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manygeese · 9 days ago

Text

[ao3 link-> https://archiveofourown.org/works/66671590]

word count: 10,471

Fake It ’Til You Make It

Leo’s in a bit of a pickle.

His best friend Jason just lied to his old comrades that he and Leo are dating. Instead of telling the truth like any normal (albeit slightly boring) person would, Leo comes up with the brilliant idea of acting like they really are together. They only have to spend, what? Three days? Three days in New Rome to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Giant War ending. They could totally keep up the act for that long.

Only, he starts to realize it may not be as much of an act as he thought it was.

(summer solstice gift to @demigod-shenanigans or @eleenadume! had tons of fun writing this, hope you like it! fic under the cut)

edit: forgot to tag @pjo-equinox-solstice-exchange

~*~

Things were going pretty well for Leo considering he had died five years ago. Briefly, he should add. Very briefly. That was the way he preferred it.

But enough about that. He was going into his third year of college at a nice place near Camp Half-Blood with his best friend, Jason, he got to visit his half-siblings on the weekends when he didn’t have too much homework, he worked part time at a nearby garage, and his other best friend Piper was always just an Iris message away. Or one not-really-road trip on Festus, if he was getting bored with New York scenery. All things considered, Leo had it pretty good.

He was moving into a new apartment for the fast approaching fall semester when Jason burst in, looking like he had just ran a marathon in the Sahara. “Leo,” he groaned, “I fucked up.”

The first thing Leo noticed when he turned around was Jason’s obvious distress. The last time Leo had seen him so upset was when a few empousai had broken into their dorm in the middle of the night. But even when Leo knew his friend was under pressure, like during finals season of Sophomore year (when he had decided to take the hardest classes available for some ungodsly reason), Jason did an impeccable job of hiding his stress beneath that charming smile of his.

Which is why Leo knew that if Jason was acting as jumpy as he was now, something was wrong. Add on the fact that he was wearing the thousand yard stare of a spooked puppy, and you could assume that the world was ending.

Leo let the t-shirt and the clothes hanger he had been attempting to wrestle it onto clatter to the floor of his closet. “You good, dude? What happened?”

“I am not good.” Jason ran a hand over his face like the exhausted dad in a 90’s sitcom. “They think we’re dating. I-I was talking about you and now they think we’re dating.”

Leo, who was starting to wish closed captions existed in real life, grabbed Jason by the shoulders and sat him down on the bed. “Hold your horses, bucko,” he advised. “Who is they? How about you take it from the top—slowly, this time.”

Jason took a deep breath and placed his hands over Leo’s, which were still resting on his shoulders. “Ok, so, New Rome is throwing that party to celebrate the five year anniversary of the Giant War ending, right? I was calling Gwen and Dakota because I haven’t seen them in a while and they’re gonna be there.”

“Okay,” Leo encouraged, thinking Jason could use it at the moment.

“They asked me how school was.��

“Okay.”

“I told them it was starting soon and that I was gonna be rooming with you.”

“Mhm.”

“Only I didn’t say that.”

“What did you say?”

“I said we were moving in together, and I guess they took that to mean we were, you know, partners. And not broke college students that have to have roommates if they want to afford rent.”

“Ah.” Leo clicked his tongue. “I see.”

“They said we were cute together, if that makes you feel any better.”

It did, weirdly, but Leo didn’t say that. “And you didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t deny it, if that’s what you're asking,” Jason mumbled, breaking the eye contact he had so far maintained with Leo. He opted to look down instead, transfixed by the mundane grey carpet.

Leo knew Jason wasn’t a dumb man. He was just… stubborn. And maybe a little socially incompetent, but spending your formative years surrounded by wolves and your fellow child soldiers could do that to a guy. Most of all, Jason was eager to impress, or more accurately, scared to disappoint. Leo guessed he faltered in the heat of the moment on the call and went along with what Dakota and Gwen had assumed. Poor guy, Leo thought at the same time the ridiculousness of the situation hit him.

Stifling a disbelieving laugh, Leo sat down on the mattress next to Jason. “What do you want me to do about it?”

Jason shrugged defeatedly. “I dunno.”

“Why don’t you just come clean to them?”

Jason met Leo’s eyes again with his watery looking blue ones. His mouth was downturned in a tiny little pout. “That’d be weird. Imagine if I IM’d them again, five minutes after we ended the last one, just to tell them I lied to them about being with you? That’s awkward.”

Leo scoffed. “Your social anxiety wins out over telling the truth?”

“When you put it like that, anything’s gonna sound dumb, Leo,” Jason huffed, pout intensifying.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Leo apologized, fighting to keep the laugh out of his voice as an amusing idea sprouted in his head. “So, how long are we gonna be in New Rome for the party?”

Jason squinted at him. “Three days,” he answered skeptically.

Leo grinned. “Feel free to cut me off any time, but I’ve got a stupid, stupid idea.”

“Your stupid is anyone else’s genius.”

Leo laughed Jason’s words off. “God, you’re such a dork. But hear me out: we could totally just pretend we are together.”

Jason’s eyebrows raised, but he didn’t make any effort to stop Leo.

“Only thing is we’d have to get our story straight, but other than that, it’d be easy to pull off.” Leo curled a lock of his hair around his finger, flopping back on the bed, watching closely to see Jason’s reaction.

The blond nodded seriously, though his stoic appearance was somewhat marred by the telltale blush painting his cheeks. “Alright. Yeah, we could do that.”

“Pipes would have our heads if we’d been together more than a week and not told her about it,” Leo pointed out. “That means that by the time the trip rolls around, we can’t have been together for longer than, like, a few days.”

Jason nodded, resting his chin on his hand. “Right. So, we’ll get together a couple days before the celebration. What are we going to tell people when they ask how we got together?”

“Good question,” Leo hummed as he grabbed a teddy bear from the moving box next to his bed and hugged it to his chest, playing with the pom pom on the stuffed animal’s hat. Having something to occupy his hands helped him think. “Uh, give me a second. On the verge of greatness here.”

Jason snorted and fell flat on the bed next to Leo. “Aren’t you always?”

“Of course I am, nerd,” Leo mumbled into the teddy’s fur. He sat up slowly as another idea assembled itself in his mind. “Okay. Picture this, Jace: it’s movie night. We’re watching some romance movie, like, uh, The Notebook. Yeah. We’re watching The Notebook side by side on the couch, with all the lights turned off, and the stars coming out, and a bowl of popcorn we’re sharing between us. And while the main characters make out in the rain, you lean over the popcorn and plant a kiss on my lips, and, well, one thing leads to another. Boom! Boyfriends.”

Jason, who had been getting progressively pinker as Leo kept speaking, scratched at his head. “I’ve never seen The Notebook,” he managed after a while.

