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...
"You don't have to be perfect... You can be good."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
4.
Stepping Up
ACE KNEW A LOT OF THINGS.
One thing he didn't know was that surrounding himself with seven, now eight other powerful demigods would make him bold. A word that no one had ever used to describe the boy before.
Except that's exactly how he would described himself when he offered to go on the side quest through Venice. He had done it without really thinking too which was also uncharacteristic. However the morning that they docked in Venice, Hazel noticed the odd cow sized, black sheep dogs that walked their way through the streets, and the group needed to find the owner of the book that Leo had stolen back from the dwarfs. Frank offered himself up first, Nico second since he could speak Italian, and Ace just knew that Arya's hand would be the next one to go up because that girl wasn't going to risk losing Nico. Ace put his hand up first, claiming he was good with dogs. The reality of the situation was that Arya had just gotten out of bed yesterday and it was painfully obvious she was still recovering mentally and physically, he didn't want her going out there just because she felt she had too.
Hazel volunteered to be the fourth, and everyone knew that four was the maximum capacity for land trips. Ace found himself refusing to even hint to Arya that he had done it on purpose, not knowing where her reaction would fall on a scale of general annoyance to thunderstorms.
Plus, it would be good for him to escape the ship for a bit. All he had been able to focus on was the Daughter of Poseidon since their time together getting slowly killed by Gaia. Even when he wasn't with her he was thinking about her. Ace was infatuated, and it didn't help that she came down looking like a literal goddess in her white robes and golden jewelry from her meeting yesterday.
Then last night, when she took off her shirt to tell him about her scars, he wanted to reach out and trace them, feel them, feel her.
It was bad, and unneeded, childish really. Ace was well aware that Arya did not want him in any capacity other than a friend and he was lucky to have gotten past that hurdle. He reminded himself every morning when the sunrise woke him up and he stared at her sleeping, peaceful, stress-free form, that she had him next to her for comfort only and a different kind of comfort than she gave him.
Whatever this was that was growing within him, he would continue to force it down because now was not the time, and Arya was not in the right place.
So yeah, maybe a little distance would do him some good.
