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manygeese · 5 months ago

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wrote something valgrace again. you can’t stop me I’m a supervillain

~*~

It was a cool summer morning at Camp Half-Blood. The birds were singing, Apollo was riding his chariot across the blue sky, and- wait, was that screaming?

If it was, Jason didn’t hear it. He had just woken up in the Zeus cabin, groggy and grumpy. Usually, he would have been up hours ago, but he had stayed up late with Leo last night. The other boy had been planning something, but Jason didn’t quite catch what it was, as he may or may not have been staring at Leo’s lips.

Oh, who was he kidding. Jason had definitely been staring at Leo’s lips and he had a big, devastating crush on him. Honestly, he should’ve known sooner; with all that time spent laughing at stupid jokes, listening to passionate rants about screwdrivers, and helping assemble mechanic animals, you’d think he would’ve clued in weeks ago.

There was the screaming again. The Stolls must have hidden a speaker somewhere in the cabin. Jason dismissed it, pulled the covers back up, and turned on his side to face the wall.

What he couldn’t dismiss was the voice whispering in his ear. “Jason.”

Jason sat up like he was waking up from a nightmare, only relaxing once he saw who was talking. “Oh my Gods, Leo, why are you here?”

Leo shushed him. “We talked about this last night! I need to hide. Did you clear out enough room under your bed like we planned?” His eyes darted around frantically, but he still had a bright grin on.

Shit. This was what he got for having a stupid crush. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“Damn,” Leo mumbled. “Well. Get out of the bed.”

“Huh?”

“I need to hide somewhere, and since I can’t be under your bed, I’ll have to be on it.”

Jason obeyed, getting up and standing around awkwardly after Leo shimmied under the covers.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” Leo peeked up over the blanket and gestured to the spot next to him.

Jason blushed. This was, once again, what he got for having a stupid crush. He accepted his fate with a sigh and got back in the bed. Trying to look casual, he picked up a book from under his bed and started to read.

He felt Leo cuddle closer to his side. “Hide me better, Superman.”

This was what he got for having a stupid freaking crush.

Jason was snapped out of his reverie by Piper bursting into the room. “Jason Norman Grace.”

“Piper Ethel McLean.”

“Where’d you find that name- the 1940 census?”

“I feel like we’re ignoring the fact that you just called me Norman.”

“Do I look like an eighty year old, Norman?”

“Not particularly.”

“Then do not call me Ethel.” She had murder in her eyes, so he was compelled to listen.

“Alright,” he relented, closing his book with one hand. “What’s the matter, Pipes?”

She groaned and tapped her foot impatiently. “Do you have any idea where Leo is?”

Jason made a deliberate attempt not to look to his left, where the boy in question was lying still. Luckily, from where Piper was standing, she couldn’t see the lump next to him in bed. “No. Why?”

“Did you not hear the screaming coming from the Aphrodite cabin?” She gestured outside exasperatedly. “The little shit activated a glitter bomb in there and it got Drew. It’s gonna take a blessing from Aphrodite to get all the sparkles out of her hair.” She crossed her arms and breathed out a laugh. “I mean, I’m proud of him, but I’m also contractually obligated to find him and bring him in for execution.”

Jason hummed thoughtfully. “Try Bunker Nine.”

She shot some finger guns at him. “Thanks, Norman!” She darted out of the door, presumably to find Leo and kick his ass.

“No problem,” he called after her. After he was sure she was out of hearing distance, he elbowed Leo in where he estimated his ribs would be. “They’re gonna kill you, you know that, right?” He hissed.

Leo giggled and popped his head out from under the comforter. “I’m prepared to sacrifice myself to defend the honor of my cabin,” he said as he saluted.

“What’d they ever do to you?”

Leo rolled his eyes and sat up. “Do you ever listen to Piper and I when we gossip? Seriously. This has been going on for weeks.”

“Sorry,” he said truthfully. “I’ll listen next time.”

“It’s okay, man.” Leo patted him on the shoulder. “Basically, at the start of Summer, the Aphrodite cabin stole Jake’s screwdriver. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but Jake really loves that fucking screwdriver, so we weren’t gonna let it slide.”

He went on and on- about how he and his siblings had retaliated by stealing Mitchell’s hairbrush, how the Aphrodite cabin teamed up with the Hermes cabin to paint the forge pink, and how the Hephaestus cabin melted down their rival’s jewelry to make an evil barbie that dyed people’s hair barf green and spat acid. After they released it into the other cabin, Lacy had walked around looking like a deep sea creature all week.

But the biggest prank so far was the one the Aphrodite cabin pulled last week. They had snuck into the forge when everybody was sleeping and rearranged every single tool they had. When the children of Hephaestus got there early in the morning, they couldn’t find any of the right tools and spent five hours putting them back in the way they were used to.

“There’s gonna be multiple stages- this is why we had to stay up so late last night- and the glitter bombs were only the first. Notice how I said glitter bombs, plural.” Leo grinned mischievously. Jason couldn’t help but return it.

“But where are you gonna hide out all day?” Jason asked. “I think they’re getting out the guillotine right now.”

Leo laughed. “Nyssa and the others have been battening down the hatches ever since Aphrodite’s last stunt. There’s a code on the door now, Celestial Bronze covers on the windows, and bear traps in front of every possible entrance. It’s practically a bomb shelter now! Once the final stage of the plan is in motion, I’ll be able to take cover in there with little to no resistance.”

Jason furrowed his brow. “But where will you be until then?”

Leo snuggled back into the sheets. “I think you already know the answer to that, Jace.”

~*~

The second stage of the plan involved more screaming.

“There it is,” Leo noted, waking up from his nap. “The paint sprinklers.”

Jason looked at him incredulously. “The paint sprinklers?”

