Juliette was six years old when she realized she was adopted.

She knows - that's kind of late considering she was raised by a literal different species, but kids just don't think about those things until they're pointed out. In the back of her mind, Julie always understood she was different from the other saplings in Purple Aster's care (after all, she was the only one who wouldn't actually die if she forgot to care for the magical tree she slept in), but it never really clicked just how much.

Unsurprisingly, the realization was not a pleasant one. Like most major events in Juliette's life, it involved harsh words, physical violence, and blood.

A lot of it.

Meet the characters for this little tale:

There was Azalea - Julie would never admit it to his face, but he's always been her favorite grovemate. Like 80% of her personality is just a conglomeration of character traits that she's stolen from him. He took a pretty active role in Juliette's childhood since he sprouted only about 5 years before she was born. By "active role," Julie mostly means noogies and stealing her desserts, but someone had to humble her, she supposes.

Rhododendron took root right beside Azalea. The two of them grew up basically as twins, but their personalities couldn't have been more different. Where Azalea was loud and brash, Rho was kind and softspoken. Honestly, Julie's always found her kinda weird to talk to. She never did anything wrong. She's very sweet. Quiet people just scare her. It's too easy to forget that they're always there...listening.

Then, finally, the star of the show, Sugar Maple.

Ironically, Sugar Maple is, to this day, the least sugary sweet person Juliette has ever met (aside from maybe Clarisse). Pardon her French, but Julie can really only describe her as a Woozy Tooty Boogerface McFartknocker.

And you can quote her on that, because Julie's still got the scar across her calf from the bogus broken leg Maple caused her.

For all of this introduction, there's really not much to the story. Rho, Azalea, and Sugar Maple were doing what dumb young saplings do: cliff diving into a spring from the top of a waterfall knowing that their magical home bases make them pretty much impervious to physical harm. Add in one fragile demigod and a boat load of hazing and cruel words from Maple, and you get six year old Juliette crying in a puddle of smoking purple blood on the rocks down below.

Purple Aster had been furious. Julie had never seen the dryad so riled up before. She'd spent the entire evening lecturing the three older saplings before sending them off to think about what they'd done while sorting out the different animal droppings for fertilizer. Then, the woman had sat Juliette down (Well, technically, she was already sitting. Broken leg, and all), and explained to her that she is not a dryad like the others.

She's a demigod, a cursed one at that, and spilling her blood is very easy and very dangerous to do.

Finding out Aster wasn't her mother was different than heading to the courthouse with Sally Jackson. Everything changed for her in the grove after that. The other saplings looked at her like she was an outsider. The grown dryads treated her like her skin was glass. Nothing was the same.

Or maybe it was, and Juliette just noticed it more once she understood that she didn't belong.

So, going with Luke wasn't a very difficult thing to convince her of. For the first time, Juliette was going to be with one of her own kind. Chris and Luke looked at her with respect, like she was powerful and important. It made her feel powerful and important. She had wanted to prove to them that she was. To make them proud.

How sad is it that she was so happy to be deemed worth kidnapping?

Obviously, that situation had been twisted from the start. It wasn't long before her second "adoptive-guardian-situation" screwed her up even worse than the first. It's really a miracle Percy found her when he did. Even at ten years old, Juliette was spiraling. Any more time under Kronos' thumb...

It's just a good thing that she got out when she did. She can leave it at that.

Obviously, things are better now. Julie's happily a part of the Jackson-Blofis Bunch. She's got the framed adoption papers on her wall back home to prove it. She gets Christmas gifts and blows out candles on her birthday. She can call Sally when she's bored or just wants a free cup of coffee, and she got to stand beside Paul at the alter as they said their vows. She's happy to be their stepdaughter.

She has everything that she needs.

It doesn't matter that Percy and Sally always spend Mother's Day alone together. She's his mom, and gods know they've been through enough to deserve some alone time. Besides, that day has always been weird to her since joining the mortal world. An entire holiday for mothers? That everyone celebrates? Sure, Sally's amazing, but she's one in a million, right? Julie could never imagine celebrating with her own mother. She's pretty sure any macaroni-covered picture frame or handmade paper greeting card she tried to offer would end up blasted into dust before she even made it to the campfire.

Not that she's ever tried, of course. But, speaking from experience, Aphrodite and Juliette get along best when they both pretend the other doesn't exist.

Which is what makes today's events so confusing for her.

"Ah, crap." Julie mumbles, squinting against the sun at the white figure hovering over the harbor in the distance.

