A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know. I updated way late. Again.
This scenario is: Water Park – or rather, Splish Splash for all you New Yorkers out there.
Not edited (I've seriously gotta work on that).
Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson characters at all, nor do I own the song New Perspective by P!ATD.
~But leaving now would be a good idea
So catch me up on getting out of here~
Jason flinched when he woke up that day. He had one of those dreams where one falls down a cliff and, during sleep, they feel legitimately like they're falling through space. He jerked up from his bed and ran a hand through his hair in irritation. He'd been there for about two weeks then, and to him, it had gone by quite slowly, but at the same time, too fast for his own liking.
How could he have mixed feelings for a thing that was granted to be taken away from him in a moment's notice? But then again, he realized it must be from all of the stress that had been taken away from him since he arrived there. At least, the part about not having to worry about keeping up an image of himself to his peers. He didn't like the idea that time was frozen from his realm; he actually wanted someone out there to be looking for him.
Then he'd remember how abruptly concern Reyna and the others would get and how much stress would be upon them, and he'd think of how selfish he was being. He laid back on his bed and stared at the ceiling. It had only been just two weeks at the place and so much has changed. He wanted to go back badly – that was a given – but even he had to admit that he was sort of getting used to the place as short as he had been there.
Leo with his sarcastic humor galore and Piper with her...whatever it was she had that intrigued him so. He couldn't help but think what would happen if somehow he was stuck here without Piper's guidance and Leo's optimism. He wondered if he'd be losing it right now and completely giving up on all hope.
He shook his head abruptly from those thoughts. He knew that the moment he left that place and returned home, he'd most likely never communicate with Piper again, let alone Leo. He would return to being the stubborn prince he was and forget all of this ever happened. He'd be with Reyna, his arms wrapped tightly around her comfortingly. He would reach over and tuck her dark hair behind her ear and kiss her and tell her how much he had missed her, all the while he'd rather be with –
A sharp clacking of metal hitting the ground cut him away from his thoughts, making him startled and out of his bed in a second. He walked swiftly through the door and down the hallway, peeking his head through the crevice to see if a thief of some sort trespassed into their – er, Leo's – apartment. He stopped in his tracks as he heard two people talking and sighed in relief as he recognized their voices.
"Shhh," Piper hissed, narrowing her eyes at Leo whose eyes, in contrast, were blown wide. He cowered away from Piper in a perpetual manner. "You're gonna wake the whole place up!"
"Yes," Leo said timidly, still looking intimidated by Piper's sharp glare. "I'm sure Jason must be shaking in his pants from all the people around him."
Piper left one last resounding smack on the back of Leo's head before reaching over and picking up a pot that was clearly the source of the loud noise. "Next time you drop it, I'll hit you with it."
Leo snorted. "Alright, blonde girl from Tangled, Netflix and chill with someone already, will you?" Needless to say, Jason did not understand one word from that entire statement, and he didn't bother presenting his presence just because of it.
"Sorry," Piper muttered, resting the pot back on the counter and softening her gaze on Leo, who looked relieved. "I'm just a little pissed at last night's episode of The Vampire Diaries. I'm annoyed at Caroline, to be honest. Like, she has a freaking fiancee! And it's not Stefan. And then there's that bitch Valerie who decides that somehow she was some important figure in Stefan's life, completely ignoring the fact that both Katherine and Elena pretty much dominated that spot...oh, and Alaric is going freaking bat-shit crazy by trying to raise his wife from the dead. Like, how many times does that plot twist have to occur in that stupid show for them to realize that it's not going to work?! I swear, the only thing that keeps me hanging on to that show is Matt's obliviousness and Damon's hotness. And where the fuck is Tyler?!"
Leo blinked at her, clearly trying to catch up, something that Jason had been trying to do the moment he arrived in this realm. "Ohhkkaayy," Leo said, patting Piper's back comfortingly. "I'm just gonna stand here and watch you rant."
Piper glared at him. "You're the one to talk! I know you watch that show, too, don't lie to me. You should seriously consider erasing your browsing history."
Leo looked sheepish at this part. "Alright, fine, look, all the girls are smoking hot on that show. I'm comfortable in my masculinity enough to say that Damon is fucking hilarious. I'm not ashamed at all to say that Matt has, like, no relevance to that show because somehow he is still human. Also, how the fuck is Bonnie not even concerned in the slightest about visiting Jeremy. Why is Damon not hooking up with Bonnie, instead pretending to be 'friends' because we both know that doesn't last for at least seven episodes before someone's humping another, even though Elena just died? And – "
"Look who's ranting now," Piper droned out, her face straight as she spoke to the Latino boy in front of her. Yes, Jason knew what a Latino was. Be fucking proud. Even my dialect is changing, he thought suddenly, completely sure of himself that was not a good thing. Leo looked like he wanted to retaliate, but Jason just about had enough of the conversation he did not understand.
