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The forest passed by him in a blur. His feet pounded against the ground, desperate not to trip on a root or a rock, and his lungs burned with the effort. But he couldn’t stop running. Not yet.
Jason was about 85% sure that the monster chasing them wasn’t connected to the quest at all. It probably only wanted a snack. The other 15%, inspired by the six monsters they’d run into in the last four days, thought that maybe every single monster in the world had been sent out to stop them.
“I hate to be a Debbie Downer,” Leo shouted alongside him, “but we need to take cover, fast.”
“Just a little farther!”
A few dozen yards behind them, large and angry feet thumped against the forest floor. It sounded far enough away to give him hope that Coach Hedge’s plan had worked, and that the monsters were a few seconds from walking into one of Leo’s specialties: an exploding trap.
There. Just up ahead, there was a stream that poured into a large sewage pipe under a bridge.
As they came up on it, Jason grabbed Leo’s hand and hauled him sideways into the little tunnel. Leo yelped in surprise and lost his balance, falling into Jason and knocking them both to the ground. They landed with a splash. Naturally, Jason had landed underneath, so he got the lion’s share of the sewage water all over his clothes.
Seconds later, a boom shook the ground, no doubt causing all kinds of damage to the woods.
“Sick,” Leo whispered, in awe of his own creation. “Do you think it got them all?”
As gross as it was, Jason let his head fall back into the creek water. The hard part was over. Now they just had to find Coach Hedge again so they could finish the quest.
“I think,” Jason replied, “we need to wait quietly and find out.”
Leo looked down at him with a cheeky grin. Some of his hair was matted to his forehead with sweat and creek water, and his shirt was covered in a mystery assortment of grease and mud stains, yet he still managed to look like a short Hollister model.
“It was a pretty explosion though, right?”
Jason shoved him off and rolled to his side to get up. There wasn’t a whole lot of room in the sewer pipe, but there was just enough space so that they didn’t have to sit in the water. Their feet would just get soaked. Hooray.
Being alone with him didn’t feel so awkward anymore, not since they’d made somewhat of a habit of sneaking off together around Camp, but when Leo sat next to him and leaned his head on Jason’s shoulder, it still made Jason’s heart go a little wonky.
“Injury check?” Jason said, just to fill the silence.
“I’m alright,” Leo answered. “You?”
“Yeah.”
Leo puffed out a heavy stream of air, still trying to catch his breath.
Jason felt the urge to mention that he probably wouldn’t be so winded if he would just start going on his morning runs with him, but he knew this probably wasn’t the right moment for that. Instead, he just took Leo’s hand again and laced their fingers together.
“You know,” Leo said softly, “this is the first alone time we’ve had together in like three days…”
A smile tugged at Jason’s lips. “Oh yeah? I haven’t been keeping track.”
Leo swatted at his arm lightly. “Shut up,” he protested, “you have too been keeping track.”
“Okay,” Jason admitted, letting go of Leo’s hand to slide his arm around his waist and pull him closer, “maybe I have a little bit.”
It had been a rough few days. Their backs ached from sleeping on the ground outside, and they were tired from running into a different monster around every corner, and to top it all off, Coach Hedge threatened to kick the ass of every demigod who so much as thought about “getting freaky” under his watch.
Jason didn’t even want to “get freaky,” and he was pretty sure Leo didn’t either, but it would have been nice to hold hands, or even just play with sleepy Leo’s hair while it was his turn to keep watch. But no, every physical interaction that wasn’t necessary for fighting or treating injuries was strictly forbidden upon pain of having a satyr literally kick their asses.
Now, though, Coach Hedge was nowhere to be seen. Jason wasn’t too worried, since it was part of the plan that they got separated for a short while, but they still didn’t have long.
Leo set his legs on top of Jason’s and stared up at him. He traced along Jason’s arm, all the way up to his neck, then softly along the underside of his jaw. Little sparks trailed down his spine, just like they always did when Leo did that.
“So… how long do you think we have before Captain Chastity comes back?”
Jason bit back a laugh at that. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Should we go find him?”
Leo rolled his eyes, then tugged him closer until he could press a soft kiss to his lips. Jason’s eyes fluttered closed for a moment, but then Leo pulled back again and said, “I think he can handle himself for five minutes. What do you think?”
“I think,” he answered, leaning in close again, knowing he was about to say the one thing that always way over-inflated Leo’s ego, “that you’re right.”
