SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

64 - when in rome

LISTEN. WHEN BRIAR took her naps, she fucking took her naps.

That was why she'd completely missed whatever the fuck happened with some golden mask guy or whatever. Briar didn't know. She'd had a very nice dream about a museum date and then promptly ruining something at the said museum. She'd only woken up after someone splashed water on her face.

"Security!" Briar yelped, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, frowning when she realized where she was. "I swear I fell asleep on my bed."

Despite her blurry vision, she could see Reyna very well. "How'd you fall asleep during all that?" Reyna wiped water away from her face.

Briar frowned, looking all around her, at the crew carrying supplies back to the ship. But when did they get off of the ship? "All of what?"

Reyna explained to her what had happened, they made a tribute to Bacchus, yadda yadda yadda. Briar didn't really care, but now she was taking guard duty because she was fully rested, even if she didn't believe that she could fight anything that came on the ship because she was still waking up. At least she had Jason, who had been knocked unconscious, to do guard duty with her.

She was putting nectar on his face, though, while he watched her back. He had gotten seriously bruised while fighting hybrid dolphins or something? Briar was mostly staring at Reyna's lips while she had explained the past hour or whatever.

"Were you dreaming about the Sonoma quest?" Jason asked Briar as she rubbed in nectar on his bruises, and he winced under her. "There are multiple quests where you had security guards running after you, though—"

"I was, actually," Briar finished with his face, dropping the canteen of nectar next to him. "I don't know why I dreamed it, I haven't thought about that moment since Leo—" she glanced up at Coach Hedge on the helm for a split second, before looking back down at her best friend again. "Since he made the mistake of spraying an automated table with Windex instead of lemon pledge."

Jason smiled ruefully. "Good times," he mused. "When Leo was busy building the Argo II, and you didn't tell me any of your struggles."

Briar's smile faded. She looked away, out at the night sky. It was the premonition to the . . . the room filled with water. "Jay . . . I—"

"This is how it happened last time," Jason said, his voice edging on something — anger? Frustration? "You hiding stuff from me, and I had to pry it out from you. And I've tried to ignore it for so long, and when Rey came back I thought that she'd help you more than I did. But then you two fought, and then me and Leo had to pry it out from you. And after Charleston—"

"I get it, Jason." Briar started fiddling with her hair. "I'm sorry for hiding things from you."

"Why do you hide everything that's going on with you?" She could feel Jason's gaze on her. "I know it's how we grew up, but . . ."

Briar let out a huff. "We both knew that Camp Jupiter's teachings affected me more than it did you."

Jason didn't say a word.

"I didn't like it much at Camp Half-Blood," Briar said quietly, finally making herself look at her best friends. "I hated being counselor. I hated leading the Aphrodite cabin, because it's so different from leading the legion. And I didn't like that they worshipped my mother. But Drew couldn't lead them. She was fucking shitty when she had a position of power, and you know it."

He stared at her intently, because now he was unraveling how she had felt for the past six months.

"I think I would've liked it better if Reyna was with us," Briar's fingers braided her hair as fast as she could ruin her relationships. "I spent the entire time feeling like I was . . . broken.  It didn't help that my memories came back slower than yours did." She let out a laugh. It wasn't bitter, but it wasn't happy, either. "I didn't know who I was most of the time I walked through camp. Every step I took, I felt like a fucking alien in there."