"Can anyone tell me why you two are up at 4:30 in the morning? Especially you Piper, don't you not live here?" Jason said out loud finally, showing the two his presence in the kitchen.
The two turned to look back at him, raising their eyebrows simultaneously as they just realized he had been there the whole time. Finally, Piper mumbled, "Salty, much?" which, again, he did not understand. "I came here because we're planning to go somewhere tomorrow, or rather, later on today."
"Where?" Jason asked, suddenly curious. He hadn't gone outside for a long time since that movie theater business. He hoped he wouldn't cry again and embarrass himself. Especially in front of Leo. He had a feeling Leo would find it amusing a lot more than Piper did.
Piper grinned, showing her white teeth that peeked through her lips. She didn't say anything for a moment which made Jason suspicious. He wondered if he had anything on his face; then he scolded himself for acting self-conscious about himself in front of Piper. "What?" he asked her, enunciating the word.
She shook her head, still smiling. Something shot through his stomach right then, nothing physical, but he certainly felt it, and he wondered what it was. It had definitely never happened to him before. This realm was doing something to him, it was was for sure. "Nothing," she said. "It just sounds like you're saying 'wey' instead of 'where'. Have I ever mentioned how much I love your accent?"
Again, he felt that same feeling shoot through his stomach and something hot flood his cheeks. Piper was certainly in a better mood today, despite the fact it was early, and somehow it was having an effect on him. Leo, who watched the two of them from the side, smirked knowingly, like he knew something Jason didn't, and stood up from his slouch. "Don't get used to that, Jason, she falls for like every other accent out there. Anyways, back to business. Now, I don't have any hook-up sessions with Calypso this weekend, and you're," he nudged his head towards Jason, "too inexperienced for an actual club yet, so we're gonna start off with something simple: Splish Splash."
Jason stood there in confusion as he took this bit of information in. "Isn't that the sound a puddle makes when you jump in it? I used to do that all the time with my close friend Dakota. My father, however, never did appreciate the mud stains we'd get on our robes later on..."
"Well, you are right in a sense," Piper explained, smoothly trying to change the subject from his short nostalgia. "But in this case, Splish Splash is a name of a water park. That's like an amusement park, but instead of a roller coaster, there's a huge water tube – sort of like a slide – that you go through, and it's really fun. Not that you'd know what an amusement park or a roller coaster is..."
Leo rolled his eyes. "What Piper is trying to say is that we're going there today, maybe at like noon. You need sunlight or you'll turn even more white, Blondie."
Jason was starting to think Leo had a thing against white people, but he could tell it was all in good humor. In a way he wouldn't imagine, in this realm, some people took racist insults and twisted them into jokes. "And this had to be decided at 4:30 because...?"
"Because...it's important," Piper stated, her eyes squinting, gesturing in an obvious way. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Jason cut her off, already knowing.
"Let me guess," he said monotonously, "'Duh.'" The two of them stared blankly at him before Piper's eyes widened in awe. The look was so strange that he couldn't help but look away and focus his eyes on Leo. That, he then found out, didn't help either because all Leo did was push his chin up forward from his jaw, inflicting one of his 'funny' faces. Jason had to bite back a snort.
"You're learning!" Piper exclaimed happily, suddenly flipping around to glance back at her little pamphlet. Okay, then.
Leo abruptly clapped his hands, leading Jason to twitch, startled, and said, "Well, that's that. Now get your stuff ready. We'll be leaving soon."
Jason's eyes widened. "It's 4:30. Even I know that no one is awake at that time."
Piper walked up to him and patted his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah. Leo will give you a pair of swim shorts and all. Wear a shirt too for now." She stated it so casually before walking away, and he was left there in shock, gaping at her as she walked back to the door, clearly getting ready to leave.
"For now? What does that even – " The door already slammed shut. He only sighed in resignation, looking over to Leo who just shrugged and padded away.
A few minutes later, he realized his two guardians had been joking with him on the matter to get ready soon. So he ended up sitting on the couch at 4:46 in the morning, his swim shorts and shirt already on. Incessant idiots.
