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It was on the second day of quarantine that Percy realized he couldn’t do quarantine.
“I am going to go crazy indoors,” he said to Jason, frantically snapping Tupperware boxes shut. “I haven’t seen the sun in twenty-four hours and I can feel my skin screaming for it.”
“I’m not sure that’s how the biology works,” Jason said, munching on a breadstick. He was perched on a stool next to the kitchen island, watching Percy from above his glasses, completely uncaring of his plight. “What’s with all the food, by the way?” he asked, pointing the breadstick around the kitchen.
“I’m stress-cooking,” Percy said, darting over to the stove and stirring a spoon through his pot of stew. “I need to do something or I’m going to crazy.”
Jason had the audacity to roll his eyes. “You quarantine complainers are so dramatic. I’ve been on lockdown for the past week and I’m completely fine.”
“Yeah, because you have your dumb book to focus on. I don’t have any projects.”
“Well, you could start one.”
Percy snorted. “Oh, sure. And what could I, a dyslexic twenty-three-year-old with ADHD, do inside a single apartment that would take up enough of my focus to distract me for the whole day for the rest of the foreseeable future?”
“Read some books, learn to draw or paint or sew. Cook or bake, although I see you already have that under control. Work out. Clean?”
Percy threw him a withering stare. “Nice try.”
“I have no problem cleaning!” Jason protested, but his laugh was very suspicious. “I’m just saying, give yourself a list of things you’ve always wanted to do but never have the time to, and do them. Like, for example!” he threw up his hands. “Remember the guitar Paul gave you for your birthday? And you said you’d learn to play.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to learn first, so you have dibs on the guitar until like next year?”
“I graciously withdraw my dibs.”
“Wow, thanks so much.”
“Just saying,” Jason shrugged. “You just need one project and then you won’t feel so bad because then your time will be spent productively.”
“It is spent productively.”
“Percy, cooking our dinner for the next whole week counts as obsessive, not productive.” He got up from his stool, finally, and gently led Percy to the couch. Percy thought the hand at the small of his back was a bit unnecessary.
“Wait, I’m going to burn my stew!” Percy raced back to the stove and turned it off.
Jason followed him and sniffed at the pot. His eyes lit up. “Is that your mom’s beef stew?”
“She gave me the recipe,” Percy said, stirring slowly. “She said you have to cook it with care or it won’t taste the same.”
“Mm-hmm. I’m sure it can wait.” Jason took his elbow again. “Come on, Percy, let’s take a break.”
He pushed Percy towards the couch and tried to undo the Percy’s apron as he walked. “Damn it,” he muttered, “What the heck kind of knots are these?”
“Fisherman knot,” Percy said, reaching back to help Jason but only encountering his hands.
“You can do that behind your back?” Jason asked, sounding awed.
“Sometimes, on autopilot. I can’t do it if I focus too much for some reason. Stop that!” He slapped at Jason’s hands tugging the apron hard into his stomach and pulled the knot free.
“There,” Jason said, gently pulled the apron off Percy’s head like he had helped untie it at all. Percy watched him, lips twitching, as he folded the apron and set it aside.
“Sit down,” Jason said, “Put your feet up.”
Percy obeyed. “Thanks for giving me permission in my own house.”
“Now let’s make a list.” Jason pulled out a notebook and a pen. Percy didn’t even want to know where he was hiding those. “What you want to accomplish while in quarantine.”
Percy glared at him. “Nothing. I want out.”
“The whole world wants out, Jackson. That’s not an option.”
Percy folded his arms. “Then I just want to sleep.”
“You can do that, but you’ll feel a lot better when you do something.” Jason drew his legs onto the couch and sat cross-legged, facing Percy. “Well?”
Percy narrowed his eyes. An idea had occurred to him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Jason prompted.
“I want,” Percy said, gaze unwavering, “a boyfriend.”
Jason’s indulgent expression dissolved and his face flooded red. The pen dropped out of his hand. Percy wanted to yell in triumph.
