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It was probably during their final battle with Gaea that Nico first thought about how refreshing and not-so-suckish it was to have Jason constantly at his side. Well not constantly, but frequently enough for Nico to notice that Jason was definitely keeping an eye on him. At first it had been really annoying and he kept telling Jason how unnecessary and annoying it was but for some reason Jason pressed on.
Nico was thankful for that later when Jason had saved his life during the battle with Gaea.
He had plans to leave shortly after everything was settled between the two camps. He had everything planned out and he was ready to go. He had things to do, in both the Underworld and above ground. He had even said his goodbyes to Hazel (after promising he’d visit her of course) and was walking away from Camp Half-Blood, a bag of essentials slung on his back that Hazel had hastily made for him when he had told her he was leaving.
He was probably seconds away from disappearing into a shadow and transporting himself to Hong Kong, his first stop, when a familiar voice called out and stopped him.
“Hey Nico.” Nico quickly whipped around to see Jason standing there, his hands on his hips and a slight grin on his face. “Going somewhere?”
“Yeah,” Nico said. “Away.”
“Well that’s great. We can go together,” Jason said, walking closer to where Nico stood and dug his hands into his pocket. “Where are we headed?”
Nico looked the son of Jupiter up and down, astonished. “I told you before, I’m going alone.”
“Alone with me you mean?” Jason asked with a smile that flashed some damn good teeth.
“Listen,” Nico said with a sigh, turning to completely face Jason and dropping his bag on the ground by his feet. “I don’t care about your desire to do what you think is right because it’s what people expect of you. I’m not going anywhere with you and have to deal with all your pity and your honest lack of caring. I can do fine by myself.”
Jason raised his eyebrows at him, surprised, but it quickly turned into a smile as Jason jutted a hip out and looked at Nico curiously. “The last people expect of me is to go running off with you.”
Nico was taken aback by the statement and began to blush a little. The stupid blonde could’ve worded that a little better.
“Whatever,” Nico mumbled, bending down to pick up the bag and sling it back over his shoulder. “I’m leaving. Without you.”
“If you disappear I’m just going to track you down,” Jason said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Don’t you have a girlfriend you can be bothering right now?” Nico practically barked, his eyes narrowing at him.
Jason shook his head. “No we broke up. I’m a free man now.”
Nico could feel the heat rise up in his cheeks again. Seriously, this guy needed to word his sentences better.
“Whatever Grace,” Nico said, walking back towards the shadow that he had been heading to earlier. As his foot entered the shadow, he turned back and looked at Jason.
Jason watched him with determined eyes, his body poised to move at any moment, and his jaw tightly clenched. This idiot Roman was standing there, trying to get Nico’s attention. For some stupid, obsessive reason Jason wanted to get close to him.
“Get your ass to Hong Kong in three days,” Nico said before shadow travelling away.
XXX
Weeks later, Nico was thinking again about how it wasn’t totally horrible that Jason was so protective of him. Sure, it was annoying at times but (not that he’d say this out loud or anything) it made him start to feel better. About himself. About his situation. Percy. Not to mention the fact that having someone having your back when they fought monsters was always a good thing.
Probably the only bad thing about the whole “spending time with Jason” thing was that Nico had developed a crush on Jason.
Way to go, Nico.
It was painfully obvious how Jason viewed Nico as a little brother and not a potential partner. Nico was just someone he could protect. Jason wouldn’t be getting anything out of a relationship with Nico. So, once again, Nico had fallen for someone unattainable.
“Nico?”
The sound of Jason’s voice echoing through the cave,\ jolted Nico away from his thoughts of Jason to pay attention to… well Jason.
This boy was slowly becoming over half of Nico’s life.
“Can we not come back to Maine for a while?” Jason asked with a groan. He was seated next to a small fire, the glow illuminating Jason’s features that Nico was trying hard not to stare at him too long. He was so not allowed to look hotter yet here he was, dirt and a little bit of dried blood on his body and torn up clothes, leaning back on his hands and looking hotter than ever.
“Not a fan?” Nico asked, picking up one of the sticks from the pile next to him and throwing it into the fire.
“Well I don’t really have any care for Maine. But it’s you I’m worried about,” he said. His blonde hair was falling into his eyes and he quickly raised his hand to get them out of his face.
“What do you mean?” Nico asked, frowning at Jason.
“Nico,” Jason sighed. “You’ve been on edge ever since we came here. If you don’t want to tell me what happened here, that’s fine, but I don’t want to come back if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Nico sighed and looked away from Jason. Maine was where Bianca and he had gone to school together. Maine was the last place he and Bianca were happy together. It was also where Bianca had chosen to leave him for the Hunters.
He had mixed feelings about Maine.
“Don’t read too much into it,” Nico said, lying down on the floor of the cave. “Nothing I can’t deal with but if it makes you feel better we won’t come back unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Nico closed his eyes to let Jason know that he was done with this conversation.
He was expecting Jason to just drop it and leave it at that. He’d been surprisingly good at that these past few weeks.
What he hadn’t expected was to hear the sound of Jason moving closer to him. He was tempted to keep his eyes shut and just ignore him but curiousity got the better of him and he opened his eyes. Looking up, Nico could see Jason’s face hovering over his, his eyes staring at Nico intensely.
“How come you still refuse to let me in?” Jason asked, his voice low with a hint of disappointment. Nico could feel his face absolutely flaring up with heat. Jason talking to him in a low voice, his face hovering over his own with a completely unreadable yet obviously intense look in his eyes was making him blush beyond belief.
He had never blushed that hard when it came to Percy.
Then again, Percy never looked at him like this.
“I…uh…” Nico stuttered, looking away from Jason’s face. “Like I said, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“I think it is,” Jason replied, still talking in his low voice.
They sat in silence for several agonizing seconds and Nico was about to burst. Jason was still looking down on him and yet Nico still couldn’t fight his embarrassment to look up at him. Why did Jason have to get so close?
“Can I kiss you?”
Nico quickly turned his head to look back at Jason, his eyes widening painfully large and his mouth slightly dropping open.
“What did you just say?” he nearly screamed, bewildered out of his mind.
“I like you a lot Nico,” Jason continued rather than repeating what he said. “And I just… I really want to kiss you. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to… tell you.”
Nico sat up slowly, his eyes never leaving Jason’s and his face still contorted in shock. Jason wanted to kiss him? Him? Dorky, skinny, child of Hades? What?
“I just don’t want you to think that I like you only because you liked Percy and it was all out of pity. Because what I feel for you is real and it’s stupid but it’s real and you’ve just been driving me crazy with the way you look at me and-“
“Yes,” Nico quickly said, cutting him off.
Jason blinked rapidly, looking a little confused. “What?”
“I said yes, you idiot.”
Jason looked at him confused for a moment before a blush quickly overtook his face and he smiled.
“Well good then,” Jason said, before leaning forward and capturing Nico’s lips with his own.
XXX
Yeah. Jason sticking around didn’t suck all that much.
Even after years of Jason constantly being around, Nico had found quite a few reasons to enjoy it.