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“Sit.” Harsh voice, raw voice, voice straining to keep too much in. “Both of you.” Angry eyes, eyes full of pain, eyes glistening with worry.
Percy sits down heavily, wincing as the rough wooden stool scrapes his already bruised legs. He feels more than sees Leo settle beside him, a metal chair rocking back and forth. They look up simultaneously and nearly flinch at the lightning flashing behind Jason’s expression.
*Two Hours Earlier*
Percy Jackson cannot keep his excitement to himself. It is layering every cell of his body, hugging him like a childhood blanket. He thinks if someone squeezes him he’ll leak stardust. Today he gets to see his two best friends. Friends he hasn’t seen in six months. Friends he cannot survive without. Friends he’d turn back time for. Friends he’d turn back for. He knows the colour of Orpheus’s soul. He bleeds the same way.
“Mom,” He calls, liking the way the words bounce around the house. Sally is finally taking some time to herself— three successful publications and a child later— so naturally she’s been spending all her time in the garden. Paul and Estelle are at the park, or the zoo, or something? He just remembers a lot of giggling and some sticky kisses on his cheek this morning when his sister burst into the room. He was far too asleep to translate her babbling.
“Pers?” The sweet voice calls back.
“I’m heading out now,” He finds her in the kitchen, digging in the fridge for what looks to be ingredients for a new baking delight. “You sure you don’t need me here?”
“Percy,” She laughs, turning around to face him, three eggs in hand, “I promise I will survive an afternoon on my own. I swear between you and your fathers I’d be better off in a bubble-wrap suit.”
He can’t help the gleam that enters his eyes at the idea. She shuts it down with one of her signature Looks™.
“Have a good time with your friends, sweet boy,” She kisses his cheek, “And don’t forget to eat something.”
“Yea yea mom, we know, we have alarm clocks on our phones.” He rolls his eyes as he envelopes her in a hug, “Leo might sleepover, that okay?”
The way her ocean eyes light up makes him want to never let her go. How did he get this lucky?
“Of course it’s okay. Maybe I can finally convince him to show me his fajita recipe.” Her lips purse as she considers her angles.
Percy can’t help but laugh. Leo and Sally have been trading off recipes for as long as they’ve known each other but his friend refuses to give his mom the fajita secrets. He says it’s the only recipe he hasn’t quite perfected (much to everyone else’s disagreement... and taste buds) and he won’t share it until he knows it’s exactly right.
“Good luck with that one mom,” He pecks her cheek. “See you in a bit.”
The day is unseasonably warm. Sunshine seeping into the concrete, making shadows dance as they wink between alleys, over sidewalks. He loves Manhattan like this. It feels almost like a city after apocalypse, rebirthed, a little greener, trying again. Even the subway doesn’t smell like rotting food and stuffy molding tunnels. There’s a breeze coming from the north, racing the trains.
He’d promised to meet Leo at Washington Square before they both headed for Jason who was attending some lecture at NYU. With little fanfare he snags the A-train and keeps to himself, earphones in, matching his streak in Temple Run.
Before he can break his newest high score his stop comes up and then he’s out of the train>the station>on the street. He spots Leo almost immediately. Leaning against the bike railings, bright blue headphones on, and a mess of curls obscuring his angular face. Percy takes a second to stare, uninterrupted and unabashed. His friend is… beautiful. All brown skin and sharp angles and curly black hair that turns shades of copper in the sunlight, and busy hands, so busy. Percy has felt every groove and callus and scar on those fingers. Has held those hands, and brushed across that skin. They have always been the “touchy” friends; the “let me hold you for a little too long” friends. It keeps them grounded. If I can touch you I know you’re here. If I can touch you I can feel you’re alive.
Leo looks up, and his dark eyes catch the sun, sets them on fire. Percy is scrambling to take his phone out before he can stop himself, fingers fumbling to open the camera. He clicks and he wonders how anyone manages to survive when they catch people being so… ethereal. His heart is beating fast, too fast. He certainly isn’t surviving. Leo sees him. And smiles, and Percy has to take another picture, and another, and another.
And then his friend is in front of him, already laughing. “Were you just taking pictures of me you weirdo?”
