Lunamor

Jenny immediately jumped after him, barely managing to land on her feet. ”Are you ok?!” She started getting out some of the last of her ambrosia, in case he’d broken something. Her concern for Ed temporarily extinguished her feelings of shame and regret. It was her fault he’d fallen out of the tree, but she didn’t have time to think about that right then. He needed her help.

Jenny reluctantly popped her head out of a particularly thick cluster of branches. Her braids were ruined by this point, filled with leaves and snapped off twigs. ”Please don’t be sorry.” Ed feeling sorry made her feel even worse. It was her fault she’d put him in such an uncomfortable position. She was such a terrible girlfriend.

“I’m so sorry.” Jenny didn’t reveal herself. She was too afraid that Ed didn’t like her anymore. That he felt like he was forced to choose between two extremes. She was going way too fast. No wonder she always scared people off. They were right to run.

Jenny nodded. He didn’t love her back. That was ok. Had she pushed him away now, though? He was looking down. She’d screwed up. She’d ruined it all. Stupid, impulsive Jenny. ”I’m, um, sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” She then scaled the tree, ignoring the flare of pain in her side, and hid in the branches. She had practice with this, so she managed to become completely hidden. She had messed up. She should’ve waited. She never thought things through. Even things as important as this she failed to approach logically. So, so stupid.

When they got to the tree, Jenny took a single, deep breath. She started to talk extremely quickly. ”Ok, so this is probably way too early, but I’ve got something to say. I’m honestly worried that I might die soon cause of the quest and weird headache stuff, and I just need to tell you in case something happens. It’s ok if you don’t feel the same way. I mean, I hope you do, but it’s ok if not.” She took another breath, anchoring herself in Ed’s eyes. She could do this. ”I love you, Ed.”

Ok, thanks. That wasn’t very helpful, but she couldn’t blame Gift. It probably didn’t have experience with this stuff. Jenny balled her fists and stood there for about five more seconds. She then walked back over to Ed and tapped him on the shoulder. ”Um, talk. Tree. Please.” Well, she’d at least gotten the important words out. She gestured in the general direction of the tree, struggling to make eye contact.

How do you… Gift could read her mind, it was fine to admit it to it. It already knew. Still, she tried to think in a whisper, just in case one of the other demigods could secretly read minds or something. How do you tell someone you love them?

Jenny leaned against the tree and put her face in her hands. Why was she so bad at this? Why was telling the truth so hard? Hey, Gift? Can I ask you for some advice? Gift knew about emotions and stuff. He knew Ed pretty well, too.

Jenny shook her head. ”Nothing’s wrong. Well, some things are wrong, but nothing extra is wrong. Something’s right, actually. It’s- oh gosh, um, shoot, uh…” She froze for a moment. Suddenly, she was incredibly embarrassed. Her face was bright red. Even just vaguely referencing her feelings in passing was apparently enough to make her panic. So she stood up, grabbed the Gift cane, then proceeded to go hobble as quickly as she could behind a tree.

Ed just wouldn’t stop worrying. She was worrying now too, though. At this point his worrying was making sense. She hugged him back tightly. What if she had another random headache? What if it was worse, what if she couldn’t make it through? She had to tell him. ”Ed, I…” No, she couldn’t. Not in front of everyone else, not right then. But was any time right yet? She hugged him tighter.

Ed still had that confused look. He’d said there were other things he was feeling, though. After a moment, Jenny realized that she had no chance of deciphering his emotions any further. He might as well have been a brick wall to her. She threw up her hands. ”Gah, I give up. What are the other things?”

Jenny didn’t know what those other things were, so she seized the opportunity and went right back to staring at his face.

She hasn’t achieved her initial goal of finding out how Ed felt about her, as staring at him for so long probably made him confused, but it was still productive. She grinned and kept staring at his face. ”Are you… happy? No, too many context clues…” She’d have to wait until she had no clue what he was thinking until she could practice this again.

Jenny pumped her fist. ”I got it right!” She’d have to remember that that look meant someone was confused. Hopefully she could identify it on faces other than Ed’s. Maybe she should say strange things around the rest of the demigods and then compare their expressions.

The expression seemed to be getting stronger. Was he… hungry? Confused, maybe? It was confused. She was 75% sure it was confused. ”Are you confused?” She continued to study his face, waiting for his reaction.

Ed looked like he had a different expression than usual. Jenny didn’t know what it meant. Was she maybe weirding him out? She redoubled her efforts. This was good practice, if anything.

Jenny smiled. She then studied Ed’s face, trying to see if she could find some indication of how he felt about her. Figure out if he liked her, or something more. She knew that it was pointless, but she wanted to try anyways. She was a little better at understanding Ed than she was other people by this point, although that wasn’t saying much.

Go and watch the south road. Come find us if you see any Imperial soldiers coming.

“Thanks!” Jenny handed off Medusa, then sat a bit awkwardly, unsure what to do. She was not a very patient person, so now that she had entertained the idea of telling Ed how she felt, she wanted to do it immediately. But she needed to wait. She couldn’t mess this up. It was important. She couldn’t let herself drive him away.

“I probably should stop messing with this until I know what I’m doing.” Jenny went to put the head inside of her bag, but then noticed the knives scattered about inside of it. There was a solid chance they’d slice open the cloth covering it. ”Is it ok if you hold onto this for me? It might get a little skewered in my pack.”

I don’t really have plans for Plastique to add to that interaction more, by the way. She’s not going to notice anyone tailing her unless they get bold or slip up.

“Hmm.” Jenny held up Sword and compared its size against the head’s. The dagger was a fair bit shorter. ”Should I try and chop some snakes off? Maybe just stab the head and see what happens?” She very carefully stuck Sword under the cloth and poked the head, making sure not to damage it.

“Well, thank you!” Maybe having this would make Ed worry about her less. Jenny held up the head and pulled the cloth tight, trying to see the outline of it better. She scrutinized it for a while. The face seemed to be intact. Odd that the head didn’t seem to be rotting. ”Do you think I should try to point it at monsters? I don’t want to accidentally petrify an ally.”