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queenjunothegreat · 4 months ago

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Aaaaaaaalllrighty everyone!!!!!! It's TIME!!!!!!! Let's fucking gooooooo!!!!!!! I am sososososososo excited to share @lost-trio-week with you all!!!! It's going to be SO much fun and I am thrilled beyond words! People's wonderful creations are already rolling in and I love each and every one of them SO much!!! YAYAYAYAYYAYAY!!!!

So, without any more delay, I'd like to present my day one fic: We Are Not Shining Stars (We Are Who We Are)

(CW: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse)

"Now, I’m gonna find your file. Seeing as someone won’t even tell me when his birthday is, I at least want that much. Assuming you didn’t delete it already, that is.” Eventually, Piper found his file and started her deep-dive, obviously disappointed at the barren field of information before her. She started reading off things about Leo that he obviously already knew (apparently, his birthday made him a Cancer. He didn’t know what that meant, really, but it was bitingly ironic) while Leo gasped in mock shock over her revelations and tinkered with a little wind-up toy. Then Piper got quiet for a moment, and giggled out her little mischievous giggle, which immediately put Leo on high alert. He squinted at her suspiciously. “What’d you find?” “Something weird,” she reported, still giggling. “They have the wrong name down for you on one of these documents.” He rolled his eyes, and looked back at his project, expecting her to come up with some dumb little nickname that would stick for about a week before they both got bored of it. “Yeah? And what name do they have?” “Emilio.” *** Piper learns a secret she was never meant to know. Lost Trio Week 2024 - Day One: Wilderness/Nicknames

Part 2 of Carry On (Wilderness School Fics)

To say that Dylan was a pain was more than a little bit of an understatement. You’d think that being in a school as big as Wilderness would have meant that you wouldn’t really cross paths with any one particular person too often, but Dylan somehow managed to surpass all expectations. He wasn’t actually in too many of Piper and Leo’s classes, but he found a way to bump into them in the halls almost every period, and he certainly made an effort to be as awful as possible in the little time he had with them.

His worst offense, by far, was the history class he shared with the both of them. Piper and Leo sat next to one another, like they did in every class they shared, and Dylan had made himself right at home in the desk directly behind them. Considering his penchant for running his mouth, especially about Piper, and the teacher’s disinterest in stopping him, especially when it was about Piper, it was clear that Piper and Leo would have to take matters into their own hands. Leo had originally suggested tricking the teacher into abandoning him next time they went on a field trip, but Piper had given him one of those looks and he’d begrudgingly agreed to a solution that didn’t involve bodily harm. Again.

The solution had come one afternoon when they were hanging out in the library and Leo had poked around for a bit on one of the computers he definitely wasn’t allowed on, then asked Piper if she had any grades she wanted him to change for her.

She squinted at him, then at his computer screen. “Wait, are you hacked into the school’s computer system? How’d you do that? Don’t you need to use, like, a super computer or something?”

Leo decided that going over all of her incorrect ideas about what “hacking” meant was probably a waste of time, so he just shrugged. “Just the grade books. The actual interesting stuff like personal records and junk is only really accessible on an admin computer. I mean, I could get to it from here, but it would require a lot of work.”

She arched her eyebrows at him. “And how, exactly, do you know that?” Instead of answering, he just winked and tapped the side of his nose, so she rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Don’t tell me.”

“Wasn’t planning on it!” he chirped back at her.

After a moment, she gave him a curious look. “Can you change schedules from what you have there?”

Leo shook his head. “Nah, that’s all gonna be on that main system. This one is specifically easy to get into because the teachers need to be able to access it from home. There’s no need for them to access schedules and stuff, so that’s gonna be more secure.”

“Do you–” She cut herself off and thought for a moment while she sucked her teeth. “Do you think we could use that to get rid of Dylan?”

“What? You mean like mobster ‘Ay, let’s get ridda this guy’ or–”

“No, I just mean, like… changing his schedule? Just swap his math and history so we don’t have to deal with him any more.”

Leo hummed in thought. “What about P.E.? You wanna swap him out of that class, too?”

Piper weighed her options very carefully before shaking her head. “Nah. If it’s just the one class, that could be, like, a system error or something. If we go around changing a bunch of his classes, people might look into it. Besides, I think Coach Hedge hates Dylan, so we don’t really have to deal with him, so long as he’s around.”

Leo nodded in agreement. Hedge claimed that it was just because Dylan was on the track team and he needed to be in top form, but any time Dylan even tried to talk to Piper and Leo during PE, Hedge popped up out of thin air, blowing on his whistle until he was purple, and ordering Dylan to run another two laps. “Alright. Well, we’re gonna have to break into the headmaster’s office. I might be able to do it if we can only get access to the front desk, but it will be harder.”

“Wanna do it Thursday?” Piper suggested. “Mr. Thomas is supposed to be on hall monitor duty that night.”

Leo agreed, and together they started plotting. Leo was once again struck dumb by the breathtaking lack of security at this particular correctional facility. Sure, they had some of the harshest, meanest punishments they could get away with before someone (rightfully) accused them of child abuse, but they apparently had little to no interest in trying to stop anyone from breaking the rules. There weren’t even proper security guards, though most of the teachers were armed with school-supplied hand tasers. Instead, the night watch was taken on by a series of teachers all taking their turns to roam the halls until the sun rose up over the far distant horizon. Mr. Thomas was a wry, skittish sort of man that really had no business surviving in a place like this, but still managed to have the longest tenure of almost any of the staff. Still, he struggled to stay awake during his own lessons, dry-erase marker hanging limply in one hand and coffee cup clutched desperately in the other, so it was no surprise to anyone that he often “rested his eyes” when it was his turn to patrol the halls. Students weren’t supposed to know the rotation schedule, but, well. Piper certainly had her ways.

That Thursday night, Leo picked the lock on their dorm room door, and they silently crept through the many empty halls of Wilderness School, all the way down to the first floor where the headmaster’s office was. Breaking into those rooms had been even easier than breaking out of their dorm, so before too long Leo was sat in front of Dylan’s daily schedule, and with a few clicks Dylan’s 10:00 math class was swapped with his 2:00 history class, and emails were sent out to both teachers and student alerting them of the “sudden but necessary” change.

“You said this has everyone’s personal records on it, right?” Piper asked, peering over his shoulder once he was done. He nodded and she grinned at him. “Cool. I wanna check yours out. I’m gonna find out what you’re hiding, Valdez.”

Leo scoffed loudly and rolled away, giving her free reign. “Be my guest. You’re not gonna find anything interesting.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “You ran away six times, and you think there’s nothing interesting in your file?”

“I didn’t say that,” he corrected, grinning like a shark. “I just said you wouldn’t find it.”

She laughed at him, the sound bright and loud in the cramped office. “Whatever. Get out of my way; I wanna do some snooping.”

Leo got up and offered the chair to her, bowing obnoxiously. “Your throne, my lady.”

“Why thank you, my good sir,” she replied, equally obnoxious, as she took her seat. “Now, I’m gonna find your file. Seeing as someone won’t even tell me when his birthday is, I at least want that much. Assuming you didn’t delete it already, that is.”

Leo shrugged. He hadn’t gotten rid of stuff like his birthday and social security number from his file, but he didn’t really think that mattered all that much. He got rid of the important things, like why he’d gone into the foster system to begin with, or why he’d been removed from some of those awful places before he even had the chance to run away. Anything that mattered. Anything that tied him back to that little house in Texas and the choking smoke of a burning warehouse. He was past all that now. Keep moving forward, a gnarled old lady’s voice said in the back of his mind. Be quick and be clever, but always keep moving. He figured the past couldn’t catch him if he never let it exist in the first place.

Eventually, Piper found his file and started her deep-dive, obviously disappointed at the barren field of information before her. She started reading off things about Leo that he obviously already knew (apparently, his birthday made him a Cancer. He didn’t know what that meant, really, but it was bitingly ironic) while Leo gasped in mock shock over her revelations and tinkered with a little wind-up toy he’d been working on.

Then Piper got quiet for a moment, and giggled out her little mischievous giggle, which immediately put Leo on high alert. He squinted at her suspiciously. “Pipes? What’d you find?”

“Something weird,” she reported, still giggling. “They have the wrong name down for you on one of these documents.”

He rolled his eyes, and looked back at his project, expecting her to come up with some dumb little nickname that would stick for about a week before they both got bored of it. “Yeah? And what name do they have?”

“Emilio.”

Immediately, the world stood still. He was four years old and that name was being sung to him while he clapped his hands in front of a fire truck birthday cake. He was five years old, laughing hysterically as he ran away from the mess he’d made and the sound of that name shouted after him on its own laugh. He was six years old and he was being told that all the teachers and kids at school were going to call him Leo, but he would always know what name was on his heart. He was seven years old and that name was sitting warm on his shoulders as stories about what an amazing life he would get to live were told to him in hushed whispers. He was eight years old and that name was being tapped out in Morse Code as his mamá told him how much she loved him for the very last time.

“Don’t say that name,” he snapped. “Don’t ever say that name in front of me again, do you understand?”

Piper reared back, clearly startled. Her gaze flicked over Leo’s face, but he just continued to scowl death at her. He’d had this fight before, and he’d won it every time. He wasn’t afraid to have it again, even if he didn’t want to. She narrowed her eyes at him and very obviously sucked her teeth, preparing her interrogation.

Then she shrugged, turned back to the computer, and continued casually clicking around. “Okay. Hey, did you know that Macy’s middle name is Lucille? It’s like her parents wanted her to cause problems.”

Leo felt a bit like he’d been kicked in the chest by a horse, and if he hadn't been sitting down, he probably would have fallen on his butt. “What?”

“Yeah,” she said casually. “I mean, Lucille is a fine enough name, I guess, but it’s a really shitty middle name. Especially combined with Macy. Macy Lucille Milton. Bleh.”

“You’re just saying that because you hate her,” Leo said automatically. He shook his head. “I don’t mean that. I went all Incredible Hulk on you because you said some random name and your response is ‘okay?’”

She furrowed her brow at him. “Do you… want me to get all bent out of shape about it?”

“Uh, no. I guess not,” Leo stammered. “I just… was expecting you to?”

Piper shrugged. “We all have our secrets.” She offered him one of those grins he knew so well and a handshake. “You don’t quiz me about my relationship with my mom, and I pretend that the school didn’t mess up your file. Deal?”