“No, something very strange is happening behind you and i wanted to document it for my “I’m alive” diary.” He grins, wrapping his arms around that small waist. He breathes deeply, taking in the smoky cinnamon smell that seems to cling to his friend.
“You are such a liar, Jackson,” Leo is still laughing. Percy can feel it against his shoulder.
“I’m making it my wallpaper.” He says into the hug, breath fanning across a neck, summoning goosebumps.
“I don’t know why you’d want to see me every time you open your phone,” He can practically hear the eye roll.
“For the same reason you seem to want to see me and Jason,” He smiles. “I like pretty things.”
“I am pretty, aren't I?” Leo finally pulls back, enough so they can look at each other.
“The prettiest,” He scrunches his nose, pouts his lips, and then steps away completely. “Let’s go drag our nerd away from his studies.”
“What are we doing today by the way?”
“I don’t know,” He shrugs, grabbing Leo’s hand as he gives a cursory glance to the traffic before crossing the street. ‘But I should warn you my mother is pulling out all the stops to try and convince you to give up the fajitas.”
Warmth bursts from his friend, laughter spreading around their air. “Sally Jackson is relentless.”
“I did warn you,” Percy raises a brow, amusement tugging at his lips.
“You did,” He concedes, nodding hard enough for curls to brush against his lashes. With a huffed breath they fall to his temples once more.
The university is not much further from where they start but it takes them longer than it should, as they chat and idle and get distracted by everything. It is not often they have days like this. Where they don’t have to do anything. Be anyone. Right now, they’re just Leo and Percy. Two friends meeting up with a third.
And then the illusion shatters.
Percy is telling him about the latest project for his sculpting class, his left hand interlocked with Leo’s right, other hand animated in story. One second it’s “ — and then we had to—” and the next his friend is being flung fifty feet away. Ripped from him in a single blink
Percy hears Leo’s body hit the brick wall of a pizzeria and the crunch is enough to make his organs contort.
“LEO.” His scream shatters colours. He can only see red.
He hears the groaning even through the ringing in his ears. By the time he gets there Riptide is clasped securely in his hand, and the beast of ocean, water, earth, destruction, is sitting up, cocking its head, scraping its claws, growling within him.
“I’m okay,” His friend gasps out, curled on the floor. “But i don’t know what the fuck that was.”
“Here,” He chucks his emergency bag of ambrosia in the general direction of the half-blood and then he turns around.
His green eyes glow, the world is sharp, his focus missing nothing. He can practically see the weeds between the bricks breathing.
“Come out, come out.” He’s found the chant is usually enough to incite monsters. They hate not being the scariest thing in the room.
“Hello Percy Jackson.”
Something inside him locks up, turns tail and sprints so far into the darkness light no longer has a definition. The shadow that falls over his face is poisonous.
Akhlys steps towards him.
“What—” He can’t breathe properly. He can’t even move. “What are you doing here?” Words feel like lead under his tongue, seeping into his cells.
“You did not think—” She smiles. Teeth black, tongue forked, hair jet black. She is so beautiful it haunts the word. Everything about her is a shadow, playing with the light, tricking the eye, latching on to anything that wants to exist in brightness. “— that I would let our little meeting in Tartarus be the conclusion, did you?” She says it like he should have known she’d pop in. Only a matter of time, says her voice. Soon a death, screams his instincts.
He feels a warm presence behind him. Something dislodges behind his heart.
‘Who’s this clown?” Leo Valdez scoffs, turning his fiery expression on the goddess.
“Goddess of misery,” Percy’s voice is small, tinny and frightened. He sounds like the little kid who woke Gabe up by mistake. He sounds terrified.
Leo pieces it together and before he can blink his friend is standing in front of him, body already straightening, taking up space in this little alley, protecting pro-tec-ting (protecting).
“Hello goddess,” Honey voice, melting voice. “We don’t want any trouble. We’re just passing by.”
