Work Text:
"Birthday boy !" exclaimed Leo, jumping on Jason. "I gotcha the marshmallows. Let's make you s'mores."
"It's not my birthday, though," smiled Jason, a warmth spreading on his back, where Leo had been hugging him a few seconds ago. Leo was now busy trying to open the bag of marshmallows, and Jason missed the contact of his skin on his own.
"Yeah, but I wasn't there for you on the real date so we're celebrating it now !"
Leo wasn't wrong. But he'd been there for Jason — even if it was through Iris-Mail, with one of them at Camp Jupiter for ex-praetor duties and the other visiting Tristan McLean with Piper just to make sure no monsters tried to kidnap him again. Leo and Piper had called Jason and sung him 'Happy Birthday', and stayed with him. Jason hadn't minded having his birthday be just that at all. He was content that his friends were safe and happy, and that the war was over. He was happy at Camp Half-Blood, without having to worry about soldiers, and the safety of Camp Jupiter. He could just be.
Jason looked at Leo grilling his marshmallows with the fire in his hands rather than the camfire swarmed with campers.
"Open your mouth, Birthday Boy," he grinned, and he held out a golden marshmallow to Jason, who blushed.
"Come on. This one's too cooked for a s'mores, but it's perfect for a bite. I'll eat it if you don't," he warned.
Jason caved and leaned in, biting the hot sweet and pulling away. He felt his face flush harder when Leo's fingers brushed against his lips.
"Ch' hot," he said as he swallowed it, grimacing.
Leo chuckled. "Yeah, that's kinda the point."
Jason smiled back at Leo and watched him put an unburnt marshmallow on a chocolated cracker and close the s'mores with another cracker. The lights of the campfire really suited him — they danced on his face, like waves of heat. It suited Leo, really. He looked brighter than usual.
Frank was lucky.
Something coiled in Jason's stomach, acidic and nauseating. He remembered how Leo had flung himself in Frank's arms just this morning, when Jason, Reyna, Hazel and Frank had come to Camp Half-Blood to reunite with their friends. The way Leo had kissed his boyfriend and stayed between his arms for way too long, before he greeted Jason with a simple pat on the shoulders and a grin.
"Where's your boyfriend ?" he asked before he could stop himself.
Leo shrugged. "No idea. Probably eating plain, old, sad marshmallows by himself. Serves him right."
Jason blinked. "You fought ?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound as hopeful as he felt.
He was a horrible friend. A horrible, horrible friend and human being.
"Nope," said Leo, shaking his head. "But he's being a bitch."
Jason's heart skipped a beat.
"Really ? Why ?" Was Frank mean to Leo ? Jason hoped not. Despite the wariness he'd developped for the guy, he wanted Leo to be in a healthy and happy relationship with a partner who loved him.
"He doesn't like s'mores."
Oh.
"That's all ?"
Leo glared at him, and Jason lifted his hands in surrender, spluttering through a chuckle : "I meant, what a jerk ! How dare he ?"
Leo grinned, satisfied, and gave a s'mores to Jason. "Yeah ! Can you believe him ? I'm dating an idiot with no taste !"
Break up with him, was what Jason wanted to say.
"Such an idiot," he said instead.
Leo grinned. "You're such a better best friend than Piper. She took Frankie's side ! Can you believe it ?"
"She doesn't like s'mores ?" asked Jason, baffled. He couldn't imagine anyone — except Frank, who apparently had no taste whatsoever, except in men — not liking s'mores. It was his comfort food, and it seemed weird to not like something so good.
"Nope," said Leo, popping the 'p'. "She's talking shit 'bout 'em with Frankie right now."
Leo pointed at two silhouettes near the tables, and Jason squinted at them. Leo was right — Piper and Frank were there, joined by Hazel and Percy, the four of them chatting together.
Hazel noticed Jason and Leo staring and waved at them, before she turned to Frank and grinned at him. Frank turned to them and his face lit up. Jason felt something acidic spread inside of him.
"Heya babe," grinned Leo. "Finally realized s'mores' superiority ?"
Frank shook his head fondly. "I wondered if you had realized how disgusting they were."
Leo rolled his eyes and blew a raspberry at his boyfriend, before he took Jason's arm. "Well I'll be at the fire when you fix you tastebuds and come apologize. I'll be with Jason, who's got better taste than you."
Jason felt a wide smile stretch his lips as he followed Leo, unable to avoid throwing a dirty look at Frank.
"It's like I'm cursed to only date people with shit taste," sighed Leo as he shoved another s'mores into Jason's mouth.
"Mwat ?" said Jason, choking slightly on his sweet.
Leo laughed and handed him a water bottle, biting in a grilled marshmallow. "You know, Piper and Frank, and Calypso ? None of 'em like s'mores. Idiots."
Oh.
And, stupidly, Jason wondered if that meant he wasn't Leo's type.
"I'm sapphic," said Piper to Jason while they were picking strawberries.
Jason blinked. "Congratulations ?" he said carefully. He didn't know what that meant- oh, maybe it had something to do with the poet Sappho ? He'd read some of her poems. "I'm sure your works are gonna be great. I can't wait to read them."
Piper stared at him with wide eyes, and Jason wondered if he'd said something wrong.
"Wait, what ?"
Oh. That wasn't what 'sapphic' meant. Shit.
Pipre shook her head, a chuckle escaping her mouth.
"I'm into girls."
Jason stared at Piper, mouth slack in shock.