“We’re gonna fix that, don’t you worry,” Leo assured. “But that’s not all, because you don’t just kiss somebody in the middle of a movie without pining for a million years first, right?”

Jason flushed red. He grunted, which Leo took as an affirmative.

“If they ask when we fell in love, it’d just make sense for you to say you’ve loved me since our first quest because I’m so awesome,” Leo continued.

“Yeah,” Jason squeaked.

“As for when I fell in love with you, it’s gotta be something embarrassing. Not for me, though,” Leo added with a sly grin.

Jason frowned, making the scar on his upper lip twitch. “Why’s it gotta be embarrassing for me?”

“You got us into this mess, and I’m certainly not gonna let you get off scot-free for it. Besides, losers are my type,” Leo joked with a wink.

If he had been paying more attention to his fake boyfriend-to-be, Leo would’ve noticed Jason choke on his own spit.

“Ooh, what about that one time you came back to the Argo sopping wet after the quest Hercules sent you and Piper on?” Leo snickered. “It was… strangely endearing, if a little pathetic.”

Jason sighed dejectedly. There was no doubt this was going to be a long trip.

Leo would be lying if he said he never got pangs of fear when he looked down at the world from his seat on Festus, but he’d also be lying if he said he never felt a rush of freedom as the landscape whirred past below him.

There was just something about feeling the wind against his face, something intoxicating about the air pushing his hair every which way, something light and untethering about being above it all, even just for a moment. It was exhilarating. Leo wouldn’t give up the privilege to fly for the world.

Festus was circling the parking lot of one of New Rome’s official looking buildings, finally touching down after hours of travel. The dragon laid down on the asphalt, allowing Leo and the others to slide down his bronze plating with ease.

“Are they here yet? Where are they? Did they say to meet in the square or the fountain?” Piper asked, head on a swivel, searching for their friends.

“We’re meeting at the fountain in the square,” Jason answered, “and we rode in on a giant metal dragon. If they aren’t here yet, they’ll be here soon.”

“You go have fun, boy,” Leo cooed to Festus, patting his snout and waving away the smoke that came from it. “Try not to eat any satyrs.”

“Fauns,” Jason corrected.

“Try not to eat any fauns,” Leo amended. Festus trundled off into the city, most likely to scare the hell out of whichever poor soul worked the drive-thru of New Rome’s McDonald’s.

“Is that Reyna?” Piper questioned, tapping Jason’s shoulder and pointing to the plaza next to them. “Oh my god, it totally is. Reyna!” She shouted, proceeding to bolt into the square and tackle Reyna into a hug.

Leo followed her like the dutiful best friend he was. He didn’t check if Jason was behind him; he didn’t have to. He could always count on the fact that the guy’s first instinct was to trail on his heels like a lost puppy.

“Has she gotten taller?” Leo whispered to Jason.

Jason shrugged. “Must be a child of a war goddess thing.”

Leo sighed theatrically. “Great. I cap off at fifteen and she’s getting taller into her twenties. That’s gotta be unnatural.”

“We’re demigods. Unnatural’s in the job description,” Jason muttered to Leo, grinning hard as Reyna detached herself from Piper and moved to give him a hug. “Reyna! It's been too long.”

She nodded, patting Jason on the back. “It has. When was the last time you visited? Was it when you were building the shrine to Fides here?”

Jason thought for a moment. “Something like that. Was it Fides or Laverna, though?”

“Might’ve been Laverna,” Reyna supplied.

Leo tuned them out somewhere around the fourth time the name Fides was said. He was satisfied leaving the minor Roman gods and goddesses to them—it wasn’t like he could name more than five, anyways.

Instead he flopped down on a bench next to Piper and kicked his feet while he waited for their other friends to arrive. Or for the conversation topic to change to something he could actually weigh in on. Whichever came first. Evidently, it was the former, since Percy and Annabeth appeared over the crest of the hill while Jason and Reyna were discussing plans for their next shrine.

Annabeth was wearing a New Rome University sweatshirt, logo matching the one on Reyna’s purple tee. She had her fingers interlaced with her boyfriend’s and a smile that reached her eyes and then some. Percy, for his part, was toting a tupperware in his other arm, toothily grinning ear to ear.

Seeing them being so in love reminded him that, for the time being, he was supposed to be Jason’s boyfriend. He hurriedly grabbed Jason’s hand in his and hoped he’d get the memo.

When he looked over at Jason, though, Jason was already looking back. He was one step ahead, really, fixing Leo with his sharp blue eyes turned soft now that he was in their sights. It made a flutter of butterflies arise in his stomach. Jason was a better actor than he suspected; he must have practiced in the mirror or something.

Percy jogged the rest of the way to where everybody else was standing, Annabeth close behind. “Hey, guys!” He held up the tupperware like it was a trophy. “We made brownies!”

“We used Aphros’ recipe, Jason,” Annabeth added, trying not to laugh at the way Jason visibly perked up. He loved those brownies, ever since he had had the first one on the Argo, and Leo knew this better than anyone (Jason had been ridiculously happy when Hazel had given him the recipe. He always asked to make them whenever Leo was in a baking mood). “I thought you might like to know that. We just added some blue food coloring upon somebody’s—” she shot Percy a glare with no venom behind it—“insistence.”

“It makes everything better, Beth. You should know this by now,” Percy laughed.

Annabeth snorted. “Believe me, I do,” she said, squeezing Percy’s hand.

Leo subconsciously copied her. He jolted a little when Jason squeezed his hand back. Leo couldn’t do much else other than giggle and squeeze back even harder.

Piper noticed, because of course she did. She looked at him. She looked down. She looked back at him. She squinted, and Leo unfortunately knew that squint very well. It was the squint that said “there’s something you’re not telling me but you’re not doing as good a job of hiding it as you think you are.”

Leo didn’t have to pretend to be embarrassed, he already was. He started to realize this trip might be harder than he thought. He gave her a nervous smirk.

She quirked an eyebrow and bumped Reyna’s shoulder with her own, nodding to Leo and Jason’s joined hands. All the while, Jason was chatting with Percy and Annabeth about their senior year of college. The sound of Jason’s voice served as a nice distraction from the antsy feeling of eyes on Leo’s skin.

“One of my professors this year is rumored to be a hardass—oh.” Annabeth paused. Leo didn’t need to look to know what she had seen.

Percy frowned. “What? Beth, what’s—oh.” His grin came back full force and his eyebrows went up so high it looked painful. “What’s up with this?”

Leo fanned his face to keep from combusting, looking just about anywhere but into his friends’ eyes. This is fake, he kept telling himself, stop getting so damn flustered about it. “Tell ’em, Jace,” he ordered.

