Chapter Text
Percy can’t breathe, there is fire scorching his throat and he can’t breathe. He knows coming here was stupid, was impulsive, and irrational. His ex-girlfriend would have told him he was an idiot. Would have shouted at him for being so rash. But he knows what his boyfriend would do. What his boyfriend will do.
Because Jason Grace revels in the power, in the control. And he had followed Percy into hell more times than they can count. Percy knows he has followed him here.
“Father! Enough!” The Son of Jupiter bellows.
“He is corrupting you!” Zeus seethes, twisting his fingers into Percy’s throat, letting him feel the lightning pulsing against his skin.
“He is not.” Jason’s voice is low, ethereal, dangerous. “He has only helped me realize my potential.”
“You are SICK because of him.”
“I am sick, because of you!” The blonde is stone, “And you are hurting him because you feel guilty.”
“When did you get your degree in psychology?” The God spits, blue eyes a perfect mirror to Jason’s, blazing with anger.
“I don’t need a degree to understand guilt. When you are the child of a God guilt is part of the package.”
Percy chokes, swallowing electricity and emotion.
“Let him go Father. This fight is not with him.”
Zeus looks like he’s going to argue, like he’ll kill Percy for the fun of it anyway. But Jason’s eyes narrow, pin on his father and the God releases him.
He takes gulps of air, trying not to claw at his throat, at the inferno racing down it.
“You will end this madness Father. Destroying our home?” He can hear the pain in his boyfriend’s voice.
“I will buy you a new one, what is the big deal?”
“The deal,” Percy growls, “Is that you think you can do whatever you want with us because we are your children. But we have our own lives and you do not get to take and give as you see fit.”
“I have blasted mortals for less insolence than this, nephew.”
“You do not scare me, Uncle,” He snarls “And your ego is what got you, us, into this mess in the first place.”
“Enough.” Jason holds his hand up, “I do not have long. And I’d prefer if I didn’t spend the rest of my days stepping between my father and my boyfriend.”
“Yea well maybe if you father hadn’t decided to send Apollo on a plague adventure in the middle of our fucking quest we would all be fine.”
The God glares at him, “How was I supposed to know you would be there?”
“If you cared about us, about Jase, as much as you claim you would have known.”
“SHUT UP!” The blonde screams, “Both of you. I’m going home—” His voice cracks, “I’m going somewhere, and when you guys are done fighting you can call me.”
Before anyone could say anything else Jason is flying into the air and disappearing.
Percy collapses onto the floor, puts his head in his hands and stifles the sob threatening to upend his whole demeanor.
“What am I gonna do?” His soul is cracking, “I can’t lose him. I can’t do this again.”
“I didn’t know.” Zeus mutters stiffly, “I didn’t know you guys were there.”
“It doesn’t matter now anyway,” Percy sniffles, “I just need to spend time with him. Promise me Uncle,” He looks at the God.
The King nods, motioning for him to continue.
“Promise me he will go to Elysium. He has suffered enough.”
“He will go, I will make sure of it.”
So Percy Jackson gets up from the cold marble floor of Olympus, stares at the God of the Sky, and then takes himself home. His home.
“Jase?”
“How did you find me?”
“I’m offended you’re asking.”
“I thought it’d throw you off my scent if I changed spots.”
And then Percy is through the trees and into the small clearing at the top of the hill. The sun is starting to creep below the ocean and the sky is ablaze with colour. Even the city seems alive as the lights twinkle and flicker.
“I can always find my way home.” He mutters softly, sitting behind his boyfriend and wrapping his arms around his torso.
Jason leans his head back so it’s resting on Percy’s shoulder.
“I don’t want to die Pers.”
He has to stop himself from screaming, from breaking down right there, “I don’t want you to die either.”
“I just keep thinking about what life would have been like,” The blonde whispers, “If we had gotten all the years we were promised.”
“Would you want children?” He asks softly, fingers caressing ribs distractedly.
They had never talked about it before, thinking they had time to live first. Life has a funny way of morphing itself into anything but what you imagine.
Jason shrugs, “Maybe. I was always more interested in trying to stay alive I never really got the opportunity to consider it.”
“I don’t think I did.” He mumbles into his boyfriend’s shoulder, kissing the soft fabric of his shirt.
“Just seems like a big responsibility for people who haven’t quite figured out how to take care of themselves huh?”
They giggle, the same memory of cake batter splatters and flour handprints on their back pockets flash in their minds.
“Is there anything I can do, while you’re here? Anything you want?” Percy asks after a moment of content silence.
“Just be with me. No fighting, or blaming. I just want you to hold me, tell me you love me, enjoy this time.”
“I do love you Jase, I love you so much it’s hard to think. It’s hard to breathe.” He chokes on a sob.
“Oh my love, we will meet again. In another lifetime, another place. We will find our way back to each other.”
“Do you remember the summer Annabeth broke up with me?” He hugs his boyfriend tighter, eyes blurring the darkening city.
“I do, we spent ninety percent of our time in the training room. Gods, it wasn’t till the next year that we stopped doing any actual training in there.”
Percy laughs, “We really shouldn’t have done half the things we did in that room. I’m sure if anyone knew they’d be scarred for life.”
“Why do you ask?”
“I think that was the summer I learnt how to live.”
“When we did nothing but train?”
“Where I got to spend time with someone who understands my darkness. It was easier,” He swallows, “Easier to handle the day when I knew there was someone who understood what was going on.”
“The summer Annabeth came back,” The blonde murmurs, “That’s the summer I found home.”
“Where is that?” He asks, but he already knows the answer.
“Right here, in your arms, by your side.”
Percy Jackson kisses his boyfriend’s cheek and prays to Gods who won’t listen, that his Jase never leaves home without him.