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star-girl69 · 1 year

Text

Ultraviolence

Natalie Scatorccio x Fem!Reader

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a/n: i hope you all enjoy!!

warnings: swearing, mentions of fire, mentions of death, mentions of a panic attack, tell me if i missed anything!!

Chapter Five - Give Me a Reason To Love You

—-

1996-

It was haphazard, but after ripping a bunch of little strips of random t-shirts, Misty had managed to create a secure bandage for the gash on your face. There was a loop running over your eyebrows, one in between your mouth and nose, and another around your chin. It was awkward, and you felt a little claustrophobic- which made you think back to when Nat had placed her arm around you on the plane- but it was better than leaving an open wound to the elements.

I’m so tired, of playing, playing with this bow and arrow,

Gonna give my heart away,

Leave it to the other girls… to play

The music in your ears was a welcome distraction, and you were glad that you had decided to bring it, your small walkman and black headphones, since you always wrote best when something was playing softly in the background.

Night had fallen, and with it came darkness, and cold. A sudden burst of light, and Natalie had used her lighter to spark the fire the girls had made. You leaned forward, greedy, rubbing your hands together and placing them palms out towards the growing flame.

You could hear Nat laugh slightly over your music.

For I’ve been a temptress too long,

After everything that happened today, it was nice to stick with facts, and not make believe. The worst thing imaginable had just happened to you. Everyone thinks “it won’t be me” until it is them. They say, “it won’t happen to me, it couldn’t” until it does.

And you weren’t a fool. You saw how Tai and Van gravitated towards each other, your saw the looks, the care and concern, the touches. They were in love, and you weren’t a fool.

You knew what having a crush felt like.

But you had never expected to have a crush on a girl. Much less the enigma that was Natalie Scatorccio.

Just give me a reason,

To love you

Give me a reason,

To be… A woman

Natalie sat next to you after a moment, staring at the fire that was rising strong, flaring into a bright red and orange inferno.

You let your mind wander back to the cold, the cold of the wilderness, that not even a fire could assuage. The fire was warm, but not warm enough, so you wrapped your arms around yourself- thinking of insulated houses.

I just want to be a woman

Natalie was like fire, in a way. She was unpredictable. One day she could be burning houses down, the next she was keeping a group of teenagers warm in the wilderness. But like fire, she could be used- fire doesn’t just start all by itself. It needs a match. A catalyst. And the world had given Natalie plenty of sparks.

You wondered if she got to close- would she burn you? You always thought of yourself like a deadly nightshade, but plants could catch on fire easily.

Are you willing to take that risk?

“Give me a reason to love you,” you think.

—-

“I’m sure the plane has an emergency transmitter sending out a distress signal,” Shauna says suddenly. Everyone glances up at her from the fire, and you can still faintly see the image of the flame burned into your eyes, flickering across her face, dancing in the warm glow the actual fire casts.

“They’ll be here to rescue us by morning.”

But Shauna doesn’t know the future.

You were distracted by the sound of loud chewing, nuts cracking between someone’s teeth. Your stomach twisted at the thought of food, and you looked up at Van, at her apathetic face staring into the flames.

“Still…” Jackie started, “Maybe we should conserve some food? In case they don’t get here till later in the day?”

Van nods, her face twisting into a disgusted sort of scowl.

“You want to save the CornNuts?”

They stare at each for a moment, before Jackie looks down, and no one else at the fire speaks for a while.

—-

“You okay, Laura Lee?”

Tai taps Laura Lee’s arm, who’s still clutching that poor bear, and you notice the tears in her eyes.

She stares at the ground a second longer before replying, shaking slightly.

“This is all my fault,” she whispers.

Everyone sits up taller and looks at her. What could somebody like Laura Lee do to make our plane crash, you wonder? She’s sweet and kind, and prays more than anyone else you know.

“I did something really bad,” she whispers. Tai looks to Van, who simply shakes her head. Tears start falling down Laura Lee’s face, and her voice grows thick with sadness. “I kept screwing up in my piano lesson last week. Mrs. Brophy kept yelling at me. ‘Sharp. F sharp. F Sharp.’ I just… I couldn’t take it anymore. So I called her a bad word.”

She sniffles, and you can’t help but look around the fire, seeing everyone’s shocked and confused faces glow in the orange light.