“Trouble?” She snorts. Her amusement is a noose getting tighter. “You will not be any trouble at all, Son of Hephaestus.” She takes another step forward and they notice the smoke curling from her dress, swirls of violets and reds and ivy green. It’s as if she’s made from toxins itself. “You see half-bloods,” Her smirk bends evil. “I do not come unprepared this time. I do not come alone.” Her mouth stretches out, a sort of grin that pulls at her skin, contorts it beyond humane. “Misery loves company after all.”
And there, slithering from between the folds of her dress are two vicious drakons, all black scales and powerful muscle. Before he can move the creatures are screaming towards them, swiping their tails in a vicious burst.
Once
Twice
Again
And Percy is eating concrete, face smashed into the unforgiving ground. Leo is once more across the world, too far away. His ears are ringing, mind sluggish, muddied. He can’t even feel his body, it is so far removed from his thoughts. He sees scales glistening past his bloodied vision, and something inside him trembles. It’s been a while, since he’s had to fight this hard to survive. Been longer still, since he’s had to fight a god. His instincts, the ones that have screamed and shoved their way through his life, are rearing now. Get Up Percy, Do Something, Find Leo, GET UP!.
With a deep breath, several beats of concaving silence, he gets to his knees, and then s H a K y feet. The drakon— midnight blue eyes unlike its emerald counterpart— attached to his death blow seems to grin at him as he sways from side to side. He attempts to lift Riptide but his arms feel so heavy he blinks down to check he hasn’t mistakenly attached boulders to them. They look like arms, all blue veined and full of scars, tattoo stark black against his brown skin. His fingers twitch around the hilt of his sword, but do not move much more.
His head is so stuffy, cotton trees blooming wild.
“Percy,” A rasp sounds from three light years away. He turns around, jagged and uneven to see his friend staggering towards him. “We’ve been poisoned.”
Leo looks awful. Leo looks like he won’t survive another second in this hellish moment. The sight snaps Percy into destroyer . He is his name, his name is his.
The anger that surges forward burns the cotton forest; flammable trees. Riptide strikes the ground, and then his wrist is twirling, arm arcing upwards, down
down
down
And the drakon is prowling no more. Its severed head twitches once before the entire body goes up in smoke and ash.
Percy is already moving, a hurricane in perfect motion, swirling towards the neat rows, towards the order. He is going to make paintings out of his demolition. “Poisonous Hurricane Warning”, it’ll be called. They’ll sell for millions to people who no longer have homes. Everyone likes to keep mementos of their own downfalls.
He slashes through the second drakon like sirens through water, smooth, gliding, effortless. Nothing can stop him. Not even a goddess. She hurt Leo. Percy thinks it’s time to cull the gods.
“JACKSON!” His friend screams.
The world slows down, treacle-ruin pouring into the storm. He doesn’t have time to move as a blood-red dagger of pure, unbottled rage, straight from the heart of Akhlys herself, soars towards him. He knows it will kill him. It is heading straight for his chest. But he can’t stop it. Not with riptide, not with water, not even by simply moving. He is seeing the world in nanoseconds. But he cannot move the same way. He has time, just one blink worth, to look at his best friend. Bloodied, and bruised, and pale from poison still running through them. He wants to take a picture. His friends have always looked most intricate when they’re fighting to survive. So much power thrums in the air he can almost taste their specific blend. Burning coal, fresh water, bonfires on the beach. Their exact mix of water and fire, earth and burning.
He can see the pain in Leo’s eyes. The way he’s trying to stop the poison. Hand outstretched, legs splitting over too much concrete, one big step after the other. But he’s too far. A single step out of reach. One brush of fingers out of the way.
The world speeds up, Percy stands tall, defiant, stares at Leo. The blood dagger never hits.
A single bolt of lightning flashes, and a gold coin sizzles as it hits the floor. His eyes burn as he blinks away the flash of brightness, notices the dissipating red mist.
Jason Grace slams into the alley.
“Leave them alone Akhlys.” His voice is deep and full of seething unchecked fury. “You lost a fight. Do not start a war.”
“Son of Jupiter,” The goddess regards him with curiosity, her posture turning from pure malevolence to something filled with interest. Her black eyes sparkle dangerously. “What business do you have? I do not appreciate the interruption.”
