𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 - jason grace

00. MAIA & JASON

𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑠
𝑎ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓'𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐌Í𝐑𝐄𝐙 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐉𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍. She knew, the moment she'd laid her eyes on him, that she was a goner. He was gorgeous, with bright blue eyes that stared straight into her soul, pretty blonde hair that was trimmed perfectly every time she saw him, and a small scar on his lip, that reminded her he wasn't always this perfect leader everyone would look up to, he was human, too. And she loved that about him.

She tried to avoid falling in love with him, she really did. Everyone else already had, and she didn't want to have to deal with the same feelings of rejection and sadness each time he would be oblivious to others' advances. Especially when he'd probably fail to realize her own.

When she first got to camp, at twelve, she'd hated his guts. He was too perfect, too well-mannered, too good at literally everything. It irked her. She'd refused to even look in his direction, because she knew she'd want to punch his perfect face. She had to admit though, he was really pretty. Like, really really pretty. But to her, he'd probably be a jerk. There was no way someone that popular and that attractive would be kind. She was so wrong.

Jason saw her, really saw her. He didn't care that she wasn't the perfect child of Fortuna everybody at camp expected her to be. He didn't care that she didn't inherit the lucky genes all her siblings had. He didn't care that she was a walking catastrophe.

When Maia was twelve and a half, Jason Grace came up to her, sat down, and talked to her. Something nobody other than Reyna, or probably Dakota, had ever wanted to do before, since she'd been claimed and exposed for her... unluckiness. She'd warned him. She remembered her exact words, too.

"Jason Grace, mister perfect himself. What are you doing? You should leave before someone catches you, maybe they'll start hating you too." And, jokingly, he stood up to leave. But she didn't let him, because, deep down, she wanted him to stay. She'd never admit to it, though.

"Actually, wait, stay, it'll be funny if they started giving you the stink eye."

And he smiled, a genuine smile, at her words. "I don't care. You seem really cool, and we're in the same cohort. I don't care about what everyone else has to say, I want to get to know you myself."

And so, she gave the boy a chance, making what would become the best decision of her four and a half years in Camp Jupiter.

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𝐀𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍, 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐀 𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐉𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄. The fifth would usually loose the war games, but they were okay with that. It would often be an easy victory for the other cohorts, save for their one on one fights with Jason. Maia was usually posted as far away from the flag as possible, but close enough to the other team's entrance point that if something bad were to happen, it wouldn't affect her side. And something bad did happen.

Maia had been in countless war games before, she'd encountered defeat after defeat after defeat, but that never made her want to quit. In fact, it drove her to want to win. She'd love to see the look on Octavian's face when he realized the first had lost.

Everything was going as it normally did, her cohort was loosing. Badly. So, in contrast to her previous drive to win the games, Maia got bored. She wasn't really paying attention, her mind was everything but the games. On what she'd eat tonight, on the book she had waiting for her in her bed, on Jason's beautiful sky blue eyes. She wanted to be anywhere but here. And that was her downfall.

She should've known something was going to happen, bad luck followed her wherever. Once, she accidentally got Jason to electrocute himself in the middle of their spar, she still had no idea how she'd done it, but she knew it was a product of her parentage. Luck had two sides, good and bad, so it shouldn't be as surprising as it was that one of the luck goddess' children would carry what would usually be at the bottom of the wheel. Her existence served as a catalyst to a series of unfortunate events. But she usually wasn't the recipient of said bad luck.

She was too in her head to realize that she was seconds away from being skewered alive, if it weren't for Jason Grace saving her. It was with a start, that she realized, Jason was there for her when nobody else cared. And even though they'd already been friends, and she knew he was really cute, it was at that moment, when she gazed deeply into his eyes, that she realized she was falling in love with Jason Grace, so much harder than she'd initially thought.

Jason had stayed awake with her that night, making sure she was alright. She assured him countless times that she was okay. That it was thanks to him that she wasn't hurt, and that she really was doing fine. From then on, it kind of became a thing for them, to stay up talking, exchanging stories of their childhoods and different moments at camp, and check up on each other. They'd grown closer, and they would continue to do so for the next year, until 'close' wasn't close enough.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐉𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄, after the camp's victory at Mount Tam. Jason had run straight into Maia's arms when they'd been declared victorious. He spun her around and brought her close to him, their noses touching. He had set her down gently, still looking into her eyes. Her cheeks were tinged pink, and she was thinking this was it. Of course, it wasn't.

Her biggest nightmare, Octavian, had come to "congratulate" Jason on their victory, and before he could tell him to go away, Jason was being raised praetor on the spot. Maia, awkward as ever, clapped, of course, but she really just wanted to curl up and die. She was embarrassed.

She figured, if Jason had really wanted to kiss her, they'd get another chance. But, they didn't. For the next two months, they'd acted the same around each other. Well, almost the same. There was a weird tension between them, not an uncomfortable one, but it was definitely noticeable. Lingering touches, soft compliments, brushes of hands, all things that would usually be normal for them, but weren't. There was so much behind each action, Maia was afraid she'd combust on the spot.

She and Jason followed their regular routine, though. Morning walks by the Gardens of Bacchus, weekly hot chocolate sessions, and deep talks at three in the morning. Everything would be fine, Maia decided, because, even if she was going crazy knowing how close she was to Jason, she still had him, and that would suffice. Maybe, she couldn't be with him like she'd dreamed, but if she could have him in her life, she'd be okay. Everything would be okay.

Little did she know, that Jason would disappear overnight, without a trace, and fall victim to an amnesia gifted by none other than the goddess Juno, leaving behind a trail of blazing fire turned to ashes in Camp Jupiter, namely, Maia Ramírez.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

a glimpse into maia and jason's relationship, before the chaos starts <3