Chapter Text
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” Jason said, sneaking a quick look up at her before directing his eyes down at his feet. He fiddled with the grip of his duffel bag and turned toward the driveway. Was that a new hole in his sneakers, or had that been there since camp?
Piper leaned against the open doorway.
“You know, you really don’t have to do this. You can stay if you want. It’s okay. I meant what I said. You’re still one of my best friends.”
“I know,” Jason said. He reached down and grabbed the long strap of his duffel, pulling the bag up onto his shoulder.
“Tell Frank and Hazel hi for me,” Piper said.
“Will do.” Jason’s lip twitched.
Jason fought back the urge to hug her. Instead, he just stood there and looked at her, adjusting his grip on his bag.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Piper said.
“Jason, get down here!” Hedge shouted. “We don’t have all day!”
Piper gave him a small wave before turning around and closing the door behind her. Jason exhaled and started the walk down to the driveway.
He didn’t particularly want to go back to the day-to-day of the legion. Jason spent almost his whole life preparing for or fighting in wars. The closest he’d ever come to regular school was his one day at the Grand Canyon with the Wilderness School. Leo’d assured him at Camp Half-Blood that he wasn’t missing much, but when Piper suggested he come home to LA with her and start junior year at a mortal high school, he’d jumped at the opportunity.
But now, before the year even started, he was leaving. Piper told him last week that she wanted space, to get to know herself without the pressure and Hera’s interference. Jason knew, if he wanted to, he could stay. Piper would let him. But the last week of barely meeting her eye, feeling like an unwanted interloper in her dad’s house, would’ve been enough to convince him even without the call he got from Coach Hedge yesterday, insisting he go back to New Rome and let Piper’s heart heal in peace.
Jason didn’t know why Hedge was so much more concerned with Piper’s heart, considering Jason was the one that got dumped, but he was right. Piper wanted to be alone. Jason was going to give that to her.
Hedge had the trunk popped and was already in the driver’s seat, staring at Jason through the open window. He put his bag in the car and sat down in the passenger seat.
“If I’m shotgun, does that mean I get to pick the music?” Jason asked, as he closed the car door.
“No one touches my radio but me,” Hedge sniped at him, starting the car.
Jason turned away and took one last look at Piper’s house. He’d only been there for a month, and one of those weeks was bad, but it was still the closest he’d ever come to a normal life.
He tapped his foot along to Hedge’s heavy metal songs and avoided his eye. Out the window, Jason watched the San Gabriel Mountains fade into vast swaths of desert.
The number of miles to Oakland ticked down on the road signs. Jason’s foot had long since lost the beat of whatever Led Zeppelin song Hedge was playing, and he fiddled with his hands as his leg shook.
As they approached Caldecott Tunnel, Hedge pulled into a gas station just ahead of the entrance to New Rome.
“Kid, this is your stop,” Hedge said. “I’d take you further, but I don’t think they let cars through the gate. You good to get in from here?”
Looking out the window, he was surprised to see how much had changed in his year away from Camp Jupiter. The Target was still there, and so was the Starbucks. But the Panda Express wasn’t there anymore, and the gas station was a Mobil now, not a Shell.
But the addition that caught Jason’s eyes was the In-N-Out. That was one of the first things he’d wanted to do when he moved to LA with Piper, but, Piper being vegetarian, she’d never particularly wanted to go. Jason figured eventually the time would come.
“Yeah, I can make it,” Jason said, reaching for the door, but as he began to open it, Hedge grabbed his arm.
“Just, before you go — give Piper some time,” Hedge said. “Stay away from her. Let her come to you.”
Jason furrowed his eyebrows. What the hell was he doing, about to go back to New Rome, if not giving Piper time?
“I will,” Jason said.
“See you around, kid,” Hedge said. “Send me an Iris message if you need anything.”
“Thanks for driving me, Coach,” Jason said, grabbing his bag and shutting the door. He waved through the open window, and then Hedge pulled away, back down the highway and out of sight.
Jason took a deep inhale, nose twitching as he smelled the gasoline. He turned toward the highway, ready to run to the median as he’d done a thousand times coming back from his quests. He’d always felt a pull to camp, like coming home. All roads lead to Rome, and all that.
But now, all Jason could think about was how he’d really rather go to In-N-Out.
It didn’t make sense. He was the highest-ranking person at Camp Jupiter, the first Pontifex in decades. His friends were on the other side of that gate. The people who’d been with him all his life. The people he’d almost died with on the Argo II.
But the bright yellow arrow called out to him the way Camp Jupiter was supposed to.
Jason turned around and walked to In-N-Out.
It’d only be an extra hour, anyway, Jason reasoned. He hadn’t told Frank and Reyna he was coming, so it’s not like anyone was waiting for him.
Jason walked up to the counter, ordered a Double-Double and some animal style fries. He tapped his fingers on the railing while he waited for number 16 to get called. At the table next to him, a mother scolded her young sons, who were acting out a sword fight with their straws while wearing paper In-N-Out hats.
One of the kids held his straw with both hands, which of course you’d never do with a real sword. It limits your range of motion. But his older competitor, holding his straw with one hand, also kept having to replace his straw after it bent in half. Jason was entranced by their laughs, their smiles as the broken straws piled up.
