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Leo was actually quite good at baking. It was similar to repairing and building for him and so he enjoyed spending time in the kitchen.
However, while he was baking cookies, he accidentally switched the sugar with salt.
When Piper tried one, her features twisted into blatant disgust. “Leo, I love you. Really. You know it do, so don’t take it personal when I say; these are absolutely revolting.”
Leo himself had not tried one yet, so he only rolled his eyes and looked around, searching for his other best friend. “Let’s ask someone with better taste.”
Piper threw the cookie at his head in response.
Spotting Jason, Leo stood up and walked over, tray with cookies in hand.
“Sparky!” He called out.
Jason, noticing him, broke out into a smile, which made Leo’s heart speed up illogically. He ignored it.
“Prepare to be awed.” Leo spoke dramatically, pushing the plate under Jason’s nose.
The blonde boy, used to his antics, only looked curious. “You baked this?” He looked back up, meeting Leo’s gaze in surprise.
Leo grinned. “You bet your pretty ass I did.”
Huffing, Jason reached out and took a cookie, biting off a piece. His eyebrows furrowed slightly for a second, before they eased out and he shrugged, taking another bite.
In the background, Leo could hear Piper mutter something but he ignored her, instead he beamed at his friend. “You like it?”
Jason nodded. “Yeah, it’s good.” As if to show he meant it, he finished the cookie without batting an eye.
Later, when Leo tried one of his own cookies, he spit them back out right away. Piper had been right; they were revolting.
—
That’s what started it all.
Piper made a bet that Jason would eat anything Leo prepared. Leo was never one to back down from a challenge, so he accepted.
The next thing he baked were brownies. Only he over baked them on purpose, added way too much butter and even mustard. Not much but enough so that you could taste it without it being suspicious. Still, it smelled weirdly like rotting fish.
Taking the brownies, he strode into the Zeus cabin without knocking. “Jay?” He called out, noticing the empty room.
“Yes?” Came from the direction of the bathroom.
Leo really, really wishes he had knocked and waited because when Jason stepped out, he was shirtless, a towel loosely placed across his shoulders. His blonde hair was wet, making it seem darker. Across the inside of his right forearm was the SPQR tattoo, with twelve straight lines and an Eagle above it.
His gaze fluttered up Jason’s arm, landing on his chest. His toned muscles were defined, still glittering with droplets of water. Grey sweatpants rested low on his hips and, great, Leo was staring.
This was ridiculous. Nobody should be this good looking, really. Ridiculous.
Leo said as much, pointing a finger directly into Jason’s chest with his free hand not holding the plate of brownies.
“You’re ridiculous. You’re ridiculously hot and nobody should look that good. It’s ridiculous.”
Leo found no other words to describe the situation. He stuck with ridiculous.
Jason’s cheeks grew red and he averted his eyes. Before Leo could embarrass himself further and use the word ridiculous one more time, he quickly held out the plate.
“I baked brownies. For you.” Great, okay. Seemed like Leo could do nothing but embarrass himself in shirtless-Jason company.
Jason’s eyebrows rose a fraction and his cheeks reddened yet he smiled pleasantly. “Really?”
He looked down, then back into Leo’s eyes. He took the plate. “Thank you.” His voice was sincere and Leo suddenly felt bad for adding the mustard. But, a bet was a bet. And he was curious if Jason would be dishonest again or if he truly had no taste buds.
Leo smiled, sure that his own cheeks were flaring in color. “You’re welcome, Superman.”
Placing the plate carefully on the bedside table, Jason rummaged through his closet. When he pulled a shirt over his head, Leo wasn’t sure wether to be disappointed or relieved.
Taking the dish back into his hand, Jason flopped down on the bed, patting the spot beside him as a sign that Leo should sit there.
Leo did. He was a weak, weak man. Sue him.
“Do you want one?” Jason asked, mentioning to he brownies as he took one for himself.
Leo shook his head. “Nah, I already had one.”
