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Everything was spinning. Things often went about that way when one gets an elbow to the nose, of course, but it didn’t make it any more pleasant. Combination strobe lights and all the bodies moving around him didn’t help him process what had happened. The fact of the matter was that all Jason knew was the taste of blood in his mouth as he heard someone very distantly yell his name before he hit the ground.
The feeling of cold air on his face brought him to. He was being helped outside by at least two people actually holding him, and another rambling very loudly and touching his shoulders every so often as they directed the steering of his body. Jason was able to open his eyes out of sync with each other, feet fumbling to function, tripping himself up by accident as his own voice surprised him, “ Je-sus- Wh- Ow. ” He groaned, legs waking up enough to plant his feet and stop them from going further, “Wh- What ju- Just happened ?” His voice was thick with confusion and a throbbing pain took over the front of his head and forced him to squeeze his eyes back shut.
One of the bodies adjusted their hold on him and spoke, “Octavian’s an ass, that's what.” It was instantly recognizable as Percy’s grumble.
“No, this time he’s just an idiot,” The other person said, and Jason knew the second half of his current support team had to be Reyna, “And doesn’t watch where he’s going.”
“I doubt this was an accident, his rat ass would absolutely take a cheap shot.” Percy bit back, and Jason thought he sure sounded angry for someone who’s world was not currently operating on the physics of a carnival ride. Was land sea sickness a thing?
Nico’s voice broke through, “Guys, not the time,” There was an edge of concern to his voice, “How's your head?”
“It’s felt worse?” Jason wasn’t sure if there even was an appropriate metric for his scale of head injuries. High school football combined with the distractibility of a yellow lab at a tennis ball convention factored into an overall problem with clumsiness.
Percy laughed, “Buddy, I don’t trust your idea of an okay-level of head trauma.”
“Let's just get him somewhere safe to get a look at that nose, okay?” Reyna jostled him, moving them forward to try to reach the side of the frat house.
The idea of movement was not Jason’s idea of a good time, but he had to agree that standing on the porch within earshot of trap remixes wasn’t a great location. Trying to get down the stairs required a very awkward set up of Percy deciding they should just get carry him to avoid him doing a skid-fall off the porch. To his credit, Jason tried to protest, but Reyna was already holding him up under the armpits as Percy grabbed his feet and Nico went ‘sorry sorry sorry’ as Jason winced- partially at both the injury of his face and partially at his pride- and finally got back to two feet when they reach the grassy front path. There were a few blurry eyed party-goers staring as they hobbled past.
Jason recognized one girl by her sleek black hair and bright makeup surrounding her monolid eyes- Drew, a girl he shared his 8:30 Philosophy lecture with. “Woah,” She exclaimed in a slight drawl as they started to go back, “Jason? Are you-” She cleared her throat and leaned against the girl she was holding hands with, nearly spilling whatever was in the solo cup in her other hand, “You good?”
“Uh.” Jason wasn’t used to talking to her, especially not when he was injury-addled and she was clearly drunk, judging by the loose set off her shoulders and the cadence of her voice.
“What happened?” She cocked her head at them, clearly unphased by interrupting their journey and gesturing to her general head area, “Like, to your face?”
Percy spoke for him, “Octavian.”
“He did that? To your face?” She squinted at them, and then turned to her friend, “Clari- Let’s- Clarisse, let’s go beat him up!”
“I love that train of thought so much.” Clarisse laughed and gladly turned to guide them into the house, no doubt having no holds barred against starting a fight.
The four of them watched them go with a bit of apprehension before Reyna whistled low, “O-kay, you’ve got drunk girls on your side- We should really just call an ambulance for him now.”
(That made Jason laugh, which made Jason’s face hurt, which made Nico look frightened, and Percy roll his eyes.)
They successfully got him scooted along the side of the house to a quieter area. Jason slumped heavily against the brick wall when Percy and Reyna finally let him go. Before he could get a word in Reyna was tilting his chin up as Percy got out his phone, “This might suck.”
“What?” He groaned before getting absolutely blinded by Percy’s flashlight, “ Shit !”
Nico was biting on his fingernails as Percy got a good look at Jason’s nose, “Doesn’t look broken, but that might be best to take a pic and send to Will for judgment. Crack open those baby blues for me.”
It wasn’t a very mature response to have but Jason couldn’t help whining, “Do I have to?”
“I could hold them open for you?” Reyna bargained, and smirked at how fast Jason’s eyes flew open, “Good choice.”
Percy was checking his pupils to see if the dilation matched and hummed approvingly, “Congratulations, it's just a flesh wound!”
