ROMANCE . . . oneshots

♡ bad kind of butterflies ♡

bad kind of butterflies ; teaser of a fic w the same name bc my inspo is v low and this'll probably not fix it but oh well lmao
— warning : dubious content. also this is kinda inspired by a shubble quote though i started writing this before i heard her say it

❝ warnin' me it's a mistake
i just know i gotta make it ❞

KAIYA COULD FEEL Annabeth and Piper's judgmental gazes on her, but she found herself unable to care about their expressions from her current position.

They were on the beach, had been there for nearly the entire day because of the small respite they had today. Kaiya had swam a lot — she loved going swimming; she went with Percy all the time, which made a dull pain bolt through her stomach, but those pangs of pain started lessening with Jason's presence.

Jason. The reason why Piper and Annabeth were looking at Kaiya dubiously. He had one of his arms wrapped around her as she focused on her drawing, her concentrating expression probably really obvious on her face as she outlined and shaded to her heart's content. Or, well, to her inspiration's content.

She could see them out of the corner of her eye, occasionally glancing at her as they talked to Jason about something, but she ignored them. She hadn't had an inspiration strike this strong for a while, and she had to act on it now. She wished she could get her easel and paints to paint this — maybe Jason would get it for her, he's done it before — but she had to strike while the iron's hot, or whatever. Besides, she'd paint it later.

"Kai-Kai," he said quietly, as to not disturb her. She hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't look up from the paper. "What are you drawing?"

"The beach," she explained, though it was really obvious. "Except there's snow."

". . . you know, I should've expected that."

Kaiya laughed, finally looking over from her paper to make eye contact with him. "It's a work in progress; it might be better in a painting but . . . I don't know, I'm kinda hating it the more I look at it."

Jason stared at her. "You think that's bad?" he pointed down at her sketchbook.

"You think what's bad?" Piper asked, drawing Kaiya out of her reality that she and Jason were the only ones to exist in this hellish world.

"This." He took her sketchbook and showed Piper her half-drawn sketch, which made Kaiya pout. You never took a girl's art from her.

"That is pretty," admitted Piper, pointing at a couple of blobs on the drawing. "Is that supposed to be you and Jason?"

Kaiya squinted at her drawing. Actually, it did kinda look like them — wrapped in winter gear, but it was still what she thought to be her and Jason. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, it is."

She saw Piper and Annabeth exchange glances out of the corner of her eye. Jason was none the wiser, so she settled on looking at him instead of at them. She examined his features: his electric blue eyes, the little scar on his lip that Thalia had said he'd gotten from a stapler.

He gave her a sheepish smile. The scar disappeared from his face. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"No," said Kaiya. "Just . . ."

Suddenly, she had an idea. She snagged the sketchbook from his hands, then hunched over it, drawing furiously on it. Faintly, she heard Jason mutter to himself, "Well then."

And that was a productive afternoon for Kaiya. 

* * *

"You missed dinner again."

Annabeth's voice echoed in the art studio that had been built for the Apollo cabin and anyone else who wanted to use it. But it was just Kaiya, considering everyone else was at dinner. That she'd missed.

This time, it wasn't for not being hungry and / or missing Percy; it was because her inspiration was still going strong as she painted the sketch that she'd made earlier today, mixing colors and painting delicate strokes on her canvas.

She turned and brightened at the food Annabeth brought for her. "You got me a shake?"

"You have to eat your dinner too," Annabeth put the plate down on a rare empty space on a stool that was just there.

"Yes, mom," Kaiya grabbed the fork and stabbed her assortment of vegetables with them, stuffing whatever was on her fork in her mouth.

"Jason was worried about you not going," said Annabeth nonchalantly, and Kaiya narrowed her eyes at her food. This girl was up to something.

"Now I feel bad," Kaiya frowned, grabbing her shake and slurping up a giant mouthful to calm her nerves. "I'll make it up to him. I was going to give him this painting as a gift anyway."

Annabeth stared at the mess of colors that was the canvas. "You're really good at that." Then her eyes drifted to the sketch that was propped nearby. "That's the one you were drawing earlier?"

"Yeah." Kaiya had ditched her dinner in favor of continuing her painting.

"You're . . . ice skating?"

"Yeah."

"Like you and Percy do once a month?"

Kaiya was silent at that, nearly brushing an angry yellow stroke on her canvas. She should've known that the shake was a peace offering, or something akin to that.

"Why are you playing this game?" asked Annabeth. "Jason knows he's not in it. So why are you doing it?"

"Jason's the only person keeping me alive," Kaiya snapped.

Annabeth recoiled, standing there, shocked. "Kaiya—"

"You remember how I was after the . . . after escaping Luke." She shivered, suddenly feeling really cold. "The only reason why I didn't die was because Percy saved me. He was always by my bedside, talking to me about what I missed, bringing in my sketchbook and colored pencils and guitar and helped me try to use them again. And he — and I—"

Her voice cracked, thinking about him. Butterflies formed in her stomach, but they weren't the good kind of butterflies when you're nervous about a relationship: these were a bad kind of butterflies.

"You know why I wasn't eating before?" Kaiya asked rhetorically. "It's because Percy was gone. And then I started growing weaker, and I felt like I couldn't do anything. But then Jason came, and he made me feel better. He makes me feel good."

"Because of your curse?" Annabeth frowned.

"Because of who I am," agreed Kaiya, taking her shake and sipping some as she turned back to her canvas. With her free hand, she picked up a new brush and put new paint on her palette because it had dried during her and Annabeth's conversation.

Annabeth took the hint, leaving Kaiya to paint in silence.

❝ lies, tellin' you that i'm alright
tonight, tonight ❞