Beginning Notes

I finally found the inspiration to write the prequel to Confused, Confused, Can't Figure Out My Own Feelings that I had planned from the moment I was already busy writing that lol. Anyways, I'm actually quite happy with how this turned out since I had no clue if I was going to focus it on Piper/Annabeth, Piper/Jason or Piper & Annabeth, but I managed to balance all three of them together, which I personally think is the best option hehe.

Also, I'd like to give a massive shoutout to my lovely beta's Alyx and Katsu for helping me get though this, especially to Alyx for reassuring me that the pan representation is okay, and I didn't misrepresent anything :)

Finally a quick disclaimer that I do not own these characters, they belong to Rick Riordan, and of course a slight trigger warning for all the internalised homophobia. Alright, that was it, hope you all enjoy!

Piper was about five years old when she first heard about 'the sin'. She remembered it all too well how her father had brought it up during dinner one day.

'Oh by the way, Pipes, you know uncle Terry right?'

Piper nodded, of course she knew her father's brother.

'He wanted us to come over this weekend to meet his new boyfriend,' he explained.

'Tristan!' Piper's stepmother exclaimed, slamming her cutlery down on the table. 'You can't be serious about that!'

'What's wrong, Petunia?' she remembered asking quietly, scared of how suddenly her stepmother had started yelling.

'Petunia, darling can we not do this during dinner?' he father asked.

Piper looked at the two of them, wondering what was going on, when her stepmother huffed and picked up her cutlery.

'Fine, but we're having a word about this later.'

Piper carefully started eating again, cautious as to not do something wrong. The air had become so tight that she didn't even dare complain about the broccoli on her plate and instead just ate in silence. It had never been so quiet during dinner before, and when they were done she ran straight back to her room.

She sat on her bed, playing with her favourite stuffed animal as she listened to the muffled voices of her father and Petunia arguing. After what seemed like forever, her curiosity overtook her and she made her way back downstairs. Piper knew that if she'd make her presence known, they'd stop talking about whatever had made Petunia so upset, so she tried not to make a sound as she slowly crept towards the living room.

'But this is my brother we're talking about! We can't just cut Piper off from him, she's his only niece and he really cares about her,' Piper heard her father say. His voice sounded different, but she couldn't understand why.

'Tristan, we've been over this, it's a sin, and I don't want Piper to have anything to do with that. It's going to hurt for her too, not being able to see her uncle, but we both know this is the best for her.' Unlike her father, Petunia sounded so sure of herself, and Piper could hear that her voice had softened since they'd had dinner, but something about it felt off.

She then heard her father sigh as he said, 'fine, you're right. It's what's best for her.'

Piper frowned. Was she never going to see her uncle ever again? But why? What had she done wrong? Tears were slowly starting to form in her eyes and she quickly ran back to her room before her father or Petunia would find her crouched behind the living room door.

That night she cried herself to sleep, thinking about what she'd heard. As she slowly succumbed to a dreamless sleep, her subconsciousness repeated Petunia's words over and over until they were stuck in her mind.

'It's a sin.'

A few years later her father got a great job opportunity in Oklahoma, so they decided to move there and Piper had to switch schools. She heard that she would be attending Lady Aphrodite's School for Young Girls. The school was very well known for being one of the best all-girls schools in all of America, and it had been her stepmother Petunia's idea to let her go there.

'You'll be able to learn together with lots of other amazing girls your age, and you will make plenty of friends there, I'm sure of it!' she exclaimed when she and Piper's dad had told her about it.

'So, there won't be any boys there?' Piper asked.

'Nope! You won't have to worry about any annoying little boys trying to get your attention, honey.'

'Oh... okay!'

Piper remembered her father taking her to school for her first day, and the fond smile on his face as she waved at him before being led to her new class. She remembered how she'd nervously straightened the skirt of her uniform as she walked to the front of the class to introduce herself. But most of all, she remembered the way one of the girls caught her eye from across the room somewhere later that day, and it was then that Piper decided she wanted to be friends with that girl.

