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Jason’s birthday was rapidly approaching, and Leo was going to make sure that everything was perfect. Due to Jason being kidnapped at the age of two (screw you, Hera), raised by wolves, and raised as a child soldier, he never got to celebrate his birthday. The poor guy didn't even know when his birthday was, at least not until after Thalia told him. Not to mention, the first chance he got to celebrate it was ruined by fighting crazy twin giants, nearly being drowned by nymphs, and watching Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus. Definitely not the most ideal sixteenth birthday. So, being the great best friend that he is, Leo was determined to give him the best seventeenth birthday to ever exist. Now, he just had to figure out how.
It's not like he had no idea what Jason would like, more so that he couldn't afford to fuck it up because Jason deserves the world. Unfortunately this meant a lot of stressing. Definitely too much stressing for Leo's liking. Unfortunately for Leo, Jason has always been a little too good at reading him. It felt very scary, but also very warm and gooey having someone truly see him. So when Jason was helping him (unsuccessfully) fetch tools while in Bunker 9 with him, Leo was not surprised when Jason caught on.
“Leo, what's going on? You've been a bit… off today,” Jason said, the concern evident in his voice. His eyebrows furrowed, nose scrunched, and his head tilted to the side like a puppy.
Leo continued hammering for a moment before responding, “I'm just tired, Jace. No need to worry, horrible sleep schedule and all.” Jason didn't look convinced. There was another beat of silence before Jason spoke up again.
“We could just hang out at the strawberry fields or my cabin if you'd like,” he suggested. “We could do something more low-key if you're that tired. After all, you have been working for quite a few hours today.”
Leave it to Jason to be generously kind all the time. You'd think that after a year of being friends with Jason, and going on a world-saving mission with him Leo would be used to this by now, but he very much was not. Leo chose to ignore the warm feeling and fluttering of his stomach that he got at the thought of Jason's genuine concern. It's not like Jason was the only person who checks in on him after he's been in Bunker 9 all day, but he's the only one who regularly checks in, and helps him with fetching tools (no matter how many tries it takes him to get the right ones), and just generally keeps him company. After almost losing him during Apollo’s quest (long story), Leo was more than happy to have Jason by his side almost 24/7. Spending so much time with Jason also meant not having time to properly think about what he was going to do for Jason’s birthday, but he also wasn't entirely lying about being tired, and he decided there were worse ways to spend his time.
“Alright, you win Jace. I'll go to the strawberry fields with you,” Leo said, rolling his eyes but unable to fight the smile off of his face. Clearly, neither was Jason, because his face lit up with joy like an excited puppy at Leo's response. Leo's smile only grew at the sight of Jason's excitement, gods he was such a dork, but it was one of the things Leo loved about him.
As it turns out, Jason wasn't exaggerating about Leo being in Bunker 9 for a while, because the sun was already starting to set. Once they got to the strawberry fields, they sat next to each other, cross legged. A comfortable silence settled between them, or as silent as the fields could be when they could hear the faint sound of campers doing their usual evening camp activities, the rustling of the monsters in the woods, the chirping of the birds, and Leo tinkering with metal scraps. Leo liked these moments between him and Jason. After everything that they've dealt with their entire lives, and especially after the chaos of stopping Gaea last summer, it was nice to have a little peace. This didn't mean that Leo was completely still, after all like all demigods Leo had ADHD, and was bound to fidget.
After sitting for a while, Leo felt Jason's hand lightly brush his, before ultimately settling on top of Leo's hand. Leo tensed up for a moment, before easing into the contact. Leo's gaze drifted from the sunset to their hands, and the way that something about it felt and looked so right. Then, Leo's gaze shifted to Jason himself. The way his blue eyes closely resemble the sky on a sunny day. Bright, but so soft. The way his blonde hair has grown out recently, and was practically glowing in the sunlight. The ever-present scar on his upper lip and his content smile. Leo absent mindedly wondered how the scar would feel against his own lips.
Wait. Oh. Oh.
Leo's eyes widened in shock at the realization, and he quickly looked away. Before Leo could process his feelings, Jason broke the silence.
“We should head to the mess hall for dinner now,” He sighed. “We wouldn't want to worry anyone, and we should eat,” Jason offered Leo a smile and his hand. Leo took Jason’s hand, and he tried to not think about how quick his pulse got as Jason helped him up. As Jason dragged Leo by his sleeve to the mess hall, Leo realizes that his feelings aren't sudden or unfamiliar. They've been simmering beneath the surface for a while. As Leo sits with his siblings from the Hephaestus table, he tries to joke around with them like he normally does, but in the back of his mind, all he can think about is the fact that he's been in love with his best friend for much longer than he'd like to admit.