“Just in my head, but… God heard me. Now we’re all be punished.” She says it so mournfully, and even though you’re sure God has bigger things to deal with- you can’t help but feel for her. She truly believes she caused this- but she didn’t. It was a freak thing. No one is to blame for that.

“What did you call her?” Tai whispers.

Laura Lee looks up with her big eyes filled with tears, true regret on her face.

“Cunt,” she says, so softly.

Van is the first one to laugh.

At first, everyone tries to hide it, looking down at the ground, keeping their lips pressed together tight, but eventually- the stress of their day’s events are wearing on everybody, and maybe this release is what you need.

Soon, the wilderness is filled with the sound of girls listing hysterically, gathered around the fire.

You see Laura Lee even let out a small giggle, which only makes you laugh more, until Lottie speaks.

“I steal shitty clothes from T.J. Maxx,” she rushes out, staring at the flames. The laughter dies to down. “I return them, and I get credit that I never use, and I have thousands of dollars in T.J. bucks.”

More laughing, even as Misty touches up the fire.

“I, uh, used to sneak downstairs after everybody had gone to bed,” Jackie starts with a wistful smile on her face, “and watch Color of Night so I could pause it on Bruce Willis’s wang.”

“Definitely why we crashed!” Tai chimes in, earning more laughter.

“I mean, Jeff’s not bad, but damn.”

More laughter, even as Shauna looks away, no laughter pouring from her mouth.

And, maybe it’s the adrenaline still in your veins from earlier in the day- but you confess next.

“Um, sometimes I leave these really stupid, really mean notes on Gordon River’s desk before school paper meetings.” Everyone waits for a second, for some grand reveal of how he wronged you. “He’s just so fucking bitter towards me ‘cause I’m a better writer than him.”

More laughter. A part of you wants it to stay like this forever- this peace. But, you can hear the wilderness all around you- the rustle of a few branches, the soft scurrying of a squirrel or a chipmunk through the leaves, the sounds of an owl.

The wilderness is only just sinking it’s claws into you.

—-

2021-

The scar on your face had gotten better with age. Once you had gotten out of the wilderness and some moisture had returned to your face, the scar healed much better. Countless doctors appointments, antibiotics to make sure there wasn’t anything brewing under the now-closed skin.

For months after the crash, when reporters followed you at every turn, they would always ask about your scar.

Did it come from the crash? Did it come after? Did one of the other girls hurt you?

The sudden vision of a hazy, humanoid figure. A crown rested upon her head- but it wasn’t like the one in movies or books. It was a crown of bone, of antlers, like a deers. The Antler Queen-

You rubbed your eyes, looking into the mirror, tracing the faint scar on your face. You had gotten really lucky with it. It was only on your face, not your head, so you didn’t have a concussion or a brain bleed. And besides for the fact that there was a huge gash in the middle of your face, it was superficial. Deep, but it didn’t hinder your ability to move your face or talk in anyway.

You thought about Natalie.

You didn’t think about her a lot these days, but she used to always smell like cigarettes and alcohol- especially those first few days after the crash. And with an apartment soaked in the stench of nicotine, it was hard not to think about her.

She tasted like cigarettes and alcohol too, even after the wilderness, in those few months you spent motel hopping around the south- shutting the blinds each night, turning the TV on loud and getting drunk and high and whatever else to pretend like you weren’t utterly dying inside.

Not only was the wilderness inside you, but it was wrenched itself into your soul in such a way that you would never be the same again. It had forced your organs aside, made a place in you where it wasn’t supposed to be. Something inside of you was broken. Displaced.

You doubted you could ever fix it.

The last time you saw Natalie was about a year ago, another stay in a motel, upstate New York, fucking around in some random city- far away from the forest.

That was when she overdosed. That night is hazy, but you remember pleading for her to stay with you, stay alive, and she did. You stayed just long enough to make sure she was alive, then you came back to the city. Moved into your cigarette-soaked apartment, got your job at Whole Foods.

A new number. A new address. A new job.

And in a place like NYC, she had no hopes of ever finding you again.

And you were fine with that. That’s what you wanted.

You couldn’t see her hurt herself again- and maybe that was selfish, but it was for you.