“They are mine.” Percy’s blood becomes neon. “And under the protection of my father.” Before the goddess can interrupt Jason takes a step towards her, doesn’t even turn back to look at his friends. Percy can see it’s an effort, by the way his shoulders are bunched, the curl of his fist.
“You do not want to do this. Your monsters are dead. And they will recover from your poison before you can summon more. You do not have enough strength to take us all on your own. Go Akhlys. Leave us be.”
Thunder rumbles above them, sky a sickly grey. He doesn’t know if it’s Zeus’ agreement or his friend’s rage but he will not question that now.
The goddess considers them, and with nothing more than a tiny smirk disappears into black smoke. Percy’s body takes her exit as a sign, and simply collapses against the brick wall.
He can’t really keep his eyes open; his ears are still ringing. The last thing he sees is the concerned blue of Jason’s eyes, and the scared brown of Leo’s. Darkness smothers him.
He comes too a few minutes later, cradled in strong arms, cheek pressed against a rapid heart.
“Jase?” His voice is croaky but he can hear again. Blood matts his hair but it no longer flows into his eyelashes.
His friend looks down at him, blue eyes crystal clear, “Hey.” It is so gentle.
“I can probably walk, if you— uh if you wanna put me down…”
The half-blood just responds by tightening his grip and continuing on.
He hears a quiet, “Save your energy.”
“Leo?” He sounds so far away but Jason hears all the same.
“I'm here, my love.” A hand strokes his cheek. Percy tilts his head up, sees his friend limping along next to them. He tries to smile. It comes out as a wincing slant instead.
They don’t walk much further, quiet engulfing them, power still thrumming under their skin. It takes them hours to calm down when they’re like this. It’s worse when they’re together. Something about the three of them sets off the most vicious of their instincts.
Jason’s lightning, to Leo’s burning, to Percy’s destruction. Sky meets air meets earth.
Eventually they get to a hotel, where his friend finally sets him down in the elevator. He leans against the mirrored wall while Jason fishes for the keycard. Leo is pressed to his side. They’re holding each other up by the force of their closeness.
When it dings for their floor, the blonde tucks an arm around each of their waists and half carries them to his room.
“Pers,” A keycard is shoved into his hand. He swipes. They practically fall into the room.
“Sit.” Harsh voice, raw voice, voice straining to keep too much in. “Both of you.” Angry eyes, eyes full of pain, eyes glistening with worry.
Percy sits down heavily, wincing as the rough wooden stool scrapes his already bruised legs. He feels more than sees Leo settle beside him, a metal chair rocking back and forth. They look up simultaneously and nearly flinch at the lightning flashing behind Jason’s expression. Their friend busies himself with the first aid kit, handing them ambrosia and nectar, before disappearing into the bathroom. They nibble and sip in silence. Half-gods, half feasting, half-dead only. Sometimes Percy thinks it’s unfair that his human side dies, when it’s his god side that forces him into trouble. Where is the balance?
Jason steps back into the room, glasses shoved into his hair, bandages and cotton swabs and other useful things spilling from his arms.
“Percy first.” Leo mumbles.
The boy in question is about to protest but one look from both of them shuts him up.
He sits as still as possible as Jason settles on his knees in front of the chair, dabbing a cotton round into the rubbing alcohol.
And then ever so gently, a golden hand brushes back his jet black curls, and the cotton swab is pressed to his forehead. It stings, but he doesn’t even blink. He can see the flecks of grey in Jason’s eyes, they’re so close. The blonde’s touch is warm, and present. They have moved to his temples, along his cheek. It hurts so bad tears spill over, but still he doesn’t move. A thumb swipes the streaks away and it makes him cry harder.
“I’m sorry,” He chokes. “I didn’t know she was still mad, I didn't ever think she’d— I didn't mean to put you guys in danger, I swear. I’m so sor—”
“Percy,” They say at the same time, soft enough to change the meaning of clouds.
“It’s not your fault.” Leo grabs his hand, intertwines their fingers.
“We’re sorry we couldn’t protect you more.” Jason kisses his forehead.
“We’re alive and that’s all that matters.” Leo wipes away tears.
“I got to you in time.” Jason puts his hand over their clasped ones.
