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"I've become a bit of mythology buff since I'm into a mythological guy that's, y'know ... buff."
In Cleo's defense, she'd been preoccupied at the time. Her powers were changing and Kaleb's life hung in the balance. She hadn't had time to think about Jed's little joke and the implications behind it.
At least, not until the next day during lunch, when she found Jed sitting in a corner alone, purposefully sitting away from his pack and Finch - who was sending him worried looks across the dining room - and looking like a storm cloud.
She walked up to him and asked, "May I sit?"
"Do you see anyone else here?" he snapped, not bothering to look up from his food, which he was pushing around his plate aggressively with his fork.
"Are you alright? You seem ... not yourself."
He shrugged but offered some attempt at a smile. "Yeah, I'm probably not the best company right now."
She put her tray down and sat across from him. "Would you like to talk about it?"
"Nothing to talk about. I trusted the wrong person and put the school in danger, so I fixed it. End of story." He stabbed his chicken ruthlessly.
Cleo watched the chicken get shredded with some concern, but she pressed on. "You were very brave to stand up to Ben that way."
Jed grunted.
"So I wanted to make sure you are alright. It's difficult, when the people we care for let us down."
"I'm fine." He moved on to his carrots, cutting at them viciously.
"You do not seem fine."
"Well, I am." The carrots were split into halves, then fourths. "I'm not gonna let him get to me." The carrots were beginning to look puréed, and there was a screeching sound that Cleo suspected was his lunch tray. "He's a traitor, and it doesn't matter what he thinks, or what he says, so who cares if he hates that I'm a wolf or that he attacked my friends and then told me he -"
The fork flew out of Jed's hand and landed in the nearest wall.
They both looked at the still quivering utensil, then slowly back at each other, Cleo's eyes wide with shock. "Jed ..."
He stood up abruptly, avoiding her gaze. "I'm gonna get a new one."
Then he walked out of the dining room, yanking the fork out of the wall as he went. A few seconds later, Finch followed him, calling out his name.
Cleo sat where she was, finally putting things together.
"... into a mythological guy ..."
Poor Jed. No wonder he had been so determined to exonerate Ben.
She hoped that they were wrong somehow, that Ben was better than his recent actions suggested, even if her prophecy drawing still weighed heavily on her mind. She hated seeing Jed so heart broken.
*
MG needed something to do. All the students had been helped into the school while the Squad was taking a beat to celebrate their victory. Then Hope and Lizzie had split off to go find Aurora's body, and Kaleb and Cleo had gone to do post-battle couple things, and Jed had gone ... somewhere. Hopefully somewhere with things to do, because MG needed to be distracted for a little while. He wasn't quite ready to think about Ethan yet.
He spotted Finch and they waved somewhat awkwardly at each other, happy to see each other alive, but not close enough friends to hug or anything. He walked up to her and asked, "Have you seen Jed anywhere?"
"No, but one of the pack said he was in the library, so I was gonna check in with him." The corner of her mouth quirked up. "If he's not too busy with Ben."
That was sweet. Jed and Ben had hung out so much these last few weeks; they seemed to have a real bond. He'd been understandably distracted at the time, but he was pretty sure he'd seen Ben comforting Jed after they told the rest of the Squad about Kaleb.
Two best friends reuniting was exactly what he needed right now. He wouldn't get to have that with Ethan, but he could watch someone else have it, and know that everything that happened today was worth it.
"Let's go see," he said, much more energized than he'd been a second ago, and he headed with purpose towards the library. Then stopped so abruptly that Finch ran into him.
Because Jed was full on making out with Ben in the middle of the library-turned-infirmary.
What the hell?
A beleaguered student followed his gaze and shook his head. "They've been like that for, like, ten minutes. No one wants to say anything since, y'know, you guys beat Ken and Ben carried a lot of us in here himself, but it's getting weird."
Finch groaned next to him and then went over to her friend and tapped him - or whacked him, more accurately - on the shoulder. "Not the place, guys."
They stopped kissing but they didn't actually let go of each other. "Apologies," Ben said, although he didn't sound particularly sorry. He sounded a little breathless, actually, and looked kinda flushed, and he was gripping onto Jed like he thought someone was going to try to take him away from him. Again.
Jed didn't even try to look contrite, grinning at Finch shamelessly. "Hi."
"Hey. Guess you lived," Finch said, trying to sound nonchalant but failing.
"More or less. You okay?"
"More or less."
