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Leo Valdez’s life ended on a Thursday, and, no, he wasn’t talking about his big whole “I blew myself up to save the world; you’re welcome” thing. That had sucked, like a lot a lot, but this? This was much, much worse.
It started small, like all betrayals do, with Leo getting headaches more and more frequently. They weren’t the same as Jason’s wildly debilitating migraines, but that didn’t exactly make them pleasant to deal with. But that was fine, it was manageable, especially if he stayed in softer lit rooms and stayed focused on the task at hand. Then, for some reason, his dyslexia started getting worse, which was weird because, like most Hephaestus kids, he didn’t hit the dyslexia branch of the family tree nearly as hard as a lot of demigods. Weirder still, it only started acting up when he was trying to read something far off, which kind of sucked, considering he was taking multiple classes in lecture halls and kind of needed to be able to read what was on the board. He’d asked Piper, the most dyslexic bitch he knew, if she’d ever experienced anything similar, and she’d looked really confused before saying no, she’d never experienced anything even remotely similar to that. Then again, Leo was pretty sure her dyslexia couldn’t get worse under any circumstances, so she probably wasn’t the right person to ask. Besides, the dyslexia wasn’t even the worst thing. The real problem was, without question, his reflexes. They were… slow. Off in a way he couldn’t quite describe, but felt in more ways than one. Leo was someone who prided himself on being quick on his feet, so his sudden inability to dodge because his brain didn’t register things flying at his head until it was too late was definitely a problem.
It was also the thing that got Jason to put his foot down and insist that Leo had to go to the NRU health clinic, no if ands or buts about it. Apparently, having to sit there and hold a bag of frozen peas to your boyfriend’s black eye because one of the Vulcan kids in the forge had thrown a wrench at his head wasn’t fun. The world was full of surprises. Leo had tried valiantly to protest, stating that this was probably all just the result of Leo’s habit of stressing himself out and not sleeping and everyone knew that trying to fix that was a bust. But Jason had just looked at him with those big blue eyes and asked Leo to humor him, and Leo was a weak, weak man who loved his boyfriend more than just about anything.
So that Thursday, when his classes got out early, Leo trudged over to the health clinic and sat in the little plastic chair and read the out of date magazines and waited his turn. He was being a good little boyfriend, and he didn’t lie or downplay it even a little when Dr. Marriott, a young woman with long red hair pulled up into a tight bun and bright yellow scrubs, started her interrogation about his mystery symptoms.
Dr. Marriott frowned at him. “So, you said your dyslexia is getting worse?”
“Yeah, but only for far off stuff,” Leo shrugged. “Like, if it’s right in front of me, I can read just like I normally can.”
Dr. Marriott hummed and tapped her lips. “And your reflexes. Do you have any idea why that might be happening? Can you describe it for me?”
“I dunno,” Leo said, shifting uncomfortably. “I just don’t see things until it’s too late, I guess.”
“Is it only with your vision? If you hear something, do you react slower then?”
Leo actually thought about that long and hard for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t think so. Like, if someone tried to sneak up on me, I’d notice pretty much immediately, unless I was distracted.”
Dr. Marriott nodded like she’d gotten the answer she expected before she kicked her little rolly stool to the other side of the room and pointed at the eye chart. “Can you read as much of this as you can for me? Don’t worry about getting all the way to the bottom of it, most people can’t. I just want to see what your dyslexia complaint is about.”
“Uh, okay.” Leo focused on the letters, trying to get them to come into focus. “E-F-P-T-O-Z-L- um, P-E-P again… T…E…G…F…P?” He narrowed his eyes, trying to pin dow the wiggly bastards. “E-D-F–”
“Please don’t squint. That impacts the result.”
“Oh, uh, sorry,” Leo said, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. “I can kinda remember the letters on the rest of the row from where I was squinting, though. Do you want me to do a different one?”
Dr. Marriott smiled at him and shook her head. “No need. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going on, but you’ll need to step down the hall for a confirmation.”
Leo felt unease start to churn in his gut. “It’s, uh, it’s not, like dangerous or anything, right? Am I gonna die?”
Dr. Marriott laughed kindly. “You will die one day, but I don’t think it will be from this. If this is what I’m almost certain it is, you don’t have anything to worry about, but I don’t want to say anything until you see the specialist, okay?” Leo nodded, and she wheeled back over to pat him on the knee. “It’ll be alright, Leo. You just wait here, someone will be in to get you in just a bit.”
