Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Take her up to her room, I'll be right there," Piper said as they entered the Chaos cabin and she slumped on the couch, holding her head in her hands. Now how was she going to do this? Wasn't it enough that the Camp was already at war and everyone was mad at her? Why did she have to force a fight and make everyone not trust a word she says? When can she just get a simple job and move on?
Well, there was a good thing in all this: Bailey wasn't here to kill any of the campers.
Then again...that might've made her job easier...no, it'd be way harder.
Carl nodded and carried the unconsicious Naden upstairs with Percy staying behind, carefully sitting next to her. He rubbed her back soothingly, trying to think up something to say. He was never good with girls, or comforting, or saying the right thing...But for Piper, he'd try his hardest. Of course, that meant just sitting and being quiet because gods know he'll say something absolutely stupid to make her feel worse.
"I'm sorry," Piper blurted after a few minutes' silence, Percy's hand warm and comforting on her back. She had her fingers tangled in her hair and she was staring intensely at the ground, going over everything that happened just the first day she was here. She had remembered how Annabeth had looked hurt, partly because her stomach churned at the reminder that Percy and Annabeth were so in love. Chaos, how many times had she felt that emotion?
Percy blinked in surprise. "Er...what?"
She let out a long breath. "I'm sorry for making you go against your home, and for making you choose sides, and for fighting with Annabeth, and for ruining your relationship with her, and-" she took a sharp breath, the words coming out in a blur as if not getting them out would hurt her.
"Woah, woah, Pipes, calm down," he said quickly, his hand stopping mid-back.
"It's all my fault," she mumbled, closing her eyes tightly. "This war, the fight, you losing your relationship..."
"None of it is your fault," Percy snapped, his eyebrows furrowed. "You didn't have Poseidon or Zeus go out and break the law or for the gods to tell all the kids that it was your fault. And..." He heaved a sigh. "I don't even have a relationship with Annabeth anymore."
She picked herself up and looked at him. "Why not? It's because of, is it?"
He shook his head. "It was only a couple years ago when the war ended. She had to work on getting Olympus back up again, but she would never take a break. She buried herself in her work, and I never saw her. We just kind of...grew apart, I guess."
"Oh, Percy." She gave him a sympathetic glance as she grabbed his hand and squeezed reassuringly. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "It was bound to happen sometime. We never really talked before then, either."
"Are you still friends?"
He nodded. "When she's around, but she's either in the mortal world or on Olympus. She's done all the architecture here." He cast her a side long glance. "But that's not your fault, Piper, so don't go blaming that on yourself."
"But you two were perfect for each other!" As much as she hated to admit it for her own personal reasons, that is. "I thought you'd be married or have kids when I got back!"
He shook his head. "With the wars going on and everything, I was too busy. I was planning to once it was over, though, but then we...just went down different paths."
"You wanted to, though?" she guessed, frowning deeply.
He studied her for a second before nodding. "Yeah, of course. You didn't do anything to my relationship with her, Piper, so don't try to pin this on you. We grew up, things like that happen."
It was still her fault, and she knew it. It was in her gut. They could've gotten back together once she was done with Olympus and everything was calmed down. But she had prevented it from calming down. She had caused the gods to get into a war and for Percy to be sucked away from Annabeth- it was obvious they still had feelings for each other. Now she was making him pick sides. How could she ruin such a relationship?
"Piper," Percy said sternly, grabbing her face in his hands and forcing her to look at him. He looked serious and it was odd to see on such a carefree guy. "It wasn't your fault."
"But-"
"None of it was your fault, okay? Annabeth had too much on her plate and I didn't want to add to it or take away her dream. Alright? None of it is your fault."
"You could've got back toget-"
"No, we couldn't have. We're too different. She works on Olympus, I work down here. She's willing to spend all her time at work, I sleep in so I don't have to work. She expects too much out of me- to be smart, brave, a hero- and sometimes I like to just do nothing. It had nothing to do with you, Piper."
"Are...Are you sure because-"
"I'm positive." He frowned at her. "No more blaming any of this on you. The war, the fight, my break-up, your break-up. Okay? None of it was your fault. The only thing you're responible for is being the one who settled the war."
She hesitated before nodding slowly. "Okay, none of it's my fault except for the fight."
His frown deepened. "That wasn't your fault. It was Drew's because she tried to punch you. Then it was Thalia's because she shot dow Naden. All you did was defend yourself and us. You didn't start it, you ended it."
"Then it's my fault for making you choose sides."
Percy's jaw locked. "Chaos told me I'd have to choose between you and Camp, and you've had my back before so it's time I have yours. And Camp's divided. I'm fighting for my dad because Zeus was the one to shoot the lightning bolt, and I know you're fighting for him because he did the right thing by saving Athena, so I'm fighting for you. And..." He blushed lightly. "It was the only way to see you."