"Good." Jed pulled her into his side for a quick hug, and then Ben did the same, which made Jed smile even bigger.
MG shook his head, still baffled. At least he got his best friend reunion.
Finch stepped back. "Alright, enough. I've got the pack. Be cute somewhere else."
"Thanks!" Jed said, then grabbed Ben and towed him out of the library. "Hey, MG," he said as he passed by with barely a glance.
MG looked at Finch. "So ... they're a thing."
Finch frowned. "Um, yeah. Obviously."
"Like, a romantic thing. Jed is dating him."
"I mean, I don't know if there's been actual dates yet, but they're basically obsessed with each other."
"Huh." Not in a million years would MG have predicted this. He couldn't imagine what they were like together, what with Ben being so stoic and talking like he'd stepped out of the eighteen hundreds half the time. Still, if Finch approved, there had to be something good there. He was surprised to realize he was happy for Jed. After everything, he was still MG's friend, and he deserved to find something real for himself.
He was less happy when Jed and Ben never came back, not for the clean-up work or the school announcements or even Ethan's funeral. In fact, that was the last time he saw Jed for a while.
*
"What's that?"
Hope turned her head and peered through the trees in the direction Lizzie was pointing. There was the faint glow of what looked like a fire down by the Old Mill.
"Guess we should check it out," she said reluctantly. They'd just finished Aurora's memorial and were heading back to the school, and all she wanted right now was sleep. But in the wake of the battle, they couldn't risk it being a hurt student or magic someone had done in the chaos that had caught something on fire.
Lizzie made an annoyed sound, then grabbed Hope's hand and vamp-sped them to the Mill. And smacked them into a tree on the edge of the clearing.
"Seriously?" Hope asked, rubbing her forehead.
"Excuse me for still getting the hang of my powers," Lizzie said grumpily, picking leaves out of her hair.
Sighing, Hope looked around. The fire seemed to be a normal fire, crackling away merrily in the usual spot. But there wasn't anybody next to it.
She was about to call out when she heard a creaking sound in the Mill. A few seconds later, Ben and Jed appeared by the railing. Attached by the mouth.
It wasn't completely unexpected. Hope had definitely noticed something between them, seen Ben's reaction to Jed getting bitten by the clown, Jed's anger after Ben's betrayal and how saddened Ben was by Jed's cold shoulder when he came out of the cell. She just didn't know that they'd done anything about it yet, wasn't even sure Jed realized he had feelings for the demigod at all. Apparently he did.
Ben pulled away from Jed to pant out, "Are you sure?"
"Definitely."
"Today has been intense -"
"I told you, I want to live the best life I can. And this is where I want to start."
Jed proved his point by kissing his way down Ben's neck.
Well, they definitely weren't needed here. Hope turned to Lizzie, ready to say they should try to sneak off before one of the guys caught them, only to see her friend seething, her eyes locked on Ben. "Oh, absolutely not!" she growled and stalked towards the Mill.
"Lizzie!" Hope hissed, grabbing Lizzie's hand and dragging her back towards the tree, even as she struggled. "Lizzie, no! What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm saving our friend from an asshole!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ben! He lied to us and tricked us and used us to break his curse -"
"And then helped save us with his plan, and you tried to raise a god too, remember?" Hope whispered as sternly as she could. "Jed can decide for himself."
"No, he can't, he makes bad decisions. And he just came back from the dead! We both know that messes with you." Lizzie feinted to Hope's left then tried to speed by her on the right. Hope didn't fall for it even a little bit and easily pushed her back against the tree and stuck her hand over her mouth.
"Listen to me! Just because Josie's not here doesn't mean you can stick your nose into one of our friend's love life instead. This is not your business, and it's weird that you're trying to get involved!"
Lizzie made an outraged noise under Hope's palm and then she felt something wet on her palm. She made a face. "Did you seriously just lick me?"
"MM-hmmm," Lizzie said, her eyes looking smug over Hope's pinky.
"Leave them alone," Hope hissed.
Lizzie shook her head as best she could and glared at Hope. Hope glared back.
"I love you."
Their eyes widened simultaneously, and they turned their attention back to Jed and Ben.
Ben's face was devastating, trepidation and adoration plain to see even at a distance, his hand gently cupping Jed's jaw. "I'm sorry," he said, voice unsteady, "that I said it the wrong way before. It was thoughtless and selfish, and I didn't think how it would affect you to hear it then, in light of what I'd done to your friends. I understand if you're not ready to say it back or even if you don't want me to say it again for a while. But after almost losing you today, I had to say it the right way, at least once. I needed you to know."