“We replaced the water in the pipes with thinned paint early this morning. The plan was for Harley to sneak in while the enemy’s at the lake, light an itty bitty fire to activate the fire prevention systems, and the endgame is a cabin covered in acrylic.”

Leo’s hair was smushed adorably into his face, pillow lines on his cheek. The late morning light filtered through the sunroof and lit up the frizzy edges of his curls. It made him look like a bronze statue or an angel.

Whoops. That was lovesick Jason talking, not… actually, he was fairly certain every part of Jason was lovesick Jason now.

“Uh. Um. When will the third stage be… commencing?” Jason stammered eloquently.

“You’ll know,” Leo answered ominously, nodding with certainty. “Trust me. You’ll know.”

~*~

It was 7:30 in the evening and Leo had been in the Zeus cabin all day.

Piper had been in and out every so often, asking after Leo, getting increasingly frustrated yet amused.

“Norman. I am begging you. Please tell me where Leo is,” She implored while they ate dinner. Leo had skipped to avoid being caught by the camp-wide manhunt.

“I’m telling you Ethel, I have no idea,” he lied straight through his teeth.

When he got back, Leo greeted him with a big smile. “Hey, Superman! How was dinner? Any warrants out for my arrest?”

“It was good. Most of the Aphrodite cabin wasn’t there. They were standing watch instead,” he said, tossing a protein bar and a bag of potato chips at the other boy. “Got these for you.”

Leo caught the bag, but the bar hit him lightly in the forehead. “Aw, thanks, man. You didn’t have to do that.”

Jason was about to respond when another round of screaming erupted from outside. When he peeked out of the window, it was utter chaos.

For once, it wasn’t the Aphrodite cabin doing the screaming. It was everybody else. Lacy was serenading a Demeter kid, who was awkwardly enjoying it. Mitchell was gazing lovingly at some other boy from the bushes. Drew tackled Clarisse to the ground and declared her undying love to her. The rest of them chased random campers around like they were piranhas. Oddly enough, their eyes were all pink.

“Aerosolized love potion. Temporary, but potent,” Leo explained when he saw Jason’s confused and horrified look. He shuffled out of bed and pulled two gas masks out of his belt, handing one to Jason. “Take this if you want to live.”

Jason handled it awkwardly. “Why do I need this? I’m staying here.”

Leo laughed as he put on his mask. “You’re coming with me, man. Unless you wanna be executed as a traitor?”

Jason shook his head.

“Then you need it. It serves two purposes- one, keeps you from breathing too much of the love potion in, and two, keeps your face hidden so they don’t fall for you.” He took the mask Jason was holding out of his hands, then putting it on for him.

Leo laced his hand in Jason’s, leading him to the doorway with his free hand on the handle. “We’re gonna need to book it as soon as we’re out there, got it? On three.” Jason nodded.

“One.” Drew yelled in the background.

“Two.” Something crashed. Maybe a window?

“Three!” The door flew open, and the two boys ran straight towards the Hephaestus cabin through the chaos. Leo hopped over a lamenting son of Aphrodite, while Jason nearly tripped on the poor guy. He muttered an apology as he was pulled along to the cabin porch.

Leo punched in a code next to the bank safe door, which both unlocked it and disabled the giant bear trap in front of it. All the same, Jason stepped over it apprehensively.

The door clanged shut behind them as they entered the cabin, shutting them in with Nyssa and Jake, who were there to greet them. He watched as Leo took off his mask, shaking out his hair like a wet dog. It still looked amazing.

Leo turned his eyes to Jason, a small smirk gracing his face. He wordlessly helped him take off his mask. Honestly, Jason had forgotten he had it on.

A scoff made him painfully aware that Leo’s siblings were in the room. “Leo,” Nyssa sighed, “why’d you bring boy wonder?”

“He’s an accomplice. Once Piper finds out he hid me all day, there’s gonna be a manhunt for him, too.”

“Fine, but he’s staying in your room,” Jake said with a wink. Leo blushed a pretty shade of sunset orange, but nodded.

Nyssa got up and pulled on a string, which made all the lights turn off. “Alright, everybody,” she announced, “it’s tinker time. Retire to your bedrooms. Come up with some prank ideas in case Aphrodite doesn’t accept defeat. Have fun.”

Leo pushed some buttons on the wall, which brought up a human-sized capsule. He gestured towards it as it popped open, revealing a bed, a fridge, and even a TV. “After you, my lady.”

Jason blushed, although it was probably more rosey pink than the warm red Leo had on. Gods, why was he still thinking about that?

He clambered into the bed, which began to lower into a bigger room underground. There was a cork board taking up a whole wall, with sticky notes and Polaroids tacked onto it. A desk was in the corner, with scattered blueprints all over it, plus several notebooks labeled “LEO VALDEZ’S AWESOME IDEAS”.

As soon as he got out of the bed, it rose back up and returned with Leo. He scooted off the mattress nonchalantly. “Um, so, this is my room. Make yourself at home.”

~*~

It was the middle of the night and Jason was trying, unsuccessfully, to sleep.

Leo had been tinkering and scribbling in his notebook all night, with a small lamp on in the corner of the desk. Meanwhile, Jason took up nearly the whole bed, even when he laid on his side.

“Hey, Leo,” Jason whispered, getting up to lean on his elbows, facing the other boy. “Go to bed.”

Leo eyed him warily. “No, no! Um, you can have the bed, man,” he laughed nervously. Jason could see the bags under his eyes.

Jason sighed and got up, approaching Leo silently. He scooped Leo up and carried him to the bed.

“Jason? What are you doing?” Leo whined, wrapping his arms around Jason’s neck anyways.

“We’re going to bed,” Jason stated, lying back down on his side and hugging Leo close, even as he squirmed. Jason just shut his eyes, trying to fall asleep, but he got the feeling of being watched.

