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fireandseaweed · 7 years ago

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Pompeii By Bastille Plays In The Background (flashback) || Abigail and Percy

A flashback to after the battle of Manhattan, where Percy finds Abby in less than a fit state.

It was a weird feeling. Almost like an emptiness in the bottom of his stomach? Something like that. Not quite that. But nearly. Almost. As Percy stumbled through New York, searching for the demigod survivors of the battle of Manhattan, he couldn’t help but feel remorse for every life that had been lost in defence of Gods that had until now, yet to claim their children. It was luck of the draw whether your parent cared enough to let you know that you were theirs. Staring at a son of Ares, he yawned and gave them a tired smile. “We’ll give it one more lap Ethan,” he said as he strode through the magically empty streets of New York, “I think we’ve got everyone.” He turned a corner and gazed at some debris that had fallen, it was surrounded by golden dust and Percy wondered how many monsters had been killed. He hoped that no demigods had been caught in it.

First of all, fuck. Second of all, ouch. Third of all, fuck this goddamn battle and anyone who had anything to do with it. Unfortunately, this included her. Abigail was facing the sky. This deep into New York, you couldn’t see the stars… not normally, anyway. The mortals had all vacated the city as if hypnotized, and Abby was certain her mother had had something to do with it. The demigods and monsters and creatures hadn’t been in a mood to occupy the buildings and turn on the lights, so, for the first time in what Abigail suspected was a really long time, she could actually see the stars. The moon. Her mother was the goddess of the dark, so, she supposed she at least had a nice view in her final moments, and she was dying in her mother’s arms. Very poetic, if she could ignore how concerning the absence of feeling in her leg was, the feeling of dried blood on her skin, the cold, the smell of rotting flesh, the despair, the smoke in her lungs, the dust in her face, and the sensation of unbearable thirst and the million glass shards in her throat. “Does this count as ‘going down swinging’?” Abigail asked no one in particular, voice coming out rough and low. Her vocal cords decided to fuck off what felt like hours ago, when she’d realized no one was hearing her screams. Or maybe she was asking her mother. Or the other corpses surrounding her. Who the hell knows, cause she sure as hell didn’t. In any case, this probably counted as “going down pathetic, alone and crazy”. That those words described her current state right now, she was certain.

Percy was about to leave when he heard Ethan say something about going down swinging. “That’s a bit intense,” he said turning around to see Ethan moving towards the debris. It was a cold night all things considered. It was meant to be the middle of the summer after all and yet there was a chill in the air. Almost as if New York was dropping a few degrees for everyone who’d left the mortal world that evening. It wasn’t until he was a few feet away that he spotted her. He’d gotten to know her a little while they were at Camp together, a daughter of Hecate called Abigail Morgan. She’d chose their side of the Titans and that meant the world to Percy. “Abigail?” he asked, rushing forward and fumbling for his back. “Fuck, Ethan, go find some help, Abigail?” he was ripping the zip down on his pack and dragging out a heavy water canteen, unscrewing the top and handing it across to the daughter of Hecate. “How long have you been stuck here?” he asked with worry in his eyes as the son of Ares sprinted away in search of help.

Distantly, Abigail heard someone calling her name. I’m hearing voices now?, she thought, Or are the dead coming for me? Mom is the goddess of necromancy and ghosts usually like me, but… There was someone all up on her face, out of the sudden. Abigail startled, which caused her body to jerk, which brought the pain all back up. She opened her mouth to scream, but the pain garbled up in her already torn throat, and all that came out was a breathless whine. Once it had ebbed away did her vision begin coming back to normal. It took way too long to connect the face hovering so far away above her to a name, and, finally, a person. “Percy”, she gasped out. Blindly, her hand shot out, gloved fingers digging into his arm, maybe his leg, she wasn’t paying attention. “Is it done? Is it over? Is he dead?”

Honestly, Percy wasn’t quite sure what to do in this scenario. Unfortunately he wasn’t a child of Apollo and although he knew the theory behind it and had even carried it out a few times, he wasn’t the most confident. First things first however, he needed to try and get some of this rubble off of her. “Woah, calm down,” he said firmly as he grabbed a large chunk of rock and set it down on the floor, “It’s over, we won, I’ll tell you all about it once we’ve managed to get you out from all of this shit.” He grunted as he hauled another piece of debris away from her, knowing that he’d need more than human strength to get her out. “I … uh … are you hurt?” he asked concerned as he took a deep breath and pushed more debris out of the way. “You should drink something,” he said pushing the canteen her way, “I’m sure you’re dehydrated.”

The rush of adrenaline was bringing things back into focus, but thinking and speaking was still hard. He disappeared from view (granted, her eyesight was way off, partially because her glasses were MIA and partially because… well), and Abigail began panicking again. They had never been the best of friends, exactly, but she’d always enjoyed his company and, most importantly, she wasn’t alone, so he was her favorite person in the world right now. Not having him within her immediate view had panic come bubbling back up again. “Wait”, she mumbled, “wait, where’re you…” Then he was back, thank the almighty gods, the relief was so great Abigail might have wept with it.“Is he dead?” she asked again, every word dragging sandpaper inside her throat. “Percy, is he dead?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere chicka,” Percy did his very best to reassure Abby. After all this was probably the most terrifying moment of her life. Percy knew full well how awful these things could be. He’d experienced too many of these situations. It had only been hours ago that Thalia Grace herself had been pinned beneath a column in Olympus. “Yes, he’s dead.” Percy fell silent. Luke had always been a difficult figure for him to address, and yet now that he was gone alongside Kronos he should’ve been happy. Instead he found himself struggling to accept that it was all over. “Everything’s fine, we’ve won, we’ll get you out of here, Ethan will be back with help in no time.” Percy had reached a slight problem, there was no more rubble that he could move on his own. Everything else was too big and heavy for him to manage, if only there was some water that he could use to help. “Are you hurt?” he asked again. “I need to know as much information as possible so we know how to move this.”

Dead. Oh, thank Zeus, finally, that disgrace called Kronos was back deep into Tartarus where he belonged, whereas Luke… Abigail had always admired him from afar, so knowing he was gone, even despite everything he’d done… Percy was speaking again, and Abigail stared at him for a moment, waiting until her brain caught up. Think, Abigail, you’re hurt. Just tell him what’s hurting. Think, you stupid bitch. “Legs”, she gasped out. Just list them. “Legs. Head. Neck. Ribs. I can’t feel my legs, I can’t…”

Percy listened intently to everything that Abby had to say as he stuck a piece of metal under a large chunk of rubble and pushed the cement off of her carefully. There was only a single piece of rubble pinning her in place now. But he’d have to wait until Ethan returned, it wouldn’t be long now. Abby not being able to feel her legs was concerning. He would hate for some permanent damage to set in but there was no way of knowing until they got her out of here. “Okay, stay calm, breath…” he rummaged around in his pack once more and grabbed a pack of ambrosia, breaking squares off and handing them to Abby. “Ethan!” he said as his friend returned with several more demigods. “Help me get this off of her.” They rushed forward, ready to haul rubble off of her. A second later and Percy was pulling her free. The rubble crashed to the floor a second later and Percy had to admit, things looked worse than he thought.

The ambrosia helped, and Abigail munched on it as quickly as she could, swallowing before she’d even finished chewing. The pain in her head began to ebb, the world started to become clearer, the thoughts flowed more easily. Unfortunately, this meant the shock was beginning to wear off, which brought the feeling back to her legs. Now that she was starting to actually think again, she tried to lift the rubble with magic, but it wouldn’t budge, her mind too slow with pain and shock and fear and grief to focus. Not to mention, the slightest strain on her body made her want to scream. When Ethan arrived, Abigail honestly could have kissed him. The broken pillar was finally lifted off of her and out of the way. Blood began circulating in her legs again, the smell of rotten flesh hit her. Abigail lifted her head, took one look at her lower body and turned her head to the side to retch. Both of her legs were mangled messes, flesh, muscle and skin ripped away to reveal bone. They were twisted into unnatural angles, her pants soaked through with so much blood it was hard to tell what was cloth and what wasn’t. All she could feel was the air on the inside of her muscles, the sensation of pins and needles everywhere down her waist, and absolutely nothing on her feet. If she was lucky, it was shock. If not, her spine had been severed. Abigail vomited again on the pavement, but nothing except a little bit of ambrosia came out, along with bile and saliva. Wheezing, crying, every inhale, bringing back the accentuated smell of necrosis. Abigail kept puking and crying until she was light-headed, and nothing but bile came out.

Honestly, Percy thought that Abigail did pretty well with everything. All things considered at least. If he had been in that state then he didn’t know that he would even be conscious, let alone vomiting. As they brought a stretcher over, Percy helped them move Abby across to the stretcher and draped a blanket carefully over her legs so that she didn’t have to see the mess that her legs were in. “I know things don’t look great,” Percy said as they lifted her and he moved with her, “But you’re in the best possible hands. These guys work magic. Like you.” Children of Apollo were swarming her now, moving her into the back of the Camp Half Blood van and setting up IVs of nectar, saline solution and even apparently prepping blood incase she needed it. “We’re taking you back to Camp so that they can take care of you.”

Abigail clung to consciousness out of sheer stubbornness, certainly not for her own sake. Anyone messing around with her body while she was out made her anxiety spike, and that panic gave her the strength to remain awake, even if she past screaming at this point, just wheezing and wishing it was over. Bless that idiot Percy. He was still talking, running his mouth, and everyone knew he could talk himself into trouble. They weren’t close, Abigail wasn’t close to anyone, but he’d always been nice, and, right now, he was being kind. On top of already having saved her life. She couldn’t see him through the fog of pain, nor could she understand exactly what he was saying, let alone verbalize her gratitude, so she just scrambled with her gloves until one of them was off, reached out blindly towards him and gripped his arm. Information came, as it always did, except, this time, she didn’t bother blocking it out. It always required a tremendous amount of focus when she was well, let alone now. Forcing past the Mom, blue food, Annabeth’s eyes, Grover’s curly hair, Luke stabbing himself, Thalia’s electrifying blue eyes, Annabeth calling him ‘seaweed brain’ with a smile, Abigail opened the door from her end. She did her best to separate the enormous gratitude she felt swelling in her chest, and push it towards him through their brief connection, before pulling her hand back. There was the sting of something in her arm, and everything started to become fuzzy again, but the good kind. The pain receded, and Abigail sighed in relief. “That’s the good shit, innit”, she slurred, head rolling to the side.

