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Even in Jason’s inebriated state, he knows that this isn’t a great idea. The woods are dangerous during the day, and even more so now, at night. Plus, Jason’s coordination is shot to Tartarus; he wouldn’t be able to wield his gladius at all. He doesn’t know if Leo is better off, but objectively speaking, they aren’t the most prepared if a monster decides to attack them.
The night started off simply enough, with Piper, Leo, and Jason hanging out in the Zeus cabin. Until Piper cracked open a few cans of hard seltzer she nicked from the Hermes cabin. An hour later they were all sufficiently drunk. Piper retired to the Aphrodite cabin to harass her siblings, and Leo and Jason started wandering around the woods.
Jason verbalizes his monster-related concerns to Leo, and, due to his lack of brain-to-mouth barrier at the current moment, also throws in, “Wow, I never thought you’d be stupid enough to do this.”
Leo, who has his fingers circled definitively around Jason’s wrist, says, “Well, you’re here with me so that makes you stupid, too!”
Jason scoffs, shaking his wrist and, by proxy, Leo’s arm. “You’re literally dragging me in.”
“Semantics!” Leo cries, picking up his pace so Jason has to run behind him.
“Where are we going again?” Jason asks, breathless.
Leo waves his other hand behind him dismissively. “Shhh, it’s a surprise!”
Jason sincerely hopes Leo remembers where they are going. He’s just as drunk, if not more, than Jason.
“You know I could just fly us through, right?”
Saying that conjures an image of Jason wrapping his arms around Leo, tucking him into his shoulder as he soars them through the night sky. Leo would be scared at first, but then he would lift his head and his eyes would shine with the light of a thousand stars, and Jason would lean in and–
“No, no flying! Don’t want to puke,” Leo throws over his shoulder.
That successfully dashes Jason’s thoughts.
Leo jerks Jason sharply to the left. “Just a little further…”
They pass by several more trees and quite a few dryads who turn and give them suspicious looks. Jason tries to wave at them reassuredly, but he thinks he just looks drunk. Which is, well, true.
After a few more wild turns, they end up at a…metal door? In the middle of a hill?
A memory flickers in the back of Jason’s mind, but the world is spinning too much to focus on it. Something about a chamber under the earth… a chamber? No, a bunker. Hidden for decades.
Leo lets go of Jason’s wrist, and Jason immediately brings it to his chest. A pang rises in his chest at the loss of contact, but at the same time, he thinks his wrist might bruise.
“Here we are, baby!” Leo stands in front of the door with his hands on his hips. Jason’s heart stutters at the pet name, though he knows Leo is just being Leo.
Jason winces, still rubbing his wrist, and moves closer to the door. “Uh-huh. And where is here?”
Leo frowns at him, then at the door, as if it’s not what he thought it was. Then he springs up.
“Shoot, I forgot–” He cuts himself off as he rubs his hands together. Soon, both of his hands are ablaze, and Jason shudders from the sudden warmth. Leo places his flaming fingers on the door.
Jason laughs. “Are you trying to melt it?”
Leo doesn’t answer, just waits for the door to swing open. He steps back and bows a few times to an invisible audience. “Thank you, thank you. This is what I wanted to show you.”
As Jason steps in, he remembers. “Bunker Nine!” he exclaims.
He looks around eagerly. It’s been nearly a year since he’s been here, watching Leo dust off the old blueprints for the Argo II. The place is still strewn with blueprints for the Argo II and various half-melded metal pieces.
Jason comes up to one of the tables, running his fingers over a sketch of the ship. Various parts are circled with question marks, and annotations are written off to the side in Leo’s atrocious scrawl. Jason traces the letters, his fingers smudging with year-old graphite, and wonders what it must’ve been like for Leo. Hours spent in this cabin, this bunker, poring over these plans and figuring out how to make a metal ship float. And succeeding .
He moves on to another sketch, this one of the ship’s layout. Everyone’s cabins are labeled and Jason imagines Leo thinking about room placements and who should go where, a pencil tapping his chin as he conjured up a plan.
“You were incredible for this, you know.” The words are out before Jason can think about them too much. He risks a glance at Leo.
Leo snorts. “Really? I felt so useless.” He says it like it’s an everyday thought. Like it means nothing to him.
It makes Jason narrow his eyes. “Leo. The quest couldn’t’ve happened without you.”
