Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: I'm currently going through a I-hate-everything-I-write-why-the-hell-do-I-do-this-phase. I'm not sure if I like this or not. I think I do, but then I change my mind five seconds later. Anyway, reviews are appreciated.

Slippery Fingers

They're all packed and ready to go. A fourth of Camp Half-Blood is coming to visit- invade might be a better word for it, if Piper's being honest- the Roman Camp, and then hopefully everyone will be alive and they'll all go to Greece. Hopefully still in one piece.

She feels a warm pressure on her shoulder, knocking her out of the little world that she had created, sitting on the log in front of the now dead campfire. She doesn't even have to turn around to make sure, because she's knows who's hand that is. Piper'd know that feel anywhere. It's Jason.

She turns around and sees the questions in his eyes. "Hey," he says gently. "We're just about ready to go. I didn't want to leave you behind."

At one point that would have made Piper smile, or at least make a warm feeling at the bottom of her stomach appear. This time, however, nothing. She feels nothing but dread, because she knows what's she about to do.

"Before we do, though, we need to talk." Piper pats the empty spot of log beside her and Jason sits down so fast it's almost like she charmspoke him, but she knew that she didn't.

"What about?"

Piper really, really doesn't want to do this. She doesn't. But she's going to, and she knows it. They have to have this conversation, because if they don't they never will and she just doesn't want to get her heart broken by him. She'd rather just do it herself.

"I think that this… thing, these feelings have got to stop. Okay?" The words hurt coming out of her throat. Piper's said many things in her short lifetime, but never ever has anything that's she ever said made her want to just curl up into a ball and cry.

She knows that she's just destroyed all of the feelings that she and Jason had been slowly but surely building. In the blink of an eye and the sound of a voice they're gone almost as if they'd never even been there.

"But…"

"Jason, you've got a whole past, a past that I was never a part of. I don't want to keep you from that, okay?"

"But you're… now. Nothing's going to change that." His face has that look on it again, the one where he's agonizing because he can't remember when he needs to. She hates seeing it there, hates the fact that she's the one that caused it to be there, but she can't help it.

But he hasn't remembered everything yet and Piper doesn't want him to hate her when they do all come rushing back to him.

"I wouldn't be your 'now' if it wasn't because of Hera. Let's face it, I wouldn't really care about you if those false memories were planted into my mind." She can see the effect that her words have on him, and they're effecting her too, but it's only the truth. The truth might hurt, but lies always hurt worse. Always.

And right now the only thing that they are is a lie.

"Fine," he gets up and starts to walk away, and the agony hits her because she hates watching him walk away from her but it can't be helped. She puts her hand down and looks at the pink manicure that Lacy had given her just last night. It's already chipped, but otherwise uninteresting. "But Piper?"

Piper looks up at him, unsure of what he's going to say. To be honest she isn't sure if she wants to hear what he's got to see. The look on his face is determined, and Piper imagines that he's worn that look lots of times in the past, when he was leading the Romans to victory.

"I still want to be friends. Okay? I don't think that I could lose anyone else."

"You won't ever lose me, Jason."

It's the truth.

.x.

Piper knows that in her life she's usually been the one that's been wrong. She's been wrong lots of times. Times like when she got kicked out of her last three schools in a row, when she stole that BMW, even when was born.

But she's right now. And oh, it royally sucks to be right.

They got to the Roman Camp, relatively unscathed, and while things aren't peaceful between the campers everything is okay, at least for right now. Annabeth's found Percy again, and while Piper's happy for her friend she can't help being just the tiniest bit jealous.

Annabeth's found Percy, but Piper's losing Jason.

He's like a totally different person with the Romans. Everyone looks up to him (well, that part's not too much different, because some people from Camp Half-Blood looked up at him, even if it was only because he was kind of tall) and as soon as he walked off the Argo II people rushed upon him.

It was obvious that here Jason was a pretty well known and popular guy. People like him, and as soon as he tells them that No, the Greeks didn't kidnap me they all stop getting dirty looks and are almost, but not quite, welcomed.

As soon as Jason opens his mouth to speak people listen. And then he drags Piper up to the front with him and Leo, even though Piper doesn't even want to look at these people, let alone speak to them, he tells Piper to start explaining everything.

People listen to her too, even if it's only because of Jason. When she's done telling them everything Chiron and Lupa both decide to hold a meeting with their most important campers.

It's at that meeting when she sees that girl talking to Jason. She sees the way that she looks at Jason, almost as if she wants to throw herself into his arms, and she knows that she's done the right thing.

The right thing has never felt so wrong.

.x.

Piper eventually learns that that girl has a name. She's Reyna and she's a daughter of Mercury. Piper knows that it's probably shallow of her- she's going to blame mom for this one, thanks- but she notices that they're a matched set.

