Or Not at All
for PJFC - ily, Rrit
in which Percy has to remind Piper that she is most definitely not alone

Piper was ninety-eight point nine percent sure that Leo had created a dictionary, because he used a lot of weird words. And she admittedly used them, though she would deny it if he found out.

Sucktastic described her life. There was that old saying: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade (or grape juice.) The problem was, well, life had handed her a prophecy, a ton of monsters, oh, you know, a few giants or so, and this freaking earth goddess who wanted to kill Piper and her friends. She wasn't quite sure she could fit all of that in a blender, though it would be amazing. And she knew she was being like a little kid, but she couldn't help it. There was just this neverending sea of suck in which she was swimming, thank you very much. She didn't know why they called her a hero. Heroes were, well, heroes, and as far as Piper went, she was more of the cute accessory than the actual thing. And it was then she knew she was spending way too much time around Leo. Way.

She paced the deck. According to the Archimedes sphere, it was around 4 AM in New York, but she didn't feel a bit tired. If she slept, she'd just be plagued by more nightmares, ones that involved all the things swimming in the sucktastic sea. (Again: Prophecy, Gaea, monsters, Gaea, giants, Gaea.) Piper felt like she had chugged down a to-go espresso. She couldn't relax. Her nerves kept tingling, and the pacing didn't help much either. She sighed and stopped, turning to face the sea. It was black, but the moonlight caught the crests of it, tiny spots of light dancing across the surface. She wondered if her friends back at Camp Half-Blood were seeing the same exact thing. Were they thinking about her, like she was them? The breeze was cool against her face, refreshing, something good in the world of bad.

"Couldn't sleep?" The voice was slurred, slow, like the person had just woken up. It was Percy. His orange shirt was rumpled and his jeans looked half-pulled on, but she managed to smile at him. He gave her a smile back, coming to stand next to her, bags prominent underneath his dull eyes. She found her voice.

"Yeah," she said, swallowing. "Nightmares. You?" He shrugged and laughed, the sound different. It wasn't one filled with joy. More.. sarcastic, bitter.

"Don't we all," he stated grimly. "Queen Dirt Face," he muttered. She laughed at his commentary. He turned to face the sea, his eyes lightening a shade, maybe.

"Percy," she started. "When did you- How do you do it?" He didn't turn away from the sea, but he cocked his head, questioning.

"What d'you mean, Pipes?" She smiled at the nickname.

"Well, like, how do you survive?" Percy turned to her this time, biting his lip. He raised an eyebrow at her, the look on his face amused.

"That's the thing, girlie. You don't," he said. "But that's okay, see. You're gonna keep falling down, and well, we're all going to just stop at some point and not function. You don't keep going if you can't. You can walk out of here, if you wanted to."

"And you don't?" she asked, feeling incredulous.

"Who would? Even though holding up the world is hard-and I've done that before-you're not going to quit. You don't have the heart to leave your friends, your family. Maybe you don't feel like a hero, but you are, Piper. Heroes never feel like heroes." She frowned, pondering what Percy had told her. "Pipes, you're not alone, you know. We all feel like crap, and we all just want this war to be over." He shrugged. "I survive 'cause of my friends. They keep me going. We're really beautiful people, you know? Sometimes we forget that." She nodded, and on a whim, she leaned forwards and hugged him. He stiffened, but then he hugged her back.

"Thanks, Percy," she said quietly. He nodded.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked, motioning at the sea. "Friends on one side, gods on the other. I'm here for you. Friends are friends. Besides," he added, grinning. "We're either in this together, or not at all." Then, he disappeared back into the darkness as if he'd never been there at all. Then she turned and stared at the sea, thinking about home.

I'm on a roll- for now. Ugh, tomorrow will suck, 'cause we were supposed to have school today but didn't. There was this cold front in the US, so there's ice outside. It went from Friday to today, and so now school will be pretty sucktastic. No kidding.

Review, review, please. Who doesn't like Percy/Piper as a BROTP?

Achieving Elysium