***A/N: This came out of a writing prompt where two characters walk into a room and have a conversation that irrevocably changes one or both of them. I apologize for the angst. SPOILERS for The Burning Maze.

Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan because if it were up to me, these two would have lived happily ever after, like in Jason's vision in Athens.***

Change is the only constant in life.

-Heraclitus, Greek philosopher

JASON:

The moment Piper sat down on his bed and said, "Jason, we need to talk," his heart started to pound. And not in the good way.

Dread has been building in his stomach all night. Piper had been quiet at dinner, stiff and tense through the movie, silent on the drive back to his dorm (she'd "borrowed" her nasty neighbor's car again for their date tonight), and she'd barely made eye contact with him all evening. But she looked up at him now, straight on. As she drew in a deep breath and started to talk, Jason had a moment to wonder, desperately, if there was anything he could do to stop what was about to happen. He doubted it.

It wasn't like he hadn't suspected this was coming. Over the past couple of months, since they got out to California really, things had been different. It wasn't like they were fighting or anything. Most of the time, everything was fine. But he'd started to notice a…distance between them. It was hard to explain, but ever since they'd come back from searching for Leo and enrolled in school here in L.A., it was like certain walls had gone up between them. Mostly, he felt, on Piper's end, but he was sure he was partly to blame, too.

Adjusting to being a normal high school student wasn't easy, especially when he still also had to deal with monster attacks every other week. Plus tracking down and researching all the major and minor Greek and Roman deities, and designing appropriate shrines for them, took up a big chunk of his time. Although he was actually enjoying the project more than he'd anticipated. And surprisingly he liked a lot of his classes. It was nice to have a few friends at school, too, who just treated him as Jason, instead of looking at him in awe as the son of Jupiter. So basically it had been a busy semester. Piper, he knew, also had a lot going on. And maybe neither of them had been putting the work into their relationship that they needed to.

Fighting the panic rising in his chest, Jason sank onto his bed, a couple feet away from where Piper was sitting, and listened as she talked. She told him about her confusion. About trying to figure out who she was and what she wanted, outside of Hera and Aphrodite's manipulations. He could fully understand and appreciate that. The harder hit came when she said he was her best friend, more than anyone else, and she loved him, but—but she wasn't in love with him anymore, at least not the same way.

"I just don't think I can figure things out and be any good in a relationship at the same time," she admitted. "I don't think that's fair to either of us."

Jason felt his insides going dark, as if a lightbulb in his chest had blown out. "I love you, Pipes. But if—if you don't feel the same way anymore, then yeah, this isn't going to work."

She met his eyes and he saw the painful truth there, even as she whispered, "I'm sorry."

He wanted so badly to take her hand, to pull her against his chest and hold her and make her feel better, but he knew that wasn't what she needed right now. Instead, he looked into her eyes. Gods, he loved her eyes. Trying to figure out their prominent color was one of his favorite things to do. But he'd never been able to get it quite right. He took a deep breath. "Don't apologize for your feelings. Isn't that what you tell the rest of us?"

She gave a shaky laugh that maybe had some tears in it. "Yeah, I guess. Gods, how are you being so nice right now?"

"Would you prefer if I was a jerk?"

"It would make this a lot easier."

"My bad." They exchanged sad smiles and Jason's heart twisted. He exhaled and looked down at his hands. "I care about you, Piper. If you need to be alone to figure things out, then that's what you need to do. I just want you to be happy."

She studied him for several long moments, then said softly, "Thank you, Jason. What about you?"

He shrugged. "I'll be okay. I mean, this hurts right now, I can't lie. But we'll—I'll figure it out."

More silent studying, then, "Okay."

They sat there in silence for a while, letting these last moments hang between them. Jason didn't want to move or do anything to disturb the quiet. Because when it was over, they would be over.

Finally, Piper stood. She hesitated, then leaned over and kissed his cheek. He closed his eyes, savoring the touch of her lips on his skin. When she straightened up, he met her eyes for several infinite heartbeats.

"I'd better go," she said quietly.

Don't, he wanted to say. Instead, he nodded. It was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.

She paused at his dorm door and glanced over her shoulder. "I'll—I'll see you around, right?"

"Yeah," he managed. "Yeah, definitely."

He held it together until she'd gently closed the door behind her. Then he crumpled forward, back bent once again like when he'd been disguised as an old man on Ithaca. The island where, after he'd been stabbed, Piper had held him in her arms and traced her thumb along his lip. He remembered her sitting beside his bed when she came back from the Temple of Fear in Sparta, after he'd collapsed, and how she'd been trembling as she held his hand, and he'd done his best to comfort her. His mind flickered across the night they'd sat on the Cabin One roof and kissed beneath the stars.

Other images flashed through his mind, moments they'd shared, the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed. He thought of the very first day they met, when he'd held her in his arms, suspended in midair over the Grand Canyon, and he could feel her heart beat against his own. He couldn't stop the storm of memories, but it hurt. It hurt way worse than any injury he'd sustained in combat, including stupid Michael Varus stabbing him in the back.

He took off his glasses, letting them drop onto the bed beside him, and covered his face with his hands. Maybe he should have seen this coming. After all, it was the one constant in his life. His mother. Thalia. Leo. Now, Piper.

People leave.

Jason stayed that way, head in his hands, alone in his darkened room, for a long time.

All is flux, nothing stays still.

-Heraclitus

***Thanks for reading! There will be a second chapter of this story, but featuring Annabeth and Percy and related loosely again to that idea of a "constant" in life.***