Sure enough, when he opened one of his eyes back up to check on the other boy, he was met with big, brown eyes with a foreign feeling behind them. “Hey, Leo.”

“Hey, Jason.” A tired smile grew on Leo’s face. “Can I tell you something?”

Jason nodded.

“I think I love you.”

Jason’s eyes widened.

“I know it’s weird, and kinda coming out of left field, but you’re. You’re just… so nice and kind and thoughtful and amazing. Y’know?”

Jason’s breath quickened.

“I couldn’t’ve had this much fun today without you. Or planned it, either. Whenever I’m with you, you make me want to be better. To do better and to make better stuff and all that.”

Jason could feel his heart racing. Could Leo feel it? He hoped he could.

“Sorry. Um, I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. Probably breathed in some of that love potion, huh?”

Jason was hit by the undeniable urge to wax poetic about Leo’s eyes, his hair, his crooked grin, the way he lit up when he got an idea, or how his voice sounded when he rambled. So he did.

“Does… does this mean-”

“That I love you too? Yeah, Leo, it does.”

Jason had a feeling that he wouldn’t wake up groggy or grumpy the next morning, as long as he had Leo in his arms.

#leo valdez #jason grace #valgrace #piper mclean #drew tanaka #lacy pjo #mitchell pjo #heroes of olympus #nyssa barrera #jake mason #harley pjo #aphrodite cabin #hephaestus cabin #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus fanfic #fanfic

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demigod-shenanigans · 21 days ago

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Summary: Under different circumstances, Leo would have been ecstatic about the prospect of getting to travel Reino del Sol with Piper for a week and a half.

The fact that it was due to the Sunbearer Trials, which would end with a fellow semidiós getting sacrificed, put a slight damper on his mood, though.

With both him and Piper being Jades, the chances of either of them being picked as a competitor was basically nonexistent, which would have helped… if it hadn’t been for the fact that Jason being chosen was basically a given.

Written for @lost-trio-week day 4: Godly Parent or Power Swap

Word Count: ~6K

Rating: Teen and Up

…is this me cheating on the prompt because while it’s technically a godly parent/power swap, it’s a power swap that takes place in a completely different universe? Maybe. Will that stop me? Probably not

Just to be safe: TW for mentions of human sacrifice If you’ve read tsbt, you’ll know what I mean. If you have not, think of it sort of in a similar vein as the HoO prophecy, where Leo and Jason know one of them has to die so the world won’t end.

You don’t need to have read the Sunbearer Duology to understand this fic! If you have, you’ll have some extra context for some of the things that are happening, but if you haven’t, you should still be alright!

This fic has a whole bunch of Leo and Piper friendship, a decent amount of valgrace, and Nyssa and Harley also make a bit of an appearance at the beginning, which I didn’t technically plan for but am not upset about!

———

Leo had been anxious about the upcoming Sunbearer Trials for a while now.

The trials were a decennial thing, and at fifteen years old, this was only the second trial Leo was around to witness.

Ten years ago, he’d been too small to really understand what was going on. He’d known the very basics: that there were three kinds of gods, and one kind—the Obsidians—was dangerous and wanted to enslave all of humanity. That the deity Sol, or what remained of them, was the only thing keeping the Obsidians at bay during the day, and that the sun stones kept them away at night.

But the power of the sun stones was fragile, and so once every decade, they had to be recharged. That was what the trials were for.

Leo hadn’t really understood the horror of the trials, then.

In his defense, he’d been five. Human sacrifice wasn’t really at the forefront of your mind at that age.

It was the only thing on his mind now, squished into a trajinera with the priests and his siblings as they made their way to Sol Temple.

His colorful wings twitched anxiously, repeatedly hitting his older sister Nyssa in the face.

“Sorry,” he muttered for what was probably the fifth time in the last hour.

She waved him off, just like she had that morning when his little shaving cream on Jell-O prank had worked a little too well.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Usually, Nyssa wouldn’t have reacted this well. Leo knew his sister loved him to death, but that included her wanting to strangle him half the time. She’d never been a particular fan of his pranks or his general sense of humor. And, daughter of Quetzal or not, no one was a fan of getting a bunch of feathers in their mouth.

But Nyssa knew why Leo was anxious, and she was giving him a lot of grace because of it.

“He’s going to be okay. You know that, right?” she asked, gently squeezing his arm. Her huge brown wings, which had remained neatly folded at her side until now, protectively wrapped around one of his shoulders.

“Oh, please, I’m not worried,” Leo scoffed, self-consciously wiggling out of his sister’s winged embrace. “Why would I be worried? Jason’s, like, an obnoxiously perfect hero. He’s a literal poster child of a Gold semidiós. There’s no way he’ll lose.”

Despite the fact that it was normal and even expected for Gold semidioses due to their hero status, Leo still couldn’t believe there were posters and trading cards of Jason these days. Him and Piper had given their friend endless shit for it. Leo had Jason’s least favorite poster up in his room purely for the joy of seeing him cringe whenever he came to visit.

Not that Jason got the chance to visit a lot, busy as he was at the stupid hero academy. Maybe once he was done with school. If he-

Leo banished the thought. Jason would be fine. He’d be fine. He was ranked third in his class for a reason. There wouldn’t be bets about him participating and winning if it wasn’t obvious to everyone Jason had a very real shot at coming in first. He wouldn’t lose. He couldn’t.

“You could still tell him how you feel, you know,” Nyssa said, nudging him gently. “Give him a kiss for good luck.”

“I will push you off this boat,” Leo hissed, blushing furiously.

“Right, that’ll inconvenience me greatly, considering I can fly.” Nyssa suddenly looked past him, craning her neck. “We’re coming up on the lake! Let’s see if we can spot the trajinera from Ciudad Afortuna. Surely the fact that you get to spend a whole week and a half exploring Reino del Sol with Piper will cheer you up.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “You just wanna look for Drew.”

