Chapter Text
If you'd asked Jason Grace a few years ago where exactly he planned to be a few years' time, he would have probably answered with a stammer of, "I don't know," or a cheeky, "Come back to me in a few years."
Being a demigod was always unreliable; life was most likely short, and you had to make it sweet, because you were a warrior from the moment you got claimed – for some, from the moment you were born. And so very few expected a lot from their lives. Particularly if you happened to be a son of Zeus, Poseidon or Hades. (Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto to the Romans.)
So Jason, naturally, didn't expect to make it far. He made it through the second Titanomachy – great! Then the Gaia war – even better! Somehow, he'd thought that even being madePontifex would kill him – not because of battling monsters, but the sheer stress that came with the job.
"We're here!"
He didn't expect, a few years after saving the world for the second time, to actually be able to go to college.
Not that he didn't think he was smart enough to get to college. No, Jason knew he was intelligent. After all, how else would he have survived for so long? It was just that he thought that his new 'job' would get in the way, or that the gods would forbid it, or that he'd be dead by then.
But they actually made him go.
Or rather, Hera made him go. Zeus didn't really get a say in the matter.
So here he was, in New Rome, standing outside one of the dorm blocks for the university, a duffel bag in one hand with all of his resources such as ambrosia, nectar, drachmas, and a change of shirt (just like he'd take whilst travelling as Pontifex), and a suitcase being dragged behind him that had a load of extra clothes that Piper had packed for him. (A few years and a whole lot of travelling later, and they were still going strong.)
Beside him stood one of the few blonde females he could absolutely trust with his life – Annabeth Chase. When she'd heard about him being sent to college (she'd been there when it had been suggested, since she had to keep an eye on everything up on Mount Olympus and Jason had been invited up there for the first time ever only to be told he was going to college in the fall) she'd offered straight away to show him around the campus. Take him to all of the places he hadn't exactly been allowed to venture into when he'd been part of the legion.
And that was where they were right then – the two had reached the campus not too long ago, and had gone looking around the place. Well, Jason had been looking around the place. Annabeth had been making her way across the campus slowly, giving Jason enough time to look around whilst still making sure that they would reach their dorms on time. As they'd walked, she'd pointed out different key points about the campus, such as the different buildings that were used for studies, the different common areas, even the student-owned coffee shop (which Jason honestly hadn't known existed… it was probably a new addition.)
"And… here we are."
The two had come to a stop in front of what looked like a fairly large block of apartments. Which it was, except it was specifically for ex-legionnaires and students of New Rome – these were the dorms. The building was made of white marble, as the rest of the buildings in the city, and Jason was almost 100% sure that there was red tile on the roof of the building. It seemed to have four or five storeys, just like two or three other buildings not too far from it. The front door to the building was glass, with what looked like Imperial Gold handles (Jason swore they were only meant for weaponry, but he supposed someone had wanted to be artistic…) and a simple plaque stating that it was the Minerva Building, whereas the one to the right was the Ceres Building and the block to the left was the Vesta Building.
The two approached the apartment block, and Annabeth punched in the key-code to the main door, pulling it open when there was a small beep.
"I didn't know the university was so hi-tech?" Jason pointed out with a raised eyebrow as he followed her into the building.
Annabeth sent him a small smile. "It was only installed a couple of years ago, after the war. They kind of had to redesign and rebuild everything."
"Oh, okay then." Well, that explained why he hadn't known much about the design of the place.
Once the door was shut behind them both, Annabeth led them through the main lobby of the building. There was nothing really special about it – it was a large cream-coloured room with a marble floor, with a couple of couches for when there were visitors waiting for students, and a reception desk that was rarely ever occupied anyway. The walls were blank, only having a couple of window to let in some natural light, and along the far wall were two doors – one that led to the ground floor apartments, and another that led to a stairwell to the other floors. Of course, there was the elevator as well, but that was through the stairwell door, right by the stairs.
Annabeth led Jason through the door to the staircase, and pressed the "up" button for the elevator, which was right by the stairs – like the lobby flooring, the stairs were a white marble colour, and they hurt like hell if you tripped on them (Annabeth knew that from experience). They were only waiting for a few seconds before the doors opened, and the two walked into the empty lift, Annabeth pressing the button for the second floor, which was the floor that they lived on.
"So… what's college life like?" Jason asked as the doors closed and the metal box began to rise.
Annabeth thought about that for a moment, smiling.
"Oh, it's wonderful. I mean, I study architecture, and I absolutely love it. Even though some of the Romans don't seem to be all too fond of the Greeks, apparently Greek architecture has always been part of the curriculum." The blonde female sighed dreamily. "I get to study everything, from the building of the Parthenon to the building of the Coliseum. It'samazing."
