Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ting. The curly-haired Latino shifted a bit, rubbing his head after the pen hit him. Bonk. The brunette snuck her hand behind her back, flipping off the offender. Jason grinned, but but hid it behind his Honors Literature textbook when Mrs. Pallas looked towards him. Leo turned slightly, mouthing words to him. 'Fuck you.'

'Gladly,' the blonde shot a rubber band at Piper who was still flipping him off with her left while writing with her right hand. Jason looked for more missiles to throw, but could only find his coin. It was golden with the inscription IVLIVS on the back with his old family crest on the front. It was his good-luck charm: he never failed a test and even managed to get out of detention. The little family heirloom rested in his hand, the metal slowly warming up to his body temperature. He grinned at the two teens in front of him. He focused his gaze on it again.

'C'mon, get Leo back for earlier,' and in one flick of his wrist, the object when flying and hit...somebody.

He muttered some insensible things under his breath as he waited for something horrible to happen. His mind raced. Should he pretend that it wasn't him? Should be apologize? Who the hell did he just hit? He did none of these hings. On the contrary, he didn't do anything. 'Shit, aww, crappy fucking mother of...' yes, Jason had a way with merging words into peculiar phrase.

The black-hooded figure turned around and met his gaze. For a second, as the sky-blue eyes met with dark-chocolate brown ones, Jason's breath escaped his: he was captivated. A pale figure with ebony-black hair which hung around him like a silk curtain, curling outwards at the ends. High cheekbones with pale, almost alabaster complexion with large doe eyes; there was something in those eyes that Jason took as a safeguard: they seemed frail, fragile, broken. Blood-red, full lips mouthed to the blonde after picking up the coin and shifting it between his fingers. 'This yours?'

He could only nod.

With a fluid movement, a pale hand tossed it to the blonde, like a knife cutting through butter; the blonde caught it more out of habit and instinct than consciousness. He was still in a daze when the bell rang.

Leo walked up to his tall friends, who was staring out into space. Probably fell asleep; the Latin shrugged- he didn't put anything past Jason. "Yo, Pipes?" The kaleidoscope-eyed teen peered upwards from her things.

"Yea?"

"Go ahead and tell the others we'll be out shortly."

" 'Kay," Piper nodded heading toward the door.

"And keep your mouth to yourself," Leo added with a bit of a smirk. The Native American's cheeks grew a slight pink as she muttered under her breath. "At least I have a girlfriend..."

"Hey, I heard that!" Groaning, he shook Jason. "Dude, dude. Man, you asleep? Dude, wake up," the Latino resolved into yelling into the blonde's ear.

Jason snapped out of his daydream. "What?"

"It's lunch, big dude." The curly-haired male complained, as if it were the most obvious thing on earth.

"Aw," Jason grinned, "little Latino boy can't go to the big bad cafeteria by himself?"

"Fuck you. And I consider you my friends. Racist..." Leo lightly punched him on the arm. "Ye, and I'm leaving now. Bye~" He walked out the door waving, only to have the taller teen right on his heels. Jason pulled the Latino into a headlock and they laughed their way to their usual table during lunch. However, Jason couldn't get the beautiful stranger from his mind. He was certain that he had never seem him before.

"Hey," Percy nodded, implying a 'sup' in his motions. Annabeth greeted them.

"Ditto," Jason sat down next to Piper as Leo asked what was for lunch before being cut off by Hazel.

"Nico!" The golden-eyed teen jumped up from her seat and cheerfully waved a pale teen over. The blonde turned his head, and nearly leaped from where he was, exactly like Hazel. Chocolate-brown eyes seemed to examine every single on at the take and the blonde's heart pounded when his eyes landed on the unknown yet familiar face. The dark eyes landed on a green-eyed teen. "Percy." His voice wasn't a question.

"Hey, man. Where've you been? Long time no see."

"Sit with us, Nico," Hazel pleaded. Leo gave the pale Italian a look while Jason ran the name over in his head. Nico.

"Sorry Hazel. Have to go to the library. Project." Hen gently kissed the African-American girl on the cheek (Jason could clearly see the rage in Frank's eyes) and promptly left.

"What's his problem?" Leo muttered, putting a piece of chicken in his mouth from the lunch he grabbed. "Antisocial much?"

"Who was he?" Frank questioned Hazel. She sighed. "My brother," she responded, as if tired from giving too much of an explanation. She sighed again as she perceived the looks the others were giving her. "Half brother. We look nothing alike." Frank visibly calmed down and continued with his lunch.

"So," Jason spoke up "Nico Levasque?" Annabeth laughed a bit, making him feel stupid although he didn't know the guy prior to this day.

"No," the grey eyes flickered in his direction. "Di Angelo."

Hmm. Jason thought. Nico di Angelo. Nico... The angel? Fitting.

"Italian?" Piper questioned. Annabeth nodded. "What's his problem?" Leo spoke up again, a;ready almost done with his lunch. He repeated his question from earlier. Percy cleared his through.

"Nothing." The table (minus Hazel) gave him looks. Annabeth interjected for him. "Rough past." Leo snorted.

"Yea, but that doesn't give him the right to be a complete asshole." Hazel scolded him for his use of language, while ignoring the content of what he had just said. Jason joked with a straight face.

"Just 'cause you have a rough past does not mean that everyone else with a rough past will end up insane and crazy like you." The table laughed, the tension gone.

Truth to be told, they all had bad pasts.

Leo had been saved form a burning building by his neighbors but lost his mother in the accident. He had run away from orphanage to orphanage for five years until he was sent to a private school with a full scholarship for his unnatural mechanical talents. Jason was an illegitimate child of a famous business owner and an actor. His stepmother sent him to a private boarding school after his real mother was sent to a mental asylum. There, he had accidentally electrocuted a bully, whose main victim was Piper; she herself was neglected by her famous father (an actor and brother to Jason's mother) and often bullied at school The trio grew up together when they decided to go to the public high school

Percy grew up with his stepfather a, who had physically and mental abused him and his mother. He doesn't know who his father is 'till this day. He had been kicked out of several middle schools for cursing, misbehaving, and simply bad grades (he had dyslexia and severe ADHD). After his father had been caught in a severe car crash and passed away in a hospital, his mother had married another man, better this time, and a professor. He managed to get Percy into a charter school and he did not cause major damage to his record. Annabeth, his girlfriend, had run away from home when she was seven due to complications with her and her stepmother, and lived at the library for one before she was caught and rang to the police. After immigrating from China to the U.S., Frank's mother had died when he was young, and his grandmother had died a year before he was legally an adult. He was taken in by a monastery/church and had moved on to living with Hazel after starting high school. The African-American, youngest of all of them, had been a lone child brought up by her mother, donned 'The Witch' in the mafia group she was part of. So saying this, all had been through ups and downs, but their main concern was getting through public high school (accordingly the hardest thing they have all accomplished, in their minds). The end-of-lunch bell rang, and the students filed out of the cafeteria, shuffling to their next period.

