#Jason: *laughing* *picks up Leo and carries him away*

[echo-stimmingrose]

Leo: *says something stupid*

Jason: I'm leaving you for Percy.

Annabeth: Fine! Then I'm gonna make out with Piper!

Percy: Wtf just happened?

Leo: You lost one blond, gained another, and turned me into your NEMESIS!!!

[coquettemouse]

Leo picks up the small Barbie backpack, its fabric adorned with stickers along the sides. A brief smile crosses his face as he glances at his husband, who is gently tying Jimena's shoelaces. The little girl’s hair has been neatly combed away from her eyes, pink clips covering her head like a crown.

Valdez turns back around and grabs the door handle, pulling it open with a playful grin. "You guys better hurry up, or I’m going to lea—" His voice cuts off abruptly, the teasing tone disappearing as his smile fades. Something outside has caught his attention, and the shift in his demeanor is unmistakable. His grip on the door tightens, and for a moment, the lighthearted atmosphere shifts, leaving an unsettling silence in its place.

"Dear?" Jason calls out, pulling his daughter sleeves up as he frown, glancing briefly at his man "Leo? What's going on?"

Leo glances back at Jason and their daughter, his expression unreadable. He hesitates for a split second, then turns his gaze forward again. "Just a minute," he mutters, his voice unusually serious. Without waiting for a response, he steps outside and quietly pulls the door shut behind him.

Jimena's brow furrows in confusion as she looks up at her father, her small voice barely above a whisper. "Daddy, where's Papa going?" Jason, still crouched beside her, ties the final knot on her shoelace, his eyes lingering on the closed door, sensing that something is off. "Papa is taking care of something, don't worry" he mutter and smiles at her.

Leo lifts his chin, staring directly at the woman before him. Gods are always unmistakable, no matter the form they take. Her olive-brown skin glows under the faint light, while thick, wavy hair cascades down her back like the night itself. But it’s her eyes that stand out—rigid, unwavering, like polished obsidian. They don’t pull you in; they hold you in place, sharp and unyielding, radiating authority that leaves no room for defiance. Her expression is one of absolute control, the face of someone who doesn’t just rule the world but commands it with an iron will.

"Long time no see, Hera," Leo says, his voice firm, though the weight of her presence presses against him like a force of nature. "What do I owe your presence to?" The man continues, a subtle edge of sarcasm creeping into his voice. He stands tall, refusing to let her overpower him with her sheer presence.

"I want to see my granddaughter," Hera replies smoothly, her voice calm but laced with the unmistakable weight of a command.

Leo lets out a bitter laugh, one that echoes with years of tension. "Your granddaughter?" His eyes narrow, the irony deepening. "Funny, I don’t recall you ever caring about family unless it served your own purposes." The words hang heavy in the air, challenging, daring Hera to respond.

"What?" Hera's voice drops, her eyebrows knitting together in displeasure. "Watch the tone you use with me, child of Hephaestus." Her words carry the weight of her authority, each one a warning. "Regardless of what you think, she is still my granddaughter."

Leo’s smile is sarcastic, defiant. "She is not your granddaughter," he replies evenly, his eyes locked on hers. "Never was, and never will be." His words are deliberate, slicing through the air between them. He stands firm, unflinching, as the tension builds, a storm gathering between mortal and god.

"Get out of the way. I'm going to see her, whether you like it or not," Hera says with finality, lifting her chin in authority, her voice cutting through the tense silence like a blade.

Leo steps forward, his expression hardening, venom dripping from his words. "Not over my dead body." His voice is low, seething with anger. "And you'd better not let me find out that you’ve been near her. Or I'll become what Luke never could."

The air between them crackles with intensity, Leo's warning hanging in the air like a thunderclap. Despite standing before a goddess, his stance is unyielding, his threat unmistakably real.

Hera's face twists in disgust. "How did my little boy Jason marry a man like you?" she says, her voice dripping with disdain as she shakes her head. "You ruined him."

Leo tilts his head, his eyes wide. "Me? I ruined him, Hera?" His voice rises, thick with anger. "I'm not the lunatic who made him live a lie his whole life." He steps back, his gaze never leaving hers. "So, are you leaving, or do I need to make you?"

Hera laughs, a sharp, incredulous sound. "Who are you to challenge me, Valdez? I am the Queen of Olympus. Know your place."

Leo crosses his arms, his stance unyielding. "I did it to Gaea," he replies coolly, "so don’t think I won’t do it to you." He shrugs slightly. "I wouldn’t want to leave Jimena without a father, but I’m sure Jason would take excellent care of her. He is an wonderful man. But I don't think you would know about that"

Hera clicks her tongue, her nose wrinkling in disdain. "I’m not Gaea," she says, her voice carrying a cold edge.

Leo sighs, his expression unreadable. "No? Is that why you all were trembling when she showed up?" He places his hand on the cold doorknob, his grip firm and deliberate. "You know how easy it is to set a forest ablaze."

He turns around, and the space where Hera stood is now empty, her presence vanished like a wisp of smoke.

[nerdthatsiriuslylovesteaxx]

He's dead

"Hello, is this Sally Jackson?"

"Yeah, one of Percy's friends I'm guessing? I'll put him on the phone for you."

"Thank you."

"Hey...?"

"Hi.. it's Leo."

"WHERE THE FVCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!?"

"Language Percy! I don't want Estelle picking that up."

"Sorry mom."

"I forgot you didn't know I was back, I need to tell you something."

"Is everything okay? Is there another prophecy? I swear to the gods if there's anoth-"

"Are Annabeth and Grover with you?"

"No, Leo what's happening? You sound scared." Percy heard sobbing through the phone, "Take a deep breath, what's going on?"

"J-Jason... he- he.. fvcking sh!t- Jason's dead."

"No. No he can't be- but how? Why?!" Percy let out a scream of pain, breaking down into tears. "W- when..?"

"Two weeks ago, I told Piper I would tell you but I haven't been able to do it until now."

"Is she with you?"

"No, I'm alone."

"Where are you?"

"On some street in the middle of somewhere with no money, where I've been for two weeks."

"Are you in New York?"

"Yeah, somewhere in Manhattan."

"Describe it, you're coming over."

"Why...?"

"Just come, I don't think you should be alone right now." As he gave directions everything sunk in, Jason was dead. He would never fvcking see him again, never be able to laugh with him again, everything would never be the same again. He'd lost his bro, the one who'd always do dumb sh!t with him, the one he could talk to about anything but they'd always still be chill. He was gone.

Percy open the door with bloodshot eyes, tears still rolling down his face. Leo was a wreck, he looked as if he hadn't slept in a week, or eaten for that fact. He hugged him, they both half collapsed on each other, holding so tightly it was as if the other was about to disappear.

"Percy, is everything alright? Who's here? I heard crying what happ-" As the hug broke Sally caught sight of the small boy,

"Mom meet Leo, son of Hephaestus."

"Hello, you can stay here as long as you need I know demigod lives are hard. Go take a shower, I'll get you something to eat, if you want we can talk about what happened."

"Thank-k you." Leo whispered, unable to keep his voice from breaking.

"Percy, what's going on?"

"You remember how I told you about camp Jupiter... and..Jason?"

"Of course I do."

"He- he died.. I don't know what happened, I don't know why he even got involved but he's gone." Percy broke down, his mother's arms wrapped around him. "I don't know how I'm going to tell Annie."

"One step at a time, I know things are hard."

"HE WAS BARELY SIXTEEN!"

"I'm so sorry, you can't bring him back."

"But I could."

"Perc-"

"The gods ask for so much but they can't bring back a single person who died fighting for them!?"

"You know they're cruel,"

"I can't do this anymore."

"Leo, you feeling okay? Physically."

"I'm fine."

"Do you want to talk about Jason? I know he was your best friend, he was one of mine."

"He- he was my boyfriend, surprise." He didn't give him any time to answer before continuing but he could see the sympathy is his eyes. "Percy you've lost so many people, how do you keep going on? How do you carry on every day knowing you'll never see them again?"

"It's not easy, especially at the beginning. Somedays it's hard to go through wit somedays your fine, somedays you wish you could join them. They say time heals, that's not exactly true, but people help you heal, if people want to help, let them, even if you don't think it will. I know you want to run away, I know everything seems pointless but right now the worst thing is to be alone."

"I've lost my mum, I've lost Jason, who's next? I have no family that wants me, and my whole life's being controlled by the gods who don't give a shit about us."

"I probably shouldn't be saying this but... do you want a smoke? That's what I've been doing for the past few days, I know it's unhealthy but it... helps."

"Yeah, thanks Perce."

"Can I... show you something?"

"Yeah, you alright?" A tear fell from his eye,

"Ever since Jason- I just couldn't take it anymore... I... I need... some h-help, please." Leo rolled up his sleeves, his arms covered in burns; his breath was unsteady almost scared. "S-sorry." Percy pulled him into a hug,

"You don't have to apologise, I know it seems pointless to go on, I have scars to." Percy turned his forearm revealing pale scars all over his arms.

"But-t you're... you're... THE Percy Jackson, you've been on so many quests and you're so strong an-"

"That's what people thought, I still haven't forgiven myself for Bianca's death, or Beckendorf's or Luke's. But at some point you have to keep going on, you can't spend the rest of eternity grieving. Instead live for them, live to show their sacrifice made a difference because at the end of the day... you can't bring them back."

"How do you find the courage to try."

"You don't just wake up one day and suddenly be okay, it takes time, maybe your life won't be the exact same, but you have to keep living. I can't pretend I've gotten over Jason's death, I've been high a lot in these past few weeks... but I know at some point I'll have to move on."

"Thank you for everything Percy."

______________________

I wrote this a while ago and I thought I would post it because I'm taking forever to post the next Helpless part xx

[in7ernt-ju1ce]

Leo loved Jason.

He loved being in Jason’s arms, it made him feel safe and cozy. He loved the way Jason’s arms felt like they could lift up the whole world. He loved the way Jason carried him around, feeling weightless off the ground. He loved the way Jason’s legs would swing softly while he listened to Leo rant. He loved the way Jason’s lips brushed against his cheeks when he leaned over to rest his head on Leo’s should. Leo loved Jason’s softness as he scratched Leo behind the ears. He loved the way Jason kissed his forehead and his cheeks. He loved the way Jason’s face lit up when he saw Leo.

Leo loved Jason.

He loved the soft touch in the dark. The whisper and small glances. The way they would creep up to the roof and laugh. The way they fit together like puzzle pieces. Jason never judged Leo, a small smile alway on his lips. Leo loved Jason’s soft snores when they curled up in bed and Jason fell asleep first. The way Jason’s hand gently rubbed his stomach when he felt ill. His caring Jason.

Leo loved Jason.

When he opened his eyes, expecting Jason’s hand in his. Just to see Jason in front of him, holding Piper’s. He thought it was a sick joke. And it was really. His lesbian best friend and his lover together? He wanted to argue about all the memories they shared. But it scared Leo, he only remembered Jason and Piper getting together. When?

Leo did love Jason.

Even with his heart in pieces, Leo loved Jason. The small touches from Jason, even if they meant nothing anymore. The small smile. Leo knew how the scar on Jason’s lips felt against his own lips. Right? He felt as phantom shivers in his body. Then why can’t he remember it? He was half of his soul, as the poets say.

Leo loved Jason Calypso.

Her cinnamon-smelling caramel hair that was braided over one shoulder, electric blue dark almond-shaped eyes, and a face that appeared to be timeless. Her soft hands. He did love her… Her skin smooth, no imperfections, unlike Leo. No scars, no scratches. His fingers glided over her skin. Like she was a image from far away. Nothing to gasp onto, nothing to show that she had endured tragic times. A painting covered in a box of glass, sheltered away from the tragedy.

Leo didn’t love Calypso.

He loved Jason.

Jason’s cold hand contrasted him, a comfortable contrast. The world must fall to fire or storm. To fire it shall go, a storm avoided till it circles back. A crashing of lightning as fires spread, a constant contrast.

Leo wished Jason would love him back.

The memories of the sparks, they shared, haunting him like ghosts as Piper replaced his spot. Only after he had dead, and came back, did Leo know. Those memories weren’t so gone. After all, Hera had to use memories from somewhere to create such realistic memories. Right? The unfortunate soul who happened to be pick was Leo. In the end, Hera could never let her Champions to truly be happy. Could she?

Leo still loves Jason.

Jason will never get to say in back in their life time. Maybe when they met again?

In a castle on a hill, two boys laugh. One dressed in riches, the other in rags. But they do not care. The spend their days together, never leaving each others sides. A universe where they can be happy…

One of the boy’s eyes flutter open. "Name one hero who was happy." Silence filled the air. "You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.

"I can't."

"I know. They never let you be famous and happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."

"Tell me." He loved it when the other was like this.

"I'm going to be the first." He took their palm and held it to his. "Swear it.”

"Why me?"

"Because you're the reason. Swear it."

"I swear it.”

"I swear it," He echoed.

They sat frozen in the moment, hands touching.

[lafleshlumpeater]

: ̗̀➛ ꜱᴏ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏɴɪɢʜᴛ? — ˢᵉⁿᵈ ᵐᵉ ᵃ ᵖʳᵒᵐᵖᵗ, ᵃ ᵗʳᵒᵖᵉ, ᵃ ᶠᵃⁿᵈᵒᵐ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵃ ᵍᵉⁿᵈᵉʳ ᵖʳᵉᶠ ᵃⁿᵈ ⁱ'ˡˡ ʷʳⁱᵗᵉ ᵃ ᵇˡᵘʳᵇ ᶠᵒʳ ⁱᵗ!!

chaotic but smart with no regard for their own safety x sensible one who keeps them alive but also starts to loosen up being around them with jason grace<33

omg this was so fun to write xx

(also includes platonic leo x reader)

jason grace masterlist leo valdez masterlist

You watched eagerly as Leo scribbled a drawing of the contraption you two had been talking about inventing for the past two minutes.

"And, you may be wondering, where do the actual mechanisms go? Well, my friend, they go into a little box that you will carry on your back here," he grinned excitedly as he sketched the idea out on the stickman you.

You tutted at him. "Idiot, just make shoes for it- sneakers, and make the sole slightly thicker, and that's where they'll go. That way, the motion sensors will be more sensitive so there's no chance of it landing when we don't want it to, also there'll be no need for the Wii remote controllers to control the direction of where you fly," you nod. "And-" you snatch the pencil off of him and scrawl the ideas messily as they come to you; "-we add little wings, to make it look like Hermes' rad boots, add LED lights for flair, before we ask for a little help from the Hecate cabin for the wings to be able to set on fire- on command- without actually burning- oh, and so the whole thing doesn't overheat."

Leo looked at you in awe. "Oh my gods, and I thought I had the good ideas."

You merely grinned back at him in response, picking up the sketchpad and practically sprinting towards bunker nine, eager to make your thoughts come to life.

After a long three hours (you and Leo together were practically criminal masterminds- no one could decide whether it was a good thing or not), and a trip to the Hecate cabin who were more than happy to oblige, the sneakers were done.

Leo let out a low whistle. "Oh, man."

"I know, right," you squealed, quickly pulling them on. You tugged on the perfectly tied laces of both shoes at the same time, and you were instantly in the air. You laughed triumphantly, getting used to the feel of them as you twirled in circles mid- air, snapping your fingers and shrieking in delight as the Hermes wings set alight to a vibrant, multi- coloured fire.

"It worked!" you exclaimed, and Leo whooped and jumped up and down whilst cheering.

"Get down- let's use these for our original plan."

You sidled up to your boyfriend innocently, wearing the seemingly- normal yet very fashionable sneakers.

"Jason?"

"Hmm?" he hummed, looking up at you from where he was thumbing through a magazine Percy had lent him, before breaking out into his gorgeous, golden- retriever grin. "Hey, sweetheart."

His sweetness was almost enough to make you feel bad for what you were about to do next. Almost.

You grabbed his glasses from where they were resting on his nose, and before he could react, pulled the laces like you had done before as you were elevated into the air, holding the glasses over your head, laughing gleefully.

Jason gasped, scandalised. "Sweetheart! How- you-"

You smirked back mischievously. "Come get them then, Grace."

"Babe, get down- you- you're gonna-" he stuttered as you flew higher up.

His initial reaction was to be scared for your life, but after you waved his glasses in the air tantalisingly and swooped through the air comfortably, his fear grew into an indignant, teasing laughter.

"Oh, you're so on."

Using his powers, he flew into the air as you giggled and screamed happily, flying away from him. He quickly caught up to you, and just as his arms were about to engulf you in a strong embrace, you snapped your fingers.

He flinched back in shock at the dancing flames which engulfed the wings.

"Shoot!" he cursed good- naturedly, laughing loudly as he began to fly after you where you had left him metres behind.

Eventually, he caught up to you and clasped you to his chest, out of breath. "Got you." You giggled, tapping his nose fondly as you somewhat sheepishly placed his glasses on his face. "My bad."

He laughed and his chest rumbled.

"You're so cute," he observed, keeping both of you suspended in the air as your sneakers stopped working their powers, both of you catching your breaths.

You blushed and slapped his chest gently. "I love you."

"I love you more," he replied automatically, yet you know he meant every word. His lips met yours in a short, sweet kiss, only pulling away because you were both smiling too much to do so any longer. you let out an exhilarated, breathless giggle, as he looked at you with so much love in his cool, blue eyes that you could cry. Your hands found the other's, intertwining them, and you didn't think there was a thing you wanted more in the world than Percy yelling at you for being saps from the ground, Leo gagging in mock- disgust alongside him, and best of all, losing yourself in your lover's eyes as your lips met again.

READ: this account stands with palestine, and so— i require everyone who interacts to educate themselves, and support/donate. READ THESE; 1 and 2, HELP HERE, BOYCOTT. silence is complicity, do not scroll past this.

[via-rant]

"What do you mean he grows a year everyday?!?!" Annabeth yelled at Hebe who explained it. He also gets his memories back with each year that passes.

"Look, you insult a Goddess you get a punishment."

"Yeah! But you couldn't have kept him a baby?!?! We got everything we need already!! Plus protecting him and now we need to learn how to use the ship, and isn't this gonna fuck with his memories????"

"I'll do something about that last part later. But right now. This is your punishement. Bye!" She said disappearing as Piper glared at her.

》》 ---- ☆ ---- 《《

He put the binki in his mouth and tapped Bufords head. The now two year old was starting to look at things with curiosity. Hazel smiled a little and picked him up placing him on top of the table in a sitting position, holding onto the leash just in case. Burford started walking and Leo cooed in excitement.

