Assassins of Apollo

Chapter 9.

"What do you think of all this?"

Percy looked over to see Jason lying on his bed in deep thought.

"Seems like the perfect outlet... I like Apollo, and I don't know where else to go." Percy responded.

Jason looked at him, "What do you mean?" He said, sitting up.

"I mean," Percy paused for a second, not wanting to make his best friend hear his negative thought process. He's been trying to stay happy for Jason by not talking about what happened, but his mind was bursting.

"I mean that...I never really thought about what life would be like without Annabeth. I came to camp as a kid, and I didn't think much about growing up because I was busy fulfilling prophecies." Percy glanced at Jason. He was listening intently. Percy hardly ever spoke about the past. "When I fell in love with Annabeth ... I don't know. I didn't think she would love me back, but then she did. She did love me back, or I thought. We never talked about the future, mostly because we didn't think we would live that long, but then we found out about Camp Jupiter. Then all of a sudden, I'd imagined us living there, Like normal people."

Percy went and sat next to Jason. "I guess once you go from thinking you'll be dead soon to thinking ok this is it, this is where I'm going to settle down and be with this person forever, your mind doesn't let you think differently...I never thought about an alternative future. I feel like that child again. It seems like if I'm not with Annabeth, then Well, then I could be dead soon because that's the only other future I've thought of."

Neither of them said anything for a while. Percy wondered if he overshared. He and Jason had become close when they were with their Dads, and he thought of Jason as one of his best friends.

"That's depressing, dude," Jason said finally.

Percy shoved him off the bed, Jason laughed.

Jason picked himself up, sitting down. Percy smiled. He'd been worried for nothing, and if anyone was going to understand, of course, it'd be Jason.

"I didn't think about marriage or kids much. But, with Piper, I thought about doing a lot of normal relationship stuff, dates like going to the movies, and making out I thought about making out with her a lot." They laughed.

"She was my best friend, and after losing my memory and all that.... I just I don't understand."

"Don't try to understand, they suck that's it. Let's talk about this thing with Apollo."

Jason nodded, thinking about Piper made his chest hurt; he liked being with her more than that. He liked being in a relationship. It's different when your girlfriend saves your life, and you save hers, and you all each other rely on.

"Well, I think whatever we decide, it'll be the same thing. If you go, I'll go, and if you don't, I don't think I will."

Percy nodded, "Do you think it'll be like the Hunters? Like we'd be immortal?"

"I don't know... I wish he had told us more..." Jason said before a knock on his cabin door cut him off.

He had forgotten that he invited all the guys Apollo called over to his cabin to talk.

"Come in," Percy shouted.

Shane and Ellis filed in with their arms full of sodas, chips, cookies, and sandwiches. Ellis also had some games courtesy of the Hermes cabin, which was where to go for cabin sleepovers.

"I went back to let Chiron know that we were having a sleepover," Shane said setting down all the junk food.

"Oh lit, I completely forgot about that." Percy glanced at Jason. They were technically adults, and remembering that rules were in place for the young kids but still had to follow them was difficult.