She had beautiful blond hair, and sparkling grey eyes. Piper noticed that she had a very focused look on her face whenever she was working on something, her mouth quirking up in a determined smile. She also always finished her work first of the whole class and Piper couldn't help but admire her from the moment she'd noticed her.

It was somewhere at the end of the week that she decided to finally pluck up the courage and go talk to the girl. She'd tried making friends with some of the other girls first, but she simply just couldn't get along with them.

'H-hi, I'm Piper!' she said when she noticed the girl standing at her locker which was coincidentally only two away from Piper's.

'I know,' the girl said with a smile. 'You introduced yourself in front of the class at the beginning of the week, silly.'

'Oh... right.'

'But I'm Annabeth,' she said, finally taking Piper's hand and shaking it.

Piper took a deep breath before asking: 'Uhm, do you maybe want to be friends? I don't really know anyone here and-'

'Oh, sure!' Annabeth exclaimed before Piper could even finish her sentence. 'I don't really have that many friends here either, but you seem really nice,' she said, smiling, and Piper smiled back, feeling good about having finally made a friend.

And from that moment on, the two of them became great friends.

They didn't really hang out much with any of the other girls from their class, since Annabeth's only other friend, Thalia, was a few years above them and they didn't get to see her often, but that wasn't a problem. They had each other and that was all that mattered.

Over the years, the two of them became even better friends, and Piper couldn't imagine how her life without Annabeth had been. They had built a treehouse in Piper's garden somewhere in the beginning of their friendship, (Annabeth had designed it and they'd built it with some help from Piper's dad and stepmother) and now it was their special place where they always hung out. They had sleepovers there, they laughed at each other's silly stories there, they cried their eyes out and comforted each other whenever one of them was dealing with something there. It was where they spent most of their time growing up.

'Hey, Piper,' Annabeth said one day when they were snuggled up together in the treehouse that was starting to get a bit small, where they were watching their favourite movie 10 things I hate about you.

'Hm?' Piper hummed, and looked over at her best friend who was resting her head on Piper's shoulder.

'There's something important I need to tell you.'

Piper could hear the seriousness in Annabeth's voice, so she put the movie on pause and carefully sat up to properly look at her. 'What's up?'

'Uhm, my father is getting married,' she explained softly.

'Oh, but that's great! Congrats!' Piper exclaimed, but Annabeth shook her head.

'Pipes, you don't understand... I-' she took a shaky breath, and Piper's could almost feel the bad news coming. 'His girlfriend lives in San Francisco and they've had this long-distance relationship for years now and they finally want to make it official.'

'Annabeth, don't tell me...' Piper said, but she didn't dare finish her sentence.

Annabeth nodded and wrapper her arms around Piper, tears slowly rolling down her face. 'My dad wants us to go live there, but I don't know what I'd do without you,' she sniffed, and Piper could feel her heart break into a million pieces. She wanted to stay strong and comfort her friend, but she could feel the tears welling in her eyes.

'I... I don't know what I'd do without you either. You're my best friend, Annabeth.'

'You're mine too, Piper. I don't want to loose you.'

They held each other close, and Piper thought about it, as her heart crumbled to dust. What would she do without Annabeth by her side? She couldn't just find a new friend, especially not at that stupid school where there were only spoilt, bratty girls to talk to. Time ticked by as they softly cried and tried to comfort each other.

Piper didn't remember exactly what happened after that, but when she woke up it was cold and dark, and Annabeth was gone. Was this what it would feel like without her?

She grabbed her phone and when she checked the time she saw that it was 3 am. There was an unread message from Annabeth:

im sorry for leaving but my dad was probably wondering where i was and i didn't want to wake you :(

She quickly sent back that it was okay and that she understood, and with a sigh she carefully climbed out of the treehouse and made her way back to her room.

Three months. That was all the time they had left together before Annabeth would be leaving. They spent every minute of it together, and did as many things as possible that they soon wouldn't be able to do together anymore.

