#and Jace’s adult bulk isn’t helping

[balladofbells]

Clary is giving “She’s a little confused but she got the spirit” energy in this scene

[fireandseaweed]

Coffee Is A Healthy Breakfast || Jason and Percy

Percy and Jason reconnect after the fire.

Percy wiped the soot off of his hands as he finally allowed the last of the water to flow back into the trench. Honestly, exhaustion wasn’t something that he was unfamiliar with, but this was different. His bones suddenly felt weighed down, as if they were lined with lead. Soot coated his hands and as he dusted them off as best he could, he found himself stumbling away from the fire. His apartment was nowhere near here, and Annabeth would be busy helping people, so he headed towards Jason’s apartment. He hadn’t seen his friend, but all he could hope was that he would be there. Someone handed him a water bottle on the way, it helped a little bit. He swallowed half of it and drenched himself in the rest, numbly making his way up the stairs to Jason’s apartment. He could’ve taken the lift, but he didn’t. He arrived at his friend’s door and knocked gently. “Jace?”

The night had been long, the fire terrible, and the exhaustion Jason felt seeped into every fiber of his being. He’d spent the majority of the night suffocating key portions of the blaze to keep it from spreading out again and after such prolonged use of his powers the throbbing headache that lurked behind his eyes threatened to knock him out cold on his kitchen floor. A warm shower had done nothing to help, and even a carefully portioned corner of ambrosia hadn’t made the pain abate. All he wanted to do was turn his phone on silent and sleep for a week straight when a gentle knock fluttered through his door. He was on the verge of not answering when he heard Percy’s voice drift through the wood, and while he could do many things; ignoring his best friend when he was so clearly in pain was not one of them. He threw on a shirt and trudged over to open his apartment, taking in a soot-covered and exhausted Percy, “There’re spare towels under the bathroom sink. Your dark circles have dark circles. Go take a shower and I’ll make coffee… maybe breakfast… but it might just be coffee.”

Breathing quietly, Percy felt his body shake gently from the exhaustion of it all. Shifting from foot to foot, he waited for the door to open before stepping into his friend’s house. “Thanks,” he replied with a deep sigh, he stumbled into the bathroom and allowed warm water to trickle down his back and soak into his hair. He wasn’t even consciously allowing it, he simply didn’t have the energy to keep dry. The shower did him good, he found himself staring at the black water that poured off his body, he watched as the dirt ran down, turning from black, to brown, to clear. The water circled the drain and he finally managed to get out. Walking back into the living room, he turned to Jason and pulled him into a tight hug. “Thanks,” he whispered, “I’m glad you’re alright, I was getting worried that you’d have been hurt. I guess I should’ve known better than to worry about you.”

Listening to the gentle waterfall coming from the shower, Jason pulled out their favorite mugs and started brewing a pot of very strong coffee. Faced with the prospect of actively cooking he found there was a tremor in his hands he couldn’t shake, and instead settled on very shakily slicing up some fruit for them. Before Percy came back Jason managed to get some clean clothes from the bedroom for him, and sat watching the coffee trickle down into the pot with zombie-like attention. He was startled from his reverie by Percy pulling him into a tight hug and Jason returned it, smoothing the hair off Percy’s forehead and squeezing him tightly. “You know me.” he murmured back, “Titans and giants couldn’t finish me off… a little fire couldn’t do too much damage.” He poured them both cups of coffee and gestured to the plate of fruit, “Well… too much damage to me. The damage to the Forum is… considerable.”

Smirking gently, Percy looked at the fruit and coffee in front of them and gingerly sipped his coffee. It was black and bitter, not his usual taste but right now that was good enough for him. He picked up a blueberry and chewed it thoughtfully, blueberries were his favourite normally and yet after seeing something so violently damaging he wasn’t sure that he would ever enjoy their sweet taste again. He knew he was just being dramatic, but irrespective, he had never seen a tragedy of this proportion. “Well, we beat this too, now we need to discover what happened.” Though there was something that told him that this wasn’t his problem, he couldn’t help but want to help. “They’ll be able to rebuild it, it’ll be better and stronger than it was before.” He tried to smile weakly, despite his exhaustion. “We’re okay, Annabeth’s okay, Mrs O’Leary’s okay, things could be worse.”

Already Jason could feel the monumental to-do list building in his head. While the bulk of rebuilding the Forum in its physical form would be left to the sons and daughters of Athena and Hephaestus… there was an undeniable emotional component to rebuilding that he would inevitably be involved in. Lurking behind the to-do list was the nagging thought that buildings don’t just randomly catch on fire… particularly ones built by demigods… but upon further reflection he decided that he was too tired to actually think about that. “Undoubtedly Annabeth and her siblings will leap into an investigative capacity once the full extent of the damage has been assessed.” He pushed his long hair out of his eyes and tied it back, hands still shaking slightly from exertion and exhaustion, “We’re demigods… we should be used to tragedy at this point… but the prospect of rebuilding frankly makes me want to curl up under my bed and hide.” he nodded as Percy talked, chewing on a slice of apple, “Which is the important thing. I don’t think there were any casualties. So that’s the silver lining. Everyone was at the Festival.” A wry chuckle escaped him, “I really thought we could have uneventful adult lives.”

