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“You’ve got to be kidding me,” says Jason. “Listen, Annabeth, I have your back if we’re about to die, but I refuse to screw with your boyfriend like this.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” corrects Annabeth. “Why else would I be asking you to do this?”
“I have literally no desire to be pulverized by your ex-boyfriend,” says Jason, then pauses. “Sorry, that’s going to take some getting used to.”
Annabeth bites her lip and shifts her weight from side to side. She’s obviously uncomfortable, and Jason wishes he could help—he hates seeing someone so brilliant at such a complete loss. But Percy Jackson is terrifying enough with Annabeth at his side, and Jason has no idea what’s going to happen now that’s he’s not there anymore. And for a daughter of Athena, this plan is almost comically ridiculous.
So why does Jason want to do it so badly?
He and Annabeth have gotten closer since they defeated Gaea a year ago, but it’s not just friendship that makes him want to say yes. Maybe he just likes helping people. He’s got a thing for it, like Harry Potter in Goblet of Fire. (Yes, he’s been reading. So what? There’s no point to having glasses if you aren’t going to use them for something. Ever since Piper broke up with him, he’s been looking for an effective way to kill time.)
(That, and the fact that he doesn’t want to think about it.)
“Okay,” says Jason, louder than he expected to be. “I’ll do it.”
“Seriously?” Annabeth asks, as if she isn’t entirely sure he understood what she meant. “I know I asked you to do it, but are you absolutely sure? Because, um, I would never want to pressure you into something that you weren’t definitely agreeing to.”
“You’re asking me to pretend to be your boyfriend, not go to war,” says Jason, more relaxed than he actually feels. “It’s no big deal. Sure, I’ll do it.”
“Well, I only ask because a minute ago—”
“I’m not over Piper,” Jason confesses. “And I think I’d like to get back at her a bit too.”
Annabeth finally smiles, and he feels strangely proud of himself. Then he feels bad for being proud of himself and shoves his hands deep into his pockets. Piper, he thinks, but somehow the thought isn’t as compelling now as it was seconds ago.
“There’s a motivation I can get behind,” says Annabeth. “Welcome on board.”
Jason nods and doesn’t trust himself to say anything else.
_____________________________________________________________
The weirdest thing about the relationship is how fast it goes. Jason knows that Annabeth and Percy didn’t get together until after four years of knowing each other, but he’s walking around camp with Annabeth all the time as she gushes over him to people he doesn’t even know. It’s quite obviously fake, and incredibly petty, but Jason can’t deny that he’s having some sort of fun.
As for getting pulverized by Percy, it doesn’t happen. But the other boy clearly isn’t happy about Annabeth’s new ‘relationship,’ which seems to cheer her up. They go out into New York and get sandwiches for lunch while Annabeth revels in how well it’s working.
“Percy is very annoyed,” she tells him conspiratorially. “I mean, obviously he hasn’t said anything about it, but I can tell. And, I mean, it’s not like I want him to fall over himself begging me to take him back, but I think I might be able to make him question breaking up with me.”
“You have ketchup on your chin,” Jason tells her.
“Damnit, really?” Annabeth asks. She swipes at her chin with a napkin, which only ends up smearing it over her face. Jason resists the urge to laugh. “Did I get it?”
“You made it worse,” says Jason. “Here, let me do it for you.”
He picks up his napkin and dabs at Annabeth’s chin carefully before she pulls away. It’s almost surprising how shocked it makes him. You’re not really dating, Jason reminds himself. She has every right to push you away from her.
“You sparked me,” Annabeth says accusingly.
“Oh,” Jason says, and feels a momentary rush of relief. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”
“Does it happen often?” she asks. “I mean, I’d wager it would if you’re a son of Zeus. Are you calling the lightning internally? I just wish I could understand how it worked.”
“Maybe I’m a better conductor of static electricity,” suggests Jason, then turns red. “Um, I’ve been listening to science books to help me fall asleep. They have the weirdest explanations for why things happen.”
“Weirder than gods?”
Jason laughs. “Not when you put it like that.” He wipes his hands on the napkin and sets it next to his plate, where grease from the sandwich has formed an unappetizing pool to the right. It’s such a mundane date it’s practically normal: no monsters, no prophecies, just sitting across the table from a friend and talking about nothing.
But it’s not a date, because they’re not really dating. Out of Camp Half-Blood, they haven’t even bothered to hold hands. Jason feels like he’s memorized the way her hand feels in his: it’s much smaller, but scarred, and the skin on her knuckles is weirdly dry. After two weeks of walking around hand in hand, she’s familiar.
“Grace,” says Annabeth, eyes going wide. “Don’t look, but there’s a monster in this restaurant.”
