ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

85

REMEMBER WHAT KAT said about Jason and them ignoring the shifty behavior between her and Leo?

Yeah, no, she couldn't avoid that for long. Probably due to the fact that she and Leo were essentially attached to the hip. You'd think that after spending weeks together on an island with only them and Calypso they'd get sick of each other, but it was the complete opposite.

"Rina, can we talk?" Jason asked her. They were in the mess hall, Leo sitting in a chair talking to Hazel. Kat was sitting on Leo's armrest, examining the circlet that Calypso had made her. Jason and Piper were standing over her, and she was pointedly not looking at them.

"Yeah." She didn't move, still staring at the circlet. When they didn't move, she finally made eye contact with them, raising her eyebrows. "We can say anything in public, babe. Everyone here's basically my bestie." She gestured around, as basically everyone was in the mess hall, minus Hedge. "And basically everything gets talked about here anyway. Doesn't it?"

"Alone, Rina." Piper said, her voice a little bit hard. She was looking between Leo and Kat.

Kat instantly understood what she was on about, and she let out a groan. "You're not jealous."

Piper couldn't deny it. "Kat—"

"I wouldn't have come back if not for Leo," Kat stated, because it was true, in the most devastating way possible. Calypso's love for him had been their exit point. They wouldn't have left the island if not for that. Kat knew it somewhere deep inside. And he loved Calypso just as much, if not more, because he's Leo Valdez. He loves with his whole heart. "I wouldn't have survived if not for him. He's the only reason why I stayed sane. We're not dating, Piper. It's survival and trauma."

In that moment, she realized she sounded like her mama. But her mama never had to go through anything like Kat had. Oh, yeah, fight in two wars in two years, that was definitely good for the brain. Not to mention the mind control powers making her go insane. Maybe she did have more of her mama in her than she thought.

"What happened, Rina?" Piper asked so softly, Kat almost folded. "What did you survive?"

"I'm not saying anything," declared Kat, sitting with the best posture she could. "I'm only saying something if Leo does, and he doesn't want to."

"But you survived too," Jason pointed out. "We're just worried about you."

She snorted. "I'm fine, Jason. It's not my business to share. It's the same with you and him." She nodded over at Nico, still staring up at Jason determinedly. "You were there, yet you won't say a word about it."

"That's different."

"Is it?" Kat tilted her head. "I don't care about any of Nico's business, Jason, because you would've said something if it meant the end of the world or something. And it's not, so I really couldn't care less. This is the same situation. This is Leo's business, not mine. I'm not saying anything about it, and that's final."

She stood up, shouldering past Jason and Piper as she basically stormed off to somewhere she could simmer in her anger.

That's why she found herself on the foremast, staring at the clouds and remembering when she'd been shot above them by Khione. Shoot for the stars, literally.

Soon enough she heard someone coming up and smiled when she saw Leo in her peripheral vision.

"You're just as attached to me as I am to you," she teased, putting the circlet on her head so she didn't have to keep holding it. Or, well, because the urge to fidget stopped.

It never did for Leo, which was something that she adored about him. He shrugged, pressing one side of his body against hers as he fiddled with his beloved navigation device, ever since they'd left Ogygia. "I'm not."