Piper blushed and looked down at her lap. "I'm still sorry," she mumbled.
He tipped her chin and kissed her forehead. "I'm not going to forgive you because you've got nothing to be sorry for."
Skin tingling from his lips, she nodded distractedly. "Right. I'm going to check on Naden." She stood up and was at the foot of the stairs when she turned around to Percy calling her name. "Yeah?"
He grinned broadly at her. "You've got to teach me that lightning thing you did."
Smiling, she nodded. "Yeah, okay."
He watched until she was out of sight.
There was a knock at the door while Piper and the others were upstairs and Percy stood up with a sigh, rather comfortable and lost in thought about why Piper thought that his break-up was her fault and how everything else was, too. He'd have to make a note to kick Drew's ass for making her believe that it was her fault. Maybe if Aphrodite actually chose to help out her kid when she needed it...
"Percy," Chiron said, nodding with a gentle smile once the door was open.
"Chiron," Percy smiled at the old time friend. "What brings you here?"
"I would like to speak to you and Miss McLean, actually."
Percy looked behind him and up the stairs. "Piper's busy with Naden- er, the girl that Thalia zapped."
Chiron nodded and raised an eyebrow at him. "Can I speak to you then?"
"Er...sure..." He looked back at the cabin. "I don't know if you're allowed in here, since you're not a, uh, Chaos member or whatever."
"I understand. Shall we go check the damage on the Hermes cabin?"
Percy nodded. "Yeah, just, uh..." He looked up the stairs and yelled, "I'll be back!"
"Don't start any fights!" Carl shouted back. "Actually, don't start an argument!"
"That's fine!" Piper rephrased, and Percy could imagine her rolling her eyes. "Stay safe!"
Percy took that as his go, heading outside with Chiron, his heart lighter than usual. Piper wanted him to stay safe. And Carl...well, no one cared about Carl. Man, Percy was getting mean caring for Piper. As long as Carl stays away from her...
"So, what's up?" Percy asked stupidly as they walked away from the white building. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, one hand clutching Riptide in case someone started something and all of his armor and stuff on and ready to go.
He knew, of course, what Chiron wanted to talk to him about. He had said he'd gone for a while after Chaos had come to him and told him about how Piper was supposed to do a mission that might need some help on. After a bunch of questions, he agreed to go and went to tell Chiron about his absence in case anyone got worried- we wouldn't want a recap of the Giant War, do we? And then he comes back with a supposedly dead hero and he's standing by her during the whole fight, a few days later. Percy would have some questions, too, if the roles were reverse.
"Would you mind explaining things for me, Percy?" Chiron inquired, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.
Percy sighed. "You know that Chaos guy, the one who created the whole universe and everything?"
"That Chaos guy?" Chiron repeated slowly, testing the words.
"Er, the guy that's named Chaos."
Chiron, with a little twinkle in his eye, nodded. "Yes, I believe I've heard the tale, why?"
"Well, uh, before I told you I was leaving for a little while, he came to me and told me that he wanted my help with an upcoming war."
"This one?"
"Yeah, and when I asked why, he told me he had a crew for that kind of thing, but the commander and his second-in-command- that's Piper- would have trouble with it, so he wanted me to help."
"Piper..." Chiron frowned, his eyes full of concern. "Do you know the story behind her reason for...leaving?"
Percy looked away, guilt flooding him again. "It's our fault, Chiron," he replied, a lump in his throat. "Jason...their relationship wasn't working out, and Leo had been swimming in the accomplishment. Me...Annabeth and I we were too involved to notice she wasn't okay...If we had been better friends..."
"I'm sure Piper doesn't blame you," Chiron said gently, grabbing onto his arm. "We all make mistakes, Percy, and I'm sure she doesn't hold that over you."
"She doesn't, but it bugs me," Percy admitted, frowning at the ground. "I- we- had just left her behind and never looked back, but she forgives me and Annabeth and Leo. There were too many problems at Camp Jupiter for her to forgive Jason. But she just...forgives us when we treated her so horribly."
"Because she believes you didn't mean to," he replied. "Piper's always been one to forgive if she believed that you had good intentions. She knows you never meant to hurt her, and she forgives you."
"But it doesn't make any sense," Percy stressed, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know if I'd be able to forgive us if I was Piper. I mean, we just left her. I didn't realize how much I didn't talk to her until now."
"You need to stop pushing this on you, Percy," Chiron ordered gently. "If Piper forgives you, maybe you should forgive yourself."
Percy sighed. "Yeah, I know."
They had reached the burnt Hermes cabin where Argus was guarding it. "Now, would you like to continue your story?"
"Oh, yeah, right...Wait, mine or Piper's?"
Chiron's eyes twinkled. "Yours."
