radoddish- i like to write certain random scenes so I've already written that one and oh man it is hella angsty
TheMushroomGuild- hahah YES sounds like an ideal roleo reunion
guest- i'm guessing this is all about hope because of the emergency talk! glad to have ya back and that honestly sounds like my type of show
AyeraeW- the tears are real. and OOOHHH love that for you
Guest- heck yeah she is! and yay, i'm glad you're excited, thank you!
LovelyAstorxia-honestly, what is the timing of this year? thought I would be back in november but here we are hahah. and yes, technically it is but there *kinda* won't be a scroll this time- more on that later. and you're writing a story? that's awesome, congrats!
Wherever Rosie went, Will Solace and Nico diAngelo were sure to be a few steps behind her. She found it to be annoying, but knew that she couldn't say anything about it. They would never leave her alone.
One day, she was particularly frustrated about it, whipping around at one of the fighting stations during training at camp.
"I've never heard of anyone with two shadows," she snapped, the words probably coming out a little more threatening than she meant them with a sword in her hand.
Will stopped short, his eyes wide. "Okay, so she totally caught us," he whispered loudly to Nico, who rolled his eyes.
"You know the deal, Reiger," Nico said, crossing his arms and looking back at her. "Chiron said you had to hang out with people."
"Stupid centaur," she muttered under her breath.
Will and Nico, inexplicably, had become a unit after the war. She wasn't sure how they had gotten so close...but she didn't think too hard about it.
Will picked up a nearby sword. "You want to spar?" he asked, jiggling the sword. "Let some of that anger out? Come on, I know you like that!"
"Anger?" she asked, pretending to be oblivious. "What anger? I am peachy."
"Rosie-" Nico started.
"I'm so peachy I'm in the produce section."
Will laughed as Nico's scowl deepened. There was another thing- she had never met two people who were such opposites- how could they be friends?
"Come on," Will said to Nico. "That was a good one."
"Don't encourage her," Nico said, rolling his eyes.
"Guys," she said, getting annoyed. "I'm right here."
"Why don't you go to the Bunker after lunch?" Will suggested. "Hang out with Jake and Harley? Help Nyssa build something?"
"I have plans."
"Who are you hanging out with besides us?" Nico asked, incredulous. She found it ironic how Nico was talking like he was the king of social interaction.
"Phone plans," she gritted out.
"So she totally doesn't have friends," Will muttered under his breath.
But she wasn't lying, and she looked forward to these weekly phone calls.
Rosie didn't have the concentration to finish a book anymore. Her energy had been drained from her, something she loved ripped away.
So, she turned to the nerdiest person she knew: Jason.
She would be on the phone with Jason for hours, where he would tell her about what books he was reading for school. He'd read her quotes and give her his opinions on character, submerging her into the story.
"So, jog my memory. What happened last?" Rosie asked.
"Tom, Huck, and Joe just showed up to their own funerals." The connection wasn't great, which again reminded her that Jason and Piper were currently across the country, living their own lives in California. That they had moments in their lives that Rosie didn't even know about.
She snickered, holding the phone up closer to her ear. "That's right. Complete chaos, and I support it."
She could hear Jason chuckle. "Of course you would."
"It's the perfect ploy. It's a Frankenstein moment, you know? Like, 'ahh, he's alive'!"
"Remind me to read you Frankenstein soon."
Sitting there, listening to Jason read was one of the few times she was distracted. Transporting herself into another world meant leaving her problems from this one behind. It meant that for a brief period of time, she wasn't Rosie.
She heard a door slam on Jason's end, and what sounded like a Queen song blaring.
"Pipes just got back from surfing," Jason informed her. His voice became muffled as he yelled out, "Hey, Piper, Rosie's on the phone!"
"Rosie?" She heard a voice echo. "Hand it over!"
"Rosie, I'm putting you on speaker."
"Rosie?" Piper said.
"Hey, Pipes." It was good to hear Piper's voice. It was weird going on from seeing Piper and Jason everyday...to only speaking to them once a week.
"You sound happy. Are you happy?"
What a weird, loaded question.
"I mean, I did finally master the fine art of patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time...so not a bad day."
There was a brief pause.
"Well, that's great!" Piper said in an upbeat tone. "You should've seen the waves today- huge. You gotta come out here one day and surf with me."
