Chapter Text
Jason was tired.
Tired of his parents.
Tired of going to bible study everyday.
Tired of hearing the same thing everyday.
“Keep acting like that, and you’ll burn in Hell.”
It felt like his parents' favorite phrase. To threaten Jason with fear and punishments for stepping out of line.
And after a while, the statement started to lose its meaning.
Eight years of being told the exact same thing started to get boring, and soon the words felt like nothing more than familiar noises flooding out mouths of the people Jason used to look up to.
But even though Jason told that to himself, and yeah, he believed it, but sometimes, it still hurt.
The time he confessed his feelings for another boy five years ago would be a good example of this.
Eleven year old Jason couldn’t have been more impressed.
Sitting on the cheap old bleachers of his new private school, Jason observed the students swim back and forth in the pool, the odd smell of chlorine attacking his sensitive nostrils.
None of it was super special to Jason, it was just a bunch of kids swimming in a pool, he could go to a public pool and see the exact same scene.
Is what he would’ve thought if something hadn’t caught his eye.
The competition ended, with a black-haired boy coming in first place.
Seeing him cheer and celebrate, his friends leaping over to congratulate him awoke something in Jason’s child mind.
Percy Jackson.
The boy who cracked jokes in Math class, disrupting everyone and annoying the teacher, the boy who was assigned to sit next to him in Sunday School, the boy who just one first in the school swimming competition.
Jason never thought he’d had a crush before. He was almost jealous of everyone else when they swooned about how their crush had looked at them that day, or asked them for directions.
Jason never understood it, until now.
Until Percy Jackson.
After the competition the next day in Church, the pastor gave a sermon.
A sermon about how God would always forgive you no matter what. How if you let him into your heart, and held faith in him, anything was possible.
Jason believed it to be true.
He believed it to be true, even when the pastor started listing sins that one might commit.
Adultery, lying, hatred, and more. But one stuck out to Jason.
Homosexuality. The feeling of attraction to another of one’s own gender.
His words rang out across the pews.
If you had committed any of those sins, they were to be confessed to him in secrecy immediately.
Jason never thought of it as a crime before. He didn’t even think of it as an option, but seeing Percy declare his victory at the competition yesterday, convinced Jason that it was.
And that what he was doing was wrong.
It was a sin.
Jason believed it to be true.
After the sermon had finished, Jason asked his parents if he could ask the pastor something.
His parents seemed concerned, but let him go, having thought that he had identified his sins and was going to change for the better.
It didn’t make sense to him as to why ‘homosexuality’ was a sin. He knew a girl at his old public school that said she had a crush on their classmate, who had also been a girl. Jason thought nothing of it. It wasn’t his problem.
But now, it was.
He told the pastor everything.
He thought he’d listen.
He thought the pastor would understand.
He was wrong.
The pastor told his parents, even though Jason thought that he’d told him it was a secret.
And when they found out, they were mad.
They baptized Jason for the second time, even though he’d already been baptized once before. He thought you could only do it once, but he supposed his parents disagreed. Something about ‘falling into sin,’ but he couldn’t remember the specifics.
They forced him to read the bible, front to back, multiple times.
They separated him and Percy during Sunday school, much to Percy’s confusion.
And they made him memorize those specific passages.
LEVITICUS 18:22
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
CORINTHIANS 6:9 - 10
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
ROMANS 1:26-27
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Having a crush on another boy was a sin. Jason knew that now.
And if his feelings continued, he’d burn in Hell.
Jason believed it to be true.
…That was when it had started.
Jason’s distrust in the church, in his parents, in everything.
From that point forward his parents treated him differently. They were harsher, sharper with their words, as if yelling at Jason would scare him into obedience.
And much to their delight, it had worked.
Now they were a perfect, all-American nuclear family. The type of stuff you’d see out of a movie.
Everything was perfect.
Jason was a perfect child,
His parents, the perfect mother and father,
That’s how it should’ve been.
If Jason just hadn’t fucked up again and again.
If he hadn’t taken that drink at the party.
