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The room was far from the silent it should have been. Buzzing even, one might say. The weather shift was one thing. It was between winter and spring but leaning more into winter currently so it was just enough cold to be uncomfortable but not enough to have on a sweater all the time. That was the mistake she had made tonight. Assuming thay blankets would sustain her, she wore just a normal tshirt and pyjamas. What she didn't predict was that she'd get stuck with one singular, thinnerthan her actual clothes blanket (they had drawn for it).
It was difficult to sleep again tonight. Not purely because of the cheap motel's lumpy couch and lack of blankets, but also because she was simply restless. She couldn't get to sleep no matter how much she tossed and turned. She reckoned she should have just taken the bed with Drew but she wasn't sure if she preferred sleeping in the same bed with someone she wasn't comfortable with or a lumpy couch. Besides, there was too much in her head for thr bed to have helped either way.
Either way, she had realised she was not gonna sleep tonight. Maybe she could raid the motel kitchen or something...
The noise of metal clattering interrupted her train of increasingly gluttonous thoughts. She turned to where the source of the noise had come from. Jason looked at her with a wide eyed expression–like a child who got caught stealing candy–from the opposite couch. She'd already known he wasn't asleep yet from the lack of regulated breathing and the incessant blanket shuffling which could be heard. She rolled her eyes and looked back the ceilings–which had water damage–instead.
Isha was quite sure she was hallucinating when she heard something else, like plastic rolling on the floor. She looked down, at a plastic cup rolling toward her. Raising an eyebrow, she reached down toward the shoddy cup. Frowning, she bent down to pick up the cup. There was a piece of paper inside, folded a good few times. She took out the piece of paper inside and unfolded the thing which had clearly been ripped out crudely from somewhere.
"Wound, need healing. Please." was written on the paper in messy scrawled handwriting. Really? Jason couldn't have asked for this earlier. He had to bother her with healing now at the dead of the night? And was he actually saying please to her? She pocketed the piece of paper, for the sake of evidence.
Ugh, it was just like him to mess with her at 2 in the morning. She sighed snd massaged her temples. She didn't wanna do this at all. Healing was hard enough but healing him? No. Well...maybe. Only because they needed him for the quest. Not because of the guilt gnawing her insides. Not like she had anything better to do right now anyway right?
She sighed and slumped down from the couch and walked over to the opposite couch.
"Couldn't have verbally communicated?" She bit the inside of her cheek, her tone coming out much more snappy than she'd intended.
His eyes narrowed at her and then he conceded as she kneeled down next to the couch. He noticed that she had major bedhead–which were likely common with the choppy layers of short black curls.
"Look, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think it was serious" He responded, sounding exasperated
"Fine. For the sake of this quest succeeding" she answered and closed her eyes, concentrating on the cool feeling of healing magic.
"Well?" She asked, looking at him and the distorted reflection of herself in his glasses.
"What" He gave her a confuddled look.
"I can't read your mind and figure out where you're injured genius" She snarked which made him roll his eyes
"Right" He muttered and gingerly pulled up his tshirt. She pretended that didn't happen and made no expression. There was a large wound amidst his chest and torso. It looked like it was spreading out in different directions. It looked way worse than he'd insinuated. Why wouldn't he have mentioned this earlier? Frustration prickled her skin. It was just like some dumb son of Zeus to rather bleed out from a wound like that than let his pride go. And then his death would fall on her head as usual. And as much as he triggered her rage for reasons that were more her fault than his, she didn't want him dying.
A sharp smack hit him on the head a second later.
"What was that for!? You're supposed to be healing me, not hurting me more!"
"That's for hiding this big an injury. And keep it down because someone is trying to sleep" she muttered under her breath, gesturing to the small bed where Drew was starfishing out.
He rolled his eyes and grumbled while she focused on letting magic flow through her body and into her fingertips. She hovered over the dried blood caking upon his chest, scrunching her nose at the smell of dried blood.
He almost nearly chuckled at her face and then in efforts of suppressing it–he wasnt risking getting smacked by her again–made a strange throaty noise instead.
She gave him the most lethal side eye he'd ever seen
"Dude, can you not. Or just don't do that when we aren't seperated by atleast 3 meters of distance"
"Gods you're so dramatic" Jason rolled his eyes at her again
"You're the one making noises like a dying pigeon" she shot back
"I was laughing at your expression"
"Excuse me?" She gave him a look
"You're scrunching up your nose like a pug"
"Because your dried blood smells like ass Grace" she frowned at him which made him actually laugh now
"Stop laughing at me" she grumbled
"I can't when you make faces like that" He pointed in the general direction of her face
She grumbled some more and focused on the wound rather than the nervous sweat that was happening. What was so funny about her face anyway? She glared at the wound on his chest and felt it close slowly, the muscles putting themselves back together every second, underneath the healing glow of her hands. This was gonna take a while. Atleast he'd stopped laughing by now. Back into weird and slightly awkward silence. Alright maybe she preferred the laughing. Atleast then she couldn't hear her thoughts over his obnoxious boisterous noise. Now it just felt like he was judging her intensely again.
"Can you like not look at me" she voiced in a low tone.
"I'm not looking at you, I'm zoning in your general direction" He argued
"Well look somewhere else then, there's plenty to watch" she sniped back
"Look I know we don't particularly have a good rapport but do you have to be like that all the time?"
"I-" she fumbled and bit the inside of her cheek. Ugh, she hated faltering in arguments–especially with him. She looked down at her hands instead, noticing that his wound had more or less closed up. Thank gods. She didn't want to deal with this anymore.
