jason's amigo :)

…jason grace with long hair.

no but like imagine—

it’s wavy, knots easily, and it turns into literal frizz if he brushes it out dry, but it’s still soft and people (people being nico, hazel, and eventually percy, and i’ll explain why them specifically later on) will have jace lean down, bend over, and/or sit/lay down so they can use his wild mane as a pillow or run their tired, calloused fingers through it.

they always ask for permission, and he almost always says yes, partly because he’s slightly (hugely, insanely) touch starved, partly because he’s the Biggest Softie since he simply can’t resist them. but on the days that he just can’t accept, on the days that even the thought of foreign hands going anywhere near his messy locks makes him want to bare his teeth and cry at the same time, they let him braid or fuss with their hair instead.

sometimes he’ll straighten it, and when he does, it covers his face and drapes over his shoulders like a curtain, which drives most of the people he interacts with insane and makes them ask if they could touch his hair, subsequently leading them to gently, oh so carefully, tuck his hair behind his ear. they’ll light up in delight at finally being able to see his shy smile and bright eyes where there had previously only been golden hair, and then their relieved grins will morph into something mock-scolding as they ask why the hell he even bothers to straighten his hair if he won’t pin it back himself. he never replies, usually ends up diverting the conversation to something else.

they don’t know that he uses the flat iron (and allows his hair to naturally shield his face, not bothering with putting it up) now solely so they’ll end up touching him Like That (every nanosecond that passes by of them warmly sifting through his hair and brushing against his cheek and ear he cherishes deeply, the memories taking up a dear place in his heart, his very soul.)

anyway, back to the people that routinely play with his hair - 

nico: nico has always had long hair, but he’s never really thought about it as “long” or “tousled” or any other kind of descriptor because he didn’t care much for his hair. it was just another thing he had to look after just so it wouldn’t fall off or become too long for him to manage. jason changed that point of view. it was only a few weeks after gaea that jason began to grow his hair out, flashes of before he was found by the legion and forced to conform to all their rules, including the cutting of his hair, would appear behind his eyelids and at one point he just thought, “why not?” and stopped cutting it except for the healthy trims that were necessary. 

then one day, nico comes back from a rather grueling day of being Hades’ little messenger and comes across jason at camp half blood with nose-length, wind-fussed, wavy hair, and he has to pause because his best friend just looked so…rugged and cute and human, and it is the biggest temptation in the world to just reach up and touch what he was so used to seeing as short and only got close to falling over the blonde’s brow.

but he resists and simply asks jason what’s up with his hair. jason smiles widely, so happy that nico asked about it that he reaches down and places nico’s hand on top of his head. he immediately lets go of nico’s hand, as if he had been burned, and sheepily says, “sorry i touched you without asking. i got excited, and i won’t do it again. anyway, feel it! it’s soft, and it’s the longest it’s been in over a decade! isn’t it cool??”

nico just stands there, shocked, mouth opening and closing, his brain “error 404”ing as he processes what just happened before he hesitantly starts softly moving his fingers through jason’s hair and scritching at his scalp. it’s then that jason’s eyes roll back as he simply melts where he’s standing, his head tilting wherever nico’s fingertips venture. nico, once he notices jason’s puppy-like pleasure, just shakes his head (shaking himself out of his momentary stupor) and grins lopsidedly, his brow raising.

“you’re such a dork, you know that, Grace? gods, why am i even friends with you?” he says, that last sentence instinctively uttered before his brain could catch up with his mouth. then he freezes, his hand paused where it was working through a small knot on jason’s head, as he realizes that was the first time he called jason his friend. jason, on the other hand, doesn’t freeze at all, and actually whines when it registers that he’s not getting scratches anymore. nico melts as much as jason has and subtly breathes out a sigh of relief at the fact that jason hadn’t protested at being called his friend or said anything about it at all. he smiles in the way that he only does with will, his sister, and his friend (his big broth-): jason.

after that, jason’ll continue to have nico pet him whenever they cross paths or whenever they have the time to hang out, and a little while after that nico will have worked up the courage to say to jason, “head scratches?” as soon as they’re within touching distance, and he doesn’t even bat an eye the times that jason will shake his head and ask for some other kind of physical touch.

flash forward to months later, and nico is hit with the realization that because of how much he cares for and plays with jason’s hair, he’s come to see his own as something just as precious, but he finds he doesn’t mind, and goes back to styling his hair however which way he subconsciously was going to.

