#Frank is a big three kid for the romans

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Can we bring back the Big Three fics where it's just Percy, Thalia, Nico, Bianca, Jason, Hazel and sometimes Frank doing the most unhinged, ultra powerful stuff for the stupidest of reasons (and also no one is dead)?

[bayetea]

jason and hazel's beef in hoo was always way more interesting than whatever percy and jason had going on sorry. the differences in gravity and intrigue in the jason/hazel relationship vs jason/percy are only further compounded by the ways they're connected and the ways that their stories are similar

because 1. they have a HISTORY they knew each other before he went missing!!!!! they were in the fifth cohort together!!!! hazel is the ONLY person in the prophecy 7 that was in jason's life before he disappeared and had his memories stolen. yes they didn't know each other well but if you ask me that was just a bad writing choice rick made. can you imagine if they used to be friends/if jason had grown to be a big brother figure to hazel only to go missing for months and then they have a very awkward reunion on the argo because he barely remembers her and then she's even more betrayed because he doesn't wanna save nico initially. the drama. we could have had it all man

2. beef between a son of poseidon and a child of zeus/jupiter from the grace family? yeah been there done that why are we doing this again (and it was way more engaging the first time). god I wish we had gotten a big fight between a child of jupiter and a child of pluto instead

3. their issues regarding nico were way more high stakes than the silly alpha male posturing rick was trying to force between jason and percy especially considering how mega nerfed jason is written in hoo because no one's allowed to be on equal footing with percy

4. the tacit layer of betrayal in jason being hazel's ex-centurion/praetor only to end up preferring chb (to be clear this particular conflict belongs to jason and reyna and is more impactful between them - but since hazel is actually on the argo and reyna isn't she can still be an opportunity for this camp jupiter/camp half-blood conflict to be explored with jason)

5. I'm just gonna say it - I think hazel ought to have complicated feelings about white authority figures in a military camp as a black girl from the freaking jim crow era (not that this would have ever been explored satisfactorily in the books because as far as rick is concerned hazel is colorblind and hardly ever thinks about race despite growing up segregated. which is crazy unrealistic but whatever)

6. something something about the parallels that jason and hazel have about making hard choices about their pasts in order to have a more fulfilling future

7. this isn't necessarily interesting in and of itself but I just think it's neat that they're both big three roman kids with greek siblings that they didn't grow up with. what could have been interesting is jason seeing how close hazel and nico are and feeling some type of way about everything he never got to have with thalia and some exploration into how that impacts his feelings about the rescue mission. I'm starving for more grace sibling content by the way

8. they both have really awkward romantic conflicts in their pasts that intrude upon the present (whether he and reyna were ever even slightly romantically involved or not) because the jason/reyna thing is written as a initial source of conflict/uncertainty for jiper in the same way that hazel/leo (sammy) was a conflict for frazel to grapple with. this is interesting to me because like... hazel is connected to reyna and jason is connected to leo. like there could have been a moment of connection over letting go of pasts loves to wholeheartedly pursue new ones in the way that both of them are (were) with piper and frank

9. they both died. this bullet is a joke but I just thought I should put it here

10. percy is a well-established character and hazel and jason are new in hoo. percy has 50 povs in hoo and hazel has 28. economically speaking it would just be a more effective use of your limited pages to spend more time developing important interactions and conflicts between two new characters (esp new big three kids) who already have a more interesting foundation than the one involving our previous protagonist of 5 entire books

11. beryl grace and marie levesque. think about this for a second. ok that's all

12. both had their pasts taken away from them from major deities and are continually haunted and influenced by their presence throughout hoo

imo hazel and jason are the most weirdly written new additions to the main cast but I strongly feel that rick severely underutilized the way that characters like those two could play off of each other. hazel isn't just a sweet little cinnamon roll she is passionate and contemplative and morose and guilt-ridden and jason isn't just a bland rule-follower he is kind and committed and loyal and conflicted and they're both painfully self-sacrificing and I just think it's such a shame that these two characters with great concepts on paper and so many obvious threads to connect them didn't get as much as attention as.... whatever happened in kansas did

and I mean if you like the jason/percy conflict that's fine, but I think it's worthwhile to compare the merit of them because rick chose to centralize and build up to one more than the other when he had such perfect material to expand on the other instead and I think that says something about his biases. and I think part of the issue is that rick struggles with strengthening tension and applying complexity to conflicts between male/female characters that aren't romantic or onesidedly antagonistic like clarisse/percy. we have several noteworthy conflicts between male characters but when women are involved it's like rick doesn't know how to put them on equal footing and apply platonic depth. imo this is just another reason why big three girls (hazel/thalia/bianca) don't get to be as powerful and transformative in the overall narrative as big three guys (percy/jason/nico). all this world-changing narrative weight is afforded to big three kids but hazel in particular is weirdly excluded from all of that and doesn't get to have much impactful interconnectedness with the prophecy or with other big three kids. what happened to big three kids being super dangerous when put together or when they're on opposing sides of conflicts!!!!!!!! we had impactful percy/thalia and percy/nico and jason/percy and jason/nico conflict where is the fleshed out jason/hazel beef - it's right there!

anyways tldr all I'm saying is that jason and hazel complement each other well and rick was too hung up on the Colliding Of Alpha Male Strong Dudes (that he didn't even write well) to see everything that hazel and jason could have had instead

[princessofghosts-posts]

People always talking about Percy and Jason parallelism as if Nico and Percy don't have the same thing.

Let me explain:

Both are a child of the Big Three,only difference is that Percy is the forbidden one while Nico isn't.

Both are extremely powerful and were ostracized by the other demigods for this,only difference is that Percy's mistreatment wasn't as bad or long as Nico's.

Both were in the Lotus,only difference is that Percy stayed for a couple of days,Nico for years.

Both are extremely skilled with swordsmanship,with Percy being at the top.

Both have a very unique sword with a feature of being able to always be with them. Raptide is a pen that will always come back to Percy,while Nico's sword can appear from the shadows with his command.

Both have a sister that they will die for, without a second question asked.

Both were ready to end themselves for their sibling. During SoM,when Percy thought that Tyson died with Clarisse's ship being destroyed,he wished he could drown but couldn't because he's a son of Poseidon. During BotL,Nico tried to switch his souls for the one of his sister (only good thing Minos did was to tell him that Hades won't accept it) knowing full well the consequences.

Based of the point before,both are extremely suicidal. Percy wished he could drown multiple time,and went along with Polybotes's poison only because he thought he deserved to die. Nico doesn't see the value in his life and go on the most suicidal solo-quest ever with the awareness that he might die,and he doesn't care or think the others don't.

In HoO Hazel think how both Percy and Jason are just waiting for a monster too strong to defeat,that can kill them. Nico isn't to far off from this vision too,since in BoO he was ready to end it all,be it by his travel of wanting to kill Octavian.

Based of the other point,they are probably both depressed,with Percy masking his with humor (similar to Leo) or avoiding thinking about it,and Nico is carrying it on his sleeves,fully accepting it.

Poseidon and Hades tried to keep their family safe,proposing to build palaces in their domains,basically the same place where their wives lives with them,so that they can live in peace and Zeus wouldn't know about them.

Sally and Maria rejected the idea,deciding to raise their children with them despite the difficulties and dangers.

Both have a good relationship with their mother,the problem is that Nico can't remember much of her.

Both are scared of their father domains (all of the kids of the Big 3,both romans and greeks,are). In MoA,when Percy was visiting the aquarium with Frank and the tank broke,he thought he was going to drown (ironic,isn't it? The guy that wanted to drown now is scared of it) before remembering he is a child of Poseidon (again,ironic.). His fear was caused by Gaia,when during SoN,she made him sink into quicksand and Hazel had to save him before they got to the boss battle. In BoO,during their trip with the Statue,Nico was actively fading away (and dying),to the point that mortals and demigods could pass through his body. He almost become one with the shadows,the same shadows he use every time he has to travel. Untill then he was comfortable in being in the shadows,because of CHB attitude regarding him,but after that? He didn't saw them in the same way.

The romans don't pay homage to,or don't respect that much,their fathers. Both the temples of Pluto and Neptune at the CJ are in very bad shape,even with a daughter of Pluto living there.

Both are an active part of the two Great Prophecies,with Percy being the prophecy child and a part of the Seven,while Nico does the heavy lifting on the sidelines as a support character. (Both of the time they won thanks to his help).

Kronos wanted them both (and Thalia) on his side. He tormented all of them,but Percy and Nico (and Thalia) stayed loyal to their fathers no matter what.

Both can get along pretty well with their divine families.

Poseidon and Hades have rooms in their palace only for them,when they stay with them or came for a visit; Amphitrite and Persephone (and Demeter) don't mind their presence that much when they are in the palace.

Both are ready to kill for their loved one,especially their partners. (also Annabeth and Will being blond,when Percy and Nico hair's black>>>>>)

Both are prince of their fathers's kingdom (same for the others Big 3 kids) but noble titles aren't a thing in the demigods world (I will forever be pissed about this)

Poseidon and Hades care about them in their own strange and limiting ways. At the same time they both fucked them up with their horrible communication skills (The price you pay for being alive??? Bianca should be alive instead of Nico??? Fuck them both for this).