“Sure,” Leo says, hopping onto the closest table and obscuring templates for the hull of the Argo II. He leans back on his hands and looks up at the ceiling. The stars flicker faintly through the skylight, but they are drowned by the artificial light of the old-timey lamps lining the ceiling.
Jason studies Leo, but there’s no hint he’s joking. “Leo,” he huffs irritably.
Leo stares back, his lashes hooding his eyes. “Jason.”
Jason slides onto the table next to Leo. He kicks off his shoes and folds his legs to sit crossed-legged. His knee pushes into Leo’s thigh. “We would’ve died without you.”
Leo sighs. He closes his eyes and tilts his head back. He doesn’t answer.
Unexpected anger flashes through Jason. “Leo,” he says, “look at me.”
He still doesn't answer, and this time his eyelashes don’t even flicker in acknowledgment.
“Leo!” Urgency runs through Jason, though urgency for what , he doesn’t know.
Leo kisses his teeth and opens his eyes. He lets his head tilt towards Jason, the lamps casting him in yellowed light and carving deep shadows under his eyes.
“What? ” Leo hisses. “What do you want me to say? That I felt just as useful as you on the Argo? You can summon wind spirits . And Piper? All she needs is one word to control you.”
Jason laughs. “Newsflash, Leo, you’re just as impressive! You can conjure flames from nothing.” He flails his arms out, gesturing to the room around them. “You discovered this place again after decades! You built us a fucking flying boat! ”
Jason’s words echo off of the metal surfaces in the room. He’s breathing heavily, much too heavily for just ranting, and distantly he thinks he might regret this in the morning. He’s never liked to lose control.
Leo is looking at him, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly open. Then his face crumples, and panic floods Jason because Gods no, don’t cry but then–
Leo laughs. He laughs, and it fills up the bunker.
“What’s–” Jason’s voice catches and he realizes his eyes are burning. He swallows. “What’s so funny?”
Leo looks at him, a wide smile stretching his lips. “You cursed.”
It’s Jason’s turn to laugh out of disbelief. “You’re still drunk.”
Leo shoves a hand at him. “So are you!”
Jason moves with the strike, though there’s no real force behind it. He expects Leo to pull his hand back and return to leaning on the table.
But he doesn’t take his hand back, instead crumpling the fabric of Jason’s SPQR hoodie. Jason’s heart beats faster underneath Leo’s palm.
“You really believe all that?” Leo asks, and if Jason were more aware of the world, he might’ve registered the hopeful breathiness in his voice. But as it is, he’s far too focused on the hand on his chest. He nods anyway, once he realizes Leo’s asked him a question.
Leo huffs and leans closer while simultaneously pulling Jason closer.
For a moment, they just look at each other, their noses inches apart. Leo’s breath comes in soft puffs on his face. There’s a hint of a smile on Leo’s face, but the corners waver as if he’s having second thoughts. Jason registers Leo’s eyelashes flickering, and his blood sings when he realizes he’s looking at Jason’s mouth .
This isn’t the first time they’ve had moments like this. But here, with alcohol burning through his veins, and Leo right in front of him, Jason thinks he could finally act on it.
Leo’s grip starts to loosen on Jason’s hoodie, but Jason can’t let him go.
He surges forward.
Leo’s lips are warm.
“Is it really that hard for you to admit I’m clever?”
Leo’s voice is loud over the general cacophony of the Pavilion, where most everyone is eating lunch. He’s sitting at the Aphrodite table, ignoring their godly parent assignments, and leans forward with both elbows on the table. Piper is next to him, popping a strawberry into her mouth, and her answer is instantaneous: “Yes.”
Leo grumbles, then notices Jason coming toward their table. His expression lights up and he points at him. Jason raises his eyebrows in response as he makes himself comfortable in the seat next to him.
“What?” he asks.
Leo drops his hand. “You think I’m clever, right?”
And Jason remembers last night, the warmth of Leo beside him as he tried to convince him he was impressive. Of course you are , Jason thinks, but his brain-to-mouth barrier is back, so he doesn’t say that.
Instead, Jason lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “Sometimes.”
Leo slaps a hand across his own chest. “Betrayal! This is betrayal!”