“Well, it’s the same boat, so.” Nyssa shrugged. “You coming?”

He would never understand Nyssa’s obsession with Piper’s mean older sister, but she wasn’t wrong about the Piper thing. If it hadn’t been for the likelihood of Jason competing in the trials, getting to hang out and travel with his best friend in the entire world would have been a dream come true for Leo. He hadn’t seen Piper in months, which was absolutely criminal. He couldn’t wait to finally hug her again.

Leo turned to follow his sister to the front of the boat—there was a technical term for it, but Leo wasn’t the semidiós of boating, so he didn’t know it—but before he could, a little hand grabbed his sleeve, yanking on it so hard that it almost ripped.

He looked down to see the offending hand belonged to his little brother Harley. His anxious expression made Leo’s stomach churn.

“Be there in a sec!” he called after Nyssa before turning to their brother, who didn’t look like he planned to let go of him ever again. “Alright, Nestling, I get it. These outfits are kind of uncomfortable. I’d still appreciate it if you didn’t rip off my sleeve, though. You know mamá spent way too much money on those.”

“Yeah.” Harley dropped his hand from his brother’s sleeve. “I miss mamá.”

Leo relaxed marginally. Was that all his brother had wanted to talk about? The fact that he was feeling a little homesick? Leo could handle that.

He was sure their diosa mom would shield Harley from the end of the trials, the way she’d done for Nyssa and Leo during the last ones, but he still hadn’t looked forward to having the whole “the person who loses the trials gets sacrificed to recharge the sun stones”-conversation with an eight year old.

“Well, you were gonna have to leave home one of these days, unless you want me to call you Nestling forever.” Leo ruffled his brother’s hair. “We’ll see her again after the trials are over. You know the only mortals who can come to Sol Temple are priests. Besides, even if she could, mamá’s got a big project at work. She can’t just ditch her team to come with us. They’d be lost without her.”

That was the downside of having a genius inventor for a mortal mom—whether she liked it or not, work kept her pretty busy.

It had plenty of upsides, too: people said the name Esperanza Valdez with almost as much reverence as they did diosa Quetzal’s, which meant Leo could get away with damn near everything. Besides, her efforts to provide sustainable tech that protected Quetzlan wildlife was the reason his moms had met, so he supposed he couldn’t complain too much.

“I guess.” Harley huffed, blowing his curls out of his face. “That’s stupid, though.”

“Adult responsibilities are almost always stupid. That’s why you need me to set a terrible example.” Leo grinned. “So, were you pulling my sleeve out of boredom or did you actually want something?”

Harley mumbled something under his breath, so quietly that Leo didn’t catch a word he was saying.

“Sorry, hermanito, I think the light breeze drowned you out,” Leo teased, looking down at his little brother. “Let’s try that again, yeah?”

Harley didn’t meet his eyes, and he still spoke quietly, but it was loud enough for Leo to hear this time.

“Sol won’t pick you and Nyssa for the trials, right?”

The idea was so absurd that Leo burst out laughing.

“We’re Jades, Harls. Jade semidioses don’t get picked for the trials. That’s not a thing.”

“Are you sure?” Harley wrung his hands, looking unconvinced. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“‘Course I’m sure, Nestling. The trials are for heroes that get put on posters. Not us.”

“But you saved someone yesterday. Doesn’t that make you a hero?”

Leo snorted.

“I barely helped, and it very nearly made me Leo flambé.” He cringed just thinking about it. “The only thing I really managed was to add myself to the list of people Jason and Percy had to save. Brotherly word of advice: take my bad example when it comes to funny pranks and skipping school. Do not try to match my shitty impulse control. It’s not worth it.”

Leo had made Jason vow not to tell Piper he’d had to carry him out of a burning building. She’d never let him live that down.

“Fine,” Harley agreed, finally cracking a smile. “We’re almost at the waterfall! I wanna see if I can stick my hand in!”

He didn’t give Leo a chance to reply. He just started pulling on his sleeve again, dragging him towards the front of the boat.

