reflection ● jason grace

A couple of mistakes later...

Jason was alone.

That wasn't new. It was early December – a couple of days after Dakota's 14th birthday. No one celebrated trivial things like birthdays anymore, but the details were a fixture he couldn't get rid of.

He sat on his bed, reading a book about Roman warfare in the early days of the empire. Daniel had given it to him a while ago along with several other books he needed to read, all in Latin. Jason was taking his training much more seriously now, but English still gave him a headache.

There was a knock at the door; Daria entered without waiting for his response. Her hair was neatly tucked into a bun and she wore her contacts. Since there was a light sheen of sweat on her forehead, Jason figured she had just come back from training.

The roundness of her face was more prominent now, though her collarbones still stood stark against her dark skin. She had finally figured out how to manage her hair, but looked more unsure of herself despite it all.

"Hi," she said dryly. "Just checking to see if you were still alive before the games tonight."

That was fair. He thought about it. The last time he had hung out with their friends had been on Dakota's birthday. But Jason wasn't too concerned about making them feel better. "Sure," he replied, holding up his book. "Just studying."

She squinted to see the title. "The Punic Wars? Really?"

"Daniel gave it to me."

Daria didn't respond. He wondered when things had gotten so awkward between them, but he was too exhausted to remedy that. "Did you come here for something? Because if you're trying to recruit me, I've already teamed up with Gwen."

"Uh, kinda," she shut the door. "Can I talk to you about something?"

He raised an eyebrow. "We are talking."

"Nice," she muttered absently. "So like..." She blushed. "I don't really know how to say this."

"Daria," Jason sighed impatiently. "Spit it out. I don't have all day."

"I'm sure." She tapped her fingers on the edge of her shorts. "Okay, so the thing is, I kinda have a crush on Reyna?"

This was so not where Jason thought the conversation was going. "Is that supposed to be a question? Everyone already knows that."

Her eyebrows creased in confusion. "Huh?"

Jason shut his book. Annoyance was pooling at the bottom of his stomach. Teenage girls were really...girly sometimes. He wanted to escape this topic as soon as possible. "We know, Daria. What do you want me to do about it?"

It came out harshly, maybe on purpose. Daria took a step back. She hesitated again. "Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I-?"

"Because you talk to me like once every five days," she laughed shakily. "Not that I'm counting. But you don't smile anymore, and you just hole up in your room or train with Daniel, and I want to know if I did something." She paused. "You're not like, homophobic, are you?"

He didn't think he was. Actually, he knew he wasn't. But he was upset, and like Leila liked to say, an upset teenage boy got no favors from any goddess of wisdom. "I don't want to talk about Reyna," he muttered. "Will you leave me alone?"

"Jason," she pressed, holding the sides of her arms for warmth. It was winter; Jason didn't know what she was doing outside without a jacket. "I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone after this, but can you please answer the question? Because I won't be able to sleep if you don't."

"I'm not mad at you," he said, lowering his voice. It wasn't said very convincingly, but Daria must have thought he was the same boy who didn't know how to lie. Spoiler: he wasn't

Jason could see her ear twitch. "You know, I liked it better when you called me 'sweetheart'."

Jason laughed, if not a bit bitterly. "No, you didn't."

"Yeah," Daria shifted her weight. "You'll celebrate with us on the 8th though, right?"

The 8th of December was the Festival of Tiberinius, the god of the Tiber River. The morning was awful – everyone had to wake up at dawn in 30 degree weather and gather by the riverbank so the augur could do some ritual that Jason didn't understand. But, they served hot chocolate and pizza after, so no one remembered that they were close to freezing to death.

"I think I have to," Jason pointed out. He ran a hand over his hair. It was getting too long for legion regulation. "Daniel will yell at me otherwise."

Daria's lip curled. "I think Daniel's mad at me too. We haven't played chess in nearly a month."

"You think everyone's mad at you all the time," he sighed. He really wanted to be left alone, but at least they weren't talking about Reyna anymore.

She shrugged. "Yeah, Reyna says the same thing."

Nevermind.

Daria picked up on his mood immediately. "Is this the part where I actually leave you alone?"

"Uh, yeah."

She opened the door again. "Fine. But when you're done being dumb, we're playing cards in the Forum." He could hear her footsteps grow softer as they reached the main door.

Jason stood and then flopped back onto his bed. The whole being a soldier gig blowed. All he wanted to do was hang out with his friends and maybe kill some monsters while he was at it. But no, he had to deal with a prophecy, and an evil megalomaniac that was only three years older than him and was in love with his best friend.

Yeah, Jason wasn't having a great year.

At least Daria and Reyna are happy, he thought. Apart from Nathan, they were his two closest friends. Jason had picked up on how similar they were right away. They would definitely make a badass couple. He groaned out loud. They would be cute, and Jason should just get over himself and stop pretending he couldn't talk to his best friend.

Problem was, for the last three months, he hadn't been able to get messy hair and freckles out of his mind.

This part is one of my favorites! It's a mixed POV so we get more thoughts than just Daria and Jason.

-M