ARUNA

~•♡•~

"i'm going to fucking murder you if you think you can scare me."

sheepishly, leo emerged from the shadows. aruna turned to him, her face plastered with a smirk as leo awkwardly shrugged. he walked up to her, kicking aside dirty clothes in her bedroom floor. aruna smiled as leo pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.

"i never get to sneak up on you! it's not fair!" he complained as he sat down on the bed.

"life isn't fair." aruna replied as she crossed her arms. "so, why are you here?"

"what- i can't visit my girlfriend just for the hell of it?"

"there is always an ulterior motive." aruna replied. leo sat up and smiled.

"my motive is you being super attractive and wanting to remind myself you're real. that's all." he shrugged.

aruna rolled her eyes even as she blushed. "you're a dork."

"eh, just shootin' my shot." he sat up fully, looking around the room curiously. most of their time was spent in leo's room rather than aruna's, which was a little odd. leo's room could kill you by tripping, and it always stunk of machine grease. aruna's smelled like mint and her blankets were fluffier and more comfy.

"shootin' your shot? what are you shootin' for?"

leo shrugged. "i dunno. a hug? a kiss? for you to tell me what a dumbass i am?"

"you're a complete dumbass."

leo pumped his fist in victory and aruna rolled her eyes as she got up and walked over to the bed. leo smelled like he was freshly showered, which was always pleasant. aruna sat with her legs out and her back propped up on pillows.

"piper was interrogating me today."

aruna nodded. "i am aware."

"you know they all know, right?" leo smiled as he turned to look at aruna. she shrugged as leo moved over to her.

"that's their problem." she shrugged as leo laid his head on her chest, his arms around her waist. aruna held him softly, her hands playing with his hair as leo snuggled into her. "do you care if they know?"

"i kinda want them to know." leo murmured into his shirt. "then they'll know i won."

aruna laughed softly and laid her head back fully. leo held her tightly, his body warm. "won? at what?"

"at wooing the hottest girl in the world."

aruna woke up to screaming above deck. leo shot up, his breath hitching as he turned to the door. the screaming above died down, and aruna could hear piper talking to jason, explaining something about falling.

aruna rolled her eyes before closing them again. "he's fine. they're all fine."

"no, he needs me." leo suddenly said as he shot up. aruna still felt sleepy, then angry at his warm body moving away from hers. "he's asking for me. i gotta go before i get yelled at again."

the door opened and closed, and aruna rolled onto her side, her face to the wall. she shifted her head on her pillow and felt her body relax, finally ready to sleep again.

and into the dreams she dropped.

~•♡•~

"oh. hey?"

clarisse stared at aruna in confusion, her face contorted to resemble an angry hog. in the dream, clarisse was sharpening her spear, maimer (lamer).

"what the fuck are you doing here?"

"uh, great question." aruna admitted as she looked around the army-barracks styled ares cabin. she really hated everything about it, especially the campers within. "but, i'm here now, and if you can see me, it means you're conked out, too. so, what the hell is going on?"

"those ridiculous romans are trying to wage war on us." clarisse explained as she went on sharpening her spear. "they won't win, of course, but they have an army of monster allies. i'm talking about laistrygonians, empousai, wild centaurs."

aruna shook her head as she looked for a place to sit, but everything looked super uncomfortable. "i'm gonna guess that's octavian's doing?"

"what's octavian? is that a band or something?"

"he's the stringy, anemic one that always has a teddy bear."

"oh, that one!" clarisse grinned. "we just call him jackass. and yeah, it's mostly his fault. the other one, the tall hot one, reyna something? she's pretty much lost control. the enchilada satyr and the oracle went to talk with them, but i don't think much good will come from it."

"enchilada satyr?"

"the one percy jackson is buddies with."

aruna frowned. "yeah, in case you don't know, i knew percy jackson for about six days before he plopped into tartarus."

"dammit. why weren't you here in 2006?"

"in 2006 i was receiving psychiatric treatment in texas."

clarisse scoffed. "lot of good that did you."

aruna really couldn't be mad at the truth. instead, she ticked her head and clicked her tongue.

"anything else we should know about?" she asked. clarisse shook her head and continued sharpening her spear.

"bro, why the hell are you working on that? it's a dream. it won't be there when you wake up."

clarisse glared. "this is why i don't like you."

