Anthízo, Percy Jackson

II. a wild goose chase through italy

KARINA WAS THE last person to enter the mess hall that morning. leo had designed the walls to show real-time scenes from camp half-blood, which really didn't benefit her at all, considering she hadn't even been to the place. it annoyed her that he only took into account the feelings of the greek demigods on this ship, and not the ones of the romans.

that didn't annoy her before, though. why did it suddenly irritate her now?

when karina walked through the doors to the mess hall, all eyes turned to her. frank spit out his orange juice in surprise, and hazel had to smack her hand against his back to clear his windpipes. jason's knees hit the table at how fast he spun around in his chair, the shock in his face fully evident as he stared at karina.

"karina . . . " jason breathed out, looking as if he were about to race over to her and squeeze her to death. "you— you're awake!"

karina swallowed hardly, trying to keep her composure level. she hated the fact that she didn't want jason to hug her— to comfort her. she'd always felt so safe in jason's arms, his touch making her feel warm and comforted. but now, all she could feel off of everyone was cold, and she wanted nothing more than to just run back down to her cabin and be alone.

"yeah," she said, her tone slightly cold. "i woke up yesterday."

"oh," he responded, his excited demeanor deflating at her cold response. "i— i didn't even know. i would've come and seen you."

karina's jaw tightened slightly. "yeah, well, you didn't." she muttered, walking over to the seat in between leo and hazel, sitting down, and looking down at the table in front of her. she didn't see the look of hurt that flashed across jason's face at her words, or the way that his eyes glistened sadly at her blank face.

she could feel jason's eyes on her from the front of the table, but she ignored them. leo looked at her with sympathy, his eyes softening as he saw the way karina's hands were shaking under the table, and he put a gentle hand over top of them, making her blink twice in subtle surprise.

she didn't look up from the table, and leo's eyes didn't even trace over her face, but she didn't move his hand. she didn't know why she wouldn't. she was kind of uncomfortable with the sudden touch of him— his hands being unnaturally warm, and slightly calloused from all the work he does. but at the same time, she felt no urge to shake it off, or slap it away. it was almost as if her head was telling her to shove it away, but her heart was telling her to keep it there. and she didn't know who to listen to.

it seemed that jason had gotten over his hurt feelings, or he just hid them, because he began speak, saying: "so, now that we're all here . . . "

it seemed that since they'd lost annabeth, jason had taken over as the group's leader. karina knew that he was used to it, having been praetor back at camp jupiter; but she could tell that he was stressed. his eyes were more sunken than usual. his blond hair was uncharacteristically messy, like he'd forgotten to comb it.

karina glanced at the others around the table. hazel was bleary-eyed, too, but of course she'd been up all night guiding the ship through the mountains. karina heard it. her curly cinnamon-colored hair was tied back in a bandana, which gave her a commando look that karina found really pretty on her.

next to her sat her boyfriend frank zhang, dressed in black workout pants and a roman tourist t-shirt thay said ciao!. frank's old centurion badge was pinned to his shirt, despite the fact that the demigods of the argo II were now public enemies numbers 1 through 8 back at camp jupiter. his grim expression just reinforced his unfortunate resemblance to a sumo wrestler. then there was nico di angelo. he sat back in his leather aviator jacket, his black t-shirt and jeans, that wicked silver skull ring on his finger, and the stygian sword at his side. his tufts of black hair stuck up in curls like baby bat wings. his eyes were sad and kind of empty, as if he'd stared into the depths of tartarus— which he had.