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i blew things out of proportion, now you're blue
put you in jail for something you didn’t do
i pinned your hands behind your back, oh
thought i had reason to attack, but no
“There you are!” Jason yelled like he wasn’t storming into the palace of the god of the dead.
Nico turned from where he was talking to a spirit and blinked a bit in surprise at the appearance of Jason. He quickly dismissed the spirit before addressing the new issue at hand, “Um. Hi, Jason…” he started cordially, “Is something wrong?”
Whatever caused Jason to personally come to the Underworld, the domain of a god that hates him, had to be serious.
“Yes!” Jason yelled as he sharply poked Nico in the chest, “You’ve been gone for three months! I thought we talked about not being away from camp for so long!”
Nico squinted, “You came to the Underworld, because I was gone too long?” In his defense, time passes differently in the Underworld. For Nico, it’s only been a few weeks.
“Of course I did,” Jason answered like it was a stupid question.
Nico realized what this was. This was Jason’s extreme version of a welfare check. Rolling his eyes, Nico gave a sarcastic laugh, “Please, nobody really wants me at camp anyway. I bet they haven’t even realized I’m gone.”
“You are unbelievable,” Jason spit the words like they were acid in his mouth.
Nico looked taken aback, clearly not expecting this degree of anger from Jason over something so trivial, “What’s your deal?”
“My ‘deal’,” Jason poked a finger aggressively into Nico’s chest, “Is that I’ve been looking for one of my best friends for weeks and, when I finally track him down, he acts like no one wants him.”
“I…”
“I am the son of Jupiter,” Jason’s voice continued to rise with every word, “I am the former praetor of the Twelfth Legion. I am the current pontifex maximus. I am one of the seven of the second great prophecy,” Jason shook his head, not breaking eye contact, “So don’t you dare tell me that nobody wants you, because I am not nobody,” his glare intensified, his voice started to crack under the emotional strain, “I want you!”
Nico opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t seem to find the words.
Jason didn’t give Nico a chance to respond before he continued, “I did not come all the way to the Underworld and risk Hades’ wrath for you to tell me that nobody wants you when I am right here! I wait for you to come back when you leave. I worry about you when you’re gone. I think about what I could say to make you stay,” he took a step forward and pushed Nico backwards, “But you’re just too blind to see what’s been right in front of you the whole time.”
When Nico could finally get a word in after being yelled at, he just wanted to yell back and add fuel to the fire, “Well, that’s a change of heart, isn’t it?” He couldn’t believe Jason had the nerve to act like he actually wanted Nico.
Still angry, Jason’s words became preemptively defensive, “What are you talking about?”
“Rome,” Nico sneered, “You can’t convince me that you want me, because, if it was up to you, my corpse would be rotting in that bronze jar,” Nico pushed Jason back and took a step forward, “You thought I was a creepy traitor from the start. You don’t get to change your mind about me after finding out something that I never wanted you to know!”
“I was wrong!” Jason doesn’t seem to notice when angry tears started leaking from his eyes, “And I’m sorry! But I can’t change the past. Do you really still hold that against me or are you just looking for any reason to push me away?”
Nico swallowed, looking away. Truthfully, he understood why Jason would make that call. He was different then and didn’t know Nico. But over time, he’s seen that Jason is also kind and brave. He’s so good when Nico just isn’t. Jason has no reason to like him, but he does. He likes Nico, but not the way Nico likes him. It’s Percy all over again and Nico can’t help but just run away from his problems. Like he always does.
So, what’s the answer to Jason’s question? Nico decides not to answer and turns to walk away so he doesn’t have the face the distress he’s caused.
“No!” Jason shouts, grabbing Nico’s wrist and turning him back around, “You don’t get to leave. Not until you get through your head that I care about you!”
Nico just doesn’t know what else he could do to make Jason understand, so he does the one thing he can.
He grabs Jason’s shirt collar with his free hand and pulls him forward into a forceful kiss. Nico intends to push him away immediately afterwards, but he doesn’t expect Jason to start kissing back.
Nico’s mouth opens a little in surprise and Jason surges forward, threading his hands into Nico’s hair so he couldn’t pull back.
Getting over his initial shock, Nico parts his lips further, letting Jason’s tongue in, and shudders at the sensation.
