Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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September 1st.

There were a lot of dates which Percy dreaded throughout the years. His dad’s birthday, his ex’s birthday, the anniversary of his stepdad’s death… you get the point. None of those days could even hold a candle to how much he dreaded each September 1st, though. After all, those were all painful in nostalgia, but the first day of the new school year? That was an issue staring Percy down in the present, poised to drive a dagger into his jugular and end his life as he knows it.

Gods, he was dramatic. Annabeth was right.

His thoughts seemed to echo throughout the empty street, which was notably odd for 6am in his neighbourhood. They were on the outskirts of the city, so there wasn't ever too much commotion, but there was always just enough to make it feel alive. This, however? It was barren, as if all his neighbours and their families just couldn’t bare to see him go. He wasn’t quite sure whether that was a comfort or not.

The silence was broken by his name ringing out in a familiar voice.

"Percy? Are you coming?"

Sally, ever the saint she was, had been working her hardest to make sure her son’s transition would be as smooth as possible. She’d been talking it over with him every day for a week, she’d prepackaged him a meal for tonight if he didn’t feel like leaving his dorm, and hell- she was even driving him there when Percy totally could’ve just caught a train. Fuel isn’t cheap, you know.

Whilst Percy would usually find himself flattered and bewildered at his mother’s constant optimism, he would admit that her recent attempts were… tiring, at best. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand she had what was best for him in mind, but he was pretty sure there was a conflict of interest there.

You see, Percy Jackson had three main interests: skating, the ocean, and the colour blue.

Schooling was not one of those interests.

Over his eighteen years of life, he’d managed to get through nine schools, one every two years- though, considering he started school at 4, would it be closer to one every 1 1/2 years? Pondering it for a moment, he decided he didn’t care about the logistics. After all, whether it was a military school, or a boarding school, or even a goddamned wilderness camp, he always found a way to get himself expelled for some stupid reason- and most of the time, something completely out of his control. How was he supposed to know there was an alligator in that lake waiting to eat their luggage?

His ‘therapist’ (read: his GP in a different coat) had assured him that for kids like him, such issues with schooling was entirely normal. Once Gabe was no longer in the way, he had finally received a proper diagnosis for his ADHD and dyslexia, which was perhaps a surprise to his childhood pet cat and the old lady down the street who thought his name was Harry, if that. It only took one or two more expulsions, and he had finally hit the jackpot with a decent middle school and Goode High School, where he had managed to stay for four years without any ‘major’ incidents.

Well, major as in incidents that would affect his schooling. You can take the kid away from dumbasses, but you can’t take the dumbass out of the kid.

It had taken a lot of work, but he'd managed to push through and pass everything- with the bare minimum, sure, but it was still a pass. 'Lost cause' his ass.

Suck it, Mr D.

On his day of graduation, it had been the initial plan to just get a job and save. Stay close to home, support his mother, make some local friends and work towards his dreams. He had a lot of them, but the most appealing was to find work at an aquarium or marine reserve. His fascination with marine life was one of the few things that his absentee father gave him, and once he'd realised it could be a possibility, he'd decided that nothing would get in his way, headstrong as he was.

The main issue with that is that most of those jobs required a degree. The interesting ones, anyway. If Percy wanted a degree, he couldn’t exactly just drop schooling and get a job at the local grocery store.

And if high school didn't align with his interests, university certainly didn't. 

If high school was hell, university would surely be Tartarus. Living in a dorm with a bunch of other loud guys with no idea of personal space or how to be quiet wasn’t a great start, as his time in boarding schools had more than taught him just how badly sharing a room with someone made him want to chop their dick off with gardening shears. The huge influxes of schoolwork were also a problem, as he was lucky to get to work on a task for 20 minutes before getting distracted. Thanks, ADHD!

Despite the undeniable downsides, Percy had unfortunately come to the conclusion that he had no choice. So, he sucked it up, opened his web browser, and applied to anywhere that would accept him.

In the grand scheme of things, hating another 4 years of his life wouldn’t kill him, right?

Of course, when he had told Sally about his plan, she was as excited as a Percy in a blue candy store. Her dreams of academic grandeur had been cut short by a teenage pregnancy, a pair of dead parents, and a terminally ill uncle. Of course, going full momma-bear mode, she immediately took the reins and started looking through Percy’s applications, checking the places and cutting down any that were unsuitable for her precious son. Couldn’t be too far, couldn’t have poor housing arrangements, no weird religious rules, a decent social life… you get the point.

Eventually, she’d settled on Halfblood University, named after some stuffy white man from 300 years ago, and not after some poorly done Harry Potter joke. The dorms were friendly- housing was done in pairs- and there was a beautiful lake on campus. There were minimal pet restrictions, and-perhaps most importantly- his best friend's dad worked there and was able to get him a free scholarship if he got accepted. That was something that their current financial state couldn't deny, even if 6:30am lectures sounded like the modern coming of hell.

Another reason for the decision is that it would absolutely minimise his need to be social- though, he wouldn’t tell his mother that. Over high school, he’d only made three lasting friends, and two of them were already planning to attend the same university anyway- Annabeth planned to major in architecture, and Rachel in some Psychology offshoot with a long name Percy wouldn’t even dare to pronounce. Percy would miss Grover, being his oldest friend and all, but he already had a killer job at a local nature reserve- and besides, it wasn’t too far, so he could visit whenever.

Summing up the facts, maybe university wouldn't be so bad- about the same as high school. It would be the same people, after all, just in a different place with his mother replaced as housemate by some straight boy he'd probably hate. It was better than being on the other side of the country with nobody he knew, or having to work retail for the rest of his life and languish about all his unachieved dreams.

Percy didn’t focus on making sure he was properly loading his suitcase into the car, instead taking note of the mismatched front lawns and spotted gray tiles that lined the roofs of every house on the block- sans one, belonging to the Andersons, who had a notable penchant for all things pink. Percy couldn’t even judge them- he would sure as hell have blue roof tiles if he could. His mom had said no.

That familiar ache began to grow in his chest, one that swelled whenever he had to consider moving from this place. In retrospect, he’d become attached to those hues of blue-gray and that sense of familiarity, the imitation of a suburban dream that was really a super cheap district on the outskirts of the city. It was ironic- his entire life, he’d almost regretted being a city kid, always wishing he had sprawling fields and lush forests and deep lakes to explore. Now, he supposed that those in the country would long for a life in the city like his, as he longed for a life in the wild like theirs.

A silent oath was made to not give any further shits about this place until 7pm minimum, and he strapped himself into the passenger seat. He wouldn’t be in this car again for a while, so he made sure to get comfortable.

The drive there was ultimately like any other car journey, which was a humbling experience. Emerald eyes reflected in a fogged-up window, struggling to watch whatever was passing by on the other side. Looking at that reflection, they couldn’t decide if they were half-open or half-closed.

Scrolling through his phone whilst sitting the lobby of his new 'home' was not Percy's favourite way of wasting an hour, but by now, he was out of other options.

Well, he could talk to someone, but that sounded like more trouble than it was worth.

Bright yellow paint stung at his eyes from all possible directions, and some poor overworked graphic design student had managed to make fourty-seven different variants of the same mental health awareness poster. Thankfully, the lobby wasn't particularly crowded, but there was a semi-constant stream running from the door to the front desk, full of tearful parents bidding goodbye to their sweet children whilst simultaneously stressing out the poor woman working the front desk.

Unfortunately for Percy, Sally Jackson was a punctual woman, and that meant arriving before the dorms were open to students. Sure, he could take a walk around campus, but he’d already done a few virtual tours, and he could go to the cafeteria, but he didn’t want to intrude on any students who were stressed out of their mind and working in there on a 8am productivity kick.

Besides, the food wouldn't be blue anyways.

So, despite all of his searching for an out, he was stuck on an uncomfy blue sofa, curled up in a corner in the most uninviting way he could muster. He kept an eye out for someone he knew, but of like 3000 students, he had two friends. Granted, that wasn’t a non-zero chance, but it was definitely too low for comfort.

The rooming arrangements had been posted when he had gotten here, but he hadn’t taken a look at them yet. His mother had a glance and had muttered something or other, but he was currently more preoccupied with not having a panic attack because of the noise to pay attention to whatever she was saying. The board wasn't crowded whatsoever, aside from a few people (third years, he assumed, based on their ID badges) poking fun at the names. Considering his dear mother had named him Perseus, he wouldn't have been surprised if one of the people on the receiving end was him. Hesitant eyes stayed focused on the board, close enough to read the large print, but too far to read the fine print, until eventually curiosity prepared to kill the cat and Percy rose to his feet. As he began to rake his eyes down the list, he could’ve swore that one of the girls standing there gave him a side-eye, but that may have just been his imagination.

The entire list was read through twice before Percy realised he should be searching for ‘Perseus’ instead, and it also didn’t help that the formatting had just an initial for surnames. Awfully inconvenient, no? He couldn’t imagine it was too unlikely there was a Jack Jackson and a Jack Johnson, and the two of them would forever be in contest trying to figure out who is who. That was one benefit of having an unusual name, he supposed.

On his third read-through, Percy finally found his name, lumped with the ‘Gs’ instead of the ‘Js’. He supposed this was because a quick look at his roommate’s name gave him a ‘Jason G’, which was certainly before ‘Perseus J’ in the alphabet.

Anyways, 'Jason G' didn't give him a lot to work with, since it was quite a common name. Still, he would sure as hell try, and within 30 seconds he was back in his seat, booting up Facebook, and searching through all of the Jason G’s in the search bar.

Jason Graham? No, 43 and married with 5 kids.

Jason Green? No, spam account.

Jason Giovanni? No profile picture or posts, so fuck knows.

Jason Gould? Nope, some celebrity he'd never heard of.

Well, Facebook was a bust. Not like he could be expected to find an 18 year old on there anyways- mother dearest just refused to download anything else, and Percy had to have some social media with her, right? There was also that time that Rachel claimed that Instagram had bad vibes and switched to Facebook for a week, before she realised that they were owned by the same company, and therefore all of her information was probably already being sold to companies.

Speaking of Instagram, when he opened the app, his DM box noted that he had received two whole messages in the 10 minutes he had gone without opening the app. One message revealed that the social media team at '@thatsoundsgay' thought that he would be the perfect ambassador for their brand, although he was pretty sure that he was a private account and nothing on his profile made any impression that he liked boys. Gaydar, he supposed. More interestingly, the other message was from Annabeth, which Percy wouldn’t dare leave on read.

annabethchase__.: Are you here yet? I know that Sally drags you to these things early.

Sent 9 minutes ago, huh? Percy feared the day he left her on read for more than an hour.

bbluefoodz._: in the lobby thing, she dropped me and left me

bbluefoodz._: haven’t felt this abandoned since my father did the same

annabethchase__.: You'll survive. I'll be down in ten minutes.

At least that gave him something to do, instead of chasing the wild goose that was 'Jason G'. When he closed his phone, the clock on the wall suddenly became very interesting.

It only took 3 minutes after this before someone was screaming his name in the lobby. That made it about 45 minutes, give or take, before he made a commotion. He was pretty sure that was a new record on how long he’d managed to make it, go him.

He was sure that it wasn't anything terrible, right? He hadn’t even done anything yet. Unless sitting on this chair was illegal or something.

"Is there a Perseus J down here? Anyone know a Perseus J?" called the unfamiliar voice, heavy with a western accent and a tone pretty unreadable to Percy’s dyslexic ears.

It didn't take long for Percy to identify the speaker, considering she was being notably loud. Her verification badge betrayed her as a fourth-year student, and she was no taller than Percy’s chest. That was reassuring, as if she picked a fight Percy may stand a chance, but a look at the rest of her demeanour shot that idea in the foot. Short, choppy black hair framed her face, blonde roots barely showing, and a variety of similarly black piercings adorned her eyebrows, nose, and ears. The studded leather jacket and ripped jeans confirmed her as certified scary. If Percy was a few years younger, he may have peed his pants a little.

In a random burst of courage- or perhaps sheer boredom- Percy stood up and raised his hand, making eye contact with his pursuer from across the lobby. Her electric-blue eyes that immediately pierced through him, and all of a sudden, his ass was drawing him back to the seat. Still, miraculously, his legs didn’t give out before the girl reached his side and took his hand.

"You’re the twerp?"

Thunder eyes raked Percy up and down, as if evaluating. The ghost of a chuckle may have escaped black lips, but since Percy was struggling to make eye contact (thanks, anxiety!), whether it was real or his mind playing tricks on him was unclear. By the time she had squared up to him, his hand was already in hers, and she tugged him into a handshake so vigorous Percy could’ve swore she was looking to make him an amputee.

"Ah so you're Perseus, eh? Or Percy. You look like a Percy. I knew a kid named Percy in my preschool, actually- though without the fancy Greek name. Poor kid got bullied a lot and ended up becoming a druggie. No loss to me." She shrugged, letting go of Percy’s hand- much to his relief, as he could finally begin to feel it again- and placed a hand on her hip. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

She knew him?

What did he do this time?

"Uh, cool." he deadpanned, his anxiety spiking too much to appropriately react. "Who are you?"

Maybe a little blunt, but it drew out another laugh from her, this one a little clearer. She didn't seem to mind the disrespect.

"My name's Thalia Grace, but as far as you’re concerned, might as well be Thalia Shitass." Eyes of thunder wandered as if they were planning a lightning strike. "It's nice to finally put a name to a face, fishie. Beth's told me a lot about you, and- well, judging from what she’s told me about you, I’ll be cleaning up more of your messes than I’d like to."

Percy's nose wrinkled. "You know Annabeth?"

She nodded, that cocky smirk not budging an inch. "Old friends from middle school. We've kept in touch, but I haven't seen her in ages. Say hi to me when you see her later, k? She's spoken a lot about you, especially back when you were dating. You’re lucky I don’t cut off your dick for that."

Percy cringed at the mental image of that, and also cringed at the memories of his brief relationship with Annabeth when they were kids. That was a time both of them didn’t exactly look back on too fondly. At least Percy realised he liked boys from it.

”…Thanks?”

”You should be. Right, you need me for anything, I’m on the third floor. Block C, room 7. Can’t find it, just shout out something stupid and I’ll come out and shut your stupid mouth up with my fist.”

Percy opened his mouth to respond- unsure whether he should defend himself or crack a joke- but Thalia was storming off before he could even utter another word. 

Well, that was… intense. Definitely winning the spot for the weirdest social interaction of the year so far.

Turns out that your dad basically running the University's research department gets you into the dorms early, and with the dorm arrangement of your choice.

Funny how that works.

Percy had been insulted by the fact that he hadn't been invited upstairs earlier, but was offended moreso by the fact that Rachel had just told him that his hair was gonna look weird by the end of the year.

Rachel had a rare talent where pretty much everything she ever predicted came true. Whether through Tarot Cards, Tea Leaves, Birth Charts, it all somehow came to pass. Honestly, Percy found it kinda scary, but sometimes helpful, like when they realised that the stuff they revised on atom structure wasn't gonna show up on the chemistry final. Though, Percy didn’t pass that final anyway.

Most of these predictions were relatively minor things, or things that had already passed. They were always fun, though. Almost like a weird life hack.

"I can definitely see you with a bowl cut, Seaweed Brain." chuckled Annabeth, who was stretched out on the windowsill, which was impressively large enough to hold her entire weight. Her father had taken her to the campus about a week ago, and was therefore much more well-accustomed than the other two, already wearing an ID badge with Academy Visitor clearance. Percy supposed that negotiation skills ran in the family. He didn't know much of her father, since his relationship with his daughter was strained, but they were ‘working on things’, in Annabeth's own words.

Rachel interjected, peering over Percy's teacup. "Or maybe a mullet? You kinda had that going on when you were 14, after all. Not that I judge." It was difficult for them to read the leaves, since Annabeth had the admittedly amazing idea of making the tea blue, but Rachel’s expertise trumped whatever the two amateurs could divine.

"Alright, enough about my hair. Can you predict something actually useful? Like whether Wise Girl will ever find the stick up her ass?"

Personally, Percy believed he was a comedic genius. Annabeth didn't, feigning a search for the stick and conveniently finding her middle finger.

Rachel shrugged, twirling a strand of her long ginger curls around her finger. Much like Annabeth, her father was rich but distant, and she could get into any school she wanted. Her parents had been disappointed that she didn't choose somewhere more prestigious, but something more progressive and alternative was much more Rachel’s style. Besides, her friends were going here, and nowhere else offered an art and psychology double major. "I mean, I can do a tarot reading. That might be useful."

Percy shrugged, not really caring, which lead Rachel to pull out the deck and fan out the cards across the carpet. She had considered being a fortune teller professionally at one point, but after scolding from her father and Annabeth's gentle reminder that stuff like that wasn't financially stable, she’d settled on being a psychoanalyst instead.

In retrospect, the three of them were very different, but they went together just like peanut butter and blue jelly. Percy loved his friends.

Rachel beckoned to Annabeth to pick a card, who took the 9th card from the left side of the deck. Well, Percy was pretty sure it was the ninth card. He wasn't the best at counting.

"The Tower." Rachel stated after flipping it, her face contorting into an emotionless 'fortune-telling' expression, a stark contrast from the expressive faces she wore on the regular. "Means you're going to experience a dangerous event that will bring forth sudden, unforeseen change. Whether this change is positive or not is up to your interpretation."

Gray eyes rolled from the windowsill. Annabeth wasn't particularly interested in the frills of Rachels' fortunes, only caring for the semantics. "Can't you just foresee the unforeseen change?"

Rachel shook her head, scoffing as if her bloodline had been gravely insulted. "Doesn't work like that, duh. Perseus, card."

As he looked at the cards spread on the carpet, he decided to put his counting to the test, selecting the thirteenth along the left. A stifled laugh came from Annabeth.

"Did you only pick that one because it has a blue stain on it?"

Huh, there was a blue stain on it, probably from one of his blue tea readings. He could've chalked it up to fate, but it was entirely coincidence.

"No, actually, I picked it because it's the thirteenth across. My eyes can see more than the colour blue."

"But it was the eleventh across." supplied Rachel.

Percy counted again. 1, 2, 3, 4... fuck. 

How did he pass maths again?

"That's beside the point." His fluster caused him to stumble his words. Annabeth seemed to find this wildly entertaining.

"Just read it, Rach."

Rachel obliged.

That particular scene on the other side of the Tarot card was one Percy had become familiar with, as it was once Rachel’s favourite to bullshit him and Annabeth with- well, at least before Percy has came out, anyway: A pair of lovers were entwined on the cheap card, matching pairs of Snow White angel wings blotting the pink sky. Both of them were completely nude, which was odd for a children’s set, but since it was for artistic purposes Percy supposed it could be given a pass.

"Hmm." Rachel stroked her chin, ruminating with all the sagely essence of a qualified squirrel, perhaps.

"One of us is gonna meet our soulmate by the end of this year. Sounds like a blast."

Huh.

Sounded more exhausting than anything else.

Annabeth didn't seem convinced. "How do you know that we haven't already? Maybe Percy and I are made for each other after all."

Rachel scoffed, accidentally bending the card in the process. Percy shook his head.

"I think I'm gonna veto that one." Percy didn't really have any plans for making connections here. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, after all.

"That's what I guessed. Thalia said you looked ill when she mentioned it. Glad that you two finally met, by the way." Annabeth broke into a toothy grin, a rare show of genuine excitement. "After all, you need more friends, even if they're just my friends. I hope you get along with Jason as well."

Jason? Oh, right, his roommate. He must’ve mentioned his name at some point.

"Trying to get rid of me, Wise Girl?"

"You bet, Seaweed Brain."

Dorms finally opened at 1pm, after a brief inauguration ceremony, in which Percy was certain he was not the only person who fell asleep. Most people would be moving their stuff into their new homes, and Percy was no exception, after hauling his suitcase up a flight of stairs and to room B-43.

Now, Percy hated his father’s guts, let alone his completely lack of presence in his life, but the one thing he had passed down was a love of marine life. Ever since Percy was little, his mother had had these huge tanks of fish in their home that his father had supposedly left her before he disappeared, whether as a gift, a promise, a reminder… it wasn’t worth his time worrying over the specifics.

In a way, Percy liked the fish because of that familial connection, but mostly, they were just fucking cool. The way that they were able to breathe underwater and just vibe in their living space was dope as hell, and there were all sorts of different species with different appearances and colours. Upon turning 14, he had gotten a summer job, and used a whole summer's worth of savings to buy his own tank and goldfish. He started small, but over time his family had grown to a size of about 7. ADHD usually kept him from paying attention to something for too long, but he could watch them for hours.

After 13 minutes of failing to properly set up the tank in his bedroom, he decided to move it into the living space, hoping that 'Jason G' wouldn't mind- they were pretty, after all. The room was large with a sofa and some shitty TV, plain beige paint covering the walls, chipping at the corners. It was sickeningly empty and cold, not homely in any way. If there was any whisper of warmth, it was the remaining sunlight filtering in through the balcony door. The curtains were pulled now, as Percy didn’t want anyone looking in, but he’d peeked his head out there earlier to look at the beautiful view of the campus lake. Maybe he’d be less of a cave-dweller and spend some time out there.

Eh, maybe not.

It thankfully didn't take much brainpower to realise that Thalia was Jason G's (presumably Jason Grace)'s relative, and that was the real reason he had been unceremoniously accosted in the lobby that morning. Granted, that brainpower was not something he possessed, and but Annabeth did, and was more than willing to explain it to Percy. She'd known the Grace siblings since middle school, and though they'd gone to different high schools, she and Thalia had kept in touch. She hadn't spoken to Jason in a while, but based on what she had said, the guy was at least amicable. It was reassuring knowing that the guy wasn’t a complete dickwad- at least, assuming he hadn’t changed in the years since Annabeth had last spoken to him.

The newly set up tank refracted the light from the balcony, highlighting the floor in a blue-green glow, much more appealing than the drab grey carpet. A few fish were already settled into it, happily flitting around, glad to be free of their travel containers. He hadn't been able to take all of them with him, so he'd only chosen the smallest and easiest to keep, and had left the rest in the care of his mother at home.

A pang of homesickness suddenly punched Percy right in the gut. A moment of repose was taken, grabbing a class of water and sitting on the lumpy couch, making sure to text his mom to tell her that he was coping.

Her reply of 'You're doing amazing, Sweetie!', was remarkably tonedeaf.

The bedrooms were each a small box with a three-quarter bed, which was surprisingly generous, as Percy had been expecting a single. A peek inside both rooms proved that they were the same, so Percy picked the one on the left, because it was closer to the bathroom, and he was only slightly selfish. He unpacked his belongings and began to decorate, hanging up his posters and organising his desk- not that it would stay organised for long- trying to make it feel homely. Honestly, it didn’t look half bad when he was torn away from his organisation spree by a ring of the doorbell.

Hmm. He could’ve sworn he’d left it unlocked.

Percy rushed to the door, not wanting to leave (presumably) his roommate out in the cold, before finding that it was indeed unlocked, and he’d come out here for next to no reason. Still, he’d already made the trip, so he might as well get this ‘introductions’ thing over with.

“Hey, you realise it was unlocked, right-“

The first thing Percy immediately thought when he saw the other man was that he had seen a ghost. An inch or two taller than Percy; short, blonde hair, nearly military length; blue eyes, cold and calculating; a scar running up the face. His breath hitched in his throat, and he stared, perhaps a little rudely. 

Percy managed to get himself together after a second, swallowing his anxiety and rubbing his eyes to get a better look at his roommate. The similarities were uncanny, but this was not the man he once knew. His face was squarer, but somehow kinder, lips playing at a smile instead of the trademark grimace he’d come to expect from the ghost. That scar, that uncanny spark of similarity, was entirely different- the other side of the face, running up from the lip instead of down from the eye, much smaller and cleaner. Even those eyes, which seemed icy blue on first glance, were calm and patient. If the ghost’s eyes were a frigid, frostbiting lake, and if Thalia’s were deep and intense like Thunder, Jason’s were calm and vast, a summer sky.

Emerald eyes inclined up to meet that cloudy gaze, that inch’s difference of height already being put to work. There was a moment of silence, perhaps understanding, perhaps apprehension- but whatever it was, it was welcoming, in Percy’s eyes. Jason didn’t seem like the kinda guy to immediately be all affectionate, and he was thankful for that.

Jason made the first move to speak, reaching out to put a large hand on Percy’s shoulder. Percy felt an unwelcome warmth spread through his skin under the shirt- he supposed it was supposed to be reassuring, but the sudden contact would’ve made him recoil if it were not for him watching his posture.

"Damn. Great first impression, am I right?" Jason joked, easing the tension in that dense atmosphere. "Didn’t even remember to check that, I just assumed that since you were already in, you’d have locked it. Uh, Perseus I assume? I'm Jason."

"Yeah." Percy shrugged, not entirely sure what to say. His mind was whirring with all sorts of mechanisms of his own creation, wondering how this could go wrong. Could he really be expected to spend the majority of his life, shadowed by a ghost?

"Cool, nice to meet you.” Hands moved from Percy’s shoulders, slipping down to grab at baggage, whilst also relieving a little bit of Percy’s irrational stress. He made sure to make way, giving Jason prime access to the apartment, flinching a little when the blonde whistled after taking a quick look around.

“Nice, see you’ve already started to get the place together. Fancy.” He nodded at the fish tank. “If you can keep neat, I’m sure we’ll be just fine. That’s one of my biggest problems, to be honest… but I’ll feel bad if you’re cleaning up after me, so that’ll make me wanna improve, y’know?”

Percy shrugged again, not really sure how else to respond to that- or anything Jason said, for that matter. The other guy was just trying to be friendly, for god’s sake, and Percy was just tensing up.

"That is assuming that you don't want to kill me after two weeks." Percy retorted, in an attempt to break his own silence. Jason didn’t reply verbally, just giving a hearty laugh, and disappearing into his bedroom with his belongings. A breath which Percy didn’t realise he was holding escaped his lips.

That was… bearable. He wouldn’t deny that Jason’s appearance was a little… uncomfortable, for certain reasons, but it was stupid of Percy to hold that against him. Besides, he seemed civil enough.

There were only a few more things to pack away in the kitchen, including his mother’s cookies- which had been baked for about a month’s supply. They were transferred carefully into a jar, hastily labelled ‘PERCY’S FOOD: DO NOT EAT’ in permanent marker, and then stashed away in a cupboard where Jason hopefully wouldn’t go snooping too far. Once the kitchen was organised, Percy was pretty sure he was done unpacking, and that allowed exhaustion to finally consume him, not even making it to the couch proper before slumping down.

About 30 minutes into a true crime documentary, the blonde took a seat on the couch, looking amused at the way Percy was draped over one of the arms, one eye closed.

”That comfy? Or you just sleepy?”

Percy's open eye darted to the blonde, and then back to the screen, not deciding to bother with a response. It was pretty clear which one it was, after all. 

“Right.” Jason nodded, shuffling uncomfortably. Blue eyes darted between the screen and Percy, trying to muster up the courage to say something else.