Leo started laughing when Buford sped up and Hazel got nervous but realized he knew what he was doing. They hid in Leo's room because of the battle that was going on outside. They had to clean it the first day when they put the crib in it. It was a mess. Leo might be mad at where they put things but what else were they supposed to do?

The next day, at 3, he started taking things apart. The trash can, the floors, the railings. Annabeth almost had a heart attack when she found him almost over the edge. They were just trying to play hide and seak. He just laughed and she couldn't help but smile but promised to never leave him alone again.

They found out he had a lisp at age 4. His S's were TH's, his TH's were F's or D's, and his L's and R's were W's. It was adorable. He also met Festus who scared him so much he started crying. Jason realized his mistake and carried him away, apologizing to Festus. He thought he'd like him.

Though he had a weird interest with knives. He held one and stared at it like it was a threat that was going to attack him at any second. In all honesty, it's a knife and if he was being careless yeah so they assumed it was warranted. Until Jason gently took it away.

"Thowy. (Sorry.)"

"For what?"

"You'wre not mad at me?" Jason raised a brow.

"No, of course not. Why would we be?" He shrugged and continued making something with the legos.

》》 ---- ☆ ---- 《《

"I fink I wanna twy to be fwiendsth wif da dwagon." He told Frank at 5.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. He theemsth nithe (seems nice)." He said and Frank smiled holding out his hand. He walked him to the helm and Leo backed away a little, when he turned around.

"It's okay." Frank assured and Leo noded taking a breath. He walked forward hesitantly as he waited patiently. When he got close enough Festus nuzzled him and Leo laughed a little. He hugged his snout, realizing how comfy it was and relaxed. Frank smiled at how adorable this was. Then they started talking. And they did not stop talking. Though Festus warned them about a monster coming their way. Frank had to pick him up and go into his room again while Leo asked questions.

"Monthter?!?!"

"It's okay. We're professionals." Though he cried when he saw that Hazel was hurt. They reassured him she was fine, it was just a scratch. They just needed to make it better, like the ones he gets.

》》 ---- ☆ ---- 《《

The next two days were the same. He was in a cheery, happy mood, his lisp gone and excitedly telling them mom was happier since they got rid of his babysitter the morning he was 7.

"What babysitter?"

"Oh. Tìa Callida. Mamà says she's crazy. I mean, I guess trying to make me fight a snake was bad."

"She what?"

"Yeah. It was weird. She made me throw knives and catch them too. That's kind of why I'm scared of them. But she's gone now. And Mamàs happier, and I get to go to her work with her!! She says she's making something that'll change our lives too!!" He kept rambling on and on and they tried to listen but he talked so fast.

No one could say the same for the next day

[twoidiotwriters1]

Daughter of Olympus (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: Stressed out over the dumbest shit but hopefully I'll get my shit together this week -Danny Words: 3,325 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter / Next Chapter Listen to: 'Outsider' -by Blanco White

IX. I Handle It Like a Champ

Walter is so nervous when he asks me out that I don't have the heart to say no. It's a big deal for an Aphrodite to be someone's crush, like a milestone. Even if you don't like the person. Considering how out of place I've been feeling, this has me over the moon.

"Do you even know this guy?"

"We wouldn't be going on a date if I did," I shrug.

"That's not..." Percy looks at his mom. "That's not how it works, right?"

Sally chuckles. "Do you like him, Ara?"

"He's nice."

"Where is he taking you?"

"The mall that's five minutes away from the coffee shop where we got those raisin muffins," I'm not good with street names, so I always give directions like that.

Percy frowns. "You don't know the city."

"I never leave this place?"

"We always go out together!"

"We're always cutting things short because we run into monsters."

"Tell you what," Sally intervenes. "I'll drop her off on my way to work, and you pick her up, we can get burgers after."

Percy and I look at each other, I pout and he gives in. "I'll pick you up at five."

Someone's dragging her away from the factory, she inhales sharply and tries to regain her footing. "I'm up! I'm alive!" Ara coughs out. "Where's Jason?"

"Here," Piper grunts.

Ara moves out of Leo's grip, and since she's stronger than Piper, she grabs Jason and carries him as best as she can. "Can someone tell me why are we running?" She pants.

"The Cyclops are regenerating!"

Ara swears in ancient Greek. "I don't even get to kill a stupid Cyclops?"

They reach Festus and Ara pushes Jason up with Piper's help. She asks Leo for a plastic bag, grabs two fistfuls of snow, and puts them inside it. Ara climbs the dragon and faces Jason while Piper hugs the unconscious boy by the waist. Leo is wiring Festus as quickly as possible while Ara works on Jason's head injury. 

"Hang tight!" Leo yells.

Ara's back is pressed against Leo's, but she hooks her feet under Piper's legs just in case. The girl grabs her dino bag and seizes the bottle of nectar and a clean cloth, pouring the liquid on it and cleaning Jason's forehead, once again chanting under her breath.

The boy stirs in his sleep, but he doesn't wake up. Ara wraps his head in bandages, keeping the cloth pressed over the wound. Once that's done, she dries her hands on her own cloak and gives Piper the bag with ice. 

"Keep it on the bump, don't press too hard..." Ara leans on Leo and lets her head fall on his shoulder. "Thank the gods the children of Zeus have thick heads..."

I wait a whole hour before I conclude that this boy won't come. I wanna give him the benefit of the doubt, but then I see him with Karen and her friends at the arcade. I go away and call Percy—two hours earlier than he'd expected me to call—and he gets there in less than twenty minutes. 

"Where is he?" Is the first thing he asks. His face is kind of scary.

I shrug. "No idea. Can we leave now?"

Percy's eyes get darker. "That jerk didn't show up?"

I avoid his gaze, really hating the conversation. "He came with Karen—"

"Who's Karen?"

"I guess she's my bully..."

I have to force Percy to sit down because he's ready to go and beat Walter's infant butt, and tell Karen a thing or two about what he thinks of people like her.

"I realized something," I say after a while.

"That you shouldn't date boys?"

I laugh. "No. That Karen's sad girl. And Walter really dumb. Imagine her convincing Walter to play a prank on me, and then wasting their weekend to get me down, but it doesn't work."

"Darn right," he pauses. "But uh... why didn't it work?"

I shrug. "Karen never smiles unless she's making fun of someone."

"So... you have it better," he replies, understanding my point.

"Probably," I smile. "You get me."

"Are you sure you're okay, though?"

"Oh, I was doing him a favor," I roll my eyes. "He could've been the first boy in our grade to have a girlfriend... though maybe he will, he's been with Karen this whole time..."

"Karen is not as cool as you," Percy claims, although he's never met her. "He'll live to regret it."

I'm thinking I'm already living to regret this moment. Maybe what the other cabin ten campers said to me isn't true, I'm not supposed to date whoever crosses my path, I must wait for the real deal.

"Whatever. I'm hungry," I get up.

"Let's go for those burgers and surprise Mom," he replies, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and ruffling my hair.

Percy gave the stink eye to all of my classmates for the rest of the school year, Walter would constantly wet his clothes on accident when trying to drink from the school's water fountains, but Percy always denied having something to do with it.

"You know, Ara," Leo says. "I know I'm hella good-looking, but this is the first time I make a girl faint—"

She sits up straight. "It was the blessing, they knock me out as soon as I'm done using them."

"You mean it's happened before?"

Ara yawns. "Yeah, but Aphrodite's didn't drain me like this..."

Piper grins. "But you looked really cool while fighting that Cyclops lady, so it must've been worth it, right?"

"Don't flatter me, feed me!" She groans. "I'm still growing, you know?"

Leo chuckles and pulls something out of his belt. "Here you go, doll, the Hephaestus's special."

He hands her a sandwich and Ara eats it quickly, not even questioning where that thing was a minute ago. "You guys will get me killed." Piper looks uncomfortable with her joke, and Ara feels guilty right away. "I'm joking. I just—"

"Cyclops!" Jason wakes up with a start.

"Whoa, sleepyhead..." Piper tightens her grip around him.

"Good morning!" Ara fixes his bandages. "You've been in a coma for a week—"

"What!?" Jason chokes.

Leo cackles, but Piper scolds her. "Don't do that, he's disoriented!"

Ara grins sheepishly, looking like her ten-year-old self for a brief moment. "It's all good, man. You went away just a second."

"D-Detroit," Jason glances around. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo glances at him over Ara's shoulder. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

Jason tells them about his dreams. 

"An exchange?" Piper inquires. "What does that mean?"

The boy has half an idea. "Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way—" Ara's eyesight gets blurry again, and her throat closes up. "Ara?" Jason holds her in place. "What's wrong?"

If he's a Roman demigod that was sent to a Greek camp, then Percy... Ara looks up and shouts to the sky in ancient Greek: "AM I A JOKE TO YOU?" She grabs her dino bag and buries her face in it to muffle her screams.

Jason stares at her in alarm. "Guys, I think I broke Ara..."

The girl pulls herself together at lightspeed. She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. "It's fine. I'm great."

"You know something we don't," Piper presses. "Ara, just tell us..."

"Like you're telling us stuff?" She snaps.

Piper's face loses a bit of color. Ara immediately regrets it, she shouldn't be rude to them. She'll sob if she stays angry, so she closes her eyes and lifts a hand to prevent Piper from replying.

"We can't do anything to stop it."

"Stop what?" Jason asks. 

Ara scowls at the clouds. "The exchange. We have other problems. Monsters don't stay dead, the solstice is approaching, and we don't know where Hera is—or Juno, whatever the Hades you wanna call her."

Ara switches to Italian because it's the one language she knows that the others don't. "Stia succedendo tutto di nuovo! Tutto in un unico viaggio: qual è il prossimo? La chimera e il leone di Nemea?"

"Yeah, she's definitely broken," Leo glances at her with a frown. "Ara, why don't you go back to sleep?"

That only sets her off more. "So the memories can harass me in my sleep? Where were we, Hypnos? Right! My brother's a hero and I'm a worm!"

"Ara," Piper speaks firmly. "Calm down."

Ara stops. She's throwing a tantrum and it's not helping. The girl pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I'm sorry... I just... I should sleep."

"My back is all yours," Leo offers playfully.

"Can I give it back?"

"You're so rude," he says, though he sounds delighted to be back on the receiving end of her taunting.

"I'm very rude." She thinks grumpily. "Leave while you still can."

The first time I meet Apollo, he knocks my self-preservation out of the park. 

"Ara Jackson," he smiles brightly at me. "How's the new life going? You happy being New York's finest?"

"Do you have companions like your sister?" I blurt out, eyes wide in awe.

Apollo smirks. "Yeah, but mine are not, er... not maidens, exactly."

"What are they?"

He sighs dreamily. "Muses."

Apollo and Aphrodite share a few traits: Passion and a disposition to fall in love with just about anyone whom they may find impressive. 

"Can I be your muse?"

"Alright!" Percy pushes me into the bus.

Nico Di Angelo—one of the two demigods we rescued—and I are bouncing off the walls of the chariot bus. We're talking everyone's ears off to the point Apollo has to kindly ask us to chill so Thalia can hear his directions. We crash-land on camp anyway. 

"Goodbye, little muse," Apollo ruffles my hair, then pauses. He looks... eery.

"Lord Apollo?" I speak shyly.

He blinks like snapping out of a daydream. "I should get going..." He hesitates, then shakes his head. "Oh, whatever. See ya!"

Ara gets woken up the moment Festus lands. She stretches, feeling much better than a couple of hours ago. "Where are we?"

"Chicago," Jason jumps off the dragon and offers to help her. She moves his hand towards Piper and hops off landing next to him. "We're following some venti."

"I'll take a caramel latte," she mumbles sleepily.

Leo chuckles. "You know, I like you way better when your sense of humor's on. Is the quest helping you blow off some steam?"

Ara glances at him with a scowl. "Maybe. Fighting monsters helps—good thing they're not staying dead, I can kill them all I want."

She knows she shouldn't say that. Ara's the Fates's favorite fool, or maybe this is Apollo's twisted way of showing her support. Here are a bunch of traumatizing events for your soap opera! You're very welcome, muse!

Piper's ankle is hurting again, so Ara gets to work, but she's no healer. Piper shivers from the cold so Ara takes off her cloak and puts it around the girl's shoulders. 

"No, that's your stamp of power, isn't it?" The girl frowns.

"This is my stamp of power," Ara shows Piper her compass. "The cloak helps when there are demigods who need to know who's in charge, mostly just for show, but it's warm. Use it." She gestures at Nico's aviator jacket, pretty dirty, but still intact. "I'll survive."

Piper arranges the cloak around her shoulders, and it's obvious that she feels weird about it. Festus malfunctions briefly but Leo tells them the dragon is okay, he glances at Ara and there is no emotion apparent on his face, but the message is clear. Shut up. I got this.

Ara's good at turning a blind eye, living with Percy gave her enough practice.

Percy and Thalia go to relate our quest to Chiron and Mr. D—and I am, as usual, left behind.

Nico's watching the orientation film, which I'm pretty sure no one has seen in decades, and I'm left to do whatever I want, so I look for Lily. She's with the Stolls, they're trying to get a hold of her knives, but she forgets all about them as soon as she sees me.

"Benedetti gli dei!" The girl holds onto my shoulders. "How did it go?"

I tell her about Annabeth's disappearance, and I feel so guilty that I burst into tears. Travis and Connor drop Lily's daggers to join the conversation. "I-I'm sorry!" Between sobs, I manage to explain we have a new camper but his older sister joined the hunters.

Travis is in shock. "Who abandons their sibling like that?"

"Are the new kids okay?" Lily asks worryingly. Her behavior is weird, I just told her Annabeth is missing and she's asking me about the new kids?

I clean my nose with the back of my hand. "Percy saved us." Lily punches my shoulder and I start crying again. "Can't you tell I'm in pain already!"

"That's for not following orders!" She scolds me. "You snuck away the second you were left unsupervised!"

"But I'm okay!"

"If you had stuck together, then Annabeth—"

"Let's not go there," Connor intervenes.

"What's going on?" Beckendorf's voice only makes me cry louder. "What did you guys do?" He scolds my friends.

"We didn't do that!" Travis points at Lily. "It was Saggio!"

She stomps her foot impatiently. "Ara put herself in danger and she's having a meltdown over it! ¡Incosciente!"

Beckendorf kneels to be face-to-face with me. "Wanna go to the forges, Birdy?"

I sniff. "I'll bring my teddy." 

Ara's second time creeping into a sewer is not as fun as the first, she tells the others about her adventure with Percy and Annabeth recovering Hermes's staff.

Leo whistles lowly. "You are like a Barbie doll. Lots of jobs, looks..."

"My best friend calls me 'Queen Barbie'—Queen B, most of the time," Ara laughs dryly. "So you're not the first to bring up the resemblance..."

"May I interest you in a Ken?"

"Jason's not really my type," she replies.

The blond boy and Piper chortle, but Leo scoffs. "Was talking 'bout me..."

"You're not a Ken," Ara snorts. "You're like..." She hates bringing people down, but in this case, it's better if she does. "An elf on the shelf. You've seen those?"

"Jeez! Shoot me point blank in the head already..."

"Keep up the flirting and I might."

After Piper falls asleep, Ara studies her compass: The needle never points north, not that she would even know where the north is, the symbols on the object make no sense. Percy suggested once that maybe it points in the direction she needs to go, but it's always swinging from one side to another, not really settling on anything.

Jason's voice catches her attention. "This fire stuff you can do... is it true?"

"Yeah, well..." Leo makes a small ball of fire appear on his hand. Ara reaches out and keeps her hand hovering over the flames. When she does this, Leo's gaze softens.

"That is so cool," Jason says, reminding the boy he's not alone with Ara. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Leo closes his fist. "Didn't want to look like a freak."

"I have lightning and wind powers," Jason frowns. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs," he looks at Ara and grins. "Ara's like a jack in the box. You never know what she'll do next. Pretty spooky. No offense."

"None taken," she sighs.

"You're no more a freak than we are, Leo. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, 'Flame on!'"

"If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!'" He shakes his head. "Trust me, Hephaestus Cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."

"Maybe it's the other way around," Jason shrugs. "Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most. That's the reason why Ara's here, 'cause she has an advantage we don't."

She'd never thought of it that way, which is silly, because it makes sense. It doesn't have to be their fault, maybe they're the solution... like Percy was in his prophecy. 

Leo moves the empty paper plates away. "Maybe. But I'm telling you... it's not always a gift."

"You're talking about your mom, aren't you? The night she died." Leo remains silent, so Jason continues. "Leo, her death wasn't your fault. Whatever happened that night—it wasn't because you could summon fire. This Dirt Woman, whoever she is, has been trying to ruin you for years, mess up your confidence, take away everything you care about. She's trying to make you feel like a failure. You're not. You're important."

"That's what she said," Leo's voice comes out with so much hurt, Ara's heart tightens. "She said I was meant to do something important—something that would make or break that big prophecy about the seven demigods. That's what scares me. I don't know if I'm up to it."

Ara lets out a dry laugh. The boys look at her. "Sorry, I just... I never thought I wasn't good enough until I got my wish granted. It's like, you reach the top, everyone's staring, and—How am I supposed to act now?"

"And you can't admit that you're scared," Jason nods, he doesn't know why, but he relates to what she's saying. "Because—"

"You did that to yourself," Ara completes.

"No," Jason's eyes twinkle with understanding. "They make it look that way, so you don't quit."

"They?" Leo asks, lost in the conversation.

Ara words it differently so Leo understands what they mean. 

"You're given a bronze dragon, you know what's in it and how it works, you look after it, fix it to make it better... But sometimes it malfunctions, cause he was already kinda rusty when you got it—you didn't build it from scratch, but everyone acts like you did, they make you feel like it's your fault it's not perfect."

"Hmm," she can almost see the gears in Leo's head turning. "So we can't be good enough for ourselves... because we're carrying other people's mistakes? That what you're saying?"

"Guess so," Ara sighs. "Not only the mistakes, I mean, the children of Olympus have a legacy I gotta live up to, when I don't raise the bar, I'm doing a bad job. So like... thinking you're not up to it just because you haven't done anything different than other demigods before you, that's normal. It's good, motivates you."

"Is there a less awful way to be motivated?" Leo pouts.

Ara ponders this. "I guess you... keep tabs on your progress? You survived our encounter with the Cyclops, which gave you knowledge you didn't have two days ago. Just keep going, practice is what you do if what you want is experience. Your father told me I would be worthy of my power only after I got it, 'cause I would work hard to keep it..." Jason's looking at her funny. "What?"