Honestly, despite the crowd of Apollians that attended to Abigail, Percy felt in that moment like he was all alone with her. A feeling of gratitude overtook him and in that moment he understood plainly how thankful Abigail was. It was funny. It was that feeling that sent him silent for a moment before Abigail somehow managed to slur something and Percy was right back on the gas, heading straight towards Verbal Diarrhea-ville. Or town. Something like that. “Yeah these guys really know what they’re doing,” he said as they carried her gently into the van and placed her down. He heard doors slam and he knew that they would begin their drive to Camp Half Blood soon. All he could hope was that this wasn’t all a little too late. Had she been out there too long on her own? Had there been too much damage? Too much blood loss?

When Abigail awoke, it was slowly, her eyelids heavy and her mouth dry. The bed sheet underneath her fingers brought unwanted, unwelcome scenes to her mind, of people sobbing and dying on that very bed. Propelled by her despair to get away from those memories, before her limbs were even fully coherent, Abigail planted both hands on the mattress and shoved.There was a short-lived moment of nothingness, then she was hitting the floor. It sent a shockwave of pain up her body, doing her chest and legs, and Abigail screamed. Still, it was preferable. Red hair fanning all around her, the world spun, but, at least, the floor had less memories attached to it. Fumbling, she opened the drawer to the nigthstand in front of her, hoping to find gloves -- her own or surgical, it didn’t matter.

It had been a long day and when they’d found Abby the sun was still burning bright in the sky. Now it had dipped beneath the hills of Camp Half Blood, casting a slight orange sheen on the light that filtered through the blinds. Percy had been in the infirmary since their return to Camp. Abigail’s welfare was weighing heavily on his mind. He hadn’t left since Chiron, Will Solace and several of the other Appollians had rushed her through to a treatment room and begun working on her wounds. They’d delivered the news of the amputation of her leg a little while ago. So when she’d come crashing to the ground Percy had sprung out of his seat. Slipping his Nintendo DS into his pocket mid Pokémon battle as he hurried to check on Abby. From her position, prone on the floor he could see her scrabbling for something and he quickly moved to her side. “Hey, Abby!” he said trying to get her attention as he reached into the drawer and pulled it out of the nightstand before her, placing it in front of her so she could see it’s entire contents, “what are you looking for?”

There was someone at her, out of the freakin’ blue. Abigail aimed a punch towards the voice, but missed by quite a pathetic gap. Thank goodness she did, too, cause she recognized him a moment later. “Percy? What the --” Inside the drawer, she spotted them. Finally. Abigail shoved her hand into the drawer, and snapped the gloves onto her hands. They weren’t as thick, nor as cute as any in her collection, but they helped. Breathing heavily, she held onto the nightstand, blinking the black spots away from her vision. She finally looked down at herself, and froze. Her right leg was a mess of pins and dry cast. The left one was bandaged halfway down her knee, at which point, it simply disappeared. Abigail reached out, touching the area around, and in front of her leg, searching for the rest of it. No matter where she touched, how much she knocked her knuckles into the floor, she couldn’t find her leg. “Percy”, she said, flatly, voice entirely emotionless. “What. Happened?”

Percy ducked out of the way of Abigail’s flailing limbs and took a moment to shuffle backwards. “Woah, woah,” he said trying his best to keep a low, even and calming voice. It was important to him that she was supported the bes that she possibly could. This was not going to be easy. “I’m really sorry,” he finally said, his voice barely a whisper against the silence of the infirmary, “you were pinned for, well, hours at least….” he paused to lick his lips, a hand scratching at it’s palm nervously. “I don’t know the specifics, Chiron and Will shall be back to explain it soon, but what I do know is that by the time we brought you in there was too much damage to your leg and they did everything they could but it was this the only thing they could do, I’m so sorry.”

Abigail sat, in silence, staring at her leg for what felt like a lifetime. This was the only thing they could do. Abigail remembered the smell of rotting flesh when the pillar was moved off of her, and shuddered with the realization. “I’m… I’m a cripple”, she said, defeatedly. “I’m a cripple now, is that it? Nothing they could do?” Abigail sighed, dragged her hands over her face. “Of course. That’s…” with a pained little laugh, she ran her hands down her own hair, trying to smooth it down and out of the way. “Of course. Of course that happened. Sorry, I… I’m a mess.”

Pausing for a second, Percy considered his next words carefully, there was nothing easy to say about this. “I’m so sorry.” He swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat, guilt building in his stomach. This was the price they paid for defeating Kronos. Someone else had lost their leg while he remained invulnerable, basically invincible. It seemed wrong. “There are lots of options, the Hephaestus and Apollo kids are already in the forges working on a special prosthetic for you, it’ll fit like a charm and work perfectly, then we’ll get someone for you to talk to….” he paused, “a therapist or a friend or someone…” he sighed gently. “You’ve got the whole camp at your back, we’re all here for you, here to help you. Anyway we can.”

All Abigail thought to say, for a long time, was, “That’s kind of them.” She turned her head to look at the bed, examined the white sheet. “This is probably the one and only time I’ll ever say this in my life…” her eyes went back to meet his. If she was gonna be weak, might as well have guts about it. “But I might need help getting back up on the bed. If you don’t mind.”

Swallowing gently, Percy looked into her eyes and nodded sympathetically. “We’ve got you,” he said quietly before wrapping an arm around her back and positioning himself next to her weaker side. “We’ll go on three,” he explained as he grasped her firmly, ready to take her weight as she adjusted to the movement, “three, two …” he paused for a second before speaking again, “...one.” With that he squatted upwards slowly but powerfully, helping Abby lift to a standing position. Standing still for a moment, he helped her allowing her to put as much of as little as she needed. “I won’t tell anyone about this,” he said sincerely, “it can be our secret.”

Abigail’s arm went around his shoulders, careful to avoid any skin-on-skin contact. When he stood, pulling her along, Abigail held back a whine of pain. She clambered up on the bed with no grace at all, face white, then the bare skin of her forearm brushed against his, causing her to jerk away with a gasp. “Shit”, she cursed, rubbing at her arm. “Yeah. I know you won’t tell.” Abigail lied down, breathing heavily. “Starting to think I can count on you, Percy. Not sure if I like that. But… thank you, anyway.”

#f&gwriting #para #p: abigail #chatzy para #chatzy #pompeii by bastille plays in the background #flashback #ableism tw #for the cripple thing #gore tw #blood tw #in a medical context

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fireandseaweed · 7 years ago

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Unity Feast || Group Chatzy

Roman’s and Greeks gather together to celebrate their unity. Piper loses her purse and the night has a dramatic ending.

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#unity feast #chatzy #para #chatzy para #f&gwriting #p: everyone

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fireandseaweed · 7 years ago

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Baby It’s Cold Outside || Jason and Percy

Jason and Percy leave the unity feast early, missing the Dominus’ announcement, but they make their own discoveries that evening or early morning.

The Unity Feast had been, well, all told it had been mildly successful. Nobody had killed anyone, nobody had really done anything to shatter the fragile peace and Jason had gotten back to his apartment at a decent hour. Which was when the trouble had really started. Sleep eluded him for many reasons these days; phantom pain in his eyes, his anxiety, nightmares… so he was old comrades with insomnia. But tonight he had really been hoping for a good night's rest. Tiptoeing carefully past Percy’s closed doors he shucked off the vest and loosened his tie, letting the dark fabric hang loose around his muscular neck. He sat on the couch, whisky soda on the table in front of him and booted up his thin MacBook. Might as well get some homework done if he was going to be awake anyway. The clock on the microwave blinked a troublesome “2:30” at him but he shook it off. He could sleep I’m tomorrow. If sleep came for him at all.

After everything that had happened in the last few hours Percy had to admit that he should’ve been tired. It had been a good time, but a long time. His feet were sore from brand new dress shoes that he’d yet to adequately break in. He’d gotten home before Jason and passed out right away, or at least that was the plan. Rather he’d been lying there for a little while when he’d heard Jason return home, and a little while later he had given up on sleep all together, quickly rummaging through his bag and pulling out his small wooden box where he kept all of his paraphernalia. Pulling out a compact grinder, he quickly added and ground a sizeable bud of weed down to a relatively fine grain. Pulling out a pouch of tobacco, he layered a rolling skin with it and carefully poured the grains of weed on top of it. Placing a final layer of tobacco over the weed, Percy rolled a roach and tucked the paper before licking and sealing his joint. Stepping out of his room, he stumbled pretty tipsy still into the kitchen. Smiling as he used a pencil to pack the joint down before tying down the top. Looking up he finally noticed Jason. “Oh, hey man, couldn’t sleep?”

Jason was intent on the assignment when he heard Percy’s bedroom door open and watched his best friend stumble towards the kitchen with a joint in his hand. It took Percy a minute to notice jason sitting on the couch but when he did, Jason waved with a lopsided grin, “nah. You know how it goes. I hope I didn’t wake you, dude.” He leaned forward to grab his drink and took a giant swig from it. “All in all tonight could have gone worse. I resisted the urge to kill Cat Karavadra and nobody started the war back up again. So at the very least we can pretend to be united again. And pretending is the first step to making it happen for real.” He set his nearly empty glass down and slumped back onto the couch. “Remember when we were kids and we could sleep real easy? Before everything rested on our shoulders? I can’t remember the last night I fell to sleep immediately.”

“Wake me?” Percy asked remembering the familiar feeling of dread that always settled into his stomach whenever he thought about his nightmares, “I couldn’t sleep actually, I was hoping that this would help me feel a little better, y’know, try and take the edge off a little bit or something, get me feeling a bit sleepier…” he shrugged gently and nodded. “It was hardly perfect,” he agreed. “I don’t honestly remember that ever happening to me, I don’t think sleep was ever something I got to do. I always felt so wide awake and full of energy. Eventually I’d drift off, then I became a demigod and everything was kind of compacted and somehow it got worse?” He paused and looked around. “You wanna come smoke this with me?” he asked curiously. “We can keep talking, don’t wanna stink out your kitchen that’s all.”

