Chapter Text
The first time it happened, it was a genuine accident.
What started as a small grease fire in the kitchen – nothing unusual – turned into something much bigger. Considering the people who used that kitchen, however, this is somewhat unsurprising. Those three have a tendency to get themselves into sticky situations.
Piper, Annabeth, and Nico could not have been more different. Piper was an anthropology student, Annabeth was majoring in architecture, and Nico studied English lit. Piper was a beauty queen in men’s jeans, Annabeth’s glorious blonde curls could be spotted from a mile away, and Nico looked like a mid-2000s emo boy. The three of them were paired up for a frosh week thing, but once they got talking and realized they were all bored out of their minds they dipped and went to see a movie instead. Ever since then, they had been a strange yet inseparable trio. It was common sense that they would live together as soon as they moved out of their dorms at the end of freshman year.
One thing the three of them had in common was their love of clubbing. Most people would be shocked to learn that Annabeth Chase, a former high school valedictorian, could handle her liquor better than men twice her size. However, her love of dancing with her friends trumped her disdain for gross college guys. Nico was on the quieter side, but he really did love EDM. And nobody was shocked that Piper loved to go out. She was back-to-back Homecoming Royalty. The girl lived to party.
As I said: the first time it happened, it was a genuine accident.
The common space of 400 Ermou Street looked like a Sephora had exploded in it. This wasn’t unusual for a student house on a Saturday night, especially not this particular house on this particular evening. It was the first weekend of their sophomore year of college, and everyone would be out and about.
Their student house was small, but it felt like home. The location was too good to turn down, anyway. It had three bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms, and a shared living room and kitchen. All on one floor, so things tended to get chaotic. Like on this particular Saturday night, when Nico was blasting music as him and his roommates got ready to go out. Annabeth was in the full bathroom trying to get her curls under control, and Piper had been assigned to dinner duty – never drink on an empty stomach, folks! – so she had taken up the entire living room with her makeup collection. This meant she could watch the stove while also getting a head start on her look for the night. She might typically dress like an Adam Sandler wannabe, but when she went out she liked to remind the other girls on campus who ran show.
Piper didn’t love to cook, but she wasn’t half bad at it. Not as bad as Annabeth, who seemed to be smart in everything except for cooking. One time, Annabeth managed to burn pasta. Nico almost killed her right then and there. That incident earned them the nicknames Wise Girl and Death Boy, respectively – Annabeth for her brains (or lack thereof) and Nico for his death stare.
Piper had decided on something filling, but not too filling for their meal: An easy stir fry recipe she had made a thousand times before. It was like second nature to her, really. So she felt confident she could flit back and forth between her makeshift vanity on the living room floor and the pot that was currently on the stove.
Only this time, she had overestimated her abilities. And before she knew it, there was smoke, and a fire alarm, and a very angry Annabeth with a fire extinguisher. She managed to put out the small grease fire, and thankfully nothing (and nobody) was damaged (except maybe Piper’s ego). However, the house was old, and this included the fire alarm. Which continued to BEEP BEEP BEEP even long after Annabeth had put the fire out. After a few minutes of trying to get it to stop, Annabeth gave up with a sigh, leaving Piper to deal with it since “she started it” or whatever. Nico didn’t even emerge from his room – he was used to Piper causing problems and Annabeth solving them.
Just as Annabeth left, there was a pounding at the front door. Piper could barely hear it over the sound of the fire alarm beeping. She assumed it was a concerned neighbour, or maybe even their mysterious landlord (a man they had only met over email who went by “Mr. D”). She prayed it was someone who could turn the pesky alarm off. She ran to the front door and opened it to reveal –
The hottest man she had ever laid her eyes on.
And to make matters worse (or, arguably, better), he was a firefighter. In. Uniform.
Partially in uniform, that is. It was early September and still quite hot outside, so he wasn’t wearing a coat or helmet. He wore the classic black pants with those horrendous neon stripes and a pair of boots. Fortunately for Piper, he was wearing a tight T-shirt and suspenders – gods help her, since when did she find suspenders attractive?! – that attached to his pants. She could basically see his strong chest through his shirt, and arms that should have been illegal. He had sky blue eyes, cropped blonde hair, a chiseled jaw, and a smile sent from Heaven. And he was smiling. At her.
So yeah, not quite what she was expecting.
“Ma’am? Is everything alright?”
She blinked, like an idiot, and realized she had been staring. “Uh. Not really,” she replied, unthinking. She was so caught up in his eyes that she forgot about the fire alarm.
Those words were all he needed to hear, apparently. He pushed past her – somehow very gently – to find the source of the fire. Or rather, the former fire.