Leo gave her a hesitant smile back. “You got it, doc.”
Then Dr. Marriott was gone, leaving Leo alone. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the nurse came in to fetch him. “Dr. Marriott wants you to have a full eye exam with Dr. Walthers, are you okay with that?” he asked, looking at his chart.
Leo thought that was weird, seeing as he hadn’t complained about any vision problems, and he was pretty sure he’d be the first to know if he was going blind, but he just shrugged. “Sure, I guess. She’s the one who went to medical school, not me.”
The nurse huffed out a laugh through his nose and gestured for the door. “Alright then, follow me.”
The nurse led Leo through the winding corridors of the clinic and then into the proper hospital attached, which definitely made Leo a little nervous, but he did his best to ignore it. He was left alone in a little room with a chair like a dentist’s office with a gigantic machine attached to the ceiling that made Leo’s little engineer brain want to pick it apart piece by piece. Fortunately, Dr. Walthers came in before he could do that and introduced himself. Dr. Walthers was a wrinkly wizened little man who had probably been around to see Gaea get her butt whooped the first time around, but he smiled like Santa Claus with his little horn rimmed glasses and he was more than willing to go over everything that he was about to do before he did it.
The eye exam took forever, and was deeply unpleasant the whole time. Dr. Walthers pulled the machine down and had him look at strings of letters reflected on the wall, changing and flipping the lenses with loud thunks and soft little thwips and asked over and over again if one version was better than the other, even though half the time it was all just an illegible blurry mess. That was still leagues better than the pupil exam, though. For that Dr. Walthers got out a different machine and got uncomfortably close to Leo’s face so he could shine a painfully bright light in his eyes and shoot sharp puffs of air directly in his face until he quit flinching. Dr. Walthers said that it was necessary to check for glaucoma or whatever, but Leo got the feeling he was just secretly a sadist using his kindly old man act as a mask.
“Now, this is the part that most people really don’t like,” Dr. Walthers said apologetically.
“Does anyone like any of this?”
Dr. Walthers let out a little chuckle. “Fair point. But this is everyone’s least favorite. I’m afraid I’m going to need to dilate your pupils.”
Dr. Walthers was a bastard Leo decided. After putting some awful liquid in Leo's eyes that made them feel like they’d managed to fall asleep, he’d had the audacity to actually poke and prod at the eyeball and shine an even brighter light in them. That afternoon, Leo discovered that he had a brand new No No Square and it was firmly and forever over his eyeballs.
Finally, the torture session was over, and the lights slowly came back up to full brightness. Leo kind of wanted to cry, but he figured after everything they went through, his poor pitiful eyes deserved a break. The world was so very blurry and everything hurt to look at and he just wanted to hide under his covers until the world was just a little kinder. “Can I please go home now?”
“Not quite yet, but we’re almost done,” Dr. Walthers assured him. “We need to go over your results.”
Oh, right. This was all medical practice, not just a series of injustices. “Okay. What’s wrong with me? Dr. Marriott wouldn’t tell me.”
“The good news is that your eyes are very healthy. No sign of significant damage or disease,” Dr. Walthers said. “However, your vision is well below standard, and you’re going to need corrective lenses.”
Leo just blinked at him. “Huh?”
“Should we get a hearing test scheduled for you as well, Mr. Valdez?” Dr. Walthers asked playfully. “Glasses, my boy. You’re going to need to start wearing glasses.”
“Do I have to?”
Dr. Walthers looked startled at the question, and even more startled by the sheer horror in Leo’s voice. “I… suppose you don’t have to. Your vision is below standard, but not to the point where your life is unlivable, though you won’t be able to drive. I will say, though, that the symptoms you described to Dr. Marriott will only get worse, not better if you refuse treatment.”
“Yeah, no, I, um, I get that,” Leo said, swallowing back a wave of panic. “I just– I wasn’t expecting it, I guess.”
Dr. Walthers patted him on the hand. “I understand that this is a lot to digest all at once, but I assure you that glasses are not difficult to get used to. I’ve been wearing mine for a very long time, and they are genuinely a blessing.”