"Oh, okay, well, um, so he told me about Piper and I asked some questions, since, you know, I haven't seen her in forever and I was worried, and he answered them before telling me to meet him at Half-Blood Hill the next day. When I did go, he took me to the planet Pluto where apparently they've got this airport and housing and a whole little mall and-"
"Percy, continue please," Chiron said with the twinkle growing brighter.
Blushing at his rambling, Percy cleared his throat as they started to go through the cabin's wreckage. "Er, right. Well, he took me there and sat me down at his house room thing where Piper came up and then we watched the whole scene unfold with Zeus and my dad. They were fighting about a Poseidon kid in a chariot, trying to save a Zeus kid, and Zeus threatened Poseidon, but Athena stepped in. He turned on her and my dad dove in the way. That was the last we saw before we talked a little about Piper coming back and me helping her. She left, Chaos took me and trained me with the basic powers. I got my uniform and then we went to dinner. You wouldn't believe how many people are just on Pluto, Chiron. The food there is...awkward."
Chiron raised a silent eyebrow.
"I ate a leaf, Chiron. A leaf and it stuck to my hand. There were insects inside some jello stuff- it was just weird, but there was some normal food, you know, and there were aliens. It was just weird."
"What happened next, Percy?" Chiron asked, amused.
"Oh." He blushed again, picking out someone's trunk that was somehow unscathed. "Well, the next day we headed to Camp Jupiter since it was going to be the easiest, and apparently, Jason's married and has two kids, one of them named after Piper. But we got there, and they didn't seem to know anything about the war. Uh, there's some other crew staying there for a couple days to just make sure nothing's wrong."
"And then you came here, correct?" Chiron guessed and Percy nodded.
"The cabin was burning when we got out the ship; I put it out while Piper stopped the fighting. We walked around and the tree by the Big House was on fire and everyone was fighting, so Piper stopped it and we figured out some answers, got everyone healed and then you guys came, and well, you know the rest."
Chiron nodded. "Well, it would seem as if this is going to be a longer stay for you."
Percy rubbed a hand down his face. "If this is Camp, I don't want to know what Olympus is like. What happened with you guys, anyway?"
"Athena tried to explain what happened to us, but as the demigods do, they took their parents' sides and arguments started." Chiron sighed. "I'm glad that I was able to get them back down here without any more arguments."
"Until they saw Piper and me," Percy said.
Chiron wiped his hands on his horse legs after he pulled out another belonging to someone. "Yes, but I believe that fight was unevitable. What they said about Aphrodite...worrying about Piper was quite true, however. I do not blame any of it on Piper, and i think the others are just tryig to pin it on someone- they're grasping at straws, those who are on Zeus's side, so to speak."
Percy nodded. "Yeah, I probably would be too if someone told me my dad had tried to hit his daughter."
"Yes, well, I'm sorry that Piper's friend had gotten hurt."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Percy said. "Piper's got some genius way with medicine since we're not allowed to have ambrosia after we've eaten some kind of jerky."
Chiron raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"
"Yeah, so Naden should be fine. But, we might miss lunch." I won't let her go until she's got all her bodyguards again. "And some other crew will come in a few days; I'm not sure since it was Piper who set everything up. She's the boss."
Chiron nodded. "They'll be staying with you, I pressume?"
"Yep. I know Chaos would want all of them together just in case something happens."
"Percy, how does Piper plan to stop this war?"
Percy sighed. "I have no idea. Neither of us thought it'd be this bad, but she's been around the universe- and some other ones, too- doing this kind of thing so I believe in her."
"Then, I will allow you to go back to your cabin, but I advise you to explain things to some of the other campers so they know you're not against them. They don't believe that they'll be able to defeat you."
He paused before nodding. "Yeah, I'll try. Thanks, Chiron."
"Thank you, Percy." He smiled at the young hero and the said hero smiled back before heading back to the Chaos cabin.
"I'm going to take a nap," Piper announced to Carl, rubbing her forehead. "That lightning trick really took a lot out of me."
"That's because you didn't train enough to use it," Carl pointed out, frowning at her. "You should've trained more, Piper."
"I know, I just..." She let out a long, tired breath. "I didn't think that I would have to use it. None of the aliens could use it, and I never thought..."
"I get it, Peacemaker," Carl said, nodding his head. "You can head on to your room. I'll watch Naden and tell Percy when he gets back."
"Yeah." She smiled smally at hiim. "Thanks." She headed to her room and collasped on her bed, falling into a deep sleep minutes later.
Piper was laying on the sand on the beach at Camp Half-Blood; she remembered it well from the times when Percy was missing and she'd find Annabeth sitting there. The moon was high in the sky, the gentle waves of the sea being the only sound besides crickets in the forest near by- the monsters seemed to want to give them some peace tonight, and the sky was clear, allowing all the twinkling stars you probably wouldn't be able to see anywhere else to be looked upon.