Piper ran after him. “Sorry,” she said, “I should have clarified. The fire isn’t a problem. Anymore. My roommate put it out. It’s just–”
“Ah, the alarm. Classic.” He said, his look of concern replaced with that charming smile. He quickly grabbed a walkie talkie out of his pocket, spoke the words “Under control” into it, and then looked back at Piper. “I’ll take care of that for you.”
She blushed. And then felt like an idiot for blushing, which only made her blush harder. Within seconds, the alarm stopped beeping.
“Thanks,” she said, still feeling flushed. He nodded. “It’s not a problem at all. I just can’t believe the landlord hasn’t fixed the alarm yet. We used to get called in by the old residents all the time. Drives the chief mad.”
“Right,” she replied, like an idiot. And then, even more like an idiot, she said the first thing that came to her mind. “Aren’t you a little young to be a firefighter?”
He laughed – like, genuinely laughed out loud – and shrugged. “I’m a volunteer. I had some buddies sign up last year, so I decided I would too.”
“That’s amazing!” She said, with way too much enthusiasm. This guy was really getting in her head.
He didn’t seem to notice. “Thanks. Well, if that’s all, then… I guess I’ll be on my way?”
She nodded dumbly at him. With that, he threw her one last smile, before heading out the door.
It was at that moment that Annabeth emerged with her hair under control. “What was that?”
“Huh?” Piper was in a daze. She needed to snap out of it, ASAP! So what if the firefighter was hot. She was never going to see him again.
“I heard a voice,” Annabeth added.
“Oh, yeah. The fire alarm is a piece of shit. Must have triggered a 9-1-1 call or something, because a firefighter showed up.”
“Was he hot?” Nico appeared, seemingly out of the shadows. Piper jumped. “Jesus, Neeks. A little warning next time!”
“Sorry,” Nico shrugged. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I’m sure he was hot, Death Boy,” Annabeth cut in. “He was a firefighter. They're, like, always hot.”
“And,” Piper smiled wistfully, “He was young. Probably around our age. One of those volunteers, y’know?”
“Right,” Annabeth said. “I know how you get, Pipes. Try not to get too invested in some guy you’ll never see again.”
“You don’t know that! Maybe he’s a student here.” Piper rebutted.
“This is, like, the biggest college in town,” Nico piped up.
“Exactly,” said Annabeth. “You probably won’t see him again unless you manage to start another kitchen fire. But that won’t happen again, will it?”
A lightbulb went off in Piper’s head. Oh Annabeth, she thought, You really are a Wise Girl.
“Of course not,” Piper replied, as innocently as possible. Only Nico seemed to catch the gleam in her eye.
…
A few days later, Piper put her plan into action. She waited until Annabeth wasn’t home – to avoid her judgment, or interference, of course – and put a pan on the stove. She didn’t need to start a full-on fire. That would be too dangerous, and she didn’t actually want to cause damage. She just needed to create enough smoke to set off the fire alarm. And a few minutes later, she got her wish.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!!
It felt like a never-ending stream of beeps before Piper heard the pounding on the door. This time, she wasn’t in her pajamas with half a face of makeup on. She was, for lack of a better word, serving. She wore baggy jeans and her favourite baby tee (small top big pants, works like a charm) and had her brown hair in a loose braid.
She put on her best look of confusion and opened the door, revealing her firefighter. He wore the same outfit and the same smile. “Let me guess,” he started, “The fire alarm again?”
“Yup,” she replied, popping the P. It was a strategy to get him to look at her lips, and it worked, because that stuff always works.
He made a weird sound at the back of his throat – almost like a strained hiccup mixed with a gulp – and turned on the charm once again. “I’ll take care of that,” he said, walking over to the fire alarm, taking out his walkie and murmuring into it, and getting to work.
After about a minute the noise subsided. “All done,” he said. Before he could turn to leave, Piper interjected. “Wait!”
He paused. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes, of course. I just wanted to thank you. For helping me twice, now. Unless… you have somewhere else to be?” At that, she batted her eyelashes. She was reeling him in, getting him under her spell.
Except his response wasn’t quite what she expected. “As much as I would love that, I really need to get going. My shift just started and I gotta be back at the station ASAP.”
“Oh,” she replied. Rejection. When had she, Piper McLean, ever been rejected?
“Sorry about that. But I really do appreciate the offer.” He smiled at her as he walked towards the door. She felt dejected. That was, until he turned back to face her.
“Jason.”
“Huh?”
“My name is Jason.”
She paused, before repeating his name back to him, feeling out the sound of it on her lips.
“Jason?”
“...Yes?”
“My name is Piper.”
He smiled. “Nice to meet you again, Piper.” And then he left.
Shit.