“You want,” Jason stammered, grabbing for the pen, “You want a boyfriend?”
“Yup.”
“During quarantine?”
“You got it.”
“Where –“ Jason frowned in frustration. “Where are you going to get a boyfriend when you’re locked up at home?”
Percy shrugged, trying not to smile too smugly. “Not like I don’t have options at home.”
Jason looked like a freshly-painted fire truck. Percy knew, from experience, that he could blush even brighter. “What – You –“ Jason burst into nervous laughter. “You’re messing with me. Come on, Percy, what do you want on your list?”
“I’m not messing with you! That’s really what I want.” Percy pointed at the notepad. “Write that. Number one: a boyfriend.”
Jason’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “You – How is that going to happen?”
Percy just smiled. “I already told you how it’s going to happen.”
Jason stared at him. Percy wasn’t going to lie, maintaining eye contact was difficult. Just as the heat started creeping up his neck, Jason ducked his head.
“B-O-Y,” Percy said, examining his nails, “F-R...” he frowned into the distance. “E – no, wait, I –“
“I got it,” Jason said, sending Percy a weak glare. “Let’s move on, what else?”
“Wait a second, don’t you want to know what kind of boyfriend I want?”
Jason was slowly reaching peak redness. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“Of course it is.” Percy threw his hands into the air dramatically. “There are billions of guys in the world. I have to narrow down my search, don’t I?”
“Percy,” Jason said stiffly, “You are in quarantine. There are not billions of guys in the world for you right now.”
“That’s okay,” Percy smiled at him from beneath his eyelashes. “I only need the one.”
Jason looked like he had stopped breathing. Percy had to look away or he would too.
“I’m not asking for much,” he said, counting them off on his fingers, “Blonde, blue eyes, six foot one, facial scar definitely necessary, hair kind of close-cropped on the sides but longer at the top, real strong jaw, nice full lips, practically nonexistent eyelashes –“
Jason slammed a hand down on his notebook, making Percy jump. “Okay,” he said, looking Percy in the eyes. “What are you doing?”
Percy raised his eyebrows. “I’m just describing my dream boyfriend –“
“Okay, I get it,” Jason held up his hands, one of them ink-stained. “It’s me, I get it, it’s me. Why?”
That was much faster than Percy had been expecting. He’d thought they’d dance around this for weeks on end. He sat up. “You think you can flirt with me whenever you want, and I’m not going to do it back to you?” he challenged. “Please, Jason.”
Jason blinked. “I – flirt? What do you mean?”
Percy scoffed. “You know what I mean.”
Jason just kept staring at him.
“Everything you’ve been doing since we moved in together!” Percy waved his arms around. “All the touching and complimenting and walking around shirtless?” Percy laughed incredulously. “Come on, dude, you could try to tone it down a little.”
A small frown was appearing between Jason’s eyebrows, and with it grew a sense of dread in Percy’s chest. “Percy, I…” Jason hesitated. “I thought I was just being nice. I wasn’t trying to…” he trailed off, looking at Percy like he had never seen him before.
Percy swallowed. “You – you’re saying...?”
“I would never –“ Jason shook his head. “If I liked someone, I would never just constantly come on to them like that, especially not when they’re my roommate and can’t escape me. I would...” he bit his lip. “I’d be a lot more subtle about it than that.”
Percy let his words sink in. Then: the mortifying feeling of having revealed himself, and on the heels of it, a rush of heat flooding his face.
He jumped up, almost tripping over the coffee table. Jason looked startled. “Percy, wait –“
“Gotta go,” Percy croaked, and made a run for it back to his room.
He was on lockdown.
~*~
Of course, he eventually had to eat.
He shuffled out of his room, trying to make as little noise as possible as he headed for the kitchen. He supposed he should be glad for his stress-cooking earlier, because now he could just grab some Tupperware and eat cold lasagna for lunch.
The kitchen had been cleaned up and Percy’s stew poured in a bowl and set aside in the fridge. Percy sighed when he saw it. It was ruined. He was never going to recover it now.