Jason’s weak smile barely cut through the gloom of his dim apartment “I guess it was too much to ask that one of us actually got a good night’s sleep for once.” He draped himself over the back of the couch and looked across the room at Percy, nodding. “You know….. I can barely remember life before I came here. I think I can remember my childhood room. But. It’s vague and fuzzy. We’ve been doing this for so long that that kind of stress and tension just seems normal now. And that can’t be terribly good for us, can it.” He nodded and vaulted the couch, tossing his tie and shirt onto a barstool at his kitchen counter, “don’t want to get them all weedtastic.” He muttered before opening his balcony door and looking out over New Rome. “It’s been awhile since you and I got stoned together.”

“Getting a good night sleep feels like a bit of a myth right now, which is ironic considering our situation.” Percy smiled brightly at his friend and laughed. “Please, the weedtastic is everything that I want from one of these,” he looked at the joint in his hands before stepping out of the balcony door and gazing out over the city. Settling into his chair, he loosened his tie and undid a second button before pulling his belt off. “There, that is 200 times better.” He smiled brightly and reached out, scooping up a lighter and striking the flint confidently. “Too long since we got an opportunity to smoke together,” he agreed, “I missed getting to do this stuff while the war was on, now that I’ve got more time on my hands I’ve been doing everything that I can to enjoy that, and spending this last week with you has been …. I dunno, it’s been pretty great.” This was the happiest that he could remember being in a long time, and although it might’ve been somewhat of a once a year sort of thing, he was already looking forward to the next set of holidays where he was sure that this was going to become a tradition.

“I think the whole demigod aesthetic is sharp weapons and giant bags under your eyes. I know I’ve been sporting them since the year 2000.” Jason pulled one of the chairs on the balcony closer to Percy’s, settling into it and grabbing a blanket he kept folded under the eaves and spreading it over his lap, “Time to de-dapper? It was nice to get all dressed up… but… it’s nicer to undress afterwards and relax. Always feels twice as relaxing.” He cocked his head so he could look at his friend from his fuzzy blanket cocoon. “This is what we needed. Just… to be. No war, no temples. Nothing but being two guys relaxing at home.” He watched Percy light the joint, turning his attention back to the city spread out beneath them and the brighter lights of San Francisco beyond it, “I needed this. Desperately. Just to spend time with you. It recharges me. Can’t be properly sparky without my Percy time.”

Smiling gently, Percy lifted his joint to his lips and took a deep drag. Swallowing the smoke he exhaled gently a moment later, the smoke curling upwards and spiralling into the obsidian night sky. “You’re not wrong,” Percy leaned over to Jason and passed him the joint. A moment later he was fishing his pen out of his jacket as if to prove the point. I never really think all that much about always being armed. It’s normal, but really it shouldn’t be. It wasn’t before. So why do I feel so uneasy without Riptide?” He laughed, almost as if it were a bad joke lacking a punchline. Pushing the pen back into his pocket, he turned and smiled at Jason. “We all deserve a break after everything that we have had to go through, but you’re right, it’s been a real treat to recharge with just you.” He had never met someone like Jason. At times they were so similar that it was difficult to actually believe that Jason had spent the majority of his life living as a legionnaire in this very city. Despite their similarities they were still from different worlds. Not that that had ever stopped them. “Going back to real life seems daunting now….”

Laughing at the pen Percy held loosely in his fingers, Jason tugged the cord tied around his neck to reveal the bright golden coin it was threaded through, “I feel the same way. If this bad boy isn’t touching my skin it just doesn’t feel right.” A quick flip of the coin turned it into a glittering spear, and a second one turned it back into a coin and he tucked it under his white t-shirt. Casting an affectionate glance at his friend he held his scarred fingers out for the joint, “Recharging with you has been the highlight of my year, P. Just getting to spend time where we get to be us, with no pretense or shielding up. It doesn’t happen often, and I think I need it even more than I realize.” It was hard to imagine that there had actually been a time in his life before he and Percy had been best friends. It seemed like the son of Poseidon had been an integral part of his life for as long as he could remember. “Well… remember that anytime you need a break from real life I’ve got a bed with your name on it and all the baked goods you can steal.”

Nodding gently, Percy was pleased to know that he was not the only one who still struggled with their demons. It hadn’t been easy, but he was hopeful that things would finally start coming together. They had to. This was the future that they deserved. It was definitely one where they got to have a happy ending. “I’m glad that I’m not the only one who is a paranoid lunatic,” he laughed gently, knowing that he was neither of those things. But it was nice to know that other people practiced the same habits as him. “That is awfully high praise, but I don’t disagree, I’ve really had a good time, it’s been nice just getting to hang out. Eat too much food. Drink too much. Smoke too much. Indulge ourselves generally I guess.” He looked to Jason once more and smiled weakly at him before taking the joint back and swallowing down several lungfuls of smoke. “Thanks man, but at some point in your life you’ve got to get back to it, right?”

“I don’t think it’s paranoia if you’ve lived your entire life in such a way where having a weapon instantly accessible is a necessity. Sad. But not paranoia.” Thick smoke flowed from between his lips and he twirled his fingers, watching a tiny cyclone spin through the cloud. “As cheesy and dumb as it sounds… you’re my anchor. When it all gets dark and loud and anxiety is beating down my door you’re the North Star I can turn to. You’ve helped me through a lot since we became friends. Hopefully I’ve returned the favor.” Jason watched Percy do some serious work on the joint as he burrowed into his blanket. “Yeah. You do. But getting back to it doesn’t mean you can’t hide out for a night and recharge. Self care, right? We’re millennials. We’re supposed to be all about that. And this can be your self care safe place.”

“The irony is that I constantly tell everyone that all I really want anymore is to have a more normal life. But I can’t help but keep a sword on me at all times like some sort of safety blanket.” Percy let out a gentle cough as he handed the joint back to Jason and gazed out across the early morning sky that had settled over New Rome. “I wouldn’t know what my life would look like if we weren’t friends, it sounds cheesy I know, but I feel the same. I’m no introvert, but if I was then I don’t think you’d count as people, being with you is just like me time.” He pauses and smiled gratefully at Jason. “What did I do to ever deserve a friend as good as you?” He fell silent as he felt a pang of happiness and joy at the sheer prospect of spending more time with his friend. “I’ll make sure to take you up on your offer,” he promise, “something tells me that we are going to need some time to ourselves with everything that’s going on at the moment.”

“We could do worse as far as security blankets go. But I get where you’re coming from.” Jason’s fingers brushed the ever-cold coin resting against his sternum and moved to the scar on his lip, before settling on the ragged edges of the spiderweb of scarring around his eye, “Really, all of this is the same thing. Life is tumultuous but this… marring, as it were, helps me anchor myself. I am a warrior. I was a priest and I was a praetor but I’ve always been a warrior. There’s calm in the labelling, but it’s a double-edged sword, because if that’s my anchor, I’m never going to be able to be anything but that.” He took the joint and took a long slow drag on it, listening to Percy talk with a smile on his face, “You were a good person. One of the best people. That’s all. That’s why I love spending time with you. Because you’re just good and lovely and even as much of an introvert as I am… spending time with you recharges me even better than alone time.”

“Well, we could literally have physical security blankets and obviously that wouldn’t be ideal, two studs with eight packs and a blankey.” Percy smirked quaintly at the other and shrugged. The way that Jason spoke was interesting. It brought several thoughts to his mind and he frowned. “I don’t think you should define yourself by the things that happened to you, you’ve always been brave in the face of fear, in the face of certain death at times, but what’s more, you’ve always been compassionate and kind. You’re a good person Jason and that is what your anchor should be, remember who you are before you try to define yourself.” Percy took a moment to breath, grabbing a spare blanket and wrapping it around him to fight off the chill in the air. “I’m not sure that I’d call myself a definitively good person,” Percy replied, “I did some terrible things in the war. There’s so much blood, both Greek and Roman blood and it’s all on my hands. I led us through a war where hundreds died. Do I still get to call myself a good person after that?”

“I dunno man. I think we look pretty goddamn hot right now, two half-dressed-in-formal wear studs wrapped in blankets. That’s a calendar right there.” Jason’s face fell as he listened to Percy question his own goodness. “Percy. You can’t sit here and tell me not to focus on the bad things about myself and question your own goodness in the same breath.” He leaned over and thumped his hand against Percy’s chest. “That heart is the heart of a good man. We all did terrible things in the war. We all have the blood of hundreds on our hands… and believe me I don’t think it ever washes off. But I don’t think that’s enough to tip the scales for you. What you did you did for the good of all. You’ve fought, your whole life, to keep the world safe and to make sure we all have a life to keep living when the war is done.” He sighed to himself and leaned back in his chair, giving Percy’s shoulder a squeeze. “One day you’ll see yourself like I see you.”

“Don’t give anyone that idea,” Percy had a hard enough time with his renown as it was already, “it’s hard enough introducing myself at the moment, I don’t need my body plastered over every middle aged spinster’s fridge.” He hated that his name made people prick their ears and turn with hushed whispers about whether that was him. Could that be the Percy? He sometimes wondered whether people were disappointed by the average height, dark haired and green eyed latino they were met with. He often didn’t feel that he lived up to his … well reputation. He smirked gently. “Well I am a bit of an oxymoron myself,” he replied with a shrug, “being a hypocrite isn’t really that surprising on top of that is it?” He considered Jason’s words. Seeing himself like Jason saw him seemed unlikely to him. But then again he never truly felt as if his friend really saw everything that he did. “It’d be really convenient if we could stop being so self sacrificing and be really honest, but then I guess that’s just the nature of being a hero. Something tragic like that? Right?”

“Gods right? Advantage to studying at Stanford and not NRU. To everyone there I’m just another wounded vet non-traditional student doing his thing. Office of Integration decided that was the best way to explain me away.” The Office that handled the melding of demigod pasts into acceptable mortal stories had been incredibly non-plussed with his injury. Apparently this was old hat to them. “Yeah… well… take off the oxy and that’s what you’re being right now. A moron. I’m calling you a moron.” Jason really did wish that Percy could see himself the way Jason saw him; handsome and kind, intelligent and ferocious, all the little pieces added up to make a man so amazing he put the gods to shame. “It would be. But that really doesn’t seem our style now does it. I guess you just have to keep me around so I can tell you how amazing you are. I’ll keep reminding you, all the time, because I know it’s the truth.” He let his head loll back against the chair, unbraiding his blonde hair and looking up at the stars, “It’s nice to be somewhere where it’s quiet. That Feast was getting to be a bit much.”