If his parents hadn’t found out.
If they hadn’t stripped him of his phone, never allowing him one again until eighteen.
If they hadn’t scared him into being their golden child again.
Jason wanted to be normal. He wished he could be. He wished it wasn’t Percy who’d offered him the drink, maybe then he wouldn’t have taken it. He wished he wasn’t still sinning.
But he held it together.
He worked his way to the top.
And now, lucky Jason Grace was the one everyone looked up to.
The one who guided others in activities, welcomed newcomers to the church, and always had a warm smile on his face.
He did everything they asked of him.
But no matter how hard he tried, he still didn’t feel complete.
Maybe he was somehow rejecting the lord, maybe he just had to try harder to let him into his heart.
He wanted to ask someone for help. But he knew where that had gotten him before.
So he kept his mouth shut.
And years of this landed him here.
Campbell’s Christian Summer Camp.
…Great.
* * *
“...Uhm, Jason? Hello? Did you even hear me?”
Jason blinked back into reality.
He was standing on the patchy grass in front of their cabins, judging by the sun’s height, it was the afternoon, close to evening. And in front of him stood the most insufferable beautiful girl in the whole camp.
Drew Tanaka.
“What? Oh- Drew, sorry I zoned out. I didn’t quite catch that, what’d you say?” Jason asked, forcing his voice to be full of curiosity as if he actually cared at all for what Drew had to say.
Drew huffed a sigh of disapproval. And Jason heard snickering from his friends from behind him.
Despite her rudeness and harsh nature, Drew Tanaka remained the most popular girl in their church among their peers. She had silky, straight, black hair cut at her lower back, delicate almond-shade eyes filled with deep brown irises, and perfectly smooth pale skin that never bore acne or pimples, but instead carried layers of makeup.
Jason’s parents adored her.
After the whole Percy situation, when Jason had turned fifteen his parents suggested he begin to find a girlfriend (Someone from the church, of course), but Jason never had any interest.
Luckily for him, the girl he hated most ended up being his parents' number one pick.
They’d always tell him about how Drew helped homeless communities (She didn’t, she just went to soup kitchens and took photos of herself and lied about it), or how she rescued puppies from the hound (Also, not true. She adopted expensive dogs from professional breeders and told everyone about her ‘good deed’). They were practically obsessed.
Jason wanted to tell them about her true nature, but bit his tongue so as to not disturb the peace.
He was beginning to regret that now.
Drew stomped her foot on the ground.
“Ahem, I asked you if you wanted to go out with me.”
…shit.
Jason was well aware of Drew’s feelings for him. She made it painfully obvious. Constantly flirting with him in PE, or twirling her hair around her finger and giggling when she spoke to him.
It was only a matter of when she confronted him about it.
“Oh, Drew I uhm-” There had to be a way out of this, right?
The laughter from Jason’s friends grew louder.
Shoot, and if his parents found out he rejected her, they’d punish Jason in unimaginable ways.
You know what? Maybe it’d be fine. He’d date her for like, a week and say things didn’t work out, and pray his parents looked past it.
Right? Right. So just- say yes. It’s fine.
“Uh- okay- sure…?” Jason hesitantly mumbled.
Gosh, the wicked smile that crept onto Drew’s face was awful.
“Yes! Yes! I knew you couldn’t turn me away! Goodness Jason, you’ve been chasing me for so long, you know you didn’t have to make me ask, right?”
What was she even going on about?
Drew sighed contently. “Well, I’ll be seeing you soon, you should meet me at dinner today we can discuss!” She grinned.
Jason just nodded and smiled. “Sure, sounds good.”
“Oh! This is wonderful! I’ll let everyone know!” She ran off towards the girls' cabins (How’d she even do that in short heels?).
Great. Jason was so fucked.
His friends were practically screaming now, laughing and clutching their stomachs.
Actually ‘friends’ was a bit too good for them. In reality they were more like accomplices. People Jason just hung out with because they were all guys. He didn’t even know half of their names.
He rolled his eyes.