"Me. Surfing."
"Trust me, Rosie, you'll get into it, and it's awesome."
"Me. Surfing," she repeated flatly.
Piper didn't seem to hear this. "That reminds me, Jason, did you pick up more sunblock?"
"You asked me to pick up sunblock?" Jason asked, confused.
"Yes," Piper said impatiently. "This morning, remember?"
"I was working on some shrine blueprints this morning. I must have been distracted, I'm sorry."
Rosie heard Piper sigh. "Right. Of Course. Always working on that blueprint."
Rosie winced, feeling like she was a part of a conversation she shouldn't be a part of. It was impossible to not pick up on the tension of Piper's words, even through the phone.
"Look, I'll pick some up as soon as I'm done talking to Rosie, okay?"
"Alright," Piper said tepidly. "I'm going to shower. Bye, Rosie."
"Bye, Pipes," she muttered.
Jason's end of the line was silent for a second.
"She surfs alot, huh?" Rosie piped up quietly.
She heard a long, labored sigh. "I think...I think it's her way of coping. On the weekends, she'll get up to surf and won't come back for hours."
"Oh." It occurred to her that again, selfishly, she had been focusing on her own grief. She could only assume Jason and Piper were still grieving as well.
"And I...I admit I'm spending alot of time on the shrines for both of the camps."
"But you guys are okay, right?" She knew that Piper had been feeling off about her relationship with Jason towards the end of their quest. Rosie had just figured that the two of them needed some normalcy, and then they would be fine.
"Yeah." Something about his tone didn't quite convince her. "We're fine, Rosie. What about you two, though? You know you're always welcome to come and spend the weekend here. Grant and Reyna came to visit a few weeks ago...it was fun."
"Yeah. Um.." Her mind scrambled for an excuse. "You know I've been meaning to. I've just been so busy with...training. And such."
"Right."
It was easy to lie on the phone.
She didn't want to admit it to anyone, especially not Jason. But as time passed, and her conversations with Piper became more and mre stifled...she was afraid that she and Piper were becoming two different people, people who had nothing in common with one another. Two ships of Theseuses, separated by waves.
If she went to visit Piper and Jason...there was a chance her suspicions would be confirmed.
"Listen…I gotta go, okay?"
They were moving on. At the end of the day, the two of them were moving on.
"Bye, Rosie. I...we'll talk soon, okay?"
"For sure."
She hung up, feeling empty from that conversation. It was so easy to slip away from someone when you weren't spending everyday with them. The crew on the Argo II merely felt like a distant memory at this point.
A bad habit of hers was skipping the Mess Hell, something she could hardly believe Chiron let her get away with.
Instead, she stayed inside her cabin, watching Dirty Dancing on the little antenna TV she stole from the big house. She had been sleeping in what was Percy's bed...for some reason, it was comforting to her.
She blinked back tears, thinking about how she and Piper used to watch this movie together all of the time.
Someone knocked on her door about halfway in, a knock that went ignored.
"Rosie?" It was Nyssa. "Are you in there?"
"Can't hide forever, Rosie," snapped an impatient tone. Jake?
"Clearly, she's ignoring you guys," Drew Tanaka, one of the Aphrodite campers, said. "She doesn't want to talk."
"Guys?" Will's voice floated through the door, as Rosie wrapped her blanket around her tighter. She ignored her friends, raising the volume of the movie. "What's going on?"
"Rosie won't come out," Nessa said with a sigh.
"I'm like, ninety percent sure she's watching Dirty Dancing in there," Drew said. "Trust me, I know that movie."
"Dirty Dancing?" Nico said, aghast. "That's Rosie to-go sad movie! Amateurs! Rosie, open up!"
Someone was now pounding on her door, a repetitive boom-boom-boom. She groaned inwardly, burrowing her head into her pillow.
She could hear Nico sigh. "That's it."
Her door slammed open, Nico shuffling in and closing it behind her. He opened his mouth, like he was ready to go off on Rosie.
One look at her, however- bloodshot eyes, runny nose- and he stopped in his tracks.
"Hey," she whispered, her voice croaking. "You know me well."
Nico shot her a sympathetic look, walking further into her cabin.
"I've never actually seen this movie," he commented with a shrug.