Jason thinks he might be the first person in the history of the world not to look when told not to look. He feels weirdly accomplished for a second, then registers what she’s said. “Here? Are you sure?”
“Yeah, table ten. It’s an empousa.”
He makes a mental note never to catalog a date as normal again. It’s definitely some sort of jinx. But then his brain fills with Piper telling the crew of the Argo II they’re safe and an arrow flying into the wood right beside her head, and then his brain is full of Piper, and then he’s almost grateful for the distraction of having a monster to fight. Jason fumbles at his side to grip the handle of his gladius, perpetually tucked at his side and shrouded by a trick of the Mist.
“We have to do something about it,” he tells Annabeth.
“Yeah, I know, I’m just figuring out how to run a sword through a ‘teenage girl’ without giving everyone in this restaurant a collective heart attack,” she says, then winces. “That was a bit harsh. I mean, yeah, we’re gonna do something. Give me a second.”
“Take your time,” says Jason. He hears creaking behind him, and cranes his neck backward to see a young couple getting up behind him. The girl seems normal enough, but when he squints he can see her eyes flash bronze. Where her jeans don’t meet her shoes, he catches a glimpse of bronze leg.
The empousa. Of course.
“Just when I thought today was going to be relaxing,” he mutters, and is rewarded by a short laugh from Annabeth. He looks up and can’t help smiling at her, and for a moment they’re caught in a bubble where being a demigod doesn’t matter so much anymore. But, of course, it can never last long. The empousa and her prey have left the restaurant.
“Fuck,” says Annabeth empathetically, and she stands up with so much force she almost knocks her chair over. “Thank the gods this is one of those places where you pay before you eat.”
“It would be really awkward otherwise,” agrees Jason, and the two of them head for the door faster than any mortal possibly could.
Later, when the monster is dead and Jason is lying awake in Cabin 1, he thinks about Annabeth laughing for the longest time. When he drifts off to sleep that night, his dreams aren’t plagued by charmspeak and dark braids.
He breathes easy.
_____________________________________________________________
The next week, a squadron of soldiers from Camp Jupiter come visit. He hugs Reyna (“Jason, how many times do I have to tell you this isn’t appropriate?” “You’re the praetor. You can just excuse me.”) and greets Hazel and Frank with equal excitement. It’s been a while since he saw the Romans, and he kind of misses them.
“How’s Camp Half-Blood?” Hazel asks him. “I take it you’ve saved the world a couple times since we last saw each other.”
“How’d you know?” Jason jokes.
“The way Percy is glaring at you, I assumed you must’ve beaten him at something,” she says, and a quick glance over his shoulder reveals that the son of Poseidon has looked away to catch up with Reyna. Still, Jason doesn’t doubt he’s earned at least one dirty look.
“Worse,” he winces, “I’m kind of dating Annabeth.”
Hazel stares at him in shock. She’s gained a new confidence since improving her sword fighting to the point Jason is mildly terrified of her, so it’s not reassuring that this news sends her reeling. “What? How did that happen?”
“Thank you so much, and yes, we are quite happy,” says Jason sardonically, although it does sting a little. Are he and Annabeth so fundamentally different no one can imagine them as a couple? And why does that bother him so much?
“I didn’t mean to judge, it’s just Percy and Annabeth…” Hazel trails off. “I don’t know, they always just seemed so good together.”
“That’s what I thought too,” says Jason, momentarily distracted. Annabeth hasn’t refused to tell him information about the breakup, per se, but anytime he’s asked she either changed the subject or stared into the distance sadly enough that he did. He wonders, just for a moment, what could’ve possibly happened between them. What blew up so badly that she wanted to date Jason to get back at Percy?
“Why’d they break up?” Hazel asks, unintentionally voicing his concerns.
“I don’t know,” confesses Jason. “She won’t tell me.”
“That explains something,” mumbles Hazel, but she doesn’t elaborate. “You know, it shouldn’t matter so much to you what I think. Everyone expected that Frank and I would end up together, and it ended up not happening. If you like Annabeth, date her. But if you break up with her, come back to Camp Jupiter. There’s always a place for you there.”
“Thank you,” says Jason. He suspects Hazel has figured out more than she’s letting on, but she’s too polite to point it out. “Um, there’s always a place for you at Camp Half-Blood.”
“Nice try,” Hazel laughs. “I think your girlfriend is looking for you.”
He turns around to see Annabeth, waving from the bottom of the hill. It briefly seems almost impossible that she could be waving to him, even though it’s really rather obvious.
“I guess I better go,” Jason says. “Um, I’ll catch up with you later?”
“Of course,” says Hazel, and Jason nods before dashing back down the hill. Annabeth… wanting to talk to him? Needing something? He’s at a loss for why she could be calling him. Up until she’d asked him for the weirdest favour ever, he’d thought of her as essentially self-sufficient.
