PJO/HoO Around the Campfire

Chapter 31: The Whole Truth

September 12, 2021

"Hey," Leo said, dragging out the word, as he walked up to Piper who was sitting in the arena watching a sparring match between two demigods. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"What do you want to talk about, Leo? How you got mad at me when I was just trying to help you?" Piper responded without looking away from the fight.

"Well, yes actually, do you think we could go somewhere private?"

Finally she looked at him, and sighed out, "fine," then she turned to where a group of older demigods were standing and called out, "Annabeth, can you take over for me?"

Leo hadn't even seen Annabeth but she walked over and nodded at Piper, she didn't say anything to Leo but he noticed she wasn't overly cold with him either.

Piper walked past Leo, in the same fashion as the night before, and Leo had no choice but to follow her this time. She led him to the edge of the woods and Leo can't help but note the irony of that.

"Okay, talk."

"Alright, I wanted to apologise for last night, I shouldn't have said what I said, it really wasn't my place."

"You're right, it wasn't your place. And you were completely wrong, I don't even know why you got so mad."

"You got mad at me first." Leo didn't want to argue right now, he wanted to apologize. But he wasn't going to let this slide, it wasn't his fault.

"I had a right to get mad, you were insulting me."

"And you were being annoying." Piper almost laughed at Leo's words.

"You were being annoying!" Piper took a step back, "you know what, I can't do this right now, come back to me when you're ready to apologize for real.

"No, I don't think I have to. In fact, I think it's you that owes me an apology."

"Can you believe that? I just walked off after that, I couldn't stand him anymore." Piper said after she finished recounting their second fight to Annabeth, Jason, and Percy, who she had dragged into the big house.

Annabeth looked over at Jason just as he looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

Piper noticed. "What? What was that look for?"

Annabeth jumped in before Jason could tell her. "Maybe if you told us more details about the first fight we could help you, you haven't actually told us what he said."

Piper didn't say anything for a moment, wondering if she should have left Jason out of this meeting.

"Piper, we just want to help you, but I think you need to take a step back and think about this rationally," Percy said in a calm tone.

There was a moment where no one said anything, Piper having a whole battle in her head. Finally she said, "I'm being dumb about this, arent I?"

"Yep," they all said in unison.

"Jeez, do I actually need to apologise to him?"

Annabeth spoke again, "if you tell us what you said in the first fight we can tell you if we think you need to."

So Piper told them about the first fight, keeping it vague, and definitely not telling them the thing Leo said that hurt her the most, not with Jason there.

By the end of the story Annabeth knew she had been right to question Piper. "Piper, you idiot!"

"I know, I know. I should go apologise. But what if he gets mad again?"

"We'll go talk to him first, be at the dock in half an hour," Percy said.

Piper sat on the dock with her feet in the water while she waited for Leo.

"Hey, um, Percy told me to meet you out here." His voice was quiet and he wasn't sure if Piper had even heard him as he sat down beside her on the dock.

"Yeah, I asked him to because... well, I messed up earlier," Piper said and then quickly added, "but so did you."

Leo took a shaky breath. "Yeah, I really did, and I'm so sorry."

"Me too, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, either of the times. I got irritated with you and then it escalated to anger and then I was just being stubborn."

He laughed, "yeah, you and being stubborn, never heard that before. Anyway, I shouldn't have acted so childish, it wasn't fair to you that I said what I said."

Piper didn't say anything right away, if she was getting an apology he had to be mature enough to actually admit to what he said. "Could you be a little more specific?"

"Um, when I said your feelings for Jason were made up."

Piper had asked for this, so why did it still sting just as much as the first time he said it?

Leo continued speaking to fill the silence. "I overstepped, it wasn't my place to say that to you, and I really am sorry."

"Wait, hold on. Do you think it's true?"

"Um... I mean, I don't know anything for sure."

Piper scoffed. "I can't believe it. You really hate me don't you." She started to pull her feet out of the water but Leo grabbed her forearm.

"Please wait, I don't want to fight with you anymore." This only produced a sour expression on her face. "How I view your relationship with Jason will obviously be different from how you view it, I only have an outsider's perspective. I'm only saying this as your best friend because I don't want you, OR HIM, to get hurt. If you tell me it isn't true right now, I'll never bring it up again. I promise."

Piper sighed and sat back down fully. "It's not true." She said between clenched teeth, her eyes stung but she didn't want to start crying.

"Okay," he held up his hands, "it's dropped."

Piper lied down on the dock, letting her anger wash away as a wave crashed against her shins. "I hate fighting with you," she admits.

"Ugh, me too." Leo lies down beside her and entwines their fingers together.

Piper held Leo's hand as they looked up at the stars, both done with fighting. They had reconciled and they were fine now. But that didn't stop the tears from falling down the sides of Piper's face and getting caught in her hair.

They stayed there the rest of the night, Piper silently crying and Leo not noticing, until they fell asleep under the stars.

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