SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

84 - sister bonding

BRIAR FOUND PIPER in her room after a quick stop to the infirmary to grab a swig of nectar.

Piper was sitting in Briar's pink chair, thumbing through a sketchbook. Buford was in the corner of the room, as if scared of Piper, polishing her armor.

"Coming back to your old roots, huh?" Briar closed the door behind her, walking over to her bed and collapsing on it face first.

"Shut up." Briar felt something hit her, and she turned her head to see her sketchbook next to her. "Your designs are good, though. They've improved."

"Are you telling me that I was bad before?" Briar smirked, propping her elbows up so she could lean her head on it.

"Yes." Piper said seriously.

"I hate you," groaning, Briar threw the sketchbook back at her sister.

"You love me," Piper's smirk was identical to Briar's. It was a little unsettling, but at least Briar didn't have to be the one to see them grin at the same time.

"You fucking wish," Briar huffed, staring at the paintings on the wall that she was facing.

They lapsed into a companionable silence, the only noise Buford scrubbing at Piper's armor. At least, until she spoke.

"Do you have something you need to tell me?" Piper asked, and when Briar looked over at her, shocked, she replied, "I can't believe you forgot that I know you inside and out. Even if we haven't spent a lot of time together."

That was true. Briar forgot how good it felt to have someone who really understood her on the ship. Percy and Annabeth were in Tartarus, Jason was becoming a whole different person, Leo had only known that he was a demigod for six months, and Hazel and Frank didn't understand that well, though Briar's talked to Hazel a couple of times.

Reyna didn't get it. She understood, but she's never been in the situations that Briar has been in. Not that Briar isn't grateful for Reyna, hell yeah she was. But what with Reyna drifting away, and still to this moment she was holding Briar at an arm's length away. Briar didn't know why, but it had something to do with Split.

At least Briar would have Piper. That was something that would never change.

"I met mom," Briar said, looking over at Piper.

She straightened, as if she had just detected danger. "You saw her?"

"Believe it or not, I've seen her twice," Briar said, letting out a bitter laugh before sighing, twiddling her thumbs. "And she hasn't been the nicest to me. In fact, the first time I saw her, she told me to avoid being someone else, then she told me to erase Reyna's memories from seeing me and being kidnapped from a giant."

"That's why Reyna didn't remember anything," Piper frowned. "And why she was lying at the entrance of the tunnel."

"Yeah." Briar swallowed. "Anyway, mom told me that I was one of her favorite children, and that she gave me gifts. That I wasn't claimed because she couldn't claim me twice, because I was claimed at a campfire just after volunteering myself for a death quest."

"Right. You were claimed," Piper mused, leaning back in the chair. "How was that?"

"It was so embarrassing," Briar groaned, closing her eyes to try and shut out that memory, but she couldn't. "I'd just rattled off all of my achievements that I couldn't even remember so I could go on the said death quest — and then bam. I was in a blue dress with a leg slit about as high as my leg."

Piper snickered. "Serves you right."

"Shut your mouth, miss 'I hate dresses, get this abomination off of me.'"