"You're a good leader when you're not freaking out," he smiles. "Annabeth wasn't sure you'd be... I mean, I probably shouldn't tell you this—"

"It's fine, I've heard it before," Ara hugs her legs. "I get angry when I don't get what I want when I want it, but I'm working on it... No more freakouts starting today."

"I'm not sure you can promise—"

"I'm an Aphrodite, I can control myself," she brushes it off. "If I say I'll keep it together, I will. We're all confused here, that ought to keep me focused. Trust me."

"I trust you," Jason replies.

They stay silent for a moment, then Leo talks. "You ever wonder about the other three demigods? I mean... if we're four of the ones from the Great Prophecy, who are the others? Where are they?"

"I'm not one of you," Ara states confidently.

Jason frowns. "Why not?"

An expression of concern crosses her face before she replies."They wouldn't count me in knowing I'm forced to come."

"Okay, doesn't make sense to me, but let's say there are four demigods left," Leo rolls his eyes. "Where are they?"

"I don't know," Jason replies. "I guess the other four will show up when the time is right. Who knows? Maybe they're on some other quest right now."

 "I bet their sewer is nicer than ours," Leo grumbles.

"Percy and Annabeth will be two of them," Ara admits quietly.

"What makes you say that?"

"You can't have one without the other," she feels like crying again. "And one of them has already been taken."

Next Chapter ->

Taglist.

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[ducknotinarow]

[FF Don and Raph] Donatello is quiet as he approaches Raph, not saying a word. Yes, Don loved the future, seeing all the tech and life and knowing how things changed. But, it could never replace the people left behind. Usually, it was Raph that initiated this, but right now, Don needed it more than ever. When close enough, he turned, and pressed his shell against Raph's. The patterns of their shell were like puzzle pieces, meant to be locked together. Donatello could never explain it, but it always felt right, comforting, when they did this. Head bowed, Don murmured, sharing the sentiment they both feel,

"...I miss them too Raph."

| muse interaction

"I hate the fuckin' damn future!" Raphael yelled out. Early in the morning and already the red banded hot head of the team was in one if his all time famous moods. Kicking over what he assumed was a coffee table he didn't know even the future was werid. "Can' use the damn bathroom in leave, wrestlin' ruined! Wrestlin' one of the best sports!" That would been debated hard if. If Casey were here.

The steam behind his voice slowly started to fade out when the thought crossed his mind. Gritting his teeth he just pushed a chair over so it would tip back before he took off. No one was really paying him much attention, they were used to Raphael's out bursts after all. He just had a new thing to complain about, was all. What with them stuck in the future. Splinter, along with Leo, was excusing Raphael's behavior on his behavior, and Mikey was just ignored it long as it wasn't aimed his way. Mikey often didn't give attention to it all.

Raphael just stormed away from the living space, muttering under his breath. Raphael not even sure how he wound up getting into Cody's collection. Eyes falling on to the center piece where Casey's mask and golf bag were displayed out. His brow furrowed up, letting his feet carry him over towards it. So many memories and thoughts crossed over his mind simply staring at the thing. The times he joked about Casey looking like Jason. A lunatic running around in a hockey there was no better comparison to be made. The times Ariel smack her little hands to it making the two of them laugh, Summer running around wearing it. Slowly he moved to pick it up swallowing thickly as if he felt like he wasn't allowed to touch it. Hands shook just slightly it took a push to recall how to make his fingers work to curl around it and hold it in his hands.

"Case" He says to himself slow to lift it up letting a thumb stroke over the side of the mask. His heart dropped every time he held it, because he wouldn't be tossing it to Casey so they could put it on. An insult to follow after Casey either giving one back or restored to explain why he needed the mask. They would fall into their usual banter with each other as they climbed out the apartment window and took to either the streets or the rooftops. Expect, the apartment was gone now. A trip to the down town district that Cody offered hadn't been quite the fun experience they all thought when Raphael found that building was gone.

Moving to sit down on the floor he had no plans to leave the room now, it was the closet he got to being in that old longer and sought out for safe space Casey was for him. No matter how hollow and cold it felt. No stupid smile or soft blue eyed gaze fixed his way. No teasing laugh or smug cocky grins.

"Fuck" Raphael can feel tears welling up in his eye lowering Casey's mask as he drops his face into his hand. No Summer, coming around and complaining about them being gross and mushy. Squealing when they tag teamed her in a hug and gave her a kiss to her cheeks. Claiming she hated it but they both knew that was just a kid talking. Bedtimes being excused for hockey game nights as the three of them cheered and hollered called out the referee's for being clearly blind. All of it is gone! It's just gone like that apartment never stood there before. Along with every memory Raphael had in that apartment. Good and bad all just gone. Just like they were in a flash everything was taken from Raphael. Just gone for good. Nothing not a trace left. It had to do a lot with his current anger issues, he knew they needed to wait that they would go back home that they all wanted to go home even. Least he thinks that to be the case here.

Everyone else seemed to be taking to the change pretty easy, sure there were some benefits he had to admit it was nice to just walk around like nothing. Nice to not have to hide and do things they always just wished they could. Sure but, what was the point if everything that made home well home, wasn't all here? Raphael's gaze stayed fixed on to Casey's mask and he sweats their a physical pain in in chest so lost he didn't even noticed Donatello come into the room to join in. Not till he feels pressure on the back of his shell, he knew it well. The way Raph and Don's shells seemed to perfectly slide into place when ever they rest with their shells against each other. Raphael felt annoyed not comfort this time though as he look back over his shoulder trying to see Donatello better from this angle.

"What got sent on the make 'Raph chill out' chore?" Raphael goes to question. Donnie usually was the one who could get Raph to sort of chill out just being near his brother sometimes helped. Donatello was calming to be around why Raph grew this habit to rest his shell to their own. It was kind of working even now. Raphael just didn't want to be clam. As he was getting ready to pull away from Donatello. Raph felt he had every right to be upset shell Don should be upset! He also had his family taken from him! So why-

"...I miss them too Raph."

Oh.

Moving to settle back against his brothers shell Raphael let his head tip back. Till his head was resting to the back of Don's own, the tails of his mask fall over to rest over Don's shoulder as he just sitting and staring up at the large window. Looking at everything from thier past presented before him. A time forgotten. People no longer here nothing but junk to show they ever were around in the first place. "I broke my promise Don." He voice wavers just slightly, when he speaks up. "I said I neva do 'hat again. 'Hat I wouldn' leave." Donatello should know because Raphael made the same promise to them years ago. When he fucked everything up in his life for no reason or pay off even just him be so fucking stupid and selfish. Admitting to Don what had him so upset. Sure they didn't mean for this happen it was sudden a whole accident but still Raph did he left when he promise he never would again.

"I miss them" He voice letting his eye close as he just sighs and soaks in his brothers presence letting his weight shift back against them for a moment. Don felt the same hadn't he? it why he spoke those few words him self. He finally lets go of Casey mask letting it rest on the floor for now so he could reach back and pat Don's shoulder. Slightly letting up on their shell. It was a silent way for him to tell Don he was grateful for him being there at least. It have him a moment of clarity having his brother with him. Don always seemed able to cut through his anger and tantrums. Maybe it was the gentle caring soul Raphael knew his twin for that did it. But, he could also see it wasn't Don coming to help Raphael. Raphael knew if anyone should be upset like him it would be Donatello. They lost the same. His wife and his daughter. Raphael didn't hold a desire for that like Don had so it had to hurt them even more. Don, saw someone he could in a sense come to that wouldn't brush off how he was feeling.

"We'll get back to them, Donnie. I'll make sure ya get back to 'em." Raph was likely the least able to make that happen, of course. But it shouldn't demiss the promise he was giving to his brother. " 'hink bout it. Can tell Ari and Von all 'bout the different people living tagether. How we gotta walk out and about 'ike nothin' just 'ike anyone else." He tries to lighten his twins somber low mood. He swear he can nearly taste the bitterness coming off his twin brother from just how down Donnie was. Raphael never did like when Don felt down though.

He thought it was funny when they git annoyed, or angry heck loved when they grew sparky even. But not this.

"Tell Von all the nerdy stuff ya be jazzed over to. Fuck go an' tell that doe eye kid of yours that her grandpa is supposedly good now too." Raphael would never fully believe Bishop to be 'good' even if they had worked for the guy. Nah, he always be careful but. He sure Ariel would be happy. Soon turning to his side as he let his arms land heavily across Donatello's shoulders. Bring up his other arm around thier front as he tugged them over into a playful headlock. An excused hug.

"An' not ta mention tell 'em all 'bout all about the 'hings we learned ya gonna be part of and make happen." A slight squeeze given to tug Don more into the headlock. They would either have to deal with it or try and worm their way out of it. "Mister help build O'Neil tech, and even went and discovered some rock. Ain't even shocked ya named it after ya self, I knew there was always a hint of an ego in you." Raphael gose on to praise a bit trying to get Don out of his mood. Raphael could handle being down but didn't mean Don should have to feel bad to. "Not bad for a guy 'hat started out fightin' Dad in bed time so he could jus' sit around sigin' the little mermaid." Raphael chuckles a little as his teasing only contuines on.

It could be worse he thinks, could be alone. Least he had his brothers and father. But more so least he had Donnie here too.

[buoyantsaturn]

I’m all eyes (1/1)

summary: So, obviously, if Nico was wearing Jason’s sweatshirt, then they must be dating, right?

word count: 1,871

read on ao3

Will didn’t think he was the jealous type. Jealousy required some amount of anger, right? But he wasn’t angry - maybe just disappointed. And really, he didn’t even have all of the facts, so he shouldn’t let himself get worked up over it anyway. 

It’s just that, well. It sucked to always look over at the Big Three table to see Nico in that giant purple SPQR sweatshirt. Or, it didn’t suck - it was a good look, and purple was definitely Nico’s color, as much as Will would prefer to see him in camp orange. The part that sucked was that Jason was always sitting beside him, and that sweatshirt definitely looked like it was Jason’s size. 

So, obviously, if Nico was wearing Jason’s sweatshirt, then they must be dating, right? And on the one hand, it was exciting, because that meant Nico was into guys, which meant that Will might have a chance with him (and bonus points because he, too, was tall, blond, and blue-eyed). On the other hand, Nico was taken, and Will wasn’t a homewrecker (or whatever the fifteen year old version of a homewrecker was).

Anyway, Will had a lot of mixed feelings about seeing Nico in that sweatshirt. And he kept having those mixed feelings when he started to see more and more of Nico around camp. He would come by the archery range while Will was practicing with his shotgun (on his own target that he’d made specifically for shooting practice). He had started going to campfires (where he would pull the sweatshirt over his knees and turn himself into an adorable purple blob). He’d even started coming by the infirmary every few days so that Will could make sure he was keeping his fading in check (so, to be fair, Will had asked him to stop by occasionally, but that was for purely medical reasons).

On one particularly hot day in September, Nico entered the infirmary sans sweatshirt, and Will’s heart jumped in his chest. Sure, he’d seen Nico without that sweatshirt on a few times before, but he’d reacted the same way then, too. He tried to act normal, checking Nico’s solidity and making sure that his arms and legs still cast shadows, but the second Piper stepped into the infirmary, Will’s mind went blank.

She was wearing a giant purple SPQR sweatshirt, the one that looked just like Jason’s that Nico always wore. And hadn’t Jason and Piper been dating before they set off on the Argo II? 

“Is that Jason’s sweatshirt?” Will’s mouth asked before his brain could stop it.

Piper paused and glanced down, like she’d forgotten what she was wearing. “Oh, uh, yeah. Nyssa’s got the AC blasting in the bunker, so I snagged this from Jason’s cabin on the way here.”

“Oh.” Did that mean they were still dating? Or maybe they just had a really amicable breakup? Or...Nico, Jason, and Piper were all in some sort of polyamorous relationship? Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course, but the three of them together certainly made for an odd bunch. “Sorry, did you need help?” 

She shook her head. “Nah, just came to see what was holding Nico up. He’s been helping us try to track down Leo.” 

“Really?” Will asked, glancing at Nico in surprise. “That’s...nice of you.” 

Nico shrugged. “I’m just gonna make sure he stays dead this time.” 

Will grinned. “Ah. That’s more like it.” 

“So, am I good to go?” Nico asked. “I’d like to track Leo down before Thanatos does.” 

Will rolled his eyes fondly. “Yeah, go ahead. But as a bit of medical advice, murder might not be best for your mental health.” 

Nico scrunched up his nose. “I don’t think you have to worry about that.” 

“Sure, Death Boy,” Will said, brushing off his reply. It was probably a joke anyway. Right? “Get out of here already. I’ll see you later.” 

As Nico started toward the door, Piper threw an arm around him, which Nico immediately tried to shove off, albeit unsuccessfully. Once he was sure they were gone, and once Kayla returned from her snack break, Will snuck out the back entrance.

He went to the cave under Half Blood Hill, announcing himself as he pushed the curtain aside and walked in. He found Rachel the way he usually did, one bare foot holding a paintbrush as she worked on her current project. “Hey,” she greeted, not lifting her eyes from the canvas.

“Hey,” Will replied moments before flopping down face-first onto a pile of overstuffed pillows. He was pretty sure it was the space that Rachel pretended was her bed whenever she stayed the night at camp so that Chiron wouldn’t realize that she snuck into the Apollo cabin every night to sleep on one of the spare bunks. He’d gotten close with Rachel since the end of the Titan war, seeing as he was usually the one to catch her when she collapsed after giving a prophecy. It had helped them bond. Now Rachel felt like something of a sister, except Will’s only experience with siblings were his godly siblings, who always just felt like close friends. So, anyway, Rachel was somewhere between Will’s newest vaguely-related sister and a close friend. Which meant that they had a good enough relationship that they could sit in silence without it being awkward, which was how the next few minutes passed.

Then, Will lifted his face off of a pillow and glanced to the side, spotting a familiar shade of purple. He picked it up - an oversized SPQR sweatshirt. “Whose is this?” 

“Huh?” Rachel barely glanced away for a second before turning back to her easel. “Oh. That’s Nico’s. He must’ve left it here last night.” 

Will’s head snapped up. “Nico was here? Wait, you hang out with Nico?” 

Rachel shrugged. She leaned forward and pulled the brush out from between her toes, apparently deciding that Will had become too much of a distraction for the time being. “Yeah, we go way back. We both helped Percy and Annabeth with the Labyrinth, remember? And then after that he would check in on me sometimes to, like, make sure nobody came after me. It was kinda creepy at first, you know, because he just sort of appears out of nowhere sometimes? But as soon as I started feeding him, he opened his mouth and never really shut up, so the creepiness kinda faded.” 

Will smoothed a hand across the fabric. It was soft, and big enough that it would fit him easily. And Rachel said it was Nico’s, not Jason’s - not that it could be, since he’d just seen Piper wearing Jason’s about ten minutes ago. And if Rachel and Nico were friends, then she would know-- “So Nico’s not dating Jason?” 

Rachel blinked, clearly taken aback by the question, and then laughed. “No, definitely not.”

Will’s brain was moving too fast for him to process anything. “He-- I--” He scrambled to his feet and gathered the sweatshirt in his hands. “I gotta go!” 

“Uh, bye?” Rachel called after him as Will took off out of the cave. Piper had said that she was with Nyssa at Bunker Nine, so Will took off toward the woods. He was grateful for his long legs that carried him across camp so quickly, leaping over fallen branches and thankfully not tripping up on any roots. He found himself outside Bunker Nine in no time, and it wasn’t long before his eyes landed on Nico. He sprinted up to the other boy, hunching over for half a second to catch his breath before he said, “Can I talk to you?” 

Nico nodded, his eyes wide in obvious surprise at having Will suddenly appear in front of him. (Served him right for doing the same to everyone else for the last few years.) Will led him out of the bunker and away from listening ears, and then handed over the sweatshirt.

“Oh,” Nico said, sounding almost disappointed. “Um. Thanks.” 

“Rachel told me it was yours, so I...brought it,” Will told him. “I always thought-- I mean, I assumed-- You and Jason are just so close, and I figured--” 

“I don’t like Jason,” Nico said quickly, defensively, and his cheeks began to color. “Not… Not like that, I mean. He just got this for me because he was sick of me stealing his all the time.” 

“No, right, of course,” Will replied as his heart sank. “I mean-- Oh gods, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to assume you liked guys-- I never should’ve--” 

“I do,” Nico cut in, and Will’s mouth snapped shut. “I, um. I’m...gay.” 

“Oh. Oh! Cool! I mean, I am too! Or, uh, I’m bi, but, uh. I like guys, too.”

If Will’s arms weren’t frozen at his side, he probably would’ve smacked himself for babbling like a total idiot. But maybe it was worth it to see the way Nico’s cheeks continued to grow red.

“Cool,” Nico said softly, dropping his gaze to his shoes before rapidly looking around at anything that wasn’t Will. “Would you, um. Would you maybe be interested in sitting with me at the campfire tonight?” 

Will was pretty sure his soul had left his body, but he still managed to ask, “Like, as a date?” 

Nico scuffed the toe of his shoe against the dirt. “If… If you want.” 

“Yeah!” Will said quickly, and then, “That would be, um. Cool.” 

“Cool,” Nico repeated. He started fidgeting with the sweatshirt in his hands before he suddenly held it out to Will. “You should take this. It’ll probably be cold tonight, so…” 

Will barely managed to stop himself from saying, it’s okay, I have my own. Instead, he forced his hands out to take the sweatshirt back. “Cool.” Did he know any other word in the English language besides cool? “I’ll, um. See you tonight then.” 

Nico smiled, and Will’s heart soared. “Yeah. See you tonight.” 

When Will arrived at the campfire later, happily yet nervously showing off the SPQR laurels on his chest, he made his way straight to Nico, relieved to see that the other boy had shown up in just a t-shirt. 

“Hey,” Will said, smiling brightly as he sat down in the open space beside Nico. “You know, it might get cold this far from the fire. Maybe you should borrow this.” Will held out his own neatly folded orange camp hoodie, one with a large 7 on the back and a red cross on one sleeve - a sweatshirt that was unmistakably Will’s. 

Nico smiled down at the sweatshirt, and then up at Will like this was exactly what he’d been hoping for. “Okay,” he said as he took the sweatshirt and pulled it on over his head. 

“It might be a little big on you,” Will warned, but Nico only smiled brighter when his head popped out of the neck hole. 

“That’s okay,” Nico replied. Just the very tips of his fingers stuck out the ends of the sleeves, and Will got the sudden urge to hold Nico’s hand. Maybe he would try later, when Nico didn’t have all of his focus directed at Will. “That’s how I like it.” 

thanks for reading!!

