Chapter Text
“Unbelievable!” Jason cries, angrily slamming the refrigerator door shut. He stares down at the empty Tupperware box in his hand, irritationwashing over him in waves. “It’s gone. Again!”
Nico looks up from where he’s heating his pasta in the microwave. “What is?”
“My sandwich!” Jason shakes the empty box in his face. “This is the second time in two days.”
Nico lazily chews on a cookie. “Did you label it?”
“What does this look like?” He shows Nico the top of the box, which clearly says: DO NOT TOUCH. This sandwich belongs to Jason Grace.
“Somebody keeps ignoring my labels,” Jason snaps. “I know they’re doing it on purpose.” Dramatically, he throws the empty box onto thenearby counter, a disgusted look on his face.
Nico, on the other hand, has the gall to roll his eyes at him. “Why are you getting so worked up? It’s just a sandwich. A sandwich that you’ve been eating every single day at work for weeks. Maybe it’s a good thing it’s stolen – you can try something else now.”
Jason snorts. “As if anything could measure up to my sandwich.”
Nico opens the microwave door. “I think day-old pasta could give it a run for its money.”
“Day-old pasta? You’d better be kidding. I get up a whole half an hour earlier so I can make that small piece of grilled sandwich heaven –“
“Oh, come on, it’s not even that good –“
“– the perfect combination of mushrooms, onions, mayonnaise, blue cheese, mustard, cayenne –“
“Did you just say cayenne?”
“– and lightly toasted on both sides so that when the time comes, it melts in your mouth, all the flavors complimenting each other to produce a faultlesssymphony of–“
“You’re so pretentious, it’s not even funny.”
“– and now some barbarian’s probably chomping it down as we speak, not even savoring or appreciating the love and hard work that went into it –“
“Is that a note?”
Jason stops mid-word. “What?”
Nico’s grabbed the box Jason had tossed away, pulling the lid open. “There’s a note in here!” he cries excitedly. “Your sandwich thief wrote yousomething.”
“You’re kidding,” Jason moves closer, snatching the note out of Nico’s hand and ignoring his “Hey!”
It’s a piece of notebook paper, a little crumpled and slightly greasy (Jason can just imagine the guy eating his sandwich while writing it). Thewriting is a messy scrawl, the lines and curves bumping into each other, and is written in bright purple ink. The color isn’t the weirdest thing, though.It’s the note itself:
Does it? I think I’m a little jealous.
“What the hell?” Jason frowns, vaguely annoyed. “What’s that drawing?”
“It’s a winky face.”
“A winky face?” Jason glances up at Nico, who looks delighted for some reason. “What does this even mean? Jealous about what?”
“Your label, Jason,” Nico shows him the lid. “You said the sandwich belongs to you, remember?”
Jason glances down at the note again. His heartbeat steadily grows faster as he realizes what the note actually says. “Oh.”
“Someone’s got a secret admirer,” Nico sing-songs.
“I do not,” Jason says quickly, trying to fight down a blush. “Stop it.”
“No way. You always make such a big deal whenever I get flowers or anything, even though you know they’re all from Will. I’m going to be just as excitedabout your secret admirer.”
“This isn’t a secret admirer! This is someone who thinks I’m a pushover – they think if they give me a half-compliment, I won’t be mad when they steal myfood.”
“Is it that hard to believe someone likes you?”
“No,” Jason says emphatically. “I’m just saying – if someone liked me, I think they’d buy me lunch, not steal it from me.”
Nico shrugs. “Maybe they were hungry.”
“Well, I’m glad my sandwich could help,” Jason mutters. “This is the stupidest-looking winky face in the world.”
“Okay, maybe they aren’t good at flirting. Or drawing. But at least we know they’re friendly-ish? Next time, write a note back and explain to themwhy you love your sandwich so much. If they like you, they’ll leave it alone.”
“What if they don’t like me?”
“I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that,” Nico says, smiling.
Jason huffs a laugh. “I swear I used that same line on you when we were talking about Will months ago.”
“I know, and it was very reassuring,” Nico says gratefully. “There’s a reason you write the advice column, you know.”
“Speaking of work,” Jason sighs, “I haven’t even gone through all the letters yet. Annabeth’s going to kill me if I don’t get a move on.”
“But you still have time for lunch.”
Jason shrugs. “I guess I’ll just get something from that café nearby.”
He stuffs the note in his pocket. Nico doesn’t miss the action, and he raises his eyebrows at Jason, before handing him the rest of the pasta he waseating. “I can get some food out of Will,” he explains.
“You’ll probably eat it off of him too,” Jason mumbles. When Nico just smirks in response, Jason’s eyes widen. “Oh my god, I was joking! Nico, you’re notsupposed to do this at work!”
“Do what at work?” Nico says innocently, already inching towards the door. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“When I go to report the sandwich thief,” Jason calls after Nico as he rushes away, laughing, “don’t even think I’m not going to report you guystoo!”
~*~
Jason thinks a lot about it the rest of the day. He thinks about it while going through his mail, and answering every lamenting letter with whatever advicehe thinks best. He thinks about it while talking to his other work friends, while reassuring Reyna his column will be done by the deadline. He thinks aboutit while eating the pasta Nico gave him, while playing games on his phone, and while rereading and rereading the tiny note in his pocket.
Finally, he decides who it must be. Only a few hours after the lunch break, he goes to see Piper.
She’s got her feet up on her desk, reading through a notebook and occasionally writing something in it. She does interviews with semi-famous people, andher section of the magazine is undoubtedly the most-read. She’s good at it too – her friendly and approachable personality charms everyone she meets, andshe asks all the right questions in all the right ways.