At noon, they arrived at the place they called 'Splish Splash'. And to say he practically yelled at Piper and Leo for making him wait for more than was necessary was an understatement. They, the ugly ducklings, chortled maniacally at him, making him grimace the entire time.
His fight quickly died down when he noticed the entirety of the water park, his anger and resentment finally at hushed peace. When Piper had told him there were tubes of water that people went down for fun, he assumed she was being snarky with him again. He should have known she wouldn't lie to him about something like this, though it wasn't that important, after everything he'd discovered.
But good heavens, if this place wasn't covered with water rushing down tubes that were the width of his entire dining table back home and parents with their kids screaming in joy as the slid down them. There were people, he could see as they passed the ticketing booth and headed towards a room labeled 'the locker room', that were eating food under large umbrellas which provided them shade from the scorching sun. And, despite the absolute lack of clothing from the men and the women, the place radiated happiness and optimism he had yet to discover.
"What are you thinking about?" Piper chirped from beside him, a grin playing loosely along her lips, and he wondered how she could live in a place that wasn't raging in war.
His gaze shifted from one particular girl who literally had a small piece each just covering her intimate parts, and he looked back at Piper reluctantly. "You're not going to wear something like that, are you?"
Her eyebrow raised as she responded, "You mean a bikini?" He nodded slowly back. "What if I did?"
At those words, he felt something cold shock down his spine and his stomach doing something entirely foreign to him. He looked away once again, not sure why exactly he felt the outside heat became about tenfold hotter. He cleared his throat, hoping he didn't notice his abrupt uncomfortable shifting. "N-nothing."
Before Piper could reply, Leo, who he almost shamefully forgot about for a second there, shouted almost uncannily loud to them. "Hey, assholes! You coming or not?" From the corner of his eye, he saw a mother glare scornfully at the three of them before covering her child's ears forcefully. He felt sort of obligated to glance sheepishly at her back.
They ended up following Leo to the locker rooms. He was about to turn back to Piper and ask her about where exactly she heard about this place when he realized she wasn't behind him. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, and he turned back to Leo. "She went to the woman's side. Don't worry, she wasn't kidnapped," he smirked at him before gesturing towards the door.
Jason sighed and followed. When he went inside, he was immediately engulfed in the smell of something sharp and...murky. He almost gagged. "Ugh," he said. "What is that smell?"
"It's called chlorine. If you can't handle it, then we might as well turn around. It's in the water and pretty much everywhere else here," Leo said, his hands reaching down to...pull off his shirt?
"Whaa – what are you doing?" he said, his eyes widening and his hands going up to cover his eyes. "Er, I'm not exactly, you know, homese – "
He was cut off by Leo's cackle as he finally removed the cloth from his body. Wow, Jason thought absentmindedly, he really is scrawny as a stick. "I'm not gay, not that there's anything wrong with that. But everyone in this realm does that. It's not something to be ashamed of. Jesus, I'm talking like I am gay." Leo looked sideways at him and gestured to him. At first, Jason didn't know what he meant, then he looked down at his own shirt, and the seriousness of the situation dawned on him like a tidal wave.
"Oh," he said, then more pronounced, "oh. Really? In front of everyone?"
Leo rolled his eyes. "You do realize you're not the notorious prince in this realm, right? No one knows you. No one's even seen your face until a couple of weeks ago. And no, no one's gonna judge you."
Jason stood there before taking a deep breath and finally taking his shirt off before handing it to Leo. "Better?" he said bitterly, despite his statement. Leo, very embarrassingly to him, whistled lowly.
"Damn, dude. You are ripped. Wait 'till girls find out you've got a body like this," Leo said shamelessly, crossing his arms in a cocky manner. "It'll make your personality worth it almost."
Jason felt the blow before he could react to it. All he could say was he was glad that at the moment, no one else was in the room with them to see his red face. A loud knock rang through the room, and they both looked over to the door in which it came from. "How long does it take to take off your shirt?" Piper's voice came through before a short pause was present. "Unless you two – "
"NO," they both claimed in unison, and they looked at each other awkwardly before Leo muttered something along the lines of 'okay this is freaking gay', and he walked over to the door. As soon as it opened, light from the outdoors shone through the humid room, along with a slightly irritated Piper who had her fist raised in mid-knock. It slowly drifted down as she took the two of them in.
He quickly gazed back, noticing that no, she wasn't wearing a...a 'bikini', or whatever, but it wasn't something totally different from it either. She had her hair wrapped in a loose braid that hung down her shoulder, and her little shorts wasn't the normal 'jeany' thing he normally saw her in. He finally lifted his eyes to her face only to see she was looking back at him with an unreadable expression on her face before bunching her eyebrows together.
