Chapter Text
&1.
“Oh, Gods, Jason, man, help me out over here?”
Jason blinks up from his own s’more and looks to his left. Leo stares helplessly back at him, his six squares of Hershey’s bar melting to goo in his hand. He laughs. “Yeah, that’s a mess, okay. Here, hold?”
Leo takes his s’more and offers out his mess of a chocolate bar. Jason sort of scoops it out of his hand, but it’s no use - the thing’s already beyond unusable.
“I always have this problem,” Leo whines. “My hands are too freaking hot.”
Jason’s lips quirk a little bit against his will. He has to fight down a too hot to handle joke, instead sniping the last of the chocolate down into the fire. “Here, let me beg some more off of Chiron.”
“Thanks, man, you’re the best,” Leo sighs. He stares mournfully at Jason’s perfect first s’more. Jason’s heart breaks at the stupid look on his face, like a sick animal. Gods help him.
“Eat mine before it gets cold, yeah?”
Leo’s face brightens up instantly. His eyes literally light up, flecks of orange and red and gold sparkling through the ironically melted-chocolate brown. “Really?”
“Yeah, dude.” As if he can resist that stupid face, gods. Jason is a weak man, alright? Whatever. He’s allowed to have a weakness. Leo takes the s’more with glee not unlike a child.
Chiron thankfully laughs and hands Jason another s’more set when he asks, holding his melty-goopy hand up as proof. It feels nice to sit back down and roast up the second marshmallow, burn it properly before sliding it neatly between the two crackers, just on top of the non-melted chocolate.
Leo has s’more all over his face by the time Jason makes it back up to their seats. He looks delighted, licking the mess off his fingers. Jason settles in and bites messily into his own treat - it’s pretty hard to cleanly eat something like this, he can’t lie.
“You make really fucking good s’mores,” Leo says around his thumb. “Like, holy shit oh my god I would kill a man for another one kind of good.”
Jason snorts, spraying graham cracker all over one of the kids in front of him. The guy turns around and stakes him with a dark look. Jason waves his free hand, covering his mouth. “Sorry!” he laughs, and elbows Leo hard. “ Asshole.”
“Hey! I was complimenting you!”
Jason takes a second bite of his s’more. “See if I ever make you another one after that.”
“No! Please, come on man, you can’t just show me a glimpse of heaven and then take it all away, that’s torture. Torture is illegal, you’re not allowed to torture your best friend. Jay. Specks. Superman. Please?”
Jason manages to hold his ground for a solid few minutes, long enough to finish his own s’more (it really is pretty fucking good, if he does say so himself) and dust his hands off. He turns to look at Leo, though, and it cracks his resolve - talk about puppy-dog eyes, huh? He snorts.
“Okay, fine, I’ll make you another one some other time. Dude, you’ve got it all over your face.”
“What?” Leo’s victorious smirk slides off. He puts his hand up on his cheek and licks his lip. “Where? Why didn’t you tell me before, bro, rude.”
“Here- here, let me,” Jason rolls his eyes when Leo wildly wipes at the wrong part of his face. He licks the corner of his t-shirt (Leo squeals “eww!” like he’s four years old) and wipes it gently against the smear on the tip of Leo’s nose, his right cheek. He thumbs away some chocolate off his chin, and blinks at the stubborn smear of marshmallow right at the corner of his lips.
Huh. It’s maybe a weird time to notice it, but- Jason’s pretty sure he loves Leo, right then. Like- he loves the guy, he loves him so much he’d die for him in a heartbeat, but this, the feeling of it, it’s like a double-pulse in his chest. Like Leo’s heart is racing beside his, like his heat is circulating through Jason’s fingertips. Like Jason wants to kiss the marshmallow off his mouth.
“What’s up?” Leo hums, a little more serious like he recognizes that Jason’s seen something. “Do I have a pimple or something-”
“No, no,” Jason rubs his thumb against the marshmallow, but it clings. He tilts his head. Leo’s eyelids flutter a little, like he’s confused. “Just, uh,” he licks his own lips. “Nothing. Sorry.”
He cleans the sticky away, and throws his arm around Leo, just because he can.
“Alright, weirdo,” Leo snorts, but he cuddles up, too. Because that’s just how they are.
But, Jason’s got his heart set now. He smiles down at the top of Leo’s curly head. He’s got a plan.
~
The first time Leo yawns through one of the sing-along songs instead of making up nasty replacement lyrics, Jason taps him on the shoulder and offers to walk him back to cabin nine.
“Oh, sure, Charming,” Leo teases, though he does accept, rolling his shoulders as he stands up. He yawns again, mouth wide open, head tipped back. His face scrunches up unattractively, though he’s still beautiful as ever.
Seriously. How did Jason never notice how he feels for Leo? This isn’t new, this whole attraction thing, Jason knows, it’s just…hm. Maybe it was tempered by what he thought he felt for Piper? Or- no, because that wells up guilt in him. He loved Piper, he still loves her, it’s just…it’s not the same. This thing for Leo’s maybe always been there, but the thing with Piper, that was separate, too.