"Is that...?" Piper trails off. She raises a hand up to shield her own vision and study the shape before letting out a grumbled curse of her own.

Annabeth blinks, wide eyed, at the both of them. "The ghost?" She asks.

Hazel shakes her head with a frown. "It can't be. No soul glows that brightly."

"I'm not certain she has a soul," Julie snips, crossing her arms and raising her nose in the air. Hazel and Annabeth look at her strangely.

"What do you mean?" asks the blonde. "Do you know what that is?"

Piper groans and rubs her fists against her eyes. The two sisters exchange an exasperated look before turning back to the shimmering figure on the water with matching scowls.

"Yes," Piper sighs. "It's our mother."

Approaching Aphrodite feels like walking herself to the gallows. Julie hangs at the back of the group, hands clenched in the pockets of her cutoff shorts. She does her best to look anywhere but at her mother's stupid gorgeous pink Southern Belle style gown that Juliette totally wants to steal.

NO! Stop it, Julie. Just hang back, let Piper do the talking, get the answers you need, and get the Hades out of he-

"Juliette! My darling!"

Huh?

Before she can react, Juliette finds herself with a face full of soft, pink cotton as arms wrap tightly around her in motherly affection. The moment ends as quickly as it begins. Aphrodite pulls away from the hug to plant a lipstick stained kiss on both of her cheeks and then beam at Julie's sister as well.

"And Piper! Oh, my girls, how are you doing?"

Piper gets the same treatment, a huge, enthusiastic embrace and a kiss on both cheeks. They both gape at the goddess in shock for a second. She takes the opportunity to offer hugs to Annabeth and Hazel as well, but they back up so quickly they run into a palmetto tree.

"I am so glad you are here," Aphrodite says, still smiling, but eyes serious. "War is coming. Bloodshed is inevitable. So, there is really only one thing to do."

They all blink at her. Piper and Julie's brains are currently mush, so it's Annabeth who has to step up.

"And what's that?" She asks hesitantly.

Aphrodite winks.

"Have tea and chat, obviously! Come with me!"

And, with that, her mother saunters off towards a gleaming white gazebo beside the water and waves for them to follow.

Juliette continues to stare, openmouthed, until Hazel pokes her hesitantly in the arm.

"Julie?" She asks with a nervous smile. "Are you coming?"

Julie blinks. Then, she shakes her head to clear it. "Um...Yes. Yeah. Okay. Sure."

The other girls watch her with pursed lips as she takes a step forward, freezes midair, puts her foot back where it was, and looks to Piper with big, fearful eyes.

"Will you go first?" She squeaks.

Piper huffs out a puff of nervous laughter. "Yeah, I've got you. Just follow me."

Julie nods. Oh, she'll follow her. From a very safe distance away.

Piper leads the way into the gazebo Aphrodite is waiting in. The setup that greets them looks like it's straight from a rich girl's dollhouse: expensive china patterned with roses, gilded saucers, three tiered cake stands laden with ambrosia and pastries. Normally, Julie would be striding right up to it to fill her pockets with as much as she can carry for their journey ahead, but she instead hovers by the door until all of her friends have chosen seats and she's forced to follow suit for fear of drawing her mother's attention.

She keeps her eyes on the lavender and rose teacup in front of her.

"Oh, my sweet girls," Aphrodite sighs wistfully. "I do love Charleston! The weddings I've attended in this gazebo - oh, they bring tears to my eyes. And the elegant balls in the days of the Old South. Ah, they were lovely. Many of these mansions still have statues of me in their gardens, though they called me Venus."

Julie hears Annabeth and Hazel shift on either side of her. "Which are you?" Annabeth asks, voice low and cautious. "Aphrodite or Venus?"

Julie hears the slight clinking of china as her mother sips her tea. Then, the goddess giggles lightly. "Annabeth Chase, you've grown into quite a beautiful young lady. You really should do something with that hair, though-"

Annabeth's hand goes up to her head to pat at her curls.

"-And, Hazel Levesque, your clothes-"

"My clothes?!" Hazel asks, looking down in confusion at her denim-on-denim getup that Juliette has tried to hide from her every day since New Rome.

Piper sits up straighter in her chair. "Mother!" She chastises.

Aphrodite giggles again.

"Oh Piper, dear, do calm yourself. I'm only having a bit of fun! Just because you don't care for my fashion tips, doesn't mean others won't. Juliette, love," Julie freezes, eyes wide. "that's a wonderful lip color on you. It's good to see at least some of my offspring upholding their mother's image."