He grabbed the first container he saw and started to creep back to his room when the door to Jason’s room opened.
There he stood without his glasses in a stained T-shirt and basketball shorts, holding a dirty plate, with a smudge of hot sauce by his lip. He looked perfect.
“Percy,” Jason said, surprised. He wiped at the sauce.
“I’m just…” Percy pointed pathetically back to his room.
Jason glanced at Percy’s door. “You can go back in if you want but, if you don’t mind,” his eyes softened, “I think we need to clear up some things.”
He started walking towards Percy and Percy’s heart jumped to his throat, but Jason just walked by him and put his dirty dishes in the sink. “Do you want me to heat that up for you?” he asked Percy.
“I’m fine. I like it cold.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “No, you don’t.” He took the box from Percy, his fingers warm where they touched Percy’s, and started emptying the lasagna onto a plate. “Milk?” he asked as he popped the lasagna into the microwave.
Percy played with the strings of his hoodie. Jason filled up a glass of milk and took the lasagna out of the microwave. He set the food on the kitchen island and took a deep breath.
“Okay,” he started, and Percy immediately looked at the ground. “First of all, I need you to know you have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
Percy snorted.
“You don’t,” Jason insisted, “You clearly thought I was doing something and you were just trying to do the same thing back, which is perfectly understandable.”
Percy kept his eyes on his hoodie.
“Not that I would ever do that,” Jason added. “I’d never make someone uncomfortable like that, especially not when they were literally living with me.”
“You didn’t make me uncomfortable,” Percy said to his strings.
“What?”
“I said, you didn’t make me uncomfortable, okay?” Percy snapped. “Obviously. Otherwise I would have said something. And I wouldn’t have flirted back.”
Jason faltered. “Oh,” he said. “I, uh, I thought you were just…”
“I was just what?” Percy said, folding his arms.
The tips of Jason’s ears were slowly pinking. “I thought you were just playing along. Since you said I was the one who started it, I thought you were just trying to, like,” he shrugged. “Get even or something.”
Percy couldn’t believe this. “Get even?”
“Well, you said it yourself!” Jason cried. “You said I was flirting whenever I wanted and that’s what made you want to do it too. You asked me to tone it down!”
“You think that’s me getting even with you?” Percy said in disbelief. “I wasn’t flirting with you for the sake of flirting with you, you dumbass. I was flirting with you because – I – wanted – to!”
He shouted each word louder than the last. They stared at each other, red-faced, Percy’s heart thumping unsteadily in his chest.
Finally, Jason tore his eyes away from Percy and said, “Remember when I said if I liked someone, I’d be a lot more subtle about it?”
“What? No.”
“I think you’d stopped listening at that point.” Jason licked his lips then took a step forward. “I think I was a little too subtle.”
Percy stared at the space between them with wide eyes, then at the nervous way Jason nibbled at his lip. His pulse thumped in his ears. “I think so too,” he whispered.
Jason’s lips broke into the most brilliant smile Percy had ever seen. He stepped close, brought his hands up to Percy’s face, and pressed the gentlest of kisses on Percy’s lips.
Percy could only stare. This up close, he realized Jason’s irises were edged with grey, and he had eyelashes after all.
“We could have been doing that sooner,” Jason murmured. He tilted his head and a playful smile crept on his lips. “If His Highness had deigned to step out of his room.”
“Hey,” Percy laughed. “My ego was bruised. I had to recover. Besides,” he grinned and hugged Jason into his chest, Jason squeaking adorably as he went. “Isn’t isolation the name of the game?”
Jason had always been bigger than Percy. It was a lot easier for him to squish Percy into his arms than the other way around. “Not sure if that applies to bruised egos,” he smirked, looking way too smug until Percy kissed him quiet.
Later, when they were lying in bed, Jason rolled over onto Percy and whispered into his neck, “Hey, I think I found an outlet for all that pent-up energy of yours.”
Percy had never been so focused in his life.