I want to thank every single one of you who reviewed my last chapter, making it the most reviewed one in this story. Yay!

This chapter was actually pretty easy to write, although it was hard to get motivated. All of my stories are like that at the moment :(

Not to fear, though— I'm still typing (despite the fact I have a science test tomorrow. Shh) and a new chapter of Brotherband Chronicles should be up by wednesday at latest.

Piper stared at the air where the Iris-message had been; her lands limp at her sides and her head whirling. Seeing Jason… it had been like opening the floodgates to her memories that she had kept safely closed for a year now. He had looked exactly the same: regal, intense, handsome.

Don't think that, she chided herself. You're not allowed to think that. You hate him. And as much as she repeated it, she couldn't bring herself to actually believe it— she knew it wasn't true. She was mad at him, and she deeply disliked him, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't hate him. Every time she thought she did, she remembered all the times they had shared together— fighting Dylan at the Wilderness School, facing of Cyclopes in Detroit, outsmarting Hercules himself on the way to Rome. And when she thought of all that, she couldn't bring herself to fully, truly hate him.

Of course, she was mad at him— her anger had showed in the Iris-message. It had all been real, the anger, the pain, the sorrow. But she just couldn't hate him.

She sat back in her chair with a sigh, wondering if Aphrodite was screwing with her again. She had said she would make her love life interesting, and Piper had heard of her doing stuff like this before. If it was, Piper needed to find her and smack her upside the head.

She stared at the little envelope in her hand. There was probably no point in sending it now… Piper's gaze went to the fire on the other side of the room. A little smile formed on her lips and she stood up, quickly striding through the furniture until she was standing in front of the flames. It should have come easy, letting go with her fingers and watching the envelope flutter down into the fire, then stepping back and it first turned black at the edges, then started to curl inwards. Then the actual fire would take place as the blaze caught the rest of the envelope. It would go up in flames, and all her problems would be gone.

But… she couldn't bring herself to do it, just like she couldn't bring herself to hate Jason. He was her sole connection to the demi-god life, as twisted and painful as that connection may be. Dropping it into the fire would be like trying to hide a whole side of her.

But she could do that, couldn't she? For years she had hid half of her— the outgoing, fun side. The side who worried about boys and wanted to look nice. The side who actually had a part in this world— not her demi-god side, but the side she had showed… when she had met Jason.

She could almost hear Aphrodite giggling in delight all the way from Olympus. She made a face, although she couldn't deny the fact; Jason was her demi-god link as much as Annabeth was Percy's mortal link. She hated the fact, but she couldn't deny that it was true.

The thought made her angry. Gritting her teeth, she stuck her hand out over the fire, the envelope clutched tightly between her fingers. Her one link to the world that she had been in for years. The world she felt normal in. The world that new her.

She let go, and the envelope fluttered towards the fire. Piper held her breath, but before it could reach the flames, a pink door opened in mid-air, swallowed the envelope and disappeared.

"MOM!"

Jason was scared he had made Percy mad. He had seen the Son of Poseidon angry, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Plus, his mind was too confused to fight at the moment.

Instead, Percy popped back up from where he had fallen out of the car, grinning goofily. "Woohoo! Welcome back, Jason Grace!" He climbed back into the car, rubbing the side of his face. "Sorry, you looked a bit off there. Had to make sure you were still, you know, you."

"It's okay," Jason mumbled, his head still swimming after talking to Piper. She hated him, he was sure of it. The way she had spoken to him, each word like a red-hot metal bar slammed against his chest, had shown him that he had no hope of being forgiven.

"Does she hate you?" Percy asked, sitting down next to him and speaking briefly to the cabbie, who started the motor and continued the drive. Jason nodded numbly as they trundled over the uneven road.

"The way she spoke to me…." Percy nodded sympathetically, looking confused and helpless at the same time. "How could I go back to her now?"

"You'll just have to try," Percy said. "I mean, how hard can it be? We fought Gaea, didn't we?"

"Gaea over angry woman…." Jason considered. "Piper has a knife, so I would have to say she's more deadly." Percy chuckled and Jason found himself smiling as well.

"I would have to agree with you," he smiled. "Although Annabeth angry might top even that…" Again, Jason laughed. The sound was so foreign, as if he hadn't laughed in a while. Come to think of it, he hadn't. The last couple of months had all been fake smiles and forced laughs to try to convince his friends. Now, after only a couple of minutes around Percy, who was from Camp Half-blood, he was laughing truly for the first time in ages.

Almost as if he was meant to be with the Greeks. But that made no sense. He was Roman— born Roman, trained Roman and branded Roman. He let his eyes drift down to the tattoo on his arm: SPQR, The Senate and People of Rome. As praetor, it was his duty to look after them. He wasn't doing much of that now, was he?

"Percy?" He asked cautiously. The son of Poseidon looked over expectantly. "Um… do you think it's possible that… well… that the Fates have chosen me to be Greek?" It was a stupid question, but it was the only explanation he could think of as to why he was acting this was— desperate to be with Piper, visiting the other camp, not fitting in with his own family.

Percy frowned, pondering the question. He opened his mouth then closed it again, frowning, before finally answering.

"I think… well, the fates don't mess with things that aren't serious," he started at length. "So if you're coming to Camp Half-blood, then there has to be a reason."

Jason groaned. "No more fighting, please," he frowned, half to Percy, half to the sky in form of a prayer. He didn't like training anymore, much less an actual war— he had gone through far too much in his short life for another war.

"I hope not," Percy answered. "I've done enough fighting for a lifetime. But with the fates…" he shrugged. "You just never know."

Jason was about to agree when a pink slit opened up in mid-air and a letter dropped through, landing in his lap.

If you can leave a cliffhanger on a romance story, I think I might have done just that. Sorry :(. I'm going to try to get into a regular updating schedule with my stories. I'll go friday, saturday and sunday for each of my stories.

Anyways, if we get eleven reviews that'll put us at an average of ten reviews per chapter. Can we do it?

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