Jason blushed and did as he was told, smiling hard enough to make his cheeks hurt. “Well,” he drawled, scratching the back of his neck, “we started going out recently.”

Piper punched Leo’s arm. He had barely gotten the phrase “What was that for?” out of his mouth before she wrapped him up in a hug.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” She huffed, still hugging him. “Are best friend privileges not a thing anymore?”

“Don’t blame Leo. I was the one who wanted to wait until we were all here for the party to tell everyone. And besides, we’ve only been together three days,” Jason argued.

Reyna nodded. “Makes sense. Congratulations, by the way.”

Percy clapped Jason on the back. “Yeah, congrats, guys! Proud of you two.”

“Same here,” Annabeth chimed in. “How’d it happen, anyway?”

Jason swung his and Leo’s hands back and forth as he spoke. “Well, we were watching Titanic—”

“The Notebook, dumbass,” Leo corrected.

“We were watching The Notebook, and, well, we…” Jason gestured with his free hand in a way that helped absolutely no one understand the situation.

“He kissed me, I kissed him,” Leo finished for him. “Badda-bing badda-boom, and here we are.”

“What he said.”

“That’s it?” Piper asked. “I mean, you do you, but that’s… surprisingly forward for you, Jason.”

Jason cracked a smile. “You’re right about that, but it was about time, don’t you think?”

Piper laughed. “I do. I really, really do.”

Leo was lucky he had Roman friends, otherwise he and Piper would have gotten lost ten times over on the way to the bar the group was headed to. Well, a bar and restaurant, since Jason didn’t drink and Nico and Hazel couldn’t legally (though Leo had a sneaking suspicion she could outdrink him if she wanted to).

It was dark outside now, streetlights illuminating either side of the road. A figure leaned on the lamp nearest to the bar’s door. They looked like they were waiting for Leo and the others to arrive. For a moment, Leo felt on edge, and was about to bring out a couple hammers from his toolbelt when the figure beamed at them and shouted Jason’s name.

“Thalia!” Jason shouted back, running to his sister and getting scooped up in a mutual bear hug. “When did you get here?”

“Literally, like, ten minutes ago. Me and the rest of the hunters are crashing in Diana’s temple and we just finished setting up. Reyna IM’d and told me you guys were coming here—” she waved her hand dismissively at her surroundings—“so I figured I might as well beat you.”

Leo gave her an awkward wave as he and the others approached. She gave him a scowl that made him regret just about everything that had led him up to this moment. Why did stupid, compensating heterosexual fifteen year old Leo have to flirt with a scary girl who had pledged to never like boys? All the hints had been there to begin with and now they were biting him in the ass. “Hi, Thalia,” he offered, rushing to enter the bar and hoping she wouldn’t follow.

The Fates apparently hated his guts, judging by the way the hunter grabbed him by the arm before he could get in. “You all go ahead. Me and repair boy here need to have a talk.”

Jason angled his head to one side. “Okay? Have fun,” he bidded, kissing Leo’s cheek so casually that Leo almost didn’t notice.

Piper mouthed the words good luck as she ducked into the bar. Leo had a feeling he was going to need it.

“So…” Leo started once he and Thalia were the only ones left.

“You’re dating Jason,” Thalia stated, going straight for the jugular.

Leo twiddled his thumbs, looking down at his hands rather than at Thalia. Her electric blue eyes were even more startling than her brother’s. “I am. How’d you know? Piper didn’t even find out until this afternoon. Was it the kiss, or…?”

“I have my ways,” Thalia claimed.

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Was it Reyna?”

Thalia huffed. “…yeah. And the kiss, too, but like, mostly Reyna.”

“Okay,” Leo said, nodding along. He didn’t know why he was prolonging this interaction when all he wanted to do was get drunk, so he shut his trap.

“Anyways. I just wanted to ask you a few questions,” she asserted, taking out a dagger from inside her leather jacket and examining it like it was a plaything and not a deadly weapon.

She sure knew how to scare a guy. Leo guessed it came from experience.

His eyes widened. “Yeah, uh, yeah, sure, go ahead.”

Thalia took a few steps forward, waving the knife to emphasize her words. “You like him? Jason?”

Leo had to think. Genuinely think. He’d been toying with the idea of liking Jason in a more than just friends way ever since he felt the feeling of Jason’s hand in his and Jason’s lips on his cheek. Especially after seeing that cute, lovestruck look in Jason’s eyes whenever Leo looked at him only to find he had already been looking back. Even if, in the back of his mind, he knew that look was fake.

“Yeah. I do,” Leo answered.

Thalia nodded. It seemed like he had chosen the correct response. “Good. Good. And you aren’t gonna hurt him?”

Leo balked. “What? Why would I—”

“Because if you do,” Thalia cut in, pointing the dagger’s tip at him and fixing him with a withering glare, “your death will be painful.”

He chuckled nervously and went a little cross eyed staring at the knife pointed at his neck. “I feel a little like we went from zero to sixty pretty quick there. Could we maybe be more rational about this—”

“I will set you loose in the woods and hunt you like a deer if you hurt him. That is a promise,” Thalia insisted with a glower.

“Okay,” Leo squeaked. “Honestly kind of flattered you think I could hurt Jason.”

For one thing, Leo was almost laughably weak for Jason. If Jason asked, Leo answered. Jason wanted? Leo got. Jason looked even the slightest bit sad? Leo cracked every joke in the book trying to get that scarred lip to smile. He could never hurt Jason, not in a million years.

Oh, and the guy was built like a bull, so Leo could forget about hurting him physically.

Thalia rolled her eyes. “I was just making sure. Gods forbid a sister worries about her baby brother.”

“Your baby brother is twenty one.”

“Shut up. I have a knife and you don’t,” Thalia said, punching him in the shoulder and shoving him into the bar.

“Ow! Uh, bye,” Leo managed before she slammed the door shut behind him.

Rubbing his sore shoulder, he scanned the crowd for his friends. Luckily, Jason and Frank were pretty easy to spot, given they could pass as giants if they felt the need to. He slid into the barstool next to Jason’s and ordered a glass of whatever he had pointed to on the menu. Piper and Reyna were poring over the drink list next to him, trying to decide what to get. Frank, Hazel, and Nico (who just materialized out of the shadows somewhere along the way) were sitting at a table and sharing a basket of fries and leftover brownies while Percy and Annabeth danced together out on the floor.

“Are you okay? What did Thalia say to you?” Jason asked, eyebrows knitted together like he was trying to solve a particularly hard puzzle.

Leo scoffed. “Aw, it was nothing. Just some trash talk—classic protective older sister stuff.” He got his drink, which turned out to be something piña colada adjacent, and took a big sip.