"Patrick Swayze does things for me," she muttered. He was, after all, one of her long-standing celebrity crushes.
Nico glanced at the screen, nodding some approval. "He is attractive." He looked back at her. "I see you've taken a liking to Percy's bed."
She shrugged. "It's comfier. I guess I might've spent too much jumping on mine in the past."
Nico raised his eyebrows. "I'm not going to ask. How is Percy? He hasn't visited in a while."
He's moved on. Just like everyone else.
She didn't meet Nico's eyes. She kept watching the movie.
"Rosie?"
"We talk occasionally," she said lightly. "He's busy. You know, senior year."
"And Piper and Jason?"
"I don't know, Nico," she snapped tiredly. "They aren't here. Out of sight, out of mind."
"You don't have to do that, you know."
"Do what?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "I get it- you're angry that everyone left….that people are changing. But enough. You have an entire group of people outside your door who care about you. You have two choices: waste away watching that very attractive man on your screen everyday….or spend time with the people who bother checking up on you."
She stared back at him, saying nothing. Nico was always one to call her out on her shit, make her see whatever she was ignoring.
She pulled out a package of Twizzlers from underneath the blanket, tossing it over to Nico.
Nico caught it, glancing down at it with a confused expression. "What is this?"
"Me spending time with someone who has bothered to check up on me. It's time you see Dirty Dancing."
The two sat together, gorging on candy as Rosie educated Nico on Dirty Dancing. She was sure he'd never admit it, but he was secretly enjoying it.
"Rosie?"
"Hmm?" She said through a mouthful of Reese's.
"What do you think of Will?"
"Will?" she asked. "Will like... Will Solace?"
"Yeah." Nico's face portrayed no emotion as he calmly chewed on a Twizzler, not making eye contact with Rosie.
"He's your Felix."
"Huh?"
"The Odd Couple," she said, unwrapping another peanut butter cup. "He's the cheery, neurotic Felix while you're Oscar, the grouchy one."
Nico blushed, turning beet red. "We're not a couple."
Rosie paused. "I know- it's just an old tv show. They're roommates."
"Oh. I knew that." Nico looked embarrassed, glancing down at the ground. "Just...me and Will. That'd be stupid."
"What? Nico, be clear or shut up, we're missing shirtless Patrick Swayze."
Nico gulped, visibly nervous. "Nothing. Forget I said anything."
Rosie studied Nico as she took a handful of M&Ms. Something about Will was bothering him.
"I mean...Will does this humming thing."
"Excuse me?" Nico asked, perplexed.
"You haven't noticed? He hums...like, all of the time. It doesn't matter what he's doing. He...just hums."
She noticed Nico's face light up, only to quickly scowl. "Can't say I've noticed."
"And he's tall," she continued. "Like, annoyingly tall. He forgets how long his legs are, half of the time I'm running after him."
"I know right?" Nico said, no doubt a hint of excitement in his voice.
"A-ha!" Rosie said, pointing to him accusingly.
Nico was back to scowling. "What?"
"You'e hiding something about Will. Spill." She laughed to herself. "Will Spill- that rhymed."
Nico rolled his eyes. "No, I'm not."
"You lit up like a Christmas tree when I started talking about him- you don't even like Christmas, Nico."
Nico chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Will...we've gotten closer. I thought..that maybe…"
"Yes?"
"Nevermind. Forget it- it doesn't matter." Nico quickly took another handful of candy, shoving it into his mouth and effectively shutting up.
Rosie paused, pondering his words.
"I don't know many things. I know this movie," she began.
"Huh?"
"I know one other thing. You're here, and Will's here...and I think it's a really beautiful thing that you two are existing together in the same place. It'd...it'd be a shame to waste that."
Nico chewed silently on his twizzler, eyes glued to the screen. His eyes almost looked hopeful for a second, before darkening.
"Circumstance doesn't predict success, Rosie. Love is far more complicated than that."
Butch, a camper and stablekeeper, whistled as he worked.
Rosie's eye was caught by the white coat of a Pegasus, one of many in the camp stables.
As she approached, Butch's back to her face, she could hear the voices of the horses in her head, all colliding chaotically. Butch was currently combing one of the pegasus, slowly and gently.
She took an uneasy step back, causing Butch to turn around, eyebrows raised.