“I– Well, glasses don’t really suit me, you know?” Leo said, feeling a little desperate. “Can’t you just… fix it? Just, like, pour Nectar on my eyes or something and poof! 20/20 vision!”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that,” Dr. Walthers said patiently. “There is a surgery, but you have to have stable vision for at least a year before we can even look into it. Right now, glasses are your only option.”
Leo stared up at the ceiling, blaming the sudden blurriness on his apparently shitty vision and the hell juice Dr. Walthers had inflicted upon him. Glasses. He was going to have to wear glasses, the exact thing he teased Jason about on a bi-weekly basis, at least. All because his stupid eyes had managed to fail at the one god damn thing they were supposed to do. He took in a deep, shaky breath and swallowed thickly. His life was, for the second time, officially over.
Leo stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror in horror and wondered, again, what he’d done to deserve this. It had to have been something absolutely diabolical to earn this kind of punishment, surely, but he couldn’t for the life of him think of what it was. Was it because he’d stolen a can of soup when he was twelve? In his defense, he was hungry, and he’d even gone back the next day to apologize, and the store owner had been very understanding and told him it was fine. So, like, what was the deal here?
Dr. Walthers had said that the transition would be a little jarring, but that he’d get used to it quick enough, but he was, predictably, full of shit. It had been two weeks, and Leo wasn’t just surprised or unnerved when he caught a glance of his reflection, he was nauseated. His face was just wrong in a way that made his skin crawl.
He’d tried his best to mitigate the situation with his choice of frames. Jason always managed to look incredibly handsome in his glasses, all soft and intelligent and kind in that Hallmark movie love interest kind of way, so Leo had immediately found a pair of half moon glasses with sparkling gold wire frames that looked as close to Jason’s as possible. He hadn’t had the courage to try them on at the shop, and when he finally made himself put them on at home, he’d immediately taken them off and had a loud, humiliating bawling session.
It didn’t work, not in the slightest. Leo didn’t look like Jason, he just looked like a loser desperately playing dress up in shoes he could never hope to fill. He was a pale, pitiful imitation, and an embarrassing one at that. Leo wanted to fling the glasses off and go cry some more or possibly throw up, but he didn’t let himself. He had to get used to the glasses, he knew he did because he had no other options. He’d asked about contacts, grasping at the perfect, invisible solution, but Dr. Walthers just shook his head and said they were impossible because Leo’s stupid fire powers made his body temperature so high that the contacts would dry out too fast and fuse to his eyeball or something. Leo didn’t say it at the time, but that sounded like the kinder fate to him.
It hadn’t taken long for Leo to come to the conclusion that the glasses weren’t the problem, he was. He figured if the glasses looked good on Jason, that meant that the issues were from the variable in the equation. Leo wrinkled his nose and forced himself to study his face, and he could clearly see all the places his features failed where Jason’s flourished. Leo’s nose was the wrong shape, too short and wide, and his eyes were a dull muddy brown instead of brilliant baby blue. His hair was too long and messy and stuck out at odd angles around his weird pointy ears. His teeth were crooked, his skin was scarred and he had an unfortunate zit right on the end of his chin where he knew everyone couldn’t help but see it. He somehow managed to simultaneously be stick-thin and scrawny in all the wrong places and round and squishy in every way that made him look like an awkward pre-teen. He’d gotten over his staggering lack of appeal before (or maybe he’d been too near-sighted to see the extent of the damage) but with a brand new target on his face, each and every one of his flaws was dragged right back up on stage in the spotlight to be jeered and criticized all over again.
Leo was in the middle of weighing the merits of just drowning himself when the door to his bathroom was flung open and Piper waltzed in like she owned it. Leo squawked in shock and outrage both and whirled around on her, clutching his chest. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Haven’t you ever heard of knocking? What if I was in the shower? Or taking a shit?”
“Then I would have seen you in the shower or taking a shit,” Piper said casually. “Now, where’s your wide-toothed comb? I need to…” She trailed off, staring at his face, and Leo realized too late that he was still wearing his stupid ugly glasses. He scrambled to take them off, but she let out a delighted shriek before he could. “Glasses? You’re wearing glasses now? Or wait, no, are you just wearing Jason’s for some reason?”
“No, they’re mine,” Leo said begrudgingly, refusing to look her in the eye. “Jason made me go to the clinic a couple weeks ago, and they told me my vision’s fucked.”
“Two weeks ago?” Piper gaped. “How the hell haven’t I seen you in them then?”