“I– Yeah, deal,” Leo agreed, shaking her hand. He still felt a bit like he’d been spun around one too many times, and he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins from where he’d been geared up for a fight.

She gave him a real smile then, all the playfulness gone and replaced with gentle, cautious affection. “Cool. Now show me how to send emails to the teachers from this account. I’ve got an idea.”

Leo’s eyebrows shot up and a grin curled over his mouth. “Oh? Do tell.”

“Not until you show me how to get to the email.”

They stayed in the office for probably longer than was advisable, only cutting the mission of mischief short when Mr. Thomas shuffled by, apparently having napped for long enough. They crept back to their dorm, and when they were back safely behind their locked door, they broke out into giggles, beyond pleased with themselves.

“Ugh, I’m so gonna sleep through English tomorrow,” Piper whined, flinging herself on the bed.

“You say that like you wouldn’t have slept through it after a full night’s sleep,” Leo accused, picking one of her socks up off the floor and throwing it at her. Piper let out some comically loud snores to avoid answering him, and he rolled his eyes, climbing into his own bed.

Unbidden, the name came to the front of his mind. Piper hadn’t said it right. She’d pronounced it fine, but it still sounded wrong in her mouth. Her accent rounded out weird parts, and her tone had that nasally Valley Girl kick to it. That name was supposed to be said with a warm, rich voice. It was supposed to sound like laughter and feel like being wrapped up in a hug. It wasn’t supposed to be a slap in the face.

He still felt a little bad about snapping at Piper, though. She didn’t know, couldn’t know. She’d been joking around one second, only for Leo to flip a switch on her out of nowhere. He could perfectly picture the way she’d stared at him in wide-eyed shock, and how her features had been tinged with the slightest bit of hurt. He wouldn’t have been able to really fault her if she’d been angry with him, demanding answers, but she hadn’t. She just shrugged and accepted it, more than happy to meet Leo where he was at. She always did that. It didn’t matter how much Leo snarled at her or how bristly and defensive he got, she always stepped back and opened her arms, ready to give Leo the space he needed to go running back to her when he was ready. He curled up in a little ball and pressed his forehead to his knees. “Piper?”

“Yeah, Leo?” she replied immediately, every ounce of the exhaustion she’d been complaining about moments before gone.

He pressed closer to his knees. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

There was a beat of silence, and then he felt Piper crawl into the bed next to him and press up against his side. “You don’t have to apologize. I get it.”

“No you don’t. There’s literally no way for you to get it.”

“Okay, I don’t get it,” she conceded. “Not really. But I get that it upset you, and I get that you don’t wanna talk about why. And that’s all I really need to get, I think.”

Leo chewed his bottom lip until he thought it would bleed. “Leo’s a nickname my mom gave me to tell the teachers and kids at school instead of using my real name.”

“Yeah?” Piper prompted gently. “Do you like it?”

Leo shrugged. “It’s not bad. It never felt quite right though.”

“Then how come you use it?” Leo squeezed his eyes shut and took in a deep, heaving breath, and Piper started gently stroking his back. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”

He knew he didn’t have to. Piper wouldn’t push. She never pushed. Which is exactly why she was the one person on the planet he wanted to tell everything to.

“My mom was the last person who used my real name,” he said quietly. “Everyone else called me Leo, but she used my full name every time.”

Piper hummed softly, and he could hear the gentle smile in her voice when she said, “That sounds nice.”

“Yeah. I’m–” He cut himself off with a little choking noise, and Piper pressed that much closer. “I’m scared I’m gonna forget what it sounded like coming from her if other people use it.”

“Leo,” Piper breathed before finally wrapping him up in a hug. He clung to her, fists clenched in the back of her dumb Hello Kitty shirt. He didn’t cry, not really, but he did tremble from head to toe as she held him. After a moment, her voice whispered in his ear, “You may not like the name Leo, but I do. It’s the name of my best friend.”

Leo chuckled softly in the crook of her neck. “Yeah? I guess it’s not all bad, then.”

Piper didn’t say that name right. There was no one on Earth who could anymore. But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing after all. She said Leo right. When she said Leo, it sounded like a smirk curling over lips and peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches shared when no one would even look at him. It sounded like stupid pranks and stolen Pokemon games and staying up past curfew to watch the stars. It sounded like the sort of kindness and acceptance he thought he’d never deserve again.

It sounded like his name.

#liper mcdez #lost trio week #my writing #pjo fanfic

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lavenderfairiez · 4 months ago

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I was planning on writing a fic for lost trio week but it came faster than I expected and I ran out of time so instead here's my lost trio playlist that I finally got around to making

@lost-trio-week

#lost trio #the lost trio #the lost trio my beloved #leo valdez #jason grace #piper mclean #the lost hero #lost trio week #pjo playlist #playlists #playlist #spotify playlist #heroes of olympus #pjo hoo toa #riordanverse #jasipereo #valgrace #platonic jasipereo #Spotify

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dayz72 · 4 months ago

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I doing a spa day drawing, and idk weather to post it for cozy or free space any opinion would be helpful

#lost trio #lost trio week #the lost trio #percy jackson #riordanverse #pjo hoo toa #jason grace #leo valdez #piper mclean

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manygeese · 4 months ago

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@lost-trio-week day 5: parents

Esperanza Valdez just made sense, Jason thought. Her ghostly figure was entirely silver in color, but Jason could see where Leo got his curls. She had pulled hers back with a bandana, but the way her eyebrows knitted together was very familiar. He could almost imagine her glaring at Festus because he ate all the hot sauce again, like a certain son of Hephaestus he knew.

But Jason had a mission- that certain son of Hephaestus’ birthday was coming up, and he was completely stumped on what to get him. Tools? He literally had a magic tool belt, and that came with all the wrenches, hammers, and breath mints a guy could want. Clothes? Piper had that covered, she was going to take him shopping at the mall that weekend. Books? Dyslexia was a bitch, plain and simple.

Yup, Jason had something of a problem. But! Nico had volunteered to help him, since he was in a similar situation with Leo’s birthday gift. So here they were, on an appropriately dark and spooky summer night, filling a pit with Coca Cola and french fries to summon some ghosts- or one particular ghost. It looked like it had worked.

“Good evening, my lady. I crave a boon,” Jason stated, kneeling before the spirit as one would to an Olympian.

Miss Valdez’s face scrunched up in both humor and confusion. “‘My lady?’ ‘Crave a boon?’ I’m flattered, kid, but I’m no goddess.”

“Sorry, my lady. I mean- ma’am.”

“You can get off of the ground, y’know? Your jeans’ll be ruined if you stay there any longer. Grass stains are tough.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” Jason resisted the urge to salute once he was done dusting himself off.

Miss Valdez snickered. “Before you get into craving boons and the like, why don’t you tell me who you are?”

“Jason Grace, former praetor of the 12th Legion Fulminata, current Pontifex Maximus of Camp Jupiter, hero of Olympus, slayer of the titan Krios, ma’am. Um, and more importantly, a friend of Leo’s.”

The ghost’s eyes seemed to light up at the mention of her son. “Mi hijo,” she crooned, clasping her hands together. “You’re a friend of mi hijo Leo? How is he?”

“Yes, ma’am. He’s doing quite well, ma’am.” He intentionally left out the part about Leo blowing himself up for the good of the world. That was a story for another time.

“How old is he? The clock doesn’t work so well down in the Underworld, it’s still saying BCE. Hard to keep track of time and all. Oh, he must be getting so big.”

Jason chuckled. “He’s fifteen going on sixteen, but nobody’s calling him big.”

Miss Valdez got this wistful look in her eyes. “You have to bring him to see me sometime. I miss him more than anything.”

Nico’s eyes widened and he waved his hands like he was calling a timeout. “I have an idea,” he mouthed, but Jason needed to get his prescription updated, so it looked more like “I have an IKEA.” Or an icee? Yeah, it was probably icee. But Jason knew this to be untrue, since he had just poured his last one into the pit. His brows furrowed, but he smiled politely at the specter before excusing himself. “Um, may I have a moment, ma’am?”

“Of course,” she answered, taking the time to press her ear to the side of a tree like she was trying to open a safe. “God, I haven’t seen real trees in years,” she muttered.

“Do you need more icees?” Jason whispered conspiratorially. “I can run down to the corner store if you need.”

Nico made a face. “What? No, I just have an idea. I was just thinking about what Esperanza said: maybe we could set up a picnic out here and then surprise him with a ghost visit. I know that I like to be ambushed by ghosts when I eat my lunch.” He snorted at his own half-joke.

Jason nodded enthusiastically. “A-and we could ask Miss Valdez about his favorite foods! And make them for him!”

“Hmm? What was that, kid?” Miss Valdez’s head snapped up from where it was trained on a blade of grass swayed in the breeze.

“Um, uh, do you remember what Leo liked to eat as a kid, ma’am?”

“Goodness, you can stop with the ‘ma’am’ thing. But he always loved tres leches cake! I can give you the recipe. And when I had the time, I would make him a grilled cheese for his lunch at school. It would be cold, but he always hugged me extra tight when he got home on those days.” Miss Valdez reached up to tighten her bandana. “Though now that I think about it, he probably just heated it up on his own. Clever boy.”

Jason nearly jumped for joy. He could have hugged her. And he did indeed try, which caused the woman to laugh when he fell through her apparition. “Thank you,” he mumbled into the dirt sheepishly.

“No problem, niño. Really, I should be thanking you! Fresh air is nothing short of a miracle when you’ve been dead as long as I have,” Miss Valdez responded, clearly joking, but something in her eyes said she was sincere. She had big, round ones, that were probably a wonderful shade of brown when she was alive.

Yeah, Jason thought he had hit the jackpot gift wise.

~*~

If you were to look up the definition of ��tryhard”, a picture of Tristan McLean would pop up, Leo thought. Then again, he’d also appear if you looked up any of the following terms: bombshell, hot, gorgeous, gay awakening, etc.

He was on a quest with Will and Clarisse (God, that lady scared him- like she was cool and all, but he would be relieved when she left for Arizona at the end of summer). It was a classic “we don’t have phones nor do we trust the post, so you have to go give Camp Jupiter X, Y and Z” quest, but long story short, hellhounds sucked a lot and Leo’s legs were tired.