"Hey, Reiger, what's happening?"
"Nothing much," she said, eyes flickering uneasily away from the Pegasi. "I see you have some new friends."
Butch nodded, hands on his hips as he surveyed the group.
"Chiron wants to integrate them into camp more. I'm going to start giving flying lessons- you want to take one for a spin?"
"Right now?" A slither of panic crept into her voice.
"Yeah, I can help you saddle up-"
"No thanks," she quickly interjected. "I'm trying this new thing where...I stay on the ground."
Ever since she fell from the sky, she couldn't stomach the thought of being in the air. The thought of flying….made her nauseous.
"You sure?" He questioned further.
"I'm sure."
You're lying.
A voice came out to her, clear and crisp. She snapped her head towards where it was coming from, seeing the white Pegasus staring back at her calmly. It unnerved her; she gulped, looking away.
"Suit yourself," Butch said with a shrug.
What do you know? She challenged the Pegasus on her way out, shaking her head.
She brushed off the interaction with the horse.
Focus, Rosie. You know what you have to do.
She walked into the empty infirmary, where Will Solace was currently filing through some papers, looking bored out of his mind.
"Will!" She exclaimed, launching herself into the office chair opposite him. "Any life or death situations right now?"
He shrugged, glancing down at his pinky. "I did get a paper cut, if we count that."
"You poor thing. Listen, can I steal you away for a second?"
Will grinned, eagerly throwing the papers aside. "Consider me stolen."
As the two of them headed outside, Will stuck his hands in his pockets, already taking his annoyingly huge strides.
"So, am I allowed to inquire about the nature of this visit?" He asked, eyebrows raised as he looked over at her.
Rosie bit her lip to keep from laughing. "I was thinking we could watch a movie."
"A movie, huh? I'm always down for that."
"Yeah...me, you, and Nico."
"Oh." Will's face softened, and Rosie could only imagine that was the look on her face that everyone on the Argo II saw when she was in love with a certain idiot. She knew in certainty right there that Will felt the same way Nico did about him. "I'd….I'd like that."
"Shawshank Redemption. Have you seen it?"
They were approaching her cabin, and she noticed Will's strides become slower, panic etching onto his face.
"No," he muttered. "Haven't seen it."
"It's based on the book by Stephen King."
"Yeah, I read The Shining, but…." his words trailed off as they climbed her steps. Will gulped, shuffling his feet awkwardly and pausing at the door. "I'm a baby when it comes to horror."
Rosie nudged the door open with her hip, allowing for Will to pass her and walk into the cabin.
Nico sat on one of the beds, his back to them as he was chewing a Twizzler from Rosie's ever-constant collection of bedroom candy.
"I'm telling you, I don't like prison dramas, Rosie…." Nico scoffed, turning around.
His mouth widened at the sight of Will, the Twizzler slipping out of his mouth and onto the bed covers.
"Yeah, and Will's a baby with horror," she said, shutting the door behind her. "We're learning a lot today about film preferences."
"Hey," Will said, looking flushed as he smiled. "You've never seen this movie either?"
"N-no," Nico muttered, discreetly wringing his hands together. "I try not to feed into Rosie's Stephen King obsession."
"Hey!" She protested.
Will moved closer to the bed Nico was sitting on, gesturing down. "Okay if I sit here?"
Nico gulped. "Yeah. Sure."
Will nodded, sitting down next to Nico. The two of them sat rigidly, not seeming to want to get any closer to one another.
Will turned to Rosie, loudly clearly his throat. "So, um, should we get this party started?"
Rosie feigned shock, gasping suddenly. "Oh god, guys...you're going to hate me for this, but I have to go."
Nico's face morphed into a death glare, as Will gave her a concerned look.
"Why?" Will asked. "Is everything alright?"
"It totally slipped my mind. I can't remember anything these days." At least, that wasn't a lie. "I'm supposed to be training with Sherman in, like, five minutes."
"Oh," Will said, looking a little deflated. "Well...okay. I guess we can reschedule."
"Yes," Nico gritted out, shooting Rosie a look. "Let's reschedule."
"No!" She quickly interjected, maybe a little too enthusiastically. "I mean...no. That's alright. I've watched Shawshank Redemption a billion times. You guys stay and watch."
