Chapter Text

Piper’s knees hit the ground firmly as she used all of her body weight to hold Annabeth down. Underneath her, Annabeth remained still, unable to struggle out of Piper’s hold, who couldn’t help the grin that took over her face.

In a triumphant rush of adrenaline, Piper flipped her dagger, Katoptris, in her hand and pushed the blade against Annabeth’s throat. A second passed and she released a breath of relief.

Endorphins rushed through her veins as she took a moment to bask in her victory, her first victory in hand to hand combat. Her chest heaved somewhat painfully after the prolonged effort of the fight, her lungs expanding in her chest to capture more air. 

Piper looked down at Annabeth to brag about her win when her smile dropped immediately. Annabeth’s hand was barely holding her own dagger and, despite the blade against her neck, her body was completely relaxed. She hadn’t even broken a sweat.

With a frown, Piper sheathed her dagger and let go of Annabeth’s arm, moving back to sit on her friend’s stomach.

“Did you let me win?” Piper asked, allowing her frustration to show.

“What?” Annabeth finally looked up at her, completely distracted.

Piper’s shoulders slumped. “You did! Come on, I thought I had finally gotten you…”

Annabeth sighed as her head turned sideways, her gray eyes dark and foggy. 

“Your heart’s not even in it, is it?” Piper pouted and opened her mouth to complain some more, when she noticed the dark bags under her friend’s eyes.

She followed Annabeth’s line of sight and felt regret pool in her stomach as her eyes landed first on the canoe lake and then on the blue construction behind it, Poseidon’s Cabin. Fuck.

With a sigh, Piper climbed off her friend’s body and sat cross legged on the grass, facing the crystalline waters. It was hard to miss someone she’d never met, so she didn’t really know how to act or what to say when it came to Percy’s disappearance. Not only that, but Piper was also still a bit new to the whole having friends thing. Before Leo and Jason, she’d never had anyone to miss that weren’t her dad or her grandpa.

To avoid saying the wrong thing and fucking up, Piper opted to stay silent and give Annabeth a minute to feel out whatever she needed to.

As she watched the lake, she noticed two naiads hanging at the bottom, one sitting on the other’s lap. They were giggling and whispering to each other and, given how they kept looking back at Piper, it was very likely she was the main topic of gossip. Ever since arriving at Camp, Piper had mostly avoided the dryads, nymphs and naiads. For some reason, they always made her extremely flustered, with their soft colorful skin, the lingering touches and the suggestive looks.

One of the naiads blew her a kiss and Piper quickly averted her eyes, blushing profusely.  

A few minutes went by of Piper trying to look anywhere but the lake, until Annabeth finally moved to sit right next to her. She pretended not to see her tears as she wiped them away.

Piper knew she was being harsh on Annabeth. Back when they’d first met, Annabeth had already been desperate to find her boyfriend, Percy Jackson. Now, with him gone for five months and counting, it was really not her fault she was so worried and distracted. Piper vividly remembered the constant panic she had felt when her dad had been captured, how at any moment of the day a part of her brain had been busy just worrying about him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Piper took a moment to really look at her friend. She had lost some weight ever since they had met. She was still very athletic, with defined arms and legs (and stomach, according to the girls from Cabin 10) and a fuck ton of scars. She was gorgeous, no doubt. But she also looked smaller, thinner and more fragile, like someone had forgotten her on the washing machine, causing her to shrink a few inches. Her rich brown skin had also gotten paler and lost some of its color. Piper understood that, she also tended to get very pale in winter. The problem was they were in the middle of spring.

Her hair still looked impeccable, at least. Piper hated feeding into the annoying ‘Aphrodite kid obsessed with looks’ stereotype, but Annabeth was an exception. Her braids almost reached her waist, in a mix of her natural black hair and the golden blonde extensions that she liked. But by this point in their friendship, Piper knew that was actually the work of Annabeth’s half siblings. As masters of weaving and braiding, they didn’t allow their sister’s hair to go long unattended. Piper appreciated that and wondered if her siblings would do the same for her, if need be.

“I’m sorry.” Annabeth finally spoke, eyes still fixated at the clear water ahead of them. Her voice was thick with emotion and pain. No, those weren’t the right words.

