before we both turn into ghosts ┊p. mclean

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Juno was the last to climb down the ladder.
She hit the ground with her chin high, eyes set like flint. Leo and Annabeth followed, the rest trailed behind. The Roman forum fell into a hush as she passed through it. Demigods stepped aside instinctively, wariness flickering in their eyes. Some still bore bandages, others bruises—but none reached for their weapons.

Her fingers tugged at the hem of her shirt, more tell than tactic. The air felt charged, like a storm waiting to strike.

At the head of the crowd stood a girl draped in imperial purple, dark hair tumbling past her shoulders, bronze armor catching the sun. Her eyes were obsidian sharp. Reyna.

Jason had described her exactly right.

Juno studied her, cataloging the details. The way she held herself—composed, proud, just a bit too rigid. Medals lined her chest. Her chin was tilted just so.

Reyna raked her eyes down the uneven line of Jason's new—friends. Her eyes bore into Jason, taking in details like a drowning man taking in oxygen.

Juno sniffed and turned away.

Reyna stepped forward. "Jason Grace, my former colleague... I welcome you home. And your companions—"

Jason's name began to ripple through the crowd like a prayer. Juno found this entire operation entirely to uncomfortable. It felt like she had stumbled into an open wound.

She hung back, half in shadow beneath the columns, arms folded like armor. Juno's found her eyes drifting to Annabeth.

Annabeth Chase, who moved like steel. Unshakable. Even when the sky fell. She had froze, something in her cracked wide open.

Juno had never seen her like that.

The crowd had shifted. Someone pushed through—quick, urgent.

Juno didn't recognize him. She'd never seen Percy Jackson before.

He didn't shine. Didn't burn with destiny. He looked tired. A little worn at the edges. But the air bent around him all the same. Like the world made room for him.

Annabeth took a stumbled step. Her face shattered. "Percy?"

They collided like gravity had given up pretending. They felt like something powerful. Something raw.

She looked away—but not out of politeness. It was too much. Too real. It made her hands shake.

Annabeth clung to him like she'd been drowning. Percy buried his face in her shoulder. They whispered things no one else would ever hear. But Juno didn't need the words to understand.

The boy who'd turned the tide. Who'd chosen love over godhood. The name Annabeth had prayed and never stopped searching for.

He was real now. And Annabeth looked whole in a way Juno had never seen.

Her throat ached.

"Gods, I never thought—" Percy started.

And Annabeth promptly flipped him onto the stone.

The crowd gasped. Romans tensed. Fingers twitched where swords weren't.

Reyna barked, "Hold! Stand down!"

Annabeth had Percy pinned, one knee on his chest, an arm to his throat. "If you ever leave me again," she hissed, "I swear to all the gods—"

Percy laughed, breathless. "Message received. I missed you. So much."