Annabeth took Piper to a new horror movie since she knew how much Piper liked those, and then proceeded to stay the night because she was too scared to sleep alone. Piper decided to make up for it by buying her ice cream the next day.

The two of them went rollerblading during the evenings and watched the sunset like they sometimes used to do, but now it had became a daily ritual and they simply wouldn't miss a single sunset, not even when it was raining. (They'd go for a walk in the rain instead then, because the water wasn't good for their skates.)

The last week before Annabeth left, Piper even decided to make Annabeth a lucky charm. It was just a simple key ring with small purple heart-shaped beads and a bronze music note charm. She'd made it to represent herself, with her favourite colour and a music note to go with it as a memory of all the times Piper had sung for Annabeth, who was the only person to ever hear it apart from her father.

'I know it's stupid and kind of childish, but I made you a lucky charm,' she said softly, 'to remind you of me and calm you down whenever you get stressed.'

Annabeth took the charm from her and smiled, her grey eyes twinkling with happiness.

'I... actually made you one too,' she told her with a little laugh. 'For reassurance that even if you don't believe you can do something, I will always believe in you.'

It was also a simple key ring, but Annabeth's had beautiful, round, grey beads and a silver owl charm. Everything about it reminded her of Annabeth, from the beads resembling her stormy eyes, to the charm which was her favourite animal.

Piper laughed and hugged her best friend. 'Great minds think alike, huh?' she whispered and Annabeth laughed too as she wrapped her arms around Piper.

The last few days that they still had left, passed way too quickly, and before she could even process what was going on, Piper was at the airport, waving her friend goodbye.

'Promise you'll stay in touch?' she asked, but Annabeth sighed, a sad look on her face.

'High school is going to keep me busy with homework and I'll have to help take care of my stepbrothers, but I'll try my best for you, Pipes.'

'Annabeth!' her father called, and she turned away from Piper with one last smile.

Piper watched her friend walk away, a tight feeling in her chest. All that time spent with her, all those things they'd done, would soon simply be memories. Memories with Annabeth that they couldn't make more of together anymore. She wanted some more time, just a few more months, maybe a few more years, to know what this feeling meant. To know why it hurt as much as it did to watch her friend leave.

'Wait!' she called out, and before she could even think about what she was doing, she ran over to Annabeth who'd stopped in her tracks and turned around.

Piper wrapped her arms around her and buried her face in the other girl's neck.

'I'm sorry, I just needed one last hug,' she said softly, and Annabeth pulled her even closer.

'It's going to be hard missing your hugs,' she mumbled.

Piper looked her friend right in the eye, their arms still around each other. 'You're the best friend I've ever had Annabeth, and nothing will ever be able to change that.'

What then went through her mind was indescribable in words and it was still a mystery to Piper as to what exactly she was thinking, but before she could stop herself she leaned forward and kissed Annabeth on the cheek.

'I'll miss you.'

'I- uh... I'll m-miss you too,' Annabeth stammered, her face flushed bright pink. They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Annabeth pecked Piper on the cheek too and with a soft 'goodbye' she ran off to catch up with her father again.

Piper carefully raised her hand to her cheek, her fingers caressing the place where Annabeth had kissed her.

Her face felt warm and she felt giddy all throughout the way back home, and she couldn't stop thinking about how soft Annabeth's lips had felt on her cheek, even if they'd only touched her ever so briefly.

Then all of a sudden she was reminded of a bad memory that she thought she'd forgotten forever.

'It's a sin.'

At first she hadn't quite understood what her stepmother had meant by that, but now that she was older she did: she was never allowed to see her uncle again, because he'd had a relationship with another man. Something that was completely unacceptable.

Piper didn't know why this stupid thought was popping back up all of a sudden, she'd tried so hard to forget it, and she had. For years the memory had been buried away in the furthest depths of her mind, but why had it come back to haunt her now?