Leo laughed.

~~~~

To head priest Hedge’s credit, he tried his best to keep Leo in the moving line of people, yanking on his arm and yelling in an entirely unpriestly manner whenever Leo stopped to look around for Jason and Piper. Leo had seen the boat from San Fuego—it was hard to overlook, giant ridiculous eyesore that it was due to both of Jason’s moms being awful show-offs—but Jason had arrived before he had and was already gone by the time Leo and his siblings had disembarked.

Unfortunately for Hedge, Leo spotted Piper in the crowd, at which point all of Quetzlan’s priests combined wouldn’t have been enough to keep him in line.

They were rushing towards each other the moment their eyes met, crowds and rules and yelling head priests be damned.

“Leo!”

“Piper!”

He slammed into his best friend’s chest with so much force that they nearly both toppled over, arms and wings wrapping around her simultaneously with no regards for the crowd surrounding them.

Several people cursed at him.

“Watch it, Bird Boy,” Drew scoffed, which Leo decided immediately would earn her more feathers to the face if he ever decided he was ready to let go of Piper again.

Piper hugged him back just as fiercely. She was trembling a little, and she’d looked strangely subdued when he’d spotted her—it had immediately been obvious that Leo wasn’t the only one anxious about their little Jason situation—but now her face split into a huge grin.

“I missed you so much,” Piper said, pressing her chin to the top of Leo’s head.

Menace that she was, she loved reminding him that she was slightly taller than him, even when they were being affectionate.

Leo didn’t mind too much. One of these days, he would have another growth spurt, and he’d take his revenge then.

“Right back at you. Keeping us apart so long should be illegal,” Leo announced, holding her even tighter.

“Can you two quit flirting and get a move on? You’re blocking the road,” Drew complained, earning disgusted expressions from both of them.

“We’re not flirting!” they protested simultaneously.

It wasn’t the first time someone had made that assumption, but it had never been like that between Leo and Piper. Piper was pretty sure she didn’t even like guys, and besides, assuming that two people were dating just because they were affectionate with each other was stupid, anyway.

“Just admit you get absolutely zero hugs and leave us alone!” Leo yelled back at her. He would have been kind of sad for Drew if she hadn’t been such an ass.

“I honestly don’t really care what’s going on between you two weirdos, but please just get a move on. You’re holding up the line,” Drew complained, gesturing to the people around them that had to go out of their way to skirt around Leo and Piper’s little reunion party. “You can get back to whatever this is when we get inside.”

“Killjoy,” Piper grumbled, but she pulled her arm back, careful of her azabache bracelet the way she always was when they hugged.

The choice of jewelry had confused Leo at first—children of Mala Suerte didn’t generally need azabache bracelets to ward off bad luck, since their dad’s powers didn’t affect them the way it did other people.

But he’d quickly learned that her dad wasn’t the reason Piper wore it.

“Aw, Pipes, really? Don’t you think it’s time for me to get another haircut? Personally, I feel like my hair is getting kinda long.”

“Hardy har har.”

Leo stuck his tongue out at her.

When they’d first become friends, the jewelry had ended up so utterly tangled in Leo’s curls that Hedge had had to cut it out with scissors, taking a bunch of Leo’s then chest-long hair with it.

Leo hadn’t been mad about it—it had been around the time that it had really started to click that the whole “being a girl”-thing wasn’t going to work out for him, but despite the fact that he’d hated his long hair, he’d not quite managed to work up the courage to ask his mamá to cut it.

Piper had been kind enough to solve this problem for him not even an hour into their friendship—albeit not entirely on purpose—and they’d been inseparable ever since.

…well, slightly less physically inseparable than they’d been with Piper’s hand stuck in his hair, but still.

Leo looked back on that moment fondly for a variety of reasons, but as Piper’s best friend of five years, it was still his sacred duty to tease her about the incident every now and again.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Leo decided with a sigh, waiting for Piper’s nod before he started moving again.

They walked side by side, letting the large crowd of semidioses and priests push them towards the temple. It was a relief to not be doing this on his own—to have Piper there to distract him from the dread he’d been feeling all week.

They caught each other up on everything they’d missed during their time apart.

Sure, they talked every chance they got, but it wasn’t the same when they couldn’t actually see each other.

Hedge directed suspicious glances their way every few seconds.

“Is he still mad about what happened the last time I visited?” Piper asked, eyes glinting with mischief.

“Yeah. Not sure why, though!” Leo grinned. “It’s not like he was using the boat when we borrowed it. And besides, it looked so much prettier when we returned it!“

“No appreciation for the arts.” Piper shook her head, making her expression overly grave. “It’s sad, really.”

“Truly.”

“Have you seen Jason yet?” she asked once they’d made it inside the temple.

They were surrounded by chatter and lively music, which seemed at odds with the fact that the trials were essentially someone’s very fancy funeral, but what did Leo know?

“Nope! I saw his awful boat after we docked—which is in desperate need of a Leo and Piper makeover, by the way—but so far Goldie remains MIA.”

“Gods, yeah, you can tell Beryl really wanted to show off.” Piper rolled her eyes. “I hate that woman.”

“Tell me about it.” Leo gritted his teeth. “It’s like her and Lumbre are in constant competition for the position of world’s worst mom. Jason’s barely gotten a day off from the academy all year, and even when he has, half the time Beryl was hogging him for bragging purposes.”

“I still can’t believe she made him miss your birthday.” Piper scowled. “Have you gotten to see him at all lately?”

Leo hesitated. He really didn’t want to tell her about the fact that he’d had to be saved from his own dumbassery after he’d heroically locked himself and the person he was trying to help in a walk-in freezer, but he knew she’d pick up on it if he lied to her, and that was just bound to result in him getting grilled.

“…sort of,” he admitted. “There was a fire in Quetzlan yesterday. Jason and Percy dropped by to help. I did briefly see him, then.”

“I heard about that. Were you in the area when it happened? Did anyone get hurt?”

“A few people got treated for smoke inhalation. Nothing too bad.” If he’d been one of those people… well, Piper didn’t need to know that. “If you’re wondering if I know how he’s dealing with this whole situation… not really, unfortunately. You know what he’s like. He doesn’t talk about this shit.”

“Maybe he won’t get picked,” Piper said, which Leo found awfully optimistic considering it came from the daughter of the god of bad luck. “I mean, he’s not ranked first, right? Maybe Sol will decide someone else is better suited.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Leo agreed, briefly letting himself imagine a scenario where he and Piper got to spend the next two weeks getting Jason in trouble. Realistically, he knew it wouldn’t happen, but it was a very nice thought regardless.

Leo craned his neck, making another attempt to try and spot Jason in the crowd.

It would have been easier if he’d used his wings to get a better vantage point, but he didn’t want to draw that much attention to himself, especially not with all the reporters around. He didn’t really care to answer stupid questions about his mamá or the fire or what he thought Jason’s chances of getting stabbed to death were. Besides, considering the odds of him and Piper pissing someone off during the course of the event were astronomical—though whether it would be on purpose or by accident was anyone’s guess—he didn’t want to risk photographic evidence.

Leo didn’t manage to find Jason this time, either. He spotted a few other Gold semidioses, though.

Between Jason’s stories from school and the fact that Leo had seen several of them on the news, he at least vaguely knew who most of them were, despite the fact that he hadn’t met many of them in person.

Percy and Annabeth clearly did not care to beat the power couple allegations, the way their arms were linked. From what Leo had seen of them on the news, he wasn’t surprised they both had Jason beat in the rankings.

Water and lightning were a terrifying combination, and Leo was glad he’d never have to face them in combat the way Jason did.

For personal reasons, Leo still thought Jason’s powers were much cooler, though.

A little way off, he spotted two of Guerrero’s youngest kids. Frank was chatting with a girl Leo only very vaguely recognized. As per usual, Clarisse was busy scowling at anyone in the general vicinity.

Suddenly, Piper nudged him. “No wonder we couldn’t find Jason. Look.”

He directed his attention towards where she was pointing, cringing at the sight.

Two semidiose reporters whose names Leo refused to remember out of pure spite had cornered Jason and were shoving cameras in his face. He was clearly trying his best to keep it together, but from the furrow in his brow and the way his lip was twitching, Leo figured he was a breath away from losing it.

Jason’s older sister Thalia, who was almost as famous for her short fuse as she was for her hero work, looked like desperately longed to set someone on fire.

“You wanna run a distract and extract mission before Thals kills someone?” he asked, already knowing Piper’s answer from the way she was scowling.

“Obviously. As much as I’d love to see her punch a reporter, I don’t think it’d help Jason much.”

“So, what’s the plan? You wanna try and test your powers again?” he suggested carefully. “Make them trip on their shoelaces or something?”

Piper shook her head, glaring intently at the floor tiles. “You know that’s not how it works,” she said very quietly.

He didn’t, actually. Neither did Piper. That was sort of the crux of the issue.

Unlike Drew, whose whole thing was warding off bad luck, Piper’s powers caused it. This could have been pretty cool, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d never been able to control said powers. Bad things just tended to happen around her, whether she wanted them to or not.

The bracelet helped, but it wasn’t a perfect fix. Leo’s hair hadn’t been the first or only victim of Piper’s bad luck.

He knew it was a touchy subject. Maybe he should have stopped asking about it altogether. But a part of Leo was still hopeful that one day, Piper’s powers would come around and actually be a good thing.

Maybe the fact that his feathers had changed last year, finally catching up with his gender and taking on the blue and green colors of a proper male quetzal, had made him a stupid optimist.

It was easier to be a stupid optimist, he supposed, when the worst thing you had to deal with on a daily basis was everyone knowing your moms and people being a little weird about your wings, instead of a dead mortal dad and people around you blaming you for every little thing that went wrong in their lives.

“Sorry. Forget I said anything.” He squeezed her hand, then let go of her so he could take off his backpack. “Let’s do it the old-fashioned way instead. How do you feel about a feathers and paint operation?”

Piper looked up at him. When she saw what he pulled from his bag—a little surprise he’d technically prepared to get back at Octavian for snitching on them after their last prank, but that would work just fine here—her lips slowly curled into a smile.

