetically, slipping her hand into his comfortingly. "Let's get you back to camp, alright?"

After a warm shower, Jason had changed into comfier clothes and was tucked in bed, surrounded a dozen blankets. Piper slid a thermometer under his tongue and set a glass of water on his nightstand, next to his sword. The thermometer beeped, and his girlfriend read the number on the little screen.

"Jason!" She said. "103.1. Why didn't you tell me you were sick?"

"Because it's your birthday, and I wanted tonight to be special for you." He admitted. "I didn't want to ruin your birthday by being sick, but it kinda happened anyway."

Piper laughed. "You did not ruin my birthday. You can't help that you're sick. And as sick as you are, I'm surprised you managed to hide it this long."

Jason smiled weakly. "It was kind of like being hit by a bus. One minute I was fine, then, well, you know."

"Ah, yes. It was quite the birthday to remember." Piper joked. "How could I ever forget you getting the flu and throwing up everywhere?"

"Shut up." Jason smiled weakly as he rolled over to the cool side of the pillow. "And yes, I did ruin your birthday."

"No you didn't."

"So you'd rather nurse me back to health from a 103 degree fever than do what my original plan was?" Jason asked.

"Okay, well the flu did put a damper on the festivities, but I'm just grateful that I get to spend time with you, whether that's passing the puke bucket or like, a candlelit dinner." She said.

"That's romantic."

"Yeah, well, in sickness and in health, right?" Piper smiled.

"Isn't that for married couples?" Jason wondered aloud.

"Well, yeah, but who's to say we won't be married someday?"

As you may or may not know, I'm a sophomore in high school now and things have been super busy. I just took the ACT this weekend so I'll probably have a little more free time, as long as the homework load lightens up. Speaking of homework, I have a five page biology worksheet due tomorrow that I haven't even started so... That's fun.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!