NATURALLY, KATERINA DIDN'T apologize yet.

In her defense, she was drafting up an apology. She'd gone out and bought paper and pens — like, actually spent her hard earned money on stationary to try and muster up an apology that was deserving of Piper McLean and Jason Grace.

And it hadn't worked. It's been two ( three? It's the morning of December 28th ) days since she's talked to them, since she came up with the idea to apologize to them, and she still hasn't come up with anything close to what they deserved.

It must be her horrible communication skills. You know, she used to be really good at communicating, even if she's known for lying. She's the daughter of Hermes, being a trickster was in her blood, always had been ever since she was little—

No, she scolded herself. She can't start thinking like this again. That was, like, so ten years ago. Well, nine and a half. But still. She hasn't felt like a demigod in years. The closest thing to it was when she and Jules were fighting monsters together, but even then it didn't feel the same.

Sometimes, Katerina misses that part of her life. It had consumed her for the majority of her life, but she enjoyed the not-so quiet moments with her siblings, planning pranks and executing them and getting punished but it was so worth it in that moment and it was worth it to Katerina even now. She enjoyed the time she'd gotten with her friends, and although a lot had been taken away due to the war, she'd made a few friends despite this.

She enjoyed the time she got with Jason, Piper, and Leo. Even though every day that passed was a day closer to an eventual war, they still had fun. Even if Leo made her want to repeatedly bonk her head against the wall when he wouldn't come out for food or to sleep or to shower because, goddamn, he'd smelled disgusting after days of working on the Argo II. Even if Jason and Piper had wanted to make her bonk her head harder against a wall because of the amount of time it took to become a couple.

But now that was in the past. Now she was living a different life, with only memories and friendships to tie her to that past life. Well, and her blood, but the gods didn't have DNA, did they? And, yeah, she'd said to Leo that she, Jason, and Piper had never been friends. And probably would never be friends. They've always been more. Or they've always been destined for more.

"ENOUGH!" Katerina yelled, her mind immediately searching for someone to control. As quick as that impulse had came, she reeled it back, refusing to let herself go insane on accident. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? Almost as embarrassing as knowing that if someone was sharing a wall with her, they'd probably heard her scream. Whoops.

She ignored it, finally making herself get up and start getting ready for the day. She'd been up the whole night doing absolutely nothing with her life because she does nothing for her life. Obviously.

Fuck, she's going mad. But she already knew this. Maybe she should put herself in a psych ward. But she's only twenty seven. Uncle Nikita had used his powers loads, and even then he died to liver cancer at 52. Not from the Mikhailov powers. Then again, he drank a shit ton more than she did.

Like uncle, like niece. Maybe she should've learned from him. Maybe she should've known better. But it's in her blood; literally, since they share blood. Sometimes Katerina wonders if she's her uncle's daughter instead of her mama's. Then she realizes that's probably unrealistic.

She also realized that she had tried to get up and start her day. She failed, still twisted in her blankets at least ten minutes after she'd told herself to get up. Real adultlike behavior, Katerina Mikhailova.

Finally, she managed to get out of bed, not rolling out of bed like she has the past, like, month or something. She doesn't know. Time is an illusion. Life is an illusion. She popped her ambrosia part in her mouth and put her feet on the cold ground as she stumbled to her bathroom, her head slowly relieving the pain that she hadn't realized was there. She had had the rest of the wine throughout the night . . . shit.

Her phone chimed, and she picked it up and squinted down at it. Shit, she and Julia had scheduled that meeting with their boss for ten in the morning. Why? She didn't know.

She went to the bathroom and did her business before propping her phone up by the mirror, blindly trying to call Jules while attempting to wash her face at the same time.

"Hey, Rina," Jason's voice said, awfully cheery for this hour. "Miss us that much, huh?"

Katerina let out a scream, nearly slipping and falling on the ground before catching herself on the wall, reaching for her towers to wipe at her eyes so she could see. Her neighbors fucking hated her at this point.

"Rina?" he asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"I tried to call Julia," she grumbled, thanking the gods that she hadn't FaceTimed him. "I missed."

"I noticed." He sounded a little disappointed. "Why are you up this early, Miss 'I don't do anything before eleven am'?"

"Jules and I have a meeting with the boss," she explained, starting her quick morning routine for when she didn't have time to do shit. "Apparently she scheduled it for ten am. As if she thinks I'll be functioning. But then she'll have free rein over the mission we're going on next . . ." she paused, just realizing this after thinking out loud. "Fuck."

"Oh," said Jason. "How long do the meetings last?"

"I don't know," Katerina answered. "They range from five minutes to twenty nine hours."

She could feel his frown, even though she couldn't see him. "How does a meeting last for twenty nine hours? That's over a day, Rina."

"Well, milaya, it involves an officewide prank that caused us to evacuate, a dragon that stomped down the street that was coming for Jules, a trip to the hospital, a breakout at said hospital, and an emergency trip to Shanghai to help a coworker who was fumbling."

He was silent.

"Yeah, it was a long day," she said, mostly to fill in the silence. "All to tell us that we were going on a three day trip to St. Lucia for a break. The vacation was worth it, though."

He was still silent, and she debated hanging up on him and doing the rest of her routine in peace ( she wouldn't, she needed to call Jules ), but she didn't. Instead she asked, "why do you want to know?"

"Well, I—" Jason cut himself off. "I, um . . . me and Piper, uh — Rina — we, uh . . ."

"What? Cat got your tongue?" asked Katerina, finishing her routine and heading out of her room. "I don't have all the time in the world, Jason."

"Sorry, I just—"

"Jason, moya milaya," she grabbed her outfit of the day — a tube top, oversized jeans, and a flannel — before starting to change. "Calm down. It's fine. You're fine."