hazel: back when jason had first joined the fifth cohort, jason had been jaded and unhappy from all the meetings he had had with the higher ups about him becoming praetor and joining the first cohort without any effort on his part only because of his parentage, and he had tried to be there for his new partners and roommates, but his heart wasn’t in it. everyone could see that, had seen jason deny all the chances he had to be spoon fed things to him for simply being the son of jupiter, and had steered clear of him, but not hazel. in the weeks that he had been distant from the fifth cohort, his hair had become unkempt, and because all those with authority were also steering clear of him, they hadn’t bothered to pester him about his hair, but hazel secretly enjoyed such a thing.

one night she had offered to braid his hair for him, and it was the first time in a while he had even taken note of his wild locks. he agreed, a shaky smile curling his lips and an intensely disappointed look in his eye. hazel then situated herself behind him and began sectioning out and separating the waves, the strands like liquid gold in her hands and the thought making a small nugget of gold sprout near her crossed legs, which manages to make jason’s smile a bit more full of life, along with the feeling of hazel’s sure hands working through his neglected hair.

they spend hours over the course of many years just going through each other’s hair, and beyond their hair bonding they don’t talk much or interact much, so their relationship status stays officially at that of acquaintance, and when jason disappears, hazel finds herself absently messing with her hair in the same way jason did unconsciously whenever she got nervous or frazzled or simply needed comfort. she never confronted those feelings, those cravings of having her “acquaintance”’s hands working through her coiling curls while he was gone for all that time. 

it was once they were reunited on the argo II that she nervously approached him and talked to him of before, the nights wasted away as they were comfortably enveloped in a bubble of contentedness, of safety, of comfort. jason felt so horrible about not being able to remember those nights, as they sounded like everything he could ever want (he could ever need), and he tells hazel so as he waves to his short hair, but hazel just smiles reassuringly and carefully brings out a hand-sized container full of wonderfully-smelling leave-in-conditioner. she murmurs to him in his empty, cold cabin that maybe his hands will remember their sacred journey through her dark curls, and offers the container to him. 

jason finds himself accepting, the atmosphere weirdly calm and settling and familiar as hazel situates herself on the bed in the same spot she always did, her eyes closed, her body positioned as it always was. jason instinctively finds himself filling an empty cup with warm water and arranges himself behind hazel in the way he always did, and he covers his hands in the water and leave-in-conditioner, and livens up and plays with and braids and un-braids hazel’s hair in a way that speaks to him of experience, of a home that he can’t remember. was this girl that he didn’t know, that was a stranger to him now, and from what he’s heard, a stranger before, his home?

such a thought punches the air out of his lungs, and he spends a lot of their time together for the rest of that night contemplating and wondering and having a couple mini-crises about it. the next night, however, when she’s knocking at his door with more hair supplies, a few for what little hair he himself has, he’s decided by then that it doesn’t matter if she was his home before. if they both enjoy it, the silence and the reassurance and the familiarity and the warmth, then she can be his home now. 

hazel doesn’t even ask the first time when she sees his chin-length hair after the war. she just smiles, a glint in her eye that has more flashes popping up behind his eyes, touches a few of her fingers to the tips of his waves, and then leads him to the hades cabin. their bubble is already enshrouding them, and jason finds himself trailing after his home as she leads him to where their new routine of comfort will take place. 

percy: during gaea’s quest, percy and jason, at first (at first meaning after their forced fight, not their first ever interactions), had been wary of each other and had just opted to steer clear of each other except for when they had to keep watch with one another, had to fight a few monsters, and had to collaborate during meetings. other than that? nothing. they were basically coworkers that secretly admired and hated the other for their strengths and the things the other had that they didn’t, but it all came to a point when percy found jason on the top deck of the ship, in the middle of the night, his jammies barely keeping the cold out and the air carrying the scent of the sea, just on some random day of the week. nightmares and blurry visions were keeping him up lately, and on the nights that he couldn’t be bothered to try and go back to sleep, he would attempt to calculate the right times to go above the main floor where he could be alone to gaze up at the stars. 

jason was there, sitting up with a blanket covering his curled up legs, his hair in his hands, which was…insanely and fairly suddenly long. percy blinked where he stood there awkwardly, confusion running through his veins as he tilted his head. 

