Natural (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Hand in Hand

Piper slouched in her seat, her eyes refusing to stay open. Why is it that standing in front of a camera and acting happy was so damn exhausting? It may be because of the whole 'acting' part. Piper wasn't happy. It was the acting that was driving her insane.

There was a sigh beside her, and Piper, with great difficulty, managed to lift her head and open her eyes to see the worried face of Jason Grace. She cracked a smile. "Ah, so the mighty Jason decided to Grace me with his presence." She laughed at his weary sigh.

"I told you a long time ago to stop with my name puns," he said, helping her up from her slouched position in the chair and onto her feet.

"But it's fun," Piper said, shrugging. "Also, it never fails to cheer me up." Jason cocked a brow, but Piper changed topics before he could say anything about it. "Anyway, shouldn't you be wearing your glasses?"

"Well, I'm kind of meeting someone today..." Jason trailed off, his cheeks getting a pink tint.

Piper perked up, knowing that this was yet another chance to totally embarrass Jason and also cheer herself up. "Mind if I tag along?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Don't you still have to work?" Ugh. That's right. She was only on break for now, and already her leisure time was about to end. In only a couple of minutes, she'd have to go back to pretending.

"Maybe... Maybe I can finish the shoot early and meet you guys there... Would that be okay, Amazing Grace?" Jason sighed at her non-chalant use of his last name, but didn't say anything about it.

"I guess that would be fine. Me an Percy'll be at the coffee shop on-"

"Wait. Percy? A dude, Jason?" Piper asked, a smile creeping onto her face. Jason visibly flinched. The truth is, Piper had been suspecting Jason had been bisexual for a long time now, but she finally had proof.

After a moment's pause, Jason sighed. "Yes, Piper, a dude. But don't say anything weird to him, got it?" Piper shrugged. It wasn't her fault that her brain sometimes decided to make her mouth say weird stuff. "So... See you soon, maybe?"

"Yeah." And with that, Piper went back to pretending.

~~~

Annabeth was feeling guilty. She'd uploaded the picture of Jason to her website without asking him, and had only just realized her mistake when she woke up. She had called Percy, to see if he could somehow arrange a meet with Jason so that she sould properly ask him if it was okay, but so far, he hadn't been much help.

"Well, it's already on there, so it can't be helped, right?" Percy asked on the other end of the phone.

"That's not the point, seaweed brain! He could sue me for this. Percy, this is illegal!" Her voice was panicked, perfectly illustrating to the man on the other end how important this was to her.

Percy sighed. "I was supposed to meet him at that same coffee shop as last time, so... I guess you could tag along for a bit just to ask him if it's okay."

"Really?" Annabeth asked, perking up.

"But only for a bit, got it?"

"I know, I know, you want time alone with your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"Yet."

"Annabeth!"

"Yes, Mr. Clichè-I-Met-My-Boyfriend-in-the-Coffee-Shop?"

"I'm hanging up."

~~~