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[bluegarners]

Dick realizes he’s forgetting his childhood. 

~oOo~

It hits him one day. It hits him hard.

In reality, it must have been a gradual thing. An overtime thing. A steady decline thing that he just didn’t notice, like rain on eroding rocks. Chipping, chipping, chipping away and weathering it down into pebbles. 

But when he stops to actually look around, takes a moment to really think, it hits Dick hard. The wind knocked out of him, train plowing into him, upper cut to the jaw, mind reeling hard. 

He can’t remember what his mom’s voice sounded like. 

He remembers the old song she used to hum to him, can still dredge up the melody if he really tries, but he can’t remember what she sounded like. He’s almost sure she had a beautiful voice. Almost sure it was breathy and lower in pitch because she was a proud woman that used her voice for authority and rule. Sometimes, if he sits down and thinks exceptionally hard, he thinks even his father might’ve sung with her too.

Oh. Another thing.

He can’t remember the name of the cologne his father used.

It was something spicy, Dick’s sure. Something spicy that smelled like a mix of all the worlds best fireplaces and cinnamon sticks. It was warm, Dick’s positive of it, but sometimes he catches a whiff of vanilla and his mind goes back to his father on Sunday evenings when they didn’t have a performance, so maybe the cologne wasn’t spicy and Dick is just forgetting and remembering it all wrong.

That’s terrifying. How can he forget something as unique and special as his own mother’s voice or his father’s scent? What kind of son forgets something so pertinent to their parents?

He’s read articles about trauma messing with memories. Something about stress hormones going into overdrive, infecting and plaguing the fear factor and hippocampus that the brain just doesn’t recall anything. But he’s also read articles that say trauma enhances memory, that the adrenaline is just so prolific that it literally encodes the events permanently into the hippocampus rather than erase. 

He’s even read articles that victims of childhood trauma lose their innocent past completely in a blink. That they may even believe the events never happened and it was all just a dream.

But Dick knows he had parents. He knows that his father was a happy man, outgoing to the fullest and in love with life. He knows his mother made delicious pancakes straight out of the box and that she always used real maple syrup instead of Log Cabin. He knows that they were all very close and his parents never made him feel ashamed for being clingy or wanting to sleep in their bed after a nightmare or seeking comfort after yet another failed trick or flip. 

Dick knows. He remembers. 

But sometimes the details get fuzzy. Was his baby blanket, the one he knows his long dead nana stitched for him, blue or gray? Were there two rooms or just a bed and a couch in their tiny trailer? Did Pop Haly boom or rumble with laughter? He knows these things happened. How else would he even know he had a blanket or a trailer or the comfort of loud laughter during even louder performances? 

But for all his remembrance, for all his recollection, he doesn’t know if it’s real. If what he thinks are memories are but fond daydreams substituted for the blank spaces. He doesn’t have many pictures, but he’s got so many posters from Haly’s Circus. Enough so that his father’s face will never be confused with some stranger’s on the street. Dick has stared at all the bright colors for hours on end, and he knows exactly what shade of green his mother’s eyes were. He could pick out their colors in a forest and still know it wouldn’t be as close to what his mother’s eyes were like.

He knows faces. He remembers faces. He doesn’t remember who they were though. Who these people were and what they sounded and smelled like. What stories they shared. What family lineage they held.

He doesn’t remember what routine they were doing that night. He thinks it was a daring one, one they hadn’t done many times before hand because they wanted to make a good impression in Gotham. They were only going to be there for a month, Dick remembers that, but he can’t remember why it was so important to impress. 

He was up next. His father had just flung his mother into the air, twirling and falling, and then his father had caught her by the ankles and they were swinging through the air as if they had grown wings and learnt how to fly.

He was up next. Only nine. Nervous but excited. There were so many people in the crowd, but he can only picture a massive blob. Bright lights. His mother’s face. Green eyes. His father’s strong shoulders. Cinnamon carrying in the wind.

He was up next. He would leap out, flip twice, and somersault his way into his mother’s awaiting grasp. Then, they would float and trade off holds with one another and Dick would be the one holding his mother’s ankles and he would be upside down as well and then-

He was up next. He was up next and he could see his mother’s bright smile beaming towards him, his father’s reassuring grip on the bar steady, and Dick was tensing to make the leap and then-

The line snapped.

Dick thinks his mother might’ve called out to him as they plummeted. Maybe a cry for help. A startled yell. A gasp. A shriek. Terror.

Dick likes to think he remembered her calling out his name.

He doesn’t know if what he does remember is true or not; if his parents’ bodies actually crumpled like wet paper or if they snapped like dry wood. He remembers their descent, but maybe not, because Graysons were known for flying but his parents fell like they had weights tied to their legs. Sound escaped him, smell too, and maybe that’s his problem. Maybe he just can’t remember important senses like sound and scent, but he does remember the way the sawdust turned black.

They had all worn their favorite leotards that night. Red, green, yellow, bright and happy. He doesn’t remember why it was so important to impress Gotham. It just stained their uniforms anyway. Stained their livelihood.

He doesn’t remember how long he stayed up there, gazing down down down at his parents. Broken and bloody. There was white mixed in with the red, and a little bit of purple here and there, bright splotches of blue and pink, and it’s funny that he remembers all that because their leotards only had three colors. 

He blanks on the rest. Just knows that Danny Poteet shoved his face into his shoulder as the crowd disappeared, the mass of blobs and blurry faces fading. Mister Poteet was a nice man. He can’t remember what Poteet did, what his act was in the circus, but he’s pretty sure he had a long beard. Was that important? Was that even his name? Dick doesn’t remember.

And it angers him to no end that he can remember the organs that split their way through his parents leos, can probably name them now that he’s older, but not what his mother said to him as she fell. Not what his dad smelled like. Not what Danny Poteet mumbled to him as red and blue lights filled the tent.

He’s forgetting. Did he ever remember?

He wants to tell stories of his childhood. So badly wants to regale his brothers of his days in the circus. He can tell them all the working secrets of how twenty clowns fit inside a car meant for a baby. How fire breathers drank oil without it ever touching their tongues. How the strong man was actually just a pillow lifter with down in his suit. How strong and fast and beautiful the Flying Graysons were on the trapeze. 

He can tell all those things because they were simple and everyday and honestly common knowledge (which also scares Dick because what if he only “remembers” these things because he looked them up one day and just pretended that he always knew it because that’s how he grew up, that is how he lived, but what if he’s wrong-). More than anything though, Dick wants to tell them about his parents.

About Mary and John Grayson and how they were the kindest and most amazing people Dick ever knew. But he can’t. Not without lying, and his parents hated liars (he hopes they did, please, he hopes he remembers at least one truthful thing that he hasn’t made up).

So when Tim looks at him like he’s lost his mind when he says, “I think my dad smelled spicy,” or when Jason laughs at him when Dick tries to tell him about this baby elephant that might’ve existed at some point or when Damian only sighs when he tries to recall a story with so many holes and fragments that it’s just incomprehensible, Dick feels like crying.

How can someone just forget a lifetime of memories? How can he just lose the only connections he has to his parents like it’s nothing? 

Posters only go so far. Faded and hazy dreams of a melody that won’t leave his throat only do so much. Wisps of vanilla and burnt wood only taper the feelings of loss ever so slightly.

It’s not enough. It’s not enough.

He’s forgotten. He’s forgotten.

[solangelover]

A Glowing Future

Submission by @satans-little-helper33

This piece takes place right after Nico’s final chapter at the end of Blood of Olympus.

Main Characters: Will Solace and Nico DiAngelo

Solangelo fluff

Nico’s encounter with Eros had cracked him wide open and left him feeling vulnerable and broken, forced to face his own reality and feelings, exposed in front of Jason; he was forced to share his darkest secret for a god’s amusement. Nico now knew he could trust Jason to keep it to himself, though, and he was beginning to realize that in order to crawl out of his self-constructed prison, his barriers first had to be torn down.

The feelings that had haunted him for so long—the shame, the fear, the denial—caused by the mentality of the 1940s he’d grown up in began to fade away. 

He was no longer that scared little boy who had been enraptured by the presence of a powerful demigod, and now that he had finally confessed his past feelings to Percy, Nico felt that he could finally move forward. 

Hades’s son made his way back down the hill to where Will was waiting for him, wearing scrubs,  jeans, and a crooked smile that made his heart skip a beat.

--------

“Sorry I didn’t come visit you in the infirmary,” Nico said, wearing the hint of a smile.

“It’s alright, I forgive you,” Will Solace said, his mouth set tight but laughter in his eyes, like he was trying to stay mad at Nico and failing.

“You wanted me to stay there--”

“For at least three days. Doctor’s orders.” Will started to lead Nico back toward the infirmary.

“Really, I’m Fine,” Nico began, but then his knees buckled and Will hoisted him back up.

“Uh huh. Right. Let’s get you to a bed.”

--------

Even after Coach Hedge’s nature magic/sports drink concoction, which had sustained Nico for a while, the arduous task of shadow-travelling the Athena Parthenos across the world had caught up with him again.

When Nico opened his eyes again, he was in the infirmary half sitting, half lying on a piece of furniture that was somewhere between a bed and a stretcher. 

“Welcome back to the world of the living,” a familiar voice intoned, “have some ambrosia.”

Will sat on a chair beside the bed; the room of the infirmary he was in was long and lined with similar bed-stretchers, separated by white curtains that shimmered in different colors when they were moved.

Several other beds were occupied with demigods sporting now-relatively-minor injuries left over from the battle with Gaia and the monster army: a daughter of Hecate 2 beds over was glaring at her leg in a cast as if she was insulted by the inconvenience.

Nico turned back to Will, and noticed that beside the bed there was a small table with a baggie of ambrosia squares on it. Nico reached out to pick one up but encountered a familiar problem: his fingers passed right through the baggie and ambrosia, as if he was becoming one with the shadows permanently. His hand appeared fuzzy around the edges, as if he was dissolving.

“Uhh, maybe if I try again--”

Will frowned, then sighed. “This is what happens when you overextend yourself. Here, let me help you.” He picked up a square and held it out to feed Nico.

Nico leaned back. “What are you doing?”

“No arguing. Open up.” Solace said, his tone making it clear that he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Will took none of Nico’s shit. That was one of the things Nico found most endearing and annoying about him; no matter how hard the son of Hades tried to push him away, Will simply refused to let him.

Nico took the ambrosia, and after a few moments they looked back at his hand, which seemed to be coming back into sharper focus.

“You had me worried there, diAngelo,” Will said, smiling, and briefly gripped his hand to check if it was now solid. Day of the Dead skeletons tapped out a jig in Nico’s chest.

“You were worried...about me?” Nico said, still wrapping his mind around the fact that Will had wanted a death demigod to visit him in the infirmary.

“Get some sleep.” he said, closing the ziplock bag.

“I’m not tired.” 

“Well you will be in a second. CLOVIS,” he called out. The calf-like son of Morpheus appeared around the corner and Will told him “we’ve got another stubborn one,” throwing a teasing smile Nico’s way.

Clovis yawned. “I’m all over it,” he said, and--despite Nico’s protests--touched his forehead. The son of Hades drifted off into a deep sleep.

----------------------------------

Nico awoke feeling more rested than he had in weeks. 

He quickly sat up, suddenly worried, because the last time he’d felt this rested, he’d been asleep for three days.

Nico stopped a passing Apollo healer. 

“How long have I been out??”

The healer scratched his chin, trying to estimate. “About 6 hours?” He walked off.

Will walked into the infirmary, arguing with a Demeter camper; something about herbs and supplies? He turned and spotted Nico.

“Well, good evening, sleepyhead! How was your nap? Feeling better?”

“I think 6 hours is slightly more than a nap.” Nico retorted.

“Well, count yourself lucky that Clovis has learned to control his powers better. A while ago he put a camper out for a week by accident.” Will made his way toward him. “Can you stand?”

“Um, let’s find out.” Nico swung his legs over the bed and got up. Aside from stumbling a little, he was feeling much better. Nico marvelled at the healing powers of sleep.

As if he read his mind, Will said, “Oh yeah, sleep has endless benefits.”

Nico twisted his skull ring. “Hey, I came in here at about noon, which means--”

 The conch horn signalling the dinner feast echoed across the valley. Will grinned. “I think that’s our cue.”

--------

The Half Blood campfire that night still carried with it an aura of elation spurred from disbelief, that they had won the battle against Gaia and made allies with the Romans, and a sort of desperation to feel alive brought about by all of those who had died in the process. Nico felt a pang for Leo, though he had a strange feeling that his death wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed.

Will sat by him at the bonfire, the Apollo cabin on his left and Nico on his right, leaving Nico unsure as to whether Will had sat next to him or his cabin. He chastised himself for hoping that it was the former.

The enchanted flames in the brazier blazed brightly with the energy of the campers, and Nico felt the warmth flare in his heart as he cast a glance at the son of Apollo, the light from the fire reflecting off of his blonde hair. 

--------

Nico lay in his bunk that night after the campfire, staring up at the ceiling of the Hades cabin that was inset with precious stones. He quickly realized that there was no way he was falling asleep any time soon, and he climbed out of bed. The whole room was drenched in liquid shadows, and despite his exhaustion after the journey shadow travelling with the Athena Parthenos, Nico stepped forward and became one with the darkness with ease.

  He melted from the shadow of a tree, finding himself by the lakeside at the edge of Camp Half-Blood. A full moon cast a pale glow on the night. Nico walked down to the sand and sat down; the silence was intoxicating, and Nico closed his eyes and listened to the gentle lapping of small waves against the shore. Suddenly he felt something nearby, heard the brush rustle, and wondered whether the cleaning harpies had come to eat him for being out past curfew. Nico drew his Stygian sword, which seemed to pull at the darkness like a magnet, and got ready to defend himself. What actually emerged from the brush was Will, who abruptly spotted Nico’s sword and laughed quietly. 

“Expecting a fight?”

Nico quickly sheathed his sword. “What are you doing out here?” He noticed for the first time that Will had something in his hands.

He held up two goblets. “Mind if I join you?”

Will was the only one at camp who was not blatantly wary of him; after several years as an outcast, the effect felt foreign.

Will sat down next to the son of Hades and spoke to one of the goblets--“Pomegranate juice”--and handed it to Nico as the cup filled with garnet liquid. 

“Are these--” Nico began.

“Glasses from the dining pavilion? Yeah. I snuck a couple out before dinner ended.” He wore his trademark mischievous smile. “I noticed you asked for pomegranate juice at dinner.” Nico felt his face grow warm as Will turned to his own cup and requested ginger beer. Soon the glass was filled with amber.

“It...reminds me of my mom.” Nico said quietly. “Not Persephone, ironically. When Bianca, my mom, and I...” his voice caught on Bianca’s name “when we lived in New Orleans, I was little, but I remember her giving us pomegranate juice on special occasions. It was a tough thing to find where we lived, so she would only have it on celebrations or...when my dad came to visit. I was just a baby when she was murdered.”

He stared down in silence at his drink.

“It wasn’t your fault, you know. Bianca, your mom, none of it,” Will said gently.

“I know,” Nico muttered, his voice nonetheless doubtful.

Will placed his hand on Nico’s, and he tensed, ready to pull away, but then instead turned his palm up to hold Will’s. 

Nico turned his head to look up at Will, his pale blue eyes shining in the moonlight, almost periwinkle, an indiscernible expression on his face.

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Will murmured, his gaze taking Nico in. Will looked into his dark eyes as if he could perceive all of him, good and bad, and was still enraptured by what he saw. 

Will reached out hesitantly, as if to touch Nico’s face, but stopped before, gaging his reaction, and when the son of Hades didn’t pull away, he brushed the ink-black hair out of his face.

Involuntarily, Nico’s eyes closed and his heart began to race. His life had, for years, been spent more with the dead than the living. No one had touched him tenderly for what felt like eons, not since Bianca, and only now did he realize how starved for physical affection he had been. Not just starved, he thought to himself, afraid of it… 

And in that moment he decided that he was not going to be afraid anymore.

  Will’s gaze moved from Nico’s eyes to his lips, and he leaned in carefully as if approaching a wild animal. Nico closed the distance, and as their lips met, his life bloomed before him like a chrysanthemum opening layer by layer. Suddenly Nico could see a future before him that wasn’t ruled by death and solitude. 

Unnoticed by either of them, a dead mouse at the edge of the forest was brought back to life and scampered off into the trees.

 - Alya

@satans-little-helper33

My writing blog: @from-story-to-screen

[firerose]

Dark Leo -Dark  seven au part2

@reading0mens Hope you enjoy it, I put a bit under read more because it’s kinda long XD

Leo‘s world is shattered after Jason‘s death

He knows it was a storm or fire

He knows that his cheating death caused the fates to take Jason away

At Jason‘s funereal he cries into Piper‘s shoulder

The boy that told him he was important, that made him believe he was worth something was gone

His sorrow makes him burst into flames and as Piper lets go he sinks over his friends grave

Things only got worse from there

He can‘t look at Calypso anymore

She was the reason he cheated death after all

He thinks about how she always complains about him, never truly helped him as Jason did

He goes back to Camp half-blood not caring that there is a battle coming for the Romans

He couldn‘t help them anyway

He locks himself in Bunker 9 building machines to distract himself from the cruel reality

Jason Grace was dead and he was alive

Calypso tries to get through to him but he yells at her that he regrets having saved her

He doesn‘t mean because of her of course but it is still her that he cheated death for

Calypso leaves in tears

Leo continues building and as his hands work on inventions his mind goes to Hera

Why didn‘t she save Jason?

He was her hero, wasn‘t he?

The bridge between greeks and Romans

So what kept her from saving him?

