Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy’s intense concentration on attempting to frost a bright blue cake was broken by the sound of his phone buzzing on the counter next to him, which he probably would’ve ignored if not for the face, and name that popped up on the screen, Jason Grace, with his face beaming out from the photo below the name. Percy looked at the photo for a moment, it was taken on a weekend trip he, Jason, and the rest of the Heroes had taken, to the Adirondacks, probably about a year ago, probably the last time they had all been together. He quickly slid his finger across to pick up the call.

“Why the hell is New York so cold?” Percy heard mumbling through the phone speaker.

He smiled, “It’s not even that bad, Grace, maybe California’s made you weak,”

Jason scoffed, “Or maybe your city is just too cold for normal people to live in,”

Percy laughed, “Good thing, neither you nor I are normal,”

“Mmmmm, funny,” was the only thing Jason said in response, Percy figured the cold had just frozen his sense of humor.

“Are you almost here?” Percy asked.

“I think I’m like a block away, but you couldn’t have gotten me a cab? Your apartment is like 2 miles from the airport,”

“Nope, you can walk Jason, you’re a big boy”

“But you couldn’t have at least gotten a ride, for me, your best bud??” Jason said with faux astonishment.

Percy rolled his eyes, “Hurry up,”

The two friends had not seen each other in two months. Their lives on either coast had ended up getting too busy, so finally when both of them had a break for the winter holidays, Percy had invited Jason to come to stay in his apartment for the week.

“I’m trying!” Jason said, “What do you even have planned for me this week?”

“I don’t know just like the classic city stuff,” Percy glanced over to the fridge where he’d stuck a scrawled list of various things he wanted to do with Jason over their week together, and then back to his half iced cake, which he had planned to have done by the time Jason had arrived.

“We gonna go on a date?” Jason said, and Percy could hear the smile through the phone.

“Sure,” Percy said, smiling even though Jason didn’t really mean it like that, “I’ve got a nice restaurant picked out and everything,”

“Italian?”

“You know it!”

“I’m turning onto your block now,”

“Alright,” Percy said, quickly setting his phone down and putting it on speaker, before turning to the cake and attempting to finish the layer of icing before Jason arrived.

“You’re 5A right?”

“Mhmm” Percy said as he continued to slather icing across the cake, rather feverishly at this point.

Percy heard the elevator ding through the phone. He didn’t have much time now.

“You okay, Jackson?”

“Uhh…yeah,”

“Some weird sounds coming from your end, Jackson” Jason said, and Percy blushed.

“You’ll see when you get here,”

“What does that mean??” Jason asked with a laugh.

Percy shrugged, before remembering Jason couldn’t see him, “You’ll see,”

The elevator dinged again.

Percy did a final touch-up before wiping off the spatula and moving the cake to a better spot on the counter. Then, there came the knock on the door. Percy picked up his phone, “I wonder who’s at my door,”

“I don’t know must be a package or something,”

“Oh it's a package all right,” Percy said as he opened the door to reveal Jason smirking at him, with his phone up to his ear.

“Goodbye,” Jason said before hanging up the call.

Percy looked him up and down, “No wonder you’re so cold,”

Jason was only wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, and Percy reluctantly had to say he still pulled it off.

Jason looked down at his outfit, “Well, I don’t own a coat,”

Percy gestured for him to come inside the apartment, “You can borrow one of mine for the week, I guess,”

Jason stepped inside and looked around, “I haven’t been here in a while,”

Percy smiled, “It hasn’t really changed,”

Jason shook his head, “I don’t know, there is a blue mound of something on the counter over there,”

Percy glanced over at the cake and smiled, and Jason turned to look at him, “That’s probably where that little smudge of blue came from too then too,” he said pointing to Percy’s forehead.

Percy blushed and tried to scrub the icing off his forehead, and Jason laughed, “You’re just making it worse hold on,” he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a paper towel, and wet it in the sink. He walked back out of the kitchen and stood in front of Percy, carefully wiping the icing off. Their faces were only inches apart, and Percy could smell Jason’s cologne. Woodsy but with a hint of a citrusy zing, somehow just like Jason, Percy realizes as he subconsciously fills his lungs with the scent before quickly exhaling.

“There…” Jason said, with a smirk.

