Anyone who knows Arya Jackson for more than five minutes knows her opinion of the world, and demigods not so fair place in it. Unfortunately, since the war Arya isn't that easy to get to know. To most she's little more than a legend.
Arya is fine w...
"Stop. Give me your hand. I am your friend."/ "I fear to stain your clothes with blood,"/"Stain them, I don't care."
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28.
Stay
THE SECOND HIS BODY WAS OFF THE LAST STAIR and his back was in the sun he whipped around. Ace ignored his body feeling whole again in the natural sunlight, his strength returning to him. His breaths were long and heavy as he watched, waiting with shaking anticipation.
After Gaia's trap, Orpheus' steps weren't that bad. It was dark, far too quiet, and the struggle of being left with nothing but his own thoughts and no way to calculate the passage of time was not pleasant. The steps were the thing keeping him going. One foot after the other on a fully formed, natural, and real object of the earth. Knowing each step was bringing him closer to the outside world and away from their enemy. Getting Arya back to a semblance of safety. He climbed and climbed until he saw the sunlight and a few tears escaped his eyes.
He didn't feel the need to look back. He could tell something had changed in Arya. She wouldn't make the reckless decision to follow Percy and Annabeth. She all but swore to him that he could trust her, and the moment they shared made him feel like one of the luckiest men to have ever lived.
Somehow, some way, he had won over Arya Jackson.
Now he just needed to see her come out. Only then could he know that he could consider himself safe.
The light hit her tanned skin in one sudden burst. Her hair was terribly knotted, her clothes in tatters, and the skin that wasn't tied in her shirt was coated in dirt. Her brilliant eyes squinted with the onslaught of light, her bandaged arm went over the eyes as her shaking legs finished the last handful of steps.
She too crossed the threshold and the two did nothing but look at each other.
Ace knew she must have been exhausted. His body was practically screaming at him and he hadn't fought unkillable giants and watched her remaining family fall into the darkest place in existence.
Arya seemed to come to her true senses. Adrenaline was a finicky thing that Ace didn't truly understand until he left Camp with Percy. It came suddenly, and went away leaving you with nothing. As she looked at him the tear stains on her cheeks we re-painted quickly. She didn't bother to wipe them now that he had seen her had her lowest.
"It's okay to not be okay." He said, reaching a hand out in an offering for comfort.
"I'm never okay." She shook her head slowly, "But I've never felt like this before."