Jason raises his hands placatingly. “Just telling the truth.” His gaze drifts to Piper, who has another strawberry halfway from its bowl to her mouth, but whose eyebrows are scrunched together. Her gaze flits between him and Leo, and a prickle starts up Jason’s spine.
She knows.
She slowly bites into the strawberry, her expression still confused, like she’s solving a particularly confusing math equation.
Leo, meanwhile, hasn’t noticed anything. He’s stricken up a conversation with one of Piper’s siblings (Mitchell?) about the likeliness that the Aphrodite cabin and Hephaestus cabins will be on the same team for Capture the Flag later that day. As he bends towards him, the sunlight catches his curls and shoots through them with gold. He picks at the sleeve of his hoodie as he talks to Mitchell, and his fingers are thin and nimble with the cloth threads.
Piper seems to have figured out her answer because she catches Jason’s eye across the table and smiles at him. Busy last night? she mouths at him, and Jason snorts and shakes his head. Piper raises an eyebrow and Jason holds her gaze, not breaking.
Leo turns back at Jason’s snort. “What happened?”
Piper smiles, her eyes disappearing into crescents. “Nothing. Anyways, you guys are still coming to the strawberry fields before the game, right?”
Jason nods. For whatever reason, Piper wants them to soak in some sunlight (as if they don’t spend the majority of their day outside) and pick strawberries (as if they can’t just get strawberries from the spirits in the Pavilion). Jason is excited regardless. He’s never done something so mundane.
“As long as I can put the strawberries on my fingers!” Leo announces, then turns back to Mitchell. Piper gives Jason an exasperated but fond look, though something like mischief also floats across her face. It fades to the back of his mind as Leo ropes him into his conversation.
Piper catches up to him as they leave the pavilion, heading to the Zeus cabin. He’s planning to read a little before getting ready for Capture the Flag. He’d been reminded of the game by Mitchell and Leo’s conversation, and he finds himself antsy to pick up his gladius again.
Apparently, Piper’s Aphrodite-senses only go so far because she asks, “Finally make a move, I take it?”
Jason glances over his shoulder to see Leo far out of earshot. He’s talking animatedly with one of his siblings as he walks in the opposite direction to the Hephaestus cabin.
“Not– not really. We, uh–” Jason’s face warms. “He took me to Bunker Nine.”
Piper raises her eyebrows and leans closer. “ Ohohoho , I was right! You guys make use of that bunker?”
Jason scoffs, pushing down his rising embarrassment, and waves a hand at her. “Not like that! It was– we just kissed, that’s all.”
Piper squints at him and her Aphrodite-senses must verify Jason’s words because she drops it.
She leans back and asks, “So are you guys dating yet, or…?”
Jason shakes his head, and he’s sure his ears are pink. “I don’t know if he actually likes me.”
That mischievous look from earlier is back, manifesting in a curl of her lips. “I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
“Why? Has he said anything?” he asks, suspicious.
Piper cocks her head. “Well, no, but I’ve got a… feeling.”
“No offense, but I don’t really trust your feelings. We know how that worked out last time.” Jason says the last words with a self-satisfied grin on his face, waiting for Piper to take the bait.
And she does, gasping and widening her eyes. “You take that back!”
He hikes his shoulders to his ears and walks faster.
“Jason Grace! Come back here!” Piper shouts behind him. Jason laughs as he starts running.
After twenty minutes of waiting for Piper, it’s clear that she’s not showing up at the strawberry fields. Of course, she who was most enthusiastic about this would ditch them at the last minute.
It's only when Leo looks over at him with a sly smile and says, “So is this a date now, Grace?” that Jason understands why Piper looked mischievous. Damn her. Jason rolls his eyes but offers his hand anyway, and Leo readily takes it, linking their fingers gently. It’s not like the night before when he had just grabbed Jason. He finds he likes it.
They start walking among the rows of strawberry bushes.
“What are you even supposed to do at a strawberry field?” Leo asks, bending to inspect one of the bushes.
“Pick strawberries,” Jason answers, and smiles as Leo makes a face.
“I meant other than that.”
Jason hums in thought, swinging their joined hands between them. “Walk around?”
Leo makes another face. “That’s boring.”
“What do you want to do, then?”
Leo knocks their shoulders together and leans closer to him. “We could always…”
Jason side-eyes him just as Leo starts wiggling his eyebrows. “No. We’re in a field.”
Leo pouts. “You don’t know what I was going to say!”
