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The garden was Jason's idea, but if he'd taken a moment to think about who he was suggesting it to, he would have never opened his mouth.
Nico had stopped by (Hazel's order, no doubt), presumably to double check that Jason and Percy hadn't somehow killed each other trying out the 'domestic life' together in their teeny apartment. His offhand comment, "Seems kinda bare," got further under Jason's skin than it should have. It made him realize how little the places he'd ended up staying in had any of his personal touch. It made sense in retrospect; the cold practicality of the military was all but carved into Jason's spine, but for some reason having Nico di Angelo in his living room, pointing it out, made Jason long for at least a little decoration.
A call to Piper yielded the idea of box gardening, which Percy agreed seemed like a good fit. Growing herbs indoors was useful, and neither demigod thought it could be too hard. The trip to Walmart was enthusiastic, even if it took way too long and proved neither boy knew parsley from periwinkle.
For exactly one week, everything went smoothly. The row of green on the kitchen windowsill looked downright homey, and Percy said it reminded him of his days living with his mom in urban apartments. Jason did pretty much all of the watering, but he figured the task was so simple he could trust it to Percy while he visited his sister while she and the Hunters were in town.
Lunch with Thalia was great (as always), even if she did like to bring up memories of baby Jason that were rather embarrassing. Spending time with his sister always made Jason feel a little lighter. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but it probably had something to do with being a reminder that he was human and had family who loved him. If not that, it was because Thalia was a blast to hang out with just as herself. Jason never got tired of gently teasing her about her fear of heights.
Reasoning aside, Jason was in a really good mood that afternoon when he arrived home. Such a good mood he was in, he it took him a few moments to realize the floor of his apartment was covered an inch thick with mud. Already halfway sure of what was going on (it was Percy, after all, and a part of him was always ready to deal with that), he made his way to the kitchen to find his boyfriend frowning at a very bedraggled Rosemary plant.
"I guess I got impatient."
Percy looked up sheepishly. "It wasn't growing as fast as the people said it would, and I thought maybe more water would, y'know, speed things up? I guess I wasn't thinking, really. And then the pot flooded and I tried to put some more soil but that didn't work and I got frustrated and maybe lost a little bit of control of my powers..."
Jason sloshed over to Percy. Maybe it was the effects of lunch with Thalia, or the part of him that always expected something like this, but he actually wasn't upset this time around. Come to think if it, maybe it was how Percy looked kinda cute with his puppy dog 'I-know-I-messed-up' look. Jason smirked a little and kissed Percy's cheek.
"You can take kitchen duty tonight," he said.
Eventually Jason came to help Percy to clean up the mess, and under his sole care the little herb garden flourished. Percy vowed to never water anything ever again.
(Annabeth got a kick out of the story when Jason told her.)