Nico and Percy are the only one with a good relationship (for demigods standard) with their divine parent and families,both in the Big 3 kids club and for the rest of the demigods's population. (the children of Dionysus and Apollo too).

Both went to Tartarus and had their mind fucked up by the gods that were there (Nico needs to see Dionysus on almost a daily basis otherwise he will go insane??? Percy was ready to kill a goodness???). Akhlys and Nyx appeared to both of them (get her away from Nico-) and their powers evolved.

Lot of trauma from all the prophecies and wars they went through (same for every other demigods but anyway-)

First impression of their divine sibling was horrible. Triton was extremely judgmental of Percy,without even knowing him,Kim tried to kill him,while Melinoë was straight up trauma for Nico.

Both were betrayed by their teacher. Luke gave Percy sword lessons before he left for his first quest,so much so that during SoN,even without memory,Luke's voice reminded him what to do during the war games. Minos was ready to sell Nico to the enemy after he taught him everything he knew about the rituals to invoke the spirits,and went in the Labyrinth with him.

Both lost their memories,Percy because of Hera and Nico because of Hades. Only difference is that Percy memories returned,while Nico will never have all of them back (like Jason).

In their own POVs they don't talk really highly of themselves,and most of the time think about how they messed up certain things,and how other people could do better than them. The few times they feel confident about their abilities? Bad shit happens.

Ragarding the point before of this,both have a low self-esteem.

In the other characters POVs,we see how people actually see them. Hazel almost mistakes Percy for a god because of how handsome,loyal (probably also why Annabeth,Nico,Rachel,Calypso and Reyna fell for him) and powerful he is. Reyna think that Nico's surname give him justice because he looks like an angel (he also pulled Will Solace with being rarely at CHB during that time) when he smile,and is extremely powerful.

Do I need to continue? There are probably so many other similarities between them but I think you get the point. While Percy and Jason might be two faces the same coin,Nico and Percy are basically the same face.

All of the Big 3 children have similarities or have parallelism to each other: Thalia and Hazel (both come back from the dead and had to readjust to the years that passed, everything they know was now a distant memory); Jason and Bianca (both died when they were starting to figure out their life,after their memory loss); and there are others matches too: Thalia and Percy,Jason and Hazel,Jason and Nico,Bianca and Percy,Thalia and Nico,etc...

But Nico and Percy are just so similar to each other that sometimes it's hurt. They can't even have a good interaction most of the time because trauma is part of their relationship.

[ottpopfic]

I have this (Headcannon? Analysis? Interpretation?) of how each camp has culture around their powers that drives me crazy

CHB is all about the party tricks, its a bunch of under-supervised ADHD kids learning how to use their gifts of course their doing party tricks. Everything is let's see how far I can jump when I springboard off my spear, can I control the lava on the Climbing Wall to draw a dick in the sand, are we growing weed or super weed in the shape of Pokemon. People are useing there powers for everything, any little convenience any little anything, its very normal

Camp Jupiter is a military camp, and in the military everyone is expected to conform and be uniform. People can use their powers, but individually is frowned upon. There is a heavy emphasis on formation, of being part of a unit, of acting together as one, it doesn't give a lot of room for party tricks

It makes me think a lot of Jason on the Argo II. Hazel and Frank are the only other Romans on the boat, and they are not only new recruits but are also just starting to get a handle on their powers. Jason would have had a hang of his powers for years at this point, but its with a tight control held close to his chest

Think about him watching the Greek kids and their open lose play with their gifts. Leo using his fire as a flash light, Annabeth and her puzzles just for fun, Percy refilling his cup just by pulling some juice from the jug. It must be wild for him, especially how I feel like (especially with Big Three kids) their bodies are made to be in their element. Jason is made to fly, his body has to have all these adaptations to be in the low-oxygen sub-zero temperature of the upper atmosphere. But because he's Roman he's been forced to the ground, to be part of a unit, to not stand out.

That has to itch

[cr4zy-cycl0n3]

Yo! I'm doing a Heroes of Olympus rewrite!

I'm not a huge fan of how some scenes go in canon and how the characters esp the gods are handled in Hoo, and after reading one too many rewrite/AU fics, I've decided fuck it, imma make my own.

I'm changing quite a few things, like:

- making Piper's memories not be tampered with and as a result be way closer to Leo (credit to Heroes of Juno by @queenjunothegreat for this idea!)

- MOTHERLY HERA/JUNO WHO PSEUDO-ADOPTS JASON FTW also parental Lupa but that'll be more apparent in a Jason prequel/sequel(depends on how I wanna format it) I’ll write after TLH is done

- slowburn valgrace instead of comphet jiper

- Leo and Piper QPR(+Jason when Piper stops being his #1 opp). Jasipereo ftw babyyy

- the whole series is just gonna have a good deal of focus on the Lost Trio. I'm not gonna shaft anyone ofc but my favorite punching bags characters are just gonna get extra love :3

- Jason's gonna be considerably more feral cuz CMON MAN WAS RAISED BY WOLVES(this is more prominent in the later books cuz in TLH he was alr feral, going at 2 giants with his BARE ASS HANDS)

- Jason has more bite cuz DAMMIT HE DESERVES TO BE ANGRY/BITTER AND CLAP BACK. HIS LIFE IS SHIT, LET MY BRO BE MAD

- more exploration into Jason's character cuz man was shafted so hard :(

- exploration of characters' powers in general, def buffing the Big Three kids to be as strong as Percy cuz holy cow he's OP. I love Percy and his OP-ness, but the other Big Three kids should be just as OP

- Zeus is the God of Justice, which we don't see much of in PJO's characterization of him, but Jupiter is Roman and hence is much more strict in the RRverse, so consequently I think his domain of law and order is more central to Jupiter than his greek counterpart, so I'd like to explore Jason having powers related to that and being an absolute powerhouse when it comes to debates and politics despite hating them

- characterizing the Gods differently from canon as I'm a Hellenist and writing them as they are in canon makes me like. Kinda uncomfortable. I will be using mythic literalism as that is what PJO/HoO's based on and I'm not rewriting the very foundations of the series, so they will still have committed the things they did in mythology, though I'm keeping them largely unaltered from the Og greek mythos and unsanitized as this isn't intended for a young audience like PJO is. Their behavior won't be exactly like their depictions in myths nor how they actually are irl, it's a mix of both(Ex: Zeus has still done heinous shit so he won't be as great as he is irl, but he isn't supremely petty and bitchy like he is in PJO.). This uhh. Will probably mean that PJO events would go differently which would influence HOO but if I think about that too much I'm gonna wanna do a PJO rewrite too and akbhdhd so just imagine that everything that goes on in PJO goes as canon (for now at least) for some reason or another.

- Octavian and Jason are were best friends cuz I said so. This change is inspired by To Storm and Fire(a Heroes of Olympus rewrite) which I am in LOVE with. The antagonistic side characters(like Drew and Octavian) got very little development or character exploration so l'm definitely giving them that in my rewrite!

- The Seven feel and are much closer together

- delving more into the sevens' trauma pre-camp, might also do a one/two shot for each of them. Jason’s a given cuz I’m writing a whole ass fic or even series dedicated to his past, Leo and Piper definitely, probably also Hazel and Annabeth, not sure on Percy and Frank cuz for Frank I’m def going into the trauma that comes with growing up in an Asian household but don’t have too many ideas on how to execute that, and for Percy I don’t have all that many ideas in general outside of the little we know in PJO(I used to think we knew a lot but honestly, we really don’t? Like we know Poseidon left, Sally had to work a lot, Gabe sucks, and he got kicked out of 6 six schools in 6 years and the reasons, but we don’t have any concrete details. There might be more in HoH, I haven’t read it yet so lmk if there is). Open to any ideas for this!

- camp is. Tense. It's been only a few months since the war, grief is still fresh, and Jason being tall, blonde, and blue-eyed with a scar ain't helping 💀 some people think Silena was a hero, others think she was a villain, some people sympathized with Luke, others despised him, there's a lotta differing views.

I have loads more ideas that I won't get into here cuz the post'll get way too long, but l'd love to hear what you guys think! What scenes/characterizations should I change? What topics would you like to see handled differently? What should I add? I'm open to any and all suggestions!

Currently outlining TLH, will start posting it on my ao3 once I have the first chapter and 4-5 buffer ones written so I'll prolly start posting it in a month or two? Idk, depends on my workload irl and if I get hit by writer’s block. Maybe less, maybe more, who knows. I'll be writing a bunch of shorter stories for specific moments, time between books, and namely a prequel/tih sequel focusing on Jason's past and who he was before Hera wiped his memory. Open to any suggestions for additional works too. Feel free to drop any questions and suggestions bout the rewrite here or in my ask box!

[darkmagyk]

percabeth baby fic/teacher au!

“Constantinople.” Jason said. Ms. Dare nodded, meaning Jason had gotten the question right. He glanced at Dr. Chase to see if she had noticed, if she would give the little nod of approval that all guys on the Jupiter School quiz bowl team craved.