Anger begins to rage in him

Maybe Jason was just a tool for her

A weapon she could use and then forget

A scream breaks out of him and flames start floating over everything

He begins to despise the queen of Olympus just like he once hated Gea

At least Gea never acted like she wanted to protect them

He feels a desire to make Hera pay, to play with her just like she did with him

He knows that he can't take revenge on Hera all by himself Isn't there an emperor in new york

A plan starts to form in his head

Nyssa brings him the news

Camp Jupiter beat Caligula and Commodus now only Nero is left

The only change for Leo to take revenge on Hera

He leaves in the early morning

He is not nervous only strangely excited

Finding the emperor was not hard he could oversee the whole city on his metal dragon

„What do you want demigod?“, Nero asks coldly sitting on his throne arrogant as always

Leo only smiles darkly „I want to treat Hera just like she treated me and my friends.“

Nero has picked up many demigods from the streets but this one is special

He has an almost feral look in his eyes like he would be ready to burn the world

„And how exactly do plan to do that? Nero asks his voice full of curiosity

After hearing the plan Nero allows Leo to stay

He has a big room full of machines, engines automatons

Leo loves it

He builds robots small ones at first but his anger makes his talents grow

Somehow he manages to equip them with laser eyes ten arms that shoot fire canons, their fingers made of blades

He makes other inventions to ones that he prays to one day use on a certain goddess

A part of him is terrified of his work but another screams justice for Jason so he continues

Two weeks later Leo gives Hazel and Frank a surprise visit

They are happy to see him, they are his friends after all

Leo laughs with them, jokes as if everything was normal

One night he and Frank even mourn Jason together

When he feels real tears form in his eyes he is grateful for Franks hug

He can tell that Frank wants him to feel loved just like Jason once did

He is thankful and when Frank leaves his firewood feels heavy in Leo‘s hand

The next day horns are blowing, demigods scream in terror

A huge robot army is threatening to enter new Rome

The Legion is horrified but they swore to protect the city so they get ready for battle

None of them is showing their fear when they stand between the robots and their city

Reyna and Frank stand before their cohorts but Frank is not too worried

Those robots are made of metal and he sees in Hazel‘s smile that she knows this too

The daughter of Pluto raises her hand to save those she loves

But then a voice close to her speaks up coldly

„Hazel stop “, She almost did not recognize it

Leo stands a few feet away eyes gleaming darkly, Franks stick lays in his hand

Franks feels a cold dread in his stomach

„Leo…...what are you doing? Frank asks unable to hide his fear

Leo lets out a pained humourless laugh, I‘m destroying the god's ego by crashing their glorious temples.“ he explains and Hazel feels her heartbreak at his words

How is this the same boy who made her smile with his jokes

Reyna curses“ How dare you betray us? After Jason-“

Leo interrupts her with a mad shout

„That's exactly my point! Jason died because Hera for some reason refused to save him. We are all just puppets for the gods don‘t you see that!“I'm trying to save us from them but if you don‘t surrender now I will be forced to let you suffer for the god's crimes.“, Leo explains his tone almost hysteric

There is silence for a moment

The robots stand like dead status, new Rome's citizens glance towards them from behind the barrier, the roman soldiers are glaring at Leo

„Romans don‘t surrender.“, Frank finally responds his voice brave, his eyes full of pain

Leo smirks like he expected that answer

His whole body bursts into flame

Frank falls to the ground as his stick is swallowed by fire

Pain ignites in his heart, he hears Hazel‘s scream

He looks at his girlfriend a hand stretched towards her as if to hold her one last time

She stretches her hand towards him as well, her mouth moving as she sobs

A weak scream leaves his lips when a Robots blade impales her neck the blade coming out bloody at her throat

Her hand sinks, her body collapses into a puddle of her blood and Frank‘s world goes black

Leo stares at their unmoving bodies

The stick in his hands is now only ashes

He knows he should feel something

He should feel remorse

Instead, he just feels empty

The gods could have saved them but they didn‘t

If the gods would just be better he would not have done this

The gods are to blame not him

So he joins the massager

The demigods are fighting bravely but nothing prepared them to fight eight feet high machines

Blades are piercing through their bodies, the fire burns their flesh, dozens get trampled

Leo is in the middle of it all shooting fireballs burning everyone who gets too close

A fireball hits Reyna‘s hair and the Praetor is doomed to a firey cruel death

Soon the city falls, Terminus  barrier is not strong enough to hold the metal beasts off

New Romes citizens are slaughtered in their streets, their buildings, temples destroyed

Their screams ring in Leo‘s ears but he continues to fight

This is for Jason. This is for Jason

He keeps using this excuse even though a part of him tells him that Jason wouldn‘t have wanted this

When Leo the last screams finally have died new Rome is in ruins

On Olympus, the gods are raging

Their pride has never been attacked like this

Hera looks at Leo wandering through the dead city with worry

He was her hero once just like Jason but now he seems …..changed

Maybe somehow she could convince him to come back to her

She is his grandmother after all

So she goes down to him in the form of his old babysitter

Leo growls when he sees he sees her

„Now you decide to show up? After I slaughtered thousands of People? Wow you are a horrible patron goddess!“, He snarls

Hera looks at him in pity

„Leo I know you are angry but this is madness. Jasons death was in the hand of the fates and I couldn‘t do anything sometimes even we gods are powerless. Don‘t go down this road my hero it will only bring you to suffering.“ Hera warns but that only makes Leo more furious.

They are standing in the smouldering ruins of her city and yet all she can do is makeup excuses

„You ……..you are so arrogant Hera! First, you act like my protector, my babysitter for years and then you don‘t even save my mother, then you give me fake memories about my best friend and then when I‘m finally growing closer to him you watch him die too. I bet if I hadn‘t killed Frank today you would have done it! Jason Frank and I were just pawns whose lives you controlled and that you now don‘t need anymore!“, Leo yells his hands balled into fists.

Hera listens to her face showing guilty embarrassment

She is too lost in thought, that is why she sees the net that Leo throws over her too late

The strings are made of celestial bronze but when she tries to escape the net only grows tighter cutting into her skin

Leo smiles at her in amusement.

„I hope you enjoy your new home your high majesty., He mocks

Hera realized that this was all part of his plan

Destroying new Rome to get her attention, louring her here so he could capture her

„Let me go immediately demigod or my wrath-“. She is cut off when Leo gags her

He has enough to listen of listening to her

He just wants to visit Jason's grave one last time

Leo returns to Nero with his army and with Hera

She is carried by one of the Robots trapped in metal strings

Nero welcome Leo with open arms

This child is a blessing even better than Meg Mc Caffrey

He tells Leo that he wants to wait with his attack on the greeks

He wants the news about camp Jupiter to reach them first

Leo agrees and grins at Hera

The goddess tries to change from even her real one but the strings only golden

„They drain your godly essence. The emperors are no strangers to dark magic Hera. You won‘t get out of here unless I allow it.“, Leo mocks once he has taken her to his room

The image of Her lying helpless and restrained on the ground gives him chills of joy

He picks out a knife from his toolbelt, Heras's eyes widen

„Now let's see how you like being hurt without someone there to help.“ Leo muses and drives the blade into the goddess's arm.

He smiles at the golden blood and Heras agonized groan

He is going to have so much fun with her

Leo almost feels disappointed when Nero tells him that it‘s time for the attack

By now all demigods know what happened

Chiron evacuated Camp half-blood taking the younger Campers to safety

Nero knows it‘s only a matter of time until the rest disappears to

So Leo and the emperor fly to  Long island alone with Festus who hold Hera in his claws

The robots are deactivated until Leo's command, Nero wants to give his enemies hope of winning

A handful of Campers is already waiting for them at the top of Half-blood hill

Leo winces when he sees Percy and Nico

He had forgotten the people close to Frank and Hazel

„Surrender or face the same end as your roman friends!“, Nero demands

Percy spits to the ground

Nico gets out his sword his eyes piercing into Leo soul

„Do you think Jason still loves you after what you did Leo?“, Nico asks coldly

Leo‘s heart feels like it‘s torn apart

Nico‘s words are the truth in the back of his mind. The truth that his lust for revenge drowned out

Jason, sweet kind Jason would never love someone who killed his friends

Leo feels panic, he has to move forward he has to distract himself from his thoughts

„Let that be my concern.“, Leo spats and drops Hera to the ground

Her body is covered in deep cuts, golden blood covers the strings

The attack begins

Leo decides to take out Percy first

He shoots fire but Percy uses the lake to his advantage

Water and fire clash together in the air squishing as they meet

Leo gets more furious

He creates big flames that lit the threes next to Percy on fire, tiny flames to grasp Percy‘s hair

Percy seems to be prepared for everything

He protects himself with shields of water and creates tentacles in an attempt to drag Leo to the ground

Their fight is hard, full of hatred and so none of them notices Nico‘s fight against Nero

Until the emperor screams while he's being sucked into the earth

Neros household, all young brainwashed demigods panic and run

Leo yells in frustration

Why did he choose such bad allies?

Nico collapses from the uses of his underworld powers, the grass around him black

Leo wants to take his chance and flames flicker from his hand#

But then a big hand of water grabs him and lifts him off his dragon

Leo is taken by surprise but soon blind rage follows

„Now!“, He hears Percx yell and when he turns his head he sees Annabeth cutting Heras net with Nico‘s stygian sword

Desperation and fear will Leo

„No please!“, He Beggs but Percy drops him on the ground without mercy

Hera although wounded immediately grows to full size her eyes blazing with fury

„I WARNED YOU MY HERO NOW FACE THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS.“Hera yells her form glowing

„No wait!“, Percy says his eyes widened in shock

Leo knows what is coming, he has seen it once before

Tears of sorrow, of fear, of anger stream down his cheeks

He wonders if Hades will let him see Jason again after he murdered his daughter

In a last attempt to turn his fate he reaches for his toolbelt

But then he stops

How can he destroy the greeks after they took him in after they tried to make him belong somewhere?

His thoughts wander to Piper and his heart is split by deep guilt

Leo Valdez opens his eyes and stares right into the godly flames that even he can‘t survive

His last thought is a prayer of forgiveness to all he has killed in his path for revenge

Leo is buried at Camp half-blood

There are a lot of discussions about it but no one can think of a better place

Hera assures the Campers that in a few years there will be new roman demigods

This does not help the losses though

Percy and Annabeth spend many nights crying with each other about their lost friends, their lost future

Will has to hold Nico for countless nights too, Has to remind him that he always will be there for him

Apollo becomes a god again

And in California Piper Mclean cries out her prayers to the gods

She prays for them to free her out of these new fake mist reality

She prays for them to let her wake up in a world where her best friends are still alive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honestly I wished Hoo went more into the fact that frank Jasons and Leos lives were all controlled by Hera! That would have been such an interesting dynamic!

[kelyon]

Golden Rings 23: A Hat

The Storybrooke sequel to Golden Cuffs

Jefferson tries to get help

Read on AO3

Inside a cramped little cottage in a cramped little town in the mountains of a flat planet that flies through space on the back of four elephants on top of a turtle, he is having dinner with his family. 

Technically, they are Leo’s family, but technicalities have never troubled him. These people have welcomed him into their lives. This smoke-filled, boisterous cottage is more home to him than the solemn rock quarry where Jefferson spent the first few miserable decades of his life. 

The meal is mostly over, but everyone lingers over pudding and conversation and beer. A few of his sisters-in-law have gathered up the dishes and are headed back to the kitchen for the washing up.

His daughter sits on his lap. She is almost too big for the gesture and maybe that’s why she wants it so much. It’s certainly why he lets her do it. How much longer will he have with his little girl? Even if they have escaped from the Queen’s curse, they cannot escape time. There will only be a few more years before Grace is more a woman than a baby. She’ll be as pretty as her mother, and just as smart, winding her way through the hearts of everyone who meets her.

But for now, his girl sits on his lap and listens to her family. Beside him, Leo squeezes his arm. 

She leans into him. “No matter where we go, it’s never better than being home.”   

He smiles at her, his wife, his life. Her face is ruddy from drink and smoke. Her blonde hair curls in the heat, teasing wisps escape from her bun. Her plump curves fill out her dress like bursting sausage. She has a shine of bacon grease around her mouth and a touch of beer foam on the tip of her nose. In all the lands in all the worlds, he has never seen anyone more beautiful. 

Somewhere down the table, a baby cries. One of his many sisters-in-law is trying to soothe one of Grace’s many cousins, without much success. The infant has been fussing all night, and now the poor thing’s wails have drowned out the riotous conversation.

“‘Ere now!” Leona’s mother calls down from the head of the table. “Are you going to help that poor babby or do I ‘ave to?”

His sister-in-law--a washed out, nervous looking woman whose name no one can remember--looks gratefully up at Nanny Ogg. “Can you?”

Nanny Ogg snorts. This grande dame--which she translates as “big woman”--is the matriarch of the Ogg clan and the second-most powerful witch in the Ramptops Mountains, though she doesn’t try as hard. She’s had five husbands (and married three of them), fifteen children, and more grandchildren and great-grandchildren than anyone in Lancre can count. 

The baby is passed from hand to hand down the table, squalling all the way. When it finally gets to the head of the table, it is placed into the very solid arms of a round old woman dressed in black. She has a pipe, a pint, and a black pointy hat. (There’s nothing magic about a pointy hat, except that it says that the person underneath it is a witch.) She also has lively dark eyes--like Leo’s, like Grace’s--and the widest grin most people have ever seen.

The current occupant of the old woman’s lap is a mangy ball of fur and claws named Greebo. Though known to pick fights with bears (and not lose), he’s nothing but an old softy to Nanny Ogg. Still, the cat is smart enough to know that he is always second place to any child. As soon as the baby is in the witch’s arms, he scampers out of the way.

Jefferson’s life would have been hell if Nanny Ogg hadn’t given him her approval to marry Leo. They would have married anyway--Leo wouldn’t have let anything stop them--but coming home like this would have been… difficult. There are a dozen tiny ways an Ogg can tell you they don’t like you--and a hundred large and painful ones. But Nanny Ogg’s welcoming nature--and Jefferson’s endless potential to bring her presents from far-off lands--had ensured that they were welcome any time. 

Within a minute of entering Nanny Ogg’s embrace, the screaming baby quiets. Within another minute, it sleeps peacefully, despite the raucous conversation around the table. 

Perched on his knees, Grace looks curious. “Was that magic, Gran?”

“Coo-ee, no, my duck!” Nanny Ogg chuckles. “The day I needs magic to calm a babe is the day you lot can put me in the ground!”

“But you did it so fast!” Grace persists. 

“Coz I been doing it so long,” Nanny Ogg explains. “Ever since your Uncle Jason was a wee thing! There’s a knack to it, but it ain’t magic.”

Grace ponders this for a moment. Children are allowed to speak freely around Nanny Ogg’s table--provided they keep the conversation interesting. “Papa knows a man who does magic.”

Jefferson thinks about explaining, but clearly this is a private conversation.

Nanny Ogg nods sagely. “I imagine your dad knows all kinds of people, the work he does.”

“He was a funny little man,” Grace says. “He has a funny voice and he’s all green.”

“Takes all sorts, luv. We can’t help the way we’re made.”

“He gave me a yellow dress, to match Mama’s pink one. He pulled it out of the air! We were there for--why were we there, Papa?”

“A wedding,” Jefferson answers. “The Dark One and Belle wanted us to be there for their wedding.”

“It was a lovely day,” Leo smiles at him while stroking their daughter’s hair. “Do you remember dancing in that big ballroom, Grace? Remember how he made the instruments play themselves?”

Nanny Ogg snorts. “Sounds like a show-off, if you ask me.”

“Oh he is,” Jefferson agrees. “I don’t know if you’d like him, and Mistress Weatherwax would hate him.”

“Well, there’s not many I don’t like, and there’s not many Esme Weatherwax don’t hate, at least at first.” 

They laugh at that, as they laugh at everything. The conversation moves on to other topics. Later the lot of them move away from the table and into the parlor. Around a fire and more beer, Nanny Ogg brings out her banjo, but the evening still manages to end happily. 

He puts Grace to bed in a room with her cousins, a group of girls near her age. He kisses her and makes sure she has her stuffed rabbit. Then he goes up to the bedroom where Leo is waiting.

His wife is a dream, all satiny pink. All soft and warm and round. Like a sunset cloud with grasping arms. Like candy floss with a libido. She is everything. All the happiness he has now is because of her. This family, this life, their daughter. Everything in his past led to her, everything in the present comes from her, everything in the future will be theirs together. 

They make love, full of food and clumsy with drink. Their lips are loose and sloppy. They giggle and try to stay quiet in this crowded house. Their hands know their bodies. They know how to pleasure each other. They know. They feel. They love. They delight in each other and fall asleep in each other’s arms.

When Jefferson wakes up, everything is gone. 

****

For the ten thousand, three hundred ninetieth time, Jefferson woke up alone. In a giant, empty bed, inside a giant, empty house. He woke up, like he always did, with a gnawing ache in his chest and a burning desire for nothing more than to go back to sleep. Back to his dream. His best dreams were always about them. Leo. Grace. Home.

Sitting up in bed, Jefferson covered his face with his hands and let a dry sob rack through him. Tears would come later. First sob of the morning was always dry.

“Morning” was not the right word. It was a gray spring afternoon, more or less identical to every other gray afternoon he’d woken up in since he was brought over to this world. Over the years--over so many years--he had gotten in the habit of starting his day when most people in Storybrooke began to end theirs. The only reason he woke up at all was to get a chance to see his daughter walk home from school. 

The telescope was in the office, what he tended to think of as the hat room. This side of the massive house faced Main Street. He could see quite a lot--the diner, the Sheriff’s Station, a few important houses. And he had learned quite a lot, just by looking at all these people living their lives. 

Nothing changed in Storybrooke. Children didn’t get older. The old and sick never died. People worked the same jobs no matter how much they hated them. There was a girl he saw walking to and from the diner who had been nine months pregnant for twenty-eight years. Everyone was miserable, alone and unloved in one way or another, but they all carried on with what they thought were their lives. 

Until the day a yellow bug drove into town. 

Looking through the telescope, Jefferson trained his eyes on a lime green winter coat. The coat was bouncing over the shoulders of a young girl as she hopped, skipped and jumped her way around the sidewalk. His throat tightened, as it did every time he saw her. In the lens of the telescope, she looked close enough to reach out and touch. 

Grace was walking with another girl--Jefferson didn’t know her name. She was poor, from Old Town. Her father was gone and her mother worked long hours for low pay. Girls like that didn’t get their accomplishments written up about in the newspaper the way Grace did every time she won the Science Fair. Until a few months ago, Grace had never spoken to this girl. Both of them had walked the same path from the school to the abandoned library, twenty feet apart, every day for twenty-eight years, without ever interacting with each other.

Until the day Sheriff Swan started a youth outreach campaign, and made a point to talk about how much safer kids were if they used the buddy system when they didn’t have an adult around.

Then Grace had looked up from her routine, and she had seen the other girl looking back. Both of them needed someone to walk with. Both of them were looking for a friend. Both of them found one. It was a little thing, but it was a change.

He watched them walk from the library to the house in New Town where Tim and Mia Lewis lived. The people Grace thought were her parents. Every once in a while, they ran an ad in the Storybrooke Daily Mirror--all three of them with big smiles, the adults offering their services in insurance and real estate. 

