VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL ₊˚⊹♡

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A FEBRUARY 14th AU

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⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ AERA WAS HAVING AN MID-LOVE-LIFE CRISIS. Today was Valentine's Day and the daughter of Aphrodite was this close to bleaching her hair blonde and moving to a different country under a new name. Since New Years when they had last seen each other, Aera had wanted to ask Jason to be her valentine, but there was never a good time. She had gotten sick off of Mr. D's signature "demigod-friendly wine" during Camp Half-Blood's annual New Year's Eve party and Jason had spent the rest of their winter holiday taking care of her.

Now that their break was over, Jason was attending this all-boys boarding school on the west coast and Aera was attending this all-girls boarding school on the east coast. Whenever they Iris-messaged each other, one of them was always busy with something. For example, Aera had a facial appointment, Jason had a calculus test. Or Jason had plans to go meet some god to discuss plans for new temples to honor the more forgotten deities and Aera had plans to go meet some god to exchange immortal beauty secrets and keep them alive in the 21st century.

Both demigods had very heavy jobs to shoulder, but what was more challenging was that they both had to do it without the other by their side.

Aera and Jason had barely managed to set aside enough time on their hectic schedules to meet up in person on Valentine's Day. Aera was through the roof (but still gracefully) excited to see her boyfriend for the first time in a month. At the same time, she was also immensely anxious. She had wanted to buy a gift for Jason, but even sitting at her princess vanity mirror in her best thinking ballgown for two hours straight, looking otherworldly radiant, wasn't enough for her to think of something to get him.

In her defense, Jason wasn't exactly the easiest to purchase gifts for. Clothing-wise, that style-inept brute preferred functionality over style (which means he probably would not appreciate Aera dropping seven grand on a designer leopard-print suit for him, though she could see him totally rocking that).

There wasn't much that Jason ever needed and he never asked Aera for anything. He was so low maintenance it was almost aggravating. Jason was the type of guy who religiously equipped a 100-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, body wash, cleanser, and lethal celestial bronze cylinder in one, despite Aera's fruitless efforts to convert him to a 11-step Korean skincare routine.

When they went out on dates, Aera had tried to pay attention to all the things Jason liked and what fascinated him, but the only thing he ever seemed to be interested in was her, which, believe it or not, Aera could now see was a problem.

"Just say your gift is you then," Piper suggested when Aera sent her an emergency Iris-message distress call a week before V-Day. "I mean, you've already been wrapping yourself with a bow and giving yourself to him for Christmas and his birthday. Jason won't care if you do it again for Valentine's Day."

"It's not about the actual gift, Pipes," Aera said, blowing on her wet nails so they'd dry faster. "It's about the principle."

"You?" Piper snickered, nearly choking on the bagel she was eating. "Have principles?" Piper threw her head back and let out a maniacal laugh. Aera was glad she wasn't physically there for her new Chanel dress to fall victim to the spray of bagel that came out of Piper's mouth. Her sister so did not care for table manners sometimes. Piper was what they called, barbaric af.

"Let's be real, Aera," Piper said. "You're more likely to have a bad hair day than principles."

"Ha-ha," Aera laughed humorlessly. "Very funny." Piper didn't stop laughing so Aera curled her lip and said, "Well, if you don't have any good ideas, I'm gonna I-M Drew instead."

"Ugh, no!" Piper exasperated. "Don't I-M Drew. She's been driving me nuts! Ever since I became head counselor, she hasn't stopped trying to boss me around. Did you hear about the petition she submitted to me about turning Cabin Ten into a BTS shrine?"

"Actually," Aera said, "that was my idea."

Piper groaned. "You can't be serious. I thought you got over J-Hope when you started going out with Jason."

"I will never be over J-Hope," Aera declared, dead serious, "and Jason is well aware of that. He better be."

"Then maybe your Valentine's Day gift should be to get over J-Hope."

"OK, that's too much."

"Come on, Aera," Piper said, and Aera could see her traitorous sister was biting back another barking laugh. "This is Jason we're talking about. The same Jason who jumped off the Grand Canyon Skywalk to save you without remembering he could fly, and the same Jason who solo'd a giant because he disrespected you. I bet he'd be over the moon if you gave him a jar of dirt."

"But I don't want to give him a jar of dirt."

"It's an example."

Aera heaved a melodramatic sigh. Was she really going to give him herself as a present again? That was so lame and so unromantic, and she was pretty sure she wouldn't look as ethereally stunning in a giant red bow as she did the first two times.

"Look," Piper entreated as Aera started removing all of her acrylic extensions out of stress. "If you're so worried about this, why don't you get him something expensive?"