“Maybe I’ll transfer out of NRU, although it seems dumb to do it when I’m so close to graduating…” Percy pauses and smiled gently. “Of course they weren’t concerned by something as trivial as injuries. Now if you’d been half satyr or something then that would’ve probably worried them some. But I’m sure you can’t be the first demigod to want to do something outside of the city with some sort of visible injury.” He fell silent as he took the joint back from Jason, or maybe he’d had it all along. To be perfectly honest he wasn’t entirely sure. He was starting to get pretty stoned and he’d drunk a lot at the party. He was hardly a notoriously heavy drinker. “As long as we can stop one another from being too humble then that will keep me nice and happy, can’t allow anyone to think we are braggarts now can we?” He paused and scootched his chair over closer to Jason, placing a affectionate hand on his friend’s shoulder. Squeezing it gently he sat silently for a moment, watching the cloud of smoke ride through the sky away from Jason’s balcony. “Thank you Jace,” he finally said quietly, “this week has done wonders for me.”

“Yeah. I still have a year and a half at least so transferring wasn’t as big a deal for me. But if you’re close then it doesn’t really make sense.” Jason’s laugh cut through the chilly night, “they invented a neat little background for me, falsified some paperwork, bing bang boom Jason’s got a nice backstory for his classmates.” Another laugh and he took a drink of his whisky, “I don’t think either of us are in danger of turning into Octavian. But it’s nice to have someone with a little objectivity to help you keep your head on straight.” Percy moved his chair closer to him and Jason leaned his head to rest his cheek on Percy’s hand, the warmth of it bleeding through his chilly stubble. “My home is always open to you. Always. This week has been amazing. Just spending time with you. When I’m with you the normal buzz and hum of my mind is actually quiet for once. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

“Either way I’ve got to wait, either for the university to be rebuilt or for the university to be rebuilt so they can transfer me. But I’m making sure I keep nice and busy.” Percy wondered what Jason’s made up past was? “You’re not going to tell me about your backstory? Are you worried it’s going to be cooler than your real life?” Pausing for a moment he laughed. The truth was that Jason had lived a life that was so cool that it would be difficult to live anything comparable. But there was a big part of Percy’s life that was lived in hopes that it would one day become normal. He envied everyone else who’d gotten to grow up as normal. “I actually don’t think I have ever met someone that I got along with better than you and believe me it’s weird, me and Thalia never got along well. I almost dropped an entire river on her once.”

“Well yeah. Trying to fix the entirety of demigod society is certainly a way for you to keep busy, P. You’re definitely not lying.” Jason laughed brightly, moving his cheek away from Percy’s hand, “Explosive Ordnance Disposal in the Middle East. That’s the backstory. Lost my eye to some shrapnel from an IED on patrol. Nothing fancy, just gets the job done.” It felt a little wrong, co-opting his story from so many mortals who had had that fate befall them. But the Office of Integration had assigned it and he’d gone along with it. The good soldier to the end. “Well. In your defense. I also have wanted to drop an entire river on my sister and I don’t have hydrokinesis.” Thalia was a stormy personality at best. She wasn’t really a people person. “It’s true though. You’re just….. you work. With me. With all my crazy. You being around works.”

“I’m not trying to fix the whole of the society,” Percy replied with a shrug, “all I am trying to do is rebuild a city and get my people something better than they’ve had for the last nine months.” Although when he put it like that he didn’t know if that sounded any less like an impossible and insurmountable task. “Well, they aren’t entirely wrong, I know it is stretching the truth a little but IED does sound more normal than exploding ballistae bolt.” Pausing once more, he considered how different Thalia and Jason was. Jason was like a breath of fresh air on a rainy day. Thalia was like a hurricane in the middle of the ocean, tearing anything apart that came in it’s way. At least that was what she was like when she was pissed off. “It amazes me how well she and Artemis get along with one another, especially considering how wildly different they are from one another.” Pausing for a second longer he stretched out further in his seat, embracing the cold night air. “We slot together pretty well,” he agreed.

Jason sat in a very pointed silence in order to give Percy a chance to see that what he was saying was exactly like trying to fix the whole of demigod society. He laughed, self conscious fingers rising to brush his face, “Well… since the mortal world doesn’t know what an exploding ballistae bolt is, this is indeed the better option. Even if it smacks of dishonesty.” As Percy kept talking about his sister Jason laughed, “Well… from what I’ve heard, my godly sister Lady Artemis has a rage and fury that makes Thalia look like a docile little lamb. That’s probably why they get along so well. Though it seems like Thalia is angry constantly, and Artemis only some of the time. But when you’re thousands of years old you probably learn how to pick when to be angry and when not to be.” Watching Percy stretch out of the corner of his eye Jason listened carefully; wondering if perhaps there was a second layer of conversation happening. Though in the secret parts of his heart he was unsure if he was wondering about it, or hoping for it, “We do. Peanut butter and chocolate and other apt comparisons like that. We’re good together.”

Allowing the silence to settle over them, Percy pulled his own blanket around him more tightly. It was a cold night and despite leaving the feast early he was still feeling pretty sleepy. The joint was hardly helping either. “You don’t owe anyone an explanation for everything that you’ve had to go through in the last six months. Sure it’s dishonest but it’s none of their business whether you were hurt by exploding mortal weapons or whether it was of the immortal variety.” He knew that Jason was a traditional hero who thought of self sacrifice as a necessity. But the truth was that Jason had given up more than many in the war. Not to mention his reputation and everything that he’d worked towards as Pontifex Maximus, all for the Greek people. That wasn’t something that Percy would ever forget. If anything it endeared him to Percy more. There was a lot to be interested in Jason. Apart from the fact that he had the body of a literal God, Percy knew that Jason was kind. Thoughtful. Intelligent. Introspective. Selfless. It was really something. Not to mention that Jason was one of his oldest friends excluding Annabeth and Grover. “Red Wine and Steak?” Percy suggested with a smile, admiring the stubble that dotted Jason’s face.

As Percy wrapped himself tighter in his blanket, Jason flipped the end of his fuzzy blanket over the other man’s lap, scooting slightly closer as he did, “I stole the good one. Might as well share.” Heaving a sigh he shrugged. He knew Percy was right. But his life had been one of explanations, of transparency required by duty, and it was difficult to let go of those ideals. “Yeah yeah yeah. You’ve always gone too easy on me so I can’t really trust your opinion now can I. You’re my best friend. You’re hella biased.” He cocked his head to look at Percy as the other guy talked, stifling a yawn. He wasn’t ever quite sure how Percy managed to look like a male model and still be the humble amazing guy he was, but it was always the case. “French fries and too much salt.” He responded, laughing softly, “a bubble bath and beer. Whisky and a cold night. All the great things come in pairs.”

Taking the bit of the blanket that Jason had passed to him, Percy tucked it over his feet and smirked. “Well, this is your balcony, I’m not exactly going to start complaining because I think that you’re being selfish, you’ve put me up free of charge for more than my fair share of time.” He paused and considered Jason’s words. “I’m not biased, I am as objective as it is humanly possible for someone to be.” He smirked gently, knowing full well that he would always take Jason’s side irrespective of the circumstances. It was simply something that was outside of his control. He loved his friend too much to not always take his side. “Can you ever have too much salt?” he asked smirking gently before shrugging a little and stretching. “Who knew that we were such a dynamic duo?” he asked his increasingly handsome friend.

Jason laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the chilly night, as he squeezed Percy’s shoulder, “P. You could crash with me for the rest of your life and that wouldn’t be an imposition. I literally don’t think I’d ever get tired of having you around. It’s the best part of my day.” He waved Percy’s argument away. It was impossible for either of them to view the other objectively, which somehow worked because it balanced out how harsh they were on themselves, “You can never have too much salt. Nor too much hot sauce.” He squeezed Percy’s shoulder again and let go, watching him stretch languidly, “I mean… we did. It’s why we hang out together so much. We’re just great together.” He didn’t know if it was the whisky, the exhaustion, or just years of friendship all coming together, but Percy was growing ever more handsome in the dim light of his balcony, “It’s just the way it is. I’m better when I’m around you.”

“I don’t know,” Percy quietly replied with a smile drifting across his face, “I am sure that if I were able to stay with you for the rest of your life that you’d get sick of me soon enough. There comes a limit to the amount of human interaction that we can all take.” Raising an eyebrow thoughtfully, Percy slipped deeper beneath the pile of blankets that he was nestling within. Breathing deeply, Percy idly flicked at his lighter, it sparked on and off before he tucked it away too. His inability to sit still had always been famous, but he often wondered if his ADHD was getting worse with age. “That sounds like an advert for a hot sauce place, except I’ve never been anywhere in the world that sells just hot sauce on its own…” he laughed and shrugged, glancing at Jason and swallowing somewhat uncomfortably as new feelings washed over him uninvited. “My question was rhetorical,” Percy laughed, “You’re perfect the way you are, you just think you’re better when I’m around because you’re blind to your own abilities and the truth about it.”

The moment seemed like something special; which meant that Jason was ill-equipped to deal with it. “I don’t think so. I think you know me well enough to know when I need to hide in my room playing video games and when I’m ready for more people time. But. Having you here is a great thing.” Percy fidgeted and Jason sat, trying to avoid giving into his nervous energy that made him fidget just as much. Normally he was prone to the standard demigod amounts of ADHD but he tried to keep it in check as much as possible: a feat easier said than done. He kept his hands clasped in his lap, twirling the silver ring on his finger. “There are some shops that specialize in just hot sauce. I know there are a couple in the city. There’s one in Haight-Ashbury. We can go sometime if you want.” He listened as Percy talked, glad for the dim light of the balcony as he blushed violently. “You’re wrong. There’s always room for improvement and I’m far away from perfect. But…” he fell silent. Not even sure of the end to that sentence.

Maybe it was the amount that Percy had drunk. Maybe it was the fact that he had smoked half a joint. Maybe it was the time of the night. Either way Percy couldn’t help but think that Jason looked truly radiant in the dim light. It seemed to shine through his long blonde hair and almost cast a golden glow. At least that was what Percy imagined. “I get that you need time alone, you and Annabeth are similar in that way …” he shrugged gently, suddenly wondering why he had decided to make a connection between his ex and his best friend, “but I’m glad that you think so highly of me. It actually really means a lot Jace…” he sighed contentedly and shifted once more in his seat. “I’d like that. Getting hot sauce with you,” he smirked at the thought, “do they have a blue one?” He paused for a moment and shrugged. “Damn, I wouldn’t know what to say about that, it is pretty hard to argue with such a strong denial. It’s definitely changed my opinion about you. Good job bro.”