Chapter Text

Jason cursed as he made his way across the halls. His bad had hit an innumerable amount of things as he made his way through the crowd, picking the safest way as he went. He was almost to his Calculus classroom (always a drab in the mornings) when something crashed into his shoulder and the intruder fell onto the floor, a textbooks and papers falling to the floor.

"Whoa! You okay?" Jason reached out a hand to help the stranger up. The pale teen stared up at him and then quickly started to collect the papers, standing up on the way. Jason helped absentmindedly, and handed him two textbooks and an essay paper with a little grin. He focused his gaze on the bobbing ebony hair, the darting brown eyes, and lips open from the shock of the crash.

"Here, Nico." The said teen looked at him suspiciously, before realizing that he had probably heard his name the previous day. He muttered off a thanks before shuffling down into the hallway, disappearing into the immense pack of bodies Jason could only describe as a flash mob. He plunked down into his seat as soon as the bell rang and prepared to doodle through the class with a minimum amount of notes written down. His thoughts suddenly came back to Nico. Nico di Angelo. Somehow, he couldn't get the boy out of his mind; he blankly wondered if there was something connecting the two. The coin in his back pocket seemed to warm against his jeans and suddenly remembered how they first met. 'Yea, lucky coin much. I hit a complete stranger. He probably thinks that I'm a douche-bag, or something along those lines.'

Jason flipped his notebook to a blank page and started to take notes from the board. There was a test tomorrow, and he couldn't afford to fail it. Not with the football game coming up.

Ares' loud, booming voice rang out into the field. His instructions carried them across the field; Jason felt that running laps were tedious work, and that there were no good consequences. No bad either, you just needed a little bit of water.

"One, two, three, get into proper formation!" The football team jogged in place, getting ready to get down in any moment's second. The command came and they dropped like flies. Ares was running them harder than any year before Jason had been on the team. His thoughts trailed to the short Greek History lesson from Mr. Chiron the semester before. Maybe the coach should change his name to Euryale rather than Ares. He smiled chuckled in spite of himself. A painful two hours had passed, and the day at school was over with the coach reminding them about the upcoming national game.

The blonde sighed as he remembered the several tests that he had in the next week. He was going to take a piss before he walked home and found Percy washing his hands in the very right sink. Jason took care of his business as he faced Percy.

"So, swim practice?" Percy nodded.

"Football?" Jason nodded back and they fell into a comfortable silence. Percy was drying his hands by the time Jason moved into the sink next to his when they heard a scream. Obviously, being the nice male teens they were, they hurried outside, where they found a little ring of boys They made their way to the group when they met Nico and another fellow classmate of Jason's. Octavian's face betrayed pain and the guys around them were silent. Percy nodded towards Octavian.

"You okay?"

"Until the little bitch twisted it," he replied and Jason felt a little flame of rage grow inside of him. He didn't know much, but he also didn't like Hazel's brother being called a little bitch. Not to mention that he didn't like Octavian in the first place. Nico's voice was silent but deadly as his face was masked with no expression except the slight squinting of his eyes.

"I didn't give you permission to touch me."

"I was just passing by," the scrawny blonde spat out as some of the teens surrounding them left. "And you have heard of an accident, haven't you?"

"You mean someone like you?" Nico deadpanned. This earned a couple of snickers from the crowd (Jason's lips twitched upwards as Percy unsuccessfully tried to smother his laughter) but it almost immediately stopped as Octavian glared round him.

"Watch you back in the halls, kid. 'Cause you're in for a treat." Jason spoke up at the threat.

"Octavian, stop bitching around. I though scum was too low for you to deal with?" Jason could only clearly remember an encounter when Piper had accidentally spilled frog guts all over him in Biology. 'Accidentally'. Octavian scowled at the taller blonde and stalked off. Soon, there were only four kids left, three of them Nico, Percy, and Jason. The Italian looked up at the blonde.

"You didn't need to speak up for me," he muttered. Percy shrugged and Jason himself slightly flushed.

"Well," a voice behind them made them turn. "He can't really do anything to you." Nico snorted. Jason, however, noticed him.

"Yea, like sure,"Nico rolled his eyes, planning to walk away. Larry cut him off and stopped him, though.

"If he tries to sue you or something, I'll be there to defend you. Or your word." Percy and Jason were now both curious.

"What happened?" the green-eyed teen looked at Larry. Jason, in stead, turned to Nico, who had a blush on his face, his cheeks a warm red color. The blonde thought it was adorable.

Larry shrugged. "Sexual harassme-"

"Leave it alone. He's gone, and he can't do anything to me." He stalked away, and Percy stayed back to talk to Larry while Jason trailed after the pale teen. "Nico! Wait up!" The two teens walked next to each other, the silence overbearing. Jason wondered where he was going; he was glad that it was in the direction of his house.

"Why are you following me? Is this where you usually go home to?" Jason shrugged.

"I usually take a shorter street, but I guess it would be better if I follow you," he grinned lopsidedly. "You might run into more trouble." Nico shivered slightly.

"Stop smiling like that. Percy always does that." Jason tried to maintain his smile.

"So, you know Percy from long time ago?" Nico shrugged this time. "Yea, he knew my...acquainted with my...sister."

"He knew Hazel?"

"Different sister," he explained. "Just pasted of..." He trailed off and Jason didn't pry, knowing about sibling problems. His older brother Hercules was just one of them: they couldn't stand stay in the same room with each other for an hour. The Italian stopped at a cross section and looked left and right before moving on. He seemed to get tense, his muscles taunt with stress or worry. Maybe both.

"Car accident when you were young?" Jason merely asked.

"Sort of. You could ask Percy." Blue eyes skittered over things in the street, and the blonde's shows kicked random pebbles and stones on the sidewalk.