"No," Nico shot back quickly. "We shouldn't-"
"Really," she insisted. "Watch it. If you guys are going to shit on it, I'd rather not be here."
Will shrugged, looking over at Nico discreetly. "I'd, um...be okay with staying. And watching. If you're good with that."
"That's a great idea," Rosie agreed, slowly backing towards the door. "I'll be back in a few hours, okay!"
Just as she was opening the door, Nico shot up and rushed forward. "Wait!"
"Yes?" She asked innocently, already on the porch of the cabin, ready to shut the door.
"What are you doing?" He whispered in a panicked tone.
"I told you. Training with Sherman."
"Forget it, Rosie, I know what you're doing."
"So?"
"So stop it!"
"Nico," she said firmly, meeting his scared, scared eyes. "If you actually want me to stop...I'll stay. But don't tell me to stay only because you're scared."
Nico fell into silence, his eyes wide.
"Okay…" he gulped, a heavy lump in his throat. "You...you can go."
She felt a warmness in her heart, realizing she was watching the beginning of something beautiful.
"And Nico?"
"Yes?" He said with one final glance.
"This is a good thing. Let it happen."
Nico gave her a small, breathless smile as he shut the door.
She was trying a new thing- making a mental list of things she needed to do. It helped giving some organization to the chaos in her mind.
One thing had been checked off.
For today, there was only one more thing.
And it was so much harder.
The Bunker loomed before her, looking ten times bigger than it actually was. She could hear the faint sound of voices and laughter inside, no doubt the likes of the remaining Hephaestus' children.
She took a deep breath, shutting her eyes tightly.
"Time to head in for the night, fire guy."
Leo looked at where she was standing in the Bunker's doorway with a tiny smile. "The night is young."
"It's two am. You know the deal."
Leo sighed dramatically, relenting as he dropped his tools onto the work station with a loud clang.
"Guess I'm done for the night."
She took a glance behind him, where the beginning of their war ship was taking hold.
She whistled. "Look at that. It's coming along nicely."
Leo looked at the ship with a loving look. "Yeah, it looks pretty good, doesn't it?"
"And the best part? It'll still be there in the morning. So come on, bedtime."
"You didn't have to come get me, Freckles. That forest sometimes gives me the creeps." Leo shuddered. "Who knows what's hiding in there?"
Rosie waved him off. "Anything in that forest isn't going to want to encounter me."
Leo stifled a laugh, giving her an incredulous look.
"No offense, Freckles, but I've met ladybugs that were more threatening than you."
"Ouch, man, right to the heart," she said, feigning being hurt. "Stay here, then- be the forest creature who lives in the Bunker."
Leo laughed, shrugging. "I've got a nice home here, then."
"So it seems you do."
Leo paused for a second, shaking his head. "I take it back, it's a crappy home."
"Says the one who has a makeshift bed here."
"Aw, come on, Freckles, I was going to be sentimental! You guys are my home-you, Beauty Queen, and Professor Grace."
"That was beyond cheesy, Leo."
With a lump in her throat, she quietly opened the door to the Bunker. She was instantly flooded by memories, memories she pushed away.
Harley rollerbladed past her in a flash, hardly registering her. A few feet behind him sat Nyssa, brows creased in concentration as she tinkered over something.
Jake was the first one to notice her, eyes wide as she entered.
"Well," He said with a low whistle. "Never thought I'd see a ghost."
Harley skidded to a stop, his jaw dropping open as he glanced at Rosie. The screwdriver in Nyssa's hand slipped out onto the floor with a clang, Nyssa's face frozen in shock.
"We get it, Jake, I'm pale," she joked lightly, taking another step tentatively. She let out a nervous laugh, glancing at the floor. "I-um, it's hard to explain...but I can't be in my cabin right now, so…could I hang out here for a while?"
Nyssa looked over at Jake, the two of them exchanging slow smiles.
Harley rollerbladed closer, tugging her hand.
"Come on!" The words started spilling out of Harley, him talking a mile a minute. "I learned a new skating trick, and it's epic, I almost broke my nose before!"
Jake and Nyssa both broke out into laughter, grinning. Soon enough, Rosie felt herself laughing too.
It was good to be back.
"I'm right behind you, Harley," she promised, as he rollerbladed away. "I'm ready to see this trick."