But Dr. Chase wasn’t even looking at them. She and Mr. Jackson, the Juno’s Academy coach, were talking in a low voice, Mr. Jackson showing Dr. Chase something on her phone that was making her frown.

“The 2015 hit movie King of Sparta features this Hollywood leading man?” Mr. Pace asked.

Jason knew this one, he had seen all 4 King of Sparta movies…

Piper, the cutest of the Juno girls, rang in first, and hung her head even as she said “Tristan McLean.”

“Correct.” Ms. Dare said. She glanced down at her tablet to look at the next question, but she was stopped because Mr. Jackson had walked back over to their quiz bowl scrimmage, and put a hand on her shoulder. He leaned down and whispered something to both Ms. Dare and Mr. Pace. Who both nodded.

“I’ll be back,” He said, mostly addressing his Juno students. “I have to go run an errand really quickly.”

Then he left. But it meant Dr. Chase could redirect her attention to the team.

Mr. Jackson was not back through another 2 rounds. But Jason got the coveted Dr. Chase nod 3 times for answering the math questions correctly.

They were nearly tied up, though Jason had just face palmed when Connor had answered “What city was helped by the French, Spanish, and French again before being sold to the United States?” with “Montreal.” Much to Frank and Hazel, who got the answer “New Orleans” correct, chagrin, when Mr. Jackson came back. He was not alone.

In one hand he held a baby carrier were a sleeping infant in a blue onesie and blue beanie, wrapped in a blue knit blanket was laying. On the other side, a slightly older child, but still probably a toddler, was resting on his hip. And trailing after him was a slightly older girl, maybe 4 or 5.

“Sorry, everyone,” He said, “babysitter had an emergency.”

“Isn’t your babysitter Fred?” Mr. Pace asked.

Mr. Jackson nodded.

“What kind of emergency do history professors have?”  Ms. Dare asked.

Mr. Jackson shrugged, “Well, everyone,” He nodded to the teams, “this is Junie,”

The oldest girl waved, but then ran to Ms. Dare, giving her a hug. Which might have confirmed the rumor he had heard from Reyna and Hazel, that Mr. Jackson and Ms. Dare were a couple, if not for the fact that Junie then immediately also hugged Mr. Pace.

“Lucie,” Mr. Jackson said. Setting the very very blonde toddler down on the floor. She stood on a second of slightly unsteady legs, before she found her balance and waved with a wide grin, adding “Hi.”

“And hopefully Sofie will stay asleep.” He slung a bag, a diaper bag Jason guessed, off his shoulder, and started opening it, digging out some duplo blocks and a coloring book and some crayons. With a little bit of effort, and Dr. Chase’s help, the older girls were set up in two of the desks, with the toys, and then they refocused on the practice.

“What three Roman gods made up the Capitoline Triad?”

Oh, good, Jason knew this one. He hit his buzzer.

“Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.” Everyone looked over where the oldest girl. Junie, was grinning at them, having answered the question.

“Sweetie,” Mr. Jackson said, “this is practice for the big kids. Why don’t you finish coloring a picture for my desk.”

Jason glanced to the back corner of the room where Mr. Jackson’s desk was, and now he could see what looked like a dozen children’s drawing and coloring pages.

“But I’m right,” She said.

“You are,” Ms. Dare agreed, not hiding her smile at all.

“Let’s keep going,” Dr. Chase said.

And then Mr. Pace asked his next question.

“Falling on December 20th or 21st, what is the shortest day of the year?”

“Winter Solstice.”

“Junie,” Mr. Jackson said again, “if you answer all the questions, they students can’t learn.”

“Ok,” She said. Going back to her coloring.

Ms. Dare turned to the next question, “Finished in 1936, this public works project was one of many used to hire people during the great depression.”

Jason paused, he knew this one, it was on the tip of his tongue. Leo’s buzzer beat him to it.

“Hoover Dam.” Mr. Jackson’s daughter said.

“Annabeth Jackson,” And that was Dr. Chase, who Jason knew’s first name was Annabeth. It was an unusual name. Had Mr. Jackson named his daughter after Dr. Chase? “It’s ok to know you’re smart. You don’t have to prove it.”

“Like mother, like daughter.” Ms. Dare joked. Mr. Pace laughed, Dr. Chase shot her a glare.

“Next question.” Mr. Jackson offered.

“Right, yeah,” Mr. Pace read the next question, “What name could you give to an Empire that lasted from 1299 to 1919, or to a small piece of upholstered furniture.”

Oh, that one was easy, too.

“Otto Min.” It wasn’t Junie Jackson who spoke this time. It was the younger one. Lucie. She waved when she saw everyone was looking at her.

Dr. Chase sighed, but Ms. Dare and Mr. Pace broke into a giant about of laughter.

“It’s ok,” Mr. Jackson said, patting Dr. Chase on the shoulder. “She’s just jealous they’ll be on my team when they get older.”

“We’ll win, Daddy,” Junie announced.

“Absolutely,” Mr. Jackson said.

“Did you marry me just to create the ultimate quiz bowl champions?” Dr. Chase asked Mr. Jackson.

“Yep,” Mr. Jackson said.

“I knew it.” Piper announced. She turned to her team, “you all owe me $20.”

[the-star-rigel]

I forgot how funny SoN is. The Romans spending 50% of their time complaining about the Greeks (who’ve never once mentioned them - giving big winning the idgaf war energy). Two gods showing up and everyone being terrified vs at camp half blood where they’ll show up randomly to the campers’ annoyance. Everybody majorly side eying Percy and Hazel compared to camp half blood’s greater respect for the big three. People telling Percy “Saturn must’ve faded away 🤷‍♂️ 🤷‍♀️” while he’s like huh… Mars’ prophecy is kind of iconic too “go there kill this guy be back by this date” 😭??Also side note but Frank being very Pluto pos is a little incredible I just know Pluto loves this kid

[devils-little-sistaaa]

Do you guys ever realize that for most of their lives Percy and Nico will be the only adult children of the big three. Thalia will forever be 15/16 ish and all other big three children will be 17/13 ish years younger than Percy and Nico. I think that Percy and Nico would both adopt or foster big three kids who have dead or unstable mortal parents or just get attacked by monsters too often and can’t safely with mortal family and have trouble at camp halfblood (cause Percy had trouble his first two years there and so did Nico the entire time he was there)

(I mean only the Greeks cause Roman’s don’t do the whole big three thing and they’re entirely different gods anyway).

And maybe Hazel and Frank do the same for Roman kids but more with cthonic kids or really rare demigods. Kids that have trouble fitting in.

[northlt03]

I love Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel and Frank so much but I do believe Rick could have done so much better with HOO.

With all the emphasis on minor gods and children ALL the gods getting claimed, I do believe he should have made the seven a group of ragtag unlikely to work together demigods of minor/ gods other than the big three.

And I mean kids who are only just figuring out their powers, dealing with internal trauma, who start out respecting the shit out of the gods (both Roman and Greek). They were young in the battle of Manhattan so they don't remember a time before that. And HOO should have taken place long after PJO.

So now, you have cameos from out beloved characters. Rachel gives prophecies, Percy trains them with swords like Luke trained him, Nico could be the oldest demigod with them (either on the team or just helping them)

[demigod-shenanigans]

Lean on Me

Summary: After the war, Leo finally has some time to process some pretty big feelings he’s been avoiding. Thankfully, Piper is there to help.

Shoutout to my friend @halcyon-hyacinth for beta reading!

Word count: ~7K

So, I passed 250 followers a while back and I thought I’d take this as an opportunity to do a test run of tumblr fanfic posting (Ao3 version linked in the title). Therefore, have my very first HoO fic from all the way back in March! Feat. lots of Leo and Piper friendship, Leo being an oblivious pining little idiot over Jason and some very minor background pipeyna.

———

Even though it had been weeks since they’d gotten back home, Leo was sometimes still in disbelief about the fact that he was back at Camp Half-Blood after how long they’d been away. It felt weird not falling asleep to a rumbling engine anymore. It felt even weirder to wake up in a cabin full of people.

The number of people being home involved was something he didn’t think he’d ever grow used to. He’d grown up with just his mom and the very occasional visit from family who couldn’t be bothered to care about him after she’d passed away. Then there’d been the foster homes… well, the less said about those, the better. Point being, it was strange how different things were here, and despite the months he’d lived here before the mission, it never stopped feeling that way.

Leo liked his half-siblings, but he wasn’t great with people. He was even worse at being any kind of role model. Most of his time as head counselor for the Hephaestus cabin had been spent on constructing the Argo II. What exactly being head counselor involved now that that was done… that was a problem for future Leo, he supposed. Current Leo was perfectly content hanging out in the same space as some of his siblings, watching their various contraptions grow as he worked on his own. So far, no one had asked him to do anything else, save for the occasional question about his epic adventures. Those he could handle just fine.

