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Two days after the infamous stable moment between Annabeth and Percy, Jason bursts into the control room and says, “Leo, am I doing something wrong?”
Leo, who up until then, had been dozing off as he moved the Argo, was startled awake, causing the entire Argo to lurch forward, suddenly going off autopilot. He flipped the Wii remotes up to steady them, and Festus begins swearing through a whole bunch of blinking lights and angry beeps.
“Sorry, sorry, bud,” Leo apologizes, and flips a switch, and the control room goes quiet again. Checking that everything was alright with his ship, he ran through a few security cameras and clicked around on his keyboard. He almost forgets Jason is even there, until he turns and the guy’s standing right behind him with such a serious look on his face, that Leo thinks he’s going to get murdered.
“Jesus, dude, give a warning next time,” Leo pushes his chair back and balanced the Wii remotes on his thighs. He yawned, glancing outside. Across the vast ocean, the sky is glittering in picturesque pinks and oranges as the sun steadily makes its trek upwards for the morning. He spins in his chair, legs out until they knock into Jason. “What’s up?”
“Am I doing something wrong?” Jason asks again.
He snorts. “Probably.”
“Leo.”
His seriousness almost makes Leo laugh, but he doesn’t. Instead, Leo switches on the ship’s autopilot and sighs, thinking, This is going to be a long one. It’s not that Leo doesn’t like talking with Jason, because he does. With Jason, things were as natural as if Leo had made the guy himself! …Which is probably a bad way to view his best friend, but the point is: Jason clicks with Leo better than most people did.
But at the same time, Leo’s probably running on about two hours of sleep. He yawns again and rubs at his eyes. Then stands, stretches, and hands Jason the Wii remotes.
“Let me use the bathroom, and we can have your weekly scheduled therapy session,” Leo tells him, and before Jason can roll his eyes, he stumbles out of the control room.
A few minutes later, Leo comes back eating an apple. Jason’s left standing in the middle of the room, curiously looking out the window at the clouds.
Leo hits a button, and a row of buttons and switches slides away to be replaced by a ruby red countertop. He hops on it, and says, “so what’s up, Superman?”
Jason gives this funny little look like he’s having a serious cramp or possibly a really bad bowel movement. Leo waits, munching on his apple and rubbing at his eyes. The auto lights in the control room flicker off as the sunlight starts to flood in. Finally, Jason says, “Frank thinks that I should talk to Piper about it, but I can’t so I came to you.”
“Second choice. Always love hearing that.”
“It’s not like that,” Jason says. “It’s about Piper.”
“Oh,” Leo’s chewing slows. “Okay.”
Jason sighs. He folds his arms, but for some reason, he stops halfway and then continues holding them out like he’s delivering a plate. In his hands, he’s still gripping the Wii remotes, which Leo would’ve asked about had Jason not started talking again.
“Frank was talking about how he wished there was a lock on the stable doors—”
“There’s not, it’s a safety reason,” Leo chimes in. He then grumbles: “not that any of the horses use it anyway…”
“Right, but because when he walked into Annabeth and Percy, you know, I’m guessing they were really into it,” Jason explains, face growing a little pink. “But I’ve never been really into it with Piper.”
“Man, gross.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Jason winces. “When we were together, things were just, I don’t know. Weird.”
Leo laughs. He tosses his apple core through the air and it rattles into a trashcan across the room. “Dude, trust me I know that. I was there during that weird ‘will-they-won’t-they’ stage you had through our Hera quest.” He grips the edge of the counter, feet swinging like he’s a kid. “So you and Piper didn’t click the way you expected. Isn’t that better because of that girl you had with the Romans anyway?”
“Reyna?” Jason sounds surprised. His brows furrow. “She’s just a friend from what I can remember.”
Leo feels pleased with that, but he doesn’t say it out loud. “Okay, okay, so you and Piper can’t work out, and you and that Reyna chick isn’t going to happen… what’s that got to do with me?”
“I don’t know,” Jason admits. “You usually have the answer.”
That makes Leo grin. “Sure. Come here.” He scoots over until there’s enough space for Jason to settle next to him. The Roman demigod doesn’t sit on the counter, but he leans against it, arms still out. It’s rare for them to be the same height, considering Leo’s growth sprout refuses to come, but sitting here, Leo’s eyes are able to stare directly into Jason’s. He leans back on his palms.
“Alright, man,” Leo says, “so not Piper, and not Reyna. What about Annabeth?”
“What about her?”
“Do you like her?”
“Of course I do,” Jason says. “She’s my friend.”
Leo’s starting to think that maybe he needs to buy a whiteboard and draw this out for this guy. Hadn’t Frank said for Jason to go to Piper? Awkward or not, maybe Jason really should’ve gone to Piper instead. Leo didn’t really know much about this kind of stuff, and he’s never been much of a teacher either. He mentally puts a plan together to provide better funding for New Rome’s sex ed and health classes.
