Archive of Our Own ^beta

"You know, you could still use your cabin."

Jason didn't bother looking up from his current task. "I'm 29, Nico," he said, stacking shirts into the dresser drawer, "I'm not gonna room with a kid less than half my age." Richie may have been his little brother, but it would still feel weird. The Big House would do just fine. No creepy statues watching him either.

Nico made a noncommittal noise behind him. He'd always considered the inconvenience of sharing room with his half-siblings an acceptable trade-off for being close to them. Even after almost half their lives, his friend had never lost that devotion.

It was that devotion to the younger generation, in fact, that had brought Jason back to Camp Halfblood. Nico had been helping Chiron run the camp for that last few years, training campers in swordplay and survival techniques, and serving as a sympathetic ear for anyone who needed it. He'd made himself a fixture at camp. So, naturally, that made leaving troublesome.

The week before, Nico had messaged Jason about filling in for him. Hades had a task for his oldest living son, he said, which wouldn't (shouldn't) be too life-threatening, but would take him at least a month. That wouldn't normally be a problem, except that Chiron was also away from camp, dealing with some problem for the Party Ponies, and nobody knew when he'd be back. Leaving Dionysus to handle things by himself was only an option if they wanted to come back and find the place burned down by drunk children, so Jason had packed his bags and left New Rome to return to New York.

It felt good to be back. Jason had been in New Rome full-time for three years now, steadily working on his long-delayed history degree. College had for years taken a back seat to building the many, many shrines he'd promised to the gods. When that was finally done, he'd taken a long vacation, most of it spent on Leo's couch in San Antonio, and confirmed (repeatedly) to the New Roman leadership that, no, he didn't intend to stay on as Pontifex. When they'd finally accepted that, he'd returned to take up his studies, and hadn't had a chance to visit his Greek cousins, and some newly discovered siblings, for more than a weekend at a time since.

"Thank you again for doing this."

"Hey, it's no problem," Jason assured, shutting the drawer, "I missed this place."

Nico chuckled. "You might not be saying that when you actually have to deal with these punks. Last week the new Hermes kid actually asked why I was, and I'm quoting now: 'the only old dude here.'"

Jason couldn't suppress the laugh. "Oh my gods, you're joking, right?" Nico shook his head. "I take it there was an unscheduled funeral after that?"

Nico ran a hand through his hair. "I was tempted, believe me," he huffed.

"You do have a kind of...frowny old man face sometimes."

Nico scowled.

"Yeah!" Jason cried, pointing at his friend's unamused visage, "that's the one! Right there!"

"Y'know," Nico grumbled as Jason deposited his suitcase in the closet, "I'm real sorry I won't be here to watch Percy kick your ass during sword fighting demonstrations."

"Well, you-" it took Jason a moment for that last bit to catch up, and he choked on what he'd been about to say. He wheeled back around to "-Wait. Percy? Yo-you didn't say he'd be here. I thought he was in Florida." Percy Jackson was supposed to be a thousand miles away, damn him.

"Well, yeah, usually. He offered to come up when I told him what was going on. He's consulting with the forecast center here on Long Island. Florida won't need him back until hurricane season. You..." Nico fixed Jason with a suspicious look, "you guys are still fighting, aren't you?"

Jason averted his eyes.

"You are. Jeez, Jason, it's been years now." Nico's voice bespoke years of frustration, as if they'd had this same conversation dozens of times. Which they had.

"We're not fighting," Jason asserted, "fighting implies talking." Gods knew he hadn't been doing much of that with Perseus Jackson in a while. Or in the entire decade since Jason had made a colossal ass of himself.

Nico looked as though he wanted to say exactly what he'd been saying for ten years, and then, as though he was trying very hard not to. Instead he just sighed. "Is this gonna be a problem? Because I can ask someone else, if it's that big a deal."

Jason was a little ashamed of how long he seriously considered that; of just saying that yes, it was a big deal, and he had to get back to California right away.

But no. He'd made a promise. "No. I can do it." He could do it. He would. "You're right. We're adults. It won't kill us to act like it."

"I'm going to kill you."

Nico just rolled his eyes at the threat (from someone who could, in fact, probably kill him). "Get this out of your system now, then." Honestly, he'd had too many of these conversations today.

"You could have said something," Percy bit out.

"And then you'd have had a sudden emergency."