“Cool,” Jason shut his eyes as soon as he could, grateful for the darkness, “I should maybe still go to the ER…” He didn’t like the idea, but he also didn’t like the idea of trusting Percy’s amateur judgment alone.
“Want us to go get the car?” Reyna offered, “I’m sober, I’ll drive if you want to come walk with me there, Percy.”
“Course,” He replied before his voice turned to Nico, “You cool to babysit ‘til we’re back?”
It sounded like Nico paused just long enough to reply, “He’s my boyfriend, I don’t think that's ‘babysitting .’”
“Just checking, making sure you’re not gonna have a conniption while we’re gone.” Percy tried for a laugh, “Be back in 15.”
They started to walk away but Jason heard Reyna comment to Percy, “Y’know, we kinda saddled up in East Buttfuck, so maybe shoot for 20.”
So, Percy called back, “Make it 25!”
Once they were alone Nico seemed to exhale a shaky breath Jason knew subconsciously he was holding. With as much of a smile as he could muster, Jason tried to reassure him, “Babe, I’m fine.”
“That was just scary to watch, okay?” Nico didn’t mean to snap, “I turn my back for 5 seconds and you hit the ground like a 6 foot sack of potatoes.”
“6 foot and 1 inch, thank you very much.” Jason laughed before wincing, “Fuck, that stings.”
“Here,” Nico was suddenly at his side, “Let’s just- Let’s get you settled down. I’m afraid you’ll tip over soon.”
As Nico helped him get into as much of a dignified crumble to the ground, Jason attempted a joke, “Huh, I didn’t take you for the settling down type.”
“Haha, very funny.” Nico deadpanned, but Jason could tell it struck the kind of chord that made Nico’s face flush.
2 years together and Nico still blushed at the idea of permanence. It wasn’t exactly a sore subject, but something that clearly made some part of him nervous. They said ‘I love you,’ they’d talked about renting a place together in the upcoming year, hell, Nico occasionally mused about potential ‘when we get a cat’ names. Maybe it was the blood rush or the way his headache blurred his judgment, but Jason spoke candidly, “Would that… be a bad thing?”
“What?” Nico sounded thrown off.
“Settling down with me… eventually.” He tried not to let his nervousness shift him too much as he readjusted to lean more towards Nico, “Me and you, our routines, us being for-sure solid?”
It took Nico a heavy beat to answer, “No, I… I like the idea of that. A lot. I’ve liked it for… awhile.”
“Really?” Now Jason was thrown off, “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Nico shrugged, “I don’t know, I guess I didn’t want to say it first? I thought you’d get scared?”
Neither spoke, both weighing on the proper idea on how to expand to that idea. Finally, Jason grinned, ignoring the way it made his face throb, “God, you’re cute when you make kinda-dumb assumptions. You should realize that after all this time, nothing you do scares me.”
Nico laughed instantly, “Shut up!”
“Can’t say I’m fully surprised,” Jason shrugged, “Just excited that you're willing to deal with me- My habits, my PDA, my whole schtick.”
“Yeah, and your chronic ‘Hey babe, I think I broke something’ issues.” Nico smiled in a way that said ‘Because I love even that about you.’
Jason hummed, “Those too.” Or rather, he tried to hum, then realized something, “… Does my voice sound… weird?”
The face Nico made was somewhere between ‘just sucked on a lemon’ and ‘watched someone bite it in public’ as he hesitantly answered, “You just noticed?”
“Yes! Oh my god- Did I- Did I just sort-of ask if you’d ever marry me sounding this nasally?! ” Jason’s visible distress only made the effect worse.
Nico tried to reassure him, but struggled through his laughter, “It’s- It’s not that bad! I swear!”
“Goddamnit,” Jason groaned and finally gingerly touched the bridge of his nose, “I’ll kill Octavian if I sound like this forever.”
As he made that promise, there was a faint but distinct sound of a guy screaming from inside the house. Slowly, Nico turned to face Jason’s wide-eyed expression, “I think those girls just beat you to it.”
From the outside, they could hear the beginnings of the classic ‘FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT’ chant. Jason swallowed hard before speaking, “We uh, might want to get way the fuck out of here before campus police roll-up.”
“Agreed,” Nico nodded, standing and offering a hand up, “I’m gonna phone Reyna and let them know we’ll meet them halfway, they should be by the car by now.”
Jason took his hand, rising on unsteady legs. His conversation with Nico had helped his head clear up some, needing minimal support as they started walking. But even though he didn’t necessarily need it, Jason still didn’t hesitate to put his arm around Nico’s shoulder with a smug sort of smile, treasuring the little grin on Nico’s face when he glanced towards him as he spoke to Reyna.