Chapter Text
“So,” panted Percy, clutching Riptide tightly in his sweaty palm. “What’s the plan now?”
Jason chewed his cheek indecisively, eyes flicking back and forth as he searched their surroundings for a solution. His grip on his own gladius remained as tight as Percy’s. Percy’s heart thumped anxiously in anticipation of round two as he looked down the dusty footpath they had just fled down. The Cyclopes couldn’t be far behind them.
It should have been a simple shopping trip. Leo had sent them down to the small coastal town to pick up a few simple items for repairs to the ship that would carry them the rest of the way to Athens. They should’ve been in and out in record time.
Percy was quite sure he would’ve been in and out in record time if Jason hadn’t insisted on tagging along. He’d been in the air long enough to start feeling antsy about outstaying his welcome in Zeus’ territory again and had jumped at the opportunity to stretch his legs on solid ground, even if only for a short while. He’d been looking forward to the reprieve until Jason had decided to gate-crash his little excursion.
Jason had assured everyone it was in the name of divide and conquer; a job shared is a job halved and all that, and – in the interest of safety after a recent increase of monster attacks – the buddy system had to be put in place. Percy could see some logic in his thinking but couldn’t help feeling that Jason would not have been his first choice of buddy.
He didn’t have anything against the son of Jupiter exactly, but they had certainly had a tough time seeing eye to eye since joining the crew. Percy tried not to judge Jason too harshly for their differences, but somehow it always felt as though they were being pit against each other for leadership on this quest – despite neither of them seeming particularly keen on the responsibility. The incident in the cornfield hadn’t helped their competitive friction any. And Jason sticking his nose in today had only translated to Percy as Jason thinking him incapable of completing a simple shopping list on his own.
Frustrations aside, they had managed to find everything they needed, bar one. Before they could get their hands on the last item on their list, they’d been ambushed by a local Cyclops. They had eventually managed to take the Cyclops down, coming out of the encounter a little worse for wear but in one piece. And then the rest of the family had turned up.
It had taken both of them to take down just one Cyclops, and Jr. had put up a good fight, leaving them winded and lightly bruised. They’d run for it when the other three entered the scene, heading uphill on a quiet dirt road out of town. Percy didn’t like their odds anymore now than he had back in town, but with nothing but quaint countryside surrounding them, he didn’t see any other option than to stand and fight.
Percy could hear the approaching thud of heavy footfalls and raised his sword. He fixed his eyes on the rise of their hill, expecting to see three enormous, ugly heads popping up any second now. Jason pursed his lips and flexed his grip on his sword, gearing up for round two as well, when something caught his eye and his head snapped around to the side.
“Here,” he said, pointing his sword at a cluster of berry bushes.
Percy stared at him blankly for a moment. A gang of bloodthirsty Cyclopes were hot on their heels; it hardly seemed the time to go berry picking. Jason let out an impatient grunt, grabbed Percy around the middle and hauled him into the bushes. He dropped to his knees and dragged Percy down after him.
Percy frowned at Jason as they crouched in the thick of leaves and berries. “That’s your plan? Hide?”
“It’s not hiding, it’s a tactical retreat,” muttered Jason, as he peered through the leaves stealthily. “Now shush.”
Percy’s mouth twisted in a deeper frown. “Don’t shush me,” he huffed indignantly, as he knelt up a little higher to look over to the dirt road.
Jason’s hand appeared firmly on his shoulder and pulled him right back down. His electric blue eyes flicked back to Percy in warning as he raised a finger to pouted lips in the universal sign for shush. Percy rolled his eyes in return. He copied Jason when the blond resumed his vigil through the bush separating them from the road they’d been standing on moments before. Percy’s heart was still pounding in his chest from the run and the expectation of a fight, leaving him itching to get out of their tight hidey-hole, and back out into open ground where he’d actually have room to swing his sword. Rustling beside him had his attention snapping back to Jason who had begun quickly picking berries and crushing them between his fingers, before dropping their pulpy remains to the ground.
“What’re you –” began Percy, before Jason flicked a raspberry at him, hitting him squarely in the face.
“Shh,” insisted Jason again. He motioned hastily at the berries in front of Percy. “Help me.”
Percy felt deeply bizarre to lay down his only weapon alongside Jason and begin pinching the juice out of raspberries while they were being actively hunted by monsters. It was definitely not one of the ways he had pictured his death.