He chokes on his own gratitude, turns to jelly under the weight of their love.
“Fix Leo,” He manages to crack out. “I want to hug you guys for a while.”
Together they work to bandage and mend. Heal and hold. Become .
The ambrosia has worked the poison out of their systems completely and the quiet of those few moments had satiated the power screaming through their blood. By the time they’re done they feel closer to human. Gods only in portion, human in heart.
“I didn’t expect you guys to come over,” Jason starts, scratching his neck as he turns to put the first aid kit away, “so i only booked a room with one bed.”
“Oh,” Percy smiles, standing up slowly, Leo coming with him. They are reluctant to let their hands fall out of grip. “Well we usually just sleep in the same bed, do you mind crashing with us?”
“We can always snag a few pillows and camp on the floor,” Leo shrugs. He says it in that casual way that only comes from the familiarity of the action. I’ve done it a thousand times. I can do it again.
“Um no,” The blonde says quickly, cheeks pinker than usual. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. I um don’t usually sleep with other people but if it doesn’t bother you guys then—”
Leo wraps an arm around Jason’s neck laughing into his chest. “Come on buddy, let’s get into bed. Before you talk yourself into a lightning storm.”
Percy giggles at that before they all crash into the soft cotton sheets. It takes some maneuvering but they end up with Leo in the middle, Percy curled around his back, and Jason on his stomach on the far end, near the huge windows. The city from here looks like something out of an alien world. So far away, full of magic and possibility, vibrant. Nothing like the smoke and steel and monster they had just danced with.
Before he can tumble into voluntary blackness, Percy whispers, “Thank you for saving me. Thank you for loving me.”
He doesn’t hear the soft, softer, “Thank you for choosing us.”
********************************
His skin is warm. That’s the first thing Percy catalogues upon waking. Warm from the sun, from other human beings. Warm as in comfort. With a groan, he buries his head into the pillows and cuddles up to the body in front of his. He could live here forever. Just like this. He understands what happiness means here, now, in this exact moment.
New York is loud and busy and he can barely hear it. The room is coated in a layer of peace that he’s felt maybe thrice in his life. 1. The day he and his mom walked into their new apartment and it smelt like nothing. No beer bottles, leftover pizza, cigarette stench. No Gabe. 2. The day they won the Titan War and Camp Half-Blood’s borders were reinforced. 3. The first time he walked into New Rome. Not the camp, where ghosts and demigods marched like they were training for battles they’d already died in. The city of New Rome with its markets and cafes and children laughing and adults sighing affectionately.
He doesn’t allow himself to open his eyes just yet. Instead lies, curled, taking in the restfulness of the room. This is the beginning of the rest of his life. He can feel it in the way his lungs take in air.
With nothing more than an exhale he shifts slightly so that the arm draped over Leo’s waist also snags Jason’s shoulder. Percy opens his eyes. And he never wants to close them again.
Because these people, lying in this bed next to him, are magic. Flushed cheeks, and smooth skin, and gentle breathing, and messy hair. Sheets crumpled around their torsos. Pillows leaving streaks across their foreheads. Shirts dragged up to expose endless body. Beautiful doesn’t have enough syllables. Gorgeous, not enough variation. They look like museums. Like art.
Leo lets out a soft sigh and it takes everything inside him not to trace the sound with his fingers.
“Mhm, Pers?” Raspy voice. Sleepy voice. Going to cause heart failure voice. It’s Jason.
“Angel-boy?” He’s soft as a mouse.
“Why are you awake? You okay?”
“Yea,” He manages to get out. Surprised he doesn’t choke on the words he’s dying to say. Words he’d bottled beneath his ribcage and lost under his panic.
“You sleep okay?” Leo stirs between them, hand fists into Jason’s shirt. Settles.
“Like the dead.” He smiles, watching as the blonde slowly opens his eyes. This is when they’re bluest. Percy’s favourite time to photograph them. They’re so blue he’s sure he’s lost gravity. So blue he can see people swimming in them. So blue he wants to drown a thousand times over just to have them on him.
Eyes open fully.
Phone camera clicks
Warm, amused smile greets him.
Camera clicks again * again * again * again.