weird, was all he could think, at the sight of jason having ridiculously long hair when just earlier that day it had barely flopped over his forehead. jason sensed there was another person on the deck with him and looked back, and percy sucked in a sharp breath at seeing jason’s curious and almost elated expression lit up by the moonlight, an ocean breeze ruffling through his golden locks and making it flap and curl around his pretty face. he smiled slightly - his scar pulling - at seeing the intruder on whatever moment he was having was percy, and he whispered for him to come closer. 

percy, even more confused jason wasn’t being cautious or hostile towards him like he usually was, just blinked some more before his feet were carrying him forward against his will. he sat down next to jason, and when he turned to face him, jason reached out for percy’s hand. he paused, that slight smile still twisting his lips pleasantly and his light locks catching on his button nose. 

“can i touch you?” he mumbled, his eyes calmly searching percy’s befuddled own. percy simply nodded, his vocal cords, for some reason, and for the first time since, well, ever, not working. jason’s smile widened almost knowingly, as if he knew that percy’s words were caught on his tongue, where they could not pass through his teeth. he softly took percy’s hand into his before settling it in his long, long waves, the blonde locks peeking through percy’s tan fingers and coating the teen’s hands in moonlight-dipped white.

“monster got the jump on me. said it would restore a torturous piece of my past, but my gut is telling me that only good can come from me having long hair. i’ve since been up here, thinking. and i’m sorry. for all the things that i’ve said and thought about you. you, in many ways, are who i wish i could be, and i suppose that’s made me bitter towards you. no excuse, though, for the way i’ve treated you.” jason guides percy’s hands through his pale hair, the strands fluttering at his ministrations and wrapping around his palm as if the blonde’s hair wished for him to never let go. eventually, jason’s hand dropped - percy’s staying where it was slowly working through blonde waves - the silence full of a hand combing through hair and a mouth that so desperately wanted to admit to the same things that had already been said, but for some reason just couldn’t. 

jason, knowing and understanding and amazingly, didn’t mind at all, pressed a hand to percy’s chest, where his heart was beating a bit faster than it normally would. then he smiled. 

“i’m not good at silence. silence means hidden meanings, hints, subtleties, and i’m never any good at the things that aren't explicitly said. but I can clearly see that you want to apologize and explain yourself as well, that you want to relate to me and say you get it, more than anyone else would, so it’s okay. you can stop trying. tell me tomorrow, or the day after that, or the week after that. whenever you’re ready.”

percy smiled weakly, as jason so clearly laid out what percy was desperate to get past his stubborn mouth, and he found himself more passionately working through jason’s hair, his awe at how…chill jason was when he wasn’t in leader mode and glaring daggers at percy’s more vulnerable spots shining through his eyes. he found that his need to tell jason that he wanted to be able have a real, extensive conversation about all their grievances and grudges with one another so intense that it burned within him. jason just shook his head, said, “later,” and brushed his own hand through percy’s hair absently. 

percy found he was grateful towards this 16 year old who just…got percy way too much for all that they were supposed to be rivals, and he also found himself understanding jason, a little. 

the next day jason and percy, after they had gone over some plans at breakfast and had gotten some food in them, had had a long day full of explanations and rants and complaints and a bit of shouting and crying, but it was worth it when the night after that they had had the opportunity to play with each other’s hair, jason’s back to normal, somehow, and percy’s it’s usual charming mess, with nothing between them but comprehension, the sort that spoke of new beginnings and a few happy endings that they would quietly come up with as they looked up at the stars, each other’s hands buried deep in their respective blonde and black locks. 

once gaea had been defeated, percy easily noticed how hazel and nico would meet up with jason and touch his hair or him in general as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and he found himself approaching his friend at some point about it, curious about what it all meant. 

jason simply said that they understood, like percy did, but only when it came to his hair. 

such an explanation only made sense to percy, who smiled wickedly and flicked a piece of jason’s hair before asking sarcastically if he could be let in the loop. 

jason then looked at him quizzically, that settling sense of home he now got with hazel and nico rushing through him and whispering to percy, who felt a bit unsure about it. “let in the loop? but you’re already in it,” jason had said, confusion scrunching up his nose which made percy boop it. jason spluttered, but his indignant squawks were quieted instantly when percy put a hand in jason’s hair. he smiled gently as he brushed through the sleek, straight strands, and quietly he asked, “if i’m in the loop, then, could i stay?”

jason smiled up at percy dopily - percy had to stifle a laugh at the sight, fondness scraping at his insides - and simply said in response, “were you not planning on staying?”

and percy never left after that, his hands constantly combing through thick, blonde waves, of which left phantom feelings on his sword-conditioned hands that always had him scrambling for more. 

