Early update today-I'm going to a friend's house after school and sleeping over, so I have to post before leaving for school. Don't worry, though, I'm still going to update tomorrow-just maybe a little later in the afternoon than usual.

This chapter is a teensy bit shorter than usual, and they don't leave for Pylos yet, I wanted to fit some more Percabeth in before they left, and I could only do that for a Percy or Annabeth chapter, which this is not. And I didn't want to skip Piper's POV, because I haven't had her in awhile, so, yeah. They leave next chapter, or possibly the one after that. It's one of the two, I promise.

Chapter XLIX

Piper

Piper pulls away first-after all, she has to breath. Gasping, she looks into Jason's face, at the little scar above his lip, the happy twinkle in his eyes.

"Hi." She says, her voice small. He smiles.

"Hi back." He replies, and pulls her in for more kissing. Piper entwines her fingers in his hair, pulling his face closer to hers.

A knock on the door interrupts them, and Piper groans. Jason sits up, grinning.

"Always with the worst timing, huh?" He comments before going to open the door. "What is it, Leo?"

"We're here. You've still got about five minutes before you're technically supposed to be going, so if you want to make the most of that..." Leo grins, peeking underneath Jason's arm at where Piper is lying on the bed. "Hi, Beauty Queen."

Jason shoves him back out the door, smiling. "Get out, Leo." He orders good-naturedly, and Leo, still grinning, starts singing.

"Jason and Piper, sitting in a tree..." Jason shuts the door, effectively cutting off the rest of the rhyme, but Piper can hear Leo laughing as he walks off down the hallway.

Jason turns back to her, shaking his head, but with a small smile on his face.

"It's nice to hear him laughing again, isn't it?" Piper asks quietly.

"That's why I didn't punch him. He was finally smiling." Jason replies, crawling back onto the bed.

"We should probably go up on deck, shouldn't we." Piper says, sighing.

Jason just moves closer. "Probably." He answers, before kissing her.

"You know, Jason, you're not making it any easier for me to let you go." Piper tells him. He raises an eyebrow.

"Let me go? Who says you're letting me do anything?" He teases.

"Oh, you and I both know I could make you stay behind-and much, much more." Piper whispers the last bit, tracing his lips with her finger. "I have charmspeak, remember?"

"Oh, I have no doubt you could do it without charmspeak. You're just that persuasive." He replies, grabbing her hand and kissing her fingers.

Piper sighs. She wishes she could stay in this moment forever, but of course that's not possible. Her happiness starts to evaporate as she remembers their pending separation-even if it is only for a few hours.

"Come on, Superman, we have to get you up on deck." She says, grabbing his hand and pulling him up. "Don't forget your bag."

He snags it with his free hand before following her out the door, still holding onto her hand. She leads him up the stairs to the deck, surprised to find that they're the first ones there.

"Bet I can guess where Percy is." She says, grinning.

"Maybe with a certain blonde daughter of Athena?" Jason guesses, grinning back. Piper giggles.

"Of course. Although I bet Percy spent the first few minutes of his preparation time getting yelled at. Now they're probably making up." She suggests, blushing a little at the thought of it.

"Making up is always fun." Jason says, wrapping his arms around Piper's waist.

"Mmmm." She murmurs, reaching up to kiss him.

"Again already? Man, you guys just can't keep your hands off each other." Leo shakes his head in mock exasperation, grinning.

Piper sticks her tongue out at him. "Go away, Leo."

"Hey, in case you didn't notice, you are in a public place on this ship, which I built. I'm allowed to be here." He tells her.

"I wonder if being fireproof makes you immune to electrocution." Jason says, looking at Leo appraisingly.

"Hey, Superman, no barbecuing best friends. That's bad manners." Leo scolds, walking over to his controls.

"Remember, Leo, you're going to be alone with us girls all day. I would watch what you say." Piper reminds him.