Chiron and the praetors of Camp Jupiter had been working on a sort of housing system for demigods- a network of safe havens all across the country. Piper’s dad had signed up as soon as possible, now that he knew a little about the demigod world. That had been one hell of a conversation.

So that was how he ended up sitting on the floor of a millionaire’s gigantic living room, tinkering with the skeleton of a Stymphalian bird, with a scary lady snoring on the couch behind him and a lanky blonde dude curled up on an armchair in front. He had taken the opportunity to catch up on some of his favorite shows while he had access to a TV.

“Hey, kid.”

Nothing like a spooky voice to wake a guy up!

Leo startled, making the Stymphalian bird fly up in the air. For one second, he almost thought it was alive again, so he reached for his tool belt.

“Woah, there,” the voice laughed, “hold your horses. It’s just me. Piper’s dad? You didn’t pull a Jason and forget your entire life, right?”

Leo snorted. “You weren’t even there for that part!”

Mr. McLean stepped forward into the dim light of the lamp. Yup, just as Leo suspected: he had a chronic case of looking-good-in-whatever-lighting-he-was-in-itis. Then again, he had already diagnosed his friend’s father with that condition last Christmas, when he spent the holidays with Jason at Camp Jupiter.

Truth be told, Leo was getting a little tired of the man. All throughout dinner Mr. McLean had been all “is there enough salt on it? Do you need more? What do you want to drink? Can I get you anything else? Tell me if you need anything.” At first, he had preened under the attention, but right now, what he needed was some time to get the logistics of his pet project figured out.

“What are you working on?” Mr. McLean asked politely.

“Carrier pigeon,” he answered.

“Nice. What’s it do?”

“Carries things.”

Mr. McLean smiled. “Why do you need it?”

“So, like, you know how we were sent here to deliver some important documents or whatever? Next time, this little guy is gonna do it for us. If I can figure out how to animate said little guy’s skeleton again, that is.”

“How are you gonna animate it?”

As a mechanic, Leo admired the fact that Mr. McLean was so persistent, but as a teen, he wished he would give up already. “I dunno.”

Mr. McLean gave him a soft, slightly awkward smile, like he was still trying to get used to using his facial muscles. “Listen, Leo,” the man sighed, “it’s getting late. You should sleep.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Oh, wait!” Leo snickered at his own joke.

“What?”

Oh, shit. He forgot that he and Piper had left that part out of the explanation of the demigod world they had given to Mr. McLean. Damn, that line would’ve killed with anyone else. Haha, see what he did there? “Uh, nothing. Ignore it.”

“No, what did you mean by that? ‘Oh, wait?’”

“Uh, I died,” Leo mumbled, hoping that he wouldn’t ask again.

Much to Leo’s chagrin, Mr. McLean asked again. Yay. “Huh?”

Leo decided to take a different route. “I died! I’m a ghost! Boo! All that jazz!”

The man snorted, though he still looked confused. “Alright. But you know what they say about ghosts- they sleep like the dead.”

Despite himself, Leo laughed. “That’s silly.”

“Not as silly as ghosts. They’re too boo-fy!”

Leo giggled. “God, that’s bad. Was-” he managed before succumbing to his laughter once again- “was that supposed to be goofy?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You’re the one who’s a ghost, after all.”

“I’m not goofy. No, siree,” Leo denied.

“Oh really?” Mr. McLean ruffled his hair and pulled him up so that he was standing. He patted him on the shoulder. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“I can fool anyone, really,” Leo quipped. “I fooled Jason and Piper into being my best friends.”

Mr. McLean guided him towards a hallway that opened at one side of the living room. Leo could see that he was furrowing his dark brows. “What makes you say you fooled them?”

Leo shrugged, scowling inwardly. He just had to ruin it, didn’t he? “I mean, technically it was Hera.”

Mr. McLean shook his head. “I’m serious, Leo.”

Leo laughed awkwardly. “Hi serious, I’m dead?”

Mr. McLean frowned as he opened one of the doors in the corridor. It revealed a blank bedroom, probably for a guest. Desperate to get out of the conversation, Leo moved to go inside, but Mr. McLean stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and a concerned look. “People like you for you. You know that, right? You’ve never had to trick anybody worth anything into liking you. Remember that.” He tapped his temple to emphasize his point.

Leo gave a small, confused, sort of self-conscious smile, but it was still a smile. “Thanks, Mr. McLean.” Leo waddled over to the bed and collapsed on it, suddenly feeling very tired. It was only when he saw the door close completely that he realized he’d been tricked by his best friend’s dad into going to bed at an appropriate time. “Good game, Mr. McLean. Good game indeed.”

~*~

The Underworld kind of sucked, Piper found, especially when you were on a quest with an immortal huntress who was your best friend’s sister and the demigod equivalent of a Spirit Halloween, AKA Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo. She had no problems with the people by themselves, but she had gotten sick of their arguing long before the murderous mania of a former blonde bombshell descended upon them.

She wasn’t even supposed to be there. She had made plans with Leo and Jason to meet up at a trampoline park, but then a fury showed up out of nowhere and whisked her away to what was effectively Hell, and it was like, this whole thing. Apparently, the lady had gotten her confused with Percy. One hell of a typo.

They had been headed to the fields of punishment because someone had escaped and Hades decided to make it their problem. Classic Gods. Their charge walked straight into them in the form of Beryl Grace.

“Nico, why isn’t she dying?” Thalia barked, shooting another round of arrows at the ghost, which just succeeded in embedding their silver tips in the tree behind it. She released a roar like that of thunder, although it could’ve just been the actual thunder from the lightning she was summoning. A bolt of it came down on Beryl’s head, but it just made her look slightly more insane.

The woman’s red lipstick was a stain on her otherwise pale face, twisting up in a mad smile. It was smudged. Maybe she had been kissing someone, or more likely drinking their blood. Her blue eyes were crazed, darting around like a prey animal.

She had seen that look before.

When Jason had woken up, after the fight with Ma Gasket, he’d shot upwards and whipped his head around. She had looked into his sky blue eyes and seen a deer and a hunter at the same time, ready to fight, not quite ready to die.

And his smile was a sign the apple had indeed fallen far from the tree, but the twitching of Jason’s lips when he hadn’t yet learned to laugh (or hadn’t accepted that he could) was reminiscent of the grin’s neverending movement.

“She’s a ghost, dumbass, she can’t die again,” Nico snapped. He had dropped his sword into the river Lethe, so he just stood there like a fuming GTA NPC.

Piper was the only one to notice that Beryl was backing up towards the forest, aiming to disappear into the fields of Asphodel most likely. “Guys?” She asked, looking around to the other two members of the quest. They were still squabbling. “Guys!”

“I’ve killed a ghost before! At least, I’m pretty sure I could,” Thalia yelled.

“What part of non-corporeal do you not understand?” Nico screamed.

Piper reluctantly began following the spirit just as it bolted into the woods. She swiped a rock up from the dusty forest floor, just to have something on her in case she had to attack. Look, she usually carried Katoptris on her, but she was worried they were going to confiscate it at the trampoline park, okay?

The only sound was the thump of her footfalls, puffs of her breath, and the whooshing sound Beryl made as she passed through trees. The branches were hanging low and, fortunately in most cases except this one, Piper was not a ghost, so she had to bat them out of the way. She was getting pretty damn tired of it. Apparently, ghosts could run fast. “Uh, Beryl- I mean, Miss Grace, can I get your autograph?” She tried.

The ghost’s head snapped back to face her. The gash in her midriff was bleeding somehow, leaking steam and a smell like rain. A piece of car door and shards of glass were lodged in the gap, signs of her death. Her fists clenched and unclenched anxiously at her sides. She stayed rooted in her place. “An autograph?”

“Yup,” Piper confirmed, rocking back and forth from her heels to her toes. “I’m a huge fan of your work.”

Beryl’s pointer and middle fingers twitched and she brought them to her mouth. She looked disappointed by the fact that they were merely flesh (or the ghost equivalent), no cigarette in sight. Her bloodshot eyes met Piper’s as she fumbled with the fabric of her dress. She grunted. “Oh, yeah? What’s your favorite?”

“Me and my dad watch your TV shows together,” Piper lied.

“Mhm,” Beryl hummed placatingly, turning around with her shaking fingers pressed to her mouth. Her glazed eyes disappeared under her dull blonde hair. “Just go get the groceries, Thalia.”

“Thalia? Um, Miss Grace, I’m not Thalia.” Piper followed, stifling a cough when she breathed in some of the fog.

“Nonsense, Thalia. I know you’re just trying to get out of it, you lazy brat,” Beryl spat. “Go get the goddamn groceries.”

“I… I don’t have any money.”

The ghost heaved a deep sigh. “Just get out of the house, Thalia. Mommy needs some alone time.”

Piper tried not to visibly recoil when the woman pushed her away, cold hand going right through her ribcage. “B-but, Miss Grace-”

“Thalia,” the spirit growled, frigid hands landing on both of her wrists, momentarily becoming solid, “I will not say it again, you little bitch.” Her tone was uneven and hostile. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

Piper’s forearms were completely numb where Beryl’s hands had covered them. The woman began to retreat mumbling something to herself that barely reached Piper’s ears:

“The day I get rid of those ungrateful little rats will be the happiest day of my life.”

Oh, yeah. This was the lady who left Piper’s best friend to the wolves at the tender age of two. Of course she was an asshole. Regretting not doing it earlier, Piper gripped the rock in her hand and made a last ditch effort to hurt the woman who had deprived Jason of what family felt like for so long. And if it let her, Nico, and Thalia finish their quest, that was a happy accident.

The stone split open on Beryl’s head, revealing an inky black ore on the inside. Stygian Iron. Huh. Piper guessed Tyche was on her side that day.

Thalia and Nico’s footsteps crunched in the dirt behind her, their yelps of belayed victory echoing around Piper, falling on deaf ears. Her gaze was still focused on Beryl’s unconscious head, hair spilling around her face. Her blue eyes weren’t open, but somehow, they were staring straight into Piper’s soul.

For a split second, Piper’s eyes flitted over to Thalia’s. She was glad she couldn’t completely understand the rage she found there. Now that she thought about it, she had seen that look in Jason’s eyes an unsettling amount of times.