He watched her go silent and stare at her hands instead. He gulped, having recognized he hit a nerve. He hadn't expected her to just go silent. This was worse than fighting.
He followed her gaze but he stuck on the large scar on the back of her hand. Just the sight of it nearly made him flinch. The scar on her hand was there because of them. He could still remember it all so vividly–her separating the ground they were standing on, making the deal with Hera, literally stabbing her own hand so as to keep him, Piper and Leo out of it, and then her solemn look afterwards having gotten nothing good out of it–but now, the girl who had once cornered and somehow successfully scared–even if just for a bare second–the queen of Olympus, looked crestfallen. He thought about saying something. No. She'd deserved that from him right? He was only expressing all the frustration that had been caused by her. And they fought almost all the time. So why was his gut churning worse than usual?
"You're right" She sighed. "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't technically mean anything at all but I really am"
Jason raised an eyebrow. That was new. Well no, it was unfair to say an apology was new. She'd done so right after they got back to camp after the quest though none of them really paid any mind to it. And she had also technically stabbed her own hand voluntarily for their sake, and her sake. He could still remember the dagger sinking in and the gaping wound from which blood spilt freely. He eyed the large scar on her hand.
He wasnt sure how to go about this anymore. Isha had always been very complicated. And even if the impression at the tip of the iceberg was not good, he couldn't bring himself to stick by there like his two friends had because there was just too much locked below the surface of the frozen ocean that was her.
After all, she had done it all just to find her brother. Was that so bad? Wouldn't he have done it too? Well, he wasn't sure. He was always one to put his duty as a Roman and as Praetor first. She wasn't like that. He'd tried to convince himself she was selfish for putting her own gains in front of everything else but he could see the fierce loyalty that lay below the surface now. And he knew he'd been the first one to consider that, even back on the quest.
"I know this doesn't mean you forgive me and I know I should probably day more. I just don't know what to say. I don't regret doing everything I can to find Percy. Because I'm going to keep doing that. But I guess I do regret leading you all on and hurting you. And I always knew it was going to happen inevitably but...well I am just sorry. I can't come up with anything else to say" she sighed in defeat and got up from the kneeling position, presumably to go back to her side of the room and end this conversation once and for all. But he didn't want to end it yet. He was just starting to get through to her.
"Wait" He exclaimed, a little too loudly and impulsively tried to grab her hand. He caught a hold of her pinky and ring finger instead and pulled way too hard.
"Ow! Grace–" she huffed and then glared at him, cradling her pinky in her other hand
"I'm sorry–I didn't mean to...well just don't leave yet" He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly
"Hmph. Could've said so instead of twisting my pinky" she pouted. "And keep it down would you?"
"Right" He nodded and scooched over onto a side of the couch.
She came and sat down beside him while flexing her pinky finger a little.
"So?" She asked dryly
"Well uhh...I mean–" He fumbled and bit the inside of his cheek while she looked at him like she was going to interrogate him
"I just wanted to say...that I uh—well I understand. I understand what it's like to want to find a sibling, maybe not as much as you but I do get it. And I get why you didn't want to help Juno or well Hera. My impression has definitely changed" He looked down at his own lap. He'd been raised to believe that Gods deserved the absolute pinnacle of respect. It was an important part of his duty as a Roman and a Praetor to enforce that. But nowadays, he was really starting to question that notion. The old him would've said that this girl was distracting him too much and diverting him from his path but he just felt confused and conflicted now. He could see that she was right. The Queen of the heavens had made Isha stab her own hand after all. And she'd done it too...
"Oh. Um–thanks" she nodded awkwardly and looked away a little.
"Look Isha, I don't really know how to say this but I'll try. I do understand where you're coming from and though I struggled with it for a while, I do forgive you, even if you don't accept forgiveness for yourself. You're doing it for your family and you made sure we weren't harmed. And I believe that you would never truly betray us or camp. I wanted to convince myself that that's all you were because it was easy but i couldn't. I mean you voluntarily stabbed your own hand to keep us safe, it's just not in your heart to be disloyal" He sounded more and more convinced and self-assured with each word but this was not the usual brand of overconfident Roman self-assuredness. It was just, completely convinced the words were hard fact.
Her heart felt like it was floating and twisting at the same time. Her entire body felt too hot and sweaty and her eyes had widened on instinct. She wasn't sure if she liked that or not. Was this flattery? Did he want something? She would've liked to think so and it still could be...but then again the blond was just an idiot with a heart of gold too. Her nerves were prickling now. How was she supposed to respond to this?
"...you sound convinced" she muttered and looked down
"I am" Jason nodded very eagerly. Gods he was like a goddamn dog sometimes.
"Um...thank you" she answered, her voice sounding too high pitched and floaty for her liking. She cleared her throat consciously.
He just smiled at her with that stupid little smile that he gave everyone except her–till now that is.
"I hope you know I don't know how to respond to this" She muttered, deciding to put it out there.
"That's fine" He shrugged. She blinked and shuffled around awkwardly.
"Um...we should probably get some sleep" she said at last
"Yeah, good plan" He nodded
"You'll tell me if the wound bugs you right?" She asked hesitantly as she got up from beside him.
"Mhmm. Thanks" He nodded with a smile. She nodded in response and made her way back to the other side of the room.
"Hey Wonder boy? Thanks"
"For what?"
"Just take it."
Jason scoffed with a smile, and turned around, pulling the blanket over him.