"What?" he asked her as him and Leo walked out of the room together and on the concrete next to her. They continued to walk over to one particular large purple tube which half of it was encompassed by an enormous black box-shaped thing that he did not trust at all. His heart sunk as he noticed how long the line was, and he realized that judging by the determination on Leo's face, they would actually be staying there.
"It's just...you look different. With..." she trailed off in thought.
"No shirt?" he asked, a sudden feeling of overconfidence rushing through him, a part that wasn't entirely shown to its full extent until then. He knew Piper had been staring at him, his chest in particular, and he didn't understand why she and Leo were surprised to see he had some muscle. He was a prince, after all. He'd been in battles. He had to be strong. End of story.
And if there was one thing to be proud of, as shallow as it was, it was his body.
"I just..." she said, her voice so quiet right then that it only made his overconfidence shoot up a few pegs. "I just thought..."
"You thought what?"
"That you'd be more fit."
Silence (except for the fact Leo, who clearly overheard, barked out a laugh and mumbled 'major cockblocker, dude'). To say he'd been shot down like a canary that annoyed his fellow subjects was the truth and even more. Trying to recover from that, he kept his smirk on his face and looked back at Piper. "That girl over there doesn't seem to think so."
And clearly, she didn't. All three of them, including Leo who had ceased his annoying chortling, turned around to see the girl gazing over at him with a glazed over look. The girl, despite her glossy black hair and the enormous amount of clothing lacking from her body, looked at him as if he was a piece of meat. And though he didn't like the way she was looking at him, he forced himself to appreciate it just to irritate Piper. For what and why, he didn't know. He just knew he wanted that.
Piper snorted, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms on her chest. "You mean the town whore? Yeah, okay. She'd fuck a cow if she was smart enough to find the right parts."
"Piper," Leo groaned pointedly at her, shaking his head, though even Jason knew he was trying to bite back a laugh.
"What? Don't you remember what she did to you? She's a bitch, and you know it," she replied, and Jason stared at her, completely confused on how she could say such a horrible thing about someone else. He knew of forms of backbiting, and while he wasn't used to it from Reyna or anyone else, he especially didn't like the way it sounded from Piper.
"What did she do to you?" he asked Leo, curious.
"Nothing," Leo said before frowning and turning around to face towards the line that decreased an incredible amount since. Jason honestly never thought he'd see the day when Leo Valdez was bitter about something. Leo was always so...so happy about everything. Ignorantly happy, yes, but optimistic still. And if something or someone actually did something to him to cause him to behave like this...well, all he could say was he understood why Piper had said the things she had said.
Even Piper, who had started the trash talk in the first place, shook her head at him not to push Leo further. And he agreed. Needless to say, he felt rather guilty for pointing out the girl in the first place.
However, by the time they had reached the very front of the line, Leo's mood had increased back to the way it was before that mysterious girl had gotten involved. But another problem had risen: the ride itself. Thoughts and questions swam in his head about what exactly was about to happen. In his realm, no one went through danger for fun. No one purposely entered darkness for fun. But this was different.
"What are you thinking about?" Piper asked him just as screams and shrieks of curses were heard from the people who disappeared inside the tubes. Jason shook his head, not at all reassured from that. Something happened when the people enter that black box thing around the purple tube that caused them to shriek even louder, and he wasn't so eager to find out either.
"It's just..." he started, trying his hardest not to look like a coward at the moment. "In my realm, no one does this. It's just...different. Everything here is different."
Piper frowned at him, an expression almost like sympathy, but even she knew how much he hated that. Yet, he couldn't help but wonder...
"Ahhh, shit, no," Leo said firmly, finally joining in on their conversation since his awkward silence moments before. "You are not, by no means, backing down now. Don't be afraid of the tube. Be the tube."
"Leo."
"Feel what the tube feels. Know what the tube knows."
"Leo, seriously."
"And when you finally enter its depths...when you finally reach it at its most vulnerable state..."
"Leo, you really don't have to – "
"Conquer that bitch like it's the fourth of July, son! Because when it goes down, you don't go down with it. Because though you let it think you are bread, you show it, no. You are not. And you look the tube in the eye – "
"Tubes don't even have – "
"And you shout, 'I am tiitaaaaannnniiiiiuuuuuummmmm. You shoot me doooooowwwn. But I woooonn't falllll. 'Cause I am tiii – "
"Are you three planning on going on, or do I have to get security?" All three of them focused their attention on the man with a mustache behind them. The man's face was left impassive, like this wasn't the most weirdest thing he say that day (welcome to my world, Jason thought) and gestured to a large, fluffy, rubber-like, yellow circle thing.
