Climb (Percy Jackson x Reader)

thirty-seven

✺ PIECES OF HISTORY ✺

"Are you sure about this?" Reyna asks, handing (Y/N) her sword. The daughter of Persephone nods, sheathing the weapon along her back before sliding her daggers into their sheaths at her hips and thighs.

"I am," she says, offering a smile to ease Reyna's disappointment. "I know it's come quickly, but even staying through today has felt too long."

With a sigh, Reyna pulls (Y/N) into a hug. She nestles her head in the crook of (Y/N)'s neck, squeezing briefly.

As she returns the embrace, (Y/N) realizes something familiar in the daughter of Bellona's hold. It was how Annabeth would nuzzle against her shoulder, how Grover would tighten his arms around her waist—how her closest friends would say goodbye when they didn't know the next time they'd meet.

Reyna had always been a friend. But after every ordeal they'd been through together, (Y/N) isn't surprised to find herself thinking of their relationship as something a bit more dear. They had each fought alongside the other, learning how to support and defend each effort of attack or retreat. They were warriors, bound together by a sort of duty that had strengthened into a link of companionship.

And it shocks (Y/N) to realize that although Camp Jupiter had never been her home, she was still going to miss it.

A knock on the cohort's doorframe draws the girls' attention, and they break away from their hug. Gold-tinged clouds accentuate Jason's frame as he steps forward.

"You have everything?" he asks, glancing at the backpack that waits on a bunk bed.

(Y/N) nods. She glances at Reyna, feeling her chest tighten with apprehension and a hint of sorrow.

But then Jason opens his arms. And she feels her regret weaken.

She would speak to Chiron. She would find a way to bring the camps together. It was what they deserved: Jason had found Thalia, yet there were so many who didn't even know that more half-bloods—friends, allies, families—were out there.

She would fight for that boy who had no protector; she would fight against the future that stripped life from her home; and she would fight for these people who didn't know everything else they could strive for.

"Good luck," Jason says, pulling back and squeezing her shoulders, "with whatever you end up doing."

She chuckles. "I'll keep you updated," she returns. Noticing Reyna shift in her periphery, she adds, slyly: "About any developments."

Jason smiles. His eyes twinkle happily behind his glasses.

"All right, then," he says, dropping his arms back to his sides. "We should let you get going. To maximize whatever time you need."

(Y/N) grabs her backpack while expressing her thanks. Reyna holds the door open while they exit the cohort, and (Y/N)'s tension eases at the empty camp they walk into.

"We didn't tell anyone," Reyna explains, her expression satisfied at (Y/N)'s visible relief. "It's a lot—to have that much attention. We get it."

"Thank you," (Y/N) says, her genuine smile a somewhat foreign feeling. "And good luck with everything."

Jason rolls his eyes. "Take it back."

Reyna laughs. "You need it more than we do," she tells (Y/N), nodding towards the tree line. "Go on. Be safe."

A bubble of amusement rises in (Y/N)'s chest. She offers the praetors her two-fingered salute, dipping into her power and feeling it weave through her system.