“Alright, if you say so,” Jason surrendered, still looking concerned. “So, how long do you want to stick around for?”

“You kidding? I just got here, baby, and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon,” Leo swore. He barely realized what he was saying until it was already out in the open. It almost scared him, how easily the word “baby” slipped out of his mouth. He took another swig of his drink.

Later that night, when Jason deemed Leo and Piper a little too drunk to be present in public (AKA once Leo was several maybe-piña coladas deep and started doing bad karaoke to some pop song), the group parted ways. Annabeth and Percy were headed back to their apartment, while Frank and Hazel retreated to their Praetor’s quarters. Leo, Piper, and Jason were walking back to their hotel with Reyna since her building was nearby. Nico was staying at the same place as them, but all he had to do was dissolve into the darkness of night, which was in abundance due to the storm clouds blocking the moon.

Leo had had a fuzzy warm feeling festering in his stomach since he had finished his second cocktail, but he was feeling great. Amazing, even. This was the best he’d ever felt. He was in Elysium. “Woo!” He whooped for no reason.

“Woo,” Piper echoed sleepily, leaning heavily on him for support. Unfortunately, he was also leaning on her for support, so they toppled over.

Or at least, they would have if Jason hadn’t caught them. “Woah, there,” he warned. “Let’s be more careful, huh?”

“Yes, let’s,” Reyna agreed, smiling a little too hard for a completely sober person. She had had one or two drinks, if Leo remembered correctly. Considering Leo could barely remember what he just said, though, this probably wasn’t very reliable information.

“Can’t walk,” Piper whined, reaching for Reyna. “Carry me.”

Reyna obliged, crouching down so she could pick Piper up piggyback style.

Leo watched them curiously. “Uh, yeah, me too. Pick me up, Jace,” he slurred, looping his arms around Jason’s neck.

“Leo,” Jason whispered, trying to keep a squirming, giggly Leo upright, “what are you doing?”

“Not walkin’, that’s for certain. Pick me up,” Leo demanded.

Jason frowned. “Leo…”

Leo frowned right back. “You don’ love me, do you? Piper, Jason doesn’ love me!”

“Boo, you asshole,” Piper called over her shoulder, giving Jason a thumbs down.

“Thanks, Pipes,” Leo shouted back. “See, Pipes would carry me ’f I asked. Unlike you.”

Jason shushed him, but he was smiling, and Leo took that as a win. “Fine, fine, I’ll carry you. Just stop yelling, you’ll get a headache or something.”

“He loves me!” Leo cried, jumping up into Jason’s arms. “You hear that, Piper? He loves me!”

She snored in response.

“Alright, princess, let’s settle down now,” Jason laughed, wrestling Leo into a bridal carry.

Leo settled down indeed, resting his head against Jason’s chest and feeling the calming thump of the blond’s (slightly quicker than normal) heartbeat through his cheek. He closed his eyes and let himself be absorbed by the feeling.

Leo woke up in a dark hotel room to the roar of thunder and the sound of torrential downpour hitting the street. He made a sour face at the window, having been in the middle of a really good nap.

The door creaked open, revealing the large, shadowy figure of someone who was probably Jason, since Leo couldn’t see anybody in the bed opposite him. “Jason?”

“Leo?” Jason questioned. “Why are you still up?”

“Th’ storm was loud.” He tried to prop himself up on one elbow, but it kept slipping out from under him. “Where were you?”

Jason sat down on Leo’s bed, patting his hand. “I was dropping Piper and Reyna off at their places.”

“Mkay.”

Jason sighed and looked out the window. “How are we going to break it to them?” He wondered aloud.

“Break what to them?”

“That we aren’t really dating. I mean, we can’t keep this up forever and we’re bound to see everybody again sometime or another.”

“Oh,” Leo said, drawing it out lazily. That was too many words for him to process at the moment. “We could, uh, stage a breakup. We’ll say it didn’ work out.”

Jason untied his shoes, got up, and laid down in his own bed. They were only a few feet away from each other, though it felt like miles. He was looking back at Leo with glistening blue eyes. There was a wetness to them, which was probably just a trick of the moonlight. Or, that was what Leo made himself believe. “Okay,” Jason relented. His voice broke subtly, like a promise.

Leo let his eyes slide shut. “Are you upset with me?” He asked quietly, allowing his head to collapse against the pillows. He had just said what he thought Jason wanted to hear. “Did I say somethin’ wrong?”

There was the rustle of fabric as Jason settled himself into his bed. “No, Leo,” he claimed. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not upset with you.”

Leo reached out, hand closing around thin air. “’Kay. G’night, Jason.”

“Goodnight, Leo.”

Leo had never gotten why people shared those crazy hangover cures online. Who would ever be desperate enough to drink egg yolk?

That was, he had never gotten it until that morning.

The first thing he noticed after waking up was the pounding in his head. The fluorescent hotel lights seemed like they had a personal vendetta against his eyes. Looking out the window was no better—he guessed Apollo had decided to be an asshole and turn the sun up to 200% brightness. He rolled onto his front and buried his head in the pillow, groaning.

“Morning, sunshine,” Piper greeted, poking him in the cheek.

Leo groaned again. “Why are you so happy? You should be dying, like I am.”

“Nectar,” she stated. She held out a paper cup to him. “Want some?”

He took it eagerly and downed it. It tasted like the cinnamon milk his mama used to make him whenever he couldn’t sleep. “Thanks,” he rasped. “Why are you in my room?”

Piper picked up a pile of her clothes from the floor. “Jason let me in and also I need you to help me decide what to wear.”

“Wear to what?”

She frowned at him. “Don’t tell me you don’t know.”

He sat up and shuffled out of bed, stumbling over to the window and shutting the curtains. “Enlighten me, Pipes. What are we getting ready for?”

“There’s a whole banquet we have to attend in—” she checked her watch—“one hour. Jason didn’t tell you?”

“I have no clue where Jason even is, dude,” Leo huffed, running a hand through his hair. “Although he did tell me to pack something formal.”

“Jason’s in the bathroom.”

“He betrayed me. If I’d known there was gonna be a party, I’d have packed something fancier than a single button up.” Leo flopped down onto Jason’s bed, which had been perfectly made prior to the fact. “I’m lucky I decided against the Hawaiian shirt. It’s really an eyesore.”

“I don’t know why you keep it around, to be honest,” Piper added.

“It’s a charming eyesore,” he protested. “I’d never wear it to a banquet, but it could be a summer thing for sure.”

Piper laughed. “Keep telling yourself that. Anyways, pants or skirt?” She asked, holding up tan slacks and a knee length brown skirt. She had a blouse draped over her shoulder.