When Jason took a bite, his face consorted into a grimace. But only for such a short second that Leo would’ve missed it, had he not payed upmost attention. Jason nodded, now with a straight, pleasant face. “I like it.”
‘That dirty little liar’, Leo thought. He wondered why Jason would lie in the first place. Normally, he was honest, generally a very loyal person to the people close to him. Maybe he really had no sense of taste? That would be horrible, if so. Leo should try and fix that. He stood up abruptly.
“I will be- I need to leave.”
Leo’s heart did a painful twist at the disappointment on Jason’s face, though even that he concealed after a short moment.
“Oh, okay.”
Damn him.
“I’ll come back later.” Leo tried to assure, wanting, more than anything, to not see Jason with a frown tugging his lip down.
Acting on pure instinct alone, Leo reached forward and ruffled Jason’s hair, like one would to a particularly cute puppy.
Jason didn’t tense exactly, but his eyes widened and he stilled.
Pulling his hand away, Leo repeated; “I’ll be back.”
“It’s fine.” Jason said, but Leo doesn’t believe him. It sounded convincing, but Leo can still see the quick flash of hurt in his mind.
“Shine on, Sparky.” Leo shot him finger guns before turning around and speed-walking out.
Gods, Leo will never again forget to knock.
—
The infirmary was brightly lit, windows opened to let in a fresh breeze as the white curtains fluttered with the wind.
Leo immediately spotted the person he was looking for and sauntered over with an easy grin atop his features. “Hey, cowboy.” He greeted.
Will Solace glanced at him, then playfully rolled his eyes. “You’re from Texas as well, Valdez.”
Leo’s grin widened as he sarcastically remarked; “I wasn’t aware of that. Thank you for enlightening me.”
The son of Apollo scoffed, yet he was smiling.
“What can I help you with?”
“You have a medical record of anyone who’s ever been here, right?”
Will raised an eyebrow. “Yes…” he spoke slowly.
Leo looked at least a bit abashed. “Do you have Jason’s one?”
“Yes.” He said, even slower. “Why?”
“Does he have intact taste buds?”
Will blinked. There was a moment of silence.
Then, he answered the question as if this was a totally normal subject, as if they were talking about the weather. Leo appreciated that.
“Yes, as far as I know. But I can check again if you’d like.”
Leo smiled unfazed. “Yes, please.”
Nodding, Will wordlessly mentioned for him to follow and they walked into a different room, with a desc sitting in the center.
Will opened a drawer and after searching for a moment, pulled out an envelope, flicking through the pages.
He read silently before speaking up. “No, his taste buds are very much intact.”
Leo frowned in confusion but nodded. “Right, thanks.”
Will considered him with his head tilted to the side. “Can I ask why you want to know that?”
“I gave him salted cookies and he ate them even though they tasted disgusting. Same with brownies I made.”
Will stared at him, which made Leo feel like he was missing something. He cleared his throat.
“Right, well- no, his taste buds are fine.” Will finally said.
Leo nodded and thanked him before waking off again, back to the Zeus cabin. If Jason could taste just fine, there was nothing Leo could fix. It made him more confused than he’d been before.
—
A few days later, he tried again. This time with celery-onion muffins. They were probably the most sickening thing he ever created.
And that spoke volumes. He almost gagged at the smell of them.
He found Jason in the company of Piper and Nico, playing a card game. Smoothly, he slid into the seat next to him. “Hello, beautiful people.”
Jason beamed at him, Nico nodded politely and Piper started to grin, noticing the green muffins held in his hand. “Watcha got there?” She asked, barely concealing the humor in her voice.
Leo matched her grin. “Well, you know how I’ve taken to baking and I thought I’d try some vegetable muffins.”
Nico took one look at them and started to subconsciously lean as far away as he could.
Piper scrunched her nose. Her face seemed to say; ‘I would rather jump off a cliff than stuff those in my mouth.’ Silently, Leo agreed.
Jason was wearing that neutral facade again. Leo wondered how one person could be so sincere, or perhaps he was just oblivious. It wasn’t his taste buds at fault, Leo knew that now.