Juliette's head is spinning so dizzily she thinks she's going to throw up in her chamomile tea.

"I'm sure you would agree that these girls are in dire need of a makeover. Perhaps into silk ball gowns like mine? What do you say, flower?"

Silence.

Did someone press pause on time itself? Because Julie cannot currently move, think, or speak. Her entire existence momentarily revolves around the one oddly shaped flower on the tablecloth that kind of looks like a giraffe. Maybe if she focuses hard enough on it, she'll be able to shadowtravel to Africa. Would that keep her from having to come up with a response to this conversation?

Apparently, she's quiet long enough to make people uncomfortable (not to brag or anything, y'know), because Piper clears her throat awkwardly after a while to divert Aphrodite's attention back to herself.

"Mother, Annabeth asked a question."

Aphrodite sighs dramatically. "Fine, yes, yes. I am both Aphrodite and Venus. Unlike my fellow Olympians, I hardly changed from one age to the next. Love is love, after all, whether you're Greek or Roman! While my demeanor might shift, what I stand for hardly does. The civil war will not affect me as much as it will the others."

What? Julie's so confused. What is going on?

"But, we aren't in a war yet, my lady," pipes up Hazel as she nibbles on a sugar cookie.

Aphrodite chuckles and Julie hears a whoosh as she unfolds her fan, waving it daintily in the hot summer air. "Oh, dear Hazel, such optimism, yet you have heartrending days ahead of you. Of course war is coming. Love and war always go together. Evil and good. Beauty and ugliness."

Hazel drops her cookie back to her plate with a frown. "What do you mean, heartrending days?"

Aphrodite laughs and folds her fan back up. "Well, Annabeth could give you some idea. I promised to make her love life interesting. And didn't I?"

Annabeth's angry shifting finally breaks Julie out of her stupor. A sympathetic spark of annoyance finds a home in the little spot behind her belly button at the goddess' clear reference to Luke Castellan.

Interesting? That's what Aphrodite calls making a child fall for an adult man with nothing but the worst of intentions for her?

"That's a mild way of putting it," Annabeth hisses.

Piper leans forward impatiently. "Mother, is there a reason you're here?"

"Hmm? Oh, you mean besides the tea?"

Obviously, besides the tea. Juliette hates talking to gods. The little "spark" in her gut becomes a lit candle.

"I often come here," Her mother gushes. "I love the view, the food, the atmosphere - you can just smell the centuries of romance and heartbreak in the air, can't you?"

That comment finally gets Juliette's attention. Her head snaps up, and she meets her mother's startlingly blue eyes.

"Heartbreak?" Julie asks quietly. Her friends stop chewing and look over. She clenches her shaking fingers around the end of the table. "Is that something you're down with nowadays?"

Aphrodite's teacup must be base boosted. The sound of it clicking back onto her saucer is like a gunshot through both of Juliette's eardrums. She startles, fear nestling in between her ribs, and tries her best to appear calm on the outside.

Her mother smiles. "Whatever do you mean, darling?"

What does she mean?

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Aphrodite sighs, eyes twinkling at her through golden lashes like Julie's a small child asking if the moon is made of cheese. "I apologize if Aphrodite's treatment of you in the past has felt...unfair. She is still young at heart in ways that Venus is not, I'm afraid. She often does not understand there is strength to be found in suffering."

Julie shakes her head, bewildered. "You just said you were Aphrodite."

"I am Venus as well."

"That means literally nothing to me."

Her mother tuts, reaching forward to pour more tea into Juliette's untouched, already nearly full cup. The stream of steaming liquid quivers a bit. The goddess' hands are...shaking.

"I am unsure how to make you understand, child," She sighs. "In the days of Ancient Greece, your earliest brothers and sisters were plenty amongst the terrible monsters which threatened Olympus. Aphrodite was young. Inexperienced. She fell easily and without caution. The creation of your kind was Athena's idea. It was the only way to keep her sane."

Julie glances at Annabeth. She hadn't known that. She doesn't know how to feel about it now.

"My Heartbreak demigods...their fate is not one of my own making."

The candle grows hotter. It tips over and lights the parchment beneath it ablaze. Julie can feel the heat of it rising up to her lungs.

"Not your own making?" Julie challenges. Her voice comes out louder than intended and half a serpentine hiss. It's not on purpose, but it definitely accentuates the point she's trying to make. "How can you actually think I'd believe that?"

For the first time in the interaction, Aphrodite frowns.