“Thanks a lot, everyone.” Jason huffed.
They all hated Drew as much as him, if not more. And for the past few weeks they’d been teasing Jason about how obvious it was that Drew was into him. To them, her finally asking Jason out was the funniest thing ever. Jason would never understand them.
“Oh, man! Do I feel bad for you!” Some random blonde teenager went up behind Jason to slap him on the back while Jason tried desperately to remember his name.
“Jason’s got a date with Drew Tanaka!” A dark-haired boy called from the group.
They all spiraled into more laughter and Jason stood in annoyance.
Jason was about to turn tail and leave towards the cabins when he spotted his mother walking towards him.
As if his day couldn’t get any worse.
“Jason!” She clapped her hands together with delight.
“Hey, mom.” He replied, baring a forced smile.
“Oh, I’m so glad you and Drew were finally together! I suppose our prayers were finally answered, huh?”
Our? Since when did I ask for this? Jason kept his mouth shut.
“You need to get her something! A thoughtful gift.” She continued.
I do?
He let his mother ponder on it for a moment, as his eyes drifted to the woods.
Just on the order of the land the camp owned, there was a decent chunk of forest they had, but past that was private property. Apparently there were rumors of something rummaging around in there. At first, they just thought of it as a person, but the only structure there when it was sold was a crappy old tiny cottage with no electricity or water. Why on earth would anyone wanna live there? Plus, nobody had ever come by to talk to them. If there was anyone living there, they weren’t friendly.
Since the idea of someone living there was ruled out, people began suspecting other things.
Some sort of ghost, or bigfoot, or maybe some new cryptid thing.
Jason didn’t believe any of it. It was all a lot of silly fairytale rumors people just used as an excuse to get out of having to get their shoes dirty in the woods.
There wasn’t- “Oh, Jason! Great idea!”
His mother exclaimed out of nowhere.
“Uh… thanks?” He muttered.
“See, you can pick her some wildflowers! Any girl would love a bouquet.” His mother suggested.
Flowers? That can’t be too hard. “Uhm, okay, yeah. I’ll… get to it?” Jason nodded.
His mother grabbed him and kissed him on the cheek, sending another wave of giggles through the crowd of boys behind him.
“Oh thank you Jason! I knew you could do it!” She lightly patted him on the back and was about to walk away.
“But, Ms. Grace!” A boy called. “What about the Forest Creature?” he said in a mocking tone.
Jason’s mother rolled her eyes. “No such thing, those are all a bunch of campfire stories.” She tisked.
Nobody really believed those stories except for those who started them. They were all so insistent on how they had ‘actually seen’ something in the bushes. Probably just a fat squirrel.
When his mother finally left, Jason could actually breathe.
Flowers, right. Just grab a handful and be done.
Jason shrugged and started heading towards the woods, trying to ignore the whispers that followed. Had Drew really spread the word that fast?
When he reached the beginning trail, he didn’t hesitate to walk straight in.
Luckily the forest ground wasn’t too uneven, Jason didn’t have to do a whole lot of hiking.
Unluckily, there seemed to be a shortage of wildflowers.
Jason just tried to follow the trail, deeper and deeper into the woods, tracing the oak trees and blackberry bushes.
Eventually, with no luck following the trail, Jason headed off course.
His shoes were poked and pricked with sticks and thorns, but he couldn’t care less.
Just find some flowers, and get out of here. He kept telling himself.
Fortunately, Jason managed to stumble upon a few decent ones, but definitely not enough to warrant being called a ‘bouquet,’ and definitely not enough to be deemed worthy of Drew’s approval. So he kept searching.
Eventually, Jason found the private property signs. Bright red spray paint streaking lines along the trunks of trees, and cheap posters attached to low branches spelling out in big black letters, ‘PRIVATE PROPERTY.’ The message was clear enough.
Jason walked along the border, picking the occasional flower or blackberry as a trail snack.
Until he saw it.
The perfect clearing, surrounded by a border of short oak trees, with what seemed to be hundreds of colorful flowers dancing in the wind directly in the middle.