"Well, I was talking more about life as in the fun stuff you do around here," Jason pointed out, smirking. "But I'm glad to see that you're enjoying studying architecture."
She rolled her eyes at him as the lift doors opened, and she walked out into the corridor ahead. Here, it seemed less like a Roman building and more like a hotel corridor, with wooden floors and cream walls to make the place seem a bit warmer. At the far end of the corridor, there was a large window that overlooked what was probably the common area of the campus, which was where most of the students hung out in their free time, and along each side of the corridor were doors leading to the dorms – 3A-F on one side and 3G-L on the other. Between each door was a lamp on the wall, keeping the corridor light because not much natural light actually got in (even though there was a huge window at the end of the corridor). "Oh, that? That's good too."
Jason followed her down the corridor, pulling his luggage along behind him. "Okay, so what is it like?"
"Well, there's a lot of freedom with the college students… you can hang out in the common area or at the market in the cafes when you haven't got classes and stuff like that. The nightlife isn't too bad either. The Bacchus kids and legacies are always the ones you can tell apart, because they throw the most, and admittedly the best, parties. Descendents of Ceres always have food to give away, so if you're hungry and looking for somewhere to snack, go for one of their apartments, or hunt one down. Gods know Percy's done that a lot." She thought for a moment. "Descendants of Venus will almost always be shopping in their free time, to be honest, and they're always at parties too. Apollo descendants are rarely ever seen, because they usually study medicine or some sort of career along that line – you can often find them in the hospital, or the clinic… or the morgue." She came to a stop in front of a door – room 3H. "Don't ever let kids of Mars drink, because more often than not, they're violent drunks. But if you're thinking about the college students in general…" She took the handle of the door and twisted it, pushing it open…
Only to find that there were a group of boys in the room, her boyfriend in the centre, chugging what was most probably a gallon of Kool Aid whilst the other guys around him were cheering.
Annabeth just sighed, whilst Jason had an expression on his face that was somewhere in between confused and deeply concerned.
They'd opened the door just as Percy seemed to be finishing, and once he was done with the bottle ("More like a tank," Jason thought,) he pulled it away from his lips and took a deep breath, letting out a belch that Jason was sure could be heard from Olympus itself.
The cheering that followed was almost deafening, although every single guy in the room seemed to hear Annabeth when she cleared her throat, going silent and turning to the door. Percy gave his girlfriend a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Hey, Wise Girl," he greeted, another burp stopping him from continuing and causing the guys around him to laugh.
Annabeth's nose crinkled, before she turned to Jason. "…Most of the students are a lost cause in their free time." She sighed. "Well, this is your room. Good luck." She simply patted him on the shoulder, before turning to head further down the corridor. "I'm two doors down on the opposite side, in dorm 3D, if you need me!"
Jason just stared after her helplessly, before turning back to face the guys in the room. He recognised a couple of those faces from his time in the legion, most of them looking a whole lot older than he remembered.
One face he definitely remembered, though, was Dakota's, and he nearly groaned when the son of Bacchus stepped forward, looking the same as ever with a huge grin on his face.
"Jason! Hey, man! Good to see ya!" He walked – or rather, stumbled – over to the demigod, patting him on the shoulder as he led him further into the room.
"U-uh…" Jason mumbled, looking a bit shocked at all that was happening.
The room was quiet as the blonde was brought to the centre of the room, where Percy was sat, and the son of Poseidon stood from his seat, grinning at Jason. The two stood there in silence for a few moments, before Percy stuck out his hand to the other demigod.
"Welcome to the University of New Rome, dude."
A slight grin broke out on Jason's face, and he took the hand in a firm handshake, ignoring the cheers that erupted around the room.
Well, his stay here was going to be… eventful.
"I did not know you were to be in New Rome. I would've thrown you a welcome party."
Jason turned in his seat to see the one and only Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano walking towards him proudly, her Roman toga pinned perfectly as usual and her hair done into a braid and draped over her left shoulder.
Over the past few years, with Jason being Pontifex, his relationship with Reyna had been forced to improve. After all, Jason visited the Roman camp every other month, checking up on temples and designs and making sure that they were going well, and he had to keep in contact with the Praetors to make sure that what was being built was approved of by them as well. Of course, Frank had been more than willing to communicate with Jason. Reyna had taken… months of attempted communication and being locked in a room with Jason (courtesy of Piper, actually – she was getting tired of Jason complaining about how she wouldn't talk to him) before she'd eventually stared speaking to him, and months more before they could actually hold an amicable conversation about something other than the temples. Now they were almost like old friends – the key word being almost.