Then she was abruptly reminded of what she'd done only a few minutes ago: she'd kissed another girl.

'No,' Piper thought to herself. 'No, I don't love Annabeth like that. We're just two friends that will most likely never see each other again. It wasn't even on the lips! It was just a simple I'm-going-to-miss-you-I'll-never-forget-you type of kiss between friends. Nothing else.'

But the thought was starting to embed itself in her brain again, just like when she'd first heard it.

'It's a sin. It's a sin. It's a sin.'

It was making her dizzy, creating all these feeling she didn't know existed and she wanted it to stop. She didn't love Annabeth like that. She would never even dare love a girl like that, because it wasn't allowed and she knew it. But then why was she trying to fight this so much? Was it the anger of her best friend leaving? The frustration of not being able to do all the things they still wanted to do? The thought of what could have happened between them if only they'd had more time together... No. Not that.

When she got home, Piper collapsed on her bed and cried her eyes out. What was going on with her?

The first few weeks of wondering what was going on and not being able to hang out with Annabeth were painful, to say the least. Piper felt constantly frustrated at herself for feeling so weird and stupid, at Annabeth for leaving even though it wasn't her fault and at the world for being such a sucky place without her best friend.

It didn't help that the other girls in her class just laughed at her and made comments such as 'aww how is it to be single again?' or 'oh, so she finally realised boys exist, huh?' and it was making Piper mad. They weren't together and the other girls knew that! Her friendship with Annabeth had meant the world to her, and they were just making fun of it.

So, when the year was finally over, Piper went to her dad with a request, and she wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer.

'Dad, I want to go to a mixed school,' she said, crossing her arms and looking at him with a stern face. She couldn't take that stupid all-girls school anymore and she didn't want to know what it was like to be in an all-girls high school when the girls had become even brattier and even more spoilt.

'Honey, are you sure you want-'

'Yes. I'm sick and tired of hanging out with all these rich girls who don't like me. Please, just let me go to a normal high school,' she begged him.

He sighed, but Piper could see the smile on his face. 'Alright, alright, if you want that, then I'm completely fine with it.'

She secretly thanked the fact that her father and Petunia had gotten divorced a while back for Petunia would probably have persuaded her father one way or another to put Piper in an all-girls high school anyway. But thankfully that wasn't the case, and her father had been a lot more relaxed and laid back ever since.

The two of them ended up moving again, this time to New York, since Piper's father had gotten another job offer there. There was also a good high school nearby for her to go to, which was perfect for them. Besides, there wasn't much in Oklahoma anymore that made Piper want to stay, since the only friend she'd had was already gone.

And so Piper went to a normal high school, with boys, and lots of other different types of people. She immediately made two new friends; Will Solace and Leo Valdez, two boys her age who she got along with very well and could always laugh with. They became quite close very quickly, but they could never ever be what Annabeth had meant to her. The other girl still kept in touch like she'd promised, but they were slowly growing apart, with both of them having tight schedules and lots of work to do.

It hurt, and Piper didn't like what was happening to them and their friendship, but thankfully she still had Will and Leo to rely on and the three of them hung out whenever they could. They helped each other out with school projects and even had sleepovers together every once in a while.

On top of that, there was this guy in her maths class who made Piper feel a certain way, something she had barely felt before. The feeling felt vaguely familiar, but at the same time brand new. It took her a while to figure out that this feeling was simply a crush on the guy, who she came to know as Jason Grace. He was tall, blond and had the most striking blue eyes she'd ever seen. He also had this cute little scar on his top lip that he'd apparently gotten from trying to eat a stapler when he was younger.

They slowly got to know each other more and before she knew it they were friends and they sat together during every math class. Piper learnt that he liked being in charge of things and that he was very affectionate when it came to his friends. He liked greeting his friends with a hug, which Piper could find herself relating to. She didn't do it much anymore, but she had always greeted Annabeth with a hug.

Even with the girl almost completely gone from her life, everything still reminded Piper of her.