And of course, it was just over the private property border.
There was evidence of this clearing being man-made. Tree stumps and stacks of carefully arranged stones. But it felt less like something a lumberjack in his mid-forties would make, and more like some parents let their kid out into the woods and let them to their own devices.
Jason took a few steps forward, whoever owned it wouldn’t mind, right? I was just a few flowers, it wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Getting a closer look, Jason could see there were flowers laid on top of the tree stumps, as well as a small leather notebook.
A part of Jason wanted to be nosy and open it, but he was committing a bad enough crime already trespassing, he didn’t want to have to add onto it.
He carefully plucked the tallest, most colorful flowers, and added them to his collection in his other hand.
Gosh, how long had he been out here for? He’d known it had been late afternoon by the time he’d gone in, but now it seemed like the sky was being streaked with bright orange.
Shit, he better get done with this fast.
Grabbing a couple more flowers randomly, he was about to run and leave when he heard something.
He… heard something? There was no way that ‘Forest Creature’ rumor was true. And no way was there someone living here.
It was just his mind playing tricks on him. Right. Yeah. Those stories were juvenile. Jason was too old to actually believe those.
Taking a step backwards back to where he’d entered, Jason heard it again.
Shoot, what if it was some crazy old guy with a gun? Fuck, he couldn’t die like this. Getting flowers for freaking Drew Tanaka of all people?
He heard it again. And again, four times, five times, eight- twelve-
“Hello?” Jason called out.
“H-Hey man I don’t want any trouble I-I just wanted to grab some flowers for my…” He paused. “Er… girlfriend.”
He slapped himself in the face. All of this was stupid. He should just go back before it was dark.
Come on Jason just move-
He heard a laugh.
Wait- a fucking laugh?
“Uh- come on, guys this isn’t funny. Pastor Chris’s gonna be pissed if you’re all doing this just to mess around with me.” Jason mumbled.
The laugh continued, only Jason realized, it was from in front or behind him, it came from above.
Peering into the canopy of one of the oak trees, a lanky teenage boy who looked to be about the same age as Jason sat on a thick branch, swinging his legs back and forth.
With the sunset orange colors just peeking over the horizon, it illuminated the boy up from behind, emphasizing the warm chocolatey brown color of his untamed curls, and revealing his warm sun-kissed brown skin.
He looked slightly beaten up, with small scrapes and bruises all over his legs. The type of thing you’d see from a wild kid who just came back from playing in the woods.
His whole energy radiated carefree, reckless, fun-loving teenager. Jason was almost jealous.
He was incredibly relieved he wasn't being chased down by some old guy with a gun,
“Jeez, man. Don’t you know how to read? There's like, a million posters warning you not to come over here.” The boy spoke.
Jason suddenly seemed embarrassed. “Oh- yeah sorry I just had to um, grab some stuff…”
The boy didn’t seem convinced.
He leaped down from the branch, landing perfectly on his feet, making Jason wonder how’d he even gotten up there in the first place.
“Huh, you’re like, one of those guys from that Christian camp, right?” He leaned right into Jason’s face, allowing him to see his dark warm brown eyes perfectly.
“Uh- yeah… sorry about the uhm- property… thing…” Jason trailed off.
The boy rolled his eyes and snorted playfully. “It’s fine, you don’t seem as stuck up as those other guys, so maybe you can be the exception.” He took a few steps back, and offered his hand in a friendly handshake. “Leo Valdez.”
Leo Valdez. The words rang through Jason’s head.
Jason took Leo’s hand carefully, shaking it like he was worried Leo would spread the plague to him.
“Uh, Jason.” He replied.
“Okay, ‘Uh, Jason.’ Holy shit, man, you mumble a lot.” Leo joked.
It was odd, how someone so carefree and loose could be so close to everyone who was kept in boxes.
Jason blinked. “So you’re the weird forest guy everyone’s talking about?”
Leo’s face fell. “What? No, I’m terrified of that guy!”
Jason believed it for a second before he realized Leo was teasing him.