But on nights like this, when it’s fall, and it’s a little cold- you think about her. On nights like this, when a bird has found it’s way too close to your window, you think about a night you spent with her.

Neither of you had dont any drugs that night, surprisingly, and only had a little to drink. So in the dingy motel, in that cold bed, Natalie had wrapped her arms around you while you kissed her neck, laughing, talking about something you can’t remember.

When the wind picked up, it didn’t bother you. But when the tree started to scratch against the window, that’s when it started.

—-

2019-

At first, it had only spooked you. You were tired enough for one little noise not to totally terrify you. Besides, with Natalie practically surrounding you, you could barely hear the first scratch against the window.

The next few were the same.

Until the wind came again, faster and stronger, scratching, scratching, like the sound of a knife hitting bone, like the sound of someone screaming far away. The last sound prey would make, before they died.

You shot up in bed, dragging Natalie with you, while she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and tried to tug you back to her, asking if you had a nightmare, while tears streamed down your face and you covered your ears, letting out a small cry.

“What- what’s wrong?” Natalie asked, cupping your face with one hand to get a good look at you, her finger sitting perfectly over your scar.

“The tree,” you gasped, “the tree, the tree, Nat, please-”

She didn’t say anything for a moment. Just thinking, until she pressed a small kiss to your hairline, and whispered:

“We’re in Texas, baby.”

She grabbed the remote from the bedside table, turning the TV on, some random talk show about the best five kitchen appliances to make cooking easier.

And like that, with Natalie wrapping herself back around you, your face in her neck and the sound of a talk show host’s squeaky voice, you fell asleep.

—-

taglist:

@sweetdayme4427 @dreaming-for-an-escape @peachydoki

#yellowjackets #yellowjackets x reader #natalie scatorccio #natalie scatorccio x reader

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halothenthehorns · 5 months

Text

Chapter 1: I GO CRUISING WITH EXPLOSIVES

And so it begins, the book you've all been waiting for...mostly (Looking at you HoH, we'll get there when we get there.)

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Jason didn't mean to overhear, but he was walking past an open door tossing cornnuts into his mouth so he got a shoddy reception of an answer to a question he hadn't thought to ask.

"- so the counters keep track of health, for both monsters and gods characters. And a second set tracks attack points-"

Something about that excited voice nagged in Jason's mind. It was more of a feeling than a memory, something that glitched in and out of his mind to fast to understand the impression of someone once saying this to him, but he turned about and poked his head into the door on instinct to hear more.

"-and the counters have two sides, different colours. You can choose a colour for the game, so everyone knows whose pieces belong to who. There are tons of options, because people like to buy them to match their deck's theme-"

"Do they have them in tie-dye?" Jason found his mouth moving on autopilot, an old joke he was suddenly sure he'd made once before. "Just in case you can't pick a color?"

Nico startled, his deck fleeing from his hand in a cascade, a wolf card landing near Jason's shoe. Will looked up, completely unabashed, and smiled. "I bet we can make our own. I'm all for getting creative with it."

"How about we actually get through a full game before you start trying to invent your own rules," Nico told him in exasperation as he shuffled around, rotating his hips and his bum to try and snatch them back. Then he turned to Jason, an obvious flush to his cheeks as he glanced around at their set up, then a stubborn set to his jaw as he met his eyes like he was waiting for something.

"Can I play?" Jason asked.

That clearly was not what Nico had been expecting, and his jaw went slack, along with his hands were his cards scattered again.

Will pursed his lips, his eyes darting between them, but Jason didn't have time to worry what that hesitation could be about as Nico gave a weary, but pleasant smile. "Yeah."

...

Magnus and Alex's dinner lay in a chair forgotten as they sat laughing and practicing with each other.

"No, you're using your fingers to much," Magnus gently corrected, showing her again slower. "It's just your palm, angle lower."

She tried again with a look of curious concentration.

"Perfect!" Magnus signed and said. "Now you're embarrassed!"

"Sweet," she signed as well, her mismatched eyes gleaming with pride. "Okay, let me try freestyle, and correct me if I'm wrong as brutally as you need to."

"Oh, I'm sure that won't be necessary," Magnus grinned as he watched her attentively sign she loved pottery, art, and painting.