He held one particularly repelling muffin into Jason’s face. “Want one, mi cielo?”
Nodding, Jason took it nonchalantly. Both Nico and Piper were staring at him in various degrees of disgust.
No drachma or gold in the world could make Leo eat that. Jason didn’t seem to feel the same, since he took a bite. He took a fucking bite and Leo’s mouth almost dropped.
“que carajo?” He whispered to himself in a state of shock.
Piper and Nico both were matching his expression, only their mouths really did drop.
“You like it?” Leo asked, voice rougher than usual because what the actual fuck?
“Yeah, it’s not that bad.” Jason declared, taking a sip of water immediately after. And Leo knew he was lying because he did that thing were for a split second, he showed an emotion before hiding it behind a straight face.
Noticing the eyes on him, Jason furrowed his brows. “What?”
The son of Hades snapped his jaw shut, from where it had hung open, and muttered something in Italian. Leo smartly did not ask to know, because it really didn’t sound complimentary.
“That’s an entire new level of lovesick.” Nico ended up announcing. Piper nodded mutely.
Leo’s brain backtracked for a moment. “Wait, what?”
And now this got a reaction out of Jason. He coughed loudly, cheeks staring to turn pink.
“You owe me three drachmas.” Piper noted proudly, pointing a finger at a dumbfounded Leo before she stood up, taking Nico with her.
They ran off.
Leo would get his revenge later.
There’s silence.
“Why would you owe her money?” Jason asked, blush still potent on his face.
Now, it was Leo’s turn to point a finger. “Nuh-uh, mister. We’re not changing the subject.”
Weakly, Jason hit Leo’s outstretched finger away.
“What did Nico mean by ‘lovesick’?” You’re not really sick, are you?” Leo’s eyes widened. “Please tell me you don’t have Hanahaki Disease or something.”
Jason was now confused as well. “I don’t know what that is but no, I’m not sick.”
Then why would he- wait. No way
No fucking way.
“No way.” Leo voiced his thoughts in a disbelieving voice.
“Wait- no, Leo, I can explain-“ Jason seemed very nervous all of a sudden, probably having seen the realization on Leo’s face. “It’s just you said you enjoyed baking and you looked so happy and I didn’t want to take that happiness away from you.”
Leo realized that Jason hardly ever showed this much worry over anything, always the one with a brave face instead, the shoulder people leaned on. It made his heart squeeze inside his chest.
Jason continued; “I mean- the first cookies really weren’t that bad. And also I just- I though if you knew I liked, liked you, it would ruin our friendship and that’s the last thing I want, so I just didn’t- couldn’t say anything.”
Leo tried to interrupt but Jason didn’t stop rambling. “I really didn’t want it to go this way and I totally understand if you need some space because I mean this is a lot- to find out one of your best friends is in love with you and-“
Leo couldn’t take it anymore, he surged forward and effectively shut Jason up by pressing their lips together. The other boy immediately responded as if on instinct, kissing him back slowly yet roughly, as if he wanted to savor the moment. Leo’s lips parted and he combed his fingers through the hair at the nape of Jason’s neck while Jason gripped his waist, pushing their body’s together until there was no space left between them.
Tingles slid over his entire body and when Jason gently bit his lower lip, he couldn’t help it, he let out a little gasp. Leo didn’t want to stop, but he suddenly remembered that they were very much in public, so he pulled back, lips sore and swollen.
His heat skipped a beat when his gaze connected with Jason’s. His normally electric blue eyes were darkened, resembling storm clouds and his pupils were dilated.
His cheeks were flushed, his hair messy from where Leo had moved his fingers through it.
Gods, Leo wanted to kiss him, again and again and again. Some of his desires must’ve shown on his face, because Jason made a soft, little noise from the back of his throat, equal parts disbelieving and hopeful.
“Does it seem like I need space?” Leo’s voice was rough and uneven from the train of emotions.
Jason shook his head, seemingly unable to form coherent words.
“You’re an idiot.” Leo said, then kissed him again.