Longing. That’s what was dripping from Annabeth’s every word.

“It’s okay. I’m not actually mad at you.” Piper answered, forcing a small smile despite knowing Annabeth wouldn’t even notice it.

She watched quietly as Annabeth finally allowed herself to show her pain. Slowly, her shoulders slouched and her hands began to fidget in her lap. Her dark gray eyes reflected the sea green water, which only accentuated how empty they looked. Piper could practically see the life leaving Annabeth’s body.

It’s when tears started to form at the corner of her eyes that Piper felt she needed to say something, to do anything she could to help her friend.

“You’ll see him again… We know where he is now.” Piper reconsidered her words with a small grimace. “Well, kinda.”

“Yes and that only makes it worse! Knowing he's there , somewhere, and I can’t go to him myself.” She huffed with frustration, her fingers gripping and pulling at the grass around them.

Everyone remembered the argument that had followed the cabin counselors meeting, when they had come to the conclusion Percy was at the other side of the country and probably without his memories. Annabeth had been set on leaving immediately to find him, Hera’s plan be damned. And when the other counselors failed to stop her and convince her to stay, Chiron had stepped in, which had led to a screaming match between the two.

Eventually, Annabeth had accepted the truth that she’d have to wait until the Argo II was ready, then stormed out of the room.

Piper resisted the urge to use charmspeak back then and once again now. She wanted so badly to tell Annabeth everything was going to be okay, to ease her worries. But it wouldn’t be fair to her—besides, it’d only be temporary. She opted instead to use reason, something she knew the daughter of Athena respected above anything else.

She reached for one of Annabeth’s calloused hands and, after untangling it from the grass clumps, she held it in her own.

“We have to trust Jason is right. Percy’s best chance is to be trained and be accepted into the Roman camp. Even if you could find this camp by yourself, which is a big if , you both could end up getting killed. They would think he’s a traitor.”

Annabeth nodded sadly. Piper guessed she’d been telling herself these exact words for months now, and they were the only thing stopping her from abducting two pegasi, the chariot and flying to the west coast in the middle of the night. 

Annabeth rubbed at her eyes with her free hand and leaned forward, elbow pressing on her knee as she began to pick at the chipping polish in her nails.

Piper gave her space as they sat in peaceful silence for a bit, it took her a moment to notice they were still holding hands.

“You know, you kinda remind me of him. He said the same thing as you.”

Piper frowned. “That you’d get killed if you went to save your boyfriend?”

Annabeth chuckled lightly, which totally counted as a win for Piper. “Percy also asked me if I let him win the first time he beat me.” As she spoke, she finally turned to look at her. Properly looking at her for the first time since they’d started the training session. 

Piper’s mouth formed a silent ‘oh’, then she nodded. “Well, did you?”

Annabeth blushed slightly and shrugged. “Maybe.”

Piper chuckled, imagining a younger Annabeth and the famous god-like hero of Camp Half-Blood sparring.

“How old were you?”

“Fourteen. It was his third year at Camp.” Annabeth smiled sadly. “That year’s winter he went on a whole quest to save me from a trap. Thalia, too—this was before she became a hunter. And then once I was back, he started acting so nervous around me. It was kinda cute.”

Piper thought back to last year, when she herself had been fourteen and had gone on her first ever quest. She remembered the feeling of acting nervous around Jason, blushing when she was next to him.

A strange feeling settled in her stomach as she thought back to Jason. This had started happening a few weeks ago and she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly she was feeling. But it was definitely not what she imagined Annabeth’s longing for Percy felt like. It felt… empty. 

“Back then, did you know you liked him?”

Annabeth smiled again, despite the unshed tears in her eyes. “Yeah, by then I knew. Not consciously at first, I knew I cared a lot about him, that he’s my best friend. But eventually I realized that I couldn’t… imagine myself without him.” 

Her smile faded as the tears finally fell across her cheeks. Piper held her friend’s hand more tightly.

With a deep breath, Annabeth continued. “The first time he disappeared, he was gone for two weeks. We all thought he was dead. Then the asshole crashed his own burial, can you believe he did that??”