"You got all the signs right," Magnus promised before she could even ask, "but you look angry. I know you're just concentrating, but try to relax. Facial features matter, it's a very expressive language. Take a breath, you know those, try again."

She took a deep breath, shook out her hands, and then looked him in the eyes and smiled, her face alighting with excitement like she was telling him all over again her favorite hobbies were pottery, art, painting, and reading.

"That was, perfect. No notes, I promise!" He insisted before the words were even out of Alex's mouth, or hands, to protest.

Alex laughed with pleasure, and Magnus was guilty for a beat he wasn't actually deaf while he got the joy of hearing such a thing.

"Hearth is going to be astounded when we get back," Magnus grinned in that dopey way he didn't even seem to realize made him look so open and happy. "Just meeting someone else who can sign even a little, it'll make his day."

"Then show me another," Alex said, shaking out her hands eagerly.

His mind went blank, and not in the usual 'Alex just blew my mind by existing' kind of way. "I, um, don't think I know anymore," he confessed, feeling like he should use the sign for embarrassment himself now. "I haven't been doing this all that long myself. I'm sure I'll sporadically remember more, but um, without him around to practice with," he trailed off sheepishly.

"That's cool, maybe we can get that fridge to cough up an ASL book or something so we can keep practicing," she tried to sign fridge, cough, and practice while she was speaking, and while she still occasionally got a look of consternation in place while she kept everything in mind, she really was a natural. She was obviously great with her hands, and multitasking.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," he agreed after only a beat of hesitation, but his smile was oddly longing like she was teasing him.

"You know, you haven't shown me a rather important one," she offered. Magnus hadn't brought it up himself since she'd announced it. "Do you know what genderfluid is?"

Magnus's smile looked a little sad now, giving her the answer before he shook his head. "No, and um, I'll be honest, I don't think there is one."

Alex raised a brow in surprise, more confused than offended, for now.

"Not everything in ASL has a sign," Magnus tried to explain. "It's not exactly a universal language, and, some of it is just used in local communities." He probably wasn't doing that good a job. "Like, like slang, but, more specific to signing cultures."

"Like my name," Alex repeated.

"Right, a deaf person has to actually give you your sign name. Hearth's not genderfluid, that I know of anyways, but, we were hanging at a community center once and I saw a flag and tried to ask him about it and he wasn't sure of some signs himself for the whole LGBT plus of it all as we tried to communicate," Magnus nodded.

"Hmm, guess that'll just be something else to work on," Alex said, the interest in her tone unfakeable.

Magnus's heart skipped a beat as he realized what they'd been doing. Talking about the future, like hanging out at that community center one day. She hadn't batted an eye to hear him say that either. "Hey, can I ask-" then Percy and Thalia entered, eating and laughing, and he lost his nerve.

He'd swear he saw her at a soup kitchen once. Maybe. Out of the corner of his eye. Alex wasn't a face easily forgotten. Yet to say that exposed him for what he was, unless it was even worse and she had been there volunteering or something.

Jason came in with Will and Nico, all three of them shuffling cards and muttering together with smirks on their faces like they were doing something they weren't supposed to be and knew they were about to get caught. Probably by Percy biting his tongue against calling them nerds.

Who wasn't paying them much mind for now. Once he registered everyone was in here he went over to the blood red book that had an orange five on the spine. The color disturbed Percy as he picked it up. He'd had many an injury over time, and a part of him wondered if he'd had his life drained out of him and put into these creepy things.

Heaving a sigh as he went to flop into his beanbag beside Thalia, he watched her for a few moments, who was watching the trio over there nerd out about stats and critical chances and defenses.

She had that look on her face again. Indulgent, excited. The feeling nagged in the back of Percy's mind why it reminded him of Chiron watching over practices when they weren't exactly over there doing anything spectacular.

"Hey guys," Percy finally interrupted. "I'm exhausted, and now I want my food coma, but Thalia insisted we should at least start the next one."

She shrugged without remorse. An innate sense in her told the moon wasn't very high in the sky yet, and more than that, she couldn't imagine what horrors to expect even before the battle began which would be awful enough to get through. Best to at least split up some of this chaos.

They broke off, some more eager than others. Will looked like he was dragging himself to his seat by force, Nico muttering something to him with a look of concern.