#leo valdez #jason grace #piper mclean #beryl grace #tristan mclean #esperanza valdez #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #lost trio week #the lost trio #lost trio #heroes of olympus fanfic

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the-goddess-of-gays · 4 months ago

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somebody encourage me to write please

I have many ideas and zero motivation :)

#percy jackson and the olympians #pjo hoo toa #heroes of olympus #leo valdez #piper mclean #jason grace #lost trio week #the lost trio

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crookedghosts · 4 months ago

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beauty, heartbreaker, repair boy (labyrinth)

Oneshot || 6.9k words || Jason Grace/Leo Valdez/Piper McLean || Lost Trio Week Day One: Nicknames || Canon Divergence/Light Angst/Hurt/Comfort || Ao3

Happy Lost Trio Week! My love and apologies to all participants and lovely organizers @lost-trio-week - I've had so much fun and also have made myself so unwell with this fic. like I've said. they are so cosmic it hurts. This is my take on how the three of them complete each other, and what happens when Jason/Piper presume Leo dead at the end of BoO (and what happens when they reunite).

and yes, I told it through the lens of nicknames and yes, the title is supposed to be all three of them and Leo, the beauty, heartbreaker, and repair boy of all.

Summary on Ao3:

Break up, break free, break through, break down…

Jason, Leo, and Piper’s relationships only work in three’s. Canon-ish through Blood of Olympus, Jason and Piper navigate their fabricated relationship, breakup, and losing their best friend, only to somehow find their way back to each other again. As it turns out, their repair boy was always the answer.

I thought the plane was going down, how’d you turn it right around?

(Jasipereo endgame/Leo comes back, told through the lens of nicknames/endearments)

#lost trio week #my works #leo valdez #piper mclean #jason grace #valgrace #jiper #jasiper #jasipereo #liper #I THINK I wrote all of them into this decently which is my one challenge this week #I should call this AKA the fic that turned me into a jasiper truther #heroes of olympus #pjo #the lost hero

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lost-trio-week · 6 months ago

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Lost trio week is now accepting prompt suggestions! Please leave any suggestions you have in the comments/reblogs of this post or send in an ask if you prefer that!

Prompt suggestions will be open from now until October 28th and will be voted on afterwards (depending on the number of suggestions we get).

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purple-racoon-80 · 4 months ago

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without further ado, here is my first entry for the Lost Trio Week! I chose wilderness, so I put together a bunch of songs that reminded me of Leo and Piper or that I think they would rock out to in their dorm at the Wilderness School. Enjoy <33

@lost-trio-week

#lost trio week #piper mclean #leo valdez #pjo hoo toa #jason grace #the lost trio #Spotify

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kekaki-cupcakes · 4 months ago

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@lost-trio-week day one but very late sketch with inverted colours I’ve never tried for The Wilderness prompt. they think they’re being sneaking. they’re not.

#pjo fandom #pjo #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #percy jackon and the olympians #drawing #digital drawing #leovaldez #leo valdez #piper mclean #piper mclean pjo #jason grace #jason grace pjo #lost trio week #the lost trio #my art

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poppitron360 · 4 months ago

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Lost Trio Week- Day 2: “Mortal AU”

@lost-trio-week

Piper:

Jason (5:00pm): My flight just landed.

Piper (5:02pm): welcome to the city!

Jason (5:02pm): Yeah, well, not ready to explore just yet. Gotta sleep off this jetlag first.

Piper (5:04pm): yh ive got stuff 2 do now

Piper (5:04pm): Im free tomorrow if u wanna tour

Jason (5:04pm): Great! Where should we meet?

Piper (5:10pm): i simply must to take you to this local coffee shop i found.

Piper (5:11pm): the barista is so your type

Jason (5:11pm): Colour me intrigued!

Jason (5:12pm): What’s the address?

“Well, if it isn’t one of my favourite regulars,” the barista nodded at Piper, “How ya been, girl?”

“Hey, Leo!” Piper replied. She gestured to Jason as if she was showing off a prize pig. “I brought a friend!” She announced, “This is Jason.”

Jason stepped forwards and scanned the menu on the chalkboard behind the counter.

“Umm… what’s your tea selection?”

Leo tapped the logo on the price sign, “This is a coffee shop, mi amigo.”

“Are you making fun of my dyslexia?” Jason quipped back.

Leo rolled his eyes, and tapped something on the register screen as he talked. “We do, in fact, sell tea,” he relented.

“What kind?”

He paused his tapping and looked up, “Teas have kinds?”

Jason huffed, “If it’s an option, I’d like Earl Grey, milk, two sugars.”

“Earl Grey? That sounds like a Grandpa drink.”

Piper snorted. “I mean, he’s got a point,” she remarked.

“You’re one to talk, you only drink that overpriced Pumpkin Spiced Latte crap,” Jason countered.

“Well excuse me for enjoying a little seasonal treat!”

Leo clicked his fingers, “Preach, sister!”

They high-fived. Jason rolled his eyes, “Can I just get my tea, please?”

“Yo! Julie!” Leo turned to his co-worker behind him, “Do we sell any Grandpa Tea?”

“I don’t f&^%*ng know, Leo!” Julie snapped, “Do your own f*&$%^ng job!”

Leo turned back and shrugged.

“I’ll have a look in the back for you,” he said, his tone a little more forgiving. Piper saw him snapped at by Julie a lot, “But find a place to sit and wait. You’re holding up my line.”

Leo then went back to nonchalantly tapping at his register, and Jason went to find an empty table while Piper ordered.

Piper found Jason sat in a booth by the window, mindlessly scrolling on his phone. They talked for a while when something caught their attention in the corner of the room.

A TV hang from the ceiling a few booths over. It was playing a news story. The reporter was talking over visuals of a man in a pinstriped suit shaking hands with someone important. Jason immediately blushed and hid his face. The headline scrolling across the screen read: “Politician Gary Jupiter caught in another Sex Scandal.”

“Great,” Jason muttered, “Hi, dad.”

Piper gave him a sympathetic look. Her dad was a disgraced Hollywood movie star, and her mom won Miss America three years running, she knew all about famous parents. She knew all about scandals and controversy. Her family was hit with bankruptcy a few years ago and mostly disappeared from the public eye, but she still had to avoid paparazzi wherever she went.

“I just wish he didn’t have to globally embarrass himself this often!” Jason groaned, “Although, what does it matter? I’ve only met the guy once, and to be honest he’d probably fathered about half the American public. Me and Thalia was just the product of another of his affairs.”

“That sucks, man,” she consoled.

Jason was about to say something else, but Piper quickly shushed him when she saw Leo walking over with a hot cup of steaming something in his hand.

“I got your tea for you,” he said.

“HE WENT TO THE STORE AND BOUGHT SOME!” Came a shout from behind the counter.

“Shut up, Julie!”

“I HAD TO COVER HIS SHIFT SO HE OWES ME!”

“I know, Julie!”

Jason took a sip, “This tastes different from store-bought tea. Did you do anything to it?”

Leo blushed, “I added a little bit of cinnamon. Sorry, I should’ve probably checked with you beforehand- allergies and stuff. They talked our ear off about it in staff training last week. I can take it back if you like-“

“No! No! It’s delicious, thank you.”

Piper smiled.

“Oh… okay…”

“HE SAYS HE THINKS YOU’RE CUTE AND HE WANTS YOUR NUMBER!”

Leo’s cheeks turned the colour of beetroot. He cringed, “Thank you, Julie!”

Julie flipped him the bird from across the room.

Leo didn’t make eye contact with Jason. “That’ll be 2.25,” he muttered in a small voice. Then, more confident, “She was only joking by the way. She likes to mess my life up like that. Ignore her.”

“Oh…” Jason said, his tone rather disappointed. Piper raised an eyebrow.

Leo looked like he was about to leave, but Piper saw how Jason was glancing at Leo out of the corner of his eye. She knew she had to intervene- get these two talking.

“So, Leo,” she said, “What made you come to work here?”

“Oh! Um…” Leo turned around, “I’m only working here ‘til I can scrape together enough dough to buy my own machine shop.”

Piper smiled, coyly, “Oh really?”

“Yeah…”

Stretching out her leg, Piper hooked her foot around a chair from a nearby table and dragged it over next to the booth. She gestured at Leo to sit in it, “Tell us more.”

She caught Jason’s eye and winked. Jason blushed.

Leo looked nervously back at the counter, “I’m going on break, now, Julie!”

“Whatever!”

Leo sat down.

“Why a machine shop?” Piper asked.

“Well… I grew up with machines. I used to help my mom down at her warehouse before it burned down.”

“So you’re good with machines?”

“Oh, sister,” Leo leaned back in his chair, confidently, “I’m the best there is.”

Piper glanced at Jason.

“Machines,” she mouthed. She pointed at her bicep, “Big muscles.”

“Shut up!” Jason mouthed back.

They talked for a while. After some time, Jason finished his tea and ordered another.

Leo had brought them four more rounds of drinks before Julie snapped at him to get back to work.

“Welp,” Leo patted the table, “I really gotta go. See ya, Piper. See ya, Earl.”

‘My name is Jason!”

“Nah. Your name’s Earl. Earl Grey,” Leo gave him a mischievous smile, “You know it’s a barista’s job to get your name horrifically wrong. It’s part of my contract.”

He turned to leave, but before he could, Jason called to him.

“Wait-“

“…yeah?”

Jason was blushing profusely now, “Did-Did you want my number?”

Leo grinned, looking way too happy about the prospect, “Okay!”

Jason grabbed a napkin and a pen and scribbled it down. Leo took it and bounded back to the counter, grinning.

Jason turned back to Piper, “Thank fuck- drank too much tea and now I really gotta pee.”

Jason stayed in the city for a few more weeks. He met with Piper almost every day at the coffee shop.

Leo would come and talk when Julie let him. It was obvious that he was smitten with Jason, and Jason liked him back. Piper had to repeatedly resist the urge to yell “ugh, just kiss already!” multiple times a day.

It was the day before Jason had to leave, and Piper was getting impatient. She was about to do something drastic, when…

“Hey, Piper! Sorry, I actually can’t stay very long. I’m just here to meet Leo- we have a date!”

“OH MY GODDD!!’ Piper, squealed, bouncing up and down, “Fucking FINALLY!!”

