Author's Note: This fic was written for the PJO Big Bang on Tumblr, and therefore has art attatched to it, please see the official pjobigbang tumblr for more information. I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus.

For the Love of a Triangle

A small story set in the winter between The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian

Part I: The Rise

"Be careful of love. It'll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong."

-Aphrodite, The Titan's Curse

"The worst part about falling for your best friend is the fact that you can't tell them, not wanting to ruin the friendship. So you're basically forced to keep your biggest secret from the one person you can tell any secret to, and that breaks you."

-Unknown

Rachel I

Rachel was having a rough day. It had started out great, sure, until she had gotten that call from her mom about her dad's possible affair. Why couldn't she just have one day to herself? Why couldn't fate just let her have one fun day where she could hang out with Percy without monsters attacking, or that blonde demigod getting in the way, or her parents calling her off to do some stupid thing for them?

Last week it had been the family portrait. The week before, fittings for her second cousin's wedding, even though Rachel was not part of the bridal party, and she barely even knew this cousin. All she had wanted from the day was to go to the Met with Percy and have a good time. Was that so much to ask? According to the universe, it was.

The redhead rushed down the street, her paint-splattered converse colliding with pavement as she tried desperately to be on time to meet her mother. Rachel's mother was always getting on her about being late, especially if it was because she was spending time with Percy or doing a street art project, or something that she actually found fun. As she turned the corner, she spotted the cream-colored limo parked in an alleyway, with the sticker on the windshield that said "Dare Executive." She really loathed those two words. Do you know how hard it is to avoid a multi-million dollar corporation in your everyday life when your parents don't own it? Well, it was even harder to avoid one in your daily life when your parents did own said corporation, and tried to force you to take interest in taking it over every five seconds of your life. Rachel took a deep breath before diving headfirst into the too strong perfume-filled world that was her relationship with her mother.

Her mother pulled her into the back of the limo. Veronica Dare looked into her daughter's emerald eyes with her own tired hazel ones. Rachel's mother always seemed slightly on edge, as if she had sprayed her entire body with hairspray because she was terrified that, if she did not, her reputation and good-looks would crack and crumble into dust. Rachel, on the other hand, tried to think about those two subjects as little as possible, running around without any cares as to how other people saw her. As anyone could have guessed, they did not get along so well.

However, on this particular subject, the mother and daughter were united; they would not let Wesley Dare break up the family, which is precisely why Rachel was sitting in a limo in one of the many back allies of New York City with a Private Investigator named Elias Khan instead of hanging out with Percy at the Met.

"We were correct in our suspicions," Veronica whispered to her daughter, her hot-pink fingernails grabbing Rachel's winter coat with what seemed to be either excitement or anger. "He is having an affair!"

"I know, Mom. You told me on the phone."

Mrs. Dare did not lose her composure at her daughter's comment. "And Mr. Khan here has found proof of it." With shaking fingers, the socialite pulled a photograph out of the manila folder that had been resting on her lap. Rachel really did not want to look at the photograph, but she assumed that whatever the photograph was of, it had been harder for her mother to look at than it would be for her now. Luckily, it was only of her father kissing another young woman on his mahogany desk. There was not a very good shot of the other woman's face, but Rachel could make out a dark, short haircut on the woman's head from behind the thin film of snowflakes that covered the picture.

"Uh," Rachel started, "I hate to ask, but, how exactly did you get this picture?"

"Rachel Elizabeth!" her mother exclaimed, obviously horrified at her daughter's lack of understanding as to how you handled private investigators.

"No, no, it's okay." Mr. Khan waved his black-gloved hand at the older woman and turned his head away from the window to speak to her daughter. "With the help of a camera and a money-hungry janitor." That was all he was willing to share on the matter.

"What am I going to do? What are we going to do?" Mrs. Dare breathed quietly, looking down at her black dress pants and tawny winter boots.

"We'll get through this, mom." Rachel whispered, putting a hand on her mother's soft mauve sweater. "We just need to—"

Suddenly, Rachel's head started to hurt like it had been since she'd started going to school at Goode with Percy. In her head, the woman kissing her father in the picture turned around and Rachel saw her eyes. She could not really describe the color, but they were all ablaze with some color of flame. For some reason, it reminded her of earlier that day when she had been walking with Percy and she'd gotten the text from her mom. In her memory, that same flame color had been in the corner of her eye. She groaned, coming to a conclusion of exactly what was going on, before passing out.

Rachel awoke in her room. She reached to her bag where her sketchbook would be, but found nothing. She cursed mentally; she must have left it in Percy's apartment. There was no way she was going to survive both the flame memory, her mother's questions and the proof of her father cheating without that sketchbook. Not to mention, if Percy looked through it and saw her drawings… well… she would be absolutely mortified