Jason flopped into his cushion beside Thalia and began showing her some of his new cards. She smiled and nodded politely with completely forced enthusiasm, but she obviously wasn't going to be the one to shove him off so Percy began with a feeling of unease that holographic tentacle monster was going to appear any second down here.

I GO CRUISING WITH EXPLOSIVES

He stopped at once with a groan.

"Well, Percy's to young to join the navy, so that's out," Alex chuckled.

"I'm hoping he finally found a way to blow up Luke's ship!" Jason said excitedly, it was the only cruise ship that needed blowing up.

Will winced so visibly Jason startled in concern what he could have said. Was it possible the Camp somehow hijacked a Caribbean cruise and it got sabotaged?

Percy tried to keep going without his voice shaking, but it was hard. He wished he wasn't the reason Thalia, Will, and Nico couldn't just tell them all what happened in the least awful way possible, but the fact was the details, the slow trickle of information was the only way he could filter in everything without his head exploding in pain. This wasn't Jason's fault for his ignorance, it was his, whatever he'd caused to make Will wince like that, of that he was instinctively positive about.

The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.

"I knew the others had to be jealous of Blackjack," Will chuckled like nothing had happened, "they're over there trying to enforce your attention now."

Nico knew better. He'd been watching the way Will studied the cards and building ideas in his head. He had a pretty good poker face when he needed it, probably from to much time in the infirmary keeping the panic off his face not to scare the kids.

He was doing that now, hiding well from Percy how badly this was going to go. Nico had tried to ask him what happened, but he'd only shook his head with a look of nausea. Whatever this was, it was bad enough Will didn't want to lightly share it and have Percy, or anyone, suffer the answer to early. He spent so much of his time carrying and worrying about everyone else, Nico was beginning to suspect if he needed his own advice thrown back at him about repressing all of this alone. Will was the only one here who really knew every awful thing that had gone on at camp because he'd been there for it all. He and Thalia had only heard of tidbits in their comings and goings.

Percy had kept reading after a mild laugh, but Nico kept watching Will for a few paragraphs more.

Up until then, I was having a great afternoon.

"Well now we know the end of the world is on nigh!" Magnus grinned.

"I've had a few pleasant weeks at camp," Percy tried to protest, but he felt how untrue that was. Every good memory he'd slowly gained back had a hollow feel to it, a sense of finality. He knew he'd better savor those while they lasted, because he never knew if he'd get another.

Technically ...didn't turn sixteen for another week... let Rachel an I borrow his Prius.

"Woah, woah, woah, what was this?" Alex twirled her hand and cuffed it to her ear like a trumpet.

"Yeah, Paul's a cool guy like that," Percy tried to say nonchalantly around a blush.

But Percy didn't have an ounce of chalance in his body, and Thalia's laughter ruined it anyways. "You and Rachel were driving around the beach in your step-dad's car? Oh Zeus, where was the Beach Boy's soundtrack?"

"It wasn't a T-Bird Thalia," Percy groaned.

"Because that was the important detail to focus on," Jason gave Percy a pitying shake of his head he wasn't going to get out of this.

Not for lack of trying, as Percy loudly attempted to keep going a few more words like this was nothing out of the ordinary. The briny salt in the air that made his skin tingle with power, the feel of the engine under his feet like he'd only dreamed of being in control of, Rachel's hair getting everywhere as they laughed about last week and the art museum she'd taken him to. She'd been trying to tell him about The Persistence of Memory, but all he'd seen were a bunch of melting clocks and told her they needed some ice cream. Rachel had tried not to laugh, he'd leaned forward and threatened to lick the painting to see which would go best, and they were chased off by security.

A normal, mortal security guard who just shouted about rambunctious kids. No monsters. A perfect day. Like the many before.

The vivid memory drowned out the rest of their snickering so he could keep going in almost peace for another second.

... I know you're thinking, that was really irresponsible of him, blah, blah,

"Literally nobody thought that," Nico snorted.

"Which clearly means we need some adult supervision in here," Thalia rolled her eyes so hard it looked like it hurt.

...My dad, by the way, is Poseidon.

"Shocker! Percy, why didn't you ever tell us!" Will snorted.

"You know me, I'd forget the difference between Chiron and Charon again if I didn't live with one of them half the year," Percy shrugged.