“Yes but she’s more likely to use her alone time to try to save the world with her super genius, and I’m more likely to use it to play Horizon Zero Dawn in my underwear until I’ve gotten all the trophies. Big difference there.” He laughed again, shimmying deeper into his mound of blanket and closer to Percy, “even if they don’t have a blue one I’ll dye it for you. We’ll get you a blue hot sauce that’ll make your eyes water. There’re some nice shops down there. We can make a day of it. Get out into the city, grab a nice lunch, just be touristy for once. I’ll even wear a Fanny pack so we blend right in.” He could sense Percy’s sarcasm in his response and head butted him in the shoulder “uh huh. I can tell when you’re being sarcastic, P. I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years. We can’t all be handsome smart amazing guys like you. I’ve just gotta keep trying to be as good as the amazing Percy Jackson.”

“I don’t know about you,” Percy replied with a laugh, “but I would rather spend my day in bed playing HZD in my underwear then save the world. Besides you give Annabeth far too much credit, not that she doesn’t deserve it, but she’s as good at procrastinating as you or I.” Possibly even better. He’d seen her re-design Olympus and had experienced her procrastination first hand. “Damn, and I thought that you’d let me wear the fanny pack, I guess I’ll have to get a “I love Stanford” shirt or even a visor! But that won’t hold a candle to the level of touristry that you’ll have achieved.” Smirking gently, Percy reached out and wrapped a hand round the back of Jason’s head as he placed his forehead on Percy’s shoulder. “You don’t need to keep trying anything, there is a reason that you were Praetor for more than five minutes and I wasn’t, you don’t give yourself nearly enough credit.” He gazed into Jason’s stormy eyes and smiled contentedly.

“Absolutely. Trying to navigate one of the cauldrons is way easier than facing down Gaia, more fun too. I definitely don’t think I give Annabeth too much credit, that woman is scary smart. I think even her procrastination is productive. Which is more than I can say for me.” The image of them as a touristy couple made him laugh, and then the realization Jason was imagining them as a couple gave him brief pause, though it seemed he wasn’t too upset by the mental image. “I’ll lend you some of my Stanford wear. I’ve got way too much of it.” Percy’s hand rested in his hair and Jason took that as tacit permission to snuggle up against Percy’s side. “Yeah yeah yeah they’re gonna sing the ballad of Jason Grace for years to come and all that good shit.” He waved Percy’s comments away before resting his hand on the other man’s broad chest, “in the end it's not really the opinion of History that matters to me, I think. Just if I did right by my friends.”

“I once saw Annabeth construct a scale model of New Rome with an absurd number of playing cards. It was both impressive and a little sad. I’ve never seen someone get so annoyed at someone opening the door and letting wind in…” Percy laughed at the memory before shrugging, “you’re doing it again, you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone else because you’re doing great just as you are.” He smirked gently at his own cliche, it was funny because if the tables were turned he knew damn well that he would be unable to take Jason’s advice. “I look forward to looking like a UCS advert / brochure. I never knew until now what my true calling was.” As Jason leaned against him, Percy felt his pulse quicken slightly as their bare skin caught contact. Swallowing a breath of air, Percy smiled as he tried to ignore the racing adrenaline that was pounding around him. Suddenly he felt somewhat light headed. He’d never felt this way before and in that moment he didn’t want to move. Despite everything that he was feeling, he didn’t want to ruin what was happening in that moment. “Of course you did right by your friends, was that something that was ever in doubt?”

“That’s so peak Annabeth I can’t even handle it. Of course she did. I’m surprised she didn’t start doing the whole of San Francisco.” Rolling his eyes Jason waved Percy’s words away, hand accidentally grazing his friend’s beard as he did. “Of course I am. And don’t give me that guff about how I should only try to be better than my previous self because you know that’s not how my brain works. I have to keep trying to be the best.” He could hear Percy’s heart thudding through his chest and was glad his friend couldn’t hear that his was doing the same thing. “Doing right is an ongoing process. I have done right. I want to keep doing right. Until I finally die. But I need to keep making a difference. Keep doing something. Just so I can always be there for you guys.” He heaved a sigh and twisted his head so he could look up into Percy’s eyes “you know how that is.”

“Annabeth is certainly one of a kind,” Percy replied, dipping his head gently in admittance to what Jason had said. Annabeth had a singular focus when it came to certain tasks, it was almost scary how hard she could work on something if she really set her mind to it. Laughing gently, Percy shrugged. “Maybe I just mean that I think you’ve done more than enough good to secure your place in Elysium a thousand times over. But if you want to insist on trying to get straight to the Isles of the blessed during your first attempt then who am I to try and stop you?” He chuckled gently and nodded. “That sort of attitude is why you’re so good though,” Percy had never particularly had qualms with platonic physicality, especially not with Jason. Yet there was something making the breath in his throat catch. “You just insist on dramatising it, and then you claim you’re not a drama queen.”

“And I wouldn’t have her any other way.” Jason’s love for Annabeth burned almost as bright as his love for Percy. She was a genius and one of the best people he knew; he’d fought beside her through a hundred battles and he’d do it through a hundred more. “I mean why live three times if I can go to turbo-heaven on the first go? Come on, P. I’m trying to speed run this bitch.” He laughed and straightened up, leaving the warmth of Percy’s chest with a little bit of sorrow. It was comfortable, and in all honesty felt absolutely right. But he didn’t want to overstay his welcome. “I think we both know when I claim I’m not a drama queen it’s a goddamn lie. I’m super dramatic. I just like to say I’m not.” He brushed hair out of his eyes and smiled at his friend, admiring literally everything about the man sitting next to him, “I’m happy we have this time. It’s just… good. Everything about it is good.”

“Well as long as whatever it is that you decide is enough to make you happy then you’ve got my approval.” Percy smiled gently. That was what his mother had always told him. At the end of the day if what he did made him happy then that was something to be proud of. “Well acceptance of a state of denial is one of the first steps on the road to recovery.” Percy smirked gently and sat up as Jason moved away. Honestly he was somewhat disappointed by the fact that his friend had moved away from him. He yearned for his touch for a moment before snapping back to reality. “Dramatics have always been one of my favourite parts of your personality,” Percy admitted as he sat forward, leaning against his knees and rubbing his eyes gently, “I am never bored when I’m around you. Besides your dramatic flair is impressive. Having seen you use harpies as aerial stepping stones and still manage to impale a cyclops with your spear I can tell you it is somewhat impressive.”

“Oh gods. That was such a Sallyism. I’m pretty sure she told me that exact same thing earlier this year. You are absolutely your mother’s son.” Stretching languidly in his chair, Jason scratched his stubbly chin, laughing at Percy’s gentle teasing. “What’s the point of being the son of the god of lightning and the sky if you can’t use that to fuel your dramatic flair. I mean I’ve gotta treat each of my battles like a Cirque du Soleil routine, otherwise I’m going to disappoint my fans and I can’t do that. They’ll stop writing to me for autographs.” Percy leaned forward and rubbed his eyes and Jason automatically started scratching his back gently, before a jaw-cracking yawn brought his hands to his mouth. He gathered the blanket up and wrapped it around him, starting to head back down the hallway towards his bedroom as they moved from the chilly outside to the warmth of his apartment. Pausing at his door he turned back to look at Percy, sweeping hair out of his eye as he weighed a couple of options in his head, “Hey P…” his voice was almost soft enough to get lost in the ambient noise of his apartment, “I know that room gets chilly. I haven’t had a chance to replace the weather-stripping on the window yet and it leaks cold air in. But uh….” he could feel his cheeks getting a little rosy, “My room’s plenty warm… and there’s room for two in my bed. If you don’t wanna be cold all night, I mean.”

“It would be difficult not to be my mother’s son,” `replied with a laugh. “I’m not complaining Jason, I can definitely see the comparison between Cirque du Soleil and your fighting style, and believe me that wasn’t something that I thought I was ever going to say.” He smirked gently and shrugged, before rising to his feet and following Jason back into his apartment. As they slowly made their way back towards their bedrooms, Percy strode towards his room, folding the blanket and placing it in the lounge before moving through. Jason’s question however caught him off guard, and he took a moment to consider it. Pausing, he glanced down at the door of his room before turning back and nodding. “Sure, that sounds nice.”

#p: jason #para #chatzy para #f&gwriting #baby its cold outside

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fireandseaweed · 7 years ago

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Let’s Got Basted || Jason and Percy

Percy and Jason spend the holidays together, enjoying the well earned time off. Relaxing has never been so enjoyable.

Jason and Percy had been friends for almost ten years now. In that time they’d developed a certain comfort in one another’s presence. Aside from Annabeth and Grover, there were few people that Percy would want to spend his time with as Jason. So the invitation to spend the holidays with Jason, at least in the runup to Thanksgiving, was if nothing else something to look forward to. Now that it had finally begun, Percy had to admit that his excitement almost got the best of him. Standing outside of Jason’s front door, he struggled to stand still as he prepared for the first break that he had had all year. He’d packed all of the essentials of course, beer, food and everything else that they might need. It promised to be a good week. Knocking on his front door, he knocked and stepped through knowing that Jason wouldn’t want him to wait. “I’m here, sorry I’m early,” it was 12:00PM and Jason had told him to come at 1:00PM, “I got bored and the excitement over took me.”

Hearing the sound of a knock at the door Jason rushed out of his bedroom, still toweling shower-wet hair off, to see who it could be. But when a key scraped in the door and it opened of its own volition, he knew exactly who’d shown up. “Percy!” he waved from the hallway, in all his sweatpant clad glory, before wandering back into his bedroom, “I set up the guest bedroom for you, cleared all my papers out of it and everything. Set yourself up and I’ll be right out. And it’s never too early for you to show up at my door.” He finished drying his hair and changed into jeans and a tanktop, flying out of his bedroom once again to tackle his best friend in a giant hug, “It’s Thanksgiving! And my best friend is here to stay for awhile. I literally could not be any happier right now. This is fucking perfect.”

