CATHARSIS, jason grace¹

𝟬𝟬𝟲. don't faint. it's annoying

To his ultimate astonishment, Aera turned away from the group. Without a word, she continued ambling straight ahead, as if she never heard them. Shocked, all Jason could do was keep up with her.

It couldn't have been easy for Aera to walk away like that. From what Jason could comprehend, Aera put a lot of pride into her appearance. Jason might not have agreed with her morales nor did he see her as someone he could trust, but he couldn't deny he felt a little sorry for her. After the morning Aera just had, battling storm spirits and nearly falling to her death twice, hearing others make fun of how she looked must have been rubbing salt in her open wounds.

Strolling in silence again, Jason wanted to say something to comfort her, but he didn't know what. Though Aera's face was expressionless, her shoulders were trembling. She was still drenched from head to toe. If his jacket weren't also still soaked, Jason would have offered it to her.

"Are you cold?" he asked gently.

Aera hit the brakes so fast, Jason almost bumped into her back. When she craned her neck around to look at him, all of the emotion was drained from her face as if a vacuum had sucked away every last crumb of her humanity. "You did not just ask me if I'm cold."

Jason froze, startled by her steely reaction. Was she mad at him? What did he do?

"Your clothes are still wet..." he justified, "It's winter."

Aera ignored him. Jason was confused as to why she would take offense to what he said. Maybe she was still hurt about what those guys had said earlier about her. What they had said was pretty messed up.

Jason inspected Aera warily. "Are you...are you OK?"

No response.

Coming here had already put Aera in a bad mood and hearing those words probably amplified it. Jason knew he probably should've said something...

"Do you..." he tried again, feeling like he was treading on thin ice, "...wanna talk about it?"

Aera stared him square in the eye. There was no telling what she was thinking. Jason's heart thumped in his chest.

Then Aera threw her head back and broke out in a fit of laughter.

"I'm totally messing with you!" Clutching her stomach, Aera started laughing so hard Jason thought her jaw might fall off. "You should've seen your face!" In between gasps of air, Aera mimicked Jason with an overdramatic, deep voice, "'Do you...wanna talk about it?'" Squealing like a dolphin, Aera clapped her hands in delight. "Oh my, gods! That was priceless!" Sighing contently, she dabbed a tear from the corner of her eye. "Who knew someone as a boring as you could be so hilarious?"

He was concerned for her and this is what he got? Called boring? 

Jason crossed his arms. "I thought you were upset."

"Because of what those ugly gorgons said back there?" Aera asked dubiously, but her voice sounded higher-pitched than usual. She tossed her damp hair over one shoulder, spraying Jason with lake water. "Please, why would I care what they think about me? They have less game than Jacob from Twilight."

Jason flicked the water off his cheek. "I don't know who that is."

"You've never watched Twilight?" Aera gasped. "It's only the worst romance film in all of history."

"OK..." Jason said slowly. He didn't see why this was important.

"Aw," Aera cooed. "Are you mad at me?" She gave him puppy eyes, and Jason had to look away before he let her do something bad like steal his sword and try kill someone else with it again. "Don't be mad. You're cute when you're flustered."