Reyna has blonde hair and blue eyes, all of the things that Piper herself used to want to be, if only to get away from being a Cherokee.

Reyna finds Piper practicing with a dummy in their practice coliseum. Reyna comes right up to Piper and leans her back against the stone wall behind her, one leg bent and resting on the solid rock, wearing a purple t-shirt and a bracelet, her hair pulled up into a ponytail. Piper might be a daughter of Aphrodite, but she knows that this isn't a look that can be manufactured for department stores- it's all natural.

"Can we talk? Isn't it what you daughter's of Venus- I mean Aphrodite- like to do? Talk?"

Piper doesn't like how she's casually rubbing her godly parentage in Piper's face, almost like Piper should be ashamed to be a daughter of love. Piper's dislike- which was already there simply because Reyna was probably with Jason for real- mounts even higher.

"We don't like to talk as much as daughter's of Hermes, oh I mean Mercury," she corrects herself sweetly, as if she totally didn't say Hermes on purpose, "like to run their mouths." Piper knows right away that she shouldn't have said that, but the words came out of her mouth like snakes, unwanted and hissing.

Reyna's blue eyes harden, but she smirks, and Piper knows that she hasn't completely destroyed her chances with this girl just yet. "Hmm, maybe not. But I'll just tell you this, Pipes," Piper isn't sure if her surprise registers on her face, but she thinks that maybe it does by the way that the blonde girl's smirk gets bigger, "stay away from Jason. He's mine."

"Don't worry. I'm staying very, very, far away from him." Admitting this isn't easy, but it's true. Since the meeting with the Romans and the Greeks Piper hasn't said one word to Jason.

She's seen him looking at her, wondering what she's doing, those questions in his eyes again, but she's been avoiding him almost as well as she's been avoiding Leo's questions.

Piper stabs the dummy with maybe a little too much force and red liquid- what they use here instead of straw like normal people- squirts all over her and Reyna. Piper curses the fact that Reyna's shirt is purple and it won't stain like hers will.

"Good." For a moment there's vulnerability in Reyna's expression, but like a good little Roman it's gone in a flash. "But for the record…" Reyna leans in closer to Piper and Piper leans in closer, "I've seen the way that he looks at you. I'm not really supposed to say this since I'm the enemy and all, but don't hurt him too much, okay? I don't think that he can deal with that right now. He's got enough on his plate, you know what I mean?"

She does.

.x.

Piper finally faces Jason after he finds her (a lot of people seem to be looking for her these days) in the Argo II after she finishes bawling her eyes out. Again. Piper thinks it's a good thing that she doesn't wear make-up, because if she did it'd be all over her face.

As it is, though, she knows that those puffy red eyes aren't exactly hiding much of anything.

"I think I'm losing you," he says, finally breaking the silence. Piper feels like she's seen every expression on his face but this is a new one, one that she can't quite read. Every thought that Jason gets passes over his face. It's part of the reason that he's such a bad liar, unlike her.

Piper has to clear her throat before she can speak. "No, I've already told you that you can't ever lose me. And you won't."

"Liar." The word's said seriously but Jason's half smiling and she has to wonder if it's because he's in pain or he actually thinks that the fact that she's lying to him is funny. The scar on his lip is standing out like it always does when he smiles, cute as ever.

She hates herself for thinking that. Who cares about a stupid scar when their heart is breaking? She does, obviously, because she's always wrong. Always.

"It's true. I've almost lost you once, I'm not going to do it again, not if I can help it. You're stuck with me."

"Piper, look… I know that you've been thinking about things a lot. And I have too. But it's just… you know, when I was dying, I thought that you were the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen."

She can't believe that she's telling her that. Gods, why now? Why does he tell her that now when she's already promised herself that she's going to stay away from him (even though he's hers, she knows it) until this whole mess was all over?

She was going to let him come to her, and now here he is, giving her yet another reason to love him. In that moment Piper almost hated him.

"Really?" The word comes out of her mouth by itself, but Piper knows that the warm feeling that she gets at the bottom of her stomach when he nods is all because of her. And him. Always because of him.

"Yeah. Really. And I just want to say this, okay? And then I'll leave you alone like you want me to, promise." Piper has never wanted to interrupt someone more than she does at that moment, because she doesn't want him to leave her alone but she knows that it has to be done. For him, so he can sort out his feelings. For her, so she knows that hers are real.

"I just want to say that I don't like you because you're beautiful, or because you can charmspeak your way out of anything. I like you because I think that you're the one person that hasn't given up on me."

Jason's looking at her like he wants her to say something, anything, but she can't do it. Her gifts have left her and in their hurry to get away from her they've left behind a lump in her throat.

Five painful minutes later Jason gets up and walks away from her one more time and Piper lets him go because she knows the truth.

She's already given up on him.