Jason wanted to puke. He wanted to faint. He wanted to scream. Not necessarily all at once.
"Dear, are you alright?"
"Of course he's alright, he's marrying the most eligible princess to be had." Zeus slapped him on the shoulder.
Jason swallowed down his anxieties. "I'm perfectly fine, your majesty."
"Mother." Queen Hera prodded.
"I'm perfectly fine, Mother." Jason amended. His eyes shot towards Nico, standing at the door waiting for him. Nico shrugged.
"I expect that you'll be a perfect model of decorum during the entirety of the Festival." Zeus continued. "You will, of course, make your official offer of marriage to the Princess Piper on the Day of Trust, and be officially wed on the Solstice, at which point, I can only hope that there will be an heir well on its way by the Festival of Night."
This time Jason did throw up in his mouth a little.
"So soon? I've never even met the Princess."
"Jason," Hera's voice was that saccharine sweet that sent a shiver down Jason's spine, "you needn't worry about that. Your father and I are the experts on true love, afterall. We would never let you be in an unhappy marriage."
Nico coughed loudly. It sounded to Jason like he was covering up a laugh. Hera's dark eyes shot across the room to the knight, cold anger covered by a thin sheen of decorum coming off of her in waves. Nico had the tact to incline his head to her anger.
Zeus continued on, unnoticing. "Quite right, my dear. You and your party shall leave for Cyprus on the morrow as planned." He took the Queen's arm, and the two glided out of the parlor, leaving Jason to stare at the floor. As soon as the door clicked shut behind the departing royals, Jason buried his head in his hands.
"Married? Was this something I was supposed to expect?" He asked, not looking up.
"At some point." Nico said, "Want me to send someone to get Leo?"
"Please." Jason said.
As if he had been waiting for the summons, Leo arrived within minutes.
"What's the story?" He asked, dropping into the chair beside Jason.
"I'm betrothed."
"Leaving the bachelor life behind? Congrats!"
"No, not congrats!" Jason snapped, "I've never even talked to a girl before, and now I'm getting married, what am I supposed to do?"
"Take it easy," Nico rolled his eyes, standing behind Leo, "You'll be fine."
"Will I be? I wasn't even supposed to be an heir until three months ago, and now every time I take a breath, Dad shoves a new responsibility at me, and expects me to just understand how to be a prince, when he's never wanted me to act like one in the twenty years that preceded it, and now I need an heir? Why can't he ask me to fight in a stupid war, I could do that-"
"Hey, breathe." Leo grabbed Jason's shoulder, "I know, man, and that's why we'll be there to help you."
"Why do they get to pick my wife for me?"
"It is pretty shitty." Nico agreed.
"Why did Thals have to leave?"
"Don't start this again." Leo said. "We'll be there to help you fall in love or whatever."
"Leo." Nico glared.
"What? We have to be there anyway, we might as well help him fall in love."
"First of all, you don't have to be there, you're just tagging along, second, don't make promises you can't keep."
"What can I say? I'm a love expert."
Nico rolled his eyes. Even Jason started to smile.
"Sure, casanova." Nico said, "You can start by helping the groom here find a proper engagement ring."
…
Percy dropped a stack of records onto Piper's desk.
"So, we're not even saying hello anymore?" Piper asked, "Just walking into my room and cluttering my space unannounced?"
"This is everything the archivists would let me take about Jason and Annabeth."
Piper pushed aside her own work. "I'll allow the interruption."
Percy rolled his eyes. "Oh, thank goodness, benevolent sister." He shoved the first item at her. "Here's your husband's official portrait and signet."
Piper shifted the parchment around, getting a look at the Crown Prince of Olympia. He had short blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a scar over his lip, which she frowned at. Surely the painter could have omitted the blemish, it was only a portrait after all. The rest of the portrait was fairly standard. It was in military dress, of course, with dozens of medals that any prince was sure to have pinned across his chest, and the most rigid posture she had ever seen, the very picture of knighthood.
"Stuffy." She observed.
"Are you blind?" Percy asked, spinning the portrait to face him. "More like gorgeous, thank you very much."
Piper shrugged. "If you're into men, I suppose. What does your wife look like?"
"Wife to be." Percy stressed, "I don't know, like a princess I guess."
"Really." Piper scoffed, snatching the picture away from Percy. The woman gazing back at her through grey eyes was nothing short of beautiful. She was, as Percy said, a princess, the way her hair seemed perfectly coiffed around her and her smile could dazzle anyone, but unlike Jason, she wore no crown or even signet ring in her portrait. "Wow. Oh, wow. She's hot."
Percy grabbed the portrait back. "Of course she is. And she's my wife, so watch your mouth."
"What happened to, 'wife to be?" Piper asked.
"Oh, shut up." Percy said. "She's not even a princess, she just looks the part."
"I'm sorry?"
"She's a bastard."
"So are you."
"But no one knows that." Percy stressed, "Everyone knows she's not really King Malcolm's daughter.
Piper laughed, "If it were true, Dad would never have allowed the match."
"Okay, so allegedly she's actually the child of Queen Athena and some lord. That she had killed when the rumors started. And then disinherited Annabeth as heir as soon as she had the undisputable heir, Prince Malcolm."
"Percy, researching? I'm so proud."
Percy sighed. "That's not all. Want to know what I heard about your husband?"
"Husband to be." Piper amended, grinning at him. "The part about how his sister died suddenly, forcing him into being the heir?"
"Yeah, that." Percy said, "How did you know?"