"You trust Percy a lot huh?" Nico looked at the ground. His voice came out as a mere whisper. "The feeling isn't mutual." He stopped in front of an old house. It wasn't as big as Jason's but it seemed to be worth something. Nico opened the gate and held it open for a couple moments before the thought processed inside of Jason's head. He was dumbfounded as the pale beauty made a 'hurry up' motion with his hands. "You want me to go in?"

"You have a lot of questions," Nico observed dryly, holding the gate open wider. "You know, if you don't want to, then it's fi-"

"I'm coming." This time, it was Nico's turn to be surprised and he flushed a bit as the blonde closed the gate behind him. They walked inside, and it gave him a nice, warm feeling inside. It seemed comfortable and cozy, unlike his own house (his stepmother was OCD and when he was younger, his real mother had littered the house with beer bottles and clothing articles. "Nice place," he stood awkwardly under the door frame of the kitchen when Nico handed him a cup.

"My mother's old hot chocolate. You look like the type of person who would like it." He took a sip of the dark liquid.

"It is good," Jason looked up and took in the smaller teen again, wondering what had gone on in his past.

Nico smirked at him. "Told you so." Jason looked around and opened his mouth to ask something but the Italian answered his question for him. "Hazel and Frank are on a date to the movies." He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. Jason grinned.

"So you think that movie dates are too cliche?"

"Dates in general." He changed the topic after Jason gave him an amused look. "If you want to go to my room, I mean, it's messier than out here but, you don't have to, like..." he flushed before Jason stood up and motioned for him to lead the way. "You don't invite people here often, do you?"

He hesitantly nodded. "You're actually the first person to do so," he added. Jason nodded and couldn't help but feel a little better on the inside. He didn't know what was so bad in the first place, but the statement seemed to help. They sat on the bed with black cotton sheets, and started talking about random topics, ranging from school to video games. Nico seemed to be in a rather good mood, so Jason dared to venture out into question the previous events.

"So, what happened with Octavian before?" Nico slightly blushed and tried to reply with a 'nothing' but Jason cut him off. "And don't say 'nothing' when I heard from Larry that it was considered sexual assault." The shorter teen's usually pale cheeks now burned a flaring pink as he muttered something under his breath.

"I was walking from the library out of school when he just, I mean I didn't think of anything when I heard him behind me, but he like, uh," he fiddled with his hands, "grabbed..." his face flushed deeper and wasn't able to finish his sentence. Jason found himself staring and corrected his gaze before Nico could find out. "Did he?""

"I d-don't really know why, but it was like..." He waved his hand to express his point. "But I'm bullied a lot so-"

"Bullying? He was going to rape you!" Jason found himself less than a foot away from Nico, staring at the wide eyes. He backed up and apologized.

"I-It's fine." They sat in silence before Jason cleared his throat and asked Nico about his current projects. "Oh, I have an English project where we have to write a story, at least 50 pages." Jason blinked.

"Nico di Angelo, how old are you?"

"Um, fourteen?"

"Writing books..." he shook his head and Nico laughed. "This is why I only play football."

"Yea," Nico agreed. "If you had one more brain cell, it would be lonely."

"Hey!" They laughed and Nico described what his story was about. Jason could only focus on the red lips tilting upwards and his big, brown eyes lighting up in excitement.

"Well, it's based on an alternate universe where technology is not as advanced, and the population is basically like the Medieval times. I know that's cliche, but..." Jason shook his head and motioned for him to go on. "And people who are born are born with one special talent that appear, on average, at age twelve: some can bend physics, fly, have musical abilities, and so on. The main character, she doesn't think she has any powers when nothing happens on her twelfth birthday. Except, her father abandons her and her younger brother ( a total idiot) and it's basically them trying to survive on their own. All I need to do is edit it and maybe add a short epilogue."

"Cool. So what happens in the end?"

"She dies," Nico said plainly.

"What?"

"Yea, morbid, right?"

"No, does she find her power in her end? She doesn't not have one, does she?"

"Well, she does, and it's like...she inflicts pain onto herself." Jason was confused. Nico explained more elaborately. "Well, she can take injuries for another person, like twisting fate so that her loved ones don't hurt."

"Wow, that's..." the blonde was dumbfounded.

"Stupid?" Nico tried, hesitantly. "Yea, the idea's a bit off, and I don't know how I'll apply-"

"It's amazing, actually. The plot sounds really good."

"Hmm."

"What's the brother's power, or does it not come out?"

Nico frowned. "I've never thought about it, but... I don't know. Any suggestions?" Jason grinned at the thought.

"Then I'll have to read the story," He slipped while the Italian shook his head almost comically.

"Nope, no way you are reading that."

"C'mon, please?" The blonde pouted and he saw Nico make a face. "It's not like I'm going to tell the idea to someone else. Besides, if you're so worried about that, then I could've already told someone 'cause you gave me the story line," Nico hesitated.

"it's not that, it's just..." Jason looked at him dumbly.

"It's the blonde hair, blue eyes thing, isn't it?"

"Huh?"

"I hate looking like this. People always assume that I'm a playboy. Why? I haven't even dated, actually, I have once. But it didn't work out?"

"Oh..." Nico said quietly. Jason laughed and the Italian was surprised.

"No, no. I dated Pipes for like a week, and turns out we were siblings. Now we're just really good family members."

"Pipes...?"

"Oh, Piper's nickname. She hates it though."

"Yes, the ups and downs of having family." Nico muttered. Jason muttered some profanities under his breath as well, and they gazed at each other, bursting out laughing only moments later.

Soon enough, this became a usual habit of the two teen's, coming to the Italian's house after school and practices. Hazel was happy for her brother who had finally seemed to warm up to someone other than her with the occasional smile at school. Jason in turn, could not, now, deny his ever-growing feelings for the shorter teen.

Chapter Text

"You know," Jason spoke up, "If I were an animal, what would I be?"

This caught Nico by surprise and he pondered it, laying down on his bed as the blonde sat in his desk chair, finishing his math homework. Nico himself had finished during school time and lazying around, bored.

"I don't know, like a...bird?"

"What kind?"

"I said I didn't know. Why? Is this something for your homework?" Jason shook his head. "Then why are you asking?"

"Piper was describing people by animals, like their personalities and appearances. She said that Frank would be a bear."

"I agree. Hazel would be like a horse, right? She loves horses too much."

"That's what Piper said. She didn't tell me what I was, though."

"Why?" Nico glanced at his sideways, only halfheartedly expressing his curiosity.

