Hold Me While I Cry

Jason leans back, and lays down, "I'm gonna miss Leo," he says with a smile and small chuckle at the end. His eyes distant and empty.

Piper leans back too, "Yeah."

He hesitantly takes her hand in his, "He's okay. He has to be."

"How can you believe that?" She asks, desperate for some reason or hope to actually believe it. Despite what Nico said. "He- he didn't have the cure. He was all alone. And Nico said he died!"

"No," Jason says calmly, constraining her hurt and loud voice that echoes through the night. "Nico said his death felt different. And that he might be alive. You woke up a dragon with your voice, so who's to say that Leo didn't- program the dragon to give him the cure, or something-?" He gives her a smile, something she's been getting a lot lately. "No way he would die so easily."

She swallows the lump in her throat, "Right. We just have to believe." Her voice is tight and strained. And she's trying so hard not to cry again.

Or, Piper dealing with the aftermath of Leo's death. And Leo comes back to camp earlier than expected.
(Crossposted on Ao3)