𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬 [Percy Jackson]

75

Hadrian tried to make the best of the situation.

Once he and Jason had gotten tired of pacing the deck, listening to Coach Hedge sing "Old MacDonald" (with weapons instead of animals), they exchanged looks and retreated to Jason's room.

"And no funny business" Hedge warned them.

"What are we, kids?" Jason asked.

Hedge snorted. "Kids are baby goats. They're cute, and they have redeeming social value. You are definitely not kids."

Hadrian pulled out a deck of cards, but neither knew a lot of games, so he just paced around, waiting for the rest of his friends to come back. This was... definitely not ideal. He wished he'd offered to go with Hazel, Frank and Leo, or hell, even Percy and Annabeth.

But here he was, with the guy he kissed twice.

"Uno?" He suggested.

"What's that?" Jason frowned, he was looking at a few books, trying to read up on the giant twins- Ephialtes and Otis.

Hadrian's mouth fell open. "There is no way you don't know what uno is"

Jason looked back at the book sheepishly. "Camp Jupiter isn't exactly the best playground"

"Right. Yes, sorry"

He had almost forgotten that Jason had been raised by wolves and then at camp Jupiter. It seemed so much harder and unnecessary than Camp Halfblood.

"So... I heard about your sister from Percy" Hadrian began, "Did you meet her again? Must have been weird to be separated for years"

"Thalia" Jason gave up on reading, Hadrian was too distracting. Currently, he was sitting on his desk, drawing circles on the wood. "She's cool, you'd love her. Totally punk rock"

"Sounds hot"

Jason choked on his tongue.

"She swore off romance blah blah blah, I know," Hadrian rolled his eyes. Jason pointed behind him, he turned to the wall behind Jason's desk and stared incredulously, gesturing to pictures taped to it. "I cannot believe everyone's copying me. Pictures on the wall were my idea"

It was a strip of pictures, like from a photobooth: Annabeth for some reason, looking younger and carefree, Hadrian had never seen her like that, a sandy haired guy with a mischievous smile. He looked so different without the scar, Hadrian almost didn't recognize him. Luke.

He tried to steady his breathing. He'd been in Jason's room before, but he hadn't noticed the photos.

Aside from Luke and Annabeth, there was a girl between them. She was fifteen, maybe with black choppy hair that reminded Hadrian of the first time Kira had tried to cut their own hair and hated how it turned out. She wore a black leather jacket, and silver jewellery. She would have looked intimidating if it wasn't for the fact that she had her arms slung over her friends' shoulders and was in the middle of laughing.

"Whoa" Hadrian smiled, "Definitely hot"

"Do not call my sister hot, please" Jason threw a pillow at him.

"How old is she now? Annabeth looks like a baby in this"

"She got turned into a tree for a while" Jason shrugged casually, "And then she joined the hunters so she's immortally almost sixteen"

"Choosing to stay a teenager forever. If the hunters took men, I'd join up as fast as I could" Hadrian turned back around to face Jason, "My motto has always been- die young, leave a pretty corpse"

"As if you'd get uglier the more you age"

Hadrian blinked, but didn't say anything.

"Percy told me about her- er about the quest he went on with her to save Annabeth" Hadrian mumbled, he didn't know why it felt so wrong to talk about Percy with Jason.