“I mean,” Leo drums his fingers on the counter. “Do you like like any of them?”
“What?”
“Dude, I love you and everything, but you’re killing me right now.” Leo groans. “Do you like anyone?”
“I like you,” Jason says without missing a beat. “You’re my best friend, dude.”
“Glad to have that established,” Leo says.
Jason laughs. “I’m just messing with you—”
“So you don’t like me?” Leo lets out a low whistle and slaps a hand to his heart. “You cut me deep. It hurts real bad, bro, real bad.” He slumps over onto Jason’s shoulder, but the son of Jupiter deftly moves away, keeping the Wii remotes steady, as he shrugs Leo off.
“I’m talking about Annabeth,” Jason manages, settling back into his spot next to Leo. “She’s pretty. Smart, obviously. Like a more stubborn version of you.”
Leo couldn’t tell if he liked that comparison or hated it. Annabeth’s pretty and awesome, but she’s also super scary. He takes the compliment, as his face warms.
“And I do like Piper and Reyna,” Jason says, and when Leo gives him a look saying, Really? This again?, Jason laughs and continues: “I guess, I know there was a point where I liked them more than friends. I know the difference between how I used to feel about Reyna versus, maybe, Hazel.”
“Yeah,” Leo nods. “Then what’s the problem?”
Jason puts on his little constipation face again. Leo glances outside and is pleasantly surprised by how high the sun’s up now. Who knew how much time had gone by? Outside, Festus lets out a soft hum about how he misses his wings, and Leo lovingly pats the autopilot switch next to him.
“Whenever we kissed, it felt weird,” Jason eventually wrestles the answer out of himself. He focuses his gaze on the Wii remotes balancing in his hands. “That was part of why we broke up, amongst other reasons, but—” he shrugs, “—I don’t know. The way Frank described it was so different.”
“Frank’s got like, issues, don’t listen to him,” Leo snorts. Then, because he’s curious himself, he leans forward. “Different how?”
“I don’t know,” Jason’s face glows red. “I saw them before Frank, and Annabeth seemed to really like it.”
“Of course, he would,” Leo says, “he hasn’t seen her in months— wait? Annabeth? Huh?”
“I didn’t want to ask Piper if it was that different to kiss a boy instead, and I thought maybe you had…” Jason trails off, and Leo blinks.
That was new.
“What.”
Jason winces. “Frank just sent me to Piper when I asked. But it feels wrong to ask my ex-girlfriend about boys. So I—”
“So you came to me,” Leo is nearly stunned. There is a lot to dive into with this conversation, and he feels like he hasn’t had enough sleep for any part of it, but wow was Leo going to enjoy this ride as long as it lasted. It was a tidbit irritating to have spent so long on Jason’s girl problems, that the thought of this evolving into Jason’s boy problems was infinitely worse. He could handle the convos about Piper, that much was easy, but if he had to listen to Jason ask about Percy? Frank? Octavian?
Leo couldn’t help but feel annoyed, despite it all.
“Okay, sure, whatever,” Leo shrugs off his thoughts for the time being. “So, easy question then. Do you like boys?”
Jason’s decidedly quick this time around. “I guess, I mean, I like y—”
“Hey, man,” Leo cuts in. “Don’t say that crap where you’re all, Ah Leo you’re my best friend forever let’s braid each other’s hair into the sunset.”
“Okay,” Jason's mouth delves into a teasing smirk. “Okay, sure.”
“Sure?”
“Yeah,” Jason confirms. “I think I do. Like guys. I don’t think the Romans nowadays are very strict on that thing but I can barely remember. Frank mentioned something about it being different for everyone.”
“Yeah,” Leo agrees faintly. “Something like that. But you think I’ve kissed boys before?”
Jason blushes. “I’ve thought about it, I guess, yeah. You doing that... have you?”
“Well,” Leo goes red too. Festus clicks on about the birds in the sky, and then there’s silence. Jason waits patiently for an answer but Leo doesn’t really have one.
Leo clears his throat. “Do you want to be with boys? In that sense, I mean.”
Jason glances at him from over his shoulder. “I don’t know.” His lips twitch. “Maybe,” he eventually says. “I’ve been thinking about it since the stable.”
“Do you want to be with Percy?” Leo tries.
Jason tilts his head as he thinks about it, but while the back of his neck deepens to a scarlet, he ultimately shakes his head. Leo stares at his nape, and then his eyes slide upward when Jason turns his head to him again.
“Do you want to kiss Percy?” Leo bites out.
Jason’s quick to disagree, “No! I just want to know what it’s like.”
“To… kiss Percy?”
“...To kiss boys.”
“Oh.”
“...Yeah.”