Piper smiled, her thumb rubbing soothing circles on Annabeth’s hand.

“I still have his shroud, it's under my mattress. Usually we get rid of them but after almost burning it, thinking he was dead, I couldn’t let go of it.” Annabeth’s dark eyes stared right into hers. “I can’t go through that again, Piper.”

“Hey, hey, you won’t.” Piper reached out with her hand to touch Annabeth’s face, she wiped a few tears away with her thumb. “Her- I mean, the queen of the heavens might be a family-obsessed control freak, but her plan with Jason worked out, right?”

Annabeth nodded, hesitantly. 

Piper continued. “That means it has good chances of working with Percy, too. From everything I hear about him, he’s strong and very clever. Even if he doesn’t have his memories, he still has his instincts and experience, like Jason. And I doubt he’ll risk upsetting you again, it’s-”

Piper had been so lost in her speech, lacing her words with just a hint of charmspeak so that it would calm Annabeth down, that it took her brain a moment to register the lips against hers. 

Wide-eyed, Piper finally realized Annabeth was kissing her.

Before she could do anything besides blushing and panicking, Annabeth pulled away, tears still streaming down her face.

“I- oh gods, Piper, I- I didn’t mean to- I am so sorry!”

Piper stared still open mouthed as Annabeth pulled back and got up on her feet. “I… I’m sorry.” And with that, she took off in the direction of Athena’s Cabin, leaving Piper alone in the grass, her fingers gently touching her lips as they still tingled with the taste of her first kiss.

♡

Enough to say Piper didn’t sleep at all that night.

Or the next.

Her mind kept replaying what had happened over and over. Whenever she closed her eyes, she thought of Annabeth’s lips and what could have happened if she hadn’t run away. 

The closer she got to falling asleep, the more her mind wandered. She imagined holding Annabeth’s face as their kiss deepened, her lips going lower and reaching her neck, sucking and biting-

Then she shook herself awake in an attempt to get rid of these images. Rinse and Repeat.

Piper had never stopped to consider if she was into girls—usually she had bigger fish to fry like surviving Wilderness School or trying to save her dad from a mythological giant. You know, priorities.

But it’s not like it was a big deal anyways, right? Girls kissed girls sometimes, boys kissed boys. In fact, she vaguely remembered one of her dad’s coworkers being a gay man. Although, now she was thinking about it her dad used to avoid and complain about him.

Oh no, was he homophobic? Piper felt panic constricting her insides. What would he think of-

Relax , another part of her brain said, it was just a peck, it barely counts . Besides , she reasoned, I like Jason so it doesn’t matter anyway .

To her surprise, this latter voice was much weaker and lower than the others.

Truth be told, the more time that passed after their quest, the less Piper thought of Jason that way. She was pretty sure she liked him, but five months ago she’d been sure she was in love with him. How could those feelings just vanish? Is it normal for feelings to just die out? Sure, if you’ve been rejected or broken up, it’d make sense. But in theory, they were getting closer and closer to dating. So why weren’t the feelings growing?

Why did they weigh down so much in her chest instead?

After the fourth night of barely sleeping, she decided to screw it and figure out what the hell was going on with her emotions. She was the camp counselor of Cabin 10 for Aphrodite’s sake!

Ironically, the first thought to understand her problem was ‘What would Annabeth do?’. She rolled her eyes at herself. Well then, what would an Athena kid do? She thought. Probably analyze it rationally, break it into small parts and try to understand those before moving on to the bigger problem.

She forced herself to think of Jason, even if her stomach was starting to twist itself into knots at the thought of him. She liked hanging out with him, genuinely. He was dorky and funny, whenever they talked he was a good listener. It felt nice to hug him and spar. What had changed, then?

She thought back to the fake months in the Wilderness School. She remembered vividly the butterflies she felt around Jason, how whenever their hands brushed she felt like she was going to explode. She remembered the way her heart beat impossibly fast when they hugged, how badly she wanted to kiss him and be kissed by him.

That had definitely changed. Hugging him nowadays felt nice because he was her friend and they had been in life or death situations together, she felt safe and secure around him. She felt the same around Leo.