He can do stuff like that.

"But would he?" Alex asked in concern. "I'd hope he'd have better things to do than worry about your date."

"It's not a date!" Percy spluttered at once...yet to his own ears that sounded like a lie. Even in his own memory he'd felt the unspoken that had nothing to do with his other half of being a half-blood, which had not happened since he'd lived with Smelly Gabe. Things with Rachel were just, normal. Uncomplicated. Rachel's favorite person in the world hadn't sold his soul to an evil Titan and was threatening to eviscerate him or anything. Little things like that.

...so why did he feel so guilty for remembering all of this with such deep longing?

... Rachel's folks were willing to let me tag along to the Caribbean.

'One man's frozen pizza is another man's Caribbean,' Magnus shook his head. The fact that Percy had a loving family to fight for made his life seem as fantastical to Magnus as Rachel's did to him. Rachel Dare was in a different stratosphere of his understanding altogether.

... I seriously needed a vacation. This summer had been the hardest of my life.

Percy shivered as memories crept into him.

...I was "on call" for a mission... when I turned sixteen, bad things would happen.

"And where better for them to happen than far away from everyone you know and care about?" Alex offered.

"Tempting," Percy admitted. He just knew he'd never go through with it, no more than he'd be able to stay on Ogyigya.

... "I know the timing is bad, isn't it always bad for you?" She had a point.

"Which I'm sure Rachel knows full well," Will chuckled, even if he did wish she were here to laugh about Percy having to admit it.

...she'd earned my respect by nailing him in the eye with a blue hairbrush.

"Only because it's blue," Nico rolled his eyes. "I bet if it was red you'd call it a lucky shot."

"You wound me Nico, I have plenty of admiration for the throw no matter my team colors," Percy grinned.

Thalia finally managed to give a half-hearted chuckle when the others did too. She still pictured Luke first, and she hated that about herself, but it was clearly the same thing her little sister had been going through back then and she wanted to be stronger for it in case Annabeth didn't take well to the news of what they'd been revisiting once they got out of this.

... He wants me to go to Clarion Ladies Academy in the fall."

"Is their uniform better or worse than Goode's?" Alex asked in disgust.

"Really shouldn't be basing school choices on that Alex," Magnus sighed.

"Well obviously her opinion matters most," she sniffed, "I'm just saying, there's obviously a lesser of two evils here."

...Can you see me in finishing school?"

"Learning which direction to cross your legs and which fork to use?" If Thalia crinkled her nose up any more she'd look like a pug. "I'd fail etiquette class on purpose by stabbing the first person who tried to teach me a new name for spoon."

"They wouldn't even have to be a monster," Percy agreed.

...It was hard to imagine her learning to be a socialite.

"I mean, has she tried both?" Will asked in sympathy. He knew she was currently at that school and had made some friends, even if it wasn't her favorite place. "Being a socialite would be a better guarantee to make changes for those Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers."

"She shouldn't have to have money to make a difference," Alex grumbled, even though she knew that was how it worked.

... "He thinks if he does a bunch of nice stuff for me, I'll feel guilty and give in."

Alex felt like her stomach was going to rebel in disgust at hearing of this manipulation. She might have been thrown out of her home, but she'd never looked back for reasons exactly like this. She couldn't take fake niceties anymore, pretending and pandering and worse.

...so serious we'd have to go to St. Thomas to talk about it?"

Percy felt instant guilt for understanding why that would be as his mind hovered on the absurdly awkward conversation she wanted to have out of their home state. He'd found it easier over those past weeks to talk to Rachel about camp than he ever had with somebody in camp.

...something was bothering her, but she put on a brave smile...sunlight made her hair look like fire.

Percy had never before felt such a painful combination of embarrassment and longing. How was it possible his memories with her were easier to come back than anything involving Annabeth?

The time she convinced him to paint his nails blue, and he left it like that until it chipped off. The first time he'd been over to her place and she actually swung from a chandelier in one of the seven dining rooms they had and Percy had felt like he was in a drunken dream doing this for fun instead of in Antaeus's tournament. Just walking around New York, eating every kind of pretzel man could make and laughing about a movie they'd seen. Being able to teach someone else something for a change, as she'd managed to go a whole block without falling off his skateboard.