"So, what's your major?" Jason's next question was a little more formal, a little closer to what one would expect from their new roommate. Still, the shaky voice it was said with betrayed that he wasn’t entirely sure if that was what he should be asking, or perhaps he thought he should be leaving Percy alone entirely. Perhaps he wasn’t that different to Percy, after all- they both seemed to have no idea what to do in this situation, after all.

"Marine biology. You?" A short, concise response. Enough to be amicable, but not overly friendly. Percy couldn’t decide if his tone was because he didn’t want to be friendly, or if he didn’t want to alienate the blonde. Probably both.

Jason chuckled, that same friendly laugh once again dissolving any tension that had built between them. "Ah, that explains the fish. Cute. I'm still in-between majors but at the moment I'm thinking about History."

"History?" That was a surprise. Percy pegged him as a gym major, or something like that. "Guess it makes sense why your sister came to find me. She must've been worried I'd bully you for that."

Blue eyes stared at Percy funny for a moment, before widening. “Thalia came to see you? I swear, I told her to lay off-“

Percy interrupted the blonde, not interested in hearing all their sibling drama. He didn’t have any siblings, and the only person he knew who did, Annabeth, didn’t really get along with either of her younger stepbrothers.

"It’s fine, she was nice enough. Besides, she didn’t even mention you, just told me to say hi to Beth."

"Beth? As in Annabeth Chase?” Jason raised a tentative eyebrow. "I haven’t seen her in years. I know Thalia kept touch, but we haven’t spoken in ages. Is she well?”

Another shrug made Percy realise he really didn’t know how to hold a conversation. “She’s fine. Hope you’re fine with her coming over here a bunch.” It wasn’t his place to air out all of Annabeth’s business, so he kept it fairly vague.

"No issue. Assuming she hasn’t changed, she’s a good girl." Jason nodded, giving an awkward thumbs up as his face turned crimson. "Good girl as in, like, good person. Not in a weird way. I mean, obviously I didn’t mean it in a weird way, but it sounded weird, you know?"

"Bro, chill.” 

“Right.” Blue eyes looked down at the floor. “Sorry.”

This was able to crack a smirk from Percy, against all odds. How the hell did he get paired with a roommate even more timid than he was?

Granted, he wasn’t exactly timid. Just kinda an asshole

"You’re good. Fine. Better than I was expecting.” Percy admitted, in an attempt to maybe help the blonde feel a little more comfortable.

”…Better than you were expecting?”

“Yeah, I was expecting some loud obnoxious frat guy. At least you seem to have boundaries.”

Jason snickered a little. “Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t really have any expectations, so… I guess you exceeded them by default?”

”As I said, give it two weeks.” Percy jabbed back with a half serious, half playful demeanour.

”Hm, sure.” Strong arms stretched out across the back of the couch. Jason was really making himself comfortable. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

Wouldn't be that bad, huh? 

We’ll see.

Chapter Text

Honestly, Percy had expected his new life to be pretty boring, if not absolutely awful. Stay in his room most of the time, maybe go see Rachel and Annabeth a few times a week, and not really put himself out there much. 

However, things don't always go as planned.

First and foremost, he'd really how much he’d enjoy the campus. His home neighbourhood was on the rural outskirts of a bigger city, and although he was used to those grey, lifeless aisles of city life, he’d had a taste of that greener, more colourful life which lived outside of the city borders. Now, the campus wasn’t exactly a countryside resort by any means, but the lush field in the center surrounding the grand lake was more than enough to make Percy feel as if he was at some sort of camp, like he was back in his childhood when his stepdad didn’t want to deal with home over the summer.

The campus was located in a larger residential area, so there was a chance that he'd be overwhelmed by all the people, but things were turning out to be fairly quiet. Hell, there was even an impressively lax pets policy, resulting in a lot of cats roaming around. Observing them was a great pastime, for when one didn’t feel like studying or socialising- which was most of the time for Percy. One of his favourites was a smaller black tuxedo cat that was always skulking out of dorm building C, heading down to the lake and lying in the sun. Once, Percy had watched his owner chase him through the center field, desperately trying to get some sort of dog bone from the feline, and ever since then, he’d been affectionately nicknamed ‘Skelly’. 

As for the lake itself, it had quickly become the main place that he would hang out with friends. The mesmerising beauty of the blue waters was hypnotic, and- in a way that just tickled his inner marine biology major- there was a huge population of fish in the pond. Even when Leo was calling him a nerd for knowing all of their names, he couldn't help but sit there and enjoy the simplicity of it all. If he didn't have other responsibilities, he doubted he would've ever left.

Oh, right, Leo. That led him to his second favourite part of university life.

Sally Jackson, as usual, was proved right, because her theory that Percy would become friends with his roommate was somewhat coming true. Jason was a little unnerving, always unusually cheery and friendly, in a way that couldn’t help but annoy Percy a little. Still, it wasn’t like he could be mad at the guy- he definitely wasn’t ill-willed, and despite a lack of common interest, they’d had their fair share of rousing conversation in the dead of night, when they’d ran into each other on separate kitchen raids.

Speaking of the kitchen, Percy had actually found himself rendered some sort of housewife. Jason had been blessed with a complete lack of self-preservation or housekeeping skills ("Seriously, Jason? You tried to get the bread out of the toaster while it was still on?" "I'm sorry! I forgot that it would be hot!"), which was admittedly entertaining, but simultaneously frustrating when you’d consider just how many messes Percy would have to clean up. It was the exact opposite of what you would expect from Jason- he was tall, muscular, attractive, a good speaker, and all around the ‘perfect’ guy, outside of his lack of domestic skills. There was some lingering resentment towards the guy that Percy would admit he’d left unresolved… but that wasn’t Jason’s fault at all. It was his own insecurity, and the skeletons biding their time in his closet.

Comparatively to Jason, who was a fairly normal guy, the people he surrounded himself with were absolutely abnormal in the best possible way. One of his strangest memories of the first week of the school year came the night after the toaster incident, which had resulted in the toaster being a mangled mess on the floor- seemed extreme, but  also probably was the same reaction Percy would have had. That night, strange noises were coming from the kitchen, and Percy didn't really sleep much anyways, so he took it upon himself to siege the room and vanquish the source of the noise. Valiantly armed with a hoodie, sweatpants, and a can of bug spray, the hero had opened the door to his bedroom and pointed his weapon at the source of the noise, only to be met with a 5"6 scrunkle of a guy leant over the counter, wearing professional grade overalls and tinkering with the broken toaster. Jason stood to his side, now staring at Percy with the kind of expression people in TV shows have when their boyfriend walks in on them having sex with another guy.

That was how he was first introduced to Jason's childhood best friend and engineering major extraordinaire, Leo Valdez. Between his witty personally, crude sense of humour, and intentional lack of self preservation, he complemented Jason perfectly. Percy also immediately got along with him like wildfire, as Leo was one of those people who had a lot of interests in other's weird interests, and Percy had plenty of weird interests.

"So what is with the blue food, Jackson?" asked Leo, less than a meter away from falling into the lake- which would totally be a Leo thing to do. Rachel was reciting from some leather-back book that looked like it belonged in the libraru restricted section, whilst Jason and Annabeth debated something to do with Athena, or Minerva, or whatever her name was. She was a boring god anyways. He'd always preferred Poseidon, because as far as he knew, that was his dad’s name. Much be some fancy rich arse to have that kinda name and knock up a teenager, but hey, when he was bored Percy could pretend he was the son of the sea god and talk to his fishies.

The final member of the group, Piper, spoke up from Percy's left: "You see, when he was 12, he looked up Blue Waffles on the internet, and grew to have an obsession with them. Eventually, the interest spread to all other foods." 

“You all have the humour of ten year olds.” Annabeth’s deadpan voice was barely muffled by the snickers escaping Percy, Leo, and Rachel’s lips. Jason looked completely bewildered.

Piper was the daughter of millionaire actor Tristan McLean, and thus had an equally big personality to go along with it. Another of Jason's childhood friends (and his ex, which made things awkward at first, until Percy realised he was the one being weird and it meant literally nothing), she had no qualms with using all of the sarcasm at her disposal to humiliate Percy and Leo as much as possible. Or, hell, even herself if the situation called for it. Annabeth found it funny sometimes, Leo found it funny all times, and Jason found it funny when he understood. As for Percy? It was funny only when it wasn't directed towards him.

Tristan McLean and Beryl Grace had had an acting gig together approximately 12 years ago, and their kids had been inseparable ever since (Since when had Percy attracted rich kids? Actually, looking at Annabeth and Rachel, scratch that.). She was slightly shorter than Leo, with dark skin and darker hair, and eyes that seemed to sparkle like broken crystal- fractures of green, blue, and golden all floating around in a nighttime pool. Usually, Percy wouldn’t pay attention to people’s eyes so closely- eye contact was kinda hard for him- buy Piper just had one of those stares you couldn’t ignore. The same could be said for Annabeth, but for an entirely different reason.

"Actually, my mom has been cooking blue food since I was born to disprove an… ex. Of hers. Guess I kinda got pulled into it too." Percy chose to spare the details of said ex. For the last 7 years of his life, he had woken up every morning to a plate of blue pancakes, or blue cereal, or (on the bad days) a blueberry salad. Such a tradition was impossible for Percy to maintain with his poor cooking skills, but he did naturally have an impressive stash of blue Gatorade.

A smidge of amusement spread across Leo's face. "Once, my mother was told by a certain individual that she was a chicken, so her response was to put me into an active fireplace. I still have the burn scars on my back." 

Leo had a tendency to do that- tell some ridiculous story, show the proof of it publicly, and then proceed to embarrass himself by further telling everyone in the immediate area by shouting about it. It was the exact opposite trauma response to Percy's own, who tended to just bury things, act like they never happened, and lash out if it confronted him. Bummer.

Before Leo was able to declare his mother’s questionable parenting to the entire campus, Rachel cleared her throat to grab the group’s attention. The haunted book was now spread open on the grass, revealing a page of constellations Percy vaguely recognised, and he could swear it was almost humming some eerie tune that was probably just the wine. Yellowed pages  ink smudges, and a strange hole in the top left corner supported the idea that something sinister really did live inside.

"So, I did a basic reading on everyone's star charts because I was bored. Does everyone know their sign?"

"Leo." Percy replied, without hesitation. He'd been doing this with Rachel since the age of ten. He'd heard all of it already, though he'd never seen her pull out the book before. Usually she just looked things up online, but he supposed that university had encouraged her to step up her game.

"No stupid." said a voice to Percy's left, and he automatically began preparing for the worst best joke he'd ever hear in his life.

"I'm a Leo, you're a Percy."

Three girls moaned in unison, and one threw a very heavy divination book in Leo’s direction. Jason, as unaware as ever, made a confused smile and looked between Leo and Percy, like a golden retriever trying to gauge whether its owner was mad or not. Jason gave off gold retriever energy.

"You're not funny, toast." Rachel grabbed her divination book from Leo’s lap, who was now nestling a nasty bruise on his forehead. The strained laugh that followed was the end of that joke.

"I already know everything about Percy, obviously. But you, you're a Cancer, right?"

Leo nodded. "I think so. Why, does that mean I get to make a distasteful joke?"

"If you wanna go two for two on forehead bruises.” Annabeth suggested, beginning with a half-snort. Leo appropriately backed down. Gods, that woman was scary.

As Leo tried to justify himself to the angry blonde, Rachel pondered over the book closely, her eyebrows scrunching up. "That means that you're deeply emotional and sensitive, and that you care deeply for those around you. I’m gonna puke!"

Leo's face somehow reddened further, which seemed cosmically impossible. "Well, I don't care that much more than anyone else-"

"Leo." Jason interjected for the first time in quite a while. There was a look on his face that Percy had come to recognise as the one he donned before he was about to tell an awful joke, which Percy would always laugh along with because unlike Leo, it felt bad being rude to Jason. "You cried more than I did when my goddamned mom died."

“Well I felt bad for you, obviously!” That made Leo stand up. "I’m not going to stand here and have my character slandered by those I once considered friends." Melodrama was Leo’s middle name, clearly. “Alas, I must flee from these foul monsters!”

Before they could protest him leaving, he was sprinting towards the dorm buildings, only tripping on his feet about three times, which was impressive for Leo, who usually couldn’t run for 5 seconds without falling. Piper was leaning over in hysterics, failing to muffle her giggles with a knuckle, and Percy could swear Rachel was muttering some sort of curse under her breath.

Jason, however, wasn't as entertained as the rest of the group, looking like a golden retriever who had just realised his owner was mad. It was an adorable, annoying expression, and if Percy didn’t feel bad for him, he’d probably insult him on it.

"Was it something I said?"

Grover was Percy's oldest friend. They'd met in one of Percy's many middle schools, and in some miraculous twist of fate, they'd ended up in the same high school. The past few years, Percy, Annabeth and Grover had been practically inseparable, and Rachel was there most of the time as well. 

It was weird not being able to speak to him every day, and it was even weirder seeing him have other friends. 

Percy knew his jealousy wasn’t justified. After all, Grover still spoke to him basically all the time over text, and Percy had also made new friends, for god’s sake. It still hurt seeing one of his people hang out with others, though.

"This is the place where all the deer hang out." said his friend from over the phone, showing a clearing in a crowd of trees. The foliage was extremely dense, but sunlight still filtered through the leaves. A testament to nature’s persistence.

Grover's new friend Katie was sitting in the middle of the screen, feeding some deer that had arrived. "They don't really like most humans, but they're fine with the park rangers. It doesn't hurt to be friendly with them."

Another blue cookie was stuffed down Percy’s throat, as he listened to his friend’s explanations. His mother had left him with a 3 month supply, but he’d already nearly exhausted them in just over one. The thought of them running out made him feel queasy, but if he acknowledged it, that would be acknowledging that he missed her dearly, and he wasn’t. He was coping just fine, thank you very much.

"That makes sense." Usually, it was considered impolite to chew as you speak, but neither of them cared. "Honestly, I wish people would be nicer to nature. The state of the ocean is disgusting. My professor brings it up like, three times a class.”

Percy couldn’t properly see Grover at the time, but he was pretty sure he heard a chuckle. "That’s why parks like ours exist. To clean up our act." As Grover was speaking, he received a summons, and promptly turned off the video chat. Percy couldn't hear anything that followed, but he expected it was probably his boss or manager.

When Grover came back, he didn't turn the video back on. "Sorry, Perce, gotta go. They need me to help out down by the lake. Say hi to Tyson for me."

Before Percy could reply, Grover was gone. Bittersweet. Grover was busy, doing what he loved, so it was so unfair for Percy to be so jealous. Percy was so used to just leaving his past in the past, but he didn’t want to leave Grover behind like that as well.

Since he was already lounging on the sofa, there was no reason to make an effort to move. He flipped over to his music app, pressing shuffle on his entire library- which was majority 2000’s pop-punk-rock with a dash or two of modern teen girl music- and took it upon himself to just chill for a while. That was something he has to get better at- chilling.

His eyes strayed over to the fish tank which was still proudly standing in the center of the main room, seeing two of his goldfish- presumably Scylla and Charybdis- bump into each other and then swim under a cave in some sort of fruitless goose chase. Tyson, who was a larger-than-average catfish, was absentmindedly swimming up and down the left wall, which reminded Percy that he’d have to feed them later. Tyson was one of the many gifts Grover had gotten Percy before, and suddenly Percy’s mind was back on his old friend again. He tried to shake his head and change his focus.

It didn't make sense, really. His new group of friends was perfect, he was doing something he loved (which he was surprisingly good at, besides the reading), and, for what it was worth, Jason could’ve been a worse roommate. He helped to feed the fish, at least.

Why was he so unsatisfied?

Emerald eyes again wandered, this time to the kitchen, where Jason was flailing around like some sort of animal. The history major was trying to make brownies for a study group tomorrow, but Percy could tell he had the baking experience of a four year old. In fact, maybe leaving Jason alone to bake wasn't the best idea. The guy couldn’t even operate a toaster without issue.

Percy made his way to the kitchen, making sure not to seem too interested in whatever Jason was doing. The blonde was wearing an obnoxious bright pink apron, ‘Kiss the Cook’ emblazoned across the center. Honestly, even if Percy did want to kiss Jason… he wasn’t sure he qualified as a cook, anyway. Probably a gift from Leo, Piper, or both, if he had to guess.

Underneath the apron, Jason was wearing plain gray shorts and a black tank top, the most basic straight boy clothing out there and maybe even the direct opposite of barbie pink. The cut of the shirt made it quite obvious that he didn’t skip out on chest day, and there was also a mark that looked somewhat like a burn scar. Now, Percy wasn’t into gambling, but if he had to place a bet, he was pretty confident he would win big on guessing that it was from a toaster.

Blue eyes were squinted at the brownie mix box, trying to read the small print. Percy knew Jason needed glasses- he’d complained about it before- but he spent an awful lot of time in the dorm without them. Percy didn’t need glasses, but he was pretty sure the benefit of eyesight outweighed the potential discomfort of wearing them.

”Two cups of flour, and a max of 2 of sugar. You’re welcome.” Percy retorted, grabbing the box from Jason’s hands- as he clearly wasn’t making any progress. The blonde looked at him tenderly, a toothy grin spreading across his face, the scar on his lip twisting upwards. Percy would never get used to how damn friendly this guy was.

That scar on Jason’s lip had come from him trying to eat a stapler after a dare, sometime when he was eight. Percy had only run into Thalia twice since the start of the year- one at the dorm, and one at Annabeth’s-, but she had been more than enthusiastic to tell that story, much to her brother’s annoyance.

Gods, Jason had been an idiot the entire time, huh?

"Thank you! I’ve been dying over here. Between my shitty eyesight and dyslexia, I can't read the fucking box."

“Tell me about it. Well, the dyslexia. Your eyesight is on you, but not wearing glasses? Sounds like a self-imposed challenge.” Percy retorts.

"Hey, it isn’t always the most comfortable to wear, you know. It’s 1pm, I’m at home, just chilling… don’t wanna have my ears sawed off, you know?”

Percy couldn’t stop the judgmental snort that drew from him, so he just hoped Jason wouldn’t mind. “Maybe you should loosen your glasses up, then.” 

Jason gaped, and his expression immediately made Percy’s heart drop. In the brief moment he was panicking about pissing off his roommate, Percy was preparing to justify himself and apologise profusely, before taking a look into Jason’s eyes and seeing playfulness, nothing else. This guy was way too nice.

Percy gave him an unimpressed look, chasing the blonde to snicker and shoot a toothy grin. His teeth were bright and pearly white, which made Percy remember to steal his toothpaste, and also reminded him that Jason Grace was physically perfect. Had to compensate for being approximately 28% braindead somehow.

"Nah, you’re right. I’m due for an eye test anyway" Jason's attention was directed back to the bowl, cracking a few eggs as Percy grabbed a hug from the cupboard.

"Must be nice getting regular eye tests. I get one once every three years if I’m lucky.”

"Rich kid problems." It was rare to see Jason be self-deprecating in his humour. Usually, that was… literally anyone else’s job. “But yeah. My eyesight sucks, so I get tested like twice a year. Private doctor, before you ask. I know, privileged.”

"If I had the money, I’d do the same. What's the next step?" A whiff of the bowl flooded Percy’s senses with the scent of raw eggs and flour. Considering it hadn’t been mixed yet… what did he expect, really?

Jason raised an eyebrow. "You sure you wanna help? You're not wearing an apron."

"Does it look like I own one?. I’ll live, I’m not as god-awful at adulting as you are."

"My grandma told me you always need an apron to cook or bake anything." Jason reached forward and placed a hand on Percy’s shoulder, blue eyes meeting green. Percy couldn’t tell if Jason was pleading with him, or just messing around, so he chose to pray that it was the latter.

"Your grandma" Percy leaned forward, lips brushing against Jason's earlobe. "is a wuss."

Jason’s face scrunched up in mock anger for a moment, but he couldn’t keep up the facade for long. The two boys found themselves hunched over laughing for a solid thirty seconds, before Jason spoke up, taking deep breaths and red in the face.

"You're right, I fucking hated that woman. If you get burnt or messy or whatever, you need to lay off me for at least two weeks, got it?”

"Alright."

Percy shrugged, checking the box to find out that he’d need to reach for the chocolate in the top cupboard. He hoped that normal chocolate would be fine instead of baking chocolate.

If it wasn’t, Jason would just have to suck it up. Who cares if Jason brought some shitty brownies to a study meet?

Alright, maybe Percy would feel a little bad. Just a little.

Jason stormed into the living area, fully dressed with his bag slung over his shoulder.

Which was odd, since it was only 5:30 AM, and he should've been asleep in his room.

The blonde's antics startled Percy, who jolted, spilling blue coffee all over the sofa.

Fuck.

"Jason, what the hell?" he exclaimed as he whipped around to face his roommate. He Jason was wearing a white jacket with jeans, and all of his clothes looked really tight and uncomfortable. Percy couldn't imagine ever dressing like that, let alone so early in the morning.

Jason looked back at him, his face showing a tinge of regret. "Shit, I didn't realise you'd be up." He glanced down, stifling a chuckle when he saw the blue staining. "Do you need help cleaning that up?"

"It's blue food colouring, it's never coming out." Percy sighed and placed his cup on the coffee table. He'd learnt that lesson one too many times- all of the furniture in Sally Jackson's house was at least partially blue, and on most of them, it was unintentional.

"Shit. Blame it on the previous tenants?" Jason suggested.

"Blame it on the previous tenants." Percy affirmed, tapping the side of the sofa that wasn't soaked. Jason took the hint and sat down, dropping his bag by his feet. He sat with his signature perfect posture, making Percy mirror him. Stupid postural echo, or whatever it was called. Percy had dropped his high school psych class in the first year, because it only took about 3 months for him to know he wouldn't pass.

"Why are you up at this time anyways?"

Jason raised an eyebrow leaning into the sofa. He was giving Percy a side eye. "I could say the same to you."

"Pop Quiz on Friday, if Will's to be trusted. Gotta study."

"Fair enough. I was gonna go to the gym, but I forgot my glasses." Of course Jason went to the gym. It was pretty obvious, with his perfect physique.

"You work out?" Percy asked. Why did he ask? Jason literally just said that he did. "Don't answer that. Stupid question."

"Why, you interested? You look like you could do to put on the muscle." Jason's words were calm, but progressively became more hesitant. "Only if you want to, of course." Percy took back anything he'd said about Jason being socially, because he'd just managed to fluster himself as much as Percy had.

Well, now that Jason had mentioned it, it didn't sound like a particularly bad idea. Percy had done swimming for a little while in high school, and had enjoyed it, but stopped after a while since he didn't care for sport all too much. Besides, skating was both cooler and didn't require a huge body of water. It was just a lot more practical, less stressful, and actually fun.

"I wouldn't mind it." was what Percy eventually settled on saying, although he couldn't properly say how he felt about the topic. "It's mainly finding the time to. I'm already doing stuff in most of my free time already."

Percy had settled into a nice routine over the last month. Wake up, ruminate in bed for half an hour and then get dressed. Have breakfast, and take a shower. Go to classes, spend time with his friends between classes, get something to eat. Go skate in the local park, get groceries, deal with his fish, study, sleep (if he's lucky). It was a simple routine, and kinda unstructured, but it was nice. It reminded him of home.

"You're not usually up this early though, right? You can join me if you want, as long as you're okay with getting up early." Jason offered. He was grinning, and probably didn't realise that he was practically vibrating. Percy did the same thing when he was excited, so he couldn't really judge.

Percy decided to try it out. What was the worst that could happen?

This was the worst decision of Percy's entire fucking life.

It wasn't that he wasn't enjoying it. Working out was actually kinda therapeutic, in a way.

It's just that being a gym with a bunch of hot, sweaty, muscular guys made Percy get very distracted.

When you are distracted, you fall face-first onto a treadmill.

The gym itself was kinda boring anyways. Just a bunch of mirrors and the new 'modern' industrial white panelling every recent construction project used. It wasn't somewhere he was begging to stay.

That's why he was glad that Jason had promptly agreed to leave the gym early and treat Percy to a coffee, making up for the one he had spilled earlier.

They were sitting in a coffee shop about 20 minutes away from campus, looking over the menu options. Percy had never really had money to splurge on things like this, so he didn't know what to get- whenever he'd gotten coffee before, Annabeth had ordered for him.

Jason had made a point to bring a coat with him, as it was October and therefore quite cold outside. He was sitting in the corner opposite Percy, absentmindedly scrolling through his phone. He didn't seem to mind that Percy had an incident, which he was thankful for.

After a while, Percy decided on what he was going to drink. "I'll just have a latte, and a blueberry muffin. I'm not feeling particularly hungry."

Jason gave him a thumbs up, venturing over to the counter and ordering, giving Percy a chance to look at his roommate's phone, left face up on the table. It was opened on an Instagram group chat.

jasongrace: Then he just falls onto his face and rolls off of the treadmill. It must've hurt (from experience) but gods it was funny

charmspeaks: that's so funny please tell me you got it on camera

jasongrace: I didn't sadly

boomboomvaldez: L

annabethchase__.: that sounds like percy all right

jasongrace: I do feel bad though. I hope that this doesn't turn him off too much 😬

boomboomvaldez: hey he hasn't asked to move rooms yet, you'll be fine

jasongrace: I hope so

That was cute. He felt bad that Jason was worried that he would abandon him. He wasn't great at promises, but this was one he had to keep at all costs, for the sake of getting free coffee from his roommate.

Jason's phone idled and turned off before Percy could read any more, so he turned his attention to the window at his right. The city was a mess of buildings of different shapes of sizes, but somehow it all just blended into boundless rows of gray towers. Every colour looked the same under the early morning light, and every person in the street walked in the same lifeless way. He'd never been one for existentialism, but in this moment, he wondered just how machinated life really was.

He must have zoned out, because he was surprised when Jason tapped him on the shoulder, having returned with the drinks and desserts. They ate in relative silence.

Jason was the first one to speak up. Before he had said something, he'd been staring at Percy whilst awkwardly chewing at his thumb nail, which made Percy notice that he always chewed at where his scar was. Whenever Percy looked back at him, Jason broke eye contact.

"So, uh, I'm sorry, dude. That was embarrassing."

Percy stirred his coffee with a spoon, enjoying the aroma, but lamenting that it was decidedly coffee-coloured. 

"It was, wasn't it? That's what I get for staring at the abs of generic gym guy #23."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? It's not your fault, and it doesn't even hurt anymore. It was just embarrassing for me."

His roommate's face lit up, as if the great weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. That seems a bit far, but Percy had noticed that Jason didn't have a midpoint between his extreme expressions and his resting face. "Oh, cool. I assume we're still on for Saturday then?"

Yeah. But not again today. I need everyone who was in that gym to politely forget what I look like first."

Jason ran a hand through his hair. "Fair enough." 

There was a temporary respite from conversation, in which Percy was able to down an entire blueberry muffin. He was trying to swallow without choking when Jason spoke up again, completely oblivious to Percy's dilemma.