Those old feelings just weren’t there anymore. Well, sure, kissing Jason might be nice, but that was more for the experience of kissing than anything else.

A part of her frowned. Actually… Would it really be nice to kiss him?

Piper grunted, frustrated at her own brain for making everything so damn confusing.

Ideally, she would talk to someone from Aphrodite’s Cabin, the head counselor maybe, like that time Annabeth had asked Clovis to help with Jason’s memories. But it was just Piper’s luck that she was the head counselor of Aphrodite’s Cabin.

There was Drew, who was the oldest one at their cabin and clearly had way more experience with these things. Problem was she’d rather die than ask Drew.

Okay, okay, maybe not die . After the changes Piper had made as counselor which allowed Drew a lot more free time and a better relationship with her half siblings, their relationship was slowly improving as well. Drew respected her now and, after being on an actual quest that was leading to a real war, Piper had grown to respect Drew in return. But asking her about this would be mortifying and basically giving her ammunition against her. So, nope.

She could ask Mitchell or Lacy maybe, her closest siblings, but they were a bit younger than her and also relatively new to Camp. Piper wasn’t sure they’d be of much help.

Oh, Chiron, maybe? He had said to come to him if she had any issues and this certainly was an issue. Piper pondered it for half a second before shaking her head. Yeah, what a great idea, go bother the millenia old centaur in charge of training godly heroes with this. Hey, Chiron! I’m having a sexuality crisis, can you help please?

Annabeth and Jason were out too, considering they were part of the problem. There was always Leo… but that boy was just as sexually confused as she was, so that probably wouldn’t go anywhere.

She’d officially ran out of options and would have to resort to desperate measures. Luckily, breakfast had just started and the cabin was completely empty.

With a sigh and already regretting her decision, Piper grabbed the emergency Hershey’s from under her pillow (sometimes she got hungry in the middle of the night, alright?) and approached the low light of the ceremonial fire that was always burning in the corner of Aphrodite’s Cabin.

Not knowing exactly what to do, she kneeled in front of it, like she’d seen people do in churches.

She unwrapped the chocolate bar and gently fed it to the fire in small pieces. As the smoke raised and the characteristic offering smell filled the air, she hung her head low and closed her eyes.

“Uhm, mom? I-I don’t know if I’m doing this correctly. I’m sorry if I’m not, I’ve never actually prayed to anyone. But I need your guidance, please, I’m confused and scared. I was so sure I liked Jason and now I have no idea if that was really me or just the Mist. I get it if you can’t share with me what you have planned but, as your daughter, I’m only asking for a way to understand what’s going on.” She paused. “I-I don’t know if.. if maybe I’m… different or not. I’m not sure I want to be. But I don’t know how to figure that out and I’d really appreciate it if you could help me.” Piper paused, not knowing how to end. “Thank you.”

She got up, feeling strangely calmer than before. Looking around, she was still alone in Cabin 10. She took a quick glance out of the window and saw Annabeth leaving Cabin 6, probably headed to the Ancient Greek class she taught.

That was when a sudden thought crossed her mind. Athena’s cabin had a lot of books, and yeah it was a shot in the dark but at least one of the Athena kids must have a book about queer sexualities.

As she jumped through the only open window at the back of Cabin 6, Piper was, for once, thankful for her generalized lack of sensibility.

She’d never been in Cabin 6 before and, after a few months in Camp, it felt a bit weird being in other cabins that weren’t her own. It looked really nice though. The walls had carved details of owls and olives with strategically placed marble pillars to hold up the ceiling, as well as divide the cabin into separate rooms. All with the help of beautifully woven tapestries.

On the far end, the back wall was covered with bookshelves from floor to ceiling. They were filled with books (obviously) as well as scrolls, parchments and what she assumed were maps.

Piper began searching the spines for anything that caught her eye. Most of them were war and strategy books: ‘The Art of War’, ‘War and Peace’, about a dozen different versions of ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’, as well as ‘Rebellion in the Backlands’, ‘Mayombe’ and probably a hundred others. She switched shelves.

