“I have to admit, ever since finding out I’m the son of Hephaestus, I never thought this was the sort of job you’d call me up to help with” Leo said as Piper passed him the Allen key.
“You’d make a hell of a handy man” she said teasingly, sitting cross legged next to him. “Especially if you found excuses to take your shirt off for every job.”
“Oh, I don’t need an excuse to be topless” he smirked, recalling how he wooed Calypso by basically working out in a furnace. She finally had to weave him some flame retardant underwear just to stop staring at his junk. Of course nowadays she insists he keep them off.
He twisted the last bolt into place and pushed himself out from under the bed. “Okay, that should do it” he said, standing up to appraise his work. Piper rocked onto her feet to join him, grimacing when she moved forcing her to pause momentarily until Leo helped her up. “You okay?”
“Yeah, still a little sore from Percy’s punishment” she replied, pushing through the aches and cramps in her lower abdomen. It had been like this for almost a week now. Before that though she could barely get out of bed, or sit in a chair, or walk. She had finally taken up yoga just to work out the tension left behind and limber her up to go grocery shopping. She saw Leo had his concerned expression again and patted his arm. “I’m okay.”
“Fighting a Chimera with a vibrator stuffed up your…that’s not okay, that’s bad ass” he muttered.
“We didn’t exactly plan to fight a Chimera” she said. In the end the whole proved to be a massive disaster. And she couldn’t even finish the challenge given to her she was in so much pain. At least they now had a new entry for cruel and unusual punishments. “So how’s it look?” She asked, willing to change the subject.
Leo turned back to the bed he just finished retrofitting. “Should hold a Chimera” he joked, giving it a kick of approval for emphasis.
Piper walked around and examined the bed in Percy and Annabeth’s room. They had asked Leo to fix it after Reyna’s visit. He took one look at the splinted frame and shattered headboard and raised an eyebrow. Neither of them were open for offering details, which disappointed the young man, but he agreed to fix it and maybe reinforce the frame so it could withstand more of Reyna’s training sessions. Piper bent down to look at the frame, which was almost indistinguishable from the last model. “Looks great. You sure it won’t be uncomfortable for them?”
“Nah. Made the same modifications at Camp Half-blood for some of the campers” he explained. Piper raised an eyebrow. “Apparently one of my fellow siblings has a thing going with an Ares kid. Or had a thing, if his bed was anything to go by” he smirked.
“As long as they’re being safe” she smiled.
“You know I could reinforce your bed too, if you’d like” he offered. “I’m sure it’s seen just as much action as this one.”
“I’m good, thanks” Piper declined. She held back the remark about how she hasn’t actually been using her bed that much lately. She’d been spending a lot of nights sleeping over at others. She couldn’t place why…maybe just avoiding being in a bed by herself. Again, to change the subject, she gave the bed a kick of her own. “You sure it’ll hold.”
Leo smiled confidently. “We could test it out if you really want to be sure.”
“And how do you propose we test it, Valdez?” Piper smirked.
Leo grinned. “Using the tried, test, and ancient methods, of course.”
***
Piper bounced up and down on the bed, her breath coming out in pants as she bobbed up and down. “Yup, feels very sturdy to me” she laughed.
“I told you” Leo grinned, heaving heavily along with her. “You could ride this for the next ten years. Valdez guarantee.”
“Then maybe you should do into the bed making business” she joked, still bouncing as high as she could.
They bounced for a few more minutes until Leo’s foot got caught with hers and they both tumbled onto the mattress giggling. They fell back against the pillows fully clothed. Their shoes on the floor next to the bed, panting heavily between laughs. Piper stared up at the ceiling giggling like a child. She couldn’t remember the last time she did something as simple and jump on a bed for fun.
Leo propped himself up on an elbow, patting the headboard. “If it can survive the two of us jumping all over it, it can handle anything your roommates might throw at it” he assured her.
Piper nodded. She never had reason to doubt Leo’s talents. “Thanks. We owe you.”
“I’ll accept cash, or pizza” he smirked.
She laughed harder, grinning like mad until the laughter made the ache in her groin worse. She closed her eyes and took a breath, lying back and relaxing for a bit. Leo stopped chuckling and lay down with her, staying with her as she controlled her breathing. His hand slipped into hers and she smiled, giving him a gentle squeeze in thanks. “You were hoping I would be doing a different type of bouncing when you made that corny line, weren’t you?” She teased.
“I have no idea what you’re on about” he said innocently. His smile was anything but innocent however and they both broke into another laugh. “You’re still sore and I would never do anything to put your recovery at risk” he said.
“I appreciate it” she said. He predicted she’d be out of action in that department for a while yet.
“So how are things going here, living with Percy and Annabeth?” Leo asked curiously, lying next to her on the bed.
She shrugged. “It’s been going great. Few hiccups with moms housewarming gift but we’ve gotten past all of that.”
“Cool” he nodded, staring at the ceiling.
Piper looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. “Why so interested?”