"Dude, I'm so psyched. I haven't had a gym buddy since Frank bailed on me in junior year. Still mad about that."

Percy forced the remainder of the muffin down his throat, somehow managing to avoid detection. "Frank?"

"An old friend of myself and the guys. He and his girlfriend Hazel are going to a different uni."

"Ah, I see."

The rest of the coffee break went by without much of interest happening, just small talk and the such. Percy noticed that Jason was a lot more reserved when they were out like this. With friends or in the dorms, he was bashful and relaxed, but also kind of a snarky bitch. Right now, he seemed a lot softer and gentle. Maybe he was like Percy, where public spaces made him feel a bit more timid, but it was probably just the time.

Eventually, they decided to go to the shopping district. They both had no classes that day, and they had stuff to buy- Percy needed souvenirs to send back to his mom, and Jason needed stuff for an upcoming Halloween party, so it worked out. They had a few ways of getting there, but they decided on taking the train.

Percy couldn't remember the last time he had taken the train. After all, he'd lived his entire life in the same place with very few trips out- no reason to travel. It took some getting used to- being in a huge station with people from all walks of life, all with different destinations but the same method of travel... gods, what was it with him and existentialism lately?

He decided to let Jason do the talking, and he was glad he did, because by the time he had boarded the train and sat down, he had fallen asleep. He supposed that pulling an all nighter wasn't the best idea.

Percy had a strange dream. He was submerged in a lake, no surface in sight, in pitch darkness. The water was suffocating. He couldn't breathe, but for some reason, he wouldn't die. 

When he tried to swim up, his body wouldn't move. If he tried to give into the depths; if he tried to just drown, he couldn't.

He spent an eon floating there, waiting to die, with no-one coming to help.

After a while, a bright light appeared. At first, it was small, but then it came plummeting through the water, rapidly moving towards Percy, until it grew so bright that he could no longer see.

When Percy woke up, he was acutely aware of two things; he was sweating, and so was Jason.

The blonde was clearly disturbed, with his perfect hair tousled and his breathing heavy. One of his hands was resting on both Percy's shoulder and forehead, and he leaned closer when he noticed Percy's eyes open.

"What the fuck was happening to you?"

Percy shrugged off Jason's hands. "Nothing. It was just a nightmare."

Jason's eyes continued to dwell on him with a hint of concern. Percy knew that he was asking to know more, and usually he wouldn't oblige, but it didn't hurt to let Jason know. They were roommates, right? It was a conversation bound to happen eventually.

"It happens all the time, don't worry. It's usually some sort of tragic event, like drowning or falling off a cliff, apart from it never ends." He hesitated before the next sentence. "They're why I've never really slept much."

Jason nodded, and Percy felt an arm snake behind his back. Usually, he'd object, but Jason was bigger than him and immeasurably friendly, so he probably couldn't stop him if he tried.

"I'm sorry, dude. It's not real. I'm here for you."

This was all stuff he'd heard from Sally before, but it was reassuring nonetheless. 

"Yeah, thanks. Are we there yet?"

This seemed to give Jason some sort of realisation, which made him retract his arm from around Percy and sit back opposite Percy, instead of next to him. He looked out of the window and said "Not yet. I think we have like ten more minutes."

Percy nodded and looked down at his phone, seeing some notifications from their group chat.

jasongrace: img-1290.png

jasongrace: lmao

thedamdare: aw sleepy percy

thedamdare: he's kinda cute when he sleeps tbh

annabethchase__.: Rachel, you know that he's gay.

thedamdare: bro i'm not hitting on him i'm teasing him 😭

thedamdare: i had a crush on him like 7 years ago, let it go annie

Percy looked up and glared at Jason, who clearly got the message.

"Y'know you drool when you sleep, right?"

Percy had decided he hates shopping trips, which wasn't a new revelation, but it was a nice reminder.

Why were there so many people in a single convenience store? There's like 30 of them in this mall alone!

Percy had somehow managed to get lost between the tens of identical white aisles, looking for a loaf of bread. A fucking loaf of bread.

Percy didn't go shopping often, and he went shopping alone even less often. When he did, he went to local stores, small places, and generally those that didn't have a lot of people. It was a lot more comfortable that way.

What wasn't comfortable was being alone and lost in a huge maze-like place, having no idea where to go or what to do.

Jason was probably fine right now. They'd decided to meet up at 1pm to get lunch and go back to the dorm.

At this rate, Percy would be out of the store at about 7.

This was not what he considered fun.

After stumbling around for what felt like half an hour, Percy finally found the bread. If he could've just taken it and left, he would, but there was a family waiting in front of it, and he didn't want to seem rude. He waited around for what felt like ten minutes before they left, pretending to be interested in a brownie recipe.

Gods, why was he like this? Minor inconveniences, and he somehow found a way to magnify them into a huge issue. That was probably his greatest talent.

Finding the front of the store was a lot easier than finding one specific product, and he was able to get through the queue without another major panic. He'd worked as a cashier at some point in high school, so he knew how to navigate around a till.

The mall was huge, and it was soaked with bright white lights and all sorts of colourful storefronts, which all suffocated together into the city's trademark gray. The crowds of people moved like a unit up and down the streets, and any one of them could be Jason, and yet also none of them could be.

Well, if Jason wasn't in the crowds, he'd be in a shop. Time to start searching.

Yes, just calling him would have been smarter, and yes, he chose potentially the least efficient method imaginable., but hey, anxious Percy isn't smart Percy. Hell, even smart Percy was not always smart Percy.

In general, Percy wasn't always such a mess, but he was in a new place with new people and half of his support system lived 3 hours away. He'd always had a lot of anxiety, but it'd been spiking a lot in the past month.

On about the third shop, he found a Grace sibling, which was progress, but it wasn't the Grace he was expecting.

"Percy?" Thalia had asked, surprised to see her brother's roommate in a Hot Topic an hour away from campus. "What are you doing here?"

Usually, Percy would rationally explain the situation, but the growing stress and unfamiliarity of the situation led him to ramble. Way to leave a good impression.

"I agreed to go out shopping with Jason and we split up but I didn't realise there would be so many people and I got nervous so now I'm looking for him and I can't find him and I'm panicking and I'm sorry to bother you but do you know where he is-"

"Dude, why don't you just call him?"

Huh. That was an option.

Well, it was as he'd said. Anxious Percy wasn't smart Percy.

So, after all, Percy decided he didn't particularly like going too far from campus. There were too many people, too many bright lights, and it was all so unfamiliar and gray.

Thalia was leaving early, so she agreed to take Percy back to campus with her. Jason had stayed behind in the mall, because he wasn't done shopping. He must've been mad at Percy, which wasn't surprising, since he'd made such a big deal out of nothing.

Lying in his bed moping about being socially inept was a great use of his time. He totally wasn't avoiding having to speak to Jason when he got back. Why would he do that?

Percy realised he was hungry, so he decided to go and get a snack.

There was only one blue cookie left. 

Fuck.

The day couldn't get any worse.

Apart from it could, because while he was standing in the kitchen looking into the empty box of cookies (and definitely not crying over it. Who would cry because they wouldn't be able to eat their mother's food for a few months? Not him.), Jason came back in through the door.

Fuck. Again.

Jason waved. "Hey dude, you okay?" Percy gave the most unconvincing nod of his life, which prompted a solemn smile from Jason. 

"You're not okay. What's up? Is it something I did? Because we can totally just never do that again and just be roommates and be chill."

Wow, Jason really was way too nice. If he was in his situation, he'd probably be mad on his roommate for bailing, but somehow Jason miraculously never got mad. Percy wished he could relate, but unfortunately, his stress response was usually to fight things.

Well, he'd been marinating in these feelings all day. He might as well just rip the bandaid off.

He took a deep breath. "I don't think I fit in. Here. Like, in the city."

Jason nodded, asking Percy to continue, which pissed him off, because he wanted Jason to do the talking because then he wouldn't have to actually deal with it. Healthy coping mechanisms, right?

"The city is way too big, and there's too many people, and- it's so different, Jason. It's so unfamiliar, and everything just feels so gray. It's like all of the life has been sucked out of it, without my mom, Grover, seeing Annabeth and Rachel every day, my neighbours, the store down the street that sells candy- hell, even the shitty local skate park that gets vandalised all the time. It's so different to what I'm used to- I kinda hate it, but I know it's irrational and I shouldn't."

Jason nodded along with Percy, intently listening to every word. When Percy was done, he took a moment to think. He bit his lip, like he always did when he's thinking, and looked at Percy gently with those electric blue eyes. They were more vibrant than he had ever realised.

Since when did he care about people's eyes?

Eventually, Jason spoke.

"I think... you're not used to things changing, so this is all so weird for you. But are you sure this is a bad thing?"

Percy blinked.

You were supposed to share your experiences, not make him deal with it!

"How can this be a good thing? It's so uncomfortable-"

"It's good because sometimes change is good, Percy. I can tell that you aren't that big of a fan of sharing about your life, because you're focused on dealing with what's going on in the present, and now it's changing, and you're scared, because as far as you know, you are you right now, not Percy who's lived every day of his life for the last 18 years. But you're not. You're more, and can't just ignore everything you've been through and try to keep things the same so you don't have to change and block it all out again. So, tell me, who are you, Percy Jackson?"

Huh. He had a way with words.

Fucking history majors.

Percy thought for a moment. Jason had a point- he'd always moved on from things, processed them like a death, and abandoned thoughts of them, even if his feelings hadn't fully concluded. But who was he now?

He liked the sea. He liked skating. He likes the colour blue, and blue food. Just like he always had. 

He disliked crowds, and shopping, and unfamiliar places. It was all change, and he especially hated change.

He missed his mom, and Grover, and his home. It was different, but he could live without them.

He had anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, and gods know what else. There were probably some things he'd repressed, after all.

He was Percy Jackson, no matter what. 

It didn't matter how much he tried to push it out, or hide it, the past would always be a part of him, and there was future that he would soon be a part of too. He didn't need to keep everything in stasis just to keep him being him.

Jason nodded. "I understand. It's nice to meet you, Percy. I'm sure we'll be great friends."

Shit.

"Did I say that all out loud?"

A shit-eating grin grew on the blonde's face, and Percy really wanted to get mad at him. "It's fine, don't worry. It was funny seeing you talk about yourself in the third person. Like you were writing a book or something."

"If my life was a book, it'd probably be some shitty POV novel thing with Taylor Swift lyrics as a title. Or I'd be a side character."

"Nah, you'd be the main character. Perseus Jackson, it's a cool name. They could definitely write a full series about you just from that. Maybe even two."

Before Percy knew what he was doing, a tupperware lid was flying through the air. It hit Jason on the arm.

Oops. Maybe the throw was a little too hard.

Jason winced, and then laughed. He seemed entirely undisturbed by the fact that Percy had tried to take off his head with kitchenware. "That was rude, dude."

"What can I say, I'm an asshole. You'd be better off avoiding me."

"If I avoided you, who would teach me how to do basic housework?"

"If you avoided me, who would keep me sane in my newly-developing existential phase?"

"Touché, Jackson. We're a perfect pair."

This continued for another five minutes, before Jason remembered that he had frozen food to put in the freezer, so Percy gave him space to organise himself. He was going to write a lengthy text to his mom to tell her to remind him of some good stories from the worst parts of his childhood he had repressed, but by the time he started typing, Jason called him back over.

"Hey, Percy, I almost forgot! Come over here."

Percy did as Jason said, walking over to him, and-

No way.

No fucking way.

"These are fish?"

Jason nodded. "Yeah. Surprise."

"What the fuck? These go for like £300 apiece? How did you afford it?"

"You know that I'm, like, kinda loaded, right?"

Percy blinked. He did know that, considering his mom was an actor and he was on the cusp of being a public figure if he wanted, but he'd never really considered it. Piper was their token rich friend.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I did my research. I checked the tank's details and stuff and I checked with the exotic pet store and they should be fine in the current tank for like a year or two, until they get too big for it, and by then I'll have bought you a bigger one. Or I can get you another tank just for them, if you want. You're the expert here, so you know how to take care of them."

Percy took the container in his hands, taking extreme care not to drop them. Jason regarded him with an expression indistinguishable between admiration and pity.

"Holy shit. Jason, this is so cool. Why?"

"Well, I wanted to thank you because it seems like you'll be doing all the housework for the foreseeable future, and I also like having the fish around. Besides, if we take care of them together, we basically have a guaranteed roommate for the rest of our course, right? It just works." Jason's brow was slightly peppered with sweat. "Good gift?"

"Fuck yeah. Great gift."

Huh.

That was something that happened.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Chapter Text

⚡

Piper McLean's Halloween parties had always been the best part of Jason's October. Parties weren't something he particularly cared for, but seeing a bunch of friends all dancing around and happy made his heart swell. Most parties pissed him off, but Piper's were always so amazingly decorated and themed that he couldn't help but have a good time.

When she'd started throwing the parties, Jason would admit he didn't usually have a good time. Since he was Piper's best friend, he always made a point to show up, but they were loud and frankly not very interesting. Granted, they were 14 at the time, so they didn't have many options of things to do.

When Piper stopped caring what other people thought of her, she started throwing the parties for herself instead of to entertain others, and this made them infinitely more exciting. Every season, she'd decorate her dad's city apartment (which was one of something like 7 homes, so he didn't really care) to fit the theme, and set fun rules and regulations to make the event seem authentic. By the end of the night, things were the same they always were anyway, but Jason had learned to politely excuse himself before things got annoying.

The last few years, as Piper's long-time friends, Jason and Leo had been dragged into the planning, and thus had a chance to experience her unique creative process. In particular, last year's Halloween was titled 'Roman Empire' and featured skeletons wearing togas, exotic fruits and cheeses, and marble columns in all the hallways painted a gray-white which Jason had been forced to mix himself. The most interesting attraction was a set of 11 skeletons arranged in a circle, which she had dubbed the 'Roundtable of Boolympus'. She herself filled in the final seat, declaring herself Venus, goddess of love.

That fit Piper a lot. She put a lot of love into everything she did.

This year's theme had yet to be announced to her helpers, but Piper had given Jason and Leo a list of what she needed them to purchase so they could organise the set a week before. In particular, Jason had been set to buy a bunch of long black dresses and leather jackets. He had no clue what that meant, but he'd learnt not to question Piper by now.

Leo was currently driving him to Piper's apartment, having not yet revealed what was in the trunk of his car. He hadn't had a chance to peek, because his own bags had been strewn across the back seat, and they were already running late as is.

"So, what did Pipes make you get this year? Wasn't as bad as last year, right?"

Last year, Leo had been on food duty, and his idea of 'various fancy cheeses' was all cheddar cheese with different food colourings. Piper wasn't particularly amused, but Jason found it quite hilarious.

Leo laughed a little, speaking with a tight-lipped smile. "Pretty sure if I told you, it would give away her entire theme."

"All the more reason to tell me." Jason bargained.

"Touché, Grace." he watched Leo bite on his thumb nail, as if he was considering it for a moment, before returning his hand to the steering wheel. "She sent me out to buy 20 electric guitars. Twenty. Fuckers were expensive too, I'm glad she transferred me the money beforehand."

"That fits with what I did. She sent me out to get these long fancy dresses and leather jackets and stuff. Going for some rocker girl theme, I think."

"Seems so, but you never know. Remember Opera La Grandeur?"

Now that was a memory.

That time, Piper had sent them out to get a bunch of wooden sticks, which they assumed had been for wands. Turned out that she only needed one wooden stick, and it was for an Opera conductor. Since all the other witchy attire they had bought turned out useless, Jason and Leo had agreed to stop spending on speculation from that year onwards. At least he'd had fun costumes to decorate his own apartment with.

"Either way," Leo continued. "This year is bound to be cool. It's our first party in Uni, after all! Now that we're all legal, shit is gonna get lit."

"You just say that because you're painfully single and you think that drunk sex is the easiest way to get a girlfriend." Jason looked straight into Leo's eyes, watching his friend's face turn beet red as he realised what Jason had said.

"I never said that! Well- I suggested it, but I'm not that shallow, dude."

As much as Jason tried to hold it in, he couldn't help but sigh. He'd been finding himself sighing a lot lately.

"If you insist."

Jason gazed at the city outside, absentmindedly tapping his finger along to the song on the radio. Night lights had powered on, illuminating the streets in an amber glow, as if a hearth blazed inside of every house warming the street outside. The residential districts were always a lot less crowded than the shopping ones, and that always came with a characteristic warmth.

Jason had always liked the city at night, It was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen, towering buildings blocking out the sky, the moon occasionally peeking between them, piercing the orange luminescence with streaks of brilliant silver moonlight. Multiple moment he'd spent admiring it's beauty over the years, but each one he noticed something new to love. 

When Leo spoke from beside him, it shook him out of his trance. 

"That reminds me," his friend asked. "Who's that cute girl you're studying history with, eh?"

"You mean Calypso?"

"Yeah, her. You two a thing, or..."

Leo was met with Jason's best death glare, which he should've expected- the same happened every time someone inquired into his love life. It wasn't that Calypso wasn't pretty, she just wasn't his type of girl. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure what his type was.

Leo shrugged. "More for me."

"Leo, I feel like she's the kind of person who would kill you on sight."

"And who says I'm not into that?"

Jason opened his mouth to speak, but decided against replying. It was sometimes best not to enable his reckless, down-bad friend.

By the time that they'd arrived at Piper's apartment, it was already 10pm. He probably wouldn't be back to the dorm tonight, so he made sure to message Percy, as his roommate had a tendency to worry about everything.

Rooming with Percy had been an interesting experience. They got along well, but he was just so different to everyone else Jason was friends with. He was a lot more reserved than the people Jason were used to, but somehow the most boisterous at the same time. Percy hated loud people, and froze up every time someone knocked on the door, but at the same time, his response to any sort of conflict was to try and fight the source. Percy's emotions were like a cloud- hanging around him, pulling him down, yet intensifying into a fierce thunderbolt whenever annoyed. 

He was an enigma- completely confusing to Jason. So confusing, in fact, that sometimes Jason found it hard to control his own emotions when they spoke. His heart rate would spike, and sometimes he'd stutter and stumble on words, just because Percy was so unpredictable. Jason was getting better at seeing the signs, but he found himself tripping up often still.

As they waited in the lobby of the apartment building for Piper to come down, he realised that this would be the first party that Percy, Rachel, and Annabeth would've been invited to. Rachel's parents were fairly well-off, so he wouldn't have been surprised if she'd experienced something like this before, but he suspected that Percy and Annabeth both had little experience with partying. Well, at least to the scale that Piper usually threw.

A part of him hoped that they'd enjoy it, but another wouldn't be surprised if Annabeth skipped it entirely to study, or if Percy ended up just sitting in a corner all night so that he didn't get overwhelmed and (bad) have a panic attack, or (worse) start a fight.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, signalling a reply from Percy.

jasongrace: Hey, won't be back tonight. Staying over at Piper's

bbluefoodz_.: 👍 use protection

jasongrace: bro wtf

bbluefoodz_.: just teasing

bbluefoodz_.: what are you there for

jasongrace: It's her halloween party on sunday

bbluefoodz_.: the day b4 halloween?

jasongrace: Not holding a party on a monday

bbluefoodz_.: fair enuf

jasongrace: Leo and I always end up helping out organising it

jasongrace: You're free to come help too if you want

bbluefoodz_.: nah ur good

bbluefoodz_.: have fun at ur party

Jason ended up spending the rest of the wait in the lobby scrolling through shitty instagram memes. He sent a few to the groupchat, but aside from the occassional 'lmao' from Rachel, there was no response. About twenty minutes had passed before Piper's personal assistant (Jason wanted to think something witty like 'rich kid problems', but he couldn't really talk) fetched them and escorted them upstairs.

Jason had a lot of expectations on what refurbishing Piper had already done, but one of those expectations was not to walk in on her bent over in front of a microphone stand as Annabeth ordered her around from a plastic chair she'd definitely pulled out of storage from the 'Playground' theme a year back.

Well, at least he knew Annabeth's stance on the party now.

"I honestly didn't know you knew how to do this, Beth. Do you sing?" asked Piper, struggling to set the stand up.

Annabeth chuckled a little, waving towards the boys. "No, but I learnt guitar a few years ago because Percy wanted to but he was too pussy to sign up for lessons alone. It's a fun hobby."

When she noticed the boys enter, Piper immediately stood up, glaring at Annabeth. She had one of those looks on her face that Jason had learned to interpret as 'thank fucking goodness'.

"Cool. You do this whilst I go deal with the boys, okay?" Piper then walked over to Leo and Jason, embracing them in hugs one by one. Her t-shirt was both undersized and had an outdated MCR motif, which brought Jason back to their brief emo era about 7 years ago. For Piper, that meant wearing new baggy clothes, and for Jason, that meant being convinced by his sister to dye his hair. Considering that Piper was wearing the shirt to shield herself from paint, they both had intentions to forget those times.

"Hey, Pipes." Leo had spoken alongside a shit-eating grin that made Jason think he was gonna ask Piper for a stupid favour by the end of the night. "Your assistant guy is bringing up the guitars."

Jason noticed a slight smile grace Piper's lips. She was scheming a way to get Leo to do stuff for her in exchange for the favour. "Thanks, you're the best. Can you go out the back and grab the speakers? I need you to set them up since you're the tech whiz here."

"Your wish is my command, milady."

After a well deserved slap from Piper, Leo left the room to find the speakers. Leo was an engineering major, and was some sort of genius in the subject, as he'd won plenty of youth inventor awards- and he definitely could do even better if he'd applied himself more. Every mildly technological or mechanical task was left to Leo, which was on one hand a good thing, because he was able to do it all, and was also awkward when things broke, because he was the only person who knew how to fix them.

"What a dumbass." Piper was giggling to herself for a second, before she regained composure. She was always deathly serious when it came to these things, and Jason had to constantly remind himself not to piss her off- he wasn't entirely sure if he'd survive. "Thank gods you're here. I need your help the most."

"Let me guess- it's because I'm tall?"

Jason always had to do the jobs that required a tall person. Honestly, being tall gave him more problems than benefits- being able to reach the top shelf wasn't worth all the stuff that got pawned off on him, and he could do without random girls hitting on him at the parties or in the uni library.

Piper's nod was something Jason saw coming from a while away. "I need you to paint the archways in the kitchen. They're still pink from the summer party, and that is not nearly close to the vibe of this year's theme."

"And this year's theme is?"

"Rockstar Masquerade." Piper's wide grin made it seem as if she thought she was incredible- her ideas were the best thing since sliced bread. To be fair, her execution was flawless, and that name did sound pretty epic, so she had an excuse to think that way.

She walked Jason into a side room. "Everyone's gonna come dressed as some 1990's style rocker chick style- or not, I don't care- and they're all gonna get one of these masks when you come in. Then, I'm gonna dress up all of these creepy regency era skeletons and props and I'm gonna make the place look like an old ball. It's gonna be like if you held a rock concert in a castle, or like Nirvana invaded the 1550's. Absolutely killer."

The room that she took him into was clearly a work in progress, with buckets of paint and parts of plastic skeletons littering the floor. On the far end of the room was a table covered in what looked like dozens of masquerade masks, all in different colours and with different patterns. They all looked hand-painted, which was really impressive if she'd done it all herself.

"Annabeth and I spent like 4 hours doing those." Piper supplied. "Every mask has a completely unique pattern and colour. I think they're all cool accent pieces and take-homes."

"They are pretty cool." Jason grabbed one and took a closer look at it. It was a deep orange with a yellow zig-zag running through the center, cutting the face in half. "Am I allowed to pick one early? Because this one looks killer."

"Sure, as long as you bring it with you on the day. Alright, grab a bucket of paint and start painting. We have a week to make this place look perfect."

Jason had to give it to Piper, she'd really gone all out for her first party at Uni.

Because, somehow, she managed to get the official University Twitter account to tweet about it.

Once again, Jason was in no place to say this, but rich kid problems.

She'd already had a lot of RSVPs, and they had to make sure they had enough food for everyone. And masks. And booze.

Gods, party planning was stressful. It always had been, but this year was particularly bad.

Jason had been dragged into food purchasing. This was a good thing, because he had exactly zero of the artistic talent needed to make the masks and probably would get stressed out by the logistics of how to fit everything. He'd already nearly messed up painting a wall last week, after all.

It took a lot of pleading (and making promises he couldn't keep, like "I'll do the washing up for the entirety of November", which was a promise that his roommate probably didn't want him to keep) to convince Percy to help him out. Usually, he'd be fine by himself, but buying food and booze for most likely something like 300 people was a bit daunting, and there was no way he'd be able to carry it all.

Jason turned to his roommate, who was surveying the aisles in the convenience store. They'd agreed to go late, so that Percy's anxiety wouldn't spike too hard, since they had a bunch of stuff to buy and move around. The last thing he needed was for Percy to stress out and argue with a cashier. He technically hadn't even invited him to the party yet, but Percy would invite himself if he was interested anyways.

Bright white LEDs lit up the similarly white linoleum aisles, giving the store a very machinated feeling. Just from a glance, he could tell Percy wasn't entirely on board with the idea yet, because his arms were crossed in high alert.

"What kinda stuff did they eat at masquerade balls anyways?" Jason attempted to break the stifling atmosphere.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you the history major?"

"I never said I knew what I was doing."

"Fair enough." Percy strolled through the aisles, grabbing random boxes and looking at their ingredients, before putting them down. It didn't seem like he had much experience shopping, but then again, neither did Jason. He usually just grabbed random stuff that sounded good.

Eventually, Percy grabbed a pineapple and held it up to Jason's face. "How about this? We can get some cheese and tomatoes and make some skewers. Y'know, party food."

That made sense. If he didn't know what to get, party food was a safe bet. "We could also just grab some cream cheese and crackers then, if we're gonna take the easy route. Maybe some store-bought cupcakes?"

"You tell me, I've never even been to a proper party, let alone planned one. Will Piper be okay with that?"

"She'll understand that we're feeding so many people that we can't do anything gourmet."

"Then it's enough." Percy threw a few pineapples into the cart, whistling a victory fanfare. "To the crackers."

By the time they had gotten back to Piper's apartment, it had already turned 11pm. Piper had more enough spare rooms to facilitate all the helpers, so they were just gonna stay there that night. In fact, she had a suspiciously high number of rooms that made Jason think that the apartment was originally multiple which had been combined by the miraculous money of Tristan McLean. Jason wasn't gonna argue with it- the mattress was probably better than the shitty uni-provided ones everyone had to sleep on.

They dropped the food off in the kitchen, and then said their farewells before they went to the rooms they were gonna sleep in. Jason was completely content sleeping in boxers, so he hadn't brought any other stuff with him except for his phone and earbuds. If he needed anything, campus was only 20 minutes away anyways.