The lights were off inside the house, so he couldn’t see into the kitchen. He couldn’t see what healthy snacks Mia had made for the girls today. He couldn’t see what game they played to unwind for a bit before Mia made sure they both started their homework. A few hours later, the other girl’s mother would stop by after her shift at Granny’s. He never knew if she thanked Mia for watching her daughter. Maybe it was just understood. Maybe Mia said she was just doing what Sheriff Swan advised, watching out for children who might otherwise get into trouble, being alone and unsupervised.

Once Grace was out of his sight, Jefferson moved the telescope to look around town. Not too many changes today. Archie Hopper was walking his dalmatian. Marco the handyman was making another trip to the hardware store. The stranger on the motorcycle idled outside Marine Automotive; he seemed to be watching Marco. Mrs. Gold was strutting away from the pawn shop with her head held high.

 He watched her, this woman who used to be Belle. It looked like she was going towards City Hall. Curious. Was she applying for a permit? Was there some licence she needed to renew? His fingers itched to pick up the phone and call the Dark One about what he had seen. He was the only other human being in town, the only person who knew the truth about anything. It was just the Dark One, Jefferson, and Queen Regina. 

But he couldn’t bother him too much. They couldn’t raise any more suspicion than they already had with their one secret meeting in the woods. The Dark One was still trying to maintain his cover as “Mr. Gold.” Besides, what difference could it make that Belle was running an errand to City Hall?

With a sigh, Jefferson moved away from the telescope. He’d been awake for more than an hour, it was time to put on pants. 

In no time at all, he had showered, dressed, and chugged down a protein shake. Most days, it was hard for him to summon up the will to cook or eat. He kept his body going with prepackaged meal replacements. They tasted like crap, but at least he didn’t have to think about them. He left cooking for people who thought they had something to live for. 

He made his way to the front doors. The house had a wide driveway that ran under a large overhang. Whenever visitors came, they could disembark from the vehicles and go into the house without the hazards of rain or snow. 

If he ever had visitors.

At the moment, and for the past twenty-eight years, all he had was the most recent copy of the Storybrooke Daily Mirror. It wasn’t a bastion of hard-hitting journalism, but for a long time it had been the only way he could know anything about the town he spent so much time looking at. The newspaper had given him names to put to the faces--Mayor Mills, Mr. Gold, Sheriff Humbert, and later Sheriff Swan. It had been a lifeline, and he still clung to it. For nearly three decades, the dates on the front page had been the only changes he had seen anywhere in this town. 

Today’s date was April 2nd, 2012. The headline was about the continued search for a missing person. Kathryn Nolan, a paralegal working at the firm of Duke & Duke, had been missing for more than a month. There had been sightings of a woman matching her description in various parts of Storybrooke, but by the time the police arrived, all traces of her had gone. Sheriff Swan encouraged anyone with any information regarding Mrs. Nolan’s whereabouts to call the station.

On the next page, there was an editorial decrying the lack of effort put forth by Kathryn’s husband, David Nolan, to aid in the search. Sydney Glass stopped just short of outright accusing Mr. Nolan of gross negligence or foul play. He only noted the amount of time Mr. Nolan spent with the schoolteacher, Miss Blanchard. The article concluded with speculation that perhaps Mrs. Nolan was not missing at all, but had run away from a terminally unhappy home.      

After finishing the paper, he put it away in the office closet and went back to the telescope. The lights were on in the house where Grace lived. The other girl had been picked up. Tim Lewis was home from work. The three of them were making dinner together. Mia was stirring a pot of chili and Tim was taking a bag of corn out of the freezer.

“She doesn’t like corn, guys,” Jefferson muttered to himself. “She won’t eat the chili if you put corn in it. You’ve been taking care of her for twenty-eight years and you’ve never figured that out.”

He shook his head and looked away. Sometimes it was maddening to watch the town like this, to see these people make the same mistakes, over and over. Emma Swan had made some changes, but there were still so many ways to be unhappy.

He watched dinner in the Lewis household. He watched Grace carefully pick out all the corn from her bowl of chili and set it into her paper napkin. He watched Mia shake her head at his daughter. He watched Tim lecture her about wasting food. He watched Grace scowl as she picked up the napkin and dumped the offending corn kernels back into the chili. She ate, but she looked like she was going to vomit.

“I’m sorry, love,” he whispered. He had to get to her, somehow. He had to let her know that he was her father. He had to get her back to Leo.

After dinner, the family watched TV. Grace sat on a couch between Tim and Mia, and flickering light bathed over all of them. They weren’t bad people, her fake-parents. They did love her, and they did the best they could to raise her to be healthy and successful in this world. Whoever Tim and Mia had been before, they were victims of the curse too. They had never meant to steal another couple’s daughter. 

He had to put this right. He had to end this curse. Jefferson didn’t have much power, but he would do anything to put his family back together. 

He moved the telescope away from Grace. After a brief search, he found the big pink house in Old Town where the Dark One lived. The lights were on, but no one was visible through the windows. If he called on the phone, the Dark One would tell him to be patient. The Savior would break the curse in due time. 

But Jefferson had already waited too long. 

Scanning through town, he set his sights on the Sheriff’s station. Storybrooke was peaceful enough that most of the cops could hang up their guns in time for dinner. They were all long gone by now. Even Sheriff Swan was packing up and getting ready to go home for the night. 

Perfect. 

Picking up the sleek, silver cordless phone, Jefferson punched in the numbers he had seen in the newspaper. Through the telescope, he could see Emma Swan hear the phone ringing. She slumped and grimaced in the way of everyone being clawed back into a job they thought was done for the day. Then she straightened up, and picked up the receiver on her desk.

“Sheriff’s station, this is Emma.”

Jefferson cleared his throat. “Yeah, is this the number to call if somebody saw Kathryn Nolan?”

Perking up, Emma fumbled on her desk for a pen and paper. “It sure is. Who am I talking to?”

That question was too complicated to get into. “Yeah, I don’t know for sure if it was Kathryn Nolan, but it looked like a woman in her mid-thirties, caucasian, looked kinda haggard. I, uh, I tried to talk to her, but she just kept walking through the woods.”

“Which woods are those? Where was this?”

“Oh, yeah, it was the north woods. You ever been up on Angus Drive?”

“Can’t say that I have. Still kind of new to the area.”

“Yeah, well that’s where she was. About ten minutes ago I saw her, she was walking towards town. Like I said, I tried to get her attention, but she didn’t listen. I didn’t wanna try to chase after her. Might scare her, you know. Make things worse.”

“Right, right,” Emma said. “So, north woods, Angus Drive, ten minutes ago. And what was your name?”

Jefferson hung up the phone. Then he got his coat and a scarf. It was time to go for a walk.  

****

There were several cars in the massive garage of the house where Jefferson had been a prisoner. For the first twenty-eight years, he hadn’t been able to open the garage door to get them on the road. Even after Emma had rolled in, the cars were still useless. None of them had gasoline.

So Jefferson walked. He had walked along the highway and through the woods and over the town line as far as he could before something terrible happened. He walked into town sometimes, trying to find a way out. When he’d noticed “Mr. Gold” acting strangely, he had walked to the pawn shop.

At this point, he knew the town better than anyone else. Who knows the shape of a cage better than the captive inside? He knew the borders and boundaries, especially the area around the house. He knew where the road made a wicked hairpin turn, where someone who was still kind of new to the area wouldn’t know what was coming and could be caught off guard. 

The yellow Volkswagen had better brakes than he thought--Emma stopped short of actually hitting him when he emerged from the woods onto the road in front of her. He’d been willing to take the hit, half-curious to see if the curse would let any injury last longer than a week or so. 

Emma’s quick driving stopped him from actually getting hurt, but the collision was close enough that he could fall to the ground in a convincing show. She stopped the car and got out when she saw him. 

“Oh my God, are you okay?”

On the gravel shoulder of the highway, Jefferson groaned and clutched his leg.

“Sir? Sir, can you talk? I’m Emma Swan, do I need to call for EMTs?”

“No,” Jefferson gritted his teeth, swallowed the imaginary pain. “No, I live around here. I’ll be fine. Can you just get me back to my house?”

For just a moment, she hesitated. “Uh, sure. Yeah, let’s get you inside, at least.”

She helped him up and into the passenger seat of the bug. Then she began to drive.

“So where do you live, Mr…?”

“Angus Drive.” He answered only the question she had said out loud. “It’s up ahead.”

 “Funny.” Now that the moment of panic had passed, Emma seemed less willing to accept half-answers. “I just got a call about that address. A man said he saw a missing person out this way. Maybe you saw her when you were out. A blonde woman in her mid-thirties?”

He shook his head. “That sounds like your description, Sheriff.”

“First, I’m not in my mid-thirties. Second, how did you know I’m the Sheriff?”

“I read the paper. And who else would be getting a call about a missing person? And, you’ve got your badge on your hip.”

She frowned. “Guess that all checks out. Yeah, I’m Sheriff Swan. What’s your name?”

Again, Jefferson didn’t answer. “This is the house on the right.”

“A house?” Emma said as she parked under the awning. “This looks more like a hotel! Do you have a big family or something?”

Jefferson opened the door, but made sure to wait for her to help him out of the car. “No,” he said. “It’s just me.”

“The sign on the mailbox says Dogdson.” 

“Sure does.”

Leaning on Emma, Jefferson pretended to hobble up the stairs to get into the front door. The curse had never given him a key to this house, so he always left it unlocked. Someday,  when the curse was broken, he would find a way to lock the door behind him and walk away a free man. He would take Grace and walk all the way to the Discworld if he had to.

“Where should I put you?” Emma asked once they were in the foyer.

“Closest living room is over there.”

She set him up on one of the white leather couches with his “bad” leg propped up on the arm. “Want me to take a look at it?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine. Listen, I’m kind of an amateur cartographer. Upstairs, I’ve got maps for all of these woods. They could be useful to you, since you don’t know the area well.”

Hands on her hips, Emma Swan looked down at him. She looked shrewd, suspicious. Kind of like Leo, only skinny. “I never told you I don’t know the area.”

Jefferson grinned. What was the old saying about honesty? Better to tell the truth because then you don’t have to keep track of your lies? “I guess you didn’t.”  

“The only person I told that to lately was a man on the phone who also didn’t tell me his name.” Emma sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch so they were on the same level. “Did you actually see Kathryn Nolan around here?”

He didn’t stop grinning. “No.”

“And your leg isn’t hurt at all.”

It wasn’t a question, but he still answered. “No.”

“Can you give me a single good reason why I shouldn’t arrest you on the very serious charge of Wasting the Sheriff’s Time?”

Jefferson sat up. “I do need your help,” he said. “But I thought if I told you what was going on, you would think I was crazy.”

Emma didn’t blink at that. “People who might be crazy need just as much help as people who might be sane. Let’s start from the beginning: Tell me your name.”

“Jefferson,” he answered immediately.

“Jefferson,” she repeated. “Is that a first name or a last name?”

“First.”

“And the last name?”

He didn’t really have one. Few people in the old world did. “Ogg,” he answered. 

It was the name he went by on worlds where last names were common. Leo’s name. He was part of a proud tradition of men becoming Mr. Ogg when they married an Ogg woman. 

Emma looked him in the eyes, long and hard. “Jefferson Ogg,” she said slowly. “That’s… such a weird name, I don’t think you made it up.”

“I didn’t,” he said. 

“Uh-huh,” she said. “And what do you need help with, Jefferson Ogg?”

“I…” Gods, how could he even start? He would just have to show her. “It’s upstairs.”

She gave him another look, not speaking. Then she pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and pressed some buttons. 

“Texting on the job?”

“I left my walkie-talkie in the car.” She put her phone away. “Just letting my roommate know where I am and to call the dispatch office if she doesn’t hear from me in 10 minutes.”

That was almost funny, that she thought he was dangerous. As if the most dangerous person in Storybrooke wasn’t signing Sheriff Swan’s paychecks. 

“Let’s go upstairs,” he said.

****

It was the first time anyone other than him had set foot in the office. He wondered what Emma made of the room. All Jefferson ever cared about was the telescope and the walk-in closet where he stored the newspapers. Neither of those things drew Emma’s focus.

“That’s a lot of top hats,” she said as she stood in front of the lit-up shelf. There were rows of them, all made of an endless supply of black felt. “You part of a show choir or something?”

“No.” He shut the door behind them, locked it. “The hats… are actually what I need your help with.” He pulled out some of the felt, some sewing needles and a pair of scissors. He tossed them all onto the table in front of her. “I need you to make one.”

Now the expression on Emma’s face was what ‘suspicious’ wanted to be when it grew up. “You think I’m a hatter?”

He stood behind her, nudging her into a chair in front of the raw materials. “I think you can do extraordinary things, Emma. I think you can do exactly what I need you to. I think you can save me.”

Her expression morphed from disbelief to exhaustion. “No, not you too. Have you been talking to Henry? What is it with this town and people thinking I can save them?”

“Because you can!” He put his hands on either side of the chair and pushed her to the table. Then he leaned over her to keep her from getting up. “You are a special person, Emma. You made the changes start, you can make everything good again.”

“Bring back the happy endings, is that what you want from me?”

She was angry. She meant the remark to be flippant. But she was so right it brought tears to his eyes. 

“Yes,” Jefferson whispered. “Yes, that’s all I want. The Dark One says it’s your destiny, that you have already brought--”

“Wait, who?”

“The Dark One,” he said. “Rumpelstiltskin, he--”

“Will you listen to yourself?” Emma pushed herself up away from the table and stood up to confront him. “Do you think you’ve had a conversation with Rumpelstiltskin? What, do you think Regina is the Evil Queen too?”

“Yes!” he shouted. He picked the felt up off the table and shook the fabric in her face. “You have all the pieces, Emma! Why can’t you put them together?”

“Because this is the real world!” she shouted back. 

“Every world is real!” 

She made for the door. The lock kept her busy for just enough time that Jefferson was able to catch up with her. Gently, he pulled her away from the door and stood in front of it. Just being taller than her was enough to make him look like a threat.

“You don’t understand,” he tried to keep his voice from breaking. “There are so many worlds out there. I’ve been to most of them. The Dark One gave me a hat that I can use to travel from world to world. I could use it to get out of here, but I don’t have it anymore!”

Emma reached for her phone. He grabbed her wrist and pulled the device out of her hand.

“It needs magic,” he explained, as calmly as he could. “I’ve made a hundred hats, but they’re just hats, no good to anyone. I need magic. You have magic. You brought magic to Storybrooke the day you came here.”

She frowned at the phone in his hand and stepped back. “There was nothing different about the day I came here.”

“You’re right.” Keeping her in his sights, he stepped away from the office door and toward the closet. “It was the day after you arrived, the day after you broke the sign. October 24th, 2011. That was the day the clock on the library started to tick.”

Emma just gaped at him. “How could you remember that?”

“It was the most important day in the history of this town. The first real day to happen in twenty-eight years.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Can I show you?” he asked. “I’ll even give you your phone back, so you can tell Mary Margaret you’re okay. But I just need you to promise that you’ll hear me out.”

She glared and held out her hand. “You are damn lucky you don’t have a gun right now.”

He watched her press the buttons, then put her phone back in her pocket. 

“You bought yourself another ten minutes because I don’t feel like filling out the paperwork necessary to arrest you.”

Jefferson went to the closet. “It’s in here,” he said. “All the evidence I have is in here.”

She put her hands on her hips, squared her shoulders. “Go get it then.” 

Right, Sheriff Swan wasn’t going to be the first one to go through an unknown door in the house of an obvious lunatic. Jefferson opened it, and showed her the newspapers. Twenty-eight stacks and counting. Each stack was made of twelve bundles, reaching to the ceiling. Three hundred and forty one bundles. The whole of the curse, contained in this room.

“I saved them all,” he said. “Twenty-eight years’ worth.”

“So you’ve been saving newspapers since you were, what, five?” 

“Since the day I came to this town,” he answered. “Since the day anyone came to this town.” Kneeling on the ground, he moved the smallest pile and pulled out the smallest bundle. “Do you want to know what day that was, Emma?”

She didn’t answer, but he took the paper out from the bottom of the bundle and held it up in front of her. 

“Go on,” he growled. “Read it.”

“Uh, it says that Mayor Mills announced a new committee to--”

“Read the date!” he snapped. 

Jaw clenched, Emma yanked the paper out of his hands and looked at the top. She didn’t read it out loud, but he saw her eyebrows furrow. 

“That’s… my birthday,” she whispered. “Like, that was the day I was born.”

“October 23rd, 1983,” he said. “That was the day the curse started. The day you were born was the day the Evil Queen cursed us all to live in a world without magic.”

“That’s--”

“There was no time.” He didn’t let her speak. “Nothing changed, nothing happened. We were frozen. Most of them didn’t notice, but I did. I remembered, I…” He couldn’t go on. “I thought I was crazy. I thought nothing I knew was real. I thought I had lost everything. But you… You’re the Savior. You can bring it back.”

Emma shook her head and looked down at the newspaper again. “Even if all this is true, why am I the one who has to--wait a minute!” She pointed at the paper, at a picture of the mayor. “This is a crock of shit! That’s Regina! Regina wasn’t mayor on the day I was born!” She flipped through the other pages. “Yeah, look at this. Sydney looks the same in this picture as he does today. Look at the school news, I’ve seen these kids!”

“I told you, time was frozen.”

“Or you put a fake date on an old paper just to mess with me!” She kept looking at the newspaper, seeing but not understanding. “Yeah, this ad here, this is Tim Lewis. He gave me a discount on my car insurance. His daughter, Paige? She looks exactly like she does in this ad. Pretty sure she’s eleven, not thirty-nine.”

Jefferson ripped the paper out of Emma’s hands. “She is not his daughter!” He snarled. “Will you listen to me? That girl’s name is Grace. She is eleven. She has been eleven for twenty-eight years!”

“I--” Emma put her hands up and let out a slow breath. “I don’t think either one of us is going to convince the other.”

“I don’t care if you believe me, I just need you to make a gods-damned hat!”

To Jefferson’s shock, Emma seemed ready to do what he asked, maybe in the name of de-escalating the situation. She went back to the table, slowly sat down, and picked up the felt. “You need this so you can go back to Fairytale Land?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t care about that world anymore. I need to go back to the Discworld.”

Emma squinted as she tried to thread a needle. “Discworld? I’ve heard of those books. They’re supposed to be funny, right?”

Jefferson didn’t smile. “It’s a real place.”

Looking up, Emma opened her mouth, and then closed it. “Sure.” She began to half-heartedly jam the needle between two pieces of felt. 

He collapsed into a chair by the telescope. Gods, was she really doing this? Jefferson only knew enough about magic to know that he was better off not playing with it. But if the Dark One was right, then Emma Swan wouldn’t be able to stop herself from using magic. She would do it naturally, maybe accidentally. It wouldn’t matter if the hat looked awful. All it had to do was work.