"I changed jobs for this, Nico. A little warning would have been nice." Percy gestured out the window of Cabin 13. Jason was out on the green, recounting his fight with the king of the Giants to a small, attentive group of campers, his half-brother Richie and Nico's sister Eliza among them.

"Warning? It's Jason, not freaking Hyperion. The way you two hold onto shit..." Nico sometimes wondered if his friends weren't sons of Hades, the way they held a grudge.

Percy just scowled, but there wasn't any real danger behind it. Nico could still move, after all. "You did this on purpose."

That warranted another eyeroll. "Yes, Percy. I convinced Chiron to leave for the foreseeable for future to lure you here. He's on a cruise ship sailing around South America. And my dad doesn't actually need me, I just said that to hide the fact that Travis Stoll and I are running off to Madrid together." Nico poured all the sarcasm he could muster into the words. "We're gonna sip wine on a balcony over the Plaza Mayor and laugh about our fiendish plot to reconcile these two morons we know." He leveled a glare at Percy. "I needed somebody I could trust. He agreed. Your weird little thing is gonna have to take a back seat. And frankly, ten years is long enough. Even Annabeth has gotten over it, it's way past time you two did the same."

Percy gasped in faux-surprise. "Wow, a pushy, meddling Italian man from the 1940's. And here I thought this place was nothing like Florida."

"Look," Nico sighed, "I'm not saying you two have to, ah, kiss and make up," Percy did not appreciate the phrasing, if the vein on his forehead was any indicator, "but if you could just act like the grown-ups I'm reasonably sure you can pretend to be, for a few weeks, that would be really great."

He let his voice soften a little. "I know that things ended bad. I get it. You don't have to be friends again," (even if it would make planning parties with their friends way less complicated) "you don't even have to speak to each other more than once a day. The activities schedule is the same as it was before Jason got here." Hopefully nothing would suddenly happen to disrupt it, but to be honest, Nico would, if asked, bet a hundred drachma that there would be chaos inside a week. "Chiron will be back soon and Jason will be back on the other side of the country. You know I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you two would be up to it."

Percy huffed. "Fine," he said sullenly, like it wasn't fine at all, "but I'm telling the twins about your 22nd birthday party."

Well, that was it for the last shred of respect his little brother and sister had for him, then. "Deal, if you leave out the part with the book club."

"Deal."

Dinner that night passed with minimal weirdness. Well, except the Ares counselor challenging one of the Apollo kids to a duel, but that was just Wednesday stuff. Percy had sat with Allan at Table 3 as usual and studiously kept his back to Table 1 at all costs. Nico had briefly given a talk introducing Jason for anyone who hadn't met him, announcing his own departure the next morning, and telling the campers that could come to "Mr. Jackson and Mr. Grace" (way to make them sound old, Nico) for anything they'd normally come to him for. Neither Percy nor Jason sang along at the campfire, and when the campers retired for the night, the two managed to get back to their rooms without looking at or speaking to one another.

The next two days proceeded in much the same manner. Percy took sword fighting lessons and the climbing wall, Jason supervised the monster classes and archery range, and a tentative, silent harmony was established. When speaking was absolutely necessary, it was with brief sentences in even tones. It was beginning to look as though they might actually get through the month without reopening any old wounds.

Trust a game of Capture the Flag to not only open the old wounds, but furnish some new, all too literal ones.

Percy had stationed himself by the creek to assist any injured campers back to the Big House. Jason was doing the same at the pile of rocks that had once been Zeus' Fist. Percy had hoped for a game that was either quick or boring. He wasn't that lucky. Nothing so far had been truly life-threatening, but the infirmary was certain to be full tonight. He'd already escorted two campers from the field.

"Percy!"

And that would be #3 now.

The kid's name was Evan, a son of Hermes. Percy knew him a little from volunteering at camp during previous summers, a shy, uncertain boy who preferred to blend in rather than stand out. He had an an arrow sticking out of his thigh, and was leaning heavily on a newer girl Percy only vaguely recognized.

"Here. Give him here." Percy shifted the boy from the girl's shoulder onto his. As she ran back to join the blue team, Percy began half-guiding, half-outright carrying his charge in the direction of the big house, where a healer would patch the kid up. Evan was mostly quiet, save for the occasional hiss of pain. Percy himself was preoccupied trying not to drop the weirdly heavy teenager when...

"...Kid? Is that your hand on my butt?" He brought them to a halt.