Setting his rucksack down on the sofa, Percy moved over to the fridge and started emptying the contents of the carrier bag into the fridge. He’d brought a few steaks that he was sure they’d eat one evening, some beer, regular soda and a few tubs of ice cream. “I’ve brought all of the essentials,” he said reassuringly, “everything that we could possibly need for our week being shut in together.” He smiled as he adjusted his bag and set it down on the floor before sinking into one of Jason’s comfortable sofas. “Believe me!” he practically screeched, “I am just as over joyed to be a part of this little event as you are, this is going to be a holiday to truly remember.” After everything that they had been forced to put up with this year he thought that they deserved to be able to enjoy a week off. He refused to feel guilty about this.

Jason hopped up on his kitchen island and watched Percy put things away in the fridge like he belonged there, which, they both knew, he did. “All of the essentials,” he said with a laugh, snaking past Percy to grab a bottle of water from the fridge, “beer steak and ice cream. The most American of shopping lists.” As Percy collapsed into a sofa, Jason did the same into an arm chair, “gods a week being shut in together sounds amazing. No work to call me away, school is already on thanksgiving break, it’s going to be amazing. Just you and me and food and games and booze and chilling.” They had earned this. Having been commanders in three wars now, they’d learned too well that relaxing weeks were hard to come by, but Jason was determined to make this a good one. “What do you wanna do first?”

Carefully slotting the final three beers into the fridge, Percy closed the door carefully behind him with a gentle clink. “I know you would’ve probably had all of these things covered, but I wanted to contribute at least something.” He knew that they wouldn’t get to do everything on their own, inevitably something would breach their solitude. “The best thing is that I won’t have people asking me what to do constantly,” Percy replied with a contented smile, “I didn’t mind leading, but it’s gotten to the point where people aren’t using their initiative. I get that we are experienced but some stuff you’ve got to do yourself.” Frowning, he rubbed his forehead and smiled. “I shouldn’t just bitch, things have gotten so much better but still not quite there yet.” He pulled a pillow underneath his back and shrugged. “Do we need to get anything ready yet?” he asked somewhat hopefully, “or am I too early for that one?”

Beaming beatifically at his friend Jason chuckled, “your presence is contribution enough. But thank you. I’m sure some late night beers will be fantastic at some point this week.” He watched Percy make himself comfortable, marveling at how perfectly at home Percy looked. He just fit in the tableau of Jason’s apartment. He belonged. “Well I promise not to ask you what to do. You know me and thanksgiving. I’ve got a whole schedule written out of what to cook and when.” As Percy looked at him with hope glittering in his vibrant eyes jason laughed again, “well… I do need to make some cookies. I told some people I would and so you can steal chocolate while I make those if you want.”

“You know that I have always thought that was a bullshit answer and you’re doing absolutely nothing to convince me otherwise.” Percy beamed despite this all. It was hard not to feel good when there were so many good things that would follow on from this. Raising an eyebrow at the suggestion of stealing chocolate from Jason’s cookie mix, he had to admit that he thought it sounded rather accurate. He would never admit that to his best friend of course. The prospect of admitting that Jason was right was something that he was unwilling to relish. “I will pretend that I have somewhat of a semblance of self control and attempt to restrain myself, at least while you’re looking.” A blatant lie, Percy’s race horsesque metabolism meant that he’d never had to worry about putting weight on, the holidays were the perfect time to flex those muscles.

A broad shrug flexed tan muscles underneath Jason’s tank top, “I don’t have to convince you. I just have to know it’s true… and I do. So… it’s true.” Rolling his eyes he launched himself out of his chair and across his apartment, starting to move through his ingredient list with the speed of a dervish. “First I think will be the ginger molasses ones, then while they’re in the fridge resting we can make the peanut butter ones, then at the end we can start baking pieces for gingerbread cookies and if you’re super extra good I’ll let you play with the icing.” He gave Percy his brightest most honest smile, “Frankly this is way more than needs to be done, but, I’ve got you here to motivate me so I might as well take advantage of it. Feel free to put whatever you want on netflix while we’re working.”

Percy flicked through Netflix before putting something mundane on in the background. If he was totally honest he hadn’t even really considered what it was that he was picking. Turning to Jason, he leaned forwards before slumping into a chair next to the breakfast island. “That all went right over my head,” he admitted as he pulled a bowl of chocolate chips towards him and began nibbling on the small chocolate chunks, “but I am glad that I can be your muse. If you must model your biscuits after my fair child, then I shall pose for you.” He laughed heartily before cramming more chocolate chips into his mouth happily. “How’s school?” he asked sincerely, as swiveled on the chair.

Digging a recipe box out of a cupboard, Jason set to laying out ingredients for the first set of cookies; grabbing them both beers while he did it, “That’s fine. It was more for my benefit than yours anyway. You’re just here to look handsome and keep me company and not have to be in charge of something for once.” Laughing, Jason shook his head and leaned across the counter to pat Percy on the cheek, “I don’t think I could do your handsome face justice in gingerbread, Jackson. But we can certainly try when we get there.” As he set to weighing out individual ingredients and setting them aside, building the foundation of his mise en place, he shrugged, “It’s hard. It sounds strange but it’s hard to focus on just that. I’ve always juggled things, but now I only have school to worry about and it’s a difficult adjustment. Might get a short story published in the school’s journal though. My professor really liked it.” He licked an errant drop of vanilla off his finger and intoned solemnly from memory, “In the beginning there was naught but the Eternal Void and the Boundless Melody, stretching to both the past and the present and the future and the dark places beyond all three…” He huffed a laugh, “You know… the usual fiction nonsense.”

Though Percy knew that his best friend was joking to some degree, it was certainly a refreshing change to not have someone hanging on his every word. He didn’t want to have to constantly be in charge and with Jason he wasn’t. Jason was one of the few people able to take charge of almost any situation. It was certainly a nice change. “Well, I am sure that is something I can manage.” He smirked with a mouthful of chocolate and shrugged. “If you can’t do it justice then why bother, frankly mediocrity bores me.” He laughed at his dramatic outburst. “Change isn’t always a bad thing,” Percy pointed out as he popped the cap off of a beer and slugged several mouthfuls down, “you’ll take a little bit of time to get adjusted sure, but you’ll get to live a more normal life than before. That’s surely got to be a good thing.” He smiled at Jason, “How can something be both when there’s three things in it?” he asked with a bright smirk.

“I’m sure you can as well. I have infinite faith in you. More so than anyone else around.” Jason started to carefully mix dry ingredients, swirling flour with fragrant ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, watching as the pale mixture turned ever darker by degrees. “Change isn’t a bad thing. This just takes more adjustment than I thought it would. Mundanity is… different. I understand why so few of us try to live normal mortal lives. Once you’ve gotten used to the frenetic pace of Legion life it can be…. Boring.” He cracked a couple of eggs and started scrambling them together, pausing only to level an accusatory finger in Percy’s direction, “Creative fucking liberties that’s how. Consider it a treatise on the duality of time or some shit. Don’t give me fuckin’ sass about it your mom approved it all.” He resumed mixing the eggs together, adding heavy cream before carefully mixing them in with the flour mixture, “What about you? Outside the Reconstruction… how are you?”

“I’m not sure that you’re placing your faith in the right person my friend, I know that it doesn’t seem like it considering how close to perfection I am, but I am actually fallible, believe it or not.” Percy had to admit that he loved being around cooking, the smell of the various ingredients. Whether they were spices, starches, sugars or something else entirely different always enchanted him and threw him back into a happier and simpler time with him and his mother. Before she’d met Gabe. Before he’d been kicked out of a hundred or so schools and fought Titans and Gods. “Mundanity sounds, perfect.” He couldn’t help but be honest. “I’m sure that me of all people couldn’t do it for very long, but I feel like I’m yearning to be bored. It has been such a long time since I was and now I wish for it. Though I’m sure that I’d hate it all the same.” He raised an eyebrow and laughed along with Jason, wondering how he actually was. “The war really took it’s toll on me,” he replied eventually, “when we hammered out the cease fire, I slept for almost 24 hours straight. But that was the last good night of sleep that I got and it was months ago. Since then I’ve been kept up by reoccuring nightmares, either old ones or new ways of examining the horrors we went through…” he fell silent, staring at the perspiration on the side of his drink.

“Faith has absolutely nothing to do with fallibility, old friend.” Jason replied airily, snagging the bowl of chocolate chips from Percy’s fingers and sprinkling them liberally into the dough mixture in front of him, “And everything to do with purity of character. In that regard, you are beyond reproach.” He listened with an ever sinking heart to Percy’s story, worry gathering in the furrows of his brow with each syllable, until Percy trailed off into silence, looking at the bottle in front of him. “Let me tell you a story,” Jason murmured, wiping his hands on the towel flung over his shoulder and leaning forward to wrap his hands around Percy’s; the uncharacteristic intimacy sheltered by the walls of his apartment, “Once upon a time there were two princes, born of war, with the gods in their bones and the wither of mortality in their blood.” The tv talked aimlessly in the background, weaving between the susurrations of Jason’s story, “In the way of all heroes they had been given much, but had much taken from them, as the scars on their bodies told a story so too did the deep-etched scars on their souls.” He looked down at their hands, hair falling in front of his face, “The Prince of the Sky grew weak and wounded, and wondered in his darkest hours if the burden of the royal blood would be too much for him to bear, and in his weakness sought out his brother-beloved, the Prince of the Sea, for counsel. But what came to light was that neither Sky nor Sea could fathom a way to escape the horrors of the war eternal they’d been born into.” He paused for a long moment, trying to decide how best to phrase what he was trying to comunicate, “But in the end perhaps it was not an exit that the Princes required, but simple assurances that the war would never overshadow them entirely. That dawn would come again, if only for a brief moment, and they could breathe unfettered by cares and commands.” An uncharacteristic blush skated across his cheeks as he withdrew his hands and resumed mixing, “Long story short…. Sleep will come again, and sleep free from nightmares. I know it, because you’re strong, and because I’ll be there every step of the way to make sure of it. Whatever happens you’ve always got me for whatever you need.”

“Hey I was eating those,” Percy complained as the chocolate chips were tugged from his grip and used for their intended purpose. Pouting gently, Percy fell silent as Jason took his hands in his own. Percy was not opposed to physical platonic intimacy. Yet there was an intensity to Jason that he had never previously experienced. Whether this was due to neglect on his part was somewhat unclear. However he could see that Jason truly and deeply cared for how Percy was struggling. “Thanks, that was a great improvised story by the way,” he smiled slightly before sighing, “I know that things will eventually get better and my therapist has always told me that recovery was a long and lonely road. Things get better everyday but I am sure I don’t need to tell you how frustrating it is that my problems can’t all be fixed with the blade of my sword.”