Aera pensively wrinkled her nose. "Jason thinks expensive things are a waste of money."

"That's because he doesn't want to use his money to buy it," Piper pointed out. "It's different if you use your money to buy him something he wouldn't usually get for himself."

Aera contemplated this. Price tags were definitely not the issue here. Aera could always compel some lovesick suitor to pick something up for her or flex her dad's black credit card. Aera wanted to show Jason how much he meant to her. But something about using someone else's labor to get Jason a gift just felt...wrong. Like it wasn't sincere enough.

"It's all about the principle, like you said," Piper reminded. "As long as you put your heart into it, I'm sure he'll love your gift."

Aera thought long and hard about what Piper said all night. Well, not all night because Aera needed sufficient beauty sleep before seeing her boyfriend in person for the first time in a month—and also because thinking long and hard made her tired—but that was besides the point. It took Aera mulling over it (almost) all night for her to come up with a solid plan in her dreams.

Aera spent the next week slowly gathering gifts for a special Valentine's Day basket; Jason's favorite candies, a cute couples sweatshirt, a t-shirt with Aera's majestic face printed on it that said "I LOVE MY GIRLFRIEND", some nice cologne, a Nintendo gift card, a mini-massage gun, and a Roman-style temple Lego set that reminded her of the praetor house back at Camp Jupiter.

On the morning of Valentine's Day, Aera woke up with a semi-big-brained plan and spent four hours getting ready. She wore a soft pink babydoll dress with lace at the trim and some dainty ballerina flats that laced up around her shin. After drawing two little hearts on her cheeks in a gradient pink, Aera glammed up with much simpler jewelry and makeup than what she usually wore. Aera wanted Jason to know that this day was not just for her, but for him, too. She didn't want to steal all the thunder with too flashy of an appearance.

An hour before the time they had agreed to meet up for Valentine's Day, Aera stopped by one of her favorite places in the whole world for the final touch: the flower shop. Aera thought about what Piper had said about giving him something he wouldn't normally get for himself and flowers were what came to mind above all else.

Jason used to be the big, bad praetor of some big, bad Roman legion. He was trained to neglect his own feelings, and he was also the son of Jupiter, the supreme example of divine power and justice. For that, Jason was always more likely to receive a golden laurel of honor than a bouquet of flowers.

Aera believed everyone who was cool (and not Khione, that icy pain in her ravishing—) deserved to receive a gorgeous bouquet of flowers once in their lives. Flowers were pretty and Jason deserved pretty things, too. Besides Aera, of course. She was, without a doubt, the prettiest thing in Jason's life, by far.

Aera could remember the time she had gone on a date with Jason in this massive public garden in California. He hadn't said anything about the scenery, but she could tell he really enjoyed walking through the fields of flowers. Jason was very into nature and all that stuff and had even mentioned starting his own garden once he settled down and finished designing the temples for the lesser-known gods.

After carefully inspecting all the fresh flowers at the florist for thirty minutes straight, Aera was careful to order a gigantic bouquet larger than her whole upper body, that consisted of colorful heliotrope, roses, and stephanotis. She didn't know what kind of flowers Jason liked, but she did a silent prayer for both her mom and Zeus that he would like the ones she chose on the spot.

When it came time to meet Jason at Bryant Park in Manhattan, Aera made her way excitedly to their designated meet up area. Her heart was practically bouncing between the ground and the sky. She spotted Jason under a tree amongst the crowd of other couples and hurried over. Aera was so excited to see him that she didn't even realize it until it was too late.

Aera's basket dropped out of her arms as she gasped at the sight. Jason had set up a picnic area under the shade of the tree where it was more secluded from the general public. He understood Aera's style very well—perhaps because he spent so much time designing temples for minor gods, he'd gotten used to celebrating different aesthetics.

There was a white and red blanket strewn with rose petals over the top with some red and pink balloons. As for gifts, Jason had prepared an intricate rose carved out of glass that lit up (inspired by Beauty & the Beast - which Jason often joked he was the Beast and Aera was the Teacup), a stuffed Cerberus plushie with a pink bow tied onto each head, a new handbag Aera had been eyeing at the mall, an entire package full of self-care items, and three whole boxes of Hello Kitty Choco Pie—Aera's favorite dessert.

Jason himself was wearing a smart sky blue polo shirt, some well-fitted beige slacks, and clean sneakers. His gold blond hair was styled like a 1950s movie star heartthrob, and in his hands was a familiar-looking bouquet of flowers...

Aera pointed at Jason's flowers. Jason pointed at Aera's flowers.

They were the exact same bouquet of flowers.

