The Daughter Of Neptune

↽Three⇁

↽Isabella⇁

Isabella woke up to small sniffs and weight in her left hand. She turned her head to the left saw Jason sitting on a chair, his hand in hers and crying silently. The only sound in the room was the small sniffs coming from Jason.

"True Romans don't cry over the injured," She said.

His head whipped up to face hers. "You're alive."  He said with the biggest smile on his face,

"You really think I'm going to die because of some Gorgons when Gaea is about to be reborn?" I joked.

His expression turned solemn and his eyebrows scrunched together, "Gaea is about to be re-born?"

Isabella took a second just looking at Jason, examining his features; the scar on his lips, his hair which was longer at the lop and short at the sides, his eyes that were as blue as the sky, and his prominent jawline and cheekbones that could cut trees. Without thinking much about it, she leaned up, cupped his jaw with her hand and hovered her lips in front of his.

Jason's eyes instantly widened as he started into Isabella's. His hand reached up and gripped onto her wrist.

"Bella what are you doing?" He asked. Each time he spoke, his lips brushed against hers.

"Kissing you?" She asked with a nervous laugh. Isabella knew this was wrong but she didn't care, she knew about the feelings Jason had and that kissing him might not be the best thing to help with that but she didn't care.

Jason was her friend since they were 13 and he was the first person in camp Jupiter to know what she was like. The real her. He had also been her first kiss and her best friend. She knew that if there was anybody she would be willing to let in like this it would be Jason.

"Yeah, I can see that. But why?" He whispered.

She sighed "I don't know" Isabella looked into his eyes, the only thing she could see was hurt,

"But what I do know is that I'm 100% sure that I'll probably never let anyone else in like this, never let anyone else this close to me. Another thing is, these feelings are confusing me. Because one second, I want to grab your face and smash it into the ground as hard as I can. But at the same time, I want to spend the rest of my life like this... this close to you. To be able to kiss you as much as I wan-"

Her rant was cut off by Jason closing the gap between their lips and sealing the deal. The only thing she got out of it was that he felt the same. Jason started to push her back onto the bed and crawled on top of her. The kiss was passionate, deep and a new experience to them. Isabella instantly knew that something shifted between them, they were something new. Not friends with benefits, not lovers, not friends or strangers. But she didn't know what to do other than to enjoy the moment as it lasts.

Jason also knew that something was different. The girl he loved was kissing him and he didn't know how to respond. There was one problem with kissing Isabella Rodriguez, she put her duty in front of her feelings. She would deem Jason as a liability and would instantly stop whatever was going on between them. So Jason was going to get whatever he could from this one kiss he was going to get from her, especially since she pushed him away last year.

When they pulled away for air, Isabella opened her eyes only to see that Jason's were already open. The door opened and Jason basically flew off her while Isabella sat up, that's when she noticed that they were both breathing heavily from lack of air. Reyna walked in and instantly noticed.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at me, "Why are you panting you literally just woke up"

"I had a nightmare" Isabella answered,

"Yeah whatever, we need to go."

Isabella finally took the time to inspect her new scars on her shoulder. "Where?" They looked badass.

"You need to talk to the people of New Rome to explain what happened."

"Alright, I'll be right out," Isabella told her. She nodded and looked at Jason with narrowed eyes. When Reyna left, she stood up and walked over to the coat rack.

Jason stood behind her with his lips pushed together while looking at the floor. She put on her leather jacket and turned to him. The only thing going on in her mind was that he looked like a kicked puppy. Isabella walked over to him, kissed his cheek and walked out to go talk to New Rome. If she had just turned around, she would have witnessed Jason Grace get the largest grin on his face and fist bump the air.

↽⋯⇁

Standing in front of the camp and New Rome is a thing she got used to long ago. She put on her regular face when regarding the public, her 'however bad you are, I'm 100 times worse' face. When she got up to the podium her eyes scanned the crowd. She saw loads of people she didn't know, but she was sure they all knew of her. She saw Octavian staring up at her with scared eyes, she enhanced her glare on him as he gulped. She kept looking and saw Nico standing with his arm wrapped around a girl his age looking at everyone like a deer in headlights. The girl had bright golden eyes, nice mocha skin, and impressive light brown hair. She looked up at Isabella and shrunk back into Nico, Isabella looked at Nico and gave him the 'explain everything later' look, he nodded.

"As you all know." Everyone quieted down so she didn't have to yell. "We were attacked yesterday." She paused looking at the crowd. "It was Gaea's army. And she's waking. From now on there will probably be more monster attacks, so war games will be every night to improve skill." Campers started cheering so loud that Isabella had to pause her speech. "One thing is that I'll be choosing the teams. So if I group the first and fourth cohorts together and I hear complaints you guys will be getting spears through your chests. Tonight we'll let our injured rest, but tomorrow. Get ready" She left the podium with her head held up high.

Isabella entered the Principia and went to sit in her chair. Reyna entered after her and went to sit with Isabella.

"How are you so good at your job?" Reyna asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're so good at controlling crowds, you make a way better Praetor than Jason and I."

"To be honest Reyna, I'm not sure. I do what I think is best for the Camp and what I would have wanted to improve." she nodded as Nico and the girl walked in. Reyna noticed them and stood up to walk out of the room, knowing about Isabella's friendship with the ambassador of Pluto.

Nico and the girl got up to the girl with the sea in her eyes. Isabella sat up straight and looked at the girl as if she knew everything about her, Nico just snorted and laid his back on the table and looked at the praetor upside down. Isabella raised an eyebrow. The girl, however, looked terrified,

"Nico, get off her table!" She hissed. Nico and Isabella both burst out laughing.

Nico regained his senses first, "Izzy, this is my sister Hazel. Hazel, this is the most feared person in San Francisco."

Isabella smiled and stood up, "That's an exaggeration but it's nice to meet you Hazel."

Hazel wide eyed shook her hand as if she were a glass that would shatter if she did the wrong thing. "It's nice to meet you ma'am"

Isabella laughed, "Ma'am? Am I that old?"

Hazel shook her head at the speed of light, "No I didn't mean that I just am used to-" She cut herself off and her eyes grew even bigger if that was possible.

Isabella looked at Nico with furrowed brows, "Explain. Now."

Nico sighed, "I knew nothing can get past you." He then began explaining that the doors of death were open, his sister being re-birthed, him finding Hazel, and hades' problems with the underworld.

Let's just say that Isabella had to take an aspirin after that.