Percy wiped his sticky fingers impatiently on his jeans and shook his head. “This is ridiculous. Two sons of The Big Three? They’re gonna sniff us out easy,” he huffed, reaching for Riptide and rocking back onto his feet. “I say we take our chances and jump them – Oomph!”
After a dizzying tackle from Jason, Percy found himself flat on his stomach in the dirt with Jason on top of him, pinning him to the ground with his full weight. Jason turned his face in towards Percy to mutter directly into his ear as quietly as possible.
“Not over the smell of raspberries,” argued Jason, teeth clicking sharply in his growing impatience.
Percy didn’t know if that were true or not, but it sounded like a dumb idea to him, and he opened his mouth to tell Jason as much. Jason clapped a hand over his mouth before Percy could make a sound, raising his other hand silently ordering Percy to wait. Jason turned his head up distractedly, glancing back towards the road on the other side of the raspberry bush.
Percy’s ears pricked at the sound of movement from out on the road. He held his breath listening to the heavy shuffling footsteps and waited to be discovered.
“They can’t be that fast,” grunted one Cyclops unhappily. “Where did they run off to?”
Percy tensed at the startling volume. He could feel how close the Cyclops was to them right then. Judging from how stiffly Jason was holding himself, Percy guessed Jason felt the dread and suspense just as keenly. Percy’s eyes flickered down to where Riptide was glinted dimly in the shade of the leaves beside him. His arm was folded under him awkwardly and was quickly falling asleep, but he guessed he could still make a good grab for his weapon in a hurry. He fought the instinct to go for it right away, knowing the sudden motion would throw Jason off his back and give their hiding spot away.
“I dunno,” answered another Cyclops, sniffing loudly. “All I’m getting is raspberries. Disgusting.”
The second Cyclops punctuated their disgust with a rough kick to a berry bush to their left, just a foot from Percy’s face. Both boys’ heads snapped towards the movement as the leaves shook and stray raspberries were sent flying to the ground.
There was a heavy thud and one Cyclops yelped in surprise more than pain before the third chastised: “Don’t get it on you, moron. If you wind up honking of berries, we’ll leave you behind and you won’t get to eat either of those runty little demigods.”
“Get a move on, or those runty little demigods will get away for good,” grumbled the first Cyclops. “Come on, the path only goes one way. They must be over there.”
Percy exhaled gratefully as he heard the group begin to trudge off, still knocking lumps out of each other and arguing about who smelled more like berries. Lucky they’d only been Southern Cyclopes or they might’ve been smart enough to look around a little more.
He eyed a nearby raspberry curiously. He had to grudgingly admit Jason had been right about using the smell of the berries to cover their demigod scent. He had doubted the little berries would be anywhere strong enough to do the job, as sweet as they smelled. He realised now why Jason had been crushing them before; to let out the juice and make the smell even stronger. It was the kind of crafty plan Annabeth would come up with in a pinch, he thought. His mind went to the strawberry fields back home and wondered if they helped contribute to the camp’s protections by muffling the scent of so many demigods.
Percy pulled himself out of his musings, keen to get going again now that the coast was clear. He waited for Jason to get off of him, but the son of Jupiter wasn’t paying him any attention, ears pricked and listening to the nearly faded steps of the Cyclopes. Percy exhaled heavily through his nose, his breath ghosting over Jason’s fingers where they were still clamped tightly over his mouth. He spoke against Jason’s palm, the words coming out muffled.
Jason shushed him sharply and tightened his hand over Percy’s mouth reflexively. Percy rolled his eyes at the return of the shushing, thinking distastefully that Jason must have been a librarian in a past life. He drummed his fingers impatiently on the soil beneath him as Jason craned his neck up higher, attempting to see farther down the road where the Cyclopes had disappeared. Percy mumbled flatly against his palm again.
Jason was still distracted, double and triple checking that the danger had truly passed. After another glance down the path, he glanced back to Percy absently frowning in his own vague annoyance.
He finally let go of Percy’s mouth. “What?”
“I said,” droned Percy, glancing back over his shoulder to look Jason in the face. “I can feel your boner.”
Percy nearly laughed at the way Jason’s features froze in stunned surprise as he reflexively glanced down between them, assessing his situation. Percy could see the moment Jason felt it. His flush was as immediate as it was deep when he looked back to Percy quickly. He looked mortified.
“Sorry,” Jason mumbled, wide-eyed.
Percy had to swallow his laughter as he watched Jason practically start to steam. That big brain of his that had come up with that neat berry trick had totally ground to a halt with a healthy dose of embarrassment. Percy decided he’d had his fun in revenge for the constant shushing and figured he’d let Jason off easy.