"Um. No." The blush and slightly horrified look on the boy's face convinced Percy he was telling the truth.

Percy sighed. That left a decidedly less weird but far more dangerous set of possibilities. "Well if it's not you, then there's something on my back." He tried to twist his head, but his human neck just wasn't supposed to bend that way. "Do you think you could...?" The teenager hung back to get a look, and went pale.

"Um. There's a. You have a scorpion on your back." Aw, shit.

"Aw, shit." Not this again. Once was quite enough, thanks ever so much. Percy's mind got to work trying to plan a way out of this did not end with one of them getting a nasty case of fatal poisoning. Trying to flick the thing off him by hand was sure to end in tears. Using his sword at this angle was more likely to kill him than the scorpion.

"OK, Evan, this is gonna be tricky. Can you stand? Just for a second?"

"I, uh, I think so?"

"Good. Because if I move, I'm probably gonna die." 'This is a terrible idea.' "Do you have a knife on you?"

"Yes. But I'm--"

"I need you to let go of me and flick this thing off my back. Fast as you can. " The words 'please don't kill me while saving my life,' went unsaid.

"But...but I...what if I stab you?" Percy groaned.

"I was hoping it wouldn't occur to you, to be completely honest. Just get it off me and I'll take care of the rest."

"I can't just--"

"Look, Evan. Right now, my life is literally in your hands." Percy was doing his best to stay calm. It wouldn't do to panic the poor kid. "You're hurt, you're scared, and I've been there," 'The woods, a pit scorpion, and the son of Hermes. I've been exactly there.' "Let's just kill this thing, and then we'll get you patched up, and we'll laugh about this later."

"I--" Evan set his face into a determined grimace. "--OK. OK, yeah." He drew the knife from his belt and passed it to his left hand, the one around Percy's shoulders. "On three?"

Percy nodded. "Whatever works for you."

Evan took a deep breath. "One." The knife was shaking in his hand, which didn't exactly fill Percy with confidence, but there was nothing to be done about it.

"Two." Percy would never get used to seeing that kind of resolve on such a young face, never mind how young he'd been himself.

"Three!" Percy relaxed his grip and Evan's arm sung away. He felt the kid push off him, and then half a second later, the weight on the back of his shirt was gone.

With the ease of almost twenty years of practice, Percy had Riptide out, spinning around and driving the blade through the little monster in an eyeblink. The sword passed through what was now a small pile of golden dust, embedding itself in the earth. "There," Percy grinned at Evan, whose injured leg had fallen out from under him when older demigod had spun suddenly, "what'd I tell you? Easy as--" The pain shot up his leg. He heard Evan cry out, and saw the kid lunge at something behind him with the knife in his hand.

'Two of them?' "That's..." Percy stumbled as the venom raced through his body. "...that's no fuckin' fair..." All of a sudden, there were dead leaves in his face, and Percy realized he'd fallen. He felt someone roll him onto his side, and was greeted by the sight of one very frightened thirteen-year-old kid. 'Shit shit shit.' "Hey..." he gasped out as the world started going black.

"...could you do me a favor and start screaming for help?"

The infirmary was too quiet that night, considering how many kids had been hurt. At least, it seemed that way to Jason. But most of those hurts had been tended to, and there were only five people still present: Michelle, the Apollo cabin's head counselor, two campers who were two injured to be released until tomorrow, Jason himself, and the man in the bed in front of him.

It had been sheer luck that Jason had been close enough to hear Evan's frantic screaming. One look at Percy, wheezing and gray, and all those years of bitterness, regret, and self-recrimination had melted away. Everything became so much clearer when someone you cared about was in danger.

And even after everything, Jason still cared.

Percy would recover. The venom had been purged, and the healers had fed him enough nectar to make the room sweltering hot. His natural color had returned, but the son of Poseidon had yet to awaken.

Jason hadn't left the infirmary since he'd been allowed back in. Percy's younger brother Allan had wanted to stay, but Jason had told him to go to bed hours ago, promising to get him if there was any change. Dionysus had stopped by briefly, boredly asking if they were going to need a new counselor, and then disappearing to wherever he went when his input wasn't required.

Hours spent sitting next to an unresponsive body unfortunately left a lot of time for reflection, very little of it positive. Jason had spent that time replaying his last conversation with Percy, all those years ago. Shame filled him when he remembered what he'd said. What he'd accused Percy of doing. How he'd been too proud to admit to the other man that he'd been wrong, not even once in the last decade.

