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“Valdez!”
Jason very nearly groaned at Nico’s growl. Nico and Leo had been at each other’s throats far more than usual recently, but this really was not the time to be fighting with each other, not right after they’d spent forever fighting a huge tentacle monster of some sort. What they needed now was to get the ship sailing, which Leo couldn’t do with a pissed off son of Hades on his ass.
“Nico,” Jason tried to interject, but Nico ignored him.
“What the fuck were you thinking back there?” he demanded, storming over to Leo and getting right up in his face. “Were you trying to get yourself killed? Because trust me, Tartarus? Not that fun!”
Leo’s face pinched and darkened in a way Jason had never seen before, like he was too furious for his usual humour. “Well, it can’t be that bad,” he drawled with an ugly, twisted smile, “if you’re so eager to get back there.”
“Guys,” Percy tried, but both boys shot him a look so poisonous it shut him up immediately. Turning back to Leo, Nico hissed, “Better me than you, I could at least survive it again. You wouldn’t last a day–”
Leo stuck an accusatory finger in Nico’s chest. “Hey, puta, who came in a big badass warship to save your sorry ass?”
Nico smacked the finger away, sneering at Leo, “You think you’re so tough, huh? You got a death wish, is that it?”
Leo laughed a humourless laugh, glaring at Nico with an intensity Jason had never seen from him before. “I’m not the one with a death wish, you are,” he snarled. “Why the fuck would you dive in front of me like that–”
Nico made a noise of frustration and threw his hands up in the air. “Cazzo, Leo, that’s the only reason you’re still standing in front of me–”
Leo nearly roared, “My life isn’t worth yours, pendejo!”
Nico made a tiny, distressed noise in the back of his throat, like Leo’s words had caused him physical pain, and started towards Leo. Jason tensed, ready to break up a fight– but Nico simply gripped Leo’s shoulders, so tightly his knuckles were turning white.
“Don’t say that,” he snarled, voice low and dangerous. “Don’t you ever fucking say that.”
There was a tense silence on deck. Piper was glancing between them nervously; Frank and Percy seemed just as prepared as Jason was for a fight. Hazel fiddled with a lock of her hair, biting her lip. Annabeth watched with a frown on her face.
“I–” Leo’s voice brought Jason’s attention right back on them. His voice shook, like he was having difficulty expressing himself. Jason struggled to connect that statement to Leo Valdez, who usually had difficulty not expressing himself.
“I’m glad… you’re not dead,” Leo said finally, meeting Nico’s eyes.
The onlookers sighed with relief.
“Yeah,” Nico agreed softly, voice full of concern. “Me too.”
An electric moment passed between them. Jason prayed to every god he knew that they would hug and become best friends. Or just that they wouldn’t punch the lights out of each other. That would be good enough.
Instead, Nico grabbed Leo by the face the same moment Leo put his arms around Nico’s waist and suddenly they were kissing.
Jason felt a little faint. Gods, he thought, that prayer worked a little too well.
“Damn,” said Percy after a moment or two, sounding just as shocked as Jason felt. “They’re, uh, really going at it, huh?”
Going at it they were. Nico’s thumbs brushed over Leo’s cheeks; their mouths started moving against one another’s and Leo’s grip on Nico’s waist tightened. Nico must have done something interesting with his tongue, because Leo’s hair suddenly caught fire. Frank yelped and backed away, looking absolutely terrified. Jason couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t every day a guy randomly burst into flame while kissing his– uh, boyfriend? Was that what they were now?
“Put it out,” Nico murmured against Leo’s lips, “or I am never kissing you again.”
Leo casually patted the fire out with one hand, and kissed Nico again, looking happier than Jason had ever seen him.
“C’mon, admit it,” he said, grinning, when they pulled away. “The fire made me, like, five times hotter.”
Nico scoffed, but, miraculously, he was smiling softly. “That implies you were hot before,” he retorted. His fingers toyed with the little curls at the nape of Leo’s neck almost absently.
“You know it, babe; why else would you want a piece of this?” Leo waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Nico rolled his eyes fondly. “Shut up,” he told Leo, and pulled him into a kiss.
Leo made a noise of protest. When they broke apart, he complained, “You can’t just do that every time you’re about to lose an arg–”
Nico kissed him a little more insistently. Jason averted his eyes; he felt like an intruder. Piper, at his side, apparently had no such qualms; she stared at them, eyes wide, as if she were immobilised by shock.