"Octavian came along and she called him a rattlesnake. I quote, 'he's a little whiny bitch that gets what he wants because he looks intimidating. But in real life, he's the smallest thing out there, and you could easily kill it.' "

"So true..." Nico muttered, and Jason could only think of the time when the scowling blonde had tried to assault the Italian. The mere mentioning of it enraged him. "Probably a eagle."

"Octavian?" Jason practically growled, believing that the predator should not be insulted that way.

"No, you."

"Oh. Why?" Nico made a hand gesture. "No I do not know."

The pale teen groaned, putting his head down on the bed instead of looking at Jason. As he did, his shirt rid up a bit, revealing a pale strip of skin which forced Jason to look away with a blush before anything happened. "Bird of prey indicates status and stuff. Bird is an animal of flight, so on and so forth. The eagle also is a sign of nobility, also status, but in other cases, a quote-unquote 'a noble personality'. Besides, you usually wear a purple t-shirt, which is other words-"

"Nobility. I get it. Wow, you're smart."

"If you want smart, you could've asked Annabeth," Nico snorted. "Besides, I'm not that self-applying."

"If you're talking about animals, I know what you would be."

"So you can think of one for me but not one for yourself? I only had to think about you for thirty seconds and I got eagle. It's practically stamped on your forehead."

"Then why don't you evaluate yourself instead of me?"

"Hmm... I guess I would be a...feline."

"Why?"

"You know. Lone-traveling tendencies. Aggressive behavior. Predator-like habits. Lazy. The norm."

"Yea, like you would be a house cat."

"Hey, I said feline. Not house cat."

"Purple, violet." Nico huffed at the blonde's dismissive response and started to disprove the theory of the close similarity of purple and violet, occasionally stumbling onto words like 'ultraviolet' and 'color circle chart' and 'distinctive definition of both'. Jason gave up trying to understand the gist of it and just sighed slowly nodding on occasion. The Italian could tell that he was falling asleep so he swatted his arm, trying to get his attention. "Seriously, purple and violet are completely different things. They might be based on the same thing but it's not the same. The DNA structure of a Pomeranian and, let's say, Grey Wolf might be similar on the basic level but once you look into it-" Something meowed by his foot and Jason cursed, surprised. His foot accidentally caught the cat that immediately stalked off.

Nico laughed as he petted the pure albino cat, minus the black marking on it's forehead and the tip of it's tail (the spots looked strangely like diamonds). It purred against Nico's leg, and Jason swore that it glared at him, it's eyes- different colors: sky-blue and golden-yellow- almost accusing and blaming him for almost kicking it.

"This your cat?" Jason tried to pet it but it hissed and backed away. He felt and no doubt looked insulted when the Italian laughed, gently putting the cat back on the floor.

"Don't worry, she likes you. She only lets me pet her, but for others, she usually tries to wipe their eyes out. I've tried to break that habit but she doesn't learn." The cat looked back as if hearing him and then stalked off completely out of the room, it's tail raised high and posture poignant.

"Wow. She's like your shadow, then." Jason thought a bit more. "Would you act like that if you were a cat?"

Nico laughed and Jason's grin grew wider. "I don't know. Do you want to test it out?" Jason's face was baffled and utterly lost. "What?"

"How? It's not like we can genetically modify-" Suddenly, Nico pounced onto Jason from the bed and tackled him onto the floor where they both went tumbling. The 'cat' used his elbow to smack the 'eagle's' chest when the blonde made a strangling noise and Nico was rolling on the floor, clutching his stomach.

"Y-you sound like you, like you were...d-drowning or something," the pale teen managed to choke out in between fitful breaths of laughter. Jason put on a bemused face which only made Nico laugh harder. "Wow. Yes. Eagle drowning over here. I guess the house cat will lose his meal because his poor prey is dying of too much water while he is laughing his ass off. The circle of life runs once again."

Just in that moment, Hazel walked in the room to see her brother and close friend wrestling with each other. She didn't know much about their unforeseen close relationship, but she could tell that it was taking the reclusive strain off of her brother, and if she saw correctly, Jason himself had a slight pink flush to his cheeks and a look in his eyes that she caught Frank with too often. She golden-eyed girl hummed all the way to her room and gently shut the door. She could still hear the laughter from the room that use to be manifested with too much serenity encased with silent tears over a long time. The sun had come out from behind the clouds of rain, and it was a glorious sight to behold.

///

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

It had been a month after Jason had first met the pale teen, the angel of his life. Currently, he sat on his bed, trying to keep his voice down in the early mornings. He had to wake up in the middle of an excellent dream that would probably never come true. It's main character? Nico di Angelo. He stroked himself to completion before getting blearily ready for the Monday at school. All hell to come.

He made his way his down to the kitchen, grabbing a banana and a Z-bar before walking towards the front door. His father's voice rang out and caught him by surprise.

"Have a good night?"

"Y-yea, you could say that..." The blonde thought that he would never get use to the fact that his father, someone who was non-existent in his childhood life, would try so hard to be prominent in his current life.

"Could I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what?"

"Who's this friend of yours that you spend so much time with afterschool? You came home right before curfew."

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention to the time. We were kind of, well, roughhousing."

"And this mysterious person is a...?"

"Yea, um, Nico di Angelo? He's in ninth, but I think he's smarter than me. Sort of. We're in the same Literature class though. "

"Hmm," his father turned back to the newspaper he was reading. What was it with old men and reading newspapers at the breakfast table with a mug of steaming coffee next to them? Jason curiously wondered if he was going to do that later in the future. "Yes. Is he an interesting fellow?"

"Loads." Jason would by lying to himself if he claimed that didn't add to the charm.

"I see that you're having a rather 'fun' time with him. Just don't stay out to late. And I'm going to be on a business trip for the next month, so be good to your mother."

"Check," he absentmindedly thought of reminding his father that Juno was not his mother but his stepmother, but stayed with saluting before riding his bike to school. He didn't use his bike often, but he was running out of time by Jupiter asking questions about the Italian, and he didn't want to be marked tardy for the first time in his high school year.

It was already a third's way into the day when Jason noticed that he had forgotten his coin at home. He was glad to not have any important exams or projects due that day; although his grades were in top notch, a little extra luck never hurt. The day seemed to go by fairly quickly and efficiently,and even coach Ares didn't go as hard on the football team during practice than he had since the beginning of the year. Jason was content, but felt a little wary. Hs head told him to enjoy the serenity and stressless period of time, but his gut told him that something was going to happen; he was going to mess up: it was like a calm before the storm. Even though his gut was usually right, (1) there was a first to everything and (2) he ignored it until it was but a forgotten factor of past thought.