Running his hand through his own hair, Percy shifted gently in his chair and took another long gulp of coffee. He kept forcing himself to eat and drink, small bites, small sips. It was something he’d learned to do. He needed the energy and even if he felt sick forcing himself to keep eating, he couldn’t help but keep going. Chew, swallow, repeat. “I don’t know, Annabeth’s been out of the game for a while and this is a Roman matter, I think that they’ll probably just have the legion handle it for now.” He knew that not everyone held anti-Greek sentiment, but it was the same in here as it was there. Ignorance breeds hatred, and demigods were no different than humans. “Just because our parents are usually the authors behind a Greek or in some cases, Roman tragedy, doesn’t mean that we can’t have normal lives, at least that was what I was telling myself.” He rubbed his eyes and pushed his wet hair out of his eyes once more. “I guess we’ll find out the extent of the damage soon enough, it’s a shame it ruined the festival.”

Jason reached behind him and grabbed the carafe of coffee, pouring them both another mug before setting it back on the counter. “You know… if you guys just…. Poofed and left to go stay with your mom for awhile just to avoid all the shit that’s about to go down for this I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest. You might actually find me in one of your suitcases.” It had been several years since Octavian had kept his poisonous rhetoric against Greeks alive and well but still the sentiment permeated portions of the Legion; no matter how hard Jason fought against it. “It’s all I wanted for us. Five years of normalcy. That’s all. Settle into our adult lives and let the next generation of heroes take the lead but we’re still here.” A long sigh filled the silence, “Yeah. The festival was going so well, too.”

“I thought about it, last night, I thought about grabbing Annabeth and leaving. Letting the new generation of heroes take over and lead.” Percy shrugged gently. “But the truth is, and I’m probably going to sound like Spiderman here, but we’ve got the ability to change things, and we’ve got the ability to help save lives. Then we should do it.” He bit his lip gently, before filling his mouth with fresh, sweet fruit. “Well, we had some normalcy, maybe that is all we get, a brief burst of normalcy and nothing more, but things will settle back into being the way that they were before, there isn’t a prophecy of impending doom, there isn’t a threat as old as time that we’re going to have to travel to Africa to beat this time. It was just an accident, and everything is going to be absolutely fine.” He was sure of it.

“Nobody would have blamed you. Least of all me. I know your Spiderman logic… great power… great responsibility; and you and I are powerful. But we saved the world. We saved the world twice. At what point is our Hero Punchcard full and we can redeem it for a year of peace? At what point can I focus on my studies and writing and you can focus on you and Annabeth starting a real life together.” Jason sighed and held up his hand, “I know I know I’m whining but you’re the only one I can whine to.” He ate more fruit, very slowly feeling life return to his limbs. But as slow as it was going; he couldn’t see himself doing much today. His eyebrow rose slightly, “An accident? That engulfed one of the most important buildings in New Rome in flame when there was nobody around to stop it before it got out of control? I pray you’re right about that. I really do.” But he wasn’t so sure about it.

Shrugging, Percy held up his hands in defeat. “I don’t know Jace,” he replied with a sad sigh, the truth was that he didn’t know when it was going to pan out for them, “but this isn’t about you or me or Annabeth. There are thousands of demigods alive today, probably even millions of them. They’re depending on New Rome to be the safe haven where they can come to get to as close to a normal life as possible. I know I want that more than anything, and that’s why we keep going.” He reaches out and placed a reassuring hand on Jason’s shoulder. “You can whine to me anytime amigo,” he gave him a warm smile before shrugging. “Well what else would it be if not an accident? We don’t have any more enemies left Jace, we beat them all. Gaia, Kronos, Luke, Octavian, they’re all done, somehow we won.” He chewed on another piece of fruit. “And if I’m wrong, then I challenge them to try and interrupt my normal life.”

“I know. And I know underwater with Kymopoleia I took on responsibility for all the millions of their well-being, at least when it comes to their relationships with their parents but Gods Percy, I’m so fucking tired.” Jason looked down at his fists balled on the tabletop, “We were kids. I was left in a park and you ran from a Minotaur and we we fucking kids. We were supposed to play with friends and cheat on tests and kiss girls and instead we fought to save the world.” He was very disappointed in himself to feel the beginnings of angry tears well up in the corner of his eyes, “We didn’t get a childhood, and now we don’t get an adulthood, and I’m just tired. I’m so tired of fixing the gods’ mistakes and the gods’ problems.” He let out a long quivering exhale through pursed lips and looked up at Percy, “We’re demigods, P. There’s always another enemy.”