If he’s being completely honest, it’s one of the things Jason likes best about her.
Naturally, this realization leads to him skidding to a stop in the middle of the hill and tumbling the rest of the way down. As far as entrances go, rolling uncontrollably towards Annabeth’s feet isn’t his best. Although it’s probably impossible, he swears he can hear Reyna laughing.
“Hey,” says Annabeth, looking over him. Her eyes really are an arresting shade of gray, and they’re shining with amusement. “When you said you were falling for me, I didn’t expect you to be quite so literal about it.”
“Shut up,” grumbles Jason. “When did I say that?”
“To Travis and Connor Stoll,” she says. “Not your best line.” She reaches out a hand to help him up, and he takes it. She pulls him from the ground with more strength than he was expecting, so when he’s standing there’s barely an inch of space between them.
“No,” Jason says, voice so quiet it’s almost a whisper. “No, it wasn’t.”
Annabeth’s eyes are wide and hopeful and she’s looking at him like a complex math problem she doesn’t know how to solve. Like Jason Grace, of all people, is someone she can’t figure out. She loves a challenge. And… and there’s the fact that she hasn’t stepped away.
“Do you think we should kiss?” he asks, unsure why he’s said it. “I mean, it just seems like a good thing to do. To reinforce the idea we’re dating.”
“Well, Grace?” Annabeth says. Her hair is coming loose from a sloppy ponytail, blonde curls tumbling around her shoulders in a way that is so clearly her. She smells like sweat and cinnamon soap. “Isn’t that what people in relationships do?”
“Yeah,” Jason says, and for a moment it’s pretty hard to breathe. She’s… she’s so close to him, and it’s not something he’s used to, it’s not something that’s happened before, his heart is pounding a weird rhythm in his chest and he can’t see straight. “Yeah, I really think we should do that.”
He’s not sure who leans in first, but they’re kissing. Annabeth doesn’t taste like anything in particular, no, Jason’s pretty sure that only happens in books, but her lips are warm and soft and he likes how they feel on his. He leans into the kiss so much that their foreheads are touching when their lips move apart.
“Pretty good kiss,” says Annabeth, and he can feel her chest heaving as she struggles to gain control of her breath. “I’d give you a solid seven out of ten.”
“I didn’t realize I was being graded,” says Jason in mock offense.
“I always grade my kisses,” says Annabeth. “It’s the only way to know you’re improving.” She pauses there, looking down as if hurt, probably thinking about Percy. She’s only kissed Jason once, after all, so she’s got no metric to compare him against.
Jason thinks about Piper and how the butterflies in his stomach have started flying around again.
“Don’t you want to know what grade you got?” he says, hoping pathetically to distract her. He steps back and runs a hand through his hair nonchalantly, hoping to seem unbothered. It works, because Annabeth glances back up at him and smiles.
“I’m an excellent kisser,” she says primly. “Come on, hit me with it.”
“All I’m telling you is you’re not as good as you think you are.” It’s not a lie, not exactly, but he’s not about to tell her how much he liked kissing her. He’s not going to tell her how much he wants to do it again, preferably when no one else is around and he can run his hands through her hair instead of his.
That would be terrible. They’re not actually dating.
“What?” asks Annabeth. “Oh, I know I’m not that bad. Six? Five? Please tell me I didn’t get a four. I couldn’t live with the shame of it.” She tacks the last sentence on jokingly, and for a minute it feels like she actually is his girlfriend, like the glances they’ve been sharing are all part of a massive inside joke.
And in a way, they are.
Jason mimes zipping his mouth shut and grins. “I can’t tell you.”
Annabeth asks him about a thousand different versions of what she thinks is her score on their way to dinner, but he won’t give her any more than a zipped mouth. She hangs onto his arm while questioning him in a move that’s clearly for the people around them, but it does funny things to his chest anyway.
“You suck, Grace,” she tells him.
“Only for you,” he replies, then winces at how it sounds. “I didn’t mean for that to sound sexual.”
Now Annabeth really does laugh. “I’ll forgive you for it if you tell me how good my kiss was.”
“You are a terrible cheat,” Jason says. “I will not be manipulated by your feminine wiles.”
“My feminine wiles?” demands Annabeth. She hits his arm, hard enough for him to acknowledge it but not hard enough to hurt. “Is that feminine enough for you?”
“I’m only messing with you,” Jason says, rubbing his arm. He sticks his tongue out at her, and she responds, and for a minute he feels like a little boy pulling her pigtails on the playground. “Have a nice dinner, Chase.”
“You too, Grace,” she responds instinctually. She uses his last name a lot. Maybe it’s to reinforce the fact that they’re not actually close, or that she wants to remember it, or maybe… maybe she just likes the way it sounds. “Isn’t that interesting? Our last names rhyme.”