Nico was laying down next to the blonde as they started to talk about famous shows that were popping up. Jason could feel the ebony hair tickle his stomach as he listened to his crush speak; who knew the freshman would be such a geek. "I heard that I should watch the Walking Dead,. It's pretty famous, but it sounds too cliche. I mean, zombie apocalypse? Even I could think of a dozen story plot including that. There was this anime called High School of the Dead and that seemed more plausible."

"Hmm. Piper, Leo, and Percy were freaking out about a new season of Sherlock coming out... Season four? Five? Anyways, they were saying something about highly fixing, what, socio...sociopats?"

"Oh that. It's a quote. You know, 'I'm not a psychopath, I'm a highly functioning sociopath' is a famous thing from the main character. Almost everybody who watches that show uses it.

"Interesting. And Sherlock is not cliche?" Nico snorted.

"Not when the main character is an all-around genius, socially impaired, gay, and from the modern century. Also John is like, married to a former assassin. It's pretty funny; I heard that Watson is a target because of Sherlock."

"How do you know so much?" Jason's face was priceless as he lost himself slightly.

"Oh, from my Period 1. There are girls in my history class and, truthfully, they scare me." Nico shivered as the memories passed over him.

"Wow," Jason started, "I never knew that anything of this world scared you."

"Of course it scares me, I'm human." he reasoned out against the blonde. He snorted. "There can't be anybody that's not scared of anything."

"Hmm. I thought you were an angel," Blue eyes skimmed over the figure on top of him and saw a slight blush on the other's face. Nico gave a sarcastic eye roll.

"Really? What gave it away?"

"Your last name, really. I mean, it's like an official title." Jason smirked as he felt the Italian smack his chest. "Of course it was the title. You know what they say: hide things in plain sight." He glanced over the pale teen again, and he couldn't help but notice that the polo that Nico was wearing was hitching upwards, revealing a part of his hip. It annoyed Jason to no end. He tried to ignore it but it was like unconsciously putting a canteen of water in front of a dehydrated man.

With an inward sigh, he reached forward with his hand to pull the black polo down, but accidentally ended up slightly poking his sides. The Italian, on instinct, jolted and covered his sides, a flush to his cheeks. Jason started to grin. "You're ticklish, aren't you."

"N-no..." Nico couldn't met his eyes as his gaze shifted from object to object in the familiar room. He tried to suppress the feeling, but he couldn't help but burst out into fits of laughter. Soon the two found themselves within close range. Very close range. Their limbs were tangled together but both were surprisingly flexible, enabling them to fuse together even more. Their breaths mingled together, and the older blonde couldn't stop himself from wanting the moment to last forever. Well, close to forever. The next moment, he wanted to do more than stare.

With one kiss, both were breathless and Nico opened his mouth in question, but Jason quickly took advantage of that. Their tongues ended up in a feverish match, and the younger was unsuccessfully trying to push the football player off of him. The two separated for breath and Jason found himself staring into the captivating doe brown eyes, now as wide as saucers. He found his hands placed on Nico, seemingly pushing him into the bed, one on his shoulder and the other on his hip. With the amount of pressure, Jason thought that it would bruise, but that didn't stop him from leaning in for another kiss.

Nico stuttered, scared for the first time in a very long time. "J-Jason, w-what are you d-doing?" The hungry look in the blue eyes terrified him. He wondered if he had done anything to deserve this.

Jason, on the other hand, just gave up on the impulse to retain himself. He felt like an animal, feral, with eyes for only one. He growled into the Italian's ear after securing his thin wrists on the bedpost with his belt. "You're mine, and mine only. I won't let you go, Nico." The pale teen shivered as he tried to stop, stop his friend from attacking him, stop him from doing something that wouldn't benefit him, doing something that confused him, stop him from making the ebony-haired teen react the way he was now. A blast of cold air hit the younger teen and goosebumps ran down his skin as he felt warm lips make their way down.

The blonde sucked and bit down, marking what was his, making sure that no one else would take Nico from him. He couldn't hide from it anymore; this time, he would express it. He left an impressive love bite on the soft, virgin skin in between the neck and shoulder. Nico felt exposed and felt something hard against his thigh. His mind ran, his blood pulsed, his heartbeat raced as he tried not to get himself react. A teenage boy comes with hormones, and he had experimented enough to know what was going to happen. His voice was hoarse, but he didn't know why. "J-Jason... Please, stop,"he pleaded, but the football player seemed like he couldn't hear him. He closed his eyes shut as he felt a warm hand slid into his boxers and grab his growing manhood, stroking it to it's full length. Electricity ran through his body and his cheeks flushed a wild scarlet. His moans and pleas seemed to contradict what his body was saying. And he knew that.

The blue-eyed male slowly inserted a digit into the smaller teen, whose body automatically tried to reject the foreign object, but he added another on and, even slower, started to scissor his crush. His own need was pressing against the restraints of his jeans, and he felt the desire pool in his abdomen. In one fluid moment, he thrust inside of him, immediately gasping. The tight heat around him seemed to hold him there and tighten around as he started to move slightly. His eyes glanced over every part of the Italian: his arms shook from the bonds, pale skin marked with to-be bruises, his forehead clammy with perspiration, tears spilling over his eyes and onto his cheeks. The blonde kissed his chest and gently murmured words of gentleness.

Their moans completely overpowered the silence and echoed around the room. Jason felt his climax coming as the tight ring of muscle spasmed around him. White exploded in his vision as he stroked the Italian to his own climax. He eased himself out of Nico, who was close to unconsciousness. He cleaned up the mess off of their chest and grabbed his clothes, but not before he shifted the younger teen into the covers and gently stroking his hair. He eased off to sleep and Jason, fully clothed, decided to leave for the day. He met Hazel on the way out and greeted her; she in turn seemed genuinely surprised.

"Were you visiting Nico?" Jason nodded at the dark-skinned teen. "Well, thanks for coming over."

"You'll have to thank Nico for having me here. Oh, and he's asleep, so I don't think it's a good idea to try and talk to him," Jason added, his brain somewhat having stopped after walking out of the Italian's room. The golden-eyed girl and the golden-haired boy said their goodbyes and Jason thought deeply as he walked home. What had he done? He had just made love to the one that he liked and, he observed dryly, without consent. He rubbed a hand through his still-messy hair and sighed as he walked home with his head spinning.