~~~~

The bad news about this strategy was that Leo’s bird friends were maybe getting a little too savvy at stealing things. The good news, well… it would be hard for the stupid reporters to harass anyone with a camera they no longer had. Also, Piper was great with distractions, and there was nothing that cheered her up quite like throwing paint bombs did.

Suddenly, the stupid reporters had a lot of things to worry about that weren’t the Lumbre siblings.

Before Jason knew what hit him, Leo had grabbed his hand and pulled him into the nearest corridor, running like hell.

“What the-” he asked, letting himself be pulled along despite his obvious confusion. Then his entire face lit up. “Leo?”

“At your service,” Leo joked, stopping once they’d rounded the next corner and bowing dramatically. “Piper’s gonna catch up with us in a second,” he told him. Before he got the chance to say anything else—“hello”, maybe, or “are you okay?”—Jason had scooped him up in the world’s tightest hug.

As was expected from a semidiós with fire powers, he radiated warmth. A hug from Jason always felt like being wrapped in a heated blanket. He smelt a little like an evening campfire. His curls brushed Leo’s forehead. It would have been so easy to reach out and run his hands through Jason’s hair…

Before Leo could do anything stupid, Piper rounded the corner, her delighted laughter echoing down the hall. The front of her shirt was absolutely splattered with paint.

“That was amazing. You should have seen their faces,” she giggled. The somber expression she’d worn earlier had been thoroughly wiped off her face.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” Jason admitted, and he and Leo simultaneously untangled one arm to pull Piper into their group hug, collateral damage via paint be damned. Leo’s mamá would probably forgive him. “Another second of being grilled by them and they’d have gotten great pictures of me having a panic attack in the middle of the hall.”

“You’d die without us, probably,” Leo joked, squeezing Jason’s shoulder. “But I’m pretty sure Thalia would have punched the reporters’ lights out before letting that happen.”

“I’m not sure which one of our moms would have killed us faster if that had happened,” Jason replied, chewing on the scar on his lip. He said it in a joking tone, but he still looked a little shaken.

This didn’t exactly surprise Leo. Jason liked helping people—always had. But he’d never dealt with the public attention he got from hero work especially well.

Half the reason Leo and Piper had first befriended Jason was that it had always been blatantly obvious he didn’t deal with people well. At every ceremony the dioses and semidioses attended together, Jason had stood around either alone or clinging to his older sister’s skirts. Large groups of people tended to seriously overwhelm him.

He’d been okay while he still had Thalia, but things had gone from bad to worse when she’d graduated and started missing ceremonies because of her assignments.

Some four years ago, Piper and Leo had seen Jason standing beside a sour-faced priestess that was clearly less than thrilled to be demoted to babysitter for the day and had promptly decided that they were adopting him into their friend group, whether he liked it or not.

And, well, the rest was history.

“Have your parents been giving you a hard time about the trials?” Piper asked, expression fierce. “I’m not opposed to paint bombing a goddess if the situation warrants it.”

Jason laughed.