“Uh, because I only wear them in private.” He scowled at her. “Or, at least, what’s supposed to be private.”
“Why? Don’t you need them?”
Leo stared at her in abject bafflement before gesturing at his face. “Uh, hello, have you seen this mess? I don’t want other people to see me like this. I hate seeing me like this. More than usual, that is.”
Piper’s face puckered in that way it always did when he talked about himself. “What are you talking about? You look perfectly nice.”
Leo looked Piper up and down critically, from her mis-matched socks to the oversized Sooners jersey her dad got her, and the messy bun she’d literally tied her hair up in using an old shoelace. She didn’t look bad, exactly, Leo doubted an Aphrodite kid could look bad, but still. “I don’t think I’m taking fashion advice from you of all people. Take as much offense as you’d like from that.”
Piper rolled her eyes and flipped him off. “Okay, fine. What does Jason think about them? You care about his opinion, right?”
Leo’s gut fell out of his stomach and he shook his head furiously. “Jason doesn’t have an opinion because he doesn’t know, and I fully intend to keep it that way.”
“Seriously?” Piper asked incredulously. Then her jaw dropped. “Wait, this is why you’ve been avoiding Jason? We all thought the two of you were, like, fighting or something.”
Leo grimaced and looked away from her, feeling guilt gnaw at his insides. He knew he’d been dodging Jason like his life depended on it, and he’d seen the confused, hurt looks Jason had given him. He hated it, but he didn’t have another option, even if it killed him. “Look, I can’t let him see me like this. I just can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because if he sees me, he’s gonna dump me.”
Piper blinked at him like her server was bluescreening before her face twisted up in fury. “That is the single stupidest thing that’s ever come out of your mouth, Leo Valdez, and you’ve said some really stupid shit.”
“Hey!”
She ignored him. “Not to mention it’s, like, so untrue it’s borderline offensive,” she said. “You think Jason would dump you because of how you look? Seriously? Jason? Have you met him? He thinks you hang the stars every night as a casual hobby. He’d love you, even if you were a worm, and I bet you haven’t even bothered to ask him that because you already knew the answer was yes.”
Leo scowled at the bathroom sink, shoulders up next to his ears. He didn’t want to admit it, but he knew Piper was one thousand and sixty percent right. (Well, actually, not about Leo asking about the worm thing. He had known the answer before, but he still asked just to hear Jason say it.) But knowing something and believing it are two different, often unrelated things. “Look, I hear you, but I just… I can’t, alright? I can’t let Jason see me like this. I know he won’t do anything, but I still can’t risk it.”
Piper’s expression gentled. “You’re already risking it,” she pointed out. “You’re pushing him away and he doesn’t even know why. You have to talk to him.”
Tears stung in Leo’s eyes, so he screwed them shut. “What if talking ruins everything?”
“And what if it doesn’t?” Leo didn’t say anything for a while, so she just sighed. “Okay, I get that you don’t want to face Jason yet. I don’t agree with it, I think it’s dumb, but I get that you feel like you have to. But what you actually have to do is start wearing your glasses, alright?”
Leo’s face twisted in disgust. “Do I have to? Like seriously?”
“You absolutely do,” she said firmly. “Your headaches and the dyslexia thing were all because of your glasses, right? Well, that stuff’s just gonna keep getting worse unless you do something about it.”
“That’s what Dr. Walthers said,” Leo muttered begrudgingly.
“Yeah? Well, even if you want to ignore your best friend, you should probably listen to the person who went to eyeball school.”
“What about Jason?” Leo fretted. “What if he sees me?”
“Then just wear them when you know Jason won’t see you,” Piper said reasonably. “Like, the two of you don’t have any classes together, right? Just wear them during class so you can see the board.”
“I’ll think about it,” Leo agreed. “But I’m serious. I do not want Jason to see me. Swear yourself to secrecy right now.”
“I swear I won’t say a word to him,” she vowed without hesitation. “But you should. This is dumb.”
“I’ll tell him eventually,” Leo said. He knew he’d eventually run out of options and he’d wind up pinned to a board and forced to confess. Until then though… “But not right now.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Alright, fine. Whatever. Now, where’s your extra wide toothed comb? I may or may not have gotten bubblegum in Reyna’s hair, and I need to help get it out. She was already covered in peanut butter when we realized I only own hair brushes.”