They stand there for a second kind of staring at each other before Percy breaks away and walks into the kitchen, over to the cake, “I worked so hard on this, for you to just call it a blue mound,”

Jason shrugged and put up his hands, “I’m sorry, Jackson I didn't know you’d made it just for me, I’m sure it tastes good,”

Percy smiled sheepishly, “I did use a box mix, so it’s kinda hard to mess up,”

Jason smiled back, “I still feel like you could…”

Percy shakes his head, “Be careful, I’ll kick you out and you’ll be all alone in the big city,”

Jason nodded, “Mmmmm,” he said as he walked back out of the kitchen and grabbed his bags off the floor, where they had been abandoned after he’d gone all mom-cleaning mode on Percy’s forehead.

“Where should I put my stuff?”

Percy glanced around, and then checked his watch, “Well, I had planned on us going for a walk right about now, so you can just toss them in the living room,”

“Alright,” Jason said with a smile, walking into the cramped but cozy living room and dropping his bags on the couch, “Where are we walking?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know,” Percy said, “I was thinking just around the neighborhood,”

Jason nodded.

“I’ll take you to my favorite stores and stuff.

“I get to live the life of the great Percy Jackson!!”

Percy nodded, “But let’s get you a coat first,” and he gestured to Jason to follow him into his bedroom.

Once they had made their way down the short hallway and entered the room, Jason glanced around as Percy rummaged through his closet. Percy looked back to see Jason studying the crowded shelves that lined one wall, and then glancing over to the cluttered desk that sat in the corner.

“I didn’t really have time to clean,” he said, still digging for a coat.

“I like it like this. It feels more like you,” Jason said softly.

Percy stopped his rummaging for a moment, and turned to face Jason, “Are you calling me messy, Grace?”

“No.” Jason said with a smile, “I just feel like prim and proper Percy doesn’t feel like the real Percy,” he paused, “And that’s who I’m here to see,”

“Well…” Percy said, “Good luck finding him, I don’t really let him out that much,”

“Well…” Jason said, “I think you should, I think I’d like him,”

Percy turned back into the closet. He wasn’t really sure if Jason knew what “real” Percy meant. The feelings that “real” Percy had would not be something that Jason would want. Percy dug around a little more and finally found the coat he was looking for, dragging it out with a triumphant smile. Jason had sat down on the bed and continued to study the room, and jumped when Percy had tossed the coat into his lap.

“Ready?”

Jason stood up and quickly put the coat on, “Yeppers,”

Percy laughed, “Dork,”

The two walked out of the apartment, and down the narrow hallways of Percy’s old apartment building and into the dingily lit elevator. They waited as the doors creaked closed and they were left with only the buzzing of the fluorescents and the noise of the building moving by. Percy caught Jason staring at him out of the corner of his eye.

“What?” he said.

Jason shook his head, “Nothing,” before turning away. Percy noticed a tinge of what he thought might be sadness.

When the elevator had finally creaked its way down to the first floor, it dinged and they stepped out into the light of the sun through the front doors of the building. Jason shivered when they stepped out onto the street, even with Percy’s jacket.

“Let’s get some coffee, and warm you back up,” Percy said.

Jason nodded stiffly.

They walked on to Percy’s favorite local coffee shop, a quaint but vibrant little corner shop that he had found a year or two back. They got inside and Jason began to bask in the warmth of the small shop. Percy ordered first, and he noticed one of the female baristas staring at him, blushing when he glanced at her. He smiled back, and then turned to Jason, expecting a similar reaction. Jason’s face was not smiling, however, showing more of a stormy steeled expression. Percy’s smile faded.

“What size was that?” the barista at the register asked.

“Oh sorry!” Percy shook himself out of his head, “Medium, please,”

The barista nodded, and turned to look at Jason, “And you?”

“Oh…uhh,” Jason scanned the menu quickly, he might’ve gotten distracted while trying to find a drink to order.

Percy stepped in with a smile, “He’ll have an earl grey lavender latte, medium as well,”

The barista nodded and set off to make their drinks. Jason gave Percy a grateful smile.

“You’re so smooth, you know, Grace?”

“Well so are you!” Jason said, a hint of something off in his voice, “That girl was totally staring right at you!”