“Sure.” Jason rolls his eyes, but it’s softened by the grin pulling at his lips. He reaches a hand out, his fingertips brushing the tops of the strawberry bushes.
Leo stops walking, and Jason looks back at him with a question on his lips. Before he can say anything, Leo leans forward, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. He doesn’t even have time to close his eyes before Leo is pulling away.
“What was that for?” Jason asks, blinking.
Leo shrugs. “You look cute when you’re teasing me.”
Butterflies erupt in Jason’s stomach and he can’t help himself from swooping back in for another tiny kiss. Then he breaks away, staying close. “Good thing you’re easy to tease, then.”
Leo opens his eyes slowly, looking up at Jason through his lashes. “Dork.”
“Nerd.”
They smile at each other, their noses brushing until Leo leans back. “Okay now, come on!” Leo says. “I wasn’t joking about the strawberry-on-fingers thing!”
Piper clocks them immediately once they return to camp. She sidles up to them, her face knowing.
“How’d your date go?” she asks them, and Jason stiffens at her directness. Anxiety shoots up his spine. He glares at her, trying to jerk his head in Leo’s direction and convey his betrayal.
It’s Leo who answers, though. With a smirk on his face, he says, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Jason’s heart beats faster as he realizes Leo didn’t deny it. Piper grins and looks at Jason, her face clear: I told you so.
The Hephaestus cabin does not end up with the Aphrodite cabin for Capture the Flag. They do end up with the Zeus and Athena cabins, the latter of which is proving to be a bit of a problem.
They are once again in the Pavilion, now turned into the Blue team’s strategy tent. A few other team members stand guard around the Pavilion’s perimeter, intent on not letting anyone from the Red team get within earshot of their plans, but Jason lounges off to the side. He watches as Annabeth and Leo lean over the Poseidon table, where a map of the woods has been laid out.
“It doesn’t make sense to put people there, Leo,” Annabeth explains, pointing to a spot on the map.
Leo waves his hands desperately and insists, “But they won’t expect us there!”
“It’s impractical.”
Leo taps his chin in thought, but Jason reads the trickery in his face. He just wants to make Annabeth’s life harder. He stares at the map for a few moments before slapping a hand on it. “How about here?”
She seems to consider it before shaking her head. “Leo, can’t you… I don’t know, hang out with Jason, or something?” Annabeth says the words with a smile, but still pushes Leo away from the map. “Thanks for your help, but I can handle the strategy.”
“Hey, I beat you at chess that one time!” Leo crows, but he’s moving away from the map. “How’s that for strategy master.”
Annabeth shakes her head exasperatedly. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”
Leo answers with a smug grin before plopping down next to Jason.
“Done bothering Annabeth?” Jason asks, a teasing grin tilting his lips.
“Ah, yeah,” Leo says, sinking into his seat and crossing his arms. “Figured I’d let her win this time.”
“Right.” Jason nods. “Not for any other reason.”
Leo scoffs, giving him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean, Grace?”
Jason looks towards the ceiling, tamping down his laughter. “Nothing, nothing.”
“It better be,” Leo says, and when Jason looks back, air rushes out of his lungs.
There’s a gentle smile on his face, directed at his lap. It’s… beautiful. Especially now, as the setting sun casts oranges and pinks into the sky. His brown skin molts under the light, bringing out its orange undertones. He looks back up at Jason and he has to brace himself again. His smile is stunning, Jason thinks, but the way his eyes shine with mirth is better.
And it’s all directed at him.
Jason and Leo have their assignments: they are the decoys, meant to venture into Red team territory to distract from the real team. After all, who would expect the Blue team to use the son of Zeus as a fake-out? What this really means is Leo and Jason are free to run around the woods and do whatever they want.
Running with Leo through the woods brings Jason back to images of Bunker Nine, with Leo’s warm lips on his and an even warmer face under his fingertips. Jason has to try his best to stay focused on the game at hand. Leo makes that difficult when he grabs Jason’s hand as soon as they cross into the woods.
Jason glances at him. “What?”
Leo jiggles their hands, his eyes twinkling with glee. “Let’s ditch this!”
Jason shakes his head disbelievingly. “We just got in.”
“Yes, buuuuut, ” Leo whines, shaking their joined hands again. His fingers are slightly slippery against Jason’s, so Jason squeezes them tighter to keep Leo from slipping away.