Julie rises to her feet. She leans over the spread and knocks into her teacup. It sloshes across the little painted flowers on the tablecloth. "What is it that ten year old me did that was so bad I couldn't even sleep beside my siblings?! How could I possibly have brought that on myself?"

"My dear-"

"What, was it something Dad did?! What could Phil McCaffrey have done to piss you off so much you needed to literally split your soul? All he cared about was plants!"

"If you would be silent-"

"Silent?!" Julie laughs, high and bitter. She reels back and looks at her mother in bewilderment. "You mean like I have been every time I've watched you bless a sibling of mine at their claiming? Like I was when you let me nearly fall to my death because you couldn't be bothered to pick up me and Piper both?"

She throws a hand out to gesture at her sister, who is flushed and staring awkwardly out at the waves crashing on the shore. Annabeth and Hazel are focused in on the conversation, both looking just as angry as Juliette is.

Aphrodite closes her eyes and grips her cup more tightly. Her face is screwed up in that same discomfort which was on Bacchus' face when Percy called him by the wrong name in the wheat fields. She's twitching a bit, and it looks for a moment like her hair is glitching, changing textures and lengths, but Julie blinks and it's back to the styled blonde beehive it's been in the whole time.

Julie glares at her. After a lingering moment of silence, she stamps her foot impatiently.

"Well?"

Aphrodite opens her eyes, and Juliette flinches back. They're brown. Like toffee.

Like the princess' were.

Julie's mouth goes so dry it feels like she's swallowing glass.

"I love my children," Aphrodite says softly. Julie opens her mouth to snap at her, but she raises a hand, eyes pleading, and Juliette freezes.

A request. Not an order. Julie closes her mouth slowly and lets her mother speak.

The goddess offers her a small nod. "Aphrodite and Venus, while the same in many aspects, differ greatly when it comes to their Heartbreaks. You have experienced the typical Greek upbringing of a demigod Child of Sadness, and I am sorry that is the case. In her youth, in her immaturity..." The goddess sighs and looks down, stirring her tea idly as she searches for the right words. "Aphrodite sought to abandon her pain. To extract it, and to never be forced to confront it again. It was not until Rome that she learned how suffering emboldens its victims. How it can strengthen them."

She looks up at Juliette, and there's pride shining in those amber eyes. Julie's breaths feel shallow. Her knees feel weak. The goddess smiles at her. "Your Roman sisters, for I birthed only females during the time of the Empire, were cherished by Venus. She understood their power. She celebrated it. And, she wept when those blasphemous emperors imprisoned them in their gilded shackles."

Julie frowns, head tilting in confusion, but her mother is already standing and rounding the table to take her hands. She reaches out towards her daughter, palms up, and indecision runs rampant through Juliette's mind. She glances at Piper, who purses her lips and shrugs. At Annabeth, who continues to glare at the goddess suspiciously. At Hazel, who offers Juliette a small, understanding smile that makes the flames in her chest cool just a little.

Julie doesn't take her mother's hands, but she does look her in the eyes when she addresses her next question.

"Where do we find the map that we're looking for?"

Aphrodite...Venus...? Venaphrodite?

Her mom smiles and reaches up to tuck a lock of Juliette's hair behind her ear. "I thought you'd never ask," She chirps.

Look, Julie'll beat up the Romans, but she is not laying a talon on their pegasi, enemy forces or not. Horsies are her friends, and they're cute, okay? Take it up with her supervisor, if that's a problem.

The birds, though? Those are fair game. Birds are evil. They have pooped on Julie's wings while she was flying one too many times.

Julie hisses, low and aggressive as smoking purple venom drips from her fangs and her wings extend protectively over the three girls in front of her. Her emerald eyes are locked and narrowed onto the three giant eagles that descended between them and the Argo II.

A blonde guy in golden armor brandishes his sword, eyes wild. "Surrender to Rome!"

Hazel sighs. There's more exasperation in her voice than fear, so Julie thinks their chances are probably fine. But, the girl's golden eyes look a little nervous as they take in the buff warriors that are flanking the limp noodle of a teenage boy shouting at them. "Fat chance, Octavian."

Piper steps up, smiling syrupy sweet. "Octavian, what happened in New Rome was a setup. We can explain-"

"We can't hear you! Wax in our ears! Standard procedure when battling evil sirens!"

Julie laughs in her head. Evil siren. That's a good insult. She's gonna call Drew that next time she sees her.

"Now, throw down your weapons, muzzle your cordolium, and turn around slowly so I can bind your hands!"