“On second thought,” Leo’s voice sounded dazed, and rougher than usual, “you can do that whenever you want, babe.”
Nico laughed, a small, shy, joyful sound that made Jason feel warm inside. He realized suddenly that he’d never heard Nico laugh before, and Jason couldn’t help feeling happy for the kid.
“Don’t call me babe,” Nico said, the smile evident in his voice even as he buried his face in Leo’s shoulder. He whispered something in Leo’s ear; the Latino boy went red right to the tips of his elf-like ears and looked around at their audience as if noticing their presence for the first time.
“Um,” he said awkwardly. “Hi.”
Annabeth sighed. “You couldn’t have waited a week to have your big confession?” she asked dryly, totally unaffected by the display of public affection before her.
Wait, what?
“Wait, what?” Percy voiced Jason’s thoughts, giving Annabeth a confused look. “You knew about them?”
“Please, it was obvious,” said Piper, eyes twinkling as she winked at Jason like, duh, didn’t you notice? “Annabeth, the drachmas please.”
Sighing, Annabeth fished a weighty bag of coins out of her pocket and tossed it at Piper, who caught it easily. Percy and Jason exchanged bewildered glances. Frank seemed more relieved than anything, but Hazel couldn’t stop staring at Leo and Nico, looking shocked.
“You bet on us?” Leo asked, a note of horror in his tone. Nico was still hiding his face from the rest of the world, but Jason could see his usually deathly pale ear burning bright red.
“Thanks, guys,” chirped Piper, not ashamed at all as she counted her winnings. “You just made me twenty drachmas.”
“Do we get a cut?” Leo, being Leo, had to ask.
“Are we all just going to ignore the fact that our ship is in no way fit to sail right now and stand around discussing our friends’ love lives?” Frank blurted out, glancing at Hazel. She still seemed shocked, watching Leo and Nico like she couldn’t believe what was happening. With a jolt, Jason remembered she was from the 1940s– how did she feel about her brother admitting to liking guys?
“Well, we’re going to need to separate those two before we can get anything fixed,” said Annabeth, hands on her hips, “but it doesn’t look like they’ll be letting go any time soon.”
“Nope,” Leo agreed cheerfully. “The Argo II’s not going to sink, and we’ve had a long day. I say we turn on the cloaking and the sonar, and go to bed.”
“Yeah man, get some,” Percy hooted with a lecherous wink. “Betcha Nico’s a beast in the sack. It’s always the quiet ones.” Nico’s choke of embarrassment was clearly heard even though it was muffled in Leo’s shirt. His grip tightened around Leo, and his ear went an even darker red, if that was even possible. Jason could feel the embarrassment rolling off of him in waves.
“Thank you, Percy,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. “Leo’s right. We’re all wiped from that battle. Festus will wake us if we run into trouble; let’s get some rest while we can.”
“Awesome,” said Percy with a spirited fist pump and a lopsided grin at his girlfriend. She rolled her eyes, but took his hand fondly as they disappeared below deck. Hazel told Frank to go on without her; with one last, worried glance, he complied. Hazel herself remained standing a ways away from the tangle of limbs that was Leo and Nico; while Nico had finally dared to pull his face out of Leo’s shoulder, the two were almost in a world of their own, whispering to each other and occasionally cracking up. Their faces were bright and warm and so happy– Jason wondered how anyone in the world –past, present, or future– could possibly think it wrong.
“Coming?” Piper’s voice broke him out of his thoughts, standing in front of the stairs leading to their quarters.
“Yeah,” Jason said, and went to join her.
“He’s still your brother,” he reminded Hazel softly as he passed, laying one comforting hand on her shoulder. She hesitated, then nodded, and Jason gave her shoulder a little pat before pulling away to join Piper.
“Nico,” Hazel started, hesitantly. The giddy giggling behind Jason stopped, and a certain tension found its way into the atmosphere. Jason didn’t pry; he simply took Piper’s hand in his own. She squeezed it comfortingly, and warmth filled his chest. Everything would be alright.
As they walked down the stairs, he heard Hazel say, distantly, over the sound of the waves and the ocean breeze, “I’m proud of you.”