Then Leo’s mouth was on his again.
Jason was mostly happy to let Leo take the lead when it came to kissing. Being raised by literally wolves and then immediately falling into a string of leadership positions within the legion wasn’t exactly conducive to learning how physical touch works. And besides, with how guarded Leo was, it was usually a better indicator of his true mood than anything else. He might never stop cracking jokes, but his lips always betrayed him.
This kiss wasn’t like the one behind the canoe racks that time Percy almost caught them– that one was messier, and more fun. And it wasn’t like the near-desperate burn of their first kiss, either. This kiss was slower. Softer. Delicate– like he was afraid the smallest disturbance would shatter it. Shatter them.
Under all the jokes and the bravado, Jason knew how insecure Leo was about pretty much everything, even them. He was constantly asking for reassurance in small, tangible ways– mainly in the form of teasing Jason until he hauled him off somewhere to make out. Jason didn’t mind, though.
He pulled away, sucking in a breath of air and resting his forehead against Leo’s. Leo tried to pull him back for another kiss, but Jason stopped him.
“Hey,” he said, “what’s wrong?”
Leo kept his eyes closed, still leaning in, like they could just pretend there had never been an interruption in the first place. “Nothing,” he said.
“No,” Jason whispered back, “I can tell something’s up. What is it?”
He brushed a stray curl behind Leo’s ear while he waited for an answer.
“It’s just… I’m… I don’t know,” he answered. “Worried, maybe?”
“About?”
“Well, life in general, for one.”
Jason huffed out a laugh.
“But maybe us, too? Specifically?”
“What about us?” Jason asked, frowning. “Did I do something?”
“No, no…” Leo said quickly, shaking his head. “I don’t know. We’re having fun, right?”
“What do you mean? Like, having fun being chased by bloodthirsty monsters? Yeah, it’s a rip-roaring good time.”
Leo chuckled and said, “No, I mean like in general. Us. What we’re doing. We’re having fun, right?”
“Oh…” Jason replied. “I mean, yeah, I’m having fun. I like you.”
“I like you too… but is that all we’re doing? Just having fun?”
Jason frowned again. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to ask.”
Leo groaned and shoved his face in his hands, and muttered something under his breath that sounded like exasperated Spanish. Jason had been trying to learn some, so he could understand better, but all he could piece together this time was “ raised in a fucking barn …”
“It was a den, actually,” he teased. “Wolves live in dens.”
That got him a laugh, and Leo seemed to gather his thoughts again.
“I guess I just want to know where we stand,” he said. “Like I really, really enjoy sneaking around and listening to you bitch at me because you haven’t figured out how to hide a hickey–”
“Hey!”
“–but are we more than that? We were best friends, but now we’ve added this , and I don’t know what that makes us.”
“We’re still best friends,” Jason answered. “We’ll always be best friends. But we’re more than that, too.”
“Yeah, but how much more?”
He thought for a moment, trying to decide whether he should ask for what he wanted or if he should just make an executive decision. But one of the things he liked about being with Leo is that he didn’t have to make any executive decisions.
“Well,” he answered, “how much more do you want to be?”
Leo scrunched up his face. Clearly he didn’t like that answer very much, because his nose wrinkled up like he smelled something bad (which, to be fair… they were sitting in a sewer pipe. Jason leaned in quickly and kissed the tip of his nose, pulling a smile from him along with it.
“I kind of want to tell our friends,” he answered finally.
“Done.”
“And… I want to be able to hold your hand during campfire.”
“Done,” Jason repeated. He wanted those things, too.
Leo smiled. Apparently that was all the reassurance he’d been looking for. “And… maybe call you my boyfriend?”
“Hmm… does that mean I’m allowed to make more short jokes?” Jason teased, and Leo swatted at his chest, laughing.
“Absolutely not.”
He pretended to think about it for a moment, rubbing at his chin and looking up at the top of the sewer pipe above them. “Hmm…” he mused, “You drive a hard bargain, but I think that sounds fair. How about I get back to you in a few days?”
“Oh just shut up and kiss me,” Leo said, hauling him forward by the back of his neck.
“Fine,” Jason replied, feeling that messy playfulness slip back into their kiss, “but if we get caught here I’m blaming my boyfriend.”
Leo grinned wildly against his lips and said, “I think I can handle that.”