"at least i'm not leo valdez." aruna grinned.

clarisse paused, then nodded. "i guess there is some truth in that. i can't stand that guy."

aruna grinned wider. "i know right? like when he rambles and starts speaking in spanish?"

clarisse groaned. "chris does that all the time. i don't speak spanish!"

aruna nodded. "yeah, what else does chris do that pisses you off?"

"he steals my clothes, he uses his stupid demigod powers to run from me, he pretends he's still crazy to scare me, he-" clarisse paused, and slowly turned to aruna. her eyes widened and her face turned red.

"you did not."

"listen, it was an accident-"

"YOU HOOKED UP ON ACCIDENT?!"

"okay, an impulse-control thing!" aruna defended with a sheepish smile. "you have ADHD! you know all about that!"

"i don't go around dating stupid tinkerers with big mouths!"

"yeah, you just date a stupid thief with a big mouth."

clarisse squinted. "you're on thin ice, rodrigo. now, tell me how it happened. i want the gossip."

"you're as bad as drew tanaka!"

"SHUT UP AND TELL ME WHO MADE THE FIRST MOVE BEFORE I SPEAR YOUR ASS!"

"AH! AH! I DID!" aruna yelled as she jumped back.

clarisse stared in disbelief before she shot up and started chasing aruna with her spear. "WELL, WHY WOULD YOU GO AND DO THAT? YOU'RE WAY OUT OF HIS LEAGUE!"

"NO! HE'S NICE AND UNDERSTANDING AND I LIKE HIM!"

"HE'S A GUY!"

~•♡•~

"yo? bro? buddy?"

aruna woke up to jason peering over her, his blue eyes wide as an owls, his faint scar peeking at her. aruna sat up fully and jason moved back, staring at her with curious eyes as she rubbed her own.

"jason? what time is it?" she yawned.

"almost noon." jason explained. "sorry for waking you up. i know you have trouble sleeping, but we had to call a meeting."

aruna yawned again. "why?"

"we need to go to split, croatia."

aruna stared and then snickered. "a place called split? that doesn't bode well, does it?"

jason frowned. "you spend too much time with leo. i miss when you were smart."

"i am still smart. but as time goes on and i get more and more annoyed, i'm gonna say dumber things." aruna pointed out as she stood up. she stretched a bit, satisfied as every bone in her body popped. she shook her hair out of her face, and followed jason to the mess hall.

"how did you sleep?" frank asked as he turned to aruna. she shrugged.

"i slept. let's thank hypnos for that."

"no, not hypnos." leo shook his head. "thank me."

frank raised an eyebrow. "why would she thank you? somnus is literally the god of sleep."

aruna rolled her eyes as she took her seat next to leo, wrapped his tiger blanket over her legs. "leo just thinks he's captain save-a-hoe and that he'll be the remedy to all my problems, despite him causing about thirty-five percent of them."

leo grinned. "ah, gimme some credit!"

"i only give credit where credit is due. you want credit? i credit you with making me angry." aruna pointed out as she spawned a philly cheese steak on her plate. leo eyed it hungrily, and aruna cut him a side-eye as a way of warding him off.

"and how is everyone?" aruna asked curiously. "evidently, i've slept through half the day."

"i told jason not to wake you up." piper sighed. "i figured you needed it the most."

"i'll be good on a cup of coffee. why are we having a meeting?" aruna asked as she began eating.

"jason had a vision when he was falling." frank reported.

"falling?" aruna raised an eyebrow.

"he got hit by a storm spirit and passed out."

"goddammit, grace. could you not?"

"hey, i am the only one that has much luck fighting those things!" jason argued. "gimme some credit! it's hard to fly around for three hours!"

"i could do it."

"shut the fuck up." jason groaned as he put his hand on his forehead. aruna snickered.

"report your vision. i had one too, but a lot less helpful, probably."

jason explained what he had seen in his dream- rachel the oracle and grover the satyr meeting with octavian and reyna to report that annabeth had found a way to send them a message from tartarus. aruna watched as jason constantly tapped his feet, his eyes darting from place to place and sweat beading on his temples.

everyone was quiet long enough for aruna to finish her sandwich, and for hedge to finish his, along with the ceramic plate. the ship creaked as it sailed through the adriatic sea, its oars still somewhat out of alignment. leo hadn't repaired all of them, and he was wasting his time with aruna instead, which made her a bit mad. every once in a while, festus creaked over the intercom, reporting the autopilot status in that weird machine language only leo could understand.