“My wife is from there,” he offered as a way to make conversation. 

Emma didn’t look up from the stitches. “From Discworld? Does that make her a witch or something?”

He shook his head. “Her mother is. I guess she could be too, if she wanted. Most of the time witchcraft is just knowing something other people don’t know.”

“Like how to make a hat?” Emma looked at him through a tube of felt. “It’s been a long time since my last Home Ec class. This is not going to be pretty.”

“It just needs to work,” he muttered. “Just… get it to work.”

Sighing, Emma pulled out her phone again.

“Has she even answered you?” he asked. “Maybe she’s off somewhere screwing David Nolan.”

A glare. “I’m doing you a favor by working on this hat. So maybe you could do me a favor and not say rude things about my friends.”

“I got you here by talking about Kathryn Nolan. Do you actually care about her?”

Emma kept her eyes on her work. “She’s a person. I care about people. She could be lost in the woods, disoriented and hungry. Of course I want to find her.”

“Do you think she’s still alive?”

“I have to hope so.” She cut one of the threads. “We haven’t found a body, or even body parts. If some monster was out there cutting out hearts and putting them in jewelry boxes, at least then there’d be some evidence.” She gave him a sideways glance. “Do you care about Kathryn Nolan? Or do you think she’s just a fairytale character?”

“I care about her because she’s a fairytale character,” Jefferson said. “Her name was Princess Abigail. She was the daughter of King Midas. She gave me a lot of gold just for trying to find a way to reverse the effects of her father’s… gift.”

Emma nodded, clearly humoring him. “I’d heard that King Midas had a daughter. I didn’t know her name was Abigail. Doesn’t sound Greek, but what do I know?” She was sewing the brim on the hat, after that it would be finished. 

Jefferson stood up. His feet moved on a schedule that was bigger than Emma Swan. He looked through the telescope. It was nine-thirty. Bedtime.

“Do you want to see her?” he whispered to Emma.

“Kathryn?”

“My daughter.”

They were putting her to bed, Tim and Mia both. She was almost too big for the gesture, but maybe that was why she wanted it so much. Jefferson felt Emma’s presence beside him, and he stepped away from the telescope. 

“They never remember to give her the stuffed rabbit,” he said. “That’s the only one that keeps her from having nightmares.”

“Oh, that’s Paige,” Emma said. She looked up from the window. “You… have a telescope pointed at the bedroom of an eleven year old girl.”

“She’s my daughter,” Jefferson repeated. “I’ve lost her mother. Grace doesn’t know who I am. I need to keep an eye on her.”

Emma stayed between Jefferson and the telescope. “Is it because Paige is adopted? Are you her birth father or something?”

He didn’t know whether to scream or cry, so he laughed. Emma kept talking.

“It’s no shame if that’s the case. Believe me, I know how mixed-up it can be to have a kid that’s yours but isn’t yours.”

“Shut up,” Jefferson said through gritted teeth. “Grace is mine. Mine and my wife’s.”

“You said you lost your wife…”

“Yes! And I’ll only find her again once I have a hat that works!” He almost grabbed her by the shoulders, but she was too fast. She made it back to the table and kept it as a barrier between them.

“Enough!” Emma said. She picked up the hat and tossed it over to him. “This is the last of my goodwill, understand? I’m going to leave now. You’re gonna let me out of this room and out of this house. I’m gonna call Tim and tell him to buy his daughter some blackout curtains. If I ever catch wind of you snooping around little girls again, I will personally make sure you rot in jail.”

Jefferson looked down at the crumpled felt in his hands. It was only a hat by the most generous definition. But maybe it would be enough.

When he looked up, Emma was gone. From outside, he heard the rumble of a car engine starting up. As she drove away, the sound grew fainter. He still held the hat in his hands. 

It didn’t feel magical. His old hat had a certain… quality. There was an aura about it, not quite tangible. But there was a feeling he got when he looked at his hat. A feeling of… possibility. Like there was so much more to it than what met the eye. There was none of that in the hat Emma had made. 

Maybe magic was different here. Maybe there was a way. Some way. He had to try. He would never know if he didn’t try. 

He closed his eyes and took a breath. “Please.” With all his heart, he prayed to any power that was listening. 

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the hat to the ground, as he had done a thousand different times in a hundred different worlds. The hat spun and he waited for it to keep spinning, waited for it to grow larger and disappear into a whirlpool of purple smoke. He waited for the hole in the whirlpool, the portal that could take him anywhere.

But the hat barely made a full rotation before it stopped spinning. It sat on the ground, unmoving, unmagical.

Jefferson stared at it, until his vision blurred with tears. Then he began to laugh. 

Of course it didn’t work! Why would anything work in this world? Of course there was no escape! Of course he was going to die in this world! Or worse--he would live forever in a world without time and he’d never see Leona again.

He sobbed. His legs gave out and sent him careening to the floor. He lay face down on the patterned carpet, stared at Emma Swan’s misshapen hat, and wept like a child. 

****

Later--an hour? A year? Did it make a difference?--when couldn’t cry anymore, Jefferson pulled himself off the floor. He made it all the way to the chair before he collapsed again and hung his head in his hands. 

It hadn’t worked. The Savior hadn’t worked. The side of goodness hadn’t worked. Well, Jefferson was never one to get too hung up about paltry matters like good and evil. 

Slowly wheeling the office chair over to the desk, Jefferson fumbled for the silver telephone. He pushed in numbers he knew by heart, numbers he had wanted to call a dozen times in the past month, but never had. Not until now.

He tried to breathe, as the phone rang. But then he stopped when he heard it pick up. A woman’s voice. Belle’s voice.

“Mr. Gold’s residence. Who is calling?”

Jefferson didn’t speak. He didn’t breathe. Mrs. Gold knew that he had slept with her husband. He couldn’t ask her to put him on the phone. He couldn’t even let her know who he was.

He hung up.

With another deep breath, he pulled a book with yellow pages out from a shelf above the desk. He flipped through the thin paper, until he found the name and number he was looking for.

He dialed slowly, taking a breath between each number. He couldn’t sound like he was upset. He couldn’t show any weakness in front of her. 

This was a bad idea. This was the worst idea he could have ever come up with. The last time he’d worked with this woman he had watched her murder a helpless servant once she was no longer useful. How could he know that she wouldn’t do the same to him?

Maybe by the time he wasn’t useful, he would already be in the Discworld.  

He needed magic. He needed to get out. He needed power. So he called the most powerful person in town.  

Regina picked up on the third ring. “Who exactly do you think you are to be calling my home at this time of night?”

“Your Majesty,” he said calmly. “This is Jefferson the realm-jumper. I’d like to offer my services.” 

[perseusjackson-jasongrace]

Empires on the Horizon VI

Jason is a CEO: Part VI

Here’s my masterlist for the next part and my other stuff

TW: not really overt but there is mention of NSFW activities. 

every story has a

beginning

middle

and end

not necessarily in that order

-Tim Burton

“Annabeth Chase, my favourite impulse-controller,” Jason smirked, pulling his friend into his chest for a hug.

Her grey eyes sparked with mirth, “What do you want you troublemaker?”

“I find it offensive that you think I’m a troublemaker. We all know it’s your boyfriend that gets us into a mess.”

“Lies and propaganda,” She raised a brow, “You two are in a committed relationship with hullabaloo.”

He gave her a wide-eyed look, “Hullabaloo?”

“I’ve been spending way too much time with Percy,” She sighed.

He burst out laughing, “Who in this day and age says ‘hullabaloo?’”

“Percy discovered the word when we were in high school and thought it was the most hilarious thing he’s ever heard. He used to say it all the time.”

Jason shook his head amusement dancing on his lips, “So why did you want to meet me? I thought you’d be with Leo today since you’ve been out of state all week.”

They collapsed onto his couch. Annabeth tucked her feet underneath her and he propped his on the ottoman. When they settled down, she finally looked at him.

“Yea,” She pinched the bridge of her nose, “He had to go into work today because the part-time lecturer couldn’t make it for classes.”

“What’s going on? Why do you look so…” He had never been good at finding the words that matched the emotion, “So frustrated?”

“I’m not,” She gave him a weak smile, “I’m not. I just miss him.”

“You saw each other last night, didn’t you? He picked you up for the airport?”

“Yea but we haven’t gotten the chance to talk. I don’t know how to–, I just miss him.”

“Hey,” He grabbed her hands, “Take a deep breath. We have all the time in the world.”

Neither of them had quite figured out how to handle emotions, how to express them. It was an ongoing frustration when he and Luke were dating. Annabeth and Leo had learned how to read each other after all these years; four years of friendship and three years of dating had cemented that bond, had it running core deep. But him and her still couldn’t quite get the words out on their own.

“I miss his presence,” She breathed, “We saw each other last night but I was exhausted, and it was late. He practically had to carry me from the car to our bed and then he left early this morning. We just haven’t had the chance to catch up, to exist together yet.”

He held her close, let her head fall onto his shoulder.

“Being away from him is like losing a limb or being thrown into the deep end of the pool when you don’t know how to swim, like walking through darkness. You know what all of those have in common?” She looked up at him, grey eyes lined with tears.

“What?”

“Emptiness, the absence of something vital.”

“I think,” He tilted her chin up, caught the storm in her gaze, “I think you are lucky to have someone who makes saying goodbye so hard.”

“Did you just quote Winnie the Pooh at me?”

He winced, “Yes?”

She dissolved into laughter, “Really Jason? Winnie the Pooh?”

“What?” He gave her an indignant look, “It’s a good quote, and better than anything I could have come up with.”

“You are something else.” She managed to rein in her amusement, “What’s been up with you?”

“Nothing exciting,” He shrugged.

“Nah uh Mister,” His friend gave him a look, “Leo tells me you met a lady? What happened to my cousin? And how did you meet her? Do you have a picture?”

“Alright,” He chuckled, “Slow down. I don’t have a lady; we’ve been on one date. Next one is tomorrow. Your cousin and I didn’t get to exchange numbers at the dinner and I’m sure you know he’s now seeing Reyna. Thalia introduced Zoe and I, she’s a vet at the Conservatory and no I do not have a picture.”

“I hope you know all that information gave me a ton more questions.”

He rolled his eyes, shoving her shoulder lightly, “Let’s get some coffee going and maybe bring out the choc chips and then you can harass me with your endless curiosity.”

“Hey, this curiosity is what made us friends.” Her voice followed him as they walked to kitchen, where she promptly hoisted herself onto the countertop and plucked a cookie from the jar.

“As far as I understand it was Leo’s dumbassery that made us friends.”

“Yea, but without my curiosity I wouldn’t have bothered to check why a skinny, curly-haired, Latino was cursing a blue streak underneath the table.”

“I still think we should be crediting Leo because if he hadn’t gotten his foot stuck in my backpack and tripped thereby falling underneath our table it wouldn’t have been me and you who helped him.”

“Oh gods,” She giggled, “We really were a chaotic bunch weren’t we?”

“Nothing has changed Chase,” He handed her a steaming mug of coffee, “We just have less opportunities to be chaotic now.”

“I used to be so excited to grow up, but all my years have escaped me, have sped by me faster than bullets and I’m not yet grown.”

He leaned across the counter, bringing his cappuccino to his cheek, “I don’t think we ever really are. We’re just an accumulation of all our years before now. I am still one and two and ten and twenty.”

Annabeth looked at him then, caught his gaze in her grey eyes, “When did you get so wise?”

“Guess I’m spending too much time with you.” He winked, “Now please help me find something to wear for tomorrow. Zoe is taking me somewhere in nature and she says I should be prepared for a little exercise.”

“Are we talking a walk in the park or a hike up Blood Hill?”

“I don’t know she said it was a surprise and I don’t get any more information than wear clothes you can move in a little.”

His friend smirked at him, “Sounds steamy?”

“I’m pretty sure sex requires clothes off, not on, t least to some degree.” He rolled his eyes.

“Mhmm, okay. All i’m saying is make sure you pack a condom, or multiple.”

“We are not having- we will get arrested for public indecency.” He grumbled, pushing her shoulder, “So get your mind out of the gutter Chase.”

Her laugh was bells and beauty. “Come on then Mr Grace, let’s go raid your closet.” She held out her hand for him to help her off the counter, and the two blondes disappeared into his room.

***

Jason took a deep breath, letting his nerves find their space in his chest, stomach, lungs. He didn’t like walking into things when he didn’t have all the information; ergo surprises were avoided as much as possible.

A knock at his window pulled him from his mind.

“Are you going to come out? Or do you want to have a car date?” Sparkling dark eyes and a bright smile peered at him through the glass.

“I’m coming,” He laughed, grabbing his wallet and keys before opening the door.

“Hello Jason,” She stood on her toes and looped her arms around his neck. He folded his arms around her waist, catching the soft hints of juniper berry and clove that was purely her.

“How are you?” They pulled away.

“I am nervous,” He admitted, “I don’t like surprises.”

“Yes I did imagine so, I am not fond of them either, but this one was a necessity as it needs an explanation.”

“Well I hope I dressed okay?” He gestured towards his jeans and loose white tee.

“It’s perfect.” She looked him up and down, her eyes flashing, “Now come on, we only have the place for a couple hours.”

“Hold on,” He moved to his trunk, “These are for you,”

“Oh Jason,” She gasped softly, taking the flowers from him, “These are­– Who is your florist because these bouquets are unbelievable?”

He ducked his head, attempting to hide his reddening cheeks, “I choose them myself.”

“Well, your taste is exquisite,” She smiled up at him and he knew he had picked perfectly. Sunflowers because the dress she wore on their first date was liquid sunlight. And red roses because she was beautiful, poised, regal, just as they were.

While she admired the bouquet, he took the time to note their surroundings. They seemed to be on some sort of field, school or farm he didn’t know. A small wooden marquee sat a few meters away, but it was unoccupied which meant they were alone out here.

“Okay,” Zoe started, “So I don’t know how weird this is going to be to you, but I figured I’d get all my secrets out before you’re in too deep.”

“I’m starting to get mildly suspicious,” He raised a brow quizzically.

“Don’t worry I don’t plan on murdering you. I could probably take you in hand to hand combat but for someone of your size, drugs or poison would be the better method.”

He blinked at her, “You spend a lot of your time wondering what the best method for murder is?”

“This is not going well,” She giggled, “I don’t plan on killing you. I brought you here so we could practice some archery.”

“That does not make me feel even remotely better.”

She slugged his shoulder, mirth bouncing in her eyes, “I’ve been doing archery since my first year at varsity and I thought it’d be cool to share it with you.”

“Oh,” Was his eloquent reply, and then, “Well I’m honoured, thank you.”

“Don’t get too sappy on me, I’m only willing to go easy on you in the practice trials.”

“This implies a competition of some sort?”

“Of course. One question answered to whoever gets bullseye or as close to it.”

“I feel like I’m at a serious disadvantage here,” He pouted at her.

“I wouldn’t say that. I’ve only been doing it for nine years,” She smirked.

He groaned, waving his hands, “Oh gods, I see I’m going to be bared to the bone after this.”

“Don’t worry Grace you get to torture me on our next date.”

“Be prepared Nightshade because after this set-up I am not going easy on you.”

“I certainly hope not,” Fire danced in her eyes.

He narrowed his gaze, taking a single step towards her, “Is that a challenge Miss Nightshade?”

“Aren’t scared of a little heat, are you?” She mirrored him, closing the distance.

“Bring it on,” His words were nothing but exhales and anticipation.

Their noses brushed, eyes of midnight and electric storms pinning each other to the world.

“Ready to learn?” She breathed.

“Ready to be taught.”

“Okay,” She stepped away, taking a deep breath before moving to the table that he now noticed had two metal bows and various arrows.

“You’ll get the thirty-pound bow and large arrows to start. Hopefully you don’t need anything heavier because I did not ask for the thirty-four.” She frowned, “Okay some rules. Never have your arrow nocked until you’re on the firing line. Don’t collect arrows until everyone is done shooting. Don’t hold your bow sideways, you will hit someone. Do not under any circumstances pull the string back while there’s no arrow.”

“Got it.” He nodded.

“Cool, you’re gonna do great!” She clapped her hands, excitement radiating from her every movement. “Let’s get you equipped so you don’t end up with string-snapped wrists or a raw thumb.”

And then she was handing him all sorts of equipment, guiding him so everything fit where it was supposed to. Her hands, calloused and small, brushed over his as she adjusted the arm guard and made sure the thumb flap was correct. She explained how to stand, moving his feet and angling his shoulders until she deemed it good enough.

“Okay, let’s do some shooting.”

“I’m ready!” He smiled at her, hoping his own excitement was evident.

“Don’t worry about hitting bullseye, just choose a spot on the target and try to get all your arrows to land in the same place.”

He nodded, rolling his shoulders and moving to stand in position.

“Since it’s just us I’m going to forego formalities, so began shooting Grace.”

He had a clumsy start, arrows falling short of the target, or flying far over it, but Zoe was patient, adjusting and helping him each time.

“This is…” He stared in wonder at the arrow he had managed to bed inches away from the center. ‘I can understand why you enjoy it.”

“Great because now it’s time for Question and Arrow.”

“Fun,” He chortled, “You come up with that?”

“Yes, I thought it was rather clever.”

“Oh it is, I never expected anything less doctor.”

She snorted at him, “Ready to see the queen take her throne?”

“Please Your Majesty,” He bowed low, gesturing to the field.

She laughed and took her stand at the line, adjusting herself and making sure the sight on her bow was at the right level. She took an arrow from the stand in front of her feet, placed it on the string with trained casualness and looked over her shoulder at him. Her smiled was wicked.

She lifted the bow, pulled the string taut and fired the arrow. Before he had time to see where it had landed, she was already nocking her second one, and moments later her third.

He blinked, stared between her bright eyes and the three silver arrows now embedded in the small red circle fifteen meters away, and adjusted his pants.

She smirked, “How was that?”

“Possibly the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” He breathed.

“Ready to answer some burning questions?”

“If I say no will you keep shooting?”

She raised a brow, “Hot and bothered, are you?”

“No thanks to you,” He growled.

She pulled him to the line, “I’m glad you’re taking to it so nicely.”

“I think I’m taking to you,” He grabbed her wrist, pulling her flush to him.

“You don’t even know me?”

“After that little display I’m half willing to marry you on the spot.”

She laughed and shoved away from him, “You’re a special breed Mr Grace. Men do not usually fall into marriage ideas after seeing a woman shoot arrows.”