“You’re so weird,” Jason says, but he’s smiling.
Leo smirks at him. “Is that a yes?”
Jason rolls his eyes. But this time he shakes their hands. “Where do you want to go?”
They end up at Zeus’s Fist.
“You know this place is haunted?” Leo remarks, still holding Jason’s hand. He swings it between them as they approach the collection of rocks. When he notices Jason patting his gladius with his free hand to ensure its presence, he laughs. “Scared, Grace?”
“No,” Jason denies, “but considering we’ve fought actual snow before, you can never be too safe.”
Leo leans towards him conspiratorially. “Don’t worry, I can protect us.” He lifts a hand between them, wiggling his fingers. Sparks fly from them, little bits of light flying into the quickly darkening woods. Leo’s other hand grows warmer in Jason’s like his body is preparing to burst into flames.
It’s then that Jason registers how close Leo is. He lifts his gaze ever so slightly to Leo’s eyes. Leo’s already looking at him.
“My savior,” Jason whispers.
Leo sways closer and his other hand comes up to trace Jason’s cheekbone. Jason’s eyes flutter at the touch, the sheer gentleness making goosebumps erupt across his skin.
Just when Jason is sure he’ll be kissed, Leo pulls his hand back. Jason opens his eyes to Leo’s smile. It has a teasing edge to it like he’s just realized how much control he has over him. But there’s a tenderness in his eyes. Jason feels in his bones that Leo would never hurt him.
Leo whispers, “Let’s climb it.”
The abrupt declaration makes Jason blink. “What?”
Leo drops Jason’s hand and runs the final feet to the Fist. Jason flexes his fingers, the cold a shock to his system. He watches as Leo struggles to find footholds in the rocks before finally coming up behind him. An idea is forming, one that he’s finally sober enough to execute.
Leo looks at him suspiciously when Jason opens his arms.
“I’ll fly us up.”
Leo pretends to think, but Jason is impatient. He bear-hugs Leo, securing an arm around Leo’s waist and shoulders, respectively. Then he lifts the two of them into the air. Leo squawks against him, his hands flitting over Jason’s chest, before finally hanging off his hips.
Jason floats them a few feet into the air over where they were standing. He doesn’t move them forward, instead letting Leo acclimate to flying first.
Leo, for his part, adjusts quickly. He tightens his grip, shifting so his body fits better against Jason’s, and tucks his face into his neck. Jason hasn’t been more grateful for his extra inches of height.
“You good?” he whispers, the words floating just above Leo’s ear.
When Leo speaks, his lips drag over Jason’s skin. He suppresses a shiver. “Just fly us over there.”
So Jason does.
When they touch down thirty seconds later on Zeus’s Fist, Jason doesn’t want to let Leo go, but he forces himself to loosen his hold. Leo seems to share that feeling, though, and immediately loops his arms behind Jason’s neck and pulls him down for a kiss. Jason’s noise of surprise is muffled, and his eyes slide shut. His hands find Leo’s hips again, his fingers pressing into the material of Leo’s shirt.
Jason sighs through his nose as Leo plays with the hair at his nape. He brings a hand up to frame Leo’s face and the angle changes. A noise escapes the back of his throat as Leo opens his mouth, just slightly, and Jason shudders.
Then Leo steps forward, pressing a leg in between Jason’s and it’s too much. He breaks away, pressing his face into Leo’s collarbone.
“Leo…”
Leo cards a hand through Jason’s hair. “Jason,” he murmurs.
Jason inhales shakily, breathing in the scent of fire and metal. “Gods, you’re… I…–”
He’s interrupted by a raucous cheer from somewhere in the woods, and he groans as he remembers. “That better be our team.”
Leo laughs into Jason’s hair. “I highly doubt that, since they were depending on us.”
Jason leans back, glaring at him. “And who’s fault is it that we’re up here?”
Leo looks off in thought as his fingers tap a pattern into Jason’s nape. “I remember you flying us up here, so that would be you.”
Jason raises an eyebrow. “In that case, I’ll just fly myself down.”
Leo pushes himself onto his toes to press a fleeting kiss to Jason’s lips. “Or you could fly us both down?”
Jason should worry about how quickly he melts. He presses his smile to Leo’s. “I guess I could.”