He wanted to slam this book shut and tell all of them to butt out, but thankfully there wasn't a judgemental face in sight. Thalia just looked very, very awkward, he couldn't imagine what she'd want to say to him, or Annabeth, or Rachel right now, but it seemed she'd be staying out of it, mercifully.

... remind myself that the mortal world was still out there... monsters using me as a punching bag.

Nico winced like he'd been called out. Being in here really made that seem obvious, especially the way Percy read it with that longing in his voice for something normal he'd been lacking in here, when this was the closest thing to normal Nico had ever really experienced.

... what would it take to get the stupid guy to kiss the girl, huh?"

"A song number by a Jamaican crab, a boat ride, and even then I don't think he'll take a hint," Jason snorted.

"You can't remember your own last name but you're over here making Little Mermaid references at me?" Percy asked in betrayal. He couldn't be the only clueless guy who didn't know how to act on these things?!

"You make it to easy Perce," Jason snorted.

"Oh-" I felt like one of Apollo's sacred cows; slow, dumb, and bright red. "Um-"

That at least earned a snicker of delight from the assembled group. Percy sighed but let them laugh as long as they liked. He had a horrible feeling lurking in him the idea of humor was living on borrowed time. A feeling strong enough that he was already having to concentrate against bending the water to his will, throwing it around with all his might to get out of here and escape something that had nothing to do with Rachel wanting him to kiss her, though that seemed like reason enough to him.

... Rachel didn't hide much. She let you know how she felt.

Thalia clenched her jaw tight to stop herself reminding Percy it wasn't Annabeth's fault she was so protective of her feelings, after all the times she'd been hurt. She could understand Percy's ease with Rachel, but she still wanted to defend her sister shouldn't be dismissed so quick either.

It wasn't her place...but she worried what would happen if this kept progressing. She didn't want Percy's mind to come out of this, still vulnerable and confused and to break Annabeth's heart again. It would be her place to kick his ass if he did that, but she couldn't sit here and tell him not to fall in love with someone from his past if he felt like he'd made the wrong decision of this-

She was snapped out of her reverie by Jason whispering gently, "stop freaking out Thals, you're not in this alone."

She nodded with slight embarrassment. She did keep thinking about this in her own scope. She'd been taking care of her for so long, it was an instinct that was hard to let go that other people could look out for her best interests too. She kept trying to hold that idea in mind that's why Jason was even alive when he should have been dead all this time, somebody out there had been taking care of him.

...Hey, boss, a voice said in my head. Nice car!

"I think Blackjack has successfully saved your hide more than you have his," Magnus said. "Maybe you should start calling him boss."

"Pass," Percy frowned, his mind still stuck on a loop of Rachel smiling at him like that.

... I didn't think my stepdad would be real stoked.

"I bet he takes it to use as a learning opportunity with you," Will offered almost sincerely. "Don't change lanes in intersections, hit the breaks if you can't see their tires, don't let horses land here, all those important lessons."

"I'm just glad that car wasn't a stick, I had enough stress adjusting those mirrors," Percy gave an exaggerated shiver.

...who was riding on his back, and I knew my day was about to get a lot more complicated.

"Annabeth?" Alex asked with only the kind of amusement she could, the chaotic I want to see the world burn kind.

"No," Percy sighed in relief. Gods, for the first time he was grateful she wasn't here. He felt like he was stuck in a twister of every emotion at once.

Charles Beckendorf,

"Oh yeah, the guy that jumped on a dragon's back," Magnus said with all the confidence of one who should have a therapist on speed dial.

"How's that dragon doing?" Jason asked excitedly, only making Magnus's fingers twitch more. He didn't even own a cellphone.

"Doing pretty good actually," Percy said in his own surprise. "He hasn't eaten one camper, he's great border patrol and likes to bring Peleus monster scraps."

"Because that's a normal standard," Magnus sighed. It hurt all the more because he wouldn't believe even Mr. D had met that standard if every camper tried to convince him so.

...would make most monsters cry for their mommies.

"I bet Echidna actually appreciates it when they come over to visit and vent, she should send him a gift basket," Nico chuckled. He felt Will flinch and looked around in surprise, but it still took a few moments to click why. He didn't know the names of the kids around camp very well, but he did remember the sparse few that lingered when they died. Beckendorf had been one of them, seen by him alone. His essence just needed a little guidance to move on, he'd had a lot of unfinished business there.