Jed's hand reached up to cover his, his expression soft. "I love you, too."
In that moment, Ben's face shone like the sun. Hope was beginning to suspect that she and Lizzie might be witnessing one of the happiest moment in his very long life.
They shouldn't be there. She tugged on Lizzie's arm, but her friend was frozen, looking confused, jealous, and sad all at once.
"I'm sorry that I completely shut you down before," Jed continued, shifting closer to Ben, "it's just, I was angry, and hurt, and it really was kinda the worst timing, but I -"
"I understand," Ben replied, his other hand sliding over Jed's hip, "and it's alright. It doesn't matter anymore," he said with breathless laugh, leaning in so he was almost nose-to-nose with Jed, their foreheads leaning together and just barely touching, "because you're here. I thought ..."
"I know. But I'm not going anywhere," Jed said, like that was a thing he could promise. Like if he just said the words, fate or the universe or a powerful monster couldn't tear them apart.
And then Ben surged forward and kissed Jed like it was the only important thing in the world, and Jed clung to him and kissed him the exact same way. About five seconds later there was a ripping sound, and Jed said, "Hey, I liked that shirt! I better still have my gym clothes up here somewhere."
Okay, it was definitely time to go.
Hope gripped Lizzie tight and vamp-sped them up the path to the school, not stopping until she couldn't hear Jed and Ben anymore.
They ended up a few hundred yards away from the school where Lizzie immediately sat down hard on the forest ground.
"We never heard that," Hope insisted, frustrated as her friend continued to stare off in to space. "Lizzie!" she said louder, finally getting the heretic to look at her. "Tell me you aren't going to tell anyone about that, okay? We should've left way sooner, it's not our business, and it's just ... Jed is our friend, and we aren't telling anyone anything he wouldn't want us to. Okay?"
"I saw them," Lizzie said, still looking unfocused. "When Aurora and I came to the school to get Ben, we saw them together. And it was so obvious Jed liked him but I didn't think ... Jed always gets crushes, but no one ever likes him back. And after what Ben did ... I wanted to save him the heartache. Again. But it's not like that, is it? Ben really loves him. And after, what, a month and a half?"
"It definitely seems that way."
"I don't think I'll ever have that," Lizzie said, her voice trembling.
Hope frowned, sitting gingerly down in the leaves next to her friend. "Sure, you will. You're young, we're not even out of school yet. And what about MG?"
"I like him," she said sadly, "but I don't love him. I think ... I think I'm scared. I just don't know if I'm scared I'll fall in love with him or scared to let him go and try for something real with someone else who isn't as safe." She looked over at Hope. "How do you think Jed kept himself open to being hurt like that? All the rejections and people ignoring him, and then Ben hurt him, but he still ..."
"No idea. I'm definitely not an expert at being open with people." Hope sighed and tipped her head up to the stars. "It's funny, in a way. I almost killed Landon before I even dated him because I thought he lied to me. Or, well, lied to hurt me. And then I killed you because I didn't want to feel anything without him."
"Yeah, it's hilarious," Lizzie said dryly.
"Being vulnerable is brave. Jed's a lot of things, and for a while he was a lot of really bad things, but he's always been brave. Maybe we can learn something from him."
"Like this day hasn't been long and weird enough."
"And tomorrow's going to be longer," Hope said, standing up, brushing off her backside, and offering a hand to Lizzie. "We better go inside."
"I guess." Lizzie took the offered hand and hauled herself up, and they started walking back to the school. "So Ben totally ripped Jed's shirt off. Like actually ripped it off."
"We're not talking about this."
"I know, you're right, I promise I won't. I'm just saying. Go Jed."
It didn't occur to Hope until she was almost asleep that night that even with less sensitive wolf hearing, Jed should definitely have heard her and Lizzie arguing, even from the other side of the clearing, even with Ben to distract him. She decided it was something to worry about tomorrow.
*
The week after the battle was a chaotic one. The wolves were irritable after turning twice in a few days, the vampires were jumpy around werewolves after they hunted down and killed one of their own even if he'd come back from the dead, and everyone was worried after the school almost closed down.
The Squad had a meeting in Dr. Saltzman's old office about what to do to get things running smoothly again. Except, Kaleb realized after a couple minutes, it wasn't the whole Squad. Someone was missing. Someone that he hadn't seen in days, now that he thought about it.