He thought for a moment. “Uh… pants?”

She nodded curtly, letting the skirt drop back to the floor and kicking off her shoes.

Leo began digging through his suitcase, searching for the most decent looking things he could find. He secured the button up, but it was all wrinkled. He normally wouldn’t have cared about it, but he just knew Jason was going to be dressed to the nines, so he felt the need to put in a little more effort.

He came up empty when searching for pants that were passable. Curse him for only owning seven copies of the same jeans and cargos. “On second thought, you think I could borrow those pants?” He asked, offering a crooked smile.

“You only have jeans in there, don’t you?” Piper sighed as she peeked over the side of the bed. “Knew it.”

“Pretty please?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, you can borrow the pants. But I want access to your overall collection next time I visit you, you hear me?”

“I don’t get your obsession with them, but sure,” Leo agreed. “Thanks, Pipes!”

“You’re welcome,” she sing-songed, going back to getting dressed.

Leo overturned his suitcase and continued rooting through it. Funny t-shirt, mildly funny t-shirt, honestly kind of cringey t-shirt, blue jeans, blue jeans, cargo pants… no tie. “Uh, Piper,” he began, “any chance you have a tie?”

“No. But I have a bandana,” she offered, chucking the piece of fabric at him. “Figure it out.”

Leo made a face at her over the edge of the bed. “Thanks, I guess. I’ll totally go to this banquet looking like Alan Grant.”

Piper laughed. “Stop pretending you think that’s a bad thing. I’m pretty sure you only watch Jurassic Park for him.”

“Nuh-uh. The dinosaurs are cool, too,” Leo protested.

She laughed again. “Whatever you say, hot shot.”

It was then that Jason decided to emerge from the bathroom, purple toga carefully draped over his Pontifex Maximus tunic. It had intricately embroidered patterns in gold and purple lining the sleeves and collar. A laurel crown sat atop his head, making him look like some kind of god—the god of fine golden hair and clear blue skies, maybe, or the god of people Leo Valdez was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with.

“You look like a dork,” Leo said. What he meant was “you are the most beautiful person on the planet and it is an honor to breathe the same air as you.” Must have been a slip of the tongue.

Jason scrunched up his nose and pinched the bridge of it. “And you’re not even dressed. Let’s save the conversation for once you’re ready.”

“Not beating the dork allegations,” Piper commented as she headed into the bathroom to change.

Once everybody was looking acceptable, the three of them walked with Reyna, Percy and Annabeth to New Rome’s central plaza, where the banquet was being held. Jason and Leo fell behind, hand in hand, while everybody else talked about anything and everything.

“Y’know, I really do like the whole getup.” Leo leaned up to whisper in Jason’s ear. “Even if you do look like a dork.”

Jason laughed softly, covering his mouth behind his hand. “Leo.”

“What? I just said you looked hot.”

“Leo.”

He elbowed Jason in his side. “Joking, I’m joking. Or am I…?”

“Oh my gods, Leo, cut it out,” Jason snorted, letting go of Leo’s hand only to wrap his arm around his waist and pull him flush to his side.

“Get a room!” Percy heckled, acting like he and Annabeth hadn’t been sighted doing the same thing.

“Shut it, Jackson,” Jason retorted, never taking his eyes off Leo.

Somehow, they wound up standing in the midst of the banquet crowd without tripping over their own feet. Leo and Jason were lingering near the edge of the dance floor, unable to get much of anywhere with people constantly coming up to them to mingle, or worse, discuss business. One nameless official or acquaintance after another would start bothering Jason while Leo was just trying to drag his fake boyfriend to the snack table.

Leo was in the middle of one of these endeavors when a group of more familiar faces stopped them. There was Hazel, Frank, and Nico, having arrived separately from the rest of the Seven and company, as well as a couple of Jason’s old Centurion friends.

Jason smiled from ear to ear and went in for a big hug. “Gwen, Dakota, so nice to see you after so long,” he greeted. Leo was horrified to realize he was being gestured at once they were done saying their hellos. For all he pretended to love attention, he really, really didn’t, at least when it came to people he didn’t know all that well. “You already know Leo.”

Leo plastered on a practiced smile and offered a wave. “Hey.” Surrounded by Romans dressed in elegant togas and jewelry, Leo was beginning to feel out of place—like the singular donut in a box of eclairs. “How’s it hanging?”

“All good, dude,” Dakota answered, twirling a goblet of what smelled like fruit punch.

Gwen beamed at him. “Congratulations on getting together! Hazel tells us it was a long time coming.” She laughed good naturedly.

“It was,” Hazel chimed in.

Frank nodded beside her. “Unbearable, really.”

“Like reading seventeen slow burn novels in a row,” Nico added, “and if every time a couple was on the verge of getting together, you had to skip to the next book.”

Gwen’s smile never faltered. “How exactly did it happen?”

Jason rested a had on the small of Leo’s back. “Well, we were watching The Fault in Our Stars—”

“The Notebook.”

“Yes, that. And during the kissing scene, we, y’know, kissed.”

At some point, Dakota had politely excused himself to go grab another serving of punch, but Gwen was still there, smiling widely as ever. “That’s so sweet! How long have you two been in love?”

Leo blanked. Everything he had memorized about him and Jason’s fake love story flew out of his head. “Uh…”

“I’ve loved him for a long time,” Jason started.

If Leo couldn’t remember anything before, he had no hope of recalling it now, because Jason had such a velvety tone to his voice and was looking at Leo like he was what made the world turn.

“It must have been the end of our first quest when I realized it, though,” Jason continued, sighing dreamily. There was this distant look in his eyes, like he wasn’t really aware of what he was saying, just letting the words cascade out of his mouth. “He’s so amazing. He’s smart and funny and brilliant and inventive… I could go on and on. What’s not to love?” A soft smile creeped onto his lips.

Leo brought a hand up to his mouth, biting his fingernails as he giggled like a jackass. He knew it was a bad habit, Jason had told him as much, but he had to have something to do with his mouth otherwise he’d wind up saying something a little too truthful. “I think it’s been since I was building the Argo,” he said, toying with the belt loop of his pants. “You were there for me when not a lot of people made the effort. That, uh, that meant a lot.”

Gwen let out a low whistle. “That’s an awfully long time to be pining after one person. You’re stronger than I.”

“It’s cute,” Hazel observed. “I’m proud of y’all for finally getting together. You deserve each other.”

Leo flushed red. “Thanks,” he gushed at the same time Jason did. They shared a shy glance, lasting only a split second before looking away.

It was only when the sun began to set that the party died down. People started saying their goodbyes and wandering off into town.