As he settled into bed, his 'sad music for nights' playlist humming in his earbuds, he got a dm from Percy. Weird, because he usually messaged the group chat.

bbluefoodz_.: hey

bbluefoodz_.: do i have to come to the thing tomorrow

bbluefoodz_.: or is it cool if i just go back and chill after i'm done helping

jasongrace: I mean, no-ones forcing you to stay

jasongrace: but it would be cool to have you there

bbluefoodz_.: would piper mind if i skipped?

jasongrace: probably not (?)

bbluefoodz_.: it's fine i'll come

bbluefoodz_.: i'll just leave early if i need 2

bbluefoodz_.:   as funny as it would be for me to get into a fight i'm not really in the mood

bbluefoodz_.: doubt i will tho since i'm a sad drunk anyways🥴

jasongrace: i can ask piper to clear out a spare room for you to chill in if ur feeling off

bbluefoodz_.: cool thanks

bbluefoodz_.: sorry for bothering you gn

Jason smiled, the blue light from his phone illuminating his face. To be honest, the idea of Percy getting into a fight was momentarily entertaining, but he was glad he was going to give the party a try.

He had a strange dream that night. He was in the dorm, laying on the sofa, when he heard a crash outside, deafening him. Upon exiting onto the balcony, he found that their dorm building was floating in the ocean, rocking back and forth, struggling to stay afloat.

Jason could see a person floating in the sea before him, hurtling further into the abyss. He tried to jump into the water- to save them- but he couldn't bring himself to. It wasn't a physical block- it was if the nerves connecting his brain to his limbs had been severed, and he was now stuck in his body, a prisoner inside his own mind.

After an eternity of waiting, the ocean went dark, and they were both swallowed by the deep.

Four hours before the party, and they were pretty much done preparing. The food was prepared, the apartment was decorated, and all the take-homes were ready. There wasn't really anything left to do.

Three hours before the party, and they realised the speakers weren't properly set up.

One hour before the party, and Leo had finally gotten off his ass and fixed them.

Twenty minutes before the party, and Annabeth accidentally knocked down three dressed-up skeletons.

Five minutes before the party, people were already arriving, and they were still re-dressing the third.

The theme of the party was 'rockstar masquerade', and so guests were expected to dress according to theme. Of course, Piper didn't expect that to actually happen, but it was always something she liked to do. In fact, she'd taken the liberty of dressing all of her friends personally.

Jason was wearing a an unzipped gold biker jacket, with a studded belt and uncomfortable black skinny jeans. No shirt.

Piper insisted that it was 'totally rockstar' and fit with the theme, and Jason didn't feel like arguing, but he felt like covering up his tits.

Looking around the room, he could see that Piper's sense of style didn't get any more normal. Annabeth was wearing some sort of golden dress with a cross-stitch strap down the back, which must've taken a lot of convincing to make her wear. It made Annabeth look like some sort of ancient goddess, and Jason couldn't help but stare. She'd grown so much from the Annabeth he remembered from when they were ten.

Rachel wore a pretty emerald-green dress, bearing a scale pattern. It matched with the snake-eyed mask that Piper had specifically made for her, and all in all, it was pretty cool. If Annabeth was Minerva, she must've been Medusa or something. In common perception, that would make Rachel the bad guy, but Jason didn't understand that thinking. Wasn't the entire situation really Neptune's fault?

She must've given up trying to convince Leo to stay on theme, because he was dressed like Mufasa from the Lion King. Why? Jason didn't want to know. He also didn't want to know where he had found the outfit, but knowing Leo, he was going to find out by the end of the night.

Jason's eyes wandered to a mark on one of the far walls where Leo had set off a firework earlier this year. That was not something that was in anyone's interests to repeat.

As for Percy, Piper had seemed to show some sort of mercy, because he'd been forced into a basic blue tux. A bit refined for a Halloween party, Jason thought, but at the very least, Percy didn't look super uncomfortable in it. Despite this, he was fiddling with the collar, clearly looking for the soonest opportunity to lose the tie when Piper wasn't looking. 

Honestly, Jason and Percy were probably each dressed in an outfit they hated, but the other would like. Part of him felt like Piper had done this on purpose.

The rules were pretty simple. Make sure no-one brought anything illegal in, no fighting, no public sex (side rooms were unlocked for a reason), and most importantly, have fun. Jason felt like he could do that.

He'd left his phone upstairs in Piper's room, because he didn't trust having it on his person with such little clothing. Besides, being in a room full of drunk people was a sure-fire way to get something fragile broken. In general, Piper's room was off-limits to everyone except the six of them, which was good, because Percy had a place to go to cool off, and Leo wouldn't have to leave his various probably explosive devices in easily accessible areas before one of the others realised what he was up to.

It didn't take long for people to start flooding in, and very quickly, he'd lost sight of nearly everyone he knew. He struck up a conversation with a guy he knew from his history class, and hung around with him for a while. They were swallowed by the crowd, quickly become a part of the waves of multicoloured halloween costumes.

Aside from the inevitable sexy catgirls, people were surprisingly on theme. A lot of studded jackets and dyed hair and wigs, alongside a bunch of dresses that probably had tails that were being stepped on constantly. In general, Piper had nailed the mixture between giving individual creativity and a well-liked theme, and she was probably ecstatic about that. Most of the crowd had formed around the food tables, which made Jason wonder if they should've gotten a few more pineapples.

Ah well. If they ate it all too fast, they ate it all too fast. Not his problem.

It took a lot of effort to fight through the crowd, as it seemed every other person tried to make small talk with him. At least three girls had introduced themselves by calling him sexy, which was a new record for this kind of party. That was what being borderline shirtless does, he supposed.

Literally all he wanted was a glass of water. Is that too much to ask for?

By the time he had made it to the drinks table, he'd lost track of anyone he recognised. He grabbed a solo cup of water and sipped on it slowly, making conversation with a pair of girls who were standing to his right. They were nice, but definitely at risk of getting a little touchy. Jason didn't need any of that right now, so he'd excused himself and gazed out at the crowd for a little while. There was already at least two fights, but neither of them contained Percy, which was a good sign. Jason was pretty sure Percy exaggerated how testy that he could be, anyways.

It didn't start long for things to start getting louder, and people began to filter out of the food area to the dance floor. The room was left in quite a state, which was a disappointment, because he'd spent half an hour earlier cleaning this floor, and now all of his work meant jack shit. The food table was also mostly cleared out, and the clock said that it was- 11:30? Gods, it did not feel like an hour and a half had already passed.

Jason fiddled with his glasses, absentmindedly finishing the remaining crackers, before deciding it would be best to go annoy one of his friends. What was the point of being at a party if you weren't gonna see anyone, right?

It didn't take long to find Rachel sitting down alone at a collapsible table, a solo cup of beer loosely hanging in her hand. He couldn't tell if she'd barely touched it or just had a refill, but from the looks of things, she was relatively sober. 

"Hey Rach." Jason sat down next to her, attempting to stretch out his legs before realising there wasn't nearly enough room. She waved with her free hand, not turning towards him.

"Hey, Grace. What's up?" She had a golden snake bangle around her wrist, which occasionally caught the strobe lights in a weird way that directly shone a glare into Jason's glasses. It was really fucking annoying.

"Nothing. I'm bored, to be honest. I'm not a party fanatic. They're okay, but I'm not as talkative as Piper or as chaotic as Leo. I usually just find myself hanging out in a corner by twelve."

"Same. I only really show up for people watching. You see that girl over there?"

Rachel pointed to some girl wearing a biker jacket, talking to a guy with black hair wearing the poorest excuse for a spiderman costume Jason had ever seen. If you had told him it was just a red jumpsuit, he would've believed you. Hell, if you told him he'd stretched out a balloon, it was still a tolerable statement.

"She's dating a guy from my Psych class, and he raves about her all the time. But here she is at the party, making out with someone else completely random. This is the third guy this night too- makes you wonder if she likes cheating or if the guy in my class was leading himself on."

"Probably the latter. A lot of guys are like that."

Rachel side-eyed him. "Speaking from experience?"

"Piper's had a lot of admirers over the years, and they all do that. To be honest, it's stuff like that which makes me not want to date. I feel like it's not really worth the effort."

Rachel fully turned to face him, which twisted the glare away from his eyes. Now that he could properly see, he noticed that Rachel's hair was already tangled in her earrings. He decided it was best not to ask.

"Same. I honestly don't get any of the hassle around dating and sex and stuff- it's all just fucking weird. The last time I had a crush was like 8 years ago, because back then I didn't realise that you could be friends with a guy without being his boyfriend."

"I haven't dated in like, 3 years. Just haven't met any girls who interest me." Jason shrugged. "I'm not like Leo. Have you seen him, by the way?"

"Leo? I think I saw him dragging some girl out the front door. I think it's best to leave him to it."

That definitely sounded like Leo, leaving early to come back with something slightly dangerous to spice the party up, but he was impressed that he'd managed to convince someone to come with him this time. "I pity that poor girl."

Leo burning down a McDonalds and his accomplice unfairly getting dragged into it wasn't on his bingo card for tonight, but now he regretted not putting it on there. It wouldn't be the first time Leo had committed accidental arson, after all.

Rachel nodded solemnly, taking a sip of her drink. The scent made Jason realise that she wasn't drinking alcohol, but something extremely chocolatey and sweet. It was impressive that she'd managed to get away with stealing a solo cup. "Me too. Let's hope she gets back in one piece."

They eventually drifted into a comfortable silence, two green and two blue eyes darting around areas of interest in the crowd. Every once in while, Rachel would point out something she noticed, like someone she knew doing something strange or drunk people being stupid. Jason took the chance to keep an eye out for his friends. There was no sign of Leo- it seemed like he really had abandoned ship with a girl- and there was also no Percy in sight. Jason supposed he'd already retreated to the bedroom, and became very curious about what had managed to piss him off.

Piper and Annabeth had been hanging by the DJ, who was some Junior from the local high school Piper was paying. They were doing that thing that girls did where they'd talk, then whisper something in the other's ear and stifle a laugh behind their hand. It was nice to see them getting along, because they were so different. They hadn't known each other from before this year, and whilst they were friends now, Jason could see 10 year old Annabeth hating 10 year old Piper, and vice versa. 

Rachel tapped him on the shoulder, which interrupted his period of deliberation over which girl would've hated the other more. "Did you see those guys who just came out of the side room? They each were wearing the other's sweater when they went in."

"Scandalous."

"Tell me about it. I feel bad for Pipes, because she lives here, but I feel even worse for her cleaning crew." Her hands were picking red curls out of the rhinestone studding on her mask, which made Jason wince more than she was. He'd always kept his hair short because he remembered getting it caught in a door when he was younger, and it'd hurt like hell. He'd had plans of growing it out longer for a while, but the increased maintenance was difficult, so he'd always ended up returning to his borderline military cut.

Rachel continued speaking once her hair was free from the mask, placing it back on her face. She stuck her tongue out at Jason, who copied the motion, extracting a laugh from the redhead. "I also saw this guy going upstairs. Gotta love how drunk people have no respect for the rules, huh?"

"Do we need to go get him down?" Usually, it wasn't exactly his business if people stepped out of line, but Percy was probably in Piper's room. If he was up there, his first experience with a Piper Party wasn't already great, and now there was a decent chance of him punching someone in the face, there wasn't a spectacular outlook.

"Nah, Piper has guys up there. They'll force him down eventually."

Jason nodded, not fully convinced, but they went back to people-watching nonetheless. Rachel's drink didn't seem to be depleting, which was strange. In contrast, Jason's water was long since gone, but he didn't feel the need to go back for a refill.

At around 12:30, Annabeth made her way through the crowd, as Piper seemed to have to walk the DJ kid out of the party- Jason supposed it was his bedtime. Strobe lights were flickering all over the room, illuminating the room in a kaleidoscope of different colours, depending on the costume that they ended up shining on. Jason took off his glasses, hoping it would lessen the strain on his eyes. He couldn't see shit now, but he also couldn't with them on, so he might as well save himself the eye strain.

When Annabeth reached the table, she took the last remaining seat and gave Rachel an affectionate hair rustle. Her dress had long since been switched out for a hoodie and jeans, which must've happened whilst Jason was holed up in the other room. She looked a bunch more comfortable this way, and Jason had to admit she looked just as stunning as before. 

"Have you two seen Leo? We need him to sync the speakers up to Piper's phone so we can just play her playlist."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Can't you just look it up? He abandoned ship. Took some girl and went for a ride, presumably. Don't be surprised to see him on the news tomorrow morning."

Annabeth's jaw tensed, and her next words were venomous: "Great. Absolutely fucking perfect."

"Hey, at least Leo's getting laid. That means at least one of you guys succeeded tonight. Unless you've gotten funky with Piper." Rachel's joke was an attempt to cheer up her friend. They'd known each other a lot longer than Jason had, so he supposed that she knew how to calm her easier. It hadn't even been two months since their reunion, but Jason knew not to make Annabeth angry.

"That... is something I'm working on." As Annabeth began fiddling with a braid, she turned away. It was hard to tell, but she seemed flustered.

Wait.

Annabeth and Piper had a thing going on? And he hadn't noticed?

"And I wish you the best of luck. This must've been what my prediction on September 1st meant."

"I don't think we're soulmates!" Annabeth's outburst made Jason recoil, but Rachel just laughed. "She's just pretty, that's all. We haven't even properly flirted yet."

"Then do it, you idiot." Rachel's grin was unbelievably smug. "Want my advice?"

"Rachel, you're literally aro."

"And I'm still better at it than you." The ginger refuted.

Jason could feel a conversation on the horizon that he wasn't thrilled to be a part of, so he decided to excuse himself. It was for the best, anyways,- his head was hurting, there were too many flashing lights to wear his glasses, and he desperately needed some sleep.

"I'm gonna go grab my phone from upstairs so I can call Leo, and then I'm probably gonna call it a night. Good luck with whatever you're planning" was what he said as he rose from his seat, choosing not to share his thoughts on the developing relationship. Nobody wanted his input on love, after all.

The girls waved him a farewell, and he started heading upstairs. The sad song that was playing downstairs echoed through the hallways, it's morose aura affecting Jason's mood.

Gods, he was exhausted.

Piper's room had a huge oaken door, which was out of place in the rest of the modern apartment. It was opened a crack, and something was coming from the other side. Usually, that wouldn't concern him, but it didn't sound like Percy. 

"Yeah- like that. Do that again, dude- fuck-"

Oh.

Oh.

That was something.

In Piper's room? Really? Whoever the assholes were that had taken it upon themselves to hook up in Piper's room, they were about to get a face-full of an angry Jason Grace. 

Like, seriously? It was clear in the party rules that nobody was to come here, and not only do you ignore it, but you get yourself laid whilst doing it as well? How much of an asshole do you have to be?

Jason didn't usually get mad at stuff like this, but sex and other topics always made him nervous, and the fact it was Piper's bedroom also pissed him off. It took a moment of composing himself, but he eventually decided that just barging in to stop it would be a better solution than calling for Piper's security to deal with it. He still needed to get his phone after all.

So, he entered the room, preparing to go off on whoever was inside, and-

Oh.

Oh fuck.

Percy was in the room, straddling some blonde guy and looking at Jason with a look of horror on his face. His jacket had long since been discarded, and his shirt was unbuttoned and hanging around his shoulders. Bruises and marks were splattered across his neck and collarbone.

The guy beneath Percy looked equally as shocked, and moved to zip up his pants.

Shit.

This really was an awkward situation for everyone.

"Oh, hey Jason-" Percy slurred, turning to face his roommate. Just one look at him made it clear he was drunk. Like, really drunk.

"Why the fuck are you doing this in Piper's room? This is your idea of how to stop yourself from getting into some stupid situation?" If Jason was mad before, now he was even madder. Like, actually surprisingly mad. Piper had let them use her space for whatever they needed tonight, and he repaid her by fucking some random guy in her bed? What an asshole move. He hadn't believed Percy when he'd told him he can be a total dick before- after all, he'd never experienced it himself- but this was definitely making him understand.

"Shit, yeah, huh. I don't actually get myself into fights all that often now, they just come to me. Sorry dude." Percy shrugged, climbing off his partner. His eyes seemed unable to properly focus on Jason, so he was erratically looking around the room.

Percy's hookup stood up, face as red as Rachel's hair. "Dude, I am so sorry. He said it was fine, and since he had a key I assumed-"

"It's fine." Jason stated bluntly, crossing his arms and standing to the side of the door, allowing for a clear pathway. "Just get the fuck out." The guy followed suit, and Jason closed the door behind him. When he turned back to Percy, he looked disappointed, as if he had any right to be.

He tried to justify himself, but the liquor prevented him from properly enunciating it, so it came out as some jumbled mess of vowels that probably wouldn't have convinced Jason even if they were audible.

"I don't care what you have to say, you're the one who's going to have to explain this to Piper. What the fuck were you thinking? Who even was that?"

Jason took note of the fact that he was shouting, and said shouting seemed to be riling Percy up. His roommate tried to stand straight and square up to Jason, but stumbled and fell onto the bed.

Percy groaned and collapsed down, now looking directly at Jason. "Hwas cute. Why'd you care? Jealous?"

"Jealous?" Jason was shocked. That was a wild accusation- why would he be jealous? He could get a girlfriend if he wanted to, he just didn't want to. "You just grabbed some random hot guy and decided you were gonna sleep with him on Piper's bed? Low shit, Perce. You're better than that." 

Jason heard a whimper come from the bed, which quickly rose up and pushed him against the wall. Percy was crying now, but that was overshadowed by the hostility in his eyes.

Shit. He hadn't intended to actually piss Percy off.

"Go into the bathroom and clean yourself up." Jason ordered, grabbing Percy's shoulder and shoving him away. It wasn't the best way of diffusing the situation, but he didn't want himself to be the person Percy tried to beat up. "I need to call Leo, and then we're going and explaining this to Piper."

Percy grumbled, with no initial intention of moving, but after some hassling from Jason, he moved to Piper's side toilet and tried to clean himself up. Jason took this time to find his phone, which luckily still had charge, and dialled in Leo's number. After taking a deep breath, he pushed the call button, and hoped that his friend would pick up.

Luckily, he did.

"Hey-yeah, I'll be done in a second." Leo muttered to someone on the other end of the call, presumably the girl he had gone out with. Jason tried to patiently wait for his friend to pay attention to him, but his fuse was already burning, so he ended up loudly shouting Leo's name into the microphone. It wasn't fair to Leo, but it felt good to let the anger out.

"Geez dude. What's up? I ditched the party like two hours ago."

"Yeah, I know." Jason took a deep breath. "We need you back here to fix the music, dumbass."

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that." Leo covered the receiver, and Jason could hear some muffled speaking from the other side. Leo then picked back up, and continued. "We'll be back over in like 10 minutes. You sure you're okay dude? You sound pissed. Like, more pissed than I've ever heard you."

Jason loosened his clenched jaw. It wasn't fair to take out his stress on others, after all.

"It's a long story, but you're bound to hear about it when you get back. Be here soon." 

Jason went to hang up, but suddenly heard Leo start arguing on the other side of the call. There was a short struggle, and then, another familiar voice came out of the receiver:

"Jason? You're friends with Leo?"

Jason gaped. "Calypso??"

Wow. Everyone seemed to be having a great night, except for him.

So much for Piper's parties.

Surprisingly, Piper didn't care that much about Percy's escapades. She was mad, of course, but she was glad it was at least someone she knew who did it. She'd learnt to consider these things an inevitability over the past few years, which was something that made Jason disappointed to hear, because she shouldn't have to put up with other people's shit, even if they're her close friends.

Annabeth Chase, on the other hand, was livid.

"It's your first fucking party at uni, we've got all the shit ready and we're all hanging out, and you immediately fuck off and hook up with some guy you don't even know???"

"You get borderline blackout-drunk and you don't think to come find one of us so that you didn't do anything stupid? I know it wasn't a fight this time, but this arguably fucking worse!"

"You did it in Piper's fucking bed???"

It took about 10 whole minutes for Annabeth to let out all her rage on Percy, who was just looking to his side and muttering 'I'm sorry' every once in a while, which wasn't like Percy, his tendency to argue back clearly not working against his best friend. Jason wondered how many times she'd done this in the past, and it made him shudder. He did not envy Percy right now.

The others- including Calypso, who had apparently fallen bad for Leo and was now attached to his side- looked on in awe. Well, with the exception of Rachel, who had already started cleanup. He supposed that she was used to it.

When Annabeth had finished, she took a deep sigh and hugged Percy, saying something along the lines of "I'm glad you're okay, Seaweed Brain. Let's go get you sobered up." She then took him to the side room he had stayed in last week, and they disappeared inside.

Cleanup after Piper's parties was always hell, but this particular incident was extra bad. Between all the spilled alcohol, casualty dress up skeletons, and the messes in the side rooms ("Holy shit, there's cum on the covers." Was what Rachel had said. Jason hadn't even seen it, but he still wanted to puke.), they'd have to put in a lot of work to make it a liveable space for Piper again. He missed the days when they were fifteen and all the alcohol was replaced with non-alcoholic fruit punch and it was scandalous to find people just making out in the side rooms, let alone having sex.

Jason was midway between collecting all of the discarded cans for recycling when he was interrupted by Annabeth. She'd let down her hair since he'd last seen her, and she had a bottle of pain relievers in her hand. Once she'd discarded the bottle onto one of the 'good stuff' tables, she moved next to Jason and bid him a greeting.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." she said, reaching down and grabbing a crumpled coke can. "Percy's always been an angry-horny drunk. I think he gets it from- well, it's not my story to tell." Her face was despondent. Jason could tell that being mad at her friend took a lot out of her. 

"I just wasn't expecting him to actually drink, y'know? Between the fact that he's not the biggest fan of parties, and since he doesn't know anyone here, I thought he'd wanna stay sober and actually try to have a good time."

Jason nodded, opening the black bin liner he was collecting the cans in. Annabeth dropped the can in, and it clattered against the others, making a brief scraping sound.

"Does Percy drink a lot? He said that he's a sad drunk, but that didn't seem like being a sad drunk to me." Jason asked, trying to make conversation. He moved to another part of the room, beckoning to Annabeth to follow.

"He said that? Least accurate thing I've ever heard. He gets a sad hangover, but not when he's drunk." Annabeth scoffed. She was still gazing down into the bin liner as Jason closed it. "He doesn't drink a lot, but when he does, it's always a disaster. He drinks when he's nervous and he doesn't have to go out of his way to get it. Has done since Luke." Annabeth followed Jason, picking up a few more cans on the way. There was someone's broken acrylic nail in one of the openers. What a tragedy. "You might wanna zip your jacket up, or change, by the way. It's gonna get cold over the night."

Jason self-consciously brought a hand to his chest, searching for the zip. Annabeth was right, he should get changed later. He couldn't believe he'd had his tits out all night.

"Thanks. Who's Luke?"

"Fuck, I shouldn't have mentioned that." Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows. "Well, cat's already out of the bag. Luke's Percy's ex. They broke up like 2 years ago, and he hasn't dated since."

This reminded Jason that he didn't know anything about Percy's love life. He was pretty sure that he was gay, but aside from that, he'd never inquired and Percy never mentioned it. He'd just assumed he didn't care, much like Jason himself.

"He was a few years older than us, and he was a part of some skating club Percy joined. They started dating pretty quickly after they met, and we could all tell it was a disaster waiting to happen." Her fist clenched around a can, crumpling it. She took in a deep sigh before throwing it into the bin liner, hard enough to make another scraping noise. "The breakup was messy, but at least Luke didn't openly do anything bad- he turned 18, realised he and Percy were at different points in life, and dumped him without really explaining. It hit Percy pretty hard, and he was already depressed before that. I just feel bad, because Luke was my friend at the time too, and I could've stopped it before it happened."

Thoughts turned to Percy's metaphorical cloud. If he'd experienced it for so long, it made sense that he knew how to shape it into whatever emotion he wanted. It reminded him of Piper a few years ago- always socially suave and smooth, but an insecure mess in private.

"Percy's had a messy love life since then, because I think there's still negative feelings about it he hasn't told me. I think he's hooked up with a few guys, but nothing really ever stuck. I don't know what Luke did to him, or if it's just Percy deciding he hates long-term relationships, but it's fucking pissed me off, because he doesn't talk to anyone about it"

The last few cans were tossed into the liner with even greater force, a sign of finality. He closed the liner and tied it, expecting silence, but Annabeth hadn't finished speaking.

"Either way, don't get too mad at him. He made a dick move, but he was drunk, and it's probably some sort of trauma rebound thing he's never gonna deal with because he doesn't wanna face it. Not excusing it, just explaining."

"Thanks for confiding in me." Jason replied, leading her out into Piper's hallway. That was the last of the floor trash they needed to pick up- now they just needed to mop and vacuum, and probably do three washing cycles for all the bedsheets. Joy.

By the time they were finished cleaning, it was long past 4am. Jason had taken a bed in one of the side rooms, fresh sheets in hand, and fell asleep pretty immediately.

Jason had the same dream as the night before, but this time, when the darkness swallowed them, he came out of the other side, but the person who was drowning didn't. They had been ephemeral- as transient as a whisper.

Chapter Text

Jason woke up earlier than everyone else the next morning, a little after 8am. He had a class before noon most Mondays, so he would've gotten up early anyways, and this at least allowed him to avoid being dragged into last-minute cleanup.

Dressed in what he'd been wearing yesterday (not the party clothes, he'd been planning to burn them), he slipped out of the side room and headed towards the lobby. The empty hall gave him a little whiplash in comparison to last night, making him realise just how small this space was. The fact so many people had managed to fit was some sort of miracle.

Silence abounded in the drive home, aside from 2010's pop station humming out of the car stereo. At some point, Taylor Swift began singing some romantic ballad, and he found himself lowering the volume. It felt a little tone-deaf after last night. 

It wasn't that he wanted to go out and get laid, or whatever. He was perfectly content staying single, staying in his own lane, and graduating. There was no reason for him to care so much about everyone else getting together (or getting a brownie, in Rachel's case) so he supposed that it was just a stupid psychological effect of being different. Not worth dwelling on, anyways.

Maybe it was jealousy. Everyone else was growing up, moving on from the past, whilst Jason felt like he was staying the same. Uni life wasn't all too different from his life in the previous few years anyways- all that had changed was the location, and a change of roommate from Frank to Percy.

No, not worth dwelling on. It was too early in the morning for this.

Jason skipped the song.

The 9am bell had struck by the time he'd entered his dorm room, and it took a lot of energy not to collapse onto the sofa. A twenty minute drive had already turned an hour-long- he couldn't afford to waste any more time.

He fed the fish and had a quick shower, realising that he hadn't had time to in the last two days. Considering he'd had his chest out all of last night, it was definitely a good idea. Bad hygiene wasn't flattering, no matter how much the 14 year old girls on TikTok tried to convince you anyways.

By the time he was ready for class, having changed into some business casual clothes from his wardrobe probably identical to everything else he owned, half an hour was still left before he'd have to make a move. Since it'd been apart from him all of last night, he decided to check his phone. There were a few memes from the groupchat, a message from Hazel telling him that they needed to meet up sometime soon (accompanied by a picture of Frank's adorable cat), and Percy reminding him to make sure the dorm wasn't in a state of chaos. That message had been sent at 4am, and was weirdly fully grammatically correct, so either Annabeth had sent it or his relationship with Percy had entered a decidedly formal stage, which seemed like an overreaction.

