We had to see them eventually...
Chapter 4: The Dove and the Snake
To all the lovely ladies reading right now, some advice; for your own safety, don't ever hit on Jason Grace. I know he's good-looking, (he's far better looking then me,) but believe me when I say, the price of a date with the Son of Jupiter is more than you want to pay. Namely, his warlike girlfriend will load you into a catapult and shoot you so high, the wind gods will have to send Olympus a memo regarding an Unidentified Screaming Object. So unless you want to end up like that prat Octavian, I suggest you go ogle some other hunk.
However, that evening after dinner, Piper McLean was not thinking about her boyfriend, but rather, her boyfriend's best friend. The catapult that Piper was fixing sat on the coast, pointing out to the ocean. Progress on the repair was slow, as the girl would periodically stare out into the golden sunset, reminiscing, and imagining that she saw bronze wings on the horizon...
She turned back to her work, singing under her breath. "When you fall asleep, with your head upon my shoulder... When you're in my arms, but you've gone somewhere deeper..."
Unbeknownst to Piper, someone, just coming back from dinner, was crouched behind the catapult's great wheel, listening in secret. The song continued.
"Are you going to age with Grace? Are you going to leave a path to trace? Are you going to age with Grace..."
The hidden figure smiled at the sound of his own name.
"Or will you awake and hide your face?"
Piper's voice was like magic. (Not really magic, even though she could do that.) It was clear and melodic and bright. In his seat on the grass, Jason sank a little bit, relaxed and soothed by the sound.
"When O-o-oblivion, is ca-a-alling out your name, you always take it further, than I-I-I ever can..."
The voice quieted and died. Jason peeked up and saw Piper staring out at the sunset again, looking sad and lonely. He wanted to do something for her. Luckily, he knew the second verse. Rising from behind the catapult's frame, the baritone took up the song as he walked around to his girlfriend.
"When you play it hard, and I try to follow you there, it's not about contro-ol, but I turn back, when I see where you go."
The eagle feather nearly flew out of Piper's braid as she whirled around with a broad smile on her face. Before she could stand, Jason sank to the grass beside her and held her close to him. He chuckled. "Well, my dear? Are you going to age with Grace?"
"Not sure yet." she said, leaning backwards into his chest and closing her eyes. "Are you going to ask me?"
"Don't you think I'm a little young to be proposing marriage, Pipes?"
"Shush, Lightning Rod. Just sing me something."
Jason, a little surprised at her request, thought for a minute, then began a song that Piper had never heard before.
"How do you catch a falling star? How do you fix a broken hea-art? How can we go back to rewrite this from the start? Back when our world glowed from just a spark?"
Jason had not been a great singer, but singing with Piper was something he enjoyed, so he had been practicing on and off. He was not so comfortable singing a solo, though. He took a breath and continued, feeling Piper shift a little against him.
"Stuck inside this atmosphere, watching my light just disappear, o-oh, and all the things that I'd forgotten while you were here, now I remember them all, so clear."
Piper had felt Jason's heartbeat accelerate slightly when she had asked him to sing. He had nothing to worry about. His voice was rich and warm as sunlight. Inwardly, she smiled broadly. "I'll have to keep this a secret, or Drew will be all over him again."
Jason was not privy to her thoughts of mirth and continued to the chorus. "Just give me one more time. I'll swim through the high tide, I'll stand on the frontlines, I'll give. It. All. Just to see your face! And tell you it's alright... To hold you for one night..." His arms tightened around her midriff, and Piper shivered, even though she was warm. "Just give me one more time."
The pair said nothing for a long while, looking out at the sun, sinking lower into the water, as it's golden rays shot across an orange sky and the pulsing ocean. Jason smiled at the thought of his oceanic pal. He let the silence grow from lengthy to borderline awkward, before skillfully breaking it. "I wonder how Fishbreath and Wise Girl are. Annabeth IM'ed you lately?"
Piper, transported by the music and the silence, was in another place. She had to process for a bit. "Wha?... Oh, no... no, I haven't gotten any Iris Messages for a while."
Jason knew that faraway voice well. He smiled knowingly as his hands went into his girlfriend's hair. "I've been missing him, too."
Piper shouldn't have been so surprised, but she still shook her head at the uncanny way Jason could tell what she was thinking. She went still again so Jason could keep stroking her hair, and suddenly she smiled. "Remember when he went missing, and we were all freaking out about it for the longest time, and then after all the worrying we find him sitting on a balcony sipping coffee? Wearing the same clothes he'd had when we'd met him? And he didn't jump out of his chair and tackle-hug you. He just sat there, looking at us like "sup", as if he'd been just left for a few minutes to use the bathroom or something."
Jason laughed. "Those same clothes he'd been wearing when Butch almost chucked him off a flying chariot?"
"I'd forgotten about that! Ha, I remember the look on your face in Boreas's palace, when he pushed a button and turned Festus into a suitcase."
"It was just the way he was so nonchalant about it! Just all, 'Excuse me, airport security, can I take this as carry-on, or should I get it checked?'. I just about fainted."
Piper's laugh shuddered out of her as Jason ran the very tips of his fingernails along the top of her head. She waited until she was a little calmer before speaking. "I wonder when we'll see him again."
"Soon." Jason said without hesitation. He looked down at her puzzled face and grinned. "Very soon."
"How do you know? Did he IM you? Did you have a dream? Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Calm down, Pipes!" He laughed, as she stood indignantly to look down at him. He shifted over to a seat beside the catapult. "No, no sign. Believe me, when I get an Iris message or dream in the middle of the night telling me how he's doing, I won't just tell you when you wake up. I'll burst into your cabin while you're sleeping, kiss you very long and hard, and then wake up the entire camp, including Chiron, and then I'll Iris Message Hazel and Frank and Percy and Annabeth and Reyna and Hylla and Thalia, and then I'm going to throw a party Mr. D would be proud of, and then... Actually, in all honesty, then I'll probably kiss you more. A lot more."