Piper had never been much of a reader. She struggled with anything more than one line of text because of her dyslexia, especially depending on what font it was printed on. But she was surprised to find most books in Athena’s Cabin  were written in Ancient Greek, a language she had a certain familiarity with. That, added to the weekly classes she had, Ancient Greek was turning out easier to read than her old english books.

She had been about to take one book out of the shelf when another one, from much higher up, fell to the floor right next to her feet with a dull thud .

Intrigued, she picked it up. The cover was bound in old leather, and the cover consisted of a single handwritten word in faded black ink:

Ψάπφω

Piper felt her heart skip a beat as she quickly managed to mentally translate the word: Sappho.

With a blush she held the book close to her chest and, after a quick and silent thanks to her mother, Piper raced back to Cabin 10.

♡

Once she started reading, Piper did not put the book down, not even once.

She struggled with some parts, the calligraphy was curled and delicate which made it harder for her to understand, and some pages were missing, ripped or half burnt.

Funnily enough, some post-it notes adorned the pages with explanations:

“Recovered from the burning of the Library of Alexandria, 48 BC”

“Fragment ordered by Pope Gregory VII to be destroyed, 1073”

“Jay spilled coffee, 1967”

So she made sure to be careful as she flipped the pages, uncertain if these poems were the original ones handwritten by Sappho herself or just an extremely old copy. Either way, they looked old as fuck and Piper knew they were probably invaluably rare.

As for the poems themselves, they were simply beautiful.

Some didn’t have endings or beginnings, but the words Piper could read made her skin tingle and her heart beat almost painfully in her chest. They made her feel the way she used to feel about Jason, the way she was supposed to feel about boys in general.

It was like she’d found a piece of herself that had been lost for years.

Sappho’s words made sense to Piper in a way nothing had ever done before. Sappho loved others fully, with all of her body and soul. Like Piper, she felt deeply and intensely. The difference was, Sappho actually understood her feelings and wrote clearly about them. She found herself relating to them, even to the things she’d not yet lived through herself, like heartbreak, loving someone, missing a loved one, among, ahem , other things.

The sentiments were the same, leaving Piper with a deep want to have these experiences.

Time passed around her and as she reread the same fragment for the fifth time, in an effort to really understand it. That’s when the dinner horns sounded in the background.

Piper looked outside the nearest window and saw it was dark already, the moon high in the sky with campers and satyrs all heading for the pavilion.

“Shit.”

She quickly hid the book under her bed and raced outside, only now noticing the rumbling of her stomach after a full day without eating.

♡

“She kissed you?!? ” Leo shouted from his work table in Bunker 9, one hand holding an architect’s pencil as the other hand was midway throwing breath mints in his mouth.

“Shut up!! You want the whole camp to know??” Piper shushed him, then sighed. “We’d just sparred, you know how she’s teaching me how to fight with daggers?” Leo nodded. “We started talking about Percy and then she just kissed me.”

Leo hummed, then paused. “Was it a good kiss?”

“Leo! I’m serious!” Piper whined, starting to regret her decision of telling him.

Leo raised his arms in surrender, “Hey, I’m also serious!”

Piper rolled her eyes. “She was crying. She said I remind her of Percy.”

“Damn… I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.”

“Exactly.” Piper said painfully.

“But did you like kissing a girl?”

Piper stared hard at Leo and, only when she was sure there was no malice in his eyes, she sighed and decided to answer honestly. “There wasn’t really time to enjoy it, but I didn’t hate it, I guess.” She shrugged. “Don’t really have any frame of reference.”

“You mean.. you and Jason haven’t…?”

Piper shook her head, feeling a weird mix of embarrassment and relief. “Only in a fake memory.”

Leo whistled, the long awaited breath mint finally reaching his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully as Piper tried to organize her thoughts.

Sappho’s words came to her mind and Piper felt a dire need to open up to her best friend.

“Leo… I don’t think I actually like Jason.”

Leo swallowed the mint silently, his left eyebrow raising slightly at her.

“I mean, I like him as a friend. But not, you know.”

Leo nodded then he looked around the work table awkwardly, as if searching for an escape from this conversation. Piper sighed, her shoulders tensing and her posture hunching.

