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“Leo”
Leo had been in Bunker 9, forging new wings for Festus after yet another ‘playing too rough with the Apollo cabin’ incident, when he was snapped out of his flow with the overhead lights flickering on and that familiar voice calling his name.
“Buford, turn off the lights, will you?”
He said instead, ignoring the call and continuing with his work. The lights flickered on once again. Buford turned them off in retaliation. This little back and forth between the poor table and the mystery light switch menace went on for a few more minutes before Leo heard the voice speak again.
“Leo Esperanza–Valdez”
Jason repeated, a sigh leaving him as he said so. The exasperation mixed with amusement in his tone only entertained Leo further, who snickered in response as he let down his equipment—carefully, of course—and turned around to smile at his boyfriend. Buford, taking the opportunity to leave, teetered away on his little legs, turning the lights off just one last time.
“Even your damn table’s a brat, huh?”
Jason mumbled under his breath, trying to sound annoyed, but Leo could see the smile he was trying to hide behind the hand pushing up his glasses. While he walked closer, Leo couldn’t help but be distracted by the hand running through his blond hair, the way his stapler scar shifted as he spoke—
“...You’ve been here for hours, Leo. Time for a break.”
Jason couldn’t help but laugh when Leo sputtered as his ‘observations’ (a/n: staring session) were interrupted, not even bothering to hide it.
“C’mon, my cabin. Harley managed to recreate some…Nine-ten-do game which doesn’t connect to some server or something..?”
“...demigod safe Super Mario Bros?”
Leo offered, noticing how Jason was probably still struggling to understand whatever explanation Harley had given to him. The poor kid got too excited sometimes and forgot that ‘Jupiter’s son’ was raised by wolves and did not know of the wonders of modern technology.
“Yeah, that!”
“Hm, fineeeeeeeee. Only because Harley made it. But help me clean up first, Superman.”
“He can jump in the air?”
Jason asked, one hand in the bowl of blue popcorn—Percy didn’t need to know where his stash mysteriously disappeared to—and the other in Leo’s curls. His chin was buried in that dark hair, fingers sifting between the strands mindlessly.
“Well, yeah. So can you.”
Leo replied, leaning his head onto Jason’s chest. It still felt strange sometimes to see his boyfriend in the baby pink pyjamas the Aphrodite cabin swore suited his complexion. Well, it did, but Jason usually looked like the kinda guy who could sleep in his armour or something, or at least the camp t-shirt. Not…unicorn patterned PJs.
“...didn’t know Jupiter had plumbers as sons.”
“I’ll be surprised if every single profession under the sun hasn’t employed a Zeus kid. The man fucks everyone.”
“Except Juno, apparently.”
Leo let out a surprised cackle at that, shoulders shaking against his boyfriend. He was wearing a plain undershirt and shorts, and his hair was messy from how much Jason had been messing with it. Yet, with the light from the shitty projector in Cabin 1 framing his face, his black curls reflecting a warm, fiery glow, he looked…stunning. His teeth flashed as he laughed, eyes lighting up with a warmth Jason still found unfamiliar, and the game was basically forgotten.
Oh. Oh gods. Jason was a mess. He barely managed to rein himself in as he cleared his throat, trying to reply in a composed manner.
“...it wasn’t that funny.”
“Well it’s funnier when you say it. You’re so deadpan about it, like- like a tired middle-aged dad.”
“You little—”
Leo barely got a second to breath before he was turned around and tackled, Jason moving to tickle his sides. But even though the tears of laughter brimming in Leo’s eyes blurred his vision, the sound of Jason’s laughs made him feel like his eyes had ultra high resolution. Those stupid, boring prescription glasses he refused to replace—‘I got them while I was with you guys.’ he’d say, sappily—made his face look soft. The chuckles melted the tension from his face. His smile was lopsided due to the stapler-kissing incident. His eyes were-
“Gods, you’re beautiful”
Those words slipped from Leo’s lips right when Jason’s tickling had stopped, flowing out instead of remaining as a thought due to the perfect timing. And right when he said them, the laughter stopped, both boys downright freezing for a few seconds, blinking at each other. And with no sounds between them except their quiet breaths and the game’s background music, they realised…they were awfully close to each other, weren’t they?
Tentatively, Jason leaned closer. His hands shifted from Leo’s sides to behind those slightly pointed ears which made him look like an elf. His fingers shifted to frame his boyfriend’s face, the tips brushing those soft black curls while the pads of his thumbs rested on his cheeks. And then…he waited for a sign that they were both ready for this.
The sign came pretty quickly when Leo practically lunged up with all the strength of a cat with a shitty core lunging for a treat, bumping Jason’s nose with his own due to the sheer force with which he tried to kiss him. The kiss wasn’t romantic, it was stupid, accompanied by entertained chuckles instead of the cheesy romantic bullshit movies showed. When they leaned closer for Take 2 however, this time, it was Jason’s glasses bumping into Leo’s face.
Jason’s cheeks turned redder despite his already present blush, but Leo only laughed in response. He pulled Jason’s glasses off of his nose bridge and tossed them beside the forgotten controllers, before wrapping his hands around his boyfriend’s neck and pulling him closer again.
On the third try…the kiss was soft. Both their lips were chapped, of course, Leo’s more than usual from all the time he spent at Bunker 9, but neither of them seemed to mind. Their hands were gentle as they held each other, almost reverent in their touch. Jason held Leo the only way he knew how, with the softness of wolf fur and the careful hold Lupa used with him to not hurt him. Leo held Jason with the sparse memories of how his mother once held him. Warm, but not burning. Tight, but not bruising.
And if they spent the rest of the night cuddling and giggling like idiots, exchanging the tiniest of kisses like they were in love for the first time? Well, that was a secret between them and the blanket of nighttime.
The prophecy had said that one of them was to die. That one of them was to sacrifice themselves for the world.
Jason and Leo said that the prophecy can fuck off, because fate had deprived them of love for long enough, and a stupid poem wasn’t going to take them away from everything they cared about that easily.