“I just need to wait for him to finish his shift-“

Just then, Leo came out of the store cupboard, dressed in a white shirt and suspenders. He ran his hands through his hair, nervously, then hung his apron on a hook.

“…Hi,” Jason said, his mouth open.

“Hi,” Leo replied, “You ready to go?”

“Uhh… yeah. What do you wanna do?”

“Hmm…” Leo scratched his chin, “How about… coffee?”

Jason giggled and blushed. Leo offered Jason his arm and led him out the door.

“Don’t fuck it up, Jase!” Piper teased after him.

“I’m a professional!” Jason countered.

Piper (8:01pm): Babe it finally happened.

Piper (8:01pm): Leo and Jason have a date!!!

Shel (8:02pm): OH

Shel (8:02pm): MY

Shel (8:02pm): GOD

Shel (8:03pm): FINALLY!!!

Piper (8:04pm): IKR!!!

Shel (8:05pm): Tell. Me. EVERYTHING.

Piper (8:10pm): still wating on a call from jason 2 know how it went

Piper (8:11pm): will keep you updated

At 9:30 in the evening, Jason called.

“Hey, Jase. How did your date with Leo go?”

Jason smiled, shyly over the video call, “He’s… really smart. And cute. And short. But, like, in a cute way. It’s a shame my flight leaves tomorrow.”

“Did… did you tell him you were leaving?”

Jason looked down, ashamed, “No, I didn’t. I probably should’ve, it’s just… things were going so well and I didn’t wanna ruin it. But I should tell him.”

They talked for a while about how the date went. She could tell that Jason was hiding something. She hoped he was planning some big gesture. Shel would eat that story up.

“It’s getting late, I’m gonna sign off,” Piper said eventually, turning over on her back and hovering her finger over the hang up button.

“Okay.”

“If you want, I can drive you to the airport?”

“No, it’s fine…” Jason had a faraway look on his face, “I have some… errands I need to run. I’ll see you around.”

Piper tried not to show that she was grinning ear-to-ear, “Alright then. Bye.”

She hung up.

Piper (10:34pm): jason’s planning something i can tell.

Shel (10:35pm): THE DATE WENT WELL??

Piper (10:35pm): SO well.

Piper (10:35pm): Idk what he’s gonna do but ill be there at the coffee shop tomorrow.

Piper (10:36pm): I wanna watch how this plays out

Shel (10:38pm): omigod lmk how it goes!!!!

Jason:

Jason watched the image of Piper’s face blink off the screen.

He took a deep breath, then dialled a different number.

It rang eight times, then went to voicemail.

“Hey dad…? I need a favour.”

Jason walked up to the counter the next day.

“Well if it isn’t Earl!”

Jason smiled, “Can I get-“

“Coming right up,” Leo cut him off, “Milk, two sugars. I know the drill.”

He set about making brewing the kettle.

“Can I take it to go this time?” Jason asked.

Leo paused, and looked up from his work, “You’re… not sticking around?”

“No, I’ve got a flight to catch. In about an hour.”

“A… a flight?” There was sadness in his voice. He looked like he was about to say something- but just then, the kettle made a loud ping!

“Tea’s ready.” Leo wouldn’t meet Jason’s eyes as he poured the boiling water into the heat-proof cup and added the sugar and milk.

“Did you add-“

“A bit of cinnamon. Yup.”

“Thanks,” Jason took the tea, and turned to leave, then stopped and doubled back. “Oh, I almost forgot-“ he took a deep breath, and pulled a the stack of cash out of his pocket, “Your tip.”

The giant wad was almost too much to fit into one hand.

“Wh-Wha-“ Leo spluttered. He reached out tentatively, but pulled his hand away.

“Here, take it,” Jason waved the cash at him.

“H-how much is that…?”

“Easily enough to put a down-payment on a machine shop. Take it.”

Leo’s mouth hung open in shock, “I… I can’t accept this. For one thing, it’s definitely against company policy-“

“Fine, then. Don’t accept it as a tip, but an investment.”

“An… investment?”

“Yes. From a future customer at your shop,” Jason shoved the wad at him, “Look, man, I’m holding up the line and my tea’s getting cold. Do you want the money or not?”

Leo grabbed the money with trembling hands. “Is this for real?”

“Yeah.”

“B-but you’re leaving.”

“I’ll come back.”

“A-and the money’s legit? You’re not, like, committing tax fraud just to give it to me?”

“No, I’m committing tax fraud anyway.”

“Oh…”

“That was a joke. I just called in a few favours. No big deal.”

“Oh!” Leo grinned, “So…”

“Yeah…”

“Thank you, Jason.”

“Hey!” Jason beamed at him, “You said my name right!”

“Yeah, that’s because I’m not a barista anymore!” He took off his apron and threw it on the ground, then turned to his co-worker, “Hey Julie! Guess what? I f^%$¡ng quit!”

“What-“

“Addios!”

“But-“

Before Julie could stop him, Leo marched out of the front doors, putting up the finger in her direction as he did so.

“YOU STILL NEED TO PUT IN YOUR TWO WEEK’S NOTICE!!” Julie called, but Leo was out the door.

“What are you doing standing there, doofus?”

Someone had stood up on a table at the back. Jason hadn’t noticed them before. They wore a leopard-print trench-coat and heart-shaped sunglasses, but Jason recognised the voice.

“Piper?? What’re you-“

She shed her elaborate disguise, and stared at him, “You’ve got a flight to catch, right?”

“Yeah, but I-“

“So?! Chase after him!”

“But-“

“Kiss him in the rain!”

Jason glanced out the window, “It’s not raining.”

“Doesn’t matter! Just don’t let him get away!”

Jason looked out at the busy high street. Leo, having doffed his barista’s apron was parading down the sidewalk, his head held high. He looked so cute- so unabashedly himself- that Jason swore in that moment that wasn’t gonna let Leo be the one that got away.

“Jason!! What’re you waiting for?” Piper insisted.

Jason turned to her.

“Piper?”

“Yeah?”

“Hold my tea.”

With that, he was out the door and running. Running down the high street. Running after Leo. Jason hadn’t felt this alive since… since he could remember.

“Leo wait-“ Jason yelled.

The former barista turned in shock to see Jason standing, completely out of breath, in front of him.

“I *wheeze* just wanted to *wheeze* say that *wheeze*-“ he spluttered.

Leo chuckled, “What is it?”

“Hold on… lemme catch my breath…” Jason stood with his hands on his knees and breathing hard, “I just wanted to say that… I’d like to go on another date with you.”

“Yeah that was kind of already implied,” Leo said.

“It… it was?”

“Look you’re leaving town- that’ll complicate things, sure. But we’d already established that you’re coming back. I’ve got your number. You could’ve just called me on the plane if you wanted to keep chatting.”

“…yeah.”

“So… what was this gesture meant to accomplish exactly?”

“That I… I like you, I guess?” Jason said, sheepishly.

Leo laughed, “But I thought we’d already established that, too?”

Jason threw up his hands, “I don’t know! I thought it was romantic. There’s always scenes like these in shitty rom coms on TV. Sue me!”

Leo grinned, “Well, it’s very sweet. But also stupid.”

“Okay, well, I just realised that I never got to say goodbye before I left. Yes- that! Good! I’m going with that.”

“Alright then. Goodbye, Jason. I’ll probably text you in the next half hour.”

“Okay then… bye, I guess.”

Leo walked away.

“Well that was awkward.”

“Gah!” Jason nearly jumped out of his skin. Behind him stood Piper, slurping on an iced latte. She had donned her sunglasses and trench-coat again, and had a big grin on her face. “Geez, I thought you were a professional?”

“That was your idea!”

Piper shrugged, “I’m an agent of chaos. Now you better run or you’re gonna miss your flight. Here’s your tea.”

“More running?” Jason groaned, as he took the cup and sprinted off in the direction of the airport.

— — — — — — — — —

Technically Valgrace and not Lost Trio, but I thought having Piper narrate and orchestrate most of it would even it out.

I’ve never even read a Coffee Shop AU before, let alone written one- could you tell?

Trying to subvert the stupidest romance tropes by just making it as stupidly awkward as possible. This might be unreadably cringe but hey at least I got something out before the deadline!! (And neglected all my irl responsibilities to do so!!)

Still learning how to write mortal AUs- it’s something I find difficult as someone who struggles with existing in real life anyway. I’m loving that this event is taking me out of my comfort zone and getting me to write in a style I wouldn’t usually write in. I can’t wait to see y’all’s responses when I get back from Hiatus.

Btw, Julie is a reference to Julie Powers from the Scott Pilgrim movie/show/graphic novels (played by Aubrey Plaza). There’s actually a lot of subtle references/homages to my favourite things in this fic.

I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see y’all tomorrow for the next prompt!!

@euryvices-deactivated20241019 @deciduowl @lavenderfairiez @ottpopfic @ginnyluna @groverapologist @echo-stimmingrose @demigod-shenanigans @keefessketchbook @sleepyycapybara @123letsgobestie @kaleidoskuls @fairytalesociology @four-leafed-queer-gal @child-of-helios @green-tea217 @puzzled-pegasus @twomanyfandomshelp @lokiwiiiiiii @yoshuko-ew @frayna-of-the-hollow @via-rant @daonedaonlyskh @hadeslegacyhephgirl @siimplyapril @pjowasmy1stfandom @thetourturedwritersclub @m-for-now

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demigod-shenanigans · 4 months ago

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Summary: The quest to earn Jason’s first college recommendation letter had gone almost too well. The second one was currently trying to make up for this by being a massive pain in the ass.

After trips to three different sacred libraries and hours of stumbling through a cave system in the dark, Piper should have wanted nothing more than to have this stupid quest over and done with.

Except, well… the completion of their quest required them to find the Mnemosyne—the Fountain of Memory. And considering no one had ever bothered to fix the mess that the Mist had made of Leo and Piper’s memories, or the mess that the Queen of the Heavens had made of Jason’s… maybe there were things Piper wanted just a little more than going home.

Word Count: ~6K

Rating: Teen and Up

I did hope to eventually do at least some key moments from Jason’s college recommendation letter quests, so here’s one of them! So so stoked to finally be sharing my @lost-trio-week fics with you guys! I’m really excited about the event, I cannot wait to read everyone’s works and look at people’s art!!