“We were destined to be,” jokes Jason, but Annabeth frowns. “See you later?” He doesn’t mean for it to come out as a question.
“Yeah, of course,” she says distractedly, but he can’t help feeling like he’s done something wrong as she jogs away.
_____________________________________________________________
The next day, they’re back to normal. Jason doesn’t ask about last night, because he gets the sense Annabeth doesn’t want to talk about it. She asks him for her kiss score again at breakfast, and he rejects her again. They barely see each other after that. Annabeth’s introducing new campers, and Jason trains with lightning in the woods.
He’s alone, or so he thinks.
“Careful not to hit yourself, Sparky,” says a familiar voice, and Jason turns around.
“Even if I did, I’d survive it,” he reasons. “Nice to see you too, Piper.”
After they broke up, Piper moved to Camp Jupiter so she could study in California. It suits her, and he knows it’s really helped her relationship with her girlfriend, Reyna. Looking at the way she holds herself now—confident, sure, jacket loose around muscled shoulders—he knows it was for the best. Still, it surprises him when he doesn’t feel sad at all.
“I missed you,” says Piper. “How have things been at Camp Half-Blood. I see you’ve got a new girlfriend.” She waggles her eyebrows at Jason, and he groans.
“Why is that the only thing anyone wants to talk about?”
“Probably because it’s so out of left field,” says Piper, and she perches on a fallen tree nearby. (No, Jason didn’t knock the tree over, he’s very offended everyone thinks he knocked the tree over.)
(He definitely knocked the tree over.)
He ambles to sit next to her, stretching his legs out and looking into the woods. There are probably tons of dangerous traps they could set off by mistake, but to Jason it’s all part of the charm. He loves Camp Half-Blood. In the distance, they can hear swords clashing and kids screaming. It’s relaxing.
“So,” says Piper. “When did she ask you to help make Percy jealous?”
“What?” Jason asks, looking over to Piper. “Is it that obvious? How’d you know?”
“I didn’t,” says Piper. “I made an educated guess, which you confirmed with your reaction.”
Jason slumps. “I can’t believe you’re one of my closest friends.”
“I can’t believe you agreed to pretend to date a girl you so clearly have feelings for.”
“Not my best decision—wait, what?” He jerks into a ramrod straight position and immediately begins fiddling with a loose thread on his orange shirt. “I don’t have feelings for Annabeth! I can’t believe you think I have feelings for Annabeth. That’s absurd.”
Piper gives him a smug look like aha! I got you! Jason shoves her shoulder.
“If you think I have feelings for Annabeth, that’s just proof that pretending to be her boyfriend is working super well and I’m a fantastic actor. Why isn’t that the part you’re focusing on?”
“I’m just going to let you talk yourself through this one yourself,” says Piper, but Jason barely hears her. It doesn’t seem like he needs to, either, because she seems to be content with her piece and is just waiting for him to catch up. It was a theme in their relationship, and now it’s driving Jason mad.
He doesn’t have feelings for Annabeth. Piper doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
“Can we talk about anything else?” he asks, blood rushing to his ears and colouring his cheeks a bright shade of red. Piper takes pity on him and nods.
“Great,” he says, turning to face forward so he doesn’t have to make eye contact with her. “Uh, how’s California?”
“It’s actually really nice,” she says, suddenly becoming more animated. “I just started my journalism major at De Anza, and I’m really excited for this internship. I mean, writing in English is never going to be super easy for me, but it’s going so well.”
“Do you think you want to become a full time journalist when you graduate?”
“That’s the goal,” says Piper, then blinks as if she’s surprised by what she’s saying. “I mean, I never really thought I was going to have a good job when I was at the Wilderness School, so I guess I wasn’t planning for it. And then with the demigod stuff, and the Great Prophecy…”
“Yeah?” Jason prompts. He knows Piper well enough to recognize when she’s going off on a mental tangent. And there’s something about what she’s saying that makes him want to hear the end of it.
“I guess it’s nice to feel normal for a while,” says Piper.
“It’s great,” confesses Jason. “Even just being here while absolutely nothing is going on is awesome. It’s just like being at a super intensive summer camp.”
“Aside from the fact that you have to kill monsters,” she points out.
“We killed a goddess,” says Jason. “A couple of random hellhounds are all in a day’s work.”
“In my psychology 101 class, they call that desensitization,” says Piper. “It’s not a great coping mechanism.”
“Is there a coping mechanism for annoying best friends?”
‘It’s called the Leo Valdez,” she says. “It’s a widespread phenomenon that even death can’t shake.”