“Okay, as you know it's almost Jason's birthday. And as his best friends, we are legally obligated to give him the best present ever. C’mon, throw some ideas at me,” Leo said.
Leo realizes that he’s probably being a bit overenthusiastic, because instead of answering his question, Piper says, “Leo, I know something's up, and it's not just brainstorming for Jason's birthday.”
“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Leo lied.
“Leo,” Piper warned, not maliciously, but still firm. Curse Piper and her stupid best friend power of being to read Leo so well. Not as well as Jason, but pretty damn close.
“Fine,” Leo sighed. “I may or may not have been hanging out with Jason yesterday at the strawberry fields, and I may or may not have discovered that I'm very in love with him,” Leo added quickly, before he could take it back.
“Seriously? That's what you've been worried about?” Piper asked.
Leo felt his jaw drop, because out of every way she could've responded, he hadn't been expecting… whatever this was.
“Look Leo, you know me and Jason ended on good terms right? I realized that I'm a lesbian, and those feelings for Jason weren't exactly romantic. I love him, yes—but platonically,” Piper clarified.
“Wait, wait, wait—back up for a sec there—you're a lesbian?” Leo asked, baffled at how this had never actually come up in conversation before. Leo had admittedly not asked further questions about the breakup, having heard that it was on good terms and their little trio would remain intact. Something he wasn't exactly proud to admit, was that he felt relieved at the news that his two best friends had broken up. At first, he thought it was simply because he wouldn't be a third wheel anymore, which sure, was also true, but in hindsight… it's become a bit clearer as to why he really felt that way. And the reasoning behind it was definitely not very heterosexual.
“Oh shit, I just realized I never actually told you that part. Slipped my mind, I guess,” Piper muttered.
“Well, congrats on figuring that out, Pipes. Seriously, I mean it. I don't blame you for not telling me, after all, I never asked either of you for details,” Leo replied.
“Let's focus on the more important part here—you barely realized that you like Jason?” Piper looked genuinely surprised. Leo's face starts feeling a lot warmer than what's probably normal, even for him as someone who literally wields fire.
“I— what's that supposed to mean?!” Leo spluttered. He started grabbing metal scraps from his tool belt to tinker with, not knowing what else to do with his hands.
“You're not exactly subtle about it,” Piper said with a knowing grin.
“Oh, shut up,” Leo scowled, before starting to grin himself. “Let's focus on the actual important part—Jason's birthday.”
“Okay, okay, you're right. I'll stop. For now," Piper said, though she didn't sound very convincing. “Although, now that we're on the topic of breakups—” Leo interrupted her with a groan, knowing exactly where this was going. “I feel like you were very vague about why you and Calypso broke up,” Piper finished, choosing to ignore Leo's avoidance of the topic.
Leo had intentionally been vague about the breakup with Calypso. Leo loved her, but after getting her off of Ogygia, Calypso had begun acting increasingly rude and annoyed with him. Admittedly, he did talk a lot about Jason and Piper. But who could blame him? They're his best friends and he hadn't seen them in months. It didn't help that when he finally got to see them again, Jason was awfully close to death, as a result of the former Roman emperor Caligula's attempt to kill Jason. Leo stayed with Jason, because why wouldn't he? Jason was in critical condition, and there was no way Leo was going to just abandon him. That seemed to be the breaking point for Calypso. Looking back, Calypso had probably picked up on his feelings for Jason, way sooner than he had at that, and was not happy about it. Leo was over her now, but he still doesn't like talking about her.
“Seriously, we should figure out what we're doing for Jason's birthday,” Leo said at last.
“Well, do you have any ideas?” Piper asked.
“Jason hasn't really had the chance to have a birthday party, or really do anything fun for his birthday before,” Leo started. “Did he get to do any ‘normal’ teenager stuff before the whole Apollo-quest-situation?” Leo asked, vaguely gesturing with his hands to get his point across.
“Not really, to be completely honest,” She replied. “Well as you know, after we thought you died, Jason and I kept looking for you. We looked a lot. Chiron had to force us to stop looking. He obviously didn't actually do it forcefully, but you get my point. He wanted us to try going back to mortal school—which would actually be Jason's first time going to a mortal school. Going to school was the closest he came to that.”
Whenever anyone reminded Leo of the fact that Piper and Jason didn't stop looking for him until they were basically forced to, Leo's heart swelled. He knows it happened, but it still makes him feel all warm and fuzzy to have people who care so much about him. Suddenly, Leo had an idea.
“You have a license, right?” Leo asked.
“Yeah,” Piper replied hesitantly.
“Good, because I know just the thing.”
