After taking Annabeth aside and telling her to go see Leo to help him with something Jason walked back to stand at the door. Percy was on the other side and it was up to Jason to apologize to him.
Jason frowned. Leo had said not to lay it on too thick and Piper had said he was pretty nice and would forgive him easily but Jason wasn't sure. The look in Percy's eyes had been well guarded, almost hostile and a little fearful. Jason knew that mentioning Luke would have set him off but he didn't expect Percy to still be afraid of the idea of him.
It made Jason wonder what he didn't know about the history between the son of Poseidon and the son of Hermes; but that wasn't why he was there. He was just raising his hand to knock on the door when it swung open.
There stood Percy Jackson, leaning on the door, arms crossed, looking the same as he did this morning but there was a look of distrust and distaste on his face. It was also guarded; and behind Percy there was the shattered remains of what looked like a mirror.
"If you're here to annoy me some more feel free to jump off of this boat, or else I'll kick you off myself." Percy said, and there was a hardness to his voice that made Jason have to repress a shudder.
Jason looked at the demigod in front of him and he could see the way Percy tensed when he saw Jason studying him.
"You know if you break a mirror you're supposed to have 7 years of bad luck."
Percy frowned and glanced back, still blocking Jason's way through the doorway. When Percy met his gaze once more he looked beaten.
"Well I don't think my luck can get any worse the way my life is going." There was a tired note in his voice and Jason wondered if he sounded like that too.
Probably. Hazel had once told him that he and Percy had a sadness around them, which wasn't a great compliment.
Jason cleared his throat. "Right, ya..." he trailed off feeling uncomfortable just standing in a hallway where anyone could come and see him. "Look can I come in?"
Percy's eyes became guarded again. "Why should I let you in?"
"Because I have something to say, and I don't want to tell you it from a hallway."
The corners of Percy's mouth twitched up from the grim line they were currently in. An almost smile, maybe this wouldn't be so hard. Without a word Percy stepped aside and Jason walked in, trying not to feel worried about being alone in a confined space with someone who just might be able to kill him.
"OK, so I was a jerk back there-"
"Got that right."
Jason glared at him. "Right, as I was saying, I was a jerk. I came here to apologise. I shouldn't have said any of the things I said, none of them were true. I'm sorry for saying you were an attention seeker because you're not. You're a better leader then I ever could be, and I think you actually know what you're doing. I-" Jason was going to say more, but Percy interrupted again.
"Know what I'm doing? I haven't had a single clue of what I'm doing since I was 12. My life has all been one big question, nothing certain, nothing... nothing permanent." he shook his head. "I have no idea what I'm doing, all I know is I'm going to do anything I can to keep all of you alive and win this war. That's all I know I'm doing."
Now it was Jason's turn to be confused. "Then how do you lead?"
Percy looked at him and there was a twinkle in his eye. "I, my friend, go wherever the current takes me, and do whatever I have to, to survive. I'm more of an improviser then a planner. That's why Annabeth's good for me. She plans, I improvise. It works."
Jason nodded. "Alright then, and speaking of Annabeth, I'm sorry what I said earlier about her and... her and Luke."
Percy stood there for a moment and looked at him. Really looked at him, and Jason could tell he was trying to figure out what he was thinking. It seemed that he did a good job because Percy relaxed and smiled, although it was a little forced. "It's alright, but I think you'd be best to leave that subject alone from now on. Like, forever."
Jason nodded and smiled back at him. "Ya, I was thinking that too. So are you going to talk to Annabeth?"
Percy sighed and sat on a bed. "I should. I suppose it wasn't very nice of me to ignore her like that was it? I mean you don't ignore Piper like that. But let me tell you something Grace. Never insult any of them like that again. I can handle insults to me, but when you insult someone else because you're mad at me? That's wrong and I won't hesitate to call you on it."
Jason nodded quickly. "Got it. I didn't mean to insult them, I mean they're my friends too."
Percy laughed bitterly. "Ya, you just meant to insult me. Look Jason, I'm not the leader of this quest, you are. I don't follow easily, but I will when I have a leader who knows what they're doing. The Romans elected you as Praetor, and I've heard Camp Half-Blood pretty much made sure you took my place there so I'll follow you. Just know that I'm not that easy to be led."
Jason nodded. "But what if I fail?"
This time when Percy smiled it was genuine. "You won't. You have all of us to pick up any slack, and believe me, I know leading is hard; but you'll do a good job. You'll be known as the leader of the hardest demigod quest in history, and if that's not something to be proud of then I don't know what is."
Percy stood and offered Jason a hand. He accepted, and Percy pulled him up and clapped him on the back. "I bet you we have more things in common then you think."
So Percy and Jason walked out of the cabin, and contrary to everyone on the Argo II's belief they did not try to rip out each other's throats again.
In fact they became so close they would classify each other as their brother's. Not just cousins. When they won the war it wasn't just Jason known for leading the demigods, Jason made sure Percy was included as well. He said it was a joint effort between them, and no matter how much Percy tried to deny it Jason turned out to be more stubborn in the matter so he won.
Jason Grace was pretty close to being perfect. But whenever he let his imperfections show, there was always people there to help him, and no one would be able to take those people away.
Authors Note- I know the were co leaders but just pretend Jason was the leader of the quest being the son of Zeus/Jupiter. Anyways hope you enjoyed