“No reason” he said, suspiciously.
“You know I can tell when you’re hiding something right?” Leo pulled an uncomfortable face as he fiddled with some bolts in his hand. Piper kept her gaze on him, knowing her silent stare would break him eventually.
“It nothing” he said. “I was just…just wondering why you…moved in with them? I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with you moving in with Percy and Annabeth. I just thought…I mean, you know you could’ve come stay with us…if you wanted to” he said, stammering over his words.
Piper narrowed her eyes and sat up on her elbows. “Are you jealous I picked Annie over you?” His cheeks turned a shade of red and she burst out laughing. “Leo, I would never play favorite’s like that. You’re as much my best friend as she is.”
“I never doubted that” he said hurriedly, pretending that never crossed his mind.
She squeezed his arm and smiled. “You want to know why I went to their place instead of yours?” She asked. He nodded, curious. “Because they lived closer to me. Closer to our apartment. It was just more convenient. I didn’t plan on moving out, but they made the offer and I…well, you know.”
“I get it” he replied, shaking his head sighing to himself. “That’s what Calypso said” he muttered.
“Oh, you discussed it with her, did you?” She teased.
“Of course. We’d have loved to have you. You’re always welcome at our home Pipes.”
“I know, and I appreciate every time I stay over” she smiled. “And if you lived in the same city as we did at the time, I might’ve happily become your roommate with benefits” she joked.
Leo smirked. Not that he expected that kind of arrangement. But their friendship had developed to that point almost as naturally as it had with their other friends. Must be a demigod thing he thought. “Just want to make sure you’re happy here” he said.
“I am” she replied confidently. She saw him nod, satisfied with that answer. “Why the sudden interest though?”
“No reason” he said, fiddling with the bolts again. He saw Piper give this that stare again and caved. “Nothing. Just…a friend was asking after you and I was making sure you were okay.”
“What friend?”
Leo looked away, unable to meet her eyes. “A friend. Mutual friend” he said vaguely.
Piper sensed the unease coming from him, and it made her worried. “Leo, who was asking after me?” He asked. He refused to say. She sat up and looked at him nervously. “Leo…” she started, but he cut her off before she could charm-speak the answer out of him.
“Please don’t! I’m uncomfortable enough being stuck between you two as it is.”
Piper blinked in shock as Leo sank back onto the bed, grimacing as he realized he had said enough. “Oh” she whispered, turning away as her chest tightened around an ache in her heart. She pulled her knees up as she stared at the opposite wall, a soft breath escaping her lips before she quietly asked him “when? When did you see him?”
He sat up and exhaled heavily. “Yesterday. He stayed over.”
She nodded. “Does he do that often?”
“Sometimes” he nodded. “We’ve been having to schedule each of your visits around each other lately” he added, and Piper could hear the tension in his voice.
She closed her eyes and grimaced. She never wanted Leo to have to be in this position. Like he was the child sharing sis today between two divorced parents. It was the other reason she never reached out to stay with them when the offer was made. She would’ve stayed with Leo in a heartbeat if she could, but it would’ve made things awkward between the three of them. “How is he?” She asked hesitantly.
“He doing okay. Keeping busy. Giving you space” he said cautiously.
She nodded. “Is he seeing anyone?” Leo shot her a look and she could feel the hypocrisy in her question. “You know what I mean.”
“I think he’s got a casual thing going with Reyna at Camp Jupiter” he replied. “He’s hung out with us too, like we used to, you know?”
She nodded. She remembered the three of them having some fun nights together, especially on the Argo II. “I would never ask you to stop seeing him, you know. You and Jason are best friends, after all.”
“He said the same about me and you” he remarked. “He just wanted to know if you were happy.”
“Happy without him?” She asked. He shrugged. “Is he happy?” She asked. He shrugged again. She sighed, flopping down to the bed. “This is all a mess.”
“Yeah, it is” he said, flopping down next to her. He was no fool. He knew they had been avoiding each other. All of their friends had been tiptoeing around the pair of them since their breakup. And at the same time they knew they both missed each other. Jason had said as much when they talked about Piper yesterday. And Calypso had noted how much Piper kept avoiding an empty apartment, making excuses to visit her friends, or the camp. He couldn’t just ask her though. It’d make an awkward situation even worse.
They laid on the bed in silence for a long while, both of them staring at the ceiling. “What are you thinking?” He asked eventually.
Piper sighed, closing her eyes. “The mist” she said glumly.
“An awful movie in my opinion” he muttered, breaking the ice.
Piper chuckled, rolling onto her side to look at him. “Do you ever wonder what our lives might’ve been if Juno hadn’t put Jason in that bus with us?” She asked him, resting her head on her elbow.
Leo rolled over to look back at her across the bed. “Sometimes?” He confessed. “Is this like that game of phone sex we had a while ago?”