Part of Leo missed the time on the Argo, beyond the soothing familiarity of piloting Festus. Not all of it—not the constant monster attacks or knowing the world might end or having to replace the mast four times in the same week. Not the lonely moments when everyone seemed perfectly content without him. But he missed the group breakfasts, and the peaceful bits of the night time watches he’d had with his friends, before something inevitably tried to eat the ship. He missed running into Jason when he got up for a midnight snack, the strange comfort of knowing neither of them could sleep. He missed teasing Frank, and spending three hours arguing with Annabeth about one of her architectural sketches that was as gorgeous as it was physically impossible to construct. Something about the contained space of the ship had made certain things easier. Camp wasn’t huge, but most of them got swept up in their respective tasks, and it just wasn’t the same, especially since Frank and Hazel had left. Some of the Romans had stayed to help with the rebuilding effort, but they’d needed at least one praetor back at Camp Jupiter, so he’d gone, and Hazel had gone with him.

Still, for the most part, Leo was glad to be back home. It was nice to not be fighting for his life every thirty seconds for a change. It was even nicer to be back in his usual tinkering space. Note to self: if he ever built another flying ship, it desperately needed to come with a furnace. His own fire was handy, sure, but setting his limbs alight wasn’t the safest or the most effective way to forge Celestial Bronze. Kid Leo really should have thought his crayon sketch through better.

Speaking of projects he should have spent more time thinking through… he dipped the hot metal disc into cold water, waiting for a moment before he retrieved it with his bare hands.

He’d always felt kind of silly wearing protective gloves considering he could reach into the furnace just fine without it affecting him. (He’d done that exactly once, before a very startled Nyssa had ruined his fun by insisting that the head counselor maybe shouldn’t be teaching his not-fireproof younger siblings that it was fine to stick your bare hands into the furnace. Being a role model was seriously boring sometimes.)

Leo eyed his device, uncertain. It looked better than it had before the last correction, but… yep. Like he’d suspected, the folding mechanism still wasn’t working right. On the last few attempts, the helmet hadn’t unfolded at all, and now that it had, it wasn’t retracting correctly. He had a feeling it had something to do with uneven volume distribution, but he’d gotten too attached to this prototype to just start over now. There had to be a way to make this work. He’d rebuilt a whole metal dragon nearly from scratch, for crying out loud. Like Hades was he going to let a piece of armor defeat him.

Leo was still thinking about whether to take a break and try sketching out the prototype to see if that would help or continue to just wing it when Piper appeared.

“You busy?” She looked tired, but satisfied, like Leo felt when he had a breakthrough on one of his projects at two in the morning.

She’d been dropping by more often since they’d gotten back. Jason was about a million times worse.

It felt… not like old times, exactly, since the time when they’d been a trio of friends and Piper and Jason hadn’t been dating had mostly been Mist memories. But it did feel nice.

“Very. Currently having a staring contest with my newest project. Don’t distract me, or it’s going to win,” Leo joked.

He was met with an eye roll, but Piper’s smile didn’t waver.

“Right. What are you working on, and how worried do I need to be about it blowing us all up?”

“Not very, I hope. That’d kinda defeat the purpose.” He showed her the palm-shaped device, a few parts of metal still sticking out of the sides where they weren’t supposed to. “Retractable helmet—though currently not as retractable as I’d like it to be. I’m tired of Jason constantly getting concussed. There’s only so much brain damage any demigod should be subjected to, ambrosia or no.”

Piper snorted.

“Yeah, he could really use that.”

She was looking at Leo in a strange way—like he’d just answered correctly on a game show he hadn’t even known he was participating in.

“Why are you in such a good mood? Do I need to be worried?”

“Reyna said my combat skills needed more work. She’s spent all morning repeatedly disarming me in three moves.”

“Your girlfriend is terrifying.”

“Yeah, she is.” Piper sighed contently.

Leo was happy for her—she hadn’t been dating Reyna for long, but he’d never seen Piper smile this much before. In some ways, it was easier than seeing her with Jason. It didn’t come with the same weird pang in his chest.

That didn’t mean being around Reyna had stopped feeling weird to Leo, though. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she hadn’t fully forgiven him for getting possessed and firing on her home. Not like he’d fully forgiven himself for it, either. He was still seriously considering that Slap-Leo-in-the-Face machine. He was unfortunately pretty sure there’d be more opportunities to use it in the future.

“I really don't get what Reyna’s problem is. You’ve got excellent aim when it comes to firing smoked hams at monsters. We just need to come up with a convenient way to carry those around now that we don’t have the cornucopia anymore.”

“Har. Har.” Piper rolled her eyes at him. “Anyway, any chance you could interrupt your glaring contest with the helmet for a bit? I need to talk to you.”

Leo’s mediocre mood had started to improve slightly since the start of their conversation, but now it took a massive dip. Those words never meant anything good.

He squashed down the first question that popped into his head—that being ‘who died’—because Piper was still smiling, so even if someone had died, it probably wasn’t anyone they liked.

More likely, Leo was about to be scolded for something.

“Whatever it is, it wasn’t me, and if it was me, it probably wasn’t on purpose,” he tried, mentally running through all the ways he’d messed up lately to figure out which one she was most likely to be mad about. It wasn’t that Piper scolded him a lot—half the time, she was a very enthusiastic participant in his nonsense—but maybe her rule-abiding girlfriend was being a bad influence. “If it’s about the glitter bomb I placed in Drew’s handbag-”

“You did what?” Piper asked, crossing her arms.

Great. So she hadn’t known, and Leo had just snitched on himself. Good job, him.

“I needed to test the mechanism for a new monster fighting gadget.” He shrugged.

“And you didn’t let me help?” Piper did actually look kind of offended. So Reyna wasn’t being that bad of an influence. Good to know.

“Hey, I can’t let you have all the fun. I’m head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin, remember? Someone’s gotta teach Harley about strategic glitter bomb placement. I take my responsibilities as an older brother very seriously.” Piper snorted, and Leo knew he was forgiven. Still, he wasn’t willing to risk any more guesses. “So what did you want to talk about, if it isn’t that?”

“Walk with me?”

“Slightly ominous request, but okay.”

Leo dropped the prototype into his tool belt to be retrieved later, then started fiddling with his rings until the crutches folded out obediently. Those weren’t his own design, unlike his prosthetic leg. They’d been a gift from his siblings. He didn’t need them as much at the forge, where he mainly went from briefly standing up to sitting down a lot, but outside of that, they were extremely convenient. It was great to not have to worry about where to put them so they wouldn’t topple into the campfire during singalong.

Relearning to walk was more frustrating than he cared to admit, but hey, at least he was about ninety percent less dead than the Fates had wanted him to be. That was pretty great.

“And me wanting to talk to you is ominous, why, exactly?” Piper asked, an eyebrow raised at him.

“She said, luring me into the woods like any half-decent murderer would,” Leo joked. It wasn’t that he actually feared for his life—not after Piper had put up with him for this long—but the whole situation did make him nervous. “For the record, I will be the world’s most annoying ghost, so, you know. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“I was actually going to help you, but I think I’m pushing you into the canoe lake instead,” Piper deadpanned. “Or maybe I’ll just ask Reyna to-”

“Alright, alright, message received. No need to actually threaten my life.” Leo lifted his palms in surrender, which was a bit of a ridiculous balancing act with the crutches, but entirely worth the effort as far as he was concerned. “Just tell me why you’ve dragged me out here.”

Piper moved to sit on a large rock at the edge of the water and patted the spot next to her. Leo flopped down next to her, his crutches obediently folding back into the jewelry. He swung his legs back and forth, the celestial bronze parts of his prosthesis clunking whenever it hit the rock. That maybe wasn’t good, but he’d fix it later if it got dented. His fidgeting always got worse when he was nervous. There wasn’t much he could do about it.

He pulled a spring from his tool belt and started bending it with nothing specific in mind to keep his hands busy. Maybe he’d end up with something handy to use for one of his devices later. Maybe he’d just end up with a completely ruined spring. Who knew.

“Like I said, I wanted to talk to you. Preferably alone—or as alone as you can be here, with the dryads and the harpies everywhere.” Piper sighed. “I feel like we’ve not done that in a while.”

“Yeah.” Leo looked down at his sneakers. “Not that I can remember most of the time we did spend alone.”

That still stung. For the first few weeks after they’d freed Hera, Leo had assumed his and Piper’s real memories of Wilderness School would come back—that the influence of the Mist would fade. It hadn’t. They’d saved Hera’s life, but she wasn’t quite so grateful that she could be bothered to fix the memories she’d messed up by interspersing them within a bunch of fake memories of Jason.

Leo wasn’t even sure what was made up completely, and what had been Hera taking memories that should have been him and Piper messing with Hedge and testing out some of his faultier contraptions during lunch break and replacing her with Jason. Part of him wondered if it had been the two of them sneaking onto the roof for the meteor shower, sitting next to each other and lamenting about how romantic this would be if they weren’t both so painfully single.

Wondering was all he could do, for most of these moments. He couldn’t remember.

Some memories were clearer than others, like Piper telling him about her dad, or when she’d realized he was down on the anniversary of his mother’s death. She hadn’t pushed him to talk about why he was upset—just suggested they sneak into the kitchen for some low-stakes theft. He remembered being sprawled out on the carpet in her room afterwards, laughing, victoriously splitting a box of strawberry ice cream. But even in those memories, Jason was there, distracting the staff and laughing with them.