….i’m obsessed….

he’s lived his whole life under water and the entire mermaid population had no idea that humans existed or that there was life on land at all. he goes to shore to escape a harrowing attack on his life and gets saved by percy jackson and they fall in love and blah blah blah…

regular, mundane human shit being revolutionary to mermaids. to jason.

video games ? forget it.

movies and tv shows are already so much harder than percy thought to explain to jason, but video games ? he wants to quit life as soon as he hears his lover’s soft voice ask what they are as percy slides bloodborne into his xbox. he goes on to explain that they’re basically interactive movies that are way longer and have much more detail, and once he’s done with his explanation, he shows himself playing one of his all time favourites so that jason can better understand. when jason goes quiet, he fears that this is somehow the breaking point, that he managed to frighten his mermaid companion not with fire, not with showers, not with snowball fights, but with video games.

and then he gets his controller stolen from him, and that’s that. he doesn’t manage to tear jason away from his gaming system for the rest of the day, nor the whole night, and it’s only when he wakes up at 11 am to them still in the same spot, eyes glazed over and fingers furiously tapping and scrolling the buttons and joysticks that he physically grabs them around their middle and hauls them to the bedroom. he wrestles them to sleep, and when they both wake up hours later wrapped up in each other’s arms, jason looks him in the eye and says, “video games and you are the two best things humanity has ever created.” 

tw: death, cursing, just a general warning for unhappy times

~~

jason sighed as he shoved a hand under his sweater and scratched at his stomach a few times. he snatched a cheese danish from off the dining table, stuffed it whole down his throat, and climbed the small set of stairs that led to the upper deck. 

he smiled a little to himself as he saw his best friend already up there, sitting in the middle of the deck, fiddling with something in his lap. his mop of dark curls was the most eye catching thing about him as jason neared, as well as the frantic movements that jason could tell was his friend working on something particularly captivating. he knew he’d end up scaring his friend as soon as he came into his line of sight, since he was so distracted and sucked at sensing people when they were close, and jason could feel his automatic smile stretch into something a bit amused and mischievous. 

he silenced his footsteps by lightening them as he decided that if he was to scare his friend, he’d do it properly, and then he prowled forward towards his friend with ease, as if he had done this same act a million times over (of which he had). he resisted the urge to growl low in his throat, and when he reached his friend’s back, his smile had transformed into a malicious grin that split his face in half. he attacked his friend’s sides with the tips of his fingers and exclaimed near his friend’s ear, and leo valdez screamed at a pitch that was so high jason swore all the glass in the world shattered into thousands of pieces. 

jason winced at the sound, but he continued to grin as leo whirled around and threw his invention at jason’s face, who, (un)fortunately caught it before it could clock him straight in the eye. he lowered his hand, and leo’s shocked, irritated, and begrudgingly amused expression is what met his eyes when he refocused on his friend. at the sight, all jason could do was laugh, the giggly, wheezy sound music to leo’s ears even if leo kind of hated his best friend in that moment. 

as jason doubled over, leo grumbled under his breath and snatched his invention back and shook his head, turning back around as he jokingly cursed jason out in several languages. he went back to fiddling with his machine as jason literally flopped over onto the deck, tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes and gasps rattling his heaving chest. leo could only snort at the sight and secretly grow fonder and fonder on the inside, the sight of his best friend so happy and full of joy at such a simple thing as catching leo off guard causing the latino’s semi-good mood considerably better. 

it was just as jason was recovering from his fit, his right hand wiping at the tear tracks streaking down his cheeks and his left rubbing at his stomach because it hurt so much from his laughter, that the argo II suddenly jerked to the right, hard enough to send leo and jason tumbling. jason’s light and elated mood immediately evaporated and made way for a sense of battle readiness, his mouth now a thin line as he used the winds to keep himself and leo from rolling further and crashing into the side of the ship. he let out a sharp breath out his nose as he contorted the air around him and his friend so they were both standing and balanced as the ship rocked from the abrupt jerk. 

leo’s expression was just as serious, his eyes sharp as he nodded over to jason and shouted his thanks over the howling wind, which jason instantly quieted. he then thanked jason again before running over to the opposite side of the deck, where he leaned over the rail to see what in the Hades just happened. jason ran over to the flying console and double checked that it was still in auto pilot, and he grunted to himself when it was confirmed. he turned and was about to make his way over to leo, his hand gripping his coin in his pocket, just as his friend let out a yell at something unseen over the side of the ship. 