"Jason, you've come back from school," he heard his Jupiter's voice ring out from the kitchen. "School just finished?"

"Oh, I was finishing my homework at a friend's house." Jason hoped the stutter and worry wasn't present in his voice. Fortunately enough, his father was not a lawyer but a strict businessman who dealt with paper and ink rather than human beings; his father nodded and got back to -eating?- his dinner. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to be on a business trip until next week?" Truthfully Jason didn't know whether he would see his father again in the next year.

"The contract was simplified and paper work was cut by half. The original plane that I was going to board also got canceled."

"Cool," the blonde hesitantly looked around the living room, but for all he knew, there was nobody in the entire house. "I'll just go to my room."

He closed the door, and was caught in his own world, where there were unfinished papers on his desk, his P.E. shorts strewn across his bed from his latest football practice. Suddenly, he felt the weight of the day bear down on him. His hand covered his eyes as he contemplated what to do; he couldn't ignore it, but he couldn't fully address it without having immense consequences for him and Nico. Most of all, it would impair their relationship with each other. He wouldn't dare to do that, but how was he going to fix this? The answer was simple actually, he thought humorlessly. He couldn't.

Ohhhh, shit.

Chapter Text

The next couple of days were hell for Jason. He could only worry about one thing: Nico. His mind constantly rotated around the pale beauty that had captivated him at first sight and made him fall in love by the first night. Two days went by and the blonde was trying to balance his thoughts out and focus more on schoolwork, but the more he tried to push the boy from my mind, he kept popping up until his brain seemed to explode. He groaned as he put his head down; lunch didn’t seem appealing at all.
“You okay?” Piper whispered next to his ear. He groaned again. Suddenly, a thought popped up into his head. He couldn’t meet Nico, but Hazel lived with him, and who better than to contact? “Hey, are you o-”
“Do you know where I can find Hazel?” Jason’s head snapped up and looked hopefully into her colorful eyes. Annabeth spoke up, vehemently crushing his hopes. “She went on a school trip. Science. Why, do you need something?”
Jason shook his head as the bell rang. “It’s nothing.” He decided to visit the Italian; he couldn’t bear with it anymore. He went to open his locker when something caught his eyes. The metal front seemed to be decorated with a single word: ‘faggot’. He snorted as he recognized Octavian’s handwriting. Seriously, if that thing thought that something as trivial as that could get to him, then he was wrong.

///

It had been two periods, and there was only one torturous hour before the junior could visit the freshman after-school. The day seemed to drag on longer than normal, and the clock taunting him with the second hands ticked by and by. Jason sat in his seat right as the bell rang and Ms. Pallas gave a discerning look towards an empty seat; “Does anybody know where Mr. di Angelo has gone? This is his fourth day not here...”
Jason raised his hand and cleared his throat. “I believe he’s sick.” Somebody from the other side of the class snickered and a voice spoke up. A very familiar, annoying voice. “You would know, saying that you were probably with him.” Jason felt his face heat up but ignored it and wrote down the assignment written on the board. The Literature teacher looked indifferently at her ‘outspoken’ student. “It takes one to know one,” she said, then turning to the class. The blonde’s face had turned into a tomato-like shade while the rest of the class tried not to shout and react like the normal teenagers they were. “Now class, I would like for you to turn to page 256 of the textbook and read the passage. There will be a worksheet that you will have to complete by the end of the class. I would’ve gone over in a discussion but we are behind bookwork schedule."
Answering the questions were pretty easy going for Jason, and when he finished, his eyes landed on Piper who unsuccessfully tried to smother her laughter and a very flustered Hispanic, who was hurriedly cursing in Spanish. From what Jason could understand, he caught phrases like ‘stupid’ and ‘need to know this shit’ and ‘fluent’. Jason suppressed a grin as he walked up to the front desk to turn the assignment in; Leo never really did well in English ever since elementary. Back at his desk, Jason decided he would check out the animal book that Piper had given him, prior to his conversation with Nico about eagles and house cats. He mindlessly flipped through the book, stopping at the feline section.
His eyes traced over the pictures and texts, mainly sorting out what these felines had in common with Nico. They were sensible, Jason listed, calm, neat, smart, lean, beautiful.
The class slowly passed by, but did nevertheless. The bell rang and drowned out his second sigh as he closed the book. Jason was one of the last ones to head out, facing his teacher right before leaving the class.
“Yes, Mr. Grace?”
“Um,” he tried not be look awkward. “Thank you...for earlier.” She gave him a curt nod before returning her gaze to her papers.
“Finish your homework on class. You’re a good student and colleges like that.”
He nodded at her response and walked out of the high school grounds, feeling a little better. Now all Karma had to do was give him a chance to repair his relationship with Nico and he could die a happy man. Jason sighed. However, Karma’s a bitch if you were a bitch, and Jason knew that he had screwed up horribly.

Chapter Text

He stood awkwardly at the door, just having moved to the side to let an older lady walk up the stairs in the apartment. He rang the doorbell a fourth time but no avail; Nico made it look like he wasn't home. 'Well, he really couldn't be,' Jason thought, 'but where would he be?'. He wanted- needed- to talk to the Italian, and a feeling of guilt submerged his insides before he felt his heart sink down into his stomach like a lost anchor in the vast sea.
The blonde sighed and prepared to leave, when he heard something crash inside. Or a someone. Not knowing what else to do, Jason pulled out his Swiss Army knife; his father had always required his children to carry around a form of defense/offense, and his stepmother had never objected. More like didn't care, Jason thought sarcastically. He picked the lock (quite easy once Leo Valdez taught you the exact mechanics of a household lock) and opened the door. He expected to see a sick, pale teen someone in sight but 'alquid'. There was nobody in the living room, or the bedroom, as far as he checked. The bathroom was too far from the front door for Jason to have heard a crash, so that left the kitchen.

Hesitantly walking into the vicinity, he softly called the pale Italian's name, hoping to get an answer. Instead, he found broken shards of glass near his feet and stared at it. The litter seemed to be from several cups, and he only found one intact, although it was heavily cracked on one side. He stared at it. It was the exact mug that he had drunk hot chocolate from, on the first day he had visited the house. The open window sent a soft breeze in and steadily raised his nerves instead of gently calming him down. He felt something soft press against his calf and then slid past him, moving towards the window.