Piper smiled, embarrassed, and led them over to sit in the large, fluffy, rubber-like, yellow circle thing next to three others who were already sitting there and looked up at them as if they were retarded. As they took there places next to them, Jason being a little more cautious than the rest, and he looked over at all six of them, half being complete strangers.
As the mustache man came back, Jason realized with a jolt that this was actually happening; he was taking a risk this big on purpose. A so...so Piper's world thing to do...what would his family think of him? What would Reyna think of him? If his entire life was snatched away from him and his efforts to get back, all to be thrown away by doing something like...this. Too late, he realized he couldn't do anything to stop it. They were already slipping through the water.
And before his head engulfed the darkness, all he saw was a pair of variegated eyes glowing at his and a smirk that lit up his vision just slightly. "Hold on," Piper whispered softly, and the two of them, along with the four others, slipped down the tube in unison, his stomach dropping at the sudden twist, shake, and drop of the tube.
The six of them screamed together, the blood in his veins rushing as he forced his eyes open, the adrenaline pumping through him in time with the 'chlorine'-filled water roaring around him and soaking all of their bodies. The sudden changes he felt within the tube as they went faster, faster, faster, through the darkness, and the feeling of helplessness followed him as he couldn't see a thing. And then, when the rushing of the water seemed to slow down finally, he sighed in relief.
He noticed they were still inside the tube, and he wondered why. There was still darkness, and that only made him more apprehensive. He felt the nerves in his body stand on end as he realized something was wrong. Absolutely wrong. He was still shaking from the absolute coldness that surrounded him as his entire face, hair, chest, legs, and feet were a thousand percent soaked, his teeth chattering loudly.
"Is it over ye – ?"
Stupid, stupid, stupid question. Never ask that question unless you know for sure you are out of that thing completely. He realized this the moment all six of their legs gave in and they dropped, falling through what seemed thin air in the dark, and he cursed himself for being fooled by the silence that was there before.
Now, they screamed even more as they dropped through the dark, and when their large, fluffy, rubber-like, yellow circle thing crashed below onto the surface, the water roared over them, once again sending them into a shivering mess. Even as they finally approached the crack of daylight at the end of the tube, they were squirted by even more water from the side, almost like a sharp faucet. He would know this because he sprayed himself more than once in the bathroom when washing his hands. Don't judge.
When they rode out into the daylight, he couldn't help the grin that escaped across his lips as he squinted under the sun. He glanced over at his five accompanying passengers and was happy to see they looked soaked as well. Leo's hair that was once curly, was sticking pin-straight around his face, and a smile that was so wide gleamed across his face, his eyes lighting up with another mischievous look.
Piper, similar to them, was also drenched, and he felt himself letting out chuckles as he realized her bangs had covered her face completely, so much that he couldn't even see more than half of it. "Here, let me help you," he said, reaching over to her and prying the stubborn brunette pieces away.
When her eyes were able to be seen, she looked back up at his, and his breath hitched. There was something about the way she was beaming up at him, the way her smile was able to glorify happiness the way the daylight he saw in the tube never could, that made him shift uneasily where he sat. He realized his hand was still in her hair, but even though his mind willed himself repeatedly to take it out, he physically couldn't.
Piper seemed to notice as well because her smile seemed to falter for a moment there, and her lips parted. He didn't know why on earth they were acting like this. He didn't –
An icy rush of water splashed over the two of them, letting him be able to tear his hand away finally and look over at the attacker. Leo glanced at the two of them before rolling his eyes and gesturing for them to get up out of the thing.
Jason did without another glance towards Piper's way.
What just happened? That day was considered adventurous for him. The ride had only been a couple of minutes, but it was enough excitement to have lasted much more than that in his own realm. Leo and Piper were both great people; they treated him nicely and with respect, despite their boastful teasing.
So why was it so hard for him to admit that he could actually have some fun if he let himself?
A/N: Not entirely Jasper, but...we're certainly getting there. Review and let me know what y'all think. Honestly. When I get reviews, I feel more obligated to update, and I've been guilty for not updating sooner. Truth is, I've finished half of this two weeks ago, and though it's not an excuse as to why I didn't do all of it, I have been completely preoccupied with school and other things to focus wholeheartedly on this.
But I will update. I'm not one to completely abandon this story when I already have so many plans for it.
Till next time,
Penguin
