Someone in a review somewhere asked for some more Thalia and Luke. No idea who or where, but ta-dah! I even made it fluff not angst. Also let's take a moment to appreciate that I found a better name for this than the working title 'Impromptu Hairdo'. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the world of PJO.

How to Rock a Pixie Cut

Thalia figured that she had many valid reasons to be upset at the moment.

a) She'd been woken up quite rudely at ass-o'clock in the morning. Even when Luke gently woke her up for her turn standing guard, Thalia wasn't necessarily 'pleasant' or 'a morning person'.

b) Luke had nearly died thirty seconds ago. She'd nearly dies thirty-five seconds ago. This had been their worst fight so far, and it'd tested their teamwork and wit and endurance and skill and speed. Definitely speed. Also agility because human feet weren't exactly meant for rocky terrain like, oh Thalia didn't know, hooves and clawed feet and other shit monsters had built in.

c) She'd started her period the day before yesterday. Like, okay. That shouldn't be a big deal. But when you didn't have access to a decent bathroom and your stash of lady-supplies was running low because you hadn't had time to go shoplift a pharmacy recently, it was an even bigger bother than usual and it was super stressful. Thalia didn't like wasting their meager supply of aspirin on cramps, so she felt like every time she made even the smallest move to keep herself from dying, she died a bit inside too. Literally the biggest pain in the ass ever.

d) The monster had ripped up their last sleeping bag, just as October (a.k.a. the time when they actually needed it) rolled around the corner. Thalia could also tell by the feel and the taste of the air that it was going to rain tonight, which meant that the gashes and tears and downright disaster that their two-man tent had become was now horrid.

e) The monster had grabbed Thalia's hair during the fight as a way to slow her down. It'd been loose and running down her back since it was so early; usually Thalia tied it in a knot and pinned it to the back of her head or put it in a tight crown braid to keep it out of the way. First things first, grabbing hair in a fight was a dick move. Two, it hurt, since the stupid dracanae had grabbed a fistful of hair close to Thalia's skull. Third, to get free -and this bit Thalia hadn't really thought through- she'd just turned around and chopped off her hair before curling into a ball, rolling behind the monster (owe owe owe tampon tampon owe owe) and stabbing the stupid beast in the back.

The monsters were gone now. Luke and Thalia had solved the situation and after a quick high-five, they mostly focused on getting back to their camp ground and walking off the action and catching their breaths. Somewhat. Thalia's heart was still racing when she sat down on a log with Luke. It was like her body was just remembering that since she'd been woken up, she had to be groggy and stiff.

"Sorry," he said. "One of them lured me away. I didn't think… their scales weren't green. We thought only the green ones traveled in packs."

"Yeah," Thalia said. "Don't worry about it. Who knew they trained hellhounds to do their bidding too, right?"

She raised her hand to run her head through her hair. She ended up grabbing at her hoody. The hair was gone.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," Thalia said. "Holy shit, my hair though…. I can't remember the last time it didn't go down to my butt. I must have been, like, two years old."

After Jason had been born, Mom had started to treat Thalia particularly girlishly, and treat Jason as if he was already a strong and clever little man. In retrospect, this was rather stupid of her. Thalia had never been traditionally feminine in the first place, and putting her kids in little boxes was yet another telling move of how Mom hadn't really understood how wild and crazy and unique her kids were.

Still, Thalia remembered spending hours at a time with Mom in front of the bathroom mirror as Mom brushed Thalia's hair gently. Mom used to braid and twist and pin and curl and straighten Thalia's hair and they would talk and giggle like a hair dresser and a favourite customer. Mom would always be gentle. She'd apologised when she pulled too hard or pushed too hard. It'd been something to share and play with way back when- the worst was Jason who was obsessed with hair, always grabbing it and sticking pins straight into Thalia's skull or making a mess when he tried to thread elastics in... Stupid and shallow as it was, Thalia's hair had become piece of home she was literally attached to. Something she had control over and that nobody could take away from her. Something to tug on when she was nervous or stressed out instead of throttling the people around her. Something to remember.

"I think it suits you," Luke said. "Short hair."

Thalia looked at him and arched an eyebrow. "Okay, wait. Do you know where the mirror is?"

"The in-case-of-gorgons mirror?"

They'd been a little freaked out by that particular myth when they'd stopped at a library in Colorado and had gone through books. They always carried a piece of mirror stolen from the bathroom of a sketchy motel, just in case.

"Yeah," Thalia said.

Luke went in the tent to go check his bag and came out with it. Thalia unsheathed the dagger tied to her calf and had Luke hold the mirror as she cut her hair more and more, looking at the sides and the backs, being careful not to slice her fingers or her scalp in the process…

The result was a spiky and asymmetrical style with floppy bangs in front of Thalia's left eye.

"That looks better," she said. She liked it. She'd made it look the way it did and she thought that it would be a very Jason-friendly, Mother-pissing-off style. She felt good about it.

"That looks really good," Luke said. "It looks badass. It sets out your eyes."

Thalia blushed. He blushed back.

"Thanks," Thalia said. She sheathed her knife again and got up. She didn't want to talk about this more. Didn't want to talk about how awesome it was that Luke liked her hair, and how pitiful it was that the way he looked at her and talked about her eyes made her feel better.

"Let's get moving," Thalia said. "Tent is toast. We need to figure something else for tonight."

They left and they never really talked about Thalia's hair or Thalia's eyes again, although the looking never really went away and, okay yes, Thalia would be lying if she said that every now and then, she didn't look at Luke either.