Disclaimer: All rights to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus series go to the annoying yet amazing Rick Riordan and I own nothing but the plot
Piper was walking down the beach with Jason. After so much, they were together. Happily Ever After, The End. Perfect.
Or not.
There was still something bugging her whenever Jason hugged her. Whenever Leo-her best friend even before the Prophecy of the Seven, just stood in the background, watching. Something still pulled at her heart whenever Leo scooted over, away from her, just to allow her and Jason to be closer.
As a daughter of Aphrodite, she really should be able to sort out her own feelings before she gave advice to practically everyone else at camp. She always said, "be yourself, a guy will like you for you," or, "love comes out of the most unexpected places. Annabeth said she hated Percy at first." But even with those pieces of advice in her own mind, couldn't understand what she felt herself. And her advice didn't seem to apply to her and Jason at all. Piper never used herself as an example, not even because she wanted to keep her relationship a secret-no, everyone knew about that, but because her advice just didn't fit in with her own love life.
Her love life with Jason felt like a fairy tale. And that's just it-it wasn't a fairytale. It was almost too good to be true.
She didn't even feel like herself around Jason. There were worries about her relationship with him, as if she might do something wrong. It wasn't like with her other friends-she could goof around with them all she wanted and act like a mess and they wouldn't care. Jason probably didn't care, either, but deep inside all the "be yourself" nonsense, she was still worried she might do something wrong. Still, being friends was simpler. More fun, too, comparing all the boring lulls in conversations with Jason in their walks on the beach to all the corny-but funny-jokes Leo cracks….
"There you go again, McLean, thinking about Leo. You're with Jason, Piper! You and Leo are friends. BEST friends, at that. You don't want to ruin the friendship with the one person you feel normal with! Then again, I don't really mind taking the risk to be more tha-"
"Are you okay, Piper?" Jason cut off her thought. See, that lull was long enough to argue with herself. But no matter.
This was Jason, after all. Her boyfriend. Her amazing boyfriend.
Yeah. Her boyfriend. She managed a small smile.
"Yeah, I'm good."
Still. Something still tugged her heart as they walked back to camp and she was able to glance at Bunker 9.