Leo rolled his eyes, and fished out the comb from the back of his hair care cabinet. He made a mental note to never, ever chew gum around Piper.
The beginning of the rest of Leo’s life happened on a Tuesday, and, no, he wasn’t talking about the whole “I used a magic potion to bring myself back to life after my world-saving sacrifice, you’re welcome,” thing. That had been a miracle that still blew Leo’s mind if he thought too hard about it, but this? This was, somehow, more miraculous.
There was no build up, no writing on the wall for Leo to read, it just happened, but, unsurprisingly, it had involved one Jason Grace. Leo had gotten out of his classes early, and he didn’t have anything better to do, so he just went to study in the library. He’d been needing to do a lot more solo study sessions, seeing as he still couldn’t see the board. Sure, he’d told Piper that he’d start wearing his glasses more, but he was a grade-a certified liar of the highest degree. She hadn’t even made him pinky promise, so as far as he was concerned, the agreement was DOA. He did take his glasses with him, at least, and he’d even tried putting them on, just to have a go a little exposure therapy, but he’d all but yanked them off his face and stashed them the second anyone even glanced in his direction. He figured he was still making an effort, though and that made all the difference. Right? Right.
So, there he was, flipping through his biology text book when he heard the world’s softest, most polite little thump. Leo felt his heart leap into his throat in terror, already knowing what he’d find, but he still turned his head to look anyway. Sure enough, there the one and only Jason Grace was sitting on the floor, chin on the table Leo had commandeered. When he noticed Leo noticing him, he did one of those little closed-mouth smiles that crinkled the corner of his eyes. “Hi.”
Leo swallowed thickly and he couldn’t help but remember all those times in middle school where the pretty girl who had the locker next to Leo’s would nod at him and tell him to have a nice day. Just like back then, Leo looked away and his voice was tiny and terrified when he said, “Uh, hi.”
Jason didn’t seem to be put off or even amused by Leo’s hesitation, he just siounded kind. “Do you think maybe we can talk?”
Leo wanted to bolt because those words were never a good sign in a relationship, but Jason had, at some point, grabbed Leo’s hand in both of his own. Sneaky bastard. Leo took a deep breath. “Do we have to?”
“We kind of need to, but it will just be a little one and then I’ll let you go,” Jason promised. Leo just gritted his teeth and nodded, so Jason quickly steeled his nerves and spoke. “Will you please tell me what I did?”
Leo froze for a moment before he finally looked back at Jason. “What?”
Jason was literally on one knee in front of Leo, a genuine but sad smile on his face. His eyes were wide like they always were when he was making an effort to be earnest, and those stupid gold framed half-moons glittered on his nose like they were mocking Leo. When he spoke, his words carried a deliberate steadiness that told Leo loud and clear that they were well-rehearsed. “I know that you’re mad at me. I get that, and I want to give you your space, but I’d like to know what I did wrong so I can fix it before you come back. I’ve tried figuring it out, but I’m coming up blank.”
Leo thought for sure that he was going to burst into tears. This patient, kind, loving man. This stupid, stupid man had been dealing with a sudden cold-shoulder from the one person he was supposed to count on, and he did this? Where was the anger, the hurt, the indignation? Leo could bristle up and fight back against those, but what was he supposed to fight when Jason showed up to battle armed with nothing but a white flag? When he’d taken the blame all on himself for no goddamn reason and offered to wait patiently until Leo chose to come back to him? It wasn’t fair.
Leo let out a shaky breath and scrubbed his cheek with his free hand. “Fuck, Jace, you didn’t do anything. It’s all my stupid fault.”
Jason looked like he wanted to complain about the “stupid” description, but he decided to let it slide. “Then what’s wrong?”
Leo was pretty sure he was going to be sick. Or burst into tears. Or both at the same time. He was a messy, talented bitch like that. “I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh at me. Or dump me.”
Jason was positively aghast at the latter accusation. “I have no plans to dump you. Do you want to dump me?”
Leo almost laughed but he shook his head. “I’m not dumping you. This is a mutual no dumping zone. Look, do you remember when you made me go to the health clinic?”
“Yeah? You said they told you there wasn’t anything wrong.”
“Well, I lied. Turns out all those headaches and the reflexes just mean I need glasses.”
“Okay,” Jason said slowly. “But why does that mean you can’t talk to me?”