“I keep going back there, going over it in my mind” she said, ignoring Leo’s attempt to divert the topic. “All my memories before that moment…how much of them are real? Which ones were made by the mist? I can’t help but wonder what we could’ve been if Jason hadn’t been there, you know?”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean, what did we lose? Who were we before Jason? Would we have ended up at Camp Half-Blood anyway? Or might we have had normal lives?”
“Jason didn’t make us demigods Pipes” Leo pointed out. “We’d have ended up in trouble one way or another. And considering all the tests and how the gods and giants messed with us, we were heading into this war one way or another.”
“Maybe” she sighed. “But what about the rest of it? I have memories of Jason that aren’t real. No matter how hard I try though, they feel real. What if I did have a boyfriend? What if there was some boy I forgot about because of Juno and the stupid mist? What if you had another best friend? Someone who got replaced by Jason? Have you ever thought about what our lives might’ve been like before?” She asked him.
Leo looked her straight in the eye, and told her “yes, I have.”
She shrugged, expecting more. “And?”
“And…I think you’re right. I think I had a beat friend. And I think you could’ve had a boyfriend. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last few years and it makes sense. Because they feel real to me too.”
“So why haven’t you gone crazy like I have?” She asked.
He averted his eyes briefly, his expression becoming vulnerable as he lost his usual confidence. “Because I don’t think we lost each other Pipes” he said quietly.
Piper blinked and realized the conclusion he had drawn. Jason hadn’t replaced two people in their life, he might’ve inserted himself into their life. As soon as she thought about, she realized Leo was right. It made complete sense. That joke they made over the phone to get each other off, it wasn’t a joke to him. What if he had been her boyfriend? What if she had been his best friend? Those fake memories were their memories. They could’ve had a life together. Her heart broke all over again as she wondered if they had lost more than just what could’ve been. She reached over and took his hand, staring into his eyes as he stared back at her. “You never said anything” she whispered.
“Because it might not be true” he said hesitantly. “But I’d rather believe that than the alternative.”
“What alternative?”
“That before Jason, we were complete strangers” he said. “That we never knew each other. Just two troubled teenagers in Juvenile detention. I don’t like the thought that you were never part of my life” he confessed.
Piper felt her heart ache for him. Here she was whining about a life she might’ve lost and he was holding onto the hope she was the life he had. A life that had been stolen when Jason came into their lives. She closed her eyes and held back a scream. It wasn’t Jason's fault. He didn’t ask for this, any of it. This whole situation wasn’t fair.
Leo reached out and caressed her cheek, wiping a tear from her face when she looked back at him. “You don’t have to be sad. We can’t change how we met, or what we remember. What matters is we still have each other. And if Jason hadn’t showed up when he didn’t, we wouldn’t have met him.”
“But it doesn’t bother you everything you remember about him was a lie?”
“Not all of it” he smiled. “He’s still my best friend. He became that after we officially met. And I know you fell in love with him regardless of what the mist made you believe. And he fell in love with you all on his own.”
“But what if it isn’t real? What if what we might’ve had was?”
“What we have is real Piper” he said, shuffling closer pressing his forehead against hers. “You’re my friend, my best friend, and I love you. But without Jason, I would never had met Calypso. You’d have never met Annabeth, or Percy, or Thalia. We’d have never met Frank and Hazel. We wouldn’t have the life we made for ourselves here. You have to stop worrying about what might’ve been Pipes. You have to stop doubting what you feel. You know the truth. Follow your heart, not your head. Isn’t that what you taught us?”
Piper released a shaky breath as tears fell down her face. Leo had managed to put into words exactly what she needed to hear, what she’d been wrestling with for months. It didn’t make the doubts go away, but it reminded her what she had gained and what she had learnt. He was right, she couldn’t keep focusing on the what-ifs. The mist was no longer effecting her mind, or her life.
But still, she couldn’t help the grieve the possible future they might’ve shared. “We’d have made a really cute couple, wouldn’t we?” She whispered.
Leo smirked, leaning in and kissing her on the lips. “We already do” he said.
She smiled, wrapping him in a hug nestling against him. “How long had you been holding onto this idea?”
“Since the day we had been told all our memories were from the Mist” he confessed. She looked up at him in shock. “I didn’t want to freak you out. And I didn’t want to make things even weirder between the three of us.”
“Still ended up sleeping together though” she laughed. She kissed his cheek, quietly whispering “perhaps we could pretend we back on that bus, that we were a couple for a while?”
“I thought you were still sore” he said.
“We could still make out” she said, cupping his face pecking his lips.
He smirked. “I’m always willing to kiss a pretty girl” he said, his corny line making Piper giggled as he rolled her onto the bed and kissed her intimately.
Almost as soon as they started the sound of the front door opening interrupted them as Percy and Annabeth came home, calling out for them. The pair stopped kissing and groaned, stifling a laugh as they hugged each other. “Maybe we’re just cursed, never to be together” Leo muttered. Piper sighed, reluctantly pushing away from him so they could climb off the bed and welcome their friends home.
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