“Leo, I’m sorry for bringing this on you, I know it makes you uncomfortable, I just don’t know who else I can talk about this, you’re the only one I feel like I can be 100% honest with-”

Suddenly, his scrawny hands were holding her by the shoulders as he looked directly into her eyes “Hey. I’m here for you, dude. You know I suck at this social stuff but you don’t make me uncomfortable, okay?”

Piper nodded.

“But if I do-”

“Then I’ll let you know and we’ll figure it out. Right?” He smiled warmly at her and she couldn’t resist smiling back.

“Right.”

“Good. Listen, I don’t know where this prophecy shit is taking us but I’m here for you, whatever happens. And obviously that includes whether you like girls or not.” 

Choking back on tears, Piper pulled him into a hug, which Leo leaned into somewhat awkwardly. 

“Thanks, Leo.”

He patted her back. “One thing I know, though? This is definitely something you should talk to Superman about.”

Piper immediately pulled back from the hug. “Talk to Jason ? Are you crazy?”

Leo nodded. “Yes, and yes. But the second one’s besides the point.” He grinned, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “But yeah, I don’t really know what was going on with you two during the quest, but you should tell him how you feel. He deserves that honesty.”

“But I don’t understand how I feel.”

“And he’s been amnesiac since we met him, so he definitely knows what that confusion feels like.”

“Yeah but what if me being honest upsets him?”

Leo’s hands went to his waist and he sighed. “That’s a possibility, yes. But this isn’t something you can choose, like, you can’t control that shit. Just be honest and give him some credit, dude’s a great friend. And besides, I think he knows more about this kind of thing than we think.”

Piper frowned. “Wait, you think he…?”

Leo threw his hands in the air and shrugged. “ No sé de nada . But I think it might go better than you’re thinking, that’s all.”

“Thanks, Leo.” 

He nodded and raised his fist for her to fistbump.

♡

A month went by of Piper reading and rereading her book. She mentally shook her head. No, not her book, the book from Cabin 6 that she borrowed and was going to give back. Eventually.

After that first day she made a conscious effort not to miss her daily tasks and duties, but whenever she had a little window of free time she hid away in Cabin 10 and dived into Sappho’s words.

Some of her half-siblings were starting to notice her different behavior, but Piper put a lot of effort into not showing anyone the book she was reading. It was still too personal to her, the feelings too raw and tender.

Piper wished so badly she could talk to her, ask her questions. At the very least, she wished she could read her poems in full, and not just scavenged fragments. Annabeth had told her about her first quest with Percy and how they had gone to the Underworld. At the time, Piper had felt terrified at the idea of visiting the world of the dead, but now she was genuinely considering visiting for just a chance at talking to Sappho.

Time after time, Sappho surprised her with how timeless her poems were. Piper couldn’t even imagine what it was like to be a woman in Ancient Greece, much less what it was like to like women back then. But the consequences of it she could see in the book. So many burnt pages, full chapters ripped out or destroyed in some way or another, simply for going against the ‘Christian European values’ or whatever. So many lost poems…

By now, Piper could even recite some by heart. But there was one in particular that she came back to the most: Sappho’s Confession, on page 106. From what Piper understood, Sappho and her lover couldn’t stay together and the poem was her remembering the good moments they’d had together.

She thought back to the words of her favorite lines:

and on a soft bed
delicate
you would let loose your longing

and neither any[     ]nor any
holy place nor
was there from which you were absent

The lines made Piper’s chest hurt in a way she’d never felt before. She imagined herself and another girl, kissing in a soft bed, just like Sappho must’ve done.

Slowly and with Sappho’s words, Piper understood that what she had felt for Jason had been nothing more than admiration for her friend, which Hera had extrapolated into romantic love. Why she had or if her mother had also been involved, Piper had no idea. 

The truth was, she’d never truly longed for Jason. Not in the way Sappho described longing felt like. 

Piper didn’t know if that made her a lesbian. Thinking back, she couldn’t remember having crushes on any boys, or girls. So maybe?

But something told her she shouldn’t rush to label herself, especially considering how new this discovery was. For now, she needed to allow herself to long for what she wanted.