“leo!” jason shouted, having taken a single step…and no more. he sucked in a breath and his brain screamed at his legs and feet to move, but he…he couldn’t fucking move, godsdamnit, what in the gods is going on-

“jay! jay, freakin’, help me out here, man- OH SHIT-” jason looked up and he could feel his blood freeze at the sight of a gangly, skeletal, gray hand gripping at leo’s throat tight enough to make leo wheeze, his much darker hands gripping at the- the thing’s wrist, his cheeks puffing out and his eyes watering from the pressure. he gasped and kicked at the side of the ship, trying his hardest to pry himself out of the grip, but he just couldn’t get free. jason screamed and the wind came back with a vengeance, the world darkening as the clouds thickened and turned black, thunder rumbling and lighting flashing. 

jason’s eyes were murderous and his nostrils flared as he willed with all of his godsdamn might to fucking move-!

“no. no, wait, i’m not ready, i want to live-!” leo’s choked out, hoarse words were whispered into the silent air, and all jason could do was scream and struggle and watch as his best friend was slowly lifted up from the ground and dragged over the lip of the ship until his stomach was resting on it. he tried to summon lightning, or keep leo in place with the winds, but besides the storm up above, his powers didn’t respond to his call, and jason could physically feel his heart breaking. tears were aggressively rolling down his face, burning his skin as they went, and he screamed and screamed and screamed, but he was powerless as his leo was raised higher into the air over the side of the ship by the long, long, dead arm, his last words, “i’m sorry, jj. i lo…love…you.”

and then, the only thing that could be heard in the suffocating, oppressive silence, was a crack as leo’s neck was snapped.

and jason broke.

he exploded with a rage and grief so deep and intense, he knew that the entire Earth was shaking and being assaulted with bolts of lightning and downpours of harsh rain. his back arched, his mouth stretched wide open to make way for his agony, and his feet stayed where they were forced to be. the deck was soon flooded, and the spot right next to where leo’s body lay was hit with a brilliantly bright strike of light, ozone scenting the air. an intense pain separate from the all-consuming one that flooded him as a result of- of leo- raced throughout his body and punished him for no doubt breaking through some of the invisible hold on him so he could access his powers again, but he barely noticed it. it was but a drop in the endless bucket filled with his hurt.

jason’s vocal cords strained with how hard he screeched, but he didn’t care. nothing mattered anymore. nothing except leo. his whole body was trembling, his sobs were constant, but he didn’t fucking care his leo was dead dead dead dead dead dead-

jason silently screamed as he fell out of bed from how violently he woke up. 

he scrambled to stand and tumbled out of his room, his body shaking and his face dry but not for long, his vision blurring with the tears that he knew were coming. he stumbled down the hall, past the dining table, and up the stairs to make it to the upper deck, and he didn’t even know what in the Tartarus he was doing, his body was on autopilot as his brain simply urged him to get to leo. he didn’t know why he wasn’t on the upper deck anymore or why he fell out of bed, all he knew was that he had to get back to leo’s body-

he stopped. stopped so hard in his tracks he swore he could hear a cartoon screeching sound effect. he blinked, blinked again, his vision clear again as the tears fell gently, as if they were apologizing for how painfully they fell not a minute before. he wiped at his eyes, blinked three more times, and then he could feel all the color drain from his body and the air punch out of him. the ship was fine, the sky was a pretty, bright blue, not a cloud in sight, and the deck was as dry as it always was. 

most importantly, however, his leo was sitting there, perfectly fine, bent over and cross legged, working frantically at an invention much the same - exactly the same, a stray thought nagged at jason - as he had- as he had before-

“oh. hey jace. you okay? look like you’ve seen a ghost. O-M-G, wait, have you?? you saw a ghost and you didn’t immediately come and get me?? oh how you betray me this day, O best friend of mine,” leo said as he turned around, his impish grin lopsided and full of happy affection. he looked at jason as if he were the sun, bright and oh so warm, and he leaned over and set the back of his hand against his forehead as he dramatically emphasized the last couple of sentences he spoke. 

jason could only stare. his blue eyes traced every line, every muscle, every piece of clothing, every detail, and he let himself drink in the sight of his best friend alive, and joyful, and exactly as he should be. 