“You were eating them and I needed them.” Jason kept his tone breezy to alleviate the somber attitude from his story, “You can have them back when I’m done with them.” He wrapped the dough in cling film and tucked it into his fridge, returning to the counter to start weighing out ingredients for the next project, “In all honesty… it’s not improvised. The Princes of Sea and Sky are in a project I started that your mom won’t let me give up. She says it’s cathartic.” He started to knead bread dough, arms working the lump on the counter as he kept listening to Percy talk, “Yeah… it is. But it’s not one you have to travel alone. I’m here for whatever you need.” His laugh broke through the room as he paused his kneading and took a swig of his beer, “Believe me I know that feeling. If I could just lightning bolt everything to smithereens I’d be way happier.”

“Yes well it seems obvious that you need a bowl for yourself that isn’t my bowl of chocolate chips,” Percy replied with a chuckle, “I can’t help it if you have to attempt to use all my food.” As Jason kept working, Percy busied himself with observing. Jason was so at ease and so careful with his cooking that Percy found it almost relaxing to watch. It was certainly cathartic to say the least. “Of course my own mother was involved. This had the whiff of her all over it, she appears to be one of the few people left on earth that believes in the power of fables.” He nodded and looked at Jason. “I know, you’re here for me and so is Piper and Annabeth and Connor and everyone else. The thing is, what can you really do? We know this isn’t something that can be beaten back with a sword or even a lightning bolt. Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a quick fix for this.”

“My chocolate chips, sir. Mine. You’re the pilfering party here.” As Jason felt the dough start to come together under his hands he weighed it out carefully into eight equal balls, starting the complicated process of braiding them all together. “You can just assume if it involves my writing it’s got your mother involved. She’s second only to you in terms of people who are super vocal in their support of me.” He bit his lip in concentration as he continued to braid the well spiced dough, listening to Percy talk, “I know I know I know. We can’t really do anything, which is the hard part. Because I want to. But you’re right. There’s nothing I can do. So I’ll just keep letting you drink beer and steal my chocolate chips and hope we come out alright on the other side of this all.”

“What’s yours is mine,” Percy joked, reaching into the bowl of chocolate chips and using his long fingers to scoop up another handful, “and I intend to share the bounty amongst us like equals. I tell you this, we shall share. I shall only tax you a requisite sixty percent, for I am a kind and benevolent lord.” He smirked gently and raised an eyebrow gently. “You two spend far too much time together for me to be comfortable about it,” he said with a complete lie. He loved how close they were. It was refreshing to see the antithesis of what the usual friend-friend’s parent dynamic was. “Let’s just pretend that we live in a world that we’re all happy, that there are no monsters what so ever and we even have semi-normal lives which is a joke compared to the previous world we actually live in.”

Jason stopped braiding his loaf of bread long enough to slap at Percy’s hand “and you wonder why I buy so much extra… my lord.” He kept the mockery thick in his voice but it was interwoven with affection. “You should be worried. Sally showed me where all your baby albums are kept. Ive seen allllllllll the embarrassing pictures of you.” He finished the braid as Percy talked, setting it carefully on a tray to rise a second time, the smell of it already permeating his apartment. “I don’t think we can pretend anymore, P.” He smiled hollowly and tapped at the gnarled flesh where his eye had once been, “too many permanent reminders. And not just the physical ones.” Propping his chin in his hand he smiled, “but the reconstruction continues and life marches on. What more can we do but march with it.”

“I can’t help but eat food when you put it in front of me,” Percy rarely felt this at ease. But there was something about being in the presence of Jason that set him in a more comfortable mood. They’d been through so many things together and seperately. Their upbringing was so similar, yet so different. The heritage they shared, the responsibility of their birth. “Puh-lease,” Percy said emphasizing the p, “there is not a single photo that has ever been taken of me where I haven’t looked hot shit, therefore there cannot be an embarrassing photo of me out there. Even my baby photos.” Percy watched fascinated at Jason’s skill. “We can make things better, that is the whole point of this, we didn’t fight for nothing. We fought for a change. Now we’ve got the chance to. I don’t doubt for a second that the two senators who weren’t mentioned in the document, Arcadi and Karavadra, they were definitely involved in some way. I don’t trust the amount of power that the Karavadras still have in the Legion too. They led the war against us and they’re sitting relatively pretty, they’ve not suffered a single loss yet.”

“Having a dish of supplies on the counter does not count as leaving it in front of you, Perseus.” Jason turned his oven on to preheat and took the chilled cookie dough out of the fridge. “Oh yeah? You think? Cuz I’ve seen some of your baby outfits. It’s good to know Sally loved neon in the 90s as much as everyone else did.” He started to roll the cookie dough into small balls, dusting them with sugar before placing them on a baking sheet. “Senator Karavadra has always wielded too much power.” Jason’s voice turned bitter as he kept working, “of course he would have redundancies in place to ensure nothing was ever traced back to him if he indeed was involved.” He looked up at Percy as he slid the sheet into the oven, “we joked about it before. But a full dissolution of the Senate isn’t a terrible idea. Start completely anew. No former Senator may have a family member on the new Senate. And we have to split it equally between Greeks and Romans.” He moved onto the next baking task, never content to be still for too long. “Rome could use Senator Jackson. Rome could use Emperor Percy to be honest but that won’t ever happen.”

“I’m basically a dog, you cannot leave food unattended in front of me. Isn’t this something that my mother covered with you?” Percy asked teasingly with a bright smirk dancing across his face before flickering away as he sipped at his bottle of beer. “Please, I look hot as shit in neon. I don’t care for non-neon baby grows.” Nodding gently, Percy sighed. “I believe that we need to change the complete senatorial system and the entire political system in New Rome.” He paused and scratched at his beard. “Maybe we get rid of the senate entirely. It didn’t work the first time, why would it work the second time? We could come up with a brand new system where everyone’s voices are heard, where all the needs are addressed.” He considered what Jason was saying and sighed. “I don’t know if I am the right person to lead this city, and even if I were, is that what I want? I know that was never part of the plan.” SIghing he sipped at his beer and watched the bubbles trickle to the surface of his larger. “I don’t think the Romans would ever accept me. I’ve not exactly been their best friend.”

“Honestly? It absolutely is.” In fact, during one of his frequent visits to see the Jackson family, Sally had indeed gone over a list of concerns and such, which is how Jason had known some things Percy liked to eat without being told. “The problem is we’re all stuck in the past. Our blood is old and so we all feel like we have to stick to the old ways.” The cookies started to fill the apartment with another layer of holiday scent. “The Senate worked for the Old Rome and so it must work for the new one. But that’s not necessarily true, is it.” Jason barked out a laugh as he dragged a mixer out from under the counter “I think a lot of the old romans are well and truly done with both of us. When I left with the Exodus a lot of them saw that as a massive betrayal but honestly. I don’t care.” He polished off his beer and reached for a bottle of whisky sitting on the side table, pouring himself a modest amount before adding soda water. “No clear way forward and traps everywhere. It’s just like the good old days.”

“I’m glad that she ensured that you are properly prepared for eventually becoming my primary care giver.” Percy hadn’t dated anyone in several months, hell it was probably close to a year now. “I don’t know how much longer we can blame our genetic make up for the situations that we find ourselves in. At what point do we say that enough is enough? When do we take a stand and say no more?” He sighed sadly and ran a hand over his jawline, scratching gently at the hairs of his beard, tracing the outline of the bone. “Well it obviously is not true,” Percy agreed, “otherwise we wouldn’t have found ourselves in the situation that we are in. The fact that a handful of families have the majority of the wealth and power within New Rome is pretty terrifying.” Raising an eyebrow, Percy smiled warmly at his friend. He would always be grateful for everything that Jason, a son of Jupiter and a Roman, had decided to sacrifice for his friends, over his people. “You know I can never truly thank you for everything that you did for us.” Percy followed Jason’s example, copying his drink choice and drinking a chunk of it straight away. “Well, all we need is for Leo and Grover and your sister to come back and we’d have most of the old crew.”

“Somebody has to take care of you and Gods know it isn’t going to be you. So I guess I’ll keep feeding you chocolate chips and making sure you wear your coat in the winter.” Jason shook his head and left off his baking, walking over to lean next to Percy against the island. “My worry is we have been taking stands. Over and over and over and how long before people just start tuning us out. Oh it’s just Jason and Percy raising a fuss again just ignore them.” He waved Percy’s thanks away, “the deep and abiding love I have for you and my Greek friends left me little choice. It was the right thing to do and even with all it cost I would do it again and again and again. I could never abandon you, Percy. Not then, not now, not ever.” He raised his brow at Percy’s quick chug of his drink, “Oh is it going to be that kind of night? I can get behind that.” He thought of his sister, off doing whatever immortal Huntresses do, “it would be nice to see them all again.”

“I do a pretty good job of looking out for myself,” Percy replied with a chuckle, “I just don’t live up to your high standards of health and care. Sorry.” Percy frowned gently and considered Jason’s point. “I don’t think that means that we have to stop making a stand, I think that all that it means is that we have to make an even bigger fuss about things otherwise no one is ever going to listen to us. I know that you don’t intend to stop fighting for what is right and neither do I.” He shrugged gently and smiled at Jason. “All the same, what you did for us and what you gave up for us was more than we could’ve asked for and I am so thankful that we have you about to help us.” He smiled gently and shrugged. “It would be really nice to see them all again, especially Grover.”

“You do a moderate at best job of looking out for yourself.” Jason stuck his tongue out at his best friend and shook his head, “We need to get you a girlfriend just so I can split the duties of caring for you with someone else.” His smile faltered for a moment, “No. It doesn’t. It just means it’s more of an uphill battle every time we do it. Which is exhausting.” An eye roll preceded a hand flapping and a sigh, “Hush. What I did for you and gave up for you I would do a hundred times over if it meant I could keep you all safe. And that’s the end of that discussion.” Jason topped off their glasses, “Yeah. It would. It’s always nice to have the whole family together. Wish they could spend thanksgiving with us, but, I guess we’ll just have to make it perfect just us.”