She glances up at him when he enters, then back at her notebook. “Hey, Jason. If you’re looking for Nico, I saw him and Will disappear into the men’s rooma while ago. I don’t think they’re coming out anytime soon.”
“I bet,” Jason mutters. “Actually, I was looking for you.”
That gets her attention. “What for?” she asks warily.
Wordlessly, he takes the note out and smooths it over her desk. She gives him a curious look, swings down her legs and then peers at it.
Jason just waits with folded arms, expecting her to smile sheepishly up at him and admit it was a joke and give him his amazing sandwich back. Instead, shelooks up at him with a raised eyebrow and says, “I don’t get it.”
“What is there not to get?” he says as coldly as he can. “Give me my sandwich back.”
“What?”
“My sandwich, Piper! The sandwich you stole? Give it back.”
“I didn’t steal your sandwich,” Piper says, seeming genuinely offended. “Why the hell would I? Like I don’t have better things to do.”
“It’s only the most awesome sandwich anyone in the history of earth has ever made. Why wouldn’t you steal it?”
“And do what?” Piper cries. “I brought my own lunch, and ate it. And what does a stolen sandwich have anything to do with this?” She motions tothe note in front of her.
“I found that in my empty lunch box, right next to the big empty place where my sandwich should’ve been.” He leans over the desk to look her in the eye.“Where’s my sandwich, Piper?”
She leans back in her chair and pointedly puts her feet up again, close to his face. “I don’t have it, and I don’t know who has. I’m not sure if you knowthis, but I have an actual job to do here during work hours. I don’t spent them stealing people’s lunches and leaving them cryptic messages in their place.I mean,” she throws up her hands, “jealous of what? That makes no sense.”
Jason studies her with narrowed eyes. She doesn’t look away under his gaze, and finally, he scoops up the note from her desk. “Of my sandwich, apparently.”
Piper frowns. “Someone wants you to eat them?”
Jason throws her a look, and her frown instantly turns into a smile.
“I see,” she grins. “Someone wants you to eat them out.”
“Piper,” Jason groans.
She raises her eyebrows up and down at him. “Who is she?”
“I have no idea. There’s no name on the note.”
“You can tell plenty from a simple note, my friend. Here, let me see.” She jumps up and grabs at it, looking it over with new interest, like she’s adetective trying to solve a case. Now that Jason thinks about it, Piper is actually really good at this whole romance stuff. Jason had never seen it whenthey were dating, probably because he was too involved then, but she’s always known what to do in situations like these. He always comes to her whenever hegets heartbreak mail, and she helps him reply – so much so that he wonders if she should get half his salary for it.
After a long while, she looks up at him, a knowledgeable glint in her eyes. Jason waits for her to counsel her on what to do. She opens her mouth to speak.
“They’re horrible at drawing.”
Jason groans, running his hands through his hair. “That’s all? That’s the best you can do?”
She squints at the piece of paper. “They, uh, might not be female? I don’t know, I’m no expert.”
“I consider you an expert.”
“Sorry,” she laughs. “I really don’t know how else to help you. You could look for someone with a purple pen?”
“Just because it’s written in purple ink doesn’t mean the pen itself is purple too.”
“Well, think about it. How many pens with purple ink have you seen that aren’t purple themselves even a little bit? There’s always some identification.”
Jason chews his lip. “I guess you have a point. But I won’t go around peeping into people’s pen pots, will I?”
Piper tilts her head at the note. “They obviously work here. Maybe even on this floor?”
“I know everyone on this floor. No one would steal from me.” He frowns. “I don’t think.”
Piper shrugs, handing over the note and putting her feet back up on the desk. “Well, that’s all I can help you with for now, then. The easiest thing wouldbe to look out for someone who might be crushing on you, but a lot of people are good at hiding that kind of thing, so I’m not sure.”
“Okay,” Jason says miserably, folding the note back, “If you find something out, you’ll tell me?”
“Sure thing. But Jason?”
“Yeah?”
Piper pauses for a while, as if deliberating what to say. “If this person’s really stealing your lunch – flirtatious note or not, that’s kind of annoying,I have to admit – and you really do want to find out who it is, I think you’re going to have to try something a little more extreme than lookingfor purple pens.”
Jason hesitates. “How do you mean?”
“I’m not sure myself,” Piper says, laughing a little. “All I’m saying is – we’ve got a pretty relaxed workplace here. Don’t be afraid to bend the rules abit, cause some chaos. It’ll definitely give the rest of us some entertainment.”
“Won’t our editor-in-chief have something to say about that?”
A slow smile spreads over Piper’s face. “Let me handle Reyna. Now shoo.” She turns her attention back to her notebook. “Unlike you, some of us actuallyhave work to do.”
~*~
At the end of the work day, Jason and Nico ride the elevator down to the ground floor. As the floors fly by, Nico pulls his jacket closer and cheekilysays, “Any new leads on your secret admirer?”
“Sandwich thief,” Jason corrects, ignoring Nico’s snigg*rs. “And no, I have no idea who it could be. But after a quite enlightening talk withPiper, I think I have a way I could find out.”
Nico stops laughing, looks warily up at Jason. “And what way would that be?” he asks slowly.
“Well,” Jason says, trying to sound casual but hardly able to control his glee, “They expect me to bring another sandwich tomorrow, don’t they? And they’regoing to steal that one too.”
“Let me guess. You’re going to write them a particularly scathing note?”
Jason laughs. “I’m going to write a note, yeah. Not sure if it’s going to be scathing, but we have to keep up communication, don’t we?”
Nico, suspicious, narrows his eyes at Jason’s not-answer. “Okay, I’m getting a teeny bit scared, Jason. What are you planning to do?”
Jason smiles. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