The Red team won, and when Jason and Leo come back, Annabeth chews them out for abandoning their roles. Jason apologizes profusely while Leo snarks. Piper, who was on the Red team, gives them both knowing looks, to which Leo sticks out his tongue.
The aftermath of the game sees Piper, Leo and Jason piling into the Zeus cabin. Upon entering the cabin, Piper materializes a bottle of whiskey.
Leo claps his hands when he sees it, but Piper shakes her head. “You guys don’t get any.”
Leo’s hands pause in their tracks. “What?”
“You completely abandoned me last time. I am not doing that again.”
Jason laughs, a blush high on his cheeks, and Leo grumbles next to him.
“You can, however, pour me a shot.” She looks gleeful as she says it, and though she’s not using charmspeak, Jason feels compelled to do so.
A few minutes later, Piper has successfully knocked back the shot. She wiggles her shot glass in front of Leo, and Leo pouts. She procured a card game that she claims is from the Athena cabin and orders Jason to set it up, even though Jason has never seen the game in his life.
“You don’t know Uno?” Leo exclaims, shocked.
Jason shrugs. “Not like the wolves were sitting me down for games.”
Piper shakes her head sadly. “Poor, poor boy. Sad little man.” Then she bursts out into giggles, the force of her laughter making her lean forward until her head rests against the floor.
Jason looks down at her. “There’s no way you’re already drunk.”
Piper throws a hand out to find the whiskey bottle and lifts it, revealing that it’s a little emptier than it’s supposed to be. Leo throws his head back in a laugh.
They manage to make it a few rounds of the game in, though every time anything slightly negative happens to her, Piper screeches. After the third time Jason says “Uno!” and Piper screams, Jason decides that’s enough of that and makes the executive decision to stop the card game. Piper’s drunk enough that she doesn’t notice when Leo steals her whiskey and takes a swig. Jason makes a face when Leo offers him the bottle and Leo shrugs, taking another drink.
Soon Jason is the only sober person left. Leo wanders to a bed to collapse and Piper stays with Jason on the floor, swaying slightly. Her swaying carries her to lean on Jason’s shoulder, and Jason huffs a laugh as her head lolls.
“Jason nnn ,” Piper mumbles.
Jason nudges her gently. “You’re drooling.”
“‘M not,” she replies, leaving a wet spot on his sleeve.
“Okay.”
She shifts against him, trying to get more comfortable. Jason slips his arm around her and she sighs, sinking into his side. They sit together in silence. When Jason thinks Piper’s asleep, he moves to remove his arm. She makes a noise of protest, though, so Jason settles back.
“Hmmmjason,” Piper mumbles again.
Jason smiles into her hair. “Piper.”
She makes a keening noise and raises her head. “When are you going to…” She scrunches her eyebrows together, and Jason waits for her to finish her thought.
“To date Leo!” she exclaims, then puts her head back down, satisfied. “This morning was good, right? And… you did stuff during the game too!”
He exhales, rubbing his hand absently up her back. Maybe because he knows she won’t remember this in the morning, he says, “It seems too fast. We’re going too fast, right?”
Piper laughs, the sound high in her throat, and she flaps a hand at him, all the while not lifting her head. “You’re so smart… but you’re so dumb…”
Jason glares down at her in mock outrage. “Hey now. I’m your pillow, you better treat me right.”
Piper says something that sounds like “Boys are stupid” before nuzzling back into Jason’s shoulder. From experience, he knows she won’t rouse until the sun is high in the sky.
He looks over Piper’s head to Leo, who ended up in Jason’s bed. One of his hands is tucked under his head, the other resting on his stomach. His legs are splayed out, and he’s already kicked Jason’s pillow onto the floor.
Jason’s gaze shifts to the photographs taped to the wall of his bed’s alcove. He took cues from Thalia, and having them makes the wide space of the Zeus cabin feel a little smaller. He’s got a picture of the two of them on the wall. She’s making a face at the camera with an arm around Jason’s shoulders. They look the same age.
The other pictures are mostly pictures of the Seven, but most feature Leo or Piper, or both of them. The center picture is of the three of them standing on Half-Blood Hill, the sun setting behind them. Jason is in the middle, his arms around Piper and Leo, an easy smile stretching his lips.
Piper shifts beside him and Jason decides to move her so the two of them won’t ache in the morning. He carefully extricates himself, then gathers her in his arms. He deposits her in the bed one alcove over from Leo, and laughs quietly when she immediately scrambles for a pillow and hugs it.
