Heroes of Olympus: After Gaea

Jason

"Come on, Jason. You're not telling me you can't throw that rock further than the son of Venus can?" Michael teased.

Jason was starting to sweat. Him and Michael were always at competition with each other when they shared class together. Jason beat him at sword fighting but Michael at strength.  They were drawing but Jason needed to beat him.

"I will throw this rock at your face." Jason told him, lifting the large boulder once more.

It had to be about 70KG. Michael was able to fling it across Camp, accidently squashing a nymph in the process (Jason swore to not tell a soul about it). Jason lifted it up, for him to accidentally drop it on his foot.

"Oh Holy son of a bitch!" He yelped, hopping whist grabbing his foot.

"Hope you're not directing that to me or Venus'll get pissed- ow!" He was cut off by a spark sending an electric shiver down his spine.

"What's wrong Michael? Are you shocked that I lifted my boulder off my foot?" Jason smirked, a furious demigod glaring back at him.

"Woah, Woah, Woah!" The boys turned around to see a distracted Frank towering above them.

"Michael. Stop talking as if Jason and Hazel aren't the strongest demigods at this camp." Frank reminded Michael. He looked down, obviously embarrassed.

"Frank, you're really strong as well-"

"This isn't a self-esteem club, Grace." Frank interrupted, turning to face Jason. For some reason, he felt intimidated of Frank. It felt like he was hearing the story of how he defeated all the monsters in a city again. "You're acting as if Michael can't just flick you across camp. You're screwed if you're trying to compare yourselves in someone's field of expertise. Stop having your dumb competition and train."

Frank walked off, his purple robe swishing as he did, leaving a speechless Jason and Michael. Frank soon jogged back to them.

"Was that good? Reyna said I wasn't intimidating enough. Was that scary?" Frank asked, and for a minute, he seemed like the 'baby Chinese Canadian man' Leo once joked about a while ago.

"Yes. You were very macho." Michael encouraged him.

"Brill!" Frank then regained himself, then cleared his throat. "I mean, you know... save your competition for Cohert games. Not training."

He then walked away, head high again. Jason and Michael looked at each other then laughed.

"Bless his soul." Jason cooed.

"I can bless you by wrecking your relationship." Michael threatened.

Guess their frienemy relationship still was there.

"She's a daughter of Aphrodite and can use charmspeak, you uneducated dick."

*

Jason and Reyna sat, arguing over who was the strongest demigod in their camp.

"It's still you, Jason." Reyna insisted, crossing her arms.

"No. Hazel can manipulate the Mist, fight like mad, and do crazy stuff with metal. Frank can shape shift, use basically any weapon, and is the strongest in our group. And I'm the best one?" Jason concluded, imitating Reyna.

"Jason, have you forgotten that-"

They heard a noise and turned around in fear.

"It's fine, it's an Iris message. Don't be scared, pet" Jason mocked Reyna, receiving a glare that Lupa would cower away from.

He gulped but turned back to answer the Iris Message. There was Nico, in a blood red and black background, with beautiful golden gems decorating the rim of the wall. He was wearing a black leather jacket, with a plain grey top underneath. His hair was up in a ponytail, debuting his silver stud and two hoops on top of his ear.

"Heyyyy Nico!" Jason smiled brightly, but receiving no change in expression from Di Angelo.

"Stop with the positivity. It sickens me." He only responded.

What a ray of sunshine.

"Nico."

"Reyna." He nodded at Reyna, and she did the same. Nothing compared to his greeting, but for some reason Nico seemed to appreciate it more.

"Anyway, I need to talk about Will Solace." Nico told him.

Jason's smile extended. They were together? Finally!

"Sure. Look, you need to use protection regardless of anyone being able to get pregnant. STD's-"

"Jason." Reyna interrupted. He closed his mouth.

"What is it about the boy? Are you two together?"

"Yes, but-"

"WHATTTT?! And you didn't tell me? For how long? Hope he's treating you right. I can accidentally send a hurricane his way if needed. Knew you liked him. I do. He reminds me of me. I know! That means I'm your type! Well then, I give you my blessing."

"Jason. Shut up." Nico instructed him. He started to twist his ring. "I've been having nightmares recently. That he was in Tartarus and I stood a few miles behind him. I see him suffer badly, go through basically everything I did."

Jason looked down. They had spoken the day before, and Nico told him some things he went through in Tartarus. He didn't even tell him the worst and Jason felt scared.

"Then I see him starve to death..." Nico's voice started to waver. He swallowed and continued. "And I know you two have had dreams that really mean something. Like the future. What does this mean? It's been happening every night, and I couldn't bare having him go through that."

His dark eyes started to glisten. Jason knew that Nico hated others knowing what he was feeling, so Jason knew comforting him was the wrong way approach him.

"That dream means nothing." Reyna told him bluntly. "You're suffering from PTSD. It's only natural to have it in your dreams, as you're a demigod, instead of random spells in the daytime. But, it's still a nightmare, so won't be perfect duplicate of your memory. It's scarier for it to be someone you love."

Nico still looked sad, well, he always did, but sadder than usual. But, his eyes showed a glimmer of hope.

"We're not part of your dreams, so we can't know," Jason told the young demigod, "but realistic dreams happen to everyone. I had a nightmare everyday for a month about me striking Piper down with lightning when we got into an argument."

Jason held his breath. That was the worst dream he ever had and he hadn't even told Leo about it. But Nico needed to know that he wasn't alone.

"I stopped using my powers after that. It seemed so real. It seemed more of a prophecy than a dream. But, I sat Piper down and spoke to her. And it went away. It's hard though. Speaking about your feelings and that. But, it helped me. It might help you."

A silence hung in the air from the three demigods. Reyna put her arm around Jason and patted his shoulder, which was what she used to do when he first started to train in camp and felt bad for failing in sword fighting. It meant 'You're not bad. You're amazing. I believe in you.'

"Wow, Jason. I didn't know." Nico said, filling up the silence. "Thanks, guys. You're the closest to family I have."

"Same, Nico. Same." Jason told him.

Nico waved his hand through their faces, Reyna's arm still around Jason's neck.