It was like Hera had pressed Control-Alt-Delete all over those first months of their friendship, leaving only fragments. File that under even more reasons to hate his evil babysitter.

“It doesn’t change anything, you know,” Piper said gently. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad that Hera messed up our memories. But memories or no, you’re still my best friend. I wanted to make sure you know that.”

“Hate to break it to you, but Jason is my best friend,” Leo joked, because he absolutely could not let Piper get away being this sappy, no matter how relieved it made him feel.

Piper raised an eyebrow at him. “Sure.”

He had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and honestly, he was afraid to ask.

“So did you bring me out here just to talk about how amazing I am? Because I’m absolutely down to talk about that any minute of the day, obviously, but we really could have had that conversation back at the forge.”

Piper rolled her eyes at him, though it was in a way that Leo knew was more fond than anything. He’d learned to tell the difference at some point. Which, if nothing else, really did say something about how much she rolled her eyes at him.

“I actually wanted to talk about why you spent so much of the mission avoiding me and Jason. A lot of the time before the mission, too, honestly.”

Oh, great. Part of him had hoped she wouldn’t notice, naive as that had been. He kind of wanted to bolt, but that would just make her bug him about it more. Besides, running with crutches was really inconvenient, and Will would not be happy with him if he overdid it again. Forget Nico being scary. Will could be terrifying when he wanted to be.

“Maybe I just thought you wouldn’t appreciate my presence as much as you should,” he joked, but the words felt hollow in his throat. He really didn’t want to talk about this, but he couldn’t exactly skirt the topic forever.

Avoiding them hadn’t been a conscious choice—not at first. It had been a lot of work to finish the Argo in time. Then he’d had to fix it. Then he’d had to work on Festus. And, well, a bunch of their missions required him to go with Hazel and Frank instead of Piper or Jason. Most of them, really.

Leo wasn’t sure at which point he’d realized he was just making excuses to not be around his two closest friends. To not see them be perfectly happy without him. He loved them both so much, and he’d hated the resentment he’d felt looking at them. So he’d found reasons to look somewhere—anywhere—else.

“Well, you were wrong.” Piper looked at him, expression soft. She’d known him too long. His humor deflections only worked so well when the other person was aware that was what he was doing. “We both missed hanging out with you. I know you couldn’t see it, but you’ve always been part of the group. You were captain of the damn ship. We couldn’t have done any of it without you. No matter what some goddess says.”

Leo tensed. “Hazel told you? About the Nemesis thing?”

“She’s been worried. So have I.” Piper squeezed his shoulder. “Talk to me, please. Tell me how you’re actually feeling.”

Piper wasn’t charmspeaking him—she’d done it enough times by accident that Leo knew how to tell when she was—but he still found it nearly impossible to refuse when she looked at him like that. It was obvious she cared. So few people in his life had, since his mom passed away.

The truth came tumbling out, then, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“It’s just, you were probably the first real friend I made, and Jason’s my best friend, and when you two started dating… it sucked, okay? It felt like you didn’t need me anymore.” It was like something burned inside him every time he thought about it. His chest felt hot and painful enough that he kind of wanted to cry. The spring he’d been carefully uncurling snapped in his hand. “I finally got myself to stop running and tried to fit in somewhere, and it still didn’t work. I just found new and exciting ways to be alone.”

No matter what he did, he’d always be the odd one out. The seventh wheel. The sacrificial lamb that no one would miss too much. That was the only role he’d ever been promised.

“Oh, Leo.” Piper hugged him, then, fierce and warm. He sunk into her, hands cramping into the back of her shirt. She didn’t seem to mind. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because, as we all know, I’m the ‘talks about his issues’-guy. Key defining Leo feature.” He tried to smile, but he wasn’t even fooling himself with that embarrassing attempt. His heart was a piece of burnt-up wood, fragile and aching. Human emotions sucked. “Besides, we were so busy saving the world and trying not to die. Me feeling a little excluded seemed kind of unimportant in comparison.”

For a while, they stayed curled into each other like that, in a way they hadn’t really done since Wilderness School. Gods, he’d missed this. But being around her and Jason had just stung too much.

“It’s not. I’m sorry that I made you feel like it was. I haven’t exactly been a great friend lately.”

“Hey, you saved my life a couple times, that counts for something.” Leo nudged her. “It’s not your fault that I’m not great at the whole feelings thing. That’s just part of what you signed up for when you agreed to be my friend. Unfortunately for you, I’m non-returnable. You get the honor of being stuck with me forever.”

Leo had never minded being an only child when he was little. Then he’d met Piper, and for the first time he’d realized how much he liked having a sister. He teased her, sure, but that came with the territory. That didn’t mean he liked seeing her upset.

“I wouldn’t get rid of you even if I could,” she said, nudging him back. “But I know you. I know talking about stuff like this isn’t easy for you. That means I need to pay more attention to it, not less. I should have realized something was wrong. I should have been there for you, and I wasn’t. I was so caught up in my own problems that…” Piper trailed off. She looked seriously unhappy with herself. “I can’t believe I didn’t even notice how jealous you were until after Jason and I broke up.”

“I-” Leo stared at Piper for a long moment, then he burst out laughing, despite his charred coal of a heart. The thought was so completely ridiculous that he couldn’t help it. “Gods, Pipes, I’m not- you’re great, but I don't like you like that. You do realize I can hang out with girls without falling in love with them, right?”

Piper quirked an eyebrow, as if to say ‘can you?’ But the next words out of her mouth were, “I didn’t say you were jealous of Jason.”

Leo felt like he’d just walked face-first into a wall. “I- hang on. You think I- with Jason?” He didn’t feel much like laughing anymore. He felt a bit like he was suffocating, actually—like the time he’d been in that underwater cave with Frank and had accidentally set his oxygen supply on fire.

“You didn’t realize?” Piper asked, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Oh great, we’re both idiots. No wonder we’re best friends.”

“Pause. Can we take, like, fifteen steps back, maybe?” Leo felt like he’d missed about an hour of this conversation. And sure, he zoned out sometimes, but not that much. “What exactly makes you think I’m into Jason?”

“Do you want the list in alphabetical or chronological order?” Piper deadpanned. “You were literally napping on his shoulder at campfire yesterday. Clinging to him like a freaking koala. Apparently he had some trouble getting you to let go once he got you to bed.”

Leo’s face burned. He had vague memories of drifting off to the crackling fire, his head lolling to the side. He had wondered how he’d gotten back to his cabin. “I haven’t gotten a ton of sleep lately. And I just- I cling to stuff when I have bad dreams. You know that.”

Now that he thought about it, that did explain the strange looks he’d gotten from his siblings this morning.

“Right.” Piper looked amused in a way Leo wasn’t sure he liked. “Then there’s the fact that the project you’re working on at the moment is for him. Or how you’re always trying to make him laugh. Oh, and the wistful little looks you give him. You stare at his mouth a lot.”

“Making people laugh is my thing, that’s not exactly Jason-specific,” Leo protested. Of course he liked making Jason laugh. He was so serious a lot of the time, like at some point someone had decided to drop the whole world on his shoulders and he had just taken it and carried on. Whenever Leo managed to make him laugh, something inside his chest softened. That didn’t mean anything aside from the fact that he liked to see his friend happy. Did it? “And it’s not my fault his stupid scar is so distracting.”

Piper grinned. Yeah, well, he’d walked right into that one. “So?”

“Fine, I do think he’s attractive. Obviously. I have eyes.” Leo shrugged. His face still felt hot. Part of him was worried he’d catch his nose on fire again. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Right, and me walking around grumbling about Reyna being all ‘how dare she be so beautiful and powerful and competent’ was peak heterosexuality.” Piper’s tone was teasing, but her expression was soft. “You know it’s fine if you like him, right?”

“It’s not that. I’ve liked guys before. There was this kid across the street from my mom’s shop…” He trailed off. Okay, so maybe the kid had been a blond guy with glasses. Getting into that probably wouldn’t help his case. “But I get crushes on people a lot. You’ve witnessed an embarrassing amount of them. They’re not- they don’t usually feel the way it does with Jason.”

“So what does it feel like with him?” The teasing had melted out of Piper’s voice. She sounded sincere, like she really was just offering to listen in an attempt to help. Somehow, that didn’t make it any easier.

“It’s… I don’t really know how to describe it.” Leo sighed. “I’m not great at this stuff. ‘This stuff’ being people, just in general. But it’s easy with Jason, in a way that it’s never been with anyone else. I like being around him. It just makes me feel good. He treats me like I’m competent, even when I feel like a colossal fuckup. And he won’t always get it when I ramble about my inventions or fidget with whatever new thing I’m working on while we talk, but he listens like he’s actually interested in what I’m saying. Sometimes he’ll just sit with me, and we don’t talk at all, but it still doesn’t feel weird the way it would with other people. But it’s not… that doesn’t mean I have a crush on him.”

His legs tapped a discordant rhythm against the rock. He couldn’t believe he was actually saying all this. He wasn’t the type to talk about things so openly. Not even with Piper.