“Moderate my ass, exemplary. Look at me. I’m in perfect shape, my hair is healthy and clean, I have a full face of hair.” Percy smiled happily, genuinely enjoying himself more than he had in a good long while. “Believe me Jace, if there was anyone out there that I was interested in, I’d much rather be with them than stuck here with you.” He joked of course. They both knew that there was nowhere in the world that Percy would rather be at this exact moment. “Either way, I’m sure when they realised that it was a full time job, they would quickly give up on it.” He considered continuing their conversation about his gratitude to Jason, but decided to respect his friends wishes. At least for now. “Speaking of, who are you planning on inviting over?”

Jason cast an appraising eye over Percy, “Well… you do have the body of a god… well demigod at least, and that beard is a solid 8.5.” He reached out and scratched Percy’s beard before walking back to his kitchen, “Oh I know… but that sounds like the kind of talk that means you don’t want one of my famous molasses chocolate ginger cookies fresh out of the oven.” He pulled the tray out and set it on a rack on the other side of the kitchen, flipping Percy off after he pulled his oven mitts off, “Their loss, then. They’d be missing out on one of the best dudes in the world. If they couldn’t see that then they don’t deserve you. Any girl would be lucky to have you.” Jason shrugged, putting the bread he’d neatly braided into the oven after washing it with egg and milk, “Nico, though he won’t come. Frank, Reyna, Hazel, probably Piper if she isn’t going to go see her dad, Annabeth if it won’t be weird for you. I dunno. Part of me wants to invite everyone. Part of me just wants it to be you and me getting drunk and fat on thanksgiving food.”

“8.5?” Percy almost spat out his whiskey and soda in shock. Surprised by what he was hearing. “What would constitute getting a ten then?” he asked teasingly. “Would Gandalf or Dumbledore be worthy of getting a ten? What about Chiron? Where does he come on the Grace scale, which is how we shall measure all beards from now on.” Percy laughed gently. “You and my mom definitely have been spending far too much time together, you’re beginning to say almost the exact same thing at the exact same moment that the other would say it.” Percy was glad that he had his friend for the holidays. It was easy to feel sorry for yourself and to miss home, but he knew that even though he wasn’t with his family, he soon would be. Or at least that was what he hoped. “Invite Annabeth,” Percy said with a nod and a shrug, “the more the merrier.” He nodded and shrugged. “I can’t decide for you, all I know is that whatever we decide will be great.”

“Mark the day! Percy Jackson, offended that his war beard didn’t score a perfect ten on the Grace Scale!” Jason shook his head mockingly at his friend, laughing all the while, “Perfect ten beard? John Krasinski in A Quiet Place… totally a perfect ten beard there.” Chuckling he kept working in the kitchen, always moving, never stopping entirely, while he talked with Percy, “You know that’s a gigantic compliment right there. I’ll always take being compared to your mom. She’s one of the dopest ladies around.” Nodding he started to assemble the ingredients for his gingerbread, “I will then. I’ll invite them all, though while you can’t decide for me you definitely get some input. This is your Thanksgiving just as much as it is mine.”

“It’s now actually known as the “War and Peace Beard” thank you very much,” Percy couldn’t help the pout that crept upon his face. “Bullshit, John Krasinski doesn’t have anything on me. My beard is fuller, shinier, has better volume, shape and definition than Krasinski does.” He wasn’t going to be defeated by some actor who couldn’t grow a beard in the Office. “Why do you think I said it?” he asked with a smirk. “I think that if we can all get together like we used to, if we can all settle down and really enjoy an evening together. Despite everything that has happened, despite everything that we’ve had to do. Then you know what, that is probably the best victory we can ever get.” He swallowed a mouthful of whiskey and soda, shifting on the stool he sat at as he continued to watch Jason work. “You know we’re really lucky?” he said with a laugh, “I just realised that there is pretty much no chance that our parents are going to show up uninvited.”

Jason shook his head dolefully and sighed, “Percy. I love you more than life itself and would literally throw myself into a burning building to save you… but…. I have to say… his beard is better than yours.” Jason chuckled and nodded, pulling one of the many pads of paper that littered his apartment towards him and started writing names down on it. “I love that reasoning there. Our family and and us celebrating the good things is a good victory indeed.” Jason’s chuckle turned into a deep booming laugh as he nodded to Percy’s realization, “I can’t really imagine my father descending from the heavens to sit at my kitchen table and bitch about my baking skills. He seems like he’d be really judgey.” Leaving his kitchen he brought Percy a warm cookie fresh from the oven, leaning against the counter as he waited for his verdict. “Well?”

“Lies and slander can often be responded to with an example of litigation of some variety.” Pausing for a second, Percy raised an eyebrow gently and smiled. He was rather proud of his beard, it was not difficult to argue that it was the best thing to come out of this war, though he wasn’t sure that was entirely true. “I don’t know, I don’t think that my concern would be Jupiter but rather Mrs Olympus AKA Juno, or Hera. I don’t care what we call her, but she’s the patron Goddess of cows for a reason.” Pausing for a second, he sipped his drink and did his best not to be the most judgemental of bitches. “Ah, excellent, allow the sampling to begin.” Percy grabbed a paper napkin and made a huge show of tucking it into the collar of his t-shirt before grabbing a plate and a knife and fork to complete his display. Using his cutlery to cut into the cookie, he delicately stabbed it with his fork and chewed on it. “9/10, it’s not as good as those chocolate rainbow cookies you made for pride.”

“You think it’s awkward for you. She’s my stepmother. It’s so awkward. She’s one of the worst creatures in existence.” Jason paused and canted his head toward the ceiling “and yes I know you can hear me and no I don’t care.” Returning his attention to Percy’s ridiculous and grandiose display of cookie eating he shook his head in utter disbelief. “A 9 out of ten?! Those cookies have won baking contests, Jackson! You just liked the pride cookies because they were rainbow and that handsome dude from the parade ate one off your abs.” It seemed a long distant past when Percy and Jason had been in the closet to each other, but now they were both out and supremely comfortable with each other. “speaking of… a guy in my writing seminar asked me out for beers the other day. First date I’ve been asked on since the injury.”

“Well, having had the worst and best stepfather in the entire world, I can sympathise with you, to some extent at least. Though neither Paul nor Gabe ever tried to mind wipe me and send me to the wrong Camp.” Percy shrugged gently as he nursed the last of his drink, swilling the whiskey and soda around and around his glass. At the mention of eating cookies off of his abs, Percy found himself smirking gently in remembrance. “Yes, well that might’ve been one of the highlights, but there was something about those blue chocolate chips that you used or made or whatever,” raising an eyebrow gently, “I don’t know what to say, this is not the first time you’ve not been able to best a previous accomplishment.”

“Though. I do have to give mommy dearest a tiny sliver of credit. Without her I never would have met you, and I can’t imagine not having you in my life.” Jason started to eat one of his cookies before a timer went off and he moved back to the kitchen, pulling the bread from the oven and smiling to himself at how it looked. “Nice to know I haven’t lost any of my skills.” Pride with Percy had become a yearly tradition after Jason had come out of the closet as bisexual, and it was something he enjoyed. It was nice to be free and unconcerned for an afternoon, and if he was incredibly honest; he liked the attention. “I turned him down. But. It’s nice to be asked. I just don’t think I’m at a point in my life where dating mortals is a good idea. Too many things I can’t explain to them.”

Though Percy remained silent, he couldn’t help but think that Juno’s original intention had not been to provide her two favourite demigods with a lifelong friendship. He was certain that she would claim credit for that too. “I guess we occasionally get lucky don’t we?” Pausing he chewed on the last of the cookie in front of him and smiled brightly. “These are really good J,” Percy said quietly, “one day you and my mother will have to teach me how to bake. Maybe I can be someone’s house husband. That would be the dream.” He smiled brightly and shrugged. “Poor kid, I bet he was devastated ….” he still saw Jason the way he saw him when they’d first met. Jason was tall, tanned, muscular and well groomed. He looked like the stereotypical popular kid in all the movies. “You might enjoy the distraction, it could be a nice outlet to get away from all of this.” Percy couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to really date a mortal, everyone he’d dated had been demigods. Maybe it would be the bridge into the mortal world. A first step into normalcy? But he knew that was something they’d never achieve.

“As much as it seems like the Fates shit on us constantly I guess we do get lucky some of the time.” Jason gave Percy his most dazzling smile and threw on his Hollywood voice, “You’re the best piece of good luck that’s ever happened to me, Jackson.” He heaved a longing sigh, “Oh gods right?! Being a house husband is the fucking dream. Just cook and write and game. That sounds amazing. Need me a man or woman who’s on board with that.” He shut off the oven and moved to flop onto his couch, deciding it was time for a break. “I’m sure he wasn’t devastated. But he was disappointed. But I’m retired now. There’s not much I need a distraction from. I mean… I do homework and cook. I help out a little bit but not as much as you or Annabeth.” He shrugged, swirling the liquid in his glass and watching it, “I dunno. I just don’t feel like having to hide parts of myself. You know? I could never invite him back to my place. It’d be very one sided and that’s not good for a relationship.”

“You could maybe try actually getting to know the guy, discover if he is trustworthy and be honest that there are somethings that you simply can’t tell him.” Percy wasn’t really sure why he was suggesting this, he preferred Jason single so that he could always be about when Percy needed him. “I know it’d be difficult to make work, but you never know, what if he is the one and you’re missing it completely because you’re too focussed on what might go wrong?” he paused and picked at a crumb on the marble kitchen island in front of him. Absentmindedly crushing and rolling it between his fingers. “I don’t know, you know what’s best for you, but you’re not leading anymore, you’re basically retired. I’d think that if there was ever a time to look into the benefits of love, then it’d be now, right?”

“Yeah because that doesn’t scream cliche. I’ll just swagger over like hey I know I’m a one-eyed man with a checkered and mysterious past but you just have to trust I’m not a serial killer.” Jason shrugged, “I really don’t feel like there’s the one. There’s someone who’s good for me now, but I mean, especially as a bi bro… there’s a lot of fish in that sea. I don’t wanna get stuck in the rut of thinking there’s just one. But. Who knows. Maybe there is just one.” He laughed “the benefits of love? I think we’ve both been single for far too long to speak on the benefits of love. We just have a hazy memory of what they are.” Sitting up he tugged the hair tie out of his long blonde braid and let his hair hang loose around his shoulders, “I’m still young. 24 isn’t that old. But hey. Whatever happens happens.”

#f&gwriting #chatzy #para #chatzy para #p: jason #let's get basted #not that they do any basting #but thanksgiving puns right

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