"a note from annabeth." piper shook her head in amazement. "i don't see how that's possible, but if it is-"

"she's alive." leo said. "thank the gods and pass the hot sauce."

frank frowned. "what does that mean?"

leo wiped chip crumbs off his face. "it means pass the hot sauce, zhang. i'm still hungry."

frank slid over a jar of salsa as aruna got to work on a cheesecake. all the dairy would probably backfire later, but she was so annoyed, overjoyed, and tired that she didn't care.

"i can't believe reyna would try to find us." frank said. "it's taboo, coming to the ancient lands. she'll be stripped of her praetorship."

"if she lives." hazel continued, which earned a soft huff from aruna. "it was hard enough for us to make it this far with eight demigods and a warship."

"and me." hedge belched. "don't forget, cupcake, you got the satyr advantage."

aruna was only able to softly smile. hedge was ridiculous, of course. she was pretty sure the gods created him for comedic relief. still, she was somewhat glad to have him along. his bizarre behavior somehow made things seem normal on board. it felt less like the gods throwing together a bullshit plan and hoping it worked. it felt more like kids had put together a bullshit plan and hoped it worked. somehow, that made it more reassuring.

aruna looked to jason with her other companions. jason seemed lost in his own world, his fist covering his mouth as he was lost in a sea of his own thoughts. aruna sensed some sort of dread from him, nostalgia, even fear.

"jason?" leo asked as he snapped his fingers. "argo II to jason, come in!"

jason snapped back into reality. his eyes panned around the demigods and satyr as everyone stared at him for some sort of reassurance.

"yeah, sorry." he touched the groove of hair that sciron the bandit had cause when he fired an arrow. "crossing the atlantic is a hard journey, no doubt. but i'd never bet against reyna. if anyone can make it, she will."

piper circled her spoon through her soup. surprisingly, aruna detected no jealousy from the daughter of aphrodite. instead, when she gave jason a dry smile, it seemed more like she was teasing him.

"hey, querida, gimme a bite." leo whispered.

aruna glared at him. "no. fuck you."

"gods, you're such a bitch, do you know that?"

aruna ate an extra large bite of cheesecake, slowly, just to spite leo. "so i am told."

frank almost looked alarmed, like he couldn't believe aruna and leo would speak to each other that way. he looked even more bewildered when aruna went ahead and gave leo a bite anyway.

"well, i'd love to see reyna again." piper said. "but how is she supposed to find us?"

frank raised his hand. "can't you just send her an iris message?"

"they're not working very well." hedge put in. aruna looked at him, surprised. "horrible reception. every night, i swear, i could kick that rainbow goddess..."

he faltered. his face turned bright red.

"coach?" leo said, grinning with cheesecake plastered on his face. "who you been calling every night, you old goat?"

"no one!"

"liar!" aruna grinned. "aw, coach, you dog. you got a special someone back home?"

"no! nothing! i just meant-"

"he means we've already tried." hazel said, and the coach gave her a grateful look. in sync, leo and aruna turned to each other with giddy smiles and wide eyes before focusing again. "some magic is interfering... maybe gaea. contacting the romans is even harder. i think they're shielding themselves."

aruna scooted close to leo and tapped her foot against his.

M-E-L-L-I-E?

leo hid his smile with his hand. M-A-Y-B-E.

frank drummed his fingers on the table. "i don't suppose reyna has a cell phone...? nah, never mind. she'd probably have bad reception on a pegasus flying across the atlantic."

leo tried to bite the cheesecake off aruna's fork as it rose to her mouth. she mashed her hand to his face, bending his nose and squishing his cheek as she shoved him away. "piss off, you freak."

"she'll find us." jason assured. "she mentioned something in the dream- she's expecting me to go to a certain place on our way to the house of hades. i-i'd forgotten about it, really, but she's right. it's a place i need to visit."

piper leaned forward, her caramel braid falling over her shoulder. aruna saw jason's mood shift to something unplaceable, and his eyes glassed over.

leo cupped a hand over aruna's ear. "he's whipped."

aruna nodded vigorously in response.

"and where is this place?" piper asked.

"a..... uh, a town called split." jason said, swallowing thickly.