Never mind the fact that he wasn’t sure what there was to talk about. Leo’s crushes tended to be pretty easy to pin down, usually. Jason was just… different, somehow.

“So, let’s recap: the reason you think you can’t have a crush on him is that he’s easy to be around and it feels nice?”

“Uhm.” Well, when she put it like that, he just sounded like a moron. “I mean, doesn’t it feel like that for everyone? Do you not feel like that when you’re around him?”

“Not… exactly.” Piper looked embarrassed. “You remember the incident with the giant killer shrimp?”

“No, I fight those about twice a week. You’re gonna have to be a little more specific,” Leo replied sarcastically. He had no clue where she was going with this. It felt like he’d lost several minutes of the conversation again.

“When Jason and I were cleaning up after, I kept wishing we were more like Percy and Annabeth. There I was, dating the guy that was everything I thought I was supposed to want, and didn’t at all know what to do with him. Jason’s great, I’m glad he’s my friend, but we never had those kinds of easy silences. Us being together romantically was a total disaster. I’d just sit next to him with nothing to say, being all ‘wow, this is awkward’ and trying to convince myself that some relationships were just like that.” Piper laughed dryly. “Some daughter of Aphrodite I am.”

“Hang on. Are you telling me that the times you two ditched me to hang out, you just spent sitting awkwardly next to each other in silence?” Leo felt bad for her, truly, but he was also trying not to laugh.

“I plead the fifth.” Piper still seemed embarrassed, but also a bit amused. “Honestly, it’s gotten better since we broke up, but we’re still not great at it. There’s a reason we don’t hang out much, just the two of us.”

“I thought that reason was mostly you and Reyna being attached at the hip, but that’s honestly way funnier.”

“Well, it’s also that.” Piper got that dreamy, faraway look in her eyes again, and Leo briefly hoped he’d successfully distracted her, but his luck didn’t hold. “And it doesn’t help that Jason followed you around everywhere for days after you got out of the infirmary.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Leo snorted. That experience had been so ridiculous that it was easy enough to talk about. “He spent a bunch of time hovering—and I do mean both metaphorically and literally hovering—while I was at the forge. His feet were not touching the ground.”

Piper burst out laughing. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish. I don’t think he even realized he was doing it until I pointed it out.” Leo probably should have minded that. He didn’t need a babysitter. But honestly, getting all that time with Jason had been kind of nice, even if Jason was being an overprotective idiot about it. “You die once, and suddenly everyone’s all worried you’re gonna drop dead a second time. Like, no thanks. Been there, done that, never doing it again. Death really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Yeah, you better not.” Piper flicked him in the head. “You scared all of us pretty badly.”

“Sorry.” Leo shrugged. “Next time I go up in flames and get half my leg chewed off, I’ll try to be less dramatic about it.”

“I really don’t know why I’m friends with you.”

“Because I’m hilarious and smart and I make great tofu tacos?”

Piper put a hand on her chin like she needed to consider this. “It’s mostly the tacos.”

“I can’t believe you.”

“Unfortunately for you, I’m non-returnable,” Piper said with a wink, echoing his words from earlier. “Suppose we’ll just have to be stuck with each other.”

“Suppose we will.”

“Circling back to your little Jason issue,” she said, just when Leo had been starting to hope he’d finally escaped that topic. Damn the fact that Piper knew him well enough to realize he was trying to derail the conversation and didn’t let him get away with it. “I really think you should just talk to him.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen.” The piece of coal in Leo’s chest flickered with heat. He’d snapped the third spring in a row in half, scooping the scraps back into his belt. The dryads didn’t take too kindly to littering. He’d learnt that the hard way. “Jason’s… I don’t know. He’s a born hero. He’s brave and powerful and kind. He trusts other people to lead and know what they’re doing. Even me. He’ll tell me I can do something, and I’ll feel like I can. And then instead I’ll get possessed and blow up half of New Rome, or I’ll make a crappy deal with Nemesis and everyone else suffers the consequences. I’m a huge mess, Pipes. Even if I was into him, what chance would I have with someone like that?”

“Right, you only sacrificed yourself to save us all. Not a heroic bone in your body.” She rolled her eyes again, this time in a distinctly fond but annoyed way. “Putting aside the fact that you did save the world, that’s not a requirement for someone to like you. There’s a reason you were my best friend way before you were ever a hero. And Jason cares about you. A lot. You know that, right?”

“No, I thought he just hung out with me because I’m so hard to get rid of.” Leo was back to looking at his sneakers. Wow, those were some thrilling shoelaces, alright. “That’s just how he is, Pipes. He cares a lot. About many people. That doesn’t really mean much. Besides, I don’t want to mess up a perfectly good friendship. I don’t get to have these a lot.”

It was too much and too raw and he barely resisted the urge to throw another joke at it to make it hurt less.

“With all the love that I have for you, sometimes I think you’re the dumbest smart person I know.” Piper squeezed his shoulder. “Jason wouldn’t leave the infirmary the first three nights after we revived you. He barely slept. We all visited a lot to check on you, obviously, but Jason refused to move.”

“I did tell him he looked like death when I woke up,” Leo commented, not thinking about it.

Not thinking about the days he’d spent drifting, not registering much except faraway voices and the warm feeling of a hand in his and fingers brushing softly through his hair. Not thinking about waking up to a hand pressed to his cheek and blue eyes like storm clouds. Not thinking about the way Jason’s entire face had lit up when he’d said his name. Leo’s brain had still been so filled with fog and charcoal at the time that he hadn’t been sure how much of it he’d made up after.

He’d known Jason had worried about him, with the hovering and all. He wasn’t going to feel all warm and fuzzy just because it was a bit more than he’d realized. Absolutely not.

“Leo…” Piper looked at him, exasperated. Having a friend who had a love goddess for a mom and could read you like a book on top of that was really inconvenient sometimes. She opened her mouth to say something else, but then her eyes widened in alarm. “Leo, your shirt is smoking.”

“Crap.” So maybe he was feeling warm about it. Maybe a bit more than was convenient. His thoughts running rampant was always an excellent way to catch himself on fire. So was him being nervous. Both of those combined… well, this should be fun.

He moved away from Piper to avoid lighting her on fire by accident and tugged his rings off to drop them into the tool belt—a burnt-up shirt was annoying, sure, but there was a reason he didn’t get too attached to most of his clothes. Melting the crutches would be way more inconvenient. Once that was done, he started patting down his sleeves, trying to smother the sparks before it could get worse. The dryads would be furious with him if he started another forest fire.

It finally felt like he was starting to succeed, but because his life was a comedy intent on making jokes at his expense at every opportunity, that was when Jason wandered into the area. One of the slightly charred sleeves he’d just carefully put out immediately burst into flame again.

“I was wondering where you two-” Jason started, then stopped. “Why is Leo on fire?”

“Maybe I just really hate this shirt,” Leo joked, distinctly not focusing on the way Jason’s eyebrows knitted together in an expression somewhere between worry and amusement.

“Do you need anything? Should I get Percy so he can put you out? Or a bucket?”

“A hug would be nice.” It should have been obvious that he was still joking, but Jason was chewing on the stupid scar on his lip like he was genuinely considering it. And yep, Leo was definitely staring, heart migrating into his throat where it didn’t even slightly belong. If he got in any deeper, he’d be all the way underwater. “Sparky, I know I'm, like, extremely hot right now, but trust me, those third degree burns are not worth it.”

“Maybe get him a new shirt?” Piper suggested unhelpfully.

She was visibly struggling not to burst out laughing, and Leo briefly considered that maybe her shirt would look better on fire. He was also reconsidering the bolting option. Maybe Gaia could wake up just enough to swallow him whole? That sounded great just about now.

“Right, yeah, I can totally do that. Anything else?”

“A cheese platter would be nice, since you’re offering. Oh, and maybe a new gaming system.”

Leo wasn’t sure if he was being funny or just extremely annoying at this point. Gods, his jokes always got so much worse when he was anxious. Why did any of these people want to hang out with him? He desperately needed some time off from humans after this.

To his relief, the corner of Jason’s mouth just ticked up into a smile, and Piper did not push him into the canoe lake—though if she had, that at least would have resolved the fire situation.

“Gonna have to decline on the other stuff, but I could get some sandwiches, since you two missed lunch. Is it… are you sure there isn’t any other way I can help? I don’t want to just leave if you’re upset.”

Jason was looking directly at him, soft, worried eyes and all, and if he kept looking at him like that, Leo would fully combust. Jason staying right now, nice as it sounded in theory, would be the opposite of helpful. Leo really didn’t want to accidentally melt part of his prosthesis again. He was pretty sure demigod insurance wouldn’t cover that.

“No need to go all mushy on me, Superman,” Leo tried, his voice barely working. Gods, what was wrong with him? “I’m fine. Don’t start hovering again.”

“That was one time!” Jason protested. “And the last time you went up in flames-”

“It was three times,” Leo corrected, because like Hades was he ever going to let him live that one down. “And this isn’t Gaia, okay? It isn’t- I’m not in danger or anything. This is just me being my usual smoking self. Seriously, I’m good.”

