the great wave | percy jackson

𝑥 - asphodel

"What is that?" Jason asked accusingly.

Ash blinked at him, mystified, mind still drowning in morning fog. For some unfathomable reason, she'd woken up miserably early, stumbling into the mess hall in search of coffee just to find Jason downing espressos like shots instead. They'd grabbed breakfast and watched the sunrise, something they often used to do together at camp but hadn't in a good while, and it was nice to spend some time with him. He took the opportunity to apologize about the Nico thing, which they talked about for a while afterwards, and he actually ended up being really helpful about it. Plus, after having gotten that whole kiss mess off her chest with Percy, it'd felt easier to be around him, somehow; the energy in their friendship had been off since the boys had met. Anyways, Ash was just glad to have her best friend back. In all honesty, when they were younger, she'd always been a little jealous of Annabeth and Percy's relationship; sure they were all best friends, but there's a difference, you know, between your best friends and your best friend. There was Grover, of course, but they'd always been more like siblings...

She was getting distracted. Back to the situation at hand.

"What's what?" She asked, clueless.

"That," he jabbed a finger at her neck.

Ash knew immediately what he must be talking about. She hurriedly dropped her hands from where they'd been attempting to tame her uncooperative hair into a bun, allowing her black curls to cover her neck once more and mentally cussing her boyfriend out. She'd even explicitly picked a shirt with a fairly high neck to avoid this, but apparently the fucking mural of hickies Percy decided to paint last night extended higher than she thought. And lower too– Jason poked her teasingly in the belly and she looked down to see the edge of a rather large and inconveniently placed bruise peeking above her waistband. And were those bite marks? When in Hades had he managed to do that?

"Uhhhh... vampire?" She answered, blushing ferociously, trying not to meet his eyes. Jason had to set his cup of coffee down on the railing beside hers because he was laughing so hard.

"Jase," she whined, fanning herself in a desperate attempt to cool her flaming cheeks.

"Don't worry," he grinned conspiratorially. He pulled down the neck of his T-shirt to reveal similar patches of lovebites spreading all across his collarbone and chest.

"Jason Grace!" She exclaimed, jaw dropping as she examined his skin closely. "Holy Hephaestus. Definitely more than I have," she pouted.

"Piper got bored," he shrugged, then smirked, crossing his arms smugly. "What can I say? One of our girlfriends just loves us more, I guess."

"Our girlfriends?" She snorted loudly.

"You heard me," he asserted, trying to contain the chuckles escaping his lips.

"Well, I can assure you that's not true. Percy is very good at showing exactly how much he loves me," she smirked before leaning in to whisper something in his ear.

"Nononono!" He shrieked, covering his ears with his hands and shaking his head violently. "No thank you! Did not need to know!"

Ash leaned back against the railing, pleased with the results. "Baby," she mocked him with a laugh.

"Which is what you're going to get if you aren't careful, young lady," Jason wagged his finger in her face, Chiron impression significantly worse than Leo's. The two of them burst into fits of laughter.

Needless to say, Piper and Leo were a bit surprised to come up above deck to find the two technically most seasoned veterans aboard the ship giggling together like schoolgirls.