Percy propped his head up on one arm playfully, no longer in any real hurry to get up and grinned back at him, waving him off with his free hand. “Don’t sweat it, I take it as a compliment.” He wiggled his eyebrows, unable to help himself from teasing Jason a little. Some people just made it too easy. “Didn’t know you were that fond of me.”
Jason clicked his tongue indignantly and knit his brows defensively. “It’s the adrenaline, Percy.”
“Sure, sure,” chuckled Percy, enjoying himself a little too much now. His grin turned sly. “So does that mean you don’t like when I do this?”
Blame it on ADHD, blame it on personality, blame it on his mom’s specific brand of humour, but whenever Percy really started to have fun messing with somebody, he stopped thinking things through pretty quickly. Impulsively, he arched his spine down and pushed his ass up against Jason’s crotch firmly.
He heard Jason inhale softly in surprise behind him and could read the blond’s confusion and indecisiveness in his conflicted body language without even looking. Jason locked up initially, and then leaned away hastily in retreat. His retreat, however, was localised to his hands, which were still braced on the ground either side of Percy, scooting back a pace, which pushed his chest away from Percy’s back a little further. His hips notably did not go anywhere.
“Come on,” he encouraged cheerfully, “don’t be shy.” Percy stifled further laughter, as his eyes crinkled in amusement. He wiggled his hips mischievously side to side against Jason’s crotch. The hard line of Jason’s erection was obvious, even through two layers of denim. “You can always blame it on the adrenaline of a rigorous game of hide and seek~”
Jason surged forward instinctively in response to the teasing, pressing himself up against Percy intently, with a deliberate rock of his hips. Percy heard his nerve go with a small sound of uncertainty as he quickly froze up again.
“S-sorry,” breathed Jason, turning a darker shade of red as he made to pull away.
Percy looked back over his shoulder, arching his eyebrows and asked playfully but in all seriousness, “Did I ask for an apology?”
Jason stared back at him like a deer in headlights, still flustered and caught off guard. Percy cracked a smile at his reaction.
“Don’t worry, dude. I’m into it.”
Jason’s eyebrow twitched in surprise, or maybe suspicion as if he thought he were being tested in some way. Percy flashed him another easy smile.
“Go nuts,” Percy prompted him, as he slid his ass slowly and deliberately down the length of Jason’s obvious bulge to back up his offer.
Jason made a complicated sound, caught somewhere between snorting and choking. Percy couldn’t help but notice that he still hadn’t put any distance between his crotch and Percy’s ass.
“What, are you serious?” he asked incredulously. His eyes flicked over Percy’s face, still trying to work out the test he seemed determined was there. At some point Percy would have to address his obvious trust issues with him.
“You don’t wanna go back to the ship like that, do you?” shrugged Percy.
Jason averted his eyes, embarrassed by the thought of the others also being clued into his situation. Percy could guess Jason had come to the same conclusion as he had – that Leo at least would never let him live it down. Percy bumped back against him as a final gentle nudge. Jason’s focus zipped back to Percy immediately at the contact. His tongue flicked out over his lips quickly, wetting them as he made up his mind.
Jason pushed against him briefly before pulling away again. Just as Percy was about to roll his eyes at the son of Jupiter’s continued indecisiveness, Jason repeated the motion. And again, and again. And suddenly there was no more shyness to it and Jason thrust against him purposefully. Jason ran a hand down the seam of Percy’s jeans before sliding it up the front of thigh, where his grip tightened. He kept his hand high on Percy’s thigh, holding him steady as Jason thrust harder against his rear.
The sudden one-eighty in personality caught Percy by surprise, and he might’ve toppled forward, face-first into the dirt, if not for Jason holding him back by the thigh. Jason leaned over his back a little further, bracing himself on one arm. Percy could hear him grunting softly behind him each time he thrust forward. He couldn’t help chuckling quietly at Jason’s sudden eagerness. Clearly the blond needed it.
Percy had fooled around with plenty of people in his time, both boys and girls. At his most recent boarding school, dry humping had been a favourite pastime in the boy’s dormitory. He was beginning to heavily suspect that Jason had not treated himself to the same practise back in Camp Jupiter. Even in the close quarters of the Argo II, Percy still made time to take care of business whenever the need arose, making full use of his private cabin. Again, he had the feeling that Jason had not been indulging himself in the same way. Percy thought he’d be on a bit of a hair trigger as well if he hadn’t been taking matters into his own hands on a regular basis.