Percy didn’t move his hand off of his friend’s shoulder. “There is a reason you are the pontifex maximus Jason. It isn’t because you’re a son of Jupiter, it isn’t even because you’re a hero of a prophecy, it’s because you saw injustice and made it your job to fix it. You’re better than any other hero before you, you’re stronger than almost anyone else I have ever met.” He sighed sadly, it was awful that they had to go through this, but if anyone could do it, Jason could. “You’re tired but you’re not done, you’re exhausted but you’re not out, you’ve got this buddy.” He smiled at him, it was easier to hide your own exhaustion when someone else was in need. “We’re not mortals, we’re cut from a godly cloth and that signs us up for everything we didn’t want, but we’re the only ones who can do this.”

They sat in silence for a long moment while Jason focused his breathing, calming himself incrementally until the thin veneer of calm and professionalism he tried to wear as often as possible was back in place. “You’re right, of course. We’re sons of the big three, responsibility for the wellbeing of our extended family falls to us. I just spend so long walking around not being able to say any of that that it threatens to explode if I don’t bitch at someone.” He brought his hand up and squeezed Percy’s hand, sighing. “We have so much work to do, dude. In the city, and in the Legion. Everyone’s going to be on edge after this and you know as the poster children for Greek and Roman cooperation we’re going to have to fucking put out some fires.”

Nodding gently, Percy sighed. This wasn’t a complete disaster but it was hardly what they needed right now. “You’re allowed to bitch about this shit all you want, maybe we should make a group chat with Nico,” he suggested with a laugh. The day that Nico could effectively use a phone was the day that Percy started eating fish again. “You’re gonna be okay, we all will be okay, though there is a very good possibility that we’ll go grey by the time we’re thirty, I swear, I have already found my first grey hair and I am not okay with this.” He sighed gently as he realised that Jason was right, they were going to have to do this together, in an attempt to keep everything on track. “We don’t have to worry,” he said with a smile, “we’re best friends, if we can make it work then the Greeks and the Romans can damn well make it work too.”

Jason couldn’t help but burst out laughing, “I think the only way we’re going to get Nico in a group chat is if we start sending messages by telegram or carrier pigeon.” Nico’s inability to use and unwillingness to learn technology was legendary; and love him dearly though Jason did, it made the Ghost King a hassle to get in contact with. “RIGHT?! They’re starting to show up in my stubble. Luckily I”m a blonde so they blend in pretty well but it’s coming for me and I’m really not on board with it at all. I don’t wanna go gray, I’m too young for that!” Jason looked at Percy over the top of his glasses, “Yeah… we are best friends… but the rest of the Greeks and Romans aren’t nearly as level-headed as we are. But I have faith in you. If you say we’re going to make it work then we are going to make it work!”

Sighing gently, Percy ran his hands over the table in front of him, running a finger nail through the natural grain of the wood he shook his head sadly. “It is a shame that Iris doesn’t support group messaging, because then maybe he’d start listening to me when I tell him that he needs to get a phone.” He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. “You’re getting old my friend,” he said smirking as he thought about the pair of them in wheelchairs, getting old and dying one day, peacefully in their sleep. For demigods, that was a dream that would never come true, or at least for the majority of them. “We have to make it through Jason, I can’t see another disaster like the two that made us famous, the last two just about broke me, I don’t know if I would manage a third one of similar proportions.”

“He has one!” Jason’s voice rose and then broke with a giggle, “Leo and I took him shopping for one forever ago and he’s got one! Whether or not it’s charged or turned on is something entirely outside of my control but he’s got one. Maybe I can talk to Iris about that. She’s a pretty nice lady. She might be all about it.” He heaved a deep sigh, which seemed to be his only method of self-expression these days, “I am getting old. We’re both getting old. We’ll make it through, Perce… whatever it is. We fought giants and titans and gods and we survived… whatever this problem is we can solve it. You me and Annabeth. Just like the good old days.”

“Well, Nico owning a phone is certainly something I hadn’t been expecting. However it is a step in the right direction.” Percy remembered meeting Iris on his way up to Alaska, with the hippy theme in mind he had been a big fan of her. Reaching up, he rubbed his eyes and nodded. Suddenly feeling better he knew that he should get back out there and keep helping. It was his way. “We’ve both been old for a while now,” he replied laughing, “it has been far too many years since we were sixteen.” Smirking gently he finished off a slice of apple and rose from the table. “We’ll work things out, but to get to that point we’ve got to clean up the mess. So with that, I’ve got to get going. I need to find Annabeth and make sure she hasn’t killed anyone for not letting her do things her way.”

“I can’t guarantee he didn’t leave it down at his dad’s house to get devoured by harpies or something… but once upon a time Valdez and I made sure that fucker had a phone.” This was the easy part, sitting in his kitchen in his sweatpants and beat up tank top with Percy. If life was only this and writing and reading Jason could be entirely content; but they both knew that was never going to be the case. “We’ve been old for ten years now. Ancient. Broken and creaky old men… but we just keep on chugging.” He followed suit as Percy rose from the table, following him to the door and pulling him into a tight hug, “We always work things out, and we always clean up messes… it’s what we do. Tell Annabeth I love her and go hide the bodies. Call me later, so I know you haven’t died from exhaustion.”