"split." piper repeated, her eyes trained on jason. hazel and frank looked at each other with raised eyebrows as jason absently nodded. however, he quickly shook his head and looked away.

piper turned to aruna with a smirk.

"in fact," jason swallowed. "we should be getting close. leo?"

leo punched the intercom button. "how's it going up there, buddy?"

festus creaked and steamed.

"he says maybe ten minutes to harbor." leo reported. "though, i still don't get why you would want to go to a town called split. i mean, you name your city split, you gotta figure it's a warning to, y'know, split. kind of like naming your city get out!"

"wait." hazel paused. "why are we going to croatia?"

aruna noticed that everyone else refused to meet hazel's eyes. after her trick with the mist, everyone seemed to be somewhat scared of her. it was bad enough being a child of pluto, and a sister to nico di angelo, but now that she was able to pull off things like that... even aruna had been terrified, completely fooled by the mist. she had felt her heart shatter in two when she saw the turtle devour jason.

but she couldn't bring herself to fear hazel. hazel was powerful, of course. she could summon precious gems and literally command metal (she really wanted hazel to dress as magneto for halloween, now), but now she was a sorceress, too.

still, hazel was hazel. hazel was a youthful girl with curly, cinnamon hair and golden eyes like honey. she still got nervous talking to her boyfriend. she got excited to play lemonade with aruna. she still seemed puzzled at modern references. really, hazel wasn't scary at all.

she was a kid.

leo pushed his chips and hot sauce to aruna, and she dug in. "well, technically we've been in croatian territory for the past day or so." he explained. "all that coastline we've been sailing past is it, but i guess back in the roman times it was called... what'd you say jason? bodacious?"

"dalmatia." nico said, making jason jump.

aruna glared at leo as she licked hot sauce from her chin. "you confused dalmatia with bodacious?"

"i have dyslexia."

"no, you don't?"

leo stared a minute before grinning. "ah, i was just tryna fool you."

"croatia used to be dalmatia." nico said. "a major roman province. you want to go to diocletian's palace, don't you?"

coach hedge belched heroically. "whose palace? and is dalmatia where those dalmatian dogs come from? that 101 dalmatians movie- i still have nightmares."

frank scratched his head. "why would you have nightmares about that?"

coach hedge looked like he was about to launch into a major speech about the evils of cartoon dalmatians, but jason looked like he didn't want to hear it. "nico is right. i need to go to diocletian's palace. it's the where reyna will go first, because she knows i would go there."

piper raised an eyebrow. "and why would reyna think that? because you've always had a fascination with croatian culture?"

"leo, if you don't back the fuck up-" aruna was silenced as leo leaped across her chair landing in her lap, and outstretching his hand to reach the wheel-shaped chip she held in the air.

"c'mon! i want a bite!"

"you gave these to me." aruna replied as she looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.

"well, i changed my mind." leo grinned as he rested his chin on her chest. "please? you know i love chicharrones de harina."

aruna only stared at him before shoving the chip in her mouth. leo groaned loudly and aruna turned to the rest of the group, not caring that leo was still on top of her.

"reyna and i used to talk about diocletian." jason said, his eyes lingering on leo and aruna for a moment before his face reverted to the normal. "we both kind of idolized the guy as a leader. we talked about how we'd like to visit diocletian's palace. of course, we knew that it was impossible. no one could travel to the ancient lands. but still, we made this pact that if we ever did, that's where we'd go."

"diocletian..." leo considered the name as he wrapped his arms around aruna, but inevitably shook his head. "i got nothing. why was he so important?"

frank looked both offended, baffled, and irritated. "he was the last great pagan emperor!"

leo snorted before laying his cheek on aruna. "why am i not surprised you know that, zhang?"

"why wouldn't i?" frank scoffed as aruna lay an arm on leo's back. "he was the last one who worshipped the olympian gods, before constantine came along and adopted christianity."

hazel nodded. "i remember something about that. the nuns at st. agnes taught us that diocletian was a huge villain, right along with nero and caligula." she look askance at jason. "why would you idolize him?"

"he wasn't a total villain." jason began.

"thomas jefferson wasn't a total rapist." aruna retorted.

jason stared before moving on. "yeah, he persecuted christians, but otherwise, he was a good ruler."

aruna found it funny how one can commit mass genocide and still be idolized.