Perhaps in an attempt to claw back a little composure, Jason switched up his rhythm. He began rubbing the bulge of his crotch up and down the seam in the seat of Percy’s pants slowly but firmly. Percy hummed encouragingly, relaxing into it. He let his arms fold slowly, sinking his chest down to the ground, keeping his back arched and his ass in the air. Jason didn’t miss a beat, folding himself over Percy further, rubbing against him all the while.
Percy rocked his hips lazily, enjoying the sensation. His breath caught softly when he rolled his hips up just as Jason rocked down, and the hard press of Jason’s cock pressed heavily against Percy’s balls. Percy bit his lip around a low moan and pressed back enthusiastically.
Jason took the hint and spent a little longer rubbing himself against Percy’s balls and perineum, grabbing Percy by the hips with both hands to angle Percy how he wanted. With the way Jason had plastered himself over Percy’s back, Percy could now feel each of his warm breaths panting over the back of his neck as well as hear them. Percy groaned as he took more of Jason’s weight, his chest pressing harder into the soft soil below him. He didn’t mind at all. He’d always had a bit of a thing for being weighed down under somebody while they got off on him.
“Can you imagine if those Cyclopes came back now?” laughed Percy, a little breathlessly. “Be a terrible start to a fight for our lives, getting caught like this.”
Jason groaned quietly, maybe in displeasure at the thought, or maybe in response to the way he’d begun circling his hips against Percy’s ass. Percy grinned, laying his cheek on his arm and matched Jason’s motions, swivelling his hips tightly against Jason’s crotch.
“Maybe they wouldn’t eat us right away,” mused Percy, slyly. “Maybe they’d wanna watch first.”
Jason dropped his head between Percy’s shoulder blades. Percy felt his breath leave him in a rush, the heat bleeding through his shirt and into his skin. Although the sound was muffled, Percy felt Jason’s vocal cords rumbling gently and guessed the muffled exhale into his shirt was probably disguising a curse. Percy’s shoulders shook lightly with his laughter.
“And maybe you’d let them,” he teased.
Jason pressed his forehead into Percy’s back, the angle freeing up his mouth as he ground his hips faster in clumsy circles. “Shut up,” he groaned, between tight breaths.
“Maybe you’re into that,” grinned Percy, undeterred.
“Do I have to cover your mouth again?” Percy could hear him gritting his teeth as he wrapped one arm snugly around Percy’s waist.
Percy bit his tongue to stifle his laughter. “Sounds hot, but maybe next time.”
Jason groaned again, pushing himself back up onto his knees behind Percy. He thrust against Percy in rapid bursts knocking little moans out of Percy as he went. Jason loosened the arm he had curled around Percy’s middle and slid his hand down between Percy’s legs, cupping his crotch. Jason kept his firm hold on Percy’s hip and his crotch and pulled Percy back against him tightly as he rut against him, more grinding than fully thrusting now, not wanting to leave any space between them at all anymore.
“Guess you weren’t kidding when you said you were into this,” grunted Jason, palming Percy’s stiff cock through his jeans.
“It’s the adrenaline,” grinned Percy, melting into a moan as Jason rocked his palm against him.
Jason rocked into Percy harder and harder, as if he were trying to punch right through Percy’s jeans and get inside him there and then. He was becoming steadily more vocal, despite his obvious efforts to remain quiet. His jaw popped as he ground his teeth against the low groans he couldn’t seem to hold back as he ground into Percy’s ass roughly.
Percy wasn’t faring any better, though he seemed generally less concerned with keeping their roll in the bushes covert. His teeth dug sharply into his bottom lip as he moaned, eager and ragged, feeling himself getting close. He wriggled ungracefully, widening the stance of his knees, opening himself up more to Jason. He felt the hard, heavy press of Jason’s cock sliding in more snugly against him, Jason’s body heat bleeding through his jeans right against his hole.
Jason’s hand squeezed around Percy’s cock as his hips began to stutter against Percy’s ass. Jason kept rutting tightly against him as he came, voice cracking slightly on a drawn-out throaty groan. Even as his eyes rolled up under fluttering lids, Jason kept his tight grip on Percy’s bulge, rubbing his length roughly, helping Percy get there right alongside him.
Percy rocked his hips urgently into Jason’s hand, the deliciously tight grip edging on punishing as he neared that peak. He could feel Jason’s cock pressed right against his hole, throbbing and twitching through two layers of denim, and a damp warmth spreading between them. Percy’s mouth dropped open in sharp pants, too breathless to even moan properly until all at once he was coming in his pants in the middle of the Greek countryside. He turned his face, muffling his post-orgasm moans against the back of his hand.