"Did you just take off your shirt?"

She rolled her eyes. "That's not important. My meeting's at ten, and it's . . . shit, it's 9:37."

Jason took a really big breath. "Sorry, Kat. I just—"

"Stop apologizing, Jason," she ordered, finding this really reminiscent of her past life. Their past life. Though was it really a past life if he was still connected to the life he had lived ever since he was two? Unlike Katerina, who was born in that life and left it after over sixteen years.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and if he were someone less serious ( Leo ) he definitely would've saluted, even though she couldn't see him. "Do you want to go out for lunch? Or dinner? Whenever your meeting ends."

She hummed, looking at herself in the mirror and for once she didn't feel or look injured, which she thought was pretty good for this situation. "Yeah, I'll go out for food with you," she said. "Find a place near the Golden Lotus. I'll call you when I'm done. Tell Piper I say hi."

"Wait, what's the Gold—"

But Katerina had already hung up, shoving her phone in her flannel pocket before storming out of her room and grabbing her backpack and a stack of salami that was on her charcuterie board as she headed out the door and to her meeting, her call with Jules forgotten.

* * *

After getting there barely on time ( because she's Katerina Mikhailova, of course she's going to arrive fashionably late ), she sat as the boss debriefed Julia about her side of the mission they'd just gone on, then Katerina about thwarting the Rocketeers at the bank. She suffered through a withering look at the way she'd let the police question him instead of the Lotus — as if she could've done anything, there were security guards at banks, who knew? Literally every bank had them — but she'd dealt with it.

However, just as they were deciding their next assignment an assistant came in the room. "You have visitors for when you're done, miss."

They were staring straight at Katerina when she'd said that.

"Thank you," she said, dismissing them with a curt nod, but her mind was racing. Who would come in and wait in her 'office' for her? The only person who'd ever done that was Hazel, who had shadow traveled here and waited for an hour in her office to get her help for Frank's birthday one year. There's no way it was Hazel again. But that meant . . .

Katerina let out a groan, covering her face with one hand, grabbing her phone with the other.

"You have visitors?" Julia asked in disbelief.

"You say this as if you're surprised," drawled Katerina.

"Of course I'm motherfucking surprised, fucker!" Julia leaned over to karate chop her shoulder.

"Ow," said Katerina, though she wasn't hurt.

"Feingold," the boss scolded. "I will admit I am curious about your visitors, Mikhailova."

You sound like Reyna, Katerina thought, but she didn't say it out loud because the boss didn't know who Reyna was. They're friends. Not the closest, as she's become closer to Jason and Piper over the years instead of Katerina, but they're friends. Admittedly, Katerina's spent less time with the Hunters than she did in her childhood due to them reminding her of Piper and Jason and because her mama would probably figure out that she spent time with them and hunt her down, but she's still spent time with them. Katerina has never been good at following rules anyway.

"I have a date," Katerina sighed, looking at her phone and reading a text that came from Piper: we're waiting in ur office rina xox. also wtf this looks nice?? why isn't ur house furnished like this??

Since her hand was off of her face, she could see Jules's smirk. "With Piper and Jason?"

"The reasons why you won't take a mission in California?" The boss added.

"Yeah," Katerina sighed, pocketing her phone, ignoring Julia as she leaned forward. "Where we goin' next, boss?"

"Well, you have a choice," the boss pushed three manila folders at Katerina.

She picked them up and squinted at them until her dyslexia figured its shit out. "Phoenix, Stockholm, Manila." She handed the folders over to Jules, who was making grabby hand motions at her. "All over the world, huh?"

"You can handle a plane trip, Mikhailova," the boss said.

"Don't get me wrong; I love traveling," she said, her arms raised in surrender, "but, wow."

Julia whistled. "Information from a big company, secrets and riches from a royal family, infiltrating a gang? You're really trusting us here with secrets."

The boss scowled. "You two are really making me reconsider."

"Sorry." Jules didn't look or sound sorry. She looked over at Katerina. "What do you want us to do?"

"I don't mind," Katerina shrugged.

"As long as you can go on dates after, right Katya?" Jules puckered her lips and made kissy sounds at Katerina.

She rolled her eyes and put her hand on Julia's face, pushing her away. "Fuck off."

Julia grabbed one folder and put the other two on the desk. "Fuck it, let's join a gang."

The boss nodded, though they kept one of the folders. "You two are going to Sweden after this mission, though. The secrets are needed."

"Yes, boss," Katerina saluted them.

"Good." They waved a hand at her and Jules. "You can go on your date now, Mikhailova. Tomorrow, you're getting briefed."

"Uh huh," Katerina said, standing up and leaving, Jules following behind her.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," Jules smirked as they approached their offices, which were next to each other. "But I'm meeting them next time!"

"Fuck off," Katerina shoved her into her office, then walked into her own.

As soon as she walked through the door, Jason and Piper's heads snapped to look over at her.

"Kat," Piper greeted, smiling prettily. "How's the meeting?"

"Didn't last over a day, so I'd say it went well." Katerina walked over and looked at her clock. 11:19. Huh. Not bad. "I have to come back tomorrow, but I'm free the rest of the day. So, lunch? I didn't eat breakfast."

"Rina!" Jason scolded, walking around the fun desk chair she had to grab her arm and start hauling her out of there. "You need to eat!"

"I did!" she argued, hearing Piper's footsteps behind them as she got out of the desk chair and started following them. "I had, like, ten slices of salami!"

"Yeah, like that's any good," Jason rolled his eyes.

"Come on," Piper caught up to them and took Katerina's other arm. "Let's go eat food. And, Jason, stop scolding her."