Leo would've loved to invite their other friends, but Hazel and Frank were busy with Praetor duties at Camp Jupiter, and Percy and Annabeth were busy packing for New Rome University already. It was barely July. So, Jason's birthday will be spent solely with Piper and Leo.
“Can you please tell me where we're going?” Jason pleaded.
“Nope! Remember, it's a surprise!” Leo replied. Leo was sure Jason rolled his eyes underneath his blindfold, but he also looked excited. Leo had been stressing so much about what he was going to plan for Jason's birthday, but this hadn't even crossed his mind until his conversation with Piper the other day. It's so obvious that he's genuinely surprised that he hadn't thought of it sooner.
“How did you even get permission from Chiron to leave camp?” Jason asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
“Don't worry about it, Jace. Plus, we're almost there!” Leo said with a grin.
About ten minutes later, the trio arrived at the parking lot. As Piper got out of the driver's seat, Leo helped Jason get out of the car, with Jason's blindfold still on. Leo took the blindfold off, and dramatically gestured at the amusement park.
“Happy birthday, Jace! I figured you've never been to an amusement park, so what better time to come other than your birthday! Behold!” Leo announced. Jason chuckled softly at Leo's theatrics, and Leo could've sworn he saw a light blush on Jason's pale cheeks.
“Wow… I… thank you guys. Seriously,” Jason said, looking at the amusement park in awe.
“C’mon guys, we came for the amusement park—not the parking lot,” Piper said, rolling her eyes fondly. Jason looked at Leo, his wide grin and soft look making Leo lightheaded. Leo shook himself to clear his head. He couldn't afford to think about how pretty Jason's eyes looked, or how just seeing him smile made him giddy. Today was all about ensuring Jason had fun with his two best friends. A platonic trio hangout. Leo's not-so-platonic feelings for Jason would have to be set aside for now.
Piper grabbed both of them and dragged them to the park entrance. Leo thought that a good first ride for Jason would be the swings. It was a pretty tame ride, and is pretty high up in the air, which is not a problem for a son of Jupiter. Plus, due to all three of them being teenagers, and Jason being pretty tall, there was no way they'd be able to go on any actual kiddie rides.
Leo and Piper continued to drag Jason onto ride, after ride. They took him on the bumper cars, and various different rollercoasters. Thankfully, none of them ended up throwing up their breakfast, but Leo was starting to get a bit nauseous by the time the three of them decided to eat lunch, albeit a bit late due to all the rides they went on. Piper chose to order from the place that had more vegetarian options, meanwhile Leo and Jason went the basic route, both of them ordering pizza. Once they all had their food, they settled into easy conversation.
“Now that we've been on a few rides, what would you rate the amusement park experience, Jace?” Leo asked playfully.
“I think ‘a few rides’ is putting it very lightly,” Jason said, arching an eyebrow.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Leo said, waving his hand dismissively. “But did you have fun?” He asked. “After all, you are the birthday boy.”
Jason was silent for a moment before, he gave Leo a small, soft smile. “Yeah, it's been really fun.”
Leo's gaze lingered on Jason for longer than he'd intended, only snapping out of it when Piper asked, “Jason, have you ever had a funnel cake?”
Jason was visibly confused at the sudden question. Leo wouldn't be surprised if Jason was confused as to what a funnel cake was.
“Holy shit, Pipes! You're a genius! We have to get one!” Leo exclaimed.
Leo's suspicion was proven correct when Jason asked, “Uh… what's a funnel cake?”
“You'll see,” Piper and Leo said in unison.
Once all three of them had finished their food, they ordered a huge funnel cake to share. They got an Oreo flavored funnel cake, due to Leo's persuasive charm (read: Leo's insistence and pleading). The funnel cake itself was chocolate flavored, and the toppings included: powdered sugar, chocolate drizzle, Oreo cookie pieces/crumbs, whipped cream, and three full-sized Oreo cookies in the center. Leo was practically drooling when the funnel cake was ready. They walked over to an empty table, and then began eating their shared funnel cake.
“This is incredibly sweet,” Jason commented.
“But it's also delicious,” Leo countered.
“I never said it wasn't!” Jason exclaimed, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
“Shut up, and eat the damn funnel cake, you two,” Piper said, shoving another piece into her mouth.
They ate the rest of the funnel cake in silence, and did their best to clean up all of the chocolate off of their faces.
“We should probably head back to camp soon,” Jason said.
“Well…I have to use the bathroom, but you two should get on one more ride before we leave. Maybe the ferris wheel? After all, not all three of us can get on it, and it's a classic,” Piper didn't even bother hiding her smirk at the implication.