Okay, now he's just being rude. Can she stomp on him yet?

She looks to Annabeth. There's that gleam in her eye she only gets when she's planning something. Cool. Hopefully the plan doesn't take very long, because Julie didn't eat anything at the gazebo, and these thugs are starting to look mighty tasty.

Octavian takes a step forward, and she arches her back up like a cat to let out another warning hiss, brandishing her fangs. Annabeth holds out a hand, though, and Julie reluctantly backs down.

Alright, alright. Julie'll see where she's going with this.

Very slowly, Annabeth draws her knife from her belt with only two fingers. Octavian grips his sword, and his backup tenses as she unsheathes it fully...and then flings it into the ocean.

Julie blinks. Okay, she does not see where she's going with this. Now, they're cornered and down a weapon.

Octavian squawks in protest. "What was that for! I didn't say toss it! It could have been evidence! Or a spoil of war!"

Annabeth puts a hand over her mouth and giggles sheepishly.

Wait, Annabeth doesn't giggle.

Gods, that sound was so wrong coming out of her.

She smiles at Octavian and puts her hands up innocently, and the augur shakes his head in annoyance, addressing Hazel and Piper instead. "Now, you other two, put your weapons down on the dock...slowly...no funny bus-"

In a roaring crash, the water around the Romans erupts upwards like a Yellowstone geyser. The dock splinters apart, and in the time it takes Juliette's brain to catch up to what she's seeing, the Roman soldiers and their eagles are floating, coughing out seawater, in the ocean below.

Percy hops up onto the dock beside them holding Annabeth's dagger.

He holds it out to her, expressionless.

"You dropped this."

"I love you!" Annabeth squeals, actually squeals, and throws herself into his arms.

Juliette grins at them (well, as much as a snake can grin), and trots up to give Percy an aggressive nuzzle of her enormous head. He laughs and pats between her eyes as Hazel speaks up behind them.

"Guys, we need to hurry."

"Come down here! I'll kill you!" Octavian screeches from below. "Filthy Greeks!"

The group all turn to scowl at him as he floats there in his armor. Juliette has a brilliant idea.

Come down there? Fine! She'll teach him to put a muzzle on a wyvern.

"Jules...?" Percy mutters suspiciously as she begins backing up down the dock, head bowed in preparation. "What are you doing...?"

Annabeth's eyes widen, and she shakes her head. "No, wait, Julie, don't-!"

With a laugh-like hiss, Juliette takes a running start down the dock, leaps off the edge, and Octavian and his goons scream in terror as they watch a school bus sized wyvern descend on them in the world's most spectacular bellyflop.

"So, there they were, lined up like little bowling pins for me-"

"A flying wedge formation," Jason corrects, smirking where his cheek is resting on his fist as he gazes at her across the stables.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway," Julie throws on a wicked smile and brandishes her broom like she's holding a mighty weapon. "Picture it. Refined, respectable Romans in their cute little armor-"

"It's Imperial plate mail," Jason laughs, shaking his head. "The entire idea of its design is to not be 'cute.'"

Julie grins wider and pretends not to hear him. "-and they're looking up at me from across the field, probably all thinking 'Oh Hades yeah, I'm about to do some badass wyvern slaying right now.' Annabeth's running in to get the map, right? And me? I'm the certified distraction. So, you know what I do?"

He raises his eyebrows. "What do you do?"

"You wanna know what I do?"

"I am so ready to hear what you do."

"I pick one. The tallest guy there. He was, like, wearing lipstick, so he stood out-"

"Dakota. It's Kool Aid, but go on."

"Kool Aid? Really? Yeah, anyway, I pick him up by his li'l' shoulder straps, and - wait, have you ever been to Six Flags?"

"Juliette, I have amnesia."

"Oh, right. Well, anyway, there's a ride there called the Superman, and - well, technically it's Superman: Man of Steel, but, as much as I love Henry Cavill, that movie was boring as I'll get out. I really wanted to like it, I did, but what was even the plot? Does being an alien mean he can't make facial expressions? Or talk in more than one tone of voice? I mean, most of the extraterrestrial beings that I've met just can't shut up."

Jason nods very seriously as she talks, a smile so wide across his face it really might be touching his ears. Julie blinks, broom sword dropping a few inches.

"What was I talking about?"

"Mauling Dakota."

