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It started simple. Little lingering glances that went mostly unnoticed, handshakes that lasted a second too long, or asking for help from one another one too many times. Nothing concrete. They'd been through literal war together, and they were best friends, so it made sense. They needed each other, as much as the other seven needed one another.
Then it became more noticeable. Nico was the first to realize.
He'd come out of his cabin to go find Annabeth, wanting to pitch some new ideas for decorations to he thought may look nice on said cabin. While making his way to the big house, he stumbled upon Jason and Leo, working on a new arch at the dining Pavilion. Jason had Leo by the waist, and they were floating over the uncarved marble, discussing what would look best.
Nico brushed it off at first, rolling his eyes at the older boys and making his way up the hill from the pavilion, when, by chance, something caught his eye. An Eagle. As he glanced back at it, he followed its path to Jason and Leo, who were much closer than he'd initially thought. He grimaced in unpleasant surprise as the Eagle landed on Leo's head, and they floated down. Leo was shouting and swatting at the Eagle who was unmoving from his head, while Jason was laughing harder than Nico had ever seen him laugh.
Nico realized.
Annabeth found out soon after.
She had been working on schematics with her cabin, Vulcan campers, and cabin 9, adding and removing design elements to cabins and buildings at New Rome. She was trying to figure out the logistics of more statues the god Terminus could inhabit, possibly with arms, when she saw Leo slip out quietly.
When she was done with the topic, she suggested a snack and design break, which was welcomed with open arms by the other hungry campers. She slipped out the back and stormed off to see where Leo had disappeared to. She was angry he had decided he could just leave whenever he wanted, this was important work.
She made her way around the Big House, trying to figure out where he'd run off to, when she stumbled upon him, sitting against the big house, eyes red and a bit puffy.
Holding hands with Jason.
They both turned to her, Leo still crying quietly, and Jason looking a bit disgruntled at her sudden intrusion.
She quickly excuses herself, cursing her curiosity. She felt bad for walking in on such an intimate moment, like she was an intruder. Well, probably because she was.
She made her way back into the Big House. Leo made his way in about a half hour later, looking fine, if not a little pink. They made eye contact, but she did not dare to bring it up and embarrass him.
Annabeth knew.
Hazel was the next to know.
Hazel was walking with Frank, hand in hand, as he talked about the new ideas he had for the Fifth Cohort yard. She was so entranced in his voice that she hadn't realized Leo was running towards them until Frank pulled her out of his way.
Leo ran past them with a quick "Hi-Hazel-Bye-Hazel-Hi-Frank-Bye-Frank! " as he made a mad dash from the direction he came. She exchanged a puzzled glace with Frank, who shrugged it off with "Leo's weird, " and they continued on their way, happily talking once more.
As they made their way forward, they stumbled upon Reyna and Jason. Even being a good 15 feet away, they could hear her shouting at the blonde boy, who seemed ashamed. "-UNDER THE GUISE OF REMODELING?! " She yelled at him. Hazel had never seen her so angry at the son of Jupiter. "The stables are for unicorns, not-"
"But we were remodeling! " Jason argued, and Hazel could tell the closer she got how red he was. His hair was messed up, and he seemed a little disheveled.
"Oh, sure. That was definitely your main goal, silly me. " Reyna rolled her eyes and tapped her foot, crossing her arms as she glared daggers at Jason.
He sputtered in defense about how "they hadn't even done anything", and " we WERE working", and Hazel knew they should definitely make their way away.
It wasn't until later, while trying to sleep, that she realized what Jason and Reyna had been discussing so heatedly. And why Leo had booked it out of there.
Hazel knew. And so did Reyna, Apparently.
It wasn't that hard for Frank to gather what had been going on in the stables the day before. Especially after catching Leo smirking at Jason, who rolled his eyes playfully at the shorter boy.
So Frank knew too.
Percy figured it out next.
It wasn't too hard, they weren't being very subtle anymore. Glances that lasted a few seconds too long turned into short gazes into each other's eyes, handshakes were swapped out for hugs, and they spent almost all their free time with each other. Hell, sometimes they'd spend time that WASN'T free with one another, too.
But what really clued Percy in was when he'd seen them nearly kiss.
After going to the lake to talk to the Naiads about possibly adding a gazebo to the lakefront, he'd decided to head for his cabin. On the way there, he decided to make a pit stop at Jason's cabin, to ask if he'd seen Leo, and discuss the Gazebo plans further.
He knocked, but no answer. He waited, knocked again, but nothing. He glanced around the side of the cabin, just to see if luck would have him, and it did. Sort of.
He peeked around to see Leo and Jason, clearly entranced in some conversation, meer inches from one another, flushed in intense conversation as their eyes seemed to see nothing but one another. He squeaked a bit in surprise and booked it out of there.
Percy put two and two together after that.
Piper clued in last, ironically.
Throughout all of this, which Piper had seen and heard of at a distance, she had been the one to assume no romance was taking place. She thought, even if there was, it wasn't really her place to see or do anything, anyway. It wasn't her business.
As the camp settled by the hearth for the last bonfire sing along of the summer, Piper sang loudly and happily with her cabin, sparing a glance back at where she knew Jason and Leo would be sitting.
And hidden under the crowd of cheering and singing campers, Jason and Leo were kissing- a soft kiss that Piper could see was full of nothing but love and adoration for one another.
Piper quickly looked away, not wanting to intrude on their moment, but she smiled to herself.
They'd make a good couple.