He puts his hand on Leo’s lower back, helping him stumble his way down the amphitheater steps. Chiron gives them a nod and a wave as they pass by.
It’s peaceful, as always, to walk through camp in the dark. The only light is from the moon, nearing its peak overhead. The dirt paths are well worn, and Jason could probably make it with his eyes closed, but in the moonlight it’s pretty. Romantic. Sweet.
Fairytale-esque. He smiles at his feet. Leo would probably laugh, if he said that. If he did, Charming might really stick. Jason doesn’t need a new nickname. Well- boyfriend might not be too bad, heh.
“What’s on your mind, Supes?” Leo hums, bumping against Jason’s side gently. “Awfully nice night out to be so quiet.”
“Just thinking about you, I guess.” Honesty is the best policy. Leo blinks, his face going a different shade in the dim-light.
“U-Uh…okay.”
Jason snorts, kicking a pebble out at him. “I’m allowed to think about you, you know.”
“I know. I just- I didn’t expect, uh, so forward an answer, I guess.”
Jason sticks his free hand in his pocket and moves his other one up around Leo’s shoulders, tugging him in. “It’s true. I was thinking about how you make me feel. Like I can be a kid, screw around a little bit when you’re with me.”
“Awe.” Leo sort of laughs. He kicks a different pebble. “Well, that’s sweet, I guess.”
“Yeah.” Jason always feels his best when he can talk to Leo. He’s always wanted to talk to Leo, about everything - about how Nico’s doing, how he’s keeping up with his new quest stuff, how he failed all the intro exams to every school he applied for, all of it. And Leo always listens while he does whatever he’s doing, and offers input, and grins, and- yeah. It is sweet. Leo is like, Jason’s home.
They step up to the Hephaestus’s cabin door.
“Well, this is my stop,” Leo jokes, and cracks into another deep yawn. “Shit, man, I’m wiped.”
“I’ll let you get to sleep then.” Jason lets him go, sticking his hands both into his pockets. He gulps down the rash of nerves and looks Leo in the eyes. “Actually, uh, one more thing?”
“Mm,” Leo hums, and doesn’t look away like he usually does. He blinks slowly, eyes starting to get a little pink from sleepiness. Jason licks his lower lip and chews on it for a moment.
“Do you, uh. Do you think you maybe want to go out with me? Sometime?”
Just like that, the sleepy on Leo’s face snaps back out. His eyes sharpen, his mouth dropping into almost-frown territory. His shoulders tense. “U-Uhm. What?”
Jason can’t tell if that’s a bad reaction, or just a Leo reaction. “Like a date,” he clarifies, in case the Leo-reaction is from confusion. “I’m asking if you’d like to go out on a date.”
“A date,” Leo repeats, slower, his eyebrows starting to creep together. He waves a hand around, and then puts it on his chest. “With me?”
Despite the nerves, Jason can’t help but roll his eyes. “Yes, with you. Who else could I be talking to?”
“Am I dreaming?”
That- Jason doesn’t know how to respond to that. He blinks, amusement curling up through him. Leo dreamed about this?
A second later, Leo seems to recognize that it’s not a dream. His face burns colors - his ears start to glow that funny whitehot way they do when he’s really bungled something up. “You asked me out,” he whispers.
Jason nods. “I did. You haven’t responded.”
“Of course I want to go out on a date with you? Dude?”
“Oh, cool.”
“ Cool!?” Leo screeches - well, really it’s more like his voice cracks, but like, also not too far off from the sound metal makes when it’s bent too-hard too-fast. Leo clears his throat and waves his hands around again. His hair ignites. “Are you fucking with me, what is going on?”
“I’m not messing with you, Leo, I promise.” Jason would never. He likes him too much - in all senses of the phrase - to do that. Gods, he likes him so much. “We can hammer out specifics when you’re more awake, though. Sorry for springing that on you, I uh, I just- didn’t want to wait, chicken out or anything.”
Leo blinks, and blinks again. He still doesn’t quite look like he understands, but he’s also tired, Jason understands. He holds his arms out for a hug.
“Goodnight, man. I’ll talk to you more about this tomorrow.”
“O-Okay,” Leo says, sort of half like he’s chuckling. He sinks into Jason’s chest and tentatively hugs him back, his hands patting like he’s not sure if he’s supposed to do the bro-hug thing or not. “I’m so confused.”
“I like you, like I want to date you.”
“That’s not making me less confused.”
Jason laughs, even if it’s not funny. Of course Leo wouldn’t understand why someone likes him. Jason will press the issue tomorrow, when they’re both more coherent.
“Love you, man,” he says instead, and presses a kiss into the top of Leo’s head, because Jason likes to be a little shit sometimes. Leo stares at him with his mouth wide open as he steps back, salutes, and steps off the cabin porch.
“Bye…?” Leo says when Jason’s already halfway across the semicircle of cabins. He grins to himself, ducking his head down, watching his sneakers tread through patches of weeds.
Yeah. That went well.