She sighed softly at the thought of her one day during maths class, and Jason picked up on it.

'Hey, anything wrong?' he whispered, but Piper shook her head.

'Just... thinking,' she answered.

Jason nodded. He didn't push her to tell him more, he didn't ask anything else. Piper was just thinking and that was all. He didn't need to know more, and that was something Piper had really come to love about him.

Lately she'd been thinking more about her feelings for Annabeth. They were kind of similar to what she was starting to feel for Jason, but also not at all the same. The thought of possibly having liked Annabeth crossed her mind once, but she'd shut it off immediately. No, she was straight. Maybe she just admired her old friend for how beautiful and smart she was, how she always knew exactly what she wanted to do and how she was going to achieve it. Maybe she wanted to be more like that.

'But what if...' It was a very annoying thought floating in her mind, but she couldn't get rid of it. What if she liked Annabeth- no. She was straight. But what if she wasn't- no, that was a sin.

There is was again.

'It's a sin.'

It was always there to remind her of what would happen if she even dared think about anything even remotely related to liking other girls. Those stupid words that Petunia had said, they never ever left her alone. Because if they didn't, she wouldn't be reminded of the terrible consequences: she'd be cut off from everyone because they wouldn't want their children to be influenced by such a sin. It wasn't acceptable, and she knew it. She knew that was the reason she had never seen her uncle Terry ever again. Because of the sin.

But it had still influenced her, right? Even if she tried not to, she still thought of 'what if...'

Finally, because she couldn't stand the splitting headache it was giving her, and because it had been keeping her up for nights, she decided to look up if Petunia had actually even been right.

Is it bad to be gay?

Piper read article after article, post after post and it didn't help with her sleep deprovision, but boy, did she learn a thing or two.

Being gay wasn't a bad thing apparently. Lots of people believed it to be bad, but they were close-minded and uneducated, just like Piper had been. A sexuality isn't something you choose, and on top of that, Piper learnt that there are so many more sexualities than being gay or straight. After having read a lot about whether or not it was a bad thing to be gay, she started reading up about all the different sexualities and the more she learnt, the better she felt.

One of the sexualities she was reading about however, spiked her attention.

Pansexual (often shortened to pan) is the attraction to people regardless of gender. As a result, they are attracted to all genders. Pansexual people may be described as being 'gender blind' showing that gender is not a factor in their attraction to a person.

The only time Piper had ever even thought about someone's gender was Annabeth's because she was scared of the possibility of liking girls, but she'd never actually cared. She'd only wanted to obey some stupid close-minded rule that her stepmother had decided to live by.

She hadn't cared about Jason being a boy, and she hadn't cared about Annabeth being a girl.

The more Piper thought about it, the more she thought about that 'what if'.

What if... she was pansexual?

After her realisation, Piper felt better than ever. She didn't have to worry about the fact that simply catching feelings could be considered a 'sin'. She didn't have to stress over what her feelings for Annabeth had meant, because she finally knew: she had been in love with her best friend. But now she was gone, and there was Jason to worry about.

Jason, with his kind and loving heart. Jason, with his sweet smile. Jason, Jason, Jason. He was all that was ever on her mind, and perhaps it was time to actually do something about it.

'I'm going to go ask Jason out,' she said confidently one day during lunch.

Leo snorted. 'Yeah, sure. You've been saying that for what? The last two weeks or something. You literally always chicken out last minute.'

'Not true-'

'Yeah, it is,' Will said, smiling. 'You said you'd ask him in class, but then forgot because you had a test. Then you said you'd ask him after school one time, but didn't think it was the right time. Then there was the time that you told us-'

'Alright, I get it!' Piper exclaimed before her friends could remind her even more of all the times she'd failed to tell Jason about how she felt. 'I guess I'm just scared. What if he doesn't feel the same way?'

'Oh, please,' Leo said, rolling his eyes, 'you're so good at giving me advice on this every time I ask you about how ask a girl out or tell her how I feel, but you don't actually seem to be that good at following it yourself.'