"Nico's shadow..." He reached out to pet the albino cat but the mammal danced out of his reach, almost tauntingly. "So, where's Nico at?" Jason asked. He looked at the cat with curiosity and desperation in his voice. He knew it was crazy to be talking to an animal that most likely did not understand him, but the knowing different colored eyes gazed up at him and meowed. It turned back and jumped out the window; when Jason looked outside it was on top of a trash bin, staring right back at him and shook it's tail, as if it wanted the blonde to follow it. Feeling curious, Jason quickly left the apartment. Then he noticed something.

Nico's shoes were still here.

The Italian would've been here...but he isn't. Filled with worry, Jason hurried after the albino cat while trying to convince himself that nothing bad was going to happen. That nothing bad did happen. He didn't do a very good job of it.
The cat had twisted from left to right, up to down, but once Jason seemed to lag behind, the animal stopped and looked back at him; it meowed when he got too far, and he hurried up to catch up. The blonde chuckled to himself, jogging a bit to keep up. It was strange, like in an adventure film. But didn't the animal usually lead to the damsel in distress? His mouth dried as he thought of Nico being held captive but chuckled humorlessly to himself again. He was watching too many fantasy films.

He turned a bend, and did a double-take when he couldn't see the pale white fur against the dull, lifeless gray of the walls and floor. He heard a slight meow so he looked up, only to see the black tip of the tail disappear from view. He counted the windows up from the bottom; the fourth floor. Thoughts rushed through his head as he climbed the stairs, looking sad and rotten. He was glad that he had daily physical practice; he wasn't sure he would've been able to walk up the stairs this fast if he didn't. He also wondered where he was being led, or if the cat was just trying to get him off it's tail. He thought about what he would say if he met Nico, if he sees him. Should he act natural, all calm? Should he apologize? Should he avoid him?
Jason wondered why he was so self-conscious when he was around Nico. He remembered that it was like this the first time that he had met the pale teen, worrying about how he was first going to present himself. Love did weird things to you sometimes. The blonde looked up and opened a door with wood decayed even more than the stairs that he had just climbed; the pipes jutted from the walls as if they were trying to escape the plaster confines.

Actually, make that all the time.

Entering the desolate place, Jason could practically hear the crickets chirping. Except, there were no crickets. He quickly looked over the place for the albino cat; it must've brought him for a reason, not just to ditch him here. His question was soon answered as he heard a slight purr-meow. "Hey, um, boy. Good boy," simply because he had nothing else to say. A groan made him turn his head.

"J-Jason..." The small teen's body was shaking and his voice dry and cracking, as if he hadn't used it in weeks. His limp body seemed to be accessorized heavily with bruises and cuts; Jason could've gladly killed someone in that moment, especially the one who did all of it to Nico. His complexion had an unhealthy glow to it than ever before and whitewashed, his eyes dark and haunted. "L-leave...He'll catch...yo-" he was unable to finish as a coughing fit made his whole body quiver and Jason, using his Swiss Army knife, proceeded to cut the wire from the smaller teen's wrists; it seemed to be composed of a strong metal, and it looked like it could cut easily. It did. He grabbed it and sawed away with his knife, and a trail of blood slowly dripped down his forearm. He vaguely felt Nico's vain attempt for him to stop but he didn't stop his efforts until the wire was cut completely. He gently massaged the feeling back into Nico's thin arms. In all this work, neither had noticed the cat jumping out the window nimbly, leaving them to their own problems.

"Here," the blonde held the other one up, and it seemed like he had a new-born fawn's legs, with no balance and strength. Jason resolved to holding Nico in an embarrassing bridesmaid-hold, but the latter was too tired and worn out to protest. Jason walked out of the room. The sound of dripping water echoed from the wooden floor, and dimly lit light bulbs illuminated their way. The walk was safe and dry, for the most part, and Jason wondered who had made Nico like this, who had treated him this way. Whoever it was, Jason was sure that he would personally ruin his/her life; he was guilt-racked that he had treated Nico similarly. Nevertheless, he would get Nico out of here, and then deal with his consequences later. No matter how painful; it was the least he could do. He eased out of the room and slowly walked down the stairs, both worried that too much sudden weight could take the place down and that even the most smallest of twists would hurt the Italian's body.

When they were outside, the smaller teen inhaled slowly and deeply, as if he didn't get enough air in the last few day; if he really did or not, Jason didn't know. "I can walk myself, you know," Nico mumbled almost to himself. "It's just minor cuts and bruises."

"Minor? You look like you've died and come back," Jason replied.

"Please, just..." Jason sighed as he perceived Nico's puppy eyes. He hadn't fully experienced it himself, but enough talk from Hazel explained all about it. The motion created a full-blown effect that added a pout and doe-eyes, with a slight flush to his face. The fact wanted Jason to make out with Nico right then and there, but instead, he merely sighed and carefully let him down, who wobbled for a bit before getting back on his feet. "I'm fine, really," He was too adorable for his own good, Jason thought wistfully.

They walked (or hobbled) their way out of the deserted alley and into the outskirts of the town. There was the occasional car or so, with even fewer pedestrians. Still, they earned less than a couple glances as Jason quickly told Nico where they were: almost a mile south from his house, there was little to see, except the drastic neighborhood-mood change and the beautiful colors the sunset was creating, a palette of yellow, red, purple, and blue. It was majestic.

It was silent, until they heard the honking. At first, neither had given a second thought about the annoying noise, They simply accepted it as everyday life when the traffic got bad. It wasn't until ten seconds of it that it hit them. There was no traffic, and no cars around either. So where was it coming from. Jason felt the hair on the back of his neck and shivered because a cold spread through his body, and in a bad way, not the 'I'm-freezing-my-ass-off' kind, either.

"Let's get out of here." The sentence had barely left his mouth when the unnatural glare hit his peripheral vision. The lights, in contrast to the quickly darkening sky made his pupils suddenly contract and try to get use to it. His natural instincts came in kick before his lone brain cell came into the picture. He grabbed the smaller teen's shoulder and with all of his strength, which is saying a lot. The truck came full force as the lithe teen went sprawled onto the concrete sidewalk. Curse words hurriedly left the Italian's mouth as he looked up annoyed and confused and the last thing he saw was windswept blonde hair framing handsome, rugged features, lips curled into a grin that seemed to display all their emotions. His mouth twisted, and Nico couldn't hear him over the sound of the horn, but caught it anyways: Sorry. Jason turned his head just before the impact. Sorry. His eyes dilated to the size of pinpricks with the bright lights flaring at him from the front of the vehicle. Sorry, his eyes seemed to say.

