reflection ● jason grace

Jason gets a history lesson

Jason wasn't allowed to leave the Sunflower Field.

It was the next morning; once again, no one really got any sleep. In fact, most of them slept in their armor so the sound of creaking metal never quietened.

He shielded the sun from his eyes. If they weren't still in battle, Jason knew he would be facing his punishment of scrubbing the Via Pratoria with a toothbrush and cutting the grass with a razor blade in the unbearable heat. It was harsh, but fair. Though Jason didn't think any punishment would lessen the guilt.

"Why didn't the monsters attack at night?" Reyna mused from next to him. "We stayed awake for nothing."

Reyna was the only one who was talking to him at the moment. Dakota had been taken by Mitch to help with food distribution, and Clara was helping out in the Med Bay, where Nathan was resting after a particularly nasty cut on his forehead.

Jason didn't think of Daria or Michael as elitist, but the First Cohort kept to themselves on days like this. Jason envied that a little bit – how close the 30 or so legionnaires were. He wondered how Daria and Rachel had managed to keep everyone in good spirits.

"That's a good question," he replied. And Jason had just fucked up tremendously, but he wasn't stupid. "My bet is that they're taking orders from someone. Atticus."

"The guy you all hate?" Reyna raised her eyebrows. "Is he here?"

"Daria's not freaking out," he said dryly. They sat on a log, drinking coffee and fixing their armor. "So let's assume not."

"You two with us today?" Michael Kahale asked gruffly, offering them a couple of shriveled up grapes he was eating.

"Reyna is." Jason's mouth felt dry like cotton. He looked up at the son of Venus, who had the same expression of, I don't really care, as he always did, close-cropped black hair nearly as short as Daniel's. "I'm assigned here."

Michael popped another grape into his mouth. "Tough luck." And he meant it, but Michael Kahale being nice to Jason just made him feel ten times worse.

"It's quite honorable though, isn't it?" Reyna stood, offering him a sympathetic smile. He figured Reyna wasn't the type to make people 'feel better', so he wondered why she was trying. "Protecting the most vulnerable."

Michael didn't seem to be paying attention. "Uh huh. We leave in five minutes." He grabbed what was left of Jason's coffee before he could protest and headed back to where his cohort was lining up.

Reyna looked baffled. "Did he just take your breakfast?"

Jason waved her off, still thinking about what she said. "Michael doesn't drink enough water, apparently I don't eat enough, running joke."

"Coffee isn't water."

"Try telling him that," Jason muttered, kicking some dirt. "Did you mean what you said? About honor?"

"Important value at Camp Jupiter, is it?"

Jason thought about grade school; everything they had learned always came back to one thing. Live with honor, die with dignity, and fight without mercy. "The most."

"Then I meant it," she said simply. "I don't typically say things I don't mean."

Jason sighed as she tied the laces on her boot. He should be getting ready too so he stood, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're a good friend, Rey."

She looked up sharply. An unsure expression on her face. "We're friends?"

Jason got the feeling Reyna had never had a friend before. Wherever she came from, relationships weren't something built easily. "The very best," he promised. Then he backtracked. That was a little weird to say, especially since they'd only known each other for a couple of days. "Unless you don't want-"