“Oh,” Percy laughed nervously, “Uh..yeah,”

“You should get her number or something!”

“Uhh..nah..probably not,” Percy said

“Why not?”

“I’m not really looking for that right now,” Percy said awkwardly. “Real” Percy would say he’s not really looking for a girl, but “real” Percy was still at home looking through coats.

“Mmmmm…” Jason said.

“What about you?” Percy said, “Anyone new in your romantic life?”

“Eh, not me either,” Jason said, looking down into his lap “Haven’t been on a date in months,”

“Until now,” Percy said, with some kind of confidence he wasn’t aware he had.

Jason looked up and smiled, “Is that what this is, Jackson?”

Percy blushed.

“I fly out here for you to use me as a surrogate boyfriend?”

Percy blushed even harder at the word, boyfriend.

“I never said surrogate, Jason,” Percy said, his voice shaking a little.

The two stared at each other for a second, before the barista called their names for their drinks which had been set neatly on the wooden counter of the shop. The two broke eye contact and walked over to grab their drinks.

“Uhh,” Percy said, “Wanna wander and look at some shops?”

Jason nodded, so they exited the coffee shop

They wandered down the street for a block before Percy stopped Jason and led him inside another cozy shop, this time a bookstore. Jason looked around, there were shelves up to the ceiling, all overflowing with books of all genres, used and new.

The guy behind the counter smiled at Percy, “Hey, Percy!”

Percy smiled back, “Hey Jack!”

“You coming to book club this week?”

Percy glanced back to Jason, “I don’t think so, I got a guest from Cali here, I’ve got to entertain all week,”

Jack smiled at Jason, and held out his hand, “Jack, nice to meet you!”

Jason shook his hand, “Jason,”

“What’s the book this week though?” Percy said.

Jack glanced down at a paper on the desk, “Uhhh, Call Me By Your Name,”

“Oh” Percy raised his eyebrows, and nervously glanced at Jason, “Interesting pick”
Jack shrugged, “Mason picked it, not me”

“Mmmmm” Percy said, “What’s he up to?”

“He’s at some kind of conference upstate, but he’s getting home tonight, cause it's our anniversary dinner!”

Percy smiled, “Nice!! Congrats!”

Jack smiled.

While Jack and Percy talked, Jason wandered away among the stacks and browsed through the books slowly making his way across the store and to the back wall where a large bulletin board was decorated with various flyers from the community. Jason’s eyes flicked across it but a smiling face caught his eye, Percy. It was a flyer with little rainbow flags in the corners, with “LGBTQIA+ Book Club” written in big blocky letters across the top.

Jason was surprised. He didn’t know Percy was actually gay, he’d always thought he was just joking around. If Percy was gay, maybe all that flirting was real. Jason could feel himself start to sweat, this made everything all too real for him. But now that he really started to think about it, maybe Percy had been dropping hints for years now.

Jason turned and walked back to the front of the store, where Percy and Jack were laughing and talking, presumably about books. As Jason approached the counter, Percy glanced over at him and must’ve seen something in his expression, “You okay?

Jason forced a smile, “Yeah!”

Percy’s eyes narrowed slightly and turned back to Jack, “Well, we’ll see about book club, and it was nice to see you! I’m gonna take Jason around the rest of the block!”

Jack smiled, “Have fun guys!” Percy and Jason waved as they walked towards the door, “Nice to meet you Jason” Jack called out as they stepped out.

When they were back out in the cold

“You ok back there?” Percy said.

“Uh…yeah,”

“Did someone scare you in the stacks?”

Jason laughed, “No, I’m too big and strong to be scared”

Percy smiled, “You’re big alright,”

Jason’s draw dropped in mock shock, “Percy Jackson! How rude!”

Percy shrugged, “Sorry bud,”
“Ughhh I’ll get you back later don’t worry,”

The pair wandered Percy’s neighborhood for a little while longer, stopping in a few more of Percy’s frequent stops, including a plant store where they got into an argument about lavender.

The sun was beginning to set when Percy finally decided that Jason had been in the cold long enough and they trudged back through the cold to his apartment.

Once they had made it back inside, Jason settled down to thaw, and Percy set about to making cocoa for the two of them. Percy carefully carried a tray with two steaming mugs of hot cocoa, with heaping piles of whipped cream on top.