"he worked his way up from nothing by joining the legion. his parents were former slaves... or at least his mom was. demigods know he was a son of jupiter- the last demigod to rule rome. he was also the first emperor to ever retire, like, peacefully, and give up his power. he was from dalmatia, so he moved back there and built a retirement palace. the town of split grew up around..."

he faltered when he looked at leo and aruna. leo had his eyes wide and eager, and aruna was pretending to write something on his back.

"go on, professor grace!" leo grinned.

"i wanna get an A on the test!" aruna beamed.

"shut the fuck up."

piper sipped another spoonful of soup, her eyes almost accusatory towards aruna and leo. "so why is diocletian's palace so special?"

nico leaned over and plucked a grape. aruna figured that'd be his diet for the entire day. "it's said to be haunted by the ghost of diocletian."

"who was a son of jupiter, like me." jason said.

"okay, but wasn't everybody a son of zupiter?"

jason went blank. "z-zupiter?" it clicked and his gaze darkened.

"shut the fuck up!" then, he continued. "his tomb was destroyed centuries ago, but reyna and i used to wonder if we could find diocletian's ghost and ask where he was buried... well, according to the legends, his scepter was buried with him."

nico gave him a thin, creepy smile, like a character out of a tim burton movie. jason looked terrified, but aruna thought it was cute- in a homicidal way, of course. "ah, that legend."

"what legend?" hazel asked.

nico turned to his sister. "supposedly diocletian's scepter could summon the ghosts of the roman legions, any of them who worshipped the old gods."

leo whistled as aruna ate another chip. "okay, now i'm interested. be nice to have an ass-kicking army of pagan zombies on our side when we enter the house of hades."

"not sure i would put it that way," jason muttered. "but yeah."

"we don't have much time." frank warned. "it's already july ninth. we have to get to epirus, close the doors of death-"

"which are guarded," hazel murmured. "by a smoky giant and a sorceress who wants..." she hesitated. "well, i'm not sure. but according to pluto, she plans to 'rebuild her domain.' whatever that means, it's bad enough that my dad felt like warning me personally."

"could it be circe?" aruna questioned. "annabeth mentioned her and percy having a quest on circe's island a couple of years ago."

hazel didn't say anything, and aruna glared.

frank jumped in with a grunt. damn, why does he always grunt? just 'cause you can turn into a bear doesn't mean you have to sound like one. "and if we survive all that, we still have to find out where the giants are waking gaea and get there before the first of august. besides, the longer percy and annabeth are in tartarus-"

"i know." jason said. "we won't take long in split. but looking for the scepter is worth a try. while we're at the palace, i can leave a message for reyna, letting her know the route we're taking to epirus."

nico nodded. "the scepter of diocletian could make a huge difference. you'll need my help."

jason did a decent job at hiding his discomfort, but aruna could feel it from three miles away.

piper squeezed his hand. "hey, sounds fun. i'll go, too."

jason looked ecstatic, but nico shook his head. "you can't, piper. it should only be jason and me. diocletian's ghost might only appear for a son of jupiter, but any other demigods would most likely, ah, spook him. and i'm the only one who can talk to his spirit. even hazel won't be able to do that."

nico's eyes held a gleam of challenge, his gaze set down on jason like a challenge. even leo noticed, because he tapped on aruna's back.

B-R-O?

aruna only nodded in response with wide eyes.

the ship's bell sounded. festus creaked and whirred over the loudspeaker.

"we've arrived." leo announced. "time to split."

frank groaned. "can we leave valdez in croatia?"

aruna looked at him. "let's split him between here and split."

leo snickered on her chest and frank glared. "and rodrigo, too?"

jason stood. "frank, you're in charge of defending the ship. leo, you've got repairs to do. the rest of you, help out where you can. nico and i..." he faced the son of hades.

nico was literally over half a foot shorter than jason, but jason was the only one that looked scared. nico tilted his head, almost taunting jason with death.

"we have a ghost to find." jason finally supplied. he looked to aruna and leo, his eyebrow raised as he surveyed their position, so they did the normal thing.

they gave a thumbs up.

"WAY TO GO, BUDDY!"

"KICK SOME ASS!"

"RAAAAAAA-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

~•♡•~

everyone else's demigod dreams: okay guys, i have our new destination, i found out what's going on back home, i talked to a god, and i got the heebie jeebies
aruna's demigod dreams: okay, so his hands kinda started on my waist but then went up to my hair-