Leo’s eyes met Jason’s, and Jason shrugged before saying, “I don't see why not. We'll meet you afterward Pipes.”
After Piper left for the bathroom, Leo grabbed Jason's wrist and tugged him to the ferris wheel, intentionally not grabbing his hand to avoid Jason's cool fingers against his own, and the overwhelming urge to interlace their fingers together. Despite knowing exactly what Piper was implying by suggesting the ferris wheel of all things, she was unfortunately correct, it is a classic. It would be wrong to bring Jason to an amusement park and not take him on the ferris wheel.
Once they arrived, Leo realized he was still holding onto Jason's wrist, and quickly let go. The line was short, and before he knew it, he and Jason were being fastened into their seats in the open-air compartment. Because of how the compartment is built, Leo was pressed right next to Jason. With how close they were, Leo was extremely conscious of how loud his own heartbeat was, and really hoped that Jason couldn't hear the way Leo's heart was about to beat out of his chest.
“You know Leo, I think Piper was right to suggest the ferris wheel. It's definitely a lot more calming than a lot of the other rides we went on,” Jason said, his voice soft.
“The swings we went on were also pretty tame,” Leo reminded him.
“Yeah, but they weren't as relaxing, and still had a bit more of a thrilling element,” Jason countered.
“I guess so. This is kinda nice. After all, I haven't been on a ferris wheel since… I think I was maybe seven? It was before my mom… you know,” Leo gulped, and fixed his gaze on his hands, unable to meet Jason's gaze.
Jason wrapped his arm around Leo’s shoulders and rubbed his shoulder soothingly. Leo tensed for a moment, before melting into the contact, and resting his head on Jason's shoulder.
“I hope this ferris wheel ride lives up to that one,” Jason whispered. Leo just hummed in acknowledgement, and took the chance to glance up at Jason. Jason was looking at the sky, the light breeze gently tousling his blonde hair. He looked away quickly, before Jason had the chance to catch him staring. Leo allowed himself to relish in Jason's comforting presence, and did his best to ignore the flush he felt on his cheeks. He did his best to ignore how this felt almost romantic, he couldn't give himself that hope right now.
“How was the ferris wheel?” Piper asked as they walked back to the parking lot.
“It was nice and pretty relaxing,” Jason replied with a smile.
“Uh huh, I'm sure it was,” Piper said with a smirk. She left it at that, and then began walking ahead of them before either of them had a chance to respond.
Leo glanced at Jason, who seemed to be a bit tired after going from ride to ride. He wasn't stumbling or anything, but he was walking a bit slower than he had been earlier.
“Jace?” Leo asked.
“Hm?”
“Are you tired?”
“Honestly, yeah. But I had lots of fun today. I'm glad you and Pipes brought me to do something more ‘normal’, and… I don't know, I guess it was nice for a change. I'm happy that I don't have to worry about some world-saving prophecy this time, and I can just spend time with my two favorite people.” Jason said it so earnestly, and looked at him so softly, that Leo did his very best to press down all the fluttering he felt in his stomach, and ignore the way his face was rapidly heating up.
“C’mon big guy, let's get in the car. You can take a nap on the way back to camp,” Leo said, dragging Jason to the car, and carefully avoiding his gaze just to make sure Jason doesn't see how red Leo's face probably is.
Once they were in the car, Piper looked at them from the review mirror. “You guys ready?”
“As ready as we'll ever be!” Leo's cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much today. Jason nodded in agreement with Leo, and then Piper gave Leo a knowing look. Leo immediately looked away, and then Piper started the car to head back to camp.
Jason clearly took Leo's suggestion seriously, because only a few minutes into the drive, Jason was knocked out cold and softly snoring. Leo couldn't help but admire how Jason looked almost at peace in his sleep. Jason's blond eyelashes lightly caressed his upper cheeks, and there was a light blush across Jason's cheeks. Jason always looks good, after all he's a very attractive guy—but in that moment he looked ethereal.
Despite his attempts, ignoring his feelings for Jason wasn't going to work now that he was aware of them. How could he ignore the way Jason makes him feel truly happy to the point of giddiness? How could he ignore Jason's sweet, earnest words and gestures? How could he ignore Jason's tall and muscular build? How could he ignore the way Jason always looks beautiful in every iteration of the word? Leo didn't think Jason could reciprocate his feelings, but not telling him might just drive him crazy. That thought alone terrified him. In the off chance that Jason did reciprocate his feelings, Leo would be even more seen than he already is, because Jason can already read him like a book. And that thought is also terrifying. But maybe, that's a good thing. Leo knows that no matter what, Jason will still be his best friend. That thought is enough to calm him for now, and he finds himself drifting off to sleep.