Jason smiled and grabbed a mug off the tray, “Thanks Perce”

Percy smiled a little at the nickname, and flopped down on the couch next to “Wanna watch a movie?”

“Hmmm sure”

“What do you want to watch?”

“Dance Moms,” Jason said with a smirk.

Percy’s mouth fell open, and he turned to Jason, “What? ”he blinked in surprise, “What happened to ‘Percy why would we watch that, that’s so stupid’, where did that Jason go?”

Jason shrugged, “I had a lot of free time, and might’ve started binging…”

Percy smiled, and put his hand on Jason’s shoulder, “Well then,”

He pulled up Dance Moms on the TV, picked a random episode, and hit play, and the two settled in to watch the show.

Jason really tried to watch it, but he had seen the episodes before, and he was becoming increasingly aware of Percy’s head dipping closer and closer to resting right on his shoulder, as the activities of the long day took a toll, and began to tire him out. A few minutes go by, and Percy’s head is now resting directly on Jason’s shoulder, and Jason tentatively leans his head on top of Percy’s, smiling when he hears the other boy let out a contented sigh. And Jason can’t stop smiling, and it's not because of Abby’s freakout on screen.

Two more episodes pass by and Jason is still smiling, but he glances down and sees Percy’s eyes are almost completely shut, “Do you wanna go to bed?”

Percy nods sleepily, and Jason carefully helps him off the couch, and he ends up slowly walking Peryc back to his bedroom, Percy’s slim frame fully leaning onto Jason. Jason carefully leaned Percy onto his bed, and tucked him in carefully, before closing the curtains to close off the city from the tired boy in front of him. After he made sure Percy was comfortable, he then quietly padded back across the floor to the door and began to close it behind him.

“Where are you going?” he heard Percy say from behind him.

He whipped his head around, and whispered back, “To the couch,”

Percy sat up in bed, “You’re not gonna sleep on the couch”

Jason shrugged, “It’s really fine, Percy”

The boy stubbornly shook his head, “You can sleep here,”

Jason raised his eyebrows, and Percy blushed, “I’ll sleep on the couch,”

This time it was Jason’s turn to shake his head, “I’m not gonna make you sleep out there!”

Percy narrowed his eyes, stepped out of bed, and made his way across the room to stand with his arms crossed in front of Jason, having to tilt his head to make eye contact, “Well, I am.”

He then tried to (unsuccessfully) shove his way through the doorframe past Jason, “Jackson, go to bed,” Jason said, smiling as he watched the other boy helplessly try to get through.

“No!”

“Okay, okay…let’s just share the bed,”

“Oh…uh”

“Perce, that seems to be the only solution here, you don’t want me to sleep on the couch, and I don’t want you to sleep on the couch,”

Percy seemed to weigh the options in his head, before finally nodding, and nervously padding back to the bed. Jason followed behind him and slid beneath the covers next to him.

“Good night, Jason,” Percy whispered.

“Good night, Percy” Jason whispered back.

The two drifted to sleep just inches apart. The hum of the city fading as they both lost consciousness.

Chapter Text

Percy’s eyes fluttered open, and he blinked a few times to clear his vision. He lifted his head off his pillow and glanced around before finding out that his pillow was really Jason’s chest. The two boys had curled into each other during the night, and Percy realized how natural it felt to just be lying on Jason’s chest, the faint scent of his cologne still lingering from the day before. He settled his head back down and tried to savor it as best he could. He drifted back to sleep, for probably only a few minutes before he awoke to Jason stirring beneath him.

“Morning, Percy” Jason said, and Percy could feel his morning voice rumble in his chest.

Percy glanced up at Jason, who looked down at him with a smile, “Comfortable?”

Percy blushed, “Yeah,”
Their faces were so close together, and Percy thought maybe just for a moment they were about to kiss, but he shook that off, and sat up in bed, and looked back to Jason, “What do you want for breakfast?”