“Then they are not men.” He frowned, “And besides, anyone with aim as accurate as yours has many, many advantages.”

“Questions Grace,” She took a step back, amusement and… something else passing over her face.

“Right okay,”

So they stood to the line and fired. Her a question him an answer. Then an arrow. A curse as she hit the center and he missed the target completely. Another question, answer, arrow. Question, answer, arrow.

Until two hours had blurred by and Jason had confessed to three college pranks, horrible braces in high school, and the weirdest fear of bricks. She had taken pity on him and answered her own questions after he kept losing their little battle. He knew she regretted her college days because she had wasted them studying, knew she was as gorgeous in high school as she is now, and her weird fear was thunder.

“This was great Zoe, thank you.”

“Thank you,” She beamed at him, “For not thinking I’m weird, or for dismissing this.”

He wrapped his arms around her, speaking into her neck, “I think this may be the coolest second date I’ve ever been on.”

“Really?”  She lifted his head, tugging at his hair until they were staring at each other.

“Really.” He smiled softly, “I did not know archery could be so…”

“Grounding?” She offered.

“Yes, and exhilarating.”

“I don’t know if I can put into words how much it means to me to hear you say that.”

“I was thinking,” He stroked his fingers down her side gently, “Since you didn’t get to do the typical college things maybe I can plan the next date?”

“Sounds like a dream, what are you thinking?”

“Drive-in theatre? I’m fairly sure ‘When the Stars Burn Out’ is playing.”

She nodded, eyes wide with excitement, “I’ve always wanted to go to a drive in! When?”

“Give me a couple days to plan but how does Wednesday sound?”

“Perfect.”

He cupped her cheek, memorising the constellations in her eyes, the soft lines around her mouth  that told you she smiled often, and the lines between her forehead that told you she frowned often too.

“You are divine.” He exhaled.

“Are you going to kiss me?” Was her reply.

He grinned, wild and undaunted, “Happy to.”

And then their lips were meeting, soft and steady. The world fell away, became swirls of colour and sound, became the background of a Monet, became life. And oh gods, Zoe’s hands may be rough with the proof of living, but her lips were softer than petals, than clouds. He held back a groan at her nails scraping his neck gently.

Reluctantly they pulled apart, resting their foreheads against each other.

“Wow,” She whispered.

“Indeed,” He chuckled.

It was that kiss, lingering spice and the smell of beginnings that followed him into his apartment later. Rolled down his skin as he took a shower. Fluttered behind his eyelids as he finally collapsed into bed. That kiss that marked the beginning.

--------------------------------------------------------------

HOW MUCH DO WE LOVE ZOE? Very much because Ciara just projects onto her??!?!????!!??!! oops.

Tags (if you want to be added to/ taken off the tag list just let me know, all my channels of communication are open):

@lesbian-peanuts​

@queen-of-demons-and-hell​

@msdrpreist​​

@sparkythunderstorm​​

@nishlicious-01​​

@lucyisblue​​

@leydiangelo​​​

[vidimillion]

Okay, so jasico hcs, umm, what about their wedding?

i got very carried away with this, since "wedding" is rather broad. we'll get to the actual wedding part eventually, i swear.

i asked @/ariihen a while ago about who would propose and her answer is 100% accurate to me

nico spent a rather long portion of all his relationships kind of believing that they would one day end

the past few years of his life have done a pretty good job at slowly undoing that mindset, but old habits die hard

nico knows jason had the same problem. for the longest time jason had never been secure in his relationships, from when his mother gave him up to when his family at camp jupiter didn't search for him

nico hated doing the laundry, so jason normally did it with no qualms

on a random, insignificant day, nico noticed jason waking up every morning dead on his feet, either going to do homework for his college course or work on building more temples. being the good boyfriend he is, nico decides to lessen jason's workload by doing their laundry

putting jason's laundry away, he finds the ring box stuffed into a pair of clean socks. months later he'll tell jason it was a pretty good idea on his part— jason's socks have got to be the only thing he owns that nico doesn't steal

nico doesn't even register what it is until he opens it in confusion. later on, he described the sight of the ring as a punch to the fucking face

jason was left behind by his own mother. he was left behind by his sister who believed he was dead. he was left behind by his camp which he had been serving dutifully for his entire life. he was left behind by his two best friends when he was dead for a year

but he was brave enough to buy nico a ring. he still had so much love pouring out of his heart, for people he was never sure would stay. he was brave enough to let himself believe nico would stay. he loved nico enough to brave through his insecurities about himself, to let nico know he wanted this to last forever.

nico doesn't know how long he cried but afterwards, he felt tired enough to fall asleep. he hid the box right where jason had put it, hoping he wouldn't notice something off.

he doesn't know if he should wait for jason, but something tells him he should buy him a ring too. he doesn't see how it would be a bad thing, so he does.

it's a few months later and the whole group is together. the seven + reyna, dakota, the stolls, and a few more. nico was too happy to see them all together to wonder why jason put so much effort into wrangling everyone up.

waterworks started before jason even got on one knee, because he'd already told everyone he was planning to propose. nico knew jason would've told them, so he didn't tell anyone he bought jason a ring too.

the proposal story is one for another day, but let's say everyone had a chance to both cry and laugh.

nico wanted connor and travis to come because they mean a lot to him. they were his first friends at camp back when he was ten, and they were the only people who greeted him when he was going in and out between ages ten to fifteen. they treated him like a brother and never stopped.

will was invited, because he and nico got on amicable terms after their breakup. nico thinks will is always gonna be a good friend to him— they weren't the one for each other, and they didn't need to be. they were best friends, will being one of the first people at camp to be his friend. it's better if it sticks to that.

do i even need to mention reyna? she was one of the first five fuckin people on the guest list

jason and nico tried to keep the guest list small and personal. they did not realize how many people they actually liked and were friends with.

(nico oddly enough became rather good friends with sadie kane and anubis, so the egyptians were invited. he and jason also became friends with magnus, alex and sam— the whole event was very inter-pantheon)

the only gods that were formally invited were hestia, hades and persephone. that didn't stop the wedding being broadcasted to the entire godly world over hephaestus tv, but at least the small and subtle cameras weren't very intrusive.

hades insisted on funding the most beautiful wedding the godly world has ever seen. for once, nico didn't fight him on the money because he wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. all jason cared about was getting married.

nico plans most of it. the color scheme stays classy, with white cream colours, minimal bits of gold. there's a little bit of red too, in the flowers and tiny details— nico says it's because jason looks damn good in red. he's right, of course, but there's another reason.

red was the di angelo family signature color, back in the 1930s. nico remembers most of his life before the casino now, and even if there's nothing he can really do about it, he wants his family there. even just a little bit of them would be enough.

they get married at dusk in the most beautiful park in new rome. they have the ceremony in the grass, tall greek pillars squaring the area off from the rest of the park. billowy white fabrics hang from above but leave the setting sun visible. the only lights are persephone's special flowers, glowing softly in every color of the rainbow and scenting the air with ambrosia.

nico and jason both get to walk down the aisle, but nico goes first. he wears a black three piece suit, complete with a subtle gold collar link and lapel chain. it's a little tight, but that's kind of the reason he picked it. he slicked his hair back for this too.

he couldn't pick a best man for this, so there isn't one. by his side are connor, travis, will, and frank— and hazel and reyna, in red suits.

on the other side of the altar, jason's side, there's percy, leo, dakota, piper and annabeth.

nico's mother was a singer. her music was italy's treasure, almost hidden from the rest of the world. they play one of her most beautiful songs as they walk down the aisle, one nico can faintly remember her singing to him. her voice is like a siren's, like a goddess's— otherworldly, ethereal, elysian.

but the music stops when he sees jason.

he wears a white three piece suit that cinches his small waist and stretches over the broadness of his shoulders. he wears a boutonniere of small, light blue hydrangeas and a gold collar link that matches nico's.

everything about him matches nico. matches him, compliments him, completes you in the perfect way your opposite tends to complete you.

nico thinks "opposite" sounds too aggressive— like they were enemies. jason wasn't his enemy. jason was his soulmate.

[kekaki-cupcakes]

"Oh great, he can fucking talk now."

"Fuck!" Tiny Leo giggled happily, and started flapping his arms. "Fuck fuck fuck-"

"Piper!" Jason hissed, and picked up the two year old. Tiny Leo had taken to unthreading people shoe laces and stealing them with his chubby hands, so now everyone was wearing Hazel's fluffy cat socks. "What do we do with tiny Leo?"

"Fuck!"

Piper snorted and covered her grin. She proved to be no help when she descended into a fit of giggles that made tiny Leo laugh as well, so Jason carried him out of the room, "I'm gonna find Annabeth again, she has little brothers, right? Or maybe she's figured out how to fix this."

The blonde was in her room tapping away at her laptop, the glow of the screen illuminating her face. She must've been distracted by her work and forgotten that time existed again. Jason flicked on the lamp and closed the curtains, which tiny Leo tried to chew. Then he sat the wriggling baby onto the end of Annabeth's bed. "Your turn now."

"He's two now, right?" Annabeth asked, wincing when tiny Leo grabbed a scrunchie from her bedside table and flicked it across the room with a gurgle. "Shouldn't he be able to talk?"

"Fuck!"

She blinked once. "Fuck."

"Fuck!"

Annabeth went pale, "shit, no I didn't mean that-'

"Shit! Fuck!"

»»————-　★　————-««

"I'm guessing babies can't have Cheeto's?" Hazel asked, peeking into Annabeth's room. "What else does Leo eat?"

"I actually have no idea." She thought for a moment, and then went back to her laptop, typing away at the keys. It was helpful that three year old tiny Leo seemed to love the click sound, even if he was trapped in a washing basket next to her bed because the gods would have to intervene if he went for the camp necklace beads again. The internet told her something about balanced diets that she quickly ignored. "Maybe try a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk?"

"Shit!"

Hazel raised an eyebrow and then lunged forwards when the washing basket tipped over and tiny Leo came tumbling out with a surprised giggle. She held the wriggling toddler while Annabeth opened another tab. "Google thinks little kids like plain food, but Bing just wants me to drown him, so...."

"I guess I'll go see if we have any peanut butter," Hazel muttered, and held tiny Leo away from herself when he started trying to rip off the pins on the front of her overalls. "You wanna baby sit?"

Annabeth laughed in her face. "Ha ha! No. Maybe the kitchen will speed up this ageing process."

"Fuck!"

"Exactly, tiny Leo."

»»————-　★　————-««

Hazel held onto one of tiny Leo's snapped suspenders they'd turned into a leash that was tied around his middle as he ran around in circles, tangling her legs. "Do you mind?"

"Shit!" Tiny Leo shouted, and then face planted.

"Okay, you need a bigger vocabulary," Hazel sighed, and dragged along into the kitchen. He seemed to take a great fascination in the peddle that opened the automatic bin, and it gave her enough time to pile her arms with supplies from the giant pantry.

She cut up carrot sticks as she talked, hoping the crunchy food would stop him biting peoples ankles. "What about yes and no?"

"Fuck?"

"Hmm..." She wondered, and then turned around with a carrot stick, and held it out. "If you want this, say yes."

Tiny Leo crawled across the floorboards, suspender leash trailing behind him like a tail. He reached for the snack with a chubby hand and grinned a toothy smile. "Fuck?"

"Nah uh." Hazel held it away patiently, careful not to snatch it away and cause another tantrum. "Say yes."

"Shit?"

Hazel gritted her teeth and sat cross legged on the ground, wondering why Piper was allowed near children. "Yes for the carrot stick, no if you don't want it."

Tiny Leo clapped his hands together and giggled. "Cathot thick!"

Hazel covered her smile with a hand. "You have a lisp!"

"Thisp?"

"Okay, here's the cathot thick," Hazel said, and handed it over. Then she tried to muffle a shriek when tiny Leo shoved the entire stick into his mouth in one go. "No, you have to chew!"

Tiny Leo stared at her for a second, and then swallowed it whole. He beamed, "cathot stick! Shit!"

"I mean," Hazel said. "I guess that's an improvement."

Between chorus's of swear words, Hazel would toss tiny Leo a bit of whatever she was making so that he would leave the folded cuffs of her jeans alone, but other then that he seemed to like rolling around and grabbing at his feet.

She found the peanut butter, thankfully, and figured he wouldn't mind if it was blue. Considering he was licking the bin, Hazel guessed he wasn't a very aware four year old.

She made a sandwich and found the milk, pouring it into a 'You are the GOAT' mug that Leo [normal, sixteen year old Leo] and Piper had got Coach for his birthday. She found a metal straw because last time Percy had seen a plastic straw he'd started crying and broke the plumbing.

Hazel was hoping that someone would come and help her manage the now less tiny Leo, because she wasn't sure how long it would take him to remember how to walk, and that wasn't a problem she was ready for. Preferably not Annabeth. Toddlers didn't belong in washing baskets. "Come on little dude, dinner time."

Leo had taken apart the bin peddle and was now giggling in a pile of metal parts, a bolt hanging out of his mouth.

"Oh," Hazel said drily. "The Hephestus bit kicked in already."

Then he burst into flames.

"FUCK SOMEONE GET THE LEO EXTINGUISHER!"

"THEO EXTHINGUISHER! FUCK!"

»»————-　★　————-««

Hazel chewed the peanut butter sandwich slowly as Jason used three packets of wipes to get the last of the foam off less tiny but still very small Leo.

Less tiny but still very small Leo just stuck a carrot stick up Jason's nostril and giggled to himself, which Hazel had to admit, was pretty giggle worthy. She cut the other half of the sandwich in half again and passed it over, but less tiny but still very small Leo only squashed his dinner into his hair. Jason thunked his head against the table with a groan, reaching for another pack of wipes.

He picked the blue peanut butter sandwich out of less tiny but still very small Leo's hair, "remind me to never have kids."

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem," Piper laughed, walking into the room wearing a 'I heart MILF's' shirt that Hazel was pretty sure she'd changed into to only to expand the toddlers vocabulary.

Jason threw a carrot stick at her, "now you show up."

"Dude, looking after toddlers isn't that hard, and I was having a bath thank you very much," Piper said. "Also, some has to tell Frank he's out of shampoo."

"I think Leo is a very special case, in the kindest way possible," Hazel muttered, pulling a part of the bin lid out of her curls.

Piper rolled her eyes and strolled into the kitchen. There was the slam of the fridge door that Hazel had been trying to hide from less tiny but still very small Leo lest he fix his mechanical eyes on that next.

"Behold, my braincells," Piper announced, and then unwrapped a plastic straw [Hazel was glad Percy was discussing the route to their next destination with the hammerhead sharks outside] and pushed it into the box. "You're welcome."

Hazel spoke around the rest of the blue peanut butter sandwich she was eating, "what's that?"

"Chocolate milk."

"Thoccy milk!" Less tiny but still very small Leo cheered, and began chugging eagerly, after squirting a good portion into Jason's face, who seemed to have given up altogether.

Piper grinned, "he has a lisp? That's adorable!"

"Fuck!"

"What else can he say?" Jason asked quietly, looking to Hazel, who grinned.

She picked up a carrot stick and held it out to the toddler cautiously, with a smile. "Cathot thick?"

"Cathot thick!"

»»————-　★　————-««

"What do you even wear as pyjamas when you aren't... five years old?"

A bit bigger now Leo just blinked his shiny brown eyes at Annabeth and went back to wearing the fidget cube she'd found him as a hat. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. "This is fine. This is totally fine. I'll just..."

She opened her wardrobe, which was pretty much just CHB shirts, denim shorts, and Percy's hoodies. She grabbed the SeaWorld one because at least it wouldn't have any choking hazards [buttons], and then stomped out of the room, leaving a bit bigger now Leo in his new home, the washing basket.

Piper was wiping blue peanut butter off the walls [how it had got there, Annabeth and no idea] and Annabeth stomped up to her. "You can get your best friend changed, here you go."

"Why do I have to-"

"Might I remind you who called Hebe a monsterfucker?"

Piper gulped, "point made."

Annabeth pushed her out of the dining hall and strolled into the kitchen, looking for her salted caramel popcorn that she'd taken to hiding behind the vegetables so that no one would steal it.

She froze in the doorway.

The bin had been dissembled completely, and now there was trash scattered around the floor. Nothing could hide the giant scorch mark in the middle of the kitchen though.

Annabeth sighed, and felt immensely sorry for Leo's mother, and not just because she was dead.

»»————-　★　————-««

Percy wiped the saltwater off his brow and shook his hair out, which dried immediately. He waved goodbye to 'Flat' the hammer head shark and her girlfriend 'Squashed'.

He could smell dinner cooking from the dining hall and trudged grinned at the thought of taco's. Leo was such a great cook, the crew of the Argo II would have died of starvation or type two diabetes by now if he wasn't there.

Someone was watching a very violent movie down the hall, and when Percy trudged over to his girlfriends room, he realised the screams were coming from behind Hazel's door. Ah, she must've found the Scream 6 DVD Jason had bought Piper so she could watch Jenna Ortega run around covered in blood.

Hopefully Annabeth wasn't concentrating too hard on whatever she was working on this time, because when she went big brain mode, there wasn't a lot of kisses for Percy.

She wasn't even in her room, thought there was a shape curled up on her bed, and for a moment Percy wondered if Frank had started sleepwalking as a baby camel again. It was in fact, not a baby camel.

"WHY THE FUCK IF THERE A BABY IN-"

"Fuck? Fuck! Fuck ! Fuck!"

"Fuuuuuuck, you woke up the Leo, dude!"

»»————-　★　————-««

"Hello." Frank said and the baby looked up at him, smiling wide. His heart melted and he picked him up. Curly hair, big brown curious eyes, babbling on and on, won't stop trying to get out of his arms. Yup. This is Leo. He put him down due to him almost dropping him and he immediately went towards a wrench on the floor. Frank ran over and took it from him. "Oh no. You can't have that. Um..."

He picked him up again and started running as he squealed. When he got to Annabeth she looked confused.

"Please help."

------

"How would I know how to help?"

"I don't know you're the smart one!"

"I know how to make buildings and strategize not take care of a baby! How did this even happen?!"

"I don't know, I just found him like this!"

"Dadadadada..."

"Oh no no no I'm not your dad."

"Okay, breathe. We can figure this out. Do you think someone else here knows how to take care of one?"

"Jason?"

"I don't want to stress him out more."

"It's Leo! As a baby! It'd be stressing everyone out!"

"Okay, okay! We all pitch in. Yeah? We all take turns. There's six - eight of us now. So it should be fine."

"Yeah... okay." He started crying.

"Why is there a baby on the ship?!?!?!"

------

This is so stupid!!!!

I edited it.