Hello! Terribly sorry about the delay in posting, I got back from vacation last night and didn't have time to polish this chapter up for you. Enjoy, and thank you for the continued support!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below.
What about Angels
Chapter IX
Istanbul
"When we get home and tell this story," Jason said. "We don't mention this particular bit, okay?"
Reyna grinned. "I was thinking of keeping this story to myself, actually. It's excellent material, don't you find? Piper would murder you if she knew."
"Yeah, and then she'd get to you second," Jason said.
"Point taken," Reyna said. "Okay so when we tell this story we did not get spectacularly lost in Istanbul."
"When we tell this story we weren't even in Istanbul," Jason said, which made Reyna laugh.
Being lost in a foreign city may seem like a lesser challenge considering they were not only demigods, but they were them. Besides, this was a joyride compared to the last time they'd been to Europe in the midst of Gaia's uprising. That had been the entire point of their backpacking extravaganza; to make some nicer memories of the continent and see it in its truthful beauty, giants and evil archaic forces aside.
The idea hadn't been too popular with- well, with anyone. Piper and Percy had told Jason to his face that he was crazy, Frank had tried to talk Reyna out of it more than once and somehow Hylla had found out about the plan and had tried to both bribe and threaten Jason out of "putting my little sister out of danger you meatheaded male". But they were both determined to go through with their shenanigans. Jason and Reyna had scoured the Internet, Pinterest and travel books far and wide to plan their trip immaculately and show all the worried friends and family a nice, classic itinerary to see the old land. They'd only hit big, safe, tourist-friendly cities- Paris, London, Rome, Madrid… They had a perfectly tuned budget and every safety measure had been taken to ward off primitive monsters that hadn't followed Western Civilisation. It still hadn't convinced anyone that two demigods heading to Europe was a good idea, but the fact that Annabeth had driven them to the airport showed that they'd gained at least some ground.
Of course, after taking their first plane out to Italy (where they had seen all the traditional sites they'd told their families they would see), they'd thrown the approved cookie-cutter itinerary out the window and had kind of just spitballed everything to the point that they'd eenie-meenie-minie-moed the specific choice of trains, hostels and travel companions that had landed them in Istanbul, where they were right now. They didn't want to hit up big cities where all the yucky tourists were. No, they were demigods. More than that, they were Jason and Reyna. They'd ended up in all the places they didn't think they'd go- once totally by accident by jumping into the wrong train to avoid being devoured by a hellhound. Though it had all worked out for the better, Portugal was gorgeous.
Istanbul was maybe the worst bit because of many reasons. A) Seeing as Turkey straddled Asia which was oh-so-very far from any Itinerary-Approved Destinations, this was their biggest stray so far. B) The language barrier nearly physically hurt and since this was an accident, they hadn't even tried to prepare any resources to help. C) They were getting lost over and over again to the point where they'd ended up sleeping in the upper tunnels of a McDonald's play place. Neither of them had slept in the last twenty-four hours, which was paired beautifully with some jetlag. D) Reyna had lost her sword somewhere in the airport and there was no way they were going to be inquiring about it to the lost and found. She was borrowing Jason's knife for now, but this low point in artillery was definitely unsafe. E) They were running low on cash, at this point. D) Most of what they did was a bad idea in the first place, really…
Of course, they reasoned with themselves that this pit-stop was completely legitimate and in respect of their demigodly heritage. After all, they were only in Istanbul because they'd wanted to be in Turkey to check out the supposed ruins of Troy as discovered by Schliemann. (Reyna had taken one good look at the terrain and called bullshit on the grounds that she wasn't picking up the resonance of any big battle- much less one that could be converted into a Brad-Pitt-AND-Orlando-Bloom movie. This, of course, did not stop them from purchasing overpriced matching t-shirts that read "I Fought in the Trojan War and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt").
They'd been in too many different kinds of shit to think that strapping backpacks to their bodies and hurtling themselves into new countries was anything less than an adventure.
Most of this trip was never going to be recounted anyways. Piper would be the first in line to kill both of them if she found out about the kind of sketchy street food Jason had willingly eaten or the amount of hitchhiking they'd ended up doing (this was actually Reyna's idea to save money, so Jason knew that if he was going down he was bringing her down with him).