Oh. Now he finally managed to link together the spiral Will wouldn't shake out of. This very well might finally be the mission Beckendorf didn't come back from.

...took out a whole legion of Kronos's evil meanies as soon as the first harpy went flush.

"Monsters use the bathroom?" Magnus really, really kept expecting for these things to sound normal eventually, but here was yet another brick to his shattered reality.

"Sure, all those demigods they eat have to come out somewhere," Percy shrugged. "They were all in this Thai buffet restaurant when we snuck in to put the bomb in place, and ooh boy, you do not want to know what in the sweet and sour beef they smelled like coming out. We did a public service that day."

Magnus absolutely had not wanted a single one of those extra details.

...His explosives bag was slung over his shoulder.

"He has a whole bag for explosives?" Alex grinned.

Percy couldn't answer. The words lodged in his throat. He couldn't laugh along and promise to keep that way from Alex, he couldn't even breathe for a moment as his skin flushed as if with a spontaneous sunburn. Wrong, wrong, wrong, something was very wrong...

Thalia finally got his attention by shocking him a little harder than she should have, but he barely felt it and didn't even notice his hair standing on end. He looked at her and then back at the book with a deep pit of dread that kept growing wider the longer he forced himself to read, like Kronos was manifesting Tartarus inside him.

...We'd been planning for weeks, but I'd half hoped it would never happen.

"I'm starting to suspect Saturn messes with your time stream or something," Jason admitted. "Just yours, making your hours and weeks skip."

Percy frowned how that might be possible and he'd never know it. Just because Ares was the only god who had cursed him to his face didn't mean the others wouldn't trickle some in.

... Percy's told me- uh, he mentioned you." Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really? Good."

"Is it though?" Magnus asked in concern. He liked Rachel, the more he got to know about her the more he liked her, but all he could picture was Annabeth shoving her straw up Rachel's nose and worse if this kept escalating with Percy never taking a hint.

"I thought so," Percy sounded defensive. Beckendorf and Silena had been going strong through the summer, their dates escalating past where Percy wanted to hear, but Beckendorf had been worried about her pulling away recently. She vanished for hours and got really quiet when she came back and then would go days back to her normal, happy, bubbly self.

Percy had made himself an easy ear. He felt the exact same way about Annabeth, it had been easy to commiserate together while staking out locations. Rachel had come up sporadically, what they'd been up to, what plans they had made next, how he wished it was this easy with Annabeth and all the mixed, beaten, whirlwind emotions he constantly had.

He glanced miserably at all the books they had to go. He hoped nothing happened to Beckendorf while he wasn't there to watch his back, he felt like he had just as much to unload while it all simmered in his mind fresh as ever.

... I figured this might be the last time Paul loaned me his car.

"I wouldn't bet on that," Thalia chuckled. He and Sally were so generous it was unreal, he'd offered Thalia his car to take her fellow Hunter to the hospital when they'd shown up until she explained they just needed a safe space for a few moments.

... Rachel kissed me before I could even react. "Go kill some monsters for me."

Percy tried to read past that as fast as he could, but he knew his stuttering, blushing, tongue-tied words only caused them to laugh harder rather than their blank faces would have lasted. He was half surprised nobody made a crack about him having to blow up a volcano to get there with her, but Posideon himself must have stepped in to stop that happening.

...what Rachel wanted to talk to me about, and whether I'd live long enough to find out.

Percy was quickly losing faith in his mortality as he tried to garble through that with as much confidence as he could. For all he knew he'd been chucked into this room and Rachel had been looking forward to having that conversation at the bottom of the ocean and he'd somehow botched that too!

..."Oh, gods," I muttered. "Don't even think about it."

"Tell Annabeth what?" Annabeth said from the doorway.

PJOPJOPJO

Or, I guess I shoud have said, the scene you've all been waiting for. Yeah, that sounds better.

See you all on Monday!

#pjo #hoo #Percy Jackson #Jason Grace #Thalia Grace #nico di angelo #will solace #alex fierro #magnus chase #percabeth #solangelo #fierrochase

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