Jason still didn’t seem entirely convinced. He glanced at Piper, who looked meaningfully back and gave him a nod in return. That was… slightly worrying. Them communicating in facial expressions was never a good sign. They might have been a terrible fit as a couple, but they’d still spent enough time together to develop some alien language that Leo couldn’t understand. Constantly being in life-or-death situations together apparently did wonders for your ability to silently communicate.

“I’ll make sure Leo doesn’t burn the forest down until you get back, don’t worry.”

Leo thought that was slightly unfair. Sure, his left shoulder was still on fire and currently refusing to go out, but he had managed to keep the fire from spreading after it had eaten his entire shirtsleeve. He’d probably manage to extinguish it completely the moment Jason and his stupid smile finally left the area.

Leo needed to get his shit together and make sure this didn’t become a regular occurrence. If he started to burst into flame every time Jason smiled at him… well, that would be somewhat inconvenient.

“Maybe check in with Reyna while you’re at it,” Leo tried, desperate to change the subject to something that wasn’t him or the fact that he was on fire. “Let her know Piper hasn’t been kidnapped before she sends out a search party.”

Now it was Piper’s turn to blush. Ah, sweet revenge.

“She’s not going to-” she started to protest, but Jason cut her off.

“She was a bit nervous about you not showing up for lunch, actually. She said something about your mom?” He shrugged. “Can’t really blame her for worrying about her girlfriend disappearing, after what happened with Hera.”

“I did tell her what I was going to do,” Piper said, face still burning. “I guess we lost track of time. I didn’t realize we’d missed lunch.”

“Breaking news!” Leo said, extending his arms outward like an overly dramatic TV host, careful to avoid brushing Piper with his burning shoulder. “Two ADHD kids have a shockingly bad sense of time! Also, water is wet! More details at six!”

That got them both laughing, and Leo laughed with them, having to focus really hard on keeping his fire situation under control. It was so easy to feel warm when he was with Jason and Piper. It was a feeling of home—something no place or person had been since his mom had passed away. His heart was all sparks.

“Let Reyna know I’m still hanging out with this dork for a while, yeah? No kidnappings scheduled for the day,” Piper joked. “Oh, and tell her I want a rematch for this morning.”

“I’m honestly afraid to ask, but noted.” Jason met Leo’s eyes again, smiling, and Leo smiled back, trying to calm the live wire feeling in his chest. “See you in a bit?”

“Only if you really do bring sandwiches.”

Jason laughed and gave a thumbs up before he disappeared between the trees, thankfully missing the way Leo’s entire left arm caught fire in a last nervous burst before the flames finally had the decency to flicker out. The live wire feeling stayed behind, and so did the extensive need to fidget, but at least that wasn’t a forest fire.

“Yeah, I really have no clue what gave me the idea that you might be into Jason,” Piper laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. “Gods, you are a complete disaster.”

“The universe is punishing me for giving you shit about Reyna, clearly.” Leo sighed dramatically. “I’m going to get you back for this.”

“You’re welcome.” Piper grinned, elbowing him. “You and Jason would be good together. I really do mean that. As long as you don’t accidentally set yourself on fire every time you try to flirt with him, at least.”

“I hate you.”

So maybe Leo did have a crush on Jason. Worse—and better—Piper actually thought he had a shot. The anxiety he felt about it being out in the open after he’d run from it for so long, the same way he always ran when things got hard, slowly gave way to relief. It might take a minute for him to process all the things he’d been feeling that were suddenly starting to slot into place in a way that actually made sense. But he was glad that, out of anyone, it was Piper who knew. Piper, who understood, even if she teased him relentlessly.

Piper, who was the first real friend Leo had made.

Fate was a funny thing—when it wasn’t actively trying to kill you, at least. Sure, fate was prophecies, and for some people, it was romance, doomed or otherwise. But sometimes, fate was looking at a girl in an old band shirt and faded jeans, and knowing, somehow, that you were meant to be friends.

———

Some notes:

This takes place in a universe where the whole Calypso/Ogygia stuff didn’t happen. The ending of BoO went down a little differently, which is obviously vaguely referenced here and which I’m hoping to eventually do a oneshot about (it’s been sitting in my app at around 2.5k continuously getting neglected in favor of the Orpheus Eurydice fic so we’ll see when I get around to that). Jason and Piper amicably broke up halfway through house of hades, which I do have a oneshot on my Ao3 about that I’ll probably post here eventually.

Yes, technically this fic is part two in a series of oneshots. Why didn’t I post part one first? Excellent question. The thing is, the oneshots are mostly standalone anyway (they obviously take place in the same universe and are loosely connected but aside from missing a joke or two, you’re fine to read them separately or in whatever order you want), and I have a couple more ideas for that universe that won’t be written or posted in order either, so I thought I’d start confusing you early on, lol

…in all seriousness, this is just the only HoO fic that I hadn’t already posted the link to here yet and since it was the first one I wrote, it also just felt appropriate for it to be the first I cross-post to tumblr.

Anyway! Would love to hear your thoughts on this if you have any (here or over on Ao3) and thoughts in general about whether or not you’d like me to keep posting my fics on tumblr. It’s been a long time since I last did that and putting all the italics back in was a little annoying, but it’s definitely doable.

Fun fact! I reread pjo and Heroes of Olympus specifically because I couldn’t afford to get into a new fixation during exam phase. Unfortunately, Leo Valdez whacked me in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and well, here we are. As you can all see, that plan did not go well for me, lmao

Tagging @poppitron360 very specifically since you said you wanted to be tagged if I ever posted any of my fics on tumblr!

[bugwolfsstuff]

Take a snippet of a halloween fic i'm working on

@smileyalater @unubinary @bodeyeen2132 @thel1ghtningthief

Leo Valdez's Pov First person

The meeting room of the Big House was in complete chaos and not of the fun kind when I walked in. No one even said hi to me. 

“What are we going to do?” I heard someone yell. “Miranda is dead!” 

Dios, I thought. Not something you want to hear when you walk in the room. Personally, I’d prefer it if every time I walked in everyone cheered and threw confetti. 

“No, she isn't you idiot! She’s in the infirmary!” Someone else yelled.  

I squeezed my way past a sleeping Clovis to my seat. Since I came back from, you know dying, my siblings made me head counsellor. So, it was up to me, Captain Valdez, supreme leader of Cabin nine to sit at the meeting table (which was really just a Ping-Pong table with foldable chairs around it) with the big kids and help solve the latest camp crisis. 

Whatever that crisis was. I’ve been in Bunker nine working on my latest project for the past...three maybe five days? 

I slid into my chair “Hey, what’d I miss?” I asked. Cabin nine and cabin ten were across from each other and their spots were the same. Which meant I was sitting across from my best girl best friend, Piper, who filled me in. 

“Someone got attacked” Piper said, crossing her arms “In the strawberry fields.” 

Piper was wearing her camp t-shirt. Her long brown hair was braided to the side, looking amazing as usual. Even she looked mildly freaked out, which wasn't a good look on her. I’m gonna change that. 

“Attacked?” I said, trying to lighten the mood, “what, did the strawberries go rouge and start going on a rampage?” 

Piper shot me her ‘not now Leo’ look. “If only, something snuck up on Miranda from Demeter and caught her by surprise. I don’t know the details, but it got her bad. Apparently, it disappeared into the plants somehow when it heard Sherman Yang coming.”.  

I knew Sherman. He’s an Ares kid, big muscley guy, has a big scar going down his face. Really bloodthirsty. Personally, I prefer his Roman big brother, my buddy Frank. I could see why the monster, whatever it was, ran; I'd run too if I heard him coming.  

My best guy best friend, Jason, leaned over. He’s a son of Jupiter, king of the gods. So while me and Piper were living it up, starting super cool clubs and making up secret handshakes next to each other. He was on the other side of the Ping Pong table with the other big three kids, who were only there half of the time. 

He looked serious. The small scar on his lip quivered 

[burgendee69]

Frankly, Argo II should not have been their mode of transport. Not only does it make transport boring and uniteresting (when before it drove the plot forward a lot) it makes a lot of sideplots feel unnecessary? like we have a mission dedicated to finding supplies and then we have more random subplots which don't contribute to the plot and prolong the length of the books and reduces the tension because in the end they go to their own luxury rooms and state of the art technology rooms in a fucking flying ship??

That's just the ship because this makes leo so OP like this is not a struggle for him and it diminishes him as a charater which only gets worse as he discovers Archimedes' sphere which in the end disconnects him from the other characters and the plot because he magically comes up with the solution and ends up with all the pieces in his hands without anyone else's help b the time Gaia's battle comes around.

I don't think this is a problem with just his charcater either- Piper's charmspeak is so powerful it defies all of Rick's previously established rules, Hazel gains control of the mist for no reason while neglecting her actual powers which fulfilled the same purpose and Frank found out how to shapeshift but it's barely used because he has barely any plot significance.

They all seemingly have powers which are somehow even more OP than the big three kids while nerfing Percy's powers, blatantly writing Annabeth out and literally knocking Jason out of every fight to give the other fighters their spotlight.