“Because I look ugly in them and I didn’t want you to see!” Leo refrained from clapping his hands over his mouth, but just barely. His expression puckered like he’d swallowed a lemon. “I’m still half-convinced you’re going to break up with me when you see them.”
Leo kind of expected Jason to start in on a rant about how pretty he thought Leo was all the time (he loved to talk about that) or at least the blanket insistence that he looked fine in them or how even if he didn’t, it didn’t matter. Jason didn’t do any of that though, he just knelt on the floor of the library, holding Leo’s hand like a leash, and thinking. “If I re-promise not to be mean or break up with you, will you please show them to me?”
“Do I have to?”
“No,” Jason admitted. “I won’t make you or insist or anything. But if there’s something wrong, I want to fix it, and that would be easier if I could see the problem.”
That logic was so sound that even Leo’s most ridiculous comebacks couldn’t shake it. “Okay, fine. But don’t forget you promised.”
Leo begrudgingly dug around in his bookbag for the dastardly little box that held his bastardly little glasses, then he put them on his face and braced for impact.
But that impact never came. Jason just studied him like a battle map, and somehow that scrutiny was less invasive than a thousand compliments. “So, what don’t you like about them?”
“They’re stupid and ugly and they make my face look bad.”
Jason’s mouth twitched in amusement. “Duly noted. Do you think you can be a little more specific?”
Leo paused. He hadn’t actually spent a lot of time wondering why he hated the glasses. He just assumed it was his fault, and he still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t. So, he started simple. Irrefutable. “They’ve got this nose piece on them that gets stuck in my hair when I put them on my head.”
Jason nodded solemnly. “That makes sense. Is there anything you don’t like about how they fit?”
“The bottoms touch my cheeks when I talk and it’s weird,” Leo muttered, picking at his nails. “And they’re really wide, so they make my eyes look like they’re too close together.”
“Okay.” Jason hummed in thought. “Is there anything you do like about them? What made you choose them over the other frames you tried on?”
“I… didn’t try on any other frames,” Leo admitted begrudgingly. “I just kinda grabbed the first pair that looked like yours and left. Yours look good on you, so I was kinda just hoping it was transferable.”
Leo thought for sure that the confession would get some kind of mockery or irritation, but Jason didn’t acknowledge it, other than looking a little pleased with himself in a way that just begged Leo to roll his eyes, so he obliged. “Okay, so I have an idea that might help.”
Leo looked at him incredulously. “What? Do you know about some magic cure-all that the eye doctor didn’t?”
“No,” Jason admitted. “But I do know that the optician accepts 30-day returns and that you don’t need an appointment to go shopping.”
Leo physically recoiled. “I’m not doing that. I’m not playing dress-up by myself for half an hour in public, only to wind up with another pair I hate.”
“What if you didn’t have to go alone?” Jason suggested. “Remember a few months ago when I had to get my prescription updated so we went together? That was fun, right?”
“It was,” Leo said, fondly remembering that afternoon. He and Jason had been goofing off more than a little bit, trying on different styles and making up stories to go with them. It was stupid, but it didn’t suck. Not nearly as bad as standing in the bathroom alone and hating himself did, at least. “I guess that wouldn’t be too bad.”
“Then let’s go do that,” Jason grinned, standing. “We can stop and get chicken strips afterwards, if you want.” He offered Leo his hand, which was taken instantly because Leo wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t about to miss out on a great opportunity. For Jason or chicken strips, to be honest.
Together, they packed up Leo’s stuff, including the glasses, and headed out into New Rome. It was a bright, unseasonably warm day, so they took their time, walking hand in hand, and just talking as they meandered through the twisting labyrinth of streets. Leo’s heart ached and he couldn’t help but think about how much he’d missed this. Somehow, in all of his self-conscious panic, he’d managed to forget that Jason was one of his best friends and he loved spending time with him. He tugged on Jason’s arm to get his attention, then craned upwards to kiss him on the cheek, just because he could.
Jason’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas. “What was that for?”
“Do I need a reason to kiss my boyfriend?” Leo asked, breathless and grinning.
Jason apparently decided that, no, reasons were not required for kissing because he just kissed Leo’s cheek right back. Leo did not giggle and blush like a schoolgirl even if he wanted to. His face did hurt from the force of his smile though.