“Thanks, but I don’t think you getting incinerated would help,” he told her. Piper gently kicked him in the leg. “Hey!”

“I’m with Pipes here. Do not underestimate her skill to sneakily paint bomb people,” Leo tutted. Jason raised an eyebrow, gesturing at Piper’s paint-covered suit. “…current situation notwithstanding.”

“Traitor,” Piper complained, sticking her tongue out at Leo.

“It’s just… Thalia ranked second in her trials, despite being the youngest participant,” Jason said quietly. “I don’t know what would happen if Sol didn’t pick me for the trials at all.”

“Oh yeah, having to put up with Piper and me for two weeks would just be horrible. Way worse than having to fight for your life,” Leo teased, though he knew what Jason was getting at. Jason already put a lot of pressure on himself, and coming from a long line of Sunbearers and having his strict as hell diosa mother as his principal definitely didn’t help.

Jason opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, someone cleared their throat behind them.

Leo turned.

His mother’s head priest was standing there, his arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

“So that’s where you three ran off to.”

“Hedge! Hey! Fancy meeting you here,” Piper said cheerfully, giving him her widest grin. “How’s your wife?”

Hedge’s expression softened marginally. He loved to claim he didn’t like Piper all that much—he said it was because she got Leo into too much trouble, though objectively said trouble originated from Leo at least sixty percent of the time—but in truth, it was obvious he’d always had a soft spot for her.