The last message was from Piper, who had sent it just as Jason had checked his phone. Nice timing.

charmspeaks: hey, u ok?

charmspeaks: you were really pissed last night

jasongrace: But i didn't drink?

charmspeaks: other kind of pissed

jasongrace: ah

jasongrace: I mean it was a dick move, it makes sense why I was mad

charmspeaks: I know but like

charmspeaks: we're not in HS anymore, you don't have to get mad for me dude

charmspeaks: capeesh?

jasongrace: okay

charmspeaks: cool

charmspeaks: last night made me realise that my wardrobe right now is fucking sad so i'm going shopping after my class at 2

charmspeaks: ur coming with, i know ur free bc i stole your timetable a month ago :p

charmspeaks: meet at mcdonalds in the mall at 2:45?

Piper did this all the time- making plans on a whim and dragging an unsuspecting friend along with her. This was the first time this school year, and for good reason- she almost never actually wanted to make plans. She just wanted a chance to talk in private, and she might as well get some food or clothes out of it.

jasongrace: sounds good.

Great. Well, now he had something to do today. That nap after his lecture would have to wait.

Who the fuck gives a pop quiz the Monday after Halloween?

Calypso and him were sat by the lake, Jason ranting to her, but in a totally chill way, because he wasn't being stressed out by every little thing at that moment. He didn't care that he hadn't had proper time to study because he was helping Piper set up the party, and so he didn't feel like he had absolutely bombed the test.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Hey, don't feel so down." Calypso reassured, offering him a bottle of water. "If it makes you feel better, I think everyone else was hungover. Professor Minerva's a dick for setting it today when she knew what we were doing last night."

'A dick' is a bit of an understatement. If he wasn't already on Medusa's side, he definitely was now.

"Still doesn't feel great, Calypso."

"I say don't worry about it. It's not a part of our final grade, anyways." Her face was adorned by a wistful smile. Calypso was one of those people who held an innate wisdom. Jason found it hard not to trust her, even if it turns out her taste in guys was absolutely atrocious.

As if she could read his mind, she continued. "To be honest, I'm more concerned with Leo right now, to be honest. He's very sweet." 

Jason hadn't properly processed that they were a couple yet, and he wasn't entirely sure he ever would. Not only had the couple spawned without a warning, but they were directly juxtaposed- Leo was a chaotic little gremlin, and Calypso was wise and serene enough (let alone tall) that she'd been mistaken for a professor in the library three times since the start of the year.

"How did you two even meet?"

"We met on some online forum for a video game. I was a new player, and he'd been playing it for a while, so he helped me out. We eventually found out we were both enrolled here, and we were both going to Piper's party, so we decided to ditch it and hang out. I wasn't expecting him to literally be your best friend, but here we are, I suppose."

It seemed like she'd wanted to tell that story for a while, as told by the girlish giggle that followed. Jason wasn't as amused.

"That's definitely some storybook shit. Are you two trying stuff out, then?"

Calypso nodded, fiddling with her caramel-blonde braid. She was unable to meet Jason's eyes. "Yes, we are. He's very cute, you know- I'm lucky to have met him."

"I'm glad for you two."

He genuinely was, but it was difficult to say. 

Didn't he say he'd stop brooding about this stuff earlier this morning? Time to get back to that.

Eventually, at about 1pm, the two of them went their separate ways, Jason returning to the dorm building. The living space was cleaner than it had been this morning, and Percy's door was locked. Based on the melancholy music quietly humming through the walls of his room, he had come back and cleaned up whilst Jason was in class, which was a welcome act.

The situation last night still soured his tongue, but Jason understood it wasn't entirely Percy being an asshole. It was just difficult for him to get over, because he was really bad at dealing with his emotions regarding this topic, which was something new which had developed over the last 20 hours.

Woo, insecurity! Jason could've swore he was done with this by tenth grade.

Well, now he was in an even worse mood, and he had half an hour to kill before he'd have to start driving. He supposed now was a better time than ever to get that studying done on Ancient Greek Theatre.

God, this was boring.

Why did he major in history again?

By the time he was halfway down the page, it was already time to go. On his way out, he tapped on the door to let Percy know he was leaving. There was no response. He decided to just leave it be.

The ride to the McDonalds was, unsurprisingly, a drag. Jason wasn't a fan of sitting in long queues, and was even less of a fan of having to deal with so many cars. Each of them were able to cause an accident which would domino through the entire road, hurting so many people and damaging so many things. Honestly, some of the people they trusted to pilot these death machines should not be allowed to pilot them.

When stuck in a particularly slow-moving jam, Jason broke the rules of the road (shocker!) and checked his phone. He wasn't even moving anywhere, so it's not like he would hit anyone. He overthought it too much to ever do so.

Piper had messaged to confirm the time, and Jason quick-replied with a thumbs up emoji. Percy had asked him to get flour when he was out. Jason made a mental note to do so, but didn't reply.

By the end, he made it to the McDonalds at 2:40. Considering Piper was one of those people who was fashionably early, she'd probably been waiting for him a while.

Looking over at the signature yellow arches, he saw a family of three walk out of the building, a single mother leading her teenage daughter and toddler son. The girl seemed to be arguing with her mother, the son riding on her back, giving no reaction. He could feel the twinge of ache in his heart evolve and morph into a fully sized stake, piercing him through the center.  A few memories came rushing back, but they were promptly discarded. Now wasn't the time to reconcile with the past.

"Hey Jas! You good?" called a voice from his side, belonging to his best friend. When he turned to her, he was met with a flash of green. Piper's kaleidoscope tended to glow green when she showed worry, although it was probably placebo.

As Jason went to speak, he realised that the corners of his eyes had been spiked with tears. A few blinks later, he raised a hand and wiped them away. Piper's face widened into an exasperated smile.

"I'm good if you're good."

"You don't seem good, Superman. Anything going on?"

Piper's arm had snaked around his, pulling him closer. Usually, he'd freely dump his feelings on his friend, but there was so much swirling about in his mind which he didn't know how to articulate.

"Just some old memories. I'm low on sleep." A self-deprecating chuckle, at which Piper raised an eyebrow.

He didn't feel the need to concern her further. "I'm fine, though. Not hungry, actually. I ate with Calypso earlier?"

"Let me guess- she was digging for things to embarrass Leo with?" Her eyes told Jason that she wanted to know everything he'd been told, and since she was pulling him aside, he did so as they began to walk through the mall.

"Actually, we were just talking about the Pop Quiz we had earlier today. Yeah, I know. Dick move from Mrs. Minerva's part."

Her face found a grimace. "Oh damn. That sucks dude."

Jason shrugged, rustling Piper's bag, hearing the various makeup products and snacks inside collide. Piper reached in and pulled out a tube of lipstick, swiping it across Jason's cheek. In response, he licked his finger and tried to wipe it off, but instead just smudged it badly. This was apparently the peak of hilarity, and Jason couldn't escape from Piper's snickering for the next few minutes.

They walked for a while, chattering about the different shops the mall had on offer. There were all sorts of coffee shops and cafes, different clothes stores and niche family-owned stored that sold stuff like meat-flavoured candles or wood carvings. Each store had a different front design and colour, creating corridors of multicoloured doors all presided over by the mall's glass roof. They'd done this plenty of times before- walking about and making fun of the passer-by's, before retreating into some niche business and confessing the week's deepest secrets. A long time ago, Piper's words had always chilled his spine, some spiel about the media or their classmates and how they'd made her feel minimised. Nowadays, Piper was a lot happier, and the secrets she doled were rarely her own. 

Jason rarely had something interesting to say, and when he did, it was just him traumadumping. The last few years, he'd been Piper's anchor- a place for her to bounce ideas and confess things she couldn't to anyone else. She'd always played a similar role in his life. 

Piper had pointed to a few stores here and there, and checked out some window displays, but none had been found that met her criteria yet. Whilst she was insisting that she needed somewhere classy, but not too stuffy, Jason knew she was simply looking for somewhere with no onlookers. That's the thing about being a public figure- sometimes, things you say in private get heard. She had little more than an Instagram follower base nowadays, but the moment Tristan McLean needed to curry favour with a parenting community, or the LGBT community, or maybe even women in general, he'd be raving about his only child and daughter again, and her privacy would be revoked for the next three months.

Once, Jason's life must've been like that too, but he couldn't remember. By the time he was old enough to realise it, his mother had stopped caring about what the public had thought, and it was only a few more years before she was gone. A couple of publications had reached out for him to do interviews about her, but he'd declined them all. His life was much more peaceful than when he was younger, with agents and journalists at every turn.

At some point, Jason laid eyes on a target, and changed course towards it. A classy establishment for a classy individual.

"I'm not going clothes shopping in Target, dude. My budget's too high for that." Piper readjusted herself to walk at Jason's side, trying to turn him away.

"Well I need to grab flour, and this is as good a time as any to do it. You're free to wait outside if you can't bear to be seen in there, princess."

"That isn't what I meant and you know it, Jas." Piper sighed, shaking her head. "Can we get gummy worms?"

"We can totally get gummy worms."

Jason didn't really understand Piper's sense of fashion, because it felt like she didn't have one. She looked amazing in everything, and liked wearing everything, and budget was barely an issue. It made Christmas super easy, but shopping with her in person? Different story.

"How do you like this one?" she had asked, picking out a gray cocktail dress from the rack in the thrift store they were looking through. They'd been to a few larger stores already, but aside from a few accessories (and a blue hoodie that Jason liked), Piper hadn't bought anything yet. She'd claimed that they hadn't had enough 'character' and apparently thrift stores were just dripping with it. 

The dress was plain, with little embellishments, but it still looked nice. He was in no way an expert, so he'd usually just wear what looked appealing to his eyes, and the dress wasn't burning them away.

"Looks good." Jason held out the basket, praying that she'd just place it in the basket and they could start talking about whatever she needed to confess. Much to his chagrin, she returned the dress to the rack. Her nose was scrunched up, and her teeth were gnawing at a hangnail.

"'Good' isn't good enough, Jason." she said, diving back into looking through the clothes. "If this is gonna be what I'm looking for, it's gonna have to be show-stopping. Spectacular."

"Well, I'd be better at helping you pick one out if I knew what is was for." Jason pointed out, grabbing a blue t-shirt with a narwhal on it, which was pretty cute. Maybe a little small, but he placed it into the basket anyways.

"I already told you, it's no big deal- you know what, fine. I'll tell you." Piper turned and looked Jason in the eyes. Her own were slightly red and glowing hazel, and it didn't take a genius to tell she was stressed out.

"Annabeth couldn't find anything 'her style' in my closet, so I wanna get some new stuff to impress her. Okay???"

Oh.

They really did have a thing, huh?

"So, everyone's getting laid except for me is what I'm hearing?"

"Not counting Rachel, yes. And I don't think it's fair to count her." Piper rubbed her temple with her thumb. A deep sigh escaped her lips, the kind that always preceded her  'actually serious' conversations. "I just don't wanna mess this up, okay? She's, like, the only cute girl I've ever met who doesn't care about my family or my money. Remember how when we first met, she didn't know who my dad was, and she only knew your mom because she'd literally met her? I've never had someone do that and still care about me before. This is something special, I'm sure of it."

Jason reached forward and put a hand on Piper's shoulder. Actual tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. It'd been a while since he'd had to assure her like this, but he was glad that Piper wasn't trying to hide it anymore like she once did.

"I think that you're worrying too much about this. Beth's never cared about aesthetics, or at least doesn't put as much importance on them as some other people do. If you're feeling something, it's because you work together. Instead of trying to drop subtle hints, just get it together and ask her out. I promise, if it works out, it'll work out, and there's no reason to stress if it doesn't."

She broke eye contact for a second, and then withdrew from the clothes rack.

"You're right. I'm just worried. It's a lot to like me, after all. Touch me, and you'll never be alone for the rest of your life, y'know? I don't want her to have to deal with that, and I don't think it's something she'd see as worth dealing with."

"She does. Trust me." Jason considered his options for a moment, and then leant in to whisper in Piper's ear. No secrets in the thrift store back aisle, right? "She mentioned it to Rachel last night, actually."

Piper flushed and suddenly seemed very interested in a pair of red skinny jeans hanging on the end of the rack. She didn't reply until she'd seemingly decided she hates them.

"Oh."

"Pipes, honestly just stop worrying, and buy yourself something you'll like. Ask her out, and wear something bomb, and have a good time. Okay?"

A deep exhale escaped Piper's lips. She tilted her face towards Jason, smiled, and grabbed the gray dress off of the rack, placing it into the basket.

"Bet."

Her face had taken on a wide grin, and Jason braced himself for the tight hug that ensued a second after. He wrapped his arms around her, rubbing a circle into the top of her back as she laughed to herself, saying some shit about how she always did this to herself. Thalia was Jason's sister, and he loved her with all of his heart, but Piper would always be his closest family.

Jason broke the hug, ruffling her hair and moving towards the checkout. They paid for the clothes and left the store, Piper's lilted voice entertaining ideas for a date. She seemed set on some sort of zoo, and Jason didn't have the heart to tell her that all it would take was one spider exhibit for the trip to be ruined.

"So, how about last night, eh? You're totally jealous, right?" Piper asked him after a while, changing the subject. "By the way, can you drive me home? I took the bus out here but I prefer to avoid public transport when possible."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Sure, I don't mind. What do you mean I'm jealous?"

"Thanks. You totally like Percy, right? That's why you made such a big deal about his hookup last night."

Y'know, Jason had always thought that he'd had some sort of mental link with Piper, as they could always tell what the other was feeling. Something must've been blocking it, because now she was just throwing out preposterous notions. The idea was so unbelievable that he could feel his face turning red with embarrassment.

"Piper, I'm straight. I don't like Percy. I was pissed because he decided to have sex with a complete stranger in a room with all our stuff in it- which, may I remind you, is your bedroom."

"Geez, no need to get so defensive." Piper's smugness dwindled. Her eyes surveyed Jason's face, looking for the cue she had misinterpreted. "Sorry, though. Everyone else I know is queer, so I forgot that I have a token straight friend. Anyways, nothing got stolen or damaged, and I was gonna wash my sheets anyways. If I'm over it, you should be too. Okay?"

Jason sighed, his eyes darting to his shoes. 

Why did he care so much? 

After all, Piper had just made it clear it didn't matter. He should've pulled the stick from his ass a long time ago.

They walked for a little while further, before Jason was met with a hand in his face, which he walked straight into. A brief chuckle came from Piper, who withdrew the hand and moved it to his shoulder.

"Uh, Jas? You good? I promise you, it's fine, apologise to him and move on. It's not worth stressing about." Piper's other hand flicked him on the nose. "It's not something to do with Beryl, is it?"

Really?

Really?

Jason stood up straighter, turning to Piper and crossing his arms. Piper seemed to take this a challenge, moving her other hand to Jason's free shoulder and standing on her tiptoes. She couldn't quite reach Jason's eye level.

"It has nothing to do with Beryl, Pipes. I don't know why you would even think that!"

"Oh, I don't know?" she mocked. "Maybe it's because whenever something to do with booze happens you get super weird about it? I understand that it hurts you to be reminded of it, and you have every right to be, but that doesn't mean you get to take your anger out on others-"

"You're the one taking your anger out on me!" By the time Jason realised he was shouting, Piper had already recoiled. Surprisingly, her expression wasn't hurt. Instead, her concern just deepened.

"I'm just telling you the truth, Jason, and if you're never gonna deal with it, you're never gonna get over it. Aren't you the one who always tells me to face my problems? What a hypocrite." Piper scoffed, and Jason froze, not following her as she walked. A few paces passed before she turned and stopped too, looking back at him, her irises taking an accusatory silver tone.

"I'll drop the subject for now, but if you wanna talk about it, I'm here, okay?"

Jason nodded, and they walked the rest of the way back to his car without conversation, although Piper tried to initiate one a few times. By the time they were driving, Piper was already back on the topic of her potential date, and while Jason tried to advise, he couldn't do so without his mind straying to what she had said before.

💦

Every night for the last week, Percy had the same dream.

Drifting meaninglessly in the same water, gasping for air that wouldn't come. Coalescing currents ran around his legs, constricting them, chaining him in place. 

Every night, he had the same companions, fleeing him as he begged for help, such brutal predators scared of the one who had wrought so much pain.

Every night, the light arrived, subsuming everything it touched, a divine strike from whatever power above which revolted at humanity's presence. Each time, Percy braced himself, bolstered his will, and each time, the searing radiance burned all of him away.

Percy thought that perhaps each time he met with heaven's nail, he was able to persist for a little longer. A millisecond, maybe just a moment, but enough to mean something.

He didn't have the heart to tell himself that it was just an excuse to dull the pain.

Awakening once his being was eroded away had become easier. Where once he may have panicked, or screamed, now he simply shook himself conscious and sat in silence which mirrored that of his dreams.

In this instance, a glimmer of light filtered through his closed blinds, illuminating a streak of his bed. In some ironic twist of fate, the ray evaded him, curling around his frame as if it was repulsed by his presence. The sheer contrast between this and the situation he had come to understand so well told him one sure thing:

This world was not the one of his dreams.

The light outside bemoaned that night had not yet fell, and a quick glance at his phone told that 5pm had barely passed.

A resolution to move on from the dream was made, and Percy summoned the power to rise from his bed. The brief flash of light that offended Percy so was quickly assimilated with the sun's own shine, undone blinds revealing the campus sprawled beneath him. Verdant expanses of lush grass and a cerulean lagoon overlooked by trees shedding their leaves reminded him of the truth of the world, rejecting the idea that it was all a bottomless abyss. Percy noted a familiar head of blonde hair pacing across the field, shopping bag tightly clutched to his chest. 

When he turned to dress himself, he was met with a mirror, revealing his collarbone defiled by sinful bruises of a bewitched night. Awareness of them unconsciously brought a hand upwards to cover the disgraced skin, pain akin to that of a dagger plunged into one's heart blazing through his skin.

Gods, Percy was hungover. 

The bare skin was swiftly covered with a shirt, but the pain didn't fade. Luckily, a bedside cabinet aspirin did the trick, dulling it to the point where it was merely a whisper- still noticeable, permeating Percy's mind slowly, but ultimately insignificant.

Leaving his room and entering the living space made him aware of the presence of his roommate, who must've just entered through the door, judging by the time Percy had taken to get ready. The shopping bag he had been holding was now discarded onto the countertop, laying sideways, an unfamiliar grocery store slogan facing upwards towards the ceiling. Jason was hanging his winter coat on a hanger, burning a hole into the floor in a futile attempt to avoid Percy's attention. It was a pointless endeavour- such an action only made Jason more suspicious.

Eyes still trained on the taller man, Percy stumbled over to the kitchen, the pain searing in his feet impairing his ability to walk. If he stood for too long, he predicted that his legs would slowly be eroded into jelly, and that wasn't a fate Percy was desperate to meet.

Jason silently moved to the sofa, slumping onto it with such vigour that Percy could hear the springs rebound against the force. His shoes were quickly shucked off, kicked to the corner of the room, an action which Percy would usually make a snide remark about- but considering the current state of their relationship, it seemed not the wisest move.

Flour wasn't the solitary item in the bag, much to Percy's surprise. The baking ingredient was accompanied by a half-eaten bag of gummy worms, the top sealed by a salmon hair tie. Judging from a few strands of brown hair poking out of it's sides, it's original owner was Piper before it was repurposed as a makeshift bag sealer.

The flour was promptly shown to it's designated place, but Percy didn't know where to keep the candy. After a few moments of careful consideration (should I leave these out for Jason, or take them for myself?), they were abandoned alongside the bag where they still dwelled, pushed into a corner of the counter. A glance upwards revealed that Jason was lying across his seat, scrolling through some social media on his phone. Erratic breaths made his chest rise unevenly, proposing that his mind dwelled on a misplaced worry. After all, Percy was the one who had misacted the previous night. Jason was simply enforcing previously determined rules.

A brief search through their kitchen gave Percy a few culinary options, the time referencing the fact that it was time to eat a meal. A moment of thought led Percy to believe he could probably stand for another 20 minutes before he would have to sit down, but such a rough estimate was unreliable. Decisions of such magnitude had come back to bite him, after all.

"This is your fault, dumbass" his boyfriend had shouted, his hands raised in an act of anger. "If you hadn't told anyone, none of this would be happening. They wouldn't hate me so much."

A younger Percy recoiled into the corner of his bed, the pillow in his arms being held closer to his face. He'd stopped crying in situations like these when he was much younger, but he wouldn't lie and say it didn't cause distress.

In this case, a brief mention of a night passed had concerned Annabeth, and news of that night had reached Luke's parents. Percy hesitated to recall the night's contents. It was easier to ignore it and forget.

Luke's face was boiling with rage, his cold blue eyes tempered into weapons that drilled holes into Percy's mind, toying with it's most basic essence, unravelling it, making his thoughts come undone. 

The trembles running through his body wouldn't cease for weeks to come, even if he could take solace in the fact it was the last time he had ever saw the other man. His mother had assured him that the fear was justified- promised him that it would never happen again, and made an oath that she would protect him from further pain.

The last time she had promised that it had been a lie. As much as he wanted to trust her word, it had long been tainted by the memories of that venomous man and his vile lips.

The current Percy felt a sigh escape his lips. Promises in the Jackson family never seemed to be sustained, as he had told himself that history of those times was dead to him- he would never accept their existence again, no matter how closely their toxins crept.

It didn't take much time for a more recent memory to manifest as Percy ruminated in the agony he had just wrought upon himself. This one was much briefer- so transient it could be considered a mere moment- and in a cruel twist of fate, there was no poison to be found among it's pages. In a way, that made it all the more wicked- a sweet moment cut short by circumstance, perhaps suggesting that the knife preventing Percy's joy was forged and wielded by his own hand.

A drunken whirlwind of tongue and skin, closeness with someone so unfamiliar to his touch that it felt daring. It had all felt so wrong- so misplaced, so terrible, yet so alluring. In the end, although it had abruptly ceased and had wrought torment, Percy couldn't hate the memory. A part of him wondered if he was just using it to patch the hole that Luke had both carved open and congested, and yet another reminded that it would be better to heal than to plug the cavern with some immoral sustenance.

Few memories permeated Percy's being with such despair, and even fewer he could still remember in full. The fact that they still persisted proved one thing: Percy would never be afforded resolution, for to be Percy was to forever ache. Sometimes, a decision to reintegrate the past with one's self meant having to come to terms with hurt that hadn't yet faded. That in itself was something Percy was still adjusting to.

Spaghetti ended up being the meal that Percy decided he would make, a decision that had only taken him 5 minutes to make. That may not seem particularly impressive, but for Percy, it was astoundingly fast. The pressure to move past topics that instilled a feeling of sinking in Percy's heart must've overcome his ADHD.

The noodles didn't take much time to prepare, and the sauce also wasn't a very demanding task. Percy's hand was trembling as he sliced ingredients, and the pain from his hangover returned to his wrist. In the end, the sauce was less seasoned than he would like, but it wouldn't be worth straining his hand over.

Taking the time he had whilst waiting for the pasta to cook, he pulled up a stall into the kitchen and sat at the counter. His legs breathed a sigh of relief.

Fifteen minutes of infrequent stirring later, the food seemed ready. Even if it wasn't, Percy didn't have the patience to wait before eating any longer. When serving his own portion, his shaky hands led to some sauce spilling onto his hand, it's heat jabbing into Percy's skin and causing him to wince. This resulted in a small mess on the countertop, and although Percy cursed himself for the mistake, he didn't have the energy to clean it up. Maybe he'd deal with it when he did the washing, or perhaps Jason would clean it up when he fed himself.

Oh, right.

Jason.

The blonde was still lounging on the sofa, but his phone was now lying face-down on the coffee table. Some teen's movie from the last decade was playing on the TV, a comic relief scene currently showing. Percy couldn't tell what was going on, and the shitty jokes made him not care for finding out.

Jason still hadn't acknowledged Percy since getting home, which wasn't surprising. He was probably mad at Percy, and his heart must've swelled with rage every time that he crossed the blonde's mind.

He seemed perfectly content watching his shitty movie, and Percy supposed that he had eaten when he was out with Piper. Nonetheless, the shred of hope for their friendship that was left nagged at him, begging him to offer Jason a plate, begging them to make up.

Gods, he was dramatic.

It took Percy a few seconds to muster the courage to say anything, and when he did, it came out a choked whisper. Whatever he had said, it was completely unintelligible, and ultimately served no purpose.

Jason turned his head towards Percy, in a surprisingly gentle manner. His face betrayed no signs of anger, and unlike last night, their eyes had no issues meeting each other.

"Perce, did you say something?"

Percy choked on his spit, making a disgusted sound. Jason's lack of reaction to that was something he was thankful for.

It took Percy a second to summon a deep breath, clearing the invisible barrier in his spoke that was preventing his speech. He supposed that it had simply escaped to his stomach, as his chest started to ache, and his heartbeat ran faster.

"Would you like- uh, if you're not hungry, do you want a plate?"

Blue eyes drifted towards the food Percy had made, and then towards Percy's own eyes. There was no way for him to feasibly tell what they were saying due to their distance, but Percy hoped they held a hint of pity.

Wordless, Jason raised from the sofa, stretching out his arms and shaking his legs. A trip was made across the room to grab a stall, and he placed it against the counter, directly opposite Percy's. The emotion on Jason's face was subtle: but Percy knew that he saw the shadow of a smile.

A second serving was made (no spillages were made this time, much to Percy's delight) and they ate in silence. Percy took the time to study how Jason ate, noticing his eyes wander from his food, surveying Percy's face for similar signs of emotion. At one moment, their eyes had met, before Jason had pulled his face to the side. A hint of sorrow trembled at Jason's upper lip, and Percy would be lying if he said he didn't notice it.

By the time they had finished, he could surmise that Jason wasn't angry. Whether the emotion that remained was sadness or regret was yet to be seen.

Percy rose, offering to take Jason's plate, which earned a confused look from the other man. He was biting his bottom lip, and his view quickly wavered back to his own plate.

"I promised to do the washing for November last night, remember?" Jason muttered, pushing away his dish. Percy now noticed that Jason had polished it all off, down to the last drop of sauce. That gave him an unnatural sense of pride, and he was unsure why such a simple gesture bolstered his ego so much.

"It's still October 31st. Besides, I don't expect you to actually help out. In fact, no offense, but maybe it's for the best you leave it to me."

An upturned smile formed at the blonde's lips. "Come on, how else am I supposed to learn?"

Percy slid Jason's plate towards himself, meeting the other's eyes again. He couldn't hold contact for more than a few seconds.

"In your own time."

When he'd made his way to the sink, he started running hot water. He could hear Jason stand up from behind him, as if he was going to protest, but no action was made.