Jason thinks about the holographic scroll Leo sent to tell them he was alive and laughs without any sadness. It was hard, coping with his best friend’s death, and it was harder knowing he wouldn’t be back for a while. Leo wanted to set out, explore the world without anyone looking for him. It was better that everyone except his closest friends and siblings thought he was dead.
He can’t relate to that. He will always feel a duty to stay, but he doesn’t begrudge Leo for it. They’re just different people, and that’s fine. Jason picks so hard at the thread on his shirt it starts unraveling, and Piper pulls his hands away.
“Hey, don’t ruin that shirt,” she says. “I need it for my article on the most hideous types of orange known to humankind.”
“You own a shirt exactly like this one,” Jason protests. “What do you need mine for?”
“Yours has accumulated a type of dirt I don’t usually see,” she says, “and it’s got scorch marks. You’re a very special case.” Jason rolls his eyes at her but settles for picking the bark off the tree beneath them.
They sit in silence for a moment, content with each other’s company and the hum of life around them. It’s not a bad way to be, but it sets Jason’s mind into overdrive again. He’s restless in a different way than most demigods are—he always needs to set his mind on something or else he’ll crash. Lately, all his thoughts turn towards a blonde girl who could easily beat him up if she felt so inclined.
So could Piper. So could Reyna.
There’s a small chance Jason has a type.
“Piper,” he says, breaking the silence. “Do you think Annabeth is still in love with Percy?”
To her credit, Piper doesn’t immediately answer. She makes a humming noise and mulls over the topic for a moment, giving it serious thought. “I haven’t spent a ton of time with Annabeth since I got here, so I really don’t know. I don’t think that’s really… my Aphrodite skill, for lack of better wording.”
“There’s a but there,” says Jason. He’s watching Piper now. She’s braiding and unbraiding small sections of her hair to keep her hands moving, but he doesn’t doubt she’s listening to him. She just needs to do multiple things at once to concentrate, ironic as it seems.
“I think Annabeth will always care about Percy an astronomical amount,” says Piper carefully. “I think they’ll always be exceptional friends, just based on the amount of life-or-death situations they were forced into together. You know, in my—”
“If you reference your psychology class again, I’m going to jump in the lake.”
“I’d pay to see that,” Piper says. “But what I’m trying to say is that Percy and Annabeth are always going to be tied together, even if it isn’t a romantic way. That being said…”
“You’re waffling again,” says Jason.
“I don’t think she’s in love with him anymore,” says Piper simply. “Is that straightforward enough?”
Jason hears the blood rush to his ears all over again. He trusts Piper’s judgement implicitly—probably to his own detriment, but that isn’t relevant—and his stupid heart hasn’t gotten the memo that he doesn’t have feelings for her. As contrived as it sounds, he’s dating her as a friend and nothing more. There won’t ever be anything romantic between them.
But there could be something romantic between them if Piper is right, and the thought excites Jason more than he’d care to admit. He lets himself wonder, for a moment, what it would be like if he and Annabeth had something real.
“Are you sure you don’t have feelings for Annabeth?” Piper asks him, more gently than anything she’s said so far. It’s this that makes him turn to look at her properly. Her dark eyes are knowing, but strangely kind, and her large earrings drift in the wind.
“New earrings?” he asks stupidly, pointing to them.
“They were a birthday present from Reyna,” she says, reaching up to touch one. “Stop trying to change the subject.” She pushes his side lightly, badgering him into telling her without charmspeak.
“I don’t know,” says Jason helplessly. “I wish I could tell you I understood.”
“It’s okay,” says Piper reassuringly. “You have time.”
How much? Jason thinks. How long does he have before Annabeth gets tired of their ruse and finds someone she actually cares about? How long does he have to figure out what he feels for her?
He’s not exactly anxious to find out.
_____________________________________________________________
Annabeth and Jason are sitting at the campfire when Grover gets the brilliant idea to start playing awful pop songs on his reed pipes. After a couple truly terrible renditions, Piper volunteers to sing the lyrics to various songs, which inspires people to get up and dance near the fire. It’s kind of heartwarming.
Jason sits next to Annabeth quietly, looking out into the flames and the twirling bodies surrounding it. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the stars, because there was so much on the earth to see. They’d been engaged in a conversation about architecture Jason only half understood earlier, but now Annabeth seemed about a million miles away.
He nudges her knee with his. “Drachma for your thoughts?”
“They’re worth a lot more than that,” she responds automatically, then snorts. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“That’s alright,” says Jason. “You don’t need to apologize. I was just wondering what you were thinking about.” He prides himself on keeping his voice so steady, especially given the conversation he’d had with Piper earlier that day.
Are you sure you have feelings for Annabeth?
… I don’t know.
