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He came. That’s what flies through Jason’s mind over the cheering, shaking pom-poms, and bright lights. Leo didn’t see him yet, but Jason can tell it’s Leo from the hair and army jacket, not that he was capable of ever mistaking the guy. Piper sees him, though, arm raised to wave while elbowing Leo. When Leo does catch sight of him, he grins all lopsided and bright, and passes over his snacks to Piper to cup his hands and yell SUPERMAAAANNNN! over the loud music.
Jason can only move as far as the bleachers, but Leo climbs down to the lowest level to meet him. Not that it mattered- Jason was below on the glistening field, bending his head far back to see Leo smirking back through the metal fence.
Leo leans over the bar, dangling a string of candy over Jason. “Want some?” Leo asks as the cheerleaders begin counting down.
“I’m good,” Jason laughs, but Leo drops it anyway, and he catches it with sweaty fingers. “I didn’t think you were going to make it.”
Leo shrugs, still grinning. “Not like I had anything else to do.” The cheerleaders go WOOOOO! and Leo’s gaze flickers towards him, snorting. He waves another piece of candy as he babbles, “Dude, there’s so many people here to watch guys throw a ball.”
“Football is a big thing here.”
“People need to get better hobbies.” Leo squats so he’s closer to Jason’s height, reaching his fingers through the fence. He pops his hand through, his fingers slender, long, and familiar.
Jason watches, and Leo can only go as far as half his forearm before he swats at Jason’s sweaty hair and recoils. “Ew,” Leo laughs. “And you like this shit?”
“There are better things,” Jason’s eyes trace along Leo’s moles, and he shakes his head like a wet dog at Leo, who falls on his butt. There’s glitter sprayed over his face, and Jason only now notices their school colors painted on Leo’s face. F- WOLVES reads Leo’s left cheek in gold like he’s being signed by Midas.
Someone, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, passes by with a chili dog, and Leo loses his balance against the fence. Leo looks at him, bemused, and Jason looks back.
Jason wants to say it. He opens his mouth. “Leo, I—”
“GO WOLVES!” the cheerleaders scream together, and Kelli, Gwen, and Will launch the confetti launchers, bursting gold and purple strips into the air. Leo’s mouth drops, and Jason is reminded that this is Leo’s first and last homecoming game. Behind him are screams, and the marching band ramps up with a heavy fast-paced rhythm. His mind can not erase the picture of awe on his best friend’s face as gold glitter showers around them, the bleacher lights blind, and the thump-thump-thump of a large drum. Leo looks back down at him with such mischievous glee, and then he leans in close and whispers, “We’ve got to get that cannon and do something with it.”
Jason finds himself dumbly agreeing because if Leo asks him something, he will always eventually say yes. Leo might’ve laughed, and then he scrambles to his feet to scream along their school song. Not that he knew them- but there was enough yelling from their school that Leo's voice was one of many.
Jason watches him, face aching from his smile, humming as the last of the confetti falls.
The buzzer rings, and Jason’s coach blows his whistle. Leo bends over the fence again. “You gotta go, don’t you? Man, don’t leave me with Gomez and Morticia,” he juts his thumb behind him to the crowded bleachers. Jason assumes he’s supposed to be pointing to Piper and Shel—he’s a few rows too low, and few people too right—where Shel is whispering to Piper, and Piper is staring into her eyes, giggling.
Jason shrugs, knowing damn well how Leo would be spending the rest of the game whining until he finds something or someone else to entertain him. “You should’ve come with someone else.”
“I came for you, dumbass,” Leo rolls his eyes, but gets distracted by the shaking of cheerleader skirts and music. “You wanna go to Vesta’s to eat after this?”
Jason turns to follow Leo’s eye line, and it leads to Calypso hand springing across the turf. The cheerleader waves to the crowd with the others, and Leo mutters something under his breath, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Jason clears his throat. “Give me time to shower, and I’ll drive.”
Leo leans forward as someone- Percy and Tyson’s mom- brushes by with a baby and a pretzel. He smirks and waves, and yells, "CHECK YOUR PHONE!"
Calypso rolls her eyes, and her nose scrunches, but her smile reaches higher. Jason's stomach stirs.
“Duh,” Leo says to him, still making faces at Calypso, “As if I want to spend another car trip with Bert and Ernie. They couldn’t stop playing that dumb podcast with the—”
“JASON!” He winces at the call, and turns his back to his teammates’ irritated looks. He knows he has to return to the field, but for a moment, he looks at Leo, and he can’t hear anything but the thump, thump, thump.
“I SWEAR TO GOD, JASON, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!” shatters through the air, and Jason's head turns to his team glaring back.
“Metropolis is in trouble, man,” Leo snorts. He pulls back and salutes. “Get a home run and dedicate it to humbly honored self, Superman,” he teases and heads back up the bleachers. Jason watches Leo trip and whirls back around to see if Jason caught that, and because he did, Leo sticks out his tongue. Jason laughs to himself and jogs back to the benches where his team huddles. He snatches up his helmet and is greeted with shoving and back pats.
After the huddle, Jason moves across the grass, in his own head. Bryce asks why he’s smiling like a dumbass and to shut the fuck up, Grace, and then barks at Jason to keep his head focused on the game because he was not ending this shitty year as a failure because some stupidass rich kid has a crush on a cheerleader.
Jason sets into position, jaw tense but ready. Over the helmets, he was glad for his contact lenses as he looked through the blur of the crowd. Leo is standing there in one of the top rows, peeling off his army jacket to be handed to a ponytailed Calypso in a purple cheer skirt. Leo says something, and she slaps his chest, but they both looked content.
Jason’s stomach tightens. The band long stopped, but somehow Jason could still feel the trembling pounding of the drums through his body. His mind clears, except for a single thought: he came. He said he came for me, and the whistle blew, and Jason dives into action.