He'd let his fear of the future tear any hope of that future away. He'd let the wounds from that fear sit and fester for ten years. He'd pushed any sense of guilt down and down until he thought he couldn't feel it anymore, and carried on with his life like nothing was wrong.

"Hnnn..."

Jason turned so fast at the sound he almost hurt his neck. Percy's eyes were bloodshot and glassy and not entirely focused, but they were looking right at him. Looking right into Jason's eyes; into his very soul.

"...Thalia?"

Or he was delirious and drugged up. That was an option, too.

"No, Percy. It's me. It's Jason." 'You know, the guy who fucked you and dumped you and tried to make the whole thing your fault, and then you didn't talk for ten years? That asshole?'

"Ooohhh," Percy slurred, "Yeah. That makes sense. Thalia's shorter." 'Shorter, and dark-haired, and, lest we forget, an eternally fifteen-year-old girl.' "That's ok. We don't talk enough, anyway"

"No," Jason choked out, "I guess we don't."

Percy looked at him in confusion. "Why'd we stop?"

'Shit.' "Well, I guess..." Jason hesitated for a moment, before realizing that Percy probably wouldn't even remember this, and that, for once in his life, the truth couldn't hurt. "...I guess it's because of me."

"Well. What'd you do that for?" Delirious-Percy looked genuinely curious. Jason wondered if Normal-Percy was, too.

"I...I got scared. Everyone gets taken away from me. Or they leave. My mom gave me up. The Legion turned on me. Piper left me. And then you and I started getting closer. And I started wondering 'when is he gonna go away too?'" Jason felt his hands ball up into fists. He'd been such a damned fool. "I thought it would hurt less if I was the one walking away." There were tears in his eyes now, and he hastily brushed them away.

"Did it?" Jason looked up again. Percy's eyes were still glassy and not quite focused, but there was something serious in the look he was giving him.

"No," he admitted. "No it didn't."

Percy's eyes drifted shut. "Shoulda jus' talked about it..." he said drowsily.

Jason nodded. "I should have." He looked back at Percy, sleeping once again.

"I will."

Percy could tell he was alive by how miserable he felt. Not to sound presumptuous, but he knew Elysium wouldn't involve this kind of headache.

"Mr. Jackson?" There was a blond girl standing over his bed.

"Michelle," he croaked, "I have asked you to call me 'Percy'. 'Mr. Jackson' was my grandfather. He died in a plane crash, which, in retrospect, I should probably be more suspicious about."

"Oh good, you're back to normal," Cabin Seven's senior counselor noted boredly. Gods knew she was used to him by now, as often as he got himself hurt, even after all this time. "I'll tell send somebody to tell Allan, he's been worried. Mr. Grace, too."

Well that was a surprise. "Jason?"

"Yeah. He brought you in."

"Huh." It made sense. Last he remembered, Percy had been dying in the woods with an injured camper. "I'll have to compliment Evan on his screaming ability."

"His what?" Michelle looked at him in confusion.

"Nothing," Percy shrugged, "Am I good to go?"

The girl shrugged back, "I'd usually keep you for another couple of days, but with the way you heal, a few hours in the tub should do."

"Great."

Percy was back in his room an hour later, after stopping by Cabin Three and reassuring Allan that he wasn't dead. Freshly showered, he was just pulling on his clothes when there was a knock on his door. Percy knew he shouldn't be surprised to see Jason standing in the hall outside, after what he'd managed to wring out of Michelle, but on some level, he still was. Like he'd thought (hoped?) that the other would just continue their campaign of mutual avoidance. But he hadn't.

"Hey," he said, unsure of what, exactly he was supposed to do here.

"Hi." Jason seemed just as tentative. There wasn't really a standard way of starting talks like this, Percy supposed. "Can I...come in?" Well, ok, the awkward 'can I come in' was probably standard.

"...Yeah. Come in." Percy held the door open for the other man, and shut it behind them. This was probably not something they'd want to be interrupted. "Thank you, by the way. They told me that it was you who got me to the healers in time."

Jason rubbed at the back of his neck. "It's no problem. I'd do it for anyone. I mean-" He blushed, "-shit, that's not what I meant."