Seeing her face lit up in shades of gold and red by the flames, it’s harder for Jason to make sense of the muddled mess in his stomach. He rubs his thumb across a hole in his jeans, waiting for her to reply to the question. Setting his concerns in the present moment had always been easier for him.
“I was thinking about Percy,” says Annabeth, and his heart leaps into his throat. “I know I started dating you to make him jealous… But I don’t think I care so much about that anymore.” She sounds almost paradoxically unsure of herself, and looks at Jason so clearly he aches.
“Do you want to break up with me?” Jason asks, and he’s surprised by how upset it makes him.
“No,” says Annabeth immediately, and she sounds a lot more confident.
“Then—” begins Jason, suddenly incredibly anxious.
Grover launches into a loud rendition of the beginning of “Love Story” that drowns out anything Jason was going to say next. He’s almost thankful for the interruption, because he had no idea where he was going with that sentence. He just really wants Annabeth to stay with him.
Before he can say that, however, Piper calls out to them across the fire. “Come on, lovebirds, dance!”
Jason looks back at Annabeth with hope in his chest. “I think we might want to dance,” he deadpans, and the corners of her mouth twitch upwards into a smile.
“Come on, Grace,” she says, pulling him to his feet for the second time in as many days. “Dance with me.”
Jason hums along as he spins Annabeth around and Piper’s clear voice echoes across the camp. It’s one of those songs that isn’t precisely fast or slow, so the dancing is a mishmash of at least ten different styles. Jason spots Percy dancing close to Frank and Hazel, and is relieved that the other boy looks happy.
“Stop, stop, I’m dizzy!” Annabeth gasps, falling forward and onto his chest. She braces herself with a flat palm against his shoulder. Jason puts his hand on her upper back to steady her and laughs. He’s almost tall enough to comfortably rest his chin on her head, but he feels bad.
“Why didn’t you stop earlier?” he asks.
“I was having fun before I couldn’t tell the difference between the sky and the ground,” she defends, and he laughs again. “Besides, there’s no point in having a tall boyfriend if I can’t crash into him sometimes.”
The air between them becomes charged, and Annabeth realizes what she’s said.
“Fake boyfriend,” she corrects, quickly and uneasily. “No point in having a fake boyfriend.”
“Right,” says Jason. “Maybe your head got turned out of whack while you were spinning like that.”
Annabeth nods, obviously relieved to have a way out. “Yeah, I don’t think my Athena genes ever prepared me for a night of dancing with Jason Grace.”
All she says is his name, but it does funny things to him. He isn’t just Grace, he’s Jason, and obviously she knows that but it’s different when she says it. It’s like his name has a home with her.
The song has changed into something slower, and the metaphors Piper croons aren’t from a song Jason recognizes. Still, Annabeth peels himself off of him (he tells himself that he just misses the warmth) and holds out her hand, which he takes.
“Put your hand on my waist,” she tells him.
“I know how to slow dance,” he protests, and does it anyway. Annabeth isn’t that much shorter than him, but she just seems so tiny, especially when they’re doing stuff like this. Dancing. He hasn’t danced with anyone in a really long time.
She takes his other hand in hers and reaches up to rest her other hand against his right shoulderblade. It occurs to Jason that in the position they’re in now, he could very easily lean down to kiss her again. There’s a thin white scar on her left cheek he hadn’t noticed before, but even in the dying light it stands out against her tan skin. He wants to kiss her cheek, but he knows that would be taking liberties.
“Jason?” murmurs Annabeth, and Jason makes a quiet noise in the back of his throat.
He doesn’t trust himself to speak.
“Thank you for doing this for me,” she says.
“Of course,” he says, and when she looks up at him he feels compelled to add something on. “I mean, you know I always have your back.”
“I have your back,” she promises him. “I can’t think of another nice thing to say.”
Jason smiles. “It’s perfect,” he says.
For the first time that night, Jason looks up at the night sky. There’s no way of seeing a single star in New York, but here he can see that the sky is packed them. It’s a tapestry of dark blue and diamonds—better than diamonds, pure light—and right in front of him, in his arms, is Annabeth Chase.
Oh, thinks Jason. I’m in love with her.
“I read somewhere that we’re seeing the night sky as it was thousands of years ago, because light takes time to travel,” she says, and it jolts him back to the present. “I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s a cool thought, isn’t it?”
“Does it need to be true if you believe in it?” Jason asks. “I like that thought.”
“Jason, the basis for all science is literally finding things to be objectively true.”
“I’d argue that the basis for science is figuring out that everyone who came before you is wrong,” he says softly. “It’s just one long repeat of observation, hypothesis, and experiment. We have no idea if what we know is true.”
“There are some things we have found to be objectively true,” Annabeth protests. “While what you’re saying is very romantic, there’s no way that it’s true.”