“Can i move now?” Raised eyebrow, smirking lips, sparkling gaze. Click.
He’ll never understand why his friends entertain his habits so easily. They see him taking out his camera and they freeze, wait, change angle when his frown dips slightly in concentration.
“You can move,” He grins, “Thank you.”
They fall into silence, both turn to stare at the friend between them. He is peaceful like this. Unbusy, unmoving. Every part of Leo Valdez is a fire, dancing, and jumping, and flickering, and burning in the waking hours. But he is embers resting when he sleeps. Warm and comforting and so very still. Glowing.
“Exquisite, huh?” Jason mumbles sleepily, smirk turning to soft smile.
“Beyond.”
“He doesn’t believe us, you know?” The blonde is more awake now, conscious in his thoughts, even tone.
“I know,” Percy sighs, brushes a hand over a brown cheek. “I try to use the photos to show him but he doesn’t see it.”
“He will.”
“How can you be so sure?” and what he’s really asking is ‘am i that obvious in my feelings?’ ‘do you think he understands what i'm trying to show him?’ ‘does he know?’ ‘do you?’
“Because you— we, love him too much to give up.” Jason finally looks up, catches his gaze. Blue-green, and the earth has finally met the sky. “You love him so openly. You couldn’t give up on him even if you tried.”
“Do you think you’re beautiful?”
“You’ve certainly told me enough times,” Jason laughs quietly.
“But do you believe me?”
“If you told me the sky turned neon green, I wouldn't even look up.”
“Well that’s just rude,” A voice from between them grumbles. “When i tried to convince you that we played pranks on everyone after you lost your memory you said that sounds very unlike you and refused to dye Dylan’s hair blue with me.”
Percy looked at Leo, at Jason. Jason looked at Percy, at Leo. And they all burst out laughing.
“Are you saying you don’t love me Grace?”
“I loved you the day you made us sewer tacos, Valdez.” The blonde scrunches his nose, tease softening the angles of his face.
“And you love me Jackson?”
“Was I being too subtle about it, mi corazón?” Percy smiles, cards fingers through black curls.
“As long as you know I love you too.” Leo smiles. It lights up the darkest parts of the room. “Both of you.”
“Oh good, so i can kiss you now?” Percy had always been the boldest of the three, especially when it came to emotions. To this overwhelming feeling. To the intensity poets claim with every word.
“Please kiss me.” His friend laughs, smiles, bubbles, breathes.
So Percy does. Kisses him. Softly at first, and then presses harder. Hard enough for the pillows to make molds of their love. Kisses again, and again, in all kinds of angles, till they’re breathless. And then he turns his head, and captures Jason.
“Trios have always felt safest.” He whispers.
Jason seals it with a kiss. And it is nothing like Leo’s and everything like it all at once. The same intensity, same dizziness, same need to imprint lines into each others’ bones. But different feeling. Leo is burning and messy and consuming. Jason is angled and gentle and full.
They break apart. He watches as the loves of his being share their own kiss. His heart skips A beat. Changes rhythm entirely. It’s syncing up with theirs, he knows it. Only a matter of time before his lungs start exhaling on their inhales as if he can take in everything they release. As if they can take in everything he can’t keep.
“Breakfast?” Leo grins.
They’re smiling themselves into a new definition of happiness.
“Breakfast.” Jason finalises.
Their food alarms go off at the same time. They all missed the dinner one. Sorry Mom, he thinks.
FUCK! He didn’t message his mom.
Bolting up in bed, panic flooding his system, he’s already fumbling for the phone he’d discarded in the covers, mumbling a litany of expletives.
“I messaged her before we crashed.” Jason grabs his neck, strokes a thumb behind his ear.
“We fucking love you.” He practically bowls the blonde over, showering him with kisses. “What would we do without you?”
“Getting murdered by Mrs Jackson I believe.” Amusement shades the room in a shimmering gold.
Leo Valdez laughs, falls over limbs and chests. “May we survive this cruel world.”
“May the cruel world survive us.” Jason Grace echoes.
Percy Jackson clasps their hands, intertwines their fingers. “May we stay together even if it doesn't.”