"Where's Jed?"
Five heads turned towards him simultaneously with five equally confused expressions.
He looked at them in matching confusion. "What?"
"Jed left the school, duh," Lizzie said, crossing her arms and looking at him like he was an idiot.
"And he's not a wolf anymore," Hope added.
"I'm the alpha now, actually," Finch finished, looking uncomfortable with the title.
He blinked several times, trying to understand. "I'm sorry ... what? Wait ... okay, start with the wolf thing."
MG was the one to explain. "When he died, his curse un-triggered. He's a normal human again."
"Aw, man. Really?" Kaleb felt guilt build in the bottom of his stomach. He and Jed had a weird relationship but he did like the guy, most of the time, and considered him a friend. He wished Jed had said something to him. To be fair, he had given Kaleb a hug a couple days ago and said something about missing him, but he'd just thought it was Jed's weird way to saying he was glad Kaleb wasn't dead anymore. "So he just took off all by himself?"
Finch and Cleo exchanged glances before his girlfriend said, "No. He went with Ben."
"Okay, that seems even like an even worse idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he helped us take down his dad, but we still don't that much about him, and - okay, why are y'all looking at me like that?"
"Uh," MG said, that awkward, placating grin on his face, "so you do know that Ben and Jed are dating ... right?"
There was quiet in the office as Kaleb's head began to hurt.
"Sorry, I don't think I heard you right," he said as calmly as he could manage. "You're telling me that Jed - our Jed, this Squad's Jed, our friend - is dating the guy who attacked me with a parking meter and burned up my car and almost killed us all when he woke his dad up? That's what you're telling me."
Finch shrugged. "I mean, yeah, dude, how'd you think he got Ben back to the school after he took you and MG out?"
"I don't know, lucky shot?" Kaleb looked at each of his friends, feeling betrayed. "So everyone knew?"
"Well, it's not like he actually told most of us," Lizzie said, playing with the ends of her hair, looking bored with this conversation. "Everyone except Finch figured it out."
"He is happy," Cleo said quietly, putting her hand on Kaleb's shoulder. "It's a good thing."
Kaleb scoffed. "If you say so."
"They're in love."
He looked at Lizzie in surprise, not only because of what she said, but how wistful she sounded saying it. "Okay. If you say so." He took a deep breath, leaning into Cleo a little, feeling himself calm down. "Huh. So Jed is with Prometheus. Like, mythical demigod Prometheus ... that's Jed's boyfriend."
"It puts Leonardo da Vinci in perspective, doesn't it?" Cleo said with grin.
*
It came up about three weeks into their ... whatever it was they were doing. Jed didn't want to say 'leaving the school behind' or even 'living together' quite yet, or Finch's term, 'eloping.' They were sitting out by the fire they'd set up in front of the RV and he was on the phone making reservations for the next campground.
"Yeah, there's just two of us. Me and my boyfriend."
When he hung up, he realized Ben was grinning ear-to-ear. "What?"
"You called me your boyfriend," Ben said, beaming. "You've never said that before."
"Oh." Jed tried to think over their time together and realized that he probably hadn't. Other than Finch, he'd never had the chance to talk to any of his other friends about it, and it hadn't really come up, not even with Ben. They'd somehow gone from Jed saving a burned up corpse to I love you in a few weeks and had skipped right over talking about being official. "I guess not."
"I don't know much about the customs these days," Ben said, eyes shining with mischief, "but I think you're supposed to ask me before you start using that term."
"You could ask me too, y'know," Jed pointed out. "You're the one with relationship experience."
"You kissed me first."
"You told me you loved me first. Both times."
"And you suggested we buy a living space together." Ben raised his eyebrow in a clear challenge.
"Fine." Jed got out of his chair and straddled Ben's lap, which he could barely do and Ben's chair wobbled precariously when he did it. "Wanna be my boyfriend?"
Ben huffed out a surprised laugh. "Is that it?"
"Pretty much, yeah." He wound his arms around Ben's neck, ignoring the chair as it bounced around some more. "But if you say yes, I'll kiss you again."
"Yes," Ben said, much more solemnly than the teasing tone they'd been using, but Jed understood. Even though they'd basically been together either since he came back from the dead, or their first kiss, or maybe even that first night at the Old Mill, it still felt like an important step, somehow.
So he kissed his boyfriend. And it was perfect.
Until one of the chair legs snapped and dumped them both in the dirt. But then they laughed and kept right on making out, so it was still kinda perfect.