"So you wouldn't do it for anyone?" Percy raised an eyebrow. Burying the hatchet be damned, if he was going to have this talk, he had shots he'd been waiting ten years to get in, first. "I didn't know you cared. Really."

"I...I guess I deserved that." Ugh, the look on his face. How did the mighty son of Zeus look so much like a kicked puppy, or a kid watching Old Yeller? Or a puppy watching Old Yeller while also kicking a kid?

"No, you didn't," Screw it, if he was gonna do this, he might as well be big about it. "I'm sorry."

"I thought that was my line."

"I never liked sticking to the script, what can I say?" Percy sat down on the bed. Jason remained standing.

"Look, the last time we talked..." The blond paused for a moment, "...I said some things I didn't really believe. I was looking for an excuse to push you away, and I did. But seeing you like that yesterday...it made me realize something. I didn't think it--that we--could last. Because nothing ever does, it seems like. Everyone leaves, or dies, or just stops." Jason was looking at the floor, the wall, anywhere but Percy's face. "And I guess that part of me wanted to be the one ending it for once.

"So I convinced myself that I should. I talked myself into thinking that I was just some rebound for you after Annabeth, a...convenient replacement, even though I knew you would never do that." Finally, Jason looked him in the face. "I ruined a good thing, and I let myself blame you for it, and I'm sorry."

Percy wasn't sure what to say to all that. For a long, long moment, he didn't say anything at all.

"So...how long did you rehearse that?" He asked wryly, and was somewhat gratified to hear Jason chuckle.

"Just the once. You were actually awake for some of it. Well, kind of." The blond actually grinned, and Percy felt like he was twenty again, like no time had passed at all. "You thought I was Thalia at first."

"...You're making that up."

"Swear on the Styx."

"Well," Percy waved at the air. "Must have been your girlish figure throwing me off."

"Ha! Must've been." Jason laughed again, and Percy couldn't quite bring himself to hate how good it felt, being able to make Jason Grace laugh. It was tempting to leave it at that, to just enjoy this unexpected warmth. But Jason wasn't the only one with things to get off his chest.

He stood again, looking Jason in the eye. "I haven't...it hurt. That you thought I would do that to you."

"I know." It seemed like Jason wanted to look away, but to his credit, he didn't.

"And after that, it was really hard for me to let people in. For a long time after, actually. I mean, what if you were right? You weren't," he let a little heat seep into the last word. Just a little. "But I thought that if you could think that, then maybe it was true." Those had not been good times for Percy, and he'd be lying if he said he felt no resentment toward Jason, for bringing that on.

So there was just the smallest bit of gratification to be had when he saw how ashamed Jason looked. Percy wasn't proud of feeling that way, but he did. Hey, he was ancient Greek. Pettiness was in his blood, and Jason had made him feel like crap.

But if he'd inherited pettiness from Poseidon, he'd learned forgiveness from Sally Jackson. So Percy extended a hand, and clapped Jason on the shoulder, and let it happen.

"I forgive you."

"You..." Jason was clearly having trouble with the concept. "You just--"

'Don't laugh, no matter how much he looks like a fish.'

"Yes, Jason. I just." It was Percy's turn to grin now. "I almost died yesterday. Why die mad?"

"Why?"

"Exactly!"

"No! I mean," Jason groaned in frustration, "I mean, how can that be it?"

Percy shrugged. "Because I say so." He took a step forward. "You were a dumbass, and you let your commitment issues get in the way of a good thing, and it hurt like hell, and I," another step, "am totally, 100% tired of being upset about it. So. Forgiven." They were practically nose-to-nose now. Close enough to kiss, a million years ago. Seeing Jason's face now, Percy was still a little bit tempted. "Now are you going to accept this hug and begin the healing process so we can act like the normal people we have never been, or are you going to keep being a dumbass?" Percy snaked his arms under Jason's, crushing their chests together, and putting whatever emotions he was still holding onto into the squeeze.

It took a moment. To be honest, Percy had been a little afraid that Jason would pull away and run. Again. But eventually, he felt those arms wrap around him.

There was a time, once, when those arms had felt like home. They didn't anymore. It had been too long, and too much had happened. But they felt honest. Real. It was more than he'd had in years. More than they'd had.

"...Percy?"

"Yes?"

"How long are we standing here?"

"Until the time is right."

"Oh. OK."

A few more moments of silence passed, before...

"Percy?"

"Yes?"

"You realize Nico is gonna be insufferable about this, right?"