IMO, the root cuase for this was that he trapped 7 incredibly poweful teenagers together forcing them to face the exact same conditions and therefore had to take out the experienced fighters so that the rest of the 7 would be relevant again. This literally would not matter is he had thought to spread out the seven and idk not had everyone experience the same plot on an OP boat and spend the majority of their time doing nothing?

The seven can still be main characters without ALL of them being on the quest. Hell have Gaia manipulate Percy when he doesn't have memories and coerce him to her side before he remembers his life, have Annabeth struggle with the pressure of being a leader during wartime and athena's quest, make Grover the one who tries to gather allies, stick Frank in the middle of roman politics while he tries to make peace, send Hazel of a desperate search for Nico and there you go! Leo, Piper and Jason are stuck trying to make their way to Greece because there's they're the only hope and get them to form an alliance at the end of the House of Hades so it drives the desperation and tension high as they all rush to save the world. and for Christ's sake let Blood of Olympus be at least half battle so Gaia and her children can be trated as an actual threat?

[ramen8008]

Whenever the Romans and Greek come together/ Frank visits there's always whole thing of which team would he be on.

It'd be obvious if Percy would just let him be on the Ares/Mars team but he doesn't. In his words he's his "emotional support Canadian" or something.

One way or another Frank is on Percy's team

(It may also be because most of the other big three kids usually team up against Percy so he tries to get Hazel on his side too before Nico gets to her)

[unubinary]

I’m on way shit again thinking how Percy was aplenty a camp halfblood leader when he barely there, the newer campers would have just met him in the winter. He more a myth than person to the new camper.

Sure The older camper like and respect him that should not make the camps representative to the Romans, and correct me if I’m wrong but Percy was ostracized for being a big three kid. He didn’t get the average experience of the camp.

I remember a post about Percy is the emotional leader when he Bradley there. I don’t think Percy should have been switched with Jason. I think one of the Stoll brothers should have been, specifically Travis.

Travis would have been 17 in the tlo, he would happen the co-counselor to the Hermes cabin for 4 years and ben at camp gods knows how long (my headcanon is when he’s 7 and Connor 5). He knows and met with all camper. He is act like an older brother to everybody in camp.

just imagine Travis enter acting with the younger of the seven. their so inexperienced he would have made sure Hazel, Frank, Piper and, Leo could have switched between Greek and Roman fighting styles like water. And Leo didn’t have a weapon Travis would have made make something with to protect him.

Travis would have been great way to show the trauma and paranoia of the manhattan survivors if he has weapons on him, head to toe. Short sword, throwing knives, daggers. Have these on him as he slept, these aren’t riptide they don’t transform he sleep with them to be taken with them.

hero’s of Olympus would have been a great time to us characters other than Percy and Annabeth.

[grangranarchist]

how I would fix the heroes of olympus series

the great thing about having a blog with 0 followers is I can say whatever the hell I want

structural changes

make it take place at least five years after pjo. percy and annabeth are coming into their own as peacetime leaders, and serving as the adult mentors of a new generation of kids. did their time as child soldiers fuck them up? does perpetuating the system help?

cut the seven down to five. we love all these characters!! but oh my god the pov character bloat. you can still keep povs from outside the main questing party, but the sheer number of characters reduced the kinds of relationship development possible, and flattened outsiders in each scene to flanderized archetypes.

increase the span of time between each book. with each entry the book increased in size and compressed in time. battle of the labyrinth took like 200 pages to convey the same span of time as son, moa, hoh and boo combined. increasing time between books also gives riordan time to catch up to the present day, rather than keeping on a simpsons-style floating timeline where Percy turns 16 in 2009 but still isn't old enough to drink in 2024

character and relationship changes

increase the age gap between Thalia and Jason, or get rid of Jason altogether. I think he's neat but introducing him was kind of an asspull retcon. which is fine, thalias backstory wasn't explored that much, but it means he doesn't really exist on his own terms, he's just a counterpart to her or to percy.

remove Percy and annabeth from the main questing party. they did their time. I'm sure the publisher had a graph that showed books with Percy and annabeth sold much better than books without (as evidence by the fact that pjo keeps getting sequel series while Kane chronicles and Magnus Chase get left to collect dust) but it just feels forced. it also leads to power creep and scope creep.

pick one romance within between the younger characters. one. I vote piper and Leo bc I like them and they always get ignored by fandom. have hazel and frank be like, a buddy-cop duo or something. maaaaybe let Leo have a tragic romance with Calypso NOT as a consolation prize for being seventh wheel. solangelo is cute but also feels like a very cynical introduction of sweaterboy/nightmare archetypes into traditional media. and cut the Sammy valdez shit like why would that even be necessary for a love triangle? truly odd

story changes

split the party! the five questers are out trying to stop the threats of the big bad and coming up with creative and clever solutions that wouldn't be necessary with heavy-hitting big three kids doing most of it! I'm sorry but the "Percy and/or Jason hit the big monster with a sword until it stops moving" parts of the books were so fucking boring

political intrigue! Percy and annabeth have to deal with threats at home. the situation with the Romans is not a gordian knot Percy can just cut through! annabeth's weaponry is literally cloak-and-dagger! let the past come back to haunt them via their treatment of Reyna and how they make amends!

make Octavian an actual threat? like in the books he's just ~craazy~ comic relief who is somehow able to muster an army while also being widely disliked. at least show him as having motivations beyond like, anti-slavic prejudice

explore the actual Romans more? like in the pjo series I do not feel like the main flaw of the Greek gods' system is that they're too chill and loose. but in hoo we're told it is. so I propose it as more a conflict between one united expansionist empire, vs various warring factions that must put up a united front. maybe let Percy "this is Sparta" kick someone into a pit

give gaea actual motivations too? like idk it just felt like, "ohhh you beat my son again, and the giants were next after the first time, I'm evil and a woman" when like. make her the abusive mother of the world. make her mad about climate change. make her have any motivation, please, I beg you

give nico something to do!!! sir not-appearing-in-this-book istg. he's cagey and mysterious in son. he's trapped in a jar in moa. he gets to be involved in the plot of hoh yay! he gets sent on a sidequest in boo boooo

add supplemental materials! use the younger kids storylines to onboard young readers, and have rick keep writing those, bc he does write children's lit well. then have the Percy annabeth Reyna stuff serve as a darker more mature ya type deal and use it as a venue to introduce new writers to the riordan system and audience and each book can also be a backdoor pilot for their own series in this world . also THIS would be the space to tie in other pantheons, please

[multiverse-trio]

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Mae Vachon. Father of seven kids, and an immortal who can control reality! I'm also, uh, the "masked" vigilante known as the Coder. Please don't ask me to alter reality. I don't do that for others. I am, however, the Engineer of the Multiverse. ...Don't ask.

I'm Janus Yarrow-Vachon. God of Time and Life, and the reason you humans exist today. I'm... platonically married to Mae. I founded the Timeless Labs, if you were wondering.

Hi hi hi! I'm Mystic Yarrow! An alien from the edge of this universe! I'm the Captain of the Invincible II, so I'm kind of a big deal... Oh, and I'm dating both @mack-head-engineer's.

OOC: These are some of my favorite ocs, so I made them a little blog! I'm having fun with them. Hope you do, too!!

× CAST ×

Mae Vachon: An immortal human with reality bending, He/They/Void/It, 49 years old.

Janus Yarrow-Vachon: Biologist Time God, They/She, AGELESS(looks 42).

Mystic Yarrow: An inky black alien called an Eleukretis wearing a human skin suit, It/They, AGELESS(looks 30).

× TAGS ×

#reality is false - Mae's general tag.

#biology and time - Janus' general tag.

#that one fucked up alien - Mystic's general tag.

#hopes and fails - Everyone's angst tag.

#hopes and rises - Everyone's soft tag. Usually in a platonic use.

#crossed asks - The answering asks tag.

#oc roleplay - Normal tag to get seen.

× QUICK LORE FACTS ×

Mae and Janus are married with 7 kids. Those kids include: Edwin Vachon, FF Vachon, Pluto Vachon, Roman Vachon, Virgil Vachon, Jean Vachon, and Josuke Vachon.

Mystic is Janus' younger sibling through adoption.

Mystic was the Captain of the Invincible II in one universe, but has since retired with Mack.

Janus is the founder of Timeless Labs, and has been doing human experimentation since the 1300s.

Mae has worked under Kilgrave for some time, but has since gotten rid of him with Jessica Jones' help. Void can still hear him.

Janus is aroace. Mae is pansexual. The two made their children through lab growing processes as a compromise for Mae.

Mae often resides in the MCU branch of the multiverse, having been in a relationship with Kilgrave, Matt Murdock, Elektra, and more. He's kind of adopted by Frank, despite the fact that Mae and Frank are about the same age.

× RULES & REGULATION ×

NSFW is allowed! Just no heavily sexualized actions or super gorey stuff that the characters (or I, the owner) tell you is uncomfortable.

Heavy gore is super allowed for all three members!!

Failiure to comply results in being blocked, sorry.

No racist, transphobic, homophobic, or ableist shit here. I'm not gonna deal with your asses, and neither will any of the characters.

I suppose you can be rude to the members here, but why would you do that?

Have fun!