They'd spent a day in Budapest after missing a train and had walked around, spotting scattered bronze statues and crossing the Danube River. They'd seen Serbia's lush countryside, dotted with monasteries, and had even skied. They'd spent an entire day chatting with a surprisingly fluent monk in Kosovo, and another flying around the Regova Gorge after stashing their backpacks in a crevice. A sea monster in Bosnia had tried to drown Jason, and Reyna had managed not only to fish him out, but also to convince beach-goers that this was a publicity stunt for a new Jaws movie. They'd been to Poland to tour the cities and pop into Krakow and visit Auschwitz. They'd had dinner in Tallin, Estonia, at a place that offered 14th century dining with authentic music and costumed waiters and everything- an ugly dragon even popped out of an alley on their way back to the hostel, thus making Reyna refer to Jason as "Sir Grace" for the rest of their stay in the country. Rabid half donkey and half human hybrids had tried to poison them in Belgium by offering them gourmet beers. They'd climbed 435 steps up the steeple of St Michaelis Church in Hamburg, toured beer cellars carved into the ground of Nuremburg Castle, walked the Berlin Wall. They'd seen ancient battlefields, memorials and war museums. They'd hiked and climbed mountains and gotten drunk off their asses in Prague like they never could during Roman festivals. They'd blinked days away chilling in the endless cafes of Sarajevo, had toured haunted castles in Romania where a woman thankful for Jason's clever slaying of a monster had read their palms. It was all breathtaking and beautiful and random and unplanned. Except for the monsters- those were kind of a buzzkill.
Still, it was all in the name of adventure. And they knew a lot about adventures. So much, that they avoided some simple rookie mistakes during their travels. This unfortunately didn't make navigating any easier- most of the time they were clueless and wandering around and crossing their fingers to find what they were looking for unless a local took pity on them.
"Hagia Sophia Museum and Church," Jason muttered under his breath as if that would make the streets part and the appropriate buildings zoom up to him, or the teeny tiny words on the map make sense to their dyslexic eyes. "Hagia Sophia…"
"This started as a way to burn some time before going to the airport, but now I think we may not make it there on time for a flight," Reyna said glancing at the sun and then at her watch. They had an overnight flight, but their flight to New York was international and they had to be there early.
"Yeah," Jason said chewing his lip. "Maybe we should just give it up…"
"Or we could keep wandering Istanbul for this church and send an IM to Percy and tell him that we missed our plane and we have to take one that has a connection in London…" Reyna said.
"And that while we're in London we decided to actually check the city out a bit while we're in Europe…" Jason continued. "They'll buy it. We're of roman blood; carpe diem and all…"
"No," Reyna said. "According to the itinerary we've already been to London, remember?"
"Ah, true. Okay, so while we were there for the first time you fell in love with a charming Londoner who is totally in a band, and you wanted to meet him again for one last romantic and heartfelt meal of fish and chips before forever losing contact with him," Jason said. "They'll fall for that for sure."
"Or maybe you lost your passport and did some stupid shit that got you imprisoned by the Brits," Reyna said.
"Whatever works," Jason said. "We'll think of something. But they are suckers for romance, you know…"
Reyna hip-checked him. "And maybe 'whatever works' can work long enough for us to do a little bit of exploration outside of London. We could possibly make it to…"
"Hadrian's Wall…" Jason chimed in. "Which runs 73 miles from sea to sea, Rome's way to protect itself against druids and barbarians and so forth, which would be so cool to see…"
Reyna raised her hands innocently. "Only if that's how things end up. I mean, maybe to pay your bail I need to work in a pub or something for a few weeks. The exchange rate for pounds is so bad right now, it would take weeks. Our trip would HAVE to be longer."
"Oh no," Jason said. "Curse Fortuna and the folly of man."
Reyna laughed and they both smiled, wanderlust and childish excitement in their eyes. They'd started this out as a joke, but they'd fallen in love with the idea in the months leading up to this moment, and they were completely consumed by the time they'd actually set a foot in Europe.
They both smiled at each other, knowing full well that they were going to have to get home eventually- and that by eventually, they meant soon. They weren't rich people, university would start again, Jason did miss Piper, Reyna needed to get back to Aurum and Argentum before the dogs tore up Percy and Annabeth's apartment out of separation anxiety, she had a job to get back to… Still. This was nice and they had fun together. They were compatible when it came to sleeping in train stations, making quick decisions, finding interesting things to see and do, sharing protein bars at 3:00 AM after being kicked out of a hostel that a dracanae had wandered into…
And this was their first adventure without pressing World Peace and Security Implications. This was their first adventure as friends, not colleagues or unlikely allies or rivaling centurions and so forth. Their first adventure where they'd had the power to decide what to do and where to go and how to do it, and to do it all together.
And it made Jason feel like their friendship ran deeper than anything outside of one another.
In fact, it nearly made him feel like they were invincible.