Leo looks at her suspiciously. "You wouldn't charmspeak me into wearing a dress, would you?"

"What?" Piper laughs. "Who said that?"

"Hazel might have mentioned it." Leo mutters. "She also might have mentioned makeup, which is why I have a perfectly good reason to lock myself in the engine room until Jason and the others get back."

Jason looks back and forth between them, a vaguely disappointed look on his face. "Now I kind of wish I was staying behind. I don't want to miss that."

"Dude, I thought we'd established that it wasn't going to happen? Piper wouldn't do that, would you, Piper?" Leo asks, looking over at her hopefully.

"It depends." She replies.

"On what?" Leo demands.

"Whether or not you annoy me." She tells him.

"Hey, annoying people is fun. I try very hard to annoy people. You can't take my one source of entertainment away from me." He complains.

"I think he'd look good in a dress, don't you, Jason?" Piper asks innocently, looking at her boyfriend.

"Depends on what color it is." He grins.

"Pink would be perfect with your dark skin." Piper says, grinning wickedly.

"You wouldn't." Leo takes a step back, narrowing his eyes.

"Try me." Piper shoots back. Leo looks from her to Jason, as if waiting for him to come to his aid. When he doesn't receive any, he starts backing slowly away, watching Piper warily.

"Okay, I'm just-gonna go now." Leo says, backing up and then turning and walking as fast as he can down the stairs, staring over his shoulder.

Piper and Jason look at each other and start laughing.

"I wonder where he went?" Piper asks, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Probably to hide somewhere." Jason answers, pulling her over to the railing to wait for the others.

Frank and Hazel come up the stairs a few minutes later with confused looks on their faces.

"Why is Leo barricading himself in the engine room?" Frank asks.

Piper and Jason start laughing again.

Frank looks between them, waiting for an answer, and when he doesn't get one, he slowly shakes his head and walks to the opposite side of the ship with Hazel close behind.

"I wonder what's taking Percy so long?" Jason wonders aloud, looking towards the stairs.

"I can guess." Piper replies slyly, smiling.

Hazel turns from the other side of the ship. "He'll be late." She calls, apparently having overheard their conversation.

"How do you know?" Jason asks, turning with his back to the railing and leaning casually against it. Piper can't help but notice how the sunlight catches his blonde hair and makes it shine when he's facing towards it.

"Because he always is." Hazel answers. "Give him five more minutes. That's probably when he'll come up, unless Annabeth forces him to come up earlier."

"Not likely. She's probably a bit distracted." Piper mutters. Jason grins.

"Like you were, a few minutes ago?" He says quietly, so Hazel and Frank can't hear.

Piper punches him. "Shut up." She mutters, her cheeks blazing.

He just laughs, and her irritation evaporates.

"It's very hard to stay mad at you, did you know that?" She tells him.

"No, but thanks for telling me. I'll be sure to remember that." He replies, smirking.

"Oh, be quiet, Jason." She huffs, turning her back to him and crossing her arms.

He hugs her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

"For what it's worth," he whispers, his warm breath tickling her ear, "you're pretty hard to stay mad at too."

"Really?" She murmurs back, amused.

"Impossible, actually." He tells her, kissing her on the cheek.

Piper twists around in his arms to face him. His lips are mere centimeters away from hers.

"Of course, it helps if you're in love with that person." Jason acknowledges, and happiness floods through Piper so that she feels like she's floating.

"Love you too, Jase." She murmurs, before kissing him.

"Hey, no PDA, you two!" Frank calls.

They break apart, smiling.

"We just can't catch a break, can we?" Piper murmurs, resting her forehead against his.

"Maybe when you get back, we can try to spend some more time together. We can't get interrupted every time, right?" Jason suggests, looking down at her.

Piper smiles. "I'd like that."

Awww, sweetness. Okay, so, the fluffy stuff is about to die down a little-there will still be fluff, but not near as much. Instead, we are getting to the action.