This was technically written for the Wilderness prompt, but did end up a little nod to the Nickname prompt, too.

There’s some valgrace in this, but it’s relatively minor. This is, first and foremost, a fic focused on both the lost trio in general and Leo and Piper’s friendship specifically.

———

As they approached the third hour of stumbling through the dark underground tunnels, still looking like varying degrees of drowned rat in their drying, muddy clothes, Piper decided that this quest was much worse than the previous one had been.

For all that had gone wrong on the quest to earn Jason’s first college recommendation letter, it had been clear Apollo had at least intended to give them an easy win as an apology for temporarily getting Jason killed the previous year.

Mnemosyne had clearly had no such restraint. It wasn’t that the Titaness had been unkind—she’d been nice enough when they’d spoken to her—but she’d taken one look at them, decided they seemed competent and given them a quest that was a massive pain in the ass.

They were looking for the Mnemosyne—the Fountain of Memory—which had the exact same name as the Titaness for maximum confusion.

One of the children of Moneta, Mnemosyne’s Roman aspect, had been involved in an unfortunate Lethe-related incident on their last mission and had since had a worrying amount of memory problems. This would have been disturbing enough for your average demigod, but considering that poor kid’s whole power set revolved around memories, they’d taken things really badly.

The three of them had immediately agreed to help—honestly might have even if it hadn’t been for the college recommendation letters. They were all uncomfortably familiar with the concept of demigod memory issues and wouldn’t have wished that on anyone.

Piper still stood by that decision, even as they continued to stumble through the dark with only Leo’s fire lighting the way, as a little dip in an underground river had utterly wrecked their flashlights.

The issue Piper had with this mission didn’t come from what they were trying to achieve. It came from the fact that they’d gone through three different sacred libraries in different parts of the country in search of a flask that could hold the black waters of the Fountain, only to learn afterwards that the main part of the Fountain was in the Underworld.

Maybe this would have been fine, but no version of Eurydice in the myths had ever lived to touch the sunlight again, and none of them had been all that eager to find out what might happen if they took Jason back into the Underworld.

Unfortunately, this meant they had to deal with the only other place they knew that might still hold the water of the Fountain, if they were lucky: the Bluespring Caverns in Indiana, aka the residence of the Oracle of Trophonius.

As in: the very same place that Lester and Meg had partially blown up as a precaution about a year ago.

Originally, the Fountain had been above ground. But whatever explosive had been used to destroy the caverns had done its job so thoroughly that it had taken the waters with it, which made them much harder to find than they’d initially hoped.

The cave system was as vast as it was currently unstable, and it made for quite the experience. Several times, Piper had found herself wishing they had Hazel with them.

When, after hours of wandering around semi-aimlessly, the cave in front of them widened into a cavern and they could finally, finally hear the sound of running water that sounded more like a stream and less like a river, the three of them let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Wow, that stuff really is pitch black,” Leo concluded, holding his flaming hand over the river so he could take a proper look. “So, how do we find out if this is really the Mnemosyne and not, like, the grimiest stream of all time? Because, as the guy who has the most experience with Titans between the three of us, trust me, if Calypso had sent me to find magic memory water and I’d presented her with a bottle full of mud instead, she would not have found that especially funny.”

Before Piper could suggest something really foolish—like how one of them should try drinking the waters and seeing if it fixed the holes in her own memories, which she’d been secretly hoping to do ever since they’d gotten this mission—a figure took shape in front of them.

“You’ve come to the right place,” the Titaness confirmed before she’d even fully taken form. Her dark hair blended nicely into the general darkness of the cavern. Her luminous white robes, which were almost startlingly bright, were still covered in black words like they’d been the first time they’d met her, which definitely did not help her beat the walking e-reader allegations.

The words seemed to have shifted. Maybe someone had skipped a few pages on her cloak since the last time they’d seen her.

“How’s Zac doing?” Jason asked immediately, clearly worried. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know this kid. Of course he was worried about them. He had first-hand experience with having his memories utterly shaken out of him.

“They’re still very confused.” Mnemosyne sighed. “But the waters will help.”

Piper tried not to be annoyed. If the Titaness could have appeared by the stream any time she wanted, why hadn’t she just taken the waters to her child herself?

But she knew by now that things were just like that in their world. There were rules, and gods didn’t do their own quests if they could send random demigods to fetch their magic items instead. That wasn’t ever going to change.

“So, did you just pop up here to confirm we’re not about to gather mud water?” Leo asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No.” The Titaness eyed the stream, then looked between the three of them. “I wasn’t sure how much of the Fountain would be left after everything that happened here last year, or I would have made you this offer much sooner. But if the three of you wish to have your own memories restored, you may drink.”

Piper’s body went rigid, and she could tell Leo and Jason were just as affected. Apparently all three of them had had the same thought for the entire mission—that this might be their one chance to finally get back the memories that Hera and the Mist had taken from them.

“How- how did you know-” Jason asked, startled.

“I’m the Titaness of memory, child.” She smiled at him. “I never forget a story, and yours is quite unique. I’ve heard it told many times, and I remember each version in detail.”

“That sounds like a massive headache waiting to happen,” Leo muttered.

The Titaness laughed. “Perhaps. It can be both a blessing and a curse. But I knew you three have had parts of your memory taken from you, and it was not hard to guess you might wish to regain it. Memory is powerful. It shapes us into who we are as people. Mortals aren’t made to retain all memories, of course, but losing too many can utterly reshape their being.” She eyed Jason with a curiosity in her eyes that Piper really did not like. “I’ll admit, part of the reason I offered you this quest was that I wanted to meet you, Jason Grace. I was intrigued to see who you’d become, with so much of your sense of self stripped away.”

The way she spoke wasn’t unkind, but it was a tone Piper was used to with most gods—one that suggested demigods served mainly as a source of entertainment for higher powers, with no regard for how it made them feel.

“And? Happy with the results?” Piper snapped.

Even in the dark, she could tell Jason was trembling. She moved to stand beside him. Apparently, Leo had had the same impulse—within a moment, they were flanking Jason.

“The path he might have carved with his memories intact would have been very different from the one he carved with them gone,” Mnemosyne said, tone gentle. “It’s important for me to reflect on this, every now and again. The way forgetting can be just as powerful as remembering. Lethe and Mnemosyne balance each other out for a reason. Your friend served as an excellent reminder.”

“I understand that Juno did what she had to do, at the time,” Jason said quietly. He squeezed Piper’s hand. They hadn’t been dating for more than a year, and they were better off for it, but their natural instinct for comforting touches had stayed. “I wouldn’t change what’s happened for anything. But now that the camps are united… is it selfish? To want to remember?”

“Not at all. Being the Titaness of memory, I may be slightly biased on the matter, but wanting to remember has always seemed like a natural instinct to me.” She smiled at him. “The waters could return your memories. Restore what was yours. But you must know that it will restore all of them. Memories can be a heavy burden, sometimes.”

“Is it safe? Drinking from the stream?” Piper asked hesitantly.

“For you and Valdez? Utterly.” Mnemosyne confirmed immediately. “The memories you’ve lost are still within you. A single sip is all you’ll need.”

“And for Jason?” Piper probed, not liking the fact that he'd been left off the list one bit.

“He’ll need to drink more deeply than you two. It’s not without dangers. The memories may overwhelm him.” Mnemosyne turned towards Jason again. “I’m grateful for everything you’ve done to help my child. You will have your recommendation letter regardless of whether you choose to drink. But know that if you choose not to regain your memories now, it’s likely you never will. The more time passes, the greater the dissonance will be between the person you were in those memories and the person you’ve grown into without them. Even now, there’s no telling how well you’ll handle this fact. Waiting longer… it would simply be too dangerous.”

Piper knew Jason wouldn’t reject the waters just because it was risky to drink them. He’d gone through two quests assuming he was destined to die. He’d never been as scared for his own well-being as would have probably been good for him.

Besides, she’d heard the way he talked about Reyna. He’d forgotten so much—felt so detached from the memories he didhave—that only the shape of loving her remained. And for all of Piper’s insistence that that shape could be filled with new memories, she knew that it had never felt like that was enough to Jason.

She knew what he’d say even before the words left his mouth.

“I’ll do it.” Jason wrung his hands. “I want to remember who I was. All of it. Even the bad parts. It’s a burden I don’t want to keep living without.”

The Titaness seemed to like this answer.

“I’ll leave you to the privacy of your memories, then,” she announced, disappearing in a swirl of letters.

Piper wasn’t sure there could be any real privacy, considering she was the Titaness of memory and this was her stream, but she appreciated the sentiment.

~~~~

They gathered some of the water up in a flask. It was far more than Zac would need—Mnemosyne had said that a gulp or two should be more than enough to fix them right up—but they figured it couldn’t hurt to have extra, just in case the usual shenanigans happened or someone else might need the power of the waters in the future. Who knew how long this stream was going to stick around here. It was pure luck that it had even still been here at all, linked as it was to the destroyed Oracle. There was a good chance it would shift and reappear elsewhere in the future, and who knew how soon they’d be able to find it again when that happened.

Once Leo had safely stored the flask in his tool belt, the three of them kneeled side by side at the bank of the stream.

Jason was trembling, staring intently into the water but making no move to touch him.

“Whatever happens, we’ll be right here with you, okay?” Leo said gently, one arm wrapping around his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“It’s just… what if I remember who I was and decide I don’t like myself?” Jason asked, voice suddenly small. There was clearly more he wanted to say. Piper could tell he was afraid.

But Jason had never been good at letting himself be vulnerable.

Thankfully, Leo had the situation handled. He elbowed his boyfriend, raising an eyebrow. “Are you implying I have a terrible taste in men? Because I cannot let that stand.”

He leaned forward and kissed him.

Jason laughed, despite everything.

“You always manage to make me feel better. I don’t know how you do it,” he said, voice full of fond awe. He took Leo’s face in his hands, sighing contently. “I love you so much.”

“Aw, I’m dating a complete sap.” Leo grinned. He flicked Jason in the head and kissed him again.

Maybe Piper should have felt awkward watching them. Third-wheeling your best friends when you were newly single would probably not have been most people’s favorite activity.

But Piper had spent the better part of a year grieving Leo and three months with the gaping hole Jason’s death had left in her chest. Seeing them alive and well and so genuinely happy together after everything that had happened made her heart swell.

This didn’t mean she wouldn’t give them shit about it, though.

Piper whistled, grinning widely at them.

“Hey lovebirds! We should probably get a move on with the memory stuff if we want to make it back to the Waystation before dark.”

“Buzzkill!” Leo complained, chuckling.

“That is my job description as your best friend, yes,” Piper confirmed, pulling them both into a tight hug. “No matter what happens next, we’ll handle it together. We’ve been through much, much worse.”