“Number 16?” Jason jerked back into reality and picked up his tray. He walked to the other side of the restaurant and slid into a booth. He was about to take a bite, when a woman slid into the other side of his booth.
“Hi, Jason,” the woman said. “I’ve missed you.”
Of course it was a trap. It always had to be a trap. Jason was a fucking idiot. He should have just gone to New Rome.
Jason pulled his gladius out of his duffel and grabbed it under the table, nearly tapping the woman on the leg.
Jason stared into the woman’s deep brown eyes, trying to recall what kind of monster presented like a middle-aged mom. He gripped his sword tighter underneath the table.
“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t recognize me in this form,” the woman said. “It’s me, Jason. Juno. Your patron.”
Great. Either a monster, or the woman who’d basically ruined his life.
“Why do you expect me to believe that?” Jason said. “You don’t look like her.”
Juno had power behind her eyes, with specks of gold lighting up the brown. This woman had brown eyes, sure, but they didn’t sparkle, not to mention the subtle wrinkles on her face.
The woman grimaced.
“Well, that’s a long story,” she said.
Jason leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms, cocking his head toward her.
“Your father and I had a…disagreement, over how the Second Great Prophecy came to pass, among other things,” the woman said. “I’m not welcome at Olympus, for a time.”
“And so now you’re a mortal?” Jason raised an eyebrow.
“I suppose so, yes,” Juno said, reaching for a fry. “These are excellent, I see why you wanted to stop here.”
“What are you doing here?” Jason said, leaning toward her.
“I’ve been horrible to you, haven’t I?” She said, reaching for his hands. Jason pulled them back immediately.
“What gave you that idea?” Jason said. “When you stole my memories? When you almost killed me? When you fucked with my mom’s head and forced her to throw me to the wolves, literally, when I was two?”
Juno swallowed, eyes fixed on the red tray in between them.
“I’ve used you for my own purposes, yes, and as revenge against your father,” she said. Juno clasped her hands together and met his gaze. “I want to apologize.”
Jason’s eyes widened.
“I had good intentions, at least for swapping you and the Jackson boy, but I robbed you of a lot of things,” Juno said, fidgeting with her hands and adjusting her grip. “I don’t think I could ever repay the debt I owe to you – that all of Olympus owes to you. I chose you to be my hero, and you’ve exceeded my every expectation, as a hero and as a person.”
Jason took a bite of his burger, avoiding her eyes as his cheeks flushed. No wonder this place was so popular. Leo would have loved it. He probably could have made the fries extra crispy. Did they have In-N-Out in Texas?
“I’ve been waiting outside New Rome for weeks now, hoping to find you,” Juno said. “I didn’t get a chance to speak with you, after the battle in Athens. I started to think you weren’t coming back.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Jason said, taking another bite.
“Did you want to stay at Camp Half-Blood?” Juno said quizzically.
Jason had sort of wanted to stay at Camp Half-Blood, until he realized basically no one stuck around for the winter. He’d never even thought about going to regular school until Percy, Annabeth and Piper started preparing to go. Jason would have followed Piper regardless, but the idea of going to mortal school had grown on him the more he thought about it. In New Rome, once you got to Camp Jupiter, you weren’t allowed to just leave. Unless Jason was on a quest, he was stuck, back in the cycle of training, class, training, war games, training, on and on and on.
“I planned on going to high school with Piper, but we broke up.”
Jason ran his hand through his hair and exhaled.
“She said I could stay if I wanted, but – I don’t know. It wasn’t the right thing.”
Juno reached for his hand again. This time, Jason let her take his fingers in hers.
“That’s what you’d like to do? Go to mortal school?” Juno said, staring into his eyes.
“I don’t know. It seemed nice. To just – be normal, after everything that’s happened.”
Jason looked back down at their joined hands on the table to avoid Juno’s piercing gaze. After a long moment, her eyes flicked down.
“You could still go,” she said.
Jason furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“I could get an apartment, or a house somewhere, and you could go to school.”
Jason blinked, shocked.
Gods didn’t offer demigods anything. They took, and Jason gave. That was how it worked. His own father turned his sister into a tree. Juno claimed him as her champion against his will and forced him to repay that “debt" by freeing her. But Juno wasn’t really a goddess at the moment, was she?
Jason looked back in Juno’s eyes. He knew he couldn’t trust her. Whatever he took now, she’d demand back later. But he couldn’t force the word no out of his mouth. He’d served his ten years in the legion. Eventually, the temples would be built, and no one would have use for him any longer. Even Nico and Hazel had had the opportunity to go to real school – even if it was a century ago.
Jason barely had any memories from his life before Camp Jupiter. But the version of him that lived in New Rome also felt far away, like a character in a movie. After a decade of fighting other people’s wars, he was exhausted.
It was then Jason realized Juno was still talking.
“...Of course, I’d have to find a private school that would take you, but that should be easy enough, especially in California…”
Jason sat up in his chair.
“Okay,” he interrupted.
Juno’s face lit up. She squeezed his hands.
“Really?”
For a moment, he thought he saw a bit of gold in her eyes.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”