Leo’s words echoed in her mind as she hid the book under her bed, of how she should talk to Jason and that he’d probably understand. Nodding to herself, she decided she was going to do it that day.

After a quick look, she found Jason in the amphitheater, deep in conversation with Leo. From what Piper could gather, they were talking about a way of fixing his spear that had broken in their quest. Apparently the coin it transformed into had been broken as well. 

Jason smiled brightly at the sight of her. “Oh, hey Pipes!” His hand reached out for hers as she got closer, they intertwined naturally.

“Hey.” Piper answered, her eyes meeting Leo’s. He raised his eyebrow, in a silent question. 

Piper nodded subtly. With that, Leo grabbed the broken coin pieces and gestured at the forges behind them.

“I’ll take these to Nyssa, then. We’ll see what we can do. Catch you guys later!” And with that, he left the two alone.

Piper sat in front of Jason, occupying the space Leo had been before. As gently as she could, she let go of his hand and started fidgeting with the end of her camp t-shirt.

“Are you okay? You look like you’re going to be sick.” He asked quietly.

Piper knew that if she answered, she would come up with some excuse and all her courage would dissipate. Instead, she said:

“Can we talk?”

Jason’s features immediately changed at the seriousness in her voice. His brow furrowed with worry. “Of course. Did something happen?”

“Well, yes but I don’t want to start with that. I mean, I guess I could but-” She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She sighed. “Sorry, this is.. very hard.”

Jason smiled kindly. “It’s okay. Whatever it is.”

Piper nodded then took a deep breath.

“Basically, this might sound a bit silly.” She blushed. “I know we never really dated for real. That it was all Hera’s fake memories. But to me it was real. I have those memories. So I feel we need- I mean-” She took another deep breath. “it would make me feel better if we could officially break up.”

Piper stared at her own hands laying on her lap, as she didn’t have the courage to look at Jason. But the silence extended for so long that eventually she had to take a quick glance.

His brow was furrowed again but now his eyes looked sad instead of worried. His shoulders tensed, then deflated. He also looked at his own hands.

“Was it something I did?”

Piper shook her head immediately. “No. No, absolutely not. You’re like the most perfect guy I ever met.” Jason slightly flinched, making Piper wonder if she shouldn’t have called him ‘perfect’. “It’s not you, I promise.” She settled on.

Jason nodded, his eyes glistening in the sun.

“The thing that happened,” she quickly looked around them, to see if anyone was in hearing distance. “An- a girl kissed me,” Piper watched as Jason’s eyebrows shot upwards and her nervousness began settling in tenfold. “and it made me realize that… I might like girls. I- I’m not sure yet if, you know, I only like girls, or girls and boys, or- or non-binary people, but maybe? But I’m not sure and I don’t think it would be fair to just keep going as if everything’s the same cause it really isn’t and-”

Thankfully, her rambling got interrupted as Jason held her in a tight hug. She hugged him back and immediately felt herself melt in his arms, feeling accepted and safe like she never had before. Her eyes began to burn with tears as she realized there were words couldn’t hold in anymore:

“I think I’m a lesbian.” She whispered, her face safely hidden in his shoulder.

Jason squeezed tighter.

“I think I’m bisexual.” He said, his voice filled with disbelief, like he couldn’t believe he had just said it out loud.

“What?!” Piper exclaimed happily, a smile taking over her features despite the tears that were still flowing. She pulled apart slightly so they could look at each other. “Really?” 

Jason nodded. “It’s the first time I say it out loud. It just kind of slipped out, to be honest.” They giggled lightheartedly together.

Piper wiped away some of her tears. “How did you find out?”

Jason blushed and looked down. “Paolo.”

“From Hebe’s Cabin??” Piper covered her mouth with her hand.

Jason nodded, blushing even harder now. “We were playing volleyball the other day and he helped bandage my leg when I fell.”

“Oh my gods.”

Jason hid his red face in his hands. “Piper, I couldn’t stop looking at his arms.” He whined.

Piper laughed, sensing all of her nerves drifting away and feeling that, for the first time, she was going to be okay.

♡