Piper thought about that for a moment. She was always the one Leo would come to for help whenever he had a new crush, which was about every month or so. 'But-'

'No buts,' Will interrupted her.

She sighed. They were right, and she knew it. Yet, she was still scared of the possibility of rejection, even thought she'd told Leo plenty of times that if he got rejected it simply wasn't meant to be, and he deserved someone better because it wouldn't have worked out anyway. But when she applied that same logic to Jason rejecting her... well, she didn't even want to think about it.

'How about this,' Leo started, and Piper was already scared that he was about to come up with some strange kind of plan. 'What if Will and I pretend to be together, so you can bring Jason along with us when we hang out because you 'don't feel like third wheeling',' he explained with air-quotations. 'But oh, no! How sad, there's an emergency, and we'll have to suddenly go, leaving you two alone. Then you can finally tell him how you actually feel!'

'Yeah, no,' Piper said. 'Nothing about that seems like a good idea to me.'

'Oh, come on, it's a great idea! You agree with me, don't you Will?'

Will raised an eyebrow at the other boy. 'Do I? Literally nothing about that sounds even remotely close to a likely scenario.'

'Yeah it does!' Leo said, sounding a bit offended. 'You like dudes, right?'

'No, I don't!' Will exclaimed, all too quickly for it to sound truthful, Piper noted, but she let the matter fly, for this was supposed to be about her boy-problem.

'Well, you don't seem to be interested in girls either, so at least it's believable,' he huffed, but Will rolled his eyes.

'Perhaps on my part, yeah, but you're literally one of the straightest guys in school! How is that supposed to be believable?'

The two of them were giving Piper a headache with all their bickering, so she stepped between them and yelled:

'Enough already! Honestly, what does it matter if anyone is going to believe it or not? It's not going to happen, because I think it's a terrible way to tell Jason.'

'Well, what is a good way to tell him then?' Will asked, but Piper had to admit that she didn't really know.

'Leo was right,' she thought to herself, 'how is it so easy to give others love-advice, but yet so hard to follow it myself?'

'The coffee shop!' she then exclaimed, thinking about all the fanfiction she'd read. Sure, neither of them worked there, and it wasn't were they had met and fallen in love at first sight, so she wouldn't be getting the coffee shop au she'd always dreamed of, but she did know that coffee shops were one of the best places for a romantic declaration of love. 'Tomorrow during maths class I'll ask him if he wants to grab coffee with me after school, and then I'll finally tell him how I feel!'

'This sounds like that one time when you said you'd just ask him after school,' Leo noted, but Piper ignored him.

'Coffee shops just radiate couple energy!'

'Not really, but I'll leave you in your imaginary fanfiction world,' Will said. 'But you better ask him out, because I'm getting sick and tired of your endless pining.'

'Yeah, yeah, don't worry,' she told him. 'I'm confident this time.'

And she wasn't lying, because she did feel confident. She had actually made a proper plan this time, and she was sure it was going to work.

Her confidence boosted her mood for the entire day, and she felt like nothing could ever stop her, until she got home and started working on her poetry assignment for English. It completely ruined the whole 'confident' vibe she had going on.

Piper stared hopelessly at her textbook, the words swimming off the pages and around her head, slowly losing any form of meaning they'd had.

She groaned in frustration as the words continued to swim around her head. There was no point in just staring at the assignment without actually knowing what to do, so with a sigh she got up and grabbed her phone.

She texted Will to ask if he could maybe help her, since poetry was something he had never really struggled with, unlike Piper. Unfortunately, he told her he was busy at the moment, but that he would try to help tomorrow.

As Piper tried thinking about what to do for her dumb assignment, an idea popped into her mind: what if she went to the library to see if there were any books on poetry that could help her, or at least give a little inspiration on what to do.

When she got to the library it took a while to find what she was looking for, but after what had seemed like forever she finally found a book that looked like it could be useful. There was only one problem: the book was on one of the highest shelves, and Piper was helplessly short.