The pain. The light. The rushing tempo of things. The spinning of the world. The dirt floor. Everything seemed to slow down but moved too fast for the blonde-haired teen to recover. His chest felt unbearable pain as he heaved for breath. It felt as if a truck hit him. Darkness started to engulf Jason's mind and sight as his thoughts came in short bursts. A warmth seemed to be grasping tightly to his hand, as if worried that he might leave. That was ridiculous. Don't worry, I'm still here. I'm not gone, he wanted to say, but his voice failed him, and his tongue felt as dry as sandpaper. The last thing he could remember before falling completely out of his misery was that the sun started to give way to rain, the almost taunting blue sky giving way to beauty of a whole other kind. He smiled as he felt enough energy to mouth a couple words.

Sorry.

I have to go.

I love you.

I didn't tell you before, but I'm telling you now.

Sorry.

I guess it's my time to leave.

Goodbye.

Chapter Text

Jason groggily opened an eye. White emblazoned his vision- where was he? Ugh, he thought, bright lights.
Bright Lights.
Headlights.
Truck.
Nico.
The blond leaped to his feet with absolutely not care in the world but Nico. Well, if he were in the afterlife, he would search every single corner to see that Nico was still alive. He pursed his lips and noticed that he was barefooted as he regained his balance. Blood rushed to his head and he regained the memories from the time previous. The room started to spin before he felt a gentle hand put on his back. “Don’t do that. You won’t get any better.” Jason spun despite his queasiness, grabbing the teen’s narrow shoulder.
“Are you okay, are you hurt? What happened? The truck! Or car, but where are we ? Am I dead? Are you dead? Why does hell smell like antibiotics?”
“Lay down,” Nico instructed him. His laughter was like music to Jason’s ears, and he immediately calmed down. But he didn’t follow Nico’s directions. “You probably have a slight fever. And last time I checked, this isn’t hell; it’s a hospital.”
The blue-eyed teen felt stupid as his cheeks flushed. “Oh...” They stood there looking at each other in the silence of the room, simply basking in the other’s presence. With one movement, the Italian wrapped his arms around Jason’s lower back, his head on the taller teen’s chest. His voice was a hushed whisper and a slightly hoarse.
“I thought you were going to leave me all alone.” The blonde soothingly stroked the soft ebony hair, this time, calming down the panicked teen. It worked.
“Hey, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” Jason grinned.
“I have a questions.”
“Shoot.”
“Why did you think you were in hell?”
“I don’t know. I’m not exactly religious... Should I have said heaven? Tartarus? Or afterlife? Elysium?” Nico chuckled against his chest, slightly wet.
“You’d go to heaven. A true hero. It’s people like me that go to hell,” he laughed. Jason pulled the shaking form his grasp and started into the deep dark-chocolate brown pits.
“One. You don’t belong in hell. Two. If you do fo to hell, I’m ether coming down with you or dragging you off with me.” Nico flushed at Jason’s adamant stare and direct forwardness. The silence accompanied them as they started laughing. It started as small chuckles and a couple giggles but crescendoed until they almost couldn’t breathe. “Aww, c’mon. Don’t make this any harder than it is for me,” the blonde fake-pouted. “It’s not easy after a confession, you know. Nico fell against his chest again, a content smile at his lips.
“It’s funny how we’re still alive.”
“Yea,” Jason agreed. “I thought it would’ve taken a serious miracle to save as both.” the Italian smiled in his own mischievous way. “what? Did I miss something vital here?”
“No, it’s just that... My cat’s name is Meraviglia, which means wonder in Italian.” Jason returned the smile with a fitting grace. “Well then. Since she’s your miracle, I guess you’re mine,.” Nico rolled his eyes while hugging the football player tighter to him. Or himself tighter to the football player.
“Oh yea,” the smaller teen separated their bodies and dark chocolate-brown eyes met electric-blue ones. “and your father visited me while you were asleep.”
Anger rippled off of Jason like waves. “He didn’t try to do anything, righ-” Nico consoled him, putting up a hand to stop his sudden, jerky movements.
“No, he came to put it up as a crime scene. He introduced himself to me as your father. He also said that she should be able to catch the k-kidnapper.” Jason noticed the stutter in the Italian’s voice when he spoke about the dreaded criminal. He held him close but Nico didn’t miss his surprised face. “What?”
“Oh nothing,” he replied calmly although there was a hurricane raging inside of him, “it’s just that he, my father, hasn’t ever been this...involved in my life before.”
“I understand. But he said that the guy was a famed kidnapper, with an occasional murder in his record. He said the government will be ecstatic.”
“Wait, murderer?” Nico rolled his eyes and tried to wave him off gently without hurting the football player’s already over-exhausted body, but Jason stubbornly grabbed the paler hands in his own warm ones. The Italian blushed at the contact but met Jason unwavering gaze with his own, not letting go. Jason gulped. As opposed to him, Nico was a soft, slight drizzle that didn’t do anything but water the plants. “I let the one I love go with a murderer?”
Nico’s former flushed deepened to a scarlet. As he smiled sheepishly up at the football player. “Me too,” he muttered, wrapping his arms tightly around Jason’s midsection again.
“Huh?” Needless to say, the blonde was utterly lost. Nico playfully punched his bicep. “Oh... Oh!” Jason couldn’t help but grin The Italian looked up at him, then groaned into his chest.
“Yes, oh. Now get that shit-eating grin off you face.”
“But I just confessed and... Nothing bad happened!” Nico punched him again. “Yes, hitting your injured, recovering boyfriend.” They laughed at this. A light entered Nico’s eye as a mental lightbulb went off in his head. He held out something golden.
“Here. Your dad said you left it at my house,” the coin dropped onto Jason’s hand and he clasped around the familiar weight.
“Thanks. This coin is lucky after all.”
“Oh please. That thing hit me.” They both grinned at the sudden realization.
“Precisely why. It led me to where I belonged,” Jason peered into Nico’s face and cupped his chin, “and now I’ve found my love.”
“Hey, I found you, at the lunch table,” Nico argued, wrapping his hands around Jason’s head. The blonde grinned like a fool, too happy and in love to care.
“The coin was still lucky.”
They leaned in for a kiss. Or two.