It seemed like Piper had just come from a swim, laying on a towel and donned in a blue bikini under a small t-shirt and some jean shorts. Her skin felt cold with the breeze, but there was a small heat source next to her that kept her from freezing. The heat source was actually Percy who was shirtless- yeah, she just came from a swim, and damn, he seemed to get more muscles while she was gone. He was laying with his arms behind his head, looking up at the sky, but he was completely dry- damn that Poseidon trait.
There was a comfortable silence between them, filled by the crickets and the sea. It was broken when Piper turned her head towards him and asked softly, "Percy?"
He raised an eyebrow, not moving away from the sky. "Hmm?"
"Do you ever think about having kids?" She blushed, and added quickly so he wouldn't think she was implying anything, "I mean, just in general."
He shrugged. "I don't know, why?" He turned his head to look at her, his eyebrow still raised in question.
She turned back to the sky. "I want to have kids," she mumbled. "It'd be nice to have a family- a husband, kids, that kind of thing."
"Why the sudden thought, Pipes?" he wondered, moving to his side to look at her better.
She wrinkled her nose, blushing. "I don't know. Everyone else seems to have kids, and I don't want to be the last one. Chaos lets you move to another planet, another galaxy even, if he approves and you're married. That's where all the other Peacemakers are, and Pluto gets kind of boring after a while."
"So...You just want to move?"
She shook her head. "I want to have a family, you know, someone I can wake up to and bring with me everywhere I go."
"Isn't that unsafe, for your, uh...kids?"
"Well, obviously, I'd be careful which ones I bring them on. I could just bring them to the planet and let them wait in the ship while I do my job. It'd be nice to have some family aboard rather than just people who are assigned to me."
"You've got me, you know."
She smiled over at him. "And I'm thankful for that: an old friend who knew me before they were assigned. But you've still got a life here, Percy. You only have to stay with me until the end of this mission before you can get back to your job and life."
"Unless I choose not to leave," he whispered, his eyes sparkling with something hidden in the dark.
She shrugged and tried to find that Hunter's constellation Annabeth had told her about a while ago. "Yeah, but why would you want to do that? You've got a life here. Friends, family..."
"My friends will understand." He propped up on an arm and watched her with a frown. "Besides, it's fun with you and travelling the galaxy, and others."
She shook her head. "You've got to stay, Percy, you have a life here and I don't want to take that away."
"It's my choice, Piper," he murmured quietly. "And I have plenty of good reasons to leave this life."
She frowned over at him. "What?"
"My family's gone," he replied with a simple shrug. "My friends, we've all got our all problems and I can always contact them if I really wanted to. And..." he hesitated.
"What?" she asked, looking at him curiously.
"Well...I could..." He blushed, but pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "I can always start a life with you..."
Before she could say anything, he had dipped his head down and his lips skimmed hers...but right as they went to connect, everything went black.
Piper woke up in a sweat, panting and hearing her heart as much as she felt it pounding in her chest. Her stomach was filled with butterflies and she was dazed. She quickly snapped out of it, though, and shook her head at herself. How in hell could she dream up something like that? She was supposed to be worrying about the war at hand, her friend waking up from her unconsicious state, everything but kissing Percy Jackson! There's so many things wrong about that! They've just become friends a few days back, she's cried more than she's laughed with him- techinally that was because of Jason, she pointed out- he works for her, and just because he's not in a relationship with Annabeth, doesn't mean he's not in a relationship with someone else! How could she dream of something like that?
Oh, Chaos, she had just dreamt of kissing Percy Jackson. What was she supposed to do now? It's not like she can totally forget about it happening- obviously. And there's no way he would actually leave this life here to come with her. She- he- no, no, no! She just needs to calm down and work this through. There's no way that dream's coming true, no way. No way he's leaving Camp for her, no way he'd kiss her, no way they'd even get peace for something like to happen. They'd never talk about something like that in a war, especially not when they don't know the health of his dad for Chaos's sake!
Dreams come true, but there's an exceptions of which ones won't. This, was one of those exceptions.
I drifted off from the spoiler a little, but I included all the elements, and it still held the same way. I bet you're disappointed that it was a dream, and Piper's in total denial, but hey, denial always comes first when you like someone, huh? And the reason she's having this dream now is because Percy admitted that he wasn't with Annabeth (I gave the most reasonable reason for them to break up unlike her cheating on him; Annabeth is a very ambitious girl, so she'd work her hardest to make sure everything was perfect) and so he could be free which lets Piper think about the possibilites between them.
Yeah, well. Percy already realized that he cares a whole lot for her, and there was that time in Camp Jupiter when he thought about kissing her...He's well along the path that we're going towards...
Next chapter we'll focus on a plan to get Camp to stop fighting and then in a few more chapters (not sure how many) we'll head up to Olympus where most of the action is. But what about this chapter? Did you...
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