“Mellie is great. But do not think you can distract me from doing my job right now. It’s almost time for the ceremony. I don’t know what you Fledgelings were thinking, but-” Hedge paused, taking in their outfits. “Why in Sol’s name are you three covered in paint?”

~~~~

An emergency cleaning session later, the three of them headed up the stairs towards the altar together.

Leo’s stomach rolled. He’d been the happiest person alive upon seeing his two best friends again, but his cheerful mood had begun to abate as they ascended, and seeing the altar thoroughly killed it. The trials began and ended here. Even if it wouldn’t be Jason—Leo quietly prayed to his mother and Sol and any other deity that might listen that it wouldn’t be Jason—someone would die here soon. He felt sick just thinking about it.

“If you’d all gather around, we’ll start with the ceremony,” Diosa Luna announced.

She was the goddess of the moon, as well as Sol’s high priestess. Because they couldn’t be around to do it, she’d been in charge of the trials since they’d taken place for the first time, communicating with Sol all throughout and making sure their will was heard as best as it could be.

Leo squeezed Jason’s hand one last time before they separated.

Then Jason went to stand with his mother and sister.

Reyna—the one proper friend Jason had managed to make at hero school—looked from the remnants of paint on Jason’s uniform to Leo and Piper. She raised an eyebrow, but she said nothing.

Leo never quite knew what to make of her, though he supposed the fact that Jason was friends with her meant she couldn’t be all that bad.

The same could not be said for his classmate Octavian, who was openly scowling at Leo and Piper, and not just because they were late. There were still Golds who heavily frowned upon Jason “lowering himself” to be friends with two Jades, and Octavian had always made it blatantly obvious that he was one of them.

“Jackass,” Leo muttered under his breath, and Piper snorted, pulling him along until they reached their respective families.

“You guys look like you had fun,” Nyssa commented, giving them an amused look.

“We did,” Leo confirmed, but he felt nothing as he said it. He didn’t even look at his sister. Instead, his eyes found Jason’s across the room.

The dioses were standing behind their children, most giving them encouraging looks and nods. Quetzal ruffled Leo’s feathers.

“You’ll be alright,” she reassured him gently.

“Yeah, I know,” Leo replied, sounding braver than he felt.

He was a Jade. Like he’d told Harley, Sol didn’t pick Jades for the trials. They were only here as a formality.

But there was still something nerve-wracking about standing around the altar, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Most people wouldn’t have been thrilled to be standing so close to the god of bad luck right now, but Leo was thankful. It meant he got to have Piper by his side for this, which made things a million times less miserable.

If he’d wanted to, he could have reached out and given her hand a squeeze, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit how afraid he felt.

Jason was still looking at him, smiling encouragingly.

Luna gave a whole speech about fortune and sacrifice and the role of the future Sunbearer, but Leo wasn’t really listening. He was looking at Jason across the altar—at his anxious stance and his smile—and trying desperately not to think about him ending up on said altar, his eyes empty and his warm skin growing horribly cold as golden blood dripped from the sacrificial dagger.

Leo’s mother squeezed his shoulder with warm fingers.

“You don’t need to worry about Jason,” she told him gently. “He will do just fine.”

Leo still felt nauseous. When Luna asked the Dioses to present their eligible children, he mechanically stepped forward—Nyssa to his left, Piper to his right. He briefly glanced back to see his mother gathering an obviously anxious Harley up in her arms, soothing him to the best of her abilities.

They all gathered around the Sol Stone. It was unnervingly quiet. Then, the stone began to hum and glow, which Leo immediately decided was worse.

A moment passed. Then, there was a flash of light. Sol had chosen the first competitor.

Leo turned to look. A sunburst crown had appeared on Annabeth’s head. The golden metal glinted dully.

No one was exactly shocked that Annabeth had been picked. Her father, Tormentoso, rumbled in approval. Annabeth herself tried to seem all calm and collected as she adjusted the crown on her head, but it was obvious she was thrilled that she’d not only been chosen but had been chosen before anyone else.

She grinned over at Percy like she’d just won some sort of competition between them.

Percy was the next person Sol chose, which also wasn’t surprising.

The next two choices were the two children of Guerrero Leo had seen earlier. Clarisse, their oldest eligible daughter, and her younger brother Frank. That was unusual enough that Luna had trouble getting the crowd to quiet down. Leo had never heard of a pair of siblings competing in the trials the same year.

Clarisse looked thrilled. Leo didn’t think Frank looked quite as excited, but he squared his shoulders and did his best to mimic his sister’s proud pose.

Octavian was next, then a daughter of Tierra named Hazel. She was the youngest competitor that had been chosen so far, but she didn’t look afraid. She brushed back her curls and raised her head, expression fierce.

Reyna was next. That meant there were only three spots left.

With every crown that appeared on a head that wasn’t Jason’s, Jason looked more like he wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. Leo’s feelings were warring with each other. He hated the anxious look on Jason’s face—hated the way Lumbre’s fingers were digging into her son’s shoulders even more—but he still didn’t want Jason to be chosen. He wanted him to be safe more than anything.

Just three more spots. Leo almost allowed himself to hope. Not Jason. Not Jason. Not Jason.

Of course, because the universe hated him, the next crown was Jason’s. Jason’s shoulders slumped in relief. Reyna squeezed his hand, smiling softly at him.

Leo found some comfort in the fact that at least Jason would have someone in his corner, but he was still having a hard time not freaking out. Not staring at the altar and thinking about Jason bleeding out on top of it, expression brave and determined and then completely still.

The next flash—competitor number nine—was so close to Leo that he was disoriented for a second. The crowd broke into surprised chatter again, much louder than it had been when Sol had picked the second one of the Guerrero siblings. Heads swiveled.

Leo was still staring at Jason, who looked right back at him, all signs of relief gone from his expression. His face was ashen, eyes wide with alarm.

“They can’t do that!” a familiar voice protested. Leo realized with a jolt that it was Drew.

He turned to his right, confused as to which Gold had been chosen that could possibly elicit that kind of reaction when everyone had been just fine with Hazel being chosen a moment ago.

Piper was anxiously fiddling with the pendant of her azabache bracelet. Her face had lost all color.

Leo’s eyes met hers.

Then they trailed upwards to the sunburst crown on top of her head, and the ground fell out from underneath his feet.

Leo couldn’t breathe. He felt like he had been dropped off a cliff, the ground hurtling towards him and his wings refusing to work.

He hadn’t even considered the possibility that Piper might be chosen for the trials. He hadn’t even considered he might lose her. Why would he have? Jades were basically never chosen for the trials!

This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t- this wasn’t real. He was stuck in some kind of bizarre nightmare. There was no way this was actually happening.

In what world would Sol choose Piper? She barely even had any powers, for crying out loud! How could she stand a chance against nine people who had been training for this for almost their entire lives? That wasn’t fair! She couldn’t- Leo couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t.

He looked back towards his mom, whose expression of shock mirrored his own.

Leo did reach out to take Piper’s hand, then. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, but he clutched her trembling fingers tightly, tapping Morse code on the back of her hand. Love you. Love you. Love you. Over and over again. After the third time, Piper started tapping the same message back at him.

Leo looked at Jason across the room. There wasn’t a word said between them, but they didn’t need words to express what they were both thinking.

Jason would do whatever he could to help Piper in the trials. They didn’t have to talk about it for Leo to know that he would.

There was another flash. Sol had chosen the final competitor.

Leo didn’t want to care who it was—he didn’t think it could get any worse than both Jason and Piper being chosen—but, once again, the flash had been horribly, disorientingly close. Leo had to take a moment to blink the spots out of his eyes.

If possible, Jason’s face had gone even grayer. There was a sobbing noise behind Leo that he was pretty sure was from Harley.

Leo’s heart hammered in his chest as he remembered that his sister was also eligible for the trials and that she was standing right next to him. Please not her, too.

Leo braced himself as he turned around to look at Nyssa. It was harder than he’d expected. His head felt strangely heavy all of a sudden.

His sister’s head was thankfully crownless. This would have been a huge relief, except she was staring at him, an expression of utter terror written across her features.

Leo reached up with trembling hands, praying he’d imagined the new weight on his head. But despite him being surrounded by deities, it was clear none of them were listening.

As he tried to brush back his hair, his fingers touched the cold metal of the final sunburst crown.

———

Fic notes:

-This is hands down one of the most self-indulgent fics I have ever written, I had absolutely ridiculous amounts of fun writing this fic!

-Sunbearer Trials and Celestial Monsters are probably my favorite reads of the year (which is saying a lot considering how many books I’ve read this year) and I cannot stress enough that I think you guys would really enjoy them. This goes especially for the valgrace shippers. Aurelio is sooo Jason Grace coded you guys would love him.

-Just absolutely lovely books about a whole bunch of queer demigods with a super cool surrounding mythology that I promise is explained way better in the books than my very basic summary for the purposes of this fic suggests lmao. I cannot recommend them enough.

-If you’d like to understand the world building better, I’d recommend just checking out the prologue of the book! I did my best with trying to explain it but I’m not sure I succeeded, ngl

-Leo as Teo and Jason as a sort of Niya-Aurelio-mix were really obvious choices, but I struggled to figured out what exactly I wanted Piper’s role to be. When it clicked tho… made the whole fic come together. I’m so thrilled for the target audience of me and like maybe two other people in the universe who will get it to read this fic!

-Since this fic is intended to make people read the books, I thought this was a pretty good point to end it on! There’s some other scenes that could theoretically be fun to explore in this universe (I have one especially that I really want to do, but, well, spoilers). We’ll see how it goes.

Also specifically tagging @froglyberrys and @on-starrii-nights since you guys were interested in this concept when I first posted about it (hope that’s okay, let me know if you want me to remove the tag)

#Lost trio week #jason grace #leo valdez #piper McLean #heroes of olympus #hoo #valgrace #leo x jason #jason x leo #nyssa barrera #Harley pjo #the sunbearer trials #the sunbearer duology #lost trio #leo pjo #jason pjo #piper pjo #Pjo fanfic #my writing

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