"I'm not lesbian, though," she added. "Just not attracted to men. Maybe to nonbinary people, I'm not sure. That's what sapphic means."
Jason blinked. Oh. Okay. His best friend had just come out to him. He was supposed to say something — he didn't know Piper was queer. He maybe should've known. There were signs. He was such an awful friend — weren't friends supposed to know each other better than they kenw themselves ?
"Congratulations on the upgrade."
Fuck.
Piper burst out laughing, whacked Jason's shoulder, and he blushed furiously. He was such a loser.
"You're right. Fuck, I was worried you'd freak out, and you're just- you're an amazing friend, Jace, you know that ?" Jason preened at that, his back straightening and his embarrassment gone. "You're a huge dork. Never change."
She sighed, and leaned against Jason's shoulder. Her weight was comforting.
"Leo and I realized out un-straighteness at the same time," she said. "While you were away bonding with Thalia."
Jason's heart pinched painfully. He was supposed to be there for them — he was their best friend, for gods' sake, he had to be there for them when they needed him.
"I've got a crush on Annabeth," she added with a sigh. Oh. Annabeth was dating Percy. Shit. Jason winced in sympathy — he knew that feeling.
(How did he, though ?)
"I mean, how can you not ? She's fucking incredible. Like, amazing. I bet half the Camp has had a crush on her at some point. It must be a rite of passage."
Jason never had a crush on Annabeth, but he didn't say so. He just made circles on Piper's back, comforting her, happy that his best friend trusted him enough to tell him.
She rambled about how hot and amazing and incredible and wonderful Annabeth was for a few minutes, before a question popped in Jason's head.
"How did you know ? That you're not attracted to men ?"
Piper looked at him, then shrugged. "Promise me to not take offence."
"I won't," promised Jason.
Piper sighed. "When we were dating. I thought you were the only boy I was ever attracted to, but then I realized that what I felt for you while we were dating was not romantic. I always felt attracted to you, but not romantic, or gods forbid," she crinkled her nose in disgust, "sexual."
Jason felt pretty offended by that, but just nodded.
"I mean, you're nice. But in a friend-way. It's just, I always felt like I had to kiss you, and hold your hand, and be jealous around other girls, and show my feelings through acting, and reproducing what I saw on shitty straight rom-coms and weird 1D Wattpad fanfictions. It felt like I had to do what was expected of me instead of what I wanted to do."
"But that's normal," said Jason, frowning. "Isn't that how dating works ?"
Piper stared at him with wide eyes. Jason felt nervous, suddenly.
"I mean, I felt the same way when we were dating," he added tensely.
Piper looked at him and then burst out laughing. Not a normal laugh either. No, she sounded possessed. That was scary.
Jason then went through ten very horrific minutes — he didn't know Piper laighing could be scary, but it was.
"That's not how you're supposed to feel in a relationship, Jace," she said after fifteen minutes, breathless from laughter and her face flushed red.
Oh.
Jason spent the following 24 hours with his head in the clouds, mouth wide open, thinking about each and every interaction he'd ever had with anyone identifying as a woman. He didn't remember ever feeling attracted to any of them.
He ended up so grossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice Leo dragging him out of the little birthday party they had for him to the strawberry fields — why did everything had to happen at the strawberry fields ? — and ask him what was happening.
"What's gotten into you, Superman ?" Leo asked again when Jason stared at him without answering.
Leo looked very pretty under the sun, supplied Jason's brain unhelpfully. The glitter in his hair shone like a thousand of diamonds, as if Leo was wearing a crown. His skin was bronzed, because he'd spent the past weeks outside instead of locked in Bunker 9, and his freckles were tracing constellations on his cheeks and nose.
Holy shit, thought Jason. I'm in love with Leo.
That's not very straight.
Shit, I'm super hella gay.
"Superman ?" said Leo, looking worried.
Jason blinked, and his brain decided that blurting what was happening in his brain was a good idea.
"I'm gay and I have a crush on you."
Holy fucking shit on a stick.
Leo looked at him wordlessly, processing the information, his eyes wide open. Jason felt his face grow hotter and hotter. He must have been looking like the strawberries around them.
Then Leo started laughing, a hand clasped on Jason's arm. Jason blushed harder, but helped Leo to not fall over. Was he destined to watch his best friends laugh at him ?
(He didn't mind, though. As long as they were laughing and happy. He knew they weren't mocking him.)
"Jace. Superman. I don't know how you've managed to get a crush on me, but that does not mean anything 'bout you being gay. The contrary, actually."
Jason frowned. He knew about Leo's low self-esteem and, despite how much he didn't like Frank — jealousy, he didn't like Frank because he was jealous of him, he realized —, the guy had managed to help Jason, Piper and a bunch of other people to make Leo love himself and stop under-estimating himself a bit more.
"You're a man," said Jason, hoping Leo would hear the sincerity in his voice, and would feel how much Jason believed it and how much he loved Leo — not only romantically, but platonically as well. "And you're worth loving, Leo."
Leo stared at Jason, then shook his head and hugged Jason tightly, shoving his head into Jason's chest, his arms wrapped tightly around Jason. Jason reciprocated the hug.
"You're such a dork," muttered Leo against Jason, but he could hear tears in his best friend's voice.
"I know," he replied, smiling into Leo's hair.
Maybe his feelings weren't reciprocated, but Jason still had his best friend.
And he could help Leo feel loved.
That was enough.