Percy couldn't tell if it was his imagination, but he felt a pair of stormy eyes watching his every move, but by the time he was done, those eyes had wandered elsewhere. Jason was sitting back at the couch, but the spilled sauce was gone, a slight wet residue taking it's place. That brought a smile to Percy's face, and it was for such a minor reason. He didn't think such minor acts of kindness should've brought such joy. He decided to thank Jason.

As Percy walked over to the sofa, he second-guessed his actions, but his efforts were rewarded when Jason withdrew his legs, making space for Percy to sit. The empty space was warm, a stark contrast to the cold he had become accustomed to. Percy's world had once known this feeling, but as the cold had slowly eroded at the sun, only bitterness remained. In this sense, it was welcome. In fact, this first contact left him craving more.

Silently, he leaned into Jason, which took the other boy by surprise. Percy expected rejection- wanted rejection, so that he could readjust his feelings- but an arm snaking around his side subverted these beliefs. Something was building in the corner of his eyes. Part of him wanted to reach up and wipe it away, but Jason's hand held his arm down.

There was comfort, and warmth, which was unusual for Percy. For the first time in over three years, Percy let himself cry when sober. Jason's touch had melted away those barriers- causing them to crumble in a matter of seconds. For a second, he dwelled on wondering if the walls were weak or if he simply didn't have the strength to break them.

There was relative silence for a while. Jason was running his hand through Percy's hair, which felt sickeningly sweet. Percy leant in closer., against his better judgment. The last time he'd gotten this close to someone, it had ended badly.

Jason smelled like sandalwood, and some spice that Percy couldn't quite define. It was a nice smell, a combination that Percy had never experienced before. With his head pressed against Jason's chest, he could feel the cadence of his heart beat. It was somehow beating faster than Percy's own, in some inexplicable fashion. That fact wasn't reassuring, but it also wasn't worrying.

The silence was soon broken by Jason, who stuttered out a combination of words that Percy was not expecting to hear.

"I'm sorry." Jason's eyes gazed wistfully at Percy, begging for forgiveness. Percy felt like shit when the shock made him recoil backwards.

"Why are you sorry? I was the one who fucked up last night-"

Jason scoffed, looking to the side. His eyes danced around the coffee table, suddenly very uninterested in Percy.

Or perhaps they were afraid?

"It's just-" Jason choked on his own words, taking a deep breath. Percy waited for him to adjust, noticing Jason fiddle with the frame of his glasses. There was a point where the golden paint had been worn off the temples. "I'm not good with alcohol. It makes me feel weird- and I don't like being around people when they drink. When I saw you, I think I freaked, and got myself mad. I'm sorry."

There was apprehension in Jason's words, and his chest shuddered with each. The warmth had become suffocating- become raw heat, just as suffocating as the depths that Percy dreamt of. The space between them grew, and Percy felt guilt, but he didn't want to be burned away.

Jason's words made Percy consider recalling a memory from long ago, one buried away in deepest corners of his mind. He decided to only reference it- sometimes, Percy needed to keep promises he made to himself. It was for his own sake, even if he'd agreed not to push away the past as much as before.

"I understand that notion." Percy stated, for once attempting to be the stable one in the situation. It was uncharacteristic, and the attempts at emotional maturity jumped up and stung his tongue with each word. "My reaction to those feelings was to understand them. I suppose you just tended the other way."

Jason looked at Percy, eyes widening. His lips trembled, and eventually parted with a question.

"Who was it for you?"

"I know I promised to not run away from my memories anymore, but that's a subject I'm still not willing to deal with. Trust that it wasn't pleasant."

"Was it Luke?"

What.

How did he know about that?

"No, it wasn't." was Percy's reply, his back straightening. Subconsciously, his arms crossed across his chest, as sweat began to drip down his brow. "How the fuck do you know about that."

"Annabeth mentioned it, and I did some research." Tears pricked at Jason's eyes, but he wiped them away. Jason had always seemed so strong, so much larger than life, but right now, he seemed small. He seemed like a scared kid again, and Percy hated it, because it reminded him of himself.

"I knew him too, Percy. The name was familiar, so I tried to remember- and it hit me on the way home."

What?

How did Jason know Luke? Did he still know him?

The sweat began to weigh Percy down, keeping him place, freezing his limbs to the seat, shackling him- chaining him down in a way he hadn't felt in three years.

In a way, Jason looked like Luke- his hair was longer, and brighter, but still styled the same way, and they both had piercing blue eyes. The scar's position had changed, from an eye to a lip. 

Percy could never escape it. It would always be there, pulling him back- keeping him in place, as the sharks circled him, as the light came down to burn him to ash.

Percy took a deep breath, the hurt that was about to ensue welling inside of him, his body bracing for it.

But it never came.

Jason's eyes reflected the same tears, and his whole body heaved with each desperate breath. Jason's hair was messy, hands anxiously kneading it, and his eyes were gazing at Percy with a look that half seemed bewildered and half seemed upset, a mixture of all the emotions he did not expect Jason to feel.

It was painfully obvious that Jason was nothing like Luke. He laughed and smiled and hugged, whilst Luke was always just there, leeching off of Percy's short-lived joy. The fear had made him forget that.

No. Jason was his friend, and he wasn't about to blame him for something that wasn't his fault.

"How did you know him?" The words were rushed, and Percy was surprised he had built the courage to ask at all.

A hand fell from Jason's hair, a thumbnail entering between his lips. A nervous stutter later, and Jason again spoke.

"When- well, when Thalia was in her first year of college, she still lived with us, but then she got into an argument with mum and left home." Jason's words were whispers, as if he didn't dare offend a spirit watching over them. "She said she had been staying with some guy named Luke, before he was arrested for burning down a supermarket. By the time she got back, mum had already- well, she didn't believe about Luke, and she dragged me along to see the trial, but we couldn't sit through all of it. Last I checked, he's still in jail, because he was found to be guilty of some other stuff as well."

Percy gaped, the shackles welding him to the seat snapping, breaking him free. Despite this, he chose to sink further inward, directing his eyes towards the ceiling.

He was gone. He got what he deserved.

He'd never been able to say that before, and the words were so, so sweet on his lips.

"I'm glad." was what he had said, but so many other emotions were swirling in his mind. "Did she move back in with you after that?"

Silence. Jason took a deep breath, and then went to speak, but couldn't.

"Did I overstep?" Percy asked, brief feelings of guilt returning. "I'm sorry if I did-"

"No, it's fine. I've needed to talk to someone about it anyways." The blonde's posture straightened again, sitting straight, with his hands now fiddling with the drawstring of his hoodie. "When I was born, my mom was busy. She was an actor, and since we never knew our dad, I never had her around. When I was a small kid, we had a nanny taking care of us, but by the time I was ten, Thalia was basically raising me. When she ran away, mom suddenly decided she wanted to be a good mother again- and she hated it. She was always shouting at me, blaming me or all of her mistakes and issues, and sometimes when she was extra mad she'd-" Jason gulped, and his silence said a lot more to Percy than words ever could. That feeling still dwelled somewhere deep inside, no matter how much he tried to hide from it.

"Anyways, she'd always come home drunk, and then the shit would ensue. I started hating booze because of that- I promised myself I'd never drink. I remember one night, hiding it away, praying that when she came back early in the morning she wouldn't be able to find it- only that night, she didn't come back."

There was a stagnated silence, and Percy understood what Jason needed him to do. He leant forward, his arms spread wide, and Jason collapsed into them. What were once held-back tears had evolved into full blown sobs.

"She died in a fucking car accident that was her fault, and I was alone. So alone. Thalia was gone, she was dead, and I had no-where to go. They got a hold of Thals, and told her that she would get custody since she was 18 at the time, but then the Luke thing happened, and once that was over, she decided to move to the dorms. I lived the next three years of my life with my friend Frank. The worst part is that the media tried to play it off as some huge tragedy, like I was this poor kid who'd just lost his only parent, his dear loving mother, but in reality?  She was a self-centred asshole who only looked at me when she realised she needed to maintain a good relationship with her kids for PR. They didn't know about any of the neglect, or any of the lies, or any of the hurt. Even Thalia doesn't. It's just me, having to see all these memoirs and articles about late actor Beryl Grace and how she was a kind soul who was taken too soon, and I have to sit there and remind myself it's wrong, and convince myself that was she did to me was real, not whatever she told them. I just want to never have to think about it again." Jason took a breath. The warmth was no longer suffocating- the heat was retreating, the emotions were being understood and controlled. Percy could tell that after so much time, Jason was finally processing what had happened, finding closure- just as he had with Luke.

"Do you hate her?"

Silence. Jason buried his face further into Percy's shoulder, and he could feel a few failed sentences form on Jason's lips, before he finally found the right words.

"I don't know, Perce. She hated me, and she treated me like shit, and I'm scared of her, but she's my mother, and she got me everything I ever wanted that wasn't called 'love'. So, I don't know if I hate her, and I don't know if I'm glad she's dead. I'm just glad it's over now."

"You don't need to know, Jas." The words seemed to offend Jason, made him seem aghast, but the next few settled him. "All that matters is that you've healed from it. I'm glad that you trusted me enough to tell me. Thank you."

More silence. Jason pulled out of the hug they'd been held in. Percy regretted losing Jason's touch.

"I get it now. Thank you, Perce. I really mean it."

They looked at each other for a moment, and Percy had a moment to study Jason's face. His bottom lip was chapped, seemingly from all the lip biting, but his top lip was entirely immobile. Even as it's twin shuddered, it made no sign of emotion, an eternal consistency. His cheeks were flush, the red building downwards from his temples, crowning his face in a scarlet halo. Their eyes had met for a second, the gaze lingering for a little too long, before Jason began to chuckle, a welcomed ballad in an orchestra of tears.

"Gods, we're both so fucking melodramatic, aren't we? Why can't we just crisis resolve like normal people?"

"Because crisis resolving like normal people hardly ever resolves a crisis, just creates an awkward compromise no-one is happy with. That's what my mom had told me once, anyways. Not that I ever listened- I usually just ran away from home or got into a fight with whoever was pissing me off." The situation in which Sally had told him that had seemed misplaced at the time, because back then his heart had been shattered and he was still picking up the pieces. Now that it was nearly whole again, he understood her words, and took them to heart- sacred gospel only they were privy to hearing.

"Your mom is smart." Jason shrugged. "I'd like to meet her."

"I'm sure you will, eventually. You're my roommate, after all."

The rest of the night was warm, and cosy, and safe. They'd sat on the sofa, eating gummy worms, and watching more shitty movies, and they'd laughed and they'd talked and they'd had fun. It was then when Percy realised that Jason Grace's warmth was infectious, and that he had already spread it to all of his friends, and now Percy had been blessed with it's strength.

Jason Grace and his friends were warmth, and Percy needed warmth to heal the holes left in his heart. 

Perhaps that was why, that night, when the searing light had wrought it's vengeance, Percy didn't immediately vaporise. Instead, for a moment, he felt the heat temper- boil the water around him, envelop him in warmth- before he faded away.

It may have just been a second.

In fact, it may have been less- a mere moment, but it was still there all the same.

Chapter Text

⚡

November faded away as the auburn leaves wilted off of the trees around campus, blanketing the university in a carpet coloured with the essence of what is simply called autumn. The nights grew longer to oppose the shortening days, and the last traces of summer wavered, letting way to winter's familiar cold. Autumn was a crossing over- the end of the last year, the start of the next.

This stretch of the year held a special significance to Jason, his name preluding the flow of time. Although a mere coincidence, J A S O N corresponded to the names of the previous five months, the introductory day of the first of the five being his birthday. Based on the timing of the months, he'd always seen this stretch as a 'coming-of-age'; he would grow older, and with it wiser, and the time foretold how the rest of the year would be.

The last few years had seemed despondent- empty, all the same as the one before. Changes that were brought had been loss, or terror, and Jason regretted the slight shred of hope he had felt each time.

By some miracle, this year was different, and Jason was now surrounded with hope and friends and warmth. The stench that usually crept in, constricting the future and dangling it just before Jason's grasp, now found itself locked out, unable to puncture and infect this year's reformed disposition.

Jason had always been good at staying content, even in negative circumstances, but it was much easier when he didn't have to try. Happiness came naturally these days, without him having to search for it, and that made his heart swell with joy.

When a person is filled with happiness, they feel light and free, as if they have all the power in the world. Sometimes, that freedom may lead them to tackle tasks they cannot otherwise handle.

Hence why, right now, Jason was huddled around a bowl of baking ingredients in the kitchen, Leo haphazardly retrieving appliances he had a hunch would help them out. You see, most of Jason's friends had been born in the summer, with the notable exception of Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who would be celebrating her 19th year on the Earth in two days. Piper, always the one to jump to the opportunity when it came to celebration, had agreed (codeword: decided) to organise Rachel a party. It was going to be small, close friends only, but that meant nothing to Piper, because she would sooner die than not put maximum effort into an event she organised.

Percy and Annabeth, being busy with major upcoming exams, had been given smaller tasks such as buying balloons and bringing board games. Piper herself was organising the venue, and the only thing that Rachel had been told to do was to give her preferences when it came to food, gifts, and entertainment.

This left Jason and Leo, who had extended projects due after the winter break and therefore no exams, to do the rest of Piper's errand running. Most of what needed to be done had already passed, but now had come potentially the most daunting task: baking a birthday cake.

In the bluntest of manners, Jason was shit at baking. Between his terrible eyesight for measuring ingredients, unsteady hands for transporting containers, and a lack of intuition for when things needed to stop, nearly everything he had ever baked alone ended up inedible. The singular exception was a plate of cookies he had baked 4 years ago for Hazel's birthday. They had been edible, but not particularly great.

Piper was aware of this, and decided to tell Leo to assist Jason with the baking, but that was unlikely to fare much better. Leo, although a great cook, had much less experience with baking- and the mild pyromania that he suffered from often caused more pain than good.

Jason's phone was face-up on the counter, box's instructions scanned and the phone reading a recipe for a simple chocolate sponge cake. Percy's guidance from a few months before was once again proving useful, because even though Leo had insisted that he could just read it for him, they both knew that he would get side-tracked by every third word.

A generous share of butter, sugar, and a cracked egg sat in the transparent baking bowl, slowly melting into each other. A few shards of egg shell sat in the egg white, permeating it's perfect surface, and Leo was currently trying to get them out with a very unorthodox method. too unorthodox, in fact.

"Leo, can you please stop making out with the batter?" Exasperation coated Jason's words. When his friend didn't move, he turned on the electrical whisk and waved it in front of Leo's face, making him jump and pulling his face out of the bowl.

Unfortunately, his face pulled the batter alongside it.

"Shit- well, the eggshells are out of the bowl!"

Really?

"Leo, everything's out of the bowl. Go get another egg whilst I clean it up."

In the bluntest of manners, Jason was shit at baking. But Leo was shittier.

The spilled batter was quickly swept away by a damp towel, and after the the bowl had been washed dry, they once again tried to mix the batter. This time, no eggshell fell into the bowl, which was a huge relief to Jason.

Whisking the batter was surprisingly easy, as far as Jason could tell. He had no clue what 'creamy' or 'light in colour' exactly meant, but the batter was different than it was at the start, and that was good enough. Next was the cocoa powder, which Leo was supposed to have already measured.

However, in typical Leo fashion, he had not, instead fiddling with their toaster of all things. Last time he had done this, they'd had to buy a new one, so it was in Jason's best interest to stop him as soon as possible.

"Leo, where the fuck is the cocoa powder?"

His friend looked up, his lips making an 'o' shape. He had some sort of dark dust on his brow, which Jason was pretty sure was char from the toaster.

"What cocoa powder?"

Someone, give him strength.

After successfully locating and measuring the powder, Jason placed it into a second bowl, alongside another egg and some flour. The two bowls were mixed, and then he returned to whisking, waiting for the batter to turn 'smooth and thick'. 

Those were not the descriptors he would use to describe his batter.

His was more 'chunky' and 'falling apart'.

Honestly, why did they have to bake a cake anyways? Couldn't they just buy one from the store?

A few emergency measures later, Jason realised that adding water to the mix maybe wasn't the best idea, because now he just had a bunch of batter floating in water and slowly melting. It took about 5 minutes of trying before he decided to abandon it and start anew.

This time, Leo actually managed to combine the dry ingredients by himself, and the batter seemed more 'creamy and light in colour' than before. Furthermore, the recipe reader actually mentioned using the milk, unlike the last attempt, and Jason could finally understand where it had all went wrong.

This time, the batter had become perfectly 'smooth and thick' and even Jason would admit, it smelled good. In fact, third try really did seem to be the charm!

Well, it would've been, if Leo didn't drop the bowl.

It was inevitable, in hindsight. Leo was even more ADHD than Jason- all it took was the slightest blink from something more interesting to throw Leo off course. Apparently, today's distractor was a pair of parakeets doing a mating dance on the nature documentary that was playing on the TV for the sake of background noise.

Before he had a chance to think, Leo had clumsily attempted to place the bowl back on the counter and ran to the TV, saying something along the lines of 'Haha, Jason, look at these dumb birds!'

However, Jason was more concerned with watching the bowl slip off of the counter edge and onto the floor, spilling shards of glass and their perfect cake mix all over the kitchen floor.

Gods, he was tired of this.

Jason whipped around, steam pouring from his ears. He didn't usually lose his shit so easily, but this was getting extremely frustrating.

"Leo, what the fuck?"

The look on his friend's face quickly contorted from one of entertainment to horror, clearly noticing the event that had just passed. 

"Shit- I didn't think it would fall-"

"Well it did, and now we have to clean this up and start from scratch!" Leo clearly wasn't used to Jason raising his voice, as the eye contact they had held throughout Jason's words dissipated when he finished talking. 

The parakeets went long forgotten as Leo leant down with a dustpan, attempting to sweep up shards of glass. They were lucky to have a spare mixing bowl, but now Jason would have to go out and buy a new bowl nonetheless. He deliberated making Leo pay, which didn't seem like that bad of an idea.

He leant down and scraped away what was left of the batter into a bin liner, which he opened up, allowing Leo to dump a load of glass shards into it. The sudden additional weight of the bag made Jason shift his feet to the sides.

Then, as if the day couldn't get any worse, he felt something sharp press into his left foot. A quick glance to the side revealed it as a large shard of glass, which was now sticking out of his foot like some sort of deformed mole, fresh blood dribbling out of the sides around the wound.

It took all of Jason's power to not collapse then and there.

An hour later, and no progress had been made on the cake, nor the cleaning.

Most of their efforts were focused on preventing Jason from bleeding out.

He was currently laying lengthways on the sofa, his foot resting on a once-white dish towel (sorry, Percy!). Leo, being a practical engineering student, had some basic first aid knowledge, and thus had put his brain to work trying to help ease the pain. Even though he didn't have a proper first aid kit, Leo had found some tweezers, and had used them to remove the glass, which hurt like hell. From there, Leo had washed the wound with some soapy water- which also stung like hell- and had attempted to make some kind of temporary tissue bandage to cover the wound until he could return to the dorm with a proper first aid kit. Leo had said he'd only be gone for 10 minutes, but that was now 20 minutes ago. Jason was hoping that he still had intentions of coming back.

His eyes strayed to his foot, which was still bleeding, albeit at a lesser rate than it had been due to all the compression. The tissue was now soaked red, and the towel beneath it was also slowly being dyed a similar colour. Looking at it made Jason feel woozy, but that might've just been the blood loss. He suspected that he was looking awfully white at that moment.

Jason attempted to move, but pain immediately shot to his foot, causing him to recoil. He couldn't properly see his foot now, so he hoped he hadn't gotten blood on the sofa.

After a short while of more waiting- which felt like an eternity- the door swung open, which was good, because Jason felt like he was about to pass out.

"Leo, what took you so long-"

Oh.

Leo wasn't in the doorway, and was still nowhere to be seen. Instead, a familiar head of messy dark hair entered the room, a pair of ocean-green eyes trained on Jason's foot.

Somehow, Percy had turned whiter than Jason. He dropped his bags by the door in a bag and ran over to his roommate, taking a closer look at the injury. He made an attempt to touch it, but seeing Jason's wince made him retract his hand.

"What the fuck happened in here?" Percy's words were a mixture of bewilderment and worry, and Jason noticed drops of sweat building on his brow. He attempted to meet Percy's gaze with a grin, but what Jason ended up mustering was something more pitiable.

"Baking accident. This is why Piper always bakes the cakes herself. Don't look at the kitchen."

In the most natural of reactions, Percy looked over at the kitchen, gagged, and then reaffirmed his attention on Jason's foot, peeling away the bloodied tissue. He didn't seem concerned that a few drops of blood splashed onto his white polo shirt, which made Jason think that Percy had just gotten out of some super stressful lecture or lab session, because he never dressed so formally otherwise. Honestly, Jason didn't think it suited Percy anyways- loose t shirts and skater jeans looked a lot better on him anyways.

Which was weird, because Jason had never really cared about his friend's fashion tastes before.

Percy reached to the roll of tissue Leo had left on the coffee table, and fashioned Jason a new makeshift bandage. It was less comfortable than the one Leo had made, but it was both thicker and tighter, which Jason supposed was better for stopping the blood flow.

Jason took a moment to meet Percy's eyes. Deep blue bags dragged them down, and Percy's long eyelashes shrouded his irises in a dark cloak. It was difficult to tell how Percy was feeling from his eyes alone, but his erratic mouth breathing gave it away. His lips were slightly parted, the bottom one more chapped than it's twin, revealing a glimpse of Percy's slightly crooked teeth from beneath them.

He realised that he was staring when Leo burst through the door, a first aid kit in his hand. The sudden reactionary jolt that this elicited from Jason caused him to kick Percy in the face with his bad foot, and if everything else had hurt like hell, that had hurt like Apollo guiding an arrow into his heel himself.

"Gods, you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get my hands on one of these! I had to drive out to Walmart to get one and everything." His hair was tangled and his face was covered in mud, but Jason supposed that was another story, so he decided not to pry.

Percy, who had been tentatively rubbing his cheek at the point where it had collided with Jason's foot, moved to the side to make room for Leo, who leant down where Percy had originally been.

"I'm glad you went out to get one." said his roommate, who took the time to take a deep breath and straighten himself. "We don't have anything first-aid in here, and I just got back from a super stressful lab session, and I am not in the mood for a trip to the ER right now."

"Well, luckily for you, Leo Valdez has a miraculous sense of initiative." He dressed the wound, taking care not to irritate it further or get any more blood on the sofa (which, from Percy's complaining, apparently had red splotches in at least 3 different places), as well as extracting the towel from beneath his foot (which, one again from Percy's perspective, had been 'ruined' and was 'totally unusable').

Leo turned towards Percy, who had been handing him stuff out of the kit when he needed it. 

"Can you go grab Jay an aspirin to take the edge off of the pain?"

Percy nodded and rose, moving over to the kitchen and grimacing at the state of the floor. Jason's ability to turn was restricted, as he couldn't bear to move his foot, but he could still see Percy carefully stepping to avoid any stray shards of glass.

He shuffled through a few cupboards, before leaving the kitchen with the same caution that he had entered it with, a small white pill bottle in his hand.

"I know that you're shit in the kitchen, but what the fuck?" was his choice of words as he crossed the minefield, passing Leo the bottle when he arrived back at the sofa.

"Piper's idea." Jason swallowed the aspirin, and for some reason, it made his foot burn with pain. He didn't feel like asking Percy why that happened, but he figured Percy wouldn't know anyways, because he was a marine biology student, not a human biology one.

"Well, looks like it's my job now." Percy sighed, fiddling with his left earlobe. Jason noticed that he had a piercing there which he had never noticed before. A simple blue stud, incredibly normal yet so incredibly Percy. 

"Don't even try to protest." Percy had continued, which forced Jason to pull his eyes away from Percy at risk of staring again. "Rachel's my best friend, and I don't want her showing up to her birthday party with some- well, whatever you would've made."

Jason had been relegated to music duty as Leo and Percy cleaned up the kitchen, his foot still throbbing with pain. He could feel his brain ache, and his head felt light, and before Jason had noticed what was happening, he finally lapsed into unconsciousness. 

The dream was one he had learned to know well, the campus swallowed by an unfathomable storm. Waves bucked the building below, shaking the Earth, causing reality to shudder and submit.

Jason had become used to the feeling of the encroaching darkness- used to the sight of a helpless body drifting in the seafoam, calling forth the black towards him.

As with each dream, the midnight consumed all, everything plunged into a void in which only Jason remained. For when the darkness came, Jason was light, and he glowed, piercing through the darkness and escaping into the world again, now alone, all else he knew still trapped in the bottomless cavern formed by his own thoughts.

When Jason stirred, he was no longer being blinded by the glare of the sun reflecting through the glass door that lead to the balcony. Instead, the room was lit by the shitty university-grade lightbulb, it's tinny sound already boring a hole into his ears.

It was at that moment which Jason realised that he wasn't alone on the sofa. His head was resting on someone's lap.

That someone seemed very entertained by the sudden jolt of movement Jason made when he realised, as a teasing laugh came from above. Jason met his eyes, seeing emerald looking back at him, adorned by a mischievous smirk.

"Nice sleep?" Percy had asked, slight giggles between words. He'd had a hand tangled in Jason's hair, but had withdrawn it when he had awoken.

"Uh-" Jason dragged himself off of Percy, hitting his foot in the process and wincing. This prompted Percy to roll his eyes, and then helped Jason sit up straight alongside him.

"Must've been an amazing sleep, if you're so out of it. It's for the best- I had to keep you on my lap like that so you wouldn't roll over and hit your foot."

Jason nodded. That was why they'd been like that. He was almost disappointed there were no ulterior motives, because he'd come to realise that Percy was a good cuddler, from all the movie nights and traumadumps over the past semester.

"Anyways, you left Leo and I to clean your mess up- and, by the way, you're banned from baking in the kitchen without my supervision- and after he left, I baked the goddamn cake. You owe me." Percy's words were more teasing than angry, but his tone hinted at a sense of exasperation. 

"Thanks for that. I feel like I owe you for a lot of things nowadays."

Percy's resulting chuckle was hearty, and Jason noticed his chest heave from deep in his abdomen. When Percy laughed, his eyes scrunched up, and his grin revealed his dimples on each side. His face contorted between different types of hysterics, and eventually tears would form at the corners of his eyes. This time was no exceptions.

Jason decided that he liked Percy when he laughed. The happiness that he exuded was so different from how Percy had been at the start of the year, and the look on his face was nothing less than adorable. He wouldn't say it out loud (mainly because he was sure Percy was tired of hearing it), but he was glad that Percy had found his place.

When Percy had calmed, he brought a hand to his forehead and shook his head, like a dog trying to shake off water.

"And you're about to owe me for something else. You still need to order something for Rachel."

Shit.

He had forgotten about that.

"That is something I need to do. How'd you know I haven't?"

Percy tutted, picking up Jason's phone from the coffee table. "123456 isn't an amazing password, Jay. I wanted to check to make sure I hadn't ordered the same thing as yours, but surprise, your Amazon waiting queue was decidedly empty. What're you thinking about?"