The son of Zeus smiled as Reyna approached him and sat up more fully in his seat at the cafe, pushing his book aside and pushing his seat back to greet her. "Hey, Reyn—"
Just as he stood, his knee hit the table, the coffee that had sat on the table tipping and falling onto the ground. He wasn't fast enough to grab the mug before it hit the ground and smashed against the floor, breaking and spilling his drink everywhere.
He cringed as the sound of the ceramics breaking, and shot a guilty look at Reyna. "Oops…"
Reyna sighed, rolling her eyes at him, although the lightest of smirks graced her lips. "Ah, Grace, still ever the clumsy one, aren't you?"
Jason gave her a look, before kneeling down to try and pick up the broken pieces, placing each of them on the table. There was nothing that he could do about the spilt coffee, he knew that, but he had to at least help a bit with the clean up. The cafe owner definitely wouldn't be all that pleased with the broken mug.
"I'll have you know that the mug only broke after your arrival."
"Are you blaming this on me?"
"No. I'm blaming it on your presence."
"And there is a difference between those two things?"
"Yeah, there is." A grin grew on Jason's face as he stood back up straight, fixing his glasses a little on his face so that he could see Reyna better. "I mean, your presence means that you just startled me or you were just around. You actually being at fault means—"
"I do not need the explanation, Grace." She held out her hand in greeting, expecting him to shake it. "It's nice to see you back here, Jason."
Jason gripped her forearm in a handshake, smiling. "It's nice to be back."
"Are you not on a job, then?" Reyna asked curiously as she pulled her arm away from his. Honestly, Jason had never really had a holiday. He was always travelling, or on business when he was around Camp Jupiter and New Rome. From time to time, over the holidays, he brought Piper with him, but other than that he was almost always working. So to see him sitting at a cafe, reading, was rather strange to Reyna.
"Not exactly…" Jason seemed to be contemplating what to say for a moment, before he gestured to the streets. "Let's take a walk. I mean, there's a lot for me to tell you… a lot."
Reyna's dark eyebrow simply rose, but she did as he suggested anyway, moving aside a little so that he could move away from the table (and leave a tip because of that broken mug) and then beginning to follow him down the streets of New Rome, her toga billowing behind her in the breeze.
To Jason, it seemed as if the streets hadn't changed a bit since he'd been part of the legion and used to visit New Rome more regularly. The streets still had that familiar, cobble-stoned appearance, the one that made the sweet clip-clop sound whenever a horse (or even better, a Pegasus) was walked down the streets. Almost every main street was lined with shops of all sorts – boutiques, cafes, toy stores… pretty much almost anything safe that could be imported from the mortal world and sold to demigods and legacies was sold here. They even had a demigod version of what mortals called Ikea, which Jason could remember having a lot of fun in as a child when he'd pretty much spent all of his time in there trying out different seating and jumping on beds… which the store owners had been none too pleased about.
They were rounding the corner at the end of the main street they had been walking down when it hit Jason – that sweet bakery smell that made his mouth water every time he entered this part of the city. He shot Reyna a look.
Reyna didn't even look over at him before responding. "You're hungry?"
"Not exactly…"
"Then no."
"But come on, Rey… it's your favourite!"
"If it isn't necessary, then we're not going."
Jason pouted, his blue eyes going wide behind his glasses. "Please, Reyna? Please…?"
It took about a minute before Reyna was standing at the counter in the bakery, ordering some baked goods for herself and Jason to snack on.
"So, what do you want?" Jason asked as his eyes roamed over the different treats. Pies, breads, pastries… the bakery had almost everything that Jason had loved as a kid. He was tempted to just ask for everything and eat all of it now, but he wasn't sure if he had the denarii to buy it all or the stomach to eat everything. Though, if he had Percy's help, he would definitely be able to finish it all.
"I'm not hungry."
"But you always used to get something whenever we came here."
"The key phrase in that sentence is used to."
"Oh, come on, Reyna! You know you want to… for old times' sake? Please?" he begged, his eyes growing wide.
Reyna sighed, trying to look anywhere but at his face, because she knew that once she looked into those eyes…
"Get me my usual," she told him finally, pulling out a couple of denarii and handing it to Jason, who grinned widely at her before turning back to the counter to order their baked goods.
Minutes later, the two were walking out of the bakery and were back on their walk through the town, both of them munching on their baked goods as they walked. They eventually ended up in the park in the middle of the residential area, and the two of them sat down on one of the benches, finishing off their treats.
