Join Us - A Pirate's Life is Best

Chapter 22 : Bump

Jason's POV

To Jason's surprise — and relief — the air in the dining room had changed drastically towards the end of breakfast.

It had all started incredibly awkward, but somehow, the conversations had taken a turn and now everyone was chatting away, filling the room with noise and laughter as the pirates told stories about their many escapades.

In fact, they'd enjoyed the conversations and stories so much, they didn't even realise that multiple hours had passed.

That didn't change the fact that jealousy was bubbling up inside of Jason, knowing that Annabeth had run off to Percy and now got to spend most of the day with Piper as well, which was really something he want to do.

He felt a nudge on his right elbow and looked at Leo. "So, how jealous are you that Annabeth has probably spent the entire time we were here with Piper?" He asked with a grin.

"You know damn well how jealous I am, Valdez. Don't you have someone to ask out?" Jason retorted, nodding towards Calypso.

He smirked as Leo turned red, knowing he'd ensured his safety from teasing for at least the next few minutes. Or so he thought.

Moments later, a napkin quietly did across the table towards him, going unnoticed by almost everyone as multiple different conversations had started.

As your big sister I'm going to have to make sure that you get teased a lot about you "little" crush on Piper, so be warned.

Jason looked across the table and locked eyes with Thalia, trying his best to glare at her, but she simply smiled and winked at him, before turning to face Reyna and struck up a conversation.

"I'm never gonna hear the end of this." Jason muttered to himself.

"Well isn't this a pleasant surprise?" Poseidon spoke loudly, beaming, from the head of the table. "My son has given us the honour of seeing him at breakfast!"

"Don't make such a big faff out of it, dad." Percy mumbled, taking a seat and digging into his food, which was, as always, blue. "I just spent the entire morning surfing and I'm hungry and tired as all hell."

"I don't get how you can spend the entire morning surfing." Percy's older brother muttered.

As none of the other conversations really piqued his interest, Jason decided to focus on the bantering of the Royal family, hoping it would entertain him and keep his mind off of where Piper was.

"Well maybe if you got off of your lazy ass and out of the palace once in a while you'd know." Eliana fired back.

"In my defence, there was a pod of dolphins that wanted to play with us." Percy said through his full mouth.

"Speak normally, idiot." Eliana chuckled. "I assume your little blonde girlfriend joined you and Piper."

"If you're referring to Annabeth, who isn't my girlfriend, then yes, she did join us." Percy replied.

Jason was sure he heard Thalia mutter something along the lines of "not yet, as long as you don't fuck it up," though Percy seemed to either not hear her or simply ignored her.

"Dad, please let the guards know that Travis, Katie and Miranda should be arriving soon." Percy told his dad, before shovelling some more food into his mouth, leaving Jason to wonder if he perhaps had a bottomless for a stomach.

"Very well, I hope to see them soon as well." The King said, nodding.

"Hey Percy, where are Annabeth and Piper?" Jason asked after a few minutes of silence, at least for the Royal family.

"They should be here any moment, but you can go check on them if you want to." Percy replied, nodding towards the exit of the room.

"Thanks man." Jason said, patting Percy on the shoulder and quietly getting up, thanking the King and Queen for the meal before disappearing behind the door.

He turned around to corner, but was met by another person and they collided into one another, Jason landing in the floor and the other person landing on top of him.

Before he opened his eyes, he heard a light snicker from next to him, before whoever it was opened the door to the dining room.

When he did open his eyes, his breath hitched slightly as he saw who was lying on top of him: Piper.

For a moment, he simply lay there, silently taking in her stunning eyes, realising he could probably spend the rest of his life staring into them.

"Oh my gods, I'm so sorry Jason I didn't see you there. Are you ok?" Piper rambled quickly, getting off of Jason and allowing him to stand by himself.

"Don't sweat it, I didn't see you either." Jason replied, giving her a smile.

"Are you sure you're fine? I don't want to be responsible for some kind of concussion or something?" Piper asked anyways.

"Piper, I'm fine, like I said, no need to worry." Jason chuckled, laying a hand on her shoulder momentarily.

Piper sighed and gave him a small smile that, under different circumstances, may have just melted his heart.

"Promise me you're ok and we can go eat." Piper said.

"Pipes, relax, it's not like you knocked me out, we just bumped into each other." Jason rolled his eyes playfully. "And why would I eat after I just did?"

"Oh... yeah I forgot I spent the entire morning on a surfboard." Piper chuckled slightly as they headed back into the dining room.

"There you are!" Thalia exclaimed and Jason flinched slightly, hoping she wouldn't make good on the promise from the napkin right away. "I hope you two have a good reason for being later than Annabeth, like, making our against a wall."

Jason felt his face heat up and quickly sat down without saying a word. Piper seemed to feel the same way, also taking a seat next to him without saying a word.

"Fine then, keep your secrets." Thalia chuckled. "Get ready, we have quite the day ahead of us!"

"Fuck off, Thalia, I still need to eat." Piper said, aggressively stabbing a sausage with her fork.

Thalia rolled her eyes and laughed slightly. "Don't worry, we'll let you finish eating before we go around town and do stuff."

Next to him, Percy choked on his food momentarily, glancing from Thalia to his father, and then to Annabeth.

The message was clear: "are you sure you want to send her out?"

"We'll be fine, Percy. Plus, you said yourself that Travis and Katie should be here soon, and we're gonna need to be at the docks to welcome Miranda back." Thalia assured him.

Jason saw that Percy still wasn't at all convinced, and also looked slightly nervous, fidgeting with his hands and rubbing the back of his neck often.

"I'll go with you, Percy, and if anyone tries anything, we won't have a problem dealing with them." Eliana spoke softly, something Jason wasn't used to with the amount of snarky comments she made.

"Fine, I guess we can explore town." Percy conceded.

There was a loud cheer from everyone, especially Leo, for some reason, and the King and Queen simply laughed, smiling broadly.

"This'll be great." Leo told Jason as they left the dining hall a few minutes later.

"I hope it goes well." Jason sighed, hoping that their luck hadn't followed them here.