“Can I make something?” Jason said with a smirk

Percy scrunched his eyes up, “Based on your track record, I don’t think I should let you,”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Ugh it was one time! And it wasn’t even that big of a fire!! I’ll just make something simple like French toast,”

Percy reluctantly nodded and started to clamber out of bed but Jason grabbed his arm, “Breakfast in bed, Princess”

Percy blushed and Jason’s from grew. He walked out to the kitchen and Percy was left with his thoughts, which he quickly drowned out with doomscrolling on his phone. He could smell the scent of butter and cinnamon wafting through the house and his stomach grumbled at the temptation. Eventually, Jason walked back into the room carrying a tray, carefully balancing a plate heaped with French toast into the room.

Percy sat up in bed and set his phone aside, “Mmmm, smells good Grace!”

Jason smiled, “And there was no fire!”

Percy laughed, “Let’s make that a consistent theme,”

Jason set the tray down on the bed and shuffled the plate around on it.

“Here have a bite,” Jason said, holding out a fork for Percy to eat from.

“Do you have to feed it to me?” Percy said.

Jason smiled widely, “Yup!”

Percy tentatively moved forward to take the bite as Jason fed him the bite of syrupy French toast.

“Oh, Jackson you got a little something,” Jason said, setting the fork down and grabbing a napkin. “It took you one bite to make a mess,” he said as he reached up and brushed Percy’s face, and looked him dead in the eyes as he wiped the bit of syrup off of his lips.

Their faces were once again just inches apart. Percy saw Jason glance down at his lips and then back up to his eyes, and the world seemed to freeze for a moment, as the two just looked at each other.

“Jason, I…”

Then, Jason leaned forward and kissed Percy. When they pulled apart, they both looked away.

“Jason…” Percy started.

Jason held his hand up, and shook his head,” I’m sorry Percy, I should’ve asked, and now I’ve probably just made you really uncomfortable,”

“Jason, no!” Percy said, his face all scrunched up, “I didn’t mind it…it was just a little sudden”

“You didn’t mind it?”

Percy looked into his lap and shook his head.

“D-do you wanna do it again?” Jason said.

Percy looked up, his face was flushed red, “Yes,”

Jason smirked and leaned over, and kissed Percy again, this time a much deeper kiss that lasted a little longer, and when they finally pulled apart, Jason whispered to Percy, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,”

“How long?” Percy said.

Jason shrugged, “Maybe about five years. You?”

“Like forever,” Percy said, sheepishly.

Jason laughed, “Well, I’m sorry it took us so long to get there,”

“I guess all of that flirting and joking over the years, wasn’t really ever joking,”

Jason shook his head, “I guess not.”

The two sat together and finished the plate of French toast, and Jason carried the tray back out to the kitchen and set it in the sink to wash it all off. As he began to scrub the plate and silverware down in the soapy water, he heard Percy walk into the kitchen behind him.

“Why did you kiss me exactly?”

Jason stopped, and turned around, his face confused.

“I-I’ve just had guys do this kinda thing before, where they kiss me but then want nothing to do with me the next day,”

Jason walked across the kitchen and hugged Percy, “Percy, I kissed you because your my best friend, and I don’t want us to just be friends anymore. I love being around you, and I’m sorry you’ve had guys treat you wrong in the past, but I hope to not be one of those guys,”

When the two pulled out of the hug, Jason noticed tears in Percy’s eyes, “Perce, don’t cry!”

“No, it was just really sweet,” Percy said, wiping the tears away.

“I do have one question though,” Jason said.

“What?”

“Will you officially be my boyfriend?”

Percy smiled, “Yes.”
Jason smiled back, “We should go out and do something fun to celebrate!”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I’ll keep it a secret, till we get there…”

Jason finished washing the dishes, and the two bundled up to leave, walking out of Percy’s apartment and down the hall.

The two stepped into the elevator, and Percy pressed the G button.

“You know I’ve been thinking about how we’ve wasted like 5 years crushing on each other,”

Percy laughed.

“If we’d just gotten our shit together, and realized we both liked each other we could’ve gotten past all of this a while back,”

Percy shrugged, “Neither you nor I are normal people like that though,” he paused, “We got to take our time,”

Jason smiled, “An annoyingly long amount of time,” then he leaned over and kissed Percy, “And now I finally get to just to that,”

Percy smiled and followed his boyfriend out of the elevator. He knew things weren’t going to be perfect forever, he knew Jason would have to go back to California at some point, but while he still was here with him, everything was going to be perfect, no matter what happened.