"Oh, right, lipstick guy! Yeah, so, on the Superman, you go, like really high up and then drop really fast over and over again until it eventually feels like you're flying. Yeah, so Percy and I went one time, and he totally blew chunks. Like, while we were in the middle of the ride. But, the thing is, when you throw up on a roller coaster, you're going so fast, that it basically just waterboards you and all the people behind you with your own vomit." She points at Jason, who's grimacing. "I know right, that was my face! It was disgusting! He had it, like, all in his nose and stuff, and - oh, by the way, if you tell him I told you this, I will stitch your next inevitable head wound with dental floss."

Jason opens his mouth like he's going to say something, but instead just bursts out laughing. Julie's jaw drops in offense.

"Take my threats seriously! I never took the Hippocratic Oath, I will do it!"

Jason digs the heels of his hands into his eyes, still laughing uncontrollably. Julie crosses her arms and tries to pout, but a smile is pulling too hard at the corner of her mouth. She stamps her foot to get the effect instead.

"Stop laughing at me! I'm telling a story, and you're being rude."

Still snorting, Jason tries to catch his breath and gestures in a rolling motion for her to go on. "You're right, you're right. Please tell the end of your story. I would love to see where this goes."

"Thank you," Julie sniffs. Then, she gets back into broom-battle-stance. "So, I pick up Lipstick Guy-"

"Dakota."

"I said shut up! So, I pick him up, and he's flailing like Leo did that time that Piper put IcyHot in his socks. You remember that? Gods, that was amazing. But, yeah, I start pulling all the flight maneuvers I can, just dangling this guy over the other soldiers like he's a freakin' piñata. And, they're all trying to help him because he's screaming bloody murder, but I'm holding him just out of reach. My idea was just to kind of throw him around for a while to distract everybody while Annabeth snuck past, but I guess Lipstick Guy-"

"Dakota."

"-doesn't have much experience with G-forces. Like three loop-di-loops in, he just BURSTS like a water balloon! I mean that stuff went EVERYWHERE! And it was RED and-" Julie cuts off, standing a bit straighter. "Y'know, I'm really glad to hear he drinks KoolAid. Telling this story out loud makes me realize him vomiting bright red wasn't normal."

"Oh, really?" teases Jason, eyebrows skyward. "That didn't concern you at the time?"

Julie crosses her arms, accidentally bonking herself with the broom in the process and wincing. "Hey, I don't always remember what normal bodily fluids look like. My blood's purple! That kind of throws off most of them by extension. Matching foundation colors is a nightmare, let me tell you."

"Oh, yeah, I hate doing that. What a chore."

"It's the worst right? I hate changing brands too because the mixes are never the sa-" She scowls at him. He's grinning at her. She rolls her eyes. "You don't even wear foundation. Stop sidetracking me."

"I think your ADHD is doing that enough on its own."

"Well, aren't you all high and mighty with your 'superior Roman genes.'"

"I am, thank you. We also make excellent wine."

Julie gasps, hand to her chest. "Jason Grace! Underage drinking? My stars!"

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head at her. "It's not underage when you're Roman. They had their toddlers drinking wine out of sippy cups."

"Liar. They didn't have sippy cups."

"I was being hyperbolic."

"...Is that a disease or something?"

"I thought your stepdad was an English teacher."

"So?"

"No wonder Thalia thought you couldn't read."

"Hey!"

Jason laughs. He hops up onto the side of one of the stalls to sit, and Juliette, not feeling like craning her neck to continue the conversation, joins him. She accidentally lets go of the broom and it falls down to the floor, making her pout and Jason snort at her distress. He kicks his foot against hers.

"So, what, you've never had a drink? Even a little wine?"

Julie hums, glaring down at her broom where it's sitting in the pile of hay like she can will it back into her hands if she mean-mugs it enough. "Nah. Well, kinda. Nico stole a bottle from Hades one time, and we tried drinking it by the creek at camp. Either I hate wine, or Hades has terrible taste in it."

Jason chuckles, looking across the stall with a grin. Julie's shoulders drop at the thought of her friend.

And where he is right now.

Jason inches closer to her on the short wall, and his fingers brush gently over her own. She looks up at his concerned expression with a small, forced smile, and he sighs and takes her hand fully.

"We're going to get to him in time," He vows. He looks very sure. Honestly, he's the first to say so and actually sound like he means it.

Julie looks down. "I know," She mumbles. "I just...Gods, Jason, that kid...He's incredible. Just wait until you meet him."

Jason smiles. "What's he like?"

Julie beams, then. She gets a sparkle back to her eye as she looks up at Jason, and he prepares himself for another million stories wrapped into one.

Like always, he hangs on every word.