Eventually, despite Leo’s covert attempts to steer them literally anywhere else, they made it to Vision of the Future, a glasses store owned by this lady in her 40’s who was a long-off legacy of Janus. Apparently, that meant she was really good with glasses, and all the frames on display were enchanted to have the wearer’s prescription right off the bat. Leo wasn’t sure what that had to do with the doorway dude, but he knew his Roman mythology left more than a little to be desired, so he didn’t question it.
“Back again, Mr. Valdez?” Mrs. Donnavan called. “How are you liking the new frames? You, too, Mr. Grace.”
“Mine are great, thank you,” Jason said brightly. “But we were kinda hoping to trade out Leo’s if that’s alright.”
“Of course,” Mrs. Donnavan said simply. “Take your time and look around all you like. You guys know how it works. I’ll go ahead and take those old ones off your hands.”
Leo gratefully handed them over, feeling like a weight had been lifted off of his chest now that he wasn’t in possession of the awful things. Still, that left him with the daunting task of finding an actual pair to wear, and as he looked out over the hundreds of options he desperately wanted to flee.
“Hey, Leo, what do you think of these?”
Leo turned to look at Jason and burst out into startled laughter. Jason was wearing a new pair of glasses: star shaped lenses with electric blue frames and a little lightning bolt charm hanging from one arm. “Fabulous.” Leo picked up the matching pair: heart shaped lenses with hot pink wires and a jewel-encrusted heart charm. “What about me? Think these will get me to pass for an Aphrodite kid?”
“I’m still not convinced you aren’t,” Jason shot back, pecking yet another kiss to Leo’s now flushed cheek. “Come on, let’s go look over there.”
They spent the next hour together, trying on pretty much every pair of glasses the shop had to offer. Sometimes they’d pick up the most ridiculous ones (Leo’s favorite were a pair of ancient-looking glasses with tiny little circle lenses the size of his fingerprint) just to get a laugh out of each other, but most of the time, they were being serious. Leo would try a pair on and Jason would take a minute to actually consider them before offering his genuine feedback about what did and didn’t work with every pair. It was decided pretty quickly that wire frames weren’t going to work for him, since he liked to put his glasses up when he was working on something close at hand. That left the plastic frames, but most of those were just solid black, maybe with some gold detailing, and the rest were weird patterns Leo couldn’t describe. Neither instilled much confidence.
Then Leo saw a pair that brought him to a sudden halt. They were the proper plastic ones with a big solid nosepiece that wouldn’t get caught in even the most tangled of curls. They were kind of chunky and a sturdy square shape that softened ever so slightly at the corners. And they were red. Leo’s exact favorite shade of red, in fact. With slightly shaking hands, Leo reached out to grab them and put them on.
The instant Leo looked at his reflection, his heart leapt into his throat in recognition. That’s me! he thought with almost giddy excitement. He felt a bit silly for the thought, but he couldn’t help it. His face looked like his face for the first time in weeks and he thought he might burst into song. “Hey, Jace, what do you think of these?”
Like clockwork, Jason appeared at his elbow, and Leo eagerly turned to face him. Jason looked him over for several seconds as a smile grew over his mouth. “I like these a lot,” he said. “They fit your face really well, and that color has always suited you.”
Leo refrained from grabbing Jason’s ears and kissing him stupid, but only just. He suddenly realized that Jason would have said something similar, even if he’d decided on the ancient tiny circles, but he also realized that it didn’t matter. Only one thing really mattered. “I like them, too. These are the ones I want.”
Jason’s face lit up, and he grabbed Leo’s hand. “Great! Let’s go tell Mrs. Donnavan.”
After a quick exchange where Mrs. Donnavan gave Leo a proper pair of the glasses he’d picked (another Janus trick, somehow) and reviewed the care instructions with him, Leo and Jason left the store, hand in hand, just as they’d entered it, but this time Leo’s glasses were perched on his nose, exactly where they belonged.
As soon as they stepped outside, Leo gasped, and Jason looked at him in concern. “What’s wrong?”
“I– Nothing’s wrong,” Leo insisted breathlessly. “I just saw the trees. They have leaves. Like, leaves you can actually see.”
Jason laughed brightly and kissed Leo’s forehead. “I know what you mean. There’s a whole lot more of the world for you to see now.”
“Then let’s go see it,” Leo grinned. “I’ve apparently got a lot of catching up to do.”