“We have time to kill before we have to meet Piper and Reyna for dinner,” Leo pointed out. “I was thinking, maybe you could show me around? I, um, I haven’t really had a chance to see New Rome outside of this trip, and I know you think of this place as your first real home, so, like, I just thought it would be nice—”

“I’d love to!” Jason exclaimed, grabbing Leo’s hand with both of his. “Oh my gods, I need to show you the bakery, and the park, and you’ll love the theater. It’s outdoors. I think they only do productions on Saturdays, though,” he rambled, excitedly leading Leo out of the plaza and out into town.

Leo was only half-listening as Jason talked about all he wanted to show him, distracted by the enthusiastic gleam in the blond’s eyes and the wide, eager grin he wore. The warm shadows cast on him by the orange sun melted off his skin like ice cream on a sidewalk in summer.

“My ambrosia used to taste like the brownies from that place over there,” Jason said, pointing with the hand not entangled with Leo’s to a building across the street. “When we were both centurions, on our days off, me and Reyna would walk there and then help out at the community garden. It’s just down that road.”

Leo nodded, rubbing the back of Jason’s hand with his thumb.

They crossed into another one of New Rome’s many squares, or perhaps a better description would be a miniature park. A huge statue of a historical looking guy stood in the middle, fenced off with bushes planted at the foot of the figure. “This is Diocletian,” Jason explained. “He was my favorite emperor growing up. Nico and I had to fetch his scepter in Salona, remember?”

“You had a favorite emperor growing up?” Leo scoffed. “Scratch that, of course you did.”

Jason pouted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re literally dressed like—” Leo motioned up and down Jason’s body, and looked pointedly at the statue—“like the guy. Uh. Deus ex machina,” he butchered on purpose.

Jason laughed, a loud, full laugh. Leo could feel it in his bones. “Diocletian. And I suppose I see your point.”

Leo grinned. “I knew you’d see the light.”

They continued through downtown, arriving at the theater that was etched into the side of a hill. The seats were empty except for a few people tapping away on their laptops or reading books, scattered amongst the rows of seating. From the bottom, Leo and Jason could see the sun set over the Pacific.

Stars were coming out in the sky above, but Leo wasn’t paying attention. He kicked his legs up onto the bench and rested his head on his knees. He put a hand on top of Jason’s and snuck a glance at the man beside him.

There was practically nobody around. There was nothing, no one, saying they had to keep the act up, yet Jason hadn’t moved his hand away from under Leo’s. In the starlight, he looked as though he was chiseled from marble, elegant and unmoving. Leo closed his fist around Jason’s palm, squeezing. Absentmindedly, Jason threaded their fingers together and squeezed back.

Leo wished their dinner plans would be canceled.

Leo wished they could pretend forever.

Leo wished tomorrow would never come.

Tomorrow came anyway, because the universe hated Leo Valdez.

He blinked himself awake to the sound of curtains being opened and the feeling of warm sun hitting his skin. Grumbling, Leo threw the covers over his head, curling up under the blanket.

There was a chuckle from outside Leo’s cocoon, getting louder as Jason approached. Then, the sheets were lifted a sliver, letting Jason peek through along with rays of golden sunlight. “Good morning,” Jason greeted, probably smiling a really nice smile that Leo unfortunately couldn’t see.

Leo hummed. “Mmh,” he responded eloquently.

Jason lifted the blankets higher, folding them back over so that they were no longer covering Leo’s head. “We’ve gotta pack up now.”

“Why?” Leo whined, trying to scoot back under the covers. “It’s so early.”

“It’s 11:00. And we’re meeting everybody for brunch in half an hour.”

“Can’t you do it for me?” Leo pleaded, fixing Jason with his best doe eyes.

Jason shook his head mockingly. “No, I’m afraid not,” he cooed. “I’m already done with my luggage, so I’m gonna go take a shower and change out of my pajamas. And you—” he reached out to poke Leo on the nose—“are going to clean up the clothes you threw everywhere yesterday.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” Leo huffed, shuffling off of the bed, grabbing all the clothing he had rooted through the day before. Picking up a sock, he aimed for his still open suitcase and inexplicably landed it right in the middle (considering he normally couldn’t land an arrow on a target, it was nothing short of a miracle). He was about to celebrate when he realized there was nobody else to celebrate with him, at which point he pouted and folded a pair of pants without thinking about it.

Leo never really had to think about what he was doing with his hands, especially not when the task was as simple and repetitive as folding clothes. This gave him plenty of time to think. Unfortunately, thinking was exactly what he had been trying to avoid the whole trip.

Stacking the clothes that would comprise his outfit for the day next to his suitcase, his pesky mind floated back to the topic of Jason. He rifled through his memories of the past few days, smiling and giggling to himself when his favorites came back to him. Jason kissing him (however performatively) on the cheek, Jason looking at him like he hung the stars, Jason taking him by the hand and whisking him around the city he grew up in.

A distinct sort of dread wormed its way into Leo’s heart when he remembered it was all supposed to end as soon as they returned home.

Before his self-pitying ass could marinate in the apprehension any longer, the rainbowy haze of an Iris Message appeared before him. Piper’s crisp voice came through. “Hello? Hello? Are you gonna be here soon?”

Leo stuck his tongue out at the image of her sitting on a bench in front of a fountain.

“Uncalled for,” she grumbled, frowning.

He sighed dramatically. “Jason’s making us pack before we go,” he answered, reluctantly serious.

“Well, pack faster, dummy, I wanna get a breakfast omelette and this restaurant only sells them up until noon. You and your boyfriend better haul your butts up here, or you’ll be sorry,” Piper menaced, pointing a threatening finger at him.

Leo meant to say something funny. He really did. He meant to hold up his hands in surrender and tell her they’d be there in twenty.

But what he really said was, “He’s not actually my boyfriend.”

Her jaw dropped. She started a single sentence multiple times, each time not being able to finish, presumably because of the sheer disbelief that had been lodged in her windpipe.

Leo scratched the back of his neck. “Listen, I—”

“You mean to tell me you never got together?” She screeched. A few bystanders in the background of the Iris Message whipped their heads toward her at the sound.

“…yes,” he admitted.

“Leo, you idiot,” Piper cried, slumping down in her seat. “You’ve been pretending you’re boyfriend-boyfriend this whole trip? Why must you torture yourself like this?”

“It was Jason’s idea!” Leo defended, knowing full well he was dead wrong. “And besides, it didn’t seem like a bad idea when we thought of it. But then I started noticing things I’d never noticed before, so now I’ve fallen head over heels onto my stupid, stupid face. And after today, we won’t have an excuse to pretend anymore, and I’m…”

“Emotionally incompetent?” Piper finished for him.

“I was gonna say sad, but yeah, that too.”