Jason dusted his hands off on his jeans. "So, you know, it's nice to be back in my home city," he told Reyna with a smile, before brushing the crumbs off his lips. "I mean, Camp Half-Blood is nice with all the fun stuff and the relaxed atmosphere and everything, but nothing beats the streets of New Rome. Nothing beats anything here."
Reyna just raised an eyebrow at him, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. "So why are you back here? You still haven't told me, Jason," she pointed out with a small smirk. "Is there something that you are trying to hide from me?"
"No! Nothing!" he protested quickly with a smile, laughing lightly. "No, no… it's something else. Something completely different, actually." His eyes glanced around the park, watching all of the different people there. Kids playing on the swings in the playground area, their parents pushing them; a young couple was having a picnic on the grass (and the couple happened to look a whole lot like Gwen and Dakota, for some reason…); a couple of kids were playing 'Tag' across the climbing frame, whilst their mothers told them to stop and get down to stay safe.
"Oh?" Reyna noticed how Jason was getting distracted – his ADHD was probably acting up, which meant he was probably a little nervous –and nudged his leg with her own. "And what is it you need to tell me, then?"
Jason looked back over sharply at the nudge, and smiled a little at her. "Oh, yeah. Well… I'm moving back to New Rome."
Reyna's eyes widened. "What?"
"Yeah, I'm moving back here."
"Why? How?"
"Well… would you believe me if I said the gods made me?"
That shocked Reyna into silence. Which amused Jason because she almost always had something to say about whatever he was on about, even if it was just one word.
"Reyna?"
"The… the gods made you?" she asked, sounding incredulous, and Jason nodded to confirm it.
"Yup."
Reyna just stared at him for a few moments, before shaking her head and sighing. She couldn't believe it, honestly. She couldn't believe that the gods had relieved him of his job and made him move to New Rome! Whatever for? "Wait… why have you even moved to New Rome?"
"For university."
"You're studying at the university?"
"Mhmm. It was Hera's idea of 'giving her champion a normal life'," he said, his nose crinkling ever so slightly as he said it. Mainly because he kind of didn't understand why they were having a change of heart now, when he was so into his job right then and was well on his way to completing every single temple. It just didn't really make that much sense to him. But, hey, these were the gods, and if they wanted to do something then they could do it.
Reyna nodded slowly. "Of course… Juno is your patron goddess."
"Exactly."
"So she has a choice over what you are to do and such?"
"Yup."
"So what are you studying?"
"Oh… I have no idea."
Reyna blinked at him. "You… have no idea?"
Jason shook his head and leaned back on the bench, looking up at the sky. "No, not really. That was the one thing that I was allowed to pick for myself – what I want to study."
Reyna nodded, following Jason's actions and sitting back on the bench, looking up at the sky and thinking.
The two stayed in that position for a little while, trying to come up with ideas on what Jason could study (and considering how well they knew each other, they had an idea of what the other was thinking of) before deciding to finally bounce their ideas off each other.
"Languages?"
"Like what? French?"
"Well, it's a Latin language, right?"
"No, Reyna."
"Okay, you come up with one."
"Um… Literature?"
"I cannot realistically see you sitting down and reading for more than five minutes without getting bored, Jason. It was bad enough when you were praetor."
"Right."
"How about medicine?"
"Can you honestly see me as a doctor?"
"…You're right."
"Biology?"
"You would accidentally fry everything that you touch. And Percy is taking that subject."
"…Good point."
"Law?"
"Too long, I guess. A good one, and it probably suits me, but… I don't know. I don't really think I'd like it in the long run."
"That's funny. I thought you would, considering that you are all for justice."
"Yeah, but it'd get tiring for me eventually, I guess."
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"Well… I like the sound of History?"
Reyna raised an eyebrow at that, and glanced over at him. "History?"
He nodded. "Yeah, History."
"With what?"
"…Throw something at me."
"…Politics."
He frowned over at her, and she just shrugged.
"If you won't take Law, then at least take Politics. It's another subject that suits you, what with your justice-like beliefs and your need to make sure that everyone is actually happy."
"Or kind of happy."
"Yes, that too."
A smile appeared on Jason's face, before he laughed a little. Reyna raised an eyebrow at him, although she was smiling.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. I just… wow, I'd never really thought about college before. And now I'm here, and asking you for advice."
"Well, I should be joining you in a couple of years." She smiled at him. "My years in the legion are nearly complete."
"Really? Awesome."
"Although, from what I hear from Annabeth, your floor in the Minerva Building is the most eventful floor of them all."
Jason outright laughed at that. "Oh yeah, you've got that spot on."