She tried standing on the tips of her toes, and reaching up as high as possible, but even then she could just not reach it.

'Need some help?' a voice behind her asked. A voice that Piper would recognise in a heartbeat.

When she turned around she was met with none other than Jason Grace with his blue eyes and his adorable smile.

'Uh, yeah, that would be great,' she told him, feeling a slight blush rise to her cheeks.

Jason reached up to grab the book, and as he did so, the hem of his shirt lifted, revealing a bit of his toned stomach.

'Nice abs you've got there,' Piper said with a slight smirk once he'd given her the book, enjoying the way the comment had caught Jason off-guard.

'Oh, uh, thank you,' he said with a small laugh, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 'I go to the gym at least three times a week so, yeah...'

'Well, all that hard work definitely paid off,' she told him, and added a wink just for good measure.

This was definitely not what she had planned, but Piper was enjoying it nonetheless. She was especially enjoying how flustered Jason got by a bit of flirting. It was cute.

They ended up talking for a while, and Piper enjoyed the time they spent casually chatting in the library. She forgot all her worries about that dumb poetry assignment and just relaxed and had a nice time with Jason.

It was only when she received a message from her father asking if she'd be back home on time for dinner that Piper realised that they'd been hanging out for a few hours already.

'Ah, it's my dad,' she told Jason apologetically. 'I have to go, but it was nice talking to you, Jason. And thanks for getting the book for me,' she said, holding up the book.

Jason nodded and smiled. 'Yeah, that's fine, we have been here for quite a while, huh?'

Piper laughed. 'Only... two and a half hours. Well, I'll see you tomorrow?'

'Wait! Before you go, I was actually wondering if maybe you'd want to go out with me some time? As in... a date,' Jason said shyly, and wow, Piper had not seen that one coming.

'U-uh, y-yeah! That- I... I'd love that,' she stammered.

Jason smiled and bit his lip, and Piper didn't know how this boy could be so cute and so damn attractive at the same time.

'Alright, well, how about this weekend?'

'That sounds lovely.' Piper answered softly, smiling as a warm feeling filled her up inside.

'Well then, I can't wait. See you tomorrow, Pipes.' He then leaned down and kissed her on her cheek, and Piper sent him one more smile before turning and leaving to go home.

As she walked home, she couldn't help but feel a little sense of déjà vu from that kiss on the cheek. She couldn't help but think of the moment when Annabeth had left; when she too had kissed Piper on the cheek like that.

She sighed at the memory of her childhood friend. The distance had made them grow apart, just like they'd feared would happen, but Piper realised that was okay. She'd moved on and found new friends, new people to love, but nothing could ever take away the sweet memories she had of Annabeth.

In a sense, the other girl had still helped Piper find her way: without her, she would never have known she was pansexual. And even though Jason was a boy, and Piper wouldn't have had any problems with loving him before she found out, she wouldn't have been able to love as freely as she did now. It had truly helped her to come to terms with who she was, and learn to fully love herself that way, for she was now finally able to let others love her like that too.

When she got home, she took a quick moment to admire the perfect sunset and smiled, thinking of her upcoming date with Jason and how perfect it was going to be, just like the sunset. She then carefully unlocked the door, her key ring that had been hanging on her key since the day she'd gotten it still there: a lucky charm with beautiful, round, grey beads and a silver owl.

End Notes

Never thought I'd have to google 'how to flirt' but oh well, here we are. (Not that it was of any use, I learnt nothing and my writing didn't improve so whoops.) Also, if you enjoyed this story, I highly suggest you go read Confused, Confused, Can't Figure Out My Own Feelings, which is about Will, who- as you might have guessed from how subtly I hinted at it in this fic- is also trying to figure things out.

Whelp, that was all! If you want, leave me a review and tell me what you thought, if not, thank you so much for reading! I hope you have a wonderful day, byeee :)