When they finally parted for air, Jason didn’t speak. He stared down at Nico with the intensity of a storm on the horizon, “Do you believe me now?”
Nico swallowed nervously at Jason’s low tone before admitting, “I’m starting to.”
“Not good enough,” Jason leered as he pushed Nico back into the nearest wall before reconnecting their lips.
Jason’s hands moved down to rest on Nico’s hips. Nico still wasn’t quite sure what to do with his hands, but they found their way around Jason’s neck.
Humming, Jason moved his hands even lower to hoist Nico up by the thighs while the latter instinctively wrapped his legs around the former’s waist.
Nico could barely hear more than his heart pounding, but he distantly heard the sound of talking getting louder.
He pulled back and took a second to admire that Jason didn’t look at all as put together as he usually is. His hair was messy, his lips were red and slick with saliva, and his glasses were crooked. Somehow, Nico thought that Jason had never looked better.
The voices were getting louder. Specifically, Nico’s father’s voice was getting louder.
Looking around, Nico realized that this random hallway in his father’s palace was probably not the most ideal place to make out.
Another look at Jason told Nico that he wasn’t alone in his line of thinking.
An idea appeared in Nico’s mind and a mischievous smirk appeared on his lips.
Jason tilted his head in a silent question.
Nico dragged Jason back in for another kiss while focusing on the shadows around them. Thankfully, the Underworld was his home turf, so shadow traveling wouldn’t be quite as strenuous.
He chuckled softly as they fell backwards into the darkness, only to reappear in Nico’s room in the palace, landing ungracefully on his bed.
Nico groaned as Jason’s full body weight crushed him and their faces smooshed together uncomfortably.
Jason pulled off of Nico, settling himself between Nico’s legs, before glaring, but the stare hardly held any heat, “I hate it when you do that.”
Nico shrugged, “Option B was to get caught by my father, so…” he trailed off.
Grimacing, Jason conceded the point, “Fine. I guess I do enjoy being alive.”
“That’s what I thought,” Nico felt a teasing smile grow on his face.
Why was this so easy? He couldn’t understand why they were able to go from screaming at each other to angrily making out against a wall to playfully teasing each other, but Jason just had a way of making everything feel natural.
Shyly, a direct contrast to how they were moments earlier, Nico leaned up and pressed a gentle kiss against Jason’s lips. He could feel Jason smiling into the kiss before pulling back, “I’m pretty sure I believe you now.”
The soft smile never left Jason’s face, “Took you long enough.”
Nico flushed and looked away, “I think I was scared before.”
Jason reached forward and carefully turned Nico’s head back to look at him, “And now?”
“I’m still scared,” Nico admitted and he saw Jason’s smile drop, “But,” he quickly added, “I won’t let the fear of what could go wrong stop me from just… being with the guy I like. Especially when he seems to like me back.”
It was kind of hard to say that out loud, but at the same time it felt like the easiest thing in the world. It didn’t feel like an admission, it felt like he was just finally acknowledging what had been there all along.
Letting out a relieved sigh, Jason placed another peck to Nico’s lips, “Good, because I’m getting a little tired of trying to chase you down.”
Nico pressed a kiss just under Jason’s jaw before murmuring, “I guess you finally caught me.”
Jason’s skin heated up under Nico’s lips, so he bit down on the spot he just kissed causing Jason to let out a stifled noise.
Nico soothed the fresh bite with his tongue.
“I do, you know?” Jason said after a moment.
Nico pulled back, his eyebrows furrowed, “What are you talking about?”
“Like you, I mean,” Jason nervously rubbed the back of his neck, “I’ve liked you for a while now.”
“So, we’re on the same page?” Nico smiled softly up at Jason while intertwining their fingers together.
“I think we are.”
With their hands still interlocked, Jason used his free hand to reel Nico in for another kiss.
Yeah, there was still a lot that could go wrong and a lot they would have to talk about.
But right now?
Right now, Jason’s warm hands slipped under Nico’s shirt and glided across the cool skin of Nico’s back.
Right now, Nico had his attention focused on leaving another mark on Jason’s neck to admire later.
Right now, it was just Nico and Jason and that was more than enough.
meet me in the afterglow