"Some of us pay attention." Piper said, "I suppose you also learned the rumor that she's not actually dead, but instead ran away after their father remarried, and the throne of Olympia is trying to stop that embarrassment from getting out?"
"Yes." Percy sulked, "That would be all the news I had."
"Don't give up. You might still surprise me one day."
…
"Announcing his highness Sir Jason, Crown Prince of Olympia, his highness Sir Nico, Prince of Epirus, and his grace Sir Leo of Olympia."
Jason was eternally grateful that his rank as knight allowed him to wear his formal armor to events, because it meant no one could see how much he was sweating. A formal banquet with the royal family of Cyprus and the entire court wasn't his idea of a good time, but at least he was prepared for it. He tried to answer King Poseidon and Queen Aphrodite's questions with dignity, but he didn't understand half of what he was saying most of the time. Nico and Leo managed to deflect a fair amount of the attention, but he could still feel eyes judging his every move.
And the Prince and Princesses. They were some of the most beautiful people he had ever seen, and if there was one thing that made Jason more nervous than formal banquets and inquisitions, it was beautiful people. Silena was the most gracious person he had ever met, and she and her husband Charles didn't mind any of the rambling he knew he had been doing while he was attempting to mingle with the courtiers after dinner. But the other two - Piper and Percy - they were something else.
Piper's beauty was the stuff of legend across all the six kingdoms of Hellas, everyone knew that. Some people said she was blessed by the moon herself, or that she shone brighter than the sun on the solstice. Jason could appreciate that, but Percy was unexpected. He outshone Piper, in a way Jason almost couldn't describe. It was in his smile and the way it was ever so crooked in the way it pulled to the left as if Jason were always in on the joke. It was in his eyes, when the light glinted off of them the way the sun did the sea. It was in his hands as they never stopped moving when he spoke, constantly gesturing and gesticulating, as if he didn't trust his voice to convey everything he meant, even as his voice was perhaps the most beautiful thing Jason had ever heard. He never wanted Percy to stop talking.
But Piper was beautiful as well, of course, and he was, of course, excited to marry her. Jason actually couldn't think of a single reason that he shouldn't marry her. Dad and Hera were right, he guessed. He would be perfectly happy with Piper. That was what he told Nico and Leo, anyway.
Nico had an eyebrow raised at him. "Well…good. Glad that's all taken care of then."
Leo nodded along. "So you're perfectly happy to marry Piper then?"
"I mean, the Prince and Princess of Cyprus are beautiful, why wouldn't I want to marry her?"
"Right," Leo said, "I got that. And your opinion on their relative beauty is that Piper lives up to her reputation as the most gorgeous person to have ever lived and breathed on Hellas, and that in addition to that-"
"Percy is unexpectedly more beautiful than she is." Jason finished, nodding. "Exactly. You see it, right Nico?"
"I've been there, done that, gotten over that." Nico said, fidgeting with his glove.
"Just as long as you remember which sibling you're here to marry." Leo said.
…
"Nervous?" Silena asked
"Why would I be?" Piper countered. She lifted her arms so that the maid could finish tying the back of her dress.
"My mistake, I just thought you might be a bit anxious to meet your husband."
"Future husband." Piper correctly idly. "And no, I think I'll be alright. I met him at dinner, remember?"
"But one on one is different." Silena said, waving her hand dismissively. "I suppose you're going to charm him?"
"I don't know what I'm going to do." Piper answered honestly, lowering her arms now that the dress was finished. The maid began slipping pins with tiny pearls into her hair.
Silena laughed, "You charm everyone you speak to."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Then what choice do I have?" The matching pearl necklace was fastened around her neck. "I'm off to see my fiance then."
"Good luck!" Silena called.
Piper made her way to the garden, in order to be early to their meeting. Jason was already there, miraculously no longer wearing his armor, although he did still have his sword on him, and he was clutching a bouquet of roses like his life depended on it. So much for being early.
"I got these for you." Jason said, pushing the flowers toward her. "They aren't as pretty as you, but I hope they come close."
His abruptness threw her off. "Thank you so much, what a darling compliment." She took the time to arrange the flowers around, sitting down in the gazebo with him.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Why?"
He gaped at her. "I don't know. That we have to get married."
"What's so wrong with that?" She turned on her smile, the same one she used at every court gathering, and the same one that carried her entire reputation on its wings.
"Because neither of us got to choose each other."
Her smile softened. "It is an odd situation to be in, but I'm certain we'll make it through."
"Could you be happy?" Jason blurted out, "I mean, of course you could, I just mean….do you think you could be happy married to me? Even if you aren't right now, obviously you're still the way you are when your entire court is around, but maybe eventually when we're married, do you think you could love me?"
Piper was completely thrown off guard. It wasn't even the question that initially shook her, but the fact that he noticed that she was still holding him at arm's length, keeping him the exact same distance she kept everyone else, except maybe Percy and Silena. Could she be happy with him? Maybe, but could she love him -
"No, Jason," she said softly, "I don't think I could ever love you. I don't…I don't like men, it's nothing against you personally, but I could never be in love with any man."
This time, Jason was the one to reconsider the conversation. "I understand," he said after a moment, "I hope that I never make you think I'd expect that from you. But I hope that we could be friends. It would be a very dull life to spend it married to someone I couldn't even have a conversation with."
Piper smiled, this time a real smile, one that reached all the way to her eyes. "I'd like that very much. To being partners then?" She reached out a hand to shake.
"And to being friends."