Aera burst into tears on the spot. She didn't mean to start crying for a multitude of reasons (the top being that the makeup she had spent three hours on was going to be a runner and a track star down her face), but she couldn't help it. She felt so, so useless. Aera had wanted to do something nice for Jason, but she couldn't even do that right.

"Hey," Jason crooned, setting the flowers down to gently wipe her tears. "Hey, it's okay. Don't cry. What's wrong?"

"I wanted to—" Aera hiccuped. "I wanted to give you something special."

Jason peered at the gift basket spilled on the grass and the bouquet she hugged to her chest, as though trying to not let him see her ultimate failure. It took only a moment for him to understand why she was upset.

"You did," Jason assured. "No one's ever gotten me flowers before."

"But—" Aera hiccuped. "—I got you the same ones you got me. Now it's not special!"

"I think it's the opposite, actually," Jason reasoned. "I mean, getting each other the same bouquet of flowers has got to say something about us, right? We've got some sort of telepathy thing going on."

"Telepathy thing?"

"Yeah, like..." Jason's blue eyes sparkled. "Like...soulmates. In all those romance movies you watch, the soulmates always have some sort of telepathy thing going on, don't they? For example, they meet each other in the right place at the right time, and they happen to have the same interests and the same habits..."

Aera sniffled as he rambled on. "What?"

"Uh," Jason stammered, "never mind."

Aera tried to get a hold of herself. Jason had never stuttered once since Aera met him, not even during the boldest of her flirts. She could tell he was struggling to convey something important. She bravely wiped her eyes.

"Were you," Aera ventured, "trying to say that we're soulmates?"

"Yeah." Jason's face slowly broke out in a massive grin. "Yeah, I suppose I was."

"That's really sweet." Aera sniffled again. She wiped the remainder of her tears away. "When did you get so romantic?"

"I learned from the best." Jason tapped her chin playfully. "Here. I brought some lavender-scented tissues."

"You knew I was gonna cry?" Aera accused. "You were trying to make me cry?"

"Of course not." Jason brushed her hair out of her face and helped her get cleaned up. "But you're pretty even when you cry."

Aera scoffed, but his words did comfort her.

"Do you feel better now?" Jason asked. "I have something else to show you."

"What else do you have planned?"

Jason's mischievous grin alarmed her. He took her hand and carefully sat her down on the blanket.

"It's not just Valentine's Day today," Jason stated, "it's your birthday too, isn't it?" He beamed proudly. "February 14th." From behind the picnic basket, he summoned a pink heart-shaped birthday cake.

Aera covered her mouth with her hand. "You remembered!"

Jason glanced down at his steel watch, the one Aera had bought for him in San Francisco. "And you were born at exactly 12:34pm, which means..." With his fingers, Jason signaled three, two, one. Then he nodded his head up towards the sky, gesturing for her to follow his gaze.

Aera lifted her head just in time to catch something flying overhead. Like the trail of an airplane, a contrail message was being carved out of the blue canvas of the sky. It drew a massive heart out of fluffy, white clouds and spelled out:

｡ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ｡

ﾟ。 HBD, AERA!

ﾟ･｡･ﾟ

All around them, the mortals were gasping and pointing at the sky in awe. Aera's happiness skyrocketed.

"You did that?" Aera asked her boyfriend in disbelief.

"Tempest and a few other storm spirits helped." Jason set the cake safely aside and took both of Aera's hands. "Do you like it?"

Now Aera was really about to cry. Lower lip quivering, she said, "Like you have to ask. You are the best gift the gods could have ever given me."

The couple threw their arms around each other and kissed—a proper fireworks-bursting, sparks-flying kiss that would last in Aera's memory for eons.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Aera," Jason breathed when he pulled away. "And happy birthday."

Aera never felt happier than in Jason's embrace. The sun shone down on them, bathing them in a beautiful light. Aera had been mistaken. Love wasn't supposed to feel like a burning red, it was supposed to feel warm and golden like this. Like his arms and his hair and his smile. Gods, she loved his smile.

Then Jason picked up some of the cake icing with his fingers and dotted it on Aera's nose, giggling cutely. It ruined Aera's makeup but she didn't care (he had lavender-scented tissues).

For a second, Aera swore she could make out Aphrodite's face in the clouds, awing and cooing down at how adorable they were. If they had even the approval of the love goddess, who was Aera to say Jason wasn't perfect for her?

"I love you, Jason Grace."

"I love you, Aera Kim." ‎‎

AUTHOR'S NOTE   ♡     lol this was overtly cheesy for no reason, and you can tell how long ago i wrote it based off the tiktok reference lmao but from both me and jaera, we hope you all have an wonderful valentine's day! <3