Leo finds himself at an odd intersection of his feelings and whatever the heck Jason was trying to say to him right now. He wonders briefly, if this is a dream, and in a couple of moments Leo would wake up to a big old pile of drool on the control panel.
There’s something in the way Jason’s looking at him right now. Leo feels pity but also an immense sense of morbid curiosity where he wonders just how far he can push Jason. Festus beeps about maintenance checks and Buford running around in the dining room. But any thoughts about the ship get pushed to the back of Leo’s working mind as he tries to piece together everything Jason’s been telling him.
Best friend. Percy. Kissing. Annabeth. Boys. Kissing again. Not Piper. Came to him. Kissing Jason. Leo feels like he’s staring at the single red square on an all blue side of a Rubik’s cube. There’s something there.
Oh, Leo thinks, as his brain wraps around a certain thought path. Okay. “We can try it if you want,” Leo says this so deceptively casual, that he’s certain that’s he’s a fucking genius. “If you’re comfortable, I can show you. Let’s kiss and see what happens.”
Leo’s never seen Jason’s brain explode, but he imagines that’s what happening. Most of the time when Leo tells Jason a plan, the boy’s eyes glaze over, or he just nods along and agrees immediately. Jason’s eyes flicker to Leo’s lips, then to the window, then back to Leo’s face, then to Leo’s eyes, then to Leo’s hands, then back on his own hands, and all over again.
“... Yeah,” Jason says. “Yeah, okay.”
Now, this stuns Leo a little, and he suddenly feels very awake. He straightens, and Jason turns to him.
“Dude,” Leo says after a minute. “Why are you still holding the remotes?”
Jason raises an eyebrow. “Do you want us to crash?”
“Huh?” Leo stares at him blankly, and then it clicks. “The ships on autopilot, man. It’s been on it for a while now. It turns on when I fall asleep, but I turned it back on before I left— were you seriously thinking you were controlling the ship?”
Jason drops the remotes onto the countertop. “Ugh,” he grumbles, cracking his knuckles. “‘Should’ve told me.”
“I thought you just never seen a Wii before, I don’t know.” Leo starts chuckling. “Gods, no wonder you were so careful. No offense, but you’re not even close to being the captain in charge of this. You’re not even third. Maybe the bottom of the list— no— worse. If something happened, Festus would be—”
“Leo,” Jason stands in front of him. “Shut up.”
“Just saying.”
“You’re so—”
“What?” Leo lifts up his chin. It’s a lot easier to tease Jason when he’s on the same level height-wise. Jason’s arms drop to grab the counter on either side of Leo, caging him in. “I’m so what?”
“You’re—” Jason shakes his head. “Can’t describe it. Actually, maybe I can— Insufferable.”
“Nice one.” Leo retorts. He is acutely aware that Jason’s managed to slide in between his legs, and he has nowhere else to go. “Well, I think you’re nosy.”
“No, I’m not,” Jason scoffs. “You’re frustrating.”
“And you’re a little spoiled.”
“You’re too closed-off.”
“You’re too righteous.”
Jason dips his head low. His breath hits Leo’s cheek. “You’re annoying,” his forehead hits Leo’s, “and thoughtful.”
Leo moves forward, but not too close. “Yeah? You’re infuriating.”
Jason peels back. “That’s it?”
“Well yeah,” Leo tells him. “You are.” After a beat, he drags on with a roll of the eyes and a slippery grin. “But you’re also good. Is that fine enough for you, Supes?”
Jason smiles, and then he leans forward and presses his lips to Leo’s own, kissing him. Leo kisses back, feeling giddy.
A few moments later, Leo pulls away. At some point, his hands ended up twisting at the back of Jason’s shirt, while Jason’s hands had moved to squeeze Leo’s thighs.
“Well?” Leo finds himself asking, “how’s it feel? I know I’m just so thoughtful.”
“Don’t know yet,” Jason says slyly. “Let me try again.”
Jason kisses him again. Leo’s pretty confident when he thinks that Jason likes boys. Or at least likes him.
He almost falls back into the control panel, and Jason’s laughing as he kisses at his face. Leo doesn’t mind. He reaches out to catch his balance, but Jason moves his lips at just the right moment, that Leo’s typically careful hands slide out and push at buttons and levers, and the whole world jolts.
Wow, Leo thinks, Jason’s a really good kisser. Jason doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but he’s flying, with Leo’s legs wrapped at his waist to keep from dropping.
But then Festus starts yelling, and the ship crashes into the ocean. It’s the siren that blares about the sudden landing, that wakes up the crew, but it’s only when Coach Hedge stomps into the room with Buford chittering behind, that Leo and Jason fumble apart.
Coach Hedge fumes, and shouts, “WHAT IN THE— NOT AGAIN!” He swats them apart with his baseball bat, to which Leo grins, and Jason grumbles, but they pass a knowing look, as Hedge bellows, “SEPARATE! STOP IT! I’M SERIOUS!”