Romantic falls into the space between them with all the same grace boyfriend did just a couple minutes ago. But this time, Annabeth doesn’t apologize for it. Jason doesn’t want her to. They sway there for some amount of time he can’t gauge, but he knows he’s happy.
In the distance, the reed pipes fade into silence.
Annabeth smiles at him tentatively but doesn’t let go. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says, as if it’s a fact of life. The sun rises in the east, the earth spins on its axis, and she’ll see Jason the next day. Maybe some things are objectively true, no matter how many new observations you make.
“See you tomorrow,” says Jason, and the smile lingers on his face long after she leaves.
_____________________________________________________________
A few days after the campfire, Annabeth and Jason haven’t broken up. While they’ve revisited the science argument and Jason’s made a couple jokes about making Annabeth dizzy, neither of them have talked about having actual feelings. They’re still fake boyfriend and girlfriend, but something has definitely changed. Jason is so distracted by those thoughts that he doesn’t notice Percy Jackson until the older boy is directly in front of him.
“Hey Percy,” says Jason cautiously, wondering if today is the day he gets pulverized.
“Jason,” says Percy. He hasn’t glared at all in the past couple of days - he seems like he doesn’t care anymore. He’s talked to Annabeth and Jason while they were holding hands and seemed completely fine with it, even making fun of Annabeth for going on a day. Try as he might, Jason cannot figure the guy out.
“Do you want to spar with me?” Percy asks, and Jason blinks.
“Uh, sure,” says Jason. “Maybe I should go grab my sword or something. Unless you want to train with training swords? That would probably be a good idea. Training is in the name of those.” He’s so nervous he’s begun to ramble, and he decides he will not mention this conversation to Leo in their weekly Skype call. He’d never hear the end of it.
“I don’t think you can spar without a sword,” Percy agrees. “Let’s just use the training ones. I wouldn’t want to hurt you by mistake.”
“Or I wouldn’t want to hurt you,” says Jason quickly, and Percy makes a noncommittal sound of agreement.
Jason’s mind races. Is this some sort of setup? Is Percy going to make a Jason kebab out of his body with said sword? Or… or is Percy genuinely over Annabeth? Have they decided to just be friends? Piper hadn’t told him anything about what Percy felt, and Jason is very confused.
He has so many questions, but he doesn’t think asking them would be prudent. Instead, he chooses to follow Percy towards the training arena, where he vaguely hopes he won’t be impaled.
“You know, when I first saw you dating Annabeth, I hated you,” says Percy casually.
Oh, so now they’re talking about their feelings. Fantastic, thinks Jason. I love talking about my feelings for your ex-girlfriend, Percy. Bravo.
“Really?” Jason asks, voice pitching up higher than he would’ve liked it to. “Uh, I didn’t notice at all.”
Percy glances back at him, sea-green eyes totally at ease. Jason wishes he weren’t so strung out.
“Man, I did not do a great job at hiding it,” says Percy. “You knew.”
“Okay, I knew,” admitted Jason. “What I didn’t know what why.”
“I was worried you were going to break her heart,” says Percy simply, and Jason feels like the weight of the world has been removed from his shoulders. “Annabeth and I may not feel… a romantic way about each other anymore, but I still didn’t want her getting hurt.”
“I won’t hurt her,” promises Jason.
“I know that now,” says Percy, rolling his eyes. “I saw you guys at the campfire. You’re practically head over heels for her. I’m trying to apologize to you.”
“Oh,” says Jason. “It’s not necessary.”
“Really?” Percy asks.
“Yeah, we only started fake dating to make you jealous,” says Jason, then claps his hands over his mouth. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”
Percy doesn’t look half surprised. “I knew she was going to do something like that,” he mutters. “But honestly, Jason, at this point the only two people who think your relationship is fake are you and Annabeth. You guys are great people, but subtlety is not your collective strong suit.”
“Annabeth doesn’t have feelings for me,” insists Jason, even as romantic and boyfriend flit back and forth in his brain. “She can’t.”
“And I’m the queen of England,” says Percy. “Sorry, bad habit.”
“If she liked me, she’d tell me.”
“She broke up with me because she has feelings for you,” says Percy, then claps a hand over his mouth with an almost comical expression of surprise. “I did not say that. Legally, if Annabeth finds out I told you that, I cannot be held accountable for succumbing to your masculine wiles.”
Jason blinks at him.
“Don’t tell her,” Percy pleads.
“I won’t,” says Jason, but something new is building in his chest. Annabeth likes him. Annabeth broke up with Percy because she likes him, and Jason has been dancing around his feelings for almost two months because he couldn’t believe she could possibly like him back. Gods.
He looks at Percy, who seems equal parts terrified and pleased with himself. “Did Piper put you up to this?”
