Natural (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Five in the Morning

Piper woke up momentarily confused. She was in an unfamiliar bed in a dark room she didn't recognize. And then she remembered that she was in Annabeth's room, right next to Annabeth herself.

Because of her super long nap the previous day, she hadn't needed a lot of sleep; and Piper could accept that. What she couldn't accept, though, was the horrid feeling of looking at the time on her phone and seeing that it was five in the morning.

"Oh, hell no," she muttered to herself, just about to fall back into her sleeping position beside Annabeth. And then her phone rang. Cursing quite loudly alongside some Spice Girls song she had set as Jason's ringtone, Piper rolled off the bed and grabbed her sweatshirt from on top of her suitcase before leaving the room as quickly as she could.

"What do you want?" she hissed into her phone as soon as she had pressed the 'accept call' button. She heard Jason make a slightly offended noise on the other end, but she ignored it, peaking into Annabeth's room to see if the ringtone had woken her up. It hadn't.

"I just wanted to talk," he said, but his tone sounded like he didn't call for no reason.

"Oh, really, Grace? At five in the morning? At least be smart about your lies," Piper hissed into the phone, creeping along the wood floors and praying that they wouldn't creak. All of the lights were off, and the only light there really was was the filtered gray light coming through the windows.

"It's actually eight in the morning over here," Jason replied, still very obviously trying to skirt around the topic he called to discuss.

"You would never risk calling me at eight in the morning back when I was in New York, so it must be pretty important. I'm not stupid. What do you want?" she repeated, but this time less rude and more concerned now that she was away from Annabeth's bedroom and walking down the stairs. Jason stayed silent, and Piper waited patiently, opening the front door quietly and sitting down on the front porch.

"It's about Percy," Jason finally admitted, his voice small and kind of scared.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Piper asked, trying to keep her voice calm, but already thinking the worst.

"Nothing, nothing," Jason rushed out, and then he sighed, and Piper could imagine him running a hand through his hair, his eyebrows twisted and gaze flicking from place to place, never focusing on anything. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just scared."

"Why would you be scared if nothing's wrong? Jason, please, it's five in the morning over here."

"He took me to go see his mom yesterday, and she was so, so nice, and she said it was okay if I stayed over for the night. And so that's what me and Percy did - we stayed over." Jason was rushing his words out, and Piper was careful to listen closely. It was like what happened last night with Annabeth; she felt like if she said anything, the other person would just stop talking.

"So Percy suggested we just have a movie night, and I agreed because why not? Sitting in the dark next to someone you care for and cuddling them, like, what more is there to want?" Not much, Piper thought, but she kept that to herself. "And we were in the middle of the second movie when he just..." Jason trailed off, letting out a sound of quiet anguish.

"He did what, Jason?" Piper asked calmly, picking at the lint on her sweatpants.

"He told me he loved me." Jason's voice was small and scared, and Piper froze, her gaze snapping up to the street.

"Wait, what? He did what now?"

"I don't know! We were just watching the movie, not saying anything and suddenly it was just 'God, Jason, I love you so much.' I don't know what happened or what's going on!" Jason was whisper-shouting his words now, seeming to grow more panicked.