Percy still felt pleasantly dizzy by the time Jason’s weight fell away behind him as he climbed awkwardly off of Percy. Percy finally lowered his ass and rolled onto his side. He took an extra moment to will himself into sitting up, making a face as he wiped the drool off the back of his hand and his lips onto his t-shirt.
He sat in the dirt, propped up on both hands, crossing his legs loosely. Jason sat across from him in much the same position, but his legs were bent loosely in front of him, feet and thighs parted wide enough that the dark patch of wetness on his crotch was easy for Percy to spot. He glanced down at his own lap to find a matching damp stain. He guessed it would dry quickly enough in the Greek summer heat. They sat there in comfortable silence for a while longer as they caught their breaths and waited for their pulses to stop pounding in their heads.
Percy shook out his hair with one hand, dislodging loose soil. He made a brief attempt to brush off his shirt but gave up after getting most of the loose stuff off. The knees on both their jeans had turned a dusty brown with the dirt. They’d just have to wash everything when they got back to the ship.
Jason was the first to clear his throat and break the silence, shifting awkwardly where he sat as if only now remembering where they were. He’d gone slightly pink again, but attractively so.
“Sorry,” he said, clearing his throat again. He nervously flicked dirt off the leg of his pants. “That was –”
“Pretty great, huh?” grinned Percy widely, feeling much too relaxed and tingly to bother with Roman shame.
Jason’s eyes zipped over to Percy, holding his gaze for a beat before a grin broke out on his face. It began a little sheepishly, but he loosened up as he began to laugh lightly in agreement. “Yeah, pretty great.”
“You have a leaf in your hair, you know,” Percy informed him, tilting his head and cocking a brow in amusement.
Jason followed Percy’s gaze and combed through his hair until he found the stray leaf and pulled it free. He flashed Percy a lopsided smile as he hastily tried to flatten his hair. It was only partially successful, and he still looked windswept and interesting when he dropped his hand again.
“And raspberry juice on your face,” added Percy, pointing to the slight smear on Jason’s cheek just above where his jaw met his ear.
Jason glanced down as if he’d be able to see it himself and rubbed his fingers down his face in completely the wrong place. It seemed a pointless effort anyway, seeing as how they had both rolled over plenty of stray raspberries and had fruity smelling stains all over their clothes and up their arms. Percy snorted as he watched Jason repeatedly paw at his face and check his fingers for raspberry juice. He shook his head and crawled over to him, kneeling between Jason’s spread thighs and leaning over.
“Here, I’ll get it,” he laughed.
Percy took him by the chin and turned his face to the side. His green eyes glinted mischievously at the last second and he leant in closer. He flicked his tongue over Jason’s jawline, licked up his cheek and sucked wetly at him for good measure before pulling away. He let go of Jason’s chin and smirked at him slyly when Jason blinked blue eyes at him dumbly, caught off guard again.
Percy’s eyes flickered down Jason’s body briefly and he clutched a fistful of his purple shirt. He slowly dragged the hem up over the waistband of Jason’s jeans and up over his abs, just enough to expose a few inches of skin. His other hand simultaneously closed around a rogue raspberry on the ground behind Jason’s hip. He crushed it between his fingers before wiping the juice off low on Jason’s stomach, right above his jeans, right where his abs ended, and his V began.
“And I’ll get that when we get back to the ship,” he promised, voice a low rumble.
He dropped Jason’s shirt and watched the blond’s throat bob in a swallow with no small amount of smugness. Jason’s eyes darkened a shade and dropped to Percy’s wet lips with a quiet hum of approval.
“I’ll hold you to it,” he murmured.
Percy chuckled and pushed to his feet before Jason could make a move for a second round there and then.
“Come on,” Percy said, offering him a hand up. “We still have one more thing to track down, and we gotta go collect everything we dropped in town when the Cyclops jumped us.”
Jason accepted the hand and let Percy pull him to his feet. He stooped to grab their discarded weapons and handed Riptide back to Percy who recapped it and stowed it safely back in his pocket. They clambered out of the bushes awkwardly before starting down the path back towards town, shoving playfully at each other as they went. As Jason flashed him a bright smile, Percy realised that something had fundamentally shifted in their dynamic now into something easier and more comfortable. As well it should, he thought. You don’t get off on somebody and still fight over who gets to sit at the head of the table over breakfast.