Whether Jason was impressed by Percy's tenacity or disturbed by the breach of privacy was undecided. Nonetheless, he reached out and grabbed his phone out of Percy's hands, who tilted his head to the side and stuck out his tongue.

"Well, what did you order her? We haven't been friends for that long, so I need to make sure I don't buy something terribly offensive."

"I ordered her a Hoover Dam keyring and I bought her a share-size bag of extra-spicy Doritos at Target."

Thanks, Percy! Unhealthy food and something that was part of an inside joke he didn't understand, how helpful!

"Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not." Percy's shrug was accompanied with a developing smirk, and was then followed by him wrapping an arm around Jason and pulling them together. Percy rested his head on Jason's shoulder, and Jason could feel their body heat mixing in the open air.

Jason met his roommate's emerald eyes, which were coloured with a mischievous shade. Without warning, a hand grabbed his ankle, pulling it up onto the sofa. His leg was now awkwardly bent, so he was forced to shuffle to the side, building distance between the two. Percy shook his head and pressed himself to the back of the seat, giving Jason's foot space to breathe.

"Keep it on the seat, by the way. Stops you from hitting it on anything."

The two of them spent a while scrolling through Amazon, using keywords such as 'fortune-telling', 'paint supplies' and 'plastic blue curl-taming hairbrush' (Percy's idea). Every time they found something promising, Percy would realise she already owned it, or that she'd hate the colours, whilst Jason rejected anything that seemed cheaply made. Each time he did so, Percy would side-eye him with a look of confusion, but never contested the decision.

"How about this?" Percy had said, pointing to a book which had popped up when they'd searched 'early 2000's film merchandise'. It was a demographic that Rachel had apparently enjoyed, and so they'd looked through quite a few keychains and bookmarks, never settling on one.

The book, titled 'The Making of Rude Girls' was celebrating a blatant spinoff of Mean Girls. The book was bright pink, all the writing was loopy and red, and if the Amazon listing didn't have a transcription, there was no way in hell he would've been able to read any of it. Three girls were on the front, each of them with a huge blonde hairdo, the one in the center applying a red lipstick. She looked familiar, but the low-resolution image made it difficult to make her out.

"Some shitty Mean Girls spinoff book? Are we sure she'd want this?"

"Definitely." Percy gloated, flipping through the listing photos. There were images of sets, cast members, and scripts. Each image seemed slightly familiar. "She's gonna love making fun of it. Like, look at this! Trying too hard."

The image he was pointing to was of a woman wearing Regina George's signature outfit, albeit in a baby blue instead of pink. From the hairdo, it was the same woman as the one putting on lipstick on the cover. 

A glance at the face revealed a mole on the upper lip, right where Jason would have his scar. Her facial features were sharp and defined, but overshadowed by a pair of electric blue eyes gazing right at the camera, straight into Jason's own and piercing his soul.

Those identical eyes crept into his head, crawling around his skull- he could see them judging him, demeaning him, remembering all the nights that they had before. His cheeks started to feel wet, and he instinctively raised a hand to wipe away the tears, but Percy's thumb beat him to the punch, smoothing over the drops before bringing Jason's eyes to meet Percy's.

"That's your mom, isn't it?" He asked, moving his face closer to Jason's. "It's the eyes. I didn't know she was in the movie."

"Neither did I. I must've been really young when it was shot." A sigh escaped his lips, and then a gulp filled his throat. His eyes wandered back to the screen, meeting his mother's eyes, lamenting the childhood he was never allowed to have.

"I don't think we should get this for Rachel." was his eventual conclusion, and Percy nodded in understanding. Despite this, he still added the book to the basket, and cancelled out. There were unsaid questions between the two of them, but the silence itself was able to form the answers.

Percy had taken the phone from Jason's shaking hands, and they'd spent about another half an hour searching. Jason let Percy do most of the talking, instead taking the time to collect his thoughts. He didn't know how to feel about Beryl Grace, but perhaps understanding her would help him find closure- understand the woman that she was before his birth, understand the starlet that everyone except for him seemed to know.

The comfort from Percy's warmth served as an anchor as he contemplated, each erratic breath calmed by his roommate's gentle touch against his bare skin. Where Percy had once simply been holding his ankle, to prevent harm coming to his foot, he was now gently running his fingers across the surface, tracing nothings into Jason's body. 

Eventually, they'd decided on a set of super stupid looking reference models, all for extremely unrealistic body types (such as 'missing ankles' or 'arms the size of two torsos'). When they'd finished, Percy had excused himself, leaving to clean up in the kitchen, but Jason found himself glued to the sofa. Before placing his order, he idled momentarily, and then tapped on the Google searchbar, typing in two words with notable hesitation.

'Beryl Grace'

A day had passed since the cake incident, and Jason wasn't quite on his feet again. He could stagger around the dorm just fine, but navigating anything larger had been hell. He had to be thankful for such understanding friends, because Calypso had come to their dorm without any questions in the early morning, presumably having heard the story from Leo, and had helped him get to lectures and classes all day. He hadn't seen Percy that morning, but a couple of rushed messages and a panic phone conversation had been enough to convince his roommate that he was alright. Despite this, Jason could feel himself getting a stern telling off when he'd return home.

Hmm, home? He didn't know how long he'd considered the dorm his home, but he'd never really had anywhere else to call home before. With Percy there, and nearly all of his close friends on campus, it was the most homely space he'd ever known.

Thalia had agreed to pick him up after lunch. She hadn't had much time recently, being in last-year law, but the two of them had been meaning to spend some time together, and Jason had found an idea of what to do. Thalia didn't adore it, but agreed that it was probably something that was for the best.

"Are you sure you still want to do this?" his sister had said, pulling her old beaten-up car into the graveyard parking lot. It wasn't a fancy place, which fit the scene, but also seemed like a place his mother didn't belong in.

His electric blue eyes met Thalia's, near identical sets of twins. A few moments of silence was all they needed to understand what Jason needed, as things always had been. Although initially opposed to the idea, his sister managed to sneak an arm around his waist, and they embraced for what felt like the sweetest eternity Jason had ever known.

"It's been a long time since I've seen her, Jay. I don't know what I want to say, or how I feel."

The hug was broken, and Jason opened the car door. He thought back to something Percy had once told him.

"You don't need to know, Thal."

The wait by the graveyard entrance was peaceful, the two of them making small talk about nothing in particular. Many people feared places like these, fearing death and all of it's meanings, but Jason had learnt that such fear was misplaced. Death is easy, and there's no consequence, no worry. In death, everyone finds peace, and there was comfort in that.

He'd learnt that Thalia's new roommate, Reyna, had gotten into an argument with a professor over how she had sat during a lecture, and had responded by decking him in the face. Jason found a lot of respect for her, and shared a story of how Percy had supposedly been expelled in third grade for calling the head of his school a fat cow, and then making nothing but moo noises in the resolution meeting. This had evoked a laugh from Thalia, and Jason remembered how much he'd missed this- the two of them alone, telling jokes, finding comfort in each other's company.

"You know, Thal, I hate how things turned out." He had said, the two now sitting on a nearby bench, the old couple which had been occupying it before having excused themselves. His sister's initial response was confusion, but it only took a second of their signature sibling silence for understanding to be reached.

"I do too, Jay." Her sigh was deep, as all of them had been nowadays. "I'm sorry for leaving you."

"I'm sorry I didn't stand up for myself." It should've been an awkward chuckle, but between the two of them, it wasn't awkward, just meaningless noise. "Which reminds me of something. Did Luke ever mention Percy?"

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "He knew Percy?"

"They dated, before his mother realised that he'd been sleeping with a fifteen year old. Horrible, I know."

The thunder in his sister's eyes died, fizzling out with a resounding roar, both deafening and yet completely silent. "He'd mentioned something about that. Why he'd been kicked out. I never would've imagined..."

She sniffled, and Jason knew it was right to pull her closer. He raised a hand, trying to cup her cheek, but she swatted it away. There was an expectation to see sadness on her face, but when she looked up, there was nothing but a false amusement.

"I'm such an idiot, aren't I? He'd already manipulated everyone he'd ever known, and then I fell into his arms. I hope he rots."

Yet another moment of solemn silence, and they spent a few more minutes in peace. Thalia had promised to speak to Percy regarding it, but Jason was unsure if that was for the best. Any rumination on the topic was distracted by his sister's discussion of a movie she'd recently watched, and with that, the topic was gone, though still floating in the air as an impenetrable cloud.

A few more minutes of talking, and Jason eventually heard a call from behind him. After turning, he was met with a short silhouette, dark skin framed by a head of frizzy brown hair, eyes like pools of godly ichor meeting Jason's own. Hazel quickly embraced him, muttering a brief greeting to Thalia, before Jason realised she hadn't been alone. Behind his friend was standing a  boy slightly shorter than her, but also distinctly their age. His eyes were dark and set into sunken sockets, reflecting the rest of his outfit, in which the only pop of colour was a pride badge pinned to his upper left chest.

The mystery boy regarded Jason and Thalia, an unreadable expression, before moving to Hazel's side. His friend broke their hug and backed away, smiling at her unknown companion.

"Uh, this is Nico." Hazel's tone was upbeat, as ever, contrasting with Nico's overall demeanour. "He's my half brother. I think I've mentioned him before."

"Yeah, I remember." Jason replied, Hazel's brother raising a hand in greeting. "I thought you lived in Italy?"

Bleak eyes rolled in their sockets. "My side of the family's from Italy, but I've lived here most of my life, dumbass. We have the same dad."

Before Jason could make a witty comeback, Hazel interjected. "I hope you don't mind that I invited him today, but our sister's buried here too. If it's a friendly trip to mourn the dead, why not bring along the Ghost King?"

"Hazel, I haven't called myself that since I was fourteen."

"Maybe not, but you can't cleanse it from your snapchat username."

He grumbled in defeat, and they set off down the path leading into the graveyard. Thalia struck up a conversation with Nico, something about a band he reminded her of, leaving Hazel and Jason to walk side by side, the former struggling to keep Jason upright. They spent time catching up, talking about how Uni life had been treating them, and Jason realised just how direly he'd missed Hazel. A sudden realisation came that this was their first time talking in person in 5 months. How could they have drifted so far apart?

"Mars is doing fine, just as annoying as ever." Hazel had said with a laugh, when Jason asked about Frank's cat. The rascal didn't seem to like anyone, but Jason had always adored him regardless.

"In fact, he even lets me cuddle with him every once in a while, but Frank isn't allowed to join in. That pisses him off. Do you have any pets?" She chuckled to herself, making a turn to the left. The tombstones they were searching for were far apart, so they'd decided to visit them one at at time. According to Hazel, Bianca (who he assumed was her half-sister) was buried this way. He'd wanted to ask Hazel, but Nico had mouthed 'train accident' to him earlier, which made him assume it was a sensitive topic.

"My roommate Percy has these fish, which I guess count. They're pretty cool, because all I have to do is sprinkle in some flakes every once in a while. He takes care of the rest."

"Oh, I think you've mentioned that before. You talk about him a lot when we text, you know?"

Unwelcome heat rose to Jason's face. "Do I?"

"Yeah, you do. I'm glad that you've made such a good..." Hazel studied his face for a moment, her lips parting slightly, revealing a glance of her bright teeth. "Friend. A good friend."

The way that she phrased it was slightly suspicious to Jason, but he didn't air any grievances.

They visited the tombs one by one, first Bianca Di Angelo's. Jason didn't have much to say, but he observed Hazel and Nico hold each other close as they offered flowers. The brother muttered a few brief words in Italian, before they moved on. In his own words, Nico didn't think there was value in dwelling on death.

Marie Levesque's tomb was the only one Jason had visited before, and it was just as beautiful a sight as it had been when he'd last seen it. A large obelisk of sable stone, her name carved into the front face, currently adorned by a wreath of black and red roses, indicating that Hazel's father had visited. He wasn't sure if Hazel was glad they'd missed him, or sad that they hadn't had a chance to reconcile, but either way, she kneeled and offered her own keepsakes. They'd spent only a few minutes there, but by the time Hazel had pulled away, the sky had seemed to get darker.

As Nico attempted to console his sister, they searched the site for the final destination on their journey. Thalia lead the way, examining every row of mismatched stones, before they found what they had been searching for.

A great marble pillar lay in the dirt, contrasting with the more simple stones that surrounded it. Ivy had built around it's sides, almost obscuring the text on the tombstone, but each letter was still legible between the branches:

Beryl Grace
1981-2019
Mother of two, Lover of Millions
May she rest in a more hallowed world than the one she lived in.

Moments of silence grew into eons, but between Jason and Thalia, so much was said. He turned to his sister, who's face was stone cold, her electric blue eyes attempting to drill a new sentence into the epitaph.

"Wanna go first, Thal?"

She shook her head. "I have nothing to say. You're the one who wanted to come here."

Jason took a solemn nod, and knelt before the gravestone. It resembled his mother- outwardly beautiful, a shining pillar in comparison to it's peers, but covered in thorns that made it less desirable. A tightness was growing in his chest, his words seemingly trapped by the spider's web that had been weaved long ago. However, Jason decided it was time to take the scissors, and cut himself free of his own fate.

"It's been a while, mom. I've been thinking what I wanted to say to you for a while now, and I never could come up with some insightful speech. I guess I just thought it would come to me in the moment, but nothing's happening."

Silence. Thalia's hand began to rest on his shoulder.

"You'd always tell me that I was making your life miserable. Having Thalia and I was the worst decision of your life, and you hated her for leaving me with you. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. You were a poison- so toxic to everyone around you, corroding both their spirit and their soul. Even you weren't free from your own venom, were you? You thought that maybe the booze could drown it out, but it never could, did it? You were making yourself miserable up until your final breath."

Jason's mind flicked to an image he'd never seen before, of himself falling through the sky, impaled by arrows with cuts littering his skin. A spear plunged into his chest, and the scene changed, finding himself face to face with his mother in a field of pitch-black wheat. He went to speak, but she turned, left him alone, leaving Jason where he was, which quickly shifted to an ever-changing mess of architecture from all times immemorial. 

He blinked, and found himself again at the tombstone. Now, the web had been severed. His next words would be the last he ever spoke to Beryl Grace.

"You never made an effort to give me a home, or give me a mother, or to give me love. Everything you ever did for me was just so you'd look good in the public eye, because nobody cared what happened behind closed doors. But I've found a home now, and everyone there gives me more love than you ever had the potential to give. I've realised that everything bad that ever happened to you was your fault, and everything that's gone wrong in my life, or Thalia's, was all you. Just as you've never loved me, I don't love you. I hate you with all of my being. I hope to never see you again, in this life, or the next. Make peace."

His body collapsed backwards, into his sister's embrace. She was whispering some words of assurance into his ear, but he was death to them, as he'd said all he needed to say. 

Any remaining trace of Beryl was dead. Now, the name 'Grace' belonged to him and Thalia, and them alone.

When he'd arrived at the dorm, Percy was lounging on the sofa, scrolling through some shitty meme page, from the look of the images showing on his phone. Upon Jason's entry, he'd sat up and turned, but before he could speak a word of greeting, he found himself embraced in a hug, two words upon Jason's lips:

"Thank you."

An extended silence later, and Percy pulled out of the hug. He regarded Jason's face with apparent confusion.

"Thank me for what?"

"For strength. You don't need to know any more than that."

That night, when Jason's dream took him out to the balcony, he'd been stuck in his own body once again, staring down at the helpless deep. But, for just a moment before the enshrouding night came, he was able to break free, reach out to to depths for a moment, before the black washed away all else.

Chapter Text

💦

"Checkmate."

Emerald eyes drifted away from the game board laid before them, meeting a stormy gray pair which regarded them with a teasing competition. An accompanying smirk adorned their owner's face, in her left hand a wad of cash, paper crinkling against itself as fingers slowly rubbed it against itself.

"We're not even playing chess, Beth, we're setting up a Monopoly board. You're the one who made it a race to see who could sort the money faster."

At 4pm on most Saturdays, Percy was often found laying catatonic in his bed, doing the one thing which all people his age excelled at: absolutely nothing. On the rare occasion he had the motivation to do something, your attention should instead divert to him trying to study at the coffee table, or watching a movie with his roommate. No matter what way you look at it, Saturdays were his inside day- he'd collapse for 24 hours and take a day to let his social battery recharge, lest it explode the next day and some poor soul in the school library is caught in the crossfire.

On Saturday the 3rd of December, he'd basically been doing the same, but with an agreeable change of scenery. On Rachel's birthday in most years, they'd never had a chance for celebration- her family would coddle her, drag her into some situation she would loathe, and her friends would have to wait a few days before they could make even a hint of contact outside of a 'Happy Birthday!!!' text with more emojis than Percy knew existed. However, as she was an adult now, upon her had been granted the gift of setting one's own boundaries- and after 5pm on Saturday the 3rd of December, her family would no longer be allowed to contact her, lest she cut contact with them entirely until the year's end. In her own words, she'd deal with them in the day, keeping their relationship in moderation, and then return to those who actually mattered at nightfall.

So, Percy would be found here on Saturday the 3rd of December, having come straight to her dorm after an excruciatingly early gym trip with Jason in the morning. Now anxiously awaiting her arrival, attempts to set up board games and get out food an hour early filled the time he had to waste, preserving the precious time they'd had when Rachel was actually present. Annabeth was there to entertain him, mock him at every other turn, a similar insult reflecting back at her with her own blunders.

The two of them had always been able to get along like this- spitting wit at each other constantly in a whirlwind of dearest affection. It had been a while since the two of them had spent time together in this way, and to say that he'd missed it would be an understatement.

Annabeth's face of amusement reacted by complementing itself with a poking-out tongue, teasing Percy in a cutesy way, which in comparison with her usual self, presented a woeful disparity.

"And which one of us won that race?" Sardonic, just like the person hiding behind that tongue.

A scoff from Percy later, and the topic was hastily forgotten as they finished organising the board. Setting it aside on the kitchen counter, 6 sets of $1500 were quickly laid upon it's surface, alongside 6 accompanying playing figures, including a top hat of which Percy had already convinced his blonde-haired friend that it was his belonging. Various other games stood on the wooden countertop, such as Trivial Pursuit and Twister, as well as a beer bottle preserved from quite a few months ago for times like these. it had been cleaned and bedazzled, on one side had attached a generously sized 'My Little Pony' sticker, serving as a marker for the position which was intended to meet a surface. It had been dubbed the 'Party Bottle', and although it had at first seemed like an original idea, a trip to Piper's a few weeks prior had revealed that she'd stored the last five years worth of 'Party Bottles', and from a brief glance, Percy could already tell that it had been a long-standing trend to make it look ridiculous.

"Are we missing anything?" He had asked Annabeth, his viridian eyes seeking an opinion from their silver counterparts. A hand rifled through her blonde hair, and for a second, light filtering through the open window highlighted her in a golden glow, a halo which highlighted her in an angelic blessing. Rachel and Annabeth's dorm was this way- warmer tones, even warmer people: even if they could be chilly on the outside.

Her head inclined towards Percy, sunlight now turning her golden locks molten. "All I can think of is stuff that doesn't require setup, or video games. I'm pretty sure Rachel's Switch is in her bedroom."

"Will you be fine to touch it?"

"I steal it all the time." Annabeth's hand raised to her chin, stifling a laugh as she strolled to Rachel's room, disappearing inside momentarily. Before she emerged, "I'm pretty sure I'm the only person tending to the Animal Crossing Island, after all!" had been shouted from within, the walls dulling some of the volume, but none of the ironic tone.

A little effort later, and the console was hooked up to the TV, Annabeth deciding to take some time to show off the Animal Crossing Island that seemed to hold more importance than her own studies. He'd never played the game, but it had a cute artstyle and even cuter music, and since he'd once found Sally Jackson huddled up in winter blankets on the sofa playing it at two A.M (an incredibly out-of-character experience), the game was definitely one that he endorsed.

Rows of snow-tipped trees covered the game screen, the fruit which they bore organising themselves into perfectly even spaces, the orchard surrounding a small village of houses which each belonged to a wacky animal character. Annabeth's own house was much larger than the rest, a well-developed lawn and pathway which led to the town hall, the radiant smile worn on her proving that she took great pride in the way she'd planned out her own little world.

"And this is Raymond, he's an ugly piece of shit and I hate him." Annabeth's complaints weren't unprecedented, the home belonging to the addressed character quarantined from the rest of her village. He was a bipedal cat with heterochromia, face partially obscured by black-box glasses. "I only keep him here because he's really popular, so it's not worth just letting him go without a trade. I await the day that I can get rid of him."

Percy's eyebrow raised. "That's a lot of hatred for a cat."

"You'd understand if you played the game."

A familiar teasing smirk foreboded challenge, and it wasn't long before they'd switched game to Super Smash Brothers, now face-to-face in a bitter competition for glory (and bragging rights). Samus fired off powerful charged shots as Ike's sword swung in a wide arc around his head, leaping between the platforms which separated the upper and lower halves of the map. Annabeth grabbed a Pokeball, and out came an annoying little snow fox that froze Percy in place, and she'd gotten a free stock from it.

Okay, time to play dirty.

"Hey, Wise Girl, looking forward to seeing Piper tonight?" Teased an overly saccharine voice, Percy leaning into his best friend. She stumbled, misinputting an action on her controller, causing the armour-clad Metroid destroyer to go plunging off of the map. A venomous gaze twisted towards him, and as he observed the narrowing gray eyes which attacked him, a few brief scenes of Percy's life had flashed over them.

"That was a dick move, Seaweed Brain." A trained hand took his controller hostage, and as much as he'd attempted to free it from Annabeth's iron grip, he was unable to prevent her from knocking him off of the map twice more to end the game. An undeserved smug look eroded away the malice, her finger flicking Percy on the nose before he could contest the unjust loss.

"Also, I am looking forward to seeing Piper tonight, thank you very much. She's my dear friend, after all."

A giggle escaped from Percy's held breath, revealing some of the vice which had been hidden by the joy of winning.

"Dear friend, hmm? You're not as subtle as you think you are."

"We're not subtle?" Pupils dilated, blocking out silver moons, Annabeth's torso swinging to the side, sizing up to Percy. She should've lost that duel, being about two inches shorter, but the sheer pressure she exuded led Percy's posture to falter. Gears were whizzing in her brain as she stared, scheming something, and it wouldn't take genius to realise Percy would be caught in the crossfire- or if he was particularly unlucky, the direct target of the assault.

"If we're not subtle, what about you and Jason? You two practically mouth fuck every time you talk."

Heat rose to his cheeks, and it took a lot of effort not to raise his voice. He only partially succeeded, because whilst his volume did not raise, a few extra octaves were appended.

There was no rational reason to have such an extreme reaction, because Jason was objectively hot, and it was frankly flattering that Annabeth thought they had a thing. However, not only was Jason his roommate, he was also straight. The chances of there being something there was lesser than the chances of Zoe in his Bio 101 class ever directly addressing one of her male peers. 

"We're not going to speculate about me fucking a straight guy, okay?" Slightly more indignant than he was going for, but it got the point across.

Annabeth tilted her head to the side, blinked, and nodded. Each of those three actions took an increasing amount of time, and sweat began to build on Percy's brow. However, all tension was broken when she broke into laughter, Percy following her soon after, the two of them embracing in a somewhat involuntary fashion.

"I forgot that we have a token straight friend. Though I do think it's for the best that you don't date for a while anyways."

"Why am I not allowed to date? Worried that I'll like someone more than you?"

"Actually, I'm worried about how you'd cope."

Oh. She was being serious.

Percy blinked, once again failing to hold something in his throat- but this time, instead of speech, it was a drawn-out sigh. Annabeth's head tried to tilt even more, but couldn't, because it would've broken her neck- and although she'd probably enjoy looking somewhat like an owl, it wasn't ideal to look as so if one of the side-effects was immediate death.

"You need to stop doing that, Beth."

"Doing what?"

"Changing the atmosphere of a conversation without any warning."

Her posture fixed itself, which caused Percy to exhale a little, because any further time left contorting herself would have been permanent. Gray eyes gazed into empty space for a second, before they returned to meet brilliant viridian.

"You're right. I do that all the time, huh?"

An awkward laugh, permeated into the air, two things shared by the both of them, mixing to become a thicker smog. It began to hide Annabeth behind it's mist, and he needed to alleviate it, lest it drag the two of them apart.

"So what did you even mean by that? Why wouldn't I cope?"

Eye contact soured, thinning gray drills reaching further into the deepest corners of his thoughts. "Isn't it obvious? You haven't been normal about dating since him."

His hands balled into fists, but the anger didn't persist, repelled by the joy of rational thought.

Why are you getting so worked up over nothing?

Fists unravelled, hands hanging limply at his hands, and their eyes broke apart as Percy wistfully gazed at them, flexing a finger. He'd been close to losing his temper a lot today.

As he took a breath in, the smog coalesced with the air, inhalation getting it stuck in his throat. His mouth made a motion to speak, but the words were blocked by the smog, leaving him with an empty promise. Annabeth's lips pursed.

Swallow. The smog was pushed further downwards, nauseating his stomach, disgust it called forth manifesting in the taste of bitterness in his throat. For a second, his speech was delayed, before he pushed past the stress and spoke anyways.

"I'm over it."

It was probably a lie, but he didn't feel like dealing with it right now.

"Percy, you haven't had a proper boyfriend in 2 years. Every other guy you've ever 'dated' was just a glorified fuckbuddy."

Okay, so he was dealing with it. Trust Annabeth to force him to deal with his problems.

"Are you slutshaming me?" He quipped, an empty attempt to relieve awkwardness. Annabeth didn't look impressed. "Anyways, I'm mostly over it. He's in jail and I've talked to Jason about it, and I've decided I'm not doing that anymore. Now it's all just processing stuff." 

She hummed, not sounding convinced. "Talked to Jason about it, huh? Whatever happened to us being best friends?"

Her look of mock heartbreak terrified Percy, and it only partially dwelled when she broke the façade with a chuckle. "Jokes aside, you talk about him a lot, just saying. And I trust you, Seaweed Brain- if you think you're over it, I'll let it be. I'm always here if you need to talk about it though, ok?"

A tentative nod later, and the video game quickly regained their attention. Annabeth's mind was wholly focused on beating Percy's ass, and that was probably why he was losing, because every time Percy tried to direct his attention, it was pulled to something else, as if Annabeth had cursed him. Whether it was a thought about Luke, or the upcoming party, or Jason, for some godforesaken reason, his ADHD refused to leave him alone. Annabeth was able to quell her own easily, and it was jealousy which had forever persisted.

Eventually, just as an attack from Lucina sent Bowser flying into insta-kill lava, the door to the dorm swung open, his head twisting around in reaction. Expecting to see Jason bound into the room, eyes darted to the door, instead being met by Rachel's curly red hair.

Wait.

Why was he expecting Jason? He didn't even live here.