Piper laughed as Jason went on, blushing slightly towards the end. "How do you know he's coming soon, then?"
"Just a feeling." He said, sitting up with his back against the catapult. "I wouldn't worry. He's Commander Toolbelt, and wherever he is, he's got his pet death machine. As long as Leo and Festus are together, they'll be fine."
Piper nodded, looking out to the sunset. It was getting lower. The view was stunning, but Jason kept getting distracted. The girl standing next to him was so beautiful, he still had trouble believing it some days. The thought that he was hers... and she was his. Piper turned and caught him staring, and smiled. Jason looked away, embarrassed. He suddenly recognized the fading light for what it meant. "Chiron said a campfire at dark, so we might need to-"
"We've still got some time." Piper gave Jason a sideways glance, then turned and walked to him. "Don't talk to the daughter of Aphrodite about kissing her long and hard and expect to get off easy."
She knelt facing him, straddling his outstretched legs. Jason wanted to protest that someone might see them, but they were behind the catapult. Not to mention that the hottest girl he'd ever seen was breathing in his ear, and he could feel her chest and hips pressing against him. He wasn't really inclined to protest. "You are so asking for it."
His fingernails ran up her back, making her seize up just slightly. He pulled her closer as her hands ran through his short blond hair. His lips brushed a faint path up the copper tone of her neckline, before coming to stop over her mouth. Piper moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck as Jason's tongue wrestled with hers.
The two of them were a little late to the campfire that night.
~~}Ω{~~
To Rachel Elizabeth Dare, it seemed as though everyone wanted her to leave her favorite place on earth. And she was not happy about it.
Ever since the gift of prophecy had been blocked during the War with Gaea, (Rachel had her own suspicions as to what had happened,) Rachel hadn't just stopped spewing green smoke, but had also stopped having future-telling dreams, and it pained her to feel as though she was just a regular mortal again. Her natural talent to see through the mist was unaltered, but other than that she just a normal girl. This feeling of disconnect to the world she loved was compounded by the not-so-helpful efforts of some of her friends at Camp.
To many of the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, the smart choice for Rachel would be to move back to the city, or go home to her parents, and hope that her powers never returned. They didn't understand how anyone not cursed with the life of a demigod could possibly wish for such an existence. Time and time again people had questioned her desire to get out of prep school and stay at Camp year round. They didn't understand what it was like to have been searching answers for so long, and to have found so much more than she had expected to find. It went beyond her love for her friends in both camps. To just pretend that magic wasn't a part of her, that she didn't belong to this world of monsters and myths and gods... She loved this life. Why couldn't they see that? Why couldn't he see that?
Pulling on her pajamas, Rachel climbed into bed. Her room, (well, cave, really), full of art supplies, easels, half-finished paintings, and open CD cases, faded from view as the soft bronze light of the wall lamps dimmed and disappeared. The stream just outside Rachel's cave sang a quiet song that she could sleep by. Slowly, the eyes of the oracle closed.
She had no idea how restless of a night this would be.
~~}Ω{~~
As Camp Half-Blood slept, Nico tossed and turned. Today had been hard. Showing up to the archery range right in time to watch Lou Ellen and Will leaving for lunch. It had been too much. He'd headed to the Stadium to talk to Mrs. O'Leary. The big dog always made him feel better. When Will, Cecil, and Lou Ellen had come looking for him later, Juniper had helped him hide in the woods. She was always kind to Nico when he went walking by himself. He'd had a long time to think before dinner.
It hadn't been a secret from him. He'd known how Lou and Will felt, and watched them grow closer. But he was having and hard time giving up on the kind healer. His best friend.
He punched his scarlet pillow angrily. Will didn't feel the same way he did. He could never see Nico as... "Oh, Hera, I am HOPELESS."
Thank the gods Will had no idea how Nico felt.
~~}Ω{~~
Nico shouldn't have thanked the gods at all. Because Will knew.
He just couldn't believe it.
As the day had progressed, what with Nico gone at lunch, missing the rest of the day, and then ignoring his friends at dinner and going to bed early before the campfire, Will had grown steadily more worried. Eventually, Lou Ellen had told Cecil to go play night volleyball while she talked to Will alone. Assuming the two wanted to go make out in some dark corner of camp, he'd made a disgusted face and left.
But Lou hadn't wanted to kiss.
Sitting on the edge of his bunk, Will supposed he'd been a little out of line. But the argument that had broken out had been just as much Lou's fault as Will's. It was still ridiculous. That Nico liked him. Ugh.
Much as Will wanted to deny it, though, he couldn't help but look back on his friend's past behavior. Had there been subtle hints that Will had ignored? Could Lou be right?
He flung himself atop his sheets in surrender. He couldn't think about it now. He didn't want to think about it now.
He would never get the sleep he craved.
~~}Ω{~~
As Chiron watched from the window of the Big House, violet streaks of light soared through the air above camp. Like rouge Aurora Borealis, they streaked down into different cabins around camp. Aphrodite. Hades. Apollo. Hecate. Hypnos. The Oracle's cave.
Chiron closed the blinds. Whatever was going to happen tonight, he didn't want to hear about it before the morning after.
A/N: The next chapter will concern dreams. The songs used are Oblivion by Bastille and One More Time by 7Lions. In case you're still confused, the Chapter name refers to Piper, (the Dove,) and Rachel, (the Snake,). Until next time. -Hart