Piper buried her face in her hands, leaning forward. “Okay. Okay. I’m gonna regret asking you this, but why don’t you just tell him that you don’t want it to end?”

Leo began fiddling with the hem of his sleep shirt’s sleeve. “But what if he doesn’t like me back?” He asked shyly.

She sighed heavily, making the people around her give her weird looks again. “I knew that was too simple of a plan for you. Ugh,” she groaned. “I’m playing my daughter of Aphrodite card now.”

He gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would, for the good of you and Jason’s future,” she barked. She composed herself before continuing. “As a daughter of Aphrodite, I can say with 100% confidence Jason is madly in love with you. It’s not even funny at this point. It’s embarrassing, is what it is.”

Leo huffed and crossed his arms. “How would you even know—”

“You’re doubting me? That’s a bold choice for somebody who’s only ever had one real romantic relationship.”

“Says you, with your whopping number of three, one of which was mythological comphet. By all means, maestro, carry on.”

She started to bite back, but she thought better of it. “Point taken. But Leo, you have to trust me when I say that Jason is down bad for you. Like, genuinely whipped—”

“Oh my god, hi Jason!” He interrupted, shooting Piper a nervous look before batting a hand through the Iris Message to dispel it. “Uh, sorry, she just wanted to know if we were heading down to brunch soon. Haha.”

Jason smiled and ran a hand through his hair, damp from his quick shower. He had pulled on his sky blue hoodie with the sleeves cut off, dappled with patches of embroidery from when Leo and Piper had tried to learn the craft. He had on a white t-shirt under it with light blue jeans, too. Leo began scrambling towards the bathroom, starting to feel a little underdressed.

He snagged the clothes he had put next to his suitcase—one of those nonsensical tees he and Percy got each other on holidays (this particular one said “I out pizza’d the hut and all I got was this stupid t-shirt” in roughly one thousand different Microsoft Word fonts) and a pair of his favorite cargo pants.

Before he went to change, though, he laid out the clothes on his bed and turned back to Jason. “Uh, Jason,” he stammered, tracing an imaginary pattern on the bedspread, “can we talk for a second?”

“Sure!” Jason answered, chipper. “What do you want to talk about?”

“It’s about the act we’ve been putting on for the past few days,” Leo muttered, half hoping Jason wouldn’t hear so that when he asked him to speak up, he could just say it was nothing like the coward he was.

But Jason just nodded, frustratingly stoic and upsettingly unfazed.

“What if… what if it didn’t have to be an act?” Leo gritted out. He got the sudden urge to fold in on himself and condense into a black hole just so he wouldn’t have to see Jason’s reaction.

Jason was standing against the doorway to the hall, a curious pinch in his brow. “What do you mean?” He asked, leaning forward like he was intrigued.

Leo cleared his throat. “I mean, like, we’ve been pretty convincing with the whole boyfriends thing, and in the process of fooling everybody else… we kind of fooled me, too?”

Jason was silent. That was the only thing Leo noticed about him, since he was looking anywhere and everywhere but Jason. Leo continued so he didn’t have to listen to the uneasy quiet that permeated the room any longer. “It’s just that, uh, and feel free to tell me I’ve radically misread this whole situation, but is there something between us? Or am I just delusional? ’Cause there’s a very good chance I am, I think.”

Looking back up, Leo found that Jason was wringing his hands together like he was trying to warm them up. Leo panicked a little bit.

Okay, you got him, he was panicking more than a little bit. He was panicking a lot. “Come on, man, say something. Please? We could always go back to normal if you want. Just, please, tell me what’s going on inside that brain of yours.” He attempted to laugh the awkwardness off and failed miserably.

But finally, Jason walked right up to him and scooped him up in a big old hug, squeezing him close and lifting him ever so slightly off the floor. Even though he was being squeezed to death, Leo was reasonably sure his heart became a ballerina in that moment, performing pirouette after pirouette in unbridled glee.

When Jason set him down, he still kept Leo pressed close to his chest, refusing to let him go. He buried his face in Leo’s hair, breathing him in and sighing him out with closed eyes. “Everything I said about loving you yesterday was true,” Jason confessed. It was almost too quiet to hear, but the words fell into Leo’s ears anyways, sounding like nothing less than a symphony.

Leo was currently occupied with trying not to faint like a frail Victorian woman struck with galloping consumption. “Really?”

Jason pulled away, grabbing Leo’s chin gently and tilting it up. He was smiling wide. “Yeah. Really.”

“Good. Good,” Leo said, grinning. “I’m also really ‘yeah, really’ about you.”

Jason bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “Oh yeah? Well, I’m really really ‘yeah, really’ about you.”

“Oh yeah? Really? I’m so ‘yeah, really’ about you that they should put it in a museum. The museum of dorks who are super duper in love with blonds. I’m gonna be right next to Flynn Rider from Tangled, and visitors are gonna read the little plaque about me next to my portrait, and they’re gonna be like ‘wow, this dude was really ‘yeah, really’ about this Jason guy.’”

Jason was shaking with laughter by the time Leo was done. Eventually, he shook his head fondly. “Leo,” he implored, “would you do me the honor of being my boyfriend? For real this time?”

Leo’s grin grew. “Yeah. Really.”

Jason laughed again, pitching his head back while Leo rested his chin on his chest. When Jason looked back down, he was practically right in Leo’s face. The kiss they shared was made as simple as just leaning forward, closing the space.

It was quite possibly the best thing Leo had ever experienced, and he’d experienced Elysium (and sure, it was only for a few moments while he had waited for the Physician’s Cure to kick in, but that was more than most alive people could say). Humming against Jason’s lips, Leo wrapped his arms around Jason’s neck and tugged on his hood just to have something to do with his hands. He played with the fraying edges of the fabric, then sliding down to mess with the strings, tying them into a bow just to untie them, over and over. His heart was beating out of his ribs and he could have sworn on the Styx that it jumped up and hit the roof of his throat, accompanied by the ring of a triumphant bell.

They broke apart after several millennia, or ten minutes, or maybe it had only been ten seconds. Leo couldn’t tell, but he didn’t care as long as they got to do it again soon. Somehow, they had wound up on the hotel couch, pressed against its arm, both breathing heavily and beaming at one another. They spent a humiliating amount of time just absorbing the other’s presence before Leo spoke. “I have to get up and change,” he stated.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “You do.”

It was then Leo became acutely aware of Jason’s arms looped around his waist. “Are you gonna let me go or what?” He snorted, playing with the hair at the nape of Jason’s neck.

“Sure,” Jason said. He didn’t make any effort to move. Leo didn’t want him to.