Rachel's arms were held wide, their owner leaping forward at an alarming speed for a 5"7 freshly-nineteen female. The embrace began loosely, but when Annabeth introduced herself to the hug, it would've been more appropriate to call it an attempt at a Boa Constrictor roleplay. They were held like that for a while, at least thirty seconds, before Percy had to push his friends off. He loved them, yes, but he also needed to breathe.

"Guys, you don't even understand the amount of stress I've just been through." Rachel retraced her steps to close the door. "Dad tried to convince me to stay at home tonight, like I knew he would, and I'm 99% sure he was going to try and guilt trip me to coming to his business thing in Dubai next week."

"Doesn't he do that every year?" Annabeth's left eyebrow was arched.

"He does, but it's extra annoying this year because I can actually say no." 

Curiosity was satiated. "Fair enough."

The next while they spent together was reminiscent of years past, the three of them holed up in the living room, playing video games and eating junk food. Every one of Percy's stupid jokes was met with both laughter and a vengeful side-eye, and Annabeth's justifications of her morally questionable statements sparked extremely cultured discussion ("The green m&m was never hot in the first place" "Percy, you're literally gay." "I can tell whether a woman is objectively hot!"), and every once in the while Rachel's one-off comments would spiral into an extended argument. it was great.

Grover's absence was felt, the group's mediator currently on a no-technology nature retreat, but then again, without him, they made a perfect trio. You could say that they were like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but: one, Percy liked to think he was way smarter than Harry Potter would ever be, and he was a Slytherin anyways;  two, Annabeth insisted that she wasn't as overly hormonal as Hermione could be (although the others would protest otherwise); and three, Rachel said that similar hair colour wasn't a good enough justification to compare her to Ronald Weasley. That was fair enough.

Oh, and four, fuck JK Rowling. Obviously.

Huddled around the coffee table, the three of them were intently stirring tea leaves, a rerun of iCarly which was playing in the background being the only thing that broke the silence. Rachel's snake-scale eyes bored into Annabeth's cup of leaves, pleads to change the TV channel to something more interesting falling deaf on her ears.

"Hey, Beth" Percy raised a hand to garner her attention. "Shut the fuck up. iCarly is great."

Annabeth's top lip quivered, an amalgam of both betrayal and disgust playing across her face. "Now both of my friends are against me. By the morning, you'll find my body in a dumpster!"

"Calm down, Beth. You'll sprout some gray hairs." chided Rachel, Annabeth's teacup moved onto the table, dangerously close to the edge. "That seems inevitable, though. After all, the tea only told me what we kinda already knew: your hair is gonna be fucked up by next September. Guess you're joining Percy in the club."

Annabeth groaned. "Great. What's next, I get pregnant?"

"Actually..."

There was that venom again, dripping from Annabeth's pursed lips. Rachel took the hint, and didn't finish the sentence. Percy held out his own cup towards her, blue-soaked tea leaves pooling in a small layer of remaining liquid. They looked a bit like a deformed dog to Percy, but of course, none of his insights were remotely close to Rachel's- or ever actually right, for that matter.

The girls turned towards him, taking a glance inside the teacup. Rachel nose scrunched, her pinky tentatively poking at the leaves. Annabeth's face didn't change, so now she was regarding the tea leaves with such incredulous mutiny that would've felt more appropriate in a court case.

"Looks like a pile of shit." Blunt. That was like Annabeth.

"No, it's quite clear. An unrelentless storm."

Matter of fact, like Rachel. So matter of fact, that Percy didn't properly understand what she had said until the words had replayed in his head three times.

A storm? That didn't sound good.

Percy spoke in a tone attempting to be comical. "So the weather's gonna be really shit next week?"

"Not that kind of storm." Rachel's head shook, fiery curls dressing her face like some sort of burning shawl. "This storm is more abstract- something that is already raging through your life, ready to change it forever, shredding what you once knew and replacing it with the purest whims of fate."

Verdant eyes were practically glowing, addressing Percy with a dangerous interest. This was a  transcript from the $4.99 tea leaf reading book she'd been begging to have a chance to read out.

"Say, Percy. What do you think of Jason?"

Fuck.

Not this again.

"He's my roommate, and one of my closest friends now. Nothing else."

Her lips upturned into a devious smile. "Close friends, hmm? Someone with his head so far in the skies, and another entirely submerged by the depths. What a storybook fantasy- what a perfect storm. How exciting."

"Rachel, shut up." The sudden contact of a hand on his shoulder made him realise he was sweating, despite there being no real reason he should've been. "You're making Percy uncomfortable. He's not getting with his straight roommate, and even if he was, it isn't our right to speculate. Leave him alone."

An exasperated sigh, and Rachel's plotting eyes softened, leaving 'speculation' mode. "Fine, I get it. I'm looking forward to understanding more when you enter the storm's eye."

The conversation was quickly discarded, and though it seemed to Percy that he moved on quite quickly, the thought of it would sting at the back of his mind for some time. Whether this storm was what Rachel had predicted or not, he'd need to brace himself for it, and he had no clue how to do that.

A distant memory resurfaced, one that hadn't been purged by a craving to conquer his demons, nor one he couldn't escape, yet chose to hide from, prey barely one step ahead of the predator.

No, this memory was horribly sweet, yet entirely too chaotic to be called as such. Bare legs hanging off of a cliff, the ocean waging war upon the land below, the maelstrom before him illuminating young, tanned skin with brilliant lightning. His mother had taken his hand, fearing the sea and sky, retreating to the beachside cabin which they could somewhat call a refuge.

Sally had taught him to run from that storm, but Percy didn't have that instinct- he'd just stood there, mesmerised, nature clashing with itself in an eternal war far bloodier that one any humans could fight. Perhaps in that moment, when his mother had told him to flee from the thunder, he had taught himself to fear storms- never let one reach him, never let it ravage him too.

Perhaps, all this time, he'd been running from the storm, terrified of a salvation masquerading as something cruel. Perhaps, what the tea leaves had meant wasn't that the storm would catch up to him, but that he'd instead stop and turn back around- he'd stare at it with awe, like he once had those ten years ago, waiting for it to subsume him, assimilate him as yet another part of it's terrible beauty.

Maybe this entire time, it wasn't the storm's winds which had caused him strife, but himself- his own enemy, fleeing from an inevitability of fate, more harm coming to him in the process than acceptance of the chaos would've wrought.

Percy couldn't remember when he'd started thinking of himself in this way, and if he couldn't remember that, he certainly couldn't remember exactly at which point he had spaced out. So, when he became aware of Rachel addressing him, the context of the situation was as lost to him as any other remnants of that stormy night.

"Come on, Perce, it's obvious, right?" Rachel had asked, shaking him, the hand which had rested on his shoulder having changed during his absence. Annabeth's nose was scrunched up, and she was looking at the floor as if it had just bit her ass.

"Maybe you should stop speculating about everyone's love life, Rach!"

"But unlike our dear Percy, you have a chance." 

Suddenly, everything made sense. Turning to meet Annabeth's eyes, he attempted to advise. "Piper likes you, Beth. It's clear to all of us. So stop being awkward and ask her out already."

Annabeth growled- like, full on growled. It came as somewhat of a shock, and the tense atmosphere wasn't diffused by the sigh that followed it- and Rachel's two thumbs up weren't doing much either. At least her sparkly nail polish was fun to look at.

"Since when are you not the oblivious one?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "I'm only oblivious when it comes to my own shit, Beth."

"Fine, I'll ask her out tonight then." Annabeth sounded vindicated, huffing and puffing. "I'm going to my room to get ready. Don't disturb me."

As the blonde turned and left the group, her bead necklace bearing the brunt of her nervous fiddling, two pairs of green eyes met in laughter. In the end, they were all just kids who had barely grown up.

It took another hour for the next knock on the door to come, as Rachel and Percy were huddled up on the sofa watching reruns of Glee, stuffing chocolate and the little savoury snacks that you buy for parties down their throat. Before they could make a motion to move, Annabeth left her room, wearing the same clothes she had wore before her retreat, but with her hair freshly braided. She opened the door, granting entrance to the rest of their friends.

Leo was wearing his Mufasa costume again (prompting a howling laugh from Rachel), with Piper wearing a leather jacket and distressed jeans. Her choppy, shoulder length hair was held up in a loose bun, and Percy couldn't help but snicker as Annabeth stared at her, wide-eyed. 

Whilst the two girls were locked in an eye contact which became exceedingly awkward for everyone else, Leo came over to the sofa to greet Rachel ("You look like a fucking idiot" "Anything to entertain you on your birthday!"), and Jason hauled in an XL-size bag of (presumably) gifts. He was wearing a white tank top which Percy had seen him in countless times, but for some reason, it was hugging his chest muscles incredibly tightly today.

Jason offered him an awkward wave with the hand holding the bag, it's twin closing the door to the dorm. Percy found himself with an urge to assist, so he'd risen from the sofa and taken the bag from Jason, who thanked him breathlessly. The confidence with which he'd taken was misplaced, because the moment he'd taken it into his hand, two of his fingers burned with pain.

Gods, it was heavy. How had Jason lifted it with one hand?

"Thanks, dude! Sorry for the weight- I have no clue what Piper's put in there."

"A couple of bricks, apparently." Deadpan.

Percy hoisted the bag onto the coffee table, feeling as if he pulled an arm in his muscle as he did so, resulting in a squeal that was too embarrassing to recall- though, if he hadn't been working out with Jason recently, his arm likely would've snapped entirely, and he'd be the armless Percy, to go along with Leo's lack of height and Jason's lack of sight. Unfortunately for him, his pain prompted a chuckle from both Jason (welcome) and Rachel (unwelcome), the latter of whom dove forward to look through the bag.

A voice came from behind, lilted words accompanied by a snicker. "If anyone was going to put bricks in the bag, it would've been Jason, not me."

A face to the left of his view flushed, Jason biting at his lip scar in a fashion which he always adopted in situations of anxiety or mortification.

"It was one time, Piper! Five years ago!"

"You still made out with a brick, dude." Leo's voice, lined with teasing.

Percy wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of the glare that Jason shot Leo. His eyes were usually a calming sky, but that moment had hardened them into a storm reminiscent of his sister's.

Gods, there was the storm again. Why did it always come back to Jason?

"Jeez dude, lay off the red meat, alright?" Leo flopped onto the sofa, his fake tail hitting Rachel on the thigh. She didn't seem to care, too busy rifling through the bag to notice.

Percy wanted to protest that they didn't buy red meat, because it was fucking expensive, but a shake of Jason's head shot him down, his roommate then sitting in the empty space Percy had left. No room was remaining on the sofa, so he'd sat cross-legged on a pillow at Jason's feet, and Annabeth and Piper soon joined him on the floor. Annabeth must've made a move, because Piper's face was dyed scarlet, accenting the streaks of silver hair dashed between her brown edges. Piper barely ever wore makeup- she preferred to experiment with her appearance in other ways, and every time, it was never for beauty- it was for another person's fun, or for her own amusement.

Rachel's birthday presents went by without a hitch. Percy's Hoover Damn keychain had been met with hilarity, the two of them howling about it for about two full minutes. Nobody else understood the joke.

Annabeth had bought her a set of tarot cards to replace her aging set (no more blue coffee stains!), and Piper's heavy gift had turned out to be a full set of about 35 oil paint colours, with a complementary storage box that was way too over the top. What an expensive, thoughtful gift. Rachel loved it.

In complete contrast to Piper, Leo's gift was a £5 t-shirt with "You're fine: how am I?" emblazoned across a white background in orange comic sans. Rachel also loved this.

Jason's set of figurines were also well-received (Percy thanked that Amazon did next-day delivery), and after Rachel had thanked them all and called them all nerds (affectionately), the games began.

They'd started off with a few games of Mario Kart. Percy had played Luigi, and in the first match (which Annabeth and Leo were sitting out due to the four-player limit), he'd absolutely smoked the other players. Piper had been the victim of three red shells, all three of which thanks to Rachel, who's game plan seemingly wasn't to win, but instead to make the life of whoever was driving closest to her as miserable as humanly possible.

Jason, on the other hand?

"Are you okay?" Percy had asked his roommate on the scoring screen, after smugly gloating about his win. A fist was held over Jason's mouth, a top row of teeth digging into the knuckle near his pinky, gaze centered on the TV screen.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just confused about why I didn't get any laps, even though I was faster than you."

Percy blinked. Was he being serious?

"You weren't going backwards on purpose?"

Jason's face flooded crimson, interest in the floor reaching an all-time high. That was Jason's last match of Mario Kart that night.

Next up was Twister, but it had been cut short by Leo falling on his ass, which just so happened to occur on top of Percy. This had set off a chain reaction, leading to all of them except Rachel (who had been spinning the wheel) ending up in a collapsed pile, a groaning mess of limbs. Percy was pretty sure he'd tasted a few of Jason's toes, and somebody's knee was dangerously close from preventing him from ever having children- though, considering that it was unlikely he'd find a lover with a uterus, it wouldn't have been that much of a loss.

Rachel made sure to take a picture before they'd recovered from the shock, and he'd found it on Instagram later that night, captioned "Falling for U" with three kissy emojis.

Trivial Pursuit wasn't Percy's favourite game, it was still entertaining enough to be worth playing ("Jason, what do you mean you don't know the 32nd president? You're a history major!" "Ancient History, Beth, not US History!") although it did sting realising that he didn't know the year in which Britney Spears' 'Toxic' had released. Ah well- Annabeth had been destined to win the game anyways.

By the time they were playing Monopoly, everyone had moved to the floor, huddling around the 20-inch wide board. Rachel was sitting cross-legged on a stack of pillows, with the positive of being taller than everyone else, with the negative of the risk of said pillows toppling onto the board at any time, ruining it for everyone. 

Leo wasn't sitting, and instead anxiously paced around the room when it wasn't his turn, attempting to go over his strategies in secrecy, but unfortunately, doing so too loudly to be stealthy. Although most of the food was on the coffee table, Leo had taken a share-size bag of Doritos that Percy distinctly remembered buying for Rachel, and ate a few chips between each sentence.

Annabeth and Piper laid alongside each other on a blanket they'd retrieved from the former's room. They were whispering things to each other, occasionally growing flustered, but occasionally also prompting a devious giggle. Percy didn't know what they were planning at first, but by the time they'd owned an entire side of the board and all four stations, it was pretty clear that they planned on eliminating everyone else from the game before going for each other's throat. How romantic.

About halfway in, Percy noticed the two girls brush wrists, and promptly interlink their fingers, holding hands until their next turns. A strange gaze he'd directed towards them had gathered attention, and where Annabeth had looked away, Piper winked, before her attention was stolen by Leo somehow managing to roll a three. As Percy chuckled in response, he realised how glad he was that they had each other's back. Annabeth had always needed someone to rely on, and nowadays, Percy had noticed himself becoming that person for someone else more often, and less so her.

Speaking of that person, Jason was sitting with his legs spread around the board, the bank sitting on his lap. Unfortunately, he took his job as banker very seriously, and refused any of Percy's attempts to convince him to cheat or team up against the girls.

"C'mon, Jay, it's Monopoly! You win by cheating- it's like the law of the game."

Jason shook his head, getting uncharacteristically wound up by Percy's teasing. His property cards were so tight to his chest that his knuckles had turned dangerously white.

"No, you win by being the best business person! If you need to cheat to win, then you're clearly not that."

"You wound me, Grace." Percy quipped, holding a hand to his heart. It was his turn, so he rolled the dice, and landed on Go to Jail. Jason had scoffed, muttering something like 'deserved it', and Percy couldn't see his face, but he could imagine the smirk that deserved to be wiped off.

The top hat lingered on the square for a moment, before the banker's hand pushed it to the Jail tile. Percy responded by raising a hand to Jason's face, revelling in the momentary confusion before he pushed a finger to Jason's lips.

"Shut up, Superman. There's a reason Batman is the billionaire, you know?"

Thundering eyes thinned and glared at the board for a moment, prompting Percy's own gaze to wander, only to feel a wet sensation against his finger as he dropped his guard.

Percy's hand recoiled, pulled to his chest and wiped clean on his shirt. Jason snickered, free hand fiddling with his glasses frame, and Percy's heart rate soared.

Why? He wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't understand most of the things he felt regarding Jason, so it didn't mean much.

That was something he'd noticed over the last few weeks, ever since the Halloween party. When talking to most of his friends, his feelings were predictable, but with Jason they were ever-changing. Every hearty laugh, each late-night conversation, the goddamned lip bite- they all made him feel so different to when anyone else would do the same thing.

Jason was confusing, but it wasn't uncomfortable. After all, Percy was pretty sure he knew why there was a difference, but that fell under the demographic of 'things that are better left unsaid'; it had always done more harm than good, and Jason was even his roommate. That had to be a no-go zone.

So that was all Jason was, a friend. A friend who made his heart race and his chest grow tight, but a friend nonetheless.

"Did you just lick my finger?"

"You're the one who put it on my lips."

Percy next glare was intensified by all of his focus, starting a staring contest that lasted for an undetermined, but extortionate amount of time. In fact, they had become so focused on not breaking eye contact, that they didn't realise the girls had bankrupted Leo.

By the time the game was again priority (Jason had caved first, swelling Percy's already inflated ego), Jason was going out of his way to piss off Percy- buying tiles which he needed, giving the girls discounts on rent, even buying a hotel for Rachel as a 'birthday gift'. Cheating was fine if you're not doing it to benefit yourself, apparently.

Monopoly went on for a while longer, before Rachel landed on a hotel-bearing Boardwalk, the ensuing argument with Piper to spare her rent had felling her pillow tower. It was much like the fall of the Roman Empire- an unfair dictatorship toppled by the power of another nation's intervention, or in this case, an illegal Monopoly alliance ruined by another player's seat. Leo was the one who had suggested this comparison, and it had attracted ire from Annabeth, meeting Leo's sentiment with a toppled pillow in the face.

And thus, over the next five minutes ensued The Great Pillow Fight of December, in which Percy and Jason didn't participate, instead choosing to clean up the Monopoly board. It was for the best- Percy's strained arm was still aching like hell, and it only took a glance at Jason's foot to tell that he was still struggling to walk.

By the time they were finished clearing up, Leo had been declared winner of the pillow fight, Piper had winner of the Monopoly game. Rachel made her discontent with both of these decisions quite clear.

A few games of Uno later ("How do people even enjoy this?" Annabeth had asked, after being hit with a stacked +12. "There's no strategy, just luck!" The other five shared a joint fistbump.), and they found themselves resorting to the most teenage of all teenage party games- truth and dare. Usually, the idea of this would daunt Percy, but everyone in this room probably already knew his worst secrets anyways.

Well, most secrets, at least.

The 'Party Bottle' had landed on Leo, Rachel taking the role of first spinner, leveraging her role as the birthday girl. His friend's face had split into a mischievous grin, raising a hand to pick at his curly brown hair.

"Why wouldn't I say dare? Do you think I'm not fun or something?"

Rachel snorted, a sound that usually spelled doom.

"Take off the Mufasa costume."

"You know I'm not wearing anything under this, right?"

The redhead smirked, and shrugged, setting the oath in stone. Leo quipped something about Rachel being into him, but he seemed incredibly thankful when Annbeth had tossed a blanket over him. At least he was wearing underwear.

Leo spun the bottle. Jason.

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth." Jason asserted, leaning back against the sofa.

"Boring." tutted Leo. "What tasted better- the stapler or the brick?"

Jason's face burned up, radiating a crimson heat, softly storming eyes looking to Percy for some form of confirmation, met with an unassuming shrug.

Jason ended up eating a teaspoon of Hot Sauce as a forfeit.

Percy's first dare had been fairly tame, only being asked to wear Piper's shoes on his hands. It'd made spinning the bottle difficult, sure, but it had made Jason break into laughter and crack one of his sunshine smiles, so it was worth it.

Next was Rachel, who'd been dared to do a fortune reading on herself using her new tarot deck. Apparently, she was going to end up in jail by the end of the day, but it seemed like a prophecy which had already come to pass- after all, she'd spent most of Monopoly in the accursed corner opposite GO. She'd lucked out.

Rachel's next spin landed on Annabeth, who said 'Truth' without hesitation, prompting a brief look of disappointment from every other person in the circle except for the spinner. Instead, a cruel grin broke across Rachel's face, devious plans flickering in her chartreuse eyes.

"Which person here do you want to date the most?"

Annabeth spoke without hesitation, a hand grasping at the necklace hanging around her neck. "Piper. Everyone else is either a boy, or, no offense, literally you."

Rachel smirked, her silence speaking just as loudly as words. Piper leaned in closer to Annabeth, whispering something in her ear. The awkward grip on the bead necklace tightened.

Annabeth spun the bottle, landing on Jason again. This time, he'd chosen dare, but the idea of stripping naked, holding up Leo's discarded costume over the edge of the balcony, and singing Hakuna Matata was too much for him to handle. It was a shame, because Percy had wanted to see that for multiple reasons, but he supposed watching him choke on another spoonful of hot sauce was a fair enough substitute. It didn't seem to satisfy Piper, however, who had rolled her eyes and grilled Jason for something along the lines of 'Best Friend Solidarity'. Jason elected not to reply, which was probably not due to his desire to leave the situation unaddressed, but rather the condiment eating away at the walls of his mouth.

Rich white boy couldn't handle a little spice- who would've guessed?

Jason's spin landed on Piper, and after his best friend had declared 'Dare!', Leo leant over to Jason's shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Jason snickered, looking for payback.

In retrospect, it wasn't entirely surprising that Jason had dared Piper to kiss Annabeth. What was much more surprising was that Piper had immediately taken it in stride, pressing her lips to her neighbour's, holding them close for a few short seconds before they pulled apart, breathless. Rachel took one look at them, and then promised that she wouldn't be offended if they retired to Annabeth's room, and they took the hint, giggling to each other the entire way.

Percy was happy, of course, but a sinking feeling grow in the pit of his stomach. Was it regret, fear, jealousy? He couldn't decide.

It didn't take long for Jason and Percy to retire as well, after having played a few matches of Super Smash Bros, which was highly entertaining, since Jason didn't understand how the game worked, and had sent Chrom Fire Emblem plunging off of the map a total of 16 times across all of the matches they'd played. Rachel and Leo had gotten pretty intense anyways, the two of them competing with each other with ruthless intensity, so it was best to leave them alone. If Percy had to see Joker get dragged to the edge by Zelda's Final Smash one more time, it was likely his eardrums would've burst from the ensuing frustrated scream.

Percy had checked his phone as they'd left Rachel's dorm, walking at Jason's side down the empty corridors. They were shrouded in darkness, usual yellow paint and brass door numbers only visible thanks to the dimming amber glow from the lights lining the ceiling. If it wasn't for the fact that his shoulder was practically brushing his roommate, maybe seeing the hallway so still would've been uncomfortable- eerie, an unnatural subversion of what he had come to expect. 

1am.

It didn't feel like they'd been in there for 7 hours, but they'd somehow managed to spend all that time together, a group. His mother had always told him that 'time flies when you're having fun', and this night had been an apparent example that Sally Jackson's principles were never misplaced.

Once they'd made it back to their dorm, Jason quickly retreated to the bathroom, and Percy's elation dwelled a little at the loss of his last companion. Hand clasped around a glass of water, he stood in the kitchen for an abstract period of time, each sip of his drink accompanied by reflection of the memories he had just made.

Gods, he loved his friends. They were such a unique bunch, yet they somehow fit together, like puzzle pieces. He couldn't remember how he'd managed to live life before them.

Percy hadn't noticed Jason leave the bathroom, it's toilet flush and running water presumably having been masked by the kitchen tap, but when he'd pressed a hand into Percy's aching arm, Percy subconsciously leant inwards, allowing his friend to slowly massage his fingers over the sore muscles. Silently, Jason had pulled up Percy's sleeve, and touched his skin, sending bolts of lightning through the surface, directly fighting away the pain.

There were a few empty moments, standing close, the other person's presence the only thing on both of their minds. Percy could feel the whisper of a few unspoken words on his neck, before speech finally managed to escape Jason's lips, breaking the silence in a way which wasn't unwelcome, but almost felt regrettable."

"Thank you for tonight."

Percy's eyebrow raised. "It was Rachel's party, though."

"I know, it's just..." Jason's fingers began to trail up Percy's arm, and then crossed the fabric of his shirt across to his collarbone, tracing a circle into the bare skin which Percy's t-shirt expised. "I always find myself thanking you. Ever since I've moved in here with you, my life has gotten so much better. So thank you."

"For what it's worth, I quite enjoy your company too, Grace."

Jason snickered, and Percy noticed a soft smile out of the corner of his eye.

"I went to see my mom after class yesterday." Jason stated, a dramatic atmosphere shift that might've given Percy more severe vertigo if it wasn't already past 1am. "I used to tell myself that I couldn't hate her, because she was my mother and she'd tried her hardest to raise me, but reading the obituary on her tombstone made me realise that she never tried. She loved the money and fame more than me or Thalia, and I hate her for it. I just-"

Jason stopped, dwelling on his next words. Percy gave him a slight nudge to the side, granting him the courage to speak. This made Jason's finger stop, before his entire arm reached across Percy's chest, pulling him even closer, so close that Percy could feel the stuttering of Jason's chest as he breathed. Emerald eyes tilted upwards, and were met with their sapphire equals, gazing in solemn understanding as Jason continued to speak.

"I just wish I'd met you sooner. I've only known you for three months, but somehow looking at you, talking to you, it all just makes me understand myself better. Maybe, if I'd met you sooner, I wouldn't have lied to myself about it for so long."

Jason's face leant forwards, the tip of his nose ghosting against Percy's, who had raised his right hand to Jason's cheek. A thumb wiped away at Jason's skin, rejecting even the slightest whisper of any tears.

"I think that you were grieving, and it makes sense that you struggled to find words for it, and that it's good to grieve. But I'm glad, Jay. I think that's everyone's goal in life- to understand ourselves better, work through things one step at a time."

Jason laughed inwardly, looping the forefinger and thumb of his right arm around Percy's wrist, shifting the arm away from Percy's chest. Both were pulled down, and they lingered there- a touch that perhaps was best described as a grip, but was too gentle to be so.

"How do you manage to be both immeasurably stupid and incredibly wise?"

"It's a talent, Grace."

A chuckle split across Jason's face, his thunderbolt eyes studying Percy's features, as if he was looking for proof that Percy's heart was skipping a few beats. The silence that held them was nothing but warmth, and even as they'd parted for sleep, a voice which Percy had long repressed took over, the voice which would whisper things that Percy would never say out loud- or even think of, lest it slip from his lips in a moment of unthinking. It spoke, each word muttered between the stuttering beats of his racing heart, singing lyrics to a song Percy would've never dared to link the memory of another to, as if the act itself would curse the friendship they held.

Still, his heart beat, and that voice in his head sang.

Have you ever thought,

Just maybe?

Laying in bed, Percy's left hand loosely wrapped it's index and thumb around his right wrist, caught up in a moment of passion which, despite how sweet it seemed, would never be again recalled upon morning's wake, any chance of it ruining everything buried in the corner of his mind where feelings like these belonged.