ALEA IACTA EST ; GRACE

007.

WHILE THE OTHERS WERE CELEBRATING    in the mess hall, singing cheesy songs in the wrong pitch and doing whatever, Philomena sat outside on a bench, far away from the dining hall and watched the stars.

"You know, I'm kind of hurt by your lack of congratulations and participation in the celebration," a voice spoke from behind her, pulling her out of her thoughts. "I didn't even get a hello."

Not turning around, Philomena allowed a small smile to light up her face, before wiping it off again just as quickly.

"Hi Jason." She sighed, tearing her gaze away from the stars. "I think Dakota's celebrating enough for at least five other people, so I figured no one would miss me."

"I missed you", was what Jason wanted to say, instead he settled for something else. "If you would've been inside the hall, you would know that Dakota's already passed out in a corner."

She chuckled at that and turned her body towards him, finally being able to gaze into his blue eyes once again.

Normally, Philomena didn't like sky blue eyes, they always seemed kind of empty but Jason's ... they calmed her racing thoughts and made her think of the warm summer days she had spent with her mother when she was just a kid.

"That just proves my point," she told him, a teasing grin spreading across her face. "Anyway, how was the quest? I expected Camp Jupiter's golden boy would return earlier."

He looked at her, a shit eating grin forming on his lips (Philomena hadn't known he was capable of such an expression). "Why? You missed me?"

"Me? Missing you? Get off of your high horse, Goldie," Philomena set straight and grabbed some cookies from the plate Jason had brought with him. Deep down she knew that she had kind of missed him, but just a teeny tiny bit.

"If you say so," he responded, "Well, actually we had a hard time and were attacked at least a dozen times by monsters we've never seen before. But we got back safe and sound, though Reyna's been acting kind of strange ever since Charleston."

Philomena had also noticed this, first in her dream and even now the daughter of Bellona was acting strangely distant with Jason and a certain sadness (like, literally, she was surrounded by the color blue whenever Jason was near) surrounded her.

Not wanting to talk about Reyna and expose her knowledge of Reyna's crush on Jason, Philomena just nodded, her mouth full with one of the many desserts. After she swallowed, she asked the question that had been running through her mind ever since he had arrived back to camp.

Earlier, Jason had winced whenever someone hugged him or clapped him on the back (Philomena wasn't stalking him, really, she just had nothing better to do) and even now, when they were sitting together, she had noticed how Jason shifted in his seat, when he usually sat still as a rock. "Did you get hurt?"

He looked over to her, taken aback by her question. No one had ever asked him this question, ever. Whenever he returned from a quest, all everyone was interested in was knowing what had happened and what heroic deeds Jaosn had done. No one was ever truly interested whether or not he returned with all his organs still functioning or stuff like that.

"Only a few scratches but nothing serious, thanks for asking though," he told her, however that was not entirely the truth. During a fight against some crazy-ass monster he had never seen ( it looked like a serpent with wings and had a head at each end of its body), one of the heads had bitten Jason and injured him.

How he had been able to survive he didn't know, Jason was just thankful for the invention of ambrosia and nectar and to the kind pharmacist who had given him enough bandages to last a lifetime when he had stormed into her little pharmacy with nothing to his name but a few cereal bars and asked her for something to stop the bleeding (where Reyna had been in that night, Jason didn't know).