Things were going pretty well for Leo Valdez considering he had died ten years ago. It was only for a little while, but his friends still got touchy when he joked about it. Maybe in another decade, then.

But the present was much more important. He had long since finished his degree in engineering, he had opened his own garage with his siblings Nyssa and Jake the past year, he lived in a comfortable if small townhome, and just about every night he got to go to sleep next to the hottest guy in the world. Piper still lived in Oklahoma, but thanks to recent innovations in the field of demigod technology (made by none other than the esteemed Hephaestus cabin), she was only a phone call away.

The ten year anniversary of the Giant War’s end had warranted an even bigger celebration than the fifth, so it was only natural to hold the festivities at Camp Half Blood. “Say what you will about the Greeks, but they can throw one hell of a party,” Reyna had said earlier that evening with a sarcastic grin. She had then gone back to cheering Percy on as he chugged a bowl of fruit punch.

Once the younger campers were ushered off to bed, it wasn’t much longer until most everybody else retired, too. The partying was going to continue tomorrow morning, Leo knew that much for sure. But he was looking forward to waking his Roman friends up with noisemakers in their faces, so he didn’t tell them.

The rest of the Seven, as well as Reyna and Nico, had retreated to the Big House for a movie marathon, which was why Leo found himself cuddled up against Jason on the Big House’s loveseat, watching Pride and Prejudice. It was the third movie of the night, right after Jumanji and Singing in the Rain. Frank had transformed into a french bulldog halfway through the second movie, falling asleep on one of the million throw pillows. Annabeth and Percy were seated at the bar while Reyna searched for the champagne glasses and Piper tried her hand at making brownies. Where she had gotten the ingredients from, nobody knew, but there was a decent chance they’d be inedible. Nico was asleep on the floor. Jason had asked if they should move him to the guest room upstairs, but Hazel had shaken her head from where she was sitting upside down on the couch. “He likes the floor,” she claimed. She was right; Nico looked impossibly comfortable sprawled out on the rug.

Mr. Darcy was about to propose to Elizabeth Bennett for the first time when the clock struck midnight, making Leo sit up in realization. “Oh!” He yelped. Piper jumped in the kitchen, making her drop her spatula on the floor and grumble as she went to disinfect it. “Jason, that means it's officially our five year anniversary.” He placed a peck on Jason’s cheek, giggling delightedly when Jason returned his affection with a kiss on the lips.

Annabeth furrowed her brow and swirled her wine glass in a loop, which Leo caught out of the corner of his eye. “I thought your anniversary was four days ago,” she pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

Leo was about to take a sip of his whiskey when she said that, but he promptly spat it back out. Only a dribble of it made it back into the cup. The rest ended up in places that were going to make Mr. D yell at him later. He began coughing, but he recovered quickly, and then he started laughing.

Thing was, he and Jason had never told anyone besides Piper about the fact that they hadn’t actually been together for the first few days they had claimed to be. “It was only fake for two days! Nobody’s gonna care if we tell them,” Leo argued when Jason brought it up on their ride home after New Rome. They had already dropped Piper off at her house, so it was just them and Festus, the wind whistling through their hair and catching on the fabric of their clothes. “And Piper’s not gonna tell anybody. Except for maybe Reyna. And Reyna’s not in the habit of gossipping, so, like, it’s not like anyone we don’t want to know will know, y’know?”

Jason nodded with some difficulty, but the difficulty might’ve just been because had refused to take his head out of the crook of Leo’s neck. “You have a point,” he had said, not before pressing several ticklish kisses to the parts of Leo’s skin he had access to.

“I’m gonna crash this dragon if you keep doing that,” Leo had complained.

“Good to know,” Jason had responded, stopping with a grin that said he would tuck that information away for later.

Back in the present, Leo only laughed harder when he saw the bashful blush Jason had developed. “Uh,” his boyfriend croaked. Leo’s sides hurt.

“Guys, does anybody know where the champagne glasses are?” Reyna interjected.

“So. Uh. I don’t know how to tell you this,” Jason stuttered against a backdrop of Leo’s laughter. “But you guys remember the first two days of the five year party, right?”

Annabeth’s eyebrow climbed higher on her forehead. Predictably, Leo guffawed. He may have had too much of the spiked punch. “Yes?” She prompted.

“And,” Jason continued with a gulp, “you remember how we said we’d gotten together a few days before?”

Leo tried to stop laughing, but then Piper made a face at him like they were sharing an inside joke when he tried to slide back onto the loveseat. His laugh wasn’t loud, this time, just silent as he rocked back and forth.

“Yes,” Annabeth confirmed. The corner of her mouth quirked downwards.

Jason brought his hand to his forehead, rubbing at it exasperatedly. “Well, we lied. We hadn’t gotten together. We were just friends.”

Percy whipped around in his chair so fast that he almost fell over. “Huh? What? Wait, what?” He wiped the brownie batter off his face with a paper towel Annabeth handed him. “You… huh?”

Leo rolled off of the loveseat and back onto the floor, wheezing.

“Seriously,” Reyna interrupted, “where are the champagne glasses?”

“Were—are you together now?” Percy asked incredulously instead of answering her.

“Yes!” Jason cried. “Yes, we’re together now. It was only an act for two days! Gods, Percy, why on Earth would we have continued it for this long if it wasn’t real? And I literally asked you what flowers I should get him for Valentine’s Day last year. Dude.” He shook his head.

Percy huffed, grabbing the chocolate covered spatula from Piper and flicking it at Jason. Piper squawked and hit him in the head with it when he handed it back. She hissed curses under her breath as she washed it off once again.

Jason, now with a face and shirt speckled with brownie batter, looked down at Leo, who was wiping tears from his eyes. “I told you we should’ve told them earlier. Maybe then this—” he pointed down at his stained shirt, then to the coffee table which had taken the brunt of Leo’s spit take—“wouldn’t have happened.”

“You did not tell me we should tell them. I believe your exact words were ‘Leo, my love, light of my life, apple of my eye, are you of the persuasion that we should inform our dear friends of our little fib?’”

Jason chuckled, cleaning his batter-covered glasses on the non-batter-covered shirt. “I did not say it like that.”

“But you didn’t tell me we should tell them, either,” Leo teased. He didn’t scoot back onto the loveseat, instead deciding Jason’s lap was much more comfortable. He wasn’t wrong. Leo tapped his cheek expectantly. “Do I get a kiss for being right?”

“No,” Jason drawled, “but you do get a kiss for being the man I love.” He leaned in, grinning.

Leo knocked his forehead against Jason’s. “You’re such a dork.” With that, he closed the distance, meeting him in the middle for a kiss that was just as good as the first. It seemed like they were the only two people in the world for a moment, until…

“Guys, where the hell are the champagne glasses?”