‘so it was just a dream? why did it feel so real? and why did it start out exactly like this?’ 

he shook off those thoughts and just forced himself to smile, forced the sound of his friend’s neck cracking and leo whispering, “i love you,” and a raging pain he had never felt before and stormy skies away and deep down inside him, where it couldn’t touch the leo in front of him, who didn’t deserve his grief. he walked towards his friend, and ignored the whisper of something, someone telling him that this wasn’t the end, and he knew it. 

“you can’t escape it, jason grace. you can’t escape your destiny, or yourself.”

‘i can try, and oh would you like at that? i already have.’

jason is a siren in a world where everyone believes that vampires are fake (though if they were real they would sparkle) and that mermaids only exist in fairytales, so jason has only ever told one person outside of his dead family his secret, but they ended up dead just as well.

he’s not the conventional, stereotypical siren that everyone thinks of when discussing such a creature, but that doesn’t change the fact that he shouldn’t exist, so he keeps this piece of himself close to his chest, and holds it even tighter to him when he starts becoming close to one nico di angelo.

nico, who he trusted and who he promised he wouldn’t lie to. nico, who’s pale skin was especially illuminated in the sunlight. nico, who had slowly started getting more and more protective over jason, which left the siren reeling because nobody had ever done that for me, was like that on my behalf. no one. should…can i tell him? would he…would he be different?

he spends minutes, hours, days, weeks agonizing over the possibility that nico wouldn’t run for the hills or end up dead as soon as jason’s secret was said aloud out into the air, and it increasingly becomes harder and harder to not just blurt it out because he’s starting to love nico in a different way, a heavier, more intimate way, and they’re always there for each other, always supporting one another and having the other’s back. they’re in constant proximity, nico’s small smiles taking up jason’s entire world.

jason is falling and screaming underwater, his blue eyes shaky in their sockets as he considers just- suppressing the siren parts of himself forever. he could do it. it would hurt, and it would rip him apart every full moon, but he could do it. especially if it was for nico, his precious nico who held him when it stormed in his heart and who believed that he would catch him when he fell (he would, and he has. nothing could stop jason from being there to catch nico). 

then, one night, nico confronts him, unusually nervous, but still determined all the same. he declares that he knows jason is hiding something from him, and that he doesn’t appreciate the fact that jason is holding something back when they had established at the start of their friendship that they’d never hide anything from each other unless they had a conversation about why they couldn’t tell the other about whatever secret it may be. when all jason does is stand there, his eyes empty, expression blank, and stance stiff, though not in a standoffish way, but rather an automatic, almost default way, nico’s fists unclench and he sucks in a sharp breath.

his dark eyes drink in the bags under jason’s eyes and how greasy and unhealthy his hair looks. he notices how tight the lines of jason’s body are, as if jason doesn’t want to be there anymore, within his own skin, on the same plane of existence he’s walked along his whole life. nico can feel the worry that’s been building in him since he first started noticing jason’s strange behavior increase tenfold, and just as he opens his mouth to tell jason, you know what? the secret could wait. jason needed to shower, drink some water, and get some much needed rest, then they could talk, jason…begins to sing.

his dark, broken blue eyes crack further and start to glow gold. his hair lifts from where it’s limply sitting on his head, and floats around his head as if they were in zero gravity. lyrics flow smoothly past chapped lips, and his green blue veins pulse with a golden rhythm beneath his tan skin. his glasses, where they crookedly sat low on his nose, glint in the light he gives off, and nico can only gasp as he feels what he knows is jason’s gentle touch brush against his cheek and through his hair warmly, fondly, golden light filling his vision and sweetly wrapping around his brain where it landed after traveling through his ears. 

the words were lost to him as the crooning melody tells him to sway, to follow its orders, and he finds that he would rather do nothing else. when the rising vocals demand he turn, walk forward until he reaches the nearest wall, and punch it so hard a dent forms around his shaky fist, there is no hesitation, there is no deliberation, there is no questioning. he does all these things with a pretty euphoria pulling and pushing inside him, musical pleasure tugging at his ear drums and whispering where it swirled around him. 

then, it all just…stopped. the gold was sucked away from him, his fist dropped from where it had stuck itself to the wall, and the golden euphoria flew its way out of him, the room they were in once again dim in its lightning and cold as a result of the AC.

nico turns, his chest heaving with the panting breaths that tore through his lungs, his whole body a bit shaky and a singular thought circulating through his mind. 