Leo started laughing when the moment of realization hit Jason’s face.
“Aw, man! I never got to do that before! This is awesome.” Leo raced to the oak tree he was on before, climbing it in record time and hanging upside-down by his legs.
“But yeah, dude. I’m the weird forest critter you guys have all been talking about. It’s fun, honestly. I almost made a guy piss his pants once! It was so funny.”
Jason watched him lightly dangle back and forth from the momentum, thinking of his next move.
It was only when Leo started talking again had Jason realized he’d been silent for a good minute.
“Who’re the flowers for?” Leo swung himself back up onto the branch, comfortable sitting on it.
Jason wanted to groan and complain. He really didn’t wanna think about Drew right now. Especially when someone much more interesting was sitting right in front of him.
“Oh- uh, I guess she’s my girlfriend now? I don’t know, my mother just asked me to grab a gift for her.” Jason replied, gesturing to the handful of flowers he carried.
Leo wasn’t impressed, his face scrunched up in this weird wrinkly cute way.
“You guess? Doesn’t really sound like you like her very much.” Leo mentioned.
Jason looked away, suddenly interested in peeling the many petals off of a little white flower he’d plucked.
“Er… yeah. She just kind of asked me out and I thought, ‘I might as well,’ since my parents have been trying to set me up with her for years.” He fiddled with the flower’s gentle stem in between his fingers. “I just figured I’d break up with her soon and it wouldn’t be a huge deal.”
Leo made this odd face, like Jason smelled horrible and the scent had just hit him.
Normally, Jason wouldn’t rant to random strangers about his problems. But something about Leo’s whole…personality was so warm and welcoming. He didn’t seem to be afraid to show his displeasure in things, like his reaction when Jason spoke about his situation.
“I uh, I sort of hate her, actually.” He mumbled (Fuck, why do I keep mumbling?).
“So… break up with her?”
Leo said it as if it was the simplest answer in the world. Honestly, it kind of was. If only it weren't for the punishments Jason would receive, he wouldn’t have even accepted Drew’s confession in the first place.
Leo snorted. “Well, actually, she’s probably gonna break up with you if you give her those shitty flowers.” He elaborated before Jason could say something again.
“Wha- what’s wrong with my flowers?” Jason muttered, like a child.
Leo jumped down from his tree, running back over to Jason, and pulling his hand towards himself.
He pried Jason’s dirtied fingers open, inspecting the contents of his hand.
“...Yeah, these suck. You seriously couldn’t have picked better ones?”
“What— I thought these were good! Girls like flowers, right? These are flowers.”
Leo nearly laughed in his face. “Fuck no! First of all, not every girl likes flowers. My sister Piper would be so pissed if someone got her a gift like this. And second, you literally could not have picked worse ones.”
He pulled some flowers out of Jason’s hands.
“These are so common, you can basically find them anywhere, anytime of year. Your shitty ‘girlfriend’ would probably want something more unique.”
“I-”
“And,” Leo interrupted, “These ones are super sensitive. Give them a day and they’ll all rot and die.”
Jason kept quiet.
The muddy teen ran over to the center of the clearing, quickly grabbing some more flowers and raced back over to Jason.
“These are the ones you want to look for, violets and bellflowers. They’re not the best, but probably better than whatever you have.” He offered them to Jason, who gently took them in his hands.
Leo was right, they were better than what Jason had already gathered.
The violets Leo had picked in just a few seconds had perfectly rounded petals, in a beautiful shade of pale purply-indigo.
And the bellflowers were even better. The petals somehow held this perfect structure of bell, their obvious namesake. They all hung gracefully from a thick green stem. They were perfect.
Jason was flustered.
“Oh– Yeah, I uhm, these, er— What I meant was… I-” Jason stuttered for what felt like the millionth time that day.
“...Thank you.” He finally got out.
Leo smiled warmly at him. “No biggie, you might wanna go soon though.” He gestured to the sky, which seemed to be nearly fully orange.
Fuck, shit. Jason was supposed to meet Drew for dinner tonight. He was so fucked.