~~~~

Jason gulped down a handful of stream water and was out like a light within three seconds.

This just left Leo and Piper conscious on the bank of the stream.

Maybe it would have been smart to take turns with this—have two of them drink and the third stand guard until the others woke up—but as difficult as this place had been to find, Piper doubted any random monster would be unlucky enough to just wander in here.

Besides, she was itching to touch the waters herself. The thought of getting her Wilderness School memories back almost made her vibrate out of her skin with excitement.

No more random flashes of Jason where he hadn’t been. No more fake memories overwriting the friendship her and Leo had shared. She couldn’t stand the thought of waiting even a second longer.

“Hang on,” Leo said, grabbing her arm before she could reach into the stream. “I mean, obviously I get why Jason needed this. But are we sure we even want to remember?”

Piper’s first instinct was to protest that they’d wanted this for so long—that they’d spent forever mourning those first few months of their friendship, thinking they’d never get a chance like this—but the look in her best friend’s eyes gave her pause. Apparently, Jason hadn’t been the only one of them who was afraid.

She put a hand on Leo’s shoulder, squeezing it gently.

“What are you worried about?”

“I’ve been thinking, and… what if all of it was fake? What if all the memories we have of Wilderness School were Hera just making things up so we’d do her stupid quest?”

“You think maybe we weren’t really friends before that day at the Grand Canyon?” Piper asked, heart clenching at the thought.

Over the past two years, she had gotten occasional flashes of Wilderness School memories with Leo that hadn’t featured Jason, and she’d always assumed those were her real memories. But what if Leo was right? What if that had just been a second layer of Hera-induced nonsense? What if she’d spent this whole quest hoping to get memories back that didn’t even exist, and the reality of Wilderness School had just been them being lonely and miserable in separate corners of the school?

“Yeah. Maybe we didn't even know each other aside from being classmates,” Leo mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck and refusing to meet her eyes. “Or worse, maybe you, like, hated me or something. What if you get those memories back, and you suddenly decide that you do find me annoying?”

“Hey,” Piper said, pulling him into a hug. “I think you’re plenty annoying now, but that’s never stopped me from wanting to be your best friend,” she teased, squeezing him tightly. “And if Wilderness School Piper really did hate you for whatever reason, I’m just gonna have to tell her off for having shit opinions about my best friend. End of story.”

“Okay,” Leo said shakily. He buried himself in the embrace, squeezing back just as hard. “Okay. I just… you’re my best friend, and I…” he trailed off. His voice was watery.

“I know. But whatever we were back then can’t take away what we are now. Trust me on that one.” Piper rubbed his back soothingly. She could feel herself tearing up, too. “If you originally thought Wilderness School Piper sucked? Tough luck. You’re not getting rid of me ever again.”

“Sorry. I’m getting better about this, I swear. I know you guys love me so much. I just- I don’t want to lose you, ever.”

“I get it. The feeling is very much mutual.” Piper gave him a watery smile.

“I don’t really want to spend my whole life wondering if we had memories together from before,” Leo continued, voice growing steadier. “If we were friends back then, I want to remember every moment of it. And hey, maybe I actually do want to remember it even if I did think you sucked at first. I was really good at keeping people at arm’s length back then. Remembering how that changed with you and Jason… maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

They kneeled next to each other at the pitch black river, leaning down to gather up a small handful of black water each.

“Ready?” she asked, glad to have Leo by her side for this.

He smiled more genuinely now. “Bottom’s up.”

They drank—a small sip, and no more than that.

The water had no taste, but the feel of it was intense. It was a numbing kind of cold that reminded Piper of the anesthetics she’d been given when she’d broken her arm as a child. She remembered the doctor asking her a question or two. She remembered giving nonsense answers.

In a few seconds, the world had faded into nothingness, just like it did now. The cavern surrounding her disappeared, turning as black as the water of the stream.

*******

Remembering felt like walking into a dream and like waking up all at once.

Piper was fifteen again, staring intently out of the window of her Wilderness School classroom and tuning out the teacher. Suddenly, the door had banged open, and there he was—Leo Valdez. He had his arms spread out and bowed mockingly, a cheeky grin on his face. She’d known immediately that this boy would spell trouble.

“You’re fifteen minutes late!” the teacher had protested, which had just made Leo’s grin widen.

“Hey, I figured if I was going to join the class mid-semester, I might as well make a grand entrance. Punctuality is bad for grand entrances, you know.”

The teacher had looked at him in displeasure. Then she’d said the words that were about to make her own life significantly worse, and Leo and Piper’s lives significantly better.

“You’re sitting in front with McLean, where I can keep an eye on you.”

He’d rolled his eyes, but dropped into his assigned chair regardless, not bothering to unpack his bag.

They hadn’t really talked much during that first class they’d shared. Leo had spent the whole time tinkering with some unidentifiable object made of screws, bolts and rubber bands.

Piper had pretended it didn’t bother her. She hadn’t felt like anyone at this stupid school wanted to be her friend since she’d first arrived there, and she’d convinced herself she was fine with that.

It wasn’t like she’d ever really managed to make friends who were interested in her as a person rather than her celebrity dad. That was never going to change.

Except, well… Piper’s pen had gone out of ink, and a moment later, the new guy had wordlessly pushed one of his pens in her direction.

“Don’t give her your stuff,” someone in the row behind them had warned Leo in a stage whisper. Piper had known instantly that their classmate had wanted her to hear every word. “Piper’s here because she’s a klepto. You’re never getting that pen back.”

Piper had been fuming, getting ready to retaliate, but the new kid had been quicker on the draw than her.

“Good. I fucking hate that pen.” Leo had smiled at her, then whirled on the person behind them, speaking loud enough that the whole class heard. “And what are you here for? Because, unlike me, you’re clearly not at risk of getting arrested for your winning personality.”

The girl’s face had gone as red as her stupid hair. Several of the kids around them had started snickering, Piper very much included.

“I can deal with these idiots by myself,” she’d told him afterwards. “But I do appreciate the sentiment.”

“Noted. I just can’t stand people like that. Would gladly watch you take her down a couple notches from the passenger seat sometime, though.” He’d grinned at her. “The name’s Leo, by the way.”

“Piper.”

She’d known they would be friends, then.

~~~~ The roommate thing had come as a surprise to both of them. Wilderness didn’t really do co-ed rooming.

But Leo had apparently managed to piss off three roommates in just as many days, and since they’d chatted a few times in class and sat together at lunch twice, someone in the faculty had apparently decided that, if nothing else, Piper was at least very unlikely to beat Leo up.

“What did you even do to piss Tyler off that much?” she’d asked, allowing Leo to sit on the bottom bunk that had belonged to her for the past month while he pressed an ice pack to his face. “I mean, I know the guy’s got a short fuse, but usually it takes him longer than a few hours of knowing a person to flip his shit like that.”

Leo had shrugged. “Apparently he liked his previous roommate. Came as a shock to me, too—I didn’t think he liked anyone.”

”Just that?”

“Okay, admittedly, the 3 am tinkering probably didn’t help,” he’d amended. “Fair warning: I don’t do well with sleep. Or silence. Or most things, really. If you get sick of rooming with me—which I’m sure you will—don’t worry. I won’t bother you for long.”

~~~~

Leo had tried to make good on that promise less than a week later, when Piper had woken up to him noisily breaking their window lock at one in the morning.

“What in the world are you doing?” she’d asked, eyes wide. She’d crawled out of her bunk to see Leo standing in the dark with a backpack slung over his shoulder and a makeshift tool that looked a little like a torture device in his hand. “You’re leaving?”

The memory was vivid now—the way her heart had dropped into her gut at that moment. It had startled her, then, just how much the thought of Leo leaving had terrified her when they’d barely known each other for a week and a half.

What right did she have to feel this level of attachment to a guy she barely knew? Sure, they’d talked, and she’d made the teachers cut him some slack about homework a few times. Sure, they’d sat together at lunch for all of the past week.

But there was so much she hadn’t known about Leo at the time. So much he hadn’t known about her.

They had, for all intents and purposes, still been strangers.

But they’d been less strangers than any of the other people she’d met at this school—or, honestly, most people she’d met in the years before that. Leo made her laugh. Being around him was the happiest she’d felt in months.

The thought of him leaving her…

“I’m just going up to the roof,” he’d told her. “It’s kind of stuffy in here, and I really need to stretch my legs. Realized earlier that the fire escape outside our window goes up, too, so I figured why not?”

A lie. Piper knew it now like she’d known it back then.

She couldn’t have asked him to stay. Not under those circumstances. But there had been something she could do.

“Can I join you?” she’d asked. “The view’s probably pretty great, and you did wake me up, so might as well make the most of it.”

At least admit you’re leaving, she’d thought. At least tell me goodbye.

Leo had hesitated for a moment, but then his face had softened into a small smile.

“You know what? What the hell. I guess I wouldn’t mind company.” He’d looked her over. “You might want to change into something that isn’t pajamas, though. Unless, of course, your goal is to freeze to death so you won’t have to go on that stupid survival trip we’ve got scheduled tomorrow. Which, you know, would be completely understandable.”

Piper hadn’t pointed out that Leo was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts himself. She hadn’t known he couldn’t get cold back then.

They’d spent the whole night lying on the roof, just talking about a whole bunch of nothing for hours and hours. Piper had pointed to some of the constellations her dad had taught her when she’d been little.

Her dad… she still didn’t know entirely why she’d done it, but when the moon had started to dip towards the horizon, she’d told Leo the truth about her father.

“Hang on. Tristan McLean like the movie star?” Leo had looked at her with wide eyes. “I thought having that kind of money got you out of just about anything. What in the world did you steal to still end up here?”

“Technically, I didn’t steal anything,” Piper had said quietly. She hadn’t expected him to believe her. No one ever did. “I did get a car salesman to lend me a BMW, though.”