“what the fuck just happened?”

he looks at jason, and he easily finds his answer.

that was the secret. jason is extraordinary, supernatural, full of power, and the blonde held himself now as if he just knew that nico would hate him, would yell at him, would storm away and wish he had never become friends with him. nico’s feelings are chaos where they tangle in his chest, but his mind is clear as he takes a step forward, and then all of the steps it takes to reach his friend, his jason, his everything, and hold his face in his hands, where he then kisses the blonde’s forehead. 

“sing for me, again, if you want. if you can.”

jason closes his eyes as quiet tears slip past his eyelids, and he barely registers nico’s warm thumbs wiping away the salty tracks as they form. he smiles, and then he sings. 

“why don’t you love who i am? what we could have been?”

p.s. (extra little continuation, if you want that) nico presses his forehead to jason’s, and under his breath, so that only jason could hear (the universe was listening, he knew. it wasn’t allowed to hear this), he murmured, “you could never get rid of me, no matter how many times you make me punch a wall or sway in place with your magical voice. you’re mine. will you allow me to be yours?”

jason just continues to sing, but when he clasps his hands around nico’s thin wrists, his thumbs swiping against nico’s pulse, nico knows that jason wants to say yes. wants to love nico as something that sings, not someone who listens. he grins and smushes jason’s face a bit with his firm grip on his cheeks, and jason manages his own weak smirk. 

“you ripped out all my parts.”

nico began to wonder if the song related to them at all, before they had each other, but that train of thought was cut off when jason kisses the tip of nico’s nose, which is enough to make nico want to punch his golden boy in the throat. 

he refrains. but only just so.

he’s prepared to keep refraining from decorating jason’s pretty face with a black eye for the rest of their lives, and based on the grin that’s pushing against nico’s nose, nico can guess jason is just as ready for the challenge. 

‘challenge? hah! as if! you wish, golden boy,’ nico thought cockily, his eyebrow raised. 

though they both knew the statement was pointless. it wasn’t a challenge, afterall.

(the title is my new joke otp)

in every single fanfiction and head canon and any semblance of content relating to percy that was AU, he always was related to the ocean and there were hints of his connection to it as a nod to the original verse because we just can’t seem to separate percy from the ocean, but the multiverse is diverse, and infinite, so what about the universes where percy ignores the ocean, or has no opinion or strong feeling towards water? 

what about the universes where percy hates water or the ocean because of something bad that happened to him when he was little that, of course, had to do with water, so he can’t stand showering or getting wet or going to the beach? 

what about the universes where percy is unsettled by the idea of the deep and terrifying unknown so he’s naturally averse to the ocean, and looks to the sky instead, where he can come to expect and fall in love with all over again all that it will bring (i.e. stars, comets, sunsets/sunrises, aurora boralis, etc.)? 

what about the universes where jason grew up with a friend that loved and practically lived in the ocean, so he learned to love it as well, and when the friend died, his connection to the sea intensified all the more and he found himself befriending every sea creature he came across? 

what about the universes where this sea-loving jason and sky-admiring percy meet and they teach each other to love the others’ worlds, percy gulping as he dips a toe in the ocean while jason whispers in his ear about all the pretty coral and the friendly sharks and the dumb-looking, yet clever fish that like to circle your feet, jason gasping as he and percy climb a cliff late in the evening and jason gets to watch a sunset from an unforgettable standpoint, the pinks and oranges and golden yellows bathing him and percy and filling his heart with something he never knew he could care for or that he needed?

where’s my AU of percy wishing he could touch the navy blue blanket that encompasses the world and hating that he can’t?

where’s my AU of percy loving storms and dancing in the rain as it thunders and lightning crashes in the middle distance?

where is my GODDAMN AU of percy fuckin’ jackson looking up instead of down, a smile on his face as the moon replaces the sun, and far, far away stars and planets take over for the clouds and the singing birds?