Jason crawls into a different alcove. The blankness of the walls disconcerts him, but soon the sounds of Piper’s and Leo’s breaths lull him to sleep.
Jason wakes up a few hours later when someone shoves him toward the wall. He’s alert immediately, and his arms shoot out for the intruder before he’s opened his eyes.
“It’s me, dude,” the intruder says, batting Jason’s hand away and continuing to wriggle into the bed.
“Leo?” he whispers. He blinks as his eyes focus. He can dimly make out his face in the dark.
Leo doesn’t answer, instead snaking an arm around Jason’s middle and pushing his toes into Jason’s calf. Once he’s satisfactorily situated, he responds, “Jason.”
“Why are you in my bed?” But even as he asks, he’s wrapping an arm over Leo and turning on his side to face him.
A beat passes and Jason wonders if Leo fell asleep. But then he says, “You didn’t come to me.”
Jason searches for his eyes in the dark. “What?”
“I was in your bed. You didn’t join me.”
Jason’s vision is even blurrier due to a lack of glasses and he can’t find Leo’s eyes. “I didn’t know you did that on purpose.”
“Of course not,” Leo says, amusement coloring his words. The conversation ends when Leo tucks his head under Jason’s chin and tightens his grip on Jason’s waist. Jason presses his nose into Leo’s hair and inhales, his eyes drifting shut.
“Goodnight, Leo,” he whispers, but Leo’s asleep, his breaths already syncing with Jason’s.
Piper whines as Jason shakes her awake. Her hair is a mess from rolling around in her sleep, and Jason pushes down his amusement as he crouches next to her bed. “You need to go back to Aphrodite.”
She groans in response but pushes herself up.
“You guys were loud yesterday,” she grumbles. “Hard to sleep.”
“We didn’t even do anything,” Jason retorts, and Leo laughs. He’s still laying in bed, having refused to get up with Jason. Jason would’ve stayed in the bed as well if he didn’t want to face an angry Drew wondering where her second-in-command was.
Piper curses at him as he helps her out of bed, but as Jason points out, it was her decision to drink the night before.
“You should’ve stopped me,” she complains, to which Jason replies, “We both know I’m not able to do that.”
She leaves the cabin with one final glare over her shoulder before shutting the bronze double doors. The room is quiet again, and Jason stares at the doors for a moment too long.
Leo asks, “Are you going to kick me out, too?”
Jason turns to see Leo splayed out, the sunlight highlighting all the dips and curves of his body. Jason lets himself watch for a moment, tracking the rise and fall of Leo’s chest and the amused tilt of his mouth. His curls are tousled and messy, sticking out in all directions, and Jason’s chest tightens. There’s nothing he can do but stare.
Leo is still so beautiful.
“Jason?” Leo calls out when his staring goes on too long.
Jason strides across the cabin. Leo watches him, his expression a cross between amusement and confusion. He watches as Jason climbs onto the bed, shifting to accommodate when Jason brackets Leo’s thighs, leaning over him.
Finally, finally, Jason can see the deep brown of his irises, ringed by a darker brown, lit up completely by the sun.
“Leo,” Jason answers.
Leo smiles up at him, unapologetically happy. He brings a hand up, brushing back baby hairs from Jason’s forehead. “Hello. You gonna kiss me?”
Jason hums, considering. He runs a finger up Leo’s throat, dragging his nails lightly over Leo’s Adam’s apple, and Leo’s eyes flutter in anticipation. He carefully leans down so their noses bump. Leo immediately tilts his head up, trying to find Jason’s mouth, and warmth explodes in Jason’s blood.
Leo is so open beneath him, so trusting and willing. Jason has to stop himself from closing the gap between them, from leaning in and taking and taking and taking because Leo is willing to give.
Instead, words come to his lips, words that have been stirring in him since that first night in Bunker Nine, and then again at the strawberry fields, and again in the woods.
“Will you be my boyfriend?” he whispers.
Leo’s eyes open and the look he gives Jason can only be fond. Something curls in Jason’s stomach, something warm and pleasant and powerful. Leo’s hand tightens in Jason’s hair as he tugs him down, bringing him in for a gentle kiss.
Against Jason’s lips, he says, “I thought I already was.”