“No, we’d be way too powerful if we could consistently work together.” Percy knit his eyebrows together. “Although now that I think about it, Piper and I would be a really great team. I’m pretty sure—”
“Hold that thought,” Jason interrupts. “And please continue to hold that thought, because I’m terrified enough of you and Piper independently. I can’t imagine the kind of hell you would bring down if you worked together.”
“It would be a really great idea,” agrees Percy. “You know, I had this idea—”
“I would pay you to stop having ideas,” grumbles Jason. “Anyway, I think I’m going to have to take a raincheck on that sword practice. I’ve got to tell someone something.”
“Yep! You’ve gotta tell my ex-girlfriend—who broke up with me because she liked you—that you have feelings for her. It’s a pretty awkward situation to put me in, if you really think about it.”
“You’re kind of ruining my dramatic exit.”
“Please, for the love of Zeus or Jupiter, go do the thing.”
Jason figures that’s as good of an exit line as he’s going to get, so he wishes a nearly frantic goodbye to Percy and runs off as fast as his legs will carry him. Although he’s not one hundred percent certain, he swears he can hear the son of Poseidon laughing behind him.
_____________________________________________________________
He catches Annabeth alone on Half-Blood Hill, her hair wet from a recent shower. She’s wringing it out into the grass below periodically, but her eyes are fixed on the horizon. Jason thinks it’s ironic that their first kiss happened at the bottom of the hill and now he’s climbing it to confess how he feels for her. But… but Annabeth Chase likes him back. The thought stretches his face into a wide grin that sticks with him as he meets her at the top.
“Pretty steep hill,” he manages, and crashes into the grass next to her.
Annabeth stares at him as if he’s arrived from outer space, which was not exactly how Jason had imagined this conversation going. “You do remember you can fly, right?”
Jason stares up at the sky like why me for a solid two minutes before looking back at Annabeth, who’s trying very hard to restrain herself from laughing. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I forget I can fly one time and… not important. I’m here to talk about our relationship.”
Instantly, all the mirth disappears from Annabeth’s face. She sits up and looks at him very seriously, like she’s propositioning him for business. Painfully, it reminds him of the day she asked him to start this ridiculous charade in the first place.
“About that,” says Annabeth. “I think we should break up.”
“What?” Jason asks. He feels his heart plummet into his stomach, which is rather new. “Why?”
Annabeth blinks furiously, as if something’s flown into her eyes. “I… I don’t want to hold you down from finding someone you really like and dating them, right? I think we’ve accomplished what we needed to with Percy, I already talked to him about this stuff.” She pauses and looks at him. “I’m giving you the chance to go out with a girl you actually like. I thought you’d be happier about it.”
“Annabeth, I’m already going out with a girl I actually like.”
“I’m not talking about friendship, Grace. When two teenagers like each other very much—”
“Not funny, Chase. I’m talking about you.”
Annabeth stares at him with the vague expression of someone who has been hit in the face with a hammer. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I have a crush on you? I have romantic feelings for you that aren’t fake,” Jason says, tripping over his words. “Sorry, I didn’t really plan this out. I just kind of ran over here because I knew I had to tell you, and somehow it didn’t occur to me to script anything to say.”
“Much like it didn’t occur to you that you could fly up the hill,” murmurs Annabeth, but her eyes are wide and hopeful. “This isn’t a prank, right?”
“No,” says Jason quietly. “This is real.”
“I mean, Jason… I have feelings for you too. Like, romantically. Like, that was why I broke up with Percy. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“He kind of just told me that.”
“He did what?”
“Nevermind,” says Jason. “I think we have to break up.”
“What?” Annabeth asks. “How does that make any sense.”
“We have to break up so we can date for real, because I like you for real.” Jason winces. “Sorry, I was trying a line, and I didn’t think it all the way through.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” says Annabeth, and then she’s kissing him. He’s not sure if he leaned in first or if she did, but it doesn’t matter, because Annabeth is kissing him and there’s nothing fake about it. She has her hand on the back of his head and his arms have come up to go around her, because he knows, because he’s kissing the girl he really likes and it’s for real.
“Not my best line,” Jason says when they break apart.
“For once?” Annabeth says. “I’m not complaining.”
They sit there for a while, sneaking glances at each other, and at some point Jason wraps his hand around Annabeth’s small callused one, and it feels so right. He’s safe on Half-Blood Hill, holding the hand of the girl he likes, and… and he could’ve stayed there forever.
“You know,” he says. “Agreeing to fake date you might’ve been one of my better ideas.”
“I should’ve properly asked you out to begin with,” muses Annabeth. “We could’ve had more time.”
Jason squeezes her hand once, twice, three times for comfort.
“We’ve got so much time,” he promises.
(They have so much time.)