Leo had laughed wildly. “You may be the craziest person I’ve ever met. And trust me, that’s a compliment.”

“Gee, thanks,” Piper had told him, but she had let out a small chuckle of her own.

Then, Leo had done something that had really surprised her. For the first time, he’d shared a little bit of himself.

“I’m a tragic orphan, personally. I’ve been through a bunch of foster homes since I was eight.” He’d shrugged. “I’m not really great at sticking around. That’s how I ended up here.”

You stuck around tonight, she hadn’t said. “They can do that? Stick you in a correctional facility for running away?”

“Apparently.” He’d shrugged again. “I’m kind of jealous. Your backstory is much cooler than mine.”

They’d declared that roof their secret hiding spot after, using it to stash snacks they weren’t supposed to have and skip gym whenever Hedge was being particularly annoying. It was the first place they’d ever carved out that had truly felt like theirs.

~~~~

Piper remembered venting to Leo about her dad and his stupid assistant—something she’d never, ever gotten to do with anyone else before this. She’d complained about the last birthday present she’d gotten: a makeup kit that had clearly been picked out by her dad’s assistant, along with a card that misspelled her name as “Pipes”.

She remembered Leo joking that clearly he should be Pipes, because he was smokin’—a joke that was made even worse by the fact that Leo had fire powers, which she hadn’t known at the time.

“What about you?” she’d asked eventually. “When’s your birthday?”

“I don’t do birthdays, Pipes,” Leo had said, smirking at her. Was that where the nickname had come from? “Tragic orphan, remember? Besides, I ended up here for being a serial runaway. No way in hell I’m sticking around until my next birthday.”

“Then there’s no harm in telling me.”

“I guess. If you really want to send me a birthday card from juvie, I suppose I’ll let you know what bridge to address it to ahead of time.” He’d paused. “Sorry, stupid joke. Rich girls don’t go to juvie.”

But he had told her. He’d done it claiming it wouldn’t matter, sure. But Piper knew him now, in a way she hadn’t back then. Saw the slight change in his posture. The way his smile melted into something a fraction more vulnerable. That she’d wanted to know had mattered to him.

As much as Leo spoke of leaving, she’d never woken to him halfway out the window again after that.

~~~~

The memories kept crashing over her. Weeks upon weeks of sitting together at lunch and late night conversations and passing notes in class. Of playing stupid pranks on their classmates as well as each other. Of carefully letting down their walls, brick by brick, until they could at least mostly see each other past their respective barriers.

There’d been a lot they hadn’t talked about back then, but even when they weren’t talking, the fact that they’d had someone to sit with and say nothing to had been a welcome novelty for both of them.

Piper remembered her dad not showing up on the weekends he’d promised to come visit, and how Leo had never pointed it out, but had always made backup plans so they’d have something fun to do to distract her.

She remembered how down Leo had been on what she now knew was the anniversary of his mom’s death. She hadn’t known exactly what was up with him, at the time—just that something was. She remembered roping him into a kitchen heist. She remembered sitting in their shared room afterwards, laughing, handing the tub of strawberry ice cream back and forth until they both felt sick.

She remembered coming down with that stupid cold in late November that had left her bedridden for a week, and how Leo had skipped class and gotten himself in trouble just so he could sit with her, rambling excitedly about some projects he was tinkering with and how they could be misused in the next pranks they’d planned. She remembered being snuck several cups of chocolate pudding in an attempt to cheer her up—which had tasted strangely better than the one the cafeteria usually served.

Back then, Leo had claimed her taste buds were probably just wonky because she was sick.

She realized now that he’d probably made it for her.

~~~~

Piper remembered the meteor shower—gods, the meteor shower. The memory that she’d spent forever thinking of as her first date with Jason.

She remembered Leo dragging her up to their spot on the roof, his whole face alight in excitement. Remembered them sitting together on a picnic blanket for hours, watching light streaking across the night sky.

“You were right, by the way. About what I was up to that night I broke our window lock,” he’d told her quietly, when it was already late into the night. “I was going to leave. I’m still not sure why I didn’t.”

“Do you regret it?” she’d asked. “Staying?”

“Pretty much every time Hedge makes us run laps.” He’d grinned up at her. “But then I look back to see you eating my dust, and I think, hey, maybe this isn’t so bad.”

“Aw, you like being around me that much?” she’d teased, and- oh. Oh no.

Piper felt the mortification of that moment slam back into her as the rest of the memory hit her like a truck.

“Maybe,” he’d said, looking up to meet her eyes. “Hey Pipes? Can I do something really stupid?”

“Past evidence suggests that you very much can,” she’d told him, feeling weirdly shy all of a sudden.

And then he’d leaned forward and kissed her.

She’d thought about kissing him before that moment—about how she’d never loved anyone like she loved Leo. If there was any boy in the world she’d want to kiss, it had to be him.

She remembered the exact moment it had hit them both that this wasn’t it. They’d jumped apart so abruptly that Leo had nearly toppled backwards off the roof.

“Careful!” Piper had yelled, and Leo had gone rigid where he stood, thankfully unharmed. “Jeez, Leo. The kiss was bad, but throwing yourself off the roof over it seems a little dramatic.”

Relief had unspooled in her chest when she’d seen the grimace on his face and known it hadn’t just been her.

“Nope, that was completely warranted,” Leo had told her, wiping at his mouth, her own relief mirrored in his expression. “Sorry, Piper, you’re really great and I love you to death, but let’s never do that again.”

“Gladly,” she’d agreed without hesitation. “If I could forget this ever happened in the first place, I would.”

Current Piper wanted to smack herself a little bit for tempting fate like that, despite the fact that she sort of shared the sentiment. That was the one memory she wouldn’t have minded losing permanently.

*******

When Piper woke, it only took a second or two more for Leo to jolt awake next to her, which made sense, seeing as they’d been reliving the same memories.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” she teased, trying to find a sense of normality in all the things she was feeling right now.

“Well, this is officially the most embarrassed I’ve ever been about something I did over two years ago,” Leo groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Why did we do that?”

“You ended on the memory of the kiss, too, then?” Piper asked, cringing.

“You should have just let me fall off that roof,” he joked, shaking his head.

“Death isn’t getting you out of this friendship. You’ve already tried that, remember?” She pulled him into a tight hug—this stupid fool that she’d never, ever wanted to kiss, and that held half of her soul regardless. Her face felt wet. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this fragile and vulnerable and utterly whole. “I don't regret getting my memories back. I can’t believe all of that was you. I can’t believe we almost lost it forever.”

Leo held her just as tightly.

“Yeah, I-” He sniffled. “That would have really sucked, hm?”

If there was any merit to the myth that humans had originally been two-headed, four-armed, four-legged beings that Zeus had split in two, there wasn’t a flicker of doubt in Piper’s mind that Leo had been hers—the half she’d spent her whole life searching for.

Their love didn’t need to be of the romantic variety for that to be true.

~~~~ For the longest time, they stayed like this, just holding each other.

It took much longer for Jason to wake up. This didn’t really come as a surprise to either of them. Piper and Leo had only lost a few months of memories, and regaining those had knocked them out for almost half an hour.

Jason was missing the majority of his life.

They sat with him the whole time, each of them holding one of Jason’s hands between their own to remind him he wasn’t alone—to lead him back, if necessary.

“He’s got this, right?” Leo asked anxiously. “I don’t know what I’d do if-”

“None of that,” Piper interrupted him. “I’ve warned you both what would happen if you died on me again. He’s not going to risk that. He’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Leo wiped at his eyes. “Okay, you’re right.”

“What would you do without me, hm?” she asked, grinning at him.

“Steal much less cars, probably,” he said, grinning right back.

“Fuck off,” Piper told him, laughing. “I’ve returned almost all the cars we’ve borrowed for demigod emergencies, and I’ll have you know that we’re using an actual rental this time.”

“Somehow, the thought that someone would let you rent a car is even scarier. I’ve seen how you drive.”

“Shut up.”

Before she could think of another, wittier remark, Jason started to stir between them.

He made a confused noise, looking up at them with a hazy expression.

Leo leaned down to press a kiss to his boyfriend’s forehead. “Hey, Superman. How are you feeling?”

“Leo? Piper?” Jason’s eyes slowly started to clear.

“That’s us,” Piper agreed, trying to ignore the growing unease in her chest.

The way Jason spoke sounded different—a little more stern. Something about the look in his eyes was different, too, though she couldn’t quite pin down what it was.

When he sat up, his movements seemed stiffer. More controlled. It reminded her of the Jason they’d met all the way back at the Grand Canyon, and not in a way she liked.

She tried to remind herself that this was to be expected—he’d just gotten the vast majority of his memories shoved back in his head after living without them for more than two years. Of course he was different. It would have been weirder if he hadn’t been.

This didn’t mean that he wouldn’t still be their Jason.

But then he opened his mouth again, and her blood turned to ice.

“Get up. We need to move.”

He said it like a general giving orders to his troops.

———

Fic notes:

Someone please take Piper McLean away from me, I cannot bring myself to shut my darling girl up (I do not mean this, don’t you dare take her away from me actually)

Yesterday this fic was 2k words long. It’s now 6k words. I have spent all day on this and am now feeling thoroughly unwell. So glad you’re here to feel unwell with me!

If you’re wondering what the hell is wrong with Jason at the end there, the answer is getting his memories back, including all of the traumatic ones, mayyy have messed him up a little. Are things going to be okay? Well, wouldn’t you like to know! There will be a sequel fic to this one that’s from Jason’s POV, but that one isn’t written yet and isn’t a lost trio week fic, so you’ll have to wait a little longer before you get answers on that one. Sorry!

For now, I’ve got lots of fun stuff planned for Lost Trio Week, though! The fic for tomorrow’s prompt is going to be late, though I will at least tease that it’s a Star Wars Crossover and shall be posting a snippet on here tomorrow, if nothing else!

Most of the other fics are already written and just need to be edited. I’m very excited to share them with you all.

Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Comments immensely appreciated as always!

I’m having so much fun with this event, and I’m hoping so is everyone else!

#Lost trio week #the lost trio #piper mclean #leo Valdez #jason grace #platonic liper #heroes of olympus #hoo #leo and Piper #valgrace #Pjo fanfic #my writing #Leo pjo #Piper pjo #Jason pjo #ao3 link

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