His eyes widened. “Fuck, I’m so sorry dude, I-I gotta run.”
Jason started to run back to the woods when he heard Leo call out from behind him.
“Come visit me again sometime!”
I will. He wanted to say, but he kept running. By the time he’d changed his mind and wanted to reply, he was too far.
Leo was so, so different from anyone he knew. He didn’t seem awkward, or nervous. A large contrast to how Jason had acted when they met.
He felt so… real.
Leo wasn’t afraid to be upset or disgusted, or was scared to get dirty and show his flaws. Throughout the entire they’d spoken, Leo had been fidgeting with one thing or another. His hair, his clothes, his fingers, anything. If Jason had dared to do that in front of his parents he would have been accused of being disinterested and would be sent to his room.
The fact Leo so nonchalantly did all the things Jason was too afraid to do was… almost fascinating.
When Jason had reached the camp, dinner had already begun, and Drew was sat at a table alone, talking to Jason’s parents.
Fuck, Jason was dead.
“Hey, hey, what’s uh– going on here?” He caught up to them, breathing heavily as he attempted to catch his breath.
Drew looked infuriated.
“How– How dare you! You show up late to your date and you’re not even ready! Your clothes are covered in dirt, and– and your hair looks awful!” She growled.
“Drew, I’m sorry I was uhm…” He gazed down at the flowers in his hand.
On his run back to the picnic tables outside the mess hall, Jason had ditched the other flowers, keeping the ones Leo had grabbed for him instead.
Unfortunately, the stems had slightly been crushed as he’d ran there.
“I got you these, sorry they’re kind of uhm… messed up.” Jason felt his mother slightly slap his back as he set the flowers on the table.
For a second, Drew seemed disgusted, before her face lightened as she picked up the flowers.
“Oh… Jason.” She muttered under her breath. “This is… kind of gross, but thoughtful, thank you.”
It was weird, Jason had assumed Drew as incapable of saying anything nice, but here she was. Everything today was just really weird.
“...Although purple isn’t my favorite color. Something more like pink or gold would’ve done nicely, but I’ll accept it for you.”
There it was.
Jason masked his annoyance behind a gentle smile, and instead sat across from Drew at the table.
Drew just talked for the rest of the evening. Jason didn’t process any of the words she said. Every time she spoke, it went in through one ear and out the other.
Occasionally, he’d respond with a ‘Yeah,’ or ‘Totally!’
He just hoped he’d spoken correctly. Otherwise Drew’d have his head on a spike by morning.
Fuck, Drew could just talk, and talk, and talk. It fucking hurt just to hear her speak.
The whole time, Jason was just waiting for her to shut up.
…He couldn’t stop thinking.
About the ‘Forest Creature.’
His warm curls,
His genuine smile,
He felt like…
…Like the only real person here.
Nothing like Drew, the makeup addict who stomped on anyone she thought were ‘Uglier’ than her.
Nothing like the stoic Reyna, while Jason’s friend, never seemed to open up to him about anything, forcing up an emotional shield whenever someone spoke to her.
And nothing like…
Percy.
Jason didn’t want to think about him right now.
It felt like hours before curfew hit, and they all had to return to their cabins.
Jason said goodnight to everyone, even him, and turned to his bunk to sleep. He was lucky enough to have a cabin with a private room, the only other people staying there were his parents.
Before Jason changed his clothes, before he switched off his lights, before he got into bed,
He looked to the woods one more time.
It felt surreal, knowing there was a boy his age in there sleeping, maybe even in that crappy cottage everyone had been talking about.
He wished he could’ve given Leo a goodnight too.
Jason knew this feeling. He knew the feeling of having someone constantly in his mind, running his thoughts.
He didn’t want to believe it, he didn’t want to go through it again.
Even after years, Jason was sinning, again, for the second time, when he should’ve known better.
He wanted it to stop, for it to go away, somehow.
But he knew he couldn’t, Percy taught him that.
Liking Leo like that was a sin.
Jason believed it to be true.